Hey, I guess it's time to check in again. Every time I hear a siren around here, I'm convinced it's the police, at my parents' request, coming to kick down my door and make sure I'm still alive. Hopefully they just don't break too many things in the process. It's not my house.
So, what exciting things have I been up to in this past week plus? Well, first of all, I tried and failed to get some pictures of my room and other tidbits to show up on this blog. I don't know what's wrong with it, but I'll probably have to find some alternative way of sharing pictures. (Such as they are. I'm not the best at remembering to take pictures, so there isn't even that much to share.) I'm open to suggestions.
Class is still going well, though there was a little bit of drama concerning the Macalester students in regards to their placement. It seems a certain number of people got placed in a level that was too easy for them, and since the Goethe Institute considers Macalester one of it's most important clients, they bent over backwards trying to help us out. The other day, they had a meeting with all of us, fed us free food, and talked it out. Personally I wasn't having any problems with my class. Sure, it goes a little slowly, and might be a little below my level when it comes to reading and writing, but in terms of speaking (which is the area I most want and need to improve), it's just the right amount of challenge. Besides, the proposed solution was to put a greater number of us Macalester student in one course, so that the plateau could be universally raised. That was just out of the question for me, since I consider the multi-nationalism of my course its greatest advantage. I mean, if I wanted to take a class with mostly American kids, I would have stayed at Macalester this semester, you know? So some people did make a switch, but I'm staying put.
Wednesday after class I went with Erin, Natasha, and Lauren (people from the program) to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It was incredibly interesting, an overview of the whole of Jewish history from the middle ages to modern Germany. It really helps you get a hold of the place Judaism and anti-semetism occupy in the world, and in this country especially. The place was chock full of information, and I really needed more than the four hours I had to spend there. Of course, it probably would have helped if I'd gone through the museum the actual right way. That's right. I accidentally went in through the exit, and just kept walking through, looking at all the cool stuff, and I didn't realize until it was too late, "Hey, I'm going backwards in time." I'm so smart. It was kind of an adventure, going into a room and not knowing what the theme was until I got to the other side. It was almost mysterious. But still, curator of the Jewish Museum, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I screwed up all your hard work!
Last night I had my first encounter with the club scene in Berlin. It was awesome. I met Hannah and Alice at the Alexanderplatz subway station, and together we made our way to this totally tucked-away club called Knaack. It came with good recommendations, and entrance was free between 10-12 for students. It took about a half hour of walking in the rain, but we finally managed to find it at around 11. Entrance was surprisingly smooth, despite me not having any photo ID on me. (I'm not about to lose my passport in a club. I'm not that stupid.) I showed the guy my Goethe ID, which has no photo on it, and he asked whether I had any other ID. I told him no, and he let me in. Easy peasy. We met up with some more Macalester and Goethe people inside. The music in this club was incredible. We only made it to the first floor (there were something like 4 floors, each with its own theme, we think), but we were happy there, so we stayed. I've never really been to a club back home, mostly because I hate the type of music they play: bad hip-hop and recycled top 20 hits of the moment. Here there was a pretty good mixture of American music from a number of eras and styles. It wasn't the most danceable music, but it was fun. Also, I can't dance, anyway, so I don't really care which music I'm embarrassing myself to, as long as I like listening to it. And then they played some German punk music for an hour or so at around 1:30, and everyone in the club except us knew the lyrics and was screaming them out. We tried to pretend, but I'm pretty sure they could tell we weren't German. Oops! The highlights of the night included when they played "Take on Me," which reminded me of Andi and Katherine, "Sweet Dreams," which made me think of David, and "Eye of the Tiger," which brought me right back to Nichols Varsity Soccer. But far and away the best moment of the night, the crowning jewel of dances, was when they played "Moskau" by Dschinghis Khan. This song has been legend with me and my friends since Freshman year, and I almost couldn't believe my ears when I heard it start playing. The Germans' method of dancing to it, by the way, involves huddling up into a huge circle with your arms over your neighbor's shoulders, jumping to the beat and kicking out your feet. It was exhausting and hot, but fun and totally worth it. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present "Moskau" by Dschinghis Khan:
Add to that the Sabres 10-1 victory over the Thrashers, which I found out about when I got home, and it was a pretty awesome, giddy night. Yay!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
I'm Alive!
