Day Two - Scavanger Hunt

Linguistische Beobachtungen

Guten Abend! Ich erlernte Deutsches, gerade indem ich mein Fahrrad in einer deutschen Stadt ritt!

No, I'm just fucking around. I'm still clueless. German is a very interesting language because the translation of many individual words seems nearly identical to English, but when you hear the language spoken in conversation, it's completely incomprehensible. Some examples:

"Hello" == "Hallo"
"Yes" == "Ja" (pronounced "Yah")
"Thank You" == "Danku"

This is great for going to the grocery store, for example. I greet that cashier with a simple "Hallo," my products are scanned, I am informed of the price (thank god for the display on the cash register) and on my way out I say "Danku." It's an extremely bad thing, however, in situations where there might be other English speakers around, such as where I live. If this were a French-speaking country, for example, I would carry on a conversation with someone who says "Hello," and awkwardly walk away from a "Bonjour." Here, however, I can't tell if the person is speaking English or German.

Urban Scavenger Hunt

Today, I spent seven hours on my fahrrad and came home with some shaving cream and a battery charger (meaning digital camera pictures will be posted soon!). It's too bad that the real goal was to cash in my Traveler's Cheques so that I can finally pay the first installment of my rent (supposed to be paid up front, but the guy was lenient and said I could have a few days). I hit the streets at around 1:30 pm, finally found a bank at around 3:00 pm, where I was informed that I needed my passport to cash the checks. Needless to say, I got lost in the city and didn't make it back home until 6 pm, after banks close.

Street layout

For you non-urban-planning-junkies out their, there are three main ways streets can be laid out. The best (in my opinion) is the rigid grid found in most American cities. Then there is the hierarchal method (residential spaghetti streets, collector roads, expressways) found in American suburbs, which is by far the worst because it is only useful for one form of transportation--personal automobile. Then there is what I like to call random craziness, which is what most European cities look like. Thanks to the firebombing, Dresden is some combination between European random craziness and the more modern street grid. Thus, you fool yourself into thinking you have a grid to keep yourself in line, but no. You'll get lost.

International Grocery Shopping

I learned in church on my last American day that most people do not find grocery shopping fun. I think these people are insane, as I think that walking down the aisles of Kroger and putting whatever the hell I want into my cart is one of the greatest activities there is. For you naysayers, may I suggest going to a foreign country to do your grocery shopping? What a blast! First of all, with some products, you just have to hope you got the right thing. Did I just purchase butter or cream cheese? I was reminded of my friend Alex's adventures in Paris, where he thought he purchased chocolate milk and ended up with some kind of yogurt product. Also, in Dresden (and New Orleans too, from what I remember) grocery stores are not just limited to selling groceries--the shelves are stocked in the most random way imaginable. Where is the peanut butter? Between the unicycles and children's shoes, of course (this is not an exaggeration; one grocery store I went to in Dresden actually sold both of these products.)!

What's Missing

I already mentioned the more responsible implementation of outdoor advertising in yesterday's post, and today I made some other observations regarding what I would expect to find in American cities but have been completely absent here in Dresden. I have already spent a total of around 10 - 15 hours on the streets of Dresden on my bicycle, and I have not seen a single police officer (on foot or automobile), surveillance camera on public property, homeless person, or hostile interaction on the streets. I haven't even heard anyone raise their voices (I will expand on this under the next heading). I made a similar observation during my stay in Montreal, but I still saw a handful of officers throughout my day, whereas here I have literally seen none.

A Tranquil People

Another major observation that I don't know how to react to is that the people here seem to be much less emotional than Americans. As with all of my observations of the people, I don't know whether to apply it to Europeans, Germans, Saxons, or Dresdeners (which is why I need to travel on weekends!). Walking down the streets of an American city, the aisles of an American grocery store, etc., you are treated to a broad range of emotions. People are screaming at each other in rage, laughing hysterically, talking loudly, and maybe even crying. Despite the presence of a fair amount of customers, both grocery stores I have visited in Dresden have felt like libraries. People on the streets seem to go about their business in a dignified, straight-forward manner. I was hanging out in a park yesterday (and what an amazing park it is) and just watched a major "thoroughfare" (in a park, so no cars, of course) where people were roller blading, cycling, walking, etc. and they were all wearing very straight faces. I have always accused Americans of being too pissed off all of the times, but that mainly applies to when they are locked up in their cars (which is how Americans spend most of their time). However, I think that I prefer the more colorful, out-loud way that Americans conduct themselves in public.

"America--Fuck Yeah!"

Expanding on the previous heading, I am a quite critical person, so I came over here knowing what I hate about America (cars, strip malls, billboards, stupid people... ME ME ME, NOW NOW NOW!). However, now that I see a different way, I am relieved to see that these things are indeed restricted to American society, and I am also finding that there is a lot that I truly do like that is unique to American culture. Although we seem to be looked down upon by other countries, we have every right to have our own culture, and it actually does have a lot to offer.

Conclusions and Farewell

Now that I finally have my battery charger, tomorrow I will be able to show you visually what an amazing city this is! And remember--don't be shy, feel free to comment!