Christmas Time Photo Update

There are some new pictures up from both the Regensburg and Nürnberg Christmas Markets. They have been added to two different albums:

Excursions

Christkindlmarkt

Enjoy!

Fröliche Weihnachten!

Obvious loss of quality through upload... but here it is! I made a special Christmas in Regensburg video just for you lovely people. It's just about as close to a first-hand experience as I can offer (and probably explains more than a postcard).




My very first, I hope you're proud of me ;) . Enjoy and have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

"Well, the Dutsch speak four languages and smoke marijuana!"

People sometimes ask me if I get confused having four different languages in my head. To really answer the question, I don't get confused so much as I get the urge to substitute words in every direction. For every word or phrase, there is often a different language that comes to mind the most quickly or automatically.

I have several friends here who can speak both German and English very well, and I ramble in Denglisch (Deutsch/Englisch) with them all the time. It sounds something like, "Just make sure you das mir morgen unbedingt bring over when you um Mittag zu mir kommen. It's auf jeden Fall ziemlich wichtig, I would say."

So aside from the fact that I still play the game of "Taboo" in German here every day, just like all students of a foreign language, it's typically not much of a problem. But a problem I've come to realize over the course of the semester starts showing up when I get online and talk to my family on webcam. I get urges every which-way to put in filler and substitute words -- in German -- to my definitely-does-not-speak-a-lick-of-German, Asian family. Last night, I was talking to my mother and just wanted to say, "Exactly," after something she said, and I had to veer clear of just blurting, "Genau." There was also no convenient contextual equivalent in Chinese. That phrase also somehow sounds less natural to me in English now, as do countless others.

The brain seeks a certain efficiency in expression. So now in my head I just end up speaking Eng-chin-erman. And occasionally, Cherglish. I am just dying to know what I really sound like when I sleep-talk.

Afterthought

On a better note, at the next stand, where I bought a present for someone, the guy who sold it to me was both very sweet person and attractive. So I guess Life does balance itself out, as I always believe it does.

(Not that I won't still get a Döner and watch Will and Grace, of course).

This is a Rant about the Wallet Witch

I am feeling slightly vexed at the grouchy German hag at one of the stands in the Christkindlmarkt. She works at a bag/purse/wallet booth, and I was sifting through the rows of wallets on display, because my current wallet is not conducive to holding change, and I'm looking for a new one.

So I will take my time looking, right? Because there are infinite number of wallet styles and I'd like one that is both very practical for my needs and appeals to my taste, right? Right. Tell this lady who gives me a cold smile when I walk up. She honestly has that look like I'm wasting her time. I just got here, woman! And I am browsing, not running a marathon.

I must admit to having a "female" stereotype of being terribly indecisive. I think I am afraid of irreversibility. At any rate, unless I know specifically what I'm getting, I am not particularly swift at buying things. 1) Do I need it?. 2) Do I like it?. And so on.

I am narrowed down to two cloth-type wallets, more or less. So they are of the same structure, but different colors, slightly different sizes, different designs, etc. Aesthetically, I like them both. Practically, the charcoal one doesn't open up as well, but eggshell/white gets dirty and sooty looking very quickly. So I need to decide. But this is particularly difficult because for the entire time I am there, she is standing over and watching me. Lady, I am just looking, and have told you so twice. Don't you have some big shelf of purses to go organize or something? Some inventory to count up?? Some sunny land of bunnies to go darken with your face like a storm cloud?? Meanwhile, she has so helpfully informed me for the 3rd time since I got there, "They are all the same!" (No, they are not, just like how you and I are both humanoid, but you are a total five-letter word that rhymes with witch, and I am not.)

I know that I have a hard time deciding, so I smile and apologize briefly. Like you do. Most people understand, and if they want business, they will definitely understand. Instead, she retorts straight back to me, "Yeah. I'm sorry too." I didn't even listen to whatever the hell else she was adding to that remark, because I was stuffing the wallets back into the row and walking away at that moment.

(I really need a Döner and some Will and Grace right now.)

Mäuschen

("Little mousy" - "MOYS-hyen")

Before my Tutorium today, I saw a little mouse at the university! My tutor laughed and said she was not so pleased to hear that as much as I was to see the Mäuschen (-chen is a diminuitive suffix in German). I know, I know... seeing a mouse at your university is not really good news. But it really was adorable. I cannot help it.

(On a tangent note, I hope some of you have read The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. It is a children's novel, but incidentally one of my very favorite books that I've ever read. Despereaux is also an adorable little mouse.)

Meltdown

About a week ago, my suitemate's sister came to visit for a couple of days and brought her cute little girl with her as well. She's about a year and a half old.

On the morning of the day they left, I was in my room and typing on the computer when there was a loud *POP*, and all of the lights go out. So I did the necessary confused freeze-and-blink, and then got up and looked into the kitchen. The three of them were there, little Antonia scooped up in her mother's arms. I asked if they knew what was up.

So apparently, while one sister was preoccupied and the other was taking a brief shower, Antonia had tottered out to the kitchen and fooled with the stove dials. 1, 2 and 3 out of 4, to be exact. Previously sitting in the back on Burner #2 was our water boiler. Now sitting in the back on Burner #2 was something resembling our water boiler leaning pathetically from a pedestal of hot, melted, gooey plastic.

From Living in Regensburg

My brave roommate somehow managed to successfully bring all the lights back up after messing with the switchbox. So... the kitchen smelled awful, but at least nothing happened to the little girl. I would have been heart-broken. (When I was around her age, I had a stove top accident myself, but my hands weren't so lucky).

My suitemate fortunately managed to do a pretty clean job of prying the thing off after we let it cool. Now it's still sitting in my room. Because I have this odd reluctance to let it go. I need to throw it away already, but it just keeps amusing me.

When it was on our kitchen table, I joked to my roommate that I felt the need to put a small label plaque next to it with the words,

"Untitled"
Antonia, 2008

Grand Marnier

A friend and I were strolling through the Christkindlmarkt this afternoon, looking around for Christmas presents. At the end of our walk through, I decided to get a crepe to eat. Looking down the list on the side of the stand, I couldn't decide which type I wanted. I spotted a "Grand Marnier" at the very bottom of the sweet crepes list, and we both agreed that I should go for it, though neither of us had any idea what it was. But I like to throw a dart at the dartboard with my eyes blindfolded as far as trying new foods.

Standing before the crepe master and his pan, both of us watched to see just what sort of grand piling of ingredients would go on my crepe.

Start with some melted butter...

... Generous sprinkle of sugar...

... Generous sprinkling of some kind of alcohol...?

And then I suddenly realized, he is DONE. That man is folding the crepe.

Lesson learned: Grand Marnier is a strong alcohol.
Experience briefing: The crepe is folded. When you start at the edge, it's not so bad. But towards the center where the layers are thick, it took me a slightly longer endeavor to finish it off, particularly if you can smell the scent of rubbing alcohol coming off of your crepe corner by the time you get that far. An amusing experience, but I will go with the strawberry-banana-Nutella crepe again next time.

Winter Chill

The nice potential for having winter now is that when our little student refrigerator starts getting too cluttered, I could always just start putting things on the windowsill...

Salzburg

So as I mentioned, Michael and I hopped an early morning train and went to Salzburg for the day on Saturday.

From Salzburg

Salzburg sits in west Austria on the river Salzach. Mozart was born there, so as it were, there is Mozart paraphernalia all over the city...

From Salzburg

Seeing as it's December and every European city that has a Christmas Market has got it set up by now, Michael and I hit up the market streets during our wanderings through the city.

From Salzburg

From Salzburg

We only truly realized that we had done absolutely no "research" for our trip to see what kind of locations we needed to visit in Salzburg until we had stepped out of the train station and were looking around our first glimpse of the city. But that was okay. Some of the very best trips are always impromptu.

So as usual, the full collection of pictures is on the Picasa album ("Salzburg"), along with extra explanations. Kuck mal ;) ! ("Have a look!")

From Salzburg

Under Construction

I am finally changing up the honestly-not-so-convenient-for-matching-blog-colors blog wallpaper of the German flag. This also means that the blog will look a little odd here and there for a little while. On one hand, give suggestions if you like. On the other hand, just BEAR with me for now. Savvy? Danke, everyone.

Parlez-vous Französisch?

