Friday, September 28, 2012
Just a minute. Only sixty seconds in it.
Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.
I will talk about Oktoberfest. At some point on this blog I will, I promise, but when a topic comes rushing into your head you do not simply ignore it. *Insert Internet Lord of the Rings Meme Here* Tomorrow is my last day of language school and inevitably my last weekend in Cologne. I am so glad to have spent these two months learning German, meeting great people, exploring new lands and finding as much about myself as possible. But still, I can't help but feel like it always goes by too fast. Where did these two months really go? If only I could recall every day, hour, minute, second I would understand where the heck my September went. Wouldn't that be great? To have like a recording of your life, you could replay all the great memories, fast forward through the boring or painful parts, and really soak up the intimacies of one's life.
There are so many things that I still have to do in Cologne and I haven't the time to do them. Where did all those days wasted away doing nothing? Where are those hours I drained away watching tv or reading books when I should have been out exploring as much as I could? I would say there is something refreshing about not doing everything in a city, it leaves something to come back and do, and fortunately Münster isn't far (about an hour and 45 minutes north of Cologne) but what a waste.
I like to believe I have a photographic memory, but can I trade my Powershot in for a Sony PMW-EX1?
In all seriousness, this has been such an amazing two months of my life & I'm sure the next couple days will be an epic conclusion, but I just need to get it out here because I don't want to forget these thoughts.
Basketball, Indian Food, Constant Jokes, Broken German, Slightly Less Broken German, Comprehendible German, Language School, An Awesome Teacher, Moshing, Deep Conversations, Beer Pong with Swiss Roommate, Complaining about Late Trains, Ping pong, Soccer, Volleyball, NFL in Germany, "Chody P," Brunch, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Bonn, King's Cup at Jesse's, Oktoberfest. Pressing in Lara's Nose, Playing "Klaus" with Gaurav, Dexter & I being Dexter & I, Having my First Heart to Heart with Caitlin, Tearing apart Germans in Basketball with Jesse, Trying to learn Salsa dancing from the in-house Professional Robi, Arguing With My Ultimate-Life-Long Nemisi Michelle.
And all the other countless things i did with some really invaluable friends.
That was only a small fraction of the things I could thing of, mainly the ones that mean a significant thing to me or stood out in my mind for one reason or another. I'm so glad to be leaving because after visiting on Monday, I've learned that Münster is a simply wonderful city and my host family is amazing but I will be leaving some great new friends behind, a great experience learning the language, and a comfort zone I've created around myself.
But I suppose that's what life is about right? Adjusting to new and exciting experiences. Everyone remembers when they did something uncomfortable for the first time only to see how lovely it would grow to be. I think that's what's happened in Cologne. Of course I've tested the waters of this German living thing before and I loved it, this time is no different in the loving aspect but I am so amazed at how everything has come to a blur at the end.
Tomorrow I will try and do as many things as I can in the time I have left and maybe I'll write another short blog post like this one. Trying to get six before the month's end.
I like uniformity. Lucky you.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Coldoktoberbeerfest*
I really hate cold weather.
I had to get that out before I could continue trekking on through this most painful post. I feel like I've spent about equal amounts of times breaking down Liebe Deutschland and building it up. This time is one of those break downs. I am 100% certain that my entire perception of Germany is going to change in the coming months. Those cold, frigid, awful months that I've so conveniently been able to avoid the other two times I been here are going to sneak up on me and consume all the beautiful sunny hilltops and strip away the melodic sun's glisten against graceful bodies of flowing water.
It really hit me today and I realized there's no turning back, my tracks have already been made by, & covered in the metaphorical snow. The story starts like this: I met a really gay (literal sense people, I'm clearly in a poetic mood tonight) group of Germans over the past few weeks that play basketball regularly on basketball courts along the Rhein river. Not only is it a breath-taking view that really makes me appreciate the smaller things in life, the competition is also really freaking awesome. We played for a few hours today, but at the conclusion of our Spiel I realized just how cold I was. It was probably about 57 degrees but my body did not appreciate the "drastic" drop in temperature when it had been rested peacefully at 70 earlier in the day.
