Realization

This past Friday five of us went on an adventure to Kassel, which is about a three hour train ride outside of Dortmund, to see the Brothers Grimm museum. Shenanigans ensued and I’m pretty sure a good time was had by all, but I’m not really interested in telling you all about the trip. More important was the ride home. The funny part is, I’m positive that it only held such great significance for me, and it was an experience full of vibrant colors. One thing I noticed is that everything is significantly greener here than it is at home because Germany is not in a constant drought like East Tennessee. Also, on the way home, we saw an amazing sunset, along with a full, beautiful rainbow, and then I sat, staring out of the window as the light was fading from the sky and settling in a haze of pink and orange on the horizon. It was peaceful and beautiful. I looked around me and saw my four fellow travelers, all Americans: reading, listening to music, drinking various juices as well as Ouzo, and I felt at home for the first time since I arrived in Germany. I often find my heart longing for the mountains of East Tennessee and for the people there whom I love and who support me, and before Friday, I could honestly say that I would be perfectly happy going home, but this was the first time that I realized that leaving Germany will be difficult—the first time that I realized that pieces of my heart lay in different cities throughout Europe and in the hands of people that were complete strangers to me two months ago. I looked at my fellow travelers and saw people that I loved, people that I never wanted to leave, people who made the difficult days in Germany bearable and the good days in Germany wonderful. Germany is no longer some far away, unobtainable goal that I’ve had for years, it is my home, and these people here, with whom I have these crazy adventures, they are my family. So there I sat, with tears brimming in my eyes, staring out of the window somewhere between Warburg and Soest, knowing that my life was permanently changed. And the train kept moving…

“Why was 9/11 so traumatic for America?”

Today marks the two month anniversary of my new affair with Germany. We are getting along quite well, but I doubt that we will be intimate for longer than three more months :-D

My life currently has been defined by classes, reading for classes, partying (shocking, right?), sleep, and travel. I’m excited to say that I have now been in five countries (USA, Mexico, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands), and I already have plans to visit more. For example, I have already purchased a plan ticket to Manchester on June 11-14 to visit my good friend TJ (which only cost 20€ round-trip, huzzah!), and I might be going to Krakow, Poland with my roommate in July to check out Auschwitz (everyone should, at some point in their lives, be humbled by history). I’m trying to see and do as much as I can, while still trying to live the everyday life of a German college student.

The main reason I wanted to write today is to talk about my “Migration and Global Horizon of Contemporary American Fiction” course. It is a difficult class because it is a graduate-level course and involves quite a bit of intensive reading, but it is one of my favorite classes mostly because it never ceases to be maddeningly interesting. It mainly focuses on globalization (What is globalization? How is it affecting literature?) and post 9/11 American fiction. For today, we had to read an article by Richard Gray called “Open Doors, Closed Minds: American Prose Writing at a Time of Crisis” which is criticizing post 9/11 literature for dwelling on trauma, then trying to move away from it. To sum up Gray’s argument: he tells his readers that American fiction writers focus on how traumatic 9/11 was and how life will never be the same, but the basic plots of the stories remain the same as pre 9/11 stories. We also read a short story by Dwight Eisenberg entitled “Twilight of the Superheroes,” which was a fascinating (and slightly depressing) story about different lives that were touched and changed by the falling of the towers. The most interesting/surreal/slightly disturbing part of the class today, however, was when we started discussing 9/11. Our professor posed the question, “Why was 9/11 so traumatic for America?” and he moved on to point out that the attacks on the towers were not statistically that traumatic (only 3,000 people died). At this point, I want to clarify that my professor is a guest professor from the US who has obviously wondered about and struggled with this topic himself, and he is not a foreign asshole who sees no significance in 9/11. So what do you do when you are asked this question in a room full of Germans whose history is much more statistically traumatic than ours? How can you explain to a foreigner the fear that leaked into our country on that day? To a point, our professor was right: this was not the first time that terrorism had shown its ugly face in America (it’s definitely been quite prevalent in other parts of the world), and 3,000 is a relatively small number of casualties. Was it, as a few German students suggested, the media that created the atmosphere of fear and loss? Or were we devastated that our isolation and control was broken? Or perhaps we were afraid because we had no clear enemy to stand against? Were we just lamenting our pride? Needless to say, it was an interesting and rough class. It made me ask myself who we are as Americans. What is our culture, what is our history, what do we stand for or believe in? Are we naïve? Europe has definitely had much more frequent and up-close experiences with war and terror—were we so bold to believe that our soil would not/could not be tainted in such a way? I was forced to look at America as both an American and an outsider, and I don't know if I'll ever recover.

