An American Furry in Germany

I've always preferred whole milk, although in my home environment my mom would only buy reduced fat milk. Reduced fat (2%) is okay, but any lower than that and it just tastes too watered-down to me. I hate skim milk. And I get whole milk whenever I can--now that I'm doing my own milk purchasing. (Word for the wise: Buying alcohol does not make you a man. Having to buy your own milk--and I don't mean a pint carton at school--is the true sign that you've grown up.)
The interesting thing is, I could swear that whole milk in Germany has a higher fat content. This would be less strange if it was just called "whole milk", but it clearly says "3,5% Fett" right on the carton. But it tastes like half-and-half. Needless to say, I love it. :D But I still wonder what the cause is...

They actually taste pretty good.

    I'm taking four courses at the moment. Java programming is in German, which should speak for itself (pretty difficult is the message I'm trying to convey), but the other three are harder to define. Two of them are in the HfK (Hochschule für Kunst, or University of the Arts), which also says a lot, but the remaining course, even though it's more of a computer course than an art course, has many similarities. The three courses range in number of participants from 5 to 15, no more. In America this is unheard-of: courses at Humboldt State University, prized for its "small class sizes taught by professors who know your name" (from the website) get as small as 20 people sometimes, but lately there's been a push (from higher-up, opposed by the students) to add more 150-person lecture-hall courses on basic required general education subjects. They're more cost-effective, certainly, but I can say from experience that it's one hell of a lousy learning environment. I don't know how they afford it, but I certainly appreciate the socratic style of round-table discussion in a small group--although Frieder Nake has a tendency to ramble (I feel tempted to shout out "Digression!" in the middle of class, but I don't think anyone would get it). And yes, that was a name drop--I'd never heard of him, but they say Frieder Nake is very well-known in Germany. Or maybe just in Bremen. (He seriously almost bought half the class copies of the Communist Manifesto, until he found out that English language versions couldn't be had for cheap.)
    But anyway, it seems like a lot of the essays I've been reading lately are very... obtuse. Unclear. Using a lot of big words to cover the fact that they're not saying anything at all. And I always hesitate before calling something out as BS, because there's a chance that I simply don't understand, and I'm making the mistake of denouncing something because I don't understand it. I think this is part of what I was talking about in the last post. I prize conciseness. Yes, if you read my LJ you'll often find me using strange phrasings or joking around with the English language (or German, when I dare). That's just for fun, though, because I'm typically trying to entertain more than to inform. But in these essays, it seems like their writing style is running contrary to their purpose--to inform. And it turns me off of the whole educational system. I don't want to constantly read and interpret 20-page manifestos that could have been summarized in a paragraph. I don't want to learn how to write essays to fit a minimum page limit, when I feel that I could be clearer if I said less. In fact, I always feel that one can be clearer by using fewer words, up to a point (the exception sometimes is in highly technical discussions among users of a particular jargon, where bigger words are more precise, but also likely to be understood). It's like the development of computer hardware--by making a processor smaller, you at once make it faster, and more energy-efficient. It's a sign of a novice when one uses newly-learned big words just for their own sake, because they think it represents intelligence. Maybe I'm just being arrogant, but I think that it's a sign of higher intelligence to be able to explain complicated concepts to a young child, not just other "experts". (I go by the assertion that any concept of any complexity can be explained in as little as two words. Not necessarily precisely, but it's a good start. Very concise. :P)
    So I'm worried about spending two more years in university. And if I want to go to graduate school, I know I'm going to have to write a thesis or sommat, which is pretty much the very embodiment of what I've been explaining here. I don't want to learn to BS. That's a skill I can do without.

    Strangely enough I didn't have a Berliner while I was there. Or "Pfannkuchen", although they're definitely not pancakes. I saw some at Dunkin' Doughnuts, but then we had to leave, and plus, I can get Dunkin' Doughnuts anywhere. There's nothing special about massive chain doughnuts. Unless you're talking about massive amounts of doughnuts strung together like a delicious chain.
    I just got back from a weekend trip to Berlin. It was my first touristy experience since I've been here, actually--riding in a double-decker bus, taking pictures while someone talks about the history of this or that sculpture or piece of wall or something. I'm really tired right now, and my feet hurt--it was an intense 2.5 days. I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of what happened, but here are the basics:

