Work party and other stuff

So, we’ve successfully managed our first month in Germany. Albeit with no internet (blah!). This is largely due to our complete and total lack of German language skills. Apparently, a letter arrived some days before the 25th (the original day we were supposed to get DSL) that indicated we should be home so that Deutsche Telekom could do some magic that would allow the internet to flow. You know where this is going right? We came home to a nasty-gram from said Deutsche Telekom indicating that we missed our scheduled appointment. I am slightly dubious and here’s why. While I cannot at all read German (other than a few very select words not likely to be found in a notice from the communication company), I am completely proficient at reading dates and times. Further, I looked through all the letters that our internet provider sent and not a one even listed a date or a time. I feel that I’ve built a compelling case; however, it doesn’t change the fact that we’ll be 5 weeks in Germany with no decent connection to the U.S. So, we are rescheduled for the 11th at an undetermined time.

Other exciting events – as I mentioned we got our bikes and during breaks in the rain we’ve managed to ride them to work a few times. Collectively, David and I have only gotten lost 2 times. Not bad, huh? It takes 30 minutes by train or 30 minutes by bike to get to work. It’s nice to have options.

We had our semi-annual company celebration on Thursday. The event began with a guided tour of the zoo. Yes, that’s right. The zoo. Eighty of us, or so, took the U-Bahn across town to the Hagenbeck’s Tierpark where we learned about this character (Hagenback) that basically ransacked countries for their animals and cultural artifacts, which he subsequently installed in his zoo. It was a nice fieldtrip. I liked the elephants and I think David really dug the orangutans. This leads to a funny little anecdote. We are discovering in the course of our time here that a foreigner must endeavor to pronounce German words painstakingly. Otherwise, the German people will have no clue (none whatsoever) what you are saying. Case in point – orangutan. They pronounce it o-rang-u-tan (accent on the letters in bold). We (Americans) say it o-rang-u-tang. Our colleagues were at a loss regarding what exotic creature we could possibly be referring to. After much pantomime and describing these orange monkeys did we get our point across. A friend thinks it’s because not many people besides Germans actually speak the language and therefore, Germans aren’t really used to hearing these words with any kind of an accent. I don’t know, but it’s vital that I practice going “hhhhcccchhhh” in the back of my throat, as it appears to be in nearly every German word.

Our celebration ended with dinner at an American restaurant, which David thought was hilarious. We were pretty impressed, though. It was at pretty good attempt at southern cuisine with a German twist – this means lot’s of sausage, even veggie sausage. AND!!! There was an open bar. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Wine and beer were covered for about three hours. I don’t think much got done on Friday. But it was fun.

So, we start German lessons tomorrow. Three days a week for 2.5 hours at a whack. I feel like I am going back to school. David isn’t at all excited. There isn’t an enormous motivation when nearly everyone speaks really good English. It’s funny, when you ask someone if they speak German, they invariably reply “A little.” You can safely interpret that as they are completely fluent and are qualified to read philosophy in English.

On a totally different subject, we have a German friend who is a professor at Bielefeld University. We know him because he was a visiting scholar this spring at Illinois. His name is Fabian and he is a really super guy. Anyway, he came up this weekend on partly business and partly to hang out. It was a lot of fun and he introduced us to a very cool couple, who are politically active in the community and just really genuine people. Melonie is just finishing her Ph.D. in feminine studies and Jentz.is involved in film and he boxes in his spare time. I think I’m going to try boxing. David is worried that I’m going to lose brain cells or have brain damaged. I don’t know, but I think it would be fun for a bit. We’ll see how it goes.