3. The first week

The first evening I ate some bread, salami, and cheese with the people that would be my coworkers. Olga, another DAAD student from Canada (although she was born and raised in Russia), had already been there two months. Erwin, Niklas, and Anja were all graduate students, and everyone had moved to Jülich in January, because their professor, Jörg Pietruszka, had to move from Stuttgart to the Institute for Bioorganic Chemistry of the University of Düsseldorf.

Living Room

After the meal I went back to my apartment alone, where I could not turn on the lights. Although I found myself in darkness, I knew everything would get better. The next day I discovered why the light switches did not work; one must first check to see that all the fuses were in the "on" position. Oh well—at least everything worked as soon as I made this discovery.

Anja and I had to spend the whole day going through the bureaucracy and rules of the Research Center and the bank, though it was not as hard as it could have been. Everyone was very helpful and friendly, although the woman at the bank in her polo-shirt and carefully groomed appearance was very reluctant to open an account for me. Because I was only staying in Germany for seven weeks, she thought it was hardly worth it. In spite of this she did it, so that I could receive my money from the DAAD—very important for me.

Mrs. Wolff, the landlord, looked a little like her name suggests, with large teeth and eyes, but in spite of this she was also very friendly, and tried to use simple words so that I understood everything. I had to pay 675 Euros for the seven weeks, including water, electricity, new sheets and hand towels ever two weeks, and 70 Euros for cleaning (after I left the room). Not too bad, but also not so cheap. I found that it was worth it, because I had my own bathroom, tiny kitchen, and a balcony—much better (and more private) than I had expected, and almost three times larger than my single room in Independence Hall two years ago. There were enough dishes, so that I did not have to buy any, and the bed was reasonably comfortable for one person. But there was no telephone, except for a house telephone so that I could call other people inside the apartment complex. At least I would have seven quiet weeks, and perhaps save some money. More time for reading, writing, and yoga, although I could not call my family so easily. I could also use the internet from the Research Center for free, because there was a computer in Anja's lab.

Anja only had enough time to show me once where everything (for example, a grocery store) was; I arrived on Wednesday, and she had to fly to Helsinki that weekend to attend a conference. I welcomed having a few days alone, to adjust to my new surroundings. Other people may have found it lonely, but not I. I was still fighting with jet-lag, and besides that, I was tired from getting to know so many new people, and always speaking German. I wanted to see the town a little bit too, as long as I didn't get lost.

At first the homesickness was not nearly as bad as I had imagined. I wanted to see my family, but I felt better because I knew that I only had to get through one day at a time, and because I could already see that Jülich was a friendly town. There was a pond with ducks and other animals—such as turtles—nearby, and strangely enough, I soon found that Jülich and Morris were very similar. Both are fairly small towns with fields all around, and here there were more wind turbines and trees that also grew in Minnesota. There were also new plants, of course—large beeches, for example, and although I knew already how wheat fields looked, I had to ask Anja to learn that the other fields were planted with sugar beets. Just as Morris has an ethanol factory, so Jülich has a sugar factory. During my time there I saw how the wheat fields ripened, exactly as in my homeland.

Although English is "the language of science" and everyone in my work group could speak English, we normally spoke German with each other. That was better for me, naturally, because I wanted to improve my German as much as possible, and seven weeks does not last long, especially when one wants to learn another language. Although I had already had seven weeks of German classes, and could read and write reasonably well, the oral language was hardest for me. I had always known that if I really wanted to speak German, I would have to spend a fair bit of time in Germany, where I could immerse myself in the culture and language. It is almost impossible to learn a language just in the classroom; you can learn the forms of the verbs by heart until you are exhausted, but there is no substitute to really being in the country where the language is alive.

My work group was very interesting, because there were many foreigners. We had people from Spain, Vietnam, Austria, and all over in Germany. Olga, the other DAAD student, came from Canada and originally from Russia. Luckily everyone spoke almost only "High German," so that I did not have to fight too much with dialects. There was a very good atmosphere in the work group, I thought—everyone worked fairly well with each other and were mostly friendly. Everyone addressed each other informally; even Jörg, the professor, was very casual. I can freely say that I liked everyone. They are wonderful and interesting people, although it was a little strange for me to see them as chemists, because they often reminded of artists or musicians instead of serious scientists. We ate together every day—a breakfast of muesli, tea, and coffee in the coffeeroom, and lunch in the cafeteria. In the evenings Erwin, Olga, and Niklaus always ate together, and sometimes I took part. I quickly got used to bread, cheese, salami, and some vegetables or fruit for dinner, instead of the hot meals I usually prepared at home. As with students everywhere, the most important thing for me was to find something fast, easy, and cheap to eat for dinner.

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