First entry

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Yo whaddap homedoggs. Dont expect anything whacked out like what stacie has in her travel blog. Germany is not freakishly culture shocking.
Right now Im living in Duisberg, about 10 minutes away from Düsseldorf, where the Goethe Institut is, where Im taking classes. Where Stacie sees all US's successes in her blog, I see some of its failures and potential.

I dont have a whole lot of time because I want to catch the 12:15 Sbahn (one thing I love about Germany), but I just wanted to be able to start my blog too... even if it wont be as wildly exciting. But its interesting for me to have read Steaks blog now, instead of when I was still in the US. Coming here has put my life goal in another perspective-- most shockingly coming back to even if professorship is the right route for me (I blame Rawls a bit for this too) or to try to make a difference in my own country in a more direct way than increasing the knowledge and awareness of my students. Especially since Ive seen what I think is enlightening fail to impact students practically completely. Maybe thats just W&L, but there are a lot of apathetic people in America, and I think the average amount of concern is lower for each coming generation. And the situation frustrates me.... but who the hell knows. Certainly a role as a social activist would really cut out my workload for me, and I wonder if Im just too much a slacker for that responsibility, and I wonder if Im even tough enough for that sort of work... by that I mean the possibility of sticking myself into the public eye instead of living in relative obscurity, which is, of course, lovely.

But yea, back to Germany, which is ever so much more interesting than me, and to me. I dont want to make this a real personal journal or some crap, so I thought I'd just put that out first. So far Ive been only in the areas around Düsseldorf. Ive been in der Altstadt of Düss and Duisberg. The "old towns," as we would butcher the word in America, of both are gorgeous-- in some ways its a grand scale of Lexington, but not really. It still carries another century feel to it, but undeniably Düss is a very large city, and has a city feel to it as well. In that way it is almost indescribable. Its old and modern, and big and small with all the quainty feel of a small place. Duisberg is a suburb that is practically just a small version of Düss. To give you an idea of the conundrum of identity, almost all the town streets are cobblestone, in der Altstadt. But you have mass transit running in the middle of the road, with lanes on either side for auto traffic.

Thats another thing-- people here are just more aware of everything it seems. They pay attention to how much of resources they use-- water, gas, electricity. These things are really expensive here, and actually, I think its a good thing. Houses are not grossly oversized for the family, and almost everyone uses the mass transit because gas is just too expensive to always drive everzywhere. But even with everyone using it, it is still not overly crowded. I get the feeling people just dont buy as much here frivolously.

The environmental friendliness is wonderful. The air is totally different. Although its really weird with the wind here-- if you channel a breeze through the room (with windows open on either side of a room say) it creates (i think this is the word but not sure) a Deuchzug that can make people sick. It makes my Gastvaters neck hurt, I know. Really weird. And last night I saw the Rhein, which is lovely. We were in some town whose name I cant remember. There were ruins of a castle built in the 19th century by the beach and some stupid punks had freaking painted graffiti on it. Even though graffiti is illegal, but for how much of it Ive seen, I think its hard to enforce or just not enforced. But Im amazed people would do that to historical places in their own country. So messed up. Anyway, Im leaving. Ill continue later!

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Comments

[Carissa]

hehehe...
You do know that Nadja forwarded this blong to profs, yes? Bring me back something cool, slave!

[Amy]

Wench!
You didn't tell me you were going to Germany!! The last we left it your parents weren't going to let you go. That's AWESOME. Can't wait to read more. MWAH!

[WLS]

life
Jessie, When you return this fall, let's talk about what you want to do with your life! Cheers. WLS

[Corn]

Fritz!!
Hi, Sweetums! I can't believe you wrote a blog, you overly-trendy little nerd you :P Anyway, this thing is actually kinda interesting to read, as it gives me a semi-decent picture of what you're doing over there! At first it was hard for me to imagine what it would be like living in a faraway country, with different customs, language, etc. I miss you, pookums! Have a safe trip home!