Three Months In Review: Lots of rambling

I think where German history started to click with me was when we went to Dresden. I'd learned a lot about the Reformation and how that shaped German history prior to this, but the true nature of the German willingness to persevere didn't hit me until Dresden. Here was a country that had been torn apart by religious differences in the 16th century, didn't unify until 1871, suffered a demoralising defeat in 1918, saw the rise of a totalitarian government and a genocide, was divided in two for 40 years, and yet managed to come together and make something of it. Dresden was important because you could see how the country had rebuilt itself through the buildings that lay in ruin for the entire GDR period. The people actually stopped the authorities from building over these places, and I think it showcased the spirit of getting on with life and yet remembering the past that I associate with Germany.

I say 'getting on yet remembering' in that Germany remembers their past, but doesn't dwell on it, wanting instead to move forward into the future. The remains of the Berlin Wall, the concentration camps, the rebuilt buildings in Dresden: they all serve to remind of what happened, but also stand as a reason to move on and prevent (especially with the concentration camps) the past from being repeated.

I think some of the most significant journal entries include: Dresden, Berlin, going to Buchenwald, Berlin again, Halle, Leipzig, and Munich. These were some of my favourite places we went, and some of them were not part of our class trips but had importance to me. Munich was interesting because it sort of brought the American stereotype of Germans about face (when we think of German, we're actually thinking of Bavaria) and made me examine it. I actually prefer this area (Sachsen-Anhalt and surrounding areas) to Munich. Visiting Berlin the second time meant I could see some things that we didn't get to see the first time, and it was the first time I felt confident in my German skills (we really did get lost, and had to learn how to navigate the U-Bahn/S-Bahn on our own, and I was so proud of us). Buchenwald was something I will never forget and visibly upsetting, but something that I'm glad I did regardless. The other three were class trips I particularly enjoyed--mostly all because I was really able to get a sense of what East German life was like and I enjoyed that. I think it's important to remember East Germany and how it shaped the East German states--it really makes them unique, in good and bad ways.

Funny to think that today my internship is over. It's been a bit rough simply because I get bored a lot and have to keep myself busy to get all my hours, but I still feel a little bit sad about leaving. I hope they like my gifts I got them--gotta make a good impression after all.

Shame I never got to finish the program translation though. :c

Mildly annoyed that no one bothered to inform me that I didn't have to go in for my internship today. I thought the bank holiday was tomorrow? Apparently it's a four day weekend.

Eurgh, internships. I just want something to do, guys. It's nice when you give me work to do, even if it involves me cutting name cards out. That's better than me being bored. :c

Canoeing, or, how we almost died.

Hahaha, I'd never have thought that I would first go canoeing in Germany. We went canoeing on the Elbe today, and while most of the time you go for say, 3 or four miles, we had to go above and beyond that.

22 kilometers, guys. That's around 13.5 miles.

Needless to say, my entire body hurts. I feel like an old lady and haven't left my bed except for dinner. Also, it began to rain halfway through our trip and then a barge came up the Elbe, and that plus rain plus wind created currents. I thought we were going to die, no joke. Apparently it was bad enough that our tour guide almost made us get out of the water, but we persevered!

I have never been so happy to see land again in my life. Good day though, except for the rain and almost dying, and canoeing is now something I would like to do more frequently, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

Berlin again!

Berlin was just as fantastic the second time around, but even more so because we had nice weather and didn't have to lug backpacks around. (Molly, Virginia, and I may have also gotten lost, but we found our way around so yay for skills!)

We were going to do a street art tour, but never managed to find the Starbucks near the Alexanderplatz, so then we went on a man-hunt to find the East Side Gallery ourselves. Let's just say that took hours--we got side-tracked by Checkpoint Charlie, souvenir shops, a strange yarn ball-esque sculpture, and a flea market. Eventually we (meaning me) managed to talk to someone who knew how to find the East Side Gallery, and made it there. It was well worth the time it took to get there, and I like Berlin even more than I did the first time.

(Also, found cookie cutters shaped like the Ampelmännchen*! So excited to get home and bake now.)

* These are Ampelmännchen. East German ones, natürlich.

Wörlitz!

