A christmas basket of updates

I’ve spent the entire month of December collecting wonderfully blogable material, and as Irony would have it, the more I collect, the less time I actually have to write about it.

I head back to the states in T-minus 19 hours but before I go I would like to first recap the events of December—if not for you, than for my own memory bank—and then officially document what my perspectives on Germany at the almost official half way point of this Fulbright adventure. (wow. )

Here is my brief and picture filled recap of the month of December:

Plätzen are German Christmas cookies. They are also famous for gingerbread houses, but that was a bit too much effort for my roommate and I on a Friday night...

Germany does a few things really well. I already mentioned the abundant vacation time, and if that weren’t enough: they ROCK Christmas. Buddy the Elf would feel right at home in any-town Germany during the Christmas (not holiday) season. Christmas markets on every corner offer the finest of festive nick-nacks and junk and (more importantly) a wide variety of hot alcoholic beverages in collectable mugs. The lack of open container laws allow Germans to shop for Christmas crap all nice and toasted. 

Here are a few pictures from Cologne, Lübeck, Vienna, and Salzburg.

Karlsplatz, Vienna at night

Pretzels in Salzburg...so german

Salzburg Altmarkt

"Kitsch" aka Christmas crap in  Lübeck (and sadly the only picture that turned out from that day)

Every market had it's own theme in Cologne. This one was "angels". I wish you could see how creepy the mugs looked....

In order to obtain these Christmas market pictures I had to do a lot of traveling. It’s really a rough life over here…let me tell you.  From December 8-12 I gallivanted around Salzburg and my old stomping ground, Vienna, with 2 high school friends who also happen to be Fulbright’s (what are the chances!?). Salzburg was beautiful and charming in the Alps with the snow, and we managed to absorb the cultural decadence of Vienna in one huge day. Here are a few pictures of our journeys.

My old Apartment in Vienna... life was rough then, too

The old party kitchen, newly inhabited by girls who take much better care of it

Tribute to the Plague in Vienna.. notice the decadent street decorations. Merry Christmas everywhere!. 

Our Vienna experience was topped off by watching the premiere of Don Giovanni in the famed Vienna Opera. Thanks to heavily subsidized culture in Vienna, we poor students could get standing room tickets to this incredible show for a mere 4 euro. Glad I don’t have to pay those taxes, and thank you Austria!

Our view. While far away, still right in the middle AND only 4 euro. 

Our opera goggles helped. 

In addition to gallivanting, December held within it a broadening of my German movie horizons (mostly in the form of watching Germany’s best looking specimen Til Schweiger in assorted romantic comedy’s)  an abundance of Christmas parties and 3 snow days. Even as an "adult" (?) Snow days are still the most exciting thing ever. Did I mention that life was rough over here?

And now for the important stuff: pre-homecoming perspectives on Germany and what I miss about the states (which indirectly tells you about what is lacking over here from my perspective).

• FREE REFILLS
• ·      Ice Water 
• Positive attitudes and general optimism 
• People wearing kakhis and nice clothes
• Over the counter medicine
• Central air (and warm floors)
• Water fountains
• NO SMOKING!
• Free public bathrooms
• Big Kitchens
• Big BEDS, BLANKETS, MATTRESSES…my mattress here sits on a bed of wood planks and is 2 inches thick and my down comforter could fit comfortably on a toddlers bed.
• Garbage disposals—(did you know that Germans have never heard of something in the sink that grinds up the stuff you don’t eat and takes it away? Germans of all socio-economic classes collect their scraps and food and eggshells etc in a plastic bag and a micro sized trashcan and have to empty it in the correct compost pile when they take out the trash—which takes a long time because ALL of the trashcans are micro sized and sorted for paper, plastic, bio, and rest. YUCK)
• DRYERS. For real.
• Saying hi with a smile.
• Pandora, Hulu, Netflix, and the majority of music and/or videos on Youtube
• Mexican food
• 569-DINE/ take out/delivery in general
•  Cheeseburgers
• Ranch Dressing

I’ll stop at that. I’m not back YET, and this list is just making me hungry now.

And here are the ways I think I’ve become German so far… It'll certainly be interesting to see how I feel when I’m actually IN the states, and if there will be any unexpected culture shock.

·     

• I take short showers (no wonder Europeans smell SO good)
• I wash the dishes without constantly running the water
• I answer “how are you?” with a neutral to negative response (though I can’t wait to change this)
•  I ask about politics in casual conversation almost immediately
• I state my opinions more directly than before, though I’m still pretty American in my politeness and passive speech
• I unplug things when I’m not using them
• I walk and/or ride my bike everywhere (including through and in the snow)
• I wear pants to work out (again… looking forward to changing this)
• I go grocery shopping several times a week to get what I will make for THAT night, but not more (this phenomenon has to do with very small refrigerators I believe)
• I eat everything on my plate (I think this one has to do with the aforementioned bio-trashcan)
• I dream in German now
• I wear socks and thick shoes all the time, and take my shoes off at the door
• I eat a cold, medium sized breakfast, BIG hot lunch, and cold snack for dinner
• And most scarily of all, as I was walking home from a friends house a few nights ago around 11:30PM, I stopped myself at the "DO NOT WALK" sign. There were no cars for miles and it was the middle of the night, but I could NOT make myself walk across the street. When I finally got tired of waiting I felt as exhilarated and nervous as if I had just completely and intentionally run a red light with my car. This is a pretty big sign that I have, in fact, started becoming very german. 

I look forward to viewing America and my time in germany from a new angle once I finally get home. I mean, sorry, IF I get home. 

I’m praying like a righteous woman that the northern European sno-pocolypse stops in time for all the American students and fulbrighters trying to get home for the holidays. Prayers and good luck in this direction would be greatly appreciated. 18 hours and 11 minutes! 

See you soon!

Milestones

Happy December everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgivings in America. German Thanksgiving, spent with my "Fulbright Family" was a huge success, and I'd love to tell you all about it, but I feel like we all might be experiencing a post Thanksgiving food coma. Or is that just me?

