America, this is Germany. Germany, America.

I have been asked by one from the adoring hordes to describe some of the differences between studying in the North American educational system and the German. On Wednesday I had to un-register, to tell the university that I was in fact, as the exchange deal works, leaving after this semester. It was just a confirmation that I had in fact kept the same plans. Utterly useless bureaucracy. They could have accomplished the same thing by simply saying, "If you want to change your plans and stay, you'll have to let us know before this date."

But one does not register for classes, lectures at least. You just attend the lectures and toward the end of the semester you have to register for the test for the lecture. In the lectures I attended the only thing that counts toward one's grade is the test. There is no homework, no attendance is taken, and there are no accompanying smaller groups in which the lecture material is more closely explained as there usually is at the UI. For seminars, which are just smaller classes, whether you have to register for the class depends on the professor. If you do have to register you just write the professor an email saying you would like to attend his or her class whereas at home you have to register by X date over the internet or go through a process of adding it manually. Registration is completely centralized at Iowa and here it is left up to the professor.

One of the first things I noticed was that all of the buildings have numbers instead of names. That way all rooms have a number coordinates for maximum precision locatability. 1.8.1.71 is the room where I have German class and it is located on Campus 1, Building number 8, first floor (which means second in Germany [and the UK for that matter. Canada?]), room number 71.