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
Monday, June 15, 2009
Berlin, June 15
Hey all... sigh. This was a very busy weekend, and was also kind of slow at the same time. I went on a tour through Berlin once again, though this time it was with the goal of collecting information on the history of Jews in Berlin for a presentation I'll be doing this week. I was working on the presentation the entire weekend, and got it down pretty well finally.
The history itself is massive of course, and it all started way before holocaust; even their persecution. It's sad really that the only first evidence of Jews in Berlin occurred 40 years after Berlin was founded in 1251. All it was a boycott on Jewish threadwork and a ban placed on Jews from participating in craft guilds or Christian ceremonies. After that they got kicked out of the city at least 4 times in the following 400 years. The first time was from 1348 to 1354 because they were being blamed for starting the black plague! Guess the department of health back then was a little lacking...
They got kicked out three more times between 1446 and 1671, and banished for 100 years until 1771. The reasons this time all revolved around alleged ceremonies the Jews would hold where they would take the blood of Christian priests and children to reanimate the suffering for Christ or something. Whether these were all just rumors or not is uncertain... I mean after all, the Christians did plenty of their own crazy stuff back then. The problem for the Jews though in doing weird religious rituals was that they were a minority, and easily blamed, persecuted and banished very easily, especially since they were so good at making money, and the city took any opportunity they could to seize their property.
Things were pretty good for the Jewish community from 1771 until the Nazis went all crazy on them. They had some significant historical figures like Moses Mendelson, who tried to create a secularist branch of Judaism so they'd finally start integrating with Christian society. I guess we're pretty good at that in the US... it's so hard to compare really. I mean, we have so many different minorities, with very different religions, and they somehow seem to get along together much more successfully than I've seen even in modern day Europe... not sure how we do it really... not to say we don't have bigots or government enforced persecution in our history... Each country has a very unique sensitive history relating to different populations being repressed... we're learning how to be more fair as day go by... slowly but surely, so that's a good enough conclusion on all that!
Anyway, I also visited a four-hundred year old castle during my trip across Berlin. It's in Spandau, which is also where the first Jewish settlement was. They even have a "Jewish street" there, though I have no idea if there's still any Jewish families living there... currently there's only about 20k Jews in Berlin, when in the turn of the 19th century there were about 90k. The funny thing about this Citadel though is that they've turned it into a big nightclub! Korn had played there last week... wow. It was a very pretty place still. They had a woodwork center and a blacksmith as well... along with tons of really creepy modern statues. See my facebook album by the way for more photos than what I've put up here.
hope you all enjoyed this cultural/historical experience
I also check out Grunewald track 17, which is a memorial for the 50k Jews that were transported out of Berlin to the extermination camps. The strange thing was that there was a film crew there doing a documentary, and they filmed me checking the memorial out... very odd, but I'm definitely going to check and see if I'm in it when it comes out! lol.
with me... lol... I'll try to do more exciting stuff for the non-scholars out there I swear!
PS the final picture of the creepy faces is called "Fallen Leaves" in the Berlin Jewish museum.
The history itself is massive of course, and it all started way before holocaust; even their persecution. It's sad really that the only first evidence of Jews in Berlin occurred 40 years after Berlin was founded in 1251. All it was a boycott on Jewish threadwork and a ban placed on Jews from participating in craft guilds or Christian ceremonies. After that they got kicked out of the city at least 4 times in the following 400 years. The first time was from 1348 to 1354 because they were being blamed for starting the black plague! Guess the department of health back then was a little lacking...
They got kicked out three more times between 1446 and 1671, and banished for 100 years until 1771. The reasons this time all revolved around alleged ceremonies the Jews would hold where they would take the blood of Christian priests and children to reanimate the suffering for Christ or something. Whether these were all just rumors or not is uncertain... I mean after all, the Christians did plenty of their own crazy stuff back then. The problem for the Jews though in doing weird religious rituals was that they were a minority, and easily blamed, persecuted and banished very easily, especially since they were so good at making money, and the city took any opportunity they could to seize their property.
