Ich bin gerade ein bisschen blau aber ich will über das sprechen...
"Foreigners" in Germany doesn't mean mexicans or latinos... It means people from other parts of Europe and nearby areas such as north afrika and the middle east. It means i've met more french-africans that are better examples of christians than i ever have in the states... it means that i've met more muslims than i ever though i would. (the largest minority in germany in turkish) and those muslims (which i hope i don't have to remind you, believe in the same god as christians) are by far, more devout than most christians i have ever met. And i feel their religion demands so much more of them, about which they never complain and simply do. Deshalb fühle ich sehr sauer, wenn ich ein E-Mail bekomme, dass sagt, dass Muslims sehr böser sind. It's ridiculous and embarrassing for me to admit that i am american here (where people are normal and think about things the way the rest of the world does) because the second thing (after obama's popularity) that everyone identifies america with is their "hatred" towards islam... C'mon people. The rest of the world thinks that we hate islam... And because of stupid e-mails like the ones i get so often, they can rightful claim such things... Is is christian to hate anything? then shut the hell up! You're only contributing to the problem...
23.6.09
19.6.09
Nach drei Monaten
I should, without question, be slaving through a vast multitude of text I must have read for class next week but I cannot bring myself to waste my time with such trivial matters whilst I remain here in Germany having the time of life. Indeed I plan to work on this homework very little if at all over the weekend because I am planning a trip to Aachen for tomorrow and will be spending most of Sunday with Anne. For those of you that don’t know, Anne is my girlfriend of a little over a month now –though we have known each other the whole time I have been here (three months now –wow). I feel like I’m getting a little bit of an extra experience as the rest of the exchange students here (at least the Americans) because I have family in the area that I visit occasionally and a significant other that I not only see regularly but is an authentic part of the culture in which we are all currently living. I get to just hang out with my girlfriend rather than talk to her on Skype every day; I’ve gotten to be driven around in a car and shown the sights of not just Dortmund, but several other cities by my family and Rica’s family. I’ve also been fed normal German meals around a dinner table and taken care of by these same people. I’ve get to occasionally watch television which most of the others haven’t had the luxury of. And I’m sure there are countless other things that are so easy for me to take for granted until they are brought to my attention by one of my friends.
The exchange students here are like one giant family and I love being a part of this experience. The people here are all so very interesting and we come from so many cultures and yet we are all so very similar in that we are all the kind of people that possessed an interest in the German language and the desire to do something as specifically random as study abroad in Germany. Indeed, many of my American friends here are Southerners from South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, Georgia and so on, but they do not remind me of the ignorant conservatism that I dislike about the South because the people that contribute to that kind of society are not the kind of people that would like to study in Germany for half a year or have any interest in international culture, much less a foreign language. I feel so at ease with all of these people and though we essentially had to form relationships in the beginning of our experience against the isolation that comes naturally from being a foreigner, I also feel that many of these relationships are quite genuine and the people here (that I am glad to call my friends) would all be the type of people I would gladly have befriended back home in the States. Apart from the German culture which surrounds me almost 24/7, I have also been introduced to the cultures of other members of this international family such as Turkish, French, Hungarian, Mexican, Spanish, English, Irish, Czech and so on. I feel as if I have gained such a wealth of knowledge of culture in such a short amount of time (and indeed I have) that I’ve suddenly realized that I can no longer define myself. Every day it becomes more and more difficult to step outside of myself and look at who I am because I feel I do not recognize this person any more. I have changed so much that I never thought this to be possible. I have had thoughts I’ve never before possessed; I have tried things I’d never took the time before to do; I’ve had feelings that I’ve never before felt; I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I fear returning to the States, no one could ever understand this transformation that I’ve undergone. And it’s not even finished –I have still remaining two more months of adventure in the Ruhrgebiet. I know when I return, things that have not changed will no longer seem the same to me. I will be starting over no matter where I am. This experienced as opened a new chapter of my life and I believe I am only just now beginning to grasp what this entails. I have matured to a point that I though would only be possible with the raising of a family. I am no longer scared of the world and what lies around the corner because I have a new understanding of myself and I realize that what ever it is, I possess the ability to overcome it and everything will be okay. I learn something new about myself every day and that is the greatest feeling I could imagine. Each time it’s like receiving a present as a small child on Christmas morning.
