Universität

Now that the semester is basically over (I have two weeks of classes left), I’ll let you know what’s going on: school is really, really, really hard. I had no idea how very rudimentary (and honestly, quite crappy) my German was until I got stuck in a less-than-acoustically-wonderful classroom with a German speaking professor and twenty rapid-speaking (and sometimes also heavily accented or dialect-speaking) students. Wayyyyy harder than I anticipated it would be! All semester I anticipated it would eventually get better; sadly, I haven’t noticed a huge change.

For those of you who are interested, here are the classes I’m taking:

1. Arthur Schnitzler in the Context of Viennese Modernism. I freaking adore Schnitzler, so I love reading for this class, but usually get pretty lost during the discussions…it’s frustrating.

2. History of the US in the 20^th Century. This class is great because 1. I’m relearning American history, which is just life-good, and 2. It’s a total confidence-builder for my German. Since I usually have a good idea of what’s going on, since I’ve obviously learned US History before, I can really focus on the German, picking up new vocab and expressions, while at the same time definitely learning some new things. This is a lecture course, but two other “Amis” and I are taking the accompanying discussion section, where the prof loves to ask us stuff as native speakers and real-live-Americans (example: “What holds your country together as a nation?”). We never have a good answer and I’m pretty sure the other German students think we’re absolute morons.

3. Poverty in the 19^th and 20^th Century. Also a lecture, which means all listening and no stress of having to speak. I like this class, because I think the topic is interesting, and the professor speaks pretty quickly, so it’s a good challenge to my German. I don’t like this class because the professor is also really funny, making me feel totally out of the loop and non-German speaking – the reason is know he’s funny is not because I get his jokes/funny comments, but because the class erupts in laughter approximately every 15 minutes.

4. Mass-media and advertising in Germany. This class is not a real-University class, but one offered by the “German as a Foreign Language Department.” This basically means low-stress because everyone speaks the same broken German I do! While the material/readings are interesting, the class is a total joke – we don’t really “learn” anything or do much critical analysis, we just talk about how much and what kind of TV we watch. It was extremely frustrating because I’d had high expectations for it, but over already…hopefully I passed the Klausur (end-of-semester-exam).

5. Village-stories from the German speaking-area (terrible translation, sorry). I’m more auditing this class than taking it, because I think it’s interesting and like the stories, but can never finish the reading and didn’t think I was in shape to write a final paper for it. Might not get a thing from WashU for it, but it’s good to get more time each week reading and listening to German I figure, even though it makes me feel like I’m drowning sometimes.

6. Pronunciation training! Another class I’ll get no credit for but totally life-useful. While 14 one-hour classes certainly aren’t going to get rid of my horrible American accent, I’m hoping it will help a little, and it’s nice to actually learn some rules for pronunciation outside of the basic stuff you get in year-1 German. I’ve already learned quite a lot actually.

So that’s class. It’s hard, totally different from the American system, and demoralizing…luckily lots of other parts of this semester abroad have been wonderful! Since Uni turned out to be an Enttäuschung (dissapointment).

Salzburg

…was one of the best trips I’ve had this whole semester. Despite the fact I was feeling super traveled-out after Leipzig. I spent four days there with Christy, and we went from being cultural-y to exploring nature to going into full-on shameless tourist mode. It was amazing. Here’s a breakdown:

I arrived Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening we were classy-touristy. After changing into appropriate theater-going clothes, we hit up the art museum in the Altstadt, had dinner, and then saw a production of “Jugend ohne Gott” (Youth without God). I was simultaneously impressed by how much I actually did understand and frustrated by how that still wasn’t enough for me to totally grasp everything that was going on. Fun nonetheless, though.

Monday we took a “Sound of Music” Tour which was incredibly cheesy and amazingly fun – they took us to a bunch of places where the movie had been filmed, and it was crazy to see how the filmmakers pieced together different areas of the city to create the film. After that we went up to Hohensalzburg, a castle/fortress up on a hill to the west of the river, where the view over the city is absolutely stunning.

