All that and a PhD
I figure since I have a bit of time, I should update this since I let it go for so long a few weeks ago. Well, President Bush in in Mainz today as part of his European Tour and he is frankly disrupting my life. Aside from the comments at work such as...'So, your president is coming to visit you...' everything important is closed because of the visit. The center of town is shut down or blocked off. There is a blocked off and shut down part for the protestors and another for Bush. When I mean shut down and blocked off, here is what I mean: The city had to weld all of the sewer drains and manhole covers so they could not be opened or tampered with, all of the shops in the center of the town are closed today, and some were also closed yesterday, the streets in the center of town are blocked off, public transportation that goes anywhere near the center of the town is not running, all trains in and out of Mainz are not running and the Autobahn...highway around Mainz is also rerouted and closed in parts. So, almost no one in my department is going in to the office today, because it is too much of a hassle...and I can't get to work either because the bus and trams I would take to get there run through the center of the city. (I actually just sent my boss an email telling him I wouldn't be coming in...and it's past noon...and I am suppose to start at 9am...I hope he understands!)

So, if I'm not fired from my internship tomorrow, I would like to boast about my vacation days. I get a week and a half of paid vacation...and I'm only an intern...and I'm only working there for 6 months. That's pretty cool in my book. I was really suprised yesterday when I talked to my boss and he's like 'Just let me know the days you want off and we'll take care of it. And, if you don't use the days, you'll get reimbursed for them.' So, cool.

By the way...one more fun fact about work... There are far more people in my department who have earned their PhD's than there are women...

This isn't the best journal entry, it's just a tribute.
Sorry for not having updated this in quite a long time. Since the last time I wrote, I experienced the craziest 'Holiday' and have gotten another year older.

The craziest bestest holiday is Fastnacht...or Karnival or Carnival...depending on where you are. In Mainz it is called Fastnacht. It is five days of people wearing (Halloween-esq) costumes and drinking in the streets. I was so tired on the Thursday of Fastnacht because I had worked the whole day and still had to work on Friday as well that I didn't join the festivities until Friday night. It was so funny because I dressed up as a Trucker and my roommate Elaine dressed up as the Tooth Fairy. We were both wearing bright blue wigs and had all sorts of slutty make up on. Everyone at work told me I had to hit up Eisgrub, this club in the Altstadt. So, we got there around 8pm and the place was packed. I couldn't believe it. So, we went in and everyone was in a weird costume and dancing. One guy was dressed up as a NY police officer and he totally startled me because it looked so real. This guy was like 6ft tall and had the whole uniform...and to me his costume of a police officer looked more real than the actual police officers here. They wear green here and just don't seem as intimidating. I also saw a lot of people (guys actually...) dressed up as 'Housewives' and had wigs and aprons with sponges glued to them. It was so great. We ended up going back there on Saturday night as well. On Sunday, I went to a parade with some friends and that was also hysterical. The people in the parade were all drinking and the people watching the parade were all drinking and this was on a Sunday morning at 11am. I couldn't even fathom drinking... It was frankly too early and the two previous days had wiped me out. But, I did have the energy to wear a costume. In fact, if one does not wear a costume when going out on these five days, people look at you weird. Since it was cold, I just dressed up as a Runner and wore the blue hair again. (It was almost like a hat...) At the parade, they threw out candy like one might expect at a regular parade...but, I somehow got a packet of German political cartoons (which I gave to a friend studying poli sci...) and Elaine got some cheese. (I told you it was a great holiday.) The next day...Monday, we all went out again (dressed up and all!) into the city and watched a few hours of the parade that was going on there. The entire parade lasted 6 hours. It all starts at 11:11am and it went until after 5pm. At 5pm they closed down part of a street in the Altstadt and had a gigantic stereo system set up with a stage and tv screens and had a huge street dance. It was so halarious. They were playing typical club music (hip-hop and stuff) as well as german music. The entire street was covered in left over trash from the parade as well as thousands of broken bottles of beer and sekt. But, it was so much fun. There were thousands of people in the street all dressed up crazy and dancing on a Monday night. The funniest thing was going into work on Tuesday morning and almost no one even bothered to come into work. I ended up going home early because I just didn't have anything to do because no one was there. So, if you get the chance...visit Mainz during Fastnacht.

