Die große deutsche Abenteuer!

For your information....

2008-08-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

...my blog has moved. If you'd like to stay abreast of current events in my life, please direct your attention to
redhawkchemist.blogspot.com
Hope you like it!
Jon

Epic Tragedy

2008-07-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader,

Amidst various other things that have been going on lately, I have still been taking time to enjoy good beer in good company, especially as things draw so close to the end. Each sip is homage to a semester of memories marinated in German beer just as tender horse fillets are brined in Rheinische Sauerbraten.

Many of you may remember the schenanigans of my birthday, where a group of my amigos and I purchased a keg of fine brew from our favorite restaurant, Bönnsch, to commemorate the occasion. The opening of the vessel was a flop, considering there was no adequate blunt instrument to batter the tap in, and my improvisation of smashing into a burm resulted in me taking a malt beverage shower.

Well, I always like adventure to come full circle, so a number of us set out last thursday to retrieve once again such a keg from Brauhaus Bönnsch. This time I was thinking ahead, and I, uh, organised a mallet from the Chemistry Department tool drawer in order to properly prepare the festivities of the evening. After having haulled ten liters of liquid satisfaction across a city of 300,000 and receiving numerous invitations to leave my keg behind for the good of another party, we arrived at the safe haven of Am Wichelshof, a student dorm occupied by a friend of mine. The keg was placed on the table, the tap in place, and my whole body was trembling in nervous anticipation as I prepared to deliver a fatefull blow. I finally worked up the courage and *thud* the tap was driven into the socket. A sigh of relief, well-earned, was sighed, and I righted the keg and prepared to unleash the first white plastic cup of foam covered glory.

BUT LO!!!! I turned the knob on the tap, and nothing came out but a lazy stream of clear fluid. Not beer. Not honey-colored, fermented tastiness of the gods. But water. I had purchased a keg that was filled with water.

Nothing good be done...it was too late to walk back with the keg and get a new, so we just ran to a story and got back-up beverage. The next day, however, I was destined to get my money back. I marched into Bönnsch keg in arm and planted it firmly on the counter. The man who sold me the keg was there, and he asked me if it was good. "Try for yourself," I told him (auf Deutsch, natürlich), which he did, filling up a beer mug with foul, non-beer dihydrogen monoxide. He laughed. Hard. And brought other people to show them. He was still laughing when he returned all my money to me. His humor diffused my wrath, fortunately for him, and out of revenge I spent 15 euro at the restaurant drinking beer and eating pretzels....

Revenge is sweet.

Back to the States on Thursday...keep your eyes peeled!

Peace,

Jon

Who are your heros?

2008-07-16T02:33:00.000-07:00

Socialistic vent courtesy of Jon Paretsky.

If you've been following world news, you're probably aware that Israel and Hezbollah of Lebanon have been in negotiations regarding exchanges of prisoners and bodies. According to CNN, Hezbollah turned over the remains of two Israeli airmen who were captured a couple summers ago, sparking the brief yet violent war between Israel and Lebanon. In return, Hezbollah will welcome home the bodies of 199 Lebanese rebels and a prisoner who is a hero to them. Israel is definitely getting the short end of the stick, which Hezbollah views as a victory.

Lebanon is joyfully welcoming back its fallen sons and hero, Kuntar. But why is Kuntar a hero? Because he went into Israel in '78 as part of a Palestinian Liberation Front movement, killed a police officer, and then took a hostage a twenty-eight your old man and his four year old daughter. He shot the man dead at close range in front of his daughter and then smashed in the little girl's head with his rifle butt. The death of a two year old girl who suffocated as her mother tried to stop her from crying is also attributed to him.

And he's a hero.

What kind of hero is glorified by the blood of children? What kind of society celebrates that? If you have such hate in your heart that you can take satisfaction in the murder of the young of your enemies, then you have no place in this world, damnit.

That's just my opinion.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/16/israel.swap/index.html

It's more than a feeling

2008-07-13T04:18:00.000-07:00

Ah! I hate this feeling of limbo that comes with the inevitable closing of a chapter of my life. There's so much here that I have yet to do or see, and so many goodbyes I need to make in the next week, and some of it's just not going to happen. Life goes on without closure, but it gives me no satisfaction. I actually have a bit of academic stress for this coming week, the first such period all semester. (The "study" part of "study abroad" was a little ficticious ...) I have three oral exams and a significant paper to right about my chemistry experiences, a bit to write in German. And I just want to have one more bierchen with all the people that I met and grew to love as friends and family away from home.

I'll be coming home soon, and it will be fantastic to see my family and the people I love from back home, but I'm going to put myself through an emotional meat grinder until I step out of the plane onto American soil on July 24th...

Where the Hell is Matt

2008-07-08T17:02:00.001-07:00

Found this video on YouTube today, thanks to an article in the New York Times. It really really appealed to me, so I thought I'd share it with the rest of you!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/arts/television/08dancer.html?ex=1373256000&en=51374caabe07921e&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Hope you have good internet connections...

I was hungry and you fed me...

2008-07-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

Your boy holding down the East Side Gallery, a painted section of the Berlin Wall

As I was walking out of the grocery store this evening, I was beckoned by an old man who was standing in the same place I had seen him when I first got there. As I approached, he mumbled something to me about food, rubbed his thumb and forefinger together in the symbol for cash, and generally gave the impression that he needed something to eat but didn't have money. I told him I couldn't help him and started walking to my bike which was about four meters away. In the few seconds it took me to get there, I had a massive internal debate, and instead of unlocking my bike, I pulled out a twenty cent roll and a thirty cent banana from my backpack and walked back to the man. I handed him the food, and he said something to me that I couldn't understand, and then asked if I was sure, that if I had enough for myself. I told him it was fine, shook his hand and walked away.

For those of you have been keeping up on my experiences here, dealing with beggars is a recurring theme in my personal development. My justification for giving him the food that I did is as follows: a) it's food. It's not like he can take it and buy himself drugs with it. b) I gave him about fifty cents worth of food. Even if he was scamming me, I only lost fifty cents c) on the same token, if he really did need the food, that fifty cents went a long way. d) I have plenty of food, and I wasn't going to starve without what I've given out.

Looking at from another angle, I could just be enabling his behavior. I have talked to a few people about this, and my understanding is that Germany has a really good infrastructure for taking care of people who lose their jobs, and that if you're on the streets, it's your own fault. In that grain of thought, I gave this man an opportunity just to continue taking advantage of a system. Even taking that into consideration, I feel as though it's justifiable so long as there's the possibility the man actually needed food.

A ran headlong into a glass door today...it's a divider between the chemistry office and a sideroom where we have a kitchenette and a long table. The door is always open, and I didn't realize that someone had closed until *bam* Jon loses...

Last Friday, my wallet took a suicidal leap out of my pants pocket while I was running across the road. Do to the noiseless nature of the incident, I didn't notice until I was safe and sound in my dorm room, quite a ways a way. The realization of the loss of my beloved traveling companion-- who had followed close to my behind through Liége, Maastricht, St. Andrews, Berlin, and everywhere else I've been in the past few years-- gripped my spine with icy fingers. Jake and I retraced our steps back to the city, but it wasn't to be found. I had lost all of my money and capability of getting money, as will as most forms of identification. I tried not to let it get me too down, which was a bit of a challenge, and went on with the days events, trying to figure out how to live on fifteen euros for the next few days until I could figure something out.

Too my surprise, I got a message on the German equivalent of Facebook from a woman who had found my wallet on the road, intact, with everything still in it. She gave me her contact information, we got in touch, and on Sunday I went and picked it up from her and her husband. I feel incredibly blessed...the probability of that happening is ridiculous, especially considering it's happened to me before, only with my six hundred dollar camera when I first got to Germany. It's really cool that there's such honest people out there.

That's it for now, I'm going to go clean my room. I leave you some pictures of recent events.
Peace!

Jon

The house where Karl Marx grew up in (Trier, Germany)

The Brandenburger Gate in Berlin

More good looking architecture in Berlin

The thing I miss the most about America, you may be surprised, is not my family, friends, or girlfriend. It is, in fact, Mexican food, which you can't find much of here. However, Jake, Jessica and I found a California Burrito restaurant in Berlin, which ranks among the top ten moments of satisfaction I have had while "studying" abroad. I almost cried. Seriously. Okay, so maybe not more than my family and etc., but you know what I mean...

The sunset as seen through my window as I was making this entry.

In regards to mortality....

2008-06-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

A few days ago a close friend of my sister named Tobin was killed in a car accident. According to reports I've heard from back home, the vehicle he was in was struck by another that ran a red light. He lost his life instantly.

I'd like to ask you to take a moment to think about it, in homage of Tobin. Think about your family members who loves you and your friends who care for you. Tobin had so much left to do in his life, so much potential that he had not yet manifested, a world to discover, and had captured the hearts of many people who knew him. Why him, why now? Why not someone else who already had their share of the world? Why anyone at all? Answers that you won't be able to find; somethings just are the way they are.

So hold tight the ones you love, appreciate the opportunities you have, and never forget that there's never a day more important than the one you're experiencing right now. We have so many blessings that we overlook.

Rest in peace Tobin, you will be missed.

Nach Berlin!

2008-06-16T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everbody, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be incommunicado for the next six days. I am travelling to Berlin through my exchange program, where I will stay in a hostel with sixty or so of my fellow exchange students. We'll be partaking in at least one structured event per day, and for your enjoyment I present to you what we'll be seeing: Wednesday

Driving tour of Berlin
Monument of the Murdered Jews

Thursday

Tour of the Museum on Normannenstraße, original headquarters of State Security of East Germany (the Stasi) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staatssicherheit#Museum_in_the_old_headquarters for more infos...

Friday

Tour of Castle Sanssouci and free time in Postdam

Saturday

Walk through the Reichstag
Museum visit of our choice from the Germany History Museum, Jewish Museum, and Pergamonmuseum (Islamic Museum)

Tuesday and Sunday will be consumed by the 8 hour bus ride, and then through out the week we get a lot of free time to get out and enjoy Berlin on our own. I'm really looking forward to this adventure... I've heard so much about the city, I want to get out and experience it myself.

And that's that. I'll be sure to post you guys when I get back and let you know all the sweet things I did and saw :)

Anyway you want it, that's the way you need it!

2008-06-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

What's this? What are we looking at? Man, it looks like a concert photograph...but who could have Jon possibly seen in concert last night, Monday the 10th? Who would have a stop in Cologne during their world tour? It was definitely Journey, on their 33rd year of touring, and they still had it going on. I think that my three friends and I brought down the average age of concert-goers by about twenty years...at least three quarters of the people were middle-age, bearded, and wearing faded, black Journey t-shirts. (half of them were women...Journey attracts an interesting crowd. Apparently their on their third lead singer, who is a forty-year old dude from the Philipines, but he looked like he could have been seventeen. I thought it was joke when he first came on stage, but as soon as he started singing, nobody cared anymore...he was incredible! There was a throng of little Asian women next to me who were freaking out about him, and a couple of bald Dutch dudes on the other side freaking out about how hardcore Journey still is, and there I was in the middle, not about to stop believing ; )

I've been really sapped for motivation lately...I think opart of it has to do with the either oppressivley hot or depressively gloomy we've been alternating between. Or it could have to do with my low average nightly hours of sleep...hmmm. Fortunately I don't have a whole lot I need to do, and I'm content with that. One of my friends told me today that we only have 41 days left in Germany...I can't believe it. In fact, I don't want to think about it right now. Thema Wechsel... In a little less than a week I will be travelling to Berlin with the other exchange students for a group exkursion through our International Center. I'm really, really excited...it sounds like we have a fair amount of structured stuff to see while we're there (i.e. planned tours, events, etc...) and then evenings free. That's good by me; I wan to see as much as a I can! We will be their from the 17th to the 22nd, so hopefully I'll have a lot to say after I get back. The weekend afterwards I am making plans to go to Dijon, France, to visit my friend Coraline, former language assistant at Ripon College. I haven't been to France yet, and I'm thrilled to see something new and slightly unusual (i.e.: something other than Paris, which I have no doubt is incredible, but it's fairly common).