For those of you who know me well enough to understand this, here’s a list of things I could come up this off the top of my head that I’ve tried and realized I liked for the first time while I’ve been here (yes, most of them are food but it was difficult to think of more abstract things –though I’m sure there are many):
strawberries, kiwis, pineapples, oranges, pomegranates, wine, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, ferris wheels, laying in the grass, cooking, salad without salad dressing, dancing, raspberries, blackberries, asparagus, apricots, mayonnaise, usw…
My skills with the German language have also greatly improved. I normally feel comfortable conversing with people in German, though I never understand everything, I feel it’s enough to make do. I try to think about how I may appear to native Germans and the example that always comes first to mind is that of Fez on That 70s Show. I know I’m not as out-going or funny (though my sense of humor does work a little better here and I often joke more than the Germans because they simply don’t that often –not that they dislike humor, on the contrary they enjoy it very much every time I joke around, it’s just not something that they regularly take part in as part of their culture) but I feel like the near-fluent speech abilities and the lack of constantly talking about one’s home country (of which I refrain as much as possible) does bare a striking parallel. Thus I tend to imagine myself as a Fez-type character: capable of getting by but not entirely compatible with society. I am so glad that Anne is as patient and understanding as she is with me and that we have so many similarities that it is easy for us to get along. As example, it did not upset her the other day but rather tickled her into laughter for quite a few minutes when I accidentally call her a term that apparently is quite derogatory, though I had no idea. She has helped me so much and in so many ways to learn the language, the details of German culture it’s impossible to obtain in a class, and also surprisingly, a great deal about myself, of which I had no prior inkling. I feel quite lucky to have her and I honestly feel (though I can’t explain why –perhaps the changes I have recently undergone) like our relationship is something that I never thought I could ever achieve in my life. For this main reason and so many million more around me in this beautiful land with such a deep history and culture, I am completely content and I feel as if this is where I belong.
As a side note: the culture in which I now reside is not one that is hated by the majority of the world. Not one that presses itself on other cultures or believes it is better or has more right than any other culture. And most importantly, it is not one that is being threatened with nuclear weapons. I only wish you all could feel how much of a relief that is to one’s peace of mind…
The exchange students here are like one giant family and I love being a part of this experience. The people here are all so very interesting and we come from so many cultures and yet we are all so very similar in that we are all the kind of people that possessed an interest in the German language and the desire to do something as specifically random as study abroad in Germany. Indeed, many of my American friends here are Southerners from South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, Georgia and so on, but they do not remind me of the ignorant conservatism that I dislike about the South because the people that contribute to that kind of society are not the kind of people that would like to study in Germany for half a year or have any interest in international culture, much less a foreign language. I feel so at ease with all of these people and though we essentially had to form relationships in the beginning of our experience against the isolation that comes naturally from being a foreigner, I also feel that many of these relationships are quite genuine and the people here (that I am glad to call my friends) would all be the type of people I would gladly have befriended back home in the States. Apart from the German culture which surrounds me almost 24/7, I have also been introduced to the cultures of other members of this international family such as Turkish, French, Hungarian, Mexican, Spanish, English, Irish, Czech and so on. I feel as if I have gained such a wealth of knowledge of culture in such a short amount of time (and indeed I have) that I’ve suddenly realized that I can no longer define myself. Every day it becomes more and more difficult to step outside of myself and look at who I am because I feel I do not recognize this person any more. I have changed so much that I never thought this to be possible. I have had thoughts I’ve never before possessed; I have tried things I’d never took the time before to do; I’ve had feelings that I’ve never before felt; I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I fear returning to the States, no one could ever understand this transformation that I’ve undergone. And it’s not even finished –I have still remaining two more months of adventure in the Ruhrgebiet. I know when I return, things that have not changed will no longer seem the same to me. I will be starting over no matter where I am. This experienced as opened a new chapter of my life and I believe I am only just now beginning to grasp what this entails. I have matured to a point that I though would only be possible with the raising of a family. I am no longer scared of the world and what lies around the corner because I have a new understanding of myself and I realize that what ever it is, I possess the ability to overcome it and everything will be okay. I learn something new about myself every day and that is the greatest feeling I could imagine. Each time it’s like receiving a present as a small child on Christmas morning.
For those of you who know me well enough to understand this, here’s a list of things I could come up this off the top of my head that I’ve tried and realized I liked for the first time while I’ve been here (yes, most of them are food but it was difficult to think of more abstract things –though I’m sure there are many):
strawberries, kiwis, pineapples, oranges, pomegranates, wine, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, ferris wheels, laying in the grass, cooking, salad without salad dressing, dancing, raspberries, blackberries, asparagus, apricots, mayonnaise, usw…
My skills with the German language have also greatly improved. I normally feel comfortable conversing with people in German, though I never understand everything, I feel it’s enough to make do. I try to think about how I may appear to native Germans and the example that always comes first to mind is that of Fez on That 70s Show. I know I’m not as out-going or funny (though my sense of humor does work a little better here and I often joke more than the Germans because they simply don’t that often –not that they dislike humor, on the contrary they enjoy it very much every time I joke around, it’s just not something that they regularly take part in as part of their culture) but I feel like the near-fluent speech abilities and the lack of constantly talking about one’s home country (of which I refrain as much as possible) does bare a striking parallel. Thus I tend to imagine myself as a Fez-type character: capable of getting by but not entirely compatible with society. I am so glad that Anne is as patient and understanding as she is with me and that we have so many similarities that it is easy for us to get along. As example, it did not upset her the other day but rather tickled her into laughter for quite a few minutes when I accidentally call her a term that apparently is quite derogatory, though I had no idea. She has helped me so much and in so many ways to learn the language, the details of German culture it’s impossible to obtain in a class, and also surprisingly, a great deal about myself, of which I had no prior inkling. I feel quite lucky to have her and I honestly feel (though I can’t explain why –perhaps the changes I have recently undergone) like our relationship is something that I never thought I could ever achieve in my life. For this main reason and so many million more around me in this beautiful land with such a deep history and culture, I am completely content and I feel as if this is where I belong.
