Auf Wiederseh'n

I wanted to write about Norway. And trust me, I did really have intentions about writing a nice blog post about the cabin, the ocean, the hiking, the weird naked statue park, but I don't think I can now. I am home now, and basically the only thing that on my mind is that the whole thing is over. So we're just gonna put up this picture and suffice it to say that Norway was incredible. 

But now the nonsense that is coming home. Instead of flying direct from Oslo to home in Wisconsin, I spent about 20 some odd hours in Boston, which allowed me to drop off a butt-ton of stuff and see a bunch of my friends, which was super nice. Then I flew home to an ambush from a large part of my family. 

Now all this is hunky-dory and whatever, and it's great seeing the family. But I already miss Germany and Europe. Fun fact: it's possible to be homesick for a recycling system. Also it weird not walking everywhere, and even more weird not hearing German everywhere. But the weirdest thing is that now it feels like the entire thing never happened, almost like I never left. I look through pictures from the past few months and it all kind of seems like a dream. And I think that that's the hardest part of cope with. 

Now with that, this is my last blog post. I don't know what I am doing with my life after I graduate, so who know's maybe there shall be another Germany blog. But until then, I shall say (in a super cheesy fashion) auf wiederseh'n.

Square Backpacks, the Gelber Sack, and Döner Kebabs

Things I have learned in and about Germany and Europe

1. The Germans are not always punktlich—but they do like everyone thinking they are.

2. The Deutsche Bahn does not always run on time. In fact, when it does, it's a very lovely surprise.

3. It's true: Germans like rules.

4. A döner kebab is the single greatest bit of drunk food on the planet. Anyone that tells you otherwise hasn't been introduced to döner's magical ways. 

5. Swedes refuse to sit next to someone they don't know on any form of public transit.

6. Every single German basement has been/still is a dungeon. It's a running theory I have.

7. Not every one group of Americans is terribly obnoxious and loud. Not every one group of Europeans is quiet and sophisticated.

8. Oktoberfest is the exact tourist trap you imagined it to be. Canstatter Volksfest is far better.

9. Käsespätzle is life-changing.

10. Svensken älskar fisk.

11. Germans are, by and large, very direct and (as an American) it's simultaneously off-putting and awesome.

12. Wifi doesn't exist in nearly as many places here (read: in Germany) as it does in the States. And that fact is completely and utterly liberating.

13. Everything fizzes.

14. Not all European sushi is bad. (As I had previously thought...but I am still staying away from Irish sushi.)

15. They have SBR in Sweden.

16. Jokes and memes about German recycling are hilarious.

17. Spanish Time is an observable physical phenomena, and therefore can be scientifically examined and ultimately proven. 

18. Some foods that don't exist in Germany: soft brown sugar, chocolate chips, canned pumpkin 

19. Some food that don't exist in America: pre-packaged Maultaschen, Spätzle, etc., Feldsalat

20. The concept of "text me when you get home" gets a few laughs here. ("What's gonna happen to you?" "...I might fall into the Neckar?" "Because that's the only possible thing that could happen in Tübingen.")

21. They sell fireworks in grocery stores (but only just before New Years).

22. Some unusual things in Germany are square (backpacks, yogurt containers).

23. Germans are kitchen-oriented.

24. Not all European trains are created equal.

25. Eurovision is ridiculous in the best way possible.

26. The love one has for their dirndl knows no bounds.

27. The German Stare

28. There are few things more satisfying than cracking open a Ritter Sport.

29. In Germany, you will get stared a at for wearing gym clothes in public. Even if you are 100m away from a gym.

30. It seems that the entirety of Germany (or at least Tübingen) colludes on what type of clothing is socially acceptable for any given day. That's the only reason that I can think of when I see everyone wearing jackets in 80°F weather and skirts and sun dresses in 55°F weather.

31. Russian horses say 'eee-go-go.' 

32. The German word for 'projector' is 'Beamer,' and I love it.

33. There is (only oneeeee kind of) shitty German beer, and das heißt Oettinger.

34. German political parties hand out condoms at Pride.

35. Good Mexican food (in my very amateur Yankee opinion) does exist in Germany.

36. The WM is the best reason to see Germans go crazy.

37. In Norway you can buy ham and cheese in a tube. It's shockingly not as horrible as it sounds.

38. You will be homesick for German recycling.

39. Europe is wonderful, and I want to go back.

How lucky am I...

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." –Winnie the Pooh

So disclaimer: I had intended upon writing this post in Tübingen, but then my Hausmeister locked me out of my room which meant no internet and thereby no blog post. So now you have a goodbye Tübingen post from Gjerdrum, Norway (but more on traveling to Norway adventures later–and trust me, it has been an adventure). 

I guess I shall start with the biggest things. I went to Christoph Street Day (the German equivalent of Pride) on Saturday with two of my Vivat Lingua coworkers, Yasmine and a friend of one of my coworkers, which was super fun. Fun fact: German political parties hand out (throw out, really) condoms at CSD. I have a condom from the SPD and another from the FPD. We also went to a good and decently priced Mexican place. It was the greatest thing ever. Then on Sunday, Vivat Lingua English Team took an 18km bike ride to Mössingen to go and have proper English tea at a coworkers home/see the rake museum that she has in her basement. Weird, I know. But also awesome. My English coworkers had some fun joking about culturing the Americans. We then went and played Pit Pat, which is a combination of pool and mini golf, and drank beer. Then Sunday night ended with all you can eat sushi with Laura, Hannah, and Gonzalo. 