Yesterday at work I was struck with how I have one of the coolest jobs...literally ;) Oh, work = chemistry, by the way...it's kind of the simplest way to categorize it. Anyways, I do a lot of work with liquid nitrogen. We have to use it in conjunction with the high-vacuum pump to freeze the moisture traps to prevent fluids from getting sucked into the machine. At -321 ºF, it's rather frigid, and if you're not careful it can condense oxygen out of the air in sealed containers, which will can cause explosions when it comes back to room temperature. Fantastic! Which reminds me about how dangerous chemistry can be, too. For example, I was working with elemental Bromine on Monday, and the safety data indicates that skin contact results in deep, painful wounds. *thumbs up* I wonder just how dangerous it is to be a history major...

The European Soccer Championship has started, which means that lots of Germans are really, really, really excited. It's a really cool feeling...although I didn't watch Germany's first game on sunday, I could hear it all over the place. Everybody goes out dressed in Germany colors (black, red, and yellow) and drapes themselves in Germany flags. The city just bursts out in mutual cheers and groans that give you a good idea of the progress of the game. As it stands, I can hear people cheering for the game that's running right now...I don't know who's playing, but it's not Germany...they're not on until Thursday night, and I'm not going to miss it!

I've been having really intense cravings for pie lately...I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because summer is the time of year when I usually do most of my kitchen activities, considering I usually don't have access when I'm not at home. Maybe it's because pie doesn't really seem to be as big of a thing here...there are plenty of delicious looking baked goods, but nothing that is satisfying my desire for apple pie or rhubarb and strawberries. That's another thing...we have this amazing market here that has fresh fruit and veggies everyday. Strawberries are in season, and they're harvested only about 10 km from here. So if anyone wants to send me a pie, get in touch... ;)

All right, that's it for now. I'm going to try and go occupy myself with other things than staring at a computer screen. I send my love. -Jon

A Taste of Spain

2008-06-02T14:43:00.001-07:00

All right, I really am not going to write anything significant about Granada if I put it off longer, so this is what I'm going to do...a selection of the three hundred photos I have from the weekend. I hope you enjoy! By the way, the Alhambra was a palace built by a muslim king for his favorite wife way, way back in the day. You'll see.

Yours truly mopping the brow after a last minute run to catch the train to the airport.

The lovely establishment where Ruz and I spent the night before our early morning flight.

The lovely provisions we brought ourselves.

That which almost prevented us from leaving Germany due to the suspicions of a curious German security guardess.

Spain at last!

The view from our hostel window.

Our sweet living arrangements! A room shared with two adults ; )

A view of Granada coming down from the Alhambra.

One of several pictures taken of us by a Belgian couple we met at a restaurant. There was one with Rachel smiling, but I couldn't make that out from the thumbnail images. She really was happy : )

A picture of Ms. Resop from within the Alhambra.

One of the various large structures composing the Alhambra palace complex.

A view of Granada from the Alhambra...breathtaking!

Another picture of us...go plaid shorts in Spain!

Cool picture of a bell tower taken by Rachel.

The Alhambra at night...Rachel and I tried finding a good vantage point to get the sunset, but we failed miserably...to compensate we found a hill above the city which gave us a great view of the palace. Pretty sweet.

Dude who sat across from me on the train ride home.

The Resop sisters on the following weekend when Rachel Came back to Germany.

And that's it...maybe sometime soon I'll write some more of the stories, but I wanted something to give you a taste of what my travels had been like.

Peace.

J

There's no berg like Heidelberg

2008-05-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

All right, an earlier adventure of this week...a day trip to Heidelberg! Please don't miss my adventures to Koblenz and Winningen in the post below ; )

On Wednesday the 21st there was an academic holiday that was essentially an exposition of the university, so there were no classes. Our exchange program scheduled for us a trip to the city of Heidelberg, which is about three hours south and east of here by the bus. The ride there was pretty uneventful...I hadn't slept much the night before, and I tried to nap as much as I could on the way.

We arrived in the city around 11 and immediately started a guided tour that would last about 2.5 hours...ugh. It was interesting, but it was definitely too much, especially because I really didn't want to listen to people complain as we were walking up stairs to see a castle. The ruins there are the largest in Germany, if I am correct, or at least they're really, really big. It's such a cool thing to see...I know this is a recurring theme in my entries, but we just don't have anything quite like this back home.

Castle with people for perspective.

So the castle was struck with lightning way back in the day, and it started a fire that eventually ignited the gunpowder stores underneath this tower, and the dramatic effects are pretty obvious, I think. Take a look at just how thick those walls are!

A 220,000 L wine keg in the castle cellar. mmmm....

The city of Heidelberg was actually very, very pretty. It's nestled in between the hills and a river (one that's not the Rhein), and is the one of the few cities its size that wasn't damaged in WWII (in contrast to Koblenz). Much of the architecture there is still hundreds of years old, and the university in Heidelberg is the oldest in Germany. After our city tour we made our tracks on the streets and set out to find some much needed food. We ended up at a classy café, and I had my first cheeseburger, excluding McDonalds, which doesn't count, since leaving home. It was actually very, very good. They knew what they were doing. Jake and I split from the group after eating and walked around the city on our own. We stopped in some churches and the university library, and in general tried not to get too warm, considering how hot and humid it's been lately.

A statue dedicated to the chemist whose namesake is attributed to a common laboratory heating device. That's the only clue you get!

Towards the end of the day, the two of us ended up at a small brewery in the downtown area. There we indulged ourselves in fresh beer and I personally added a pretzel to the snack, which was very refreshing at the end of the day. Part of the adventure, though, was the man at the table next to us who noticed that we were speaking in English. It turned out that he also was from America, Virginia to be specific. He had a massive accent which came out while he was telling us about his experiences living on the army base in Mannheim. He was so awkward though...you could just tell he was on a different wavelength than the rest of us. The man would say something and then just stare at us, even though his thought wasn't complete yet. It seemed as though he felt he was doing us a service by telling us the only way to learn German was to live in the country for a while, which was belied by the fact his German was not that good, at least his pronunciation was atrocious. His advice would have been really meaningful had I not already been living in Germany. *sigh* it kind of makes me nervous that there's people out there like that, and I'm entrusting the security of my country in their hands. Oi.

Shortly thereafter we left Heidelberg to return to our fair Bonn. The bus ride home featured more of me sleeping, and a group of people playing charades, which I really could have done without.

The next day, Thursday, my friend Arielle from Ripon (well, Skokie, but we go to school together) came to visit. She was staying with her sister and sister's German boyfriend, Sven, in Düsseldorf. The three of them came down for the day to see Bonn, and I met up with them for coffee and a walk around the city. It was really nice to see a good friend from back home in my city (yes, it's mine ;) Her sister and Sven were really friendly, and we had a good time bumming around. Following in suit with the adventures in Heidelberg, we encountered another dude who noticed us talking in English. He really was a dude, even though he looked like was about 50 or 60. He talked with a drawl and would interject the word "man" into his speech wherever he could. He was from the D.C. area, but apparently grew up in Colorado. Our new friend, Steve, was very excited to hear that Sven was a German, and did nothing but fulfill all the stereotypes that people have of Americans. He spoke loudly, fast, about nothing intelligent, and seemed to form a fast bond with us even though he didn't know us at all. Not to sound stand-offish or anything, he just wasn't very tactful in his conversation, and fortunately we were able to escape him after a short conversation.

And that's that, but more to come of the two weeks previous...maaan.

Shalom

Jon

Rain drops keep falling on my head...

2008-05-31T08:23:00.001-07:00

Oh mon dieu, it's been a long time since I have written in here...about three weeks I believe since the last significant entry. It's been a fairly eventful chunk of time, I must say, which means I have a lot I can write about, a lot that I've forgotten about, and my major excuse for not publishing anything earlier.

First, just to put you guys at ease, I did get my hair cut. I walked into Frankie's Römer Friseur (Frankie's Roman Hair Salon) with a picture of myself after a fresh haircut and told him I wanted my hair done as such. I think he did a fairly good job, at the very least I was content with the way it turned out, and that's what's important. I also have a slightly different beard variation, nothing too exciting, but I'm feeling refreshed and renewed to endure the summer heat.

For the sake of the clarity of my memory, I'm actually going to start with more recent events, and then work my way backwards. Yesterday my friend Jake and I took a train ride down to the nearby city of Koblenz. The name is derived from latin confluenza, which as you may guess would mean confluence in Enlgish, as the city is at the point where the Mosel River flows into the Rhein. I was pretty excited to go, considering it's prime wine country in Germany, but I muss confess that I was a little disappointed once I got there. We didn't have a specific plan of what we wanted to do, but even just walking around, there wasn't a whole lot to see. The city was flattened during WWII and was rebuilt ASAP right afterwards, so much of the architecture is very utilatrian. None the less, there was still some classic German buildings which were pretty cool.

One of the unique parts of Koblenz is the Deutsche Ecke, or German Corner, which is right where the two rivers meet. There's an enormous monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I there, which is pretty impressive to see in person, although the throngs of children that were there on a tour detracted from it a bit...which was kind of the problem with Koblenz. There was always something that detracted from a real cool sight, whether it be a group of cyclists standing in front of you, power beer stands next to a monument, or trucks in front, well, pretty much everything. It turns out that they were gearing up for a festival and a marathon, so it was a little atypical, but I am not enticed to go back to the city at all.

The Kaiser Wilhelm I Monument, compete with....tent and power box?
Oh, and click the picture to enlarge it, you can see a man standing in the monument, which gives you a good idea of the scale. It was huge.

One of the neat parts about Koblenz, though, is that the geography there is considerably different to what it's like by me, only 45 min up the Rhein. It's very hilly down there, and there are castles and castle ruins all along the slopes on the river banks. It's such a cool sight, one that you really wouldn't see in America.

After bumming around for a while, Jake and I made are way to the village of Winningen, which his father had explored on an earlier trip here. Stepping out of the trainstation there was like walking into a different world. It was full of tiny old houses on the slopes of a hill. The streets were narrow, and vines stretched across the streets to link the houses on either sides. It was fantastically beautiful. Some houses had the bottoms of barrels imbedded in the wall, indicating that wine was produced or sold there. And that's what the village was all about: wine. It was really obvious, though, that tourists weren't common around these parts, but people were still very friendly to us on the streets.

