Good, Bad? I'm the guy with the blog.

So, this is the end.

I got back from Germany two days ago, after a total delay of about an hour, due to Heathrow airport and the weather in Boston. Not to mention that the baggage claim belt got jammed, and it took a while for them to fix it. My parents didn't recognize me as I stepped out of the gate, not with my new hat, my new beard, and my new jeans (which, if you know me, is a huge step away from the norm). There's not much to say about the ride home. We talked about the program a bit, but not anything really specific. I was pretty tired from the flight, and was ready to just eat dinner and lie on the couch.

I hadn't been back in the States for more than 10 minutes when I noticed how different everything felt. The way that people talk. The English that people talk; It's American English, rather than British English. The dollar doesn't feel real to me anymore. It's more like monopoly money than ever. So far, all I've unpacked are the gifts that I bought. I can't even begin to think about where the rest is going to fit, and I've had barely enough time to see my friends before Christmas rolls around, and relatives take over for a few days. My friend Brandon is leaving for Cork, Ireland on the 28th. I'm lucky that I saw him before he disappeared for the semester. I ran into my friend Jess today while I was getting my haircut, so that's another down. We're trying to get people together tonight.

Tomorrow's the big annual Christmas party at the Pluskal's, to which I am obligated to go. I'm sure it will be a fine time, but it's all so soon after everything else. I'm still on Berlin time; just a little. I haven't even gotten used to my bed here yet. It's been so long; it doesn't feel right just yet.

It snowed about two feet the week before I got back to the States. It had only snowed about a quarter of a half of a third of an inch in Berlin while I was there, so this was a welcome change. I threw a snowball, and it was good.

As for the program, well, I don't know how much there is to say. I think I covered my impressions pretty well over the other posts in this blog. In case you can't tell after reading through the whole thing (which I hope you did), I had a good time. Actually - more than that.
I had a great time, a wonderful time. I do not regret going to Germany for this last semester, no matter how depressed, awkward, anxious, angry, or otherwise I might have felt during the whole experience. Sure, I wish that I could have traveled more, and that the actual academic portion of the program was structured a bit better, but that doesn't change the fact that I was able to go to a Germany, live with a German family fr four months, and gain a passable knowledge of the history, culture, and language of Germany. It was fun, it was exciting, and I'd love to go back.

My host family was beyond amazing. Tom and Dorothee Lennert are wonderful people, with a great amount of patience, compassion, and understanding for an American student trying to get his bearings. I'd like to put it out there that the Lennerts really made my experience what it was. It would not have been the same had I lived in an apartment like the other 50 percent of the students. Chumps.

I really can't complain about much (well, I could, but it's pointless and insignificant stuff). Everything is said and done, my classes and housing for next semester look like they're all set up, and life moves on.

That's right, life moves on.

I'd like to thank you all for reading this blog. It's been fun writing this thing, and I hoped you've enjoyed it. I might consider continuing writing in this, but that's a story for another day.

That's all, folks.

The Ugly

This is going to be the big downer. Honest, but rough nonetheless. It's long, rambling, and it might not make much sense, as I've typed this from about 3-4:45 in the morning. I'd rather not discuss this, so please don't ask me to elaborate on any of this. Thanks.

***

When I arrived at the program building at the beginning of this semester, I was full of hopes. I hoped to find friends. I hoped to travel. I hoped that the two would intersect at some point. I think, at the beginning, that everybody really got along well. I mean, we had to. For the most of us, we were strangers in a strange land, and we were all stuck together, for better or for worse.

So, in the first few weeks I did make some friends, I did make traveling plans, and I did go traveling with the friends that I had made. Good job, A+, and all that. A lot of the pictures that you see of me from the first few weeks of the program also feature this group of friends. We all look pretty happy, right? Well we were, myself included. I mean, I had found a group of people who are interested in going places, seeing cities, having fun, and were generally fun to be around. Unfortunately, it didn't last.

I guess the keynote of this whole little post here is the concept of Circles. No matter how open people are, there's always a circle of friends that keeps outsiders, well, out. It's all about exclusivity, really. At the beginning of the semester, the circles were open, nonexistent. For the most part, everybody was new, there were no problems, and we all wanted to know each other. It only took a couple of weeks for 71 students to define what were the circles, the cliques for the rest of the semester. Now, I don't want to sound so grim here. When I talk about circles, I really just mean the people that are most often together. This doesn't have a set level of exclusivity, and some circles were bigger than others. Some weren't really even there.

So as the weeks went on, it became more and more obvious that I wasn't really a part of the circle of friends that I thought I was. Maybe it was because the rest of them were all in the apartments, and maybe it was because the leaders of the circle didn't really like me, as far as being friends was concerned. I think it's a bit of both, to be honest. Regardless, it got more and more uncomfortable as the weeks carried on, and I tried to hold on as well as I could. I was already homesick, but this was something more than that.

Something you should understand about me, in case you don't already. I am a lonely person. I have friends, yes, but I am the type of person who can feel alone in a room full of people, just by virtue of being me. It's something that I've sometimes inadvertently cultivated over the past years. It hasn't prevented me from making friends in my life, but it does make me unwilling and, frankly, fearful that I'll lose them. So I held on. I tried to be as unoffensive as possible to these people whom I considered friends. It's a really horrible existence, fearing the loss of your friends, when you know that if you have to fear something like that, you're going about the whole thing wrong.

The shit hit the fan over our big class trip to Munich, Vienna, and Bratislava. Well, really just in Munich, during Oktoberfest. We were all having a great time, and for a little while, I thought things were doing just fine. We all went around shopping and having fun. There was some drama in the group, but not directed at me, so that was really just fine. Selfish perhaps, but it's the truth. Then, the day that we actually got to sit at a table, it was the beginning of the end for my membership in this little group. Some of us were all sitting around the table, drinking beers and eating food. But it wasn't as happy as it could have been. Leader Girl 1 snapped at me for assuming that she was paying for everything, since she had pulled out a 50 Euro note (and I thought we'd all pay her back later). Leader Girl 2 back her up on this, because they're best friends, and from the same school. 1 and a half liters later, something just snaps. Not that I think I said anything particularly offensive, but whatever it was, it made Girl 1 slam down on me harder than a Mack Truck.

Something along the lines of "You need to change your attitude or you'll never get any fucking friends. Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you?" I will swear on a stack of Bibles, Torahs, Korans, and Textbooks that I was likely just rambling about how great everyone was. Well, I'm sure it's because I was just drunk on the Festbrau, but it hurt. It hurt more than anything I'd experienced in a long while. And it killed the entire day. When we all dispersed, the two girls had also had some small fight (I don't know what about to this day), and we all separated. I wandered through the streets of Munich, trying to get to the Schloss for an optional tour; anything to take my mind off of what happened. It didn't. I ended up pretty much crying and shambling my way through the streets, not caring where I went. It was luck that I ran into some of the other people from the same group, or else I might have actually gotten hurt wandering into traffic. To make a long story short, the two girls and I talked it out, and we supposedly smoothed the whole thing over. I say supposedly, because it never felt complete to me. I've been convinced ever since then that they don't really like me; no matter how courteous they might be, they don't want to be my friend. Of course, I could just hang out with the other people in the group, right? Not really. It was so tight-knit that it was hard to ever catch them alone. I was out of the group, even though I still hung out with them for most of the rest of the trip.

Afer the trip, we drifted apart. I stopped going out places with them, and they never asked me how I was doing, or anything. I was depressed, is how I was doing. I was miserable. I felt like shit, and that I had actually wasted the first few weeks of the program. All the plans that I had were moot at this point.

Here's the thing: It's really hard to get into people's social circles, even if you've been friendly, when you haven't been there from the start. I couldn't try and go places with people without feeling like I was insinuating myself into their lives. Realistic or not, this is how I thought. I stopped going out on weekends for about two or three weeks straight. I had problems sleeping. I was irritable and tired all the time. I tried to brush off people's concerns, which is incredibly stupid for someone who feels alone. I hate it when people worry about me. It makes me feel pitied.

I thought I was going to London with my first group of friends, but that was a wash, obviously. Instead, I went alone to Brussels and Amsterdam. I went alone because everyone else already had plans. It was a last minute choice for both of the cities, not that I regret choosing them.

Eventually, I stopped feeling so sorry for myself, and got my act together a bit. I tried to get into another group of friends, ones who weren't such exclusive pricks. It worked, mostly. I mean, I spent a lot of time going out places with them and such, but it was never complete. I was always B-List, if you will. I never got invited unless I actively made it known I wanted to go somewhere, and other little things like that. It's disappointing really. I thought that I would be able to hang out with these people even after the program was over, as some of them were staying for the same week I was, but that hasn't happened. I've been passed over.

I've missed a lot of people in this program that I could have gotten to know better, and become friends with. That's my problem to deal with. I'm really just disappointed that things didn't work out as well as I had hoped at the start. Maybe my hopes were a bit too high for reality, but that's a rather grim look at things. Right now, I'm hardly more than a day away from flying back home to the USA, where my old friends await. I've been missing them a lot; I won't waste this opportunity.

