Week 3: Placement, Training, Trier

This week, we learned about our final placements, finished opening our bank accounts, had some intercultural training to prepare us for the workplace, and visited Trier.

Good news! The host family situation is markedly improved.

It turns out that they were expecting me to at least just check in when I get home, briefly chit-chat about what happened that day, and then we’re all good.

Fundamentally, though, there’s a bit of a chemistry mismatch, so I won’t be staying with them for the rest of the year. Unfortunate, but not something I’m upset about - according to the program, it happens to a few participants each year - of 75 matches, it’s understandably difficult to achieve 100% compatibility for 100% of participants.

My final placement will be in Saarbrücken - I already knew that I’d be in this Bundesland (Saarland), of course, but wasn’t sure where I’d be studying.

I’ll be attending the Hochschule fuer Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes - or the HTW Saar, abbreviated. The literal translation is something like “the University of Applied Science of Saarland”.

I’ll also be living in a WG (Wohngemeinschaft), which is where a few independent people share an apartment and split rent. Relatively straightforward, as a concept, but a bit more complex in practice here in Germany. Unlike in the US, though, there’s usually one person (the Hauptmieter, or main renter) who pays the full amount of rent to the landlord, and the other residents (the Untermieter, or sub-renters) pay the agreed-upon portions of rent to the Hauptmieter.

Searching for a WG is a bit of an undertaking - similar to finding an apartment to rent in the States, it involves searching, applying, and interviews.

But there’s more than one type of WG, and many make a distinction clear in their adverts that they don’t want a Zweck-WG. A Zweck-WG is most easily understood as a WG founded out of practicality, where the people living there might not know more than one-another’s names. Interaction is generally at a minimum.

…so when they say they don’t want a Zweck-WG, what they mean is that they’re looking for people who will make something like a community or family within the WG, where discussion, experiences, and time is shared. (Read: a roommate who is also a friend)

I’ve got some help in this search: Alexander, a local associate of the GIZ, will be helping me with my first visit and interview; Johannes, the Sprachschule’s Tutor (more of a counselor/advocate, I think, than a tutor for the language)

More on this search in the coming weeks.

On Thursday, we were visited by Jenny Hoppe, a trainer sent to prepare us for the German workplace.

We started by going over the cultures-as-icebergs and peaches-versus-coconuts metaphors (similar to our lecture in D.C.), which for us was review; but it set the stage for what was to follow.

We began a compare/contrast sequence between US and Germany, first addressing societal/social norms (what people see and directly interact with), and then values (intrinsic to people, usually unconscious, and the source of norms). Germans and Americans (at least according to us) have a few things in common (family, personal freedom), but quite a few differences, too; Americans tend to be risk-takers, whereas Germans tend to plan everything out, for instance.

That evening, I tried out Michelangelo, an italian restaurant right in St. Johanner-Markt - I had a beautiful salad followed by a well-seasoned steak served under some mushrooms and onions & accompanied by fettucine in a cream-mushroom sauce.

a delicious salad