I find myself – not necessarily on purpose – often thinking of and/or picking out the major differences between Europeans and Americans or between Germany and the cluster of states back home. This is a relatively broad topic as ‘‘differences“ can encompass anything from food and drink to ideals and morals. However, I find myself doing it just the same and have, as a consequence, come up with a few primary differences. As with anything I ever say or attempt to clarify in writing, read the following with a bowl of salt and a tablespoon.
The first major difference that comes to mind is the European stance on Obama’s attempt at universal healthcare. This is not my opinion – just what I have experienced. Although an objective truth may be impossible, I still wish to try. Simply put, every European whom I’ve met thus far – the Swiss, the French, the Finns, the Germans – seem to lack the ability to wrap their heads around the thought of rejecting such change in the USA.
‘‘But I just don’t get it; why is it met with such resistance?“ I recall one girl saying.
‘‘Well, you have to understand that it is a big change“, I say, as I try to begin giving clarification.
‘‘Yes, but…“ – the confusion begins to set in - ‘‘but why wouldn’t everyone want this? Don’t they know that, that…‘‘ And then the confusion starts to take hold of her; I can tell at this point that so many thoughts and arguments are entering her brain at once that her thought process has become clogged and she is now attempting to decide if continuing this conversation is worth the energy that it will no doubt require. This is usually where I end the conversation before they speak at me as an American instead of with me as a person sitting at the same table. They just don’t understand, for better or for worse, how Americans could object universal care. It seems that, to them, universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege.
Another aspect that comes to mind is – as far as I know - in particular reference to Germany and the German language. This aspect is their reservation of deep, emotional verbs. I have yet to hear a German say ‘‘I’m sorry‘‘,‘‘I love that‘‘ or ‘‘I hate that‘‘. Die Deutscher seem to store their deep emotions in a personal, internal reservoir; stockpiling them for when they’re necessary instead of when they’re merely convenient. This is accomplished through the simple, regular use of verb substitution: ‘‘That doesn’t please me“ instead of ‘‘I hate that‘‘,‘‘Excuse me‘‘ instead of ‘‘Sorry‘‘ and ‘‘That pleases me‘‘ instead of the infamous American ‘‘I love that!‘‘. This has posed a paradox, though, as brainless, pointless and manufactured American reality shows - in which the characters can’t even spell ‘‘vocabulary‘‘, much less utilize one - seem to be fairly popular here.
Another huge difference which I have noticed is the Freie Universität Berlin itself and its students. How prestigious FUB is, I don’t know. In my opinion, rank is only relevant to those whom will benefit from theirs being one of the best. Is FUB a ‘‘German Oxford‘‘? Perhaps, but it is a bit too ealry to tell for sure. However, at a first glance, I must say that the main building of FUB – Silberlaube – doesn’t have the stereotypical appearance of a professional institution. For example, every door is a different color, as is the carpet in each hallway and many of the walls and curtains. And not merely a darker or lighter stain of wood or shade of white; they’re green, orange, red, yellow, etc. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but I feel that it resembles more of an elementary school than a university in a developed country.
Classroom etiquette is also something else. The stereotypical ‘‘puntcual‘‘ German clearly never went to college. If the course information states that the class runs from 16.00 – 18.00 Uhr, that means ‘‘show up – if you feel like it – with food and your fifth coffee of the day – sometime around 16.30 – but never before then and certainly never at 16.00! And feel free to continue your conversation – either in person with the three students whom you drifted in with or on your cell phone with others interrupting their class – while the professor attempts to speak over you.‘‘ In one class of roughly 35 students in a classroom intended for maybe 20 (many sat on the floor) I became a little fed up. Three medical students – I know they were medical students among many other details about their life which they felt compelled to share with everyone – seemed to be holding an open-floor debate behind me on which class they were going to interrupt after this.
Lacking the confidence to turn around and lash out at them grammatically correct and auf Deutsch in addition to my unwillingness to be labeled as a loud American, I opted to take a Thoreauean approach. I piled my books together and set them on an empty table in the middle of the room where no one was sitting. I stood up, took my jacket off of my chair, threw it over my shoulder and then tipped my chair over. I felt the eyes bearing down on me, felt pupils fixed on my movements. I then sat on the table and spun myself around to the other side, slid the chair out from under my old table and set it up at the empty one in the middle of the room.
