Do you think of me too?

Dear DC,
I am homesick for you-- I still miss you far more than I thought I would. It's kinda hard to shake you, you know? I hated having to drive away from you, and I was so glad to be back for those few days before I moved to Germany. But it wasn't enough days. It will never be enough days. Despite your imperfections, you are my love. It is too long until I can next see you. Don't forget about me, ok? Cuz I think about you (and, probably much to everyone's chagrin here, talk about you) all the time.
Love,
E

PS, Remember the good old days...?

Getch'ur Ice Cream here!

A few weeks ago, friends Mickey and Kate and I decided to go to the movies. Ah, the movies! In acknowledgment to our current surroundings, we chose a German made film as opposed to seeing an American film dubbed over or with subtitles. The film was listed as starting at 6:30pm. We arrived by train to the town of Singen by ten after and went to the theater. I couldn't understand how the tickets were priced because it's a different price for different days and different times and different viewer groups... I still don't actually understand how it's priced. I paid some price that wasn't even up on the list of ticket prices so whatever. Anyway, in German you are assigned a seat in the theater in which you are expected to sit for the film. I was glad Kate was there to work out the seating arrangement with the guy at the ticket booth. Kate's German is so significantly better than mine that it's almost not fair to make comparisons. It ends up being kind of funny if you're not used to having an assigned movie theater seat, because you walk in and see so many seating possibilities, but you're only allowed to sit in one place and everyone else in the theater is kind of all lumped together in the same area. Anyway, we went to the concessions line, and after Mickey determined that he did not want to eat the popcorn there, Kate and I tried to figure out how to ask if they had ice cubes (most places don't, and I now know from a later experience that ice cube is "Eis Würfel") for the Cokes that we were ordering. They did not. You literally get a movie cup full of only Coke. Truly getting what you pay for, eh? It's not good, it's not bad... it's just different.

We took our room-temperature Cokes and sat in our assigned seats as the lights dimmed. 6:30. At 6:50pm, the lights came back on because we had just finished 20 minutes of previews. TWENTY MINUTES OF PREVIEWS. I was giggling about this when out comes a theater employee who begins to vend Ben and Jerry's pints. It was like, 20 minutes of previews followed essentially by "Ice cream! Getch'ur ice cream here!". What?! So hilarious. What the heck was going on? I was laughing so hard that I began to cry. Maybe I just needed a good laugh, and this silliness put me overboard, I don't know. To make it even better, the lights then went back down and MORE previews came on. There were so many previews to be shown that they literally had paused to see if you needed ice cream to sustain you through the experience. After about 27 minutes total of previews and ice cream vending, the movie finally began.

Too bad after all of that the movie wasn't even very good. Ah, such an experience though. I wonder if this is typical? I'm going to have to go for Round 2 to see if this happens all the time, but I don't know if I can make it through that many movie trailers again.

Through the Lens: Paris

40 whirlwind hours in Paris... please see for yourself!

The fanciest inside of a Starbucks you have ever laid eyes on.

Oh yeah, it was a pretty good trip :)

Seenachtsfest am Bodensee

Oui Oui

It is imperative that I tell you right now...

I'm in Paris!

How about that?! I have never before been to Paris, and last night, after a full day of life plus then travel here, I got to see the sights. THE sights. There I was at midnight in Paris staring at the Arc d'Triumph down the way to my right, the enormous building that is the Louvre to my left, and the illuminated Eiffel Tower in the distance in front of me. Even the moon seemed spectacularly French last night. Of course, I hadn't brought my camera, but maybe that allowed me to really stop and soak in the stunning architecture going on in this city. Ah Paris, so far, j'taime.

Here is what I didn't really think about but it's kind of a big deal. I do not know French. Any French. This didn't dawn on me until I stepped foot in the city. Remembering the je m'appelle song from the 4th grade does not constitute being able to get by in a French speaking area. I know, yes, it's Paris, so I can walk around asking for things in English and it will be no problem, but I don't want to do that! I would really appreciate being able to order a g-dang coffee in the local language, please and thank you (merci...?). So I'm on a mission. Learn as much French as is humanly possible in the next 36 hours. Readddddddyyyyyy? GO!

So, I really appreciate the German skills that I did have before moving to Germany. Even the most basic skills are light years better than knowing nothing. One can get by with basic words, mumbles, and gestures fairly easily. Not that I mumble. I do seem to be improving my charades game though...

Ok, I'm in France. I'm going to go do Frenchy things.

Love always!

Gebrunching

There are so many funny things happening in my life right now. The thing is, they're not really funny things like roll-on-the-floor-and-die-laughing funny but more like "what the WHAT is going on right now" funny. My program here has a saying: "It's not good, it's not bad, it's just different." Yeah. Hit the nail on the head with that one. I like to sit and think of it's-not-good-it's-not-bad's. Like, it's not good, it's not bad, it's just that the lack of time given to a shopper to pack up their food at the grocery store after a purchase before the next person's food starts getting shmooshed into yours... is just different. For me, it gives me a heart attack. I have not yet aquired German efficiency with things like paying for and packing up my groceries.

