Mistakes to avoid in Germany, Week 1

Hello everyone from back home. Get ready for . . . blog post #1! As you know, I love to make mistakes, or at least it seems like it because I make them so often, so today I’ll take you on a tour through my valley of oopses that have defined my experience so far in Germany (or two days of it at least).

Oops #1: Don’t tell your readers that you’re going to talk about Germany when you’re going to talk about Washington DC

DC was overall pretty blah, minus meeting all the people on the program. About 2000 speeches about culture shock, some tours, 2930 speeches about communication. The speeches were pretty repetitive (although necessary). Tours were great, but the best part was the people. We have a pretty diverse group from around the nation. They’re all really cool and smart people that are excited about going to Germany. Some have taken a lot of German or been there before, some have taken absolutely none, and some are in between. Some people speak fluent Spanish as well, which I thought was interesting. Anyway, great group of people.

Oops #2: When you’re invited to go swimming with your host brother, go even though you’ve only just arrived and haven’t gotten any sleep in the past two days.

When I got to Germany my host mom was at work, so I couldn’t be picked up until five, but my host brother dropped by and said he could take me swimming instead (it’s really hot here). But I said I was tired and I just went to another person’s house until she could pick me up. Well, I was basically just sitting watching German trash TV trying to stay awake for three hours while I was really warm until she came and I thought, “Darn, swimming would be so nice right now.” Oh well.

Oops #2: When your host mom says to you in an email that there is a 22 year old boy that lives away from home, a 19 year old girl who will be traveling, and a 13 year old boy, make sure all of them are people.

So I bought gifts for this host family and my future one that is still to be determined. Turns out I only needed a gift for my host mom because the 13 year old boy was actually a dog. I guess the frisbee would still have worked, but he’s too small anyway and pretty old , although you can’t tell. Oh well.

Oops #3: When you are running low on sleep and jet lagged, alcohol does not help. (even when you’re not really)

Friday evening I went to a barbecue with some neighbors and had some awesome food. I spoke German the whole time and did alright at first. Then the beer and wurst set in and I got super tired. Alcohol is part of the culture here, so we’re not discouraged to drink and my host mom insisted. It was 50 percent grapefruit juice, so it tasted really good and didn’t really have much alcohol in it, but still that combined with delicious weisswurst and polish wurst put me in a coma at about nine and my German deteriorated until then. Oh well.

Oops #4: When you go out for a morning stroll, make sure you know how to get back into the apartment.

My host mom was gone for the morning, so I went for a stroll around Tannenbusch. Tannenbusch is the area in which I live about ten minutes by train to the northwest of downtown Bonn. Over 100 different nationalities are represented in this area, which makes it a very interesting place. (the neighbors that had the barbecue were Polish) I found the train station there and met up with my brother Matt since he’s living in Bonn as well, and we talked while I showed him where I lived (about 5 to 10 minutes from the station). When Matt left I tried to get back into the apartment and I found that the door knob did not turn. Turns out that the key not only unlocks the door but opens it as well. Well, I didn’t know that and kept on trying unlock the door and turn the useless doorknob. Eventually I had the kids next door show me how it’s done. Oh well.

Not Oops: German soccer games are awesome. Especially in Germany. And Especially when they beat Argentina 4-0.

I went to a public viewing with some people from the program on the Rhein. It was crazy. People had been drinking since 1:00, the numbers ran in the 10,000s, and they cheered, sang, and yelled throughout the afternoon game. Every time there was a goal the crowd went crazy, and there were four goals. On the way home people honked they’re horns all the way home and yelled out the window. It was different than anything I have ever seen. Oh, and 50 cent pizza is pretty cool too.

Tschüss,

Skez