Good Times

Let's say that the Heidelberg trip was interesting. After the grueling 6 hour train ride and the treacherous 300 plus steps up to the castle, a sense of accomplishment came over me. The castle was ok, but my favorite part of the trip was having a good, silly time with my fellow travellers. We had a lot of fun on the way to the castle and also coming back even though we didn't get back to Duesseldorf until 1:00am.

Trip to Bonn

Well, today we went to Bonn. It started out as an early morning, so I was not too excited. As we got closer and closer to arriving at Bonn I started to get anxious. Medicine has always been a dream for me, and today was almost like a test. I knew that if I could go into the surgery and stand there the whole time without getting queasy and then leave and eat lunch with no problem, I could survive being a physician. Well ladies and gentlemen, I passed my test with flying colors!!!!! I thought that it was so cool that we got to "dress up" to go into the surgery. We got to put on the blue scrubs, the clogg shoes, the hat, and the mask. Even though we looked like the epitome of Nerds I know that deep down inside we all loved it. We even took pictures in the dressing room. Michelle, Jean, and I all went into a room together and we lucked out because one of the doctors was super cool. He sat and explained tons of stuff to us. He even drew a picture on his pants to help us understand a process.

The trip on the way home was also pretty fun. We got on the wrong train to come home. No, I did not get lost again, We just got on a train that our tickets did not work on. Fortunately I did not get checked. On the flip side, Josh did get checked and had to pay 10 euros. I guess that it is good that only one out of eight got checked. Sorry Josh!

Germans are so fit!

This past weekend Beth, Jean and I went on a bike "adventure" with our host families. It was really fun and pretty since we went all over Duesseldorf, as well as along the river. We rode all the way to Kaiserwerth and saw the ruins of an old castle that the Nazis had used. It was weird to be standing in the places where I know the Nazis once stood. We also went to the Duesseldorf parade, which was fun but different from parades in the U.S. There was a "flower holder" from each village who walked in front and carried a huge bouquet of flowers over his head. Also, everyone was dressed in typical "old German" clothing. It was cool to see. We all learned a valuable lesson from our bike ride - Germans are MUCH fitter than Americans. Margo, Jean's host mother, almost killed us after our 8 hour trip (at least 4 of it was actually on the bikes). Plus, I don't think she was tired at all when we finally got home! Beth, Jean and I went to bed early that night, weary that she might want to go on a "night ride" too!

The People you Meet

This weekend we took a train adventure to Heidelberg. Seven of us took a train that left at 6:45am and we had to change trains four times, but we eventually got there. On the way there we were kept awake by the Boy Scouts of Holland who where going on a camping trip through France. We met up with Beth and Ashley who had taken the direct train and we had an interesting time trying to find the Heidelberg castle. Luckily we had Michelle with us who spoke German. We ended up taking a bus up to the castle followed by some 303 steps up to the castle. We took both the audio and live tours which were very educational. The best part of this trip was the train ride home after we met up with an American exchange student going home from her semester abroad. She was extremely happy to be with Americans and she even trusted us with her luggage while she got something to eat. We also had a nice conversation with a German nephrologist who gave us his feeling on the German Healthcare system. Over all he had a very negative, pessimistic view of the healthcare system, especially the large drug company, Bayer Pharmaceuticals. It was interesting though learning the German perspective first hand.

Biking Adventure...

Yesterday Ashley, Jean and I went on a biking adventure all around Duesseldorf with Margot. Margot is Jean's host mom and mine and Ashley's host mom's mom. She is a 67 year old woman who is in great shape. She put us all to shame on the bike trip. Granted, she bikes around everywhere and has a bike with speeds and a padded seat. We haven't ridden bikes in awhile, and we got the old, extra, hand-me-down bikes. Mine was the "Lady Rose"-a really tall, bright pink bike that was made in the 70s and squeaked something awful. The height was good for my bad knees, but bad for when we were stopped. I could barely skim my toes on the ground, and I have long legs! My bike's wheel span was about 3 times Jean's wheel span. Jean was on the Hercules, which I think was a child's bike, borrowed from Helga. Neither of our bikes had speeds, which was interesting. Ashley had the most normal bike of all-the Torpedo which had 3 speeds. However, after hours of riding around town, all of us were hurting badly. The morning was very pleasant and nice. Helga came along in the morning when we rode up the Rhine to Kaiserswerth, where pretty much everyone in the family was born. We went through castle ruins and went
into a pretty 900 year old church, saw a hospital and an old-folks home. The scenery to and from and around Kaiserswerth was very pretty, and Margot made sure to point out a good pub that we could take the U-Bahn to and meet friends. For good food of course. After being gone for 4 hours in the morning, we had about an hour long break before biking again into the city for Dusseldorf parade. We got there right when it started at 4:30 and stood across the parade route in the park from the important people-the Lord Mayor and some other dressed up people, and 3 women wearing tiaras. There were so many flowers and flags and funny costumes. Some were modern and some were very very old school, like from the 1600s. As far
as we could figure out, each new group was a little "village" and they were dressed in the style of the time they were founded. It was pretty cool. All the music and festivities reminded us of march-in before Aggie football games. Random things that remind us of home are the best. Our biking adventure was exhausting, but fun, great exercise, and it made the host mom happy, which is always a good thing!

