Prost dass die Gurgel nicht verrost!

So, kids, I have survived Oktoberfest. I think I did it correctly, although I guess I didn't have a dirndl. A little less than correctly. Whatever. And with that, I shall tell you of my roughly 48 hours of insanity.

To start: I said before that I was bringing quite literally nothing with me. So here's an inventory of the things that I brought, all of which fit in one incredibly small purse.

1. the clothes which I was wearing (which included one tank top, one long-sleeve t-shirt, one sweatshirt, a denim jacket, jeans, underwear, socks, and Converse)
2. my burner phone
3. 100€ in cash and a credit card
4. my American drivers license
5. toothbrush and toothpaste
6. deodorant
7. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

We got to München around 6:30. We took a bus, which meant that it took a little bit longer than 3 hours. But we did bring 7 bottles of wine, potato chips, Mambas, bananas, and nuts with us, so that made it better. When we arrived however, we soon realized that we had not a clue of how to get to our hostel, the All-Inclusive Munich Campsite. I sort of remembered the name of the street it was on, but that was rather unhelpful. We wandered to a Tourist i and after a talk with a cranky man almost entirely in German, we managed to find it. The campsite is a little ways out of Munich, and it required us taking a train and a bus, but it was probably only a 20 minute trip from the Hauptbahnhof, so not too bad. When we arrived at the bus stop, we met some Australians and some kids from Georgia Tech, who are studying abroad in France. One of whom went to high school with Yasmine. Super weird. 

In any case, we checked in. Or Theron and I did and Julius and Yasmine stood around sketchily. (We only paid for a two person tent, and we intended upon throwing 4 people in it.) We probably stood in line for a really long time, but in order to distract us from that the staff continued to supply us with really crappy bier, which we started to affectionately call swamp cock. Well, we did eventually find our tent, continued to drink more of the wine, and went to large hangout area/bar. There we found our friends from Georgia Tech. It was a night of chilling, wine, shitty bier, french fries, and me babbling way too much. Probably the best of it was that we were probably the only ones at the campsite who spoke German. I proceeded to annoy the hell out of the Georgia Tech kids by speaking to them only in German. All quite lovely. 

Playground Shenanigans.

We got up super early on Saturday to get to the bier tents. However, upon getting there we got distracted by all the rides and yummy smelling food (Our 'hot and hearty' campsite breakfast was only lukewarm and a tiny bit hearty) so we didn't really make it into the tents before they got absolutely packed. Instead, we found the Spaniards, bought some litres of wine, and went to the park. For a while, we sat on the playground, drinking our litres until a father informed us that 'es ist verbotten.' Then we moved to the benches next to the playground--really good influences, us Deutsch Kompakt kids. 

After the wine debauchery, we met up with the rest of the Deutsch Kompakt kids. We went to a Döner restaurant, and one who shall not be named managed to break a countertop. That was a debacle. 

The rest of the evening was a mass of rushing around Oktoberfest, buying overpriced bullshit, and eventually ending up in the bus station. A group of Deutsch Kompakt kids and myself left the big group and started wandering around the grounds. We tried to get into tents, but it didn't work--naturally--and we ended up going on a really fun swing ride. We decided then to go to a kneipe instead, but ended up at the bus station. The Swedes and I hung out in a restaurant called Vapiano, where we had some drinks before I dropped them off at their bus. Afterwards, I found a rather drunk Theron and brought him back to the tents. I was planning on going to sleep, but instead I went to the hang out area to have a swamp cock bier. There, I met another girl named Sarah, who is studying abroad in Italy. Later, Owen, one of the Georgia Tech kids, met up with us, and we just chilled until the wee hours of the morning. 

My one bier at Oktoberfest

This morning, after a night of very little sleep, Theron and I dragged ourselves back to Oktoberfest. I finally had my one (wicked overpriced) beer in the Hippodrom tent (as Mr. Zarwell said "Have one for me. But then stop. Because have you seen the size of those mugs?!) and ate some bayerische food, called Obatzder. Obatzer is a cheese-spread type thing with loads of garlic and onions. You can put it on butter or brezeln. Quite delicious. Afterwards, we managed to locate Julius and then hung out in Munich until our bus at three. This included going to a different restaurant later and ordering more bayerisches essen. This time Theron and I split a Schweinshaxe, which translates to pig ankle, which was also super delicious. The rest of the time was a lot of bummelning in the cold and warm coffee shop sitting. 

All in all, it was a weekend of complete and utter insanity, but that's the way it should be, right?

Eine Große, Glückliche Schwäbische Familie

Family, friends, countrymen. This post is if you are interested in watching the skit, which I was part of in Blaubeuren. Here it is in all of it's glory.

Sidenote: it's entirely in German, so you may not understand it. But it's also hilarious. Therefore, you should still watch it.

Sorry I couldn't imbed in the post. YouTube wouldn't let me.

That is all.

Der Teufel fährt Panda.

Hey-o lovely people. So, over these past few days, I have played more wine Fußball (Monday), which was quite lovely and we went to a hookah bar afterwards and attended a Kaltes Krieg-themed party (Tuesday), wherein I tried my first ever Russian food (it was delicious). Hmmm, other things. I finally got strawberries from a market stand. And my God, was that awesome. Also I purchased my own cookware on account of the disappearing cookware in my apartment. It's currently being hoarded in mein Zimmer. So that's all well and good, however, now I am going to tell you about my day today.

Heute sind die Deutsch Kompakt nach Bodensee (Meersburg und Konstanz) gereist. (A map of which is above.) So the Bodensee (I guess in English, people call it Lake Constance) is a large lake on the German-Swiss border. It's the largest lake in Germany and the third largest freshwater lake in Europe. It spans across two German states (Baden-Württemberg and Bayern) and provides drinking water for a boat-load of people in Germany. That's the official stuff. Unofficially, it seems to be the place where old people go to vacation or retire. 