Things were pretty good for the Jewish community from 1771 until the Nazis went all crazy on them. They had some significant historical figures like Moses Mendelson, who tried to create a secularist branch of Judaism so they'd finally start integrating with Christian society. I guess we're pretty good at that in the US... it's so hard to compare really. I mean, we have so many different minorities, with very different religions, and they somehow seem to get along together much more successfully than I've seen even in modern day Europe... not sure how we do it really... not to say we don't have bigots or government enforced persecution in our history... Each country has a very unique sensitive history relating to different populations being repressed... we're learning how to be more fair as day go by... slowly but surely, so that's a good enough conclusion on all that!
Anyway, I also visited a four-hundred year old castle during my trip across Berlin. It's in Spandau, which is also where the first Jewish settlement was. They even have a "Jewish street" there, though I have no idea if there's still any Jewish families living there... currently there's only about 20k Jews in Berlin, when in the turn of the 19th century there were about 90k. The funny thing about this Citadel though is that they've turned it into a big nightclub! Korn had played there last week... wow. It was a very pretty place still. They had a woodwork center and a blacksmith as well... along with tons of really creepy modern statues. See my facebook album by the way for more photos than what I've put up here.
hope you all enjoyed this cultural/historical experience
I also check out Grunewald track 17, which is a memorial for the 50k Jews that were transported out of Berlin to the extermination camps. The strange thing was that there was a film crew there doing a documentary, and they filmed me checking the memorial out... very odd, but I'm definitely going to check and see if I'm in it when it comes out! lol.
with me... lol... I'll try to do more exciting stuff for the non-scholars out there I swear!
PS the final picture of the creepy faces is called "Fallen Leaves" in the Berlin Jewish museum.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Berlin June 7th
Alright, so not a whole bunch happened last weekend that I remember… I was preparing like crazy for two referats (presentation) I had that week, and guess what? My verdammte internet goes out! I kid you not, a lightning bolt hit our building and surged my computer, temporarily snuffing some drives. So I had no internet on Sunday, and was stuck having to do most of the work and data collection on the following Monday. I’m not sure if I’ve posted already over seeing “Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band” last Monday, but that was amazing too! Maybe I’ll try to include a picture of them in this note too, if I didn’t do anything on them before.
This weekend we went to Weimar. It’s a little town a bit north of Leipzig. I went with my two friends from England; Emma and Lucille. Som other people from my sprachkurs (language course) were also there.
The town was super small and most of it revolved around this Dude Goethe. Who founded a whole buncha fun stuff there? The city is described as being “an extraordinarily large park, that so happens to surround a small town. The first day was cool. We just walked around the town a bit and then went to a Shakespeare themed restaurant. Our program arranger had provided us food for that evening, and the restaurant was great. I had some pasta with Salmon in it.
We three went out that night. We had been given a recommendation to check out some place up on the border to the new town, but when we stopped for directions there person told us that the place was no good, so she gave us a different recommendation. We were nice and drunk, and had a really fun time at this place, though it only fit about fifty people at most. It was cozy though, and the basement was sweet; it was made of stone and smelled like ancient cave walls. Ema also found her last name written on the wall of the bathroom door, which also rocked.
We got a little lost on our way back, and didn’t end up getting to sleep until around 4, which led to a terrible hangover for me the next day.
Saturday kinda stank from the get-go. Breakfast was good, but we had a city tour to go on, and it rained the whole way through. This city is also themed after the Ginko Biloba tree, because they had specially ordered some from far away and planted them all over the place. They found Ginko interesting because it was one of the few plants to return to existence after the ice-age. We also saw a pretty interesting Soviet memorial…
I have a strange attraction to everything Russian… don’t ask me why. Just be thankful for me that it’s not the 60’s anymore!
So yeah, we also checked out a crazy architecture museum and stuff as well.