As a side note: the culture in which I now reside is not one that is hated by the majority of the world. Not one that presses itself on other cultures or believes it is better or has more right than any other culture. And most importantly, it is not one that is being threatened with nuclear weapons. I only wish you all could feel how much of a relief that is to one’s peace of mind…
26.5.09
BVB
So I was all excited about getting to post a blog on BVB's awesome comeback in the Budesliga complete with pictures and everything since I went to the last two home games but it was all ruined on Saturday with a bit of bad luck but as it was fun while it lasted and I do have pictures, so I suppose I'll post anyway...
This year is very special for BVB because the club was founded in 1909 and is celebrating its centennial this season. BVB started out the season alright and then kinda just dropped off the radar. I still had faith in them and every once and a while they would surprise the hell outta me and I would think they were about to perform a miracle. I remember watching them play Bayern online before I left earlier this year and they scored about a minute into the game... only to conceded three more and blow the game. They seemed pretty helpless when I got here which was disappointing. I discovered that I could see Signal Iduna Park (the stadium where they play… the largest in Germany) from the kitchen window of my flat which was quite exciting and I have a ridiculous number of pictures of it. Soon after I arrived though, something happened and they just started to take off… they knocked Hertha Berlin off the top of the table… on the road… while I was on vacation in Berlin. It was awesome; there were so many people in yellow celebrating in Berlin that night! We kept winning games and then it came time to play Hamburg who was number three in the table and on fire because they had just knocked Manchester City outta the UEFA Cup and they had all of German on their side. We managed to beat Hamburg too and then I realized we’d lost a game.
I managed to get really cheap tickets with three of the other exchange students through a deal that McDonalds had for the 100th Anniversary Game. It was against Karlsruher and we won in blow-out fashion 4-0. That game also tied BVB’s club record for most consecutive wins (7). The next week we were on the road again to play Wolfsburg who had occupied the top of the table since we dethroned Hertha BSC. We didn’t play well and lost (failing to break the record) but it wasn’t a total disappointment because we were playing the number one team on the road and no one actually expected us to win anyway.
Jose and I at the Karlsruher game
The next week we hosted Bielefeld for the last Heimspiel (home game) of the season and I got to go again with some German friends I’d meet a few weeks earlier. It was Dede’s 300th game and they gave him an award before the game which was pretty cool. The game was completely awesome because BVB won 6-0! No other team in the Budesliga managed to score more than five goals the whole season… It was also the largest margin of victory the whole year (natürlich) because Wiedenfeller got the clean sheet. I also called the Tinga goal which was the first one scored after he was subbed in.
That home victory also secured our immaculate record in Dortmund going undefeated at home the whole year. After the game the players carried a large banner with them as they did their usual round of the stadium for the fans and it said “We’re for you and you’re for us. Thanks to the best fans in the league”. It was pure awesomeness! Both of the games I went to had over 80,000 people and seeing the yellow wall of the Süd Tribüne alive with my own eyes was indescribable. I also had goose bumps for a sold five minutes listening to all 80,000 sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” before the matches.
Süd Tribüne: Der gelbe Wand
After routing Bielefeld, we finally moved into the fifth spot on the table (exactly where we needed to finish to qualify for the UEFA Cup next year). Hamburg, who had fallen to sixth, was tied with BVB in points be we definitely had the tie breaker (goal differential) in hand (23-2) so as long as we won our last game, there was no way they could pass us. Also if Hamburg lost or if we both tied, we’d still finish in fifth. Naturally, they didn’t make it easy for us and won their last game. BVB was on the road for the last game against Mönchengladbach who was 15th on the table. Inches away from ending one of the most exciting and greatest comeback seasons ever, BVB only managed to put one in the net and ended up tying Mönchengladbach 1-1 allowing Hamburg to pass us and capture the fifth spot. So we will once again not be participating in the UEFA Cup next year, scheiße!
It was still a fun ride and I’m so glad I got to experience it –I mean, 100th season, c’mon, that’s awesome! Sunday they had a big party in Westfallenpark and Anne took me. Kloppo and most of the players were there and there was a lot of events going on… fußball matches, concerts, autographs, parties, drinking, dancing, skills competitions and a hundred thousand people in black and yellow… it was a lot of fun and definitely helped everyone get over that depressing ending of the season.