I'm from the South. I have to reiterate these things for some of my readers because there may be a huge disconnect about how 57 degrees could spawn a post about the impending frigidness of Germany. 57 degrees is cold for me. There is no other way to read this response, I am fairly uncomfortable in this weather and although I do occasionally enjoy a crisp breeze, I cannot confidently say I'm looking forward to the deluge of mid-50 degree weather that's about to wreck havoc on Cologne.
My peak comfort level when it comes to temperature is right around 60 degrees, anything below that and you can expect to start to here subtle complaints about how cold it is or how I need a jacket, or how I can't bear this much longer. It's just one of those things that I can't deal with and it's times like these I regret having lived in the South my whole life because there is nothing I could do about having such thin blood for the cold weather.
The best solution I've come up with so far is to start drinking heavily to keep myself warm, perhaps that 's what I'll do. Might have some debilitating side effects which keep me from, you know, functioning, but it's not like it'd be much different than me in popsicle form anyway.
That brings me to an interesting point, once that might give some real substance to this blog post. Did you know the reason Germans are so famous for beer/they live up the stereotype about beer so well is because they brewed beer in the winter months as a method not to lose carb crops (wheat) during the winter months. I wonder what parts of American culture (if we have a +1000 year long history such as the Germans) would be preserved.
Hopefully not obesity.
Another fun fact, beer brewing in Germany is something that was originally done by women. A pretty interesting revelation since now we see beer brewing (at least in America) as a primarily male dominated profession. Not to mention the plethora of demeaning ascribing of roles to our women. This look familiar to anyone?
I had to get that out before I could continue trekking on through this most painful post. I feel like I've spent about equal amounts of times breaking down Liebe Deutschland and building it up. This time is one of those break downs. I am 100% certain that my entire perception of Germany is going to change in the coming months. Those cold, frigid, awful months that I've so conveniently been able to avoid the other two times I been here are going to sneak up on me and consume all the beautiful sunny hilltops and strip away the melodic sun's glisten against graceful bodies of flowing water.
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| Charlie knows how I feel... |
I'm from the South. I have to reiterate these things for some of my readers because there may be a huge disconnect about how 57 degrees could spawn a post about the impending frigidness of Germany. 57 degrees is cold for me. There is no other way to read this response, I am fairly uncomfortable in this weather and although I do occasionally enjoy a crisp breeze, I cannot confidently say I'm looking forward to the deluge of mid-50 degree weather that's about to wreck havoc on Cologne.
My peak comfort level when it comes to temperature is right around 60 degrees, anything below that and you can expect to start to here subtle complaints about how cold it is or how I need a jacket, or how I can't bear this much longer. It's just one of those things that I can't deal with and it's times like these I regret having lived in the South my whole life because there is nothing I could do about having such thin blood for the cold weather.
The best solution I've come up with so far is to start drinking heavily to keep myself warm, perhaps that 's what I'll do. Might have some debilitating side effects which keep me from, you know, functioning, but it's not like it'd be much different than me in popsicle form anyway.
That brings me to an interesting point, once that might give some real substance to this blog post. Did you know the reason Germans are so famous for beer/they live up the stereotype about beer so well is because they brewed beer in the winter months as a method not to lose carb crops (wheat) during the winter months. I wonder what parts of American culture (if we have a +1000 year long history such as the Germans) would be preserved.
Hopefully not obesity.
Another fun fact, beer brewing in Germany is something that was originally done by women. A pretty interesting revelation since now we see beer brewing (at least in America) as a primarily male dominated profession. Not to mention the plethora of demeaning ascribing of roles to our women. This look familiar to anyone?
How quickly we forget that women did all the work for this wonderful craft to become what it was to the point that men could so conveniently demean them. WOW! Talk about going on a tangent. To be fair to myself, the logical link is there, go ahead, scroll back up, read through everything again and tell me that I could not have logically gotten to the St. Pauli Girl, with her overemphasized chest, beer and Drindl.
