Today is a poignant day as I pack up all my stuff. I was sorting through my belongings and stumbled upon a picture of all you guys and started to cry... oh no wait, got ya! Sorry, I decided to replace my normal introspective and thoughtful post with one of a lighter spirit.
True, I am leaving Bonn in a couple days, and tomorrow I will be taking most of my stuff to my friend Travis' host family's house (where I will be staying from July 11-18 helping remodel their local church) but there are no tears, I am really quite ready to move on to bigger and better things. But for a proper farewell it seems fit to answer all your dying questions about Germany:
No, everyone doesn't have blonde hair and blue eyes, in fact you are more likely to run into a Turkish person than a model Aryan. But I am fairly sure that only three black people live here. One of them wears a long bright orange tribal robe with a rice farmer hat, I think he is just here on UN business. The other two sit in the marketplace and carve weird African sculptures to sell people.
Yes, it is perfectly okay to never lock the door to the bathroom. Germans love saying that since they have to cram 90 million people in their Texas sized country that there is not enough room for privacy. Walking around in underwear around the house or outside is also acceptable.
No, there is not just bratwurst and sauerkraut here. Germans favorite food is probably pizza, go figure. All Germans love ice cream as well. In the morning the housewives will walk around together with their monstrous trike strollers and eat ice cream, during lunch all the business men stroll around the gardens eating ice cream, and at night all the old people sit down at the ice cream cafes and spend their large socialist welfare income on 5 euro ice cream masterpieces.
Yes, Germans drive fast on the autobahn. Mr. Kausmann (my future host father) drives the family minivan at 100 mph on the way home from church, and is passed by many a sports car, quite exciting! In fact Germans like driving fast in general. Their stoplights go from red to YELLOW then to green. This gives all drivers a chance to rev their engine before the green light to facilitate speed, and all the pedestrians in the cross walk a chance to have a heart attack before getting run over.
This may make you wonder if pedestrians are scared of cars. Why yes, they are. Nobody in their right mind J-walks. Twenty people will stand and wait for the green walking stick figure to light up before they cross the street, even if there is no car in sight. I usually just cross anyways and get patted on the back when I get to the other side for being so brave.
Yes, all Germans do drive a BMW or Mercedes or Volkswagen. German's are very proud of their cars and their ability to park on the oversized sidewalks. Some Germans like to be cute and drive smart cars, but you can tell they feel guilty about it.
Yes, Germans are avid people watchers. Many of them do it as a second job to pay for their pizza and German cars. Train and streetcar car law prohibits keeping your eyes to yourself. When somewhat inevitably stares at you, you can suddenly look at them they will turn away but look back once you turn your head again. Some of them will get smart and actually watch you via the reflection of the window. I don't really get it, but since I don't want to fit in I fight back fiercely by staring holes in people over the top of my book, which is written in ENGLISH.
Yes, German children are very spoiled. The two youngest kids in my house cry at least five times each day. I like to find where they are while they are crying and just look at them. They will stop for a second, but will quickly re-contort their faces into anguish once they realize I have distracted them from their acting.
So that's Germany for you, or at least the federal state of North-Rhine Westphalia. There are castles absolutely everywhere, and everywhere is absolutely beautiful.
Since public grass typically grows very high (it's part of the natural feel) there are a lot of bugs I've noticed. Mainly I notice this when running since I typically swallow 1 bug and have no less than 10 bugs stuck in the sweat on my chest when I get home. I have been collecting them all and plan to make a flea circus.
Sometimes the kids like to stand in their doorway across the hallway from mine and look at me and close the door once I see them (they start their staring tendencies early!) So we will play this sort of peekaboo game for a few minutes. One day I decided I would sneak up on their door in between them opening it. When they opened it I yelled, and the 8 year old girl screamed so freakin loud! She hasn't liked me since that day, when she has candy to share with her brothers and sister she won't give me any, and when me and her brothers play soccer she usually chases me with broom which I take from her and put on the roof of the house > then she likes me a lot more.
So anyways, that is the extent of my story telling as of now. I need to start packing and getting all in order so I can watch the Germans beat Turkey tonight in the semi-Finals. I'll be traveling Germany on a bus trip with the school from June 27 - July 3, then flying to London to see A-fran, doing a little traveling alone and starting my church work on July 11. All the while carrying only my backpack (i'm banking on you having laundry capabilities, A-fran).
Love you all, it may be a week or two before I can catch up on your adventures, but don't worry about me, I'll be quite busy exploring.
Auf Wiedersehen (until we meet again),
Thomas
2 comments:
Lahm rules!!!!!!!
thomas, did you remember my pipe?
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