Oops. I may have fallen in love.

Berlin. What an awesome city. If there was a city I could spend days upon days in, it would be Berlin. It may have topped my list of favorite cities. I will have to spend more time in it to be certain but that won't be hard for me. Thank goodness it is cheap to get there.

I could not have asked for better weather. When we left Burg a slight drizzle had begun. When we got to Berlin, the skies threatened with the same weather. The entire day was overcast and foggy, almost macabre in some way. We went on a city tour in a tour bus. That is the most touristy thing I have ever done and it was spectacular. I got to see places I want to go back and visit; pretty much every stop.

I don't really remember what we immediately did after that, the day was a bit of a blur. We did however go to the mall and eat some amazing Turkish food at the insistence of our professors who said Turkish food is the real Berlin food. If that is how Berlin food is then count me in. Over my face being stuffed with yumminess, I managed a hearty "Das schmeckt sehr gut!" a phrase one learns quickly in Germany. I we had some free time to go explore the mall, maybe get dessert, or whatever we wanted to do. Dessert? I just had heaven in a pita! I don't want that to go away so fast. Besides, there was a massive electronics store I saw that caught my fancy. It didn't disappoint either. I could have spent hours (and thousands of Euro) there had I been rich and had no pressing engagements.

After we left the mall we went to Berlin Cathedral. There we got to climb to the dome and look out across all of Berlin. Remember the mist and the cloudy day? It made the colors on the changing trees so saturated and luminous. It also added an awesome atmosphere to the pictures. I cannot wait to see how they turned out. The inside of the cathedral was mind-blowingly stunning as well, the ornate designs and nearly ostentatious gold layering in the main sanctuary area threatened to occupy the rest of my time just snapping pictures. 

We then journeyed on to the Brandenburg gate. It's a massive gate that is super cool. On the other side there was this walkway that had all the fall colors lining it in perfect mixes of fall colors. There was also a man blowing giant bubbles along the sidewalk. This fascinating activity prompted more clicks of the shutter. The bubbles with the fall colors in the background have the potential to be really cool pictures. I was on the wrong lens and we were very pressed for time so that is just one of many excuses to go back there really soon.

Berlin Hauptbahnhauf is a fantastical building. Massively tall, it is the main hub for all the central public transportation in the region. The U-Bahn (subway or metro) goes through the bottom levels and the trains go on the next few levels. It was a bit peculiar to think of a giant glass building having trains running at different levels through it, but then I remembered that I am in Germany and they are genius engineers. I have decided that one could spend an extremely long time in the Hauptbahnhauf without going through the same area. It is massive and it's just such a cool building.

That sums up the day. I feel asleep on the train, first in the standing position, because I'm a ninja, and then on the seat. I was really tired because we had an awesome day. Berlin, I will be back, you have something of mine and I want it back. You stole my heart.

Candy Canes and Garden Gnomes

They say that after a few weeks of living abroad the euphoria goes  away and reality kicks in. For me, that happened this week. I realized that living here wasn't all about candy canes and garden gnomes, but that its like any other place and I would have to work hard to make it work. I have already adapted in many ways but there is still work to do.

Since the last update I have been traveling a bit, but because my life has settled into more of a routine, it hasn't been so mind-blowing and exciting. Don't get me wrong, it has still been awesome, and I wouldn't trade this for anything, but my perspectives are shifting now. It's really cool. Instead of sharing things that have been super exciting, this blog will be more about things I have learned.

I have learned a lot in a short time. Things like the trains really aren't that punctual, always carry coins around with you, and some Germans are really good at picking out Americans, to name a few.

When one hears German trains, the first thing one thinks about is punctuality. People even say "He is as punctual as  a German train schedule" it's not a compliment anymore. Of all the times I have ridden the trains, which is pretty frequently, they have been on time three of those times. Usually this is good because we aren't usually that on time ourselves, but it has been a point of amusement for us. We then find out later that it's not entirely uncommon to find them late. The busses are on time though.

You would think that after the first time or two of not being able to use the restroom because I didn't bring coins that I would remember to bring coins. Sadly this is not the case. I still forget sometimes. This can make for a very unpleasant day. Places they have free bathrooms: trains, the place you are eating at for lunch (sucks if you are having a picnic) and back at Friedensau. That is about it. There really aren't free bathrooms anywhere. This is why one would think that I would remember coins. After forgetting two or three times, I am probably going to forget once or twice more, but probably not much more than that. Days are really long when you have to pee.

