Kristina's Traveling Circus

A New Blog!

2009-07-28T16:27:00.002+02:00

Hi Everyone,
I have started a new blog about my upcoming year in West Virginia! Follow it here!

Executive Report

2008-12-01T22:02:00.003+01:00

Right after I got back from my year abroad, I wrote this reflection about the whole experience; a brief look from A-Z of what the year consisted of. If you want to read more, that is what all the other posts are for!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Leaving with only a backpack and a bag for Chile, Summer 2007]

On July 17th, 2007 I started an incredible journey. It began by flying to the other hemisphere to Santiago de Chile and ends on July 23rd, 2008 when I return from Berlin. Although I could probably write a book about my experiences, I will keep it (somewhat) brief.

[Arriving a day early, Ali, Brittany and I stand with the Andes at our backs in Santiago, Chile]

For the fall semester 2007, I chose to study abroad in Valparaiso, Chile - the second largest city of only 1 million people in the skinny country that lines the pacific in South America - with International Studies Abroad. I knew that I wanted to study in South America because it would totally put me out of my comfort zone; I had no idea what to expect but I knew it would be an incredible experience.

[My host mom, host brother, and neighbor take me to a beautiful overlook of the ocean]

When I arrived, the learning curve was fast. I had no idea what Valparaiso was going to be like. I quickly learned it was a old port city, built on hills, with buildings of Victorian architecture that had survived many earthquakes. I had no idea what all these words that I kept hearing people say were. After all my years of Spanish, I felt lost. I soon realized that all of it was Chilean slag, something unique to Chile and something I learned to love. I had no idea what classes were going to be like with Chilean students. I realized they were pretty normal, but much more relaxed than what I was used to. I had no idea how Chileans would react to gringos in their town. I learned that "gringo" is no derogatory term in Chile, it just refers to a white person; I was "la gringa" and liked it. I learned that Chileans are probably the most friendly people in the world. They wanted to know everything about you; why you came to study in Chile, foremost.

[A street on a hill in Valparaiso]

Of course, there were the ups and downs of living in a new household, leaving friends and family behind. But these were always momentary and didn't compare to what I was learning and experiencing every day.

[Trying surfing for the first time]

The other amazing part of study abroad was the trips that we were able to take. Not only did we see Santiago and Valparaiso, but I went to the beach town of Pichilemu, we went to the lakes region and Pucon, I went to the very tip of the world in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and then I made my way north to Peru and Macchu Picchu, where hiking the ancient Inka Trail was a highlight of my trip, if not my life.

[In the courtyard of the Palace in Santiago, where Pinochet and his men stormed in, while popularly elected leader Salvador Allende killed himself rather than let Pinochet take his honor and his Presidency.]

[Climbing an active volcano in Pucon]

[Hiking in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia. These mountains are not actually part of the Andes Mountain Range, but rather their own separate geological formation. The views were spectacular and the mountains bizarre and beautiful.]

[To wake up to this view in the morning was a dream.]

[We also saw a penguin colony]

[And made it to the end of the earth, the island of Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America]

[Ruins in the Inka capital of Cuzco, Peru]

[At the start of the Inca Trail with strangers: 12 hikers, 2 guides, 12 porters, and 3 days]

[The highest point on the trail, almost 20,000 feet above sea level]

[On the trail. Even though it was the beginning of the rainy season, the views were still incredible]

[Finally at the top, with our two guides.]

From Chile, I was home for a day, and then my family had planned a family trip to the Grand Canyon. We stayed a night at the rim, hiked down, spent three nights at the bottom (including Christmas Eve and Christmas) and then hiked out. Again, it was fabulous to see the sights and spend time with friends and family.

[The entire crew that we hiked with. We brought life to the bottom of the Canyon on Christmas with our caroling.]

From there, I had about a week at home, and then I was off for my next adventure: studying in Berlin, Germany with the FU BEST program.

My spring semester began when I flew across the Atlantic on January 8th, 2009. I arrived with everything in full swing. In the first four days we were in Berlin we had to go get our pictures taken, make sure all our documents were in order, met our host families, went on various tours of Berlin, took our language placement exams, finalized our classes, met 74 new people, and began to explore the city.

[On a tour of Berlin's underground: the bunkers of Hitler]

Not only is the culture of Germany extremely different from that of Chile, but the whole layout of my experience here was going to be different. Associated with the Freie Universitaet, the FU BEST Program is not run on the main campus, only has American students taking classes with American students, has a mandatory language component, and all but one of the "content courses" were in English. Of course, this was very different than the immersion-style in Valparaiso. However, I knew this when I was signed up for the program, and since this was basically the only program in Berlin, I decided to go for it anyway.

[At the Grune Woche (Green Week) Expo, one of the biggest agricultural expos in the world, Winter 2007]

However, the program did have many opportunities that were extremely useful for us students. For one, they had two German student assistants that organized Bar Nights with German students, language partners for all 75 students, and a final good-bye party where all the people we knew in Berlin were invited. They really worked hard to make it a great experience for everyone. We also had a number of field trips and trips that helped enhance our knowledge and cultural experience of Berlin. All students got 4 tickets to various cultural events around Berlin - from operas to ballets to concerts to soccer games. We also took field trips to the Federal Chancellery, the East-German Secret Police Museum, Potsdam, and the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Finally, also included in the program was a 8-day trip to Hamburg and Copenhagen in order to learn more about Germany and Europe. All of these events gave us the opportunity to do things in Berlin, Germany, and Europe that we might not have had a chance to do otherwise.

[On our trip to the Federal Chancellery, like the German White House, Winter 2007]

[A group of friends in Hamburg, Germany. Going on this trip was the perfect chance to get to know others in our program, although traveling with a group of 75 Americans proved to be difficult. Spring 2008]

Of course, traveling was a highlight of this trip as well.

[With friends at the Volkerschlagdenkmal in Leipzig, Winter 2008]

[Enjoying the sunshine in Lisbon, Portugal, a city with an interesting mix of European and Latin culture, Spring 2008]

[Easter on the island of Rugen, on the northern coast of Germany, famous for it's white chalk cliffs, Spring 2008]

[Acting out a scene from Hamlet at the Kronborg Castle, known better as Elsinor in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Spring 2008]

[Drinking a Guinness at the top of the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, with magnificent views of the city, Spring 2008]

At the end of April, the FU BEST Program was officially over. But, since I felt that I hadn't learned as much German as I had come to learn and hadn't really had the German university experience, I decided to stay for the real German semester and take classes with German students. Since this overlapped with the end of the FU BEST semester (which follows the American semester system), there were two weeks where I was so busy and confused that I wondered if I had made the right choice.

[On a bike ride with some of my rugby friends, Summer 2008]

Once the nice weather came to Berlin, I knew I had made the right choice. The whole city changed; not only was it sunny and beautiful on a regular basis, but the people were friendlier and nicer than they had even been before. I almost felt as if I were in a completely new city.

[My parents friend Jurgen rented a boat for the weekend, which we toured around Berlin and Potsdam, Summer 2008]

Then, my dad came for a visit and we took a boat tour of the rivers, canals and lakes in Berlin, thanks to his old friend Jurgen that now lives in Berlin. Realizing how much water the city has even though it is landlocked and seeing all the sights from the water was amazing.

[My aunt Helene and I riding in the boat to the island summer house where the festivities take place, Summer 2008]

After my dad finished his conference in Berlin, we headed to Sweden to visit my family and celebrate probably the biggest Swedish holiday: Midsummer. Being able to jet up to Sweden for the weekend and see my family was really great, and made me appreciate how small Europe actually is.

[All 30 of us sitting down for a meal at Midsummer, Summer 2008]

My entire study abroad experience has been amazing and I can't believe that I have seen and done so much in the last year. I knew that it would be difficult and strange after a year away, and I am only starting to see the beginning of that. But I know that I will be back to see all the places that I visited again and see all my friends again.

Even with the ups and downs of studying abroad, it has been the best experience of my life and I have learned so much in so many ways. I can't recommend it enough.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bad Köstritz

2008-08-04T17:40:00.018+02:00

Also known as the weekend where I got the German rugby experience.

My last weekend in Germany I went to a Beach Rugby Tournament in Bad Kostritz. I knew that it was going to be a good time simply because I would get to play rugby as well as get to know the team better. But all I really knew about the weekend was: 5:30 pm, Fehrberlliner Station; Beach Rugby; Tents; Bad Kostritz.

[Waiting at the station for our bus to arrive. About 30 people from the men's and women's teams]

Since it was called "Bad" (meaning bath), I assumed that it was like other places that I had heard of with the name, which were all on the coast. We would also be playing beach rugby, which made me think we were going to the coast as well. I was wrong. It turns out that we were going to a place completely landlocked, three hours south of Berlin.

[Damien making his case for why he should be team 'captain']

Meeting at the station was a surprise, too. I got there and some people were just hanging around and it wasn't until 6 when people really started to show up. With beer. Lots of beer. There were probably four crates (24 half-liter bottles in each), some six packs and a couple of bottles of wine. I assumed this would be for the whole weekend, and prepared myself for a pretty calm bus-ride.

[Team Mascot Tina, who couldn't play but got to wear a bikini instead]

The bus-ride turned out to be anything but calm. First, a team captain was chosen, who was supposed to make rules and keep everyone in order during the weekend. I realize this was a joke when Jackie was chosen as captain and the first rule she had was that all boys had to put on bikinis.

[Volker and Stuart being good sports]

[Boys on the bus, many had new, creative ways of wearing the bikinis, others needed help getting them on]

By this time we had been on the bus for about an hour and a half, the beers had been processed and we needed a bathroom break. As 20 half-naked, beer toting men got off the bus I could not help but think that there could not be a more stereotypical group of rugby players in the world. They even played a little half-naked rugby to let everyone know what our sport is.

[The men's team group photo]

We got back on the bus and things were a bit calmer. I asked Jackie if I was allowed to pass around the brownies I made, since I thought it was going to be a calm bus-ride. As team captain, she replied that I would only be allowed to serve them if I wore a bikini. Feeling as if I had no choice, since I wanted everyone to have some of the delicious brownies I made, I went and put on my bikini. The brownies were thoroughly enjoyed; I'm not sure if the bikini had anything to do with it.

[Hi, my name is Julien, and I am a BSV drinker...]

From there, Stuart took the microphone and had everyone introduce themselves. But not in the conventional way. After introducing themselves, everyone had to take a drink.

After that came pee break number three, where the team was rowdier and nosier than ever. As they off the bus, we got numerous, judgmental looks from other tour-buses that were stopped.

We finally arrived in BK long after most of the other groups and had to set up our tents in the dark. There was also a welcome-party going on by the sand pits. Even though we were supposed to be playing rugby the next day, there were lots of people dancing and drinking. I guess at this point I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.

The next morning we woke up and I realized what a camp we were living in.

[About half the tents]

We then walked to the sand-pit pitches and got ready for some rugby, although our first game wasn't for another hour and a half. This meant that we got to watch some of the other teams play.

[The men's team playing]

We also got to see some pretty quick injuries. Ben, a Brit on another men's team from Berlin who was on the bus with us, played about two minutes before splitting his head open and getting a concussion. Volker on the men's team played a little longer, but ended up having to go to the hospital and get three stitches.

[Sitting with the injured]

The best part of playing beach rugby is that tackling doesn't hurt when you hit the ground. This meant making some great tackles. But people are still as hard, which is maybe where the injuries come from.

[Me, making a tackle against team "Pink Power." I like the color pink, but this team was just annoying. Unfortunately, we lost to them. I did rip a couple of their 'jerseys' during tackles though.]

Another great part of the tournament was the swimming pool that was right next to the sand pits. This created a lot of entertainment for our team. I didn't even have time to go get my bathing suit because I wanted to get in the water. It was also nice to cool our muscles down in between games.

[The boys going down the slide]

[The girls jumping into the pool]

[Everyone by the pool]

In the end, we ended up winning two games and loosing two. This meant that we didn't qualify for the next round, but it was kind of nice to just sit back and know that the day was over.

That night there was an awards ceremony and more celebrating. Since Bad Kostritz is also known for its brewery, there was a lot of beer too.

[Jackie, Stuart, me, and Volker at the after-party]

[The boys celebrating their 5th place in the tournament]

The next morning, we tried to pack up and go back to Berlin. Unfortunately, one of our players couldn't find her bag. We were also entertained by a player who had been looking for his sleeping bag. He would periodically come on a megaphone and say, "I'm looking for a sleeping bag." In more desperate times, he started reading all the stats of the sleeping bag, giving descriptions of it, and offering rewards to anyone who found it.

[Stuart singing rugby songs]

The best part of the bus trip was when they started breaking out the rugby songs. One of my favorite traditions from UMBC, I didn't realize that it was also something they did in Germany. It also made me proud that I could add verses and songs from songs I thought I had forgotten.

The weekend was really fun and gave me a real experience about what rugby in Germany is like. Or at least, what I think it is like. I will always be left with the idea that Bad Kostritz exemplifies German rugby until I have a different experience.

If you can read German, you can read Volker, a player on the men's team, recount of the weekend here.

Dresden and Radebeul

2008-07-21T21:36:00.020+02:00

While my dad was in Berlin, in between being in Sweden and flying home, we decided to take a day trip to Dresden. Yet again we used the "Schones Wochenende" ticket, which got us both there and back for 35 euros on the regional trains. As we saw when we were on our way, most of the people going to Dresden were tourists taking a day trip from Berlin.

[Dad outside the Radebeul Ost train station, the adventure begins]

As we were reading the Lonely Planet guidebook entry about Dresden, they mentioned a suburb called "Radebeul" which was supposed to be know for its vineyards. Since we thought there wouldn't be that much to do in Dresden, we took a detour to see what Radebeul was like.

[Our rented bikes]

What first struck me about the town was how quiet it was. Not that I find Berlin particularly loud, but on a Saturday in Radebeul it was silent, not to mention the fact that all the stores closed at noon. We did manage to find a bike shop right by the train station where we rented two bikes for the day for 5 euros each. We planned to bike up to the vineyards and around Radebeul a bit.

[Vineyards]

We biked up the hill and went through a wonderful neighborhood with old houses and eventually got to a winery. Here they had a museum about the history of wine-making and the vineyard itself.

[Dad biking to the winery we found.]

The most interesting thing that I learned there was about how corks are made. They had a very interesting video about the whole process, which made it seem as if the cork should have been as valuable as the wine itself; a single cork could in the process of being made for 20 years or so. No wonder that so many corks these days are being made of synthetic material!

[The museum]

We were also tempted to sit at the cafe and have a bite to eat. But, they claimed they had no tables available inside (although there was no one there) and we did not want to sit outside when it started to rain. The prices also seemed higher than they needed to be at the vineyard, with a glass costing almost as much as a whole bottle in the museum shop. So we moved on.

[The staircase]

We walked up a very long staircase to the top of a ridge, which looked over the valley and Radebeul. We could see Dresden, and how the surrounding towns had melted together in the valley.

[Dad and I overlooking the valley]

Coming in on the train, we had also seen a very interesting building on the top of the ridge. Since we were there, we decided to check out exactly what it was. It turned out to be a restaurant and a wine/beer garden. We decided to take a little break with a great view of the valley. Dad had a wurst and a glass of wine to complete the vineyard experience.

[In the wine garden]

From there, we headed back down to the bike shop, turned in our bikes and decided it was time to move on to Dresden.

[Walking in to Dresden]

We got in to the main train station in Dresden and walked into the old part of town. But to get there, we had to walk through a new, developed walking street that had lots of stores and shops and contrasted sharply to quaint Radebeul. While in a bookstore, we saw a picture of what the street looked like about 10 years ago when it was still East Germany. Although it was by no means pretty today, it looked like a big improvement from the communist housing and concrete blocks.

[The Frauenkirche]

In the center of Dresden the atmosphere was very different, where they have tried to rebuild the old buildings as they were before World War II destruction.

[Mixture of old and new stones on the facade of the church]

There is no better example of this than the recently re-opened Frauenkirche. After WWII, it stood completely in ruins after the fire-bombing of Dresden. As the communists ruled East Germany, the church was somewhat rebuilt, but not completely. Since the fall of the wall, it has been completely re-done with a mix of original stones and new ones. Unfortunately, it was not open to the public when we passed by.

[Dad overlooking the Elbe]

From there we walked to the other side of the city, Neustadt, where we came across a wine festival. Apparently Rhineland-Westpfalz, the 'real' wine region of Germany, needed to show that it really had better, cheaper wine. The result was lots of local wineries setting up booths to promote their wines.

[The booths]

What Dad and I found particularly good was the free wine tasting that we came across. There was no limit to the amount of wine we could try, and we took advantage of that. We were even being served wine by the 'Wine Queen' of Rhineland-Westpfalz. We guessed that she won some sort of wine-related beauty pageant, but we weren't sure.

[Postcard of the Wine Queen and the Wine Queen herself]

After we finished our wine, it was time to head back to the train station to make sure that we caught the train going back to Berlin. It was very fun taking a day trip and getting out of the city. It is amazing how much you can see and how far you can go with a little weekend trip on a train.

[The train station in Neustadt Dresden; proof that Dad has been in Dresden... for 'research' on how Putin was in the KGB here during the DDR years]

[Dad and me, tasting wine. The obligatory self-portait of the blog]

The Countdown

2008-07-16T14:06:00.002+02:00

This time next week I will in London, waiting to get on my flight to Dulles. I have one week left in Berlin and it is so hard to believe that after almost 7 months here, I have to pack everything up and say goodbye. More unbelievable is probably that after that I will be at home - for good, as best as I can describe it. I'll get back and have a month of vacation and then start my final year at UMBC, with a normal life, normal schedule, etc. We'll talk about that transition when I get to it though.

For now, I have to blog about my Dad's weekend visit where we went to Dresden and a Dresden suburb called Radebeul and my favorite things in Berlin. This weekend, I will be going to a beach rugby tournament in Bad Kostritz and I can't wait. I think it will be an excellent end to my time here in Germany.

Berlin Wandering

2008-07-11T10:50:00.016+02:00

We did lots of silly and fun stuff too as we were walking around Berlin, looking at all the sights.

At the KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens), the largest department store in Europe that is also ridiculously posh and over-priced, we went around and took silly pictures.

[Comment on a tennis match at the Lacoste display]

[They had an entire fake tennis court... we wanted to play]

[Maribeth mannequin]

[A whole marshmallow piece of cake... talk about a stomachache in the making... it was out of our price range, so we didn't eat it]

[These headphones were a little too big... they didn't have any smaller sizes though...]

We also had more serious-minded (but by no means actually serious) adventures in the city. One was testing the rumor that I had heard about skipping the line at the Reischtag to get to the dome at the top. The line is usually always and hour to two hour wait, but I had heard if you made reservations at the restaurant that is on the roof terrace, you don't have to stand in line. But, no one is forcing you to go to the reservation...

[Look! No line! It worked!]

[We skipped a pretty big line and got to go strait to the top, and no one hunted us down and made us pay big bucks to eat at the restaurant. We felt pretty cool.]

From there, we went on a Spree River tour. We didn't really know which boat to take or what the deal was. But, we chose a little mom-and-pop operation, with a small boat where we could sit outside. Although it was really nice, the tour was completely in German. Although I could translate and had already told Maribeth most of the information, if you don't know German another tour would probably have been better. But, it still provided excellent views of the city.

[On the boat]

On other adventures, we found out that I really do live in the Eastern Bloc. Just as I told Maribeth how I felt we were in Moscow "or something" about two blocks from my apartment, we saw this:

I also explained to Maribeth the history of the cross-walk signals, called "Ampelmannchen" (or little stop-light men). Although the link gives more an explanation, the Ampelmann was the cross-walk signal in East Germany, and caused a lot of debate after reunification, since the Easterners wanted to keep their beloved Ampelmaennchen. Now its a cult thing.