Jake and I walked around soaking it in for a while, than afterwards we stopped in at our first wine house, which had terrific atmosphere. The room we were in was opened to the outdoors, and the wooden walls were covered with vines. We sat at a table next to a group of cyclers, and were stared at throughout the time there by the people sitting behind us. The English speaking definitely made us stick out, but that was okay because we were there for the wine, which turned out to be just as good as everything else in Winningen.

We had a glass and a plate of bread and cheese and thenmoved down to another wine house down the road, which was setup kind of like a garden with tables in it, complete with massive rabbits in hutch on oneside ; ) The wine there was even better than at the first place we stopped, although service was slow enough to bore a snail. We probably would have had at least another glass a piece if our waitress came around more often, but it just didn't happen. While we were there, it started to rain pretty hard, and all the tables under cover got taken pretty quickly, so Jake and I just moved our chairs under the overhang and scooted a plastic crate in between and continued our wine sampling. I tell you, Mom, there's nothing like drinking Mosel Riesling in the Mosel River Valley. It's pretty damn cool.

The final stop.

And that's about it...we hopped on the train and headed home, which took much longer than it should have because of poor weather, I believe. It was probably one of the more worthwhile days that I had here, though, and definitely the best in terms of amount of satisfaction per euro. I would be very disappointed if I didn't make it back there before I went home.

Okay, that's it for this post, stay tuned for the next! Much love.

Jon

Don King is my hairstylist....

2008-05-20T15:41:00.001-07:00

How far I've come....

2008-05-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

I had the realization this morning that I just crossed the two month mark in Germany....it's incredible to think of time going by so fast. The next three months are going to whiz by, especially judging from my experience of doing a summer program in another city. It's not a thought that I relish, because I'm really not going to enjoy leaving this place behind when I step aboard the plane July 24th. All that aside, I thought I'd take a moment to go over some of the impressions that I that I have of my current situation in life.

Schnitzel - I'm not sure what I'm going to do in a country where schnitzel is not a consistently available dietary item. There's some days where I think to myself, "Jon, it's been a long day, you should really get yourself a schnitzel." And then it happens. There's schnitzel in front of me, and the world is in order again. Today was one of those days. Thank you schnitzel.
Failed German Stereotypes - I cannot say enough how off American stereotypes of Germans are. Beer, pretzels, lederhosen, polka, kraut, sausage. Yes, sausage dishes are more common here than in American, and maybe so is kraut. You can, indeed, purchase pretzels bakeries. And beer is pretty significant. But man, if you really think that's what defines the German people, you need to get over here (and not go to Bavaria) and find out with this country is about.
The Mullet - Sweet mother of all that is holy. Disgusting. And it's here. And it's popular. I think I vomited a little bit in my mouth. It is the hip hair style within a certain sector of people here, and it's horrifying. It's not what you think of when the word mullet skips across your neurons... it's a stylized, gelled, multi-colored monstrosity that rests upon people's heads and makes me cringe when I walk through the streets. I try to be accepting and open-minded, but it's so hard to think that mullet could actually be viewed as an attractive thing. (Note: No comments about my own hair, which has seen no cutting instrument in the past two and a half months. This baby's on a roll...)
Beer - German beer is really good, there's just no getting around that fact. And it's cheap. Dollar per unit volume of beer, you get a much better deal here, especially for the quality of malted beverage you receive. So-so German beer is like good quality American beer, with a few exceptions. All that withstanding, I must say that my favorite beer here is Newcastle, which is not German. But overall, German beer is grade A.
Bonn - Is gorgeous. I love the way this city looks, and from my understanding it's not even all that spectacular in comparison with other German cities. It's so green and verdant, I can't help but feel that it energizes my personality. It's definitely not the forests and lakes of the Northwoods, but it has a distinct charm and elegance of it's own. Two paraphrase the Emperor's New Groove, when the sun hits the city right, it sings. Or maybe that's just me.
Old architecture - A little more universal. The old buildings and structures around here are really cool, and they allude to a history and tradition that is much older and much more established than those back home.

The language - I love the language here, and it's simultaneously one of my biggest joys and my crippling frustration. German is a really cool way of communicating...the way it sounds and the way you use it are just really satisfying. Granted, it my not sound as silky and seductive as French, and it doesn't have the ridiculous vocabulary of English (we're huge). On that last point, German may not have an established word for every thing in English, but you can use existing stems, pre/suffixes to convey a remarkable amount of information.
But it's so damn hard! I feel like my personality evaporates half the time I talk in German because I can't act like Jon Paretsky...I'm too busy trying to figure out if I know the verb the expression of my thought requires. The program I'm really enables me to make the most of having American friends, which doesn't not increase my German skill. I use German with a few friends, in the classroom, and definitely in the lab...but everyone who I have communicated with can use English better than I can use German. My chances of becoming fluent while I'm here are around nill, but I'm definitely gaining an appreciation for the Sprache, language.

America - Oh America. There's too many thoughts associated with the name of my home country, it's kind of like (4th of July) fireworks in my head. Some good, some bad, a lot of in between. A lot of it being the way it is. I'm very proud of being an American, but I think it's in the way that anyone is proud of being from the country of their birth. One thing that astounds me here is how little people really know about American people (look who's talking, I just wrote about how little we know about Germans, but bear with me if you please (or bare with me, if you feel like streaking (oh English...))).

What is my nationality? American, obviously. But what is my ethnic heritage? German, Norwegian, Polish, English. Uh, no American in there. I have cousins in Israel. My friend Jessica von Hertsenberg (also American), strong German ancestry (go figure...), as with Jake Eschenberg, Jennifer Brussow. My girlfriend, Rachel Resop, has Polish ancestry, and my buddy Bryan Nell also German and Norwegian. Some of my great grandparents were immigrant farmers; I have a school book in norwegian from distant grandma. Where are we from? Hardly any of us have roots in America. Caucasian Americans are from all over the world, and mostly from Europe. Look at the names of some our cities: New York (from the english York), Ripon (where my college is), also english. Rheinlander (wager a guess, I dare you), and Berlin. Los Angeles, which is Spanish, if I'm correct. Marquette, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Praire du Chien all are French. (Want a real Ameircan name? Try Milwaukee, Oconomowac, Waukesha, or Waukana. Look English to you?) (I didn't mean for this to exclude the African-American population in American, but

As American's we draw a rich cultural history from the European settlers who established our country, and definitely more so in certain regions (I'm guessing Germantown has a bigger German influence than oh, say, Atlanta.) As children in America we make pie charts detailing our family ancestry. Many Americans identify strongly with their culture and tradition carried on through their family, even if they haven't been to the country where it came from. At the same time there is definitely a distinct American culture, which is rich with an abundance of sub-cultures. In comparison with Western European country, our nation is huge, both in area and population. 300 Million Americans.... that's more than the populations of the Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Spain put together. Inconceivable! Think of the different cultures of those European nations, and look then at all the people who stand under the stars and stripes (okay, we're a weird bunch...). There is remarkable diversity in America, but it shares the blanket of our American English. I could travel a thousand miles East or West from Wisconsin and still be on American soil. It's just so different from the way things are in Europe though.

Where is this rant going? The biggest, hardest, most complex part of me being here is dealing with my cultural identity, and then also taking in how other people view my culture. American culture, or at the very least the culture of the English language pervades what I have seen of Germany. Our music is on the radio, and it's not even our old music....what's hip here is just behind the cutting edge of what people are listening to back home. Some of our clothing brands are here, and I constantly see people wearing Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, and even American Eagle (gag me). McDonalds, Coke, Subway, KFC, Burger King...okay, capitalism and globalization. Greys Anatomy and Dr. House. The thing is that it seems that so many people here take in parts of American culture, but at the same time, people really don't care about or for us. I've heard such a weird gamut of stereotypes about us... that we're sex-crazed....what? or that we all wear uniforms in high school...huh? Where do stereotypes come from....the media, for sure, supplies a great deal. But damn it, when has Hollywood ever been a consistently good portrayal of what real American life is like? Other people are content to stereotype us based on our involvement in the world, or our berserk politics, I shudder at the thought.

But there's so much more behind us than that! Just like there's so much more behind Germans than pretzels and lederhosen, or mimes and crying in the French culture...it's a part of their cultures, but it isn't the culture of the whole country. (French comment delivered with nothing but love, Coraline). Yes there are some crusty, weird, rude, crass, despicable people in America. But they're everywhere in every culture.

I am American. I am no better, yet no worse than anyone else. But American is just a part of who I am, because at the end of the day, whether I put my head to rest in Wisconsin, Germany, Spain, or France, I am Jon Paretsky.

Peace and love.

There and Back Again... A Paretsky's Tale

2008-05-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, so it's been a long time since I've updated and let anyone know what's going on in my life. Sorry about that...last week Wednesday was my birthday, and events preceding and succeeding that day kept me fairly occupied. First and foremost, thanks to everyone who sent me birthday greetings, whether through the mail or electronic. I had a great birthday, fairly low key, but I was priviliged to spend it with the good friends, and that's all I want. Wednesday we were at James Joyce, a favorite Irish Pub of ours, where we ate pizza drank some fermented beverage, and watched a soccer game on the big screen. On the walk home, Jake and Jessica took me to an italian restaurant to get me tiramisu for birthday cake. It was a great evening.

I include the events of the following evening purely for the delight of my beloved Mother : ) Because most of us had class on Thursday morning, not many people were too interested in staying out too late on Wednesday. So we made up plans for Thursday night as well. Bönnsch, our favorite restaurant which brews an amazing beer by the same name, sells small kegs for the person on the go. A handful of my homies and I decided it would be cool to get one and take advantage of one of Germany's blessings: being able to legally drink outside. I'm sure few of you really care to know many details about this, but the grace of the story comes in the actually process of obtaining the @#$%! thing. It involved paying a 100 euro depost (!!!!!) for this tiny keg. While Jake and I were checking it out, the Bartender was giving us instructions on how to work the tap. Translated, it went something like this:

Bartender: Do you have a hammer?
Jon: Hammer? No, we don't.
Bartender: Okay, so take your hammer, and hit the tap once very hard.
*Jon and Jake exchange a confused look*

Jake and the Bane of the Hammerless

Not ones to be discouraged by the lack of a key component to the evenings success, we took our keg and marched merrily to the park where we were planning on enjoying a lovely evening. The keg had other things in mind. I had placed the tap in the recess where it belonged and tried to push it in, but to no avail. Obviously we needed a hammer. Sweet. Hey, idea! We could just hit the tap in by slamming it against the concrete berm! Great thinking, Jon! As I picked up the keg to manipulate it into position, Jake gives his oppinion:
"This looks really dangerous. I think I like it!"
No sooner had he finished speaking did the keg impact with concrete, pushing the tap only partially in, which resulted in a fine spray of beer to shoot out around the edges. I struggled valiantly to push the tap in the rest of the way, but a moments slip was all it took to douse me and Jake in a golden cascade of malted goodness. In public. I vehemently pushed the tap in the rest of the way, which was no problem with the seal broken, and went to wash off in a fountain.

