Let's Take A Look

How German and American Schools are the Same:

1. The teachers drink Kaffee like it is liquid oxygen
2. No one reads the announcements on the bulletin boards
3. Math books use (often the exact same) useless facts in order to teach new methods using "real world" examples
4. Language books teach by telling stories about children the same age as students in whichever country so that students can "relate" to their studies
5. Everyone's favorite period is lunch

How German and American Schools are Different:

1. When Americans graduate they celebrate by going to the local YMCA. When Germans graduate they celebrate by going to Italy.
2. In Germany you have a class, a class teacher and a classroom like you did in American elementary school all the way through the 13th grade
3. If your teacher in Germany is sick there is no substitute, and thus no class
4. There is a sink in every classroom
   
5. No one checks to see if you did your homework
   

No Koelsch For You!

Have I ever mentioned how much I adore German food? And when I ask that rhetorical question what I really mean is, have I ever gone into deep and embarrassing detail about how much I adore German food? Because if I haven't then I've absolutely taken all the deliciousness this land has to offer completely for granted. Since I've been here I've enjoyed some old favorites--Sekt, Broetchen, Nutella, chocolate, Apfelkuchen--and gotten to love some new things too, like Altbier, Zwiebelkuchen and Leberkaese. In my time away from here I've become something of a foodie, and so it is nice to reclaim all of these favorites with a new eye as to how they are made. I'm very excited to learn more how to make salad dressings, cakes and other such tasties while I'm here and then to take that knowledge back home.
I have been keeping quite busy here, drinking a lot of coffee and going a lot of places. Eva has been helping me get to know Dusseldorf before I actually move there, and now that I've seen so much of it with her I'm super excited to explore it on my own. Last night I got to experience a lot of the night life in the Aldstadt and I've decided that I absolutely HAVE to make some friends my age around here just so I can get the whole package. I learned that if you order an Altbier you'll get it in about three seconds but if you order a juice it'll take ten minutes. Tables are meant to be shared; if you hog a table all to yourself or tell people they can't join you and your friend it's incredibly rude and unfair to those who also want to enjoy the bar you're in. Old 80's music is super popular around here for the late night. And, finally, I've learned that if you order a Koelsch in Dusseldorf you will get no more service. Koelsch is the standard beer of Cologne while Altbier is the standard in Dusseldorf. The two cities have something of a rivalry which makes ordering one specialty in the wrong city somewhat dangerous if you want a second drink. Neuss, where Eva lives and I've been staying, has people that each identify with a different city, depending on the person, because it's pretty equidistant to both. The bus card I have doesn't go all the way to Cologne but it comes close enough that I can probably get there fairly cheap. I went to Cologne a lot more the last time I was in Germany (the cathedral there is breathtakingly beautiful) so I'm excited to see it again, even if I am going to be calling Dusseldorf my home.
Yesterday I went with Gisla and Eva to a fleamarket here in Neuss that I have a feeling I'll be frequenting once I get settled in. It had a fantastic selection of books that I will be able to purchase on the cheap as well as the classic hats that I have been searching for! (For those of you who don't know, I have a penchant for strange clothes and have been itching to start a collection of classic ladies hats that I can wear like some strange ghost from the 1920's.) I didn't buy anything this time because I don't have any money yet but it was comforting how the market could have been picked up from Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan and dropped in the middle of Neuss. Flea markets are something I am very comfortable in and where I tend to score some major deals, and it looked like it would be possible to keep on doing the same even though I am so far from home.
After the flea market we went to another part of Neuss where a festival of some sort was going on. There always seems to be some festival somewhere in Germany and I love it. We looked in all the clothing shops and such; there is a TJMaxx here, which I never expected, except that it's called TKMaxx for some reason I don't understand. It has the same set up and most of the advertisements for it are mostly in English, and the prices are still low. More hats!!! I'm obsessed.
One of the most fun things about the festival was the live music. Four men in dark suits both walked around and set up in a few places to play classic music on their banjo/bass/trombone/saxophone. A bass on wheels! The man who played the bass was the best of them all; he was very old and looked as though he didn't have any teeth left, but played with the same energy and enthusiasm as his younger counterparts. We sat down, ordered a piece of Zwiebelkuchen and a glass of Federweißer, and watched the festival go by and listened to the music in the sun. Bessere gibt's nicht.