• We went to an exhibit on the history of Berlin. The WWII section was intense. Very dramatic and educational.
• Also neat was the Gedächtniskirche. It's an old church that was half-destroyed by bombs, but they left it there... as a tribute to mankind, I guess. We can build these huge buildings, and we can blow them into pieces too. The steeple is broken off and the edges stick up jaggedly. Apparently people call it the "höhler Zahn"--the hollow tooth.
• Berlin is a huge city, but compared to Bremen it seems like there's a lot more open space. The streets are much wider (there's a story behind that, too), so it feels more like an American city. :P I liked the open space, although generally cities aren't my thing. It was a nice place to visit, but it's a nice place to leave, too.
• Out of the group of 45, about 20 of them (at least 20) spoke Spanish. And they always traveled in groups, so they never had to speak English or German. I started understanding them, and remembering some of my Spanish... but in the process I forgot all my German for a little while. I'll stick to one language at a time for now...
• During the trip my camera went through 1 gigabyte of memory and two pairs of AA batteries in about the same amount of time.
• I always knew this, I think, but it was brought to my attention that I don't like being in charge, but sometimes the alternative is worse. For instance, there were many times when the whole group of us walked around for hours trying to figure out where we were going, and how to get there, by committee. Except in a committee people talked... maybe we behaved more like molecules. Just bouncing around, dropping atoms here and there (we kept losing and regaining people), and not making any net progress in any one direction. The second night, I resolved to take action, and I successfully led us to our destination. Trouble is nobody really knew what the destination was--I just assumed that someone had a place in mind. I couldn't have taken that much charge, though... I don't know where bars in Berlin are. I don't much care, either.
• I walked around a lot. I got a lot of exercise, but I got very tired, and my feet hurt. Also I should have brought a change of socks. :(

    Speaking of tired, I'm going to go sleep now. Maybe I'll write something coherent in the morning.

Dear Germany:
What's so hard to understand about the term "water fountain"? We need water to live. When I'm visiting a public landmark, I don't want to walk around thirsty for hours and hours because all the shops are closed. When I'm in a restaurant, I don't want to go thirsty because it costs €1,50 for literally just a few swallows of water (0,2 liters). I can understand that there might not be much incentive for McD's to give out free ketchup, but I won't die for lack of ketchup. Not that I've ever been in any real danger of death by dehydration... I'm just thirsty.

Oh, and in case there's anyone reading this who doesn't know what a water fountain is (no, it's not a "fountain"): it's a box that sticks up out of the ground and squirts water into the air when you press the button. You drink the water out of the air--which sounds a lot harder than it actually is, now that I think about it. Usually the water is cold and filtered (often it's too cold, actually, and it hurts the teeth), and of course nobody charges you to use one. They're found in schools, office buildings, parks, and public areas like libraries, monuments, and touristy areas. (Not in restaurants, just to clear things up--in restaurants the waiters come around and refill your glass of water whenever it gets low. Plus they give you free bread.)

At this point I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to get the typical emotional high, then low usually associated with travel. At least not at any extreme level--I think I'm too moderate to let myself be that unbalanced. But I'm tired today, so I'm feeling a little put out by everything being so different. :P Pardon me while I bitch for a bit. I'd keep it to myself, but then I'd never know if some of my complaints might be reasonable.

• First of all, your keyboards. I can understand the need to have the umlauts and ß (I set up my US keyboard to display them on Ctrl+[, ], \, and 8 (for ß)). But that's still no excuse for "Alt gr". Admittedly it's not used much in everyday life, but when you're trying to program, the many important brackets are all assigned to that key--and it's in the most inconvenient place on the whole keyboard. It's under the knuckle of the middle finger on the right hand, where we just have a redundant Alt key, and I always end up hitting the spacebar whenever I go for it. Plus most of its useful features are on the same side of the keyboard, so you have to hit both keys with the right hand. I've tried to change the keyboard layout (it's been years since I actually needed to look at the keys) in the OS, but I was never able to do it--and I'm not sure why, because the operating systems in the computer labs are all in German. Either the English layout isn't installed, I don't have the right permissions, or I was doing something wrong.
• Actually I'm kind of growing fond of the money. All the bills are different sizes, which makes them easier to distinguish, and you can't shuff them all together--which is inconvenient sometimes, but it reminds you that if you have lots of different sizes, you have a lot of money in your hands. In America we just have to go by the numbers and the much less colorful styles. Plus here you can have a handful of change worth 10-20 Euros, if you let it accumulate. It makes the money more fun.
• I don't see why everything has to close on Sundays. It's just inconvenient. I'm actually mostly just surprised by it. Shouldn't capitalism have intervened by now? I'm used to the customer always being right.
• I'm really surprised at the amount of paperwork. It seems antiquated. And when I say "paperwork", I mean the literal paper--everthing is printed. It all goes into the computer eventually, but in the meantime countless resources (both time and trees) are wasted in writing things down, handing them over to be read, photocopied, and typed in, probably only for someone else in Berlin to read it off the screen and fill out some other forms on paper... I get the feeling that the people typing things into computers before granting me a visa would accept anything with a signature on it. (And a signature is just a scrawl of a pen, worn smooth through endless repetition.) I was almost tempted to test my theory, but I'm not stupid. :P Which sometimes leads to me having less fun.
• Jimi Hendrix was not German. Heh, got you there. :P
• O.J. Simpson was also not German... aww.

