This post covers Monday 2/22 to Wednesday 2/25
So these three days were the last days of the February session at the Goethe-Institut. Because almost all of my American friends were headed to Vienna on Thursday and my South American friends were all headed home, we knew these last three days had to be filled with fun. Monday night we made some turkey and veggies for dinner and then headed out to Stammtisch. It was, of course, fun, and we stayed out longer than we normally do. We were probably there until 11:30 or 12, debating if we should go to Barfüßer, the dance club. We ended up not going because we knew we would be there at some point later in the week. It was definitely a good night and a great last Stammtisch with all of us together.
Tuesday night a few of us made some delicious spaghetti and prepared for the Goethe Goodbye Party. Why the school would decide to throw a school-sponsored party the night before the last day of classes is beyond me, but we weren’t complaining. We headed to the Goethe-Pub for our last Goethe Party together and we all had an absolute blast hanging out and dancing the night away.
So yes, the next morning was the last day of class. After the classes, we had a short closing session that was fun to sit through. We saw pictures of the events we did during the month and had presentations for a few people. Then we all feasted on chicken—yeah they served us a whole half of a chicken, bones and all for lunch. It was delicious, but it became even more apparent who the Americans were because we all ate with our hands while everyone else used a fork and knife. Oops.
Wednesday night was, as to be expected, awesome. A group of us Americans went out to the amazing Chinese place so they could enjoy it for their last time. After laughing over random stuff at dinner, we all headed back to the Wohnheim to start our own goodbye party. All of us had an awesome time hanging out, (drinking—if I even needed to say that), singing, dancing, and taking pictures with everyone. After living it up in the Wohnheim, we all headed to Barfüßer, the dance club for a last night party together. We first tried to get in there around midnight, but the cover charge was there until 12:30…so we headed to Olli’s to get another beer and chill for 30 minutes. We headed into Barfüßer around 12:45 and danced like the crazy foreigners that we were. There were a surprising number of people in the place for a Wednesday night, so we had soon coaxed several groups of Germans to come join us on the floor. It was an awesome time and a great way to say bye to everyone. As I decided to leave (around 2:30…and I was the first to leave), it took about 30 minutes to give hugs and say (more like yell) goodbyes over the music. All of the Brazilians insisted I come visit Brazil at some point, so right now I’m going to aim for Brazil in 2014 because it is hosting the World Cup then. Also my friends that were going to Vienna said I was welcome anytime in their new city and that they were looking forward to me visiting. It was a bittersweet goodbye. I had a blast with everyone, but I didn’t know when, if ever, I would see some of these awesome people again. I went home and fell asleep that night both happy that the month had been so awesome and sad that it ended to so quickly. I will always treasure that February in Schwäbisch Hall.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The strongest beer in the world
This entry is for Friday 2/19 through Sunday 2/21.
That weekend was our last weekend all together. The Americans (all 15 except for me and one other) were headed to Vienna on Thursday to start their semester there. The Brazilians and the Argentineans were headed home on Thursday because their summer break was wrapping up. Everyone else was pretty much leaving, too. So we had this weekend and the next Monday-Wednesday to enjoy each other’s company as much as possible.
Also, a slight bit of a scare came on Friday when I heard that the branch of the Dresdner Bank that I use had been robbed a few weeks earlier. They hadn’t been robbed by gunpoint, but instead thieves had contrived a way to procure the pin numbers of all of the cards people used at the ATM and took over 100,000 Euros worth. I checked my statements and breathed a sigh of relief when everything was ok. Apparently the robbery had taken place on January 30th, and I opened my account with them February 4th. What a close call!!
So Friday afternoon started out in an entertaining fashion. We went to feed the ducks!! We spent about thirty minutes chucking old bread at the swarm of ducks down by the river. Definitely a good time. We then played soccer outside later that afternoon. And that was something to see. We decided to play outside. It was roughly 35 degrees Fahrenheit and softly, but steadily raining. We walked to a park about 20 minutes away and played on a snow- and mud-covered field. It was a ton of fun, but we were sliding everywhere and people seem to get hurt every other play—nothing too serious, but enough to have them sit out for 5 minutes. The kid with the terrible circulations to his extremities (me) was miserable at points because he couldn’t feel his hands or feet about 20 minutes into the 2 hour session. But we all still had a great time. I’m surprised no one got extremely sick, though.
After showering and cleaning up, Derek, Ben, Andrew I., and I met up for dinner. We decided to try a new thing for dinner and went to a pizzeria close to my house. It was actually pretty decent pizza, and it was a good size (about 10 to 11 inches in diameter). That being said, it wasn’t anything compared to American pizza and made me crave some good ol’ Pizza Hut and Domino’s. It was an enjoyable dinner, though. After that, we headed to the Supermarket and then went back to the Wohnheim. It was a blast hanging out with everybody, and around midnight we all headed down to the disko (dance club) again, called Barfüße. If you recall our first Friday night in togas, then you will remember that we went to Barfüße that night, too. At first we were the only people on the floor. Just a bunch of international kids looking like fools in front of the Germans just hanging out at the bar. However, we eventually coaxed a few of them to come join us and by the end, we all had a blast dancing and being stupid with everyone.
That next Saturday morning, we all awoke bright and early for our Goethe-sponsored trip to Heidelberg! We boarded the bus at 8:30 and departed on the two hour trip. Our arrival to Heidelberg greeted us with clouds, bitter cold, and snow. None of us were surprised, but we had been told sun might be expected. Somewhat disappointed with the weather, we headed to grab some delicious breakfast at Kamps. I had an Amerikaner and a cinnamon scone (the German word is escaping me right now). The scone was scrumptious, as is expected, but the Amerikaner was definitely a new experience. I loved it, and it tasted good, but it was unlike anything I had seen in America, which I find highly ironic. Someone even asked me what they are called in America, and I said that I had never seen such a thing. It was about as round as a large sugar cookie and was frosted with chocolate icing. However, it was about an inch and a half thick and had the consistency of a muffin. It was intriguing, to say the least.
After breakfast, our tour guide (another one of Die Freunde des Goethe people) showed us around. She pointed out some historic buildings and then took us into the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church). It is a famous and beautiful church in Heidelberg and serves as a distinct landmark on the city’s skyline. The church was gorgeous on the inside and we spent about 40 minutes in there looking around and hearing about the history. We then headed through the streets of Heidelberg to the famous Karl-Theodor-Brücke, which translates as the Karl Theodor Bridge. It is the old, famous, and picturesque bridge in Heidelberg. If you have ever seen pictures of the city, you have probably seen this bridge before. It was definitely awesome, and I made sure to get lots of pictures. After the bridge, we headed to the University of Heidelberg.
If you don’t know, the University of Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany and the third oldest in Europe. I want to say it was 1386 when it was founded, but I’m not positive on that date. I do know it was the late 1300’s. It is also famous for being a home to the Romatic movement in Germany and harboring a myriad of intellectuals throughout its time. The actually university now is in a different place because of size/demographic constraints (about 30,000 to 40,000 students attend now), but we saw the old buildings just how they were. One of the coolest things we saw was the Studenten Karzer (or Student Jail). The university actually had the right (and fully exercised it) to incarcerate students that broke important university policies, such as noise, alcohol, and curfew violations. The normal sentence was two weeks in the prison, and by the end (this practice stopped in the mid 1900’s, I believe) it was more of a sport to say that you got into the prison than a thing to be feared.
At the University of Heidelberg, they had student groups comparable to what we know as fraternities. They weren’t fraternities, per se, but they were groups of students with common beliefs. Each group had its own color of boots and hats and its own crest. In the prison, these different colors and crests were EVERYWHERE. I don’t think there was a square inch of wall that wasn’t covered with something. The people who spent time in there obviously used their boredom to decorate the place. There are drawings, markings, and sayings everywhere you looked.
We had a two hour break after we all toured the Studenten Karzer, so a group of us headed to the other beautiful and iconic church of the city, the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church). The inside of it was also beautiful and breathtaking. Then we headed back to Heiliggeistkirche and climbed up the tower. After about a 10 minute ascent up a never-ending spiral staircase, we made it to the top. The views of Heidelberg were amazing, and I got a lot of awesome pictures from that.
Once we were back on the ground, we had to decide what to do for lunch. We discussed several options, but we really couldn’t decide on anything. After checking on a few menus, we happened to stumble into a place called Vetter. It might have been the best accidental discovery since Columbus landed in the Caribbean. The place was obviously a brewery, noted by the huge beer vats and chandeliers of hopps. As we were looking at the menu, I noticed something very unique. They served a beer called Vetter 33. It was the STRONGEST BEER IN THE WORLD at 33% alcohol. I kid you not. They even sited the Guinness Book of World Records that they have the strongest beer as of 1994. So yes, we stumbled into the brewery that just so happened to make the strongest beer in the world. INSANE.
They only sell this beer in 0.2 liters. Most beer you can buy in 0.3 or 0.5 liters at restaurants, but this stuff was so strong they could only give you so much. We all ordered a regular beer to try and then split the Vetter 33 among the four of us. I ordered a beer called the Terminator, which was like a really dark red lager. It was heavenly, and it is easily my favorite beer that I’ve had in Germany. (So thus my favorite beer in the world.) Ben got a Hefe-Weizen, which is a wheat beer, and he pointed out that when they brought out the Vetter 33, that the head (the foamy part at the top) of it was darker than his wheat beer. It was crazy! The Vetter 33 was so dark. It was very sticky and clung to the sides of the glass. It almost reminded me of molasses. It was definitely good, but none of us wanted too much of it. It was good to split between the four of us. The beer definitely had a kick to it, too, that reminded you that is no normal beer, but instead 33% alcohol. Oh yeah, and the food was good too. Some tasty wursts and fried potatoes. Can’t go wrong with a lunch like that.
We then headed back across the Karl-Theodor-Brücke to a winding road called Philosophienweg, which translates to Philosopher’s Way. This is a famous road in Heidelberg that famous philosophers have walked in order to encourage their thinking and aid them with developing novel philosophies. We decided to walk up to it and check it out. The road up was definitely tough. Not only were we full off of our awesome meal, but the path was straight up a hill. It wound back and forth up the hill, but there was no secret that we were hiking up a steep slope. The view at the top, though, was a great reward, and we walked along for a few minutes soaking in the overlooking view of the entire city of Heidelberg and the philosophic atmosphere. Then we headed back down to meet up with our group.
The next stop was the Heidelberg Schloss (castle). It is another iconic structure in the city, and we hiked up the steep, steep, steep path to get there. It definitely took some effort to get to the top of that sucker, too, so between the Philosophienweg and the path to the Schloss, we certainly got our exercise in. Once we were in walls of the Schloss, we saw more amazing views overlooking the whole city of Heidelberg. Absolutely gorgeous. Then we headed inside of more mind-blowing things to see.
At first we walked in, and I saw this huge wine keg (Wein Fass auf Deutsch) that was probably 10 to 15 feet tall. My jaw dropped, and we got plently of pictures with that. But THEN we walked into the next room. Nobody could believe what we saw: a wine keg that had to be at least 30 feet tall. I am not kidding. I look dwarfed next to this thing. It was big enough to walk around on top. It holds over 200,000 liters of wine and has only been filled three times. It was just so massive!! You have to see pictures to believe it.
After we left the castle, the group of us who had first discovered Vetter took another group there to prove that we weren’t making up the fact that we had drunk the strongest beer in the world. We sat down and had another (why not?—how often are we going to be able to do that?) and then walked down the Hauptstrasse. The Hauptstrasse is the longest pedestrian zone in Europe at 1.6 kilometers in length. That’s huge! We didn’t even make it half was down before we had to turn back and head home. We boarded the bus around 4:30 and headed back to Schwäbisch Hall.
That night was pretty chill. We mostly just set in the kitchen and hung out. We made potatoes, veggies, and brats for dinner, and it was, as always, delicious.
Sunday I was supposed to go to Nürnberg again with a different group of people, but I decided to instead sleep in and take a day to relax. I was starting to feel slightly sick and figured a day of rest would be better for my body than another day of cold weather and traveling. Besides, I should be back in Nürnberg again in the next few weeks. So Sunday was a relaxing day. That night, Andrew I, Andrew K, Ben, Derek, and I headed out to Olli’s to grab a beer and just hang out. We were only there about an hour just talking and enjoying each other’s company until we headed home for the night. Chalk up another great weekend on the record books.
That weekend was our last weekend all together. The Americans (all 15 except for me and one other) were headed to Vienna on Thursday to start their semester there. The Brazilians and the Argentineans were headed home on Thursday because their summer break was wrapping up. Everyone else was pretty much leaving, too. So we had this weekend and the next Monday-Wednesday to enjoy each other’s company as much as possible.
Also, a slight bit of a scare came on Friday when I heard that the branch of the Dresdner Bank that I use had been robbed a few weeks earlier. They hadn’t been robbed by gunpoint, but instead thieves had contrived a way to procure the pin numbers of all of the cards people used at the ATM and took over 100,000 Euros worth. I checked my statements and breathed a sigh of relief when everything was ok. Apparently the robbery had taken place on January 30th, and I opened my account with them February 4th. What a close call!!
So Friday afternoon started out in an entertaining fashion. We went to feed the ducks!! We spent about thirty minutes chucking old bread at the swarm of ducks down by the river. Definitely a good time. We then played soccer outside later that afternoon. And that was something to see. We decided to play outside. It was roughly 35 degrees Fahrenheit and softly, but steadily raining. We walked to a park about 20 minutes away and played on a snow- and mud-covered field. It was a ton of fun, but we were sliding everywhere and people seem to get hurt every other play—nothing too serious, but enough to have them sit out for 5 minutes. The kid with the terrible circulations to his extremities (me) was miserable at points because he couldn’t feel his hands or feet about 20 minutes into the 2 hour session. But we all still had a great time. I’m surprised no one got extremely sick, though.
After showering and cleaning up, Derek, Ben, Andrew I., and I met up for dinner. We decided to try a new thing for dinner and went to a pizzeria close to my house. It was actually pretty decent pizza, and it was a good size (about 10 to 11 inches in diameter). That being said, it wasn’t anything compared to American pizza and made me crave some good ol’ Pizza Hut and Domino’s. It was an enjoyable dinner, though. After that, we headed to the Supermarket and then went back to the Wohnheim. It was a blast hanging out with everybody, and around midnight we all headed down to the disko (dance club) again, called Barfüße. If you recall our first Friday night in togas, then you will remember that we went to Barfüße that night, too. At first we were the only people on the floor. Just a bunch of international kids looking like fools in front of the Germans just hanging out at the bar. However, we eventually coaxed a few of them to come join us and by the end, we all had a blast dancing and being stupid with everyone.
That next Saturday morning, we all awoke bright and early for our Goethe-sponsored trip to Heidelberg! We boarded the bus at 8:30 and departed on the two hour trip. Our arrival to Heidelberg greeted us with clouds, bitter cold, and snow. None of us were surprised, but we had been told sun might be expected. Somewhat disappointed with the weather, we headed to grab some delicious breakfast at Kamps. I had an Amerikaner and a cinnamon scone (the German word is escaping me right now). The scone was scrumptious, as is expected, but the Amerikaner was definitely a new experience. I loved it, and it tasted good, but it was unlike anything I had seen in America, which I find highly ironic. Someone even asked me what they are called in America, and I said that I had never seen such a thing. It was about as round as a large sugar cookie and was frosted with chocolate icing. However, it was about an inch and a half thick and had the consistency of a muffin. It was intriguing, to say the least.
After breakfast, our tour guide (another one of Die Freunde des Goethe people) showed us around. She pointed out some historic buildings and then took us into the Heiliggeistkirche (Holy Ghost Church). It is a famous and beautiful church in Heidelberg and serves as a distinct landmark on the city’s skyline. The church was gorgeous on the inside and we spent about 40 minutes in there looking around and hearing about the history. We then headed through the streets of Heidelberg to the famous Karl-Theodor-Brücke, which translates as the Karl Theodor Bridge. It is the old, famous, and picturesque bridge in Heidelberg. If you have ever seen pictures of the city, you have probably seen this bridge before. It was definitely awesome, and I made sure to get lots of pictures. After the bridge, we headed to the University of Heidelberg.
If you don’t know, the University of Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany and the third oldest in Europe. I want to say it was 1386 when it was founded, but I’m not positive on that date. I do know it was the late 1300’s. It is also famous for being a home to the Romatic movement in Germany and harboring a myriad of intellectuals throughout its time. The actually university now is in a different place because of size/demographic constraints (about 30,000 to 40,000 students attend now), but we saw the old buildings just how they were. One of the coolest things we saw was the Studenten Karzer (or Student Jail). The university actually had the right (and fully exercised it) to incarcerate students that broke important university policies, such as noise, alcohol, and curfew violations. The normal sentence was two weeks in the prison, and by the end (this practice stopped in the mid 1900’s, I believe) it was more of a sport to say that you got into the prison than a thing to be feared.
At the University of Heidelberg, they had student groups comparable to what we know as fraternities. They weren’t fraternities, per se, but they were groups of students with common beliefs. Each group had its own color of boots and hats and its own crest. In the prison, these different colors and crests were EVERYWHERE. I don’t think there was a square inch of wall that wasn’t covered with something. The people who spent time in there obviously used their boredom to decorate the place. There are drawings, markings, and sayings everywhere you looked.
We had a two hour break after we all toured the Studenten Karzer, so a group of us headed to the other beautiful and iconic church of the city, the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church). The inside of it was also beautiful and breathtaking. Then we headed back to Heiliggeistkirche and climbed up the tower. After about a 10 minute ascent up a never-ending spiral staircase, we made it to the top. The views of Heidelberg were amazing, and I got a lot of awesome pictures from that.
Once we were back on the ground, we had to decide what to do for lunch. We discussed several options, but we really couldn’t decide on anything. After checking on a few menus, we happened to stumble into a place called Vetter. It might have been the best accidental discovery since Columbus landed in the Caribbean. The place was obviously a brewery, noted by the huge beer vats and chandeliers of hopps. As we were looking at the menu, I noticed something very unique. They served a beer called Vetter 33. It was the STRONGEST BEER IN THE WORLD at 33% alcohol. I kid you not. They even sited the Guinness Book of World Records that they have the strongest beer as of 1994. So yes, we stumbled into the brewery that just so happened to make the strongest beer in the world. INSANE.
They only sell this beer in 0.2 liters. Most beer you can buy in 0.3 or 0.5 liters at restaurants, but this stuff was so strong they could only give you so much. We all ordered a regular beer to try and then split the Vetter 33 among the four of us. I ordered a beer called the Terminator, which was like a really dark red lager. It was heavenly, and it is easily my favorite beer that I’ve had in Germany. (So thus my favorite beer in the world.) Ben got a Hefe-Weizen, which is a wheat beer, and he pointed out that when they brought out the Vetter 33, that the head (the foamy part at the top) of it was darker than his wheat beer. It was crazy! The Vetter 33 was so dark. It was very sticky and clung to the sides of the glass. It almost reminded me of molasses. It was definitely good, but none of us wanted too much of it. It was good to split between the four of us. The beer definitely had a kick to it, too, that reminded you that is no normal beer, but instead 33% alcohol. Oh yeah, and the food was good too. Some tasty wursts and fried potatoes. Can’t go wrong with a lunch like that.
