Last Day in Germany 12/9/07

So for the last three days, Amanda and I have been going to Christmas festivals right and left. We went to the one in Frankfurt, the one in Nürnberg, and the one in Marburg. Frankfurt was the best, Nürnberg was the oldest, and Marburg was by far the easiest to get to and from. While we (our friend Maya was there with us) were in Nürnberg we also got to go on a tour of the Courthouse where the Nazi Tribunals were held. That was quite interesting. I was really glad we got to see that.

In general, I find it very surreal that I will be going home tomorrow. I've really settled into life here (and into Amanda's room, thanks to the ResLife policy) and it seems strange to be going back to America. This has been a really positive experience, and I will be sad to see it end. It was so nice to be able to travel around Europe more or less at a whim. Not that I won't be traveling next semester, but it won't be the same as taking off to a country where you don't speak the language with just your best friend. Kinda empowering. It will be amazing to be back in the states and able to see everyone though. Mixed feelings, I guess.

But they're generally good feelings all around. I have very few regrets regarding this trip, which seems to be the best way to come out of it.

Things I will miss: Amanda, Traveling, Pretzels, IUSP, My Economic Policy Tutor, Exploring, Having a Kitchen, Miss Ericka Weissenbeuhler, Maya B, Obsessing over the Exchange Rate (though I suppose I can still do that), German Toothpaste (but I bought a stash), Kids Movies in German, Kneeling Busses, Taking a Nap every day, Capitalizing Nouns, European Money, and, well, Europe in General.

Things I will not miss: Reslife in Germany, Lack of Campus, Lack of Extra-Curriculars, Trains Breaking down, Traveling with Fußball fans (before and after the game), Poorly-behaved children without parental guidance, Busses that only come once an hour in the rain, Sunday closing laws, having no freaking idea what's going on in my classes until I get to the tutorial, Excessive Smoking, Getting to and from Ryanair, Communicating across the Atlantic, and Time Differences.

And then there was one. 12/6/07

Well, I'm down to one final and one class. Yesterday I had a Jewish Life presentation, which I think went relatively well. There were a few questions that I didn't know the answers to at the end, but I was reporting on International Jewish Organizations that are assisting with the Jewish Revival in Former Soviet Countries. There's not actually a ton of literature on that. Oh well.

Then this morning I had an Economic Policy final. My first ever oral exam. That was stressful. I think it went pretty well, except that I mixed up common goods and public goods at the end. He didn't even ask me about my favorite method for internalizing technological effects (it's tradable rights to damage through certificates, by the way... it's the best one). He asked me about negotiations, which isn't as interesting and only works on a small scale anyway.

Later on today I have my Finance final. We shall see. So in and amongst all these lovely finals, I've had to do fun things like de-matriculate and whatnot. One of the things I have yet to do is have my house mother check my room so that I can go and get my deposit back. And guess what? After she checks my room, I can't live in it anymore. And guess what else? I leave Marburg at 7:00 AM on Monday, and she only works on the weekdays. I am effectively homeless (i.e. will be sleeping on Amanda's floor). Later on, when I do lists of things that I will and will not miss, reslife policies will be going on the latter. Oh well, off to study for finance.

Exchange Rates:

.67 Euro = $1

1 Euro = $1.46.

Sweet. I get to change my money tomorrow!

Not only did we make it there, but we made it back too 12/3/07

In thirteen hours. Projected time to get back? Eight-ish hours. So what were the hold-ups, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

First, since it was Sunday, there was a limited shuttle service to the airport, so we had to leave the hostel two and a half hours before our flight left. The shuttle took all of 20 minutes. That was actually okay though, because I got some Jewish Life homework done. Really rough flight (I slept through it anyway) with a group of, shall we say, dipstick boys who dinged the flight attendants every two and a half minutes. Still, this is all fairly reasonable.

