Jen in Deutschland

Basic stuff/Avoiding studying

2009-04-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

So, realizing that people are looking at this blog who are not family.. I figured I should give some basic information.

Who are you?
I am Jen (clearly). I am currently a Sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, majoring in Biology. I've never taken a German class and am currently studying German on my own with Pimsleur and Berlitz and Deutsche Welle. This is my second exchange. I went to France with Rotary International in 11th Grade, I lived in St. Germain-en-Laye for four months. It was awesome. My family has also hosted two exchange students (from Finland and Estonia). I love to travel. I've been, mostly with my family, to Russia, Costa Rica, France, Holland, passed through Belgium, Kenya, Tanzania, Panama, Canada and the Caribbean. I hope to visit Suvi (Finland), my exchange friends (France), and visit a large chunk of the EU.

What is CBYX?
CBYX for Young Professionals (which is very different than CBYX for the high school kids) is a year long program for college students/graduates between the ages of 18-25 who have experience in the professional field they wish to enter. For me that is Neuro research. (yay) The program is a joint agreement between the American Congress and the German Bundestag. So Congress pays for EVERYTHING. It's kind of awesome.

What does the program entail?
The Young Professionals program has two months of language school, four months of University, and five months of an internship. We don't learn what language school we are going to until June/July. We don't learn where we will be living for the University/Internship portion until we are already in Germany. So while other people (Anna) have discussed where they are going to be, I will have no idea.

How does one apply?
Go to the website. It's a fairly short, or at least I thought so, application on line with several short answer questions. Then, if you make it through that stage, there is the half-day interview. Boy that was nerve-wracking. A lot more intimidating than the Rotary one, this was at the German Embassy in NYC. It was three of us in one room with three interviewers who were really nice. And then there was a one person interview while the other two took a German exam.

That's all I can think of for now. At the moment, I'm just like *omg* I'm going to Germany. In less than four months. I've never been to Germany! Yay.

University of Tuebingen?

2009-04-09T07:01:00.000-07:00

Less than a month ago I sent out an email to the RPI alumni representative in Germany. I just got a reply. Yay!

He told me to send him my resume, (and with papers from CDS I'll be sending that out tonight), and he'd help me! He said, thankfully, that I should send all of the papers in English. I'm kind of nervous because my GPA is horrible, but I'm going to talk to Karen and see if I should include it or not.

He said his contacts for Neuro are in the University of Tuebingen, hence the title. I wikipedia'ed it (my automatic reaction for pretty much anything), and it looks amazing. It's in Baden-Württemberg, which is where I'd love to be (the culture, the scenery!), it's one of the oldest and highest ranking universities in all of Germany, and has a Biology research center and the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research.

I know I shouldn't grow attached, because it is highly unlikely that within one month I will manage to secure a job position there. But, I'm going to email Will Maier once I send my resume tonight and explain what's happening, maybe I can get a push towards that area? Securing a lab position would be absolutely amazing.

That's all for now really. Finals are far too close, the Ballroom competition is this weekend, and Study Abroad Orientation is in a few weeks (which means the end of classes is in a few weeks...)

Yay.

Mailing #1

2009-03-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

I got a mailing today from CDS. Not as exciting as I had hoped but it was somewhat useful. It was a basic overview of things to come with a huge emphasis on meeting our Congressional Representative. Which I guess I should do. I mean, they are the reason I get this almost free trip to Germany. (woo)
I got Pimsleur from Uncle Howie last week, that was exciting. I have yet to check it out since I've been trying to study for this Molecular Biology exam that I have on Tuesday. (ew) I'm also hopefully getting Rosetta Stone to also help out with speaking and listening. So many things mushed together should be somewhat beneficial. Brent also gave me Rick Steve's Guide to Germany, which looked interesting as well as a recommendation for an amazing Italian restaurant in Munich and the clubbing district in the area.
Lots of studying. I'm Volunteer head for the Ballroom Competition and it's pretty exciting to see it all fall together. We need... six? more volunteers till we're done. Which means, inevitably, that my roomies will be forced into volunteering. Oh well, free food for them.
Tomorrow there will be four months until DC! Hehe. Exciting. A whole bunch of the people on the CBYX Facebook group are discussing (including me) going to DC early and being touristy. That, if it comes to fruition, shall be a lot of fun and it will be nice to meet a large chunk of the group before we are forced into orientations.
According the mailing next month I have a fairly eh mailing with basic details on lifestyle differences and adapting to life abroad. The next one gets a little more exciting with the "Official Program Manual" in May, as well as addresses of fellow participants. June brings my language school assignment as well as the agenda for DC and "preparatory activities" for the semiar, whatever those may be. July is the most exciting as it gives exact details for DC, my Bundesland placement and the host family address for Language School. Yay!
I need a passport. I keep forgetting that one...
Okay, off to study Molec.

Co-Op

2009-03-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today I had two meetings, enthralling I know. The first was financial aid to make sure I get to keep my scholarship money, which really could have been one email. Oh well. I got to finish homework in the 50 remaining minutes before my next meeting.

The next one was a "Co-Op" briefing. This was fun. Co-Op is a big thing at our school. You spend a semester and a summer working for a company, get a little pay, write an essay and come back to school. Most students choose Co-Op before Study Abroad, and you can't, with an RPI schedule, do both. The meeting was for four people, Dr. Delker explains all of what she wouldn't explain in our one-on-one meeting. The basic details of what a Co-Op is, what expectations you have, what you will do when you come back. Stuff like that. But a lot of what she said was "you three... and then for Jen..." Since I'm 'going' on Co-Op for Spring 2010, and they are in Summer -Fall '09. I also happen to be going abroad... But all in all interesting, I learned about more papers to fill out and what things are expected of me when I go abroad. One perk of Co-Op is you get to register early "because you might be in a meeting, etc." when regular registration is. For me it's more like my time zone will be off..