Beyond that, there weren't any particular events to discuss. Instead it was more of a whirlwind of packing and hanging out with friends. Cleaning my room was possibly one of the weirdest things. As you can see from the picture, it went from being full of stuff to being a completely empty echoey space with all of my stuff packed into 4 suitcases. (I did it!) 

But then there was saying goodbye to all of my friends. It's weird to think that I won't see all of these guys in the near future. To spare everyone, I won't go into all the sappy shit, because it's just sad. But suffice to say I am going to miss all of my friends in Tübingen both German and international alike. 

I don't think the full gravity of the situation has hit yet, however. Since I am just in Norway, it kind of feels like I am going to just go back to Tübingen like always. I think the flight back to Boston next Thursday is going to be a rather emotional experience, because that is when everything will truly end. 

But for the next week, I get to regale you all with stories from Norway. Y'all should really look forward to that. There has already been a serious amount of ridiculousness. Get excited. 

Doing American stuff

Weil sie Freunde sind

Hey dudes. So I officially finished all of my finals last Wednesday night. Well, sort of. I still might have a paper due on Halloween, but I'm not 100% sure if I have to do it. Because–as always–I'm a little clueless. But anyways, this  means a series of goodbyes, frantically checking things off a growing to-do list, and–of course–parties. The last part has been pretty fun thus far.


Max came up from Ravensburg on Friday night  after my day at the Freibad and on a Stockerkahn (read: becoming rather sunburned). We went to a party in Prinz Karl, and pretty much every human I know it Tübingen was there. It was awesome to see him one last time before I leave this fine country of his, but what was also super great was that my two Maxes finally got to meet each other. It kind of felt like everything coming together. This party was also pretty fun for all the flunky ball playing and an interesting conversation I had with a rather condescending Dane about Friedrich Nietzsche. Which may not sound fun. But then you must consider it's me that we're talking about here. 

Then on Saturday Max and I drove back to Ravensburg to meet his parents and best friend, Mark. But Max didn't know that, as it was a surprise for his birthday. The look on his face when he found out was priceless. It was particularly funny, because getting him to actually get out of Tübingen was a bit of a struggle–I couldn't think of a single good reason that I had to be in Ravensburg at 4. 

But yeah, we spent the rest of the weekend eating and hanging out with his friends and family and seeing Ravensburg stuff, which seems to pretty much mean a series of towers. 

Which now leaves me to the less fun stuff. Everything is ending, like really truly ending. I ex-matriculated from the Uni-Tübingen today, which I guess mostly just means that I paid my 3€ worth of library fines. (It was two days, Tübingen! Two days!) And I still have to do things like close my bank account, de-register with the country, and pack. On top of that, I keep on saying goodbye to people that I may never see again–something which hits you kind of hard. 

So yeahs, that's about my life right now: goodbyes and to-do lists. But I am also looking forward to going to Norway in a week. That shall be a fjord-filled adventure.

Die Krise, Continued

And yesterday it officially began, the whole saying goodbye to people (maybe forever) thing. I know there's Facebook and all that, and that I can come back maybe–hopefully–but it's still weird. The knowledge that everything is ending and quickly. It makes each second I spend writing this stupid paper seem like kind of a waste–but hey, at least everyone else has finals too. 

Theodor left on Thursday to go back to Norway. That was the first one, which was only made slightly better by the fact that I will see him in Oslo in a few weeks. But then there was Unterwegs. Yesterday was the Ende des Jahres Awards Show, which was a couple hours of laughs, food, photo booths, dancing ridiculously, air bands, and fun. Speaking of laughs, here's the link to possibly the funniest thing that I have heard in a month. It's an Unterweg-s made radio drama, called Freiwillig. (Sorry, bros, it's auf Deutsch.) It's about fictitious volunteer firemen in Tübingen, and I don't think I am overstating it when I say it's nothing short of hilarious. But again, in German. Motivation for learning German, yeah! However, at the end of this wonderful event, there were goodbyes. The Unterwegs Team is going back to the States for the next six weeks. So I had to say (vielleicht permanent) goodbyes. That was hard.

It is so hard to leave–until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world. –John Green

John Green is a very smart man, but I don't know if he's correct on this one. I don't know if stepping on that bus to the Stuttgarter Flughafen will be "the easiest goddamned thing in the world." But one thing's for sure, I'm in the "it is so hard" part right now.

Der Anfang der Abschlusskrise

So, in case you don't read German, the title means roughly "the beginning of the end-crisis." Which is the phase that I am going through right now. It's a weird, slow, stressed-out, and sappy phenomenon. Slow because it's been coming for a long time, reminders here and there of my inevitable departure from this fine town. Stressed-out because of both the school things (klausurs, hausarbeits, figuring out my thesis, lolerskates) and general real-human things (taking to my Hausmeister, going to the Bürgeramt to un-become a German resident) that I need to do. And finally sappy because that's how I have been lately. 

The past few days have consisted of trying to study for my klausur (exam) on Tuesday (and not really succeeding), and the reason that I have not really been succeeding is due to my wonderful friends. As you may have noticed (either because you barbecued and lit off a bunch of fireworks or you have a calendar), the fourth of July was on Friday. This, of course, warranted much celebration amongst us crazy Tübingen folks, and not just the Americans. 

