Jedem Das Seine

the only picture I took of the camp

Hey guys, so this is what I wrote in the car after our visit to Buchenwald. 

When I returned from Central Europe in 2011, my entire family without fail would always ask some variation of "so yeah, what was it like being in Auschwitz?" I had no answer. No words did justice to the horrific monstrosity that was and is Auschwitz. Not even pictures can explain the feelings, the atmosphere. However, this time I am going to try and put the experience into words. What a concentration camp is like (at least from my perspective). And I will try my darnedest to do it some justice. 

On the third day of the Tufts-in-Tübingen-in-the-former-DDR adventure, we went to Buchenwald, a work camp roughly 45 minutes northwest of Jena. Unlike Auschwitz, Buchenwald was only a work camp. There weren't/aren't large ovens that gassed people alive. However, 600,000 people still died over the course of this camp's five year (1940-1945) existence from overwork, beatings, starvation, dehydration, and extreme weather. 

Buchenwald is a quiet place. Just like Auschwitz, all you seem to hear is the sound of feet crushing gravel, leaves, and ice. It is a permeated silence. Thick with death, suffering, and memories. You're with a group, but you're alone. You feel very alone. In this case, it was cold. The kind of late November cold (then -3°C) that envelopes you. But you know it will get colder. And then you think of the inmates. Emaciated with their wooden shoes and their striped prison suits. If I'm cold in my coat and boots, imagine their suffering. The cold and the starvation and the lack of reprieve and hope. 

Your tour guide shows you a monument. It commemorates a cave in which the Nazis running the camp starved inmates as part of an experiment. See how long they can last without food, water, or adequate clothing. Meanwhile, a zoo for the SS Men's families and kids was right on the other side of the fence, with well-fed and healthy lions, tigers, and bears. 

Inside the old camp buildings (most of which have been destroyed), it doesn't seem like things have changed. The air reeks of death and ash. Six ovens stand in the middle of a large main room, still full of ash. 

Just when you think you cannot stand the cold any longer, your tour guide brings you to your relief, the museum. It's warm inside, a lovely warm. One that the inmates were deprived of every winter. You go upstairs and there you are reminded that there is no relief from the thick silence. Upstairs are pictures. Pictures of the camp, of public forest executions, of inmates. 22 years-old, 17 years-old, 35 years-old, 20 years-old. French political opponents, Hungarian Jews, Polish homosexuals. The words start to string together in your head. The faces haunt. You see them over and over. The Polish political prisoner, a bright red triangle on his breast pocket, handsome and defiant, minutes before his death standing in a forest. The recently dead and swollen faces of inmates. 

Then there's the art exhibit where you mix these drawn images with the real ones and everything becomes clearer somehow. There are shoes, and those are always the worst part. The most painful reiteration of how real these people were. And yet some how they were so easy to dehumanize. 

And American GI wrote a letter to his wife after discovering Buchenwald (post-liberation; Buchenwald was the only camp to liberate itself) and it's posted inside the museum. It seems like the best way to end this post.

I was inside a Nazi concentration camp today, and the things I saw would turn the stomach of the strongest man who ever lived. Don't let anyone tell you these things didn't happen or that the stories you hear of Nazi brutalities and atrocities are cooked up to maybe sell more bonds or get more recruits for the WAC's. I saw it and smelled it and I talked with men who had been living in hell for five years.

Hot American guy spotted!

Otherwise known as the Pre-Leipzig, Jena, and Weimar Round-Up

Hey gang. So there's going to be a lot of traveling in the next month or so. For sure, I have Leipzig, Jena, and Weimar next week, Sweden the weekend after, and London for Christmas. Which very well means that I could be spending more days outside of Tübingen than in it in the next month. Which is kind of a weird thing to think about. 

But to start with my week: my brain has not been functioning this week really at all. Monday was a tired blur of meetings with tutors (entirely in German, t'was a struggle bus) and then zumba, which was also a struggle bus. But since then I have slowly been recovering from the lack of sleep last weekend. 

Es schneit!

