living

I lived in a dorm-like building called Am Steingarten. I had my own room, but shared a kitchen and bathroom with 8 other people. My other floor mates were from Germany, Poland, Greece, Spain, and France. While this was cool to be living so closely with different cultures, it also was challenging for communication. I could hardly use my kitchen because it was so filthy and the bathroom was often dirty as well. I was intimidated to speak to some of my neighbors about it because of the language barrier. I eventually got over my fear, and was relieved that they all spoke English. However, the cultural differences still remained. They didn’t find it necessary to clean up after themselves and thought it was acceptable to smoke and leave cigarette butts in the kitchen. Also, quiet hours were different as well. At UMASS, for the most part, my experience in the dorms was quite civil. We had quiet hours and most people respected that. However, the students from Spain tended to be very loud very late at night. When I asked about why this was, they explained that it is just their culture. Very late night parties is the norm. My German neighbors were very neat, but very reserved. A German boy lived next to me, however, never spoke more than a “Hi” to me. I swear for the first 3 months I lived there he would run away anytime we were approaching or leaving the building at the same time. My German neighbors were very quiet and liked to keep their doors closed, whereas I kept my door open whenever I was home. I think that the other exchange students were intrigued by this and I noticed that they would often poke their head in my room to say hello when they walked by. I felt very fortunate that English was my native language since even though we were in Germany, everyone spoke English as a default. Anytime I held a door open or waved, I always got a “thank you” or “hello” instead of a phrase in German. I was sometimes envious of my friends who lived in suite style dorms. I felt as though they had more interaction with their neighbors and were able to build closer friendships with these international students that weren’t here for just one semester.

international VISUM parties

Weekly parties

Beginning a few weeks into the semester, VISUM throws international parties on Tuesday nights. Each week has a different international theme, like “English night” or “Scandinavian night.” They play dance music from these cultures and sometimes do some other special surprises as well. Although I was disappointed that they never hosted an American night, these parties were still fun to get into. Lots of students would dress with the colors representing their countries, or paint the flags on their faces. These parties were a cool way to hear new music and meet new international students. These Tuesday night parties were a lot of fun and helped the week to fly by!

L3

L3

One great way to meet international students was the Monday night stammtisch at Bar L3. Every Monday night the bar/café right across from the school hosts an international stammtisch. This is an awesome way to meet other exchange students. It’s a very small and casual bar that is usually bustling with international students. There is usually a theme every week that helps break the ice for conversations. Since it gets harder to attend Monday night parties as the semester progresses, I highly suggest going to these parties early in the semester.

VISUM

VISUM

VISUM is an organization for international students in Mannheim. Some of my most memorable experiences in Mannheim were from events put on by VISUM. Beginning in winter academy, VISUM representatives would come into our class everyday to let us know about excursions or events that they were putting on for us. This was so crucial and helpful for everyone since we had just arrived. With everyone living in different areas, and enrolled in different levels of classes, these VISUM events helped us so much to get to know each other. They also organized helpful tours of Mannheim and trips to IKEA to help us get situated and make Mannheim feel like home.  VISUM organizes weekly parties, local outings, weekend outings, and many other specialty events. They post all of these events on facebook and make it very easy to participate. All of the VISUM representatives were very friendly and willing to help you in any way they could. They were all genuinely interested in connecting the international students with the rest of the students, and also showing us a really good time. VISUM’s weekend trips were a very affordable way to travel. They offered two trips during the semester, one to Hamburg and one to Vienna. I did not participate in the Hamburg trip, however after hearing about it, I decided to go with VISUM to Vienna. Since VISUM brings such a large group of students, they are able get good discounts on busses and hostels. My weekend in Vienna was very affordable and I would not have been able to go that cheaply traveling alone. It was also nice that VISUM set up an itinerary for us, however it was totally optional if we chose to participate or not. They organized a city tour and some nightly activities to get our nights started. It was also nice to travel with other students so wherever we ended up going felt like a party. Unfortunately, some of our scheduled events were rained out in Vienna, but some of them sounded really cool. VISUM had organized a BBQ with another international student organization in Vienna. I think that this would’ve been a really fun way to meet even more international students and share some of our experiences. It was also really nice to have an entire trip planned for you. After doing a lot of independent travel, having the transportation and hostel booked for you was really refreshing. Another great VISUM event was the pub crawl. The pub crawl was a very memorable night for everyone. When we first arrived to get our t-shirt and pub itinerary, we were all a bit put off by the fact that they were randomly placing people in teams. We had all expected that we could pick our teams and be with all of our friends. It actually turned out to be a really good idea that they selected the teams because it forced us out of our comfort zone and to interact with new students. I met students that I had never even seen before and it helped me to realize that there were a lot more international students than I had realized. I forgot about those students that had already been in Mannheim for more than one semester. These students didn’t participate in some of the introduction events, however they participated in the pub crawl because they already knew how fun it was from experience. After the pub crawl was over we arrived at the school for the weekly parties hosted there. Although we were all kind of embarrassed to be showing up with face paint and tee-shirts on, we all had such a good time and had made so many friends that we decided it was okay to stick out as exchange students. Join the VISUM group on facebook before you arrive in Mannheim and you might have the chance to meet some new people before you get there!