Instead I'd like to talk about life milestones, which is really just a way to talk about Thanksgiving without really talking about it if we're going to be honest here. But really, of all the cool things I've done this year and of all the culturally significant experiences I've had, Thanksgiving was the most profoundly moving experience to date.

I used to fear that I would never be able to cook a turkey. Next to my irrational fear of fish and fire (if you don't believe me ask anyone who has ever accompanied me in an open body of water or seen me try and light a candle) this was one of the bigger fears in my life.

I'd sit in the kitchen on Thanksgiving admiring the smells and warmth, thankful for any little job that my mom would give me, and wonder to myself, "how does one learn how to do that?" I could not imagine ever having thanksgiving without my parents, and therefore feared that I would never NEED to cook a turkey on my own, and would therefore never learn how to do it.

When I'd bring this up to my Mom, or when I'd mention my fears that I'd never learn how to cook or be a mom, she'd always tell me "You'll figure it out, and for better or worse, you'll probably end up doing what I do".  Don't we all get a little bit more like our Mother's everyday?

The answer never seemed sufficient, and on top of that I still wondered about when I would be old enough to have Thanksgiving on my own. Are we ever old enough? Will I ever have my OWN thanksgiving and simply invite my parents? What about Christmas? I always saw people in the movies celebrating Christmas alone or with one other person. When do we become old enough to do that?

I guess I answered a few of these questions this thanksgiving as I celebrated with good friends and great food in Cologne Germany. And much to my surprise, I cooked EVERYTHING--stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and a TURKEY and gravy--just as my mother said I would: just like her.

I sat in the kitchen, admiring the warmth and the smells, and I couldn't help but think: wow. Life just happened. What joy!

I'd like to make some sarcastic quip about how I've become my mother, but I'm proud to have absorbed and inherited some of her strengths, and apparently her cooking skills, and I couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving.

So without further ado: The turkey...and the stuffing... and the friends... and for a bit of humor you can watch my vegetarian friend marie bravely and boldly clean the turkey. Stay tuned for more adventures abroad....

Turkey was 13ish pounds. Ceramic was...heavy. 

Marie gets major credit for the cranberry sauce. It was delic. 

Loving the process.

For these Mashed Potatoes I give full credit to my Nana

And thank you Ina Garten for the butter recipe

Proud and joyful.

The Spread.

The celebration.

And with that I wish you all a Happy December. 

Love always,

Mere

Happy Thanksgiving from Denmark/Germany!

In fear of sounding like a 13 year old self who is just SO excited that Robby asked her to dance!!!!!!!! I usually try to keep my use of exclamation points to a minimum. The events occurring in the last 10 days of my life, however, warrant the abundant to excessive use of exclamation points.

For the sake of this blog entry, let's pretend that . equals ! and ! equals !!!!!! If you actually see more than 4 exclamation points in a row it's probably best to picture the situation through the rapid heartbeat and big smile of a three year old who managed to eat a giant pixie stick before walking into a room filled entirely with presents waiting to be opened.

Now that that's settled: I LOVE JULEFROKOST (dansish thanksgiving)!!!!!!!!!!!!

What might be even cooler is that this Danish Thanksgiving (hence to be called by its true Danish name Julefrokost), though spectacular and fabulous, was just a highlight in the reel of my exclamation point filled week.

Other high points of my recent life include (but are not limited to):

·      German Karaoke where I astounded English challenged Germans with my ability to spit mad rap in the form of Nelly “Hot in herre” while my roommate added her, uh, dance moves in the background. Tequila helped.

·      WG party [translation: apartment gathering, casual, byob, but beer and pretzel sticks provided] where I met 2 new friends. The first, named Lisa-Marie Ploog, and I made dinner and went to Harry Potter with the rest of my group of friends on Tuesday. Yes, I said group of friends. I have one. It’s awesome. They’re all Germans, and I might not have all of their telephone numbers, but my piece of poop 20 euro pay-as-you-go phone doesn’t really work anyway.
          

·      The second person I met is a Norwegien who is in Flensburg from Sunday-Tuesday getting private German lessons. His dad imports cars from Germany to Norway, so upon finishing his lessons he drives a brand new, to be imported, Mercedes or BMW back to Norway. I DO have his number. Hitchhike to Norway in a brand new luxury car anyone?

·      In my school life, I gave lessons on “table manners and small talk” by baking the class a pumpkin pie from scratch and stuffing from scratch and having them try it. My students were not as willing to try new foods as I was to cook all these things for them and sadly, much of it went to waste. BUT I got practice in for real Thanksgiving which I will be celebrating in Köln, Germany with my American Fulbright friends. Can’t wait!

·      In other school news I also led a discussion on Kafka’s “Vor dem Gesetz” or in English,  “Before the Law” in a GERMAN class.  Auf Detusch, natürlich. I’ve now led 2 full classes in German and hope to lead more. I wonder if Fulbright can give me a raise for teaching in 2 languages? Maybe?

·      The last bit of cool stuff before I get to Julefrokost is mentioning that my apartment had a WG party ourselves on Friday. It was a great success, though the apartment smelled like smoke for a good 3 days afterwards and my boy roommate (Christoph), who is in most cases boring and just super German, invited his crazy, loud, how-the-heck-are these-people-in-any-way-connected-to-Christoph, friends. They were loud and obnoxious until 2am when they finally went to the Club, and then they were loud and obnoxious at 5:00am when they returned. It made for a rough start to my Julefrokost day, but I was only grumpy because I didn’t know what magic awaited…

So now: JULEFROKOST!!!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. And again, and again… I LOVE DANISH PEOPLE. I’m pretty sure I studied the wrong language, and God knew precisely what he was doing when he placed me in this random tiny town on the Danish border. While I know I can’t use the limited experiences I’ve had and the few real Danes I’ve met to make a judgment for an entire country, I’ve been pretty darn impressed with the general friendliness and willingness to have a good time by every Dane that I’ve met so far.

