Bad Hair Day, Take2

Any sarcastic or slightly funny feeling I might have had left about the situtation yesterday is gone now. And those of you I yelled at know that wasn't much (Sorry again, guys!!). I just talked to the lady at the office of the registrar in Essen. She cannot find any document suggesting my leave of absence. Of course she doesn't say that. She says, there is none, meaning I haven't filed one. So obviously somebody was too incapable to file away a piece of paper, which, quite frankly, is probably all it says in their job description anyhow. You only have to be able to file stuff away and know where the documents are, right? Uggggh.....why is there so much incompetence in this world? And why always in administration? Those of you who know me, also know how much luck I have had with paper work of any kind in the past 4 months, e.g NOT MUCH!
She didn't seem to be surprised that I transfered money; UDE must receive donations over 12 Euros quite often. That, in turn, doesn't surprise me at all. Must be all they spend on student services all year. Yeah, I know, now I am getting spiteful.
We'll see how it turns out. She said she'd check and look for my request, and I'm getting ready to mail off everything she needs in case I need to file another request. And, of course, I'll have to pay an additional fee because I'm late.
Who invented administration, anyways?

PS: My hair looks fantastic again....coincidence??

Bad hair day? You wish...

Today isn't a good day. I thought it would be, given that my hair looked fantastic this morning and why wouldn't the day turn out just fine if it was a good hair day, anyway? But my hair betrayed me. It didn't turn out to be a good day after all. (Now that I think about it, why would my hair-do have the power to foresee the quality of my day? If it really could, I would be able to make a whole lot of money with that! "See Jessi and her fabulous hair!!" But that's another story entirely...)
Anyways, it wasn't a good day: My German university expelled me today. Because apparently I didn't pay my tuition. Well, of course I didn't! I am not even there, much less attending any classes! I'm in Texas for two semesters. Me not paying the tuition shouldn't really come as such a surprise for them, because I have filled out a bunch of papers. You would think that that should do the trick. I even paid them 12,-€ for administration (e.g. paid them to print out the papers in the first place...).
I bet you, a couple hundred years ago it was enough to just go to the administration office and be like: "Hey guys" (okay, probably a little more formal and dowdy) "Guess what? I am going abroad for a while. See you later." And administration would answer: "Okay, dude" (see above) "Have fun, see you next year." How else could Goethe have studied all that crazy stuff all around Europe? But no, today you sign your life away, trying to get a little fun elsewhere. You have to assure that you won't finish your degree overseas, you won't do this, you won't do that, you won't do squad, either - and most important of all: you will represent your university at all times and inadequate behavior will not be tolerated.
Well, guess what! I won't be representing the University of Duisburg-Essen adequately anymore! What a dump.
A couple of months ago, UT hosted an International Study Abroad Fair on campus, trying to promote studying abroad for American students. I asked the University of Duisburg-Essen to send me some promotion material, so I could advertise UDE. They sent me two brochures. TWO! There I was, standing behind a table telling people what a great place UDE is (liar, liar, pants on fire...) but, hey, sorry, I couldn't give them any material, because UDE only sent me two booklets and they were out already. How embarassing is that? Do they seriously not even try to make a name for themselves in the academic world? And "world" here is to take very literally!
Their masters program in literature and media studies sucks, and is not at all as advertised on their homepage. Organization is a drag and you actually have to organize classes you're really interested in yourself (like photography-classes. After they tell you that photography is necessary for every journalist nowadays because newspapers won't pay for a separate photographer. So you'll have to take the pictures for your article yourself most of the time. Thus, they must see the necessity and teaching us how to take pictures for newspapers! Yet, they don't teach us.). If you're really out of luck you even have to pay for classes (like a workshop in the Adobe Photoshop program! What the **** am I paying tuition for?? Oh, wait, I forgot! I DIDN'T PAY MY TUITION!)
And now they don't even keep up with their freaking (pardon my French) paperwork. Ugh....soo angry!

