About killing presentations, pregaming, Nemo and busses

I killed my presentation! Just yesterday I did. Remember - the one about the roots of metaphor? I really killed it. (an expression I learned)

But before I could kill it I had to go through every single emotion on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is 'absoluteley devastated to the point of wanting to drop the class' and 10 'absoluteley devastated to the point of wanting to drop the class'.

So what happened? I did pull through with my reading and preparing and worked my ass off. Everybody in class, including the professor, was amazed at how well I understood the texts (for those who are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_metaphor) and told me I did a very good job at explaining the topic. In the beginning of the presentation I was nervous as hell but I soon realised, there was no need, since I really did understand the topic and so I got more confident while speaking and in the end I was even able to talk freely without sticking to my notes.

Also the discussion after and during my presentation was very lively. Here students are required to take actively part in the discussion because it's part of their final grade. So everybody is pretty eager to say something and to get their point across. And I can tell you: this is so much more fun than sitting in a seminar where no one wants to say something. Of course sometimes what is being said doesn't move the discussion any further, but most of the time my fellow students had very good ideas and questions, that I will be able to use in my paper. Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, a three hour class leaves a lot of room for elaborate discussions – there is no need to cut them off because there's enough time.

Although I only have three classes I have a lot of reading and preparing to do. So I basically spent the last couple of days studying. Well – that's what I'm here for, right?!

But of course there are these small (sometimes big moments), when I realise that I am actually far away from what I call home. Just like I was waiting for the bus the other day on Main Street, where fast food restaurants are ligned up next to each other like beads on a pearl necklace. We got McDonald's, Subway, Wendy's, Dunkin' Donuts and Burger King in walking distance. So I was waiting for the bus, looking at these food chains, and all these big cars were driving on this broad street and suddenly it hit me: ok, this is the States and I'm here.

That is a picture of Laurel Avenue: 

  

I have to tell you about the bussystem: there are two bus systems in Binghamton, one is the public transportation of the county and the other bussystem is run by students of BU. They are called the blue busses, since they are blue. This picture shows the two kinds of blue busses they have. 

The one in the front is the newer model and the one in the back the older model they have. If you want to get off the new bus you have to pull down a yellow line that goes from the front of the bus to the back. Just like in this picture:

 

But if you want to get off the old bus you have to let the driver (which is always a student) know that you want to get off at the next stop. How? By screaming 'Next Stop, please!'. Very weird in the beginning but after that it's kind of fun.

Also fun is having a snow fight with the boys from next door at 3am until the neighbours are yelling: 'Stop it! We're trying to sleep!' This happended last friday after Nemo hid the city under a big layer of snow. This picture shows our street – Laurel Avenue – right before the snow fight and is taken from our front porch. (Thanks to Riva for this very beautiful picture)

 The other pictures show the morning after. But other than the masses of snow nothing much happened here in Binghamton. (The last one shows our backyard)

 Our weekends are filled with houseparties where students don't really do much except playing beer pong and getting drunk: This is the place I was at yesterday.

I learned that what we call 'vorglühen' is called 'pregaming' - maybe because you prepare for playing beer pong? Who knows?! But when we are pregaming it looks like this (and sounds like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc ):

 Left to right: Me, Katharina, Chris (also called Linda) and Spencer (both of the guys live next doors), the other ones are Patty (as seen here in the black shirt)

 and HC (handsome Chris):

 Pregaming sometimes also looks like this:

 Or this (this is Riva, me, Katharina and Sina in our basement):

 but most of the time we actually look like this:

 And with these riant faces I will leave you to your own devices. 

Ah, just one more thing: How do you know you actually made it to the States? For me it was the Paris Hilton dream I had last night. o_0 (Although I do have other really nice dreams, including outdoor-parties in Leipzig, since I finally - after four weeks - got over my jetlag.) 

Good night, sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite!

Syllabus week, Aldi and the Super Bowl

It's been two weeks now. The first week of university – called syllabus week – is over and with it also the first weekend of partying.

I am taking three seminars in comparative literature on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each of them is a three hour course. They are called:

21^st century longings

Metaphor

Language/Translation and Colonization

Each of them is different and has its own appeal.

