Going Deutsch: die Kartoffeln

I have found something (the only thing) that people in Germany eat all the time and I find not tasty. Gnocchi. This is not even a German food, but they eat it all the time, I think it's made of potatoes, and I don’t like it. I can honestly say, though, that every other food I’ve eaten has been absolutely delicious.

This weekend Sandra and I went on a tour of Schloss Rheda, which is an over 1000 year old castle that is only about a mile away from my house. The tour guide looked like she was related to the Queen of English, with her overly blushed cheeks and her powder blue trench coat, but she spoke pretty slow and I thought that I could understand a lot for only being in Germany for 3 weeks! The definition of what is old here blows my mind, and we sat on a couch that was about 200 years old (and looked brand new compared to everything else) in small prayer room that was built around 1200. A prince still lives there, but he is already married to a British princess and they have little royal babies.

In other news, I was nervous all day for my first class. I even put on a pre-picked first day of school outfit. Sandra drove me to school and walked me into my class(hilarious) to make sure she knew what time to pick me up. But no one was in the classroom. It was still early so we waited, and waited, and then the German teacher came and she was nice so Sandra left. And then we waited ,and waited, and then one other guy walked in.

So this is my German class. The teacher, this guy, and me. The teacher was great and really nice, so that’s good. Of course it was a little difficult to understand each other, since both of us students are not from Germany and both can not exactly speak German, but no worries, I learned we had a lot in common.

He is also 22. He’s lived in Germany for ten months. He is from Turkey. He’s married. I think I found out that his wife refuses to speak German with him, even though she is half German. He works in a potato factory. He cleans, sorts, and packs I think. He works every day for 11 hours except one Sunday a month. He has house pets: 41 turtle doves that he breeds and sells. There is a shortage of turtle doves in Germany, so sometimes people buy them for 200 Euros. They are not for eating.

It being the first day, and it being a new class, and it being only two of us, naturally we spoke when prompted for 3 hours about our chosen professions. The conversation kind of flowed like this:

Me: Is your work stressful?

Him: Yes

Me: Is your work boring?

Him: Yes.

Me: Do you like your work?

Him: No.

Me: Do you like potatoes?

Him: No.