Living in the German House during my sophomore year at SLU was a unique opportunity and experience. The community and comfort within the house are unmatched to any other living experience I have had in college. Aside from having a roommate, having housemates brings both new challenges and new growth. In the house you live with both guys and girls of all class standings, sharing restrooms, the common areas, and a kitchen.
Also, living in a house is like having your own home. Your bedroom does not serve as a living room and kitchen anymore, instead, you spend a lot more time downstairs in the common areas. In terms of community, the house is ideal- it is intimate and cozy, but at the same time you have plenty of freedom, you cook your own meals, you have your own cabinets and space in one of the two fridges, you can retreat to your bedroom when you want, and you can come and go at your own will.
In addition to the living experience I had in the house, there is also a constant learning process. The house hosts various activities including the weekly Kaffeestunden - an hour of German conversation, dinners, cookouts, potlucks, and dinners with the other language houses featuring traditional foods as well as your good ol' American Thanksgiving Turkey dinner, German movie nights, and several German department colloquia and seminars.
In addition to all these available activities, the residents in the house all stipulate certain times of the day or hours when only German is to be spoken. Everyone is encouraged to speak German as much as possible throughout the day. Some of your housemates may include exchange students who add just another dimension of learning to your daily life.
Some of my most memorable moments in the house include late nights sitting in the living room with a bunch of exchange students from all over - Germany, France, Ireland, and Spain - discussing politics and social policies. Also, one of my favorite parts of living in the house was the time spent in the kitchen, especially cooking together. Everyone has to walk through the kitchen, sometimes you just get caught there talking or horsing around with one of your housemates.
Personally, having lived and studied in Germany for much of the first half of my life, I found it very rewarding and stimulating to live in the house. As a native speaker every opportunity to practice and speak German is welcome, and the interaction with my housemates not only helped them in improving their speaking skills, but often also challenged me to speak and think more clearly, as well as taught me a lot about the language learning process - without fail, immersion is key, and there are few places on campus as ideally suited for this as the German house.
-Sonja Neumann, Senior Philosophy and German Major