US Election Day and other random ramblings

Today is one of those days where it is rather inconvenient to be in a foreign country. Since there is a 6-9 hour time difference, depending on the part of the US, from Germany, it is going to be very hard to find out the election results in some sort of timely fashion. The results will be released sometime between 3 and 4 am here. Not a good time if you have class at 7:30 am the next day.

I know a lot of the Fulbrighters have gotten questions about the elections and have even had to teach classes about how exactly the mystery of American elections works. It's ok, most of the time, even most of us don't know! However, I was gone for the 2 weeks leading up to election day, so there went most of those questions. Yesterday, I was asked by a 5th grader whether I supported Obama or McCain. When I said Obama, he said "me too!" and the girl next to him said "me too!" Now what exactly these little German 10 year olds know about American elections is a bit beyond me, but I kinda have the feeling that if McCain is elected, the Germans are never going to speak to the US again.

I also missed Halloween here. Not that there really was much Halloween. That was a hard day to be away too. For the first time in my memory, I did not dress up on Halloween. I did have Jack-o-lanterns to light, and that made everything a little better. I just really really wanted to wear my elf ears as in years past, but considering I saw no one dressed up, and actually didn't leave Monique's house on that day (cold, rainy, etc), it would have been rather stupid.

Now I am back from Netherlands and in Brandenburg again. It was nice to be out of East Germany for a while. What's that you say? East Germany hasn't existed for 19 years? Oh yeah, I do know that. However, you try telling that to the people here. They do enjoy their Western Capitalism of McDonald's and H&M, but people still drive Trabi's, the Socialist party is alive and well, my building has lived through 2 world wars and an iron curtain and looks like it, and products are still labeled as "made in East Germany". And I really don't think that means the product is 20 years old. I know there are people here leading a modern lifestyle in nice houses with newer cars and furniture from IKEA. However, I dont' see that on a daily basis because my house is none of those things and my car is 4000 miles away in KY. I quite miss it. And lots of other things that would take too long to list.

I am not overly happy here at the moment. But neither are most of my Fulbright friends. We are all feeling kind of stuck and that our time here is rather pointless. The schools don't know what to do with us or how to take advantage of our time here. All of our offers are rejected. It's something that will have to change. Or at least something that we need to change our attitudes toward. Today's plan after school is to eat lunch and then make a list. I need a list of things that make me happy and things that I can do to make myself happy beyond communicating with people online and wishing I was wherever they are. It won't work anymore. And if I keep thinking like this for much longer, I am not going to make it the rest of the year here.

So instead of unhappiness, I will leave you with a picture of happiness. This is Jasmijn tackling me on a trampoline in the Netherlands. She wanted to tickle me. She may only be 2, but she's tough!