Tuesday we hopped back over the border into Germany to visit a Salt Mine, which was totally cracked out and incredibly cool – I totally wished the brothers could have been with me to see it! Unfortunately, I didn’t understand a lot of the German they were using to explain the mining process (definitely not the type of vocabulary I’ve ever learned) but it was amazing to be in the mine and walk through the tunnels.

After that we continued on to the Königssee – truly the most beautiful place I’ve seen in Europe this far. It’s a long, skinny lake, incredibly clean and a beautiful aqua color and bordered by huge mountains – sort of Canandaigua-esque…but on steroids. We took a boat ride out to a little point further down the lake and just walked around the paths for a bit. It was drizzling the entire time but the rain and mist really didn’t detract from the experience at all.

Wednesday, then, before we left in the afternoon, we went to the “Trick Fountains” at Hellbrunn Palace, and were decently soaked by the end of the tour – our tour guide was realllly enjoying catching everyone by surprise and turning on random unnoticed fountains the whole time. There were also tons of little kids on the tour, who were mostly adorable and completely enjoying the ridiculousness, aside from the one poor German kid who sobbed the entire tour.

Salzburg as a city was also extremely touristy, but so wonderful/beautiful it didn’t even bother me – I can see why it gets so so many tourists each year!

I’ve spent the past two weekends in Tübingen and plan on being here the next two weekends as well – sort of a record! But totally necessary, as I need to prepare two Referats (oral presentations) as well as write my Hausarbeit (final-term-paper)…I’ve become great friends with the library recently.

Prag, Straßburg, Leipzig, Dresden

The mad travel spree continued this past month. Ali and Helen (sister and cousin) came to visit Deutschland/Europe/me which was WONDERFUL. It was literally so nice to have family around and people to talk about home-things with. Slash we did some amazing traveling:

Prag/Praha/Prague– completely beautiful and horribly touristy. I love the way the city looks – it actually reminded me of Vienna – and how it embraces it’s river – it’s very central to the town has simple gorgeous bridges, which I’m a total sucker for. We spent nearly all day Saturday at the Hrad (castle), a massive complex really, and both beautiful and intimidating in the best sense. Sunday we went to mass in a really stunning church just steps from our hostel, and an hour-long mass in a language I 100% don’t speak realllly made me appreciate Vatican II. We also saw parts of the Jewish Museum in Prag; the Synagoge/Museum focusing on Jewish history in the region from 1000-1800 was one of the best exhibits I think I’ve seen.

Then Ali and Helen ditched me for more awesome traveling (they went to Vienna, Venice, and München) and I went back to Tübingen for a joyous (read sarcastically) week of Uni.

The next Saturday/Sunday we went to Strasbourg/Straßburg. The spelling still confuses me, but it was incredibly beautiful! Which I was not entirely expecting but was pleasantly surprised to discover. I was also extremely pleasantly surprised to find that all of the people there – and by that I really mean the waiters, the only Strasburg-ians we talked to – we super-nice despite the fact we were speaking English (and me accidentally sometimes in German) to them. Although Ali and Helen said Strasburg was the most difficult place to use English that they’d been to, we very much got by.

We were extremely lazy tourists in Strasburg. Mass (in the really stunning Frauenkirche) and a boat tour on the river were the only things we did. All other time was filled with walking from one restaurant or bar or café to the next. It was wonderful.

After three days in Tübingen after Straßburg, we (me plus some Americans and Brazilians from Deutsch-Kompakt) left this past Thursday for Leipzig. We did a “Blind Booking” with Germanwings, which means you choose a general destination or theme (ex, “Eastern Europe” or “Sun and Sand” or “Nightlife”). We chose “Eastern Europe” and naturally get sent somewhere within Germany rather than somewhere like Sarajevo. Oh well. Leipzig was a lot cooler than I was expecting, and we were able to do a day trip on Saturday to Dresden, which is absolutely beautiful along the river. Museum-wise I was feeling a little screwed after the weekend was over, as Leipzig’s City Museum was only half finished (missing the 19^th/20^th Centuries) and the History of the German Military Museum in Dresden was closed until November. There was, of course, plenty of else to do and it was a really fun trip overall.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I leave for a four-day-trip to Salzburg, and then I literally never want to leave Tübingen again. By Sunday in Leipzig we had no desire to do anything, and I think I’m a little traveled-out. The new goal for my last two months here is to explore Baden-Württemburg (the federal state that Tübingen is in) and maybe start being serious about school. Maybe.

