Comparisons, Göttingen, and Girlmanthings

Things That Are Better in Germany

--  Yogurt, bread, cheese, and chocolate.
--  A reverse yellow light that signals when the green is coming, which I find both handy and entertaining.
--  Hippies.  Nothing like a German hippie to make me feel like the world still has a sense of humor.

Things That Are Better in America

--  The weather (can you say, I've-been-here-for-eighteen-days-and-fifteen-of-those-days-have-been-55-degrees-and-raining-and-I-only-brought-a-light-jacket-to-Germany-because-I-expected-summertime-in-June-I-know-who-does-that-anyway-the-point-is-I'm-dying?)
--  Cheesecake.  And brownies, come to think of it.
--  Music and television.  Just saying.

Started off the weekend with a summerfest at the child's day care, even though it feels like winter.  All the parents brought something (I cut up a watermelon), and one of our parent-friends had a whole crepe station set up, complete with an obnoxiously giant jar of Nutella.  Which made her coolness factor, in my book, go up x100.

Then we were off to Göttingen, where I want to study, and where the mom's extended family lives.  It was a great time, everyone was super nice.  At first I was shy, as I always feel weird talking to older Germans, because all I can think about is whether or not they're thinking about that time that their country tried to kill everything, and my country tried to stop them by dropping bombs on their civilians.  And then I think about if they're thinking about me thinking about this, and whether I should just introduce myself as "Tina, sorry my country dropped bombs on your house 70 years ago," but that seems awkward, and it's just a vicious cycle.  But anyway everyone was lovely, we did not talk about WWII, and the grandmother is an amazing cook.

Saturday we woke up bright and early, ate breakfast, and then ran around the city for a bit.  It was freezing, but still attractive.  Göttingen, unlike Celle, is a university city, so it was nice actually seeing people my age out on the street.  We didn't actually do much, just wandered around, but I did take some pictures for you.  Oh, and Claire, I finally solved the age-old problem of Heidi's footwear, because I found a T-shirt of Heidi, and made a point to double check.  You know what?  She didn't have appropriate footwear, because she didn't wear any.  Her grandfather made her go barefoot, the asshole.

This is a dummy, not some random person's boobs.  Just so we're clear.

When you get your doctorate, you have to kiss this statue.  It's tradition, apparently.

Gee, this building looks old...

...because it's older than America.

Afterwards the family asked me: "What would you rather do this afternoon, go to the European Bread Museum, or see wild pigs?"  Clearly, there's no choice there. Unfortunately, the pigs were huddled in a pig-like-mass way back from the fence, so you can't really see them in the picture, but we did hang out with deer and cows.

 Pigs, sort of.

Deer, definitely.

Yay, cows.

After dinner, Host Mom decided we were going to have a girls-night-out in the city and go to a bar.  As soon as we parked, we were accosted by a bachelor party.  Unlike the one in Celle, these guys were not dressed as nurses, but rather, as hot-pink fishnet-wearing, blue-wigged, over-blushed girlmanthings.  And Host Mom bought be a bottled shot of vodka from them.  It's currently sitting in my purse, waiting for an appropriate time of crisis to be used, like a wound infection or the end of the world.

Today we went to the Wilhelm Busch watermill thingy.  Wilhelm Busch wrote comics, and his watermill milled things.  That's about it.

Anyway, it was a good time, and now I'm back.  Hope you all had lovely weekend, without the girlmanthings.

As a random sidenote, it is terrifying driving by yourself in a country where you don't understand the road signs.  It is also impractical to not realize this until the first time you drive by yourself.

EDIT:  According to my sister, one of the photos she took of me and Stretch got added to a Flickr photography group called "Hot Farm Girls" that consists mainly of naked women in cowboy boots.  I consider this a personal victory, even though I have a dress on.

EDIT EDIT:  JESUS CHRIST WHY ARE THERE SO MANY NAKED PEOPLE IN COWBOY BOOTS.