Week 3 Recap

Because I'm writing these a couple of days after the events themselves occurred, I'm beginning to forget what I've told you already and what I haven't. So if I repeat myself, I'm sorry. Also, I found a mistake in one of my posts. The title of the post about Hamburg was supposed to contain a negative, and thus say "Turns out luggage isn't actually necessary to travel." Oh, well. More importantly, let's see what I can remember from the past week. Classes went fine. I had my Zwischenpruefung (midterm) in German on Thursday. It went pretty well. The Hoeverstandnis (listening comprehension) was a bit challenging and the teacher admitted that the vocab section was too hard and took that into account when grading. Right now I'm completely blanking what we did in my EU class, but it'll come to me. I'm sure it was interesting. Friday night I went over to the dorms/student housing/whatever they're called to hang out with some people from my German class over there. They had a small party and interestingly enough there is a bar in the basement of the building. Like a legitimate bar with a small dance floor, some couches, a pool table, and fooseball. That would never fly in Boulder. It was fun. I had a good time. Saturday I slept in and it felt amazing. I did a bit of homework in the afternoon, while many of the other students were day tripping it to Dresden. I decided not to go and after hearing them talk about it, I don't feel like I missed much. Saturday was very low key. I met two other guys at a Kneipe (bar/pub) for a few beers and came home early. Oh, I remeber what we did on Friday in my EU class now. The days topic was strategic defense/defense policy and how that affects the relationships between the EU and NATO and their member countries. So, in the morning we went to a building that housed the German defense ministry and listened to a pretty high ranking official, I forget his exact rank, discuss the issues I mentioned above. The topic was interesting, but he was a bit long winded. We stayed over a half hour longer than we were supposed to and I think he maybe got through half of his slides. But you could tell he was very passionate about what he does and got rather animated when our professors posed some difficult questions to him. Then we went to the very nice cafeteria of a nearby museum to eat lunch and debrief, like we always do after our excurisons. Then we had about three hours until our next activity, which our professors weren't attending with us, so we all dispersed for a bit to pass the time. I walked around with the Canadians a bit until we decided we were tired and needed a beer to re-energize :) Then at five we met at the Chancellory Building (Kanzleramt, I think) for a tour. It was really interesting. We got to see a lot of important parts of the building, where real work is actually done. We had a member of the 'secret service' following us the whole time. That was a bit strange knowing someone is watching you the whole time but it makes sense. We didn't didn't get to see Angela Merkel, though. She had better things to do that day. She was actually giving a press conference with Obama from the Rose Garden at the exact same time we were in her building. Back to the weekend, the important stuff. Sunday I went for a run around the bigger of the two lake/ponds by us and succesfully defeated it. I thought the lake was going to win for a while there. A bit sore today. Need to run more. In the afternoon a wrote a short paper for my German class and then went over to the house of a friend of the Schenkels to watch the Confederations Cup final (a warm-up tournament for the World Cup next summer in South Africa) between the US and Brazil. The US was winning 2-0 at half time and ended up losing 3-2, sadly. A disappointing finish to a very good tournament for the US. Nobody expected them to go that far. Ich bin stolz auf der US-Boys. (I'm proud of them.) The papers here and the announcer always refered to them as the 'US-Boys.' Kinda funny, I thought. It was fun watching the game with Konrad, though, and he gave me some good beer (the Schenkels don't drink beer, only wine, sadly). Konrad and I and his wife, Susan, had a nice conversation after the game over dinner. It was interesting to get some other Germans' perspectives. Today, nothing exciting to report. German class was fine. I'm going to bed early with the intention of running in the morning. We'll see how it goes. I need to write more often so these posts aren't so long. I say that every time, don't I? (The picture on the left is the Berliner Dom, Berlin Cathederal, from the days of Imperial Germany next to the River Spree. The picture on the right is several pieces of the Berlin Wall, but not in there original location. They're scattered around Berlin as reminders.)