‘‘Brilliant move; well-planned and very effective‘‘, said a student from Israel whom I now sat near. He seemed glad they the three in the corner would now be quiet. I assumed after he said this that he must not be an Erasmus student. Thoreau would have been proud; the professor stared at the [insert negative plural adjectivial noun here] in the corner and asked, ‘‘Perhaps you would like to add something?‘‘ They had nothing to say; perhaps my actions weren’t ‘‘pleasing to them‘‘. I never did ask them where they stood on universal healthcare.
Bis später,
ZG
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Adrienne in Lyon: The End
So I've been back in the States for a little over a week now. I have reached the conclusion that studying abroad was such an amazing experience I will never forget. I was able to visit places like Dublin, London, Paris, and Barcelona while I was aboard. All great and wonderful cities. But during my time in Lyon, I completely adapted to the French lifestyle and loved it! Going from the American culture to something different was at one or two times challenging but such a great experience. I learned new things about the culture as well as new things about myself. This summer is one I will cherish in my memory forever. And I hope I will be able to return to France and live there for some time.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Adrienne in Lyon: Devesset, Annecy, and Lyon
Last week:
From Saturday until today, I've been with my family in the mountains. It was the WHOLE family! About 25 people in one house!
Saturday afternoon, Chantal, Oscar, and I left Lyon with her daughter (Sylvie), Sylvie's husband (Charles) and their son (Aougust). We stayed at the family house in this really small town called Devesset. The house was big so almost everyone fit. Oscar and Pauline's brother (Alex) slept outside in a tent!
Everything was crazy!There was so many people speaking at the same time and really really fast French, I didn't understand anything. But a lot of them spoke English and would explain things to me. One of the families had a student from Italy staying with them and he didn't speak any French! Just English. So I would listen in when they explained things to him. haha.
Sunday morning everyone went to church and then we went shopping in the town Chambon. Other things we did this weekend were: going to Lac de Devesset (a lake), getting fresh milk from farm, playing in the hay fields, fishing, driving around the backroads, and I went running.
It was a lot of fun. Everyone was so nice, the food was great, and the land was beautiful! A great way to spend the hoilday weekend!
This week:
On Wednesday, our school had an outing to the small town Annecy in the Alps. It was a really cute little town with a beautiful lake. Andy, Gina, Sabrina, the Rachels, and I rented a paddle boat and took it to the center of the lake and went swimming. It was soooo wonderful!
That night, Andy, Gina, and I went to go see Of Montral and TV on the Radio in concert! It was amazing! The show was at the old Roman amplitheatre.
Thursday night, I went to Gina's for dinner with Andy because it was her birthday. Her family is super nice and funny. They were telling jokes the whole night! She lives in Tassin so her dad drove us back to the city because it was late.
This was my first weekend in Lyon. Friday I went to go see Harry Potter 6 with Gina and Andy (it was in english and had french subtitles). So good!!!! For the rest of the day/night, I took it easy and stayed home.
Saturday Andy, Gina, and me meet up to go to the open air market along the Saone river. I bought some apricots and they are yummy!!! We went shopping afterwards and had lunch at a café. That night, Gina came over for dinner at my house because Dr. Curtis-Smith and Fabienne (who works for my mom) were having dinner with us. It was fun. Then we meet up with Andy again and went out on the town. We went to these discothèques that are big boats on the Rhone. We danced the night away.
Sunday Gina and I booked our plane tickets to London for next weekend!!! Yay! We won't have too much time there be it will be fun :) We then went to the public pool to swim and lay out some. It was a great relaxing day!
From Saturday until today, I've been with my family in the mountains. It was the WHOLE family! About 25 people in one house!
Saturday afternoon, Chantal, Oscar, and I left Lyon with her daughter (Sylvie), Sylvie's husband (Charles) and their son (Aougust). We stayed at the family house in this really small town called Devesset. The house was big so almost everyone fit. Oscar and Pauline's brother (Alex) slept outside in a tent!