Julefrokost was a nice example of this. SO what is Julefrokost you ask? Or not? It’s a Danish Christmas lunch that celebrates the beginning of the advent season.  The sentiment is similar to Thanksgiving, but unlike thanksgiving, they can celebrate it every weekend of the advent season if they want to, and often do.

The meal is served in 4 courses with a main dish of “Aquavit” which is a nasty licorice tasting shot. Don’t worry, it gets tastier by the end of the night.

The first course is freshly baked bread and cold cuts. For the Danes “cold cuts” include roast beef (yummm) other unidentifiable meats (yum?) and pickled Herring (oh hell no). Unimpressed by my students lack of courage for trying new foods I had already vowed to try everything. I regretted that decision when I saw the grayish fish looking stuff on a plate before me, but with some Curry sauce it actually was quite tasty! Who knew!?

It should be established and understood that throughout these courses, anytime someone says something funny, or breaks into song, it is accompanied with a lifted shot glass, yelling “SKOL” and drinking what might as well have been gasoline. The shot glasses are then immediately refilled so as to be ready for the next time someone says something remotely worth laughing about. By the end of the night we were laughing a lot. It was a vicious, but very entertaining, cycle.

The nice thing about Julefrokost is that in between each course, the next part of the meal has to be cooked, so there is sufficient time for digestion and story telling. I got to know the 5 families who were also there very well and if I didn’t feel like family right when I walked in the door (but I did… ) I certainly felt like family by the end of dinner.

The second course was the “hot meal”. It included Wurst, Potatoes, and the second excuse-me-you-expect-me-to-EAT-that, cultural experience of the night: Green Cabbage. Green cabbaged is loved and cherished among northern Germans and Danes. It looks like overcooked, hard to chew, spinach and is served in heaping portions. Again, surprise surprise, it actually tasted pretty good. Touche Danes.

Continuing the pattern of rest, digest, and drink, we rested and laughed our way through several youtube videos before eating a dessert of tapioca pudding, and the final course of cheese and crackers and coffee.

All in all the feast lasted from 5:00pm to 3:00am.

With that I wish you HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Celebrate like and American, drink and laugh like the Danes, and know that I am thinking of you while I’m here in Germany.

Love always,

Mere

Becoming a German

My new fulbright friend Emily Johnston said it best when she said "[being a fulbright] is so roller-coastary. Somedays I'm like 'whoa! I can't believe I'm here!' and other days I want to punch myself in the face"

Wise words of a scholar... for sure.

A prime example of this would be the difference in my blog entry from yesterday and my blog entry from today. Now, you didn't get to see my blog entry from yesterday as my computer accidentally gobbled it up somehow before it was published, but as things tend to be, it was a blessing in disguise. It would have been a shame to let you read what I thought was a 'culturally enlightened' entry, when really, I knew nothing about Germany compared to my perspectives after today's culturally enlightening events.

I guess I'll begin with my hypothesis of adaptation in a foreign country. While it is only my third time spending significant time abroad,  I consider that enough to create a best fit line, so I'm going with it.

This is how it typically goes: The first 2 weeks are full of shock and awe. Most of your observations start with "WOW!" or "Hmmm interesting..." but that is about as far as your observations go. A combination of jet lag, newness, being generally lost, and grateful for any type of help you get leaves you unable to go any deeper than that.

After these first 2-ish weeks of shock and awe wear off, mere observations and survival instinct turn into comparisons and frustration.  The newness of riding the bus, and the joy of simply finding your destination wear off and you start thinking to yourself... "hmm... busses? Well AMERICA (spoken in snooty comparative internal voice) has cars, and VIENNA has subways". Subsequently you become frustrated that you arrived at your destination late because not only has the joy of simply arriving and surviving worn off, you have yet to actually master the timetables. You have only been here for a few weeks.

Somewhere between this point and about 3 months you turn a corner you didn't even know existed and suddenly things that were worth noticing before (for example: wow these milk cartons are small... or, hmm I guess germans DON'T j-walk...wait, I have to recycle that?) simply are. It's like taking a super-highway exit that has tons of signs and curves and you have only a slight hope of where you are or where you are going and pay extremely close attention to ALL the signs until you look around and realize you've made it to the correct highway and are going in the right direction. When you finally arrive on this highway it feels really good. You can finally relax and enjoy the ride.

That's where I thought I was yesterday: here and enjoying the ride. That is, until today when I got too comfortable and merged without looking and almost crashed (I'm going to stop talking in this highway metaphor now).

My day began with my first period class. They had a small vocabulary test for which about 1/3 of the class prepared. I quickly found out, that's about all the kids that needed to prepare in order for the class to pass.

 I'd heard about the prevalence of cheating before, but I had never seen it in action. As the main teacher read out the words aloud I was SHOCKED and sickened by how many people were quite inconspicuously looking off their neighbors papers. I mentioned something quietly to my advisor/the teacher giving the test and he LAUGHED, stopped the test, and had me explain how cheating just doesn't happen in the US, to which the students responded by laughing, and nobody stopped cheating.

 I guess it does happen in some places in the states, and probably a lot more often than I think, but having graduated from 2 schools where honor codes rule and where cheating is quite possibly the worst offense you could commit as a human or student, my view of the cheating world is quite niäve. When I told my roommates about what happened they ALSO laughed and then proceeded to tell me some of the coolest cheating tactics they knew. Not the sympathetic response I was looking for, and it took all my strength not to plug my ears and run away screaming "LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU".

So that was life lesson number 1 of the day, which was quickly followed by German lessons number 1,2,3, and 4.

For the sake of general information giving, I'd say the stereotype of germans being "ordentlich" or, needing to have everything in the right place and the right time and you follow rules simply because they exist, is pretty darn accurate for anyone above the age of 40 and/or people acting like they're that old. Young people tend to be rebellious punks (probably in response to this strict rule following forced upon them by the older generation) but they'll probably turn into superstitious, über-cautious rule followers when they turn 40 too.

Germans are also extremely environmentally cautious, doing things like washing the dishes in yucky dirty water that hasn't been drained instead of keeping the water running, and unplugging the microwave so we don't waste electricity when we're not using it (except for the fact that I want a CLOCK in my kitchen, thank you very much...) and having several small trash cans for all of our recyclables. And let me tell you, dear Americans, everything is recyclable. woof.