We then headed back across the Karl-Theodor-Brücke to a winding road called Philosophienweg, which translates to Philosopher’s Way. This is a famous road in Heidelberg that famous philosophers have walked in order to encourage their thinking and aid them with developing novel philosophies. We decided to walk up to it and check it out. The road up was definitely tough. Not only were we full off of our awesome meal, but the path was straight up a hill. It wound back and forth up the hill, but there was no secret that we were hiking up a steep slope. The view at the top, though, was a great reward, and we walked along for a few minutes soaking in the overlooking view of the entire city of Heidelberg and the philosophic atmosphere. Then we headed back down to meet up with our group.
The next stop was the Heidelberg Schloss (castle). It is another iconic structure in the city, and we hiked up the steep, steep, steep path to get there. It definitely took some effort to get to the top of that sucker, too, so between the Philosophienweg and the path to the Schloss, we certainly got our exercise in. Once we were in walls of the Schloss, we saw more amazing views overlooking the whole city of Heidelberg. Absolutely gorgeous. Then we headed inside of more mind-blowing things to see.
At first we walked in, and I saw this huge wine keg (Wein Fass auf Deutsch) that was probably 10 to 15 feet tall. My jaw dropped, and we got plently of pictures with that. But THEN we walked into the next room. Nobody could believe what we saw: a wine keg that had to be at least 30 feet tall. I am not kidding. I look dwarfed next to this thing. It was big enough to walk around on top. It holds over 200,000 liters of wine and has only been filled three times. It was just so massive!! You have to see pictures to believe it.
After we left the castle, the group of us who had first discovered Vetter took another group there to prove that we weren’t making up the fact that we had drunk the strongest beer in the world. We sat down and had another (why not?—how often are we going to be able to do that?) and then walked down the Hauptstrasse. The Hauptstrasse is the longest pedestrian zone in Europe at 1.6 kilometers in length. That’s huge! We didn’t even make it half was down before we had to turn back and head home. We boarded the bus around 4:30 and headed back to Schwäbisch Hall.
That night was pretty chill. We mostly just set in the kitchen and hung out. We made potatoes, veggies, and brats for dinner, and it was, as always, delicious.
Sunday I was supposed to go to Nürnberg again with a different group of people, but I decided to instead sleep in and take a day to relax. I was starting to feel slightly sick and figured a day of rest would be better for my body than another day of cold weather and traveling. Besides, I should be back in Nürnberg again in the next few weeks. So Sunday was a relaxing day. That night, Andrew I, Andrew K, Ben, Derek, and I headed out to Olli’s to grab a beer and just hang out. We were only there about an hour just talking and enjoying each other’s company until we headed home for the night. Chalk up another great weekend on the record books.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Wait. What?
This update is for the week of 2/15 through 2/18
So Monday was an easy going day. I wasn’t feeling too great, so I decided to stay in most of the day. That also meant that I didn’t go to Stammtisch. There isn’t a whole lot to write about that Monday. As I was lying in bed, I thought about how I would remember that day and what I would write about it in this blog. It was then that I decided to adopt the goal of making every day noteworthy. I decided to live my life in Germany so that every day was some sort of an adventure and that every day I could have something new or exciting to write about in the blog, if nothing else. I owed myself, my friends, my family, and Rotary that. So if you expect my blog to get less verbose as I spend more time in Germany, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Every day will have some sort of adventure to document.
On Tuesday, I still wasn’t feeling too hot, but I decided to head to the Wohnheim around dinner to see what my friends were up to. I ended up having spaghetti and ravioli with everyone. It was good to hang out and talk with them, and making food always brings a certain sense of accomplishment. The good thing about these slower days is that is gives me some free time to read and study my German. Also, I get to communicate with people from home then too, so slower days aren’t as dull as the blog might indicate.
Wednesday proved to be another one of those slower days. I spent the day walking around Schwäbisch Hall and studying my German. Relaxing isn’t so bad, either, you know? I think it’s good for me to have a few days to lounge around and enjoy the slightly slower life compared to my warp speed existence at USC. I’ll give you a guess what I had for dinner. Anyone? Yep, that’s right. A good ol’ döner. Yummmm.
Thursday was definitely more fascinating and action packed than the earlier days of the week. After class, a group of us went shopping around Schwäbisch Hall. It was my first time doing so, and it proved to be yet another educational experience. I stepped inside an H&M for the first time in my life. If you don’t know what that is, don’t be alarmed. H&M is a clothing store of sorts for the sheik. I ended up actually buying a scarf there because I needed one to keep my neck warm. I felt so out of the loop without a scarf before, anyway. I think I might have been in the 1% of Schwäbisch Hall’s population that didn’t own a scarf. So it was productive and adventurous. After H&M, we headed to Müller’s, which is kind of like a bigger, three-story Walgreens. Müll means garbage in German, so the store name implies a catch-all type of store (not trashy, though…just the fact that you can find a little bit of everything there). The last store we hit was a sporting goods store, and it was interesting to see all that they had in there. I might have to get a German soccer jersey that I saw in there. But it was good to check out the shopping scene around the town for an hour or so.
A group of us decided to cook another American meal for dinner: fried chicken and fries. Well, it turns out turkey is cheaper than chicken, so we went with that instead. We spent two hours cutting potatoes into slices and turkey meat into tenders, rolling the turkey in eggs and then flour, and frying the meat and potatoes in boiling oil. It was definitely a long process, but it was rewarding. And tasty. It was also a learning experience because it was the first time any of us had try such an endeavor. We successfully made enough food (two bags of potatoes and 3 kilograms of turkey) for about 9 hungry boys.
After cooking this food, we headed to the Schwäbisch Hall Kino (theater) for a movie. The Goethe Institut pays us back the 4 Euros it costs to for the ticket, so the movie turns out to be free for us. We knew the general direction of the theater, but it took us about 20 minutes to actually find it. We arrived just in time for the 8:30 showing of “Stille Hochzeit,” which means “Quiet Wedding.” The movie didn’t have subtitles because we were in a German movie theater, but the four of us that went got the gist. It was about a small town in eastern Europe during the rise of Communism. The whole story was pretty strange, but the basic idea was that the Russians invaded and took over the town right during the middle of the wedding, forbidding any loud noises, partying, or public congregations. The family and the whole town just moved the wedding inside that night, covering all of the windows and allowing no noise at all. They did everything from cover the cups with cloth and not using silverware to prevent clinking to “playing telephone” to relay messages. It was actually kind of comical at some parts, but overall it was indeed very strange. At the end, they decide to have the band play and dismiss the quiet to have a full-blown party. However, not 30 minutes after doing this, the Russians drive a tank into the house, shoot a few people, and take the rest of the men away in a truck. And that’s how the movie ends. The best part of the whole production was probably my friend’s reaction (that he blurted out in the middle of the theater) once the credits started rolling: “Wait. What?!” The ending was just so abrupt and the movie as a whole was just so weird that we couldn’t wrap our American minds around it. Of course, we understood the concept and lesson of the movie, but it seemed more like a waste of money than a poignant piece of cinematography. At least we went to see it and it was free, right? We just went home and called it a night after that. We knew that our last weekend together was coming up, and we definitely would need our rest to make it through that.
So Monday was an easy going day. I wasn’t feeling too great, so I decided to stay in most of the day. That also meant that I didn’t go to Stammtisch. There isn’t a whole lot to write about that Monday. As I was lying in bed, I thought about how I would remember that day and what I would write about it in this blog. It was then that I decided to adopt the goal of making every day noteworthy. I decided to live my life in Germany so that every day was some sort of an adventure and that every day I could have something new or exciting to write about in the blog, if nothing else. I owed myself, my friends, my family, and Rotary that. So if you expect my blog to get less verbose as I spend more time in Germany, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Every day will have some sort of adventure to document.
On Tuesday, I still wasn’t feeling too hot, but I decided to head to the Wohnheim around dinner to see what my friends were up to. I ended up having spaghetti and ravioli with everyone. It was good to hang out and talk with them, and making food always brings a certain sense of accomplishment. The good thing about these slower days is that is gives me some free time to read and study my German. Also, I get to communicate with people from home then too, so slower days aren’t as dull as the blog might indicate.
Wednesday proved to be another one of those slower days. I spent the day walking around Schwäbisch Hall and studying my German. Relaxing isn’t so bad, either, you know? I think it’s good for me to have a few days to lounge around and enjoy the slightly slower life compared to my warp speed existence at USC. I’ll give you a guess what I had for dinner. Anyone? Yep, that’s right. A good ol’ döner. Yummmm.
Thursday was definitely more fascinating and action packed than the earlier days of the week. After class, a group of us went shopping around Schwäbisch Hall. It was my first time doing so, and it proved to be yet another educational experience. I stepped inside an H&M for the first time in my life. If you don’t know what that is, don’t be alarmed. H&M is a clothing store of sorts for the sheik. I ended up actually buying a scarf there because I needed one to keep my neck warm. I felt so out of the loop without a scarf before, anyway. I think I might have been in the 1% of Schwäbisch Hall’s population that didn’t own a scarf. So it was productive and adventurous. After H&M, we headed to Müller’s, which is kind of like a bigger, three-story Walgreens. Müll means garbage in German, so the store name implies a catch-all type of store (not trashy, though…just the fact that you can find a little bit of everything there). The last store we hit was a sporting goods store, and it was interesting to see all that they had in there. I might have to get a German soccer jersey that I saw in there. But it was good to check out the shopping scene around the town for an hour or so.
A group of us decided to cook another American meal for dinner: fried chicken and fries. Well, it turns out turkey is cheaper than chicken, so we went with that instead. We spent two hours cutting potatoes into slices and turkey meat into tenders, rolling the turkey in eggs and then flour, and frying the meat and potatoes in boiling oil. It was definitely a long process, but it was rewarding. And tasty. It was also a learning experience because it was the first time any of us had try such an endeavor. We successfully made enough food (two bags of potatoes and 3 kilograms of turkey) for about 9 hungry boys.
After cooking this food, we headed to the Schwäbisch Hall Kino (theater) for a movie. The Goethe Institut pays us back the 4 Euros it costs to for the ticket, so the movie turns out to be free for us. We knew the general direction of the theater, but it took us about 20 minutes to actually find it. We arrived just in time for the 8:30 showing of “Stille Hochzeit,” which means “Quiet Wedding.” The movie didn’t have subtitles because we were in a German movie theater, but the four of us that went got the gist. It was about a small town in eastern Europe during the rise of Communism. The whole story was pretty strange, but the basic idea was that the Russians invaded and took over the town right during the middle of the wedding, forbidding any loud noises, partying, or public congregations. The family and the whole town just moved the wedding inside that night, covering all of the windows and allowing no noise at all. They did everything from cover the cups with cloth and not using silverware to prevent clinking to “playing telephone” to relay messages. It was actually kind of comical at some parts, but overall it was indeed very strange. At the end, they decide to have the band play and dismiss the quiet to have a full-blown party. However, not 30 minutes after doing this, the Russians drive a tank into the house, shoot a few people, and take the rest of the men away in a truck. And that’s how the movie ends. The best part of the whole production was probably my friend’s reaction (that he blurted out in the middle of the theater) once the credits started rolling: “Wait. What?!” The ending was just so abrupt and the movie as a whole was just so weird that we couldn’t wrap our American minds around it. Of course, we understood the concept and lesson of the movie, but it seemed more like a waste of money than a poignant piece of cinematography. At least we went to see it and it was free, right? We just went home and called it a night after that. We knew that our last weekend together was coming up, and we definitely would need our rest to make it through that.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Helau! Helau! Helau!
This post is for the weekend of Friday 2/12 to Sunday 2/14
Friday was a pretty awesome day, if nothing else but relaxing. A group of ten people went to München for the weekend, so our numbers were dwindled. Originally I was planning to go to Dusseldorf for the weekend to meet up with Ellen (who is in Ireland) and Steph (who is in Scotland) and enjoy the Karneval festivities with them, but those plans fell through. (The three biggest centers for Karneval are Mainz, Dusseldorf, and Köln.) If I haven’t explained Karneval before, it is kind of like Mardi Gras in the United States. People dress up in crazy outfits and there are many parades and celebrations all over the cities. Rosenmontag is the Monday before Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, and Fasching is the actual day of Mardi Gras. Karneval technically starts in November and culminates in the arrival of the weekend before Fasching and then Rosenmontag and Fasching itself. The whole point is to welcome in spring and seems to be somewhat analogous to welcoming the season of Lent like Mardi Gras does for the U.S.
So I didn’t make it to Dusseldorf, which I regret, but that doesn’t mean the weekend was lost. Friday night, a few of us went back out to the Chinese place and enjoyed some more delicious (and cheap) Chinese food. Afterwards we hung out in the Wohnheim and went to the Goethe-Party. Not too many people were there because they were off enjoy München, but it was a relaxing good time. I didn’t stay out too late because I knew I had an early morning on Saturday.
At 7:30 am on Saturday, a group of about 25 of us Goethe-Institut students embarked on a trip to Mainz. It was a Goethe-sponsored trip and only cost 16 Euros total. Can’t complain about that. Mainz is an old city that sits on the Rhein River, and we all went to get a little taste of Karneval. We had a tour guide from Die Freunde des Goethe who knew Mainz well who lead us around the city. After the three hour drive made in a fluorescent yellow-green tour bus (called an Omni-bus, which if you know any Latin, you will find that name . We dismounted from the bus and walked to the Rheinland-Palatinate Länder Museum, which a history museum of the Bundesstaat (state, pretty much—Schwäbisch Hall is in the Baden-Württemburg Bundesstaat) of Rheinland-Palatinate, where Mainz is. Mainz is also the capital of that region.
The museum was pretty cool. First of all, we got free Berliners and Kaffee (if you remember from my first few mornings at the bakery, Berliners were my pastry of choice) at the museum. And by free of course, I mean that our 16 Euro fee had already covered the cost of the delicious jelly-filled donuts. I definitely ate four. Woo! After that we explored the museum, led by a woman from the museum. She was very informative and nice and was also good at explaining things well. She reminded me of a German teacher because she knew how to explain something we didn’t understand. It was also very encouraging that I could understand pretty much everything she said. It’s always interesting to see all the art and history from each region, and the age, detail, and volume of these artifacts blow my mind.
After we left the museum, we walked around and explored the city some. We happened onto a random Karneval concert. The music is mostly drums/percussion and glockenspiel. Haha it was pretty entertaining to witness. I swear I saw some of the strangest things. By the end of the day, I was almost desensitized to how weird some of these people were dressing. We ended up at the Dom St. Martin, the famous and impressive looking church in the middle of the city. It is so hard to describe all of the things we saw. Mainz has a lot of Roman history in it, plus it is where Gutenberg (the guy who invented the printing press, if you don’t recognize that—probably one of the most important people of millennium. Without the printing press, a lot doesn’t happen.) lived and worked. There is also Gutenberg University there, too. On top of that, all of the administration buildings of the state are there. So much history!
We unfortunately couldn’t get inside the Dom because it was closed at the time we had allotted to explore it. Instead, we wandered around the city some more, seeing a lot of historical buildings and hearing stories about the history from our guide. We had a two hour break for lunch so we found a nice Restaurant called “am Dom” which means at the Dom. It was pretty delicious and ended up being a microbrewery. I am pretty convinced that every other restaurant in Germany is a microbrewery, though. I had a delicious crepe filled with beef and vegetables, and of course I enjoyed a home-brewed Hefe-Weisen. That is probably the most common beer over here. It’s a wheat beer if you didn’t know. The bartender at the bar, by the way, was definitely dressed for Karneval. He was wearing this crazy orange shirt with suspenders and striped tiger pants.
After lunch, we all met up again and proceeded down the street from the Dom. Here is where we saw the vast majority of our Karneval craziness. A parade was going on as we walked down the street. The entire street was blocked off, and there were stands to sit in. Also, people lined the street as far as the eye could see. Groups of people with certain themed costumes and floats came in hordes. It was extremely entertaining to watch. The floats had people on them that threw out candy. Everyone yells “Helau!!!” every two seconds. Helau doesn’t really have a meaning per se, but it is rather the expression of Karneval. Think of it as a “Cheers!” of sorts. It differs based on the city, too. Mainz says “Helau!” while Köln yells “Helauf!” and Dusseldorf says “Alaaf!” So after about 30 minutes to an hour of watching the parade and screaming “Helau!” we moved on, leaving the parade still going strong behind us.
We then went to St. Stephen’s church, which has been a key church for the city and a symbol of freedom in Germany during the reign of the Third Reich. The church has all blue stained-glass windows inside, so the interior is a very somber blue hue. We sat and listened to a little history about the church and then walked around the courtyard outside. After that, we had about an hour of free time before we had to board the bus to go home. Once we got back to the city center, the parade was just finishing, so people were flocking to the bars. We all entered one bar only to be greeted by packed house. Randomly, we heard John Denver’s “Country Roads” playing over the speakers and I saw several Germans singing along. Crazy! And then they started singing German songs, and it was clear that service was not going to come quickly here. A few of us left and headed back to the market-like area where a ton of food stands and drink stands were set up. We picked up some Gluhwein, which is hot red wine with spices. It was pretty good and definitely helped warm us up on the cold and brisk afternoon. We then took the long way back to the bus, seeing all we could before jumping back on our neon vehicle. The ride back was very sleepy for everybody, and it was interesting to watch the sunset on the snowy German country side. Also, the trip there and back accounts for my first experiences with the Autobahn. People definitely go fast, that’s for sure, but our bus didn’t exactly fly like all of the Audi’s, BMW’s, and Mercedes.
Once we got back that night, we decided to have pasta for dinner! We went to the supermarket and purchased all the necessary items. Then Paola, one of my Italian friends, made the pasta, and we feasted. It is the first time I can say that I ate true authentic pasta made by an Italian. It was, of course, delicious. We just hung out in the kitchen for the rest of the night, talking and sharing stories among four or five of us.
Sunday, again, I woke up early to depart to Nürnberg. Andrew, from Washington D.C., and Bernardo, from Brazil, had made their way there the day before and had spent the night in a hostel. Ben, Derek, and I headed there Sunday morning to meet up with them and explore the city. The day started off almost comically. We had planned on meeting at the bus stop at 8:30 am to ride to the Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental train station to catch the 9:59 train to Nürnberg. However, we did this just assuming that the bus schedule was the same on Sundays as it is on Saturdays. We were wrong. The bus came at 8:25, which we missed, and then again at 9:45, which wouldn’t allow us enough time to catch the train. We could have called a taxi, but that would have cost money, and we are all about saving Euros. What else did we do? We walked the 5 kilometers to the train station. Haha
We trudged through the snow for about 35 minutes before we made it to the train station around 9:20. We grabbed breakfast and were about to head to our train when there was an announcement that it was delayed 30 minutes. So yeah…we could have gotten breakfast and then taken the bus to the train station at 9:45 anyway. Oh well, we got some good exercise in and saved some money. The train didn’t end up coming until 10:45 or so, we were standing around for a while waiting for it.