Tuesday was a little bit better, but having class early wasn't great. But I came home to a lovely note and candy from my Mitbewohnerin, Lisa, on my door, thanking me for the note I wrote her last Friday. She's the sweetest. That night, I spent two hours with the 16 year-old German high-schoolers in El Chico speaking Denglisch. (I have been trying to keep them to just speaking English, but it doesn't always work.) Afterwards, I walked up to Esperanto, the Tübingen shisha for our traditional Shisha Tuesday. Which is where this blog post comes from. Someone at the shisha bar saw my Norwegian friend, thought he was American, and put out a post on Spotted Tübingen, asking him to meet up at Kuckuck. It was absolutely hysterical to find that out the next day. Also, it snowed on Tuesday night. Really, really wet snow, but snow nonetheless. 

On Wednesday, I only had one real class, because my afternoon poli sci class was cancelled. So after 10AM history, I went home and napped for more than 2 hours. It was awesome. I then made dinner with the few things that I have in my apartment (package soup and potatoes...the lack of food is getting pretty bad) and went to art class, where I continued working on my rather mediocre-looking drum. The rest of the night I spent attempting to do homework, but actually watching Legend of Korra and drinking tea instead.

Then there was today, Thursday. It started with early class--again, and I spent most of the day attempting to do work in the Brechtbau. Afterwards was Kaffeestunde, which, as usual, lasted more than an hour, because chilling with Ute is awesome. Afterwards, I planned on taking a nap, but there was no time, because I had to go to Donnerstag Abend, which, also as usual, was pretty wonderful, chill, and had free food. Then afterwards, Hannah, Anna, Louise, Lasse, Hannah's Spanish friend Lucia, and I chilled at Hannah's, ate cheese and chocolate, and drank wine. It was a lovely and chill evening. 

So yup, that's about it for the week's round-up. In other news, it's 2 WEEKS UNTIL SWEDEN! Super excited! Also as far as the rest of this week, on Saturday, the Tufts Kinder and I are heading to a Besenwirtschaft (a restaurant run out of someone's house, usually on a farm or the like), which should be pretty cool and then going to Deckenpfronn, a small town northwest of Tübingen to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday. Which I guess brings us up to Leipzig, Jena, und Weimar and the next great adventure. So, with that, bis später, Kinder.

Anna und die Holztruhe Teil 4

Anna wanderte mit Angst im magischen Wald. Die Karte war sehr undeutlich und der Weg war überwachsen von Pflanzen und Zweigen. Sie hörte sehr gruslige Tiergeschrei. Sie ballte ihre Faust, um sicherzustellen, dass der Ring noch da war. Sie sah die Karte wieder an. „OK, rechts an dem Großvaterbaum, aber welches ist der Großvaterbaum?“ flüsterte sie. Es gab so viele große, schöne Bäume. Jeden Baum konnte der Großvaterbaum sein.

„Brauchen Sie Hilfe?“ fragte eine Stimme.

„Wer hat das gesagt?“ antwortete Anna erschrocken.

Ein Tier, das wie ein Mensch und auch ein Pferd aus sieht, näherte sie. Er hat große Augen und ein noch größeres Grinsen. „Du scheinst verwirrt.“

„Vielleicht kannst du mir helfen. Ich suche nach dem Großvaterbaum.“ Sie sagte nichts über die Holztruhe. Der Zauberer hatte vor den Feinden gewarnt, und sie hatte ein schlechtes Gefühl dem Zentaur gegenüber.

„Das ist ein schöner Ring. Hat der Zauberer dir den gegeben?“ fragte er.

