Yesterday, I traveled to Stuttgart by train to have a relaxing evening of walking and eating around the main square in downtown Stuttgart. 9,90 euros and two hours later, we ended up having a germanized Italian meal and shopping at H & M for cloths. I ended up buying a button down shirt after a sales associate told me that it was "very fitting" for me. It was very interesting to see the main walk of Stuttgart with both international brands like H & M and local brands and EU only brands like o2 and e-plus cloths. I felt like I was inside of an American mall when I stepped into H & M, so naturally, I shopped for a full 18 minutes, then ate for the rest of the time while I waited for the my travel partners (my best friends mom, her friend and daughter) to finish supporting the German economy.
In Germany, everything has sales tax, but it is built into the price, rather than being separate. This is very convenient for everyone from Oregon who always forgets about sales tax!
This morning,I took the autobahn b5 to Mercedes-Benz truck division to get a tour of their Astros truck assembly line. Their Bluetec diesel engines were in every single truck they produced that day (around 225 semi trucks.) I saw the trucks begin as sheet metal and paint, and then I saw them drive off the line. Any Industrial Engineer would be salivating over the design of their efficiency "flex schedule." It seems funny that Mercedes makes huge semi trucks, common persons cars, and luxury cars for Germany, but only the luxury cars make it to the United States. Did you know that the Smart Cars (the really little ones that are two seater,) any Freightliner semi truck, and any Chrysler product (Jeep Liberty CRD, Grand Cherokee CRD) etc., with a diesel transplant is actually a Mercedes Benz?
After Mercedes, I went to see "Knocked Up" in a German theater. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 last year in English while in Germany, but this year I watched the movie in German. The theater reminded me for a very fancy version of the Tigard theater back home. It was better quality than most theaters and was much more comfortable.
I took public transport everywhere today, and I probably covered around 7-8km! I was proud of my comprehension skills in the movie (I understood about 70% of the movie!) and I was also proud of myself for ordering my own food everywhere, and even making some new friends! I am exited to go to Spain where I actually have some education and training in the language, rather than the crash course German that I have been doing for the past 3 years!
Bis Bald for now!
-Herr Hodges
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2 comments:
Sounds tight man, glad you're learning the culture!
oh and on a side note, if you were in the country we'd be living in the same building as of tomorrow
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