Fall Asleep, Miss Out on Chocolate

Ich bin schon wieder in Deutschland verloren. I am once again lost in Germany. I have so named this blog because I can't remember the password and such for my last blog, "Ich Bin In Deutschland Verloren" (I am lost in Germany), and don't feel like going through all the mess to make it work again. A new start! That's what this blog is, for a different sort of experience. Dieses mal werde ich ganz alles geniessen. This time I am going to enjoy absolutely everything.
It is an adventure to get to Germany the cheapest way possible. Four planes: from Maine to DC to Philly to Munich to Dusseldorf. Four. Planes. Over twenty-four hours of solid travel. And I can't sleep on planes. Even the meds my fantastic fiance got for me beforehand did not help. At all. I watched two movies and two television episodes (Iron Man 2, 500 Days of Summer, True Blood and Bones in case you were wondering) on the 7 1/2 hour flight from Philly to Munich. Oh, and I'm also terrified of flying. That's because I'm terrified of heights. Every take off and landing causes me to grip whatever is nearest to me until my knuckles turn white and my fingernails break off. On this trip I brought Sudoku. Every landing and take off I sped through puzzles in a panicked frenzy. I finished over 25 of them by the time the trip was done.
I was very lucky though. Not only did I not fall out of the sky halfway across the Atlantic but only one of my flights was delayed by a significant amount, and it was my last one. I had no adjoining flight awaiting me as I flew from Munich to Dusseldorf, and so the flight could be delayed all it liked. I was glad that I had to sit the entire 50 minutes on the plane rather than at the gate; I was less than impressed with the Munich airport. Nowhere near as efficient as in Frankfurt, the security was the rudest I have ever encountered (and that includes that time I forgot official ID when flying from Maine to New York and they demanded I show five other things with my name on it and tested my shoes for explosives) and after the metal detector went off on the button from my jeans (NOT something I could remove, danke sehr) the woman who was supposed to wand me down was handsy enough to warrant a lawsuit, or at least a good deal of uncomfortableness and irritation. I'm sure they have had their share of annoying tourists pouring in for Oktoberfest but come on. No need to be openly nasty.
Oh and they changed the gate for my flight but didn't announce it, so I almost missed it. When another American asked why they hadn't announced it he was told--again, nastily--that it wasn't their responsibility to keep him informed of his individual flight plan.
The flight attendants, however, were lovely. I adore Lufthansa. They apologized profusely over the wait and offered drinks to anyone who wanted one. I fell asleep while the plane was just sitting there. I figured I had about an hour to kill and my brain was shutting down from the many hours I had had to stay awake and alert in order to catch all of my flights. When the rustling of food packaging woke me up I at first decided to ignore it; sleep was more important than food, and I wasn't hungry. But then I was curious as to what sort of snacks one might serve on a German flight. Peanuts? Pepper-flavored (as in the vegetable, not the spice) chips, which are more standard than plain ones here?
No. They were passing out small bars of Toblerone.
Naturally. I finally get some sleep and it caused me to miss the flight attendant as she went by with chocolate. Not to fret though, there was a very nice Australian couple sitting next to me who got her attention so I could get a bar too. Wilkommen in Deutschland, wollen Sie ein Stueckchen Schokolade? Gerne!
I knew I would like Dusseldorf the moment we touched down: the plane parked at the gate next to us had HARIBO written on it in lieu of an airline, complete with the cute bear they have on all of their packages. Even better, my suitcase--which I was terrified would be lost due to following me on these four flights and two different airlines--was one of the first to emerge at baggage claim. And the best: Eva was waiting for me the moment I walked out of the terminal.
A moment to explain: I am here in Germany to write an honors thesis for my history degree at the Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet in Dusseldorf. But they won't let me move into my apartment until October 1st. I met Eva and her mother Gisla and daughter Ellen when they came to stay for three weeks at Mechuwana, the summer camp where I'm a lifeguard. They live about 40 minutes outside Dusseldorf and are such wonderful people, they are letting me stay with them for the ten days that I have nowhere else to be. Amazing, wonderful, fantastic, kind and nur einfach klasse people. They have been so wonderful to me, I cannot even say how much.
Today I went on a boat ride along the Rhein, seeing mostly a coal factory but also much of Dusseldorf. It is beautiful, a fantastic mix of the traditional and the modern with some of the most creative architecture I have ever seen. I'm looking forward to living there for the next four months more than I was looking forward to living in New York when I started college there. I've been here less than two days and already I am mostly thinking only in German: it's actually difficult to write this in English, because the German comes to mind first and I have to rearrange the sentences in order to have correct grammar. It's a funny and marvelous feeling. Tomorrow Eva and I are going back into Dusseldorf to set up a bank account and send some stuff to the DAAD so that I can start receiving my grant money so I can actually live here until late January. I am so looking forward to having adventures I can share and an experience even better than the last one I had in this country, four years ago.