Timmy vs. David Hasselhof
Happy Thanksgiving (Yesterday)! How was it for everyone? Send me an email and let me know how it all went down and what you all did. I had a good Thanksgiving. My roommate and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for our host parents, advisor, tutorin and two friends. We made a cranberry glazed turkey basted with wine and butter, two pumpkin pies, two pecan pies, mashed potatoes, a walnut-apple salad, stuffing, cornbread and cranberries from a can. It was pretty good. We ate on and off for about two hours. Then, we all sat around and drank wine and tried a Hungarian schnapps. We followed that with Pie and espresso. Then, a few hours later we had another piece of pie and coffee. So, it was as traditional as I could hope for. Jo, Hannes and I sat around pondering who would win an ice skating race between Timmy from Southpark and David Hasselhof. We would bank on Timmy because he's got that speedy wheelchair. David, however, would not be running on his familiar beach-sand surface. So, he would fall because he would not be able to handle the icy surface...and in the end, lose.

Back to Thanksgiving, we didn't screw up anything too much. We spent a lot of time planning out and preparing that, things went fairly well. So, can't complain.

For those who haven't heard, I finally secured my internship. So, I am just waiting for my work permit. Yay! One less thing for me to worry about, thank goodness. So, now I just need to obsess and worry about my German skills. Not as good as I wish they were, still.

Next week, I'm going to be in Bonn competing in a Model UN competition. It should be mad fun. At least, I hope it's mad fun. If anything, I get to see a few friends I knew from MN.

How is everything at home? Has hockey started? Snow, yet?

You don't know until it's gone. Live Journal Entry So, there are two very important superficial things I miss right now. 1. Caribou Coffee. I miss everything about it. I miss being able to find one on every corner across the street from a Starbucks. I miss how it doesn't taste burnt. I also love sitting on the couch with a Mocha or whatever next to the fireplace in Uptown with a book or something. That whole thing is nearly impossible to do here. At least, it's just not the same. I can live without it, but mark my words...I will be visiting a Caribou when I get back. 2. I also very much miss Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. You have no idea. I was telling a friend of mine about it, because its completely non-existant here, and I think I talked for a solid 20 minutes explaining each of the 5 Queer Guys and what they do and about the guys they have made over. So, I went to Bonn yesterday and I kind of like the town. My first impression is that it's kind of a British version of a German town. There were just so many British things about it, like the place I had lunch. It felt a little like Wagamama's...all modern and slightly uncomfortable and yet-good food. I had pumpkin gnocci, and it was good. So good. But, I'll let you know my second impression of Bonn in a few weeks after I go to my competition there. I have a random question for those who may be able to answer it: what's a good wireless internet card to get? I think I'm one of the last people to not have one for my notbook, and I could use one. Or, where is a good place to get one? I could order it online and either send it here or have my parents ship it to me if necessary. And, the cheaper it is, the better as the exchange rate is not too friendly for me right now! Email me if anyone knows much about this. The weather here isn't too fun. It's been gray for days. Not so much rain or anything, and it's not too cold...but, it is dark. And, frankly it's quite annoying. I enjoy the sun. I feel as if I can get more done when its sunny.

I love Edward Norton...
I drink milk that has been sitting around at room temperature for a few days. It’s completely normal. At first, I avoided it. But, it got the best of me, and I now drink it without thinking twice.

So, I tried to bake some chocolate chip cookies. It didn’t quite work out. It didn’t crash and there was no burning, so I can’t complain too much. But, I am quite content that I decided to try it out early. On Tuesday, we’ve got this international student potluck dinner at school and everyone is bringing food from their home country. So, I figured chocolate chip cookies were pretty standard in the US, because they certainly don’t have them here. But, things don’t quite work out when you don’t have brown sugar, baking soda or vanilla extract. I ended up using regular sugar, baking powder and vanilla sugar. That’s all they’ve got here. I know better next time, that’s for sure. Perhaps a standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich will suffice.

