Home Again, Home Again

Random 'getting used to America' moments.
-I took a sip of Coke in the car on the way home from Detroit and thought, 'Wow, is this normal coke? It tastes like there are spices in it.' After seeing the 'Classic' written on the bottle, I realized that I had simply been used to German Coke and that this was real Coke again.
-I went into the bathroom at home and thought, 'Huh, there's an unusually large amount of water in the toilet. And then I realized that I wasn't in Germany anymore and that it is normal to have that much water in an American toilet.

Right now I'm listening to one of the CDs that Ross made for me for Christmas. :) Christmas was nice. I got to see both Ross and Anna... and I got an iPod. I can't wait to see everyone!

My trip was interesting. I got to Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon, took a taxi to my hotel, settled in, and then explored the city (despite the cold). There's really not much in Frankfurt, but there was enough to keep me occupied for a few hours. I didn't get to see the Goethe house though. Maybe later. I woke up the next morning, got dressed, checked out (in German: auschecken), and took a taxi to the train station where I bought a ticket to the airport. At the airport, I had to walk a ways to get to Terminal 2. As I stood in line to check in for my flight, an airport lady checked my passport and then pretty much gave me the third degree. Then after she left, an airport guy did it again. But they were nice.

Then I went to go through a door to the carry-on baggage screening place, and a guy asked me if I had any liquids. I said no, and then he said, "well what's that?" as he was pointing to the 1/4 full bottle of coke on the side of my backpack. Whoops. I drank it and went through to security where I had to take off my coat, scarf, watch, and take out everything in my pockets and then walk through the screening thing. It didn't go off on me and my stuff was fine, but then they wanted to screen my DVD player. So I went to a little room where they screening it while I put my stuff back in my pockets.

I then went to look for my gate, but I couldn't find it, so I asked an airport lady and she told me in German. She then asked if I understood and I am glad to say that I understood completely. To get to my gate, I had to go through security again, which meant I had to take everything out of my pockets again. After waiting at the gate for a while, the airport guy informed us that our flight would be delayed until further notice. Apparently there was something wrong with the plane and they had to get a crew from Mainz. There was a collective moan from the waiting passengers. But then a little bit later, we were informed that it wouldn't be too much of a delay. We ended up taking off a little more than an hour behind schedule.

The flight was fine. I traded seats with some guy's wife so they could sit together, but I still had a window seat so it was all good. It was cloudy, so there usually wasn't much of a view. I did get a glimpse of Scotland, Greenland, the Atlantic Ocean, Canada, and Michigan though. During the flight I watched Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Invincible (about the Philedelphia Eagles), The Little Mermaid, and an episode of King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond. Landing was fine, but then US customs are Nazis (heh). Everyone had to fill out at least one form before we landed and then go through customs before and after we picked up our luggage. It was fine for me though. I had no snags. My father was waiting for me (and jumped up from his chair when he saw me) and then we went home. I was so tired that I went to bed around 9:30 (but then woke up at 6am).

It's almost Christmas!

The German language did not go well today. I think the Bratwurst guy felt sorry for me and gave me 30 cents off on my Bratwurst. The words just wouldn’t come out. But oh well. I bought a scarf/hat/gloves combo for €3.99 and I drank a glass of Glühwein.

Yesterday during/after my Language & Gender class, I was talking to Christian (a guy in the class) and he invited me to come with him and watch Feuerzangebowle and drink it (Feuerzangebowle is also a drink… Glühwein with a burning cone of rum coated sugar above it which drips sugar into the wine). I declined due to my class, but it was just fun to get an invitation.

Then in the evening, I went to Campus für Christus, which is the German version of Cru. It was… interesting. In a lot of ways, it was the same as in the US, but there were German songs thrown in and German language here and there. Disappointingly, a lot of it was in English because the staff is mostly from the US and mostly can’t speak German. And Derek from AYF was there. I was surprised to see him.

I was playing Atomica this afternoon, and I finally got the ‘Mega Genius’ rating. I was excited. I could only get ‘Super Genius’ before.

I’m all packed and now I just have to wait. Tomorrow is my trip to Frankfurt. I plan to see the city a bit while I’m there. And then I fly home on Sunday. Bis dann and Merry Christmas!

My legs are cold and my feet hurt.

Good morning. I took a test today and I didn’t like it. But now that class is over and when I get back, I’ll only have six hours of class a week. Not bad.

