The safe questions

I started my new German class last night. It's a conversation class, meaning no grammar exercises and no workbooks. The teacher is an aging hippie who is the first German to ask me, when she read my last name, whether I was related to Joseph McCarthy.

She mentioned that there's an opportunity to ask any questions we have about living in Germany. It being the first day of class, I think we were a little shy and people asked safe questions like "why are all the stores closed on Sundays?". No one asked why Germans become agressive, misguided and unorderly as soon as they get in the swimming pool. And no one asked whether the country's Kindergeld, parent leave and other pro-natal policies will really help the population stop shrinking.

These are questions for another day, or just for my blog. I'll write more about my classmates later - they tend to come and go for the first few days so I am not sure whether the 2 Mongolian women or the guy from Colombia will stick around.  Luckily, I don't think any of them associate me with the Red Scare of the 1950s. Or maybe they do, and were just too shy to ask about it on day one.