April in Paris

I suppose "Paris in April" would be a little more accurate but that is not nearly as fun!

I've been here three days, and we've done our best to cram as much as we could into these three days without making ourselves too exhausted. Tomorrow is our last full day here before we head home Monday morning! We've made sure to take the time to eat and sit down and recognize when we need to go home, and so far it's made a difference.

We took a night train on Wednesday and arrived in Paris around 9:30 Thursday morning. There are seven of us from BCGS here, and us three girls (Hilary from ND and Leah from Johns Hopkins) found an apartment near the Bastille area that is cute though quite tiny with a kitchen, bathroom, place to sleep and internet so we are thrilled with it. Thursday was our settling in day, we hung out at a cafe for an hour till we could get the key to our apartment, then we started walking around! We saw the outside of Notre Dame Cathedral and bought our museum passes at Sainte-Chapelle, where we also met a friendly German who chatted with us (auf Deutsch, of course!) which was very fun. Sainte-Chapelle was beautiful, it's tucked away not too far from Notre Dame and full of so much beautiful stained glass.

Notre Dame!

Inside Sainte Chapelle

We also hit up the Louvre before it closes. I know you could spend a week at the Louvre and still not see everything, but sadly we don't have a week so we saw what we could in a few hours. We made sure we saw the Mona Lisa before trying to find the artists that we were more interested in. I mean of course we are interested in the Mona Lisa, a painting that is famous for being famous, but it's hard to really appreciate a piece of art when there's 15 feet of visitors and cameras held in the air between you and it. The paintings from Renoir, Monet and Dürer were a lot quieter.

Hilary, Leah and myself in front of the Louvre

From there we tightened our walking shoes and headed to the Eiffel Tower. The weather was gorgeous (and has been with the exception of one 30 minute shower/hail storm Saturday afternoon) which helped. Also, since we were getting hungry, we stopped for some delicious crepes with sugar on the way which definitely bolstered our spirits. And before long we were at the Eiffel Tower!

Guess where?

Friday we spent the day at Versailles. Again, stunning, but we walked so much that by 5 o'clock we knew it was time to head back. Versailles and the Hall of Mirrors was obviously very impressive, but it was so full of people that sometimes I found it a little hard to really appreciate the room. The gardens were so cool, huge and so precisely trimmed and well-kept, and the flowers were in full bloom. I really loved the Grand Trianon, another place on the Versailles estate, and the Petit Trianon, which was Marie Antoinette's  extra castle. The Grand Trianon especially was beautiful, and much quieter, so it just felt more like the home of royalty. Plus the castle matched the flowers!

Versailles

Grand Trianon

Friday after Versailles we made dinner--lots of dinner--in our apartment before heading out to the Arc de Triomphe just as it was getting dark. We climbed all the way up to the top too, and wow! was that a cool view. You could of course see the Eiffel Tower, very neat, and just seeing all the lights of the city coming out was beautiful. Afterwards we met the boys for an hour or so near our apartment to exchange stories before they had to head back to where they were staying.

Arc de Triomphe

Looking out from the top

And today--another eventful day! We hit up two of my Aunt Kye's suggestions before closing time: Musée Rodin and Musée d'Orsay. Musée Rodin is a sculpture museum, with many sculptures in the gardens surrounding the girl's school-turned-hotel-turned-museum. Musée d'Orsay was especially cool, because it has many works by some of my favorite artists: Monet and Renoir (including his most famous "Moulin de la Galette"), and my new favorites Pissarro and Sisley. This museum didn't allow photography so I can't share any examples with you but if you Google Image any of those you'll see. I bought a print of Renoir's "Chemin montant dans les hautes herbes" as a souvenir that can add a little more culture to my room.

