German Freshman Week

Photo by Stanley Morales  (Pexels)

In October, the Universities started in Germany. The reason why I am only posting about it now is because I have a first come first go rule. The articles I wrote first need to be published first. It’s odd if not downright terrible but old habits die hard so here we are.

As I was saying. The universities began which means new students at the universities are starting their college careers as well. Excited people for whom a new chapter of life is beginning. The supposedly best four years of one’s life is about to start. Who won’t be excited about that?

Out of a trivial technicality, I was able to join the freshman week and by technicality, I mean dropping out of one college and failing a semester at another. Not proud of that fact but there is not much I can do about that now.

Honestly, for my college misfortune, I blame the pandemic. I knew for a fact that I could not concentrate during online classes yet I still chose to start uni the same year I graduated from high school. If it weren’t for the pandemic I wouldn’t have to study online. Long story short, terrible planning on my behalf and terrible timing on the pandemics behalf led to a series of failures.

One cannot imagine my burst of excitement when I found out that lectures are in person again at least for me since that meant my failing streak was finally over. If it is truly over is yet to be seen. Even though it has only been a week, I am confident that I am better off than last year.

Online classes I didn’t manage to keep up with and failures aside. This year is going to be different. This year is going to be better. This year is going to be great. Because everything is in person and everyone is going to be there.

So there I was. A week before university starts. Freshman week. Where one gets to meet their peers, they get to spend four years with. Where one gets to know the campus better. Where one gets to learn how to get started as a college student. Who wouldn’t want to attend?

Honestly, I was psyched that I could join freshman week. I get a chance to redo the things I missed in the previous two unsuccessful semesters. A time where I could live my college dreams, meet new people and party with them. Little did I know that college students would take that college dream quite literally.

Monday was nothing. Well, not nothing since I was on my way to the dorm but there was also nothing planned on the university’s behalf. Turns out that freshman week is not planned by the university but rather by each faculty so each freshman week varies depending on the major one is studying.

Tuesday’s events were all online since we are still in a pandemic after all. That day everyone involved in making one’s life at the university easier introduced themselves including the professors. Later that same day, some upperclassman explained the digital world of studying.

Wednesday was when the fun stuff happened in person. At least so I thought. On the plan were a campus tour and a pub quiz. First day of uni meeting actual real-life people. It is exciting. Making this experience feel more realistic.

That day I arrived on time and did not get lost on the way there. I do not want to pat myself on the shoulder here but it is harder said than done. Frankly, there were a lot of people looking like deer in the headlights so I knew I was at the right place. There were some small groups of people talking. Others are standing awkwardly alone yet close to one another unwilling to make the first move and talk.

Oddly enough I was the one who put fear aside and talked to the others. The reason for my surprise is simply because it went against everything I thought I would be. This year is just full of surprises, I assume. I never thought that I would be courageous enough to talk to strangers but here we are.

With a smile (still unsure if it was fake or not), I turned to the people closest to me who were standing awkwardly alone and I just started to talk to them about the basic things like name and age. I did not need to ask about the subject since we all were studying chemistry.

Then the conversation just continued where we learned more about each other. Even as the campus tour started, we learned more about one another with each passing building. Can’t say that we were the dictionary definition of friends by the end of the tour but we were closer than we are to the rest of our peers… so we are something.

When the tour ended, we were all quite surprised because it was shorter than anticipated and there was not much information passed on but at least we could spend more time talking. Little did we know that we ran out of things to say. It was awkward but at least we were eating for the time being.

When the silence finally killed me from the inside, I turned around and started talking to the person behind me because I felt guilty and bad that they were there all alone. I don’t want that to happen to me so I won’t let it happen to anyone else. We got to talking and we got along just fine.

Turns out the people arranging the day wanted us to get to know one another but it just seemed as if everyone found a group and are unwilling to break the social boundaries so that failed spectacularly. Another thing the organisers wanted was for us to talk through the only medium college students knew how. Alcohol and lots of it and party games and lots of that.

It took some very enthusiastic helpers to motivate some freshmen to play but most did not even under social pressures and public shaming did not help them. I swear some even left because of the alcohol and party stuff. Since I am not a cheap beer (or any beer as matter of fact) drinker, I stayed out of it. That just means that we get to stand around and “talk”. Bluntly put, it was quite boring. Drunk upperclassman trying to encourage an unhealthy drinking habit in freshman to no avail much to the organiser’s dismay.

