Stormy Skies

My apple juice is gone. It is not in the fridge where I left it. There is no sign of it in the bin. It has disappeared without a trace. I am not impressed...

Fulda, die Stadt, wo die Zeit im Fluge vergeht

Time doesn't wait for anybody or anything in Fulda. It flies right past you and before you know it it's the 21st November and there's talk of Weihnachtsmärkte (christmas markets), snow and Christmas arrangements. A lot has happened since the last post, too much for one blog entry really but I'm going to try and fit it all in anyway. Take a deep breath now...

Thurs 10th Nov was Kate's bday and I felt kinda sad being so far away from my lil sis, especially when I spoke to her on the phone and found she had been replaced by a bedridden ill person :-( Anyway, no time to dwell on being away from home, I had a visitor. Hannah, a Yorkie, came for a fleeting visit - thurs night til sat morn - 2 nights of parties, german food, german beer, german clubs, and 1.5 days of sleep with a wee tour of Fulda thrown in for good measure. Hannah left and life in Fulda returned to its normal abnormal self. If you can say anything about my time in Fulda it's that it is blooming unpredictable.

This last week has included a rice and water detox diet, followed by binge eating on Snickers bars, an unusually quiet Desperate Housewives Night with aussie burgers (burgers, beetroot, egg, pineapple, tomato, salad, onions etc. etc.) and 7 v tired gals lacking in party spirit. Then I played mediator at a fairly emotional discussion, then there was a totally wild and random night that included going to Wiesbaden (capital of Hessen) to see an out of this world band called Stereo Total (www.stereototal.de), then eating a really good Turkish meal at midnight before heading back to the train station to find no trains for 4 hrs and freezing temperatures and then taxiing it to Frankfurt to find somewhere warm to spend the next few hrs before the first train back to Fulda. A fairly dodgy club called Cookies was our chosen haunt but as we were all exhausted it wasn't the best clubbing experience I've ever had. Arriving back in Fulda at 6.30am was amazing. Never thought Fulda would be such a welcoming prospect... Slept Friday to be fit for the party that night - organised by BASIB, the Batchelor equivalent of ICEUS so it was my duty as an ICEUS student to be there. Was called World Beat and was basically a party with music from all over the world that no-one had ever heard before. V cool. Work on the Beer Project was done on Saturday, and v aptly, we were all hungover... Since then there's been snow, studying, yummy food and Harry Potter in German (I had to see it but it pained me to hear all the voices replaced by random Germans who sound nothing like the originals), oh and Burger King at 23.45 as post cinema snack. Amongst all that there's been 23hrs of class and a lot of time spent with a certain Indonesian called Ragil :-D

Salsa, Sunsets and Shepherd's Pie

So yesterday I had a low point. Still not come up with an explanation as to why, but am pleased to announce that it didn't last long. As the main cause was probably tiredness, the best solution would probably have been to get an early night. But, all those years of studying Philosophy has taught me that logic often gets you nowhere very fast. So, I didn't get an early night, I went round to Bec's, cooked some shepherd's pie (damn good btw), had a jolly time eating it with Ragil, Heidi and Anne and then went to a salsa party and proceeded to dance the night away. It was an ace time and I am pleased to announce that after 4hrs of dancing to latino music I can almost salsa :-) I woke up this morning feeling emotionally fine and dandy if a little sore in the head (and the legs actually - my body just ain't used to those salsa moves.) Eggy bread and fried tomatoes with plenty of OJ to wash it down proved a v enjoyable breakfast (ta Bec) and then our Introduction to Communication Theory class was almost interesting, although I missed my note-writing buddy...

Just been on Bec's roof, watching the sun go down over Fulda (pretty gorge hey?!) and now I'm going to start getting ready for tonight's entertainment. Yes, ok, I was going to have a very early night to prepare myself for Hannah's visit (fellow Yorkie who's going to be here from tomorrow til Saturday) but got a text from Uli saying there's a group of English-speaking folk going to a swanky Italian restaurant and the food and drink are on the rich American Prof (of legendary belly dancing night fame). Well, an invitation like that is hard to turn down (I may be on a scholarship but I am still a student after all) and so I shall be joining the Professor, a British lady who is randomly in Fulda, Sam (a West Virginian) and Uli (a German who spent a year in Glasgow) for a posh Italian meal. Excellent.

Bonne Soiree one and all,
xx

I didn't lose my mind...

"I didn't lose my mind, it was mine to give away" I've got this line stuck in my head. It might give some indication of my current mental state. Am feeling emotional, stressed, down. There is no real reason why I should feel like this. I'm just tired I guess.

In an attempt to cheer myself up have been reading some prose and poetry I've written in the past. Might put some of it on here one day. Anyway, found two poems which I thought I'd share with you. Enjoy xx

Poem 1
I always look forward confidently
With the innate belief
That everything will flow
Or at least go
As it should
It is only occasionally
That I think
Why?

