Von Doichland mit Leeb (Inactive)

Flight back home

2006-08-11T23:13:00.000+02:00

Forgot about this post -- written during the flight back home from Germany to the US...:

A word of advice to those planning on traveling with Icelandair in the near future -- they have suddenly become extremely anal about the number of carry-on items each person has. We spent close to 10 minutes at the counter until everything was taken care of. I had a backpack and my violin, and the woman at the counter told me that instruments in general are forbidden as carry-ons. I then asked her how long that had been in effect; she said for as long as she had been working there. I then told her, that it wasn't even a year ago that I flew with the same airline, and the same items (backpack, violin), and it was allowed. She then said that the flight was full, and that they were limiting the number of carry-on items as a result (nice change of story, by the way). It would then be up to the crew of the plane as to whether or not I would be allowed to bring my violin on board. The final decision was that I had to choose between checking my violin or checking the backpack. There would be absolutely no insurance possible for the violin. We checked the backpack. Still, I had to sign a waiver stating that it would be no fault of the airlines if my backpack ended up damaged (due to the straps). Lose-lose. But on the plus side, I'm certain that my violin weighs around 3 or 4 kilograms, so joke's on them.

Right now I’m on the six-hour flight back to Minneapolis. There is a man sitting in front of my father who is somehow managing to lean his chair back far enough to be annoying, all without actually pushing the reclining button. The plane is filled with Americans, Minnesotans. My mother will be delighted to know that one of the on-flight entertainment options was once again Lazy Town. A very involving show. I have suspicions that Sporticus and Robbie Rotten are one and the same person. But then again, if they are, how do they manage the fight scenes? What a tricky situation... (**hindsight note: after the second episode of Lazy Town, I think they are two different people. I am, unfortunately, not motivated enough to actually confirm or bust this theory/decision**)…

I started to cry like a little girl (grown up girls, I think, don’t have belly-wracking sobs muffled by scarves or sweaters) as the plane took off from Germany. All I managed to say was, "Here it goes.” I think that the final push was actually seeing Germany grow smaller and smaller and eventually disappear, reducing me to an emotional scarf-mumbler.
The man across the aisle kept looking over at me. Yes, I'’m crying, on the plane, across the aisle from you. I am on-flight entertainment.

Has anyone else noticed that they seem to serve drinks from (flight attendants') left to right on the flights? Has anyone also noticed that there are at least four layers of clouds?

I'm already bored of typing.

My pre-leaving night in Landau was spent going to an uninvolving tango music concert, eating an ice cream, and drinking a glass of sparkling wine and kiba (cherry and banana juice mixed together).

During the tango concert intermission we took photographs of ourselves--—group and individual shots--posing with "The Lady of Landau." The statue is of a naked woman balancing and leaning back on one foot, holding grapes to her bosom. We were fully clad, I'm thankful to say, but we all got our chance to pose and copy the statue. Pictures...…um...maybe never :p

Ice cream was one Kügel (scoop) tiramisu, and one Kügel Rafaelo. RAFAELO ice cream, Rafaelo as in the tasty coconut-almond-white-chocolate goodness. Ooooh so good.

Leo's: one of the workers there, Rader (I'm not entirely sure how to spell it) made our drinks on the house, as it was my last night. Very very nice of him. Leo’s is the best café for late-night chilling, hands down. And we're not the first group of people to think that, either. The ambiance is nice, the staff is nice, and the food is good, too. Then Sonia, Carmelinda, and Sonia's friend Ilaria (who is there to visit Sonia --– they leave Thursday) walked me back home, singing Italian songs all the way. It was loud, confusing, but amusing. We got back to the Wohnheim, said our teary good-byes, and parted ways. I went up to my room, started moving things around and finishing up final cleaning. Then I hear voices coming from the garden in-between the apartment buildings. Sonia, Carmelinda, and Ilaria are singing Aerosmith's "I don't want to Miss a Thing." I'm being serenaded by three wound-up Italians. It made me teary again. I think stuff like that only happens during study abroad. I can't imagine anything like what happened (or what I experienced) this year ever happening anywhere else. I'm so incredibly thankful for everything all of the ERASMUS students have done for me, and I’m grateful for having so many new people in my life that were, are, and will be important to me for the rest of my life.

From the bottom of my heart, I urge and recommend that everyone spend at least one term in a study abroad program. It changes your life for the best, and the knowledge you gain about yourself and other people is something that you really can't find anywhere else.

Home

2006-08-10T17:58:00.000+02:00

Everything is very big here.

Other than that, because my first real day was spent in the quietness of my grandparent's home (they live outside of the city, in the woods, so there is no shock-factor for me), and now at home where I'm very used to things, I haven't had any problems readjusting. Maybe a bit of jet-lag, around noonish yesterday, but I'm always jet-lagged after the return trip.

But I love the WLAN, the wireless internet. LOVE it.

Last Whole Day

2006-08-07T13:00:00.000+02:00

Today marks not only my final full day in Landau for the year (I say for the year because I am very certain that I will one day very soon come back to Germany and pop by Landau for a visit), but also the day I have more spam-mail in my inbox than ever before. I have no idea how that came about.

I think I would be more sad and depressed about everything were my Grandmother not habitually pessimistic about almost everything. Usually I'd say it's borderline endearing, but not on my final run here. On the up-side, at least I'm not an emotional wreck. So maybe I have her to thank for a bit of balance in the brain area.

Also, the remnants of 10 months worth of living is a tight squeeze when it comes to packing. I have sent 4-5 boxes, each between 10 and 20 kilograms, home over the past months. There is another box waiting, along with my IKEA chair, waiting to be sent out today. My hiking backpack and other large suitcase-duffel bag thing are literally stuffed full, and there is little room left in another large bag my dad brought with him. I will be pushing the limit this time around.

There have also been a lot of last-minute-doing-of-things-I-need-to-do-one-more-time-before-I-leave moments, and they've all gone relatively well.

The thing with the blog now, is that once I get home, I can still keep it current by comparing the transition back into American society to what was left behind. Over the past year I've thought of and anticipated many reactions, but now I'm not sure how it will be. The best thing now is to just not expect anything and go with the flow.

My first few days will be spent at my grandparent's house, which is in the US, but in the countryish outskirts of a city, so I won't be rushed with people and society. I think it's a smart move.

So, tomorrow are the flights home, and the re-introduction to the States. Expect the next post no sooner than Wednesday!

From Germany, peace out.

kaija

Zoo

2006-07-29T11:56:00.000+02:00

Today we're going to the zoo! The weather is, for the time being, stable and nice. Because of the constant rain for the past few days, the temperature has finally made it back down to the mid 20s. Nice.

Either tonight or tomorrow morning I'm heading up to Frankfurt to meet up with my father and my grandmother. Then tomorrow we hang around Frankfurt, see what there is/n't to see, and then Monday it's off to....PORTUGAL! Then on 03.08 it's back to Germany for a bit.

My apartment has been cleared as "acceptable", and I don't need to pay anything extra for non-existing damage. My finals were passed as well, better than expected. So, I officially made it through my year of school in Germany without screwing up once!

My mind is too scattered to write much; I'm extremely excited to go pet the goats.

BEEEH!

The Final Countdown (dah nah naah naaaaah, dahnahnahnahnaaaah, dah nah naah naaaah, dahnah nah nah naaah...)

2006-07-24T17:17:00.000+02:00

I am in official stressed-out mode. I even have the stress-break-out as proof. Beware: GERMANY GIVES YOU PIMPLES.

I have my first of two final exams at 18:00. In little more than half an hour. Just thinking about it makes me have to pee.

The weather in Germany is full blown summer. But not as bad as in California. I hear on the radio that it was 49ºC, and that people have died. As for my area of Germany...there was severe weather damage and possible tornado touch-down in Karlsruhe (20 or so km south of Landau). There is construction between Neustadt and Landau, creating traffic problems, and generally making train travel a pain. There is also a 3-meter long snake loose somewhere around Heidelberg, most likely by the river. People who see the snake are advised to keep their distance and contact the police--who have already stated that capture of the snake is highly unlikely.

I want to know what a 3-meter-long snake is doing in the south-western part of Germany.

Now... a bit of info on Landau. As I've mentioned before, the best bakery is the Discount-Bäker, because the products are cheap and good. The best (in my opinion) café for morning/afternoon coffe, as well as breakfasts (waffles with vanilla icecream and hot raspberries...OOHO!), is Café am Markt. The best restaurant/bar for salads and overall "cool" factor is Green, which is located at the southern end of the city center. Irish pub: Brennan's. Best café/bar for drinks, relaxed hanging out, and dinner foods is Leo's, which is located at the northern end of the city center. Best store for cheap housewares, tools, paper towels or TP is Kodi. Best store for cute, colored and stenciled canvas bags is Schlecker, which is right next door to Kodi. Not to be confused.

The worst place for anything beverage like is what I call the "red and yellow bakery". The only perk of it is that it is also open on Sundays, and has good Johannisbeer struessel cakes. And two-for-one deals.

The best (and only, really) book store to buy school books from is Buchkaiser, but specifically the one on Marktstraße. You get a complementary canvas bag when you purchase several books. The other Buchkaiser (on an intersecting street) is good for everything else, specifically travel guides.

The only two clubs I know of are Freiraum (good for prices, crappy for dance floor situation) and Logo (meh for prices, but great for dance floor situation; a.k.a. more places along the wall to sit and take a breather inbetween good songs). If you want to go to an all-night club, like one that's open until 5 a.m., it would be necessary to travel south to Karlsruhe (and, in turn, spend the night, because trains don't run that late), north to Mannheim, or west to Straßbourg.

The only (known) place where you can get free ANYTHING is the University's main campus. The University has the only free parking lot in the city, as well as free internet connection. The downside of both is that it's not safe to leave your car for more than a day (maybe not even that long) in the parking lot (winter break left three cars with passenger windows smashed in by thieves. Thieves. What a great word. It's not used often enough!), and the library is only open 9.00-19.30, Monday-Thursday, and 9.00-16.00 on Fridays. NO WEEKEND HOURS. If you need internet during the weekend, it's down to trekking to the city center to a T-Mobile HotSpot location (Café am Markt is one, but it's €8,- an hour, and that's BOGUS), one of the internet cafés (prices unknown to me), or making sure you have snagged yourself a Rechnenzentrum card, which allows you off-hours acces to the Uni's three stuffy, dusty computer labs. The card costs €10,-, which you get back upon return of the card. I don't own one.

30 minutes to test time, and I'm done here, for now. Quick tips, but tips nonetheless. Maybe I should ask those who read if they have any questions about life in Landau, or Germany in general. That would, at least, give me something concrete to write about...

The In's and Out's of Getting In and Out (short blurb)

2006-07-18T11:39:00.000+02:00

Getting registered for (pretty much) anything in Germany--or at least in Landau--seems to be much easier than getting out of the system.

For example: At the beginning of my stay here, I had to register at the Auslandsamt to gain a temporary citizen-of-Landau status, my student visa, as well as fill out a stack of forms. And pay €50. Other than the immediate language barrier (which is now nonexistant), the sudden need to pay €50 cash, and needing to come back a second day to finish everything, the process was painless and simple.

The same thing goes for the University. We went to the Student Affairs Office, waited in line, nodded our heads a lot, and were registered at the University for the first semester, and later automatically for the second. Simple.

Insurance wasn't that simple -- we were more or less bullied into signing up for German insurance, regardless if our US insurance promised full coverage or not. True, insurance here is cheaper, but the lady didn't have to be so aggressive and condescending about the whole thing. But other than that, it was "sign here", "bank info here", and finished.

But now... I went to the insurance office yesterday to notify them that I needed to cancell the insurance plan as of the payment in August, and things were not that simple. After waiting for almost 10 minutes without anyone offering to help me (Latvian banks and Polish post offices have little stations where you push a button for the respective department you want to talk to -- very nice and organized. At the insurance office here in Germany, all you have are lots of chairs and potted plants), a younger woman asked if I was waiting for anyone in particular (does it LOOK like I am, slick?), and then proceeded to help me. After telling me information I already know ("it looks like you're on our normal insurance plan"...YOU THINK?), she went away to talk to someone who knew more than her. When she came back she told me that they would need, when it boils down to it, a written confirmation (I hear that and am reminded by doctor's or parent's notes as excuses for being late to school) note that states I will actually be leaving the country when I say I am. And such a note can be attained from my University here in Landau.

I ask, what, pray tell, does the University have to do with when I leave the country?

I managed to leave the office without crying in frustration and swearing (that happened outside), discussions with both of my parents followed, and I still thought that it was stupid to go the Uni to get this paper. Wouldn't a photocopy of flight tickets and passport work? I told the girl at the insurance company "I still don't see how the University has anything to do with this" (to which she replied, "Yup, okay! But we need a note like that, and you can get it from the University."), but it was like anything I said or asked bounced off of her face.

THEN, later, Sonia suggested going to the Auslandsamt. GREAT! Now THAT'S something that makes sense! Go to the office where I registered as officially staying in Germany for an extended period of time, and get a note from THEM! SOMEPLACE THAT HAS SOMETHING DIRECTLY TO DO WITH MY ENTERING/LEAVING THE COUNTRY! So, getting out of the insurance plan is difficult, because I have to go around to several offices just to take care of this.

Other than that, my student status expires in September. I've also to make stops at the bank and at the post office. Hopefully those will be easier things to take care of.

Until then... a little over two weeks left. Conversations with others are even more so filled with contemplative silences where it's understood that for those few minutes no one is allowed to look or talk to each other, because it might end up in a teary mess.

The Story of the (un)Stolen Bike(s)

2006-07-13T15:27:00.000+02:00

Two days ago (Tuesday for those who have trouble thinking back that far) I went to our Hausmeister to get a new light bulb, new vent filters, and to tell him that I was fairly certain someone had stolen my bike. I said "fairly certain" because I had checked the area around our apartment end several times over, as well as the bike cellar, but with no results. I was more baffled than upset, because how--tell me-- how does one person get TWO bikes stolen in five months? The first bike (yes, crappy, upside-down bike that I never ended up photographing, sorry guys) was noticed as missing during my mom's visit. Which was upsetting, because I never had the chance to even try and sell the stupid thing. Â35,- that I'll never ever get back.

With bike No.2, I was half upset, as mentioned, because of the number of bikes now stolen from me had doubled, and because I wouldn't get my Â20 deposit back from the Bike Man. Which would only be fair, but still. On the other hand, I regarded the bike being gone as one less thing I'd have to take care of before leaving the country. Mixed emotions, as you may be able to tell.

So, Hausmeister informed me of the following: 1) it's nothing new that bikes are stolen from the apartment area 2) sometimes the thieves will pull a bike into the bushes, cut off the lock, and then ride it away, and 3) sometimes the thieves will drive up in a car and just hoist the bike into the trunk and drive off. No consolation, no suggestions on what to do. It gave me a general feeling that calling the police would just end up being a waste of Â0,19. (I'd like to make a quick mention that the day before I had found out that yet ANOTHER one of my favorite bands, Mest, had disbanded. So I was already in an iffy mood) So I went to class on foot, which is no problem, told fellow group-workers that other than Mest being through and my second bike being stolen (they found that amusing, and I don't blame them), I was doing great.

After class I ended up talking to Hanane, Kathy, Andrew, and Anya, and told Hanane how there was nothing that could be done about the bike being stolen. She expressed her sympathy and we continue talking. Then I stop talking, and Anya said jokingly "Oh, my bike!" But there it was. My bike, with my Apt.# sticker (silly Hausmeister), and my lock, was across the alley from the University building. Just standing next to the wall like it had been there waiting for me. I was speechless, dumbfounded, surprised. Confused beyond all reason. The last time I had used and seen my bike was Wednesday. Friday and Saturday I went to Heidelberg, but used public transportation both days to get there and back to Landau. Sunday I didn't use it, nor Monday, because by then it had established itself as stolen. I had been racking my brain to remember what, exactly, I had done Thursday, but kept drawing a blank. A perfect blank, which is scary, but funny at the same time. I remember leaving the apartment and going to the library, but around 1 P.M., and I don't ride my bike to the library -- and besides, the bike was in the city center, which is twice as far. I have no receipts from Thursday, which means I didn't do any shopping of any kind. Unless someone played a very very cruel (aincidentallytly stupid trick, because who would drag a locked bike all the way to the city center just to make me sorry?) trick, or if something so terrible happened Thursday that I completely blocked it out of my mind, I've got memory issues. An entire day, gone, just like that. I'm still left in wonder about it today, as I write.

So my bike has been unstolen, the classmates informed (the one teasingly accused me of drinking too much Weinschorle, the other congratulated me and said "One bike in your garage is worth two in Landau"), and everyone else amused and probably as confused as I am.

The world has turned and left me here...(and taken my sanity with it)

WM

2006-07-10T12:34:00.000+02:00

"Zidane, who had earlier scored France's goal, was sent off after violently headbutting Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest during the second, tense period of extra-time." (FoxSports News)

I wish I could find a picture of the headbutt. Zidane and Materazzi had a mini discussion, Zidane started to walk away, and things looked finished between them. But then Zidane suddenly turned around, and, with a completely blank expression, headbutted Materazzi in the chest. Looks like Materazzi tried to get one last snide remark in.

The France-Italy game was close... oh so close. Hanane was too nervous to watch the shoot-out and walked several blocks away to wait until the game was over. WM is finished, and the world seems a little bit more quiet.

Friday to Sunday also marked the "Sommerfest"-- also known as yet another reason to set up food and drink stands around the city center and to celebrate, not only WM, but the concept of summer. Good wine, good food, bad music. It's great. During the past 10 months, Landau has had between four and five "festival markets." The fall wine fest, the Christmas market, Maimarkt, Sommerfest, and I'm pretty sure one more in between somewhere. I may be counting the (Fake)Irish fest as one. But still. Another good reason to love this country.

The weeks are winding down. This week I have my final presentation (in German, about the history and reform of the German language), and then two written exams the next week. Then my dad and grandmother come to visit me, we go to Portugal for a few days, then head back for the final days of my Germany 2005-2006 experience. After some advice from my dad I've decided to treat the return to the U.S. as a visiting trip. I am not leaving Germany or Europe for good, I am just leaving for a bit. Then I'll work my way back here. I will, just watch me. In the next weeks I'm going to make a personal effort to post as many observations and whatnot about Landau and the places I like in it and... OHMYGOD THE WOMAN BEHIND ME DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF RELATIVE SILENCE IN A LIBRARY!!! Her computer volume is always on high, her cell phone is always on, and she sighs like she gets a prize for it at the end of the day. LEUTE!... the places I like in Landau and the best places to buy necessary things. I'll start on that tomorrow.

WM in another four years! I'll be ready for it next time -- I now understand how fascinating it all is.

Soccer is on

2006-07-09T16:40:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago the Germany-Argentina game was nuts -- 90 minutes plus overtime plus shoot-out. Germany pulled, which was a surprise to many. I ended up in Kaiserslautern to watch the game on one of several big-screens set out around the city. Because I had a tiny glass jar of horse radish in my bag, I wasn't allowed to enter the area of the screen (unless I threw the stuff away, but I had just bought it that morning and needed it for that evening and wouldn't be going back to the grocery store, so screw that) so we found another screen with a patch of grass not far away. Everyone else who had drinks and horse radish sat on this patch of grass. The screen was in good view, unless there were four cocky, jerk people standing in the way who thought that they had more right than the 40+ people sitting down (like polite society will do) to watch the game. Don't dwell on it too much. They copped attitudes. The best thing was to watch the reactions of the Germany fans during and after the shoot-out, not to mention when it was official that Germany had won the game. I got a few video clips, which I may or may not try to post here. I first have to remember how to post video files. I can make do with some pictures, though.

And no, that kid is not sitting on the head of a real person.

Then came the Germany-Italy game. Almost 120 minutes of intense, no-results game. Then, literally, in the last two minutes of the game, Italy scores. We are surprised and upset, because we thought it would come down to another shoot-out. I darkly say, "Wouldn't it be crazy if they got another one?" And then Italy scores again. 2:0 Italy, in the last two minutes of the game. UnbeLIEVable. Everything was quiet at the Wohnheim (our student dorms). All was quiet in the city center. People who were watching there went quietly home, not saying anything or much of anything. It was unreal, like it didn't even happen. I even didn't believe it -- it happened so fast... I was also, however, honestly concerned that the ice-cream cafés would be boycotted or burned down by the next morning. Thankfully they weren't.

Last night Germany played Portugal for 3rd place; Germany won, of course. I thought it would come to another shoot-out, but by 75 minutes in the game Germany was suddenly up 3:0, and it was over. Portugal ended up scoring one goal (which I hoped they would, because it was Figo's last game and I felt sorry for him), but it was, as mentioned, OVER. Then I went with the Tutoring Family for several laps around the city in the car, honking the horn, waving flags, and shouting "DEUTSCHLAND DEUTSCHLAND!!!" It was great because it was like Germany had won WM. That's one good thing -- the patriotism here is constant; every day is a reason to be happy to be a German, and WM is just a reason to take it to a whole new crazy level.

Tonight is the France-Italy game. I asked Tutoring Family mother last night who she would cheer for, and she looked at me and said, "France." Which, at first, surprised me, because I know she loves Italy, and that she had an Italian boyfriend at one time, and generally loves Italy. But then she added "They threw us out", meaning that Italy pushed Germany out of the running for WM. Which is true, and which makes it a bit easier to know who to cheer for tonight. Chances are that most of Germany will be cheering for France. YAAAAAAY FRANCE!!!

Keeping fingers crossed...

Fake Irish on a hill...

2006-06-29T15:10:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday was "Jani" (Midsummer Fest), and while the suggested (and prepared for...) meeting up and co-celebrating it with the others here (who are, decidedly, definitely NOT Latvian :p ) fell through (more healthy vegetables and fruits for me, suckers), I was able to attend an Irish festival/concert thing not far from Landau. Tutoring family's mother invited me, and after a quick stop to see the last of the Germany-Sweden game, we headed off to Madenburg. I didn't understand at first, but Madenburg isn't a city in itself, but is a Burg (mini-castle? it's not really big enough to be a full-blown castle) above Eschbach.

Eschbach is a little crazy historical city, built in the mid 1200's and has a population of around 700. Not a lot of time to look at the city, though. After parking the car halfway up the mountain it took a 15 minute hike to get to Madenburg. The most amazing part of the entire thing was that this is a historical place, it's ancient (1100's), and they host events here once or twice a year. There are no guard rails, the steps, which are original, stone and very worn down, have no handrails. It's a touristy deathtrap, if you compare it to what they do with historical stuff in the U.S. I loved it :) The view from Madenburg is also spectacular. You can see where Landau is, and the beginning of Karlsruhe. Everything looks so close together from way up high, like the next city is just a few steps away.