Not long afterwards, it started to rain ; )

Another big event in my life lately...I went to Scotland last weekend to visit my buddy Bryan. I left early on Friday morning from the Cologne airport. It was the first time being in a plane since coming to the Fatherland, and it was strangely nostalgic. Interestingly enough, it's very easy to get through security here. There's so much pressure back home to filter out "terrorists", or my friend Jenan who has arabic ancestry, it makes flying that much more stressful. Here it was pretty chill. My flight was comfortable and short, and I arrived in Edinburgh without incident. I immediately found myself immersed in an English speaking culture, which I hadn't really thought much about, and it caught me off guard. I withdrew some money in Pounds from the money machine and made it on my merry way.

Getting to St. Andrews from Edinburgh was an interesting feet. It wasn't defined by anything spectacular, but I was dead tired and terrified I was going to fall asleep on the way there and end up in, I don't know, the arctic circle or whatever is left north of Scotland. Fortunately for me, I had an old couple next to me who was helping me keep track of the villages we were passing, and I made it St. A's just fine.

To spare a lot of gory details, I met up with Bryan not too long after I arrived, and we hung out and chatted till some of his friends showed up to cook dinner. We ate, of course, a very fine Scottish delicacy: Haggis! It was great : )

Mmm dinner : ) Haggis!

Bryan Nell's Seal of Approval

It tasted like amazingly flavorful meatloaf, and we had a great time preparing and eating it.

The next day found Bryan and I exploring the small and quaint city. There were lots of gorgeous sights to be seen, not the least of which was the North Sea, the beach being removed only about 50 meters from Bryans apartment. It was gorgeous! The weather was so so in the morning, but after spending a considerable amount of time in the botanical garden, it started to rain. We made our way to a pub to take shelter from the elements and satisfied our hunger with sandwiches and a blessed pint of real Guiness from fair Dublin itself. Upon leaving the pub, we were surprised to find that the moist weather of before had transformed into a pristine and gorgeous day! I'll take it. We walked around the city some more, and eventually ended up at the old golf course. The old golf course, like, the first golf course ever. See below....

For some reason this little bridge is apparently pretty famous.

Afterwards we walked back along the coast a little bit, taking in some of the ruins along the way, such as this castle:

We ended up at the ruins of a Cathedral that had been sacked during the Protestant Reformation (my religious heritage opening a can on Bryan's ; )) We were able to climb up a tower that afforded a fantastic view of the city. And I don't have any good pictures from it....

And that's about it for excitement. We hung out with Bryan's friends again and made sushi for dinner (pretty simple), and I left early the next morning to return home. Logistics got a little obscured by changes in the sunday bus schedule, but a taxi driver was more than willing to take my 10 pounds to transport me to the train station. I met an older Czech woman there, and I helped her figure out the train system there and carried her bags between trains and buses until we finally parted ways at the Edinburgh. It made the day go by faster to have a pseudo tavelling companion. All in all it was a good trip...I really enjoyed Scotland, but the best part by far was just being able to hang out with my best friend.

Something significant that I took away from my trip was that I really missed Germany while I was away. I missed being to talk in German, for one thing, but also the food, the drink, the way people act, the stores and such. Maybe I'm just growing comfortable here, but I noticed a lot of little differences being in St. Andrew's. For one thing, people dress very differently...I saw more exposed midriffs on my weekend than I have in the months I've been at Germany. People seem to dress and act with more propriety here. It's just an observation, but I'm down with that. It's good to be back here.

I have another week of school, and then I'm off for a while...we get a break for Pentecost ; ) Rachel, my girlfriend, is coming to visit me, and we're going to make our way over to Grenada, Spain, to check out some other aspects of european culture. I'm really curious to see how that works out, but I'm excited to see my lady!

All right, I'm out. I need to go make myself some din din. In closing, I leave you with one final picture that I took while taking a walk back when Bryan was visiting me. I love it, but it will need a little translation to be fully appreciated:

Parking only for visiters
House of the Lutheran Church
Wine Restaurant

Hmmm.... : )

Much love.

"Je ne parle pas de francais..." "FRANCAIS!!!"

2008-04-13T06:03:00.000-07:00

I have to stop doing so much here, I'm having a hard time keeping up with it in my blog. It was enough just catching up on the week before classes, but that was followed by my most eventful weekend yet since I've arrived in the Fatherland, and the subsequent first week of class....mother of god, which is nothing to say of the minute nuances of day to day life, of which there are plenty.

For one thing, I'm feeling right now just a little too much like I don't fit in, and it's a frustrating and multilayered sensation. Obviously, I'm an American in Germany. Weird. But the past few days have been frustrating in the amount of awkward moments and frustrating language exchanges. This sounds really paranoid, but I've been catching people looking at me when they think I'm not paying attention. I'm not going to flatter myself by thinking they're admiring the view, but in the past few days I have stared down more than one person who got distracted by my presence. Maybe it's something that's more common in larger cities in general and I'm not used to it because I'm a small town boy (living in a lonely world, took the midnight train going anywehre...wait what?). It's hard to completely explain....I don't want to just conform and be like every one else, not here or elsewhere, but I'd rather just not stick out in public even before I open my mouth.

For another matter, I simply do not have the money to purchase a new wardrobe while I'm here in Germany, and I'm definitely not up to the style specifications that I see on the streets. Which can go either way....some style here is really nice in my oppinion; it's simply classy. On the other hand....there seems to be this "street" style that's popular with youths which I find ridiculous. Mullets are really popular with them. Yes, that's right. Mullets. And not just any mullet, but what I like to call the "action mullet" which is dyed in many colors and highly gelled and styled. But it's still a mullet.

In all due respect, I really don't like the style that's worn by the youth culture immedieatley preceding my own back home in America.

Oh clothes, so overrated.

So I'm working it out, I think it's just growing pains right now. I've been in Germany for about a month and a half, and I'm starting to get time to experience new things or to notice stuff that hasn't come up before.

But now for the life and times....

Last Saturday I took a day trip to Liege, Belgium with my friends Jessica, Jennifer, and Maggie. It was actually a great adventure...I bought my ticket the night before (30 Euro! not bad) and we left early early staurday morning. The train ride lasted only about an hour and half from Koeln (Cologne), most of which I spent sleeping. I awoke about five minutes before we arrived in Liege, and was greeting by a lot of french writing. Hmm. We're not in Germany anymore....

Once we got to Liege we came to a few important realizations, the most important of which is that we had no idea where we were going. Right....we came to Belgium without a plan, and without a map. It was overcast, threatening to rain, and there was a prostitute in the window of the first building we walked past. Score. (don't read too much into that.) We stopped in a few bookstores to try and find maps, but to know avail. My year of french class paid off a little bit in that I was able to tell people that we didn't speak french and ask for really simple things (biere ; )).

However, once we finally got a map, things really started to take a turn for the better. We found the city center, which was really thriving for a saturday morning. Liege is about twice the size of Bonn, and the downtown was full of cafes and little shops. We had breakfast at a little restaurant, and then proceeded to find Belgian waffles, which were fantastic. Right off the city center was a gorgeous church which we toured through. We spent a lot of time just walking through the area and trying to find Sehenswuerdigkeiten... things worth seeing... and came across a lot statues and churches. Two of these churches were over a thousand years old!!! The Belgian food and beer was fantastic....my opinion on the latter is probably blasphemous considering what country I'm in right now, so I'm not going to write it out ; ) but it was definitely enjoyable.

At the end of the evening we were sitting in a tavern waiting for the train, a homeless dude stumbled in with an arm full of flowers. He started babbling to me en francais and shoved the flowers towards my face. It was pretty obvious he was trying to sell me some floral arrangements for the ladies that were present. So keeps on talking to me in French, and I couldn't understand anything so I told him "Je ne parle pas de francais." Which is I don't speak french. I was hoping that would help, but his eyes just lit up and he thrust the flowers back to my face and said, "Francais!!!" Apparently he missed the memo : ) We did make it out without buying flowers, so it was good.

Jessica and Jennifer giving new meaning to seeking direction in God's house.

Hello Belgium!

Four hundred stairs....for the sake of stairs. Hardcore!

There's really a lot that happened in Belgium that I haven't written about, and I'm not going to from the standpoint that it's a lot minutia, some of which I will try to cover in pictures. Rather I'd like to say some of the things I observed or took away from the trip to Belgium. One of which is was that it's okay not to fit in some place (I know I know...). We were blatantly not Belgium (but not obnoxiously...) and people were really nice to us. We were at a tavern, and none of the waitstaff spoke english or German, but our waitress went and found a patron in the restaurant who spoke German so that he could translate for us (he had a great time). It was super cool.

Another thing is that our German turned out to be really useful. A lot of people didn't speak English, but many times we were able to communicate in German with people, and it was a really cool feeling. A lot of times here in Bonn, I feel like our German amuses people, many of whom can probably speak almost fluent English. In Belgium it was a vital means of communication, with out which we would have never been able to order french fries, let alone find the cool french fry restaurant itself (true story ; ))

Something a little more personally significant though is that I realized I'm really trepidatious about using German sometimes because I'm afraid of screwing up, and screwing up bothers me because I have a lot of personal pride, and it's embarrassing to sound dumb. I get so frustrated sometimes that I sound like a slow third grader auf deutsch, but I'm able to study Chemistry at the college level. The Belgium connection is that I had one year of french in college, and therefore no expectations of myself. When I tried talking to people in french, I had no fear of sounding dumb, just because it would be ridiculous for me to sound otherwise ; ) I just put myself out there. With German on the other hand, I've studied it for 7 years and now I'm living in the country; I feel like it shouldn't be a problem anymore. It's an unreasonable thought process, but it is how I react to the situation, so it's what I have to deal with. I'm trying to be more casual with my outlook on my language skills, but I still have a lot of expectations of myself. I think because of that I tend to take for granted the situations that really do go well, or the conversations that happen without a hitch (seldom ; )). I suppose that's why I'm here. Massive learning process. I love it, but it sure puts me through the ringer.

So Belgium was one of the best days of my life...it was incredible, and I came home being entirely satisfied with life at the moment....we went to a foreign country, spoke in a foreign language, found our way around, entertained ourselves, didn't get raped or killed, and avoided purchasing unnecessary flowers. It was great, and I have a box of chocolates next to me from Pierre Marcolini chocolatier, which is utterly delectable. Mmm.

Not to slow down at all, Sunday found me at the Russian Circus (oh, it's true) with Jessica and Jennifer. It was an entertaining experience....all of the acts were entirely wrought with sexual tension. Everything. It was ridiculous....it was like, "Watch me juggle three diablos at a time with a woman in spandex wedged in between my legs." Wow. I was hoping the tigers would escape and start eating people, just for the excitement factor, but they were pretty chill. After the circus was All You Can Eat Schnitzel at our favorite microbrewery, Boennsch. We had to order four times to three different before our food was actually served...it was absurd, but man was that good schnitzel.

So the Monday of last week was our first day of class, but I didn't have any courses scheduled for that day, so I just laid low. At night, however, Jennifer, Jessica, Matt and I made our way to Cologne to see my favorite band, Coheed and Cambria, play in concert. Oh man, they were so good! It was so unreal....it was like a dream come true. We got there really early and captured a place at the head of the line to enter the building. Once the doors opened, we scurried to the front and anchored ourselves at the front of the stage right against the guard rail. It was the perfect vantage point, and the concert was just a fantastic experience. I loved it! Wow.

