Laundry blues in Bonn....

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 : )