I'll write about getting older later. I've gotta do some job searching...better late than never! And, if anyone knows of a job where they need someone who speaks german, let me know!

Workin' 9 to 4...
Guten Abend! Well, my first day at work wasn't so bad. Perhaps it was because they had nothing for me to do. That must be it. Well, my commute to work consists of a 50 minute long bus ride across town. You have no idea how short a 50 minute bus ride can feel like when you are terrified to start a new internship in a language you don't speak very well. I have never been so scared in my life about a job. Really. Try going to work with no pants on or something, and perhaps you'll know what I felt like this morning. (I did wear pants this morning, just to clarify.) But, in the end the whole day wasn't so bad. Well, I was supposed to be issued my laptop today but, that didn't get done. And, since I didn't have a laptop, I couldn't do any work. So, they gave me a work manual to read. And, I was able to stretch the time and read that thing for like 3 hours. It was either, read the manual for 3 hours or figure out how to make small talk in German with people I don't know. So, I went in the direction of the manual. So, this morning one of the employees took me around and introduced me to everyone. I didn't realize it at first but only one woman works in my entire department, and she's a secretary. Basically, this job is going to be just a little harder because I am working in a boy's club and I'm an intern and I am not a native german speaker. Great, eh? The one funny thing about today was on the bus ride home. Aparently an 80's Hair Band lost two of their members and they were riding on my bus on the way home. So, if any of you are listening to your collection of 80's Hair Band music and feel that there's something missing, it's probably these guys. Let me know and I'll send them your way.

Less than a 1/2 Liter would have done it!
So, I am in Munich now, I thought I´d just let you all know that. I toured BMW today and it is a rather impressive operation they`ve got going on here. I can tell you that if I had the money and needed an expensive car, I would get a BMW. They even gave us lunch before the tour.

I am actually sitting at this internet cafe hungry, waiting for some friends so I can we can get dinner... But, my trip home from Paris... So, I was sitting shot gun and Christian and I were talking about random things the whole way through France. Mami and Jenny were kinda sleeping or talking in the back. At one point, Christian and I took a look at how much gasoline was left...and we were getting kind of low, but still enough gas to get to Luxembourg. The reason we wanted to get to Luxembourg was because it is so much cheaper to fill up there than it is in France or Germany...plus, it was on the way home. So, we get stuck in traffic for something like 20km and finally get through it all just as we reach Luxembourg. So, we get of the highway and start searching for a gas station. Just as we are heading up the off ramp...the car runs out of gas. Not kidding. So, mami and jenny think christian is just messing with them...but, no. I knew he was serious because we had just talked about it. So, christian pulls over and he hops out of the car hoping someone would be nice enough to stop and help us. So, Mami hops out too and tries to wave at some cars. Well, Mami waves down this car...and this is where everyone realizes that Mami speaks Japanese and english...the woman driving the car speaks French and a dialect spoken in Luxembourg and some english. So, Christian runs over and starts speaking German. Well, Mami comes back and gets in to the car with me and jenny and this nice lady gives Christian a ride to the next gas station. Well, the three of us are sitting there and realize that at least in Germany, when a car is pulled over on the side of the road, one puts on the emergency lights...and puts up little reflective triangles behind the car. Its just what they do here. So, we decided to try and find these triangles. Well, they´re not in the glove box or underneath the seats so the must be in the trunk, right? So, Mami sits in the drivers seat and cant find the button to pop the trunk...she´s from Japan and they drive on the other side of the road anyway. So, I get in the drivers seat because I also drive a VW...but, not a manual Golf model...and I can´t find it either...So, jenny jumps in the drivers seat because she`s german and can drive a manual but it doesnt matter because she cant find the button either. So, we pull out the manual and find out you need a key. Ha. Well, Christian gets back with a liter or so of gas and tells us that the lady who helped him had to speak english because that was the only common language between them. So, the end.

