Museums, Palaces, and Comedy

Upon completion of our tour on Thursday, we toured the Jewish Museum of Berlin. An interesting museum, I suppose, but nothing terribly special other than the obligatory holocaust exhibit (which was very powerful, but not nearly as powerful as the memorial we had seen earlier that day). The Jewish museum basically told the story of Jewish culture in Germany until, including, and after the Second World War. After this museum, though, things got interesting: Checkpoint Charlie.

For those who don't know, Checkpoint Charlie was one of a few border crossings between East and West Berlin, and is significant as the primary focal point between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1961, tanks squared off across a 100 yard distance at the checkpoint over a minor dispute, and nearly opened fire to start World War III. Fortunately, this didn't happen, and Checkpoint Charlie went on to be the one crossing between East and West that was most used by the film and media industries to symbolize the Cold War (Kalte Krieg).

At Checkpoint Charlie, we went to the private museum "Haus am Checkpoint Charlie," wherein is chronicled a vast treasure trove of information about the wall, the cold war, escape attempts/successes, and what happened during "Die Wende" (literally "the change," refers to when the wall fell and east/west Germany began to open borders and reunite). It was pretty incredible to discover both the ingenious ways people escaped and the horrifying repercussions for those who did not succeed.

The following day we visited Potsdam, a small city on the outskirts of Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Potsdam is famous as the site of the 1945 conference between Truman, Churchill (later Clement Atlee), and Stalin where the victors divided the world after the Second World War. Our object of interest in Potsdam was not conference, but rather a Stasi prison and the palace of Friedrich der Grosse (Frederick the Great of Prussia), Schloss Sansoucci.

The prison was nondescript - basically what you'd expect, a bunch of cells. This was not the official Stasi museum, that is in Berlin. The palace was really cool. Friedrich was absolutely obsessed with french culture, and his palace is made in the style of Versailles but about 1/8 the size. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the Schloss - undoubtedly a ploy to force us to buy postcards. I do not approve. Here is what it looks like from the outside.


The Schloss is in the middle of a giant park, through which many of us had to run in order to catch the tour on time - we thought it was a much quicker walk from the center of Potsdam to the Schloss than it actually was. Oh well. Another note is that the Schloss is unheated - Fredrich meant for this to be his summer Schloss, so us seeing it on a bitterly cold, gray February afternoon is not us seeing it as it was meant to be used. If you are curious, google "schloss sansoucci" and check out the inside - it is absolutely gorgeous.

Upon returning to Berlin we enjoyed an early dinner and set off to go to a stand up comedy show at a comedy club somewhere in the ehemaliger Ost (former east). His name is Murat Topal, and the show was called "Multitool". What I could understand was, for the most part, HILARIOUS. I was able to understand probably 65% of what he said, which I consider a monumental success.

Now, I believe I shall end my postings for tonight and continue telling you the story of Berlin tomorrow - I'm tired of typing and need to do dishes from dinner. Fun times, I know. Highlights to come: the Reichstag (german parliament building), Pergamon Museum (antiquities and Islamic art), and Berlinale films. Bis Spaeter!

Berlin!!!

Also. Berlin war total ausgezeichnet, und ihr alle gehen solltet, wenn ihr eine Reise nehmen wolltet (So - Berlin was incredible, and you should all go whenever you want to take a vacation).

Berlin is one of the most vibrant cities I've ever visited. Although it is smaller than many of the major centers of the world (3.43 million), it has more character and more liveliness than pretty much everywhere I've ever been. It has by FAR the best young/hip/party scene in Germany, and many of the city's top-notch bars and clubs don't even get going until 1 or 2 in the morning, especially on weekends. On the other end of the spectrum, Berlin is the home to world class museums and cultural events such as one of the best symphonies in the world and the Berlinale international film festival; unfortunately, we only spent 3 full days there, with a half day on Wednesday.

So what exactly did we do? Here is an overview of what I did in Berlin:

We arrived mid-afternoon on Wednesday, via bus from Regensburg. We stayed at a youth hostel which, while not the most glamorous of accommodations, served our needs more than well enough for a cheap price and free breakfast/dinner. Shortly thereafter, we walked a short distance to Potsdam Platz, a major city square where the Berlinale Film Festival was being held. The Berlinale is an international festival home to debuts of many different films and is a fairly prestigious venue for those films which are chosen and especially those films that win. We walked past the Berlinale-Palast, the center "palace" of the festival, and the red carpet.

After that, we walked around a lot and just explored the area, going past the Holocaust memorial (formally known as the "Denkmal fuer die ermordeten Juden Europas," or the "Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe") and the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). We also passed an intriguing memorial to the homosexual community murdered in the Second World War, which consisted of a simple concrete booth with a window that showed a continuous film of two men making out.