It was alright, but the horrible weather on Saturday mixed with the hangover and we also saw a pretty bad opera at the end of the day… well, it wasn’t that bad to be honest. I just don’t like Operas… dislike them even more than musicals, and I don’t like musicals much either. Got a good nap in there at least!
The second half was pretty good though… it was kinda like West Side story meets Macbeth or something… in modern day! The spinny stage was rather entertaining… kinda like watching a dim-sum with waling opera people. Lolz
The next day was more interesting. We got enough sleep the night before, and went off to do our own things.
I circumnavigated the city; first checked out an old church which was pretty nice, then I got stopped by a kitty, that came right up to me so I got to pet it, and was very happy by this. Then I found Nietzsche’s archive, and walked all the way out to the border of town out into the rolling country side.
After that I found the most amazing part. There was a super old cemetery in the middle of town with a WW1 memorial and a Russian orthodox church.
It was probably the most moving thing I found there. They were having a baptism at the time, and the singing was amazing. Fun stuff… Then I went around to the front and got to check out Goethe’s Sarcophagus! How fun… After that I went on a long walk through the park, encountering the old ruins of the Shakespeare stage that we saw the day before… they looked much better then… I also saw an old roman building, some pretty rivers and Goethe’s garden house, which has a duplicate right beside it… They’re weird like that. I also got some peanut icecream at a shop, which was pretty odd I had to say… big ole’ pieces of peanut were just stuck right there in the icecream… it was pretty good though. After that we took the train rid back home. All in all it was a pretty good trip though. Poor Ema was getting pretty tired by the end of it though, which I don’t blame her. She’s more of a big city girl I’d say, though I make my peace quite will with small towns… no wonder, saying I’m from the U.P… lol.
Anyway, it was a great time, and now I’m back in Berlin and back to business studying for me next referat and getting my lines down. Yay is me! Peace all,
Dave
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Besancon, France- Oh, Champs Elysées...
Last night, I went with Juliette and my host dad to see the musical FAME at the Comédie Théâtre in Paris. It was very entertaining! I couldn't compare it to a Broadway show (seeing as how I've never seen an actual B'way show) but it was pretty good! It's a good thing I saw the movie in English before the live version in French- it helped me follow along a lot easier. I still didn't catch everything, though, because there were several differences in the script that weren't part of the movie.
I feel like my spoken French is improving loads- especially after having spent so much time with my host sister and brothers. The other day, Yohan (Juliette's older brother, Samuel's younger) helped me bring my things from Luna Park to Laurent's apartment, where I stayed one night before moving to Arlette's mothers' apartment. He was very helpful and I hope he knows how grateful I was for his help. That day while we were waiting to meet up with Laurent, we went to Champs Elysées and walked up and down the strip, stopping at random boutiques here and there. We stopped at a Starbucks to treat ourselves to a Frappuccino before going to the Ciné to see yet another American film, Penelope. Very cute film. It was dubbed in French, so again I had to pay close attention to follow along, but well worth it.
Thursday- May 2nd
I'm leaving in thirteen days. I succeeded in moving the date up to May 15th at the steep price of $95 (the ticket price for the flight stayed the same, which is unfortunate because it would have been over $200 of a difference!) But either way, it's worth it because I'll be home in time for my little brother's birthday. He was happy to hear that. But now, since I'm quite pressed for money, I'll have to check out what events around here are cheap/free. Tonight there's a music festival on campus, and I was invited by Samuel. Should be interesting! Until then, i'm spending time on the balcony (with a beautiful view of Centre Ville) listening to music on my computer. I really enjoy the quiet here at Arlette's. Last weekend Yohan and his cousin, her boyfriend, and another guy all stayed over. It was pretty loud, sometimes a bit hard to fall asleep but the piano/guitar duets didn't last too long into the night.
