Mein Gott. Wien.

And...freak out time about Vienna.  Central College seems to be very good at not telling us most of the important information until right before we absolutely have to know it.  That will be the meeting on Wednesday afternoon, and then we leave Thursday morning.  And...dragging my way-over-the-weight-limit-suitcase to ZOB, the bus stop across town.  I still don't know a lot about what happens once we actually arrive in the city - registering with the city, whaaaaat? - and I'm sure on Wednesday they will just throw all the information at us.  So, nervous about that, and about spring break a little, because getting to the Amsterdam hostel to meet Rachel might be difficult, and Charles de Gaulle is always insane and I have no French abilities, but at least Copenhagen has calmed down some and we're just going to Legoland all day anyway.

But...I am very excited for Vienna.  I looked up the district I'm living in (again, thank you Central for not telling me much).  It's the 9th, pretty much full of University buildings and otherwise academically related things.  It looks pretty.  

On Thursday Laura came to visit and we had lots of German adventures.  And by lots of German adventures, I mean that we went to the ruins, Comburg, went to some bars and a good restaurant, and frolicked around Schwaebisch Hall.  This time, I remembered to bring my camera to Comburg, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered.  I also decided that the wall overlooking the city in the ruins is my favorite place to sit possibly ever.  Laura walked around photographing things and I sat there for maybe 30 minutes and was completely calm. 

On Friday night friends and I borrowed the Goethe Kino (actually, we got Gesine to come make it work for us) and watched The Third Man, in honor of our upcoming travels.  It was very intriguing, and now I sort of wish Vienna was all black and white and everyone there spoke in film noir dialogue.  But hopefully we are taking The Third Man tour there, and we can all pretend to chase Orson Wells everywhere.  And yay, I understood most of the German in it.  Furthermore, Holly Martins might be the best name I've heard, and now I wish I could play the zither.

So...more from me once I'm in Vienna.

Bauchschmertz :(

This day has been full of food.  I was at the Steinmeyer's house all day, basically eating the entire time.  They made me waffles, which are really good German-style, but then they kept making waffles.  They made three batches of batter.  I don't know why that many waffles were necessary, but they were very good.  I would have thought that would be enough food for the evening, but then a huge platter of sausages, cheeses, breads, pickles, peppers, and apples arrived on my lap.  I managed almost half of it, while watching a German crime drama show that was completely more insane than most of the same American genre.

Yesterday I went to Nurnberg.  The bus ride there was interesting because they guy that was taking us would not stop talking for the entire time, about things nobody wanted to hear about.  It was 8:30 in the morning and we really just wanted to sleep, but he was on the loudspeaker the whole time explaining things like, "If you see a truck with a blue stripe, it's from Poland" in German.  For one and a half hours.  I turned up my iPod all the way.  Then he was leading a tour when we got there, which my friends and I started out on but quickly realized it was just more of him talking forever and ever, and so we (not-so-discreetly) ditched it.  

We ended up with a very American breakfast of omelets (finally, there are otherwise no scrambled eggs to be found in Germany, at least not that I've seen).  Then we just walked around for awhile, not really sure what we were looking at, but it was all very pretty.  There were lots of very old, gigantic churches.  We went inside a lot of them, and saw that they all were, as usual here, reconstructions, since the originals got bombed.  But still, very beautiful.  We also found a castle.  A castle for what or who, we don't know, but it was fun.  And later on the drive out, we saw Hitler's crazy copy of the Colosseum, where he thought he could build all of the biggest and most important buildings in the world, but make them better.  Admittedly, it was pretty impressive.

And, speaking of Hitler, my class this week was for some reason about assisted suicide, Sterbehilfe.  Since I am in the intermediate-advanced level, we are working on expressing our opinions on lots of topics auf Deutsch, but this was probably one of the more depressing we could have chosen.  The class was about the medical version and whether it should be legal or not, but researching it online led me to lots of stuff about Nazi "euthanasia" programs, and then pictures of all the death camps, and then I basically just felt horrible for a night.  I'm pretty sure I could not even go on a tour of one, or stand in the gas chambers, like I saw pictures of people doing.  And it all just reinforced my strong opposition to the death penalty, because there were pictures of Nazi gas chambers, and then pictures of American death penalty gas chambers, and they looked the same.