We finally arrived in Nürnberg around noon, and Andrew and Bernardo met us at the train station. Derek and Andrew grabbed McDonalds at the train station for both the taste of home and the free coffee mug that came with any meal. We then headed to the inner city and explored the “older” parts. I put older in quotations because the city was leveled after WWII because it was a center of Nazi activity, so even the old parts looked relatively new. We headed into the Länder Museum for Bayern (Nürnberg is in Bavaria and Bavaria = Bayern auf Deutsch) and explored that for a little bit. The Roman history and the Middle Ages section were cool, but I wasn’t too keen on the modern art. We then left there and headed to the Nazi Museum.
The Nazi Museum, called Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände (which literally means Documentation Center Nazi Party Rallying Grounds), is all about the rise of power of the Nazis and how they tried to build an empire. The first ¾ of the museum is about the Nazis gaining control of the hearts and minds of the people and how Hilter manipulated the system. The last parts are about the war and then the Nürnberg trials at the end. It was definitely very interesting, and everyone gets a little handheld speaker that guides you through the museum in your language of choice. The best part about the museum, though, was the architecture and the location. The location is, of course, where the huge Nazi rallys were held. If you have ever seen films of huge crowds of German soldiers marching by torch light or walking in formation while saluting Hilter, it was here. The museum is actually built into the unfinished construction of the huge Congress hall there that was going to serve for Nazi regime once the war was over. The Zeppelin Field, the only finished part of the area, is the famous spot where Hilter stands at a podium, addressing hordes of Nazi soldiers, and then watches them all march by him in formation. The museum design was very intriguing, too. It had a very jagged look. There were corners and sharp edges everywhere. It was designed to make you feel uncomfortable. Obviously, that was part of the feeling invoked when being at the very site of all of these Nazi rallies. Also, the museum was set up so that you followed a twisting path that seemed very convoluted and confusing (although it was very easy to follow). This, of course, was to mimic the minds and the hearts of the German people as they were manipulated by Hilter and led down a destructive and terrible path that they had no idea how to manage other than follow it. The strangest and eeriest part of the experience was actually walking to the Zeppelin Field. We were in the museum until it closed and marched the field in the dark. It is lit, and even though we weren’t there during the day, it still was an impressive and impactful sight to absorb. We actually walked up to the podium where Hilter stood to give his speeches. It was definitely creepy and eerie. I hope to make it back there and see it in the daylight too. We took pictures standing there, and I almost felt guilty smiling while standing at such a somber place.
After we left, we went back to the hostel where Andrew and Bernardo had spent Saturday night and grabbed their bags. We tried to sit down at a restaurant (that was also a microbrewery—surprise) to get some dinner, but the service was just taking too long. We had to catch the 8:35 train back to Schwäbisch Hall because the next one didn’t leave until 5 am. We instead grabbed a quick meal (I, naturally, had a döner…it was nothing though compared to Bali’s—the one in Hall). We grabbed the train back and made it home by 11. What another great weekend.
Friday was a pretty awesome day, if nothing else but relaxing. A group of ten people went to München for the weekend, so our numbers were dwindled. Originally I was planning to go to Dusseldorf for the weekend to meet up with Ellen (who is in Ireland) and Steph (who is in Scotland) and enjoy the Karneval festivities with them, but those plans fell through. (The three biggest centers for Karneval are Mainz, Dusseldorf, and Köln.) If I haven’t explained Karneval before, it is kind of like Mardi Gras in the United States. People dress up in crazy outfits and there are many parades and celebrations all over the cities. Rosenmontag is the Monday before Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, and Fasching is the actual day of Mardi Gras. Karneval technically starts in November and culminates in the arrival of the weekend before Fasching and then Rosenmontag and Fasching itself. The whole point is to welcome in spring and seems to be somewhat analogous to welcoming the season of Lent like Mardi Gras does for the U.S.
So I didn’t make it to Dusseldorf, which I regret, but that doesn’t mean the weekend was lost. Friday night, a few of us went back out to the Chinese place and enjoyed some more delicious (and cheap) Chinese food. Afterwards we hung out in the Wohnheim and went to the Goethe-Party. Not too many people were there because they were off enjoy München, but it was a relaxing good time. I didn’t stay out too late because I knew I had an early morning on Saturday.
At 7:30 am on Saturday, a group of about 25 of us Goethe-Institut students embarked on a trip to Mainz. It was a Goethe-sponsored trip and only cost 16 Euros total. Can’t complain about that. Mainz is an old city that sits on the Rhein River, and we all went to get a little taste of Karneval. We had a tour guide from Die Freunde des Goethe who knew Mainz well who lead us around the city. After the three hour drive made in a fluorescent yellow-green tour bus (called an Omni-bus, which if you know any Latin, you will find that name . We dismounted from the bus and walked to the Rheinland-Palatinate Länder Museum, which a history museum of the Bundesstaat (state, pretty much—Schwäbisch Hall is in the Baden-Württemburg Bundesstaat) of Rheinland-Palatinate, where Mainz is. Mainz is also the capital of that region.
The museum was pretty cool. First of all, we got free Berliners and Kaffee (if you remember from my first few mornings at the bakery, Berliners were my pastry of choice) at the museum. And by free of course, I mean that our 16 Euro fee had already covered the cost of the delicious jelly-filled donuts. I definitely ate four. Woo! After that we explored the museum, led by a woman from the museum. She was very informative and nice and was also good at explaining things well. She reminded me of a German teacher because she knew how to explain something we didn’t understand. It was also very encouraging that I could understand pretty much everything she said. It’s always interesting to see all the art and history from each region, and the age, detail, and volume of these artifacts blow my mind.
After we left the museum, we walked around and explored the city some. We happened onto a random Karneval concert. The music is mostly drums/percussion and glockenspiel. Haha it was pretty entertaining to witness. I swear I saw some of the strangest things. By the end of the day, I was almost desensitized to how weird some of these people were dressing. We ended up at the Dom St. Martin, the famous and impressive looking church in the middle of the city. It is so hard to describe all of the things we saw. Mainz has a lot of Roman history in it, plus it is where Gutenberg (the guy who invented the printing press, if you don’t recognize that—probably one of the most important people of millennium. Without the printing press, a lot doesn’t happen.) lived and worked. There is also Gutenberg University there, too. On top of that, all of the administration buildings of the state are there. So much history!
We unfortunately couldn’t get inside the Dom because it was closed at the time we had allotted to explore it. Instead, we wandered around the city some more, seeing a lot of historical buildings and hearing stories about the history from our guide. We had a two hour break for lunch so we found a nice Restaurant called “am Dom” which means at the Dom. It was pretty delicious and ended up being a microbrewery. I am pretty convinced that every other restaurant in Germany is a microbrewery, though. I had a delicious crepe filled with beef and vegetables, and of course I enjoyed a home-brewed Hefe-Weisen. That is probably the most common beer over here. It’s a wheat beer if you didn’t know. The bartender at the bar, by the way, was definitely dressed for Karneval. He was wearing this crazy orange shirt with suspenders and striped tiger pants.
After lunch, we all met up again and proceeded down the street from the Dom. Here is where we saw the vast majority of our Karneval craziness. A parade was going on as we walked down the street. The entire street was blocked off, and there were stands to sit in. Also, people lined the street as far as the eye could see. Groups of people with certain themed costumes and floats came in hordes. It was extremely entertaining to watch. The floats had people on them that threw out candy. Everyone yells “Helau!!!” every two seconds. Helau doesn’t really have a meaning per se, but it is rather the expression of Karneval. Think of it as a “Cheers!” of sorts. It differs based on the city, too. Mainz says “Helau!” while Köln yells “Helauf!” and Dusseldorf says “Alaaf!” So after about 30 minutes to an hour of watching the parade and screaming “Helau!” we moved on, leaving the parade still going strong behind us.
We then went to St. Stephen’s church, which has been a key church for the city and a symbol of freedom in Germany during the reign of the Third Reich. The church has all blue stained-glass windows inside, so the interior is a very somber blue hue. We sat and listened to a little history about the church and then walked around the courtyard outside. After that, we had about an hour of free time before we had to board the bus to go home. Once we got back to the city center, the parade was just finishing, so people were flocking to the bars. We all entered one bar only to be greeted by packed house. Randomly, we heard John Denver’s “Country Roads” playing over the speakers and I saw several Germans singing along. Crazy! And then they started singing German songs, and it was clear that service was not going to come quickly here. A few of us left and headed back to the market-like area where a ton of food stands and drink stands were set up. We picked up some Gluhwein, which is hot red wine with spices. It was pretty good and definitely helped warm us up on the cold and brisk afternoon. We then took the long way back to the bus, seeing all we could before jumping back on our neon vehicle. The ride back was very sleepy for everybody, and it was interesting to watch the sunset on the snowy German country side. Also, the trip there and back accounts for my first experiences with the Autobahn. People definitely go fast, that’s for sure, but our bus didn’t exactly fly like all of the Audi’s, BMW’s, and Mercedes.
Once we got back that night, we decided to have pasta for dinner! We went to the supermarket and purchased all the necessary items. Then Paola, one of my Italian friends, made the pasta, and we feasted. It is the first time I can say that I ate true authentic pasta made by an Italian. It was, of course, delicious. We just hung out in the kitchen for the rest of the night, talking and sharing stories among four or five of us.
Sunday, again, I woke up early to depart to Nürnberg. Andrew, from Washington D.C., and Bernardo, from Brazil, had made their way there the day before and had spent the night in a hostel. Ben, Derek, and I headed there Sunday morning to meet up with them and explore the city. The day started off almost comically. We had planned on meeting at the bus stop at 8:30 am to ride to the Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental train station to catch the 9:59 train to Nürnberg. However, we did this just assuming that the bus schedule was the same on Sundays as it is on Saturdays. We were wrong. The bus came at 8:25, which we missed, and then again at 9:45, which wouldn’t allow us enough time to catch the train. We could have called a taxi, but that would have cost money, and we are all about saving Euros. What else did we do? We walked the 5 kilometers to the train station. Haha
We trudged through the snow for about 35 minutes before we made it to the train station around 9:20. We grabbed breakfast and were about to head to our train when there was an announcement that it was delayed 30 minutes. So yeah…we could have gotten breakfast and then taken the bus to the train station at 9:45 anyway. Oh well, we got some good exercise in and saved some money. The train didn’t end up coming until 10:45 or so, we were standing around for a while waiting for it.
We finally arrived in Nürnberg around noon, and Andrew and Bernardo met us at the train station. Derek and Andrew grabbed McDonalds at the train station for both the taste of home and the free coffee mug that came with any meal. We then headed to the inner city and explored the “older” parts. I put older in quotations because the city was leveled after WWII because it was a center of Nazi activity, so even the old parts looked relatively new. We headed into the Länder Museum for Bayern (Nürnberg is in Bavaria and Bavaria = Bayern auf Deutsch) and explored that for a little bit. The Roman history and the Middle Ages section were cool, but I wasn’t too keen on the modern art. We then left there and headed to the Nazi Museum.
The Nazi Museum, called Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände (which literally means Documentation Center Nazi Party Rallying Grounds), is all about the rise of power of the Nazis and how they tried to build an empire. The first ¾ of the museum is about the Nazis gaining control of the hearts and minds of the people and how Hilter manipulated the system. The last parts are about the war and then the Nürnberg trials at the end. It was definitely very interesting, and everyone gets a little handheld speaker that guides you through the museum in your language of choice. The best part about the museum, though, was the architecture and the location. The location is, of course, where the huge Nazi rallys were held. If you have ever seen films of huge crowds of German soldiers marching by torch light or walking in formation while saluting Hilter, it was here. The museum is actually built into the unfinished construction of the huge Congress hall there that was going to serve for Nazi regime once the war was over. The Zeppelin Field, the only finished part of the area, is the famous spot where Hilter stands at a podium, addressing hordes of Nazi soldiers, and then watches them all march by him in formation. The museum design was very intriguing, too. It had a very jagged look. There were corners and sharp edges everywhere. It was designed to make you feel uncomfortable. Obviously, that was part of the feeling invoked when being at the very site of all of these Nazi rallies. Also, the museum was set up so that you followed a twisting path that seemed very convoluted and confusing (although it was very easy to follow). This, of course, was to mimic the minds and the hearts of the German people as they were manipulated by Hilter and led down a destructive and terrible path that they had no idea how to manage other than follow it. The strangest and eeriest part of the experience was actually walking to the Zeppelin Field. We were in the museum until it closed and marched the field in the dark. It is lit, and even though we weren’t there during the day, it still was an impressive and impactful sight to absorb. We actually walked up to the podium where Hilter stood to give his speeches. It was definitely creepy and eerie. I hope to make it back there and see it in the daylight too. We took pictures standing there, and I almost felt guilty smiling while standing at such a somber place.
After we left, we went back to the hostel where Andrew and Bernardo had spent Saturday night and grabbed their bags. We tried to sit down at a restaurant (that was also a microbrewery—surprise) to get some dinner, but the service was just taking too long. We had to catch the 8:35 train back to Schwäbisch Hall because the next one didn’t leave until 5 am. We instead grabbed a quick meal (I, naturally, had a döner…it was nothing though compared to Bali’s—the one in Hall). We grabbed the train back and made it home by 11. What another great weekend.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Goethe Week Two
This is about the week of 2/8 through 2/11
The second week of classes started out well, too. Monday’s class went fine as usual, but during the day some of the American students talked about how much we missed having American breakfast food. We decided to cook an American breakfast for dinner that night. We headed to the supermarket at 5 and bought all of the necessary supplies. Then we came back and cooked breakfast for everyone who wanted it, including the Brazilians and a few others. We had eggs, bacon, toast with jelly, and hash browns. It was pretty awesome and definitely satisfied our hunger for American breakfast. After that we all headed to Stammtisch for a few drinks and went to bed happy.
Tuesday was definitely interesting because we had an International buffet that night. The concept was that everyone would bring a traditional dish from their respective home countries. We Americans brought grilled cheese to the buffet. Not everyone participated, but there were about 10 or so countries represented and more than enough food to go around. There was so much good food. It was also the first time, and probably only time, when I can say I was sitting with at a table with about 25 people and at least 10 different countries were represented. It was definitely a cool experience.
Wednesday was the first day of our new Lehrer. Our old Lehrerin, Frau Schneider, was just filling in for our teacher until he got back from vacation. Now we have Herr Hasenfluss. He is definitely an interesting man. He kind of looks like Einstein, but instead of his hair poofing out, it lays down flat. He’s definitely a crazy looking man. He also has an interesting voice and a Schwabian accent. I’m not really a huge fan so far. He is extremely difficult to understand when compared to Frau Schneider and he speaks much more quickly than she did. Also, we have a ton of homework every night now, so that’s not as much fun. So Wednesday’s class was not my favorite, as I had to adjust to Herr Hasenfluss.
Wednesday night was fun, though. We have Goethe-Kino every Wednesday. Goethe-Kino is when they show a free movie in the Goethe-Pub for us all to watch. A few of us decided to make grilled cheese again, but this time we made fries, too, and added salami to the grilled cheese. Of course we had to have beer, too. We made all of this food in the kitchen in the Wohnheim and then took it to the Goethe-Kino so we could eat while we watched the movie. It worked splendidly. We enjoyed our delicious food and watched a movie called Adams Apfel, which means “Adam’s Apple” in English (sure was hard to figure that translation out, huh?). It was a movie about a neo-Nazi skinhead who is punished for petty crimes by being assigned to stay at a church with a pastor and a few other criminals. The criminals get room and board at the church but have to work for their stay. It basically followed the storyline of Job from the Bible. It was an interesting movie, for sure, but a little ridiculous. None of us could help laughing when a guy got shot in the chest and back and walked away like it was nothing. We couldn’t believe it. If you are familiar with the story of Job, this next scene will make more sense to you, but the pastor of the church is dying from a huge brain tumor. In a scuffle with a band of neo-Nazis that come to start trouble at the church, the pastor gets shot in the head. Of course, he lives because the bullet blew out the tumor from his brain and he is cured. All of us could only watch in shock and awe when we gets shot in the head and then lives. We found the German style of film-making very entertaining if not slightly ridiculous. The movie was all in very-hard-to-understand German, but we had subtitles on (in German), so we could follow along by reading.
Thursday February 11th was probably one of my best days in Germany. Class again was not so great, but the afternoon and night more than made up for it. First we had a wonderful thing called “Kaffee und Kuchen” (Coffee and Cakes) at 4 pm. It was put on by an organization called Die Freunde des Goethe (or the Friends of the Goethe Institut). Basically there is a group of people who live in Hall that strongly support the concept and work of the Goethe Institut and want to support and help all students trying to learn German. They put on a few different programs throughout each month of classes, but this is by far their best program. Then again, I am always biased towards food.
Kaffee und Kuchen is a program where all of the women in Die Freunde des Goethe bake amazing cakes and confections and bring them to the Mensa (cafeteria). There they also serve coffee and tea, and it is all FREE for the students. How awesome is that? There were about 20 different kinds of cakes and pies laid out on the table. I was in heaven, sweet heaven. I had no less than five pieces of cake. They girls sitting next to me (from Saudi Arabia, Korea, and Afghanistan, I think) were thoroughly impressed until they saw me stand up. Then they realized that all that cake goes to fill my 6’6” frame. I also had three cups of coffee. Needless to say, I was wired after that.
Another awesome thing about the event was the opportunity to meet some of the people involved with Die Freunde des Goethe. The women are obviously there serving the wonderful food, and their husbands also come to have conversation. The guy I sat with was named Hans. Ben and I sat together and talked with Hans the whole time about different things. Hans is originally from Hall and is a retired constructional engineer. He was really nice and said he loved coming to the events to meet with all of the students and partake in the conversations. We asked him several things about the region. Interesting facts about the sizes of the cities around included:
• About 8,000 people live in the city of Hall, but all the suburbs of Hall make it a city of about 30,000
• Stuttgart has about 600,000 people living in it and the surrounding area.
• Nürnberg has about 300,000 or so people in the city, but about 1 million people in the metro area
After we finished our cakes and all, Hans found out that one of the guys from Colombia that we were sitting with was also a construction engineer, so he offered to take a group of us to the big construction site in the city and explain everything to us. A group of about 6 of us gladly accepted the invitation and followed him to the construction site. If you have seen giant yellow cranes in any of my pictures, then you will be familiar with the construction going on in the west part of the city. They are building a new shopping center there, hoping to bring more businesses and money to the city. It’s going to be a pretty big complex, and Hans explained to us the challenges of building parking space (there is barely any in this city) and the different considerations the engineers had to account for. For example, the Kocher River runs right through the heart of Hall, so there is groundwater about 2 meters below the ground where they are building the shopping center. Normally a foundation is set 7 meters below the ground (that’s really deep, by the way…over 21 feet) in order to account for parking garages and all, but they have to go through many different techniques and maneuvers to circumvent this lack of ability to dig that deep. It was definitely informative and interesting, and it was also a confidence boost that I could understand the vast majority of the things Hans was saying. After we parted ways, Laura, Ben, and I walked around the city for about 40 minutes because we had a meeting at 6 pm.