After dinner back at the hostel, a group of us headed out for a guided Pub Crawl (Kneipe-Tour) that involved a very large amount of beer and Irish people. Needless to say, it was rowdy and I didn't take my camera out.

The following day we woke early for a guided tour of the city via bus. Our tour guide, who naturally spoke only in German, was a classic example of the "Berliner-Schnausse," (literally Berlin Nose, basically saying that they hold themselves to be better than anyone else) and he continually talked down to us and was all in all not very fun. He did know a lot about Berlin, though. During this tour we stopped at the Holocaust memorial and actually took the time to examine it in daylight and walk through it - it is an extremely powerful monument, and should not be missed by any traveler to Berlin.

The idea behind this monument is to attempt to capture the feeling of helplessness and powerlessness of the Jews during Hitler's Reich. The monument, physically, consists of 4.7 acres of land over which are evenly spaced 2,711 concrete slabs of varying sizes. People should feel the utter inhumanity of this seemingly ordered area, and be scared by it.

Black Swan, and Berlin

I just saw "Black Swan" in German. Not only was it excellent, but I actually understood it. I now have more faith in my ability to learn and converse in German by the end of my time here. :)

Also, I'm SUPER PSYCHED because I'm leaving on a group sponsored trip to Berlin tomorrow, coming back on Sunday!! I'm sure I'll be doing lots of wunderbare dinge (wonderful things) while you, my dear readers, are in class (or at work) the next few days.

Tscau!

Ski Fahren

You know what I like most about living in Regensburg? The fact that it is right in the middle of Europe: How many people can say they just popped down to the Alps for a weekend of skiing during the middle of classes? Well, 9 of us did just that this past weekend, and what a weekend it was. It was absolutely incredible - for someone that has done the vast majority of his outdoorsy things in the southeast, the scenery of the Alps was truly unforgettable. Everyone, take a look at my pictures on facebook. If I can figure out how to post pictures on here, I'll put a few of may favorites up.

Even though I'm a novice skier (this was my 4th time ever skiing, spread out over a period of 7 or 8 years) I had a blast. The place we stayed was the guesthouse of a working farm, called Bauernhof Aufing. When we first arrived, having completed the easy commute by train and bus, we just went up and knocked on the front door of this farmhouse and they showed us where to go (after asking die Mutti, of course). Die Mutti (the mother) was this little old lady of probably ninety years that ran the place...we never heard her name, the other people there just referred to her as 'die Mutti.' Interesting. We basically had an entire house to ourselves - kitchen, living room, a few bedrooms and a few bathrooms. Nobody else was there for the majority of the weekend, which was wonderful.

As for the actual skiing, it was utterly incredible. The slopes were fantastic, a little crowed on Sunday but no matter. The scenery, as I've already stated, was majestically breathtaking. Nobody got seriously injured, though two people (including myself) took reasonably nasty falls. Considering that the alternative to skiing would have been studying for my vocabulary quiz today, it was certainly more fun. And probably more productive in the long run - I'm having a multi-cultural experience and travelling around Europe! (at least, thats what I'll tell myself when I see the quiz score....)

The little town we were in, Söll, was also incredibly idyllic. The only thing that one might not expect of an Austrian ski town is that it was basically like walking into the United Kingdom. All the ski hire places, all the bars we went to, and pretty much everything was run by Brits. Of course, this just made it easy for us non-native Deutsch speakers to communicate (since Austrian german has a very strange accent).

I'm probably going to go skiing again, but in Bavaria next time.

Auf Weidersehen!

German Word of the Day: das Gebüsch - the shrubbery

What am I actually supposed to be doing over here?

Procrastinating, of course - what does any college student do when faced with work? Hence this post occurring now. However, the point of this post is valid for many of you reading this - how on earth am I going to be here until August? Here is where all your questions get answered.

Although the Vanderbilt semesters start in August and end in December, then go January to May, the semesters over here are totally different. The 'winter semester' begins in October and ends in February, with a substantial break for Christmas. The 'summer semester' begins in May and ends at the tail end of July. So why come over here so early, when classes at the university (die Uni, for short) don't start until May? Our group is doing an intensive german language course from the end of January until the end of March. For those month-counters among you, you are saying "but what about April?" Nothing about April. We are off for an entire month. Win.

This intensive language course is really, as its name suggests, rather intense. Class starts every morning at 8.30, and goes until either 2.30 PM or 11.45 AM (meaning 2-3 classes each day). We also have a Kaffeestunde (coffee hour) where we all meet together with the Resident Director and student assistants to the program and discuss things, get paperwork done, etc. Needless to say, it wears on one to have to get up at 7.15 every morning and catch an 8 AM bus.