Sylvester
My New Years resolution is to try and keep more in contact with the people I know. Well, this is one of the ways I am going to do that. So, I will continue to try and post about once a week or so. If you haven't made any resolutions yet...you may want to consider this one...considering I haven't heard from some of you at all since I got here...hint...hint.

So, today I went to Luxembourg. It was alright. It was a pretty quick trip, though. It's not that far away and the city is rather small, so we just walked around for a few hours and bought one of the cakes they only sell during the time around three kings day. These cakes have a little plastic figure baked into the cake and whoever gets the piece with the figure in it gets to be the king or queen for the day.

My New Year's was pretty cool. I'll have to tell you all about it...and the ride home some other time.

Gotta go old school...
We have a Christmas tree, I wish you could see it. I have every possible crappy computer experience that one can have here…and now my digital camera is in on it too. I hate my computer and my blasted digital camera. I have damned them both…together…they have been working in cahoots. I managed to lose every single picture I have taken between now and October. I lost all of them. I have nothing. Thanksgiving- gone. Christmas-gone. Day trips and site seeing? -Gone as well. The only pictures I have were the ones I put online. That’s it. I have been fighting with my computer since I got to Mainz. My computer and digital camera worked fine in Radolfzell. Perhaps they pitied me since there was really nothing else to do…(we didn’t even have an internet café in that city, remember.) But, now that I’m here in Mainz, both of these electronic devices have turned against me. It’s always something: low or dead batteries, full memory card, incorrectly installed software, illegal operation windows…always something. Now, I have had it. I want to throw them both out the window but I can’t bring myself to do it. All I can do now is to plead with my parents to send me my trusty 35mm camera and some film. I’ve always trusted it and for good reason. I love that camera and it loves me. My digital camera can suck it for all I care. I have given up on it. If I were my digital camera, I would sleep with one eye open. Same goes for my computer.

I guess all I can do is explain to you how everything has been here. Christmas, good. I wish you could have seen it. I’m bitter. So, that’s that. I don’t even want to talk about it since this digital camera thing happened. Perhaps I’ll be more willing to talk about my New Year’s. That will give me some more time to cool off.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Trier and hanging out with Jenny for a day before we take off for Paris for New Year's. I am excited to go to France, as I have never been there before. (Actually, I have spent a rather long amount of time waiting around in the CDG airport in France, but that isn't france. So, it doesn't count. Who stops in an airport in France and says 'Yes, I have been to France!' Don't be that guy!)

Rockin around no Christmas Trees
I was riding the tram a few days ago and I was lucky enough to ride in the vicinity of a guy who steals the remains of bikes where the tires and seats and stuff have already been stolen. This guy was also carrying a box with a mouse in it. My sister can stand two feet away from Bono any day and I don’t care. I was able to see this guy carrying a mouse in a box and the metal body of a bike (no handle bars, no seat, no tires, no pedals, nothing…just the metal part that holds it all together). The entire time he was on the train, he stood next to the driver, trying to make conversation. The driver seemed to be interested or at least too weak to tell the scary mouse man to go away. But, I guess I would put up with it too if I had a glass window between me and him. I think Tram driver is the one profession that people forget when thinking about careers behind glass. People usually think of gas station attendants and bank tellers (on occasion), but tram driver should be up there.