Football

Last night I went to the Hertha BSC (Berlin) vs Bayern-Munchen football game at Olympic Stadium. It was really fun. The stadium had a bit over 72000 people in it, so it was almost full, and everyone was wicked excited about the whole event. I tried to get as much video and pictures as I could, so those will be available to see later, if you'd like. It's pretty hard to get good video of a game when the batteries on your camera are lose to dying. The temperature also fell below freezing, finally. By the end of the game, I actually ran most of the way to the subway station, it was so cold. Predictably, the subway was totally packed; actually, it looked almost dangerously crowded to me. As for the game itself, it was tied 0:0, as these things often are. Hertha was playing really defensively, though. They could have scored if they had just played a bit more aggressively.

Dresden by Day

I'm heading to Dresden tomorrow to do some shopping. There's supposed to be a great Weinachtsmarkt there.

I...hope it's running tomorrow.

Endgame - The different

I'm going to be making a few posts about the end of the semester over the next couple of days - what I've learned and experienced. Don't expect these to be full of happy, shiny people; I'm going to try to be honest about myself here. I'm starting out with neutral territory - things that are just different. We'll get to the bad stuff, though, before we finish with the good. It's always good to have a happy ending. So let's get this started.

****

Berlin is different than anywhere I have been before. Hell, Europe is different. There were some things that struck me immediately, others that didn't. It's complicated, of course. I might as well just list them off.

Dogs: From what I can see, nobody loves a dog more than a German. Berliners take their dogs everywhere; down the street, in the park, on the bus, on the train, in a cafe, in a restaurant. It's a universal thing. I've seen chihuahuas and rottweilers, schnauzers and poodles, beagles and dachshunds, great danes and black labs. Of course, I love dogs, so I was plenty happy to see at least three every single dayjust going to school. It was odd at first; dogs may be man's best friend in the US, but they never have the presence that they do here in Berlin. I'd also like to add that a large portion of the time, the dogs are not wearing leashes. You might be thinking "But Geoff, don't the dogs get out of control? Isn't there a safety issue?" No. There isn't. At least, not that I've seen. German dogs are incredibly well behaved; I'm not surprised to see a dog waiting at the entrance of a market for their owner to come back out, or for a dog to be running ahead, around, and behind their owner as they go down the street, with hardly a word from the owner as to where they're going. I've even seen dogs on the trains get up at the departure stop before their owners even realize the same thing. It's uncanny. The only downside to this is that there is dog crap everywhere. The Germans don't pick it up. I assume automatically that every time I step off of the main sidewalk onto any form of grass or slight gutter, I am running my foot through piles of filth. That is the price we pay for our canine friends.

Tipping: There's a fine art to figuring out the tip in Europe. Often gratuity is already added in the bill, so there might not be any reason to do it. Still, my delicate American sensibilities are offended if I levae without giving something back to the waiter/waitress. It's kind of hard to justify at times, since I'm spending comparatively more than usual anyways due to the Euro.

Food: Germans eat a lot of meat and cheese. Wurst, obviously, is a favorite. It's taking a some getting used to for the specifics, but I actually like German food now, for the most part. I'm still a little undecided on the whole "cabbage" issue, although I'll eat it out of politeness.

Transportation: Berlin has a fantastic public transport system that runs to pretty much every corner of the city. It's hands down better than the Metro in DC and the T in Boston for usefulness. The trains are actually so punctual, that you can rely on the schedules posted in the stations if you don't want to look at the electronic signboards. Fantastic.

The people: Germans are different from Americans. Wow. What a revelation. On the whole, they're sticklers for law and order, punctual, and always interested about the details. Germans are so invested in law, that they won't cross the street 80-90% of the time if the signal is red. Try doing that in Boston and you'll get trampled by the pedestrians. They are usually happy to speak English, and often will try to do so even when you want to speak German to them. Germans do not talk or look at eachother much on trains and buses, and don't strike up conversations with random strangers as often as Americans do. I think the only time I actually had a conversation with a German outside of official program events was at a bus stop, when they asked me the time. After giving him the time, I explained that I was American, which was why my German was a bit bad (he looked confused, and I though he deserved an explanation). We spoke for about 5 minutes until the bus came.

Bikes: Berliners love their bikes. Their bikes love them. All over the city there are bike paths that run right down the sidewalk, sometimes crossing into the street. If you're in one of these paths, you'd better move fast, or else you are going to get run down. Seriously, they really don't slow down that much if you're in the way. I can't say that this is like anyplace I've been in the US.

Greenery: Berlin is a green city. There are trees everywhere, even in downtown (and they aren't the scraggly excuses that New York, Boston, or DC has). Furthermore, the Tiergarten is situated right in the middle of the city, providing a massive area for people to bike and run and generally have fun outdoors. The Grunewald is much the same, except that it's an actual forest within the borders of the city. How about that? Germany as a whole is far more concerned with its environment that the US has ever been. After all, there's less space to mess around with.

I think that's all for now. It's pretty late, and I need to get to bed. Keep watching for the next installments; the Bad, the Ugly, and the Good.

Good night everyone.

MS Paint Theater

Checking in

Tonight, I have absolutely nothing that needs to be done. It's a good feeling.
In the last three days, I've probably had only about 13 hours of sleep. I'm actually going to bed fairly soon. Don't worry about me.

I'll make sure to put together a real post sometime soon. There'll definitely be one summing up the whole program.

I'm actually having some slight trouble focusing my eyes here, so I'm going to bed now.

*collapse*

Null and void

I don't think I can go see Gogol Bordello. Not while I still have this term paper to do.

I need to go to bed if I want any hope of getting this done.

Oh my god

I have over 30 pages of papers to write in the next two weeks, plus other homework.

I am so utterly screwed.

In Which Geoff is Accosted by a Crazy Lady

Hey Sibi. I'm a History Major, just so you know!

So, the plan was for me to take the U-Bahn to Nollendorfplatz and meet Dorothee there. Then the both of us would drive to Hauptbahnhof to get Ian. Little did I know that I would soon find myself on Germany's most wanted list.

After getting off the train, I went down the stairs to a small parking area under the station (The part I had exited from was a raised platform). I was early, so I wasn't surprised when I found myself waiting for 10 or 15 minutes. By now it was pretty dark (but it was only 4:45, still). Throughout all of this, something odd was going on.

Eventually, over the white noise of cars , I noticed a woman's voice saying "Hey" repeatedly. Following the sound, I saw a woman on a 4rd floor balcony (that's the 3rd in Germany), who apparently wanted to get my attention. No, I thought, why would she want to talk to me? She's probably yelling to someone on the platform. Later I realized that the platform was entirely covered. Compunding my confusion was that I couldn't understand the what the woman was saying after I looked at her. She also yelled to other people on the street, but I couldn't hear their conversations over the noise of the cars. As I walked back and forth, sat on railings, and generally just waited around, the woman apparently got more agitated. She began to wave her left arm, implying that I should move on. So I did what any person waiting for a ride might do.

I continued to ignore her.

It had been about 20 minutes for sure. I walked to the other end of the under-area, to see if Dorothee was there. Unsuccessfully I returned to my original spot. The woman was nowhere to be found...until she noticed that I was back. She got back out to her watchtower, and started yelling again. I swear that she had binoculars by this point. The awkward factor was off the charts. A taxi driver pulled up and parked, then went off, probably to get something to eat. Something had to give!

5 minutes later, and I got a call from Dorothee asking where I was. As I described my location (to Dorothee's confusion), I heard a noise from behind me.

"Hey!"

The woman, seen clearly, was in her 50's or 60's, and looked like a stereotypical German Housewife. She had this black robe-like piece of clothing on It actually took me a minute to realize who this was, because, honestly, I wasn't expecting this woman to actually come down and face me. She was pissed.

After her first lighting fast tirade, she stared at me and asked if I understood German. I said "A little." Apparently, that gave her a free pass to continue as fast as possible. At first, I thought she was angry about the taxi. She kept turning towards it, and pointing at me, and then all around. I explained that it wasn't mine, and that the driver had gone somewhere. Bzzt. Wrong answer. She kept going. Although I didn't get all of it, I understood that she wanted to know what I was doing here. "Waiting for a car." I said, not without difficulty, since she kept interrupting me. She didn't believe me, of course. "Yes," I said. "And now my car is here." I pointed to my phone which I had left on the whole time, for effect. She said something (I only gleaned "I've never seen such something something" from her words) and made some motion. It looked like she wanted me to follow her. So I did.

Uh, no, wait. That's not right. I walked away from her while she slowly walked back towards her apartment. Why would I ever follow a crazy person. I had hung up the phone after using it as a prop, so I called Dorothee. After a bit of clarification, I discovered that there are two exits to Nollendorfplatz, and I was supposed to be at the other one. When we finally met up, Dorothee said that she was worried about me.

From what she heard over the phone (which was everything, considering how loud the Crazy Lady was talking), there was a distinct possibility that my accuser either was going to call the police, or already had.

What the hell, Crazy Lady? What did I ever do to you?

What I learned from all this, aside from the laughs that I had about the whole thing afterwards (and even during; it was so ridiculous), was that I must have looked like some sort of criminal-type, what with my Black fleece jacket, Black gloves, Black shoes, and Jeans.

I'm just glad that Crazy Lady stopped me before I gave in to my criminal urges; I could have been arrested for loitering! In a public space, no less!

