Alrighty, so... New things here in germany: NOTHING
nothing is new. I read. A lot. Everyday. What do I read? Kafka. More Kafa. Analysis of Kafka. Then when I am done with that... O wait, I generally am never DONE with kafka work. So anybody who might potentially miss me and wonders what wonderful new and exciting things are going on here, wonder no more, for there are none. This leaves me with really short conversations with friends and relatives. So if you want to save yourself the time, just read this post, and you will no longer need to call me.

I got really tired of going to parties pretty fast, which is good, because I now no longer have time to go out to parties. I have THAT much studying to do. It is good studying. I am learning a lot. My german reading abilities are seriously skyrocketing. I like some of my classes, others not so much. The ISP courses are pretty much a joke, so they balance out my week quite well due to the obscene amount of time it takes me to read Kafka stuff.

I also go to Ultimate on monday and friday nights, and I think it helps keep me sane. I get to exercise (stay healthy), talk to people (stay slightly socially active), talk to people IN GERMAN (improve german speaking and listening skills), play ultimate (arguably my favorite sport), and just do some good old 'running my ass off' and get some endorphins going (helping me not go crazy and depressed). So that is always lots of fun, plus the people at Ultimate are generally really nice, and some of them aren't actually too bad.

Oddities about myself. ok, so I have this really weird ability to adapt to change quite well. This can often be good, sometimes not. Meaning, not having a car, or even being in a car at all, doesn't bother me that much. Being completely on my own, not seeing my family and friends, being around completely new people, dealing with a new educational system, having new languages thrown around daily, and all that other crazy 'international' stuff that freaks people out and makes them homesick, or lonely, or stressed because of a new culture doesn't really bother me. Sure, I kinda miss seeing my family and friends, but honestly, I haven't really gotten super homesick, I haven't broke down crying wanting to come home, or anything else of the sort. Sure, I guess you could also call that emotional detachment, but I'll stick with "adapts well to change. I have a hard course load, but I study a lot. Most of my focus is, therefore, diverted from home. I have some friends here. I don't mean to say that I just hang out with my friends here and forget that everybody in the States exists, but I don't feel super duper sad that I am not at home either. I know that I would just get stressed and frustrated were I at home anyways. I am gonna be spending a lot of time in the library studying this semester, and I won't have lots of free time. So if I don't get to talk to people back at home much, I am not dead, and I do still love you all, I just have a lot going on.
Also, one things Germany lacks (for me at least)... IS DRAMA. and that is a good thing. I feel like so much of my life back home (especially when at mizzou) is wrapped up in drama, and thank the lord!, cause i don't really deal with that here. and i like it.

Well, back to Franz (Kafka). Adios Amigos.

Olfactory euphoria baby

So as it may not be known to all, I shall divulge the information concerning my absolute favorite smell in the world. NEW SHOES. Dear lord they smell so good. Yesterday I got a new pair of indoor shoes so I can play ultimate this winter (they play indoors in the winter here. HOW WEIRD), and OMG do they smell amazing. I have put off wearing them until now just so I can go on smelling the pristine goodness until I have to stink them up with my feet. Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well!

IT'S STILL OCTOBER!

WTF. It's freaking snowing. No joke. It is 9:20 on Sunday the 21st of October, and it is snowing. Not flurrying, SNOWING. goddammit. This is gonna be one LONG winter. Well it was good knowing you all, if I don't come back, I will probably be found in some stupid snow drift. I better buy some long johns. Oh well. Gotta go get my study on... and my jacket.

The semester started this week. Although, most of my classes don't actually begin until next week. And I finally have my schedule all worked out. I will probably end up dropping onoe of these classes, but here it is. (OH, and german classes are based on ECTS (european credit transfer system) credits, and i get about .5 US credit hours per ects.