A few of my friends and I hosted a day long extravaganza that included an apple pie breakfast, games in the park, grilling, and a bonfire with fireworks in the Französisches Viertel. This was possibly one of my favorites nights here in Tübingen. As you might remember from a post I wrote all the way back in September, I have been to this campsite once before, at the very beginning of my time here with the Tufts kids. Coming back with so many of my friends to grill, hang out, sing songs, and light off fireworks made this whole sappy-things-coming-full-circle-thing kind of go into hyper-drive. That combined with the fact that people are starting to leave early as this week. Yup, that's right, this week, I can't believe it.

But this wasn't the only reason I was feeling sappy and sentimental. This weekend was also the weekend that a bunch of old Deutsch Kompaktlers came back from their disparate parts of Europe. Olav, Olivia, Klara, Anna, and Louise all rejoined for the festivities, and that made this weekend even that much more wonderful. 

Oh, and on top of that, Germany beat France 1-0, and the Neckarbrücke was shut down due to an overwhelming crowd of crazy Fußball fans. Have I mentioned how great it is to be in Europe for these shenanigans? 

But in any case, it is for all these reasons, the crazy wonderful friends that I have here that I am finding this leaving thing so hard. Some of the semester kids say that they are ready to go home. "I'm homesick. I have been away for so long." "I want food with flavor!" "A semester is almost too long for me." When these kids say these things to me, I cannot help but simply give them a blank stare. I cannot imagine not waking up in Tübingen-WG. I cannot imagine leaving and not knowing the next time that I will be back in Tübingen. Or if I will ever be back in Tübingen. 

I'm being overdramatic, I know, but these are the things that keep running through my mind. I have been here 312 days, and they are starting to feel like a dream. A really kick-ass, wonderful, German-filled dream. And if I am being honest, I am not ready to wake up.

'schland und die WM

and also my political musings on America in the context of sports, individualism and Alexis de Tocqueville–have fun everyone.

So I know that it's been more than two weeks since the World Cup (which I shall refer to as the WM–die Weltmeisterschaft–from here on out) started, but I haven't really had much of a chance to blog about it due to traveling and trying to finish presentations during that traveling. First off, let me just say how wild it is being in a country where not liking football (not gonna call it soccer, sorry not sorry) and particularly not caring about the WM is weird. As in you are very much the exception. And may I also say that I absolutely love it. I can't imagine a day where the streets of a place like Boston (or I guess a more appropriated analogy would probably be Urbana-Champaign Illinois) would close simply because the USA won a match in the WM. Emphasis on a. Not the entire thing just simply one match. That's what has been happening in Tübingen, you know when Americans aren't getting stuck in vagina statues. The Neckarbrücke (the main bridge in town) was closed for an hour yesterday simply because people were partying in the streets. A bus was caught in the middle of it, so the bus driver simply pulled out a newspaper and waited for the partying to stop. It's a crazy feeling to be in the middle of all of the hullabaloo. 

For this reason, I am glad that the WM seems to finally be catching on in America. But a friend of mine also posted an article from the Daily Beast entitled Why the Yanks Don't Get Futbol. In case you are too lazy to read the link, here is a brief summary. Essentially, the articles argues that Americans do not understand a sport like football, because football is in every sense of the word a team game. Now you may be saying or thinking, American football is a team game, basketball is a team game, baseball is a team game. What's more American than baseball. Pshaw, Americans don't understand team sports. But think about it, how much emphasis do we put on certain individuals within those teams. We talk far more frequently about Lebron James than we do about the Miami Heat. Or frequently you hear things like, another win for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. You hear about how many homeruns Ryan Braun scored more than the actual score of the game. And you care, you care deeply about the stats of a certain player, sometimes more than the team overall. As this article puts it, for football, "the only thing that counts is the team: did they win?" The cult of individuality that characterizes many American sports simply does not exist. Thomas Müller scored a hat trick against Portugal, but you didn't hear about that. What you heard was that the Deutsche Nationalmannschaft beat Portugal 4 to 0. And that to me is incredibly refreshing. 

I read Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America as a freshman in college, and despite having written this book in the 1830s (first published in 1835), I think that it still is relevant in analyzing and theorizing as to why the United States of America seems to be so much different than the rest of the western world in so many aspects. This interested freshman year, but reading this Daily Beast article, I kept on thinking about to Tocqueville.  

Some context: Tocqueville traveled to the US during in the 1830s for roughly two years and went around observing and writing about what he saw, which later became Democracy in America. One of the most interesting part for me is his discussion and musings about American Individualism. He writes, "...I see an innumerable multitude of men, alike and equal, constantly circling around in pursuit of the petty and banal pleasures with which they glut their souls. Each of them withdrawn into himself, is almost unaware of the fate of the rest. Mankind, for him, consists in his children and his personal friends. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, they are near enough, but he does not notice them. He touches them but feels nothing. He exists in and for himself, and though he still may have a family, one can at least say that he has not got a fatherland."

This individualism is still alive and well. I have heard so many times "I don't want to pay for another's person XYZ" whether it be healthcare, food stamps, education, you name it. This discussion doesn't exist in Europe. There is little to no controversy over their healthcare system. Hell, even the radical right-wing parties here don't want to touch government programs like that. And I believe the only reason that controversy over these things exists in America is because of this anti-traditionalist individualism that the United States adopted pretty much at its founding. While this individualism is certainly sometimes admirable, I also think it is what is keeping us different from the rest of the western world. It is why we don't have universalized healthcare or government-funded education the way that most European countries do. I guess you can view that favorably or not, but I think that it is largely to our detriment. 

Before I thought that Tocqueville had merely made a cogent point about our political thinking, but clearly that extends far beyond even into the way that we watch sports. To extend what Nico Hines was saying in his article, Americans can't and won't appreciate football in the same way that the rest of the world does until we confront and perhaps change this individualist lenses through which we as Americans see the world. 