Winter Academy

During my first few days in Mannheim, I will admit that I clung mostly to the other American friends that I had just met. When we started classes in the Winter Academy, I was very excited to meet other students and become closer to those who I had already met. However, I was first very disappointed to realize that my situation was not going to be typical. Most of the other exchange students had either no previous knowledge of German, or were highly advanced in the language. I was caught somewhere in between as an intermediate German speaker. The Winter Academy struggled to place me into a new class, so I ended up joining a class with one other exchange student that had already begun. When I walked into the class I was shocked to realize that the majority of the class was older adults. The other exchange student, Kaitlyn, and I were also the only Americans in the class.
I found this to be very frustrating at first. While all of the other exchange students were growing closer and spending lunch breaks together every day, I felt like I was missing out. They were all doing homework and projects together My class also started 30 minutes before all of the other classes and was on the other side of the school. This meant traveling alone to and from class, and sometimes missing out on exchange student outings. However, once the first weekend passed and I realized there were other times to socialize, my unique class allowed me to see international students in a whole new light. When I had previously thought of international students, I only thought about the students who were my age and also studying at the university.  I soon began to realize that all of the people in my class were international students. They were from countries all over the world, trying to learn German just as I was. The other students were from China, Columbia, Serbia, Argentina, Albania, Iraq, England, and a few others that I cannot remember. They were mostly middle age students here because they have a German spouse, or were here to work and needed to learn the language. I think that because of their age, and more urgent need to learn the language, my class was taken more seriously than others. Most of the other exchange students were hardly studying or every doing German work, while I felt like I had a lot of work. These people pushed me to be prepared for class every day. I felt like it was my responsibility to work harder to be able to contribute in class and help their German even more. I learned a lot from these people. It was very interesting to me that there was such a difference in the German that we knew. Although it was both intermediate, we spoke very different German. My German grammar was much stronger than the others. However, their speaking and listening skills were much better than mine. Since they had been living in Germany longer than me, they felt much more comfortable speaking. They also knew more useful vocabulary words than I did. They could speak about day to day activities like ordering at the butcher or bakery, while I only knew random vocabulary from previous chapters I had learned. This encouraged me to try harder to speak in my daily activities and to become more comfortable with it. They taught me that there is nothing to be embarrassed about when trying to learn the language. Trying to speak German may seem intimidating, but once you get over the initial fear, it becomes very comfortable. This experience in Winter Academy helped me to see exchange students in a new light. Not every student in Mannheim was there on exchange, people from all over the world and all ages were there to learn German and try to eventually immerse themselves in the culture.

Meeting international students is one of the best learning experiences you’ll have abroad. Since other international students are in the same situation as you are, you’ll find that it is very easy to make friends. Before I arrived in Mannheim, I expected to make lots of German friends. Although I made a few German friends, my strongest relationships were with other exchange students. Sometimes I think that I might have learned more about the cultures of my new friends than I did about German culture. Being an American has positive and negative effects on your experience. It is extremely convenient and comfortable that the default language amongst international students is English. At most events everyone is speaking English. At times I would often forget that English wasn’t the native language of most of the students. I definitely learned to appreciate the fact that my native language was spoken everywhere and taught in my classes. I have a whole new respect for the other international students who wrote our exams in English. I also thought it was really cool that my international friends would speak English to make me feel more comfortable. Even if I was the only American with a group of my Norwegian friends, they would usually speak English the entire time. We would all try out our German as well, but English was easier for almost all of the exchange students. Another positive aspect to being American was that everyone knows so much about your culture. I was shocked how much everyone knows about America. Although this is very convenient, it also gives you a responsibility. I often found myself trying to dispel myths about Americans and defend my country. Also I knew that I had to keep up to date with news and happenings in America, because other international students were interested in talking to me about it. Other international students really enjoy talking about American politics, and they expect you to as well. I noticed that my other exchange student friends were much more open about discussing their political views. As an American, I felt as though my political views were my personal opinion and that I didn’t have to share them. This was a cultural difference and was hard for some of my friends to understand. I found one of the negative aspects to being American was that other international students were slightly skeptical about Americans. Some students told me that Americans made them uncomfortable because of their “fake” friendliness. I was also told that Americans are seen as superficial. One student told me that when we first met he thought that I was very egotistical because I hardly spoke. Because he had the prejudice that Americans are superficial and self centered, he confused my shyness for egotism.