It has been a crazy yet exciting week here in Germany! I arrived to Braunschweig on Sunday, and am still getting used to the language and the layout of this town. Although I have been and lived in other countries, I have never been to one where I completely do not know their language- so this is a learning experience for me! I have found out that they, do in fact, understand English more than I originally guessed- yet I am trying to learn their language as much as I can so I can communicate when needed! This has been the biggest task I have tried to accomplish this week. So far, I have learned “thank you” in German (Thanks to the nice lady at the crepe store who has been helping me bits by bits!)
I have met the linguistics team here at the University and have learned a lot about the differences in second education in comparison to the United States. It was definitely a shock to me that they have an entirely different way of doing their college education. Professor Hopp has been extremely helpful with navigating the campus along with allowing me to go into his classes and actively recruit. I have also made connections with other professors here and have sat in their classes as well. We have even done a few lunch dates together to get to know one another!
As for the setup and logistics of my research- it is all set up and ready to start testing! I ran into minimal blocks while piloting. We did have to re-do one of our behavioral tasks and retest it, however that was easy to fix and we are set yet again. I anticipate starting testing the second week and have already gotten some survey participants interested- I am very excited!