My statcounter shows that the blog has had a huge influx of visitors from South Africa in the past two days. Welcome to the blog, dear South Africans! It’s great to have you here.

If anybody can explain why I suddenly have more visitors from South Africa than from anywhere else in the world, please do so. I’m very curious. The link counter offers no clues to this mystery.

We visited this great flea market yesterday that had all kinds of beautiful things. However, one thought kept bothering me : how do I know that none of those silver spoons, coffee sets, antique toys, etc. weren’t taken off some Jewish families during the Nazi times?

The history is everywhere here. I heard a tour guide say, “Schnelle, Schnelle! ” to the group of tourists he was trying to steer across the road and I was flooded with anxiety.

I’m very glad I came to Germany because it’s a very charged place for somebody of my origins, and confronting this historical legacy is important.

Our valedictorian said the following in her address during the Graduation Ceremony: “I was really astonished to find out that one of my professors had a publication. Just imagine, she was a published author! How amazing is that? And some of my professors had doctoral degrees!”

I wish the tenure committee were as easy to impress. “I have a publication, ladies and gentlemen. AND, on top of that amazing achievement, I have a PhD!”

Students are too cute.

Whoever said on this blog that German beer was the best in the world – was it Charles Rowley? – was absolutely right. I had a German beer today and what can I tell you, people? It was bizarrely good. I’ve lived my entire life thinking I hated beer only to be proven wrong today.

You live, you learn.

During the finals week, I was standing at the bus stop on campus. A woman approached me and said, “I’m sorry, could you help me? Would you happen to know when the graduation ceremony is going to be?”

“I’m going to be there, so I know for sure,” I replied. “It’s on Saturday, at 1 pm.”

“Oh, you are graduating already?” the woman asked with a smile.

I’m used to this kind of thing, so I explained, “I’m a professor.”

“A professor?” the woman exclaimed. “You look like you are barely twenty!”

“No,” I smiled. “I’m 36.”

“That is incredible!” the woman said. “Oh, I know why you look so young. You must be a farm girl. I’m right, aren’t I? You were born on a farm?”

“No, actually I’m a big city girl,” I said.

“Unbelievable!” the woman said. “The way you look and you accent made me think you had to be from a farm in Oklahoma!”

I know I look well-fed but Oklahoma? A farm? Not that there is anything wrong in being from a farm in Oklahoma, of course, but it isn’t the first time I feel completely misjudged by the world. I see myself as tortured, dark, gloomy, unsociable, and Bohemian, while everybody else perceives me as a cheerful, ultra-sociable, networking Oklahoma farm girl.

P.S. In the spirit of full disclosure, I was holding a dozen and a half eggs in a box in my hands as this conversation unfolded. I buy organic eggs from a guy at work and I was taking them home that day. Maybe seeing me with eggs in my hands made the woman think of farms.

The idea that men can be secretaries is very hard for some people to process. In the listening comprehension portion of our final exam, my students heard a story of Jose, a secretary who is so great at what he does that everybody at the company where he works is grateful to him and couldn’t function without him.

In their responses, even students whose listening comprehension skills are perfect, transformed Jose into a woman. Some renamed him into Josefa. Some allowed him to retain his name but used feminine pronouns and adjectives to describe him (adjectives have gender in Spanish.)

This would sound like a funny little teaching anecdote if it weren’t for the story about a real male secretary that my sister shared with me. He was a very efficient and responsible person who loved his job. Being a secretary was his calling and he took a great pride in it. However, it was next to impossible to place him in a position because of his gender. Companies were begging my sister as a recruiter to find them a skilled secretary with all the necessary qualifications but as soon as she suggested this man, they would reject him sight unseen saying, “A man? A male secretary? No, that’s just weird.” They probably thought his penis would get in the way of his typing or something. Or maybe they feared that his innate brutishness and aggression would prevent him from answering the phones politely and professionally.

Why did I have to go and read The Nation in the midst of my vacation? Because I’m a sucker for punishment, that’s why.

The magazine decided that yet another uninformed piece on the idiots from the Pussy Riot band was in order. The article contains the following egregious statement : “Even though two of the women are mothers of small children, they are being held in detention.”

Words fail me to describe the anger I feel when a supposedly progressive periodical exhibits the rampant sexism of presenting women who have children (and who have not been deterred from criminal behavior by that fact, mind you) as more valuable than women with no children and men.

We are planning to go to Potsdam tomorrow. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.

Also : I haven’t been able to find any sauerkraut in Berlin.  Where do people go for sauerkraut? But please don’t say KaDeWe because I’ve been there today and I’m not crazy about the place.

Another thing : my friend who’s been living in Berlin says that beer is for shit here. I was going to have my only beer in years as a cultural experience of Germany but if it’s that bad, what’s the point? Please help me with this dilemma : beer or no beer?

What I like about Berlin :

1. Sausages.
2. Fashion.
3. The cheap and convenient public transportation system.
4. Outdoor cafes.
5. The mild climate.
6. That residential buildings are painted with beautiful pastel colors.
7. That every corner is photographable.
8. That freshly squeezed juices are available everywhere.
9. Cherry pie doesn’t include the vile gelatinous gunk that is always added to American pies.
10. The huge asparagus with phallic appearance.
11. Thick black tights are in and I’m now justified in my love of them.
12. The Turkish quarter.
13. Unlike in London, I’ve seen no women in burqas.
14. Tiny cars that are super cute.

What I don’t like about Berlin :

1. Books are very expensive.
2. There are people who drag children to beg for money. Social services, hello? Isn’t Germany supposed to have the best child protection laws in the world?
3. Garbage bins are fewer than I’m used to seeing.