You so crazy, Crazy Lady.

I suck.

I'd really like to have an actual update for you, but I just don't have the time or inclination right now to sit down and post something. Ian's going to be here in about 17 hours, which should be a welcome change. Next Tuesday, I'm going to see Gogol Bordello.

We're winding down to the home stretch, people. Just a few scant weeks left.

Nope

Despite all my best efforts, Megavideo is not cooperation (and neither is my internet connection). We'll see what happens in the future.

Right now, I'm going to finish my homework and then go to bed. I feel like I could drop dead, I'm so exhausted.

Forecast

3 O'clock today:


4 O'clock Today:


The weather is forecast to be gray, foggy, cloudy, rainy, and snowy, all at the same time, for the next week. It's just like home!

So, what's been up with me, you might ask? I'll tell you.

Went to the gym on Thursday for a couple of hours. I'm feeling a bit sore now, but it's not as bad as the first time that I went while I was here. In other words, it's working out well (ha ha).

Yesterday part of the group took a trip to the Reichstag. We got to sit in on a session for about 45 minutes, and then we had the privilege of skipping the line to see the Cupola. Now, the session of parliament that we saw was, of course, in German. I was surprised at how much I understood - not that it was enough to fully follow the speeches being made, but enough to get the gist of what they were saying. It was a good feeling. Anyways, they were debating whether there should be speed limits created for the Autobahn. I'm pretty sure it won't pass. What was a little odd about the whole affair was that less than half of the members were present for the debate (aka speeches from the parties). Even more odd (and a bit insulting) was that the Transportation minister didn't bother to show up. I mean, this is kind of his area of employment; you'd think he'd try to put a bit more effort in. The more extreme parties seemed to be a bit more steamed about it than the mainstream, on the whole.
Even though the whole parliament wasn't there, there was still a fair bit of interaction between the parties. They clapped for their own speakers, shook their heads, grumbled, or laughed at the opposition, and did a lot of talking and consulting amongst themselves. According to my host mother, there is a system in place where the amount of seats you have in the Reichstag is directly proportional to the time you get for a speech. It did seem that the smaller parties were a bit more direct in their speeches, so that could explain why.

The cupola was pretty cool. You can actually see down into the main assembly hall, which is supposed to be a sign of openness and liberty. Aside from that, it's a really good view of the city. When I got to the top of the dome, though, I was surprised by a one-legged-pigeon. Yeah.
It was surveying all of the people walking around as if it owned the place.

After we left the Reichstag, we passed through the Brandenburg Gate, and saw this rainbow-neon colored wall, representing the separation of North and South Korea. An interesting installation, to be sure.

Just through the Gate, we saw a multitude of black cars and vans idling, with police and men in suits standing around and throughout the whole mix. There were lots of Mercedes and Volkswagen present, so I though that it might be some sort of auto show, but the fact that the new American embassy is right next to the Gate convinced me otherwise. Some big official must have just arrived, as all the cars were empty. We didn't stick around to see who else might show up, but I did take some pictures.

Yesterday was also November 9th. The infamous deed known as Kristallnacht was perpetrated on this day in 1938 by the Nazis.

***

Later that day, I hit up the Film and Television museum for a couple of class projects. They're both quite interesting, but even moreso was the entrance hall to the Film museum. There's a small corridor with dim lighting that suddenly turns into another room, with what appears at first to be a catwalk stretched out over infinite repeating dimensions. The room is actually pretty small, with a snaking path that travels about 30 feet to the exhibits. However, almost every surface of the room, aside from the walkway floor itself and a few odd screens playing movies, is covered in mirrors. I could look down to the left and see myself from the back and above, or straight to my right and see my left. That was how many mirrors there were. I spent a good 10 minutes in that room, just looking at myself from every conceivable angle. It was creepy, in an entertaining sort of way.

I've been trying to get some homework done this weekend, so it doesn't pile up at the end of the semester (gasp), which, incidentally, is only about a month away.

That's all for now, folks. See you around.

Pics from the Reichstag

Tropical Ai-ai ai

Cafe recommendation: Bilderbuch, at Akazienstrasse 28. It may look unassuming from the street, but inside it has a kitschy, casual charm. Good food too. The back room feels like it belongs in someone's private library or study, making it stand out from every other cafe I've been to.

***

Yesterday was cold, gray, and rainy. That's why a small group of us put on our bathing suits and headed off to the beach. What? No good beaches this time of year in Germany? Balderdash and poppycock! There's always a good beach around when you can go to Tropical Islands resort, conveniently located only an hour's train ride from Berlin!

The whole structure is contained within a giant dome. As I understand it, it used to be a hangar for zeppelins or something like that. Now, it contains a miniature rain forest, two big pools with beaches, and a lot of other nice little attractions including tents that you can rent out for an overnight stay. They had this ingenious payment system where each visitor is given a wristband with a RF transmitter inside. When you buy something, like food or admission to the balloon ride, you simply swipe the wristband, and the cost is added to your account. It seems to me like if you weren't paying attention, you could spend a lot of money there.

Apparently, the material in part of the dome is UV permeable, so it is possible to get a tan (or even burned), even though you're technically inside. Regardless, we swam, had food (the chicken nugget meal has the best quantity/cost ratio, and it's tasty to boot), and saw this dance/acrobatics/magic show, although it was really light on all three, if you can believe that.

For dancers, we had some buff Latin looking guy, an emaciated Aryan looking guy who couldn't have been much over 20, a thin Aryan looking woman, and a normal sized black haired woman. While the other three were perfectly good at what they did, the black haired woman was pretty bad. She was always looking at the Blond for her cues. It was painfully obvious. The anorexic Aryan was painfully skinny. In fact, the whole dance portion was pretty painful (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy? Ricky Martin? What's up with that?)
Magic consisted of this Swedisg guy (or was he Russian?) pouring himself some wine, duplicating the wine bottles, and removing the wineglass, all using two tubes. Neat, I guess.
The acrobatic part was the best. The magician and this other Swedish/Russian woman did some balancing tricks (on each other). The woman also did this routine where she suspended herself from a long red ribbon. Yeah, it was hot.
Here's the real weird thing. The show was pretty short, but the dancers changed costumes for each song (there were 3 or 4 throughout the entire show). However, they didn't change all the way. It was like they ran out of time and had to go on halfway between each costume.

And then the most horrible thing ever struck my ears. The Tropical Islands theme song:

Tropical Ai-Ai-Ai,
Tropical Island.

Repeat ad-nauseum.

Good Gravy.

Later that night the group went to a club, Steinhaus. Good times, with lots of 70's, 80's, and 90's music being played. That's American music, mind you. The Germans love American music. It was cheap, because they had a student discount going on. I think I spent about 2 Euros at the club. The best part of the night? Some random guy told me "nice hat." I was wearing this black felt fedora-esque thing, which means I looked like a badass.

Some of us left around 2:30, and I got on my train at about 3:15 (we stopped for some food). Now, I knew this was going to be a long ride; Berlin is huge, and it would have taken about 45 minutes to get home during the day. At night, well, you get the picture.
I remember getting on the train, and leaning against the window in my seat for the first few stops. Then, I was being woken up by the conductor. We were at Wannsee, 5 stops past where I needed to go. I fell asleep, in case you hadn't gathered. Dragging myself out of the train, I got oriented to the right train, and got home a little past 4:30. I was in bed soon after that.

Then I woke up at 10am today, and despite all my efforts, could not get back to sleep. That's been happening a lot lately. Tonight I'm taking some Nyquil so I can actually get a good night's sleep.

It was a really good day, and I'm glad that I was there to experience it.

Good night, everybody.

Mao Mao Mao Mao

So my host mother, Dorothee, just got back from a two week long trip in China. She brought me back a watch. When I saw it, I nearly lost it. This thing is so hilarious. Check this out:




Here's the best part:




Also, by popular request, a video of me:

Moving right along (to Amsterdam)

On my last day in Brussels, I walked around (big surprise there). I took a visit to the Atomium, constructed for the 1958 worlds fair. It's a giant steel model of an iron atom, with a museum about its construction inside. It also currently houses an exhibit about designer Willy Van Der Meeyre. I've got to say, some of his ideas, like a table that wraps around a sofa - pretty neat. Others....not so attractive. It was the 60s and 70s though, so I guess it'll have to slide.

After walking around town some more, I headed over to Moritz's apartment for dinner. Did I mention how nice this guy is? I got to meet his adorable 16 month old daughter Luna, and his 4 year old son, Lio. They were kind of scared of me at first, I think, since I don't even speak their first language (French, not that Luna speaks yet). By the time they had to go to bed though, I was tossing a balloon around with Lio and Luna, and helping Lio draw (and cut some cardboard - he's not allowed to use the big scissors). They're sweet kids. Fun fact, Lio speaks French, but also understands German (his father speaks in German to him). When he tries to speak German, though, he sometimes mixes in French words when he doesn't know the German words, which made it pretty challenging to understand him at times. Moritz and I, and later his girlfriend (wife?) Annabelle had some pleasant conversation, and then I went back to my hostel, and then to bed. Or so I thought.