‚Er weiß...’ dachte sie. „Ja, er ist ein Freund von mir. Er will, dass ich mit dem Großvaterbaum spreche.“

„Er will nicht, dass due die Holztruhe findest? Du kannst mich nicht betrügen, Mädchen. Gib mir die Karte.“

„Oder was?“

„Du stirbst.“ Dann ergriff er sie um die Taille. „Und niemand kann dich hören, wenn du schreist.“

And everyone died of fear, pain, and sadness

Hey gang. So as previously stated, I went to Prague this weekend, and it was awesome. Team Spain & Friends and myself got there at around 9PM on Thursday, but actually didn't get to our hostel until 10PM or so, despite the fact that it was a whopping ~7 minute tram ride from the train station to our hostel. We wanted some food and then had trouble figuring out which was the main entrance. Riding da struggle bus. We arrived at a very, very East European-looking hostel. I forgot to take pictures, so description is the best thing I got. We get in there, and there's a cloud of noticeable smoke throughout the entire entrance/lobby thing. They seemed to have given up on the idea of a reception and combined it with the bar in the next room. The floors are made of old, unpolished wood, as are the chairs and tables. We checked in and went to our room, uncreatively called the Small Room, which was on the German 2nd floor (American 3rd floor), and under its label on the door was called the Rehab Centre. So yeah, that's about the best that I can do for a description of our hostel. 

Anyways, after running on some Spanish time, we managed to buy some wine and make our way into the old city centre to go to a club. And it was really fricking cold. I stupidly only wore a leather jacket. However, this meant that I got cold and cranky rather quickly. After meandering around for what I dubbed was too long, I almost left (in a rather bratty fashion) but then decided to come back. Shortly thereafter, we went into a club called James Dean, which confusingly proclaimed on the windows that "Prohibition has finally ended." We went into the basement and danced for a while. I decided to go home at 4AM, in order to see some Prague stuff the next day. 

I woke up at 10:30AM the next day, fully intending to go to the Prague Castle by myself, as Team Spain hadn't gotten back until almost 6AM. And to tell you the truth, I was a little annoyed with them (probably more than was fair) for the entire concept of Spanish time (it exists) and the fact that they weren't as motivated as me to see Prague. However, they surprised me and wanted to see Prague. This meant, however, that we didn't leave the hostel until 1PM. But in waiting for everyone to get ready, I managed to run into Owen, my Georgia Tech friend on the stairs. Him and his friends had just arrived at the hostel. They even managed to leave to go site-seeing before us. However, we eventually got out of there and onto the street of Prague. I led everyone around the places that I knew, which was limited to the Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge and the Castle. All of these things, were pretty breathtaking though. We went to a restaurant that proclaimed to serve Prague and Jewish food, where I had some pretty delicious goulash with bacon dumplings. Afterwards, we wandered back to our hostel, because everyone wanted to take a nap before the bar crawl. However, instead of going on the bar crawl, I played Cards against Humanity with Owen and his friend Zack for probably at least 3 and a half hours, which was actually very, very fun. The Georgia Tech kids kind of reminded me of my Tufts friends, which made hanging out with them both very fun and nice, as I have been missing those kids a lot. So yeah, Friday night was very fun.

Then Saturday, I joined up with the Georgia Tech kids for a free walking tour, as I was fairly confident that Team Spain would spend the day sleeping. (I was right.) The walking tour was great, because it brought me to all the parts of Prague that I hadn't seem before. We walked around the old town square first. Where our tour guide, a Czech woman named Tatiana explained the astronomical clock to us and how the creator got his eyes burned out and tongue cut off (medieval copy right) and how he later died to fear, pain, and sadness (as everyone did in the medieval times). We then wandered to the National Theater, where they had a dementor statue, then Old New Town, the National Bank, and finally to a church with a mummified hand hanging from a wall. So the story on that, a thief came into the church at night to steal a golden necklace off the statue of Mary. However, Mary wasn't having it and grabbed the bro's hand. The dude screamed bloody murder for hours until a priest found him the next morning. The priest's solution: cut off the hand. Which hand you ask? Naturally the thieve's. So the priest cut off this dude's hand, mummified it, and hung it in the church. And yeah, it's still there and as disgusting as ever. After that, we got lunch, walked around the Jewish quarter, and then ended at the Prague Philharmonic. Afterwards, we walked over the river to the ritzy side of Prague where all the nobles used to live, where we walked along the river and watched some swans and pigeons (which was mildly terrifying...hate birds...). Then the Georgia Tech kids humored me and helped me finally find the John Lennon Wall, which was wicked anti-climatic, but still satisfying after all the time I spent looking for it last time. (I'll put up a picture of us there later--they're on Brenda's camera.) Then we walked back to the Old Town. Upon getting there I convinced the Georgia Tech kids to go to the gelato shop right next to the astronomical clock, because that's where Ali, Adam, Ali G, Shiloh, Short, and I went four time over the course of 6 hours when we were in Prague. It wasn't very hard to convince them, but unfortunately, Danny--our friend that had been there the entire day nearly 3 years ago--wasn't there.