Everything was crazy!There was so many people speaking at the same time and really really fast French, I didn't understand anything. But a lot of them spoke English and would explain things to me. One of the families had a student from Italy staying with them and he didn't speak any French! Just English. So I would listen in when they explained things to him. haha.
Sunday morning everyone went to church and then we went shopping in the town Chambon. Other things we did this weekend were: going to Lac de Devesset (a lake), getting fresh milk from farm, playing in the hay fields, fishing, driving around the backroads, and I went running.
It was a lot of fun. Everyone was so nice, the food was great, and the land was beautiful! A great way to spend the hoilday weekend!
This week:
On Wednesday, our school had an outing to the small town Annecy in the Alps. It was a really cute little town with a beautiful lake. Andy, Gina, Sabrina, the Rachels, and I rented a paddle boat and took it to the center of the lake and went swimming. It was soooo wonderful!
That night, Andy, Gina, and I went to go see Of Montral and TV on the Radio in concert! It was amazing! The show was at the old Roman amplitheatre.
Thursday night, I went to Gina's for dinner with Andy because it was her birthday. Her family is super nice and funny. They were telling jokes the whole night! She lives in Tassin so her dad drove us back to the city because it was late.
This was my first weekend in Lyon. Friday I went to go see Harry Potter 6 with Gina and Andy (it was in english and had french subtitles). So good!!!! For the rest of the day/night, I took it easy and stayed home.
Saturday Andy, Gina, and me meet up to go to the open air market along the Saone river. I bought some apricots and they are yummy!!! We went shopping afterwards and had lunch at a café. That night, Gina came over for dinner at my house because Dr. Curtis-Smith and Fabienne (who works for my mom) were having dinner with us. It was fun. Then we meet up with Andy again and went out on the town. We went to these discothèques that are big boats on the Rhone. We danced the night away.
Sunday Gina and I booked our plane tickets to London for next weekend!!! Yay! We won't have too much time there be it will be fun :) We then went to the public pool to swim and lay out some. It was a great relaxing day!
Berlin, The final week
So, I've been back home for a few days now. The last two weeks of time in Berlin were far too busy for me to report anything for during that time. Not a whole lot of super interesting things happened really... well a few amazing things did happen of course.
The first thing that happened pretty soon after my last post was my concert in Treptow Park to see Nine Inch Nails. This is the fourth time I've seen them live, and it was by far the most intense experience I had. It was incredibly warm and humid in the room, and I had gotten there an hour early to post myself close to the front. I've never been closer to passing out during a concert, but I refused to call a bouncer to pull me out. My fingers were wrinkled from the moisture produced from the sweat and breathing from all the other shoving, jumping and screaming people. I tried desperately not to lose any ground, and by the second half of the concert I had made it all the way to the front! I was right in front of Trent Reznor; so close I didn't need glasses anymore. I was out of the pit of death, but I still couldn't relax for one second without getting pulled back into the center.
They passed out water bottles, and I got a drink from one, being by far the best drink of water of my life. I hardly had a second to take a photo due to fear of being taken over by the crowd, but I got a few shots and a few good clips in there too. It was the concert of a lifetime for me, though I wouldn’t recommend NiN to anyone unless you've already heard them and like angry music.
Not much happened after that. I didn't go on any more trips out of the city, because I was studying for finals, and my course here in the US had already started, and I was studying for that online as well. To top it off, I had a performance to do! I was in a play called Reigen by and Austrian playwright from the 20's. The play was pretty much a big lover's circle... kind of like six degrees of Kevin Bacon Austrian style. It was the most fulfilling experience I had during my entire time in Berlin. I got to know some German students, though they found my perpetual flaws in their language quite amusing. They were nice about it though. They'd laugh at my mistakes, but not in a mean way, and they'd always correct me too.
The agonizing part about this play, beyond the fact that it was all in German, was the fact that my part was the very very last. The first night I waited around with the rest of the cast behind stage. It was really warm and I lost concentration for when my part came. I did fine, though I accidently cut an entire page of my scene without anyone realizing it! Never did that before in my life! The second night went really well, and we made lotsa money from our production. We spent it on a big dinner at a nice restaurant.
