More examples

Okay, so when I wrote the post a few days ago about the subtle German culture shock, I could only come up with, like, two examples. Even I felt like it was anticlimactic! The thing is that it happens probably once a week where I realize that something just isn't quite right, but when I sat down to write the email I could only think of two. That's not cool. So over the last few days I have been trying to remember a few more Germanities that I think are really weird/crazy and write them down so I don't forget. Here are a couple:

There are dogs everywhere. Really, they are everywhere! I don't know how many times I've been sitting in a restaurant for a half hour before I realize that there is a dog sitting under the table next to me. People take their dogs on buses and U-Bahns; they are truly everywhere. I am told that sometimes you'll see a sign on a store that has a pictogram of a dog and says something to the effect of: We have to stay outside, but I have never actually seen one. I have seen stickers of the joke sign for this, that is a picture of a Nazi (or a swastika, I can't remember) and it says something like: We have to stay out completely, but never the dog one. There is a sign at the Media Markt (read= Best Buy) that says that dogs are allowed as long as they are on a leash, but that's as close as I've come. The thing is that 98% of the dogs I've seen are super- duper well behaved. And the other 2%, you ask? They barked, so they don't count as well behaved - not barked and ran off or barked and jumped up, they just barked. Seriously, it's incredible. I have no idea how all the dogs in this country are so well behaved.

The other thing that I think is completely different from Canada is how poor the Germans are at replying to emails. They have this reputation for being so efficient and hard-working, but it's incredible how long it takes them to get back to you sometimes. I actually don't think that this is culture shock in the way that the other examples are, but it is so different from what one expects, that it's shocking nonetheless.

I leave you with this picture I took of my view yesterday. I don't know what it is, but I love the way those buildings look. I love culture and archetecture and what not, but there is something very powerful about these buildings.

1. Advent

Well, yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent. It's a really big deal here, so Katie and Nicole and I got together and lit the hope candle. Then we played crib, which was really very hard because we don't have a board. I rigged up some sort of board using Excel and it seemed to work okay. I can't believe that it is almost December, can you?!!

I am actually in the process of trying to get ready/psyched up for Christmas. It's a little bit hard when I don't really feel like I have anything to look forward to. Mom is hoping to send off a package, but I don't actually know if it will get here on time. Nicole is thinking about asking some relatives if we can visit around the country and see them, but I'm not sure what happening with that. And, worst of all, Katie is going home for Christmas and won't be back until mid-January, and Nicole leaves for Sweden on December 27 and won't be back until mid-January. So I'm all alone. I'll have to ask around and see who else is hanging around so that I'm not competely alone. Anyways, this was not supposed to be a pity party for me! The point is that in my quest to get myself psyched up I bought some stuff: I bought a little Christmas tree and an advent calendar. The tree is pretty cool. I actually bought him a couple of weeks ago and I have been keeping him alive. He even came with some decorations, but I took them off because it was too early for that. I think I'll put them back on about the tenth or so. The advent's calendar is the single coolest advent's calendar I've ever seen. It's made by Kinder. It has 6 Kinder Surprise Eggs as well as some Happy Hippos and Schokobons and stuff. Super excited for that!! I saw one at the store that had 24 Eggs. I should go back and buy that one. I can use it as a countdown calendar until my friends come back; then the toys can keep me company. *Sigh*

I love the internet

Two posts in one day - lucky you!! This one is just quick to say that I love the internet. Anything one could ever want to know is on here (and plenty of things one wouldn't want to know). Just now I was reading the package for some rice I want to make. I competely understand every word for how to cook it in a pot except for one thing: the amount of water to add. It says, "3 EL Wasser." Now, the question is, what the heck is an EL? I was tempted to head down the hall and ask the one guy on my floor that I am comforable asking (although I've never done it before and wasn't looking forward to it), but I know that he went home for the weekend. So I checked the internet. Turns out that EL=tbsp. Simple as that. Thanks, Internet!

Getting mail is fun

I live in Germany. I have an actual German address. It's kind of fun because shortly after I got here I got a fair amount of mail. I had to get a bank account and health insurance and so all these different places were sending me stuff to confirm this piece of information and that. The thing I liked about it most, though, is that all these pieces of mail came addressed to "Frau Bari Pulles." That's hysterical! I didn't even see it coming, but for those first 3 weeks I was laughing my ass off just about every time I opened the mailbox. It was so funny, in fact, that I wish that they still sent me stuff, just so I could giggle and giggle. Frau Bari Pulles: that's funny.

Culture shock

I was talking to my friend Hannah the other day and she put to words exactly what I’ve been thinking for the last 2 months: This country is really sneaky.

