Election watching and the U.S.

Late Tuesday night... well early Wednesday morning... I participated in an event that I suspect all (if not most) US citizens did: election watching. I expect that I was like everyone else at the beginning, nail biting and on the edge of my chair, watching the state races and Electoral College votes unfold. However, this time was also different from 2008 election, when I was huddled in a friend’s college dorm room, completing engineering homework and anxiously awaiting election results; myself, another ex-pat, and two other Germans drowsily watched the elections, just wanting to stay awake until our questions were answered, and not another minute more. In the end, we didn’t make it through, but luckily woke up just in time to watch President Obama’s acceptance speech.

Living in Germany, I am very humbled by foreign interest in national issues such as hurricane Sandy, the election, and even our healthcare system. Sometimes, I’m simply amazed at how much people know and other times, I’m slightly embarrassed at how far some of the more ‘erroneous, biased facts’ tend to reach (and also, this). Whatever the case may be, I still try to bring in relevant and personal observations about my culture into discussion. My hope is to add dynamic to the conversation and (hopefully) portray the U.S. in a different light from mainstream European media. (The link is to an opinion article).

Interestingly enough, mention of the U.S. has managed to sneak into almost all of my lectures at the University. Most of the time, the U.S. is used as a comparison to highlight a difference in political ideologies (and court cases) and other times it’s American research and terminology. It always catches me off guard to listen to a German lecture and then have a few very familiar phrases thrown into the middle of sentences.

For me, it’s still odd to see the presence of my homeland everywhere, on the streets as stars and stripes leggings and scarves and on fliers for ‘American style’ college parties (red solo cups included). Although I do welcome the fact that I can still find brownie mix in major grocery stores.

Humor

Originally I was going to use this blog post to explain my experiences studying at a German university as a foreigner, but as I was drafting this post, I realized that I needed to expand on both of these ideas. The latter is undoubtedly a theme throughout this whole blog, as I learn to once again situate myself within a new environment.

A few years ago, as I was writing an essay reflecting on my time studying abroad, I explained that the most necessary ingredient for a successful stay was humor. It’s been a little over three years and I still find this statement to be remarkably true.

In the month between my arrival in Augsburg and the beginning of the semester, I was helplessly going about trying to figure out the necessary requirements for registering with the University. Since I was new in the city and the only foreigner I knew that was studying here (at that time), I hung on to the slow trickle of information that was given to me. Indeed, I had already been accepted to the Environmental Ethics program, but that didn’t quite mean that I was an actual student yet; I still had to take a German proficiency test (passed), sort out health care, and pray to all the University Gods that I didn’t forget any important documents back in the States.

Surprisingly, with the amount of things that could have gone extremely wrong, registration (which was less than a week before classes started) went without a hiccup. Other than that, I had to get my head around the University’s internet system (UofMers: not quite WolverineAccess/Ctools) for which to enroll in classes and making ‘the perfect’ schedule (no classes on Friday = Travelday!).

Here’s where the humor part becomes important: at any given time, especially now that I’m at the University and among students, I can either completely misunderstand a conversation or stumble upon my own speech. As I haven’t been in Germany for that long, I’m still working hard at comprehending/speaking fluidly and correctly. Trip-ups are bound to happen and it’s not comfortable having my lingual ‘imperfections’ exposed, but I just have to remember to laugh it off and acknowledge that things will get better over time.

One Festival, United Under Trachten

This October, I’ve had the particular pleasure of living not too far away from every American’s dream festival: Oktoberfest. Whether you cherish the amber colored liquid or not, partaking in this annual wedding celebration is regarded as the zenith of the ‘ultimate’ European experience. Riding the trains to Munich during this time, I met a few Americans (some were unfortunately from Ohio) and overheard a number of Australian/English conversations- it seemed that no matter where in Europe travelers were a few days ago, everyone was making the pilgrimage to southern Bavaria. 

It was even noticeable in Augsburg- you could always tell who was making their way to Oktoberfest by the clothing they were wearing, Trachten: lederhosen for the men, dirndls for the women. The streets near the train station were teeming with people in traditional German garb. What made it most interesting is that if anyone were placed in southern Germany for just the two weeks of Oktoberfest, it would be easy to assume that a large percentage of Germans still wear this clothing (which isn’t the case).

 

Even more apparent in Munich, Trachten is what binds both the tourists and the locals for these two weeks. Just from looking at someone’s appearance, it’s hard to determine whether they’re a foreigner or they’ve been going to Oktoberfest for years. I was even mildly amused when I found my dress (bought at a large clothing store) worn by a few other German women, assuring me that I fit in as a local . On the fairgrounds with thousands of other visitors, it’s egregiously apparent if someone isn’t wearing Tracht- almost as if they weren’t ‘in’ on what the festival was about.

Dancing on tables, an Okto-time favorite

In the beer tents, all pretense of who you are and where you came from dropped away as it was known that everyone was there for the same reasons: enjoying the food, drink, and atmosphere. And no matter where you were doing, when the song ‘Ein Prosit’ was played by the bandstand (which occurred every 20 minutes), everyone has to raise their glass and stumble through the lyrics.