The band, Skye, was made up of three fake Irish Germans. Which means that they sounded pretty Irish. I recognized maybe three out of all of the songs they played. Unfortunately they were kind of pushed into a corner of the Burg, so the sound didn't carry too well. There was food, drink, and a lot of people. A lot a lot. According to Tutoring mother, there have never been that many people at the fest. There was also a nice bonfire, so I even though I spent my Latvian holiday with a bunch of Germans, they had the right elements, and I was alright with all of it.

The thing started around 7 and we left around 11.30, stopped by Tutoring families house (with the other 3 people who went with us), interrupted the boys' night of pizza and TV, and had tiramisu and espresso. By the time I was dropped off it was around 12.30, so I hunkered down with my homemade cheese and some of the veggies and beer I had bought, and amused myself with latvian music and whatever I had in my room (computer, books... that's about it) until 4 A.M., by which point I was so incredibly bored that there was nothing else to do BUT go to sleep. I missed sunrise by an hour or so, but it's the best I've done in years.

All views from within Madenburg, except for this last one, which is a shot of what the world beneath Madenburg looks like. The city in the very back center on the horizon is Landau.

Madenburg bonfire

My cheese!

A lonely celebration!

**Note: if you're interested in how the WM scene is in Germany, read Andi's blog, because her boyfriend is crazy into WM, and has sucked her into the system. Link on the right!

Baroque Incident

2006-06-22T15:03:00.000+02:00

In light of the fact that my Berlin photos finally worked like I wanted them to, I'll take a short moment to explain the Baroque incident.

During my mother's visit, she, Sonia and I went one evening to Baroque, a very fancily decorated restaurant that (probably) has the best crepes in the entire city. There is one waiter there who is strange. He speaks (or at least speaks parts of) several languages, and comes off as somewhat uppity. We ordered our crepes and tea; banana-schoko w/ ice cream crepe for me, banana-schoko for my mom, and sugar-cinnamon for Sonia. The waiter confirmed the orders and left. We got our tea, everything's going good, a waitress (the dumb one who has screwed up my order and other people's orders on many previous occasions) comes over with a crepe and introduces it, all I hear being "....-schoko mit Eis?" I immediately raise my hand because I was the only one who ordered a crepe that included a combination of chocolate and ice cream. I get the crepe, she leaves, and I look at the crepe, realizing only after a few seconds that there is a lack of banana. There are no bananas.

Okay, so, I tell Sonia and my mother, we decide there has been a mistake, and we flag down the first waiter (I will from now on refer to him as such). I tell him in a friendly manner that I ordered a banana-schoko crepe and got a schoko-only crepe. However, because I was hungry, I would still eat the crepe in front of me, but would not pay for the banana-schoko. He looks at me for a few seconds and then says (in German but now translated), rather aggressively, "So what's the problem?" I repeat: wrong crepe, but I'll still eat it (therefore saving them the ingredients and time needed to make a new, correct crepe), but that I would pay for what I got, not what I ordered. Still in nice, passive manner.

Normally, waiters would be thankful for the customer's understanding and willingness to eat what was given them. This guy wasn't. He says, still aggressively "So what do you want me to do? We can make you a new one. What do you want?" I (once again) repeat that that won't be necessary. He gets pissy and walks away with a huff and a roll of his eyes, then turns half way toward us and says (rather loudly, I might add), that "Okay, so my colleague made a mistake; SHE'S ONLY HUMAN."

Sonia, my mother and I sit in stunned silence. The women at the next table over are looking at us and whispering. The three of us uncomfortably shrug it off and keep on with our talking, still not able to understand what just happened. How can he talk to a customer like that, especially when I wasn't even being rude or difficult?

A few minutes later, Mr. Jerkface (as I will now call him) literally charges at the table with his little computer-pad thing and says "See, now look here, what you are eating now is, in fact, what she" he points to my mom "ordered. You are eating HER crepe." The three of us look at him, eyes wide, and I say calmly, "No, because she ordered a banana-schoko crepe. Without ice cream." Silence for a few seconds, and then Mr. Jerkface once again spins away in a huff of anger and says loudly, "Forget it. Just forget it." After this I felt sick to my stomach -- seriously, and wasn't able to finish my crepe. No one has EVER spoken to me like that before, not in a public place, not ever. And I, as I saw it, had done nothing to deserve such a blast of rage.

Oddly enough, when he brought the other two crepes, he handed Sonia hers and called her "mademoiselle", and wished my mom "guten appetite". When he came to take the plates away he once again called Sonia mademoiselle, and asked my mother how her crepe had been. After the second incident, Mr. Jerkface was polite enough to Sonia and my mom, but didn't look me in the eye for the rest of our stay, not even when I paid for the three of us. Possibly he realized that he had been mistaken from the beginning. Maybe he felt like an idiot after accusing me of screwing things up, when it is in fact his job to keep things in order.

I was willing to overlook the first outburst, and just leave the restaurant if he ended up being my waiter, or ask for another one. But after the second outburst... I'm never going back. Which is a pity, because it's a really nice place with good crepes, and it's open until 3 A.M. I've also recently learned that I'm not the only one who has had attitude from him; and that includes friends of ours who have lived in Landau, or the surrounding area, for years.

So don't support the pretty restaurant that hires jerks. Wait to get your crepe fill from the cool guys who set up shop at the festivals and fairs.

The end.

Berlin pictures + one random comment

2006-06-20T11:06:00.000+02:00

On the way to the library this morning, I saw a guy whose skin was even paler than mine. I immediately felt better.

Now for Berlin:

Sony Center

Bombed-or-something church we never went in to

Crazy fountain with all kinds of sculpture things attatched to it

Statue in the round-about

A piece of The Wall in Potsdamer Platz (former "dead-zone")

Another crazy sculpture in the midst of a bike race

Native fire-breathing dragon-lizzard of Berlin. Dangerous creatures, but have rather bad aim

Brandenburger Tor, surrounded by stupid gates and WM junk. Not to come down on WM, but do you HAVE to surround the Tor with it?

Checkpoint Charlie

The Old National Art Museum. One of many museums we hit up that day.

Inside of the new Berlin Hbf. 5 stories, chaotic, but not a single baggage locker in sight! (truthfully, they exist, but are still under construction. Still stupid.)

The original Nefertiti bust, located in the Altes Museum

Schloss Charlottenburg. 4 hours of combi-touring, and at almost every staff member we talked to asked what we were doing Saturday. At first we thought they wanted to hang out with us, but it turns out there was a concert scheduled to take place in the castle hall.

The original Rodin "Thinker" sculpture

The view from our top-floor room in the youth hostel - I could sit and watch the trains come in and the idiots crossing the intersection. I mean that literally - people do some stupid stuff.

One of six or seven gigantic sculptures that are on display during WM. Others included a stack of books, a giant pill, soccer cleats, a car, and a cluster of flags

A very trippy site for a Jewish monument. These blocks were all different heights, and formed a kind of garden thing. I saw one set of parents lose their kid for 10 minutes before he showed up again. It's a very involving momument...

We had to get our travel money SOMEHOW, shoo'!

Upon our return in Landau. No more trips...please...

...Elaborating NOW!

2006-06-12T15:23:00.000+02:00

Last Sunday to this past Wednesday Sonia and I decided semi-last-minute to take the 5.5 hour train ride to Berlin. Reason being, of all cities in Germany, it would be the most shameful if, after having lived here for 10 months, we hadnÂt even made it to Berlin. We left at 7.23 in the morning, and had *luckily* only to change trains once. We went south through Karlsruhe and then back north to Berlin. On the way to Karlsruhe the train was filled with young business men/office working types who had apparently spent their Saturday night out celebrating and were on the way back home. Pleasant.

I said before that I hate train children. For the last two hours or so of the trip, a group of four (two little girls and their mothers); the kids were loud. One of the little girls, presumably a bit older than her friend, was unbearably and obnoxiously loud. She was one of those kids (unfortunately IÂm positive that I was exactly like this at times until the age ofÂ10? Sorry Mom, sorry DadÂ) who just doesnÂt know when to shut it. Or when to keep the voice down. Orgenerallynerak, when not to be a child other people tend to dislike. She spent her time laughing too loudly, saying her stomach was full of vegetables, poking the other girl with food, and slapping playing cards down on the table like it was her job. Then there was the running up and down the aisle and playing hide-and-go-loud-seek. The thing that strikes me now, is that neither of the two mothers attempted to sedate their children in any way. Sure, maybe theyÂre used to it. Maybe they did it on purpose so that the rest of the immediate world would suffer as much as they do on a daily basis. Whatever their planÂ common courtesy Â youÂre in an enclosed space with minimal fresh air, and people who have been on the train much longer than you. You think they would know to tell the kids ÂInside voices!Â

But then again, in complete contrast, there was a mother who quite viciously shook her son and scolded him for (apparently) teasing his (older) brother. Violently shaking your kid in a public place vs. not telling your kid to sit down and shut their mouths: shaking wins as far as bad parenting goes.

Was I ever shaken? DonÂt remember. But the memory loss is probably a result of falling on my head a few times.

By the time we got to Berlin I had a headache to the point of being sick to my stomach. Damn kids. (Note: I saw enough cute kids during the stay in Berlin to save me from any potedespisingld-dispising that may have been a result of the trip)

Our hostel was right across the street from the Berlin Zoo-Garten Bhf, which was convenient, and kind of endearing, because mornings I could hear "Meine Damen und Herren auf Gleis 2..." And the stairs to the hostel are across a set of stairs that lead to "World of Sex", the sex shop that accompanies the Berlin Erotik Museum. No, we did not end up going there. Mostly because our 3-Day Museum ticket didn't cover it. ZOOM!

Short nap after arrival -- we were the first people to check in from our room of 12 people. The other people only showed face after 12 A.M. or so when Sonia and I came back from the movie theater and turned the light on eight sleeping Koreans. I know they were Korean because when they weren't there I looked at the name tags on their backpacks. Hey -- I just wanted to know what I was dealing with.

Before the movie we walked around the area, had Hagen Daaz (how German, no!?), and....looked at stuff. It was Sunday evening, everything but ice cream and coffee shops is closed (no complaints from me), so we walked. Then we saw Date Movie, and that wasn't too exciting, and then we went back to the hostel and woke up the Korean roommates.

The rest of the time was spent booking it everywhere just to get to the museums we wanted to see (Alte National Museum, Alte Museum, GemÃ¤Guggenheim, Gouggenheim [don't know how it's spelled, so I'll fix it later], etc.). We took a boat tour and listened to 60 minutes of history and bad jokes about the surrounding buildings. We also walked to Charlottenburg (one of many parts of Berlin) and checked out the castle there. One plus about most museums and historical touristy things in Berlin: you pay for the ticket, and you get the audio guide for your visit FREE OF CHARGE. I loved it, even with the sometimkitschynfully kitchy statements, or such questions as "Are you now back in the Silver room? Good! Now, if you turn left..." Nice deal.

Berlin ended up being a lot less frightening than I had thought it would be. I imagined it, I supposed, to be like London, only 10 times bigger. But I never once felt like I was in danger, never once feared for my pocket book. Great! Berlin is, in some ways, like London, but it's much more spread out. In Landau, "everything" lies more or lessrestaurantswo resaurants, Leo's and Baroque (if I haven't mentioned anything about the Baroque fiasco, DON'T EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER GO TO BAROQUE. At most pop in to see the interior and how it's designed, but don't become a customer), and then inner Landau stops. In Berlin, Sonia and I were amazed - and a bit confused on the inside - at how Berlin just kept going. And going, and going...Every street had something to see or do, and it was nice. I would have liked to spend more time in Berlin, but maybe only by a few days, because I get the feeling that, once I had seen all of the Museums and such, I'd be done with it. Then it would almost be like every other big city I've been to. But it's definitely visit-worthy.

For the next post I'll put up photos from Berlin. Until then...!

Berlin Blurb

2006-06-09T15:41:00.000+02:00

Berlin is an 11 hour round-trip train ride from Landau. And I hate train children.

Further details Monday!

My mom's visit and some insights on life and entertainment here.

2006-05-31T11:24:00.000+02:00

(Straying from the original plan because laziness won the coin-toss...)

(Th) ceturtdiena 04.05.2006
Got up at 8am to take a 10am train so I could get to the airport before my mom’s plane. My second train was five minutes late. My third train arrived as scheduled. Fourth train arrived as scheduled, but took its sweet time getting to the airport; there was a 15-minute delay.

The German train system, as much as I love it, seems to do whatever it wants.

Once I got to the airport, I had to find the shuttle bus that would take me to terminal 2 – which is a good 3 km from terminal 1. It was also my only option—this I learned after asking the bus drivers (who then laughed [more or less at me] and said if I really wanted to walk, I could). Luckily the plane had landed a bit late, so I was about 10-15 minutes early. Mom finally came through the arrival gates, we hugged, I shed a few tears. Seriously, I hadn’t seen her in 7 months. Crying was allowed.

We got our train card validated, and went to buy something to drink and to eat. It was at this point that the first mistake was made. After three bites of an apple, half a Nußhörnchen (in my opinion one of the better pastries in Germany, but strangely seem to be produced no further south than Heidelberg [in my experience]), a small bottle of whole milk, and a sideways rocking train ride ADDED to the stress of a plane ride, my mom doesn’t feel too peachy. (HOWEVER, I was and am very proud of her!) She expressed her discomfort in the standard yet private manner of hugging a toilet in Mannheim – once, and then a second time 30 minutes later to seal the deal. We ended up missing three possible train connections and sitting in Mannheim for almost two hours. Luckily she felt better and we were able to get on a train with her sitting in a real seat and facing the direction of travel. After that the trip home was smooth; we got back to the apartment and she was able to sleep for a short bit while I rode to the library to write an angry e-mail to Amazon.de (who very promptly and correctly fixed the problem). When I got back home I pulled her out of bed and we went to walked around the city for a while on a campaign to keep her awake for long enough to try to avoid the kick of the difference in time-zones. Then we stopped at Mai-Markt, I think, where we got a small pizza and Fanta. That was dinner. Then we got back at the planned time (10-10:30 P.M.) whereby mom was allowed to go to sleep.

(F) piektdiena 05.05.2006 - (Sa) sestdiena 06.05.2006 - (Su) svētdiena 07.05.2006

Friday we kind of slept in, then left for Heidelberg. On the way we stopped to pick up my standard “I’m taking a trip” breakfast: something good from the cheap bakery and coffee-to-go from my favorite café. My mom was amusingly cautious of bacteria (I usually am, too, but her level in this case was plain funny) and kept a plastic glove from the bakery

with which to eat her Nußnougat-Croissant (=croissant filled with Nutella spread. GOOD.) Once in Heidelberg we found our hotel, put our stuff down in the *cute* room with a good view, then took a tram to the city center. Once there we popped into a few shops and had dinner, but mostly walked around and looked at the river and a bridge and at other people, including the drunk Italian woman who kept proclaiming to her group of fellow-bar hoppers that she was, in fact, very drunk. No delusions on her part. I myself had never walked along the river in Heidelberg. It’s very nice – not much more I can say about it. I did decide, however, that Heidelberg was definitely a city I could live in (meaning on the outskirts of the city rather than the city center itself). It has a body of water

, it has the right size for a city, interesting things to look at, a castle

, people, etc. Even looks cool at night

. Maybe someday… In the meanwhile pictures and drooling over my future possibilities will have to suffice.

Saturday we went to the Heidelberg Castle. The Heidelberg Castle is a source of (apparently) endless amount of entertainment. For me. When I went with my father I found out that it was possible to go to the other side of the castle to look at the proper ruins bit of it

, as well as the inner courtyard

(when I first went with Andi, Joanna, and Kathy). This time I found out that visiting the castle gardens is FREE OF CHARGE, and that not only are people allowed to chill out and bring picnic lunches, but that there is a pond filled with tadpoles. That’s right, tadpoles. And no one yells at you if you stick your hands in and try to catch them. Did I say try? I meant SUCCEED in catching tadpoles. We were the tadpole masters, Mom and I. There is also a large nude-man fountain

. There are also castle sheep on a castle hill. I like Heidelberg. It was interesting spending an entire weekend there. I thought I’d get tired of it, but NO! It was sensational! If I studied there I’d abuse my free-of-charge castle entry rights as much as possible.

We also saw some gate thing and some new church thing. Obviously these weren’t a large part of the time spent in Heidelberg.

Sunday early evening we headed back to Landau and did something that I don’t remember. It most likely involves Mai-Markt (again) and dinner, and if not, then it involves dinner at home.

(M) pirmdiena 08.05.2006

Monday I went to class, and then met Mom in the city center (she found it on her own! and with my crudely drawn map!) afterwards. We then had lunch at Green, by far the best restaurant in the city if you want a good salad. The salads are huge, filling, tasty, and basically „make-your-own.“ You tell the waiter or waitress what you want on the salad (from a set list of add-ons), and they bring you a bowl of healthy tastiness. Then we went shopping for some food and drink, hung around the city center a bit more, and then went back home. The evening may or may not have (once again) included Mai-Markt. I would have to consult Mom and her travel diary for exact facts.

(T) otrdiena 09.05.2006

Tuesday we had breakfast at C.a.M, where I introduced Mom to Andreas, the owner. Then I left her and went to class. Two hours later we met up again and then I don’t remember.

(W) trešdiena 10.05.2006

Wednesday we took a day trip to the Schwarzwald area. After much discussion and deliberating we decided to forego Freiburg or Baden-Baden and go straight to the middle-north region to Baiersbonn. Baiersbonn wasn’t very schwarzy (for the most part), but it was very waldy. Our goal was to find a hiking trail and wander around, and find and wander we did. But first was the obligatory „stand in a field with hills in the background and green all around“ photograph

. I look photo-shopped. Also the obligatory „take a secret photo when the other person is being contemplative and looking off into the Schwarzwaldy-distance“ photo.

And then the random playground… to make the hike seem like less of a chore? Subtract 12 points for the crappy joke that doesn’t really work

.

(Th) ceturtduena 11.05.2006

Thursday was spent in a train on the way to Füssen, a city southwest of München and across the Forgensee from Neuschwanstein Castle. Also near the Alps. Just…breathtaking

.
And dandelions like it’s a crop source. Once we found our guest house we set our stuff down, rented two almost useless bikes from the owner and drove into Füssen to find something to do. We missed most of the shops being open, but had our fill of Dönner and Radler (beer mixed with Sprite-like carbonated lemon drink). We also took some time to ride around the general area with the afore mentioned useless bikes. So I guess we dragged around more than rode around. Füssen reminded me of England’s Lake District in the sense that there’s a town just surrounded by natural beauty. Still makes me wonder whether the locals appreciate it like outsiders do.

(F) piektdiena 12.05.2006

Friday we took a bus to hohenschwangau, and then walked to crazy King Ludwig II’s (KL2) neuschwanstein castle. The climb was ‚meh‘, but the castle itself was enough to make me clear out over 60 photos worth of space on my camera.

As the perky-haired tour guide informed us, we were not allowed to take photos of the exhibits (which really weren’t exhibits…), but were more than welcome to take photographs of the scenes from the windows. And photograph those scenes we did.

I hated being in a tour group, though. I can’t stand it; I said later that we should have taken the german tour and just rented an audio guide in english. This is one of the few hard-core touristy things I’ve ever done.

After the castle tour mom and I sat down to watch a very poorly complied video of pretty pictures and vague texts read by british people; it was supposed to shed some more light on KL2’s life and works. We later bought a guide book about the castle, and a short biography of KL2 (what a good ploy to sell books… make a bad video and leave us all wondering).

After the video we hiked to the back of the castle, where my goal was the Marienbrucke
,
the small-looking line of metal wedged between two walls of mountain. I went onto the bridge myself (while Mom waited well away from the entrance of the bridge) in order to get a full side shot of the castle
.
I think I have about 10 pictures that are basically the same shot, but from only slightly different angles. I also had a semi-loopy local man dressed in Lederhosen take a picture of me with the castle in the background before he went back to precariously perching on the opposite rail of the bridge. The man also explained to me (after I had asked him) that the popular angle from which the castle is most often photographed for postcards and posters is inaccessable to tourists. The picture is taken from an angle that would require lots of hiking gear and experience. Lederhosen man told me that I would basically not make it to the location and back with the „gear“ I had on (=a few layers of casual hiking clothing and standard hiking boots). That killed my desire to try and get to the location myself.

In hindsight, KL2 may have been nuts (he claimed to have not been), but the man had a wonderful imagination and eye for location. You can see such a range of scenery from all angles of the castle, both from within and from outside.

Afterwards we got back to Füssen and took a ride down to the Forgensee. The Füssen theater hall is built right next to the Forgensee, and has a nice little maze garden, which must be great to walk through during intermissions. The lake itself was less climactic than I had hoped, but it was also interesting because the theater is across the lake/mountains combination from Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle looks so insignificant from the other point of view, just nestled among the mountains.

Weird how perspective changes.

(Sa) sestdiena 13.05.2006

Saturday we travelled back to Landau.

(Su) svētdiena 14.05.2006

Sunday we met with the Tutoring family for a short Mother’s Day visit. Coffee and tasty pre-made, oven-baked cake stuff and ice cream were eaten.

(M) pirmdiena 15.05.2006

Monday we took a very very rushed day-trip to Bonn. We didn’t see much, but stopped by the big „fallen“ heads outside of the big church, and found a bench with a fake person on it. Because I’m a good child and still have a certain amount of fear of the „wrath of parents“, I will not post the picture of my mom sharing the bench with the fake person.

(T) otrdiena 16.05.2006

Tuesday we got up early and took the train to Frankfurt. We got there in good time, got my mom and her luggage checked in. I found a „Mexican“ restaurant in the airport, had a nice spicy chicken salad in an edible taco-shell-bowl, and waited around with my mom until half an hour or so before her boarding time. I waited around until I couldn’t see her anymore beyond the security check point and headed back to Landau. The end.

Eurovision LIVE (but two days after the fact)

2006-05-22T14:50:00.000+02:00

Watching Eurovision live is one of the most entertaining things in the world. Especially if you include exchanging SMS's with a friend who is in Greece, and with your father who is in the US. It brings the world together! The following text has nothing to to with my mom's visit (I promise promise PROMISE that that will be the next post), but the comments were made during the show, are actual, unedited, etc. I had a good time.

__ . __ . __ . __ . __ . __ . __

I want a giant golden ball of moving wings, too! The tumblers in dolphin costumes were pretty convincing, too. Silly water mammals.

And how can that woman ethnic dance in those heels?!

