Time for reflections

Since I have some down time today, I figured it would be great to reflect on some German culture...

1) German Frühstück (breakfast)

This might just be European breakfast in general, but man do I love it. I dont know if Ill be able to go back to my daily bowl of Special K Red Berries cereal. Every morning is an overall smorgasbord. Involving some of my favorite foods: carbs, cheese, and Nutella. There is usually a big basket of Brötchen (rolls) and various things to put on it. Jelly, cream cheese, Nutella, cheeses, and meats. And boy is it all tasty. They also have eggs, but not the normal eggs Im used to. Theres no scrambled, sunny side up, or over easy. Just a hard boiled egg, but boiled only to the point that the outside is hard, but the yolk is still soft. Like a sunny side up still contained in its shell. Cant say I mind it, though I still havent perfected the art of cracking the top off with ease. One thing that I cant bring myself to try: they put yogurt in their cereal... with the milk. Call me old fashioned, but that just seems odd.

2) Kölsch

The local dialect in Köln (Cologne) is called Kölsch, but thankfully no one Ive been around really speaks to me with it. I think its considered too colloquial, its like the German Ebonics.

3) Cologne vs Dusseldorf

I was unaware of the somewhat friendly battle between Dusseldorf and Cologne, the two cities I decided to visit. The hatred is similar to the North vs South back home (minus slavery and a war) or Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees (instead of baseball add Fußball). They live on opposite sides of the Rhein River, they both have soccer teams, and they both claim to throw a pretty good Carnival.

4) German Greetings

If you wake up or go to sleep, you better say Guten Morgen/Nacht. Im not used to always greeting everybody, and since I like roam in and out of rooms as I please it was a little odd. The common shaking hands is out the door, at least after the first time you meet. Everyone hugs and does the little cheek to cheek thing, which is very cute. Im afriad Ive come off to some people as cold or awkward, but I didnt think this way of greeting would actually feel different.

5) German Musik

I hate to say it, but German Musik lives up to the American stereotype. Hausmusik, Trance, Schlager, etc. Some of it is good, but its so funny to listen to in general. If its not the popular American artists (which make a large appearance in the radio and on TV) then its this.

I think thats enough for now, go figure my largest section is on food...

UMLAUTS!!!

Ive been spending the past two days with Simone in Hochneukirch. Its a small town between Dusseldorf and Cologne. I like it here, what I like most is that Im finally typing on a real German keyboard!!! Which has some minor differences that actually make a big deal. That is why Im not putting any apostrophies in my words, because it would probably take me twice as long to write this post in attmepts to re-teach myself how to type. But it has all the characters with umlauts!! So, in order to fully utilize this equipment, Im going to have to tell you some useless info.

My train arrived in Jüchen on Thursday.
We went to a Agrentinian restaraunt that night for Simones birthday. I had some of the best salmon ever. Our waiter was not very hübsch or schön.
...ÄÜÖß!!!

Anyway, yesterday was my first day of German high school (aka- Gymnasium, which gets very confusing). The German school system overall puzzles me, and almost makes me thankful for No Child Left Behind and SOLs. By the 5th grade or something your performance is already the determining factor of where youll go. Gymnasium (good) or Realschule (not as good). Dont ask me what happens from there, because my head might explode. All I know is that its hard. And the teachers are not as readily available for help as they are back home. Therefore, its all on the parents. Which is why its so common to have stay at home moms here, moreso than the US. Its good to get the parents active in their childs schoolwork, but I dont know if I could work as hard as Caroline does for Nicolina and Oscar.

I actually went to English twice, once with Simone and a second time with her friends. Simone had Math next and I was not about to torture myself. I already dont understand math when spoken in English. German Math?? No thank you.

The most exciting (and humiliating) part of the day was when I went to play Prellball with Simone. Prellball is this neat sport in Germany, which reminded me very much of Volleyball. The basic rules are similar, but that by no means gave me a leg up. Two teams of three or four hit the ball with the bottom soft part of their fist. It must hit your side of the court before it goes over (maximum of three times) and you can only hit it once. Its difficult to explain or even fathom such a sport, thats why video proof is needed.

Me playing Prellball.

Sorry I didnt actually have a real video of me playing Prellball, that would be extremely boring. This is the best video I could find, there arent many on YouTube. But I think you get the idea.

Thankfully when I played it was when Simone helps coach the 8-11 year old team. Yes, I played with small children and still did horribly. That is why we dont have any real documentation.

Warning: this post contains my immaturity

I've been running back and forth since yesterday between Simone in Hochneukirch and the university Fresenius here in Cologne. Fresenius was really neat, the students are the same as any other school. The professor was great too and the whole class was taught in English (score!). One thing that they had that definitely blew me out of the water (ha!)... bumper boats.

C'mon VCU, time to step your game up.