We found a place to eat close to the museum, since we were again starving, and then we headed to Notre Dame again, this time for Mass! We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and still made it to Notre Dame at about 7:30, when we joined the line for the Easter Vigil Mass. Arriving an hour and a half early put us quite close to the front of the line. We could enter the cathedral at about 8:15. The only downside was that we couldn't see the huge bonfire that was lit in front of the cathedral--we saw them setting it up while we waited in line and chatted with our new German friends--but we could see a little from the TV screens inside the church. The service was definitely impressive, and the inside of the cathedral was stunning, or so I think. It's so big! And the architecture is so impressive. I don't know what else to say. The service was not quite the Vigil service I was expecting, but it's hard to say why. I think it, again, had to do with how many people were there. Also since it was entirely in French I could follow the readings by studying the program and using my pathetically small "vocabulary" and grasp of the readings in English, but the homily was lost on me. And it was a very long service--three hours. I had expected that much, but that doesn't make standing up for so long any easier! I was also intrigued by the five people who were baptized and confirmed tonight--how on earth do you get to be confirmed in the Notre Dame cathedral?

Overall it was a stunning way to celebrate Easter. I still can't believe I just saw Easter Mass in the Notre Dame cathedral. Can't wait to see what the rest of this trip brings!

A Long Night

I think I might have come across a little tired, maybe stressed, in my last entry, but that's only because that was the case. However since then my situation with classes has greatly improved. Maria and I found a Thursday lecture class which we will be taking instead of the Tuesday seminar. Not only does it work better with my schedule but the topic is more interesting to me! It's called Introduction to the Political Economy (Einfuhrung in die Internationale Politische Ökonomie) and just the introduction last week was getting me excited for the class, which was very encouraging. Plus not only did I understand what the professor was lecturing about, but I recognized terms and concepts from other econ classes. That "Hey, I know what she's talking about!" feeling is always a welcome one.

So it looks like I will be taking a class on Tuesday taught by my program director about German history and US perceptions of German history. My language class is also on Tuesday, for four hours. Wednesday I have a "seminar" with 60 people called "Berliner Phantastik" about fantasy literature. Think Nosferatu and stories where it's hard to tell what's reality and what isn't. Thursday is the IPO lecture. I'll also be making two short presentations this semester, writing one short paper, one long paper, and taking two final exams. It's very important to make sure that I'm actually going to receive credit for these classes, not all the lectures offer exams so I was relieved that my IPO class has an exam option! Now we'll see what this second week brings, or at least what part of it brings, since I leave Wednesday night for Paris.

Now that you're all up to date on my class schedule, I want to share some stories from last Saturday night with you! Before you start wondering what kinds of crazy shenanigans I took part it, I'll just tell you, it does involve a party. With a disco ball--the biggest disco ball I've ever seen. But it also involves a ballet school, "Berlinisch," and Mahler's 5th symphony!

Saturday I joined Maria, Hilary and our friend Annie (who goes to Hamilton College in upstate New York) for an evening called Lange Nacht der Opern und Theater, or (surprise!) A Long Night of Opera and Theater. A student ticket cost 10 € and gave me access to 60 performance venues across Berlin. There were 7 bus routes, with buses running every 10 minutes starting a little before the offical opening time of 7pm, allowing you to get to any theater or opera hall you wished to visit. Every participating venue had a schedule for the evening, usually full of 20-30 minute performances. Some events had limited number of seats, as we found out at our first stop, but everything was included in the price of the ticket. We went to four things, almost five, which is actually pretty good. Then almost every venue was open for a party or just to chill out after the last performance at 11 or 12. The buses ran till 5am, which should give you an idea of how intense this evening was!

Maria, Annie, Hilary and me at the beginning of the evening

We met a little before 7 and decided to start our evening with a visit to the Staatliche Ballettschule, only state ballet school in Berlin, where kids as young as 10 can go to school and study dance.  This was the event where seats for the next show were already gone, but we could watch the current performance on a TV set up in another room. We also stayed to watch part of a practice that was open to the public. It was pretty interesting, and it reminded me how strong and flexible ballet dancers must be--and how unbelievably skinny they are. One young girl had the smallest ankles I've ever see. Which if you knew my sister when she was that ag (and today too)e is saying something.

Then we headed to the Brotfabrik, where Kunst ist Lebensmittel, or art is the stuff of life (Lebensmittel is food, but specifically the groceries or food you need to eat every day). The building was very cool, but the skit was interesting. In my opinion it was just flat out strange, but at least it set a standard: After that everything was normal!