Saturday- May 5th
Today is gorgeous. I'm laying on the grass by the Doubs. There are a bunch of people already here that had the exact same idea. I adore this spot- it's like a beach without the sand. It's nice to be able to take advantage of the sun for at least a few days (I heard it's not going to be as nice tomorrow :-/ ) (Post-France edit: I think I spent more time outside in Besac because it was the French thing to do! Also, it helped that I was so close to Centre Ville, and you didn't have to go far in any direction to have a beautiful view of the river, the Citadelle, et cetera.)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Berlin May 24, 2009 Munich and beyond
Alright, so I left off right before our tip to Munich I believe. The flight over and everything went perfectly well. In fact there were no real mess-ups in the entire trip that I can think of, which was very fortunate. One may only note that the sky is gray in most of the pictures, but it even opened up for us a bit on our trip to Neuschwanstein (castle new-swan-stone). On our first day we wandered around town and saw all the local sites in the old city. We tried out an authentic Bavarian restaurant, which was passable, but not excellent. We wandered around and checked out all the government buildings and statues littered all across the main city square.
The next day we were up to go see the castle! We had to take two trains and two busses over the course of two hours just to get there, but it was very worth it. We hiked up a steep incline for about twenty minutes until we got to the bridge with a beautiful view of the castle, which this picture illustrates. Sadly the castle was covered for renovation, but you can still get a very good idea of it's gloriousness... plus that just tends to happen all the time so I get use to it. The castle itself was beautiful, though we couldn't take any pictures from within it. There was a ton of elaborate wooden carvings, and the place was completely filled with swan sculptures and pictures... there area was once ruled by a royal regime known as the knights of swan, hence why Ludwig the second themed his castle as he did.
A strange story goes along with Ludwig 2, who built this castle with the royal families money, throwing their once wealth estate into debt. Shortly before his mysterious death he was removed from power for dissolving parliament three times in under two years, claiming he was mentally unfit for this one and only power. Several months after his and his psychologist body are found dead in a lake. Some claim suicide and others claim murder, since they were only in knee-deep water... Either way, the man's legacy lives on in one of the most mysterious and beautiful castles in the entire world. I felt more than fortunate to view this masterpiece with my own eyes with my love Kristina. As you can tell, we also had a very nice tour guide named Mike. He was from Minnesota actually... if you ever want to plan a tour of Neuschuanstein go through Viator and ask for him! They arrange all the traveling details and whatnot, which is necessary to get there. I know I would have gotten completely lost.
So the rest of the time in Munich was great. The best restaurant we went to was an Irish/Australian pub and restaurant behind the tall Frauenkirche. They served amazing food! Ironic how the most cultured places in any cultural location tend to be in representation of other cultural places? How silly! We also saw the Nymph palace, which had, as you could guess tons of swans swimming around in front of it. The inside was influenced by the French short-lived empire, but was quite beautiful.
We also checked out the old Olympic stadium with its infamous history; see the film "Munich" for more on that... It's a pretty ugly stadium actually, but it's huge and the funny part is that AC/DC was playing there that night so we got to hear them warming up as we passed by... and I'll certainly live on not having seen them... lol. Not sure how much shaking they'll be doing all night long at their age, but hats off to them for persistence. We went to the English Garden as well which was very large and quite beautiful. There was an interesting little Chinese tower in the center of the garden with an expensive little restaurant... it' a good place to eat, but you can't get anything under 10 Euro per person really; Tourist prices, which I try to avoid when possible.
The bar at our own Hostel, The Wombat was also phenomenal, as well as also being Australian themed! We got a very generous plate of nachos there, though German salsa is gross... it just takes like sugary ketchup with maybe a little chili powder or something... German cousine has never really impressed me, especially in reflection to sauces, which tend to all be either cheese based cranberry or Ketchup based, and vary quite little... curry sauce is usually just ketchup with a little curry sprinkled on it, but practicality and efficacy are the key words in all that is German! Has it good and bad sides I guess.