I can fool a lot of people into thinking that I am German by simply not saying anything and walking around. However I have been getting better at German and I have a decent accent so sometimes I can say things like a German person and still fit into the mix. For the most part this may be true. Friday I was in Magdeburg buying pants because I tore my other ones in Burg (funny story). I was wandering around a mall because we had time to kill and I became hungry so I went to order food. I asked for the food in flawless German so I thought, and the man replies to me in English. What a demoralizer. Apparently my German was bad enough that he knew I was American. He was speaking German to everyone else. Oh well I guess I need to practice more. I can't complain too much, I got my food and it was tasty so I still came out with a win.

Okay the pants story. I actually had forgotten about it until I just wrote it a little bit ago. We were in Burg going on a tour of the towers there. It was fun because we got to go up into the towers. Yes I definitely brought my cameras. After one of the towers I walked outside to the basement area where they kept the cows. There weren't any cows there anymore, but I was curious what a cow holding area would look like in a tower. There were several steps, no big deal I am not an uncoordinated youth anymore. Irony isn't my best friend sometimes. On the last step I managed to sit down at 9.8m/s^s. Gravity, you are heartless. I loved those pants. I stood up from my ever so graceful encounter with cobblestone and walked it off like nothing happened. To my knowledge nothing did. Then one of the girls laughed and pointed at my behind.  I could make some comment about how that in itself is a downer when a girl does that, but in this context I knew it was probably from the fall. I didn't know what was up so I asked. I tore my pants from the belt line to middle of the hamstring region. I wasn't really embarrassed that I was walking around with a giant hole in my pants. I was sad I ruined my pants. So Friday I went to the mall to get new ones.

The past few days have been eventful. We've had a holiday in the middle of the week, I have gotten information about my internship, and I have had two tests, gone to Potsdam and Berlin, and encountered many people in various situations. My time in Germany has hit the stage where its not candy canes and garden gnomes, but it is the learning stage. That to me is more exciting. I am one step closer to becoming a fully assimilated German.

Wanderlust

"I'm going on an adventure!" The words of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit kept echoing in my head as I pedaled my bike closer to Burg this morning. 

Today was a particularly exciting day. A group of 5 of us headed out for our first trip of any real distance away from Friedensau. We went to a small town in the Harz mountains called Thale. It's a cute little village with a cathedral with a park around it and mountains behind. I also saw the biggest ropes course I have ever seen. It was quite a fantastic day that had many close encounters and many more adventures.

We rode into Burg around 9:30 to catch our train. We had some issues with one of the bikes so we were a little behind schedule. We got to the train a full five seconds before it started to leave. Now I could set my very heavy pack down and take a rest from the long ride we just did. In Magdeburg we had to switch trains to get to another line. Made that one by a skim too. One thing I have learned about German trains is that every single time we have ridden them thus far, they have been late, most of the time to our benefit and we cannot count on that happening much more. In Magdeburg there were Politzei everywhere. I hadn't seen so many in one place very often so I was curious as to why they were there. Then we got to talking about it on the train. They were there because today was election day in Germany and it was a preventative measure to keep less than peaceful demonstrations from erupting. We were on the train and on our way to Thale and our adventures there.

The weather was perfect for our climbing. We set up two hammocks and one route. At the end we had to tear down and I had noticed that you could climb off the back edge and hike back to the trail. I volunteered to be the one to climb up, tear down, and walk back. So, not being without my ego (and therefore less reasoning) I climbed the route with my 40lb. (aprox 18.2kg for the Europeans) backpack. It wasn't the worst idea I have ever had…it certainly was the best one either. It wasn't too bad until the top when I had to do two lay backs. My Sharma scream became a little better than in the past. Once I climbed over and was on my way down I realized the crux of the climb was before me. When I looked at how passable it was I misjudged the fact that what I was seeing was not a grassy slope, but instead a cliff covered in a carpet of moss. Since I have historically had bad experiences with mossy rocks I was not the most overjoyed person in the world. All the manliness I was feeling from the climb was running away into the forest like a rabbit in the sights of a .22 rifle in the hands of an over zealous kid. After making one turn that I wasn't excited about I finally found the route of most resistance. (If I wanted the path of least resistance I would have just jumped.) Once I got down I rearranged my pack as I waited for the rest of the group. We eventually met up and off we went. 