Now, for the first two nights in Brussels, I was in a single room, but I moved to a 4 bed room for the last night. My roommates had finally arrived when I got back from Moritz's. Reggie, Willy, and...something. Let's go with Bobby. They had just started Lady in the Water on a portable DVD player, so I didn't go to bed just then. When the movie finished, Reggie probably said that he "knew the movie was tight, man, but..man. That shit is tight" about 4 or 6 times before bed. And then he said it another 4 or 6 the next morning. Ok, man. we all get it. It's tight.

Let's move on, though. It's going to take too long to relate everything about Amsterdam (because I'm a slowbie), so I'll keep this a bit shorter.

I got in to Amsterdam mid afternoon, and bought a metro ticket after walking the 5 minutes to my hostel, and then back to Central Station (I thought I should learn the surrounding streets). Right around my hostel were several sex shops, a porno theater, 'coffee shops,' and a fair assortment of people who would murmur 'cocaine, ecstacy' as you walked by. I've got to say, I wasn't expecting any of this, even though Amsterdam is supposed to be a liberal city (coke and X are still illegal). It probably had something to do with the fact that the city is so small, that all of this existed even though we were right in tourist central/downtown Amsterdam. *shrug* Whatever. I walked around the block, and planned my next couple of days. With luck, one of them would be spent on a bike. I note how cold it had gotten. Dinner was at this asian place called Nooch (who named it, Kevin Smith?). Although it was fairly expensive (it's on a main street in downtown), it was absolutely delicious (Pad Thai). I went to bed comparatively early that night after sitting in the in-hostel bar watching a football game (soccer). I think Barcelona won.

The next day, I hit up the Rijksmuseum (the Dutch history museum), and among other interesting things from the Golden Age, I got to see Rembrandt's 'Night Watch.' It was really amazing, of course, but there were many other worthy pieces of art, such as an enormous painting of a Swan (the interior ministry) defending her nest (Holland) from a Dog (Holland's enemies). I briefly considered heading to the Diamond Museum (and there were tons of diamond shops around, also, not that I was buying), but instead I wandered into a street market while on my way to the Heineken Brewery (now a museum). A small band was playing a very jazzy arrangement of the love theme from The Godfather. I dropped some change and gave the sax player a look that hopefully implied how much I was enjoying their music. As for the Brewery, the whole experience was somewhat hokey on the whole, with small rides like "Learn what it's like to be a bottle" and "Drive a horse carriage through Amsterdam." In the middle of, and at the end of the museum, there were bars where you could pass in color coded chips for frosty Heineken. It's a brilliant marketing scheme, of course - for who can resist recieving not one, not two, but three free beers and a free gift by the end of a museum tour. Not me, I guess.

The gift, by the way, is a bottle opener.

After the Brewery, I hit up Madame Tussaud's Wax museum. I yawned through the Dutch history (although the giant amalga-man, made from icons of Dutch culture, was...eye-catching, to say the least), and sighed at the Pirates of the Carribean cash-in (the woman guiding us through the strobe-lit, foggy corridor was appropriately 'piratey,' though - She made some children scream at the very least. The main attraction, of course, was the celebrity figures they had. There were models of everyone from Lenin to W. Bush, Clooney to Dame Edna, and, of course, Gandhi was there with Mandela. I took pictures of most of them, so when I get those up you can see who was there.
I hit up a cheese shop for some smoked Gouda, after wandering through a mall complex.
After all that, I went to the Torture museum. I'm sorry that I did, really. It was mostly to kill time before dinner, and it was cheap. I got some pictures of nasty looking implements, but it's nothing that can't be seen elsewhere.

Third day, I got up, and headed off to see the city some more. This was supposed to be my bike day, but the weather refused to cooperate. It had rained, and it was still a bit damp, and more than a little bit cold. Walking would have to suffice. I made my way slowly to the Versetzmuseum (Dutch Resistance during WWII), where I found an interesting and educational exhibit and some annoying British children. There was even a small piece on victory and liberation songs after the Allies broke the Nazi hold on the Netherlands.

I don't really know what to say about the rest of the day. Most of it was spent walking around the city again, with short stops to take pictures of things that caught my eye as I passed by. I did a little more shopping, and got a CD with a discount coupon from Madame Tussad's (Jurassic 5 LP). I took a short boat tour of the canals and harbors later in the day, but I eventually found myself reading at the Leidseplein before dinner. Afterwards, I ventured into "The American Book Center" for the 2nd time (the first I was just browsing), and bought World War Z. That about sums up the day. I'm pretty sure I was in bed around 10 or so.

Just a word on my hostel arrangement in Amsterdam. I was in an 8 bed room, which was full every night except the last. The street the windows faced was a busy side alley. Every night, there were two people who snored like they were doing their best impersonations of a couple of bullfrogs. There was this one girl who always turned the light on when she came into the room, and she was always one of the last people to go to bed. The beds and pillows? Sort of lumpy overall (one springs; the other, fluff). All of this meant that I never got to sleep before 11 or 12, and I woke up several times each night. I must have looked like crap, but I really never felt it. Strange world, right?

So on the last day, I got up, ate breakfast, packed my things, and headed off to catch my train. Now, you might remember me saying that I bought a metro ticket; look at how useful that was - I walked everywhere. Since I never stamped the ticket, I slipped it in the money slot on the ticket machine. Hopefully some other tourist or traveler will get some benefit out of - if they don't just toss it right away.

Over this past week I've grown a beard, although I'm not sure if I'll keep it past the week. Now, it might just be my imaignation, but I think the man checking passports as we crossed the boerd thought I was a terrorist or something, since I think I was the only person in the car that he asked whether "I had anything to declare." Who knows.
I did read approximately 250 pages in various books during the train ride (over half of that from World War Z - it's an amazing read).

So. In a nutshell, that was my trip.

Good night.

A quick one

3 minutes left of internet.

The proportions of books that I want to read, should read, and have to read are all out of whack.

Anyways, I bought World War Z today.

I'll be back in Berlin tomorrow.

Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)

So the internet's not free, but it's pretty cheap. I've got about 45 minutes left right now.

I'd like to start this off with the crazy dream that I had last night, rather than anything that I've done in Brussels. That's how weird it was.

Of what I can remember (which is a remarkable amount, considering what usually happens to dreams upon waking), the dream began with me saving a girl my age from some seemingly random attacker. Little did I know that I had entered into something that I had no idea existed. As I found out, some evil spirit/demon/creature was hunting this girl (although I can't remember why). As I found out, this spirit possessed people. and then used their body to make its evil ambitions reality. The mechanics of it are pretty fuzzy, though. Anyways, by saving her I marked myself as the spirit's enemy as well. What follwed really hit upon a slew of movie cliches, including, but not limited to, a car chase on a winding dirt road through a hilly forest at high speed. This dream was so intense that when I punched the possessed person chasing us, I actually punched the air next to my bed (I woke up, briefly). The only part that I remember fairly well, aside from the car chase, is in a hotel room, one with a door to an adjoining room. Now, by this point, we had picked up another person fighting against the spirit. I think her name was Liz (although not any Liz that I know). She was in the adjoining room, and the Girl and myself were in the other room. Somehow, Liz gets possessed, and we end up having a fight to the death after she breaks through the door to get to us. I remember this really clearly, because I stabbed her in the heart with a pen. Yeah. It was pretty gruesome, as you can imagine.

Anyways, that was the start of my day today (What fun!). Now back to the beginning of my stay here in Brussels.

***

The first leg of my trip to Cologne was fairly awful. I was in a 6 passenger compartment - completely full - with two women who either wouldn't stop talking or wouldn't stop getting up. I barely slept for the 6 hours, and I was in a middle seat, so I couldn't even lean on anything. Interestingly, though, nobody came by to check tickets for that whole leg. I guess they didn't want to bother people so late at night (it was a ride from 00:30 to 6:56). I did get booted off the train in Aachen, though, which luckily is most of the way to Brussels. They didn't have much of a sense of humor about the whole business, and I wasn't trying to argue anything past "I've actually already paid." I had to buy a new ticket, and got into Brussels a whole hour or two later than planned.

After checking in at my hostel, I stowed my bags, and started walking. First, I hit a Turkish district - Doner Kebaps and Turkish Pizza as far as the eye can see. There wasn't much in the way of interesting sights, except for this one park I walked through on the way back. It was on a steep hill, adjacent to a school. The whole thing had a terraced feel to it, although it wasn't really designed as such. It also had one of those spinning platform things that are banned in the US, since they are so dangerous, making it far better than any US playground.

After that, I took a nap for a couple of hours and then went to meet Moritz, one of Tom and Dorothee's sons. He lives in Brussels, and works for a community organization trying to improve ties within the communtiy. He's a really nice guy. He invited my to a dinner held by his organization for their something-eth anniversary. Quiche, salad and bread -very french. Also, Belgian beer is amazing. There are 250 varieties made in Belgium, many originally made in monasteries. After dinner, there was a performance of Latin Jazz and Roma/Gypsy music. It was wicked good (pretty much everything good that you might associate with 'Latin', although I could have swore that I was listening to the Eagle's "Hotel Califormia" at some times. Then it was time for bed, since I had had about 6 hours of sleep in the past day.

