Does my hair smell like swans?

I reread my last blog and decided I really needed to get out more. (Where am I at the moment? The library. Baby steps people. Baby steps.) So after avoiding beaches in the summer for 7 long years, I decided it was time to go back.

Why have I stayed clear of beaches the way other people avoid the movie Beaches? A couple of excellent reasons...

1. Sunshine has never been my friend
2. Hoardes of people bother me
3. Sand (enough said)
4. Did you know there are fish and other scary thinigs in lakes and oceans? Eww!!!
5. Swimsuits

However, the above is meaningless when every morning at 6am you wake up to the sunshine baking your room to an uncomfortable 200 degrees centigrade. That is enough to cook a pizza by the way. (Also look how European I am getting!) Without the possibility of getting air conditioning any time soon, the only solution was the Bodensee.

So what is the beach like in Konstanz, and why have I been going everyday? Well the Bodensee seems to have taken my complaints to heart and provided the perfect beach experience. Let's start at the bottom of my list, which is appropriate considering the name of the lake.

5. Almost everyone wears bikinis or speedos whether they look good in them or not (also there are a lot of very pale people, so I stand out less.)
4. The water is so clear I can see and avoid fish (eww). Although avoiding the swans is a little more difficult. They swim really close to you. Also they are not pretty, elegant creatures like in story books. They are behemoths that would kill you as soon as look at you.
3. No sand! Just soft grass. Oh and rocks that line the bottom of the lake.
2. Because it is so close to me, I can go early-ish every morning and avoid the crowds.
1. Unfortunately, this is where the Bodensee has let me down. I am currently one big sunburn. Stupid sun!

This one goes out to Kate Pieper

Ahh the joys of having a computer again! And access to the university's internet! I can now work on my dissertation.

Yep that is what I am doing...working on the diss. You can tell because I am in the library. What's that you say Kate? I am talking to you on skype, checking facebook, reading cracked.com (which everyone should by the way), and renting a movie on iTunes for later, oh and doing a blog entry? Fine you caught me.

All joking aside I am mostly in the library all day and night so there is little to blog about besides the uni's Bibliothek, which I will do now.

1. Outlets are few and far between. Since it is Friday afternoon I don't have a problem. Normally, however, there is someone sitting next to one without a computer filing their nails or something equally inane (not like reading cracked.com). There are tons of outlets in the S-Stacks, but unfortunately no internet connection.

2. The 6th floor which has all of the archaeology, anthro, and classics collections smells. No, it is not the friendly smell of dust and rotting books. As you walk up the stairwell to this floor, you are overpowered by the sent of vomit, which someone has tried to cover up by opening up a bunch of those scented markers.

3. Each night around 10 they announce that they are closing the circulation desk. And every night at this time I am momentarily freaked out. Why? German + loudspeakers = creepy/impending death

4. After I finish reading cracked.com (if you didn't think I could mention it three times, you don't know me) and want to go home I go to the self-checkout lane and am homesick for Stop and Shop or Meijers (it depends on the day). One day I didn't bring my library card. I asked the girl at the circ desk to hold some books back there for me until the next morning. She then proceeded to tell me that it was the most difficult thing she ever had to do and how she didn't know if that would work. I promised to come back bright and early the next morning with my card and get them. No one would ever have to know. Finally she wrote an novel length note and attached it to the books. Needless to say I slept in the next morning and never came for the books. That night I tried to sneak by her. Too bad I was wearing the same sweatshirt.
("Why didn't I go back?" you ask, Kate. You would have slept in too if you had watched a million hours of Australia, whose only redeeming feature is Hugh Jackman being sexy in every scene, until 4am)

Munich, France, and Things I Miss

Last weekend I was in Munich (soon to be my new home).  I decided to trade in one tourist town for a larger, more famous tourist town.  On Thursday I will be meeting Kim to drive around France. Yippee!  So with all my thoughts on European travel, I thought I would make a list of all of the things I miss about America.