There was a bike race in Thale and therefore there were hoards of people there. With that and the fairly urgent need for a bathroom that didn't operate only by coins (of course the only kind we didn't have), we boarded the train where we had both free bathrooms and the promise of a new adventure in the next town: Quedlinburg. 

We had heard that it had a nice downtown area and was super old looking. It was really quite fantastic. Then we found food. Some of, if not the best pasta I have ever eaten was at Quedlinburg. I will be stopping there again for sure. If you ever find yourself in a small town in Germany that has a funny name starting with a Q, go to the place called Flying Pizza and get some of their pasta. It won't be a bad choice….unless you are allergic to cheese. We walked around the city until it got darker and we had killed enough time before the train home. 

Nope. We didn't kill enough time. Oh well, an empty train platform isn't the worst place to sit for ten minutes. We had fun just chilling. We eventually made it back to our bikes in Burg, and after meeting a nice guy on the train who was traveling to London to get his masters and try to start a band we headed off. I had almost forgotten that I had a pretty heavy pack on until the ride back. By now it is around 21:30 and we still had about an hour ride until Friedensau. I am rarely the one to be slowed by a little work put into an adventure, so I took the not so functioning bike and limped it back. I have ridden worse bikes before, however it has been a while since and I didn't have a 40lb pack on and it wasn't dark. So the adventure continues. It was a fixie and was meant for someone half the size of me. On the trip I was compared to the old woman on the bike in The Wizard of Oz with my heavy pack on and me leaning all the way forward on it, not from the weight of the pack but from the fact that it was a miniature bike.

We finally made it back and were really excited about the day we just had. All in all we loved it. From riding our bikes 18km (11.2miles) one way, to barely making trains, we had an epic time. The weather could not have been better and the company was top notch. I cannot wait for more times where we get to experience more and to get ahold of a little more of my wanderlust.

Pictures of Germany

These are repeats of Facebook pictures 

but I want to put them on here too.

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This is a bench on the walk to the water bridge in Magdeburg

The water bridge of magical powers in Magdeburg

                                                                                     German engineering. Need I say more?

The small town of Burg that we visit on occasion and 

where we rode our bikes from.

Bicycles, Old People and Rain

My German understanding has been increasing a lot. I now know a lot more about conjugations and more important words to use. 

I am not a huge fan of interviews. Never have liked them that much. As a person in my profession I should probably get used to them. This week I had the opportunity to take one step in being more comfortable with interviews. I had to interview someone in German. Granted these were all simple questions like "What is your name?" and "What are your hobbies? Where are you from…?" Etc. Needless to say I was reticent to be bounding out and asking someone I barely knew questions in a language that I am still not too confident in. But that is why I am here. To learn German. After the people I wanted to interview were not there I found some old people walking around and interviewed them. It turned out to mostly be them interviewing me and it was pretty fun. They were nice people and even though we had difficulties understanding each other some times, we had a good talk. It was the opening salvo to the incessant barrage of learning that I will have the privilege to experience.

Today I had a bit of a cultural experience. Me and several other friends traveled via bus and then train to Magdeburg to purchase my new ride, a older, refurbished tour bicycle that I bought for 80 Euro. On my trip I also realized how useless American money is in Europe… long story short (well not really a long story, but still, Reader's Digest version) it's pretty useless. After we bought our bikes, we boarded the train back to Burg where we disembarked to ride back to Friedensau; a 15km ride…in the rain. But I am adventurous and have an abundance of optimism and no amount of rain can dampen my spirits. Besides, its not like it was pouring. We rode back to school chatting most of the way. Europe is really good to cyclists. This weekend we have plans to go down to the Harz Mountains and go climbing. Hopefully the weather will hold.

Germany: Week 1.

The First Week in Germany.

My first week in Germany is now coming to a close and to say that I have learned something would be a monumental understatement. Every night I go to bed sure that when I wake up I will find that my brain has declared mutiny and ran away from my skull. 