A small PS: Sorry if this isn't exactly what you are looking for with this blog post but as an international relations kid with a pretty serious interest in politics and political theory, I kind of like my political musings. 

A short PPS, I had no idea that Ann Coulter had written this lovely little Op-Ed for the Clarion Ledger when I was writing this. 

That time we ate Berlin

Back in the Land of the Currywurst

Hey dudes. So after 5 wonderful days, I am back in Tübingen. A fact which seems rather surreal. Taking the bus home from the Hauptbahnhof, it seemed like I had been away for far longer. Things are strange like that. But in any case, Berlin was beautiful. My kind of city in just about every way that I could imagine, and now I'll tell y'all all about it.

Tuesday
We left for Berlin at the godforsaken hour of 7AM on Tuesday. I had packed hastily, because I had been hanging out with friends in the Neckarmüller biergarten and was slightly disoriented from having stayed up late worrying about potentially oversleeping and missing the train. But that didn't happen, and after 8 some-odd hours, we were in Berlin and after another, at our hostel in Kreuzberg. For reference, Kreuzberg is a neighborhood in the southerwestern part of Berlin, where all sorts of young folks and hipsters hang out. This neighborhood also is home to some pretty awesome currywurst and the best döner probably in existence–but more on that later. Our hotel, the Hotel Transit, was pretty nice with spacious rooms and a (really) kickass breakfast, but other than that nothing much to write home about.


Then commenced the eating. A large theme of this trip was food. (And I am going to talk all about it despite my family making fun of me.) The food diversity in Tübingen–as I have previously explained–is rather limited. And by rather limited I mean schwäbisches Essen and Italian food and the occasional nudelbox, which may or may not give you food poisoning and that's about it. Because of this, we were all on a mission to eat all of the wonderful exotic things that Berlin had to offer. And this started with Thai/Singaporean food in a lovely restaurant called Amrit in Kreuzberg/Friedrichshain. It was wonderful. I mean, just look at it. And we ate all of the things, because Tufts was paying–thanks, Tufts. However, this meant that we also went home and promptly passed out somewhere around 23, like the old folks that we are.

Wednesday
But turning in early was a good decision for all of us, because we had to be up and out of the hostel by 9:30 to go the Deutsch Auswärtige Amt (the German foreign service) to chat with the head of the Transatlantic Desk about various issues in German-US relations. We got to ride in the Paternoster (which he translated to the Elevator of Death), which was awesome and terrifying. We then discussed issues such as TTIP, Ukraine, and climate change, and we'll just suffice it to say that he was very...diplomatic. 

After a sad salad and a bit of rain, we went to the Bundestag and were given a small talk by a sassy German man–who continually kept translating things for Yasmine after finding out that she was American. Afterwards, we got to go up in the dome, which was super neat. Our day continued with currywurst, cheesecake, and other rain time activities that for the sake of surprise I shall not elaborate upon. It ended with kick-ass burgers, Fotoautomat-ing, and some beers. 

Thursday
Thursday was a museum-y type day. It started with the Pergamon museum, which holds treasures from the old Grecian city of Pergamon, which lies in modern-day Greece. This includes a construction of a temple and a pretty incredible gate. We got a tour from a nice little German archaeologist dude who didn't seem like he knew what to do with our lack of questions, and I was kind of falling asleep standing up, and the museum is nonetheless super incredible.

After that little stint, we went to the Hackescher Markt to grab a quick lunch, which ended up being turkish food–nomz and then we met up with Ute back by the Pergamon to go on a short boat tour, which was pretty lovely, and afterwards, I went to the DDR Museum by myself because everyone else was rather pooped from the previous museums. Luckily for me (as I was also rather pooped) the museum was small, but also super interesting, with all sorts of stuff about DDR day-to-day life and the party. 

But then Kevin, Theron, Yasmine, and I went to the Deutsches Geschichtemuseum, which I don't think there are words for how incredible one of their current exhibitions is. It's called Targets by Herlinde Koelbl. This woman (I have no idea how) photographed men and women from more than twenty different armies and the targets that they practice on, and it all comes together as one incredible critical view of wars and armies. And my God, is it chilling. Seriously, if you are in Berlin, go to this exhibit. You won't regret it. 

This wonderful museum experience was followed by some wonderful thai food (where I also happened to run into my Tübingen friends who I didn't know was going to be in Berlin–the world is weird) and then a play called Biedermann und die Brandstifter, which I guess translated into English is called the Fire Raisers, which doesn't really do the German title justice, but oh well. It was quite funny, even if I didn't understand every word. 

Then afterwards, we went to a divey kind of bar by our hostel to watch the first games of the World Cup. Can I say how happy I am in Europe for this? It's so much fun.

Friday
Friday was the day of the Wall. Ute took all of us to the big Mauer Monument by the Nordbahnhof, where original parts of the wall still remain without much on them–unlike in say the Eastside Gallery or something. It's rather cool but also quite eerie. It's also strange for a bunch of kids my age, because we were never alive during a divided Germany and sometimes it seems like straight-up history, but then you go to Berlin and it's not at all. Parts of the Mauer are still up just like they were 30 years ago, and parts of the city still look like they belong in the DDR (Karl-Marx-Allee for example.) It's a wild feeling. 