Then we went to the Theater im Palais and enjoyed a great comedic monologue. True, I only understood about half the jokes--there was a quarter where I couldn't understand the German and then another quarter where I understood the German but still didn't get the joke--but I considered getting half the jokes a success! It was really cool for me, because as I was sitting there I realized that if I had attended this my first weekend in Berlin there's no way I would have understood so much. Not only has my listering comprehension
drastically improved, but I really have learned so much about the culture here. I even picked up right away on the fact that the actress was using a Berlinisch dialect (example saying ick instead of ich [I] and jut instead of gut [good]) and I realized what commentary was being made with this use of thedialect! I'd talked about the Berlinisch dialogue in my first language course, and also with my host family. Another "Hey, I know what's going on!" moment.

Theater im Palais is on the left. Through the gap you can see the Fernsehturm and the Berliner Dom.

The last performance we attended was spectacular. We saw the Konzerthausorchester Berlin perform the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th symphony in Berlin's Konzerthaus. The concert hall was built in 1818, so while it is not an acoustic perfection it is aesthetically grandiose and breathtaking. The music was beautiful as well. I can't describe how calm and awed I felt to be sitting in this hall listening to some amazingly talented musicians after night of rushing around to every theater in Berlin.

From our seats in the Konzerthaus

Finally, we tried to end the night with an acrobatic performance at the Chamäleon, because it was one of the few places with an event starting at 12 (yes it was midnight by this point!) but we arrived in line about five people too late and it filled up before our eyes. A little heartbreaking but we walked back to the Volksbühne (where you might remember we started our walking tour the very first week) for the afterparty. This was where the disco ball made its entrance, watching over us as we partied and dnaced for a little bit on the STAGE of the Volksbühne with the other concert and opera goers after a great night.

Hilary outside our last stop. There's even a special sign hanging on the theater that says "Laaaaaaaaaange Nacht"

We all called the night an excellent success. My eyes were really opened to just how many performance venues you can find in Berlin! This was the third year of the Lange Nacht, and about an hour in I realized it was something that I would love to do again, and probably it's something that gets better every year you go as you get more used to navigating the transportation and realizing how to best coordinate when to visit which venues.

I also saw a parallel, as I was sitting in the Konzerthaus letting the strings' song wash over me, between this night and my time in Berlin. That night was kinda of the embodiment of how I see my time abroad. There is so much to do, there's no way to fit everything into one semester (or no way to fit 60 venues into 5 hours.) And there are different paths to take--do I want to spend my time traveling so I can see more of Europe superficially (trying something from each of the 7 routes) or do I want to dedicate my time to Berlin and Germany (stick to one route)? What we decided on Saturday night is what I've also chosen for this semester, and it's the attitude that I really think is best: a Mischung, or mixture. It's all about balance. Yes, I want to see and experience Berlin, and explore Germany--but I also want to take this chance to visit other parts of Europe! Saturday we tried out venues on two routes, and I think it worked out great. It's all about using your time wisely. Sometimes it's stressful, because I realize that I am never going to see and do everything I want to this semester. I'll have to come back (oh darn!). But as long as I use my time in the way that will best benefit me and teach me about German and European culture, then I've used it wisely. Yes, the Lange Nacht would be better if I could attend a few years in a row--but I still had a great time with this first experience. No, I didn't see everything, but I had an open mind and it paid off. After this night, I'm even more excited about what the rest of the semester will bring.

Finally, as I mentioned, I leave for Paris on Wednesday. I'd like to post once in Paris, because our apartment supposedly has internet, but if you don't here from me till next Monday or Tuesday don't worry, I'll be back. Thanks for following my musings so far. Till then, frohe Ostern (happy Easter)!

Back to School

After a fun weekend today was a complete nose-to-the-grindstone kind of day. Saturday I slept in to relax and recover from Friday's four-hour final exam for the langauge course. We still have our paper to write for that class, which is stressful, but the language course is over. It's hard to believe actually, and with classes starting today it really feels like things are speeding up.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Sunday the weather was going to be nice, so I decided to head into the city. I first went to the service at the Berliner Dom, the Protestant Church in downtown (East) Berlin. (You can see another picture of the Dom here.) The inside of the church is also beautiful, and because I went to a service I could enjoy the beauty of the church without paying an entrance fee. I felt like that service was the easiest to follow yet, including the Catholic service I went to Sunday evening at the Catholic Church that's about a minute's walk away from my new home.

