Mannheim: The City of the Square is far from it

           So you’re coming to live in Mannheim, huh? You don’t want more universal pearls of wisdom that obviously apply mostly to Mannheim, but that I’ve dressed up to seem more grandiose? Fine. You caught me. This is now a no-holds-barred look at life in Mannheim: what you need to know, and what the International Programs Office would probably prefer I not tell you:

The Water Sucks

That’s it. I said it. For all the loveliness that comes from being nestled between the Rhine and the Neckar, the effect it has on the content of the tap water is a definite problem. Can you drink it? Yes, it’s perfectly potable. People here even say it’s good for you, with all its naturally occurring limestone and what not. But do you want to drink it? No! It tastes the way you think a piece of chalk probably would. In an emergency, you’ll do it. You’ll drink the water. But in ANY OTHER SCENARIO, you’ll find something else to do. For example, we bought a Brita filter in for my apartment. It works great, and it’s endlessly cheaper than bottled water.

A Brita filter cannot however do anything about the shower water. It’s the same calcifying junk that comes out of the kitchen sink faucet, so get used to looking at your hair and thinking, “really? Is that what this chalk-water does to my head?” And it’s not just your hair that goes stiff. Between the lack of dryer and white, powdery water, your jeans will start to crease very nicely. Am I complaining about something that the majority of people around the world would be more than happy with? Of course. Is it fun to vent? You betcha.

The Trams are your Best Friends

Like most European cities, Mannheim has an excellent public transportation system. The trams are clean, relatively timely, and definitely safe. They run every twenty minutes or so, and they can bring you anywhere in the city within 15 minutes. My particular residence is a little outside the city, so my commute is about 25-30 minutes, but the trams are so pleasant to ride on, I almost don’t mind. I have but two complaints: children, and the ticket system.

This shouldn’t surprise you, but children are terrible. One at a time, they’re easy enough to handle, but when school lets out, and 150 small children decide they ALL want to sit in the back of the tram where you were unfortunate enough to settle, you won’t like the result. They scream, they throw things, and they honestly don’t understand how much we all hate them. They’re oblivious to everything around them. And no amount of adorable German accent can save them. Be ready, they’re coming.

A one-way tram ticket (not changing trams, but riding for as far as you like) costs the equivalent of $2.50. That means that for someone who makes a round trip (say someone who lives in my apartment area) pays at least $5 a day just to be a participating student. If that seems exorbitant, you’re not the only one who thinks so: Schwarzfahren (lit. “riding black”. Yep.), or riding without paying, is a common problem. If they catch you without a ticket, you pay the equivalent of $60 in fines. Severe, isn’t it? It would seem so, but for some hilariously naïve reason, in a move I’ve come to expect from Germany, the system runs almost entirely on honor. In four months in Germany, taking the tram for at least one hour everyday, and usually more often than that, I have NEVER seen anyone asked if they have a ticket. In general, riding my usual commute, so long as I didn’t get caught “riding black” more than once EVERY TWELVE DAYS, I would still break even sneaking around the trams. As it is, by the time of this writing, I would have saved $605 dollars by never buying a ticket. A system with that kind of financial incentive to cheat shouldn’t really exist.

And yet it does. Law-abiding Germans and good deals save it. I bought the university’s Semester Ticket for $120 on the advice of my advisor and friends. I’ve saved quite a bit of money, and because of deals the Uni made with Deutsche Bahn, I’ve been able to ride free all over the southern half of Baden-Württemberg. And you know what? On every one of those trips, someone came along to check that I had a ticket.

Döner is Life:

If you’ve never heard of a döner, I’m afraid you haven’t been living correctly. Originally the invention of Turkish immigrants in Berlin, the döner has become a staple late-night food all over Germany. Shredded lamb meat with lettuce, red cabbage, onions, and a creamy yoghurt sauce, all wrapped in a warm flatbread bun, a döner costs about $3.75. And when it’s 4 in the morning, and you and your friends are wandering home drunk, heaven arrives in the glowing sign of a döner shop, open just when you need it.

            Realistically a bit more healthy than most fast food, döner are exactly the kind of filling, cheap, greasy food you need when you’ve spent all week running around to parties and foreign countries. I’m sure that after I leave Germany, I’ll crave a döner every hour of the night.

            Explore Mannheim:

            Lots of people come to a foreign city on study abroad so that they can be closer to other foreign cities, not because they have any intention of sticking around. I would warn against that. Mannheim is a college town for the ages. With 35% of its students being internationals who demand cool things to do, Mannheim is a really happening place. Check out the Turkish Quarter, Luisenpark, the Ice Skating Rink. Relax on the Neckarwiese, a stretch of prime picnic area on the banks of the Neckar. Go to open air clubs on Hafenstraße, jazz bars in Neckarstadt West, or hundreds of hipster bars in Jungbusch. I’ve been here 4 months and still haven’t seen more than half of the city.