Wallfahrtskirche

After a super early wake-up call and a kick-ass bus nap, we arrived at this super pink church, known as Wallfahrtskirche Birnau. Inside it was interesting... To me, it looked like an overzealous old woman decorated it. It was rather distracting. Inside, the main colour scheme was bright pastels--like the kind you see in little old lady's houses, and the ceiling was painted in a super ornate fashion. Also, I am fairly confident that we were the only people in there under the age of 55 (although David claimed that the median age was 150). Then we took an extended Wanderung to Pfahlbaumuseum, which consisted of a lot of corn fields, but was still rather pretty. 

So: the Pfahlbaumuseum. I guess it's a UNESCO "world inheritance" site (UNESCO Weltkulturerbe, I don't know if I translated that correctly) or something. It's a super cool museum about the stilt houses of Neolithic Stone Age and Bronze Age peoples. The stilt houses (Pfahlbauhäusern) have been reconstructed, of course, but it's still super cool. In the beginning, there's a fully automated part, wherein you begin in a science-y "sea expedition" boat-looking room. Two people, a man and a woman speak in German (I believe they also have an option of putting it in other languages) about going out scuba diving. After a little while, two doors open and you are put into a large square room that looks like the bottom of the Bodensee, where the man and the woman talk some more. Then a part of the wall moves aside and you are put into a circular room with TVs on the side. The TVs start out showing crackling ice, which eventually melts and then the Pfahlbauhäusern are constructed on the screen before your very eyes. I guess it's much cooler to experience than my description, but I tried. Finally, one of the walls pulls up and you are outside with your tour guide (in our case a very nice Schwäbisch lady). She led us through each of the houses, showing us living quarters, where they kept the animals, and other things. I dunno, I don't really care to go into too much detail. All in all, it was pretty alright. 

Mittagessen mit einem Blick

Afterwards, we hopped back onto the bus, and it took us to Meersburg, a small, German-y town right on the Bodensee. When we got there, we went straight up to the Schloss garden and stopped to have a picnic. Deutsch Kompakt had bought us 'belegtes Brötchen'-s (which is what the little meat and cheese sandwich things that they sell in bakeries here are called), apples, and juice, and so we nommed whilst overlooking the Bodensee. (We were lucky that we had a good day for it too.) Afterwards, we checked out the 'Burg,' which is an old castle-type thing directly overlooking the Bodensee. I guess it was also home to Annette von Droste Hülshoff, who was a 19th century writer and composer, which I guess if a big deal. I don't think any of us were particularly into that angle so much as just messing around in the castle. My friend dubbed Ms. Droste-Hülshoff 'the original overly-attached girlfriend' on account of the various pictures around the castle, and we enjoyed making fun of the weird cherubs with antlers coming out of their asses. 

For comparison

After the Burg, we had a little bit of time to bum around, so a bunch of us (predominantly Swedes and Spaniards) went to a cafe and got some coffee or ice cream. Of course, I got ice cream. And my God, was that awesome. Fun facts from our cafe hangout. So I don't know if I said this before, but I guess Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes can understand each other when speaking their own languages. So a Norwegian can speak Norwegian with a Swede, who is speaking Swedish, and they can have a fully functional conversation. Is that not super cool? It's also particularly helpful when the Swedes are having a conversation that there a Norwegian around to translate it. Also can I say how shitty I feel that I only speak two languages (I guess one and a half would probably be a more accurate number, but we'll round up). In Deutsch Kompakt, all of the Europeans (and quite a few of the Americans) speak at least three languages (and do it really damned well). Having met and talked to all these guys, I want to now pick back up French, try to start Spanish again, and try learning Portugese and Swedish or Norwegian. But I guess I should stick with bettering my German first. Anyways, I digress.

It was delicious, and I regret nothing.

Then we had to meet up with the bus so that we could get on a ferry to Konstanz. We got on the ferry, bus and all, and had a lovely 20 minute right across the Bodensee. Upon arrival, we were shepherded to the restaurant, which we would later be eating at (so that we knew where it was) and then we all went and explored yet another church/cathedral. (I think I am getting a little sick of the looking at churches thing.) Then we had Freizeit until Abendessen. So a bunch of us went and rented some paddle boats. A few others decided to swim in the Bodensee (I guess they had the foresight to bring swimsuits), so we paddled over to where they were and hanging out. They hopped on our boats and got us rather wet, but it was still very fun. But unfortunately, we only had a half an hour with the boats, so we paddled back and gave them back (although we were rather tempted to high-jack them. It was high time to head to dinner. We ate at a place called 'Sedir,' which Andrea, the head of Deutsch Kompakt, described as a 'student restaurant,' which I guess is just code for saying that the prices are rather cheap. In any case, we literally invaded the restaurant, which was not terribly bad. We watched the waitress turn down various folks who came in. Two guys came in saying that they wanted a table to ten, and the waitress proceeded to tell them that they had 'gar nicht Platz.' It was also pretty hilarious hearing David question with dismay why the waitresses were putting people at tables with people they don't know (something that happens in Germany)  and then saying how that would never happen in Sweden, because apparently in Sweden you never talk to people you don't know. Anyways, I digress again. The food was quite delicious. It was a Turkish place, so naturally, I got some Döner, a Döner Teller to be more specific. The rest of dinner consisted of a discussion about how to eat in Europe (continental style with the fork in the left hand and knife always in the right, as opposed to the American way where you cut something and then put down the knife to put the fork back in your left hand), table manners in Asia, and China v Hong Kong v Taiwan. It was all super interesting. 