We also watched x-men origins while we were there just to take a break from all the walking around. It was in German because we had just missed the English showing by 10 minutes or so. I did my best to help Kristina through it, but I think I'd like to see it again in English just to get a few of the dialogue sequences down... not that I think I missed anything pivotal in my first view... I really don't know what people expect from action movies these days... critics complain because they're brainless, but isn't that what we go to them for? Maybe the problem is that the market encourages such, and now we're being flooded with hundreds of brainless action thriller movies wit not substance or plot... see my Tarintio debate post on Facebook for more on that and his new ridiculous movie... honestly, This director is just a controversy addict, and attention whore if you ask me, but at least he's original... to say the least.
So then we went back, hung out with my friends for a little bit to watch that sill Eurovision thing... hillarious kariokie style sing/dance off between all European countries by less than known performers... we made an elaborate drinking game out of it, though Kristina had to go to sleep pretty early for her flight back.
So not much has happened since then really... I took a picture of the incredible amount of SEEDS falling from the tress on my neighborhood. It's insane. they totally covered the ground like snow.
I also went to an open air theater in Friedrichsheim park, which was showing the most ridiculous French film I ever saw called "Louise-Michel" It was about a bunch of French factory workers that try to kill their old boss who had outsourced their company and left them all jobless... there's an ugly woman who eats pigeons she catches in a mouse trap, and a fat man who sells guns who she hires to kill this guy... they're both psychopath murdering imbeciles and the bit spin in the end... well I'll leave it to all of you to find out... It's not a terrible movie really except for the part they show some guy blowing up simulated models of the wtc for his own sick amusement... I guess it' wasn't too offensive, but even I found it to be a bit much.
Just yesterday I went and visited the soviet memorial in Treptow park. It was very impressive, and I like it very much. I was a bit over-glorious, but it deserved, since at least 70,000 people died just in the final battle in capturing Berlin. The memorial served it's purpose well in serving as a mass-grave for all those who couldn't be buried.
Think that's about all I have for now... man this turned out to be by far the longest blog I've ever written me thinks... Who knows though... I'm still practicing for the play I'm in, and getting a little nervous about all these lines I have to memorize... they say I don't have to have them all perfectly memorized for this Monday, but that still implies I should have most of them, where only have a little over half so far... I'll keep working on it! I hope I can still at least plan a trip to Hamburg, Krakow and/or Copenhagen, but time is running thin... either way I'm doing well, and am very satisfied with all I've already gotten to do here in my trip to Berlin... It's been such an amazing trip, and I still have 1.5 months to go!
Best wishes to everyone out there,
Dave
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Queretaro, Mexico: Semana Santa Pt. 3 Chiapas
Here we are, the final leg of my two week adventure in Southern Mexico. I hope to wrap up the entire trip in the next two entries and then write a short little entries about daily life in Queretaro. Friends, parties, salsa dancing, mojitos. You know, the REALLY important stuff.
Anyhoo, after Katie and I wished her parents a heart-filled "bon voyage" back to the States, we boarded our own plane to Tuxtla, Chiapas. This flight seemed to be an omen of our upcoming week when things did not go exactly as planned. Despite the lovely weather, the plane felt like it was flying through a blizzard because there was so much turbulence. While Katie and I gripped the armrests of our chairs praying we would at least crash land successfully, our fellow Mexican passengers (of course) casually read their in-flight magazines or slept. I suppose at this point, I should have realized that public transportation in Mexico, no matter what mode, is a crap shoot that miraculously (and barely) always rolls up 7.
After a tense one hour flight, Katie and I landed in the middle of no where (aka Tuxtla). The funniest part was the fact that the pilot said, as we pulled up to the gate, "And your bags will be on conveyer belt 1," but as we enter the airport, we reaize that, in fact, there is only one belt. One tip for the Tuxtla airport: if you ever get lost, just turn around and you'll find what you need. Okay, I'm done jabbing Tuxtla because actually, it is one of the nicest and cleanest airports I have ever been in during my 21 years of intense travel.