I found out that there will be a Christmas tree in our house on Christmas. There isn’t one right now, and it is Dec. 22nd. But, there will be soon. And, it will be a real one too. I am usually not the hugest fan of Christmas Trees. I’m not quite sure why. Perhaps it is because we always had a fake tree when I was younger and I preferred the real trees. But here are the four clues it is Christmas at our house: a. there is mistletoe hanging over the door in the entry way, b. there is one strand of Christmas lights in the tree next to the house, c. there is a little manger scene in the window sill in the living room and d. there is a little Adventskranz which is like a little Christmas wreath in the living room. Those are the four things. But, quite frankly no one notices the lights in the tree (there’s only one very short strand up in that tree…) and no one sees the mistletoe (I haven’t caught anyone making out in the doorway, but maybe they don’t do that here…not quite sure. But, if there’s a hot guy standing in the doorway- believe you me, I am going to stand there, too). Plus, my family has already killed the poinsettia that was sitting in the kitchen. My advisor gave me a little potted poinsettia as a gift and I have kept that thing alive for the past month…and I am going to try and keep it alive as long as possible. Well, the poinsettia looks a little kitschy, so I love it…I’ll have to take a picture of it so you know what I mean.

I just thought I would let you know that it is snowing here right now... :::scarastic tone::: Looks like a regular freakin snow globe here. :-)

For the Longest Time...
I know you are all picturing my sweet and angelic voice singing the Billy Joel song...:-) What I am actually elluding to is that this is the longest consecutive amount of time I have ever been outside of the US. :::sarcastic tone::: Wow!

I had German class this morning and I don't think the other students were nearly as interested in learning grammer and what have you as I was. You see, I was the only one who actually showed up for class. So, I was in class alone with the professor for a 90 minutes. But, I made the best of the situation and learned a lot of grammer and got a lot of questions I had out of the way. Urg...I have German again tomorrow with my tutor... Perhaps by then, it will have been a long enough break from german grammer that I will be ready to practice some more. But, lets face it. Grammer is grammer. It isn't fun.

Oh...I had a sad moment today. I remembered Chai Tea Lattes. Coffee shops really don't exist here and that means neither to Chai Tea Lattes. I guess it will be a mission to try and find one. I'll let you know if I do.

I am a subscriber!
So, last night we had a family dinner. These are always interesting for me because I get to listen to some of the most interesting or most boring conversations ever at these things. Last time, they talked for about 2 hours on the topic of insurance. But, this time they talked about pot. I had to stop and listen harder because I was sure I was mistaken by the topic. Many times my ears will deceive me or the word I hear actually means something totally different than I first thought. But, no. I was correct. One of the brothers asked the other brother where he was getting his information from and he said that he subscribed to a marijuana newsletter. Keep in mind, this was a family dinner...parents, the adult children...

Tonight we (Jo, Hannes, Elaine, Alex and some other random people) are going to Karaoke night at the Irish Pub. It should be a good time, or at least I am hoping it is a good time. I think I want to sing something tonight...but, I'm not quite sure what. I was trying to figure out what songs I know relatively well...or at least songs I wouldn't suck too badly at singing... It probably has to be something sung by a girl band like the Donnas. I think I could handle that.

Christmas is coming. Yes it is. I am in no way prepared for it. But, I found out last night the Christmas schedule. Aparently my family does not do christmas on Christmas. They only do it before and after. This is because one of their sons, Hannes and his girlfriend Jo would have to split the time between their two families. So, instead, no one has christmas on Christmas. The 'kids' all have a party themselves and then in the following days, celebrate Christmas. So, I will also be included in this tradition. As far as I know, I will be attending a party on Christmas.

Will the delegate from Finland yield to some flirting?
I was in another world for the past week. I was a part of the Model United Nations simulation in Bonn this past week. This simulation contained more than 100 students who are normally some of the most politically informed people. But, frankly that all went to crap when we all became concerned with the conversations within our own committees. Our committees discussed topics such as EU institutional reform...but, if the EU suddenly disbanded during one of our committee sessions this past week, we wouldn't have known about it. We were basically too busy with our own negotiations to be bothered by any real news.

