The weather has been so nice lately! Not as a rule, but as an exception. It's actually generally been pretty bad, but we've had a few realllly nice days. There's a German saying about the crazy April weather: April, April, er macht was er will (April, April, it does what it wants). For example: on Friday, there was snow on the ground until about 10 AM; in the afternoon, it was warm enough to sit outside without a coat. Sunday was also really nice. All the other days I'm not mentioning were pretty bleh and rainy.
Since it's starting to be pseudo spring-like, they put the trampoline back up! On Monday Johanna and I jumped for a while. She kept wanting to play games that she'd make up, but her games always involved me crawling around under the trampoline on the wet grass. No, thanks. Instead we just jumped around for a while. It's really tiring to jump on a trampoline for a long time. Since Johanna's little she of course has endless energy; I, unfortunately, do not. Not a good combination. Every time I'd sit down for a rest, she'd wait about five seconds and then say, "Jump! Jump!" Kind of like when she tells me to tickle her, then yells that I should stop, then as soon as I stop, she tells me to start again.
Yesterday I just had Dominik since Johanna was at Oma and Opa's. Lukas and Lena (Lukas's sister) came over. They also came over on Sunday afternoon; apparently they had been talking all day about getting to jump on the trampoline! They called to ask if they could come, and about 3 minutes later they were there. I suspect that the reason Lena wanted to come yesterday was largely to jump on the trampoline. They of course only jumped on the trampoline for about 15 minutes, leaving me to have to put the wet cover back on by myself (it's too big for little kids to put on alone). When they came back inside, they colored for a while. Lena colored me a picture and wrote on the back, "Für Laura, von Lena". Little kids are much more likeable when they draw you pictures (not that I didn't like Lena before).
Hmm, what else have I been doing? Not too much. Still reading about Sophie Scholl, of course (same book). Downside to reading stuff in German: it takes a long time. Of course, this is a more academic book so it's bound to be harder. That makes me feel a little better. What makes me feel a little worse is that it's a kids' academic book. That's right. I got it from the juvenile section of the library. Well, at least it's meant for teenagers. I hope.
Jonathan's coming in two weeks!!! And we're going to London!!!!! The more I read about stuff to see in London, the more excited I get! It will also be extremely nice to go somewhere where I know people speak my language! Oh, speaking of traveling, I discovered a bus line that has really cheap (as in, 65 euros or less) round-trip bus tickets to cool places like Zagreb and Ljubljana. I had pretty much given up hope of getting to go those places, so I'm glad that I'll actually be able to. I'm also hoping to go up to Wittenberg in June for the Luther's Hochzeit festival. Not sure if that'll work out, but I hope it does. While I was typing this, I booked a trip to Prague for the weekend after I get back from Paris!
My birthday's in two weeks! Send me potato chips!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
"Ich würde es genauso wieder machen"
Ahhh, I've been meaning to write an actual (as in, non-travel) update for a while, but I just can't seem to force myself to do it. Every time I write a blog entry I get in the groove, but if I don't write another right away, I never feel like doing it again. So, since this is about me learning German, I guess I should write some stuff about German.
Well, I've been trying to read stuff in German more, since I've already pretty much mastered speaking with people (okay, not mastered, but I can do it without any trouble). I figure I might as well take advantage of having tons of German reading material at hand while I actually can. One thing I've discovered: I must read really easy books in English. I've read a few books in German by either authors I've read in English or comparable ones, and the books have all been fairly easy. Example: chick lit. I mean, I knew chick lit books weren't exactly heavy literature, but after reading a few in German, I think I need to beef up my reading list in English. The good thing about reading books like that in German is that I learn more everyday words and phrases, ones that maybe I've heard but never knew what they meant. One bad thing about reading in German: it's easy to read stuff with words I don't know and still get the gist of it. That sounds like a good thing, but it means that I'm not learning what those words mean. It's not always possible to figure out what a word means just from its context, and unless the meaning of the sentence is completely lost on me, I'm not going to bother to look up the word (that gets old fast). Anyway, I've made a rule for myself that, once I finish the two English books that I already got out of the library, I can only read German books from now until I get back to America.
So, one thing that sucks is I'm already forgetting how hard it is to learn another language. To remind myself:
Laura's Progression of Oral Comprehension:
1. Understanding conversations I am participating in
2. Understanding conversations I am not participating in, but where I know the people involved (example: at dinner)
3. Understanding conversations where I have no relationship to the speakers and am eavesdropping (example: random travelers on the train)
It's crazy the stuff I take for granted in English! I am learning so much stuff about language in general, and how much attention it really takes to process it. I think (I hope) this will help me next year. But I wonder if there is a level of comprehension after 3? It's tough for me to compare it to English comprehension, since I never hear English spoken. Until I went to Italy and came in contact with other groups of native English speakers, I wasn't sure if I easily understood conversations that I overheard (turns out that, yes, I do), so I realized that it was a big thing when I could understand overheard conversations in German.