[The "STOP" Ampelmann]

[Our own Ampelfrau]

I also had to introduce MB to "Berliner Currywurst" or real Berlin curried-sausage. Since it is a Berlin specialty, she at least had to try it. Since she doesn't really like meat, it wasn't her favorite, but it was still good.

[Currywurst and Pommes, bitte/ Curried sausage and fries, please.]

Falafel, the vegetarian response to the also famous Doner Kebab (originally a Turkish specialty that has been adopted to it's popularity here in Berlin and all over Germany), got a much better reception. Although not "typical German," I would say that both Doner and Falafel are "typical Berlin" and a must when you visit Berlin; they give you the multi-cultural element that is so important to Berlin.

[Maribeth enjoying her first Falafel, from DaDa Falafel, which is supposed to have the best in the city, but I'm still searching]

Those were some of the things that we did, and we had a blast. Since I only have a little bit of time left in Berlin, I'm going to be sharing my favorite things to do in the city and my favorite things about the city in coming posts, although this was a little preview!

Kulturelle Ehrfahrung

2008-07-10T23:22:00.010+02:00

When Maribeth was here, it wasn't so much about seeing the sights as having a "kulturelle Ehrfahrung" or cultural experience. Part of this was going to the Grunewald (as you may have noticed, one of my favorite places in Berlin) and walking around the Krumme Lanke.

[Climbing on a branch over the Krumme Lanke]

Although it wasn't the best weather, it was pleasantly warm. When we first arrived at the lake, we arrived at what I hadn't realized was an FKK (nude) "beach." Maribeth's first impression then was a bunch of rather old Germans lying around naked, not far from the road and civilization. After we walked around the lake, we decided it was time to be German and have the full experience. So, we stripped down and relaxed on the FKK beach.

[Maribeth reading]

But, we aren't really Germans and couldn't do it all the way. Although, Maribeth swore she would have gone in naked if she had a towel to dry off with. But, it did feel somewhat freeing, as apparently it is supposed to.

[Schlatensee]

From there we went to the Fischerhutte on the Schlatensee lake. Another real cultural experience, this is a biergarten that is right on the lake and a break spot for the locals that live in the area.

[The biergarten]

Since the only thing we could get was tradition German food we went for a beer and a pretzel. Both were delicious, and I felt typical German but actually what Germans eat and drink in a biergarten.

[Huge basket of huge pretzels]

[Maribeth enjoying her beer and pretzel]

[Me doing the same]

Unfortunately, it started sprinkling on us as we were eating, and a full down-pour commenced as we were walking home. Otherwise, the Krumme Lanke and Fischerhutte are a great place to spend an afternoon.

Christopher Street Day

2008-07-08T22:56:00.006+02:00

Christopher Street Day or CSD as the Germans call it, is the annual lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transexual celebration (aka Gay-Pride Parade) in Berlin. According to wikipedia, the name refers to riots between gays and the police on Christopher Street in New York City in June, 1969. The celebration has been held on the last Saturday of June every year to commemorate this event.

[The stage around the Siegesaule]

Although the weather was rainy, Maribeth and I made it out to the party at the end of the parade, by the Siegesaule (Victory Column) in the Tiergarten. And even though the weather was bad, everyone was in great spirits and having a great time.

[The Siegesaule, also the name of Berlin's LGBT Magazine]

[Some nice costumes]

The idea of celebration and pride was really very evident with everyone's attitudes. Partying, having a good time and acting without fear of being judged really showed the element of pride in the LGBT lifestyle. I also found it amazing that so many people were there: friends, family, and just people having fun.

[We made a friend... well really everyone was so friendly...]

We were sad that we didn't make it to the actual parade, but if the after party was only a little bit of the experience, it was great.

Schloss Charlottenburg

2008-07-06T17:06:00.003+02:00

With only two weeks left here in Berlin, Maribeth's visit gave me a chance to go out and do things in the city that I might not have done on my own. One of which was visiting the Schloss Charlottenburg, named after Sofie Charlotte, the first Electress of Brandenburg. I had previously visited the castle when I was in Berlin a year and a half ago, but I thought it would be a nice place to take Maribeth.

[The front of the Schloss Charlottenburg and fountain.]

We started out by taking an audio tour of the old part of the castle, which had been remodeled after the castle of Sofie Charlotte's time. They had done a marvelous job with the restoration, but wouldn't allow pictures inside. Maribeth and I also agreed that it was one of the best audio tours, as far as audio tours go. It was informative, yet didn't go too far into detail to bore the listener.

After we took the tour, we went outside and it began pouring down rain. Since our next plan had been to walk around the gardens, we stopped for a coffee to wait for the downpour to stop.

[Maribeth and I escape the rain by taking a coffee at the 'Kleiner Orangerie' Cafe right next to the castle. We have one classy coffee per country.]

[Kleiner Orangerie Cafe]

Once the rain stopped, we continued on to the gardens.

[In full bloom]

[In the gardens, still cloudy]

[The lake with lily pads]

We learned that first the gardens were styled in the very rigid, planned French style while it was in fashion. As the English garden became more popular, they basically let the French gardens grow over until it was more forested, in the English style. Today, there is a combination of both which makes the park and gardens beautiful, even in bad weather.

We are the champions! (Almost)

2008-07-04T19:00:00.008+02:00

[Note: Since so much happened while Maribeth was here, I plan one writing about them in episodes, in no particular order...]

[On the "Fan-Mile" in Berlin; a series of big screens, beer stands, etc that stretches from the Brandenburg Gate into the Tiergarten]

The semi-finals of the EM consisted of a game between Germany and Turkey, a pretty big deal for a city of 3 million, 130,000 of whom are of Turkish decent. Maribeth and I decided to go for the cultural experience and join the drunk, excited, potentially rowdy (we were none of the above) on the FanMile. We were joined by Paula and two of her friends.

[Maribeth and I trying to make our way through the crowd]

When we first tried to get on the FanMile, it was closed off by police, who were saying that it was full. Of course, their blocking off tactics didn't work too well since we were in the Tiergarten, a Central Park of Berlin. So as soon as they were distracted, there was a mad rush to jump through the bushes and go around them. So we sneaked past the police and got in anyway.

[Paula and I, Paula decked out in colors]

Once there, it was pretty crazy. First, since the German color are black, red and gold, I thought it would be OK for Maribeth to wear red. It wasn't. That was Turkey's color, and white and black were more acceptable. But, we stole a flag from Paula to make sure no one questioned our loyalty.

[Celebrations... and how far we were away from the screen]

As we worked our way through the crowd, we kept trying to find a good place to stand where we could see over the massive large Germans that always seemed to be in our way. Eventually we did find a place to stand, and remained standing there for over two hours.

Although the FanMile was an experience, in terms of actually watching the game it was pretty bad. We couldn't really see the screen, and I think I only saw one of five goals during the game. But, seeing the goals wasn't really necessary, since the craziness of the crowd afterward was much much more interesting.

The ups and downs of the game also made it fun to be on the FanMile, with Turkey scoring first, Germany then bringing the score to 2-1, and a goal for both Turkey and Germany in the last five minutes of the game.

[Tooooooooooooor!]

Since we were doing more for the experience than our die-hard loyalty to Germany (I actually thought it would have been fun if Turkey, the underdogs, had won), we decided to watch the final game (Germany v. Spain) in a bar. But, since Germany lost there weren't any fireworks or parties on the Ku'damm afterward...

Pictures!

2008-07-02T11:13:00.002+02:00

Pictures from the boat tour and midsummer in Sweden:

Boat Tour Part 1

Boat Tour Part 2

Midsummer Part 1

Midsummer Part 2

Enjoy!

Stockholm

2008-07-01T14:40:00.012+02:00

Sunday afternoon was a car ride back to Maria's apartment, where she had invited Maribeth and I to stay for the night before our Monday flight back to Berlin. Maria has a cute apartment in Abrahamsberg, a popular place to live right outside of Stockholm City. But, she will only be living there a little while longer, as she has bought a new apartment in the same neighborhood.

[The living room and the two couches that we got to sleep on]

In the evening, we all just wanted to relax and hang out. Although we were clearly relaxing all weekend, we needed to take real showers, change clothes, and watch some movies. All of the above were very nice change from island life.

In the morning, Maria left early for work and left us to leave at our own pace. But, Natalie (my cousin Ludde's girlfriend) had warned that the door was very hard to open as she almost got stuck when water plants in the apartment.

When we got dressed and were totally ready to go, we realized that the door really was a problem. After about 30 minutes of trying to open then door, we started to look at other options. We thought that it would be easier to go around to the front door and open it from that side. Which meant one of us had to jump out the window.

[Me with the possible keys...]

After calling around to get Maria's cell phone number, calling Maria at work and almost having to make her come home, me jumping out the window, getting into the building, and trying all possible keys, we finally got the door open and got out! We had planned to leave at around 10, and an hour later, we were finally on our way.

[Maribeth thinking of alternatives to the front door]

When we got into the city, we locked our stuff up in the main train station (Annie - I learned something!) and then went to look at the "Statshuset" or the City Hall. This famous landmark is where the Nobel Prize banquet is held every year. It also provides spectacular views of the city.

[Maribeth and I on the water]

[The City Hall]

From there we continued to "Gamla Stan" or the old town. The buildings are old, but well taken care of and the streets wind around with little alleys in the medieval style. Here there are lots of cute shops, but also a lot of tourist traps and the like if post cards and souveniers are what you are looking for.

[Old Town]

We also passed by the castle, where the royal family doesn't actually live, but is quite impressive anyway.

[Maribeth posing in front of the castle]

[Maribeth with a guard. A first sight, some of them were women. We also missed the changing of the guard at noon because of our door mishap.]

Maribeth and I stopped to have a coffee at "Stortorget" or the big square.

[Although they might have been a little pricey, the location of the cafe (right on the square) and the quality of the coffee made it worth it!]

From there, we made our way over to the Vasa Museum, where the only 16th century war ship surviving today is housed. The Vasa ship sunk on it's maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor only a couple of minutes after leaving the dock, and wasn't recovered until the later part of the 20th century from the bottom of the harbor. The museum is more to honor the amazing restoration of the ship after having been so long at the bottom of the harbor rather than the severely poorly-designed ship itself. A good museum to see if you have to do the speed tour like we did.

[Maribeth and I in the museum]

After the museum, we went and saw the King's Garden and walked past the Opera, but we really had to get back to the train station to get our bags, get to the bus station and made sure that we got a bus that would take us to the Skavsta Airport (about 1.5 hours away from Stockholm) so that we could make our 8:00 pm flight to Berlin.

[On our way! We are used to riding on buses together after Chile...]

Midsummer Part 2

2008-07-01T14:08:00.014+02:00

Saturday was of course another relaxing day, with more great weather.

[Sitting out on the lawn]

Before lunch, my mom had designed an American Jeopardy game for all non-Americans to play. It ended up being harder than we thought it would be, but it was a good game.

[Kerstin being Alex Trebek]

Some people also went fishing, with Ludde making the big catch. He caught a pretty big pike, and his mom gutted it for him. The most bizarre part was when we was spicing it before putting it on the grill, and it began to have muscle contractions, even without a head!

[Ludde with his prize-catch]

[Inga cleaning the fish]

Lunch was another big meal with lots of delicious quiches.

[Another big meal]

Since Saturday was my Dad's birthday and always the day that Maria's birthday is celebrated (since the family is together anyway), we made a couple of real American cakes with sugary icing for the occasion. They were well received.

[The cakes]

[Cliff and Maria opening presents]

[Cornelea (being fed by Aunt Inga) is really enjoying that chocolate...]

After lunch, quite a few people went home, including my parents who were going to go hiking in northern Sweden with some friends.

[The boats going back...]

The rest of us continued by sitting out, swimming (or just lying in the sun), and relaxing.

[Maribeth and I getting ready to swim... although we never made it in...]

In the evening, we had a great Lebanese and Middle-Eastern inspired cuisine that was probably the best food of the weekend; lots of hummus, borek, olives, couscous and other good food.

[Almost midnight on the island]

On Sunday the island vacation was finally coming to an end. Although more people left in the morning and right after lunch, we had to stay a little bit longer to make sure that all the tents and sleeping bags were put away, and that everything went back to its right place as only 2 of 30 people were going to stay longer on the island. There were also some final rays to be caught.

[Almost done packing]

[Last view of Ramsen, the island]

Midsummer Part 1

2008-06-29T09:18:00.026+02:00

Although going to Sweden in the summer is a usual tradition for our family, this year we flew in from all directions to celebrate. Benjamin (read his blog for more details) flew in from India after visiting his friend Donny in Bangladesh and then a brief visit to India and the Taj Mahal. My mom and Thomas were already there, leaving basically right after Thomas' last day of school, while my dad and I flew in a couple days later from Berlin.

Our first excitement was on Wednesday night, when Sweden had a soccer match in the European Cup. We were all rather disappointed when they lost.

The next morning, my mom and I went to the airport to pick up Maribeth, whom I met in Chile, and who was coming to visit for Midsummer in Sweden and then coming back to Berlin with me for a week. Shortly after we got back to the house, my uncle and aunt, Ake and Helene, came to pick us up and take us out to Ake's summerhouse, where the festivities would be taking place.

[a whole suitcase full of American food in the front, and all the other packing]

Maribeth and I slept most of the car ride so we were ready when we had to take the boat across to the island.

[Helene driving the boat, apparently something was funny]

When we arrived, we were the first ones there and had a couple minutes to relax. But not too long after, everyone else started to arrive. This meant a couple of things. First, everyone had to be ferried over to the island, which is quite a task when 15 people came on Thursday and another 15 were yet to arrive. On top of that, everyone was quite loaded down with all the food that we would eat over the weekend. Then, we had to began setting up tents and arranging sleeping locations for everyone. This began the process that our family knows too well of about two people actually doing a task and everyone else watching on and giving advice.

[Maribeth and I waiting for dinner]

[Family sitting outside after dinner, still very light out at around 11:00]

[Ake and Louise trying to put up the wind-cover walls, while everyone was looking on, adding their two cents]

The first night it rained, but we managed to stay dry in our tent, but it was the only bad weather that we had all weekend. Otherwise it was sunshine and warm for Sweden weather.

Friday was the big day, when everyone else would arrive, and it was actually Midsummer. The day began with a late breakfast, and then helping Cornelea slash around in the pool. She loves to play in the water and was having a good time in the pool.

[Cornelea playing in her little pool]

Then I became part of the ferry team that was sent to first only pick up my mom, dad and Benjamin as they were coming across. But every time we got there, someone else had arrived at the dock that needed to be taken over!

[Waiting for lunch]

Finally almost everyone was over, and we began preparing for lunch. Everyone had their job for the afternoon...

[Maribeth, Thomas, and Arne working on the Midsummer (May) Pole]

[My dad and I working on the hoops]

[Helene announcing how to use the new burn-your-poop bathroom]

We finally had lunch, where everyone loaded their plates with potatoes, pickled herring, meatballs, and other typical Swedish food.

[Maribeth taking chances on bizarre Swedish cuisine]

Then we had a relaxing meal, singing cheers songs that Johan had published into a little booklet and enjoying the sunshine.

[Everyone at the table]

[Singing a cheers]

After lunch it was time to begin the "traditional" Midsummer activities.

[The men raised the May Pole]

[Typical Swedish... sunshine, May Pole, and little red house...]

[We danced around it... although the baby doesn't seem to find it very fun]

[Then we had a "tips promenad" or a team-question walk... where we walked around in teams to answer questions for prizes]

[The winning team]

[But Cornelea was a much more interesting subject, note the UMBC sweatshirt!]

[And some Kubb]

After that we were all pretty exhausted and ready for a sauna. The ladies had sauna time first, and it was so relaxing and nice to be in the sauna and then jump into the cold water!

[Natalie, Maribeth, and I in the water]

In the evening, it was time more an American touch to the Swedish holiday. Our family had been commissioned for the dinner-meal, which was supposed to be American food. Of course, we had burgers, potato salad, coleslaw, and baked beans and the final touch was marshmallows and smores for dessert. All this food had to be specially brought from the US. Needless to say, the bags were checked before they even left the US. I'm guessing it was because either they thought it was hilarious that someone was bringing all this food or maybe they were genuinely worried about the metal cans that were there...

[The Swedes standing around trying to perfect marshmallows for delicious smores!]

Boat Trip Day 2, Part 2

2008-06-28T14:36:00.011+02:00

After passing through the center of the city, our trip got more relaxing as we passed through Charlottenburg and the Wannsee.

In Charlottenburg, we passed by the Schloss Charlottenburg, a 17th century summer palace. We couldn't get that great of a picture of the acutual castle though.

[Palace gardens]

We also picked up Jurgen's mom, so that she could come a long for the ride.

[Jurgen's mom even drove the boat for a little while]

As we were passing through another lock, the captains began to get a little worried. It was already 1:00 oclock and we had to get all the way through Spandau, the Wannsee and make it to Potsdam by 6:00. Based on the calculations our captains made, it looked like we would really have to go top speed (which was rather slow) all the way in order to make it in time.

[The captains contemplating]

Once we were on the Wannsee, it was a little more uneventful, since it is such a big lake. There were lots of sailboats out, but we were too far away to see anything on the shore and were just out in the open water.

[On the Wannsee]

After we had been boating for a while, we realized that we were actually ahead of schedule and our calculations had been wrong. This gave us time to go on the "Kleiner Wannsee" or smaller Wannsee, where we got to see some pretty amazing villas.

[One was a boat house]

[Others were just ridiculously large properties]

Once we went through the Wannsee, we started nearing Potsdam.

[While Cliff drove, Jurgen got to take a little break]

[The Babelsberg Castle and grounds]

We ended up pulling up to the dock around 4, way ahead of schedule. Luckily, we were able to get the boat in before the rain came again. This gave us time to get back to town and go out to dinner, ironically at a restaurant that was a boat!

[The Resturant]

[Jurgen's meat-meal]

[Jurgen, Marjena, and Dad giving a cheers!]

Boat Trip Day 2, Part 1

2008-06-18T00:18:00.011+02:00

On the second day of our boat trip, we had a big day ahead of us, since we were going through the center of the city and had to be back in Potsdam by 6pm. We started by heading north through Friedrichshain. Our first landmark was the Molecule Man, a sculpture of three men interconnected with holes, a symbol of the reunification of Berlin.

[Back in the boat...]

[The Molecule Man]

As we passed along the banks of the river around 8:30 am, it was pretty amusing to see the beach bars still in full gear after a long Saturday night. We then passed under the bridge at Waschauer Strasse. We were now at a point where one side was in the East and the other in the West. This is also the bridge that you see Lola run across in the German movie, "Run Lola Run."

[One of the beach bars that we passed]

[After going through...]

From there we continued into the city, following along the S-bahn tracks and getting closer to Alexanderplatz.

[The Fernseherturm in the distance]

Our next big task was to pass through the first lock. Since Dad and I had no experience going through locks (other than at the historical museum at the C&O Canal) and Jurgen was out of commission, I was a little worried. But Jurgen told us exactly what to do, and it worked fine.

[Waiting for the lock to open]

[The first lock]

From here, we were right in the heart of the city and got to see the Berlin sights from a whole new angle.

[Palast der Republik being dismantled, slowly but surely]

[Berliner Dom]

The next big area that we hit was the Reichstag and the Regierungsviertel. Although there was a message that said private boats needed a short-wave radio to communicate that we were coming through this sensitive area, we had no radio. We got kind of apprehensive that some police boat might track us down and get us in trouble, but nothing happened. We went right by some of the most important buildings in Berlin without being checked at all. We were surprised.

[The Reichstag]

[Government offices]

[The Federal Chancellery]

From here, our journey got more relaxed...