So...on better topics, last weekend I saw the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart, which was really really cool, and talked to some random German guy in German for awhile waiting for the train, which made me happy.  I also bought Harry Potter in German (Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban) and I loooooove it.  I'm learning a lot of new fantastical vocabulary, and I actually understand a lot, but that might be mostly because I've read it enough in English.  But I spent last Sunday, when it was beautiful and sunny but still very very cold outside, sitting in the park reading it, surrounded by ducks.  

Spring break is almost finalized, just working out Paris.  The hostel we are trying to get is very close to the Moulin Rouge, and I definitely want to go to a show.  And also, Laura is coming to visit on Thursday, and I am excited.

Gute Nacht.

They leave the West behind...

I am now returned from the exhausting Berlin trip.  (Thanks, German grammar, that is how it first came out).  Hanover was disastrous, but I am now a member of Hostelling International, which it looks like I'll need for the crazy Scandinavia trip we're trying to plan for spring break.

Yesterday I spent several hours at the Steinmeyer's house - my tandem partners.  Jona, the 5 year old boy, was mad at me for awhile because his mom made him came home since I was there, instead of play with his friend after kindergarten.  But then we got home and he put all of his toys all over me again and everything was fine.  We talked in English almost the whole time, but the mom, Keri, said she was very impressed with my German when I did use it.  She made me dinner again, and bought me a donut and cookies.  They love to give me stuff, and I'm not good enough at being direct and German-like to refuse it.  But I enjoyed it all.  Dad Klaus, who is my favorite German person I have ever met, came to take me home, in half the time it would have taken an American driver.  

It feels very strange having all the new Americans here.  Last month, there were a lot more students, and they were from more countries.  This month was the American invasion, and there are just less people over all.  My class is half American, except for the Turkish guys who also stayed another month, and are some of the nicest people I know.  Stephania made a surprise return, here to represent Italy for a little while longer.  We even talked about the American election, auf Deutsch naturlich, in my class.

Speaking of which, a reporter from Schwaebisch Hall came to talk to American students at Goethe about the election.  Unfortunately the first guy he found was Ben, who told him that he is very conservative, essentially in love with Mitt Romney, and thinks all the democratic candidates are crazy radicals.  He was not the best representation of America, and the rest of us were standing around embarrassed, especially when he talked about how great the Iraq War is and couldn't speak one word of German.  Luckily, the guy then talked to Suzanne from my class, who likes Obama and is way more liberal, and basically smarter about the whole thing.

Anyway, too bad for Ben Romney got kicked out of everything.

I also basically have my classes lined up for Vienna.  Three classes from Central (in partnership with the Uni, still obviously taught in German): German Literature from Realism to the end of the 20th Century, Theater in Theory and Praxis, the Music workshop which is only one weekend, and the History of Austria seminar that we all have to take.  Then one at the University, which I'll be counting towards my minor:  Love, Honor, and Adultery in Medieval Literature.  A little scared of doing things in Middle High German in a class taught all in Modern High German, but I am up for the challenge.  Vielleicht.  And then, according to Ruth, I am most likely getting an internship at Greenpeace.  Ganz toll.

Back to Stuttgart for a day this weekend, because why not.  Today Suzanne, Rachel, Rob and I climbed a mountain...it felt like...and found a meadow and giant expanses of farmland, where we proceeded to (yet again) pretend we were in The Sound of Music.  We have also already planned trips to Salzburg just for that purpose.

Gute Nacht, must face terrifying teacher in the morning.

Also, best picture of all time, when our tour guide made me and one other girl represent East and West Berlin.

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.