The Longest Blog Post Ever...aka Prague and Kutna Hora

I'm slightly torn right now as to whether I should finally post about Prague and Kutna Hora, or if I should, instead, write about my trip to Amsterdam this past weekend. Because I am chronically indecisive, it is looking like I'm going to write about both. So get comfortable, it's going to be a long ride.

After spending 2 days in Berlin (at this point, I want to re-emphasize that Berlin is the best city ever), Michael, Jessica, and I moved on the Prague which is the capital of the Czech Republic and the gateway city between western and eastern Europe. On the way to Prague, we rode an EC train, which was super cool because it had individual compartments that seated six people each. Being the nerds that we are, we were very excited because the train made us think of the Hogwarts Express :-) It was about a four hour ride, but we were fully entertained by the gorgeous scenery--the terrain looked like someting out of the Lord of the Rings (once again, it satisfied our inner nerds). Once we finally made it to Prague, we learned that the subway system there is very user-friendly and despite the fact that we had to take two different trains, we had no trouble at all finding our stop. Once we got to the station, we were a little nervous because everything looked so foreign, and we really didn't recognize anything, but there were signs that led us straight to our hostel. After checking in to our hostel (which was a really good deal--about 15€ a night, including bedding and breakfast), we went and withdrew some money because they use crowns in the Czech Republic instead of Euros. We each withdrew 3000Kč (about 115€, 1€=25Kč), and went to a little restaurant that was recommended to us by the receptionist at the hostel (She told us it was a "traditional Czech meal at a traditional Czech price"). It was absolutely delicious, and extremely inexpensive--I think I might be happy if I could only eat Czech food the rest of my life :-)

This delicious shot of liquor that tasted like spearmint candy cost only 20Kč (less than 1€). I really, really loved that restaurant.

When we decided to go to Prague, all three of us wanted to go to the Kostnice Ossuary (also called the Sedlec Ossuary or the Bone Chruch), but we soon learned that it was not located in Prague but was instead in a small town called Kutna Hora which was about a an hour and a half bus ride from Prague. Figuring out the bus system and trying to buy a ticket was a huge adventure that took us well over an hour, but we were eventually (finally) in Kutna Hora. I absolutely loved this town--it was a picturesque European town full of churches and beautiful buildings, but it was not completely tainted and crowded with tourism. After arriving in Kutna Hora, we went on an adventure, walking around the entire town, checking every church to see if it was the Kostnice Ossuary. At one point, we were approached by a man advertising for his pizza place, and there was a little map of the town on the back of the flyer he gave us, so that helped a little. When we finally did find the Bone Church, we were not dissapointed. The Kosnice Ossuary is a small church that is decorated with the bones of 40,000 people who died in a plague, and in the middle of it, there is a chandelier that includes every bone of the human body. It was very cool, intriguing, bizarre, creepy, etc, and we were all very satisfied with our find :-) After our little adventure, we were all a little nervous about finding the way back, especially considering the fact that it took us over an hour to find a way to get there when we were in a big city that is used to stupid American tourists :-) Luckily, we found a very nice lady who spoke German (those were infinitely more common than ladies who spoke English), and she showed us which bus to take. That evening we revisited our favorite restaurant. Seriously, I want to take that restaurant home with me.