Which leads me to my last tidbit for the day. Oktoberfest is this weekend for me. I don't even know if I need to say anything else about that but I will. I have been dreaming about this day for at least seven years, you know, ever since I started really taking an interest in Germany (this probably correlates directly with the first time I watched Beerfest)
I know, I know, this scene and the entirety of Beerfest is about the most ridiculous adaptation of German drinking culture you can find, but can't a guy dream? I can guarantee you that I will have tons of fun being American and drinking beer in München this weekend and that is honestly all that matters at this point. 1. München is perhaps my favorite German city and I haven't spent THAT much time there but every time I've been it's been amazing 2. I'm going with some great people, shout out to Gaurav, Lara, Robi, Jesse, Kaela, Caitlin, Dexter. 3. Beer 4. It's the last weekend before the last week of class, talk about memorable conclusions. 5. Beer
Did I miss anything?
Oh yeah...beer.
Just expect a post raving about it once I get back, until then, do yourself a favor and watch Beerfest, then you'll know exactly where I'm coming from.
For all of you who might not have scrolled up to check the logical, sequential, fluid flow of this blog post, I did you lazy people a favor.
Hating the cold ----> Germany's cold weather ----> Alcohol as a solution to cold weather ----> The etymology of beer culture in Germany ----> Tangent on America ----> Women as icons: brewers of beer ----> sexual objectifications for beer ----> Drindls ----> Oktoberfest ----> Beerfest ----> Beer
Logical. Got it? Good. Goodnight!
*This title is what english would look like if it used German rules of word construction.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Time Flies..
Wow, it's been such a long time since I had anything to write about and now that I've found some sort of muse (Now Playing: Homecoming by J Cole) I thought it was a must do. I am currently typing on my iPhone to spew as much creativity out before it leaves me. Honestly though, I really don't have too much to talk about except how detached I feel from America after only a month in Deutschland. This isn't a critique, because I'm glad to have a different perspective on life and its pretty cool to be able to compartmentalize some of my Americanism.
Aside from a couple hours spent watching the DNC (which was in my birthplace, shout out to the Queen City) and analyzing the different approaches of the national conventions, and of course a good bit of football watching yesterday (the Cam Newton show hit a slight bump in the road but will continue as scheduled next week), I don't think I've been too attuned with the happenings back home. Like why would I look at Huffington Post on a daily basis if I can read German news? I think this is a good thing though, especially since one of the purposes of being here was tapping into a part of myself that isn't a innately attached to America as I usually am.
Jeez, maybe I should stop blogging permanently, I'm getting too deep and existential, all I'm saying is that it might be a good thing to feel less American and feel more...I dunno...human primarily? Who knows, I would be curious to know if others have this same thought process, 'cause I'm sure sometimes being away for a long dose of time exacerbates one's pride for one's home or culture. Well, that was enough one month reflection for the blogging public, now there are a few things that I wanted to share during the nine or so day break I took from scribbling my thoughts down on this electronic tablet so I guess I'll lay them out in some kind of stream of consciousness-like manner.
Groceries Are Cheap:
I've always been proud of my southern upbringing and the wonderful experiences I had growing up in "North Cackalacky" and one of the things I noticed while growing older was that the South is pretty inexpensive compared to other parts of the country. The buck stops there though. Germany is, in my book, The King of Grocery Stores. The first time I went shopping in Köln, I did the whole stock up thing and I whipped out my 100 euro bill expecting to be paying out the butt, and then the cashier politely (or something along the lines of German politeness) says, "25.80" I was so shocked, that when he gave me my change, 74.20, instead of putting it in my pocket, I must have handed it to some homeless guy and made his week...
That would have been a better story...no, what actually happened to that 74.20 is a mystery, probably a surcharge for bagging my own groceries so slowly while people angrily stared at me.
Yeah...that awkward moment when you lose one-hundred smackers your first week in Germany. Whoops...
So if you've been keeping up with my blog thus far, you kinda know my living situations: a whole floor with three separate bedrooms split between however many people my guest mother/host is renting to at that current time. Right now it's me and this one dude from Switzerland, but for one week there was a businessman here; I mean real businessman, with a wife and kids back home, from Holland and we got along well. His last day here, we drove together to language school because he was going to leave right from language school. We had to stop at a gas station to fill up his car and at the end of the pumping cycle, I saw this compilation of numbers that shattered my whole argument for any reason Americans had to complain over gas. €93.25 for 60.20 liters. Yeah try that one on for size. Oh not impressive enough? That's ONE-HUNDRED NINETEEN DOLLARS AND THIRTY-ONE CENTS for FIFTEEN POINT NINE GALLONS OF GAS. Shut the heck up America. Pump your gas at least your wallet doesn't feel 30 pounds lighter after the fact.
