Wortlich

This the beginning of my list of German words I find amusing because they are so logical. For example:

• wortlich: literal (word-ly)
• die Dreiecke: triangle (three corners)
• der Regenschirm: umbrella (rain shield)

It will grow the longer I'm here, but so far I find these words so funny because they are so logical. It's great to learn German because you can logically put a word together and you're most likely right.
Peace!
<3
Emily

Mauerfall Celebration

The actual Celebration. It was nuts! We got there around 3:30 to get a good place because we had read on the flyer that the dominos would fall at 5:00 and we wanted to stand next to them. We get a place after walking around for a bit and then it starts to rain. We don't have an umbrella with us so that was unhappy. Then 5:00 rolls around and nothing happens. We wait until about 6:30 and still nothing has happened and we are now drenched cuz it's still raining and and getting dark and colder. Then 7:00 comes around and the actual festivities start. However, it wasn't the falling of the dominos right way. All the political dignitaries show up: Nicolas Sarkozy, Dmitri Medvedev, Angela Merkel, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama (via video) and Gordon Brown. When Sarkozy was announced the whole crowd booed. I was so surprised.

I knew that he wasn't super well-liked but I didn't know he was that disliked. Anyway, they all speak, saying inspirational things like "The Berlin Wall is a symbol for freedom in our world", etc, etc. It was all in their native tongues and Russian sounds REALLY cool and French sounded completely foul coming from Sarkozy. I have no idea why. Anyway, Hilary Clinton spoke and said, "Concrete and barbed wire are now gone, although that still exists." Or something to that effect. We just kind of stopped and went "huh??" It didn't really make any sense and was absolutely hysterical.

So then there was singing, a funny song about freedom ("Freiheit, Freiheit!") in epic opera voices but that sounds more like "Freizeit" to Jana, which means free time, not freedom. Then Mikael Gorbachev was interviewed. He's a hero here and I was amazed to even be in the same vicinity as him. I've heard his name a million times and read all about him in history but to actually by in the same location as him and here him interviewed was so cool.


Then the man who "opened" the wall, Guenter Schabowski, was interviewed. He was the one who received the papers detailing the new regulations for travel on Nov. 9th, 1989 and misread
them. It was so interesting as well. I mean, a lot of political jabber and reminiscing but still so cool to be a part of. Other notable political figures were interviewed, people that grew up on both sides of the wall were interviewed, it was really cool. Then the dominos started to fall but they fell in three sections, which we didn't expect. The first interlude, there was more interviews and Bon Jovi came out and played "We weren't Born to Follow." It was quite comical. Then during the second interlude Johnny Danger played another freedom inspiring song and it was again comical for us Americans. Afterwards all the Dominos fell and it was just a cool experience overall. I feel so blessed to have had the oppurtunity to experience something like that. I still can't quite grasp the Wall even existed, kind of like I can't grasp the fact that there used to be segregation in the South with seperate drinking fountains
and so much more. These
large historical things I know existed but my life has been so sheltered and calm and safe and normal that it's hard to completely understand what went on. That's why it was so cool to see a commeration of something so monumentous.

Definitely a once in a lifetime thing. So cool.

Berlin Mauerfall

So this next post is going to be long (maybe two?) and complicated. But it was so much fun. We (Jana and Crystal and I) went to Berlin this weekend for the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of Wall (Nov. 9th, 1989.) The entire weekend was an adventure.

