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.