Today, I had that crazy dream, and then I met Moritz for a small tour around the city. We wlaked through a sunday market, and then a flea market, where I bought a copper turtle serving dish (a copper dish shaped like a turtle). That's for you, mom and dad. We walked through the historical parts of the city, I took some pictures, and Moritz was an excellent guide.

After the tour, I went to the Belgian museum of Comic Book Art. I can't recommend this place enough. I must have spent 2 or 3 hours there, just looking at and reading the comics on display, and absorbing the whole experience. I bought a plush Milou (Snowy for all you American TinTin fans). The high point of the musem might have been the exhibit on sterotypes in Europe as seen in comics. The examples were all really funny, even if I couldn't read them all ( a testament to the art). Of particular interest was a British comic about Marie Antoinnette dodging out on her beheading, only to end up in as Anne Bolynne in a reenactment of her beheading. Yeah. There were also lots of comics about Tea Time from a French perspective, of course.

Not much to say after that. The weather is pretty cold, and it looks like it might start raining a bit.

That's all for now.
Keep reading for the conclusion to this week's shocking episode!

One for the road

I'm leaving for Brussels in a couple of hours, so I thought I'd make a post before I go, for posterity more than anything.

I'll be in Brussels until the 23rd, when I'll get on a train (which I haven't booked yet) for Amsterdam, where I'll stay until the 26th. At that point, I'll get on another train which I haven't booked yet (although I thought I had), and get back to Berlin on the 27th, leaving a day and a half before the break ends.

I almost didn't have tickets, though, since Deutsche Bahn never sent them to me in 2-3 days (like they said they would), and apparently people like me can't book/print online tickets. I had assumed that I would get the tickets by today, but they never came, not even after I spent a few hours freaking out over the whole thing (although a package did come for Dorothee...). I also found out today that my tickets from Amsterdam to Berlin were never actually booked, because they didn't have the couchette that I requested, and wanted my confirmation that it was OK to put me in a seat. The email for that arrived Thursday night, but I didn't see it until today (not that it would have mattered, since the tickets wouldn't arrive in time anyways. The customer service guy that I got told me to buy new tickets and send the reciept that I have in for a refund, but Tom talked to the office again, so there's a new plan of action. And it's not 'go to the ticket center at the station and print my tickets out there.' No, for whatever reason, that's not possible.

I'm going to get on the train with my receipt, and hope that the conductor is smart enough to realize that I've paid and doesn't give me too much shit. If not, I pay the ticket price again, and send in the receipt for a refund.

This is some serious bullshit, and I think it's all because I'm a foreigner and don't have the appropriate card or whatever.

On the upside, my Hostel reservations turned out fine, by all appearances.

I'm going to make a final run-through of my pack and get some more money, so I'll wrap this up now. You might see some updates during my trip, though - both hostels have free internet access, I believe.

Guten Nacht.

Addendum: I recently found out that the first day for me to register courses for the Spring Semester is November 8th. That's hardly any time at all.

Fuck you, Deutsche Bahn.

A walk in the park

I went to the Tiergarten today, and walked around the four sections for a couple of hours. It was really nice, to say the least. Lots of water and trees, along with the standard green common areas. There were even places where you could get a rowboat. After walking around for a while I sat down and did a little bit of homework, which was pretty relaxing. It was a good afternoon all in all. Here are the pictures from today.

I've got my hostels booked for the break, and my transportation there is all set. I've got three days in each city; I think that should be enough time for each.

This evening, Tom and I went to a Greek restaurant for dinner, and I tried Ouzo for the first time.
It's like drinking licorice - that burns on the way down. Not my favorite drink. There was also a wine that tasted somewhat like tree sap. It was different - not bad or good.

Midterms are this week, which sucks.

I'm wicked tired right now, if you can't tell by my writing. Good night everyone.

Who knew that the Stasi could be fun?

Two Jokes:

Three groups went out hunting together to see who was the best: The East German Police, the East German Military, and the Stasi. After a short while, the Police and the Military groups both manage to bag a couple of deer each, but the Stasi men are nowhere to be found. They search around for a little while, until they find a clearing. The Stasi men are surrounding a poor defenseless rabbit, and are taking turns beating it up. One of them yells at the rabbit "Are you ready to admit that you are a boar now?!"

George Bush Sr., Mikhail Gorbachov, and Erich Honecker are running away from a mob of cannibals, but are losing ground quickly. Bush yells to the Cannibals, "I'll pay each of you 10,000 dollars if you go away!" but the cannibals keep on coming. Gorbachov yells, "Stop and embrace the paradise of the communist motherland!" The cannibals don't even slow down. Honecker shouts to their pursuers, "In 50 feet you enter East Germany!" Immediately, the cannibals turn around and run off screaming.

A 17 year old student was sentenced to 6 years in prison for the second joke. I'm sure he didn't think he was anti-Party, but then again, what did his opinion matter to the Stasi?

Today we went on a tour of the Stasi headquarters in Berlin, and Höhenschönhausen (lit. High Beautiful House), the Stasi prison in Berlin. The headquarters tour was nothing too special. It was interesting to see the original furniture and conference rooms, but it was still just another soviet style office complex. The most interesting exhibit was the surveillance equipment. They were fairly inventive in their spying, with cameras and mikes concealed in objects ranging from the humble fake rock to the noble purse to the fabled 'conspiratorial bra' to the ingenious car door camera (utilizing infrared light). Not too many pictures from there, appropriately.

Höhenschönhausen, on the other hand, was fascinating. Our guide was soft spoken, and although he was not an inmate himself (there are guides there that were), he made masterful parallels between current US, Nazi, and Stasi policies, really bringing the information into a new light. He also showed us how the prison worked on a fairly detailed level - A prisoner only saw two people, the guard and the interrogator, and only spoke to one (guess who?). He used real stories of inmates, allowing us to really understand the isolation that they felt, and, in my favorite part, he showed us exaclt how the basic interrogation was orchestrated. It's a standard good cop/bad cop deal, except that they already know all of your personal information, so by the time you break down (and the likely reason for it), they know exactly how you think.

Did you know that about 2 percent of East Germans were affiliated with the Stasi at at least a basic level (informant)? That's insane. I can't imagine what it must have been like to live with that sort of constant surveillance (and everybody must have know about it), but the prison tour today was certainly a good start. Thank you nameless German man (who teaches/has taught at the main FU campus. Thank you. Especially for pointing out that fact that the prison now has signs of little green men running to freedom wherever there's an exit. Irony rules.

***

In other news, I went to the gym yesterday, and I'm glad that I did. I'll make it a point to go 2 or so times a week. Mcfit's a decent establishment, for sure. For tomorrow I was considering taking a bike and heading into the Grunewald, which is a forest/park in Berlin, that also happens to be 10 minutes from my home here. I hear that there are wild boar roaming about in there!

***

In other other news, I've made up my mind about where I'm going for my break. Brussels and Amsterdam, each for 2 or 3 days. Apparently, one of my host parent's son's (from the husband's last marriage) lives in Brussels now, so I can meet him when I get there. He's apparently a big environmentalist. Tickets and such will be booked this weekend.

Midterms are still in the way of the break, though, so I'm not off the hook yet.

Pictures from today! (and they're all in one album, too!)

Prague is Beautiful

Can you guess what the gist of this post will be? That's right. Prague is beautiful.

This was the first of our free weekends, so we wanted to maximize the time we had in the city. We left immediately after classes on Thursday, and got to Prague at about 8 or 9. We checked into our hostel, only to find that our reservation had been forgotten. Luckily for us, they had a room big enough for the 6 of us.

Wait, scratch that. The 7 of us. Our friend Danny joined us on our trip last minute, so he didn't have a spot at the hostel with us. Luckily, we were able to get him situated with us for half price, since he wasn't using an extra bed.
7 People, 6 Beds, 1 room. Cozy.

That night, we went out and saw some of the town before heading to a bar/dance club called Double Trouble. It would be best described as a music dungeon. I was probably an old wine cellar or something like that before it was converted. All in all, it was pretty cool. I also noticed that there were about eleventy hojillion tourists out in the city, mostly American. A little bit unfortunate, but we were warned that Prague had become kind of touristy. We were out until probably about 3, and we got to sleep close to 5. 7 people in one room means nobody gets to sleep for a while, as I'm sure you understand.

***

The next day we go up around noon, and made our way to the Castle (it's literally called Prague Castle). Before we got there, we saw the raptor and bird of prey exhibit on the grounds. It was probably one of the most depressing things ever. The birds were tied on one leg toa post in the ground. Each only had about a foot and a half of line to move around on. There were also owls out in broad daylight, which as you might know, is not normal for owls. One little owl looked pretty frightened, sadly. We moved on to the main grounds.

The cathedral at the castle was amazing. Gothic architecture is incredible. We all climbed the south tower (287 steps!) and got a great view of the city. On the way to the Royal Apartments, we saw a couple, dressed for a marriage, kissing/making out for what must have been 6 or 8 minutes, while a photographer took pictures. It was...unexpected, to say the least. Next we entered the royal apartments.More importantly, this was the site of the Defenestrations of Prague! I got some pics of the windows, and the view from them, so you too can know what it is like to be defenestrated! St George's Basilica followed that. It was pretty neat, but paled to the cathedral. We then headed down Golden Lane, a series of traditional craft shops and an armory that included such pieces as Gunswords, Gunaxes, and Gunshields. Seriously. At the end of the Lane stood Dalibor Tower, named for a legendary violinist (Dalibor) who learned his trade while imprisoned there for some large number of years, so the story goes. Now, it's a dungeon museum, with all sorts of nasty implements inside.