The week was rather halarious because no one new anyone else's name. During committee sessions, we all had to follow some strict guildlines on how to participate, so we all refered to each other as 'The honorable delegate from...' So, I met a lot of people, but I can only tell you the country they were representing. The other funny part is that we were all college age students from around the world, so it was only a matter of time for some of the delegate to pursue 'friendly relation' policies with other delegates. (In layman's terms, it means everyone was checking each other out...it all felt like Freshman Orientation.) The gossip also sounded like this...'I heard that Malta and Slovenia were making out last night...' 'No way! I didn't know Malta liked Slovenia!'

I had a lot of fun, got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while, and learned a lot. I've had too much of this computer for now. I just got done checking a weeks worth of emails, so I've had it.

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!)

Its as if I met Ken Barlow...
So, I went to Frankfurt last night and went on top of the Main Tower which is one of the tallest buildings in Frankfurt and everyone goes up there to look at the entire city. At any rate, I was on the elevator and some guy was standing next to me talking on his high tech cell phone, in German. So, Christof tells me in English that this is the weather guy and so on... So, the weather guy finishes his phone call and asks me 'So, where are you from?' I tell him I'm from the US, from MN and he nods and smiles in recognition of the information. So, I ask him 'Oh, so do you know where MN is?' And, he gives a nervous-embarassed laugh and says, 'Well...not exactly.' So, I inform him and he tells me about how its unseasonably warm in that part of the US and Canada right now. I have no idea if that's true, since I'm here now. Then, a little later on top of the tower, a crowd of people including myself watched this guy give the weather forcast for the nightly news.

The pathetic part of this whole story is that my sister's first weekend in Ireland was more eventful than my entire stay in Germany so far. Figures. She ends up on a movie set and watches the filming...and I meet the local weather guy. Whatever.

We are the champions, my friends.
We may have lost the battle of the chocolate yogurt, but we have surely won the battles of cherry jam and apple pie. Last night, we were able to devour a good amount of apple pie, which only shows are dedication to all things sweet and tasty. The sweet war will continue, and I will assure you that only the strong will survive!

I had my first international law class last week and I kid you not, the only thing I genuinely understood was the sentance 'So, does everyone understand?' Huh. Well, the only thing I can say at this point is that I can only improve. Things cannot possibly get worse. I am bound to learn some new vocabulary. And, the french girl who sits next to me is also just as confused and lost as I am in this german language. Our professor seriously talks as fast (if not faster...I would put money down on faster...) as that guy who did the Micro Machines commercials when we were younger. (I do believe he also starred in an episode of Saved By The Bell!)

Tomorrow night, I shall be going out to dinner and a movie with my host parents. I think we can all equally hope that sometime later in the year the words 'host parents' will be replaced by 'really hot boyfriend' or something like that. But, as it stands, anything in german with german people improves my german. So, I can't complain (despite it sounding rediculously pathetic).

The sweet war...
Case 3243482, Elaine and Amy vs. Dietrich the host dad. A complaint has been filed by Elaine and Amy to Cornelia the host mom that Dietrich eats all of the good food and snacks before they get home from school.

Summary of the complaint:

Afidavit of Amy

'So, we opened a brand new jar of homemade jam on Tuesday and by Thursday morning, the entire jar was finished. It's absolutely insane. I know I'm not even capable of consuming that much jam. And, Elaine isn't either. I know she's at school because we have some of the same classes. It can't possibly be Cornelia because she's teaching all day, so it has to be Dietrich. He's retired and works from home. He's gotta be it. How else is it possible to finish an entire tub of chocolate yogurt in one day when next to nobody is home?'

Ruling:

Cornelia has begun buying separate rations of yogurt for Amy and Elaine and a separate stash for Dietrich. Also, it has been taken into consideration that there needs to be more sweets in the house to meet the demand of about four people (not just three).