Hahaha. A nice lady and a girl just rang our doorbell and asked (in German) if there was anyone here that I knew who spoke French.

I smiled and told her that I unfortunately didn't know anyone here who did. What I realized I should have added afterward was, "Sorry, no French. But we've got Chinese and Swahili, though!" I just think I would have gotten a kick out of it.

(Yes. My suitemate has spent time in Africa and can actually speak a certain amount of Swahili very well. Neat, huh?)

'Been Looking For One

Finally!

I have a spatula.

Michael's Weekend Visit

Michael came to visit for the weekend (self-explanatory...) . We met up with our friend Daniela, who was a German exchange student at Vanderbilt last year and lived across the hall from us in our dorm. She has now returned to Regensburg as well, so of course we had to have a reunion.


After wandering a bit around Christkindlmarkt (more on that later), which just opened up last week, we headed to the Irish pub Murphy's Law to get some heiße Schokolade ("hot chocolate") and warm up.

During conversation, Michael and I decided that we wanted to head off to and spend the whole day in Salzburg, Austria the next day.

I love Europe.

Schnee!

("Snow!")
So as of last night...

From Beautiful Regensburg!

IT'S SNOWING HERE IN REGENSBURG!

From Beautiful Regensburg!

Look at my adorable little snow-covered German city :] .

From Beautiful Regensburg!

See the Picasa album for a few more pictures of our first snowfall of the winter :) .

Jugglers Unite!

By the way,

From Die Universität

I forgot to mention this earlier,

From Die Universität

but I found fellow jugglers :] .

From Die Universität

(You knew that I would! )

There is a juggling meet every Tuesday night at 20:00 at the university's Sportzentrum (sport/rec center). The space reserved for us is excellent, and as with just about all juggling groups, everyone does a little or a lot of everything, from beginners to experts. There's even a big stock of unicycles!! And for kicks, this is how it looks like to be on a unicycle.

From Die Universität

But I promise it's not as scary as it looks.

Letter to the Grandparents

My grandparents in California are invariably ecstatic and delighted any time I contact them. I could write an e-mail with, "Today I ate some sausage for breakfast," and they would still be adorably thrilled.

They have good but not completely comfortable English, so when I e-mail them, I try my best to type them in Chinese.

Just after I sent them an e-mail this morning, I just realized that... I can fully write and translate this entire three-paragraph e-mail in three completely different languages.

(First paragraph excerpt...)

(爷爷婆婆，
谢谢你们上一次送给我的照片。 对不起，我很长时间没有给你们写信。 我们是十月中开学的，所以我这个月比先来的时候忙一点儿。 我现在在上五门课（不知道这个"门"对不对）。 五门都用德教的，所以开始的时候有一点儿难。...)

(Lieber Opa, Liebe Oma,
Danke für das Foto, das ihr mir letztes mal geschickt habt. Es tut mir leid, dass ich seit so lang kein E-mail geschrieben habe. Wir haben im mittel Oktober bei der Universität angefangen, deshalb war ich in den letzten Monat beschäftiger als am Anfang des Semesters. Ich belege gerade fünf Kurse (ich weiß nicht, ob dieser Charakter richtig ist). Alle fünf Kurse sind auf Deutsch unterrichtet, deshalb war es am Anfang ein bisschen schwierig...)

(Dear Grandpa and Grandma,
Thanks for the picture that you sent me last time. I'm sorry I haven't written in so long. We started school in mid-October at the university, so I've been busier in this last month than the one before at the beginning. I'm currently taking five courses (I don't know if that's the right character). All five are taught in German, so it was a little hard at first...)

This. Feels. Awesome.

Conveyor Belt

Yesterday I was standing in line at the supermarket with all of my stuff already on the conveyor belt. Behind me were standing two guys who were probably in their late teens (all boys are 5 years old...), badly dressed in baggy and punk clothing and an even worse smell.

When it came time to put the beers that they were buying on the conveyor belt, the one right behind me tried to sneak the grocery separation bar behind the front two beer bottles. Thanks for trying, but that was about as subtle as ketchup on a white sweater. I looked over and gave him a big, friendly, "... Don't f*** with me" look. He gave me a cheesy, nervous chuckle and oily slid the bar back to its rightful spot. It might not have been as sad if he had looked like he was actually joking.

The Lounge(ing) Chair

From Beautiful Regensburg!

(8. November 2008, near Hinter der Grieb, Regensburg)
(Click for the high resolution picture)

Misunderstanding

Equivalent Rough Translation	Language
"It's all Greek to me."	English, Norwegian, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
"It's Arabic to me."	Greek, Italian
"Am I speaking Hindi?"	Arabic
"It's Hebrew to me."	Finnish, French
"I am French to the conversation."	Turkish
"It's a Spanish village to me."	Croation, Czech, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovenian
"It's all Chinese to me."	Dutch, English, French, German*, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish**, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian*, Spanish
"It's like heavenly script."	Chinese

* ("Am I speaking Chinese?")
** ("I would understand the same if it was in Chinese.")

Full-Year, Half-Year and Summer Programs

While we were visiting Buchenwald a few weeks ago, I was talking to one of the professors/directors from another exchange program from Murray State University. Murray and Vanderbilt used to have some sort of partnership with their Regensburg programs. He's been working with the Murray program for ages now, and he was telling me how there used to be tons more full-year students from Vanderbilt -- whereas now, there has only been ONE full-year student per year for the past 4+ years.

What it boils down to is that the one-semester program is the death of the full-year program, as he put it so well. Vanderbilt also has a Maymester in Germany (Berlin) program.... which, in turn, murders the one-semester program, and all but obliterates the full-year program.

What I just want to say is that if you are truly serious about stepping into the wider world and opening your eyes and experiencing what wonder earth's people and cultures really are, then you had better have a VERY good reason not to study abroad for a full year.

I know and have always heard of people being apprehensive about studying abroad for "so long." You're afraid you'll miss the right home university courses. You're afraid you'll miss the social scene. You're afraid you'll miss friends too much. You don't want to be so far from your family for that long. You have no money. You are afraid that you need home, and you cannot part from it.

So here's what I think of that:

University courses -- SCREW THAT! Okay, I do know how heavily some of you sacrifice your life, health and sanity for place emphasis on your classes and grades. That's fine, and indeed, some of you are pursuing insane reputable careers that require much of you. However, if know that you can study abroad and are going to, do the full year!

Social scene -- Give me a break... What your year would be if you stayed at home so you didn't miss all the frat parties is nothing compared to the year you'll have abroad. Plus, other countries have tons of parties, believe me ;) .

Your friends and family -- If they love you, they will get over it. If you love them, you will get over it, too. Plus, in this modern age, there is Skype and cheaper phone cards and e-mail and everything. Staying in touch is virtually... not a problem at all.

(Your boy/girlfried) -- See above. If it's real, things will work out. Really, they will. If it doesn't work out, it wasn't meant to.

Money -- All I can say is that you have to work for it. I realize that this is often the biggest factor holding a lot of people back. But I am a strong believer of, If there's a Will, there's a Way. Nobody can stop you. I know you might be skeptical, but it is really true and I mean it. Also, in the end, I will guarantee that your full year will be worth it. Every little bit.

I don't even find my one year enough. (If you made me stay two years, I'd do it in a heartbeat!) There is always a way. You'll also be surprised how quickly one year actually goes by. It is nothing.

I know that it is unfortunately too late in college for many of you. But if any of you young'uns are out there reading this, and you are trying to decide on a study abroad program (or to study abroad at all!), you know exactly what I recommend! If you still aren't convinced, listen to this. When I was trying to decide between full- and half-year in Regensburg, every student I asked who had done the half-year before urged me to do the full-year. Nearly every one of them said that if they could have the choice to do it again, they would pick the full-year. Hands down. One of the most common phrases I heard was, "I only wish that I could have spent more time there." If you have the means, by all means, do it!

Now then! I'm going to make some breakfast.

(PS -- *ahem* Summer programs abroad are convenient excuses to have a holiday in another country and barely learn nothing but a scratch on the tip of the iceberg. *ahem*.)

Heil, Caesar!

