Guten Tag

Greetings once again from Deutschland. Guess whether is the sun is shining today! If you guessed no, you're 100% correct. I spoke with a man from England during the break from my class today, and even he said the weather here is depressing, and England isn't known for great weather. I don't know why, but somehow I believe the sun will eventually shine here again. I'm fully prepared to admit I'm wrong, though.

There's not a ton going on here, really. I had my first full commute to school on my own today - bike to the bus stop, bus to the city, walk to school, walk back to the bus stop, bus back to Kasewinkel, bike back to the house. It made me feel a bit like a local, although there are many reminders that I'm not.

I walk past the cathedral on my way back to the bus stop, and stopped in on Friday to light a candle for Mom. Here are a couple pics:

It's a nice church, and one of over 70 in Muenster.

Michelle Obama is still getting press here. The Sunday newspaper had a full-page article about her yesterday, with the headline, in English, "Isn't She Lovely?" The sub-headline, or whatever it's called, said something about how she's educated, popular, and has great upper arms. That's oddly not the first article I've seen about her arms. I guess we haven't come to expect much in that regard from our First Ladies, but certainly her political and social contributions to the country are more important than her biceps.

I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in English the other day with Martin. Not a bad movie at all. Funny, though, Martin asked after it was over whether that was Brad Pitt's real voice. Something I hadn't thought about before, but all the American movies and tv shows here are dubbed, so no one knows what the real actors sound like.

Umm....I don't have much else. I hear it's supposed to be 60 there today?? Good for you guys! Enjoy it!

Until next time....

Hola! Bonjour! Привет!

Wow, I can truly say I am learning more of the world here. The coolest thing about my class - I'm now in the second level - is all the people! Most of the people from my first class also enrolled in the second, and there are four new students: one from Russia, one from Ukraine, one from Argentina, and another person from Nepal. It's so great.

I'm sure you've noticed, whether in college or just around town, there tend to be two groups of people - Americans, and everyone else. I remember when I was at St. Thomas, all the international students completely stuck together, and kind of had their own family. Now I understand how that feels! I am in that group now, and am thankful for the opportunity. Really, it's so cool. We are all away from home and are dealing with the stress that involves, we are unfamiliar with the language, we are getting used to a new culture, and we can do it together.

I've befriended an Iraqi woman - she is 26 - and it's amazing how friendly she is toward me. I was a bit apprehensive, because she has every right to be wary of an American, but when it comes down to it, we're just two people, from very different worlds, who are sharing common experiences. I said, rather naively, the other day that if more actual citizens of the world could interact - not as representatives of their governments - the world might face a little less turmoil. Idealistic, I know, but the experience of getting to know the people, and not the stereotypes has been very cool for me.

Inma, my new friend from Spain, invited Martin and me over for dinner on Friday night. She prepared a beautiful assortment of tapas:

Starting from the back: chopped oranges with olive oil and salt; fresh olives, made by her father from his own olive grove in Spain! How cool is that? Pan fried potatoes with a little salt; chorizo sausage; an onion/egg tart that Inma calls an omelet; Serrano ham; and tomatoes with a bit of cheese and oregano, heated in the oven until the cheese melts. It was all so tasty! Inma's name, by the way, is short for Inmaculada, which sounds so beautiful when she says it.

Then today after school, Estelle, from France, invited Inma and me over for lunch, along with Alina, from Ukraine. Alina is 28 and has her PhD in......astrophysics. Yes, astrophysics. I should apologize to Mom and Dad now for not making more of my 20s. Or 30s, for that matter. :)

Alina explained to me today how she has been working to see if she can detect parts of stars that are cooler in temperature than the rest of the star. She uses telescopes and spectrometers and analyzes light. I kind of wanted to ask why it matters if one part of a star is cooler than the rest of the star, particularly since she said that the stars she just started studying may in fact no longer exist since they could be billions of light years away, but before I could figure out a polite way to ask that, she said it has something to do with the evolution of the sun. And she also added that the work she is doing now won't benefit anyone now living, but might be of some use in several hundred years. Yep.

Anyway, Estelle cooked a fantastic quiche today, accompanied by a tasty salad. The quiche had ham - more bacon, really - and cheese, along with onions, something I couldn't recognize - maybe celery? - and walnuts. I wouldn't have thought walnuts would go well in a quiche, but she's French and she knows what she is doing! It was super tasty. I want to have a group of people out to Kasewinkel for dinner sometime, but I don't really know what to cook that's typically American. Hotdish is out of the question. I was thinking ribs with potatoes and cole slaw? Any other ideas? I don't even know if I can get ribs here.

