In the past week we've been to the Berlin Botanischer Garten, Wannsee, and Potsdam, as well as finished and seen "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers". The Botanical gardens were very beautiful, especially the parts with water. There was one lake that had about a billion forms of life in it, all living in harmony like a disney movie. That's where I got a picture of the turtle you can see here.
Wannsee was also really cool. Wannsee is a big lake on the edge of town, and we went on a really beautiful day, about as perfect as possible. They've got a long beach (with a nude section!), and they've even got a large waterslide IN THE LAKE! You had to swim out to it and everything. Wannsee also had the most amazing jungle gym I've ever seen. It was made of a network of ropes, and rose in a pyramid shape at least 20 feet in the air, and was intended for kids. In fact, four fiveish-year-olds were actively climbing much faster than us all the way to the top, and then swinging from their hands at the top, and such. It would be immediately banned in the States. For that matter, the waterslide in the lake might have been, too. Also easily ban-able in the States is a park in Kreuzberg, a district of Berlin, which has a near-vertical 10 foot climbing wall, a fully functional 40-foot zip line, and a giant spinning four-person ride that wobbles and whirls. All really fun, and probably not allowed in the U.S., where we can't even have see-saws anymore.
Potsdam was an extremely pretty place. It was founded as a retreat for royalty, so it had many things designed to look good, although much of that was destroyed in WWII and then later by the GDR communist government (they were symbols of Prussia, which was considered by the communists to be associated with fascism, so they blew up beautiful structures). Cobblestone streets, a cool Holland quarter, and Sanssouci palace, a really beautiful expansive summer retreat for Frederick the Great ( Wikipedia).
"Die Leiden des jungen Werthers" turned out to be rather difficult to read, but everything has been. Every paragraph of everything we read has too many words we don't know to effectively be able to look them all up and not be reading for 8 hours, so you have to guess with most and hope. In addition, we've been reading old stuff with archaic usages and the like. Then, we have to come to class and discuss the philosophical point behind it all, in German. These are the times when I feel like I speak and read like a four-year-old. On the plus side, earlier today I successfully bought stamps! yippee! "Die Leiden" actually is an pretty cool book, because it explores the reasons for suicide, and whether suicide is a sin and weakness, or whether certain people are predisposed to it, etc., and all written in the 1700s, when it was shocking. We saw "Die Leiden" earlier today in Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, where they throw modern twists at works. In this one, the three actors mixed with the audience, and in the middle of the play, a mirror was installed on the stage, and other strange twists. It was pretty good, though, but it would have helped if I had understood more of the speech. It's still hard to understand speech in a theater setting. Tour guides, news, etc. I can handle pretty well, but theater not so much.
Earlier today the US women's soccer team lost in the World Cup Semifinals to Brazil, which is a shame, because it would have set up a match against Germany in the final if they had won. The women's cup isn't as big a deal as the men's here, but it's still a big deal.
Tomorrow, I go inside the Reichstag, and I plan to go to the Berlin Zoo soon, where they have Knut, the wildly popular rescued polar bear.
Thursday, September 27
Sunday, September 23
Language
May I begin by posting the letter my host's son sent to him while away on a week-long field trip 9-year-olds do in school here:
which means, "Dear Papa- Is it going well for you? It's not going particularly well for me. It's dumb here. Yours, Paul." He's back from the apparently terrible trip now, and I got to meet him yesterday. So far, I've only said "ich bin Kevin" to him, because he was in his room playing all day.
We finished reading "Minna von Barnhelm" and went to see it performed in the Deutsche Theater two days ago, only to find out when we got there that Major von Tellheim, the main character, was sick and couldn't act. Thus, we saw "Tartuffe", an originally French comedy from the late 1600s, instead. It was an interesting exercise in seeing if your German is good enough to get the jokes (no). I'm proud that I could at least hang onto the plot. It would've been really nice to see something we just read. Still, it was a fun play, even if a little confusing.
In general, there are some days when I feel like I'm an ace German speaker, and others when I feel like I speak at a four-year-old level (which is probably closer to the truth). There are times when I say something to someone, and feel proud because it was a well-said statement, only to realize the errors five minutes later (for example, asking a guy where the S-bahn is, but calling him du instead of Sie, a hard to remember but elementary and disrespectful no-no. There's nothing like it in English). I'm definitely learning new stuff everyday, though, and speaking is far harder than writing or listening or reading, which surprised me. Speaking is much faster, and you have to control the content that falls out your mouth, and saying complex things is far harder than writing them.