What was the meeting at 6 pm? Only the greatest thing ever. We went on a Goethe-sponsored tour of the Haller Löwenbräu Brauerei (Brewery). It was about a 15 minute walk from the school, and all 30 of us trudged along in the snow, excited about what we were going to see. The brewery is across the river in a complex of buildings that don’t look all too magnificent on the outside. However, once we were inside, the magic of Haller Löwenbräu unfolded. (By the way, for those who are curious, it is pronounced Haller Loh-ven-broi). We went to the production room which had several giant vats and machines in it. The entire tour was in German, so I only caught maybe 40-50% of it. I just haven’t studied my beer and beer-making vocabulary enough, apparently, in English or auf Deutsch. I understood enough to gather the general process, but the details were lost on me. The brewery is older than the U.S., though. It’s been around since 1724.
After spending about 30 minutes in that first room, the tour guide handed out 0,1 liter (maybe 5 or 6 oz?) Haller Löwenbräu glasses. For free!! Needless to say, we were all excited about that. Then we headed to other rooms, including the room under the vats, the cooling room, and the bottling room. The last part of the tour took us through the giant warehouse where they keep and then distribute all of the beer. We were all dumbstruck with the amount of beer around us. They make soft drinks, too, but they are definitely known for their beer. After learning about different methods of shipping and bottling/storing the beer (which kind of kegs lasted longer, etc.), we headed back inside to a dining room sorts. There we were served free dinner and as much free beer as we wanted! We had a blast just hanging out and laughing with each other while drinking free and delicious beer from the tap. Around 10:30 or so, they started closing down, so we all headed to Bali’s for whatelse? A döner!!
At Bali’s we sat down and talked with the owner for a while about where we were all from and such. He also played a game with us. It’s hard to describe but basically it’s a strategy game involving coasters (like the kind you put under a drink). It was fun, and he challenged us to a wager. If we won, we get free döners for a year. If he won, I had to free the kebap Kentucky Fried Chicken style, since he knew I was from Kentucky. Luckily, we won! He’s not used to that, so we didn’t hold him to the free döners. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have held me to the KFC end of the deal if we would have lost. Then we headed home after an awesome day/night.
A few things I have noticed during my stay in Germany:
• I truly have underestimated the effect and power of fabric softener sheets that you put in the drier. I have always used them and figured they were pretty much useless. No sir. With my laundry here, there is no drier, so my clothes hang-dry. No fabric softener = clothes that aren’t as soft as expected. Not a complaint, just an observation.
• Each kind of beer has it’s specific type of glass. Pilsner beer is always served in a certain glass, as is Hefe-Weize, etc.
• My English is now sprinkled with German phrases. All of the English students throw in German words all the time. This might be problematic once back in the states.
• The Germans must be the most dehydrated nation ever. When they play sports or exercise, I have seen people drink coke and carbonate apple juice like it’s water. Also, they drink beer and only beer when they are thirsty. There is a beer called the Radler (which means bicycle rider). It is half beer and half Sprite (or some equivalent of sprite). It’s really not too great by my standards, but it was invented for bike races, hence the name. Yeah, so when people were thirsty during a bike race, they would drink a Radler instead of a regular beer because it was “less beer” and had “less alcohol”….yeah, crazy Germans. Haha gotta love the culture, right?
The second week of classes started out well, too. Monday’s class went fine as usual, but during the day some of the American students talked about how much we missed having American breakfast food. We decided to cook an American breakfast for dinner that night. We headed to the supermarket at 5 and bought all of the necessary supplies. Then we came back and cooked breakfast for everyone who wanted it, including the Brazilians and a few others. We had eggs, bacon, toast with jelly, and hash browns. It was pretty awesome and definitely satisfied our hunger for American breakfast. After that we all headed to Stammtisch for a few drinks and went to bed happy.
Tuesday was definitely interesting because we had an International buffet that night. The concept was that everyone would bring a traditional dish from their respective home countries. We Americans brought grilled cheese to the buffet. Not everyone participated, but there were about 10 or so countries represented and more than enough food to go around. There was so much good food. It was also the first time, and probably only time, when I can say I was sitting with at a table with about 25 people and at least 10 different countries were represented. It was definitely a cool experience.
Wednesday was the first day of our new Lehrer. Our old Lehrerin, Frau Schneider, was just filling in for our teacher until he got back from vacation. Now we have Herr Hasenfluss. He is definitely an interesting man. He kind of looks like Einstein, but instead of his hair poofing out, it lays down flat. He’s definitely a crazy looking man. He also has an interesting voice and a Schwabian accent. I’m not really a huge fan so far. He is extremely difficult to understand when compared to Frau Schneider and he speaks much more quickly than she did. Also, we have a ton of homework every night now, so that’s not as much fun. So Wednesday’s class was not my favorite, as I had to adjust to Herr Hasenfluss.
Wednesday night was fun, though. We have Goethe-Kino every Wednesday. Goethe-Kino is when they show a free movie in the Goethe-Pub for us all to watch. A few of us decided to make grilled cheese again, but this time we made fries, too, and added salami to the grilled cheese. Of course we had to have beer, too. We made all of this food in the kitchen in the Wohnheim and then took it to the Goethe-Kino so we could eat while we watched the movie. It worked splendidly. We enjoyed our delicious food and watched a movie called Adams Apfel, which means “Adam’s Apple” in English (sure was hard to figure that translation out, huh?). It was a movie about a neo-Nazi skinhead who is punished for petty crimes by being assigned to stay at a church with a pastor and a few other criminals. The criminals get room and board at the church but have to work for their stay. It basically followed the storyline of Job from the Bible. It was an interesting movie, for sure, but a little ridiculous. None of us could help laughing when a guy got shot in the chest and back and walked away like it was nothing. We couldn’t believe it. If you are familiar with the story of Job, this next scene will make more sense to you, but the pastor of the church is dying from a huge brain tumor. In a scuffle with a band of neo-Nazis that come to start trouble at the church, the pastor gets shot in the head. Of course, he lives because the bullet blew out the tumor from his brain and he is cured. All of us could only watch in shock and awe when we gets shot in the head and then lives. We found the German style of film-making very entertaining if not slightly ridiculous. The movie was all in very-hard-to-understand German, but we had subtitles on (in German), so we could follow along by reading.
Thursday February 11th was probably one of my best days in Germany. Class again was not so great, but the afternoon and night more than made up for it. First we had a wonderful thing called “Kaffee und Kuchen” (Coffee and Cakes) at 4 pm. It was put on by an organization called Die Freunde des Goethe (or the Friends of the Goethe Institut). Basically there is a group of people who live in Hall that strongly support the concept and work of the Goethe Institut and want to support and help all students trying to learn German. They put on a few different programs throughout each month of classes, but this is by far their best program. Then again, I am always biased towards food.
Kaffee und Kuchen is a program where all of the women in Die Freunde des Goethe bake amazing cakes and confections and bring them to the Mensa (cafeteria). There they also serve coffee and tea, and it is all FREE for the students. How awesome is that? There were about 20 different kinds of cakes and pies laid out on the table. I was in heaven, sweet heaven. I had no less than five pieces of cake. They girls sitting next to me (from Saudi Arabia, Korea, and Afghanistan, I think) were thoroughly impressed until they saw me stand up. Then they realized that all that cake goes to fill my 6’6” frame. I also had three cups of coffee. Needless to say, I was wired after that.
Another awesome thing about the event was the opportunity to meet some of the people involved with Die Freunde des Goethe. The women are obviously there serving the wonderful food, and their husbands also come to have conversation. The guy I sat with was named Hans. Ben and I sat together and talked with Hans the whole time about different things. Hans is originally from Hall and is a retired constructional engineer. He was really nice and said he loved coming to the events to meet with all of the students and partake in the conversations. We asked him several things about the region. Interesting facts about the sizes of the cities around included:
• About 8,000 people live in the city of Hall, but all the suburbs of Hall make it a city of about 30,000
• Stuttgart has about 600,000 people living in it and the surrounding area.
• Nürnberg has about 300,000 or so people in the city, but about 1 million people in the metro area
After we finished our cakes and all, Hans found out that one of the guys from Colombia that we were sitting with was also a construction engineer, so he offered to take a group of us to the big construction site in the city and explain everything to us. A group of about 6 of us gladly accepted the invitation and followed him to the construction site. If you have seen giant yellow cranes in any of my pictures, then you will be familiar with the construction going on in the west part of the city. They are building a new shopping center there, hoping to bring more businesses and money to the city. It’s going to be a pretty big complex, and Hans explained to us the challenges of building parking space (there is barely any in this city) and the different considerations the engineers had to account for. For example, the Kocher River runs right through the heart of Hall, so there is groundwater about 2 meters below the ground where they are building the shopping center. Normally a foundation is set 7 meters below the ground (that’s really deep, by the way…over 21 feet) in order to account for parking garages and all, but they have to go through many different techniques and maneuvers to circumvent this lack of ability to dig that deep. It was definitely informative and interesting, and it was also a confidence boost that I could understand the vast majority of the things Hans was saying. After we parted ways, Laura, Ben, and I walked around the city for about 40 minutes because we had a meeting at 6 pm.
What was the meeting at 6 pm? Only the greatest thing ever. We went on a Goethe-sponsored tour of the Haller Löwenbräu Brauerei (Brewery). It was about a 15 minute walk from the school, and all 30 of us trudged along in the snow, excited about what we were going to see. The brewery is across the river in a complex of buildings that don’t look all too magnificent on the outside. However, once we were inside, the magic of Haller Löwenbräu unfolded. (By the way, for those who are curious, it is pronounced Haller Loh-ven-broi). We went to the production room which had several giant vats and machines in it. The entire tour was in German, so I only caught maybe 40-50% of it. I just haven’t studied my beer and beer-making vocabulary enough, apparently, in English or auf Deutsch. I understood enough to gather the general process, but the details were lost on me. The brewery is older than the U.S., though. It’s been around since 1724.
After spending about 30 minutes in that first room, the tour guide handed out 0,1 liter (maybe 5 or 6 oz?) Haller Löwenbräu glasses. For free!! Needless to say, we were all excited about that. Then we headed to other rooms, including the room under the vats, the cooling room, and the bottling room. The last part of the tour took us through the giant warehouse where they keep and then distribute all of the beer. We were all dumbstruck with the amount of beer around us. They make soft drinks, too, but they are definitely known for their beer. After learning about different methods of shipping and bottling/storing the beer (which kind of kegs lasted longer, etc.), we headed back inside to a dining room sorts. There we were served free dinner and as much free beer as we wanted! We had a blast just hanging out and laughing with each other while drinking free and delicious beer from the tap. Around 10:30 or so, they started closing down, so we all headed to Bali’s for whatelse? A döner!!
At Bali’s we sat down and talked with the owner for a while about where we were all from and such. He also played a game with us. It’s hard to describe but basically it’s a strategy game involving coasters (like the kind you put under a drink). It was fun, and he challenged us to a wager. If we won, we get free döners for a year. If he won, I had to free the kebap Kentucky Fried Chicken style, since he knew I was from Kentucky. Luckily, we won! He’s not used to that, so we didn’t hold him to the free döners. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have held me to the KFC end of the deal if we would have lost. Then we headed home after an awesome day/night.
A few things I have noticed during my stay in Germany:
• I truly have underestimated the effect and power of fabric softener sheets that you put in the drier. I have always used them and figured they were pretty much useless. No sir. With my laundry here, there is no drier, so my clothes hang-dry. No fabric softener = clothes that aren’t as soft as expected. Not a complaint, just an observation.
• Each kind of beer has it’s specific type of glass. Pilsner beer is always served in a certain glass, as is Hefe-Weize, etc.
• My English is now sprinkled with German phrases. All of the English students throw in German words all the time. This might be problematic once back in the states.
• The Germans must be the most dehydrated nation ever. When they play sports or exercise, I have seen people drink coke and carbonate apple juice like it’s water. Also, they drink beer and only beer when they are thirsty. There is a beer called the Radler (which means bicycle rider). It is half beer and half Sprite (or some equivalent of sprite). It’s really not too great by my standards, but it was invented for bike races, hence the name. Yeah, so when people were thirsty during a bike race, they would drink a Radler instead of a regular beer because it was “less beer” and had “less alcohol”….yeah, crazy Germans. Haha gotta love the culture, right?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Toga Toga Toga!!!
So the first few days of class were great. The first weekend hanging out with everyone was a perfect way to end it.
Friday class was alright, but I could feel the energy of everyone knowing it was the weekend. The first new thing that happened Friday was my first Rotary Meeting in Schwäbisch Hall. Oskar, my Rotary contact, picked me up a noon, so I missed the last 45 minutes of class. He drove me to the meeting at a fantastic restaurant by the train station of Schwaebisch-Hessental, which is the main train station. He drove me in his Audi—it is a sa-weet car. A lot of sports cars here are awesome, but Audi, Mercedes, and Porsche are all based close to here so it makes sense.
At the Rotary meeting, I was both terrified and fascinated. Oskar introduced me to everyone that we met at first, and I said hello. A lot of them greeted me in English once he introduced me, but I responded in German. They then asked if I spoke German, and I laughed, saying only a little bit and that I’m here to learn more. But then we sat down at a long table and started small talk with everyone. One thing that I did notice was that everyone that came in made an obligatory round to every person at the meeting to say hello. It was kind of strange, but also cool that they went to shake every person’s hand. I say “person”, by the way, but really I mean man. Rotary is separated by gender here, so there is a Rotary Men’s and Rotary Women’s.
Sitting at the table with all of these German business men, I was beyond intimidated. I wanted to make sure I was a good representative of everything I stood for: Forest Acres Rotary, Rotary in general, USC, KY, and the US. I did my best to understand everything that was going on, but it wasn’t easy. Then I had one of the guys sitting across from me ask me what I thought about Obama. My heart jumped in my throat. That’s a challenging question to answer in English, much less German. As I did my best to explain my views and the views of the country, all I could think about was how much of an idiot must sound like. And then the single most embarrassing moment of my Germany experiences happened. I completely blanked on the leaders of Germany. I had studied them before so I would know what to talk about if asked or put in a conversation where I needed to discuss it. But I guess the stress, anxiety, and mental fatigue of nothing but German since 8:15 that morning + meeting all of these new German businessmen + the Obama conversation just caused my brain to shut down for a second. I completely blanked and had to just ask him what he thought about Obama compared to “the leaders” of Germany. I was so completely embarrassed. Oh, and I was doing all this while trying to politely eat the (delicious) salmon and rice we were served for lunch.
When I thought I could not feel more embarrassed, I then was introduced as a guest when the meeting officially started. I stood up and tried saying a few words about myself. I knew that I was going to be asked to give a brief introduction, so I had planned a few things to say. Of course, I was already flustered from the previous events. I definitely muffed it. Things I knew I was going to talk about: Thank you for having me here, hello from the Forest Acres Rotary Club in SC, where I go to school in the US, my majors and career hopes, where I am from, where I am studying here in Germany, where I’m living now, why I like Rotary, why I want to study and learn German, and what I enjoy doing in my free time. What did I actually say? Well, I successfully thanked them for having me at their Rotary Club, said my name, where I am from, where I go to school, and what I like to do in my free time. And then I awkwardly stopped talking, said thank you again, and took my seat. My heart was beating so quickly and I’m sure I was completely flushed. I sat down and another wave of embarrassment hit me. Oskar then stood up and spoke for a few minutes about what I was supposed to say, making sure to inform everyone about my studies here and how long I would be here. Of course, the whole time he was talking, I was cursing myself for forgetting all of this. After he finished, I quickly stood up and apologized for forgetting all of this, saying I was nervous and still not to great with my German. I sat back down as the rest of the meeting went underway, thankfully giving me a chance to slide out of the spotlight and have someone else talk for a while.
I understand that even being able to get up in front of these men was a huge step from my abilities and courage even from the first few days I had been in Germany. I had gone from being afraid to speak to people in the bakery to order food to talking in front of a group of businessmen. I definitely learned a lot from it, and it was a good experience for me to have. However, it was such a frustrating experience for me. I am not one who normally feels comfortable talking about my talents, but I know that I have an ability to talk my way through many a challenging situation. I have always been one to use my words to my advantage, and I can usually say what I need to say in an impressive way. I have had practice with speaking in front of large (and sometimes intimidating) crowds, too, through Orientation Leader and Team Leader, Ambassadors, Homecoming King, and all the other opportunities I have to fall back on. I am not used to being flustered or having trouble communicating. It was so embarrassing and frustrating being able to not eloquently introduce and explain myself. I guess that’s part of learning another language. But at least I have that experience so I can do better next time. My friend Kaleb told me that if I don’t come back with several bundles of utterly embarrassing moments, then I haven’t truly experienced the country or learned the language. Well, Kaleb, if you’re reading this, then know that I am definitely experiencing Germany and learning German to the fullest.
The presentation was about the economic and market situation in Russia. I could understand it for the most part because there was a power point presentation to compliment it. After the presentation concluded, the meeting was adjourned and we started saying goodbye to everyone. A few men came up to me and asked me about some interesting things. One gave me his business card and said if I ever wanted a tour around Frankfurt, I should give him a shout. I might just do that, because I definitely want to see Frankfurt. Another asked about volleyball. While I had completely screwed up my speaking earlier, I had mentioned what I liked to do in my free time. I mentioned volleyball as one. He asked me about that, and I told him I play for the club team at USC. He said he had a recreational team and would love for me to come out to play with him. I didn’t get his contact information, but I hope to get in touch with him at some point because I really would love to go play. Also, another guy mentioned that he was like the owner of a sports complex or something and that I could play basketball there. So I really need to look into those opportunities. I also need to look into joining the football team here. I found out they are called the Unicorns. How threatening. But, the quarterback is from Michigan, so there are some Americans on the team. It would be awesome to play football here.
I apologized to Oskar for not speaking well while we were on the way back to the house, but he said it wasn’t a problem at all. He said the club will be excited to see how I grow and improve with my German as I keep coming back. So that was encouraging.
Once he dropped me off, I ran up to my room, changed into athletic clothes, and rushed off to the Goethe Institut. It was our first Friday of Goethe-Sport! Goethe-Sport is the weekly sporting event put on by Goethe. That Friday it was soccer. We took the bus to a sports complex and played indoor soccer. It was a lot of fun, even though I am terrible at soccer. I wasn’t the worst, so I didn’t feel too bad. I just said, “I’m an American” and that was enough explanation. After like an hour and a half of soccer we switched to dodgeball, which the Americans dominated. We then headed back on the buses. The best part of the Goethe-Sport was again getting to know people. That day I met Andrew, an Australia guy who doesn’t actually attend Goethe but has lived here and worked here for about a year. He is friends with a lot of people who go to the Goethe Institut and is always hanging around. He’s a cool guy, and we got to talking when he noticed my rugby jacket. He played rugby in Australia, and we talked about rugby for a really long time.