Eurotrip Flashbacks

Afterwards, we wandered for a while, and then ended up eating more Czech food in a lovely restaurant close to the square. Afterwards, we made our way back to the hostel where the four of us hung over and chilled and played Cards against Humanity. It was all very lovely. Although I do feel a little bad for having ditched Team Spain.


On Sunday, the Georgia Tech kids grabbed an early train out, but the rest of us had to wait until later. Team Spain ended up sleeping in the lobby of the hostel for a few hours, while Julius and I meandered around Prague and ate burritos. Julius and I then caught a bus to Munich for the first leg of our journey (Team Spain had to take a later bus, not enough room.) Then from Munich to Plochingen, we were in a compartment train. So cool! I had never been in one before. And then finally one last train from Plochingen to Tübingen. We ended up getting back just a little bit before 1AM. So that's about how my Prague trip went. It was quite lovely. Especially with all the Eurotrip flashbacks. And that's about it on my end. Bis später, Kinder.

I mean, Silvio Berlusconi ist ein Komiker.

Otherwise known as the Pre-Prague Round-up 

Hey gang, so not too much has happened since I last told you about struggling my way through using the copier. But I figured I'd just do some inventory of the few things that have happened so that they don't completely go by the wayside in favor of Prague. Cool? Cool. 

Look at it! Look at the clean!

So yeah, the rest of this weekend was super chill. I cleaned my room! It's cleaner than it's ever been--thanks homework. So yeah, that's pretty cool. And on Saturday night, Anna, Hannah, and I watched the Princess Diaries with Swedish subtitles and Hercules also with Swedish subtitles. I also was on the brink of getting into school mode on Sunday. That was new and different. I read through the entirety of my article that I need to summarize for my Zusammenfassung for my Zeitgeschichte class. It was only six pages--our professor was merciful on all the Austauschstudenten--but it took me a long while, because I would google translate just about every word I didn't know just to make sure I understood it. I also learned some new fun German history vocabulary (Verteidigungsvertrag = defense agreement; Wiedervereinigungsvertrag = reunification agreement, etc). All jolly good fun. Then on Sunday night, I hauled my butt up to Wanne (quite the haul compared with WHO, which is also up that large hill/small mountain, but on the other side of it, and for Wanne there aren't as many buses to get there). We watched Norwegian soccer and spoke some Swedish and Norwegian, which is always fun, and then watched Team America: World Police, because Lasse and I were the only ones that had seen it. So that was great.

Monday was a camp in Brechtbau kind of day. I actually started the writing part of my Zusammenfassung, and got through quite a bit of the 2-3 page thing before I had my economics recitation. Then afterwards, I had my first Tasty doughnut, which was beautiful and a little life-changing. American doughnuts, especially any one called cookies and cream, are unbelievably sweet and sugar-y. This was just fluffy, creamy, a little bit sweet, and beautiful. Needless to say, that's gonna be dangerous. Then on Monday night, I went over to my Zeitgeschichte professor's house with all of the other Austauschstudenten to drink wine and discuss our class, history in general, and politics. I love this country. There were 5 of us--Yasmine and I, a girl from France, a guy from Italy, and a guy from Slovenia. All of them are super cool and interesting, and we chatted with my professor for 2 and a half hours. He even mentioned Stasiland! (In trying to make a point that the DDR couldn't/can't be considered totalitarian.) Which was cool, since I had read that last semester for my Authoritarianism final paper (a fact which I way to excitedly explained to my professor and the other Austausch kids). It was great, and I definitely recommend reading it (and thanks, Mr. Zarwell, for the recommendation!) So that was that.