Wörlitz was so neat! We had some awesome weather, for one, and we got to go run around in a massive park all day. Also, gondola rides, which are sort of terrifying but fun all the same.

The Wörlitzer Park was sort of the obsession of Duke Leopold III of Anhalt-Dessau. He did a tour of Europe (which was the norm for all the fashionable rich kids in the 18th century) and came back to Germany wanting to create an English park of his very own. Thus the Wörlitzer Park was born: complete with a Temple of Flora, a palace, a baby Vesuvius, grottos, and a column Leopold brought back from Pompeii. Basically, it was like the 18th century German Disneyland; people would come there to learn more about other places they couldn't afford to visit otherwise and got to see Leopold's palace and the like.

Duke Leopold was a nice guy, wasn't he? His wife wasn't so happy about people touring her palace, so he built her her own house so she could go off and brood. Smart chap, our Leopold, haha.

So we had some nice weather, I got some good pictures, and we had a good time running around the park. Very good day!

Internship shenanigans abounded today. I've been working on my program translation for KTC's Himmel auf Erden festival (an international music festival that takes place in July). This is okay, but I've realized I'm going to finish this way faster than I think they intended. Perhaps I ought to draw it out for as long as I can.

The people I work with are nice, but I don't do much talking. For the most part people have their own offices and work at computers, so there's not much time for talking. I dunno, but I ought to improve my German somehow and this isn't going to cut it. However, this is only the third day so gotta give them some time--I'm sure they're not used to me being awkwardly there either.

Easter times

Today had been a good day! I went to the church service at the Castle Church with the Bennetts, Casey, and Matt, and had a good time. I'm amazed at how pretty the church is--all stained glass and impressive like. So it was fascinating to go to church there, and I was surprised to find that I picked up a good portion of the sermon/service.

Afterwards, we had lunch at the Haus des Handwerks, one of the older restaurants in town, dating from the GDR period. Very good food, but pricey, but altogether worth it. This evening I'll go to the British boys choir concert, and surely will be a nice way to end my Easter Sunday.

Internships start tomorrow!

Well, classes are over and internships start tomorrow. I think I'll be alright, and the folks that work there seem nice, but I'm nervous.

Apparently Dr. Bennett says it's good to be nervous? I've got my dictionary, so here's to making the best of it.

German certification exam is today. Let me die - my nerves are so bad right now. :c

Erfurt/Eisenach

Well, this trip was a bit of a mess. Our bus driver got lost, so we lost a good portion of time for our Erfurt tour and that was a shame. Erfurt is basically your quintessential German merchant town, complete with a fantastic merchants' bridge, where the shops line the sides of the bridge over a river. Very narrow, but fantastic. Also, houses were apparently named with symbols and pictures that were painted on the front of the house--no house numbers here! It was neat, and I liked it, but I wish we'd had more time to look at the city.

Unfortunately we didn't because then we were off to the Wartburg Castle. For those of you who don't know, the Wartburg is where Martin Luther hid from the Holy Roman Emperor after being excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Also, where he translated the New Testament from Latin to German--what a winner! It was interesting because there were areas that had been renovated with massive mosaics portraying "medieval" life as envisioned by chaps in the 19th century. Very pretty, but sort of funny because it was very romanticised. The room where Martin Luther translated the New Testament was very anti-climactic in comparison, and unfortunately I couldn't take pictures. Too bad--I know some of you would have like to have see it, but it really wasn't that impressive.

Afterwards, we went to the Bachhouse in Eisenach. That was neat! We had a baby concert on period instruments (harpsichords and small pipe organs) and then we got to wander in the museum. I definitely have a new appreciation for Dr. Faber (Witt's organist) and other organists--it's definitely not easy.

Epic Picspam, Part the Third

Magdeburg/Torgau

Epic Picspam, Part the Second

Berlin and Potsdam

Epic Picspam, Part the First

 Here is part one of a massive Germany picspam. If you have questions about a specific picture (where it was taken, etc) I think you should be able to comment on the picture in the web album. I'll answer whatever questions you have. =)

Follow the link for pictures of Prague!

Dresden!

