So without further ado…
Greetings from Osnabrück! I think Hannover is an amazing city and all, but Osnabrück may be a better place to study and live for an entire year. I think it’s because Osnabrück is a bit smaller, so it isn’t as initially overwhelming. That being said, when I arrived in Osnabrück I had already had a week to grow accustomed to some of the idiosyncrasies of the German culture (see preceding posts).
The Alstadt or “Old City” (above) is possibly my favorite place in Osnabrück (along with about 500,000 other people). It is so charming with it’s entirely cobblestone streets/sidewalks, 300+ year-old homes, and interesting little restaurants and shops. It’s fun just to sit somewhere and take it all in. One of the best parts of the Altstadt is a HUGE market that sets up shop every Saturday morning. This past Saturday I bought nine, gigantic apples and two oranges for a whopping two Euros. (That works out at about 21 cents US$ for each item.)
Some people, namely my family, may be wondering about some things preceding my time in Osnabrück, such as my train ride from Hannover… Well, I made it in one piece… Maybe more like a few pieces put together with a little Elmer’s and a couple inches of tape… Ok, I was a hot mess. “Hindsight is 20/20” so-to-speak, and I can see quite clearly now that I had way too much for a train. It took three of us to haul my crap onto the car, and then I made my way with two bags through a cramped aisle, pissing people off as I unintentionally hit them in the face with my messenger bag or turned to allow people through to get off (which I now realize meant forcing people – whether they liked it or not - to become intimately acquainted with both my clarinet case and jean-clad rear end).
Once I arrived at the Osnabrück Hauptbahnhof, it was a mad dash to the bag storage area on the car, since you have about five seconds to get off before the train leaves for the next station (about 40 miles away). It came to me asking a complete stranger to help me with my bags. Fortunately for me (quite unfortunately for him), he picked the larger of the two bags, which weighed about 80 pounds at the time. It was like some sort of higher power had planned this, like someone somewhere had prayed for some comic relief to the pathetic scene that was my train ride. By the grace of the same, aforementioned power, I was able to pull myself together, and thank this kind, yet sorry, man for his help before the train left. Luckily, I had three friends waiting to help carry all my bags, thus ending the saga of “The Man Who Single-Handedly Pissed off about 200 People in One Hour”.
It wasn’t long before I was travelling again for a weekend in Bünde, the home of several of my friends, where the below picture was taken.
It was amazing there, a pleasant mix of rural and urban areas. “What was the occasion,” you may ask. The Zwiebel Markt is your answer. This so-called “Onion Market” had nothing to do with onions, and everything to do with great food, happy people - with or without the addition of a reasonable amount of the seasonal “Federweißer” wine - and fireworks, rain or shine (in our case rain). The rest of the weekend was wonderful, and involved a new cat (not mine), a delicious meal or two and getting to know people I had only ever met before as pixilated images on Skype.
From Bünde, it was back to Osnabrück. The next few days were a blur, accomplishing everything that needed to be done (ie. establishing a German bank account, arranging my move-in time with my Hausmeister, and getting a cell phone, etc.) I was finished with almost all of the tasks on my To-Do List in time for my move-in on Thursday last week. This brings me to my next story.
On Thursday we arrived at my new home for at least the first semester “Dodesheide”, which I can choose to make my home for the second semester if I want to. I called the number given to me by the Auslandsamt “International Student office”, and was answered by a gruff man, my Hausmeister, who then met us just briefly enough to tell us (us being two of my friends helping me to move in and myself) that we needed to wait by my room. They say first impressions are everything, but with this one, I encountered one of the very rare exceptions (not about the room, but about the Hausmeister).
This is my room. You may be thinking, “Oh that looks really nice! Why is he foreshadowing something horrible? What an ungrateful, spoiled jerk.”
The room, when we first arrived, was enough to make you want to plug your nose, cry and vomit… simultaneously. It was at this moment that my friend Sebastian began asking questions about the room (I think to keep me from freaking out):
Sebastian: It’s quite dirty in here. Wasn’t it supposed to be cleaned over the summer?
Hausmeister: Well, no… You clean it yourself when you arrive. It isn’t one of our responsibilities to clean these things. We’ve got hundreds of rooms here. We ask students to clean their rooms before they leave, but we work with a lot of “Internationals”, so you know how it goes.
Sebastian: (paraphrased) It said online that this was just renovated. I can see the floors are new, everything else looks to be in good shape, but what is with the molding around the ceiling? It isn’t painted.