Boats, boats, boats

After the restaurant, we were shepherded to our bus stop, which oddly looked like a Chinese Pagoda (weird, right?), and then we got on the bus for another two hours, wherein I promptly passed out. And now I am here, having uploaded all of my photos to Facebook and blogging, partially for you lovely people and the rest for self-indulgence. 

Anyways, other than that, I guess the only thing to talk about is my plan for Oktoberfest. Julius, Theron, Yasmine, and I are leaving at 3PM on Friday for what is going to be an insane 48 hours. We are sleeping in tents at the "All Inclusive Munich Campsite" somewhere on what appears to be the outskirts-ish of München. They also have 10€ all you can drink beer and sangria. Dreams do come true. We are kind of taking a 'take nothing, leave nothing' approach, in that we are bringing just about nothing. Which is probably better for everyone. 

Final thing: happy stipend receiving day...woooooo! So yeah, that's about it from my end. Bis später, Kinder.

Burritos, Sushi, and Barbecue

Hey-o, gang. So I guess my weekend can be summed up in the food that I ate. All rather unexpected food to find in Germany. 

Achso, Freitag. Friday, a bunch of kids from Deutsch Kompakt went up to the 2nd level of Eugenstraße, all of two flights of stairs away from my apartment for some Finnish food, homemade pizzas, and salad. It was all very lovely and delicious. Afterwards, a group of us set out with some bottles of wine and made our way around Tübingen going from Froschgasse to various different bars and clubs. A few things, before starting our night at the bars, we stopped and got burritos and margaritas. It was awesome considering that we are roughly 2,000 some odd miles from Mexico. Afterwards, we went to a bar called Last Resort, which has really red walls and plays 70s and 80s rock music. I ended up talking with a German guy named Daniel, who was an exchange student at Tufts last year. Which was really nice, as he also feels a little 'Heimweh' for Tufts sometimes. Afterwards, we went to a club called Butterbrezeln, which played a combination of German music, old 90s rap, and reggae remixes. None of it made any sense.

Samstag: I woke up late, given the whole staying out rather late thing, and ended up just hanging out until roughly 4, when I went to check out a gym with Lasse and Gonzalo. It was incredibly nice, but also cost 40€ a month, and I am most certainly not a real person and therefore cannot afford it. Instead we took a bus up to Fichtenweg, way on the other side of Tübingen and on top of a bloody mountain. However, on top of this mountain is a beautiful place to run. We did a short run to Schloss Bebenhausen, which is such a cool place. You are running through the forest and then all of a sudden you happen upon an open field and then further down the valley is a small, small Dorf in the middle of the Schwäbische Alps, which is only comprised of old-style houses, a large church, and a monastery. So cool. Afterwards, we ran back to Fichtenweg and I caught a bus back to the Südstadt so I could shower before sushi eating. Now the only sushi places in Tübingen aren't really in Tübingen, so all 15-20 of us wandered for roughly 30 minutes west of the city to find Bistro Jap-Go, a restaurant self-described as a American Asian Pacific Fusion place. Really weird. Also rather fancy. My friend described it as the place to bring your mistress, because it's nice, but no one there is going to recognize you because it's in the middle of fucking nowhere. So we ended getting only a little sushi due to the price and then went back to Tübingen to buy cheap (but delicious) wine from the Rewe and get more burritos (nomz). Afterwards, we hung out in Münzgasse again and ended up calling it a night around 3:30. 

Sonntag: I woke up late again but this time on account of the blinds being really awesome and keeping any form of light out. I did some laundry and homework, and around 3:30 made my way over to the Bibliothek to do some more studying for my Prüfung this morning. There, I met up with Theron and after minimal studying, we decided to meet our German friends, Anita, Regina, and Lulu in the park for a barbecue. I felt bad because I had no food to bring and there aren't any grocery stores open on Sundays, but Theron brought some vegetables, and they gave some steak, salad, and Nudelsalat. It was quite lovely. We spoke mostly in German, which is definitely helpful and I am starting to get a little bit better at speaking with them. However, some of what they say is a little hard to understand because of the Schwäbische accent. (Zum Beispiel, normally in 'high' German to say what are you doing you say: was machst du? In Schwäbisch, you'd say 'was machsch  du?') But they are super nice and will repeat things and keep telling me how good my German is, which is always lovely to hear.

So yeah, I think that's about it from this end. The only other thing I can think of is the case of disappearing cookware from my kitchen, first the cutting board and now the pot. Which leave me with two skillets...and is rather irritating, because I think this means that I will have to actually buy my own cookware and then hoard it. Rawr.

OH, and this weekend I am going to OKTOBERFEST. Wooooo! I'll give more details later, but the most important detail is it's gonna be nutssssssss.

Entschuldigung. Ich bin eine blöde Amerikanerin.

So I finally managed to get around to writing up that blog post about differences between Germany and America that I have found here in Tübingen. (To be clear, this is not a series of complaints. I actually like a majority of these differences.) The fact that I have a Prüfung and a presentation tomorrow probably has a lot to do with that. I guess the best way to do this would be to make a list, so here it goes in no particular order.

