Die Welt wird kleiner.

It's amazing how easily one can adapt to a new place after only a few weeks.

I'm really starting to feel (almost) "at home" here in Marburg, now that I have a regular routine. I am still walking several miles each day, usually with a heavy backpack filled with books and groceries, but at least now I have figured out the several pairs of shoes that I own that don't give me blisters/sore feet! I also really enjoy the company of the other Fulbrighters, and the mutual sharing of our plights and successes to communicate in German. The group is really interesting and diverse and I love getting to know people during our frequent long walks.

Actually, everything just really feels a lot more comfortable than it did a couple of weeks ago, especially my language class. I have learned so many new words this week alone, and my listening comprehension has drastically improved. Even though I still have a great deal of difficulty expressing myself, I understand about 50-80% of what I hear. Something interesting I've noticed is that I have a much easier time understanding German-speaking men than I do women - I mentioned this to one of the many musician Fulbrighters, who helped me make some sense of it. She said that human ears are more sensitive to the frequency at which most men speak than the typical range for females.

I had an interesting experience this past week - biometric passport photos. Apparently Germans are very big on attaching photos to any kind of application, and we all needed them when we applied for our mandatory residence permit and our visas. Although Fulbright told us to be prepared for this and bring a bunch of passport photos with us, we apparently needed a special kind of "biometric" photo, which we could only obtain at a few specific kiosks in town - luckily we were able to find exactly what we needed at the Bahnhof (train station). Though there are several thousand unacceptable facial expressions/attire for these photographs, they actually make a lot of sense, as they are essentially standardized, making quantitative analysis and comparison of facial features possible. However practical, however, these photos definitely do not bring out the best of one's appearance. Most of us, myself included, looked like we were headed to Gitmo:



Silly passport photos aside, I've had a great weekend doing some really cool things. This weekend there was a Mittelalterlicher Markt (a medieval/Renaissance fair) in Marburg on the terrace of a castle. There were people dressed in costume (including entire families), lots of delicious things to eat and drink, performances with period instruments and people making/selling crafts. Though I've been to a few such fairs in the States before, the thing that was really great about this one - which was also particularly well done - was that the history of this town really dates back to that time period. It was really cool to imagine that a similar such scene may have actually transpired in the same place hundreds of years ago. Here are some photos from the fair:





One of many incredibly well-behaved German dogs that were at the fair.



My camera battery unfortunately died before I was able to take that many pictures, but it was a lot of fun.

Today (Sunday) a few of us walked to Elisabethkirche to hear an organ concert. Although we walked around the outside of the church on our tour of the city a couple of weeks ago, I was really happy to be able to see the inside of the building, which was absolutely stunning, as was the music (FYI - you can click on the images to see a larger version):

Fellow Fulbrighters! From left: Keith, Yun, David, Rachel





Old meets new.

The acoustics in this place were incredible.

I also was able to get some better photos of the outside of the church and the surrounding buildings/the nearby botanical gardens:















Anyway, I am going to head to bed - I am starting another busy week tomorrow and I have plenty of things to work on in the meantime:



Bis dann,

Ashlan