Hey there, Old Sport.

Today was the attempted excursion to the Baltic coast of Germany. With a bit more planning, it probablý would have gone a lot better. We did actually get there, but it was something of an adventure.

Getting up somewhat late as usual and taking a long breakfast break, we finally got to the Hauptbahnhof to discover that the ticket we thought we could get did not actually exist. We ended up with two state group tickets, and headed off on a 2 hour 40 minute train ride to Rostock, on the northern coast of Germany. Once in Rostock, where it was already somewhat dark and very cold, we looked at a map and assumed we could easily walk to the beach. This was not true, a fact we realized after a cafe-break. We took a long S-Bahn trip, got off one stop too early at what appeared to be some sort of industrial stocking yard, sat around in the dark and extreme cold for twenty minutes, and then finally made it to the stop that is at the boardwalk. By this time it was definitely night and definitely dark.

The boardwalk was nice, and I would like to come back to the area in summer, when the conditions are not so harsh, and when all the boats are in use and the restaurants and other things open. We walked down the boardwalk, believing the ocean not to be far away. Yet again, this was not true. We got past all the shops and restaurants, and saw a green lighthouse in the distance. It didn't look too far, so we began our trek through the tundra of the Baltic to the pale green light (there were three Creative Writing majors in the group, of course there were Great Gatsby references).

I thought I might have been on another planet. We could hardly see anything but the floating green light we were heading towards, the wind was so hard it pushed us as we tried to walk, and the air was frigid. I have probably been colder at Hamilton, but being right by the ocean, it felt extreme. It was probably the strangest ten minute walk of my life, past shadowy sand dunes on one side and the sea on the other, against the wind throwing sand into our faces, all the while losing feeling in my extremeties.

We got to the lighthouse and stayed there for about a minute, it was so cold. Everyone was complaining, but I thought it was pretty amazing, staring out at the nothing of the ocean at night, the Ostsee. It was so cold and so windy, and the water was so dark since there was cloud cover, and the only lights came from murky and slightly disturbing looking distant lighthouses, besides the one right above us. My brain immediately went, you could do your best writing at a time like this. I felt like a Viking.

After a long ride, we got back to Berlin. Tomorrow is my friend Rachel's birthday, so we will have a good time. Yesterday I not only saw Knut, the cutest animal I have ever seen, but also Iron and Wine in concert in a church...in Berlin. Yeah. It's been a good week.

To Hanover on Saturday, then home to Schwaebs on Sunday.

Bis spater.

berlin...

I have spent the day touring Berlin, and don't want to forget some of the things I've seen. (Also, typing on a German keyboard seems to only be getting more difficult for me).

Our hostel offers walking tours of the city everyday, so today I was guided around Berlin by Bartleby Pole, someone who should possibly exist in only Harry Potter books. He was funny and informative, and serious when appropriate. And also extremely British, complete with loaded French jokes and all. He took us time travelling basically, and we started with a lot of Prussian buildings. The Catholic and Protestant cathedrals that were built across from each other in a gesture of friendship are my favorite.

We saw the old city library, the Platz that was the cite of major Nazi book burnings. We saw, in fact, a lot of buildings that used to be Third Reich and are now used, obviously, for much different functions. Working in them must be very strange.

Within the Nazi-era part of the tour, we ended up standing on top of the exact spot of Hitler's bunker, the ground of which is still intact a few meters underground. We saw the area where Goebels dragged his body out after he killed himself, where the Soviets found and identified him a few days later. Needless to say, it was one of the more disturbing places I've been, even though it's now just a spot of grass, surrounded by apartments. I cannot imagine living in those apartments, because you'd wake up each day to look out at Hitler's old bunker, and just beyond that, the line where the inner Berlin wall used to stand, right next to what was known as the 'Death Zone'. Back to that in a moment.

We went to the controversial Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe, which, even though apparently no one here can agree on whether or not it is an appropriate way to remember, I found incredibly moving and overwhelming. It is just a huge area of gray slabs of rock rising out of the ground, of various different sizes. The ground isn't level, and in the middle it turns into basically a maze. Youcan easily get lost, lose the people you came in with, trip on the uneven ground, and look around to see absolutely no one, since you're in a claustrophic row of rocks. The feeling is so disconcerting and overwhelming, that I found it an entirely appropriate memorial.

I saw the remains of the outer Berlin wall, another incredibly weird experience. It's completely decrepit now, but a line of stone marks where the rest of it would have gone, and our guide had us sit in the 'Death Zone', the area between the inner and outer walls full of landmines, traps that set off machine guns, watch towers manned with armed guards with orders to kill, sand to catch footprints, and various other ways to make sure no one ever got out of East Berlin. The number of people that apparently died trying to cross the wall is much higher than I thought. All we did was stand in the replica of Checkpoint Charlie and pretend to be smugglers.

