Auf wiedersehen Bremen!

Hallo! Business has precluded me from updating this thang right. Epic post about my OKTOBERFEST experience last weekend still to come, but until then some minor updates.

Today is my second-to-last in Bremen. On Thursday I train it to Erfurt for the next stage of this program. It's usually hard for me to let go, but now I'm more excited and ready to move than anything. I have enjoyed spending time with the other CBYX participants here in the lovely town of Bremen, but I think for my Deutsch to get to the next level I need to stop hanging out with so many Americans! I will sure miss my host family though. They have been extremely welcoming, and my morning half-hour breakfasts with them have helped my German immensely.

Recent German adventures have included another weekend trip to Hamburg with a night of going out in the neighborhood of St. Pauli, former home of the fabulous foursome named the Beatles. Tons of fun. We've also continued to stomp around Bremen, having dinner at the wunderwar Ratskeller last night. I heart German food and Riesling.

Last week was our last in language school, and this week has been full of activities in its place. On Monday we visited local high schools (gymnasiums) to answer the curious kids' questions on everything American. Number one stereotype: all we eat is fast food and we are all fat. Halfway true, I suppose. I love interacting with students, so that day was especially fun for me. I observed yet again (barring the fast food stereotype) what generally positive ideas Germans have about the US. The kiddos were exuberant upon meeting us bonafide Amerikaners and rejoiced when we used the German word guile (roughly translates to cool). All said they really want to visit the US, and most spoke very good English...comments to come on the German school system and language classes in a future post.

Today we took a wee field trip to Bremerhaven to see the Auswander Haus, the museum documenting the millions of European emigrants who went through the town to reach the US. I was very impressed with the museum and managed to find 9000 Mosers from Switzerland who apparently left Europe from Bremerhaven back in the day.

Now gotta make myself look real nice for one last night of ausgehen with the Bremenites. Next post will be from my new home in Erfurt!

On Germany, from an Irishman

"Oh mother dear, I'm o'er here and ne'er coming back. What keeps me here is the German beer, the frauleins and the crack."

A short saying about Germany compliments of our Irish tour guide at Mercedes-Benz Bremen today. "Crack" is an Irish colloquialism for parties, btw.

Oh and the tour was really cool - saw lots of very expensive cars in the very complicated making. Same Irish tour guide knew all the words to songs from the Sound of Music, and we did a short performance for the group. He told me to "ne'er change" and that the guy who gets me will be very lucky. LOL. 

German identity, an NYT analysis

My favorite newspaper had an excellent article this week about my current homeland. Check it out here.

I have many thoughts on this article and on the general concept of German identity. I'm not German, of course, but I've been musing recently about why it seems most Germans (per my comments in the last post) have been so friendly and helpful. In Taiwan we were told the people were especially nice to Americans because of their striving to be recognized as a legitimate country in the world community. I've suspected here it has something to do with a national desire to atone to foreigners for the country's history. The article suggests that this has begun to fade as the generation that remembers the war dies out. Something to think about...

International Gluttony

I, unsuspectingly, love Belgium. It's really a shame I don't speak French, and probably never will. Gotta work out this German!

Two weekends ago my friend Chrissy and I ventured to the two must-see cities in that Francophone country and just happened to stumble upon Brussels' annual beer festival. Serendipity at work. (By the by the German word for "serendipity" is spürsinn - not so romantic). 

We left Bremen on Friday afternoon and took a 7-hour train ride with many changes to make it to the gourmand capital of Europe. I had hoped the weekend would be rife with chocolate, waffles, french fries, and beer, and oh it was :)

Friday night involved much fun going out and meeting tons of people from all over the world, and we started early Saturday morning to see as much of the city as we could. Brussels is beautiful and vibrant, with probably the most impressive center I've seen in all my European travels. It's overwhelming, and almost a bit unglaublich. 

Tons of people from all over the world were in the city for the main event - the annual beer weekend. The city center hosted a large area where many of Belgium's best beer manufacturers set up shop and served everything from dark Trappist beers brewed in abbeys to sweet cherry and strawberry beer. Chrissy and I had much fun sampling whatever we could and making conversation with the international crowd. 

One thing I've really found in my travels here so far, and this may sound a bit cheesy, is how generally nice most people are. A couple and another man helped us on the train when we thought we might miss our connection, and numerous people in Belgium went above and beyond to give us directions and recommendations. And apart from being logistically helpful, most people are very willing to make conversation and share about themselves. It probably helps to be a young girl and I know it differs from country to country and culture to culture, but it makes me feel positive about the world in general when I have such experiences. 

When we pulled ourselves away from the festival we ventured to the other sights. A must-see was the mannekin pis, the famous statue of a boy peeing into a fountain. We also took a hike to the EU buildings, strolled through the grandiose old palace, and checked out the shopping arcade with the most famous chocolate store in the world. 