Hamburg Pictures (check post below)

-Looking down the main port in the harbor

-Myself and fellow FUBiSers on the boat trip

-Hamburger Rathaus from the back

Turns out luggage is actually necessary to travel

This post is a bit out of order, but I'm just getting around to it. It's a really long story and I don't think I can manage to do it justice with the written word, so let's just set the scene for last weekend by saying that I arrived in Hamburg last Saturday with only the clothes I was wearing and my wallet. (If you want the full story, I'll tell you in person sometime.) We arrived in Hamburg a little before noon and had some time before our walking tour of the city, so we decided to explore the nearby street festival and get some lunch. All of a sudden, the sky opened up with sheets of rain and a bit of hail. We ran inside the closest building for protection and food, which turned out to be a good choice. I had a hamburger for lunch. It seemed like the most appropriate thing to eat in Hamburg. Rain stopped for a bit and we met up with the tour group and it started raining again, so we went it the Hamburger Rathaus (Hamburg Town Hall). It's a really cool looking building. Much more interesting than the one in Berlin. The rain fizzled out and we continued our tour through the city, seeing several big churches, a really interesting neo-gothic bombed-out church, a bit of the harbor, and so forth. Pretty good tour overall. Afterwards, a group of us walked over to what we thought was a tea museum but was really just more of an expensive tea house, changed our minds and went and got a beer instead and a bit of dinner instead. I had some of the best Jaegerschnitzel I've ever had. After dinner I stopped buy the grocery store to pick up some toiletries and upon returning to the hostel, I took a shower and promptly passed out. Everyone needed a bit of a nap after the early morning. (We had to meet the bus at FUB at 6:45am after a Friday night. That's tough for us college students.) I woke up around eight as everyone was getting ready to go out, got up, and went as well, made it to the bar, remembered that I hadn't slept at all on Friday night, immediately got tired again, went back to the hostel and went to bed. It felt really good. Kind of disappointed I didn't get to see a bit more of the Hamburgian (?) night life. Oh well. Sunday morning we had a boat tour of the harbor which was really cool, because we got to go up really close to some of the container ships and see how big they actually are. We saw the yacht that Roman Abromavich (Russian oil tycoon/owner of Chelsea FC) is having built to the tune of $300 million dollars, complete with a helicopter landing pad and mini submarine. Just the important stuff. In the afternoon we visited BallinStadt Musuem, which is kind of like the Elis Island of Germany. It's where all the people who emmigrated out of Germany to the US and other parts of the world left through. It was pretty fascinating to see. Had a bit of time in the late afternoon to relax a bit before catching the bus back to Berlin. I got home around 11pm and went to bed. All in all, I had a good time in Hamburg. I wish I wasn't so tired and had some clean clothes to wear, but sometimes that's just how it goes. Anyways, I know this post is way out of order, but maybe later today (I don't think I can go out agian tonight. I need a regular night of sleep) I'll post again about what I've been up to this week. Gotta get you all caught up!

Berlin gefällt mir.

Hello. It's Wednesday afternoon around 4.30 and it's beautiful outside. Berlin has been awesome. I'm having a great time and doing/seeing a lot of interesting things. I'll try to get you all briefly caught up since I haven't been able to blog as much as I should. My EU class is pretty interesting mostly because of the 'excursions' we take in the afternoon. In the morning we have lecture/discussion and then in the afternoon we go meet someone in the city that is relevant to that day's topic. So far we've visited places ranging from the European Comission (the institutional body that proposes legislation to the EU parliament) to the Czech embassy to the oldest political think tank in Germany (founded in 1945). It's been interesting getting the perspectives of professionals who are engaging in these issues everyday. It's interesting to then compare what they say to what the academics say. German class has been fine. On Wednesdays for it go on excursions (that was a horrible sentence). So today we walked around an area called Nikoliaverteil (or something like that), which used to have a huge Jewish population. We visited a museum about a man who was nearly blind and helped hide Jewish people in the middle of Berlin during WWII. A pretty amazing man. Berlin's symbol is a bear so we also tried to see the city's 'mascots', two bears named Schmeke and Maxi. Unfortunately, they decided to stay inside today. I think they needed some time to adjust to the warm weather. I know I do. This past weekend I went to Hamburg with FUBiS. I had a good time and I'll write more about it later, but now I need to go on a run so I can get back in time for dinner. Important stuff like that.

Week 3 Begins

I'm getting ready to start my after section of class. I just wanted to write a quick note. Time here is flying. I can't believe I'm already a third of the way done. Last Friday we went out to a nice restaurant that I guess was actually mentioned in 'The New York Times' in an article about hidden restraurants in Berlin. It was really good. This weekend I went to Hamburg with FUBiS. I had a good time. It was nice to see another city. I'll definitely try to write more tomorrow. Class is starting :)

Berlin Pictures

The Reichstag from the Bradenburger Tor (columns on the left)
View from my window/Path up to the Schenkels house
My desk at the Schenkel's