Okay, I think I'm good for another month. :P

Whew. What a day. Yesterday I got up at around 8 am, and very shortly was off to the Hauptbahnhof to meet furries, and catch a train to Hamburg to meet more furries. As it turns out (from a glance at some of my pictures), it looks like there were at least 30 furries there, along with 11 more in fursuits. That's a lot of people.
When we first arrived, there were already about 20 people there, and not a bit of fur to be seen. So I took out my tail and ears, which cheered everyone up, and served as a sort of beacon. :P (I had taken them with in a duffel bag, I should mention, because I wasn't quite ready to have to explain it to my host family.) We were meeting in a parking lot underneath the Radisson, a giant hotel right next to the Hbf. in Hamburg. Apparently this was where a lot of people were arriving, as we found out when great double-decker buses full of tourists drove by, pointing and taking pictures. More so when the fursuits were finally put on, and they started thumbing for rides and waving at the tourists. Then an hour or so later, we set off.
The weather didn't quite cooperate--it was raining, although only lightly. So the actual fursuit walk was relatively short--just an hour or two. We went through the Japanese Gardens, the fursuiters horsing around, the rest taking pictures, and me somewhere in between. We ran into our fair share of tourists, and I took pictures of the looks on their faces. We didn't get a single negative reaction, unless you count the dog at the train station that wasn't prepared to deal with a new species today. It was quite encouraging. The children were especially delighted, when we ran into some. Adults felt the need to figure it out, and worried a bit for our sanity, but the kids didn't care. "That man has a tail!" was an explanation in itself. That probably says something about the reason I was there in the first place... funny, I usually don't like kids.

And here are the fursuiters...

And here's me trying to smile for the camera, but failing as usual.


After walking around for a bit, the fursuits were taken off (the people inside were literally steaming as they hit the cold outside air--it was amusing), and we went to go get something to eat, before a rendezvous at 5 pm at the Dom. For those of you who don't speak German, "Dom" (pronounced "dome") means "cathedral". So naturally I was expecting a cathedral, and not an amusement park. How naive I was...

Apparently the old cathedral used to be a safe haven for transients and street performers during harsh weather. When it burnt down, the city gave them another area kind of close by, which used to be a field for animals. They kept the name "Dom" though, apparently. Unfortunately this was explained to me right before I saw the sign, or I would have laughed more. :D
So our numbers had dwindled by then, but there were still about ten of us going through the fair, having fun and winning prizes. (We saw a furry tiger head hanging from a prize booth--about an hour later, one of the lost furries came walking back holding it. Apparently it wasn't for wearing, as it had first appeared... but I'm sure it will be modified.) I bent my tail on the Airwolf ride, but it was a lot of fun, and I bent it right back. Oh yeah, and then there was "No Limit", which cost €5 (too much for me...), but looked like a lot of fun. I don't think the video really captures the sense of height, though.


After that, we rode the Ferris wheel, and I got a bunch of pictures of Hamburg from above. Then we began to depart. It was about 8 pm, so I had been on my feet for 12 hours. There were about ten of us by that point, most living in Hamburg, and only one other going back to Bremen. Three of us went off to the train station, where we arrived about 10 minutes late for the train, and had to wait there for an hour. We found another furry also waiting for the same train back to Bremen, so the four of us ate at Pizza Hut, which was very delicious. Three left on a one-hour train ride back, two of us walked out of the main station, he ran off to catch a train, and there I was, finally back in Bremen, a little dazed, all alone at last, and still wearing my furry tail and ears. I had decided by that point that I would go all the way to the house in them, rather than keep it a big secret, but when I got home at around 11:30, everyone was in bed. And now it's Sunday.