One of my funnies is some new vocab from my language class. I hope particularly that this appeals to my DC people because that city is particularly fond of having brunch. In German, you have "der Brunch". This is a noun. Ok. However, this is also a verb. "ich brunche" is the act of presently brunching. "I'm brunching", bascially. You can also have already brunched, past tense. "ich habe gebruncht". Gebruncht? Did you gebrunch today? I didn't gebrunch today. I might brunch tomorrow. I don't know why this entertains me so, but it really, really does.

I'm finding that I learn best when laughing or singing. I think this is not a widely accepted way to learn in Germany. When I'm being really serious and trying really hard all day long to improve, it seems like I learn 2 words and then immediately lose one I had already known. COME ON ALREADY. Can't I just skip straight to the fluency part? I'm going to start throwing up articles, prepositions, and pronouns here soon, probably.

The bees here are really aggressive. Like, REALLY aggressive. It's disconcerting at best. I think they could be like Hitchcock's "The Birds" if they really wanted to. Don't tell them though because with their level of aggression and their German bee efficiency, I think we'd be conquered quickly over here.

That is all. Have a wunderschoen weekend!

Lieblings

 

I went to Zurich on Saturday. Let me just tell you here and now that there is nothing as wonderful as a snooze in the grass along Lake Zurich after eating Swiss cheese and drinking free Swiss spring water from a public fountain. O mein Gott.

The Mayflower and it's relevance in my German life

Ok, my lovely readership... I'm currently chatting with meine Fruende Gretchen, and the whole conversation warrants a posting here (OK, the Rotwein might be influencing my decisions right now, too). I have, in particular, 3 subjects about my experience so far in Germany that I'd like to comment on, all of which Gretchen and I have also just addressed "heute Abend".

ONE) There are so many Bäckerei. These are bakeries. Get used to this word because I am Elisabeth and I love a good roll with butter, croissant, small piece of plum cake, elephant ears dipped in chocolate... Oh mein Gott...

And I am in my "honeymoon phase" here, which means that I have my vacation brain on and I look at those goodies and think, "Yeah of course I'll try that!". That is a recipe for fatness and being broke, my friends. Two things I'd like to try hard to avoid. So, I just bought a bunch of lettuce and tomatoes and stuff for healthy living. It was a successful trip to the grocery (Kaufland, ja!) even though I messed up, forgot to weigh a cucumber, and could not remember for the life of me the name of "cucumber", I was able to follow the directions of the cashier "auf Deutsch" for fixing my error, so you know, small victories, right? Gretchen mentioned that she loved the cheese, rolls, and various wursts that they serve for breakfast here. We chatted about how this will make us have big butts, but all the walking and biking is sure to tone the legs, soooooo when I return, I will be "shapes". Please love me anyhow.

TWO) As awesome as this is, all 4 of my days here so far are honestly mostly me being overwhelmed and sad and things moving a hundred miles (kilometers?) per hour when I'm working really hard at moving 10kph. But I will get there, and as I told Miss Gretchen, the little moments where I stop and look around and don't care how hard this is... they are pure gold.

I'm not about to pretend like I'm doing a good job of being consistently happy though, because I'm not.

 

THREE) German beds are ridiculous. RI-DI-CU-LOUS. They are comfortable and not in anyway 3rd world or anything, but you know what, they don't have topsheets! Nope! It's a mattress, a fitted sheet (or I assume it is, but I haven't inspected this closely), and a, hmmm, how do I put this? It's not a comforter because it's not big enough. The blanket on top is like a duvet that is exactly (I mean EXACTLY) the size of the top of the bed. The cherry on top is a big, square, flat as all get out pillow. If you fold it in half, it makes something similar to the size of a US pillow. I don't mind sleeping with my feet out of the cover, but a pillow is an intimate part of my being. I take pillows very personally. I explained to Gretchen that in elementary, whenever we had to do the "if you were on the mayflower and could only bring 3 things, what would you bring" things, I'd ALWAYS list my pillow. My packing list for this move to Germany should have been no exception. Gah! Wie sachts man "pillow" auf Deutsch? Das (Kopf)kissen. (Head) cushion. Cute. I just looked that up in my German-English, Deutsch- Englisch... you know what, let's just call it my "lifeline".

 

But really, I'm good here. Life could only be sweeter if I were a German language master, and that's precisely why I am where I am. Soon enough, soon enough. 

Love always.

 

Castles Schmastles

I made it to Germany in one piece, and I think that's important for you to know. I also made it here with good spirits and have already eaten more pretzels in the last 24 hours than I have in the last year. Yesterday the group ventured down a big hill into the town of Eppstein and over to their "Burg"... a ruinous castle! First castle down, a kajillion more to go! Take a looksie, meinen Fruenden!

 

Alles gut!