Then yesterday was class, more class, and...random street markets? Tübingen is awesome. We had no idea this was going to happen, but a street market just popped up out of nowhere. It was extensive and lovely, and I bought an awesome tapestry to put up in my room. :) Also I finished my Zusammenfassung yesterday. It's by far the most complicated thing I have ever written in German (I mean, seriously, Wiedervereinigungsvertrag?), and I feel accomplished. And my new friend, Max, said he'd read it over and correct it because he's the best. 

And that's about it for the round-up. But before I go, I just have to wish happy birthday to my grandmother on every form of social media possible, despite the fact that she has no internet and/or computer in her house. But seriously though, a huge happy birthday to Nana, aka the best grandmother on the face of this earth! So with that, bis später, Kinder!

Anna und die Holztruhe Teil 3

Während Anna in die Gefahren des Walds ging, sprach der Prinz mit seinen Rittern und Jägern. „Es gibt ein Gerücht, dass der Zauberer einer Frau erzählt hat, wo die Holztruhe liegt, mein Prinz“ sagte Paul, ein Ritter und ein größter Vertrauter.

„Wer?! Wer ist würdig der Geheimnisse in der Holztruhe in der Holztruhe?!“ brüllte der Prinz ärgerlich.

„Eine Frau vom Dorf. Sie heißt Anna und sie ist die Tochter vom Metzger, der seit zwei Jahren gestorben ist. Der Bäcker hat mir erzählt, dass sie jetzt zum Wald geht.“

„Was?!“ schrie er. „Bring den Zauberer zu mir und finde die Frau. Ich will wissen, wo diese Holztruhe liegt. Ich bin der Prinz und das ist mein Recht.“

Die Ritter und Jäger gingen zum Haus des Zauberers. „Ich fragte mich, wann ihr kommen würdet“ sagte er mit einem Lachen. Die Ritter und Jäger brachten ihn zum Schloss.

„Was ist das Zauberer?!“ brüllte der Prinz. „Eine Frau? Eine total normale, arme Frau? Warum ist die würdig?!“

„Weil sie nicht wollte, was drin ist. Sie will nur ihrem Bruder helfen. Sie, Herr Prinz, wollen nur Macht, und deshalb werden Sie die Holztruhe nie finden.“

„Du bist zu spät, Zauberer. Meine Ritter und Jäger werden sie im Wald finden“ lachte der Prinz.

„Nein, Herr Prinz. Magie schützt sie vor Ihren Männern.“ 

Ich habe gestrugglet (meist mit dem Kopierer).

Hi gang, so this week didn't involve any travelling. Now that classes are picking up, it's starting to look like I might actually have to do homework--on the weekends, oh God. How quickly I have forgotten my Tufts study habits. But regardless of my remaining in Tübingen, it has still been a very fun week. (Sidenote: that's actually one of the perks of staying here for a year. You don't have to constantly feel like you should be travelling and seeing things every weekend, because if worse comes to worst, I'll get to see it during the two months we have in between semesters. For now, I can just enjoy Tübingen and the surrounding area some weekends. And it's quite a bit easier to meet real Tübingen folks this way as well.)

In any case, this week involved a lot of school. Tuesday and Wednesday always feel like marathon days, because all of my classes (with the exception of my seminar on Thursday at 8AM) are within the span of those 48 hours, and they start rather early in the morning and end rather late. And when I am not in class on these days, I, by and large, live in Brechtbau, which is the foreign language building and was probably really cool once, like maybe in the 1980s, but is currently just falling apart and its basement bathrooms look like dungeons. But it has a decent café-type thing and the wifi is far better than in the Uni Bib, so there's that. Also there's a new doughnut shop that just opened right next door. So studying there has a lot of attractions. In any case, despite the packed two days and living in the Brechtbau, it's awesome starting class at 8AM on Tuesday and finishing with them for the week on 10AM on Thursday. Happy ~5 Day Weekend every weekend. :) 