-The works of Franz Kafka (8ects)
-Graphic Novels in American literature (english) (6ects)
-French 1 (3ects)
my other classes are in the ISP, which is the international language department. They offer german classes for foreigners.
-Grammar for the experienced (5ects)
-Reading and conversation (5ects)
-'translation puzzle' (Class for english speakers on translation)(4ects)

Last night I got to have dinner with all of my roomates. This was really cool, since I didn't really know any of them that well. There are 2 german girls, a german guy, a spanish guy, and a french girl. We all cooked something small and sat around and talked for a really long time. It was loads of fun.
Germans are still hard to understand sometimes due to accent and speed of their speech.

So things are good. I am very much hoping the semester starts off well, and assuming my dead corpse doesn't get shipped back to the US because of my dying from stress and overstudying for my kafka class, I believe all will be fine.

Numb

6 Million. That's a big freakin number. That is the just over the approximated population of Missouri. That is how many Jews died at the hand of the National Socialists during the third Reich. I don't know about you guys, but 6 mil. isn't exactly an easy idea to grasp. St. louis, gone. KC, gone. ALL of freakin missouri, gone. We have become so desensitized to the idea of the holocaust, that the ideas of what actually happened are just vague gray areas in our minds. We have practically become NUMB. But this week I got to go the jewish memorial in Berlin, and I got to read about the families murdered in WWII. It's some freaky shit. The bible doesn't say: " be a bitch to your neighbor. Oh, and try and exterminate every Jew in Europe while you are at it." But whether you believe in what the bible says or not, the catastrophic extermination of that many people is one of the scariest things I can think of. If you have never actually been to a concentration camp, lemme tell ya, its pretty sobering.
Hate will always brew up more hate, so go sit down and think about if you are making a positive influence. Forget about every shoot 'em up, romantic comedy, and every other fantasy 'never REALLY gonna happen film,' and look back at reality. Because this shit happened.

Dookie

I always thought that 'dookie' was a cool word

So I have all my classes figured out except one. My french class. The online signup thing didn't get put up when it was supposed to, so now I am on the waiting list. I have been talking to people, even went to the office, but no luck yet. I think I shall have to resort to being petty and playing the germans of game of being a bureaucratical jerk, maybe then I will get my way.

Anyways... BERLIN. So I went to Berlin last week, and IT WAS AWESOME. I had never been to Berlin, so yeah, everything was new and cool and WOW. I got to see so much stuff, I would end up boring myself trying to write it all here. But some of the highlights included:
-the tv tower built in east germany (possibly tallest structure in berlin, not sure though)
-Charlottenburger Castle (Mom might have a heart attack if she saw the landscaping at this place)
-Potsdam (suburb of Berlin). There is an area there with like 3 castle/ palaces, a cool windmill, this "chinese house" building, a gorgeous fountain, and OMG it is some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen in my life. It was breathtaking.
-Olympia Stadium. This is where Berlin's Soccer team (hertha) plays. It is also where the 2006 world cup championships were held, and it was built for the 1936 Olympics, this is where hitler gives his famous opening ceremony speach I believe
-Brandenburger gate. On the east/west border of berlin right at the wall. Big cool structure with lots of history.
- Berlin wall. There are two different parts of it still up, one is small and has a museum under it, the other is 1 km long and has murals and spray painted crap that is real cool all over it.
-Jewish memorial/ museum. There is a relatively new memorial in the center of berlin that is a vast expance of concrete blocks. hard to explain without going into detail/actually being there. It was cool, and there is a museum underneath it about the 6 million jews killed in europe in WWII. Fascinating, disturbing, educational.

We also found this cool little italian restraunt that had really affordable and HELLA good food. I also found a wine there that i really liked. Lambrusco. It's a sweet red wine that is freakin delicious. I also got to have a dinner of pork and spaghetti carbonara... COOKED BY ITALIANS. there were 8 of us on the trip, 3 of which were itialians. Not the most timely of people, but damn they can cook. So yeah, that was Berlin, it was sweet... and big.

I am not a jelly donut

The Dubl J is glad to tell everybody that he has been in Deutschland for exactly one month! And that he finds it exciting. Things are goin well and he is pumped\terrified for the semester to start. Also, he wishes to thank squirrels all over the world. They are cool... and spastic.