Longhorns defeat Knights 35:3

Yeah, now I've had my college football experience. Last Saturday was THE day. And it was a good one! I still haven't figured out all the rules there are to this game, but it really was a spectacle. UT played the University of Central Florida and ripped 'em off. I really don't know much about the game, but either the knights just sucked (likely) or UT is awesome. Well, I don't doubt that, anyway. I had a blast.
I experienced all teh chants and songs and moves and traditions. And let me tell you: It's jus like on TV, with the cheerleaders and the band playing and the dance team rockin' and all ("Wackel mit die Hufte, denn wenn Du wackelst mit die Hufte mache das schön geschmeidig und sexy!!" :) ). It was just great. And even though the weather was cloudy and dreary in the morning - I actually felt reminded of a regular summer morning in Seattle - it became sunny and warm and I got myself a sunburn on the nose. Now I have something to remember the game by. Until my skin peels off.

The Ultimate American Experience - Advance Notice

I have now looked at the UT stadium many times, every time I walked over the campus. And even though I am not terribly interested in any kind of sport and all that is connected to the almost fanatic following of one sports team or another, the stadium seems to embody an artifact of immense importance. With the sun setting on this mild and gentle October evening, the stadium's ranks which tower into the blue sky resemble the ruins of the Roman Colosseum.

And as I look up at the hige walls I completely forget that actually I am only looking at tons of brick and masses of cement. For a moment there, these walls seem to be the most impressive thing I have ever seen. With every step I take, my view changes. Leaves and tree branches form an ever changing mosaic and pattern, vanishing from my visual gaze as stars appear and bats race over the early night sky. The sound of crickets and the occasional police siren far away make me feel so small in presence of the stadium that appears to represent the essence of American college life and popular culture. As important as the Colosseum has been in ancient times, as important is the UT football stadium to its students and fans in the region.

I know I now feel hopelessly romantic and it might sound crazy, but the campus is an incredibly beautiful place, more so during the night than during the day, and I am very proud to have the chance to be a part of this.

Next weekend I will be attending a game to see the stadium fulfill its destiny.

Louisa, Jessi and Bruce on Tour - Part 2

Today's trip:

Fredricksburg!

Tanja, Louisa and I went to Fredricksburg to see one of the German towns in Texas. And it was soo much fun! Fredricksbrgr is just perfect for shopping. So that's mostly what we did... And we grabbed lunch in the German Brewery. Yeah, it almost felt like home :)

On the way to Fredricksburg we got to know the country and its people: in a Dairy Queen in Johnson City, just 20 miles outside of Fredricksburg, the locals didn't know what "coffee" is. They offered frozen coffe and some pumpkin-slush-coffee-sugar-with-caramel-and-whipped-cream. Confronted with the tired question "Regular coffee...?" they just didn't know what to say, shrugged and looked away. Of course Tanja, Louisa and I then had to discuss in German whether to stay there and have some of that pumpkin-slush-coffe-sugar-with-caramel-and-whipped-cream-stuff or just keep on driving until we found a nice li'l coffe shop. We sooo are big town girls... So we left, got in our humongous Bruce and drove on. Then we stopped at a neat little gas station, got the worst coffee of our lives, found out what the locasl really eat and got on the road again.

When we arrived in Fredricksburg it started raining all the time. But that's okay, we spent our time shopping most of the time, anyways.

Louisa, Jessi and Bruce on Tour - Part 1

Today my friend Louisa arrived. Thus, the next week is going to be AWESOME!

