Happy D-Day!

Tina: Happy D-Day!
Fabio: What's D-Day?
Tina: It's the anniversary of my country storming the beaches of Normandy and beginning the kicking of your country's ass.
Fabio: So do you guys celebrate and drink lots of beer?
Tina: I think actually we recite speeches, memorialize the fallen, and watch footage of veteran's reunions on TV.
Fabio: Crappy holiday.
Tina: Yeah.

So for the anniversary of D-Day, I thought it might be high time for some reflection on being an american in germany. Really, I've been here for three months already, and I think I've learned more about my own country than I have about this one, and my attitudes towards the US have changed accordingly. Definitely when I first got here, I would say I was rather unenthusastic about being from the US (i.e, when people asked me where I was from, I tended to mumble something unintelligible and then got off the bus as fast as possible), then I was somewhat in denial (and told people I was Canadian), and lately, because I tend to get grilled on the elections every other day, I've noticed myself getting a little defensive, as in:
German: So, where are you from?
Tina: Bite me.

That aside, I think it's Story of the Day time.

So today for my speaking class, the theme was Traveling in Germany, and my teacher decided to be extra-clever by setting us loose for fifteen minutes on the Uni, armed only with a set of questions with which to assault some poor unassuming German student. That was the assignment: Operation Find a German and Ask What's Cool to See in Germany. So me and an american friend took our notebooks and carefully scouted out the lobby for a victim, eventually settling on a dorky looking kid eating a sandwhich alone in a corner. And like the beasts that we are, we cornered the kid and got him to talk to us. Except trust us to find the ONE Swiss kid that goes to this school. He turned out to be quite nice, and after we had interrogated him enough, he asked where we were from. I said I lived two hours from NYC, and he said "Really? How was 9/11?" ...um? I told him I wasn't directly affected, but I knew several people who were, to which he responded, "We had a school shooting in Switzerland once, I hear those are quite popular in America."

Listen Swiss Kid, all I wanted to do was ask you about sight seeing in your native land, and somehow you have managed to apocalyptically throw in 9/11 AND school shootings three minutes into the conversation. I would say "typical German" to this, because truly it is, except he wasn't German.

How do you answer a question about the popularity of school shootings? I should be racking up points or something for the stupid things I have to deal with.

Anyway, adios amigos. Tina over and out.