Integration?

So, one of these days I'll actually get around to posting the pictures from my travels through Italy and Denmark. I just wanted to write this post really quick about a very exciting event that happened to me the other day: I forgot I was in Germany.

No, I'm not amnesic or developing very early-onset Alzheimer's. When I say that I "forgot" I was in Germany, what I mean is that for a few moments I wasn't aware that I was in a foreign country. Even though I've felt comfortable in Germany ever since I got here, and especially felt at home in the past 2 months or so, I'm still almost always conscious of the fact that this is not in fact my homeland. Little things keep me aware of this (besides the language, of course): the way a building looks, the size of the streets, a smell, even the vegetation. All combine to remind me that, while I may love Germany, it's still foreign to me, meaning that I in turn am foreign to it. And I hate the feeling of being a foreigner/tourist!

Therefore I was very excited by this "forgetting", momentary as it was. It's a sensation that I can't really even describe, but what basically happened was that I was just going through my routine. Getting off at my bus stop, glancing towards the grocery store and bakery and pondering if I needed anything, and then turning around to head into my dorm. What was special was the absence of my usual thoughts, such as "I bet I totally stick out as an American because I tripped getting out of the bus" or "I wonder if the store is open? Let's see, it's 6, so maybe? Dang these german stores and their weird hours!" Rather, it felt as normal, automatic, and banal to me as walking across campus at Wash U to go to class or driving down Monroe Street in Spokane. And that's exciting.

Zurich = expensive

The Saturday before we left for Italy Pascal and I took a day trip to Zurich in Switzerland. We went with a tour bus thing, because it was cheaper than the train and actually quicker (only a little over 2 hours). Zurich is such a pretty city, but we were unfortunately met with cloudy weather again (though fortunately not raining). Another problem with Switzerland: they're not on the Euro (they use Swiss francs) which meant we had to convert our money when we got there, which proved to be rather difficult seeing as how the banks were closed. Also, Switzerland is very expensive. Pascal's coffee cost about the equivalent of 4 euros. Let me tell you, he was not happy about this. He seriously spent over half the time we were there complaining about the prices. It was still a fun time though, despite the whiner I had to drag around with me ;)

It was also an interesting trip because Pascal and I decided that we were going to speak exclusively German the entire day. You may wonder why that's an unusual event, seeing as how he's German. Well, we actually speak mostly english to each other because 1) we're used to speaking english since when we met I didnt know any german 2) his english is better than my german (though I'm catching up) and 3) he's a lazy bum who doesn't want to bother to speak slowly and clearly to me. Anyways, we decided that we would do an experiment and not speak any English. This turned out to be surprisingly hard, because I kept accidentally saying things in English or wanting to just say something in English if I was having a hard time finding the German or it. I found that kind of odd, because I can and do speak for hours in German with my friends and floormates, and I always seem to be able to find a way to say what I want even if I don't know the exact words. I would hypothesize that that's because I know Pascal can understand basically anything in English, so I don't usually have to try too hard with my German or circumlocute around him. So, it was actually rather tiring to forgo English for the entire day, but it was very good practice for me.


FYI, that is the largest clock face on a church tower in the world










Views over Zurich


Looking over the river harbor and past it to Lake Zurich


Pascal in front of the Swiss National Museum; some crazy balloon sculpture thing in the train station

*

So, apparently when I tried to publish that last post before I went on vacation I just saved it instead. So ignore the part where it says I'm going to be gone for 3 weeks; I'm already back!

More excursions

I already mentioned that as part of my Deutsch-Kompakt course we've had a lot of "excursions." We spent the week in Blaubeuren, went to Ulm, went to the palace in Ludwigsburg and the wine tasting in Esslingen, and also went to Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes-Benz museum and go to the ballet. All were really fun, especially because they were already paid for as part of the program price, so the money wasn't coming out of my pocket (thanks parents!)

This will be my last post for the next 3 weeks, because tomorrow I'm beginning my "Tour d'Italia" with Pascal, come back to Tuebingen for 12 hours and then head off to Denmark to visit a friend I met in the course and my second cousin (who I've never met, but became facebook friends with because her mom saw my blog when my dad posted it on the family website, and since my cousin is currently studying abroad in Copenhagen, thought we should meet up). Anyways, try to hold out 3 weeks until the next post, and then get ready for tons of pictures! Love and miss you all.


The Baroque palace in Ludwigsburg. Very impressive but also rather cold on the inside.



More of the inside of the palace


The boys "Hungarian" dancing and the girls being normal



Esslingen. Don't worry, that's not a real person in the pic on the right, it's a sculpture




The cool underground cellar where the wine tasting was. It was actually really informative about why different wines taste the way they do. And we got free wine :)


Zum Wohl! (in German, you say Prost when toasting with beer and zum Wohl when drinking wine)



Sipping the wines and enjoying dinner.



And now just getting a little silly...


Ultra-modern Mercedes museum



It's all about the Benz



Todd salivating over the cars



Stuttgart plus 3 cute street performers (about 80% of their crowd was female). And the other guy was not as cute, but he did have a live parrot on top of his head.


Hanging out in Stuttgart (dressed up for the ballet later)



I'll take that car too :)




Enjoying the nice weather in the park before the ballet


View from the opera house balcony


Girls' night = ice cream, wine and movies. Oh, and that was the cake Zsofia made for Ian's birthday. It's ironic, because adding "chen" to a word makes it diminutive, and at over 6'8" Ian is pretty much the opposite of diminutive



Guys' night (plus me) = karaoke in German at the bar



The last group project: a tour of Tuebingen with the historical highlights