Between the Lines

My Introduction to German Literature course is my favorite and least-favorite class at the same time.  On the one hand, most of my homework time and effort are spent on Literature.  On the other hand, almost all my USAC excursion opportunities are through my Literature course.  We aren't studying just the texts; we are also looking at the authors and what life experiences could have inspired their reading.

On Monday (October 24), we visited BallinStadt, the emigration Museum in Hamburg.  Housed in the boarding houses/barracks where thousands of Europeans (mainly Germans, but also Polish, Czech, and some Russian people) waited for their chance to board a ship bound for the new world and new life the United States offered.  Many people who entered Ellis Island had come from BallinStadt.

Divided in to sections following the stages of a journey to a new country (Reasons to Leave, On Board, Arrival, Adjusting, etc.), the museum was very interactive, and offered many exhibits to read or listen to (in German and in English), as well as a number of hands-on activities.  One such activity, directed mainly toward younger kids, allowed a visitor take their own journey, making decisions about how to travel (take a train or car to the harbor, what to pack/leave behind, etc.).

Because we were there on a class excursion, we were given a worksheet/scavenger hunt to guide us through the museum.  The worksheet definitely pointed me to the most-important parts of the museum, and gave the visit some structure.  But because we were there as a group, and traveling on group train tickets, our time wasn't entirely our own, so we couldn't linger too long on a particular exhibit.  Though I spent most of my time searching for the answers to to the scavenger hunt, I definitely took quite a bit away from my visit.

The second excursion of this past week was a reading by Jenny Erpenbeck, author of Heimsuchung (the novel we are reading at the end of the Literature course), and by Karl-Heinz Ott.  I got to meet Ms. Erpenbeck, got my copy of her book signed, and talked with her a very little bit.  A lot of what was said and read was hard to understand, because it was very fast.  I could understand Ms. Erpenbeck best, and recognized the excerpts she read from her weekly newspaper column as pieces of inspiration for characters and events in Heimsuchung.  I'm halfway through Ms. Erpenbeck's book already, working ahead so I'm not overwhelmed when it's actually assigned for class.  Working my way through the new vocabulary and reading the flow of the text has been among the most-educational things I've done this semester.

After basketball last night (thanks to a care package from home!), a final exam this morning, and a long-overdue haircut this afternoon, I'm ready for the weekend.  The plan is to stay in Lüneburg, mainly to write the next essay/paper for Literature.