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England!

From March 7-10, I was in England visiting my friends Ben and Joni! After 10 hours of traveling, I finally reached Gloucester Green bus station in Oxford at 1 PM. Ben, a friend from my childhood, met me there and we walked together to The Alternative Tuck Shop, a sandwich shop, to buy lunch. In the library next to St. Catherine’s College (aka Catz, Ben’s college) we caught up on everything as we ate our chicken sandwiches. I was very pleased to be able to see my good friend for the first time in 6 months! Before I flew to Germany, I actually wanted to visit him at his college in September, but it didn’t work out, since I was working long weeks for a moving company. At the very least, I had this opportunity to visit Ben in Europe! After lunch, Ben had to rush off to class and I took a nap in his room. Once Ben got back, he gave me a tour of the grand Oxford campus. With over 20,000 students and 38 colleges, Oxford is pretty big! We spent most of our time at Magdalen College, which has become world-famous not through its academic reputation, but the Harry Potter movies! I saw the Great Hall, where the Hogwarts students eat their meals. The stairway, where all the first-year students have to wait until they are allowed inside. And last but not least the Quidditch training fields, which happen to be right outside of the Great Hall. I can only imagine how much Magdalen College students must love all the tourists. After walking for so long, Ben and I were thirsty, so our first instinct was of course to search for a suitable pub! First, Ben pointed out The Eagle and Child, a pub that JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis frequented together. We ended up having some beer though at The White Horse, another famous pub that Ben recommended for their cheap, tasty ales. We conversed some more there until 6 PM or so, when we headed over to the Oxford Union for a question and answer session with Hatem Seif El Nasr, the Egyptian ambassador to Great Britain. It was very interesting to hear his perspective on the new Egyptian government and the ever changing Middle East. This next part of my trip I really liked. Ben and I bought doner kebabs at Hassan’s, a much loved food truck in Oxford, and headed back to Catz for the soccer game between Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen. Never before in the history of the Champions League has a player scored five goals in one game, but that is just what Messi did that evening. Unbelievable! It was especially amazing since Bayer Leverkusen is actually a decent soccer team. For the rest of the night, I played pool with Ben and his friends and afterward we watched a movie.    

On Thursday, Ben had some work in the afternoon to do, so I had the chance to check out Oxford on my own. First, I spent almost three hours in the Natural History Museum. As a Bio major, I found everything fascinating, but my favorite part was the exhibit on evolution. One could see the evolution of the genus Homo very clearly. At the moment, my favorite ancestor is definitely Homo heidelbergensis, since I am doing an internship this summer in Heidelberg! Right now, I don’t know all of the details, but I will definitely be working with a German PhD student on her project: “developing a decision support system for minimally invasive surgery with a special focus on the retroperitoneum.” Something that I really liked in the museum was reading a short description about the life of Charles Darwin. When studying abroad, time can sometimes go by pretty slowly. Ten months can feel like an eternity at times. Everything, however, is really just a matter of perspective. When he was just 22 years old, Darwin started his voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle. He would not return to England until he was 27! Five years later! I think that I speak for most people my age when I say that I have no desire to embark on a journey that would keep me away from my homeland for so long. Plus, there was no Skype back then! Today’s modern world travelers are spoiled in comparison to Darwin. Anyway, what I really am just trying to say is that now I am convinced that 10 months in Europe is really not so long.

After the Natural History Museum, I visited the Pitt Rivers Anthropology Museum. I thought, hey, here is the perfect transition! I just learned about how humans evolved over billions of years. Now what have we done in the past couple thousand? Honestly though, I just found Pitt Rivers really boring. Here was a big collection of stuff that no one needs anymore. Don’t get me wrong, anthropology is definitely important; it just simply doesn’t interest me that much. Also, there was one quite depressing floor that was filled entirely with weapons. Weapons from every corner of the globe. After thousands of years of civilization we are still searching for the solutions to quite solvable problems like poverty and inequality. Somehow though, we’ve always been really good at killing each other. Indeed, it is amazing how many ways are out there that one can go about killing another human being. It’s really too bad when we use our intelligence for such terrible things. The History of Science Museum was not nearly as depressing, but it was also kind of boring. Then, there were two churches in the area, St. Michaels and St. Marys, but neither was especially beautiful. To my surprise, what would finally brighten my mood was of all things botany! I found the Botanical Garden to be really nice, even though most of the flowers weren’t blooming yet. It was cool just to walk through the gardens and remember different things from my botany class. My favorite spot was an area with plants that are essential for modern medicine. There were Legumes that were important for the development of blood-typing. Sea grapes, which are used in cold medicine. Even daffodils are now being used to create Alzheimer’s drugs. There is hope for humanity after all!  

