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!

More Random Tidbits

Hi there. I'm kind of having a hard time thinking of interesting things to post here, so I hope you don't mind if I share a few more random bits that don't at all relate to one another, but that I find a bit interesting.

For one thing, Germany seems all but obsessed with Michelle Obama. She has generated such a buzz here - almost more than the president, himself. The day after the inauguration, the front page headline of one of the newspapers here mentioned nothing of Barack, but did ask "Wie sexy ist die neue First Lady?", and had a full page photo of her in her white dress dancing with Barack. I have seen at least four articles solely about her, including one in Der Spiegel, and it seems as though the Germans are mesmerized by her. She does seem extremely likable, and I, for one, think she looked damn sexy on inauguration day. How refreshing to have a president and first lady who actually seem like real people.

Moving on....if you happen to have been born after, say, 1960, you might want to see if you can track down a copy of "Herr Lehmann." It's a movie, based on a book by the same name, and is a good snapshot of German culture during the late 1980s. The themes are universal - love, loss, finding one's self - and are presented in a simultaneously comedic and melancholic way. I've seen it twice now, with English subtitles, and really enjoy it.

Germany is not known for producing a ton of great music (Kraftwerk, anyone?), but also worth checking out is a band called Seeed (yes, with three e's). They are, I think, a 17 member band from 9 countries, and incorporate Reggae, Latin beats, hip-hop, and some African rhythms. It's fun. Also really good is the solo project from one of the lead singers, Peter Fox.

So, I hope it's not too evident, but my English is taking a nose dive here. Concentrating on German has really handicapped my English skills. I actually said "drived" here the other day, in the context of "Mark drived us here." Really.

Oh, and speaking of language, if you happen to be near a native German speaker, ask him or her to try saying the word "months." I think it is possibly the most difficult word for Germans to pronounce, and I must admit, I get a little bit of pleasure out of knowing there is at least one word I can say better than the people who master "maulwurf", "nachrichten", and "umstrukturierungsprozess" (no idea what that last one means, but it is a word taken straight out of the newspaper).

Perhaps the best example of the difficulty of German words, though, is the following one, which also happens to be their longest:

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft.

I dare you to try saying that. Also notice the three f's in a row there. Nothing says German efficiency like an 80 letter word with three f's in a row. The word translates to: association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services. Why say that with multiple words when one will do?

Okay, I think that's enough for me for today. I will try to come up with something good for next time. Until then, be well.

Deutschland

Greetings from Deutschland. There's not a whole lot new here these days. I think it's safe to say, and a bit sad, that I am getting used to being in this strange land. There are still a few things that seem odd, though, like for example, while napkins are offered most of the time during meals, they are often not used, and almost never put in the laps of Germans. Also, they tend not to put leftovers in the fridge, but rather leave them out overnight. People seem to keep living, though, so I guess it's not the end of the world.

I registered for a German language course here. It starts next week at the Volkshochschule, which is basically like a community college. Three and a half hours a day, Monday through Friday, for four weeks. My German is coming along nicely as it is, relatively speaking - I can go about my daily business in German without too much trouble - but it will be excellent to have the formal education. I have almost no knowledge of how grammar works here, so that alone will be a benefit of the class. In addition, there are some verbs that get split, and the second half goes at the first part of the sentence, and the first part goes at the end of the sentence, sometimes with several clauses in between. For example, the word for "to call" someone is "anrufen", but to say "Call me tomorrow at three o'clock when I am in Paris", you would say "Ruf mich Morgen um drei Uhr wenn ich in Paris bin an." Not really an easy language, and I have a lot to learn. And, unfortunately, I won't be in Paris at three o'clock tomorrow.

I will have to start real life again before too long, and actually have some employment prospects, but for at least this week I am still able to live the vacation lifestyle, including taking my sweet dog on long walks through the countryside. Here are a few pics from the last few days:





And, just when I think it doesn't really look any different from Wisconsin, I see this:


Yes, that's a nun walking down the street. In the States it was kind of easy to forget they exist - really, when was the last time you saw a nun? - but they are all over the place here.

I'm gearing up to prepare spaghetti and homemade sauce for dinner tonight. John has been here almost all day, which has been a treat.

Hope you all have a lovely evening.

Simply...

Wooooo Hoooooooo! It's about time.