Miscellaneous Thoughts On A Windy Day

I'm safe and sound back in Augsburg Germany and life resumes. My German is coming along really well or, as we say in Germany, sehr gut. I stumbled upon a language course by a gentleman named Michel Thomas that has proven to be extremely effective. I have 15 of his CD's installed on my little green iPod Shuffle that I bought from my Niece Maddy. I keep it attached to my hip, or at least tucked in my pocket, so I'm able to learn German whenever my brain is in the mood. I'm only up to CD #4, but am already forming complete sentences and even able to string together a series of thoughts and questions. I never thought it could be so easy. 

I'm having a coffee and wanted something sweet to go along with it, so I opened the Kinder Egg that Marietta's Mom gave me on my return. Kinder Eggs are regular sized chocolate eggs with a smaller capsule inside containing a surprise, they're great. Inside my egg today was a Smart Car toy!!! You can't actually get Kinder Egg's in America because of the regulations against toys with small parts, especially inside of something you're supposed to eat like the chocolate egg featured in this particular treat. In Germany, all you have to do is print a warning on the label and off you go. If it says "contains small parts, not intended for children under three", they mean it, and it's taken as fact that you've listened and that you fully intend to comply. In America, people are allowed, and even encouraged, to be stupid (two words...McDonald's Coffee). Anyway, Kinder Eggs are great. The chocolate is really good and the toy inside is top quality. If you're old enough to remember when a box of Cracker Jacks contained something worth discovering, you'll understand the allure of the Kinder Egg. 

We had a nice train ride up to Munich yesterday and spent several hours walking around the city and being tourists. Southern Germany was experiencing extremely high winds yesterday and we got literally pushed around by the wind a couple of times while we were exploring. Munich is a over 1000 younger than Augsburg, but it's still dripping with monuments to the Renaissance. It's a bustling city in every sense of the word. The Hauptbahnhof, or Central Train Station, is gigantic and filled with wonderful shops and vendors, and people, lot's of people. Munich is very nice, if not a little too windy, but I still prefer the pace and feel of Augsburg. We didn't take the time to visit any of Munich's museums, but will get around to that another time. 

Marietta's in town at an appointment, and I'm taking the opportunity to get caught up on some of my Internetting. But now, it's back to my iPod for some more German. Sprechen Sie Deutsch? - Ja!

Tschüss,

~B