Switzerland’six4one would be better off “giving a little” in their own solo projects. They all had fairly good voices, but not mixed together.

The German telecaster is too nice. England was funny last year, because the guy kept cutting down the contestants and the hosts.

Moldova. Oh. My. God. You could literally hear the cheering and applause abruptly stop as soon as the group came out into the light. The blonde woman probably took off her skirt because it’s really all they could do. But she went behind the large sail-prop to do it. NOBODY LIKES IT IF THEY CAN’T SEE THE CLOTHING REMOVAL PROCESS. Crappy crap crap. Go back to Moldova.

HAHAHHAH!!!! German telecaster’s comment was, “…Seid ihr fertig?” (=are you finished?) Thank you, thank you for saying that. I now respect you.

Israel. He doesn’t sound good live. That’s a huge downer. It may have something to do with the back-up singers. Oh wow, the piano singer can sing, too!

Let me make a note here: Ever since I found out that Estonia had not made it past the semi-finals (I am super ******** bitter about this, because she was, in my opinion, one of the best contestants), I have had little hope for the rest of Eurovision. There are contestants I like (like France), but I don’t think it will fly, because the past several years have been more about show, not talent. That’s right, I said it, I did!

Latvia – DANCING PAPER ROBOT THING!!!! I WANT ONE! They are talented, but boy bands and Eurovision don’t mix. They should have had a more upbeat song. Major props for the robot, though. “Und was machen die eigentlich mit die Dranpuppe?” (=and what, actually, was the deal with the robot doll?)

Norway; Pretty dresses. And yay for the violins. Her lips look botoxed. The song is actually good. The backup singers can sing, too. And they’re all trained to move in perfect unison. Good job. I’m actually getting chills. The wind effect makes it more haunting.

Spain. Las Ketchup. Crappy crap crap. They should have done something as upbeat as “Asereje” to at least earn their “because we’re famous” points.

Malta’s Fabrizio looks… girly. MICHAEL FLATLY CLOTHES!!! Who wears a boutonniere just to wear one? And with a chain and leather boot tassels? You are a fool. Where’s his back-up singer? Because the back-up singer can actually sing. Ah, I see him. Cleverly hidden in all black clothing. It might be Eurovision caliber. Shooting sparks add something.

Germany’s contestant has a good voice, and really good English. The cacti are a bit much, but at least the song is catchy. And at least it’s something really different. Nice, the one guy’s bass has a sheriff’s badge on it. I’m jealous.

Denmark – this girl is only 17 years old. She looks like she’s in her 30’s. I think it’s the cheekbones. The dancers in the video were much better. Her voice is dynamic, even though the lyrics are boring. A break-dancer. now that is a trump card, if I’ve ever seen one. She put on a good show.

Russia – this guy is also an actor. I’m still not feeling the mullet. There are ballerinas! My dad said that in the semi-finals one came out of the piano – HERE SHE COMES!!! But she doesn’t seem to have gotten much sunlight. Dime, it’s not healthy to keep the piano ballerina in there at all times. I like how it has nothing to do with the song. The German telecaster just made a crack about David Copperfield. I’m glad the man has a sense of humor.

He also just made a crack at FYR Macedonia’s contestant, saying that the girl studies Italian and Literature on top of music. And that her song title is, “wenig literarisch” (=not really literary), and how it means “wirklich, gar nichts” (=really absolutely nothing). Ah, right, the Shakira reference. Nope, don’t like it. I want to see Shakira rush the stage and tackle this girl. I wonder what her parents think of her. Now the telecaster made a crack at the intonation of the song, but said it was alright anyway.

Romania – 26 year old contestant. Telecaster has good things to say about him. Ah yes, the guy who reminds me of Deen. Everyone likes to use ballerinas, too. Does he have eye make-up now? The higher he sings, the better it sounds. Keep it up, Sally.

Bosnia and Herzegovina – where are his eyes? People seem to like him, though. I think this was the song that I wished I could understand. The dresses of the back-up singers are pretty, too. This man has an amazing voice.

Lithuania – LT United. They actually got “boo’s” when they came on stage. It takes everything… guts, balls, bravery, gall, ego, and a general lack of fear for your own life to sing something like this. I really enjoyed the bald man with glasses who very seriously approached the violin player (I thought he was a security guard at first), and then rocked out geek-style to the electric violin. Props. I think that if the lyrics of the song had been anything else other than “We are the winners… of Eurovision”, it might have actually gotten somewhere, because it was upbeat, and entertaining.

England. Sloppy school girls. Interesting. Although I don’t mind the song and find it not bad, this happened to be the first performance I actually walked away from, because it’s not Eurovision style.

Greece – I can hear the audience singing with. I like her song; she has talent, too, which helps. We’ll see how a semi-ballad song does. I’ll admit that I sang along, too.

Finland – the telecaster made a crack about Lordi using shock-therapy. And suggested that the elderly, children, and people with heart problems leave the room for the next three minutes. The costumes looked cooler in the video. And how can that guy play the drums with that costume!? Amazing! And I now see that their keyboarder is a woman. In the video, one of the other guys was singing. Wings! And the telecaster said that his Finish colleagues flipped out when they learned Lordi made it past the semi-finals.

Ukraine – too much like Greece’s contestant last year. She can hold her own on the long notes, though. Hahah! telecaster: “Shakira! Oh, nein…” I love how he can be so sarcastic and yet sound nice.

France – She doesn’t sound too good live. But the woman’s a hairdresser by occupation. The song sounded better in the video.

Croatia – holy cow, she’s picked it up a notch since the video I saw. She could actually win. (Telecaster made a crack about her “flying skirt, and whether or not that really helps”). The song is actually a national folk song. Presentation was good (even though she’s got a cross eye, I think), energy was fantastic. My hopes on her.

Ireland – I’m officially leaving the room again.

Sweden – I think her dress just changed colors. And there are many fans about. As far as presentation goes, it’s good, it’s entertaining. Her voice is amazing, too. I wouldn’t mind if she won.

Turkey – What happened to her voice? The dress and the tattoos and the hair… Britney meets Pink meets Gwen Steffani.

Armenia – Andre. It sounds good, but it’s too much like Ruslana. Too much too much.

Just learned as well that the woman host lives in the United States. She’s apparently been to Greece only 10 times before. I thought she was Greek-Greek at first, but that she had just learned English very well. Sakis is, of course, Greece’s superstar baby.

4000 years of Greek Song – it’s like watching several episodes of Xena mixed into one and on a big sparkly stage. Yah, even adding in the men in semi-parrot/super-hero costumes makes it like a Xena episode soup. AND THAT MAN IS PLAYING A TINY, BACKWARDS, VIOLIN LIKE INSTRUMENT.

Points 1-7 will be automatically be shown. Then points 8-12 will be announced.

Contest results:

Slovenia: (telecaster from Slovenia has a Maria t-shirt) 8-Finland. 10-Croatia. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina. (They also gave Lithuania 3 points).

Andorra: (THEY GAVE LITHUANIA 7!!! But only 1 to Greece. Ouch.) 8-Sweden. 10-Finland. 12-Spain.

Romania: 8-Russia. 10-Greece (the crowd cheers). 12-Moldova.

Denmark: (again 7 points to Lithuania) 8-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10-Sweden. 12-Finland. (WHAT!?)

Latvia: 8-Finland (craziness). 10-Lithuania (inevitable). 12-Russia (RIDICULOUS! That’s only because Estonia was bumped out!)

Portugal: (4 points to Lithuania) 8-Sweden. 10-Romania. 12-Ukraine.

(At this point Finland and Lordi are winning. Latvia has 0.)

Sweden: (3 points to Lithuania) 8-Denmark. 10-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 12-Finland.

Finland: 8-Lithuania. 10-(missed it) 12-Russia

Belgium: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Finland. 10-Greece. 12-Armenia.

Croatia: (6 to Lithuania) 8-Macedonia. 10-Finland. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbia & Montenegro: (3 to Lithuania) 8-FYR Macedonia. 10-Croatia. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Norway: (5 to Lithuania) 8-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10-Sweden. 12-Finland.

Estonia: (3 Points to Latvia – their first points) 8-Lithunia. 10-Russia. 12-Finland.

Ireland: (4 more points to Latvia!) 8-UK. 10-Finland. 12-Lithuania.

Malta: (1 point to Lithuania) 8-Greece. 10-Romania. 12-Switzerland.

Lithuania: 8-Latvia. 10-Finland. 12-Russia.

Cyprus: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Russia. 10-Romania. 12-Greece.

Netherlands: (6 to Lithuania) 8-Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10-Armenia. 12-Turkey.

Switzerland: 8-Finland. 10-Turkey. 12-Bosnia Herzegovina.

Ukraine: (4 to Latvia) 8-Armenia. 10-Bosnia Herzegovina. 12-Russia.

Russia: (1 to Latvia) 8-Finland. 10-Ukraine. 12-Armenia.

Poland: 8-Lithuania. 10-Russia. 12-Finland.

United Kingdom: (2 to Latvia) 8-Ireland. 10-Lithuania. 12-Finland.

Armenia: 8-Greece. 10-Ukraine. 12-Russia.

France: 8-Finland. 10-Armenia. 12-Turkey.

Belarus: (6 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Ukraine. 12-Russia.

Germany: (1 to Lithuania) 8-Greece. 10-Finland. 12-Turkey.

Spain: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Finland. 12-Romania.

Moldova: (4 to Lithuania) 8-Ukraine. 10-Russia. 12-Romania.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 8-FYR Macedonia. 10-Turkey. 12-Croatia.

Iceland: 8-Denmark. 10-Lithuania. 12-Finland.

Monaco: (7 to Lithuania) 8-Latvia. 10-Ireland. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Israel: (3 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Romania. 12-Russia.

Albania: 8-Greece. 10-Sweden. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Greece: (4 Lithuania) 8-Russia. 10-Armenia. 12-Finland.

Bulgaria: (1 to Lithuania) 8-Armenia. 10-Russia. 12-Greece.

FYR Macedonia: (3 to Lithuania) 8-Russia. 10-Croatia. 12-Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Turkey: 8-Ukraine. 10-Armenia. 12-Bosnia Herzegovina.

And Finland wins with 292 points!

And a merry Hard Rock Hellelujah to us all!

Travel with Mom

2006-05-18T14:18:00.000+02:00

Because I've done a good amount of traveling in the past two weeks, I'm not going to describe all of it here and now, but rather put together a separate link where each location can read about, with matching pictures to boot.

During study abroad, I would even agree that it's important to get around the area and see what you can see. Yes, I missed one day each of my classes, but we're allowed to miss two days before we're officially crossed off of the attendance list and are no longer able to get the Schein for the class. So I'm still good for time.

I also realized that while I explained the little local blue boxes for train tickets, I didn't do so for the computer touch-screen machines with the red tops that are, in my opinion, even more important than the blue machines. The red machine is basically a computer Counter Personnel, and you can get the same information from it as you can from a Counter Personnel. You can print out travel schedules, buy tickets, or just see how long it would take to get from MÃ¼nich to Berlin. If you have extra time, these machines also make a great toy, and offer service in apprx. 8 languages. They're also handy if the line at the airport travel center is 30 people long and there is just one confused American (who quickly gives up trying to use the machine) at the red-topped ticket machine. I pick my battles wisely.

To sum up the two weeks, we saw: the Heidelberg Castle (not a first for me, but I hadn't visited the castle garden earlier, which is, by the way, FREE) and stayed in Heidelberg for two nights, took a hike in Baiersbronn, which is a city in the middle of the northern part of the Schwarzwald, stayed two nights in FÃ¼ssen, a city that lies across the Forgensee from Castle Neuschwanstein. We were in Bonn for a few hours as well, and spent an okay amount of time in Landau, seeing the places I usually go to.

Spring has gotten to Landau, and it was unbelievably good weather the past few weeks. Today it's rainy in spring timeme-crappy way, so I opted out of riding the bike to the library. Speaking of bikes, my crappy bike, the one I never took a picture of (sorry to Dan, who I think requested a photo of the dilapidated wonder), was stolen who KNOWS how long ago from our apartment building basement. I'm not crying over it, but it's Â€35,- I'm never getting back. At least I had pre-rented a bike that works, and at least that wasn't the one stolen. It would have probably cost me more than the Â€20,- I paid to rent it.

I'll get into more details of the past two weeks for next time. Until then, Eurovision is another perk to being in Germany. I know we can watch it back in the US, too, but here it's more "real". And, as bejudgmentalntal is part of the fun of Eurovision, some comments on what I think of the contestants...:

-Albania's Luiz Ejlli should. do something more than smile at a girl and move his leg and arms in the video. Plus, the voice doesn't seem to be corresponding to him as an image of a person. I'm worried.
-Jennifer from Andorra is too 1980's. I just watched "Working Girl" for my American Dreams and American Nightmares course (we get such exciting course opportunities here -- the professor who taught my Vampire course last semester is teaching a Cyberpunk course this semester), so I find myself very sensitive to the 1980's.
-Andre from Armenia looks like an Armenian Carrot Top.
-Belarus' Polina Smolova is reminiscent of Russlana, because of the voice and because of indistinguishableable English. I can barely understand what the woman is singing.
-Kate Ryan from Belgium wants to be Britney Spears circa "I'm not a girl, but not yet a Woman".
-Bosnia and Herzogovnia's Hari Mata Hari looks like a more depressed Kevin Spacey, but has a nice voice and makes me wish I knew what he was singing about.
-Mariana Popova from Bulgaria. Good voice, interesting ethnic feel to it, and the lyrics are cheeky. Love love stuff, and then "the truth....LET'S SAY GOODBYE!" Oh, and there are acrobats and spinny ribbons in the video. I hope she brings them with her to Greece.
-Croatia's Severina... Too much lRuslanalana. And is Severina cross-eyed? Pretty dress, though.
-Annette Artani form Cyprus. 1)Good to see something GOOD come out of Cyprus. 2) Her voice is really good. Unfortunately, while I don't believe she'd win Eurovision, she would do a killer number on the sorry saps of American Idol if she ever decided to change citizenship and compete. But she doesn't need to, because she's already kind of famous. Right?
-Denmark. Crappy lyrics, but it has the standard Eurovision pep to it. Could get somewhere, unless the judges did what they did several years back to Mortenson, who had a GREAT song, and got shafted big time. What do you have against Denamark, world?
-Sandra Oxenryd from Estonia has my vote (so far) for AT LEAST top 5. Lyrics aren't too terrible, but the energy is there, and her voice is good. The video is crap, but I think she could get far. GO ESTONIA!
-Lordi from Finland. Oh. My. God. I hope they show up like that for the contest. Please please do. I want people to pee their pants from surprise. HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH! Zombie cheerleaders, anyone? And that's all I've got to say about that.
-Virginie Pouchin from France. Video like Goldenhorse's "Wake up, Brother" video. Copycat! Good voice, but won't do.
-F.Y.R. Macedonia: Elena Risteska. I was going to let the similaritiesRuslanalana slide, but then the girl had to go ahead and make reference to Shakira in her song text. That's going too far. OUT!
-What's with the sudden interest in country music!? Texas Lightning from Germany. At least she has good Englpronunciationtion.
-Anna Vissi from Greece. Good voice, sappy lyrics.
-Silvia Night from Iceland. Madona meets Aqua. Don't like it.
-Ireland's Brian Kennedy. No words. Is this a joke?
-Eddie Butler for Israel. The way he sings makes me *think* I can understand what he's singing when he's not singing in English. Very Gospely.
-Latvia's Cosmos. Oh boys. No matter how good you are (and they're good), Eurovision has never been place boy bandsands. Lithuaniaania. LT United...I can't tell if it's an act of desperation, or a call for war. There are six of them. There are six in Cosmos. And the song is in a very taunting tone. I like it. But I don't know... if they win, then it will be a "HAHA, TOLD YOU SO!" to the rest. Hahaha, these guys have guts. In the top 10.
-Fabrizio from Malta-- looks like the Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off, kiddo! Wow, he and his "ex" are practically twins. And I like that she used a rolly-suitcase to leave.
-Netherlands and Treble. Shakira much? People seem to be stickingRuslana'sna's nonsense-word usage to fill in space. At least they play instruments. They get points for that. And the energy.
-Ich Troje of Poland. Mixture between Ace of Base and Real McCoI don'ton't like that the one guy has red hair. Is it a wig?
-Portugal's entry, Nonstop. How come four singers need two backup singers? Shady.
-Romania's Mihai Traistariu reminds me of Deen and "In the Disco." Me no likey.
-Dima Bilan as Russia's contestant. He has a mullet. Lyrics are bad. Very bad. Maybe he should have chosen Russian. Enrique.
-Anzej Dezan of Slovenia. He likes scarves. He moves like a woman. He likes to dress up. He is a man of many hairdos. he could get somewhere. Also in the top 5, mostly because he's amusing.
-Sadly, Spain has chosen Las Ketchup as their entry.foreseersee something much like T.a.T.U. from several years back. Las Ketchup, although they don't necessarily have anything great to offer, will place high just because they are already huge famous.
-Sweden's Carola. Too much like Lena's "It hurts" from a few years back. Sorry.
-Switzerland's six4one = S-Club7minus one.
-Turkey. Gwen Steffani wannabe. No good. Can you tell I'm getting tired of judging?
-Tina Karol from the Ukraine scares me. Maybe it's the hair, maybe it's the hat, or maybe it's the shoullengthnght leather gloves. I don't know. Why is everyone in love with the 80's!?!?
-If you can't dance if you can't dance, if you can't dance if you can't dance, hire 20 other people who can. Booyah! I'm digging the all yellow bathroom. It's like... Vitamin C + len+...British rap.

I'm done.

I forgot Norway. Her hair maked her face look crooked. She has an interesting voice, though. Good for her!

Good to be on the road back home again...

2006-04-10T13:03:00.000+02:00

Have you ever been caught with your pants down?

How about on a train?

No?

I wonder if the intro to this post really needs a deeper explanation... We'll get to that point.

I got back to Landau on Saturday evening. The flight to Frankfurt(Main) from Riga was fine, except that I was dizzy and feeling sick because I had eaten a (seriously) large amount of what can be translated to "Bread Yoghurt." Usually yoghurt, for me, in small amounts is fine, my system can handle it. But by the time I had gotten to the departure gate in the airport and was waiting for boarding to begin, I felt feverish and woozy. The feeling continued for most of the flight, and I was glad that I had decided to NOT eat the plane-food-sandwich, because during landing the turbulence was

****BRIEF INTERRUPTION****
If you're reading this, Mom, skip over it until you see the SAFE TO READ title in the post. Nothing bad happened, I can assure you, but if you think that what might follow this sentence could in any way really worry you, I repeat: DON'T READ IT. This goes for the rest of you as well.
****INTERRUPTION COMPLETE****

not insanely disorienting, but it was a proper turbulence situation. And, considering that I wasn't feeling up to par in the first place, and the woman next to me kept asking her husband in an annoyed -- AN ANNOYED(!!) -- tone, "Goodness, what is going on with the plane? Why is it shaking and tossing like that? What, can the pilot not drive properly?", I wasn't too excited about the bumpy ride. I'll say now that most of the passengers were Latvian or Russian, and some Germans. So this woman, in a very loud voice, is asking, in Latvian, a language most of the plane probably understood, why the plane is going nuts. The plane WASN'T going nuts, but it was normal landing turbulence -- the weather was nice, sunny, etc. I wanted to turn to her and say politely, "Why is the plane shaking? Why, can't you see the flames from your seat? Would you like me to move so you can see out of the window better?" Such thoughts are better kept to yourself.

****SAFE TO READ . SAFE TO READ . SAFE TO READ****

So I lucked out with the train ride from Frankfurt back home, because instead of sending me from Frankfurt to Karlsruhe (a city about 30 minutes south of Landau) and only then to Landau, I managed to get a train that took me to Mannheim, then Neustadt, then Landau. I had to get on and off more times, but it was a straight trip south, no back-tracking. Because it's semi-important to the story, I'll add that during this time I was going through the last day or so of my period. In Mannheim I get to the next platform to wait for the train to Neustadt, and I realize, quite suddenly, that I need a toilet. There are no toilets on the platforms. Only in the main parts of the station. So I stand and wait for the train, praying it comes NOW NOW NOW and hoping the damage won't be too great or visible. Train comes, I literally jump on it, throw my bags down on a shelfy thing and turn to the toilets. There is one normal toilet with a ticket envelope wedged in the door, and a red square, indicating that it's probably in use (although I figured out later that the toilet was probably broken, because the ticket envelope belonged to no one, no one was in the toilet room, and the door was locked) and one handicapped toilet room. A big toilet room with an electric door that's curved and opens like sliding doors at a grocery store. I think "screw labels, I'm bleeding" and push the green button labeled "Ãffnen" to open the handicapped toilet room door. I go in, look around, push the red button "Schliessen" to close the door. There is no *apparent* lock in sight. The handle on the inside of the door has zero qualities of a lock mechanism and there is a red light blinking and it makes me anxious. So I try to orient myself, can't get past my coat, get my pants down and try come to terms with the fact that I have no idea what to do, when "geeeeeeeeeeeeeh" the doors of the toilet room start to open. I am confused. I, pants half down (thank GOD I had my long coat on) look rather helplessly at the door. The man who pushed the button from the outside looks in, hurriedly apologizes, I say "No, REEEALLY!?!" (in German) and push the red lock button as he turns quickly away. Once the doors have closed, I re-dress myself, stand for a moment trying to figure out what to do, decide not to risk that again, and exit the toilet room. The man is nowhere in sight. Smart. Eventually I ask a woman trying to make a call to stand guard while I make a second attempt. Afterwards we talk, trying to figure out how the bathroom buttons work. We decide that once you are in the room, you have to press the red button and do stuff as quickly as possible, even though the blinky red light can be seen from outside next to a plate that reads "Besetzt"(in use). Then the lady asks if I'm British. I say no, and that I'm from the US. She says she is as well, which I find odd, because at the beginning I had asked her if she spoke English or German better, and she said German. Then we figure out that she thought I said RUSSIA, and commented that I looked Russian (if not European/Eastern European). I contemplate this. In the past year, I have been told I lookScottishh, and now Russian. I do not know which is worse.

Finally made it to Landau, took a taxi home. Gushed to the driver about how pretty everything looked now, and he said 'What do you expect after being gone for two weeks -- it changes!' Once I got in my flat I wanted to scream, because not only was the apartment not as dirty as I had expected it to be, but I was so glad to be back.

And to have my own toilet where no one will walk in on me.