Until we land. It's so windy in Frankfurt (Hähn) that the plane is moving on the ground, and it's drizzling too. Basically a miserable day. So we get off the plane and walk towards the building, only to be stopped outside in a ridiculous line. Our flight was detained by passport inspection, and instead of working it out so that we could at least be indoors, we were stuck outside in the elements. Not the nice ones, either. So half an hour later, we finally get our passports checked. By this point, I'm relatively annoyed, and the nice passport checker person making fun of my German language skills did not really help. But he seemed to have a good sense of humor, so I belayed the minor hissy fit that they soooo deserved. As it turns out, we were left out in the cold because Ireland and the UK do not have the full EU Mobility that Amanda and I have grown to know and love. We're planning on writing a protest letter.

Anyway, this lovely adventure caused us to miss our bus, and have to wait another hour or so. This was followed by a two hour bus ride, only to find that we had missed our train to Marburg by mere minutes. So we had another 45 minutes of waiting. And an hour long train ride. Followed by a bus ride. Might I just say that as much as I love traveling (and I do), it will be quite nice to go back to the half-hour rides to Richmond, followed by the hour and a half flight that does not require a passport, followed by an hour drive home. That will be nice. Absolutely loved Ireland though!

Dad, Köln and the power of Visas. 11/6/07

It's been about a week since I last blogged. On Thursday my dad came over. Despite a few problems (like luggage theft) his flights went pretty smoothly. He claims that it is because on both Icelandic Air flights, he put money in the available envelopes for crippled Icelandic children who want to travel. Good karma.

We got back to Marburg in the evening and got dinner, unpacked (Thank you for the presents Mum, Grammie and Aunt Beth!) and more or less went to bed. The next day we walked around Marburg (we went to the castle and the old city and did most of the touristy stuff). Unfortunately for my dad, we were unable to find much by way of hardware stores. We did look though. The next day we went to Köln to see the chocolate museum and the Dom, which is an incredibly large cathedral. The last time my dad and I were in Europe together, we climbed to the top of St. Pauls Cathedral in London. This time we did the Domin Köln. 509 steps. I'm not sure how much my legs really appreciated this tradition. On Sunday he flew out again, and I got to do homework and go to a tutorial at night.

And then yesterday came the genius realization. As of this coming Saturday, I'll have been in Germany for 3 months. And I have not gotten my residential visa yet. And the office is closed on Tuesday. And I'll be in Barcelona on Saturday! Oh no, oh no! I could be detained in Spain! (Totally my fault, by the way). So I contacted the people in charge of my program, and 14 worry-filled hours later, they called back to say that they had gotten an exception for me and I could go get my Visa today. I am now legally in Germany. Yay! What a good day. Off to Barcelona tomorrow at 5:00 AM! Exchange Rates: $1=.68 Euro 1 Euro = $1.44

Happy Halloween/Birthday!

Happy birthday Ben! (Ben is my brother) Actually, today is my culture class professors' birthday as well. So.

Zum Geburtstag viel Gluck! Zum Geburtstag viel Gluck! Zum Geburtstag Ben and Klaas! Zum Geburtstag viel Gluck!

Halloween isn't very big in Germany. I saw maybe three small children in costume, and I've only heard of one party. A few stores had decorations for sale, but that's about it. One wonders where children trick-or-treat. Not a terribly exciting night. Except for the fact that my Dad will be here tomorrow! That's very exciting. We're going to do lots of fun stuff, and he's bringing me American gourmet (Ritz and Goldfish). Apparently Germans haven't discovered the tasty snack that smiles back until you bite its head off. It's quite sad.

Today was my eight hour day. Going into this semester, it looked like I was just going to have one day of classes. Well I thought that would be boring, so I added a Jewish Life in Eastern Europe class. Then we figured out that my schedule was wrong, and Finance meets on Monday and Tuesday. Couple that with my German conversation course and the English tutorials and all of a sudden I have class four days a week. And eight hours today.