A short colectivo (van) ride later, we arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas (aka Hippie Capital of the World). I only say that because the majority of foreign tourists were European or Californian backpackers that preferred the hammocks in the patio to their beds indoors, which was totally awesome and they made wonderful hostel mates during the nightly bonfires. I have to say that San Cristobal is up there on my list of "Cutest Cities in the World" because all of the buildings are brightly painted in blues, yellows, reds, every color imaginable and it's impeccably clean despite Chiapas' reputation as the poorest state of Mexico.
San Cristobal has a fascinating history, which I won't go into at this particular moment, but it's most recent history involves the town in the Zapatista movement, which is a movement of indigenous farmers fighting the government for their basic rights to sell their products in a fair environment. Currently, many establishments in the city display Zapatista art as a show of support. If you'd like to know more about what the Zapatista or EZLN movement is, let me know and I would be more than happy to share the knowledge I have on the subject.
This area also has been home to the Maya people for centuries, who are the modern day Tzotzil's ancestors. One small town nearby, called San Juan Chamula, is simply amazing because of the traditions they still hold onto despite the arrival of the Spanish and globalization. Katie and I took a day trip to the village and we were greatly surprised when our guide told us that we should guard our cameras and take pictures with caution because community Elders will confiscate and destroy pictures as the townspeople believe that taking a picture robs a person of their soul. Picture taking is absolutely forbidden within the small church as the Saints' souls can also be stolen via photos, so unfortunately, I only have a handful of pictures from the market in front of the church.
As you can see, the majority of the people wear woolen tunics or woolen skirts as it is the biggest commodity in this mountainous region. Now, the real reason that Katie and I took this trip to San Juan Chamula was to see the religious services. Although the entire village is Catholic, their worship differs greatly from the conventional Catholic church because most of their practices are indigenous in origin. The entire incense-filled church is empty of pews and in their place, pine needles litter the floor as people kneel on the needles and among lit candles as a sign of humility and worship. Indigenous drums and flutes fill the church with music instead of choirs and organs and community Elders run the service instead of priests. Katie and I had the special privilege of visiting San Juan Chamula on Easter Sunday so the elders proudly displayed all of their saint statues along the walls of the church. I can still smell the incense (they were really strong, I probably still have bits of the herbs in my nose yet) and hear the music if I close my eyes.
San Juan Chamula also, interestingly, uses Coca-Cola as a sort of holy water. Drinking it cures the soul of its maladies by burping away evil spirits and spraying the church floor with Coke cleanses the space. It is a curious little town with beautiful people and beautiful traditions despite the numerous setbacks they've faced in the past 20 years. Nevertheless, although a good portion of the indigenous Chiapan community has been mistreated by the Mexican government over the years, their culture is so vibrant despite the hardships and that is probably the best part of Mexico. The smiles despite the setbacks and pain still astound me. Those smiles and the pleasant chit-chat with these people are the best memories I have brought home with me because they never fail to inspire me.
Anyhoo, after Katie and I wished her parents a heart-filled "bon voyage" back to the States, we boarded our own plane to Tuxtla, Chiapas. This flight seemed to be an omen of our upcoming week when things did not go exactly as planned. Despite the lovely weather, the plane felt like it was flying through a blizzard because there was so much turbulence. While Katie and I gripped the armrests of our chairs praying we would at least crash land successfully, our fellow Mexican passengers (of course) casually read their in-flight magazines or slept. I suppose at this point, I should have realized that public transportation in Mexico, no matter what mode, is a crap shoot that miraculously (and barely) always rolls up 7.
After a tense one hour flight, Katie and I landed in the middle of no where (aka Tuxtla). The funniest part was the fact that the pilot said, as we pulled up to the gate, "And your bags will be on conveyer belt 1," but as we enter the airport, we reaize that, in fact, there is only one belt. One tip for the Tuxtla airport: if you ever get lost, just turn around and you'll find what you need. Okay, I'm done jabbing Tuxtla because actually, it is one of the nicest and cleanest airports I have ever been in during my 21 years of intense travel.
