And we'll talk in present tenses

I've been here a week already, and until now haven't updated. There's an explanation: I just got internet in my room for the first time yesterday. I’ve already begun the process of contacting a mass amount of people to see how they’re doing.

My first thought on Goettingen is simply that I like it and I'm very glad to be here. That isn't a defensive statement: coming here took maybe a bit of an adjustment, but really a lot less than I'd expected. I think being in France for a little while this summer helped me adjust to being in a country where everyone around me speaks another language (although this time, I actually understand it, when I'm paying attention).

I'm fond of the physical space here. Rachel and I are in a dorm next to one part of the campus, in a residential-y area that's about a ten-minute walk from the main campus and the downtown area. Our rooms are enormous and newly renovated, each with its own bathroom, and there's one kitchen on each floor. Even the kitchens display German efficiency: each person has their own cupboard, with a key and a shelf of the refrigerator.

I didn't really mean to babble on about specific details of our dorm, like the water pressure- although let me just say that the water pressure here is fantastic, probably ridiculously so. I've learned not to turn the sink or the shower full-on, because that's just too much water. Anyway.

Right now we're taking a 3-week language course with other international students- mostly Europeans, but some from Latin America, and also some from Turkey and China and South Korea. Naturally, there a few interesting cultural differences. There's a Polish guy in our section, for example, who won't walk ahead of women through a door. I tried to hold a door open for him once (innocently, I promise- I wasn't trying to screw with him) and he got pretty confused and ended up holding it for me. I've meant to ask him about that, but I haven't really had the chance yet.

There are a couple of other things that it's been difficult to explain here. The structure of American universities is of course a lot different than that of the European ones, and Amherst's even more so. Yesterday, in the social sciences practical orientation, we learned about how everyone studies the social sciences in Goettingen: the structure, and the official methods that they use to study it. The teacher then asked everyone individually if that's how their university does it, and I was about the only one who said it wasn't. I don't think there's an official way we study political science at Amherst. Um. I kind of just take courses that interest me.

Politics is naturally another subject that's a little more difficult to discuss, especially in a foreign language. I've had people ask if I was Republican, so I've mostly been quick to assure everyone that yes, I know how awful and stupid Bush is, and yes, I dislike him immensely too. Still, I don't want to begin every political conversation with an apology. On one hand, I like the idea of foreigners realizing that not all Americans are ignorant and/or Republican; on the other, I don't know that trying to represent the 'positive side' of the U.S. is necessary or good. I'll find a balance.

The last thing to mention, right now, is how it's been speaking German all the time. I've been speaking enough German lately (even with Rachel, speaking mostly in German) that some of my grammatical formulations in English are starting to sound German. Or, when I talk about something in English that I normally talk about in German, I often start to say the German word instead of the English one. Not that there aren't opportunities to practice English- almost all the international students speak English better than German- but I'd rather stick to German.