So after the concert is when my last post took place...the bathroom experience ; )

Tuesday was my first class...Organic Synthesis at the chemistry institute. I happened to get myself pretty turned around on my way there (I was riding my bike) and even though I left with plenty of time, I got to the class 15 minutes after it started. Way to go Jon. The whole time I tried to talk myself out of going, but at the moment of truth I walked in and took a place. Am I ever my worst enemy, jeez. So that was fine, and at night I had my first theater workshop class, and that was a lot of fun. There's good people in that class, and we're going to really work well together, or so I believe.

Wednesday. Oh dear. Wednesday I had my two humanities classes....Intro to Germanic Linguistics, Historical, and Luther and the New High German. So hard.....I felt like my brain was going to detonate! There was so much German being spoken, it was overwhelming. I had both classes with my friend Jessica, and we did a good job of cowering together. Again, language frustrations...I'd love to participate, but it's hard to talk about the proliferation of Martin Luther's writings without talking about the printing press, which I don't know how to say auf deutsch. And because I have too much damn pride, I just don't try instead of sounding incompetent. Errr. The thing is, both of the classes are really interesting, and I know that if I stick through it, I can learn a lot. It's really a matter of me not letting myself get the better of me (oh english).... So it will come.

I woke up Thursday morning feeling ridden with cold symptons, so I didn't go to my Organic Synthesis class, which I have decided to drop in order to work in the lab instead. I did have my first NMR for Advanced Students (that's Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy). It's going to be a brutal bludgeoning of scientific themes, but it's only a lecture, so I don't have to actually do homework for it. The readings that go with it are mostly in English, which is really encouraging.

After Thursday class I met with the chem professor who will be advising my work in the lab. He's so nice, it makes me really comfortable to know that I'm going to be working for him. I'm going to be doing labwork for his PhD students, who are really excited to have another set of hands helping in the lab, especially the hands of someone who can help them practice their english. I sat in the lounge, had coffee, and talked for an hour with Susanna, Jens, and Jens, and left feeling pretty good about life. I will be starting on Monday morning, and I have a really good feeling about it. We'll see where it goes!

Friday was pretty restful for the most part. Jennifer had a friend who's studying in Budapest, Hungary, come visit, so a bunch of us went out to coffee. Afterwards I met with a German, Julia, with whom I was going to be cooking a meal for the upcoming running dinner (essentially a large scale progressive dinner or round robin). We took care of grocery shopping and then went back to her small apartment to prepare our pasta Bolognese (meat sauce). She was really cool and was patient with my German skills, and I really enjoyed being able to meet someone new and interesting. The Running Dinner was a great success....we had salad and beer for our appetizer, then our pasta for main course, and were fed tiramisu for dessert. Afterwards many of us went to James Joyce (an irish pub) for drinks. The whole evening was a lot of fun, but it lasted about 8 hours, and by the time we were at James Joyce, I was tired and a little overloaded about being surrounded by so many people.

All right, to close, a couple of anecdotes.

If you recall from about halfway up, I got really confused trying to get to my first class. I spent a lot of time biking back and forth trying to catch my bearings, and I spent a lot of time standing on the street looking at a map and looking bewildered. The entire time people were walking by, and no one stopped to see if I needed help (granted, I could have asked. I realize this.) I did find my way and everything was fine. Later that afternoon, however, I was walking home after class, and I came across a man standing at an intersection holding a map and looking around confusedly. I was pretty fresh on the feeling of being disoriented, so I approached him and asked if I could help (auf deutsch), and I was able to give him directions to what he was looking for. He was really appreciative, and I felt really satisfied that I was living in a foreign city and could still help out in some capacity.

Story number two....a group of us went to Koeln yesterday to show Jennifer's friend the Cologne Cathedral, and while we were in the city we stopped at a cafe for refreshments. When our waitress brought us our drinks, she told us that a man who had been sitting next to us and had since left overheard that we were students and paid for our drinks. He said that he had once studied abroad, too. We were really touched that he did that for us totally out of generosity. He didn't even stick around for us to thank him...he had just paid and left. Stuff like that does not happen very often no matter where you are, and we left the cafe feeling a little warmer about the world.

At the Vendree II in Belgium....House of a Thousand Beers!

ahem excuse me

2008-04-08T00:36:00.000-07:00

To open up this post, I offer for you consideration several observations of the German "Privatsphaere" or privacy sphere. Yes, we're talking about personal bubbles here. There are definitely some differences between American and Deutsche privacy spheres, and I've already mentioned a few in previous posts....there's the awkward elevator silence, all the room doors are always closed (ALWAYS! so different from an American dorm), people do not acknowledge you on the street....unless they're homeless and want money....and the person sitting against you on the bus who doesn't acknowledge your existence for the ten minute ride. And the list goes on...it's not a bad thing, it's just a cultural difference....

...a cultural difference that I experienced last night in a McDonalds restroom in Koeln (Cologne). Men from back home will agree me on this: there is a certain set of unspoken rules that follow the use of urinals in the the bathroom. For example, if there are three urinals, man shalt not conduct his business in the central urinal. It's unspeakably taboo. No. And if someone is using a urinal, and there are multiple urinals available including one that is not directly adjacent to the one in use, man shalt not place himself unnecessarily close to the other party. SHALT NOT! That means if there are five urinals, and you're the first to enter the situation, you take the one on the far right, and the next person take the urinal on the far left, leaving a moderately comfortable space of three urinals between you. This is man law.

So I enter the McDonalds bathroom and survey the situation: three open urinals. No problem. I honored the man law and do not even consider taking the one in the middle (see first example). However, no sooner was I ready for action when another man entered the bathroom...no cause for alarm, it's a common occurrence....I didn't think anything of it until he passed the urinal on the far left and placed himself at the urinal directly next to me...a clear violation of man law and apparently my own personal bubble, and didn't that he was singing to himself a little. I was really working hard not to smile or laugh...I think if you noticed someone with a bemused smile next to you at the urination station, you'd start to wonder. One way or another, the situation was awkward enough that I was having difficulty completing the mission that I came in to do, which meant standing there longer....and apparently my neighbor wasn't having much success, because the situation held for several minutes, until I finally couldn't take it any more, chalked up the bathroom run as a failure, and left.

Cultural difference? Personal situation? Random experience? There's insufficient data for me to make a good conclusion, but I think it's one research project I'll skip : )

Cheers!

Warum isst der Mensch?

2008-04-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

I've done an inadequate job of keeping my blog up to date the past week, and I"m really going to have to bite the bullet now and write everything out....my dear readers, I hope you find the patience and the time to read a slightly longer post! I wouldmuch rather write on a regular basis than a lump sum per week, but I have been pretty occupied by this whole living and studying in Germany thing.

First and foremost, I have now been in Germany for more than a month, and I'm not really sure where the time went. As I look back, I can see the progression of my German experience from arriving the first day with no luggage and losing my camera, having no dishes or pots, being overwhelmed by the surrounding presence of German culture, and not having food. I've slowly added things on to my livelihood here....plates and bowls, silverware, eating habits, friends, cleaning supplies....and now I'm finally starting to find myself pretty comfortable here. Each day is kind of a mini adventure, as is each conversation auf Deutsch. Especially conversations auf Deutsch...man, sometimes it feels like each sentence is trying to push a boulder up a hill. I have had a few comical run ins where I've butchered a simple phrases. Zum Beispiel (i.e.), when Bryan was here we sat down at a table in front of a restaurant to figure out his cell phone, and a server came out to see if we wanted anything to eat. I meant to tell him that we were just sitting there and that we didn't want food. Instead I told him, "Wir sitzen nicht hier," which is "we're not sitting here." Hmmm....go Jon, use the Force. At any rate, it's getting much better, but the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know! And it's so easy to get caught up with the other Amis (Americans), who tend to just speak english, or at least are not native German speakers.

So last week was one of the most significant weeks since I've arrived in the Vaterland...it marked the end of my introductory course (Einfuehrungskurs) and my registration on the university. I was definitely feeling a bit of stress, and fortunately mums was able to give me a few pearls wisdom to help take things in perspective (who knew that my parents would still know things that I don't know....I tell you, they're full of surprises ; )). Anyways, my mom told me not to worry about it too much and just take simple courses, considering the only thing I'm here to do is acquire German credit. I'm not used to having so much flexibility to my course selection (I just registered for next semester at Ripon and just went down the list of chemistry classes).

There's a lot of options available as international students as far as taking courses while we're here....there's courses on the Auslandsamt (international center), and then University Courses, but then there's a scad of types of university classes. We could sign up online for the Auslandsamt courses, but for anything on the university, we had to write the professor teaches the class and request entrance. It supposed to be a pretty sealed deal; we have special privileges as international students. Alas, complications arose early in the registration process, and I thought that I was not going to be able to make it through with my sanity. My Einfuehrungskurs Professor had recommended that I take these two classes on the auslandsamt, and I was able to register for one, but I was put on the wait list for another...and things came to a screetching halt in my head as I tried to figure out a plan for a semester while being on a wait list....I spent a lot of time turning it over in my head and trying to figure out what kind of courses I wanted to take and arrange them all together.

The big dilemma was that I wanted to get involved with the chemistry department here, and I had emailed a professor regarding working in a lab on monday, and then again on tuesday or wednesday about taking a class of his....and he didn't get back to me at all....it's important stuff! I needed to work my schedule around working in the lab...so finally on friday, I bit the bullet, and I traveled to the land of chemistry (The Kekule Institute for Organic Chemistry. BAMF) in order to personally confront the man who held the keys to my destiny. W

The adventure begins. I awoke relatively early friday morning, dressed, ate, and embarked out on the bus to find the chem department. It was a 20 minute bus ride from my dorm complex, and when I finally arrived at my last bus stop, I realized I had made a potentially fatal mistake....I just new what bus stop to go to, not where to go afterwards. Hmmm. Well played Jon, well played. I walked back and forth down the street a couple times, and then finally decided to pick a direction and just walk till I hit another street and see if I recognized it. And what do you know, it worked. The whole time I was trying not to talk myself out of backing out and taking the path of least resistance....I was so intimidated about just showing up and trying to communicate to an important person in a language that I'm not entirely comfortable with.

So I find the building, approach and enter at the main doors and immediately witnessed what appeared to be massive rennovations of the ground floor. A little voice inside my head said, "See, they're rennovating, no one's here, go home." But no, I read the wall board indicating where the offices of the professors were, and headed to the elevator. The door was closing when I got there, and I did what I would do with any other elevator: I put my hand on the door to stop it and continued to walk through....which apparently doesn't work with elevators here, because the door kept closing, which resulted in me gracelessly running into the door then the wall, as the door finally closed without granting me entrance. Fortunately, there was someone inside, and she pressed the "door open" button and let me in. Even after watching me get totally owned by an elevator door, we rode in the elevator in typical German fashion....no words, not looking at each other, and departing with a polite "Tschuss."

