Eine Amerikanerin in Freiburg

Alles Klar!

So, it's been nearly a year since I last updated this journal, because, of course, I am no longer studying abroad in Germany. So why am I writing here now? Well, I'm just letting you know that the Eurotravels will commence once again-- I am going to teach English in Spain next year!! I leave in September and will be there until May. CIEE (the organization running this shindig) accepted me about a week ago; I've already sent in my deposit. Now I just need to find out my exact placement before continuing on with all the paper work business.

But how exciting!! I'll definitely start up a special Spain journal (and of course will post the link here). I'm gonna already start thinking of fun designs... :) lol I realize the design for this journal isn't all that exciting.

Oh also... I've started up a general LJ account with public posts-- cheetah_writes. I also still have my more personal LJ.... I have way too many LJ's.

So, keep your eyes peeled for info about Espana!!

Coming at you live from Colchester, Vermont, USA! I'm in Brian's new townhouse that he and his friend have had since May. Pretty nice place!

So, before I came home, I wondered how it would feel to be back, and after having been back 36 hours in the US, and just 9 hours in VT, here's how it feels. It feels like I woke up from a 5 month coma. Not that I know what waking up from a coma feels like, but what I mean is that it feels like I just was knocked out back in February and finally came around this summer. Like, I went to sleep, and woke up, and suddenly it just became summer. All though my time abroad in Europe itself seemed long, since it was a new place, five months away from home is hardly anything for having lived here 21 years.

Speaking of 21, I have very much enjoyed flashing my ID at two restaurants and at the NH State liquor store. My very first legal drink in the US: A B-52 coffee at Finale's in Cambridge, MA. Then yesterday we had dinner at an Italian place and I had Italian beer. At the liquor store, I bought 750 mL of vodka. The woman's like, "Happy birthday!" when she saw my ID.
I think I'll order myself a Mimosa when I get brunch at Sneakers with Brian today!

I drove my '95 Honda Civic last night from my home to Brian's place. It had been over 5 months since the last time I drove. OH God was it fun!!!! I just had fun accelerating and hearing the engine.... I had no idea I missed driving until last night. Though, I still maintain that if I ever live in Europe, I won't own a car-- why have a vehicle sucking away all your money when where you live has a VERY good public transportation system? My semester ticket was only 60 euros, which is around 90-100 USD. Consider that here, I pay about 500 USD in car insurance here for that same amount of time (6 months). That's just insurance, and already it's 5 times as much. Then there's the car itself, the maintenance, and the gas-- though, at least gas is not as obscenely priced here as in Germany (let's not get into the politics about the US government and oil, though).

So, weather in VT-- f***ing hot and humid, man! There were definitely a few days where Freiburg was about as hot as here (around 35 Celcius), but it was nowhere near as humid, so it was a lot more comfortable there than here.

Other news.... Brian bought his first car!!!!!!! A 2007 Honda Fit. He, my mom, Julie, and I spent a good six hours at the Boch Honda dealership, most of which was paperwork, obviously. He test drove a Fit with standard transmission and a Fit with automatic transmission. He chose automatic in the end, since it means not having to worry about replacing a clutch one day, and also it does have the option to switch to a manual mode. Plus, the standard was in black and the automatic was in blue, and he preferred blue very much over black.

OK, I think that's enough for now-- I'm very hungry, so we're gonna go brunch at Sneakers! Peace, from the U S of A!

PS to Mom: I hope you appreciated that I spell checked this entry!!

...and I´ll be flying home. Let me tell you, packing is such a pain!

Anyway, I´m strangely anxious about going home. I feel like I´ve gotten very used to being here in Germany and I´ll miss it. There are a number of things I like better here, although there are somethings I like better about home. Maybe I´ll experience some reverse culture shock!....

Gabi and Oliver now have a son! 20 inches and 7.7 pounds. Congrats to them!! Funny, just earlier this morning I was telling Bianca, "That baby better be born before I leave!!" and she´s like, "Probably not...." And just a few hours later, Oliver called Karl´s cell and told him the good news. So, Gabi and the baby both seem to be doing well.

Anyway, yesterday I said my final farewell to Freiburg. As Karl and Gertrude drove me out of the city, I started feeling kind of emotional and reflected on everything I experienced in the last five months. I admired the beauty of the black forrest in the sun as we drove through it.... and now, after having been gone 24 hours, I miss it already!! And I haven´t even left Germany. I had a dream last night about being back in the US or something... I don´t remember it exactly, but I woke up thinking I´d be back in my dorm, and also feeling sad. Not sure why I felt so sad.... so that made me sort of feel nervous about going back home for some reason. What will it be like? It´s been so long!!!!!!!!!!