This year is very special for BVB because the club was founded in 1909 and is celebrating its centennial this season. BVB started out the season alright and then kinda just dropped off the radar. I still had faith in them and every once and a while they would surprise the hell outta me and I would think they were about to perform a miracle. I remember watching them play Bayern online before I left earlier this year and they scored about a minute into the game... only to conceded three more and blow the game. They seemed pretty helpless when I got here which was disappointing. I discovered that I could see Signal Iduna Park (the stadium where they play… the largest in Germany) from the kitchen window of my flat which was quite exciting and I have a ridiculous number of pictures of it. Soon after I arrived though, something happened and they just started to take off… they knocked Hertha Berlin off the top of the table… on the road… while I was on vacation in Berlin. It was awesome; there were so many people in yellow celebrating in Berlin that night! We kept winning games and then it came time to play Hamburg who was number three in the table and on fire because they had just knocked Manchester City outta the UEFA Cup and they had all of German on their side. We managed to beat Hamburg too and then I realized we’d lost a game.
I managed to get really cheap tickets with three of the other exchange students through a deal that McDonalds had for the 100th Anniversary Game. It was against Karlsruher and we won in blow-out fashion 4-0. That game also tied BVB’s club record for most consecutive wins (7). The next week we were on the road again to play Wolfsburg who had occupied the top of the table since we dethroned Hertha BSC. We didn’t play well and lost (failing to break the record) but it wasn’t a total disappointment because we were playing the number one team on the road and no one actually expected us to win anyway.
Jose and I at the Karlsruher gameThat home victory also secured our immaculate record in Dortmund going undefeated at home the whole year. After the game the players carried a large banner with them as they did their usual round of the stadium for the fans and it said “We’re for you and you’re for us. Thanks to the best fans in the league”. It was pure awesomeness! Both of the games I went to had over 80,000 people and seeing the yellow wall of the Süd Tribüne alive with my own eyes was indescribable. I also had goose bumps for a sold five minutes listening to all 80,000 sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” before the matches.
Süd Tribüne: Der gelbe WandAfter routing Bielefeld, we finally moved into the fifth spot on the table (exactly where we needed to finish to qualify for the UEFA Cup next year). Hamburg, who had fallen to sixth, was tied with BVB in points be we definitely had the tie breaker (goal differential) in hand (23-2) so as long as we won our last game, there was no way they could pass us. Also if Hamburg lost or if we both tied, we’d still finish in fifth. Naturally, they didn’t make it easy for us and won their last game. BVB was on the road for the last game against Mönchengladbach who was 15th on the table. Inches away from ending one of the most exciting and greatest comeback seasons ever, BVB only managed to put one in the net and ended up tying Mönchengladbach 1-1 allowing Hamburg to pass us and capture the fifth spot. So we will once again not be participating in the UEFA Cup next year, scheiße!
It was still a fun ride and I’m so glad I got to experience it –I mean, 100th season, c’mon, that’s awesome! Sunday they had a big party in Westfallenpark and Anne took me. Kloppo and most of the players were there and there was a lot of events going on… fußball matches, concerts, autographs, parties, drinking, dancing, skills competitions and a hundred thousand people in black and yellow… it was a lot of fun and definitely helped everyone get over that depressing ending of the season.
28.4.09
Kurse und Freizeit
It’s now two weeks into the semester and I guess things are going alright. School is school and it will never be my favorite thing in the world but outside of the classroom I’m having the time of my life. I’ll tell you a little bit about my classes and then a bit about what I’ve been up to lately.
I have four classes during the week: A class on the Literature and Culture of the Early Middle Ages, a class auf Deutsch on the Relationship Between the Romans and the Germanic Tribes, a class on Pop Culture and the last is a Creative Writing class auf Deutsch. I also had a weekend seminar which met Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend and the one before that. It was on Chivalry, Knighthood and the sort and it was all auf Deutsch. And it totally kicked my ass but at least it’s over. On Wednesdays, I tutor English and geography at the Hauptschule in the Nordstadt. The Hauptschule is the lowest level of public schooling in Deutschland. I guess it’s sort of like an inner-city school in the US. And the Nordstadt is the “rough” district of the city. Eighty percent of the kids are non-German –mostly Turkish. But I find it very interesting. The students range in age from fifth grade to tenth and I don’t think they’re all that wild. I’ve definitely seen worse behaved kids in Western North Carolina. In June and July there are also several bloc seminar classes that I want to take such as one on Deutsche Film, one on Anti-Americanism and one on the Opinions of the American South in the Duetsche Imagination. So I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me this semester but I’m not gonna work too hard at it and I’m definitely not going to stress over it. I don’t need any of the credits and I don’t want to ruin my experience by having to stress myself into making deadlines.
That being said, I was out until 4:30 Saturday morning (yes, the same morning I had that weekend seminar). The university had a big party all across the campus and the south campus with 20 bands and DJs in eight different areas. It was a blast. The day before, me and a bunch of my friends grilled bratwursts in the garden behind my dorm and we hung out until about midnight. I’ve also gone bowling here which was ridiculously expensive but I came in first out of 13 people and amazed everybody because apparently no one in Deutschland has ever seen a technical and they all freaked out the first time I threw one. Sunday I went to the Westfalenpark, Dortmund’s equivalent of the Tiergarten in Berlin or Central Park in NY. It was spectacular. I swear it was one of the best days of my life. I’ve also been keeping up with a lot of the other exchange students; we eat lunch together, go to the bars on Monday and Wednesday and sometimes have movie night where we all cram into Simone’s tiny dorm room and watch a random movie on a laptop.
