I recently had dinner with a German friend here in Cologne. She studied abroad at the University of MN last fall, and during her time in my city, I would always ask her what was different. I was very curious to get an outsiders view on Minny. I know the obvious things like transportation, food, clothing, seven months of depressing cold, but that is not the good stuff to me. The good stuff is differences in the little things that aren't discussed in newspapers or beer halls.
Now that I was in her backyard, it was her turn to ask the question. I explained that besides apparently having this completely different language thing, I find slight differences around every corner. Take for example window screens. Now, you would never think of the impact a window screen could have on your life. That is until it has an impact on your life. Apparently here in Cologne they do not believe in them. Considering the fact that air conditioning is not custom here, and heat rises, my deluxe flat in the sky feels like an Easy Bake Oven when I return from class. The only way to beat the heat is to open the windows. The windows of course do not have screens. Therefore, Mother Nature has free access to my room.
I don't know what I prefer more, collecting the leaves and seeds from trees off my pillow before resting my head on it, or becoming Lord of the Flies at night. It's a toss up. No wait, my favorite is when it rains. Since a rain cloud visits Cologne once every 30 minutes a lot of my time is spent trying to find the happy medium of a cool breeze venturing into my room, and preventing rain drops from short-circuiting my computer.
You are probably saying to yourself that Nick is starting to crack in his foreign territory. It's quite the opposite actually. I love the life here, and appreciate most (not all) of the differences. I always tell people that they have to lower their expectations when they travel. I think most people feel that if they spend a bunch of money and use up vacation time to travel that it means they should be catered to. That is fine and dandy if you are sitting on a beach at an all exclusive resort sipping Mojitos. If you want to go somewhere to experience its culture and history though, you can't let little things get in the way. If you focus on the fact that you felt the service was poor or someone got frustrated with you because you didn't know their language, then you miss out on the good stuff. If you travel expecting nothing, then you receive so much more out of it.
Ok, to change direction a bit, today is a national holiday in Germany. I believe it is the equivalent to Labor Day, but don't hold me to that. Therefore, April 30 is a popular night for young people to go out. Take it from me, if you are in Germany on April 30, don't go out. That is unless you like hanging out with 20 years olds, standing in long lines, and paying $10 for a drink. Every other night is great. April 30 though, not great.
The interesting part about this holiday is that during the night, if a man fancies a woman, then they are to go into the woods, cut down a specific type of tree, decorate it with colored paper, and put it outside her window. I'm serious; I'm not making this up. I personally didn't participate but during my walk around the city today, I saw various small trees taped to the side of buildings decorated in various colored paper. It's like teepeeing someone only not only to do you bring the teepee, you bring the tree as well.
Besides that, every store in Cologne was shut down today, which doesn't bode well is you are out of groceries. I had a grease craving and justified the fact that since it was a holiday I felt no shame in visiting Burger King. When I got there I thought to myself - when in Rome. So, I tried ordering my meal in German. I thought it was a basic sentence. "Number one with fries". Turns out the lady thought I was trying to order one fry. She rang my order before I caught her (more likely my) error, and she had to get a manager to come reset the register. Her manager then proceeded to yell at her. So, me trying to accommodate to the native language actually made things worse. Guess I should have stuck to English on this one.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around town. I took advantage of the quiet streets to have some good alone time. I walked quite a bit, and boarded random trams to see where they took me. The end of the night was spent sitting in the park by the university until the sun went down. It was very peaceful and calming. I have included a picture of the park. I know it's just water and trees. It's one of those you had to be there kind of things. Until next time!
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