Diane’s World

Hi there family, friends and people who are in other categories:

sorry I’ve been bad at posting. I didn’t have much to post until now.

Song of the week is “9 Crimes” by Damien Rice. I love it - Lisa Hannigan’s and Damien’s voices go together ridiculously well.

Anyways, a few interesting things have happened.An Iranian artist had a showing in the Goethe Institute. His art was very good.

there was also a concert of contemporary iranian music. There were mixed reactions with my friends - but I thought it was very passionate, very free, very experimental, and all together very lovely.

On Friday I set off to go to Amsterdam with these two crazy kids:

Left is my friend Sam - he studies in the Goethe institut with me. He’s from Kansas. The girl on the right is Tamara. I just met her this weekend, but she is from the same town as Sam.

I don’t have too many pictures of this weekend (so I’m stealing a lot of these from google), but what we did:

1) Made a tour of the red-light district. Aye-yi-yi. Quite a few interesting conversations came out of that one… but I think I should probably shut up now? Yes, I think I will.

2) Went to the Anne Frank house. This is my second time seeing this, but it was good to see again.

3) We celebrated Australia day at an Aussie bar. I don’t think words are enough to explain how hilarious this night ended up being… but we made friends with a Belgium guy, an Australian guy, and a Spanish girl and guy.

4) Went to the VanGogh museum. Really enjoyed it - Van Gogh is 8000 times better in person than just seeing pictures on a screen or in a book. These are the two paintings that stuck out at me the most (they are brilliant up close - I love how he can use a few simple strokes to create a rather descriptive painting):

5) On the train ride home, I started a little list to help me decide if I like it here or not. So I give you Diane’s list of the pros and cons of GERMANY!:

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT DEUTSCHLAND:

Döners

The way Europe makes you “feel” different

Gelato

The Auto Bahn

Chocolate

How easy it is to visit many other countries

The local public transportation

All the random old castles and churches that you can often find.

The general appreciation of the arts

Coffee. Everywhere.

How one meal can take up to 2 or 3 hours and it would be completely normal.

German scotch tape (yes, it is superior! I would know!)

Stabilo pens

Currywurst (I like how half of the good things about Germany involve food )

The rich culture

The diversity (Aka Greek Men :-p )

THINGS I HATE ABOUT DEUTSCHLAND:

The general unhappy/unfriendliness of the people on the streets (NOTE: This is only how they act on the streets - most of the germans I know close are nothing but kind, friendly and very welcoming people!)

Everybody is wearing black

Der, die friggen das. (for you non-German speakers, that roughly translates as “the, the friggen the”)

Everybody likes to stare. You can stare back at them - it doesn’t phase them at all.

German crowds are very “pushy”

Crap music

What? Tuna fish pizza? Are we serious, Germany?

How expensive everything is (except beer)

You can’t pay for everything with a debit/credit

Is it really necessary to have 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, 1 euro and 2 euro coin? Aye yi yi!

PDA (Public Displays of Affection.) I’m sick of watching people making out all the time.

So all in all, I love making fun of Germany’s crazy things, but I really am enjoying life right now. Well I have homework to do and sleep to catch up on, so have a wonderful week everybody!

Daisy *

*this is one of the nicknames I somehow managed to get while in Germany. The other two are “Ledig” (translate that one yourself), and “Dee Dee”.