We're All Living in Amerika!

We're all living in Amerika.  Amerika ist wunderbar!
So sang famous metal group "Rammstein" in their song entitled "Amerika".  Now having spent some time in Rammstein's native land of Germany, I can begin to see their point.  America is everywhere--from the American military personnel I saw in the Frankfurt airport (question: do we really need army bases in Germany?  Are we trying to stop the Nazis from coming to power again, or something?) to the numerous signs in English which I mentioned in a previous post.

And our "food" (if you can really call it that) is everywhere.  What, you thought having a McDonald's, a Subway, a Burger King, and a KFC in every city was enough?  Think again.  There is a small restaurant chain here called "American Fried Chicken."  I also was fortunate enough to find "American sandwich bread" in the local grocery store.  (Unfortunately, after that first loaf of sunflower seed bread, I don't have enough teeth left to actually eat the American bread. ;) )

To be fair, there are other international restaurants here in Germany as well.  There's a sushi restaurant (which has a sign, in English, that reads "All you can eat"), a number of Italian restaurants (one has a sign that advertises "Coffee to go"), French restaurants, and Chinese restaurants.  But I guess it's the type of food that's advertised as being particularly American that irritates me a little.  I'm not saying I don't enjoy so-called "American" food every now-and-then, but do they really think all we eat is fast food and chicken?

I was told once, that when it comes to certain cultural knowledge, only certain pieces of information get exported.  Take, for instance, a conversation I had with a girl from Belarus a few months ago.  She was talking about how she likes her English class, and how they read all kinds of articles about interesting facts about English-speaking countries.  One article in particular was all about Americans' love-affair with hot dogs.  I learned from her that there actually exists in our fair country a "National Hot Dog Month."  I don't know if any of you have ever heard of said month before, but I know I hadn't, and I'm not quite sure why she needed to be taught that.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't think most Americans would particularly want to actively advertise to the world how many hot dogs they stuff their faces with every year.  So either it's the receiving country that decides which cultural information they will let their students learn, or else the hot dog companies have a large stake in indoctrinating Belarus's youth to buy their products. (Oscar Mayer, you devil, you!)

Then there's the story I heard from a Russian boy who told me that chicken legs are sometimes called "Bush's legs" (that's Bush as in former president George Bush Sr.), because apparently after the fall of communism, Russian markets became flooded with American chicken.  So the Russians think we eat a lot of chicken here-- er, I mean in America.  Oh the wonders that are capitalism and globalization!

I guess if it's true that you are what you eat, then we can all be Americans.  But the "Americolonization," as it's sometimes referred to, doesn't stop with food.  Now we have them listening to our music, watching our films, and yes, even wearing our clothes.  Just down the street from the American Fried Chicken in Giessen, there's a small clothing store that specializes in making you look like a rapper.  In the words of Ali G, "Booyakasha!"

  
If you don't like gangsta clothing, you can also shop at T.K. Maxx, the German version of T.J. Maxx:

Yes, Germans watch The Simpsons.

Not necessarily American food, but a few of many restaurants with at least some English words in the names.

And of course, the ubiquitous McDonald's:

 In Germany, a lot of other shops have taken the "Mc" prefix from McDonald's and attached it to other English words in an effort to make it seem like their service is quick and efficient.  This shop sells paper, notebooks, envelopes, etc.

So, there you have it.  Proof that Rammstein were not just being whiny little b*tches when they complained that America is taking over the world.  I think my next task will be to figure out why American things are so popular, other than the fact that America is totally awesome. 

learning to party, German-style

**Warning: The following entry contains a lot of talk about alcohol.  The purchase of and consumption of this entry is prohibited in the U.S. to people under the age of 21...but this is Europe, so go ahead and have a couple drinks, minors!**

Last week, I received a few questions on the subject of St. Patrick's Day.  Originally I had planned to be out of Germany and exploring the rest of Europe by train (gotta use my EuRail pass sometime!), and had thought it might be cool to go to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day.  Unfortunately, fate and German bureaucracy were against me.  So, I'm still in Germany and haven't left once.  So how do the Germans celebrate St. Patty's Day?  Answer: they don't.  At least, they don't seem to celebrate it in this town.  I saw no one wearing green or shamrocks.  There were no paper leprechauns adorning office halls and windows.  No parades.  No green beer.  Nothing.  It's not that I expected there to be any mention of the holiday.  I'd always heard that it's a far bigger holiday in the U.S. than even in Ireland itself, so why would anyone in Germany care about the 17th of March?  After all, they're probably still hungover from all the normal-colored beer they had at Oktoberfest.  So, to answer your questions: no, St. Patrick's Day is not celebrated in Germany... or at least not in Giessen.

