*Tiere*

Guess who finally saw the Wildpark in Leipzig? That means that within a matter of a few weeks, I had finally seen animals that Germans couldn't believe I'd never seen . . .

• two hedgehogs (one in the headlights--I totally scared the driver with my excited yell--and one up close in Schkeuditz)
• two foxes (one on the sidewalk--I pulled over the car onto the sidewalk and started running towards it until it ran away--and a sleepy one in a fenced-in area at the park)
• wild boars (that I guess aren't so wild since they're taken care of in the Wildpark)
  

Finally! Yes!

*Uncapitalized First Words in Letters*

The differing German grammar and editorial rules have left my brain completely confused. But one thing that I will never remember is the uncapitalized word at the start of letters. Like this:

Liebe Michelle,

hast du einen schönen Tag gehabt?

To the American/English eye, the H needs to be capitalized because it's the start of a sentence, but to a German eye, the H needs to be lower case because "Liebe Michelle" is actually the start of the sentence. It makes sense, but a new paragraph that starts with a lower case seems so weird to me. I guess it's just the sense of tradition.

*Flag Symbols*

= America

= Deutschland Fußball

This probably has a lot to do with the fact that under normal circumstances, too much national pride is connected with touchy nationalism of the past. But when Germany's soccer team plays, everyone can finally be proud and scream "Deutschland" as loud as they want.