Time Travel

OhhhhK. So, the past few weeks:
Last week in Germany before Christmas. Nothing much happened, so lets just move on already.
My time at home was short and sweet, but not without the initial awkwardness of returning home...like stepping into a canoe before you sit down. Time change always gets me. It is due to the jet lag that I have slept a total of 6 hours in the past two days. And it was due to jet lag that I spent the first half of my Christmas vacation waking up at 5 or 6, ready to go. I got some good runs in around Strawberry Hill before the birds got up. I also explored the world of yoga with my sister, which has become an essential ingredient in the recipe for Happiness in Germany. I would love to tell you all sorts of stories about the wonders of Charlotte, North Carolina, but I think we are all here for tales of adventures of a far away place, so lets go there now...

I am currently sitting in my new apartment, glued to the computer, as usual. I will put up pictures as soon as I figure out how to utilize the internet properly.

There are some secrets that I have been keeping from you, readers, and one of them is about to be revealed. -->Living in Germany is like living in another time!<-- I have a wonderful new apartment with a beautiful natural wood ceiling, furniture that IS NOT from Ikea, and a TV with a satellite that gets all sorts of interesting English channels (including Al Jazera). But there is no internet. In fact, there is no internet in this whole area of town (in the prospective pictures of my area that you may possibly see, you will notice satellite dishes on everyone's houses.) I have a nifty little 3g stick (cell phone internet that can plug into your computer) that occassionally allows me access to Gmail's simple version of email and that sometimes, albeit reluctantly, relents to give me access to AIM or Skype. But otherwise during my first four days back, I have been adjusting to living in the equivalent of the stone ages.

As testiment to my time spent in the olden days, I can honestly say that I had to go to school, two miles, in the snow, up hill. Except instead of walking barefoot, I rode my bike. Virgin snow is pretty; road snow is gross, dirty, and not something you want all over you when you arrive jet lagged at school. But luckily, I had it all over me this morning, and I am able to brag about it here now. I do realize that most Germans have cars that they drive in the snow, but my personal experience here is one that is especially ancient.

I took a beautiful run along the ice cold river near my new home. All bundled up, it was quite a treat to see vistas of fields covered in snow, to breathe in crisp air, and most importantly to have a warm aparment to look forward to. But time did seem to reverse for a few moments as I saw such sights as a little old lady walking alone through a field of snow on her way to her little house in the middle of the country. And also, Germans don't seem to have to modern concept of snow plowing in thier full graps, either. (This aspect is supported by another's experience, way up in Muenster, where the roads are pretty much dense sheets of snow/ice at this point).

Living here really does feel like living in a different time. There are a lot of technological conveniences that I take for granted in the United States. Germans don't really do credit cards for reasons of tradition more than anything. Classrooms are without computers or projectors, and most of the tv's I've seen around here are the same size of most of the cars I've seen around here...(big old tube TV's...) So, if you squint your eyes and use your imagination, its like being in a magical land. Where the time passes a little more slowly, and the people are very suspicious of new things.