The German Connection
May 14th, 2010
An example of me and a weird thing.
It is the job of the campus minister to build relationships with students, and relationships are built most easily with those who have common interests and experiences. Looking back over the last year (and a week) – which is how long I have been in Germany now – it is amazing to see the common connections I have built with students through the most random, extraneous activities and weird hobbies of my life. Here, below, is a list of some of the more obscure topics on which I have connected with students.
- Magic: The Gathering – a collectible card game that I played 4th-7th grade.
- Britcoms – especially those really obscure ones that came on after midnight on public television (like Red Dwarf and Black Adder).
- Anime – Japanese cartoons that provide no end of ridicule for me from my girlfriend.
- Rudi Völler – the one-time coach of the German national soccer team and the song written about him to the tune of Guantanemera.
- My two days in Canada – a country just north of the United States.
- Chicago – the city, not the play.
- The average age of people getting married in Germany – and how much younger than that age I am.
- Prague – and my experience with drunken Brits there.
- Freiburg – and how I’ve never been there, but I hear a lot of good things.
- My ex-girlfriend – and how interesting all of that is.