There is a bed too, don´t worry (it feels quite strange, to have been living in this sort of set-up at the start of my studies and returning to it pretty much at the end...there are moments when I could almost be in Johnston...but do you ever look back at certain times of life and think them so distant that for a moment it´s hard to comprehend that they belong to the same life you´re living now?...Maybe not!). But beyond these, there´s a peculiar feeling of beginning to integrate more than I´d expected I would. Please humour me in this, I will use more words than are necessary... For our project placements, it hasn´t been expected of us that we have more than a rough knowledge of the language of the country we´re visiting, if even that. I bet I could get by in Regensburg just fine without a word of German...if I could hold out long enough from the squirming feeling of ignorance that´d probably germinate. But, because I do have some German, I´m feeling obliged to at least begin exchanges in it...I´m not doing a very good job, but it´s happening! It feels more like the experience of an exchange student trying to get to grips with the language, even though, really, it´d be OK if I conducted everything in English. If I worried that I wouldn´t get much of a chance to use German because everyone would want to practice their English on me all the time...pahahaha. If you could learn foreign languages by osmosis, right now I´d look like Violet Beauregarde post-Willy Wonka´s three-course meal chewing gum episode. I hope you know what I mean. If not, imagine me, spherical. Not hard.
That isn´t a very accurate picture. Really, most people speak English, to a much better standard than I think they realise, and it even excites some of them to be able to speak to a native speaker (that seems to be a real buzzword with English learners here), because some of them never have before. That´s quite surreal, isn´t it? People have evidently put years of hard work into learning English...and never had the benefit of using it with the people they maybe most intended to! Although that also testifies to how popular English is as a means of communication between non-British Europeans. I don´t think I´ve really appreciated how fortunate I am to have been born into English...if I was in the same position as the German students who really want to have a high standard of English to improve their prospects, I´d long for it to come as naturally to me as a native speaker! And maybe it´s my own generation who have felt the obligation to learn English most...in the 80´s, it was still OK for German scientists to publish research in German...that doesn´t happen now! I´d appreciate it if it was resented - but it doesn´t seem to be. Almost everyone I´ve spoken to wants to perfect their English, and they apologise that they aren´t better. This is extraordinary of them, firstly because their English is great and even we native speakers make various mistakes all the time, but secondly because I´m here in their country, bludgeoning their language with each incorrect article and every wrong tense. And forgetting to say ´please` after stumbling to the end of questions; I deserve a good clip round the lug.
Anyway.
Joining the group I´m going to be working with, that´s actually started off better than my nervous self could´ve anticipated. Waaaaay better! I´m working with a PhD student called Sebastian, on the isolation, fractionation and structural elucidation of acylphoroglucinol derivatives from Hypericum Empetrifolium. Ja. This week was intended to be an introduction for me - so far, so good! All the people working in the lab, mainly pharmacy PhD students and postdocs, have been very friendly and accommodating. We all go to lunch at 11, before the students hit the Mensa at noon, and have coffee breaks together later on. Kaffee and Kuchen really are had all the time here, I thought it was just the same as the idea that every Scottish man wears a kilt, always. And I had a Currywurst for lunch today. Mental. Mostly they speak in English to me, but sometimes try German - if I haven´t been expecting it and I´m not tuned in, I appear slower than I really am. It´s a handy enough excuse...
My first job was to help Sebastian prepare a presentation in English. We´ve made a deal that if I help him in his English, he´ll help me with my German - I really need to start being more brave and use more complex German for him to help with! But I´ve actually really been enjoying giving English help; it´s rewarding when you feel that your support is valued! Man, this is turning into a ode to Germanic languages, sorry. What else has happened...had hoped to take pictures of campus today, but it was raining - yus! Felt like home! But, yeah, I´ll regret it if I don´t start prolifically snapping, I know. I´ll get on it, rain or shine.
For now, here´s my favourite documented case of Denglish (German-English) so far: Germany has taken Hob Nobs for her own:
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