Tonight, some of us made brownies. And then I walked from Händelstrasse to Bertoldsbrunnen and beat the Strassenbahn.

In the afternoon, we got a tour of the Stadttheater. I never imagined that there would be so much stuff behind the stage. It was really cool. There was a huge banana.

As I was leaving the brownie-making tonight, they were saying ‘if I don’t see you before you leave, have a good Christmas’ and stuff like that. It made me sad. …And I’m only going to be gone for two weeks. What’s going to happen when we all leave for good? I can’t even imagine it. Not only will I be leaving all these new friends, but I will also be leaving Freiburg, a city that I love. It was the same thing with leaving Ann Arbor this summer, except I had fewer good friends there at the time. But it was still sad. So… yeah.

And Mary has 72 days of music on her iTunes. Crazy.

I went to my favorite Döner place again and a younger guy took my oder (yufka). The owner guy was down the counter a little ways, and he looked over and said 'Wie geht's?' (~how's it going) to me. I was surprised, but answered nevertheless. It was fun to feel like a regular at an eating establishment.

As I was on my way to Betoldsbrunnen from Mary's tonight, some random guys were walking around... one guy was dressed asa Santa Claus. I tried to avoid them, but they were on the same side of the street as I was and one guy walked right in my path and asked if I liked Lebkuchen. I said ok and he held out his Santa bag and I took a piece from the bag. Nice and random, I guess.

und so weiter

There are New York Yankees hats everywhere. It’s dumb because I’m sure most of the people wearing them don’t know what they mean. Kind of like when there are shirts with Chinese characters on them…
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I was late to my class this afternoon because I decided to procrastinate writing the paper until this afternoon. I was thinking about skipping the class altogether (I even dreamed about it), but then I went. But I didn’t get to buy my big sharp knife. Maybe later.
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Because I was writing my paper, I didn’t have time for lunch, so I ate a couple clementines during class. Afterwards I bought some cheese and Brötchen and had cheese and bread for dinner while watching the adolescent version of Rugrats. Now I’m watching Elf in German.

How often...

…do you hear opera singing while standing on an almost deserted train platform at midnight?

Well now… Tübingen was fun. I had a really good time. Tübingen is Ann Arbor’s sister city, and so only the people from UM went. It took about three hours to get there even though it’s fairly close. The trains have to go around the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). When we got there, we met our host families. They were pretty much all older ladies. Ruth, the lady I had, is married and has two sons. Philip, the oldest one, is 26 and living at home. The youngest one is in Boston, I think. Alex’s person wasn’t there, so he went with me and Ruth took us around the city. Then we went back to her house and had coffee and waited for dinner. Right before dinner, we met Philip.

After dinner, we went to watch an old German movie outside. I forget what it was called, but it was funny. My neck still hurts from having to look around people’s heads. Afterwards, we went to DAF where they had a little reception for us… or something like that. None of us were exactly sure what it was all about, but there was wine and appetizers. The daughter of Alex’s people met him there, and Alex and she and her boyfriend went out with Philip and me to some bar thing. Then Alex and the other two left, but Philip, his friend, and I went to some club and stood outside for a little bit while his friend talked to people. Then we went back to his friend’s apartment and had a beer. Philip taught me how to open it with a lighter. I need to practice. Philip and I went home around 1am.

The first thing next day was breakfast. I met the father. He was really nice and determined to make sure I spoke German and got in contact with German families in Freiburg. Then Ruth and I went into the town and met up with Alex and Ben. We walked around and saw buildings and museums. After Ben left, we walked around a little more, and then Ruth left and Alex and I looked around the Weihnachtsmarkt.

Then in the evening, Alex’s host-dad picked us up and we had dinner at his house. It was really good. But our train was leaving at 6:35, and we ended up leaving later than I thought was smart. And, as it turned out, I was right. The Reise Zentrum (where you buy tickets) was not open and none of the ticket machines (Automat) were cooperating with us. So after much stress and hassle, we missed our train going south. The other option was to go north, but we missed that one too. Then the next one going north to Stuttgart left at 7pm, and we got that one. But then in Stuttgart there were no possible ‘umsteigens’ (train transfers) for an hour. And so Alex and I went to the Stuttgart Weihnachtsmarkt again (we had gone two weeks ago). We then got from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe and Karlsruhe to Offenburg without problem. But then in Offenburg, there were no possible trains until 12:45am. So we ended up buying another ticket for a more expensive train that was coming at 11:50pm and got back in Freiburg around 12:20, over five hours after we started. Everything considered, it was a wonderfully enjoyable experience.