That's right, Mom and Dad, you can put down your emergency phones to Interpol. I'm alive, I've just been without internet for the past couple of days. (You know, if you can call living without internet "living.") It was rough for a while, but everything is up and running again, so I thought I'd drop the world at large a line.
I got moved into my new living quarters without any trouble, aside from dragging 70 pounds of luggage through the city, on the subway, and up no less than ten flights of stairs. I tell you, there's no better way to keep warm on a chilly snowy day.
The set-up here is quite nice. The room's spacious, I have a big bed, plenty of closet space, three windows, a TV, and even a pull-out couch! Of course the best thing about it is that I have free internet. I'm not sure what I would do without it. Pictures of my new home will follow in a later post.
I started out my auspicious career as a Goethe Institute student with a bang and not a snooze, which sounds good, but let me explain. Monday evening, after I finished taking my placement exam at the Institut, I joined the rest of the program members for a delicious and pricey dinner at Einstein Cafe. Thanks, Macalester German Department! We had so much fun catching up with each other, and getting to know the new people (two of the students are from different schools), that I didn't get home until around midnight. And then, I went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I knew I had class at 8:30 the next morning, but that did nothing to coax my alert brain into slumber. I don't know if it was the remnants of jetlag, or the fact that I didn't have an alarm clock and was afraid of oversleeping, or if it was just pre-first day jitters, or what, but I just would not go to sleep. So I had to make it through the next day, which included Goethe from 8:30-1:00, and then the Reichstag from 3:00-8:00, without collapsing from fatigue. I managed it okay, but not before I sought out an outlet converter so that I could finally use my computer, and therefore the alarm.
The experience of buying the converter in Media Markt was pretty interesting. I've found I'm at the point where with my German skills, that I can say pretty much anything I want, but it'll be ugly. Now, not only was I dead tired after the no sleep and the long day, but I have no clue about any of the vocabulary involved in this particular situation. This is approximately what I said: "Hi, I'm looking for an 'outlet converter.'" *I get a blank stare* "I have an American laptop, and I want to use it. I need something that will change" *I hold out three fingers, miming the shape of my laptop's plug* "American to" *I hold out two fingers, miming the shape of a regular German plug* "German, so that I can... hide it... in the wall." Eventually he got what I meant and showed me to the proper section. (I was going to try to find it myself, but the store was four stories! I certainly didn't have that kind of energy!) I have to say, it's experiences like that that sort of make me hope that I never become 100% fluent. I mean sure it was a little frustrating, and sure that guy thought I was an idiot, but it was an adventure and it gave me a laugh.
Goethe has been amazing, even though I've only had a few days of classes. Some other Macalester people are complaining that their class is too easy for them, but I think I got placed in just the right level. We practice grammar, but there's a much bigger emphasis on broadening our vocabulary and growing confident with speaking, which are really the areas I need help with. But just the atmosphere there is so incredible. There are about 15 students in my class, from all over the world. And I mean really all over the world. In my class alone there are three Afghanis, two Koreans, two Swiss (one who speaks Italian, one who speaks French), one Pakistani, one Greek, one Norwegian, and a woman from Japan. In other classes I know there are a fair number of South Americans and Africans, as well. And when you think about the fact that we're all able to communicate together through the common language of German, it's pretty amazing. It's really a great environment for learning, because a) there's no pressure, since we're all foreign speakers of German, and b) there's no easy default to English, so we have try our best to explain ourselves in German and work through any hang-ups.