New and exciting: Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. OK, not exactly new...and maybe exciting isn't the right word either. The White Rose was a resistence group against Hitler in the 1940s. They published (anonymously, of course) six extremely critical pamphlets against the regime and mailed them randomly to people in Germany. The stakes were so high that they didn't even send them from Munich, where they lived (most of them were students at the University of Munich). They would have them delivered to other cities and then mailed from there. They only published six, because after the sixth one they were caught. Sophie and Hans Scholl, brother and sister from Ulm, and Christoph Probst were the first ones arrested; the others were caught within a few months. All of the members were arrested, tortured, "tried", and shortly thereafter (as in, a few hours after) executed by beheading. I know that if we lived in a society like theirs, I would never have the courage to do what they did. I only hope I can attempt to live my life even a little bit as well as they did. More info here. You can read the six pamphlets in English or in German.
I'm reading a book about Sophie Scholl now, a book in a series called "rebellious women". The subtitle of the book is "Ich würde es genauso wieder machen"; "I would do it exactly the same again."
Well, I've been trying to read stuff in German more, since I've already pretty much mastered speaking with people (okay, not mastered, but I can do it without any trouble). I figure I might as well take advantage of having tons of German reading material at hand while I actually can. One thing I've discovered: I must read really easy books in English. I've read a few books in German by either authors I've read in English or comparable ones, and the books have all been fairly easy. Example: chick lit. I mean, I knew chick lit books weren't exactly heavy literature, but after reading a few in German, I think I need to beef up my reading list in English. The good thing about reading books like that in German is that I learn more everyday words and phrases, ones that maybe I've heard but never knew what they meant. One bad thing about reading in German: it's easy to read stuff with words I don't know and still get the gist of it. That sounds like a good thing, but it means that I'm not learning what those words mean. It's not always possible to figure out what a word means just from its context, and unless the meaning of the sentence is completely lost on me, I'm not going to bother to look up the word (that gets old fast). Anyway, I've made a rule for myself that, once I finish the two English books that I already got out of the library, I can only read German books from now until I get back to America.
So, one thing that sucks is I'm already forgetting how hard it is to learn another language. To remind myself:
Laura's Progression of Oral Comprehension:
1. Understanding conversations I am participating in
2. Understanding conversations I am not participating in, but where I know the people involved (example: at dinner)
3. Understanding conversations where I have no relationship to the speakers and am eavesdropping (example: random travelers on the train)
It's crazy the stuff I take for granted in English! I am learning so much stuff about language in general, and how much attention it really takes to process it. I think (I hope) this will help me next year. But I wonder if there is a level of comprehension after 3? It's tough for me to compare it to English comprehension, since I never hear English spoken. Until I went to Italy and came in contact with other groups of native English speakers, I wasn't sure if I easily understood conversations that I overheard (turns out that, yes, I do), so I realized that it was a big thing when I could understand overheard conversations in German.
New and exciting: Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. OK, not exactly new...and maybe exciting isn't the right word either. The White Rose was a resistence group against Hitler in the 1940s. They published (anonymously, of course) six extremely critical pamphlets against the regime and mailed them randomly to people in Germany. The stakes were so high that they didn't even send them from Munich, where they lived (most of them were students at the University of Munich). They would have them delivered to other cities and then mailed from there. They only published six, because after the sixth one they were caught. Sophie and Hans Scholl, brother and sister from Ulm, and Christoph Probst were the first ones arrested; the others were caught within a few months. All of the members were arrested, tortured, "tried", and shortly thereafter (as in, a few hours after) executed by beheading. I know that if we lived in a society like theirs, I would never have the courage to do what they did. I only hope I can attempt to live my life even a little bit as well as they did. More info here. You can read the six pamphlets in English or in German.
I'm reading a book about Sophie Scholl now, a book in a series called "rebellious women". The subtitle of the book is "Ich würde es genauso wieder machen"; "I would do it exactly the same again."
Friday, April 11, 2008
Amsterdam
April 5-7
Amsterdam is crazy, for several reasons. I give you the support of my thesis:
1) The pot is everywhere. And it stinks. I didn't even go in any "coffeeshops" and my coat still ended up smelling like.
2) The prostitutes. Here's my fun tale: I was walking from near my hostel to the Old Church, but I didn't feel like getting out my map. Instead I followed the signs posted around. I walked cluelessly down one street and looked up when I heard knocking on glass. There, in the windows, were many many prostitutes banging on the glass to get the attention of the group of men in front of me. I also realized at this point that most of the people on this particular street were male...oops. One good thing: the prostitutes all looked like the type of girl in high school who was really popular and you secretly hope will end up on the street. Wish granted!
3) Dutch is the craziest language EVER. OK, not really. But it sounds almost exactly like German! I would venture to say that I understood about 25% of what was said without trying hard. It got so that when I heard people speaking Dutch/German I had to stop and listen to at least a sentence or two to figure it out.
4) I CANNOT keep "Dutch" and "Danish" straight. I probably called the citizens of Holland Danish more often than I called them Dutch. Somehow I didn't have that problem in Copenhagen.