Week Two in Berlin

Berlin, 4:25pm - Hello. Hope everyone had a good weekend. I had a pretty good one myself. I’ve found myself a pretty good group of kids to hang out with. It consists of Lena (an art history grad student at Columbia originally from Tokyo), Dianna (also an art history grad student but at Berkley), Megan (CU bio major), Nick (CU business (?) major), and Dillon (also CU, we’ve taken German together for a couple years), and Evan (goes to some school in Oregon I think; does a great Russian impression). On Friday we met up with some other people and went to a neat bar/club in Neukölln that was pretty small. It was mostly outdoors and right next to the River Spree so it was a little cold, but I bet on a warm night it’s a lot of fun there. They had a DJ spinning, a dance floor, some couches and chairs. Neukölln is a poorer area in general and is kind of shady in parts. A lot of Turkish immigrants live there. The western edge near Kruezberg has been re-gentrified a bit and has become sort of hip. The area is colloquially known as “Kreuzkölln” but not everyone likes that term. Some societal struggles/issues. But anyways, like I said, it was a little cold so we went to another bar in Kruezberg. It was kind of chic for my taste, but interesting to see another place. The real interesting thing is that there’s not really a dress code per se when going out in Berlin. Almost every place everyone dresses really casual. It’s more about looking cool than dressing up or showing off. Also, the true clubs in Berlin don’t even really get going until one in the morning. People head home around five. I don’t know if I could handle that. Maybe one weekend I’ll have to give it a try. Saturday I slept in which felt really good and then went back to all the places I had previously seen but had forgotten to bring my camera to. I also spent a couple hours trying to find the Sony Center so that I could use their free Wifi. After an exhaustive search I finally found it and used the internet until my battery died. I then visited Potsdamer Platz, Bradenburger Tor, the hotel Michael Jackson held his baby out of (I didn’t make a special trip to see this, I just happened to pass by it), the Reichstag, a Holocaust memorial that was really interesting, the radio tower, Checkpoint Charlie (kind of disappointing because there’s not really anything left there anymore), a bit of the Berlin Wall, the Marx-Engel statue, and probably something else I’m forgetting right now. Saturday night we didn’t do too much. Just went to a small Kneipe (bar/pub) and hung out. Sunday was a beautiful day. I went for a run in the morning and ate lunch with the Schenkels in their backyard. I then went over to my friend Lena’s apartment to use her internet. We did our homework all afternoon then got a late dinner at a Mexican restaurant near by. My meal was actually quite good (or maybe I just miss Mexican food that much). Her meal looked like it was good too. I had German class all day today. I’m headed back to the Schenkels soon to do my laundry. The FUBiS program worked a deal with a gym near by, so I’m probably going to go check that out later. After that, a bit of homework (sans computer) and then early to bed.

Interesting tidbit of the day/Transportation etiquette: whenever Berliners get on a U-Bahn or S-Bahn train, they always sit in the corner of the benches first. Not once have I seen someone sit in the middle when they are the first person on the bench. Hmm. Also, to open the doors at a stop, you have to press a button. The button lights up once you can open the doors. If you’re the first one off and you don’t press that button the moment it lights up, you’re going to have some angry Berliners running up your backside. So, sit in the corners and press the button IMMEDIATELY.e

First Impressions

If you really want to know the small tiny unimportant details, you can read this long email I sent to my parents... :)