Today after class I went out with a bunch of kids (most of my classmates are around my age, but there are a fair number of older students in the greater Goethe mix, as well) to this surprisingly yummy Mexican place, and it was so fantastic. We stayed for about three hours, just talking in German, about sports and politics and lots of other things. I learned that Switzerland has seven Ministers, each one taking turns in office for a year at a time, but as nothing more than a figurehead, and that Afghanistan's national sport is played with a dead tiger or sheep's head. It was incredible! Our German wasn't pretty, and by no means was it perfect, but with little effort we were able to understand each other perfectly well. I can't wait to do it again!
Perhaps best of all, I found a fellow hockey fan today! It's always a good sign when I reveal I'm from Buffalo, and someone says "Oh! Buffalo Sabres!" In this case that someone happened to be the guy from Italian Switzerland, who doesn't follow the NHL anymore, but knows the Sabres because Dominik Hasek used to be his favorite player. (I'm trying my best to ignore that last part.) He follows mainly the European leagues, but still when I mentioned Vancouver, he correctly identified the Canucks, and that's more than most Americans can do. He told me there's some hockey being played in Berlin in the next couple of weeks, and we're making plans to go see a game. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!
But for now I must sleep. Bis später, alle!
I got moved into my new living quarters without any trouble, aside from dragging 70 pounds of luggage through the city, on the subway, and up no less than ten flights of stairs. I tell you, there's no better way to keep warm on a chilly snowy day.
The set-up here is quite nice. The room's spacious, I have a big bed, plenty of closet space, three windows, a TV, and even a pull-out couch! Of course the best thing about it is that I have free internet. I'm not sure what I would do without it. Pictures of my new home will follow in a later post.
I started out my auspicious career as a Goethe Institute student with a bang and not a snooze, which sounds good, but let me explain. Monday evening, after I finished taking my placement exam at the Institut, I joined the rest of the program members for a delicious and pricey dinner at Einstein Cafe. Thanks, Macalester German Department! We had so much fun catching up with each other, and getting to know the new people (two of the students are from different schools), that I didn't get home until around midnight. And then, I went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I knew I had class at 8:30 the next morning, but that did nothing to coax my alert brain into slumber. I don't know if it was the remnants of jetlag, or the fact that I didn't have an alarm clock and was afraid of oversleeping, or if it was just pre-first day jitters, or what, but I just would not go to sleep. So I had to make it through the next day, which included Goethe from 8:30-1:00, and then the Reichstag from 3:00-8:00, without collapsing from fatigue. I managed it okay, but not before I sought out an outlet converter so that I could finally use my computer, and therefore the alarm.
The experience of buying the converter in Media Markt was pretty interesting. I've found I'm at the point where with my German skills, that I can say pretty much anything I want, but it'll be ugly. Now, not only was I dead tired after the no sleep and the long day, but I have no clue about any of the vocabulary involved in this particular situation. This is approximately what I said: "Hi, I'm looking for an 'outlet converter.'" *I get a blank stare* "I have an American laptop, and I want to use it. I need something that will change" *I hold out three fingers, miming the shape of my laptop's plug* "American to" *I hold out two fingers, miming the shape of a regular German plug* "German, so that I can... hide it... in the wall." Eventually he got what I meant and showed me to the proper section. (I was going to try to find it myself, but the store was four stories! I certainly didn't have that kind of energy!) I have to say, it's experiences like that that sort of make me hope that I never become 100% fluent. I mean sure it was a little frustrating, and sure that guy thought I was an idiot, but it was an adventure and it gave me a laugh.
Goethe has been amazing, even though I've only had a few days of classes. Some other Macalester people are complaining that their class is too easy for them, but I think I got placed in just the right level. We practice grammar, but there's a much bigger emphasis on broadening our vocabulary and growing confident with speaking, which are really the areas I need help with. But just the atmosphere there is so incredible. There are about 15 students in my class, from all over the world. And I mean really all over the world. In my class alone there are three Afghanis, two Koreans, two Swiss (one who speaks Italian, one who speaks French), one Pakistani, one Greek, one Norwegian, and a woman from Japan. In other classes I know there are a fair number of South Americans and Africans, as well. And when you think about the fact that we're all able to communicate together through the common language of German, it's pretty amazing. It's really a great environment for learning, because a) there's no pressure, since we're all foreign speakers of German, and b) there's no easy default to English, so we have try our best to explain ourselves in German and work through any hang-ups.
