This past week, I decided to launch a preemptive strike against the dreaded Three B's of Germany: Beer, Bread, and Butter (read my friend Meredith's hilarious blog post about them here). Together with my friends Sabine and Gwen, we made up our minds to take advantage of a few of the fitness classes offered by the university's sport program. Monday night was "Tai Do"--an extremely challenging but very fun combination of aerobics, dance, and kickboxing. That's definitely going to become a weekly thing.

Tonight, however, was a class of a whole different breed. The title ("High Energy Freestyle Aerobics") as well as the online description made it sound quite similar to the Tai Do class, so we decided to check it out. Words cannot even begin to describe the hour and a half experience that followed.

First, picture Voldemort from the Harry Potter film series. In case you need a refresher:

That is the instructor. The moves that this guy was doing . . . I really have no way of describing them or doing them justice. Suffice it to say that none of us could keep a straight face for more than three minutes during the class. At one point, as I was attempting to balance on one hand and one leg, bringing my right shoulder down to touch the floor, I managed to fall over three times in a row. Three times, people. Not to mention that I was in the middle of the room (full of about 100 people), directly across from the instructor, and causing a minor disruption by making Gwen and Sabine laugh so hard that they, too, fell over. Then I snorted. And things just went downhill from there.

To paint this picture for you as completely as possible, I'd like to end with a snippet of the eclectic musical selection Lord Voldemort was having us dance like maniacs to:

This past week was definitely the most eventful one I've had since I've been in Tübingen. It began Monday morning with a visit to the Department of Chinese and Korean Studies, which is located about a thirty minute walk past the university in an obscure but hardly subtle, mustard-yellow colored building. From the outside, it doesn't look like much. But when I entered, I was immediately greeted by a table full of homemade pastries (uh-oh) and some very friendly faces who were happy to direct me to the office of Frau Wu, the Chinese instructor. I stood quietly outside her door while she administered a language placement test to the girl before me, feeling my palms getting sweatier by the minute. Finally, I was invited into her office, where she magically already knew who I was (probably because I sent her an email three weeks ago that she never responded to). I briefly restated the contents of my email, which was basically just an explanation of what I'm doing in Germany and my desire to continue with Chinese, with the recent addition that I am considering applying for a Masters in either Chinese Studies or Politics and Society of East Asia next fall. 

To be honest, who knows what I'll be doing after my Fulbright year is through. But I do really love living in Tübingen, and thanks to the public nature of German schooling and the government's socialist tendencies, I could earn my degree here for free. And that certainly has its advantages. 

After I finished telling Frau Wu about my previous Chinese courses and my time in Beijing, she pulled out a textbook and asked me to read a few lines from a random page. I had expected something like this, and managed to read all the basic words without a problem, stumbling over a few that I've since forgotten. The end result was that I'll be taking 5th semester Chinese, which is the equivalent of first semester senior year Chinese class at Vanderbilt. In the spring, I'll take 6th semester, and at the very end, I'll take an exam. If I pass, I'll be automatically admitted to a Masters program in the department, should I choose to enroll. In other words: Best. Possible. Outcome. Chinese class started Tuesday morning at ten, and my classmates seemed very friendly. I feel only slightly intimidated by the fact that they all just returned from their semester abroad in China. 

My second class is potentially the most helpful history course for my project that I could possibly have envisioned. It's called "From Original Text to Published Edition," and centers around the transcription of a diary from the 1800s written in the same old German that half my letters are written in. We spent the first day learning the alphabet, and I showed off my week-old skills of reading Sütterlinschrift by answering every question correctly. Not to brag, but it was kind of a big deal. Plus, the professor agreed to help me next week with some of the words I've been struggling with in the letters I've read so far.

The last class I wanted to attend for the week was on Thursday. I was pretty excited by the title: "What is cultural history, and why is it important?" I dragged my friend Meredith along, who was visiting for the week from Flensburg, to show her the university. In typical Kaci fashion, we arrived thirty minutes early for the class and made ourselves comfortable in the back of a classroom that slowly filled up until there were hardly any free seats. At 4:15, the professor walked in and began class immediately. It took about three minutes of confusion and a word written in a foreign alphabet for us to realize that we were not, in fact, in Cultural History class. We were in Intermediate Greek. Once we realized our (read: my) mistake, we got up to leave as unobtrusively as possible. Unfortunately, our exit was less than smooth due to the fact that we were in the very back of the room, and were forced to walk along the windows of the classroom once we made it outside. Awkward.

I'm still not entirely sure where Cultural History actually met that day, because I did indeed have the correct room. But since I'm auditing and not officially registered in any history courses, I did not receive any memo about a room change. Oh, well. At least now I only have class two days a week . . . 

Next Wednesday will be my first Kolloquium for PhD candidates in the history department, which is the only class I'm actually required to attend by my faculty advisor here. I'm pretty terrified, considering I'm not a PhD candidate, nor have I ever formally studied history. Needless to say, this week should be another interesting one. 

I'll keep you posted.

In front of the University of Tübingen.

For obvious reasons, I have never been to an international student orientation in the United States. And though I may not be very well-versed in how such orientations in the US are organized, suffice it to say that they must be very, very different than the one I attended today in Germany.

I can almost guarantee that they are more fun over here.

I registered this morning alongside many other foreign-looking students and was told to come back at 14:00, when the orientation would officially begin. At 2 pm, I was delighted to find that the hallway outside of our registration room was filled with tables of pretzels and pastries, sparkling water and coffee. I quickly found a group to slide into conversation with consisting of Sabine from Belgium, Kiara from Italy, Naomi from Hungary, and the slightly less exotic Dan from Pennsylvania. We chatted in English for a few minutes, enjoying our pastries and coffee. Then we were ushered across the street to the university's beautiful main building, where we were to receive our official welcome from the university. The room they chose was stunning, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and portraits of prior chancellors adorning the walls. A balcony with flowers lining its edges took up one side of the room. Unfortunately, far more international students were in attendance than expected. Maybe they had heard about the free champagne. Yep, that's right. Welcome to the University of Tübingen, it's 3 in the afternoon, here's your glass of champagne. Awesome? 

A very sweaty thirty-five minutes later, after we had been officially and extremely warmly welcomed to Tübingen, we headed back to the orientation building to break off into small groups. I left Sabine and the others behind, and quickly became friends with Gwen from New York and Paul from Russia, as well as Nick, Alice, and Daniel from England. We sat down at our seats, where a folder of information, some Haribo gummy bears, a chocolate bar, and -- wait for it -- a tiny bottle of fig-flavored vodka awaited us. Yes, people, they gave us vodka at orientation.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any more bizarre, our tutors walked in and announced that the way they would like to begin orientation would be to drink the vodka as a group. There is a specific way this is done: Take the cap off the bottle. Stick the cap on your nose. Put the bottle in your mouth, and, no hands!, look up toward the ceiling and drink the whole thing. It's no more than a shot, mind you, but still. Orientation was off to a very good, if surprising, start.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with ice breakers (we all had to name our favorite smells?) and with discussing the schedule for the rest of the three days. I've already registered with the city and done my immatrikulation at the university, so I don't have to be anywhere at 7 am tomorrow. Yes! But I do get to go on a tour of the university, attend an explanation of the library system (helpful), and go to a party tomorrow night. Oh, did I mention we are also meeting tonight for a little 'extra' orientation at two of Tübingen's best bars? 

However, I'm most looking forward to the final event on Saturday night, which is a party in the castle that includes dinner, free drinks, and dancing. Did I mention it was in a castle?