The adventure already started on my way to the airport. Should have been an easy ride, I looked my bus connections up on the internet. But you know me, easy just doesn't work for me. I took the wrong bus. Or, more specifically: the right bus, but in the wrong direction. It was one of those routes that have the same bus stop because they make a loop and overlap for a while. And I even asked the bus driver if he's going to the airport. And I could sware he said airport and nodded. Well, I pretty soon found out that he was not going to the airport. At the sign that pointed ahead for the airport, he took a left turn and made his way back to the city. So I took a bus plan and got off the bus. In the middle of nowhere. I was standing in a neighborhood that looked even crappier than Riverside. I walked to the bus stop on the other side of the street to get back. A nice Hispanic man mowing his lawn wished me a good day, smiling underneath his gigantomanic mustache. I almost didn't see that because I was staring at his cowboy-hat. I smiled back and sat down at the bus stop, directly in front of his fence. No bus came. But I guess I could have gone with any car hunkin' their horns... I looked at the plan and the next bus would not come until 40 minutes later. I wouldn't make it in time to pick Louisa up from the airport. So I went to the Hispanic man and asked him if he had the number of a taxi company. He didn't speak English. Just my luck. "Taxi? Nooo, nooooo" (*shrug*) and then he pointed at a blue pick-up truck that just made its way along the road. I went over there. A smiling man of color, probably 60 years old or so, was sitting in the truck. He didn't have the number of a taxi company, but he didn't have anything to do that day so he would drive me to the airport.

Is that nice or what? So Bobby drove me to the airport. And he invited me to give him a call anytome I'd be in the neighborhood (never again!) and that he'd like to take me out to have seafood... Thanks, Bobby!

Then I picked up Louisa from the airport. There, the next adventure was awaiting us: We could pick out our rental car. They were out of Economy-Class cars, so we got an upgrade. And we had five cars to chose from: an eggshell colored PT Cruiser, a golden Honda, a black Dodge Avenger!! and two red Chrysler something"s that we didn't even notice anymore after having seen the huge Dodge! Well, the decision was an easy one, now we had to think about a name for that car.

This is what we expected to get:

And this is what we got! Introducing: Bruce!

Ask a Librarian

This country really stands out because of its technical and serviceable advances that make interpersonal interaction almost unnecessary. Talk about amazon.com, any other kind of internet shopping. Who goes out and buys stuff if you can let it be shipped to you? All you have to do is move a couple of fingers!
But here comes an innovation, that is awesome just as well as totally necessary for students: "IM a librarian" of UT, IM standing for Instant Messanger just as much as... well, I am. Great! It's a program that you can open from a computer anywhere, as long as you log in with your student ID code and password, and then it opens a messager window. So you can chat with a UT librarian if you have questions concerning research, where to find a book and how to get to a newspaper or journal article etc. This is so great! I have seen people do it in the library, sitting only a couple steps away from the information desk. And while I think that that might be a little overdoing it, I think the concept itself is very helpful and saves a lot of time!

Also, here you can request books from the people who checked them out, even before they have to give them back. So if a professor, grad student or TA has a book checked out for close to half a year, you can request it. He or she'll get an email, telling him or her to give the book back before, so that I can have it real quick. You can't keep it for very long, then, but still, you have it and can use it! That's just great. Having experienced professors check out books for a year with no chance to get it back from them, I was close to desparation because my paper needed to get done but I didn't have any chance of getting the literature I needed.

So, dear Uni Essen: This is how you could do things! This is how academia works efficiently. This is a REAL university!!

I love this. So now I'm going to request a book from some random person. Just for fun. Because I can.

Question of the day

What is this? These little ball-like objects in the tree? I really have no clue. It's about the size of a fist. Is it a bird's nest? (hah, thinking of a former friend, mistaking mistletoes for crow's nests. She was really convinced that that's where crows live. And sleep. Hilarious...) Or some kind of biological parasite? A plant? Is it indeed a mistletoe? I don't know, I am still learning about flora and fauna in this place. So please, tell me!! Always open for suggestions, here!