Now we're reading "Die Leiden des jungen Werther" by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the giant of German lit. So far, so good! Later today, I'm going to the botanical gardens here with the group. Also, there's new photos. Word of the day is "schicki-micki", which is an negative adjective used to describe high-brow areas or functions, like, "I'm not going to the pretentious, snobby cocktail party at the mansion. It's a little too schicki-micki for me. I'll go to the pub instead to watch the game."
Bis später!
Lieber Papa
Geht es dir gut? Mir geht es nicht besonders gut. Hier ist es doof.
Dein Paul
which means, "Dear Papa- Is it going well for you? It's not going particularly well for me. It's dumb here. Yours, Paul." He's back from the apparently terrible trip now, and I got to meet him yesterday. So far, I've only said "ich bin Kevin" to him, because he was in his room playing all day.
We finished reading "Minna von Barnhelm" and went to see it performed in the Deutsche Theater two days ago, only to find out when we got there that Major von Tellheim, the main character, was sick and couldn't act. Thus, we saw "Tartuffe", an originally French comedy from the late 1600s, instead. It was an interesting exercise in seeing if your German is good enough to get the jokes (no). I'm proud that I could at least hang onto the plot. It would've been really nice to see something we just read. Still, it was a fun play, even if a little confusing.
In general, there are some days when I feel like I'm an ace German speaker, and others when I feel like I speak at a four-year-old level (which is probably closer to the truth). There are times when I say something to someone, and feel proud because it was a well-said statement, only to realize the errors five minutes later (for example, asking a guy where the S-bahn is, but calling him du instead of Sie, a hard to remember but elementary and disrespectful no-no. There's nothing like it in English). I'm definitely learning new stuff everyday, though, and speaking is far harder than writing or listening or reading, which surprised me. Speaking is much faster, and you have to control the content that falls out your mouth, and saying complex things is far harder than writing them.
Now we're reading "Die Leiden des jungen Werther" by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the giant of German lit. So far, so good! Later today, I'm going to the botanical gardens here with the group. Also, there's new photos. Word of the day is "schicki-micki", which is an negative adjective used to describe high-brow areas or functions, like, "I'm not going to the pretentious, snobby cocktail party at the mansion. It's a little too schicki-micki for me. I'll go to the pub instead to watch the game."
Bis später!
Monday, September 17
Acclimation
Ahhh...one week done. It's been busy. We've seen and done lots of stuff. Adding photos directly to blogger in large amounts is apparently very unwieldy, so I made a Shutterfly account to upload photos at: http://www.marktrailforprez.shutterfly.com/ . Also, on Facebook.
First of all, it's worth mentioning that Berlin dogs are the best-looking, most well-trained dogs on the planet. I have yet to see an unappealing dog, and almost everyone I see makes me think "boy, would it be fun/nice to have that dog". Probably half can walk without a leash, even with aggressive drivers around, and I've twice seen dogs waiting for their owners outside grocery stores. Amazing. And somehow, they all look good. This morning, I saw two owners with adorable puppies, and their dogs were meeting each other, and playing cutely as they did it. I swear, that happens every day. Dan Lojovich (another member of the Carleton group) told me that Berlin has the highest per capita rate of dog ownership in the world. That's pretty lofty, but there are a lot of dogs here. It could be true.
Not much culture shock really, except a few minor things. For example, the skimmest milk they have here is 1.5% (Fettarme Milch). I can deal with that. Also, at the grocery store, you have to pay for bags if you don't bring your own, which got me the first time. Also, the checker lady checks your groceries like an unfriendly automaton, regardless of where you go. Today, I went to Tiergarten, a huge park in the middle of the city, and was surprised to see lounging naked people in the park, most of whom were middle aged men. Wasn't really a problem, though. Just kind of a funny place for a nude park. I didn't even know there were any nude parks anywhere.