I am epically failing certain campaigns in Caesar III (PC game) because I checked it out from the library, and it is, as it were, in German. Ergo, my advisers are sitting here throwing a slew of tips and advice and suggestions at me, and half of the time, I often have no idea what they're trying to tell me. Sure, "You need more markets," and "The goddess Ceres is seriously annoyed with you and might soon decide that some smiting is in order," aren't so hard to understand. But all this vocabulary with the economics and the tax system and trading between my town and the next Roman pit of civilization over keeps hurling at me faster than I can pull out das Wörterbuch (dictionary) and look it up.

Oh. That's funny. It feels like all of my university lectures in German. Only, my lectures are five times worse, and five times more important.

(But GOOD NEWS! If you haven't realized by now, I finally fixed my computer and got it to work! It was complicated and nothing that I could have guessed, but the godforsaken thing works now).

For All Those Who Doubted Me

Yes, I can cook pasta. And yes, I can cook beautiful pasta.

From Living in Regensburg

Computer Games

In much excitement, I accidentally found Myst IV: Revelation at the library! Unfortunately, however, it refuses to play -- or give any sort of sign of awareness -- on my computer. I have no idea why, and it's a bit of a frustration for finding a game that you've been wanting to try (and especially because it's in German now!). Does anyone have any ideas on how I could fix the problem? Typically, PC games are not "region-locked" like most console games are, so I would find it a little odd if that was the case...

I also found two more games, but they also refuse to work. I thought it could be yet another potentially helpful language resource to try and play games in German! Alas.

Last but not least, my operating system is Windows Vista, which should be able to play these '98/XP games, riiiight?

Hallow's Eve

Bummer that I missed/didn't do anything for Halloween. I would have absolutely loved to, say, don a dark, billowing outfit and jump across the European rooftops of Regensburg in the black of night against the light of the pale, ghostly galleon moon tossed upon the cloudy seas, like a flitting shadow vanishing into the starless Halloween twilight with scant but a whisper.

(If it wasn't too cold or anything).

Slap in the Face

OHMYGOD it will be November on Saturday.

Altmodische Musik

("Outdated Music")

Conversation from the Begrüßungsparty.
S (German friend) is reading the mixed CD for the party music:

Me: "Is that the tracklist for the entire evening?"
S: "Yep. It seems like there's quite a bit of older pop music on here, actually..."
Me: "What kind of music do you like to listen to anyway?"
S: "Ohhh, even older stuff. I'm so old-fashioned. You'd probably laugh."
Me: "For exaaample?"
S: "Haha, The Beatles or something. Pink Floyd... Oh, The Who!... and..." (+ few more that I don't remember)
Me: "That's not that bad!"
S: "Haha, I thought you or people in your general age group might probably think that was old-fashioned of me."
Me: "Oh S, I wouldn't worry about what I might think. Most of the music that I listen to is far older. I mean, when I say I might listen to music from the 60's, it's more like.... the 1860's."

Proud to Be An American

So this is somewhat interesting, I find.

I have a friend from Mexico among the 60-some-odd students from other countries that I know. There was a Begrüßungsparty (welcome party) last night for all of the exchange students (because we're finally all here), and we were both talking with some students from Germany and Slovakia. At some time, we hit the topic of America and being American.

The thing is, he claims to be American, too. I said, "Oskar, what are you talking about?" He basically says, "Hey, we consider that America [the Americas]. You, you are from the United States."

Ahhh... This is enlightening to me, even if only in a very small way. I also got that slight nagging feeling of an Ignorant American moment. Or rather, Ignorant "American." (Have I ever mentioned my vexation at the fact that most of the US population believes that they are the only ones on the planet, or at least that they're the only modern civilization and the rest of the planet is still crawling around on their knuckles and eating bugs from rotting logs...)

I'm not quite sure if that's just his mentality, or if it's just Mexico (we should ask some Canadians...), or even if he was just flat out joking with me (which I highly doubt). But there's that as a point of interest.

Are You My Mother?

I must always laugh when children in public areas get distracted and mistake strangers for their own parents or older siblings, taking hold of their hands absent-mindedly, only to look up and realize with frozen horror that they have been tagging along with a completely strange and unfamiliar face that is not Mommy.

I was at the library today, glancing around and looking at DVDs in the children's section, just to see what was there. I skimmed down the rows at about eye level, and meanwhile passed a little German boy of about seven or eight, who was also skimming at his respective eye level while his mother and brother were browsing nearby. He plucked a movie off the shelf and began jabbering an explanation of it just as I stood behind him looking over his head. He was still conversationally reading the back of the box out loud to me when he turned to show it to me, and looked up.

I smiled broadly and said, "Sorry, what was that?"

He blinked and quickly glanced around after a stunned moment. Then he looked back up, grinned sheepishly, and quietly mumbled, ".. Oh.* " I grinned back. He turned around with a little blush and stuck the movie back onto the shelf.

I found what I wanted, checked out my books, and left the library still grinning.

*(For those of you who speak German, it was, ".. Achso." Which just amuses me tenfold.)

Rubik was a Hungarian from Budapest

Suddenly this morning, I miss my Rubik's Cube. I don't really know why.
Unfortunately I haven't seen one here yet, though.



On second thought, I wonder if Selmair has them. That's a delightful toy store about a 2-minute stroll from my dorm (hurrah!), and I'm particularly fond of it because they have a whole corner of the store...

From Beautiful Regensburg!

... devoted entirely to juggling equipment.
(*swooon*)

Ups and Downs

Recently I noticed that one pair of my jeans might have gotten a bit looser. A little less snug than they used to be. Maybe it's just me.

Or maybe I've even lost some weight since I've been here, through a combination of different little things here and there. Walking more, cycling more, eating less... and climbing up and down a stairwell of 60 some-odd stairs day in and day out.

(Let's not forget the days when I inadvertently add 20 or 40 more every once in a while by forgetting things in my room :D . Oh! Just today, I was cooking in the kitchen, and said bye to my German suitemate as she headed out the door to the gym. Several minutes later, she comes back through the door laughing and says to me, "Dangit! I was all the way downstairs already! And then I opened the front door and realized that it was still a lot colder than I thought it was! I have to get my jacket now.")

From Living in Regensburg

I always feel bad for the occasional friends who come over, though. We have no elevator in the student residence, and while I myself have become used to it now, they're inevitably a little out of breath by the time they get up here, and there's unfortunately nothing I can do. (The Chinese host nature in me is horrified.)

Numb3rs - Continued

On another note, I won't try to assume claims based on mere theory here, but I very strongly believe that the stereotypical Chinese reputation for excellence in mathematics has some sort of connection with the efficiency of the numbering system. It is simple and directly to-the-point.

In another example, when Chinese children learn their multiplication tables in school, it does not translate to "5 times 8 is 40," but rather "5-8-is-40," and often simply even "5-8-40." Not only that, but with the typical system, there is also an inherent rhythm that is difficult to understand as someone who has not learned Chinese numbers, but has an almost unstoppably smooth and unbroken flow to it. So if you can imagine reciting the entire multiplication table in the format of, "2-4-is-8, 3-4-12, 4-4-16, 4-5-20, 4-6-24...," it's no wonder you would pick up a natural speed. And not only would you be faster, but you would have already raised the standard speed from, say, multiplication recitation in many other languages.

And there's just my two cents on counting in languages.

Numb3rs

(No, not the television series. Sorry, Liz.)

I like things to be practical. Therefore, there are numbering systems in a few languages that do not sit well with me. Allow me to demonstrate.

Chinese Numbers: Why I Love Them

Numbers	Word in language	English Translation
1-10	yi 一； er 二; san 三; si 四; wu 五; liu 六; qi 七; ba 八; jiu 九; shi 十	(normal basic)
11; 12; 13; 14;...	Shi-yi; Shi-er; Shi-san;... (十一； 十二； 十三； 十四;...)	"ten one; ten two; ten three;..."
60; 70; 80; 90	liu-shi; qi-shi; ba-shi; jiu-shi (六十； 七十； 八十； 九十)	"seven-ten; eight-ten; nine-ten"
71; 81; 91	qi-shi-yi; ba-shi-yi; jiu-shi-yi (七十一； 八十一； 九十一)	"seven-ten one; eight-ten one; nine-ten one"

Now then. You might not necessarily be used to this system, but to me, it is all-around practical - and most importantly, very consistent.