It was quite a day.

I just registered online with the US Department of State. That way, if anything happens, they're know where to find me. Also if there's something new and potentially dangerous going on in Germany, they'll let me know about it. For instance, when I completed the form, a notice came up under the category "Germany", about potential anti-globalization protests at some conference in June. That might be useful information. Then right after that, I got this, under the category "World". Just a reminder, I guess, to anyone thinking about leaving our fair country--it's a dangerous world out there. Don't forget to be afraid.

Public Announcement 04/10/2007

Worldwide Caution April 10, 2007 This Public Announcement updates information on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against Americans and interests overseas.  This supersedes the Worldwide Caution dated October 11, 2006 and expires on October 9, 2007.   The Department of State remains concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations and other violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests overseas.  Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.  These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics to include assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings.  Ongoing events in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East have resulted in demonstrations and associated violence in several countries.  Americans are reminded that demonstrations and rioting can occur with little or no warning.  In August 2006, British authorities arrested a significant number of extremists engaged in a plot to destroy multiple passenger aircraft flying from the United Kingdom to the United States.  The September 2006 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Syria and the March 2006 bombing near the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan illustrate the continuing desire of extremists to strike American targets.  Extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests.  The bomb attacks targeting buses carrying foreign workers in March 2007 and December 2006 in Algeria, a series of bombings in Thailand in May and September 2006 that targeted commercial and tourist destinations in the far south, and the bombings in the the Egyptian resort town of Dahab in April 2006 all illustrate how terrorists exploit vulnerabilities associated with soft targets.  Additional examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas and locales where Americans gather in large numbers, including during holidays.  Financial or economic targets of value may also be considered as possible venues; the vehicle-based suicide attack on an oil facility near Mukalla and Marib in Yemen in September 2006 and the failed attack on the Abqaiq oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia in late February 2006 are such examples.     In the wake of the August 2006 plot against aircraft in London, numerous terrorist attacks on trains in India in 2006, the July 2005 London Underground bombings, and the March 2004 train attacks in Madrid, Americans are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems.  In addition, extremists may also select aviation and maritime services as possible targets.    U.S. citizens are strongly encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance, be aware of local events, and take the appropriate steps to bolster their personal security.  For additional information, please refer to ¿A Safe Trip Abroad¿ found at http://travel.state.gov. U.S. Government facilities worldwide remain at a heightened state of alert.  These facilities may temporarily close or periodically suspend public services to assess their security posture.  In those instances, U.S. embassies and consulates will make every effort to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens.  Americans abroad are urged to monitor the local news and maintain contact with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. As the Department continues to develop information on any potential security threats to U.S. citizens overseas, it shares credible threat information through its Consular Information Program documents, available on the Internet at http://travel.state.gov. In addition to information on the Internet, travelers may obtain up-to-date information on security conditions by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the U.S. or outside the U.S. and Canada on a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444

I've been reading a lot of Ayn Rand lately--and by a lot, I mean Atlas Shrugged. One very long book... fortunately it only took me one month to finish the whole thing. This whole tumultuous month, while I've been moving back to my hometown, preparing for a semester in Germany, and going through one existential crisis after another, I've been reading Ayn Rand. Scary, I know. Turns out that I didn't like it now as much as I did when I was young and impressionable (in high school), and now I disagree with a lot of it--but not all. I can't blame her for it; she grew up in communist Russia, and although she escaped from it, her entire philosophy is a reaction to it. Not to mention her writing style is more like propaganda than decent fiction--I guess you can never truly escape your roots. But her basic premise is only slightly flawed, and along the way to taking it way too far, she makes a lot of good points. So I think I've learned a few things.

But this post isn't about Ayn Rand--it's about Germany. Again. I think I've figured out their underlying premise.

You see, nothing is free in Germany. I know we have the saying "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (tanstaafl, for short), but we don't really mean it. We get ketchup free, water free, bread and butter, free refills, etc. I haven't gone to a doctor, but I bet they don't even give out little lollipops here. In Germany, nothing is free--tanstaafl.