It should have come as no surprise to me that I got yelled at big time for forgetting to turn the water off after I did the laundry last night. Germans don't have dryers (they're obviously environmentally unfriendly) so their washing machines go for a SUPER long time and do their best to wring out your clothes of all excess water by the end of their 2+hour cycle. Not only does it leave your clothes still wet and very wrinkled, it makes the washing machine obnoxiously loud.

I put the laundry in a 9:00pm. I thought it was a little late, but I was out of socks, so whatever... warm feet? Bending the not-established-but-probably-existant- rules? ... warm feet win. Somehow, before 11:15 when the laundry should have been done, I fell asleep. I had to get up at 5:15 to get ready for school, so I was able to sneak away without getting caught hopefully for forgetting to turn the water off and unplugging the machine after washing... or so I thought.

I also had to hang all of my clothes to dry really quickly because I had to run out the door to class, and in the fog of being late, and it being too early to be awake, I left my space heater on. I was also OK with that a little bit, because my room has no real window and no heater in it, so when I got back from school 2 hours later it would hopefully be warm and a bit less damp than if I had just let my wet clothes sit. BUT My über-german roomate christoph was not a little bit ok with it.

He was waiting for me when I got home from class with a list of things I had done wrong: You have to unplug the washing machine when you're done, you can't do the laundry after 10:00PM, you can't leave the space heater on because it could melt something AND it uses a lot of energy (sin of sins). Also, since you were out of town this weekend, he told me, you forgot to wash the steps.

I looked at him at this point with an apologetic (for the inherent environmental unfriendliness of my past 14 hours), but clueless look. Wash the steps?

Yes, once a week each tenant has to sweep and mop all the steps in the apartment building and shake out the mats. Knowing better than to question silly rules and/or "ordentlich-ness" I grabbed the mop, grit my teeth, and cleaned the stupid steps.

I'll leave the cultural enlightenment to that story. So now you know, if you ever come to germany, FOLLOW THE RULES. And hug a tree.

And that's my roller coaster. I went from thinking "wow I'm here!" to wanting to punch myself in the face (only a slight exaggeration)  in a few short hours. Welcome to Fulbright! I'll let you know when I officially become a german and these things don't happen to me anymore.

love always,
mere

Cozy November and my new life

I am sitting here in the warmth of my apartment (thanks to my most necessary space heater) looking out at the seagull sitting on my neighbors chimney and the colorful leaves falling against the rainy, dark sky. It's 3:25, so I have about 35 minutes to enjoy this scene before darkness rolls in, and I can't help but thinking, "Wow, how did I get so lucky?" and "hmmm... rain again. Do I really want to leave this space heater and walk through that slop to go to the gym?"

This blog is the answer to that question.

Since my parents visit, my life has truly begun. I have joined a gym, started taking classes at the University and have almost officially taken over an upper level english class so I am no longer the "assistant"; rather, the teacher. My roomate Wiebke and I have become good friends and I FINALLY have a routine in my life, which is better than birthday cake and christmas and chocolate chip cookies combined. (Not better than Thanksgiving though...)

In the short and sweet: Life is good, because life is settled. Now that I have a settled enough life to comment on, I will tell you all about it. Then we can start with the "research" blog posts. (I hope you all are hungry for some cultural knowledge!)

Of the "I'm officially settled" things I've checked off my list, joining the gym has been the most life changing. If the extreme increase of endorphin dosage in my daily life wasn't enough justification to join, then the massage room that comes with my gym membership certainly was. Yes, you read it correctly: In addition to unlimited classes like "boxing aerobics" and "Bauch Beine Po (stomach, legs, butt), THERE IS A MASSAGE ROOM THAT COMES WITH MY GYM MEMBERSHIP.  I'm waiting for Jesus and St. Peter to make their grand arrival to tell me that this is all a joke and welcome me to heaven, but so far they haven't showed up.

That is not the only cool part of my new life; nerdily enough, taking classes at the University has been really nice too. I'm in 2 big lectures which are nice because I can blend into the background and/or talk to my new friends who also go to these lectures, and 2 small psychology seminar classes. One is called "teaching and learning from a psychological perspective"... which fits pretty nicely into my interests of psychology and temporary profession of teaching.. and the other is called "The Psychology of the Media and Social learning processes" Which fits nicely into my interests in Psychology and advertising. WUNDERBAR!

The other coolest part about that? It only cost 50 euro for me to be a student at this school. It cost me more to go to the gym than it does for me to take unlimited classes and learn for the rest of my life. OH, and did I mention that that 50 euro covers the cost of my bus travel for the rest of the semester? Score.

And the last cool thing about my settled life is my new role as official teacher of the "11th grade" english class. I'm pretty sure it's not allowed that i have the class by myself, but I'm not complaining. I feel lucky to have some purpose in my life and glad to know that the teachers think I can handle it after only a month of observation. My first official class all on my own was the day before break (3 weeks ago) and we discussed the topic of "home" as seen through the eyes of foreigners. It's an interesting thing to ponder, and a question I never really had to deal with until I came here.

The question is this: how do you describe your home to someone who has never been there? What are the important details for them and what are the important details for YOU?  Can I call that what I've experienced in my life "typical american?" I get asked all the time "what is the typical american way of blah blah... what was your high school experience? Is that typical?" Well actually, what IS typical? I lived a life of privilege, and I'm pretty sure that by the numbers I am far from "typical".

So I turned the question on them (my students). Having introduced them to the vocabulary of "stereotypes and national identity" a few days before this first-on-my-own lesson, I asked them to think of what stereotypes of Germany in general were. I showed them a funny video of what American thought of germans (nazi's in lederhosen with full frothy beers singing on tables with pretzels and bratwurst). They laughed and said "that's southern germany!" Their northern experience is so different. They think typically german is sailing and fishing and surfing... but that IS what is typical for them. I asked them, "what do you think is typical Germany?" Can you answer that? What is "home" and when a foreigner asks about Germany, what would you tell them? It's a tough question...

