Furth in Germanz

Holy cow, I´m in Germany. Different keyboard yet again, this one is not as bad. They´ve switched the z and y keys, plus some things with umlauts etc.

I got here yesterday, the cab driver got lost because my printout had only "2" as the street address, and it was really "222". And then the concierge person wasn´t there in person, by telephone only. Lonely, alone, and a little freaked out. I don´t speak any German, all my friends said I´d do fine without knowing any German, everzone speaks English over here. Not so.

I came in Sunday evening. Everything is closed on Sundays. I walked around trying to find somewhere to eat, all two choices were closed. I am on the outskirts of Furth, and the smell of sheep shit is in the air. I am not in the city.

I walked around, and asked for help from one person, she didn´t speak English. She was asking me something, holding a 10 spot, with her dog in tow, I have no idea what she wanted, the context did not help. I asked this other guy, he said he was new here too. I figured I´d go back to the hotel and suck in my pride and ask for help.

I hate being helpless and ignorant, that part of this is not so fun. I leave in a week, and I´m looking forward to coming home. Part of me is embarassed that I am one of those ignorant, rude Americans who thinks the whole world speaks English.

I chatted with an older Swiss gentleman on the plane from Nice to Zurich. He had started his own shipping company, and now he has offices around the world. We talked in English and French, he complimented me on my French. He noticed my watch is Swiss, he asked how much my trip cost, he was impressed when I said my father used to be a professor. He thought he had paid for this trip, and he was surprised that I´d paid for it myself. (I´ll continue paying after I return). All in all a nice man, a little focused on money, but very sweet. As he left the plane, he said ´may all my dreams come true.´ I forget if he said it in English or German.

I already notice I fit in better here, despite my ignorance of the language. Germany, or at least this part, does not hide its fat or ugly people. There are beautiful people too, but these folks are generally more sturdy. The men certainly are --the men in France were pretty and fairly thin, they look more like men here.

The second person I asked for help from turned out to be a new friend. Originally from Cameroon, he´s been studzing IT in Hamburg then doing some studies or work at Siemens. We are able to talk in English and French. He walked me into the city center last night, where we found Thai food. My first meal in Germany was Thai, and I´m not sure what it was. Beef with veggies. I wolfed down an OJ and then sipped a light beer.

We chatted a bit as we walked. He was impressed that I´d taken a database design course. I tried to say that it was just one course, but he was still impressed. He has a couple days off, he is going to show me around Nurnberg today and possiblz tomorrow. Thank goodness, cuz I am lost.

Thank god for yogurt, my Ipod, my Dansko shoes, and nice people. Without any of those, life would be a lot tougher.

Breakfast this morning was, uh, interesting. Goodbye croissants, hello unknown meat spreads. I tried one, it looked like the baby food I normally won´t go near at baby showers, but it was okay. It´s a good thing that I like liverwurst. Bread and yogurt and ham are good too.

Mike had to leave me at dinner ,but he drew me a map of where to take the bus and how much it was. I got on okay, it took longer than I thought, and there was a moment where I worried if I didn´t find my spot, I´d be totallz up the creek, wandering on a German bus. But, thankfully, the universe was kind to finally take me to where I needed to go. It was very helpful that I´d already walked around the town, and I could recognize home.

The weather here is perfect, a little warm. Very much like San Jose. There are lots of bikes around, and fields too.

I took a long nap in my hotel room yesterday after I arrived. I realized later that I was dehydrated. Because it´s a little tricky to find somewhere to use the toilet, I´ve been avoiding drinking too much. But, then I remembered a tip a friend said -- drink a lot of water in the morning and in the evening.

It´s funny, as I walk around, I keep thinking of when Jdawg came to Europe a couple of years ago. I find myself thinking, "What would J do?" And then I have to laugh...it´s my own incarnation of the WWJD movement.

It is really toasty in this internet cafe.