I really, really enjoyed Dresden. There's some serious historical places there, but what's fascinating to me is that the majority of them were legitimately not there following WWII. The Allies went after Dresden because it was one of the major cultural hearts of Germany, and rumors were that the British bombed the cathedral/churches in Dresden in revenge for the Coventry Cathedral that was bombed out during the Blitz. So it was fascinating to see all of these new (but old--the bricks/stone were re-purposed from the old buildings) structures that would not have existed twenty-thirty years ago.

I think that the Dresdeners do a fantastic job of stressing the rebuilding of the historic city, but there's also a vast amount of history prior to the fire-bombing and restoration, which is fairly new. The old palaces, the massive porcelain mural of the Electors of Saxony--there's so much more and I think that the fire-bombing of Dresden ends up being stressed over this. It's a bit of a shame considering how much history there is, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but it's also not good to forget history either.

Also, climbing mountains like a pro. We got to see Koenigstein, and oh man, was that a beast of a mountain to hike up. It was well worth it though--the fortress was intense. I can see why it is considered impenetrable! (My poor, poor feet though.)

Visiting Buchenwald

Last Friday I visited the Buchenwald Memorial with Sam and Amber, two other girls from the group. It was very sobering thing, and I'll admit that it did shake me up quite a bit. I don't think it's possible to go to a concentration camp and not be affected somehow.

I didn't take any pictures because I was so unsettled by how I felt, but also because I didn't like the way that tourists were running around photographing things. The crematorium had a sign to remind visitors that this was a place where thousands of people had died and it was a quiet area! I was very unimpressed with some of the conduct of the other visitors.

The camp was really a huge operation in its' heyday, but also very disturbingly close to Weimar--one of the centers of German culture. It's located 10 kilometers away, and having seen the scope of the camp I cannot imagine how people did not know what was going on. That thought was very, very freaky in and of itself, but the camp itself exudes an air of foreboding. It was like a weight of despair settled on my shoulders the minute I walked through the gate, and it lingered for the rest of the day. There's just a feeling of a loss of hope, both in humanity and in society, that something as terrible as the Holocaust was allowed to happen.

What's worse is when you realize that genocide is still a very real, very present thing in today's society--didn't we learn anything from the Holocaust? I honestly don't know, but I don't think this post does a very good job of describing how I felt or the experience because there just are no words to describe it accurately.

Overall, it was a meaningful spring break because of this day trip, and one I am likely to never forget.

Munich, or, the longest train rides of my life

Munich was an interesting trip, to say the least. After getting tickets almost at the last minute (the day before, but still), it was an adventure to get down there. From Leipzig on the ICE (fast train) it was four or five hours, and that's a long time on the train. Basically traveling was all we did on Friday, and I was glad because it had been a long day--in the morning our class had a day trip of Leipzig.

The hostel was where things go interesting. There were seven of us (me, Jake, Amber, Joe, Derek, Molly, and Virginia) and we had reserved an eight person room. The thing with hostels is if you don't have the exact number of people, there is always the chance you will end up sharing a room with strangers. Well, that's what happened with us; we ended up sharing the room with this older guy who was a bit of a creeper. Needless to say, we tried to avoid being in the room when he was there as a sort of privacy thing.

Saturday morning/afternoon we went to Neuschwanstein. Built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria (aka the Swan King, who was a bit mad and drowned suspiciously at a rather early age) this is the castle that Walt Disney based Cinderella's castle on. It took two hours from Munich by train, then a short bus ride, then a trek partially up the side of a mountain to get to it, but it was worth it. Part of it was under year-long renovation in preparation for the Luther Jubilee in 2017, but the part that wasn't covered by scaffolding was very beautiful. It's your quintessential German castle, and although we didn't pay to do the tour I thought it was still very neat.

After getting back to Munich, Jake was nice enough to take us on a walking tour of the city. We went through the main tourist area (that is, the busiest street in Munich) and saw the Glockenspiel clock. Supposedly the figures are supposed to dance and music plays, but it never did it while we were there, which was a bit of a let-down. Then we went and had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus--one of the oldest breweries in the city. There were so many people there that I didn't think we were going to find a seat! We wandered through it for ages, creeping on people who looked like they were leaving, until we finally found a table. The food was very good and the beer was also good--there's a reason that they have seat for up to 1,300 people in the main hall. Also, a live house band playing polka! You can't get more Bavarian than that, guys.