I Really Like Köln:
This city has been good to me. I've done great things here, from just hanging out in the city and exploring random areas, going to play basketball along the Rhein river with Germans who seem to really want to be my friends in the near future, sitting on the steps in front of the Dom with some of the greatest friends I could ever ask for and drinking .90 cent beers (wait...1/2 liter of beer is 90 cents? Why don't we figure out a way to run our cars on beer. Whoever figures it out cut me out a slice for the ™) to crying every evening after leaving language school feeling less competent than when I arrived earlier the day, Cologne has grown on me. Granted, I went to Frankfurt for one weekend, saw my uncle and realized how much I loved that city and how Cologne would/could not (speaking prematurely of course) take its place in my heart, but maybe that had something more to do with the amazing food.
Couldn't be more happy to be here than I am now. Granted there are growing pains, you know, like sometimes butchering the language and feeling like a foreigner more often than not, but jeez this first month has been amazing. I'm very excited to move to Münster in about a month to go to school from October until January and intern from February on. It has the second best legal studies behind Bucerius Law School, which is a super exclusive school that has exchanges with the likes of Stanford Law School (!!!!!!), Duke Law, Georgetown, NYU, Michigan, and Georgetown. So I think I'll be in pretty good hands at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.
Not to mention, I simply love Germany.
Okay, I think I'm pretty content with my most random post yet, I'm glad to be back in the blogging form and I hope to write about something a bit more concrete eventually, but this stream of consciousness stuff wasn't too bad either, right?
Til next time!
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| Don't Mess With My First Family |
Aside from a couple hours spent watching the DNC (which was in my birthplace, shout out to the Queen City) and analyzing the different approaches of the national conventions, and of course a good bit of football watching yesterday (the Cam Newton show hit a slight bump in the road but will continue as scheduled next week), I don't think I've been too attuned with the happenings back home. Like why would I look at Huffington Post on a daily basis if I can read German news? I think this is a good thing though, especially since one of the purposes of being here was tapping into a part of myself that isn't a innately attached to America as I usually am.
Jeez, maybe I should stop blogging permanently, I'm getting too deep and existential, all I'm saying is that it might be a good thing to feel less American and feel more...I dunno...human primarily? Who knows, I would be curious to know if others have this same thought process, 'cause I'm sure sometimes being away for a long dose of time exacerbates one's pride for one's home or culture. Well, that was enough one month reflection for the blogging public, now there are a few things that I wanted to share during the nine or so day break I took from scribbling my thoughts down on this electronic tablet so I guess I'll lay them out in some kind of stream of consciousness-like manner.
Groceries Are Cheap:
I've always been proud of my southern upbringing and the wonderful experiences I had growing up in "North Cackalacky" and one of the things I noticed while growing older was that the South is pretty inexpensive compared to other parts of the country. The buck stops there though. Germany is, in my book, The King of Grocery Stores. The first time I went shopping in Köln, I did the whole stock up thing and I whipped out my 100 euro bill expecting to be paying out the butt, and then the cashier politely (or something along the lines of German politeness) says, "25.80" I was so shocked, that when he gave me my change, 74.20, instead of putting it in my pocket, I must have handed it to some homeless guy and made his week...
That would have been a better story...no, what actually happened to that 74.20 is a mystery, probably a surcharge for bagging my own groceries so slowly while people angrily stared at me.
Yeah...that awkward moment when you lose one-hundred smackers your first week in Germany. Whoops...
