"no entiendo...."

Buenas dias, chicos!

Sorry for running a little bit late, but there are just so many things to do, that it is at times a little difficult to keep up. Well, to start with the most dramatic change since my last post:

University has started. Yayyy! Fun times! Just kidding…I have never felt this overwhelmed before. Or to put it in a nicer way: This is the biggest challenged I ever faced in my life so far.

The university here is completely different from what I am used in Tilburg. In Tilburg I have a pretty relaxed life with little work during the semester, apart from some group work and case studies. Of course that also meant that I had to step up to my game before the exams started, but it was always manageable. It does not work like that here AT ALL. Although my level of Spanish is still horribly low, I can already identify my least favorite words: Trabajos grupales!!! In each of my classes (five to be exact) group plays an essential role, sometimes it counts up to 50% of the final grade. In Tilburg group work meant to me that it is enough to meet up once every few weeks to divide the tasks. Here it is not. We have to hand in case studies every week and give presentations on a regular basis, so on top of my classes I have up to five group meetings a week.

Group work here allows me to experience many of the cultural differences between Germany and Peru. It starts with the “Hora Peruana”. If there is a meeting scheduled at 10 o’clock, it is safe to say that showing up at 10.30 h is perfectly normal. You might even be the first person to arrive. In the beginning I found that a little bit irritating, but once I started adapting to this technique, I didn’t mind any more. Another difference I discovered is what I name “Peruvian inefficiency”. A meeting can last up to three hours, but in the end when you look at the results, it is startlingly poor.

Another big difference here: my schedule. On Tuesdays and Thursdays my first class starts at 7.30 am and my last class ends at 9.30 pm. So I have the pleasure to spend 14 hours at university. Fun times! On the other hand this also means that I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays, but if you count in the group works, I spend on average 10 hours at university every day. Sometimes even on Saturdays.

However, the biggest challenge of all here: my low level of Spanish. At times I am a little bit frustrated with Tilburg University for encouraging me to go to a Spanish-speaking country, while only offering us two poor Spanish classes, which did not prepare me at all for my life here. Of course I expected it to be hard, but reality is just insane. And it doesn’t really help that all other exchange students from different universities seem to have an advanced level. Of course the students and professors understand my situation, but nonetheless it always feels humiliating to sit in group meetings or classes and only be an extra.

One situation in the top-ten of my “I-have-never-ever-felt-this-stupid!”- list is when professors and students ask me: “Did/Do you understand everything?”. Quite often I don’t even have to answer, because it becomes clear that I didn’t even understand the question “Do you understand everything?”. But the positive thing…I am quite used to this situation by now and I don’t feel as humiliated as I did in the beginning.

Nevertheless, I love exchange. I realize that it might be hard to believe after this blog, but my life does not only consist of university here. During the week it does, but the weekends on the other hands are awesome. Great parties, travelling, Surfing and superb people. I am living a life of extremes here. But most of the times that is just how I like it. And as the days go by, I master one challenge after the other, I am pushed to my boundaries and at the end of the day when I come home from an exhausting day to meet all of my friends in my casa, I realize that this is the most interesting time of my life so far. So I can only encourage everyone to go on exchange and to be pushed to one’s own boundaries. It is worth all the tough times!!!

Besos,

Katrin