Boat Trip Day 1

2008-06-17T23:24:00.019+02:00

On Sunday, my parent's old friend Jurgen invited me and my Dad to take part in a boat trip tour of the different canals and rivers that flow through Berlin. Although I didn't know the plan at first, I ended up finding out that Jurgen had rented a boat in Potsdam (southwest of Berlin) and had planned for us to navigate through the city and eventually get back down to Potsdam on Sunday.

[Dad getting ready to head out to Jurgen's]

We went out to Stralau, where Jurgen and his wife live, and where our starting point would be. We got there a little bit early and decided to walk around Stralau for a little while. The neighborhood was quite interesting, lying technically in the neighborhood of Friedrichshain, but secluded on a peninsula from the city. It was very pretty with the water, the park across the water, new houses, and lots of trees, but it was almost a little bizarre for me to be in the city but feel as if I were in a little town.

[Stralau peninsula map]

[Quiet street]

[Soccer field, where it seemed like some sort of semi-professional team was playing]

[Along the water]

[Interesting new houses]

We had a very nice breakfast a Jurgen's, but we also got the bad news that he had suffered an injury to his back and was having trouble sitting down and standing up and bending over. Of course, this made the plans for the boat tour more complicated. We decided it would be best to take a shorter trip today to see how Jurgen was feeling rather than push the limit.

[The view from Jurgen's balcony]

[Filu, their very cute but interestingly-tempered dog]

We began by going southeast towards Kopernik. Although the weather wasn't to die for, most of the time it wasn't raining. Here are some pictures from along the way:

[Captain and First Mate]

[This one is for Ben and Donny - there were a crazy amount of rowers and scullers out on the water and boathouses everywhere. Here a particular group of children seem to be getting yelled at by their coach]

[A boathouse along the river... this is a rowers dream city, I believe]

[Dad driving the boat]

[Looking apprehensive as I try to steer down the river]

[Our view approaching Kopernik... the weather wasn't too great, as you can see. A couple of times we had to pull the roof of the boat down so that the rain wouldn't get in. But even with the weather it was still a nice trip]

[Garden sheds turned summer cottages in Kopernik]

[I felt like I was in a parade...]

[We finally got some sunshine]

Dad Visits

2008-06-17T23:04:00.006+02:00

On Friday, the first rainy day after about four weeks of warm weather and sunshine, I headed to Tegel airport to pick up my Dad. Although only technically in Berlin for two days of a conference, he decided to come early to spend some time with me and enjoy Berlin.

After taking a coffee at the airport and checking into the hotel (which was conviently right across from where I live), we decided to walk around Mitte (the center of town, where I live). Of course, as soon as we walk out of the building the drizzle turns into a full-on down pour. Luckily it only lasted a couple of minutes and by the time we got to Alexanderplatz it had already stopped.

[Dad by the World Clock by Alex(anderplatz)]

Having been a year since my Dad was last in Berlin, a lot had already changed. Especially by Alex, the scenery is always changing with old communist buildings being town down and new shopping malls being built. While I took the picture in front of the World Clock, he had no idea that we were standing right in the middle of Alexanderplatz! We had to walk back so that he could re-examine and see what had changed.

From there we walked down Unter den Linden, and began talking about a subject that has been on my mind lately, which is my Modern Languages and Linguistics Honors Thesis that I will be writing next year. Right now I have to come up with a topic to write about and begin doing some preliminary research before the beginning of next semester. Since the thesis will be about 30-40 pages, this is really something that I need to synthesize and start working on now, especially if I want to use resources that may only be available here in Germany.

[Dad in the Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz]

Around 6, we wanted to watch the next soccer game, and I thought the best place would be Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center, which has a huge screen. When we got there, we realized that there wasn't a single restaurant that had the game playing, and it wasn't on the big screen. This was a huge surprise to me, since almost every little dinky restaurant and doner kebab stand had some sort of TV playing the the games.

We decided to head back to Unter den Linden and get a coffee instead. We were more interested in seeing the Netherlands play France later anyway.

[Dad in Cafe Einstein]

We finally ended up watching the game at a little Doner Kebab fast-food place near Alexanderplatz. Although it was a really small place, they had a big-screen high-def TV playing the game, which was enjoyed with a beer and a falafel sandwich. The Netherlands looked like a great team and won against France (2 place in the last World Cup) 4-1. From there, we went to bed early since we had to be up early the next morning for the first day of our boat trip.

[The Spree River and the Berliner Dom; by the end of the day the weather cleared up and we were hoping for nice weather for our boat trip]

Europa Meisterschaft

2008-06-12T15:33:00.002+02:00

The Union of European Football Associations European Football Championships, which Germans just call EM (for Europa Meisterschaft), officially began last week in Switzerland and Austria. With the best European teams competing, it might as well be seen as a little World Cup that is going on, with extreme pride streaming from each nation.

In Germany, there is no exception. Last weekend, as they were playing Poland (a team I assume they would easily beat). Even before the game, lots of cars had flags sticking out of their windows, people's houses were proudly flying flags, and people were really gearing up for the gameAs we were watching in a smaller Biergarten outside of Berlin in Wannsee, the fans were crazier than I expected. During a game that is only a small part of whether Germany continues, the place was packed with cheering fans decked out in black, red, and gold, with crazy hats, flags, beads, leis, etc, all showing their support for Germany. After Germany won 2-0, and I was on my way home, cars raced down the streets with their little flags flapping in the wind, beeping their horns to let everyone know about the victory. Mind you, this is the first isn't even the lose and you can't go any further round.

I was completely amazed at how serious the Germans were about their soccer even at this stage, and how excited they were to cheer for their team and show their colors. After sharing my amazement with the rugby girls I was with, they said that it was a tradition that had really only started after the World Cup was held in Germany in 2006. Before then, I guess there was still an uncertainty about how far to take national pride, and when it turns into nationalism.

As I have learned over and over now, Vergangenheitsbewaltigung (a long word that means coming to terms with the past) is no new topic for Germany and can't be explored enough by Germans and scholars of Germany and German culture. After the World Cup, and the realization that they could have more national pride, maybe they are coming to terms with the past a little better. Even if it is not that deep, now the Germans have no problem flying their flag and being proud of their soccer team.

Biking, Bathing and Biergartens

2008-06-11T22:24:00.016+02:00

Last Sunday, I went on a biking tour of the Grunewald with some of the girls from the rugby team. The original plan was to meet at the S-bahn station Grunewald and then bike to the Sacrower lake that is on the other side of the large Wannsee lake, since it is supposed to have nice beaches and cleaner water.

[Ignore the start and end points... the big body of water is the Wannsee. We wanted to bike to the Sacrower Sea, to the west of the Wannsee. We began biking in the middle of the green patch, the Grunewald]

When I got to the station at 1, I met with two of the other girls but we had to wait for two more that have overslept a little bit. We ended up biking to the Teufelsee, which I learned when I got there was a FKK (Freie Korper Kultur) beach. Freie Korper Kultur literally means "Free Body Culture." Yes, it was a nude beach. Right there in the middle of the forest, there were lots of Germans of all ages parading around naked. A little shock for me and the team Australian Jackie.

[Biking in the Grunewald]

From there, we tried to find our way around the north of the Wannsee, but ended up getting kind of lost in the forest. Although there are occasionally maps, they usually don't tell you "You are here." The best way, we found, was just to ask people. From the Teufelsee, we ended up getting rather close to the NSA complex Teufelsberg. Berlin is a pretty flat place to bike in, but somehow we kept going up and down hills, getting caught in sand pits, and kind of going in circles. It made it quite the adventure to try to get out of the forest. When we finally found our way, we followed the street that goes along the shore of the Wannsee north, and crossed the Wannsee on a bridge, and headed back south again.

[Along the Mauerweg]

[Surprisingly rural and beautiful]

When we were on the other side, we ended up following the Berliner Mauerweg. Now a very nice biker/jogger trail, the paved path follows where the Berlin Wall used to enclose West Berlin around the city. I guess since it was so "rural" and forested, it would have been a good place to sneak across the border if the wall hadn't been there.

[It reminded me a lot of Rock Creek Park right here]

From there, we finally got to what we thought was the lake where we wanted to go. After swimming around for a bit, and then asking an older man, we found out that it wasn't actually where we wanted to be. But as the old man said, "Who cares? A lakes a lake." We swam for a while, then rested on our blankets and had a mini picnic out of the crackers and cheese that we had with us.

[Relaxing after a long bike ride and a swim]

Since we hadn't actually made it to our goal, we decided to bike in search of the Sacrower Sea. After only 15 minutes, we got to a really nice little beach on the lake. We were impressed that there was actually sand, and the water really was a lot cleaner and nicer than at the other lake.

[The nice beach at the Sacrower Sea]

[Sitting on the beach]

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too long because we had to get the ferry across the Wannsee before the last one left at 7:30. We didn't get lost, and had plenty of time to wait in line at the dock and find some well deserved beers.

[Jackie, Tina, and Astrid waiting on the dock]

[About to cross the Wannsee]

[With our drinks, right about to get on the boat]

[Wiebke and Jackie saying 'Prost' on the boat]

[Tina and me and the Wannsee]

[Jackie, Astrid, me and Tina on the boat]

Sitting on the boat and relaxing was the perfect end to our biking adventure. The boat took us directly across the lake to Wannsee, where we had plans to watch the Germany v. Poland Europe Cup soccer game at a Biergarten.

[the Biergarten... we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for our adventure]

[the tents they set up to watch the game]

Even though we were at a pretty small Biergarten in Wannsee (the very suburbs of Berlin), they had two tents and a projector set up to show the games. There were also tons of people; we had to stand to watch the game. We thought it would have been more relaxed, but I guess we are underestimating the new found patriotism of Germans (which I will explore in another post).

Although we did bike for a really long time, the weather was beautiful the whole time and not too hot, and having some food and drinks at the end in the biergarten was a great ending to the adventure. Hanging out with the rugby girls and getting to know them better was also a great time.

Krumme Lanke

2008-05-31T17:50:00.009+02:00

Since the weather has been unusually warm (around 32 degrees Celsius), there is no better way to cool down than to go to the lakes that are around Berlin. On the edge of the Grunewald, there are a series of lakes, where some of the more well-known include Krumme Lanke, Schlachtensee, and Wannsee. On the weekends, the city Berliners go about as far into the country as they dare to go for a swim.

[Krumme Lanke]

With Paula, who just got back from a two-week school trip to Greece, and Mary, a new guest student living with them, I went to the Krumme Lanke. Although we had our bathing suits on, I didn't expect to go swimming. Since Annie lived around Krumme Lanke, I had been there before and didn't remember seeing any swimming areas. When we got there, it became apparent that the whole lake is open to swim in. Any part of the bank that isn't taken or closed off can be your own little personal beach, without the sand, and you are allowed to swim, paddle, or float around in the lake as much as you want.

[Paula in the water]

Although I wanted to sit in the sun, those spots were in the premium, so we took a sort-of shady spot where it was easy to get in the water. Paula jumped right in and threw Charly (her Beagle) right in with her. He didn't really appreciate it and kept trying desperately to swim to shore. Once there, he rolled around in the dirt... I guess to try and get dry.

[Charly rolling in the dirt... which ended up landing him strait back into the water, since then he had to get clean again...]

Eventually I got in too, but it was pretty cold with a gooey bottom.

[Paula and I in the water with two kids we met. Basically every time we are out with Charly, kids come up and want to play with him. I guess they just know that he is a really friendly dog and can do basically anything to him and he will never bark or bite]

[And Charly splashing us all trying to escape again]

There were really a lot of people there; basically every spot that you could lie on around the lake was taken, and the lake was full of adults swimming from one side to the other, kids splashing around, and people on rafts enjoying the sun. It would have been amazing to just have a raft to sit on out in the middle without disturbances...

[Paula and her new guest, Mary]

[Paula and me]

Teufelsberg

2008-05-26T20:54:00.008+02:00

Literally translating to "The Devil's Mountain," Teufelsberg is the tallest hill in Berlin, man-made by the Allies with the rubble of Berlin after World War Two. Since it lies in the Western part of the city, in the Grunewald, it makes the top of it a nice place for picnic-ers to fly kits and have a view of Berlin.

[Side view of the tallest building on Teufelsberg]

It is also particularly interesting because it used to be the sight of an old National Security Agency Complex, where the Americans could spy on the Russians from. Today, that complex remains, leaving creepy abandoned buildings at the top of Teufelsberg.

[The cafeteria... the only building in the complex that had windows]

About a month ago, we went exploring around Teufelsberg to find out way in. For a while, we just had to walk around the Grunewald until we got to the top. Once there, we had to climb in through a hole in the fence. Although it is technically closed, there were no guards there and about another 20 people wondering around inside as well.

[View of the Grunewald, a pretty big forest for being inside Berlin's city limits]

[View of Berlin, a pretty cloudy day]

After we walked around some of the buildings, we walked up an extremely dark staircase to the top radar tower. The dome still in tact, it makes an awesome echo chamber; makes you wonder if the NSA workers ever went up there on breaks to have some fun.

[Annie looking out the little window at the top]

It was so bizarre to explore the different effects the dome had on your voice, standing in different spots and hearing where you hear your voice come from, making different sounds to see the different effects. This is definitely one of the coolest non-tourist things to see in Berlin if you have the time.

Plattenbau

2008-05-24T14:49:00.013+02:00

If I were going to move into East Berlin, I guess it would be best to do it right. For that reason, I now live in the DDR. Well, not really, but almost. My apartment building is one of many in a two block radius that are basically exactly the same. The German name for these buildings is "Plattenbau," referring to the fact that they are made of pre-fabricated concrete slabs.

[Two Plattenbau buildings that look exactly like mine]

In the 1960s in East Germany, there was a housing shortage and one of the best ways to create homes was to throw up Planntenbau buildings all over the East. Being pre-fab, they were easy to build. I personally think they also created the uniformity that the communist East German state was looking for.

[The front of my house, that faces Otto-Braun-Strasse]

[The back of my house, which is actually where the entrance is, but faces a pseudo-courtyard formed by all the Plattenbaus, where there is also a school]

Today, all over East Berlin, these Plattenbau still exist, although they are not 'desirable' housing. But I like my Plattenbau. I mean, sometimes it is fun to go to the German History Museum here in Berlin and realize that a Plattenbau model on display looks exactly like the apartment you live in!

Here are some pictures of where I now live!

[The door to my room]

[My makeshift closet/really a bookcase]

[The foyer]

[The living room]

[The kitchen]

[The view from the balcony; lots of other East German buildings and construction, of course]

A whole new city...

2008-05-18T20:50:00.003+02:00

Apparently this past winter was a particularly odd and cold one, according to Berliners I have talked to. When we arrived in January, it wasn't too cold, but often rainy and cloudy. Towards March, it began to get colder, rainier and even snowed. Finally, the last two weeks of the FU BEST program, it actually started to get sunny and a little warm. The later half of April was actually graced by the sun on a daily basis. As we have moved into May, shorts, t-shirts, and skirts can actually be worn; there are green trees, flowers and the city-pools have opened.

Not only does this make the city more beautiful, but it has almost completely changed the atmosphere of the city. All of sudden, there were people in the city. On some nice days earlier in the spring, when walking around the Grunewald (a large forest in the south-west section of Berlin), Tiergarten (a park in the center of the city), the canal where I used to live, etc, there would be Germans out for their Sunday walks. My guess is that when nothing is open on Sundays, this is one of the best ways to pass time.

Now that there is good weather almost everyday, there always people in the parks. On weekends, there is hardly a patch of grass that isn't taken up by someone's blanket. In the Fredrichshain Volkspark, close to where I live now, there is the distinct smell of grilling all over the park, with the noise of kids and adults alike playing in the grass. Walking around the university on school days, there are always students sitting around any green space they can find, reading, playing games, or just hanging out. As the sun came out, the population of Berlin crept out of their apartments after a long winter and may actually be becoming friendly.

I have no empirical evidence that it is because of the weather, but the previously cold and distant Berliners seem to be warming up. In the past week, I have one person start a conversation with me on the S-Bahn train and one person wish me a good weekend as I was getting of the U-Bahn metro. Both of these incidents totally shocked me, since I believed talking to strangers to be something completely un-German.

No matter what the reason, I appreciate a more friendly attitude from the Berliners, and love the great weather we have been having. It opens up so many opportunities to be outside, go for walks or bike rides, go running in the park, have barbecues, etc, etc, etc. I would venture to say that there is no better time to be in Berlin than the summer.

Rugby

2008-05-15T16:25:00.003+02:00

So probably against my mother's wishes, I have started playing rugby here in Berlin. Via the internet, I found a team that practices pretty close to where my university is. Like the team in Chile and unlike my team in the US, they play 7s rugby. However, they do team up with another 7s team that plays in East Berlin to play 15s. Unfortunately, the season finished up in April and doesn't start again until September, but we still have practice twice a week.

There are some things that I find really interesting about this team. First, that they have such good relations with a team that I would expect to be rivals that they can come together and play. Although it is a really new development, all the girls seem excited about it and want to continue it.

I guess since the season is so recently over, there are a lot of girls who are taking the time off and not coming to practice so regularly. While this is unfortunate, the girls who do come are really dedicated and serious. They have also arranged to have joint practices with the men's team. This is also surprising, since when I left UMBC, the men's and women's teams were just getting onto better terms. However, I would never imagine a practice together. But, the BSV Rugby seems to be cohesive. Playing with the men is also great because they run such a higher-paced game. Men's practices are fast-paced and serious, working on conditioning and skills at the same time - something that I haven't experienced as much playing with girls. I'm hoping this really gets me in shape for the fall season back at UMBC...

Another surprising element is the way in which the players act as soon as they get off the field. In general, everyone seems to be in good shape and giving their all. But what was waiting for us after last Tuesday's practice but a case of beer. Then, some of the players headed up to the "Casino" (Restaurant/Bar) for more drinks. Whatever calories they just burned off were immediately put back on. And another European phenomenon is the smoking. There were lots of men's players, who right after practice, lit up cigarettes. Surely they realize the damage that they are doing to their performance... It is something you hardly ever see in the US.

Finally, I just have to say that I am so happy I started playing rugby in the first place. This may just be my own theory but, I believe where ever you are in the world, you will always be able to find a rugby team somewhere close by, and immediately meet nice, friendly people, who want you as part of their team. I say this not only because of my experience in Chile and Germany, but because on the women's team here there are an assortment of nationalities including American, Australian, and English and on the men's team Irish, French, American, etc.

So far, it has been a lot of fun and I expect it to just get better. I'll promise not to get hurt this time. :)

Fußball

2008-05-14T12:18:00.009+02:00

As in most other parts of the world, and especially Europe, soccer (futbol, fussball, football, fotboll, etc) is by far the most popular sport.

To get part of this European experience, we went to a Hertha BSC home game here in Berlin. Hertha is the Berlin team, and brings out every type of Berliner in support for them. We were lucky enough to get tickets to the Hertha/Hamburg game, which was extremely popular since Hamburg is such a good team, and known for their rowdy fans.

[Annie and Sean on the way to the game]

After class, since the game was on a Tuesday, we all headed to Rathaus Stegliz, got dinner for the road and headed to the stadium, which lies at the north-west part of the city. Another cool fact about Hertha is that they play in the Olympia Stadion, or the Olympic Stadium that was built under Hitler's commission for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Since then, it has obviously been redone and was used for the final game of the last World Cup.

[The Stadium]

When we got there, there were already lots of fans coming on the train, as well as kiosks and tailgaters in the parking lot. If you imagine Germans, European cars, and tailgating mixed, you get exactly what we saw: Germans eating bratwursts and drinking beer from the trunk of their SmartCar or equally tiny vehicle waiting for a soccer game to start.

