America is so sweet

This is me on my first day of class in Mainz in front of the Johannes Gutenburg Universitaet -- the Journalism building, which is downtown and not on the main campus. During break on our first day of class this morning two of the German students, Max and Jonathon, asked Hannah and I (follow her in Europe at www.hegray.blogspot.com) if we wanted to go get a coffee with them. I ordered a Macchiato because that word was familiar to me and when I took my first sip I realized, “This is not Starbuck’s Macchiato.” Everything in America, food wise, is sweeter than over here.

I thought the same thing when I got home and saw the groceries Linda picked up for me. I asked her to get some plain white bread and bologna because I will be here by myself this weekend (she is going to visit her brother) and I wanted some quick food to grab a bite to eat because their stove and microwaves are different than ours and I wasn’t sure if I could work it on my own. (And let’s face it: I don’t cook at home anyway.)  So I took out a piece of bread to eat with my bratwurst Linda cooked for Hannah and I this evening and I realized that it too was much less sweet than normal bread from the grocery store at home.

Nevertheless of that difference, the food here is really great. I had typical German food for lunch the other evening – Schnitzel – and it was very delicious. 

You could get chicken or pork, I got chicken, and it is basically just fried. Mine came with this like pasta-tomato sauce on top and Hannah’s came with a white mushroom sauce on top, she got the pork. I tasted both of ours and it was too yummy. It was served with fried potatoes which were tasty as well.  As you can see, I’m not worried about my health over here. Although, I do feel like everyone here eats healthier.  I haven’t seen one fat person.

Though, I will see I had too high of expectations for the Gelato (Italian ice cream.)  Don’t get me wrong – It is really good. But I expected it to be so much different from American ice cream and to be really rich. It still tastes like ice cream to me. I will say that the flavors are more genuine. For example, Hannah got banana flavor and instead of tasting like banana ice cream as it would have in the states, it tasted like an authentic banana. So that was nice.

But, apparently something people here don't have high expectations of are Americans. All the younger college-age people keep telling me we have a stereotype of being stupid. I will agree that we aren't as cultured as Europeans. But perhaps that is because I can ride four hours here from Mainz, Germany and be in Paris, France and if I ride four hours from Memphis, Tenn. back home I'll be in Nashville -- still in the state of Tennessee. I think their proximity to other countries, cultures and languages makes them more prone to be exposed to such.

It is slightly frustrating to see first hand other nationalities' views of Americans. Though others, like Linda, tell me that Americans are also perceived as friendly. This too is spun in a negative light, however. She said those who have not been to the states think this is being fake, because we talk to people we don't even know.

Oh well.  While I do believe that Americans in generally could stand to think of themselves more as a Global citizen instead of just an American citizen, I appreciate America for the country it is and our people for the culture we are. I'm also having fun learning about the differences in German culture while I'm here in Europe, though.

After class today we went shopping in the downtown Mainz area. Everyone keeps telling us that Frankfurt is the place to shop, but we haven’t had time to make it there yet. We are hoping to go next week.  Nevertheless, I managed to find the most gorgeous pair of European pants! 

They probably aren't so "European" as I say, but they are definitely something I wouldn't have bought in the states. I got them on sale for 30 Euros! Hannah bought them too! 

I cannot wait to wear them, and I’m planning to wear them on our cruise on the Rhine River Sunday! J Of course I’ll upload pictures afterwards.  Until then, Chow.  (ß I’m guessing that isn’t German, but it is what I hear everyone say when they say Goodbye on the phones.)

Speaking of phones, my cell phone doesn’t work yet even though I bought a sims card for it and activated it. I’m hoping Linda can help me with that when she gets home so I can call the other Americans here when we need to meet up.

As far as calling back home, I have that worked out through Google mail. So if you want to get a hold of me you can call 901-729-9455 and leave me a voicemail J It sends to me as an email and I can call you back when I get to my computer.

The food...

... is great. I haven't eaten at an authentic German restaurant yet, but that is soon to come. So far I've eaten at an Italian restaurant. I had Spaghetti Bolognese, which is just in a meat sauce. It was more garlicy than in the States but was very good. Oh and by the way, when you order water here it is always in a bottle, is usually sparkling water, and ISN'T free! There are no free refills either. At least it looks fancy.

 

Almost everyone ordered straight shots of espresso afterwards. They came in these too cute mini-coffee cups. It was strong but good. 

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The absolute best restaurant I've been to thus far is called MoschMosch. It is a Japanese noodle and soup place. I got Morgonsonne, which was a soup with ramen noodles, beef broth, chicken, spinnach, onion sprouts and carrots. It was in a HUGE bowl as you can see. 

Don't take the red if you're blau (blue)

We went on a tour of the city of Mainz today. Their blue street signs are parallel with the Rhine River and the red are perpendicular, therefore take you down to the river. To be "blau" in German (pronounced blue and means blue) can have a double meaning of being "dead drunk" or really drunk. So there is an old saying to never take the read when your blau, because a drunkard would walk straight into the Rhine River.