Today after class I went out with a bunch of kids (most of my classmates are around my age, but there are a fair number of older students in the greater Goethe mix, as well) to this surprisingly yummy Mexican place, and it was so fantastic. We stayed for about three hours, just talking in German, about sports and politics and lots of other things. I learned that Switzerland has seven Ministers, each one taking turns in office for a year at a time, but as nothing more than a figurehead, and that Afghanistan's national sport is played with a dead tiger or sheep's head. It was incredible! Our German wasn't pretty, and by no means was it perfect, but with little effort we were able to understand each other perfectly well. I can't wait to do it again!
Perhaps best of all, I found a fellow hockey fan today! It's always a good sign when I reveal I'm from Buffalo, and someone says "Oh! Buffalo Sabres!" In this case that someone happened to be the guy from Italian Switzerland, who doesn't follow the NHL anymore, but knows the Sabres because Dominik Hasek used to be his favorite player. (I'm trying my best to ignore that last part.) He follows mainly the European leagues, but still when I mentioned Vancouver, he correctly identified the Canucks, and that's more than most Americans can do. He told me there's some hockey being played in Berlin in the next couple of weeks, and we're making plans to go see a game. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!
But for now I must sleep. Bis später, alle!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
I’m Trying Really Hard Not To Take A Nap Right Now
It’s 2:00 pm (14.00 Uhr) here in Berlin (I haven’t yet figured out how to change the time zone on this blog to correctly reflect my time), and at this same time yesterday I was just checking into the Heart of Gold Hostel and breaking all of the rules of avoiding jetlag by collapsing for a nice four hour nap. So, now that it’s that time of day, again, my body’s all, “Hey, let’s fall asleep!” I figured I’d try some blogging to keep myself distracted.
Yesterday’s travel was fairly uneventful. All the planes went on time, and I ended up getting into Berlin Tegel at about 11:30. The flight to Amsterdam was shorter than I expected (about 6 hours), and I tried to get as much sleep as I could on the plane. Unfortunately for me, I’d gotten into the recent habit of not being able to fall asleep until about 2:00 in the morning, which is 8:00 am this time. And my plane touched down at, you guessed it, 8:00 am, just as I was ready and willing to fall asleep. My efforts at sleep on the plane were further bungled by the SHRIEKING child in the cabin. There’s always a fussy baby or two on any of my flights (just my luck, I guess), but this was something different altogether. This kid sounded less like a human and more like a New Year’s Eve noisemaker. It was intensely annoying. Still, I got in a couple of hours of dozing after watching The Nanny Diaries (it was either that, or The Comebacks, and the Rock and I don’t mix well), and got to Amsterdam without dying of fatigue. I had a pretty short layover, just enough time to get my passport stamped, go through security, and navigate the vast labyrinth of airport that lay between me and my flight to Berlin. On the way, I learned that Dutch is a pretty fantastic-sounding language. I fell asleep for pretty much the entire hour to Berlin, since there were no more screaming babies to hinder me. I was surprised to learn when I arrived at Berlin Tegel Flughof that you can pick up your checked luggage right there at the gate, without going to a baggage claim area. Pretty cool! My bright yellow suitcase was pretty easy to pick out, and while it looked a little worse for wear, everything was in order. Now the fun part begins!
