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.

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. 

Feast in Frankfurt

Nothing Like Grillin' With Family

Regrets? No Thank You:

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.

My Future University!!! 

 

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!