1. Placement: I got my Bundesland assignment in April, and the actual placement didn't come until May. This year, it sounds like the placement process is taking longer than it did last year, so expect school placement sites any time between now and mid-June. (Contact PAD if you haven't heard by then!)
1b. For the incoming Berliners: you should be aware that about 1/3 of the ETAs are on the very outskirts of the city. Some of them are at the last S-Bahn/U-Bahn/bus stop before crossing into Brandenburg. If you end up in this position, you may want to ask yourself if you'd rather commute to school or live closer to school.
2. Where to live? According to my Google stalking, a lot of Betreuungslehrer help ETAs find a guest family or an empty room... if you're in a small town. In Berlin, that's not the case. Fulbrighters arrive at the same time as the other international students, which is a nice way of saying that you compete against 30-50 other students for every WG. On the other hand, it might be easier to find an apartment in Berlin than in small towns because there are so many students. Plan to couch surf with your BL for a week, possibly longer.
2b. For the love of all that is good in life, do not live with a young child (especially if there are pets and especially if it's a single parent household) without setting very firm rules for spur-of-the-moment babysitting and petsitting. If you're a pushover, you will end up caring for the entire household. (Yes, this was my living situation. I did learn to speak fluent Kinderdeutsch and Hunddeutsch. I don't regret my decision to live there, but I wouldn't wish it on others.) I'd recommend living with a guest family with older children (teenagers) or with other students.
2c. www.wg-gesucht.de is the way to go, but don't bother contacting people over the summer; they almost always want face-to-face interviews. I interviewed at 11 WGs before I was offered a room.
2d. If you're over your head in German, don't be afraid of asking if you can respond in English. I interviewed exclusively in German, but ETAs with weaker language skills may want to consider responding to easy questions in German and switching to English for more detailed responses.
2e. Unless you're in Hamburg, Frankfurt, or Munich, don't pay more than 350E/month for rent.
3. Anmeldung (registration in your neighborhood): not a difficult process. Find a WG, sign a Vertrag, and you're good to go. (Okay, it's a little more complicated than that; just read the outline that you get at orientation.) I was in and out in about an hour and a half, so bring your iPod.
4. Aufenthaltserlaubnis (residency permit): don't worry about it until you get to Germany. From what I've heard, getting the Aufenthaltserlaubnis is pretty easy in most Bundesländer. It is not a fun procedure in Berlin, though. Most of my friends waited for 4-6 hours. I went there in October, sat there for about two hours, and was told that I had to come back the following week. When I returned, I waited for about an hour before they called my name and claimed that they had "lost" my paperwork. Fortunately, my German had improved very quickly during the first month, and I told them to look again because I sure didn't have my paperwork. (Es lebe die Berliner Schnauze!) Have fun! :)
4b. Fulbrighters in Germany don't get visas.
4c. Pack extra passport-sized pictures. Before I left, I took a picture against a white wall, resized it, and printed a bunch of copies.
5. Packing: it's not necessary to bring a lot of dress clothes. However, it's nice to have a few nice outfits for the Berlin conference and for other events that might come up. Teachers dress less formally in Germany, and it's totally normal to show up in an acceptably-cut shirt and jeans. This year, the winter was horrible; it was cold, windy, and generally miserable for about four months (and I grew up in the Midwest!). The problem, of course, is that you only have two suitcases (one suitcase for the really good packers), so you don't want to stuff your suitcase with thick sweaters. It's also nice to have shoes that can handle the snow. Pack hiking boots or old snow boots that you can toss at the end of the year.
5b. I had to start wearing long sleeve stuff within a week of arriving in Berlin, and I still wear long sleeves to school most days. Don't go overboard with bringing summer clothes; pack short sleeve things that you can layer under sweaters and cardigans.
5c. My WG has a really old washing machine that did a number on some of my clothes. I ended up with holes in the seams of some of my old pajama pants and one of my (brand new, sigh) cardigans, and one of my sweaters has been thoroughly de-fuzzed. Puppy also destroyed my favorite jeans. If you have old clothes that are in decent condition but that you don't plan on wearing in the future, you could wear them in Germany and donate or discard them at the end of the year!