All of that being said, Berlin is a beautiful city. The Brandenberger Tor alone is worth coming here for. Tomorrow or Wednesday we want to go into the Reichtstag buildings. A river runs straight through it, it's got all the old churches you need in any big European city, and covers what might be considered the most important events of recent history. Tonight we went in a church that was almost entirely destroyed by one of the air raids, but was still gorgeous. And the differences between the eastern and western parts of the city are still amazing. I definitely want to come back here.

The Dude?

Hello from Dresden. I'm on quickly, with Rob's extra 8 minutes, trying to learn to type better on a German keyboard. We arrived this evening after long train rides, and got into our hostel, the Moon Palace easily. (I'm also having a problem because I tend to write in German grammar structure now, or spell English words weirdly that I would not have before).

The extent of the rebuilding of the city is evident. Some of it is very modern, some that apparently avoided the night bombing is very old. But tomorrow we're going exploring, before we head off to Berlin for most of the week.

Back to the bar to finish off my White Russian, or Big Lebowski as it is apparently called here.

Keiner weint um Hexen

Yesterday, a friend and I headed to Stuttgart to see Wicked auf Deutsch.  It was a good adventure.  We got there fine, the only mishap being getting off the bus at the wrong station, which should not have happened, and therefore missing the first train we could have taken.

But, we arrived in Stuttgart, got some currywurst quickly, and after a good deal of confusion, found a taxi.  The taxi ride was my favorite part of the whole trip, actually, because I had a conversation with the driver the whole time in German, and I understood almost everything he said, and apparently got my points across well enough for him to understand them.  He said we were the first Americans he'd met who were trying to learn German, and that we were doing very well.  We talked a lot about differences between America and Germany, and how he (and I) likes American people, but not American politics.  He asked me all about my opinions on the Iraq War and President Bush and I think I articulated myself well enough.  He was apparently Iranian but had lived in Germany for a long time, with a sister in Texas, so he knew a lot about everything.  It was a really good conversation, and he loved us, and I just felt myself grinning the whole time.  

We got to the theatre very early, but it was a huge complex that had way more than just a theatre, so we settled down for a little while with Apfelstrudel and Gluhwein.  I bought a shirt that says "Wicked - Stuttgart" (I wanted one with some German lyrics, but they didn't exist).  

We were way in the back for the show, but it didn't matter, because it was fabulous.  I understood enough of it, but I'm not sure if that's because I've seen it twice in English or actually knew what they were saying.  A lot of the song translations were strange and funny, but worked well enough.  "Popular" becoming "Heiss geliebt" was an especially interesting one.  But, the two main women had incredible voices and were great for their roles.  The set was exactly the same, except somehow the giant dragon looked creepier.  Seeing it in another language reinforced my somewhat-obsessive love for musical theatre, because it's universal no matter what, and still got a standing ovation over here in Deutschland.  

Getting back was fine, we just had to sprint through the train station and hope that our train went directly to Schwaebisch Hall, because we were a little unsure about that.  Then we ended up at Schwaebisch Hall-Hessental at midnight, in the rain, with no taxis and no other people.  My cell phone decided to work for once, and I called for a Taxis in broken-exhausted-German that probably sounded terrible, when one magically appeared before us.  Took us back to the institute, headed to the Wohnheim, that was the end of that adventure.

So, I've been to Stuttgart twice in the past week, and I love it.  It's a beautiful city, I'm a big fan of the Schlossgarten, and sometimes at night creepy swans approach you.  

I just went for a long walk along the river, attempting to find some ruins that I'd heard about and failing, but getting a lot of exercise and a lot of out-of-breath up a huge hill.  And tonight will perhaps contain a puppet show of Doktor Faust...

This weekend I meet my tandem partner, actually an entire tandem family, which I am excited/nervous about.  But all their emails are fun, they apparently love Americans and can't wait to speak English with me, while I try to practice my Deutsch.

The upcoming break has now turned into a massive tour of Germany, with a long stay in Berlin and some trips into Poland.  I am excited.

Auf wiedersehen.

Verknupfungen, mein neue Lieblingswort

The second week has almost passed.  And I'm sitting in a kitchen full of people, all asking things like, "How does the subjunctive possibly work?  Why does my dictionary not have half these words?"

This week I spent a lot of time sitting in cafes or bars, relaxing the European way.  I already find it easy to stay for several hours, without worrying about being rushed out by employees who are handling too much at once.  (Although, wow, I wish I'd been there for the coffee with the ex-Nazi...that happened to a friend).  Today I sat for awhile writing postcards, much calmer than I would have been in most places at home, enjoying my heisse Shokolade und Bretzel.