Sunday we wandered around Munich, going to the English Garden and Olympiapark. The English Garden is a huge public park and larger than New York's Central Park. We saw so many dogs that it was a bit ridiculous, but it was fun. The Olympiapark consists of the Olympic Stadium, the swim hall, and the multipurpose hall that were built for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The park is very large and it was busy when we were there, and the stadium is massive, but also the architecture was interesting.

All in all, we had a good time but I wish it would have been longer. Dachau is very close to Munich and I would have loved to have gone to see it, but we didn't have enough time. It's spring break now, which basically means I'm lazing about, but we'll see what I can find to do around Wittenberg and the surrounding areas. Just because I can't go to Italy, Austria, or Paris doesn't mean I can't have fun, right? Right. =)

Spring Break times

So, it's a bit sad that I won't get to go to Italy but I'm looking forward to staying around Lutherstadt Wittenberg. At least I'm not alone--it's me, Jake, Amber, and a passel of Lutherans. Could be worse, yeah?

Long-overdue Berlin post

I've had this scribbled down for quite some time in a notebook, but I've been lazy and haven't typed this up! Many apologies to those who've been waiting for it!

Berlin was a very large, very industrial sort of city. We were pretty much at the city center and our hostel was relatively close to Unter den Linden, which is basically the heart of Berlin. There were a ton of touristy restaurants, bars, and the like on Unter den Linden and at one end is the Brandenburg Gate and at the other end is the Deutsches Historisches Museum (aka one of the best places ever).

On our first day we went to the Reichstag and then did a walking tour. The Reichstag is very neat, and I have some pretty decent photos of it. My favourite part was the Russian graffiti that they integrated into the room design--it was a very interesting way of preserving history. The dome was also interesting, and the view was pretty good. However, after all this walking the walking tour was torture--my feet hurt so bad. (I have since learned that one does not pack rain boots and expect to not have blisters by the end of the trip).

The second day was spent traipsing around the German Historical Museum. It was so interesting, but unfortunately I don't have many pictures because I'm not sure pictures were allowed? So there's only, like, two or three pictures of that. The museum spanned the early Germanic tribes period shortly after the fall of Rome up to present day German history. Basically, it was a lot of information--too much, really. I think my favorite part was the 1700s-1800s period, aka the I-have-all-the-money-'cause-I'm-royalty-look-at-my-expensive-things period. I've never seen so much silver in my life! (Also, it made me think of the Royal Babylon book, which is always funny.)

I stayed an extra day and went to Potsdam with a few of my classmates. We went to Sanssouci, which was the summer palace of the Prussian king Friedrich II, and is situated in the middle of a huge park. The castle was beautiful, but the effect would have been a lot better if it was spring or summer when the park would be green and not as ugly and sparse. Maybe a return trip should happen? I don't know.

Berlin and Prague photos should be up shortly! =)

Luther Movie Commentary

So, for our first session of Dr. Bennett's Cultural Memory course we watched Luther (that is, until the projector bulb exploded 10 minutes before the end of the film). It's a good movie, and very informative for me given that I know very little about Martin Luther.

The movie itself did much, much better in Germany than America when it opened, and I think in part this is because of how Luther himself is portrayed. Joseph Fiennes does an excellent job of portraying Luther as a conflicted, divided man and I think that is what makes the movie appealing. (Although I have to admit, Luther's little yelling-at-myself bits were a bit overdramatic.) But here in Lutherstadt Wittenberg (and probably most of Germany) Martin Luther has this god-like status where his work shapes the perception of him. That is, it's easier to think of Martin Luther based on the context of the immense societal change his work caused (a rebel, etc) instead of a man.

That's what made the movie for me--Luther is not really an enigma that the viewer cannot connect to. He has problems, doubts, and fears much like every other human being. He is portrayed as a rebel, but as a rebel that is trying to reform a corrupt Church and show the common people how corrupt the Church really is. Also, Martin Luther in the film focuses a lot on God as a just, loving God--this reflects his own inner struggle with his faith, and which makes him more human. It's nice to know that others struggle, you know? Even famous religious reformers.