San Antonio

I know it's almost a month ago, but I couldn't not tell you about my trip to San Antonio together with a whole bunch of international exchange students. It was soo much fun. To be honest, I was a little scared that the weather would suck totally and turn this trip into a wet and rainy horror, as it has been raining the day before from morning all through the night. Yet, we were lucky and the sun actually came out for a while when we were in San Antonio, whereas it has been raining all day in Austin.
San Antonio is very touristy and I have to admit that I like Austin better.
First, we went to the Museum fof Texas History. Since the 1830s there have been a lot of Germans immigrating to the US and starting a new life in Texas. Mostly, they were given land for free and did not have to pay taxes for the first couple of years. Texas wanted to create a state of its own, build up an army and have its land settled, and the Germans wanted to escape hunger and poverty in Germany, create a new community in a better environment, promising a healthy climate, good farming conditions and a lot of fellow Germans.
What I didn't know was, that there were also alot of other nationalities who came to settle in Texas over time. Texas thus pretty much represents a concentrated image of the American melting pot.
After that we went to a Mexican market. I honestly expected something authentic. Real Mexican culture, I guess, whatever that might be. What we got was again the tourist-version of a Mexican market. Every souvenir shop had the same things. Brightly colored dishes and figurines, cheap jewelry and decorations. Very weird. :) Finally, we went to the Alamo. There, the Texans faught for their independence in 1836, won, and since then Texas has been independent from Mexico. It's a nice little fort/chapel. Even though it's a lot younger than most of the European ruins of churches, castles and convents, it looks exactly the same. The tiles at the wall are covered by a glass plate, so you can see the brightly colored decorations but not touch and - please forbid - destroy them. They were also evry serious about taking pictures but I guess that's just normal. It was very interesting, though. But again, the souvenior shop seemed to be much bigger than the chapel itself.

MY NEW HOME

My apartment house. It's nice, isn't it? Behind me would be the street and to my right (wayyyy to my right) the main office and the pool.

That's our living room. My roomie Brittany decorated all that by herself. I just picked out the red vases... to my left is the front door and my room, to my right is Brittany's room and pretty much behind me is the kitchen....

...which looks like this.

This is....wait.....no.....

....THIS is where the magic happens. :)

And my dresser. Outside of the window is our front door. Every one coming to visit us has to pay toll to be allowed to pass. Noooo, just kidding :)

You're never alone in Texas

Do you know those moments in which you feel watched? Those moments in which you are absolutely positive that someone - or something for that matter - is watching you, observing you and following your every move? And then, when you turn around, you have to admit that it was probably only wishful thinking or a trace of paranoia?

Well, something similar happened to me this morning. Just the other way around. I didn't feel watched at all.

I went to take a shower before school. And when I lifted my bottle of shampoo I saw it. And what's worse: it saw me, too! So we stared at each other. I lost the staring contest; I had to blink. IT didn't. It was a gecko. A little pinkish, naked-looking fella with a kind of tiger-like striped tail. Kind of cute, I thought for a second. But then I remembered he was in my shower.

So I finished showering (he didn't seem to mind), and then put him out the front door. I really have nothing against geckos. I am just wondering how he got into my bathroom. And: if he could get into my bathroom, what else can?

Now I am thinking if I should put up a sign on my bathroom door, saying: "All creatures with less than 2 and more than 4 legs STAY OUT", big enough, so everyone can read it. Spiders have enough eyes to see it, right? I just hope they know how to read...

American Food 2

How do you tell, that Texan's are a people that tend to eat a lot? I went to the supermarket to get ziploc-bags to freeze something. And I guess people buy the big ones more often than they buy smaller ones: The ones that fit 1 gallon (3.786 Liters) are much cheaper than the small ones. I couldn't even find small ones at first! That is soo weird.

The other night, I watched the movie "Supersize Me". Mainly to get so disgusted that I don't even like to think about fast food. You know I like to eat and I just needed some kind of insurance that I don't eat fast food all the time.
Here are my "favorite" trivia about fast food in this culture:

1. McDonald's even admitts that their food is processed in a way that can hardly be healthy and that naturally makes it more harmful than unprocessed food. If you think about it, that makes perfect sense! But I guess not every consumer knows that...

2. Texas has five out of the 15 fattest cities in the United States. Austin isn't one of them, but that's still a lot of fat cities! Houston is #2.