Poem 2
i think
i am
better at prose

oh those Russians... (Boney M stylee)

5 weeks in small town Fulda. It was starting to feel a bit wee. "To Frankfurt I'm going" Bec cried, "What a cracking idea" I soon replied. And so it was, sort of. Yesterday me, Bec and Heidi boarded one of Deutsche Bahn's fleet and headed to the big city. I had grand designs of an über geeky visit: an art gallery and a British bookshop but as is often the case I was sat still for a long enough period of time for thoughts of food to creep into my head (5 mins usually does it). We decided a visit to the aussie pub was in order for some kangaroo or crocodile or whatever it is they eat down under (burgers with beetroot apparently...) Aussie beer, cricket, aussie rum and coke, oh and a big fat lamb burger with mozzarella and pesto (mmm) and we were all feeling rather happy with our lot.

Before we knew it it was 3pm and we had meetings to attend. Bec and Heidi with someone from their uni and me with Vladimir, a russian guy who had put me up the last time I was in Frankfurt. We went our separate ways; me, Vladimir and his girlf on a wee walk around Frankfurt before ending up in a v swanky Pizza Hut and Bec, Heidi and Liani to a rather more classy rooftop cafe. After an hour or so of convo and an invite to a party with a bunch of russians that evening, I said farewell to Vladimir and met up with the aussies. We hit the shops, or rather H&M (find it v rude that Frankfurt seems to have one on every street and Fulda has a grand total of ZERO H&Ms.) Bec needed jeans and tried on pretty much the whole shop but didn't buy any. I didn't need jumpers, but tried on two and bought them both. Energy levels were lagging, it was Red Bull time. We bought said energy drink, and some ham and sat ourselves down on some benches on a big, fat, v busy street in Frankfurt and ate and drank. From there to the U-Bahn to the Südbahnhof to meet Vladimir, to the russian party.

More random an event is kaum vorstellbar (hardly imaginable). We found ourselves in a suburb of Frankfurt, in an apartment with a bunch of random russians, at a party celebrating the birthday of one of the flatmates, who happened to be in Moscow. A birthday party by proxy. I suppose it was slightly less random for me than for Heidi and Bec. At least I had met Vladimir before and bizarrely enough I knew another guy there too - he had randomly picked me and Adelheid up from Frankfurt Airport in March 2004 and allowed us to sleep on his floor for 3hrs before taking us to Frankfurt Hahn Airport for our flights to Barcelona. Hmm, anyway. I find random events highly enjoyable and this party was no exception. We talked about such deep subjects as what comes first, thought or language? (Answers on a postcard please!), drank cocktails and beer and listened to some über camp german music. At 11.15pm we were escorted to the train station by Vladimir, airport guy and another party bloke. We had time for a group shot and promises of a night out in Fulda as well as an all-nighter in Frankfurt and then we boarded the train and headed back to small town Fulda. It was good to get out for a day.

There's an awful lot of weirdos in our neighbourhood

Enough of the academic stuff (see that's what happens when you keep asking me about my studies!)

I got back from uni the other day, busting for the toilet, to find the flushing mechanism in a dismantled state, various parts of the toilet spread around the bathroom and a strong smell of vinegar. Hmm, I thought. What on earth have my crazy German flatmates done now. Well, Matthias didn't know anything about it (incidentally his befuddled response didn't surprise me one bit). We hunted Kathi down (well, knocked on her door) and demanded an explanation (well, asked her what the deal with the toilet was). We walked en masse to the bathroom and stood around the toilet. Kathi then proceeded to give a rather complex and incomprehensible explanation as to why she had dismantled the toilet and poured vinegar down it and then explained how now, whenever we used the toilet we would need to turn the water flow on and make a note of the time and level showing on the water meter. Needless to say, I returned to my room in a rather dazed and confused state. What on earth had happened to normality and why, oh why, am I living with people who find it normal behaviour to request that everyone makes a note everytime they use the toilet?

Well, when I returned to the flat today I found Matthias in the bathroom with a puzzled look on his face. It would seem he had taken it upon himself to be Mr DIY and to put the toilet back together. 30 mins later there was little sign of progress and I was starting to get impatient. He said he's be 5 mins and sure enough, 5 mins later he was done and the toilet seemed to have returned to normal. 5 mins later, I found out (5 mins too late) that the flush was in fact still not functioning properly. Well, I had an appointment with Chryssa about our presentation on Poland (don't ask) and so had to explain the situation to Matthias and leave him to deal with it. I made it back home a few hours later (after having emailed our Prof and having gotten 4 books our of the library :-) I'm v proud of my achievement) to find everything back to normal and a clean toilet. Thank God for that. I am now wondering what's going to happen next. Living with Germans is very different to living with Helen and Ruth (my über cool and über laidback flatmates from Edinburgh). We certainly had no dismantling of toilets in our flat in Ed, in fact, mere cleaning of the toilet was deemed almost too OTT...