            Schneckenhof:

            I don’t like large parties. They’re loud, crowded, anonymous, and not that fun. You never feel like you can meet new people or that you’re really getting anything out of the experience. None of these things are true of Schneckenhof. This gigantic, extraordinary, weekly party takes place Thursday nights AT THE UNIVERSITY! Hundreds and hundreds of people attend, and the entire night becomes magical. I can’t properly describe such an incredible event, but I hate regular parties and I can’t get enough of Schneckenhof.

A Culture in Shock: The Lifestyle of International Students

Life as an international student is a very strange thing. In this post, I’ll be tackling why being on a study abroad semester in Germany isn’t the same thing as spending a semester studying in Germany.

1.     Work:

As just about everyone knows, but doesn’t want to admit, your study abroad semester is not your most academically focused one. I already covered some of this in my earlier post about being a student in Germany, but it’s worth repeating: the system is different, and you spend much less time studying. This can come as a relief if your last semester back on campus was especially stressful, but for me, the fact that classes are infrequent and homework almost non-existent is not very welcome.

Let’s get this straight: I don’t like being buried in work. No human being does. But when I have classes every weekday, and assignments due for most of them, I feel like I’m actually getting something accomplished. When you rarely have class and never have work, you start to really resent showing up at all. I can’t tell you how many times I nearly skipped my Monday night lecture because I’d FORGOTTEN I HAD A CLASS AT ALL. For the most part, we want to feel like we’re doing something worthwhile, even if it means being slightly uncomfortable. Being penalized for skipping, losing points for not doing assignments, having to awkwardly explain to the professor why you didn’t read that chapter last night – sure, they suck, but they make you feel like a student. You have responsibilities, and what you do matters, at least to some extent. But if the education system doesn’t seem to take your going to classes seriously, why should you? Feeling like a part-time student when you’re actually full-time can be really defeating. Whether this is a product of the German education system, or something from Europe as a whole, I can’t say. But it’s certainly different.

2.     Self-Sufficiency:

If you’re anything like me, you’ve taken full advantage of your university’s dining service. I’m proud to say that my home university has been deemed the best in the country. I eat in one dining commons or another every meal of the day. It’s prepaid, tasty food, and most importantly, I don’t have to prepare it myself.

Another nice luxury is large, well-stocked laundry rooms in the same building where you live. Load up a basket or bag, walk to the elevator or down the stairs, and voila! — choose from any of the many washers and dryers available and come back when they finish. It shouldn’t take too long.

On campus, you don’t have to clean a kitchen or a bathroom. A custodial staff takes care of that. If something breaks, call ResLife. Usually maintenance services are provided as part of your university bill and when you submit a complaint, they fix whatever it is fairly quickly.

If you can’t sense where I’m going with this, this is a post about contrast. None of the lovely conveniences just detailed exist here. German universities usually have a Mensa, open around lunchtime, where you can get a cheap meal. But this is not a dining commons. They’re open three hours a day on weekdays, and outside of that, you’re on your own. Start buying your own groceries and learn how to cook. Or live on sandwiches and cereal.

Laundry rooms are almost never in the same building, they’re small, kinda grungy, and have far too few washers. Dryers are not common in Germany. You should find a drying rack in your apartment, or clotheslines in the basement. Washes take longer than you’d expect, so set a timer.

You need to clean your own apartment. There is a cleaning crew, but as the sign on my kitchen door hilariously reads, “The cleaning staff will not clean the kitchen if it is dirty!”. Interestingly, though they don’t clean much, you will be served a notice if they believe your living areas have become “intolerable.” Do whatever they tell you (and often they tell you nothing), or you’ll receive a bill in the mail for the extra cleaning team they send in to fix the problem.

If something breaks, use the convenient online portal. Send in a maintenance request, and ……. Nothing. It seems the portal doesn’t work. Well alright, I’ll just go talk to the residence director (Hausmeister)  ̶  what? They’re only available by phone or appointment TWO HOURS PER WEEK???? Yep. That’s German customer service for you. Hospitality is not their strong suit.

So what is there to do? Well that’s the thing about study abroad: you adapt. The conditions of living in German university housing is probably pretty similar to most people’s first apartment (Albeit, on the shittier side of first apartments, and with a really terrible landlord. But I digress.). The situation is rife to learn some self-sufficiency. I have to say I really feel like an adult. I take care of groceries, I clean my kitchen, I receive mail. Do I miss the campus lifestyle? YES. Get me back there right now. But I’m learning.

3.     Social Life (Parties and Trips)

As I’ve detailed in earlier posts, the pace of life as an international student is much faster than back home. There’s always something to do, and never a dull moment. This is a lot of the appeal of studying abroad – it’s an adventure! And I’m sure when I go home, I’ll miss that. But it can also be exhausting. Racing around Europe, drinking four nights a week, keeping strange hours… It wears you out. Whether for better or for worse, this is how being an international student often works. Everyone wants to make the most out of their experience, and the pressure to experience everything can be overwhelming.

But suppose you choose to ignore that pressure. You say, “f--- it! I don’t need to take red-eye flights for 3 hour visits to Paris! I’ll find my own way to enjoy myself!” Good for you, you’re making a stand for your principles and not giving in to peer pressure. I applaud you. Now have fun going about that alone.

