So my first Fo Shiz German class actually doesn't exist, and I was really mad about it because it was called Spanisch in Amerika, and it sounded really cool. But I found went to another Fo Shiz German class called "Dokumentation Bedrohter Sprachen" (Documentation of Endangered Languages) which is KICKASS. Like woah. It's entirely in German, but the book is in English, which is a little disappointing, but it seems like such a cool class, and the only thing I need to do for a grade is a) do or 30 minute presentation with 2 other people or b) write a ten page paper. I went to another class, but the professor said it was going to be taught entirely in English, so I got up and left. Seriously, if I wanted to take classes in English, I'd go to England, or just to Rutgers.
Anyway, today was also Marina's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY WENCH! So we had a party! Marina baked cake, and then we all got dressed up and went to an italian seafood place where we had an awesome fifty year old Italian waiter who gave us lots of chocolates and spoke to us in a confusing mix of Italian and German. Then we met up with Vegemite (formerly German Girl Roommate) and German Boy Roommate, and went to a party at the Uni.
Okay, so about Uni parties. This is not America. They open up the main building and serve beer, wine, and crazy weird fruit cocktails. Three dance floors, crazy music and strobe lights, and only for students=kickass. Imagine RutgersFest on crack with school-provided alchohol and better music. It was really just way fun, even though we quickly lost Vegemite, and German Boy Roommate turned out to be Mr. Personality and sat in a corner by himself the whole night and didn't move. Whatever. Mr. Personality eventually left, and then it was just mad fun. Everyone kind of peeled off around one, but me and Fabio (my friend's German roommate, who's name isn't actually Fabio but I thought it was) hung around for another hour and danced like morons. When we got back to Europahaus, he was like "So, doing anything tomorrow?" I was like "Umm...we're making portuguese cookies. If you want to come?" (Which sounds totally ridiculous but that's what we're doing), but he thought it was awesome and said he'll come. HOORAY! New friends!!
Okay, so something interesting that happened tonight: we were all dancing in a circle, and this random kid with a mohawk (me and mohawks :/) came up and started talking to me. He asked me where I was from, and when I said Amerika he completely stopped and said "America? Really? America? You're American?" And the conversation went from there. That's when I realized that maybe being an American in Germany isn't totally awful. America is such a huge presence in the world, but most of the Germans I've talked to really haven't met many real-live normal Americans. It's not like being from Europe, where all the countries are so close together and students studying abroad is normal. America is a giant political/cultural/linguistic machine, but there's not that many of us representing. So being American is something of a conversation starter, even if it subjects you to intense interrogation about where exactly you're from, which big cities are nearby, where the interrogator's friends/neighbors/third cousin twice removed on the mother's side have visited, and whether you're for Hilary or Obama and why.
New policy, in addition to Just Say Ja, is hereby christened Embracing The Differentness, and Thereby The Inherent Awesomeness.
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