A lot of things

So, i've been doing a lot here in Germany. I went to Frankfurt, stuttgart, an American Football game, and Oktoberfest within the last two weeks. They were a ton of fun, but also these past two weeks, I've done a lot of thinking about the German culture and the American culture.

Things in Germany are much different than things in America, but at the same time, I can see similarities. For example: The germans and the Austrians really don't like the Turkish. There is a huge Turkish population that lives in Germany, and many of them don't speak German (I've been told). Some of my friends who have been here previously with host families have told me that people aren't even subtle about their racism against the Turkish... that, but the german's will eat their food (Döner Kebap=delicious wonder)

I love Germany and the germans and all, but that part about the culture really bugs me. I guess it also bugs me in America when we do the same to the Mexicans living in the US. The reason why it upsets me more here is because the germans just "celebrated" 70 years since the holocaust... which, in my opinion, may be a little more serious than slavery.

I do love the trains. They are expensive, unless you know how to work the system, which i have learned

I'm also learning a lot about myself. I'm finding out that even though I want a new start at life a lot of times, I don't always need one. I miss people back home; even people I thought I wouldn't miss too. I'm becoming more independent too. And confident. I'm learning that I can live on my own, cook on my own, and do things by myself.

Through German culture, I'm learning more about why I or Americans do things. For example: conversation ediquite. The Germans are always polite when talking to other people they don't know, or even people they do know but want to show respect. If you know any German language, you'll know what I'm talking about. They have a special form for the word "you" that is used in Respect towards people. It's called 'the formal you' and as an American, it's a little hard to get used to calling some people "du" (informal) but most people "Sie" (formal). The even more difficult part is that the formal conjugates the verbs completely different. Haha, so for beginners, it's a little difficult.

Anyway, so I went to Frankfurt and explore the city. Also went to Stuttgart that weekend. Here are pictures:


1) We spent a whole lot of time on the Train
2) Me and a girl from Spain in Stuttgart
3) Fauchwerhäuser
4) Thinking about nothing... like normal

Ok, and then the next weekend we staying in Schwaebisch Hall and actually went to an American Football game. The teams were competing for the German Bowl (Quadratic-Finals.. or something like that). Schwaebisch Hall Unicorns lost in the last 4 seconds to a Field Goal. But the fans there were absolutely crazy! I kid you not:


Then this past weekend, we went to Oktoberfest in Munich. That, was fun. It was the opening day, and lots of people were drunk: old people, young people, parents with kids (where the kids usually weren't drunk), couples, and many foreigners. It was crazy busy and super hard to find a seat. Imagine this: State fair (x2) with lots of roller-coasters and 10 or 20 beer tents. All in one area. It was absolutely crazy:



1) The giant Ferris Wheel
2) Me and a Japanese Girl in my class, who's name is Eri
3) not my picture, but a lot of beer Masse
4) Melissa and I making a "Prost" (toasting)

So, needless to say, it was a lot of fun. The bus ride home, however, was not fun for many very drunk people. Thank god I was sober by that point because the trip would have not treated me well either.

Anyway, leave comments! I never get any! :D Plus, my address is in the previous post. SEND ME MAIL! :D

Cologne

CLICK ON PICTURES TO SEE THEM BIGGER

So, this weekend was Cologne. We slept a good amount the night before we left (my friend David and I) and got into cologne around 13:00 (1:00 afternoon, incase you're bad with military time).

We walked around a lot. When I say a lot, i mean that my legs were so so so so so tired from walking around so much.

Then we went to the Cologne Dome. It was huge and super beautiful. Right next to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station).

After that, David showed me a huge Fussgaengerzone (walking steet) which was an enourmous shopping zone. When i say enourmous, i mean like, so many people and so so so much shopping to be done. I had no money, so it wasn't that entertaining. We walked through and saw a lot of stores

We walked around the town some more and went over the main train bridge. This bridge was cool because there was some sort of tradition where people who are married or something each put a lock up with their marriage date on it. I need to look it up more, but there were hundreds, if not thousands, of locks with names and dates on them. It was cool.


We checked out the next morning and did luggage things and started our day on the town. Our train didn't leave until 4 in the morning the next night, so we tried to occupy our time efficiently to see things and also to waste some time until the train got there

We went to these cool Botanical Gardens, which were pretty big. We spent a lot of time reading about the history of the earth and whatnot, and I took plenty of pictures of plants and squirrells and things. It was pretty cool, but we took so long that we didn't see the whole park.

