Okay so as of this Saturday, January 14, I will have been here for 5 months and will have 5 months left :( this is very sad :'( hence the tear. It's crazziiness to think that I am halfway done, let me just say. Time is a-flyin' here in the 'Burg. At this time last year, when it had just turned to 2010, I was thinking, "This is the year I graduate!" and now I'm thinking, "This is the year I go home..wah." But I shan't dwell on the future, it's recap time peopleee
Weihnachten
Christmas here in Germany is a bit different than in the States. Probably the thing that's most different is the fact that they open presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning. The entire family gathered at our house to eat and exchange the prezzies, and eat cake, of course...lots and lots and lots of cake and cookies. And chocolate. Did I mention lots?
The tree!
Do I even have to write anything here?
Anyways, the main point that I came away with regarding Christmas presents here is WIDGESC: that is, When In Doubt, Give the Exchange Student Chocolate. I am now the proud owner of enough fine German chocolate to get me through until at least the end of the world in December 2012; and hey, if we all survive, I'll just come back for another Christmas to get more. So we ate cookies and we ate chocolate and then we ate some more cookies and some more chocolate and then we went to the Grandparents' house and ate some more cookies and some more chocolate and then hey! it was my host brother's birthday so can you guess what we did? Yes we ate some more cake and cookies and chocolate!
Now you ask yourself, do her jeans still fit her after all these cookies and cake and chocolate? This leads me into the next section.
How to Stay Fit in Germany
This is really less daunting than you would think. I have of course already mentioned McFit, aka Bros'R'Us, but there is a simple solution to the three Cs.
...
Public Transportation!!
Logically the next thought that comes to mind is, how can that possibly help? Please, let me explain.
In order for me to get to school, McFit, or the Reeperbahn, which are the 3 places I most frequent in ascending order, I must walk approximate 7 minutes to the bus stop. Then I take a five minute bus ride to the train station, and from there I can take the train to anywhere I so desire. The point that I'm trying to make is that the two connections I make provide ample opportunity to miss the coming bus/train, and hence, SPRINTSSS!!!!!
The most dispiriting things that you can experience in Germany are the sight of the bus/train arriving while you are still a good distance away and the sound of the beep that means the train doors are closing while you're still on the stairs. When this happens, your heart sinks and you busttt a** to get to the stop. I'm talking full out, qualifying for the Olympic sprints. I've run in heels, in snow, in rain, on ice, even pushed the elderly and young children out of the way to get to the arriving vehicle (okay the last part is a slight exaggeration) before the doors close. But in all seriousness, I even JUMPED a FENCE last week to catch a bus. Even I was shocked. I didn't know I could even do that. But I impressed the hell out of myself, and to be completely honest I felt really BA after that.
Anyways, this situation arises multiple times every week, and on a bad day, multiple times a day. In this way you can keep fit without even hitting the gym. Genius, really. Once Katelyn and I were in another town, Lüneburg, and the train back to Hamburg only went on the hour. We were a good half mile away when we realized we had seven minutes to get to the station. It was cold, it was icy, I had a cold, but we ran. We missed it but it was a valiant effort in any case.
Of course, this situation is never fun to be in, but it can be incredibly entertaining when you're the one safely in the bus/train watching people trip over themselves to get on. If the bus/train driver sees you running and waving your arms and is nice, they will generally wait, but there are naturally those idiots that just driiivee awaayy. I wonder if they count how many times they get flicked off as they look back in the rearview mirror...
The Island Off the Coast of Georgia.
Any New Yorker who has traveled abroad knows that there is great popularity to be achieved upon stating that you are from New York. Whenever someone asks me where I'm from and I say New York, the reaction is, without fault, "REALLLLYYYY!!! ohhh COOOLL. New York is my DREAAMMM!!" Of course the majority of people don't even know that there is such a thing as New York STATE; they only know the city and automatically assume that I live there. In fact, if somebody then asks me, "the city or state?" I give them extra points because I am impressed by their knowledge.
Now, depending on the situation, I sometimes clarify that no, I'm not from the city, I'm from the state. But this really all depends on my mood. If I want to see the adoration shining in their eyes I just don't say anything.
ANYWAYS, when Kate and I are out, we are asked frequently where we are from. Imagine: I say New York, and fireworks go off in the sky. Then she says Iowa. This is when you hear crickets, and the person has a blank look on their face. We recently got sick of the awkward silence that follows "Iowa," so we decided to do something about it.
Most people are really only familiar with the states of New York and California, and perhaps Florida and Texas, because those are the ones most featured in American television. Hence, last weekend, a rather genius idea struck me. Why not have some fun? Most people have next to no knowledge of the geography of the US. So now, when Katelyn said that she comes from Iowa, and the other person asks where that is, we tell them that it is an island off the coast of Georgia. And we're counting how many people believe it.
Originally we said that it was an island off the coast of Alaska but that's a little hard to believe, so I just thought of the random state of Georgia and we stuck it off that coast. Right now we're up to 4 people who have believed us. Our greatest coup so far has been a full grown man. Katelyn even threw in the fact that you can take a boat from Iowa to New York and he ate it right up. The hardest part of this whole thing is keeping a straight face while explaining where Iowa is situated. I was feeding the said man this story and allllmost cracked up twice but I pulled it off in the end.
Exchange students are easily entertained, and let me tell you, this gives us a great laugh.
The No Pants Subway Ride
please take a minute to watch this video:
A friend of Katelyn sent her a link that said that there would be the No Pants Subway Ride, Hamburg version, just yesterday, so naturally we went in search of it. We took the train all the way out to Sternschanze where the meeting place was supposed to be, but found nobody. We even went to the pain of following the preplanned route to the Rathaus, the final meeting place, in anticipation of a.) seeing a train of pantless people or b.) joining the train of pantless people- I really can't say for certain if we would have taken it off, we were gonna see how many people there were- but, to our great disappointment, we found nobody :( I would've been epic, though.
A closing picture: Here we have our second picture with the pole dancing grandma. This is from New Years Eve. We had already taken a picture with her a few months back, but you know what? She's awesome. If I'm 70 and pole dancing, I expect a pat on the back and somebody to take a picture with me too.
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