So. Much. Traveling.

These past weeks have been filled with just two things: school (aka stress, maybe I’ll do a blog post on that later) and traveling.

After the weekend in München, we did a phenomenal four-day trip to Vienna for Easter, came back to Tübingen for three days, then I met Christy in Berlin for three days, and came back to Tübingen swearing I wouldn’t leave again for a while. That completely didn’t work out, as the following Saturday and Sunday were spent in Stuttgart! Which is only an hour away by train, though, and therefore much less tiring than the previous two weekends. Here’s the breakdown:

Vienna: Vienna is quite seriously my favorite city in the world. One, it is simply beautiful. The architecture is astounding, you feel the remains of an old, powerful empire everywhere, and they still speak German. I’d been to Vienna when I was in Europe vorletzten Sommer (summer before last), but in some ways I saw a completely different side of the city this time. Before, I had hit a lot of museum/tourist attractions, which were wonderful and I loved. This time we still did some touristy stuff, but also just spend a ton of time walking around, eating, taking the trams and the U-bahn to random places…and the more I saw of Vienna, the more beautiful it became.

Highlights of the trip included (among others) seeing the Lipizzaners at the Spanish Riding School (I could have watched those horses literally all day), going to the Prater amusement park (aka, cotton candy, an awesome Ferris Wheel and a phenomenal return to our childhoods), and trekking outside of the main city are to a totally adorable and wonderful Heuriger (wine-garten-thing).

I also went to Easter mass in St. Stephans with another one of the girls I was with. St. Stephans is the huge cathedral in the main square in Vienna, and I have to say that it was less a religious experience and more a phenomenally strange touristy one. First, there was a concert of sorts during the Mass (Wagner, maybe…? Something composed with the intent of being church/mass music!) which meant that mass was over 2 hours long, and secondly, people kept just popping into the back of the church, taking pictures, and leaving! It was kind of maddening. But overall, a really cool experience.

Basically, every time I think about Vienna recently I’m just sad that I’m not still there. Because it is truly amazing.

Berlin: Berlin was the Museum and Culture weekend: Christy (if you’ve forgotten, the WashU PhD student who is living in Tübingen) and I visited the Topography of Terror, which chronicles the years 1933-45, the German Historical Museum (think: last two thousand years of german/European history), which is overwhelmingly huge but great, basically somewhere I felt you could happily go three days in a row, the Pergamom Museum, and then I went to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, which chronicles the history of Jews in German over the last two centuries and was super-interesting and informative.

Friday night we went to the ballet, Schneewitchen (Snow White). It was modern, phenomenal, beautiful, and absolutely one of my favorite things I’ve done here. Saturday night, we went to the Symphony to see if they had Restkarten (left over tickets still needing to be sold) and not only did they have them, but we also got the phenomenal student price of 10 euro. They played Beethoven’s 9^th, which was absolutely incredible to hear live.

When I was in Berlin last time, although I totally enjoyed the trip, I didn’t feel any particular love for the city. I knew I wanted to go back though, because there is obviously just sooo much to see in Berlin, but chose a short weekend to do it – by the end of the trip, I sort of wished I’d planned to be there longer! Berlin is simply too huge and has too much to offer. As a city though, it’s not my favorite; I just don’t feel like I can figure out it’s “vibe” – or maybe it’s just not one that I love.

After a verspätete (late) train (that happens to me wayyy too much here), a missed train in Stuttgart, an hour waiting in a café in the Bahnhof in Stuttgart there, and a taxi home from the Bahnhof in Tübingen, I arrived home at around 2:30am and swore to myself I wasn’t leaving Tübingen again for a while. That turned out to be a total fail, as last weekend became Stuttgart-weekend.