Like I said before, I had no idea what I was going to do with myself once I actually arrived in Berlin. I hadn’t yet contacted my Gastgeberin (host), so I couldn’t move into my permanent lodging just yet, and I hadn’t arranged any alternative. It was going to be an adventure, indeed! I took stock of my situation in the main hall of the airport. I could try to catch the bus, but to where? I could find the closest U-Bahn station, but then what? I had enough Euros in my wallet to take a taxi, but where was I headed. I figured all along that I would stay in a hostel, but I hadn’t actually made a reservation or taken down any addresses. But I knew that a couple of girls with the Macalester program had stayed at a place called Heart of Gold before moving in with their Gastgeberen the next day. Now if only I could find out where it was. I took out my laptop to find that while I could connect to the THX wireless network, it wouldn’t let me do anything. So I dropped a couple of Euros into a T-Mobile internet station, and did a quick Google search. I found the address (Johannisstraße 11), but didn’t have a pen to write it down, so I had to memorize. My heart sang, though, when it saw the magic words “free wireless internet.” That’s exactly what I needed to get everything sorted out. I also took the opportunity to shoot off an email to my parents, letting them know I’d arrived safe.
Then I was faced with the transportation issue, again. I decided to take a taxi, since public transportation would take effort to figure out, and I could feel my jetlag starting to catch up with me. I told the driver Johannisstraße 11, but of course it wouldn’t be that easy. He seemed confused by my pronunciation, and tried to punch the name into his GPS. But of course, this is Berlin, so pretty much every street begins with Johann-something. He asked me to write it for him, but I couldn’t remember how to spell it, so we weren’t sure what to do after that. Eventually I thought to tell him that it was near the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), and that seemed to switch on a lightbulb. I did all of this in German, by the way, which I was pretty proud of. Of course, I couldn’t have done that well, since once we started moving he asked me in English where I was from. Oh well. We wended our way through the city, turning at, it seemed, every intersection, and just as I was beginning to wonder whether he was just pretending to know where he was going, there it was. Heart of Gold.
I was starting to feel really sleepy by this point (about 12:30pm), so I paid the driver, and arranged a reservation at the front desk (in English, unfortunately; I chickened out). The guy at the desk told me that I couldn’t check in to the room until 2:00 since they were still cleaning, so I sat down in the reception area and made use of the free wireless. I sent mom and dad a real email (the last one had been in all caps since the keyboard seemed to be in permanent caps lock with no way to turn it off), sent an email to my Gastgeberin asking if I could maybe move in earlier than Monday, and to Alice, one of the Macalester girls in the program, who’d come in the day before, just to touch base. I chatted a bit with Meghan, too, who was on AIM while getting ready for work. Once 2:00 rolled around, I was fully incapable of keeping myself from sleep, and made my bed and passed out. I didn't wake up until 6:30, at which point I got up and brought my computer downstairs to see if my Gastgeberin had written back, yet. She hadn’t, but there was still plenty of time. I had a couple of emails from Alice, inviting me out to the Jewish museum the next day with some of the other students, but since I wasn’t sure about my situation (whether I’d be at the hostel another day, or whether I’d be moving in with my Gastgeberin) those plans were left up in the air. I chatted with Meghan some more, this time while she was bored at work, and tooled around a bit online. Once 9:30 or so rolled around, my laptop battery started to die, and my eyelids started to close. I went upstairs and once again collapsed into my bed. I slept pretty well until about 2:00 or so, at which point I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I languished in my bed for a while, trying to coax my brain into inactivity, but I just couldn’t relax. Finally, I turned on my bedside lamp (careful not to wake any of my roommates), and read some more of Culture Shock. At about 5:00 I finally fell back asleep.