After Goethe-Sport we all went back to shower and then met up in Wohnheim 2. There were just hanging out while everyone cooked different things for dinner. I hadn’t eaten yet, but I just planned on getting something later. We started drinking a few beers and then Andrew the Australian (there are three Andrews here so we always have to distinguish) decided that we need to have a Toga themed night. At first we all laughed at him as he came in with nothing but a bed sheet and boxers on. But slowly, after he encouraged us to go with the toga, we all ended up in togas. It was priceless. Of course, the girls refused to do it, so we had about 12 to 15 guys all dressed in togas. Then we headed to the Goethe-Party. Every Friday night Goethe holds a party for the students where it sells cheap beers and has music. They even have a happy hour from 9 to 10 when the drinks are all 0.50 Euros cheaper. We showed up to the party in togas, and all Nassim could do was shake his head. We had a blast dancing and being ridiculous, and everyone there seemed pretty entertained by it.
Soon though, I was pretty hungry, since I hadn’t eaten dinner. It was only like 10:30, so Ben, Derek, and I (I guess you could call us the Döner Drei—which would be the German word for three) went out for a döner from Bali’s. So there we were, strolling through Schwäbisch Hall in togas. Something I never thought I would say. We were wearing our coats though, because it was definitely cold. We passed a few German teenagers on the street and they definitely laughed at us. We just looked at them and said, “What? We had a toga party,” and kept walking. They seemed satisfied with that answer and turned their conversation elsewhere.
When we got to Bali’s, we met up with about 7 German guys our age. At first, they started making fun of us, asking if we were Roman and all. We just laughed back and said no, we just had a toga party, but we are Americans. Immediately, they seemed to love us. It was actually pretty funny to witness. I know a lot of Europe isn’t too pleased with America over all, but it seems when people meet us, they are fascinated by our culture or something. Most people love us. But I have definitely met a few who don’t. Anyway, they started asking us all of these questions in English. The three of us ended up talking to different groups of them. The two guys I talked to were both asking me stuff in English. I kept asking them to speak in German because I wanted to learn. They laughed and said they needed the practice with English. So I said fine, speak with me in German until I have trouble, and then we can speak in English. So we had about a 15 minute conversation about who they were and why they were in Hall, and the same info about me. One was from Freiburg and studying economics while another came from Stuttgart and was studying philosophy. They were pretty cool guys. Then they told us that we HAD to go to the disko. We told them that we were planning to head there after the Goethe-Party.
So we headed back to the party, fulfilled from our delicious döners and the conversations. There we continued to dance around with our togas and talk with people. All of us, about 20 in total, headed to the disko (dance club) around 12:15. There, we were definitely greeted by strange stares because of the togas. Yes, we even went to the dance club in the togas. We hit the dance floor and just acted ridiculous. I’m sure the Germans were cursing all of us international students. I noticed that the togas worked efficiently as German repellant. No one wanted to come near us for a while, but as people acclimated to our presence, they slowly let us mix in with them. It was blast, and we stayed there until about 2 and then headed home.
The next morning, I woke up early to meet Laura, Kelsey, Andrew K. (not the Aussie), and Ben at the bus stop at 8. We headed the train station for a day in Nuernburg. Unfortunately, that train was delayed for a couple of hours. We decided to head to Stuttgart instead and took the next train there. It was an awesome choice because Stuttgart was awesome to see. When we first got there, we grabbed some food at Kamps, a famous and delicious chain of German food. After our quick meal, we walked down the huge outdoor mall and into the city square. After exploring some and finding a cool Saturday market, we headed into the Ländes Museum, a museum about the country. We spent a good deal of time in there, seeing everything from the history of the royal family to the Roman presence in the area to the medieval times. It was pretty cool to see all of the history around us.
After that museum, we wandered around the city a little more, just trying to see what we could see. We definitely saw a lot, from cool parks to more markets to awesome buildings. Then we headed to the Porsche museum. Now that was cool. Got a lot of good pictures from that. The building had an awesome design, too. After grabbing some food and trying the Stuttgarter Brau (delicious), we headed back home. Saturday was also Laura’s birthday, so we had to get home for the celebration. We obviously had a great night Saturday night, celebrating her 21st birthday in Wohnheim 2 and Olli’s.
Sunday morning greeted us with more prospects of a good day! Sunday was Hallia Venezia. That is a celebration that is related to Fasching and Karneval (basically Mardi Gras by our terms) and it comes from Venezia in Italy. This is the Schwäbisch Hall version, hence the Hallia part. People spend about 6 months making their own costumes, and then they walk around the town from noon to 2 pm. People flock to see them. At 2 pm, the people in costumes all converge to the steps of St. Michael’s Church (the one right by my house) and they parade down the steps. It was definitely awesome to see.
Sunday afternoon was pretty sweet too because the Haugs invited my for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). Frau Haug had made a sauerkirsche (sour cherry--the cherries aren't actually sour, it's just a type of cherry) cake and we drank coffee while we ate the freshly made cake. It was definitely delicious, and it was good to catch up with the Haugs. I hadn't seen them in a while, so it was good to sit down and discuss the week with them. It was also a good confidence booster because I could definitely converse more easily with them since classes had started than I could before classes started. It was a good standard to measure my growth in a week of class, and they both commented that my German had greatly improved, especially my comprehension abilities. My speaking has improved, too, but it is definitely the hardest to master.
After that, we all just kind of hung out until a few of us grabbed Chinese for dinner. I was definitely some of the best Chinese I’d ever had. Gotta love Germany. What a good weekend.
Friday class was alright, but I could feel the energy of everyone knowing it was the weekend. The first new thing that happened Friday was my first Rotary Meeting in Schwäbisch Hall. Oskar, my Rotary contact, picked me up a noon, so I missed the last 45 minutes of class. He drove me to the meeting at a fantastic restaurant by the train station of Schwaebisch-Hessental, which is the main train station. He drove me in his Audi—it is a sa-weet car. A lot of sports cars here are awesome, but Audi, Mercedes, and Porsche are all based close to here so it makes sense.
At the Rotary meeting, I was both terrified and fascinated. Oskar introduced me to everyone that we met at first, and I said hello. A lot of them greeted me in English once he introduced me, but I responded in German. They then asked if I spoke German, and I laughed, saying only a little bit and that I’m here to learn more. But then we sat down at a long table and started small talk with everyone. One thing that I did notice was that everyone that came in made an obligatory round to every person at the meeting to say hello. It was kind of strange, but also cool that they went to shake every person’s hand. I say “person”, by the way, but really I mean man. Rotary is separated by gender here, so there is a Rotary Men’s and Rotary Women’s.
Sitting at the table with all of these German business men, I was beyond intimidated. I wanted to make sure I was a good representative of everything I stood for: Forest Acres Rotary, Rotary in general, USC, KY, and the US. I did my best to understand everything that was going on, but it wasn’t easy. Then I had one of the guys sitting across from me ask me what I thought about Obama. My heart jumped in my throat. That’s a challenging question to answer in English, much less German. As I did my best to explain my views and the views of the country, all I could think about was how much of an idiot must sound like. And then the single most embarrassing moment of my Germany experiences happened. I completely blanked on the leaders of Germany. I had studied them before so I would know what to talk about if asked or put in a conversation where I needed to discuss it. But I guess the stress, anxiety, and mental fatigue of nothing but German since 8:15 that morning + meeting all of these new German businessmen + the Obama conversation just caused my brain to shut down for a second. I completely blanked and had to just ask him what he thought about Obama compared to “the leaders” of Germany. I was so completely embarrassed. Oh, and I was doing all this while trying to politely eat the (delicious) salmon and rice we were served for lunch.
When I thought I could not feel more embarrassed, I then was introduced as a guest when the meeting officially started. I stood up and tried saying a few words about myself. I knew that I was going to be asked to give a brief introduction, so I had planned a few things to say. Of course, I was already flustered from the previous events. I definitely muffed it. Things I knew I was going to talk about: Thank you for having me here, hello from the Forest Acres Rotary Club in SC, where I go to school in the US, my majors and career hopes, where I am from, where I am studying here in Germany, where I’m living now, why I like Rotary, why I want to study and learn German, and what I enjoy doing in my free time. What did I actually say? Well, I successfully thanked them for having me at their Rotary Club, said my name, where I am from, where I go to school, and what I like to do in my free time. And then I awkwardly stopped talking, said thank you again, and took my seat. My heart was beating so quickly and I’m sure I was completely flushed. I sat down and another wave of embarrassment hit me. Oskar then stood up and spoke for a few minutes about what I was supposed to say, making sure to inform everyone about my studies here and how long I would be here. Of course, the whole time he was talking, I was cursing myself for forgetting all of this. After he finished, I quickly stood up and apologized for forgetting all of this, saying I was nervous and still not to great with my German. I sat back down as the rest of the meeting went underway, thankfully giving me a chance to slide out of the spotlight and have someone else talk for a while.
I understand that even being able to get up in front of these men was a huge step from my abilities and courage even from the first few days I had been in Germany. I had gone from being afraid to speak to people in the bakery to order food to talking in front of a group of businessmen. I definitely learned a lot from it, and it was a good experience for me to have. However, it was such a frustrating experience for me. I am not one who normally feels comfortable talking about my talents, but I know that I have an ability to talk my way through many a challenging situation. I have always been one to use my words to my advantage, and I can usually say what I need to say in an impressive way. I have had practice with speaking in front of large (and sometimes intimidating) crowds, too, through Orientation Leader and Team Leader, Ambassadors, Homecoming King, and all the other opportunities I have to fall back on. I am not used to being flustered or having trouble communicating. It was so embarrassing and frustrating being able to not eloquently introduce and explain myself. I guess that’s part of learning another language. But at least I have that experience so I can do better next time. My friend Kaleb told me that if I don’t come back with several bundles of utterly embarrassing moments, then I haven’t truly experienced the country or learned the language. Well, Kaleb, if you’re reading this, then know that I am definitely experiencing Germany and learning German to the fullest.
The presentation was about the economic and market situation in Russia. I could understand it for the most part because there was a power point presentation to compliment it. After the presentation concluded, the meeting was adjourned and we started saying goodbye to everyone. A few men came up to me and asked me about some interesting things. One gave me his business card and said if I ever wanted a tour around Frankfurt, I should give him a shout. I might just do that, because I definitely want to see Frankfurt. Another asked about volleyball. While I had completely screwed up my speaking earlier, I had mentioned what I liked to do in my free time. I mentioned volleyball as one. He asked me about that, and I told him I play for the club team at USC. He said he had a recreational team and would love for me to come out to play with him. I didn’t get his contact information, but I hope to get in touch with him at some point because I really would love to go play. Also, another guy mentioned that he was like the owner of a sports complex or something and that I could play basketball there. So I really need to look into those opportunities. I also need to look into joining the football team here. I found out they are called the Unicorns. How threatening. But, the quarterback is from Michigan, so there are some Americans on the team. It would be awesome to play football here.
I apologized to Oskar for not speaking well while we were on the way back to the house, but he said it wasn’t a problem at all. He said the club will be excited to see how I grow and improve with my German as I keep coming back. So that was encouraging.
Once he dropped me off, I ran up to my room, changed into athletic clothes, and rushed off to the Goethe Institut. It was our first Friday of Goethe-Sport! Goethe-Sport is the weekly sporting event put on by Goethe. That Friday it was soccer. We took the bus to a sports complex and played indoor soccer. It was a lot of fun, even though I am terrible at soccer. I wasn’t the worst, so I didn’t feel too bad. I just said, “I’m an American” and that was enough explanation. After like an hour and a half of soccer we switched to dodgeball, which the Americans dominated. We then headed back on the buses. The best part of the Goethe-Sport was again getting to know people. That day I met Andrew, an Australia guy who doesn’t actually attend Goethe but has lived here and worked here for about a year. He is friends with a lot of people who go to the Goethe Institut and is always hanging around. He’s a cool guy, and we got to talking when he noticed my rugby jacket. He played rugby in Australia, and we talked about rugby for a really long time.
After Goethe-Sport we all went back to shower and then met up in Wohnheim 2. There were just hanging out while everyone cooked different things for dinner. I hadn’t eaten yet, but I just planned on getting something later. We started drinking a few beers and then Andrew the Australian (there are three Andrews here so we always have to distinguish) decided that we need to have a Toga themed night. At first we all laughed at him as he came in with nothing but a bed sheet and boxers on. But slowly, after he encouraged us to go with the toga, we all ended up in togas. It was priceless. Of course, the girls refused to do it, so we had about 12 to 15 guys all dressed in togas. Then we headed to the Goethe-Party. Every Friday night Goethe holds a party for the students where it sells cheap beers and has music. They even have a happy hour from 9 to 10 when the drinks are all 0.50 Euros cheaper. We showed up to the party in togas, and all Nassim could do was shake his head. We had a blast dancing and being ridiculous, and everyone there seemed pretty entertained by it.
Soon though, I was pretty hungry, since I hadn’t eaten dinner. It was only like 10:30, so Ben, Derek, and I (I guess you could call us the Döner Drei—which would be the German word for three) went out for a döner from Bali’s. So there we were, strolling through Schwäbisch Hall in togas. Something I never thought I would say. We were wearing our coats though, because it was definitely cold. We passed a few German teenagers on the street and they definitely laughed at us. We just looked at them and said, “What? We had a toga party,” and kept walking. They seemed satisfied with that answer and turned their conversation elsewhere.
When we got to Bali’s, we met up with about 7 German guys our age. At first, they started making fun of us, asking if we were Roman and all. We just laughed back and said no, we just had a toga party, but we are Americans. Immediately, they seemed to love us. It was actually pretty funny to witness. I know a lot of Europe isn’t too pleased with America over all, but it seems when people meet us, they are fascinated by our culture or something. Most people love us. But I have definitely met a few who don’t. Anyway, they started asking us all of these questions in English. The three of us ended up talking to different groups of them. The two guys I talked to were both asking me stuff in English. I kept asking them to speak in German because I wanted to learn. They laughed and said they needed the practice with English. So I said fine, speak with me in German until I have trouble, and then we can speak in English. So we had about a 15 minute conversation about who they were and why they were in Hall, and the same info about me. One was from Freiburg and studying economics while another came from Stuttgart and was studying philosophy. They were pretty cool guys. Then they told us that we HAD to go to the disko. We told them that we were planning to head there after the Goethe-Party.
So we headed back to the party, fulfilled from our delicious döners and the conversations. There we continued to dance around with our togas and talk with people. All of us, about 20 in total, headed to the disko (dance club) around 12:15. There, we were definitely greeted by strange stares because of the togas. Yes, we even went to the dance club in the togas. We hit the dance floor and just acted ridiculous. I’m sure the Germans were cursing all of us international students. I noticed that the togas worked efficiently as German repellant. No one wanted to come near us for a while, but as people acclimated to our presence, they slowly let us mix in with them. It was blast, and we stayed there until about 2 and then headed home.
The next morning, I woke up early to meet Laura, Kelsey, Andrew K. (not the Aussie), and Ben at the bus stop at 8. We headed the train station for a day in Nuernburg. Unfortunately, that train was delayed for a couple of hours. We decided to head to Stuttgart instead and took the next train there. It was an awesome choice because Stuttgart was awesome to see. When we first got there, we grabbed some food at Kamps, a famous and delicious chain of German food. After our quick meal, we walked down the huge outdoor mall and into the city square. After exploring some and finding a cool Saturday market, we headed into the Ländes Museum, a museum about the country. We spent a good deal of time in there, seeing everything from the history of the royal family to the Roman presence in the area to the medieval times. It was pretty cool to see all of the history around us.
After that museum, we wandered around the city a little more, just trying to see what we could see. We definitely saw a lot, from cool parks to more markets to awesome buildings. Then we headed to the Porsche museum. Now that was cool. Got a lot of good pictures from that. The building had an awesome design, too. After grabbing some food and trying the Stuttgarter Brau (delicious), we headed back home. Saturday was also Laura’s birthday, so we had to get home for the celebration. We obviously had a great night Saturday night, celebrating her 21st birthday in Wohnheim 2 and Olli’s.
Sunday morning greeted us with more prospects of a good day! Sunday was Hallia Venezia. That is a celebration that is related to Fasching and Karneval (basically Mardi Gras by our terms) and it comes from Venezia in Italy. This is the Schwäbisch Hall version, hence the Hallia part. People spend about 6 months making their own costumes, and then they walk around the town from noon to 2 pm. People flock to see them. At 2 pm, the people in costumes all converge to the steps of St. Michael’s Church (the one right by my house) and they parade down the steps. It was definitely awesome to see.
Sunday afternoon was pretty sweet too because the Haugs invited my for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake). Frau Haug had made a sauerkirsche (sour cherry--the cherries aren't actually sour, it's just a type of cherry) cake and we drank coffee while we ate the freshly made cake. It was definitely delicious, and it was good to catch up with the Haugs. I hadn't seen them in a while, so it was good to sit down and discuss the week with them. It was also a good confidence booster because I could definitely converse more easily with them since classes had started than I could before classes started. It was a good standard to measure my growth in a week of class, and they both commented that my German had greatly improved, especially my comprehension abilities. My speaking has improved, too, but it is definitely the hardest to master.
After that, we all just kind of hung out until a few of us grabbed Chinese for dinner. I was definitely some of the best Chinese I’d ever had. Gotta love Germany. What a good weekend.
The first week of class
So my first week and weekend of classes has passed. It has been quite a lot of fun, to say the least. I’m going to save the weekend for another post, so this one will cover up until Friday.
Tuesday was the first day of class. I headed in for breakfast extremely nervous and not knowing what to expect. Breakfast was in the cafeteria (Mensa) of the Goethe Institut. I got there pretty early (breakfast goes from 7-8 and class starts at 8:15 everyday), around 7:20, and sat down to anxiously eat my breakfast. Around 7:45, some of the people I had briefly met the day before walked, so I headed over to talk to them. At 8:15 all of the students (about 60 or so I’d say—they said this is a smaller session than normal) met in the auditorium and we were split off into classes.
I am in level B1, which is a “beginner-intermediate” level of sorts. A1 is for people who don’t know any German, A2 is for people who can say basic things but can’t hold a conversation, B1 is for people who can hold conversation but need help with higher level grammar and complex sentences. B2 is more refining of grammar for people who are already pretty well off, and C1 is for people who can speak pretty much on the conversational level without any mistakes and only need help with small things.
My class is pretty fun. Everything is in German—I don’t hear a word of English in class. In my class I have students from: France (1), Brazil (2), Argentina (3), Chile (1), USA (3), Italy (2), Australia (1), Greece (1), and Turkey (3). I sit at a table with Stefano, an Italian guy, and Joachim, a French guy. Also represented in the school are China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Colombia, and Mexico. Almost everyone knows some English, but we speak strictly in German in the classroom. Everyone has embarrassing moments in the class where we just epically fail at German, but we help each other out a lot and learn from each other. Also, our teacher is pretty awesome. She encourages random questions about things we don’t understand or need clarification on, and she is really skilled at explaining things we don’t understand in a different way without having to switch from using German. Class lasts from 8:15 to 12:45 every day, Mon-Fri, with two short breaks in the middle of that chunk of time. Lunch is in the Mensa immediately after.