Saturday in Stuttgart last weekend: Frühlingsfest (“spring festival”). Basically the second largest Bierfest after Oktoberfest in München, a combination Carnival and Bier-tent-extravaganza. Completely awesome, way too much fun, lots of bier, delicious/unhealthy carnival food, bumper cars, and basically so fun we went back again yesterday! For more bumper cars, water rides, delicious nutella-elephant-ear-like-treats, bier tents, and dancing on tables (it wasn’t trashy, everyone was doing it), and trying to sing along to German songs.

Sunday in Stuttgart last weekend: More ballet! Less modern and more traditional, but still totally beautiful. I think ballet is my new thing, especially since Germany loves its student prices.

In Tübingen for the next six days in a row – very excited to just be here. Future travel plans, though, include Prag (!!!), Straßburg, and Salzburg.

München and the Pope's Bier

München this weekend with some of the girls – completely awesome.

Background for the trip: Germany has this thing called a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket, which enables up to five people to use Nahverhkehr (translation: the slower, less comfy trains) for an entire day, for only 39 Euro. Considering that that’s 8 Euro per person going there, 8 going back, 20 for one night in a hostel, you have a rather inexpensive weekend trip to München.

The trip really started Friday afternoon though, when we finalized these plans to go by actually booking a hotel. Feeling very yay-cool-lets-travel-last-minute-through-Europe, we then agreed to meet up that night at around 10:30, have a few drinks, and go to this Uni-party in Kuckuck (the student bar 20 seconds from my dorm). Turns out the music at this party is the BEST most of us have experienced at a club/bar so far in Germany (translation: mostly contemporary American pop and rap, mixed with some super-popular German stuff), which meant we didn’t want to leave. Which meant we stayed until like 3:30 or 4am. Which means we just didn’t go to bed – three of us came back to my apt to crash and just stayed up chatting, showered, packed, and headed down to the bus stop at 5:50 am.

So one all nighter, two transfers, three trains, and four hours later, we arrive in München! Our weekend started off with a group of men dressed in Lederhosen confronting us at the Bahnhof, telling us we needed to cut these little bottles of Schnapps off of this one guy’s onesie-costume-thingy. When I asked him what they were doing, the guy with the Schnapps says “Ich muss heiraten,” or, “I have to get married,” which I thought was just phenomenally funnily phrased. Anyways, this was at 10:30 am and the groom-to-be was already completely hammered, slurring his German so badly I couldn’t understand it half the time, so that his friend had to repeat everything for us.

Funny start aside, we did some serious things here, mixed in with a very healthy amount of drinking Bier and eating German food.

First serious thing was Saturday: Dachau (just fyi, the next 7 paragraphs are my thoughts/impressions about that experience. Comment on this please if you have other thoughts!). I’m guessing most of you know that Dachau is a concentration camp in Germany; what makes it perhaps especially interesting is that it was the first concentration camp (established in 1933 just after Hitler came to power) and was supposed to “serve as a model for all other camps.” I knew this walking in – what I didn’t realize is that Dachau is also quite simply the name of the town where the camp is located. It was very strange chilling on the S-bahn for 25 minutes and then suddenly getting off at a Bahnhof called “Dachau,” and then seeing buses for the “City of Dachau” and etc. It was sort of chilling for me, and I wonder how it would feel to live in a town with such an infamous name.

A short bus ride later, we get off the bus at “KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau,” “Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site.” The first thing that struck me was that the pathway leading to the information center and then a few hundred meters later to the actual site of the camp was beautiful, well maintained and prettily planned. That was an uncomfortable feeling, the instant, “oh what a lovely day and a pretty path.”

The discomfort really only continued though, but not in the way I had thought it would. After literally feeling that I was going to puke after seeing the “Arbeit macht frei” door and reading that where I was standing was the path that prisoners walked, headed towards that door into that camp, I walked into the prisoners section of the camp. There, the “administrative building” had been transformed into a museum, the only barracks there were two that had been rebuilt as replicas, and towards the back of the prisoners area were religious memorials – one from the Catholic church, one Evangelical, one Jewish and a Russian Orthodox on a bit farther off.