Although we were there with our Hertha Scarves and great attitudes, we were nothing in comparison to the real Berliners, who had probably been drinking since the late afternoon, had scarves tied around their waists to look like skirts and sat in the real fan section.

[Where all the crazy Hertha fans sit]

[Inside the stadium... the field is not covered so that real grass can grow, but all the fan seating is under a roof]

We had pretty good seats anyway, a little further up, but in the middle of the field so we could see all the action. Just like any US sporting event, there was overpriced drinks and food. A liter of beer was 8 Euro, about 12 dollars, including the cost of the cup, which you can return for 2 Euro if you want.

[Sal, Hans and I being spirited]

The game ended up being rather slow, ending in a 0-0 tie. But the fact that more than 40 people from our program were there made it a lot of fun to just being hanging out in a big group one last time before the end of the semester.

[Jessica, Aaron, Annie and Tim with some face paint... I tried to write Hertha on Casey's face, but lets just say problems arose when I realized i forgot about the silent h...]

I wish that I had gotten to experience the awesomeness of Hertha games before this, since they are already done with their home season. If I were ever to go to another game, I would definitely sit in the fan section. Although they are rowdy and the police are surrounding the section to make sure no fights break out, it was so much fun to see them so into the game, waving flags and singing songs.

[The pool at Olympia Stadion. When Hertha wins, apparently everyone jumps into the pool, no matter what time of year. Also well known for Leni Riefenstahl's underwater scenes of divers from the 1936 Olympics.]

Sommersemester Part 2

2008-05-09T15:38:00.002+02:00

As you all may know from my previous blog posts, I have decided to stay in Berlin for the Freie Universitat's regular Sommersemester. In Germany, they have a rather bizarre semester schedule, that is divided into two semesters - the summer and the winter. The winter semester goes from around October to around February and the summer semester goes from around April to around August. However, most classes only last for three and a half to four months, giving students a month (or until the beginning of the next semester) to complete exams and papers.

The students from FU BEST that chose to stay for the Sommersemester are just like any other international students. This means that we all had to take a language placement exam, and enroll for a German class based on that level. We also have the option to take classes with only foreign students (Erasmus classes) in German, classes with German students in German, and classes with German students in English.

Since I don't actually need any of these credits and am just staying to improve my German, I have decided to take two American History classes at the J.F. Kennedy Institute of American Studies, which are both in German.

One class is about American foreign relations during the 20th century and the rise of the US as a world power. With about 30 or 35 students, this class is basically only a lecture that meets once a week for two hours, with no reading, and an essay exam at the end of the course. It is really interesting to see how the teacher, a German, presents events in American History in comparison to how I have learned them and how the German students react to what is being taught.

The other history class I am taking is about the relationship between the Americas and Europe in the Age of Discovery. I am one of only 6 students in the class, with only one other foreign student. The relationship between the colonies and Europe, and seeing a European perspective on this relationship is something that in all the times I have studied colonial history has not really been a topic of discussion. It is good to have such a small class to be able to discuss and take part in the class. I also have to write a 5-15 page paper as our final, which comically enough isn't due until September.

My German class is much less interesting. Meeting only once a week for three hours, we don't seem to be learning or accomplishing that much. But I'm already in too deep to leave, and it isn't so bad.

The last class I am taking is purely for fun. Since the FU is so large (claims 40,000 students), there are a lot of classes that could never be offered at UMBC. One of which is introductory Turkish. Turkish has a gaining importance in Europe, with the number of immigrants in various European nations and the debate about whether they will be able to join the European Union. In Berlin, there is very large Turkish population, and so it really is no surprise that they would offer it. I have been wanting to learn Turkish for a while, for no other reason than that I like languages and it is so different, and am really excited to be taking it.

So those are the classes that I am taking, which aren't taking up a lot of my time at all. But I figure that it is still my summer vacation, and I should be enjoying it too!

Goodbyes

2008-05-08T16:28:00.007+02:00

These last couple of weeks have been sad as well, since all of my close friends from Berlin have gone home or are traveling. In my experience, most of the time we try to find people going through the same things that we are to reflect, grow and mainly have someone to talk to. For that reason, during study abroad you can get to know people incredibly well after only a couple of months. The best friends that I made here in Berlin it seems like I have known a lot longer than just four months.

Since I am staying, I have had to say goodbye basically one by one to all my friends here. But not without some fun in between. In the last weeks it was a mad dash to do everything that we wanted, see everything that needed to be seen, and have some last good times with friends before the end.

The big event was the going-away party that Luis and Verena planned for us. They rented out a basement in an art-house, got some volunteer DJs and invited all of the FU-BESTers, plus our host-siblings, tandem partners, and anyone else we knew in Berlin.

Two of the volunteer DJs happened to be none other than Annie and myself.

[DJs have to have cute outfits]

At the time when we volunteered, we thought it would be fun and cool. The night of the party, we were stressing to try to make our play list just right, get the best parts of the songs down, and make the DJ programs we downloaded from the internet work. This stress basically lasted until right before we started DJing.

[Paula, my host sister, came for a little bit too!]

In the end, there was a mixer there, and Annie and I each had a computer with, which solved all our problems. We used each of our computers as a turntable and mixed some pretty sweet beats, and I'd like to think that everyone had a good time dancing while we were mixing. In the end, it was cool and fun, but we had no idea what we actually were getting into when we volunteered.

Other fun things that we did before people headed out were: having last-night drinks basically every night before someone left; going to the top of the Reichstag dome; doing various fun activities in parks due to the beautiful weather; and visiting the zoo [which there are unfortunately no pictures from since as I was taking a picture of a baboon, my camera stopped working!] Here are some other pictures though!

[Relaxing, trying to look for stars at the top of the Reichstag]

[A big group after the Farewell Dinner]

[Jessica's last night in Berlin]

[An American college tradition brought to Berlin]

WG Gesucht

2008-05-07T12:55:00.002+02:00

In Germany and with most German universities, there are not real "dorms." Sometimes "Studentwohnheims" can be found, which can be kind of like dorms. They are reserved only for students, and sometimes they are three or four room apartments, and sometimes they are just rooms on a corridor with a kitchen for everyone's use. However, they don't belong to a particular university, and there are not nearly enough for the number of students that go to larger Universities. For example, the Freie Universitaet alone has over 40,000 students and the Studentenwerk, which runs the Studentwohnheims, only administers 10,500 residences. While some students live at home, others have to find a place to live.

This is exactly the category that I was put into when I chose to stay for the Sommersemester. Although I could have stayed with my host-family, I wanted something new and began to look for a "WG." WG stands for Wohngemeinschaft, which can be translated to commune, but more commonly refers to people sharing an apartment. Since there are so many students in Berlin and such cheap housing, there are a lot of these around. However, the picture that was painted to us about how we would have to search for and get a WG in Berlin was very ominous.

Right after we decided to stay for the Sommersemester, our student advisors Luis and Verena gave us the low-down on how to search for an apartment in Berlin. They recommended using WG Gesucht, a website where people can list how big the room they are offering is, how much it will cost a month, where it is located, and a little bit about the people that are living there. Although that seemed easy enough, the next process was not.

For the WGs that we liked, we would have to call, since it was better to get in contact with people as soon as possible rather than via email. Then they told us we would have to set up an interview with the roommates, go to the apartment and talk to them, and then they might even have a "call-back" interview. I assumed that it would be like a regular apartment search, where the person searching goes to the apartment and it more depends on their liking the apartment than the apartment-mates liking them. Not so, apparently even if you are only staying for 3 months, they really want someone compatible with the WG.

The week before we left for our long trip to Hamburg and Copenhagen, I had to begin my search. I called probably 10 people in one day, got interviews with three, and actually only ended up going to two (since I called one about an hour and a half before to get directions, and they told me it was already taken, but hadn't bothered to call me).

The first interview I went to was at a Studentwohnheim in the far east - really far away from night life, the center of the city and my university. The two girls were very nice, but it was also very bizarre because they didn't actually have the apartment yet, they were waiting for it to become available. So, we they just knocked on two random doors to be able to show me the apartment. Although we got along well, the fact that I was only staying for three months was not so appealing. But, I didn't really want to live there anyway. They said they would call me in a couple of days with a decision, but they never did...

The second interview was at an old Soviet-style apartment right by Alexanderplatz, in the heart of the city. There was only one other guy living there and was looking to take the room of his roommate that was leaving. When I explained that I would only be staying to the end of July, it was actually to my advantage. It turns out that he has a friend who wants to come live in the apartment in August, and me living in between then would be perfect.

While we were on the trip, I got the "Yes" from Tobias that I would be able to live there, and that we would talk about it more when I returned.

In the end, my WG search was a lot easier than it sounded like it was going to be, but also a lot easier than most people had. So now, I live with Tobias in an East German building, that has an elevator that only goes to floors 1,3,6, and 9, among other quirky things. My host-sister Paula asks, "Why did you move from our house (a beautiful, old apartment in Bohemian Kreuzberg, that is right next to the canal with lots of greenery) here?" But the answer is simple, that this is Berlin too, and I simply wanted to try something new!

[And I would have pictures if my camera hadn't broken while at the zoo...]

Dublin

2008-05-04T12:26:00.025+02:00

The last possible weekend of travel together, Sean, Annie and I decided to travel to Dublin to meet up with my friend Pete, who was coming over from Portugal.

[Sean and Annie over the River Liffey]

Sean, Annie and I left early early Thursday morning from Berlin and got into Dublin pretty early. We took the airport bus into town and began to just walk around. The deal was that we were going to be staying with someone that Pete had met on Couch Surfing. Couch Surfing is a great network, where people set up profiles and offer couches for backpackers/ tourists to sleep on instead of paying for a hostel. In an expensive city like Dublin, this sounded like a great opportunity. But, we couldn't go to our "couch" until Pete got in, in the afternoon. Until then, we decided to walk around, get lunch, and begin to see some sights.

[Trinity College]

We first went and saw Trinity College, the Republic of Ireland's oldest University. Carrying around our small bags around campus, we definitely fit in with all the students. The campus is very beautiful and clearly a popular tourist spot in Dublin. From there we walked to the Dublin Castle.

[Dublin Castle]

After walking around some more, meeting up with Pete, and dropping our stuff off in the lobby of the apartment building we would be staying in, we headed back to the Dublin Castle. The day stated to clear up, and the Green Isle really is incredibly green!

[Garden behind the Dublin Castle]

[Annie, Sean and I sitting in the garden]

[There was also a particular snake theme in the garden. Here is a snake sculpture with the Castle in the background]

We walked around town a bit more, and as Dublin might be known for fickle weather, it rained and cleared up all in a couple hours time.

[River Liffey]

Since we had heard that Indian food is some of the cheapest in the city, we decided to get Indian for dinner. Although it was relatively cheap to what other restaurants were offering, it was still pretty expensive for our student budget.

[The Irish Flag reflected in the water of the Liffey]

After dinner we walked back to the apartment, where someone was finally there to let us in. The deal was that it was actually Rory's apartment, a guy who has hosted probably the most people on couch surfing, with 4 or 5 couch surfers every night. However, Rory wasn't there, because he was visiting Pete's co-worker in Porto, Portugal. When we got there, Rory's roommate was there who was leaving the next day, his girlfriend, and his girlfriends family. At least, thats what I think the relation was. But they were all leaving early in the morning to various places, and the only one who would be staying was Jerome. Jerome is technically a couch surfer but studies at Trinity College and has been staying Rory for a couple of weeks, after running into roommate problems at his apartment. Anyways, Sean and I went to bed since we had been up since about 4, and Annie, Pete and Jerome went out to a pub that was close by.

The next morning, we slept in a little bit, and went to the grocery store to buy some food for breakfast. One of the benefits of couch surfing is actually staying in someone's house, so we could use Rory's kitchen things, of course cleaning them when we were done.

The first stop for us on Friday was the the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate - a site that can't be passed up when visiting Dublin.

[The Gate]

The tour is not actually of the Brewery, but rather like the Carlsberg brewery, a museum of the making of the beer and the history of Guinness in various aspects from Arthur Guinness himself to advertising of the beer to new technologies of Guinness in a can.

[One of the more famous Guinness Slogans]

Sean was lucky enough to get to start his own brew. Each hour on the hour while the Brewery is open, one visitor gets to release the hops to start the brewing process of a whole new batch a beer. Sean is now responsible for a lot of Guinness Beer.

[Sean starting his own brew]

[There is his name!]

The best part of the tour comes at the end of course! At the very top of the brewery, they have what they call the "Gravity Bar" where everyone gets a free pint of Guinness after the tour and great views of Dublin.

[Sean and I with our Guinness!]

After we enjoyed our Guinness's and views of Dublin, we headed to St. Stephen's Green, a park that is pretty close to Trinity College, where we were supposed to meeting Jerome later. The Green really reminded me a lot of Boston Common, and was spectacularly green and flourishing in the Spring weather.

[Annie and I on the Green]

[The center of the Green]

After that, Pete really wanted a Pub lunch, but by this time, it was Friday after work and every single Pub was packed with Dubliners just getting off working and hanging out at the pub. After walking into six or seven different pubs, we just gave up, got some (expensive) fast food and went to meet Jerome at Trinity. That night, Jerome invited us to the bar that is actually on Trinity's campus, where the students were running amok. The bar was more like a party, with students all over, their school bags and sports bags all over. What Annie and I found surprising was how dressed up all the girls were for such a function. We realized later that this was just the first stop before most people went out to real clubs and bars. We ended up having a good time hanging out with Jerome and his French friends at one of those clubs.

The next day, we all slept in, except Pete, who had to leave early to get back to Porto. Annie, Sean, and I decided to go to Phoenix Park, a huge park located a little bit outside the city center, and have a picnic lunch. Since the weather wasn't perfect and we didn't have a blanket, we had to find better ground to have out picnic on. We decided the huge statue would be a good place.

[Annie climbing up the statue to have our lunch on top]

Although the rain would come and go rather strongly, we had to visit the touristy area of Temple Bar in central Dublin. A famous and touristy area, the most famous bar is probably The Temple Bar. To get out of the rain, we went in for some drinks.

[The Temple Bar]

[Annie and Sean in the Temple Bar]

The Temple Bar is known for its huge selection of Whiskey's, both from Ireland, Scotland and the US.

[Me, Sean, Jerome and another surfer Pedro eating out delicious meal!]

The perfect end to our weekend was Jerome's suggestion that we make dinner together. Annie and I decided that soup after such a cold and rainy day would be delicious. We cut up lots of veggies and made a minestrone-like pasta vegetable soup, and Jerome made delicious French crepes that we had before and after the soup. Putting blue cheese in the before the soup made a great appetizer and putting sugar, lemon, jam, chocolate, and whatever else sweet we could find (not all at the same time though) made a delicious dessert!

I really like the time we spent in Dublin, not only because I have wanted to go to Ireland to a while, but because in general everything went really well. We got to see the sights that we wanted, we had a great place to stay without having to pay for it, we got to meet Jerome (an awesome couch surfer), and in general just had a lot of fun. The couch surfing experience definitely made me a believer, and I plan on doing it in the future!

The Old Country

2008-05-01T18:50:00.009+02:00

Since Copenhagen is only a bridge away from Sweden these days, we took our free day and took a train to Malmo and Lund.

[Bathhouse!]

I hadn't been to Malmo since I was very young, but I knew that I had to let my friends experience something real Swedish. This, of course, would be the sauna experience. From wikitravel.com I read about a bath house that sits on the Oresund strait. After doing some research, I found out where it was and how much it cost. Only 55 Swedish crowns (about 8 dollars), my friends were up for it. What is amazing about the bath house is that it lies on a pier, out in the water, and you can go basically right from the sauna into the (freezing cold) water.

[The women's side]

The bathhouse is naturally divided into two sides, men's and women's, so that the Swedes can be as naked as they want without having to worry about the opposite sex. This meant that the girls (Annie, Casey, and Jessica) could have the whole process explained to them by me, but the boys (Sean, Tim and Aaron) were just released into a group of naked Swedish men without any warning. Although this was apparently an interesting experience for them, we all had fun relaxing in the saunas and being able to say that we bathed in the Baltic Sea in April. Everyone was pretty happy to do something really Swedish instead of just silly tourist things.

[Feeling relaxed, clean, and triumphant]

From there, we walked into the center of Malmo and saw what little sights there were
to see.

[Main square in Malmo]

While most people wanted to go to IKEA and eat Swedish meatballs in Sweden, Annie, Sean and I headed to Lund, about half an hour on the train north of Malmo, to visit some family friends. Friends of my parents from Chapel Hill, Eva and Bengt, were having a party for their son Jakob, who had just finished defending his dissertation. Since we were in the area, I asked Eva what they were doing that day, and they invited us to the party.

[Streets of Lund]

When we got there a little bit early, we went with Eva to pick up her other son Jonas' girlfriend. Jonas is a chef, and made all the delicious food for the party. Once at the party though, things started to get a little awkward. Everyone kept asking us how we knew Jakob, and I had to explain the long history of how we ended up at this party, since the last time I actually saw Jakob was probably 10 years ago. Annie and Sean probably felt even more uncomfortable, but I had to bring them with to have someone to talk to!

[Annie and Sean eating dinner...]

Unfortunately we had to leave early to catch the train back to Copenhagen and missed out on the speeches and dancing that followed. We did get great food, and while I got the chance to see Eva and Bengt, Annie and Sean got to see some of the idiosyncrasies of Swedes and Swedish parties, which they might have to get used to if they are going to stay friends with me!

Behind...

2008-05-01T18:46:00.002+02:00

I realize that I haven't posted in quite some time, but it has been because I have been incredibly busy ever since we got back from our trip. We only had three weeks of classes left after that, two of which overlapped with the new German Sommersemester that I am taking. So in the middle of taking exams, writing papers, etc, I also had to sign up for classes, make sure that I knew which ones to take, etc, and I took a weekend trip to Dublin with Annie and Sean, then had to move to my new apartment, all while saying goodbye to all my friends that are going home! It was busy. That being said, expect blogs on the following soon:

1) Sweden
2) Dublin
3) WG Gesucht
4) Sommersemester part 2
5) Goodbyes

Copenhagen

2008-04-17T17:59:00.021+02:00

When we arrived in Copenhagen on Monday morning, we were all pretty excited that we were going to be staying in a hotel. It was a one-star hotel. What exactly is a one-star hotel, you might ask. Well, the light in Annie and my room didn't work, and they weren't so pressed on fixing it, there were only three bathrooms and two showers on the whole floor, and the whole thing looked as if it came from East Germany...

On Tuesday, we got up early for a tour of Copenhagen's harbor and canals, on a short and wide boat that could go under all the bridges. The tour started in Nyhaven, or the new harbor, which is actually a cute little canal with lots of old boats and houses.

[Nyhaven]

The tour passed by the new Shakespeare theater, the new opera house, the stock exchange, Christiania, and the little Mermaid statue among other things. The tour was so well done and the city so beautiful that I took lots and lots of pictures.

[Annie, Jessica, and I on the tour]

[Beautiful Copenhagen]

After the tour was done, we went over to the royal palaces to watch the changing of the guard, which happens daily at noon. On our way, we stopped at the Marmorkirche (Marble Church), which had a wonderfully decorated interior and bizarre organ music playing. The Church, Castle and new National Opera House line up perfectly, supposedly reflecting the belief of God, state, and culture.

[Outside of the Church]

[Inside the Church]

After having seen guard changes in various different countries, I expected something at least a little bit exciting. However the Danish guard does a process that is very simple, simply to change the men guarding the palace. Although it was very precise, we couldn't watch the whole thing, and decided to leave and go to the Carlsberg Brewery instead.