German Numbers: Why I Don't Like Them

Numbers	Word in language	English Translation
1-10	eins; zwei; drei; vier; fünf; sechs; sieben; acht; neun; zehn	(normal basic)
11; 12; 13; 14;...	elf; zwölf; dreizehn; vierzehn;...	"eleven; twelve; three-ten; four-ten;...
60; 70; 80; 90	sechzig; siebzig; achtzig; neunzig	"sixty; seventy; eighty; ninety"
61; 71; 81; 91	einundsechzig; einundsiebzig; einundachtzig; einundneunzig	"oneandsixty; oneandseventy; oneandeighty; oneandninety"

No. This is not nearly as nice. There is not only some lack of inconsistency, but it is unwieldly. I mean, sometimes I feel like it's just an annoyance to tell someone that I've got zweiundzwanzig ("twoandtwenty") magical carrots or something. Sure, I and the rest of the world's German speakers are used to it by now, but compared to Chinese numbering, for example, this is definitely more unwieldly.


French Numbers: Why I Hate Them

Numbers	Word in language	English Translation
1-10	un; deux; trois; quatre; cinq; six; sept; huit; neuf; dix	(normal basic)
11; 12; 13; 14;...	onze; douze; treize; quatorze;...	"eleven; twelve; thirteen; fourteen;..."
*17; 18; 19	dix-sept; dix-huit; dix-neuf	Wait a moment. What the hell is this?? Why did we just switch formats??
*20; 21; 22; 23	vingt; vingt et un; vingt-deux; vingt-trois	Okay... so this is "twenty; twenty and one; twenty-two; twenty-three..." ... Why???
60; 70; 80; 90	soixante; soixante-dix; quatre-vingts; quatre-vingt-dix	"sixty; sixty-ten; sixty-twenty; four-twenty; four-twenty-ten" WHY, French people?? Why would you do this?!
*71; 72; 73	soixante et onze; soixante-douze; souixante-treize	"sixty and eleven; sixty-twelve; sixty-thirteen" ?!?
81; 82; 91	quatre-vingt-un; quatre-vingt-deux; quatre-vingt-onze	"four-twenty-one; four-twenty-two; four-twenty-eleven" #@&%^%Q&%^!%#!?!?!

Inefficiency. It makes me writhe uncomfortably in my seat. Put aside the fact that the speakers are all "used to it by now." Just look at the construction of the numbering system on its own. I do not understand why. Why, French people?? Just who was it out of your whole French population who decided this was a good idea??

Continuing points in the next post.

Schlösser

("Castles")

Today we went to Castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein in Schwangau, in the very south of Germany and a stone's throw from the Austria border.

Pictures inside the castles are not allowed, but I just want to say that today, I beheld 100+ year old BREAD in Castle Neuschwanstein... in a box... on a platter with the year 189- [something] on it... or in other words, the year that the bread loaf was baked and presented to a prince for his birthday...

... That's just odd. Don't do that. Be sure to clean out your pantries when the proper time calls for such.

From Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein

I've only put up a handful of pictures from today's excursion, but at any rate, they're up to see now. By the way, aerial shots of the castles are stunning, but obviously, I can't provide you with those personally. You have the internet, though, so you ought to look some up if you would like to have a look.

Baby Talk

You know what's an unexpectedly difficult thing to do in a foreign language?

Talk to babies and children. Or even pets.

Aha, don't roll your eyes at me! You may be thinking, "My dear, what can you possibly mean? They are children. Their vocabulary and speech is supposed to be the most elementary among normal human beings. Speaking to children should be the most simple of colloquial endea--"

NEIN.

This is because in every language, there are what linguists call "registers." I should have paid more attention in the linguistics class I took last year, but here's more or less the scoop. As far as I know, a register is something like a level of language that is changed depending on what the social situation at the moment calls for. For example, you would say, "Hey, what's up?" to your friends, but not to your grandmother, or to your interviewer at an interview for a corporate job. These situations use different registers.

Going back to the topic, it is remarkably difficult to talk to children in a language that you are still learning (or at least keep them amused/not confused about the fact that you don't seem to know how to talk) because of the register that most people use specifically for children.

People like me, of course, are used to the normal registers that one would use in shops, asking questions from people on the street, and at the university.

In a nutshell, there are 6-year-olds here that I have a harder time understanding than some German professors.

Contact in Zwiebelmarkt

As I mentioned, I was in the cities of Erfurt and Weimar this weekend, which are not far from each other and lie around central Germany.

Weimar is famous for the Zwiebelmarkt, or "Onion Market." It's a big street festival that's held every year, this year being Zwiebelmarkt #355. The most common wares at the hundreds of stands lining the streets are, of course, food and Zwiebeln -- onions.


It's all very autumnal and aesthetically appealing and cute. In addition to sprigs and sprigs of onions, there are also other onion-based goods, like onion marmalade/jelly (I kid you not. But I heard it was actually rather good).

Later in the afternoon, I split off from our small group and took to wandering the Zwiebelmarkt streets until dinner. Lo and behold, I found a fellow contact juggler. I was excited.

From Erfurt, Weimar, and Buchenwald

I watched him for a while... most probably because I suddenly realized that I can do exactly what he does. And... he was earning oolongs per hour just performing simple contact juggling! (You have to remember -- The €1 and €2 are coins here, so... Seeing as it's easier to toss coins, AND the Euro is worth more, there is obvious appeal for me here...)

After about a whole hour of watching what he does to earn street performance money, I went up to him when he took a break and swapped e-mails with him so that I could send him these pictures that I took of him. At first, I didn't talk, because he didn't talk in his performance, so I thought I'd follow suit.

C-juggler: "Er, you speak English?"
Me: "Of course. English and German, both."

I explained sending the pictures to him and we swapped e-mails.

C-juggler: "So you can do some of this, too?"
Me: "Yes, a little, though I'm better at juggling and poi. You know what I'm talking about?"
C-juggler: "Ah, yeah, with these things on strings..."
Me: "Exactly."
C-juggler: "Do you live here?"
Me: "No, I'm from the States. I'm an exchange student."
C-juggler: "Aha. But are you staying in Weimar?"
Me: "No, I'm staying in Regensburg. By the way, how often is it that you come here, to Zwiebelmarkt, for example, to street perform?"
C-juggler: "Well, I live here in Weimar, you see. Oh, but I'm not from Weimar originally, I just live here now. I'm actually from Mexico."

Wow. You don't see many Mexicans in Germany. Much less Mexicans swathed in desert-dune cloth and chalky costume make-up who are standing on boxes and contact juggling in the street.

He smiled and said farewell as I wished him luck and went back to the youth hostel. I sent him the photos I took when I got back to Regensburg.

Foto Zahl

("Photo Count")

Hm. I just backed up all of my Germany photos onto my external harddrive.

As of the count today, I've apparently taken over 1,500 by now.
(Speaking of which, you can find the primary selection of them on the link to the Picasa album on the right blog menu.) -->

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

I just got back from a weekend in Erfurt and Weimar. Today, as our last stop, we visited the historical Buchenwald concentration camp, located 8 km from Weimar.

I simply find it so ironic, because walking through Buchenwald in the autumn is almost dreamily beautiful. It is quiet, nearly silent except for the tread of visitors on the gravel paths, and sunshine in good weather will turn the surrounding woods absolutely brilliant with gold.

From Erfurt, Weimar, and Buchenwald

Yet Buchenwald is steeped in so much unspeakably horrendous history, as with the unfortunately many other concentration camps and other historical sites associated with the second world war (or as many other wars as you can name...) . There was so much suffering, I can not even imagine. I can't even describe, with or without words.

Today, while the rest of our group wandered off to look around some more before our bus ride back, I went to the center of the main prisoner camp, where it is now flat, and only black gravel in wooden frames outline where there were once several dozen barracks holding inmates hollow with despair. I stood where literally thousands of dying bodies and walking corpses passed by for month after hopeless, tragic month and forgot what it was like to be human...


And I cried and cried...


... and cried.

*Sproing*

I've lost a tiny, 2cm long metal spring.

It's somewhere in my room.

You are more than welcome to come over and help me find it.

(But please bring your own snack and drinks).

Zwei Kugeln Gelato

("Two-Scoop Gelato")

I'm feeling down. I wish someone could go out for some gelato with me right now!!! Soooo many gelaterias around Regensburg... But I don't feel that it would help me right now to go alone.

