Soccer Saturday...noch einmal.

It's soccer Saturday!! I, as always, managed to have many glamorous European adventures before 1 pm.

On the way to soccer time, about 6 players for Rot-Weiss Erfurt got on the tram at Agentur fuer Arbeit. They were talking about soccer. (I was shocked!) But then I decided that their presence was going to translate into me being able to actually play soccer today, which kinda worked!

For the first game, there were only 6 of us playing (then 2 more showed up, so it was 4 on a team). I was in the goal for most of it, and I did not do too badly! I actually saved a few and the score was either even or within one at the end. The second game was worse because more people showed up, and they were all a lot more aggressive than I was, so I basically just watched the game from the field. Oh well...c'est la vie. (We play games with 10-minute halves. It's not like I played soccer for 3 hours.) Besides, everyone knows that I don't go to soccer because I'm good at soccer; I go to soccer to talk to Americans who are my age. And I am very good at doing that.

On the way home it became apparent that there's a RWE game today. People were already gearing up for the game, and it reminded me of how excited everyone is in Fayetteville on game day. For some reason, everyone and their mother was on the 3 tram on my way home. And they didn't get off before my stop, which is odd (it usually clears out a bit before Melchendorf). Luckily, I was right by the door, so I could lean against the post with the door open button. (The internet tells me it's the day of the open door for the station at the end of the line. This explains the crowds.)

The sun is out today in Erfurt! It makes a huge difference in the weather when it's sunny because it's pretty rare here. It feels like the sun is closer to Germany than it was to Oklahoma, but that may just be that I forget what the sun feels like after a few cloudy days.

I'm making tentative plans to visit Holzkirchen next weekend, and I am so excited!! I've missed that town so much, and I can't wait to ride the BOB again! Then after that, my friend Maggie who is also on a Fulbright is coming to stay for a few days over her fall break. It should be an interesting month here in Erfurt. (OH MY GOODNESS. I can teach my kids the "E-town! Small town!" cheer from high school and it would totally apply...besides the part where this is definitely not a town. But it is small enough that you see people you know every time you go somewhere.)

Erfurter Oktoberfest!

Last weekend I went to an international stammtisch, played soccer with the Mormons, went to Erfurter Oktoberfest with the people from the stammtisch, and walked around the city with one of the student teachers from my school & one of his friends.

It's Friday, and I'm still tired from all that.

I didn't really talk that much to any of these kind German people, but I feel like my German's got a lot better! (Part of that probably comes from me actually starting to listen to the TV instead of just watching it and puzzling out what is going on. Thanks, Dance Academy!)

So Erfurter Oktoberfest is like the junk food (without all the fried stuff but with a lot more alcohol) of the state fair and the rides of the state fair with a beer tent where a lady stands on the stage and convinces drunk people to sing along with these songs that apparently every German knows. It was...interesting. But not that many people wear German clothing unless they're just going to sit in the tent. The carnival was mostly kids and teenagers. Here are my pictures from the carnival!

The Ferris Wheel before I got on.

About 7 of us crammed in to one gondola.

It was nice because all of us got our cameras out...it wasn't just the foreign girls!

This is the road that leads from the Dom to the Rathaus.

There's the Dom!

It kinda looks like Hogwarts at night...

Stereotypes

I had a fantastic weekend, and there are pictures, so I'll write about that after I download them to my laptop. For now I want to talk about stereotypes.

Several classes have asked me what Americans think of Germans. Generally, I tell them that most Americans think of Bavaria because most Americans who have been to Germany were in the Army and all of our military bases are in the south. I generally also tell them that when Americans think of non-Bavarian Germany, they think of people who are on time, follow rules, and make high-quality goods.

After being here for 3 weeks, my stereotype of Germans is someone walking up to you, shaking your hand, and saying "Ach so!" in the first 10 seconds of conversation. This person might also offer you coffee multiple times. I bet the flu has a field day here because everyone shakes your hand every time they see you. The Schulleiter (principal) at my school comes into the teacher's room in the morning for the express purpose of shaking everyone's hand.

If you're walking in the street here, I hope you love the smell of cigarette smoke. So many people smoke here - it's surprising to me! And it's not just older people; I see kids smoking at a bench that I assume is the school boundary when I get to school during a break time. The worst thing is when I'm waiting for the tram and I don't realize that someone near me is smoking until I'm covered with ash (I tend to be pretty oblivious while waiting for the tram). People can't smoke inside here, but unlike in the US that didn't stop them; they all just go outside to smoke.

