first impressions from Kassel, Germany...

i suppose it's called settling in, but as of yet, communicating solely with people in a foreign language, it'll be sometime before i'd consider myself 'settled in.' but my host here is one of a kind. i think if i was a bit more comfortable with the language we could be the best of friends. even still, we've had conversations about global warming, the size of the automobiles in the states, why i'm a vegetarian, herb gardens (she has a rockin one), the schooling systems in both the states and germany (totally different), favorite vacation destinations, and what life was like in germany before the wall came down. and then there's kassel. the city is a bit different than the rest of germany. it was totally destroyed during world war two. there's only a slim few buildings that made it through and for the most part the streets were totally anihilated. so the whole city was rebuilt. i'm not a historian or anything, but as someone from the states who's interested in city planning it was the first most outstanding feature upon arrival. it's immediately apparent that there was a western (specifically american) influence during the reconstruction. the streets are a bit wider, things a bit more spread out. there happens to be suburbs, too, something you don't really find throughout the rest of the country. at some point it became law that the cities had to absorb the surrounding communities. these then all became part of the city's structure: transportation, public works, etc... also the new cities are, for the most part, not allowed to build outside their boundaries. meaning you can't just say, it's too crowded here i'd like a house a little apart from the rest of my neighbors. to me, this makes a bit of sense. people are forced to deal with each other and find solutions for shared problems, mainly i guess transportation-wise. i wouldn't call it ideal, but it's a few steps ahead of the states. with people so close to their work, grocery stores, post, etc. it allows a greater emphasis on public and alternative forms of transportation (trams, bikes, teeny tiny cars...).
anyway, the surrounding communities of kassel had powerful mayors and nobody wanted to contest them. so when it came time to form one big city, as per law, somehow kassel was exempt. so now the tram only goes so far and the surrounding communities work together with the city of kassel to provide bus service past that.