New paragraph! Don’t worry reader, there isn’t a ton left to tell. On Thursday evening, I had my first dinner at an Oxford dining hall. St. Catz’s dining hall was essentially a modern version of the Great Hall in Magdalen. Long wooden tables, comfortable lighting, and all different types of silverware. When the master (yes, there is a master of every college) and his colleagues enter the room, all of the students must stand and remain silent. Not until the master says Benedictus benedicat (May the Blessed One give a blessing) can everyone eat. No one can really eat though until the student waiters and waitresses bring out the soup of the night. Then comes the main course and of course dessert. This is dinner for my friend Ben Monday through Friday. Not too shabby! After dinner, I had a second dinner with my Middlebury friend Wenbo in town. Okay, not really dinner, more like onion rings at McDonalds, but we did get to catch up on everything until around midnight. Then, I went to go meet up with Ben and his friends to go clubbing and that was fun. Naturally, I slept in on Friday.  

I also did interesting things on Friday (I hope that you find my post up to now interesting!), but in the interest of time, let’s move on to Saturday and London! On Saturday morning, I took the Oxford Tube bus to London with Wenbo, since she also had to go into the city. It was good to talk some more with her before we went our separate ways. When I got to Victoria Station, it was already noon. I just had five hours to see London before I had to return to the station to catch my bus to London-Stansted airport. Therefore, I headed directly to Buckingham Palace to start my sightseeing. That was followed by walking through St. James’s Park and seeing Westminster Abbey. Both were quite nice. At that point in time, I got the call I had been awaiting. Joni, my German exchange partner from high school was on the other end of the line! I fumbled with my map to try to figure out where I was, but Joni just recommended that we meet under Big Ben in 20 minutes. I rushed over to the clock tower and there, I got a text message from Joni. I should be on the lookout for a green bike, silver helmet, and black jacket. Ten minutes later, I took a picture of an approaching bicyclist with a shiny silver helmet. Joni gave me a hug and we greeted each other. A part of me wanted to speak to him in German, but we were in England, so I had no problem speaking to him in English. If we meet again in Germany, we can definitely speak in German then. Joni and I crossed Westminster Bridge and then headed north along the Thames. The journey was slow, since there were so many tourists and Londoners up and about, but that was all right with me. The weather was warm and sunny and I was with Joni, whom I had not seen for four years. It was really nice to be able to catch up with him in London of all places! After passing by the London Eye, we reached the Millennium Bridge (the bridge that gets destroyed in Harry Potter). There, a nice man took a picture of Joni and I with the St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background. Then, we visited Temple Church, which was built in the 12^th century. It was very nice there, because everything was so quiet and nature was present. Next, we returned to the hustle and bustle of London and saw the Royal Courts of Justice. Then, we toured the campus of London School of Economics, where Joni is currently studying. I am very jealous that he is able to study at this famous school and live out of all places in the center of London! Finally, Joni and I found a Subway where we had dinner and afterward I had to use the Tube to rush back to Victoria. It would have been nice to spend more time with Joni in London, but I am just happy, that we were able to see each other again. And I am sure that we will be able to meet up in Germany later on too! Thanks for reading and until next time!   

Roses and Worms

Finally! I am done with the Wintersemester and now I can continue my blog!

I would like to start with Rosenmontag (Rose Monday). Rosenmontag happens every year on the Monday before Ash Wednesday. In Mainz and Cologne especially there are big parades and a lot of festivities on this day. Emily and I had the pleasure of spending the holiday with our director Heike. Her apartment is right on the parade route, so we had a great view from the third floor of her building. The parade was much better than I expected! It did last 3 hours, but I was never at any point bored, since the floats were so varied. There were giant floats like a pirate ship with people having a dance party, Jacuzzi and speedos included, and also small floats, like three guys wearing black, green and yellow that were members of- you guessed it- the Jamaican bobsled team! (see photos on FB). There was the traditional Mainz royal guard and political satire. And at the end of the parade was of course the Zug Ente/Ende, or “parade duck/end”, an amusing German play on words. All in all, a really nice break before diving into pretty much just botany for a week.     

