Saturday, January 31, 2009

All the stuff I'm missing

We've been feeling like we are badly integrated in the USA, much like the headlines in the German newspapers are writing about the Turkish people in Germany lately. We download German news shows to watch, read the German news on the computer, and I am constantly checking what's up in Dresden. We are resisting integration here, we refuse to go ice fishing on the river, eat American bread or watch television. We don't even speak English in the home! Here's something else I have missed, the new cupola in the castle in Dresden. I'll just have to add that to my list of things to see when we visit.

















What can I say, that looks really great! This is the part of the castle that I can only remember being reconstructed in the 8 years that I have known Dresden. Apparently, they'll still be working on finishing it until 2013. But I won't delay my visit until then.

Other things I plan to see and do:
-go eat at the Neustädter Diechl
-go to Kalaschnikow Galerie
-go to Bagel's
-go to Cafe Pott
-walk past Förstereistr. 13 and Alaunstr. 17
-have a Softeis if it's open
-go to Panama and visit the bunnies
-ring Hohlfeld's doorbell and imagine his face turning bright red
-go to the Chicsaal
-of course visit my friends (that should really be first on the list)
-go past the Schwalbennest and remember nearly being run over there, and better yet, remember my revenge
...

Friday, January 23, 2009

Where's the Lebensfreude?

This is something that I am missing here. Not only from myself, but from others as well. Lebensfreude is something like lust for life, or zest for life or pleasure of life. It just doesn't seem like many people around here are radiating this, sie strahlen keine Lebensfreude aus, as you would say in German. What's wrong here? Why do the people I know here who have jobs they like and spouses they love and everything they need not have this? I was just looking at some pictures from Germany, and in most pictures, I was reminded of people who were just radiating this sort of satisfaction there. Even if they weren't rich or necessarily in the greatest relationship or whatever. Then I wondered "And here? Who do I know here who shows this kind of excitement for life?" And I can't think of one. Maybe one of the teachers I had a coffee with this afternoon, but she's the only one who pops into my head right off the bat. Why? What's wrong? Obama, can you help us get our excitement for life back? That's the change I need. But I think I'll need to take care of this one myself, I don't think any president can fix this problem.