So, trying to make this blog a little bit more active still...

I'm torn over whether to start looking more seriously for another place to live here in HD. I'm fairly content here, because even though it's a bit of a prison, the people are all really nice so it's pretty sociable. However I am also aware that contentment is not always a good enough reason to stay in one place, and I feel like while I am in Germany I want to experience as much as possible so maybe it is time to move on. However, unlike in England there doesn't seem to be a really big market for private student acommodation and there isn't really enough University acommodation to go round so it could be hard finding somewhere. A lot of the German students I know live quite a way away from Heidelberg, in one of the surrounding towns, which I think would be fine if I was here for a while and knew the area etc, but isn't really so practical for the here and now. SO whatever, we will see - it wouldn't be the end of the world staying here, it would just be nice to live somewhere with a proper kitchen and a shower you didn't have to keep pressing the button on like in a swimming pool!!

The snow has mostly melted now, so it's time to get back on my bike again (literally) I think.. good old lil hercules :)

Okay, so, happy 2010 - one resolution I have made is to update this blog more, because it's sort of meant to be about day to day life in Germany and what it's like and to achieve that I need to start actually writing in this day to day.

I'm back at home in England at the moment, and will return to Germany on monday. The christmas period has really flown by - probably due in no small part to the fact that we didn't actually get back to England until very late on the 23rd of December. Those Germans sure do like to leave things til the last minute! Anyway that probably contributed to the fact that I made an educated decision to miss my first day of lectures and fly back next monday, which gives me an extra weekend to sort things out here, pack etc etc etc.

Just a short post to get the ball rolling anyhow, but here is a video I thought people might find amusing, I sure as hell did - and it's proper proper funky music as well!

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Sometimes I still have moments when I look around and think, wow, I´m so lucky to be here. Inevitably, it´s easy to take for granted the beautiful hills chocolate box aesthetic etc etc etc (after all, otherwise it´d be necessary to walk around in a perpetual state of wide eyed admiration, preceeding every statement with "oh wow, I can´t believe...") but it is nice, every once in a while, to appreciate some of the nicer aspects of life here.

Leaving a seminar, I was struck by how I could see pointy little gingerbread houses looking down on me from a vantage point above. Turning the other way, the schwarz wald on the other side of the river was lit up with late afternoon winter sunshine in the way that makes things look gold. I dunno, I don´t really want to wax sentimental about it because I think it would sound kind of schmaltzy and probably detract from what I´m actually trying to say.. I think grandiose language sometimes actually detracts from what it´s attempting to represent. You know, ´oh great, yet more majestic hills and enchanted forests..´... I think maybe, sometimes, it means more just to say, well.. it´s really nice.

So, I've been here for a month and a half now. Wow. That's gone quickly. I'm really glad I signed up to do a pre-sessional intensive language course - it's been a great way to meet people. In fact I can't imagine what things are like for people who've only just turned up. There are quite a few other Erasmus students in our halls which is good (we needed some new blood) and they seem to be settling in pretty well, but I really appreciate having had that extra month to settle in prior to classes starting.

So, what else? I've chosen my modules for this semester:

The Fairy Tale: History, Theory and Contemporary Versions - basically, a lot of Angela Carter, Brothers Grimm, and theory from people like Jack Zipes. This is the only seminar I've actually had so far, and out of a class of 30 or so, there was only one male student. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that; amused, but a little disappointed not to have more male perspectives on the subject, I think.

The American Postwar Counter-Culture and the Arts: Texts and Contexts 1945 to 1975 – stuff like the Beat poets, and a bit of good old Hunter S. Not an area I know very much about, and the preliminary reading has turned over a few gems. In particular, Lenore Kandel who wrote totally obscene hippie love poems, described in one quarter as being “as if Elizabeth Barrett Browning had taken acid and set about to describe the sex act as a cosmic event.” Great fun. It's also quite interesting learning about the beats as a counter-culture movement, as the formulation of alternative social groups and their impact upon the artistic landscape has always been something that has interested me.

Gender and the Internet – This is conducted online, which I think is really interesting, particularly given the nature of the module. Gender studies is obviously something I take an interest in anyway, and I've been quite fascinated of late with the way in which the internet is affecting human interaction in a variety of ways, so this module combines two areas of interest. I'm a bit curious about how the module will be marked though – it's worth 6 credit points, 2 of which come from participation in the class online forum, 2 come from course preparation and 2 come from a group internet project. So it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Spaces of Decivilization: Norbert Elias's Cultural Theory and American Literature – this module looks really interesting; I'm expecting it to be quite challenging but I decided if I didn't go for it then I probably never would push myself and where's the fun in that? Basically it involves a famous and well respected theory of the civilizing process by one Norbert Elias. His theory has been applied to European states many times but never really to America – and inherent problems rise when one tries to do so, as (without going into too much detail) America has always contained “spaces of decivilization” like the wild west, the ghetto, etc etc. So I will be studying the work of Elias and seeing how it stands when applied to the Usa, and then looking at how these “spaces of decivilization” are portrayed in American Literature.

Then I'll be taking the rest of my credits in German Language tuition, although it remains to be seen how successful this will be.


I really like the fact that we have a lot more freedom here to choose our modules than we do in Leeds; although it's due partly to my having studied straight Philosophy in first year (level 1 phil students don't have any optional modules except for electives, which does make sense from the perspective of making sure students are well rounded in a mostly new discipline, but also was quite limiting) I have to confess there have been times when I have been frustrated by the lack of wiggle room in the Leeds curriculm. On a few occasions I was aware of feeling like I was merely studying an approximation of the areas I genuinely took an interest in; being able to indulge my intellectual curiosity here within less limited confines has given me a great deal of enthusiasm. Which is nice. :)

That's all for now I think.

My favourite thing about Heidelberg so far....

...is that there is a colony of green parrots! They are so cool, when you go past certain trees in the evening there is a flurry of bright green and parrotish .. sqwarks? screeches? I don't know the technical term. They don't have that in Leeds :)