Hey guys,

So I have gotten a couple of emails asking me about what’s it like living over here? What is your set up like etc.? I share an apartment with three others, two Turkish, and one Chinese students. The place is a little small but I don’t need much. However, there are many things that are very different than the states. Smoking is “not allowed” which really means open the window when you smoke (one of my roommates smokes quite often). The showers here are unbelievably small it is like a 2.5 foot square where you cant move at, the bed is a giant piece of hard foam. Pillows come in large squares which are awkward to sleep on. The things I really miss about America is BBQ, Jazz, and old school rap those are really the only three things I have trouble finding over here (got peanut butter today after along trek after I heard a rumor that a small store sold it)

The food here is much better than in America. Apples taste like what an apple should taste like. They are so crisp and sweet I was amazed when I had my first one I went right back to the store and bought six more and I ate them all in one day. The cheese and milk is also so much better. The milk tastes more like cream however, is still 1.5% fat. I know EU banned many hormones, chemicals, and preservatives that America uses on foods and there food is cheaper still than ours. I am amazed by how cheap the food is. All eggs are organic by law and those are a little more expensive than in the states but not by much. So I don’t buy the fact that making better quality food is that much more expensive etc. Travis as a future farmer give me your thoughts. Going in the produce section is like going in a candy store because EVERYTHING tastes a million times better.

Classes also are much different here. The number one difference is that students talk in class, not just whisper every once in a while but for the whole class is in constant murmur. The murmur continues to grow until the professor stops because he feels disrespected that it has gotten to loud (which I laugh behind the logic that it has gotten to loud). I don’t really like it. If this was to happen at UNF I am almost positive the professor would just walk out. After talking to a couple of American students we agreed that the reason why they talk in class is that they really only pay 200 Euros per semester. However, the students are great. They seem to have taken this American under their wing. They invite me to go to something almost everyday, whether watching a soccer game at their house, to go see a movie, etc. They have been more than welcoming. One of my classes is called “Management Project” and that’s exactly what it is. We were assigned into groups of five and are given information on a campsite in the Netherlands. The campsite is through tough financial times because of poor management and planning. The campsite exists and we can visit if we would like. We have access to all of their accounting information, history of tax information, past idea that have failed etc.. It is our job to fix their problems find new ways to create revenue and cut needless expenses. The campsite I believe will pick the best project and work on those ideas. We don’t have a class to go to class, but we have experts we can talk to etc. There is less hand holding here which I really enjoy. I think the applied use of knowledge really prepares you for the real world.

I love the culture as you know from the previous blog entries. But each day I honestly meet another five new people each day that are unbelievably welcoming. It changes the way you look at the world. Where a stranger isn’t really a stranger but someone you haven’t met before. You are bound to have at least one thing in common and you grow a bond on that one thing. I have learned to find beauty everywhere and honestly it is around every corner and under every rock here. Just life is great and it is our jobs as humans to find that beauty in life even when things look bleak. Enjoy life, love all, and be kind to each other in the process because life can be tough enough some times and a helping hand goes a long way. I know I sound like a hippy or some really cliché t-shirt or some poster that a freshman girl would hang up on their dorm wall (For example, Live. Laugh. Love) but I have learned to love this new outlook on life, of never letting a moment pass with out recognition because a moment waste is a travesty because never again will that moment come back. Time is our only non-renewable resource.

I have started thinking of new solutions to dilemma of not really being able to travel while I am here. I am buying a bike with a friend German friend Mara. I think she wants to bike parts of German including the Rhine river with me so I look forward to those adventures. I honestly feel unbelievably rich here. I bought a bottle of 10 year old French wine (it was like 5 Euros!) that I take with me when I go on short hikes. I sit in the middle of the woods pour myself a CUP think “Ah life is good”. What else have I been up to. I don’t really have that much free time class eats up a lot of time. I try to explore when I can. Today I was walking through a little village and a really nice bike passed me and “I thought man what a nice bike”. Ten minutes later I saw that bike again only it was crushed by a BMW and there was a white sheet over the man. I thought what a shame, but it makes you realized nothing is guaranteed. While you can make plans for the future and have expectations for it, what is around the corner is unknown it could be good or bad. So what I take from the sad event today is to the tell the ones you love them each time you get an opportunity. So on that happy note let me say goodbye, that I love you all and be safe out there because it’s a wild world.

Until next time seize the day!

Nathan

So today was rough day for me. Not because I am homesick or missing America, but because I finally got my course schedule today. I have class on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and then a class on Saturday or Sunday for almost every weekend until June. This means I can not travel for more than a day trip. This limits my range of travel to Brussels, Amsterdam, Koln, Dusseldorf etc. Also they do not know when I will have or if I will be taking a intensive German language course because the professor is on holiday. So what I am getting out of this is that they really waited to the last minute to figure this out. At UNF they have courses and professors picked out months ahead of time. I am wondering if this is a real excuse or if they are scrambling for a professor. And I don’t really give a damn if the professor is on holiday. I have already paid for those credit hours and I feel as if this is half-assed and unbelievably disorganized and this is coming from the king of disorganization. The thing that really bothers me though is that I do not have an option to travel until JUNE. That gives me a month and a half to travel on weekends or 12 days to see Europe before I board my flight and head home. I have worked my ass off to get to here and help fund my trip to SEE EUROPE I have spent little money over the past year just for this next five months. And for what? To stay to be locked in Dortmund and perhaps take a German language course. It is unbelievably frustrating.

