Not the best day. Tension in my Unterricht (class) this morning. Frau Paust - Jutta - is not quite as cute to me now as she seemed a few days ago. It's my first instinct to call her rude; but maybe fairer to call her "blunt," or "spunky." That is something slightly difficult to get used to here; a kind of roughness that people have in their interaction. Even when shopping, the cashiers and service people are not as friendly as their American counterparts. Half the time you're as likely to get a grimace and a weary mutter at the check-out counter as you are to get a smile. Now, this is hard for me, having lived in America, where the customer is always right, and the service people are always brown-nosers. I miss those brown-nosers. I really do.
Anyway, Jutta.
Jutta is much more forward than most of the other people I've met. This morning, after I searched unsuccessfully for a term in my Deutsch als Fremdsprache dictionary and informed her that it simply wasn't listed, she grabbed the book from me and said "Ich glaube das nicht" (I don't believe that.) Am I a child? What, d'ya think I made it up? After discovering for herself that it was missing, she muttered "hm, sehr komisch" (very strange) and moved on. Could've listened to me and saved yourself five minutes, you crazy little Mädchen.
And another thing: She's far more critical of American culture than I'm comfortable with, focusing a bit too long on her critique of American military conduct at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo ["the Americans tortured people, the Americans won't let the UN into Guantanamo." Well, thanks to Jutta and CNN World for the update, but I do live stateside, most of the time.] And a whole lot of smarmy bootlicking when it comes to the Japanese and Taiwanese students. Hell, the Korean girl doesn't even speak German and she's nice to her. ("You cook Korean food? How does one say [whatever] in Korean?")
I suppose it's all to be expected, and Jutta does mean well...in her way, but it's harder to bear when I'm not quite over the jetlag and trying to absorb everything between a Nickerchen here and there (Nickerchen - a word for a very quick nap. 'Nodding off' gives you the right sense of it.)
Anyway,
Bonn is still beautiful. I've fallen in love with a bookstore called Bouvier and will photograph it next week. I registered (as a resident) with the city today and got a bunch of free tickets to museums and other places. There's also tomorrow with the 'excursion' to Marksburg (the Westernmost city in Germany -- on the border with Belgium), and the 'wine tasting' (groooaaaan: have the impression some of the other Americans drink too much as it is.)
Still have to get those political cartoons up as well. Maybe later.
In the meantime, more pictures.
Gucken sie, bitte (have a look, please):

Weberstrasse, where I attend class


The other side of the Weberstrasse


Jutta herself


Marketplace


Second date with Frau Osterhus. Please note the polka-dot galoshes.