i see your true colors and that's why i love you

initially i intended to write a whole long blog entry about this wonderful book, quoting the funniest parts and stuff, but after realising that my heart starts beating like a jungle drum (and not in a good way) whenever someone gets me started on it i decided that it might be better just to let it go and not think any further of the pseudoscientific approach and the many heart-touching but no sense-making stories about middle and upper class white american people who realised that their job was not what they wanted to do but what they were asked to do by their parents and after changing their profession (because everyone can easily afford to go to college for a second or third time) finally became fun and cool people who are now dedicated to their work and shiny happy successful money-making members of the capitalist society, yaaaay!

by the way, my ideal job is somewhere in the field of actors, career counselors, gynecologists, researchers, airline receptionists or greeting card writers, just for your information. be the change you want to see in the world! here is the link for all of you who want to find their true colors and follow them to the work they love, i can assist you in finding your ideal career if you are interested, i'm an expert now.

two things i've found out about myself while being here

a) i find watching sports boring. we went to a baseball game and though i enjoyed the popcorn and kind of got an idea about what the rules of the game are (kind of like brennballish with a bit of schlagball in it), i found it seriously boring.

b) i hate, hate, hate big cheering crowds. hate! hate! hate!
i don't want to be part of something big like a waterballoon fight world record (118.000 balloons this year) if it means i have to be in a big cheering crowd. i'm okay with staying far aside and doing something else that does not include getting wet from head to toes. really okay.
but then again, maybe i just don't fit in. maybe something's wrong with me and i'm asocial or unsocial or something. i guess everyone else but me had loads of fun. maybe i'm just not fun enough, dunno. i feel so uncomfortable around many crazying around people, it's unbelievable. hate, hate, hate. hate!

i like the positive attitude people have around here, they smile all the time and are so friendly and so on, and i love that people always motivate you to keep on trying instead of criticizing as they do in germany, but there are things that convinced me i'd never become an appropriate american. they've got to do with watching sports, big cheering crowds and fast food.

about what i'm not going to do

here's a list of things i'm not going to write about:
1. i'm not going to write about the k-week-activities. k-week is the "welcome to university of kentucky (in the following referred to as uk or uok) everybody - freshmen (erstis), look, what we've got here, all kinds of things and groups and activities and free food and masses of free t-shirts"-week. i'm not going to write about this because it really is too much to write about while not too interesting in the end anyway.
2. i'm not going to write about the big blue u, which is getting acquainted with the football stadium, the school colors (blue and white) and the mascot (wildcat), the fighting song and similar stuff. a detailed report about all of those things will be given with the big game against louisville (pronounce "louville") on september 17th including nice blue pictures and stuff. i hate watching sports but i am kind of excited to get to feel the atmosphere in this case. i do not feel exatcly comfortable in big cheering crowds except demos but we'll see.
3. i'm not going to give you a detailed schedule of the past events because there's too many of those anyway and it's kind of boring for you, too.

so, what am i going to write about, then?

first, i'd like to get you acquainted with my living conditions:
room


(community) bathroom with prison charm







view out of the window


hallway




i don't have a view-from-outside-pic yet, but it's a nice brick building, you know, a dorm is a dorm is a dorm, right....

that's the library









and my study tree, i sit under it for reading as long as the ants don't realise my being there.


the shelves in the library are put very close to each other, too close to get in between them. you have to type in the number of the book you want and then they move aside to give you access. really like in harry potter only without wands.
all the furniture is wooden, you know, that dark, naturally classy looking expensive wood, and looks so dignified (if you can actually say this about interior design of which i'm not sure - native speakers, please comment), there's a ridiculous number of study and reading rooms, computer access everywhere and they have a video editing mac room in the basement. oh, and yeah, of course the library is open 24/5 (and a half actually) from sunday 12 p.m. til friday night and then some more 12 hours on saturday. sometimes i wonder why exactly i actually chose the uni of bremen for my studies back then. no need to mention that this library has an amount of 3000 books on the topic i'm writing my paper about and not 30 like ours does...