I’m also pretty broke at the moment which sucks. I deposited the rest of my money I brought into my bank here about two weeks ago but for some reason or another they said I wouldn’t be able to take any of it out for about two weeks unless I paid a 20€ penalty. Two weeks later and I still can’t take it out… I can see my money in the ATM but I can’t touch it. It’s quite frustrating. Especially since we have a three-day weekend coming up and people are making plans to travel and I can’t commit to anything because I may have just 4€ still on Friday.
May is just around the corner though and I’ll be getting my meal stipend for the month so I’m not that worried about it. What I am concerned about is the lack of comments my blog has. (Thanks, Ang) I even posted a link to the other one with my poems and stuff and as far as I know, no one has even looked at it :’(
Lemme know what you guys are up to and what you think of my posts, please.
Peace
I have four classes during the week: A class on the Literature and Culture of the Early Middle Ages, a class auf Deutsch on the Relationship Between the Romans and the Germanic Tribes, a class on Pop Culture and the last is a Creative Writing class auf Deutsch. I also had a weekend seminar which met Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend and the one before that. It was on Chivalry, Knighthood and the sort and it was all auf Deutsch. And it totally kicked my ass but at least it’s over. On Wednesdays, I tutor English and geography at the Hauptschule in the Nordstadt. The Hauptschule is the lowest level of public schooling in Deutschland. I guess it’s sort of like an inner-city school in the US. And the Nordstadt is the “rough” district of the city. Eighty percent of the kids are non-German –mostly Turkish. But I find it very interesting. The students range in age from fifth grade to tenth and I don’t think they’re all that wild. I’ve definitely seen worse behaved kids in Western North Carolina. In June and July there are also several bloc seminar classes that I want to take such as one on Deutsche Film, one on Anti-Americanism and one on the Opinions of the American South in the Duetsche Imagination. So I’ve got a lot of work cut out for me this semester but I’m not gonna work too hard at it and I’m definitely not going to stress over it. I don’t need any of the credits and I don’t want to ruin my experience by having to stress myself into making deadlines.
That being said, I was out until 4:30 Saturday morning (yes, the same morning I had that weekend seminar). The university had a big party all across the campus and the south campus with 20 bands and DJs in eight different areas. It was a blast. The day before, me and a bunch of my friends grilled bratwursts in the garden behind my dorm and we hung out until about midnight. I’ve also gone bowling here which was ridiculously expensive but I came in first out of 13 people and amazed everybody because apparently no one in Deutschland has ever seen a technical and they all freaked out the first time I threw one. Sunday I went to the Westfalenpark, Dortmund’s equivalent of the Tiergarten in Berlin or Central Park in NY. It was spectacular. I swear it was one of the best days of my life. I’ve also been keeping up with a lot of the other exchange students; we eat lunch together, go to the bars on Monday and Wednesday and sometimes have movie night where we all cram into Simone’s tiny dorm room and watch a random movie on a laptop.
I’m also pretty broke at the moment which sucks. I deposited the rest of my money I brought into my bank here about two weeks ago but for some reason or another they said I wouldn’t be able to take any of it out for about two weeks unless I paid a 20€ penalty. Two weeks later and I still can’t take it out… I can see my money in the ATM but I can’t touch it. It’s quite frustrating. Especially since we have a three-day weekend coming up and people are making plans to travel and I can’t commit to anything because I may have just 4€ still on Friday.
May is just around the corner though and I’ll be getting my meal stipend for the month so I’m not that worried about it. What I am concerned about is the lack of comments my blog has. (Thanks, Ang) I even posted a link to the other one with my poems and stuff and as far as I know, no one has even looked at it :’(
Lemme know what you guys are up to and what you think of my posts, please.
Peace
22.4.09
My Poems
Hey, I just wanted to get everyone's attention reading this blog and make sure they had the link to my other blog where I've posted some of my poems. I believe my muse has finally found me in Deutschland and I know there'll be a whole new batch of fresh work soon to come; I've written a few short stories already since I've been here but I'm not going to post everything I write.
So please check it out and leave me some comments.
So please check it out and leave me some comments.
19.4.09
Berlin, Prag und der Nordsee
I’m going to attempt to summarize my trip to Berlin and Prague the North Sea in one post because I feel like I need to move on or I’ll never be able to catch up to the present. I’ve started a Flikr account where I’ll put all of my pictures but I haven’t finished uploading so I’m not gonna post the link just yet. That being said, our Deutschkurs ended on 3 April and the semester didn’t begin until 14 April so we had week or so vacation and I went with my friends Danielle and Jesika to Berlin and Prague. Simon also rode with us to Berlin but he met other friends there. It took us a while to get out of the Alexanderplatz Bahnhof because we didn’t realize that our subway line didn’t run through there. Eventually we found our hostel which was ridiculous. We were tired from the 10-hour train ride on the 
Regionalbahn that we had to take with our discount ticket and I had less than two hours sleep the night before because I went to a club with some of the others after the bar. For some reason, we found everything hilarious and our “underwater”-themed room was hysterical. The hallways also had random paintings that Jesika properly described as the things nightmares are made of.
