Obama vs. the guy who brought us Palin

After attending Department Orientation and the party afterwards (seriously, shrimp and wine at 3 pm in the afternoon?), I went to witness part of American history ;-):

It was 6 pm when the two opponents faced each other, watched live by millions of people all over the world (plus the few politically interested Americans).



In the undergraduate library, the staff had set up a beamer and so everybody who wanted could come by, grap some snacks and drinks and watch the debate together with like-minded people (which in Seattle basically means non-Republicans).
The room was packed and people were having a lot of fun. It was like going out to the movies... with popcorn and laughs... and afterwards you talk about the actors' performance.

I'm looking forward to next Thursday, which promises to be funny, since the two potential Vice Presidents will meet each other on screen.

Tune in at 6 pm Pacific Standard Time (nine hours back ;-))

Bottom Line:
Why don't we have this at home?

Excuse me, is this where I teach?

It had come earlier than anyone had feared and it crashed down upon all of us like a lightning:

The first day of school! After weeks of fun we had to get serious... ("why so serious?")

After I had my first class, it was pretty clear that I had to drop one of my courses, because I would simply not be able to handle the workload of three courses. The only question remaining was: which class.

So I went through three classes that day (boy, what a day!)

My first was International Conflict, a class in the undergraduate level (for all those without a Bachelor degree). The discussion session revealed that it would be an incredible amount of work. Some of the issues seemed to be a repition of what I had done before. And the real killer: that class is scheduled Tuesday through Friday, every day! Not a good standing in the challenge of my courses. By the end of the day it was clear that this course had to go. See you in Spring International Conflict.

The other classes were not less work, but somehow "Ideologies of Space" and "Science Fiction, Colonialism and Racial Representation" (what a combo!) did trigger my interest more. Not to speak of the professors:

My Science Fiction guy basically consists of black and metal, sometimes combined. Especially noteworthy is his bracelet. He wears a bike chain (sic!) on his right wrist. Funny about that: sometimes he looks at it like it was a watch. Maybe he uses the different links to calculate the time on his own planet ;-).

Even more interesting and eccentric is my other professor. He is totally confused ("excuse me, is this where I teach?") and has a bad tendency of forgetting everything (how congenial!). His whole air and looks scream "Ballard" or "Captn Ahab", while his hair is rather related to Medusa in Greek Mythology.

I am looking forward to both classes and I have a feeling that they are going to challenge me in oh so many different ways.

After a long day of school, one has to get his mind off the serious issues of this world (like Science fiction and whale fiction), so it sometimes helps to watch the people who are still left on campus.

I have not yet found out, if they are rehearsing to take over the slow motion indsutry, if they are wannabe breakdancers who didn't make it in New York or if they are just practicing their capoeira moves ;-)

Diving 21+

Monday was a crappy day for most of us.

As we have tried so many different sports before, we went for "diving" that night.

Dive Bars like Earl's offer a variety of choices to dive in... self-pitty, Jaegermeister, Long Island Ice Tea, frustration, self-denial, Bacardi coke and loss of memory to just name a few.

They tend to hire barristas who have lost their glasses OR have their glasses on, but had to many glasses themselves... OR who have been in medical school and instead of mixing drinks, they mix desinfectants that they spice up with a few drops of something with taste.

A few impressions will have to be enough. Nobody remembers anymore than that about this night anyway.

"Authentic" German Beer ;-)

Boat Cruise & Ballard Insides

Ok, I have some catching up to do: letzgo!!
Saturday was mainly used to deal with the effects of Friday (see picture for visualization):



but by Sunday we were all ready for a new go at "meet as many international students as possible in as little time as we give you", organized by FIUTS.
So we went to a boat cruise around Seattle harbor.

Since my neighbors had decided to fix their roof at 8 am (on a f***ing sunday morning!!), I was up early and went to Pike Place Market


to get some Shrimps



and have a look at respectless T-Shirts



In order to understand this T-shirt (and totally crack about it like I did), one must know that Bellevue is the high class fancy part of Seattle, where Microsoft is located. Ballard (where I live) on the other hand is pretty down to earth. It is mainly inhabited by Scandinavian people, used to be a fisher town until it turned into a ship building town during the war. Of course, Bellevue doesn't have the best reputation in Ballard.

Another of Ballard's favorites is this little fellow here:



Ballard for Obama was originally planned to be a joke for a fair. However, it turned out that people bought the shirt away like hot buns ;-). The shirt is now constantly sold out. It is Ballard's own viking way of supporting Democracy in the country.