Quickness

2006-03-23T17:36:00.000+01:00

So... I leave for a week visit to Krakow tomorrow, and from there on to Riga. Last week my dad was here; we hung out in Zurich for three days, saw (more than I thought we could of) the Heidelberg castle, and had a snack in Wissembourg. Zurich was... just cool. It's not a particularly dazzling city, but I wished I had had at least a week there to just walk around and explore. I'll be going back there for sure. We ate fondue, sorbet with alcohol, saw the lake, almost saw a really old city, tricked a duck, chickened out of going into Gucci/Louis Vitton/Chanel/and other such stores (that was mostly me), stayed in a hotel that was cow themed (those who know me well will know I enjoyed it -- and my dad thought he could "cure" me. Hah!), bought expensive chocolates, and ate fish sandwiches. I would do it all again.

On a side-note, I'm listening to Latvian pop-rap. It's hilarious, but catchy.

As mentioned, tomorrow it's off to Poland to visit Ula and Joanna. And to get my hair cut.

We are now mid-way through our semester break at Uni-Landau, and I've got about as much done in my life as I had done back at the beginning of March. At this point I'm playing e-mail tag with my advisor back at Coe to work out my "I-want-these-classes-and-I-want-them-now" schedule. I'll supposedly have internet access over the next two weeks, so I'm not too concerned about keeping in touch with her or getting my classes registered on time.

And FAFSA is being difficult. Goody gumdrops for getting to take care of this while abroad!

If my next post doesn't come from one or the other Eastern European places, I'll bring it all back in April.

Recap

2006-03-08T16:03:00.000+01:00

This is a concise update of what has gone on in the past week and a half in Germany. The events are by no means in the correct order.

Snowed. Hanane and Geoffrey returned (for break) to France; we were sad -- but I see them again in two months. Snow, rain. Joanna and Ula leave within one day of each other; I was very sad -- but I see them again at the end of the month. I get sick as a result of going out with wet hair. Snow, snow, sun-rain-RAIN-sun-cloudy. I go, still sick, with the Tutoring Family to watch the Faschingsumzug (=parade). Candy, matches, confetti, and packets of tissues are thrown at me; I collect an adequate amount of candy, but share a lot with the Tutoring Family's boys and with the toddler in the stroller next to me, because I realize I am a 20 year old student scrambling on the sidewalk to gather whatever comes my way. I am a squirrel who *should have* outgrown the gathering mechanism. The Boys complain about the cold, and that the parade isn't all that fun or exciting (this was before it had even started). The older one, the one I tutor, says, "The Prunksitzung is better." The younger one agrees. Neither of them were at the Prunksitzung. I briefly wonder if they've ever been. Andi's parents come, they go travel, they come back. Kathy goes home for a few weeks. Hanane comes back for the weekend; we rejoice. Efi leaves; we are sad. Hanane goes back home to France; it is a somber moment, but she'll probably be back (once again) sooner than expected. I go to Heidelberg to buy candles that burn for 90 hours and cannot be found anywhere else, and to eat a REAL piece of New York Cheese Cake at Starbucks. I feel dirty doing this, but clever because even though the guy behind the counter expects everyone to be American (he greets everyone with "Hi!!"), I do my ordering (and order corrections...I SAID CHEESECAKE!!!!) in German. Rain, rain, rain. Tutoring is cancelled for an afternoon because the kid has "durchfall" (=diarrhea; thanks, Tutoring Mother, for letting me know that detail. I'm sure I appreciate it as much as your teenage son does). I go shopping for food; the woman standing in front of me in line puts beer, pudding, and depends on the counter. I feel weirded-out because I feel like this is something I don't want to remember. She asks me to help get a travel-sized bottle of vodka down from the display next to us -- it is possible she wants to forget it as well. Snow, rain, hail-y rain, snow. I receive an early-morning phone call asking if I've ordered "blahblahblah BOX." I do not understand what's going on until the man on the line asks if my name is Frau Mokowska. I say it is not, but that I now know what the hell he's talking about (Joanna ordered a card-box from a store before leaving, and I agreed to pick it up when it was ready. The man who called to let me know the item was ready, however, neither stated the name of the store, nor who he was calling for. I was, naturally, confused.) I pick up Joanna's notecard-box. I look at it when I get home; I get jealous and want one, too. I decide I can hold out. I go to Neustadt with the hope of buying something -- anything -- but return home empty-handed. I understand it's for the best. I alternate walking through mud and snow -- mud because THAT'S THE ONLY SAFE, NON-ICY PLACE TO WALK, and snow because it cleans the mud off of my shoes -- to get to the library to write this. My shoes are soaking, but clean. I write this. My left arm goes half numb as I do so.

Prunksitzung: In Hindsight

2006-02-27T15:33:00.000+01:00

Prunksitzung! Quoi?, you may wonder.

I wondered, too, although my wonderment was more English.

A few weeks back, in the car of the family whose oldest son I tutor, waiting for the mother to come back from dropping her costume off at the tailor’s (conversation translated into English for your convenience)

Me: …Costume?
Son: It’s for the Prunksitzung in a week.
Me: Aah. Wait, the what?
Son: Prunksitzung.
Me: ...The what?
Son: Prunksitzung!
Me: What-sitzung!? What’s that?
Son: Prunksitzung?...P-r-u-n-k–s-i-t-z-u-n-g.
Me: *blank stare, then whines in English* I don’t get it.
Son: Um…
Me: How is it spelled?
Son: Uh, P, R, U… No, wait, maybe it’s with a B?
Me: Hah! You don’t even know!
Son: *laughing and trying to cover up the fact that he can’t spell in his own language*
Me: What is it? What goes on there?
Son: Well…you go all dressed up in a costume, people get on the stage and do skits, funny stuff…
Me: *does not know, at this point, what the German word for stage is, so as far as I’m concerned there are funny people getting on something and making the audience laugh* Okay…
Son: Everyone’s in costumes, it’s like a satire thing. Clowns, for example!
Me: *shudders* I hate clowns.
Son: You eat, sing, drink…
*the Mother returns to car*
Son: I’m trying to explain Prunksitzung to her.
Mother: Ooh! It’s so much fun!! *proceeds to more or less repeat what the son has said* It’s great! What’s that one song?
Son: Oh yeah!
Mother and Son: *break into song – NOTE; this is not the first time they have broken out into song in my presence*
Me: *laughing, more or less nervously, and in confusion*
Mother: Oooh, you should come, do you want to go with!?
Me: I suppose I-
Mother: Great! I have to ask and see if I can get an extra ticket, though. But if I get it, you’re coming. If I don’t get it… well, you’re coming with us to the parade on the 28th anyway. It’s something you have to see – you’re in Germany! Every year we go to the parade and afterwards visit a friend and eat Berliner and drink champagne. It’s great!
Me: …Berliner…and champagne? That’s…an interesting combination.
Mother: It’s tradition! You’re coming. *NOTE: I had little say in the matter*

So February 18th I was picked up by the mother and youngest son and brought back to their house. There I was convinced by the Mother (who had been wearing her Greek Goddess costume since noon when she had gone to the hairdresser’s), to dress like something between a bloated pirate (red is not my color) and a gypsy:

You can’t see it, but my pants were rolled up over my boots. That was my personal touch. All in all I felt more like a dejected child than a pirate-gypsy. Glass of champagne, finished the costumes, and then the Mother, the younger son, and I (the one I tutor stayed at home) left for house #2, where I met some more people I won’t see ever again (Hermann, his 30-something-year old daughter and her boyfriend), the only exception being Hermann, a (seemingly) wealthy man (his house is filled with countless old collectibles) who turned out to be the sponsor of the Arzheim Prunksitzung. The tutoring family’s younger son was employed to “kid-sit” (as he put it; very PC) who turned out to be Hermann’s godson. I thought the kid was the grandson. Hermann’s daughter, after being introduced to me, looked at me kind of odd and said, “Um, do you…speak only English?” I told her “no”, that I also spoke German. “Oh good.” She sounded too relieved.

Another glass of champagne and more people who I’ll never see again showed up (one of the men was dressed like a monk, but looked more like a really jolly Jedi – the Mother came and whispered to me if I’d understand her if she told me he was a “Frauenarzt” – I did. A Frauenarzt is a gynecologist. I had a temporary “I think my appendix is/ovaries are infected” scare in November and quickly learned all necessary words and terms in case I ended up needing to call the police to take me to a hospital. Everyone else I know was gone that weekend so what can I say, I panicked). These new people, who did NOT appear as a direct result of another glass of champagne, put on hats or wigs – the extent of their costumes (at least Hermann was in a tux with old school coattails and a hot pink top hat, his daughter a conservative Playboy Bunny, her boyfriend a cowboy). We then headed off to the Prunksitzung.

I’ll make another note here that at this point I had been several times introduced to others as Kaija, an exchange student from the US and Nico’s English tutor – I was (and would be throughout the night) referred to as a very lovely, nice person/tutor, whom the Mother was very grateful and lucky to have found. If that’s not a validation of the positive and likeable quality of my character, I don’t know what is.

The Prunksitzung was held in what I understood to be a kind of community centre. The inside looked like this:

Once the program started it looked like this:

and this

The theme of the evening was “Fiesta Mexico.” Don’t ask, ‘cause I don’t know. We took our seats, unfortunately toward the back of the hall, made the rounds of introducing me to the surrounding people.

After 30 minutes or so it became clearer to me what was going on. Prunksitzung is basically Halloween minus the scary costumes, themes, pranks, etc. It’s another hooplah-crazy holiday tailor-made for eating typically delicious German sandwiches and drinking any and everything put before you. Prunksitzung is part of the Fasching carnival thing, which takes place the last week to two weeks before Lent. Get your party on now before you have to give it up for 40 days, friends! For more information on Fasching go here: What is Fasching?"

During the program, which lasted probably more than two hours, there were skits upon skits. They were funny things I mostly didn’t understand (since it was all in very strong Pfalzisch dialect, I got context 100% thanks to costumes and actors, but only about 50% of actual words), but it was enjoyable nonetheless. My two personal favorites were the children dressed as crocodiles dancing to the “Schnappi” song, and the “Arzheim Männer Ballet” which was… different, wordless, and hilarious. There were maybe 10 men dressed as monks (candle carrying, too!) who walked to the stage during an interlude of Gregorian chant music. Once on stage and with their backs to the audience, the music died down and they proceeded to whip off the monk robes, revealing the fact that they were all dressed in tight, black, half-fishnet material dancer shirts, and white and black camo hot pants. They then danced. Like a chorus line. They got an encore, and I laughed like I hadn’t laughed yet that day.

From monks....

...to glory!

Drinks were standard: Weinschörle (wine + mineral water), Sekt-orange (champagne and orange juice), red wine, and other stuff. The most fun by far, was what was that night named the “Mexiko Rodell” – twenty 20ml bottles of random liquors (ex. fig vodka, plum liquor, cream liquor and whiskey). €15,- of table pounding, liquor shot, traditional fun. Here are some diagrams created a few days ago, reinacting one of the (traditional) ways to drink such a bottle:

Step 1: Kindly accept the bottle of whatever it is they (in my case the tutoring family Mother) offer to you.

Step 2: Inspect the bottle, because you have no idea what’s going on. If the picture of the Red Neck on the label sitting next to a representative fruit icon doesn’t tip you off, ask what it is and it will be explained.

Step 3: Figure “what the heck, this may be the first and last time you get to experience a real Prunksitzung” and open the bottle. Note: Before opening the bottle you have to bang it on the table a couple of times. Don’t ask, ‘cause I don’t know. Neither did the Mother. She said it’s just something that’s done.

Step 4: Be instructed that it is essential to put the cap of the bottle on your nose in order to drink. It’s great to see everyone within 5 people of you (in my case people mostly 50+, minus the Mother, Hermann’s daughter and boyfriend, and myself) doing the same.

Step 5: Make sure the cap is secured. Really secured. You don’t want to screw up on your first go. Because then not only are you a foreigner, but you’re an inept foreigner.

Step 6: Once Step 5 is accomplished, you’re ready to drink.

Step 7: I ended up using holding the bottle, but there is the option of not using your hands. As you can see from the diagram, I look like an idiot. But that’s because I’m the only one in the picture. With everyone else doing the same, it doesn’t look as stupid. Seriously.

Step 8: Realize that you’ve just downed a shot of pretty harsh tasting plum liquor. Be kind of laughed for the face you make.

Step 9: Catch your breath and try to forget the plumy taste. Contemplate whether or not to accept a second bottle of stuff.

Step 10: Glady accept a second bottle of stuff. Repeat process.

The second time around I got fig vodka (or here, vodka with fig taste). I had tried this stuff once before when I bought an interesting little bottle of it at the supermarket. The label was black, lavender, and green, with white googly eyes. I had to have it. The amusing part was that the second bottle I had was good, and the Mother got some whiskey mixture that apparently was not, because she pulled a face much like the one in Step 8’s diagram. It was my turn to laugh. Then there was a short pause before we both agreed (simultaneously) that the vodka with fig was better. Then we giggled like high schoolers (I don’t know if there’s a German equivalent of “Jinx!!”).

For those wondering, I did not drink myself into oblivion. Even had I wanted to, I think it would have been awkward. It was strange enough being invited to the event by the Mother of the kid to whom I give English lessons, much less drinking with her.

By the end of the skits and performances (which the Mother said were disappointingly not as good as the ones in the previous years), the whole thing turned into one big conga-line, myself involved in one leg of it. Eventually I was able to break off and sit with the smoke burning my eyes and music hurting my ears (sitting near the back has its drawbacks – speakers right by you) while the Mother went to dance some more. Around 12.30 or so we made our way back to the house (Arzheim is small, it’s a 5 minute walk from the community centre to the house) where it was planned for me to spend the night on the couch, because the Mother wasn’t planning on driving after celebrating.

The next morning we woke up after sleeping late and had a nice, simple Brötchen and condiment breakfast. Afterwards the Mother and I watched TV for a bit (some animal show) before heading to…Ilbesheim, I think… to take a walk with their dog, Genna. The sons went to play soccer, and the Mother and I left. Whatever town we were in, it was beautiful. Typical small German suburb, architecture, scenery, all of it. We walked up to the top point of the town to a Weinstübl (=little restaurant thing) and had a light lunch of what I only later realized to be split pea soup (I knew it was Erbsensuppe/ pea soup, but it sounds more simple and more appetizing in German, so I think that’s why I was thrown). Then we walked back down to the car and I was driven home.

The Mother offered to take me with to the Prunksitzung at the Bethesda, which is, as far as I understand, a mini campus mixture of a hospital, a retirement home, a facility for disabled and handicapped persons, and other such things. I declined, not wanting to overstay my welcome, but was told the next day (on the way to tutoring, also known as the third day in a row I had seen them – my reason for not wanting to push it, even though the Mother made it very clear I was doing anything but) that I should have gone, because it was apparently better than the Arzheim Prunksitzung. There had been “hired professionals” from the Landau Prunksitzung who came to perform for the elderly and disabled.

Prunksitzung accomplished! Now the only problem is that some of the ERASMUS people now and then refer to me as “Pirate.” News travels fast between us…

Train Schooling

2006-02-20T18:33:00.000+01:00

I’m extremely tired today for unknown reasons (but which could possibly be due to an activity filled weekend, which I will discuss within the next few days while the memories are still fresh), so my long-promised and lied about post about train usage in Germany will be informational, but not too amusing. I think.

The first thing you do is decide you want to leave the city and go somewhere else. By train. The next step is to locate the train station in the city. This is fairly easy to do in most cities, because if you somehow ended up in a city and are not aware of where the train station is, just as “Bahnhof?” to anyone on the street and they’ll point you in the right direction, or look at you like you’re a leper and go away.

When you get to the train station you can either A) go to the ticket counter and take the easy way out, or B) head over to one of these puppies.

If you chose A, you’re smart. Unless it’s a weekend. Then you’ve messed up. Here in Landau the ticket counters are closed on weekends – in larger cities like Bonn or Heidelberg the counters will be open even on Sundays. Heck, the counter in Wissembourg (France) is even open on Saturdays. But that’s France, and we don’t talk about the French. The good thing about the ticket counters is that the nice men behind them do everything for you. You tell them which city you want to go to, on what day, and approximately what time. They’ll give you a print out with your options, and if you want you can purchase your ticket then and there. I’m in love with the printouts because of how handy they are for longer journeys. The printouts not only have information on when the first train and following connection trains depart/arrive at each respective station, but the platform on which you depart/arrive is even noted. It may seem like a trivial thing to all of you, but I don’t know what I’d do without this feature. Probably miss all of my connections.

So let’s say you chose B from the start – you’re brave, you’re up for adventure, or maybe you knew you’d end up there on a weekend. If you’re just taking a short trip, for example from Landau to Karlsruhe, or to Heidelberg, the blue machine is your best friend.

Note: there are also red machines that act as automated ticket counters, but they suck, don’t give you the proper discount (with our Student Cards we can get to a certain point “for free”), and are overall nitpicky. They take forever to work with, and the only thing they’re really good for is printing out free timetables for trips to closer cities. Bah.

Back to friend blue machine (FBM). As you can see in the picture below, I’ve taken FBM and marked various features for reference.

I’ll just go through the list. In the upper left-hand corner of FBM, the word “Fahrkarten” has been red-rectangled. Redtangled? Hah! Anyway, this word = “travel cards”, or “drive cards.” Lucky for non-German speakers, the word “Ticket” is now used. I don’t think I’ve ever seriously used “Fahrkarten” since I’ve been here; only for jokes. With this word you know what you’re about to buy.

A) This is the screen. You look at the screen to make sure you haven’t botched up your “order.” We all know what a screen is for.

B) Number pad. This is used to let FBM know which city you want to visit.

C) A list of cities with their corresponding numbers. The thing with FBM is, that if the FBM is in Landau, all outgoing tickets are calculated “Landau to (destination).” If you’re in Neustadt, all FBM tickets are calculated “Neustadt to (destination). Here’s what part of the city list looks like:

Note: Not all German cities are listed here. That’s another drawback. I don’t remember correctly, but I don’t think that, for example, you could buy a Landau – Berlin ticket from FBM. FBM is a more localized dealer.

Let’s say you’re in Karlsruhe, and you’ve had enough of their crazy southern video-gaming scene. You want out, and want to go back home to Landau (redtangled). You enter “462” on the number pad (B) and the screen (A) will read something like “Landau (Pfalz) – (Price).”

D) If you’ve made the right city choice, you give over your money in sub-D, or your plastic in upper-D.

E) If you’re not buying a simple one-way ticket you can look at an overview of other possible tickets. The descriptions are in somewhat complicated German train-speak, little of which I understand. In this case it’s easier to prepare by asking the ticket-counter men which ticket you should go for. One time I had to buy a “Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket”, which was a €23,- ticket, allowed me to take only the slow trains, but was good for the entire day, there and back, no time restrictions. If I had had the time I could have spent the entire day along the Rhein, taking trains between cities as I pleased.

F) To get the “Rheinland-Pfalz ticket” I had to push one of the keys in this section. There is a similar result as with a one-way ticket. Screen (B) confirms your selection and tells you how much money you need to feed FBM.

G) Your ticket comes out here, as does any change if you’ve paid FBM cash.

H) This buttons is important if you want to cancel any choice (even though you’re not obligated to pay anything if you just want to play around and check overall costs to various cities). Otherwise it’s just there.

U) These are unknown parts of FBM. I don’t know why they’re there, but they don’t seem to play an important role in the process of ticket purchases.

After you’ve bought your ticket, you make sure you know at what time and from which platform the train leaves. If you screw up here, it’s not all roses and pancakes. (See "Kein Oktoberfest")

Final notes: If you get caught without a ticket (without the right ticket…might be the same penalty), you’ll have to pay AT LEAST a €40,- fine. We went from Worth to Karlsruhe once without paying, but that’s because it was a Saturday and there is no way to buy a Worth-Karlsruhe ticket in Landau from the red fake-ticket-counter-machine, and it didn’t make sense for us to get off at Worth, buy a €2,20 ticket, wait for another train, just to make the last 10 minutes of our trip legal. (We bought valid tickets on the way back, Karlsruhe-Worth, though. It’s not like it was fun riding in fear.) As I told my father, if I at any time plan to free-ride on any of the trains, I’m at least going to make my final destination Paris or Berlin, make the trip worth the fine, y’know? There is also a possible fine of €25 if you’re caught with your feet on the seats. Seriously.

Helping Tourists

2006-02-13T11:29:00.000+01:00

Saturday I finally, **FINALLY**, secured a European standard power cord for my speakers. I repeat, FINALLY. There was an issue back in… November when my dad first ordered it for me. The cord kept on not being delivered, and we had to wait two months before there could be an official assumption of “item definitely lost” declared. Then it occurred to us to find the company base here in Germany, which we did, and ask them where we could get the cord. After several emails the Customer Rep. person told me that the item could be ordered and shipped. Then I found out that I could order it right through this CR person, via email. I did so, and she informed me that the item would be shipped the next day. As mentioned above, I picked up the cord from the post office today (I received the slip yesterday). This process, as opposed to the one almost four months ago, took less than a week. HURRAH!

Lesson: Don’t trust international post with items that you *really really need* (case in point, I really *needed* that cord so I could play my music at an appropriate college-student-volume-level).

On my way back through the city I was stopped by a man who, in broken German, asked if I spoke any English. I nodded, and after asking confusedly about the “main street” (and me not understanding where he was going with the question) wife told me they were “ basically just looking for a place to have breakfast.” I said I knew the perfect place for breakfast and coffee, and told them it was on my way, so I’d take them there.

Looking back, I should have made shifty-eyes, told them hurriedly to “follow me”, and scurried off, staying close to the edges of buildings.

If you need to ask where I was taking them, you probably haven’t paid too much attention, if any at all, to the previous posts. I told them about Café am Markt (C.a.M.), the best café in the city, and the woman told me I didn’t sound like a local.

Looking back, I should have made shifty-eyes, cleared my throat, and drawled “I knooow noot vaaat youuu arrrre meeaning.”

I explained I was an exchange student from the U.S., and that they had found the right person to ask about breakfast, in my opinion not only because I speak English, but because I know where to bring people to feed. (Note: have been reading too many books and articles about and for my Vampires in Literature and Film course.) They explained that they were from Scotland but now lived in Strasbourg, and were on their way to the (Hahn) airport to catch a flight back to… where else?... Scotland for a week’s vacation. In general they seemed slightly relieved to have found someone who spoke fluent English, but their relief then seemed to wane as we were going through the city centre. I say this because the husband looked around and wondered out loud if they’d be able to find their way back to the car afterwards. I briefly explained the make-up of the main streets → | | | ← (three large streets parallel to one another) and told them that as long as they headed back the way we came, they’d hit the right street and find their car.