Friday: Getting to Berlin
We bought a Querdurchlandeskarte, which essentially means you can travel for mad cheap (roughly 15 Euro per person) but you have to take several trains and it takes longer than a train straight through. So we had to "umsteig" (transfer) 5 or 6 on the way to Berlin. Everything was going fine and we only had one more train to catch but then we got off unintentionally at Sued Dessau. I have no idea where Dessau is, except in the middle-of-nowhere Deutschland. It's this tiny, dark deserted train station in a tiny, almost-dark, deserted town. We find a map and see that the next train comes in two and a half hours but we don't want to wait that long. It was also 8:30 at night and really cold. So we decide that we're gonna try to walk to Dessau Hauptbahnhof (main train station) but have no idea how exactly to do that. So we ask some guy what direction it is and how long it would take. He looks at us like we're crazy and says it would take an hour to get there. However, there's a Strassenbahn right down the street that can take us to Hauptbahnhof. So we walk to the Strassenbahn only to figure out that we just missed the last one of the night. So now we are in the middle of nowhere late at night and it's cold and we don't really have any idea what to do next. Miracously, a bus shows up and we flag it down and take it to Hauptbahnhof. The people on the train thought we were hysterical for some and just kept laughing at us. It was really obvious we didn't belong there. Anyway, we finally get to Hauptbahnhof and then can't find it. So we have to ask the bus driver and he also laughs at us and points to a large dark building behind us that was under construction. We finally find the entrance and realize we have another three hours to wait before a train comes. At this point I am so frustrated and hungry and cold and really need to go the bathroom but it turns out the bathrooms are closed. We wait around for a bit, growing more and more frustrated, and then we see people coming in and out of this door. There was a large colorful spiral staircase that led to the door and there were no lights coming from it but people kept coming in and out. So I get chosen to explore it and I discover a little bar, internet cafe, games, and a bathroom. We end up spending the rest of our three hours in there, drinking and getting really loopy. FINALLY our train comes and we run to it and are just so happy to be there. We're a little drunk/loopy at this point because we've been traveling all day, haven't eaten very much and just had a few beers. It was a great train ride! We finally make it to Berlin around 1:30 in the morning, store our stuff at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, and go to this Irish Pub that was really cool. We met up with Justin, our host for that night/morning and a bunch of his friends. There were these two Irish guys, Connor and Dan. They were so funny! And apparently Dan and Crystal got married at some point in the night/morning. Anyway, around 5:00 am we left the Irish pub because we could now catch a bus to get back to Justin's room. It takes awhile to get there and we get to his room around 6:30 to discover that he really has nowhere for us to sleep except some couches in the main room. However, around 7:30 the Hausprecher (RA) comes in and starts yelling at us that we have to get out and sleep somewhere else. I think he said that anyway. I was too sleep deprived and angry to really listen to his German. We end up sleeping on Justin's floor, which was incredibly uncomfortable but at that point we just wanted sleep.
So after 14 hours, a couple beers, very little food, angry RA's, spending a few hours in the middle-of-nowhere Germany, we finally made it to Berlin. It was one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

Day 1: Saturday
After the getting there debacle, we wake up around 1:00 pm and pack and catch the bus/train/U-Bahn to our appartment. So amazing! We had our own beds, a kitchen, a living room, wireless internet (which sadly didn't work), a bathroom and a porch. It was incredible! We didn't really want to leave. Later that day we bought Doener (if anyone ever goes to Germany/Berlin, you must get Doener!) and groceries. We then dressed up in our animal print outfits (Crystal and I; Jana didn't have an animal print outfit to match us) and went out. There was a whole bunch of clubs but they were either playing mediocre music or had long lines. So we ended in this little club under a bridge that was really sketch but cool and danced until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. We got back to our apparment at 5:30 and passed out.

Day 2: Sunday
Woke up late, had a lazy morning, enjoyed our little living space. We went to see the Dominos that were set up for the Mauerfall and spent a couple hours wandering around them and taking pictures and taking it all in. We then bought coats cuz it was absolutely freezing and I hadn't really put a whole lot of thought into cold weather in Berlin. We again bought Doener and spent the night in our appartment watching funny German TV (a really bad dance exhibition show and a show that was kind of like American Idol, except a lot more ridiculous and in German) and American movies dubbed with German voices. That was a little weird. We then went to bed. Go us for being boring.

Day 3: Monday and Mauerfall!
Today was the anniversary of the Fall of the Wall (Nov. 9th). First we got Gemuesedoener (vegetable Doener, even more amazing) and went to Sonnenallee. There's a German movie, "Sonnenallee" and a book "Am kuerzeren Ende der Sonnenallee" and we read the book and saw the movie for class. Sonnenallee was a street that was split by the wall and the short end ended up in East Berlin. It was also a checkpoint, but almost everything is gone so there wasn't really a whole lot to see. But we did get a picture of us by the street sign. It was awesome. :) Then we went to the celebration of the Fall of Wall but that will take another post to describe.

<3
Emily

Two Month Mark

Today marks the two-month anniversary of my arrival in Germany. That thought blows my mind. It doesn't feel like that long and yet feels so much longer. Time just feels irrelevant I guess. I've loved (almost) every minute of it here.
Things I absolutely love:

• The chocolate
• The U-bahn and S-bahn
• The architecture
• The history of the city
• The language (and the fact that I can understand it)
• Some German music
• Apfelschorle (carbonated apple juice)
• Schnitzel
• Potato wedges
• Currywurst
• Augustiner Beer
• The fashion
• The mood of Europe
• Denglisch (the best language in the world for the select few who speak it)
  

Things I don't like so much:

• It's damn near impossible to find "American" baking ingredients
• People have a tendency to speak English with you if they hear it
• The lack of drinking fountains
• The lack of Mexican food or proper Salsa
• The lack of peanut butter
• There are no true hamburger joints anywhere...
• No Rootbeer!!! This makes me so sad. :(
• The banks close around 4:00, which is incredibly inconvenient
• The fact that the Germans don't dance