I then showed them a map of the US and a map of germany. I put the map of germany ON the united states and showed them how Germany only covers the states of North Dakota and South Dakota, and followed that with "If it is hard for you to describe with is typical GERMANY and the differences in North and South are that big, how do you think you could describe typical 'America?'


I'll admit, I was proud to have my first "teacher" moment and it felt good to see the perspective change in the eyes of a few students. Some of them really are just straight up punks and could care less, but the ones that got it... man, that was a cool moment.

This week we are talking about stereotypes in a bunch of big American cities... it has been fun, especially with this new perspective of each-place-is-uniqe. I think I like being a teacher, but I think I'd like a lot of things.

That's it for now. In talking about the massage room I've managed to convince myself that going to the gym is definitely doable...

Til next time,
Mere

Parents Weekend...for grown ups

There is a lot about the German school system that I simply don’t understand, but there is one thing that I don’t question: their abundant vacation time. Instead of having a measly 4 days off every 6 weeks (which is how we so “generously” rolled at Washington and Lee) they get 2 whole weeks off every 6 weeks. Complaints? Anyone? Bueller?

This wonderful 2 week respite came just in the knick of time to rescue any hint of sanity I had left. I’ve mentioned far too many times that life was a bit hectic while trying to get settled into my new country/apartment, but when I finally accomplished this I rewarded myself with a trip to Tübigen to visit my aforementioned dear friend Kaci Mcallister.

My view of Flensburg thus far was mostly that of a grey, smelly, windowless waiting room in city hall, and/ or the faces of my vocational school students.

(funny side story actually: two ridiculously dressed punks in metal studded leather jackets and dyed hair were walking down the street yesterday and my dad sarcastically commented are those some of your students? Haha. I laughed before taking a closer look and realizing that the boy with the purple, green and pink hair and Dennis Rodman type piercings sits in the front row of one my upper level English classes. His name is Lars.)

Anyway, you can imagine that after that somewhat tainted view of my actually very charming and wonderful town, Tübigen seemed like a Fairytale. Literally, it kind of is as the setting for Grimms Brothers fairytales (the Black Forest) is right around the corner. The buildings are precisely what you would imagine: colorful and perfectly aged with cozy corners and coffee shops and markets on the cobble stone streets… Moreover, with a university dating back to 1477 and over 22,000 students, there are PLENTY of good looking, intellectual people to enjoy. I was in German heaven, and things only got better from there.

Yes, Tübigen was great and the university was quite fun as well (see Kaci’s blog post about some of our hysterical experiences) but being with an old choir friend was the best gift of all. I like to call it nerd paradise and it includes this: Speaking some German, discussing life and journaling, singing old choir/acapella songs while watching glee and cooking and baking all day long before having friends over for dinner to enjoy what we had made. Does that not sounds like the best day ever? I got to have 4 of them. 

It was a sad sad day when I had to go back to Flensburg, but Kaci had old German letters to translate (her Fulbright project) and Chinese homework to do (because she’s an over achiever) and I was off to prepare for my parents arrival! Yay!

The actual arrival of my parents, though a jubilant occasion, was a bit rocky. On my end, the day started with an awkward encounter with a boy who is so sweet but clearly hasn’t heard me screaming “I just want to be friends”. Ugh. I feigned a phone call to shorten our “coincidental” visit at the train station and get on my 9 minute train that crosses the border from Flensburg to Denmark. I must have been more overwhelmed than I thought because somewhere in this 9 minute train ride I lost my situation-saving phone. Probably karma for peacing out early from that boy.

Fortunately, after calling my phone several times with the cell phone of a slightly sketchy guy (but the only other passenger on the train) I got a hold of a nice lady who picked up my phone and was supposed to bring the phone to the lost and found the following monday (it never came by the way)…  But this moment of relief was short lived as the train ticket-checker guy gave me a super creepy “come here I have something grave and important to tell you” look. I followed him to another train car where he asked me “do you know that guy? Because he now knows your phone number and can track you down”… uh, gee thanks. Now I’m scared and I have to try and get his phone again to try and erase my number…

Rather than just simply asking to borrow his phone again, fake a call and actually just erase my number, I sat there paranoid, avoiding eye contact, and pondering all the sneaky ways I could get him to get up and leave his phone and I would erase my number.

The train stopped before I thought of anything cool. I booked it to the next train to avoid any potential contact with now even creepier man. Good thing I did because I managed to get the only free seat on the 3 hour train. I “sat” on a folding seat with a seat back so straight I was leaning forward with my knees somehow in the way of the door and my head resting on rattling window. Like I said: Rough.

This, however, was nothing compared to my parents rough arrival. After a slight delay in their flight (typical) they arrived in Copenhagen and waited patiently for the diligently packed carry on bags they had lugged through several airports and connections before being forced by a snooty flight attendant lady to gate check them on their last short leg of their journey. Naturally in this super short flight, the bags were lost.

I was supposed to meet my parents in the Copenhagen Marriot circa 1:45. Around 3 I spot my dad in an all black track suit and white tennis shoes and my mother dressed a bit more stylishly, but still monochromatically, in all brown with nothing but a purse in hand in the lobby.

After heart felt and excited greetings I accompanied my monochromatic, jetlaggd, empty handed, parents to our room, which was BeAuTiFuL. I could have simply stayed in the hotel for 3 days and been a happy happy camper. Our window overlooked a river (channel? Fjorde?) and a picturesque Danish skyline that was a perfect combination of history, character and grandeur.

You can see most of the pictures from our trip to Copenhagen (and the comparison on my ikea bed to the beds at the marriot) in the album that I’ve posted with this blog. Unfortunately none of the pictures do our experience justice and it mostly looks like we stayed in the same posed positions while someone changed a green screen behind us to different Copenhagen sites. I promise we changed our clothes…and had a lot of fun.

