Monday, September 2, 2013

ESB Intensivkurs - Day 1

Ahh, Monday morning.

Today, though, was not a normal Monday morning - it was the start of our ESB Intensivkurs, and RIO welcomed over 100 international students to Hochschule Reutlingen.

Before I headed to the office for the day, though, a woman from city hall requested that I set aside 5 sets of bedding to give to her for students who are attending the Intensivkurs on the city's dime. I met her around 8:15 a.m. and handed over the bedding before leaving for the office.

The office was in a state of chaos - full-time staff members were finishing up some last-minute things when I walked in the door, and that state of chaos didn't dissipate until the end of our day.

My job for the start of the Intensivkurs was to hand out Naldo Bescheinigungs and information folders to each of the students. The Naldo Bescheinigungs prove that the student whose name is written on the sheet is, in fact, a student at the Hochschule, and allows students to get their semester bus pass - I not only had to hand out the Bescheinigungs, but also explain (in both German and English, depending on what language they spoke better) how to get to the shop that sells the bus tickets.

Once this task was completed, I headed over to our temporary Mensa (the actual cafeteria is under construction right now, so we have food brought into the university in another building from an outside company). Augusto and I filled up 130 cups of water for those eating in the Mensa, which was mostly everyone, as today's meal of Käsespätzle was free. Augusto, a Brazilian exchange student, helps in the international office when he is needed. His German in excellent for a non-native speaker. Once the cups were filled, we had to carry them out from the small room we prepared them in, to a table where everyone could access them.

Once we were done, we also got to indulge in the Käsespätzle, a Swabian dish of noodles, cheese, and dressed with fried onions. It was delicious! Augusto and I sat with some American students who are here for the course. They were all very friendly.

Once lunch was finished, Augusto and I met Thalia, a Mexican woman who completed a double degree program here in Reutlingen, and we all helped out on the campus tours. There were three groups of students, one of which Thalia and I were in charge of. Augusto was helping Max with registering students with the city.

We began activating the students' accounts in a computer lab on campus. Once that was completed, we walked around campus, with Thalia explaining all of the main haunts for Reutlingen students, including the library, the Mensa, and CaRe (student-run bar on campus). It was a beautiful day for being outside, so the tour was nice.

After our tour, we went back to a room, near the computer lab we started in, where Max and Augusto helped the students register with the city.

It was at this point that I ended up going back to the office to create a few more Naldo Bescheinigungs (there were 4 students for whom I did not make Bescheinigungs) and then was sent home a little early.

Overall, a great, but busy, day! I am reading now on my down-time before bed.


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