I do not regret coming here because regrets are worthless. What is done is done. But I have saved so much money and planned on spending it as I wondered throughout Europe now I do not have that option. I just feel a little deflated and angry at this situation. I have done a little budget in my head and I think I will have over half of my money when I leave Europe. So I am thinking of finding another adventure after I leave Europe I am thinking of some place warm (this Florida boy is not a huge of the cold) maybe Costa Rica or Argentina. I just feel cheated out of my college European experience because of this situation. I spent almost a thousand dollars just to get here and will spend more money to stay here and not get the opportunity to travel just festers at me. I maybe too tough on the organizers of this program and I hope if they read this they do not take this personal it is me just being frustrated with not being able to travel as much as I would like. They have been overly helpful and I can not tell them how much gratitude I feel for their help and patience with me getting settled in.

I am trying to find the silver lining in this which is hard to find. I know I will I always do, but it may take longer than expected. So until I find that silver lining I will put on a smile push negative thoughts to the back and enjoy the wonderful German culture and drink a delicious beer or two… and find a new way to get the necessary adventure per hours (when my dad proposed to my mother he said we may not be rich but I promise we will have high APHs it has become a slogan of the family) somehow. I will have to get creative in my travels and experiences because I refuse to leave Europe with out seeing it. This may mean that I change my flight. I am not sure on what I will do but I plan on enjoying the time I do have here because life is too short and uncertain to be frustrated or unhappy.

So enough of me complaining and venting let me tell you what I have been up to. I still do not have internet so sorry if you write me and I don’t write you back its because I get to use my roommates, Jedi, computer for about ten minutes a day and usually I am writing emails I have a back log of about ten a day and it is adding up. I have money know which is FANTASTIC. I look at my little bit of time with no money as a good thing in a strange way. It was not pleasant to depend on others kindness but it puts things in perspective. I have realized I really don’t need much money or stuff in my life. All I need is food, great friends and family, a warm bed and everything else is cherries on top. That being said I like having access to my money. The first thing I did when I got my money was went to the bakery (there is one about 2 minutes away from my house) I ate a croissant and a berliner read a book and felt like the richest man in the world.

There is a bar directly below my room so I walk downstairs and I can order a beer they don’t ask for an id just one euro. The German beers use hops in ways that American beers could only dream to taste like each sip is a dance on the taste buds and each beer is unique. The bars here are so different. It is almost like a party with more expensive beer. No one ever drinks alone and no one is sad. For example, a German got to a bar sat down in a booth, ordered a beer and looked like he had a day from hell. Another random German saw and recognized this, walked over there with his beer and two shots of whisky they each took a shot talked and he invited him over to his table. Germans seem to really love one another like brothers and sisters, it is inspiring to see. You meet so many more diverse people here in bars than you do in America. You can just jump into a conversation you are accepted for doing that. They don’t really care in fact they like it instead of sticking to their clicks.

Dortmund the city seems to be torn between its past and the future. Eighty percent of the buildings were reduced to rubble during WWII because the city was a major industrial city for the Germans. So there are not that many old building remaining. However, the ones those still remain stand there defiantly with ornate carvings that give a look into the past. Buildings that have been built since the war, were built to look and feel like the old buildings but they have large glass windows for window shopping which makes them much more modern feeling. I love these differences. The people are facing the same struggle. The older generation proudly wears their conservative clothes like the buildings and their carvings; however instead of carvings that is shown it maybe a German mans flowing white beard wearing for lack of a better word a German alp fedora. The youth wears flashy cloths from the manikins in the window with large over sized buttons and with frills. There is beauty in this conflict of culture and I believe that it says so much about the greatness of the people and culture “I want to cling to the past but also looking to the future”.

At the bars politics always come up especially when they find out I’m American. Usually the conversations are friendly but sometimes they get a little more spirited. They view Obama as America saying “ok well we are ready to join Europe’s political arena” I have seen a few Obama shirts, and they sell Obama books in the front of bookstores. I have also come to the realization that our generation doesn’t really care about politics. We have beliefs that we pretend to be passionate about but we are not our parent’s generation, when we see injustice we don’t let our government know about it, we complain to our friends instead of marching the streets demanding for promises to be upheld. We are a viral generation so we join facebook groups and some might even write a letter or email but lets face it do politicians in Washington really care about Nathan’s facebook page. It maybe because nothing has been done in American politics for the past 10 years, and we are tired of letting our hopes get raised then fall or we just simply don’t care. Both sides of the spectrum do show a lack of interest. I will be the first to criticize Obama (not for the health care I think that is out of his hands and is basically hopeless) but for not pushing gay rights and his other agendas, barely a word has been mentioned about this. There is no difference between the love gay people feel and the love I feel and to say otherwise is absurd and I think in a way calling them sub-human. So I will step down from high my liberal college political soap box, but I think a generation that does not care about politics is scarier than the bra burning, long haired hippies, flower power protesters of the seventies and I am part of the problem and I intend to work on that myself.