K, quick summary. The first day I met up with my parents. They're on one of those organized tours that takes them through several cities in Holland and Belgium. They got in the same morning I did, so we were all tired. We ate lunch near my hostel and then went to the Anne Frank House, where we waited for almost an hour to get in. Why? Because there was ONE ticket seller--who left for about 20 minutes as soon as it started pouring. I would say the Anne Frank House is the second-biggest disappointment of my trips in Europe (first being Sagrada Familia, biggest rip-off ever!!!). The house is mostly empty, giving you pretty much no picture of what it was like for eight people to live there for two years. There were a few artifacts and stuff displayed, but they were accompanied by...quotes from the book. Can you guess what was sold in the bookstore in about 15 different languages? I found the book more informative and more moving than the actual house.
Afterwards my parents went back to their room for a little bit and I walked around for a while. It had stopped raining and the sun had come out, so it was really nice. Amsterdam is a great city to walk around in. Well, except for all the mopeds and bikes (which all want to kill you). After we ate dinner I went back to my hostel...where I unfortunately had the rudest neighbors/roommates ever. I found that quite surprising for a Christian hostel.
The next day I went to Delft to meet up briefly with my parents, and after tagging along on their tour, I walked around the town for a little while and ate lunch. For some reason all of the churches in Delft were closed the entire day to visitors--even though it was a Sunday. I know they have services, but don't most churches usually welcome visitors, especially on Sunday? So, after looking at the churches from the outside, I went to the house of painter Paul Tetar van Elven (yeah, I'd never heard of him either). The only reason I went was that it was free. The inside was really nice and it was cool to see a well-preserved 19th-century Dutch home. Oh yeah, and I also saw the place where Johannes Vermeer's house used to be until it was accidentally torn down or something. Now there's a chapel there (typical).
I hung out in Delft for a little while, but it was really cold, so I went back to Amsterdam. When I got back it had sort of warmed up, so I walked around again, looking at stuff that I had missed the day before (this is when I had my run-in with the prostitutes). Luckily when I went back to my hostel, all my roommates had checked out and new ones had checked in. Those girls didn't come back until about 2:30 (what are these Christians doing??), so I was able to sleep pretty well.
The next day, I got up early and went to Keukenhof Gardens, where there are a ton of flowers and tulips. It was really nice, but the bus takes forrrrever. Also, I had been expecting more tulips. There weren't many at all. And it didn't really feel very spring-like since it was so COLD.
After I was done at the gardens, I went back to the city and met up with Felicia!
We walked around for a while, got lost (thanks, Felicia! haha), then went to the Van Gogh Museum. I liked the museum a lot! It was a little expensive, but it was worth it. Along with all the Van Gogh stuff, there was an exhibit of works by Millais, who I previously knew very little about. I can now tell you practically his life story. Some highlights: he married his friend Ruskin's wife Effie after the two got an annullment, due to the fact that Effie and Ruskin had been married for years but had never consummated the union. Scandalous? I think so. Effie and Millais went on to enjoy much much marital bliss--they had eight children. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Millais's paintings. Many of them look boring from first glance, but the emotions his subjects express are very evident on their faces. He also painted "Ophelia", which I had never known the name of or who painted it.
Millais's "Ophelia"
Overall: thumbs-up to Amsterdam. It felt much more authentic than Venice, where I heard more English than Italian. The pot and prostitution are not exactly my cup of tea, but both are easily avoided (unless you walk around cluelessly, like me). It's also fairly small and very walkable, which saved me a ton on public transportation. I only had to take a tram once, and even then, walking probably would have taken about the same amount of time as that whole journey did. I really wish I had rented a bike or something though, because while Amsterdam is really nice to walk around, it would have been a lot nicer to ride around. There's not that much to actually stop and look at, so I think biking would have been a great way to enjoy the city. Too bad it was cold and I'm cheap.
Amsterdam is crazy, for several reasons. I give you the support of my thesis:
1) The pot is everywhere. And it stinks. I didn't even go in any "coffeeshops" and my coat still ended up smelling like.
2) The prostitutes. Here's my fun tale: I was walking from near my hostel to the Old Church, but I didn't feel like getting out my map. Instead I followed the signs posted around. I walked cluelessly down one street and looked up when I heard knocking on glass. There, in the windows, were many many prostitutes banging on the glass to get the attention of the group of men in front of me. I also realized at this point that most of the people on this particular street were male...oops. One good thing: the prostitutes all looked like the type of girl in high school who was really popular and you secretly hope will end up on the street. Wish granted!
3) Dutch is the craziest language EVER. OK, not really. But it sounds almost exactly like German! I would venture to say that I understood about 25% of what was said without trying hard. It got so that when I heard people speaking Dutch/German I had to stop and listen to at least a sentence or two to figure it out.
4) I CANNOT keep "Dutch" and "Danish" straight. I probably called the citizens of Holland Danish more often than I called them Dutch. Somehow I didn't have that problem in Copenhagen.
