Language, Friends, and the 5 Things I Can't Get Over About Germany

Dear everybody who loves me,
Please download Skype and get a microphone! It's free (except for the microphone), you can find it on Google, and then I can call you for free. WOOT! Gracias!

This is my random post of the day. Here goes:

a little bit about language

I spend anywhere from 50-95% of my day speaking German, but even just sitting on the bus, it's really surprising how much you learn. It's all those stupid little words that are killing me though, like the noch's and the nach's and the vor's, bei's and vorbei's. It's just how you say things, like little phrases, how you ask for things...THAT'S the hardest part of learning German. Today I walked into an 02 store and tried to buy a cell phone (auf Deutsch, natuerlich), except I didn't know how to say "Excuse me Mr. Intimidating German Man, can you help me out with this cell phone business stuff, because I'm a little lost, a little freaked out, and I can only understand about half of what you'll say to me. So anyway, I kind of sort of need a cell phone and I'm sorry for being a bother, a stupid American, and for taking up your time." So I just said instead "May I buy a cell phone?" And the guy looked at me like I was nuts. Note to German-learners: Darf ich ein Handy kaufen? is not how you ask for a cell phone. When I figure out what it is, I'll let you know.

But anyway, the moral of the story is I'm learning alot. Someone pointed out to me the other day that I throw 'oder?' onto the end of every phrase, which I didn't realize I was doing, and which is apparently very swiss (so I'm told? Don't quote me on that). It doesn't really do much, and it doesn't really translate to anything either. Like if you said, Wir sollen einkaufen gehen, oder? it sort of translates to we should go shopping, yeah? Got it? Alright? Okay? It's almost become the substitute for "I'm sorry," mostly because "es tut mir leid," doesn't really roll off the tongue quite as naturally. Like I said, stupid little things.

a little bit about friends

the first few days everyone kind of hangs out with everybody, trying to figure out who's cool. but at this point the groups have pretty much solidified (mostly by language speakers), everybody's mad awesome, and I talk to pretty much all the international students, but people have sort of branched off into their native tongues. Like there's about 8 million Czechs, Slovaks, and Romanians who tend to stick together, the Brits are their own group, the Aussies/New Zealanders, and so on and so forth. I speak a mixture of English and German (depending on who I'm with and how good their German is), but almost everybody speaks English because it's something of a Verkehrssprache--ein schoenes Wort, oder? Lingua franca!

The 5 Things I Can't Get Over About Germany

1) The punctuality
Germans are MAD punctual, like today? The bus gets us to school at exactly 9.00. Then we spend three minutes walking to our classroom. Guess who got told off for being late to class today? I did. And after much convincing (and pointing out that we we were getting to school on time, but the room was too far away from the main entrance for her to see that), the teacher agreed to start class at 9.05 instead of 9.00, but only on the condition that we lose five minutes off our break. Thank you for being reasonable.

And the busses? If the schedule says it comes at 8.39, it damn well comes at 8.39, and you had damn well better be on it when it does. Or else you'll miss it, walk halfway to school, and then give up and spend 10 Euros on a taxi to take you the last three miles up the Fucking Mountain you wouldn't do on foot because you're late and you're going to get yelled at. Not that I know from personal experience or anything.

2) The bluntness
Germans are also MAD blunt. Like you know in the US, it's almost low class to complain about something in public, especially to a stranger? No. Not in Germany. If they have a problem with you they will straight up get in your face, and tell you off. This is more than a little bit distressing, especially when your entire existence is one giant Cultural Faux-Pas and you can't understand what's being yelled at you. There is no talking around things. There is no sugar-coating. There's just Freaky Bald Dude yelling at you to get out of the bike lane.

3) The stores
Everything closes at like 4 or 5, the stores are on the whole much smaller in the US (including the products! my conditoner bottle is not much bigger than my travel-sized one.), and you have to go to like 8 stores to get what you could buy at 1 store in the US. Because why on earth would you sell medication in a super market? Or a drug store? Or an apothecary? Why on earth would you sell medication at all?

4) The dogs
people take their dogs everywhere, without leashes. this leads to something akin to packs of dogs running around, a stupid american standsing on a bridge gawking, and the nonplussed owners walking ten minutes behind Fido and only vaguely in the same direction. is this a euro thing, or a germany thing? I can't tell, but I CAN tell when germans are laughing at me, which usually happens when I stop and point at the nearest dachsund sniffing out the supermarket.

5) The beer
it's not even beer in general, or the abundance of German beer I can't get over. What I can't get my head around is how you can buy beer in the cafeteria. The cafeteria! In the US they give you a bag so no one can see it, but in Germany, you can carry it in your pocket, drink it on the curb, and it's totally cool. Plus also, they don;t give bags in Germany. you either have to buy them or bring your own (plastic bags are bad for the environment, you know)

anywho, it's my BIRTHDAY! so we're going out the eat somewhere. Adios!