I love Dortmund. I am starting to feel not only a visitor but also a member and at home here. I can navigate the trains here pretty well I do not get lost and the train system is starting to make more and more sense. The trains here are great, they are clean, and punctual to their schedule. I love that I can read on the train and get to where I need to be its wonderfully relaxing. I don’t have to worry about the crazy guy from New York cutting me off and giving me the one finger salute or the Orlando tourist lost and driving dangerously to get where he needs to be. Also many of the Germans pronounce my name Nat-Han. Its pretty funny and I don’t mind.

until next time sieze the day.
Nathan

getting settled in

i apologize for the poor grammer and spelling. i am using my roommates computer and it is much different and the shift key does not make letter capitlized.

upon my arrival to dortmund i was exhausted after a long trip. i had a hard time finding hella and mattias my german contacts at the station. i walked right past them. mattias is over seven feet tall and i though that looks like mattias but i had no idea he was that tall and i thought what are the odds that is him. i got here safe. i have two roommates so far both have been here 6 months and plan of finishing up school here. one is chinese not sure on his name he is strange and yells in his sleep, and is a little anti social. the other one mahmut is from turkey he is great. we talk a lot but in poor english and in poor german. his english is not great and my german is not good either so we have made up our own little language. once i got here i thought things were a little different at first sight than i expected and i lived with two people who couldnt speak english very well etc. so i felt alone. then mahmut gave me a beer and i decided that would be the last time i would feel that way. because to feel that way i feel is an insult to those that helped me get here and also to myself for all the work i put in to get here. i call mahmut hedo turkolou because he looks almost identical to the turkish basketball player or i call him jedi because he is absolutly obsessed with star wars which i find funny o he also loves nickel back i rag on him for that a lot.

on my way back from the grocery store which is very close to my room my debit card fell out of my pocket, there was a hole that i did not know about in one of my jacket pockets. i have no idea where it is but i have no money what so ever besides one american dollar as i already used up the euros i brought. in a weird way its nice. it helps you realize how lucky you are for the small things. my friend jordan gave me some chocolate and i ration them and its like a litte treat each time i get to eat one. i will have money on monday i worked things out with german bank here so i should get money on monday. i have depended on the kindness of others to survive which i feel unbelievably thankful for. hella doge paid for my 200 euro semmester fees, mahmut took me grocery shopping again for more food, cambridge bought me my first legal beer at a bar, matthias bought me lunch. i have not asked for help but they have all offered and insisted and no amount of money can repay them for their kindness. i am very excited to repay them though and pay for my own meals.

today i went to downtown dortmund and there was a soccer match today. bvb dortmund is the name of the dortmunds team and i followed a group of soccer holligans to the game they tought me the songs and riot police were here making sure nothing would happen. i looked up and laughed and thought now i am in germany. it snowed quite a bit last night about 4 or 5 inches. so things look different. o i live in the student village which is basically its own typical german village. its for students only and most students live in a-frame houses just like the typical german village. it is very fun to walk to campus through this. i do not live in a frame house i live ina regular dorm room. i am going to try to visit cologne or dusseldorf tomorrow with a friend. as a student of dortmund university i ride all the trains in state of north westphalia for free so the trip wont cost me anything which is fantastic. i am trying to plan trip to spain or brussels soon. i would like to start travleing as soon as i get my money.anyways i gotta go i am going to try to watch the game some where. sorry for the spelling and grammar.


until next time, sieze the day.

nathan

my trips so far.

sorry for taking so long to get this posted do not have internet yet and will not have internet till monday.
I wrote this on the train to Dortmund.
I feel as if I have stepped out of America and intoa a beautiful german painting it seems getting here was just a blug. As i sit on the train on my way to dortmund it seems as if every 30 seconds a small quaint village is nessled among the rolling hills on either side. In each town thre is a church your typical gothic chruch in the center from which the town seems to grow from. \i feel unbelievably lucky and undeserving for this opprotunity. \ i am not scared or nervous to be here. it was not all that sad to say goodbye to friends and family although i will miss them but i will still get to talk to them. the people here are are like people in the minnesota, unbelievably nice. i almost got on the wrong train and a german man ran after me to tell me not this train but the next. the little german i know has gotten me by so far and i got to play shirades with an old woman to get information that i needed. i am just in shock i feel as if i went into this trip blind. my preperation for packing consists of this googling studying abroad semmester packing list. printing it out and adding a few extra things i jumped on a plane then a few trains and now im here on another train. its pretty cold here but i ahve warm clothers. this is much different than the flat sunshine state that i grew up in. on the train ride i have already seen 4 castles outside my window and i havent been in the country for a day.

i do understand that these next five months may not be this easy, i am sure at some point i will miss america however as a wise friend said no one builds charachter while in the comfort zone. so i oddly look forward to that struggle and until that moment comes i will soak up each moment embrace this fantasic culutre.