I leave the elevator and enter a very utilitarian looking hallway with white walls and broad blue stripes....and doors. Lots of doors, with no distinct markings. Great. I looked around for a while, and finally ran into someone who was kind enough to take me to the office of Herr Professor Doctor Luetzen....which turned out to be one of the doors I had already passed. I knocked on the door and was greeted by the Herr Doktor, who I recognized from pictures. He welcomed me in English, and asked me to sit down in a room adjacent as he finished a meeting. It turns out that this other room was the office of another professor, who comes, looks at me with a quizzical expression, and asks me if I'm there to see him. I explained I was waiting for Dr. Luetzen, and he sat down started making phonecalls. So I'm sitting awkwardly across the desk from this professor, and then someone comes in to have a meeting with him...I look at the professor and ask if I should leave, but he just relocated me to the corner. Sweet.

The whole time alarms are going off in my head, and there was the voice continuing to try and convince me to bail out and go home....but finally Prof. Luetzen finished his meeting and brought me back to his office. And everything went really well....he was really excited to have me there, was more than willing to have me not only take his class but work in his lab as well. He was very friendly, and I left the Chemistry building feeling pretty good about life in Germany. I had to meet with the advisor of our program to discuss classes, and she told me that I didn't have to worry about taking classes on the Auslandsamt, which removed my fears about being on the wait list. So in the end, everything fell into place, and I'm really thankful for it.

I ate lunch on Friday with one of the few German friends that I've made so far. It was a really good experience for a plethora of reasons. For one, we had potatoe pancakes at the Mensa (cafeteria), which are no where near as good as what we make at home, but it was a good meal that reminded me of my roots. Mmm food. The company was really good though, and it really made me feel a sense of fulfillment about being in Germany....it's kind of hard to explain entirely, but being in a foreign country and trying to speak a foreign language, but only having Amis as friends make the experience seem kind of unreal. It was really cool to be able to talk about the differences and similarities about stuff in our respective countries (education was a major topic), and for that matter, it was good to converse in German with a native speaker. It makes having studied the language for 7 years some worthwhile....

After being kicked out of the mensa because they were closing, we went for a walk to the Botanische Garten (the botanical garden), which I had not yet seen. Let me tell you, it was amazing. I wish I had pictures of it, but that will come with time and better weather (it's still constantly rainy here). It's just this beautiful garden tucked into the city, and it has a fantastic assortment of flora, both outside and then inside the greenhouse. I'm really excited about being able to go there this summer.

So thanks for a great afternoon Des, it really made me feel good about being in Bonn!

All right, I'm going to wrap up this puppy up here, and start a new post about my more recent and exciting adventures with Belgium, the Russian Circus, and all you can eat schnitzel...

P.S.: I want to really thank everyone for all of the comments and emails that I've received. It's really cool to know that my blog is being read and enjoyed. It means a lot! Keep the peace.

A beautiful Bonn sunset as seen from the outside staircase on the 15th floor of my dorm ; )

Yours truly and some of the crew from the International Club at our final dinner. Thanks for a great month of orientation!

Warum ist der Mensch?

2008-03-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Long overdue greetings to all of you, my family and friends. The weather here has finally taken a turn for the better… I went outside to a sunny-skied Bonn with temperatures in the high sixties low seventies! (that’s about 20 °C for those of you using the better temperature system) I can hardly believe just how nice it is… and just how crazy people are here! I was walking around the Stadtzentrum (city center) in jeans and a light t-shirt, and I was burning up, while the locals were taking their Sunday strolls in sweaters, wool coats, and scarves. Then again, I get warm whenever I’m doing something other than sitting still, so maybe I’m just genetically disadvantaged to cope with warm weather, but man. They were wearing the same clothes that I’ve seen them wearing when it’s thirties.

So in typical Bonn fashion, I just stepped outside and it started to rain. Mother Nature needs to calm down…

I’ve been pretty busy on this end of the deal, hence the hiatus in Blog updates. It’s hard to sit down and spend 45 minutes hammering out something mildly interesting about my adventures in Deutschland when I’ve got a test to study for, but fortunately that’s out of the way, and now I just have the business of registering for classes. Mensch. I can’t believe how fast this first month has gone by. The realization has recently hit me that so far I have just been doing an orientation course, and starting in about a week I will actually be starting real school, real university. I have beaucoup viel (that’s a lot) stuff to do prepare myself for, and I’m not quite ready for it. I think I’ve experienced an overdose of school the past year and a half, and I’m dragging my feet starting it up again.

On the other hand, I love learning, and I’m looking forward to getting to meet new people that aren’t just other exchange students. I’m hoping to meet some more Germans and get more practice in with my German. So if English is my mother language, is German my father language? Muttersprache und Vatersprache? Hmmm. This notion will have to sustain some contemplation.

In addition to the typical day to day life of an American chemist in Bonn (that’s me), there have been some interesting goings on. Friday we had an Exkursion to the fair city of Aachen, which rests near the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. There one can find the Aachen Dom (cathedral), a beautiful church erected by … uh, King Karl? I don’t remember his name. Karl der Grosse? Something like that. Man, I better check on that. I was once again in awe of the beautiful German architecture. The church was a good example of architectural motifs that have been used throughout the ages, considering different parts of it were built at different times. It also had the biggest stained glass windows that I have ever seen. Boy am I a sucker for stained glass. I can’t imagine how much that would have cost!

Friends Jennifer and Jessica in front of weird fountain in Aachen...

In other news my friend and roommate from back home, Bryan, came to spend the weekend with me in Bonn. I was to meet him at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) at 9 PM on Friday, and naturally he rolled in at about 11:15. I was starting pretty worried once it hit 10:30, and I was envisioning him stranded in Dusseldorf or something with no means of communication and no German speaking capabilities. It turns out that there were just some complications of getting shuttled around from airport to train station, so it all worked out, but I was very relieved when I finally arrived. The train station is not someplace that I recommend hanging out alone at night. The station itself isn’t so bad, but underneath is the subway station, which is about the equivalent of the armpit of Bonn. I’m pretty sure I saw a prostitute while I was waiting for Bryan…I know, exciting! A real prostitute! Gramma, don’t worry, she was wearing clothes. Kind of.

Bryan and I had a pretty chill weekend here. I gave him the walking tour of the fair city of Bonn, and the weather cooperated marvelously. It was a perfect day to see the city and the surrounding sites. We were even able to sit at a “biergarten” down by the Rhein and enjoy a beer. For dinner we met up with a group of my fellows and had a good typical German dinner sitting outside in downtown Bonn. It was a beautiful night, and for some reason there were all of these strange musical acts around us. On one side there was a dude playing bag pipes and some people juggling flaming torches, and on the other side there was someone playing guitar. And it constantly changed. New musicians came and went, but the bagpipes stayed. Unfortunately. He was not doing a very good job, and from the sound of it he only knew a handful of songs; we were blessed with Amazing Grace about 5 times over the course of the evening. The food was fantastic… I had the “Bayern Teller” which featured leberkaese, fried eggs, potatoes, and salad. Fantastic. Leberkaese is kind of what Spam dreams of being; it sounds kind of gross, but it tastes really good. I love the food here.

After a good meal and bizarre entertainment, the group made its way back to the dorms to watch Arnold Schwarzenager in Predator, which is one classy flick, I have to say. A great time was had by all. Bryan took the train out at around noon today and headed his merry way to Berlin. It was a lot of fun having him around, and I think he had a good time hanging out with a bunch of people who have a hard time completing sentences in English without inserting a random deutsche word.

Bryan posed for the stereotypical uni-bonn foto!

Today I had one of my more interesting experiences in Bonn. My friend Jake and I took advantage of the beautiful weather to head downtown and get coffee and kuchen at a café. It was a perfect day for it, and we enjoyed our German coffee and fine bakery. As we were sitting and talking and soaking in the experience, a raggity guy, maybe 26 or stumbled over to our table, knelt down, and start mumbling something to us in German. It was pretty obvious that he was trying to work us for money, but he spent about five minutes giving us this spiel that neither Jake nor I could understand. His eyes were all red, and he couldn’t hold his head up, and he wouldn’t look at my face as he talked to me. The only words I really pulled out of it were girlfriend, medicine, pay, money, and overall something about him needing money for his girlfriend or the like. When he finished, I told him that we couldn’t help him, and he got upset and told us that we could help him, but that we just don’t want to. As he was saying this, he stood up and started backing away, then turned around and opened a beer, took a swig, and walked away. The beer makes it really hard for me to take the man's story to heart, and I chuckled a little bit. Apparently the man heard me because he whipped around and asked me if I thought he was funny. There was a really tense moment as I told him “nein,” but he turned around again and walked down to give his story to the next group of people who were sitting outside. At that point Jake and I decided we’d had enough of the downtown, and we headed back to our dorm building.

It's tough dealing with situations like this, and I'm never quite sure what the right thing to do is. I feel very sure that we did the right thing; I don't feel bad at all not giving money to a person who is not sober enough to stand up and look at my face and then walk away drinking beer. The thing is that I feel like I have so many blessings that I take for granted that it almost seems unfair that I'm able to sit outside and drink a 2.50 Euro coffee and a 1.50 Euro cake because I feel like it, not because I need it. Hell, I'm studying in Germany right now, I'm getting an education at a good school, I have a place to stay. I don't have to worry about clothes I put on my back, let alone how I'm going to find my next meal. There's just this ring of truth to what the man said: We don't give money because we can't, we don't give money because we don't want to. Whether or not that's a bad thing is a tricky Frage (question) with no easy answer. I wish I could say I walked away a new man with a new perspective or with great ideas, but I just have more question marks floating before my eyes. It's reminiscent of my time in Jamaica...these experiences really show me how much of my good life I take for granted...but God knows we're never all happy all the time. Right now I'm worried because I don't know what classes I'm taking this semester at Bonn, and I have to register for classes next semester at Ripon. In the grand scheme of things, I think I will survive.

I just think that I need to make sure my life doesn't move so fast that I can't appreciate where I'm at and how I've gotten there.

Okay, that's it for now....this one has taken the better part of the afternoon to write; I've been letting it sit and coming back to it. I hope that it all flows, and please forgive minor spelling/grammatical errors. Sending you all thoughts and love!

Bryan and I were talking about this....you guys should leave comments on our Blogs, we like that : ) It's good to hear your thoughts, and it's proof that people read what takes us hours to write. You know. Just a thought.

A little eye candy yet...

I. Hate. Hummers. Curse whoever brought this hell-spawned beast to Germany. Curse them. I would have spat on it if there weren't witnesses. I still might if I ever see it again. Driving this would be horrible in Germany, where gas is priced around 9 dollars a gallon. Think about that when you get 9 miles to the gallon. Curse them.

In contrast we have the Smart Ka. Nobody taught me how to perpendicular park in driver's ed!

The sun exploding over Bonn! Another cool view from my room....

Curse Hummers....

Auf deutsch bitte

2008-03-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

HI GUYS!!! HAPPY EASTER!!!

Eh, sorry about that, I've been sitting alone in my room for a little bit, and that was just the release of some pent up social tension. Forgive me. But today (tomorrow yet for you guys back home) is Easter. It's an odd feeling being in Germany for this holiday. It's a big social tradition here, at least it seems like it....that families get together and do something on Easter. Plus the church tradition is so obvious too....like I heard bells ringing for about five minutes straight at midnight. Tomorrow should finding me holding down a church pew at the Kreuz Kirche....I've got it all scouted out, I know when the service times are, I know where the church is, I know I can get there in less than ten minutes with my new bicycle. The game is afoot. I'm actually really nervous, and I probably shouldn't be. I've never had a problem going to church alone in Amerika, but it's a little different here. That is to say, people speak German, and I'm still nowhere near fluent.

