Last Days in Germany

I shall pick up from where I left off last time. I was in Munich for 2 days. I've been moving around so much I hardly remember what happened a few days ago! Anyways, in short, there were so many things to do in Munich and 2 days was definitely not enough. I then drove to Schloss Neuschwanstein and then to Freiburg. The south of Germany was amazing, with mountains and lots of trees and very clean air. The water from the tap was straight from the Alps, it had no taste which was great. While I was driving around Schwarzwald it suddenly started to rain. It was like torrential downpour that started all of a sudden and stopped all of a sudden. Very refreshing. I want to live there!! But then I understood why there are so many cycling accidents there even though they have many cycling paths. This is because the roads are most times very narrow and there is no speed limit.

I then went onto Frankfurt to visit the company that was located with many other companies in an enclosed complex. I was a full 20 min in advance and thought all I had to do was get on a shuttle into the building. But I had to go through security where I had to take a quiz on safety questions. I discovered that you couldn’t answer the questions without watching their lengthy video. However, even after watching the video, I still got some wrong (I had no idea what they were asking, the English translations were pretty bad) and it said on the screen that you have used all your attempts, please see reception. So like an idiot I had to tell them that I didn't pass the useless test. I was given another chance and must pass it otherwise I can't go through. Imagine me not getting in because of some stupid test! So I focused while watching the anal video and passed it. I then waited and waited for the shuttle to get me inside the building. When I arrived, I was a full 15 min late. So so so bad! The guy I met with was very nice aber very geeky. I discovered that people work very long hours!! And apparently people in Europe always do a post-doc before getting pharma industry jobs! Well, I am NOT going to do any 'studying' anymore, it's high time that I get an actual job!!

Today I went to get my car scratches fixed. Before going further, I'd like to admit that in addition to the scratches I got while reversing in Dresden, I got another one while driving on the Autobahn. There are constantly road works in Germany on their Autobahns (no wonder the road is so nice) and they often narrow 3 lanes into 2 to do this. So the roads are very narrow. Yesterday while driving at night for 400 km from Frankfurt to Leipzig, there was something wrong with the headlights in my car, so I couldn't see clearly the boulders of the road on a section of road work. And behold I scratched the car on the ledge! So dead – the car has some sort of curse on it. I heard that some small scratches can set you back at hundreds of dollars, and with the scratches I have collected - I wouldn't be surprised if they ask me to pay a grand. So I decided to go to an auto shop to get them fixed. Or I could fix it myself by buying some paint. I had experience with this, but this time, the scratches were so huge and bad I highly doubt I could cover it up. In fact I would probably just make it worse. Anyways, I went to an auto shop and a really nice guy came out. He couldn't speak much English but lead me to another place that specialized in paint jobs. We dropped my car there for them to fix at a very modest price and he drove me to the Hauptbahnhof so I could catch a train to Leipzig. Believe it or not my German was actually slightly better than his English. So we talked in German and I had the longest German conversation ever! I was to meet him at his shop at 4.30 pm which leaves just 5 hours. Along with waiting for the train and time to get to and out of Leipzig, I really didn't have much time to spend in Leipzig so I went for the Amazonian forest experience. That was awesome! It felt so peaceful in there with seemingly real forest sounds. I saw huge images of insects etc that are absolutely fascinating but in real life would scare the shit out of me. I then went back by taxi. My gosh the taxi driver ist sehr dumm, he was so slow on the Autobahn and took 1 hour to get there instead of 30 min (time I'd have taken) whilst cussing at traffic all the time. I finally got to that dudes shop at 5 pm. And I had to pay 70 EU for the taxi drivers stupidity. I told him that I’m not going to pay this much because it was his fault. He said no. This went back and forth for a bit to no avail. He then threatened to call the police. Threatening does not work on me! I’d gladly play this game except I was already super late. And it kills me to be this late especially with Germans so I gave in. When I got to the shop, his car was gone and shop was closed. Apparently he was out looking for me...I felt so bad! But when he saw me he wasn't the least upset. He wanted to know where I'm staying at and kept asking when I'm flying out etc. I have to admit that it's obvious he's helping me out and being extra nice because he likes me. He couldn’t stop looking at me and smiling even while driving. Normally this sort of behavior is creepy but this time it's rather flattering because he is really nice and I have to say hot! It's odd, I have never found guys who are smart to be hot. I guess smart guys are generally either arrogant, unfit, geeky and or weird. It just feels nice to be around a real man, who is strong and who acts like a man (the latter is much harder to achieve). My car is now perfect - you can't see ANY damages whatsoever! I won't have to worry about returning the car tomorrow but I need to be careful with the driving!

I will be leaving Germany tomorrow. Two weeks seem to have gone by so fast yet I have done so many things! Conclusions from the trip, Germans are not cold at all or particularly formal either. It's easy to start a conversation with them and going in deeper not just surface talk. People say 'danke schön' all the time and people who don't know each other say 'tschüs' even though it's the informal way. The guy that I talked to who told me that Germans don't accept foreigners most definitely just comes from his own experience. Being the typical US person Germans would pick it up straightaway. If you want people to open up to you, you have to open up to them first. I find it very nice that I could talk to Germans about things that are considered out of line in the US because it's too personal etc. Instead Germans like that and you definitely feel closer because I for one, really don't like making surface talks because I think it's just so superficial. I love to find personal similarities and interesting differences. Yet I don't think I'd be getting a job in Germany next year, perhaps in the future. So I am going to continue learning German and not give it up half way. The first part of learning a language is always hard, but once you understand most of the conversation, it becomes a lot easier :)