Gwen Studies Broads

Once again it's been a while since I've updated, but you'd be busy too if you were in Germany! Heidelberg was very nice. I got to see the castle, but no where sold dirndls! I was so upset. Nevertheless, I will continue my search.

As I'm sure you're all aware, Germany has a lot of cultural differences that I've noticed since I got here. Some things are better than they are in the States, and some are worse. One thing that sucks is the windows; none of them have screens on them! It's such a pain. The windows here aren't at all like the ones in the States. Instead of opening up and down, they open out, like doors. I like having the windows in my apartment open, but bugs always get in, what with the lack of screens-- and this isn't just in my apartment. It's all over Germany. Another thing that I didn't know before I came here is that you always have to bring bags with you when you go shopping to places like the grocery store or the pharmacy. They don't give you bags, you either have to have some with you or they usually have some boxes left over from stocking the shelves that you can use. This especially sucks, because I usually use plastic bags instead of garbage bags, but I can't really do that here since they don't have any. Another odd thing about Germany is that they're really into recycling, which I had no idea about. All homes and public trash cans are divided into about five different sections for each different type of garbage, and it's very confusing. There are things about Germany that are better though. One thing is bread, the bread here has been really great. My preferred variety is Weltmeister Brot, which is a whole grain bread with poppy and sesame seeds on top, flax seeds inside and sunflower seeds on the bottom. It's a seed bonanza! Also, all the grocery stores here stock at least five different kinds of Nutella. There's the original brand, and then there are all kinds of other brands that I've never heard of. Another thing that's really awesome about Germany is the train system. It really puts Amtrak to shame. Oh, and something else that I've noticed that I think is nice; retail employees sit down when ringing up transactions. In all the grocery stores and pharmacies and things, the employees get to sit, which doesn't really affect me at all, but I think it must be nice for them.

Something that I think is funny here is the name of the main toilet paper brand. Happy End. And no, that's not just a funny translation, that's what it's actually called! A funny translation would be Pizza Hut. It's called Pizza Hut here too, but technically it translates to 'Pizza Hat' which I find quite amusing.

Right now it's 1:30, it's a beautiful day out, I'm done with my classes for the day and I'm going to head into town to see if the cute boy at the video store wants to go out for ice cream!

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