kentucky is very green and very hot, too. i don't mean hot as in "oh, the weather is so nice to day, 24°c, let's go out and hang around in the park!". I mean hot as in "man, i really don't want to walk this ten minute way, it's 38°c or so in the sun! let's take the air conditioned bus." oh, yeah, that leads me to my next topic: every room is air-conditioned. except our dorm, obviously, which has more of a sauna atmosphere to it. but every other room is air-conditioned, which basically means: cold. you go out and sweat like a pig in shorts (more like hot pants) and a sleeveless shirt, you go in and freeze in jeans. well, possibly not in jeans. but never forget to carry your fleece around, it might save your life at some point.

let's see, what else.... the area is still beautiful. classes have started. i've got my class on major black writers in about an hour. yesterday we talked about "the american way of life" as referred to in germany and "the american dream" once again. i still don't believe it works, our teacher however has kind of a well.... let's say... erm... more optimistic view on those things, to avoid nasty words like naive or ignorant.
our group is cool, though i get the feeling that we start splitting up into several subgangs which is okay since there are several people i can connect to in a better way than others but still makes me think of how things will develop within the next four weeks - cause that's really it, only four weeks left in ky, isn't it weird how fast time runs by?

i'm learning tons of new things here, i think that's the best about it. not only languagewise (which is not one of my weak areas anyway, but i still learn a lot, especially my vocabulary grows in very necessary areas: on sunday i learned to say "license plate") but mostly in practical things: salsa dancing and juggling have been named, yesterday we went to the gym and i ran on a treadmill for the first time, later on we're going to check out yoga and then our schedule sends us to watch a baseball game. also i've found out about how much better the meyer-briggs personality test is compared to a four cholor scheme personality sorting system (what a very german way to build a phrase, but i like it so i'll keep it in here) - but i'll keep you in suspense and write a whole blog entry about that some other time. only so much for now: i'm sort of 35:33:17:15 blue-green-orange-gold. you're supposed to be one of those colors.

okay, my class will be starting soon, i'm gonna grab some more coffee - oh yeah, that's one more thing i've learned here: ordering at starbucks. to keep things easy enough for beginners like myself i always get a grande latte.

gotta run - have a great day or night everybody, love you, bye!

days 2-4

helloooo everybody and welcome to a new round of "what's the difference?"! we are so happy to announce that our showmaster today has just had recent experience in finding out about cultural differences between the us and germany - and here she is, our lovely anna!

alright folks! here come ten randomly sorted things i have learned in the last three days:

1. doors never open the way you expect them: those you want to push you have to pull. those you want to pull you have to push. those that say "automatic door, caution" you have to open manually. those that ask you to use your id for opening stay open all day. to open the door you have to turn the key right. to close it, left. doors are really interesting around here.

2. everything is awesome!. sometimes it's aaaaw-some!!!!. but mostly it's just awesome!.

3.everything is sugary. but to keep your conscience clear, they mostly put high intensity sweetener in there to make it sweet but free of calories. i wonder how that actually keeps people running - my body is aching for vegetables and real meat instead of sticky food already. and also, it is already willing to accept vegetarian food - who would have thought!

4. coffee: very thin. i leave out the cream or milk because it just wouldn't make any difference. but then again, they've got fancy variaties of it like a cinnamon-flavoured one. it tasted like very thin coffee with cinnamon flavour.

5. tea: only black. deal with it. we found a place that sells green tea, too, though.

6. people are very easy to approach and really like germans. everyone has a german relative or friend or a friend with a german relative or a relative with a german friend. they really like us here. the general reaction is: awesome!

7. my cell phone doesn't work.

8. w-lan = wifi. there is some for free everywhere - on campus and off campus and even in the airports.