[Changing of the guard]

The Carlsberg Brewery is a place that I visited once with my family when we came to Copenhagen. I was so young, I don't remember much, except huge copper containers, horses, and getting soda at the end of the tour. Since then, the tour and visitor center have changed a lot. It is not a self guided tour through a museum about the history of Carlsberg, as well as a comparison between the process they used to make beer and how they do it now. Unfortunately, there is no longer a place where you can see them actually brewing the beer. But, at the end of the tour, they have a really cool section, where you can smell different smells associated with beer. You then cross off which smells you liked, and they tell you which beers contain those smells. Then, you can go to the bar and get two free beers of your choice. When I first went to Carlsberg, my favorite part were the horses. Today, the end of the tour was a lot more interesting, but the horses were still fun.

[By the elephants at the brewery]

[Recreating an old photo...]

[Getting slobbered on by horses]

[Taking advantage of all the tour offered]

On Wednesday, we had a tour of the "Free Town of Christiania." Founded in the 70s, the state claims to be separate from Denmark and follow its own laws. Basically, a bunch of students and left-wingers squatted old military barracks and the Danish government let them stay there because they were afraid of radical groups forming, like the Red Army Faction in West Germany. About 600 people live in Christiania, and our tour gave an overview of the history, an explanation of how things are set up, and a general look around.

[View of rooftops in Christiania]

One of the biggest controversies surrounding Christiania is the legality of marijuana. One of their laws is that marijuana is legal, so many people who don't live there come to "Pusher Street" to sell. With a change to a more conservative government, this has been causing problems lately for the Christianias. Even as we were there, a bunch of police came in and tried to hold a raid. But, they can't really arrest anyone without hard evidence, which the dealers usually hide before the police can find it. It seemed like a raid more to threaten the dealers than really try to arrest anyone. Although the Christianias are mostly hippies who probably do smoke marijuana, my personal belief is that they are upset with the government because the government is showing a blatant lack of respect for the laws of Christiania by doing these raids. More concretely, they are trying to prevent more people from moving in and trying to tear down houses of those who move out.

[Christiania]

After that, Sean and I went to the Danish National Museum. Free everyday, it has not only artifacts from Denmark but also collections from all over the world. Like some other museums that I have been to in Berlin, there is one half that is new and very well presented, and another half that is somewhat drier. But since the museum is free, you really can't complain!

[The Danish National Opera House by day]

That night, Dirk managed to get us tickets to the opera at the National Danish Opera House. The architect is the same one who designed the famous Sydney Opera House, and Copenhagen hopes it will be noticed by the world community as well. For such a large building, the actual hall is rather small, with seats going up very steeply so that even the seats highest up (where we were sitting) still have a good view. Even though we had nosebleed seats and were a group of seventy, the tickets still cost about 70 Euros each! But it was definitely worth it. The opera, being all in Danish, couldn't really be understood even with my knowledge of Swedish, but the costumes and scenery were amazing and it was just fun to be in such a place.

[Sean and I on our way to the Opera]

[Annie, me and Casey]

[Inside]

[FU Friends at the opera!]

[Copenhagen by night]

On Thursday, we learned that there had been a riot in Christiania the night before. During the raid that we had experienced, apparently a police officer shot a dog as a show of power. Of course, with all the debate that is going on about Christiania, this was the perfect opportunity for them to react. When we arrived the next day, there were huge burn marks in the street where bonfires had been, debris and rubble still smoking in others, furniture stores that had been broken into, and street lights that had been chopped in half.

[A little part of the aftermath of the riot]

From there we headed to the Little Mermaid statue. The mermaid symbol of Copenhagen taken from Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale that we all had to take a picture with.

[With the little Mermaid]

From there we met the whole group for an excursion. We had a tour scheduled at Kronborg Slot in Helsingor. This might not mean a lot of everyone, but Elsinore might be more familiar. In any case, it is the castle that Shakespeare based Hamlet on. Although this is what the castle is famous for, our tour guide wanted us to be aware of the fact that Hamlet is a work of fiction, and didn't actually happen in this castle. But it is based on events that happened in this castle. The best part of the tour was how the tour guide kept taking about how much the Swedes had stolen from the castle. Since it is the closest part to Sweden, apparently the Swedes marauded it a couple of times and are still selling things back to the Danes. Maybe I should have told him that he should be careful since even in a group of Americans he could be offending Swedes...

[Reenacting Hamlet... feel free to guess who is who]

[The castle]

Hamburg: Art, Opera, Harbors, Beaches, and Spices

2008-04-08T19:30:00.013+02:00

On Saturday, we had basically the whole day free, so we decided to go to the Kunsthalle, or Museum or Art. Like the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the museum had both old and modern art. Modern art is always more interesting to me, and they had a very large section devoted to it.

[Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe]

My favorite pieces were the video installations; a particularly interesting piece was a State of the Union address given by George Bush, where all the words were cut up and alphabetized. It was quite amazing how many times he said "Merica" and how simple his vocabulary was. The museum was quite extensive, and we ended up spending most of the day there.

[Me, Annie, Jessica and Casey before the Opera]

On Saturday night, we had tickets to the opera as a group. At the Hamburg Kammeroper, we saw a very modern rendition of Orpheus and Eurydice. The story is about a man who is so depressed after the death of his wife that he tries to go to Hades to rescue her. Along with other challenges, he is allowed to, as long as he does not look at her before they are out of hell. Of course, he cannot do this and ends up looking at her.

[The Kammeroper]

In the opera we saw, Orpheus does not go to hell, but rather gets high and has some sort of trip where he imagines seeing Eurydice. It would have been alright to see such a modern rendition, but it was also poorly staged. Almost all the action happened on the floor, and due to the seating, we could not see what was happening in the small theater from our seats.

[Group on the boat]

On Sunday, we got up early for a tour of Hamburg's harbor with the whole group. After a late start, our boat tour began. Although Hamburg has very pretty canals, they are somewhat hard to navigate because of the difference in the tide. So instead, our tour was of the large Harbor that Hamburg is known for.

[Chinese shipping boat]

For two hours, we heard about Hamburg's harbor. This meant we got details about how many ships come in, what they deliver, how they are transported, etc. There was very little about Hamburg as a historic harbor and more about it's modern day functions. This was of course, not what we expected and not what most people would have enjoyed.

[Part of the old harbor that is left, cranes that used to haul up goods. Hamburg was once a big port with spices and goods coming in from all over the world. The commercial sale is now mainly oriental carpets.]

After the harbor tour, we went to the "Spicy's Spice Museum." The only spice museum in the world, it talks about where spices come from, how they are extracted from plants, how the spice trade was run, why spices were important, and most importantly, has a whole section where you can taste and smell the spices.

[All different kinds of spices.]

[Everyone smelling the spices.]

It wasn't a very large museum, but it was really interesting to learn about the spices and where they come from. But best of all was really getting to experience all the spices.

[On the boat, which are part of public transportation, on the way to the beaches]

After the Spice Museum, the sun started poking out and we rushed over to Hamburg's "beaches" that lie along the river in hopes of enjoying the sun. However, by the time we got to the beaches, it was already cloudy again. We did have a good time watching the Germans on their Sunday walks though.

[Annie and I on the beach]

After the beach we headed to the infamous St. Pauli and Reeperbahn, since we had been told it was one of the sights to see in Hamburg. St. Pauli is the biggest red-light district in Europe. Even though the rest of the city claims to be classy, the Reeperbahn really brings it down a notch. Even during the day it was seedy and uncomfortable... almost scary. In general, not a good place to hang out, yet way too much emphasis is put on it as a tourist attraction in Hamburg, and even a place where regular bars and clubs are. I would advise to see it only as a sight, but not to expect to find anything of real interest there.

Hamburg: A Tour and a Carnival

2008-04-03T19:18:00.013+02:00

As part of the tuition that we pay for the FU BEST Program, we get a 9-day excursion/ trip with the whole group. This semester's trip is to Hamburg and Copenhagen. We left last Friday and get back on Saturday, so I am updating my blog before we are done here in Copenhagen.

On Friday morning, we left for Hamburg from the Hauptbahnhof with an Intercity Express (ICE) train. Although we are 75 people, which makes it very hard to move around as a group, only one person missed the train. Once at the station in Hamburg, we got our transportation passes and moved on to the youth hostel that we were staying at. Dirk, our program director, had booked rooms for us at the Hosteling International Hostel (like the one that we stayed at in Binz, except nicer). The hostel was right on the waterfront, with breakfast and dinner included.

Since we couldn't check in until 1 and we had a walking tour that started at 3, so some friends and I decided to just walk around until then. Hamburg is a port city, which obviously means a large port and industrial area, but also a tendency for commerce and capitalism. As such, it is a pretty rich city. In fact, it has the most number of millionaires of many German city and a very high cost of living. Walking around the city, there are tons of expensive shops, almost no cars that arn't BMWs, Mercedes, Porches, VWs, MGs, etc, and houses that have ridiculously high rents.

[group exploring Hamburg]

[Nikolaikirche, bombed and now a memorial.]

At 3, we got a walking tour of Hamburg, where are tour guide just emphasized how rich and high class of a city Hamburg is. It has always been a port, with commerce being the most important trade and a center of the old Hanseatic League (which it still prides itself on). However, our tour guide also made the dichotomy of the city very apparent. On the one side is the commerce, while on the other is the Reeperbahn and St. Pauli, the largest red light district in Europe.

[Town Hall in Hamburg]

[Annie and me in front of the fountain that sits in the courtyard between the stock exchange and the town hall]

[Hamburg is sometimes called Venice of the north because of it's canals]

[Haborcity, the largest construction site in Europe. Basically a really rich area of the city where expensive apartments are being built that just have hideous views of the industrial area of Hamburg. I wouldn't pay money to live there]

[The car elevator in Hamburg; a tunnel that has two elevators on both sides for the cars. It is also closed on the weekends, and can be rented out for parties]

After a nap and dinner, we headed to the DOM carnival that happens in Hamburg three times a year. It was really fun to be at a carnival [the lights, excitement, rides, etc], but it was also really fun to see cultural differences in the kinds of rides and stands that they have [for example, a lot of beer and beer gardens, as well as fish sandwiches].

[DOM!]

[Girls on the Ferris Wheel]

[The Carnival from the Ferris Wheel]

The night at the Carnival was topped off with fireworks!

Ostern an der Ostsee!

2008-03-25T21:28:00.020+01:00

This Easter Weekend, we made an impromptu trip to the Baltic Sea, since our planned trip to Basel, Switzerland got a little too expensive. Like last time we traveled inside Germany, we used the Schones-Wochenende ticket, which is nice and cheap and lets five people travel together.

In the fabulous German travel guide that I have (Eyewitness Travel: Germany), there was a two-page spread on the island of Rugen that lies on the Baltic Sea. Being and old East German vacation spot and having spectacular nature, I thought it would be a good place for a short visit.

We left early on Saturday morning and when we arrived in Rugen, the weather was not exactly a beach vacation. Some of our teachers asked us why we would go to Rugen in the winter, and I can understand what they meant...

[on the pier in the wind and cold...]

When we arrived in Binz, we first checked into our hostel, which was a real Jugendeherberge, run by the German Youth Hostel Association. The price of 25 euros/night included breakfast and dinner. It was definitely for youth, and their were families and kids running around all over the place.

After we got properly dressed for the weather (with lots of layers and hats and scarves), we went to find the Easter-fire that was supposed to be happening. Whether it was because of the weather or because we had misinterpreted it, I'm not sure, but we couldn't find the fire. There were, however, volunteer fireman trying to raise money.

[Firetruck in Binz]

We decided to walk out onto the long pier. If the high waves weren't enough of a warning, the people coming back from the end of the pier very wet should have been. We walked out to the end of the pier, against the wind, anyway. At the end of the pier, we watched the stormy sea and took pictures. Just as we were about to turn around, a huge wave came, struck the pier, splashed up, and got us soaking wet.

[Sean and I on the pier]

[Watching the big wave come in]

[The after-shock of being completely soaked by the Baltic]

After the shock wore off, we walked down the main street of Binz, which was about three blocks long. Binz reminded me a lot of Pucon in Chile. It is a small town whose main (perhaps only) purpose is for tourism. And like Pucon, Binz's tourism is a little higher class. Having formerly been in East Germany, Binz is now flooded with hotels, bed and breakfast inns, restaurants and stores like "Lacoste." But, this is pretty common, since Germans are the most traveling people in Europe and travel the most within their own country. Binz is just trying to capitalize on an economic opportunity. It is a cute town, but might be better enjoyed with more money.

[Binz from the Pier]

[Main Street in Binz]

The next day, the stormy weather had magically cleared and we were left with a (still cold) blue-skied day.

[Nicer weather...]

We walked around Binz some more before we took the bus to Sassnitz to see the chalk cliffs.

[On the beach in Binz]

[Binz is so small the little train is a form of public transportation...]

We walked from Sassnitz to one end of the Nationalpark Jasmund, which is world-famous for the chalk cliffs there. After a walk in the snow-covered woods, we finally got to the cliffs.

[The crew walking in the woods]

[Annie in the woods... pondering about having a white Easter instead of a white Christmas... isn't it supposed to be spring?]

[Finally at the cliffs! The water was a milky color from all the chalk]

From our walk in the woods, we took stairs down to the beach. The beach was made of rocks, most of which were flint (flint comes from veins in chalk...). The flint was mostly covered in chalk, but could easily be broken to show the black rock inside. From the rocks, high white cliffs rose above us, strangely white and strangely soft to the touch.

[Happy to be on the beach! In a National Park!]

[Looking down the beach]

[Chalk cliff]

[Veins of flint]

Walking along the beach, we magically ended up back in Sassnitz, and had an ice cream along the port, where there were lots of cafes and restaurants.

[David, Annie, John, and Sean eating ice cream]

[Very cool footbridge in Sassnitz, to get from where the main street is to where the port is]

From there, it was time to head back to the train station and go back to the city.

Berlin by Bike

2008-03-16T17:57:00.002+01:00

The strike took an interesting turn today, with the public transportation running on a holiday schedule for the week, in order to take advantage of all the tourists coming to town before Easter. However, other methods of transportation have become absolutely necessary, since the strike is likely to resume after Easter again. Luckily for me, Marlies is letting me use Paula's old bike. Even though I say 'old,' it is still in really good condition and serves me just fine.

Berlin is also a very bike-friendly city. Not only is the city really, really flat (making changing gears or gears at all almost unnecessary] there is an infrastructure of bike paths, bike lanes and bike lights on almost every street in the city. The drivers are also really conscious of the bikers, which definitely makes me feel better about biking on the street, and the pedestrians have a lot of respect for the bikers, almost always getting out of the way on sidewalks. If you want to read more about it, I found an article about Berlin's bike infrastructure.

Since the nearest S-bahn station is about a 15-20 minute walk from my house, the best option that I have is to ride my bike. Sometimes it means I ride my bike to the station and lock it up there or sometimes I even bring it on the train if I think its not going to be too crowded. When I am feeling really ambitious, I just bike all the way to where I am going.

With the help of our student Assistant Luis, who basically bikes everywhere in the city, I found a good way to bike to classes. It takes me about 45 minutes to bike to school, which is the same that it takes with public transportation, but I am obviously getting more of a workout. (After the first day biking I realized I had to bring a shirt to change into once I got to school).

In addition to biking to school, I have biked to the Tiergarten to have a picnic with Annie, the Opera, the Consulate to apply for my new Swedish passport, the Turkish Market, and many other places.

Not only is biking a good form of exercise, it is a great way to see the city. There are so many new places, neighborhoods, stores, etc that I have discovered biking around the city that there is probably no other way that I would have learned about them. On a sunny day biking in Berlin makes me appreciate the city a lot more.

Portugal - Porto

2008-03-16T17:24:00.010+01:00

We got into Porto late, which in a way was good since Pete could come and meet us at the bus station. We walked around a little bit to see some of the bigger sites and then headed back to his house. He lives in an Erasmus House, which is where students studying abroad within Europe (usually) live together. Kind of like a dorm, each student in Pete's house has their own room, but most have to share bathrooms on the hall. There is also a large kitchen and laundry room, which everyone has access to. Amazingly, Pete lives with 22 other students.

The night we came, they were actually having a dinner for some students that we leaving the house. We got to chat with them a little, but since they mostly spoke Portuguese with each other, it made it harder. After that, we ended up going to a popular student bar/cafe. It was crazy how many people were there, not only in the locale, but also all over the street around it. Porto definitely seems to be a much more student/university based city than Lisbon. From there, we ended up at another bar, where there some interesting folk dancing going on. Still a hip place, we ended up folk dancing for a little while, even though we had no idea what we were doing.

The next day, we got up early to see Porto. Since Pete had to work, he just gave us some tips about what we needed to do in city. We started at the 'Cristal Palace,' which was an interesting dome with gardens around it and nice views of the river. We even caught sight of some chickens and peacocks roaming the park.

[the park]

[peacock!]

[view of porto and the river, with a plaque showing it in earlier years]

[delicious pastry! "pastel de nata" an egg-custard cup of deliciousness]

From there, we walked through town down to the river. Porto definitely has a very 'old-Europe' feel, very different from Lisbon. The houses we old, fit together very interestingly and colorful.

[houses in Porto]

[big bridge in Porto]

[by the river]

[Annie and me... we don't just look tired, we were tired]

On the other side of the river, there are lots of Port (the sweet wine that comes from Portugal) distilleries. Since they need to do some sort of advertising, they almost all offer free wine-testing, and others have tours. We ended up going into one and getting an explanation of the different kinds of Port and then tasting a little. It was really interesting to get to learn about the wine rather than just drink it.

[One distillery, not the one we went to]

After walking around Porto and seeing the sites, we jumped on a bus to Lisbon with Pete in the afternoon; a bus ride that included some delicious sandwiches that we made. Pete was on his way down to southern Portugal to spend the weekend with some French students on the beach.

Annie and I spent our last night in Portugal reflecting on how much fun we had in such a short amount of time and enjoying the last moments of our vacation.

Portugal - Peniche

2008-03-12T20:47:00.010+01:00

On our next day in Portugal, we decided it would be worth it to head up to Porto to visit my friend Pete, which was kind of one of the original reasons we were going to Portugal anyway.

But, since we were on our spring break, we really wanted to stop at a beach along the way. We ended up finding a town called Peniche to stop at. We could take a bus from Lisbon to Peniche, spend a couple of hours there, and then take a bus up to Porto.

Our journey started in the morning, where the girl working at the hostel informed us it would be better to go to the Oriente Station, quite a ways away from where our hostel was. Since there were two stations in Lisbon, I wanted to make sure we were going to the right one. She assured us we were.

Annie and I got to the bus station with plenty of time to spare, but looking around, we couldn't find the bus line we needed to take. Asking where those buses went (in my Spanish with what I think is a Portuguese accent), we found out that we actually had to be at the other bus stationon the other side of town. Clearly we weren't gonna make it.

We ended up slowly making are way over to the other bus station to catch the next bus. We stopped on our way to buy some awesome sunglasses and snacks for the day.

[Awesome new sunglasses. Very cheap too]

When we finally got to Peniche, we ended up at a very strange bus station in the middle of an industrial section of town. But the beach was only a five minute walk, and that's all we wanted. We made it there and it was gorgeous!

[beach in Peniche]

[Annie, unlike me, was very brave and actually went into the water. If we squinted we could see the US on the other side of the Atlantic]

[Nothing like that Portuguese sunshine to make our problems go away...]

[Town of Peniche jutting out into the ocean]

[Annie and I enjoying sunshine and clemetines on the beach]

[Jumping for joy on the BEACH in FEBRUARY!]

Although we were only in Peniche for a couple of hours, it was definitely relaxing and worth a little stop over. Absolutely fabulous to be at the beach again!