The thing about Germany is that it seems like it is just like Canada. I don’t really find that I get much of a culture shock when I come here because it’s so much like home; with the exception of the hours of operation of most businesses, which are just plain dumb. But every now and then something happens where you just think, “Holy crap! What just happened here?” I think that the most obvious difference, from a Canadian’s perspective, is the way they deal with sex and nudity. It is not at all uncommon to show boobs on TV, regardless of the hour. Or, for another example, I was in Saturn (read: A&B Sound) the other day and there was a special table of adult films. Now, half of me is like, “Good for the Germans! Way to be open about something that is totally natural!” and the other half is like, “Oh my God!! I can’t believe I’m seeing this! Look away, Bari!” Sneaky.

They also are very weird about the way they address other people. They have a formal register and an informal register. They actually use a different pronoun and conjugate the verbs differently when talking to someone you should be formal with/show respect to and when talking to someone you don’t need to (like a good friend or someone much younger than you). I guess that this isn’t that weird except that when you go to the grocery store the nametags don’t say “Alice” or “Jim” they say “Fr. Miller” and “Hr. Schmidt.” I’ve even seen it at Burger King. Sneaky.

I don’t really know what else to say. Most of the time things here are extremely normal, and other times it’s like crossing into a different dimension. It’s sneaky and, quite frankly, it’s a little weird, but more than anything, it’s kind of fun.

Sometimes I'm really dim

So, humour me for a minute because I’m about to get linguistic:

I think that we all know what a syllable is, in principle; but it is actually way more complicated than you probably ever realized. A syllable is made up of 2 parts: an onset and a rime. The onset is optional; the rime is mandatory. The rime can then be further broken up into a nucleus and a coda. The nucleus is mandatory; the coda is not. Here is a diagram from Wikipedia. So basically, all you really need is a nucleus to have a syllable because the other two are optional. Usually this is a vowel, but it can also be a syllabic consonant like the ‘l’ in “bottle” or the ‘n’ in “button,” but that’s beside the point. The point is that, for the most part, a syllable would rather have an onset than a coda. This means that if you put a syllable with a coda in front of a syllable that doesn’t have an onset, chances are good that the second syllable will, in essence, steal the coda of the first syllable and make it his onset. This is, apparently (and I say apparently because I don’t speak French), pretty obvious in French with words like “bonjour” and “bon ami.” As far as I understand it, you don’t pronounce the ‘n’ in “bonjour;” it does affect the preceding ‘o,’ however making it nasalised. But in “bon ami” the ‘n’ gets pronounced; the thing is that it is more pronounced as part of the second syllable than part of the first (ie, bon ami vs. bo nami). The last thing I need to say on this is that both the onset and the coda can be consonant blends; so, in the word “trash” the onset is ‘tr,’ the nucleus is ‘a,’ and the coda is ‘sh.’

Okay, this was all leading up to a realization I had the other day. I walked past a first aid kit here in Germany and written on it were the words “ERSTE HILFE.” This translates, literally, to “FIRST HELP.” And I was so shocked by this because I realized that my whole life I’ve been treating “first aid” like an unanalyzed chunk and didn’t even think that it meant, like, “first help.” I blame this on the linguistics of the situation. I think that because “aid” is missing an onset, and “first” has one to freely give away, I’ve kind of been pronouncing it “fir staid” and not really realizing the meaning behind the two separate words.

I feel like such a nerd for 2 reasons:

1. I didn’t really get the meaning of one of the most common phrases in my life for the past 5 years (Century sells an awful lot of first aid kits).


2. I can explain it linguistically.

What a way to make a buck!

Okay, I feel that I need to write something, but I’m not sure what.  I know, let’s talk about my work.

I am getting a monthly living allowance scholarship while I’m here.  It doesn’t quite pay for all of my living expenses, but it pays for about two thirds; couple that with the fact that I don’t have to worry about any sort of tuition, and I am a pretty happy girl!  I don’t get the money entirely free, however, I have to work for it, but it’s a pretty cool job, so I’m okay with it.

