German Beer 8/23/07

So. I finally had my first German beer. Or, to be more accurate, I had about a third of a German beer I expected it to be pretty all-around horrible (I had been warned several times). Sadly, it pains me to say that the beer was better than the conversation I had while drinking it. I was talking to Rudolf, who is from Switzerland. He was quite convinced that the United States has colonized Germany, and that America plans to drop the Atomic Bomb on Deutschland. He ranted about this for a little while, and Amanda and I just looked at each other. It was a very odd experience, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to get into a discussion about the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Germany, and I didn't want to seem culturally insensitive, so I went to bed. Otherwise, I would totally have finished that beer (or at least half of it).

It's now 4:20 Eastern U.S. time. I hope everyone has a wonderful morning.

My first German weekend! 8/20/07

This weekend was so much fun! The amount of walking that goes on in Marburg is really pretty spectacular. I think I’ve probably walked around three hours a day so far, and I can’t imagine that will change anytime soon. After class on Friday, we didn’t have any real plans, so Amanda went home and I walked around town for a while. I found a bookstore that sold books in English (which was really very exciting, because until school actually starts, I’m pretty restricted on reading materials). A little expensive, particularly with the exchange rates, but it was really nice to have a new book. I got Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan. Not the best book I’ve ever read, but certainly not the worst. Definitely made Myanmar sound interesting…

On Friday the Kneipe was open again. I ended up sitting and talking with this guy from Moldova about economic growth. He’s in Germany to get his Master’s Degree in Economics, and it was a really interesting conversation. He is focusing on growth within his Master’s, and I just finished my SURF project on growth in the US, so we had read a lot of the same literature. It made me very happy. I also had quite a long conversation with a guy from Nepal. He’s in Germany for a Master’s of Engineering, but he’ll be leaving Marburg and going to a different university a few hours away. It’s actually relatively difficult to avoid getting into a political discussion with many of the people here. It was a really good experience to just sit and talk (in English) for a while. Very relaxing.

Saturday was a really lazy day. Amanda, Maya, Globalhar (it’s quite possible that I’m butchering the spelling of her name, but that’s it phonetically), and I had a cookout with two of Globalhar’s friends from home. Starting fires in the absence of lighter fluid is way harder than I thought. The food was really good though. Maya made this excellent chicken and Amanda made a cake. Probably the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. Soooo good.

On Sunday, we all got up and went to this sports complex. It had five swimming pools – indoor and out- and a waterslide! There was a whirlpool and a lap pool too. Then there were tennis courts and soccer fields and all these other really cool things to play on. It was so much fun, and well worth the 3 euros. We swam for a while and I finished my book, then Amanda and I decided to walk up the hill that Marburg is built on. Until then, I had only seen a little of the City, because busses don’t run up the hill. It was so gorgeous. The architecture has been kept up for hundreds of years and everything is cobblestones. There are a lot of shops and historical monuments up there. Most of the monuments have to do with Saint Elizabeth, who is almost a patron saint of the city. She lived in Marburg and opened a hospital. She was canonized only three years after her death. Then we walked through the botanical gardens. It was a great weekend.

By the way, hello Heather Frame. Also, one Euro=1.33 dollars. One dollar equals €.73. Is anyone speculating based on my blogs? That would be amusing...