Though I may not have been celebrating Irish-style on the 17th, I did hear about a club, which I visited this past Saturday night.  It was rather crowded, cost 3 EUR to get in, and I didn't know half the songs they played.  Not the worst party I've ever been to, but I think I prefer American college parties.  I might give the place another shot in a few weeks, though, after I've met some more people in the area. 

On a non-German alcohol note, I tried Tokaji wine for the first time this past Saturday.  (It's Hungarian.)  Now, I'm not much of a wino...but that Tokaji is some good stuff!

You're not from around here, are you?

I have returned from the Ausländeramt. It was so much clearer and easier than I had been worrying about.
The good news: I still have plenty of time to get everything in order (I need passport-style photos, German health insurance (apparently American insurance isn't good enough for them =P ), proof that I can support myself while in Germany, 60 EUR, and some sort of notification from the university).
The bad news: I have to get passport-style photos, because apparently the ones I brought from home weren't good enough.
The upside: they're only 6 EUR.
The downside: they're 6 EUR. =P
Not to mention that I have to pay ten times that just to be able to register with the stupid office. And then there's the damn health insurance. Grr, Germany. Though I guess there's probably a similar procedure for foreigners in any other country...except maybe Spain. I heard their immigration laws are really lax... Oh Europe, the land of contrasts.

Thank you, God. Thank you, Sparkasse. F you, Postbank.

German bureaucracy is killing me. It took me forever to open up a bank account. Word to the wise: if you have to open up a German bank account, don't go with Postbank. You'll keep going back to check when your account is open, but as soon as you go back, they'll ask you for yet another document. Sparkasse is so much quicker and easier. I wish I had tried them when I first got here, instead of waiting a week. =P

And today I have to go to the office where they handle foreign residents who will be living in Germany temporarily. Gotta go register there to get a residency permit. Ugh, I hate having to go to all these offices, talk with all these people, fill out all these forms. Thank God I have a "study buddy" who's helping me with this stuff. I don't know how I'd manage without her. But even with her help, I'm so sick of this bureaucracy. Is any other country this crazy about paperwork?

On a happier note, the weather seems to be getting better. That, or I'm getting used to it. But it's not so bitter anymore. And from what I heard, we're supposed to have good weather by Friday or this weekend.

Peace of Nothing?

So, I walked past that one building that had the funny graffiti on it today, and found out what it really said...it didn't say "peace of nothing"...it said "peace of fuck"...yeah. Still not sure what that's supposed to mean.

Butzbach

Today I woke up really early to get on a train to meet my "study buddy"/friend in Butzbach. This adorable city is a 20 minute train ride from Giessen. I would have taken pictures, except that I was an idiot and forgot my camera at home. But maybe I'll go back there later and take some photos then. But really, it was like a town from a fairy tale. We walked around the town, visited a church or two, and a went into a museum with all kinds of artifacts, some dating back to Roman times. Really an amazing little place.

Coming home from the train station, a girl asked me for directions to the train station. Score for looking like a local!
Five minutes later, a guy I passed on the street stared intently at me and said, "ciao, bella!" Lose a point, go back to start.

Lazy Sunday

After all the walking I've been doing this last week, I'm taking today to rest and just not go anywhere. Just letting my legs heal a bit, and trying not to deal with this scheiss weather. Cloudy, gray, and coooooold! It's already March 14, and the temperatures are still hovering in the 30s and 40s (Fahrenheit).

Interesting thing I've noticed meanwhile: even on my own laptop, it seems to have realized that we're not in Kansas --er, America-- anymore, and has changed everything to German settings. Like when I type something in my Google search bar, it takes me to google.de, not google.com. Even the advertisements I see on Facebook are in German. One unfortunate consequence of this is that I can no longer watch shows from hulu or any other websites that are only meant to be used by people in the US. So if anyone knows any German equivalent of hulu or whatever, just let me know...

