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.