Monday
Today it was finally back to school after three weeks of pure traveling. I wasn't sure if I really felt like starting work again, but when I got there in the morning, I realized that I was happy to be back. I usually don't work on Mondays, but a teacher that I work with is on a six week leave and I took over her grade 13 class. I've planned a unit on job searching, applications, and interviews, so I hope it goes well. When I walked into the staff room, I received a very warm welcome from my colleagues and a collective “we missed you!” Frau Redlin gave me a hug because I hadn't seen her during the break. In general, everyone was in a great mood. Even walking through the halls, seeing some of my students put a big smile on my face, as they were apparently happy to see me back at school too. This made me realize how much I like the school and how well I fit in there and feel at home. It is a great feeling. I'm sure if I didn't feel this way, it would have been a long year. So I went to the one class that I had that day with my year 13. Half of them were for some reason or another missing, but the class went really well. We discussed actions that need to be taken before applying for a job and with this looked at my resume. We also pointed out the differences in German/American resumes. The class has to make their own, which will be graded by their teacher, when she gets back. Tonight there was play at the school, and I took Dee along with me, since she came to the last one. This time the 12th graders were performing Handke's “Die Stunde da wir nichts voneinander wussten” (The hour in which we knew nothing about each other). I thought that it started at 7 but it ended up being 7:30. I was glad we were early though because we were able to get tickets, since there was limited seating available. The play was great and the performance and performers did a fabulous job acting and made the piece very realistic. There was hardly any speech throughout the entire piece, only on occasion. There was audience interaction and the piece was very comical and its purpose is to invoke memories and think about the interaction of people in general. Dee and I's favorite part was when one of the boys ran across the stage in his boxers...haha!
Tuesday
Today we had great weather and I got done an hour early because I moved my tutoring with Moritz up. My unit with the 13th graders continued with looking at their resumes and filling out application forms, which is not common in Germany. Their resumes looked good, but I told them I would collect and correct them so they would get good grades. The rest of the day I just spent doing laundry and cleaning, since I was desperately needing to do both after all the traveling. I also realized it was nice to know I would be in one place for a while, even if only for two weeks!
Wednesday
Today I finally got my fourth tutoring student, Niko to come to tutoring. It actually went well. He's a smart kid, but just needs help in some areas. I didn't do too much after school. I just spent some time reading and researching.
Thursday
Today I had a long day of classes, although it went fairly quickly. I had tutoring after school and my second student didn't show up. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure she had a good reason. It's not like her to just not come.
Friday
I did a gun debate/role play with my12 graders, some of whom were in the play. I told them they did a great job with their performance and that since I now know that they can act, that I expected them to do a good job with the role play. I assigned each student a different identity and asked them to determine whether or not they would be for gun ownership and then they had to find the other members of their side of the debate. I then had them introduce themselves so that everyone knew who they were up against. To give you some examples of the identities: a pope, an old hippie, a lobbyist, a supreme court member, an arms producer, a hunter...etc. I then asked them to attempt to stay in character throughout the entire debate. This lesson turned out to be great! The hippie talked about peace and love, the pope about the bible, and the supreme court member about the constitution. Successful! The only thing that I didn't like about the lesson was that some people participated much more than others. With my 13th graders, I also had a role play planned. Theirs was on interview don'ts. I made them split up into groups of two and gave each group a list of interview don'ts to incorporate into a role play. The audience had to figure out what exactly the group did wrong. This was also very successful and hilarious! Some of the kids in this class are also good actors/actresses.
After school, I went and bought chocolates and caught the bus to Altenholz to pay a surprise visit to my host family. Of course I wasn't sure if they would be there, but it didn't matter much. When I got there, both my host parents and host grandma's cars were gone. I decided to try at grandma's anyway because I know that she sometimes lends them her car, when they need two. I rang the doorbell and sure enough, she buzzed me in. I could tell that I had just woken her up because she was messing with her hair as she stood in the doorway. I felt bad because most Germans don't like if you drop by unannounced, but they also told me that I was one of the people who has this privilege, when I moved out. Grandma Petersen was happy to see me and immediately asked why I had brought chocolates. I told her that they were for Silke, my host mom, since her birthday is tomorrow. She smiled and told me she was out getting her hair done, but would be back soon. We chatted a bit and brought each other up to date on the past few weeks and then she made tea and got out her usual tin can of cookies for me. After two hours, Silke finally got back from the hair salon. Grandma called over to tell her she had a visitor and she came over. She was happy to see me too and I gave her the chocolates that I had brought her for her birthday. I told her that I know it is unlucky to wish someone an early birthday in Germany, but that in the U.S. it isn't. She said it wasn't a problem. We talked for another hour and a half and then her and my host dad were heading into town on the bus to meet up with some friends of theirs and so we all rode the bus together. It was great to see them again and we said good bye until next time. Since the weather was so nice, I decided to go for a bike ride along the harbor before having dinner. The weather has actually been nice all week, with the exception of Thursday and I was beginning to wonder what happened to the normal dreary cloud covered sky...I didn't miss it though!
Saturday
I went with Helen and Rebecca to Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the state beside mine and in the former the East. I have never been to this state, so I thought it would be interesting to see if it differs much from the others. It has suffered because is the state with the highest rate of unemployment since it is lacking industry. It is trying to combat this problem by promoting tourism. The three of us met up at the station in Kiel and were off to Bad Kleinen where we had to change trains. Unfortunately, none of us had looked up the connection and our train was running late, so we missed our second train and were stuck in Bad Kleinen, where there is absolutely nothing to do for an hour. We thought maybe we could find something, but after seeing the Hauptstrasse (main street) which was covered in dirt and being reconstructed and had nothing but small square, typically GDR houses on it, we realized that there isn't much to do. Bad Kleinen as the name suggests, really is klein, small. But of course leave it to a man from Liverpool, England to come along and make things interesting. He was in search of a ticket machine and we helped him purchase his ticket, as he didn't really understand the questions that it was asking him. He apparently does a teaching exchange in Wismar every now and then, a town not too far from where we were. I couldn't figure out why his German was so bad, if he has been here numerous times...He is a mathematics teacher and was interested in what we were doing in Germany and gave us a bit of a history lesson on Wismar, the city where he teaches. After about twenty minutes, he left to catch his bus and we went to get on our train that had now arrived, but wouldn't be leaving for another twenty minutes.
After another hour train ride, we arrived in Schwerin. When we exited the station, we immediately had a feeling that it was going to be a beautiful city. We walked along the waterfront to the old part of the city, where we wandered around and then went to the dome. We decided to climb the tower of the dome so that we could get a good view of the city from above and orient ourselves. We climbed the 220 stairs to the top of the tower, not so willingly. Helen gets dizzy on the stairs that spin around and Rebecca and I were not at all fond of the stairs where you could see below you, or of the wooden ones that did not sound very sturdy. We also didn't like the fact that when you got to the top, you could see through the wood panels and they creaked!! We quickly made our way to the concrete and more sturdy outside to take pictures. I'm not very keen on heights, but managed to get used to it after a while. It's always better when I have people with me than when I go it alone! From atop the tower, you could see the entire city and the giant castle of Schwerin. After we managed to make it back down the tower, we made our way to the tourist info to get a map of the city. From here we walked to the castle. It was unlike any castle I had ever seen before, in Germany or elsewhere and it was very large. It was these things, that made the castle appealing, attractive, and unique to me. We decided we would take a tour of it, if it wasn't too expensive. Of course we should have realized it wouldn't be. It was only Euro 2,50. The inside was also very impressive. I overheard a tour guide say that some of the rooms had been burnt and restored, but only the first two.
When we were finished touring the inside of the castle, we walked out into and around the gardens, which were also very nicely laid out and designed. When we were done here we headed back through the old part of the city, this time wandering down alleyways lined with beautiful buildings. Here we found a Schnitzel restaurant, where we decided to sit down for dinner. The first thing we noticed when we walked in, was that the people were still smoking in the restaurant. The smoking ban has apparently not yet been enforced in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern. Dinner was delicious and we paid and took a route that led us back past the waterfront and toward the station. We went into the book store because we had some time before our train would be leaving and here I found a Spiegel Magazine on Islam in Germany and the Identity of Turkish-Germans. I bought it because it applies directly to the research that I am doing. This was the second motivating thing in the past two weeks. First the mosque tour and then this. We left around 6 so that Helen would arrive back in Flensburg around 11. We weren't sure if the train that we took went through Niedersachsen or not because we had never heard of some of the places before and were a little concerned because our ticket didn't cover Niedersachsen, just Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but the woman checking tickets, stamped it and never said a word to us so we assumed she must have either been in a good mood or we were not in Niedersachsen. Now that I have been to Mecklenburg, there is only one state that I haven't yet been to in Germany and that is Saarland...
Sunday
The weather was once again great today and this time a bit warmer, as it was pretty cold yesterday in Schwerin. I ended up going for a walk along the harbor with Siobhan, Dee and Heather. We sat on the stairs in front of the Landtag (state parliamentary building) and then walked some more to a cafe that we like to go to on the waterfront. It was a nice relaxing day.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Judaism and Islam for beginners, the mayor of Berlin has spoken, and traveling some more
April 7-13
Monday
There were a few sessions being offered in the morning, but Helen and I decided to skip out. She wanted to go to Checkpoint Charlie and I wanted to go to the Jewish Museum because I had heard that is was well worth the visit. We left together and then split ways after stopping at an internet cafe. I got to the Jewish Museum a little after 10 and had until 1:30 to stay. It turned out to be really interesting, starting with the early history of Jews settling in Germany and Jewish traditions, and ending with National Socialism and the Holocaust. Unfortunately, I spent to much time reading everything in the beginning, that when I got to the end, I had to rush through everything. I could have stayed much longer because the exhibition there is very large. It was very interesting and I was glad that I opted to go and missed the first session. I made it back to the hotel just in time to go to the second session, which was a panel discussion on the topic “Germany: A Global Player.” It was interesting to here the questions that people were asking the panel and to hear what they had to answer. After the panel, we had to go and get changed for the opening ceremony at the House of World Cultures. It is the former Congress Hall and is also known as the pregnant oyster for its architectural design. It is now a center for Non-European Art. During the opening ceremony, directors of the Fulbright Commission in Germany spoke, Fulbright musicians sang and played instruments, and there was a guest speaker who talked about Climate Change. After the ceremony ended, we were served a buffet dinner once again and here bread was spelled “bred!” I had to laugh about that one, even though I am sure it was just a typo. After dinner, we took the subway back to the hotel and went to bed because we were exhausted and knew that we had to get up early again on the next day.
Tuesday
After eating Breakfast at the hotel, Helen and I decided that we wanted to go back to the New Synagogue and this time go in it. We arrived before 10 and it didn't open until 10 so we had to wait. In the mean time, three Japanese men, 2 of whom we had met in the elevator at the hotel came over to us and started talking to us. They asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Berlin and Germany. We explained and then they told us that they were artists and do exhibitions and that they were heading somewhere else the next day. The funniest thing that they said to Helen and I, was that we look like twins. We laughed hysterically about this because if you saw Helen and I, we look nothing at all alike. She has red hair and is taller than me. But what they were referring to were our jackets, our shoes, and the way that we were sitting. Then it made more sense to us!
Finally the synagogue opened and Helen and I paid our Euro to go inside the dome. Unfortunately, it didn't meet our expectations and we were very disappointed. You couldn't go into the actual open part of the synagogue and when you got up to the top, you weren't allowed to take pictures. The view was nice though. After the synagogue, we walked around the Museum Island and back toward the hotel. I decided I was going to buy a new pair of tennis shoes as a birthday gift for myself, since I have almost walked out my other ones. I found some cheap pumas in the kids department and they were a great purchase! I then went straight back to the hotel because I had another tour scheduled for today. This was a tour of a mosque.
We met in the hotel lobby for the mosque tour and here we met our tour guide, Ufuk, who was born in Germany, but his parents are from Turkey. We left for the subway, after everyone had arrived who was coming along. We were off to one of the newer quarters of Berlin, where a lot of people with migrant backgrounds currently live. The area is known as Neukoeln and includes the Sonnenallee district. We got out at our stop and walked the rest of the way to the mosque. When we arrived, there were a lot of people in the courtyard and Ufuk told us that there was a funeral ceremony going to take place. He hadn't known about this, but he went and asked if the afternoon sermon was still going to take place and if it was a problem that we were there (we were a group of 20 Americans!). Of course no one had a problem with us being there and we went inside the mosque. The first thing we had to do was take off our shoes, as this is part of the Islamic tradition. Already, I felt as if I was entering a new and intriguing world. When we entered the mosque, I immediately thought it was beautiful. The Arabic script on the walls and the colors made the mosque appealing to the eyes. We sat down in the back to observe the service, while the men took their places at the front of the mosque. I say men, because there was only one woman there and she did not go up to the front of the mosque as the men did. She sat in the back, where we had all assembled to watch. First, they did a call to prayer and then they began the actual service that lasted no longer than ten minutes. It consisted of a series of repeated lines and repeated actions. After the service, there is a part that people can choose to do or not and each person does this differently. When the service came to an end, we went upstairs to the most beautiful part of the mosque. Here we could walk around and take pictures, while the short funeral service was taking place. We could here the funeral service, but once again not understand it because it was in Arabic. When this was finished, we all sat in the center of the dome upstairs and Ufuk explained to us the service that we had just seen and what the parts of it were. He also talked about the building of the mosque and the history of the ground that it is built on. The funds for the building of the mosque ($3 million Euro) was all collected from private donors within the Turkish community and the building of it took three years. The ground that it was built on was given as a gift to the Ottoman Empire as a burial ground for Turkish Muslims. Therefore, the name of the mosque, Sehitlik comes from the word cemetary.
An interesting thing to note, is that there are no pictures of people or statues of people placed in mosques. This is because Mohammed feared that the people would concentrate on him and other prophets rather than on God, therefore, names written in Arabic are used in place of pictures.
After his commentary, Ufuk allowed us to ask questions. I took this opportunity to ask him about the woman and why she sat in the back and why she was the only one there. He didn't clearly answer the question, but he did say that the tradition is that women are either in the balcony or in the back of the mosque because they keep a 2 meter distance from the men, although this isn't prescribed in any book about Islam practices. The second question I asked him, was how the Germans view Muslims and the image of Muslims. He answered with an unbiased approach and this led us into a discussion of integration. During the Q and A we discussed some other touchy subjects, but the discussion was never negative by any means and it wa very informative. Following the discussion, Ufuk invited us all to the small Turkish shop beside the mosque for a cup of Turkish tea. Here we were able to sit down at tables and further discuss issues of interest. The tour was overall the most interesting part of the Seminar up to now because it has a lot to do with the research I am doing and want to continue on Turkish-Germans in Germany.
Wednesday
Once again, we had breakfast at the hotel and then walked from there to the City Hall where our sessions for the morning were to take place. To give you a head's up on how many of us there were total, approximately 300-350 Fulbright grantees were in attendance to the Seminar in Berlin, not all from Germany. Fulbright grantees from all over Europe were invited to attend and therefore the group was larger than the amount of German Fulbright grantees. In the morning, five grantees were chosen/volunteered to speak about their work and/or research within Europe and its importance in connection with the U.S. and the greater global society. This ranged from a Teaching Assistant in Hungary, to an Opera Singer in Spain and a graphic design professor in Turkey. There were also a few other grantees on the panel who shared their experiences with us and offered time for questions. This gave us a chance to learn about the success of some of the grantees over the past year in their fields and was very informative.
