So this last weekend we went to Munich, or ,as it is called in German, Muenchen. Munich is about three hours southeast of Mannheim so we just left after class. As usual our Friday trip was lazy. We got into the city, checked into our hostel, claimed beds for the evening - the most important aspect of the hostel experience is claiming a good bed - and then dinner. Our hostel was really close to the main train station, or Hauptbahnhof, which made the rest of the weekend a breeze. We booked a 14 mixed bed room. This means there are fourteen girls and boys sleeping together. This can get incredibly sketchy as the boys - yes, I am stereotyping here - are usually of the I-am-a-backpacker-and-don't-have-to-shower variety. The room was split up into ten beds in one room with a bathroom and four beds sharing a bathroom on the other side of the entryway. Luckily we only had three people so we fit into the four bed room. The other room had people who were smoking on the balcony of a non-smoking room even though they were not allowed to smoke on the premises. This would have only been an annoyance except for one of the girls that I was traveling with is allergic to smoke. It is to the point where if she did not take her allergy pill every morning we would need an epy pin if someone was smoking in the vicinity. We alerted the front desk who told them to stop or leave. Our neighbors also came back at four in the morning the next day drunk and throwing up. Luckily they left us and our bathroom alone. This has not been the best hostel experience, but it could always be worse.
We went to the Augustiner-Keller beer garden that night. It is a restaurant with a huge outdoor seating area. We sat outside, but had a hard time finding a table. It is a local favorite and many local patrons have their own tables. These tables are round and usually have the family crest on the table or all of the family members names on engraved tablets. We had to find a table with edges to sit at for all six of us. Our friends had joined us and were staying in another room in our hostel. Our waiter was incredibly funny. The first person who ordered tried to do it in English, but he said, "No, this is a cultural experience. You must order in German." You could tell that he was kidding, but I still explained that we were studying German in Mannheim and from now on we would order in German. He loved this and the rest of the night spoke to us only "auf Deutsch." I ordered wurst with kartoffelsalat and an Augustiner beer. The Augustiner Brewery was established in 1328, and was one of the oldest brewery in Munich. It was so good! I have decided that I do not dislike beer, but that I dislike American beer. German beer is amazing. I will say though that the beer that college students drink - Natural Light (Natty Light for the true fans) at UF - is like filtered piss. But Corrs? Bud? Nein, ich will Deutsche Bier! The wurst was amazing too and the kartoffelsalat is the best that I have had in Germany. This is saying something because kartoffelsalat comes with every meat dish you order in Germany. It started to rain though. So we quickly finished our food and headed inside with our beers. The inside was like a giant mess hall with huge benches and a stage. Nothing was being performed, which was disappointing. It was incredibly loud inside and we had to shout to hear ourselves. We decided if it was that loud we would play a drinking game. We decided on the animal game. The instructions are as follows: everyone has an animal sign. You could be a moose and make moose ears; a monkey where you pull your ears and puff up your cheeks; a tiger and make a claw. Everyone bangs the table twice and then claps on a beat. The first person starts and does a bang, a bang, their animal sign while everyone else claps, bang, bang, then that person makes someone else's animal sign. The person whose animal sign was made then repeats the cycle with their animal sign and someone else's. The first person who messes up has to take a drink. This becomes incredibly interesting as more beer is consumed. Anyways the whole evening was a success.
The nest day we got up super early and headed to Dachau. It was a twenty minutes from the Hauptbahnhof. We bought the 2 euro audio guides (yeah! for being a student) and walked through the whole of Dachau. The weather was slightly overcast making the place even more depressing and grim than it already was. The weather combined with our early arrival meant that we had the place almost entirely to ourselves for an hour. While being completely depressing, Dachau gives a complete picture of the concentration camp system since Dachau was the model for the rest of the concentration camps. They were systematic and evolved to fit the needs of the Nazi party. Eventually prisoners were farmed out to work in factories in armament production. There are several memorials on the camp site, but most are around the crematoria. This wasn't used for mass killing as in other death camps, but it was definitely used. The sign proclaiming that the gas chamber was a shower room is still there. These authentic relics from that age of terror bring it to life, such as the gates that you enter the camp through read "work makes one free." The museum is interesting as well with information about the types of people in the camps and several biographies on victims. Many priests who spoke out were held in Dachau including the Bishop of Munich. Only the German priests were allowed to pray. Anyone else - Russian priests, rabbi - were punished if caught. The museum also traces the history of the holocaust and the rise and fall of the Nazi party. We watched the twenty minute video on Dachau and the footage is disturbing to say the least. The only lighthearted moment of the whole day came when we found out what the U.S. forces did when they liberated Dachau. They forced the people who lived in Dachau to come to the camp, and view what was happing in the Dachau people's back yard. There were still dead bodies piled up that had not been burned. The camp had run out of coal. That is such an American thing to do. Look, you f***ed up. This is what it looks like. You see it. See it? Don't ever do this again. The worst thing about Dachau is that it shows how much worse the genocide was there. This is not to say that I don't think that the situations in Serbia or Darfur are good, but they aren't systematic. With the Nazis, it was not blind hatred and rage fueling rash slaughters of towns of people. It was a systematic destruction of a race. Propaganda and camps were involved. It was organized, and that makes it so much colder to think of.
After Dachua we all came back to Munich. Erica and I just walked around Marienplatz taking in the sites and watching the German people. Then we went to another brewery called Andescher. It was not as good as the Augustiner brew.