Vienna

Adriane, Catherine, and I went to Vienna this weekend. It was everything you would expect it to be, gorgeous. The first day we toured around the ring of the city and took a few tours, and I got a proposal of marriage for a green card. Interesting! The next day we went to Schonbrunn Place. Our hostel was really nice and we met a lot of interesting people on our journey. I think that that is the best thing about Europe is meeting all different people and a lot of it has to do with the public transportation. It is so easy to meet different people or people watch on the train or bus.

Vienna!

Hi! I finally got on the Blog! Whoop! So I thought I would just give a small summary of our trip to Vienna this past weekend. Shannon, Catherine, and I set off on our adventure on Friday evening. While Catherine had a sleeper car, Shannon and I had seats. Let's just say that Catherine got a LOT more sleep than we did... haha! After we got to Vienna after a 10 hour train ride, we walked around the inner "ring" of the city. We toured the opera house, which was amazing... and basically made ourselves really tired. We went back to our hostel to take a nap and shower after all of our touring. The hostel that we stayed in was an excellent choice (thanks Catherine's mom!). We got to stay in a three bunk room, which felt very safe. It was within walking distance of everything in Vienna too, which was wonderful. Shannon and I went out to the local film festival that night and enjoyed sausage and drinks with the locals and tourists alike. The setup was beautiful, with a symphony playing in the background. We met some hilarious guys from hungary, who wanted to pump us on their bikes to the river... we politely declined. Hahahaha

The next day, we went to Schonbrunn, the Palace in Vienna. It was beautiful! We spent hours just walking through the gardens and touring the palace itself. We even look a nap in one of the gardens like homeless people. It was really funny. We made our way back to the train station shortly afterward, and took our train home to Dusseldorf, after a few mishaps with our tickets... opps. It was a great trip overall, and I highly recommend Vienna to everyone else! Until later.... bye!

Refreshing weekend

Well the first week is completely over now, and everyone still seems to be doing fine except for Lindsey is a little under the weather from which I just recovered myself. I think everyone else, but maybe 2 or 3 people went traveling this weekend, but the only thing I did was lay in bed and relax, which was incredibly nice to be able to do. After two days of pure laziness I finally started feeling better and am hopefully about to be back to 100% again. I'm not quite sure what's going on tonight, but I think Raphael, my host sister's boyfriend and I are going to work out at this fancy fitness club he's a personal trainer at, and then Erica, me, and some of the girls are going to "Chill Out," so hopefully that will prove to be a fun evening. I definitely want to go do something after doing absolutely nothing for about 3 days straight.

Sleep...mmmm, lecker!

Ah sleep is goooooooood. After our (all day and no joking) trip to Heidelberg, which I actually enjoyed immensely, I got home shortly after 2am. I then proceeded to sleep until 3pm >8^) My host-dad has finally come home (he was giving artist workshops to art teachers in the Lincoln Center in New York all this week.) So I have finally met the entire family and I like them a lot. My host-brother, Djamil, is a little (well, a lot) computer crazy. This is actually good because he doesn’t speak English, but lots of German computer lingo was borrowed from English so I can still understand much of what he is saying (since all he talks about is computers.)
Regarding the program, I understand why we started out learning about German culture and history and while I think that it’s interesting, I can’t wait to get to the medicine part of the course. The open heart surgery is the highlight of this week and I, personally, can’t wait to see the horse breeding farm and the veterinary clinic in the following weeks.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLAF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anne Frank

I visited Amsterdam this past weekend, the first time I’ve been there other than in passage through the airport. It is customary (my German language edition of the Amsterdam Baedeker says “required”) to visit the Anne Frank House at Prinzengracht 263, the site of her father, Otto Frank’s business, and where the Frank family and four other Jews hid from the Nazis for two years in “het Achterhuis”, the house behind or as it has come to be called in English, “the secret Annex”.