After the wall tour, all 11 of us kids got lunch at a Vietnamese place on Karl-Marx-Allee called Curcuma, which was both moderately priced and incredible, and then went to the Eastside Gallery. The Eastside Gallery is on the Spree river and also a large part of the remaining wall. However, this wall is quite different from the way it was during the DDR days. This part of the wall has been converted into a monument/art gallery and was on the Eastern side of Berlin, as in facing the DDR. Therefore, the "wrong" side is painted, since the wall was neither painted nor graffitied on the east side. Since the fall of the wall, this part has been kept and painted by various artists, and it looks incredible.

Then afterwards, we had a lovely little Tufts meet-up with some alumni at a bar called Aufsturz, wherein the Tufts Alumni Association provided food and we chatted and stuff it was great. Then, we decided to go out to a club near the Eastside Gallery, and then that was pretty much our day. 

Saturday

We went to a super fancy café on Saturday with a friend of Yasmine from Opera Camp and had pancakes which was a pretty lovely and chill time, and afterwards, Yasmine, Caroline, and I went to the explore the Tiergarten in the middle of the city (but you really can't tell that you are in the center of a city–super neat). Which was a lovely way to spend our last afternoon in Berlin. For me, it finally brought everything together/full circle from the last time I went to Berlin in 2011. I walked by things that I recognized from then, and even found the playground, which I had noticed from the big tour bus, which we had drove around in, but never had gotten to check out or play in. In case you were wondering, it was as cool as it looked in 2011. 

Then afterwards, we went to the Berliner Philharmonic to listen to a Chopin and Beethoven concert, which was pretty cool (but I kind of fell asleep–awkward), and then went to the same dive bar to watch Italy beat England whilst eating our last Mustafa's döner (seriously, it's magical, with all sorts of vegetables and cheese and everything). This time it was even more fun than the first go-around with the Brazil v. Croatia game, because in the bar, there was a series of rowdy Englishmen, Italian, and Germans who were all yelling at the screen when anything happened. It was extremely entertaining.

Sunday
Sunday was leaving day, which pretty much meant packing but also one last slice of cheesecake. Then we got on a train for another 8 hours, and here I am, back in Tübingen and a little angsty that I only have 4 more weeks left of class. But I guess we won't get into that now.

With that, it's late and I am a bit of a grandma, so bis später, dudes.

Berlin: I eated it.

nobody expects a grecian fanny pack

So gang, it's been a little while, but this post re-commences the travel portion of this blog, otherwise known as the part where I do stereotypical study abroad traveling. This weekend was a long weekend, because on Thursday everything in southern Germany (and maybe the north too–I'm not sure) was closed for Christi Himmelfahrt, known in English as the Day of the Ascension. Considering this fabulous long weekend, Caroline, a fellow Tufts-in-Tübingen-er, and I decided to take a trip to Thessaloniki, Greece in pursuit of warm weather and beaches. It was most certainly an adventure.

To start, as cheesy and trite as the phrase "it's all Greek to me" is, it is also completely accurate. I arrived at Thessaloniki airport knowing two words "ano poli," which means old city, and no, I have absolutely no idea how to spell it with Greek letters. We arrived at the airport at 23:20 and managed to get the last bus from the airport. It was completely packed with people, so Caroline and I stood up at the front entrance with the driver. It was dark and we had no idea where we were going, more or less what anything said. Our hostel was a bit outside the very central part of the city, up on a hill with lots of windy streets. Thus when we got off in city centre, we took a cab, which I normally hate doing, but when the map looks like this, it's pretty necessary. 

We made it to our hostel just after midnight and were greeted by the single most friendly woman probably in all of Greece. Her name is Vicky and she runs the Little Big House hostel in Thessaloniki, which is–no exaggeration–the most beautiful hostel I have ever stayed in. The rooms are brightly colored and come with a kitchenette in addition to the main communal kitchen. There's a terrace to chill out and enjoy the beautiful Greek sunshine. They provide you with a free frappé (ie heaven on Earth) upon arrival. This place is the most wonderful. So yeah, that's that. Maybe 5 minutes after Vicky left, we went to bed. 

From the tallest point of Thessaloniki

The next day, we spent our time roaming around Thessaloniki. As I previously stated, we had hoped for two days of beaching, but it was raining on Friday morning, so we decided to explore the city instead. After breakfast, we started out at the highest point of Thessaloniki which has a little fort thing and the remainder of some of the Byzantine walls. So a bit of background the city is in the northern part of Greece, is the second largest city and a big port, and used to be part of both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. The Turkish influences are pretty obvious looking at some of the architecture and inevitable if you step into a coffee shop, but more on that later.

Anyways, we wandered down to the White Tower which is right on the Aegean and then wandered along the water until we got to the markets. The markets are super cool and half open-air and sell lots of food and clothes. They are also very loud and lively and have Greek people rushing around and yelling about all sorts of different things–or at least I am assuming since I only know how to say "ano poli," good morning/afternoon/evening, please, and thank you in Greek now. We bought 1.5kg of cherries for about 5€ (best day ever), some olives, and I bought super awesome hippie pants, which my mother and grandmother think are super ugly but I love very much. 

Afterwards, we got gyros, which was an exercise in hilarity really, because the menu was in Greek. We went up sheepishly to the guy and just kind of where like "ummmm..." To which he responds, "gyros?" Then he asked what we wanted on it, to which I responded "whatever you like," so we got two different types of sauce on it (something that looked like barbecue and the other that looked like mustard), tomatoes, and french fries, and my God, it was delicious.
  