5d. Toiletries: you can get everything in Germany (except for cinnamon toothpaste and maybe your normal brand of deodorant). However, I am a planner, and I knew that I would buy clothes, books, and chocolate. I brought all of my toiletries with me, which means that one of my suitcases will have enough room for my new stuff. Yay!
6. Material to pack for school: Kids looooove California and New York, but they also want to know what your hometown is like. I made a mini photo album with pictures from my neighborhood, my university, and my life in general. The 8th graders liked seeing pictures of my house, my room, my car, and my high school. You could also pack some pictures or brochures of a major tourist attraction. The 7th graders really like silly bandz (they have something like them in Germany, but it's cooler when you win them from an American). I also clipped editorials and short newspaper/magazine articles to use with Leistungskurse.
6b. Almost every kid at My Gymnasium wanted to know about life at American schools. I rewrote one of my schedules (I changed teachers' names for anonymity reasons) and added a list of typical school rules at the bottom of the mock schedule, and it was a hit at all grade levels! (If you lived in a dorm in college, show the older students pictures of your dorm room! They will be fascinated and horrified!)
7. Some rules in the ETA contracts: do not take Vertretungsstunden, do not instruct a class by yourself without another teacher in the room, do not give out punishments, you shouldn't be required to work more than 12 hours/week, and do not grade students' work. Have my friends and I broken every rule on this list? *innocent look* (Actually, none of us have given out punishments; we just petz to teachers.)
8. Your Betreuungslehrer is your lifeline in your school, and s/he can make all the difference in the world. I rave and rave about My Gymnasium, but I would have been very lost if I had had a more hands off BL.
8b. Get on the school secretary's good side, too. It makes your life easier. My Gymnasium has a Kopiekontigent, and she gave me the same number of copies as a teacher with a halbe Stelle! Always siezen with the secretary.
9. Register at a university unless you're in a Bundesland that charges tuition. You'll get a Semesterticket! It might not lohnt sich for Sommersemester, but it's definitely worth it for Wintersemester.
10. The Diversity Program does not "just" place in Berlin. (This year, only 4/20 were in Berlin.)
11. It looks like someone posted a link to this somewhere on Facebook. So, Liebe Grüße from Berlin, congrats to all of the new Fulbrighters, and tell me about yourselves! ETA/research/professor/media? Bundesland? Interests? Anything in particular you'd like to know more about? (Pretend that was slightly more eloquent, please. Just got back from 6 hours of oral exams.)
1b. For the incoming Berliners: you should be aware that about 1/3 of the ETAs are on the very outskirts of the city. Some of them are at the last S-Bahn/U-Bahn/bus stop before crossing into Brandenburg. If you end up in this position, you may want to ask yourself if you'd rather commute to school or live closer to school.
2. Where to live? According to my Google stalking, a lot of Betreuungslehrer help ETAs find a guest family or an empty room... if you're in a small town. In Berlin, that's not the case. Fulbrighters arrive at the same time as the other international students, which is a nice way of saying that you compete against 30-50 other students for every WG. On the other hand, it might be easier to find an apartment in Berlin than in small towns because there are so many students. Plan to couch surf with your BL for a week, possibly longer.
2b. For the love of all that is good in life, do not live with a young child (especially if there are pets and especially if it's a single parent household) without setting very firm rules for spur-of-the-moment babysitting and petsitting. If you're a pushover, you will end up caring for the entire household. (Yes, this was my living situation. I did learn to speak fluent Kinderdeutsch and Hunddeutsch. I don't regret my decision to live there, but I wouldn't wish it on others.) I'd recommend living with a guest family with older children (teenagers) or with other students.
2c. www.wg-gesucht.de is the way to go, but don't bother contacting people over the summer; they almost always want face-to-face interviews. I interviewed at 11 WGs before I was offered a room.
2d. If you're over your head in German, don't be afraid of asking if you can respond in English. I interviewed exclusively in German, but ETAs with weaker language skills may want to consider responding to easy questions in German and switching to English for more detailed responses.
