Being about midterms, and having no rest last week, I used this week as a break. I didn’t have anything planned and was just going to relax. It happened to be the first weekend of the Freimarkt, Bremen’s Oktoberfest, so I did stroll around there, and go to see some fireworks.
Since I don’t have anything exciting to write about and we are about halfway through, I figured this would be a good time to write about some of the stuff I have learned so far!
I was excited to come her and speak German with people and really get into the culture. I did not realize how many different types of German there were though. The people here in Bremen sound so different from the people in Munich or in Berlin. It has been interesting seeing the different accents and doing my best to understand all these different people.
Because of Germany’s past, a lot of people of different nationalities have been moving in and out of the country. This created someone of an interesting culture. While Germany is known for the beer and bratwurst, there is a lot more influence from other places than I expected. Turkish food seems to be really popular. I think I envisioned living in Germany as Oktoberfest all day, every day, but seeing the day to day lives of people here has been really eye opening.
People always said before coming here that Europeans hate Americans, and I desperately did not want to believe them. Living here for four months while everyone hated me was not going to be a fun time. While I don’t want to stereotype everyone, and this is just my experience, but it doesn’t seem like they hate Americans. They do seem to hate America. The people in it are fine. Everyone has been super welcoming and really helpful and friendly to me as a person. But as soon as they find out you are from America, they automatically want to trash talk it. They want to discuss Trump, and politics, and all the hate in America right now. And they want me to agree that it is an awful place. The problem is that I don’t necessarily agree. There are problems, and we have to work through them as a country. But all these people who are looking on from the outside and only know what the media is telling them, don’t exactly have the most factual arguments. The hardest part of being here, is balancing being proud of the country I come from, and ostracizing myself from everyone who dislikes that country and what it stands for.
I love Rollins, but I was excited to see what this new school had to offer. After being here a while, I truly do miss Rollins. Germany is fantastic and the culture is really interesting. When it comes down to it, we are so lucky to have an amazing school that offers so many great classes as well as extracurriculars. There is not a day at Rollins where nothing is happening. It can be stressful, but it really allows you to explore outside your comfort zone and make many new friendships.
While everything is not exactly as I expected it, I truly am enjoying my time here. It is allowing me to meet new people, see the world, and go outside of my comfort zone almost everyday. I am excited to see what else the semester has in store for me!