After lunch, we went to this jail where they imprisioned jews and prisoners of war. It was a memorial exhibit (with the real jail cells that had origional handwriting on the walls from the inmates and stuff) and a museum upstiars that wasn't the best. The jail stuff was really errie. It was creepy to know they had imprisoned and tourtchured so many people in these areas and you could still see the written pleas for help, the memoirs, the jokes, and the love letters on the walls. They were in so many different languages, but there were displays that translated them. It was a good learning experience, but very eerie at the same time.

We went to a movie that night to pass the time. It was called "Maria, ihm schmecht's nicht" (Maria, it doesn't taste goot to him... literal translation) It was a german movie about this german who is getting married to a half italian, and he goes and meets her italian relivies. It was so funny because they over did all the cultural differences between germany and italy people.

Then, we went to the college town bar place and found somewhere to sit down and have a drink and some nachos to pass the time. We had 5 hours before our train left, so we dilly dallied and whatnot It took us a while to find a place, but we weren't in a rush. At the bar, we bought Nachos for 2,30 €, which seemed like a great deal, but we soon found out that they simply opened a durito's bag and poured them on a plate (we ordered a side of Guachamole...). The buses stopped running very regularly, so about 1:15, we saw our chance to catch one back to the inner city. We paid, finished everything quickly and got out of there

However, we didn't realize until we were in the inner part of the city, that we left our bags in the bar. Oh great. we freaked out and had to get on another train to get to the bar. This train happened to go 6 blocks away from the bar. We had to almost runto get to the bar incase it closed before we got there. We weren't sure if it closed at 2, but we wanted to make sure we got there before incase it did. GAH, that was tough because David is such a fast walker, and I'm not as much. They found our bags and stored them for us until we arrived. They were nice, and we thanked them, but we had to wait 15 minutes for the next street car.

We got back, grabbed Döner Kebap, and walked along the river to the station, where we wandered around with super tired legs, looking for a cheap bathroom.



We got on the train, and I totally passed out. That was the best that I ever slept in a moving vehicle. Switched trains in Frankfurt, where I said goodbye to david, and went to struttgart, where I waited a couple hours, and came hom

Yeah, now we start the second month of the Goethe Institut. Oh joy. Classes start tomorrow...

Where are the pictures?

So, it's been a while since I've updated. What has happened the past week and a half? I went to Rotenburg for a day with Goethe. It's this very historical city that was accidentally bombed in WWII, but has been totally rebuilt. Pretty much slept the rest of the weekend because I was tired.

This past week, I stayed up many nights, hanging out with people I probably would never see after this weekend. One month of the Goethe Institut is finished, and next week will bring new people with nex experiences to come. I loved the people I met this past month, and hopefully I'll love the people next month too.

So, now I'm in a small town outsice Cologne. We got here today, and we leave tomorrow to spend 2 days in Cologne. The family we are staying with is super nice, and I enjoyed sitting around talking with the parents and their 4 sons tonight. Here, they speak a much easier dialekt than in Schwaebisch Hall. I like it and it is much easier to understand. It's only me and my friend David here.

Today, we went to the hospital and took pictures of David "working." He forgot to take pictures while he was here, so we had to pretend to take some. It was fun, but also interesting. Healthcare in Germany is totally different. I don't know how to describe it. The hostpital was much older than ones i've seen, and people here don't have the same health codes as in america. The doctors were wearing like, clogs and stuff, and I was able to walk around almost freely into any room. Patients privacy wasn't too much of an issue either. I don't know, it just was very different than in America.

Anyway, I'm trying to think of what I've done since my last post. I finished by B 1.1 Class. Hopefully next month I'll be in a very challenging classroom. OH! Mueler (the store) I think lost my film, so I'll have to deal with that this upcoming week. :( I bought a new digital camera, but it isn't the best. I'm trying it out this weekend to see how the pictures turn out. They might be crappy, but eh, alright.

Ok, now it's time for bed. This weekend is sortof a sleep recovery weekend/tour Cologne weekend. Tomorrow we are in a Youth Hostle, and then saturday night, we are sleeping on the train (we're taking the train back to Frankfurt, where david is flying back home). Then I'm traveling to Struttgart and possibly visiting Ryan for a day or two, and then going back to Schwaebisch hall to do this past month all over again.

Hooray

As soon as I get pictures, I swear I'll post them

PS, we woke up today at 4 am, and we rode the train for something like, 9 hours. OMG, i was so tired when I arrived this afternoon