Portugal! (Lisbon)

2008-03-08T10:34:00.003+01:00

After a weekend stuck in Berlin, lamenting over our lost things and what we don't like about Germans and Germany, Annie and I knew that we had to get out. Since we still had our return flights from Lisbon to Berlin, we decided that we might as well buy new flights to Lisbon for the sake of our sanity. The U.S. Consulate was also super helpful in this situation, being able to give us emergency passports within a day.

On Tuesday morning, we arrived to a sunny, blue-skied Lisbon, so happy to finally be on our vacation.

[On the streets of Lisbon in short sleeves!]

We made reservations at a pretty cheap hostel near Marques de Pombal (not pronounced at all like it is written), that included a nice breakfast and internet. Since our room wasn't ready when we got there, we dropped off our stuff and decided to look around town. We started by walking to the Placa de Comercio, where the old palace is. The streets and houses were extremely pretty, but relatively modern.

[at the Placa de Comercio]

From there we headed up into the old Islamic neighborhood, where the facades of the buildings were all covered in tiles. Annie had heard about a bi-weekly flea market in the area, so we set out to find it. Right by the old Pantheon, we found tons of street vendors (from hobos probably selling stolen stuff they found in bars to legitimate businessmen) selling their items. We only ended up buying some buttons and a couple of souvenirs, since not speaking the language barred the whole understanding how much things cost process.

[tile-facade buildings]

[a little part of the flea market]

[by the Pantheon]

We then kept walking up a hill and got a beautiful view of the city. Like Valparaiso, Lisbon is built on hills, right by the water (a river, not quite the ocean), and the whole town made me miss my old home a lot. The buildings were worn down and homey, just like the old English architecture in Valparaiso, there were palm trees, friendly people with dark complexions, sunshine, the ocean... All of Portugal seemed to have an interesting mix of European and Latin cultures. If only I could have understood Portuguese with all the Spanish I know...

[looking over Lisbon]

[view of Lisbon... with the Mediterranean look]

Having seen a castle up on a hill all day, Annie and I walked until we found it. It ended up being a castle built in the 11th century by Moors when they ruled Portugal. the old castle was very pretty itself, but the views of Lisbon were much more interesting.

[at the top]

After that, we attempted to find a late lunch/dinner. But, our vegetarianism got in the way - all the restaurants we found only had meat or fish on the menu. Since we hadn't eaten all day, we definitely weren't planning on settling for sides of bread and salad. We decided it might be better to check the touristy stuff in the center of town. We ended up having luck finding an Italian restaurant run by South-East Asians that had vegetarian options. It was great to sit down, have a nice meal, and drink so Portuguese wine after a long day of walking.

We woke around 8 or 8:30 on Wednesday, got ready, had a big breakfast, and headed out to check out the rest of Lisbon and surrounding area. We started by going uphill towards the Parque Eduard VII, where we came across Lisboners walking their dogs and some interesting statues.

[at Parque Eduard VII right by Marques de Pombal]

We had a plan to take the 28 bus from there, since apparently it is good for sightseeing, and would take us to the Torre de Belem and the Belem Neighborhood, downstream from Lisbon's center. After wandering around, taking numerous buses., magically showing up at the transportation headquarters, finally buying a 24 hour transit pass, and finding the 28 bus, we finally made it to Belem.

Located west of Lisbon's city center, Belem has the Monastery dos Jeronimos, the museums of art, archeology, and maritime museum, as well as the "Cultural Center of Belem." If we had had more money, I'm sure we would have been able to explore these better.

[Annie and I in front of Monastery dos Jeronimos]

[enjoying the sunshine]

[Annie and I at the Torre de Belem]

The symbol of Belem, the Torre de Belem, is an old watchtower that used to sit in the middle of the Tujo River until an earthquake changed the course of the river. It reminded me of some prison that would be romanticized in a Pirates of the Caribbean film.

[The Monument of Discoveries... looking to conquer!]

We then walked, in the sunshine and along the water, to the Monument of Discoveries, commemorating the role Portugal played in the Age of Discovery. They also had a huge map on the ground of the world, showing where Portugal established colonies. Of course Annie and I couldn't resist having some fun with it!

[Longing for Valparaiso!]

[That's Maryland!!]

Across the river from Lisbon, a huge Jesus statue overlooks the city. It is based on the very famous one that looks over Rio de Janiero in Brazil. We took a ferry across to a very different place from the Lisbon we had seen. In an old, dirty outdoor bus station, we found to bus that would take us to Cristo Rei. We bought very cheap round-trip tickets and drove uphill through a much poorer, run-down city.

We finally made it to Cristo Rei (being only two of four tourists on the bus), a 100m tall statue. It cost 4 euro to get to the top (via elevator and some stairs), and was worth the views of Lisbon. It was clearly not a touristy place, I guess since it was so far from the center of Lisbon, but was still pretty cool.

[Annie and I at Jesus' feet]

[Lisbon!]

When we got back to Lisbon, we took the metro home, and had officially used all four types of transit methods that Lisbon had to offer. Obviously less developed than the system in Berlin, but still very good for getting around.

[Annie and I getting ready to go out!]

For dinner, Annie and I decided not to take any chances and found a vegetarian restaurant online that was pretty close to our hostel. (The internet is your friend while travelling!) It ended up being a buffet, with lots of different salads, hot and cold dishes, and even some typical Portuguese dishes cooked with veggie substitutes.

After eating so much great food, we headed to the Bairro Alto (High-up Neighborhood), where there are supposed to be a lot of bars and clubs to check out the scene. Although there was a lot to be offered on a Wednesday night, it was bizarre how many people were just hanging out outside different locales and not really going in anywhere. We headed home pretty early in order to be able to head up to the beaches and Porto the next day.

Snowflakes and Workers' Strikes

2008-03-07T22:02:00.002+01:00

Since my last post, I have been extremely busy trying to make sure I exist as a person (by getting our emergency passport), making sure that my sanity was not lost (by finally getting to Portugal and having a vacation), and showing my mom and brother around Berlin. However, all of my life has been made harder in the last week by the strike of "ver.di," the BVG Workers' Union.

After the warning strike that I wrote about that happened about a month ago, apparently the union did not get what they wanted. So, they decided to go on a strike of undetermined length, which started last Wednesday. The strike means that all U-bahns (subways), buses, and trams are not running (although there are some routes being covered by emergency buses). However, for now, the S-bahn is still running.

In my earlier post about the BVG, I said that it is the way to travel around Berlin. Now that it has stopped running, everyone is having trouble getting around. I live very close to the U-bahn - about a five minute walk. The nearest S-bahn is 20-30 minutes walking. This means that getting anywhere is taking way longer than it should.

To make things worse in the chaos of Berlin transport, it snowed for basically the first time all winter on Wednesday. It was really nice to have snow cover the city, but it made trekking around to find packed S-bahn stations really hard.

To make matters even worse, there is talk of the S-bahn train drivers striking on Monday. If that is the case, movement around Berlin might be near impossible for us car-less people. Although biking is an option I have explored, it is still much less convenient.

Why you don't stay out all night...

2008-02-24T11:08:00.003+01:00

On our way to the airport for our Spring Break vacation, Annie and I decided to stay out all night, since we had to be at the airport very early and we wanted to go to Stammtisch. We took all our stuff with us, since we figured that it would ensure that we were not pressed for time to go back to my place, then go to the airport, and not miss our flight. I had conflicted feelings about it, simply because I have had experiences and heard stories about staying out all night leading to bad things before traveling. But we still felt like it was the safest way to ensure we would make it to the airport on time, with all of our stuff.

When we got to the bar, we put our stuff down next to some friends, and went around, talked to people, I felt like at least keeping a slight eye on our stuff. Around midnight, our stuff was still there, because I put a shirt I was wearing into my purse. At 12:15, when we checked our stuff again, it was gone. My purse (which had my passports, my cell phone, my ids, my money, my bankcards, my address book, my keys, etc), Annie's traveling backpack with all her clothes, and her other bag with her travel documents, were all gone. Luckily, Annie had her wallet and her cell phone on her.

As soon as it happened, we searched the bar, thinking that it may have been moved. Then we called the police, went to the police station and filed the police report. After that, Sean and I walked around the neighborhood, thinking that maybe after they took the valuables, they just ditched the rest. But we found nothing.

The fact is that we did leave our stuff unattended, and being told over and over how safe a city Berlin is, combined with the fact that it was a small bar where we knew half the people there, I never expected this to happen. It is something that I would have never, ever, and never ever did do in Chile, and I probably would never do it at home either. But, I guess I've learned that it doesn't matter where you are, how safe you think a place is, or what you assume about the people, there are bad people out there.

Now, we are waiting to hear from the police (which I am not so confident that we will), go to the consulate and get new travel papers (I have no desire in remaining in Berlin for the rest of Spring Break), check the "Lost and Found" of the city (perhaps maybe some good, law abiding German turned something in), and try to book a flight to Portugal (since we still have our return flights) or just go somewhere else.

Sommersemester

2008-02-19T20:20:00.002+01:00

Although I had been seriously thinking about it, and basically planning it, it is now official that I will be staying for the Freie Universitaet's "Sommersemester." In Germany, they have two semesters that don't work at all the same as the U.S. semester system. The "Wintersemester" goes from about October to March, and the "Sommersemester" goes from April to July.

Since the FU BEST program is designed to only go from January till April, those students who are at the intermediate and advanced levels have the option of staying and attending the "Sommersemester." I have officially signed my enrollment form, saying that I will be staying for this as well!

In the coming weeks and months, I will choose courses and find a place to live. As for courses, one of them will probably be a German class for foreign students, and then I will probably take a content courses completely in German, with German students. I hope to check all over the internet to find a place to live in a "Wohngemeinschaft" (a WG for short). It is basically a shared apartment that is usually more of a community living feel, where students live together, but also cook meals and have fun together. Hopefully it will be a good way to get closer to the slightly cold Germans and practice speaking.

On the down side, it will mean that I have less than a month of summer vacation when I return to the US in late July.

Midterms?

2008-02-17T21:08:00.002+01:00

Is it the middle of the term already? I find it hard to believe, but this week I have two tests (both on Monday) in my "content courses" (History and Cinema), a short essay, a presentation and a test in German. This week is official Midterm Week, and it is a lot of work. But, at the end of it comes a long needed vacation to Portugal with Annie for a week!

We'll see if I survive tomorrow first though...

Pictures!

2008-02-16T15:07:00.002+01:00

Check out some full albums from Berlin!

Bunker tour, East Side Gallery, and wandering around.

Gruene Woche.

Bundeskanzleramt and Stasi Tours.

BVG

2008-02-16T14:27:00.004+01:00

Die BVG, or Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, is the system of public transportation in Berlin, and includes the U-bahn (metro), the different kinds of buses, the Strassenbahn (or streetcars), and even a boat that crosses the Wannsee. [Although the S-bahn (a faster, more far-reaching train transit in Berlin), is also part of the public transportation, it is actually run by the Deutsche Bahn, which runs all the trains in Germany.]

[a map of the different nets of the BVG and S-bahn; click to make it bigger]

The BVG is how you get anywhere and everywhere in greater Berlin. I am convinced that you can be placed anywhere in the city and without walking very far at all, you can get exactly where you are going in a reasonable amount of time. Every kind of stop that you could get to (bus, Strassenbahn, S-bahn, U-bahn, etc) not only has the map above, it also has a detailed street map of the area that you are in. Plus, every stop has a time table, and the Germans are very serious about running on time.

If you have the internet when you need to find out where you are going, you simply check out bvg.de, available in English and German, and enter your starting and ending points, and they will tell you about how far you have to walk, what kind of transport you have to take, where you have to change, and exactly how long it will take you. You can even enter when you have to be there and it will tell you when you have to leave.

Another crazy element of the the public transportation is that no one checks your tickets on the way in, except sometimes bus drivers. You simply get on and off the trains as you want, and they assume that you have the proper ticket. Randomly, checkers will board the train and ask to see everyone's ID. If at that time, you don't have your ticket, you get a hefty fine of 60 Euros. Of course, for some Schwatzfahrer (illegal riders), it is worth it to take the risk, since getting checked is a seldom occasion in most areas.

This system amazes me. First of all, it can't even be compared to the public transportation in Washington, D.C., where you can barely get where you are going with public transportation, unless you are willing to take all day to get there.

Last semester I wrote about the "micros" that get you where you need to go in Chile. And although they were very effective, the differences between these systems show the differences between German and Chile culture very clearly. In Chile, there was no map or timetable that told you when your bus was going to come, but it came and got you where you wanted to go pretty quick. Here, there is a map and a timetable, and the bus (or other transport) will always follow the timetable and the exact route it is supposed to take. Perhaps because Valparaiso is built on hills, the only good method of transport is the buses, but there was also a metro (just one line) that ran, as well as Trolleybuses, but I never even needed to ride them. Berlin, on the other hand, tries to use as many different types of transport as necessary to get people where they need to go, including the boat that takes you across the Wannsee in south-west Berlin. Finally, all the public transportation in Berlin is free with your student ID. It doesn't have to be that you are a student and need to get another BVG ID that is free or something complicated. You simply show that you are a student (using your student 'Ausweis,' ID) if anyone checks, and you are good to go. In Chile, the micro drivers were ever-so-serious about paying exactly the amount you needed to (even if it was only 25 cents)and definitely wouldn't let you get away with paying less, although they sometimes wouldn't give you the proper change.

Berlinale

2008-02-12T14:07:00.000+01:00

This year is the 58th annual Berlin International Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale. As a part of the cinema class that I am taking, we were required to go to two specific films that were being shown. The fact that we got to take part in such a large international film festival was really cool, but the fact that the movies we had to see were at 9 oclock on a Sunday morning was not.

The first film we saw was entitled 'Nach vor Augen' (Night Before Eyes) by Birgitte Bertele. Based on a book, the story follows a German soldier, David, returning home from his service in Afganistan. He returns home to his extatic girlfriend, his worried mother, and his admiring little brother. But his time in battle was not without grief; he sufferes from severe post-traumatic stress disorder after having shot a little boy in the head. He sees the child sitting on his bed everynight, he wets the bed, and has flashbacks of the incident. When David returns, his little brother wants nothing more than to be just like him. The psycologically damaged David takes this opporunity to deal with his grief in a sick way. David ends up making his little brother physically hurt David, kill his pet rabbit, and almost shoot David. Finally David's actions go to far and become too irrational that he has to go to a psyciatric hospital. The movie ends as David returns once again, with the question still looming of whether he is 'better.'

This film was a very hard, real subject, but very well done on both the part of the actors and the director. Having the director and the main actors speak after the showing gave insight into what they were trying to accomplish and how they felt about making this moving.

The second film we saw, Josef Fares' 'Leo,' was a stark contrast to this. Initially I was excited about seeing a film by Fares, since he is a Swedish director and has made good movies in the past. However, the film had almost no value in my mind, and having Fares speak after the showing of the film only made it worse.

The film begins with Leo coming home from his 30th birthday party with his girlfriend, when they get attacked by two men on the street. Leo's girlfriend ends up dying, and he cannot deal with teh grief. He decides that the only way he will ever feel any better is with revenge. From there it sprials into a hainous situation of revenge, violence, and psychotic decisions that only lead Leo and his friends into a darker hole.

Although perhaps something can be said for this movie talking about the randomness of violence and how revenge can never be the solution, the movie was far too violent and if this was the meaning, it was lost. However, from what Fares said after the movie, I'm not even sure this was his intention. When I asked why he chose to go from the comedies that he has made to this movie, he gave no meaningful answer. When others asked him about the making of this film, he kind of laughed and said that him and his friends just had fun with it. It was really unimaginable that they could have been having 'fun' while shooting something so serious, depressing, and dark. On my sundae of disliking this movie, that was really the cherry on top. I do not recommend the film.

After a dark Sunday morning spent inside a theater, the first movie was a pleasant suprise from European cinema, about a subject that seems better fitting of the United States, and the second an utter disappointment of Fares' work as a director.

A Romantic Weekend

2008-02-11T17:08:00.000+01:00

As part of the FUBEST Program, we get tickets to four "cultural events" around the city. This includes concerts, opera and ballet performances, and for the less cultured, soccer games. Two of the performances that I chose to attend were both this past weekend, and unknowingly, were in the Romantic style.

The first was on Saturday night, when I went to the Berliner Philharmoniker to see the Berlin Symphony Orchestra perform three separate pieces, all by Romantic composers. My first impression of the Philharmoniker is the building that it is in. A block away from Potsdamer Platz, the building actually has two concert halls that are both rather large. The small one, where the concert was held, was in a circular room that had the stage in the middle. Not only were the acoustics great, it was also interesting to be able to see the whole orchestra.

The first piece, by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, was Herbrides Overture, the shortest piece, and very well done. It was followed by Frederic Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-minor, with Ayakp Fukutomi playing the piano. Although she did an extremely amazing job playing the piece (entirely from memory), it was my least favorite piece of the night. However, I'm not a fan of Chopin in general. The last piece was by far my favorite, for many reasons. To go out with a bang, the orchestra played Antonin Dvorak's Symphonie No. 9 in E-minor, more commonly known as his "New World Symphony." First of all, Dvorak is my favorite Romantic composer, probably because his Romantic style is the most down to earth, in my opinion, with his use of folk themes. I also particularly enjoy the New World Symphony because I have played it at least once in orchestra in high school. The Berlin Symphony did a fabulous job playing this piece and it was a perfect end to a very good concert.

Last night, I went to see Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg at the Deutscher Oper. Another modern musical venue, it is not as pompous as the old Staatsoper, and almost ever seat in the hall is a good one. I was very impressed that they stayed so true and classical to the Opera, not trying to change it and set it in another time or any other crazy ideas that they might have to try to improve the original. The orchestra was also very good, and must be given a lot of credit, since the opera is one of the longest in history, and they play the entire time.

As for the opera itself, I found it OK. Part of it may have been that it is in German, and although they had surtitles in German, it was old German, and I had no dictionary. And again, I am not the biggest fan of Romantic music; I finally realized five to six hours of Wagner is not especially the type of opera that I wanted to see. I knew that Die Meistersinger is one of the longest operas, but I didn't realize that it would start at four and be over at ten. This all being said, plus the fact that I had a German test to study for, made it so that I felt I had to leave the performance during the second intermission. I felt bad, and had it been under different circumstances, I would have stayed, but it just wasn't the day for it.

The Lives of Others

2008-02-09T18:04:00.000+01:00

On Friday, we had a mandatory field trip with a theme of "The Stasi Legacy." The Stasi is the common name for the Ministry of State Security (Secret Police) that existed in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1950 to 1989. If you have seen the movie, "Das Leben der Anderen" ("The Lives of Others") you already know some about the organization.

Splitting our huge group into two smaller ones, my half headed to the old Stasi headquarters, where they had their offices. A once pretty huge compound, now holds the Stasi Museum. We had a guided tour with Stefan, who gave us a good overview of the Stasi and what they did, as well as a highlighted tour of the museum.

The museum is in the main building of the complex, where the minister had his office. Two floors of the museum are filled with information about the Stasi, as well as some of the techniques that they used to spy on citizens. The Stasi was huge, having 91,000 employees and 300,000 informants for a country of only 16 million people. Stefan explained that they basically spied on everyone at some point, and made very extensive files of some people. Some of the technology that they had was pretty cool and probably very effective. But they didn't just have to use technology, they also blackmailed and bribed a lot of people to be informants, making them reports on the activities of their friends, neighbors, family members, clients, etc.

The second part of the museum includes the offices of the minister and others, that have been preserved to their conditions during the GDR. The coolest thing about these rooms was that they were used to film scenes from "Das Leben der Anderen," and I definitely recognized them.

After our two hour tout there, we had lunch and then headed to the Stasi prison. This extremely secret prison was first used by the Russians during their occupation of East Germany, where they used the basement and physical torture to get confessions from prisoners. The Stasi then took the building over, and built a whole new prison. It was only a temporary prison, where they took suspected political "criminals" to get confessions out of them. Instead of using physical violence, they took a more mental approach. The prisoners were always in complete isolation, never got to even see any other prisoners, and only got to speak to their interrogators. Our guide explained that this would make it so that they felt a bond and relationship to their interrogator, hopefully making confessions easier.