But reality is like that, isn't it? We only say that because it's true--you can't get a free lunch, you can only get someone else to pay it for you. America is ruled by corporations that have realized that buy people free lunches can be a good business practice. It's not immediately obvious, but people will give you more money if they have the choice, instead of being nickle-and-dimed out of it. If you change their reality, and don't charge them for 2 cents worth of ketchup, they'll order 50 cents more worth of fries! If you give them a plastic bag that costs 1/100th of a cent for free, they'll do all their shopping at your stores! And so America is gradually slipping away from our hold on reality. Either that, or we were founded with a national mentality firmly outside of reality--either way, the result is obvious. Disneyland, Ronald McDonald, The Brady Bunch, all-you-can-eat, etc. Each asks for nothing but your money, and offers you nothing but a brighter and more perfect fantasy. Isn't it nice to escape reality for a while?
Don't get the idea that I'm saying one is better than the other--I've tried to avoid doing that. I'm certain that there is a difference, and I have a pretty good idea of its nature, but I'm not yet certain which is "better"--of if one can be better. Germans as a people tend to have a more bleak worldview--the cost of accepting reality. Is it worth rejecting reality, at least in part, if it makes you happy? Or is it our "duty" to keep ourselves firmly rooted in reality--I mean, look what the American way of life is doing to the world. Seeking individual happiness would seem to be a good enough meaning of life, but when everyone does it, it turns out it's not sustainable. But for what should life be sustained, if not happiness? It's certainly a quandary. Maybe I need to figure out what premises I'm working from--if any really exist.

This got off topic fast, but suffice it to say that the Germans have a very realistic worldview. This makes them at once less fun, and more responsible. So if you want to lay back and enjoy life, go to America. If you want to prolong life, and I mean all life on earth, I'd suggest Germany.

The first week I was here, I did a lot of exploring. Fortunately the public transit system here is very convenient--unfortunately, the price is not so convenient. It's €2.15 each way, which, for a student at least, is pretty expensive. I could by five bars of chocolate in the price it costs to travel to the city center and back!
Fortunately I now have my Semesterticket, so I don't have to worry about that (not to mention I can go as far as Hamburg or Hannover for free). But even when I was paying for it, nobody ever checked my ticket. I wondered if the whole thing was based on the honor system. I'm a pretty honorable guy, so I guess it worked for me--not to mention, I didn't want to risk potentially breaking the law, because that's not something you want to do in a foreign country. I don't even know where the nearest embassy is. So as I shelled out Euro after Euro for each trip, a little pang inside me said that I might be wasting my money.

Well, I finally realized how it works. Today I was on the tram, and suddenly everyone reached for their wallets. I looked around, confused, and saw a couple of nondescript people moving through the tram, checking tickets. So I got mine out, and a few seconds later, they were finished. Then when we arrived at the next stop, they got off. I think they must have gotten on, one at each entrance, and moved towards each other. It was very efficient, but the lack of uniforms was kind of confusing. Usually a person doing a public service is easily identifiable. These people were just wearing whatever--jackets, sweaters, dark colors mostly. If they were wearing uniforms, I would have recognized what they were doing faster. But when I see a group of strangers in casual clothing, moving efficiently and with a common purpose, I don't immediately assume they're working in the public interest. :P

The last part of the orientation week was an organized pub-crawl at 8 pm at the Lagerhaus. I know Germans are supposed to be punctual, but these are students, so I took my time, and arrived at 8:30. Apparently there was a soccer game yesterday, because everyone was wearing "Werder Bremen" scarves and other paraphernalia... and drinking. Along the way I met a few Germans who were out drinking, and we struck up a conversation. It's very strange because we were speaking entirely in German, but I was actually communicating at a decent rate. We were holding an actual conversation. We got off at the same stop, and they helped me find the Lagerhaus. When I got there, though, I couldn't find anyone. I wandered around the bar (which was surprisingly big--apparently the Lagerhaus is a performing arts venue, along with the "Cafe Lagerhaus" which was the bar) for a good ten minutes before I found a group of students from Spain, also trying to find out whether we were in the right place. We wandered around for a while longer, collecting more Spaniards and Mexicans, but we didn't find anyone else. One girl went around a corner to see if there was maybe another Lagerhaus, and she came back all startled, telling us (in Spanish) that she had seen someone lying in the street shooting up through a vein in his leg. The only words I could understand were "sin pantalones", but I got the general picture.
After that we went to a bar called Bermuda, and about ten more Spanish-speaking students showed up, and one from France. We started talking, because everyone else was only talking in Spanish. It was "Happy Aua", so I got two beers for € 2,50. They weren't actually beers--I don't like beer--they were a beer-based beverage called "Beck's Chilled Orange". Not bad, but it wasn't that great. Later on, the French student and I went back to the Lagerhaus. This was around 10, and finally the other students had arrived.
Oh yeah. On the way back, I was hungry, so I got a hot dog from a street vendor. It was really good, actually, but I'm still confused by it. It was topped with ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, dill pickle slices, and... something else. It looked like it might have been bacon bits, and it was very light and crunchy... but it wasn't bacon bits. Does anyone know what it was? If I can't figure it out soon, I'm going to have to go back there and ask him--and I'm not prepared to find out that now there's no stand there, and never was. Gasp!