I got them all little presents, and they all got me some more Author Schnitzler books and a nice card. It was great, and they're going to mail me a copy of the performance as soon as they're done making the DVD.
All of that had kept me pretty busy up till the final week or two of my time there. That time was spent studying and de-registering with everything I had spent so much agonizing time registering for when I first got there. I did spend a day to walk through the university garden, which was pretty nice. Not as nice as the city garden in Hamburg though... not sure if I'll ever see one as nice as that again though!
I had a going away party on the last weekend there, and the final night I spent at a friend's birthday party. I was partying till the final minute!
Oh yeah, and I attempted to get to a museum with lots of air weaponry, but it closed too early, so I only got a few pics through the fence... somethign for me to try to do again for the next time I'm in Berlin huh? :)
My last day in Germany was insane though! I didn't realize the banks closed two hours early on Wednesdays, so I wasn't able to close my account! I ran all around town trying to find a larger bank that might have been open still, but no luck. So the next day, after partying and all that I had to carry all of my luggage up to the train station, and make a transfer to a bus half way to the airport. I had so much stuff on me still, despite having sent three packages back to the US! My guitar case almost crushed a baby stroller when the bus driver started driving before I was situated - almost fell on my face too. I finally made it to the airport with all my stuff and the check-in and everything else went off without a hitch. I even got to close my bank account! I realized that my transfer flight was going to be in Frankfurt, so during my two hours there I raced through the massive airport looking for a Deutschebank Filiale (branch). I asked every official person I could find, gasping for breath. I raced up, over and through various obstacles and there it was! The BANK! I got there, closed my account exchanged all my change for money and emptied the remaining 450 Euros in the account. I was very happy, and made it back to my terminal with time to get a neck pillow, which actually helped me sleep for about two hours on the plane. I got to know my chair neighbor well. He was a nice German/American teenager guy named Lukas... not sure how to spell, but he was nice. I got home, and was a little lost in the airport, since they dropped me off at a peculiar terminal. Kristina eventually found me, and we've been traveling around visiting friend of mine and family of hers, enjoying our time together, and continuing on with our break-free lives!
Well, we get a break or two in there as well when we want :), but my life moves onward none-the-less. I'm in graduate school now, as Kristina is seeking a job. We're looking for house to buy, but also waiting on my stupid insurance and estate money to get passed through our terribly slow system... thought the SOCIALIST countries were only supposed to be bad with such things, but guess what; free market enterprises can be just as slow and inefficient as government institutions!
Oh yeah, and we're getting married on August 21 as well!
What a life right? At least things are staying interesting for now. What else can one ask for in the end... peace finds its way through the cracks, but for now I've got stuff to do! yay.
Thanks for reading to those who've kept up within this blog. I may be moving to a different address to correspond through blog with other international students; kind of keep a world-organized communication going to talk about our lives back in our home countries. That change will probably be illustrated on my Facebook account, so until then, I'll probably be going back to writing my notes over there. My trip to Berlin was an amazing experience. It was challenging beyond all expectations, but also more rewarding as well. I learned, grew and developed a lot, and my life as only improved since then. I've grown personally. The best one can ever feel about given outcomes is simple in its nature; satisfied.
Dave
The first thing that happened pretty soon after my last post was my concert in Treptow Park to see Nine Inch Nails. This is the fourth time I've seen them live, and it was by far the most intense experience I had. It was incredibly warm and humid in the room, and I had gotten there an hour early to post myself close to the front. I've never been closer to passing out during a concert, but I refused to call a bouncer to pull me out. My fingers were wrinkled from the moisture produced from the sweat and breathing from all the other shoving, jumping and screaming people. I tried desperately not to lose any ground, and by the second half of the concert I had made it all the way to the front! I was right in front of Trent Reznor; so close I didn't need glasses anymore. I was out of the pit of death, but I still couldn't relax for one second without getting pulled back into the center.