Following the panel, the Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wolwereit spoke to us in the Berlin City Hall. A little side note, he is openly gay, which I think shows how open Germany is to liberal ideas. I can't imagine an openly gay person being voted into such a high office in the U.S. Anyway, his speech was about the re-unification of Berlin, as the 20th anniversary is approaching, and also how the U. S. played a key role in helping Germany achieve re-unification and gave its support thereafter. Also, he discussed the challenges faced by Berlin during re-unification and the challenges it still faces and must conquer today. When his speech was finished, he also allowed time for questions. He was confronted with questions on integration of families with migrant backgrounds and questions about the Olympics in China and why Germany didn't protest them. His answers came very quickly and were quite impressive. When this came to an end, we were offered lunch at the City Hall and then had a free hour to relax before the next session.
In the afternoon, we again had a panel discussion, this time involving the upcoming elections in the U.S. and the chances and challenges that this will provide Germany. This was also a very active and interesting panel. At the end, a lot of it revolved around the media coverage of the U.S. election in Germany, but this was also interesting. At 4, this was finished and Rebecca and I had planned to go to the Salvidor Dali Exhibition on Ku' damm. There were approximately 450 works by Dali on display there and unfortunately we didn't have as much time to spend there as I would have liked to have had. I had to hurry through the last works to get them all in before we had to head back for dinner. I was really glad that we had decided to go to the exhibition because there were so many works to see and Dali' art is incredible, unique, and fascinating!
We made it back for dinner and finished in time to go downstairs to wait on the buses that would be taking us to the Kulturbrauerei, a disco/bar, where we were provided with two free drinks and an amazing DJ. It was a great time, but was also really crowded once we all got in there and very hot. Helen, Rebecca, and I stayed until about midnight and then walked back to the hotel from there. We packed our things in the evening so that we would be ready to check out after breakfast in the morning.
Thursday
We woke up, went to breakfast, checked out, stored our luggage at the hotel, and then we were off to Potsdam for the day. The seminar was over, but Helen, Rebecca and I had planned to spend the day in Potsdam, which is about a half an hour train ride from Berlin. The weather wasn't the best, but it could have been much worse...at least it wasn't raining. When we first walked out of the station, we weren't sure what to think of the city, but the longer we walked around and the more we saw, the more we liked Potsdam. We made our way to the Sanssouci Park, where about 10 castles are located. The grounds are huge and we spent most of the day walking through the gardens and looking at the palaces. It must have taken us at least 2 or 3 hours to walk through the whole gardens and see everything. When we were done, we were in need of food. We stopped at an Asian restaurant and had a delicious warm meal, before walking around more of Potsdam. Later we caught the train back to Berlin and picked up our luggage from the hotel. We left for the main station and caught our train back from there. I made it in at about 8 in the evening and unpacked, only to re-pack for my trip to the south to visit my friend, Katharina, in Ansbach, close to Nuernberg.
Friday
Because of the seminar, I took the whole week off, thinking it would be pointless to go to school for one day and the one hour that I have on Fridays. Instead, I planned to visit Katharina, who I had met my freshman year of college when she had studied abroad at Bethany. I hadn't seen Katharina for over two years. The last time being, when she dropped me off at the airport to go home from Heidelberg. So I was really excited to finally get to see her again after all this time!
I took the 9:21 train to Hamburg and from there went to Nuernberg. From Nuernberg I had one more short train to Ansbach, where Katharina was waiting for me at the station. After fighting traffic, we went to Sandra's, a teacher with whom Katharina works, for lunch. Sandra has a three year old daughter Miriam and she is really cute, although also hyperactive (well, aren't all three year olds?). Sandra is also a very nice and sincere person and I was glad that I was able to spend part of the afternoon getting to know her and Miriam. Later, we went to Katharina's apartment and dropped off my bag. I was excited to see her place and when we got there, her apartment was very spacious, nicely decorated and had lots of light. I doubt that she could have found something better! For the next few hours, we walked around Ansbach. The city itself is quite small, but has a lot to offer and is very beautiful. We walked through the palace gardens and through the city. It's your typical small town in Bavaria with lots of beautiful architecture. When we were done with our walking tour of Ansbach, we went shopping for some food. At the store a guy was acting very strange and as two normal girls would react, we started laughing. He yelled at us and said we were typical Germans...this put me in hysterics, as of course I'm not German! Katharina laughed and said she wasn't going to say anything in return. When we got back to her apartment, we unpacked the food and then watched “Amelie.” I hadn't ever seen it, but it turned out to be a great movie. Katharina was tired and fell asleep during some parts, but she had already seen it. After it was over, both of us were exhausted and we went to bed.
Saturday
Today we planned to go to Nuernberg for the day. It is about 40 minutes by car to Nuernberg from Ansbach. When we got to Nuernberg we parked on the south side of the city and started walking toward the city center. We stopped and asked a man for directions to the castle along the way and he thought we were crazy. He made it seem as if we were hours away from there. A woman informed us that we just needed to keep going straight and we would get there. We figured out that it wasn't as far as he made it seem. I was in Nuernberg for a few hours on my way back from Svenni's Birthday party, so I somewhat knew my way around, and we found our way into the city center through the city wall that is still intact on most sides. We walked around and went into a few stores along the streets. Then we decided to go up to the top of the castle because the weather was so beautiful and the view was perfect. There were a lot of American tourists running around up there and it reminded me of Heidelberg. There is an army base in Ansbach, where Katharina lives, so maybe some of them were from there. We also heard a bunch of Americans in her city when we were walking around yesterday. Apparently the base in Ansbach will remain open, unlike many other bases that are closing in Germany.
Anyway, when we came back down from the castle, we were starting to get hungry, so we found a nice cafe where we had lunch. The portions were really large and the location of the cafe was along the water, so a lot of people were there. You could tell this was one of the first days of Spring because everyone was out enjoying the weather. We walked around a bit more after lunch, and then went back to Ansbach. We wanted to go to the movie theater in the evening so we looked up films and found one that sounded interesting called “Juno.” It was a really good movie that was very comical, even though other parts were dramatic.
Sunday
The two of us had planned to go to Rothenburg today, but then changed our minds to go to the zoo with Sandra and Miriam in Nuernberg. We had a great time looking at the animals and trying to keep Miriam content. We were rushing to leave because we didn't know if we had enough time to catch the train that I wanted to get from Ansbach to Kiel, so we called the train company and asked when the next train from Nuernberg to Kiel would be. He told us in 18 minutes. We still weren't sure if we would get that one either, but we were hoping. We said our goodbyes on the way and I bailed at the station and ran to the track. At first I freaked out for a second because the sign didn't say anything and then I realized that the train had switched tracks to the one beside it and it still wasn't there anyway, thank goodness. I called Katharina's cell to tell her not to wait, that I would get the train and said good bye and thanks again. I had a wonderful time visiting her and meeting Sandra and Miriam. The visit was long overdue and we had fun catching up on Bethany gossip and sharing stories from the past few years. In addition, this was a relaxing finish to the past three weeks of traveling. When I finally arrived back in Kiel, I walked home, unpacked, and prepared my lessons and materials for the next day.
Monday
There were a few sessions being offered in the morning, but Helen and I decided to skip out. She wanted to go to Checkpoint Charlie and I wanted to go to the Jewish Museum because I had heard that is was well worth the visit. We left together and then split ways after stopping at an internet cafe. I got to the Jewish Museum a little after 10 and had until 1:30 to stay. It turned out to be really interesting, starting with the early history of Jews settling in Germany and Jewish traditions, and ending with National Socialism and the Holocaust. Unfortunately, I spent to much time reading everything in the beginning, that when I got to the end, I had to rush through everything. I could have stayed much longer because the exhibition there is very large. It was very interesting and I was glad that I opted to go and missed the first session. I made it back to the hotel just in time to go to the second session, which was a panel discussion on the topic “Germany: A Global Player.” It was interesting to here the questions that people were asking the panel and to hear what they had to answer. After the panel, we had to go and get changed for the opening ceremony at the House of World Cultures. It is the former Congress Hall and is also known as the pregnant oyster for its architectural design. It is now a center for Non-European Art. During the opening ceremony, directors of the Fulbright Commission in Germany spoke, Fulbright musicians sang and played instruments, and there was a guest speaker who talked about Climate Change. After the ceremony ended, we were served a buffet dinner once again and here bread was spelled “bred!” I had to laugh about that one, even though I am sure it was just a typo. After dinner, we took the subway back to the hotel and went to bed because we were exhausted and knew that we had to get up early again on the next day.
Tuesday
After eating Breakfast at the hotel, Helen and I decided that we wanted to go back to the New Synagogue and this time go in it. We arrived before 10 and it didn't open until 10 so we had to wait. In the mean time, three Japanese men, 2 of whom we had met in the elevator at the hotel came over to us and started talking to us. They asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Berlin and Germany. We explained and then they told us that they were artists and do exhibitions and that they were heading somewhere else the next day. The funniest thing that they said to Helen and I, was that we look like twins. We laughed hysterically about this because if you saw Helen and I, we look nothing at all alike. She has red hair and is taller than me. But what they were referring to were our jackets, our shoes, and the way that we were sitting. Then it made more sense to us!
Finally the synagogue opened and Helen and I paid our Euro to go inside the dome. Unfortunately, it didn't meet our expectations and we were very disappointed. You couldn't go into the actual open part of the synagogue and when you got up to the top, you weren't allowed to take pictures. The view was nice though. After the synagogue, we walked around the Museum Island and back toward the hotel. I decided I was going to buy a new pair of tennis shoes as a birthday gift for myself, since I have almost walked out my other ones. I found some cheap pumas in the kids department and they were a great purchase! I then went straight back to the hotel because I had another tour scheduled for today. This was a tour of a mosque.
We met in the hotel lobby for the mosque tour and here we met our tour guide, Ufuk, who was born in Germany, but his parents are from Turkey. We left for the subway, after everyone had arrived who was coming along. We were off to one of the newer quarters of Berlin, where a lot of people with migrant backgrounds currently live. The area is known as Neukoeln and includes the Sonnenallee district. We got out at our stop and walked the rest of the way to the mosque. When we arrived, there were a lot of people in the courtyard and Ufuk told us that there was a funeral ceremony going to take place. He hadn't known about this, but he went and asked if the afternoon sermon was still going to take place and if it was a problem that we were there (we were a group of 20 Americans!). Of course no one had a problem with us being there and we went inside the mosque. The first thing we had to do was take off our shoes, as this is part of the Islamic tradition. Already, I felt as if I was entering a new and intriguing world. When we entered the mosque, I immediately thought it was beautiful. The Arabic script on the walls and the colors made the mosque appealing to the eyes. We sat down in the back to observe the service, while the men took their places at the front of the mosque. I say men, because there was only one woman there and she did not go up to the front of the mosque as the men did. She sat in the back, where we had all assembled to watch. First, they did a call to prayer and then they began the actual service that lasted no longer than ten minutes. It consisted of a series of repeated lines and repeated actions. After the service, there is a part that people can choose to do or not and each person does this differently. When the service came to an end, we went upstairs to the most beautiful part of the mosque. Here we could walk around and take pictures, while the short funeral service was taking place. We could here the funeral service, but once again not understand it because it was in Arabic. When this was finished, we all sat in the center of the dome upstairs and Ufuk explained to us the service that we had just seen and what the parts of it were. He also talked about the building of the mosque and the history of the ground that it is built on. The funds for the building of the mosque ($3 million Euro) was all collected from private donors within the Turkish community and the building of it took three years. The ground that it was built on was given as a gift to the Ottoman Empire as a burial ground for Turkish Muslims. Therefore, the name of the mosque, Sehitlik comes from the word cemetary.
An interesting thing to note, is that there are no pictures of people or statues of people placed in mosques. This is because Mohammed feared that the people would concentrate on him and other prophets rather than on God, therefore, names written in Arabic are used in place of pictures.
After his commentary, Ufuk allowed us to ask questions. I took this opportunity to ask him about the woman and why she sat in the back and why she was the only one there. He didn't clearly answer the question, but he did say that the tradition is that women are either in the balcony or in the back of the mosque because they keep a 2 meter distance from the men, although this isn't prescribed in any book about Islam practices. The second question I asked him, was how the Germans view Muslims and the image of Muslims. He answered with an unbiased approach and this led us into a discussion of integration. During the Q and A we discussed some other touchy subjects, but the discussion was never negative by any means and it wa very informative. Following the discussion, Ufuk invited us all to the small Turkish shop beside the mosque for a cup of Turkish tea. Here we were able to sit down at tables and further discuss issues of interest. The tour was overall the most interesting part of the Seminar up to now because it has a lot to do with the research I am doing and want to continue on Turkish-Germans in Germany.
Wednesday
Once again, we had breakfast at the hotel and then walked from there to the City Hall where our sessions for the morning were to take place. To give you a head's up on how many of us there were total, approximately 300-350 Fulbright grantees were in attendance to the Seminar in Berlin, not all from Germany. Fulbright grantees from all over Europe were invited to attend and therefore the group was larger than the amount of German Fulbright grantees. In the morning, five grantees were chosen/volunteered to speak about their work and/or research within Europe and its importance in connection with the U.S. and the greater global society. This ranged from a Teaching Assistant in Hungary, to an Opera Singer in Spain and a graphic design professor in Turkey. There were also a few other grantees on the panel who shared their experiences with us and offered time for questions. This gave us a chance to learn about the success of some of the grantees over the past year in their fields and was very informative.
Following the panel, the Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wolwereit spoke to us in the Berlin City Hall. A little side note, he is openly gay, which I think shows how open Germany is to liberal ideas. I can't imagine an openly gay person being voted into such a high office in the U.S. Anyway, his speech was about the re-unification of Berlin, as the 20th anniversary is approaching, and also how the U. S. played a key role in helping Germany achieve re-unification and gave its support thereafter. Also, he discussed the challenges faced by Berlin during re-unification and the challenges it still faces and must conquer today. When his speech was finished, he also allowed time for questions. He was confronted with questions on integration of families with migrant backgrounds and questions about the Olympics in China and why Germany didn't protest them. His answers came very quickly and were quite impressive. When this came to an end, we were offered lunch at the City Hall and then had a free hour to relax before the next session.
In the afternoon, we again had a panel discussion, this time involving the upcoming elections in the U.S. and the chances and challenges that this will provide Germany. This was also a very active and interesting panel. At the end, a lot of it revolved around the media coverage of the U.S. election in Germany, but this was also interesting. At 4, this was finished and Rebecca and I had planned to go to the Salvidor Dali Exhibition on Ku' damm. There were approximately 450 works by Dali on display there and unfortunately we didn't have as much time to spend there as I would have liked to have had. I had to hurry through the last works to get them all in before we had to head back for dinner. I was really glad that we had decided to go to the exhibition because there were so many works to see and Dali' art is incredible, unique, and fascinating!
We made it back for dinner and finished in time to go downstairs to wait on the buses that would be taking us to the Kulturbrauerei, a disco/bar, where we were provided with two free drinks and an amazing DJ. It was a great time, but was also really crowded once we all got in there and very hot. Helen, Rebecca, and I stayed until about midnight and then walked back to the hotel from there. We packed our things in the evening so that we would be ready to check out after breakfast in the morning.
Thursday
We woke up, went to breakfast, checked out, stored our luggage at the hotel, and then we were off to Potsdam for the day. The seminar was over, but Helen, Rebecca and I had planned to spend the day in Potsdam, which is about a half an hour train ride from Berlin. The weather wasn't the best, but it could have been much worse...at least it wasn't raining. When we first walked out of the station, we weren't sure what to think of the city, but the longer we walked around and the more we saw, the more we liked Potsdam. We made our way to the Sanssouci Park, where about 10 castles are located. The grounds are huge and we spent most of the day walking through the gardens and looking at the palaces. It must have taken us at least 2 or 3 hours to walk through the whole gardens and see everything. When we were done, we were in need of food. We stopped at an Asian restaurant and had a delicious warm meal, before walking around more of Potsdam. Later we caught the train back to Berlin and picked up our luggage from the hotel. We left for the main station and caught our train back from there. I made it in at about 8 in the evening and unpacked, only to re-pack for my trip to the south to visit my friend, Katharina, in Ansbach, close to Nuernberg.
