My Düsseldorf Diary

I know that the last thing an American would want to eat at while staying in Germany is a McDonald’s, but I have gone a number of times over the past few weeks. Many of those have been instances of using the bathroom without buying anything but the main reason I’ve been going is the promotional contest that about to end in the next week. My first visit was actually to partake in the McRib, which I had unfortunately missed during its recent limited run in the US.

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Now I know why my professor warned me not to engage in political discussions while over here. I took the above picture of Amerikaners (I still don’t know why they are named that) in a Penny Markt and an Iranian guy saw me and talked with me a little bit. I thought it was done there and I’d never see the man again, but he saw me a couple minutes later and told me for what must have fifteen minutes about how he dislikes Israel but that he’s an educated man - an electrical engineer - and how the Shiites or Sunnis (I don’t remember which) are screwing up Iraq. I just smiled and nodded, watching slight foam generate on his lips every so often until he eventually left for the register to buy his groceries. Soon after that, I bought some batteries and walked out.

First complaint: Almost nothing is open on Sundays except for restaurants and Internet cafes. So if you need to buy groceries or get an extension cable on that day of the week, you’re mostly likely out of luck and will have to wait until Monday.

Second complaint: The nine-hour time difference between Germany and the U.S. West Coast is painful. For example, last week I had to wait until 7pm local time for the Apple press conference to start at 10am PDT. There are also only a couple windows of hours a piece where both me and my family back in California will be awake if we decide to talk on the phone. It’s just a hassle that I will be glad to be rid of when I return to America.

Finally getting around to posting pictures from the journey to Germany:

The gate at Sacramento International.

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I have, for the most part, gotten my stuff in order and had my class orientation a couple hours ago. First, a short summary of the plane rides over. (Pictures coming later because I need to retrieve a USB cable…)

Sacramento to Minneapolis: Went way before I needed to and bought a bagel and some orange juice a short distance from the terminal. The ride was pretty smooth and uneventful.

Minneapolis to Detroit: Earned $3 from a lottery scratcher I bought at the airport. Bought a newspaper (Star-Tribune) as well and read about the Garnett trade. Was delayed 30 minutes because of the previous flight coming in and a seat needing to be repaired. Took only 90 minutes or so.

Detroit to Düsseldorf: Had a Heinken on the plane and then listened a little bit to the music channels using the dinky headphones the airline provided. Channel 9 was what I’m calling the “dramatic music station” that was Dinner was chicken and rice with a roll and a brownie. The movie was “Lucky You” (that hold-em film with Eric Bana and Robert Duvall), which I liked but probably would have enjoyed it more if there weren’t the sound of a jet engine and the poor quality of the headset. Breakfast was an egg patty sandwich with coffee or orange juice, strawberry-banana yogurt and a fruit cup.

I took a taxi and then got lost trying to find the dormitory unaware an email that got sent to me that had directions to the location. Some other students spotted me wandering around and then showed where it was. So, right now, I am in a computer lab a couple floors above my classroom, where I will likely be posting from the next few weeks (hopefully with pictures), and need to get eat lunch and then go on a bus tour of the city.

Today, I’m packing my luggage and putting my clothes in giant Ziploc bags. I still have yet to finish reading my textbooks but I could some of that done tonight and during my long plane rides. It will probably take me about a week to get used to life outside the country since this will be my first time traveling to a foreign land. A week ago, I got in the mail 345 Euro for US$500. I’m also taking my newly acquired Zune, a Nintendo DS that will double as an alarm clock and a pocket German-English/English-German dictionary.

Yesterday, after weeks of forgetting about needing to it, I finally went down to the Study Aboard office and told them I’d like to sign up for the Germany trip in August. There were open spots so I think I’m most likely going to Germany and not Japan this summer. (I didn’t have to pay another deposit or submit another health clearance this time!) Now to look online for well-priced plane tickets…

I read recently from an article in Kansai Scene magazine that Düsseldorf has many Japan-influenced places, the center of which is Immermannstrasse - about three miles from the university I’ll be staying at. I’ll try to stop by that part of town if I have time and check out manga shops and food offerings.

Although I am glad I can use my recently acquired German in an environment in which it’s spoken, I feel bad about the current exchange rates. As it stands (as of 10:20 PM PDT 3/17/07):

100 USD = 11676.00 JPY (116.76 “Japan dollars”)
100 USD = 75.086 EUR

My money’s worth much less in Europe than it is in Japan! *sigh* I hope the situation gets better in the next 4 1/2 months…

This summer I plan to study abroad through my university and I’ve narrowed down my choices to two places and subjects: Kyoto, Japan and Dusseldorf, Germany. On Friday 2/9 I submitted my paperwork and deposit check for the Kyoto program, which is Japanese Culture in Film, and was told I’m fourth on the waitlist. The application deadline is April 13th so hopefully four people drop by then!) The office did say that I could also apply for the Germany program - Germany Under Hitler’s Third Reich - since the dates for the two don’t overlap so I will try to do that this week. I’d rather go to Japan but traveling overseas at all and getting course credit for it would be fine. Actually, if I study in Germany, I can use the language skills I’ve been learning over the past year and speak a second tongue in the wild!

Wherever I end up, I plan to chronicle my progress in the process on this blog. So look for more posting activity in April and the months leading up to the summer months. And I’ll try to change the title appropriately when I definitely find where I’m going if anywhere at all.

During class today, I was thinking of the similarities between the two countries. Both were Axis nations and I guess both have a fair number of smokers among their populations. However, there are also notable differences - the first of which is the standing of each nation’s currency with respect to the US dollar. The dollar right now buys about .73 Euros while it exchanges for about 120 yen. German uses the Roman alphabet and SVO (subject-verb-object) sentence structure while Japanese uses pictograms and an SOV structure. I guess that’s just my mind wandering while I’m supposed to be concentrated on logic homework. Bis spater!/Ja ne!