Cultural Notes from the End of the Third Day

The following was written on my computer, but not published to my journal immediately because I didn't have internet access in my room until just tonight:

So, I've come up with the idea to start a sort of "travel journal" for my time here in Giessen. I'm starting on my third day, because I was too lazy to start either of my first two days. And what a hectic first two days those were!

If we go back even further, to Monday, we can see that it's just been an all-over stressful week. Monday I got up from a somewhat restless night, took a bath, and made sure I had all my last-minute items together, before heading to the airport. We spent a lot of time at the airport, just hanging around, because it didn't take much time to get checked in. Funny story: when I was checking in, the woman working at the counter asked me if I spoke Polish because she noticed I had a Polish surname. There was a Bosnian girl standing next to me, who had already been checked in, so the woman at the counter asked us if we wanted to sit next to each other, since she figured we might have something in common. After getting checked in, we sat at the food court for a while, got some lunch there. And then I went through security and was just waiting around for a long time. Finally we could start boarding, but even the boarding procedure took a long time. It was a rather large plane, after all.

The flight was also rather restless. I wound up spending most of those eight hours on board by watching various movies (Harry Potter 6), TV shows (Dexter's Lab, The Big Bang Theory, and some interesting taping of a concert/circus performance), and music videos (mostly Bollywood; I flew Air India). I tried to get some sleep, but I would only sleep for half an hour to an hour at most before I would wake up to watch more music videos or listen to music and watch the screen that showed where our plane was located at that moment. On a side note, Air India's food was surprisingly good...except for the little snack they serve. Instead of peanuts, they have some sort of Indian treat: Chana Dal. It's not bad, but I prefer peanuts personally.

But despite these two sleepless nights, I was full of energy when I got to Germany. I had so much energy, in fact, that I had no problem speaking German with everyone I encountered or who encountered me. I don't know...maybe I was so full of energy that I looked like I was more confident than I was, which made me look like a local who knew what they were doing, or something, but I had all kinds of people just coming up, speaking in German. The woman who exchanged my dollars for euros, for instance. Actually, it seemed like she could decide if I was a native or not. After greeting each other, she asked me (in English): do you speak English or German? I answered "beide" (both). She seemed really happy with that answer. Even a guy on the S-bahn asked me for directions. Yeah, the S-bahn. I took the train from Frankfurt to Giessen.

And I was confused about which train to get on. So I asked some guy for help. A black guy, actually. He was nice...almost too nice. Helped me carry my bags on the train...then when we got to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, where I had to transfer to the Giessen train, he gave me a hug and his phone number...I just chalked it up to cultural differences and was only a little creeped out.

And then just today I met another black German guy...I was walking from the main campus back to my room, and was limping a little because I was wearing my new shoes, which were hurting me a little. I didn't think the limp was too noticeable, since my feet weren't all that sore at that point. But apparently, I was wrong, because he noticed it and actually stopped me to ask if I was "verletzt" (injured). We then had a whole conversation, at the end of which, he too gave me his phone number and his email. I don't know... these black Germans really seem to like me for some reason. Or are they this friendly with everyone? At least this one didn't hug me. %)

The friendliness of black guys in Germany is not the only thing I've come to notice. I've noticed a lot of other things. For instance, how damn small everything is in this country. I mean, I knew before I came that things tend to be smaller in Europe. But you don't really realize the extent of this until you get here.

Then there's the streets, oh the streets. I don't know how it is in other towns, but in Giessen, it seems the city planners couldn't decide which way they wanted the streets to go or even decide on one name for a street. You'll be on a street called one name, and then once you cross an intersection or go around a curve, it's called something totally different. It's almost as bad as Boston. Almost. ;) (And yes, I know they didn't really have city planners in the middle ages, when this city was probably originally built. But you'd think that after the Allies bombed this city flat in WWII they'd be able to rebuild the city in a way that actually made sense... apparently the Germans aren't as efficient or ingenuous as we give them credit for.)

Another thing I've noticed: I don't much like German food. Correction, I don't much like cheap German food. I got some meat and cheese at a store on my first day here. The cheese was ok...the meat made me gag. But I spent a whole two euros on it, so why let it go to waste? =P Next time I want meat, I think I'll spend the extra couple euros for something of a little better quality.