9. people share rooms in their dorms, usually they've got one roommate. noone in germany would ever be willing to share their room for a whole year - people around here feel great about that the first couple of months, it seems. those who do not get a roommate are even kind of sad about it. leo, i love you and you know that - but i really appreciate that door between our rooms.
my roommate nelli is very nice though. she's one of our group, one of the university students, and we live a happy life next to each other, when we are in our room. that's mostly for sleeping.

10. campus university means you have to walk up to 45 minutes to get from one side of the campus to the other. anyone ever had any complaints about having a class in gw1? don't even try to whine on me! the definite pro of this is the beauty of the area, the amazing library and the fact that all of your friends are somewhere around at all times. the definite con is that you live at school and there's no getting away from it whatsoever. the whole thing leads to a strong identification with the school and thus to a great school spirit but at the same time to a big pressure on everyone to adjust to the group. i'm not sure yet whether i find this latently aggressive and authoritarian or pretty cool and a good opportunity to connect people regardless of their differences in situations and whatever else.

what else happened in the last two and a half days?

we were informed about our schedule, some nice events are coming up. we had breakfast at mc d, i'd prefer not to repeat that experience but i'm afraid i will for the us-americans don't feel any urge to get up as early as germans which i can highly identify with but which hinders them from offering real breakfast on weekdays.
yesterday i learned to juggle with three balls. it works for a couple of seconds already, i'm so proud of myself. also i learned to dance salsa yesterday.
we went volunteering for the lexington community today. the name of the program was "fusion", which makes me happy because i'm easily amused and because now i can really say i have been to fusion. yay. i was weeding and collecting rubbish at a homeless shelter for men. for the most part we were collecting cigarettes while the men were smoking and thus providing more work for us. i came to understand once again how important it is to involve people into improving their life and how not only senseless is is to collect rubbish for them if they are perfectly capable of doing so themselves but also how it must lower their self esteem significantly.
i went on a see-four-churches-tour with a few dozens of other freshmen, no one of our german group was there so i had a real chance to get to know people. that was interesting. churches look more like malls around here, they're very modern with huge plasma tvs and they use power point to present their church work and such. that was very. erm. christian. they provided good food and nice giveaways, though, and i really got the chance to meet some really nice people.

so far i like the states, only my head is exploding from all this information already.

i'm to lazy to upload pics today. sorry about that. have fun reading!

and remember: anyone who wants cards: read the instrunction under "you've got mail"!

have a good day or night, folks!

P.S.: sorry leo, i cannot do that. that would interfere with my principles and since i am in the us now, i cannot let that happen. you'll get used to it, i promise! ;)

angekommen - here we are

p.s.: ihr lieben - ich hatte ehrlich vor, eine zweisprachige version dieses beitrags zu verfassen, aber hier passiert dauernd so viel, dass ich so schon nicht hinterherkomme - ihr werdet merken, auch hier fehlen bereits zwei tage. ich hoffe, alle verstehen genug englisch um folgen zu können. wenn nicht, schreibt bitte beschwerdekommentare.
und schreibt doch auch kurze "ich bin dabei"-kommentare, ich weiß gern, für wen ich schreibe :)

i intended to give you a bilingual version of this posting. i fear there's just too much going on here to realise that. i hope everyone understands enough english to follow. if not, please post in commentaries. also, please post your attendence in commentaries, i like to know my audience :)

and here comes the story:

does anyone know the feeling of not knowing where to start from because you're afraid to start from the wrong end of things and then you miss out important information and so on and so on?

i'm gonna try to sort things in chronological order, but there's slight chance that this will work out the way i intend, so nevermind if i keep jumping back and forth.