It’s been fun getting to know a lot of people here, too. Most of the Americans, maybe 13 out of the 15 here, are with a program through Central College. They are here for a month to brush up on their German skills, and then they head to Vienna to have classes from March to June/July. Their classes there will be in German, hence the need to brush up on it. So a lot of my friends will be leaving after this round of classes, which ends February 25th, and I will have to start all over with meeting people then. Also, pretty much everyone from South America is on their summer break (because it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere in case you didn’t remember that. That means that all of them will be heading back after this session, too. So only a few people are staying behind for more time at the Goethe Institut. I’ll have to pretty much start over come early March. Oh well.
The friends I hang out with the most are Ben, Derek, Andrew K., Andrew I., and Laura. They are all with the Central College program. I also spend some time with Antonio and Walter, two brothers from Brazil, Joachim—the French guy in my class, Bernardo from Brazil, and a few others. We’ve had a lot of fun hanging out and getting to know each other.
The first day I took a tour with the school around the city of Schwäbisch Hall. I already knew the town pretty well, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to have someone actually show me around. It was also good practice with my German. The best part of the tour was meeting people, anyway. We saw things I already knew about, but I got to meet Max, one of the two Zivis, and Bill. A Zivi is an interesting part of the German system. All young men are required to do either military service or civil service. At Goethe, we have two Zivis, Max and Nassim. They are doing their civil service at Goethe because they were assigned there and they know English pretty well. Pretty much all young people in Germany know English, though. Max is the only truly tall German that I know. I have seen a good number, but it isn’t a culture of giants like I thought it might be. I still stick out because of my height. Max is about 6’ 5” or 196 cm or so. The other guy I met, Bill, is awesome. He is a theater director and professor from Illinois. He’s in his mid-40s or so, but he is really cool. It was interesting getting to know him, and he is really good at German (he is level C1). Even though we obviously speak English better, he will only speak in German with the other Americans (and obviously everyone else too). It is a great way to learn, and I have learned a lot from him already.
The first night we had a thing called Stammtisch. Stammtisch is a German custom that originated from businessmen. They would go to a bar or restaurant at the same time, same day every week and they would sit at the same table. So that’s basically what Stammtisch is…a reserved table at a bar every week. Normally the Goethe Institut has the tables reserved every Monday night from 8 until close, but we went on Tuesday this time because it was the start of classes. The bar we always go to is called Schlachthaus, or Slaughterhouse English. It’s a pretty cool place, and we have 8 tables reserved in the back to hang out together. After talking with Derek, Ben, and Bill for a while, we decided to head home. However, at dinner we talked about things called döners. I had never heard of them before, and Derek and Ben were incredulous. They raved about them and said we had to go get one before we went home. I agreed and followed them to Bali’s, the local döner place.
Döners might be the best invention ever. They are like better versions of gyros. They come from Turkey and are simply delicious. Imagine pita bread/flat bread about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. Cut open one side so you have a pocket to stuff things into. Then shave off a generous portion of your Turkish lamb kebap (they call it kebap here instead of kebab), and stuff it with lettuce, onions, cabbage, and sheep’s cheese. It is so amazing. Since they showed me the döner, I have had it for probably 3/5 of the days that I have been here. They are amazing and delicious and are one of the top favorite things about Germany at this point.
Wednesday was another good day of class. I say that, but class is definitely challenging. Every day is filled with a ton of learning because I have no other choice. I always feel like I am a sponge that just can’t absorb enough of everything. I have so much to learn still that it is frustrating sometimes to try to stuff more things in my brain every day. It seems that every time I learn something, I lose something. But that is why I am here. I could never learn like this in the United States.
Wednesday night I went to an informational session about the Goethe Institut and all of the programs they offer. It was definitely an informative session, and afterward we had free pretzels and wine. Nothing can be bad when that happens right? Haha we had fun socializing and then headed out to Olli’s, a famous bar in town. It is also one of the oldest buildings in Hall. About 15 of us went out, and we had a blast just hanging out and drinking a few beers. I got to know Kye, an Australian organic chemist in my B1 class, a lot better and met Bang, a German teacher from Bangkok, Thailand. Bang is already really good at German, but she is here to get even better at so she can improve her teaching skills. It was a fun night and we headed home after a few hours out.
Thursday was yet another good day. It wasn’t quite as eventful as the previous two days, but it was a good calm day before the storm of the weekend. Haha, yes that means the next post about the first weekend will be entertaining. I went to set up my bank account and experience my first time of starting a conversation in German and having someone respond to me in English. I guess I should have expected that because I don’t really have the specific vocabulary for opening an account. The teller was really nice though. She saw that I was struggling and walked me through it in English. I told her I really wanted to learn German and wanted to try German, so she sat me down and we went over the account in German. Then I asked questions about what I didn’t understand, sometimes in German and sometimes in English, and then she would explain it. It was definitely a didactic and uplifting experience because Frau Rieg, the teller, was very encouraging. That, and she was used to dealing with us Goethe students.
Thursday night Ben, Derek, and I headed out to get döners and then went back to Wohnheim 2 (Wohnheim = dorm) to hang out with people and have a beer. It was a chill night, and then I headed home to get some sleep. I am definitely always tired here because I wake up around 6:30 every day. I normally take a short nap in the early afternoon after class to make sure I can keep going at night. It was a good beginning to class. The weekend only added to that. But more on that next post!
Tuesday was the first day of class. I headed in for breakfast extremely nervous and not knowing what to expect. Breakfast was in the cafeteria (Mensa) of the Goethe Institut. I got there pretty early (breakfast goes from 7-8 and class starts at 8:15 everyday), around 7:20, and sat down to anxiously eat my breakfast. Around 7:45, some of the people I had briefly met the day before walked, so I headed over to talk to them. At 8:15 all of the students (about 60 or so I’d say—they said this is a smaller session than normal) met in the auditorium and we were split off into classes.
I am in level B1, which is a “beginner-intermediate” level of sorts. A1 is for people who don’t know any German, A2 is for people who can say basic things but can’t hold a conversation, B1 is for people who can hold conversation but need help with higher level grammar and complex sentences. B2 is more refining of grammar for people who are already pretty well off, and C1 is for people who can speak pretty much on the conversational level without any mistakes and only need help with small things.
My class is pretty fun. Everything is in German—I don’t hear a word of English in class. In my class I have students from: France (1), Brazil (2), Argentina (3), Chile (1), USA (3), Italy (2), Australia (1), Greece (1), and Turkey (3). I sit at a table with Stefano, an Italian guy, and Joachim, a French guy. Also represented in the school are China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Colombia, and Mexico. Almost everyone knows some English, but we speak strictly in German in the classroom. Everyone has embarrassing moments in the class where we just epically fail at German, but we help each other out a lot and learn from each other. Also, our teacher is pretty awesome. She encourages random questions about things we don’t understand or need clarification on, and she is really skilled at explaining things we don’t understand in a different way without having to switch from using German. Class lasts from 8:15 to 12:45 every day, Mon-Fri, with two short breaks in the middle of that chunk of time. Lunch is in the Mensa immediately after.
It’s been fun getting to know a lot of people here, too. Most of the Americans, maybe 13 out of the 15 here, are with a program through Central College. They are here for a month to brush up on their German skills, and then they head to Vienna to have classes from March to June/July. Their classes there will be in German, hence the need to brush up on it. So a lot of my friends will be leaving after this round of classes, which ends February 25th, and I will have to start all over with meeting people then. Also, pretty much everyone from South America is on their summer break (because it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere in case you didn’t remember that. That means that all of them will be heading back after this session, too. So only a few people are staying behind for more time at the Goethe Institut. I’ll have to pretty much start over come early March. Oh well.
The friends I hang out with the most are Ben, Derek, Andrew K., Andrew I., and Laura. They are all with the Central College program. I also spend some time with Antonio and Walter, two brothers from Brazil, Joachim—the French guy in my class, Bernardo from Brazil, and a few others. We’ve had a lot of fun hanging out and getting to know each other.
The first day I took a tour with the school around the city of Schwäbisch Hall. I already knew the town pretty well, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to have someone actually show me around. It was also good practice with my German. The best part of the tour was meeting people, anyway. We saw things I already knew about, but I got to meet Max, one of the two Zivis, and Bill. A Zivi is an interesting part of the German system. All young men are required to do either military service or civil service. At Goethe, we have two Zivis, Max and Nassim. They are doing their civil service at Goethe because they were assigned there and they know English pretty well. Pretty much all young people in Germany know English, though. Max is the only truly tall German that I know. I have seen a good number, but it isn’t a culture of giants like I thought it might be. I still stick out because of my height. Max is about 6’ 5” or 196 cm or so. The other guy I met, Bill, is awesome. He is a theater director and professor from Illinois. He’s in his mid-40s or so, but he is really cool. It was interesting getting to know him, and he is really good at German (he is level C1). Even though we obviously speak English better, he will only speak in German with the other Americans (and obviously everyone else too). It is a great way to learn, and I have learned a lot from him already.
The first night we had a thing called Stammtisch. Stammtisch is a German custom that originated from businessmen. They would go to a bar or restaurant at the same time, same day every week and they would sit at the same table. So that’s basically what Stammtisch is…a reserved table at a bar every week. Normally the Goethe Institut has the tables reserved every Monday night from 8 until close, but we went on Tuesday this time because it was the start of classes. The bar we always go to is called Schlachthaus, or Slaughterhouse English. It’s a pretty cool place, and we have 8 tables reserved in the back to hang out together. After talking with Derek, Ben, and Bill for a while, we decided to head home. However, at dinner we talked about things called döners. I had never heard of them before, and Derek and Ben were incredulous. They raved about them and said we had to go get one before we went home. I agreed and followed them to Bali’s, the local döner place.
Döners might be the best invention ever. They are like better versions of gyros. They come from Turkey and are simply delicious. Imagine pita bread/flat bread about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. Cut open one side so you have a pocket to stuff things into. Then shave off a generous portion of your Turkish lamb kebap (they call it kebap here instead of kebab), and stuff it with lettuce, onions, cabbage, and sheep’s cheese. It is so amazing. Since they showed me the döner, I have had it for probably 3/5 of the days that I have been here. They are amazing and delicious and are one of the top favorite things about Germany at this point.
Wednesday was another good day of class. I say that, but class is definitely challenging. Every day is filled with a ton of learning because I have no other choice. I always feel like I am a sponge that just can’t absorb enough of everything. I have so much to learn still that it is frustrating sometimes to try to stuff more things in my brain every day. It seems that every time I learn something, I lose something. But that is why I am here. I could never learn like this in the United States.
Wednesday night I went to an informational session about the Goethe Institut and all of the programs they offer. It was definitely an informative session, and afterward we had free pretzels and wine. Nothing can be bad when that happens right? Haha we had fun socializing and then headed out to Olli’s, a famous bar in town. It is also one of the oldest buildings in Hall. About 15 of us went out, and we had a blast just hanging out and drinking a few beers. I got to know Kye, an Australian organic chemist in my B1 class, a lot better and met Bang, a German teacher from Bangkok, Thailand. Bang is already really good at German, but she is here to get even better at so she can improve her teaching skills. It was a fun night and we headed home after a few hours out.
Thursday was yet another good day. It wasn’t quite as eventful as the previous two days, but it was a good calm day before the storm of the weekend. Haha, yes that means the next post about the first weekend will be entertaining. I went to set up my bank account and experience my first time of starting a conversation in German and having someone respond to me in English. I guess I should have expected that because I don’t really have the specific vocabulary for opening an account. The teller was really nice though. She saw that I was struggling and walked me through it in English. I told her I really wanted to learn German and wanted to try German, so she sat me down and we went over the account in German. Then I asked questions about what I didn’t understand, sometimes in German and sometimes in English, and then she would explain it. It was definitely a didactic and uplifting experience because Frau Rieg, the teller, was very encouraging. That, and she was used to dealing with us Goethe students.
Thursday night Ben, Derek, and I headed out to get döners and then went back to Wohnheim 2 (Wohnheim = dorm) to hang out with people and have a beer. It was a chill night, and then I headed home to get some sleep. I am definitely always tired here because I wake up around 6:30 every day. I normally take a short nap in the early afternoon after class to make sure I can keep going at night. It was a good beginning to class. The weekend only added to that. But more on that next post!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Adventure Continues
For my first point, I just want to say that I renovated my blog to fit the German theme. I hope you like it.
It has been a very adventurous three days, indeed. On Saturday, Richard took me around the city center and told me a ton of history about Hall. It was extremely interesting and incorporated everything from the Romans, to the founding of the city, to a great fire in the 1600s, to the Reformation (via Johannes Brenz—the guy whose house I am inhabiting), to the renovation projects. It was simply amazing.
After that history lesson, my Rotary contact Herr Mahl stopped by to say hello, give me information about the Rotary Club in Hall, and to chat. He is an awesome guy and we talked for about an hour before he invited me to lunch. He spoke in English for the vast majority of the first hour we were together, but the more time we spent together, the more we spoken in German. Richard and Oskar (Herr Mahl insists I call him Oskar) then spoke to each other about a few random happenings around the region. The subject of lunch came up and Oskar invited Richard and me to lunch. Richard gratefully declined and said that Oskar need not spend money on us. He then invited Oskar to eat with us in the house. Oskar politely said that he would love to take me out and make up for the fact that he didn’t meet me in Stuttgart and help me get to Schwäbisch Hall. Apparently this is the normal thing but he didn’t hear about my arrival until too late.
Why detail that discussion? Well, let me tell you, that was a spectacle to behold. The two men spoke SO QUICKLY about everything that I barely knew what was going on. I only caught a few words of every sentence and had to clarify once it was all over. It was like watching the most polite debate I have ever witnessed. I know Germans love their food so I’m guessing invitations to eat together are a big deal. I will never forget just standing there, trying to comprehend their conversation, by head bouncing back and forth between the two like I was watching a tennis match.
Anyway, Oskar took me out for my first meal at a German restaurant. He gave me five or six other restaurants to explore and showed me a good map of Hall. We walked about 5 minutes to a place called Sonne, which means sun. I later learned that this is an excellent example of fine Schwäbian cuisine from the people at the Goethe Institut. We talked, a mixture of German and English (mainly German and English when I got stuck), and he taught me how to order and ask for a table. I was delighted to have a tutorial on my first run through! We both ordered the Rahmschnitzel, which is schnitzel with a kind of mushroom sauce, and it came with Spätzle (delicious German egg noodles) too. We also received a salad, too. The salad came first and had everything from lettuce to cabbage to carrots to sauerkraut and potatoes. I have to tell you, the German potato salad is phenomenal. It is hard to describe, but it is like nothing I have seen in the US before. Delicious.
The Rahmschnitzel was also fantastic, and I could not have asked for a better dining experience for my first time out in Germany. Also, as you can imagine, the beer was amazing. I had the Hefe-Weiße wheat beer. The vast majority of the beer in Restaurants is the Haller Löwenbräu, so unless I mention I different brand, I’m sticking with that one. Mid-way through lunch, Oskar’s wife, Jutta, and his two kids came to join us. It was a lot of fun to meet and talk with them too.
After lunch, Oskar wished me a good day and told me to contact him if I had any problems. Also, I am meeting with the Rotary Club on Friday night and then going to dinner with his family again Saturday night. Cool stuff. It was an awesome afternoon.
That night, Richard and I went out to a place called the Blauer Bock, which means the Blue Ram. It was also delicious, and I enjoyed another beer and great food. After dinner, Richard and I headed back and we retired for the night.
Sunday, hmmm Sunday was full of yet more adventure. After breakfast with Richard, I set out to walk past Comburg to see what I could find. It was a beautiful day, and the snow was falling everywhere. I know the snow isn’t going to last forever, so I had to go take advantage of it while I can. I walked all the way past Comburg and saw another smaller church called Kleine-Comburg (small Comburg). On my way back, I got some amazing views of Comburg from the other side not previously seen from a distance. That view had fewer trees and gave an even more grandiose glimpse at the castle. Pictures are in My Photos on Facebook here: Facebook | Your Photos - Germany--The First Few Days
I saw a huge open hilly area I can only guess was a park of farm field during the more accommodating months. Again, my explorer genes went crazy. I went to check it out and I had no idea what I was getting into.
After trudging through the snow up the hill, I saw some people sledding (if only I had the right clothes!!!) and realized that the path of matted-down snow was ending and a forest was beginning. I kept on walking as the snow got to be about 40 centimeters deep (lower to mid calf on me). There were small pathways in the forest, but none that had any fresh footprints. Keep in mind it has been snowing furiously this entire time, too.
I kept following one trail that led me up a huge hill where the tree line suddenly stopped. I was standing on the edge of a huge field covered in snow. I could probably see two or three miles to my left and right. In the distance I did see two people hang gliding off a small mountain. In the snow. And arctic wind. These Germans are crazy. Turning back towards the forest, I had about four new trails to follow. I took them all, one by one, until I could go no further and had to turn around.
The first one led me into the woods until I got to a small circular opening surrounded by dense woods. I followed deer tracks on that path, and there were easily enough tracks for four or five deer to have been on that trail. Because it was snowing so much and the tracks were rather fresh, the deer couldn’t have been there more than 30 minutes before me. After being forced to turn around by the lack of walk-able woods, I took the next path. It led me to another opening at the very top of the hill that overlooked Comburg. (The picture at the top of the blog is from the view on this hill).
I then realized that the other two trails I had not yet taken led to this field, too. I found two lookout towers/chairs in the field and climbed them to get a better view. After this, I decided to head back to the house. My shoes and the bottom parts of my parts were soaked and I made my way back across the fields and woods through the deep snow. It was definitely a successful adventure.
Monday I had my test for the Goethe Institut. I bought some amazing pastries for breakfast from the bakery on the way to the school and then started the process. First was an introduction/reception one-on-one with one of the teachers. They welcomed me, gave me a binder full of information, and we had a short discussion (auf Deutsch) about me, where I’m from, and why I’m here. Then I moved to the interview, where I had to talk back and forth about myself again, but a little more in-depth this time. This was actually testing my German skills. Finally I took a 70 question test and was placed into my class. (More on the class in the next post.) After receiving all of my necessary items and information, I was sent on my way until the next morning.
I then went to the bank and opened up an account, which was the next thing on my to-do list. I now have my German bank card (Maestro Card); this is a very good thing. My next stop was the phone store to get my new phone number set up. I now have it, but for some reason I have no service anywhere. I am going to ask about that either today or tomorrow.
The rest of the day/evening was rather uneventful. I had met a few new people at the Goethe-Institut, but only well enough to know their faces. The only thing that did happen was Bärbel’s return. She came back from her trip, and Martin, the youngest son, came back from Dresden for a few days. We all had dinner together, and Martin and I talked a little bit about Dresden and sports. He invited me out for a few beers any time that I had time. Unfortunately he had to leave before we could go out, but he gave me his contact information in case I wanted to come to Dresden. I now have a place to hang out and sleep in Dresden. Very cool.