Twice a week, for 2 hours at a time, I go to the Multimedia Speech Lab and… well… talk English.  It’s great.  The thing is that it’s, apparently, pretty hard to get into a face-to-face English class here.  Also, some people just have a hard time fitting them into their schedules, and others might just need to brush up their English skills and don’t really want to take a full class.  So a couple of semesters ago someone came up with the idea of, basically, an English correspondence course.  The way it works is that the university uses this program called Reward (I’m not sure which company makes it) and the interested students take a test at the beginning to place them into one of 5 levels of Reward (beginner, pre-intermediate, intermediate, etc.) and then they can come to the MSL in the evenings when they have time and do the lessons.  There is also homework for each week that isn’t to be handed in, but these people are here of their own accord, right, so they should be doing the assignments.  Anyways, for each level there is a schedule set up of 15 weeks, each week has different lessons associated with it (eg.  In intermediate, week 1 is lessons 1-3, week 2 is lessons 4,5 and Video A) and when a student has done all the lessons for a week we check their work over and give them a stamp.  The whole point is that if they finish all 15 weeks and hand in 2 of the 3 homework assignments that actually are marked as “written assignments,” they are guaranteed a spot in a face-to-face course the following semester.  This is their incentive.  Oh, and learning English, I guess.

So where do I come in?  Well, a lot of the stuff in Reward is marked by the computer, but there are usually one or two exercises in each lesson that involve writing something that can’t be marked by the computer, so they need English speakers to correct these.  There is always a Language Tutor in the lab for people to ask questions to and to correct the work.  These are usually German native speakers who have taken enough English courses to count them as experts in English.  These people are great to have around because they know all the rules of why things are the way they are, unlike us native speakers who just know what sounds right and what doesn’t.  The truth of the matter, though, is that nothing compares to speaking to a native speaker when you want to learn a language, and that’s where Katie and I come in.  For four hours a week I walk around and correct people’s grammar.  I wish I could do this for a living!  I correct their grammar and their spelling and tell them how I would say it and so on and so forth.  It is truthfully the perfect job for me, because I wander around doing what I love to do and no one thinks I’m a bitch or a know-it-all, because it’s what I’m expected to do.  And sometimes when I talk, people take notes of what I’m saying.  How cool is that?!

So, at the rate of four hours a week, and that I make 486 EUR a month, that pretty much works out to about 30 EUR an hour.  And that’s about $45 CAD an hour.  And I really like it.  Life is good.  I actually feel a little bad that we are getting so much for doing so little; I think that we might start marking some of the written assignments, but I’m not sure.  Katie and I are talking to our supervisor about putting on a speech course.  That would make me feel better about the situation.

Anyways, that’s pretty much it for me for today.  Ciao!

Eddie Guerrero died yesterday

Okay, I know that you were all hoping for a different kind of post than this, and I really didn't think, yesterday, that this is what I'd be writing today, but Eddie Guerrero of the WWE died yesterday. They're not even sure how he died yet, actually, but it was overnight in his hotel room, not in the ring. I know that a lot of you think that my fondness for wrestling is kind of silly and, admittedly, so do I, but I just can't believe it. One of the main things that I like about wrestling is that they film a new show every week - every week! Even if they just make a clips show at Christmas, they don't just show reruns (yes, just like a soap opera) and they even film the Monday show live every week(Friday's show is actually taped on Tuesday, but it is still a new one each week), so this makes a huge difference to the show as it stands right now. This isn't some sit-com where they can just write it in to the script. I am also especially upset about it because Eddie was actually the reason that I started watching in the first place. Well... I guess that Darryl was the reason I started watching, but Eddie is the reason I started liking wrestling! He was a really entertaining wrestler with great mic abilities, and it is really sad that the fans have lost a wrestler like him (I am not ignoring how horrible it must be for his family, just looking at it from a different angle). I am actually pretty glad that I'm unable to watch wrestling right now, because I don't know how I'd be handling this if I were. I'm actually a lot sadder than I probably should be, but I really am sad about this.

A quick update

Okay, I don't want to spend too long on here because I have other things that I should be doing, like dishes and vacuuming, but I just want to give a quick update on what's going on with me over the past few days:

I am not feeling very well. Every morning I wake up and my throat feels really swollen, but I don't really feel "sick" yet. My voice is getting pretty funny, though. I have been drinking lots of tea, eating oranges, and I bought some vitamin C at Wal-Mart the other day. I am having the usual problem I have, where my body tries to fight whatever is ailing me, but it just does a pretty shitty job. Instead of getting hit with a fire hose blast full of sick, I end up getting sprayed with a garden hose. The problem is that there is still the same amount sick stored up, it's just a matter of how fast it gets out. I hope that I just get really sick and then it's over.