okay, so things started at five a.m. on friday. five a.m. is real early. i stuffed some things in and out of my backpack, i tried not to forget anything important and so far it looks like i have succeeded with that intention. i took the tram to the airport and it was pretty crowded which strengthened my opinion with regard to capitalism. people did not seem exactly happy about having to get to work at six a.m. and i can see why.
i checked in. i was surprised how easily everything worked out with my backpack and my guitar (flying in a soft case - i would never have dared to send an espensive instrument this way, but things worked out fine). i went for coffee. at the bakery i saw another girl from my group and her family who had already checked in and were enjoying their breakfast now. as some of you may know i'm not exactly an early bird and so i was having trouble following their vivid conversation or even getting involved in it. i drank my coffee and smiled empty-eyed. they're great people, no questions about that, but guys, six a.m. is just really not the time to get to know a lively anna....

we bought souvenirs for the people who organize our stay in ky (werder cup, werder rubber duck). i bought a resealeable plastic bag to put my tooth paste in. we hung around for a while doing - ... ... ... - well, something i cannot remember.

we got on the plane. it was a small plane that was mostly occupied by business men aged 50+. i read die känguru chroniken which i can only recommend to all of you, but specifically to those of you who are involved in left politics, because it's an incredibly funny book about a communist kangaroo moving in with an unsucceeding writer (thanks again to leo for that!). i kept rolling over the plane floor from laughing which might have disturbed the cute steward who was sitting next to me. too bad.

we landed. we met another girl from our group. we hung around. we looked for and found our gate. we were checked for extremely dangerous things like lotions, pencils, water bottles, that kind of stuff. while the guys in bremen had found out about the evil plan i had with my craft scissors (bastelschere) and at least asked me about it, those in frankfurt did not seem so worried about me hijacking the airplane.

"passport, please"
(me, showing my passport.)
"you have to go over there with that passport."
(me, going over there with that passport, holding it out to the american passport checking guy.)
"show me your passport please."
(...)
"thanks. that's a russian passport."
(...)
(in russian): "where are you going?"
"lexington, ky"
"why?"
"to attend a summer school program at the uk"
"aha. and where do you live?"
"in bremen."
"you live in bremen?"
"yes"
"how many suitcases do you have?"
"one backpack, one guitar."
"and who packed those?"
"me."
"and where did you pack them?"
"at home."
"in bremen?"
"yes, in bremen."
"so you live in bremen?"
"yes."
"and who packed your suitcases?"
"I packed them."
"and where have they been between the packing and the check-in?"
"only with me."
"do you have any electronic devices with you?"
"yes."
"and who has used them the last time?"
"me."
"and where have they been ever since?"
"only with me."
"and where do you live?"
"in bremen."
"do you have any liquids with you?"
"yes. in a plastic bag."
"so, they are in a plastic bag?"
"yes, in a plastic bag."
(me, showing him the plastic bag with the liquids)
(him, pointing on a box with cream in it): "that box is too large, they will not let you in with that. throw that away."
"alright, i'll throw it away."
"yes, throw it away please."
"okay, i'll throw it away."
"have you come here directly from bremen?"
"yes."
"and where do you live?"
...........

i still have my cream, for that matter. and the scissors; i still have those too.
and the us passport guy in charlotte by the way asked me about which school i was attending three times. they do seem to be very interested in geography around here.

we got on the plane. nine and a half hours, the rest of the kangaroo chronicles, a strange movie with julia roberts and clive owen (duplicity) and various once-an-hour-beverages later we got off the plane. the movie taught me about why it isn't wise to make movies too complex for people to understand and that confusion isn't always a good thing.

in charlotte, nc, they checked one of our fellow travellers who is orignially from turkey for terroristic intentions for about 45 minutes. i don't think he had any.

we got to know rege, who is probably taller than two of us together, and who drives around passengers who are unable or unwilling to walk to their gates in cute little cars. we wanted to hijack one but since rege was so tall we decided we needed a better plan than just overwhelming him. we tried to talk him to unconciousness but that did not work out quite so great. so we ended up just re-checking-in and getting on our plane to lexington.

by that time it was about 12 a.m. in german time and we were all pretty much done with the day.