A short colectivo (van) ride later, we arrived in San Cristobal de las Casas (aka Hippie Capital of the World). I only say that because the majority of foreign tourists were European or Californian backpackers that preferred the hammocks in the patio to their beds indoors, which was totally awesome and they made wonderful hostel mates during the nightly bonfires. I have to say that San Cristobal is up there on my list of "Cutest Cities in the World" because all of the buildings are brightly painted in blues, yellows, reds, every color imaginable and it's impeccably clean despite Chiapas' reputation as the poorest state of Mexico.
San Cristobal has a fascinating history, which I won't go into at this particular moment, but it's most recent history involves the town in the Zapatista movement, which is a movement of indigenous farmers fighting the government for their basic rights to sell their products in a fair environment. Currently, many establishments in the city display Zapatista art as a show of support. If you'd like to know more about what the Zapatista or EZLN movement is, let me know and I would be more than happy to share the knowledge I have on the subject.
This area also has been home to the Maya people for centuries, who are the modern day Tzotzil's ancestors. One small town nearby, called San Juan Chamula, is simply amazing because of the traditions they still hold onto despite the arrival of the Spanish and globalization. Katie and I took a day trip to the village and we were greatly surprised when our guide told us that we should guard our cameras and take pictures with caution because community Elders will confiscate and destroy pictures as the townspeople believe that taking a picture robs a person of their soul. Picture taking is absolutely forbidden within the small church as the Saints' souls can also be stolen via photos, so unfortunately, I only have a handful of pictures from the market in front of the church.
As you can see, the majority of the people wear woolen tunics or woolen skirts as it is the biggest commodity in this mountainous region. Now, the real reason that Katie and I took this trip to San Juan Chamula was to see the religious services. Although the entire village is Catholic, their worship differs greatly from the conventional Catholic church because most of their practices are indigenous in origin. The entire incense-filled church is empty of pews and in their place, pine needles litter the floor as people kneel on the needles and among lit candles as a sign of humility and worship. Indigenous drums and flutes fill the church with music instead of choirs and organs and community Elders run the service instead of priests. Katie and I had the special privilege of visiting San Juan Chamula on Easter Sunday so the elders proudly displayed all of their saint statues along the walls of the church. I can still smell the incense (they were really strong, I probably still have bits of the herbs in my nose yet) and hear the music if I close my eyes.
San Juan Chamula also, interestingly, uses Coca-Cola as a sort of holy water. Drinking it cures the soul of its maladies by burping away evil spirits and spraying the church floor with Coke cleanses the space. It is a curious little town with beautiful people and beautiful traditions despite the numerous setbacks they've faced in the past 20 years. Nevertheless, although a good portion of the indigenous Chiapan community has been mistreated by the Mexican government over the years, their culture is so vibrant despite the hardships and that is probably the best part of Mexico. The smiles despite the setbacks and pain still astound me. Those smiles and the pleasant chit-chat with these people are the best memories I have brought home with me because they never fail to inspire me.
Berlin May 17, the busy continues!
OMG! So much has happened since two weeks ago, there's no way I'll be able to get it all in this note... I'll try my best to just get through some of the highlights, and I'll save the trip to Munich for when I get the photos from my fiancé
So, starting there, My fiancé visited me this week. She arrived last Saturday, and just flew back a few hours ago. Things were non-stop go from there till now, which is why I haven't had the chance to write anything from the week before or before that either... so where to begin,
So Monday the fifth we went to a bar in Nollendorf where they had this "Quiz-o-rama" thing going on. The bar's name was HAFEN, and it's on Botzstrasse. Amazing fun place. The quiz is in English once a month, so we were able to follow along much better. The questions ranged from simple stuff like "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" To knowing which side of some ancient portrait someone's ear was hanging lower from... I also learned that Icarus was the god that tried to fly to the sun, but melted his wings, Cain was the first recorded birth in the bible and that there exists a nude photo of Jude Law on the internet somewhere! (Gay Bar... go Figure). Really fun place and we almost would have won too, if it weren't for missing two of them... I would have been able to get the super-hard tie-breaker question, which is how many feet are there in a mile... lolz... you wouldn't believe how esoteric such a fact is to most places outside the US.
