I've thought of something to say

I really have been thinking of something to share and this is what I've come up with. It is a bit akin to what Jos has done, so thanks for the idea. Since I've been in Germany, I think I have done more things that I never would have done in the US. Most of the time it hasn't been an issue of me being "braver" or more courageous or something like that. It has primarly been because I didn't realize what I had gotten myself into until it was too late to turn back. Go figure. This is a brief list of the things suitable for publishing on THE internet.

1) "Food"
I can't even count the number of times now I have been eating something and said, "This seems like the sort of thing that is going to make me really sick in a couple of hours." It hasn't happened yet but it's bound to when you keep ending up with things on your plate like an entire fried banana or meat suspended in gelatin loaf. I really thought I would've figured out the banana thing before it happened. The word for banana is Banana. All this being said, I did have a couple of days when I only ate the food my parents brought me. I call that the "American Period." (see: chocolate chip cookies, mac and cheese and grits.) I didn't say it was a healthy time but it was a golden time.

2) "Bureaucracy"
This is a general phrase I use to describe my interactions with women in offices. When people are actually working in Germany, they are usually female and it's only between hours of 7:30AM and 9:00AM or 2:00PM and 4:00PM. You must adjust your schedule to them. You must accept the fact that they will have all of their things packed up by 8:57AM in order to run out their office as quickly as possible and not work a moment longer than required. In this way, the germans are most certainly punctual.

3)Bikes
Okay, so I haven't actually done this one yet but I'm going to. Believe it or not, I most definitely can ride a bike, it's just that it scares the shit out of me when I have to think critically while doing so. Right now in Freiburg, it is about 80 degrees which isn't too bad yet, but it will get worse. The Strassenbahn(street train) has no windows, no A/c and specially-scented europeans. This sounds much scarier to me than riding a bike. So I'm going to stop being a baby and get on a damn bike.

4)Stars
So I've always heard about these things called 'stars' that supposedly shine in the sky. Turns out that's true. In fact, I think I even saw the North Star last night, although, I still think that it might have been Venus. You can see certain planets from the Earth, right? I know I'm not crazy, sort of.

5)Yoga
What a good way to learn my anatomy words. Yoga is still funny auf Deutsch.

6)Self-Control (sort of)
There have been several experiences now when things have been done or said that I've never seen or heard before and I have (sort of) retrained myself from freaking-out, pointing or laughing. For example, instead of clapping for someone or something in class, people knock on the table. Definitely wasn't expecting that to happen when it did....definitely laughed outloud..........definitely got stared at by the professor..........definitely felt like an asshole. Second, there is a lot of English usage in advertisements or other random German cultural things. For example, there is this song that was apparently really popular about ten years ago by Scatman called "I'm the Scatman." When I heard about it, I practiced a little bit of self-control, only laughed a little bit and decided to not share the double meaning of scatting/to scat. You should know how hard that was for me.

Anyhow, I think this is all I can think of right now. Now I must prepare a presentation about Absurdist Theater. Barf.