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27 January, 2005

Hausaufgabe.

You know how it sucks when the teacher is handing back homework that you know you didn't do?  You just sit there while everyone else gets a paper and you look like a lazy ass.

Yea.  Now imagine that happening to you when you didn't know: 
    A) When the homework was turned in, and
    B) That it was even assigned to begin with.

I'VE BEEN TO CLASS EVERY FREAKING DAY, and I still somehow managed to miss her assigning the damn thing AND everyone turning it in.  Seriously, there are some major problems here.

26 January, 2005

Unterricht.

My class is pretty interesting.  There are a lot of cool people in it.  Some from Bulgaria, Turkey, Latvia, Finland, Russia, Canada, et al. and then me, from the US.  We're always translating for each other, which is great because almost no one has the same first language.

My teacher is originally from Tajikistan, speaks about 5 different languages, and has lived in Deutschland for 17 years.  This information was all imparted to us in German, so I could have gotten it all wrong.  For all i know, she may actually be from Ohio, speaks to only 5 of her dogs, and stores 17 wedges of cheese in her closet. 

12 January, 2005

Bürokratie!

Yes. That is the German word for Bureaucracy. It also means Hell.

Like I said in a previous entry, bureaucracy here is like one of those games where you have to go through hell to get one simple thing done. If you've ever played Zelda, you know what I mean. You see, in Zelda, you have to run around and take potions places and wake up sleeping people with pocket chickens and talk to weird things and take Frogs of Power and Eyes of Newt to other people before they expire so they can give you The Stone of Delightfulness that you take to a witch and in the end you get a nut. Yea. It's like that when you try to establish residency in Germany.

06 January, 2005

Kulturschok

As prepared as one may be for experiencing things that are different from their own culture, things always come around that just blow your mind (and/or your hairdryer).

Kulturschock Eins:  Germans.
People here speak German.

Kulturschock Zwei: Me.
I do not speak German.

Kulturschock Drei:  Combine Eins und Zwei.
Eins und Zwei combined suck when you are sitting in someone's reserved seat on a train.