And while we're speaking of stereotypes, today I was going around listening to students do an exercise from their textbook when I noticed that they were looking at a pie chart about the ethnic groups in Australia (9th grade English is all about Australia at ASG). The white section of the pie was a generic tan color. The Aborigine section was a reddish brown, which was bad enough, but the Asian section was bright yellow. Hello, stereotypes!! (There was an other section that was green...I guess aliens live in Australia?)

I had dinner with one of my classes yesterday. I didn't quite understand why the entire class and the teacher went out for Italian food on a Sunday, but it was nice. I can mostly understand the kids' German, especially when they use Denglisch. My favorite two things I heard were "YOLO!" and "Wir koennen ein Selfie machen." The German language, so old, so beautiful, reduced to "Selfie machen." At least I can understand their slang when it's English.

Tschuessi!

Soccer Saturdays

Hey everyone! Not much has happened since my last post besides Soccer Saturday, which is what I'm going to start calling the two hours where I chat with Morman girls while trying to avoid the soccer ball. We mostly talk about weird things that Germans do (especially how often we have to shake hands here). It was pretty fun though - I kicked the ball a few times and mostly let the other people have fun with that. Once the ball came by me and I ducked to avoid it. I blame getting hit in the head with a basketball when I was in Kindergarten for this reaction.

One of my students was at the soccer game. It was awkward because he asked if I remembered him and I didn't, of course. (I assumed he was mistaking me for a Mormon girl who had already left.) But then he told me which class he was in (and I still didn't remember him), so I told him that I saw about 350 kids in the past two weeks. That makes me feel like a bad ETA, but I've only seen his class once! And the people who stuck with me are: Felix, Gina, the kid who started the 6th grade fight, and about a quarter of the 11th grade. But I know I'll learn all the kids' names eventually!

There was graffiti near the Kaffeetrichter stop that said "memento mori." I wish I had taken a picture because graffiti is everywhere here and it was nice to see something philosophical instead of English swear words.

I saw a dog carrying a bag for its owner while I was waiting for the tram. It wasn't a service dog or anything, so it was pretty cute. (And we all know I'm not a dog person.) There was something about the almost cartoon-like aspect of a dog carrying a plastic bag in its mouth that was very endearing.

Today is the first day of the Erfurter Oktoberfest. I think it's mostly just a carnival with a beer tent, but I haven't been yet so I can't definitively say!

Lazy Friday

I read half of this book while waiting for it to stop raining a few days ago. Read #4 because it's about to become super relevant.

Yesterday after an interesting day of teaching I went to meet my mentor teacher near the theater because I needed more insurance in order to get a key to the school. Naturally, I thought the 4 tram went there and it turns out that only the 2 tram does that. So I was a bit lost, but only 3 minutes late! And now I have shiny liability/key insurance for the low low price of 5 euros a month. After I left, my mentor stayed behind because she had other insurance-related things to discuss, which I though was hilarious because I read about half of How to be German in 50 Easy Steps the other day in Hugendubel, which is a big bookstore in Anger.

Last night I went to an international stammtisch, which was kinda fun. I met a few people who are studying at the Uni and some Germans who mostly spent a little time abroad before coming to the conclusion that Germany was much better than their adopted country. Then I went home, which I was afraid would be terrifying but turned out to be exactly the same as when I go home during the day, except there weren't as many people around. Sometimes I forget that without guns places that would be very dangerous at home are pretty safe here. (Not that I have a false sense of security. I walked home with my phone out the whole time, hoping nothing would happen because I couldn't remember the difference between 110 and 112.) I met a woman who teaches at the Uni in town and would like me to help out with an English conversation club there, which I would like to do, so I hope this opportunity works out!

In other news, I'm doing an eInternship with the State Department this year as well; I just got my e-mail with my research info in it, so that should take some time.

I've just been bumming around the house today since I don't work on Fridays. I did laundry, cleaned the bathroom, and vacuumed.

Tuesday

Yesterday I went to the Auslaenderamt (foreigner office) to apply for my visa. It was very easy, and the man wrote something that looked suspiciously like 30.07.14 on my application, which I am hoping means my visa will be valid until the end of July! I'll get to go pick it up in 3 weeks.

