Interculture

Last night I went and saw the film ´Der Untergang`, which roughly translates into ´the fall´ as in the fall of an empire, about the last 10 days or so of World War II. Instead of being about the war, though, it was more of a personal account of Hitler and his cronies(like Himmler and Goebbels). It was interesting, as an American whose only exposure to Hitler was in American films about WW II where he basically ran around in a suit and dorky mustache and said nothing of consequence except terrible lies about the Jews, to see a film made by Germans with Germans for Germans. I hope one day it comes to the states(this is pending, of course, the fact it has to be dubbed with English subtitles), but it won´t be for awhile if it does because it just came out in the theatres here about a week or two ago.

I also had a meeting today with the people I will be working for at interculture.de. All of them were very welcoming-we sat and ate cake and chatted for a little while. Then an American, James McDonald, showed me around all of the different webpages and explained to me in a little more detail what projects I´ll be working on. It is difficult to explain, but the company is kind of the practice of the theory one studies at the university(the culture and business theory, that is). The department which works with the company is referred to as IWK, the Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation, which basically means the interculture business(wirtschaft) communication. There are basically two parts one can focus on, the business culture or the more social culture(which can then be broken down into several things-body language, customs, etc.). Anyway, that´s much to much information. The professor, Professor Bolton(spare any lame Michael Bolton jokes please), is basically the man-the guy who´s in charge of it all and Marion Dathe is next on the list of very important people.

There is apparently an intense 2 day "game" that intercultural business students participate in at the university that Professor Bolton would eventually like to be able to run through the internet using web cams and a live video/audio stream. My job(along with a really cool guy named Mario from the Czech Republic) is to make it happen with technology, because Professor Bolton just has the vision but is relatively clueless when it comes to the practical technology part. I will also help with the design of some of the webpages, but I´m not exactly sure which ones they will want me to work on or if I will be developing, critiquing, or translating(German to English). If I have time I might serve as a consultant-type figure for James on what he is working on, too. Basically the cultural dept. is a mix of Latin American, Russian, Asian, American, and I´m sure I left a few out people that develop cultural modules where someone can basically stick in a CD-ROM and participate in a module where they can learn about another culture. It´s a pretty sweet position for me to be in because I get to meet people from all over the world while already being immersed in a completely different culture. Anyway, James, being an American, is doing a project on American culture and asked if I had time to take a look at what he´s done so far and give him some feedback.´

After work I walked around the town center and checked out some more stuff. James showed me some places, and told me about some cool things to do and see.

Tonight I´ll probably go to a party. There are two to choose from at different clubs-a beach party(indoors), and a disco party. Both should be a good time.

I guess that´s about it so far.

I made it!

Well, after a long plane ride and a seemingly longer train adventure(I use this term because I had to transfer to three different trains to get here), I finally arrived in Jena at about 3pm on the afternoon of the 27th of September.

The town is about 100,000 people, but has the feel of Bloomington. It lies in between small mountains, and most of the buildings and houses are very old. There is only one "skyscraper" known as the tower, and I´m sure if you look at pictures of Jena on the web you will see it. It has the word Intershop(I think that´s what it is) on the top. It was built a long time ago by the communist party as an example of how amazing and progressive the socialist movement was. There are regulations now that require buildings to fit in with the surrounding environment, and actually, that is what my roommate does-decides whether or not a building permit is granted based on whether or not the proposed building fits in with its surroundings. Mainly offices are located within the tower(including the one I will be working in! I will go in Thursday or Friday of this week, but won´t probably officially start until next Monday), except for the lower floors where there may be shops or something.

I have met a few people here-the crowd is a mix of young and old like Bloomington, because there is a university here. My first night I ate dinner with Ralf, Connie, and Petra. Last night I went to a bbq and met a whole slew of young folks. Tonight I am going to a movie about Hitler-it´s apparently pretty popular here, it was just released about a week or so ago. No subtitles though, 100 percent Deutsch, so I will have to pay extra close attention. Everyone has been helpful and kind so far. Most of the college-aged people can speak or understand at least a little bit of English, but most of the older generation have no knowledge of it. My German is rusty to say the least, but I have been improving little by little. My roommate says that I speak pretty good German and that I learn quickly, so hopefully I´ll have it under my belt in no time. I can understand when spoken to(if it´s not too fast), but since it´s been so long since I´ve spoken, my vocabulary has been flushed down the tubes of forgotten long ago.

Though it´s been mainly overcast since I´ve been here(I´ve only seen the sun shining once, and that was today for about half an hour), I haven´t felt nervous, or sad, or any negative feeling really(except toward the blasted keyboards because they´re set up differently and I have to re-learn how to type!).