1. Bei Rot Stehen. Bei Grün Gehen. Crossing the street in Germany is an exercise in following the rules. You don't walk on red. Even if there are no cars coming, you wait for that little man to change colour. If you do walk on red, you risk getting glared at by little old German women, who believe you are teaching the children to run into traffic. Seriously, at most intersections there are signs telling you to be a good example for the children. 
2. Similarly, J-walking is not done. Ever. 
3. Stores are not open on Sundays. Literally nothing, not even Wal-Mart-like Kaufland. Just about the only things that are open are bars and restaurants.
4. Stores also close quite early. Walking through the Altstadt after 6 means that you will be crossing mostly darkened stores, again with the exception of restaurants. However, Kaufland stays open until 10, very important knowledge to have.
5. You can drink in public. Huzzah for no open container laws. Thus, you see lots of people (mostly students) drinking in parks, on church steps, etc. 
6. Kein Bier vor Vier: no bier served before 4PM, which is 4 hours later than in Ireland.
7. The Recycling: my God is that intense. So here's how it goes: you have 5 different containers. Gray is Alte Papier. This translates to old paper, and you can put newspapers, paper plates, cardboard, etc in here. Blue is Glas. I figure I don't need to translate that for you, but yeah, anything glass. However, you can also bring your glass bottles (bier, wine, etc.) to various locations for the Pfand, which means that you get money back for them. 0,08€, I believe. This also applies for plastic bottles with the little Pfand symbol on them. Then there's "Gelber Sack" which is kind of a free for all with plastic. The Germans can recycle used plastic silverware, for Gods sake! Then there's Bio-müll. Yes, the Germans have a state-run compost program. So lovely. Finally, there's Rest-müll, where all the rest of the crap that you can't throw away goes. 
8. Döner. I wish there was more döner in the US. It's literally the best thing ever.
9. Nudelbox: I also wish that there were Nudelboxes in the US. They are just Chinese noodles with chicken, veggies, and sauce. My friend described as "everything I could want from Chinese food in a box."
10. German windows open both ways. To elaborate, they pull inwards, but also can be opened such that there is a vent up top. Wicked sm-aaaat. 
11. However, there are no screens on German windows. So sometimes creatures will come into your room to keep you company.
12. Here, lunch is a much bigger deal than dinner, which is always something that takes a little getting used to.
13. A drivers license is not accepted as valid ID over here, and the thought of using a drivers license as ID is a very strange concept to Europeans. 
14. Education seems to be much more "low-tech" over here. I don't mean that as a bad thing; it's actually rather nice. Not everyone is sitting with there computers open, and instead of a projector from a computer (called a Beamer auf Deutsch, which I find awesome), we use an overhead projector (something which I can't say as I have seen in a classroom since my days at St. Frances Cabrini).
15. Germans always keep there doors closed. In America, that would give the indication that they don't want to talk or something, but here it doesn't really mean that. Which has taken some getting used to, particularly with my housemates.
16. Light Bier? What is light Bier?
17. It seems acceptable to bring in outside drinks into restaurants and bars. Or at least no one has called me out for it yet.
18. Germans like taking breaks. As in I technically have class from 9-3:30, but roughly 2 hours of that is breaks. 
19. As in the rest of Europe, there are no bubblers anywhere. Nalgenes are my friend.
20. A thirty minute walk is considered walking distance. Hell, I guess at this rate, I'd be willing to consider 45 minutes walking distance.
21. German beds are not like American beds. The mattresses are rather firm, and instead of having two or three smaller pillows, there is one very large pillow.
22. German shutters are really cool and make sleeping in complete darkness very possible. This morning, I woke up at 1PM and thought that it was going to be dark and rainy outside because of how little light was coming through. Nope, it was bright as all get out; my shutters are just awesome.
23. Views of social gender roles seem to be more "traditional" here, and it seems amongst mainland Europeans as well. (All of this is strictly based upon my experience/things that I have heard, so I very well may be completely off base.) I held a door open for a group of friends, and one of them told me that I was quite "gentlemanly." Similarly, one of the girls in my group was told not to climb on something by another girl because "she's a girl." I dunno, I guess it was just kind of weird for me to hear those things.
24. You don't ask Germans who they are going to vote for.
25. Public transit <3
26. Kaufland > Wal-Mart

So yeah, that's about what I have got for now. I think this will probably be more of a running list than anything.

So about that Deutscher Wahlkampf...

Disclaimer: This has really nothing to do with me or my German adventures. If you are not interested in me rambling about German politics, you should stop reading. 

So, I don't know if you remember me saying that I will use this to talk about my German adventures and whatever the hell else interests me. This blog post is the whatever the hell else interests me part. Given it is the day before the German election, today seemed as good as any to write up a little blurb about German politics and the German election. (Because well, what else would a nerdy IR/Politik major do?)

First things first about German politics. I am about to categorize people and parties as liberal and conservative. This is in no way shape or form related to the American definition of "liberal" and "conservative". The Democratic Party is far more right wing than the liberal parties in Europe, as explained by the two Cartesian planes below: 

So yes, when I speak about all of this, keep this picture in mind.

To start things off: there are quite a few preliminary differences between the USA and Germany in terms of a lot of things, but especially in terms of politics. Number 1: there are way, way more than two parties. Yes, I know in America, we have multiple parties, but in Europe, that actually means something. Currently in the German Bundestag, there sit 5 different parties: the CDU, FDP, SPD, Die Grünen, and Die Linke. So yeah, multiple parties. With these multiple parties, the governing party makes a grand coalition in the Bundestag such that they can pass things and get things done. As such, there is a ruling coalition and a minority coalition. Currently, the ruling coalition is Schwarz-Gelb, and the minority coalition is Rot-Rot-Grün. Which brings me to another point, each of the parties has a color, which I will delineate later. Finally, there are two German legislative bodies: the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. For lack of intimate knowledge of the Bundesrat and because it's not really the focus of the 2013 Election, I will be focusing solely on the Bundestag. 

Finally, before I begin all of this, let me know if I am factually inaccurate/biased/just flat out wrong. I am an American writing about the politics of a country that I have lived in for a mere three weeks, after all.

The Parties

**Note: these are just the main ones/the ones that interest me. There are many, many more. 

Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU): Currently the main partner of the dominating coalition and holder of the Chancellor's seat, the CDU is a rather conservative party or I guess a better descriptor is classically liberal. They are very big into the whole 'let business do it's thing' thing and is rather focused on the economy. With that said, they still believe that the government should provide a network for social welfare and help protecting the environment. 

Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP): The other 'pro-business' party, so they are all about the laissez-faire thing as well. The junior coalition partner to the CDU, there is the threat that they will not get enough percentage of the vote to have a presence in the Bundestag. 

Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD): The main opposition to the CDU, the SPD is focused on the workers. Their main points that they put in my mailbox revolve around raising the minimum wage, more funding for education, more regulations on the finance market, etc. 

Die Grünen: Not surprisingly, the party of the environment. It's founding ideals focused on pacifism and environmental activism. Currently a part of the opposition to the Schwarz-Gelb coalition, the general sense that I have gotten from talking to people is while they are more left-wing than the SPD, they still are seen as largely rational, with achievable goals. 

Die Linke: The most left-wing party in the Bundestag, they are kind of like the SPD on roids. Zum Beispiel, while the SPD wants a 8,50€ minimum wage, die Linke is calling for a 10€ minimum wage, that kind of thing. Also, from what I have seen on Der Spiegel's Bundestag infographic, it doesn't seem that Die Linke vote for any measure unless it is introduced by Die Linke. 

Die Piraten Partei: As its name might indicate, the Piraten Partei is largely focused on the "digital revolution" and keeping government regulations out of the digital sphere. While it is not actually in the Bundestag, the Piraten Partei has gotten enough votes to hold seats in various regional parliaments and is quite popular among younger people. 

Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD): Most frequently referred to as the neo-Nazi party. The NPD is violently anti-immigrant, anti-Euro, and frequently flirts with being banned by the government due to Germany's strict hate speech laws. (While I want to go on with all the random tidbits of knowledge I retained from David Art's book, I will restrain myself.) They currently have no seats in the Bundestag, but I believe they might have a few seats in regional parliaments in the East (but that information could be out of date). 

The Election

So about this election. The biggest deal is that it is a Chancellor's election, which means that Angela Merkel of the CDU has the opportunity to be unseated. While there are many parties in this whole election, for the Chancellor's position, it's pretty much Merkel versus Peer Steinbrück of the SPD (who, the more I read about him, seems to be a lot like Joe Biden). Merkel is in a very good position to win, given her successful management of the fiasco that is the Eurozone and strong management of the German economy in the midst of all of it, and all of the news articles that I have been reading seem to agree that Steinbrück and the SPD have given up on winning the Chancellor's seat. However, there is one big problem of coalition partner. If the FDP doesn't get enough percentage of the vote, they will no longer have any seats in the Bundestag. This means that the CDU will have to find a new coalition partner, which will most likely be the SPD. They have outright refused to form a coalition with Die Linke, and I'm pretty sure they don't form one with Die Grünen. This leaves the SPD, with whom they did have a grand coalition prior to the current coalition. A coalition that did not end well. Which I guess means that things are going to get interesting.

In any case, this whole election is a lot more low-key than in the states. Here parties put up posters of the local candidates who are running and maybe a catch phrase or something, nothing terribly flashy. In my case, I have been seeing a lot of one Dr. Martin Rosemann of the SPD. 

So that's my spiel. If you have read this far, I commend you and thank you for listening to my political babbling. 

Wein und Fußball

Hey-o, gang. So I guess the reason that I have been writing much is because there hasn't been too terribly much to report. In a short nut shell, here it is:

The entire week has been filled with class. We are currently working on presentations about various topics. (Mine is Deutsche Musik.) It's been a series of early mornings and very, very long class periods.

At night, there have just been various get togethers. On Tuesday, a hefty part of Deutsch Kompakt went over to a Studentenwohnheim in the Altstadt, and had brinner (breakfast for dinner) and partied a little bit. That was also the night that my iPhone was stolen, rawr. So yeah, that's a thing. I will probably be asking all of you lovely American folks for your numbers again after I get that nonsense sorted out. 

Game face

I guess probably one of the most fun things of this week happened last night, when a few of us bought some wine and brought a football ("soccer ball" for all the Americans) to the Alte Botanische Garten to spiel some Fußball. It all seemed quite European--except my football skills, those are most certainly American. The game ended up very muddy, and I am pretty sure my team lost. But I managed to play without breaking anything, despite having Dani and David charge at me and if I got the ball, grab me around the waist, pick me up and move me. 

So yeah, that's about it for now. Not too many plans for this weekend. Probably gonna chill and go to a Kneipe on Sunday to watch the German election results. At some point, I'll write a blog post explaining my version of what's going on with that. Anyways, bis später, dudes.

Do Giraffes Eat Baba Ghanoush?

Achso, die Sommer ist vorbei, and fall has replaced it with a vengeance. Without any warning, Tübingen has become a little chilly and rainy, which I guess isn't the worst thing, but I could do without the rain and I could probably use another sweater or something.

But anyways, with the exception of Friday (which entailed debauchery until 4AM at Prinz Karl, Top 10, and McDonalds), this weekend and today have been incredibly chill. In any case, on Saturday, I slept in until 1PM, which I believe is the first time I have been able to really sleep in since arriving here--and it was awesome. Afterwards, I hung out with the Tufts Kinder, made some dinner, and then met up with the other Deutsch Kompakt Leute in the Neckarmüller for some chilling and biers. It was a nice, relaxing evening. 