I LOVE THE FOOD IN BELGIUM. We got delicious french fries with random amazing sauces from the so-called best fry stand in the city, ate sugar-filled waffles from a place that opened in the 1800s, and bought some amazing chocolate. This foodie was quite happy.  We ate on the cheap too. I probably spend about 15 euro on food the entire weekend. Oh and managed to track down some weenie dogs...

On Saturday evening we took the quick train ride to the über romantic city of Bruges. Most of the city is marked as a Unesco World Heritage site, and for good reason. Medieval, antique, wonderfully charming...I could go on with the adjectives. Chrissy and I took a small boat tour through all the canals, climbed 360 or so steps to the top of the main bell tower, and spent most of Sunday walking around before it was time to return to Germany. More sampling of Belgian beverages and french fries occurred as well, of course. We also went to a supermarket and loaded up on chocolate, which I have happily already given to many people here as gifts. I love coconut and found the most amazing coconut chocolate bar I will probably ever have. ahhhhh...

Belgium isn't generally known as a must-see country in Europe, and I wonder. Brussels has a palpable vibrancy I haven't felt in many other places, and I wonder if the fact that it is the headquarters of the EU has something to do with that. The EU was only formed in 1993, so perhaps in some years you will hear about Brussels along with London and Paris. I hope. 

This weekend I will hang out in the very windy city of Bremen and return to Hamburg on Saturday night for some ausgehen followed by a trip to the famous fish market in the wee hours of the morning. Bis Bald!

p.s. Many pics in this post, I know, but as always check out the rest here

Deutsch Expression LOL OTD

Das macht den Kohl nicht fett. 


Literally translated, "It makes the cabbage not fat." As in, one more leaf won't make the cabbage substantially bigger.

Or, it doesn't matter, man!

I got my card, I got my card, I got my card hey hey hey hey!

OK updates to come soon about my amazing weekend in Belgium (hint: we serendipitously were there the weekend of the annual beer festival!) but in the time I have now, some tidbits about life in Deutschland.

Today I finally received my Deutsche Bank card in the mail. Like a dork I rejoiced over this for about an hour. Why is this such a big deal? I've been having horrible problems receiving mail at my host family's house, and without a Deutche Bank card it is far more difficult and expensive to withdraw money and make purchases. Businesses here are generally reluctant to accept credit/debit cards. In the US I never carried much cash on me, but that has had to change - here really only nicer restaurants and the bigger stores accept cards. GAHHHH

In school news, I started the more advanced class last week and am taking it in stride. This time we have two lovely female teachers. One, Briggita, is a kindly older woman who speaks sweetly and slowly. The other is a German/Spanish woman who is also legit. As one of the guys in my program said recently, all of the teachers are legit, no high school language teacher comparisons to be made. We've been moved also to a lovely villa in Bremen for class. And we're learning in style : Our room sports windows looking out onto a lake and a beautiful porcelain fireplace.

Already, writing this post, I feel my English writing abilities have slipped. I've had to second guess myself with verbs a couple times now, and have been tempted far too much to use German speak. Gut for mein Deutsch? Ich hoffe. I really think my speaking is coming along though. I can speak much quicker, and sometimes without even thinking at all. I am still overwhelmed by all the words there are to know, but given my current level I am hopeful I will be quite good by year's end. And fortunately for we Amerikaners, the English language has twice as many words as the German language - so said a guy we met on the train this weekend.

One thing I find myself hoping more and more is that I'll be able to tell and understand jokes and puns in German. Life is just far too boring without some bad jokes thrown in there every now and then. I wonder if Germans understand LOLcats or the speak my sister can do so well?

The beschissen weather has continued. I think today was probably the coldest and wettest we've had so far.  Thank goodness for North Faces, boots, and fuzzy socks. The excellent local paper, the Weser-Kurier, reported last week that this August was Bremen's coldest in 108 years! Aren't I lucky? At least I'm a bit prepared, though, having studied abroad in Scotland and having visited places with very cold climates. My Texas friend came with nada for winter clothing, and I helped her last week shop for a rain jacket. The blind leading the blind, or the southerner leading the southerner.

More updates on my next placement: I will be living in a Wohngemeinschaft, or WG (Vay-Gay) with two other people in what is supposedly a student/young people building. I will have my own room but will share a bathroom and a kitchen. One of the two is apparently an American guy who has lived in Erfurt for some years, and the other is anonymous as of now.  I think it will be better to have roommates than not, and especially to have one who knows the area. Hopefully he is nice, and my first experience living with a guy will not reinforce stereotypes of the male sex's uncleanliness. For sure I will miss the cats though :)

This week has so far included a tour of the Weser Stadion, home to Bremen's quite good soccer team Werder Bremen and also a very fun bowling night with our sprach partners. Puddle (pronounced poo-dle like the dog) = gutter ball. Oh and those Bremerstadtmusikanten keep showing up everywhere!

Just about three more weeks in this lovely northern city. The next weekends include a possible venture again to Cologne and then OKTOBERFEST in Munich. I will be staying with the other CBYXers in style in a large tent campground - hilarity. So excited for the craziness to commence!

LOL of the day:

"The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary." - Dave Kellett