Looking back, I should have made shifty-eyes, giggled darkly, rubbed my hands over one another, and quickened my pace.

We made our way through the Wochenmarkt (=market every Tuesday and Saturday), I was asked if I had been to Scotland, to which I proudly replied that I had, summing up the time spent in the UK with “About a week in Oban, visit to the Islands Mull, Staffa, Iona, some time in the Lake District – stuff like that.” The woman asked if there was a University in the city, I said yes, told her where it was, and then we arrived at C.a.M. I pointed out a table where they could sit (they were lucky to get one of the larger tables – Saturday early afternoons are usually packed), and started to the back of the café to get something to go (heck, if I’m going to go all the way in the building I might as well get something while I’m there, no?). The woman asked if I was staying as well, and I said rather easily that no, I wasn’t – I was just getting something to go and then I had to be off back home (my speaker cord was burning a hole through my backpack; I also had 10 eggs at the top of my pack I wanted to see home safely). I went to the three workers there, among them our literal laugh-out-loud man and possible owner of the café, and told them I had brought them some customers who were originally from Scotland. Our friend did the “worship” bow a few times, and then asked me what people ate in Scotland. I said bread in fat, eggs in fat, and fat. I also explained how they had stopped me, asked if I spoke English, asked where they could get breakfast, and how I knew immediately to bring them to C.a.M. A nice chuckle, that scenario. Then I took my coffee and left.

On the way home I realized that I probably should have stayed and talked to the nice couple from Scotland. I could have asked them how long they had been living in Strasbourg, why they had moved there, how they like it, and so on. They would have asked me about the University, about the life of an exchange student, possibly about other countries I had visited. We would have laughed a bit more about RyanAir, elaborating the topic we had briefly touched on during the walk to the café. They would have finished their breakfast, me my coffee, they would have thanked me once more for the help, I would have wished them a safe flight, and we would have gone our separate ways. The whole event might have lasted no longer than an hour, and yet I brought them to their destination and said goodbye to them like it was just another good deed well done.

I thought about how I had experienced no desire or sudden urge to sit and talk with a nice couple that also spoke fluent English and to share opinions of living in a foreign country, nor did I want to get away from them as fast as possible. I acted the part of a nice civilian, helping out some tourists, and then turned to the local Germans to chat briefly with them as well. It was odd, very odd indeed, to handle the ordeal with the feeling of delivering a note from one teacher to another in middle school. I helped tourists like it was a second nature.

By the way, my new speaker cord works, and my music is good ‘n’ loud. :))))

My First Real German Party

2006-02-06T10:36:00.000+01:00

Last Wednesday night most of us (us = ERASMUS kids) headed out to the University’s “Atriumfete.” By day the Atrium serves as a mini-maze-center to the University’s main classroom building and has a cement sitting/standing structure thing in the middle, many pillars, and four main classroom branches (with convenient color-coded doorframes to each individual department. Ex: yellow has mainly psychology and geography classrooms.) By night the Atrium can be turned into a party zone with a dance pit lined with edges to stand and dance on. I missed the first Atrium party at the beginning of the semester and was glad I decided to go to this one. Some things on the Atrium party, however…

There was an insane amount of people when we arrived. Like everyone decided to go at 10:15 because “no one else will do that!” We waited in what I dubbed a “Wartedrache” (usually it’s Warteschlange = “waiting snake” = line/queue) because it was massive, 4-5 people wide with people butting in at every angle, and a standard pat-down right before you get in to pay. Ah, yes, we have to pay to get into almost every party here. Kind of smart, on their part. All drinks €1,50 after that (at least at the tables I saw). I experimented and brought my Flachmann with me, and had it confiscated even though there was nothing in it. What was I going to do, smuggle drink out of the party? I finally convinced one of the security guards that it was better for me to write down my name (he said it was unnecessary because no one else would be bringing a Flachmann – did I miss a memo?) because it was not a cheap toy. He commented that my name was pretty and asked where I was from. I said the U.S., but that I was Latvian. And then what does he say? “Alright, Kaija, well have a good time in the party! You can pay over there. Have fun, bye bye!” Let me add that up to that point we had been speaking German and he did not show any sign of having any clue I wasn’t German.

Note: many people, upon finding out that you can speak English, are more than thrilled to show off their skills to you, no matter how bad they are. It’s better to NOT say you’re from the U.S., unless you know for a fact that it will make the situation you’re in much easier for you. In my case, it didn’t.

Coat check €0,50. Dropping our coats off was simple. Getting them back was a whole different thing.

Party itself, very cool. Lots of blinky lights, lost of loud music, lots of people, and more attractive German guys that I have seen in one place in the 4+ months I’ve been here. Where have they been hiding?! During one bathroom break Ula and I were talking – in English – and attracted the attention of a few girls who then proceeded to beat us up for being foreigners.

But not really.

They were excited, no – elated, to hear English. Where have they been? We’re everywhere! One of them has spent either a couple of months or a couple of years (total?) in the U.S., and has a fairly decent accent. I thought she sounded like someone who was really from the U.S. but was just a little drunk (certain letters/words slurred, etc.). I told her this, and she agreed, adding that she had had a drink. The second girl had just returned 10 days ago from a semester in Australia, and expressed something close to relief that she could hear English again. The third girl… I have no clue about her, but she also spoke English. They commented my German was really good – I found it easier to talk to them in German than in English.

About the music… when we first got there the music was pretty good (Fettes Brot’s “Emanuela”, hahaha, I KNOW THE WORDS!), Greenday, and the standard U.S. party rap music. Then they slipped into the oldies: Music from “Grease”, and several other songs whose words I kind of know, but never can remember who sings them or what the song titles are. Oldies central. For well over an hour or so. Then suddenly it was 1 A.M., then 2 A.M., and then the blinky lights turned off, and the florescent ones came on (is this what people refer to as “drunk lights?”), signaling that it was almost over. We headed out to the coat check and WHA-BAM! we’re stuck in a literal smush-fest of people for over an hour, waiting impatiently while some people pushed, others pushed back (I belonged to that group – thanks, mosh-pit experiences!), while still others were crushed and started to panic and had to leave the line. I had my hands by my face, my elbow in some guy’s kidney (he kept pushing my elbow away, but it snapped back to his kidney every time because, hey, it had nowhere else to go! he deserved it, however, because he had weaseled his way in front of us 15 minutes before and was not going to get anyone’s sympathy), maintained a semi-sedated (it was warm in the mass and I was tired) chant of “Ich bin verdammt klein und kann nicht atmen!” (= I’m damned short and can’t breathe!”), and assured the guy next to me that I knew it wasn’t his fault we were being pushed. Then it got interesting because the security guards linked arms (dead serious, they linked arms for this next move) and pushed us all backwards, then seemed slightly annoyed that the mass decided to push back. You’d have thought that we were waiting in line to buy concert tickets or to high-five the Pope or something.

We finally got our coats and Efi and I went to wait for the others. I also went to retrieve my Flachmann. I did so, and then was told by the security guard woman that I “could leave now.” I told her we were waiting for some others, and she more or less said something like “you have your flask, you can go wait outside.” We were outside. I asked Efi if she would like to wait outside with me. We looked to the left of the guards where there was a metal fence less than two meters away that apparently separated “inside” from “outside”. Efi said, “I don’t know if I can. It’s kind of far.” True, Efi. And it might be cold. But we went outside. Then there was a guy fighting with the guards – he maintained that he had been doing nothing but “waiting for his (girl)friend” and “where did my bratwurst go?” He seemed more upset about his food being lost in the struggle than being forced to go “outside”. I would be, too. Bratwurst is good stuff. And it’s a harsh world outside.

Lesson/Tip: Go to at least one of the Atrium parties, know that you can’t bring anything that is/looks like it could at some point contain alcohol, be prepared to keep your coat with you the whole night or wait until the line dies down, and don’t do anything to piss the security guards off.

More about Bread

2006-02-01T15:10:00.000+01:00

French people (specifically Hanane) know where to find the best bread-stuff foods. Case in point: Hanane gave me a large slice of what is basically cherry... okay, so I knew the English word for it a few days ago, but it's gone now. Cherry crumble cake? Almost had it, lost it again. CHERRY COBBLER! (Note: your ability to think in simple English language terms suffers severely while studying abroad.)

So a large slice of cherry cobbler was presented to me. The slice was a about a foot long, if not slightly more, and amazing. Some of the cherries had pits, but that just confirmed how "real" it was. The next day Joanna and I went on a search for the cobbler, and I had to call Hanane to ask her where she got it. Cobbler was found and eaten, everyone was happy.

Yesterday Hanane brought some chocolate bread and honey bread for us to eat after she and Ula guinea-pigged my home made Chinese vegetables and noodles. The noodles and veg; good. The sweet bread; also good. Hanane wins again!

Tip: As mentioned before, for the (in my opinion) best Brötchen (bread rolls), croissant stuff, bread loaves, etc., and for the best price, go to the Discount Bäker on the main street (Markt Strasse). For the best cherry cobbler and other cobbler delights (don't buy their bread, because it's expensive and doesn't taste special. The Discount Bäker stuff is better), go to the bakery on König Strasse that wraps its stuff in red and yellow paper, and that has Berliner pastries in capuccino cups in the front window (it sounds like a rather lengthy description, but when Hanane told me this feature I knew immediately which bakery she was referring to, and used the description when relaying the information to Joanna -- she knew which bakery it was, too, after hearing the cup bit). For the best sweet breads, go to Mini Mal, but not the small one on König Strasse, but the big one that's on...the street after Nordring and before the Discount Bäker. It's across the street from a gas station. I've seen it once, and have yet to be there.

This has been a very random and useless post to you all (unless you're planning on coming to Landau to buy bread stuffs), but at least it's something. The next post will be, for real, about train tickets.

Tschüs!

Tough Times

2006-01-17T17:49:00.000+01:00

I'm not dead. I'm just very stressed out this week, so I haven't been willing to write or think about much else other than my projects. One presentation was taken care of today, and the second one is tomorrow. The trouble with being a native English speaker is that there is this terrible feeling that I'll be judged more harshly than the other students in the class. Sure, all they do is copy-paste information from the text books, seemingly regardless if they really do or don't understand it. But God forbid I don't get what I'm talking about... I feel like there is so much more pressure on me. Usually I would be handling this with the normal amount of stress, but because this is, literally, the MOST WORK I'VE HAD TO DO ALL SEMESTER, I have forgotten what it's like to work hard. I actually miss Coe's class structure, where each class meets (normally) 2-3 times a week, and where there is at least one written assignment per class; at least we're constantly working. Here, I've been attending lectures and living for 5 months, had some light reading for a few of my literature classes, and hung around Germany. Now I have to kick into gear, and I'm really feeling the effects. Andrea even said I looked tired. After this is over, I'll be free from presentations, and can concentrate on making note cards for Italian.

So people planning on studying abroad, beware: there is so much NOT doing work here that when it actually comes your turn to do something, you become the type of person who could easily hate everyone.

I had a big lunch today at the Mensa (University cafeteria) and was so full afterwards I was actually sleepy. But by the end of the class hour and the presentation, I walked out and was completely hungry again. Crazy how adrenaline seems to jump start metabolism.

In a week or so I'll have prepared a post that will go over how to buy yourself a ticket at a train station. Tschüss.

A new year begins!

2006-01-09T18:21:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year to everyone.

Break is officially over. We were lucky and our teacher never showed up for class, so we spent the two hours conversing intelligently at Cafe am Markt. Our friend was there, and gave us extra gingerbread cookies.

All I can really say after the two-week break is this: I am so very, VERY happy to be back in one place. Minus the whole I had to say 'bye' to my dad until march and this was the first Christmas without my mother (and away from home, no less) or grandparents, I am very glad to be back. I missed Landau, I missed my bed, my tiny apartment, Cafe am Markt, everything. It's so good to be back.

One of the women from the class we never had today commented on how fast I was speaking German today. She said that normally I speak very slowly, and that I was now speaking without hesitation. My only response was that I had spent the past two weeks speaking Latvian. I think that helped.

Both of my parents (as well as John, I guess) will be glad to know that I have now re-stocked my refrigerator with tomatoes, a cucumber, cheese, salami, juice, and fizzy water. I will no longer have to live off of chocolates and mandarines.

I look forward very much to tomorrow. That's because TUESDAYS ARE OPEN MARKET DAYS!!!! Eeee!
*claps hands and spins on chair*
I need garlic and eggs. Don't ask.

Mainz and Strasbourg and Heidelberg, OH MY!

2005-12-13T17:27:00.000+01:00

Mainz

Last Friday Andi, Joanna and I joined one of the former exchange students to Coe (also our friend), his girlfriend, and 20 elderly people on a trip to Mainz. Upon arrival, Andi< Joanna and I split off from the rest of the group, because whereas we had been led to believe that we would be paying 9,-Â for a city-tour, it turned out to be more of a "History of Parliament" seminar thing. We were dressed for the weather, walking shoes, etc., so we made our excuses, found out where we were to meet the rest of the group in 3 hours time, then booked it to the city center. We took a stroll through the Weihnachts markt (Christmas market), checked out the cathedral, ate a wonderful garden vegetable pizza at Pizza Hut (table service, too!), walked a complete circle around the city, helped the economy by purchasing cards at the Gutenburg gift shop, then went to stand by the Rhein to wait for the bus. After the group was brought together again we were brought to the main television station in Mainz. And I am sad to say, that even though I got a free pen out of the deal, I cannot remember the name of the station off the top of my head. But Google tells me it is ZDF.

The ZDF station was the best part of the day, minus the fact that the lack of air circulation in the building gave me a terrible headache and nausea. We were given a pretty cheap tour, where the guide proceeded to tell us what his purpose was in the station, and how extremely crucial it was to have the correct lights and combination of lights pointed on the people in a program, or objects in the programs. Excitement all around. I got bored quickly and took pictures of the ceiling (see below). Then we became a studio audience, and were witnesses to the filming of a Saturday morning TV program called "Logo", where a semi-energetic blonde man with minimal skills in improvisational body actions named Andreas relays news bits, presumably for children. Among the important news topics were the now starting soccer championship and how the charts for that work, a 12 year old skiing kid, and a baby panda that was very cute and played with a ball. Watching how it was all taped was fascinating. This guy was positioning himself in certain places on purpose. He doesn't sit on the couch because he's tired, or because that's where he gets to kick back during the video clips that come between his monologues -- he walks across the set and positions himself artfully so he LOOKS like he's been relaxing there for a few minutes. It's crazy, but very cool.

After we left the studio we drove back to our starting point, and then the three of us were brought back home.

Mainz pictures:

Mainz Landtag building.

Cathedral courtyard.

View of the Cathedral -- unfortunately you can't see the main tower.

This fountain statue thing we saw. Turns out that all of the little figures represent many different characters from fairytales and children's tales.

A footpath that runs along the river. The Polish kid in the corner is Joanna.

Shot of the lights on the ceiling in one of the studio rooms at the TV station.

The set of "Logo."

Strasbourg

Sunday Joanna and I made a trek to Strasbourg, France, to see a Latvian play, Long Life. Our day started off incredibly well, as we turned up in one of the local (and my favorite) cafÃ©s, Cafe am Markt, for some "Kaffe zum mitnehmen" (coffee to go). We weren't sure if the cafÃ© was open yet (it wasn't), but Joanna opened the door (it was unlocked, so hah.) and asked if they were open. The response we gequaledled to "Come in, come in!" We ordered, I looked at a menu and saw that we it would 30 minutes before the cafÃ© actually opened, our coffee was handed to us (by the friendly and always cheerful man, who we think may own the place -- his dog, Hugo, was there as well), we started to hand the man our money and he tells us no, just take the coffee. We stare at him blankly. He smiles and keeps nodding, waving to the coffee cups with his hands. We take the coffee, he tells us to have a nice day in Strasbourg (we had told him where we were going so early on a Sunday and what for). In case you missed what happened in the past 7 or so sentences WE GOT OUR MORNING COFFEE FOR FREE FREE FREE.

I love that cafÃ©.

On the way to the station Joanna and I gushed between the two of us how the free coffee had made our mornings, and how incredibly nice the man and the other workers at the cafÃ© are, and how they know us and remember that we're exchange students, etc., etc. And they can afford to do that as well, because they know we'll come back. And, truth be told, since I've been to C.a.M (CafÃ© am Markt), I haven't taken my coffee at any other real cafÃ© in Landau since. I just can't.

Anyway, we made the train to Wisembourg with a minute or so to spare, successfully found seats, successfully purchased tickets for Wisembourg to Strasbourg, successfully got back on the same train we had just gotten off of, stood for almost an hour, then finally made it to Strasbourg. The only thing out of the ordinary on the trip there was a man arguing/lecturing random people around him about how it was unfdespicablespicable that he, his wife, and 3 kids had to stand during the trip (Too bad for him, because the number of old people outnumbered the number of people with children, and there is no way the train system can guess or control how many people are standing on the train. True, there are max. capacity rules, but if all seats are full, and all standing locations are full... there were some people at other stops who approached the train, saw how full it was, turned around and walked away. This same man dragged his wife and kids to the travel help center in the Strasbourg train station and filled out a complaint form. Nice effort.), and a woman standing behind me who fainted and fell off the step she was standing on and onto a man in a wheelchair. Other than that, smooth sailing.

Because we had 5-6 hours before the play started, we took our time walking around Strasbourg. Saw a church, the main cathedral, a pony wagon, a bit of the Christmas market, and some stores. Lunch was at an amazing little Crepe restaurant. When we got back to the National Theater building it started to set in that maybe the play wouldn't be held there since it was a Sunday. Then a guy a bit older than us came over and asked if we were also going to the play, and if we knew where the building was where the play would be held. He spoke in French, so it was Joanna's department to talk to him, and after she answered his questions, he said that he was waiting for someone who would hopefully know. Then a girl runs over (turns out she's half Latvian from Canada, studying in France at a space school) saying she's figured it out. The four of us finally find the building (several blocks away from where we were), we get our tickets, all is well. The play was virtually wordless (which made it easier for me, because I didn't have to sit and translate everything for Joanna), but 100% good. I won't write about it here, but if there are any questions about it, I'll write a separate note via e-mail, or wait and explain it in person. The jist of the play is 5 flatmates, elderly Latvians, and a "day-in-the-lives-of" situation.

The play ended about five minutes before 18:oo, giving Joanna and myself approximately 15 minutes to get back to the train station to catch our train. We walked half of the way, and ran the rest. We should have run for 3/4ths instead. We got to the station, quickly figured out which platform we needed, ran like hell, and managed to make it to the platform just in time to see our train pulling away. Joanna starts to swear, and I lean over a fence and draw deep breaths of cold air because a) I just ran 2 blocks worth of distance in heels and b) I am asthmatic. Cold air + strenuous physical activity = what I consider to be the closest thing to death. My only thought at that time was how glad I was I had eaten my lunch more than two hours prior, instead of 30 minutes ago.

I had told Joanna earlier in the day that because of how good everything was going, something bad almost NEEDED to happen in order to balance it all out. I had no need to say, at that time, "I told you so." We missed a second train option we had, and did so due to the unhelpful and semi-rude nature of the Train Information attendant (who spoke only French -- what help is that? At least speak two languages, jerk). We had no clue how to work the ticket machines, but we finally got some information that might get us home. The station's "Immediate Departure" ticket counter was much more helpful and gave results. I'll just add a quick note about how each person who worked behind the I.D. ticket counters spoke at least two languages. There are these T.V. screens above each counter that show little flags of which languages the attendant spoke: French, English, German, Sign Language. That made it easy to choose lines. After some deliberation (and being told good-naturedly by the attendent we were speaking to that, if we didn't decide soon, the [rude] people in line behind us might lynch us) we bought tickets that would get us home. The train would leave 45 minutes from then, and the man even told us that we needed to validate our tickets at the yellow stamp stations before we get to the platform. Mean Mr. I only speak French didn't even tell us that much.

I'll also skip the trip-home details, except that we had to book it once again when we got to Karlsruhe, but we made the train.

Strasbourg pictures:

Nice, wide, windy French street. The narrow ones were just as windy, but...more narrow.

One of the smaller churches we went it.

Pony wagon that seemed to go everywhere we went. Must've been the "stalk someone city tour."

Picture of one part of the canal. Strasbourg city center is actually on an island with the river canal winding around it.

A huge clock in the Strasbourg Cathedral. Kind of like a smaller version of the huge clock in the main square in Prague.

The sign says "Beware of pick-pockets." This was in the CHURCH. It was sad having to be careful of my belongings while walking through a holy building.

View of the main part of the church. There really were a lot of tourists there... pick-pockets, ahoy!

One of the main arched entry ways at the Strasbourg Cathedral.

Cathedral tower.

Heidelberg

Umm... Heidelberg was pretty. That's all I've got. I'll be going back for sure, and then I'll write more. We were there for 2.5 hours, which isn't anywhere near enough time. Joanna, Andi, and I joined up with one of Joanna's classmates (and the classmate's boyfriend) to walk through the Christmas market. The interesting thing about the Heidelberg Christmas market in comparison to other markets I'd been to, is that it's spread out around the city in various squares and open spaces. I brought a cup home :)

Heidelberg pictures:

Outer edge of one of the larger Heidelburg Christmas market squares.

Some building with a tower. Didn't pay much attention to what I was photographing here.

Then here are two more random photos. The first one was taken from what I like to call "the valley of the nerds", which is a huge section/row of tables in the basement of the University library where there are two ethernet jacks per table, for laptop computers. Most of the people who sit with their laptops are doing it for gaming, presumably. Then there's Hanane, one of the ERASMUS students from Paris, who sits for hours at her computer watching news reports and looking at pictures of famine and disease around the world. She told me she does it to bring a sense of reality to herself, that there are such terrible things happening in the world, and that the cannot and should not be ignored. I just do normal internet stuff. I swear.

The second photo is of my Christmas candle set. I had fun spelling XMAS. Now the other kids laugh at me.

Random:

Our lovely library/

My lovely candles.

Tomorrow morning I leave for my plane to Latvia, where I'll spend the few days of Christmas. Then it's back to Germany for several days, where I'll meet up with my father, then after New Year's we'll head back to Latvia again. Merry Christmas to everyone, and a happy New Year as well! My next note (or in this case, freaking novel) will come to you from 2006.