Last night I watched American History X because I had never seen it before. I thought it was a pretty good movie. I am typically a fan of Edward Norton anyway; I just wish he’d be more like Hugh Grant sometimes and take on sappier girl movie roles. See the movie if you haven’t. I saw it with a couple of friends, a German girl and guy my age, and I think we were all kind of uneasy around each other while we were watching it because of the contents of the movie and the history involved in it. I mean, I have a general understanding of the complexities of race issues in the US and they have an understanding of the history of Germany’s past. And, they’re two issues that are very difficult to explain. In the past three months, I’ve certainly learned a lot about the Nazis in Germany as well as the aftermath of WWII here. And, I don’t even know where to begin or how I could explain what I’ve learned. After the movie finished, we were all back to normal and talked pretty openly about it as we do about everything else.

I had a new food today. Well, I can’t even say it’s new per se. I guess it’s a food I am already familiar with; I’ve just eaten it in a different manner previously. The simplest way to explain what I ate was pie filling in a bowl with cream. That’s it. In a bowl. With a little cream. Pie filling. Alone. No ice cream. No pie. Just filling. It’s a specialty of northern Germany, which is nice to learn and try. But, it’s not something I’m going to order in a restaurant.

Schiller or Sedaris?
I knew I understood what was going on, I just didn’t understand why. This goes for the election and the new president the US has as well as class/lecture yesterday morning. I think not understanding the election-new president topic is pretty self-explanatory. So, I’ll just drop that one. But, my lecture…it is a politics class and the topic of yesterday’s lecture was ‘systems.’ Somehow, the professor was able to read some Schiller for about 20 minutes, right out of the book and then give a not so brief overview of his resume, and that counted as a lecture. I knew I understood the majority of the lecture because he used so many English words. Things like, 'Ich habe Politik studiert bei Georgetown University in Washington, DC.' are pretty simple to understand. I’m still just not quite sure what we were suppose to learn…or why. The prof. even took questions at the end. About what? I have no idea. I left 15 minutes early. I spent 75 minutes in the lecture hall reading articles in Der Spiegel and watching what amounted to about 60 students leave at different times during the lecture; and they didn’t come back.

How is the US feel about the re-election of Bush? Someone let me know how it’s all going down. Send me an email or post it on here.

'We could got to Amsterdam and be back by 10am!'
I like how they call these terribly unhealthy chocolates ‘Ritter Sport,’ as if they’re somehow going to enhance your endurance or something. I must confess, I love them nonetheless. However, I am not kidding myself about their true nature.

So, I started hanging out with my host mom’s son, Johannes and his girlfriend Giovanna. They’re mad cool. They’re my age and they speak English and German, among other languages. So, last Wednesday the three of us hung out and went to 50 Grad, a normally cool club which had been converted into ‘teeny bopper central’ for a night because all of the high schools had a vacation. They also had a Halloween party at their apartment and it was different mainly because we did absolutely no dressing up in costumes. It was a little disappointing. But, I am keeping my ideas for February for the week long Carnival celebration. I am told the entire city dresses up in costumes and parties in the streets for a week. Here is a list of the ideas for costumes:

a. a character from Sex and the City
b. a Power Puff Girl
c. one of Santa’s Ho, Ho, Hoes
d. Monica Lewinsky

I think I’ve considered being Monica for a couple of years, but I’ve never just gone ahead and done it. And, I’m not sure if people would recognize her here… Let me know if anyone has any better ideas for costumes.

Ahhh! Election Day! The pollsters can’t predict who is projected to win. The coverage starts here (Tuesday night 11pm) tonight, so I think I’ll start watching…but I’ve got a class tomorrow morning. (Funnily enough, it’s a political science class!) So, I’ll find out who wins Wednesday morning. All in all, I don’t mind admitting I’m a bleeding heart liberal. I don’t like either of the candidates which was the same thing I thought in 2000. But, I did my civic duty and voted for the candidate who I thought matched many of my views in hope that he (unfortunately, there were no women I’d vote for on the ballot…! Somebody’s gotta get Hillary on the ballot or something!) will make some good decisions in the future. So, if you’re reading this and can vote, go out and do it. We need to improve and maintain this ‘democracy ’. (ha!)