Edward and I finally got used to each other. I’ve stayed in the apartment of Carpenter Complex on the University of Memphis since two months now and I think the little squirrel finally accepted my four months- presence in the room right next of his personal tree. It took quite a while to get to know to each other. Edward- don’t think I got inspired by the Twilight- Series here, I’m pretty sure that’s always been his name- was very curious in the first place, about the strange girl that is talking with this weird accent he has never heard before. He spent hours sitting on my windowsill, gnawing on his hazelnut, and watching me with excitement while I told him, who I am and where I come from.
I said that I am a 21-year-old German who flew all the way from Frankfurt to America to study Communication and Journalism at the University of Memphis. In Fall Semester 2009 I want to experience the college life with everything that is considered to be typically American: The University, the culture, the food, the environment, the music, the youth and everything else that is part of being an American college student.
When I finished my speech I figured that Edward isn’t really much a talker. But I could tell by the speed of his gnawing jaw that he wants to know everything about my experiences and especially about the cultural differences between Germany and America.
Well then, there is a lot to say. First of all I gave him some basic information that he definitely seemed to lack, eventually he has never seen anything else besides the tree he is living at and as never done anything else but finding, eating and hiding his beloved nuts. So this is what I told him: Germany is a country in Europe. It is neither the capital of Europe nor a part of Ireland. Belgium, France, Luxemburg, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands surround the country. Although the Netherlands is a neighboring country, we don’t speak Dutch in Germany, we speak German (it was quite hard for him to figure THAT out!) Despite all of Edward’s argumentation, I am pretty sure that Frankfurt is not the Capital of Germany and has never been so. Instead, Berlin is Germany’s capital. By the way: there is no gigantic wall that separates eastern from western Germany and Hitler is neither alive nor my friend. Most of the German girls don’t wear “Dirndels” every day and beer is not the only thing we drink back home. He was quite impressed, that we have dishwashers, washing mashines and microwaves and that we shower every single day.