They passed out water bottles, and I got a drink from one, being by far the best drink of water of my life. I hardly had a second to take a photo due to fear of being taken over by the crowd, but I got a few shots and a few good clips in there too. It was the concert of a lifetime for me, though I wouldn’t recommend NiN to anyone unless you've already heard them and like angry music.
Not much happened after that. I didn't go on any more trips out of the city, because I was studying for finals, and my course here in the US had already started, and I was studying for that online as well. To top it off, I had a performance to do! I was in a play called Reigen by and Austrian playwright from the 20's. The play was pretty much a big lover's circle... kind of like six degrees of Kevin Bacon Austrian style. It was the most fulfilling experience I had during my entire time in Berlin. I got to know some German students, though they found my perpetual flaws in their language quite amusing. They were nice about it though. They'd laugh at my mistakes, but not in a mean way, and they'd always correct me too.
The agonizing part about this play, beyond the fact that it was all in German, was the fact that my part was the very very last. The first night I waited around with the rest of the cast behind stage. It was really warm and I lost concentration for when my part came. I did fine, though I accidently cut an entire page of my scene without anyone realizing it! Never did that before in my life! The second night went really well, and we made lotsa money from our production. We spent it on a big dinner at a nice restaurant.
I got them all little presents, and they all got me some more Author Schnitzler books and a nice card. It was great, and they're going to mail me a copy of the performance as soon as they're done making the DVD.
All of that had kept me pretty busy up till the final week or two of my time there. That time was spent studying and de-registering with everything I had spent so much agonizing time registering for when I first got there. I did spend a day to walk through the university garden, which was pretty nice. Not as nice as the city garden in Hamburg though... not sure if I'll ever see one as nice as that again though!
I had a going away party on the last weekend there, and the final night I spent at a friend's birthday party. I was partying till the final minute!
Oh yeah, and I attempted to get to a museum with lots of air weaponry, but it closed too early, so I only got a few pics through the fence... somethign for me to try to do again for the next time I'm in Berlin huh? :)
My last day in Germany was insane though! I didn't realize the banks closed two hours early on Wednesdays, so I wasn't able to close my account! I ran all around town trying to find a larger bank that might have been open still, but no luck. So the next day, after partying and all that I had to carry all of my luggage up to the train station, and make a transfer to a bus half way to the airport. I had so much stuff on me still, despite having sent three packages back to the US! My guitar case almost crushed a baby stroller when the bus driver started driving before I was situated - almost fell on my face too. I finally made it to the airport with all my stuff and the check-in and everything else went off without a hitch. I even got to close my bank account! I realized that my transfer flight was going to be in Frankfurt, so during my two hours there I raced through the massive airport looking for a Deutschebank Filiale (branch). I asked every official person I could find, gasping for breath. I raced up, over and through various obstacles and there it was! The BANK! I got there, closed my account exchanged all my change for money and emptied the remaining 450 Euros in the account. I was very happy, and made it back to my terminal with time to get a neck pillow, which actually helped me sleep for about two hours on the plane. I got to know my chair neighbor well. He was a nice German/American teenager guy named Lukas... not sure how to spell, but he was nice. I got home, and was a little lost in the airport, since they dropped me off at a peculiar terminal. Kristina eventually found me, and we've been traveling around visiting friend of mine and family of hers, enjoying our time together, and continuing on with our break-free lives!
Well, we get a break or two in there as well when we want :), but my life moves onward none-the-less. I'm in graduate school now, as Kristina is seeking a job. We're looking for house to buy, but also waiting on my stupid insurance and estate money to get passed through our terribly slow system... thought the SOCIALIST countries were only supposed to be bad with such things, but guess what; free market enterprises can be just as slow and inefficient as government institutions!
Oh yeah, and we're getting married on August 21 as well!
What a life right? At least things are staying interesting for now. What else can one ask for in the end... peace finds its way through the cracks, but for now I've got stuff to do! yay.
Thanks for reading to those who've kept up within this blog. I may be moving to a different address to correspond through blog with other international students; kind of keep a world-organized communication going to talk about our lives back in our home countries. That change will probably be illustrated on my Facebook account, so until then, I'll probably be going back to writing my notes over there. My trip to Berlin was an amazing experience. It was challenging beyond all expectations, but also more rewarding as well. I learned, grew and developed a lot, and my life as only improved since then. I've grown personally. The best one can ever feel about given outcomes is simple in its nature; satisfied.