A couple of my roommates were up and about at 8:00, and I dozed until around 9:00, but I knew I had things to do today before check-out time at 12:00. First order of business was to check to see if my Gastgeberin had replied yet. She hadn’t, so I employed some drastic measures: telephone. There was a pay phone in the back of the hostel, and I slid 50 cents into it and dialed. The phone call was kind of a hot mess. I bravely started speaking in German, and all was going well until she started speaking in German back to me. I couldn’t hear very well, and followed everything she said with a “Wie, bitte?” Eventually she just switched to English, which made me feel like a cheater, but it was certainly easier. She told me she’d just gotten back from vacation and needed to get the room ready so I could come by tomorrow at 2:00 to move in. I told her that was fine and we sort of awkwardly said goodbye, and then I went and paid the front desk of the hostel for another night. Next on the agenda was a nice hot shower. The hostel’s water pressure is fantastic, and even though the shower is somehow rigged to shut off every thirty seconds or so, I enjoyed it immensely.
Newly clean, I headed down to send some more emails, and chatted a little with Liz, who’s in Scotland and therefore very close to my time. I hadn’t chatted with her in a long time, so that was nice. Then came the first casualty of my journey. The power adapter that my dad sent with me blew a fuse while I was charging my laptop, complete with dramatic smell and smoke effects. This attracted the attention of an American guy the next table over, who told me that he's learned the hard way that adapters are for electric things, not electronic things. He helpfully told me that all I needed was an outlet converter, since my computer’s power cord already has an adapter. Apparently you can get them from any big store, and as it turned out, the hostel’s desk was renting out outlet converters for a 5 Euro deposit. So, while it’s sad that the adapter broke (I still don’t know whether all hope is lost or not on that front), it’s a relief to know that I can still use my computer.
So that’s pretty much it at this point. Now I’m just relaxing and waiting to hear from Alice about plans for dinner this evening. Writing this entry certainly did keep the nap at bay, at least for an hour, but don’t expect posts this long and in depth everyday. I don’t think I could handle it.
Tschüß!
Yesterday’s travel was fairly uneventful. All the planes went on time, and I ended up getting into Berlin Tegel at about 11:30. The flight to Amsterdam was shorter than I expected (about 6 hours), and I tried to get as much sleep as I could on the plane. Unfortunately for me, I’d gotten into the recent habit of not being able to fall asleep until about 2:00 in the morning, which is 8:00 am this time. And my plane touched down at, you guessed it, 8:00 am, just as I was ready and willing to fall asleep. My efforts at sleep on the plane were further bungled by the SHRIEKING child in the cabin. There’s always a fussy baby or two on any of my flights (just my luck, I guess), but this was something different altogether. This kid sounded less like a human and more like a New Year’s Eve noisemaker. It was intensely annoying. Still, I got in a couple of hours of dozing after watching The Nanny Diaries (it was either that, or The Comebacks, and the Rock and I don’t mix well), and got to Amsterdam without dying of fatigue. I had a pretty short layover, just enough time to get my passport stamped, go through security, and navigate the vast labyrinth of airport that lay between me and my flight to Berlin. On the way, I learned that Dutch is a pretty fantastic-sounding language. I fell asleep for pretty much the entire hour to Berlin, since there were no more screaming babies to hinder me. I was surprised to learn when I arrived at Berlin Tegel Flughof that you can pick up your checked luggage right there at the gate, without going to a baggage claim area. Pretty cool! My bright yellow suitcase was pretty easy to pick out, and while it looked a little worse for wear, everything was in order. Now the fun part begins!
Like I said before, I had no idea what I was going to do with myself once I actually arrived in Berlin. I hadn’t yet contacted my Gastgeberin (host), so I couldn’t move into my permanent lodging just yet, and I hadn’t arranged any alternative. It was going to be an adventure, indeed! I took stock of my situation in the main hall of the airport. I could try to catch the bus, but to where? I could find the closest U-Bahn station, but then what? I had enough Euros in my wallet to take a taxi, but where was I headed. I figured all along that I would stay in a hostel, but I hadn’t actually made a reservation or taken down any addresses. But I knew that a couple of girls with the Macalester program had stayed at a place called Heart of Gold before moving in with their Gastgeberen the next day. Now if only I could find out where it was. I took out my laptop to find that while I could connect to the THX wireless network, it wouldn’t let me do anything. So I dropped a couple of Euros into a T-Mobile internet station, and did a quick Google search. I found the address (Johannisstraße 11), but didn’t have a pen to write it down, so I had to memorize. My heart sang, though, when it saw the magic words “free wireless internet.” That’s exactly what I needed to get everything sorted out. I also took the opportunity to shoot off an email to my parents, letting them know I’d arrived safe.
