Classes are international

Now that all of my classes are meeting for the second or third time, I'm starting to get a feel for who's in them, and finding out that really, somethings about classes are true everywhere.

Somethings are uniquely German (in my experience). For example, each class meets once a week, for two hours, for example, from 10-12. However, German universities have what they call the "akademische Viertel" (academic quarter), which means that a class that meets from 10-12 actually meets from 10:15-11:45. So the actual instructional time is only an hour and a half, half of what a standard class in the states is.

Still, how you behave in class is still the same, regardless of how long class is. I mentioned a while ago that no one wants to go first here, either. Students still come unprepared to class - and because Profs here also put out materials to be read and copied too late in the week. In seminars, there is also always "that guy" - at least one, sometimes more. The one who starts every answer with a condescending "Clearly..." or "It's very easy:..." only then to keep talking so long you realize he's just repeating the same sentence on the page in front of him three times with the words in a different order each time. And you know this because he talks ALL THE TIME. And in any lecture there are always "those girls" - they usually come in pairs, sometimes as triplets - who dress alike, all out of the same magazine, and can't tell that when they talk in a lecture, everyone can, in fact, hear them. And it's distracting. And when you try and give them "the look", they assume you are passing judgment on their hair-ribbon, or something, and since your judgment clearly carries no weight, not being dressed from the same magazine they are, there's no need to interrupt their conversation. Also, Trekkies are the same everywhere. I don't just mean people who enjoy watching Star Trek - I mean the people you look at and think "I bet they watch a lot of Star Trek." Yep, they're the same here.

Aside from classes, not too much has been going on. This weekend is another holiday weekend, with Friday being May first, so there will be possibly more events to attend, but with a lot of people taking trips, too. Don't have plans yet, but it's still a few days away, something will surely come up.