I walked us around Alexanderplatz and we saw all the important buildings there and then we sat in the Lustgarten in front of the Berliner Dom for a while until we were assaulted by a homeless Turkish woman and her children begging for money straight-up Slumdog Millionaire style.
We walked down to the Brandenburger Tor and I showed them the bricks marking where the Berlin Wall once stood. There were also a crap-load of happy BVB fans dancing around in their bright-yellow jerseys because Dortmund had just beat Herth Berlin who was at the top of the table at the time.
We headed over to the Holocaust Memorial and it was possibly even more breathtaking than I remembered it. It was dusk and we walked all the way through it and talked about it for a long while. We all decided that the guy who designed it was a genius and we hung out there for a while.
We wanted to go out that night so we found a club in Danielle’s travel book that played live jazz. We went down to the cellar and there was a band just getting ready to start. After a couple songs, the guy that introduced the band just broke out into unexpected tap-dancing and pretty soon there were tap-dancers coming out of the woodwork. Apparently everyone there besides us were tap-dances and they all did improv dances and duets which were awesome.
The second day we changed hostels and went to find the largest erotic museum in Europe. We ended up having to use the U-Bahn station for the zoo to go underneath a 
half marathon that was blocking anyone from crossing the Kudamm. The museum was awesome and it actually had a lot of historical value and thousands upon 
thousands of artifacts. I couldn’t get over how old some of that stuff.
We went to Checkpoint Charlie but Danielle and Jesika concurred with what I felt last year: that it was not as
impressive as it was worked up to be and we decided to go find the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining stretch of the wall still standing. It’s in the former GDR which was pretty run down and didn’t smell too good in the slightest. The wall was so cool though. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip and the artwork was really interesting.
We ended up back on Unter den Linden and found a big patch of daffodils around a tree and we sat down and talked for a long time. I think the three of us traveled really well together because we found it so natural to do stuff like that.
We went back to Wombats (our hostel) and went up to the bar and had a few drinks and a pizza. The whole trip was kinda done on a wing which is how I liked it; it kept it exciting. Zum beispiel: we didn’t book our train to Prague
until after we check out of our Berlin hostel… We ended up taking an EC train which had super-awesome Hoggwarts Express-esque cabins. We went through Dresden and I got to see some of the bombed buildings on the outskirts of the town which excited me and the area around the city was really cool because it’s higher up in the mountains. I want to take a trip to Dresden now.
We got to Prague and discovered that the underground was much easier to navigate than Berlin’s and we found our hostel without complication (despite the fact that we couldn’t read any Czech). We had no money because they use Krowns instead of Euros so we walked to a shopping mall and found an ATM. We took out 3000Kr which turned out to be 150€. Everything in the Czech Republic was cheap (except for the ticket out of it) and that money lasted us for the whole trip pretty much. We had a traditional Czech meal at a really cool restaurant near our hostel. It was delicious and our waitress was really friendly and even with the liter of beer I drank, the total was still only the price of a small currywurst in Dortmund.
We discovered the bone church we wanted to see wasn’t really in Prague but about an hour and a half away. But then we discovered that a bus ticket there only cost the equivalent of 3.50€ so we went on quite an adventure to try to find the bus station and buy a ticket.
Eventually we got to the town (Kutná Hora) which is now my favorite place on Earth. We had no idea where anything was and no map so we just started walking towards steeples. We found a handful of really amazing churches but none decorated with bones. Eventually we came across an Italian advertising his pizzeria and the back of his menu had a map and he gave us directions.
We walked the 5km to the Sedlec Ossuary (bone church) and though it was much smaller than I had anticipated, there is no way I could have prepared myself for what it was like to walk into the doors of a church decorated with the bones of over 40,000 human skeletons. It was cold and you were instantly seized by chills that did not originate because of the temperature.
Finger bones and arm bones of children were used to spell out scripture on the wall and on either side of the staircase leading down into the Ossuary was a huge chalice and in the center there was the entrance to a crypt that was closed to the public but above the crypt was a huge chandelier made entirely out of bones and included at least one of every bone in the human body. It was the most impressive and moving part of the trip for me and I could have stayed in there for hours just trying to take it all in.
We made it back to Prague for even cheaper than it took to get out there. We were staving so we headed back to our favorite restaurant and had another delicious meal. We also had a few drinks and some shots. We later discovered that it was customary to tip in the Czech Republic so we walked all the way back and gave our waitress a huge tip for all of her help for the last two days. We went into the inner city and discovered that the majority of Prague was not as sketchy as we initially thought. There was a really cool church and an Easter Fair in the town square. We also found the Astronomical Clock which was really awesome. We made note to go back the next day during the daytime to get better pictures and see the Easter Fair in operation.