Once our super late lunch was over, we wandered around some more and ended up in a lovely café. The shop is a little dark, old-looking, and full of painting and knick-knacks and old iron furniture. Coffee and tea were quite the production and it was awesome. We got teas and Greek delight (roughly the same idea as Turkish delight) and it was wonderful. Then we wandered back up to the hostel to take a nap and relax. 

We got back to the hostel and promptly crashed into our bunk beds, but after a few minutes were greeted by a friendly Australian named Tony, who asked what we planned on doing later. We told him that we were probably gonna get food after our nap. After our nap, we dawdled a little and drank more frappés on the terrace and then decided on seafood for dinner. Vicky recommended us a local place close by, and so the three of us wandered up the mountain to the place and had seafood and it was absolutely wonderful. There was a cityscape view and everything. Also in case you haven't gotten the idea, a major theme of this trip was tasty food. (Sorry not sorry, hate all you want Pookie and Dobby.) Then us three went home, drank wine on the terrace and played a Taboo-type game. It was a lovely and chill evening.

The next day, Caroline and I woke up early to go to the beach, which was a series of mishaps. We wanted to take a boat to the beach, something that Vicky recommended, but it was too windy, so the boat wasn't going. Then we wandered around for 45 minutes trying to find the railroad station (which is really just a bus station now because most of the trains in Greece are no longer running because of the financial crisis). After much searching, we got on the first of two bus rides to go to a beach roughly an hour and a half away. It was a debacle, but it wasn't all bad. At the bus station, a man came up to me speaking Greek, and when I told him I didn't speak Greek, he started in German and said that he thought I looked Greek, which was something that I haven't gotten before–maybe I am tanner than I thought? And we did eventually make it to the beach. 

Since it was windy, the place was completely empty. So we got to relax in the sun on a mostly empty beach and it was wonderful. And I have a sunburned tummy to prove that I was there.

We got back to the hostel around 19 or so (after two bus rides filled with Greek high school boys wearing purses, fanny packs, or fanny packs as purses–wild stuff), and were so hungry that we ate more than half of our crackers, feta, and olives. Quite the tasty pre-dinner snack. Afters we grabbed some beers from the hostel bar and hung out on the terrace with quite the collection of people. There were folks from America (us), Australia, Brazil (who had done a study abroad year in high school in Neenah, Wisconsin of all the places–we bonded), France, Belgium (both the French and the Dutch parts), the Netherlands, Albania, and Greece, and ranged in age from 18 to 70. It was really wild talking to all of these different people. (And really even more wild that the Brazilian guy did a year of high in Neenah fucking Wisconsin–I mean, really what are the odds?) 

Caroline and I ended up going to dinner at a cute little "taverna" down the road with the woman from the Netherlands, who is a 69 year-old Dutch actress named Maria and the Albanian guy joined us (weird world, right?) His English was pretty rudimentary, and he only spoke Albanian and some Greek so communication between the three of us and him was partially a game of charades, but that was pretty fun. Maria, Caroline, and I ate "Greek-style" ie ordered three dinner main dishes (souvlaki, meatballs, and a beef ring–whatever that is) and a bunch of sides and split them, and it was awesome. 

And since we had an early flight in the morning (ie we just wanted an excuse because we were super tired), we denied Niko and Tony's requests to go out partying in the city, which I am not too sad about really, we had quite the full day. (God, I sound like a grandma.)

Anyways, other news in Sarah-land, this weekend I am going to the Schwarzwald (the Black Forest, for those that don't know the German name) with Unterwegs and then it's Pfingsten (Pentecost) on Monday (ie more closed stores) and then Tuesday begins the five-day-long Tufts-in-Tübingen-in-Berlin trip which promises to be both a nerdy and crazy time. Well, I am off to watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Stay tuned gang, things are getting wanderlust-y. 

Die Bombe tickt.

Hey gang. So on Wednesday, there was a pretty large demonstration in Tübingen. If you read German, you can read about it here. If you don't, you're stuck with my summary. So when I say pretty large, I mean the largest education protest that Tübingen has seen since 1976. The 4,000 (the largest of all the Baden-Württemberg protests, and roughly 1/7 of the 28,500 students in Tübingen) assembled at the Geschwister-Scholl-Platz in front of the Neue Aula. They had gathered (in conjunction with quite a few professors and high-ranking university officials) in order to protest a very large 10% cut to the university budget. They had tried to turn the fountains red to symbolize the university bleeding out, but mostly they just looked pink (as you can see in the picture), but the protest was incredible. There was simply no way to tell how many people there were because the crowd seemed to go on as far as the eye could see. It started with speeches and then became a march around the city, going from the Neue Aula through the streets to the Marktplatz (a fact that I am sure irritated the bus drivers) and then ended up at the Kupferbau, where students have been camping out for 3 weeks protesting these cuts. I cut my time in the protest short (I only made it to the Marktplatz), because I had to go to work. 


Despite that the entire experience was pretty amazing. It's incredible to see so many students out protesting university and education budget cuts, something that takes little notice in the US outside of an angry media cycle or two. One of my friends, a Republican from Georgetown, claimed that he "found it hard to sympathize when I am paying $60,000 a year for school." But to me, that seems like a perfectly good reason to participate in the protest. No, I am not German, and no, I do not have a government-funded education. But I would never wish the obscenely high American education costs on any country or anyone else. Just because our government has long stopped funding education (and, really our future) doesn't mean that I shouldn't help try and save someone else's. 

So that's my education rant. In any case, it is something to think about, especially considering where our national priorities lie and maybe reassessing those priorities. Anyways, that's what I have got for today. Später, dudes. 

a german breakfast from the store?!?!

