First Amendment Instincts

I had figured in advance that I would have to suppress a few habits and instincts here in Germany. My instinct to speak the language I know best was the obvious one, with my tendency to be slightly shy around new people and to speak up without thinking also being considered. But you can't predict everything. And an instinct I didn't notice existed has become the largest creator of bitten tongues in my life here.

You probably haven't noticed it either, but chances are, if you're an American and at all politically conscious, you have what I have. I call it my “First Amendment Instinct” and it activates whenever I see or read about a breach, of letter or spirit, of the first amendment to the US constitution. It elicits in me an immediate raising of the hackles, and a warming of the rhetorical bombasts that, in the US, would be used to knock the offending idea back into the stone age. Fortunately, here in Germany the language barrier reminds me not to speak my mind, so no real outbursts have occurred.

But this reflex is being called into action more often than usual here. This is because Germans have no First Amendment Reflex. They have the freedoms allowed by it (mostly... but more about that later) but they don't have the prickly, defensive, slippery slope mentality about them that most Americans do. They don't view the government in the same what-could-go wrong light that Americans of both parties do. (though often on different issues)

An example: Every German has a “Personalausweis”, or personal identification card, that is used much like a driver's license, for alcohol age control, but also a bit like a Social Security number: It identifies you for all your interactions with the state and banking system. Systems like this have been proposed from time to time in the US. One may be moving forward now, for all I know. They are incredibly controversial, seen by the civil-liberty minded as an unforgivable attack on privacy. Yet German 16-year-olds are extremely eager to get one, because it means they have the ID necessary to go to bars and drink. “Why don't they see the danger too‽‽” the civil libertarian part of my brain keeps screaming, thankfully in English

The example that finally got me talking to my host family is more central, though. There are in Germany, like every western European country now, extreme right nationalist anti-immigration parties that advocate all sorts of dumb things: Closing the borders to immigration, reducing freedom of the press, racial discrimination, etcetera. In Germany, of course, several of these have taken on the trappings of National Socialism, taking up the forbidden(ish) symbols of the bad old days, the “Hakenkreuz” and such. There are people who talk the exact same nonsense in the US, probably a good deal more, but they never get to say anything because our two party system keeps all but the most mainstream out of power. In a parliamentary country like Germany, (or pretty much the rest of the democratic world) though, they have maybe a seat in the parliament, and thus a (small) seat at the table.

Now, in the US, I, and certainly some of you derive a sort of masochist pride reading their tracts, because though it's complete filth, and I oppose it completely, they have the right to say what they want, and I'm proud of that. That's not the feeling in Germany, according to my completely representative sample of a conversation with my host mother and the elder sister, who's back from Madrid. There is a process of some sort in Germany for banning a political party, and they wish that the government would get on with it and ban these intolerant apes (not their words) for advocating the removal of constitutional rights. People in Germany seem to have the freedom to say anything – except to advocate curtailing that right. This is an interesting concept: In the US, do you have the freedom to advocate the removal of freedom? In the US, this has never been seriously tested, since we have never had room for enough parties for those types of bigots to form their own. But my First Amendment Sense is tingling, and it says: Yes! Freedom of speech cannot be abridged without clear and present danger – and I mean clear and present!! Step away from that book pyre!

So how do the Germans do it? How do they live a free and happy life without continuous protective bombastic volleys against the encroachments of the state? It talked a little bit to Ryan Knight about this, and his response was this: Having seen Fascism nearly within living memory, and though opposing it totally, they can comfortably give their government more power without worrying. they know what fascism looks like and this isn't it.

I like that explanation, thought I think there's more to it: I will leave you with my succinct observation on the German people, one that I think I will be coming back to in subsequent posts: Germans do less stupid shit.

Goodnight and good luck,

David Loring

Burg Eltz

Edit: I forgot to link my Flickr set: here.

Burg Eltz is a castle. A Real castle, that sits on it's hill with an "Go on, try and invade me, just try" look on it's massive stone face. It's in a valley, with excellent vantages over the castle, which confused me at first as to how it could be a useful fortification, until my host father told me that it was beyond the effective range of most medieval weaponry. Which is apparently pathetic. That didn't stop someone from trying, though. On a commanding promontory above the castle is a
crumbling wall-all that remains of a fortress built as part of an unsucessful seige of Burg Eltz.