Last night I watched Michael Moore's "Sicko" with Erica (the other American on my floor). I decided to type a few thoughts here, since of course Moore brings Europe into the picture as always and glorifies them and what a perfect world it is here, and in Canada. Don't get me wrong- I think both Canada and Europe are great places, and I do agree with a lot of their politics more than I do my own country's. But here's what bothers me about Michael Moore-- when he makes his documentaries, I agree with his points, but I hate that he feels it necessary to add in lies or extremely distorted truths. For example, in "Fahrenheit 9/11", he implies that the FBI, under the Bush administration, assisted the bin Ladens in flying out of the country, without even being interrogated, when no body else was allowed to fly in the three days (?) after 9/11. But appearently not only were they interrogated, but also they flew out shortly *after* the flight-ban was lifted. And the thing is, he doesn't actually lie about that- he just very slyly leaves those two things out.
So, as a liberal American, I feel like Moore is the Ann Coulter of Democrats.

That being said, here are some thoughts on the movie. ( Read more... )


Well, nothing like a depressiong Moore documentary to get you ready to go home to the USA. haha

On Friday I move out, which means I need to stop fooling around online and start running errands. Peace out!

WOOOHOOOOOOO! I sold my Damenfahrrad!!! Sold it to a German girl for 40 euros, including the lock/keys and helmet. I was worried she would be turned off at the fact that the light had broken off, but she wasn't phased at all by it. She said, "Oh, I've had other bikes before where that happened. It's really no big deal." Well, OK, as with all my paraphrasing, this one is translated from German into how I understood it. Also, she was shorter than me by like at least a few inches, which was encouraging to me because the bike is slightly too small for me. She was worried at first that it might be too big, but she tried it out a little and was satisfied.

Anyway, in exactly one week from today I'm moving out of my room. And I fly out of Munchen 5 days after that. That reminds me, I should email Karl. Things to do this last week here include:

-Abmelden (sign out, or whatever you'd say in English) from the city of Freiburg
-exmatriculate from the university
-pack up things... see if I need to ship anything!
-give away things
-collect Sheine (certificates from my courses)


Now, as for my feelings about leaving.... I mostly just miss the people at home. Otherwise, I love Europe. I like the quality of life here a lot now that I've gotten used to it. Funny, some friends of mine from China were saying that it must be easy for Americans to get used to Europe because it's mostly the same. One of them asked me if this was true, and I replied, "I can see how you'd think that- afterall, both the US and Europe are Western cultures and each are very different from Eastern cultures. But still, no, it's not easy-- I've had to go through a lot of adjustment here. Even though we have a lot in common, we're still two different cultures."

It's hard to describe.... I've just gotten used to accepting that cultures simply have their own quirks. Take drinking-- I used to be embarassed that the US is so uptight about just ordering a simple drink, because it really is stupid, in my opinion, especially considering other things that we aren't so uptight on, like extremely violent movies.... which is where I agree more with Europe's views. However, I'm not embarassed anymore-- I've simply accepted that it's part of our culture. I still would love to campaign for a lower drinking age. Even though I'm 21, I still strongly feel it needs to be lower, and also not treated like such a bad-ass thing. Yet, in the mean time, I accept it. it's a cultural thing... we're a country founded by prudes.
I LOVE how Cooper in "Eurotrip" put it. This is one of my favorite exchanges in the movie:

Cooper: "I'm talking about crazy european sex. You know America was founded by prudes. Prudes who left Europe because they hated all the kinky, steamy, European sex that was going on. And now I, Cooper Harris, will return to the land of my perverted forfathers and reclaim my birthright."
Scotty: "You've given this a lot of thought, haven't you?"
Cooper: "It's my passion."

Goes for sex, alcohol, and drugs. haha... BTW, this is still a PG journal. Just because the word "sex" is in a journal entry does not make it rated R. Maybe in the US it does, but I'm in Europe ;-)

Anyway, my point is, culture is culture. Stupid and brilliant. Confusing and mystifying.

I reserved myself a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday to pick up at the Buchhandlung Rombach and pay for in cash. It's 18.90 EURO when reserved.

I know, I know, you people back home in the US once again get a better deal-- Amazon was (until noon EDT yesterday) practically giving the books away for a tiny $17. And with the exchange rate, I'll be paying almost 50% more than that-- $26.

Oh yes, you laugh at Europe yet again charging a lot more money, but I can imagine the look on your face when I mention this little trade-off: I CAN GET THE BOOK 5 HOURS BEFORE ANYBODY IN THE US! It's officially released in Europe at midnight GMT (afterall, England is its birthplace), so 1AM CET here. And the 5-hour difference is just counting the East Coast of the US, not mentioning the other three timezones!!!

Yes, I am excited enough about the LAST HP book to have to walk back to the StuSie in the middle of the night, since the last S-bahns start going home to VAG-Zentrum (yes, all the English-speakers love making fun of the name, too) around 1 AM. And the night time buses don't start until like 3 AM. Though, maybe if I get my book quickly enough, I could catch one of the last VAG S-bahns and take it to Runzmatenweg... which is about a 10-minute walk from my dorm.
So hopefully I'll find someone who wants to go with me... walking home alone in the middle of the night is not safe, I know... but hey, it's Freiburg, and it's pretty safe here for the most part. But still, I'm hoping someone will go with me!