I also found at least two people who would want to live in the house over the summer, so that was exciting since this house's financial situation can be kinda stressful.

Nothing else has changed. I need to call the insurance company and I have an appointment tomorrow to talk about credits and all that fun stuff. Now I just need to study German whenever possible. Which, considering I have pretty much one exam a week till finals, isn't much at all. Or not enough.

Emails!

2009-03-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

Who knew this many emails would be involved in going abroad? Aie. I have to email one person to get a new adviser, someone who can actually help me figure out what I'm doing when I return/what classes I have to take. Another person to talk about getting credit for classes while I am abroad. I have to email the bursar, probably the registrar. Will Maier with a million questions. Call my doctor. If Karen Dvorak was not as wondrously helpful as she is I might die at the moment.
I still have to email HVCC (Hudson Valley Community College) again because they failed to respond to my first email. I asked about their German program and the possibiliy of attaining a German tutor or at least dropping in on some classes. It'd be nice to have some face to face interaction while studying. My German is improving, but it's slow when there is no speaking or no one to really speak the language with. Not that I can say anything useful at the moment. I just know a lot of random words.

Definite!

2009-03-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

So I already said official, but this time it truly is! I called Will Maier Friday asking if they had received my check and all my forms. He just called back to tell me he had everything.
That means I am definitely going to Germany! Yay!!!!

Official!

2009-03-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I'll be sending in my acceptance of CBYX. (:-)) So that will be quite exciting. I have to finish my survey, I've been stalling because I'm so nervous about my details. Granted, they can't say no to me now. So, I guess I'm just nervous because it's really the last thing I'm really involved in.
I'm kind of annoyed because I'm trying to find a way to learn German that is face-to-face with an instructor. Berlitz is 6k. I just found something associated with NYU, Deutsche Haus, that's a lot cheaper but I will have to email them as well. There's a bunch of places like that but they only meet once a week for two hours. So I'd be giving up the intensity and private lessons for price. Eh. Frustrating. I really was hoping Berlitz would be cheaper. They have a book that's all of.. 40 cents on Amazon that's got amazing reviews. I guess I'll try that for some real lessons. I've doing a mish-mosh of lessons, with no flow from easy to hard.
I've decided not to push for Ulm. Not because it's too much work, but because I want to step back and have someone pick something for me and be happy with it. Like if I had gotten the south of France not Paris, how different would that have been? Something I never got the chance to experience, something totally different. So, I'm just going to let it go, and see where they put me. If it's a city or somewhere really small.

4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days

2009-03-06T05:35:00.001-08:00

Yay!

Wow.

2009-03-04T08:34:00.000-08:00

One of the options given to us is to find an internship before May 1st so as to have an influence on where you are going and what job you will have. During the application process I fell for a city called Ulm, and I really hope to live there. One of the reasons I love it so much (even though I've never been there...) is because it's pretty much perfect for me. It's got an amazing, mid-sized, university in it. There are no classes in English that I could take, which I think is good because it prevents me from having a crutch like in France, and it's got Micro and Neuro and every class I could ever want to take. It also has a HUGE research center. There are a ton of businesses and research places in the city, which means finding an internship there would be great. It also has it's own culture and a really interesting history and it's cute and so... German.

Gah. I really would love to go to this city, but the more I look into it the less feasible my love little plan becomes. I emailed Will Maier and he sent me a link to the head of the RPI alumni in Germany, so I might email him and see what I can do from there. I will also send an email to a group in Ulm that seems like the head of the 'Science city' in the area. So, we'll see how this goes. But if I get it, it would be amazing. If not, I shall fall for some other part of Germany and enjoy it.

Having met other people on facebook is amazing. My friends here clearly don't share my excitement, but the other 74 students do and are just as *bouncing up and down* as I am. They've mentioned packing light and shopping later, which I totally agree with. Someone also just mentioned on the CBYX board how to get a cell phone. I figure that might be something I should soon start to think about. I've already sorted out, quite easily, bills (all online) for home and my roomies can figure out their food situation next year. I'm leaving my Dad's phone number for them in case anything happens, and they know they have my email.

We shall see. I had my physical yesterday so I'm going to send in all of the papers by Friday. That will mean I'm really, most definitely, part of this program. That is wicked exciting. Then I'll get more details on the DC trip and Germany. Apparently every few weeks they send you things. Which I think is genius.

Okay, off to O Chem.

CBYX for Young Professionals

2009-03-02T10:36:00.001-08:00

On Friday I received an email from Will Maier stating that I was one of 75 people that made the scholarship to go to the CBYX Young Professionals program.
I don't think words can properly describe just how excited I was. It's monday and I'm still smiling from how excited I am. Every once and a while I pause and think... I'm going to Germany. It's nice to be an outbound again. And the hope is this will go a little better (and longer) than France.
I've already connected with several of the other students, and they all seem so nice and the group is so varied. I can't stop bouncing about this. I really cried when I read that email, it was such a bad day and it was such an amazing thing.
I can't really revel in the news, because now I have to figure out all the details about it. How the people in my house will manage, scholarship money, credits, jobs, everything. Meh.

I'm still smiling though.

Tschüss!