This afternoon there was a small gift exchange at Liz’s apartment. …Generally a good time.

These Germans need to lighten up.

At this moment, I am so sick of Germans. I wish I knew German well enough so I could go off on them in their own language. It was just a frustrating day with Germans. I don’t even remember half the reasons that I’m so annoyed with them. Oh, and last night the Germans annoyed me too.

Instead of going to the German version of Cru tonight (which I had been trying to do for a few weeks now), I had to go see the play, Medea. It was painful. The book was boring enough in English. And then it was impossible for me to read and understand in German. And so of course I barely got anything out of the play. What I could understand was not enough to make me appreciate it. And it was just completely out there. Very modern.

Tomorrow I go to Tübingen. That should be something different… or just more of the same.

I’m looking forward to coming home, but I think that I was so excited at the end of November and beginning of December that I am now void of excitement. I tend to do that at times. Now it’s just ehh. And I’ve been having disturbing dreams about going home. Disturbing dreams tend to affect how I feel about something later. I’ve been having a lot of disturbing dreams in Germany. Many of them were about Alecia, strangely enough.

Wenn ich nur in Freiburg bleiben könnte...

I met with my tandem partner today. It wasn’t as awkward as last time. We talked about translating Christmas songs into German. Afterwards, I went to the bar and finally downloaded the most recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

So, I’ve decided that I don’t want to leave Germany. I told my advisor at UM and he seemed pleased. He suggested some ways to make it happen, either right now or after I finish my degree at UM. But I’m not overly fond of the University, so unless my feelings change drastically next semester, I’ll definitely be back for at least a year. But I just love it here. It’s as though the world is at my fingertips… or at least Europe. I can take a weekend trip to Greece or a week trip to Turkey or Africa. It’s all so close! Here things are so much more… nice… connected. I don’t know. Plus, I just love German.

Even though I dropped my clock on the floor and the hour hand came off, the alarm still works. …That is good.

Who understands the French anyway?

Today I went to Strasbourg, France, with Alex and Mallory. We mostly just walked around and looked at stuff. On the way back, the first train was so packed that there was barely room to move. Then some old, fat German guy pushed his way (and 5 other people’s ways) in with his monstrous gut, and then there was really no room to move.

Then on the Strassenbahn in Freiburg, I almost missed my stop because I was enjoying the movement and the nice warmth of the Strassenbahn. At one stop after the train had begun getting out, I looked up at the electronic sign and saw that it said “am Bischofskreuz”, and then I ran to the exit because that is where I live.

In Strasbourg, we ate at McDonald's. The French French fries weren't that great.

Tonight it the party in Mary’s WG (say: vay-gay). Woohoo.

Ugh, blah.

What has happened recently? Not much, really. I gave a Referat (oral presentation) on Thursday in my International House class. It went fairly well… as well as can be expected for me, I guess.

Alex and I and maybe some others are planning to go to Strasbourg (France) tomorrow. We’ll see if that pans out.

I downloaded the Charlie Brown Christmas music today. I’ve been trying to download the Grey’s Anatomy episode from last week, but my computer always poops out somewhere near the beginning.

The lunch that I made today was very good. But it was the same type of thing I usually make… so no big surprise there. Last night, Sarah made sautéed mushrooms in red wine sauce. Mmm. I never thought I’d learn to cook in Germany, but it’s definitely happening.
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Then this evening I felt like crap. Blah. But the International House party was entertaining.

Cheese with Olives

I'm too tired and lazy to write anything right now, and my whole ability at expressing anything correctly in any language has left me. And nothing interesting has really happened anyway. So here's a picture from Stuttgart.

procrastination or simply not doing it at all?

You all get to be jealous of me today. :) It was in the 60’s here in lovely Freiburg. I was walking around in sandals and with my sweatshirt sleeves pushed up. There was a nice breeze and the sun was out most of the time. People were strolling around with ice cream at the Weihnachtsmarkt. It was beautiful. With this weather, it’s hard to believe that it’s actually 5 days into December.

I don’t write my blogs all at once. Sometimes it’s over a few days. And right now it’s 5:20pm and I’m hungry. But I don’t want to eat, because Alex talked about wanting to watch the Simpson’s here tonight at 6pm. So then we could make dinner also. But who knows what will happen.