I must say, I did have the best class today that I've had since we started real classes. In Jewish Life I got to explain the predator-prey cycle to Germans. I was relating it to soviet repression of Jewish pride. Then we got to illustrate it. It was quite fun. Alas, I must go do homework. For some reason if I write blogs from my computer they don't seem to post with several paragraphs. I don't care for that. Anyway.

Exchange rates 1 Euro=$1.45 $1=.67

Gone to Berlin 10/28/07

Well. First off, Berlin is not as far away as I thought. It's only three and a half hours away by train, which is way cool. The first night we unpacked and walked around as a group as a way to get oriented. We ended up at a very cool Mexican restaurant (I miss you Teca!!!) for dinner and it was quite delicious. Then we walked around for a while more and eventually found our way back to the Hostel (which is entirely Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy). We decided to watch a movie as well, since it was relatively early. V for Vendetta. Still love it.

The next day (Friday) our Lehrer, Klaas, took us on a four hour walking tour of the city. We saw Checkpoint Charlie (I got a fake East Germany stamp in my passport... it was exciting) and we saw the Reichstag etc. The weather was pretty crappy all weekend-always just on the verge of rain- but it was still pretty nice. After the official tour ended, Ericka, Nick and I just wandered for another couple of hours, stopping at anything that looked interesting. Then I took a nap for a little bit before dinner. Around seven we went out for Italian. After that it really did start raining, but Ericka wanted to find a Salsa club, so we ended up walking way far across town. And never found what we were looking for. Apparently the 'Berlin Party Map' is a tad bit deceiving. It doesn't do a good job distinguishing between bars and clubs. Oh well. We did find a Ben and Jerry's. That was way cool. We came back and crashed in a major way.

The next day we planned to go to the Jewish Museum, which was really quite cool. There were no right angles anywhere in the building. Ceilings, walls and the floor all slanted in some way, and it was designed in the shape of a zig-zag. It was a pretty cool museum, though they glossed over some things in fairly major ways. Like the Holocaust. That got one corner of one zig in the zig-zag. Ericka and I both thought that we had missed something, so we each backtracked to see. Nope. They glossed over the Holocaust in the Jewish Museum. Oh well. After that we walked around for a while longer. We went to the Sony Center where there was a big party for Kinder Chocolates' 40th Anniversary, and to Legoland.

In the evening several of us, including Klaas, decided to go to a South African restaurant. Well, we got lost twice on the way (oops) and they couldn't seat us togerther anywhere but on couches (which was a little awkward to eat) and the wait was incredibly long. But it was some of the best food I have ever had. I got roast beef and vegetables, which included tomatoes, potatoes and Mangos. It was delicious! And the prices were pretty reasonable too. Maya was sitting next to me and she got pumpkin mango nut soup. That was really really good as well. And I tried antelope... all around, the food was amazing. I now need to go to South Africa. I got icecream at the end... it tasted like cake batter. Soooo good. It was such a perfect way to end the trip. I loved it. After that I came back and went to bed (it was like, midnight-thirty by the time we got back). Such a good trip.

Berlin Favorites:

Traffic lights in East Germany

South African Food

Giant Lego Giraffes

Lots of other stuff too, but we have to leave...

The Great Library Adventure 10/18/07

Now I know that this is a topic that is important to everyone. Is the Dewy Decimal System universal? I still have no idea. The library system... not so easy here. Each faculty has it's own library. If you want to check out a book, you have to go to the main library and tell a computer that you want it. Then you have to wait a few days while someone goes and finds it and reserves it for you. Students aren't allowed near the actual stacks. Only very special mole-people on skateboards are (or so I've been told). If you just want to look at a book, you can go to whichever faculty library has it.

I am now taking a Jewish Life in Eastern Europe class, and I have some reading to do before next week, so I went to the appropriate library (located on the 7th floor of a building that is charitably 30 minutes away from me) and had no idea what to do. So I talked to the nice guy at the desk, who told me that the book was not in the library. I think that he was spelling something wrong, because when I went and looked up the author and brought it back to him, he found it. So he wrote down the call number for me and told me that the book was one floor up. T-RU 135/1499. So I went to the T section. 10 minutes later, I had determined with relative certainty that the book was not there.