That night a few of us went to the Isar Bridge where one of the celebrations for Munich's 850th birthday was happening. There were concerts going on on all of the bridges, but this happened to be the bridge closest to us. When we got to the concert they were playing "Walking on Sunshine," and continued with "Shout," "Moscow," "Hit the Road, Jack," "We Will Rock You," and many others. It was completely ridiculous, but we managed to work our way to the front of the crowd. When we were in the second row of people, the Germans around us figured out that we were from the U.S. and were shocked that we did not know these songs. We tried to explain that these songs were twenty plus years old and we were not alive then. In German, during a loud concert, this was hard to do. We got back at 2 AM.
We got up at 6 AM the next day to go to Neuschwanstein. This trip took two hour on the train, and then we caught a bus into town. We reserved our tickets ahead of time, which was the right thing to do. We got to cut about an hour and a half worth of people in line and grab our tickets. We headed up the mountain to the castle on foot because, yes, we are too cheap to spend 2.80 euros per person in a carriage or bus. Every guide book stated that if you walked fast you could make it up the mountain in 30 - 40 minutes. 20. That's right. We made it up the mountain, which is at a steep incline, in twenty minutes because, yes, we owned the mountain. OWNED IT!! We were completely out of breath by the time we got to the top, but that did not matter because we OWNED IT! We also walked another ten minutes to Mary's Bridge to get some good pictures with a back drop of the castle. Turns out that they were doing restorative construction on the back of it so we spent the next twenty minutes trying to take pictures using ourselves to block the scaffolding. Why is every major castle in Europe under construction in the summer? First Versailles; now Neuschwanstein. Isn't the summer Europe's busy season? Anyways, afterwards we went on a fifteen minute tour that took us through the finished rooms of the castle including King Ludwig's bedroom, the throne room, the dining room, the grotto, and a few others. The palace was so cool. King Ludwig's bedroom alone to four carpenters a year to finish. It was crazy. After the tour we went down to the town and ate a quick lunch. Then we caught a train back to town. We wandered around Munich for an hour before we caught our train back to Mannheim.
All in all the trip was amazing. I was incredibly grateful for being able to see Dachau and Neuschwanstein, as well as the everyday Munich person. I would love to go back one day and visit the actual city for a longer period of time. I know that there are many things I still have to see.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Strasbourg
This week in school was not very exciting. Basically we are just gearing up for the big test next Friday. One of our interactive practices was continued class time because after three hours two seems like a great idea. One time we had to plan a film party. We watched a 74 minute movie about the history of Mannheim. None of the MEMsies showed up, which was shocking since none of us would have showed up if we had not had to. The movie was really difficult to understand and completely boring. One day we went to a restaurant to eat German food. I had Apfel Eierpfannekuechen. It was like an egg pancake with apples on it and then another egg pancake on top. It was incredibly filling and I ended up giving most of it away to the guys at the table.
On Wednesday we went to Strasbourg for the day. We took a two hour bus ride there, saw the church and its historic clock, and then realized we were going to have to stay in the town for four hours. We were supposed to spend an hour or two in Strasbourg and then go to Colmar, but one girl in the group fainted. She went to the emergency room and we were stuck in town while she was observed. I would have been more sympathetic to her situation if not for the fact that she has an eating disorder, drinks like a fish, and fainted that morning in the shower and still came on the trip. So while we were wondering how the clock predicts Easter - you can't find out unless you pay for the tour that is given once a day and we missed it - she was recovering from fainting.
What did we do in our four hours in Strasbourg? Well, it was hotter than anything so we found a crepe shop where we could eat in what was probably the wine cellar. It was cold, damp, and had a Barry White CD on loudly. I had a banana and chocolate crepe and it was incredibly sweet. The crepe part itself also was not as good as it was in Giverny. After crepes we saw the church, walked around Strassbourg, bought a baguette, ate next to the river, walked around some more...in the end we were driven by our search for shade.
The sad thing is that we could have had a really fun time in Strassbourg except we did not plan to do anything in Strassbourg. We weren't prepared for the huge open blocks of time. We did go to the tourism center and she recommended a boat tour and a winery in the bottom of the hospital. The boat tour used boats without any sort of covering so we would have been baking if we had gone on it. The winery was cool - both in temperature and excitement level. We bought a few bottles of wine for the group and headed back to the bus early. That has been my week so far. It has not been exciting and I have to leave to go take a chapter test. Then we are going to Munich so I have high hopes for this weekend.
On Wednesday we went to Strasbourg for the day. We took a two hour bus ride there, saw the church and its historic clock, and then realized we were going to have to stay in the town for four hours. We were supposed to spend an hour or two in Strasbourg and then go to Colmar, but one girl in the group fainted. She went to the emergency room and we were stuck in town while she was observed. I would have been more sympathetic to her situation if not for the fact that she has an eating disorder, drinks like a fish, and fainted that morning in the shower and still came on the trip. So while we were wondering how the clock predicts Easter - you can't find out unless you pay for the tour that is given once a day and we missed it - she was recovering from fainting.
What did we do in our four hours in Strasbourg? Well, it was hotter than anything so we found a crepe shop where we could eat in what was probably the wine cellar. It was cold, damp, and had a Barry White CD on loudly. I had a banana and chocolate crepe and it was incredibly sweet. The crepe part itself also was not as good as it was in Giverny. After crepes we saw the church, walked around Strassbourg, bought a baguette, ate next to the river, walked around some more...in the end we were driven by our search for shade.