But moving along to the more interesting part of the day --- The St. Martin Cathedral.

It is 1000-something years old. They began building it in 976. 

One of the Bishops is located here and they still conduct their Catholic church on Sundays.

So now, let me introduce you to our CRAZY tour guide. For some reason he would always look at me and speak directly to me. He would also ask me all of the questions, so I got to be the one looking dumb when I answered wrongly. I'm ashamed to admit that when he asked me what big event happened in 1776 I said The Constitution instead of the Declaration of Independence. (I'm such an idiot.)

He took us to a Baroque style church -- St. Augustine's. Nine of the windows were made by a Russian Jewish artist, Marc Chagall, just before his death. He never saw his work in this church in Germany due to Germany's history with Jews. The windows depict motifs from the Old Testament such as Abraham and Issac, Issac and Rebecca, Bathsheba and David and so on.

Next was Fastnachtsbrunnen, the Carnival Fountain. There is a story that on Crazy Monday (which is after Fat Tuesday and is celebrated throughout Mainz) that you get so drunk the cathedral starts to shake and you see the tower upside down. So, this art piece is the tower upside down and it has various statues representing different things. For example, at the bottom is a bob cat which stands for the saying "I've got a bob cat." That means "I have a hang over." Another is a purse washer. This is because once you've spent all your money on alcohol, you have an empty purse and you come to wash it. There are several other stories about all the people on the piece, and we didn't have time to hear them all. The fountain was so refreshing after all the walking in the hot sun all day.

Finally we rewarded ourselves with Italian Gelato! Which of course you know, is ice cream that is much better than what we have in the U.S.

After that we stopped at a little shop on our way back to the bus station to come home. Hannah bought her first piece of European clothes. They are these old school grandma shorts that I made fun of her for! She also has a very stylish camel toe in them! haha (She told me I could draw attention to that.) The photos speak for themselves.

 

I just tried on clothes because I was bored waiting on her. I didn't buy any yet.

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Here you can see more photos of the day.

Germans are big on breakfast

Germans are big on breakfast. This is what Linda told me when I woke up (which wasn't until 2 p.m. German time.) We made a big spread of stuff. First we cooked crescent rolls in the oven along with Broetchen, which is just a type of dark wheat bread with seeds on top.
We had fruit (pears, apples, bananas and strawberries) and different types of lunch meat (a version of honey smoked ham and bologna) with swiss cheese to pick from.



We laid out cream cheese and pepperoni cream cheese as well as some AMAZING homemade strawberry jam of her mothers. I told her I need to take some of her mom's jam home because it was so tasty.

After we finished setting everything up we put it all on the little table outside on her balcony. So we ate in the sun and it was really nice.

Here is the set up, it was too cute. I had two HUGE cups of coffee, so hopefully I will stay up all night. Although since I slept about twenty two hours I think I should be able to do that.

After the crescent roll and AMAZING jam I ate one of the Broetchen's with swiss cheese and a bologna type of meat. It was yummy.

And no, Linda didn't think I was a dork taking all of these photos at breakfast. Or.. she may have, but she didn't tell me so. She studied abroad when she was 16 in Trumann, Arkansas. It was such a coincidence since I am from Arkansas and she had already known I was from Marion because of Facebook, so that was pretty neat. We talked about the differences over here and how it isn't common to get married so young. Several of the German girls I met who were studying in Memphis had been dating their boyfriends for ten years. It is common to live with your boyfriend for a long time and then maybe get married if you feel like it. It is also common to have children before you are married.

Like I said, Linda told me that Germans are big on breakfast. One morning we are going to go to a buffet-style breakfast restaurant where they have EVERYTHING, she said. So I'll write about that when we go. Hopefully I won't be too much of a dork and take pictures while we are in the restaurant. But then again, don't put it past me.

Bis nächste Zeit (<-- Until next time)

Don't get a license in Germany -- You'll be broke!

So, my first day in Europe was fun and we haven’t really done anything yet.

The plane ride was great. It was really smooth and they fed you every couple of hours – though the food wasn’t amazing or anything. We arrived an hour late because before we taxied off the pilot said our brakes had to cool down. I didn’t get much sleep because the girl in front of me insisted on leaning her chair so far back that her head was practically in my lap. But, oh well.

We were picked up by Petra and Karl, two employees of The University of Johannes Gutenburg University’s International Students Office. They were nice and Petra had everything prepared for us –maps to the school, bus stops, the other student’s dorm rooms, and my host’s house.

Out of the four Americans that came I’m the only one with a host. Her name is Linda Kujawski. She is 23 and nice as can be. She cleaned out the office of her apartment and made it into my bedroom for the three weeks I’m here.