This reminds me. German students take note: "Schloss" is only the right word for fancy-schmancy "castles" like Neuschwanstein. The word, at least where I am, for real, medieval fortresses is "Burg". Frau Bird, is this not true in Peine?

I have some photos of the outside, but they wouldn't let us take pictures inside. This was really a tragedy, because the inside was amazing. There was all kinds of original furniture, and the celing and walls were painted in most wonderful ways.

But the craziest thing was that the castle is still in family ownership. That's right. The family Eltz, which built the castle, and lived in it through all the sieges and stuff, still exists and owns it thirty-three generations later. Longer than the history of the US, than even of western presence in America. Insane.

Shameless Publicizing

The other american exchange student, Signe, also has a blog now: She even mentions me! Read her well-written and -organized post as an instructive contrast to my unformed blob of words down there.

Here, a link: http://amiexchanger.blogspot.com/

Edit: I forgot my pictures: here.

A day in the life

Today was insanely hot, 36 degrees! (Celsius, of course. Who's this Fahrenheit you speak of?) I spent the morning doing nothing much, eating breakfast, then retreating to my room to not-be-on-a-cultural-exchange for a few hours. Then, 'round when FOMO* kicked in, it was time for lunch, then german lessions with the Frau Pfeist. Nothing new, really basic stuff, but it's fun to hang out with Signe, the other American and the only other exchange student here at the moment, and I learn stuff just by talking German to Frau Pfeist. Then, Signe and I got a ride from Frau Pfeist (everyone here is so nice about being our personal taxi service while we are getting things together!) in to the old walled part of Ahrweiler. Beautiful old buildings, an almost complete old city wall, delicious marzipan gelato... But Signe doesn't yet speak german nearly well enough to get by, so I spoke english and we played the american tourists, in our own little language-bubble. At about five we had the bright idea to walk down to the school, kind of between Bad Neuenahr and Ahrweiler, and check it out. My, was that a long walk! But the Ahr is pretty, and it was enjoyable despite the heat. We had told Signe's host father to pick us up at the school, and when we got there he invited me over for dinner. My new SIM card came today, so I called my host mother and cleared everything. (in german, of course. I'm actually pretty proud of that.) the family Gaudian has an amazing house, with all sorts of art in it, and i'm going to enjoy living there in six months or so. (they're my third family.) The father is fascinating. He is a representative in the Stadtrad, a kind of city council except with more people, I think, and is part of the Green party. The ride there was devoted to a long spiel, the kernel of which was that the Germans were dumb to tear down all their old buildings in the 50's and 60's, and that, because the german population is decreasing, there's no reason to build more single-family homes. For the benefit of Signe, mostly, we spoke english, and he speaks excellent english, so after dinner (which really is small in Germany, just like another breakfast), I was able to engage in some serious conversation. We talked about the environment, about the "cash for clunkers" program and it's ancestor in germany and how they weren't really ecological, because they created so many new cars, and about how we fit into the world in general. It was fun to really discuss things for the first time in weeks; I spend all my time right now on just being understood, and relish the small victories, but it isn't the same as a good conversation.

By the time I got home, the heat had brewed up a thunderstorm somewhere to the west, and so we cleared the terrace and watched the lightning as it rolled lesiurely towards, and eventually around, us. It was a great day, not so good for my integration, but really pleasant. Things are really interesting here.

*FOMO: Fear of Missing Out

Next up: Some pictures of a cold-water geyser I visited, but have been to lazy to deal with. Yes, a cold-water geyser. All will be explained.

Conversation Graph

I have been seeing a lot of my extended host family this week. For some reason, the Jahnen family has a huge number of birthdays in August, so I have met all my host-aunts and -uncles and cousins and grandparents and etcetera. It's been pretty fun, but occasionally stressful on my German- actually, forget occasionally, all the time! So, based on my experiences, I present the highly scientific conversation-graph!

Just click to read, folks!

Picture Time!

DSCN0562.JPG
Originally uploaded by David T.H. Loring

My Host family!

The rest of my pictures from ther Rhein valley are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidthloring/sets/72157621904362331/

Daily Difference: Highways

(these probably won't be daily, but the title has Added Alliterative Appeal.)