3. And here my favorite: McDonald's even puts sugar in their salads to make them more appealing to their customers. The Premium Chicken Ranch salad with dressing contains more calories than a BigMac. That's 51 grams of fat which is almost 80% of your daily fat intake. So not even salads are healthy in fast food places.

Well, what do ya know, this shocking movie worked out just fine. Tomorrow I'll buy some fresh fruit and vegetables...

Keep Walkin'

I am walking to my apartment on the complex ground. To my left: cars and parking spots, to my right: apartment houses. And suddenly the sidewalk just ends. Because there are no more parking spots. Of course the sidewalk is supposed to literally clear the way from your car to your doorstep. Yet, people who don't own a car - pedestrians like me - are screwed/ can walk on grass/ fly/ buy a car.
This really is a country where no one walks.

Everything's bigger in America!

I know that's probably just one of those uncritical and naive stereotypes used by Europeans who are used to everything that's small. (My favorite example: the Mercedes Smart vs. the HUMMER!! works every time...)

I was walking across campus today (yes, people, pictures will follow) and I saw: grass! The grass is not only greener on the other side of the Atlantic, it's also bigger. I know, the cynics among you might now say: "But Jessi, you have such tiny feet, of course the grass seems huge compared to your tiny doll's feet" and I would thank you for the nice comparison because I take tiny doll's feet as a compliment. And the biologists among you might say: "But Jessi, in a climate as hot as in Austin, plants have to have considerably big leaves to prevent from heating up in highly sunlit areas! The bigger the surface of the leaf, the better does the water evaporate and cool the plant down." Yes, thanks, I new that. But still, I'm impressed. Take it or leaf it (haha, get it?) :)

Public transportation

Something I really had to get used to during my first days in Austin was the bus system. I have never used public transportation in the States before. And of course I am used to the German system. Well, here are a couple of differences:

1. In Germany, every stop is announced. Not in Austin. Here you have to know where you want to get off and you have to know where you are. So when your stop approaches, you pull the stop-string. (I am not sure if that's the official name, but it is a string pulled horizontally across the windows that you pull when you want to get off the bus. The driver then hears a sound signalizing that a stop has been requested.)
But the bus drivers here are very very nice, so it's not a problem to ask them when it would be best to get off the bus to get where you want to go.

And getting off the bus too late usually isn't a big problem either as all of the stops are pretty close to one another.

2. Austin does not have a map that shows all the stops on one route. The map shows a couple of stops referred to as time points. These stops mostly are a reference point that tell you when the bus is supposed to be at that particular stop. So you have to figure out if you would be ahead of or after that time point and do the math. And even if you figure out when the bus is approximately coming to pick you up, it never does. I haven't had one bus on time yet.

3. And, just one more proof of Austin's friendliness towards everybody: When people get off the bus, they thank the driver!I think this is a great thing and I will try to enforce that in Germany, also. That just reminds me of a story I experienced with my German roommate a couple of weeks back. We were on a bus getting home from uni. The bus route makes a loop so that both buses #146 going different directions take the same route and have the same stops for a while until one of them turns right and goes to the town center while the other one goes straight ahead. Well, at one of those stops a little, thickset black woman who wasn't very fluent in German asked the driver if that was the bus going to Wackenberg (the end of the line). Instead of answering her politely, explaining to her that she needed to wait for the other bus #146 or just telling her he didn't know (I am not sure if he did) he just closed the door again, mumbled something and drove on. The poor lady just stood there and stared after the bus. I am not sure if the driver was German by birth, but he definitely was by heart. That was just awfully typical of Germans.

American Food

I actually could have registered for a class called American Food. I didn't.

I really try to live healthy here and cook myself instead of going to Subways, Werndy's, McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell etc etc etc.

But then I bought bagels. I couldn't resist. I have a professor back in Germany who originally comes from New York. She has once told us that German bagels aren't as good as American ones. Germans only make rolls with a hole in them and call them bagels. The ones we get at our university cafeteria supposedly are not the real stuff. I always thought she was jsut exaggerating a little. I have been to the States before, I know how bagels are. I always liked our cream-cheese bagles at the cafeteria. And everybody knows that the United States aren't exactly the country known for its culinary finesse.