Riding the Struggle Bus

So those are the class schedule things. There's also the "Oh my God, we have a test in this class in 2 weeks" freak out on Thursday morning. Yeah, that was really cool, and it was this freak out that led me to the top of the Hegelbau on Friday morning to figure out 1) how the Zeitgeschichte Seminarraum (one of Tübingen's many random libraries) works 2) where my Zeitgeschichte (the aforementioned freak-out class) reading is and 3) how in the hell to use a German copier. All of these are the reason for the post title: an English-ism that, according to a friend of mine, has been adopted by the Germans. I also want to make "mit dem Strugglebus fahren" a thing. So on Friday morning, there was a lot of confusion, asking people what in the hell this whole "German library" thing is. Eventually with the help of the librarian I figured out where the Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte archives were (in a side room on the main part of the library, kept in encyclopedia looking books, instead of the magazine I was expecting). I grabbed a few of the relevant anthologies and then made my way downstairs to the copier (naturally after asking where that was--I really looked like a helpless idiot, if that wasn't already apparent). I then came with my large anthologies back downstairs to the woman who had my ID. (Here you can't bring any backpacks into the stacks part of the libraries, because they don't want you to steal books. So I had to borrow a lock, give this sweet little old woman my ID, and take my stuff downstairs to the lockers in the basement/dungeon.) She gave it back so I could use the copiers. However, German copiers are not immediately apparent as to how exactly they work. So after a minute or so of looking confused, this sweet little old woman came over and showed me exactly how to use it, and then again after I wanted to double-side the sheets and couldn't quite figure out how. (1 seitig>1 seitig, 2 seitig>1 seitig, 1 seitig>2 seitig, and 2 seitig>2 seitig got a little bit confusing .) So there was that. I eventually got the hang of it. So just like everything in Germany, I have to look rather dumb before I can actually get things right. 

Which leads me back to both fun things and, unchronologically, to the start of my week. I didn't really do much during the day on Sunday besides print out some reading for my econ and poli sci classes. However, that evening, Hannah invited me to go to Wohnzimmer and watch Tatort with some people from this student group that we're becoming a part of. (It's kind of in that awkward stage where we are either still becoming a part of it or are already a part of it and I just don't know.) So to backtrack: Tatort is a German crime show (translated to English as Crime Scene), which comes on every Sunday. Each episode is set in a one of a few different major location in German and the actors in each are associated with the place. It's been running since the 1970s. And from what I understand, Germans love it. This past Sunday's was set in Erfurt and handelt von the murder of a teenage girl. (Sorry not sorry for the Denglish...it was really the first thing that came to my head...I'm starting to talk kind of funny.) So Hannah, Erin (an American who works for Unterwegs), a German guy named Max, and I watched Tatort in Wohnzimmer sitting at an old sewing table. (More background: Wohnzimmer is a sort of hipster-y bar in Tübingen. It's set up like a living room, hence the name, with couches and random tables--ie an old sewing table--, has a large projector to watch football matches, Tatort, etc, and has tons of board games. It's pretty cool.) Now here comes the struggle part. I went up to the bar and asked for a Paulaner. I didn't specify Hefeweizen, because I figured everyone's first assumption when they heard Paulaner was beer. Well, nope. I went back to the table with a bottle, I didn't really pay too much attention to it. However, when I opened it is tasted like Coke mixed with Sprite. That's because this Paulaner was called a Spezi. It's a weird, but still pretty good soda drink. Most certainly not a beer. When everyone was done laughing, Max's response was "I have never seen someone fail to order a beer in Germany." I have a talent. (Although Max did reassure me the same could have happened to him, as most humans would assume that, when one is asking for a Paulaner, a beer--and not a weird soda drink--is desired.)

In addition, this week, I did zumba with Unterwegs people on Monday and began my English conversation group-leading with the local high school students on Tuesday. That was really fun, and the 7 girls are cool. We played some games, and they told me they are going to teach me Schwäbisch. So I might come back talking really funny. (Schwäbisch German, in addition to having completely different words for things, has a really hilarious accent.)