The classes are, for the most part, rather interesting. We have four different types of courses: Textarbeit (text work, a reading intensive class where we discuss a lot of cultural issues and vocabulary), Grammatik (grammar, self evident what we learn), Schreiben (writing, again, self evident), and Phonetik (phonetics, learning pronunciation rules and how to sound less american - a very worthwhile class). The teachers are also rather interesting - here is an overview of the three main teachers that we have more than once a week:

Andy - Andy Legner. One of our two Textarbeit teachers. He is fun-loving, younger, and a little bit of an asshole (arschloch). He makes the class interesting, and an hour and a half with him goes by reasonably quickly. He is very vocab intensive, and it is through him we have weekly/bi-weekly vocab tests consisting of a choice of 20 words from a list of about 600 - 1000 words. Kind of intense.

Leonie - Leonie Ruhland. The other of our two Textarbeit teachers. She is also on the younger side for a professor, and incredibly nice. She is very helpful and understanding. With Leonie, we primarily discuss culture and do readings about said culture.

Sepp - Sepp Frank, our Grammatik teacher. Sepp is, I think, short for Guiseppe, and is possibly the coolest teacher on this planet. He is older, 60s perhaps. He has probably had an incredibly interesting life: he plays multiple instruments, including guitar, stand-up bass, ukulele, and (of course) accordion. His English is excellent, and he lived and worked for a time in the States when he was younger. With him, our journey through Grammatik takes a more wandering route incorporating elements from all things remotely related to German/germany - and this includes a daily Schokoladepause (chocolate break). Every class he brings chocolate, and every class we have a Schokoladepause to enjoy said delicious German confection.

Thats it. The two Schreiben teachers we have each once a week (including the one for whom I should be working on homework now...) and there is only one Phonetik teacher, whose name escapes me at the moment, that we have only once a week. All in all, I think my German will improve rapidly.

Bis Spaeter!

Ramblings

Firstly, I’m sorry for the delay in between blog posts. In the future I’m going to attempt to keep a reasonable schedule of two or so a week, unless a) I’m traveling, or b) nothing interesting is going on. Thus next week, when I’ll be in Berlin for most of the week, you shouldn’t expect posts. That being said, I’ll probably write an extra long one upon returning from these trips (die Reisen, auf deutsch).

Now, onto my meanderings for the evening. For a country as advanced and developed as Germany, they seem rather averse to using cards for payment. Cash is still absolutely king in Deutschland, and that is surprising coming from the States where every little store (die Geschäft) takes your VISA. I’ve only found a couple of places here that will take it, and those I’m probably getting charged a hell of an exchange fee. Still, I haven’t yet gotten used to carrying around the larger amounts of cash – especially when the bills here go up in size as they go up in denomination. My wallet is, literally, too small to hold the €50 bills, and I haven’t even tried a €100 yet. Euros do look a whole lot cooler than dollars, though….all fancy-like and colorful.

An interesting fact about German grammar that we learned in class today is that there is officially no such thing as a run-on sentence in German. Apparently die Deutschen can simply tack on additional independent clauses using only a comma and have it be totally ok. For example, in German one can say: „Ich studiere Deutsch, sie studiert Geschichte, er ist nicht an der Uni.“ This translates to „I study german, she studies history, he is not going to college. “ Intriguing. I don’t know if they have such thing as a fragment, but I would assume they do – Germans are efficient, and not getting your point across by leaving out words is most decidedly inefficient.

I’m going skiing (Ski fahren) this weekend! A group of us are going to this place called the Wilder Kaiser the Austrian Alps…..enjoy the link so all you stuck state-side can be suitably jealous:

http://www.wilderkaiser.info/en/

Now, I’m going to bed. Guten Nacht, und auf Wiederhören! (good night, and I’ll talk to you later!)

Learn to Roll your R's

One aspect of a Bavarian life is learning to deal with the Bavarian accent; indeed, many times Bavarians are speaking an entirely different language (simply called Bayerisch). While I can understand most people speaking Hochdeutsch, the language we were all taught in school and the language used for official and public speaking, each region of Germany has its own dialect. People in Hamburg (in the north) can't understand people in Dresden (the east), people in Berlin can't understand the people from Koeln (in the west), and nobody at all can understand the Bavarians except themselves. This is all without even mentioning the strange varieties of German found in Austria (Oesterreich) and Switzerland (der Schweiz). This all comes into play for me when it comes to understanding locals in Regensburg (Rrrregschbouurrg). It truly feels like a different language, much much more so than any dialect difference in the United States.

