Der Jersey Hills

One thing I credit american television with founding is the phenomenon known as reality television. Starting with MTVs the real world, nearly 25 seasons of television ago, the art of reality television grew to the heights of The Hills and Jersey Shore in a few short years. These shows, some artfully flimmed and others crudely captured, offer a 'real' look at the lives of controversial groups of young, usually rich, and beautiful people in America. Thankfully, this art form has thrived to the point of export all over the world... including Germany. While the drunken one night stand sort of antics reign supreme on MTV, VH1, and the likes, Germans prefer to show something more meaningful such as cultural clashes between immigrants and natives, and what it actually means to be a native or an immigrant.
This new found guilty pleasure is titled 'Its My Life' (not a translation, is just given as such on German TV) and is a reality show, filmed in a style that seems amateurish when compared to the Hills. The camera angles don't pan back and forth between characters, there are no close ups, it's more like it was filmed with only one camera man and no set up of the scene was given beforehand. Real reality in a way. Annoyingly real, as almost nothing goes on.
The characters of this show are 5 girls, all related as cousins, and all teenagers. They come from Turkish families, a large immigrant community within Germany. The Turkish people have been here so long though, 2 or more generations (after WWII), that the children are born here and raised as Germans. They retain a strong connection to their cultural roots, however, they feel like Auslaender (people from other lands) both in Germany where they live and in Turkey where they visit remaining family. They speak about the trials of belonging to two worlds, having a boyfriend with whom they can't go on dates with until they are engaged (um... what happens if the first date then goes badly?), about needing their male cousins' permission to go out with friends for the night, and how even though German law says 16 year olds may drink alcohol, they aren't allowed to by their cultural and family rules. While Heidi and Spencer may never understand the trials these girls go through, these girls don't understand how to be as entertaining as american reality stars. When two girls started to argue, one walked away to cool off after about 10 seconds of arguing... in case the police came, she didn't want to get in trouble seeing as she has ambitions to be a police officer herself. In the next scene, it was mentioned that she wasn't there because the argument hadn't been forgotten, then in the following scene the girls were sitting next to each other and laughing again. MTV would have dragged that arguement out into a 4 episode arc with lingering repercussions and maybe some boyfriend stealing thrown in for good measure. Jersey Shore would have fist pumped their way into jail over it. German TV however acted too adult about it to provide any entertainingly redeeming facet... The show provided some interesting insights but the teasers for what was going to happen didn't leave me wanting more. The portrayal of the male cousins leaves one feeling incredibly sorry for the girls who on one hand respect their culture and on the other, want to take part in the modern world. One girl was hit by her cousin when he saw her at a cafe with two girlfriends, having an alcoholic beverage, without permission. Lydia told me how their culture, along with other middle eastern cultures, still believe in honor killings and such sources of punishment. In an honorific society in the middle east, if a woman is raped, it is her fault. She has lost her virginity and dishonored her family. To regain honor, her brother or father must kill her. Amazing how in the year 2010 we live in a world still plagued by such horrors...

Another horror, for the record, is a German video store ha ha one must be 18 to enter, and for good reason. The ratio of new releases, classic films, and the like to porn is about 1:3... Along with giant cardboard cut outs of the 'film's' stars. Awesome. Note to self: keep your eyes on the ground and learn to read Braille to check out a movie.

Was able to run today, despite the weather being less beautiful than two days ago. Tried to buy a skype camera and mikrofon but the digital store is only open 4 days a week, today was not one of them. Headed to Bonn tomorrow! Dinner with Sanja, my Bonn Buddy, and others around 6, then who knows. Hopefully settling into a routine will make days pass more quickly. I'm excited to start my classes, it's been too long since I had a good discussion about English literature :) the nerd in me needs to come out...