The first church of our adventure--Church of St. James

The second church that we investigated--St. Barbara's Cathedral

Beautiful view of Kutna Hora from St. Barbara's Cathedral

The Stone Fountain--as far as we could tell, it was more of a reservoir than a fountain.

The side of the fountain. That's right--built in 1097

The tourist map called it the "Stone House." I thought it looked pretty cool.

The Plague Column. Not positive which plague.

The next church--I don't know that name of this one...

Finally!

It was a little bizarre (ok, it was really bizarre) to see so much Christian symbolism in human bones


There was a tower of human bones (just like this one) in each of the four corners. They went all the way up to the ceiling!

Here I am with the chandelier

The next day we decided to actually check out Prague. First, we went to the Prague Castle, which was really cool and slightly intimidating. By some stroke of luck (we all called this our trip of happy accidents), we showed up right as they were changing the guard, and that was very interesting to observe. We also checked out many other main tourist spots, including the town square which was happily decorated for an Easter festival :-D Yay Easter! We each bought a trdlo, which they translated into a potato pancake, but I don't think that was a very good translation. It was absolutely delicious, and I'm a little glad that they don't have them at home because I would gain about 10 pounds eating them all the time! We also bought some yummy gingerbread that was decorated for Easter. On the hour, we watched the apostles come out on the astronomical clock. This clock was my favorite part of Prague. Seriously, it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and I took a ridiculously large amount of pictures.

Walking to Prague Castle--there were a lot of stairs

Prague Castle

The changing of the guard

I couldn't help myself, I'm such a tourist (hangs head in shame)

The cathedral inside the castle walls. So pretty--I wish we had stuff like this in the US

Delicious!!!!!

Yay Easter festivals!

"Our Lady" plus part of a really neat statue that was in the middle of the square

We got a couple of moonlight pictures--awesome, right?

The astronomical clock.

The best traveling group. Ever. Seriously.

The next day was the last day of our adventure. For a few days we thoroughly enjoyed the Czech Republic and the really cheap prices of everything there (I still had 800Kč leftover after three days, and that includes paying for three nights at the hostel), but we soon learned that although everything there is fairly cheap, it is not so cheap to leave the country. It cost around 50€ to get back to Berlin. Once we got to Berlin, we bought our tickets back to Dortmund (for those of you who are wondering: yes, the best way back to Dortmund was through Berlin) and boarded the train, expecting to be back around 19:00pm. About two hours into our train ride, a woman came to check our tickets, and freaked out when she saw our tickets, telling us that we had the wrong tickets. We tried to tell her that we had just bought the tickets and that they were valid tickets to Dortmund, but she kept freaking out and told us (in German--she spoke no English) that the train didn't go to Dortmund. I understood her perfectly, but I didn't understand the situation at all. As it turns out, the train before ours was running quite late and came at the same time ours was supposed to. The sign said that it was our train because it was timed, but it was not our train. In fact (as the English-speaking woman who was sitting next to us on the train pointed out to us), we were going to the completely wrong direction, and we almost made it to the Baltic Sea before the train lady checked our tickets. For those of you who, like me, are terrible with geography, I've included a map:

As you can see, it was the completely wrong direction

Needless to say, this put a little damper in our trip home. I thought it was funny because when we finally understood exactly what had happened and got off the train, we all went to our happy places: I called Kevin, Jesika bought a Kinder Egg, and Michael went to take some pictures of historical-looking stuff. In the end, we had to buy a ticket back to Berlin (the trainstop where we got off was in the middle of nowhere and couldn't take us straight back to Dortmund), and we had to pay more money to upgrade our ticket back to Dortmund from Berlin because only the expensive trains were running so late. So instead of getting back around 19:00 that evening, we ended up getting home at about 3:00 that morning, and we almost didn't even do that because we all fell alseep on the train! Luckily, Michael woke up and looked outside and recognized the city seconds before our stop. Overall, it was truly an adventure!

Ok. So now it's time to tell you about Amsterdam, but I've decided that I lied and I'm far too worn out to write anymore. Forgive me. I will catch you up later, promise.

