Some Interesting Things I Have Learned Thus Far

In my first week in Germany, I have learned the following interesting things:

--Because the German birthrate is so low, as in, somewhere down in the negative population growth range, it is virtually impossible to domestically adopt a child.  There are too few kids in the system, and people wait years, and/or never get a child.  So where do they go for their babies?  We go to Africa for our black babies.  Germany goes to America for it's black babies.  I had no idea!

--I always found it interesting that on American tv, you could show female nudity (sometimes), but never male nudity.  Never fear, Germany does not share this sentiment.  I have seen more naked people in the last two evenings of watching tv than I have in the last year of watching American rated R movies.  And I mean all naked people.  Doing all sorts of naked things.  And it's just TELEVISION, for crying out loud, it's not even like I accidentally stumbled upon the after-midnight porn or something!  Jesus, my virgin eyes.

--Wicca is considered a cult.

--Nobody knows what hipsters are.

In positive news, I think my learning curve this time around is not as terribly steep as our last go-round.  For example, when random people yell at me in the street because I have done something wrong, it no longer makes me want to shrivel up and hide my face.  Perhaps it's because I'm used to it, or perhaps it's just because I'm older and hate more people.

So, I have my first German sort-of friend.  We went to an asian bistro (...I ate chicken wings), followed by ice cream yesterday, and we're going to go see a movie sometime next week.  The host mom, the charge, and I have also spent a lot of time the last few days hanging out with other parents from the kindergarten, so it's been a good language-learning experience.  The one mom today was very disappointed that my date yesterday was with a Hannah, not a Hans, and has now decided that I'm going to marry German and live next door to her for the rest of my life.

Favorite song of the day!  It's from the opera Hänsel and Gretel written by Engelbert Humperdinck.  Despite the author's highly unfortunate name, it's a beautiful song.  Don't judge me.