Friday
Because of the seminar, I took the whole week off, thinking it would be pointless to go to school for one day and the one hour that I have on Fridays. Instead, I planned to visit Katharina, who I had met my freshman year of college when she had studied abroad at Bethany. I hadn't seen Katharina for over two years. The last time being, when she dropped me off at the airport to go home from Heidelberg. So I was really excited to finally get to see her again after all this time!
I took the 9:21 train to Hamburg and from there went to Nuernberg. From Nuernberg I had one more short train to Ansbach, where Katharina was waiting for me at the station. After fighting traffic, we went to Sandra's, a teacher with whom Katharina works, for lunch. Sandra has a three year old daughter Miriam and she is really cute, although also hyperactive (well, aren't all three year olds?). Sandra is also a very nice and sincere person and I was glad that I was able to spend part of the afternoon getting to know her and Miriam. Later, we went to Katharina's apartment and dropped off my bag. I was excited to see her place and when we got there, her apartment was very spacious, nicely decorated and had lots of light. I doubt that she could have found something better! For the next few hours, we walked around Ansbach. The city itself is quite small, but has a lot to offer and is very beautiful. We walked through the palace gardens and through the city. It's your typical small town in Bavaria with lots of beautiful architecture. When we were done with our walking tour of Ansbach, we went shopping for some food. At the store a guy was acting very strange and as two normal girls would react, we started laughing. He yelled at us and said we were typical Germans...this put me in hysterics, as of course I'm not German! Katharina laughed and said she wasn't going to say anything in return. When we got back to her apartment, we unpacked the food and then watched “Amelie.” I hadn't ever seen it, but it turned out to be a great movie. Katharina was tired and fell asleep during some parts, but she had already seen it. After it was over, both of us were exhausted and we went to bed.
Saturday
Today we planned to go to Nuernberg for the day. It is about 40 minutes by car to Nuernberg from Ansbach. When we got to Nuernberg we parked on the south side of the city and started walking toward the city center. We stopped and asked a man for directions to the castle along the way and he thought we were crazy. He made it seem as if we were hours away from there. A woman informed us that we just needed to keep going straight and we would get there. We figured out that it wasn't as far as he made it seem. I was in Nuernberg for a few hours on my way back from Svenni's Birthday party, so I somewhat knew my way around, and we found our way into the city center through the city wall that is still intact on most sides. We walked around and went into a few stores along the streets. Then we decided to go up to the top of the castle because the weather was so beautiful and the view was perfect. There were a lot of American tourists running around up there and it reminded me of Heidelberg. There is an army base in Ansbach, where Katharina lives, so maybe some of them were from there. We also heard a bunch of Americans in her city when we were walking around yesterday. Apparently the base in Ansbach will remain open, unlike many other bases that are closing in Germany.
Anyway, when we came back down from the castle, we were starting to get hungry, so we found a nice cafe where we had lunch. The portions were really large and the location of the cafe was along the water, so a lot of people were there. You could tell this was one of the first days of Spring because everyone was out enjoying the weather. We walked around a bit more after lunch, and then went back to Ansbach. We wanted to go to the movie theater in the evening so we looked up films and found one that sounded interesting called “Juno.” It was a really good movie that was very comical, even though other parts were dramatic.
Sunday
The two of us had planned to go to Rothenburg today, but then changed our minds to go to the zoo with Sandra and Miriam in Nuernberg. We had a great time looking at the animals and trying to keep Miriam content. We were rushing to leave because we didn't know if we had enough time to catch the train that I wanted to get from Ansbach to Kiel, so we called the train company and asked when the next train from Nuernberg to Kiel would be. He told us in 18 minutes. We still weren't sure if we would get that one either, but we were hoping. We said our goodbyes on the way and I bailed at the station and ran to the track. At first I freaked out for a second because the sign didn't say anything and then I realized that the train had switched tracks to the one beside it and it still wasn't there anyway, thank goodness. I called Katharina's cell to tell her not to wait, that I would get the train and said good bye and thanks again. I had a wonderful time visiting her and meeting Sandra and Miriam. The visit was long overdue and we had fun catching up on Bethany gossip and sharing stories from the past few years. In addition, this was a relaxing finish to the past three weeks of traveling. When I finally arrived back in Kiel, I walked home, unpacked, and prepared my lessons and materials for the next day.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Marzipan people, Airport hotel, and Vergangenheits "what?!"
April 1-8
Monday
Katja, my teacher, arrived late! Well there's go the punctuality stereotype right out the window. She would have been on time but couldn't find a parking space because I live on the main street in Kiel. She brought the tests in and we began correcting right away. It took less than an hour and when we were done reviewing the corrections, I showed her around our apartment. She said she was happy to know that I had a nice place and agreed that the location couldn't be any better. After chatting a while, we decided to head out for lunch. They left the choice of the restaurant up to me saying I knew better than the two of them where to go. Of course I don't eat out very often, but I did know there was a nice restaurant down the street called Henry the Eighth, so we went there for dinner. Thankfully, we weren't executed while there! We all ordered pizzas with our own choice of toppings and they were very delicious. It was relaxing to just sit around and talk with Katja because we were still exhausted from all of the traveling. Katja paid for our meals (everyone here is so generous, Andrea did the same for us in Schleswig) and after a while, we decided to head back. Katja came back upstairs to get her things and then was off to the library and Tash and I relaxed some more before going to buy flowers and Oreos for my host family. I know that probably sounds funny, but the flowers were for them having us over for dinner and the Oreos because my host mom once told me that she liked them a lot. When we had gotten the things we needed, we waited on the bus and were on our way to Altenholz. We took a bus that doesn't go all the way to their house so that we wouldn't be way early and we walked the rest of the way there. We got there a few minutes after five and Silke was at the door to greet us. I immediately noticed that they had hung the picture of me, my host mom, and host grandma that I had given them, in place of the picture that used to hang of me and Svenni in the hallway that I sent before arriving. This made me smile. I introduced Natasha to Silke and Helge and then we went into the living room because grandma was in there. I introduced them and then we were talking in German because my host grandma doesn't speak much English. She is, however, taking an English course still so that she will be able to understand a few things when they head off to Australia to pick up their daughter/ her granddaughter. After a while, Silke and Helge came in and we were speaking in English and taking turns translating back and forth for grandma. This was funny, but also really sweet. My host grandma would always look Tash in the eyes when she was speaking to her so that she would know that she was talking to her. Natasha found this really touching. For dinner we had Tuscany chicken and for dessert Rote Gruetze, a traditional dessert in the north (I think it really comes from Denmark because I remember Frau Kohler teaching us how it is called in Danish and then seeing it on the Menu there). It is made of lots of different berries and is like a jelly. It is served with milk or a vanilla cream or pudding like substance. Of course dinner was fabulous as usual. After dinner we just sat around the table talking about what's happened in our lives recently and my host parents were asking Natasha about work and other things. Grandma left a little after dinner, I'm not sure if she was tired or if she just felt like she couldn't communicate and felt left out. I hope this isn't the reason she left, but it is unusual that she left so early. At about 9 or so Tash and I said our goodbyes and made our way back to my apartment.
Tuesday
We woke up and had breakfast, before walking to the station to take the train to Luebeck. It is a city from the middle ages (a UNESCO world heritage site, did you know Germany has more than any other country?!) and is one of the most beautiful and well-known cities of Schleswig-Holstein, so I felt that I should take Tash there. We decided to make it a relaxing day too. When we arrived, we walked around the city and I showed Tash all of the touristic points of interest and the door to the wall that used to surround the city. We then went to the Niederegger Cafe. Luebeck is world famous for its marzipan and Niederegger is the man who brought this fame to the city. His marzipan is supposedly of the highest quality, meaning that it has more almonds in it in proportion to the amount of sugar used. The cafe is on three floors and the bottom floor is mainly a shop that sells anything that you can possibly think of made of marzipan or marzipan flavored. It's amazing and if you go there, you will want to buy it all! We decided to sit down for a warm drink and cake. I ordered a marzipan coffee, which was by far the best coffee I have ever had! It was delicious. We ordered a piece of the tradition Marzipan nut cake and split it between the two of us. I still hadn't made Natasha try German ice cream yet (it's amazing too, pretty much every type of food is better here), so we decided to split an ice cream dish too. We ordered a vanilla ice cream with peaches and a raspberry topping. It, too, was delicious!!! After we paid, we went to the third floor where the marzipan salon/museum is located. Here you can learn about where marzipan originated and how it evolved in history. Also, there are 12 life-sized figures made out of marzipan there! It's completely crazy. There was also a woman molding marzipan into an entire display. She was making flowers for the garden when we were there. I asked her if she had made the other one sitting out and she said yes. She told me that it took her a month to make because of all the different colors of marzipan. I was really impressed.
After leaving the cafe, we walked to the other end of the city and then found the puppet/ marionette museum that we wanted to go to. The building looks really small from the outside, but once we were inside where the exhibit was, we realized that we were definitely getting our money's worth! The place was huge with at least four floors. It was filled with puppets from all over the world. Some of the most interesting and intricate ones were from Asia. The paper ones were so detailed. This was another highlight of the day, following the cafe. When we were finished walking around the museum an hour or more later, we walked along the harbor and then back to the station to catch our train back to Kiel. I had invited two of my friends who are assistants over for dinner and Tash and I still needed to go shopping before they came. After arriving in Kiel, we stopped at the store and bought the few extra things we needed to make our family's baked Parmesan chicken recipe. With the chicken, we cooked mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and carrots. It was a really tasty meal and my friends enjoyed it too. Then we just sat around chatting the rest of the night.
Wednesday
We slept in as long as we possibly could and then we finally got out of bed to meet my friends for coffee and cake at our usual place on the corner. Heather and her friend were late so we planned to just meet here there. We all ordered our cake and drinks and they finally showed up. It was a nice relaxing afternoon, but then Tash and I had to leave so that we could catch the train we wanted. We stopped at the Doener Restaurant on the way to grab a currywurst and fries, that the two of us split for lunch. I had told her that she had to eat one before she left. Then we finished packing our bags and were off to the train station. We made it just in time for our bus to get there and took the nicer train since we had our tickets that were valid. At Hamburg, we put our luggage in the lockers and went into the city. I quickly showed Tash a few of the touristy sites of Hamburg and then it was time for us to find some food before getting our bus to the airport. We attempted to go to a buffet place that I had been before with a teacher, but it was closed so we went to a Thai place that we found in the Europa Passage (mall). It looked like it would be expensive, but ended up being super cheap and we were served really quickly. The food there was also delicious and I told Tash that she was spoiling me with all of this good food that we had been eating. I could definitely get used to that! We grabbed our bags from the station and were off to the airport at about 8:30. We got there by 9 and were going to be awake for the next 8 hours. The first few hours went by pretty quickly and the amount of people started to die out. We were 2 of 3 at one point, I think. We met a boy, I think his name was Jason??, at the airport who was part English and part Spanish. He was just going on leave for a week from serving in Iraq. He rolled up to us in a wheelchair and Tash and I were really confused because we had seen him walking around without it, but then we found out that he was just extremely bored and had found it in a corner. Later around 2 or so in the morning, one of the men working at the airport came and took it away and was walking around asking for our tickets. Of course, I didn't have one, but this wasn't a big problem. He didn't say anything, just asked if Tash and I were there together.
Thursday
We made it through the night and went upstairs around 5 to see if Tash could check in yet. The counters hadn't been opened yet, so we just sat back down upstairs. I had called a bus/van to take me back to Kiel a litlle after 5 in the morning, so we had to say goodbye, so that I didn't miss it. Of course when I got there, I was the only person in it and the driver offered me a choice of seats...haha. He also asked if I missed the last bus because he doesn't get calls very often to come out that early. I explained that I just dropped my sis off to get a flight back to the U.S. and he didn't ask any questions after that. I half slept on the way back. He was flying on the highway in the rain, so I didn't really want to keep my eyes open anyway. When I got back to Kiel, he dropped me off at the station. It was around 6:30 and then I walked to my apartment and and was asleep at 7. I woke up around 2 or so and my friends had asked me if I wanted to go for a bike ride around 6 and then to Heather's for dinner. I agreed to come along. It was a really nice day and we attempted to fix Dee's lights on her bike, as a man who was completely nuts walked up to us on the main square in Kiel and was shouting and spitting. He told us not to worry about the light, just to ride the bike. He said a few other things, but nothing worth repeating. We had to laugh about this because there is always something crazy going on in Kiel. 30 minutes later, I got yelled at by an older man for riding my bike on the sidewalk when no one was even around besides him. He told me that after you are 5 years old you are supposed to get off of your bike and push it there. I just laughed and kept pedaling. Germans are not very keen on breaking rules. One example, being crossing the road when a light is red and you aren't supposed to walk. This drives me and the other assistants mad. There could be no car in sight for miles on a small alley, and they will still stand there waiting for it to turn green! This makes us all laugh. Occasionally though, when you are the first to walk across, they will follow, either acting as though they thought it was green because of you or thinking, well I suppose if I'm not the first one to do it then it's ok. This is funny to observe. Sometimes though, you will get the people who roll their eyes and shake their heads when you do this. Anyway back to the program. We finally arrived at Heather's and she was starting the food. We had rice and curry and what the British call “pudding” for dessert (consisted of strawberries, whipped cream, and meringue. It was all really good. Around 11 we headed back home.
Friday
Today we went on a bike ride to Schilksee. Unfortunately, we were not very successful. We didn't get that far because Siobhan had a flat tire. We made it across the canal and into Holtenau and had to turn around. We were looking for an air pump, so that we wouldn't have to walk all of the way back (would have taken at least 1hour and 15 min.) and it started raining anyway. We found a gas station after asking a man walking down the street and then we met our next problem. Siobhan didn't have the same type of tire that the pump was designed for. We thought about what we could possibly do next, when a man with 3 bikes on the back of a trailer came along. We figured he would know what to do and so Siobhan asked him for help. He happened to have an adapter for the bike tire valve and was able to pump it up for her. This was very kind of him. After this we made our way back after stopping shortly for a picnic lunch. We went up to Dee's after we got back and just sat around for a bit. I then came home and grabbed some food and headed back over. We watched some tv and had a girl's night in.
Saturday
Siobhan asked me if I could fix her flat, since I am now experienced in doing it. I told her to bring it over and I would have a look at the innertube. I found one hole and patched it. We decided to go for a ride to the botanical gardens at the University, which is only about 5 minutes away from here. Her tire seemed to hold out so I think that was the only hole. After wandering around the gardens, which weren't fully in bloom, we rode our bikes to a bakery down the street to get cake and coffee. We spent the afternoon there and then I came home and packed for Berlin and then had dinner.
Sunday
Today, I Left for Berlin in the morning. I met up with Helen and Rebecca in Hamburg and we traveled the rest of the way together. Once we got to the station, we bought tickets for the subway and went to the hotel. It wasn't hard to find at all because it was so huge! After getting our rooms sorted out (the three of us expected to be in one room together, but they ended up only having doubles and Rebecca got stuck with some strange girl) we went to register for the seminar with the Fulbright directors. We received a free Fulbright hand bag and got our schedule for the conference for the week. There was also space left for the tours, which I had totally forgotten to sign up for because my sister was here, so Rebecca and I decided to join Helen on the Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung Tour (yeah it's a mouth full and it is one word!, it means : Germany's way of dealing with the past, very LOOSELY translated), a tour of Jewish memorials and places of remembrance led by prof Dr. Wolfgang Wuppermann of the Freie Universitaet of Berlin. Dr. Wuppermann is very knowledgeable and very opinionated on this subject (in a good way) and has also written many books. He had a really great personality and I enjoyed the educational tour.