Last night I went out for drinks with a class I am not actually in, but was invited to go with.  Perhaps I was feeling a bit arrogant, being in a higher level than that class and speaking German with their teacher pretty well, but I think this is allowed, as I feel ein bisschen slow in my own class.

I also watched the movie here last night, Der Tunnel.  It ended up being incredibly moving, and I was happy to find that I understood most of what happened (clearly, this is because we watched it with German subtitles, but I think I still could have gotten a large portion of it without).  I also spend a long time thinking the lead man was possibly a German Bruce Willis.

One of my more interesting interactions lately was with Enrique, the old man from Spain in my class.  Until today, neither of us ever understood a word the other said, partially due to my horrible grammatical constructions, but also because of both of our accents.  However, today, we managed to have a conversation.  We were talking about an article the class read, regarding studies on whether music can actually make people more intelligent.  Enrique and I came to the eventual conclusion that yes, studying music definitely makes people smarter, but listening to it creates confusion (especially if one is trying to complete one's German homework).  During all of this, I got a good deal of his life story.  I told him about how I used to play violin, and he proceeded to explain that he always wanted to do so, but has bad bones and was told it would be physically bad for him to hold a violin for too long.  He envied the violin players that used to be in the streets of Spain, but now feels he is too old to do anything about his wish to play, whether arthritis is an obstacle or not.  He was so animated during all of this, and as a Creative Writing major, I was secretly fascinated...

I bought Die Zeit today, and felt a little strange about the headline being American news (well, that and the fact that it says "Schwarz oder Frau?" and has a picture of Obama and Clinton...which is just a somewhat uncomfortable translation).  It was good to be updated though, and I understood enough of what I've read so far to actually get something out of it.

I think today I made my breakthrough against simply going "nein" or "ja" when I don't understand a question or statement, which inevitably only makes me look more clueless.  But I managed to have several interactions (Baeckerei, buying the newspaper, die Post, and out for Doners for dinner) that did not involve me looking incredibly confused, but finally succeeding in politely getting people to repeat things.  And I had been nervous about the post office, but it went well.  

Saturday I'm off to Stuttgart, which a couple of us are trying to return to next week to see Wicked, hopefully auf Deutsch.  And we're starting, slowly, to plan for the 10 day break between January and February.  Some of us are hoping to get to the UK, which might be difficult, but I've got friends there.  STA is apparently not functioning at the moment, but Lufthansa has some flights available that aren't too crazy.  We shall see.

Need to finish the Hausaufgaben so I can successfully rise before the sun again, and head down the dark, curving hills to a fruehstuck of meats and better bread than I ever get at home.

Die Schlosser

What has been accomplished this weekend?  Yesterday I went the Alps, something I've wanted to do for a long time.  We didn't really actually spend much time within the Alps themselves, so I really want to go back and spend time hiking or just being in them.  But, I went to Neuschwanstein, mad King Ludwig II's crazy fairy tale castle.  It is beyond impressive, but also a little off-putting, because he built it high up on a mountain and the whole thing reflects all of his mental disorders, which eventually caused him to be taken out of the ruling position.  But every room was painted to look like a Wagner opera (speaking of crazy), so it really was beautiful to see.  The tour was in German, and I tried to concentrate on understanding a few sentences.  All the other American tourists there were pretty annoying, but I liked speaking German around them and feeling better about myself.  I do not understand the American desire to be as loud as possible, and to make assumptions about things you do not actually know.  ("This castle is way back from the Middle Ages!")  No.  It was built in the 1800s. 

We also spent time in Fuessen before this, a nice little Alpine town, where we all learned a little bit more about ordering food in German.  I think we must appear immediately American or at least out of place, because people speak English to us before we even say anything.   

We came back, with a nice bus ride away from the Alps, and then several of us cooked a late dinner, after a somewhat chaotic grocery-shopping trip.  Spaghetti with wurst in it, which were really just hot dogs, but we couldn't tell.  (Tonight we had frozen pizzas and had an interesting time trying to figure out the baking directions in German).  The Nutella is also present at every meal.

Today was Dreikoenigstag - Epiphany - very important here.  I went to a mass this morning at a church right next to my Wohnheim, with another Goethe student.  We were able to understand a little bit, like the Lord's Prayer, the post communion prayer, the gospel (because I know the story), and the hymns since we were reading them.  But other than that, it was difficult.  Very interesting and pleasant though, except for the fact that it looks like Europeans don't heat any rooms that they don't live in.