This is a cool city. There's so much to see and do. Earlier in the week the group went to the Deutsche Komisches Oper to watch an awesome modern ballet called "Alice's Wonderland", based on the story. The dancers were freakishly amazing at their jobs. It was truly beautiful. Otherwise, I've become expert at navigating the U-bahn, and we've found some cool restaurants and bars (since one can drink at age 16 here. Also smoke, which is much more prevalent here). I never liked beer until I tried it here, where it's actually good. Which, mom and dad, does not mean I'm drinking it by the gallon. Don't worry.
We're reading "Minna von Barnhelm" by G.E. Lessing in class, a 18th century comedy centering around the relationship between a former 7 years war officer, his love interest, Minna von Barnhelm, and their servants. It's hard, but I can get the gist of it, mostly. Also, there are archaic spellings and forms sometimes, which doesn't help. A good story, though. We're going to see it performed in the Berlin Theater on Friday. Cool, huh?
On Saturday and Sunday the whole group trekked by train to Hamburg (1.8 million people), the highlight of which was the beautiful churches they have there. There are several with tall steeples, one of which we were able to go inside and climb to the top. The bells were ringing as we went up, which was cooly loud or loudly cool. I was entirely pooped to the point of exhaustion because of some lack of sleep, so while some friends checked out the Reeperbahn, the Hamburg Red Light district (reported it was "interesting", which was backed up by their stories), I got some extra sleep. The hotel we stayed in was really nice, except that it had shoddy beds, in that some of them literally cracked when people laid down on them. Mine was fine, but Alex Higgin-Houser's bed frame cracked in half as he was lying there trying to fall asleep. Sehr lustig. All in all, three beds were broken one way or another, through no fault of our own.
I went running the other day, which was truly incredible. So many things to look at, and the canal outside my host's apartment has a trail that goes for miles, so I'm really set. At one point, I was running under a four-lane street canopied by the huge trees on its sides.
All in all, it's been really cool, and clearly different than anything I've ever experienced. The city is really alive, and it's really a different feeling when the shortest building for miles is four stories tall. Now that I'm a little more settled in, it seems like I'm already understanding people better. I can talk to my host pretty easily (mostly vocabulary problems), and we even talked about American politics and God and other lofty things over beer on the first day. That helped to ease myself into it.
Next up, more exploration, and Minna von Barnhelm.
Tschüs,
Kevin
First of all, it's worth mentioning that Berlin dogs are the best-looking, most well-trained dogs on the planet. I have yet to see an unappealing dog, and almost everyone I see makes me think "boy, would it be fun/nice to have that dog". Probably half can walk without a leash, even with aggressive drivers around, and I've twice seen dogs waiting for their owners outside grocery stores. Amazing. And somehow, they all look good. This morning, I saw two owners with adorable puppies, and their dogs were meeting each other, and playing cutely as they did it. I swear, that happens every day. Dan Lojovich (another member of the Carleton group) told me that Berlin has the highest per capita rate of dog ownership in the world. That's pretty lofty, but there are a lot of dogs here. It could be true.
Not much culture shock really, except a few minor things. For example, the skimmest milk they have here is 1.5% (Fettarme Milch). I can deal with that. Also, at the grocery store, you have to pay for bags if you don't bring your own, which got me the first time. Also, the checker lady checks your groceries like an unfriendly automaton, regardless of where you go. Today, I went to Tiergarten, a huge park in the middle of the city, and was surprised to see lounging naked people in the park, most of whom were middle aged men. Wasn't really a problem, though. Just kind of a funny place for a nude park. I didn't even know there were any nude parks anywhere.
This is a cool city. There's so much to see and do. Earlier in the week the group went to the Deutsche Komisches Oper to watch an awesome modern ballet called "Alice's Wonderland", based on the story. The dancers were freakishly amazing at their jobs. It was truly beautiful. Otherwise, I've become expert at navigating the U-bahn, and we've found some cool restaurants and bars (since one can drink at age 16 here. Also smoke, which is much more prevalent here). I never liked beer until I tried it here, where it's actually good. Which, mom and dad, does not mean I'm drinking it by the gallon. Don't worry.
We're reading "Minna von Barnhelm" by G.E. Lessing in class, a 18th century comedy centering around the relationship between a former 7 years war officer, his love interest, Minna von Barnhelm, and their servants. It's hard, but I can get the gist of it, mostly. Also, there are archaic spellings and forms sometimes, which doesn't help. A good story, though. We're going to see it performed in the Berlin Theater on Friday. Cool, huh?