Our first stop was Rosenstrasse, which is located right next to Alexanderplatz and was close to our hotel. This is where they know that Jews attempted resistance from the Nazis. The memorial is dedicated to women, but they weren't the only people resisting. From here we walked to the Jewish cemetery that had of course been grave robbed. It was the former location of Moses Mendelssohn, an important German Jewish philosopher's grave. There are now video cameras and a fence surrounding the cemetery so that no more damage can be done to the site that now has a small monument of remembrance. There is also a Jewish school located directly beside it and there they also have security cameras. It”s very sad that they have to have these out, but they are unfortunately still necessary for their protection. From there we went to the New Synagogue, which was burned on Kristallnacht and has been somewhat rebuilt (on the outside) as a memorial and place of remembrance. Next, we walked past the Berlin Dome to a very small memorial that was going to be removed, but was prevented form this partially due in part to Dr. Wuppermann because it also represented the resistance of the Jews. From here we walked to the Neue Wache where the National Memorial in Berlin, a statue of Kaethe Kollwitz' that was dedicated to ALL the victims of war and tyranny (this includes those who fell under the socialist Eastern block) is located. It was interesting to hear the response of the Jews to this memorial (it is viewed by them as a Christian-like statue). According to Dr. Wuppermann, their lack of acceptance of this memorial as their National Memorial is what led to the first discussions of building a Jewish Memorial in Berlin. Our last stop on the tour from here was at the book burning square “Bebelplatz”, also located on Unter den Linden. This is where more than 20,000 books by Jews, Communists and others were burned on May 10, 1933 by the Nazis. Next to the monument, a glass panel in the ground through which barren white book shelves can be seen, a plaque has been placed with a quote from Heinrich Heine, (also a Jew who's books were burnt on the square). In 1820, he wrote, “where books are burned, in the end people will burn.” I think this was the most haunting of the entire tour, as it appears that Heine could somehow foresee the future. Of course he probably meant this in a more abstract way, referring to humans' thoughts or something of the sort, but it still sends goosebumps down my spine.
After our tour concluded here, we were free to walk around and then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the opening and welcome dinner. The dinner was great with a huge buffet including many different types of delicious German breads, a huge salad bar and most importantly amazingly delicious desserts. There were so many we had to try at least two each time!! Drinks were also free the entire dinner. We were definitely being spoiled by the Fulbright Commission. The hotel was great, minus the fact that the shower had pretty much see through windows and you couldn't use the shower and bathroom at the same time because there was only one door that swung to close on one or the other, but we really couldn't complain! The view from our 29th floor room was also quite impressive! After dinner, we hit the city to get some pictures at night of the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, Alexanderplatz, and the dome. We made a few new friends at the dinner, Stephanie and Leah and they came along too. When we got back we planned out Monday and then went to bed.
Monday
Katja, my teacher, arrived late! Well there's go the punctuality stereotype right out the window. She would have been on time but couldn't find a parking space because I live on the main street in Kiel. She brought the tests in and we began correcting right away. It took less than an hour and when we were done reviewing the corrections, I showed her around our apartment. She said she was happy to know that I had a nice place and agreed that the location couldn't be any better. After chatting a while, we decided to head out for lunch. They left the choice of the restaurant up to me saying I knew better than the two of them where to go. Of course I don't eat out very often, but I did know there was a nice restaurant down the street called Henry the Eighth, so we went there for dinner. Thankfully, we weren't executed while there! We all ordered pizzas with our own choice of toppings and they were very delicious. It was relaxing to just sit around and talk with Katja because we were still exhausted from all of the traveling. Katja paid for our meals (everyone here is so generous, Andrea did the same for us in Schleswig) and after a while, we decided to head back. Katja came back upstairs to get her things and then was off to the library and Tash and I relaxed some more before going to buy flowers and Oreos for my host family. I know that probably sounds funny, but the flowers were for them having us over for dinner and the Oreos because my host mom once told me that she liked them a lot. When we had gotten the things we needed, we waited on the bus and were on our way to Altenholz. We took a bus that doesn't go all the way to their house so that we wouldn't be way early and we walked the rest of the way there. We got there a few minutes after five and Silke was at the door to greet us. I immediately noticed that they had hung the picture of me, my host mom, and host grandma that I had given them, in place of the picture that used to hang of me and Svenni in the hallway that I sent before arriving. This made me smile. I introduced Natasha to Silke and Helge and then we went into the living room because grandma was in there. I introduced them and then we were talking in German because my host grandma doesn't speak much English. She is, however, taking an English course still so that she will be able to understand a few things when they head off to Australia to pick up their daughter/ her granddaughter. After a while, Silke and Helge came in and we were speaking in English and taking turns translating back and forth for grandma. This was funny, but also really sweet. My host grandma would always look Tash in the eyes when she was speaking to her so that she would know that she was talking to her. Natasha found this really touching. For dinner we had Tuscany chicken and for dessert Rote Gruetze, a traditional dessert in the north (I think it really comes from Denmark because I remember Frau Kohler teaching us how it is called in Danish and then seeing it on the Menu there). It is made of lots of different berries and is like a jelly. It is served with milk or a vanilla cream or pudding like substance. Of course dinner was fabulous as usual. After dinner we just sat around the table talking about what's happened in our lives recently and my host parents were asking Natasha about work and other things. Grandma left a little after dinner, I'm not sure if she was tired or if she just felt like she couldn't communicate and felt left out. I hope this isn't the reason she left, but it is unusual that she left so early. At about 9 or so Tash and I said our goodbyes and made our way back to my apartment.
Tuesday
We woke up and had breakfast, before walking to the station to take the train to Luebeck. It is a city from the middle ages (a UNESCO world heritage site, did you know Germany has more than any other country?!) and is one of the most beautiful and well-known cities of Schleswig-Holstein, so I felt that I should take Tash there. We decided to make it a relaxing day too. When we arrived, we walked around the city and I showed Tash all of the touristic points of interest and the door to the wall that used to surround the city. We then went to the Niederegger Cafe. Luebeck is world famous for its marzipan and Niederegger is the man who brought this fame to the city. His marzipan is supposedly of the highest quality, meaning that it has more almonds in it in proportion to the amount of sugar used. The cafe is on three floors and the bottom floor is mainly a shop that sells anything that you can possibly think of made of marzipan or marzipan flavored. It's amazing and if you go there, you will want to buy it all! We decided to sit down for a warm drink and cake. I ordered a marzipan coffee, which was by far the best coffee I have ever had! It was delicious. We ordered a piece of the tradition Marzipan nut cake and split it between the two of us. I still hadn't made Natasha try German ice cream yet (it's amazing too, pretty much every type of food is better here), so we decided to split an ice cream dish too. We ordered a vanilla ice cream with peaches and a raspberry topping. It, too, was delicious!!! After we paid, we went to the third floor where the marzipan salon/museum is located. Here you can learn about where marzipan originated and how it evolved in history. Also, there are 12 life-sized figures made out of marzipan there! It's completely crazy. There was also a woman molding marzipan into an entire display. She was making flowers for the garden when we were there. I asked her if she had made the other one sitting out and she said yes. She told me that it took her a month to make because of all the different colors of marzipan. I was really impressed.
After leaving the cafe, we walked to the other end of the city and then found the puppet/ marionette museum that we wanted to go to. The building looks really small from the outside, but once we were inside where the exhibit was, we realized that we were definitely getting our money's worth! The place was huge with at least four floors. It was filled with puppets from all over the world. Some of the most interesting and intricate ones were from Asia. The paper ones were so detailed. This was another highlight of the day, following the cafe. When we were finished walking around the museum an hour or more later, we walked along the harbor and then back to the station to catch our train back to Kiel. I had invited two of my friends who are assistants over for dinner and Tash and I still needed to go shopping before they came. After arriving in Kiel, we stopped at the store and bought the few extra things we needed to make our family's baked Parmesan chicken recipe. With the chicken, we cooked mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and carrots. It was a really tasty meal and my friends enjoyed it too. Then we just sat around chatting the rest of the night.
Wednesday
We slept in as long as we possibly could and then we finally got out of bed to meet my friends for coffee and cake at our usual place on the corner. Heather and her friend were late so we planned to just meet here there. We all ordered our cake and drinks and they finally showed up. It was a nice relaxing afternoon, but then Tash and I had to leave so that we could catch the train we wanted. We stopped at the Doener Restaurant on the way to grab a currywurst and fries, that the two of us split for lunch. I had told her that she had to eat one before she left. Then we finished packing our bags and were off to the train station. We made it just in time for our bus to get there and took the nicer train since we had our tickets that were valid. At Hamburg, we put our luggage in the lockers and went into the city. I quickly showed Tash a few of the touristy sites of Hamburg and then it was time for us to find some food before getting our bus to the airport. We attempted to go to a buffet place that I had been before with a teacher, but it was closed so we went to a Thai place that we found in the Europa Passage (mall). It looked like it would be expensive, but ended up being super cheap and we were served really quickly. The food there was also delicious and I told Tash that she was spoiling me with all of this good food that we had been eating. I could definitely get used to that! We grabbed our bags from the station and were off to the airport at about 8:30. We got there by 9 and were going to be awake for the next 8 hours. The first few hours went by pretty quickly and the amount of people started to die out. We were 2 of 3 at one point, I think. We met a boy, I think his name was Jason??, at the airport who was part English and part Spanish. He was just going on leave for a week from serving in Iraq. He rolled up to us in a wheelchair and Tash and I were really confused because we had seen him walking around without it, but then we found out that he was just extremely bored and had found it in a corner. Later around 2 or so in the morning, one of the men working at the airport came and took it away and was walking around asking for our tickets. Of course, I didn't have one, but this wasn't a big problem. He didn't say anything, just asked if Tash and I were there together.
Thursday
We made it through the night and went upstairs around 5 to see if Tash could check in yet. The counters hadn't been opened yet, so we just sat back down upstairs. I had called a bus/van to take me back to Kiel a litlle after 5 in the morning, so we had to say goodbye, so that I didn't miss it. Of course when I got there, I was the only person in it and the driver offered me a choice of seats...haha. He also asked if I missed the last bus because he doesn't get calls very often to come out that early. I explained that I just dropped my sis off to get a flight back to the U.S. and he didn't ask any questions after that. I half slept on the way back. He was flying on the highway in the rain, so I didn't really want to keep my eyes open anyway. When I got back to Kiel, he dropped me off at the station. It was around 6:30 and then I walked to my apartment and and was asleep at 7. I woke up around 2 or so and my friends had asked me if I wanted to go for a bike ride around 6 and then to Heather's for dinner. I agreed to come along. It was a really nice day and we attempted to fix Dee's lights on her bike, as a man who was completely nuts walked up to us on the main square in Kiel and was shouting and spitting. He told us not to worry about the light, just to ride the bike. He said a few other things, but nothing worth repeating. We had to laugh about this because there is always something crazy going on in Kiel. 30 minutes later, I got yelled at by an older man for riding my bike on the sidewalk when no one was even around besides him. He told me that after you are 5 years old you are supposed to get off of your bike and push it there. I just laughed and kept pedaling. Germans are not very keen on breaking rules. One example, being crossing the road when a light is red and you aren't supposed to walk. This drives me and the other assistants mad. There could be no car in sight for miles on a small alley, and they will still stand there waiting for it to turn green! This makes us all laugh. Occasionally though, when you are the first to walk across, they will follow, either acting as though they thought it was green because of you or thinking, well I suppose if I'm not the first one to do it then it's ok. This is funny to observe. Sometimes though, you will get the people who roll their eyes and shake their heads when you do this. Anyway back to the program. We finally arrived at Heather's and she was starting the food. We had rice and curry and what the British call “pudding” for dessert (consisted of strawberries, whipped cream, and meringue. It was all really good. Around 11 we headed back home.
Friday
Today we went on a bike ride to Schilksee. Unfortunately, we were not very successful. We didn't get that far because Siobhan had a flat tire. We made it across the canal and into Holtenau and had to turn around. We were looking for an air pump, so that we wouldn't have to walk all of the way back (would have taken at least 1hour and 15 min.) and it started raining anyway. We found a gas station after asking a man walking down the street and then we met our next problem. Siobhan didn't have the same type of tire that the pump was designed for. We thought about what we could possibly do next, when a man with 3 bikes on the back of a trailer came along. We figured he would know what to do and so Siobhan asked him for help. He happened to have an adapter for the bike tire valve and was able to pump it up for her. This was very kind of him. After this we made our way back after stopping shortly for a picnic lunch. We went up to Dee's after we got back and just sat around for a bit. I then came home and grabbed some food and headed back over. We watched some tv and had a girl's night in.
Saturday
Siobhan asked me if I could fix her flat, since I am now experienced in doing it. I told her to bring it over and I would have a look at the innertube. I found one hole and patched it. We decided to go for a ride to the botanical gardens at the University, which is only about 5 minutes away from here. Her tire seemed to hold out so I think that was the only hole. After wandering around the gardens, which weren't fully in bloom, we rode our bikes to a bakery down the street to get cake and coffee. We spent the afternoon there and then I came home and packed for Berlin and then had dinner.
Sunday
Today, I Left for Berlin in the morning. I met up with Helen and Rebecca in Hamburg and we traveled the rest of the way together. Once we got to the station, we bought tickets for the subway and went to the hotel. It wasn't hard to find at all because it was so huge! After getting our rooms sorted out (the three of us expected to be in one room together, but they ended up only having doubles and Rebecca got stuck with some strange girl) we went to register for the seminar with the Fulbright directors. We received a free Fulbright hand bag and got our schedule for the conference for the week. There was also space left for the tours, which I had totally forgotten to sign up for because my sister was here, so Rebecca and I decided to join Helen on the Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung Tour (yeah it's a mouth full and it is one word!, it means : Germany's way of dealing with the past, very LOOSELY translated), a tour of Jewish memorials and places of remembrance led by prof Dr. Wolfgang Wuppermann of the Freie Universitaet of Berlin. Dr. Wuppermann is very knowledgeable and very opinionated on this subject (in a good way) and has also written many books. He had a really great personality and I enjoyed the educational tour.
Our first stop was Rosenstrasse, which is located right next to Alexanderplatz and was close to our hotel. This is where they know that Jews attempted resistance from the Nazis. The memorial is dedicated to women, but they weren't the only people resisting. From here we walked to the Jewish cemetery that had of course been grave robbed. It was the former location of Moses Mendelssohn, an important German Jewish philosopher's grave. There are now video cameras and a fence surrounding the cemetery so that no more damage can be done to the site that now has a small monument of remembrance. There is also a Jewish school located directly beside it and there they also have security cameras. It”s very sad that they have to have these out, but they are unfortunately still necessary for their protection. From there we went to the New Synagogue, which was burned on Kristallnacht and has been somewhat rebuilt (on the outside) as a memorial and place of remembrance. Next, we walked past the Berlin Dome to a very small memorial that was going to be removed, but was prevented form this partially due in part to Dr. Wuppermann because it also represented the resistance of the Jews. From here we walked to the Neue Wache where the National Memorial in Berlin, a statue of Kaethe Kollwitz' that was dedicated to ALL the victims of war and tyranny (this includes those who fell under the socialist Eastern block) is located. It was interesting to hear the response of the Jews to this memorial (it is viewed by them as a Christian-like statue). According to Dr. Wuppermann, their lack of acceptance of this memorial as their National Memorial is what led to the first discussions of building a Jewish Memorial in Berlin. Our last stop on the tour from here was at the book burning square “Bebelplatz”, also located on Unter den Linden. This is where more than 20,000 books by Jews, Communists and others were burned on May 10, 1933 by the Nazis. Next to the monument, a glass panel in the ground through which barren white book shelves can be seen, a plaque has been placed with a quote from Heinrich Heine, (also a Jew who's books were burnt on the square). In 1820, he wrote, “where books are burned, in the end people will burn.” I think this was the most haunting of the entire tour, as it appears that Heine could somehow foresee the future. Of course he probably meant this in a more abstract way, referring to humans' thoughts or something of the sort, but it still sends goosebumps down my spine.