One thing I didn't like was that towards the end I felt they rushed a lot of things. All of a sudden Katharina von Bora shows up and is all "we'll make beautiful music together, Martin, you'll see" and suddenly they get married. I know that Katharina is a very important aspect of Martin Luther's life, but it felt like she was literally thrown in 3/4 of the way through the movie, and it was a bit jarring. Other than strange time-skipping, the film was pretty good and I enjoyed it (in part because it was good, but also because it was so overdramatic at parts).

Wittenberg: Internships and more!

This post should have come before the Halle one, but the Halle one was easier to summarize so it came first. Last Wednesday we had dinner with our internship liaisons/supervisors. I'll be working with Herr Weisner and Herr Winkelmann for the Wittenberg Kultur organization in town. Herr Weisner speaks good English, but Herr Winkelmann doesn't, and since I'll be working in two different places (with one at one place, then with the other at the second place, I think) I'm just hoping I'll be able to understand what they are telling me in German. If they talk slowly, I can probably figure it out. Still, I ought to go buy a good dictionary just in case--no harm in being prepared! I'll know more about the internship after tomorrow.

Later that evening we had a really nice surprise! Dr. Bennett (or someone else, I'm not sure) arranged for our group to have a guided city tour with costumed tour guides! We had a Katharina von Bora (Martin Luther's wife), a wealthy woman whose name I can't remember, and two city guards that took us around to the big places in town. We visited the Cranach house/apothecary, the Castle Church, the City Church, and I think one or two other places. It was very cold, but we all had a nice time. The costumed actors definitely made the tour more interesting. I know that I personally was dreading another city tour (Metta and Heinrike, the interns, gave us a walking tour on the first day here) but this tour was very different because we really delved into the history of the city and the important places. The actors did a really good job of getting the group to interact within the premise of it being the 1500s (For example, since we were in the 1500s, it took three-four months to travel from America to Wittenberg, and so on).

The actors were very knowledgeable and the costume really added a lot to the tour and made it more interesting than a normal walking tour. I really liked it; it was sort of like the Renaissance Fair, but on a smaller scale. It was a different, more interactive way to learn history and I'm all for that! I appreciate a good history book as much as the next person, but it's much easier to learn something visually/by example. The tour did a really good job of making me learn by interacting with the actors within the parameters of "We're living in the 1500s, and this is what our city is like" and I really enjoyed it a lot. (Also, I really need to get some Wittenberg pictures! I'm talking about the Castle Church and the City Church and you don't have visual aid! I'll have to remedy this soon.)

Halle!

Sorry I've been a bit late in getting all of these up--it's been a combination of being busy and being lazy, unfortunately. We went to Halle last Thursday, and boy was it cold! Minus 14 degrees Celsius, which is about 7 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was rather windy. So the hour and a half long city tour was interesting in part because we were trying to beat the weather, but also generally interesting.

Halle is the largest city in Sachsen-Anhalt, the state where Wittenberg is, and it is also the main center for the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. We walked around and saw some of the old buildings that have been bought out by the school (the Francke school) and are now housing different departments. The architecture in the old city is very old and very German-esque, but it was interesting to be able to see how the DDR era effected Halle as well. I just thought it was fascinating to see the different architecture and how it's come together to make Halle today, and how the history lives on in the buildings, so to speak. In the new city (which was built in the 1960s) there is a lot of Soviet mass-produced apartment high-rises. Every apartment is exactly the same, they're relatively small, and very cheap. Though they're not pretty to look at, these apartments have been integrated into everyday life now--they serve as student housing for the university students.

Unlike American universities, German universities don't have much in the way of university-owned housing, and if they do there aren't enough places for all the students. So you have a surplus of students who then must go rent rooms, share an apartment with friends, or what have you so they can be close enough they can attend university. It's very different from American universities, that's for sure! Halle is definitely a university city too--I believe there's 20,000 students that live in the city. It was a nice change of pace from Wittenberg, where things tend to go a bit slower, and the city trams were awesome! Public transport is not a problem in Halle, that's for sure.