Dave
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Adrienne in Lyon: School
So this has been my week so far:
Monday we took our placement exams. It was a little difficult because I forgot a lot of the grammar. The classes are numbered 1-7 (1 the easiest, 7 the most advanced). I thought I would be placed in group 3 or 4 but I'm in group 5!!! I guess I know more than I thought! For the rest of the day, our group walked around the city and explored it.That night at dinner, I had my first complete conversation in French! Oscar and Pauline were gone so it was just Chantal and me. I'm getting better.
Tuesday was our first day of class. Andy and I are but in group 5. Yay! Our teacher has crazy red hair and is nice. She speaks fast paced but I can understand most of it. The first day was a little hard. We did listening exercises and talked about politics, not my favorite things. Late that night, Pauline came home because she just finished taking her bac! (a really difficult exam, for her it was about law) So we broke out the wine and celebrated!
Wednesdays we do activities with the school. This weeks was a quest around the city. We had to walk around to different places and find information. My group ended up speaking English because it was easier for everyone. There are tons of nationalities at the school: korean, chinese, japanese, italian, colombian, mexican, arabic (from Iran, Pakastan, ect.), polish, and american. So many of them speak English!
For the rest of the day, we visited a musuem and hung out. This dinner was just Pauline and me. She speaks really fast but slows done for me :)
Today we had class from 9am to 5pm! Class was a lot easier today. We just did some speaking and grammar lessons. Tonight's dinner was Oscar and me. This converstion was a little more difficult but we worked it out. He really likes helping me I think.
Monday we took our placement exams. It was a little difficult because I forgot a lot of the grammar. The classes are numbered 1-7 (1 the easiest, 7 the most advanced). I thought I would be placed in group 3 or 4 but I'm in group 5!!! I guess I know more than I thought! For the rest of the day, our group walked around the city and explored it.That night at dinner, I had my first complete conversation in French! Oscar and Pauline were gone so it was just Chantal and me. I'm getting better.
Tuesday was our first day of class. Andy and I are but in group 5. Yay! Our teacher has crazy red hair and is nice. She speaks fast paced but I can understand most of it. The first day was a little hard. We did listening exercises and talked about politics, not my favorite things. Late that night, Pauline came home because she just finished taking her bac! (a really difficult exam, for her it was about law) So we broke out the wine and celebrated!
Wednesdays we do activities with the school. This weeks was a quest around the city. We had to walk around to different places and find information. My group ended up speaking English because it was easier for everyone. There are tons of nationalities at the school: korean, chinese, japanese, italian, colombian, mexican, arabic (from Iran, Pakastan, ect.), polish, and american. So many of them speak English!
For the rest of the day, we visited a musuem and hung out. This dinner was just Pauline and me. She speaks really fast but slows done for me :)
Today we had class from 9am to 5pm! Class was a lot easier today. We just did some speaking and grammar lessons. Tonight's dinner was Oscar and me. This converstion was a little more difficult but we worked it out. He really likes helping me I think.
Adrienne in Lyon: arrival
I arrived in Lyon on Thursday, after spending 2 days in Paris. Gina and I got a little lost at the train station but we eventually found our families. My mom is Chantal and she is older. She has 5 children and 19 grand kids! Pauline, one of her grandchildren is living with her. She's 21. Also, Oscar,the son of a family friend lives with them. He's 15. In the appartment, there is her office, CIVEL. So there are two other ladies there that are really nice.
I have my own room. It's small but nice. There's a bed, desk, chair, stool, lamp, side table, and lots of shelves. I share a bathroom with Pauline and Oscar.
Yesterday we travelled down to the south (somewhere near Valence) to spend the weekend with her son, Betron. He has a little boy named Mathieu who is adorable! He's 5 years old. They have a pool so we've just been relaxing and swimming all day.
The food has been good. Nothing too foreign except last night. We ate raw fish (i think salmon)! It was interesting but I ate some.