After our tour concluded here, we were free to walk around and then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the opening and welcome dinner. The dinner was great with a huge buffet including many different types of delicious German breads, a huge salad bar and most importantly amazingly delicious desserts. There were so many we had to try at least two each time!! Drinks were also free the entire dinner. We were definitely being spoiled by the Fulbright Commission. The hotel was great, minus the fact that the shower had pretty much see through windows and you couldn't use the shower and bathroom at the same time because there was only one door that swung to close on one or the other, but we really couldn't complain! The view from our 29th floor room was also quite impressive! After dinner, we hit the city to get some pictures at night of the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, Alexanderplatz, and the dome. We made a few new friends at the dinner, Stephanie and Leah and they came along too. When we got back we planned out Monday and then went to bed.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Eurotrip: The Plumly sisters do Europe
March 24th-March31st
On Easter Monday, yes the Germans have two, well technically three days of Christmas and two days of Easter (Crazy, I know!), Natasha and I decided to go to the Freilichtmuseum in Molfsee, where I was before with one of my teachers and her kids and which is just a short bus ride from here. I think I have written this before, but at the museum there are houses from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries here in the state. We woke up, ate breakfast, and then packed a lunch to take with us. When we were walking downstairs to get ready to leave we opened the door at the foot of the stairs to exit the building and a guy was standing there with a large red suitcase. Natasha happened to look down and realize it was hers, otherwise I would not have thought twice about it! We weren't sure why only one was there so I asked the man if the other one was still lost. He said it just hadn't arrived yet and should be here in the next few days. They were supposed to call before dropping off the luggage, but apparently didn't feel the need to do this! Anyway, Tash was excited to have her clothes and other items and to no longer have to wear my clothes. We brought the suitcase back upstairs and since we missed the bus we decided we would just start walking in the direction of town and catch the next one at one of the stops along the way. We were walking for about 10 minutes, when out of nowhere it started to snow like crazy! Our options were really limited because everything cafe-wise was pretty much closed, so I decided to show her what a McCafe was. This is a Europeanized version of a McDonald's and has a cafe attached to it with cakes and such. At least McDonald's knows how to appeal to its European customers by disguising its cheap self with fancy leather seats and wallpaper. We all know that you would never see this at home, as McDonald's is usually a place for kids and when it comes to colors and design, looks like a clown threw up in it. Anyway so we had our cake and hot drinks to warm up, before braving the cold again. The weather had calmed down and it was only lightly snowing and the sun came out. We caught the next bus and arrived at the museum, to find that there were actually a decent amount of people there. We spent over 2 hours walking the grounds of the museum, entering all of the houses, and watching some of the craftsmen doing their jobs. I think that Natasha enjoyed the museum because we don't have anything like it at home and the houses are really beautiful on the inside and the outside. After we were finished we had to wait on the bus again so we sat eating our lunch at the bus stop. We came back to my apartment to warm up and then headed back out to Holtenau so that we could walk along the canal and I could show her the old lighthouse there. Following this, we were exhausted and cold and came back and cooked dinner and went to bed so that we could wake up for the early train to Berlin on Tuesday.
Tuesday
When we arrived in Berlin, we bought 48 hour tickets for the transport system and checked into our hostel. We had a nice place, a room with 6 others. Two Australians, who we thought were foreigners because their English didn't sound like it came from an English-speaking country, a German boy from Munich, and three Chinese students who are studying abroad in Europe. All were very nice. We were going to stay two nights in Berlin, but then I had called my department chair of English and she said that she would like to take Natasha and I to Schleswig, her home town, on Thursday, which meant we could only stay one night. This wasn't a big deal because Berlin is too big to see in two or three days, so it didn't make much of a difference. We headed out from the hostel for the city. Again it was freezing cold weather and the snow was off and on. Our first stop in Berlin was the Charlottenburg Palace. I wanted to show Natasha a palace in Germany and this one was a great choice. When we got there, we decided to take the tour, which lasted about two hours. After this, we went to Ku'damm to see the Gedaechtniskirche (Remembrance Church, destroyed in WWII and left standing as a monument and place of remembrance) and the Elefantentor (Huge gate with elephants at the bottom) at the Zoologischer Garten. From there we went to the Siegessaeule (Victory Column), which we decided to climb. When we got to the top after two hundred and sixty or so stairs, we were disappointed to see that it was snowing and our view was horrible. Neither of us liked the fact that it was really a tight squeeze at the top either. After a few attempts at pictures, we headed out and decided it was time for dinner because we were frozen and had been walking a lot the whole day. We went to a really nice Chinese place across from the Gedaechtniskirche, where we were earlier that day. After dinner, we decided to head back to the hostel because we were completely exhausted from all the walking and the cold. We got our showers, talked to our roommates and laid in bed until we fell asleep. We decided to get up early on Wednesday so that we would have enough time to accomplish everything that we wanted to do. First we went to the East Side Gallery, where a mile or two of the wall was left standing and artists from all over the world have painted on it. Both Natasha and I were really disappointed at the fact that many people have disrespected the art and spray painted over it. I was there in the summer of 2006 and can tell that it is worse now than before. Not only do people painting over the artworks destroy it, but also the weather is destroying the wall and artwork over time. It's condition hasn't been kept up and the weather is therefore corroding it. Walking along the East Side Gallery only took us about an hour. When we got to the station, there was an advertisement saying happy birthday, this was how I remembered that today was my birthday...ironic I know!
From there we were off to Alexanderplatz, where we saw the Rathaus (city hall), the Neptunbrunnen (fountain), and the Dome. After deciding it would be worth it to pay the money to go in, we saw the beautiful inside, the crypts, the museum inside and climbed the steps of the tower to get an amazing view of the city, this time without snow! It was still really cold and windy though. Finally, we were finished after a couple hours or longer and Natasha wanted to use the restroom, while we were there. We went downstairs where you had to pay. I think it was around 40 cents (quite normal in Germany). Anyway the woman who was cleaning the bathrooms was crazy. First she yelled at Natasha for standing in the sink area, saying that there wasn't enough room for people to stand in there at that it was a hazard. Then she asked me if Natasha had fallen in because she had been in there for a few minutes and continued by saying it's not very nice that people take so long when there are only two stalls and people are waiting in line. First of all no one was out there and I answered her with a “well when you have to go you have to go.” Then I told her that it wasn't a big deal and we were paying for it anyway because she made a face at me after saying that! She then yelled at a woman who had just come out of the bathroom with her kids because she felt the woman had short-changed her for three people, even though the mother said that she didn't even use the restroom! The mother got mad and threw her money and walked away! Wow, all of this taking place in a church...even more irony! She must have been having a bad day or something.
Following this adventure, we went to find a bakery to eat some lunch. The World Time Clock on Alexanderplatz was our next short stop and then we were off to Checkpoint Charlie. At Checkpoint Charlie they have a museum, but we opted not to do this (I had already done it) because they had an outdoor photo and history exhibition. We spent an hour or two walking along this, reading the history of the wall and division of Berlin. It was nice because it was in English and German and I didn't have to translate all of it! It also had info on the cold war and statistics for people who had been shot or killed trying to cross the wall. This was also very interesting for both of us. From Checkpoint Charlie we went to the Brandenburg gate. Here there were skateboarders performing tricks and a kid breakdancing. We watched them for 15-20 minutes and then decided we were still hungry, so we went to a cafe for cake for my birthday. It was delicious. After cake, we went to the Reichstag (German congress building). It's free to go in, but the line is always long. The weather was nice though a little chilly even in the sun. We were over an hour waiting and finally got inside. You can take the elevator to the top and walk around the outside and in the glass dome.
After getting pictures, we were off to dinner. We had found a place called Maximillian's earlier that was supposedly typically German and decided to go there for my Birthday dinner. The food was delicious and we paid directly after finishing so that we could make it to the station for the train we wanted to catch. On the train on the way to Berlin, it was completely packed (they even had to hold the train until people got off it to take the next one at one of the stops, never had that happen before) so I decided we should book seat reservations for the way back so that I wouldn't have to sit on the floor this time. Unfortunately, I accidentally booked the reservations for the 9:30 train and not the one around 8 and the reservations can't be changed, so we were forced to wait around in the station for an hour sitting at McDonald's. When we got on the train we realized that we didn't even need to book seat reservations because it was really empty...had we not though it would have been full. That's life. We arrived back in Kiel around midnight or later and went straight to bed because my teacher was arriving at 10:30 the next day to take us to Schleswig. We found the other suitcase with stuff for me in it sitting in front of my door, when we got back. One of the people in my apartment had signed for it because they once again had not called to say they were coming. Overall, I had a great birthday spent in Berlin with Natasha and received a lot of messages from friends here and at home.
Thursday
My teacher came 10 minutes early, as expected because Germans (not all) are known for punctuality. The weather was really great and when we got to Schleswig, we parked by the school where she did her student teaching. The view of the city from above was amazing. I had been there once before, but it was night time then. We walked down through the main street of the city and went into a few shops. We walked along the small streets to see the squares, the architecture, and some small houses. Then we went to the dome and went inside. Afterwards we ate lunch at a very nice German restaurant. From there we decided to go to the Viking Musuem in Haithabu. I'm pretty sure it is the only one in Germany. It was really interesting, but smaller than Natasha and I expected. Apparently, there are houses like the Vikings used to live in there, but my teacher wasn't wearing appropriate shoes for this, so we didn't get to see them. At about 3 we headed back to Kiel. Natasha and I decided that we would spend the rest of the day relaxing. We did look for a book on Copenhagen because we are heading there tomorrow, but we didn't find any cheap ones so we decided to wait and hope to find one there. Around 5 or 6 we did go for an hour walk down to the harbor and then back up to my apartment. We cooked dinner, packed and went to bed because we had to catch a train around 6:30 so that we would get to Copenhagen around 12.
Friday
We woke up really early and walked to the station to catch our train. We took the route over Luebeck on the way there, which also goes over Puttgarden. I didn't know this at the time, but this means that the train has to board a ferry there and from Puttgarden to Denmark everyone has to get out of the train that is on the ferry and then re-board when it is time to put the train back on real tracks! This was exciting and hilarious at the same time! After a while, I realized that I had been to Puttgarden before and had seen the trains go on the ferrys. This was in the summer of '06 when Bethany's German club traveled in Eastern Germany and ended on Fehmarn an island of Schleswig-Holstein, the state I live in. After the 5 or so hour train ride, we arrived at the Copenhagen Main Station. We went straight to the hotel, which was only a block from the station. Our room wasn't ready so we left our bag and hit the city for an hour before checking in. After dumping our things in our room we were off to explore the grand city. We walked past Tivoli peering through the gates. Unfortunately it is closed during the winter season. We walked to the Rathaus and the Main square where there are a lot of beautiful buildings and then headed down the main shopping street. From there we went to the stock market building and saw Christiansborg, one of the three palaces in Copenhagen. We continued walking and found the Theater and the New Harbor, which is the most colorful and most known area of Copenhagen. There are lots of restaurants and cafes here and the boats were docked in the harbor. It was really beautiful. From the harbor we walked to the Amelienborg palace where we saw the guards guarding it, even though the queen wasn't there (the Danish flags were not flying, this is how you can tell). From here it's a direct shot to the Marble church (actually made of Sandstone, liars!), which was very beautiful inside.
When we got to this point, we decided it was time for dinner, even though it wasn't that late yet. We were really hungry. We had found an Indian restaurant in the travel guide that I bought on board the ferry ship and decided if in our price range (Copenhagen is outrageously expensive), then we would eat there. We found the place after around 45 minutes of walking. Along the way, we passed Rosenborg, the third palace in Copenhagen. No one was in the restaurant so at first we thought it was closed, but we figured out it wasn't. In our eagerness to eat, we forgot that we didn't have much danish money left over after paying for our hotel room. The two of us were freaking out about it, but not too much because we thought we had just enough to cover the bill. The food was absolutely delicious and the server (I think he was also the owner of the restaurant was very friendly. At first he thought that we spoke Danish because he had asked us if we wanted to sit at a particular table that he pointed to and I had understood through context and said 'ja,' not knowing this is not just German for yes, but also Danish. He brought us the menus, which I could about ¾ understand and I helped Natasha. She knew what she wanted and asked him if they had anything similar to it and he told her what to get. After eating very quickly (you would think we were starving, we were hungry from all the walking and traveling!) he laughed at us and we asked for the bill and where the nearest ATM is in case we needed more money. The funny thing was, that he didn't seem the least bit concerned, when we asked this. He told us there was one around the corner. We had as we thought, just enough Krone to cover the cost of the meal, but nothing left to tip, so we paid that and I sat in the restaurant until Tash came back with money for the tip. We realized we would have to get more money out to be able to do anything. The exchange is about 1 American dollar to 6 Krone, though everything is inflated so you are still paying way more. After dinner we were exhausted from all that we had done and seen, so we went back to the hotel and crashed, only to be woken up around 11 by a group of loud young men in the room next to us, partying and playing loud music. After about half an hour or so it finally died out. The walls of our hotel were literally paper thin and to give you an understanding of just how thin, Tash was drying her hair and I could hear it all the way on the opposite end of the building! Despite the party, it was still nice to have our own room.
Saturday
We woke up for breakfast at the hotel. There was a really nice selection and we were both satisfied. We decided that today we would start at the furthest things and make our way back toward town to avoid being tired at the end of the day and save some energy. We went to the armory/fort first and walked around there. A gothic church and a danish windmill were to be found. From there we went to see the Little Mermaid, the symbol of Copenhagen known around the world. I had heard that she really was little by friends who had been to Copenhagen before and had it not been for all the German and Japanese tourists surrounding it, we might not have seen her! We took a picture and kept moving. Unsure of whether the Amelienborg has changing of the guard, we attempted to see this, but without success. We continued in the direction of the Rosenborg palace and decided to stop for lunch at a cafe before we got there. When we finally got to the Rosenborg we bought tickets to tour the inside and the crown jewels. You could only go into a few of the rooms, which was a bit disappointing, but when we got to the jewels, it was worth it. The royal collections were vast and beautiful. We spent a good hour there and decided to go back to the hotel for a break so that we would be up for seeing Copenhagen at night. Tonight we wanted to eat typically danish style food, so we found a cheap restaurant in my travel guide again and went there. The atmosphere was great, the waiters were really friendly and funny, and the food was good. I ordered pork with sauerkraut and bread and the waiters were trying to convince me to eat the fat on it and the hard crunchy part. They said that would make dinner a few hours longer and that it is the best part. Tash and I just laughed. There was a man sitting beside me at the table and he kept staring at us and my plate and Tash and I never did figure out what he wanted or why he was staring, but it was quite obvious that he was doing it! After paying, we walked around the city and took pictures at night. The city was having an energy saving hour and shut off a lot of the lots in the evening, but thankfully left on the ones on the side streets or we probably wouldn't have trusted ourselves walking back to the hotel because let's face it, it wasn't in the best area even though it was close to the station.