Yet I hear the gelato! It's calling my naaaaame.....

Sorry. I'm in an odd and not particularly dandy mood. Maybe I'll just go down to the River Regen again and feed expired Müsli to the Enten ("ducks").

Heimweh

("Homesickness")

Since I've been here, a few different people that I've met have asked me if I've gotten homesick at all.

My answer is no.

False Friends

Heads up, English speakers. "Der Winter," "die Maus" and "das Bier" may be easy English-German cognates, but the word "das Gift" in German means "poison, toxic, venom" .

Oktoberfest: Die Herzen

("Hearts")

While you've probably noticed that I have no few gripes about Oktoberfest, there were at least portions of my trip to München that weekend that were not nearly so bad.

On the train ride there, it was somewhat full, as most transportation to Munich is during Oktoberfest. Three of us caught sight of three seats in the same quadra-set (what do you call 4 seats on a train that are facing each other anyway...?) as an old German lady, and we asked her, "Entschuldigung, sind diese noch frei?" ("Excuse me, are these still free?"). She said, "Natürlich!" ("Of course!") and we sat down.

I sat right next to her, and we ended up having some great and interesting conversation. She was poking a needle through a little red paperboard heart and threading some plastic orange string in a bed stitch around the border. We asked her what she was doing.

The story is that this unassuming old lady is actually an enthusiastic traveler. She's been all over different continents, and wings it completely on her own. What she was making was small, simple heart ornaments, and what she does is give them to the people she meets all over the world.

"I first got the idea in Tanzania, you see. I worked there in a program for a while with lots of children. At the end, I was going to leave soon, and I wracked my brain for something that I could give them as gifts. Then, this came to me, and I made a little heart for each of them. They took a photo, and each child had a little heart pinned to his or her chest. It was so lovely!

Her hearts are now all over the world. She has given them away in countless places she has been, from Reykjavik, to Tanzania, to Beijing.

Me: "Wow! That's so inspiring, and it's wonderful that you've done this.
Old woman: "Yes, and no one else in the world does this. I am the only one who makes such hearts!"

She then tied green ribbon at the top of three hearts and handed one new heart to each of us. We thanked her and she smiled.

Me: "Do you have any idea at all how many you've made by now? Dozens? Hundreds?"
Old woman: "Ohh, my... I almost couldn't even say. I've long since lost count. But I would honestly have to say, at least in the thousands by now. I make them constantly. I make them wherever I go, and pass the time with them. And then I give them to people."

Thousands of these little hearts all around the world!

From Oktoberfest, München

We asked her about the materials she used. She buys some of the same cardstock every time -- red on one side, white on the other. The ribbon is also simple and inexpensive. The string is the best part. What she does is collect and keep those mesh sacks that hold apples or potatoes when you buy them in the supermarket. She then takes them apart and uses the bright orange fibers as her thread. (See the orange sack in the back of the picture.)

Old woman: "Sometimes people think I'm just crazy. Why do you want to collect such junk as that? Ah, but I put it to good use. See? Why create more trash instead of re-using it to make things that bring you happiness?

It's completely inexpensive, easy to carry around, good for a hobby, and is special."

My friend asked her if she made any other shapes besides hearts. She said no, but also explained a belief of hers.

"You know, I believe that emotion really does stem from the heart. It is not in your head, as people say. Think about this now... When you are upset... when something angers you and you get in an uproar!" She dramatically patted the area over her heart. "Your heart -- it begins to flutter and beat faster. And when something excites you, your heart reacts faster. And when you are sad, you feel as if the pain is in your heart."

She made a funny face, as if mimicking someone thinking really hard. "Yes, your head, it's good for all your logic, your thoughts, your reasoning, 'Why this, why that.'" But your heart. I believe it is true... that all emotions stem from the heart."

We said farewell as she reached her stop before München and packed her things together. And that was our pleasant morning train ride.

From Oktoberfest, München

Good luck and happiness on your travels. Maybe we'll see each other again some day.
Auf Wiedersehen, Frau "Herzenmacher".

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

Whoot! Check out Google's homepage graphic of the day!


Deutschland!
(Today is the anniversary of Germany's reunification).

Meet and Greet

As I might have mentioned in an earlier post, I share a kitchen with a suitemate. However, she's been out of the country for the summer break here and just got back today.

I was re-organizing the kitchen this evening and listening to the Avenue Q soundtrack. If you aren't already familiar with Avenue Q, this might not be as amusing to you, but I think you can still get the gist of it.

So when my suitemate and her friend happen to arrive at the kitchen door and walk in, my computer happened to be blasting "The Internet Is For Porn." Not only was it playing "The Internet Is For Porn," but at the very moment that both of them walked in, it was playing the ending chorus.

Which goes something like, "Pooooorn, POOOORN, POOOOOORNNN!!!!"

. . . . . .

I can only hope they didn't recognize what was being belted with gusto when I practically ran at the computer with glass drinking glasses still in my hand and slammed the pause button. Stellar first impression.

(Of all the few days that I am not listening to classical or trance/techno... Of all days!)

Einstufungstest

1) Go to this link: Einstufungstest
2) Select "Test" from the small drop-down menu on the left.
3) Click "weiter" ("continue/further").
4) On the next page, select "Englisch" (or for kicks, some other language you know).
5) Click "Start Demo".
6) Take the test. You're given 25 minutes, but it won't take you that long if you're a native speaker.
7) Once you're done, click the "jetzt abgeben" ("submit now") button at the top of the page.

Okay. Did you try out the test? I'd also just be curious to know how you scored. (It'll be a sum number out of 100 at the end after you click "jetzt abgeben".) Just for the record, I'm a native English speaker, and I only scored around 80-85, having taken the test twice. "Pretty darn good" students of a foreign language are supposed to score in the 70's. I'd like to know what other native speakers score.

If/Once you get the idea, then get this:

I HAVE TO TAKE THIS TEST IN GERMAN TODAY.

.. I feel apprehensive. Drücke mir die Daumen, people!

Oktoberfest: Last Reflections

Alright, so I do admittedly think that if you've never been to Oktoberfest, you should go at least once (and hopefully only once), because it is, after all, world-famous, quite the event, good opportunity if you're around, blah blah etc. But just for the record, a single 1-liter beer there costs €8.30 (that's $12.14. Typically, you can get that much for about €3-5 in restaurants/bars, and €1-2 in supermarkets). To even get a seat in one of the 8 Biergarten tents, if you're even lucky enough to shove in or made a reservation, is about €65 (that's about $95.00).

From personal experience, I had to wash my pants immediately upon arrival home tonight because of aforementioned vomit flecks, and general Oktoberfest nastiness -- which includes, but is not limited to: the scum from trash thrown on the ground, unavoidable fogs of cigarette ash, spilled beer, splashed bits of beer and sausage vomit, plus the germs from the other 28370572375025 people you bumped, shoved, squeezed past, and nearly got trampled by on your way in, plus the germs from the other 240723753027527302 people you bumped, shoved, squeezed past, and nearly go trampled by on your way out.

Oh god.... if you're the Oktoberfest-going kind of person, fine. By all means, go hit three birds with one stone: your Time, your Money, and your Dignity enjoy yourself. If you happen to dislike the larger crowds and noise like myself, follow these simple steps:

1) Go to Oktoberfest if you have not been.
2) Walk in.
3) Look around. Only 5 minutes are necessary for overall effect.
4) Leave and explore München instead.
4a) Leave and explore München and visit the beautiful church close by like I did instead.

Uach, I missed dinner, too.... I need to go find something light to eat this late.

Will post pictures up when I don't have to wake up early the next morning, so keep on the lookout later.

Oktoberfest: Alternate Recommendations

Now I really don't like to be negative, and I know that I'm in a minority here who happen to dislike loud partying events and making a dumb sh*t of yourself drinking beer.

But here's the thing. If you want Oktoberfest without all the overwhelming DUMB, go to local/regional beer festivals, such as Herbstdult/Dultfest in Regensburg, or Gillamoos Fest in Abensberg. These are smaller-scale beerfests with all the beer, all the rides, all the food, all the souvenirs, all for cheaper, cleaner atmosphere, less stressful, and with much less of the feeling that you're a salmon fighting your way upstream with a million other salmon who have all likewise lost their mind and are blindly following some primitive instinct to get to the goal, spew things from their innards, and FLOP OVER LIKE A STUPID, BRAINLESS FISH.

