Wait... We Were In Belgium?

Today was pretty average. Well, average for my second full day in a foreign country. The first thing I did today was read Die Zeit ("The Times" in German), which is the most widely read newspaper in Germany. Anyway there's a little human interest magazine inside, so I flipped to that. And guess what, the entire issue was about selfies. There's no escaping!! In the spirit of selfies, please enjoy an average day in Germany through some artful, 21st Century self-portraits...

The article had about 20 selfies of people in Berlin Clubs and Bars. 

This morning my host father and I went to the German version of a BevMo!. They're pretty crazy about recycling here, so that involves actually returning the bottles and crates that they put a deposit on when they originally bought the beverages. We returned about 50 bottles and got over €15 (about $20) back. It was super easy, too. All you have to do is set the crate full of bottles onto a little conveyer belt and the machine scans it. It took probably two and half minutes. Then we bought the beverages for the week-- or month? I can't tell because they drink so much sparkling water here.

Just chilling in the cellar/pantry.

Then my host father and I went for an early afternoon bike ride through the surrounding towns and forest. I'm glad we had mountain-ish bikes because, jeez, can you say cobblestones?! The equivalent back in Salem can best be described as Minto Brown's path in certain areas after a terrible flood season and the pavement is all screwed up. Except here they're an artful piece of history.

Shout out to my brother Jake for an awesome t-shirt from a fake Germany university!

After a shower and some chill-out time, my host brother asked if I wanted to go downtown with him to look for some light he needed for his bike. So we zipped into town in the convertible and went to what can only be described as "Bike World." Imagine the largest REI you've been to and then put in just bikes and bike equipment. Pretty great. We went to two Bike Worlds and while he was searching for the light and other things, I just kind of wandered around and looked at whatever. There were so many tires that it smelled like Les Schwab. Seriously, Germans know how to do bikes.

This intense saleslady came up to me asking what I was doing and grilled me in German. 

On the way home, my host brother and I stopped at a little grocery store with a bakery inside. He was frustrated because all the stores were closed, but he knew one that might be open at that time. And guess why? Because we just took a three minute detour into Belgium. BELGIUM! I had no idea we had left Germany. As we drove away with the cake, he was just nonchalantly like, "Yeah, Belgium has different hours." And I thought he was joking, but no, I've now been to Belgium. Woo!

Once home and after we all had a little Kaffee, Tee, und Kuchen ("coffee, tea, and cake") together, I returned to Die Zeit magazine. Aside from knowing how to do bikes, Germans sure know how to do personal ads. Oh man, some of them were so corny I couldn't handle it. They're mostly by people in their 50s and older looking for a traveling companion, which I totally appreciate, but the phrasing of some were just too much. Good reading though. 

One keeper: Zaunkönig sucht Nachtigall ("Wren searches for Nightingale";)

So pretty much living the life! The radio here is still so random and weird. One minute they're playing Breakfast in America and the next it's Thrift Shop or a German New Wave song from the 90s. Kids of American started playing in Bike World and I had a little freakout, but refrained from joining in. My younger host brother just started practicing his trombone in the neighboring room. Maybe we can have a little brass jam session with trumpet and trombone? I'm going to go check that out.