Helen FieldsScience Writer

Germany seems like it should be a reasonably peaceful place. But when you work at a tabloid, you read about all sorts of unpleasant things.

A few days ago a guy allegedly murdered the mother of his baby and her parents with a sword. Last week an old man shot and killed three people. Some people found a murdered woman in a barrel the other day. Earlier this week a guy was sentenced to 10 years, 9 months in prison for something awful enough that I don’t really want to tell you about it.

So the U.S. doesn’t have the market entirely cornered on heinous violence.

In other news, this week is British Week on the cover of Bild – all the naked ladies are from the UK. Well, I say naked ladies, but they’re really only mostly naked. They always have a bikini bottom or something. And I learned an important vocabulary word: “Oben-ohne-Models.” It translates quite directly: topless models.

It’s a winning combination, crime and nudity. Also, celebrity news. I’ve even heard of some of the celebrities. Zac Efron, of all people, was on the last page of yesterday’s paper, as were Ginger Spice, Leonardo diCaprio, and “Prinz Andrew & Fergie.” But the lead story on the front page this morning was about…some German celebrity being pregnant with the baby of some other German celebrity.

To sum up: I’m actually really enjoying my little stint at the tabloid and still have my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to write a story for them before moving on to my other placement next week.