Arriving in the small town Oberlin in the middle of Ohioan nowhere, I was asked many times why I came. My answer, that I wanted to get to know the USA from an inside perspective, was always responded to with "Well, Oberlin is definitely not the USA".

Indeed, Oberlin reminds me very much of the small Gallian village offering resistance to the big Roman Empire in "Asterix & Obelix". From an American point of view, Oberlin is as liberal as can be, with its Program House for Feminist and Transgendered People, its gender neutral bathrooms and countless events for political discussion. I can get a glimpse of what the "real USA" must be like when Students tell me about how shocked they were arriving at Oberlin, meaning that I learn most of other people's culture shocks, and not my own one.

That's not to say that I did not experience a little culture shock myself, I did. I'm still not a hundred percent used to getting asked "How are you" twenty times a day, and I still notice myself thinking about how I really am to give the most adequate answer instead of just saying something quick or not answering at all, which seems to be perfectly socially acceptable at times. But as I said, my culture shock must be tiny compared to what's possible.

Oberlin's liberality is by far not the only thing interesting about my first semester here, though. As the German Language Teaching Assistant, I have to live in one of the many program houses, in German House. It's a house for students with some German speaking abilities and an interest in German culture. As I found out, this is the perfect place to be to fulfill my mission of cultural exchange and diminishing prejudices between Germans and Americans. As one of my duties as LTA I organize "German House Events" (which have been very much food-related as I notice looking back), in which cultural exchange thrives at its best. But also while just hanging out in the lounge watching TV there's always some cultural learning going on. I would have never thought that I could get so much out of my simply living in German House.

Also, German House hosts a German movie night every week, the movies of which I get to pick. It has been incredibly interesting to me to talk to people about the movies and find out what they like or don't like and why. Another part of my work as LTA is attending the German Table at the dining hall and talk to students of German in German. That way, I got to know a lot of people pretty fast, and I have to say that Oberlin is full of absolutely interesting personalities.

This first semester I took Philosophy and Neuropharmacology, the former of which the most exciting course I ever had, the latter definitely the most challenging. I very much like and appreciate the idea of a Liberal Arts College, in which you can study a variety of subjects and will definitely get a much broader education. So I decided to try and broaden my horizon myself, not taking any psychology courses, which is my major in back in Marburg. I'm very glad I had the possibility to discover my huge love for philosophy here, and plan on taking it home with me.

Between fall and spring semester, the month of January, called Winter Term, is the time for students to go after their personal interests. Every student has to conduct a "Winter Term Project" which can basically be anything a student wants to do, if that project plan is accepted by a faculty member. People then, in their liberal Oberlin spirit, do anything, from an internship to brewing their own beer, from baking a different bread every day to building a bicycle out of bamboo. Another possibility is to take part in one of the projects offered by the college, for example a language intensive course. This Winter Term, I taught the conversation part of a German beginners class. Since I have never taught a whole class of students (26 students in this case), this was a very new and also very rewarding experience for me. Seeing the advances the students make from day to day was just great.

But it was not only work and studying that made my stay here so valuable so far. I also had the possibility to do some travelling and see some of the probably more "real" USA. During fall break I went to visit New York City together with my sister and we discovered Manhattan together, which was an absolutely amazing experience. I hope I will have many more opportunities to see more of the country next semester.

I cannot thank the VDAC enough for making all this possible. I learned so much last semester and am sure to learn much more next semester, so this is definitely one of the most valuable life experiences for me.

Kathrin Tertel