Anyways, enough about toilets. Last night was Thursday night and alternate Thursday nights is party night at the FH. The night started with Ragil cooking up some scrummy (if somewhat spicy) Indonesian food for us which was accompanied by the standard amaretto and apple juice. From there we hit a house party and then went to Halle 8 for the main event. It wasn't a patch on the last Halle 8 party but got some photos... First pic is the house party peeps walking/stumbling to Halle 8 (Stelios, Solange, Lalang, Katia and Bec), then there's me, Bec and Ragil, then me with Saskia and Susi, 2 German mates of Bec's, then a group mug shot of Anne, Chryssa, Bec and me and then finally, Anne and Chryssa doing a cracking ad for Becks beer and FH parties.

Intercultural Communication?

My course is Intercultural Communication and European Studies and, as the title would suggest, a large part of it deals with communication between cultures. I find it quite an unacademic academic subject really - surely the best way to learn about intercultural communication is to do it. Well, I am certainly learning to communicate interculturally - I am the only British person at the Fachhochschule in Fulda, so whoever I talk to, wave to, smile at, is someone from a different culture, whether they be from somewhere as close to home as Germany, or as far away as Indonesia or Uzbekistan.

I'm actually in two minds about all this talk of intercultural communication. I think it places too much emphasis on cultures. It is almost highlighting the differences between different people. Is it possible to draw any real lines between different cultures? Can we generalise to enough of a degree to actually get anywhere? I mean, say I am talking to Ragil, a guy in my class from Indonesia. Does it make any sense at all to describe the situation as the interaction of two different cultures? British culture communicating with Indonesian culture or Western with Far Eastern culture or non-Muslim with Muslim? I find it quite artificial to put people into 'cultural' boxes. I am British, European, non-religious, Western etc. etc. Are the defining factors of these different cultures not similar to the defining factors of being Indonesian, Muslim, etc.? Cultures, if possible to define at all, overlap and people who originate from different cultures are individuals with common ground that I feel is almost ignored as soon as this talk of culture starts. When I talk to Ragil it is one ICEUS student talking to another, two people with similar interests, studying the same subject. As far as I can see, focusing on the differences between different cultures is a divisive way of viewing communication.

in the words of John Lennon: "I'm so tired..."

Hello Peeps,

Wie geht's euch? Hope all is good. I actually have nothing of interest to report apart from the fact that I am so exhausted I don't have the energy to do anything but sit in front of my computer, hence the blog. Before people start telling me it's because of all the late nights, I want to inform you all that I went to bed at 8.30pm last night. So there ;-) Emotions are running high in Fulda at the moment, have been since Friday. Emotions concerned aren't mine, but it's having an affect anyway and I think it's a contributing factor to my current somnambulic state (thank ETA Hoffmann and his über weird Sandman story for the vocab.) Plus, uni is tiring me out. It is so difficult having 6hrs of lessons a day, the majority of which are in German. I get back from uni and have no energy to do anything. Good job the only homework we get can be put off until the weekend. Don't get me wrong, am still thoroughly enjoying everything here, I am just SO tired...

On a more exciting note, we had a film crew in our class yesterday. Was actually at a German house party on Monday night (doing my bit for intercultural relations, you know) and so turned up to class in a slightly sore (actually still slightly merry) state (the soreness soon hit though), to find the lesson in full swing, complete with a fairly oversized tv camera, a soundman complete with furry microphone and another guy. Wasn't until 40mins later when they stopped filming that I found out what on earth was going on: Filming for a show that is being aired in exactly 8mins time about the scholarships Hessen has given to people from the hurricane-hit places of the US. We have a girl in our class from Louisiana so it was mainly focused on her, but our lecturer was filmed speaking his dodgy English about European Integration and the camera was pointed straight at me on a few occasions. They will probs have edited this out though, cos despite the fact that I was still fully made-up from night before (oops) and had slick straight hair, therefore looking far cooler than I usually do for class, I was obviously not paying any attention to the lesson in hand, more wondering what on earth had happened to normality.

30 mins later: Just watched the show, and low and behold, they have edited me out! You can just see the back of me walking away from the camera but that's it. Lucky escape that one... Anyway, if you are interested in seeing the report you can watch it online at http://www.hr-online.de/website/fernsehen/sendungen/index.jsp?rubrik=5300. Unfortunately it's in German, and you will have to fastforward or sit through the first 15mins or so. But you can see a bit of Fulda, our student cafeteria, our class, oh and my back...

Viel Spaß,
love Lu xx

ps - Have added 2 pics to balance out the text for those of you who get scared at the sight of too many words. They're from Monday night. The first to prove I do eat kinda healthy and cos it's rather an amusing photo of Bec's bodiless head and neck and the second from the party, of Bec, Anne and Yu (a fellow ICEUS student).