So here they are in no particular order:

1. Polite senior citizens - I am honestly afraid of the old people here. They run into you and act like it is your fault.

2. Stick deoderant - sprays, gels, WTF?

3. Comcast - I would really like to have reliable internet. I think my friend Kate in Cambodia has better access than I do.

4. Annie's Mac and Cheese - no explanation required

5. Netflix - I am getting tired of watching every movie in little sections on Youtube

6. Gallons of Milk

7. Marquand Library

8. Good wine - Soon to be remedied!

Ok so the list might go on forever...

Is this Konstanz?

So I am finally updating my blog. My only excuse is that I have been enjoying living in Konstanz too much.  Today is the first chilly, rainy day we have had in a while, so I do not feel guilty staying indoors. When my friends and I returned from Italy (which was great), we thought we had come to the wrong town. Suddenly there were backpackers, sidewalk cafes, fabulous ice cream parlors, beautiful weather, stores we had never noticed, etc. 

Our first day back when went to see Slumdog Millionaire dubbed in German.  Several things let us know we were not in the US, Finland, or Tawain any more.  First your ticket is for a specific seat, the seats in the front are cheaper.  After the previews were over, the raised the lights and came down the aisles selling ice cream. And the strangest thing of all, candy was not 5 Euro!  The dubbing was either very good, or I am rather stupid, because there were times I thought to myself. "Wow! These Indian kids speak really good German!"

So anyway I have been spending lots of time outdoors, (in the woods or by the lake) enjoying the sunshine. I am writing this as a warning, as I am pretty sure Susannah enjoying the outdoors is one of the signs of the Apocalypse. 

Good News...Now I can continue to make jokes about German

So late last night I came back from the International Buffet/Party and found an email waiting for me.  I won a DAAD fellowship!  It will give me money to live in Munich (hopefully) for ten months. I had to read the email about 20 times to make sure I was reading it correctly.  I think I am. Just to make sure I sent it to my parents.  I celebrated this morning by buying a pan so I can bake things now. 

After not getting the Kress I felt pretty awful and in a conversation with Kim figured out why I did not get it. I had been whining and joking about Germany too much, and this is how the universe repaid me.  Kim decided I needed to say wonderful things about Germany and the German language from then on (and eat more wurst). I think it worked. 

Now I can go back to my usual self. I am still a little afraid to say anything awful about German, so I will let Mark Twain do it for me.

The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the other half at the end of it. Can any one conceive of anything more confusing than that? These things are called "separable verbs." The German grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs; and the wider the two portions of one of them are spread apart, the better the author of the crime is pleased with his performance. A favorite one is reiste ab -- which means departed. Here is an example which I culled from a novel and reduced to English:

"The trunks being now ready, he DE- after kissing his mother and sisters, and once more pressing to his bosom his adored Gretchen, who, dressed in simple white muslin, with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich brown hair, had tottered feebly down the stairs, still pale from the terror and excitement of the past evening, but longing to lay her poor aching head yet once again upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than life itself, PARTED."

However, it is not well to dwell too much on the separable verbs. One is sure to lose his temper early; and if he sticks to the subject, and will not be warned, it will at last either soften his brain or petrify it. Personal pronouns and adjectives are a fruitful nuisance in this language, and should have been left out. For instance, the same sound, sie, means you, and it means she, and it means her, and it means it, and it means they, and it means them. Think of the ragged poverty of a language which has to make one word do the work of six -- and a poor little weak thing of only three letters at that. But mainly, think of the exasperation of never knowing which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey. This explains why, whenever a person says sie to me, I generally try to kill him, if a stranger.

And all these years I had no reason to kill strangers...

Also I am not sure if this picture is of Mark Twain or Hal Holbrook. Oh well...