I know it looks messy in the picture because I had just pulled out all of my bags, but I’ve got a blow up bed, a nice spacious desk and shelves to put my things. Oh, and did I mention the two amazing, large windows to look out of? Right now, one views a building in construction. She warned me of looking out of it and seeing nasty old fat sweaty men. (Maybe I’ll just do my scenic viewing from the other.) The other shows a little backyard type deal with a rose bush, swing and garage or storage place. Since this is an apartment-type building I don’t know if we have access to that or it is the bottom floor’s “backyard.” We are on the second level.

So after being picked up from the airport by Petra and Karl, and being dropped off at Linda’s house and getting settled in, Me and Linda drove her boyfriend’s car back to the campus dorms where Hannah and Christina are staying to meet up with everyone. Linda’s boyfriend is a police officer here in Germany. This is why they have a nice apartment and car, she says, because he makes good money. She is a student at Mainz’s University, but she studies film, theater and art –not journalism. Anyway, her boyfriend, 24, is in the US right now. Currently he is in New York.

On the way over to meet the other Americans that came with me I learned loads of differences between German and American culture. For one, Germans can’t get their license until they are 18 and it is a HUGE ordeal. Linda said by the end of it you spend about 2,000 Euros! And you take of series of tests and lessons which involve you driving during the day, at night and on the autobahn (aka interstate.) Speaking of the autobahn, in most places there isn’t a speed limit! It’s common to go 110 mi. (Don’t worry, Dad, neither of the two I’ve ridden with so far have done that.)

Linda was also telling me about the school systems. There is a preliminary school that you go to until age ten. At that point, they look at your grades and they put you into the school for students who learn fast and are making good grades and the school for students who work more slowly. The later establishment only goes up to ten years and you don’t receive a diploma to then go into the University. If you did really well at the lower school you could try to then work into the upper level high school to earn the diploma to go onto University. The upper level high school goes for 13 years (unlike the U.S.’s 12) and you receive a diploma to then go onto University if you want. So, basically your future is decided by your grades at age ten. Linda said that the way the University works out, only the well-to-do students who have money can go.
So anyways, once we get to campus and Dr. Arant, The University of Memphis’s Journalism Department chair who came with us to Germany to teach our War Reporting course, was all settled into his room, Petra and Karl took all of us out to eat. We went to this little area that use to be a US Army Station. We, ironically, ate on Martin Luther King Street. We ate at this little pizza/Turkish store.

Hannah and I ate döners. They are this little Turkish wraps that are so good! It is basically a pita wrap with meet and salad type stuff in it and this yummy sauce. It was huge!

Unlike the picture, however, we got ours in a wrap instead of the little pocket pita bread. We got Apfelschorle to drink. Petra told us it was the most popular non-alcoholic beverage of the neighborhood. It is a apple juice/sparkling water mix –and it was good! It came in a little re-usable beer bottle as you can see below. The top is what makes it reusable. You pull out the metal part which unpops the metal “cork” in the top and when you pour it into your glass you “reseal” it.

Hannah and I, like the tourist we are, took our bottles home with us as souvenirs.
So after lunch was grocery shopping. Doing this in another culture/language was actually interesting. Luckily, we had Linda, Petra and Karl following each of us and translating. Although, a lot of their products have English words under the German ones (much like how the US has Spanish under the English) and this made it easy to understand. Before getting a shopping cart you have to put in a Euro, which you will get back when you return it. This deposit is to ensure no one runs off with the cart. Their one Euros are coins. Only the 5, 10, 20 and 50s are in cash. I put a photo of my cash and coins. Right now I only have coins worth 2 Euros and 10cents.

After shopping, I said goodbye to Hannah, Christina and Dr. Arant and me and Linda went back to her apartment. After calling my Dad, Jody, Grandma and mom I fell smooth out at 3 p.m. German time. Right now it is 9 a.m. German time, which means I’ve been asleep 18 hours! Linda isn’t awake yet and I’m actually about to go back to sleep for a little while!

Today is Sunday, Mother’s Day (so Happy Mother’s Day Mom – Love you!) We don’t have anything planned except dinner tonight with all of us Americans and some of the University’s faculty. It is at this Italian restaurant called “Mediterraneo.” That is at six p.m. When Linda and I wake up for good we are making a big breakfast and then before we head off to dinner we are going to make this strawberry shortcake type thing (yumm!)
Oh and by the way, Linda has a motor scooter (like a small Yamaha motorcycle type thing) and that is what we are driving to the restaurant tonight! Gas is really expensive over here (1.45 Euros per Liter) so she doesn’t drive the car much at all. I will mostly take the bus. Today is a huge bike race in Mainz so apparently downtown is going to be packed. She said taking the “scooter” will be easier to get around and find a parking spot!
So until I update next time, Auf Wiedersehen! (<-- Goodbye)