I'm ready to hang out more with German speaking people. Unfortunately two of my best German speaking contacts have left Bonn for home....one in Hamburg and one in Ohio.... at least I get to practice my written deutsch too that way ; ) It's fine hanging out with other international students, but I find that with a few exceptions, it's really hard to keep conversation in german. Along with that, aside from obvious things, we can't correct each other well enough to learn a lot about the language, or pick up slang or other nuances of communication. There's so much to learn, and I just can't do it speaking English. I'm already saddened by the fact that I will have to return to a place where most of the people I know either cannot speak or do not appreciate the German language. It's kind of like I've been learning German for seven years to speak it for 5 months and then shelve it until I need it again. I really hope it doesn't work that way, but that's the way it looks right now. Who knows, maybe I can get into a German chemistry program or something, but we'll have to see where God and the winds take me.

I went to Koeln (Cologne) today to check out the used bike market that's occasionally held there. It was a very damp experience...the weather here has just been schrecklich....I traveled with Ian, and when we got there it was snowing pretty hard....which after a while turned into a steady drizzle. We walked and walked and walked....fortunately we had not taken the time to map out where we were going, which is a fantastic idea when you're in the fourth biggest city in germany (there's some sarcasm there for those may have missed...). My shoes were completely drenched by the time we were back at Bonn. The trip was a success...I came back with a sweet bike and 115 euro less than before. Ouch. I hate looking at that number. That's about a hundred days worth of bread. Why did I write that? *sigh* Man. It's so hard justifying expenses when I have absolutely no income and the dollar is so weak. SO WEAK!!! Fortunately everything is closed till tuesday, so I have nothing to spend money on anyways. I'm going to have to raid the ATM for the first time since I arrived....look out Germany.

So this part of my Koeln experience I've been saving for it's own paragraph. In Koeln is the Koelner Dom, or the Cologne Cathedral. Leading into today, I had hear a lot about, stemming back to freshman year in high school finding it on a map to hearing stories about it and seeing pictures from friends. I found it on Wikipedia after I got back just to check some facts (yes, I consider Wikipedia a decent source ; )). It's one of the largest churches, the largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe, and has the largest choir (architectural, not singing). It took over 600 years to complete, and was the tallest structure in the world till the Washington Monument and Eiffel Tower were erected. So that's all great, but I'd never seen it in person until today. Oh. My. God. Nothing prepared me for just how huge it is....you walk out of the trainstation, look to the left, and BAM! Enormous cathedral. And the architecture is just incredible. So intricate and complicated. And stone. Lots of stone. Apparently it took 14 hits during WWII and didn't take significant damage. The Dom's pretty much a BAMF. Ian and I took some time stroll around inside, and I spent most of the time staring up with my mouth gaping open looking like an idiot, but it was just so impressive...there was so much beautiful stained glass (and this random one that was designed by a computer program...) and vaulted ceilings, and vaulted organs....the pipes were so far off the ground. I didn't take many pictures at all because I just wanted to enjoy the experience, but I will soon be back to Koeln hopefully under sunny skies, and I will be able to show you better what I mean!

However, no good things come without little stories... As I mentioned before, when we arrived in Koeln, it was snowing pretty hard, so naturally I was wearing a hat to ward off the cold. When we stepped into the Dom, the temperature dropped a few degrees...it's like being in a giant stone refrigerator. So i'm walking around staring up, when I noticed that this dude (priest? monk? rektor? dude....) in red robes was approaching me making a casting gesture with his arm and hand. I was totally taken aback, and was curious if he could detect the Reformation in my religious background and was casting me out or what. Not to help things, but everybody here speaks German, so I wasn't sure how a, "Get out my Cathedral" encounter was going to go. The dude approacheth, still casting, and I make a tentative cast back at him with a quizzical expression. He smiles and says to me, "Zieh deine Kopfdecke aus." Which was him telling me to take off my hat. Whew, crisis averted. How come no one ever taught me not to wear a hat in churhc? *cough cough* mom and dad? *cough cough* Kidding...

All right, if you take the time to read this all the way through to the end, I appreciate your commitment to my adventures here. I have much more to right, but I need to go to bed. I need to be ready for some Easter action!

Miss you all....

Cool fountain with a church in the background. Yeah Deutschland!

Abschied von Stacy...Nadinchen, du solltest da sein (noch einmal)!

2008-03-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Also....bet you didn't know that's german for "so." Everything in Germany is bigger.

Wait.

Uh....

*cough*

First of all, because of popular demand, I present photographs of my room:

Where it all happens. That's right, the desks(s) and Guido, my laptop.

Bedroom, living room, and dining room.

Just in case you had your doubts....

Second of all, tonight was a besonderes Abend (special evening) because our good friend Stacy is taking leave of us, as I mentioned previously. Ergo a few of us got together (Stacy, Ian, Liz, Robert, Desiree, Michael, usw......) and went to a bar called...Take Two (because we're in Deutschland, naturlich!). It was super nice inside, and really expensive....there was a drink on the menu that was 45 euro!!! Some mix of skyy vodka and rebull that amounted to 0,5 liters. Although I was tempted, I went with a cocktail that had a Spanish name and tasted very much like a mojito with a very tart flavor. After a few tough goodbyes, Ian, Stacy, and I began our trek back to our Wohnungen, our living quarters. However, we decided to make a detour to take pictures in front of a famous building in Bonn.

I had to double check my history here, but the Altes Rathaus (old city hall) is one of the most famous buildings in Bonn, and the staircase in front is apparently highly photographed. Since its construction in 1738, such well-known people as JFK, Queen Elisabeth Deuce, and Gorbachev have walked up the ornate staircase and have given speeches to the people of Bonn. For those who are not aware, Bonn was actually the capital of Germany for...I believe...42 years, so there's a strong governmental history there. Anyways, keep that in mind with the following:

What manner of madness is afoot?

Preparation....

Hand stands!!! (Stacy und Ian)

(Stacy und ich)

Rathaus salute!!! (Stacy und ich)

Maybe someday our names will make it on to the list of people who have graced these hallowed steps with their presence. Hopefully it's not in the police report ; )

Also (deutsches also, remember?), it was good to go out an adventure a little in Bonn, and we made good final memories for Stacy in Deutschland.

Bis naechstes mal, Stacy, you will be missed!

Du, du liegst mir im Herzen

2008-03-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

Ah I'm in Germany!!!! I cooked a spaghetti dinner in my room again tonight, which I shared with my friend Ian (see Weinprobe post, picture of dude whose head is cut off by the door). He and I had an interesting conversation about the fact that sometimes it's easy to forget that we're in Germany. Granted, there's obviously moments where it's impossible to miss it, but sometimes, especially when we're speaking english or we're around english-speaking people, it feels like a big multicultural city like Chicago. It's an interesting feeling. Today I was kind of out of it....as I've mentioned before, there's so many people that are sick here, which makes me paranoid, so I did my best to nap it off this afternoon. Unfortunately it meant that I missed an unusually sunny Bonn, a city that has been overcast, cold, and rainy lately. Can't complain too much...word from home in Northern Wisconsin is that there were 4 inches of snow overnight! None of that mess here....

Last night I made my way to an Irish pub, Jame's Joyce, to celebrate St. Patricks with some friends. Fortunately it's not a huge holiday in Deutschland, but nonetheless the bar was packed when we got there! We had to worm our way to the bar through throngs of people to order our beverages. No green beer in Deutschland, thank God. I think there's laws against that here...seriously!! There was a horde of Americans there, as well as a large group of Germans who work at the international office, so it was good to be surrounded by familiar faces. I started out the evening kind of tired though, so I wasn't full of festive energy. I did have some good opportunities to practice my Deutsch. In one of the rooms there were a bunch of books on shelves around the walls, and I found one written by my Aunt Sara! That was pretty cool...none of my friends would believe me at first that she was actually my aunt. I'm going to have to go back and take a picture. The last time I found one of her books was when I was at a coffee plantation in Jamaica! It's cool to see the Paretsky name go global.

While I was at the bar I had an interesting thought cross through my mind. I was standing waiting for some friends and reading the menu auf Deutsch, and I was struck by how much I am going to miss the diversity here...it's like nothing I've experienced before. There are Germans, Asians, other Western Europeans and Turks all over the place. There are drinks that I could never order in America, food that would be ridiculously expensive, and, of course, no real German beer. There's a party of me that's afraid of making deep connections here just because I know it will be hard to come back, but for the most part I'm amazed about the opportunity I have right now. It's funny to think that I'm having the experience of a life time, and half the time I don't even realize it!

Okay, I'm heading out. There's a group of people gathering at a bar to bid farewell to my friend, Stacy, who is leaving Bonn to return to the United States tomorrow. Ah! Unfortunately I only have about 4 dollars in small change (1 and 2 dollars are coins here, not paper) and then a fifty dollar bill....it's like walking into a bar and ordering a drink with a 75 dollars. Eh. Hopefully it won't be a problem!

No new pictures, but tomorrow I'm going to a museum of the Rheinland, so hopefully I can return with something to show for it!

Guten Morgen, Montag...

2008-03-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hello ladies and gems, welcome to Monday, the lovely beginning of a new week...Holy Week! It seems strange that Easter will cap this week off, but that's kind of a result of me being a little out of touch with the big picture lately. It's hard to follow what's going on while I'm here! I haven't really gotten any news except that Brett Favre isn't coming back next year and the New York governor was caught being involved in a prostitution ring. Nothing like family values!

Today the weather here in Bonn is a little crusty. It's much colder than it's been, and the dampness creeps through the layers of clothing I've wearing to give me quite the chill. I'm still working on net getting sick...I cringe every time someone coughs or sneezes by me.

In other news, I found these granola bars that have honey, chocolate, and banana flavoring, and I'm in love with them. They're so good.... also, as far as food goes, I finally purchased a pot, so I will be able to cook spaghetti, which I have been pining for since I got here. Tonight I will cook with a couple of my friends. It's good to have people to eat with! I've been eating a lot for lunch at the commons (Mensa) so that I don't have to eat as much elsewhere. It's not like the commons I'm used to back in America, where you pay a flat rate for what's an essentially an all you can eat buffet. Here you get a main entree and then a certain number of sides depending on where you eat. At the Mensa where I usually eat, there are three floors each with a unique offering. Floor one is vegetarian, two is just general, and three is Asian. I usually go with number two because you get a main dish and three sides. Today there was chicken cordon bleu, which was actually very good. Mmm, food. I'm getting hungry again.

Yesterday I went to a Beethoven concert performed at the Beethoven Halle down the street from my student residence. The orchestra was really good, and what was a really enjoyable morning. Watch the performance reminded me of my friend Tai Yi, who masterfully plays the violin and was concert master for our own orchestra at Ripon. He's studying off campus in Washington DC this semester, and is graduating while I'm still in Germany.

