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.

The first day of the rest of my Einführungskurs (orientation course). I confess I had a wonderful time today. I felt comfortable in the city, didn't come close to getting lost and interacted plenty - sans anxiety - with Germans. I really felt drawn to everything around me. All I wanted to do when I had free time was walk and explore, and I see now I will have to start doing most of that on my own. My Anglophone companions aren't really into strolling through Bonn-- they've already announced that they're 'bored' and want to book it to Amsterdam this weekend. Bored. I can't imagine how anybody could be bored. I am just getting to understand how to navigate this place and I want to look down every street and poke my head into every corner. Can't imagine wanting to leave the country when you barely know your hometown.
One of the highpoints was an Arbeitsgemeinschaft with Frau Osterhus. I can't properly describe the way Frau Osterhus appears. Physically, she's in the middle of any scale which might have "Dominatrix" and "Crack Addict" for poles. I'll include a photograph -- only seeing is believing (will try for a better one later in the week.) We're doing a survey of German political - pre and post war - cartoons. I'll scan some later -- they're worth it (unfortunately, I wasn't able to snag a copy of 'German man piss-painting Swastika into snow bank.'*)

Osterhus


Couple more images:

Bavarian-looking foosball figure


Poppelsdorfer Bike Path



*My own titling.

Bonn

Today was the first day I actually enjoyed myself in Germany. If I haven't mentioned it, the first two days were extraordinarily difficult. I was REALLY homesick. Confused. German was practically unintelligible. The people running my program, whether intentionally or not, leave you very much to figure things out on your own (where to buy groceries, which buses to use, etc.) But today I didn't get lost on the bus or anything. Things morphed from horrific to fascinating and I became a lot more relaxed.

A few little victories:
I actually bought a doughnut at the Bäckerei (bakery) Zimmermann, across the street. I realize now that one isn't going to be enough (it's kind of a small puff, covered in sugar -- not very similar to anything Dunkin' Donuts offers). They're delicious and I imagine I'll want three for breakfast every weekday.
I attended an introduction/orientation grammar class. Jutta Paust is the teacher and she's a bit tetched. She darts all over the place and announced that we had to open all the windows ("Wir müssen frische Luft haben!"), despite the fact that the temperature is hovering around -2C here (high twenties, low thirties Fahrenheit).
The 'fresh air' froze us and stank of burning rubber, but at least Jutta was content.

I bought some home supplies at Kaufhof, a department store in the Universität Marktplatz. It smacks of Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's; really any common middle-to-high priced American store. That same department store smell of new fabrics and plastic bags was soothing.
I hope to upload some pictures of my neighborhood groceries, particularly Norma -- a small, cheap spot with lovely foods and Marilyn Monroe as mascot ("Ich heiße Norma.") Aldi isn't bad either -- I think I've even seen a few in the US, so it's perhaps not very interesting to any of you.
Before my class with Jutta, we all met at the Universitäts Hauptgebäude and walking back from lunch I took a couple of pictures.
Before I forget, something quite charming -- two men were playing Toccata and Fugue on accordions in the marketplace. Their playing was gorgeous -- almost identical to the way it sounds on an organ. I wanted to stop and listen better, and would have if my companions weren't so keen on running here and there. Next time, for sure.

The photos:
Bonn is beautiful. Enjoy.






A view of part of Immenburg (my outer neighborhood):