The next morning we walked up the mountain to the Prague Castle which was a lot like a palace. We saw a cathedral, the changing of the guard, some of the embassies and a great panoramic view of the city from the top of the mountain. Unfortunately it began to rain and we headed back to the hostel where we took a nap and then headed back to the town square.
We had some traditional Czech pastries and drank
warm mead which was awesome. We saw the Astronomical Clock strike the hour which was quite a spectacle and walked down to Charles Bridge but it was under construction so it wasn’t that impressive. The road we took to get there however, had a hundred puppet shops and black-light theatres because puppetry is apparently the most important thing about Prague culture which is pretty interesting.
The next morning we checked out and went to go buy a ticket back to Dortmund but it was way more than we had anticipated so we just got one to Berlin since the train went through there anyway. In Berlin, however, we apparently got onto the wrong train because there was a late train that arrived on our platform at the time our was supposed to and we failed to match the number of the train to the number on the sign (something I always do now) and we rode towards the Baltic Sea (unknowingly) for two hours. We had to buy a ticket back to Berlin and then upgrade to expensive tickets to Dortmund because the only trains going that way by the time we got back were ICEs, so that was kinda frustrating but at least we made it home.
I got a few hours of sleep before I had to go straight back to the HBF (Hauptbahnhof = main train station) the next morning. I went to Duisburg to meet my Tante Isolde and Onkel Norbet.
They took me with them to see their son Rüdiger (my eldest cousin) and his family. They live in Jever, a small town near the North Sea. We had a really cool trip and we went several times to the sea and once to the Naval Museum in Willhemshaven which was really cool. We spent Easter there and the next day was his daughter, Feylin’s fifth birthday. I had plenty of delicious, home-cooked food and it was a great trip.
On the
way back to Dortmund, I had about an hour before my next umsteigen (train change) in Osnabrück so I walked down to a really cool church. They were having an Easter service because in Deutschland, Easter lasts from Saturday night, when everyone has a huge bonfire, to Monday night after church. I walked around inside the church and it smelled really good because of all the incense. I really liked it and exploring the city to find it. I made it back to Dortmund pretty late and went to bed because classes started the next day.
I'll post again soon on my first week of classes. Hope everyone back home is doing alright.
Regionalbahn that we had to take with our discount ticket and I had less than two hours sleep the night before because I went to a club with some of the others after the bar. For some reason, we found everything hilarious and our “underwater”-themed room was hysterical. The hallways also had random paintings that Jesika properly described as the things nightmares are made of.
I walked us around Alexanderplatz and we saw all the important buildings there and then we sat in the Lustgarten in front of the Berliner Dom for a while until we were assaulted by a homeless Turkish woman and her children begging for money straight-up Slumdog Millionaire style.We walked down to the Brandenburger Tor and I showed them the bricks marking where the Berlin Wall once stood. There were also a crap-load of happy BVB fans dancing around in their bright-yellow jerseys because Dortmund had just beat Herth Berlin who was at the top of the table at the time.
We headed over to the Holocaust Memorial and it was possibly even more breathtaking than I remembered it. It was dusk and we walked all the way through it and talked about it for a long while. We all decided that the guy who designed it was a genius and we hung out there for a while.We wanted to go out that night so we found a club in Danielle’s travel book that played live jazz. We went down to the cellar and there was a band just getting ready to start. After a couple songs, the guy that introduced the band just broke out into unexpected tap-dancing and pretty soon there were tap-dancers coming out of the woodwork. Apparently everyone there besides us were tap-dances and they all did improv dances and duets which were awesome.
The second day we changed hostels and went to find the largest erotic museum in Europe. We ended up having to use the U-Bahn station for the zoo to go underneath a 
half marathon that was blocking anyone from crossing the Kudamm. The museum was awesome and it actually had a lot of historical value and thousands upon 
thousands of artifacts. I couldn’t get over how old some of that stuff.We went to Checkpoint Charlie but Danielle and Jesika concurred with what I felt last year: that it was not as
impressive as it was worked up to be and we decided to go find the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining stretch of the wall still standing. It’s in the former GDR which was pretty run down and didn’t smell too good in the slightest. The wall was so cool though. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip and the artwork was really interesting.We ended up back on Unter den Linden and found a big patch of daffodils around a tree and we sat down and talked for a long time. I think the three of us traveled really well together because we found it so natural to do stuff like that.