The sad thing is that we could have had a really fun time in Strassbourg except we did not plan to do anything in Strassbourg. We weren't prepared for the huge open blocks of time. We did go to the tourism center and she recommended a boat tour and a winery in the bottom of the hospital. The boat tour used boats without any sort of covering so we would have been baking if we had gone on it. The winery was cool - both in temperature and excitement level. We bought a few bottles of wine for the group and headed back to the bus early. That has been my week so far. It has not been exciting and I have to leave to go take a chapter test. Then we are going to Munich so I have high hopes for this weekend.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Paris - the city of stairs and confusing directions
I just got back from Paris, and I am a little bit sad that I do not speak French. I would have liked to have lived there or studied abroad in Paris for a semester. Luckily I was traveling with someone fluent in French so I did not have any trouble with communication. If I had been by myself, or when I was without Jenna, communication involved a lot of hand motions and pointing. I am sure the Parisians appreciated these exchanges as much as I did. There was one incident the first morning in our hotel. We were told that there was a two euro breakfast available, but not what it consisted of. I went downstairs early to check it out while everyone was finishing getting ready. I was in and see where the hotel has a counter area set up with the food. I am looking at the food and trying to find a sign or menu that tells me what is being served. The waitress sees me and says I have to sit down. I reply in a mixture of English and hand gestures that I don't want to sit until I see what is being served. Does she have a menu? She takes me over to the front desk where there are two hotel employees. Both speak a little bit of English. I am trying to explain what was going on and try to repeat my request of seeing what they had before I sat down. It was no use. I didn't understand them. They didn't understand me. Finally I just gave up and told them that my friend, who spoke French, was coming down soon, and I would wait. Jenna came downstairs and everything was worked out. We ended up not eating there, but we did eat there this morning...for free. Why this was the case I have no idea, but I am grateful.
When we got in we saw the outside of Notre Dame and took a boat tour along the Seine River. It was dark outside so my pictures did not come out, but it was beautiful to look at. All of the buildings were lit up. The Eiffel Tour was lit up blue with thirteen stars on it. This is going for two months to celebrate the French president of the European Union.
The next morning we went to the Louvre. We had bought Museum Passes at the train station the day before (30 Euros for 2 days) and got to skip the line to buy tickets. We went into the Egyptian exhibit, French painters, Italian sculpture, and Italian paintings. Most notably we saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and La Liberté guidant le peuple. Everyone always says that the Mona Lisa is so small that by the time I saw it I was surprised by how big it was. I was expecting something the size of a notebook and it was much bigger than that. The Louvre was slightly overwhelming, but we went in with the idea that we were never going to see everything and that we only had a few things we had to see.
Afterwards we went into Notre Dame, which is gorgeous. The architectural details on the outside and the stained glass on the inside are awe inspiring. I feel awkward going into churches sometimes. I think of it as a beautiful building, but it does not mean anything to me spiritually. Even if I was spiritual I would have a hard time spending up to ten euros to light a candle for someone and pray. This is probably why I am not spiritual. For me it would be like spending ten euros to pray to Santa. Besides, how can one not be close to something spiritual in a beautiful church like Notre Dame with or without a candle?
We then went to the D'Orsay. This was my museum - Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Manet, Renoir. Oh, Impressionism, how I love it! A few years ago my aunt took me to an outdoor scultpure museum. Part of the museum was painting that were recreated with sculptures. On of the Monet's that was at the D'Orsay was the original painting that one of these "sculpture settings" was based off of. The painting is called "Essai de figure en plein air (vers la guache)."
We also saw the Arc de Triomphe, and Jenna and I walked up the 284 stairs to see the view from the top. The Arc de Triomphe was not one of my favorite things that we saw, and the stairs were hard to climb, but it was still interesting to see Paris from the top of the Arc. After the Arc de Triomphe we split up. I went back to the Louvre to see there costume and textiles exhibit and everyone else went to the Rodin Museum.
The costume exhibit was so beautiful. It was comprised of forty years of clothing from Valentino. The museum had divided it up into different sections labeled volume, lines, themes (feathers, animal prints, flowers), etc. The clothing was gorgeous and couture so it was completely over the top. The only down side was that I was not allowed to take pictures.
After that we met back up and went to the Eiffel Tower and took pictures together. The sun was bright and the tower is very, very tall. These two obstacles combined made us try forty different settings, combinations of sitting and standing, distance between photographer and model, model and tower. Eventually we discovered the perfect setting. There was a Canadian couple near us and we told them that we would take a picture of the two of them in front of the Tower if they took a picture of us. This worked out well for everyone.
This morning we went to Versailles. It took us a long time because not only did we have to switch trains three times, but one of the trains we switched two had broken down. We walked instead. We got to Versailles around 10 AM, which is when it opens. It was still a fifteen minute wait in line to get in. We bought the garden pass and the audio tour. It was very interesting to have the inside look into all of the different things in the room and the purposes of them. Without the audio guide it would have been a confusing mass of guilt. The problem with it being so crowded is that you get pushed along by the crowd into the next room whether you want to leave or not.
