This week (Wednesday) was the German presidential election. It works a little bit different than in the US. In the US there are two(ish) candidates and the public votes for them. In Germany, it's broken down into many groups. The German people vote people into their separate land's parliament (Germany is broken up into 16 regions, for instance, Göttingen is in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). Besides that, they vote for people in the Bundestag, which is all really confusing, don't trust me on this, but I believe it is like our congress. Then in turn those groups pick candidates for other positions and can vote on different things. So really, the public doesn't directly vote for this position, so it's not quite as big of a deal as an election is in the US. Bottom line of similarity: they have Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches too.
Anyway, the candidates were Christian Wulff and Joachim Gauck. Personally, I would have maybe voted for Gauck because he's older (in his 70's. Wulff is in his 50's), and he has a very respectable political background. One of his most impressive accomplishments was the Federal Commissioner of the Stasi-Archives after the fall of the wall. He also had earned the nickname "Stasi-hunter" and also worked actively for the prosecution of communist criminals.
However, the position is more or less traditional, so someone who is greatly opinionated and is active in his role is not really necessary. Plus, Wulff is younger, and naturally that has its appeal. For more information on the election click here.
Other than that, last weekend I discovered a pretty cool tower in the woods across the street. It was unlabeled at the site, but I found information about it online. It is called the Eulenturm (Owl Tower). I only found information on two sites, both in German, and each only had about a paragraph. It seems that there were a number of these set up throughout the hills that surround the town. This may be the last one standing. It was made in the 1800's and is only about 4 meters tall. It was unclear if it was ever taller. The only event that seemed to pass there was started by a mayor of Göttingen. It seems that people would bring out a giant bowl of punch on new years and celebrate out in the woods on New Year's Eve and would stay until after midnight. I went there a little bit after supper and the woods was already somewhat frightening because every couple steps you took something would scramble through the leaves and you never saw what it was. It was probably just mice, but I kept getting startled. Not sure I'd want to be out there at midnight... ever...
There is an owl on it because owl's are known as a bird of wisdom and knowledge. (Athena, the goddess of wisdom had an owl in Greek history). There's a tiny owl above the base of the tower carved into the stone. It is here because Göttingen has been a university town for many hundreds of years already.
The other small thing to note is that I attended the Goethe Institute's Wine Tasting at a local wine cellar on Wednesday night with a group of other students from school. We tasted 5 different wines and were taught how to become a wine connoisseur. You have to swish the wine around, smell it, remark about what you think is in it, or what the smell reminds you of, hold it up to the light and check the color (which is related to how old it is), and you taste it by swishing it around in your mouth for a bit, swallowing, and then noting the flavors (try to see if you were right in your guesses by smell), and what that reminds you of, and how far down your throat the warmth goes after swallowing. The man who owned the cellar was very amiable and taught us about the important factors that contribute to the quality of the wine - soil, climate, vines, and cellar.
I'll post again shortly since we also had our field trip to Weimar yesterday, so I have lots to tell you about that too. I have class this afternoon, so I'll post again after we're done.
Thanks to everyone back home for the many cards/emails I have been receiving lately. Hardly a day goes by where I don't get a letter from a friend or family at home, or at least an email or facebook message from someone who I didn't know was watching my blog to begin with thanking me for sharing the experiences I'm having in Germany and that they've been enjoying following along. I would like to say thank you all for experiencing them with me! I feel really happy that I chose to blog my trip because if I didn't, by the time I would get home I wouldn't remember so much about all of the pictures I took. This way I always have it like a journal to look back on.
Vielen Dank!
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