So I went downstairs and asked him what the deal was. Apparently T stands for Territories, and RU means Russian. So look in the Russian section. Okay, fine. I looked in the Russian section. Still a nope. Turns out that Russian and Russian Territories are actually in different parts of the floor. Sheesh. After I finally found the book, I read for a little while and got hungry (well at least I can find the book again) so Amanda and I went for about the best pizza ever. It was excellent. A good day, all around. And tomorrow is the ball!!!!! Yay!!!!!

Exchange rates: I'm too depressed to type it again.

My first day of classes! 10/16/07

Well, sorta. Let's consider that. After I finished my last blog and played around for a few more minutes (ate a pretzel and whatnot) I walked to class. It's really pretty here. Brisk, with the leaves changing and everything. Anyway, I get to class pretty early (especially since classes here that say that they start and end on the hour i.e. 2:00-4:00, actually go from quarter past to quarter to) and I wait around outside for a few minutes. And they're handing out free bags to all the econ people. The bags had business magazines and pens and paper in them. Gotta say, I like free stuff.

Anyway, I finally go into the lecture hall, which I think could fit all of Macon pretty comfortably, and find a seat. Well, half an hour or so later, people start walking out. Yes, the professor had ditched the first class of the semester. Apparently, that's pretty normal here, though, if I were teaching a class that met for six hours a day, I would probably try not to skip the first one. But that's just me. So I went home for an hour or so and came back out for my Economic Policy class, which was in the same room. This time the professor did show up, and even came up to me and talked to me before class. I asked him if he spoke English, and he figured out that I'm the "special" one in his class. He seemed like a pretty nice guy.

I was in over my head in that class. Somehow in nine weeks of intensive German I missed the crucial words for Economic Policy. Almost seems a little bit predictable. I was supposed to find my tutor somehow yesterday, so I waited around for a little bit, but none of the 150 or so other students looked particularly likely, and no one came up to me, so I left. Hopefully, tomorrow I can get his/her email address from Klaas, who is the academic director of the IUSP program.

Exchange Rates:

1 Euro = $1.42

$1.00 = .69 Euro

This is depressing.

The Halfway Point 10/11/07

I have now reached (and passed) the half-way point of my stay in Marburg, Germany. So I thought that I would do a review of what I like and don't like so far. Those are always amusing.

Likes:
Pretzels! Getting mail. Learning German. Free time. Bakeries. Living in an apartment without a meal plan. Traveling all over the place. Sweden. My new friends. Ballet flats (in all the colors of the rainbow). Cheap air-fare. Busses. Wildflowers. Gelati. Trains. Churches. Beautiful Skylines.

Dislikes:
The exchange rate. The lack of syllabi. The lack of one-stop shopping (but I'm getting over that one). Trying to communicate and organize things in the US over email. The time difference. No personal internet. Spelling. Graffiti.

Alright, obviously I have more of both, but I'm okay with accepting those lists and moving on to what's been going on lately. This is my last week of German language class and German Culture class, although I think that I will enroll in another language class if I can find one that doesn't conflict with my schedule too much. Speaking of my schedule, a few posts ago I mentioned that I had class one day a week. Well, I thought that I could probably handle a little bit more (well I could probably handle a few days more, but that's not really an option) so I will be adding another class, Roman Portraits. Now I'll have class on Monday and Tuesday. Ooh la la. It looks like Roman Portraits might fufill part of my art/literature requirement though, so I'm not about to complain (yet... we'll see what happens when I start the class).

Tomorrow is my language test, so I'm going to go study with Ericka, Nick and Jessica tonight. Beyond that, I'm going to take a nap this afternoon, since we don't have culture class today. No complaints on that one either.

