7.10.2004

Since this entry is kind of a random mixture of things, I decided just to go with the very unorginal date header. I figure if I´m so clever and witty all the time, all of you will get so used to it you´ll find everything else is just a big bore. Oh, I´m only kidding.

First, the club scene. This is the way I´ve described my experience with it thus far, so a couple of you may be experiencing some deja vú:

i went to a couple of clubs -one called the ´f haus´ and one called ´ogs´. the f-haus is basically the club everyone goes to early to drink a lot because drinks are cheap. the music there was fan-flippin´-tabulous, though. the "dj"(and i use the term VERY loosely) played everything from Michael Jackson, to Madonna, to new Outkast stuff(heyy-ah), to sweet home alabama(oh yeah, for this one the "dj" turned down the volume for the chorus and a bunch of germans singing about sweet home alabama was just about the most entertaining thing i´ve seen), to that oldies song that goes "if you´re going to san...fran...cisco. be sure to wear some flowers in your hair" all laid over a techno beat. it was like an 80´s/early 90´s party or something at a club. when that one oldies song came on i said it was like some hippies opened a club and everyone came to party. hah.

ogs was a cool place, though. it has 3 floors first of all, all with a bar on them, so that was a plus. the top one just had some music coming out of mounted speakers all around, and there were a bunch of black leather couches and red-orange lighting-think like a chill room jazz club style or something of the like. the middle floor had some pretty awesome music(hip hop and stuff) mixed with some really awful dance music with english words. and the bottom floor had a mix of snoop to hip hoppy to songs like "push it", and also a mix of some terrible american-ish dance club music. i love hearing old american music all over here-it´s really funny. for instance, stop me if i´ve mentioned this before, but during dinner the other day i heard vanilla ice on the radio!

As far as interculture and IWK, both are still pretty fresh. I´ve met just about everyone in the IWK department (there is one lady that is still out of the country-I think in Costa Rica or was it Portugal. As you can probably tell, I have no friggin´ clue). I´ve already mentioned Professor Bolten and Marion Dathe. I have also met a lady named Sonya, from England, who I really like. She´s got a great english accent and the other day I wore this white blazer and she said, "my, you´re looking rather smart today. I have to go teach a class soon, can I borrow your jacket?" As I read what I just typed it doesn´t sound that great, but it was really funny when she said it. Then there are Javier and Jorjé(I´m not sure if that´s how you spell ´hor-hey´ in Spanish, but since it´s my blog I have the freedom to spell things how I want)-Javier is from Spain and Jorjé is from Chilé. That´s about everyone in IWK-it´s a pretty small department, and they kind of recruit professors as projects develop that require a person with knowledge of a certain region.

I found out today that I´ll get to particpate in the physical form of the game(Planspiel) on which I´m working for the virtual classroom. For all of you IST-ers, I´ve heard it referred to as a game or simulation interchangeably, even though it is clearly a game and ´spiel´ literally means game, but I don´t want to ruffle any tail feathers this early in the game (no pun intended). For each group that represents a different country, all participants are supposed to be natives of the land they are representing. Javier is leading the next Planspiel, and has asked if I would like to be a member of the american group. I decided to accept the offer because it is a) a pretty interesting project and b) i believe it will help me develop a better overall design for the virtual form. Being an actual participant will allow me to experience what the students go through(needs, wants, positive/negative aspects are throughout the game). If there are snags in the physical form of the game they will no doubt be amplified in the digital one, so hopefully I can identify them first-hand and flush them out. The Planspiel doesn´t happen until the middle of November, so I think I´m getting a little ahead of myself. Let´s get back to the here and now.

Mario and I have kind of been grouped together, because has been hired on as the interculture "IT guy" (even though I think he studied politics and economics) and, like is often the case, I am known as "the Informatics major", so any technological problems in IWK or interculture are thrown our way to try and figure out. I don´t think a whole IT department could know absolutely everything there is to know about technology and computers, but somehow when people hear your name used in the same context as technology and there is any sort of remotely related computer or electronic device problem, they come running to you begging for the miracle solution that you should (obviously, because "you´re an Informatics major!") have on the tip of your tongue. Anyway, back on topic-I told Mario I´d try and help tackle several of the issues interculture´s websites have, etc. I will probably have to learn a new programming language/software program or two and refresh a couple that are somewhere in the back of my mind, but it´s actually a good thing. I don´t think I have the will to pick up a programming book on my own and learn it just for the sake of it being fun, but I am grateful when I feel I have a handle on a program/language.

Really, besides helping translate some of one of the websites from German to English (which I´m hoping will vastly improve my German vocabulary), that´s about it. I have the freedom to begin any projects that "are of interest to me", and though it´s actually nice to have so much freedom it´s also a little hard because everything in the department, company, processes, etc., is so unfamiliar now. Still, I have a couple of things to work on for the time being, and as the semester progresses it will be interesting to see how my work progresses, too.

Ralf and Connie are going to Dresden this weekend, because it is Ralf´s mother´s birthday. The local aiesec committee may take a day trip to Erfurt, a city very close to here. I´m not positive I will go with them(aiesec) yet or not-there are a couple of places here I want to stop by so if I do that before Saturday, I might just start on a new city, but we shall see.

By the way, I´ve been noticing more and more that my english grammar is dissintegrating(it actually took me about a full minute to think of what that word was, and I still don´t know if it´s spelled correctly) exponentially fast the harder I work on my german. I´ll do silly things like type ´hear´ instead of ´here´ or just forget words completely. Who knew that you could flush so many years of english vocab and grammar quizzes down the toilet with just one foreign language?

Oh, and I do have a few pictures, but no, they haven´t been uploaded yet(before you start griping, I just want to say that I´ll work on it next week). I haven´t taken any pictures of any people, only the town, trees, mountains, etc. Marion told me something pretty interesting. She explained that Jena is one of the warmest(it´s all relative, though, I suppose) places in Germany, because the small mountains(more like large hills) are made of limestone and limestone retains heat very well. She said it never really snows here but I refuse to believe that, so let´s just agree on believing it occasionally snows but doesn´t stay for very long. The weather has been mostly sunny, warm, and beautiful, though it can get rather chilly in the evening, and yesterday it was a little dreary and cold enough to definitely need a jacket.

Let´s see-and some interesting thoughts about food: I wouldn´t believe it myself if I wasn´t here, but peanut butter is REALLY hard to find. In fact, I´d say just about impossible-I even looked in Walmart(though not really that hard). I suppose maybe in large cities in the west you can find it, but I´m not so sure. Instead of peanut butter, Nutella is what´s really popular. If you´re thinking about the chocolate-hazlenut stuff, you´re right on target. It´s actually really tasty, but if you ask me, it´s just on a completely different page than peanut butter. Also I´ve seen little plastic containers(like what spreadable butter/margarine comes in) of basically spreadable fat. It´s pretty much the same stuff as the drippings from frying bacon or something-I know some of you that have lived on a farm(mom) or some of the older generation will know what I mean. I knew that some people like to use it kind of like butter, that´s not so unusual; but I thought it was a little crazy that it´s sold in little containers in the grocery store. Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, yes there are vegetarian options available(both in the school cafeteria and a few places sell falafel, too). I haven´t tried searching for hummus, but I imagine if there´s falafel, hummus has to be nearby. Then again, it´s not really that hard to make either.