Anyway... I happened to have very little cash on me last night, so I couldn't afford a beer by the time I got to the Lagerhaus, even if I had wanted one. The strange result of this is that everyone asked me at least four times why I wasn't drinking anything. First I said I didn't have any more money, which was met with a kind of shrug and a look that seemed to mean "Why does that matter?". Next I tried saying that I had two beers already, which was kind of a lie, and even if it had been true, it didn't work. They had half-liter glasses of beer at the table. After that I just said that I didn't drink much, which was unbelievable for two reasons: First, they didn't understand that the phrase implicitly meant "alcohol", and second, how could I not like beer? I have yet to ask anyone how they could like beer, but I suspect the reason is simply peer pressure. They drink it because that's what people do--they drink, smoke, and talk. And somehow, none of that interests me.
At some point we left the Lagerhaus to head to a night club. I was kind of tired, and realizing that this type of entertainment wasn't really my thing, but I went along with it for a while longer. You never know until you try, right? So we got on the tram, and were immediately followed by ten thousand drunken soccer fans, singing, joking, and generally being less than sober. When we finally got to the club, there was a huge line outside. I figured that there were only two reasons there could be a line: 1, there's no room in the club, and they have to wait for people to come out before more can go in--in which case it would take forever for us to get in. 2, there was something taking time happening at the door--probably a cover charge, in which case I would probably be turned away at the door. So I decided that it was time to go home (particularly because I can't dance anyway, and probably shouldn't try).

So, I guess it's just not my thing. I tried it out, though, so now I know what it's like, and furthermore I realized that not everyone goes out to drink. It's mistaken to assume that those who do are the "popular kids"--they're just the ones that happen to enjoy the taste of beer and cigarettes, and have an endless ability to talk about nothing. So I'll stick to my own interests, and not try to be someone I'm not.

So far, what I've gotten from being here is a new perspective. It's not the only thing, and it's not the only new perspective, but I'll just stick to describing this one for now.

People always underestimate the degree to which they don't think beyond their own nose. Just "don't", not "can't"--it's not an absolute, it's just a hobby. We come into the world assuming, first of all, that there is a world, then further assuming that we perceive it as it exists. The fact is that we don't. We have a generally clear picture of things, but that's all it is--a picture. The world is full of information that must be inferred or learned, and a surprising amount of it is indirect. It must all be inferred. Coming into the world with five senses, we must build our entire world on the basis of them. We're very good at it, but it's a very variable process. I didn't say imperfect, because it's not a matter of right or wrong, perfect or imperfect. It's just a matter of opinion.
I've known all this, and generally it's not useful knowledge, so I don't think about it a lot. Certainly no one can be absolutely sure of anything, but to say that just undermines our further usage of the word "sure", or "right"-it's all semantics, and at the end of the day, we must act as if the world is real and solid, and as if we had free will. We have to get along somehow, day after day. But when I came to this foreign country, and learned this foreign language, it reminded me. I started to feel it in a visceral way, not just theoretically. All the human creations followed basically the same lines, but varied just slightly: Coca-Cola is made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, McDonald's has a shrimp burger, people park cars on the sidewalk, streets and sidewalks are cobbled with stones or bricks instead of paved with concrete or asphalt. But nature, and the fundamental aspects of human life, remain mostly the same.

I guess what I'm learning is what's fundamental, and what is variable. And that the world doesn't need my agreement to function in a certain way. The concepts of "right and wrong" have a very limited function.

These foreign kezboards are something else. First of all, the z and the y are switched. @ is under the Q, and zou get at it bz a secondarz "alt" kez, on the right side. Almost all of the non-alphanumeric characters are in a different place, to make room for the ä, ö, and ü kezs. "Ctrl" is "Strg", ' and " are on opposite sides of the kezboard, and I don't know what the hell § is. On the plus side, now I can tzpe ß, €, and °.
No, I haven't been drinking again. Thez reallz have different kezboards!