Now, however, everything is great! Although I haven’t gotten my grades back yet, I am sure that I at least passed the botany exam. Most importantly, I can now begin my “Febmester!” What that means is that since I am not enrolled in any courses for the spring, I will do an extra fall semester in 2013 and thus “feb” myself, by participating in the February 2014 graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2013.5. Best of all, based on my understanding of how it all works, I can participated in the May 2013 festivities as well. Gotta love Midd!

Anyway, today I went to the city of Worms, so I’ll give a somewhat brief overview of what I was up to there. I actually got to sort of travel there for free, since my student ticket is still valid in the region until the end of March. Once I arrived, I started out by visiting the “Holy Sands Cemetery”, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe. It was astonishing that some of the tombstones there were for people that lived over a millennium ago! Afterward, I tried to visit St. Peter’s Cathedral, but since it was only 9 AM, I had to wait an hour before I could get in. The early bird catches the worm? Not this time J. Instead, I headed off to the old city wall and saw the Siegfried monument, Church of the Holy Trinity and City Hall on my way. The wall was really cool! One can still see a lot of the original wall that once encircled the city, including this one tiny gate that I found amusing. Next, I went to the Synagogue of Worms, but once again, too early! Man! So, I jumped ahead in my planned route and headed for the Liebfrauenkirche (Beloved Lady’s Church) without the help of my map. I sort of knew where it was, since I found it on Google Earth last night, but I was careful not to get lost until I saw the church in the distance with its giant wine orchards. The famous Liebfrauenmilch is produced here, although I had never heard of this wine until yesterday. In any case, the extra trip wasn’t really worth it, since one could only see the inside of the church from the main entrance behind bars. The synagogue though, which I returned to right after, was definitely worth visiting. The original synagogue was sadly destroyed in the Night of Broken Glass, but the citizens of Worms have worked together to rebuild it using the original blueprints. Somehow, I have never actually been in a synagogue until today, so I wore a yarmulke for the first time. I felt mixed emotions of happiness and sadness when I saw the Holocaust memorial inside of the synagogue. On the one hand, some of the names have actually been erased from the plaque, because these people were discovered to have actually survived the Holocaust. On the other hand, new names are continuously added as more victims’ names are uncovered. The goal is to eventually find all the names of the citizens of Worms that perished in the Holocaust. Outside of the synagogue, there is a fascinating underground ritual bath that was built in 1186. It was pretty cool to just stumble upon by accident.            

Okay, new paragraph J. After the synagogue, I visited Ludwig Square, St. Martin’s church and the 118er monument. All very nice. Then it was time to see the famous Martin Luther monument, the biggest Reformation monument on Earth! Who did the research to figure that out? No idea, but definitely good material for a brochure! So much for a man that actually was in Worms for just ten days. Luther, however, definitely did a lot in these ten days. In the modern day Heylshof Park, one can stand where Luther stood before the Diet of Worms in 1521 when he refused to repudiate his writings. Hmm, I actually did not even think of standing on the commemorative plaque until just now, oh well. A photo is in any case good enough for me!   

Finally, I visited the Cathedral of St. Peter. It was actually pretty similar to the cathedral in Mainz and definitely worth the visit. Overall, I had a good time in Worms and I hope that you also had a little fun reading about it. Stay tuned! I have big plans for the coming months, but I think I’ve written enough for today J. Thanks for reading and until next time! 

Quick update

Hello! Happy Fastnacht (Mardi Gras)! Since I’ve got a lot of work in the coming days, I’m going to keep this post brief.

This week was the final week of classes! Another student and I gave a presentation on German author Christa Wolf in my Intellectuals in West Germany class. I didn’t stress over it, since the presentation doesn’t actually count in my final grade. Only my twelve page final paper will be 100% of my grade. Wonderful, right?

On Thursday, I went to the Biology Club to pick up some old exams. My botany test will be on Feb. 29 and counts twice in my GPA (I took the lecture and lab, somehow it counts twice). The test will be just an hour long and on a computer. I will not get any extra time, even though I am a study abroad student. At least I have twelve days to prepare, so I know, that doing well is definitely doable. Right now, I’ve got seven botany textbooks from the library and a lot of times on my hands. Bring it on Pflanzen (plants)!