Yesterday I went to Dachau. I had this vision in my head that Dachau was this huge concentration camp, surrounded by barbed wire fences complete with guard towers in the middle of nowhere. And that's pretty much what it was... except for the middle of nowhere part. Dachau is actually a town that is right near Munich. It can be reached using the Munich transportation system. And this seems like a really nice little town, except for this huge concentration camp right in the middle of it. It was crazy; really sobering. I have now actually been inside a gas chamber. On the signs, they made a point of saying that the gas chamber wasn't really used for mass killings because Dachau was more of a work camp than an extermination camp, but the mere fact that it was built is pretty frightening. The other thing is that they even said that a couple "smaller groups" were killed using gas in the chamber. Really horrible, but I actually think that I have to go back for the express purpose of looking through the museum there more carefully; we were only given a half hour to look through, but there was so much stuff to read that I could have spend several hours there.

Then, today, Chris and Diana and I went to a Salvador Dali exhibit. That was really awesome. I really, really preferred looking at his work to Picasso's. With Picasso, I felt like after I had seen half of the stuff, that everything pretty much looked the same, but Dali is very different. I also like how much Dali uses butterflies, and they are beautifully done, everytime.

Outside of that, life has been pretty boring. I went to a bar on Friday. On the advice of Clarissa and her ex-boyfriend, I went to a bar called "Keller" and it was awesome. Fantastic music! I also found a magazine called "IN Munich" which I knew about before, but didn't really pay attention to. Turns out that it has a complete listing of everything that is happening in Munich for the next 2 weeks. It even has Karaoke in there. Yes, I know, I was excited for me, too. So, I'm going to sign off for now, but I will try to post something tomorrow during my 7 hour break. Laters!

So... many... pictures...

This is the Brandenburg Gate in Potsdam. (I think
that Patrik called it the Brandenburg Gate, and I
know that we were in Postdam.)

This isn't Friedrich the Great's summer castle, but
it is in the same park and I thought it was so nice.

Katie, Chris and Diana in behind Friedrich's castle.

This is the view from the front of the castle.
Nice, eh?

This was the bathroom at the hotel.

And these are the beds which are so much more
comfortable than mine!

A view of the Reichs/Bundestag from far away.

This is the controversial holocaust monument.
There was a big to-do about it because they were
like, "What should this monument look like,
anyways?" This is what they decided on.

This, according to Nicole's boyfriend Lars, is
where Hitler's bunker was. They pretty much
destroyed it and paved over it right away and
don't really draw any attention to it at all, but it
was, supposedly, where this parking lot is now.

Me in front of the "real" Brandenburg Gate.

This is a mural on the former Luftwaffeministerium.

This is another part of the Bundes/Reichstag.

This is the last standing part of the wall.

This is my, Nicole's, Chris', and Diana's feet
straddling where the wall used to be.

Checkpoint Charlie.


Okay, as I'm wont to do from time to time, I also
took pictures of things that I thought were funny.
I need to take this opportunity, though, to tell Kellie
That I did NOT take any pictures of the toilet.
See, I already have some at home from my last
visit to Germany, so I didnt' even think about it,
but the next time I see this sort of toilet I promise
that I will take pictures for you!

It's called Soup World. 'Nuff said.

Uhhh.....

This is what they named the food court across
the street from Checkpoint Charlie.
I wish it were a joke.

Gymnasium is the German word for High School.
I wish I went to Einstein High!

It really isn't what it sounds like...
but it sounds freakin' hilarious!!

Oh, I also need to mention one other
thing. Berlin has a university called
Frei Universtitaet. Making the initials
FU. FU!!! I wish I were studying at
FU this year, that'd be way funnier.

Watch out Mike, this one'll blow your socks off!

Okay, that damn keener Nicole already wrote about Berlin, so I guess that I have to, too.  I highly recommend looking at her blog entry for November 6, so that you can see more pictures, but I will try and post some as well.  I will also take a different approach than she did; ladies and gentlemen, I present you with paragraphs!

So, as I mentioned I kind of forgot that we were going to Berlin last weekend.  These things really sneak up on you!!  I did remember with plenty of time to get ready, though.  See, the thing is that we were leaving at 12:30 am on Friday.  I want to clarify that this means half past midnight where Thursday turns into Friday.  I am fortunate, in that I have a class on Thursday from 9-11 and then my weekend starts.  So I spent the day packing and straightening my hair (remember, curly hair doesn’t travel well).  Yes, it took all day.  I bought a really cheap hair dryer and I can’t use it for more than about 6 minutes before it overheats and I have to wait until it cools off to use it again (yes, I am thinking of investing in a more expensive one), so I spent most of the day with a Pebbles Flintstone-esque ponytail on the top of my head because I had to dry my hair layer by layer over the course of several hours.  It was painstaking, but I got done and packed in plenty of time to go with Nicole to meet Chris and Diana for drinks at a little pub right near the University (Katie joined a little later).  They all made fun of me because I brought a backpack and a small suitcase, whereas they all only had backpacks, but I was the only one who was fully prepared, so there!