Yesterday, I also slept in, then hung out in my room and read some of On the Road (also the first time I have been able to do that since being here). Around 3:30, I met up with Julius and we met a few others at the library to study for the test I had this morning. Well, it was a good effort, but not much studying was done. Instead, we found a movie that was playing at Blaue Brücke, a movie theatre in the nähe von Eugenstraße, at 6:45. We made our way over there, stopping for Döner along the way (nomz) and saw The World's End. So a few things about that. First, watching anything in German is kind of a trip. You have to resign yourself to the fact that you won't understand every word, like it is with watching movies in your native language, and accept that you should aim to just understand generally what is going on. Second, watching an American movie (in this particularly case the guys were supposed to have British accents) was really weird. Third, it was a movie about a bar crawl with robots. So I guess the German probably wasn't the weirdest part. Afterwards, I went back to my place and finally did some laundry. I finally figured out where to fill up my Mensakarte! Hurray for small victories. Fun facts about German laundry: the dryers suck, so everyone just has a clothesline apparatus (I am sorry--the German is making me forget words in English, and I, for the live of me, cannot remember this one). Why they don't make their dryers better is beyond me, but whatever.

So today: heute Morgan haben wir eine Prüfung. It was fairly easy (knock on wood), and I finished pretty early. I had forgotten to bring On the Road with me, today, however. So I went to Osiander, a bookstore that is pretty much everywhere in Tübingen. I thought I would buy a book in German, but I ended up buying The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. While I could have bought it in German, I didn't want to. I feel like Hemingway is one of those authors that needs to be read in English. I wouldn't want to lose the writing style--that's my favorite part. In any case, I had lunch in the Prinz Karl Mensa, which is infinitely better than the Wilhelmstraße Mensa and heretofore had not been open. In case you were wondering, I had Fleischkäse, which translates directly as meat cheese and looks like a slab of also sorts of meats mixed together. Despite that description, it was actually pretty good. Afterwards, I went to a cafe close to my class and ordered a coffee and read some Hemingway. Europe is a lovely place. More Europe being lovely: after class, a bunch of kids and myself went to the Neckarmüller to chat over a pint.

And with that, I must bid you adieu. I am going to meet up with the Deutsch Kompakt Kinder and we are going to a "Sportkneipe" to watch the Premier League (Liverpool v. Swansea) and hang out. Should be a lovely time. Bis später, dudes. 

PS This title needed to be updated, because of events. Events without any further context. More fun that way. :P

Ich bin im Arsch.

And what a week it has been. Well five days, I guess. Such a short amount of time, but so many things have happened. Am Anfang, I went to Blaubeuren with the Deutsch Kompakt kids. The map shows the route from Tübingen to Blaubeuren. It's a little bit longer than an hour. The scenery is a little different than the train ride to Stuttgart. More small mountains that large steep hills and a lot more fields. It's absolutely gorgeous.

In any case, we left for Blaubeuren on Sunday. In this small, "one stop light" town (pretty sure there is only one stop light, although don't quote me on it) is the Heinrich-Fabri Institut named after some bishop guy who made Blaubeuren more respectable (they had a Badhaus, which was effectively a Roman bath, so pretty much a brothel, next to the nun's cloister and he didn't like that, so he shut it down) in like the 1400s or some nonsense. It's effectively an Eberhard Karls Universität-owned hotel with class rooms. It's quite nice. 

Evillllll

So I guess I am going to try to give you the SparkNotes version of this week, because really a lot of shit happened. First, some general themes. Blaubeuren was fucking freezing. My God. In Tübingen, it's cold as tits in the morning, but then it gets to be roasting in the afternoon (like a 30° difference; it's some crazy nonsense). The Tutorinnen told us that it would be "colder in Blaubeuren" to we should bring some "warmer clothes," nothing to indicate that it would be that drastic. But that's that. Second theme, everyone in Deutsch Kompakt is lovely and wonderful, and this past week was so crazy fun. Third, the Germans have a way of saying that something is kaputt or whatever. Fun fact: it's not im Arsch. You can say "Mein Handy ist am Arsch" if it's dead. If you say, "mein Handy is im Arsch" it means your phone is up your butt. Just in case you were wondering. Also the phrases "dreckiges Tier" and "kotzende Flugsaurier," I learned those too. Very important stuff. 

To start, we got there and laid down our stuff, and immediately, we were thrown into our "Stadtspiel" where we had to go around Blaubeuren and ask people things about about the city and it's history ("Was ist blau in Blaubeuren?" oder "Wer ist schöne Lau?" zum Beispiel). So Marlena, Yasmine, Julius and myself romped around the kleines Dorf, wherein a fucking goose hissed at us and nearly ate our toes (I'm convinced that Arschloch was gonna kill me). We asked a bunch of old people things and in general had a lot of fun. AND we didn't get last place in the game (yay, 9th out of 10!).  So yeah, that night we hung out with kids in our program, drank biers, played music (well Julius, Theron, and Yasmine did that; I was just the 'Wortmeisterin'), and played Arschloch (/Asshole/Shiteater/whatever the hell it's called).

Der Blick von Kreuzberg

The next day was an early wake up call for class. (9AM is still such a disgusting hour.) And I guess the biggest event of Monday was that we found the Kreuzberg, which was a five minute walk up the hill from the Fabri Institut. It's a large hill/small mountain with a large stone cross on top, and my God, is it awesome. So beautifully serene. Unless you are making a racket and drinking on top of it like we did later. :P But yeah super beautiful. At night, you can see the stars, and for us, there were a bunch of shooting stars (I saw at least 5 or 6). Crazy cool. So yeah, Monday: Kreuzberg finding, general debauchery, fun stuff.

The Blue Gatorade Blautopf

Tuesday was the same old with the early wake up call and class. But we didn't have Tutorium, because we were going on a "Wanderung" (more of a Spaziergang, but whatever) to the ruins of an old castle on top of one of Blaubeuren's small mountains. First, we walked through the Kloster (the old nun cloister in Blaubeuren) and got a tour of that and then saw the illustrious Blautopf, which a small pond filled with what looks like blue Gatorade (but is really just water with a lot of calcium in it). But, dude, those Schloss ruins. So cool. The view of Blaubeuren was sick. Tuesday night was more Kreuzberg chilling, bier drinking, and music playing. Quite fun. 

