Airing my dirty laundry

It was another peculiar day, weather-wise, in Germany. I started out the morning by eating a banana on my porch. It was pretty outside, I live on a hill that is higher than the city so it is a lot quieter (besides the church bells waking me up at 7 am). But my banana breakfast may have to be a tradition because it is a great way to start the morning. Classes were, once again, interesting and fast. It is fun because I am on the 2nd floor (actually the 3rd because the Germans count the first floor as the Ground floor and then it numbers after that) and so we can see almost all of Venusberg. There is a Grundschule (K-4th grade school) in the area so the whole time we can hear them yelling and laughing at recess because my professor insists that we keep the windows open to get fresh air. I was a little hungry during class, so during our break I got a ham sandwich (only 1 euro too!). The bread was literally baking when I entered the Cafe and all of the vegetables and other ingredients were so fresh. I dont think I can ever go to a subway again. I actually ended up buying the bread so that I could make the sandwich at home. Class continued for a while before me and my roommate Bruna and a couple of others went to the Mensa (cafeteria) for lunch. I had wurst and noodles. Me and Bruna were talking about the difference between America and Europe. She told me she was google searching one day and read that some schools don't teach evolution. She asked if  that is true, and could not understand it at all when I confirmed it. She was appalled "How do people not believe in cold hard science!" There is also a girl from England who is studying theology, and Bruna could not understand how this major is practical. She then warned me about people in Europe, who she believes put off a front of being very happy and polite, but once you get to know someone they could be quite different. I was surprised at how serious she was when advising me about this.

Then was our daily excursion. I took my first ride in the U-Bahn, which was absolutely thrilling. We went to the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (House of the Bundesrepublic Germany history). Our tour began with the end of the war. There was a room that had the Soviet flag, US flag...Great Britain's....France's. My tour guide (Fuehrerin) said that when classes of young kids come, she asks them what the flags are. All of the french kids for the Soviet flag say China and all of the German kids think it is the Turkish flag. I thought this was quite interesting, and it is weird that this generation has not idea what the USSR is. Among the cooler things in the museum was a piece of the U2 plane that was shot down by the Russians in Cuba. Our tour guide barely pointed this out, but I thought this was fascinating, that this plane part made its way to Germany. I love learning about the DDR because I feel like its is something that we learn so little about, yet we have painted such a gray picture of it. It is always fascinating for me to learn anything positive about it. Our tour guide didnt really touch on any of these, and we went too fast through the museum for me to read something on my own, but I would love to go back (maybe even bring the Fam in December?) and read more about it.

 

Our tour guide passed along some stories that she had hear about going through the boarder between East and West Germany. There was a class who came to the museum, and their teacher was telling them all that when she was in 3rd grade her class went to Berlin. The crossed the boarder into the East, and on the way back in one of the girls got stopped. Apparently she had been sick for a while and was more pale and sallow in the face, and the boarder patrol didnt believe it was her. Also another man had grown out his hair to be like the American hippie and the boarder patrol also didnt think that is was him, so right there he cut all of his hair off to prove he was the man in the picture. It is hard to believe that people, even still, have such a hard time going between counties. It really takes an American or European passport to be able to travel freely.

They were selling these German passports/birthday cards and I think this is the closest anything like this has actually come to my name so I had to take a picture of it. So after the museum and I exhausted, so I took the U-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof and then took a bus to Ippendorf (I am the master of public transportation!) After doing my homework, I then moved on to the scary task of washing my clothes. Due to the fact that I need a special card from the mensa to do laundry for almost 2 Euros per wash and 2 Euros per dry also, I am attempting to handwash my clothes for as long as possible. 

I have convinced myself that this is probably very German, but in actuality I have no idea. Hopefully I have read the directions right and it doesnt turn out to be bleach or something damaging. I can say with certainty that it is making my room smell good, so at least one thing good has happened.... On the topic of cleaning, I have found that the water pressure in the faucets and shower heads are much stronger here. I had heard that people take shorter showers here and was nervous, but this is actually quite easy because as soon as you enter the shower, one feels like they are being struck by a fireman's hose. I have never felt so clean in my life. And it also makes sense why people dont shower here every day, I can see how it would be damaging to one's hair. Also there is more calcium in the water here, I dont know if that makes a difference or not, but I can say that it is definitely a different bathing experience.

*Ive noticed that while writing the blog I have been capitalizing random nouns, if you see this, disregard it. In German all of the nouns are capitalized and sometimes it spills over into my English mindset. Its hard switching languages so frequently