The organisers even forgot that they promised a tour of the botanical garden. After reminding them, they did give the interested students a surprisingly unspectacular tour of the gardens. I am not sure if it was because it’s autumn and most of the plants are not blooming or if it is just the very unenergetic tour guides but it was somewhat depressing. The information was something we could have established by walking through the gardens ourselves.

As soon as the garden tour started, it also ended. It was real quick since no tour guide can say anything about anything in that garden and the information sources seems flawed and contradictory. My point is that the tour ended and we were back to standing around. This time around, we did not even attempt to talk. It was awkward.

However, we figured out that we had errands to run and places we wanted to see so we set out on a discovery tour of our own. Maybe it was less fact and figures and more disorientation and details but it was something. The campus tour was too fast and we did not take time to take it all in so the self-exploration tour was necessary.

First stop, the library. I love books even though I barely read them and someone from the ragtag group we created needed a book. So trusting our guts, we found the library. It is huge and there were more books than expected. It was overwhelming but in a good way.

The next stop was the Student Service Center where there were freshman gift bags one can pick up. Then we went to the cafeteria to charge up our student cards. Then we went to the Student Committee since they supposedly have gift bags for freshmen as well. Spoiler, the gift bags got lost in transaction.

We got back just in time for the pub quiz, which was frankly a big mistake since it turns out that college students are not punctual at all. The pub quiz started half an hour later and was not necessary at all even though we did get a few good laughs out of it. Honestly, I don’t know what a pub quiz and after that day, I still don’t. After that, I just went home since I was oddly enough exhausted.

Thursday´s events were all evening events and it does not take a genius to figure what the organisers have planned. First, was a pizza party with tons of beer and later was a “tour of the city”. By tour, I meant party in the clubs of the city. I probably do not need to mention that I was not in attendance that day and barely missed anything.

Friday. The last day of the freshman week before university starts. I can´t lie but I was not looking forward to that day because of how the previous two days was executed. Nevertheless, I worked up the courage to face the music one last time for the last time.

Luckily, I did not have to face the music all alone since I made sure that someone I met on Wednesday would accompany me. We had to encourage each other to go through with it all again. It was calming to hear that I was not the only one who found the freshman-drinking week slightly pathetic.

Much to both of our dismay, Friday was not much different from Wednesday with a twist. Instead of just drinking, we were all part of a drinking competition where teams take part in various competitions to see which team can drink the most.

When we first got there though, there was not a single bottle of beer insight so we thought it would be different. Nope. Not really. We just gathered in a lecture hall so we have space. It was awkwardly silent in that hall when we were waiting for everyone to arrive.

Since we were waiting, my first thought was (and I am not even kidding) to network. That day I made a new friend and a few acquaintances. We talked about basics again since I don’t know any good conversation starters. Due to disorganization, it took quite some time to get started with the planned events.

Later, the campus rally began. It was all fun and games until the first dare to drink came. Many of us didn’t drink and the upperclassmen were not thrilled. Technically, we did not have to drink because we did not lose but they were very… ambitious.

With each game that came, the more willing we were to drink even I had a drink or two since they oh so generously offered something else besides beer. The more we drank the talkative we became, which was the intention of the organisers all along so unlike Wednesday, they succeeded in their goal (partially).

The main objective of each game was different. It was either win-or-drink or win-and-drink. The more one drank the more points one can gain for their team. However, I believe the point system was subjective. Each competition gave different points for a similar task but nobody truly cared because it was just silly games.

We did not manage to do all the games that day and unsurprisingly did not win. Some of us had to leave early because they have appointments but I left because the friend I made was feeling unwell. When we left there were some drunk upperclassmen, mostly guys, who asked why we are leaving but we ignored them.

That afternoon was surprisingly exhausting even though we did have a few good laughs. However, back at uni the next week the people we talked to returned to being mere strangers so the freshman week did not make lasting connections between everyone as intended.

Even though I might have shit talked the freshman week, I can´t say that I completely hated it. I did meet some great people who would help me if I am stuck and I would help if the same would happen to them. All in all the freshman week was not a total loss but just excessively much alcohol.