Overall what the Stasi did was insane for such a time, but it did remind me a lot a similar field trip we took in Chile to Villa Grimaldi. Although what Pinochet did to his political prisoners was physically much worse, the dictator violating free speech and thought by taking in political dissenters and trying to get them to confess was very familiar. Our guide reminded us that even though there is a lot of Ostalgie (nostalgia of East Germany), there was a dark side to it that severely effected the lives of many people.

A little bit of politics...

2008-02-08T16:40:00.000+01:00

Berlin being the capital of Germany, you can't avoid seeing the politics of the town - from the gleaming new government office buildings to motorcades rolling through the streets. The FUBEST program wouldn't let us get away with being in Berlin and not getting more intimate with the political side of the city. So this week, not only did we have a planned excursion to Bundeskanzleramt (like the White House), but we also took a class field trip to the Auswaertiges Amt (Foreign Ministry).

[The Bundeskanzleramt]

On Tuesday, we took a field trip to the Bundeskanzleramt, where the Chancellor, currently Angela Merkel, has her offices and staff. After going through airport-equivalent security, we met with out tour guide, who was going to give us a guided tour of the building. He not only gave us information about the functions that go on inside the building, but also the architecture and it's relevance to Germany.

[Giving my press talk...]

Honestly, it was a pretty dry tour, but it did have some good moments. Especially interesting was all the modern art that was in the building (which reminded me of all the art that they have in the Reichstag, which is basically representative of the fact that the Germany government supports art), and the presents that have been given to Chancellors from other Heads of State.

[One of the murals]

The best gift was probably the one from our very own George W. Bush. Our guide explained to us that all the gifts that are given in "official" situations to a German Chancellor become property of the German people and simply go on display in the Bundeskanzleramt. I don't think Georgie got the message. Here is what he gave his pal Angie:

[From George, with love]

What is that, you might ask. Well, it's his own home-made box set of musical DVDs and CDs. I guess I don't really know if George and Angela had bonded over that at some point, but even if they had, Angie can't watch the movies or listen to the CDs - they just have to sit in the case for silly tourists to take pictures of.

[Me on the balcony of the Bundeskanzleramt, looking over other government offices, the TV Tower, and the Reichstag]

On Thursday, instead of having German class, my class and the Advanced kids went to the Foreign Ministry, to get a better idea of what their role in German politics is.

First, we got to watch a video about the Ministry, which showed a couple of examples of what they do. This included how the ministers work with the EU, how they use cultural events (like performances by the Berlin Symphony) to make connections with other nations, and how their office in Cairo (as an example) helps Germans living and visiting there.

Then our guide, who couldn't have been more than 25, gave us a short Power Point Presentation and gave specifics of what each division of the ministry worked with. During this part, we had the opportunity to ask questions of their work. One thing that I was surprised by was that there is a section of the ministry that deals with foreign affairs planning for the 20-30 years in the future. First of all, it was amazing to be to think about foreign affairs plans 20 years in the future, when everything in Washington can change in 4, but moreover, how do they have any idea what will be important in 20 years? Although I asked how they determine what will be a focus in 20 years, I didn't really get a good answer. He basically explained that things of national and international interest will most likely be the most important...

All-in-all, it was more informative than the Bundeskanzleramt, and more exciting - but only because they gave us free coffee, pens, a writing pad, and a tote bag.

Leipzig

2008-02-05T19:43:00.000+01:00

Our adventure to Leipzig (an old town in Saxony, about three hours south-east of Berlin) began for me the night before, when I had to spend the night at Annie's house in order to be able to make it to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in the morning. I prob live about 20 minutes away (walking) from an S-Bahn (faster city trains) station, which were the only trains running during the strike.

In the morning, we decided to get up early, since the S-Bahns were likely to be packed with people trying to get around in the city without all the other public transportation. We got to the Hauptbahnhof around 11:30 and met up with Sean, John and Jessica, who were also coming on the adventure.

From Berlin to Leipzig, we took two trains and bought two five-person tickets. The Deutsche Bahn has tickets for each region of Germany that cost about 25 - 30 euros, on which up to five people can ride. On the way back, we used a similar five-person ticket that can be used anywhere in Germany, but only on Saturdays or Sundays. The round-trip train ride cost us 88 euros for everyone. The only down side of these tickets is that we could only use regional trains and not the express trains, so it takes a little bit longer.

Once we got into Leipzig, we found out 'hostel,' which Sean found on hostel world. It turned out to be an apartment that would be just for the five of us, with a complete kitchen for only $12.75 a night per person.

[Jessica sitting in one of the bedrooms of our apartment]

After we unpacked, we headed to the grocery store to buy some dinner and breakfasts for the weekend. We decided to make a pasta sauce with tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onions and fresh basil. A joint effort between Annie, Jessica and I yielded quite a delicious meal on a very cheap budget.

[Me, John and Sean eating our delicious meal]

The next day, we headed into the city center to see the older part of town. We started at the Nickolaikirche, which is known for having been a center of anti-DDR (East German) movement during the division of Germany. The history that we got on the church, from a pamphlet written by the priests of the church, was as interesting as the architecture inside. Instead of being a dark church with little light, it was a bright interior with light pink and green walls.

[the Nikolaikirche from the square outside]

[the inside, where the ceiling was a pretty pink and green, with columns that look like palm trees]

From there, we walked around the center some more, coming across the old stock market building as well as a statue of Goethe, the famous author/playwright.

[the old stock market building; now a hall that you can rent out]

["The Man" of German Lit; Goethe!]

On the other side of the old part of town is the Thomaskirche, the church where Bach was a cantor. The church offers concerts with his pieces every Saturday. Although we weren't able to hear a concert, there was a quintet playing while we were in the church. Bach's grave was also moved to the church in more recent years.

[Thomaskirche]

[A statue of Bach... the people in front were part of a wedding party...]

Sean and I, being in the theater class and having just read Faust, thought it necessary to go to Auerbach's Keller, where a scene from Faust takes place.

[Auerbach's Keller, where a scene of Faust is set]

[Mephistopheles leading Sean into sin..]

From the center, we headed to the Voelkerschlachtdenkmal, a little outside the center.

[View of the Denkmal]

The largest man-made war memorial in Europe, this Wilhelmine memorial is surprisingly unknown. The 91-meter-tall structure was erected as a memorial to the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nations, and is clearly a very nationalistic symbol. As such, it has been used and misused by leaders of Germany since it was built in 1913, one of which is Hitler. But no where my guide book was it mentioned, nor did my host mom or my German teacher know about it. For such a huge memorial, we found this very surprising. However, since it is so nationalistic and that is something that Germany has been trying to move away from, we could kind of understand why it is not so advertised or well-known. The advice from the hostel owner to go there was great though, because it was really amazing once we were there.

[Huge statue at the entrance]

[In the elevator on the way to the first platform... the other 500 stairs we had to walk up]

[The inside chamber of the memorial, with various representations of the battle. Sean also told me that it was mainly built by Freemasons, so there is a lot of allegory to their organization in the building of the memorial]

[The group at the top!]

[Me with a view of Leipzig. This memorial is a must-see during a visit to Leipzig]

We headed back into town, and relaxed, cooked dinner, and played some cards until we decided to look into the night life of Leipzig. Since it is a university town, we expected there to be some excitement. There was, but not too much when compared with Berlin. The next morning, we cleaned up the apartment and headed back to Berlin with enough time to do homework and sleep before the busy week started again.

Stammtisch

2008-01-31T14:46:00.000+01:00

Every-other week, Luis and Verena, the FUBESTs student assistants, set up a "Stammtisch" for us. Stammtisch doesn't have an exact translation to English, but it basically means either a table reserved for the regulars or a reservation that a group has on a certain day.

For us, it means that every-other week, Luis and Verena choose a bar (usually they try to choose very different ones), invite their friends, all 75 FUBEST kids, and our tandem (conversation) partners. This usually ends up being about 50 people.

The first time we had Stammtisch, we were in smaller groups at a bar in Kreuzberg, close to where I live. It was a rather small, expensive bar, that I probably wouldn't have gone into otherwise. Since it was at the very beginning of the program and we were only about a third of the group at a time, it was a good chance to get to talk to people.

The second Stammtisch was at "Clash Bar," also in Kreuzberg (you can see I live in a hip part of town). This was a much larger bar, in the punk/metal scene. Also a cool location, my favorite part probably being the beer called "Tod und Totschlag" (or a similar name meaning death and murder). They also had a pool table and some foosball ("kicker") tables that we occupied for quite some time during the night.

Last night we had our third meeting, at a Hookah bar in Friedrichain. The place was decked out with pillows and stages to sit on, but seemed rather unauthentic. There was a wide variety of cocktails, all pretty expensive, a kind of unfriendly staff (all though, with 50 people, I don't really blame them) that was all German, and nicht-so-gut Hookah. In the end, it was still fun to get out and talk to everyone in a casual setting and meet some of the Germans that got stuck there. I definitely look forward to the coming Stammtisches and what new locations Luis and Verena will think of.

------------------
A post script:
In other news, I am going to Leipzig tomorrow and staying the weekend. However, the BVG (or metro-transit of Berlin) has decided to take a "Warning Strike" starting at midnight tonight and lasting until 3 p.m. on Saturday, since their contract is about to be rewritten, and they obviously have some demands. Although it won't affect our train, I have no idea how I will get to the train station tomorrow! I hope that they don't strike again soon, since getting anywhere without public transportation will be a hassle... (But if they do, it will sure make for a good blog post.)

Typsich!

2008-01-28T19:31:00.000+01:00

On Sunday, I felt very German. Since I am taking a theater class, that is taught in German, we have some mandatory plays that we have to see throughout the semester. Of course, the class would not be complete without the arguably most well-known piece of German drama, Goethe's Faust.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to go to the Deutsches Theater and see a production of the first part of the work. Not only did it seem very German to be going to the theater on a Sunday evening, but we were also seeing a quintessential piece of German literature being preformed, that all Germans have to read in school.

The play was also portrayed, in my opinion, in a very German way. First, it was a very modern production - hardly any set, props, or noteworthy costumes. They also took a lot of interpretation into their own hands; from having Faust rock out at a disco to Mephistopheles making lots of lewd gestures and sounds to blood-covered Gretchen committing suicide at the end. These were of course supposed to be symbolic of various things that happen in the text, but were still very strange compared to the original. Finally, there was just a lot of yelling between the characters, with everyone seeming angry at each other all the time, which wasn't what I got from the reading of the text.

All in all, it was a rather bizarre two hours. Nevertheless, it was good to get out to the theater and to say that I have seen Faust in a German playhouse, of which the productions these days are probably all that strange. It was also interesting to see the crowd, which was mainly young people; perhaps German students also studying the play. I also think these type of plays are something I might have to get used to, if I am going to have to go to them all semester.

Lange Nacht der Museen

2008-01-27T22:09:00.000+01:00

...or Long Night of the Museums...

For what I understand, a couple of times a year, there is a 'long night' at the museums in Berlin, where not only are they open until 2 a.m. and an entry to all of them only costs 8 Euro for students, but there is also special exhibits, performances, and shows. This was obviously too good of an opportunity to pass up. So, at around 7 p.m. on Saturday night, we headed out in the rain and wind to soak up some culture.

We started at the "Kultur Forum," where there are various galleries, centrally located next to Potsdamer Platz. There, we saw an exhibit by Heinz Hajek-Halte, a German photographer who was one of the pioneers of Montage and combining images on film. It was really interesting to see his photos, not only because they were really well done, but also because his work has had such an influence on photography that you see all the time. We also meandered around the Gemalde Galerie for a while, but the older artwork isn't my favorite, so we moved on.

From there, we headed to the Automobil Forum on Unter den Linden, where in the midst of Volkswagens, they had a Pot Art exhibit. They had some interesting pieces by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Keith Haring (to name some big names), as well as pieces by less famous artists.

After a brief stop, we continued on to the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German History Museum). The museum is divided into two parts: the permanent collection (in the old Zeughaus) and the temporary exhibits (in the new I.M. Pei building). Since the permanent collection is much too large to see even in a whole day, we just went to the temporary exhibits, where we look at changing landscapes of Berlin and the Portuguese exploration of the world.

From there we headed back to the Zoologischer Garten, where the Aquarium was also open. It was especially nice not to have to feel as if we had to see our moneys worth here, since it was very crowded and kind of like any other aquarium. We did learn some German vocab though based on the animals that we saw!

Our final stop of the night was the planetarium in Prenzlauerberg. There were supposed to be two star and laser shows at the planetarium (one at midnight and one at 1 a.m.), and getting there right before 1, we realized that it was already full. Luckily the people who work there are pretty awesome, and decided to do a third show for us. Although we had to wait for about an hour, this was definitely the perfect way to end the night. It began with a basic overview of some winter-night constellations; since it was in German, it was a little hard to understand but overall good. Then came the laser show. They had some pretty advanced laser-techniques in my mind, and since they had nothing else after our show, we got an extra-long show. The lights, the music, and the fog machine is something I would definitely recommend seeing when in Berlin. The planetarium seems like a cool place...

The coolest thing about the whole idea is that there is no way, even in one night that you could even think of going to all the museums that Berlin has to offer. Now I have seen quite a few, but there are still so many more that I need to go to!

Grüne Woche

2008-01-26T15:56:00.000+01:00

This past Thursday, instead of having class, we took a field trip to the "Grüne Woche" (literally Green Week) Expo, that is a huge expo dedicated to agriculture and food. It happens only once a year in Berlin, and happens to be the biggest of its kind in the world. Since we went as a group of students, it only cost us 4 euros each to get in.

[my ticket]

When we entered, we had free range to go wherever we wanted and do whatever we wanted, as long as we wrote a one-page reflection on what we did for class on Monday. We started out by going through a hall of wine and beer from all over the world, and also local German products (mainly meat and cheese). The expo has become known as the "Fresse Messe" (or Eating Expo) to the Berliners, since a huge part of it is all the samples that vendors give out as well as all the food you can buy there.

[lots of cheese...]

[that is a lot of kinds of beers]

[:( meat...]

Although it is described as an agricultural fair, they have everything from food and wine (and beer) to animals and farming techniques to household products to gardening and home improvement. So, we continued on to the gardening section, where we were totally astounded by the gardens that had been set up inside and the amount of time that must have been put into the expo.

[part of the huge indoor garden space]

[a waterfall...]

We then headed into the halls that had vendors representing individual countries. Lots of different nations each had booths where they we selling not only foods, but also different crafts.

[Canada had a stand, but not the U.S.]

Ukraine also had their own hall, which could only be described as somewhat depressing. As we walked around, the vendors at the stands did not seem happy at all to be there, not to mention that it was crowded and kind of shabby looking. So much so that some other FU BESTers that we met there were only looking for their way out. It was also a large contrast to the section that Russia had, which was open and lighter, with thoughtfully planned out booths and sections. A reflection on the real world perhaps...

[Ukraine]

[Russia had their vodka in a pump bottle...]

We then finally came upon the section that we had been searching for - all the animals. They had one hall with house animals, which included lots of different kinds of house pets and a show with dogs catching Frisbees, but no puppies to play with.

[Doggies doing tricks]

They also had a section with farm animals, where of course I had a blast! They also took the opportunity to promote "Bio-essen," which is like organic food, but with much stricter guidelines.

[COWS! My favorite farm animal!]

[Annie and Jessica enjoying some great free samples!]

[An entire horse-show ring was set up]

[a very shaggy horse]

[the very happy bio-pigs... free range and healthy and so happy about it. Very sad to think of the wurst that they will be put in that is being served at the next stand over, but the Germans didn't seem to think so]

We got to the show right when it opened around 10, and by 12:30, it was already too crowded. There were sections where you simply couldn't walk because there were so many people, many of them being inconsiderate to other people walking around them. There were more sections with different countries (including bigger ones from France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland), a whole room with different typical foods from all the German states, more stands with wine.

[Trying to stand behind a cut-out from the Netherlands, and even standing on my tippy-toes, I am too short! My brother Thomas told me that they are on average the tallest in the world, and based on this I sure do believe him...]

It was really great to go to the Grune Woche, not only for the loads of free samples, but also because it was cool to be part of such a huge thing that happens in Berlin. I can definitely understand why it is so popular, although we did end up leaving simply because there were too many people there!

The "Swedish" Church

2008-01-23T23:29:00.000+01:00

Back in D.C., we go to church at the Augustana Lutheran Church when they have services in Swedish, provided by the Svenska Kyrkan i Utlandet (basically the overseas Swedish Church). The actual Swedish Church that is closest to us is in New York, where they have a church, a library, and a little coffee shop.

Here in Berlin, I found out that they not only have a congregation, but they have a church building, also with a library and community room, as well as a Swedish School. Knowing this and being part of the Church in D.C., I felt I had to go and at least check it out.

Since they have service on Wednesdays and Sunday mornings, I thought it might fit my schedule better to go on Wednesday. So today, I headed out at 5 from the FU BEST building to go to the service at 6. After wandering for a while, I came upon the Church with twenty minutes to spare. I had time to look around at the very nice new building that they have and look what other activities they have going on. They actually have a Norwegian priest as well, who does some services in Norwegian for their community in Berlin.

At around 5 til, I went and sat in the Church and waited for the service to start. When the organist came around and gave us the pamphlet with the process of the service, I read it and was shocked and humored at the same time. There on the front, it said that it was the weekly service in Norwegian. All the prayers and psalms, everything was going to be in Norwegian. I had the urge to just walk out of the chapel, but it was too late.

As the service went on, I realized it was OK. Although I didn't understand all of the Norwegian, it is very similar to Swedish and I understood most of it. The service also followed the service that I am used to. I still couldn't help but think that a seemingly normal trip to a church that I should be familiar with turned into such an adventure! I think I'll try to go to a service again when I know it is in Swedish. Either that or I'll start learning Norwegian better.

That whole study part...

2008-01-22T17:07:00.000+01:00

Although I realize that am in Berlin on "Study Abroad," my broad assumption after Chile was that study abroad was more the abroad part (i.e. experience the life) and not so much to study part.

However, life here in Berlin is quite different. I feel like I've done more school work and home work here than I did for the entire last six months. I am not sure if it is because the Germans take their University studies more seriously or because some of my courses are in English, but a lot more is definitely being expected of me here than there was in Chile!

Exploring!

2008-01-18T17:27:00.000+01:00

Since we only have German class in the mornings (9-12), and we have most afternoons and evenings free if we don't have one of our content courses, so we have been doing quite a bit of exploring the city.

On Monday, David and I went to explore Mitte after our history class. Both being history nerds, we reflected on the immense history of the city as we walked around. Although it was only maybe about 4 when we got there, it was already starting to get dark. But, the Brandenburger Tor is very nicely lit up at night.

[Brandenburger Tor at night, photo courtesy of David]

Two days ago, David, Sal and I realized that we had a couple of hours of daylight left (it gets dark very early here), and to take advantage, we went to Schloss Charlottenburg, the summer residence of Queen Charlotte. Although I had been there last spring, it was kind of nice to see the castle lit up (since it was dark by the time we got there).

Yesterday, Annie, Jessica, Christy, David, Eric and I went to the East Side Gallery. Right by the Spree River, there lies an old section of the Berlin Wall which is now open to artists to come and paint.

[at the East Side Gallery]

However, there is also a lot of graffiti that gets written over the artwork, from people writing their names to stenciled commentaries.

[stenciled graffiti over the art]

Most of the graffiti has a political message, sometimes very clear, sometimes less clear.

[focusing on important dates in German history since the end of the war]

[more art...]

