Chapter 2: Not only learn about the American culture – also teach the German way of life

It was Richard’s birthday (my roommate) in November and he wanted to show the American guys (and the other Internationals) a real German delicious drink: Feuerzangenbowle – or in English “fire-tongs punch”. Tastes similar to “Glühwein mit Schuss” so they get to know a traditional styled popular drink you can find every year on German christmas markets (they don’t have ‘em here and not in almost any other country). And in Hamburg as well as in other traditional university cities (e.g. Göttingen or Stuttgart) in Germany they show the film “Die Feuerzangenbowle” in the universities before christmas. Of course, Paderborn (as kind of “untraditional” and a boring-gray-concrete university) doesn’t do this .

But back to topic – we’re exchange students in the United States, hence we primarly “learn” from the American way of life (instead vice versa). Maybe I should tell you more about other general habbits and things, like people are here in Oklahoma and in the university, or maybe I should not, because I did very often in the past. But I don’t care, because this blog is also a kind of diary for me, so I also want to remember these every day things myself later in a few months or years. If you’re bored of this, just skip the rest of this post!

You may know that in North America they have a lot of squirrels. And we have them too, right around our houses or anywhere else. And sometimes you can even touch them (I did by my bike… carefully ). Unfortunately some of them get hit by cars on the road and if you see this, just as it happens, it makes you feeling sad ;( – because they are so cuuute !

We have a lot of nice sunsets, too. It does not rain very often, so you can see the clear sky more often and enjoy the sunsets. And this definitely was one of the best things of our exchange semester (it just makes you much more happier ). By the way: There’s a lot of wind blowing strongly, too, maybe due to its location within the Great Plains. In the north west of Texas (right to the west border of Oklahoma) they have built the biggest wind park in the world!

Although, as I mentioned, it’s warm and so we sat in the pool and relaaaxxxed – in November
But this might not be a reason for them to put as much ice as possible in every soft drink, because they also do it in the colder winter. Worst thing about it: They always ask “On the rocks?” – “No, I wanna enjoy the pure taste of whiskey, man!” They have no idea about how to drink traditional tasty alcoholic drinks the right way (also what they call “beer” ).

(Thanks, Peter, for the photo )

In the university’s building they sometimes have some pianos, and actually a lot of students play on them very often. Most of the time some pop songs or pop ballads, but hey, they play it well and that’s so cool It seems to me that many students practise very hard in playing piano or some other instruments (Marching Band… okay, that’s not that “hard” ). What I know for sure is that they’re having exercise very often – the bad thing about it: Fashion and style is different here: very often sports clothes, always running shoes and the maroon OU hoodie. I also got exercise very often (5 days a week, in the gym or running outside), but I unfortunately stopped it at the beginning of our  Thanksgiving roadtrip and only did it two times the week in the following weeks so then I gained 3 kilograms – damn! *grrrr*

Perhaps pop ballads (like they play on the pianos) are not my favorite kind of music, so this reminds me of something else. Have I already talked about the AC/DC concert? No, I haven’t, thus here some words about it: AC/DC itself is just awesome, the “Rockopas” are still real Rock ‘n Roll champions. However, a concert inside a hall with a closed top (Ford Center in OKC) is not as good as open air and especially if every space is filled with chairs or benches – what the hell?! This is a rock concert!! Well, to be honest, I liked the U2 concert more – open air, much more impressive (show), cool feeling within a big stadium. But AC/DC also did a great job with a “nice” show as well (trailer at the beginning or the – let’s call it – “One And Only Angus Super Show Performance” or finishing with “Fire guns”… do I have to mention anything else?).

That’s it. I think I’ve tried to talk enough about life here in Oklahoma in poor English. Full stop. Fin. Finito. (Of course, there are two trips left, about which I will write, however nothing else about this “general stuff”)

PS.: That’s funny – I often wrote about the weather in November, when it was warm and we were able to go out with t-shirt and shorts. The reason why this impressed me so much is the following (besides the fact that the temperatures here are significant higher in general than in Germany): This year’s October was the coldest October in Norman ever recorded! Perhaps that fact gives you an idea how strange it is, to feel such change in temperatures from cold to warm (and also the opposite direction) within one or two days. Like in December (see post “No comment…”) from one to the next day it changed from a -8 °C low to a 22 °C high.