Gas is Not:
So if you've been keeping up with my blog thus far, you kinda know my living situations: a whole floor with three separate bedrooms split between however many people my guest mother/host is renting to at that current time. Right now it's me and this one dude from Switzerland, but for one week there was a businessman here; I mean real businessman, with a wife and kids back home, from Holland and we got along well. His last day here, we drove together to language school because he was going to leave right from language school. We had to stop at a gas station to fill up his car and at the end of the pumping cycle, I saw this compilation of numbers that shattered my whole argument for any reason Americans had to complain over gas. €93.25 for 60.20 liters. Yeah try that one on for size. Oh not impressive enough? That's ONE-HUNDRED NINETEEN DOLLARS AND THIRTY-ONE CENTS for FIFTEEN POINT NINE GALLONS OF GAS. Shut the heck up America. Pump your gas at least your wallet doesn't feel 30 pounds lighter after the fact. I Really Like Köln:
This city has been good to me. I've done great things here, from just hanging out in the city and exploring random areas, going to play basketball along the Rhein river with Germans who seem to really want to be my friends in the near future, sitting on the steps in front of the Dom with some of the greatest friends I could ever ask for and drinking .90 cent beers (wait...1/2 liter of beer is 90 cents? Why don't we figure out a way to run our cars on beer. Whoever figures it out cut me out a slice for the ™) to crying every evening after leaving language school feeling less competent than when I arrived earlier the day, Cologne has grown on me. Granted, I went to Frankfurt for one weekend, saw my uncle and realized how much I loved that city and how Cologne would/could not (speaking prematurely of course) take its place in my heart, but maybe that had something more to do with the amazing food.
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| Feast in Frankfurt |
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| Nothing Like Grillin' With Family |
Regrets? No Thank You:
Not to mention, I simply love Germany.
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Til next time!
Saturday, September 1, 2012
The Perfect Week
You ever have one of those weeks where absolutely nothing went wrong? Where everyone was nice to you, everything was orderly and you had no longing for anything else to happen? No, you haven't? Yikes...well just bare with me for a few minutes as I explain mine since I think I just had one of them. Plus, you can always live vicariously through me and pretend...I dunno, just trying to help you all sleep at night. Now I know I'm speaking a bit prematurely since the day isn't over yet, but I honestly can't foresee anything going wrong at this point. Let's just hope karma doesn't come to bite me in the pie hole.
So in case one would argue with me about the characterizations of an awesome week, I'm going to identify my own. If you don't like them, then clearly you've never had an awesome week before...or you're just a hater.
The requirements for an awesome week are (in no particular order of importance):
1. Alcohol
2. Quality Time with Friends/Family
3. Deep Conversation
4. Engaging in a Passion
5. New Experiences
6. Relaxation
7. Good Weather
Let me preface this by saying: the requirement of "Alcohol" was probably fulfilled every day of this week. But for the sake of clarity I won't add it to every. single. day. Don't want you judging me or anything.
One more preface. For the purposes of this week, it must start on Monday. No questions, it just has to.
Day One: Relaxation
Definitely a Monday relaxation day. Language school has become rather routine but there's still one thing that I'm not adjusted to and that's the pendulum of a schedule they've got us swinging around on. One week it's MF (1:30-5:00) TWR (8:45-1:00) the next week it's switched. Whatever, such a small thing I'm not going to delve into it. Anyway, this week it was MF afternoons so I spent Monday morning doing things such as, pretending to do work, pretending to think of something to blog about, pretending to wake up early, pretending to work out like I should have and pretending to cook food for the day ahead.Preeetty efficient morning, of course.
This was followed briskly by school, which went by rather quickly and effortlessly. If there's anything really eventful that happened that day, it's all a blur now. I kid you not, I went back home shortly after language school and did some more pretending. Like, pretending to stay awake after school, pretending to care that I had homework, pretending that food is important and pretending that I cared that I was only watching television shows in German.
Maybe I should change the requirement to "pretending" but that would have existential undertones that I'm not getting into right now.
Day Two: New Experiences
Tuesday was one of those travelling days that I adore so much. As part of the program, we had to go to an orientation about intercultural communication or something. Didn't pay a lick of attention but there was an interesting portion where the German presenter said that she would call a person of my complexion a "colored person" not a "black person." We'll get back to that later.
No the important part of the travelling day was that we went to Bonn. I'd been to Bonn once before but not for a long enough time to experience the city as fully as I wanted to. This time we had a wonderful tour guide in the form of Jesse, one of the fellow PPPers who'd been to Bonn the previous summer. Besides hanging out in the city, and exploring the sights over a span of four hours, we also stopped at seven different places to eat. Now there was like nine or ten of us so it's not THAT bad because we all didn't eat at each place..but I could only chuckle to myself that it has to be an American thing to see a food that appeals to you and spontaneously buy it.