Liebe Mutti und Leiber Vati-

(I know this is long but I figured I’d give you a full description thus far as everything is new to you, and me for that matter, and to give you a feel for what being here is like.)
I’m writing this email a little after 10pm on Sunday night but I’m going to send it whenever I get a chance on Monday because the Schenkel’s don’t have internet access. Everything has been fine (or better) so far. I was the only person I saw at the airport to be stopped at random by the immigration officials (?) to be questioned. I was trying to read my map and find the FUBiS people when this guy starts speaking German to me at a mile a minute. The only word besides bitte I caught was Ausweis (passport) so I just handed that to him. Once he saw it was a US passport he started speaking in English and everything was fine. It was kind of a jarring moment at first.
Jutta and Jürgen are very nice. Jürgen has a ponytail. Their English is not perfect but it is much, much better than my German. My best guess is that Jutta and Jürgen are a couple years older than you guys are. I don’t know what Jürgen does, it didn’t seem polite to ask, but Jutta said she works with handicapped people (I think mentally handicapped, not physically). Mom, I think you would like Jutta. She’s really nice and has a lot of ‘spunk’. Like I said, Jürgen picked me up from the airport on Saturday, which was a surprise and made transportation very easy. On Saturday after I got to their haus…bitte, house (I keep wanting to write things in German already), I unpacked while Jürgen went to the grocery store to buy stuff for dinner. Jutta wasn’t there when I got there because she was out shopping for clothes with their daughter. I think she is in her late 20s and works for the Bundeskriminalamt, which Jürgen said was similar to our FBI. After I unpacked I left to go explore a bit. The area they live in is very pretty. It’s part of the green zone so there are many parks, trees, and a couple lakes. Jürgen said it was a good area for jogging and that they are active runners. Their house is one of several in a row. You can’t actually drive up to their house because the ‘road’ they live on is actually more of a walk-way, but it’s just off the street. They have a very nice house. It’s bigger than I expected. The room they gave me is much bigger than I expected. It has a closet type thing for my clothes, a desk, a small bed that is more comfortable than it looks, a radio (with which I’ve been listening to Radio Eins, similar to NPR, I think), and a TV which I haven’t figured out how to work yet.
Anyways, like I was saying, after I unpacked I went exploring a bit. I tried to find the soccer and field hockey fields and gym that we passed on the way to their house but couldn’t and didn’t want to get lost. So I walked towards the U-Bahn station to buy my transportation pass, which was a dilemma unto itself but for another time, and walked through the small street festival that was going on. I’m not really sure the reason for it but there were lots of families with kids and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Once I was finally able to purchase my transportation pass, I took the U-Bahn towards the city center and got off next to the KaDeWe, the Kaufhaus des Westens, which is the largest department store in Europe. I walked around in their for awhile. Most, if not all, of the stores seemed to be higher end from shoes to clothes to perfume. On the top floor was a large food store with several places to eat. Obviously, this was the floor that appealed to me the most. After that I ate some currywurst with fries for lunch and walked towards the Wilhem Memorial Church. It’s an old church that was bombed during WWII and whose remnants remain as a reminder. I’ve read about in every German class. After that I took the U-Bahn ‘home’ and read for awhile.
That night for dinner the Schenkel’s had a friend and his sister over for dinner. He was a very nice guy, who had studied economics at FUB and had been a guest professor at Berkley. He had even been to Boulder at one point. His English was perfect. It was good to speak with him because it made it easy to use my German. His sister was also there. She was krank (sick), to use their word, or mentally disabled to use ours. That made dinner a bit interesting. Halfway through dinner, I found out that it was Jürgen’s birthday. That completely took me by surprise. Before dinner the Schenkels and I had a ten minute conversation trying to figure out what spargul was. I eventually figured out it was asparagus. Turns out that right now is asparagus season and after next week the Germans have to wait until next year to eat it again. The asparagus here is white and has a much milder, less irony flavor than it does at home. I like it more. So, for dinner we had the white asparagus with something similar to a hollandaise sauce on it, white wine, small potatoes, shrimp with seasonings, a salad, a prosciutto(sp?) type meat, and scrambled eggs. A slightly odd assortment, but very good none the less. For dessert we had strawberries with whipped cream, which I think was homemade. They said they usually don’t make meals that big during the week, only on the weekends, and it was also Herr Schenkels Geburtstag. Afterwards I went to bed.
Today (Sunday), I woke up at eight to run but it was raining so I went back to bed and got up at ten. I read for class for an hour and a half before going down stairs slightly after the Schenkels did. For our late breakfast we had mostly bread with some meat and cheese and some really good espresso Jürgen made with in an Italian coffee-maker. I had never seen it done that way before. We read the newspaper and ate and then Jürgen drove me to the Uni for my first day. I got there really early so I walked around a bit and read for awhile by the check-in area. All of a sudden a huge crowd of kids showed up from the dorms to check-in. What I realized was that living with a host family has its positives and negatives. The plus side is the cultural immersion, but the downside is that everyone living in the dorms, which is the majority of students, has already started to form groups. They had a mixer type thing last night at the dorms, so they had all started to get to know each other. All of us home-stay kids are going to have to work a bit harder to meet other people. Today, I mostly hung out with other kids from CU that I mostly didn’t know before and a guy we met from Shanghai. Orientation was fine. I won’t bore you with the details of it. Afterwards, a group of us was going to go drink some beers but I think there was some miscommunication as to which U-Bahn station we were meeting at (there are two close to the university), so the group I was with ended up being smaller. No one has phones yet so we couldn’t call the others. (I tried to go to the Vodafone store on Saturday but it closed fifteen minutes before I got there and is closed on Sundays. Bummer.) We found a place to get some beers, which were very delicious, and then split up to head to our respective residences. Everyone’s host family is very different. One has two young kids; another is old and meticulous and doesn’t speak much English but has a girl who doesn’t speak any German; another is a single mom whose kids live away from home and is a vegetarian (poor guy). I got home a little before eight and right before dinner. They wouldn’t let me help. Tonight we had the extra food that wasn’t cooked from last night, minus the eggs and salad. During dinner we watched a German crime show. I understood enough to follow the story until the very end when there was a twist which I didn’t quite get. It was interesting to watch though. After that I went upstairs to write this email.
Tomorrow I have a short placement interview for my German course, a campus tour, and the beginning of class. I think that’s probably a long enough email, if you are even still reading. I might try to Skype you in the afternoon (around four my time) if I get a chance, but I’ll have to see. If I can’t, I’ll try to send you an email. Glad you made it back safely to Denver. I’ll talk to you soon.