Anyway, I'm blathering. I think I have one or two more photos to share, though.

Here's something I was lucky to catch on "film":

Blue sky! The sun was out for about three or four hours here the other day, which was a short but nice respite from the clouds that have been hanging overhead for about the last month. It has to stop raining at some point, right?

Okay, I just looked, and I don't really have any other interesting photos. I will do my best to get out and take some more before too long.

Hope the sun is shining on you wherever you are.

November all over again

Greetings once again from gray and damp Deutschland. The sun has not shone here for weeks, and it's starting to get on my nerves just a little bit. The air is thick and humid, and my hair has actually started taking a bit of curl. A couple days ago on the radio the weather guy said we're supposed to have showers for the next few days, and in between the showers, we'll have a little rain. At least they try to have a sense of humor about it.

Ready for a little more fun with German? Okay, here goes...

Many of the words in German are so similar to English that one can figure them out with no problem (e.g. Foto, plus, minus, skandal, slogan, etc...), but there are some funny exceptions. "Gift" in German, for example, means "poison," and "sinnvoll", pronounced like our "sinful", means "sensible," or "meaningful."

I got to see two little baby goats being bottle fed yesterday, which was pretty dang sweet. Billy goats on the other hand...not really so sweet.

I have a big test in my class today. Wish me luck!

My best to you all.

Karneval!

Karneval officially ended here on Tuesday, and while there were festivities for about five days, I only witnessed one day. Monday was "Rosen Montag," and there is a huge parade through the city every year on that day. I had the good fortune of being able to watch it from the apartment of one of Martin's friends, and thus didn't have to deal with the crowds on the street.

The floats in the parade tend to be political in nature, and many this year had to do with the financial crisis. Other themes included various bicycling-related causes, local youth clubs, and did you ever hear about Petra the black swan? She made an appearance, too. There were also many Dutch floats which were probably the coolest in the parade. They were not generally political, but must have required hundreds of hours to complete.

Here are more pictures than I'm sure you'd like to see:

This one says "Muenster, the Land of Smiles!" You have no idea how ironic that is...


Take this little girl, for example. Doesn't she look happy?


Or this guy?

I guess I wouldn't be happy, either, if I was wearing that.

Here's one of the Dutch ones:


And another...


And these guys below look festive, don't they? Their float is to let people know about an alternative to the current German federal system....they want Kaiser Wilhelm back (the German Emperor from 1871 - 1888). If that's not a good cause, I don't know what is!

As you can see, it looks like they're having a great time...


Here is another Dutch one:


These guys are German, and I guess were responsible for reducing traffic accidents between cars and bicycles in Muenster's main roundabout:

This is pretty sweet...


An anti-doping float:


This one is also cycling-related, although I'm not quite sure what the point is. It appears to be about racing, but then there's that biker on the top pulling a cow? Maybe one of you knows....


Here's one from the financial crisis. Those heads in the basket are of German financial leaders:

Cheery, no? And great for kids, too...

Here's another bike one (I've mentioned it's a big cycling city, right?):

Hm, tough call. I was going to say my favorite thing about this float is that happy lady on the right, but I just now noticed the lovely gal in the center with, possibly, a bratwurst?


Are you getting bored yet? Just a few more, I promise...

Here's another Dutch one:


And another:


God drinking beer and dancing with devils....


And finally, the Karneval Prince:

He's the one in the white. And, look - a smile!

Really, those of you who are still reading are pretty lucky! The parade lasted for about three and a half hours, and even though this is a long post, you've probably only had to spend about three and a half minutes here!

It was a fun day. Hope you're all having a little bit of fun in your day, too!

Until next time....

German Order

Germany is completely driven by order. They're known for efficiency, as you likely know, but more than that, there's a sense here that everything must be done properly. NO ONE, for example, crosses the street on red, even if there's not a car in sight. There's even a state office here for order and discipline. Everything has it's place, and nothing is out of order.

Well, yesterday I learned that Germany also has a Ministry of German Behavior. Their most recent mandates are 1) that people are not supposed to say "entschuldigung", i.e. "excuse me", after sneezing, because sneezing cannot be controlled, and one should not ask to be excused for something one cannot control, and 2) people are not supposed to say "gesundheit" after someone sneezes, as it reinforces the pity the sneezer might feel for having sneezed. I'm completely serious.