After the tour we met with university students and had a Stammtisch with them, which is like a study table. We had English and German designated tables, and the students brought in cakes and cookies for us to snack on while we did mixer activities. It was really fun, and once again, it was nice to get to know other people outside of the group. After the Stammtisch, we had free time. I went with Metta and some of the other students to the Halloren Chocolate Museum, and it was fascinating! I was very surprised to see that the captions for the exhibits were in English and in German--the museum must be a tourist destination in the summer. After this we had just enough time to go through the Beatles Museum before we had to catch the train back. I've never seen so much Beatles paraphernalia in one small area! Posters, autographed things, collector's items--even Ringo's uniform from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band times. It was very neat, but I didn't get any pictures because I wasn't sure you could take pictures in there. I wish I had because it was really great, but it's a memory I'll have forever and that's good enough, I guess.

Leipzig and Halle photos!

Leipzig/Halle

Leipzig was a very nice city. The train station was enormous, but it's really nice because it has a ton of shops in it that are open on late on Saturday (this is rare in Germany, and can only happen in train stations). We walked around and saw a lot of older buildings: the Opera house, some of the University, an old merchant family's house that was also huge, and the Kaffeebaum. The Kaffee Baum is the oldest coffee shop in the world, with four floors and a small museum. The majority of the group, including me, went back there to get something to drink and it was nice--though the waitress was a bit short with us. Lunch was fantastic, and then we went to the DDR museum (not sure of the actual name, but it deal with the formation of the DDR and the history of the DDR).

Overall the museum was really nice. It seemed sort of small, but they had all sorts of sources and artifacts. I'm pretty sure our tour guide (who did fairly well with English, bless him) said they had over 3,500 pieces in the museum. Naturally, the captions to the sources were in German so I couldn't understand all of it but the tour guide's explanation of the different parts of the exhibit helped a lot. I feel like I learned a lot more about post-WWII East German history than I knew before, for sure.

What stood out most to me was how the exhibit focused on small rebellion/dissent within the DDR from the 1950s all the way up until the Berlin Wall fell. If I could have read the captions, I would have liked to have spent more time looking at that part of the exhibit. The Peace Movement was especially fascinating, and we visited St. Nikolai Church earlier in the day which was the site of large peace protests in Leipzig.

We finished out the planned part of our day with a Motet from the Thomanerchor, the famous boy's choir at St. Thomas Church. Johann Sebastian Bach was a cantor for the Thomanerchor, and many other renowned composers have been cantors there as well (it's a very prestigious job).

Free time was nice, though four hours seemed like a really long time. I had proper ramen for the first time though, and it was very good. All in all, I had a nice time in Leipzig and I look forward to going back there later on for a second visit.

First Day of Classes

Our first day of classes was today, as was part one of applying for our residence permits. My instructor, Anke, is very nice and doesn't seem to mind when we give her blank stares when she speaks to us in German. Funnily enough, she has a piggy bank and we get tallies for the week. 0,10 Euro for being late to class, forgetting homework, and speaking too much English! We get it back at the end of the class, though, but I just thought it was funny.

Also, everyone wears scarves here. They're very popular, it seems. Apparently to mix in, all you need is a scarf--or so Mrs. Bennett says. All the people at the Colleg and Leucorea are very nice, and very helpful. Matt, Casey and I had some problems finding our seminar room this morning, but were able to get some help so that was good.

Everything is very clean here, and the architecture is amazing! I'm sure Leipzig is going to be even better, and we're going to a museum that's all about post-WWII Germany, so that's going to be interesting. I'll put up the Leipzig pictures after we go so you all can see them.

(P.S.: Mom, I'm sure you're reading this. The food is excellent, and no, I've yet to meet any Hostetlers.)

So, it's currently 7:36pm on German time. I'm pretty sure I've been up for longer than 24 hours, probably more like 30, but it was worth it. Wittenberg is a lovely city, and I'll have plenty of pictures for you all soon!

Excellent German Adventures require sleep?

Okay, so, it's officially Wednesday, January 25th. I'm pretty sure I'm so excited I won't be able to sleep tonight--I've already been hyper/jittery for hours. Way to go, self, for not having a normal sleep cycle! I'm sort of nervous about airport security, not so much about actual flying on the plane itself, which seems sort of silly.

So basically this means I'm pretty sure my night will be spent either:
a) laying in bed awake, or
b) laying in bed all ಠ_ಠ self, y u no sleep?

Probably going to be both, to be honest. Great.