Glasses and dogs

2005-12-05T14:45:00.000+01:00

A few days ago I saw a long-haired German shepherd dog in the parking lot of my building. Its owner was standing by a car talking to someone (who had presumably just dropped them off), and I was on my way to walk past them. I did the standard dip your head down in a jerky movement thing that implies "I want to be friends and play!" to dogs. The dog watched me for a second and then accepted my invitation by running toward me at full speed. Then it half jumped up, bit the hem of my sleeve and tugged at it, play growling and whining at the same time. It reminded me of what my German Shepard back home does whenever I'm gone for a long time and come back home for a visit, send her off to find a ball, and then hide behind the couch until she finds me and attacks me for toying with her emotions. I miss having house pets. Then this dog's owner said something like "Oh! (name of dog), have you found a new friend to play with?" In reply the dog continued to run back to me and tug-bite my sleeves. Waah.

Then there's this Jack Russell terrier named Eddie. My thoughts exactly -- someone in Germany has fallen in love with the T.V. show "Fraser." Eddie has a night-glowing red collar that I found very fascinating. Eddie found me fascinating. He has seen me and jumped up on me (the second time I was muddied...), completely ignoring his person's cries of "Eddie! Nein!"

Now the pictures:

These are the glasses I brought home from the Seigburg Christmas market:

A random shot of the innards of the Landau University library. Hah, we have a shiny elevator shaft! It's very modern on the inside, but the outside is depressing.

I'll eventually put up more pictures of here. Here being....everywhere around Landau? Just wait for it.

To and From Bonn

2005-11-29T13:34:00.000+01:00

Friday afternoon I worked my way slowly north through the German train system to Bonn. A good friend of Anna’s from her study abroad days, Jutta, had invited me to come up for a visit. The plan was for me to come up Friday, and Saturday we would be joined by Jutta’s sister and niece(s) – we would then commence with the Christmas cookie baking. To cut through the cookie baking part and make it short, Jutta’s sister and niece(s) decided that, because north of Bonn snowstorms were starting up, they wouldn’t risk the drive down. Therefore, Jutta and I baked more cookies than really necessary. Also, in the German style of Christmas cookie baking, the cookies are baked on or around the first Advent, and then hidden from greedy cookie-eaters, to be eaten only on Christmas itself. So, in spirit of that I’m not touching the cookies until then (much to the dismay of my neighbor, Sonia, who, upon realizing I had returned home greeted me in German with, “May I have a cookie? Pleeeease? Just ONE??”).

See? Short.

Friday, afternoon to evening: The train ride up went well, considering it was four hours of me sitting on the edge of my seat in a panic that I might not hear the announcement of my stop and miss my connections. My 21,-€ trip went as such: Landau – Neustadt, Neustadt – Hochspeyer, Hochspeyer – Bingen, Bingen – Koblenz, Koblenz – Bonn, plus apprx. 10-15 minutes at each stop waiting for the next train. I managed to get to Bonn sans problems or an aneurism, with the exception of the train from Bingen to Koblenz. The ticket person came around and when I showed her my ticket she said I wasn’t supposed to be on that train. I said I was too, and showed her the print out I had been given at the station in Landau. I said that the man at the counter told me I would be able to take this train with the ticket I had (Rheinland-Pfalz Ticket). She said something along the lines of “Yes, but no.” What had happened was that I had taken the wrong train, even though it was going in the right direction. The train I was on was the express train, and my ticket excluded all convenient trains and routes, leaving me with the four-hour-wonder. I asked her if I had to pay anything right then and she told me if I got off the train at Koblenz, no, but if I stayed on the train (which would have taken me right to Bonn), I would pay extra. I got off at Koblenz. I figured it would be best to stay on the track I had planned out. The lady was nice as well, so at least I didn’t feel hassled, and didn’t have to pay any fines. At least I had a ticket.

The Christmas market in Bonn... HUGE. Unfortunately I didn’t see much of it, just walked through on my way and after meeting up with Jutta. It was exciting to see that many people and that kind of atmosphere. It made me look forward to the market in Landau, and other cities *closer* to us.

Saturday, early evening: Although Jutta and I spoke German almost the entire time, there were topics and concepts that I needed to express in English, because I completely lacked the knowledge to explain them in German. In the midst of cookie baking I was trying to explain something to Jutta about something, and officially forgot the English word for “Unterschied.” I remembered it only several hours later – the word is “difference.” My sentence had been in English, and the key word came at the end of the sentence – but I had to finish my sentence in German. Jutta laughed, and I felt kind of proud.

Saturday, evening: I started to miss having a real kitchen very, very badly. I want an oven like one wants to scratch a poison ivy rash. I want an oven so badly, that I might be inclined to act rather brashly toward anyone who gets in my way of scoring an apartment next fall. I NEED that oven, and I will HAVE that oven.

Sunday: Jutta and I head out after breakfast to Siegburg, where there is a “natural” Christmas market. What this means, is that at night, the entire market is lit up with candles, everything is run manually – no electricity, no commercial Christmas music –, all of the vendors are dressed in warmer-than-your-clothes-ha-ha medieval attire, and there are long-haired jugglers on stage heckling the crowd and being heckled. It was nice and pretty much like Jutta had described it. The only noise other than heckling and audience laughter was the sound of people talking and the natural sounds of a market setting. Jutta bought an expensive but chic (and very warm, according to her) hand-made wool hat. I bought... nothing but lunch and tea, but kept the glasses from the tea because they were interesting looking.

At markets during holidays or festivals, drinks are, more often than not, served in breakable cups or glasses. When you purchase a drink you pay for the beverage itself, as well as the container it comes in. For example: on Sunday, I bought a tiny glass of tea for €1, but paid €2 for it. This extra €1 is called “Pfand”, and is similar to the 5¢ return we get in the US for cans or 15¢ for plastic bottles. Here, for a small plastic bottle you get €0,25 refund – that’s more than a quarter, to you back home. That’s good return. So, at the festival or holiday markets, you can get money back for successfully returning the glass or cup to the vendors. Or, if you really like the cup, or just want to feel like you’re stealing stuff, you can take the cup or glass with you. It really doesn’t matter – either you get your money back or the vendors get to keep your money. Sometimes they’ll even remind you that you can keep the cup when you go to turn it in. It’s a really nice system, actually. Everyone comes out even. For Landau’s Christmas market, I’m going to have to do some cup “shopping” to find one that I really want to take back home with me. Good thing I have until the end of December to do so :)))

Sunday in Siegburg ended with a mini snowstorm. I left the Bonn Hbf (Hauptbahnhof = main train station) a bit after 6 P.M. because of train delays. At first I was frantic, because although I had thoroughly charged my iPod Friday, the batteries were shot by the time I was on the train to Koblenz, and I thought I would snap without music. Then I realized that, because it was dark, the train stations I didn’t recognize during the day would be even more foreign – which was proved by me pressing my face against the window at each stop and straining my vision to find some kind of sign with a city name on it. My last train pulled into Landau around 11 P.M., and although I had hoped to take a bus home, I was unable to. Buses stop running Sundays around 7 P.M, so I walked home. Lucky for me it started to flurry a bit, and then a lot. 30 minutes later I was back at my apartment door, covered in snow, key in lock, when Sonia came down the hall, asking if I had just gotten back (this was before the cookie scene). Then she saw that I was completely covered in white and laughed at me, then made me stand in my wet coat until she got a camera and photographed me. Then I ate, then I drank tea, then I slept.

Trip to Bonn status: Accomplished.

Tuesday Updates

2005-11-22T16:11:00.000+01:00

A little update on my life in addition to the Sunday recap I posted a several hours ago:

This morning I got into an argument with our Hausmeister. Not smart, because this is the man who has ultimate access to any repair items I may need for my apartment, like light bulbs and such, as well as has ultimate access to the entire building. I feel that if I were to make him angry enough I may come back one day to find that all of my toilet paper and tissues are missing.

Anyways, I got into an argument with him over the washing machines; everything started out light-hearted enough, me saying "Es klappt mit meine Sache immer nicht" about the laundry facilities (=(basically) it never works for me), because I had successfully washed one load of laundry last night, but the second time around something went wrong -- I got to the basement to find that the door to the machine had not popped open like it was supposed to after the washing cycles. Hausmeister and I laugh a bit, and he puts a token in and overrides all cycles to get to the bit where the machine gives me back my stuff. He asked if the clothes were clean and I said I thought they were; however, after I got to my stuff, I inspected the stuff, and everything is very dry, and still very dirty. I can tell because I have white socks that double up as socks and floor-sweepers, so they are always very dirty on the soles. Socks were not clean, so I found the Hausmeister again and said the machine hadn't worked after all, so I needed a new coin. He looked at me funny and said that, when the machine starts, it works 100%. I'm thinking, "Apparently NOT 100%, because my socks/floor-sweepers are still dirty." So I start repeating that "Meine Wäsche ist immer noch trocken und schmutzig, und ich habe für jedes Münzen €1,50 bezahlen -- und für was? Nichts!" (=gimme a damn coin, H-meister, coz your machines are whacked-out!/My laundry is still dry and dirty, and I've paid for a coin that was worthless.) And he maintained that the machines are 100%, and I maintained that I had been screwed. So he finally said he'd give me another coin (he didn't seemed pleased about this, but I told him, "Ich lüge nicht" [=I'm not lying], because I had already told him that I didn't have time for this, I had things to do -- so why would I lie just so I could baby-sit my laundry for another 80 minutes? Ridiculous. So he said that we HAD to try the wash again, and in the same machine no less, because if the machine WERE defective, he'd have to call someone out to fix it. So he pops in the coin and the laundry starts up and he goes, "See? It's working." I wanted to tell him "It made the same stupid noises last night and didn't do anything, chuckles."

I'm glad I kept that bit to myself, and that I asked him about internet connection stuff earlier last week, because now I'll have to wait for another two weeks or so before I can go ask him for help if I need it. This one's going to need more time to wear off. He also keeps saying the simplest phrases to me in English. I talk to him in German, so I don't know why he keeps doing it.

Fun thing #2 today: Machines at the Bahnhof wouldn't take my American credit cards, nor my German EC (bank card) card for the ticket, so I had to use my pocket money from tutoring. Oh, the horror.

Fun thing #3: Prof. Wagner, after Kathy and I had asked him a few questions about our presentation coming up in January, pointed to me and my throat and asked "What's all this?" My voice is quite shot, and gets worse as the day goes on. He recommended that I drink a nice Hot Totty -- three parts (good) Irish whiskey and one part hot water. Not only do your professors suggest you medicate yourself with alcohol, but they'll provide you with the recipe free of cost. Germany works in strange ways.

Mock Thanksgiving

2005-11-22T13:18:00.000+01:00

We had our little mock Thanksgiving on Sunday. Saturday was spent shopping for the event; buying ingredients for dishes, buying dishes for the dishes, finding a turkey, etc. The turkey was bought at Wal*Mart – we had no other option, because to purchase a turkey from a butcher (I JUST remembered what the English word for that was...) it needs to be ordered 3-4 days in advance (which we didn’t have). So, per suggestion of the father of the girl I now tutor (more on that later), Wal*Mart was the winning provider of dead bird.

We started early Sunday morning, around 10:30. I was nervous about the turkey and wanted to start as early as possible to allow as much time to fix mistakes should they happen as possible. Kathy and I had a smashing time unwrapping our turkey, cutting off some funny flap of skin that was holding his legs together, removing a very frozen bag of giblets*, and naming him Reiner.

*In order to do this we decided Kathy should run hot water into Reiner’s stomach cavity in order to loosen up his bag-o-guts. Laugh or doubt all you want, but it worked.

For some reason Reiner’s heart and some other probably vital organ weren’t included in the bag-o-guts.

Reiner was then rubbed down with oil, stuck with a meat thermometer, and jammed lovingly into the toaster oven. I say with pride that 4 hours later Reiner came out a nice dark and golden brown color, smelling faintly of the honey/butter/paprika/salt glaze I thought would be fun to throw together and have Kathy baste him with. To break the rest of the day down, we danced, we sang, we cooked like we’ve (literally) never cooked before. Mashed potatoes (of which there were excess afterwards), classic green bean casserole with a twist per my mom’s suggestion (which, according to Sonia, people were obsessed with and saying, “I don’t know what that stuff with the beans and the chips is, but it’s GOOD!”), home made cornbread (Andi), wheat bread (Tina, the friend who leant Andi her kitchen), and wild rice dish per my dad’s recipe. Rice dish, which I spent late into the previous night starting and babysitting so as not to screw it up. Rice dish, that caused me a lot of nervousness and worry. Rice dish, that turned out AMAZING and that everyone liked. They didn’t expect it to be kind of sweet. They never do... heh heh heh...

Everyone who said they would show up showed up, plus one – that’s almost 20 people. Never in our lives have we had to cook that much food. I now have more respect for the old ladies who work in the kitchen at church, as well as any of my family members who has had to prepare a meal for many people. It’s an amazing feat. Dessert worked out, too. Andi had baked pumpkin pies and apple crisp, and Joanna helped her prepare whipped cream. Though, admittedly, it was kind of odd, because we were running back and forth cleaning things because we didn’t know what else to do. At our homes we usually talk, eat, talk, eat, sleep a bit, maybe eat a bit more, talk, then sleep. It’s very laid back. We don’t have anything like concerts or TV here for our guests, and we didn’t know if we should try to entertain them more or not. But everyone really liked it – the Thanks we got afterwards as people were leaving was genuine; they enjoyed themselves (free food in a warm room + wine and good company = who wouldn’t enjoy themselves?

It all brought about such good feelings – the turkey working out, the other foods worked out, we successfully organized and accomplished a many-people dinner party, and no one got sick. It only took moving to another country for a year and cooking a 13 lb. bird to figure this out. By the way, Reiner was a delicious turkey. Only problem we came across was that his back wasn’t cooked. It was still raw and somewhat bloody (we avoided those bits when we carved him up to serve). How to get around that, I don’t know. Unless at some point we were supposed to flip him, but I don’t think we were. It’s possible that the toaster oven we used doesn’t heat well from the bottom, or there was a setting we missed.

Our beloved Reiner, before and after.

Tutoring: If you want to feel like a total idiot but at the same time build up your German vocabulary for explaining things to other people, become a tutor for a grade school student. My new tutoring “job” is going well – the girl says that she’s understanding things (which is a good sign for me as well as her), and I get to occupy my free time somehow. It’s basically like revisiting my grammar lessons; I’m starting to have to explain to her why things work a certain way, and why, in some cases, even though people may say something one way, it doesn’t make it grammatically correct. I put into her lap the song we learned in high school German classes for verbs. I also told the mother about it, and hope that it will do some good. I don’t know what else to say about it. It’s a somewhat stressful thing to do, considering I’ve never done it before, but at the same time... At least the girl doesn’t think I’m scatterbrained. I learned the word for that (“schusslig”), and more or less accused her in a non-threatening or bitter manner of thinking I was, but she denied it. Being a 5th grader, her lying skills are probably not that well developed, so I’ll take her word for it.

I like earning money for laundry coins.

A Good Day

2005-11-10T13:01:00.000+01:00

Earlier this morning I told Kathy I thought today was going to be a good day. And oh, how right I was!

The first thing I did was meet Kathy in the city center, then go around the market buying ingredients for homemade salsa and guacamole. Again, I am surprised at how much one can buy with so little – when it comes to food. For one lemon, one bulb of garlic, two chile peppers, two avocadoes, and four tomatoes I paid less than €5. Six eggs cost me €1,20. A jar of the best, and strongest, Dijon mustard from France cost me less than €1. If I had a cold coming on, I don’t anymore; my sinuses are clean as it gets.

I’ll reiterate from previous posts: eating (healthy) here is so cheap it should be illegal. Plus, the vegetables are always good quality, and unless it’s at the Mini Markt-mall, shoppers aren’t allowed to poke and prod the produce. You tell the shopkeeper what you need/want, and they take care of it for you. At first it seems kind of awkward because it almost feels like you’re ordering them around, but it makes sense after a while. You’re being personally taken care of; if it’s a busier time and there are several people, the shop workers still know who came in first. It’s a nice feeling.

So, shopping in the market was fun. On the way back up to campus for lunch we ran into Sonia (my Italian neighbor), then also ran into Sebastian, who was one of the students on exchange to Coe last year. Further up the road to the inner part of campus, a woman in a van stopped us (no, John, we didn’t get a ride from her...) and asked Sonia to tape up a “help wanted” notice to the board in the atrium of campus, because there are no more spots left in the parking lot. Sonia takes the sheet and some tape, and then we kept going. I look at the sheet, and it’s a notice asking for a tutor/helper for a 5th grade student in English. I immediately rip off a tag with the phone number, and we decide Sonia will put the notice up only tomorrow, after I’ve called. The prospect of a job, even if it’s a part-part-time job, is exciting.

Kathy and I moved on to lunch at the Mensa, which now has moved up from the one lunch line to three: the main meal line, the vegetarian main meal line, and a salad bar line, where you pay €0,12 for each 100g of food. Vegetarian line was shorter (as usual), so we took that, and it was good. I found a piece of feta cheese in my salad. Lunch was a good time :)

Our class wasn’t for a few hours yet, so we hung around the library for a bit, then met up with Ula (one of the Polish ERASMUS students), then walked down to the center again, where our class would be. As Kathy and I are sitting in the Rote Kaserne (English and other dept. building), pleased that we are 30-35 minutes early for the course, Kathy takes out her book to see which classroom the course meets, and I look up to see the professor of said class, Herr Wagner (also our contact prof. here in Landau) walk by us – ON HIS WAY TO CLASS. Class actually met on campus, so all we did was get some more exercise in. We run out of the R.K., pass up Prof. Wagner as he’s checking out the menu for a local bistro, Leo’s, and make it to the intersection as the walk signal turns red. Wagner ambles up beside us, we turn and say “Hello!”, all “surprised.” “On your way to Literature and Literary Theory, perhaps?” we ask. On the way back to campus we talk with him and find out that even though the cap for the Lit. and Lit. Theory course is 60, about 120 students have signed up – the class now has another section meeting Fridays (which no one wants to do). Luckily, both Kathy and I already have a class at 2 on Fridays, so Wagner told us we could stay in the Tuesday section.

Not only do we now have secret information no one else has, but we also arrive in the classroom to see three other people. Score! We snag seats, and 10 minutes later the people start to pour in. Like I said, the day was going well. We had seats at tables, we were allowed to stay in the course, and Prof. Wagner pointed in our direction any time he mentioned Coe College or the US.

After class I go back home, make guacamole (tastes good, too), take a nap, and wait for 6:30 to roll around. When it finally rolls, I head out for Instrumentalensemble, which only lasted about 15 minutes because all the conductor had us do was fill out an information sheet, tell us who was meeting next week, then sent us off.

When I got home I made salsa – I’ll know how it tastes in two hours or later tomorrow. Then I bucked up and called the number for the tutor request. I wrote down some key phrases like “in Hinsicht” (= in regards to) and “Gesuch” (=request) earlier, and used them *almost* flawlessly when someone picked up the other end of the line. I explained why I was calling, that I was an exchange student from the US, and then was passed on to the woman who had put up the notice. I repeated my explanation, saying that I was an exchange student, so my German isn’t perfect (the woman said it didn’t matter), but that my English is. I also let her know that I’ve only worked with kids as a counselor in a children’s camp, but never as a tutor. The student is 5th grade girl, and although she tries to help her with her studies, the mother suspects that her daughter isn’t convinced she’s being helped correctly. She needs help mostly with grammatical studies. I’m hoping it has nothing to do with prepositional phrases and misplaced modifiers. They didn’t even teach us the finer points of grammar until 9th grade. So... Thursday at 4 the woman is picking me up for a trial run. If that doesn’t work out, Müller is looking for part-timers to stock the perfume section shelves.

Oh, and I don’t have appendicitis. Things are looking good for me.

IKEA and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2005-10-31T10:46:00.000+01:00

Saturday Kathy and I made it to our long-coveted destination: the IKEA store in Mannheim. Kathy’s neighbor, Alex, lives in a suburb of Mannheim and offered to drive us up since he was headed in the direction. He also lives 5km or so from IKEA. Lucky guy...

Finally was able to get a more suitable pillow – true, it’s not as firm as the Target brand pillows I have at home, but this one is a down pillow (smells of ducks), has a better overall texture to it, and was as expensive a pillow as I was willing to buy. The next pillow “up” would have cost me €40, and that’s too much, the way I see it. Also found a decently colored MATCHING pillow case and comforter cover. I’m sorry, but the 60’s mismatched flower pattern’s really isn’t my thing. Speaking of comforters... Found one for €8,99, a very good deal compared to the normal price (for my dad’s reference, it’s the Mysa Frost blanket, one “step” down from my Vind at home). Are you reading this? I’m a complete IKEA snob. It’s a good feeling. Several other “cheap” purchases were made: candles, make-your-own-organization-boxes, mesh shelfy thing for my desk, a proper jar for sugar, clothes drying stand (no more hanging shirts on doors and windows) and a chair. HAHAH! I bought a chair! A lovely, lovely chair that I would be able to put together myself once Alex drove back to Landau for the week. So exciting, in fact, that I almost didn’t purchase it, thinking that I could do without it for a bit longer, maybe even peruse the Flohmarkt for something reasonably cheap. There was also an option of buying a more inexpensive version of the Poäng chair, called Pello or something (this second version was very uncomfortable to sit on). But something in my head said, “No, buy the one that’s much more expensive, and that will cause you to really hate everything around you for a 2 hour period while you struggle in vain to put it together, making you realize that your being vertically challenged does have its hindrances, that you are in fact quite flexible, and all the while causing the pain in your wrist acquired from clothes washing to resurface. C’mon, it’ll be fun!”

So I bought it.

Sunday Alex drove back and he and Kathy brought the remainder of my things over to my apartment (thanks, guys :P ). They left, I got to work. I’ll just say now that it’s a good thing I had cooked and ate dinner an hour or so before hand, otherwise I would be either starving or bleeding profusely from my hands at this time. Cooking while highly agitated is not something that should be done by anyone. I actually snapped when Andi dropped by for a bit because the doorbell was pushed one too many times. But I was able to calmly explain my situation, as well as politely decline her invitation to join her and some of the other exchange students for tea. No people for Kaija last night – end of discussion. The chair was finally put together (the mesh support slip didn’t fit right because of packaging creases, the cushion was stupid, and the slip cover gave me a hard time. I’m just happy that the thing didn’t bust when I sat down on it for the first time. Had it done so, I would have been sobbing for the remainder of the night instead of typing this), and it looks nice. I now have something more in my room to make it more home-like, and somewhere nice to sit and read.

As I mentioned earlier in passing, I also had some trouble with my wrist last night. Yesterday was my self-proclaimed “Putztag” (cleaning day). Admittedly I didn’t get very far because the all-purpose cleaner I have is no good for glass surfaces – or any surface, really, other than my stove – so I picked up some dust bunnies and tried to scrub off a fermented coffee stain that is XX years old off the side of my desk. I also washed some laundry, but only got through socks and underwear before my left wrist started to seriously hurt. I recognized the pain, finished up a shirt and quit. All of the repeated scrubbing and wringing water motions ends in pain...