I went to the one bakery in town that is open on Sundays (everything else shuts down), and managed to have an entire interaction in German to order what I wanted.  It was short, but I was proud.  Then several of us walked all the way down the river and eventually out of Schwaebisch Hall.  We were told that if you walked long enough, you'd get to a castle.  And we found it, in Comberg.  It was hard to miss, sitting on top of a very high hill, extremely walled, with a giant church in the middle and overlooking the whole town.  We went inside the grounds (the museum and church were closed though, so we want to go back; also I forgot my camera), and it was more amazing even than Neuschwanstein.  This one actually looked real, and apparently did not come from a crazy person.  We walked all around in it, and could see for so far in all directions since we were up so high.  It had been raining on the way over, but the sun broke through and pretty much created some of the most picturesque scenes I have ever witnessed.  I thought I had to be in a very-nicely-shot movie at some point.

Interesting occurrences on the way back - first we saw a car with "Elvis lebt!" spray painted on it (Elvis lives).  Then we nearly got hit by the Volksmarch - the annual run that happens all over Germany on Dreikoenigstag.  It was 10 kilos, and we were right in the path.  We smelled gunpowder, knew we were in trouble, yelled a lot of "schnell, schnell!", and got out of the way in time to be hit by pouring rain and sleet.  But it was fun to watch what must have been most of the population of Schwaebisch Hall go running by.  Today, I was charged by the Germans.

I have realized that I am not really afraid to go out and do things - at first I was, thinking about how obvious it would be that I am not from here and how terrible I would be at German.  But I am less nervous about interacting with German people than I was before, and have finally begun to understand that the best way to learn is just go be in the town, like I actually really do live here.  Some people are so eager to completely hide the fact that they are American to the point that they limit themselves on what they do.  Don't be afraid to be yourself, but do try to learn about the local culture and become a part of it.  I do think both are possible.

Der dritten Tag

I forgot to bring any sort of journal along with me on this trip, and literally have no room to buy anything else until I've transferred to Vienna.  So, I made a blog.  I hope to write down things I have done and seen every few days in here, just so I don't forget, and so I can actually see if I have accomplished what I would like to while abroad.

Today was the second day of classes at the Goethe Institut.  I still think I am in one level too high for me, and will probably ask to switch next week, but I love all the people in my class.  From Henrich, the old Spanish man, to Annant, the Indian guy that laughs at everything I say, to Koku, an African student who speaks German with the best accent ever, and Boris, the super-friendly Ukrainian, I have met such interesting people in my class.  I will be sad to leave them, but I do actually need to learn German.  I have already met people from so many countries, it's amazing.  And we can all communicate to some degree auf Deutsch.

The Central College representative came to talk to us today, so now I am a little clearer on what will actually be happening for the rest of the semester.  (Also, she took us out to a very good restaurant last night that was all paid for by Central).  I hope, and think, that I will have an internship in Vienna.  Ich freue mich auf das sehr viel!  (But it's scary, too).

I took a walk afterwards with my mom, who is leaving tomorrow, along down the river (Der Kocher), and up some random streets in Schwaebisch Hall.  It's so beautiful here. Parts of the town look like they should be in old picture books of fairy tales by the brothers Grimm.

Some fellow program students and I got dinner at a pizza place, which turned into a two-hour affair, in typical German and European style.  It will take some getting used to, but I think I will come to enjoy the extremely laid-back and very unstressful German lifestyle.  But, we did finally figure out how to get our check and pay.

The best part of the day were the German teenagers on the playground we found after dinner.  There was some kind of zip-line thing we were all doing, and some German kids came running up to us laughing and saying things we didn't understand possibly about Poland and Russia?  We just yelled things like "viel Spass!" and they laughed more, but it wasn't at us.  They were fun.

Then...the Goethe Party, which was as weird as I thought it would be, but pretty cool eventually.  Germans seem to be perpetually stuck in what would be to us the 80s or early 90s, so that's where all the music came from.  (There was some Hanson, and there was a strange German remix of "Hey Ya").  I tried a Haller Loewenbrau, not very good.  But, considering I could be at a Hamilton party of awkwardness, and was instead at a party with people from many many countries in Germany where most of the awkwardness only came from us trying to communicate with each other (Darko from Bulgaria stopped trying to talk to me when he realized he was a lot better at German than me), it became amazing.  Plus, songs like, "Mmm Bop" were going on in the background.

Also, it seems that pretzels and beer are served at every function here.  Ach, Deutschland.

Tomorrow I'm going on the excursion to Neuschwanstein, basically one of the most famous castles in Europe.  It's gorgeous - I'm excited.  Let's hope I can actually find the place we're supposed to meet to leave.  I've already been lost several times.

Bis spater.