View from the Castle Ruins

On Wednesday, we went to Ulm, and, my God, was that freezing. But that's neither here nor there. Andrea, one of the teachers, gave us a tour, and then we commenced the climb. In Ulm gibt es die Ulmer Münster. This is a huge motherfucking church that took roughly 500 years to build. When it was started in the late 1300s, Ulm had 5,000 people. This thing can hold 30,000, because hell, why not? It also has a really, really, really tall tower (768 steps), and, boy, did we climb all of it. It was rather exhausting and terrifying, because, you know, heights. And it was colder than a witch's teat at the top with the wind and the rain, but all in all, it was pretty damn cool. Afterwards, the Tufts kids walked around, got some Wörterbücher, and had some gute schwäbisches Essen (more Maultauschen, woooo), and then when back to Blaubeuren for a chill evening of guitar playing and wine. Twas lovely. 

Ulmer Münster

Thursday was an insanely lovely day. The best part of which was the Theaterstücken. Everyone in the program had to do a skit. In my group were 6 people, two Americans, a Finn, a Dane, a Norwegian, and a Spaniard. My God was it fun. We had been working on if for the past two days, and my group was laughing just about the entire time we were making it. Our skit was about a schwäbische Familie and we were fighting over what TV program to watch. We had an Opa and a Vater who wanted to watch football, a Mutter (me) who controlled the father (our group decided with sex--bring out your inner porn star amirite), a teenage boy in his "wild phase" (he was a gay Communist), a 10 year old girl who wanted to watch Pokemon, and a American aunt with a really strong American accent. So naturally, chair flipping, offensive jokes, chereographed dancing to the Pokemon theme song, and general chaos ensued. It was hilarious and awesome, but all the skits were hilarious. After our skits and dinner, the entire group then went to the Kinder Kneipe, a high school bar in a boarding school which is in the Kloster. So yeah, drinking and dancing in a church with 15 and 16 year-olds. But it was actually super, super fun. We got back to the Fabri Institut and continued our partying, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. 

Eine große, glückliche schwäbische Familie

Today, Friday, we had class and then returned to Tübingen with the promise of more debauchery at Top 10 this evening. 

So yeah, this week super awesome and I got to know so many awesome awesome people. I'm trying to think if there's any else to update you on. I just had a conversation with my housemate entirely in German. I'm quite proud. There's improvement! Also, I can't believe I have only been here two weeks. The plane ride here feels like it was ages ago. But yeah, that's about everything for now. Peace out, kids. 

The Wrath of Thor

Flohmarkt

So I guess I sort of lied. I still do have internetz, but I won't as of tomorrow. But I had to tell all you lovely people about today. 

Today was a day of success. After a late night of church step-sitting, hanging out, and pizza eating, I woke up at 10:30, and at noon, Julius and I went to the Flohmarkt at Festplatz on the outskirts of town by the climbing wall. It was like a garage sale on steroids. Germans from all over brought their hippie vans and useless shit, and it was lovely. I bought Rumours on vinyl for 1€ (so much win!!), and I am the most excited about it. It's sitting above my bed. I also bought and ate a really delicious peach, which was the size of my fist. That was awesome. Similarly, I found many creepy things like Popo down there: sorry family, I didn't buy him. He was too creepy. And finally, we ate currywurst, my first currywurst since I came back to Germany. It was pretty good, but since it was schwäbische currywurst it was a different kind of sausage and therefore not as good as the berliner currywurst. 

It's Popo.

After that we decided it was way to goddamned hot and walked back towards the Altstadt. We walked to Froschgasse to talk to Theron and then ended up having a bier in the Neckarmüller biergarten for an hour, before parting ways to prepare for the illustrious bonfire on the outskirts of the Französische Viertel. Brief thing about the Französische Viertel. Most of what goes on in Tübingen happens in the Altstadt, where Theron lives. That's where the St. Johannes Kirche, the Neckarmüller, the Alter Botanische Garten, and most of our classes are. I live in the Südstadt which is roughly a 15 to 20 minute walk away and is largely a residential student area. Then there's the Französische Viertel, which is a 15 minute walk away from my place and thus at least 35 minutes away from the Altstadt. It was where the French were quartered post WWII and the buildings look super duper cool and French. Also the street names are called things like Provence Weg or Aix Straße, which is hilarious. In any case, it is on the outskirts of town and thus only a five minute walk from the naturez. Also a bunch of hippies have a little commune thing there, which is cool too. Oh and there are still unexploded French landmines around the forrest. Cool. 


So in any case, Theron, Julius, and I started schlepping over there at 6, and I mean schlepping because of all the food and fire starters (ie old newspapers) we had. So we schlepped until we liberated a shopping cart from Kaufland. The Germans gave us dirty looks. We got there and then had to push the very heavy cart up a steep hill, and by we I mean Julius. He got quite the work out. The thing was filled with food, wood, bier, 2 guitars, and a bunch of newspapers. We got there eventually, only to find that some assholes had never heard of leave no trance and left plastic cups, liquor bottles, juice and cigarette cartons. Oh and a butt plug. They left a butt plug too. That was weird. But in any case, we picked up everything and then re-sorted in it German fashion (plastic in the 'gelber sack', glass separate, alter papiers, und restmüll) and made our campsite. After I had started preparing food to be feasted and the boys found firewood--and not set off any landmines--and made the fire, clouds rolled in, and Thor decided that we would not be having a campfire today. We went inside after seeing 2 or 3 lightening strikes. 

Sometimes nature gives you butt plugs.