For the most part, Germany has been an incredible experience. I've seen Neuschwanstein (the Disney Castle), Schloss Nymphenburg, Regensburg (the city is over 2000 years old and AMAZING; yes, people still live there), The oldest church in Germany (built in 1115? because they couldn't carry the crucifix over the Alps) and so many other cool things. I now can tell you the difference between Barock/Rokoko, Renaissance, Gothic, Classicismus (? English spelling please ?) and love going around the city identifying the different architectural periods.
My German has skyrocketed. I'm amazed at how much easier it is to speak now and how many more words I know. It's true what they say. The best way to learn a language is to live in the country. I just absolutely love Europe and Germany. Right now, when I think about going home, I really don't want to leave. It suits me here and I feel so at home with everything. I love the clothes and the people and the food (mostly) and the language and the lifestyle. I can't believe how lucky I am to be here for a whole year. It's just weird that two months of it have passed already...
This weekend I'm headed to Berlin for the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall, which blows my mind on so many levels. I can't believe a) I'm living where (generally) the Wall was, 2) that the Wall even existed, and 3) that I'm here to celebrate the 2oth Anniverary of it's Fall. Germany as it is now is as old as me. That is such an odd thought.
I miss everyone terribly. My Portland peeps and even those weirdos from SL,UT that I call my friends. :) I miss my family and my puppy.
Hope everyone is doing well and I send my love across the ocean!
<3
Emily

School started, Halloween came and went and November said hi

Somehow it became November...I really don't know how that happened.
Halloween came and went, and I was a little disappointed by the lack of celebration here in Deutschland. They don't take it quite as seriously as we do in America, so there was no pumpkin carving, almost no trick or treating, and very few costumes. I had a costume (Kaylee from Firefly) and Firefly fans picked up on it, which was cool. I had fun, but it was still a little weird not being surrounded by HalloweEditen things.
I'm starting my third week of classes and so far, it's been very good. All of my classes are in German, which is hard but nice at the same time. And despite the whole foreign language thing, this could be the easiest semester I'll have. Here's a list of the classes I'm taking.

1. Sprachkurs - Intensive grammar, vocab, etc. Lots of fun actually. The teacher is 25 and really cool. We play Pictionary for our vocabulary and have a lot of fun in the class. She's strict, but nice about it.
2. Literatur der Gegenwart - We read a lot. And I like reading but the books are in German, and that is really difficult. I like most of the books we have to read, however this class could be really hard and time-consuming. No doubt incredibly helpful, but a lot of work. It's the only thing I'm worried about.
3. Landeskunde - This is like overall history/culture/everyday life in Germany. It's a fascinating class! Right now we're covering the German school system and the "ideal" for women and children. It's a really good idea - The Germans think that the family is key and that the family unit should stay intact, which means the mother can take three years off work and have a guarantee to get the same/very similar job back. The first year they get full monetary compensation, the next two they just don't have to work. It sounds good on paper, but in reality there's all sorts of logistical issues. It's incredibly fascinating to learn about. I really like this class. Athough last week was kind of a fail for this class and I...
4. Kunstgeschichte - Art History. The coolest part about it is we get to go to museums and go see actual paintings from really famous painters like DaVinci, Michelangelo, Duerer, Raphael, Botticelli, etc. So cool. Most of the pictures are religious (surprise), the subjects are all white (surprise), and the women are all chubby and mostly naked (actually surprised at that). It was kind of comforting to know that back then being pale and chubby with round faces was attractive and a sign of wealth; however, it's depressing for us women today. Also, in the middle ages they used the snail as a sign of Mary's virginity because they didn't know how snails reproduced. They thought God formed every one of them by hand. Interesting tidbit.
5. Keramik - Ceramics. My stress reliever. However, it's at 9:00 on Friday...mood killer.
   

Other than that, haven't been doing a whole lot. I work out, go to class, do my homework, watch my American tv shows (finally!) and hang out with friends. I've had a little more time to explore Munich and it's still amazing. Fall in der Englischer Garten is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It's so relaxing to go running through there. We (Jana and I) were running in there the other and this little ratdog started to chase after us barking loudly, so I turned around and barked back. It stopped dead in it's tracks and looked so confused. It was funny. Jana is my new running/awkward german moments buddy. Good times.

So far, there have been a lot of awkward German moments. The highlights:

• Talking to German boys, I said "Als ich jung war (when I young)", but they heard "Als ich jungen war (when I was a boy)".
  
• Trying to figure out how to say pregame. Said "vorspielen (foreplay)". Pregame is "vortrinken". Good to know the difference.
• Jana moment #1 = genough. Mix between "genug" and "enough".
• Jana moment #2 = kirchensaft. "Church juice." She meant to say, kirschensaft. Cherry juice. It's church juice from now on.
• Crystal moment = Dienerstag. Mix between Tuesday and Thursday, Dienstag und Donnerstag.

I love the language barrier. Also, we all speak (we being all of us on exchange here) Denglisch, which is a beautiful mix between German and English. I feel bad for those in America who try to talk to me because my English is awful right now.
Bis spaeter!
Emily