Here are the links to my Facebook albums for more pictures: Kutna Hora Prague

Easter and Classes

I have so much to tell, and I think I'll work backwards. First, I'll tell you about this week and I'll make you eager readers wait until later to read about the Czech Republic.

First of all, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous as of lately. On Saturday, I walked to LIDL (the near-by grocery store) wearing a t-shirt and chacos. Those of you who know me well know how vital this is to my sanity and happiness. Also, when I came back from our little vacation, everything had bloomed! There are beautiful cherry trees everywhere and the plants in the fields that I walk by have at least quadrupled in size and now have pretty yellow flowers on top of them. I just love that field--there is actually a path that runs through the middle of it that serves as a shortcut to the university and cuts about 5 minutes off the walk, but I am pretty sure I would walk that way even if it wasn't shorter. It took me weeks to actually walk that way because it rained so much, and it was just too muddy. Now walking through the field is one of my favorite parts of my day.

Sunday (as all of you know) was Easter, and it was a wonderful Easter. I remember the weather being freezing cold two years ago on Easter. Everyone at the sunrise service didn't want to go out to put carnations on the cross because it was just too cold, and that memory made this Easter even better because I was perfectly comfortable outside with sandals and no jacket :-D That morning I went with Diana (another international student who is from South Carolina) and her father to a Evangelische Frei church downtown, and it was interesting because I had a vague understanding of what was going on because I speak some German and I knew the scripture (the walk to Emmaus) quite well, but in general, I couldn't understand what was being said. Next week we are going to go to a Methodist church that has an English-speaking congregation--I think it's fascinating to observe a church service in German, but that is all I am doing: observing. I need an English congregation in order to actually be spiritually fed.

Later on Sunday, I went to Carina's house and had dinner with her family. It was wonderful--I love her family so much! We had bratwurst and fish, and this was the first time I ever ate a fish that still looked like a fish--it still had the scales and fins and a head and eyes and everything. Luckily, Carina's father was very kind and cut the meat off for me--I know, my new family spoils me :-D

On Easter Monday (which is really as much of a holiday as Easter here), I went with Diana and her father back to the church we had attended the day before, and we went through the church's Oster Garten (Easter Garden). It was very neat, and they had reconstructed quite a bit of the Easter story: the last supper (where we took communion and I had my feet washed), the Garden of Gethsemane, the Cross (where we laid down rocks that represented our burdens), and the Empty Tomb. I really enjoyed it, and I was very glad that I understood the majority of it (it was all in German).

Tuesday was the first day of class, but I did not have class until 6:00. It was called "The Migration and Global Horizon of Contemporary American Fiction," and I greatly enjoyed it. The professor is actually a guest professor who teaches in Seattle (but he is originally a southerner--like all of the cool kids), and I found it extremely interesting to listen to an American professor teach a class full of German students about American literature. The discussion was easily one of the most interesting discussions I've ever heard in a class, and I am eagerly awaiting next week's class.

Today was not as exciting. My first class (Deutsch als Fremdsprache: Landeskunde--Kultur, Literatur, und Sprache) was supposed to start at 10:15, but we left at 10:30 when the teacher never showed up, and I think that my second class might be a bit too easy for me, so I might change classes. This evening, I went to a class that I am going to audit called "Nakte Tatsachen" which is a nude art class. I decided to take a class that I wouldn't ever take at home, so I'm auditing this class, and I think I will also be auditing a class called "Transnational Queer Studies" which is taught by the same professor that teaches my American Fiction class. I think it's pretty cool :-D

Well, you are completely caught up on my German life (minus Prague and Kutna Hora--soon to come, promise). I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

-Tchüss!