(4 Hours Later)
Alex came and we watched the Simpson’s. And then I ate way too much food. And now I feel sick.

It’s gotten to the point where I just can’t speak any language. English… German… I just give up.

"Take Chances. Tell the truth. Date someone totally wrong for you. Say no. Spend all your cash. Fall in love. Get to know someone random. Be random. Say I love you. Sing out loud. Laugh at stupid jokes. Cry. Apologize. Tell someone how much they mean to you. Tell an asshole what you think. Laugh til your stomach hurts and your eyes water. Live life. And most of all...have no regrets."
-stolen from Caroline

Life without internet is boring.

Yesterday I went to Stuttgart with Alex and my Pole, Michael. Michael was practically a tour guide… he knew so much about the history and significance of everything. It was quite fun. And once again, I spent way too much money… about €85. It’s so incredibly easy to find gifts for my mom, but I can never find stuff for my dad.

I was supposed to meet Alex and Michael at 7:50 on Gleis 2 (track 2). When I left yesterday morning to catch the Strassenbahn to get to the train station, it had left maybe a minute before I got there. So I thought, ‘ok, I’ll get the one at 7:30’. And then I remembered that it was Saturday and that they probably didn’t run as often as normal. So I looked at the schedule and, of course, the next one came at 7:49. Yeah, that would definitely be too late. So I therefore had to walk to the train station. I ran between am Bischoffskreuz and Runzmattenweg (Strassenbahn stops), hoping that I could catch Strassenbahn #3 at Runzmattenweg. Of course not. But I did see that the #2 was coming in about 10 minutes, which was quite odd because the #2 doesn’t run in this direction. And so I kept walking and eventually came to the next Strassenbahn stop, Technishes Rathaus. I looked at the little electronic thing that says which streetcars are coming, and it said ‘Littenweiler – 3 minutes’ (line #1, which is what I missed at the beginning). That was extremely odd, because it did not say that Littenweiler was coming when I was at am Bischoffskreuz or Runzmattenweg. But I waited for it and it took me to the train station. I didn’t get there early enough to buy some breakfast, but I still made it. And, as it turns out, everyone else had the same problems with the Strassenbahn that morning.

Then the trains… the first train (to Offenburg) was fine, but then we had to stand up on the second train (to Karlsruhe). And then on the third train (to Stuttgart), we barely got a seat, which wasn’t a normal seat anyway. On the way home, I had to sit on the floor from Stuttgart to Karlsruhe, but we got seats from Karlsruhe to Freiburg.

My internet didn’t work yesterday, and that was sad. It didn’t work then today either.

When my money talks, it says 'goodbye'.

Oh wow. My feet are tired.

After class on Wednesday, Sarah and I went to an Italian restaurant and ate pizza. It was quite good. And then we walked around the city until about 11pm.

The next day, Joslyn came over to StuSie and we made Spätzle and ate it with soup and pie. Mmm. It was very tastey. Afterwards there was a thing with Professor Mittman where we went and talked about culture shock in Germany. It was fun. Towards the end, Maryia brought up the subject of our section ofAYF 302 class being harder than AYF 402. Then there was a huge argument (everyone there was either from 402 or our section of 302) and it ended up with Mittman saying she’d consider changing out number to 402, but she needed to see everything we’ve done. So I offered to bring her my folder the next morning.

After dropping of the folder at 10am, I walked around the city, spending obscene amounts of money. Somewhere in the middle of my spending, I decided to stop at the bank and check the status of my account. We do that by sticking our card into a machine and it prints out all the recent transactions. So I stuck my card in and the machine said that it wasn’t going to give it back to me. I was upset. So I went to the lady and she said that she couldn’t do anything about it and that it would be sent to me in a while. Great. I was annoyed, but it wasn’t a big deal. And when I was talking to the lady, I was using passive without much trouble, and that made me happy.

And so I continued to spend money. At the Weihnachtsmarkt, I ran into Krystal, Alexa, Alyssa, and Sonya. Those were definitely some good times. Alyssa was tipsy after one glass of Glühwein. And Krystal pranced around the secondhand store in an actual cape.

When I went to get my folder back, I met up with Joslyn, and we went back to the Weihnachtsmarkt. She got a Käsewurst and I got Flammkuchen. And when I went home, I watched last weeks episode of Grey’s Anatomy, which was disappointing.

Tonight I had dinner and cookies with Beki, Alex, and Joslyn in Vauban. Like always, it was some fun times.