I find the whole music scene in Germany pretty comical. Most of the time radio stations play American hits. However, these are not the songs that are popular in the United States now, but rather tunes at the top of iTunes download lists three to six months ago. Remind me again, when was Price Tag by Jessie J popular in America? Songs currently hot in the US, such as Some Nights by Fun, haven’t even made their way over here yet. Perhaps I should jump on this opportunity and become Celle’s music guru and use magic - no B.o.b pun intended (another popular song here) - to predict what songs will become popular in a couple of months. For those curious, yes, Germany is still in the "We love Adele" phase. Having said that, not all music here is foreign. Germany is a country of 80 million, so naturally they have their own artists and bands. A couple of the most popular bands I’ve discovered are Cro and Casper. Unfortunately, Bushido isn’t as popular as I thought before moving here a few weeks ago. German songs, in general, don’t flow very well, thanks to all the hard sounds in the German language. So, in order to compensate, German performers resort to throwing seemingly meaningless English phrases or verses into their songs. Have a listen for yourself...
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Was? Warum?
For those of you who enjoy my blog posts, you are in luck. Over the past week I have found myself saying "Warum?". Why is _____ done this way? So, in honor of the differences between the United States and Germany, I have decided to create a list on this blog of things that have presented themselves to me as strange.
1. When going into a building or a room the doors open in. In the U.S. the doors are the exact opposite. We pull doors open when entering.
2. Eichhörnchen, the German word for squirrel, cannot be said in a manly way. I'm confident of that.
3. In Germany they have segregated music sections. Along with Pop, Indie, Reggae and Rock is "Black". Yes, the word Black....in English.
4. Before I left for Germany I heard about how eco-friendly they were over here. Two words - Not true. All Germans I have seen drinking water are drinking store-bought water in plastic water bottles they do not reuse. Nalgene most likely doesn't do a good business here.
5. Germans have two verbs for "thinking" and "knowing". Ich weiß and Ich kenne both mean I know. Ich denke and Ich glaube both mean I think. I still really don't know the difference.
6. Who was the person who thought it would be a good idea to have all nouns have a gender? Why does my bus have to be masculine, my house neuter, and my door feminine?
7. Soccer teams play both in the playoffs from last season and the current regular season at the same time. Think about that. That makes no sense.
8. In America safety is a big issue. What surprises me here in Germany is that no one wears bicycle helmets. A large percentage of students bike to school, but none with helmets.
9. I am the only one in my class that uses pencils. Back in Vermont all we use are pencils. I definitely prefer pencils because mistakes are very easy to correct. I don't understand why everyone uses only pens.
10. The commercial breaks here are around ten minutes long, but occur much less frequently. By the time the shows comes back on I have forgotten what was happening.
11. Germans do not wear sunglasses. Even when it's extremely bright, I am the only one wearing sunglasses.
I am sure I will think of plenty more "Was? Warum?" moments and when I do I will update this list.
1. When going into a building or a room the doors open in. In the U.S. the doors are the exact opposite. We pull doors open when entering.
2. Eichhörnchen, the German word for squirrel, cannot be said in a manly way. I'm confident of that.
3. In Germany they have segregated music sections. Along with Pop, Indie, Reggae and Rock is "Black". Yes, the word Black....in English.
4. Before I left for Germany I heard about how eco-friendly they were over here. Two words - Not true. All Germans I have seen drinking water are drinking store-bought water in plastic water bottles they do not reuse. Nalgene most likely doesn't do a good business here.
5. Germans have two verbs for "thinking" and "knowing". Ich weiß and Ich kenne both mean I know. Ich denke and Ich glaube both mean I think. I still really don't know the difference.
6. Who was the person who thought it would be a good idea to have all nouns have a gender? Why does my bus have to be masculine, my house neuter, and my door feminine?
7. Soccer teams play both in the playoffs from last season and the current regular season at the same time. Think about that. That makes no sense.
8. In America safety is a big issue. What surprises me here in Germany is that no one wears bicycle helmets. A large percentage of students bike to school, but none with helmets.
9. I am the only one in my class that uses pencils. Back in Vermont all we use are pencils. I definitely prefer pencils because mistakes are very easy to correct. I don't understand why everyone uses only pens.
10. The commercial breaks here are around ten minutes long, but occur much less frequently. By the time the shows comes back on I have forgotten what was happening.
11. Germans do not wear sunglasses. Even when it's extremely bright, I am the only one wearing sunglasses.
I am sure I will think of plenty more "Was? Warum?" moments and when I do I will update this list.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Mein deutsches Leben beginnt
Ok, I did say this post would be in German, but there is no way that my German is at that level yet. As I described in my previous post on Thursday, I travelled Friday and Saturday, relatively uneventfully by car, plane and bus, until I arrived in Hambühren after 33 hours without any sleep. Oh, did I sleep well Saturday night! Sunday, when I was hoping I could sit back and relax, I was whisked away to a dog show in Dresden, four and a half hours from Hambühren. Fire and Ice, one of the two friendly huskies here, won second place in his category, competing with 500 other dogs. Although Ice's victory should of been my only highpoint, I was ecstatic for the nine hours of peaceful napping time I had in the van.