We went back to Marlena's apartment on Provence Weg, which was super cool and swanky, with a slight sixties vibe. We made our bratwurst, onions, peppers and zucchini creation on the stove and put some bacon in the oven, but not first without dancing to the single most awesome and ridiculous song ever. It is a song that everyone must know. Afterwards, we cracked open the biers and Theron and Julius played some guitar. Anita and Franci, the two German girls, also came over with their friend, Tobias. We all sang along to Wagon Wheel, Home (it made me miss the Loj), Sweet Home Alabama, and all sorts of other stuff. It was a night of Deutsch und Englisch, guitars, and food. It was lovely. 

So yeah, first off, you're welcome for that lovely video, and second, I guess, that's about it. And now it is for real that I say peace out for a while, kiddoz.

Alles hat ein Ende. Die Wurst hat zwei. 

Du bist die größte fick Giraffe in die dum-dum Salat

Germany at its finest.

So Germany is a whirlwind of Deutsch sprechen, Leute kennenlernen, etwas machen, und schlafen (aber nur ein bisschen). Since Deutsch Kompakt began, every day is class from 9 to 3:30, with an hour and a half break for lunch, which thus far, I have spent getting Döner or some other delicious German food with either the Tufts kids or other people in the Deutsch Kompakt program. 

I guess, I will start with Deutsch Kompakt. So I did the placement "Test" (nicht eine "Prüfung"), which was fine, I guess. At least not as bad as I would have thought. Particularly the speaking part. (Spoiler: I got placed in the intermediate class, wooo.) Afterwards, we went to the Mensa (cafeteria), and had a very mediocre but cheap lunch. Instead of starting class or letting us go, the Deutsch Kompakt leaders had a walk around Tübingen, but we--the Tufts crew--decided against going, because it was largely showing them things that Ute had already showed us, and getting a September bus ticket, which Ute had already done. Moral of the story: Ute is awesome. Instead of the walk, we went back to Froschgasse and chilled up 2:30, when we met up with the Deutsch Kompakt at the Neckarmüller Biergarten. I held off on ordering a bier and just talked with some of the kids in the program. It's funny. Despite Americans (which, unsurprisingly, have a majority), the predominate place that kids are from is Scandinavia. We have a lot of Scandinavian people in the program, which is cool. So yeah, talked with the group, and then went back to Eugenstraße (where I am living in case, I neglected to mention that) to nap and make dinner. 


Later, I met up with my Tufts groupies (and two German girls who live next to Theron) again at the Neckarmüller Biergarten, but this time we were there to watch "Fast Eddy" play some classic rock and folk music. It was actually the greatest time. I wasn't exactly sure what "the dream" was when people--my uncle--say "living the dream," but I found it. Sitting in a Biergarten, having a bier, and listening to chill live music. It doesn't get any better than that. 

The Man, the Myth, the Legend

In any case, Julius and I spent quite a bit of time wondering where Fast Eddy's accent came from (forced Southern, a little British...he said 'holidays' and a little something else). Eventually, his set died down, but Anita, one of the German girls, had dared Theron to dance with her in front of all the folks in the Biergarten. He agreed, and that was pretty funny. What was funnier, however, was an old hippie's reaction to it. This hippie, who is pictured below and has been described as a "paunchy Bono," quickly ran up and tried to hug (? not sure if it was an attempted hug or assault or what) Anita, but she very quickly ran away. Thus, it was Theron and Paunchy Bono left to dance in front of the crowd of aging Germans. Which was hilarious. Paunchy Bono kept on saying things in English, namely "love the one you're with" (Fast Eddy was playing the Stephen Stills song) and "I'm not gay!"  The dance ended and Paunchy Bono went away, only to come back and tell Yasmine that she's always naked and her kidneys are going to get sick (which apparently is something old German women say when your t-shirt rides up and exposes your lower back...old German women and Paunchy Bono). So yeah, after that we went home, because you know...9AM class...BLAH. 

So yeah, I've had 9AM class for the past few days.  A lot of German being thrown at me, which is good for me, and my German is improving and all. But it's so goddamned early. And my desire/will to do my Hausaufgaben is nonexistent. 

But enough about class: as far as after class goes, last night, I went with my Tufts people and the German girls to a club called Top 10 for students' night. Fun fact: in Germany you need your passport to go clubbing. I was surprised, since in Ireland they would accept my drivers license as a valid form of ID. But yeah, the club was fun. Really packed and hot and sweaty, but fun. They actually played a song off the Great Gatsby soundtrack, which was great and it was hilarious hearing the DJ yell things in German. 

And now tonight. Again, the Tufts folks were hanging out with the German girls, but this time we decided to go to a climbing wall. A really awesome climbing wall. To all my climbing friends: I think you would love this. It's a typical top-rope rock-climbing wall, but it's predominantly outside and huge. It's lovely. Unfortunately, the lady wouldn't let us climb, because not enough people knew how to belay and it was not really like Metrorock where they have people there to teach you. So instead, we went to get gelato, sat on the Neckarmauer, talked in German and English, and sang various songs. It was quite a lovely evening. 

Which I guess brings me to my realization: it's my one week Tübingen anniversary. Wooo. It feels like I have been here so much longer than a week but in a good way. I still feel like I have the speech of a 2 year-old (I do), and I usually make an ass of myself when ordering anything in a restaurant or food stand or just talking to Germans in general. BUT it's getting better.

So yeah, at some point, I shall elaborate on the funny differences between Germany and America, but I'll leave that for some other time. Jetzt bin ich so müde, und ich muss so früh aufwachen. Oh, also, the Deutsch Kompakt program is going to a lovely little place called Blaubeuren for a week-long retreat thing-a-ma-doodle on Sunday. In all likelihood, I will not have the interwebz. I guess what I am saying is peace out for a while kiddos.