the sea of red roofs

medieval city core: where i stay in my mom's apartment during my visit in in my hometown zeitz

a year of u.s. life has sharpened my eye for the german oddities more than i thought: cars seem to be toys rather than real vehicles, prices seem to have sky-rocketed, and the strong sparkle in the bottled water is suprising. in the morning i asked my mom to turn down the heat and she just looked baffled at me. i repeated the question only then realizing that had spoken in english.

ah the colors of painted stone houses with the obligatory red roofs! - zeitz from the 9th floor of the only skyscraper in town (with a total of eleven floors)

the many bakeries pop into sight, the red roofs on freshly painted stone houses, the familiar streets and paths of my high school years. the topics that i overhear walking along our boulevard are unemployment, the ongoing mass strikes of train conductors, metro operators, and airlines employees, the newly elected mayor who is expected to bring no chance to the dire situation in this region where a job means utmost happiness. during my visit in the sauna this afternoon i was greeted as "half-american" and people asked me if the town where i live in america is clean. then my fellow sauna participants went on to complain about the children who don't pick up wrappers when they see them lying in the street.

despite the omnipresent visible differences between u.s. and german cities the thinking and talking of its citizens strikes me more than red roofs, cobble stone, and huddled houses which are only a backdrop for a place called "heimat".