Election Day

Yesterday was Election Day in Germany, which I almost didn’t know about. Elections aren’t really a big deal in Germany, it’s not as publicized as in the US. Candidates put up signs with their pictures on billboards or just around trees, and that’s about all the publicity they generate. Someone told me there was just one debate, but no one really watched. It’s really interesting to me that people aren’t very into politics here, since in America it’s a huge source of entertainment and controversy, and your political party determines a lot about you. Here people don’t take your political views into account when they’re getting to know you; if you believe something different it’s not a big deal.

In America we’re taught that people have a lot of power through voting, but here it’s kind of laughed at. I was eating dinner with my host mom last night and she checked her watch and realized that the polls had closed and she hadn’t voted. She merely shrugged and said na ja (the German equivalent of “oh well”), and went on eating.

I didn’t even hear who won, I had to google it myself. Once again the chancellor of Germany is Angela Merkel, serving her third term.

Wichtige Wörter
wählen - to choose, in this case to vote
die Bundestagswahl - Election Day (or something equivalent - I believe that’s what yesterday was called)

And finally, my pictures aren’t that great or interesting, but since you all asked, here’s a few:

This is a view of the Elbe River, which runs through Hamburg. Here, I'm up on a hill, which was built to prevent the water from rising over the banks and flooding the village. There are lots of sheep around that act as a natural lawn mower, and it's very cute.

This is a statue depicting a fairy tale about a magical goose, and everyone is trying to hold onto its feathers to get some of the magic for themselves.

Last weekend I was at an AFS camp for all the exchange students living in Hamburg, so I got to meet people from all over the world. The people in this picture, for example, are from America, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Bolivia, Turkey, and Paraguay, but there were other students from Serbia, India, Indonesia, and Columbia.