K, quick summary. The first day I met up with my parents. They're on one of those organized tours that takes them through several cities in Holland and Belgium. They got in the same morning I did, so we were all tired. We ate lunch near my hostel and then went to the Anne Frank House, where we waited for almost an hour to get in. Why? Because there was ONE ticket seller--who left for about 20 minutes as soon as it started pouring. I would say the Anne Frank House is the second-biggest disappointment of my trips in Europe (first being Sagrada Familia, biggest rip-off ever!!!). The house is mostly empty, giving you pretty much no picture of what it was like for eight people to live there for two years. There were a few artifacts and stuff displayed, but they were accompanied by...quotes from the book. Can you guess what was sold in the bookstore in about 15 different languages? I found the book more informative and more moving than the actual house.
Afterwards my parents went back to their room for a little bit and I walked around for a while. It had stopped raining and the sun had come out, so it was really nice. Amsterdam is a great city to walk around in. Well, except for all the mopeds and bikes (which all want to kill you). After we ate dinner I went back to my hostel...where I unfortunately had the rudest neighbors/roommates ever. I found that quite surprising for a Christian hostel.
The next day I went to Delft to meet up briefly with my parents, and after tagging along on their tour, I walked around the town for a little while and ate lunch. For some reason all of the churches in Delft were closed the entire day to visitors--even though it was a Sunday. I know they have services, but don't most churches usually welcome visitors, especially on Sunday? So, after looking at the churches from the outside, I went to the house of painter Paul Tetar van Elven (yeah, I'd never heard of him either). The only reason I went was that it was free. The inside was really nice and it was cool to see a well-preserved 19th-century Dutch home. Oh yeah, and I also saw the place where Johannes Vermeer's house used to be until it was accidentally torn down or something. Now there's a chapel there (typical).
I hung out in Delft for a little while, but it was really cold, so I went back to Amsterdam. When I got back it had sort of warmed up, so I walked around again, looking at stuff that I had missed the day before (this is when I had my run-in with the prostitutes). Luckily when I went back to my hostel, all my roommates had checked out and new ones had checked in. Those girls didn't come back until about 2:30 (what are these Christians doing??), so I was able to sleep pretty well.
The next day, I got up early and went to Keukenhof Gardens, where there are a ton of flowers and tulips. It was really nice, but the bus takes forrrrever. Also, I had been expecting more tulips. There weren't many at all. And it didn't really feel very spring-like since it was so COLD.
After I was done at the gardens, I went back to the city and met up with Felicia!
We walked around for a while, got lost (thanks, Felicia! haha), then went to the Van Gogh Museum. I liked the museum a lot! It was a little expensive, but it was worth it. Along with all the Van Gogh stuff, there was an exhibit of works by Millais, who I previously knew very little about. I can now tell you practically his life story. Some highlights: he married his friend Ruskin's wife Effie after the two got an annullment, due to the fact that Effie and Ruskin had been married for years but had never consummated the union. Scandalous? I think so. Effie and Millais went on to enjoy much much marital bliss--they had eight children. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Millais's paintings. Many of them look boring from first glance, but the emotions his subjects express are very evident on their faces. He also painted "Ophelia", which I had never known the name of or who painted it.
"The Huguenot", a Millais painting we both liked a lot
Millais's "Ophelia"
Overall: thumbs-up to Amsterdam. It felt much more authentic than Venice, where I heard more English than Italian. The pot and prostitution are not exactly my cup of tea, but both are easily avoided (unless you walk around cluelessly, like me). It's also fairly small and very walkable, which saved me a ton on public transportation. I only had to take a tram once, and even then, walking probably would have taken about the same amount of time as that whole journey did. I really wish I had rented a bike or something though, because while Amsterdam is really nice to walk around, it would have been a lot nicer to ride around. There's not that much to actually stop and look at, so I think biking would have been a great way to enjoy the city. Too bad it was cold and I'm cheap.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Berlin: Weltstadt mit Herz
March 27-30
At least that's what all the kitschy little souvenirs say. Def my most interesting city visit so far. Berlin isn't really a beautiful city the way many other European cities are, but it has a ton of history. Most of the stuff that has happened in Germany in the past few centuries (good and bad, although obviously a lot of it bad) has centered around Berlin. I went with two other aupairs I know. It was kind of good, because our only common language was German (the one from South Africa speaks English of course, but the French one doesn't), so we had to speak in German. The only bad thing is--it kind of sucks speaking German with non-native speakers, at least for a long period of time. We all have fairly limited vocabularies so it kind of makes speaking a little uninteresting. I was sick of it by the end of the weekend.
Unfortunately my travel companions and I did not have similar traveling styles. Their main goal (they even expressed this out loud) was to visit famous stuff and get their pictures taken in front of it. I mean, I like taking pictures as much as the next person, but I also like actually seeing a city. One of them said she'd go in museums as long as it wasn't too expensive....expensive being 6 €. Um, 6 € isn't a lot. On the other hand, they were perfectly willing to buy chocolate and tacky souvenirs that cost that much or more. I had kind of had a feeling that maybe they wouldn't be the same kind of travelers I was (my first hint was when one of them showed up with a large, wheeled suitcase packed full for a 3-day trip), but this just proved it. Luckily the last day I was able to go off on my own and see the museums I was interested in.