After that I had to go to school. I headed to the teachers' room before my first lesson (I was going to give a presentation about my hometown), but I still don't have a key.  I'm going to get one tomorrow, though! So I knocked on the door. When a lady opened it, I tried to go in, but the lady wouldn't let me in! She kinda started yelling at me, and my German skills just shut down. I think she was asking me who I wanted to see...finally she said a sentence with the word "englisch" in it and I nodded and she let me in. It was embarrassing and worrisome that I forgot all my German when in a vaguely stressful situation. Later she came up to me and apologized (Actually, she had a teacher translate her apology because she thought I didn't speak German. Oh well). It still hurt my feelings - I know I'm supposed to be happy that I look so young and I'm going to love this in a few years, but for now it's embarrassing and frustrating to not be seen as an adult, especially when I'm headed to a class filled with junior and senior students. How can these students ever respect me if the other teachers don't think I'm old enough to be treated as an equal?

After that joyous experience, I had some fun teaching my first half-lesson. I had prepared way too much stuff, and didn't get through half of what I prepared, which is much better than running out, but also bad because I didn't get to the questions I had for the students so they didn't have to speak very much.

Then I went to a 6th grade class where the teacher requested that I switch to his 11th grade class on a different day. So I just sat at the back for that one.

I finally braved my fears afterschool and went into an Eiscafe. Although it was 50 degrees outside, I ordered an Eisschockolade, which appeared to be chocolate milk, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. It was delicious! I ate it while reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell on my kindle. I'm glad I got a Kindle - I can read English books whenever I want, and I can borrow books from the public library in Fay for it!

The local Oktoberfest starts on Friday. In honor of that, an amusement park was being built in the Domplatz. The roller coaster looked safer than any carnival roller coaster I'd ever seen, and just as safe as most of the rides at Frontier City.

I also received some letters from some of my mom's first grade students recently! They were very sweet, and I taped them up on one of my cabinets.

Bis spaeter!!

First Week at School

My first week at school is very over. I get Fridays off as well as the weekend, so I've been doing nothing since Thursday evening.

I really like my school so far. I saw one of the 8th grade girls (name: Gina. She asked me if all Americans were fat in my first lesson) in the street today and got excited because I recognized her, but I didn't say anything to her. The commute to work takes about 30 minutes, but it doesn't feel that long. I got my schedule for my actual teaching today: I'll have lessons with 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th graders. Most of the lessons are with 8th and 11th graders - 8th grade English focuses on America, and 11th graders will be able to get a full year in with me before they hit their senior year.

I still have a few questions that I keep on forgetting to ask about school and Germany in general (for example: are those two guys who seem as clueless as I am student teaching?). I did, however, discover that the letter after the class number doesn't mean anything. German classes are called 12A, 12B, 12C, etc., but that just shows that they take all their compulsory subjects together.

I'm going to get a key to the teachers' room next week. This will be nice because I have to knock every time now and some of the teachers give me odd looks because I kinda look like a student. (The teachers' room is really important because teachers switch classrooms every hour like collegiate teachers do in the US, so they need a place to leave their stuff. It is also important because of coffee.)

I'm trying to decide what I want to do over my school breaks. All I really know is that I'm going to Great Britain on July 1st...or maybe a few days later if I can swing getting my visa extended that long. I have 4 significant breaks and a three-day weekend every week, so I should be able to get some nice traveling done.

Today I went into town to get out of the house, and I listened to a bit of an MLPD speech. It was what you'd expect from a communist party. The lady seemed to hate both Obama and Westerwelle. Then I got handed some leaflets from the FPD, so I'm pretty close to completing my collection of German election materials. I really just need something from the CDU and the Green Party now, although having something from the Piraten and Free Voters would be nice as well.

Although this whole Germany thing sounds crazy exciting, it's not quite as glamorous as it sounds. I searched the dairy section of the grocery store yesterday for margarine before realizing that Germans don't feel the need to refrigerate it. Eww. But I bought it anyway because I want to try to make cookies. I have a lot of free time - yesterday I discovered that German Comedy Central shows Parks & Rec twice a week, and I was really excited about that. Mostly I'm just looking forward to the Uni starting so I can meet some other people. Okay, maybe it is a lot more glamorous than grad school would be, but it's not all roses. I mean, I keep on sticking my used bottles in the cabinet because I'm too nervous to take them back to the store for the refund. (You can get money back for virtually every kind of bottle or can in Germany. My cabinet is full of water and juice bottles.)