We went back to Wombats (our hostel) and went up to the bar and had a few drinks and a pizza. The whole trip was kinda done on a wing which is how I liked it; it kept it exciting. Zum beispiel: we didn’t book our train to Prague
until after we check out of our Berlin hostel… We ended up taking an EC train which had super-awesome Hoggwarts Express-esque cabins. We went through Dresden and I got to see some of the bombed buildings on the outskirts of the town which excited me and the area around the city was really cool because it’s higher up in the mountains. I want to take a trip to Dresden now.We got to Prague and discovered that the underground was much easier to navigate than Berlin’s and we found our hostel without complication (despite the fact that we couldn’t read any Czech). We had no money because they use Krowns instead of Euros so we walked to a shopping mall and found an ATM. We took out 3000Kr which turned out to be 150€. Everything in the Czech Republic was cheap (except for the ticket out of it) and that money lasted us for the whole trip pretty much. We had a traditional Czech meal at a really cool restaurant near our hostel. It was delicious and our waitress was really friendly and even with the liter of beer I drank, the total was still only the price of a small currywurst in Dortmund.
We discovered the bone church we wanted to see wasn’t really in Prague but about an hour and a half away. But then we discovered that a bus ticket there only cost the equivalent of 3.50€ so we went on quite an adventure to try to find the bus station and buy a ticket.
Eventually we got to the town (Kutná Hora) which is now my favorite place on Earth. We had no idea where anything was and no map so we just started walking towards steeples. We found a handful of really amazing churches but none decorated with bones. Eventually we came across an Italian advertising his pizzeria and the back of his menu had a map and he gave us directions.
We walked the 5km to the Sedlec Ossuary (bone church) and though it was much smaller than I had anticipated, there is no way I could have prepared myself for what it was like to walk into the doors of a church decorated with the bones of over 40,000 human skeletons. It was cold and you were instantly seized by chills that did not originate because of the temperature. 
Finger bones and arm bones of children were used to spell out scripture on the wall and on either side of the staircase leading down into the Ossuary was a huge chalice and in the center there was the entrance to a crypt that was closed to the public but above the crypt was a huge chandelier made entirely out of bones and included at least one of every bone in the human body. It was the most impressive and moving part of the trip for me and I could have stayed in there for hours just trying to take it all in.
We made it back to Prague for even cheaper than it took to get out there. We were staving so we headed back to our favorite restaurant and had another delicious meal. We also had a few drinks and some shots. We later discovered that it was customary to tip in the Czech Republic so we walked all the way back and gave our waitress a huge tip for all of her help for the last two days. We went into the inner city and discovered that the majority of Prague was not as sketchy as we initially thought. There was a really cool church and an Easter Fair in the town square. We also found the Astronomical Clock which was really awesome. We made note to go back the next day during the daytime to get better pictures and see the Easter Fair in operation.
The next morning we walked up the mountain to the Prague Castle which was a lot like a palace. We saw a cathedral, the changing of the guard, some of the embassies and a great panoramic view of the city from the top of the mountain. Unfortunately it began to rain and we headed back to the hostel where we took a nap and then headed back to the town square.We had some traditional Czech pastries and drank
warm mead which was awesome. We saw the Astronomical Clock strike the hour which was quite a spectacle and walked down to Charles Bridge but it was under construction so it wasn’t that impressive. The road we took to get there however, had a hundred puppet shops and black-light theatres because puppetry is apparently the most important thing about Prague culture which is pretty interesting.The next morning we checked out and went to go buy a ticket back to Dortmund but it was way more than we had anticipated so we just got one to Berlin since the train went through there anyway. In Berlin, however, we apparently got onto the wrong train because there was a late train that arrived on our platform at the time our was supposed to and we failed to match the number of the train to the number on the sign (something I always do now) and we rode towards the Baltic Sea (unknowingly) for two hours. We had to buy a ticket back to Berlin and then upgrade to expensive tickets to Dortmund because the only trains going that way by the time we got back were ICEs, so that was kinda frustrating but at least we made it home.
I got a few hours of sleep before I had to go straight back to the HBF (Hauptbahnhof = main train station) the next morning. I went to Duisburg to meet my Tante Isolde and Onkel Norbet.
They took me with them to see their son Rüdiger (my eldest cousin) and his family. They live in Jever, a small town near the North Sea. We had a really cool trip and we went several times to the sea and once to the Naval Museum in Willhemshaven which was really cool. We spent Easter there and the next day was his daughter, Feylin’s fifth birthday. I had plenty of delicious, home-cooked food and it was a great trip.On the
way back to Dortmund, I had about an hour before my next umsteigen (train change) in Osnabrück so I walked down to a really cool church. They were having an Easter service because in Deutschland, Easter lasts from Saturday night, when everyone has a huge bonfire, to Monday night after church. I walked around inside the church and it smelled really good because of all the incense. I really liked it and exploring the city to find it. I made it back to Dortmund pretty late and went to bed because classes started the next day.I'll post again soon on my first week of classes. Hope everyone back home is doing alright.
14.4.09
Fahrrad Fahren
I tried riding a bike the other day for the first time in almost ten years...
Riding a bike is not like riding a bike!
Anyway, I've had quite an adventure since I last posted. There'll be pictures and summary of my trip to Berlin, Prague and the North Sea soon to come.
Riding a bike is not like riding a bike!
Anyway, I've had quite an adventure since I last posted. There'll be pictures and summary of my trip to Berlin, Prague and the North Sea soon to come.
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