Love, Blake

In Deutschland

Berlin, 11:00am - Sorry I haven't written for a few days. It's been a bit hectic with orienation and everything. The Schenkels are very nice and have been very helpful so far. Right now I have to go to class but I'll be sure to write more soon. Bis spaeter!

Leaving Santorini

Santorini, 11:17am - In a little over an hour we're catching a flight back to Athens. I have enjoyed being on Santorini. The weather has gotten better the longer we've been here. There's hardly any wind today and a heat wave is coming. Tomorrow is supposed to reach 39 degrees celcius (102 degrees fahrenheit). That's hot and just in time for the huge wedding party that is arriving today. The hotel staff has been busy putting out flowers everywhere. We've heard that they are renting out the entire resort for three days. But anyways, last night we went into Fira to watch the sunset and have some drinks. Unfortunately, there have been clouds every night along the horizon so we haven't actually seen the sun set into the sea, but it has still been pretty. We ate in a place by our hotel last night called Feggira (?), which was very good. Some of the best food we've had so far and very reasonably priced. It's run by a very nice couple who decided to start their own restaurant last year. The area our hotel is in has been very nice. It's not in one of the main towns like Ia or Fira but in the little town of Megalachori, which is kind of in the middle so it's not actually next to any one thing but it's close to everything. Being a small town it's also a lot quieter. But now it's back to the big city of Athens. I can't believe I'm going to be in Berlin tomorrow!

Santorini

Santorini, 12:30pm - The ferry made travel really easy. Santorini is mostly surrouned by huge cliffs from the collapsed volcano. Yesterday we toured the entire island. We rented a car and cruised around at our leisure. Santorini is much more scenic than Mykonos was, but it was really windy all day. Really windy. Ali and Mom went to the town of Fira today to look around and do some shopping. Dad and I are just hanging out at the hotel, trying to get some sun.

Off to Santorini

Mykonos, 12:30pm - Hello. We had a nice dinner in Mykonos Town last night at a bit quieter of a restaurant than the other night. We sat up higher on the hill still over looking the water. Also in town, we saw Petros the Pelican. From what I understand he is supposed to be the 'mascot' of Mykonos. I'm not really sure the story behind him, but I'll try to post a photo of Ali and Petros later. We found out last night that this past weekend was spring break in Greece, so that's why there were so many Greek kids in town. Today we're taking the afternoon ferry to the island of Santorini. It's about a 2.5 hour ride, but should be interesting getting a different view the the islands. We'll be in Santorini for about three days before flying back to Athens. Santorini is supposed to be much more hilly than Mykonos, much more historical, and have great sunsets.

Mykonos Pictures

Mykonos Town

View from our hotel room

The Island of Mykonos

Mykonos, 6:30pm -

Sorry I didn't write the last couple days. Connecting to the internet here has been a bit more difficult.

Mykonos has been great. It was only a 30 minute flight from Athens and a ten minute bus ride to the hotel (Petasos). Our accomodations are amazing. We have two rooms that are connected with our own private pool that looks out over the water! The weather has been very nice. Warm to hot and usually mostly clear with a slight breaze. Parked (I guess anchored would be more accurate) behind our unit are several very large private boats. Cruising from island to island at their leisure, I suppose. Last night we went into Mykonos Town for dinner and watched the sunset. Even though its out of season, I could still tell that Mykonos would be a crazy place to be during the high season. Lots of people around my age going into town for the night as we were leaving around 11pm. Alison joined us early this morning and we walked to a beach by our hotel called Psarous (I think). The beach was fine, but the beach club behind it kind of had a beautiful-people type vibe and I'm sure it's a hot place to see and be seen during the high season. We're getting ready to go into Mykonos Town again tonight (only a ten minute bus ride), so Ali can see it and to get some dinner. I'll try to post a picture in a minute.