After eating our way through Copenhagen and the Tivoli we jumped on a train to head to Flensburg a day early. As the train got closer and closer to my german place of residence the knot in my stomach began to tighten. I have to admit, before my parents visited I knew very little about my “home town”. Really, I’ve been living in a town outside the city (Glûcksburg) for most of my time and had done a lot of traveling seeing as I had no real house, apartment or reason to stay.

Fortunately this means that things could only get better as we all discovered what Flensburg had to offer together.

It was also be difficult for things not to get better from the first night on because our arrival in Flensburg (like the arrival in Copenhagen) was a bit…rough. We arrived in Flensburg around 7:45 at night in the pitch black pouring rain. I had strategically picked a hotel close to the train station and my apt for my parents so they COULD walk if they wanted to, but this was NOT the night for that. The cab driver disagreed. Befuddled that we would need a taxi to go 5 minutes down hill (excuse me lady are you blind to the massive raindrops plopping on our face right now?) she told us to walk. So we did. We also walked to the restruant that night because it was “sooo close”. I could have wrung my jeans out after our walk. You can imagine how well this went over with my mother…

As this post is getting extremely long, and there is still much to tell I am going to review my parents visit in my favorite style: a list.

Thursday October 21, 2010

·        Arrival

o      Pouring rain, I almost forgot my backpack on the train.. yuck, but at least the hotel was nice and had a GREAT rain shower. Big plus.

o      Grab my roommate Wiebke at my apartment and walk to Hansens Brauerei, not to be confused for piet hennigsens (which I did confuse) which is a wonderful restaurant we went to later in the week. Hansens brewery was typical german.. I had meat and potatoes and cabbage and my mom had goulash soup and beer. This didn’t sit well with my allergy to germany (see earlier post? Or was this one of my hypothetical posts where I wrote a million things and never published…)

Friday October 22, 2010

·        Productivity

o      Took the bus to the German equivalent of Lowes and Furniture Warehouse to buy random things for my apartment including: Rugs, hanging racks, a shower holder (because all we have is the silly European hand held thing where you get your hair wet, put the hand held thing down…freeze while you lather your hair and then stand holding the water until your arm gets tired and the hot water runs out) and a washing machine.

§       My dad then spent the rest of the day building hanging racks, attempting to screw things into the wall and being generally handy while my mom and I cooked enough rice for me to eat for the next 2 weeks.

o      Dinner at Bellevue Restaurant on the harbor

§       The atmosphere was quiet but full of character. The ceilings and walls were decorated with lobster and fishing nets and other harbor like items. We could have been in any harbor town. I was proud to be in mine.

Saturday October 23, 2010

·        Tour of the city

o      This was definitely the coolest part of the trip (I think). A nice old teacher at my school has decided to take me under his wing so to speak. Last week he gave me my first cooking lesson and a 5 hour tour around Flensburg. I knew my mom would not be happy with a 5 hour tour but my dad would not be happy without one in general, so I talked to Wolfgang and we settled on a 1 hour tour around the inner city. Because it was so cool we ended up making it a 2 hour ish tour ending in tea (with rum) at his house. Some of the cooler points we saw were:

§       St. Nikoli church:

·      Built in 1358 this church tour was complete with an organ player practicing on the MASSIVE organ as we walked through the echoing chapel and THE poor little church mouse plated in silver and climbing up a pipe outside the church.

§       Johansens Rum Distillery:

·      Because of world renowned water in Flensburg (apparently it’s great) traders from denmark would stop in Flensburg on their way back from their Caribbean colonies and distill their rum here. There used to be hundreds of distilleries, but Johansens is the only original left. Lucky for us they were having a party this Saturday and let us drink some of their warm cider and punsch. My parents both tried a shot of rum on the house and I think my mom enjoyed the rest of the tour a little bit more after that.

·        Dinner at Piet Henigsens:

o      If you ever come to Flensburg: GO TO THIS RESTRAUNT. This is the famous “typical Flensburg restaurant” I tried to find on the first night but I’m glad we found it on Saturday. We ordered a feast of lobster, steak, fresh mussels, fresh fish and dessert for everyone. It was an incredible eat drink and be merry celebration of life.

 Sunday October 24, 2010

·        Glücksburg visit and the Lemkes

o      My german family and my American family finally met over a feast of Racklette—a typical Swiss meal similar to fondue but with a grill instead of pots of broth—and it was wonderful. We got to Glücksburg around 4:30 after taking a tour boat from the harbor of Flensbug and stayed there eating, drinking, talking, laughing until 10:30 at night. Pretty good considering the slight language gap (the wine certainly helped).

If you’re still reading right now—good God, you have a wonderful attention span. The promised photo album that accompanies this entry will come as soon as I get internet back in my apartment. For the time being I am phone-less and internet-less and have to go to school to post this.

As always, it was great catching up and I’ll keep you all posted on whatever nonsense happens on this side of the pond.

Love,

Mere

My New Apartment

The clever Swedes

These last few days have been a building adventure. I have been a diligent photographer of the progress and not such a diligent builder... but it's coming along.

A quick update to whet your appetite, then a longer one once I finish building my desk and can then sit and properly write (for the first time since I've been here!) and post an album of everything that is Glücksburger Straße...

First: A bit of panic in my life... in order to HAVE this apartment i need to pay my security deposit, and in order to pay my deposit I need to have a functioning bank account. I have 3 days until this account closes due to the fact that I haven't presented Visa papers, which I cannot get until I register with the state with my new permanent address... do you see the vicious cycle of this bureaucracy?

I am anxiously waiting for my official contract to come in the mail so I can go to city hall for the 6th time and finally get everything sorted out. Phew.

Secondly: IKEA FURNITURE. Wow... those swedes are clever. So clever am I not in terms of putting it all together, but all of this furniture that I had to buy is multifuncitonal, practical, and easy to pack into a car. Building it has been..fun? but I've never felt so accomplished as when I laid down in my own bed that I built with my own two hands. Wow. You can only buy that kind of feeling, at a very nice discount, at IKEA. Thank you swedes for inventing this wonder store.

That's it for now unfortunately. Lots more to comment on, and a lot more coming up, but I think I'll be a much better updater once I get my desk built. Slowly but surely...