Speaking and understanding is difficult. But I'm slowly starting to understand more. Sometimes Chantal translates for me when I look lost. haha. Hopefully once classes start up I'll learn faster.
I have my own room. It's small but nice. There's a bed, desk, chair, stool, lamp, side table, and lots of shelves. I share a bathroom with Pauline and Oscar.
Yesterday we travelled down to the south (somewhere near Valence) to spend the weekend with her son, Betron. He has a little boy named Mathieu who is adorable! He's 5 years old. They have a pool so we've just been relaxing and swimming all day.
The food has been good. Nothing too foreign except last night. We ate raw fish (i think salmon)! It was interesting but I ate some.
Speaking and understanding is difficult. But I'm slowly starting to understand more. Sometimes Chantal translates for me when I look lost. haha. Hopefully once classes start up I'll learn faster.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Berlin June 20 2009 Trip to Hamburg!
Doing my duties as an international exchange student, I made the 2.75 hour trip out to Hamburg; one of Germany's few, perhaps only shipping cities on their very limited coastline! As usual, you can find all the pictures on my Facebook profile under David Gregg. The albums should be open to the public.
Hamburg was not at all what I had expected. Historically, this was always one of Germany’s most important cities in terms of economics. Today, the city is still an industrial capital. There still exists a historical section, but its being quickly eaten up by corporate development in a very strange infusion of old and new. The reason for this is all the ports, docks and industry! Everything, save one theater is nothing but dock and factory on the other side of the Elbe River, which is an incredible amount of space.
I took mitfahr there... if you're wondering what exactly that is, it's like an online Craig’s list where people with cars register and you can call them up and ride with them wherever they're going for a small price. It's an amazing system, and is quite cheap. I got into the city pretty early, so I did some waking downtown before looking for my hostel. That's when I saw most of the pretty churches and city buildings in the downtown old city. They were nice.
The thing with Hamburg to be aware of... at least for when I was there is the weather. Nasty storms come plowing from the West off of the North Sea. They're very cold and windy. I even got hit with some random hail at one time. As soon as they're gone though, the city becomes warm, pleasant and beautiful once more... Watch out also for the developing section to the Southeast. I wandered down that way in search of a Submarine exhibition that's no longer there... along with anything else! The whole area is half under construction; and empty ghost town... but only because it's not finished yet, which is an odd twist.
Hamburg has one of the most beautiful botanical garden/park centers in Europe, and it's huge. It's cared for by the city and university, that has a large botany section. They have an old Garden and a Japanese section. The whole thing is absolutely beautiful, and I would consider a must-see, though I'm kind of a garden/park nut, so who knows! lol.
The boat rides are great too, and you can do them with just a simple transit ticket if you want. Ignore all the silly "sailor" dudes who will try to tempt you with their long tours around the canal. It's much more worth it just to take the larger boats with the electric signs on the side. It's really funny, because they even say the same things on them that you here on the trains; the famous "zurrueck bleiben bitte" (equates to 'mind the gap')as the door goes up and down. People have to take the boats to get to work at the docks on the other side of the canal after all!
At first I thought that Hamburg had one of the lamest night life of all the cities I've seen, but then I found Reeperbahn street, which turned out to be the exact opposite for my taste; WAY too intense! There was a club simply titled "injection" with a huge syringe as the sign... there were Granny pole dancers! It was smart the way they arranged it though. It was all contained on one little street from what I saw, and there were tons of cops there to make sure order was kept, so I didn't feel in danger or anything... unless I had gone in one of those places, which I didn't! I'm an innocent exchange student from WMU after all! :D
Checked out a pretty nice museum in the garden district... no surprises there aside from how nice the museum exhibits themselves were; very interactive and informative. The city has been a port city for 500 years, and always will be. Other than that its history is similar to most other German cities; war, explosions and regret from the last century followed by steady recovery.
They had a huge Lego store, which I was very happy to see!
