Introduction

August 2000
September 2000
October 2000
November 2000
December 2000
January 2001
February 2001
March 2001
April 2001
May 2001
June 2001
July 2001
August 2001

July 2001

12 July 2001
Thursday

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this, but my life's not very exciting at the moment anyway. It's just studying, writing papers, things like that.

I had my test for Sprachlehrforschung on Tuesday. It was hard, but I think it was a good test because it made me think a lot about the material. The prof said today that he designed it with very open questions so that they could be answered multiple ways which would all show sufficient knowledge (and thus be counted "right"). It was hard for us to figure out what he was asking, but I think he knew that, and he grades nicely I think. He gave me a 2- on the test (basically a B in American grades) and said that he graded me as if I were German, with no preference for my being a non-native speaker, and I think that's fair. For the whole course he gave me a 2 (B+), so I'm pretty happy. Okay, it could be better, but it's a very decent grade, especially since MHC isn't going to count grades from this year as part of my GPA.

Speaking of SLF, the last day of class was today. We brought refreshments to class and sat around and talked; it was fun. I collected some email addresses and will hopefully stay in contact with some of these people. I really like the people in my class, and it was a very nice, friendly atmosphere, very unlike the other classes I've had at the Uni. I'm somewhat sad to leave it.

Other papers... I don't really want to talk about them. History is going to be wrapped up this weekend and turned in for correction. The other paper is going to get started next week. Well, really started. I've been dabbling in it (I have ideas and a vague structure), but I really need to start writing.

The most exciting thing of the last couple of weeks is that Kevin has leased a server and is setting himself up as a DNS host, so I'm hosting niceperson.org with him. It's unfortunately not working quite yet (though it may be by the time you read this, so try the link). Even if it were working, there's nothing up there, just a link back here. Oh btw, I did learn that I can keep my MHC web page after I graduate, so there won't be any need to move this stuff over to niceperson.org, for which I am grateful.

For the last few weeks there has been scaffolding on my side of the dorm I'm living in. It's strange because it makes me feel rather vulnerable; I'm used to being on the 5th floor (6th for Americans) and not needing to worry at all about anybody's being able to see in. However, unfortunately now not only have I got a walkway outside my window, there are often men working on it early in the morning! I've been very careful to shut my curtains at night for the past few weeks, but it's annoying to have this worry.

I'm gradually packing up all my stuff and getting ready to leave. Actually, I'd pretty much be ready to leave if I didn't have work to do still. Blergh.

19 July 2001
Thursday

Yesterday, as always, when I came home I felt in my box for mail and didn't feel anything. However, as always, I unlocked the door and investigated thoroughly anyway. No letters though, just a flyer from the Deutsche Volksunion (German People's Union) against foreigners. It basically says that foreigners are criminals on welfare and are taking over Hamburg (and Germany by implication, but Hamburg specifically). I kind of wonder why they're distributing these in the dorms, because at least half of the students living in the dorms are foreigners, and students generally tend to be more liberal than not - but whatever. My point is, I personally feel rather attacked by such advertisements.

Germany has a rather intolerant view of foreigners anyway; in the 50's and 60's (during the years of the so-called Wirtschaftswunder) the West German government invited so-called Gastarbeiter (guest workers) to come live in Germany and help rebuild it. The idea was that they'd come, earn money, and then go back home; of course it never works that way. They stayed, they brought their families, they settled; the Italians were succeeded by the Turks. Now, of course, the greatest complaint is the Muslims who live in their communities, only speak Turkish (have no reason to learn German), and don't become integrated into mainstream society. Muslim society is certainly very different from German (France has the same problems with its Muslims of African origin, for example with mandatory schooling of all children, including girls, until the age of 14 I think), but there have been not a few female students in my classes at the Uni-Hamburg, especially Germanistik, who concealed their heads and bodies but resisted limits on their minds. They, to me, show that there can be a reconciliation. But I digress.

German citizenship law is by some principle whose Latin name I can't remember right now, but basically it means that you're German if your ancestors were German. This means the children of foreigners who were born in Germany and have lived here all their lives aren't citizens and can't vote or anything, even though they pay the same taxes as everyone else. So Germany isn't especially fair to foreign workers, I think, but those laws have changed slightly in recent years; now foreigners born here can choose German citizenship as long as they give up the other.

In Germany, as everywhere, there are reactions against foreigners, who are seen as taking jobs and benefits away from $NATIONALITY workers. The Deutsche Volksunion is a good example of this sort of conservative movement. I, personally, am very sceptical of parties that have Volk in their names; it reeks of nationalism of the sort that helped promote Nazi ideology, especially of the Aryan race.

As I said before, this sort of thing unnerves me. When I first got to Germany I sort of brushed it aside, assuming that they didn't mean me (after all I'm an educated, middle-class American), but as the year wore on, it has come to irritate me. I haven't personally experienced any persecution from individual people, probably because I look like a German until I open my mouth. However, I have come to feel my minority status. When I was in France I never felt that I wasn't welcome, that any of the complaints about foreigners were ever aimed against me. However, here the political propaganda seems to be so generally aimed at foreigners that I feel attacked. For this reason, I don't think I could live permanently in Germany. Yes, I like the country, but though I'm welcome as a money-spending tourist, I really get the feeling that the German society doesn't want me to stay.

On a happier note, also about foreigners, I went to the Mensa today, and while I was eating my plate of noodles a guy came and sat down across from me. After a few minutes he asked me if I was Italian; I said no, and he said he'd asked because I ate noodles (he said "spaghetti") so well. Germans apparently don't eat spaghetti very well. I asked where he was from, and he said Italy, which explains it I guess. Anyway, he was very nice and said Ciao, bella! when he left. I love the Mensa sometimes!