Sunday
We had managed to see everything that we had planned to see in Copenhagen in the last two days, so we came to the conclusion that we did have time to take the train across to Malmoe, Sweden. We left early to ensure that we had enough time. We walked around the city for an hour waiting for the tourist info to open. At least it is open on Sundays, everything in Copenhagen closes at 3 or 4 including the tourist info. ( we tried to get a map of Malmoe there) and it isn't even open on Sundays. Once we had a map, we laid out a plan of things we wanted to see that we hadn't just seen in the hour we spent walking around. We had already found the fortress from the 15th century, seen the main square, a lighthouse, another old windmill, and the turning torso, a modern building with a creative architectural design. We went to the St. Peter's church, to the main square, where the Rathaus and residency were located, then walked to another square that was beautiful and had a lot of cafes. The alleys with small old colorful houses was our next stop. Then we went to the fishermen's huts, where fishermen usually sell fish that they catch there. This was really cute and for some reason there was a U-boat across from them in a field behind a fence...After three or so hours of walking around and seeing all of the sights, we went back to the station and boarded the train back to Copenhagen. We had planned to stay longer in Malmoe, but because of the central setup of the city, everything was really close and we accomplished a lot in a short time. We also didn't have any Swedish money and didn't want to take any out, so sitting in a cafe or something of the sort was out. After arriving back in Copenhagen and getting our bags, we went to the station to see when the next train to Kiel would be leaving. We jumped on board the next train and were on our way back to Kiel this time over Flensburg, which meant no boarding the ferry. We got back much earlier than planned and cooked dinner and talked to my roommate Nicholas. It was nice to just relax for a while. It was also good, because another teacher of mine had called a few days before and we planned that she would come over at 11 on Monday so that I could look over her corrections and questions that she had for the Abitur English test (very important test at German High Schools).
On Easter Monday, yes the Germans have two, well technically three days of Christmas and two days of Easter (Crazy, I know!), Natasha and I decided to go to the Freilichtmuseum in Molfsee, where I was before with one of my teachers and her kids and which is just a short bus ride from here. I think I have written this before, but at the museum there are houses from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries here in the state. We woke up, ate breakfast, and then packed a lunch to take with us. When we were walking downstairs to get ready to leave we opened the door at the foot of the stairs to exit the building and a guy was standing there with a large red suitcase. Natasha happened to look down and realize it was hers, otherwise I would not have thought twice about it! We weren't sure why only one was there so I asked the man if the other one was still lost. He said it just hadn't arrived yet and should be here in the next few days. They were supposed to call before dropping off the luggage, but apparently didn't feel the need to do this! Anyway, Tash was excited to have her clothes and other items and to no longer have to wear my clothes. We brought the suitcase back upstairs and since we missed the bus we decided we would just start walking in the direction of town and catch the next one at one of the stops along the way. We were walking for about 10 minutes, when out of nowhere it started to snow like crazy! Our options were really limited because everything cafe-wise was pretty much closed, so I decided to show her what a McCafe was. This is a Europeanized version of a McDonald's and has a cafe attached to it with cakes and such. At least McDonald's knows how to appeal to its European customers by disguising its cheap self with fancy leather seats and wallpaper. We all know that you would never see this at home, as McDonald's is usually a place for kids and when it comes to colors and design, looks like a clown threw up in it. Anyway so we had our cake and hot drinks to warm up, before braving the cold again. The weather had calmed down and it was only lightly snowing and the sun came out. We caught the next bus and arrived at the museum, to find that there were actually a decent amount of people there. We spent over 2 hours walking the grounds of the museum, entering all of the houses, and watching some of the craftsmen doing their jobs. I think that Natasha enjoyed the museum because we don't have anything like it at home and the houses are really beautiful on the inside and the outside. After we were finished we had to wait on the bus again so we sat eating our lunch at the bus stop. We came back to my apartment to warm up and then headed back out to Holtenau so that we could walk along the canal and I could show her the old lighthouse there. Following this, we were exhausted and cold and came back and cooked dinner and went to bed so that we could wake up for the early train to Berlin on Tuesday.
Tuesday
When we arrived in Berlin, we bought 48 hour tickets for the transport system and checked into our hostel. We had a nice place, a room with 6 others. Two Australians, who we thought were foreigners because their English didn't sound like it came from an English-speaking country, a German boy from Munich, and three Chinese students who are studying abroad in Europe. All were very nice. We were going to stay two nights in Berlin, but then I had called my department chair of English and she said that she would like to take Natasha and I to Schleswig, her home town, on Thursday, which meant we could only stay one night. This wasn't a big deal because Berlin is too big to see in two or three days, so it didn't make much of a difference. We headed out from the hostel for the city. Again it was freezing cold weather and the snow was off and on. Our first stop in Berlin was the Charlottenburg Palace. I wanted to show Natasha a palace in Germany and this one was a great choice. When we got there, we decided to take the tour, which lasted about two hours. After this, we went to Ku'damm to see the Gedaechtniskirche (Remembrance Church, destroyed in WWII and left standing as a monument and place of remembrance) and the Elefantentor (Huge gate with elephants at the bottom) at the Zoologischer Garten. From there we went to the Siegessaeule (Victory Column), which we decided to climb. When we got to the top after two hundred and sixty or so stairs, we were disappointed to see that it was snowing and our view was horrible. Neither of us liked the fact that it was really a tight squeeze at the top either. After a few attempts at pictures, we headed out and decided it was time for dinner because we were frozen and had been walking a lot the whole day. We went to a really nice Chinese place across from the Gedaechtniskirche, where we were earlier that day. After dinner, we decided to head back to the hostel because we were completely exhausted from all the walking and the cold. We got our showers, talked to our roommates and laid in bed until we fell asleep. We decided to get up early on Wednesday so that we would have enough time to accomplish everything that we wanted to do. First we went to the East Side Gallery, where a mile or two of the wall was left standing and artists from all over the world have painted on it. Both Natasha and I were really disappointed at the fact that many people have disrespected the art and spray painted over it. I was there in the summer of 2006 and can tell that it is worse now than before. Not only do people painting over the artworks destroy it, but also the weather is destroying the wall and artwork over time. It's condition hasn't been kept up and the weather is therefore corroding it. Walking along the East Side Gallery only took us about an hour. When we got to the station, there was an advertisement saying happy birthday, this was how I remembered that today was my birthday...ironic I know!
From there we were off to Alexanderplatz, where we saw the Rathaus (city hall), the Neptunbrunnen (fountain), and the Dome. After deciding it would be worth it to pay the money to go in, we saw the beautiful inside, the crypts, the museum inside and climbed the steps of the tower to get an amazing view of the city, this time without snow! It was still really cold and windy though. Finally, we were finished after a couple hours or longer and Natasha wanted to use the restroom, while we were there. We went downstairs where you had to pay. I think it was around 40 cents (quite normal in Germany). Anyway the woman who was cleaning the bathrooms was crazy. First she yelled at Natasha for standing in the sink area, saying that there wasn't enough room for people to stand in there at that it was a hazard. Then she asked me if Natasha had fallen in because she had been in there for a few minutes and continued by saying it's not very nice that people take so long when there are only two stalls and people are waiting in line. First of all no one was out there and I answered her with a “well when you have to go you have to go.” Then I told her that it wasn't a big deal and we were paying for it anyway because she made a face at me after saying that! She then yelled at a woman who had just come out of the bathroom with her kids because she felt the woman had short-changed her for three people, even though the mother said that she didn't even use the restroom! The mother got mad and threw her money and walked away! Wow, all of this taking place in a church...even more irony! She must have been having a bad day or something.
Following this adventure, we went to find a bakery to eat some lunch. The World Time Clock on Alexanderplatz was our next short stop and then we were off to Checkpoint Charlie. At Checkpoint Charlie they have a museum, but we opted not to do this (I had already done it) because they had an outdoor photo and history exhibition. We spent an hour or two walking along this, reading the history of the wall and division of Berlin. It was nice because it was in English and German and I didn't have to translate all of it! It also had info on the cold war and statistics for people who had been shot or killed trying to cross the wall. This was also very interesting for both of us. From Checkpoint Charlie we went to the Brandenburg gate. Here there were skateboarders performing tricks and a kid breakdancing. We watched them for 15-20 minutes and then decided we were still hungry, so we went to a cafe for cake for my birthday. It was delicious. After cake, we went to the Reichstag (German congress building). It's free to go in, but the line is always long. The weather was nice though a little chilly even in the sun. We were over an hour waiting and finally got inside. You can take the elevator to the top and walk around the outside and in the glass dome.
After getting pictures, we were off to dinner. We had found a place called Maximillian's earlier that was supposedly typically German and decided to go there for my Birthday dinner. The food was delicious and we paid directly after finishing so that we could make it to the station for the train we wanted to catch. On the train on the way to Berlin, it was completely packed (they even had to hold the train until people got off it to take the next one at one of the stops, never had that happen before) so I decided we should book seat reservations for the way back so that I wouldn't have to sit on the floor this time. Unfortunately, I accidentally booked the reservations for the 9:30 train and not the one around 8 and the reservations can't be changed, so we were forced to wait around in the station for an hour sitting at McDonald's. When we got on the train we realized that we didn't even need to book seat reservations because it was really empty...had we not though it would have been full. That's life. We arrived back in Kiel around midnight or later and went straight to bed because my teacher was arriving at 10:30 the next day to take us to Schleswig. We found the other suitcase with stuff for me in it sitting in front of my door, when we got back. One of the people in my apartment had signed for it because they once again had not called to say they were coming. Overall, I had a great birthday spent in Berlin with Natasha and received a lot of messages from friends here and at home.
Thursday
My teacher came 10 minutes early, as expected because Germans (not all) are known for punctuality. The weather was really great and when we got to Schleswig, we parked by the school where she did her student teaching. The view of the city from above was amazing. I had been there once before, but it was night time then. We walked down through the main street of the city and went into a few shops. We walked along the small streets to see the squares, the architecture, and some small houses. Then we went to the dome and went inside. Afterwards we ate lunch at a very nice German restaurant. From there we decided to go to the Viking Musuem in Haithabu. I'm pretty sure it is the only one in Germany. It was really interesting, but smaller than Natasha and I expected. Apparently, there are houses like the Vikings used to live in there, but my teacher wasn't wearing appropriate shoes for this, so we didn't get to see them. At about 3 we headed back to Kiel. Natasha and I decided that we would spend the rest of the day relaxing. We did look for a book on Copenhagen because we are heading there tomorrow, but we didn't find any cheap ones so we decided to wait and hope to find one there. Around 5 or 6 we did go for an hour walk down to the harbor and then back up to my apartment. We cooked dinner, packed and went to bed because we had to catch a train around 6:30 so that we would get to Copenhagen around 12.
Friday
We woke up really early and walked to the station to catch our train. We took the route over Luebeck on the way there, which also goes over Puttgarden. I didn't know this at the time, but this means that the train has to board a ferry there and from Puttgarden to Denmark everyone has to get out of the train that is on the ferry and then re-board when it is time to put the train back on real tracks! This was exciting and hilarious at the same time! After a while, I realized that I had been to Puttgarden before and had seen the trains go on the ferrys. This was in the summer of '06 when Bethany's German club traveled in Eastern Germany and ended on Fehmarn an island of Schleswig-Holstein, the state I live in. After the 5 or so hour train ride, we arrived at the Copenhagen Main Station. We went straight to the hotel, which was only a block from the station. Our room wasn't ready so we left our bag and hit the city for an hour before checking in. After dumping our things in our room we were off to explore the grand city. We walked past Tivoli peering through the gates. Unfortunately it is closed during the winter season. We walked to the Rathaus and the Main square where there are a lot of beautiful buildings and then headed down the main shopping street. From there we went to the stock market building and saw Christiansborg, one of the three palaces in Copenhagen. We continued walking and found the Theater and the New Harbor, which is the most colorful and most known area of Copenhagen. There are lots of restaurants and cafes here and the boats were docked in the harbor. It was really beautiful. From the harbor we walked to the Amelienborg palace where we saw the guards guarding it, even though the queen wasn't there (the Danish flags were not flying, this is how you can tell). From here it's a direct shot to the Marble church (actually made of Sandstone, liars!), which was very beautiful inside.
When we got to this point, we decided it was time for dinner, even though it wasn't that late yet. We were really hungry. We had found an Indian restaurant in the travel guide that I bought on board the ferry ship and decided if in our price range (Copenhagen is outrageously expensive), then we would eat there. We found the place after around 45 minutes of walking. Along the way, we passed Rosenborg, the third palace in Copenhagen. No one was in the restaurant so at first we thought it was closed, but we figured out it wasn't. In our eagerness to eat, we forgot that we didn't have much danish money left over after paying for our hotel room. The two of us were freaking out about it, but not too much because we thought we had just enough to cover the bill. The food was absolutely delicious and the server (I think he was also the owner of the restaurant was very friendly. At first he thought that we spoke Danish because he had asked us if we wanted to sit at a particular table that he pointed to and I had understood through context and said 'ja,' not knowing this is not just German for yes, but also Danish. He brought us the menus, which I could about ¾ understand and I helped Natasha. She knew what she wanted and asked him if they had anything similar to it and he told her what to get. After eating very quickly (you would think we were starving, we were hungry from all the walking and traveling!) he laughed at us and we asked for the bill and where the nearest ATM is in case we needed more money. The funny thing was, that he didn't seem the least bit concerned, when we asked this. He told us there was one around the corner. We had as we thought, just enough Krone to cover the cost of the meal, but nothing left to tip, so we paid that and I sat in the restaurant until Tash came back with money for the tip. We realized we would have to get more money out to be able to do anything. The exchange is about 1 American dollar to 6 Krone, though everything is inflated so you are still paying way more. After dinner we were exhausted from all that we had done and seen, so we went back to the hotel and crashed, only to be woken up around 11 by a group of loud young men in the room next to us, partying and playing loud music. After about half an hour or so it finally died out. The walls of our hotel were literally paper thin and to give you an understanding of just how thin, Tash was drying her hair and I could hear it all the way on the opposite end of the building! Despite the party, it was still nice to have our own room.
Saturday
We woke up for breakfast at the hotel. There was a really nice selection and we were both satisfied. We decided that today we would start at the furthest things and make our way back toward town to avoid being tired at the end of the day and save some energy. We went to the armory/fort first and walked around there. A gothic church and a danish windmill were to be found. From there we went to see the Little Mermaid, the symbol of Copenhagen known around the world. I had heard that she really was little by friends who had been to Copenhagen before and had it not been for all the German and Japanese tourists surrounding it, we might not have seen her! We took a picture and kept moving. Unsure of whether the Amelienborg has changing of the guard, we attempted to see this, but without success. We continued in the direction of the Rosenborg palace and decided to stop for lunch at a cafe before we got there. When we finally got to the Rosenborg we bought tickets to tour the inside and the crown jewels. You could only go into a few of the rooms, which was a bit disappointing, but when we got to the jewels, it was worth it. The royal collections were vast and beautiful. We spent a good hour there and decided to go back to the hotel for a break so that we would be up for seeing Copenhagen at night. Tonight we wanted to eat typically danish style food, so we found a cheap restaurant in my travel guide again and went there. The atmosphere was great, the waiters were really friendly and funny, and the food was good. I ordered pork with sauerkraut and bread and the waiters were trying to convince me to eat the fat on it and the hard crunchy part. They said that would make dinner a few hours longer and that it is the best part. Tash and I just laughed. There was a man sitting beside me at the table and he kept staring at us and my plate and Tash and I never did figure out what he wanted or why he was staring, but it was quite obvious that he was doing it! After paying, we walked around the city and took pictures at night. The city was having an energy saving hour and shut off a lot of the lots in the evening, but thankfully left on the ones on the side streets or we probably wouldn't have trusted ourselves walking back to the hotel because let's face it, it wasn't in the best area even though it was close to the station.