When we got back into Paris, we went to the Sacre Coeur. It was another beautiful church, but different from Notre Dame. First off, it is at the top of a hill that you have to climb. Then if you want to see the dome, which we did, it is more stairs. The building though has more mosaics than architectural details. The stained glass is different too. The pieces are bigger giving it a more comic book of Jesus' life kind of look. The view from the church is great, but the view from the dome is amazing. It is a 360 degree view of the city. The stairs to get up to the top though are small, tight, and winding. If someone is claustrophobic, they could not handle it.
After the Sacre Coeur, we caught the train for Mannheim. We were sweaty and tired with aching muscles and blistered feet. We need to sleep for a week, but instead will wake up at 7:30 AM for five hours of German instruction. Even so, it was worth it. We saw Paris in forty-eight hours, and I loved it.
When we got in we saw the outside of Notre Dame and took a boat tour along the Seine River. It was dark outside so my pictures did not come out, but it was beautiful to look at. All of the buildings were lit up. The Eiffel Tour was lit up blue with thirteen stars on it. This is going for two months to celebrate the French president of the European Union.
The next morning we went to the Louvre. We had bought Museum Passes at the train station the day before (30 Euros for 2 days) and got to skip the line to buy tickets. We went into the Egyptian exhibit, French painters, Italian sculpture, and Italian paintings. Most notably we saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and La Liberté guidant le peuple. Everyone always says that the Mona Lisa is so small that by the time I saw it I was surprised by how big it was. I was expecting something the size of a notebook and it was much bigger than that. The Louvre was slightly overwhelming, but we went in with the idea that we were never going to see everything and that we only had a few things we had to see.
Afterwards we went into Notre Dame, which is gorgeous. The architectural details on the outside and the stained glass on the inside are awe inspiring. I feel awkward going into churches sometimes. I think of it as a beautiful building, but it does not mean anything to me spiritually. Even if I was spiritual I would have a hard time spending up to ten euros to light a candle for someone and pray. This is probably why I am not spiritual. For me it would be like spending ten euros to pray to Santa. Besides, how can one not be close to something spiritual in a beautiful church like Notre Dame with or without a candle?
We then went to the D'Orsay. This was my museum - Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Manet, Renoir. Oh, Impressionism, how I love it! A few years ago my aunt took me to an outdoor scultpure museum. Part of the museum was painting that were recreated with sculptures. On of the Monet's that was at the D'Orsay was the original painting that one of these "sculpture settings" was based off of. The painting is called "Essai de figure en plein air (vers la guache)."
We also saw the Arc de Triomphe, and Jenna and I walked up the 284 stairs to see the view from the top. The Arc de Triomphe was not one of my favorite things that we saw, and the stairs were hard to climb, but it was still interesting to see Paris from the top of the Arc. After the Arc de Triomphe we split up. I went back to the Louvre to see there costume and textiles exhibit and everyone else went to the Rodin Museum.
The costume exhibit was so beautiful. It was comprised of forty years of clothing from Valentino. The museum had divided it up into different sections labeled volume, lines, themes (feathers, animal prints, flowers), etc. The clothing was gorgeous and couture so it was completely over the top. The only down side was that I was not allowed to take pictures.
After that we met back up and went to the Eiffel Tower and took pictures together. The sun was bright and the tower is very, very tall. These two obstacles combined made us try forty different settings, combinations of sitting and standing, distance between photographer and model, model and tower. Eventually we discovered the perfect setting. There was a Canadian couple near us and we told them that we would take a picture of the two of them in front of the Tower if they took a picture of us. This worked out well for everyone.
This morning we went to Versailles. It took us a long time because not only did we have to switch trains three times, but one of the trains we switched two had broken down. We walked instead. We got to Versailles around 10 AM, which is when it opens. It was still a fifteen minute wait in line to get in. We bought the garden pass and the audio tour. It was very interesting to have the inside look into all of the different things in the room and the purposes of them. Without the audio guide it would have been a confusing mass of guilt. The problem with it being so crowded is that you get pushed along by the crowd into the next room whether you want to leave or not.
When we got back into Paris, we went to the Sacre Coeur. It was another beautiful church, but different from Notre Dame. First off, it is at the top of a hill that you have to climb. Then if you want to see the dome, which we did, it is more stairs. The building though has more mosaics than architectural details. The stained glass is different too. The pieces are bigger giving it a more comic book of Jesus' life kind of look. The view from the church is great, but the view from the dome is amazing. It is a 360 degree view of the city. The stairs to get up to the top though are small, tight, and winding. If someone is claustrophobic, they could not handle it.
After the Sacre Coeur, we caught the train for Mannheim. We were sweaty and tired with aching muscles and blistered feet. We need to sleep for a week, but instead will wake up at 7:30 AM for five hours of German instruction. Even so, it was worth it. We saw Paris in forty-eight hours, and I loved it.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
This week
Yesterday in class we were given a short song in German with a blank line per stanza. We were also given little sheets of paper with the missing lines, and had to put the lines in the right places in the song. By far the creepiest song I have ever heard including "Every Breath You Take." We are trying to translate the song to figure out which line goes where and the song starts out "I think on you." Part of the translated song is as follows:
I think on you
I can not others
on every street corners I stay
I think on you
what should I do
my thoughts are only of you
I see you
in every picture...