After the Castle, we headed to Charles Bridge, famous for its statues of religious figures. It's also a flea market during the day, which means that it's full of people, again, mostly tourists. It was pretty awesome, though, since it was near sunset, and there were some beautiful views. Dinner and a bar again that night (and it was a really cool place, too), although we didn't stay out nearly as late (fine by me).

Fun Fact: We met an American family (mom, dad, daughter) while going back to the hostel. The daughter is getting a chemistry doctorate in Prague, but doesn't speak a word of Czech. And she was saying how it didn't seem to be working out. What.

They were nice people though.

***

Saturday, we headed into the old town square, and saw St Nicholas Church, a incredibly fancy clock tower, and some more cool architecture. Then we took a tram car to the top of the mountain in Prague (the name escapes me right now), where we found a beautiful rose garden. We hung out there for a while before trying to find the Citadel on the mountain. Although we were unable to find it that day, we did walk down the side of the mountain and had the fortune to come upon a great view of the city from a cafe.

Fun fact: While walking around Old Town, we ended up in th Jewish district. This fact became most apparent to me when I started seeing Golem references everywhere (like cafes, statues, and souvenirs). It's pretty neat to see how mythology (and film) makes its way into everyday life.

Fun fact: there was a Czech fast food style restaurant that we stopped at that served only healthier/lighter food. It was called Endy's, which made me giggle a little bit.

***

We checked out early (10am) and left our bags at the hostel before going out the last day. Lucky for us that we found the Citadel, Vysehrad. It was really cool. There were reenactors all over the place, with little shops and stalls set up on a main road. I really like medieval fairs, in case you didn't know. Moving to the wall (after enjoying some tasty roasted bread twist thing), we all settled down for a nap for about an hour. Afterwards, we saw the grave of the famous composer Dvorak in a cemetery there (it was a really nice tomb - I might want one like it when I finally go), and then got to enjoy a random Royal procession to a church. The Fake King gave a speech (not that I could understand it), and we were off to a Hockey game -H.C. Sparta vs H.C. Mountfield. Although we cheered for Sparta, they got stomped bad (4-1). Honestly though, they weren't really that good compared to NHL players. It was still a good time though, and I bought a hat to commemorate the game. After that, it was dinnertime, and then back to Berlin. On the way back to the hostel, we ran into the same American family again. This time, they informed us that they had been pick pocketed for 500 dollars. Wow.

Let me clear something up here: We scheduled our bus back to Berlin for 11:55 Sunday night, because we're stupid and wanted to enjoy another day in Prague.
I fell asleep almost immediately on the bus, only to be woken by a slap on the leg from the border policeman checking passports. Then I slept again, only to be woken by the lights of Berlin at 5:10am. It had to have been around freezing. I was having a hard time stopping shaking, even though I had a hat, gloves, scarf and jacket - with layers underneath, also.

I didn't sleep before going to class this morning, since it would have been only about half an hour to forty five minutes before I would have had to wake up for class. That's about it for the weekend. I have about 400 pictures from Prague to upload on top of everything else (yikes), and no time this first half of the week. In fact, I shouldn't even be typing this post now; I should be working on a presentation for my German class Wednesday, or doing the 200 pages of reading for my lit class tomorrow. Instead, I'm going to go to bed in 10 minutes.

By the way, all of those late nights in smoke filled bars has resurrected my cold, although it hopefully won't get any worse than it is now (which is not that bad, aside from the fatigue).

Good night.

Back from Luckau, Going to Prague

I tried to load this up yesterday, but something went wrong.

I was expecting some sort of Unification Day celebration in Luckau, but instead there was a Harvest Festival/Historical Festival (Literally, a 'thanksgiving' festival). I guess that Berliners care more about unification than most Germans. There were assortments of traditional tools and crafts, and lots of people singing and dancing. I did buy some things: A wooden mushroom, created on a hand-powered lathe, and a small bottle of Honey Liqueur, which will likely be tasty. We had lunch at the fair (I got goulash), and then we went to Nikolaikirche in Luckau.

The church is interesting; it's architecturally Gothic, but decorated in Baroque style. The pulpit was made of sandstone (not wood), and there were private boxes for the rich church-goers. There was an organ with 300 pipes, and with a fair number of original pipes still intact. We did get to enjoy its music, also. Most interesting of all was the double spiral staircase. You'd really have to see it to get a full idea of what I mean, but it was really cool.

then we went to the town center. Luckau was a trading crossroads, which explains some of the contrasting architectural designs that we saw. It was getting cold around then, so we were glad when we got to head inside for cake, coffee, and crepes. Absolutely delicious, and in great quantity. Schmaltzbrot? Not so delicious. I didn't eat this bit of cuisine, which consists of lard, onions, (and maybe fruit) spread on bread in Luckau, but I did end up having some once I got back home. My host mother insisted that I try it, since I had passed on it before. Bleh...it's not so good.

After that, we went to see the cranes that nest around Luckau. We had to climb up to the top of an observation tower to see much of anything, and then look through some binoculars (so I don't have any closeups of the cranes). I had to get down from the tower after a little bit, since it was pretty high, very crowded, and exposed. I did go back up after I walked around on the ground for a while. We got back to Berlin around 8:30, and I was home by 9. Packing for Prague ensued.

Speaking of Prague, I need to get going shortly. Here's the pictures from Luckau, if you want to see. I wont have my laptop in Prague, so it'll be a few days before my next post. As always, the pictures are slowly being uploaded to the internet.
Part 1
Part 2

Some Photo Albums

It's more than a little lame to keep all of you who don't have Facebook waiting when there are so many of my pictures already available, so I'm posting the links to the albums that I have up currently.

Munich, Day 1
Munich, Day 2
Vienna, Day 1
Vienna, Day 2. Part 2. Part 3

Enjoy.

To Luckau and Beyond

The pictures aren't going to get uploaded fully until next week sometime, I expect. I have very very little time right now. Sorry about that.

Tomorrow is German Unification Day, celebrating the end of the divided state. Basically everything is closed, including classes. I however have signed up for a trip to Luckau, a village south of Berlin. Most of the people on the trip are going there for class, so they might be somewhat bitter about missing the festivities (we don;t get back until. I think it will be pretty interesting, though. Besides, if I skip out off doing some homework I can still go to some of the events. Win-Win, right?

Thursday, I'm going to Prague for the weekend with some other people, so there's hardly any time to rest as you can see. I'm coming back from that late Sunday/Early Monday.

Today I signed up for a gym, McFit. The program has a special deal with McFit, where we get a discount, and can sign up monthly instead of yearly. All I have to do is file a bank invoice and then I can exercise every week. They even have multiple gyms across the city, for added convenience.

It's almost 9, and I haven't done a bit of homework tonight. I have a short presentation due in my German class next week, and I have barely any idea how to work it out. Midterms are in two weeks, if you can believe that. My October break is coming up right after that, and I have no idea where I want to go, and who I want to go with.

I'm tired. Good night.

Back from the Wild Blue part 2 - Vienna and Bratislava

As I said last time, the train to Vienna was brutally hot and humid. Fortunately, it was a short ride. I'm pretty sure everyone breathed a literal sigh of relief when we stepped off at Westbahnhof in Vienna. Instead of being in a hostel, we got to live in an actual hotel this time, rather than a hostel. We only had two people to a room, with our own showers. Sweet deal, I know.

There was a little bit of walking around the first day, but there wasn't too much going on. Almost everyboy slept in that night, since Munich had been so busy. The next morning we had a tour through the historical center of Vienna, as well as the grounds of the Hofburg, the Habsburg Palace. St Stephansdom is pretty amazing, and I really think that Vienna has a certain classic flair to it that I hadn't seen before. There are old buildings right alongside new construction, and statues and monuments are absolutely everywhere. At the entrance to the Hofburg alone, there is a scuplture of Lucifer being cast from Heaven, four sculptures of Hercules, and some excavated Roman ruins. I think one of my favorite pieces of scuplture in Vienna was the Peste Column, created to commemorate the end of the Black Plague. The Plague itself, represented by a Gorgon-like figure, is being impaled by a flaming spear, while angels soar above it. Pretty damn intense, no?

The Hofburg grounds themselves are massive, with squares within plazas within gardens. Speaking of gardens, there are over 300 varieties of roses in the gardens at Heldenplatz (Hero Plaza). We also passed by the Bundesrat (Parliament) building, which has a large statue of Athena (the Greek goddess of wisdom) outside of it. You'd think that they'd want the wisdom inside the building, but to each his own. A few of us even went back to the Gardens later for a picnic, since the weather was so nice.

That night, we saw a concert of Mozart and Strauss. It was good music, but the whole production was tailored towards the audience, which was mostly made up of 3 or 4 tour buses of tourists from China, France, and America. There were dancers and singers in addition to the music, but they really just made the whole production seem gimmicky.