I paid a little more for my bread, but it was worth it. Though I'm not quite sure whether I like the bread yet or not. It's really no wonder the Germans are so hearty when they eat bread like this. Most of us like our bread to be light and fluffy (Except rye bread. Rye bread is not supposed to be light or fluffy. Ever. Sadly, in many places in the US, it is.), but even the thickest bread in the USA couldn't compare with the brick of a bread I bought from that Bäckerei. I swear to God, that thing was as heavy as a brick. No joke. Also, while most Americans will tolerate poppy seeds or sometimes even rye seeds on their bread, this bread was covered inside and out with sunflower seeds. I've never seen or tasted anything like it. But once you get past the tooth-cracking outer crust of this bread, it can actually be tasty. Not something I could eat every day, but certainly better than the cheap meat that wasn't worth the 0.99 € I spent on it.

Another food-related shocker? You can get alcohol even in the small, cheap grocery stores. And I'm not talking about wine and beer. You can find vodka, Jaeger, and other hard liquors in regular grocery stores, and not in any special room off to the side of the store, where the person behind the counter eyes you closely and scrutinizes your ID/asks you 500 questions before they'll let you buy something. And while we're on the topic of drugs, cigarettes are for sale everywhere here too... and you only need to be 16 to buy them. You can even buy them from these special machines that are on practically every street corner.

But even with this seemingly rampant alcoholism and drug use, crime must not be a huge issue, since I haven't noticed any of those blue light emergency telephones you can find on nearly any American college campus. But there are plenty of T-Mobile phone booths. That's right: pay phones still exist in Germany (and they all seem to be owned by T-Mobile). I guess not everyone wants or can afford a "Handy" (cell phone).

Another thing I've noticed is that despite it's relative small size, Giessen seems to have a lot of foreigners, and not just international students either. When I was shopping at the Penny Markt yesterday I heard an older couple speaking English. And today there was a mother and a young son speaking Russian. Who knew Germany could be such a melting pot?

Speaking of languages, it's true that the Germans use a lot of English words in daily life. I can't count the number of times I've seen posters advertising "coffee to go" (and no, this was not in a McDonalds. A lot of the McDonald's menu was translated into German, believe it or not.) or some other business or service or product. I'm somewhat reminded of how random French words seem to appear whenever someone wants to make their product or service look beautiful or classy (I have a shirt that says "Le Jardin" - "The Garden") or how people seem to like getting tattoos of Chinese symbols. Except that I think English in Germany is a lot more prevalent than French or Chinese in the United States.

And still one more thing: graffiti is EVERYWHERE. And no one seems to bother to wash it off. Whereas in some areas of the US (Denison immediately comes to mind, for some reason), any graffiti is immediately washed off as soon as it's discovered, especially if it's on some building like a school. But here, they just don't really seem to care. I'm constantly amazed that the graffiti "Scheiss Deutschland" (shit Germany) has been up since at least before I got here. I'm not sure they'll ever bother washing that off. Apparently, nationalism isn't a big problem here. Then there's the "Bildung ist, was Du draus machst!" (Education is what you make of it!) with a big X through the Euro sign (€) underneath, spray painted on the university library. That's been here since before I got here too, and it doesn't show any signs of going away. Some of the graffiti is rather amusing, using odd grammatical structures or incorrect spellings (one piece of graffiti used the word "peace" when I think they meant to write "piece." I don't remember the whole message, but I think it was something like "peace of nothing"...wasn't quite sure what that was supposed to mean, no matter whether they meant "peace" or "piece"). But most of the graffiti is so uninspired, and more of an eyesore than art.

Well, if there's one thing we can take away from these experiences, it's that Germans really don't fit even half of the stereotypes we've come up with for them...then again, with all the English being spoken, one must wonder if they really are Germans at all. ;)

Meiner Meinung nach.

This is the bread that will break your teeth.

My Dorm Room

Here are some pictures of my dorm room--it's really small!

This is the view from the desk.

This is my closet.

My sink, towels, and medicine cabinet

And my room from the doorway.

Hello and Willkommen

I'm an American student studying abroad for a semester at Justus Liebig Universität in Gießen, Germany. In this blog, I will be documenting my time here.