Three cheers for modern technology

I am a big fan of paper. In a kind of a nerdy way. For example, I smell books. (German pocket books smell better than American pocket books; American hardcovers smell better than their German counterpart, but German ones feel better, and my American astronomy book feels nice but stinks - attention, fellow linguistic and language students, ambiguity!)
I like writing with a pen on paper. And even though that might make me look antiquated in the eyes of those well equipped super-students with their teenie-tiny laptops, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBooks who are sitting in class and playing Farmville, I still take notes by hand.
I am okay with that. I can write fast, and even though I don't have a spell check, I am doing good (well, except for that one time when I forgot the 'l' in 'public'...). I write fairly small, so I don't even need a lot of paper. And the best thing is: unless my dog eats my homework, or my roommate sets the apartment on fire with a corndog, there really isn't much that can happen to my notes.

Now, all those well equipped super-students with their teenie-tiny laptops, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBooks who are sitting in class and playing Farmville, are not that lucky, it seems.

By group emails, set up by each course, people can easily communicate with the whole class and ask people for help when, say, they missed class and don't know what's been going on. And a recurring theme of these mails is : "Help, I lost my notes!"

Francine S. from my astro-class writes: "My computer has seemed to misplace or erase them when it shut down the other night. Therefore I lost ALL of my notes. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could send me theirs." Bummer. Of course it was the computer that misplaced them. And it shut down all by itself. No comment.

Similarly, James S. (ironically, his last name is very similar to that of Francine...), also from my astronomy class, writes: "hey...I have been taking notes on my computer... but my roommate 'accidentally' deleted them all when using my computer...I have nothing to study." Well, that is hilarious. Putting 'accidentally' in inverted commas pretty much lets me know that you, dear James, don't believe that your roommate acted accidentally. But on purpose. Bad roommate! Punish him! You should "shoot him on the moon", as we Germans say, and let him make the measurements required for class on location. That would be more exact and you could forget about all the mathematical formualae. And why was he/she using your computer in the first place?

My personal favorite call for help is this one:
Leslie L. from my mythology class writes: "My car got broken into, and all my notes were stolen." I love that one! I can practically imagine the car thief - let's call him Carl, that seems to be a good name for a car thief - approaching an aged Ford Taurus, carefully looking around to make sure there are no witnesses, prying open the window with his crowbar - a car thief needs a crow bar, right? - then staring satisfied at the BOSE-soundsystem and the Tomtom GPS that the studious and well equipped super-student with her teenie-tiny laptop, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBook who are sitting in class and playing Farmville has worked for very hard at her part-time job at McDonald's and during the summer holidays.
But then Burgler Carl's face brightens as his gaze falls on a stack of paper sitting on the passenger seat. He realizes: that is exactly what he needs! His whole criminal career, ignoring rules and laws, living as an outcast on the margins of American society and accepting his desperate situation, prying open car doors and stealing things that aren't his but that he feels should be, all of that suddenly makes sense. All the pieces fall into place as he realizes that fate has taken him here, to the Ford Taurus of Leslie L., to make his suffering and all his trouble worthwhile. He heard angels singing and rays of sunlight emanating from the paper stack as he picked it up and read: Classical Mythology......

I honestly feel sorry for Leslie: she obviously didn't rely on technology that much and still got screwed. But - who knows - maybe her notes on ancient mythology really changed Burglar Carl's life.... She should be glad he didn't take her teenie-tiny laptop, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBook...

Pubic Relations 101

Hello everybody. After a great winter break that I spent in Snohomish/the Seattle area as well as on the Big Island of Hawai'i, I started school again this week. Today was my first day. My brain must still be on vacation. Thus, I already managed to embarrass myself. Here we go...

I am taking great and very interesting classes this semester, one of them (my favorite one so far) being "Fundamentals of Public Relations". Yes, my friends, read those words closely. After I had spent a long day on campus today, concentrating very hard on Astronomy (with math!!) and Classical Mythology, I got a little tired during the PR lecture. My neighbor, a girl in a Texas-hoodie (what else??) with a huge brown pony tail that she repeatedly swished in my direction - don't you hate those people that think their hair is sooo important iut should have its own side of the table? - kept looking at my notes. But only about 45 minutes into the lecture did I see what she saw. And what made her look again and again.

On the top of my page I wrote "Pubic Relations". Now it is up to you, my German friends, to take out your dictionaries and find out why that is an embarrassing mistake. I don't even think UT offers a course like that. Bummer...!

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.