But then I bought bagels. And...wow...she's right. The bagels at our cafeteria are okay, but really, they're nothing more than rolls with a hole in the middle! So, Mrs. Knox-Raab, I officially appologize to you. American bagels really are better.

How refreshing...

Sometimes I think, Germany has a lot of stupid laws.
For instance that one saying that a swarm of bees becomes ownerless if the owner himself doesn't go after them immediately. I guess something like that must have happened before, but seriously, I just love that one. Everbody should have a swarm of bees...

Or that law saying that it's illegal to drive through a puddle of water and splashing onwalking pedestrians with water. I mean, who really does something like that? Who accelerates when seeing a puddle AND a pedestrian (right next to the puddle of water of course). No, in my little world, people don't do things like that.

I know the US have strange laws and prohibitions as well. Like the one from Portland, Maine, saying that men aren't allowed to tickle women under their chin with a feather. A whole chicken is fine, and tickling her under her arm is fine, too. But the chin/feather combo just doesn't work. Or the one from North Dakota where it's illegal to wear shoes when sleeping.

But I guess some essential laws are missing in this country. Like the one saying it's illegal to drive through a puddle of water and splashing onwalking pedestrians with water.... oh yeah, you gotta love Austin...

And the moral of the story is: never walk back home with your arms full of groceries after a heavy downpour if you have to walk alongside a three-lane street!

Yeahaaw!

Hey everybody,

most of you who read this know me and are only waiting for me to write about my experiences far far away from home. For those of you who don't know me: my name's Jessica and I am from Germany. Originally. I have been in Texas for a little more than a week now and I am starting to feel American again. I guess that's always been part of my personality since I have spent a year abroad and went to High School near Seattle. And now this: Texas! Total contrast to Seattle, I can tell you.
For one thing, there's the heat. It is hot!!! I've been told that before I came it hasn't rained for about 60 days and it has been close to 40°C every day. That is a big change. I'm from Germany. In the summer, we get rain there. :)

But let me start from the beginning. I came here on August 17th, the birthday of my Mom. (That really wasn't a way to celebrate it, I know, Mom. Sorry! But we'll celebrate twice next year, okay?) So the airport already was a big deal. I flew before and I knew the drill. But I guess I really only understood I was leaving home for almost a year when I was at the airport. So let's play a little game called "What would Jessi do?". I actually have a friend playing this game once in a while (thinking of you dearly, over here!) because sometimes I really have good ideas and I can be very reasonable and logical. Well, that doesn't always work. So I am at the airport and supposed to go through these metal detectors. What do they detect? Yes, right, metal. So a smart traveller would wear as little metal as possible, right? The smart traveller wouldn't want to be aggravating, right? Well, back to the game. What would Jessi do. Of course Jessi wears pretty much all the metal she has. Hmmm... Let's see. At home that morning I was smart enough and switched the shoes with the metal clasp for simple Chucks with no metal at all. And at the consulate general in Frankfurt, where I applied for my visa, I learned, that I should take off my watch. I did that at the airport, too. But I still had a metal button on my pants and rivets. They don't hold anything, are good for nothing. They're just supposed to be pretty. I like pretty. Of course it beeped when I went through the detector, but by the time I was in Houston and got checked out for the third time I got used to that. Sorry to all the passengers who missed their connecting flight because of me.

After 22 hours of spending my time in planes and at airports I arrived in Austin. Tired, but happy. I took a cab to get from the airport to the hotel where I would be spending my first night. The driver seemed nice. She told me she's originally from Switzerland and started driving. After probably 10 minutes she asked me for the hotel's phone number, called them and asked where it's located. The she turned around and drove part of the way back. Way to go!! That's the American entrepreneurial spirit!!

But still, I like Austin. And it's gonna get even better, I just know it.