Exchange Rates:
$1= € .70
€1= $1.41
Did I mention that I dislike the exchange rate? Good.

American Food 10/2/07

Dear Loyal Blog Readers,

I'm going to Spain! I just booked tickets and the hostel yesterday, and it is going to be incredibly cheap. I'm going with two of the other people in my program, Ericka and Nick, and we're staying for four nights in Barcelona. Round trip plane tickets were .02 euro plus taxes, so around 25 euro total. The hostel is 17.50 euro per night, so the entire trip is going to start at around 110 euro. Then we add food and presents and whatnot, and this is still way cheap. It's amazing.

Tonight I hung out with Ericka in Studentindorf, which is the dorm that's about as far away from mine as it's possible to be. She is a Mormon, and she was cooking for some of the missionaries here in Marburg, so I came and helped. We had tacos and nachos and cookies. It was sooo much fun, and really yummy.

And my dad is coming to Germany!!! For the first weekend in November. I'm so excited. Tomorrow is Oktoberfest, and I'm excited about that too. Things are just going pretty well in general.

Exchange Rates

One dollar = .695 Euro

One Euro =1.42 dollars

We made it back! 10/2/07

Approximately nine and a half hours after leaving our hotel in Milan (at 4:00 in the morning), Amanda and I arrived safely home at our dorm. This means that not once did we go to the wrong airport, get on the wrong train, miss the bus, or do any other semi-stupid things. Clearly our trip planning skills are improving by leaps and bounds.

On Saturday in Milan we got up and went to this giant marketplace. They had everything there. It was like going to Chinatown in New York, except that everything was in tents that were in quite close proximity to one another and on both sides of an aisle. So it was very difficult to move. We managed it though, and came back with some very cool stuff (most of it is presents, so I won't elaborate). After more pizza, we headed to the castle in Milan, where we were accosted by fake-purse salespeople. Since purses were the one thing that we were really keeping our eyes out for but had been unable to find, we were thrilled. I bought a black 'Prada' for 20€. Not too bad, considering that the starting price was 75€. The castle was pretty cool, but by the time we were done with it, we were both pretty exhausted. So we ate dinner and called it a relatively early night.

Tomorrow is the Day of German Unity, which is when the Berlin Wall fell and East and West Germany were reunited. The treaty to ratify wasn't signed until December, but we'll overlook that. Most people have class off tomorrow, but not me. Since we are still able to get into the building, we're having class. A concession was made however; Andres has said that we can have a party. So later on, I'm baking a cake for the party. Right now, I'm going to culture class to learn more about Germany today.

I'm not sure if I will be able to blog again for a few days, so if I can't, Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Exchange Rates:
$1= € .69
€1= $ 1.42

This just keeps getting better and better.

Good Morning Baltimore! 9/23/07

Well, the European Central Bank was so much fun. Security rivaled most of the major airports I've been in - they even made us take off any silver jewelry that we had. I set off the alarm, so I got to spend around 10 minutes trying to convince this nice lady that I had not acually sewed a bomb into my pants. It was great fun. Then we got refreshments and little pads of paper and pencils and an hour and a half lecture on monetary policy in the European Union. I thought that it was quite interesting. Most of the other people were clearly struggling to stay awake, but oh well. I liked it. Afterwards we had half an hour to wander back to the bus. So what did we do? Well, Nick, Erica and I took pictures with the giant Euro symbol (this thing was at least three stories tall) and then got lost on the way back to the bus. That was fairly predictable. We did eventually manage to find it though, so I suppose that all's well that ends well.

Yesterday I went to see my first German movie. Amanda and I saw an evening showing of Hairspray! It was so much fun - easily my favorite John Trovolta movie. The dubbing wasn't too bad, thankfully, but a lot of the sexual innuendo got lost in translation. The songs were kept in English, so that made the movie a lot easier to follow. Needless to say, I've listened to the entire soundtrack a whole bunch of times since last evening. And now I must research fun things to do in Milan next weekend!

