1) Are you 50 years old, but want to feel young? Well, go right ahead and dye your hair bright red.

2)Black black black black. If not black, dark dark dark colors or red.

3)Thinking of dying your hair? Red (or hot pink) is the only way to go.

4) Do you like the fashion of the '80's? Great! Go ahead and wear those five inch clogs, Ma!

5) Scarves are the best accessory ever. (Not silk scarves, WINTER scarves.)

6) Red and pink and orange? Sure, that matches!

While we're on the subject of color, how about those high-rises? Back in the old days they were all white. Now, though. Well, mine is ORANGE the ones accross the way are BLUE and they are just whatever color someone decided them to be! Color is everything. (Except clothing is best when black or hot pink.)

So let's talk politics. The German people I know know far more about today's USA presidency election than I do. Most are SHOCKED to learn that for the most part, I could care less. They are VERY into that sort of thing here.

Let's see. The German public transportation system is AWESOME. There is very little need here for you own vehicle, I think. Or at least I'd far rather take the Strassenbahn (street train) rather than try to deal with all the traffic. It is wonderful. I think they're wonderful public transportation system may have something to do with the fact that it cost about $900 (US) to get a drivers' liscence here. (I think. It's around there, anyway. Feel free to correct me if you have more current numbers.)

Germany is also a wonderful source of CHOCOLATE and fresh fruit/vegetables. Both are very very very good. Yummy. Schmeckt gut, ja?

So I'm now living in the city of Jena. Jena is in Thüringen, near Erfurt. It is about the size of Fargo/Moorhead, if you're curious. We are about twenty min away (by train) from Weimar. For those sho don't know, Weimar is not onle the site of a former concentration camp, but it also the city in which Goethe lived for many years. (And if you don't know who Goethe is, I pity you. He wrote "Faust". And a whole lot of poetry. Read it sometime, it's very good.) Jena is SMACK in the middle of Germany, if you're looking at a map. It was about a two hour train ride from Frankfurt a.m. Jena is a very pretty city. It is situated in a valley -no, we're not surrounded by mountains, but good sized hills. There is a ruined castle about an hour's hike from my apartment building! I've been there once already, and it was awesome.

Unlike in the United States, the University here is Jena is spread throughout the city. The Universitäts Hauptgebeude (UHG) or main building, if you don't know German, is about a ten minute walk from the Mensa (Dining Service) and the DaF (German as a fereign language) department. Also, there isn't just one library, there are many, also spread throughout the city. The librarys are by subject though, so that mades it a lot easier. (ie, all the DaF books are in the same library etc...)