I'm going to Berlin on Erasmus in September

On Thursday, a very exciting email landed in my inbox.

"Dear Aisling", it said. "We are pleased to officially offer you a place in Berlin for the Erasmus programme 2014-2015".

A wide grin crept across my face, which did not falter for the next four hours. A place at the Humboldt University of Berlin for the coming year was mine, and once I replied to confirm the offer (which I did almost immediately, the Enlightenment essay I'd been working on abandoned) nobody was taking it away from me. 

Spending third year studying German law at a German university is a compulsory part of the degree for which I'm studying so although I knew I'd definitely be spending next year somewhere in Deutschland, the exact city in which I'd spend the year was not yet definite. We have ten universities across the country to choose from. Having spent three months in Wiesbaden, a small city of about 280,000 people, I ruled out the possibility of going somewhere similar like Marburg or Erlangen. The application process is far less formal than it is for other courses, and done primarily through our course coordinator, whom we all know very well. In general, we're free to choose where we go ourselves. Our course coordinator offers her opinion and makes suggestions but the decision is ours for the most part and she does work hard to ensure everyone is happy with where they end up (and who they end up going with - some of us go alone and others in pairs). However, she tends to be tougher on who goes to Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, and it took some convincing before she agreed to me going to Berlin. She suggested Hamburg, which I considered, but I couldn't let go of Berlin. Berlin was the first place in Germany I ever visited, aged thirteen, and I've always loved it. In transition year, we had to research college courses and universities, and even then I knew I'd love to go to Berlin to study for a year.  The fact that Berlin was a study abroad option for Law and German was a major factor in my decision to include Law and German in second place on my CAO form. When I narrowly missed out on my first choice of European Studies back in August 2012 and was offered Law and German instead, it was with the possibility of a Berlin Erasmus that I consoled myself. Berlin was always something I'd wanted. 

Now I have it. My course coordinator can't change her mind and strongly suggest I go to Hamburg instead. It can't be taken away from me if I don't get a certain grade in a certain module (although I obviously still have to pass my exams in May). I'm going to Berlin in September, to study German law through German in quite possibly the most exciting city in the world. Although I've been to Berlin seven times before, I see it in a new light each time and there's always something to be discovered there. Sometimes I think I might be better off somewhere smaller and friendlier, a place where I might find it easier to make friends and get to know people. Sometimes I think I'm not cool enough for Berlin and its reputation as a city of hipsters and trendsetters. Despite these niggling doubts, I know Berlin was the right choice. Berlin is amazing, and despite my awkwardness, uncoolness and occasional reluctance to step outside my comfort zone socially-speaking, I know I'm going to make the most of it. 

Funnily enough, the day I officially accepted my place in Berlin turned out to be very Berlin-themed in general. Each February reading week, the junior freshman Law and German students go to Berlin on a study trip with our German law lecturer. Last year, our lecturer was accompanied by a teaching assistant, but this year there's no such assistant. To my surprise, I received a phonecall that same morning from the course coordinator asking if I'd be interested in going along to help out - all expenses paid, except for the flights. Because she openly refers to me as ditsy and thinks I'm a bit of an airhead and I wouldn't have thought she'd have considered me for any task requiring any degree of responsibility or competency, I was taken aback. Nevertheless, I jumped at the chance to go and although I've yet to book my flights I'm very much looking forward to it. It's not going to be a week of lounging about Kreuzberg or Prenzlauer Berg people watching and mooching about quirky shops and cafes, but a week filled with visits to houses of parliament and official buildings, however Berlin is Berlin and a week spent there is never a week wasted. Fortunately, my lovely classmate Karen (has her shit together a whole lot more than I do) was also asked to go so I won't have to spend the week making tedious conversation in German with my German civil law lecturer. 

This year is looking promising, and I'm very excited. Sixteen year old me, to whom Erasmus seemed a very distant concept, wouldn't know what to make of all this. September still seems ages away, and the whole thing is still extremely surreal. But brng it onnn guna b class xxxxx

 This was just another landmark to me when I took this photo back in June 2011. Now I'm off to study there! Yippee!

What's in a Name?

Much to my consternation but not at all to my surprise, Germans struggle with the spelling and pronunciation of my name. "Ayzleenk?", they ask, puzzled expressions on their German faces. "Nope", I reply, "ASCHHHLING, my name is ASCHHHLING".

"Huh. Eshleehhh. Nice name."

If I shook my head and facepalmed each time this happened I would have repetitive strain injury and be wearing a neck brace, so I've settled for nodding, smiling and providing an explanation for the unusual spelling instead. It's not Ashley or Ashlene; yes, I know you met an Ashlene once on a business trip to Illinois but we do not share a name. It's an Irish Gaelic (it is with reluctance that I refer to the Irish language as "Gaelic" but most Germans and indeed all non-Irish people are under the misapprehension that mention of "Irish" refers only to Irish slang; Hiberno-English) name that has no real connection to its Americanised sisters Ashlynn, Ashleen, Ashlene or Ashlee at all. 

I haven't bothered telling anyone that "aisling" is the Irish word for "dream" as I did that once on a school exchange near Cologne in 2009 and I remain emotionally scarred from having had a boy from the class in which I was a guest look at me, nonplussed, and enquire, "so your name is Dream?"

To be honest, I'm stunned that any German correspondence has ever managed to reach me successfully. As if pronunciation difficulties weren't enough to contend with, many Germans are fond of slamming a H slap bang in the middle of my given name, regardless of how many times I spell it out or write it down. I'm used to that though as it frequently happens in Ireland where people should really know better. Moreover, as the name Aisling is so out of the ordinary in these parts an awful lot of people who have never met me in person have made the assumption based on it that I am male. If I had a euro for each time a letter has arrived for me from my rental agency, health insurance company or the human resource department at work addressed to "Mr Aisling Rohan" I could probably afford to buy myself a three course meal somewhere nice. 

Then there are those who have decided that the name Aisling is so ludicrous sounding that nobody would ever name their child that, so they assume that I got the German words for surname and given name mixed up whilst filling in forms and that I am actually called Rohan. This ties in well with the Germans thinking I'm male thing as Rohan is a popular choice of name for the doting parents of new sons in India and Pakistan, I believe. So that's me. Rohan Aisling, the nineteen year old guy from Lahore who's come to Wiesbaden to learn German whilst appearing at all times to be white and a girl. 

I spend so much time concentrating on explaining my unorthodox name to people when I meet them I almost immediately forget theirs or worse, sometimes don't even catch it in the first place, further fuelling the fiery blaze of my social awkwardness and embarrassing moment proneness. It would be, like, TOTALLY easier to just change it to Ashley. Or Gretl.

My landlord in "German person muddles up my first name and surname" shocker

Technischer Krankenkasse in gender gaffe

The absolute bare-faced cheek of this German