Day 1
We got in super early in the morning from our night train, rode out to our hotel (which was farther than I thought it would be), and of course our room wasn't ready. We left our bags then rode into the city to go wait in the massive line for the Reichstag. After standing there for two hours in the cold, we finally got in. Unfortunately the only part open to the line is the cupola (I wanted to see the big room where they hold the parliamentary sessions, but you have to make a reservation to do that). The cupola was still cool. It's totally made of glass and you can walk up to the top. I remember from one of my previous trips to Berlin that the cupola is glass to allow anyone to see into the government. Almost the entire last century in German history was dominated by closed, secretive government, so it's a symbol to show that that will never happene again. The view was pretty good and there was a small exhibit with pictures showing German history since about 1920.
Afterwards we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, ate lunch, then went to the Berliner Mauer Gedenkstätte. It has a set-up of how the wall used to look: eastern wall, no man's land, then western wall (those Commies weren't taking any chances). We looked at that for a little bit then rode down to Alexanderplatz to see the world clock and the TV tower (368 meters high!). There was some kind of festival going on, so of course we stopped and ate crepes. After that we went back to our hotel and crashed.
Day 2
We were gonna sleep in....except we went to bed so early that Carole and I both woke up super early (Vianca slept all the way to the alarm). We went on a free walking tour of the city at 11 that ended up lasting 4.5 hours...luckily it included a stop for lunch. We saw Pariser Platz (where the Brandenburg Gate is), the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitler's former bunker (where he killed himself at the end of WWII), Checkpoint Charlie, Topography of Terror, Bundesfinanzamt, Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz, and the Berliner Dom. It was quite a good and informative tour. I learned quite a bit about the city.
After the tour we went to the East Side Gallery, which is a 1.3-km section of the wall that was left up so that commissioned artists could paint murals on it. It was really cool to see, but unfortunately most of it has been almost completely destroyed by idiots who spray paint over it and write stuff on it (one of my travel companions took it upon herself to write on one of the murals--horrible). The murals were originally painted in 1990, then a good chunk restored in 2000. It's pretty sad that it only took 10 years for them to almost completely deteriorate due to erosion and vandalism.
Day 3
I went off on my own to visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the Topography of Terror, and the DDR Museum. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum is (duh) right next to what used to be Checkpoint Charlie, the checkpoint between the DDR and the American sector, so named because it was the third checkpoint (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...). Most of the stuff in the museum was about the ingenious ways people managed to escape. The actual museum has quite an interesting history too--it's housed in a building that is just over the DDR border into the American sector, and was opened in 1962. It has been adding to its collection ever since.
My next stop was the Topography of Terror, an open-air exhibition located in the ruins of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. It's an exhibit detailing the rise and fall of the Third Reich, and what life was like under Hitler. It was a very good exhibit, but unfortunately it was just too long for me to be able to read it all. Plus it was outside and it was raining on an off. I read about half of it before giving up and heading to the DDR Museum.
The DDR Museum was a little bit disappointing, mostly because I had hoped it would be bigger! The museum is about what daily life was like in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik). It was really interactive and hands-on, and it had a lot of cool/weird facts--like how in kindergarten, all children were made to go to the bathroom together. They all had to sit down on a "potty bench" and relieve themselves at the same time. No one was allowed to stand up until the last person was finished. Also, apparently people were really into nude beaches and bathing! There were a ton of pictures of beaches and summer spots, and everyone was naked and hanging out (no pun intended, hahah).
At least that's what all the kitschy little souvenirs say. Def my most interesting city visit so far. Berlin isn't really a beautiful city the way many other European cities are, but it has a ton of history. Most of the stuff that has happened in Germany in the past few centuries (good and bad, although obviously a lot of it bad) has centered around Berlin. I went with two other aupairs I know. It was kind of good, because our only common language was German (the one from South Africa speaks English of course, but the French one doesn't), so we had to speak in German. The only bad thing is--it kind of sucks speaking German with non-native speakers, at least for a long period of time. We all have fairly limited vocabularies so it kind of makes speaking a little uninteresting. I was sick of it by the end of the weekend.
Unfortunately my travel companions and I did not have similar traveling styles. Their main goal (they even expressed this out loud) was to visit famous stuff and get their pictures taken in front of it. I mean, I like taking pictures as much as the next person, but I also like actually seeing a city. One of them said she'd go in museums as long as it wasn't too expensive....expensive being 6 €. Um, 6 € isn't a lot. On the other hand, they were perfectly willing to buy chocolate and tacky souvenirs that cost that much or more. I had kind of had a feeling that maybe they wouldn't be the same kind of travelers I was (my first hint was when one of them showed up with a large, wheeled suitcase packed full for a 3-day trip), but this just proved it. Luckily the last day I was able to go off on my own and see the museums I was interested in.
Day 1
We got in super early in the morning from our night train, rode out to our hotel (which was farther than I thought it would be), and of course our room wasn't ready. We left our bags then rode into the city to go wait in the massive line for the Reichstag. After standing there for two hours in the cold, we finally got in. Unfortunately the only part open to the line is the cupola (I wanted to see the big room where they hold the parliamentary sessions, but you have to make a reservation to do that). The cupola was still cool. It's totally made of glass and you can walk up to the top. I remember from one of my previous trips to Berlin that the cupola is glass to allow anyone to see into the government. Almost the entire last century in German history was dominated by closed, secretive government, so it's a symbol to show that that will never happene again. The view was pretty good and there was a small exhibit with pictures showing German history since about 1920.