I walked from Central Station to the Prinzengracht house arriving there about 11:00 on a Sunday morning. The line to get in stretched around the corner but the wait was only about a half hour and that didn’t seem to long to me to gain access to where an icon of Holocaust history and literature, Anne’s diary was written.

The “museum” is principally the house itself with some video documentation (for example, an interview with Miep Gies), some photographs, a few original, historical documents, and of course, the original three, bound notebooks of Anne’s diary, including the famous, first volume in its red and white checked cover. The false bookcase built to conceal the stairway to the hidden annex is there, partially ajar, and one passes through it to mount the stairs as the Franks and the others did.

I was moved as I always am by my present-day encounters with the Holocaust. I was particularly affected by passing the bookcase and climbing the stairs to the secret Annex. However, and this is the major point of this Blog post, I was relatively, or perhaps I should say comparatively unmoved by the overall experience. I should say that, besides the bookcase and the initial stepping into the hiding place, I was most affected by two things:

(1) a video of Otto Frank, in one of the last rooms of the exhibit. As the only survivor of those hiding in Prinzengracht, Otto Frank on his return from Auschwitz, tried to learn the fates of his two daughters. He had already learned that his wife had not survived. In this video, made I believe sometime in the 1970s, Frank discusses what the tragedy of the loss of his daughters meant to him. Also in this room are several letters he wrote to relatives in the period immediately after the war while he searched for information on Margot and Anne. They describe his growing and then confirmed knowledge that they had, in fact, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; and

(2) a quote on the wall of this final room, from the chemist and writer, Primo Levi, himself a survivor of Auschwitz. Levi comments on the importance of Anne Frank and her diary in making the Holocaust real and immediate to those who did not experience it personally. He also points out that the reality of this one girl’s fate, tragic as it was, was mirrored by the fates of at least one million other Jewish children and many non-Jews and, Levi says, to try and understand or come to terms with that catastrophe is an impossible task leading only to despair and an inability to continue to live on. Levi himself, ultimately found it impossible to live with the reality of the Holocaust, and killed himself.


I would like to conclude by noting that in the people around me today visiting the Secret Annex were two, young, German girls, perhaps in their mid teens and an Israeli family. What they thought and felt I do not know, but they were there.

Just Breathe...

So, it's Sunday night at 11:42- week 1 is almost over and I am still alive! Whoop! Germany has been amazing so far. As most of you know, at least those of you that braved the trip to Heildelberg, I'm sick and can't breathe so well right now so walking long distances (or walking up 303 steps) has been quite difficult. But I'm determined not to miss anything. Jean, thank you for being so peppy and pushing us along :) Heildelberg was beautiful and although I thought I was going to die going up those steps I'm so glad I went because traveling by ourseleves was an experience in itself. Traveling across a counry we pretty much know nothing about with no shaperons (I'm warning y'all right now, I'm the worst speller in the world so there may be lots of mistakes in here) with only one person who can speak the native language is a huge accomplishment. I'm very proud of ourselves!

I'm off to bed now. I'll write a longer blog later when I can actually concentrate for longer than two minutes without coughing. Right now I'm just concentrating on breathing and getting more than 3 hours of sleep!

What a first week!

This past week has been truly amazing. Germany has exceeded my expectations in so many ways, and that's fantastic, considering I had extremely high expectations for this trip in the first place.

Getting to know the rest of the students, Dr. Wasser, and the rest of the AIB staff has been fun. I'm looking forward to spending the next few weeks with you guys. Although....I STILL can't tell when Olaf is being scarcastic and when he's not. 8-)

My host mother, Heidi, has helped to introduce us to German culture. She's been cooking for us, sharing intersting facts, and helping us find our way around the city since the moment we arrived. I will admit to being a bit frightened at first, since one of the things she said to me the first night I arrived was, "Soon, we will speak ONLY German in this house. You will learn better that way." I'm quite sure that my eyes got very wide, until i realized she was only joking. (or was she.....?)

Although our excursions have been fascinating, I find that I am really enjoying other things as well. Watching people on the tram and in the city is one of my favorite things to do. I also love listening to our whole group hack and gag over German pronunciations! On a more serious note, I will never forget the feeling of sitting in class and having the opportunity to listen to a German explain the details of WW II and the Holocaust. It was an extremely emotional moment for me.

So far this trip, I've really surprised myself with how comfortable I feel in Europe. Apart from not knowing the language, the culture and general attitude of the Germans has made me feel completely comfortable.

So much going on

We have only been here five days and we have done so much already. We have walked miles, seen the Dom, been to the Neanderthal museam, had a lecture on German history, had two German lessons, one class discussion, welcome family dinner. It's just crazy, but completely fun.