2e. Unless you're in Hamburg, Frankfurt, or Munich, don't pay more than 350E/month for rent.
3. Anmeldung (registration in your neighborhood): not a difficult process. Find a WG, sign a Vertrag, and you're good to go. (Okay, it's a little more complicated than that; just read the outline that you get at orientation.) I was in and out in about an hour and a half, so bring your iPod.
4. Aufenthaltserlaubnis (residency permit): don't worry about it until you get to Germany. From what I've heard, getting the Aufenthaltserlaubnis is pretty easy in most Bundesländer. It is not a fun procedure in Berlin, though. Most of my friends waited for 4-6 hours. I went there in October, sat there for about two hours, and was told that I had to come back the following week. When I returned, I waited for about an hour before they called my name and claimed that they had "lost" my paperwork. Fortunately, my German had improved very quickly during the first month, and I told them to look again because I sure didn't have my paperwork. (Es lebe die Berliner Schnauze!) Have fun! :)
4b. Fulbrighters in Germany don't get visas.
4c. Pack extra passport-sized pictures. Before I left, I took a picture against a white wall, resized it, and printed a bunch of copies.
5. Packing: it's not necessary to bring a lot of dress clothes. However, it's nice to have a few nice outfits for the Berlin conference and for other events that might come up. Teachers dress less formally in Germany, and it's totally normal to show up in an acceptably-cut shirt and jeans. This year, the winter was horrible; it was cold, windy, and generally miserable for about four months (and I grew up in the Midwest!). The problem, of course, is that you only have two suitcases (one suitcase for the really good packers), so you don't want to stuff your suitcase with thick sweaters. It's also nice to have shoes that can handle the snow. Pack hiking boots or old snow boots that you can toss at the end of the year.
5b. I had to start wearing long sleeve stuff within a week of arriving in Berlin, and I still wear long sleeves to school most days. Don't go overboard with bringing summer clothes; pack short sleeve things that you can layer under sweaters and cardigans.
5c. My WG has a really old washing machine that did a number on some of my clothes. I ended up with holes in the seams of some of my old pajama pants and one of my (brand new, sigh) cardigans, and one of my sweaters has been thoroughly de-fuzzed. Puppy also destroyed my favorite jeans. If you have old clothes that are in decent condition but that you don't plan on wearing in the future, you could wear them in Germany and donate or discard them at the end of the year!
5d. Toiletries: you can get everything in Germany (except for cinnamon toothpaste and maybe your normal brand of deodorant). However, I am a planner, and I knew that I would buy clothes, books, and chocolate. I brought all of my toiletries with me, which means that one of my suitcases will have enough room for my new stuff. Yay!
6. Material to pack for school: Kids looooove California and New York, but they also want to know what your hometown is like. I made a mini photo album with pictures from my neighborhood, my university, and my life in general. The 8th graders liked seeing pictures of my house, my room, my car, and my high school. You could also pack some pictures or brochures of a major tourist attraction. The 7th graders really like silly bandz (they have something like them in Germany, but it's cooler when you win them from an American). I also clipped editorials and short newspaper/magazine articles to use with Leistungskurse.
6b. Almost every kid at My Gymnasium wanted to know about life at American schools. I rewrote one of my schedules (I changed teachers' names for anonymity reasons) and added a list of typical school rules at the bottom of the mock schedule, and it was a hit at all grade levels! (If you lived in a dorm in college, show the older students pictures of your dorm room! They will be fascinated and horrified!)
7. Some rules in the ETA contracts: do not take Vertretungsstunden, do not instruct a class by yourself without another teacher in the room, do not give out punishments, you shouldn't be required to work more than 12 hours/week, and do not grade students' work. Have my friends and I broken every rule on this list? *innocent look* (Actually, none of us have given out punishments; we just petz to teachers.)
8. Your Betreuungslehrer is your lifeline in your school, and s/he can make all the difference in the world. I rave and rave about My Gymnasium, but I would have been very lost if I had had a more hands off BL.
8b. Get on the school secretary's good side, too. It makes your life easier. My Gymnasium has a Kopiekontigent, and she gave me the same number of copies as a teacher with a halbe Stelle! Always siezen with the secretary.
