News from the “Ivory” Tower

This is Griff, coming to you “live” from Marburg, Germany. I am currently occupying the guest room on the top floor of the Collegium Philippinum next to the Marburger Schloß (the Marbug castle). First established in the 13^th century, the Schloß is located at the highest point on the hill into which the center of town is built and can be seen from nearly any point in the city.

Living up here is rather interesting. First, I have a beautiful Aussicht of the city from my window. It really makes a girl feel like she is at the top of the world. You can see the sun rise over the town around 4 a.m. (you can’t see it from below until about two hours later), and it doesn’t get dark up here until after 10 p.m.

There is a certain sense of power that comes from looking down on the city like this. One can easily understand why the castle was built here and not somewhere else. Politically speaking, it was also a very secure location. Indeed, the walls surrounding the castle are so thick that it is nearly impossible to install wireless internet in any of the buildings around it (or so I am told).

Additionally, when you venture to go up the hundreds of stairs and steep, uneven inclines it takes to get to the top, you realize just how separated you are from the rest of the town. (As one half of the Brothers Grimm wrote about Marburg, “I believe there are more stairs on the streets than there are in the houses.”)

Still, a nice little community of students lives in the Collegium—and a number of them have lived there for at least three or four years. Now these kids must be in really good shape because, as I have hinted, the walk up is absolute hell. But you feel a sense of accomplishment each time you make the trek up, even though you are sweating like crazy and cursing the day you decided to start smoking.

I haven’t experienced dorm life in over 10 years—let alone German dorm life. On our floor, there are 8 residents at varying levels in their studies. We all share one toilet (+ 1 urinal for the boys), two showers, and one large bathroom with mirrors and sinks. We also share a kitchen and living area. I have been allotted a drawer in one of the two small refrigerators in the kitchen, so I have been trying to make friends by preparing my famous Rotkrautsalat. Unfortunately, no one (besides me) seems much interested in red cabbage. Nevertheless, I have gotten to know some of the residents on my floor, and they all seem quite nice.

There are also several beautiful wooded paths around the castle, which make you feel like you are wandering into some sort of fairy tale—which is not surprising, given that the Brothers Grimm occupied a house in Marburg for some years. (I try to leave a trail of Brötchen crumbs whenever I go wand’ring, so I can find my way back—but I have yet to come upon anything like a gingerbread house or Candy Mountain. So much the better for my ever-growing beer belly…and my f*ing kidney.)