The Dom was amazing. I saw it when I was eight so it was interesting to see what I remembered correctly and incorrectly. Dr. Wasser is right, it will always be impressive. It also houses the only bones claimed to be the 3 wise men, which is unusual for famous artifacts like splinters of the cross of which there are too many splinters to make just one cross. It was also fun to just go around Cologne and see interesting sights around town. There is much more 'arty' stuff here than in Texas. There were decorative squares and stones which was a piece of artwork but it actually was also a wade pool for little children. It was very cool. We also saw a Mikvah and it was nice to have Dr. Wasser there who is Jewish to explain what it all was.

It was also great that we could go up the Dom to places the general public cannot go. Although it was scary to go that high the view was great and seeing the inside from that height made it more amazing to me. The organ music and the light through the windows just made the view breath taking.

I also enjoy when we sit outside at cafes and get ice-cream or drinks. It feels very european to just sit in the shade outside of a cafe and hang out. I enjoy it very much. At one point there was a lady playing the accordian which just finished the stereotypical image of Europe. I believe we have some of that on video with the accordian which I hope comes out.

The lecture on German history was extremely interesting, like finding out the importance of November 9 in German history. In 1918 the treaty of Versaille was signed, in 1923 there was a failed coup in Munich by Hitler, in 1938 was the Night of Broken Glass, which by the way is not the name for it in German at all, but I digress. Then it was also the date in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. November 9 would have been a good day for a National Holiday with the wall falling, but all the history before made it impossible to celebrate. I thought that was incredibly interesting. It was also interesting to to hear about how the Germans feel guilty about the Holocost and to compare it to whites in South Africa after Apartheid. I am glad I spoke to the speaker quickly afterwards because he pointed out the big difference. In South Africa Mandela became President and the whites were able to be a part of the making up for the suffering. The same is true in the U.S. because the whites were able to be a part of "freeing the slaves". In the Holocost there was no way to even try to undo what they had done. You couldn't stop the political situation. There were just millions of people dead and no way to undo it. It was interesting how when trying to talk to Germans about that time they just get quiet and do not want to talk about it. People including my host mother did that. It was also interesting to hear the story from our German guest lecturer who had been raised to feel bad about it, as opposed to in America where it is just facts not taken personally. To add extra value to the experience was the presence of Dr. Wasser who lost distant relatives. There was a German and a Jewish American in the same room talking very civilly about the Holocost in a very educational way, but there was still something different because it still was very personal to both of them but in different ways.

Some of my favorite times have been out in town. Heather and I went around some stores in Cologne and looked at sunglasses. Heather wasn't around so I asked a complete stranger in German what she thought. I was so excited at the end because we had a little discussion about the topic in German and I am sure I only made one mistake at the very very end. In just five days I am soo much more comfortable with my German. It is wonderful to hear it everywhere around here and to be able to talk to people on the street. It is so encouraging to have successful conversations in a different language. It may not have been long but to know for sure I didn't make any other mistakes was wonderful.

This is also a very liberating trip because we can just go to the train station and buy tickets, or talk to Olaf and buy hotel rooms. 9 of us are actually off to Heidelberg tomorrow and we decided to go this morning. I like Europe.

Train tickets

By now everyone has heard this story, but I'm going to post it for documentation anyway. On Wednesday afternoon Ashley, Jean, Catherine and I stopped by the ticket office in the Hauptbahnhof to buy/reserve train 12 train tickets for the weekend to Paris. Keep in mind that this was after another day of walking all around Dusseldorf in the heat for the scavenger hunt, and we were already hot, tired, and slightly cranky. Oh, and Kirsten was expecting me and Ashley home for dinner at 6:00. So we stood in the long line for about 15 minutes, then spent at least 45 minutes at the counter working things out. The woman who was originally helping us spoke pretty good English and was even nice enough to find a 'youth' deal that would bump 6 people up to 1st class for a very reduced price. The five of us with Eurail passes had to settle for reserving seats in 2nd class which we were completely fine with. Everything looked good until she hit the "reserve" button and got an error message. Then our original person had a break and switched in the middle of the transaction with a woman who was harder to communicate with. The error message had to do with the seat reservations for Eurail passes. Evidently the train companies only set aside a few seats per train that can be reserved by someone with a Eurail pass, since the reservation is 10 Euro, and the ticket is like 70 Euro. So at the time it looked like the 5 of us were not going to be able to make it to Paris, while everyone else got to ride in first class. Every time we would ask the woman at the counter a question she would respond by shaking her head and saying "one moment please". She either wouldn't or couldn't give us occasional progress reports or updates. So the four of us stood at the counter forever, shuffling our feet and talking amongst ourselves as she clicked and typed and clicked some more. I'm not sure if it was because of a language problem in that she didn't have the best English ever, or if it was a culture barrier. Back home usually people booking tickets or helping you out try to give progress reports or put you at ease or give you alternate options and ask what you prefer. Not so with this lady in the Duesseldorf Hauptbahnhof. It was a very frustrating experience. As you know, eventually it worked out where we all have seats too and from Paris. Granted, its bad timing and we have to take two different trains to get there, but its better than getting left behind. We have a lot to squeeze into two days, but I'm planning on sleeping very little. Hopefully it will all work out.