We met at the bus at 12:30.  Sorry, what I meant to say was that we met where the bus was supposed to be at 12:30, but the bus didn’t come until 12:50, which was kind of a burn, and then we waited around a little bit longer for anyone who was running late (as far as I was concerned, they’d already had 20 minutes) and ended up leaving some Japanese guy behind.  He might have also been confused by the instructions, because I know that I had to explain to several people that we really were leaving in the middle of the night on Thursday/Friday.  Anyways, we headed off about 1:00 am and I pretty much slept until we stopped at, like, 4:00.  Used the washroom, paid the 50 cents because I don’t really care (if this sentence doesn’t make sense, you didn’t read Nicole’s entry), had a tea, got back on the bus.  More driving, some sleeping, but not as much, another stop (even though we were, like, 45 min. away from Potsdam, what a waste), and then we finally arrived in Potsdam at about 8:30 (I think).  It was pretty nice; we wandered over to the summer castle of Friedrich the Great.  He was crazy.  Gay and crazy.  Then we wandered around on our own for a bit, mostly in the Dutch quarter until we had to meet back at the bus at 1:00.  I bought a necklace while we were wandering around.  Come to think of it, I have no idea where that necklace is.  Damn it!  Seriously, no joke, I haven’t seen it all week and I think I might have left it in the hotel.  Crap.  That sucks.

Okay, so then we drove the rest of the way to Berlin.  We drove into this terrible neighbourhood with all this graffiti everywhere and I thought to myself, “Yeah, 2 nights and the transportation and all this other stuff included all for the low price of 80€?  I should have known we’d be staying in the ghetto.  I hope that the rats are small, and that the shared bathrooms are clean.”  So Patrik hands out a sheet where you have to sign up for a roommate, since it’s 2 to a room.  Well, Chris and Diana go together, naturally, and then that leaves Nicole, Katie and me.  That’s three for those of you following along.  So I decide to be brave and get the mystery roommate.  I tell Nicole and Katie that they can go together and I will see what’s behind door number 2.  Well, when I get up to the front of the line to get my key and find out who my roommate is, I see that I have a room to myself.  Score!!  If you remember earlier, we left a Japanese guy behind, making us an odd number, so I didn’t end up with a partner at all.  I talk it over with Patrik (group leader) and the clerk and we agree that I will sleep in this room tonight and will switch to a single room tomorrow.  Great, no problem.  Well, I get upstairs and the room’s got 3 beds in it.  And it’s gorgeous.  It has 3 beds in it and it’s gorgeous!!  So we do some quick work and Katie and Nicole come move in with me.  We Canadians are very industrious.  The room was so gorgeous I can’t even describe it.  I took pictures, but I don’t think that they do it justice at all.  It had 10’ high ceilings, and a huge bathroom; the beds were super comfortable and had crisp sheets on them.  This was actually a 3-star hotel that is just in kind of a rough neighbourhood, but they take safety measures and stuff at night, so it’s all good.  Anyways, enough fawning about the room; on with the story.

After checking in, we hopped on the bus and got dropped off at an U-Bahn station (by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it in regards to Munich, U stands for ‘unter” which means ‘under’, as in ‘underground,’ and Bahn means ‘train’ so the U-Bahn is the subway.   And when I say things like, “We took the U6,” it means that we took the U-Bahn #6 to wherever) where we had to buy tickets.  Everyone else (35 people) gathered around the one ticket machine that was at the end of the platform we arrived on, but not the Canadians; we were industrious enough to walk to the other side of the platform and use that machine.  We were also industrious enough to get a day card for the 5 of us (because they are good for groups up to 5) and saved ourselves some money.  Man we’re industrious!!  Anyways, Patrik lead us on a walking tour of the downtown of Berlin.  We see Potsdamer Platz and the newly built Holocaust Memorial; the place where Hitler’s bunker used to be (we only knew about this because Lars told Nicole, Patrik didn’t even mention it and there were no signs anywhere) and over to the Brandenburg Gate.  I was especially happy about this because the only other time I was in Berlin it was being restored, and was covered in scaffolding and tarps, this time I actually got to see it.  Then we wandered down the road to the Reichstag (government building, it might actually be called the Bundestag, I’m not positive).  Then we Canadians and a German named Norbert headed back in the direction of the hotel and went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant there.  And by there, I mean ‘the ghetto’.  