Then I was faced with the transportation issue, again. I decided to take a taxi, since public transportation would take effort to figure out, and I could feel my jetlag starting to catch up with me. I told the driver Johannisstraße 11, but of course it wouldn’t be that easy. He seemed confused by my pronunciation, and tried to punch the name into his GPS. But of course, this is Berlin, so pretty much every street begins with Johann-something. He asked me to write it for him, but I couldn’t remember how to spell it, so we weren’t sure what to do after that. Eventually I thought to tell him that it was near the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), and that seemed to switch on a lightbulb. I did all of this in German, by the way, which I was pretty proud of. Of course, I couldn’t have done that well, since once we started moving he asked me in English where I was from. Oh well. We wended our way through the city, turning at, it seemed, every intersection, and just as I was beginning to wonder whether he was just pretending to know where he was going, there it was. Heart of Gold.
I was starting to feel really sleepy by this point (about 12:30pm), so I paid the driver, and arranged a reservation at the front desk (in English, unfortunately; I chickened out). The guy at the desk told me that I couldn’t check in to the room until 2:00 since they were still cleaning, so I sat down in the reception area and made use of the free wireless. I sent mom and dad a real email (the last one had been in all caps since the keyboard seemed to be in permanent caps lock with no way to turn it off), sent an email to my Gastgeberin asking if I could maybe move in earlier than Monday, and to Alice, one of the Macalester girls in the program, who’d come in the day before, just to touch base. I chatted a bit with Meghan, too, who was on AIM while getting ready for work. Once 2:00 rolled around, I was fully incapable of keeping myself from sleep, and made my bed and passed out. I didn't wake up until 6:30, at which point I got up and brought my computer downstairs to see if my Gastgeberin had written back, yet. She hadn’t, but there was still plenty of time. I had a couple of emails from Alice, inviting me out to the Jewish museum the next day with some of the other students, but since I wasn’t sure about my situation (whether I’d be at the hostel another day, or whether I’d be moving in with my Gastgeberin) those plans were left up in the air. I chatted with Meghan some more, this time while she was bored at work, and tooled around a bit online. Once 9:30 or so rolled around, my laptop battery started to die, and my eyelids started to close. I went upstairs and once again collapsed into my bed. I slept pretty well until about 2:00 or so, at which point I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I languished in my bed for a while, trying to coax my brain into inactivity, but I just couldn’t relax. Finally, I turned on my bedside lamp (careful not to wake any of my roommates), and read some more of Culture Shock. At about 5:00 I finally fell back asleep.
A couple of my roommates were up and about at 8:00, and I dozed until around 9:00, but I knew I had things to do today before check-out time at 12:00. First order of business was to check to see if my Gastgeberin had replied yet. She hadn’t, so I employed some drastic measures: telephone. There was a pay phone in the back of the hostel, and I slid 50 cents into it and dialed. The phone call was kind of a hot mess. I bravely started speaking in German, and all was going well until she started speaking in German back to me. I couldn’t hear very well, and followed everything she said with a “Wie, bitte?” Eventually she just switched to English, which made me feel like a cheater, but it was certainly easier. She told me she’d just gotten back from vacation and needed to get the room ready so I could come by tomorrow at 2:00 to move in. I told her that was fine and we sort of awkwardly said goodbye, and then I went and paid the front desk of the hostel for another night. Next on the agenda was a nice hot shower. The hostel’s water pressure is fantastic, and even though the shower is somehow rigged to shut off every thirty seconds or so, I enjoyed it immensely.
