The first day of school.

And what a first day of school it was.

The biggest (actually, the only) culture shock I experienced in Germany was my first day of school. The classes worked so differently in the way they were set up. While my classes in the states have always included almost nothing other than an introduction about how the class is going to work as if it were everyone's first day of school ever, my classes in Germany all had the same routine, and therefore did not explain a thing to the students about how the class was going to work. Sometimes my classes in Germany would not even have a syllabus, or would only have a very vague one that included only information about what we were going to be talking about in class, and conveniently leaving out anything about when the tests are.

I ended that first day of school in Germany with a good long cry.

I was just as surprised by the classes here, even though I had been going to college in the US for 3 years before I studied in Germany. I had 2 classes today, and both professors wanted to know what everyone's major was and why they were taking this class. I was very happy to see that I was not the only one majoring in a language in my business class. There was also a lot of putting up a projection of the syllabus and pointing out everything to the "ok, we get it" point.

For the most part, I have stopped boycotting English. I don't know for how long, really. I started off speaking in a British accent, but the longer I conversed with people, the more it turned back into my horrible California accent.

Not only am I putting my English boycott on hold because of stress and not wanting to find alternatives for talking to people, but because something unexpected happened: I really like my roommate. The other 2 roommates I have had at my school were terrible people for me to live with. So liking my roommate enough to be able to have conversations with her, right off the bat, is a first for me. Of course, I was planning to make whoever I live with an exception to the boycott anyway, but I can't speak English to my roommate and not to her friends who I have been spending time with.

Though I have been speaking only German to myself, my diary, my Goddess, and my dad, and only Farsi to my mom and my sister, the amount of English I have been using has been driving me crazy. While I was waiting for a class to start, the class that was in the room right before mine was a beginning German class, with a teacher I had never seen before. I know all the German teachers, so I figure that this woman must have only started teaching here last year or this year. When I went into the room, I said "Guten Tag" to her, even though of course she had no clue who I was and I had equally as much of an idea who she was.

I was, however, very happy to be reunited with one of my best friends after class today. I am learning French in order to talk to her and others in something besides English, but until I do, I am talking to her in English. I don't know how I could have pictured walking around the city with her without being able to have a lively conversation. I'm glad I chose to speak English with her. But my French class starts tomorrow, so I think it will help me a lot if I say everything I can say in French even if I have to speak English.

I was a bit afraid of going back into anything remotely resembling my old routine, since it's heartbreaking enough that i'm not in Germany. When my friend and I became inflicted with the same ailment and needed to drop everything and run to the student health center, that was a situation in which I would have had to speak English anyway. It may not have been life-threatening, but I had lots of questions for the nurse, and needed to talk to my friend as well, in between our visits with the nurse and while we were waiting. And since I was not in as much of an emergency situation as my friend and didn't need to see a doctor right away, I have to make a phone call tomorrow to set up an appointment with the health center. And talking on the phone wouldn't be possible without speaking English anyway. I never got sick in Germany, but I know people who did, and they were able to speak English with the doctors if they needed to. But if I didn't speak English here, I would be in a very tough situation. So why is it so different?

I definitely preferred my first day of school in Germany, though I was incredibly happy to see my friend again.