Hi gang. So it's weird, the transition from this being a fun travel blog to me being boring and normal again, isn't it? With that being said, I have continued to go to work at Vivat Lingua and do some stuff for school. Mostly for Tufts as it turns out. My thesis crisis continues in that finding a topic that you shall spend a year of your life researching is super daunting. Woooooo. So enough about that. 

This week, I did the whole class thing. Nothing too special going on. I also sat in on English classes for Vivat, which was super fun. However, it's also super weird for me to teach English to adults, but they are very nice and enthusiastic. 

Then the fun part came. If you have seen my Facebook lately, you will see that two of my wonderful friends, Jay and Ray, came to visit me in Tübingen, and boy did we have a fun time. I tried to do all the fun and/or delicious Tübingen things that I could think of. This involved: Neckarmüller dinner, Neckarmüller Biergarten, Kalender döner, Porsche factory, hanging out on the church steps, Kicherbse falafel, Schloss Hohenzollern, hanging out in the Alter Botanischer Garten, Tübingen Schloss, and of course, meeting my friends.

So yeah, of all of those things, I guess some of the most interesting was the Porsche Museum. I had never been there before. So we adventured to the northern part of Stuttgart to go to the museum, and it was so much more interesting than the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I mean, the cars are much cooler for one, but also it wasn't as long and tedious as the Mercedes-Benz Museum. So yeah, Jay and Ray nerded out a little bit with that. Afterwards, we walked around Stuttgart and then went home to hang out with my friends at the church steps. Cool. 

Then the next day there was the Schloss Hohenzollern, which I already talked about so I'll skip over most of that. We did a tour in German, which I had to translate parts of for them, which was kind of funny. Then we went to a Norwegian barbecue, because yesterday was Norway's constitution day, which celebrates independence from Denmark and Sweden. I guess one of the core parts of the holiday is that you get to eat as much ice cream as you want, which is a tradition that I can get behind. 

Then today, the three of us had a german breakfast, the first one I have ever orchestrated, and then chilled with Caroline in Tübingen, but now Ray and Jay are gone and on there way to Budapest and I feel sad. But it was wonderful to have seen them. So that's about it from my end. Stayed tuned. There will be traveling adventures happening very soon. :)

hamster wheels, churning butter, and fabulous beards

Hey, gang. If you watched the Eurovision song contest, you know what the title of this post is about. If you didn't, first off, you missed out, and second, I'll give you a small recap. But first: what I have been doing with my life.

There was Frühlingsfest again last Saturday, which was, as usual, fun and filled with dirndls, and I guess there isn't much more to say than that. 

This past week was full of classes and work, but nothing particularly eventful. But there was one semi-big milestone. This week was the first week that I felt like a high-functioning human auf Deutsch. You may be thinking that: Sarah, it's been 8 some-odd months. How are you just feeling this now? Well, let me explain: I have known enough German to get by for a long time now. Telling people directions, ordering at restaurants, all of that hasn't been stressful since the first month. But with other things I was not as great at. Germans have a habit of switching to English the second that they find out that you are American, but now, it seems that many would rather speak German to me than English. 

But I guess the biggest reason for this hitting now was one particular milestone: calling a German flight company and handling the entire thing in German. Talking to someone in German face-to-face is difficult enough, but on the phone, where you can't see their face, is a whole different ball game. Caroline and I made last minute plans to travel to Thessaloniki a few weekends from now, and so we booked (or in my case, tried to book) tickets via a discount website. Caroline's went through, but mine didn't so I had to call them. My call was picked up by a woman with a Spanish accent who was speaking to me in German. Oh God, I thought, and she didn't speak English. But I managed to get through the entire call in German and get my flight all sorted out. This was when I realized that I think I have turned another corner on this whole language thing. 


There were tacos this weekend as well, because Marlena is a wonderful person and a great cook. I also made guacamole for the occasion, because you can't make germanized-Mexican food without some guac. Then that night, I went to the Kreuzkirche to play Zombies (like tag, but Zombie apocalypse-style) with the Unterwegs folks for Tony, Val, and Emily's birthdays. 

One Ms. Hannah Heagy gets photo credit for this one

On Saturday, I went Stockerkahning with Lasse, Håvard (one of Lasse's friends who is studying here for the semester), Yasmine, and Lasse's friend from Norway. Weather here has been rather variable. So it started out as a lovely sunny boat ride, but by the time we picked up Hannah, Lisa, Lucia, and Mike an hour and a half later, it was about to rain. But luckily, the rain wasn't too terrible. 

Afterwards, we headed up to Lasse's to make pizzas and watch the Eurovision Song Contest, which Buzzfeed has compared to "American Idol on LSD." That is probably the best description that I have heard of it, although it doesn't quite do justice to the fact that the whole thing doesn't seem at all serious. In case you didn't open the article in the link, here is a gist of what this whole thing is. The Eurovision Song Contest is a yearly contested started in 1956, wherein the Europeans decided to put the centuries of fighting each other with deadly weapons in favor fighting each other in song. Every European country (and some countries you might not consider Europe, such as Israel, for example) send a contestant or a group of contestants to sing a song in front of the entirety of Europe. However, many times these songs involve ridiculous costumes or props or maybe the song is ridiculous, whatever. There is inevitably something either absurd or kitschy in the routine. Then all of Europe votes, but they are not allowed to vote for their own country. They tally up the points and whoever wins gets to be King or Queen of Europe and then that country hosts the contest the next year. Cool? Cool.