Then on Thursday, there was Donnerstag Abend with Unterwegs, which was great fun. It's cool to becoming part of this group. The people are super awesome and funny, and they feed me free food every other Thursday, so that doesn't suck. Each Donnerstag Abend involves a dinner, some kids in the group playing music, a speech, dessert, and great conversation. During this one, I learned from Max that "ich habe gestrugglet" "(at least amongst him and his friends) is a thing. A thing that I am now going to use a lot. So yeah, Donnerstag Abend, great fun. 

She's a beaut.

Nothing too much happened on Friday besides me making a bomb avocado, tomato, Landschicken (similar to bacon) and Swiss cheese (although not called Swiss cheese) grilled cheese andthe copier struggles and then 4 hours of "intracultural communication" nonsense. Ute asked us to go to this workshop with this woman, who basically told us to reflect on our experiences and told us not to assume that the Germans will act how we think they will. I'm being bratty. The stuff was pretty interesting. But 4 hours with this woman (who was nice when she wasn't doing her job, but was rather condescending when she was) and no food (it was 12:30 to 4:30, as in right over lunch) made me rather cranky. Afterwards, we had a lovely dinner of ribs and Kartoffelsalat at Marlena's place. That was awesome and delicious. I also made 6 and a half avocados worth of guacamole again, to use up the rest of the cilantro in my fridge. So I definitely ate at least 2 avocados yesterday. Then later, Hannah, Louise, Lisa, Anna, and I went to see Thor 2...in German. The movie was surprisingly understandable. Especially given the last time I saw a movie in German (The World's End). It wasn't really just having to get the gist of things most of the time, but I actually understood each entire sentence. I don't know if that's because Thor's screenplay was simpler to understand, or my German is getting better. I liked it, but I don't think I will know whether or not it's a good movie until I see it in English.

So yeah, that's a very extended summary of my adventures this week. Big news for the upcoming weeks: I'm going to Prague next weekend! Team Spain and Friends and myself (to name everyone: Dani, Julius, Luiza, Parvati, Chichi, Gonzalo, and I) are leaving on Thursday for the lovely city that is Prague. This time, we're going to find the John Lennon Wall. Then a week after we get back, Tufts is taking us to Leipzig, Jena, and Weimar for a week. Which is awesome for two reasons: no school for a week and I get to see Max! Finally, SCHWEDEN IST IN 26 TAGE!! In any case, I should probably stop procrastinating and start doing my homework. Bis später, Kinder. 

Anna und die Holztruhe Teil 2

Hallo, Leute! Hier ist der zweite Teil von meiner Geschichte. :)

„Du hast von der Holztruhe gehört, ja?“ fragte der Zauberer.

„Natürlich Herr Zauberer, aber ich weiß nicht was drin ist.“

Er erzählte ihr ein bisschen über die Holztruhe, aber nicht alles. Die Holztruhe kam nicht von dieser Welt. Vor vielen Jahren reiste der Zauberer nach dem Planet, wovon die Holztruhe kam, aber er wollte nicht mehr sagen. „Du musst es selbst herausfinden“ sagte er. Er gab ihr eine Karte des magischen Walds und einen Ring.

„Was ist das?“ fragte sie.

„Es ist ein magischer Ring, und du wirst der brauchen. Es gibt viele Freunde im Wald aber auch viele Feinde.“

Sie zog den Ring an, und mit einem ‚Auf Wiederseh’n’ ging sie von dem Zauberer weg. Schnell ging sie ins Dorf, um ‚Auf Wiederseh’n’ zu ihrem kleinen Bruder zu sagen. Wenn sie zurück kam, lag er im Bett. „Anna“ flüsterte er kränklich aber glücklich. Anna erzählte ihm über den Zauberer, die Holztruhe, und den Ring. „Anna, du kannst das nicht tun“ bettelte er. „Es ist zu gefährlich.“

„Lukas, ich muss das machen. Du bist die einzige Person, die ich noch habe“ sagte sie mit Tränen in den Augen. Bäcker Leon wird dir Essen bringen, aber jetzt kann ich nicht mehr sprechen. Wir haben nicht viel Zeit.“ Dann nahm sie ihre Umhang und ging weg.