Put your hands up for.... Detroit?

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, I’ve been either really busy, or too bored/boring to actually write anything! In the past weekish, I’ve done a lot of fun things- we had our second stammtisch last Tuesday, which went really well. There were about 15 students there from Karen and my schools, and we spoke English and hung out for about 2 hours, which was fantastic. The rest of last week was fairly boring, I spent most of my time either in school, in bed, or grocery shopping for hours, because I had nothing better to do. My schedule is frustrating me a bit, being that I’m not really working much, and yet the hours that I am working are spread out in such a way that it’s impossible for me to do anything in my free time. Not that I’m complaining, far be it from me to complain about being paid to be in Germany, and work 12 hours a week. It just gets a little monotonous. Last Friday, Karen and I went to the Americans/ Democrats abroad meeting. We met at a nice restaurant/bar, and hung out with some old ex-pats for a couple hours, learning about their lives, and telling about ours. They’re organizing a huge thanksgiving dinner the week after thanksgiving, so I’m looking forward to that. On Saturday, Karen and I headed to Braunschweig, which is about 90 minutes away by regional train. We met up with the FSAs there, after doing some touristing of the city, and actually enjoyed it this time, being that the weather wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it was last time. We wandered around the center of the city for a couple hours, got food, and then went out to an Irish pub, and then to a Mexican bar. (yeah, typical German hangouts…) Karen’s birthday was Sunday, so at midnight, we rang in her birthday with a restaurant-wide chorus of “happy burst-day” and a tequila shot. Sidenote: Germans do shots of tequila with cinnamon and an orange slice. Weird. We all had a ton of fun, just hanging out, singing songs, eating, and totally letting loose for a bit. I ended up crashing at Thibaut’s apartment (which took forever to find, being as he was lost, and I don’t know my way around Braunschweig). Woke up fairly late on Sunday, being that I didn’t get to bed till about 530, had a nice breakfast, and then met Karen at the train station for the ride back to Göttingen.
OH! I forgot the reason for the title of today’s blog: On Thursday evening, Karen and I went to the “sportfach” party- a party hosted in the main building of the university by the “sport” majors. There, we hung out, peoplewatched, and got some dancing in. In the midst of all the terrible music (including backstreet boys, MCHammer, 20 fingers, (remember that 20 fingers song, Meagan and Aidan?!?) C&C Music factory, etc, they played this one techno song called “put your hands up 4 detroit.” It consists of: thumping bass, techno beats, and the refrain “put your hands up for Detroit, I love this city.” Echt classy. When Karen and I heard the words, we both started cracking up in the middle of the dance floor… out of any city that a pseudo-english-speaking hip-hip artist could pick, this guy picks DETROIT?!?! No offense to you Midwesterners, but… seriously? So, we danced with our hands up for industrial wasteland, and enjoyed the irony. Then, on Sunday, in the Mexican bar, we were having a nice conversation when all of a sudden, a familiar beat came on the speakers. I couldn’t quite place it, so I ignored it until, just when there was a lull in the conversation, we heard PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR DETROIT! Karen and I promptly fell off of our chairs laughing. This song has been stuck in my head since then, and it won’t go away. Its remarkably easy to get stuck in your head, being that it only contains ONE LINE OF LYRICS. So yes, for your listening/viewing pleasure, the link to the video is below. Enjoy!