Double-posting! See following post!

Okay so I saved my last post as a draft and I thought I had published it too, but it turns out I hadn't, so I just published it today. However, I also really wanted to write about my day, so I am double-posting. But definitely read the last post! It's my list of Americanisms and Germanisms. Incomplete of course, but it's what I could pull out of my brain as of yet.

So, my day today. First of all, an appalling experience. So, Friday is excursion day during the BCGS language practicum (i.e. we don't have class and instead go on field trips). Suzy and I got there really early this morning, so we decided to find some breakfast. We saw a Starbucks. Some of the people in our group are anti-Starbucks, but Suzy and I aren't, so we thought we'd check it out. So we go over there, but it doesn't open until 8 and it's about quarter till, so we go to a little bakery type place next door and we pick out stuff there to eat, planning to then go back to Starbucks to get beverages. However, when Starbucks finally opened, we went in, looked at the menu, and were appalled. The prices were outrageous!!! I didn't sit down and do the math, but I think most drinks there were about twice as expensive as they are at Starbucks in the U.S. I was shocked. Europeans make good coffee. I would think the competition would keep prices down. But not so. So we went back to the bakery and got cappuccinos there instead. :)

Anyways, the more important part of the day. Our trip today was to the Reichstag, which is more or less like the Capitol. It's where the German equivalent of the Senate - the Bundestag - meets. It was way cool. The first we did was sit in on an actual session for 1 hour. Way cool. It was so cool to watch the German government system in action! It's very different from the US in many ways, but also similar. Discussions got heated, people got a little rowdy with each other - good times. What was also really cool is that we saw Angela Merkel - the Chancellor. It was really just a stroke of luck that she happened to pop in on the Bundestag when we were there, and of course she didn't speak or anything, but it was cool to say we saw her and were in the same room as her!

Part two was our own private question-and-answer session with some important guy. I couldn't really tell you his title, he has more than one and I don't really know what they mean, but basically, he knew his stuff, and we got to ask him anything we wanted. That was pretty cool. We mostly asked him about the stuff we heard them discussing in the Bundestag, since we all wanted to make sure we knew what we had seen and heard. The topic we heard discussed was Elterngeld - literally "parent-money" - which would allow a parent to receive around 70% of his/her income for the first 14 months after having a child, while they take time off from work to be with the child. It was proposed by the CDU (could be compared perhaps to the Republican Party) and also supported by the SPD (could be compared to the Democratic Party). The Germans, however, do not have a 2-party system. There are 5 major parties that are represented in the government - the two I already mentioned, plus the FDP (similar to Libertarian Party), PDS (the Socialist party), and the Green party. CDU and SPD are the biggest ones though. However, since no single party has a majority, they have to form coalitions in order to elect someone Chancellor. It is very rare for the CDU and SPD to form a coalition - I don't think it's happened since the 70's - but about a year ago, they did indeed form a "Grosse Koalition" ("Big Coalition") which made Angela Merkel the new chancellor. So currently, the two big parties which are usually competing with one another quite a lot are working together much more than they normally would. So we heard representatives of the CDU and the SPD speak for Elterngeld and the FDP and PDS speak against it. (We had to leave before we got to hear what the Green party thinks about it.) It was strange to hear "libertarians" and socialists expressing similar opinions about something. But interesting, nevertheless!!

Part 3 was the tourist-y part; we got to go up on the roof and walk up the big spiral walkway inside the glass dome on top of the Reichstag. I'll include a photo. Unfortunately I forgot my camera - the view from up there is amazing. The history of the building itself is really cool - it is very closely tied with Germany's history. The building in its current form is only about 8 years old.

Okay, I don't know why I can't upload a picture here, so here's a link to a picture of the Reichstag: http://www.aip.de/image_archive/images/reichstag.jpg

Well folks, it's late. More updates shall come soon. I move into my new apartment on Tuesday! Exciting... I miss you all though. Much love!