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday definitely gave me a taste of the interaction I was craving. Each day I get more comfortable with my German, but each new encounter is a new challenge and a new adventure. There are sometimes when I just wish it would be easier to do things, but through all of the embarrassment and pep talks to myself, I’m definitely growing a lot from this experience. Each day I seem to enjoy it more and more. I went to bed Monday night excited and apprehensive about the day to come.
It has been a very adventurous three days, indeed. On Saturday, Richard took me around the city center and told me a ton of history about Hall. It was extremely interesting and incorporated everything from the Romans, to the founding of the city, to a great fire in the 1600s, to the Reformation (via Johannes Brenz—the guy whose house I am inhabiting), to the renovation projects. It was simply amazing.
After that history lesson, my Rotary contact Herr Mahl stopped by to say hello, give me information about the Rotary Club in Hall, and to chat. He is an awesome guy and we talked for about an hour before he invited me to lunch. He spoke in English for the vast majority of the first hour we were together, but the more time we spent together, the more we spoken in German. Richard and Oskar (Herr Mahl insists I call him Oskar) then spoke to each other about a few random happenings around the region. The subject of lunch came up and Oskar invited Richard and me to lunch. Richard gratefully declined and said that Oskar need not spend money on us. He then invited Oskar to eat with us in the house. Oskar politely said that he would love to take me out and make up for the fact that he didn’t meet me in Stuttgart and help me get to Schwäbisch Hall. Apparently this is the normal thing but he didn’t hear about my arrival until too late.
Why detail that discussion? Well, let me tell you, that was a spectacle to behold. The two men spoke SO QUICKLY about everything that I barely knew what was going on. I only caught a few words of every sentence and had to clarify once it was all over. It was like watching the most polite debate I have ever witnessed. I know Germans love their food so I’m guessing invitations to eat together are a big deal. I will never forget just standing there, trying to comprehend their conversation, by head bouncing back and forth between the two like I was watching a tennis match.
Anyway, Oskar took me out for my first meal at a German restaurant. He gave me five or six other restaurants to explore and showed me a good map of Hall. We walked about 5 minutes to a place called Sonne, which means sun. I later learned that this is an excellent example of fine Schwäbian cuisine from the people at the Goethe Institut. We talked, a mixture of German and English (mainly German and English when I got stuck), and he taught me how to order and ask for a table. I was delighted to have a tutorial on my first run through! We both ordered the Rahmschnitzel, which is schnitzel with a kind of mushroom sauce, and it came with Spätzle (delicious German egg noodles) too. We also received a salad, too. The salad came first and had everything from lettuce to cabbage to carrots to sauerkraut and potatoes. I have to tell you, the German potato salad is phenomenal. It is hard to describe, but it is like nothing I have seen in the US before. Delicious.
The Rahmschnitzel was also fantastic, and I could not have asked for a better dining experience for my first time out in Germany. Also, as you can imagine, the beer was amazing. I had the Hefe-Weiße wheat beer. The vast majority of the beer in Restaurants is the Haller Löwenbräu, so unless I mention I different brand, I’m sticking with that one. Mid-way through lunch, Oskar’s wife, Jutta, and his two kids came to join us. It was a lot of fun to meet and talk with them too.
After lunch, Oskar wished me a good day and told me to contact him if I had any problems. Also, I am meeting with the Rotary Club on Friday night and then going to dinner with his family again Saturday night. Cool stuff. It was an awesome afternoon.
That night, Richard and I went out to a place called the Blauer Bock, which means the Blue Ram. It was also delicious, and I enjoyed another beer and great food. After dinner, Richard and I headed back and we retired for the night.
Sunday, hmmm Sunday was full of yet more adventure. After breakfast with Richard, I set out to walk past Comburg to see what I could find. It was a beautiful day, and the snow was falling everywhere. I know the snow isn’t going to last forever, so I had to go take advantage of it while I can. I walked all the way past Comburg and saw another smaller church called Kleine-Comburg (small Comburg). On my way back, I got some amazing views of Comburg from the other side not previously seen from a distance. That view had fewer trees and gave an even more grandiose glimpse at the castle. Pictures are in My Photos on Facebook here: Facebook | Your Photos - Germany--The First Few Days
I saw a huge open hilly area I can only guess was a park of farm field during the more accommodating months. Again, my explorer genes went crazy. I went to check it out and I had no idea what I was getting into.
After trudging through the snow up the hill, I saw some people sledding (if only I had the right clothes!!!) and realized that the path of matted-down snow was ending and a forest was beginning. I kept on walking as the snow got to be about 40 centimeters deep (lower to mid calf on me). There were small pathways in the forest, but none that had any fresh footprints. Keep in mind it has been snowing furiously this entire time, too.
I kept following one trail that led me up a huge hill where the tree line suddenly stopped. I was standing on the edge of a huge field covered in snow. I could probably see two or three miles to my left and right. In the distance I did see two people hang gliding off a small mountain. In the snow. And arctic wind. These Germans are crazy. Turning back towards the forest, I had about four new trails to follow. I took them all, one by one, until I could go no further and had to turn around.
The first one led me into the woods until I got to a small circular opening surrounded by dense woods. I followed deer tracks on that path, and there were easily enough tracks for four or five deer to have been on that trail. Because it was snowing so much and the tracks were rather fresh, the deer couldn’t have been there more than 30 minutes before me. After being forced to turn around by the lack of walk-able woods, I took the next path. It led me to another opening at the very top of the hill that overlooked Comburg. (The picture at the top of the blog is from the view on this hill).
I then realized that the other two trails I had not yet taken led to this field, too. I found two lookout towers/chairs in the field and climbed them to get a better view. After this, I decided to head back to the house. My shoes and the bottom parts of my parts were soaked and I made my way back across the fields and woods through the deep snow. It was definitely a successful adventure.
Monday I had my test for the Goethe Institut. I bought some amazing pastries for breakfast from the bakery on the way to the school and then started the process. First was an introduction/reception one-on-one with one of the teachers. They welcomed me, gave me a binder full of information, and we had a short discussion (auf Deutsch) about me, where I’m from, and why I’m here. Then I moved to the interview, where I had to talk back and forth about myself again, but a little more in-depth this time. This was actually testing my German skills. Finally I took a 70 question test and was placed into my class. (More on the class in the next post.) After receiving all of my necessary items and information, I was sent on my way until the next morning.
I then went to the bank and opened up an account, which was the next thing on my to-do list. I now have my German bank card (Maestro Card); this is a very good thing. My next stop was the phone store to get my new phone number set up. I now have it, but for some reason I have no service anywhere. I am going to ask about that either today or tomorrow.
The rest of the day/evening was rather uneventful. I had met a few new people at the Goethe-Institut, but only well enough to know their faces. The only thing that did happen was Bärbel’s return. She came back from her trip, and Martin, the youngest son, came back from Dresden for a few days. We all had dinner together, and Martin and I talked a little bit about Dresden and sports. He invited me out for a few beers any time that I had time. Unfortunately he had to leave before we could go out, but he gave me his contact information in case I wanted to come to Dresden. I now have a place to hang out and sleep in Dresden. Very cool.
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday definitely gave me a taste of the interaction I was craving. Each day I get more comfortable with my German, but each new encounter is a new challenge and a new adventure. There are sometimes when I just wish it would be easier to do things, but through all of the embarrassment and pep talks to myself, I’m definitely growing a lot from this experience. Each day I seem to enjoy it more and more. I went to bed Monday night excited and apprehensive about the day to come.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Exploring is never boring: Nick goes adventuring, Part zwei—Friday January 29 11:15 pm
I wake up the next morning (Friday) and eat breakfast at 8:00. Bärbel is still gone on her business trip, and Richard hurries off to work after breakfast. He says he has another busy day and that I should plan on lunch and dinner on my own again. We will have breakfast at 8:00 again tomorrow morning. Since he left after breakfast this morning, I have not seen or heard from Richard or Bärbel. It is very interesting. I am truly on my own so far for the majority of the past three days. I do enjoy it, but again, I cannot wait to meet more people.
It is very hard to describe the full range of emotions I have experienced since arriving in Germany, and today brought on a full spectrum of them. From frustration to excitement to anxiety to elation to fatigue to accomplishment to amazed—I felt about anything you can imagine. It started out with me trying to connect to the internet this morning. I tried for about 30 minutes to no avail. I can connect to the Haug’s wireless internet just fine, but for some reason their modem is not connecting to the internet. I have no way of contacting either of them to ask them how to fix this, so I am still Internet-less.
I decided to alleviate my frustration by walking around some more. I had an adventure I will not soon forget. I started out walking toward the side of Hall I had not explored yesterday. I went up and around St. Michael’s Church and found some cool courtyards and overlooks of the town. I originally forgot my camera, so I had to quickly stop back by the house and grab it. I went I took pictures of the things I just visited and then began a trek down to the river. I soon found an awesome riverside park. It was a pathway that wound all along the river. Needlessly to say, it was covered in snow and absolutely gorgeous.
I followed this for about thirty minutes just a merry as can be. I looked up and saw a new shape emerging through the clouds. I had spotted a castle!! I wasn’t quite for sure what to think, so I kept walking closer. Promptly, I ran out of space on the memory card for the camera. (At this point, I thought I had forgotten my big memory card at home, but I found it in my bags later this evening.) I excitedly rushed back to the house, downloaded the pictures from my camera to the computer, cleared the memory card, and went back to further investigate my discovery.
I made it back to the place where I had previously turned around and scouted out my next best move. I wandered through the street for a few minutes looking for some sort of access point to the castle. I finally found a snow covered path that headed directly uphill. Bingo. As I trudged through the snow, random statues of different religious figures stared down at me during my ascension. At the top of the hill, the fantastic castle gates were wide open. If you know me, then you know I just HAD to investigate. I had no other choice. I couldn’t pass up on this adventure.
I wearily crossed through the threshold and constantly gazed around. I found a map of the castle, called Comburg, and a few signs greeting visitors. It turns out St. Nikolaus Church is nestled right in the heart of the castle walls, surrounded by a myriad of other buildings. I kept wandering around and found new passage ways and openings at every turn. I eventually explored them all and spent most of the time navigating the pathway that circumvents the grounds along the castle wall. It was an exhilarating experience, and I felt like an accomplished explorer.
At this point, it has been three hours since I first left the house, and my stomach was growling. On my way back down the hill, I used my explorer’s-high and rode my adventurous spirit to convince myself that I was going to stop at the bakery that I passed at the bottom of the hill. I was all set to go in and order until I actually got to the front door and looked in. A wave of uncertainty hit me, and I suddenly felt nervous to go in and engage in conversation. I kept walking past the door only to turn around 10 feet later and make another pass. I again kept going without entering the bakery because I kept psyching myself out. I went around the corner and immediately stopped. I checked to make sure no one was around and took a deep breath. This was it. I HAD to do this. I squared my shoulders and marched determinedly into the bakery. I proceeded to order, pay, and briefly converse with a woman in the bakery, and then I walked out.
I cannot describe the pure elation and overwhelming sense of victory that washed over me! It was the first time I had gone into a store to order something directly. Sure, supermarket on Thursday was a small victory, but that was pretty easy. It was just like a supermarket in the US. You go up, say hello, wait for the price to come up, hand over the money, and say goodbye. This time I actually had to TALK. I was so proud of myself. The apple turnover and sweet bread that I ordered just might have been the most delectable pastries that I have ever consumed. I mean, they were good to start out with, but the taste of victory made them all the sweeter. You have to rejoice in the small things, right? Haha I happily munched on them as I made the trek back to my side of town.
I walked back on the opposite side of the river on my return, guessing that it would put me where I wanted to go next—the supermarket again. I was right and 20 minutes later I walked through the sliding doors of Handelshof. This time I bought more water, some nutella and bread, and my first German beer to celebrate the morning’s accomplishments. I also bought this soda called Schwip Schwap. It is cola (I’m pretty sure it’s Pepsi, judging by the label) that is mixed with orange soda. I was fascinated when I saw it and had to try it. Why not continue the adventurous trend? I made my purchase and made my way back to my room.
Once back in the warmth of my room, I was reminded of my frustration at the lack of internet, but I ignored that momentarily to continue my celebration of the morning’s accomplishments by looking at the pictures I had just taken. I first tried the beer, called Haller Löwenbräu. I bought the Haalgiest Dunkleweisse version because I like dark beer (dunkel means dark). It is brewed privately in the region (hence the “Haller”) and has been brewed since 1724. It was simply amazing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course my nutella snack was delicious as well. I tried the Schwip Schwap and was pleasantly surprised. I only drank a little of it and plan to ration it as a treat.
After loading all of the pictures, I looked at the clock and saw it was almost 3. I tried to connect to the internet again and became more and more frustrated. I looked out the window and saw that it was snow furiously and opted, again, to go walk around to help my blood pressure drop from the unwanted cyber-stress. I forgot to mention that it snowed the entire time I was on my adventure through the park by the river and to the castle. I love the snow and hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon.
My afternoon walk was refreshing, although not nearly as exciting as my morning adventure. I returned home around 16:30 thoroughly exhausted. I took a nap, meaning to wake up at 17:00 and head out to the information center and ask where a good place was to eat. My body had other plans and I instead woke up at 18:30. I quickly headed out to see if the information center happened to still be open. It closed at 17:00 apparently, so I wouldn’t have made it even if I woke up when planned. I looked around for a place to eat but again became intimidated by the sheer number of options and the fact that I didn’t know where most of them were. My fear of not knowing enough German also returned, so I walked around for about 30 minutes trying to both find a suitable place to eat and work up enough courage to eat there once I found it. I caved, though, and went into the supermarket instead. I guess I can only handle so much adventure for one day. I regret not going to a restaurant now, but I am determined to go to one tomorrow night. It would be easier if I had someone to go with, but soon I will know people here. I just need classes to start, really. I am determined to go to the information center early tomorrow (Saturday) and ask for several good places to eat so I have an idea of where to go next time.
Anyway, I bought some meat, cheese, mustard, and bread and made several sandwiches back at home. Again, not being able to connect to the internet and not know where to go in town, I took a break and watched a movie while I ate. I then started on these blogs and plan to study a little German before I head to sleep. Tomorrow should be another adventurous day!
It is very hard to describe the full range of emotions I have experienced since arriving in Germany, and today brought on a full spectrum of them. From frustration to excitement to anxiety to elation to fatigue to accomplishment to amazed—I felt about anything you can imagine. It started out with me trying to connect to the internet this morning. I tried for about 30 minutes to no avail. I can connect to the Haug’s wireless internet just fine, but for some reason their modem is not connecting to the internet. I have no way of contacting either of them to ask them how to fix this, so I am still Internet-less.
I decided to alleviate my frustration by walking around some more. I had an adventure I will not soon forget. I started out walking toward the side of Hall I had not explored yesterday. I went up and around St. Michael’s Church and found some cool courtyards and overlooks of the town. I originally forgot my camera, so I had to quickly stop back by the house and grab it. I went I took pictures of the things I just visited and then began a trek down to the river. I soon found an awesome riverside park. It was a pathway that wound all along the river. Needlessly to say, it was covered in snow and absolutely gorgeous.
I followed this for about thirty minutes just a merry as can be. I looked up and saw a new shape emerging through the clouds. I had spotted a castle!! I wasn’t quite for sure what to think, so I kept walking closer. Promptly, I ran out of space on the memory card for the camera. (At this point, I thought I had forgotten my big memory card at home, but I found it in my bags later this evening.) I excitedly rushed back to the house, downloaded the pictures from my camera to the computer, cleared the memory card, and went back to further investigate my discovery.
I made it back to the place where I had previously turned around and scouted out my next best move. I wandered through the street for a few minutes looking for some sort of access point to the castle. I finally found a snow covered path that headed directly uphill. Bingo. As I trudged through the snow, random statues of different religious figures stared down at me during my ascension. At the top of the hill, the fantastic castle gates were wide open. If you know me, then you know I just HAD to investigate. I had no other choice. I couldn’t pass up on this adventure.
I wearily crossed through the threshold and constantly gazed around. I found a map of the castle, called Comburg, and a few signs greeting visitors. It turns out St. Nikolaus Church is nestled right in the heart of the castle walls, surrounded by a myriad of other buildings. I kept wandering around and found new passage ways and openings at every turn. I eventually explored them all and spent most of the time navigating the pathway that circumvents the grounds along the castle wall. It was an exhilarating experience, and I felt like an accomplished explorer.
At this point, it has been three hours since I first left the house, and my stomach was growling. On my way back down the hill, I used my explorer’s-high and rode my adventurous spirit to convince myself that I was going to stop at the bakery that I passed at the bottom of the hill. I was all set to go in and order until I actually got to the front door and looked in. A wave of uncertainty hit me, and I suddenly felt nervous to go in and engage in conversation. I kept walking past the door only to turn around 10 feet later and make another pass. I again kept going without entering the bakery because I kept psyching myself out. I went around the corner and immediately stopped. I checked to make sure no one was around and took a deep breath. This was it. I HAD to do this. I squared my shoulders and marched determinedly into the bakery. I proceeded to order, pay, and briefly converse with a woman in the bakery, and then I walked out.
I cannot describe the pure elation and overwhelming sense of victory that washed over me! It was the first time I had gone into a store to order something directly. Sure, supermarket on Thursday was a small victory, but that was pretty easy. It was just like a supermarket in the US. You go up, say hello, wait for the price to come up, hand over the money, and say goodbye. This time I actually had to TALK. I was so proud of myself. The apple turnover and sweet bread that I ordered just might have been the most delectable pastries that I have ever consumed. I mean, they were good to start out with, but the taste of victory made them all the sweeter. You have to rejoice in the small things, right? Haha I happily munched on them as I made the trek back to my side of town.
I walked back on the opposite side of the river on my return, guessing that it would put me where I wanted to go next—the supermarket again. I was right and 20 minutes later I walked through the sliding doors of Handelshof. This time I bought more water, some nutella and bread, and my first German beer to celebrate the morning’s accomplishments. I also bought this soda called Schwip Schwap. It is cola (I’m pretty sure it’s Pepsi, judging by the label) that is mixed with orange soda. I was fascinated when I saw it and had to try it. Why not continue the adventurous trend? I made my purchase and made my way back to my room.
Once back in the warmth of my room, I was reminded of my frustration at the lack of internet, but I ignored that momentarily to continue my celebration of the morning’s accomplishments by looking at the pictures I had just taken. I first tried the beer, called Haller Löwenbräu. I bought the Haalgiest Dunkleweisse version because I like dark beer (dunkel means dark). It is brewed privately in the region (hence the “Haller”) and has been brewed since 1724. It was simply amazing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course my nutella snack was delicious as well. I tried the Schwip Schwap and was pleasantly surprised. I only drank a little of it and plan to ration it as a treat.
After loading all of the pictures, I looked at the clock and saw it was almost 3. I tried to connect to the internet again and became more and more frustrated. I looked out the window and saw that it was snow furiously and opted, again, to go walk around to help my blood pressure drop from the unwanted cyber-stress. I forgot to mention that it snowed the entire time I was on my adventure through the park by the river and to the castle. I love the snow and hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon.