Gotta love the red, white and blue.
Day Three: Alcohol/Quality Time/Deep Conversation/Passion
Maybe the best day of the week, but I'm not sure, it's got plenty of challengers coming after it. It started bright and early at 2:30 a.m. when my best of friends so conveniently scheduled our Fantasy Football Draft (thanks guys again for that). But of course since I'm in love with football and everything competitive I couldn't leave the drafting thing undone. Didn't matter that I had class at 8:45 the next day, I was drafting Cam Newton (tune in to the Cam Newton Show very shortly) no matter the cost.
I suppose the "deep conversation" aspect could come into play during the draft part, after all, who doesn't have a little bit of fun chatting it up while drafting Cam, AP, Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin, and others?
Then came the really cool part after school and catching a quick snooze (since I'd been dozing off during class) we met up at my PPPler home girl Lara's guest mother's house for an awesome dinner prepared by yours truly and said home girl. Cooking is a love of mine so it's always nice to just have a chance to get fancy in the kitchen. With the entertainment and groceries provided by Gaurav the amazing conversation starter and Michelle the meal saver it was pretty amazing. Chicken Fajitas, Spanish Style Rice, Veggies and Wine galore. I'm not sure it could get any better.
More on "deep conversations" though. Remember that silly comment that lady said in Day Two? Well we had a conversation with a Lara's host lady and she seemed to agree that the "politically correct" term would be "farbige/colored" not "schwarz/black" in Germany and I thought it was very surprising to hear that but I suppose it explained a bit. Like how in the world you could get away with saying "colored" in Germany.
Certainly something I'll have to delve into deeper during my trip.
Day Four:
We went back to Bonn this day with language school to check out the "Haus der Geschichte" a museum chronicling Germany's history from WWII on. I have nothing negative to say about the museum, it was actually pretty awesome. But for this, I'd say pictures are worth more than words.
Day Five: Family
Another day of pretending to be doing something throughout the day and then class in the afternoon. Then the fun stuff, a train ride that landed me smack dab in Frankfurt am Main, perhaps my favorite part of Germany, to come visit family for a birthday party. My uncle, aunt and her brother stayed up for hours discussing the gentle treading that Germans do when they're discussing race and it was really great to be back at the house I spent over a month at last summer.
Day Six: Alcohol/Friends/Family/Conversation/Passions/Experiences/Relaxation/Good Weather
That leads us to today, I've been scrambling around preparing for the party but I've got a moment's respite to finish this up. Perhaps the latter part I didn't do as much justice as I should have but whatever, hopefully I'll have something great to report after partying it up German style with the family. Can't say I would have it any other way. Hopefully it'll be the perfect conclusion to the self-titled perfect week.
Be careful though, don't think you can follow these steps exactly and have a perfect week. These things come with practice. Gotta have plenty of bad weeks before you can even imagine the perfect one.
So in case one would argue with me about the characterizations of an awesome week, I'm going to identify my own. If you don't like them, then clearly you've never had an awesome week before...or you're just a hater.
The requirements for an awesome week are (in no particular order of importance):
1. Alcohol
2. Quality Time with Friends/Family
3. Deep Conversation
4. Engaging in a Passion
5. New Experiences
6. Relaxation
7. Good Weather
Let me preface this by saying: the requirement of "Alcohol" was probably fulfilled every day of this week. But for the sake of clarity I won't add it to every. single. day. Don't want you judging me or anything.
One more preface. For the purposes of this week, it must start on Monday. No questions, it just has to.
Day One: Relaxation
Definitely a Monday relaxation day. Language school has become rather routine but there's still one thing that I'm not adjusted to and that's the pendulum of a schedule they've got us swinging around on. One week it's MF (1:30-5:00) TWR (8:45-1:00) the next week it's switched. Whatever, such a small thing I'm not going to delve into it. Anyway, this week it was MF afternoons so I spent Monday morning doing things such as, pretending to do work, pretending to think of something to blog about, pretending to wake up early, pretending to work out like I should have and pretending to cook food for the day ahead.Preeetty efficient morning, of course.