The next day, we went on a tour of the Silberkammer (Silver Collection), Kaiser Apartments (Imperial Apartments), and Sisi Museen (Elisabeth, the wife of Franz Josef), before heading to an operetta, Grafin Meriza. All three museums were pretty interesting, although the decoration of the silver owned by the Habsburgs kind of makes it unusable at the table. The Apartments were interesting, as were the Sisi museum. I always like to see how the upper crust lived. Franz Josef, to his credit, was beloved by the Austrian people as a patriot and a great leader (he worked something like...18 hours a day), so I can grant him some luxury. We also got to go on a short tour of the Parliament building before the operetta. The building itself was really cool, with lots of sculpture and columns. There was also an eagle sculpture on the wall clasping a hammer and sickle, which, we were assured only symbolized agriculture and industry, not communism.

The operetta was great. It was a classic story. Count has no money for his sister's dowry. Countess has lots of money, an attendant in love with her, and the Count's sister in tow. Countess makes up fake suitor to create some excitement. Count gets friend to masquerade as the fake suitor, while the count becomes the Countesses business manager. Needless to say, by the end of the operetta, the Count and Countess fall in love, as do the Friend and the Sister, and the Attendant and some Random 3rd Love Interest. This was all set to excellent gypsy/roma music (with a bizarre Las Vegas-esque sequence in the middle). It was performed in German, but we had the benefit of an English synopsis, and a projection of the current action in English on a screen above the stage. After the opera, a large group of us went to this club near our hotel for the rest of the night.

On Thursday, we had a free day (although it rained, unfortunately). I managed to make it up the north tower of Stephansdom after checking out the inside of the cathedral, although it got hard to continue towards the top. It was worth the assault on my nerves, though, because the view from the top was amazing. Afterwards, I went to the Mozarthaus and got a little history on the man. The weather really prevented me from doing too much that day, unfortunately; I wanted to go to Schonbrunn, another Habsburg Palace, but it wouldn't be the same without a sunny day.

Friday was our day trip to Bratislava. It's such a ridiculously beautiful city, with excellent views. We walked all the way up to the castle/museum and looked across the Donau (Danube) at the soviet block housing to the east. We also saw the storm front moving in, and decided that we should get inside. It wasn't too much later when we found out that this was a really good idea. We were in a hall with French tapestries when the wind picked up, and the rain began to fly horizontally. Hail rattled against the windows. A few of us moved away from the windows, and went to make sure that the others did the same. Suddenly, we heard a bang, and the wind was inside the hall. I ran to where the rest of our group was, and found two or three tapestries on the ground, and the carpeting blown back halfway across the room. A fire extinguisher had been knocked off the wall. 6 or seven other people were holding the window shut against the wind. I snapped a couple of pictures before I got in to help them. In hindsight, saving a few tapestries might not have been worth the risk of being showered in broken glass (and the danger was there), but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We quickly realized that one of us spoke any Russian (and none of us spoke Slovakian), so we found out that the window was actually broken. After the wind died down a bit, we did manage to wedge the window shut again with some exposed nails. Nobody was seriously hurt, although one Slovakian guy got a cut lip from a wildly flailing window blind. Afterwards, one of the museum workers (who spoke little English) wrung her hands (literally; this is the first time I've actually seen someone do that) and shook her head furiously trying to thank us. She wouldn't accept my offer to help her move the carpeting back (through the power of pantomime), and we went off through the museum.

Honestly, after all of that, it seemed a bit lame.

Saturday, we got on a train, and headed north through the Czech Republic on a 9 hour trip to Berlin. There is some really beautiful landscapes that can be seen on that route. There were also some really stupid things that happened. Such as one of our group forgetting her Passport in Berlin, and having to get off the train with her luggage before crossing the Czech border. She wasn't in class today, obviously, since she had to get another train on her own, as well as possible lodging and other such things. She's lucky that she's in the advanced German class, or else it might have been even worse for her. We lost another student also, but not because he got booted off the train. Instead, he mysteriously got off in Prague (probably thinking we had more time than we actually did), and got left behind with nothing but his wallet (which had a copy of his passport), as I understand it. He made it back in time for classes today, since it's only a 4-5 hour trip from Prague.

Again, I'll end this post with a word of caution. 9 Hour train rides make people go crazy. They start to yell. They start to argue. They start to tell long, rambling, bullshit jokes about horses. Double plus ungood if they've been drinking for 6 of the 9 hours. Please note, these don't apply to every member of the program group, but the ones that stick out in my mind. I had to leave the car a few times in order to get some semblance of peace and fresh air. Hell, I even sat down in the dining car rather than getting something to go.

That's all for now. I'm way past my bedtime.

Back from the Wild Blue Yonder - Munich

So I'm back, with somewhere approaching 1000 pictures from Munich, Vienna, and Bratislava.

Wow.

Speaking of pictures (and videos), I'm in the process of uploading everything onto my Facebook account. I'll post the links to that once a good part of it's all done. To be honest, it's going to take a while. Anyways, let's get down to business.

***

Where have I been in the past week? Munich, Vienna, and Bratislava. Was it fun? Oh yes yes yes.

I got to test out my new travel pack for this trip and, let me tell you, it works great. 7 days worth of clothes, shoes, formal wear, and an assortment of school supplies and accessories all fit neatly into its confines. The pack itself separates into a smaller day pack, which was invaluable during the trip.

We all got onto the train at Berlin Hauptbahnhof last Friday, squeezed ourselves and our luggage into the seats and compartments, and set off on our 6 hour ride to Munich with one thought in common (so I believe): Oktoberfest starts tomorrow. That's right; we were in Munich during the opening weekend of Oktoberfest. I'll give you a moment to stop screaming, Ian.

Alright. Let's get back to it.
The ride was pretty quick, all things considered, and I got to see a whole lot of the German countryside. Germany is truly beautiful. I don't know what it is, but seeing landscapes from a train lends a certain romantic quality to them (I'm talking classical Romanticism, not Kiss-Kiss-Lovey-Dovey Romance). That's just me, though.

We hurried to the hostel in Munich, and then everyone dispersed just as quickly. There was a city to see, and we still had the better part of an afternoon. A few of us went to Marianplatz, and began a small sightseeing tour of our own, specifically of a handful of churches each in a different style of architecture (Renaissance, Gothic, etc). Hijinks ensue. I couldn't help but wonder if I had been to any of the places that we went that day on my family's European Vacation all those years ago. Munich is a beautiful city, and it's a damn shame that it took 12 years for me to honestly remember that fact.

September 22nd was a big day. We left the hostel around 9 or 10, intent on spending the middle of the day at the Big O. First, though, there was shopping to be done. A lot of girls in the program bought Dirndls, while most of the guys bought plaid shirts (or the full Lederhosen, if they could stomach the 200+ Euro price tag); basically, festive garb all around. Despite this preparation, we were not ready for what we encountered at the Fest.

The population of Munich swells from its normal size of about 2 million to somewhere between 8 and 10 million when Oktoberfest hits. The fairgrounds are absolutely gigantic; we walked for maybe half an hour or forty-five minutes, and probably only covered an 8th of the entire area. There are several gigantic Festhalle that dominate the landscape, with smaller foodstands and shops that line the wide paths in between. There was also a roller coaster, giant slide, and other assorted carnival rides. Here's the kicker: you can't get beer at Oktoberfest unless you are sitting outside or inside a Festhalle. Our group split up while we walked around the grounds, and my fragment had the fortune to meet up with Libby and Phil, another pair of confused Americans who wanted nothing more than to sit down and have something to drink. Both of them had come to Munich on a day trip from a nearby military base (although neither of them looked like they were in the military); they're originally from Missouri. They're real nice people, and I'm glad that we bumped into them. As a side note, it's always a little weird when I bump into an American in Germany, since it's not always readily apparent. I mean, it's not like Americans and Germans look totally different.

Anyways, we walked around for a while, and finally decided to wait in line for a shot at getting inside a Festhalle. We managed to get in with about 45 minutes to spare before the historical tour that afternoon. The Hall was packed to the gills, and everyone was either dancing, singing, or drinking. Waitresses pushed through the crowds carrying 10 or even 15 liter glasses of beer (the only way it is served at Oktoberfest), sometimes using whistles to clear the way. There was no way that we could sit down, but we were in luck. As we watched a woman climb up onto the bandstand and begin her impromptu position as conductor, a random drunken Italian thrust his Mass ('measure' - Beer) into Heather's hands, and told her that it was a shame that she didn't have anything to drink. We passed the Mass around, so although we didn't get to stay, we didn't miss out on a taste of the full experience. Never underestimate the power of the pretty girl. Bidding the Italians farewell, we made our way to the tour.

I'll say it again. Munich is a Beautiful City. The tour made its way through the historical center of Munich, and ended with some old buildings that the Nazis had built for their own purposes (like Hitler's Munich offices). We even got to see the location of the 'Beer Hall Putsch' of March 1923. I'm not really here to tell you the tour, but I will relate one highlight. We went to St. Petersdom (Peter's Cathedral, which is really beautiful by the way) during the tour, and we got to see "the Devil's Footprint." Legend has it that when the cathedral was being built, the architect solicited the Devil's help, which would only be given if the Devil could not see any windows when he inspected the cathedral after a certain period of time (he'd help, if it looked crappy). On the day of the inspection, the architect had the Devil stand in such a spot that he could not see any of the windows, due to the columns being in the way. Furious at being made to help construct the cathedral, the Devil stomped his foot, creating the impression that remains. The tour guide asked my to put my foot in the print before I knew any of this - it fit almost perfectly. Strange world, huh? No regrets about the tour (it was nearly 3 hours), although this was the start of a series of painful days for my feet.