I also had a huge hamburger at a restaurant there... wow how silly of me :P
There was an all-age group rowing race going on the second day I was there, which was pretty interesting
I got home late on Saturday, missing a party held by one of my theater buddies... oh well. Today I did laundry, posted the pictures and made some banana bread. I've been trying to get the right software to make music videos for random things today as well, and that's proving to be hectic at times... the hard part was finding a file converter so my editing software could cut clips I wanted to edit... sigh. k, well I guess that's all I got to report for now... pretty sure... had a great presentation last week! Oh, and I need to get working on a paper I have to do for my language course... keep forgetting about that... le-sigh... other than that things are going super! My performance is coming up soon... oh and that summer course back at Wayne will be starting in a week... sent an e-mail about that with no reply... oh well, enough babble! Peace all,
Dave
Hamburg was not at all what I had expected. Historically, this was always one of Germany’s most important cities in terms of economics. Today, the city is still an industrial capital. There still exists a historical section, but its being quickly eaten up by corporate development in a very strange infusion of old and new. The reason for this is all the ports, docks and industry! Everything, save one theater is nothing but dock and factory on the other side of the Elbe River, which is an incredible amount of space.
I took mitfahr there... if you're wondering what exactly that is, it's like an online Craig’s list where people with cars register and you can call them up and ride with them wherever they're going for a small price. It's an amazing system, and is quite cheap. I got into the city pretty early, so I did some waking downtown before looking for my hostel. That's when I saw most of the pretty churches and city buildings in the downtown old city. They were nice.
The thing with Hamburg to be aware of... at least for when I was there is the weather. Nasty storms come plowing from the West off of the North Sea. They're very cold and windy. I even got hit with some random hail at one time. As soon as they're gone though, the city becomes warm, pleasant and beautiful once more... Watch out also for the developing section to the Southeast. I wandered down that way in search of a Submarine exhibition that's no longer there... along with anything else! The whole area is half under construction; and empty ghost town... but only because it's not finished yet, which is an odd twist.
Hamburg has one of the most beautiful botanical garden/park centers in Europe, and it's huge. It's cared for by the city and university, that has a large botany section. They have an old Garden and a Japanese section. The whole thing is absolutely beautiful, and I would consider a must-see, though I'm kind of a garden/park nut, so who knows! lol.
The boat rides are great too, and you can do them with just a simple transit ticket if you want. Ignore all the silly "sailor" dudes who will try to tempt you with their long tours around the canal. It's much more worth it just to take the larger boats with the electric signs on the side. It's really funny, because they even say the same things on them that you here on the trains; the famous "zurrueck bleiben bitte" (equates to 'mind the gap')as the door goes up and down. People have to take the boats to get to work at the docks on the other side of the canal after all!
At first I thought that Hamburg had one of the lamest night life of all the cities I've seen, but then I found Reeperbahn street, which turned out to be the exact opposite for my taste; WAY too intense! There was a club simply titled "injection" with a huge syringe as the sign... there were Granny pole dancers! It was smart the way they arranged it though. It was all contained on one little street from what I saw, and there were tons of cops there to make sure order was kept, so I didn't feel in danger or anything... unless I had gone in one of those places, which I didn't! I'm an innocent exchange student from WMU after all! :D
Checked out a pretty nice museum in the garden district... no surprises there aside from how nice the museum exhibits themselves were; very interactive and informative. The city has been a port city for 500 years, and always will be. Other than that its history is similar to most other German cities; war, explosions and regret from the last century followed by steady recovery.
They had a huge Lego store, which I was very happy to see!
I also had a huge hamburger at a restaurant there... wow how silly of me :P
There was an all-age group rowing race going on the second day I was there, which was pretty interesting
I got home late on Saturday, missing a party held by one of my theater buddies... oh well. Today I did laundry, posted the pictures and made some banana bread. I've been trying to get the right software to make music videos for random things today as well, and that's proving to be hectic at times... the hard part was finding a file converter so my editing software could cut clips I wanted to edit... sigh. k, well I guess that's all I got to report for now... pretty sure... had a great presentation last week! Oh, and I need to get working on a paper I have to do for my language course... keep forgetting about that... le-sigh... other than that things are going super! My performance is coming up soon... oh and that summer course back at Wayne will be starting in a week... sent an e-mail about that with no reply... oh well, enough babble! Peace all,
Dave
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