Exchange Rates:

€1= $ 1.40
$1=€ .70
Man. This kinda stinks. Oh well.

Last Day of Speak + Write 8/30/07

Today was the Speak + Write final exam. I think it went pretty well. Tomorrow we'll get our certificates of completion and have a potluck party, and we're done. On Sunday I take a placement test for the IUSP program, which is the one I'm actually in, and I start class on Monday. Should be pretty entertaining.

Since Saturday is a relatively free day, Amanda and I are traveling. We're off to Nuremburg to see the courthouse where the Nazi War Trials were held. I'm very excited about this. I took a Holocaust class in High School and ever since, I've found that period of history to be particularly fascinating. I'll take lots of pictures. Nuremburg is about four and a half hours away by train, so it will almost certainly be an all-day affair.

Next weekend we have another trip planned as well. We're planning on going to Switzerland for three days. We're not sure when we plan to leave, but we're thinking Destination : Zürich. I want to go to a Swiss bank. And see the Alps. And eat cheese. What else is Swiss? Chocolate. Clocks. Neutrality. Francs. Man, what's not to like about this country?

Exchange Rates:

€1=$1.37
$1=€.73

And, because we're going to Switzerland soon...

1 Franc = $1.19
$1=.83 Swiss Francs

Good deal.

Yay Pictures! 8/26/07

I'm actually using my computer online for the first time in two weeks. It's very exciting for me, have no doubt. Here are a bunch of pretty pictures of Marburg.

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.

Class Field Trip 8/21/07

Today in class, my lehrerin (teacher) decided that we should become familiar with food. And really, who's going to argue with that? So she gave us a grocery list and we went over all the food on it so that we had some general idea of what we were looking for. Then we went to the grocery store and had an extended scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun, as scavenger hunts tend to be, but maybe a little more useful than hiding army men in different rooms and racing to find them (though that is a more competitive atmosphere). When we found an item, we had to write down the price and later we all compared to see whether we had found the same items. I think we were in there for an hour and a half at least. Very exciting. That's my update for today, more some other time.

€1 = $1.34
$1 = €.74

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...

Four Days In - August 15, 2007

Guten tag. I arrived safely in Marburg, Germany, and today is my fourth day. Each weekday, I attend a Speak and Write class, where I attempt to learn some of the German language. I think it's going pretty well. I can now go into a store, say hello, find what I need, pay, and say goodbye. Simple questions will come shortly, I'm sure.

Marburg is absolutely beautiful. It's a city on the side of a hill, so after I've been here for a little while longer, I'm sure that I'll be pretty legitimately buff. So far, my biggest culture shocks have been:
1) The letters on a keyboard are not in the same order that they are in on a US keyboard. That sounds like a little thing, but as I sit here typing and looking at the keyboard for a few seconds to find the next letter, it's an interesting experience.
2) There are bakeries everywhere. It's awesome. I have pretzels all the time. I don't think that I truly appreciated pretzels in the US, but a freshly baked pretzel is very tasty.
3) And because all good points need to come in three's, I'll mention the alphabet. So today, I went grocery shopping and I was shocked to find English Alphabet soup. We know that it is English because we spent quite a long time looking for the ß (We figured that it would be difficult to attach an umlaud, so that was really the only distinguishing letter). It was quite exciting, nonetheless.

My dad wanted me to include the dollar to euro exchange rate each time I write a blog, so today's exchange rate is 1 Euro = 1.35 U.S. dollars (One dollar = 73 cents in euros). Not too bad. I note that a month ago, when Amanda Ingenito got here and was exchanging her money, the dollar was at a relative low, against the Euro, so she lost at least $40.

So, my soon-to-be loyal readers, I will keep finding out new things about Germany and writing to you about them. I did find out, just for Troy and Jes, that my room, the Speak and Write, and the student Mensa make an approximately isoceles triangle.

Tschüss!