Uprooted

Now that I'm entering my second full week of living in Augsburg, early adventures are now becoming part of my everyday life. Although I still don't know the city entirely, and a wrong turn can lead me into a back alley, I'm sure that now I'll be able to lead myself back home. This city's larger than the ones that I've previously lived in, so there's still much to discover - especially in terms of finding a new favorite falafel joint or a special coffee shop.

Dome in Munich

In this being my third stay in Germany, I'm surprised to realize how much I've changed, or rather, grown more accustomed to a particular way of doing things. A trip to the grocery store no longer has entertainment value (because where can you find jarred meat in the States?), rather it has become a constant reminder that I am in a different place. After spending a day (unsuccessfully) running around the city looking for a few odd grocery items, I am confronted with either keeping my preferences and constantly searching for ‘that one thing’ or moving on and finding a new norm.

Munich and, more importantly, Alps in the
background

However, I welcome this unexpected push to find a new equilibrium. I’m forced to explore what Augsburg offers and relish in random exchanges with strangers. I’m excited to see where curiosity will take me and how my roots, that were so entrenched in American soil, will adapt to to their new, German environment.

Early evening Munich

Feeling uprooted, it was also nice to see Munich with a familiar face yesterday.

Greetings from Germanland!

So I’ve almost been in Augsburg for a full week and I figured that I might as well clue everybody in to what I’ve been up to.

Just your average picture of a German city (Augsburg) from a vantage point - I have tons of these from previous times abroad

Sleep deprived and exhausted, I arrived in Munich early Saturday morning and managed to drag all of my stuff (100 lbs in total) through the airport, on a few trains, and to my new flat. Saturday was almost a blur for me as I deliriously tried to purchase bedding and food, in German nonetheless, before falling asleep at two in the afternoon. When I awoke around 9pm and had just resigned myself to suffering from jetlag, my new roommates surprised me with a cake to celebrate my birthday.  

Me, my gnome, and famous Augsburger graffiti

This week I’ve been lying low as I’m trying to ward off jetlag as well as getting my head back into speaking German. To prevent me from just sleeping all day, I’ve given myself little tasks to get me out of the flat and explore the city. So far I’ve managed to get myself terribly lost, but with that I’ve also successfully registered with the city, opened a bank account, and bought my fair share of pretzels (the soft, Bavarian kind).

Today, I’m headed off to Munich to attend a conference on Sustainable Economies with one of my roommates, tomorrow Oktoberfest. When in Rome, right?

Why Environmental Ethics

My interest in Environmental Ethics was a long time coming and is undeniably the result of many unforgettable experiences while studying at the University of Michigan. However, I feel as though one event in particular precipitated my draw towards ethics. 

In May 2011, I worked on a project for the class ‘Sustainable Neighborhoods’ in Detroit, Michigan. The main part of our project was to talk to residents in the Delray neighborhood and develop ways in which the community could ask for benefits (such as neighborhood improvement) when a bill for the New International Trade Crossing is passed in Michigan’s state Legislature. What I found most surprising in my two weeks was how the environment so severely affected Delray’s residents. 

Surrounded a busy freeway, oil refinery, cement factory, waste treatment center, and steel/coke plant, Delray’s air quality left much to be desired and many were suffering from various respiratory illnesses. Even one of the neighboring communities was ranked to be one of the most polluted ZIP codes in the Michigan, if not the U.S. I found it particularly hard knowing that my chosen profession (engineering) supports a lot of these industries. Even more, being an asthmatic, I saw how a whole community was suffering from an illness that could have been entirely preventable. 

In studying ethics, I want to explore some of the questions I’ve asked myself over the last year, mostly regarding concepts of regulation, economic gain, and progress. For me, it seems like a dichotomy still exists between industry and the environment; engineers can make decisions to promote economic growth, but do we (can we?) fully realize the costs?

Welcome, welcome!

I am Cassandra Ballert and I will be writing for the Roger M. Jones Journal this year. Please- take a seat and enjoy the ride!
 

My traveling friend

 Here’s a little background on who I am and what I’ll be doing:

I am from Commerce Township, Michigan which is seated in the north-east corner of the sprawling Detroit suburbs. In December 2011, I graduated from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) majoring in Chemical Engineering and German, minoring in International Engineering, and scholaring with the Graham Sustainability Institute. My academic path may seem a little disjointed, but trust me, it works (and I’ll get into that in another blog post). Between graduation and now, I had a quick stint working as an Environmental Engineer, but (alas!) I found myself going back to school to add yet another area of study to my collection: Philosophy.

Starting in October, I will be studying Environmental Ethics at the University of Augsburg in Germany.  Why specifically Environmental Ethics is a topic I plan to cover in my next post, as the reasoning is long and involves a story.
 

Sign poetry in Tahquamenon Falls

I will be using this blog space for a myriad of different things: reporting on experiences abroad, capturing feelings of a lonely traveler, developing my photography and editing skills, and keeping my brain fluid in English. :) My goal is to also keep the readers engaged, so I’m hoping to maintain short, but frequent posts and I genuinely encourage commenting. (So please do!)

Let’s take this trip together,
Cassie