Okay, today I was in the mood for eating. I get that way sometimes... and I always end up giving in to it, sooner or later. This time I decided to try Subway. There are many Subways all over Bremen, and it's the only place where you can get free refills. It's probably the only thing you can get for free in all of Germany. And it turned out to be very good food--slightly less fresh than in the US, so far as I've seen, but very tasty.
Unfortunately, I completely forgot that in Subway, you have to tell them everything you want on the sub. When I walked in the door, I saw the ordering area and said "Oh crap, I forgot they eat fresh here."
But I managed to get through it. I looked up ahead of time all the names for the vegetables I wanted, and I only paused for a moment when she asked what vegetables I wanted, because I forgot to look up the word "vegetable". And of course no-one enunciates in the food service industry.
And it turned out to be delicious. I have successfully eaten fresh.

Yep, this was a two-post day. And maybe some other day I'll explain the title.

But there is a first time for everything, ne? Yes, I got drunk. No, it wasn't excessive. I didn't eat breakfast today, and I didn't eat a lot at the cafeteria either. I mean, I ate until I was full... but considering the quality of the food, that didn't take long. :P And then there was that 3-hour German course. So after that we went out drinking.
We found this really nice German pub--not very old, but very old-looking. Heaps of atmosphere. And of course we just happened to drop in at happy hour. So... I've tried Beck's, recently, and had to cautiously admit to native Bremers that I didn't like it at all. I believe it's a light beer. And I always figured that a dark beer would have more of the same taste, so I would like it even less. Unless I happened to run into a particularly different brand today, I don't think that's the case. The dark beers have more flavor overall, which sort of drowns out the bitterness. I wish they could make a beer that wasn't bitter at all, but I guess some people like the taste of just having vomited? *shrug* (I'm not exaggerating... that's exactly the aftertaste Beck's leaves in my mouth... but you won't hear me say it anywhere else.)
Anyway, I ordered a dark beer, and I kind of liked it. And then, to my surprise, I found out what it's like to be mildly tipsy. :P It was nothing special. A new experience, but somewhat inferior to being completely lucid. And then I decided that I should probably eat something.
Can you believe I haven't eaten a single sausage since I've been here? That must be remedied.

Okay, okay... this might be one of those "you had to have been there" moments, but I think it transcends that. I couldn't stop laughing. First, let me update you on the situation.

Today, after having been in Bremen for 6 days, it was finally time for orientation. At 9:30 am I went to the Hochschule (one of the buildings--the university is actually scattered all over Bremen), and met all the other transfer students here this semester. There was a big group from Spain, and generally a huge sampling of all sorts of countries. Along with me, though, there was only one other American student, and he didn't know any German at all. So finally I get to know more German than someone! Heh, heh. Anyway, I was pretty successful in my attempt to become a social animal. Granted, it was a pretty simple situation, but I didn't hide in a corner with the chocolates the entire time! (Yes, of course there were chocolates. It's Easter time, and it's Germany.)
Unfortunately, registration for the non-Europe students did not occur today. I'll go back tomorrow at the same time, then I will finally register and get my Semesterticket, so I won't have to pay 2 Euros for every tram. (The public transit here is convenient, but a bit expensive.)
Afterwards, we were introduced to the cafeteria, which I think was not quite as delicious as the J (the cafeteria at Humboldt State University), but still edible. Then was the first day of the short, intensive German course. It was three hours, although it didn't seem that long--there were so many different nationalities there, and we all had a lot of fun. (This intensive course was B2, the highest bracket. We all took a short online German language placement test, and only a couple of people were better than B2.)
Anyway. We started off, of course, by talking about ourselves. The girl from Finland mentioned that she was with a program (in Finland) called "Adventure Education"--the professor said it was "Erlebnispädagogik" auf Deutsch. Nobody really knew what this was, so she started out to explain it (in English--she didn't feel capable of explaining it in German). I'm not kidding, these are her words I'm using. (As best I can remember--but not far off.)
"Well, we go to people who need help, like for instance, someone using drugs, or something. Then we take them into the woods (this is the moment where I burst out laughing), and we do things with them (continued, barely stifled laughter). Then when we are finished doing things with them, we take them out, and they can get a job, or an education, or something." (Uncontrollable laughter. Wondering if she thinks I'm laughing at her usage of English.)
Maybe it was funnier in person, but really. Fortunately I had a chance to ask her later, because I really did not understand. It turns out that it's a program to build the self-esteem of disadvantaged persons. They find people who need help, like drug users. Then they take them and give them tasks--one example would be pseudo-boy-scouting, building fires, forestry stuff. Through success in these small things, they begin to realize that they can be successful in life, if they put the effort in. Alles klar?
Heh... it was funny, though. Oh, what a day.