Also, Germany has a new Finance Minister. Here's his name: Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Wilhelm Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

Hope you're all doing wonderfully well. I'm having a traditional Spanish meal tonight at the house of one of my classmates. I'll be sure to update you !

Greetings, Once Again!

Wow, over a week since I've posted here. One might think I actually have something to do during the days now!

My class is still going well, if a bit slowly. I'm still amazed by how international the group is - it's like a miniature world in the classroom. Since I posted last week, four more people have joined the class - one from Bangladesh, one from Sri Lanka, one from Paraguay, and one from Vietnam. It's so fun to be in the middle of so many different cultures! And I am getting to know a few of them, too. As I mentioned last week, two of the women are from France, and I'm surprisingly able to remember enough of the French I learned at St. Thomas to communicate with them. Not perfectly, of course, but good enough. One of the women invited a few of us over to her house tomorrow after class for homemade quiche! I'm pretty excited about that. Also, last week a few of us had tea at the woman from South Korea's apartment. We've all exchanged phone numbers and email addresses, so I'm sure we'll continue to be in touch, and hopefully after the course ends, too.

The weather here has been really strange lately. It was really nice last Friday - maybe in the 50s, - but then it got cold again and has been snowing off and on yesterday and today. Aengus and I timed our walk well yesterday, but got stuck in a super windy snowfall today. I guess in a typical winter, Muenster gets about 10 minutes of snow, and this year I would say there have already been at least 7 or 8 snowfalls. It's kind of nice for a native Minnesotan like me.

I haven't mentioned before what brilliant recyclers the Germans are. They separate waste into four categories - bottles, bio, which is for anything organic, true trash, and another one that holds most of what I would think of as true trash. It's called the "yellow bag", and it's for any kind of packaging, wrapping, plastic stuff, cans, etc. And, to give you an idea of how much they actually do recycle, the yellow bag gets picked up every week, and the true trash only every other week. It's pretty cool, really.

Oh, and the North Sea! Martin had been asking me for weeks - months, probably - if I wanted to check it out. I've heard from several Germans how nice it is, particularly the Dutch coast, so I conceded and agreed to bring Aengus and go. We went to Egmond aan Zee, and although it was super windy and quite cold, it was really beautiful. We took a 10K walk up to the next town, and Aengus loved running on the beach and through the sand dunes. Here are a few pics:

The sand dunes:


On the way back, we took a driving tour through Amsterdam. It was awesome to see the sights there again. Upon arriving in the city, though, one of the first sights we saw was this - a Dodge pickup with confederate flag stickers:

I'm pretty sure I was in Amsterdam and not Mississippi, though.

Here are a few more photos, but they're really not that great since we didn't get out of the car. Next time I'll go without Aengus.


I don't see too many of these in Muenster, but versions of it appear all over the Netherlands:

Pretty sweet way to get yourself and your child around town!

I guess that's about it for now, but I hope to have more soon. Take good care, and be well!

Until next time...

Back to School

So, my German course started today. Have you ever had that dream where you're supposed to start a class somewhere, but you can't find the room it is in, or somehow you go to the wrong class? I'm happy to say that not only did I make it to the correct classroom this morning, but I didn't even have that dream last night. I could definitely feel my nerves this morning though - how silly to be nervous about it.

I was surprised to learn that the class is being taught entirely in German, but today, at least, I was able to understand everything. We did super basic stuff today, though, and the teacher seems pretty good about making sure we all understand everything before she moves on to something else.

It's a super international class. There are 13 students - two each from France and Brazil, and one each from Poland, Italy, Algeria, Iraq, the Philippines, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden. And me.

I also learned this morning about another German custom: die Schultuete. Apparently it's customary to give first-graders a "school cone" on their first day of class. Below is the one I received this morning from Martin:


I kind of felt like a first-grader today, especially as I was reciting the German alphabet and counting from one to ten with the rest of the class, so even though I'm 33, I guess the schultuete was pretty fitting for me.

Here's my school:


It's right in the city and only about a five minute walk from John's apartment. I like learning, and so far I like this class, but having a pretty building to go to somehow makes it a little bit nicer.

In other news, I made it up to the North Sea coast in the Netherlands over the weekend. It was cold and windy, but beautiful. I'll try to get pics up within the next day or two.

Hope you're well! Take care!