The next day we got up and went for drive around the city on the bus and Patrik gave a bit of a tour as we were driving.  After the bus dropped us off we Canadians headed to the New National Gallery to see the Pablo Picasso exhibit.  I will say that it was pretty cool that I got to see so many Picassos.  I will also say that I now know that I prefer photography as an art to painted art.  I have a theory on why this is, but I won’t get into it here.  Anyways, we then headed over to the Checkpoint Charlie museum and stopped at the former Luftwaffe Ministry.  I wasn’t actually all that interested at the time that we stopped, but I am glad we did because when we went into the Checkpoint Charlie museum they mentioned it a bunch because it was the site of a huge protest in 1953.  The CC museum was pretty cool, but it was really crowded in the parts that were really cool, and there was also a lot of stuff to read and not only did we not have enough time to read it all, but there were too many people.  I think my favourite part was hearing about all the different ways people escaped to the west.  Then we had some lunch and headed back to meet the group because we were scheduled to see a show.  “What show?” you ask?  Why, it was the Blue Man Group, that’s what!

Yup, the Blue Man Group went from Vegas to Berlin and we got tickets to it.  This is all I will say at this time:  it was really good.  I will get into more detail in a different post, possibly tomorrow, but we’ll see.  After the show we did some shopping (it was a special shopping night where all the stores are open until midnight, and I’m not entirely sure why) and a group of us went to have some coffee at a coffee shop called *snicker* Balzac!  That never gets old!  Not when I drive down to Calgary, and not sitting in the shop drinking tea.  Balzac.  Balzac!  Man, that’s funny.  Then we headed back towards the hotel, tried to find a restaurant for 11, gave up and split up.  I ate Indian food with the larger half of the group and thoroughly enjoyed it!

The next day, we ate breakfast and got onto the bus, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  These two retarded girls had come down to eat breakfast still in their pajamas about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to leave.  And they didn’t look like the were hurrying either!!  So now the bus is full and we are all waiting – half and hour late – on these 2 stupid broads!  So the Canadians split.  Yeah, we couldn’t take it anymore and opted to take the U-Bahn to where we wanted to go, which was back to the last remaining, standing part of the wall.  On the train we ran into 3 people from the University of Lethbridge, which was really funny if you ask me, and we took them with us to the wall (see Nicole’s blog for a link to the website for the little museum-thingy that’s there).  We had wanted to do so much on that day, and really ended up doing very little.  We wanted to go on a boat tour on the river, but weren’t sure where the port was and didn’t know when or how often they leave, so we decided to go to this other thing instead.  I refer to it as “this other thing” because we never actually got there.  We followed the instructions on the brochure that Nicole had and then realized that they were really poor instructions.  We were going to walk the several blocks to where we thought the entrance might be but then we realized that we would have to leave in about an hour and 15 minutes to make it to the bus on time, and they pretty much recommend 2 hours to make it through this museum, so we would have been really rushed, even if we did find it right away, which was pretty unlikely.  So, we were right near this thing that’s referred to as the Gedaechtnis Kirche.  That basically means “memorial church” and the point is that there was this church that was really badly damaged during the bombings in Berlin (I believe that over half of the city was destroyed during the war) and instead of fixing it, they left it as a reminder.  It is both horrible and beautiful at the same time.  It wasn’t open, but we walked around it and there was an open-air market right there, too, so we looked around that.  There was also a KFC and I had that for lunch.  They didn’t have poutine.  I’m not saying that I’m surprised, but I am saying that I was disappointed.  They did, however, have chili-cheese fries, so I ordered those!  Then we rushed back to the bus because we were running really late.  

I think that the only other thing worth mentioning about the trip home was that we stopped at the coolest truck stop ever!  Now, as I briefly mentioned earlier, you sometimes (usually) have to pay to use a public restroom in Germany.  Now, I’ve been to Italy and sometimes there you actually have to pay money and get a receipt to use the facilities, or sometimes they make you pay for the toilet paper; my point is that you have to pay.  In Germany, it’s usually not mandatory (as in, you need a receipt) but there is a woman sitting outside the bathroom next to a plate and if you don’t pay she yells at you.  I’m still undecided as to whether it is required if there is a sign that says how much you should pay, or if it is just a recommended amount.  Anyways, this place actually had turnstiles that you had to put your 50 cents into.  The funny thing is that it gave you a voucher for 50 cents that you could use at any of the vendors in the little complex.  So, basically, if you were buying anything at all (over 50 cents) you were using the crapper for free, if not, then you had to pay 50 cents.  Let me tell you, though, it would have been worth the 50 cents!  These were my favourite toilets!!  They are the kind (some of you have definitely heard me talk about them before) where, after you’re done, the seat rotates and gets disinfected all the way around, so that it’s clean for the next person.  They are brilliant!!  Yes, I do realize how funny it is that the highlight of the trip home was the toilets at the truck stop.