Finally, today I celebrated the end of the semester with Ian, Emily and Claudia at a restaurant in town called Thai Express. Ian treated us for lunch, thanks Ian! My fried rice noodles with chicken, bean sprouts and nuts was delicious!

All right, sorry, that’s all for now. I should go to sleep. Tomorrow, I start seriously studying for this exam. Thanks for reading! Until next time! (beginning of March) 

The Superbowl and other Stuff

At 3 AM on Monday morning, I kicked off the week with the Superbowl. I had no desire to watch the whole game by myself, but I thought I would at least tune in for the end, especially since the Patriots were playing! Then of course, it should have been a sign for me when the first play I saw was a Tom Brady interception. I apologize Patriot Nation, I did not mean to curse the game by tuning in late :). It’s hard to believe that just one year ago I was watching the Superbowl in Hepburn lounge back at Middlebury. It was the Sunday before the first week of courses for the spring semester and everyone had just got back from Feb break, including the students who had studied abroad in the fall. I remember a student entering the room who had just spent a semester in Germany. His friends were excited to see him and asked him how Germany was. He just looked very tired, however, and shared that he still had work to do that was left over from the winter semester in Germany. Remembering this helped me to make my decision to stay in Germany in the spring, even though I won’t be taking any courses. So far, so good though!  

My Middlebury friend Alec returned to America this week, so I tried to spend some quality time with him before he flew out on Thursday. On Tuesday, I accompanied him and some friends to Trivia Night at the Porter House Irish Pub in Mainz. That was my first time there and was quite a lot of fun! Most of the questions were super random, but somehow all the other teams seemed to know the answers. In the last round, however, we had some success with the “song round”, but by then it was too late to catch up. Winning wasn’t that important though! In between the rounds, we played a form of Pictionary on the back of the answer sheet and that was also fun.

On Wednesday, our friends Emily and Claudia invited Alec and I to their place for a good-bye dinner for Alec. It was nice. Their homemade food was great! We had Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad, Lemon Maple Syrup Potatoes and Honey Chili BBQ Chicken. It was a nice change from my own meals that I throw together every night. Afterward, we had bacon chocolate that Alec brought and gummy frogs that I brought for dessert. I have never had bacon chocolate before, but it tasted good! I am glad that I got the chance to try it. For the rest of the evening, we played a couple of rounds of Jungle Speed and Sopio, a great card game that was made famous through Youtube. Before we knew it, it was time to say Auf Wiedersehen and I knew that I would definitely sehe Alec wieder when I return to Middlebury in the fall.

That’s pretty much it. I also did some preparations for my Charite internship this week. I talked to my supervisor for literally 30 seconds on the phone and know that everything is good on her side. A part of me would have liked to find out a little more about what I’ll actually be doing in the general surgery wing as a nurse trainee for a month, but then again, I do prefer a 30 second conversation to a ten minute interview in German. (To the internship office: Why did you assign me a bloody American that can’t speak German!!!) Only joking. I also had to get a physical here in Mainz and now I have all of the documents I need to send to Berlin that say I am healthy. The process was just the worst though. I had to visit the physician’s office three times, once for the physical, once to pick up my lab results, and finally once to pay! It was really just a load of nonsense that I couldn’t do that in at least two visits, but whatever, it’s done. I’m sure that Berlin in April will be worth it! Thanks for reading, stay warm, and until next time!     

Dinner Dinner

Since I had two great dinners this week, that is what I write about in this post!

On Wednesday, Alec, Emily, and I went to Ian’s house for dinner to kick off February in the perfect way! After my four hour botany lab, I went directly to Ian’s house. There others were already there and had started making sushi. I helped them out! Ian and his wife Miranda has bought all of the necessary ingredients: rice, seaweed sheets, vegetables, fish, cream cheese, etc. I made a Philadelphia Sushi Roll all- by- my-self (with Ian’s help). We also made California Rolls. Once everything was ready, we headed to the dining room to eat. To my surprise, Ian and his wife had also made clams and lettuce wraps with chicken. Needless to say, I was quite full by the end. We talked about different stuff during dinner. Alec is headed back to the US next week to start the spring semester at Middlebury, so we definitely reflected a bit on the last four months. One part of me wants to go back to the US too, but a bigger part of me wants to experience Berlin for a month and likely more of Germany and Europe afterward! After dinner, we played a couple of games. First, we played Blokus, a strategic board game in between Tetris and Go. It was fun, but unfortunately for Emily and I we were left on the sidelines of an all-out war of blocks between Ian and Alec! Ian won in the end. Afterward, the highlight of the night for me: Jungle Speed, a card game in which one needs a lot of patience and speed. It is difficult to describe quickly and auf Deutsch, so I would just recommend the Wikipedia page. The article about Jungle Speed is satisfactory, but not excellent (as always). I almost won with one card left in my hand at one point, but then I made a stupid mistake and couldn’t bounce back. This time, it was Alec against Emily at the end and Alec was victorious. At this point, it was already 10 PM, so after dessert Ian drove us all home.   