My afternoon walk was refreshing, although not nearly as exciting as my morning adventure. I returned home around 16:30 thoroughly exhausted. I took a nap, meaning to wake up at 17:00 and head out to the information center and ask where a good place was to eat. My body had other plans and I instead woke up at 18:30. I quickly headed out to see if the information center happened to still be open. It closed at 17:00 apparently, so I wouldn’t have made it even if I woke up when planned. I looked around for a place to eat but again became intimidated by the sheer number of options and the fact that I didn’t know where most of them were. My fear of not knowing enough German also returned, so I walked around for about 30 minutes trying to both find a suitable place to eat and work up enough courage to eat there once I found it. I caved, though, and went into the supermarket instead. I guess I can only handle so much adventure for one day. I regret not going to a restaurant now, but I am determined to go to one tomorrow night. It would be easier if I had someone to go with, but soon I will know people here. I just need classes to start, really. I am determined to go to the information center early tomorrow (Saturday) and ask for several good places to eat so I have an idea of where to go next time.
Anyway, I bought some meat, cheese, mustard, and bread and made several sandwiches back at home. Again, not being able to connect to the internet and not know where to go in town, I took a break and watched a movie while I ate. I then started on these blogs and plan to study a little German before I head to sleep. Tomorrow should be another adventurous day!
Exploring is never boring: Nick goes adventuring—Friday January 29th 10:02 pm
First, let me say that I have had a great deal of trouble connecting to the internet after my initial success Thursday afternoon. I have not been able to connect since Thursday around 15:00 so I apologize to any and all who have been looking to hear from me. I will hopefully get this figured out tomorrow morning (Saturday) and be back online. Until then, I have been typing out my blogs and then will post them once I am able. Ok, to pick up where I left off:
The next morning, Thursday morning to be exact, I woke up at 7:00. That put me at about 9 hours of sleep. Getting some rest felt amazing, but I was not over my jetlag by any means. We, the Haugs and I, had agreed to eat breakfast together at 8:00, so I began my morning exploring the amenities of my new house. A few things I noticed to start out:
• Germans are very efficient.
o They always close doors to every room and hallway. This seems exclusionary? Not quite. Each room has its own heater, so they only heat the parts of the house that are in frequent use. Closing the doors keeps the heat where it is supposed to be. My room and bathroom are quite cozy and warm, but the hallway inbetween is a tundra of linoleum.
o The toilet has a flush and a stop button. Well they are the same button, but you press one side to flush and the opposite side to stop the water. The water does stop automatically after about 5 seconds, but if you only need 2 seconds of flushing then you can just used 2 seconds of water.
• Softness is not an adjective well-known to the Germans. This applies to linens, as of now. I don’t say this in a negative connotation, but merely as a fact.
o The towels are maybe 0.5 meter by 0.75 meter. This isn’t huge. It doesn’t nearly cover me, but it is exactly the right amount of towel to sufficiently dry me. See? Efficiency. Also, German towels feel…different. They aren’t soft, but it’s not easy to describe what they are. I want to say they feel brittle, but they are towels—that is counterintuitive. I will say they are rough, but not in an unusable way.
o The sheets aren’t the softest, but I could care less. Everyone reading this probably knows that I can sleep just about anywhere, especially when I am as tired as I am.
o The toilet paper is far from soft. Enough said.
The hot water in the shower worked just fine, but it seems there are only three different values of heat: scalding, lukewarm, and frigid. I opt for the lukewarm, and it feels pretty amazing after a few seconds of either other extreme.
The first thing I did after showering and dressing was to help Richard move a small refrigerator from the attic to the kitchenette on my hallway. These people really have a grand set-up for me. I could not have had it better. After slowly carrying the surprisingly heavy and cumbersome fridge down a narrow attic staircase, we headed down for breakfast. Here again, proved an interesting food experience.
Breakfast consisted of several options. The cereal option included oatmeal and cornflakes. I opted for cornflakes and looked around for the milk. The only milk I saw was for the coffee on the table. I looked at Bärbel very confused and asked what to do. She showed me the small container of yogurt on the table and said to use that. So my cornflakes became cornflakes and yogurt…except this yogurt was room temperature. Trying not to act surprised, I quickly finished that and looked for something else to move on to. Why finish quickly? Well room temperature yogurt and cornflakes isn’t exactly my idea of scrumptious, so I was very much ready to move on to another option.
I then ate a roll with salami and a banana. I called it a meal and then helped clean up. Bärbel did not have to be at work until 12:00, so she offered to show me around. We walked out into the town and I got my first honest glimpses of Hall. Before, I had only seen it from a taxi. Now I was walking through it. She pointed out the bank, the information center, a few good bakeries, gave me directions to the supermarket and then walked me by the Goethe Institut, where I will be studying. After that, we walked back to the house, and she bid me good day. I grabbed my pocket German dictionary and my camera and headed back out.
I walked all around the city and took pictures. I did my best to absorb everything I could. I walked down every street I saw and took every new turn that I could. Elation would be the best way to describe my feelings during this excursion. Everything looks amazing, and I am truly in Germany. There is snow everywhere. It has snowed almost constantly since I have been here. Today (Friday) it was actually 0 degrees Celsius, so it was what they like to call “warm” here. The region has received more snow than usual, Bärbel said, and she could not recall how long it had been snowing since it has been around that long this winter season.
As I walked, I said hello to many people that I crossed. I definitely enjoyed this brief interaction. I have, for the most part, been on my own. Bärbel has been gone since she and I parted ways Thursday morning because she is traveling for business. Richard has spent long hours at work, too, so I have my time to myself. That being said, the little time I have to interact with people are the people I run across in Hall and the friends I can talk to online. I have yet to meet any friends my own age here because class has not started. There are definitely young people around, but it is hard enough to approach a group of peers you don’t know as it is, and even more so if you don’t speak their language very well. All of the people my age are in groups and hurrying off somewhere anyway, so I wouldn’t want to stop them. I am very positive that I will meet a good deal of people once my classes start, and I look forward to that very much. I would almost say I am starving for interaction, but that wouldn’t be fair. I am craving it, but I also enjoy the solitude. I enjoy being able to wander around and become lost in my surroundings and my thoughts. Also, it gives me time to think about and practice my German to myself as I walk around. However, I think I am getting that isolation and individualism desire thoroughly quenched. It is good for me, for when I finally have the chance to meet and interact with people in my classes and through my time at the Goethe Institut, I will be so eager to connect with someone that I will have less reservations about speaking in German.
Being in Germany is already proving phenomenal for my German. As I was walking around Hall for the first time, I began thinking about how to describe the town and my feelings for the blog. I quickly realized that I was thinking about how to say all of this in German, though, instead of English. I laughed to myself, but it is a good sign. As I walk around everywhere, I am constantly thinking of things to say in German in case a situation arises where I need to communicate. There are several times when I think about engaging in conversation with someone, but my heart starts beating quickly and I get too nervous to think clearly. Of course, as soon as I am past the situation, I think of a million things to say. This is all part of the transition into getting comfortable with my German. I get braver and braver each hour. I will expand upon my interactions with the locals later on.
I walked around Hall for about two hours, exploring and wandering aimlessly. I walked across the river that flows through the middle of the town and continued up a large hill. I walked and walked and walked, passing houses and businesses. I finally ended up in a neighborhood at the very top of a hill and explored that before heading back. It is all very interesting to see, and I love walking around in the snow.
After I finished my trek, I grabbed some lunch back at the house. I plan to meet with my Rotary contact, Herr Hahl, on Saturday. Then I will set up my bank account, buy my phone card or new cell phone, and get some advice on life in Hall. Until then, I am trying to conserve money moderately so I don’t unexpectedly run out of Euros. After I get that bank account set up though, I will be going into every little shop possible and looking around. I plan to single-handedly support the backeries, pubs, and delis around. So, I grabbed lunch at the house, and got on the computer.
I headed back out that afternoon and explored some more. My two big adventures of the afternoon were my visit to the Goethe Institut and my first time in the supermarket, Handelshof. I knew these would be big tests of my German skills and would require interaction. My trip to the Goethe Institut went well, and they said I should come back Monday morning to take a test to see if I was placed correctly in my classes. Actual classes start Tuesday. All of this was in German, and I was very proud that I could have that conversation in German. The woman that I spoke with, though, did know that I was from the US and did not speak German perfectly, so she definitely spoke slowly. Also, I could almost watch her select words that she thought I would know. I was grateful for this, but it also made me feel inadequate. I hope to use that experience as motivation to get better at my German.
I went to the supermarket then and just strolled through for a little while, absorbing all that I could. The shoppers and employees probably thought I was crazy. I felt like people were looking at me weird all day. I felt like they knew that I didn’t belong. Maybe it was a look of bewilderment on my face, maybe it was the fact that I was wearing cargo pants (not very German), or maybe I was just being too self-conscious. I bought some lotion and some bottled mineral water. That reminds me about the water situation. Hall used to be known for its salt deposits. There are huge deposits all around the area. For that reason, the water here has a lot of salt in it. German tap water is hard water anyway, and isn’t exactly the best to drink. Even though I was fully aware of this, I had been drinking tap water like a madman. I was so thirsty after my travels. Also, the tea and coffee I had during my first two meals only dehydrated me further. That yogurt and corn flakes combo plus salami and bread required some water, too, in order to settle my stomach. I knew that I needed some bottled water in order to survive, so that was numero uno on my list of things to buy. I also bought some snack bars, which came in handy later. I made my purchase successfully and happily made my way back to my room.
As soon as I stepped in my room (and after I chugged a bottle of water), a sudden wave of fatigue hit me. I decided to take a nap and set my alarm for 19:00. My exhaustion from my trip plus a full day of adventure was catching up. I accidentally overslept and woke up at 20:15. I was starving and rushed out to find some place to eat.
Here is when I made a very important discovery. Hall pretty much shuts down at 20:00. All of the restaurants I knew of were closed. I am absolutely sure that some restaurants and pubs were open somewhere, but this is only my first full day in this city. I had no idea where to look. I searched in vain for about 15 minutes and headed back home dejectedly, cursing myself the whole way. I ended up eating all six of the snack bars I had purchased just hours before. I was starving, and each bar had only 99 calories. I would eat one, wait twenty minutes and be forced out of hunger to eat another. So that and bottled water made up my first meal on my own in Germany. Impressive, right? Not quite. I then turned in for bed around 12:00 and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, Thursday morning to be exact, I woke up at 7:00. That put me at about 9 hours of sleep. Getting some rest felt amazing, but I was not over my jetlag by any means. We, the Haugs and I, had agreed to eat breakfast together at 8:00, so I began my morning exploring the amenities of my new house. A few things I noticed to start out:
• Germans are very efficient.
o They always close doors to every room and hallway. This seems exclusionary? Not quite. Each room has its own heater, so they only heat the parts of the house that are in frequent use. Closing the doors keeps the heat where it is supposed to be. My room and bathroom are quite cozy and warm, but the hallway inbetween is a tundra of linoleum.
o The toilet has a flush and a stop button. Well they are the same button, but you press one side to flush and the opposite side to stop the water. The water does stop automatically after about 5 seconds, but if you only need 2 seconds of flushing then you can just used 2 seconds of water.
• Softness is not an adjective well-known to the Germans. This applies to linens, as of now. I don’t say this in a negative connotation, but merely as a fact.
o The towels are maybe 0.5 meter by 0.75 meter. This isn’t huge. It doesn’t nearly cover me, but it is exactly the right amount of towel to sufficiently dry me. See? Efficiency. Also, German towels feel…different. They aren’t soft, but it’s not easy to describe what they are. I want to say they feel brittle, but they are towels—that is counterintuitive. I will say they are rough, but not in an unusable way.
o The sheets aren’t the softest, but I could care less. Everyone reading this probably knows that I can sleep just about anywhere, especially when I am as tired as I am.
o The toilet paper is far from soft. Enough said.
The hot water in the shower worked just fine, but it seems there are only three different values of heat: scalding, lukewarm, and frigid. I opt for the lukewarm, and it feels pretty amazing after a few seconds of either other extreme.
The first thing I did after showering and dressing was to help Richard move a small refrigerator from the attic to the kitchenette on my hallway. These people really have a grand set-up for me. I could not have had it better. After slowly carrying the surprisingly heavy and cumbersome fridge down a narrow attic staircase, we headed down for breakfast. Here again, proved an interesting food experience.
Breakfast consisted of several options. The cereal option included oatmeal and cornflakes. I opted for cornflakes and looked around for the milk. The only milk I saw was for the coffee on the table. I looked at Bärbel very confused and asked what to do. She showed me the small container of yogurt on the table and said to use that. So my cornflakes became cornflakes and yogurt…except this yogurt was room temperature. Trying not to act surprised, I quickly finished that and looked for something else to move on to. Why finish quickly? Well room temperature yogurt and cornflakes isn’t exactly my idea of scrumptious, so I was very much ready to move on to another option.
I then ate a roll with salami and a banana. I called it a meal and then helped clean up. Bärbel did not have to be at work until 12:00, so she offered to show me around. We walked out into the town and I got my first honest glimpses of Hall. Before, I had only seen it from a taxi. Now I was walking through it. She pointed out the bank, the information center, a few good bakeries, gave me directions to the supermarket and then walked me by the Goethe Institut, where I will be studying. After that, we walked back to the house, and she bid me good day. I grabbed my pocket German dictionary and my camera and headed back out.
I walked all around the city and took pictures. I did my best to absorb everything I could. I walked down every street I saw and took every new turn that I could. Elation would be the best way to describe my feelings during this excursion. Everything looks amazing, and I am truly in Germany. There is snow everywhere. It has snowed almost constantly since I have been here. Today (Friday) it was actually 0 degrees Celsius, so it was what they like to call “warm” here. The region has received more snow than usual, Bärbel said, and she could not recall how long it had been snowing since it has been around that long this winter season.
As I walked, I said hello to many people that I crossed. I definitely enjoyed this brief interaction. I have, for the most part, been on my own. Bärbel has been gone since she and I parted ways Thursday morning because she is traveling for business. Richard has spent long hours at work, too, so I have my time to myself. That being said, the little time I have to interact with people are the people I run across in Hall and the friends I can talk to online. I have yet to meet any friends my own age here because class has not started. There are definitely young people around, but it is hard enough to approach a group of peers you don’t know as it is, and even more so if you don’t speak their language very well. All of the people my age are in groups and hurrying off somewhere anyway, so I wouldn’t want to stop them. I am very positive that I will meet a good deal of people once my classes start, and I look forward to that very much. I would almost say I am starving for interaction, but that wouldn’t be fair. I am craving it, but I also enjoy the solitude. I enjoy being able to wander around and become lost in my surroundings and my thoughts. Also, it gives me time to think about and practice my German to myself as I walk around. However, I think I am getting that isolation and individualism desire thoroughly quenched. It is good for me, for when I finally have the chance to meet and interact with people in my classes and through my time at the Goethe Institut, I will be so eager to connect with someone that I will have less reservations about speaking in German.
Being in Germany is already proving phenomenal for my German. As I was walking around Hall for the first time, I began thinking about how to describe the town and my feelings for the blog. I quickly realized that I was thinking about how to say all of this in German, though, instead of English. I laughed to myself, but it is a good sign. As I walk around everywhere, I am constantly thinking of things to say in German in case a situation arises where I need to communicate. There are several times when I think about engaging in conversation with someone, but my heart starts beating quickly and I get too nervous to think clearly. Of course, as soon as I am past the situation, I think of a million things to say. This is all part of the transition into getting comfortable with my German. I get braver and braver each hour. I will expand upon my interactions with the locals later on.
I walked around Hall for about two hours, exploring and wandering aimlessly. I walked across the river that flows through the middle of the town and continued up a large hill. I walked and walked and walked, passing houses and businesses. I finally ended up in a neighborhood at the very top of a hill and explored that before heading back. It is all very interesting to see, and I love walking around in the snow.
After I finished my trek, I grabbed some lunch back at the house. I plan to meet with my Rotary contact, Herr Hahl, on Saturday. Then I will set up my bank account, buy my phone card or new cell phone, and get some advice on life in Hall. Until then, I am trying to conserve money moderately so I don’t unexpectedly run out of Euros. After I get that bank account set up though, I will be going into every little shop possible and looking around. I plan to single-handedly support the backeries, pubs, and delis around. So, I grabbed lunch at the house, and got on the computer.
I headed back out that afternoon and explored some more. My two big adventures of the afternoon were my visit to the Goethe Institut and my first time in the supermarket, Handelshof. I knew these would be big tests of my German skills and would require interaction. My trip to the Goethe Institut went well, and they said I should come back Monday morning to take a test to see if I was placed correctly in my classes. Actual classes start Tuesday. All of this was in German, and I was very proud that I could have that conversation in German. The woman that I spoke with, though, did know that I was from the US and did not speak German perfectly, so she definitely spoke slowly. Also, I could almost watch her select words that she thought I would know. I was grateful for this, but it also made me feel inadequate. I hope to use that experience as motivation to get better at my German.
I went to the supermarket then and just strolled through for a little while, absorbing all that I could. The shoppers and employees probably thought I was crazy. I felt like people were looking at me weird all day. I felt like they knew that I didn’t belong. Maybe it was a look of bewilderment on my face, maybe it was the fact that I was wearing cargo pants (not very German), or maybe I was just being too self-conscious. I bought some lotion and some bottled mineral water. That reminds me about the water situation. Hall used to be known for its salt deposits. There are huge deposits all around the area. For that reason, the water here has a lot of salt in it. German tap water is hard water anyway, and isn’t exactly the best to drink. Even though I was fully aware of this, I had been drinking tap water like a madman. I was so thirsty after my travels. Also, the tea and coffee I had during my first two meals only dehydrated me further. That yogurt and corn flakes combo plus salami and bread required some water, too, in order to settle my stomach. I knew that I needed some bottled water in order to survive, so that was numero uno on my list of things to buy. I also bought some snack bars, which came in handy later. I made my purchase successfully and happily made my way back to my room.
As soon as I stepped in my room (and after I chugged a bottle of water), a sudden wave of fatigue hit me. I decided to take a nap and set my alarm for 19:00. My exhaustion from my trip plus a full day of adventure was catching up. I accidentally overslept and woke up at 20:15. I was starving and rushed out to find some place to eat.
Here is when I made a very important discovery. Hall pretty much shuts down at 20:00. All of the restaurants I knew of were closed. I am absolutely sure that some restaurants and pubs were open somewhere, but this is only my first full day in this city. I had no idea where to look. I searched in vain for about 15 minutes and headed back home dejectedly, cursing myself the whole way. I ended up eating all six of the snack bars I had purchased just hours before. I was starving, and each bar had only 99 calories. I would eat one, wait twenty minutes and be forced out of hunger to eat another. So that and bottled water made up my first meal on my own in Germany. Impressive, right? Not quite. I then turned in for bed around 12:00 and quickly fell asleep.
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