I will say this now for those who don’t know it yet: THERE IS NO EASY WAY TO WASH LAUNDRY HERE. Unless you have your own machine (which, sadly enough, might be cheaper), washing laundry blows. It’s too expensive to buy tokens every time I want to wash something, and washing by hand gives me some pre-symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Even when putting the chair together the pain resurfaced. I can’t grip anything other than air in my left hand without it hurting. Now I can’t finish the rest of my laundry for a few days until my wrist “heals.” I’m also going through candles like a pubescent girl goes through maxi-pads. Back on topic, the director of Kathy’s apartment, Dominique offered to let me use their washing machine. Kathy has to pay €1,30 per load, but only at the end of the month. And that’s if she’s honest about it. You sign your name, the date, and the number of loads you’ve washed. At the end of the month they total up and you pay up.

And off the topic, Mannheim reminded me of Bonn, except for the fact that at least one point the street cars run through the middle of a street that’s half street-car usage and half Fußgänger Zone (pedestrian zone). No obvious division of the two. Mannheim has three H&M stores (so we were told), two Burger King’s, at least one McDonalds, and a Subway. Meh. After IKEA Alex offered to take us to a mall with him (where he had to buy a present), drop us off at the Hbf (Hauptbahnhof = main train station), or in the city center. Taking option three we got a quick tour of the city to help orient ourselves, and then split. We didn’t walk around for too long other than to find somewhere to eat (we ended up at McDonalds – something I hope to not repeat for a very, very long time. I figured out fast food gives me stomachaches, which I guess is a good thing.) and a bookstore that accepted AmEx (hurrah David Sedaris’ latest book in paperback for €9!!). Mannheim will be visited again in full at a later date. From Mannheim to Neustadt it takes about 30 minutes by train, then 15 from Neustadt to Landau.

Note: Many movies and books are less expensive here than they are in the states. John Chaimov: any movie requests for which you would, of course, reimburse us? You can get practically anything under the sun here with German and English subtitles and spoken language. There’s this German movie called 7 Zwerge (a comedy take on Snow White) that I wanted to buy and take a look at – maybe you could use that for a Märchen class later on? We’ve also seen almost every film we’ve ever watched in class, including Emil, which we know we didn’t watch, but we saw it, regardless. All in DVD format.

Today is the first real day of classes, but my only Monday class won’t be held for the first time until the 7th. Tuesday is All Saints’ Day, and therefore a holiday.

Making nice and France

2005-10-26T13:12:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went to France. What’d you guys do?

(more on France later)

Tip: If you want to practice and improve (as I wrote this it took me a few seconds to think of the English word “improve”...) your German, you must make nice with the other foreign exchange students. The main reason being that your common language is now German. Unless, of course, your group of exchange students is made up of primarily English majors – then it is beneficial for them (but not you) to speak both German and English. However – German is best, because that’s why we’re all really here, isn’t it? At first it will be, I’ll admit, very intimidating to speak German to or around these other exchange students. They will have most likely taken German language courses for longer than you have. They will also seem to sound better at speaking the language than you do. Truth is, they’re not. Heh.

First: After several hours of sitting with them and talking to them you realize that each of them has their own accent when speaking German. In a way, it’s just like when we’re (we being the US kids) speaking German, but with European accents. It’s really fun (now) to listen to them speak, because once you’re able to recognize that they have accents as well, there is one less thing for you to be self-conscious about. This is not our mother tongue, and we all sound funny when we speak it, so get over it. Plus, they sound funny when they speak English, so if you’re counting points, you have one-up on them.

Second: Even though the other exchange students (plus Kathy, “The Dictionary” from our Coe German classes) seem to know a lot of big words in German, many of them relating to studies here, or credit systems, or other... complicated things. This, in turn, gives the impression that their overall vocabularies are larger than ours. But, I can say this from experience: when it comes to four-letter words in German, or other self-expression words in the “swears” family, or certain slang words, or more contemporary things, no one tops us. As mentioned in the previous post, the phrase “Ich liebe dich, du Arsch” came up during our trade-fest last Friday. As also mentioned, the two Polish students I was grouped with had no idea what that meant. “That” being “Arsch.” I knew, and thought that it was basic knowledge. I also taught Joanne, the same Polish student who didn’t understand the above phrase, the word “verdammt” (damned). She tried expressing something about her bike (in anger) and I mimicked her situation using the phrase “verdammtes Fahrrad!”, to which Joanne said, “Ah! Verdammtes! Ja!” Whether I was reminding her or educating her, I don’t know. It’s a good thing I watch foreign films, and have been reading comics in German. I know lots of good words :) Another point for the US kids.

Third: I have to admit that when it’s just the three of us (Kathy, Andi and myself), we speak English. There is no temptation like the ERASMUS or IPAS people talked about – we just do it. It comes naturally. The Polish students speak Polish to one another from time to time, as do the Greek students with Greek. I will say now that I would like to work at it so when the three of us are together we are not speaking in English, save high-stress or extreme situations. Also, the more we try to speak German amongst ourselves, the more we can work on improving during the times we are away from the other students. Hopefully by the end of the year we’ll have greatly improved.

So Wissembourg, France, is a very nice little city. Today, however, the streets were literally empty until around 4 P.M. Then there were some crazy grade schoolers on bikes and other people. Kathy, two of the Polish students (Ewa and Kati) and I took a train and were surprised when the 30 minute ride was over.

There was a circus in the city today, so my guess is that everyone was there. For a €1 cover charge, it’s apparently something not to be missed. There's one older church (the one in the background of the first photo) and a newer one that's too cold feeling.

It didn’t hit us until we got into the main train station that it was seriously all in French. I did hear some people speaking German, however – at one time a little boy demanded something from Ewa, one of the Polish students who came with us (she kind of backed away from him and said “Nein...um. Nein?”), and we all kind of looked at him and tried to move past him and his group of friends. Then a little girl from the group asked us “Wie viel Uhr ist es?” (what time is it?) and we all went “Ooooh, ja, _____!” The kid had asked for the time (Andi told us afterwards), but we didn’t get it. It was cool how the other kid spoke German. Comes in quite handy. Other than that we spent the day as German tourists in France.

Cakes and pastries in France, even though it’s just across the boarder (30 minute train ride), are SO much prettier than here in Landau. I didn’t buy anything, because those kinds of things need to be purchased with a coffee and enjoyed on the spot, not taken with and eaten in a student apartment. We’ll go back again on a busier day to really experience it. It was, however, a relief to get back to Landau and see the Berliner, pretzels, and other simple pastry or breadstuff items for under €1.

Joanne met us at the station and she and Kathy and I went to a local Italian restaurant/café where we can get an “exchange student” discount for cappuccinos and huge pieces of tiramisu. I had never had tiramisu before, so one of the waiters said if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t have to pay. Tiramisu, as I saw it = cake + pudding + cocoa powder. The waiter came back later and asked if we had liked it. We leaned back from our plates (empty) and I (bluntly) said “Nee, es hat mir nichts geschmeckt.” (= nope). Then we laughed, we cried, we were moved. It’s good tiramisu. The workers at the café have a great sense of humor and enjoy talking to and joking their customers – the owner came by a few times and asked us where we were from, etc. That kind of establishment is nice because you don’t feel like you’re being rushed to sit down, eat/drink, pay and leave. Even though you’re a paying customer, you’re an equal.

Sweets, Carbs, etc.

2005-10-24T12:58:00.000+02:00

Germans like their Nutella.

Other than the standard glass jar of chocolaty goodness (€1,60 at the Müller store), it comes as chocolate bars, chocolate filling for chocolate bars, filling for raised doughnut pastries, filling for croissant pastries (my personal favorite), topping for ice cream, pancakes, whatever. I made most of those up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I was right. Kathy told me about the Nutella-injected, chocolate glazed doughnut she had one day, and I’ve become partial to the Nutella-filled croissants at the Discount Bäcker. It’s like Americans with ketchup or A1 steak sauce (which I suddenly really miss...). You can use it (Nutella) with almost anything, at any meal during the day. It’s the wonder topping of the century. Moving on.

Germans also like their carbs.

Discount Bäcker: Location and concept introduced to me by my Italian neighbor, who appreciated the bakery’s “self-serve” policy. You go in, put a plastic glove on your hand, grab a sheet of wax paper, a tray, and load on up. Pay at the cashier, ditch your glove in the plastic-trash bin, put your pastries in a bag (there are several bag-size choices, ranging from single-pastry purchases, several pastry purchases, loaf of bread purchases, baguette purchases), drop the tray in the crate, and off you go. This is not a second-hand bakery, nor a day-old bakery. If you want to stock up it’s crucial to go at the beginning of the day when the items are fresh and available. In all seriousness, if you go at the end of the day you’re lucky if you find ONE of your favored items. It’s nuts. But it’s so, so good, and not as pricey as other bakeries. Of course, their Berliner (jelly doughnut) aren’t as appealing as the Berliner at the café/bakery where we went that one time and had the not-so-good-coffee and not-so-good-torte. That bakery bakes Berliner by the billions, it seems, and instead of a cheap-looking powdered sugar, they use the granulated kind. They cost €0,80 a piece (or 5 for the price of 4, bwuahah!). But unlike jelly doughnuts that can be found in the US, these jelly doughnuts are mostly doughnut. So the filling is not overbearing or runny – it’s just the right amount, and properly jam-like. I actually have to put a stop to my own pastry-purchases. It reminds me of what happened when my cousin and I were in Germany for a few weeks last May. After a week in Bonn, eating Brötchen (bread rolls that come with many different pre-names, like Sesame, Butter, etc. They come with different nut or seed toppings, different shapes, but basically all in the same size. Good to buy fresh, and in not-so-large quantities, as they dry out rather quickly if left in the bag. Dry Brötchen are hard to cut, as I found out one night when my left middle finger attempted to end its own life with a paring knife, cleverly using a Brötchen as cover) with almost every meal, my cousin said “I swear, Kaija, I am DONE with Brötchen... I can’t take it anymore!” She was wrong. The next morning, at breakfast in our hotel, we sat down to a nice breakfast of granola, yoghurt, cheese and Brötchen. No matter how sick of them you think you are, you really aren’t. You can’t escape them, and they can be eaten with anything. They’re the perfect accessory to any meal. You can find bread products or noodles just about anywhere.

So I’ve established that bread is everywhere. There are at least two bakeries on every street, so you can get a variety of shop-owners if you like. It’s also nice because each bakery seems to specialize in baking one item. Some specialize in pretzels, others in Berliner and tortes, and still others in cheap yet good anything. Once again, moving on.

At the beginning of last week we went to the first ERASMUS meeting, where information on the University, city, organizations, and housing was hammered mercilessly into our heads. The majority of the group present that day was female, with one male student from Korea who’s not really in ERASMUS, because Korea, if you were unaware, is not part of Europe. Neither is the US, which is why in our applications we checked a box marked “Bilateral Agreement.” Which more or less means that they made some changes to let us be a part of the program as well. Oh, Americans. There are four women from Poland, two from Greece, one from France, one from Italy, and the three of us from the US. The meeting was boring, more of a Q&A dominated by, and unfortunately geared toward, the European exchange students. Most of the information was irrelevant to us, which was unfortunate. At one point we were given packets that have all kinds of forms and information on the University and the city, as well as a (in my opinion) poorly prepared “where can I find...?” phone list for generic needs. The packets also included sheets for credit transfer agreement somethings – which the three of us from the US did not have. The woman leading the meeting waved her hand at us semi-dismissively and said something like “Your school has already told you how things are going to work.”

As soon as she turned her attention back to the other students present we put our heads together and whispered how we really DON’T have any idea how it’s going to turn out. Our system is a hit-and-miss as far as credits go – we need to choose classes we think will count toward credits at Coe, and then write to our corresponding professor and hope to God that we’ve made good choices. The European students have a 15-credit system and have seem to know what they have to do. I am jealous.

Neither Kathy nor I went with the group to the University library tour, since we’ve either figured things out on our own, or learned that it’s okay to ask for help. I’ll write about the library later, pictures included. We also didn’t go on the city tour, because we’ve toured it. That’s why I wanted to come a month early, so I could find things for myself, and if not, ask for help and use my language skills to do so. It’s gone quite well, too.

On Friday we went to a communication workshop sponsored by a group called IPAS (Intergratives Projekt für Ausländische Studierende). Our same group of students was there, minus Sonia, my neighbor, and the Korean student, but plus one male student from Poland. There is also another French student coming, but the existing student didn’t know when he would be arriving. I really wasn’t looking forward to sitting in a small room for 7 hours in some kind of conversation workshop, because I’m self-conscious about my speaking ability as it is. I know it’s fine, and that I can speak German fairly well, but it’s still difficult to do so with other people. However, it turns out that it was a kind of “get-to-know-each-other” type of thing.

The first two hours went by reeeeeally slowly. I don’t like mixer activities unless I’m the one running them (think part-time jobs of Kaija’s past). It was hard to get points across – there was an interview activity, and I paired up with Hanane (French) and Ula (Polish). One of the questions was “what are you studying?” Hanane and Ula got by easy, but when it was my turn to answer, things got weird. Hanane asks me “Was studierst du?” (What are you studying?) and I tell her, literature, writing, and German (the language). She and Ula look at me for a bit, then Hanane repeats “Yeah, but what are you studying?” I repeat my answers. More blank stares. They understood me, I know, but courses of study here seem to be lumped into one category. There is no “Literature” or “Creative writing” major. You can pick which courses you want to take, but it’s all lumped. You don’t say, “I’m studying behavioral psychology as well as clinical psychology.” It’s “I’m studying Psychology.” I’m still not sure what happened at that question, but we got over it and moved on.

There was also a “fun” question, “How long would a plant live in your house?” I told them of the 15-year-old plant I have at home in my mom’s house. When I was five I had an eye-operation. A few days after the operation, we opened the front door to find a plant on the step with a “Get well soon!” card attached to it. A hospital that gives plants? Whatever. A year or two ago I was home on break and asked my mom what was with the plant in my room – I think I wanted more space for books or something. She says, “It’s your plant, YOU take care of it!” I say, “What ‘My plant’?” “That’s the one from after the eye-operation,” says she. I recoil in mild shock. 15 years later that thing is still living? Hanane and Ula were just as surprised. Hanane was greatly amused when I said that it was because of my indifference that the plant thrived. At times, if I had a bit of water left in a water bottle, I would shrug and dump it in the plant rather than in the sink. But now that I think about it... The past few times I’ve actually given it more water, and now it’s down to one leaf and seems kind of sad. Maybe I need to not care about it, so it gets mad and grows just to seek revenge on me. Silly plant. That night Sonia asked me to watch her plant while she goes back home for a week. I’m worried that if I take too much care of it, it’ll die to spite me. So for now it’s on the floor by my door-window with the curtain separating it from me and the rest of the room. I gave it a little bit of water last night.

The best part of Friday: we were split up into 4 or 5 groups, then sent into the city for an hour with a hard-boiled egg. Our task – to barter with shops or people on the street to see what we could get as a trade for the egg. We had to use our German skills and trade our items as many times as possible by the end of the hour. My biggest worry – what a fanTASTIC impression to give the people of Landau of exchange students. “Hello, people of Germany! What will you give me for this hard-boiled egg!” I went with Joanna and Ewa, also from Poland. I took them to Susi, the best chocolate store ever (the lady who works there is so nice), where we hit jackpot for our first trade. The woman, although not the lady I know, knew of the trading game, and gave us a bar of Lindt chocolate. I told the Polish girls that we should quit while we were ahead. Instead we went further, and our trades were as follows: bar of chocolate for a pack of GummiBears, GummiBears for a postcard, a blow-up beach ball, and a picture frame (back-up items, SCORE!). The postcard read “Ich liebe dich, du Aarsch” (my suggestion...). The Polish girls didn’t know what it meant until I told them, at which point Joanne (25 years old) said “What have we done...!?” I told her it was okay, just find a younger couple and trade something. Which we did (I win!). Trade continues: Postcard for a tiny thing of Lacoste cologne, cologne for three Thomas Mann pins (from the bookstore). None of us wanted to give up Thomas Mann, so we took out back up item number one: beach ball. The ball we traded for a pack of tissues from a very weirded-out and distant-like woman with twin girls, age 4. (I felt bad afterwards, but I thought we’d get a completely different reaction because she had to kids with her who might like the ball.) The tissues we traded for a pen, and the pen for an empty paper cup (stupid store). The paper cup was finally traded for HALF of a GOLD COLORED, PAPER BOX. OmIgOd WoW! I am never going to the store that gave us that half-box, ever again. Cheapskates. We really should have stopped at the chocolate bar. Or at least gone to the chocolate store and gotten the egg back (also my idea, laughed at, but not supported).

Later that evening we went out to “Friends”, a pub rather far out from the city center, but with a nice atmosphere. Other IPAS tutors met us there, we talked with the other students (in German, and a bit in English – most of the exchange students are either English majors or Psychology majors) and had a good time talking about books, films, etc. I finally tried the banana juice + beer mixture, then a cherry juice + beer mixture. It’s basically watered down beer with a very slight fruit after-taste. Two 0,3L glasses ≠ even the slightest buzz. So you’re thirst is quenched, but you’re not loopy. Even though there are some age differences between all of us (the two Greeks and the three of us are the only 20 year olds), we all have a lot in common. It’ll be nice to see some of them in classes and around the Wohnheim. Things are going well.

P.S. the market is not only on Tuesdays, but also on Saturdays. It’s good to know that I don’t have to wait an entire week to get cheap, fresh food. I bought a whole pineapple for €1. :)

Bike-tastic

2005-10-18T16:34:00.000+02:00

Last night I decided that it would be a good time to start on laundry, so I basically tore apart my bed and such to come up with a good amount (one month's worth) of things to wash. I brought a few loads the six flights downstairs to the basement, loaded up one machine, and then noticed these little box things with coin slots. After a year with Coe's new "pre-paid" laundry service, I was a little reluctant to believe that I needed to pay upfront to wash my laundry. There was also no amount mentioned on the coin boxes, so I had no idea how much this joy would cost me. In the end, I had already shut the door to the machine, and for whatever reason, pressing the button to open the door didn't work. I called my neighbor, Sonia, and asked her if she knew how to use the machines. She told me about some kind of token that I needed to purchase from the Hausmeister (it turns out that she had really guessed at this, and had no real idea of how this laundry room worked, or how to get in to it). I told her what had happened, she said a few swears of sympathy, and I returned to my apartment, saddened, a bit frustrated, and short one load of laundry.

This morning I headed back to the basement to buy these magical tokens that make my clothes clean. The Hausmeister asks me where I'm from, and what room, then asks if everything is working out okay so far. I said things were great, but that I had made a mistake last night with the laundry facilities. He asked if the stuff in the fourth washer was mine. Haha, yeah, it is. Friends, it is EXPENSIVE to wash clothing here. One token costs €1,50. Four tokens, €6. That's almost $10 worth of little arcade-sized coins. The washing machines are single-loaders. Triple-load machines in Three Rivers, Michigan, cost $1.50. It goes without saying that I will be air-drying everything from here on out. Hausmeister said if there were any problems to let him know.

Not five minutes had passed when I went back to the Hausmeister to tell him that I know it hadn't even been five minutes, but I already had problems. The door to the first washing machine wouldn't open, and I had put one token into the wrong token-box. The boxes are placed diagonally from their corresponding machine, something I learned only after the machine didn't begin the cleaning process.

Hausmeister gives me a look. I shrug and laugh, he shrugs and goes to the laundry room, glancing over his shoulder at me, again, with this "Are you f-ing kidding me?" look. Wonderful! My first time meeting the Hausmeister and he already thinks I'm an idiot. Problems were solved as follows: Hausmeister walks right past the first machine, goes to the third one, the one that is now ticking with my token minutes, takes out whatever was in there (since it's already clean), I say "oh" in a small voice, and he shrugs again and leaves. I didn't bother to tell him that I had alreadz put soap in the first machine. 75 minutes later every dry and safe surface is govered in wet bedsheets and pants. Two loads down, too many more to go.

Then I found out my cell phone has stopped working. "Inactive SIM." Man at the O² shop sent me to the Mobilcom shop where I bought my O² card (oookay?), and Mobilcom man (who said, "Hallo" at first, then "Ah, what can I help you with today?" when he recognized me. I did, however, conduct the visit in German from there-on out. I have some pride, too) has NO idea what's wrong, and puts the 'please hold!' music that's coming from the line on speaker phone so I can hear that he can't get through. When I stopped back at the end of the day he still had no idea what was up, and seemed frustrated with the service people he had been trying to call. I have to go back there tomorrow, too, and see if anything new has come up.

Later we rolled my... excuse me, THE pitiful bike down to a nearby shop to have it fixed. I still can't call it "my bike" and feel good about it. At one point I said to Kathy, "Can you hold... that for a bit?" and pointed to the two-wheeled pity-wonder. The man at the bike shop was nice about things; I told him I was an exchange student and that my German was not that good (he said "Ah, the same as me, then!" -- so he's not from around here), and then proceeded to explain what needed to be fixed. He got what I was saying about the brakes, and noticed the upside-down handle bars on his own. Then he asked about the light, and pointed to this weird silver thing hanging off the side of the back tire. I had noticed it myself only this morning, and I said "Licht?" (light), with some surprise. We tried saying that the light was a minor thing, and that I would probably not even use it (mostly because I have no idea HOW to use it), but we were then informed that, if the police were to stop me (for reckless wheeling, who knows...), I could be fined €20 for having a broken light. So I said he could fix it.

He also poked at the tires a bit, inspected the chain and then gave his diagnosis: "Das ist ein schlechtes Rad." (This is a bad bike -- my grammar is probably off, fyi) Tschyah!, I know! Look at it! He then said how the bike was probably worth €10. The repairs will cost apprx. €30-€35, but a 'new' used bike would cost me around €80. So repairs are in order. He said to come back tomorrow morning to pick it up. I found it odd that he didn't ask for my name or a contact number, so I asked him if, when I came back tomorrow morning, I would even have a bike. He laughed and said that he'd have to pay someone else €10 just to take it off his hands. But tomorrow I will have a repaired bike, and would ride off into the sunset, but my apartment is north of the city.