The first and most obvious difference between the German Autobahn and our own battle-scarred highway system is the famous lack of speed limits on it. This is, like so many famous facts, not technically true. There are parts of the Autobahn that have no speed limit, but also parts with strictly enforced limits. But there are other differences between the two. First, the highway is not the only way to travel around Germany. In places the trains parallel the Autobahn. This means that teh Autobahn is not filled with random drivers just trying to go to the next town like in the US. There are three main classes of drivers on the Autobahn: First, and most numerous, big freight trucks, carrying stuff that the freight trains aren't efficient for, like fresh fruit and vegetables. Then people, like my host family, with stuff to transport or a big family. Third, but by no means rare, are the middle-aged men with good cars who drive places because they like to drive. Often the fast lane is filled with these fellows, and occasionally someone in a black Mercedes or convertible will blow by at insane speeds.

Also, the Autobahn isn't quite speed limit free because of the sheer amount of road work that goes on. From Frankfurt to Vettlehoven, a drive of an hour and a half we passed more than five repair projects. These don't have nearly the effect on traffic that they do in America, though, because the Germans are incredibly clever about rediriecting traffic. They will paint new yellow lines over the white ones to divert traffic from one lane to another, put down little portable stoplights to control traffic, and to provide a route arund one project on a street by my house, they paved a gravel farm road, complete with little paved cutouts so that cars can pass each other! I don't know how much all this costs, but let me put it this way: if they can afford to keep their roads looking like this, it's no wonder that they're not worried about the cost of healthcare!

The David Has Landed

I got on the plane in San Fransisco at 7:00 in the morning, local time. I got off another plane at 8:00 in the morning, local time. It was the shortest and longest trip of my life. When I got to Vettlehoven, after an hour and a half drive from Frankfurt, my family sat down to breakfast, and, more than a little confused, I sat down as well, and ate my first german "Fruhstuck", with my body telling me it was a midnight snack and the morning sun shining.

But things here have been excellent. My four years of German mean I can understand what people say to me, and even hold up my end of a conversation, albiet haltingly. Thank you Frau Bird! All the funny things that you say, like "Klein aber Fein" that a thought were just Frau Bird-isims, people actually say! My accomdations are also excellent. My room here is bigger than my room at home, actually, and my host family, Thomas Jahnen, Andrea Jahnen, and Fransiska Jahnen are incredibly nice, and considerate of my very basic german. I met the son, Mathias Jahnen, but the day after I got there, he went off to his own exchange in Syracuse, New York. Nice and symmetrical.

Yesterday, after another trip to the airport in Frankfurt, we took a long senic detour and came up the Rhein valley at its narrowest area. Now the Rhein is never narrow, and even at its narrowest it is wider than any river in Humboldt. But its valley is quite impressive. And on either side of the Rhein there are old castles. We saw more than a dozen in the whole trip. Everything here is so old! I was talking to my family about the Carson Mansion, and how it is a really historic building in Eureka, and I said that it was built in the 1860's or so, and they laughed, and pointed to a random building that said "im 1600 Gebaut". Europe is so old!

I met the other exchange student from america that is going to be in school with me. She's from Getteysburg, Pennsylvania, and she's named Signe, but I didn't ask such personal questions as "what's your last name?" She sings, and plays four instruments, so we will likely have many of the same classes. But she has only one semester of german, so this is a lot harder for her. Talking to her as we went and got our bank accounts and visa papers, I discovered something: It is really hard to switch from English to German. When I speak one or the other only, it's easy to remember words and grammar, but using both is really confusing and tricky, and I forget which one I am using to whom. I have installed german on my laptop for that reason, and I will probably not speak much to you english-speakers, not because I don't want to, but because it's becoming difficult!

Bis Später!

"My bags are packed, I'm ready to go"

So, this is my antepenultimate day in eureka. Yes, that's just a fancy way of saying"the day before the day before the last day". I have a decent idea of what I need for Germany, and I have most of it. I also have a decent amount of money, thanks to the painting I have been doing. But I barely know who my host parents will be. I have emailed them, and they seem nice. The mother runs a daycare form the house, and the father makes machines to control the world. (At least that's what the email said.) But I haven't seen any pictures of them, and have only satellite pictures of where I am going. Should I have to parachute out to their house, I could do that easily, but I don't know who's picking me up at the airport. This it actually kind of fun. Am I crazy?