We also went to the market place later in the day for interactive practice. On Tuesday and Thursday there is an outdoor farmers' market in the Marktplatz. It was very upsetting though because our fruit man was not there. A group of us has made friends with one fruit and vegetable stand owner. He recognizes us easily enough by the awkward, tentative German and large backpacks. We recognize him because he always gives us free food. You bought quarter-sized raspberries? A handful of cherries. Oh, you bought cherries? Here let your friends try some free cherries, and here is an extra handful for you too. He has made us loyal customers for life...or the next three weeks. Unfortunately, yesterday he was not there. We were going to do all our fruit and vegetable shopping yesterday, but could not. At least now we know that with our farmer it is Tuesday only. Interactive practice was fun. We had to find who sold the biggest carrots, cheapest apples, most expensive pears, prettiest flowers, and how many grams were in a pound. I like this kind of interactive practice more when I have to use my German to communicate with Germans and ask questions. I also completed my quest of how to buy feta cheese. One time I bought it and it was goat cheese. Yesterday I was also told that feta cheese was goat cheese or Ziegen Kaese. I finally asked my teacher, and it turns out that feta cheese is called feta cheese in Germany. It is just pronounced differently. Feta in German is Fey-ta. I am ordering some on Monday and will commence with my daily (or taeglich) black beans and feta meals.
We also had Kaffee und Kuchen yesterday. We had a cheese cake and a streusel cake. The streusel did not have any fruit. I didn't really like it. The cheese cake used ricotta instead of cream cheese so the consistency was slightly different. It was still good though. The party was to introduce us to the new MEMs instructor and our pseudo-chaperon - Dr. Futterknecht. After the party a few of us went over to introduce ourselves. I have him as a teacher all next year in Advanced German 1 and 2. He was very nice and enjoyed hearing about our experiences here in Germany. I hope that I like him as a teacher. It is always hard to tell. Even if I don't I still have another German class, Reading German Texts, with Dr. Overstreet next year. Dr. O was my teacher last year in Beginning German I and II. As one of my friends said, "We are not quite ready to cut the umbilical cord yet."
This afternoon I leave with four other students for Paris. It should be interesting. We all have very clear pictures of what we want to do, and not enough time to do it all. We are definitely going to the Louvre, the D'Orsay, river cruise down the Seine, and Versailles. I am also going to a museum on French clothing for the last three hundred years (part of the Louvre, but in a seperate building) while everyone else is in the Rodin museum. I am really excited and probably won't post again until Monday.
I think on you
I can not others
on every street corners I stay
I think on you
what should I do
my thoughts are only of you
I see you
in every picture...
We also went to the market place later in the day for interactive practice. On Tuesday and Thursday there is an outdoor farmers' market in the Marktplatz. It was very upsetting though because our fruit man was not there. A group of us has made friends with one fruit and vegetable stand owner. He recognizes us easily enough by the awkward, tentative German and large backpacks. We recognize him because he always gives us free food. You bought quarter-sized raspberries? A handful of cherries. Oh, you bought cherries? Here let your friends try some free cherries, and here is an extra handful for you too. He has made us loyal customers for life...or the next three weeks. Unfortunately, yesterday he was not there. We were going to do all our fruit and vegetable shopping yesterday, but could not. At least now we know that with our farmer it is Tuesday only. Interactive practice was fun. We had to find who sold the biggest carrots, cheapest apples, most expensive pears, prettiest flowers, and how many grams were in a pound. I like this kind of interactive practice more when I have to use my German to communicate with Germans and ask questions. I also completed my quest of how to buy feta cheese. One time I bought it and it was goat cheese. Yesterday I was also told that feta cheese was goat cheese or Ziegen Kaese. I finally asked my teacher, and it turns out that feta cheese is called feta cheese in Germany. It is just pronounced differently. Feta in German is Fey-ta. I am ordering some on Monday and will commence with my daily (or taeglich) black beans and feta meals.
We also had Kaffee und Kuchen yesterday. We had a cheese cake and a streusel cake. The streusel did not have any fruit. I didn't really like it. The cheese cake used ricotta instead of cream cheese so the consistency was slightly different. It was still good though. The party was to introduce us to the new MEMs instructor and our pseudo-chaperon - Dr. Futterknecht. After the party a few of us went over to introduce ourselves. I have him as a teacher all next year in Advanced German 1 and 2. He was very nice and enjoyed hearing about our experiences here in Germany. I hope that I like him as a teacher. It is always hard to tell. Even if I don't I still have another German class, Reading German Texts, with Dr. Overstreet next year. Dr. O was my teacher last year in Beginning German I and II. As one of my friends said, "We are not quite ready to cut the umbilical cord yet."
This afternoon I leave with four other students for Paris. It should be interesting. We all have very clear pictures of what we want to do, and not enough time to do it all. We are definitely going to the Louvre, the D'Orsay, river cruise down the Seine, and Versailles. I am also going to a museum on French clothing for the last three hundred years (part of the Louvre, but in a seperate building) while everyone else is in the Rodin museum. I am really excited and probably won't post again until Monday.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Montag
Ich bin zu das Planetarium gegangen. Wir haben eine Filme auf der Saturn gesehen. Ich habe einschlafen. Dann wir haben uns mit unsre Interactive Partner getroffen. Wir sind ins Kino gegangen. Wir haben "Charlie Bartlett" auf Deutsch gesehen. Es war sehr lustig. Ich habe die Filme vor heute gesehen.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Luisengarten, Schwarzwald, und Giverny
This last week school has taken up even more time than usual. On Monday we were divided into groups that would present a topic together...auf Deutsch. My group included three other people from my class, including my roommate. We decided to do our presentation on the Mannheim Palace. It has been in Mannheim for over three hundred years so there is a lot of information on it. The truly difficult part is not finding the information, but putting it into German. The worst is that the website we found is also in German so one must resist the pressure to cheat and look up how to phrase something exactly right. In general, our sentences are short with a few compound sentences thrown in.