Newly clean, I headed down to send some more emails, and chatted a little with Liz, who’s in Scotland and therefore very close to my time. I hadn’t chatted with her in a long time, so that was nice. Then came the first casualty of my journey. The power adapter that my dad sent with me blew a fuse while I was charging my laptop, complete with dramatic smell and smoke effects. This attracted the attention of an American guy the next table over, who told me that he's learned the hard way that adapters are for electric things, not electronic things. He helpfully told me that all I needed was an outlet converter, since my computer’s power cord already has an adapter. Apparently you can get them from any big store, and as it turned out, the hostel’s desk was renting out outlet converters for a 5 Euro deposit. So, while it’s sad that the adapter broke (I still don’t know whether all hope is lost or not on that front), it’s a relief to know that I can still use my computer.
So that’s pretty much it at this point. Now I’m just relaxing and waiting to hear from Alice about plans for dinner this evening. Writing this entry certainly did keep the nap at bay, at least for an hour, but don’t expect posts this long and in depth everyday. I don’t think I could handle it.
Tschüß!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Calm Before The Storm
Here I am with a long layover in Newark, preparing to get to board my flight to Berlin by way of Amsterdam. There's not much to report, yet. The journey so far has been emotional, but not particularly eventful. I had a bit of a breakdown last night when I realized that I still had no idea where I was going to stay once I got to Berlin, and for a while I was convinced I wasn't going to get everything to fit in one big bag and a carry-on and I'd be stuck dragging three wheelie bags all over the city. But I did eventually get everything to fit, and I woke up to an email of my new address (though there's still the issue of where I'm going to stay until Monday to figure out). In any case what felt last night like a horrible ordeal, this morning turned into an adventure! I'm going to a foreign country with nowhere to stay, and no idea what I'll do, isn't it wonderful?
It was tough saying goodbye to the family, though. Mom and Dan brought me to the airport today, and Mom hugged me about four times before I finally got in line for security. Dan hugged me twice, but only after I made him. I said goodbye to Dad last night, and I could tell he was incredibly jealous of the journey I'm about to take. I vaguely remember hugging Meghan goodbye before she left for NYC yesterday morning. I'll miss all of them dearly, but in this day of the internet it won't be hard for us to keep in touch.
On the plane ride from Buffalo I started reading one of the German books Dad gave me for Christmas (it was somewhat of a theme). This one's called Culture Shock, and it's about what to expect in terms of German customs and etiquette. It's interesting so far, but something in the "First Impressions" section caught my attention:
P.S. Credit for the phrase "Semester Ablog" goes to my good friend Iain and his videoblog from Scotland last semester.
It was tough saying goodbye to the family, though. Mom and Dan brought me to the airport today, and Mom hugged me about four times before I finally got in line for security. Dan hugged me twice, but only after I made him. I said goodbye to Dad last night, and I could tell he was incredibly jealous of the journey I'm about to take. I vaguely remember hugging Meghan goodbye before she left for NYC yesterday morning. I'll miss all of them dearly, but in this day of the internet it won't be hard for us to keep in touch.
On the plane ride from Buffalo I started reading one of the German books Dad gave me for Christmas (it was somewhat of a theme). This one's called Culture Shock, and it's about what to expect in terms of German customs and etiquette. It's interesting so far, but something in the "First Impressions" section caught my attention:
"Standard conversation topics of the foreign community here are complaints about this or that aspect of German life, this or that facet of German personality, their being treated this way or that way. Many go on and on about how much they want to leave the place. But somehow they manage to stay on and on.So basically Germany is just like Buffalo? Then I should feel right at home.
More typical than the latter legion of grousers are those who will tell you they originally came for a job or an assignment, expecting to stay only a short time. But then they met a mate, acquired some new friends, got involved in this project or that, found this or that aspect of the country intriguing and then, well, you know. Germany exercises a strong inertial pull on people."
P.S. Credit for the phrase "Semester Ablog" goes to my good friend Iain and his videoblog from Scotland last semester.
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