I made up the word all by myself, although I don't claim to have been the first. It means "foreigner tax", and no, it's not literal.
One of the things I discovered about going to another country is that I don't know the rules, the customs, or even the brands. I mean, I expected that, but what I discovered was that this has a very real financial result. The "Ausländergebühr" is paid every time I buy a new train ticket, not knowing that I could have transferred, or every time I eat at McDonald's because I didn't want to take a chance on whatever "Backfisch" might turn out to be, or every time I accidentally buy lipstick instead of ChapStick. And no, none of those examples actually happened. :P The train tickets don't transfer, I know what Backfisch is, and I found the Blistex just fine, thank you (I don't think they have ChapStick here...). But I have been noticing the effect.

Oh, and there's no free refills here at McDonald's. What the hell?

It didn't take me a day here to realize that I was completely right--I couldn't have prepared myself for this. Everything is so different, in so many ways. It's really the little things that count, and that can't be explained properly. For instance...
When I was flying into Denver, looking out the windows, I wondered briefly when I would first know that I was in Germany--what would be the first new thing I saw when I landed. Turns out I didn't even have to get there--when I boarded the flight to Frankfurt, a bunch of passengers and flight attendants were speaking German, and there were German newspapers there to read on the flight.
When I got into Frankfurt, I decided to get some lunch at McDonald's. You'd think McDonald's would be the airport equivalent of a US Embassy (a little slice of America), but it was also very thoroughly cultured. The first thing I saw on the menu was a big speckly burger with the words "Shrimp Lemon" above it. I almost ran screaming right then and there, but they had the long-estranged McRib, so I decided to try that. I'm not sure if it always tasted this terrible, or if it was Germany's fault... but I'm leaning towards the former. Heh, heh.

So yeah, now I'm in Germany. I'm pretty blown away... and I'm worrying about every little thing, because whatever I do, there's always the chance that I'm completely misunderstanding what's going on. (Lots of people here speak some amount of English, but surprisingly I often speak more German... so communication is a constant issue.) I'm getting better, though. And on Wednesday, I get to meet a bunch of other transfer students, so I might be able to make some friends who are in the same situation. :D

Okay, Germans, I'll admit it. Now that the flight date is less than a week away... I'm scared. I'm anticipating it, but it's pretty scary. Your country intimidates me.

Although I think what I'm most worried about is myself. I want to get out and see the country, and make friends, and all that sort of stuff humans do. But I'm afraid I won't be good at it, simply because I've always been terrible at it before. Actually, that's pretty convincing. :( How do I learn how to interact like a normal person? I don't know where they teach the basicbasicbasics, because apparently everyone already knows them... except me.

I don't know if anyone heard about the Smash Bros. Brawl tournament that Gamestop put on. It's still going on, actually--round 2 is on March 15th. I probably couldn't make that one, and I won't even be in the country during the other rounds, but I went to the first round because I couldn't resist pitting my skills against others in an actual competition. I've been just about unbeatable at Melee, so I figured I stand a decent chance of beating the crap out of a bunch of random kids in Brawl. Afterwards, I still think I could have, had it been an actual competition. You see, Brawl supports four different control schemes, ranging from the familiar (the Gamecube controller) to the laughable (the Wiimote turned sideways). And apparently Gamestop wasn't able to come up with four Wavebirds. I bet I could have bought some that night, but we were only allowed to play with the most limited controller. It didn't even use motion-sensing--just a D-pad and four buttons. And to top it off, they told us the controls wrong. After I bought the game, I went home and read the controls, then suddenly realized why I was not able to use the final smash.
So, I ended up getting fourth place in the first match. Which would have made me sad, except that if you know me, you know that fourth place is something I do not do. That's proof, if you weren't there, that the contest was nothing of the sort. These weren't hardcore gamers, either. I'm pretty sure that given the chance, I could have beaten them all.

But I won't let it get me down. We all got the game, which is the most any of us really hoped for, and I couldn't have won the whole tournament even if I am good enough. Now all I need to do is hope that I can find an NTSC-compatible TV in Germany.