We have been in class for a full two weeks, but I don't know if I have learned anything concrete. In general I feel that my listening comprehension and speaking skills are better, but I don't know if that is due to the class or daily interaction with the people of Mannheim. I think that our teacher often becomes frustrated with our level of listening comprehension. She has not quite mastered the trick of saying something in a simple way that we will understand. For instance, instead of asking us to read a passage about Nadia X and write a fifteen to twenty of our own sentences about Nadia, she would ask us to illustrate who Nadia is as a person in fifteen to twenty sentences. It sounds like a slight distinction, but throw a few high-level vocabulary words into a sentence and you have eleven very confused college students. The other question in my mind is how hard is the test. Our book is geared towards the Zertifikat Deutsch, but how much are our book tests like the actual test? The tests in our book are pretty easy, but I don't want to expect to ace the test and then have my you-know-what handed to me.
We went to the Luisenpark twice this week. The gardens are so beautiful right now, and there are a lot of large grassy areas to sit on chairs and chaises. There is also a Chinese Tea House and a small zoo. The weirdest thing about the zoo is that there are animals in it that are only found in the United States.
We went to the Schwarzwald on Saturday and I'm pretty sure the bus driver was trying to kill us. First we are driving through mountains so it's all up and down and tight turns. Needless to say, there were many students who were complaining of nausea. To make matters worse she was speeding. Eventually I just had to stop looking at the tiny railing protecting us from plummeting to a death far, far, far down the mountain side, and pass out. We visited several towns - Baden-Baden, Titisee, Mummelsee, and Freiburg.
At Baden-Baden, Dr. Hasty was determined to discover the Roman springs. Baden in German means to bathe. The problem was that the springs are now part of spas that allow their guests to experience the springs sans clothing. This does not make for an amiable touring environment. Dr. Hasty was insistent on finding these springs. We went upstairs, downstairs, to building number 1, to building number 2, to building number 1 again, etc. until he realized we were forty minutes late to meet the bus driver. On the whole Baden-Baden was cute, but I could have skipped it on the tour.
Mummelsee was over 1000 m above sea level and home to a lake with the Nix. The Nix is the Schwarzwald's version of the Lochness Monster. The area where we stopped to view the lake even had a man dressed up as the Nix. There was a gift shop and, at that point, the most important thing - food! Brotwurst and Schwardswald Kirsche Torte for lunch. Black Forest Cake in Germany is less sweet than the American version, but has a stronger rum flavor.
Titisee had a cute town, which we hardly had time to explore. The town also had a lake and it was bigger than the Mummelsee lake. We strolled around, grateful to stretch our legs. The rest of the journey was a blur of driving and I'm not really sure what happened in Freiburg. The whole day ended up taking twelve hours. By the time we got home there was only enough time to eat dinner, shower, and grab our stuff.
That night Jenna and I took a seven hour "City Night Line" bus to Paris. Upon entering our compartment there were four people of various levels of rankness and snoring ability. We were surprisingly never asked to present our Eurorail, and managed to sleep through the whole trip. We then caught another train to Vernon, and then a shuttle to Giverny. We got to Giverny right as they were opening up. This was the best time to go because we were able to see the major sights, such as the water lily pond, without huge tour groups being there. The gardens were absolutely amazing and I spent the morning in a picture taking frenzy.
For four euro - I'm a student and therefore receive priledges - I was able to see the house and the gardens. The house was painted in fun shades on the inside - light blue with turquoise trim, bright yellow living room, light green with eggplant, etc. Monet also had an extensive collection of Japenese woodblock prints and sketches. I did not know this about him, but I was very excited to see certain pictures that I recognized. There were several original pieces of his artwork on display. Most of it was on loan from other museums and we weren't allowed to take pictures. Still it was amazing to see the original of a poster I have hanging on my wall; let alone where it was painted.
After viewing the gardens and house, we walked down to view his grave, which was not very exciting. Then we went to a creperie for lunch. We both ordered raspberry crepes with whipped cream. It was amazing!!! The whipped cream was fresh. The raspberries had been soaked in a sugar until they started to come apart. The whole thing was an open crepe too so I was able to combine raspberry, cream, and crepe at will. After being throughly stuffed, we caught the shuttle, and then the train, back to Paris. We viewed the Tuileries gardens. I could have missed them. There was not much there except for tourists. Then we ate dinner at a small bistro. It was relatively cheap (Paris is sooo much more expensive than anywhere else). I had two open-faced sandwiches with goat cheese, herbs, chive cream, and tomatoes. I could only eat one sandwich because all of the cheese was too rich for me. It also came with a small salad of which I ate everything.
Our meal also came with free tap water. This was nirvana after Germany where water is treated like gold. It is hard to find anything but spring water. When you order tap water in a restaurant there is much confusion until they convince themselves that you really wanted spring and bring that out to you...then charge you two euros for it. It is funny that the Germans have such an aversion to tap water since there tap water tastes so much better than anything you could find coming out of a sink in the United States.
That was my week. I'm sorry for all my devoted blog readers who were left out in the dark. Next will be better.