That night, a few of us went out to a bar, and then to a mall that had been converted into one big dance hall that night. Fun times indeed. Ask me about the passed out guy in the Burger King getting 'helped out' by his friends.

***

The next day, we watched the opening parade of Oktoberfest, with representatives from all parts of Germany in their traditional dress. It was awesome, but it did make getting to Oktoberfest afterwards mighty difficult. We did manage to get a table outside one of the tents, though, so everything worked out fine. Through the course of the 2-3 hours that we were there, I drank 2 liters of Festbier. Just as clarification, the recipe for the beer was decided 4 or 5 years in advance, so it's a high quality, smooth beer. You can really just drink it like water, which is bad, because it also has a higher alcohol content than normal beer. Needless to say, I was done after that.

There was a tour of the Residenz, a royal apartment and symbol of Bavaria, but there were extenuating circumstances beyond what I had to drink that prevented me from attending. I'm not going to go into graphic detail, but this last week was really the head of a lot of built up frustration and stress between people. I was a little bit busy feeling like the loneliest person in the world to go on a tour (although I did try to get there), and it was a lucky break for me that I ran into some of the other people from the program that were in our Oktoberfest group. It would have been bad news if I had been left alone. I'll leave it at that.

The four hour train ride to Vienna the next day was fine, although the cabin that we were in was like an oven. I'll close this entry off with a cautionary tale.

One of my roommates in the hostel, Josh, had left the door open a crack while he and another roomie, Matt, were napping the first day in Munich. They thought that they were being courteous to Danny, the other roomie, and Myself, so that we wouldn't have to use the key to get in. Bad idea. Josh wakes up to find this 6'2"+ guy standing in the room rummaging through his stuff. Confused, Josh isn't quick enough to stop the guy from running out the front of the hostel Josh isn't that big, so it's not like he could have forced the guy), although he does manage to stop the guy outside (while wearing only boxers). He gets the guy to come back to the room, and wait while he checks his stuff. Nothing is missing; not his passport, not his wallet. Matt is too groggy to realize what's going on, really. The guy leaves after dubiously answering what he was doing in the hostel (and the room), and that's when Josh realizes that his phone is gone (although where the guy had it stashed was a mystery to everyone). Not an hour later, Josh is taking a shower, and he sees a very familiar hand creep through the door (which wasn't locked). The guy, caught again, answers that he was "looking for girls." Yeah. Matt and Josh bring him to the front desk, but they just send him away because he doesn't have a room key (which gave you permission to be in the hostel). The guy never comes back after this, but I think you can see my point.

That's all for now. I've got work to do for school tomorrow, but the second half of the trip should be up here tomorrow night.

Good night, all.

Munich and Vienna (and Bratislava too)

This Friday we're leaving for our weeklong trip to Munich and Vienna, and a day trip to Bratislava. I will not be bringing my laptop with me, as I have decided that it would be too much of a hassle. I' probably make one more post before we go early on Friday, but I just thought that I'd give fair warning.

Right now I'm killing some time before my first meeting with my tandem partner, Ali. Later tonight is another Stammtisch.

Last night, I watched All Quiet On the Western Front at my home with a couple other students. It's probably one of the most depressing movies ever made, and I think I have a good amount of experience with depressing movies.

See you later.

Beauty School Dropout

This last weekend, I got my hair cut short, some jeans, and couple of shirts. Add some hair gel in there too. The sum of it all is that I look totally European,which is a good thing. I'll get some pictures in here soon, but everyone has said that the hair looks good (which it does), so get your hopes up now, so you can be delightfully disappointed later.

We leave for Munich Friday morning. I might go to a concert on Friday - Architecture in Helsinki!

This semester is going by so fast, it's not even funny.

Camp Iwannagohome

Yesterday we went to Sachsenhausen. For those of you who don't know the name, it was the first concentration camp to be constructed by the Nazis, in March 1933. It was an hour long train ride to get there, but I don't think that it was time wasted.

When we got there, the sky was cloudy and gray; appropriate for the subject matter. I'm not going to give you the Virtual Tour, but needless to say, studying this history versus actually being there are two completely different things. I walked around alone, mostly, which I think was for the best. Being at the camp didn't have me in the most talkative of moods. I couldn't bring myself to go inside the infirmary barracks, either. I may have even cried, if you can believe that.

There's not too much to say about what transpired at the camp, I think, so I'll leave it at that.

***
Afterwards, I thought about heading to get that picture of Flava Flave, but it was too far out of the way. Tonight, I'm going to the concert of a band I don't know the name of, butit has been described to me as a "Rock-pop-sort of thing." It'll probably be a good time, regardless.
I'm mostly over my cold now, too.

See you later.

Wonderland

This one'll be short, since I'm heading to bed. Today was pretty uneventful, except that I saw a ballet production of Alice in Wonderland at the Komische Oper for 12 Euros. For reals. It was fantastic, trippy, and everything that I might want in a ballet/performance. Ask about the pla

For tomorrow's excursion we're all going to camp.

Not the good kind, either.

Let's play catch-up

Good news everyone! I've got internet access at home and at school, so I'll be able to read emails comments, and the like more often. I'll probably still only be updating from home, since I don't really like to hang out at the program building more than I have to.

Bad news is, I'm sick with some European virus that resembles the common cold. I think I'll call it the Common European Cold. Yeah, that'll do nicely.

I'm about two weeks behind on this thing, so I'll try and keep this brief and informative. Again, pictures and videos will appear when I can find a way to get them loaded all at once.

Things that I have done:

Two Sundays ago I went to the Zoologischer Garten (the West Berlin Zoo) and saw, of all critters, Knut! If you don't know the story, Knut is a polar bear that was abandoned by his mother. The zookeepers have cared for him since he was a baby, and he has become a major attraction in the city (more or less the mascot, really). He's not as as small as he used to be, but he's still cute as hell.
The other polar bears...well, let's jsut say that captivity has not been kind to some of them. One of the bears was doing this 'dance' where he would move forwards a few steps, stop, and then move backwards while swaying his head back and forth. Wash, rinse, repeat. OCD bear was something of a downer.
Later that day the group of us went to a flea market at the Mauerpark (Wall Park - the Wall went right through it), which was pretty cool. I bought a blue Steinkrug for 10 euro - far less than you'll find anywhere else in Berlin.

***

Classes started last week on Monday. I'm taking Beginner 2 German (which is challenging, as the class is administered almost entirely in German), German cinema before 1945 (fun), Berlin: History Memory, Literature (interesting), and Contemporary Germany in a European Perspective (interesting and current). All of the courses offered require us to go out out into the city for independent projects of one kind or another, so we get exposure whether we want it or not.

Aside from classes, other offerings from the program include the Stammtisch (which are informal meetings at bars and cafes where we can speak German with Germans, and they can speak English with...Americans), free tickets to a selection operas, concerts, and football matches (real football, not the stupid American kind), and the Tandem program.
The tandem program (which I have signed up for) pairs students like myself with German students, and we then meet at least once a week to improve language skills (German and English). I haven't met with my partner yet, but I hope that it's productive and useful for both of us.

***

On Fridays, there's usually a mandatory excursion for the entire program. Last week we went to Potsdam to see San Souccie, Frederick the Great's summer palace, and Cecilienhof, another palace and the site of the Potsdam conference following World War II.
San Souccie was beautiful, to say the least. Sadly, I have no pictures of the interior, since they need revenue from the gift shop (no joke) to keep the palace maintained. I do have extensive photos of the grounds, though. Imagine a vineyard spread over six tiered terraces, and you have one small corner of the grounds. The grapes were tasty, too. My favorite room of the palace: the music room.

Cecilienhof also had a ban against interior photos, but that was because there were some copyright issues raised by surviving members of the original royal family. From the tour, I learned that Josef Stalin was something a prankster (giving the smoking room as an office to Truman, who hated cigarettes, giving Churchill a narrow chair and a painting of a Saint Bernard that bore an uncanny resemblance to him). What a petty jerk. The building itself has been used as a hotel for several decades now, interestingly enough.

Potsdam on its own is quite beautiful, and we lucked out on the weather for the day. There are loads of small shops and monuments that I'd love to go back and see some other day.

***

Last Friday I went out to a club with a bunch of people from the program. It was pretty awesome, although I think the 2 and half feet of smoke hanging in the air contributed to the current state of my health. Last sunday, I went to the Tiergarten (lit. Animal Garden, a large park in the middle of the city) and climbed the Siegesaule (Victory Tower, umlaut missing), and got a great view of the city. Aftert that I went to a couple of flea markets and bought myself a black wool fedora-looking hat. Sadly, it's half a size too big, so it needs to get tightened a little before I can wear it without worrying that the wind will carry it off.

I'm heading to bed now. There'll be a little bit more tomorrow.

Good night.