This was followed briskly by school, which went by rather quickly and effortlessly. If there's anything really eventful that happened that day, it's all a blur now. I kid you not, I went back home shortly after language school and did some more pretending. Like, pretending to stay awake after school, pretending to care that I had homework, pretending that food is important and pretending that I cared that I was only watching television shows in German.
Maybe I should change the requirement to "pretending" but that would have existential undertones that I'm not getting into right now.
Day Two: New Experiences
Tuesday was one of those travelling days that I adore so much. As part of the program, we had to go to an orientation about intercultural communication or something. Didn't pay a lick of attention but there was an interesting portion where the German presenter said that she would call a person of my complexion a "colored person" not a "black person." We'll get back to that later.
No the important part of the travelling day was that we went to Bonn. I'd been to Bonn once before but not for a long enough time to experience the city as fully as I wanted to. This time we had a wonderful tour guide in the form of Jesse, one of the fellow PPPers who'd been to Bonn the previous summer. Besides hanging out in the city, and exploring the sights over a span of four hours, we also stopped at seven different places to eat. Now there was like nine or ten of us so it's not THAT bad because we all didn't eat at each place..but I could only chuckle to myself that it has to be an American thing to see a food that appeals to you and spontaneously buy it.
Gotta love the red, white and blue.
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| Beethoven Immortalized |
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| Beethoven's House |
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| Uni Bonn |
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| Thought it was worth a shot. |
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| Shopping Strip Where We Found Droves of Food |
Day Three: Alcohol/Quality Time/Deep Conversation/Passion
Maybe the best day of the week, but I'm not sure, it's got plenty of challengers coming after it. It started bright and early at 2:30 a.m. when my best of friends so conveniently scheduled our Fantasy Football Draft (thanks guys again for that). But of course since I'm in love with football and everything competitive I couldn't leave the drafting thing undone. Didn't matter that I had class at 8:45 the next day, I was drafting Cam Newton (tune in to the Cam Newton Show very shortly) no matter the cost.
I suppose the "deep conversation" aspect could come into play during the draft part, after all, who doesn't have a little bit of fun chatting it up while drafting Cam, AP, Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin, and others?
Then came the really cool part after school and catching a quick snooze (since I'd been dozing off during class) we met up at my PPPler home girl Lara's guest mother's house for an awesome dinner prepared by yours truly and said home girl. Cooking is a love of mine so it's always nice to just have a chance to get fancy in the kitchen. With the entertainment and groceries provided by Gaurav the amazing conversation starter and Michelle the meal saver it was pretty amazing. Chicken Fajitas, Spanish Style Rice, Veggies and Wine galore. I'm not sure it could get any better.
More on "deep conversations" though. Remember that silly comment that lady said in Day Two? Well we had a conversation with a Lara's host lady and she seemed to agree that the "politically correct" term would be "farbige/colored" not "schwarz/black" in Germany and I thought it was very surprising to hear that but I suppose it explained a bit. Like how in the world you could get away with saying "colored" in Germany.
Certainly something I'll have to delve into deeper during my trip.
Day Four:
We went back to Bonn this day with language school to check out the "Haus der Geschichte" a museum chronicling Germany's history from WWII on. I have nothing negative to say about the museum, it was actually pretty awesome. But for this, I'd say pictures are worth more than words.
Another day of pretending to be doing something throughout the day and then class in the afternoon. Then the fun stuff, a train ride that landed me smack dab in Frankfurt am Main, perhaps my favorite part of Germany, to come visit family for a birthday party. My uncle, aunt and her brother stayed up for hours discussing the gentle treading that Germans do when they're discussing race and it was really great to be back at the house I spent over a month at last summer.
Day Six: Alcohol/Friends/Family/Conversation/Passions/Experiences/Relaxation/Good Weather
That leads us to today, I've been scrambling around preparing for the party but I've got a moment's respite to finish this up. Perhaps the latter part I didn't do as much justice as I should have but whatever, hopefully I'll have something great to report after partying it up German style with the family. Can't say I would have it any other way. Hopefully it'll be the perfect conclusion to the self-titled perfect week.
Be careful though, don't think you can follow these steps exactly and have a perfect week. These things come with practice. Gotta have plenty of bad weeks before you can even imagine the perfect one.
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