Although I hardly met any new people on the Cruise (at some point you just stop to care), I did learn a lot about Korean and Taiwanese education, talking to people I had already known. Apparently their students are really competitive until they reach university. Everybody tries to prove him/herself in order to go to the best universities. When they finally get there, though, they do not have that pressure anymore and supposedly become pretty lazy. Also, usually only rich people's children get to go abroad. However, a lot of our Internationals seem to be the exemption from that rule.

The Rules of Clubbing

After not doing much in the daylight except for sleeping in and emailing, I went to meet the girls at the University village (a small "city" for shopping near the University) and from there went to a BBQ at Kamil’s.

At 8:30 we hit the road and went downtown to go clubbing at a place called Trinity. It had 2.5 (they probably want to believe three) dancefloors and was pretty cool. It had some pop/R&B music, on the other dancefloor that mixed with some Bollywood and then a bar area with some rock music. It took me a while to warm up, but since so many FIUTS people were there and dancing like crazy, it was fun. Oleg from Israel so rocks the dancefloor, for example. Soon, I was sweating all over the place and it wasn’t even bad that the music wasn’t very good.



American clubs suck though. You get a stamp whenever you go into the club, but still you have to prove that you are over 21 whenever you want to get back in.
The other thing is that the DJs suck! It is not just that I did not exactly like the music they placed, but the way they do their job. They should not get any money for it at all, because what they do, any music program can do.
1. They are random: From Justin Timberlake to a classic rock hit, then go for some Electronic and a quick turn to “My hump”. All within a few minutes.
2. They don’t give their songs space: All these songs don’t start somewhere in the first minute, the DJs jump right into it... then the song gets about 30 to 60 seconds and they jump onto the next random track. Maybe they don't have to pay for copyright if the song is not played longer than 30 seconds?
3.: They do NOT know how to mix... whenever songs change every minute or half, they do so without prior warning. One song just ends and the other jumps right in. If a DJ attempts at finding a transition, he fails miserably, because he has no feeling for rhythm, melody, style and ususally can’t even count the beats per minute that his music program on his laptop(!) shows him.

The other thing about the clubs is that they shut down by 2 am. But they don’t stop the music by then, they want the place clean by then. Thus, they start going around with huge tubs and strong flash lights at about 1:30 and start taking away people’s drinks. The flash lights and the bear sized bouncers reeaallyy help the dancing atmosphere. You seriously want to leave the place after an episode with them. So then you get out of the club and run into a bunch of potheads that are smoking on the street and make trouble on the busride home.

Bottom Line: stupid bouncers, rude attitude, lame DJs, but good drinks (best Whisky Sour EVER!) for little money ($6) and if you take a lot of friends in a good mood, you can still have lots of fun! Just wach out for your butt – and this goes for women AND Men (although the grabbers themselves are all male it appears!)

"So how long did you live in Germany?"

I am starting to feel an identity crisis. This country is just so about labeling people and apparently, it is quite easy to fool them.

I went to a potluck party Thursday night. A Potluck is where everybody brings something to eat and/or drink and it is shared among all. It was at the house of the Director of English Graduate School, where I will take most courses. Some dishes were really fancy and the people also had a kind of fancy air to them. After days of international outgoingness that was kind of different. The people are working on their Master's or PhD and get a lot of money for that Thus, they are kind of pampered and since they are also hella smart (only 22 out of 500 applicants are accepted), they know what they are worth.

Anyway, I talked to them and it was nice to meet some Americans with common interests. What annoyed me though, was that never before had so many people asked me, if I was really German. I've heard many comments like "you don't have an accent at all" (yes, I have, only it is American) or "do you have American relatives", but never quite so much as that night. People seemed totally unable to believe that I could possibly German: "You don't even look German, at all. You look typically American" / "You don't like beer, are you sure you are German?"- and all that from grown up academics.

So what do I do? I miserably fail at faking a German accent, I just can't keep it up and it annoys the XXX out of me. Hence, the only way to get people to believe me is to talk about home. And at least that is a good thing, because as they are so puzzled, they actually listen to what I say. I get a chance to really represent a Germany far away from bratwurst, kraut, Oktoberfest, beer and soccer.

Take a crisis and make it an opportunity. Stay true to your own country!

Still, I was glad to meet up with my friends way later to hang out, because I finally had a chance to relax then without people caring where I come from!

Canooing

After our serious workout at the driving range on Tuesday (people were so glad when we left), we chose a less quiet activity for Wednesday and went canooing on Lake Union. Somehow, nobody got wet and our boat did not tip, so it was surprisingly unadventorous for us, but we don't need much to have fun together.

For Kamil and Ming, even a few pixy sticks (or magic wands) will do ;-)

Late that night we went to the College Inn near the University District and I had a local beer that I actually liked. It was a dark beer brewed at Pike Place Market. People still look at me weired though, when I tell them I am German and don't like beer (or soccer). Something must be wrong with my genes, they said.