How far I've come....

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.