This year, there were such wonderful acts as Ukraine with a sensual hamster wheel, Poland who sent a female singer and an entourage of big-breasted women to (almost pornographically) wash clothes and churn butter, and France whose group sang about wanting mustaches and who came in last with a resounding 2 points. But the winner was none of these. Instead the winner was a drag queen from Austria named Conchita Wurst. She is absolutely wonderful with a beautiful voice and a signature luxurious beard. Naturally, as you can imagine if you have been paying attention to the news, Russia was not thrilled with her presence in the competition. But the rest of Europe did not agree with Russia (and Belarus's) ridiculous and homophobic stances, and made her the Queen of Europe. Which was super wonderful to see. Oh, and Russia got booed...a lot.

So that's about what I got for you guys. Exciting news for the upcoming week: Ray and Jay are coming to visit on Thursday. Shenanigans will ensue. So for now, bis später, dudes.

Friedrich, Wilhelm, oder Friedrich-Wilhelm

Hey, gang. So, it's been a little while, and I am sorry for that. However, my existence has been pretty mundane these past two weeks. Lots of class things and hanging out with my friends, mostly. However, there have been a few news-worthy events that have been going down. So I'll give you a quick over few of those. 

Last Thursday was a day of Frühlingsfest, which is a spring bierfest in Stuttgart. Similar to Cannstatter Volksfest back in September/October. Which similar to the fall, was filled with bier,  dirndls, and general insanity. In a similar vein, I appreciated how much I love the atmosphere of these fests. (Oktoberfest is a whole different animal. I'm talking about the "smaller" ones.) There is nothing quite like a German bierfest. Certainly nothing that rivals it in the US. Everyone is happy and dancing and the entire thing is jovial. Also, just gonna leave this song here–it pretty accurately summarizes the experience. 

Anyways, after Frühlingsfest, there wasn't much done that weekend, besides homework, because classes this semester have a lot more reading, which I think I mentioned before. So there was a lot of that. Then I started my internship on Monday, which thus far has been organizing books and downloading worksheets. But the people that I work with are super nice, and I ironically get to practice my German a bit despite being the English intern. (Sidenote: I have become totally dependent upon Rocky for transport. He's a pretty wonderful bike.)

Nothing says fun like Neo-Functionalism, amirite?

Then there was my presentation about Heinrich Böll, a German post-war author who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1972. He wrote such things as Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa... (a title which I can only pronounce auf Schwäbisch, which is pretty ridiculous).  But the presentation went well, I think.

Also, Lisa, Hannah, and I have set out on a three-day-a-week work-out regiment called Project Amazon Warrior, which involves a bit of lifting and left me very sore for the majority of this past week.

In weather news, it has been raining (and that I mean periodically monsooning) this week. So no Alter Botanischer Garten or reading outside. Instead, I have been in my hovel (and by that I mean my pretty nicely lit room) reading about the European Union. It also means that I was wrong. It's not quite summer yet. I tempted fate and for that, I am sorry. 

Then there was the castle. Today, Ute took us Tufts Kinder to the Schloss Hohenzollern, which is a fairytale castle only 20 minutes or so away from Tübingen. It's pretty incredible. This castle takes up the entire top of a small mountain (855m/2,805ft), and it overlooks the surrounding area majestically. It belongs to the Hohenzollern family, which is a fancy family which became prominent in the Middle Ages and eventually became German Emperors (think Friedrich the Great). They are on their third version of the castle, because, like the TMC Loj, they have issues with fires. However, unlike the Loj, those fires seem to have been set by invading armies. Props to them for making the hike up that mountain. It's pretty damn steep.

Anyways, after a rather steep and grueling hike up to the castle, we have a pretty sick view of the surrounding area. Then, we got a lovely tour of the castle, which seeing as it is still privately owned, was rather limited. We also buffed their floors–they made us wear hausschuhe, which were pretty ridiculous and made you shuffle around the place. Unfortunately, like many attractions in Europe, you can't take pictures. But it's an absolutely beautiful place on the inside with super beautiful stained glass and all that. (My mother would have probably gone bananas over that.) We also got to see some of the crown jewels and stuff in the Schatzkammer, which was pretty cool. (Don't imagine anything like in London, though.) But it included some nice tea sets and things of that nature. Oh and a sword that is taller than our 5 foot-tall Caroline. Which is always funny. 

Soon after our tour, we had to go back down to catch the bus back into town. It was either that or hike back to the Hauptbahnhof, which was not the most appealing option in the world. So we did that and ended up getting back to Tübingen at 5ish. But before I get to dinner, I have to tell you about the most adorable German child on the train. We sat across from him and his mother, and he heard us speaking English to each other. To which his response was that we were speaking a "komische Sprache" (weird language) and then proceeded to babble about something that Kevin and I couldn't quite understand. Then he asked me "hast du eine Fahrkarte?" (do you have a ticket?). The entire thing was quite funny and cute.



And now for dinner: THAI FOOD. I write that in all caps, because if you have been remarking on the food part of this blog, you have noticed that most of my meals in Tübingen involve schwäbisch food, italian food, or döner. So it was pretty big news when we heard that was a Thai restaurant in the western part of the Altstadt that was good. And, oh boy, is it good. Not having had thai food for about nine months made this possibly one of the more exciting things to have happened in the past month or two. Make as much fun of me all you want, family. All of the other Tufts kids agree with me. I got a duck curry thing with pineapple and lychees, and it was awesome. I promptly went into a food-coma-type-state.

So, dudes, that about what I have for you. A rather uneventful two weeks, but thai food. That's a pretty landmark event. In any case, bis später, gang.