When we got to the end of a section of the wall, we realized that there was a lot more graffiti on the other side of the wall. Although perhaps we shouldn't have been back there, we found some really cool art work, that hadn't been defaced, and was in a very different style.

[ALIENS!]

[pretty classic graffiti]

[art or vandalism?]

In my opinion, this side of the wall was much cooler, mainly because it seemed like more free expression, but also because it hadn't been 'vandalized' by other spray paint or markers.

It is pretty fun to just wander about the city, choose something that we haven't seen and just check it out. It leads to some good adventures and some good pictures; hopefully there will be more coming...

Classes! (Already?)

2008-01-15T21:09:00.000+01:00

Very unlike Chilean life, a mere five days after our arrival in Berlin, we already had our first day of classes. On Monday morning, we can into the building and had to find our name on lists that were posted outside each classroom, which told us which class we were in. I ended up being in Intermediate 2, whereas I had hoped to place into a higher level. [Although after a semester of 100% Spanish, I'm not sure what I expected.] But as long as the credits transfer for my German major, I'm not too concerned at it would be a good review for me.

All the students in the FU BEST Program have to take a language course, worth 6 credit hours. Then there are various "Content" course, all but one are taught in English, that we can choose from for our remaining course load.

On Monday, I had one of my content courses, which is 20th Century German History - obviously a very interesting class with lots of material to cover. The Professor has chosen to teach the class thematically, meaning that each week we cover a particular theme, that may not have to do with a specific time period on the 20th Century (such as Gender and Sexuality or Democracy v. Dictatorship). We also have been tasked to visit three different museums in Berlin (the German History Museum, the German-Russian Museum, and the Film and TV Museum); all of which I am very excited about seeing.

Later this week, I will have my two other content courses (a Theater class taught in Germany and a Cinema class). And unlike Chile, I only have a week to choose whether I want to stay in these classes or not. Basically, I think I am in all the classes for the long haul...

Berlin Tour

2008-01-13T21:09:00.000+01:00

This morning I woke up early (for a Sunday) and went to Unter den Linden to go on a tour with Dirk - the program director - as our guide. We started off at Pariser Platz, right in front of the Brandenburg Gate (below).

Dirk gave us an explanation of the significance of the Gate, how the landscape of the area has changed since the end of WWII in 1945, and what the other buildings in the area are, including the new U.S. Embassy.

From the Gate (which was in the old East), we made our way over the the West, passed around the back of the Reichstag to the new buildings that have been built to house the offices of the Reichstag members. Dirk explained that these new buildings reflect a lot of the new German sentiment in their architecture. For example, the division of the city and the people into two separate states as well as the desire for politics to be open to the people and ready for examination are reflected in the style of the buildings.

[buildings that lie in the old East and West connected by bridges]

From there, we continued to the front of the Chancellor's office, where we will be visiting later in the semester. Here, Dirk was keen to point out the low security that the Germans have outside such an important office, in comparison to somewhere like the White House.

[Chancellor's Office]

We continued to the front of the Reichstag, talked about the history of the building, and then continued down Unter den Linden. In front of the main building of the Humbolt University, a very famous university that lies in the old East, and the reason the Freie Universitaet was built in the West, we paused to look at the different buildings that were built by Fredrick the Great, showing his impressive tolerance for things like culture (the Staatsoper, or state opera, building), religion (the Catholic Church in a Protestant Area), and education (the Univeristy and large library).

From there, we continued onto Museum Insel, and briefly went over the different Museums that are located there. We also spent some time looking at where the old Palace used to lie. After WWII, it was somewhat destroyed, but the Soviets decided to tear it down, since it was a symbol of aristocratic oppression. In it's place, they built a very communist building for the use of everyone, a palace to the people. Unfortunately, the palace has a lot of asbestos, and has to be torn town section by section in a very slow process. Eventually, they plan the reconstruct the outside of the palace, but with a new inside that will be 'for the people'. We were also able to go by an organization that is trying to raise money for the reconstruction, that has an excellent model of what Unter den Linden looked like before all the buildings were destroyed at the end of the war.

[Map of Berlin for Orientation - click to make larger]

From there, we passed by where Hitler had his main Chancellery buildings, which also included his bunker complex where he committed suicide. Although there is a board with information about the complex and history, there has been an effort not to have too much there, so that it will not become a shrine for neo-nazis.

We ended our tour at Potsdamer Platz, where the wall used to cut through, making it a wasteland during those years. However, before and after the wall, it is a commercial center, now housing the Sony Center, an IMAX theater, lots of restaurants, and a shopping mall. A pretty cool place to see, although defiantly a very modern, touristy kind of Berlin feeling to it.

[Me and a giant giraffe made of Legos at Potsdamer Platz]

After our tour was over, Annie and I found some lunch underneath Potsdamer Platz. Our new Berlin favorite is the falafel in bread, the vegetarians answer to the ever-popular Doner Kebab- a common street food brought to Berlin and Germany by the many Turkish immigrants.

[my second falafel in less than a week in Berlin...]

Berlin Underground

2008-01-12T17:22:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, after our placement exam and tour of the FU campus, we got a tour of the Berlin Underground. And I don't mean underground like music scene, but rather, bunkers that were used in WWII and the Cold War for civilian protection.

Verena and Luis, the two student assistants at FU BEST, took us across town to Gesundbrunnen, where and organization called Berliner Unterwelten runs tours of an old bunker complex that was used during WWII and the Cold War.

[Thomas, our tour guide for the bunkers]

We began in one of the gas locks, which would have been used when a there was a gas attack on Berlin, to get gas out of that chamber so that people could safely enter the bunker. But, gas attacks were not used on Berlin in WWII...

[The gas-lock doors]

Our guide explained to us the history of the bunkers, and also interesting facts about how they were operated, how they wouldn't have held up had they been directly hit by a bomb in WWII, how they definitely would not have helped against a nuclear attack, and how they only protected 10% of the population of Berlin.

[Walking through the bunker...]

One of the cooler parts of the tours was a demonstration of how the phosphorus covered walls worked as glow in the dark paint. Some rooms and most of the signs used this paint in the case of a black-out, so that people could still find their way in the dark.

Another pretty interesting part of the tour was how the bunker was connected to the subway station. At one point, we left what looked like a normal door from the bunker and ended up right at the U-Bahn station. We then walked through the station and into another door, which basically looked like it could be a door to a mechanical room, that lead to the other part of the bunker. Just makes you think about how many underground bunkers and tunnels there can be all over Berlin...

[Walking from the normal subway station into another part of the bunker]

Back in Berlin

2008-01-10T23:46:00.000+01:00

So here I am, back in the city that captivated me last spring.

Yesterday, I got into Berlin with Annie, who also goes to UMBC and happened to have the same flight from Dulles that I had. At Tegel airport in Berlin, we met up with Sarah, and all tried to make our way to the FU BEST building with all our luggage on public transportation, which was quite a feat.

Once we finally made it to the building, we had a brief introductory session, where were told what we had to do that day, and given a plan for the remaining orientation days before school started. I then had to hang out at the building until someone from my host family came to pick me up.

At around 3, Marliese, my host mom, came to FUBEST to pick me up and we drove home to Kreuzberg. Although it was nice not to have to lug all my stuff on public transportation, I did have to carry all of it up four flights of stairs to our apartment. The apartment is on the 4th and top floor of the building. The main part of the apartment, where the kitchen, bath, Paula and Marliese's rooms are, is on the top flooor. The other part of the apartment, where there are two rooms from Gaststudenten, is on the floor below. Across from this 'apartment' is where Paula's father lives.

After I got my bags unpacked, I was able to shower, relax a little bit, and talk to the family. At around 7, we had dinner. Since Paula is also a vegetarian, most of the food that the family eats is vegetarian. After dinner, I was basically ready for bed, since it had been such a long day, and slept all through the night!

A switch has got to flip...

2008-01-06T05:40:00.000+01:00

I have about two and a half days before I am on my way again after a three week sojourn in the U.S., and only about a week and a half of it being at home; the other part of it being in the Grand Canyon and Arizona. (For more details about the Grand Canyon trip, you can see my pictures here or check out my Mom and Dad's blog.)

On Tuesday, I head out from Dulles Airport with the final destination being Berlin, Germany, where I will be spending the next four months studying at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, with the FU BEST Program and two months after that doing something that I haven't figure out what it is yet.

Although I have been to Germany before, know where I am living, know what family I am staying with, and know what classes I will be taking, part of me feels much more unprepared for this experience than I was for Chile. But, I think that this is really just a hindsight observation, when I really think about it, since coming to Chile I didn't know what the plan was for orientation or our time in Santiago or even when we were getting to Valparaiso. In that sense, perhaps I do know more than I think I do.

The other fact is, that I feel like I haven't really had enough time at home. I've been running from one thing to another, trying to recap the last six months, while having all the holidays, seeing friends, and trying to prepare for the next semester. Perhaps it would have been a little bit better to have just a little more time at home, but now I have to flip the switch and get into a new mindset for a new place and a new experience!

The Inka Trail Days 3 & 4

2008-01-02T16:43:00.000+01:00

Day 3 is the longest day of the trek, in terms of kilometers, although it takes you downhill and over mountain ridges, giving spectacular views of the Andes. (Although, it was rather cloudy when we were hiking and probably could have been a lot more spectacular than it was.)

[Me, Jed, and Sarai at camp in the morning, with a beautiful view of the valley.]

Going downhill on the mountains, we also got into more jungle terrain, and although it seemed more like a rain forest since it was rather damp the whole day. I started my trek at the very beginning of the rainy season, and although it was really beautiful and wonderful, I definitely would like to do it again in the dry season when maybe it would be even more spectacular.

[All of us at the first ruin]

We got to see two ruin sites on Day 3, one that was right before lunch time, where the whole group got together so that Maria could give us a proper tour of the ruin and give us some history as well.

[Maria giving us a history lesson]

[Beautiful flowers growing on the ruins]

[Playing in the ruins...]

Later in the day, we had the option to either take the shortcut or take a longer path that would lead us to more ruins. Since we were already so far ahead of everyone else (we had basically been running down, passing everyone, including porters), we decided that we should go to the ruin. That was a great decision. Since the ruin is off the beaten path, there is definitely a different atmosphere and feeling to the whole place. As we got there, I almost felt like Hyram Bingham himself, discovering the ruins for the first time. It also seemed so much more open and free to explore and do what you like, rather than be told what to do. Although Machu Picchu was impressive and amazing, I still think this ruin was my favorite of the four days, simply because it was so calm and almost better taken care of, making the third day my favorite of the whole trek.

[Making it to the ruin]

[Jed and Seth running down the stairs to give perspective of how massive it really was.]

Since the 3rd night was the last night that we would see our cook and our porters, we had a special ceremony where the guides got to say a few words to us and we all got to say a few words to the porters. Although everyone went around and used the Spanish they knew to say thank-you, Sarai and I had longer speeches. In the end, I was chosen to thank them and give Juan Carlos, the cook, the tip that we had collected for all the porters. I simply expressed my amazement in the work that they do, which I knew we all felt. Sarai also bought them each a beer from the cantina that was by the campsite as a thank you, which we think they appreciated a lot.

[The last night, everyone in the dining tent]

Day 4 of the trek is Machu Picchu day. We got up very very early (3:30 I believe), to pack up our stuff and eat breakfast. We were out of camp by about 4:45, only to get to the final control station, only to have to wait until 5:30 when it opened. Luckily though, we were first in line, which we knew meant we would get to the Sun Gate first.

[Sarai and I at the Sun Gate]

I was the fifth person to get to the Sun Gate, of which I am very proud, and also very happy, since it meant that we got to take lots of pictures in peace and quiet before everyone else arrived. The Sun Gate is a distance away from Machu Picchu, but it gives an excellent view of the Machu Picchu Mountain and the road that goes up and down from Machu Picchu.

[Machu Picchu and the road]

It was so exciting to finally get to the Sun Gate, since we had a beautiful view of Machu Picchu, and our goal was literally finally in our sight. We hurried down the trail and made it to Machu Picchu, with a beautiful view of the city, and the sun shining down on us.

[Me and Machu Picchu!!]

As we waited for everyone else in our group to arrive, we took lots of pictures and just took in the amazing city that was at our feet.

[Playing in the ruins again...]

[All the girls at the top]

[Me with Maria and Isai at the top!]

After we got our guided tour from Maria around Machu Picchu, we had the chance to climb up Winaypicchu, which means Young Peak and sits right behind the city of Macchu Picchu. Although we had been hiking for four days, we knew that we had to get to the top so that when people saw our photos and asked, "Yeah, but did you hike up there?" we could say YES! Being the hiking overachievers that we were, we raced up and down to the top, which, including the pictures that we took at the top and looking around for a bit, only took us an hour, when the climb itself is supposed to take an hour.

[Me at the top of the top!]

When we got down, we decided that it was about time to head into Aguas Calientes, the town that lies at the bottom of Machu Picchu to meet with Maria and Isai to get our tickets back to Cusco. We had a good lunch of Pizza in Aguas Calientes, reflected on our last four days, and walked around the town for a bit before getting on the train back to Cusco.

[Final meal together in Aguas Calientes]

I loved these four days, the hiking was amazing, the group that we went with was amazing, our guides were amazing, and I honestly don't think my experience could have been better. In the beginning, I was debating whether or not to do the hike, since it was kind of expensive ($350 dollars just for the four days) for a student budget, but now I think that all the money was worth it and I recommend it to basically anyone who is going to Machu Picchu. As Alli Fischer said, it makes getting to Machu Picchu so much more worth it in the end, and you really do feel like you have accomplished something great to get to an amazing place.

The Inka Trail Days 1 & 2

2007-12-31T16:28:00.000+01:00

[Our group of 13 starting the Inka Trail]

On my third day in Cusco, I got up at about 5:45 to get ready for Isai, one of my to-be guides for the Inka Trail, to come pick me up at 6:30. With Isai was Ken, who works for the Forest Service in California and was also going to do the trail. We walked and talked until we got to the main square of Cuzco, where the bus was going to pick us up to take us to the beginning of the trek. As soon as I got on the bus, I realized that Sarai, who I had been studying with in Valparaiso, was on the bus with her three brothers. Although we tried to organize it so that we were going to be on the same trek, we weren't sure it would happen. Along with Ken, Sarai, her brothers, and I, there were six UNC law students with on our trek and another random guy named Scott.

After we had been driving on the bus for a while, we made a stop in Ollantatambo to go to the bathroom and buy some snacks. Although I had bought some trail mix and cookies in Cusco, I bought some candy bars too. Although the candy bars were good on the trail, I brought much to much food, since they feed you three extremely good meals everyday on the trail.

[Our dining tent set up for team time our first day on the trail...]

When we were stopped, I got to meet our head guide, who, much to my surprise was a woman. Maria is one of few women guides in general, and she informed me later that even fewer women do the Inka Trail, since it is really hard work. She was really a great guide though, and really knew her stuff.

When we got to KM 82 (which is the 82nd kilometer on the railroad between Cusco and Agua Calientes, the town that lies closest to Machu Picchu), we got off the bus, met all of our porters, took a group photo and got on our way.

[Ruins that we passed on the first day. The ruins that lie along the Inka Trail can only be seen if you do the four-day hike.]

The first day was a rather leisurely hike, without too much effort that had to be put in. In some ways, that was nice since we mainly stayed together as a group and got a chance to talk and get to know each other. Although I started on the beginning of the rainy season, we had OK weather the whole time, and it only sprinkled a bit when we were hiking the fist day. Although, I did put on my poncho just in case, and then took it off when I realized how silly I looked and how much I didn't need it.

[In my awesome red poncho on day 1]

When we got to our camp, we were amazed to see that the porters had already gotten there and set up all the tents and were already preparing tea time and dinner.

[Tents already set up]

We had some time to kill before tea time, and we still had lots of energy, we tried to find something to do. First, we had a rather pathetic soccer ball that we were passing around. Then, we decided to try to make a hacky-sack out of Sarai's bandana, a hair tie, and some rocks from the river. Although our improvisation was rather impressive and the hacky sack held up pretty well, our skills in kicking the ball around were horrible. But it did pass the time before dinner. We also got entertainment in the form of a soccer game between two little boys who looked about 5 and 9 and one of our porters.

[Watching the game with much interest]

After dinner, it was basically time for bed, since we had to get up at 5:30 the next day to eat breakfast and start our big climb up Dead Woman's Pass.

On our second day, we were woken up by the porters at 5:30 with a warm coco tea, and had half an hour before we had to get all our stuff packed up before breakfast. We were amazed again at breakfast, being served pancakes, toasted bread, and an assortment of tea, coffee, and hot chocolate.

[A crude map of the elevation changes along the trail]

The second day of the trek is definately the hardest, with a 1,000 m climb up to Dead Woman's Pass, which is also the highest point on the trail (about 4,200 m or 13,000 ft.) Walking uphill for 5-6 hours was really hard work, but absolutely worth the view and sense of accomplishment at the top. (Although more amazing was probably the porters who carry up to 50 lbs of gear and still go running past you on the way up.)

[Beautiful view on the way up]

[Self proclaimed "Team Awesome" at the top of Dead Woman's Pass]

[I MADE IT!]

[Sarai and I at the top of the pass. I have to give her some credit since she was my personal porter and carried my pack to the top of the pass for me :) Made it a whole lot easier.]

Since we got done with our hike already at about 12:30, we had a lot of time to pass between lunch and dinner. Since it was raining kind of hard, and we had nothing else to do, we started playing cards - a game called mafia that is less of a card game and more of just a game. Since we didn't have enough of us to play a good game, we invited the cook and some porters to play with us. Although the whole language barrier thing was hard (since most of them speak Qetchua as their first language and Spanish as their second, and only Sarai and I speak Spanish), we ended up having a really good time and laughing a lot throughout the game.

Cuzco, Peru

2007-12-31T04:55:00.000+01:00

When I arrived in Cuzco, Peru (after flying from Santiago to Lima to Cuzco), I was met at the airport by Henry, a guy who works at the hostel. Once at the hostal, Sami Wasay, I got checked in and got a warm cup of coca tea to help with the altitude. Cusco itself sits at about 3,000m (or about 10,000 ft).

After I showered and got unpacked, I asked Henry what I should do for the next two days, since I was going to be alone in Cusco until I started the Inca Trail. He told me that while I only had part of the rest of the day, I should walk around and explore the city, maybe visit some places and do some shopping.

[Church at the town square in Cuzco]

[Small streets in San Blas, where my hostel was.]

I walked down from San Blas, where my hostel was, to the main square and stopped in some shops on the way. There were a couple of things that struck me immediately about the difference between Peru and Chile. For one, things are definitely a lot cheaper in Peru - especially the souvenirs. But another is how pushy the Peruvians are! Walking around a market, they would all hassle you to buy their things, and haggle; two things pretty rare in Chile. I did end up getting some cool souvenirs for the family and some friends for pretty good prices, but not without being pretty annoyed while shopping.

[Ruins in the city that had been modified by the Spanish]

The next day, I took a tour of Incan ruins that were around Cuzco. In the end, I think I payed to much for the tour, since I had to pay for the pass to get me into all the ruins plus the tour. We went to one ruin inside the city that had been modified by the Spanish and turned into a church. But because the Inca construction was much better than the Spanish, the ruins are visible again after a big earthquake ruined all the Spanish architecture.

[Me in Sachsaywaman, ruins on the outskirts of Cuzco]

Sachsaywaman, which is pronounced like "sexy woman," are other ruins that are on the outside of Cuzco. The down side about being on the tour was not being able to explore the ruins for a longer period of time. On the other hand, I'm not sure how I would have gotten to the ruins without the tour bus.

[ruins outside Cuzco, a temple to the water Gods I believe]

[View of Cuzco at night]