International students and German certificates

Well it's almost the start of my fourth week of this grad school adventure and already I'm reorganizing life plans! I met with my advisor Thursday to discuss the possibility of adding a certificate in German to my degree. It would consist of two classes in German literature and history and then 3 credits of writing a paper that will be larger than an average class paper but much smaller than the scope of a thesis. I'm also trying to find a way to get back to Europe over the summer. The English Department hosts a short summer program in England which would be cool. It's a bit expensive, but you definitely get your money's worth out of it. I'm currently browsing ways to have a work permit for the UK to possible stay on in England and work for the rest of summer at some kind of PR or publishing place. Something to do with English that would earn me enough money to cover my expenses and maybe have a weekend or two to visit Germany! It's quite difficult to earn money in Germany as a non-EU citizen. There are internship opportunities but rarely paid since there are tons of laws against non-EU citizens taking potential jobs from EU citizens. Particularly US citizens. But I'm still on the look-out.

More immediately I'm saving my pennies to visit my friend Sophie in Bonn, Germany over New Years. I'm hoping the flight costs me less than $600. We'll see what I can save from TA paycheck and savings I have from graduation. However I'm not ashamed to solicit help for my travel expenses as Christmas presents!

Classes are going well. We're getting into actual assignment creation and teaching techniques in my Practicum class. We're designing lesson plans for certain chapters of our textbooks, etc. Literary Research has me researching topics for my project that will take the course of the semester for the class and be a large part of my grade. I'm thinking something to do with grammar, English, and German language history. Not sure what yet. My Library Research class has been a big assist to this end. Last week we worked with some software called EndNote. NEVER will I have to look up MLA citation again. Thank goodness!!! It's a program where you can save all your research data and citations, and it's interactive with Word and can automatically insert citations and works cited pages for you! I love it already. Many thanks to VTech for buying that software for us poor grad students.

I need to start drafting my first essay for my Genre Studies class (on the Essay). Our first workshop is the beginning of October and I'm anticipating some struggle with this genre. We'll see. My tenative subject matter is what has been infamously nicknamed "the German Stare." The theory is that eye contact in social contexts varies between cultures, and in Germany it is not uncommon to exchange eye contact (and plenty of it) in contexts like the bus or train. It can be disconcerting as an American to sit in the bus or train and have people staring at you. But you can feel free to stare right back. The people-watcher in me came out tenfold. :)

My apartment and roommate situation is working out wonderfully. It feels like home already. I put up some curtains yesterday which helped a lot too. Daisy, the puppy, and I get along quite well. I see Uncle Steve and Dusty quite frequently which is nice. He's always there to provide dinner to a poor grad student! I visited Sarah and Josh in DC last weekend. The drive back and forth was not as long and boring as I had anticipated. I think my tolerance for lengthy car trips is increasing.

Other news... My parents are wonderful and bought me a fancy new phone to go with our new Verizon cell plan. Any and all who have Verizon, feel free to call us now, it's free! And I was able to keep my same phone number which had been my only stipulation for changing cell providers. I have a horrible memory for remember phone numbers and after having the same number since I was 16, I have no clue how I would memorize a new one.

Okay well I have to get to some studying. I've procrastinated all weekend by playing around downtown yesterday during the gootball game, and going to the gym today. Sadly I worked out too long and now I'm tired and sore. I thought it would make up for the fact that I slept til noon...*sigh* oh well! Much love to all!

P.S. I published and noticed I failed to clarify the Intl Students bit of the title... I went Thursday night to the International Center to watch the movie Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others). If you can stand to watch subtitles, this is an EXCELLENT movie and I recommend it to anyone. It's about the intertwining lives of a few members of the Stasi and East Berlin citizens in the years during the lovely DDR. I met a few international students there which was exciting. Some of them speak German yay! haha And I'm looking into signing up to take part in a conversation practice program for international students who want to practice their English with other students. Should be fun. The atmosphere at the intl center made me homesick for Bonn!