So it begins

So welcome one and all to my first attempt at blogging. Firstly, I would like to mention that until about a week ago I had never even considered the idea of making a blog. I have never liked them for the following reasons:
1. If you really wanted to say something important, you could say it in a personalized email, or heaven forbid, write a letter.
2. I don't like the idea of always having to sit in front of a computer to have interactions with people; often this seems to be at the expense of developing friendships with the people actually around you.
3. I am always suspicious of new technology that claims to make "connecting" with people more easy. I'm not convinced that just being "more connected" makes people have anything especially more meaningful to say, or makes the slow process of developing friendships/relationships quick and easy.

So. Why then, you're probably asking yourself, am I writing a blog at all?

I guess you could say it came from several places. It was Brita that first suggested it, so I'll give her the credit (-sorry I stole the same background as your blog-) I've also realized that one thing I always miss when I come back to Germany/Europe is familiar old things. This may be hard to imagine since most everything in Germany is older than things in Nebraska. But I mean more the things that are familiar to me. Going to the Mill. Running into people that knew you from grade school. Knowing where the gouges in the floor of your room came from. In a completely new place you get to start all over. Language, culture, weather, surroundings, you name it. You are always learning, whether you want to or not. It may be a tremendously exciting learning experience just to try to go to the grocery store, or try to walk down a sidewalk without getting killed by a bicycle. This is good, in a way (I'm always about learning), but it can be very tiring and you start to feel isolated when other people don't seem to notice the same things that you do. That's why it's so fun to have visitors. Then we can all marvel at the subway and the little bread roles together, and no one has to feel like an idiot to be excited about them. 

I'll give you a little example. Yesterday I was playing as a substitute with an orchestra from Hamburg. We were playing a concert in an airplane repair and diagnostic hanger, between two giant jumbo jets, which were in various states of being taken apart and put back together. The place where the orchestra could change was directly underneath one of them and you could look right up into where the front wheels pulled into their little chamber. It was really really cool. During the concert you could see and feel planes taking off in the background through the giant, 4-story glass windows. Wow. It was amazing. And the other musicians? "Oh geez, we have to play this thing again..." "Yeah, you know, last year the food was better." "Yeah, and why did we drive to the cafeteria first? Now we have to drive all the way [3 minutes] back to the hall. That was someone's job to make sure things like that don't happen." "and no beer during the break, what's up with that!"

Now I don't want to make these people out to be bad people. They really do play this concert every year and it's not that exciting to them anymore. It's just that when something like that is so completely new and fascinating, it's difficult to join in complaining about the food.

Being in a new place completely changes the context for everything you think you know. It sheds light on parts of your personality that you didn't think you had and leaves others in the dark. I think it is one of the best and fastest ways to learn about yourself and the world and don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to have the chance to be here.

However, always being up for the challenge is sometimes more than I can handle alone. I hope that by writing about the things that happen here, you will get an idea of what it is like to be a real Hamburger, and probably more importantly, your comments will give me some of that midwestern sensibility that I sometimes so sorely miss. And maybe it really does make "connecting" quick and easy. I'm willing to give it the chance.

Looking forward to hearing from you---

German word of the day.

Tschüß     [ch ew sss]= goodbye


Erik