Afterwards we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, ate lunch, then went to the Berliner Mauer Gedenkstätte. It has a set-up of how the wall used to look: eastern wall, no man's land, then western wall (those Commies weren't taking any chances). We looked at that for a little bit then rode down to Alexanderplatz to see the world clock and the TV tower (368 meters high!). There was some kind of festival going on, so of course we stopped and ate crepes. After that we went back to our hotel and crashed.
Day 2
We were gonna sleep in....except we went to bed so early that Carole and I both woke up super early (Vianca slept all the way to the alarm). We went on a free walking tour of the city at 11 that ended up lasting 4.5 hours...luckily it included a stop for lunch. We saw Pariser Platz (where the Brandenburg Gate is), the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial, the site of Hitler's former bunker (where he killed himself at the end of WWII), Checkpoint Charlie, Topography of Terror, Bundesfinanzamt, Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz, and the Berliner Dom. It was quite a good and informative tour. I learned quite a bit about the city.
After the tour we went to the East Side Gallery, which is a 1.3-km section of the wall that was left up so that commissioned artists could paint murals on it. It was really cool to see, but unfortunately most of it has been almost completely destroyed by idiots who spray paint over it and write stuff on it (one of my travel companions took it upon herself to write on one of the murals--horrible). The murals were originally painted in 1990, then a good chunk restored in 2000. It's pretty sad that it only took 10 years for them to almost completely deteriorate due to erosion and vandalism.Day 3
I went off on my own to visit the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, the Topography of Terror, and the DDR Museum. The Checkpoint Charlie Museum is (duh) right next to what used to be Checkpoint Charlie, the checkpoint between the DDR and the American sector, so named because it was the third checkpoint (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...). Most of the stuff in the museum was about the ingenious ways people managed to escape. The actual museum has quite an interesting history too--it's housed in a building that is just over the DDR border into the American sector, and was opened in 1962. It has been adding to its collection ever since.
My next stop was the Topography of Terror, an open-air exhibition located in the ruins of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. It's an exhibit detailing the rise and fall of the Third Reich, and what life was like under Hitler. It was a very good exhibit, but unfortunately it was just too long for me to be able to read it all. Plus it was outside and it was raining on an off. I read about half of it before giving up and heading to the DDR Museum.The DDR Museum was a little bit disappointing, mostly because I had hoped it would be bigger! The museum is about what daily life was like in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik). It was really interactive and hands-on, and it had a lot of cool/weird facts--like how in kindergarten, all children were made to go to the bathroom together. They all had to sit down on a "potty bench" and relieve themselves at the same time. No one was allowed to stand up until the last person was finished. Also, apparently people were really into nude beaches and bathing! There were a ton of pictures of beaches and summer spots, and everyone was naked and hanging out (no pun intended, hahah).
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Updates?
I haven't written much lately about the kids, some here's some cool stuff that's happened lately:
Another update that I forgot about: I'm going to University of Georgia next year! I'll be in an M.Ed. program in Speech-Language Pathology. I've never actually even visited the school, but I applied there so that it will be easier for Jonathan to commute. (If I went to FSU, he'd have to commute to Atlanta from Tallahassee. Doable, but a pain) The reason I'm going to UGA is mostly financial--I got a graduate assistantship from them that pays all of my tuition, plus a stipend of $1500/month for 21 months. I really liked Florida State and I would have loved to go there, but they didn't offer me any money. I applied for the University Fellowship and apparently the department put me forward as the #1 applicant, but I didn't get it. Oh well, I'll go with the school that wants to pay me!
It's kind of crazy that I'll be living in Georgia, but even crazy is that we'll be living in rural Georgia. Me and Jonathan are going to get an apartment that's about halfway between Athens and Atlanta so that neither of us has to have a 2-hour commute. I'm not looking forward to all the long drives, but it's better than Jonathan having to fly to Atlanta all the time.
- Johanna asked me if I saw a tiger in Berlin. When I said no, she asked if I saw a kangaroo. I told her I didn't go to the zoo, but she didn't seem to see why that would affect my sightings of animals.
- The things that make a 3-year-old laugh! I put my hand on Johanna's head when we were walking home from kindy, and she moved away. I put it on her head again and pretended it was glued there. I followed her around not moving my hand, and she thought this was hilarious!
- Dominik has been coloring these things called mandelas, and he has a whole big paper with hundreds to choose from. He made a list for Stefan to print out, and he told me that I should pick out some too, so that we'll both have some to color. Afterwards, he brought them down to my room so that I'd have them, even though I told him that I'll just color when I'm with him. He said I should keep them down here in case I want to work on them anyway. I love how he thinks I'm just down here frantically coloring!
- Me and Dominik read a story the other day about a girl who has a pet sheep. I have to admit...I genuinely enjoyed it.