Love,
Meredith

I HAVE AN APT!!

The update I promised for Wednesday was a bit tainted due to the fact that I STILL didn't have a place to live. Which is just, well, mind boggling and I couldn't help that everything I thought about had something to do with apartments or being homeless.

Well friends, I am giddy to report that after a month of being here in Germany I FINALLY have a place to stay. Glücksburger Straße 52 to be exact. For the observant, you might notice that I have been living extremely far away suburb of Flensburg called Glücksburg for the last month (making it hard to travel, make friends, have a life etc) and now I'm on Glücksburger street.

Don't fret, it is just the name of the street--a very nice street with families and schools and things--in Flensburg! It is actually pretty perfect as a location. It is about 15 miniutes walking distance from everything I'd need to get to (school, university, downtown) and is nice and quiet and clean. I also think its quite appropriate that I move from Glücksburg to Glücksburger Straße...it must be meant to be.

Oh and I mentioned University... Yes, I am a student at the University of Flensburg as of Tuesday! Yay! It cost me a whopping 50 euro. I think if I lived here I would be a student forever.

I have to run now though; now that I have an apartment the bureaucratic rat race begins. Paperwork awaits...but so does my room. hee hee.

More updates later.

Love,
Mere

Promises

Dear Everybody that might be interested,

I have been slowly chipping away at a very long update, but through the chaos of trying to find and apartment, still living with 3 year olds and trying to get officially registered with the country of Germany I have not been able finish.

SOO a longer, more detailed, update will be here by Wednesday (I have set my deadline) but for now here's what's going on:

1.) Still no apartment--have moved into a free room in the neighbors house to escape from the kiddies for a while but still eat and basically live at the Lemkes

2.) Oktoberfest was wild, but I think driving on the Autobahn was the coolest part of the weekend by far.

3.) I have 3 classes at my "vocational college"... most of my students are older than me. This is weird. Teaching has been fun though.

4.) If you're interested in a photo documentation of my life, my new town, Oktoberfest, Cologne... and "the fam" I just posted an album on Facebook :)

LOTS OF LOVE from Glücksburg/Flensburg.
Mere

Grab a snack...

This update is obviously long overdue. I really can't put it any other way. While I feel I should apologize, you might actually end up thanking me in the end because in the meanwhile I've been collecting lottttssss of bloggable material. Can you believe I've been here almost 2 weeks? 

I fear, however, that I might bore you to death with even the most exciting of tales due to the sheer length of this potential future blog entry; therefore, I will do what I do best: List. This is really in the best interest of everyone involved.

Cool People I've Met

• Cute couple from Hamburg on my flight
• Monika and Alex were the first friendly faces I met on my german adventure. Upon answering a question Monika asked (in german) in German, Monika started speaking RAPIDLY, and (I believe) in slang in my direction. My confused and overwhelmed face must have inspired some sort of sympathy response, because she immediately became my friend and caretaker. We chatted in a great warm-up mix of german and english for most of the flight. When we finally landed in Hamburg we exchanged information and they stayed with me until my bags came, offered to give me a ride to the train station and in the end, with a hug and a smile, simply pointed me in the direction of the Schnell-bahn. Off I went to  my new home, with a feeling of calm and promise of a warm dinner in Hamburg if I ever wanted it. Niiiiice. 
• All the very nice people who helped me schlep my broken bag on and off the train(s)
• Note to all moving to Europe for a year: Vera Bradley bags are NOT good travel bags (for this particular endeavor that is... I would never betray my Vera). As it were, my bag handles completely ripped and I was left trying to carry a 37 pound capsule of sundry items while also balancing a rolley bag that didn't fit through these obnoxiously narrow gates of the escalators while simultaneously trying to navigate the tunnels and trains of the German transportation system. It was messy.  I was sweaty. Thank you to every nice german man and woman who helped me carry these bags up stairs, down stairs, and across that "gap" between the subway and cement that Brits always tell you to mind. 
• Particular thanks to Peter the Australian who not only helped me bring my bags onto the train, but also came back to my car (4 cars away from his first class seat) when it was time for me to get off to make sure that I was awake for my stop (due to heavy cold medicine it was actually a close call) and help me take my bags OFF again. Thanks Peter! Next step, Flensburg!
• Marten the almost-roomate in Flensburg
• In perfectly seamless handoff, Peter said goodbye and wished me luck and I turned around to meet the not-serial killer-almost-roomate named Marten who had come to the train station to pick me up and take me back to the apartment I almost had so I could put my bags down while I got settled in Flensburg. In hindsight, I am not only incredibly thankful for this, I am also astounded at how well it worked out, and equally confused as to why the HELL I thought I could just travel to a foreign country and think I could just... arrive. Thank you God, thank you Marten... dear friends, I am still alive. 
• My advisor and his family
• While Marten's offer of staying on his sofa was very nice, and the dinner that he and the other almost-roomate Anna prepared for me was even nicer, the truth is the room I was offered was nothing but a big, empty, white room. I wasn't about to sleep on the floor (though at that point I was so exhausted I probably could have) so I called my advisor. He had also offered me a bed, and at this point, that was all I needed. 
• I not only got a bed, I got a mom, warm meals, someone who knew how to open a bank account for me, twin 3 year old girls who kept my mind entertained and distracted, and a real feeling of home so I never actually felt "homesick". I still haven't, and I could go on and on about the kindness of my advisor and his family for days. They are truly lovely, wonderful people. If you pray anytime soon, throw the Lemke's in there in your laundry list of thanks. Really. 
• All of my teachers
• More on them later... tomorrow is my first day of school! So far they all seem SUPER nice and made me feel welcome. Feeling welcome seems to be the moral of my story.
• Fulbright kids
• Not to diss my own kind, but speaking frankly, german majors as a group are not the coolest of kids. This could start a very philosophical discussion about what it means to be "cool" but let's skip that and say that in a group of 100+ fubrighters I found a group of 6 kindred spirits who seem to all be athletic, outgoing, and want to travel. So we have decided to do just that and plan to have our first real adventure together this weeekend at Oktoberfest. Keep your eyes peeled for that wild update. 
• Within this group comes Marie Greenman. Marie (if you ever read this) thank you for letting me crash at your place in Cologne! I stayed with Marie from Michigan and we had SO much fun at German Karaoke on Thrusday night and at a perfectly european club on Friday night. This is all on top of having perfectly legitimate touristy/educational experiences during the day of course. 

