Schiffsausflug u.s.w.

Well, I've had my first three finals (Klausuren) - in German, Arabic and Russian - and they all went fairly well, tho I don't have the grades yet. As a break from the cramming (Pauken), we international students were invited to go out on one last excursion: a boat cruise on Lake Constance.


The weather was perfect, and the view was really nice.


Each country got its own table or section of a table. The USA tied with the Czech Republic for most participants, so we helped fill out Canada's table, too.


the Alps


more of Lake Constance (I like the distance in this photo.)

Well, that's basically all I've done recently, other than study and write papers (I have two due next week), but I thought I'd fill out this post with a little more on German culture.


So this is my yogurt I bought a few days ago. It's delicious. German yogurt is so much better than American yogurt. But that's not why I posted a picture of it. How much of it can you read? Probably about 70% without any knowledge of German. That's because they love to use English. Here you can see, for example, "collect" instead of sammeln and "family" instead of Familie (even though they share the same Latin root).

Other "Anglizismen" (Anglicisms) that I've heard include der Deal (the deal), Late-Comers, gecheckt (past participle of checken, to check), sorry (nearly everyone says this instead of the cumbersome Entschuldigung, which itself is often shortened to 'Tschuldigung), and call mich an (call me up, although they pronounce call like "coal").


And two pieces of good news from Sonnenbühl Ost: No, I don't have internet (I'm in the library again), but the shower has gotten significantly better! First off, we have a new curtain. It's not hanging on by one clip, and it has no mold! Secondly, someone (not I) came up with the brilliant idea to use a spook to correct the shower head's range of spray. Now I can shower like a normal person. (A funny side note is that the Vietnamese guy in my house uses a chopstick instead of the spoon - I swear to God!)

Well, I should get back to writing that Hausarbeit. To all of my maternal relatives: have a great time at the lake! Wish I could be there, but I've got school stuff, you know ;)

Beobachtungen zum Leben in Deutschland

I don't really have much news and, sorry guys, no photos this time, but I do have some (hopefully) interesting observations about life in Germany that I thought I'd share. But first I want to make sure you all know I am actually finally taking classes at the university. Classes in German are tough, but I'm sure I’ll get used to it.

So what makes Germany Germany?

#1. Lots of English (Tandem Team, Locker deposit, Research Center). Normally it's shockingly good English, but bad English is funnier. For example, the following quote I took from a sign hanging in my house's bathroom:

To this badly drawn boy who never flushes the toilet after he used it:
Please get used to it, that in Germany it's a well habbit flushing the toilet after using it no matter you used it for peeing or something else:
Always flushing the toilet after using!! [sic omnis]

#2. Bureaucracy. Labyrinthine bureaucracy. In order to get anything official done, you have to go to about seven different places that are spread out over the city. Each office is only open one or two hours a day (four days a week, if you're lucky), and most of them are open only during the same hour.

#3. An irrational fear of spice. I feel like I'm pretty well known for having a very dull palette, but I can eat even the hottest German food. Curry, for example, tastes basically the same as ketchup. For the most part, "seasoning" is construed as either "salt" or "more salt."

#4. You never cross the street on red. Even if no cars are coming, and it's the middle of the night. Germans will wait for hours until the little green man shows his face.

#5. Business hours. Everything closes around 8pm and basically nothing is open ever on Sundays. The same goes for holidays.

#6. You don't wear bright colors. In fact, it is preferable to wear only black. Kirsten and Amelia have neon green coats. They get glares. Other popular fashion includes maroon hair for middle-aged women, large horizontal stripes, tight jeans with bright white words and designs, and the mullet (as I mentioned in a previous post).

#7. Everyone bikes, even middle-aged people. And bikers are dangerous. Walking to the U each morning is a bit of an adventure, because every five seconds a biker zips past, within inches of taking off your head.

#8. You "klopf" after class, which means you knock with your knuckles on the table as a sign of appreciation for the lecture.

#9. Germans love to sort trash. Depending on what type of garbage you’re throwing away, you use one of about a dozen trashcans. Glass gets divided into three bins based on color. Plastics, cardboard, paper, etc. also get separate canisters. Foodstuff gets thrown into a lidless bin, apparently to rot until someone gets stuck with “Mülldienst” (trash duty) and has to throw it into the dumpster.

#10. Germans are more interested in American politics than Americans are. The first question every German will ask you after the obligatory incredulous "You're American? But you speak German!" is "Who will be the next American president?"

So those are some of the many nuanced differences between America and Germany. Life here is overall very similar, but as I mentioned, there are certainly some differences. I definitely don’t mean any of the above to sound harsh (except the bureaucracy comment – that really irks me). Germany is hands down my favorite country outside of the US at this point, and the people here are basically all unbelievably nice, friendly and helpful.

But guess where I'm going to be all of next week? So I'm kind of skipping out on class - ah, probably not the best idea, since it's just the second week, but oh well, I already have the tickets…
-MOSCOW!
Now if you're the stereotypical American, you're probably sitting there, eating your 10lbs McCheeseburger after a long day of plowing your cornfield, and thinking to yourself, "Moscow's the capital of London." Well no, that’s wrong. Moscow's actually in Russia. You can learn loads about Russia from my blog from last year, or you can simply wait for sweet updates throughout the upcoming week!

Viel Spaß und bis dann!