The 21^st Centrury Longing course is especially interesting, since we are supposed to keep track of the development of our thoughts during the semester by doing a weekly assignment in any creative way we can think of. This is new for me, since all I did in Leipzig was write papers and now I am able to write essays or poems or make a film or take pictures or record something on tape or even draw. In the end we are supposed to make a portfolio that consists of our creations. I am looking forward to this very much.

I have to get used to the three hour length – it has some advantages: I have two days off during the week – obviously, the seminars itself are more intense as in the sense of one gets to work longer and deeper on a subject in a certain amount of time. One disadvantage I see is that I start losing my concentration after a certain amount of time – it gets harder to follow the discussions and I tend to lose my track of thought. Also missing a class puts you behind very much, since the reading and writing assignments are also heavier than those meant for a 90min class.

I don't have any other obligatory events to attend and my classes always start after noon. My schedule leaves enough room for preparing for classes and I think I will be able to deal with the workload. The level of the classes differ from each other since some classes are only for graduates (students that are graduating soon) and in other classes grads and undergrads study together. I don't think the level of my classes are much easier but are also not harder (which I was a little bit afraid of). For 4 American credit points (10CP in Germany) I have to write a paper of 20 pages and give a presentation about a certain topic – so it's basically the same as in Leipzig.

One thing is very annoying though: we have to buy all the textbooks, since the library is not that well equipped. I thought that paying 10.000$ of tuiton and fees would mean a high end collection of textbooks – but no, it means Apple Computers (is that the right way to call them?) in the library to work on and a brand new gym. If I'd have to pay the tuition, like every other American student has to (and Binghamton is one of the cheap public universities), I would be pissed off by the fact that each teacher wants me to buy textbooks worth 300$. Since there is now way around that muss ich wohl in den sauren Apfel beißen. They are good books but I won't be able to take them home since they are too heavy for my backpack.

Syllabus week was over faster than I thought and I was already given my first presentation due on February 15^th. It's about the roots of the Metaphor and as far as I can tell it is an interesting topic to talk about. I am also nervous as hell but I'll try to do my best and not stutter while talking.

The weekend was filled with lots of new faces, names, and of course houseparties. Soon I will be dreaming about red cups (I'd rather be dreaming about something else and also not wake up anymore in the middle of the night) and beer pong. On Friday we were invited to a party given by other international students, mainly from Turkey. It was just like a typical houseparty in Leipzig, except that we had to take off our shoes – which did not change the fact that we had a fun time talking to so many different students. We still have the, what I'd like to call, foreigners-bonus: with which it's easy to start a conversation. It usually goes something like this (all of you who have already been abroad, know what comes next):

So, where are you from?

Ahhhh really? That's nice!

Why Binghamton?

How do you like it so far?

What do you study?

The weather is awful, isn't it?

People tend to be very nice and open up quickly once you smile at them. Most of the people just come up and talk to you because they are interested in who you are and where you come from. (As long as they are not drunk and scream: "Why are you not drinking beer? What kind of German are you? All Germans love beer! Ugah ugah!" as soon as you enter their place)

Saturday I actually went to three different places, but the parties were all similar to each other. Students were drinking beer, starting very early at night, playing beer pong, get really drunk at around midnight and pass out by one. Guys call each other bro or dude and the girls are all like 'oh my gosh I'm like so drunk!' and compete in who's wearing the shortest skirt. This one guy was making really stupid jokes about all Germans being Nazis (so stereotypical). Ah well: welcome to America. Yay!

Oh, one thing I almost forgot: We went to Aldi which is about 10min by bus from where we live. And it's awesome! They have real German bread and fresh produce is really cheap. Sina and I decided to do groceries there from now on.

So, life is good but of course I miss every single one of you. I developed the pictures Johanna took with her camera on my good-bye-party. They really made my day and are now decorating my room.

I still haven't started doing the puzzle yet – I will keep that one for when I'm really homesick.

Next weekend me and Riva are planning on going to Ithaca – another small city about an hour from Binghamton, while Sina and Katharina are going to NYC (I still did not get my Bafög – I have to save some money for now). Travelling by bus is really cheap and I'm excited about getting to know the area one by one.

Oh! Btw: tonight's the Super Bowl. Yeeeha! Beer, chicken wings and awesome commercials – the ultimate American experience.