Here goes nothing.

My washing machine has a lot of options...far too many options. I ended up googling it and found an English owner's manual, which was very helpful. I've also never used liquid fabric softener before, but I don't have a dryer and I don't like the feel of non-fabric softened clothes. The cycle is supposed to take a mere 3 hours (when I studied abroad I thought my host mom was joking when she told me how long my clothes would take), so we'll see then if I've succeeded in turning all my clothes a uniform grayish color.

I had my computer in the bathroom because I was looking at the user's manual for the washer, so I naturally had to take a picture with the machine. (I think the machine is about to take flight, by the way. It's definitely revving up for something.)

Aliens and the Left.

I'm sitting on my couch eating broccoli and chicken strips while drinking water that has ice in it because I froze the very end of this bottle before refilling it. I feel like America.

This morning I went to my appointment at the Auslaenderamt, which translates as either "foreigner officer" or "alien office." I have to register as a foreigner living in Germany (if I move I have to do it again) and prove that I've got income as well as health insurance in order to get my work visa. So I got to the office (where there isn't any sort of secretary or sign telling you what to do) and there was a sign on the door saying that room 9 was closed and people should go to rooms 7, 8, or 10. There appeared to only be a person working in office 8, so I waited outside that door. After finally getting to go in, I told the man my name and gave him my passport and other information. He then told me that I couldn't register then because you have to wait 5 days after registering your address to register as a foreigner. So I'm going back in a week.

Then I went to school. I only sat in on 2 lessons today, but I've got a full day tomorrow. One of the teachers I had today told me not to ask for her class permanently because they don't behave well. The first group was 17 and the second was 12-13. I'm so impressed by how well the older kids spoke English, and I believe that even the younger kids have a pretty good grasp of the language. For some reason, 5 kids out of the first class were on a class trip to Denmark last week, so they acted out 3 situations from their trip in English for us. Their situations told me that going abroad in a group is the same no matter where you're from...they had someone complain about walking while touring a city, mentioned that no one did the homework, and demonstrated trying to convert euros to kroner while shopping. Basically my trip to Holzkirchen in a nutshell...except it was euros to dollars.

After school, I got off the tram at Anger because it was 3:00 and I had nothing better to do. Die Linke (the Left) was having a campaign rally outside the mall, so I stopped and got some information from them (I think German politics are interesting because even smaller parties can have an impact). The thing that surprised me was the age of the activists. When you think of political activists who are handing out information, what do you think of? Probably some young, idealistic person with hope for the future. Not here. These people were all over 65. I was confused at first, but then came to the conclusion that they may be holdovers from the DDR who don't like the political direction the reunified country has taken. (This may be false reasoning, but these people looked pretty DDR-ish to me.) And that, more than anything, made me sad. I don't think communism is the right way for a state to function - people are too greedy for that. But imagine if your country was communist/socialist for almost your entire life and then became capitalist again. If your life totally changed, and you didn't like it, I bet you'd end up as an adorable little old lady passing out leftist political literature as well.

I purchased an ice cube tray today. You can take the girl out of America, but you can't convince the girl that ice cubes aren't necessary in daily life, although I could probably just leave my beverages on the balcony for the same effect. It's 55 degrees outside right now; I only have 1 out of 3 windows open. Bis spaeter!

Song of the Day (it's not German; it's just what I'm listening to right now):

There are screaming teenagers outside my building.

Back to Erfurt

Well, after having a magnificent time at orientation, I arrived back home in Erfurt. Erfurt is a pretty interesting city. It's like a nesting doll - the center is solidly old German with each ring around it becoming more and more Soviet until you get out to where I live. My apartment building was built in the 80s, so it's in the Soviet style, but I think it was redone in the 90s/early 2000s so it looks like a typical German apartment on the inside. I'm on the 5th floor, which is nice because that's the top floor.

Here is a view from my window as the sun was setting the other night.

Here is my bedroom. I brought my own sheets, but they don't quite fit. I also finally bought a pillow yesterday - until then I'd been sleeping on the pillows from my couch in my pillowcase.

Bathroom! The thing on the right is the washing machine.

Entryway. I hung up all my scarves and keep my shoes here like a German. I always forget to take my shoes off though, and have to move them from my room back out here.

The kitchen! The fridge (on the right) is a bit odd. The door isn't metal so I can't stick magnets to it. Also no dishwasher...