Sunday
We had managed to see everything that we had planned to see in Copenhagen in the last two days, so we came to the conclusion that we did have time to take the train across to Malmoe, Sweden. We left early to ensure that we had enough time. We walked around the city for an hour waiting for the tourist info to open. At least it is open on Sundays, everything in Copenhagen closes at 3 or 4 including the tourist info. ( we tried to get a map of Malmoe there) and it isn't even open on Sundays. Once we had a map, we laid out a plan of things we wanted to see that we hadn't just seen in the hour we spent walking around. We had already found the fortress from the 15th century, seen the main square, a lighthouse, another old windmill, and the turning torso, a modern building with a creative architectural design. We went to the St. Peter's church, to the main square, where the Rathaus and residency were located, then walked to another square that was beautiful and had a lot of cafes. The alleys with small old colorful houses was our next stop. Then we went to the fishermen's huts, where fishermen usually sell fish that they catch there. This was really cute and for some reason there was a U-boat across from them in a field behind a fence...After three or so hours of walking around and seeing all of the sights, we went back to the station and boarded the train back to Copenhagen. We had planned to stay longer in Malmoe, but because of the central setup of the city, everything was really close and we accomplished a lot in a short time. We also didn't have any Swedish money and didn't want to take any out, so sitting in a cafe or something of the sort was out. After arriving back in Copenhagen and getting our bags, we went to the station to see when the next train to Kiel would be leaving. We jumped on board the next train and were on our way back to Kiel this time over Flensburg, which meant no boarding the ferry. We got back much earlier than planned and cooked dinner and talked to my roommate Nicholas. It was nice to just relax for a while. It was also good, because another teacher of mine had called a few days before and we planned that she would come over at 11 on Monday so that I could look over her corrections and questions that she had for the Abitur English test (very important test at German High Schools).
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Something(s) sweet, Kathrin in Kiel, & Bad beginning
March 18th-23rd
This week at school only consists of today and tomorrow and I didn't have much to do today. Tomorrow I am supposed to give my Barnesville presentation again, only this time for a 10th grade class. I spent the evening baking cookies (chocolate chip and peanut butter) to take to school for my colleagues and bought some chocolates for my students, since in Germany if it is your birthday, you are expected to give everyone else something instead of the other way around. I find this to be an interesting concept, but wanted to take part, since I have received something sweet from everyone else who has had a birthday thus far.
On Wednesday, I had a relaxing day and since I had decided I would take my treats in before Easter break because my birthday would be during the break and I'm coming back a week late (because of the Fulbright Seminar in Berlin), I set the cookies out in the staff room. I guess in Germany it is bad luck to wish someone “Happy Birthday” before it is their actual birthday, so all day people were thanking me for the cookies, but saying that they couldn't wish me a happy birthday until they see me after the break. I thought this was funny because in the U.S. one would say, "if I don't see you, have a happy birthday." These are just a few of the slight cultural variations concerning birthdays in Germany. Anyway, lots of people were asking me for the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies and I had to laugh because they were almost immediately gone! I saw one teacher eat 3 or 4 chocolate chip ones herself and she said she saw me counting! Of course she was teasing me, but I was thinking to myself “save some for everyone else!” Apparently it is the same in every teacher's lounge in Germany. At least my friends have similar stories...nothing lasts long, if left out, it will be eaten!! (esp. if it is made of sugar) After school I was supposed to have tutoring with a student, but he didn't show up (maybe I just couldn't find him, but he was nowhere to be seen). I don't know if he forgot or if he just didn't want to come...his teacher isn't going to be very happy though because it is the new student I just got and this was supposed to be our first day. So I ended up heading back and waiting for a message from Kathrin to let me know which train she would be coming in on. I ended up heading into town a little early to get a new hat because I had lost the new one I had just gotten last week, go figure. At least it had only cost me 2 Euro since winter things were on sale. I ran into a friend that I hadn't seen in a few months while downtown and she apologized for not returning my phone call because she had been busy at the University. I told her not to worry and that we would meet up after Easter break when I am back in Kiel to stay for a while!
I got to the station and Kathrin's train had a small delay, so I just wandered around until it arrived. I was really happy to see her since it had been since May that I had last seen her. She's one of those friends that it doesn't matter how often you see, you can pick up where you left off and everything is just like normal! It's a great thing to have friends like that. Sometimes people change a lot over time and similarities just aren't there anymore, but with us that isn't the case. So we started our 30 minute walk back to my apartment from the station (in the snow!!!) I kept teasing her that she must have brought it with her because it had been a beautiful blue sky, sunny day until then! (actually, it had started snowing when I was downtown about 30 minutes earlier) It was pretty snow, but it was also very cold. I was excited because it was one of the first real snows we actually have had here in Kiel, but it would have been nice if it had come before March! After dropping off her bags and warming up over a cup of coffee we decided to go for a walk along the harbor. We walked for about an hour and a half and then went to the old part of the city. There we went to Subway for dinner and to warm up. After this we walked to the bridge by the station so that Kathrin could see the amazing view of Kiel at night from there. I think she was impressed! Then we headed up to Dee's to get a sleeping bag and pillow for her and then we came back and spent the rest of the evening sharing stories and pictures. On our walk back we passed some sort of cultural event that consisted of singing and dancing around a fire. Neither of us were sure what was going on, but we think they were Turkish. It sounded beautiful and the children were all dressed in similar colorful outfits. We never did figure out what it was they were doing.
Thursday we woke up early and headed to the beach. We went to Schilksee and walked along the beach to the cliffs and back. We saw a couple fall in love or so we like to think. They were walking their dogs and then introduced themselves and we saw them walking together for a long time. We kept wondering if they were planning to meet up again or go out together. It was fun making up stories and predicting what would happen next. We also saw a man digging in the sand for something. We aren't quite sure what for, but he was intensively searching for whatever it was. After our walk, we sat down for a picnic lunch and when it started to rain is when we decided to head out. We went to the store on the way back and bought food for spaghetti and together we cooked a delicious meal.
Friday we woke up fairly early and since the weather looked decent, we decided to head back to the beach, this time to Strande on the other side of Schilksee. This must have been considered the first day of spring to the Kielers because they were putting out beach baskets along the shore, and everyone was out for the day in comparison to yesterday. It might have also been because it was Good Friday and everyone was off work. Kathrin and I took lots of pictures and then began searching for stones with holes in them because I told her about my host family hanging them on a string and putting them up in the bathroom as decoration. She thought this was a great idea and so we went on a search. We decided that we couldn't leave until we had found at least 10 of them. It was easier said than done, but we finally found enough to call it a day and have lunch. I managed to find 3 more heart-shaped stones (without looking for them) and decided I would have my own little collection too! After lunch we headed back to the bus so that we would get back in time to go to Dee's for dinner. We got back a little early so we were able to warm up an make no-bake cookies. I wanted Kathrin to try them and Siobhan hadn't had them yet either so the two of us made them quickly and dipped them out to cool. Then we left for Dee's. They were still preparing everything when we arrived. We had delicious noodles and stir fry for dinner and then came the big surprise, which I hadn't expected at all! My friends had baked a cake for me and had a gift for my birthday! I was really shocked and excited! They bought me a game based on a German TV show that we often watch. We decided that we would play later. First we decided to have Siobahn play us some music. She sang some Shakira and then she played a few of my favorite songs that she has written herself. After that we went out tot the kitchen to boil and paint the eggs that I had brought over. Kathrin had brought an egg dyeing kit with her because some of our friends in Heidelberg were dyeing eggs and she wanted to do it too. So we all had fun making a mess and coloring eggs!! They turned out really pretty except for one of the ones that I made... After dyeing eggs we attempted to play my new game! Who knew it would be so hard to figure out. We all had our laughs and Kathrin ended up winning.
Saturday Kathrin had to wake up early to catch the bus to the station because she was meeting her family in Hamburg to go the Lion King musical. She gave me Easter candy and a gift for my birthday which I decided not to open until the actual day. We said goodbye and then a few minutes later I got a call from her saying that she had accidentally picked up my gloves. I went downstairs to the bus stop to get them off of her and waited with her until the bus came. We had a great time together and I wish she could have stayed longer, but I will hopefully make it down to Heidelberg sometime soon and will be able to see her again!
I had to go shopping for food since the store will be closed both Sunday and Monday for Easter and Natasha is arriving tonight around 7!! After shopping, I packed lunch and went over to Dee's. She said that I had to come over before we all left for Hamburg together. They were catching a train to Paris and I had to pick Natasha up from Hamburg so we all decided to travel together to save money. When I got to Dee's she had Siobahn and I come into Sabine's room. She had put Easter candy in hats and laid them around the room. She said that is how they do it in her family and she thought we should all celebrate Easter together in Germany. She is so thoughtful and sweet and I really appreciated her doing this for us. After a group hug the three of us made our way to Aldi to get a few food items and then were off to the station. We ended up getting there early and got on the earlier train because a girl asked to ride on our ticket which saved us even more money. After getting to Hamburg we split ways because I had to head off to the airport. I got there an hour early so I wandered around the book store and read. After a while I noticed that Natasha's flight had been delayed. It ended up coming in an hour and a half late, yet I still couldn't find her anywhere. It appeared that everyone minus a few people had left and I was starting to worry that her flight had been canceled or she had missed it. Finally after another half an hour or so I overheard some men saying that they had lost their luggage from the U.S. and then realized this had to be what was going on. Everything was now running through my head....she's been standing there trying to figure out what address to tell them to send it to...she's probably freaking out because she doesn't know where I am...finally she came out and was so worked up and exhausted that she broke down. I think she was happy to see me. I calmed her down and then we went upstairs so I could take care of the luggage issue. A good start for her first time in Europe! It wasn't a big deal though. It was actually nice not to have luggage to worry about on the way home. We made it back to Kiel after midnight and after showering, went straight to bed. She had been going for hours.
The next day, Easter Sunday, I let her sleep in a little bit, but then forced her out of bed. The weather was absolutely beautiful so I decided that we would go to the beach for the day. We packed a lunch with us. We walked from Schilksee to Strande and back running into one of my teachers twice and she introduced me to her children as I introduced her to my Natasha. Tash thought that she was British because she speaks perfect and has a British accent even though she lived in California for many years and had only been to England for the first time this year! They learn British pronunciation here, this is why. We sat down and had lunch and then walked to the cliffs along the shore at Schilksee. We went up the stairs there and the view was absolutely breathtaking!!! The sunny blue sky made it perfect! That is now my new favorite spot in Kiel. After catching the bus back, we relaxed and then I started dinner. I made Schnitzel and Spaetzle with salad. A typical German meal (prob. not for Easter but that is besides the point). It turned out to be really nice.
This week at school only consists of today and tomorrow and I didn't have much to do today. Tomorrow I am supposed to give my Barnesville presentation again, only this time for a 10th grade class. I spent the evening baking cookies (chocolate chip and peanut butter) to take to school for my colleagues and bought some chocolates for my students, since in Germany if it is your birthday, you are expected to give everyone else something instead of the other way around. I find this to be an interesting concept, but wanted to take part, since I have received something sweet from everyone else who has had a birthday thus far.
On Wednesday, I had a relaxing day and since I had decided I would take my treats in before Easter break because my birthday would be during the break and I'm coming back a week late (because of the Fulbright Seminar in Berlin), I set the cookies out in the staff room. I guess in Germany it is bad luck to wish someone “Happy Birthday” before it is their actual birthday, so all day people were thanking me for the cookies, but saying that they couldn't wish me a happy birthday until they see me after the break. I thought this was funny because in the U.S. one would say, "if I don't see you, have a happy birthday." These are just a few of the slight cultural variations concerning birthdays in Germany. Anyway, lots of people were asking me for the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies and I had to laugh because they were almost immediately gone! I saw one teacher eat 3 or 4 chocolate chip ones herself and she said she saw me counting! Of course she was teasing me, but I was thinking to myself “save some for everyone else!” Apparently it is the same in every teacher's lounge in Germany. At least my friends have similar stories...nothing lasts long, if left out, it will be eaten!! (esp. if it is made of sugar) After school I was supposed to have tutoring with a student, but he didn't show up (maybe I just couldn't find him, but he was nowhere to be seen). I don't know if he forgot or if he just didn't want to come...his teacher isn't going to be very happy though because it is the new student I just got and this was supposed to be our first day. So I ended up heading back and waiting for a message from Kathrin to let me know which train she would be coming in on. I ended up heading into town a little early to get a new hat because I had lost the new one I had just gotten last week, go figure. At least it had only cost me 2 Euro since winter things were on sale. I ran into a friend that I hadn't seen in a few months while downtown and she apologized for not returning my phone call because she had been busy at the University. I told her not to worry and that we would meet up after Easter break when I am back in Kiel to stay for a while!
I got to the station and Kathrin's train had a small delay, so I just wandered around until it arrived. I was really happy to see her since it had been since May that I had last seen her. She's one of those friends that it doesn't matter how often you see, you can pick up where you left off and everything is just like normal! It's a great thing to have friends like that. Sometimes people change a lot over time and similarities just aren't there anymore, but with us that isn't the case. So we started our 30 minute walk back to my apartment from the station (in the snow!!!) I kept teasing her that she must have brought it with her because it had been a beautiful blue sky, sunny day until then! (actually, it had started snowing when I was downtown about 30 minutes earlier) It was pretty snow, but it was also very cold. I was excited because it was one of the first real snows we actually have had here in Kiel, but it would have been nice if it had come before March! After dropping off her bags and warming up over a cup of coffee we decided to go for a walk along the harbor. We walked for about an hour and a half and then went to the old part of the city. There we went to Subway for dinner and to warm up. After this we walked to the bridge by the station so that Kathrin could see the amazing view of Kiel at night from there. I think she was impressed! Then we headed up to Dee's to get a sleeping bag and pillow for her and then we came back and spent the rest of the evening sharing stories and pictures. On our walk back we passed some sort of cultural event that consisted of singing and dancing around a fire. Neither of us were sure what was going on, but we think they were Turkish. It sounded beautiful and the children were all dressed in similar colorful outfits. We never did figure out what it was they were doing.
Thursday we woke up early and headed to the beach. We went to Schilksee and walked along the beach to the cliffs and back. We saw a couple fall in love or so we like to think. They were walking their dogs and then introduced themselves and we saw them walking together for a long time. We kept wondering if they were planning to meet up again or go out together. It was fun making up stories and predicting what would happen next. We also saw a man digging in the sand for something. We aren't quite sure what for, but he was intensively searching for whatever it was. After our walk, we sat down for a picnic lunch and when it started to rain is when we decided to head out. We went to the store on the way back and bought food for spaghetti and together we cooked a delicious meal.
Friday we woke up fairly early and since the weather looked decent, we decided to head back to the beach, this time to Strande on the other side of Schilksee. This must have been considered the first day of spring to the Kielers because they were putting out beach baskets along the shore, and everyone was out for the day in comparison to yesterday. It might have also been because it was Good Friday and everyone was off work. Kathrin and I took lots of pictures and then began searching for stones with holes in them because I told her about my host family hanging them on a string and putting them up in the bathroom as decoration. She thought this was a great idea and so we went on a search. We decided that we couldn't leave until we had found at least 10 of them. It was easier said than done, but we finally found enough to call it a day and have lunch. I managed to find 3 more heart-shaped stones (without looking for them) and decided I would have my own little collection too! After lunch we headed back to the bus so that we would get back in time to go to Dee's for dinner. We got back a little early so we were able to warm up an make no-bake cookies. I wanted Kathrin to try them and Siobhan hadn't had them yet either so the two of us made them quickly and dipped them out to cool. Then we left for Dee's. They were still preparing everything when we arrived. We had delicious noodles and stir fry for dinner and then came the big surprise, which I hadn't expected at all! My friends had baked a cake for me and had a gift for my birthday! I was really shocked and excited! They bought me a game based on a German TV show that we often watch. We decided that we would play later. First we decided to have Siobahn play us some music. She sang some Shakira and then she played a few of my favorite songs that she has written herself. After that we went out tot the kitchen to boil and paint the eggs that I had brought over. Kathrin had brought an egg dyeing kit with her because some of our friends in Heidelberg were dyeing eggs and she wanted to do it too. So we all had fun making a mess and coloring eggs!! They turned out really pretty except for one of the ones that I made... After dyeing eggs we attempted to play my new game! Who knew it would be so hard to figure out. We all had our laughs and Kathrin ended up winning.