we arrived in lexington at 19:30 (always count plus six for germany) and were met by karen, andrea and david, the guys who give their very best to make us feel like kings and queens here.

we got on the bus, off the bus, checked in, got some pizza and went to sleep.
finally. it must have been about 11.30 p.m., 24.5 hours after getting up.
it never stops to amaze me that these days you can cover a distance of 7000 km within a few hours. really.

pictures and more impressions to follow.

you've got mail

oh, was mir noch einfällt: alle, die karten wollen, müssen

a) mir ihre adresse in irgendeiner weise zukommen lassen. rauchzeichen zählen nicht.
b) mich mit hilfe eines fotos, eines gedichts oder liedes, eines ausführlichen briefes, einer politischen rede, eines großzügigen selbstgebastelten geschenks oder auf andere weise davon überzeugen, dass karten suchen, finden, schreiben und abschicken wirklich das ist, was ich tun will. ich bin gespannt - und meine es ernst: keine hände, keine kekse.

ja, und sonst noch, zum abschied:
hier kucken

---------------------
if you want to recieve a card from me you will have to
a) provide me with your address somehow.
b) write a poem, a song or a storyboard, invent a nice game, make a movie or a selfmade present for me or do whatever else to convince me that searching, finding, wrting and actually sending cards is the thing i wish to do while being here. i mean it - no hands, no cookies as i keep saying a lot to annoy everyone

I'm singing in the rain.....

ja, das war doch mal ein gebührender abschied aus bremen:

nachdem ich nicht nur meine hausarbeit und diverse anträge zu allem möglichen kram abgegeben habe, sondern nun auch dank flashspiel (guckst du hier) alle länder asiens benennen kann und die südamerikanischen hauptstädte auswendig gelernt habe, rückt der abschied nun tatsächlich bedrohlich nah.
eben gerade waren wir (kathi, seidi, leo, tobi, ich und diverse russischsprechende jungs, die es irgendwie cool fanden, dass wir klampfig an der weser saßen) im regen singen, denn was anderes bleibt einem bei dem wetter ja nicht übrig, als es anzunehmen wie es ist und sich darüber zu freuen. das war super, besonders, weil 38 grad wirklich abkühlungswert sind und weil ich finde, dass abschiedsrituale das leben qualitativ verbessern. aber auch, weil platzregen, sturmböen und blitz zur verabschiedung genau richtig sind, da fühlt man sich wertgeschätzt.
nun habe ich fast fertig gepackt, fast fertig organisiert und mich fast fertig verabschiedet und werde für die vollendung all dieser dinge die nacht nutzen, denn ekeligerweise muss ich morgen um sechs uhr dreißig am flughafen sein - noch nie habe ich mich so sehr darüber gefreut, direkt an der linie sechs zu wohnen, und wer mich kennt, weiß warum XD
auf dem bild da: das bin ich, nass und glücklich. ich weiß es sieht so aus, aber außer bier sind keine drogen im spiel.

alrighty - i'm off to KC, have a great autumn everybody - ich beneide euch alle sehr, denn der herbst ist wirklich meine aller-allerliebste zeit in bremen!

ich meld mich, wenn ich gelegenheit dazu habe, jetzt freu ich mich erstmal auf weg von hier!

dies ist ein test: noch eine woche bis buffallo....

und bei mir brennt die hütte. was ist das eigentlich für ein abgefahrener mechanismus, der einen immer dazu bringt, möglichst solange nichts oder fast nichts zu tun, bis es nur noch in stress ausartet.....?
diesen kleinen testeintrag wollte ich aber trotzdem schonmal posten, nicht nur, um micht von meiner hausarbeit abzulenken, neinnein.

jetzt geh ich erstmal überall rumerzählen respektive -schreiben, dass ich nun doch einen blog habe, yay, das wird super - noch weniger sinnvoll verbrachte zeit!

schönen tag an alle leser!