Oktoberfest in München: Negative Reports First

Today, we had an excursion to München (Munich), as mentioned previously. To sum some things up, by the time I finally got on the train back to Regensburg, I was overall tired, not amused, cold, and had yellow flecks of vomit on the back of my pant legs.

Thanks, Oktoberfest.

I'll start out earlier in the day. We met at the Bahnhof (train station) early this morning, and got to München at around 10:30. The morning was saved for a small tour of the Deutsches Museum, which is famous for being the largest technical museum in the world. Very high quality stuff. The museum really is huge. The tour lasted about two hours, but though the guide was very knowledgeable, it still somehow felt rushed, despite that we'd probably only covered about 1/8th of the museum. Once the tour was over, we were allowed all the free time we wanted until we felt like taking the train back. I was so excited to now be able to explore the rest of the museum on my own, and I set out immediately with a new target exhibit in mind.

But then my "group" called. We have to travel together under one "Bayernticket." It's a much cheaper ticket (€27 as opposed to €18 singles) that covers 5 people, and you can use it for the subway, train, anything, etc. for a whole day for those 5 people. A nice and recommended deal, but also comes with some inflexibility when it comes to situations like this. At any rate, we all have to stick together to get anywhere, and the ticket is held only under one name (which, today, was mine).

We had all this time to hit up awesome exhibits in a top-notch museum, and where did everyone else want to go? Bloody Oktober-freaking-fest. Yes, somehow that smelly, loud, crowded, cramped, beer-sloshing, vomit-hurling Stew of Disgusting was the far more attractive prospect.

You have to understand this about me. First, I am no fan of alcohol in any form. Oktoberfest is infamously fueled by beer in the thousands of liters. Secondly, I hate crowds. The more pressing, loud and clustered the crowd, the more I will hate it. Thus, Oktoberfest faced no obstacle in earning a place on my distaste list.

Oh, and last of all, don't ever give me the, "But drunk people are funny!" counter-argument. I will not be pleased with you. I enjoy watching drunk people to the same degree that I enjoy watching a group of schoolboys surrounding a frog and slowly killing it with sharp sticks just for the hell of it and giggling like morons about it. That is to say, I don't. I don't like watching someone ingesting poison by the liter-full and destroying mind and body for it while others watch and laugh. If we took that sentence out of context, would you enjoy it, too?

"Ja, Probieren!"

("Yes, Do Try!")

Today I got slightly ripped-off by some Hungarians. But at least this marzipan is really tastmmmm....

More on that later.

Taking a train to München (Munich) for the day tomorrow. We'll be visiting what I've heard is an excellent museum in the morning, and then they are letting us free-roam all afternoon and evening until we feel like taking the train back to Regensburg. I'm thinking Oktoberfest will be fun.... but stressful.... and loud.... and drunk....

Zahlen ("Counting")

Often you can tell what the mother tongue of a person is by identifying the language they use to count out something. It's pretty interesting.

On a somewhat related and entirely remarkable note, I need to mention a few of our foreign exchange student tutors/program coordinators:

• One of them comes from the Czech Republic. She fluently speaks Czech, English and German, plus what she claims is "just a little" Russian, but is a lie because I have heard her having conversations with the Russian students.
• The next one is half Italian. She fluently speaks Italian, German, Spanish, and virtually accent-free English.
• The next one is German. She studies literature, linguistics and culture. She fluently speaks German, English, Czech, Russian, and Spanish.

I could swoon over with the awe and inspiration I have for these amazing polyglots. When I say "fluently," I mean fluently. It is completely remarkable.

And they act like it's NOTHING.

Evening on the Haidplatz: Theo

This happened on the same day as the unicycle event, but I didn't get a chance to write about both yesterday. If you don't want just a nice little encounter story, don't bother reading.

I got home by bus at around 16:30. I was really hungry, but it was too early to eat any sort of dinner. So I had a very small bowl of müsli and then headed out to the Haidplatz again to practice poi. I go outside on the street to practice very often because 1) there is plenty of room and what I'm swinging won't hit a ceiling. 2) I have no full-length mirror in my room, so being the clever, resourceful little thing that I am, I stand in front of dark shop windows outside and use the reflections to practice form.

Towards the end of about 1.5 hours later, I noticed an old gentleman standing a ways behind me in the reflection. This is nothing new, since people often pause for a moment out of sheer, momentary, "What the..." when they pass by. However, he lingered for a while, as the occasionally on-looker does. When I finally stopped briefly to take a break, I heard a single applause behind me, and I turned to see him grinning and clapping his hands. I thanked him, because you always acknowledge your audience. It doesn't matter how badly you think you might have done.

Juggling/skill toys are natural conversation starters, so it's exactly what happened. He asked me about what I was doing, and I explained poi, its Maori origins, etc. He told me he was overall impressed with how graceful it looks. (Let's ignore the fact that while practicing, I usually smack myself with the poi numerous times every minute).

He was genuinely interested, but big drops of rain suddenly started falling, to the point of being too heavy to ignore. We both agreed to dart inside somewhere, and he led us to the Goldenes Kreuz Café just a few steps away. (Such a coincidence -- Do you remember Herr Beckers?) He asked if I'd like a coffee, and he waved it off and insisted on treating me when I told him I hadn't brought my money with me. I took a tea instead since I don't drink coffee.

We continued talking, and I spent an evening in great conversation. The old gentleman's name is Theo, and he even insisted on "Sie können mir Du sagen" right off the bat. (For those who don't speak German, "du" is the familiar form of You, which was odd to me in this case because I'm not used to saying "du" with someone 40-ish years my elder. I mean, you wouldn't say, "Hey, 'sup?" to your grandfather).

The cafe was unfortunately closing soon afterward, but the rain stopped and he suggested continuing conversation on a walk to the Danube. It was nice outside, and we would have been kicked out soon anyway.

We walked down to Steinerne Brücke and all the way to the other side in the Stadtamhof -- or in other terms, about half a mile. We talked the entire way there and back about so very much, more than I could comfortably fit in even two or three entries here. He had this extraordinarily good impression of me, which made me sort of embarrassed, but not really in a bad way. I also improved some German (as you invariably do when you actually use a language) since he corrected me and frequently gave suggestions of alternate, more colloquial wording to things that I was trying to say. Very helpful.

Ah, but what a romantic idea it is, meeting a stranger in a city of Italian streets, engaging in conversation for an entire evening over tea and coffee and a stroll across the famed Blue Danube itself. These are surely storybook encounters.

World Record One Wheelers!

If you noticed the entry two posts ago, then you'll know where I was today. However, because uploading and detailing so many pictures onto blog posts is a real pain in the rear, I've just put them all up on my Picasa web album (which incidentally also holds a great amount of other pictures that I've taken since being here). Here's the direct link to the album of just today's pictures:

2008 World Record Unicycling!
Gewerbepark, Regensburg
Here's the scoop. In 2005, there was a big unicycling get-together event held in order to attempt the largest number of unicyclists riding 500 meters with no falls or crashes. The turn out was huger than expected, with over 1400 participants in the final successful count.

Today, this even was held once again in Gewerbepark, Regensburg, to try and beat that old record. Apparently, these unicyclists today managed 800 meters for a count of over 1600 riders.

.... I WAS IN THE SAME PLACE AS 1600 OTHER PEOPLE WHO CAN UNICYCLE TOO!!!

*faints in delight*

Today was just marvelous. That's all the detail that I need to cover in the blog for now, so go sofort ("immediately") to the link above to see the pictures and further details of the event. Also, I took some video while walking around. I'm hoping to assemble the clips together and perhaps upload it on YouTube sometime.

Ohhhhh, I was so pleased today.

Pause

I had nothing less than a totally fantastic day.

-- But first, I need to go cook dinner, because the only thing I've consumed all day is cereal with milk, a cup of green tea, a banana, and two pieces of free German candy.

Einradfahrer!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh my goodness. THIS is happening tomorrow, in MY CITY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRMraUbXv00&feature=related
But I'm not sure yet if I should go. It will be really cold tomorrow. It's also not a very close walk, and I don't have a bike yet. And there's a ticket price to attend. But that's so cool... And never in my life would I have been around that many other unicyclists at the same time in the same place... That's part of what would be so awesome.

