Insights on German and American culture, things to do in Germany, and the daily life of a 24 year old guy bee-bopping around in Germany for a year with the CBYX

21 July 2011

das Wanderleben

German has this obsession with compound words. Today's word, Wanderleben, is a combination of the words Leben, which means life, and Wander, which pretty obviously means wander. Wanderleben translates as something like "an itinerant lifestyle" or "vagrancy."

I mentioned before that I'll be moving around a bit when I'm in Germany. My program has three distinct phases. The first phase is language school. The 75 participants are divided among 4 cities for a two month stay at a language institute. My language school is in a town called Radolfzell. Right! That Radolfzell, with all of those famous...erm...things and...events. I've never heard of the town and it turns out, I traveled through it once.

Honestly, I was kind of bummed that I didn't get a bigger city, but this one is in the Alps. And it's on an enormous lake. So I'll shut my damned mouth.


The second part of the program is a semester at a university, and the third part is a 5-month internship with a German company. For both of these parts, I'm assigned to a specific German state. I can leave, but my job and university have to be in that state. I found about about 2 months ago that my state is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MVP). I know, again with all these famous and popular places...they spoil me really.

Chances are good that I'll have to move between my university city and my internship city, but they could be the same. I'm excited though, because MVP is right next to Denmark (where LegoLand is) and Poland (where my people are from).

From May 2011 until July 2012 I will have slept in 11 different beds. Not counting sleepovers.

4 comments:

  1. As difficult as it was to encourage you to leave, I am so anxious to see how excited you will be while you are there. Enjoy this! I love you and I will miss you

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  2. i like how 'sleepovers' is a key word

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  3. i also like how your mom leaves comments under the alias of 'mom'

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  4. Vicki is a tricky lady. I asked her once if she ever did any black ops stuff while she was in the military. She said no, but Im sure she has been conditioned to lie about that sort of stuff.

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