Bad Coffee and Worse Handwriting

I can't find a coffee maker within my kitchenette, so I have resorted to mixing up a few shots of instant every morning. I also haven't dedicated much time to seeking out nice coffee shops, so whenever I buy coffee out, I think I pretty much end up with instant also. Actually, whenever I travel I can usually only find instant or mediocre coffee. Good coffee reminds me of home, but terrible coffee reminds me of adventure and freedom! So I drink my morning swill with gusto!

I woke up early today to head to the German version of the DMV to anmelden, or register. I guess every time a foreigner or a German changes addresses they need to go into a specific government office and register their new address. You take a number, fill out a form, answer some questions, the Beamtin enters some stuff in a computer, no big deal, right? Wrong! Apparently my English handwriting is totally illegible for certain German civil servants. Something to work on I guess. She had me written down as being from in Deattle, living currently with the Kneusers, and I think she tried to ask me where I was born about six different ways since apparently the seven different places I wrote it on the form weren't clear. I guess I need to work on my accent also. All in all though, my lady was very patient and now I'm legal! A satisfying morning.

Day 2 of language school progressed smoothly. We discussed "Denglish", or "Engleutsch". I guess it's pretty hip to pepper German sentences with a lot of English words and it's a source of much hand-wringing for the German purists and older generation. My thoughts on the subject are that sure, the young people are pretty Amerika crazy right now, but who knows what things are going to be like in thirty years. Maybe there will be a cultural resurgence! Maybe we will all be speaking Swahili! No need to mourn the death of German culture just yet. But I have only been here five days. Not exactly a reliable source yet.

I was going to try to do some sort of cultural activity tonight, but I got a little exhausted. Instead I compromised and watched some of my very first German TV! I watched German comedy central so that I could at least be a little familiar with the premises of the shows, but everything was dubbed so I had a little listening comprehension practice. Mostly I failed at the translating, but I caught some words and the gist of the episode (Americans are overweight, emotional, irrational, etc. Great PR for the US, Comedy Central). I also saw advertisements for King of the Hill! Who knew they played that in Germany! Some guys I met in the Boonies of Australia had also seen King of the Hill. That show must have such a great international marketing team!