WAIT, scratch that, I just very much pinpointed a bus with a route to Gewerbepark!... Ohh, efficient public transportation is a beautiful thing... Aghh, I must contain my excitement, and I must go!

*** Tips: Supermarket Lines ***

Here is another useful point of note for those of you who are considering coming to Germany for any amount of time long enough to require buying groceries.

In most Supermarkte here, the conveyor belt and racks of gum and candy will usually look familiar enough to, say, American grocery stores. What you might not see coming is that there will not be anybody there to pack your groceries for you. Do not, by any means, expect it as it happens in America (and in Great Britain, as I hear).

This will be your grocery checkout protocol:

1) HAVE YOUR WALLET/MONEY READY TO PAY.
2) Place everything on conveyor belt, as usual.
3) Wait for your turn at the cashier, as usual.
4) Option A: Grab as many €0.50 plastic grocery bags under the conveyor belt counter as you think you will need, and place on conveyor belt to be included in payment.
   - Option B: Have your backpack open and ready (option preferred by Yours Truly).
5) As soon as the cashier starts scanning, PACK LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW.
6) Continuing packing Like There Is No Tomorrow.

If you have successfully packed nearly everything by the time she tells you your sum, well done.

7) Pay and accept the change promptly, cleanly and efficiently -- which is much easier said than done.
8) Bid good day and be on your way, groceries in hand.

If you have NOT successfully packed nearly everything by the time she tells you your sum, you might be wondering why there is a need for all this hurry.

For the answer, all you need to do is glance behind you at two things: The long line of unamused German shoppers who already have the system down to an art and are now watching you fumble everything in a messy toss into your bags, and the rapidly-growing pile of the next person's groceries on your side of the scanner.

However, all of this stress and hassle can be easily avoided with the pre-arranged growth of two extra arms.

Vielen Glück!/Good Luck!

(On a more serious note, don't let all of this intimidate you. I'm just giving you a heads-up. If you're really living here, you will get used to it, and you'll get it with practice. But do keep this in mind once you start going out and shopping.)

"Ich Lerne Deutsch"

("I learn/am learning German")

For the month of September, all of us foreign exchange students are taking an intensive language course in German, basically so that when actual university classes start, we won't get run over quite as quickly or horribly by the new, overwhelming amount of German. (Um... we hope.)

All 70-80 of us took a placement test to see in which of the 4 levels we were all to be divided, which range from no German experience whatsoever to having a pretty darn good and conversational grasp of German. Luckily, I got slotted into the fourth and highest or "advanced" class.

We've had the same main teacher up until yesterday (I'm trying not to cry that she's gone now), because she had to leave before the course's end. Ergo, we had a new teacher starting yesterday, and everyone went around the room again to introduce his/herself, much like a first day of class. The usual stuff: Name, country of origin, years of German studied, major at university, etc.

What I now realized as of yesterday is that about 90% of my class has had about 8-11 years of German in school.

This was a very big but pleasant surprise. I have only had 3-4 years of German, only 1.5 of which were in actual German classes in school. And I'm in this class!!

I'm trying not to float to the ceiling with pride for myself.

(PS -- Let's just not talk about how Claudio from Italy has only had 2 years, and Jóse from Spain has only had 3 stonking months, both of who are also in my class. That's just unnatural. They are probably living freaks of Nature. That is incredibly fast language learning for not living in a country of that language. Or even living in that country, too.)

Der Rote Regenschirm - P.S.

By the way,

Herr Beckers, who took the nice photos of me and my red umbrella in the rain last week (see post: Evening on the Haidplatz: Der Rote Regenschirm, sits at the Goldenes Kreuz ("Golden Cross") Cafe on the Haidplatz every day from 6:00-7:00 PM.

Outside of traveling and illness, he has held this daily routine for 38 years.

Google Germany

Oh! I haven't mentioned this yet. When you try to go to www.gmail.com (Google Mail) here, this is the exact message that comes up on a blank white page, word for word:

We can't provide service under the Gmail name in Germany; we're called Google Mail here instead.

If you're traveling in Germany, you can access your mail at http://mail.google.com.

Oh, and we'd like to link the URL above, but we're not allowed to do that either. Bummer.

For general information about Google, please visit www.google.com or www.google.de.

I just think the plain "Bummer." part is so funny.

Putzen (Cleaning)

There's a cleaning lady (and sometimes the Hausmeister) who comes into my(/our) kitchen every Tuesday morning, presumably (and maybe Friday?). The way my suite is set up is that you walk straight into a kitchen, which has a door on either side that lead to my room and my suitemate's, respectively. So while she fortunately never does or has to come in my room, I do still hear her.

Also fortunately, I'm usually awake by the time she comes in, which tends to float around 7:45 AM. I'm sure most other students are not that lucky.

Once, I had the misfortune of having no idea why someone was in the kitchen and stepping out to investigate (my suitemate, if I have one, has not come yet because the official semester doesn't start until October). She was nice enough, but she got onto my case about not taking the trash out. She told me in half-broken German that it smelled (she appears to be of Indian or close by ethnicity). Frau Cleaning Lady, I just got here a week ago. I don't even know exactly how the German trash system works yet -- you must surely know that there are a big pile of recycling and sorting rules and that it's confusing even for Germans sometimes.

Anyway, that's probably why I never step out while she's here at all any more. I know it wasn't a big deal, but I sort of have a subconscious bad impression.

I went out to the kitchen today a little while after she left. Hey, what's this?? Wait, Frau Cleaning Lady.... I don't leave huge, speckled streak marks on my stove top when I clean it. Come to think of it, it didn't have streak marks when I cleaned it and went to bed last night!

I have to admit that I take some pride in doing a better job than the cleaning lady in keeping the kitchen well, even if only in this aspect so far. And YES, this is probably one of the cleanest kitchens in the entire building, thanks very much, I'll be backstage to sign autographs after the show.

On a different note, last Friday, almost to the point of supernatural punctuality (I guess this is Germany), was the very last day it was decently warm/summer. The day after, it went, "BAM." Cold. Even the weather doesn't mess around here. It's here or it's not, and it's punctual about it! Not like weather in the confounded southern US.... where the best it can sometimes be described is a fickle [female hound]. US southern weather likes to loll and float about uselessly during periods that I fondly refer to as Wing, Spummer, Sall and Fwinter.

Evening on the Haidplatz: Der Rote Regenschirm

(Der Rote Regenschirm = "The Red Umbrella")

It started raining yesterday in the early evening. Water was pouring heavily from the sky, but I took my umbrella, left my room, and walked around the Altstadt ("Old City," the main are of Regensburg where I live). My pant legs were very quickly drenched across the front, but I knew it would happen and had put on light pants that would dry easily later. The rain was heavy enough that my shoulders were sometimes lightly misted.

I went straight down Vor der Grieb and strolled down Untere Bachgasse, and then turned left towards Neupfarrplatz, past hurried scurriers and small clusters of people huddled under awnings and building fronts, waiting for a better chance to brave the rain. I went up Residenzstrasse to Krauterermarkt and stared up at the Dom. Eventually, I made my way to the Haidplatz right by my dorm, and I walked around it and stood for a good long while. It was so very nice. My pants were drenched but I wasn't cold, and I had a very relaxing time staring around the Haidplatz with the rain coming down all around me.

I walked another round. Then the second time I came to Haidplatz, an old German gentleman turned and walked up to me as I stood there, just as he was going to pass me, as if he had changed his mind about something.

(German)
"Servus!" He said to me.

"Servus!"

"I had made some pictures of You a little while ago, do You have an address to which I can send them?"

(*In German, you don't "take" pictures, you "make" them)

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, see?" He turns his digital camera on and angles the screen towards me as he scrolls through a handful of them. I can see the tiny image of myself against the street and buildings of the Haidplatz.

"Achso! Wie schön!"

"It was so nice and lovely, the little red umbrella against the gray background and buildings. I can send them to You, if you have an address."

"Yes, an e-mail address? I do have one. Um, I'm afraid I don't have any..."

"It's no problem, I have something to write on," He rummages through his shirt pockets and pulls out a pen and some business card. He hands them to me, and I jot down my e-mail.

I chuckled politely and said, "I'm sorry that I can't write it so well on here, it's a little bit difficult, so it might look messy."