One of my American friends here is already going to fly to the US this Friday.... I have exactly two more weeks until I fly home, as of today.

But anyway, I need to get my Hausarbeit done today so that I can go have fun tonight with Anna and Niels at their barbaque. I'm excited about this... they're both vegetarian, so this will be my first vegetarian grill ever.... usually I'm the only one with veggie burgers or tofu wursts! Though, today is rainy and yucky so far, so I'm not sure what will happen....

Well aren't you lucky- another post! I go for a week without posting, and all of a sudden I've given you three posts within the last 12 hours. haha....

OK, Sunrise Avenue is now my new favorite band. Michael (my favorite German flatmate... lol) loves them and plays the album all the time on the boombox in the kitchen. They're Finnish (however the adjective is for Finnland). Well, I love the song "forever yours"... I just think the chords/melodie sound really cool.... even though half the lyrics are just the chorus being repeated. But, I've never cared much for lyrics anyway! Just the music.


Check out their MySpace for music.


So there you go-- My first (and probably only, sadly) European pop culture post here!

So, the concert went well last night. Not as big or long as our last one, but I think that was expected, considering we had only so many rehearsals this time. The director made an announcement to everyone when we were backstage after the concert, "Hey, everyone, Rebecca is heading home to the US soon at the end of this month." I felt special :) lol... I remember when I came to the very first rehearsal back in March he also announced, "We have a trombone player now- Rebecca, who is from the US." At first I was thinking, "Oh, great, identify me as the stupid american," but I don't think people really thought that. I felt very welcomed in the orchestra. It was good for my German, too, since most of the members are older and thus have not studied English as intensely as the younger generations. Though, the concert master kept trying to speak to me in broken English.... not sure whether he thought I wanted to talk in English, or whether he simply wanted to try using his English.

I feel pretty good today.... now I just have to work on this Hausarbeit. I'm going to make these next couple days intense....

Sadly, nothing very exciting is going on. However, the Freiburger Orchestergesellschaft is having a concert tomorrow! We're playing Brahms' Hungarian Dances and Rastrelli's Overture. They both sound pretty good, considering how few rehearsals we've had. And I'm enjoying myself again.

I have a Hausarbeit (paper) due soon that I need to seriously get cracking on. And yet, I don't entirely care if I do a bad job on it-- it's for Musikpsychologie, which, as I have stated before, is not that great a class in my mind. I filled out the evaluation form today (I know, it's amazing Germany has them... j/k! no offense intended to my German readers!) and wrote that I was disappointed with the class and that it was hardly psychology related dispite having "psychology" in the name. I mean, "How does a perfect fifth make you feel?" Come on! That's like phillosophy or music therapy.

So anyway, Freiburg finally has normal weather again! Yay! It's been in the 30s and sunny lately. (duh, 30s celcius, not fahrenheit... lol.) Tomorrow is supposed to be like 36 degrees, which is about 97 fahrenheit. Human body temp= 37 C or 98.6 F. Which reminds me, last Saturday was Live Earth, and a German channel was airing Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" in German. Let me tell you, it was kind of wierd to see this guy who looks just like Al Gore but speaking with a very high-pitched voice and in German!
It makes me want to go see the original now.
But anyway, I was proud of myself for being able to understand like 90% of the German. I thought it was funny how the screen would show figures in Fahrenheit or miles or feet, but when translated into German they just converted it all to metric. Makes me wonder if German even *has* words for the English system (like "inch" or "mile")... they probably do from some point in time.

:-) I'm going to come back to the US and say, "Yeah, you can get a liter of milk in Germany for 55 cents!" and people will be like, "Um... ok, what is that in gallons?" Well, at least most Americans know what a liter is thanks to soda bottles. But the concept of milk being measured in liters was wierd for me to accept at first for that reason. Like, what, milk soda?!?! hahaha... i love that.


In less than two weeks, I'll leave Freiburg to spend my remaining few days with Karl in Aidlingen. Hopefully we do something exciting.... haha probably not. But still, I look forward to being home soon, because although there are a lot of things here that I love and will miss, I really don't have many close friends here. I'm bored a lot. If I ever go abroad again, I'm going to make sure I do something that will keep me busy like a job or internship. I do like living here- simple things like walking to the grocery store to get a few things (vs. having to drive and buy a ton of things), or drinking without authority breathing down your neck, telling you that drinking is a sin. See, even though I'm going to be 21 anyway, I sort of feel like drinking at home will be different. Here ordering beer is just like ordering a coke. At home, it's like buying poison-- I mean, you're obviously going to get drunk out of your mind from having a single beer with dinner and then go drunk driving and kill 5 people. Just because you wanted to order a Becks with that pizza. But enough of that.... it's culture, what can you do? Germany has their own quirks as well.