My trip to Germany was as uneventful as staying in three airports could be. When I was in Denver about to leave for Reykjavik, Iceland, we were informed that my plane had been delayed. No big deal, I was supposed to be in Iceland for a while anyways so it didn't matter. Then we saw that my flight from Iceland to Denmark was changed to a later time. This was mildly concerning because my time in Denmark was now severely reduced. I would have enough time to deplane and hopefully grab supper before my next, and final, leg of the trip to Germany. I ended up sitting a lot in Iceland where there were exactly four Americans in the whole airport. (It was early morning so no one was there, and yes, I did have that much time.) I did make all my connections; in Denmark I ran through the airport looking for everything I needed to find before I left. I didn't have time to decide on what local cuisine I would try so I went to the Starbucks in the airport. Running through the Copenhagen airport reminded me of one of those movies where a person is being chased and they are inundated with signs and they have to choose the right way. There seemed to be thousands of signs and I had to scan through them to find the one, usually way in the back or in an obscure place, that told me where I needed to go.

I made it to Berlin then to Friedensau without a huge issue. I did have one problem where I couldn't find my ride, but they found me so I didn't have to worry. By this time it was getting late (Berlin time) and I was tired from traveling. After the van left the city of Berlin I quickly and easily fell asleep.

I awoke some time later with a start. Was I still on the plane? Where was I? I had no idea, it was dark and all I knew was that I was somewhere in Germany on a van going to Friedensau. It took me a while to gather my thoughts, I wasn't sure if I had caught the correct ride for a minute or if I was even in Germany. Then I saw a sign for Magdeburg. Ok I am in Germany I thought. Then I looked at the driver. Yep, he was the guy holding the Friedensau sign. Ok…now I remember. Then it hit me. I am in Germany about to go to school for a whole year. I don't remember if I was cognizant enough to smile at that point or if I was just inwardly really excited. The part I had been stressing the most about going to Germany was now over.

What seemed like minutes later I arrived at Friedensau. In the pitch black I couldn't see how beautiful the campus was. But more on the campus later. After talking with some of the fellow ACA students and two professors I fell into my bed happy to be sleeping. In the morning I felt completely rested and had no signs of jet lag. "I guess I did it right" I thought. Bless the man who invented coffee. I was adjusted well, but not as much as I thought. Nothing me and a cup of coffee couldn't handle. I got a tour of the place and quickly got oriented. Not much happened that day, I got moved in, hung out, and circumnavigated the campus. All I had to do was not go to sleep until the night. I'm a film student. We spend a lot of time trying not to go to sleep. The only difference is that I wasn't sitting in a chair with my eyes glued to a computer monitor looking at the same four seconds of video repeat in front of me.

Some time later that week, I think it was Friday, we went into town to buy things. For those of you who haven't been to Germany, its really pretty. At least the parts that I have seen. The village/town that is closest to me is called Burg. Look it up on Google Earth or GoogleMaps. It's nice. I didn't know a lot of German when we went shopping, but I knew a lot more than I did before I went to Germany. It's convenient how that works out. I was hoping I didn't have to know very many words to go shopping. As it turns out, I didn't. I don't think I spoke three words to the cashier. As I repeatedly found out, I look like a German. People think I am a German until I open my mouth. Then they quickly find out I am very much American. Soon, soon… Until I can speak German like the Germans I will probably not say much while I am away from the safety of being understood. Speaking of being understood. I haven't heard this much Spanish being spoken in forever. That's right, Spanish. Not Spain, Spanish but Mexico and South America Spanish. We have some people from South and Central America that work for the school. It's oddly comforting to hear Spanish. It reminds me of home and that's not at all a horrible thing when you are more than five-thousand miles away from it. Since I am on the topic of home, I heard about the floods there and my heart goes out to those effected and I am praying for you all.

Some adventures and misadventures of this trip so far include: thinking that I got my wallet stolen in Copenhagen when it was in my hand the whole time, (I was tired okay. The color of my hair has nothing to do with it.) Getting locked into my own room by Michael, forgetting that everything here is in the metric system (that's a misadventure when in the weight room. 100kg is a lot more than 100lbs.) But some adventures are learning German, finding an old World War 2 bunker, meeting new and wonderful people, playing football (soccer) with Europeans (I did 100 times better than I thought I would), and watching Lord of the Rings in German. And yes, that movie is just as long in German…holy cow Peter Jackson, just saying, you made some long movies.

Now that my first week has passed I know that I will have many more adventures, and probably a lot of misadventures, I will learn a whole lot more, and probably take terabytes of pictures and videos. Yes I know, I need to post them…but they will be up soon I promise.