On Saturday and Sunday the whole group trekked by train to Hamburg (1.8 million people), the highlight of which was the beautiful churches they have there. There are several with tall steeples, one of which we were able to go inside and climb to the top. The bells were ringing as we went up, which was cooly loud or loudly cool. I was entirely pooped to the point of exhaustion because of some lack of sleep, so while some friends checked out the Reeperbahn, the Hamburg Red Light district (reported it was "interesting", which was backed up by their stories), I got some extra sleep. The hotel we stayed in was really nice, except that it had shoddy beds, in that some of them literally cracked when people laid down on them. Mine was fine, but Alex Higgin-Houser's bed frame cracked in half as he was lying there trying to fall asleep. Sehr lustig. All in all, three beds were broken one way or another, through no fault of our own.
I went running the other day, which was truly incredible. So many things to look at, and the canal outside my host's apartment has a trail that goes for miles, so I'm really set. At one point, I was running under a four-lane street canopied by the huge trees on its sides.
All in all, it's been really cool, and clearly different than anything I've ever experienced. The city is really alive, and it's really a different feeling when the shortest building for miles is four stories tall. Now that I'm a little more settled in, it seems like I'm already understanding people better. I can talk to my host pretty easily (mostly vocabulary problems), and we even talked about American politics and God and other lofty things over beer on the first day. That helped to ease myself into it.
Next up, more exploration, and Minna von Barnhelm.
Tschüs,
Kevin
Monday, September 10
Arrival
First of all, did you know that when you go to Germany, Blogger automatically changes all your screen options ("new post" and "save now" are now "neuer Post" and "jetzt speichern")? Amazing. The word for "bold", as in the font type, is "Fett" which is also the word for nutritional fat.
I made it. Flights were long and when I got to Berlin at 10:00 A.M local time it felt like 3:00 A.M. due to the 7 hour time difference, but that was alright. In the Rochester airport, waiting for my flight to Detroit, there was a middle aged man sitting about 8 feet from me, and listening very loudly on headphones to "What is Love" (I think that's what it's called), the song from "Night at the Roxbury". I thought that was funny. He was not bobbing his head as in the movie.
Roch-Detroit I sat by a ph.D. candidate at Michigan State from China, so we spoke about learning new languages. On Detroit to Amsterdam, I sat next to an old guy who happened to have a German-English dictionary out as I sat down, so we automatically had stuff to talk about. He was an astronomy professor from the University of Michigan (U of M, he called it) and had done that for 50+ years, he said. I guess Michigan higher education was a popular seating buddy type for me. Anyways, we talked about German and school and my sister's physics degree. I didn't talk to the guy from Amsterdam to Berlin, but as we were landing, the girl behind me was hurling multiple times grotesquely. Overall, I got to roch. international airport at 8:05 A.M CST and arrived at TXL Berlin at 3:00 A.M. CST the next day. Food was actually pretty good, at least on the int'l flight, and they served me red wine (international flight, international rules, I guess). Also, nowadays you get a personal TV with about 30 movies, some games, and other gadgets. Jinhee Ha, a friend from college, was on my Amsterdam-Berlin flight.
When we got here, we took public transport to Heart of Gold hostel, looking like tourists all the way, and then waited for people. Eventually they got here, we ate, sightsaw, then slept (for 12 hours). Today, we got an orientation and met our host family. Mine is Uwe Scholz, a 40-something music producer with a nine-year-old son from a previous relationship ("eines Tages gibt es Lieb, und dann plötzlich Hass!" he said, or something like that, "one day it's love, and then suddenly hate!". He talks fastfastfastfast, like everyone else. I suppose just as we speak English). He seems like a cool guy. The apartment is pretty big. I showed him where Minnesota is on a globe, and he appreciated and liked the wild rice soup and Minnesota Twins t-shirt I brought him (good call, mom and dad). He lives in the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain area of Berlin, address Paul-Lincke-Ufer Straße 30. Nice place facing a canal.