Monday brought even more new experiences to the jet-lagged and utterly confused me. I woke at 6:00am (for those who know me, you know how much I love waking up early...) and got ready for the short walk to the city bus stop to catch bus 3-85 at 7:10. The bus ride took about 15-20 minutes and dropped Marja and me off right in front of the school. The Gymnasium Ernestinum at first gave me a strange impression. I wouldn't describe it at all as run-down, but the outside reminded of a location you would see in a Tony Hawk video game. The school doesn't consist of just one centrally located building, but rather several buildings, all with their own purpose, located in a way that gives the school the feel of some sort of compound. What also struck me was the graffiti all over. Some of the "art" looked like it was some sort of school project, with names neatly signed near the bottom corner, but other designs were clearly not encouraged by the school. This stuff is all over the school, on every possible surface, both high and low. Inside, the school is pleasant - everything that I expected. Unlike my high school, this school has ten possible blocks that they call the German word for hours, "Stunden". Here is a picture of my schedule, my days all start at 7:55, but depending on the day I can get out anywhere from 1:10 to 4:50.
Going from class to class on my first day, I can't remember how many times I said, "Hallo. Ich bin ein Austauschuler aus Amerika. Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch." This sentence, of course, means "Hello. I am an exchange student from America. I speak only a little German." The classes are extremely hard to understand for me, but I can already notice I am understanding more and more. Thank goodness I am not in the 12th grade! Oh yeah..just when I thought I was going into my 12th grade year, I was put into the 10th grade, two years back. The sad part is that presumably tomorrow I will be transferring into a lower grade level German class - Perhaps 5th or 6th grade would be appropriate? So far, in the first three days, I have had every class except for physics which I have tomorrow. Everyone I've talked, well, attempted to talk to seem very nice in my class. Unlike in America, a group of students stay together for the most part and take the same classes in the same room. My class has roughly 20 people, but only three other boys; I'm part of the extreme minority! So that's it for now. Here are a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment!
Monday brought even more new experiences to the jet-lagged and utterly confused me. I woke at 6:00am (for those who know me, you know how much I love waking up early...) and got ready for the short walk to the city bus stop to catch bus 3-85 at 7:10. The bus ride took about 15-20 minutes and dropped Marja and me off right in front of the school. The Gymnasium Ernestinum at first gave me a strange impression. I wouldn't describe it at all as run-down, but the outside reminded of a location you would see in a Tony Hawk video game. The school doesn't consist of just one centrally located building, but rather several buildings, all with their own purpose, located in a way that gives the school the feel of some sort of compound. What also struck me was the graffiti all over. Some of the "art" looked like it was some sort of school project, with names neatly signed near the bottom corner, but other designs were clearly not encouraged by the school. This stuff is all over the school, on every possible surface, both high and low. Inside, the school is pleasant - everything that I expected. Unlike my high school, this school has ten possible blocks that they call the German word for hours, "Stunden". Here is a picture of my schedule, my days all start at 7:55, but depending on the day I can get out anywhere from 1:10 to 4:50.
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| My School Schedule |
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| Just a sample of what I have to deal with! |
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| Left to Right: Me, Michaela, Alaska, Andreas, Ice |
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| Me in front of part of the Celle Schloss (Castle) |
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| Marja and I returning from our quick jaunt to the grocery store |
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Unterwegs
Here I sit in room 331 of the Crown Plaza Hotel, minutes away from Dulles International Airport. I have half an hour to kill before lunch and then another couple hours to wait until the orientation officially begins. I have said all of my goodbyes and now all that lies between me and Germany is a day and a half of seminars, workshops, and speeches. United Airlines Flight #916 leaves tomorrow at 5:26pm, so this might very likely be my last post from the good ole' United States and last blog entry in English.
I woke up before the sun this morning at 4:00am. A quick ride got me to the airport and fortunately for me, checking my luggage went smoothly with my suitcase weighing 49.5lbs, just half a pound below the limit. I said goodbye to my family, which was clearly very difficult for some family members, and proceeded through security. Both the flight from Burlington to JFK and the flight from JFK to Dulles went smoothly. As I waited to board my second flight I met a fellow AFSer, Janeen, who was headed to the orientation as well. In Dulles, as the blue sheet of paper that was sent to me indicated, I was greeted by an AFS volunteer named Joe. He guided Janeen and me to a shuttle to the hotel. I met the few kids who had already arrived and went to my hotel room to freshen up and write a blog post. That's what I'm up to right now!
I woke up before the sun this morning at 4:00am. A quick ride got me to the airport and fortunately for me, checking my luggage went smoothly with my suitcase weighing 49.5lbs, just half a pound below the limit. I said goodbye to my family, which was clearly very difficult for some family members, and proceeded through security. Both the flight from Burlington to JFK and the flight from JFK to Dulles went smoothly. As I waited to board my second flight I met a fellow AFSer, Janeen, who was headed to the orientation as well. In Dulles, as the blue sheet of paper that was sent to me indicated, I was greeted by an AFS volunteer named Joe. He guided Janeen and me to a shuttle to the hotel. I met the few kids who had already arrived and went to my hotel room to freshen up and write a blog post. That's what I'm up to right now!
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