We have been in class for a full two weeks, but I don't know if I have learned anything concrete. In general I feel that my listening comprehension and speaking skills are better, but I don't know if that is due to the class or daily interaction with the people of Mannheim. I think that our teacher often becomes frustrated with our level of listening comprehension. She has not quite mastered the trick of saying something in a simple way that we will understand. For instance, instead of asking us to read a passage about Nadia X and write a fifteen to twenty of our own sentences about Nadia, she would ask us to illustrate who Nadia is as a person in fifteen to twenty sentences. It sounds like a slight distinction, but throw a few high-level vocabulary words into a sentence and you have eleven very confused college students. The other question in my mind is how hard is the test. Our book is geared towards the Zertifikat Deutsch, but how much are our book tests like the actual test? The tests in our book are pretty easy, but I don't want to expect to ace the test and then have my you-know-what handed to me.
We went to the Luisenpark twice this week. The gardens are so beautiful right now, and there are a lot of large grassy areas to sit on chairs and chaises. There is also a Chinese Tea House and a small zoo. The weirdest thing about the zoo is that there are animals in it that are only found in the United States.
We went to the Schwarzwald on Saturday and I'm pretty sure the bus driver was trying to kill us. First we are driving through mountains so it's all up and down and tight turns. Needless to say, there were many students who were complaining of nausea. To make matters worse she was speeding. Eventually I just had to stop looking at the tiny railing protecting us from plummeting to a death far, far, far down the mountain side, and pass out. We visited several towns - Baden-Baden, Titisee, Mummelsee, and Freiburg.
At Baden-Baden, Dr. Hasty was determined to discover the Roman springs. Baden in German means to bathe. The problem was that the springs are now part of spas that allow their guests to experience the springs sans clothing. This does not make for an amiable touring environment. Dr. Hasty was insistent on finding these springs. We went upstairs, downstairs, to building number 1, to building number 2, to building number 1 again, etc. until he realized we were forty minutes late to meet the bus driver. On the whole Baden-Baden was cute, but I could have skipped it on the tour.
Mummelsee was over 1000 m above sea level and home to a lake with the Nix. The Nix is the Schwarzwald's version of the Lochness Monster. The area where we stopped to view the lake even had a man dressed up as the Nix. There was a gift shop and, at that point, the most important thing - food! Brotwurst and Schwardswald Kirsche Torte for lunch. Black Forest Cake in Germany is less sweet than the American version, but has a stronger rum flavor.
Titisee had a cute town, which we hardly had time to explore. The town also had a lake and it was bigger than the Mummelsee lake. We strolled around, grateful to stretch our legs. The rest of the journey was a blur of driving and I'm not really sure what happened in Freiburg. The whole day ended up taking twelve hours. By the time we got home there was only enough time to eat dinner, shower, and grab our stuff.
That night Jenna and I took a seven hour "City Night Line" bus to Paris. Upon entering our compartment there were four people of various levels of rankness and snoring ability. We were surprisingly never asked to present our Eurorail, and managed to sleep through the whole trip. We then caught another train to Vernon, and then a shuttle to Giverny. We got to Giverny right as they were opening up. This was the best time to go because we were able to see the major sights, such as the water lily pond, without huge tour groups being there. The gardens were absolutely amazing and I spent the morning in a picture taking frenzy.
For four euro - I'm a student and therefore receive priledges - I was able to see the house and the gardens. The house was painted in fun shades on the inside - light blue with turquoise trim, bright yellow living room, light green with eggplant, etc. Monet also had an extensive collection of Japenese woodblock prints and sketches. I did not know this about him, but I was very excited to see certain pictures that I recognized. There were several original pieces of his artwork on display. Most of it was on loan from other museums and we weren't allowed to take pictures. Still it was amazing to see the original of a poster I have hanging on my wall; let alone where it was painted.
After viewing the gardens and house, we walked down to view his grave, which was not very exciting. Then we went to a creperie for lunch. We both ordered raspberry crepes with whipped cream. It was amazing!!! The whipped cream was fresh. The raspberries had been soaked in a sugar until they started to come apart. The whole thing was an open crepe too so I was able to combine raspberry, cream, and crepe at will. After being throughly stuffed, we caught the shuttle, and then the train, back to Paris. We viewed the Tuileries gardens. I could have missed them. There was not much there except for tourists. Then we ate dinner at a small bistro. It was relatively cheap (Paris is sooo much more expensive than anywhere else). I had two open-faced sandwiches with goat cheese, herbs, chive cream, and tomatoes. I could only eat one sandwich because all of the cheese was too rich for me. It also came with a small salad of which I ate everything.
Our meal also came with free tap water. This was nirvana after Germany where water is treated like gold. It is hard to find anything but spring water. When you order tap water in a restaurant there is much confusion until they convince themselves that you really wanted spring and bring that out to you...then charge you two euros for it. It is funny that the Germans have such an aversion to tap water since there tap water tastes so much better than anything you could find coming out of a sink in the United States.