I had an excursion with my Cultural Orientation class on that Thursday. It was pretty nice, though super long. We toured the ancient history of Berlin, and how it was founded originally as a ford town, because the Spree had so very few crossable places. We visited the first church ever built in Berlin as well. It was prety small, but nice. I'll put a photo up of that of course.
The next day I went on a tour with my partner Kensuke to Bormholerstrasse. This is the historical location that the border between East and West Berlin first opened. It's funny that they record November 9th as the day the wall fell, even though it was barely by even a nose at the end of the day, and this was the only location that had even opened by the end of November 9th... I think that's more of a self-fulfilling prophecy thing, since Germans just seem to have a dichotomously significant relationship whit the particular date: Krystal Nacht, the day hitler arrested all oppositional forces and declared total power over Germany and before that and after WW1 in 1923 when the first Democratic (Weimarer Republik) Government... what a political day! So yeah, that was a fun little excursion. We had to interview any passerby that would stop for a second to talk. We eventually found a friendly east German guy with a Rat-tail who gave us a little story, and we were done there.
The next day Kristina, my fiancé arrived! I was ecstatic. We wasted no time, and went out to a club together in Warschauer Strasse called "Matrix" Really nice and friendly place. Plus it's free entrance from 10 to 11. We drank and danced and had a great time there. It was some sort of Biance after party or something, and we got some random "Paparazzi" photo of us taken. They just took the photo and gave us some little information flyer on where to get the shot... first time that ever happened to me... oh and their go go girls were the most terrifying creatures I had ever seen... they could have ripped me in half... see my facebook profile if you'd like a short clip on that!
The next day we went to the Berlin Zoo, which is a must for anyone who comes to Berlin. You can easily spend a whole day there and not see everything, as we did. The highlights are as follows: The giraffes. There was a recent birth in this exhibit. The baby giraffe is very cute and awkward. The Panda is super cool, but you have to have some patience. Generally he's the laziest animal in the zoo, but every once in a while he will reward your devotion with a quick walk around his cage for you. The lions and tigers are super fun, especially during feeding time if you like that kinda stuff. The rhinos are a amazing, and they have a special house in the back of the zoo, where you can get really close to them... as most places in Germany, safety standards are kinda lax :). The seals and otters are also pretty fun, and of course the polar bears! They were involved in a recent current event if you look it up in the news; a woman just a month or two ago jumped into their cage DURING FEEDING TIME! She's probably the dumbest person to ever survive such a foolish act. They had to pull her out of there as the polar bears 'nommed' on her fat buttocks. The polar bear one was pacing back and forth eagerly when we arrived, waiting for the next bozo to jump in the pen with him for dinner. They pretty much have everything you could imagine in that place, including all kinds of nocturnal animals, rodents, felines, reptiles and Australian animals. We saw as much as we could, and got some pretty good photos.
The next day we went to the Pergamon Museum, which is an exhibit with tons of old middle-east ottoman style architecture and statue work. It had artifacts originating from places as far as India, and as close as Greece I'd say. It' a pretty good place to check out at any rate. We also went inside the Berliner Dom on the same day, which is the gigantic and beautiful church on the Museum Island. We had to kind of speed though there... gigantic crypt in the bottom full of deceased lords and nobles... wish we had more time to look around in there, but we were on a busy schedule! Went to an amazing Thai Restaurant that same night over... ah man, can't remember where we were... it was Germany's red-light district or something, but the food was amazing
The next day we were off to Munich, but I'll save that story until my Fiancé posts the photos up for me to share... amazing how culture exploration can lead you to so many other places...we all have sehenssucht for something else, as the world begins to tie the knots of a beautiful vicarious bow of exploration... More on that later with the Munich experience, but for now I'd better tend to my facebook farm! haha... peace all.
Dave
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