Deutschland sucht den Superstar

This weekend I found myself surrounded by a bunch of American Idol wannabes. Saturday morning I went to the gym and the guy on the cycling machine was singing along to the radio. It's quite difficult to get your Precor on when there's some middle-aged German man singing "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson with so much ebullience. I couldn't even get through my book despite my being a voracious reader.

Later that day I was in the kitchen with Nan, some guy from China. I've only spoken to him once and our conversation went like this but in German.

me: Would you like a brownie? I made them myself.
Nan: Thanks.
me: Are you new?
Nan: No.
me: What's your name?
Nan: Nan.
me: Where are you from?
Nan: China.
me: Cool, see ya later.
Nan: Bye.

As displayed above, the guy isn't a talker but boy, does he LOVE to scat. I was in the kitchen for about half an hour and after the routine "Hallo", he just scatted away. He didn't seem to care that I was there. But really? Why should he? He's not hurting anyone but personally, I wouldn't scat if someone else was in the room. It got me thinking, "Why doesn't he want to talk to me? Why would he rather scat than carry a conversation with a charming, dark American girl who speaks rudimentary German?"

For the most part, I think I'm a great conversationalist. Hmph.

I stayed in last night because I was really burnt out from the day's events. Going to the gym, the library and running errands can be very taxing on one's energy. Anyway, as I was passing by the Dusche (shower), I overheard one of the guy's singing at the top of their lungs. I really wanted to find out who it was but deemed it weird to wait outside of the Dusche until the person came out. I also realized that if I found out who it was, there would be no way that I'd be able to look at them the same again. At first I thought it was Nan but then I discovered that he was in the Tagesraum eating whatever he slaved over in the kitchen while scatting.

When I returned to my room I realized that a lot of people just sing in public here. It's definitely weird (especially for the people around you if you can't carry a tune) but I appreciate that the Germans have no inhibitions. Guys dance with each other at clubs (sometimes on poles) and Kristian has a basket on the front of his bike.