Living room. There's a tv and a door out to my small balcony.

View from my balcony.

Another view from my balcony.

I realized that I don't have any pictures that prove that I'm actually in Germany, so I took one.

Yesterday I had a pretty busy day! I went to play soccer with some LDS kids who are doing their mission in Erfurt right now, which is fun considering I'd never played before. I became friends with these kids when I saw three of the guys walking down the street the day before. I saw their outfits, then heard them speaking English. After that I ran up to them and said "Are you American?!?" We're all friends now. They also had two sisters that were playing soccer with them, along with 8 German people. I was so dreadful at soccer that one of the guy playing made me be goalie so that the good players could try to score. I immediately let 2 goals in and someone else volunteered to be goalie.

After playing soccer, I headed to the Domplatz to watch a SPD rally. I thought I was running late, but the rally was a bit behind schedule as well so I got to hear Peer Steinbrueck's entire Q&A session! Peer Steinbrueck is running for Bundeskanzler (Prime Minister), so it was very cool to hear him speak. He mentioned that women and men should be paid equally as well as commenting on Syria, the US, and PKW-Mounts (whatever that is). I was really close to him - I could've thrown the coke I was drinking and hit him quite easily.

Last night I was watching tv and saw the Tagesschau for the first time since I've been back in Germany! Then I watched Frag doch mal die Maus, which was a weird sort of game show.

Today I went to church at the Dom. It was pretty cool - the music was amazing, but they didn't have enough books for everyone there, and there weren't enough seats in the main area so I sat where I really couldn't see what was going on. I'm not Catholic, so I wasn't sure when to stand up and sit down, and most of the other people sitting where I was seemed equally confused. On Sundays the city is (relatively) dead because most shops are closed, so I took pictures while there were fewer people around.

The Rathaus (city hall).

A pretty building across from the Rathaus. It's a restaurant on the bottom floor.

Erfurt has a lot of construction right now, so it feels very similar to the U of A! One of the good things about this is that the trams aren't working in this part of the city so you can just walk in the road without fear of getting hit.

Martin Luther says hello. He went to college here and was ordained in the Dom. (Which, admittedly, didn't end up working out for him.)

Anger 1. A German shopping mall! It has a Rewe, Rossman, stationary store, Karstadt (it was like the home section of JC Penney's), some clothing and accessory stores, a food court, and a perfume store called Douglas that for some reason had a live DJ at 3 in the afternoon on a Saturday.

I can't remember if I've already explained this, but Anger isn't pronounced the English way. It means meadow in German.

It's election time in Germany, so almost every pole is covered with posters. The top one is for the NPD, which is a neo-Nazi party. The second is for the Piraten. The third is for the FPD, and the bottom one is for the SPD and Carsten Schenider, who I saw yesterday.

More posters: the NPD says "Money for Grandma, not Sinti and Roma." The next one is for the MLPD, which is a Marxist-Leninist party, then the Piraten again, followed by the Green party.

TK MAXX! This makes me giggle every time. The inside is just like TJ Maxx.

Finally, the Hauptbahnhof.

Orientation!

Oh Internet, so much has happened to me since we last spoke! I'll start with my adventures at orientation, then I'll try to follow up tomorrow with my adventures since then.

I took the train to Koeln (Cologne for you English speakers) on Sunday morning. I was supposed to switch trains at Frankfurt Flughafen (the airport), but our train stopped at Frankfurt Sued and there was an announcement. Then more people got off and the announcement was repeated. I finally figured out that this was an important announcement, so I turned to the stranger sitting next to me (she looked about my age) and said "Ich habe das nicht verstanden." She explained the situation to me in English: our destination was closed because someone left a bag unattended so the police shut the whole place down. Eventually our train started moving again and we got to a different part of the same train station, but the trains were all messed up because of the airport station being closed for a bit. Luckily, this girl was also going to Koeln, and she went and asked another girl in the line at the information center to ask about the next train for us. Eventually, three strangers ended up making it on a MUCH nicer train than we would've been on otherwise without buying another ticket. (Apparently that's a thing here. They don't really care which train you're on as long as your ticket says the city you're going to.) It was the ICE international to France, so we ended up getting to Koeln way faster than I would've with my regular ICE ticket. At the Koeln train station, that girl and I parted ways. I didn't ask her name or get to thank her, but she was so helpful; I would've been a mess without her.

