So this week is the orientation week for international students. This is the schedule:
Monday
Enrollment of exchange students
Reception for all new international students
Campus Tour
Pub-meeting with buddies and tutors
Tuesday
Welcome meeting
Wednesday
German placement test
Computer lab introduction
Library tour
Thursday
Living and studying in Oldenburg
Unirally (I have no idea what that is. I’ll find out tomorrow though.)
Presentation ceremony of the unirally
Friday
Lunch with the International Student Office faculty
Reception with the mayor of the City of Oldenburg
City tour
I haven’t gone to all of the events because I haven’t needed to. The events I’ve gone to so far are the reception for all international students, the pub-meeting with buddies and tutors, the welcome meeting and the German placement test. The others I haven’t needed to go to. I already enrolled 2 weeks ago, I’ve already had 3 campus tours, I’ve already used the computer labs a few times and I’ve already had a library tour.
At the reception, we didn’t do much. We listened to speeches from university faculty members and from various German students, then we had coffee and other drinks. Monday night, we then met at 8 pm for half-priced cocktails at a pub downtown. I had a White Russian then a coke. I was there with some of the Americans until about 2 am and we weren’t even the last to leave.
The welcome meeting last night was crap to say the least. We met at a place called KGH which is part of a catholic church. It was hosted by the church and of course as part of the meal, we got a long lecture about the benefits of being catholic. After the dinner was over, 2 Americans, an Australian girl and I all stood outside and talked for quite a while (a couple of hours…). It got dark and the people running the church had ordered pizza. They saw that we were still there, so they invited us in for some pizza. That was really nice of them, but after we had finished eating they asked one of us to go around with them to the various dorms to put brochures about the catholic church in everyone’s mailboxes. One of the other Americans volunteered because they were going to go by car and could drop him off at his dorm afterwards (he can’t ride a bike for medical reasons and it’s almost an hour walk back to his dorm). The rest of us had bikes. After that, the other American and I went to a pub in the basement of his dorm. I was there for a while, then I went home because I had the German placement test today.
The German placement test this morning was relatively easy. A lot easier than I thought it would be anyway. It consisted of 2 parts, each 30 minutes. The first part consisted of 5 paragraphs. In the paragraphs, parts of words and declinations of words were missing and we had to fill in the blank based on the context. (If you don’t know what declinations of words are, here’s an example in English: “I run” versus “he runs”. The “s” is a declination.) The second part was easier. We had to write a 100-150 word letter to a friend explaining what our favorite part of German is so far. All of us will then be divided into German classes based on the results of our test. There are 5 possible levels. I’m hoping to get the highest level and I’m pretty sure I will.
Tomorrow, I’m going to everything and Friday I’m not going to anything because I’m going to the city of Rostock in north-east Germany to meet up with a friend of mine. The guy I’ll be meeting was an exchange student at the University of Wyoming last year. I can’t wait to go.