These struck me as completely inappropriate and ironic. One, Nazi ideology was totally against organized religion; there would have been no place for religiosity in a concentration camp. There was none of the goodness/mercy/love that religion preaches inherent in a concentration camp. I really cannot understand why someone thought it appropriate, then, for these religiously-based Denkmale (memorials) to be there. Not to say they don’t have a place in Holocaust memorialization, but in my opinion that place is not in the actual concentration camps. But these are just my initial thoughts, so perhaps more on that later. (Thesis for next year…?)

So, confused by the somewhat prettiness of the surrounding area, annoyed with all of the churches/religious stuff, completely unable to actually picture that people had lived horribly as prisoners here, I started noticing that the people around me were taking pictures, and in a way that I was totally not ok with. I too, of course, was taking pictures, but of the camp and the things that struck me. A lot of the people around me were taking pictures of themselves in the camp – one man I saw asked his wife to take a picture of him in front of “Arbeit macht frei,” another young girl actually laid down against a tree in the camp and started posing. I literally wanted to slap these people, not just for completely disturbing my experience with their callousness but for being so incredibly thoughtless and disrespectful. I don’t understand what someone hopes to gain by having documented themselves freely standing next to or walking under such an iconic representation of Nazism and the Holocaust – “look Ma I was really here!” just doesn’t cut it.

My final thought is that the gas-chamber/crematorium was genuinely chilling to see. Although the gas-chambers in Dachau were never put to use, it was horrible just to see the space, to see what someone had designed in order to murder people. The very first thing I noticed there was that ceiling in that room is lower than any of the other rooms – it is a genuinely horribly cramped space. The crematorium, on the other side, had been used, and it was most nauseating to think about those prisoners who had to carry out the process of actually cremating the bodies.

Really my final thought, though, is that there is this big sign in the camp that says “Nie wieder,” “Never agan,” “никогда больше” and a few other languages – I thought this was maybe the worst part of the camp, because it’s just not true.

Moving on from that, the other serious thing we did was take a city tour on Sunday, which on the one hand was totally funny and mostly about Bier (I learned that the pope’s favorite Bier is Augustiner Edelstoff from München – naturally we tried it later, it’s delicious, and I understand why he has it imported to the Vatican bi-monthly), but also about Münchens history as the city with a very deep Nazi past – Hitler called it the “Hauptstadt der Bewegung,” or, “Capital of the (National Socialist) movement. München has over a hundred small memorials all over the city commemorating the Holocaust/War/Resistance Movement, mostly unexplained and easy to overlook – our tour guide asked us to compare for ourselves the effectiveness of such memorials (which require you to go seek out information and learn for yourself about what happened) with memoralize like the “Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe” in Berlin, which is not subtle but takes up a whole city block (go google pictures!). All in all, this weekend really made me start thinking about the process of memorialization.

So, all seriousness aside, we also of course went to the Hofbräuhaus (Saturday), went to an Augustiner Biergarten (Sunday), and saw tons of people dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndls (the entire weekend). Weigh in, all: should I buy a Dirndl next time we go to München? ! They’re expensive but I would have a killer Halloween costume for the rest of my life.

I also had the funny/strange experience of trying to go to church in the Frauenkirche (Münchens huge Catholic Church and the seat of the Archbishop of München and Freiburg) and ending up in a little chapel behind the altar with 18 other people, the priest, and the alter server. Mass was only 38 minutes long (beat that, parents/brothers), and it seems you have to go to the 10am Mass for it to be celebrated in the main church.

Basically in the end we decided we’re going to have to come back to München again one weekend! It’s an easy, not too expensive way to get out of Tübingen for a short weekend, and there’s so much to see, and of course so many more Biergarten to visit.

Final note is that being in a big city was really, really nice – don’t get me wrong, I love Tübingen, but München is just big and legit, with so much and extensive public transportation, so many more restaurants, a real, huge Bahnhof, and such a history. Loved it!