The rest of the afternoon was soaked in rain....we were supposed to do a walking tour of the city, but we ended up getting washed out and returned to the International Klub to enjoy some coffee and fine German bakery. I must say it was quite fantastic! I lost the evening in endeavors of communicating with my family and Rachel, and retired to bed after having spent a considerable amount of time in front of my computer.

Today, so far, has not proven to have been worth waking up to, and I find myself not homesick so much as just out of place here. It all goes back to my favorite morning intensive language course which I enjoy so much (sarcasm?). We did a speaking exercise today, just a simple deal about describing what we had done in past days, but what's new is that she had the class listen to what were saying, then have them tell each of us the errors we were making, after which she dissected that which we had said. I was, uh, fortunate enough to go first, and was promptly served my confidence back to me on a platter. It's not so much that I mind being corrected --how else would I learn?-- but it's the way she does it in a condescending manner, as if I should have known. She treats us like we're kids, damn-it. Maybe it's an American thing to feel the need to be respected by your professors, or maybe it's me. One way or another, she made me pretty upset, and I've been less confident speaking because of it, which kind of set a cloud over the rest of the day. I have since taken a nap and feel a little restored, but I'm not looking forward to going back to class. Sweet.

All right, I just wanted to vent that out there...I think i'm going to go make spaghetti and get on with my life! It is, after all, St. Patricks Day.

Peace!

Weinprobe!

2008-03-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

Happy weekend everyone! I hope that you all survived the week, and to my friends from back home, steel yourselves to return back to school. My heart goes out to you. I should have written this last night, but I was pretty worn out from a long day, a longer walk, and maybe some other things. Today I am well rested...theoretically... and am going to do absolutely nothing that involves too much effort. Other than more laundry...I swear it breeds in my closet. I had my first tangle with the German recycling system. There's a ridiculous number of places to put your refuse, and I haven't quite figured it out yet. I stood around looking dumb at these various bins, and finally just threw stuff where it looked like it could go. Eh. I through away some egg shells instead of putting them in the compost, and I felt kind of guilty, like somewhere in Germany an angel lost it's wings or something. This stuff is serious business here! : )

I think my German is a little off today...I haven't really had to use it at all, and i've been corresponding in english and listening to American music. I had a couple run ins with some Germans, but most dorm interactions go like this, "Hallo" .... awkward silence in elevator.... "Tschuss." That's about it. Except for today, when I got into the elevator from the basement, and there were two people inside, which kind of confused me (why do people ride down to the basement if they're not getting out there?), so I naturally said, and faltered, "Nach unt... uh, nach oben?" which translates into, "Going dow... uh, going up?" Smart Jon. You never know where else the elevator might be going when you got on from the very bottom...it's a crazy world here in Deutschland!

Oh shoot... I just realized that bakeries close in about 20 minutes... that's unfortunate. I forgot I finished my bread with my lunch. Oops, that was stream of thought in my blog. Thanks for flying Air Jonathan.

So yesterday was intense....a morning of language intensive course which is making me perpetually more perturbed. I think one of the reasons that it bothers me so much is that our professor treats more like 3rd grade Germans learning their mother tongue than university/college students who are trying to pick up a second language. In that respect, she can be kind of condescending in her actions and behaviors. Ehh, it frustrates me because I feel like I'm wasting my time, which I hate in the academic setting. I have enough other stuff to do.

Fortunately it's now the weekend, and class was followed up with one of the most enjoyable excursions of my life.

Yeah, I praise I know....what could be just that good? There's a lot of things that worked together to make it a great night. Part of it is that I really like Germany...I just think it's beautiful, and in a way that reminds of the parts of Wisconsin that I really like. Maybe if northern Wisconsin had hills and castles and vineyards. you know, something like that. Everyone has a different sense of aesthetics, and the countryside of Germany just really appeals to mine.

The adventure goes like this: the hundred or so students in the Ausland program gathered around 13:15 at a bus stop near the campus main building, which incidentally looks a little like this (it used to be the pimpin crib of a bishop):

So we got in our coach buses, and started off on the hour and a half-ish drive down south towards Marksburg. It's said that there's a castle about every two kilometers on the Rhein, and it's no exaggeration. The way that cities splay out from the river up onto the sides of the hills is beautiful, and then here and there, there's a castle poking out from around the surrounding modern structures, or off by itself on the a hill-top. It's ueber cool, especially considering we don't have anything like that back in the states. Unless I've been missing out on something....

Marksburg itself was pretty neat. It's the only Burg, the technical name for a castle built for defensive purposes, left intact on the Rhein. The remainder of the Burgs were either destroyed in war, especially after the dawn of gunpowder warfare, or were demolished to be replaced by a Schloss, which is the kind of castle that's pretty and people lived in because they're cool. Think Walt Disney style castle, which is actually based off of Germany style Schloss. Bada bing. We were divided into groups for tours, and were then shown the little features of the Burg.

It's amazing to think that people actually lived in these things...they're so cold and so dark... the walls are unimaginable thick, I think about three meters is what the guide said, so about 10 feet. They were already using some cool inventions back then, literally. There was a stone refrigerator with two compartments, one on top and one on the bottom. A block of ice could be placed in the top, and the descending coolness would refrigerate perishables in the bottom compartment. Huge slabs of ice from the Rhein were stored under ground covered in straw and could last through out the summer! Spiffy. Another thing worth mentioning is the size of the doors....people back then were much, much smaller than they are now! We went up a spiral staircase, and I had turn sideways to fit through the door (okay, part of that is for defense purposes), but then here's an example of a regular door and my friend Ian:

A little bit of a difference there, I'd say!

After the tour of the castle, we made our way back up northwards towards Mayschoss am Ahr, the vineyard that we were going to be checking out. For those of you who are not familiar, the best Rieslings in the world (only partially subjective) are made in the Rhein River valley. We were given a brief tour of the wine cellar by a very animated and gregarious vintner, who informed us about how the vineyard was, if I understood correctly, the first coalition of multiple vineyards to produce and sell their wine in Germany. So there was a lot of cool history, as well as some cool ornate kegs:

A regular new keg, not like this one, would cost about 5,100 Euro, which is about 7200 dollars, but at least lasts for decades and can contain thousands of liters of wine. A reasonable trade off : )

And then there was the wine-tasting....our massive group had a large fest hall to ourselves. It had great atmosphere, all wood and soft light, but totally open, too. The vinter lead us all in the tasting...there were six rounds, each an entirely different wine, three whites and three reds. One of my friends here is muslim and cannot drink alcohol, so she got grapejuice from the vineyard which was absolutely fantastic. The best grape juice I've ever had. We had a great time trying the wine, tasting the food, and have a general sense of harmony among a massive group of people from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Slovakia, Singapore, Germany, and all over the USA. Each nationality had to get together and sing a song for the entire group in their language. That was a blast, and everyone was getting pretty into it, especially because some people had really low tolerance... The Americans, of course, could not agree on anything, so we ended up doing two songs, Row, Row, Row Your Boat as a round, and then because of popular demand Don't Stop Believing by Journey. It was a good time : )

Freude beim Wein

Joy with Wine

I think I'm going to stop here....I have more I could say, but it seems fitting for me to end with the wine. Our vintner spoke about something that really struck a chord with me. He talked about the harmony that you can find in the room when people are singing, and the harmony that you can find in a shared glass of wine. There were people together there from all over the world, a world that finds itself continuously enveloped in disharmony. Last night, if only for a little bit, we found unity.

Peace!

Nadine, falls du dieses Blog liest, you should have been there!

Laundry blues in Bonn....

2008-03-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

Endlich. Finally. I have finished my laundry. *sigh* If you guys have been following up to this point, you may have caught that I, thanks to my own doing, got about 4.5 hours of sleep right now. Please, save the violins of sympathy, for I know I deserve none. However, it has made it difficult for me to (a) be patient with things that I usually let slide and (b) speak german. The latter has caused me more problems, and put a lot of "ifs" "maybes" and "likes" into my Deutsch this afternoon. And no, the "likes" do not mean I was speaking Valley Deutsch. Gag me with a Loeffel...

Tonight has been another realization night of my American heritage (not to be confused with the magazine). Lets see if I can describe this in ways that make sense... the washing machines here are tiny. They're so little, and as my mother might say, cute. Just to make it clear, I would not say that myself. Mom would say it. But in America we have these relatively huge washing machines...and then when I started thinking about it, pretty much everything in America is huge. Seriously....one of our grocery stores would be about 6 German grocery stores, and that's to say nothing about Wal-Mart or Target or anything of that nature. And our cars are huge, too. SUVs aside, my mercury sable would easily be as bigger than 60% of cars on the road here. The Mercedes Smart Ka looks like a bench surrounded by sheet metal set on a red Radio Flier.

So today was kind of uneventful...I had class all morning, then I had lunch at the Mensa, or cafeteria, and then I made my way to the International club for Kaffeestunde, or coffee hour, which I definitely needed. I got to chat with some of my friends, and had to say goodbye to one of the Germans from another city who had been visiting for a week. I intensely dislike goodbyes, and I think it was a good thing I was tired today....it's too soon since I said goodbye to everyone at home!

After the Kaffeestunde I had my Arbeitsgemeinschaft, which is a sort of workshop. The one that I'm in is "Meet the Germans: Kulturelle Sensibilitaet" (cultural sensiblity, yay cognates!). It's with Herr Impekoven, who's the director of the internation program, and Katharina Schmitt, who does most of the coordination for our events. Anyways, they're really cool, and they really help me, and I think the other students as well, evaluate our own cultures as well as the German culture. It's an interesting class because There's four Americans, four Taiwanese, and a Japanese student, so there's definitely some cultural differences right there!

Tomorrow we're going to Marksburg for our wine tasting. I'm so excited! It's going to be so much fun : )

Me, Liz and Sheryl in front of a cool German building.

Well, of course it's German. I'm in Germany.

There's been a lot of discussion about elevator etiquette lately, which I find relatively amusing. Cuz let's face it, most of us have awkward elevator experiences. Most people get on an elevator, say nothing, and ride in silence until arriving at they're destination. It's weird for me at least to be in such close proximity to someone and not say anything. Apparently it is a very German thing to say hello when entering an occupied elevator, and say goodbye when leaving, but to not speak at all during the ride. I don't think we go for that much talking even in America. Think about that the next time you're riding the Aufzug, ladies and germs. Think about the Awkward Elevator Silence.

And finally I send herzliche gruesse to my favorite Hamburgerin who is going back home. May it laeuft for you always : )

Die große deutsche Abenteuer!

For your information....

Epic Tragedy

Who are your heros?

It's more than a feeling

Where the Hell is Matt

I was hungry and you fed me...

In regards to mortality....

Nach Berlin!

Anyway you want it, that's the way you need it!

A Taste of Spain

There's no berg like Heidelberg

Rain drops keep falling on my head...

Don King is my hairstylist....

How far I've come....

There and Back Again... A Paretsky's Tale

"Je ne parle pas de francais..." "FRANCAIS!!!"

*ahem* excuse me

Warum isst der Mensch?

Warum ist der Mensch?

Auf deutsch bitte

Abschied von Stacy...Nadinchen, du solltest da sein (noch einmal)!

Du, du liegst mir im Herzen

Guten Morgen, Montag...

Weinprobe!

Laundry blues in Bonn....

ahem excuse me