Queen of Getting Lost!!

Well, I have only been in Europe for one week, and I have managed to get lost NUMEROUS times! My first experience with being lost in a foreign country was last Saturday. Adriane and I were in London and had problems with finding the London Eye (only one of the tallest things in the city). After asking several sets of police men for directions, we finally made our way to it. The second experience was not as easy. Wednesday morning Adriane and I got on the bus and we did not arrive at the AIB until one hour later. Throughout the day we discovered that we were taking a bus that was out of the way. So, that evening we decided to take a different route home. Our first blunder was that we got lost in the Haufbaunhauf. Next, we went and sat at a stop that was going the wrong way. Fortunately there were some boys that spoke English that were able to point us in the right direction. Finally we heard the name of the road that we live on announced. We proceded to get off the bus and watch it drive away. Little did we know that we had no clue as to where we were. After walking around for a while we finally stumbled upon our house. We were laughing very hard because we were frustrated and Dirk (our host father) thought that we were drunk. My next experience with being lost was today. I was going home with Lindsey and we got on a train that went in the wrong direction. We did not realize this until we got to the very end of the route and were made to get off the train. We talked to a French man who informed us that the train did not go any further. then we found a man who spoke better English and he told us that we had gone the wrong way. So, we got back on the train and rode to our stop which took a very long time!! I am just happy to be here now. This weekend several of us are going to Heidelberg and we have to switch train 3 times. Lets just hope that the "Queen" does not get lost again!

Trouble at the Bahn Hof

Catherine and I had our first adventure with the Bahn Hof last night. After seeing the Dom in Koln, we decided to stay for a while and see the city. We went shopping and also went to a service at the Dom. It was really neat and I'm so glad we got to experience that (even though neither of us are Catholic!). When it was time to go home, we got on a train that said it was going to Dusseldorf; however, we soon realized that all the seats said "Reserved." We asked the conductor if we could ride this train and were asked to get off the train because we didn't have the right ticket. We knew a train left Koln at 21 minutes past the hour so we ran to get another train before it left. We jumped on just in time for our second train; however, we had now learned to just ask and lucky we did because, this too was not the right train. Finally, we just went to the information desk and got them to help us. We made it home but it was about 1 1/2 hours later than planned. Don't let Catherine or I take you around the Bahn Hof - we obviously haven't figured out the system yet!

Need sleep

Somehow I got dragged along to go to Heidelburg that leaves at 6:58am on a SATURDAY morning and is a 6 hour ride. All I have to say is that this castle better be good. I will let you know if it is.

First week almost gone

Well the first week in Germany is coming to a close, and it's beyond me to put it into words how it has been so far. The flight wasnt bad at all for being my first one, but when I got to Germany I started getting a little anxious as to how my host family was going to be, because I didnt know anything about them because for some reason, unlike Eric I didnt get their email about their family so I had no idea what to expect. After meeting all of them and being offered my first German beer no more than 5 minutes after arriving at my host family's home, I was extremely pleased with my whole situation. All of the family is extremely nice and laid back and going extremely out of their way to make us feel comfortable. I'm not used to being spoiled so badly, so it is definitely a shift. The first day here my host sister took me to a little Italian restaurant for the best pizza I have ever had, and then the entire family took me out bowling, which I love to do. After Eric showed up the next day the guys took us out to play pool, even though I am no good at billiards it was still fun.

Yesterday we went on the tour of Köln and the cathedral which was fantastic, even though I was dead tired by the end of the day. Along with the wonderful tour, I had two gothic girls chase me down to argue whether or not my eyes are brown or green. This came out of absolutely nowhere and seemed to make everyone else laugh, so I took it as a compliment...I guess. Other than the unexpected event, it was a really good day for everyone.

Woah, heavy stuff

Wow, that lecture on German history was incredible. I would be interested to survey and ask other Germans (of all ages) how they feel personally because I find it amazing that an entire country could feel so despondent about their history and their nationality. Yes, the holocaust was aweful, but other countries have done similar things in their pasts and yet I don't know of another people gorup who gets down on themselves so much for their country's/people's past.