studieren?! manchmal.

Ok, so apparently you're all wondering about my classes. While I'd like to say I don't have any, I do - not that I'm here that often to attend them ;) - but seriously, here's my schedule (you'll have to click on it; I don't know how to make a table on blogger):



The only one that seems difficult so far is Russian, and that's mainly because I have to learn a foreign language in a foreign language. And here's what a tandem team is, by the way: I teach him my native language half of the time, he teaches me his the other half.

And finally, because I don't have any photos with which to amuse you, I figured I'd write you all a poem about Sonnenbühl Ost:

Ode to a Showerhead

Oh Soviet showerhead, how matchless you are!
For some reason in the States, they stopped making showers like you
Before they started.
But why? Do Americans truly despise the adventure you offer?
Now you scald me, now you give me hypothermia;
Now welts form where you pummel my skin,
Now I have to shake you, just for the water to drizzle out.
Have none so loved you as I?
Have none been so awed by your undomesticable might?
The way you refuse to be restrained by your measly “curtain?”
The way, in spite of your one moldy, tearing drape,
You build lakes and rivers throughout the bathroom?
The way your hose flails wildly, and I must dodge its burning touch?
But your crowning achievement, oh Soviet showerhead,
Is surely the way you will only point directly at the wall,
So that I must smash my body up against the cold tiles
In order to wash my hair.
Yours is a rare ability
To make common chores into marvelous feats.
Oh Soviet showerhead, how matchless you are!

Peace! And next time you hear from me, I'll be in EGYPT!

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!