 Because no one really knows each other, everyone has a pretty high tolerance for group behavior. So if someone explains that they really want to go to that party Thursday, and even a couple people agree, it can be hard to say no. Sure, you went out Tuesday night and are still recovering, but if you don’t make it to this thing Thursday, when will you see your friends? They’ll be too tired and hungover to go out Friday, or maybe even Saturday. So you bend. The same rules apply to going on trips. You might not be up to it, but hey, you can always relax next weekend, right?

 Parties and trips have a certain social gravity to them here in Study Abroad Land, and it’s hard to escape their pull. This is true back home too. But the difference here is you have one less leg to stand on. Like a customer trying to buy a product from a monopoly, if you don’t like the price, you can’t find a competing business to buy from. You’ve got to work with what you’ve got.

This isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes it means getting out of your shell. Sometimes it means traveling to a place you never thought you’d enjoy or meeting new people in a new place doing new things. And that’s the contrast. Study Abroad is an adventure. Sometimes too much of one, but always something different.

A Wild Ride: The Ups and Downs of an Emotional Study Abroad

I’ve now been in Germany for just about four months. Looking back, it’s been a crazy rollercoaster of emotions. From one day to the next, from one hour to the next, my feelings have been hard to control or predict. In a mindset I like to call “Study Abroad Land,” you can become pretty detached from the normal kinds of introspection we all do when we get a chance to relax. Sometimes this means the feelings you experience can seem out of place and nonsensical. As someone who might be considering the trip themselves, you might have some idea of what to expect. It might help you account for how you’re feeling. Who knows? I hope it helps. This is my handy timeline of what your opinion of life in Europe might look like:

Overwhelmed:

            When you first arrive in any country you’ll be staying in for a while, you will probably be completely overwhelmed. That whole yarn about crying twice during study abroad “once when you arrive and once when you leave”? The first part is certainly true. Ask around, and you’ll find that just about everyone has a story about how that first night, they knew for a fact they would never get comfortable here. It’s a natural part of the process, and it too shall pass.

Thrilled:

I’d say the first month was like this for me. Everything is new, different, exciting, and foreign. Why do they do this like that? Ooh! Did you see that?? Look, you can drink here legally!!! You’re flying high and you get the full effect of “thank god I didn’t leave that first night.”

The Walls:

As the first few months race by, you often find yourself waking up unhappy or anxious some mornings. You don’t want to go to class, you’re sick of the tram, and why is it always so grey here? This is The Wall. On long distance races, runners will reach a point, a little over halfway through, where their bodies have burnt off all the glycogen stored up in their muscles and need to switch to a new fuel source: the much harder to metabolize fat reserves. This transition makes you want to stop everything you’re doing and quit. As such, runners call the experience “hitting The Wall”. While on study abroad, you’ll hit a number of these Walls. They only come up time and again, but they’re rough patches you’ll have to contend with.

Homesick:

This stage comes at different times for different people. Mine came March 20^th, 2017. I had just come back from a very fun, very homely three-day orientation from my home university, and I was suddenly reminded of something like home. They say when someone is really facing starvation, they don’t feel hunger. It isn’t until they start eating again that their body begins to register how long it’s been since they last ate. That’s how it was for me. Suddenly, I just needed to get out of Study Abroad Land and back to my campus, my friends, and people who weren’t in Study Abroad Land themselves. If this happens to you, don’t freak out; just try to reach out to people back home. What you need is the feeling of being connected, understood, and like a known individual. Being surrounded by strangers can make you start to feel like one.

Both Happy to Be There And Really Wanting to Leave

As you transition out of homesickness, you’ll start to experience the most peculiar sensation: you want nothing more than to go home to your friends and family, but you also want to stay in your new life and see more and more of Europe. Like George Orwell’s “doublethink”, you’ll be thinking these two entirely contradictory ideas at the same time and not notice the logical problem.

The honeymoon has worn off and you recognize that there are things you prefer about home, but at the same time, this brave new world you’ve discovered across the Atlantic is full of promise. You feel like a homebody explorer, a hermit with a penchant for travel, a person split in two.    

Appreciating where you are and where you came from

The more you think about it, the more you realize these two ideas aren’t all that contradictory. I love the campus I left, and the people I’ve met here in Germany have been phenomenal and I hope they can continue to be a part of my life. It’s not a zero-sum game. Loving one place does not mean hating the other. Instead, you begin to realize that both are completely possible and completely positive. I don’t know how to reconcile these two different impulses, but it seems I might not have to. Enjoy the time you have in Germany, and look forward to the life you’ll be returning to. The world’s smaller than you think, and there’s always a chance to see those people again. So don’t worry, take pleasure in your once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Being Happy to Be There But Ready to Leave

            You know, Germany’s great, and I’ve learned a lot, but it’s quickly approaching the time when I feel like applying what I’ve learned to life back home. These lessons will stay with me, and I’ll never forget my time here, but the vacation is starting to feel like it’s gone on long enough.