Then I finally got to Koeln! For the first time I felt like I was truly back in Germany. I love Koeln a lot - after dropping my stuff off at the hostel where a lot of the ETAs were staying I headed straight for the Dom.

It was just as beautiful as I remembered. Then I met up with Werner Mohr (professor from my study abroad trip who lives there) for dinnerat Frueh am Dom. It was really good - the first big meal I'd had since getting to Germany. I'm so glad I got to see him again; dinner was also a really good chance for me to practice my German.

That evening was my first time in a hostel. The other three girls in my room were all Fulbrighters, and the place was really nice! Like a nerd, I took a picture of my bed. I realized when I was taking my bedding off that the two sheets they gave me were a duvet cover and bottom sheet, not a bottom sheet and top sheet. Oh well...

Then it was off to Maria in der Aue, a beautiful conference center in NRW. There were over 100 Fulbrighters, and we were all pretty loud. It was an endless cycle of "What's your name? Where are you from? Where did you go to school? Where are you placed? Where is that?" Of course, no trip to Germany would be complete without an unexpected hike. When we got 1,4 km away from the hotel, we were told that the buses couldn't fit down the road, so we could wait for a shuttle or walk. We all chose to walk. I should've known that hiking would happen sooner or later.

We were given roommates based on our Bundesland, and since the hotel had a few single rooms and I'm the only American girl in Thueringen, I had a single. I was a bit bummed because I was looking forward to making friends with my roommate, but it turned out okay! Hier ist mein Zimmer.

This is where I took the world's most American showers. Gotta live large while the water's free.

Baby tv! Baby bed!

You had to push the button then twirl the lock. It was weird. But the mini Baeren were free!!

We all got nifty nametags...that weren't all that helpful. Mine fell out of the holder for a bit, so someone made me another one that said "Chel-say."

Orientation was amazing. The other Fulbrighters are an amazing group; it felt like being at a weird camp designed to teach us a tiny bit about teaching English. We got a lot of resources, like a book of lesson plans and a list of all the other ETAs. We also had Guenter Jakob, who may be one of my favorite Germans. He works for the PAD (in English, the Office for Educational Exchanges), and he was so funny. After going over what our insurance covers (about nothing) he advised us to not get "too pregnant too fast."

Before dinner one night, I went for a walk around the resort area with some other people. It was beautiful! If I were to actually move permanently to Germany, I'd want to live in rural area.

One afternoon, the woman in charge of the US Consulate in Dusseldorf came to speak to us. It was amazing to hear her speak since I want to work with the State Department someday. The room was so hot that day though...there were 120 people in the room, it was afternoon, and the room had huge west-facing french doors.

We also were split into small groups to discuss actually teaching English. In those groups we were divided still further and each of the small groups presented a lesson to the class. My group had Level II English; we did a lesson about our emotions.

The last evening there was a talent show, which was surprisingly entertaining. It was the perfect blend of cool and nerdy. People played instruments, sang, recited poetry, as well as entertaining us with skits about German life, Gollum impressions, juggling, and a Q&A session about Alaska.

I'm so glad we had this orientation. I met people from all over the US who now live all over Germany, which would have been a wonderful experience even if I didn't get to stay here any longer.

On my train ride back to Erfurt, I was trying to find my seat, but there were these Australian people blocking the aisle trying to explain to an older lady that she was sitting in their seats. (Trains have little electronic displays above the seats saying if a place is reserved, but they weren't working in this car.) The lady didn't speak English and the Australians didn't speak enough German to explain the situation to her, so I jumped in and tried to help out. (They were blocking the aisle, after all.) In the end, the Australians found other seats and I ended up sitting by the little old lady. She asked me why I was in Germany and then wished me good luck in Germany when she got off! I also talked to the Australians a bit before I got off; they were visiting their son in London and taking a quick tour of Germany and Austria because their son had to work for a few days. The whole thing reminded me of the part in The Great Gatsby when someone asks Nick where West Egg is and he says that that experience gave him the freedom of the neighborhood. I am extraordinarily friendly to any native English speakers I come across here.

Living abroad is definitely an adjustment, but when I'm feeling down, I am always the subject of a random act of kindness from a German.

And to finish this entry, a photographic gem from Maria in der Aue:

Wer wirft Binden in die Toilette? That's just common sense...

-----------------------------------------

Links: Maria in der Aue

Station Hostel

Picture from the US Consulate Dusseldorf

Kölner Dom