But my main highlight was finally being able to meet up with Simone! In case you don't know, Simone is the daughter of a man who worked with my Dad. Simone came and stayed with me and my family in VA about... 3 years ago. But it seems like just yesterday. I'll be staying with her from Thursday to Sunday, but she invited me to a play ("zehn nach acht" aka: ten after eight) that her friend was performing in so I decided to join.

Her friends are exactly like mine back home, so it made me a bit homesick. The play was good, although I couldn't understand much you can get the ideas from their emotions and whatnot. Then we went to...

McDonalds!!!!

And, I cannot believe it, but their hamburgers are legit smaller than ours. I'm not even kidding. Here:

That's their burgers in relation to my fist. I now realize that I should have turned my fist over, because right now it looks like some kind of freakish flesh colored worm. I also realize this is still not a good indication of how small a burger it is, since most people don't know the size of my hand. But trust me, it's not that big.

I also walked by this yesterday and I apologize in advance for the language. I tried to keep this blog as G rated as possible, but this is too good to pass up...

Yay for Japanese tour buses!!!

On that note: I am unsure how much I well get to blog while I'm with Simone, since I will not bring my laptop and won't want to constantly pester her over using her computer. Hope you all can survive, I don't know if I can!

Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta

Today's adventures included a difficult task that i have been meaning to conquer for some time. Graffiti hunting. I managed to take some pictures; some good, most bad.




Pictures 1, 3, and 4 are of the same building that was previously inhabited by homeless teenagers. Although I can't make out everything, I'm going to hope that the black/white blob in the final picture is a panda with really big teeth.

Caroline told me a neat story about a man who graffitied a banana on people's homes or galleries that he found important in art. After that, everyone wanted a banana on their building! More info on banana man (aka: Thomas Baumgartel) here.

I went to Galeria Kaufhof with Caroline and her friend Christine. Caroline had to pick up new cookware, I was just along for the ride. But Christine ended up buying me a new pair of awesome red sandals. It was really sweet and she totally won my heart.

But no one can win my heart as fast as Pluto. The best Schnauzer ever.

"Guten Tag, Welt!"

Chateau de Linnenberg

I realized I never posted any pictures of Uli and Caroline's place and where I get the privilege to stay...












Sike! This is a sweet mansion (obviously) in Bruhl (just imagine an umlaut on the "u" and you've got it). They used to hold lavish parties here with the Bundesprasident, lots of important people, and a state guest. The state guests have been everyone from Reagan, Queen Elizabeth, and Pope John Paul (when he came, it was the first Pope visit since the Middle Ages!!!).

My favorite part? The list of food restrictions for the chefs. Ronald Reagan was allergic to raw tomatoes.

You also get to hang out with these cool guys...

Poor Oscar, I made him be a tourist too.

Musik!

I also forgot, yesterday was more adventures in the land of German music. The German History Museum had a new exhibition on German "Schlager" music, which is unlike anything we have here. And it's hilarious to listen to... here is a sample.

Udo Juergens- Du trinkst zuviel

And all schlager sounds like this.

Also, Marleh played for me German Hausmusik, which is like techno but with words. Even if it's just the same sentence. Like Die mit dem roten Halsband.

The past two days have been very action packed!

First, on Friday, I visited Stefan's school for the second time for the Journalism Writing Class and Stefan's Photoshop class. In German newspapers, you're allowed to write in the past tesne! Which was such a hard habit for me to drop in my writing class, since we write all in present. So I thought that was very interesting. And Stefan's Photoshop class was fun and the easiest to follow, since computers are the same no matter where you go. But since I'm taking a graphics class in the fall, perhaps I will be ahead of the class a bit. We'll see.

I also went to the top of the Koln Triangle, a building that was taller than the Dom but after many complaints it was lowered three stories. You can see everything from there, when I spotted this:

Was?

Apparently, this wall is a part of the Alpine Climbing... club thing... so we decided to get a closer look...

While we were walking to the free climbers, Stefan pointed out that this view is very popular in many postcards, but I already knew this...

Oh snap! A picture in a picture!

Stefan also took me to a very neat Webdesign art show. I sadly don't have any pictures to prove this statement, but trust me, it was sweeeetttt.

Saturday I met up with Stefan and Beate to go to the German History Museum in Bonn, which I can't remember if that is the official name (I doubt it is). They had on display JFK's notecards for his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. Speaking of Berliners...

Mmmm!! Oh JFK, you silly man.

AND! I finally got my chocolate mousse cake. Take that Paul and Kurt!


After that I hung out with Marleh for the rest of the night. I found out that German girls hate Heidi Klum (!!!!). Or at least Marleh and her friend Julie do. So I'm am going to make a broad assumption based on two people's opinions.

Ok, one more funny thing I need to point out before I go. Cologne has really thought of everything for visitors. Wish you had a beach to go to? No problem! Go to a Beach Club!

Sand + The Rhine = a beach.
(And if you look in the background, you can see the Dom!)

I don't know about you guys, but these tropical baskets totally had me fooled.