Another update that I forgot about: I'm going to University of Georgia next year! I'll be in an M.Ed. program in Speech-Language Pathology. I've never actually even visited the school, but I applied there so that it will be easier for Jonathan to commute. (If I went to FSU, he'd have to commute to Atlanta from Tallahassee. Doable, but a pain) The reason I'm going to UGA is mostly financial--I got a graduate assistantship from them that pays all of my tuition, plus a stipend of $1500/month for 21 months. I really liked Florida State and I would have loved to go there, but they didn't offer me any money. I applied for the University Fellowship and apparently the department put me forward as the #1 applicant, but I didn't get it. Oh well, I'll go with the school that wants to pay me!
It's kind of crazy that I'll be living in Georgia, but even crazy is that we'll be living in rural Georgia. Me and Jonathan are going to get an apartment that's about halfway between Athens and Atlanta so that neither of us has to have a 2-hour commute. I'm not looking forward to all the long drives, but it's better than Jonathan having to fly to Atlanta all the time.
Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen
March 21-23
Ehh, it wasn't that wonderful, I just had that song in my head the entire time I was there. Well, not really that song, more like that one line. Since I don't know any of the other words.
Speaking of songs stuck in my head, I had that one line from "The Producers", "I was born in Düsseldorf, that is why they call me Rolf" in my head the entire time I was in Düsseldorf. The worst part about that was that I know other words to the song, but that line just kept running through my head. It's probably not a good idea to go around quietly singing "Springtime for Hitler" in Germany.
Anyway, Copenhagen. A warning to anyone thinking about visiting: it is REALLY EXPENSIVE. And not like when people say Italy is expensive. No. Much much more expensive. We thought it was expensive before we even knew the true exchange rate. We thought it was about 7.5 Kr to 1 USD, but it's really 4.5 to 1. Umm yeah. Here's an example: a one-day public transportation pass costs 115 Kr. That's about 25 USD. Granted, you could travel anywhere in the system with that (including on real trains), so that may not seem so bad. How about this? A standard meal at McDonald's (burger, fries, drink) cost at least 50 Kr. That's more than $10. Need more convincing? We ate at a restaurant one night, but I decided to just get a bowl of soup (which was listed in the appetizers section). It was a fairly normal-sized bowl of soup, one I'd probably pay about 3 € for in Germany. Not at this place. It was 65 Kr, which is more than $13. Recommendation: don't go to Copenhagen until you have money.
Short summary:
Day 1
I met up with Jonathan in the train station as soon as my train got in. It was so great to see him! We hadn't seen each other since December, when we only spent 1.5 days together. This time wasn't much better (2 full days), but it was still good. We were both tired (me from the night train, Jonathan from an international flight) and it was freezing out and raining, so we decided to not do too much. We ate lunch, halfheartedly looked at a palace, went to a (free) museum for a half hour, and then went back to the hotel. We ate dinner at a fast-food-type Indian place because we (mistakenly) thought it wasn't that expensive. I figured out later
that that meal cost us about $40. Great.
Day 2
Thousand-year-old ship in the Viking museum
Jonathan and the Roskilde cathedral
Neither of us had really been that impressed with what we saw of Copenhagen the day before, so we decided to go to Roskilde, a town about 30 km away, to go to the Viking Ship Museum. We hadn't been sure if we'd be able to go because we thought there'd be tons of stuff we'd want to do in Copenhagen, but we thought it would be good to go to a museum since it was sort of raining. The museum ended up being a great choice, and it ended up being a really nice day! Of course it was still freezing and windy, but at least the sun was shining. We walked from the train station through the town of Roskilde to get to the museum. It was weird to see snow on the ground, especially since just a few days before it had been so warm! The Viking Ship Museum wasn't large, but it was cool. It was built specifically for 5 ships that were found in Roskilde Fjord. They had been scuttled in the fjord about 900 years ago to create a blockade (in Viking times, Roskilde was not only the capital of Denmark, but also the most important city in the country). The boats were discovered about 30 years ago, restored, and the museum built specifically to display them. The museum also had quite a bit of information about Viking history and culture, which was nice, since I pretty much knew nothing about them before.
Day 3
I'm guessing a statue of King Christian (I have, like, a 90% chance of being right)
Nyhavn: Now this is the Copenhagen I imagined!
Changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace. BTW, they were the lamest guards ever. Some of them were chatting with each other during the ceremony!
Jonathan and I said goodbye early in the morning (awww, sad). He had to get a flight back to Atlanta so that he could be on reserve that evening...talk about a tight schedule! Even though we didn't get to do too much in Copenhagen together, it was really nice to just be able to spend time with him.
After he left, I checked out of the hotel and went on a self-guided walking tour that I found in one of the maps Jonathan left me. It took me most of the day to do the whole thing, and I saw a ton of stuff. I discovered pretty fast that Copenhagen is a lot nicer than we had thought from our experiences the two days before. I saw a bunch of churches and palaces (Copenhagen has a ton), a bunch of statues of kings named Christian (seems like all of them were named that), the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace (the official residence of the royal family), the Little Mermaid, the only Episcopal church in Denmark, a really cool preserved fortification, some former barracks, a couple ports, and some other stuff. Overall, it was a nice walking tour, but again, of course, it was FREEZING. It was better than both of the days before, but still. At least it was sunny and nice out. It also gave me something to do on Easter, since nothing else was open (although the Guinness Book of World Records museum was...I contemplated going in, just to get out of the cold).