Wallace and Gromit

2005-10-17T11:31:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we walked south past the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) to the larger movie theater in Landau to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie. It’s a good 20 minute walk, but we were stopped about four blocks before the street the theater is on by a woman in a car who was – coincidentally – looking for the movie theater. We told her we were on our way there as well, and she offered us a ride the rest of the way. Kathy sat shotgun, and I got into the back of the car to sit next to the woman’s four or five year old son and his car seat. Kathy starts to tell the woman where to go, and I look at the kid and say, “Hallo.” After a short pause (during which I began to buckle myself in and where he was seemingly assessing the situation and deciding what to do) he says, “Hallo” back. Success! The child speaks! Then I made a comment about his shoes (Spiderman) and asked if he liked Spiderman. The kid nods, and I say I do, too. The child seems amused. Then I tell him that, unfortunately, for my shoe/foot size (Fußgroße? I have no idea how to express this concept, yet), they do not make Spiderman shoes. This is a lie because I have not done any actual research to back up this assumption. We ask what movie they’re off to see (The March of the Penguins), tell them what we’re seeing, and arrive at the theater (Film Welt) a few moments later.

Our movie started at 11 and thanks to the woman and her kid we arrived 15-20 minutes early. Tickets were €5,50, a small bag of popcorn €1,70, small beverage €1,70. Not too bad for a movie theater. Normal prices. Other options included other fountain beverages, candies, nachos (and other similar foods), more candy, coffee drinks, ice cream things, and alcohol. Yes, in a German movie theater you could kick back with popcorn and a Pilsner or Karlsberg beer and watch the March of the Penguins or the Little Polar Bear 2. The popcorn, as it turns out, is not the salty buttery goodness I am used to. It’s not caramel popcorn: it’s like they’ve taken sweet popcorn balls and broken them up so the pieces fit nicely into a paper bag. I was quite disappointed. I had purchased a cappuccino and Berliner (not a citizen of the city of Berlin, but rather a jelly doughnut) for breakfast, had brought mandarin orange candies with me as movie-theater back up, and then purchased a Coca-cola and bag of SWEET popcorn. I was not ready to go on a sugar high, and was very much looking forward to enjoying some movie theater SALT popcorn. Next time, I’m bringing along a bag of chips.

The movie was good. Go see it.

Afterwards we walked back to the city center and sat on some benches around a tree, where I learned how to crochet. Then a street performer with a Jamaican puppet set up closer to the square behind us and “played” a few Bob Marley songs for a surprisingly large audience. I didn’t look. I hate puppets. We left soon after and headed to our favorite (and only?) crêpe stand. Sunday was the last day of the festival, and out of all four days, today was the most crowded. All of the stores and shops were open and the streets were absolutely filled with people. It seemed like there were even more people in Landau yesterday than there were in Neustadt’s festival last weekend. Made me feel kind of proud.

I bought a winter semester course catalogue, and am hoping to set up a time to met with Prof. Wagner next week to go over my options and selections for classes. I’ve found some that I’d be seriously interested in taking (hoping that they will count for credits at Coe), and some that I don’t really want to take, but would most likely be candidates for counting towards my majors. Just like at Coe. This week also marks the start of my quest to fix the bike I have, so I might get an adventure out of that.

I’m starting to really like it here.

A Whole Lotta People

2005-10-17T11:31:00.000+02:00

I smell cash and candy

2005-10-11T12:54:00.000+02:00

When we were in Neustadt at the festival I bought a real candied apple. I had never really seen one before, but knew what it was. An apple dipped in red something. That's what it looked like. I'll tell you about the eating part. Ate the apple yesterday. The candied coating was kind of thin, kind of not, but was so sweet that I drank a full bottle (maybe 40-50 oz. worth) of mineral water, brush my teeth (until my gums kind of bled -- i'll admit that my toothbrush's bristles may be a bit too hard...but it was two for one, I couldn't resist) and STILL felt like I had been overdosing on sugar. Another illustration, perhaps? In the less-than-24-hour time span that the apple sat in its little baggie on my kitchen counter, the candied coating ate through the plastic and puddled a jam-lid sized blotch on the stainless steel. Toxic candied apple. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

As for today... today I had a quick look around the market (which is set up only on Tuesdays, and only until 1 P.M.) and decided that it would be my new Tuesday morning "thing". Market food is so much cheaper, not to mention fresher, than Wal*Mart food. My dignity has been returned! Then I headed off the DHL man and (correctly) guessed that the package he had was for me. The paper on the side of the package had the contents listed in my mother's hand writing: jacket, stuffed animal, scarves/mittens, pens. The package cost over $40 to send. It sounds materialistic, but if that's not a validation of parental love, I don't know what is. They're willing to send me this stuff so my life here is easier, and yet it costs them more than I want to know. It cost me €1 to send a postcard to Japan, and €2 to send a letter to the US. I think I'm understanding how expensive it is to live here. For example, at the bank today, I wanted to withdraw €50. The woman behind me asked for €250, like it was totally normal. Is it?

Moving along, today I also found €60 on the ground (outside) at the University. No one else but Kathy was there. And there is not, to my knowledge, an office in which I can leave something like that. So do I just keep it? For now, hellz yes I do! Before I'm judged by anyone, I'll write here what I said to Kathy earlier today. I will keep this money, and if I wasn't meant to keep this money and Karma kicks in... if I lose a sum of money like that, I will not complain. Too much.

Winzfest: Success!! (plus, first photos!)

2005-10-10T10:35:00.001+02:00

Maybe it was because we knew we had made mistakes in the past. Maybe it was because we had prepared a day in advance, figuring out when we would be able to leave and return. Maybe we were wiser. Whatever it was, we made it to the Neustadt wine fest without a hitch.

It was all very exciting -- the adrenaline from having taken the right train added with the amount of people and activity in Neustadt (and, the biggest part, the festival being right by the train station, so we didn't have to wander around looking for it) made me giddy. Those of you who have seen me giddy know what it's like. (hint: it's scary)

They had food stands, game stands, shiny thing stands, a plant stand, and, of course, drink stands. Sometimes drink was mixed with food in a not-so-normal manner.

Did you know, that you can make a crêpe usingliquorss? For example, Bailey's? Good news! You can! A hot crêpe with Bailey's and sugar makes a nice, toasty late breakfast. Would you like a shot oliquorer with your pancake? Why, yes, I would!

We tried some of the local Cremant (Pfalz); tasted fine, but I wasn't partial to it. There was a band playing 50's and 60's songs until they broke out with "Achy, Breaky Heart." Wine glasses lifted high, we sang along. We should, after all, know the words better than most Germans.

Ah, I forgot to mention the rides. They had those, too. Mentioned.

Moving on: there was a parade, that we waited 45 minutes for, then gave up because I wanted to buy a bottle of the local Rieseling. And, as predicted, as soon as we left our spots the first bit of the parade came up the street. Not like we could see much of anything. There were flags waving and being tossed in the air, but for all I could see... they were just flags being tossed in the air. I managed a picture of one float -- but I have no idea what it's for.

But what I mostly saw were legs.

There were also these guys in tuxedos riding on the swings, tophats and all.

So things went well. We made it to Neustadt and back in one piece, and had a good day. Even though the weather started out shady, it turned into a tolerable afternoon and the woods behind my apartment building had a lot of activity. Silly woods.

All calm

2005-10-07T10:55:00.000+02:00

For the past few days I've been coming here, to the University library, and calmly replying to e-mails, creative writing workshop sheets, etc. The connection is good, and I found a nice little table in the basement where I can connect my laptop without having 50 people stare back at me.

There are a LOT more computers at the library here than at Coe. Plus, there's one desk space between each computer, so you're not leaning on the person next to you. If that's your thing, the leaning I mean, you might get some separation anxiety.

Prof. Wagner (our contact and savior on this side) gave us/me a bike. I wrote briefly and lovingly about it before, I think. Earlier Kathy and I had decided that the handle bar of the bike felt kind of strange -- it's angled a bit funny, and judging by the way the paint has been scratched off in one place, my suggestion was that the handle bar had been turned around. But, seeing as it is a "special" bike, I assumed it was normal.

This morning, I had decided to ride the bike into the city center and then back up to the school library, when I discovered something that looked like a bell trigger on one of the handles. And, Oh, shock!, I learned the secret of the twisted bike. Handles aren't backwards, no, no, they're UP-SIDE-DOWN. The bike is supposed to be a speed bike. A two-triggered (one on each handle) X-amount speed bike. The bike has been completely messed with, the speeds can't be used, and the brakes are squeaky, making the thing (and I say 'thing' lovingly) virtually impossible to ride.

I was more disappointed that the trigger wasn't a bell.

Petshop

2005-10-05T10:16:00.000+02:00

After a day of filling out forms, registering for any and everything, I still find myself behind in some aspects. Tuesday was a rough day, and the bike Prof. Wagner gave us (me) is bright green and purple. It also has flat tires. I am riding a limp, barney themed mountain bike. But at least I've got something! Still, it was a mentally draining day. We ate lunch in the Mensa, for 1.60 euro each. A huge glass bottle of water cost me onlz .75. The food wasn't half bad, either. It's fine.

p.s. I could buy a chimpunk as a pet. Now THAT'S what I would consider good times! Jessika said "but you would have to keep it in a cage" and I said "or WOULD I?" That was the high point of my day -- seeing a cute, woodland creature trapped in a 70 gallon glass tank with two other chipmunks. The joys of life, eh?

Monday is a free day

2005-10-03T18:17:00.000+02:00

It's some kind of holiday here today, so everything is closed except some restaurants and cafés. I slept until 12.30 P.M. Hah! It's cold again, but at least it stopped raining for the time being. I finally got to the internet (as you can see), and was somewhat hysterical about it. I didn't know I missed it that much.

It's interesting walking around the city on Sundays and holidays (still don't know which one it is...). There are a surprising number of people walking around, taking their time looking in the windows of shops. I kind of like that. It's laid back, without rushing.

We also stopped at a café; I had an Eiskaffe I didn't really like (they taste better in Bonn) and a piece of cake I didn't really like more than I didn't like the Eiskaffe. What can I say -- I'm a sucker for pretty tortes. Too bad most of them end up not tasting very good. There was also this pigeon... At first it would walk into the café, but then it flew in like "Biatch, I'm the wicked pidgeon of the Marktplaz, I DO WHAT I WANT!" and then strutted around the inside for a good 20 minutes before someone shooed it out. Then it flew to the opposite side of the street to a window sill and watched the rest of us. We left soon after.

**note: tuesday we met with one of the students who had met us at the airport to take care of every kind of registration under the sun. She asked us if we knew what the holidaz was, we said no, just that we knew it was one. Yes, the holiday, as someone pointed out, is the National holiday that recognizes the reunification of east and west Germany. However (this is to defend my positions on the subject), the majority of Germans, our student said, see it as a good a day as any to have a day off of work. There are no elaborate flags or sales, speeches or demonstrations. It's a free day. SO, growing up in a society where every single holiday, major or not, is celebrated with streamers and cake of some kind, I seem to be tainted.

Kein Oktoberfest :(

2005-10-02T12:09:00.000+02:00

we didn’t go to oktoberfest. things might have gone better had there been someone at the ticket booths to help us out, but, being sunday, help was not to be found. when we finally got IN the station (you can buy tickets outside, but it sure as hell helps if you know what you’re doing) we found a machine that showed time tables. 6 minutes of speed reading and touch-screen pushing later, we had tickets to münich via other stops. we run to the platform, almost miss the train, but i get the door open and we find a spot to sit. then we realize: neither of us remembered in which cities we switch trains.

20 minutes later we still don’t know what’s going on and i suck it up and finally get a hold of someone at the Dt Bahn Auskunft (DB helpline), where i tell the lady on the other end that my german is bad, but i need help (like they only help people confident of their verbal skills or something). i tell her what’s up and she tells me the cities we stop in, then something about a train leaving at 9.38, which makes no sense to me because it’s only 15 after. thanks, bye.

Then we start to drive through the lesser stops of Karlsruhe, a considerably larger city south of Landau. I once again suck it up and go to the front of the train to the driver. Hello, driver, can I ask you a question? Yes? Good. I explain to him what’s going on, and are we on the right train. He says “leider nicht.” a.k.a. you screwed up (actually means “unfortunately not.” At least they can fake sympathy without making me feel like I’m 12). But yes, we can catch a train back to Neustadt from the main Karlsruhe station, but we could also catch a direct train to München. Nice. There is no ticket conductor, so no one was able to tell us before hand that our tickets were basically invalid since we were on the wrong train. Maybe because it’s Sunday?

So we get off at Karlsruhe, and look at the departures chart. The train behind us (the one we just got off of??) leaves for Neustadt at 9.36, and a train to Münich will leave only at 12.05. I tell a group of elderly British people what we’re trying to do (how is it that they understand the time table but we don’t?), and one of them says “Well, so you’re looking at one crap journey, or another crap journey!” I agree, although what I really wanted to say was “Quite quite!” We get back on the train, and even though I’m ready to go to Münich because I’ve been through quite enough shit for one day (for three days, actually :p), thank you very much, we have a problem. Kathy agrees to try to get to Münich if I’m confident that once we get to Neustadt, we’ll be able to get to Mannheim, and then to Münich. Of course I’m not confident, I got on the wrong damn train going in the wrong damn direction, and spent more money than I’d like to think about on a wasted ticket. Oh, and I can’t read train time tables correctly. There’s that, too.

We get off at Landau, I check the chart, and we had started on the wrong platform. There are two trains that leave at 8.38, one of them going south (the one we took), the other heading north (the one we wanted to take). We were off by one platform.

In the front of the station, where it was dead this morning, there has bloomed some kind of Sunday party, complete with stage, musicians and singers, food carts, and a merry-go-round. Turns out it was the DeutscheBahnFestival 2005 – a celebration of I don’t know what, but I was able to buy a good old Bratwurst mit Brötchen. We mocked the singers for a while, then headed back in the direction of the NetC@fe, which was, thankfully, open. There I was able to write e-mails canceling our hotel and hostel reservations for the weekend. I’m hoping they get through. Now it’s raining again and I’ve got a killer headache (my body’s way of retaliating against lack of beer for the weekend?), and my new teapot works like a dream. I plan on posting these officially tomorrow, where they can be enjoyed by all.

I also don't know why I switch back and forth between using capitals and not.

Germany D2, Landau D1

2005-10-01T20:30:00.000+02:00

Day two started out like any other day; I woke up early, maybe around 6 A.M., needing to pee so bad it hurt, but missed that window of consciousness and fell asleep again until 8, when my alarm went off. After several other events, including re-setting my alarm and falling asleep again, I woke up a bit before 10, also known as the time I was supposed to be downtown to meet Kathy. Showered, dressed, left. Got to the bottom of the stairwell and saw it was raining. Went back to my rooms to get the umbrella I had (psychically) purchased the night before. I am good. Decided to take the path through the woods and cut through campus. FUNNY, because there are pathS. Many many paths. I got lost in my own little backwoods. I am not good. Finally found my way to campus, 15 minutes later, and was greeted by 1970s art-deco whitewashed buildings with silver and blue metal framing. There are a lot of windows. Found what seems to be the library, but didn’t go up to any of the buildings. Made it into town quarter to, wove my way through streets, magically found the C&A (like Sears) store, then found Kathy at a phone booth down the street from her housing.

First thing we did was get our mobile phones (Handy) taken care of. Then we walked around for a bit, found a nice Döner shop, and it took me an hour to eat. We also went to the Net-Cafe and took care of e-mails. Cost €2/hr. Then we went back to the ESG sat for a bit, Kathy reading through her Handy hand...book, me working on my Döner and calling my dad. Then I ran out of credits (expensive to call International). I should be able to top-up my credits online, but online I have none. So I punched in some of the “Konto-” numbers, and got texts about how to top-up. Then I found a three digit number I thought would be kind of like a 411 for the O2 SIM card.

A tip from me to you: if you call the German police and ask to top-up your phone card, or find out how to do so, you can’t.

Me: Sprechen Sie Englisch?
Man: Ah, wenig’s.
Me: Ah (laugh) okay.
Man: (laugh)
Me: Uh...kann ich meine Telefonkarte ausladen....
Man: Uh...
Me: ....um, ausladen...(has no idea how to ask “over the phone”)
Man: (probably has no idea what or why I’m asking) Um...
Me: uh...ausladen...bei Telefon?
Man: *mumbles through my talking*...Polizei
Me: Uh, over the phone. Can I add more credits over the phone?
Man: *something something*...Polizei
Me: (thinking he thinks I want to call the police, or that I’m at a police station, generally confused)...Nein..
Man: ...doch.
Me: *silence* What? (realizes now something’s not right, but still doesn’t get it)
Man: Hier ist Polizei.
Me: EEH? (gets it.)
Man: Hier ist Polizei.
Me: Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t...I’m sorry.
Man: Okay.
Me: I’m sorry...um..bye?
Man: ...Bye.

I am an idiot.

We stopped in a few stores around, including a DM store (small walgreens), where I got much needed kitchen sponges. I ended up buying three books and a map of the city. I think I felt pressured because I told my dad how nice they were, and he said “And you have nothing to put in them.” in a mocking tone. Hah! Now I have books and less money. I went for the teen fiction section, figuring the reading would be easier. I now own: Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer), Eine für vier ([The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants]Ann Brashares), and Sabriel (Garth Nix). I already know Sabriel is an amazing book, and I know the story, so the reading shouldn’t be too bad. I’m also happy to say that the walk back to my building went better than the way down, because I actually knew which paths I was supposed to take.

Unfortunately, because of the rain, and the cold, I am getting tired earlier. It’s 5:30 P.M., and I’m yawning every 5 seconds. Tomorrow we leave early for München to see the second to last day of Oktoberfest. Tuesday we take care of bank accounts and university registration.

By the way, Kathy called me at 8:22 asking where I was,

Kathy: I thought we wanted to leave at 8.
Me: Yeah...what time is it?
Kathy: Quarter after.
Me: Oh my God! Oh! Sorry, I thought it was still night!
Kathy: ....
Me:....
Kathy: Is...it? Still night?
Me: (checks alarm clock, checks phone) Yeah. P.M. Definitely P.M.
Kathy: Oh, no... Wow. You can laugh at me now.
Me: Okay.

That’s what happens when you drift in and out of sleep too much.

Germany, day one

2005-09-30T21:26:00.000+02:00

kathy and i got to germany safe and sound friday. we arrived on time, around 12.45, but it took more than 30 minutes to get off of the plane. i was in the very VERY back (turbulence + overly salted morning omelete = bad.), and after the flight attendants opened the back hatch and everyone around me started to rave about the “frische Luft” (fresh air) i was an unhappy camper.

our bags are fine, i’m not missing anything, hurrah. jessika and tina met us outside (tina was at coe fall semester of 2003-2004 school year) and then we left for the parking lots and then we lost the car. funny, because the car has plaid patterned seats, teddy bear sun shields, and “hot-ink tatoo” written down both sides of it. just like every other car, i know. turns out tina’s father, after years of management or something, decided to put his art skills to use and started a tatoo parlor. it is also apparently NOT unusual in germany to see four females in a hot-ink tatoo car.

1.5 hour drive from frankfurt to landau, which i, of course, slept through, but we had bought icelandic chocolate for our guide women so i think things went over really well. they’re both extremely nice and helpful, and, thankfully, have senses of humor. the esg where kathy is staying was the first stop – it’s nice, inhabited, has communal breakfasts and morning prayer sessions if you’re interested (although even if you’re not, they’re still going to have the prayer sessions). kathy’s room has a bed, a desk, a sink, a Schrank (skapis, something. funny how i don’t know what it is in english. it’s a closet that’s not built into the wall.), windwos, and a bottle of wine. she’s off to a good start! the esg is in a good location south of campus, and is right across from the street from a turkish market. immediate jealousy on my part. good food at such close proximities is to be coveted. lucky for me there are several dönner joints around, including a truck outside the wal*mart. yes, we have a wal*mart. a dönner (dönner kebob) is basically a gyro, but with extra stuff like red cabbage, green peppers, corn, etc. i usually ask for mine like it’s a gyro, but that’s just me.

kathy gets her keys, meets a neighbour, inga, who’s a psych major and therefore knows a little english, then we leave. we get to my place, the vonheim (studenten vonheim). looks mediocre from the outside, and five to six flights of wide, spiral stairs later we get to my room, Nr. 69 (laugh it up, chuckles), and later INTO my room, once i figure out which of the identical keys combined with the right way to turn sed key opens the door. i am amazed at what i see. there is a wide space for jackets, shoes, with two shelves above it, and a nice two-sectioned Schrank next to it. there is a bathroom to the right with the normal bathroom stuff (minus tp), and a kitchen space further in. two grid stove, sink, fridge, huge shelves for dry goods and dishes. the next room ahead is ginormous, with a door opening to a not-so-balcony and a window, with nice super 8 motel style curtains. the bed, normal sized, has two drawers underneath. my desk is huge, as is the lamp, and my desk chair has wheels. it’s all teal. someone has provided me with a strainer, a mixing bowl, two each of plates, cups, mugs, cutlery, bowls, and then some salad tossing things. i also am graced with four hangers, bedsheets, a paper thin pillow and a comforter – none of which will be physically comforing, but it’s nice that i have something for the time being. new mission is to buy a better pillow. this thing is rediculous. there’s also this little rolly thing that has two drawers, one of which can be locked with some plastic thing (??) in case any plastically-challenged theives break into my apartment. i will hide the valuables there.

i still can’t call my parents (sorry, guys), but will do so saturday once i buy a chip for my phone. we went to wal*mart tonight, and i snapped and bought things that i usually have at home, like pasta, olive oil, vinegar, mayonaise, salami, rye bread, mineral water, toilet paper, etc. it cost me a lot, but it’s stuff that will last me a while. if and when i run out, the meals at the Mensa (cafeteria) are €1.60, which is a crap load cheaper than you suckers at coe spend. but then again, you guys don’t have to buy your own toilet paper. and for that, i resent you.

there are a few other people here – my windows face this court yard, and i can see lights on in other dorms. this place is truly fabulous – there’s a path 200 ft from the building’s front door that leads through some woods to the campus, i get to buzz people in, and i can take out my own trash. i don’t think i’m going to want to move out after the first 6 months. it’s quite the catch, living situation wise.

so now i’m set up with my computer on a shelf, unpacking my groceries (i bought a towel and a glass tea pot!! score!), and hoping my parents aren’t freaking out too much. i hope they’ll understand. the last thing i have to do after unpacking tonight is make sure i eat dinner before passing out. it’s team pasta to the rescue!

p.s. not only did i have to plug the fridge in (that’s expected, at least), i had to plug in the stove. took me 10 minutes of starving and glaring to figure that one out. i also think that germans are tall, or expect foreigners to be tall. or maybe just the people staying in the vonheim. the top shelves, as well as some of the lower shelves, seem to be custom made for someone 5’ 10’’.