I’m type A and cultured. I have been in this country for 11 weeks and I am far more organized here than I’ve ever been. I think it’s the air, or the bread…perhaps it’s the mineral water. I never really drank mineral water on a regular basis until I got here. I went to the opera last Friday night. (Who thought I’d ever say that last sentence?) I actually enjoyed it, despite my lack of knowledge of what the story was about. I saw Mefistofele, an Italian opera (with German subtitles for all of us who do not speak Italian. Unfortunately, there were no English subtitles for us who’s German is crap!) at the Frankfurt Opera. I was able to understand the subtitles; I knew what all of the words meant, and was able to understand it sentence by sentence. The problem was the big picture was totally lost on me. So, I’m going to search for a synopsis of the story now to try and understand what I saw. Thank goodness I had some idea of the Faust story. I was telling Cornelia (the Frau of the houseJ) about how I was going to see this show and it was Italian and involved Faust. She then tried to convince me that I must be terribly mistaken because it was just not possible. So, when I was watching the show, I figured out I was not mistaken and Faust was clear and present. At the opera, I met a UST alum, (which is the reason this all went down in the first place, since he invited me there) and got a little tour of all of the backstage ‘going-ons.’ Now, when I saw Les Miserables in London, I thought I had witnessed the largest rotating stage there was to be seen. However, I was informed by the horse’s mouth that the stage for the Frankfurt Opera (the very stage I walked on) is the largest rotating stage there is to be seen. The sweater. So, Cornelia as lovely as she is, gave me some of her daughters sweaters, as her daughter is studying somewhere in the former USSR now and doesn’t need or want them anymore. As I could only fit so many things in my suitcase and would rather not spends tons of money buying sweaters I’ll throw out before I come home, blindly accepted them. However…there is…this one…interesting…uh…really interesting sweater she gave me. I’m not even sure what to say about it. I mean, there was a clear and definite reason as to why the daughter left this sweater behind. That’s for sure. The sweater is no particular color. I think the knitter was one of those people who like to please everyone because this sweater has every color in it. So, the up side to this interesting sweater is that it will match with everything? I guess. What I can’t figure out is how this sweater got out of a store. In my four years at a university, learning about business among other things, I have racked my brain trying to figure out how it happened. Who was the decision maker? Was it the advertising? Was it an impulse buy? Was it an amazing coincidence of the P’s of marketing that moved someone to bring this particular piece of clothing home? Perhaps, I should go back to school and figure this one out.

All that and a bottle of beer.
So, sorry I haven't written in a little while. I am finally moved in and everything in Mainz. My stuff got here ok, so that is a testament to how much my German has improved since August. But, let's face it, I've got a long way to go.

Well, on Friday, I got all registered for a few classes here and I had my first one today. It was rather funny because I usually get really excited for a new class because it's a new topic and filled with new people...but, today just felt like any other day. Strange. Nonetheless, it seems like an interesting class. Its half foreign students and half german students, so it is guarenteed to be interesting, even if the lecture isn't.

On Saturday, I think I did orientation. I'm still not quite sure. I guess I'll explain the activities and you can judge for yourselves. So, I arrive at school around 3:30 in the afternoon and all of the new and international students stand around getting to know each other and drink sekt until about 5pm. At this time, the 'student council' start administering the official drunken games such as riding around the halls on little kid tricycle things and musical chairs- which also involves drinking when you lose your seat. Then, we go and have dinner at the Mensa and then get on a boat for a ride down the Rhein, which also includes a drink ticket. Whatever it was, wasn't bad. Free drinks tend to be a good thing in my book, but maybe that's just me.

So, one of the orientation student coordinators tried to get me and Elaine to kiss each other so he could have a picture of it. (He was collecting photos of first year students kissing each other...) When we refused, we asked him to kiss some other guy. He said no...and then tried to get us to kiss this other random guy. But, the other random guy said he wouldn't kiss me or Elaine because he had a girlfriend. Then for some reason the student coordinator reconsidered and he kissed that other random guy. I still don't know what happened...but, maybe it had something to do with the free beer at dinner.