Overall, Copenhagen was a little disappointing. It's a nice city, but not as different as I thought it would be. It looked like many other European (and specifically German) cities that I've visited. I guess I thought it would have some kind of Danish flair...? Not that I know what "Danish flair" is. I also think I would have liked it much better in the summer, or at least temps above freezing. It definitely seems like a summer place, with all its ports and promenades.
As for working, the past few weeks have been nuts! I got back from Berlin on Sunday night and obviously I've been working since then, but in the previous two weeks, I had only worked 4 days. Man, I love traveling! All these trips have given me a much-needed break from the oppressive smallness of Heuchlingen and Heidenheim. Now that it's starting to get warm, though, I think I'll enjoy it more here. It'll be much more pleasant to be outside.
Up next: trip to Amsterdam this weekend. Hopefully once I get back I'll get all caught up with trip posts.
Ehh, it wasn't that wonderful, I just had that song in my head the entire time I was there. Well, not really that song, more like that one line. Since I don't know any of the other words.
Speaking of songs stuck in my head, I had that one line from "The Producers", "I was born in Düsseldorf, that is why they call me Rolf" in my head the entire time I was in Düsseldorf. The worst part about that was that I know other words to the song, but that line just kept running through my head. It's probably not a good idea to go around quietly singing "Springtime for Hitler" in Germany.
Anyway, Copenhagen. A warning to anyone thinking about visiting: it is REALLY EXPENSIVE. And not like when people say Italy is expensive. No. Much much more expensive. We thought it was expensive before we even knew the true exchange rate. We thought it was about 7.5 Kr to 1 USD, but it's really 4.5 to 1. Umm yeah. Here's an example: a one-day public transportation pass costs 115 Kr. That's about 25 USD. Granted, you could travel anywhere in the system with that (including on real trains), so that may not seem so bad. How about this? A standard meal at McDonald's (burger, fries, drink) cost at least 50 Kr. That's more than $10. Need more convincing? We ate at a restaurant one night, but I decided to just get a bowl of soup (which was listed in the appetizers section). It was a fairly normal-sized bowl of soup, one I'd probably pay about 3 € for in Germany. Not at this place. It was 65 Kr, which is more than $13. Recommendation: don't go to Copenhagen until you have money.
Short summary:
Day 1
I met up with Jonathan in the train station as soon as my train got in. It was so great to see him! We hadn't seen each other since December, when we only spent 1.5 days together. This time wasn't much better (2 full days), but it was still good. We were both tired (me from the night train, Jonathan from an international flight) and it was freezing out and raining, so we decided to not do too much. We ate lunch, halfheartedly looked at a palace, went to a (free) museum for a half hour, and then went back to the hotel. We ate dinner at a fast-food-type Indian place because we (mistakenly) thought it wasn't that expensive. I figured out later
that that meal cost us about $40. Great.
Day 2
Thousand-year-old ship in the Viking museum
Jonathan and the Roskilde cathedralDay 3
I'm guessing a statue of King Christian (I have, like, a 90% chance of being right)
Nyhavn: Now this is the Copenhagen I imagined!
Changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace. BTW, they were the lamest guards ever. Some of them were chatting with each other during the ceremony!After he left, I checked out of the hotel and went on a self-guided walking tour that I found in one of the maps Jonathan left me. It took me most of the day to do the whole thing, and I saw a ton of stuff. I discovered pretty fast that Copenhagen is a lot nicer than we had thought from our experiences the two days before. I saw a bunch of churches and palaces (Copenhagen has a ton), a bunch of statues of kings named Christian (seems like all of them were named that), the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Palace (the official residence of the royal family), the Little Mermaid, the only Episcopal church in Denmark, a really cool preserved fortification, some former barracks, a couple ports, and some other stuff. Overall, it was a nice walking tour, but again, of course, it was FREEZING. It was better than both of the days before, but still. At least it was sunny and nice out. It also gave me something to do on Easter, since nothing else was open (although the Guinness Book of World Records museum was...I contemplated going in, just to get out of the cold).
Overall, Copenhagen was a little disappointing. It's a nice city, but not as different as I thought it would be. It looked like many other European (and specifically German) cities that I've visited. I guess I thought it would have some kind of Danish flair...? Not that I know what "Danish flair" is. I also think I would have liked it much better in the summer, or at least temps above freezing. It definitely seems like a summer place, with all its ports and promenades.
As for working, the past few weeks have been nuts! I got back from Berlin on Sunday night and obviously I've been working since then, but in the previous two weeks, I had only worked 4 days. Man, I love traveling! All these trips have given me a much-needed break from the oppressive smallness of Heuchlingen and Heidenheim. Now that it's starting to get warm, though, I think I'll enjoy it more here. It'll be much more pleasant to be outside.
Up next: trip to Amsterdam this weekend. Hopefully once I get back I'll get all caught up with trip posts.
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