The inside of the Dom.
There is also a huge organ on the left, outside of the picture, that is quite impressive.

Then I meandered through the city till I arrived at Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was an Allied checkpoint into East Berlin during the time of the wall. I didn't spend much time there but I wanted to see the famous signs for myself. Afterwards I spent an hour in a cafe reading a German novel and enjoying some quiet time in the city.

You are leaving the American sector.
But please come back soon!

Monday was a productive day, and included registering with the police and getting a card to the public library. Pretty exciting stuff. And then today, classes started! I ended up attending eight hours of class today, so I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home. The first class was the toughest, and then they got better from there. I am trying out another language course right now, which is four hours once a week on Tuesday. Registration for language courses was today only so I didn't know until noon that I'd be taking a third class today. I tested high enough that I am not required to take a langauge course this semester, and I won't get any credit for it, but I've decided that since I am here to learn German after all I might as well start it, and if it's too much to handle I'll drop it. The professor seems fun, and I'm looking forward to getting to know more exchange students, because it's always interesting to learn about another culture.

I was going to write more about the first day of school, but because the internet is moving unbelievable slow (I know, I know, it's going to SPACE, give it a second!) and my head is full from a long day of class, I'm going to leave it at this. Tomorrow I choose my classes for Notre Dame, which is pretty crazy since I haven't even finalized my classes here yet!

Oh, and one last bit of good news to end on: I have an advisor for my senior thesis! Now I just need to decide what to write about...feel free to leave me ideas.

Home Living

I've been musing about this blog post for a while, but once it becomes timely it's always hard to figure out how to start it. Wait, look--it's already started! What a relief.

Spending a month living with a German family gave me a really unique look into how Germans live. Not only did I have my family to teach me, but I also talked frequently with my friends about our respective families and their behavior. Every day I learned at least one little thing about a German habit or tendency that I don't think I would have noticed if I was living on my own from the start. I’ll start with this example: milk. I haven't seen milk sold in a container bigger than a liter yet, but that's not what's remarkable. In addition to regular milk they sell "haltbar" milk, which mean it's milk that's been extra pasteurized and heated (if I understood the label correctly) so that it doesn't need to be refrigerated until you open it. You can store it for months in a pantry as long as you don't open it. That is certainly something I wouldn't have realized if I hadn't lived in a house with liters of milk in the cabinet.

Trying to cook in a German kitchen was pretty tricky at first, because I had to get used to using a scale to measure my ingredients in grams, but I became a lot better at it by the end. It's always trickier to cook in someone else's kitchen, because you don't know where everything is, and it's even trickier to ask where things are when you aren't positive you know what they're called, but it worked out and I even learned a few things from the experience.

Living with my host family definitely did wonders for my language skills. I learned by speaking to them, by listening to them talk to each other and to me, and from their gentle corrections. They didn’t correct my every mistake, which was good too because too many corrections would probably have made me afraid to talk. It was perfect. And now it’s astounding for me to look at my relationship with them, and what I know about their lives, and realize that it’s entirely built on things I said or heard in German. We had conversations about everything from day to day life to differences between our countries to politics. Through this month my family taught me that although it might not be pretty all the time, I am capable of expressing myself in German, and that’s an incredible gift.

Finally, I noticed something interesting about the way I’m reacting to the lifestyle differences I’m encountering. Things that would normally seem inconvenient or old-fashioned to me at home now seem smart and selbstverständlich (obvious and logical, so much so that it goes without saying). For example, my host family doesn’t have a dryer. Of my seven closest friends here, only one of them stayed in a house with a dryer. At home I use the dryer all the time, without questioning anything. But here, not having a dryer suddenly seems economical and ecological! I think to myself, Going without a dryer is no problem, why it’s even the ideal choice! Interesting how a change in context can really change my tune. Next I'll be saying too much indoor heating isn't necessary--at which point you should worry about me.

PS: Mom, not only do I know I really like tea in the mornings now but I even remembered to turn out the lights.