Germanwings

So six other girls from the March Course and I decided to travel together during Spring Break.  We tried to find cheap flights to Italy with Ryan Air and Easy Jet, but it is harder than it might seem to book seven plane tickets.  We then came to the website Germanwings. They had the option of blind booking for 50 Euros roundtrip. The problem was Rome was just one of the place you could get tickets to. We all agreed the other possible cities would be fine. They included Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, etc. But we all just wanted Italy. After filing out the online forms (no easy feat for seven tickets) and talking to another girl who could not decide if she wanted to do it, we clicked submit payment and waited the 45 seconds for it to tell us where we were going, which was...

ROME!!!! 

We jumped up and downed, kissed and hugged each other. (Yes I let people hug me, that is how excited I was). And went to a local pub to have dinner and celebrate. 

I must say I am now a little disappointed that I am not going to a new place. But really, how can you beat Italy?

"Look, man, I ain't fallin' for no banana in my tailpipe!"

So last night was Pub Crawl Part II. The last place we went to was a disco that was having a traffic light party. I think the experience can be summed up in a sentence. They played the theme song to Beverly Hills Cop for people to dance to. According to my German teacher, playing really old, random music is a current trend in German bars and night clubs. I don’t believe her; I am pretty sure this is just how it has always been. I had a great time and stayed out until four in the morning. I think what I like most about going out is that I don’t look quite as awkward and dorky as I usually do in the States, because the Germans are not much better.

 I have spent all day sleepy and relaxing. They schedule so many things for us to do that I am exhausted.  I skipped the volleyball tournament today.  I don't think I would have been a valuable member of the team cowering in the corner with my arms protecting my head and face.  I think next weekend we have an excursion planned for Freiburg. I better get my rest now.

 

"Must be a king." "Why?" "He hasn't got shit all over him."

---Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

So how was the castle in Meersburg?

COLD!

We all stood around inside freezing and finally feeling as though our dorms were not so terrible. Maybe that is why they planned this trip. 

"What is this East Poland?" --Aga from Poland

So still no internet in the room. I got to McDonalds today and practically the entire dorm was here on Skype. Hopefully the backery will stay open as I write this blog, I need something to eat tomorrow morning for breakfast, but it is Sunday so all the stores are closed. 

Tomorrow I am going to a castle. How much you want to bet that the castle has wireless?

Finally Internet...Thank you McDonalds!

So I decided to start a blog because I am so lazy. So what has been going on? Many things. In the German way I will make an outline.

1. Dorm Room

1.1 When I got there it was disgustingly dirty. I had to go to Mueller and buy cleaning supplies and something to get rid of the smell.

1.2 No Internet!!!

1.3 The dorms are pretty old, and are being torn down. That is why they put internationals there. My neighbors are from China, Japan, Romania, and Turkey, just to name a few.


2. March Course

2.1 Group 5- Thanks to Rosetta Stone I made it into group five for the language class. There are eight groups, eight being the most advanced. Unfortunately I have no idea what the teacher is saying half the time.

2.2 They organize many trips and activities for us. We had a City Rally where we had to run around the town and find things. Our group came in last. Last night we did a pub crawl. And today we had a tour of the Alt Stadt.

2.3 There are students from all around the world in the German classes. We all speak English to each other instead of German.


3. Konstanz

3.1 It is a beautiful town right on the Bodensee. On a clear day (which we haven't had) you can see the alps.

3.2 It wasn't bombed because it pretended to be part of Switzerland, so there are buildings that date to the thirteenth century,

3.3 The weather is very wet and cold.


4. The University

4.1 It is in one huge bu idling, which is really 20 buildings stuck together on seven levels. It is crazy confusing.

4.2 It looks like a kindergarten because it is so colorful.

4.3 The Mensa (cafeteria) gives you about 3 pounds of food for 2,50 euros.


5. Strange stuff

5.1 Mustaches/beards. I have never seen more impressive ones in my life. The handlebar mustache is nothing compared to these.

5.2 Music at the bars ranges from the White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand to Chicago to stuff from the 60s.

Well that is all I can think of right now. I miss everyone!