Okay, I have to end this here because it is now 1:09 am.  I have not posted in the pictures that I had planned on, and I won’t tonight.  Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I might add them into this post or just create a new post with the pictures, but there are pictures that I wanted to put, to keep Kellie happy.  Good night everyone!

Playing catch-up

Okay, I've been here for a little over a month now, and I have written about some funny things that have happened to me since I got here, but I think we can all agree that I haven't written enough. The truth of the matter is that the guilt of putting off that Oktoberfest post left me not wanting to write much of anything else because I felt that I should be posting that one. Fortunately that subject has now been broached and I can play catch up with all the stuff you guys didn't hear. I won't post them all at once, but will try to go back as much as possible over the next little bit in between filling you in on what's currently happening with me.
This is a picture of the first donair that I ate after I got here. If I remember correctly, Nicole and I got here on the Tuesday and spent some time in the morning settling in, then we had the first orientation class starting at 1:00 pm. It was between settling in and the class that we decided to go for a quick walk to get a feel for the area and find a store where we could buy something to drink. I ended up finding this donair shop that is absolutely wonderful. It's called Kulle Kebap and I have been back many times since then. The owner is super nice and has gotten me hooked on something called Ayran (EYE-ran) which is a Turkish drink, traditionally consumed with donairs. It's basically a glass of thinned out tzatziki sauce. At first I thought it was pretty gross, but then I remembered that I love tzatziki and this is like having all the extra sauce I want. So now I think it's good. It turns out that most places here make their donairs out of veal (the translation is "calf" so I assume that means veal) but this guy uses chicken and I think that they taste better because of it. I have tried other donair stands and this one is definately the best. As far as I can tell, though, they are a new business and I really hope that they stay open. I should also mention that the day after I had this donair I had a second one. And then the next day I had a third. Yup, 3 donairs in 3 days; I was in heaven! I'm salivating as I write this and I wish it weren't Sunday because I am pretty sure that Kulle Kebap is closed on Sundays. This system makes no sense. Aren't PRIESTS working today? That blows the whole "no working on the Sabbath" thing right out of the water! Bastards! My kingdom for a donair!!

Trouble talking

I've been having a lot of trouble talking these days - and those who know me know that that is a BIG problem! The thing is that I find myself pointing and nodding and things like that, instead of opening my mouth and saying what I want. I'm really ashamed of myself because I'm taking the easy way out, but I've kind of fallen into a trap that I can't get out of. Every single time I do this (it usually happens in a store) as I walk away I think, "Dammit, Bari! You knew what you wanted to say, why didn't you just say it!!" Yet the next time I'm in that situation I do the same thing: I smile like an idiot and point at what I want. I think that next time I will step back and practice what I want to say, then step forward, hold my head high, and use actual words to get what I want. Yes, that's my plan.

One ride guaranteed to make you scream!

Here is a picture of one of the rides at Oktoberfest. I nearly peed myself when I saw it.

Addicted to geeks

I can't help it. I love geeks. I am realizing this more everyday. I see Mr. GQ on the street and think to myself, "Well, hello there, Mr. GQ. You sure are nice to look at." When I see a geek I think, "I bet you have all sorts of interesting things to say." The crazy thing is that it's the latter of these that is really turning my crank these days. I am really into smart, funny guys with a ton of stuff to say. I'm not saying that looks aren't important (being repulsed by someone makes it mighty hard to have a relationship with them), but rather that a very ordinary-looking guy becomes VERY attractive when he has interesting things to say, and geeks usually have the most interesting things to say. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a TA to fantasize about.

The one you've all been waiting for!

Okay, the promised post is finally here! This is the other half of the story:

So I got on the plane in Toronto. It was a British Airways flight to London, England and then I was supposed to catch a connector flight to Munich. Here is what I have to say about that flight: If you are the sort of person who has unusually strong foot odor, you shouldn’t take off your shoes at any point in public; and, yes, an airplane is “public.” I don’t really care if they are uncomfortable; you are not at home in your armchair and you shouldn’t act like you are. Gross… gross. The good part about the flight was that BA international flights have private TV screens for each passenger. That was cool because I could watch what I wanted, which ended up being “Bewitched.” Another good thing was that I made friends with the stewardess (I refuse to use the term flight attendant). It kind of restored my faith that if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you, which was shaken in the Edmonton/Toronto airports. At the end of the flight I shook her hand and thanked her for her hard work and she said that I made the flight bearable (there were some real boors sitting around me), and it made me feel good that I could make someone else feel good. The other bad thing about the flight, though (aside from the smelliness), was that I fell asleep within the first half hour, but then they served dinner and before I knew it I was wide awake. Then I had a really hard time sleeping at all.