9. Register at a university unless you're in a Bundesland that charges tuition. You'll get a Semesterticket! It might not lohnt sich for Sommersemester, but it's definitely worth it for Wintersemester.
10. The Diversity Program does not "just" place in Berlin. (This year, only 4/20 were in Berlin.)
11. It looks like someone posted a link to this somewhere on Facebook. So, Liebe Grüße from Berlin, congrats to all of the new Fulbrighters, and tell me about yourselves! ETA/research/professor/media? Bundesland? Interests? Anything in particular you'd like to know more about? (Pretend that was slightly more eloquent, please. Just got back from 6 hours of oral exams.)
Hello & thanks for the wonderful blog. I've read through everything you've written now, and I have returned here in hopes of getting some questions answered. I'm going to be an ETA in Sachsen next year, though I don't know which city or school yet. I have thousands of questions, but since you're still enjoying yourself over there, I'll try not to bog you down too much! :)
ReplyDelete- What sorts of things did you pack? Did you ship anything? Did you wish you had packed something you didn't?
- Are WGs typically furnished? Did you bring your own sheets / towels or did you buy that stuff there? Any further information about your living situation and what one might expect would be helpful here.
- Can you expand a bit on the classy-casual dress code, specifically for a guy? I had originally planned to bring mostly dress pants, but that sounds too formal, so now I'm thinking of bringing nice jeans and lots of long-sleeve button-up shirts.
- How difficult is opening a bank account? I'm somewhat terrified of this :P
- What sorts of German language practice would you suggest before heading over there? I've done only about two years of German, but it's been in immersion/study abroad programs, so I'm near fluent in reading/writing, but terrible in conversation. In particular, I'm wondering about whether you struggled with interacting with teachers, interviewing for a WG, talking to government officials, etc.
- When you have a problem, do you go to PAD, Fulbright-Kommission, or IIE? So far, I've had a lot of difficulty figuring out who I am supposed to go to for certain questions. Any elaboration about how these different organizations affect you (if at all) while you're there would be helpful.
Thanks again for the wonderful blog, and sorry to inundate you with questions!
Best,
Dan
Hey Dan!
ReplyDelete1. Packing: I packed two suitcases and a backpack, and I didn't ship anything (and I hope I won't have to ship anything home!). I should have left my ice skates and one of my jackets at home; I think I could have survived with one sweatshirt-like jacket and a winter coat.
2. You can't really make generalizations about WGs; they're all over the place. My room came with a mattress on the floor, two chairs, and a desk made from a piece of plywood. I brought my own towel, but the Hauptmieterin gave me sheets. When you do a search on wg-gesucht, you can specify that you want a furnished room, but you still might have to buy sheets.
3. Dress code: When my Fachleiter contacted me, he said that my clothes shouldn't be too conservative or too sexy (those were the actual words he used). I'd add that you shouldn't look dirty. That's basically it. Most of the male teachers at my school are older, but a newer guy teacher wears jeans, a not-especially-dressy button-down or polo shirt, and brown/black shoes most of the time. You could get away with being less dressy, too.
4. Opening a bank account was easy, and I even got a free cappuccino. I went to the bank, showed them my Fulbright paperwork, my Anmeldung paperwork, and proof that I had enrolled as a student, and voila!
5. Any sort of conversational practice would be helpful, but I'd definitely recommend listening to children speak German at a normal pace (youtube?). I've been working on and off on a navel-gazing post about my German: that should be up in the next day or two, and that should answer your questions.
6. When I have a problem, I go to my BL. When it's a household or neighborhood-related question, then I ask my WG. Other than filling out a mid-year report, I haven't communicated at all with IIE. I emailed Fulbright twice to let them know that I was traveling and just recently sent a few emails to PAD, Fulbright, and the Senatsverwaltung about leaving early. Hmm... I emailed some bank account stuff and some reports to Fulbright, but they'll tell you about those. Basically, Fulbright and PAD will let you know if they need something from you, and you go through your BL/WG for the other things.
Hope this helps!