The view out of my kitchen window

My New Favorite City

Since coming to Germany, I have discovered something magical. It is called the "Schönes Wochenede Ticket." Literally translated, it means "beautiful weekend ticket," and with this ticket, up to five people can travel anywhere in Germany for a day during the weekend for only 37€. Magical, right? This is how Michael, Jesika, Simon, and I all got to Berlin on Saturday--for less than 10€ a piece. Once the Sprachkurs ended, we were left with a 10 day holiday for traveling, so a few of us decided to go to Berlin and Prague. The adventure began at 6:19 in the morning when we all met at the S-Bahn station at the university. From the Hauptbahnhof, we took 4 different trains, and finally arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon (oh the things you do for cheap transportation). Once we got to the Berlin train station, two of Simon's friends were waiting for him, and Michael, Jesika, and I set off to find our hostel (the first hostel I would ever stay in). The hostel (Mittes Backpacker Hostel) was pretty awesome--each of the rooms were themed, and ours was "Under the Sea." The room was painted blue and had some really poorly made fish made from bottles and stuff hanging from the ceiling, and I loved it.

Michael with some of the fish

After we got settled in the hostel, we started to explore, and we saw so many amazing things!!!!! Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm going to be using lots of pictures to tell you about Berlin:

The Berlin TV tower. While the wall was up, Russia abolished churches in East Berlin, but whenever the sun hits this TV tower, it makes a giant cross, which could be seen from East Berlin

This was Poseidon's Fountain--probably the coolest fountain I've ever seen. Everything was so intricate and pretty--there was water coming out of everything: a crocodile, a snake, a turtle, different jars, etc. I guess I really enjoyed it because I used to read Greek Mythology all of the time, and I love all of those stories. I can't help it--every once in awhile my inner nerd leaks out.

Finned centaurs. You have to admit that is cool.

This church was left practically unscathed during the war because the gold and stuff on the steeple made it easy to see from the sky, and bombers used it to get their bearings.

The Rathaus. One cool thing about Berlin is that is has a Rathaus for city stuff, a Stadthaus because it is the capital of the state of Berlin, and another building because it is the capital of Germany.

The Stadthaus

Berlin is the only place in the world with street-crossing lights that look like this. They sold tons of "Ampel Manchen" paraphernalia in all of the tourist shops. Instead of buying the stuff, I took a picture.

The green Ampel Manchen

This church is really neat because you can see the different stages of reconstruction and stuff

This statue has a really cool story behind it: This guy (I think his name was Nikolas?) slayed a dragon and bathed in its blood because it was supposed to make him immortal. Unfortunately, he had a leech on his back and the blood didn't touch that one spot, leaving him with one weakness. Of course, he was later stabbed in the back and killed.

The Berlin Dom. One of my favorite things so far--I liked it even more than the Köln Dom

In front of the Dom

I really love this picture, because you can see the old and the new. I really think it represents Berlin.

The Brandenburg Tor

The back of the Tor

These double-bricked lines in the road represent where the wall used to stand.

The Holocaust Memorial. It was extremely moving, and it was especially cool because we arrived around dusk.

Inside the memorial

This is the hotel that Michael Jackson hung his baby out of

A little hole-in-the-wall jazz bar that was apparently having a tap-dancing night. Super cool.

This represents the four parts of divided Berlin.

This church was bombed during the war, and the steeple was never rebuilt. I think it is pretty cool.

That's right--we went to the largest erotic art museum in Europe because we are just that cool.

I made a new friend :-D

Checkpoint Charlie. It was really weird because we were in this really historic place, and it had so much meaning, but daily life was still moving all around it. The actual checkpoint was in the middle of the road, and people were driving on either side of it, living their daily lives. It was a little surreal.


East Side Gallery--the longest remaining stretch of the Wall

The back of the Wall

Wall Street. It has a whole other meaning here.

We found a little field with a ton of daffodils in the middle of the city. It was wonderful--we just sat there and talked for hours.



The coolest Porta-Potty ever :-D

Our last night in Berlin. It's called a B-52. Kahlua, Baileys, and Rum--on fire.

The bear in the Hauptbahnhof

Well, I hope you enjoyed your picture tour of Berlin--my new favorite city!

For more pictures, here is a link to my Facebook photo album of Berlin

Tschüss!