Last weekend I worked hard on my history paper (about the French foreign policy towards Germany from 1943 until 1949) and managed to finish almost all of it by Sunday evening; all that was missing was the conclusion, but I turned it in for correction anyway. I got it back yesterday, implemented the corrections, and wrote the conclusion, which I actually think is pretty good. Julia, the woman who corrected my paper, is going to read over the conclusion tomorrow, and then I'll be done with that one! Yay! I'm actually very proud of myself about the paper, because I was organized and actually did notecards and everything, which meant that once I had to write, I could just basically copy from the cards - ingenious, really. :-) It led to a surprisingly reference- and fact-rich paper, and though I know it could be better, I'm proud of my effort and success.

Other things are going relatively well also; I met with Sonja (my tutor from last semester, who agreed to help me again this semester too) on Monday in order to talk about the introduction I have to write to the group paper for my linguistics class. I really had no idea how to write an introduction, so we thought out some ideas, and I wrote up a little more than a page this week. We met again today, went over what I'd written, and added some more. I now have about a page and a half, which is probably okay, if slightly short. I don't really care, actually. The class doesn't matter too much to me, though I suppose I should be worried about grades and credits. Oh well.

I have also begun working more intensively on my paper on Mary Rowlandson. I put it off so late because I was pretty sure it wouldn't be very hard, and I guess I still think that's true. I mean, it's in English, and I already have all the articles I need - or if I don't have it already, it's not available in Hamburg. I'm using the same tactic as with the last paper, taking notes and making the paper out of whatever's on them. Germans don't really seem to like individual thought in term papers anyway; it's all quotations and citations for everything. In any case, I have the feeling the professor will think that anything I write is wonderful, and I probably won't have much trouble filling 15 pages.

Actually I'm quite impressed with my developing ability to write long papers. I remember that at my first year at MHC I had a History 101 with Carole Straw called "Bonds of Intimacy," about gender and sexuality in ancient Greece. It was fascinating, and I enjoyed it (enough to take another 300-level on medieval monasticism with the same prof next semester), but the paper was a disaster. It was "only" 10 pages, but I didn't pick my topic early enough in the semester, and I didn't do my research soon enough, and I didn't use notecards (tsk tsk)... At the end of the semester I was panicked and hurried. I could have turned it into a pretty good paper eventually, but I rewrote that thing a million times, trying to get it to flow correctly. Carole was great about helping me, and in the end the organization she suggested really worked, but by that time I was so stressed and exhausted that I simply couldn't do any more, so I turned it in a whole 24 hours early. So I'm glad that I seem to have managed to surpass that level of incompetence.

Back to Mary Rowlandson, this is for my American Studies class about captivity narratives. It wasn't a great class in general, because the professor's English was not up to par. I don't mean to imply either that he spoke English badly or that he's stupid; neither is at all true. I simply mean that he very obviously takes everything he says in class from the same secondary literature he lists for us (very nicely by the way - that's where I got all my source material), and that he finds it hard to express himself fully in English. What he says in English is to a large extent black and white, whereas there are a lot of things that simply can't be expressed so simply. I don't think it's because he ignores the presence of such nuances; he just finds it hard to express them and either switches to German or simplifies them. I understand it, because I do the same thing in German (which is why I notice it in him), but it's unfortunate for a professor.

Nevertheless, I am glad to have taken the class, because I have read a lot of early American literature that I wouldn't have even known about otherwise. Having missed studying the standard American works, it has been fascinating to read something really American as opposed to European. In a way, I'm in a prime position to perceive American literature and history as something unique, as separate from the body of European literature with which I'm also familiar. I mean, compare Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (probably written 1677-8) with Molière's Le Malade imaginaire (The Hypochondriac, 1673). Two different (and admittedly both very unique) cultures, producing completely opposite literary works. This outsider's view of the United States is fascinating. How could I view the Puritans as unique if I couldn't see them from the outside?

27 July 2001
Friday

Well I haven't written for a little while. Not much has really happened since then, except that I have finished and turned in my history paper. I'm happy about how it turned out. I also got my last grade from linguistics last semester, which happened to be a 1! [1] That was cool.

Linguistics this semester is okay. I wrote an introduction and met with my group on Tuesday. When I got there (late), they were worrying about whether my introduction would be enough to get me a grade. I told them not to worry about it; I wasn't going to have time to write any more, and once I leave Germany it won't be my problem anyway! Selfish I know, but I don't really care whether I get credit for the class or not. Anyway, I revised the introduction a little bit, again, and turned it in to Jutta with the contact information for my group. They'll put the paper together and (hopefully) turn it in before the end of August.

My Rowlandson paper is not going as well, unfortunately. I started researching it last week (I'd already gathered the info and read some of it but not taken methodical notes), and this week I realized that my brain just wasn't in it, and I wasn't going to be able to finish the paper by the end of the week unless I drove myself crazy. So I decided not to. Jutta is okay with it (if not happy), so I'm going to take the paper with me when I leave Hamburg tomorrow and finish it in the next couple of weeks.

Yes, I am leaving tomorrow! I have everything packed and ready to go. Looking back at my year, I think I enjoyed Hamburg more in the first semester; however, I've traveled and enjoyed Europe more this semester. I guess it sort of evens out. Anyway I definitely am glad I came, and if could have taken better advantage of my opportunities to make friends, the year still wasn't a waste. If nothing else, I've learned how to organize myself and my mind to write long papers.

Goodbye, Hamburg. Tschüß, Deutschland.

August 2001

[1] The German grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are pretty much analogous to American letter grades (1 being the best), except that Germans grade harder, so a 2+ is more like an A- than a B+.

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