Regensburg is this way because its a smaller city. When we visited Munich as a group last Saturday, nearly everything was in Hochdeutsch and nearly everyone spoke English well. Munich is (I believe) the third or fourth largest city in Germany and as such is very international. It is also very touristy. We visited the Pinokotek der Moderne, a modern art museum, to start our day. It is one of the largest museums I've ever been to, and we spent barely 2 hours there. We then went into what remained and was reconstructed of the Altstadt - most of it was totally destroyed in the Second World War (ausgebombt - bombed out. An awesome german word). Half the people there were tourists, and prices were double what they were in Regensburg. Lesson: you want to visit Bavaria, don't go to Munich. Its an awesome city, but its not Bavaria. Bavaria is in the small towns (kleiner Dorfs) that you pass on the Autobahn, and is in the people living a slow, full life in these small towns. Regensburg is a wonderful mix, because its not touristy or large enough to lose its culture, but is big enough to have everything you could need.

Cultural note: Germans, or Regensburgers at least, love dogs. Dogs are welcome many restaurants, and it is hard to walk through the Altstadt without seeing at least one person out walking their dogs. Even in the little cafe I was in for nearly 2 hours this afternoon (studying vocabulary....fun times) there was a little dog running around and laying on the windowsill.

Vocab word of the day: das Streichholzschachtelchen - a small box of matches

Inaugural Post: Welcome to Regensburg

I know I'm succumbing to the stereotype, keeping a travel blog as I'm abroad for a semester in Germany. However, I don't really care - I hope you enjoy reading about life in Germany and can live vicariously through my posts. That is, after all, why I'm doing this: to make as many of you as jealous as possible by talking about how awesome it is to live in the land of the Deutschen. My hope is that you laugh a little and learn a little from my experiences, and of course that I remember to post reasonably regularly. No guarantee there, though.

So I've been in Regensburg for going on two weeks now - having arrived on the 20th, I'm only just now starting to get settled into any kind of routine, and it will probably still be a while yet before any of us in my group of 23 students from Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, and Wheaton feels fully comfortable and at home in the new environment. Regensburg is a cute little town of about a hundred thousand situated on the Danube (der Donau) river in northern Bavaria (Oberbayern). It has a thriving and vibrant old city that was never destroyed during the war, making it one of the few truly old places in Germany - it wasn't bombed simply because there was nothing here worth bombing, and honestly still isn't unless you hate BMWs and want to destroy a factory. The entire town center (die Altstadt) has been declared an UNESCO world heritage site, because it looks basically the same as it did throughout the Middle Ages.

The beating heart of the city, die Altstadt is located straddling the Danube. In the middle ages, this made it a center of trade and Regensburg became a very rich city. It was even the seat of the princes council of the Holy Roman Empire for some number of years during the middle ages and Renaissance. Now, the Altstadt is filled with shops, bars (Kneipen), restaurants, and even student apartments. Unfortunately, none of the students in our group live in the Altstadt - we all live about 10 minutes away by bus in an area called Koenigswiesen.

One of the first things you'll notice about Germany upon visiting is the overabundance of bakeries (die Baeckerei). Germans love their bread, more than just about any culture in Europe. Specifically Bavarian (bayerisch) are the ubiquitous soft pretzels (die Brezel, oder die Brezen in bayerisch). Every bakery you go to has these, the student cafeteria at the University has them, they are served in bars, pubs, restaurants, and pretty much everywhere else. Bavarians eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, but most common I've found is breakfast: eine Kaesebrezen (a soft pretzel cheese melted on it) is delicious when freshly baked in time for breakfast.

The second thing you'll notice about Germany is how impressive the public transportation system is. In a city this size in the US, there would be no public transportation to speak of - even in cities 7 or so times larger, like Nashville and Charlotte, the public transit is miserable. Here, though, the buses run on time with a precision that is slightly scary. Every bus stop has a list of times, and the stops in the Altstadt have some kind of GPS tracking system to show you how far away a given bus is. The buses are not late: if a bus is a minute behind schedule, people start getting agitated and complaining. Germans take their efficiency seriously. They also don't talk on buses, which is weird in the extreme. When there isn't a loud group of Americans (Amis) in the front of the bus, its silent as the grave.

The third thing you'll notice, and the first thing you'll notice upon entering a restaurant/kneipe/bar, is that beer is not only inexpensive, but also significantly better than most everything found in the states. Beer is, quite literally, the same price as water and less expensive than flat water (Stilwasser) in most places. Disregarding touristy places, like the Hofbraeuhaus and Augustiner in Munich (Muenchen), food is reasonably inexpensive and very good.

Now I believe I shall end my first post, as some 300 vocabulary words are crying at me to study them. Look for more posts soon!