Traffic is pretty crazy in Berlin, because streets are small and cars many. Also, even many of the boring buildings are much more interesting than the best Rochester has to offer, and the best buildings are fantastic. Overall, things seem great and exciting. The group is a lot of fun. I had planned to speak only German once here, but with the group, we don't, for practical purposes. That's okay, since I do with everybody else, and they're the ones who will really improve my abilities. The trouble is that English is extrememely prevalent here, far more than I thought, so people know it well. That's good when you don't know a word, but bad because I'm not here to learn English. It shouldn't be much of a problem, though.
I went to the bathroom in a Burger King, and on the way out passed a table with apparently a bathroom attendant and a tray with a few coins on it, and only after I passed it did I realize that I probably was supposed to tip her for doing nothing. I walked faster. Next time, I suppose I'll tip.
I've got some good photos, but will wait to accumulate more. Til next time, Tschüs!
I made it. Flights were long and when I got to Berlin at 10:00 A.M local time it felt like 3:00 A.M. due to the 7 hour time difference, but that was alright. In the Rochester airport, waiting for my flight to Detroit, there was a middle aged man sitting about 8 feet from me, and listening very loudly on headphones to "What is Love" (I think that's what it's called), the song from "Night at the Roxbury". I thought that was funny. He was not bobbing his head as in the movie.
Roch-Detroit I sat by a ph.D. candidate at Michigan State from China, so we spoke about learning new languages. On Detroit to Amsterdam, I sat next to an old guy who happened to have a German-English dictionary out as I sat down, so we automatically had stuff to talk about. He was an astronomy professor from the University of Michigan (U of M, he called it) and had done that for 50+ years, he said. I guess Michigan higher education was a popular seating buddy type for me. Anyways, we talked about German and school and my sister's physics degree. I didn't talk to the guy from Amsterdam to Berlin, but as we were landing, the girl behind me was hurling multiple times grotesquely. Overall, I got to roch. international airport at 8:05 A.M CST and arrived at TXL Berlin at 3:00 A.M. CST the next day. Food was actually pretty good, at least on the int'l flight, and they served me red wine (international flight, international rules, I guess). Also, nowadays you get a personal TV with about 30 movies, some games, and other gadgets. Jinhee Ha, a friend from college, was on my Amsterdam-Berlin flight.
When we got here, we took public transport to Heart of Gold hostel, looking like tourists all the way, and then waited for people. Eventually they got here, we ate, sightsaw, then slept (for 12 hours). Today, we got an orientation and met our host family. Mine is Uwe Scholz, a 40-something music producer with a nine-year-old son from a previous relationship ("eines Tages gibt es Lieb, und dann plötzlich Hass!" he said, or something like that, "one day it's love, and then suddenly hate!". He talks fastfastfastfast, like everyone else. I suppose just as we speak English). He seems like a cool guy. The apartment is pretty big. I showed him where Minnesota is on a globe, and he appreciated and liked the wild rice soup and Minnesota Twins t-shirt I brought him (good call, mom and dad). He lives in the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain area of Berlin, address Paul-Lincke-Ufer Straße 30. Nice place facing a canal.
Traffic is pretty crazy in Berlin, because streets are small and cars many. Also, even many of the boring buildings are much more interesting than the best Rochester has to offer, and the best buildings are fantastic. Overall, things seem great and exciting. The group is a lot of fun. I had planned to speak only German once here, but with the group, we don't, for practical purposes. That's okay, since I do with everybody else, and they're the ones who will really improve my abilities. The trouble is that English is extrememely prevalent here, far more than I thought, so people know it well. That's good when you don't know a word, but bad because I'm not here to learn English. It shouldn't be much of a problem, though.
I went to the bathroom in a Burger King, and on the way out passed a table with apparently a bathroom attendant and a tray with a few coins on it, and only after I passed it did I realize that I probably was supposed to tip her for doing nothing. I walked faster. Next time, I suppose I'll tip.
I've got some good photos, but will wait to accumulate more. Til next time, Tschüs!
Thursday, September 6
Deutschland!
Hey kids!
I'll be studying in Berlin, Germany from Sep. 9th to Nov. 18th. I'll post pictures and thoughts here from time to time. I fly out on Saturday, Rochester to Detroit to Amsterdam to Berlin. Bis später!
I'll be studying in Berlin, Germany from Sep. 9th to Nov. 18th. I'll post pictures and thoughts here from time to time. I fly out on Saturday, Rochester to Detroit to Amsterdam to Berlin. Bis später!
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