The flight ran a little late and I had about 50 minutes to make it out of the plane, onto a bus, into a different terminal, through customs and to my gate (those were all different prepositions, did you notice?). I rushed and raced and when I got where I was supposed to go, and was all sweaty and gross, the flight had been postponed for an hour. The other nice thing about BA is that they give you a little travel pack that has a little toothbrush and paste, a sleeping mask and a pair of socks. Now that is thinking! So I changed my socks and tried to find an unsecured server so that I could check my email and get Nicole’s cell phone number so that I could let her know that I was running late. I wasn't able to find one, by the way.

The connector flight to Munich was really uneventful, it’s like the flight from Edmonton to Calgary, but I didn’t have any people sitting next to me at all. All 3 seats belonged to me. It was nice. So I get off the plane and collect my baggage. I pass through customs and, in addition to giving them my passport, I handed the man my letter of acceptance to the LMU because we were told over and over again by the study abroad centre that we would need to show it. The guy looked so confused by this letter that it was funny; I almost laughed out loud. Then I passed through the doors and Nicole and her cousin (I actually think he’s her second cousin. He’s her mom’s cousin, so that’s second cousin, right?) were waiting there for me and I felt happy in the pit of my stomach. Then I realized that it was just that I really, REALLY wanted a donair.

Manfred drove us back to his house, which is just outside of Munich, and we met his wife Helga and his oldest son Marcus. We unloaded the bags and then I think that we pretty much had dinner then. I should also mention that the weather was crap that day. It was raining, but not very hard, just kind of constantly spitting, and it was so humid that, even though it was cool, I was sweating, and I had straightened my hair for the flight because curly hair doesn’t travel well (it turns into a dreadlock) and so the hair was slowly turning into a fuzzball. It looked kind of like I was touching one of those electrostatic balls and my hair was standing on end. We sat around and chatted for a while and talked about what to do. It was now about 4:00 in Germany, which is 8:00 in the morning in Canada and that meant that I had been awake for 28hours already. So I said that we had to leave because if I sat around I would be tired and would want to sleep and if I slept that I would keep sleeping, and that I really wanted to go to Oktoberfest. So we left to go to Oktoberfest, and I fell asleep in the car. It was okay, though, because it was just a little nap. Manfred and Helga dropped us off and we agreed to meet at 8:00 back at the drop off. They didn’t want to come because they say they are too old and it’s not really their thing.

So Nicole and I followed the people and made it to Oktoberfest. I should also mention, for anyone who hadn’t heard yet, that it was imperative that we go to Oktoberfest, even though I was ridiculously tired, because this was the last night. So here is my Oktoberfest experience: Oktoberfest is a fancy way of saying “Klondike Days.” I am sorry to shatter any illusions you may have had, but if my illusions were shattered then yours should be too. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. Basically there is a main thoroughfare at the end of which there is a small midway (compared to K-days’ standards) and then a secondary thoroughfare that runs parallel to the main one. These are lined with little shops, much like K-days, but I discovered that there are really only five or six shops and they are repeated over and over again. It was basically: a shop to buy beer steins, one for shirts and hats, one for sausages of all kinds (cooked and ready to eat), one for baked almonds, one for fish,and one for these big, crazy gingerbread hearts with stuff written on them. The main difference lies in the fact that behind these shops on the main thoroughfare are the beer halls, and that it a little bit more of what I was expecting when I think of Oktoberfest. Inside these halls there are hundreds of people (thousands?) and they are all drinking and singing. There was a brass oompah band in the middle playing typical german folk songs and there were beer maids bringing about a dozen steins at a time. Nicole and I tried to go to the Augustiner beer hall on the recommendation of Marcus, but it was so full that there was actually a sign that said “sorry you can’t come in” on the door. There were actually two Augustiner halls and they were both too busy to enter. We ended up going to the Paulaner hall, but it was really busy, too. I would have liked to have seen the inside of the Augustiner halls if they were too busy, because Paulaner was ridiculous. Nicole and I ended up actually sitting outside under an awning because we couldn’t find a place to sit inside. We drank a steinful each and then headed off to meet Manfred and Helga. (I am actually finishing off the last little bit of beer here, but you can't really see it. I just kind of looks like an empty beer stein. Too bad.) We picked up a sausage along the way. Then we drove back to Ebersburg (where they live), had a cup of tea and then I headed off to bed at about 9:30-10:00. I was up for about 34hours straight. By the end of it, I thought I was a humming bird.