Saturday Kathrin had to wake up early to catch the bus to the station because she was meeting her family in Hamburg to go the Lion King musical. She gave me Easter candy and a gift for my birthday which I decided not to open until the actual day. We said goodbye and then a few minutes later I got a call from her saying that she had accidentally picked up my gloves. I went downstairs to the bus stop to get them off of her and waited with her until the bus came. We had a great time together and I wish she could have stayed longer, but I will hopefully make it down to Heidelberg sometime soon and will be able to see her again!
I had to go shopping for food since the store will be closed both Sunday and Monday for Easter and Natasha is arriving tonight around 7!! After shopping, I packed lunch and went over to Dee's. She said that I had to come over before we all left for Hamburg together. They were catching a train to Paris and I had to pick Natasha up from Hamburg so we all decided to travel together to save money. When I got to Dee's she had Siobahn and I come into Sabine's room. She had put Easter candy in hats and laid them around the room. She said that is how they do it in her family and she thought we should all celebrate Easter together in Germany. She is so thoughtful and sweet and I really appreciated her doing this for us. After a group hug the three of us made our way to Aldi to get a few food items and then were off to the station. We ended up getting there early and got on the earlier train because a girl asked to ride on our ticket which saved us even more money. After getting to Hamburg we split ways because I had to head off to the airport. I got there an hour early so I wandered around the book store and read. After a while I noticed that Natasha's flight had been delayed. It ended up coming in an hour and a half late, yet I still couldn't find her anywhere. It appeared that everyone minus a few people had left and I was starting to worry that her flight had been canceled or she had missed it. Finally after another half an hour or so I overheard some men saying that they had lost their luggage from the U.S. and then realized this had to be what was going on. Everything was now running through my head....she's been standing there trying to figure out what address to tell them to send it to...she's probably freaking out because she doesn't know where I am...finally she came out and was so worked up and exhausted that she broke down. I think she was happy to see me. I calmed her down and then we went upstairs so I could take care of the luggage issue. A good start for her first time in Europe! It wasn't a big deal though. It was actually nice not to have luggage to worry about on the way home. We made it back to Kiel after midnight and after showering, went straight to bed. She had been going for hours.
The next day, Easter Sunday, I let her sleep in a little bit, but then forced her out of bed. The weather was absolutely beautiful so I decided that we would go to the beach for the day. We packed a lunch with us. We walked from Schilksee to Strande and back running into one of my teachers twice and she introduced me to her children as I introduced her to my Natasha. Tash thought that she was British because she speaks perfect and has a British accent even though she lived in California for many years and had only been to England for the first time this year! They learn British pronunciation here, this is why. We sat down and had lunch and then walked to the cliffs along the shore at Schilksee. We went up the stairs there and the view was absolutely breathtaking!!! The sunny blue sky made it perfect! That is now my new favorite spot in Kiel. After catching the bus back, we relaxed and then I started dinner. I made Schnitzel and Spaetzle with salad. A typical German meal (prob. not for Easter but that is besides the point). It turned out to be really nice.
Lost in translation, BethAnny visits, and St. Paddy's
March 10-17th
Monday I worked on my bike again. I bought a new tire and changed it all by myself. I was quite proud, seeing as I had never done this before either. When you're on your own, you have to learn how to do things yourself and can't be dependent on others, plus I didn't want to have to pay someone to fix it!
Tuesday evening there was a meeting with the parents of my 11th graders about the Prague trip and so I was invited to come along by the teacher I'm going with. This ended up lasting all night, as there were other topics on the agenda. I found out the week prior, that some of my Czech friends will be able to meet me while I am in Prague. One of them happens to be working there now and another told me that one of the days we're there is a holiday and she will be able to see me then! I'm really excited to see them again because it has been two years since I last saw them and that was when I went to visit them in their university city. It's going to be an amazing time, I know that already!
Wednesday, Herr Meyer was sick and I was the sub for his two classes that I normally have on this day. My sixth graders once again asked me some of the same questions that they have asked me a thousand times. Every time it's still funny. How old are you? Are you a real teacher? etc. Then they asked me “where's Herr Meyer?” I told them that Herr Meyer was sick. They didn't understand this and said “what?” So I repeated “Herr Meyer is sick.” They still didn't understand until I said Herr Meyer ist krank (German translation) Then the kids said “It's called: Herr Meyer is ill!” I had to laugh hysterically about this. They haven't learned the word sick yet, so to them he is ill (British influence). I got a new student to tutor today too and now he makes number 4.
Not much happened Thursday besides class, school, and tutoring as usual. I found out that Beth Ann and Bethany will be able to make it from Munich up to Kiel this weekend. They found a ride through Mitfahrgelegenheit. People who drive from one city to another in Germany sometimes offer to take people with them for a small fee for gas. Yes that's German for you. You can say all that in just one word! Anyway, it's almost always cheaper than than trains and they will be arriving tomorrow night in Hamburg and I'll meet them at the station there and bring them back to Kiel on the train.
Friday, I went to school to have my teacher that I am replacing, while she is on leave for family matters after spring break, look over the lesson unit that I prepared on interviews. Hopefully it will be ok as is, because I did put a lot of though and effort into it.
I left here around 7 to get to Hamburg by 8 p.m. I wasn't sure exactly what time Beth Ann and Bethany would be coming but I figured it would be around this time. Unfortunately it took a little longer because of the weather. It was funny how we found each other...Beth Ann had tried to call my cell phone and for some reason it doesn't always work for people. Of course this was one of the times that it wouldn't work and so they were trying to find me and we just ended up running into each other. This may not sound strange to you, but if you knew how large the station at Hamburg is, then you would understand why it is! Anyway so we had just missed the next train and had to wait for the following one, so we decided to wander around for a little bit and I showed them the main attractions of Hamburg at night. We caught the next train which put us back in Kiel around 12 and then we walked back to my place and arrived about a half an hour later. We didn't get to bed until at least 3 a.m. Because we were sharing stories and had a lot to tell each other. It was great to see them both and it made me remember a lot of fun times we all had at Bethany College. The two of them of course are still there, but studying abroad this year in Europe.
On Saturday, we got up early ate breakfast and then packed a lunch and headed off to the beach because the weather looked as if it would hold out for us. We spent the afternoon there walking around and taking pictures and then we headed back to my place to gather our things and head to Rendsburg for the St. Patrick's Day party that my friends had planned. Beth Ann and Bethany got to meet all of my friends up here who are assistants and they fit right in with us all. It's hard to explain, but I think with all of us, it is easy to get to know us and we all seem to fit well together. I'm really happy that we have such a diverse mix of assistants here and that we all get along so well together and know how to have a good time. The party consisted of a large meal (as usual) when we get together. Rebecca made a Brunswick Stew, which is popular in the south of the U.S., together we made fried zucchini, and she also made homemade mac and cheese,. Black-eyed peas and a peach cobbler for dessert. After dinner, the three of us headed back to Kiel and Martin came along and I put him up here.
We woke up on Sunday, had breakfast and then were off to the beach at Laboe. We had wanted to take the boat there, but unfortunately it only goes in the summer season and that doesn't start until March 31st. So we ended up taking the bus to Laboe and going up in the Marine Ehrenmal. We used the 40 Euro jackpot that we had found in a cell phone card machine the night before to do this and then went for cake and coffee afterwards! It was nice for the three of us to not have to worry too much about spending money this day. We must of just had a little St. Patty's day luck in finding the post of gold. We cooked chili together in the evening and watched a movie.
Monday morning we woke up and headed to the bus station so I could send them off to the airport in Hamburg since they had found a really cheap flight from Hamburg to Munich. I sent them off, headed to the library to return and check out some books and then attempted to climb the Rathaus tower unsuccessfully. Apparently it is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays and you have to schedule a tour in advance. I was really disappointed about this because the weather was perfect and it would have been a fabulous view, but o well, I guess I will have to call and make an appoitment!
I spent the rest of the day shopping and cleaning because I am recieving another visitor on Wednesday evening. Kathrin is coming for a few days before Natasha gets here. It's been almost a year since I have seen her too. I know we'll have a lot of fun exploring Kiel!
In the evening, a teacher from Dee's school had told her about a play at my school and had asked her to come along. Dee told her teacher, that the name of the school sounded familiar and could be mine, so she called to ask me and sure enough it was. Dee asked me if I would like to tag along too, since it was at my school. This is an interesting way of finding out about something at my own school...finding out from a teacher of a friend who works at another school! Anyway, I agreed to go and we biked to the school together. The play was "Die Welle." It was a great performance by the students and was also really interesting. The play is based on a movie made in the U.S. and the movie is based on a true story. The plot deals with a teacher who is trying to explain to his students about the Holocaust history of Germany and how Hitler came into power and was so good at convincing people to believe and support him. The kids don't understand how Hitler was able to do this and so the teacher ends up doing an experiment on his class (without them knowing) to demonstrate how easy it is to follow a leader. The experiment gets out of his control and finally he is forced to end it. I won't tell you the end of the story because you might want to watch the film or read about it. It has a great and unexpected twist. The movie is called "The Wave" in English for anyone interested.
After the play Dee and I biked to a restaurant near her place where we met up with the three teachers from her school again. We had drinks with them and a nice evening together.
Monday I worked on my bike again. I bought a new tire and changed it all by myself. I was quite proud, seeing as I had never done this before either. When you're on your own, you have to learn how to do things yourself and can't be dependent on others, plus I didn't want to have to pay someone to fix it!
Tuesday evening there was a meeting with the parents of my 11th graders about the Prague trip and so I was invited to come along by the teacher I'm going with. This ended up lasting all night, as there were other topics on the agenda. I found out the week prior, that some of my Czech friends will be able to meet me while I am in Prague. One of them happens to be working there now and another told me that one of the days we're there is a holiday and she will be able to see me then! I'm really excited to see them again because it has been two years since I last saw them and that was when I went to visit them in their university city. It's going to be an amazing time, I know that already!
Wednesday, Herr Meyer was sick and I was the sub for his two classes that I normally have on this day. My sixth graders once again asked me some of the same questions that they have asked me a thousand times. Every time it's still funny. How old are you? Are you a real teacher? etc. Then they asked me “where's Herr Meyer?” I told them that Herr Meyer was sick. They didn't understand this and said “what?” So I repeated “Herr Meyer is sick.” They still didn't understand until I said Herr Meyer ist krank (German translation) Then the kids said “It's called: Herr Meyer is ill!” I had to laugh hysterically about this. They haven't learned the word sick yet, so to them he is ill (British influence). I got a new student to tutor today too and now he makes number 4.
Not much happened Thursday besides class, school, and tutoring as usual. I found out that Beth Ann and Bethany will be able to make it from Munich up to Kiel this weekend. They found a ride through Mitfahrgelegenheit. People who drive from one city to another in Germany sometimes offer to take people with them for a small fee for gas. Yes that's German for you. You can say all that in just one word! Anyway, it's almost always cheaper than than trains and they will be arriving tomorrow night in Hamburg and I'll meet them at the station there and bring them back to Kiel on the train.
Friday, I went to school to have my teacher that I am replacing, while she is on leave for family matters after spring break, look over the lesson unit that I prepared on interviews. Hopefully it will be ok as is, because I did put a lot of though and effort into it.
I left here around 7 to get to Hamburg by 8 p.m. I wasn't sure exactly what time Beth Ann and Bethany would be coming but I figured it would be around this time. Unfortunately it took a little longer because of the weather. It was funny how we found each other...Beth Ann had tried to call my cell phone and for some reason it doesn't always work for people. Of course this was one of the times that it wouldn't work and so they were trying to find me and we just ended up running into each other. This may not sound strange to you, but if you knew how large the station at Hamburg is, then you would understand why it is! Anyway so we had just missed the next train and had to wait for the following one, so we decided to wander around for a little bit and I showed them the main attractions of Hamburg at night. We caught the next train which put us back in Kiel around 12 and then we walked back to my place and arrived about a half an hour later. We didn't get to bed until at least 3 a.m. Because we were sharing stories and had a lot to tell each other. It was great to see them both and it made me remember a lot of fun times we all had at Bethany College. The two of them of course are still there, but studying abroad this year in Europe.
On Saturday, we got up early ate breakfast and then packed a lunch and headed off to the beach because the weather looked as if it would hold out for us. We spent the afternoon there walking around and taking pictures and then we headed back to my place to gather our things and head to Rendsburg for the St. Patrick's Day party that my friends had planned. Beth Ann and Bethany got to meet all of my friends up here who are assistants and they fit right in with us all. It's hard to explain, but I think with all of us, it is easy to get to know us and we all seem to fit well together. I'm really happy that we have such a diverse mix of assistants here and that we all get along so well together and know how to have a good time. The party consisted of a large meal (as usual) when we get together. Rebecca made a Brunswick Stew, which is popular in the south of the U.S., together we made fried zucchini, and she also made homemade mac and cheese,. Black-eyed peas and a peach cobbler for dessert. After dinner, the three of us headed back to Kiel and Martin came along and I put him up here.
We woke up on Sunday, had breakfast and then were off to the beach at Laboe. We had wanted to take the boat there, but unfortunately it only goes in the summer season and that doesn't start until March 31st. So we ended up taking the bus to Laboe and going up in the Marine Ehrenmal. We used the 40 Euro jackpot that we had found in a cell phone card machine the night before to do this and then went for cake and coffee afterwards! It was nice for the three of us to not have to worry too much about spending money this day. We must of just had a little St. Patty's day luck in finding the post of gold. We cooked chili together in the evening and watched a movie.
Monday morning we woke up and headed to the bus station so I could send them off to the airport in Hamburg since they had found a really cheap flight from Hamburg to Munich. I sent them off, headed to the library to return and check out some books and then attempted to climb the Rathaus tower unsuccessfully. Apparently it is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays and you have to schedule a tour in advance. I was really disappointed about this because the weather was perfect and it would have been a fabulous view, but o well, I guess I will have to call and make an appoitment!
I spent the rest of the day shopping and cleaning because I am recieving another visitor on Wednesday evening. Kathrin is coming for a few days before Natasha gets here. It's been almost a year since I have seen her too. I know we'll have a lot of fun exploring Kiel!
In the evening, a teacher from Dee's school had told her about a play at my school and had asked her to come along. Dee told her teacher, that the name of the school sounded familiar and could be mine, so she called to ask me and sure enough it was. Dee asked me if I would like to tag along too, since it was at my school. This is an interesting way of finding out about something at my own school...finding out from a teacher of a friend who works at another school! Anyway, I agreed to go and we biked to the school together. The play was "Die Welle." It was a great performance by the students and was also really interesting. The play is based on a movie made in the U.S. and the movie is based on a true story. The plot deals with a teacher who is trying to explain to his students about the Holocaust history of Germany and how Hitler came into power and was so good at convincing people to believe and support him. The kids don't understand how Hitler was able to do this and so the teacher ends up doing an experiment on his class (without them knowing) to demonstrate how easy it is to follow a leader. The experiment gets out of his control and finally he is forced to end it. I won't tell you the end of the story because you might want to watch the film or read about it. It has a great and unexpected twist. The movie is called "The Wave" in English for anyone interested.
After the play Dee and I biked to a restaurant near her place where we met up with the three teachers from her school again. We had drinks with them and a nice evening together.
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