• Random drunk dane on the train
• I'll probably write more on the "soccer culture" in more detail later, but while I'm introducing stories by way of introducing the people I've met I'd like to throw a shout out to Lars, the dane who lives in Flensburg, who was on my train back from Cologne on Saturday. The train was PACKED from Hamburg to Flensburg. Little did I know that Saturday is the day soccer is played and Hamburg just won a huge match. I found out quickly enough through the persistent and ever crecendo-ing chants of the fans on my train and the fact that there was NO PLACE TO SIT. Lars kindly let me sit in his seat, but only through the unspoken promise of semi-coherent conversation for the following 2 hours. Let's just say I learned a LOT about soccer, Hamburg, and soccer chants and didn't get a lot of reading done. I also got his number in case I wanted to learn how to speak danish. Great. 

Stereotypes Confirmed

• Beer, Butter, Bretzeln, Brot
• For those of you who knew me when I traveled to Deutschland the first time (6 years ago... crazy) you know that this dangerous combination of B's led to my ultimate, how can I say this, swelling? I gained 30 pounds in 3 weeks and have pictures to prove it. I've found that 6 years later, this combo is still as german and as common as ever. I'm on the look out for a gym.
• People from Cologne are the friendliest in Germany
• Though I don't have much to compare it to at this point, I can certainly say I've never had so much fun in a german city.
• Typical German things that I already knew
• In case you travel here and didn't already know these things, you should certainly know that:
• Germans bring up politics in small talk ALWAYS. Be prepared
• Do not cross the street when the light is red. They don't even have a word for J-walking because it simply doesn't exist. Should choose to travel across the street while the red hand says "STOP", be prepared for a old german woman to appear out of nowhere and hit you with her umbrella. It WILL happen. 
• Hygiene: Let's call it different.
• I'll save the rest of these for another rainy-day bloggable entry...

Stereotypes Abolished

• Northern Germans are as cold as the perpetually sleeting weather
• See: "cool people I've met".   
• Also See: Picture of the beautiful sunny ocean on right
• I didn't arm myself with too many stereotypes before I came, so... that's all I've got. 

Alright--all caught up? Next blog: First day of school. It starts in about 5 hours. Goodnight!

Kidding...

Ok, so I decided that schlepping my computer along to this long and boring orientation in Cologne would be more of a hassle than a help... so I'm going to have to save the big adventure stories for a little bit later.

For now, I give you just a taste of what my life is like and what is to come...

The picture to the right is on the beach on the way from the middle of Flensburg out to where I have been camping out for the last few days (my advisor's house in Glücksburg... not real camping mind you)

I took it today while taking a bike-riding adventure through the city to get my train ticket. I had a small window of time to do this because Germany as a country shuts down on Sunday, even though they are an unimaginably secular country, so I sped my bike from Glücksburg to Flensburg in about an hour. After the thrill of actually getting someplace all on my own without getting lost wore off, I realized that I was tired and the day was beutiful so I took a meandering tour back home to Glücksburg.

Well wouldn't you know it, I got lost. I wouldn't have known I was lost at all unless the signs around me stopped looking like typical german signs (with the ß's and ü's) and started looking like ø and well, yeah, that's actually the only interesting danish letter I know, and I looked around me and saw only danish flags.  Huh.

Yes, I had meandered my way to Denmark. Can we just take a moment to pause at the absurdity this? On a casual sunday stroll I casually sauntered to Denmark.... casual is definitely the best word for this situation.  I'm still not used to my new life and expect to wake up from this dream soon.

Speaking of dreaming, I have to get up in a mere 4 hours to catch a train to Cologne so I should probably go.

For now though, I will also explain the title of my blog because I feel that has been conspicuously absent from the discussion and is actually a driving force behind all my thoughts.

Here are the lyrics to my favorite song by Sister Hazel and if you press play at the bottom of this blog you can hear it as well (thanks to Lauren Friedman for the multi-dimensional experience suggestion...so smart she is)

Wait, wait... I jest. Adding music seems to be more complicated than I thought, so if you're interested you can follow this link to hear it on youtube. Lame, I know. Sorry. I'll figure it out when I'm not desperate for sleep. The lyrics are the cool part anyway.

Sometimes I wake with a weary head and
I wonder how I'll ever get through
Then I think of the things you said
how you told me to my self be true
My faith in things unseen,
My belief that it'll all work out
May seem like a strange cup of tea,
but if its all right with you than it all
Right with me

Oh my feet I walk, with my legs I run
In my arms I'll hold another day
With my head I think, from my heart I sing
And with my hand to my face I pray

There's times I feel with the strains of life
I could just turn around, turn around walk away
Then a strength like a beam from above
lifts me up by the hand and it leads me to say
Good things for good people you see
good things they seem to all work out
May seem like a strange cup of tea but
if its all right with you well then its all right with me

Oh my feet I walk, with my legs I run
In my arms I'll hold another day
With my head I think, from my heart I sing
And with my hand to my face I pray

Getting by ain't enough for me
I know what I like I like what I see
I'm not only flesh and blood but
I'm heart and soul I know

Sometimes I feel at the end of the day
was it worth while or have I settled for less
I sit back and your there by my side sincerely you say,
we're both so blessed
Count your blessing count them one, two, three
don't give up cause it'll all work out
It may seem like a strange cup of tea but
if it's all right with you, it's just fine with me

Oh my feet I walk, with my legs I run
In my arms I'll hoild another day
With my head I think, from my heart I sing
And with my hand to my face I pray 


So there you go. Count your blessings, count them 1,2,3 and I'll check in when I get back from Cologne. 


Mere