Hausmeister: Yes, well, students have to paint their own rooms white at the end of the year. (To me.) Haven’t you ever painted a room before?
Me: No… Never.
Hausmeister: Well I know someone who will be able to do it for 100 Euros. (That’s roughly $127.00 for all you readers.)
It all just went from there, resulting in the borrowing of a bucket, a mop, a sponge, several rags and some cleaning products. Four hours later, all THREE of us had finally cleaned the room so it didn’t stink like unwashed hair, Asian food and shit. The Hausmeister, we learned, was not trying to be rude. He even washed my drapes (which reeked), and delivered them to me. In fact, he was quite accommodating, explaining that if I needed anything I could talk to him, and he would try to figure it out for me.
One pleasant surprise about the room was that it has its own sink. “This,” I thought, “would be nice when doing my hair so I could wash the product off my hands when finished, or for brushing my teeth first thing when I wake up.” My equally unpleasant surprise? The pipe that drains into the main water system of the building is detached, or more honestly physically ripped from the other pipe connected to the sink. How did we detect this? By cleaning around it. It makes me wonder, “What would I have done if all of the water I used ended up on the floor in a giant puddle, flooding my room?” The answer, I have no idea, and I’m glad I didn’t find out. The Hausmeister is on it, but not without the clarification, “Die blöde Kuh hat mich nicht erzählt,” in English, “The stupid cow didn’t tell me!” Hopefully, I’ll be able to enjoy the one luxury in my room within the week, but maybe not, since the Hausmeister also clarified that he has six buildings to take care of.
My Hausmeister’s comments bring me to my last point, since this post is getting ridiculously long, and I need to give you all a break, so you’ll want to read later posts. Germans are very forward people. They don’t mean to be rude, or to make your stomach sink because what they’ve said is enough to make any grown man cry. They just feel that anything less than complete honesty is superficial. (This means that Americans are VERY superficial people.) One example, other than the above quotes from my Hausmeister:
In looking for somewhere to practice piano before I get keys to practice rooms in the next week or two, I stopped in two music stores that had piano show rooms. I explained my situation, expecting that the worst-case scenario would be a polite, “No, sorry, we don’t have any practice space, and we would prefer people didn’t play the pianos. Otherwise, everyone would be practicing here, and that isn’t good for business.” The first storeowner said, “No. Ask a church. We aren’t here for practice, but they’re here for charity, so maybe they’d donate a space with a piano to you.” The other said, “We have two big rooms, and no space for you.” I was quite befuddled by the comments, and mentioned them to a couple German friends, most of which could see why I thought they were rude, but also said that it is only typical of German customer service. They are not in the business of making you feel warm and fuzzy all while not being able/willing to help you. This, I think, is just going to take some getting used to.
Among all the uncertainties mentioned in this post, one thing is for sure, that I am LOVING my time here. Even though I pointed out some of my first really bad news since I arrived, bad things happen no matter who/where you are, and I have WAY more to be excited about. Further, without these predicaments, I would probably have nothing to write about.
I heard a German admit this week that laughing IS in fact exercise. Why is this relevant? Firstly, because I never thought that I would ever hear that...ever. Secondly, because I had an epiphany while writing this post.
My dad said shortly before I left the U.S. that (paraphrased), ”We are different from a lot of people [we meaning our family and a large number of our family friends]. We look at the things that others would be consumed by, and we laugh at them not because they are any less horrible, but because that is our way of reminding ourselves that there will always be things that are less than optimal, and we should enjoy what is good, not what isn’t.
I would like to think that this blog is a way for you all, my readers, to see my experiences through my eyes, and laugh about them with me. Thusly, if I’m doing it right, reading my blog is both spiritually fulfilling and physically rewarding for its readers (as it is exercise).
And with that… More to come when I have regular Internet service! (Hopefully my Waschbecher “Wash Goblet”, a.k.a. Sink, will be fixed by the next post! Toi toi toi!)
Bis dann!
P.S. - To the handful of people who saw I posted, and declined to read after the title... Thank you for waiting, and sorry for the ball of fury I originally tacked on the title of this post. I now have Internet, and I am much more relaxed and happy! Hope the wait was worth your while!
P.S. - To the handful of people who saw I posted, and declined to read after the title... Thank you for waiting, and sorry for the ball of fury I originally tacked on the title of this post. I now have Internet, and I am much more relaxed and happy! Hope the wait was worth your while!
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