I'll end with some pictures for those who prefer not to read, or who just like pictures:

A corner of my new room. Notice the plant on my desk--my host mom gave it to me and it makes my room smell so good!

My very boring looking building

Hilary, Leah and Hilary's mom at dinner tonight

The other side of the table: me, Emma and Maria

I've moved!

This has been quite the week! First last Wednesday I visited Lutherstadt-Wittenberg with my program, and then yesterday I moved out of my host family's house and into an apartment at the student housing complex.

We left around 9:15am for Wittenberg, a city about 1 1/2 hours by train southwest of Berlin where Martin Luther lived, was married, and did his most important reformation work. We started out with our tour guide in Luther's house. It was interesting to hear all the stories about Luther as a professor, I didn't realize how well known he was in his time. His wife, Katharina*, was in charge of the finances, because otherwise he would just give all their money away, and she had some creative policies.

Making a wish by touching Katharina's ring as she symbolically steps through the doorway

We also walked through the Altstadt (the old part of the city) and saw the Stadtkirche, the Rathaus (it used to be the town hall but is no longer used as a town hall).

Leah (from Johns Hopkins), Hilary and Maria in front of the Stadtkirche

Leah, Hilary, myself, Emma and Maria in front of the Rathaus

The Schlosskirche was a castle before it was a church (Schloss is castle). With its huge towers it was very impressive. On one spire the words "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" (A mighty fortress is our God), the beginning to one of Luther's hymns. The words are two meters tall. It's also the church where Luther nailed his 95 Theses! The actual door was replaced about 125 years ago, so I didn't see the spot exactly as Luther did, but it was still pretty unbelievable.

Schlosskirche

Stunning

Yesterday I had one last day with my host family, and we used every minute of it, practically. It started with a casual run around one of the lakes in Zehlendorf (Krumme Lanke lake, which also happens to be very close to my new accommodations). The lake is 2.5 km around and the PE teacher for Ella and Simon's school likes to organize these runs for the kids every two weeks. I ran with Simi and the weather was beautiful, great day for a run. Afterwards Marion asked me whether the teacher came from West Berlin or East Berlin. I couldn't guess but as soon as she told me it made sense. He came from East Berlin, and you could tell because he shook everyone's hand when he said hello and goodbye, no exceptions. Handshakes all the time are a characteristic of East Berliners. I just thought it was cool to be able to understand this habit!

Then for lunch I helped cook linguine with a delicious cheese sauce and meatballs, and we had yogurt with raspberries for dessert. Around 4 they helped me load the car with my very heavy suitcases, then HaJo rode my bike over while we took the car (the family that lives on the first floor of my host family's house was very gracious and they are lending me a bike for the semester). None of my roommates were there when I moved in, but I have since met all three of them and my first impressions were all positive. The apartment looks clean and organized, though there's some trouble with the internet connection now. Most exciting to me is the fact that they all speak German well and I have so far only spoken to them in German, so I am hoping this will be another good learning opportunity. At least one of them is a native speaker, another might be as well. I'm still getting settled and trying to make the room look homier (thanks my family it already looks so much better!) so I'll post a picture of it later this week.

Finally, this morning, since I didn't want to say goodbye to my host family for too long, I met up with them again this morning! HaJo ran the Berlin Half Marathon, along with 25,500 other runners. The weather today was beautiful--unless you were running 13.1 miles (or 21 km)--sunny and 75 F.

Waiting for HaJo at Potsdamer Platz!

Finally for dinner I biked back to my host family's from my apartment--they were grilling Wurst (sausage, I'm not sure what kind specifically) and we enjoyed a delicious meal outside. I also played a complicated yard game with the kids which involved throwing blocks and knocking things over. I had a blast because I understood the rules auf Deutsch when Simon explained it all to me. Again, the benefits of letting the little things make you happy!



*A little more background info on Katharina, per Kaitlyn's request: Katharina was a nun but she left the convent with a few other girls after Luther wrote something to the effect of women shouldn't be forced to become nuns if they're entering the convent to learn to read. She came to Wittenberg and a few years later married Luther. Here in this sculpture she is walking through the door into her new life, leaving the convent behind. It's an old tradition to touch her ring and make a wish.