That was my week. I'm sorry for all my devoted blog readers who were left out in the dark. Next will be better.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Berlin
Berlin was a really dynamic city. It is much more international than Mannheim or Heidelberg, but at the same time people were less likely to speak English with us if need be or be understanding if it took us more time to understand the German. This was especially true of the restaurant we tried on Saturday night. The menu was filled with really ethnic, specialty dishes of the Berlin area so it took us more time to sort out the menu. The waitress kept coming back every two minutes to get our order and was getting upset when after fifteen minutes we had not ordered. This would have been more understandable, and we certainly would have been more sympathetic to her situation, if there had been anyone else in the restaurant besides one couple. There was no one waiting on the table so what did it matter when it turned? In the end, I had Curry Bratwurst, or a sausage with curry sauce. It was very good. Tipping in Germany is a matter of preference since it is already built into the price of the food. Having heard many opinions on what we should tip from native Germans, I have come to the conclusion that if you really like the service you round the bill up, but never more than one euro. The night before though, we went to a Mexican/Italian restaurant - yes, it sounds strange, but it was good. There the waitress could tell we were not native speakers (like it's hard to tell) and asked if we spoke English. When we replied that we did and we lived in the U.S., she asked if she could practice her English with us. We explained that we were learning German so we had to speak that. Even though she was disappointed she gave us more time with the menu. She also brought free bread (something they never offer in Germany), bruschetta, and Schnapps. We tipped her. I think that the people of Berlin are like those in any major city. You are going to meet the helpful person and the short-tempered person no matter where you go. You also meet the crazies wherever you go. In Berlin, one sees all kinds of crazy on the trains. The fact that we understand most of what is being said, but not all, kept us from being seriously offended or afraid of the people talking crazy German on the train.
The train system was amazing and for 15.90 Euros we could have unlimited rides for five people per day. As is expected in Germany, the trains were always on time. Apparently Berlin trains are for lovers. We did not get this memo, but picked up on the signs. There was at least one couple displaying major cases of PDA on each train we went on. This would be more understandable if the trains didn't smell bad, have crazy people wandering around, or screaming children.
We saw the Rathaus, the Reichstag, the Pergamon Museum, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), and unofficial memorial to the victims of the Wall. The Reichstag was a slight disappointment if only because we weren't allowed to explore the inside of the Reichstag. We were allowed to go up on the roof where we could view the whole city. The Reichstag also has a new dome where you walk up to the top of the dome and get an even better view of the city. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe has all of these concrete slabs of varying height stacked like dominoes and the rows move up and down. It is supposed to represent the confusion of an orderly world losing its place with reality. It was very evocative. The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche was so beautiful. The old parts of church are filled with colorful mosaics on the walls, floor, and ceiling. The new part has a hanging Jesus Christ with a backdrop of bright blue stained glass. The church had a model of what the church and surrounding area looked like before World War II and then another one of after. It must have been even more incredible before the air raid bombed it.
The Pergamon Museum was sooooo completely amazing. First off, it says in every guide book that it opens at 10 AM. They let us in at 9:15 AM so we got the museum almost entirely to ourselves for an hour. The reconstructed versions of Ishtar's Gate and the Pergamon Altar were so impressive. They also had a Babylon exhibit where they discussed the myths and truths of Babylon. One part of it was a letter in German that was sent to another country to be translated and then twenty-five other countries one right after another. This whole project took a year, and when it was translated into the last country's language, it was sent back to Germany. The letter was translated back into German and it was nothing like the original letter. This was supposed to demonstrate the power of languages.
The city was very beautiful overall. Wherever we went in the western part of the city we were surrounded by trees and parks. The eastern part of the city was much more run down. There were not as many trees. It was more dirty. The buildings look dilapidated. I kept a tighter grip on my bag. On the whole Berlin represented it's history, which is filled with the good and the bad.
The train system was amazing and for 15.90 Euros we could have unlimited rides for five people per day. As is expected in Germany, the trains were always on time. Apparently Berlin trains are for lovers. We did not get this memo, but picked up on the signs. There was at least one couple displaying major cases of PDA on each train we went on. This would be more understandable if the trains didn't smell bad, have crazy people wandering around, or screaming children.
We saw the Rathaus, the Reichstag, the Pergamon Museum, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), and unofficial memorial to the victims of the Wall. The Reichstag was a slight disappointment if only because we weren't allowed to explore the inside of the Reichstag. We were allowed to go up on the roof where we could view the whole city. The Reichstag also has a new dome where you walk up to the top of the dome and get an even better view of the city. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe has all of these concrete slabs of varying height stacked like dominoes and the rows move up and down. It is supposed to represent the confusion of an orderly world losing its place with reality. It was very evocative. The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche was so beautiful. The old parts of church are filled with colorful mosaics on the walls, floor, and ceiling. The new part has a hanging Jesus Christ with a backdrop of bright blue stained glass. The church had a model of what the church and surrounding area looked like before World War II and then another one of after. It must have been even more incredible before the air raid bombed it.
The Pergamon Museum was sooooo completely amazing. First off, it says in every guide book that it opens at 10 AM. They let us in at 9:15 AM so we got the museum almost entirely to ourselves for an hour. The reconstructed versions of Ishtar's Gate and the Pergamon Altar were so impressive. They also had a Babylon exhibit where they discussed the myths and truths of Babylon. One part of it was a letter in German that was sent to another country to be translated and then twenty-five other countries one right after another. This whole project took a year, and when it was translated into the last country's language, it was sent back to Germany. The letter was translated back into German and it was nothing like the original letter. This was supposed to demonstrate the power of languages.
The city was very beautiful overall. Wherever we went in the western part of the city we were surrounded by trees and parks. The eastern part of the city was much more run down. There were not as many trees. It was more dirty. The buildings look dilapidated. I kept a tighter grip on my bag. On the whole Berlin represented it's history, which is filled with the good and the bad.
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