"Oh, it's no problem, completely understandable in this situation."

"Here you go. Can You read that?"

He reads out my e-mail aloud in a German accent, then looks to me, and I nod and tell him that's exactly right. He smiled amiably and assured me that he would send them to me. I smiled amiably back and said, "Danke schön!" We bid each other a good evening and he left on his way down Vor der Grieb.

And later last night, he really did:


This is the e-mail he wrote to me with the pictures, as well as I can translate it:

Betreff: Haidplatz im Regen 12.09.08, 19:15

Verehrte Unbekannte,

hier die Fotos, die ich von Ihnen aus der Ferne (meinem täglichen Stammplatz ) in dieser nassen Atmosphäre "geschossen" habe...

Der mir so vertraute Platz, mit soviel Wasser von oben, alles Stein und steingrau, und Sie ganz solo, mit dem einzigen Farbfleck, - dem roten Regenschirm.....

Sie taten das, was ich in meinem bisherigen Leben bevorzugte: zu erleben, was zu erleben war, - ohne Rücksicht auf das "Drumherum"...

Wenn Sie jemals nach Cesky Krumlov / Tschechien kommen sollten: das ist für mich jedesmal ein Erlebnis, wie es offensichtlich für Sie heute der Haidplatz war.

Es freute mich, daß Sie für meine Geburtsstadt soviel Vorliebe ( =trotz Regen ) spüren...

Besten Gruß! Chr. Beckers

Subject: Haidplatz in the Rain 12.09.08, 19:15

Admired Stranger,

Here are the photos that I shot of You from afar (from my daily usual spot) in this wet, rainy setting...

To me, it was such a familiar place, with so much water pouring from above, everything stone and stone-gray, and You standing completely alone, with a single stain of color, - the red umbrella...

You did what I in my life up til now rather always liked to do: to experience what experience was, - without regards to all the "hubbub" and bustling all around...

If you should ever go to Cesky Krumlov/the Czech Republic: that is for me each time an experience just exactly as the Haidplatz was for you today.

It gladdens me to see that you seem to feel such affection for my birth town (in spite of the rain)...

All the best! Chr. Beckers

Fotos

Lots of pictures are up, with likely more to come as the days pass.
You can follow the link and see them all here:

Picasa Web Albums - Globejuggler
Comments welcome as usual. Enjoy.

Duschen

Thinking back on it, I wish I had remembered to take a picture of my old shower head. The shower heads here in my building are the kind that you can take off the wall and use as a sprayer.

On the first day I got here, Sanni showed me around a few places so that I could find what I might need. Then I went back to my room to take a shower, because traveling on three flights for two days is disgusting, among other things.

I tried to set it on its post. It was angled too far in, and sprayed towards the wall. So I gently pried it outward. It didn't want to. The shower head broke on my first day here. I tried my best to screw it back on, but the problem was that it was old, and the screw part was all but crumbling away.

The second day, it broke further yet, if you believe that's possible.

When you have problems, you write it on a little notebook downstairs for the Hausmeister (house master) to see. If it's a weekday, he'll get right to it pretty soon and come perform maintenance.

Since it broke for the second time on a Friday night, I showered with something more or less like a small garden hose for about 3-4 days.

I happen to find this hilarious.

(PS -- He did end up replacing the whole equipment, so fortunately, I do have a brand new, shiny shower head now.)

Evening on the Haidplatz: Edelweiss

Two evenings ago, I finished eating dinner and went out to practice poi on the Haidplatz, which is a square that's literally about 30 meters from my dorm. It was a nice, clear evening, one of many that we usually have these days. There are Italian restaurants and historic buildings and people walking around the Haidplatz at practically all hours. It's especially nice because the restaurants still have their outdoor tables setup for the summer, and there are candles lit on each of them until about 22-23:00 every night.

At around 19:00, I was poi-ing in front of a closed shop window. One reason that I go outside is because I have no full-length mirror in my dorm, so I go outside and use the reflection in shop windows to practice instead. A guy with a backpack and cap came up to me, and I stopped when he stood there as people do when they mean to approach you. He jokingly struck a Kung Fu pose, which I promptly returned, because I don't know a bit of Kung Fu, but that's what I do. He said hello and told me how he liked what I was doing. Somehow he got started into some detailed explanations of the martial arts, his involvement in them, what he has seen people do in them, etc.

Unfortunately, my German capabilities only picked up, ohh..... 30% of what he was saying (I'm trying not to cry). And he was talking quickly and conversationally and with complicated vocabulary. And the only reason why he continued is that I have a slightly higher capability of reading out what the proper response needs to be from the other person's intonation and body language. Some advanced form of, "Uh-huh." He was pretty into it, so I didn't really want to stop him. I did at least pick up that he lives locally in Regensburg, and that he often attends a martial arts club/gym in town. He said I was welcome to check it out sometime.

Partway through, he handed me a €0.20 coin as a tip, I guess. (If I get better, I intend to put out a hat one day anyway). He continued for a little longer, and then we finally said, "Tschüss!" and he went on his way. I started poi-ing once more, but after a few minutes, he suddenly popped around the corner and came up to me again. He held something small up and told me he wanted to give this to me. It was an Edelweiss, pressed and preserved inside a glass and bronze necklace ornament.

He looked at me and said (still German), "This is an Edelweiss. It's a flower from around here. They are said to bring luck. I want to give this to you. So I wish the best of luck to you, and keep on doing what you do!"


There's nothing romantic that occurred here. He was just a guy who was inspired by something and felt moved to return something back. And I was just some person standing on the corner of the Haidplatz, looking at an Edelweiss in my hand and wondering what had really just happened.

*** Tips: Traffic ***

Here's how it goes with crossing the street:

America:

• You are a pedestrian.
• You have the right of way.
• Cars will stop for you.
• Carry on.

Germany:

• You are a pedestrian.
• You do not have the right of way.
• Cars will not stop for you.
• You better darn well move out of the way unless you want the street sweepers to be peeling you off the road like a pancake.

Oh, yeah. And that bus is on a schedule. It's not stopping for you to cross the street, either.

Overall, everybody here gets the program and knows how it all works, though you might see some crossings that make most Americans gasp and twitch. But you should just keep in mind that while it's less organized than in the States, it still works. You'll have to get over the fact that jay-walking is often normal walking here.

Please, people. Just be safe and smart when you're crossing the street in other countries, and do very much look both ways (twice).

Mittagspause ("Midday Break")

If you've ever heard the stereotype about Europeans in certain countries, such as Spain, being laid back with time.... Well, it's completely true.

During this month-long intensive language course, we'll all have a 45 minute lunch break every day from 12:15-13:00 .

I usually eat lunch with Marie, a French girl, especially because we have class together, and are better friends with each other within the group. Every day, we typically find me walking at a steady but brisk pace towards the Mensa (the campus cafeteria) in order to make enough time to get there, eat at a comfortable speed, and back before class.

It would probably take me about 8-10 minutes to get to the Mensa, but usually we get there in 15.... because the Europeans I'm with are just not in a hurry. The daily scenario is that I'm a good few steps ahead and usually have to pause my pace every so often so that they can catch up (especially if they're talking).

Not surprisingly, the lack of the time invariably comes to them at a surprise by the time they've sat down with food at the Mensa. I'm done by the time they're halfway through, though we've all got perhaps 10 more minutes to both finish and get all the way back to class. They are shocked that so much time has already elapsed.

Marie tells me about the lunch breaks in France -- minimum of 1 hour, sometimes extending to around 2 hours. She finds it almost outrageous that we only have a 45 minutes lunch break. I don't find it outrageous, but I do find the whole thing kind of funny.

Oh. And let me mention the Spanish students:

Spanish students: "So when you need to go back to class?"
Us: "About 15 more minutes. What about you?"
Spanish students: "Ohh... now. Class started one minute ago." *shrug*

Literally. That was an actual conversation we had. *LOL* And you can bet they won't be back until another 15 minutes, too. I also might mention that Germans are big on punctuality, and consider tardiness to be very rude, so we'll see if this gets interesting further into the month at all!...

45 minutes, though not a great deal of time, is still plenty for me. 45 minutes for the French and Spanish, at least (I should talk to some of the other students and see what they think), is apparently something like writing your doctoral thesis in a week.