Then, on Thursday almost everyone in my WG (hall) met for dinner at 7 PM- the perfect way to continue February! This time I had to come from my session with my tutor across town, but I had more than enough time to fry some tofu and prepare some rice and peas for everyone. Since I was actually still the only one in the kitchen at a quarter to 7, I was worried that no one would come, but sure enough, in the next few minutes came Benedicte from Norway and Teresa from Spain. Let me word that better; Benedicte is originally from Norway and Teresa is originally from Spain, although it is nice to think that both came all the way from their respective lands to Mainz just for this dinner! Benedicte made a large, tasty salad and Teresa made Pan a la Catalana, a Spanish dish. Once everything was ready, we invited our German roommates to eat with us. One came at the beginning and two others showed up after intermural sports, so we had a pretty good turnout. Since Benedicte only knows a little bit of German, we spoke mostly in English. That was a nice break for me though, since normally I do everything the whole day in German. My German is steadily becoming better, but I have to still constantly think about the grammar and vocab. In English, everything I say is like a reflex. Oh well, that stems from the fact that I have been learning German now for about 8 years and English for 20. In any case, the food was good and the discussion better. I think we were in the kitchen for at least three hours. I heard all the latest campus gossip and got to know everyone a little better. Apparently, there are a ton of parties on campus that I am totally unaware of that make the university here quite the party school. I had no idea, since I’ve been busy trying to finish up all my work before the end of February. In March, I can celebrate! Finally, we decided that we should do some work before Friday, so we cleaned up and went our separate ways. Two good dinners in a row- I am satisfied.   

Now, back to work. Thanks for reading and until next time!

Chinese New Year, WG-Dinner and Frederick the Great

On Saturday evening I went to the Chinese New Year’s celebration in the Philosophicum. It was very nice. Normally, I go with my family to a restaurant or we have a party for the New Year, so I definitely wanted to do something to keep the tradition alive! Entry was free and I only paid a few Euros for tasty Chinese food. Not a bad deal! In auditorium P1, where I also have my botany lecture, there were already a ton of people there, mostly people from the city. Naturally, they also happened to be mostly Chinese people living in Germany, but there were also some Germans that had an interest in the Chinese culture I guess. I found a seat and a few minutes later, a Chinese man about my age sitting two seats away from me asked me something in Chinese! Of course, I didn’t understand him, but felt complimented that I had been spoken to in Chinese (most people are surprised when I tell them I am half-Chinese). I answered him auf Deutsch first, but then tried English since he didn’t seem to understand. Luckily, he spoke English and it then became clear to me that he was wondering if the seat next to me was free. I said yes, and a friend of his came and he moved over to the seat next to me. The performances hadn’t started yet, so I had a chance to talk to him for a while. He came from Beijing and was a scholar at the university for a year. Interestingly, he studied something about minerals and birds, but I didn’t fully understand. Once the performances began, he was nice enough to translate the parts that were only in Chinese. For example, he told me the main ideas behind one of the skits. My favorite performance, however, was definitely when a group of school children from a local elementary school took the stage. They sang a song that was a mixture of Chinese and German that taught one the days of the week in both languages! Very clever! It is always good I think, when one can bring music into the classroom, especially in the instruction of foreign languages! To my surprise, the man and his friend left early, since the performances were “boring”. I thought they were pretty good, but hey, the Chinese are like the Germans in that regard: direct and honest!    

Wednesday evening I had a nice dinner with my WG. I prepared Teriyaki Chicken with Rice and Broccoli and Diana, one of my hallmates, and her friends prepared Milchreis (Milk rice). I don’t think I’ve ever had Milchreis before, but it was quite good. Once everything was ready, we invited our other hallmates to join us. Somehow, they didn’t have any time to prepare anything, but it didn’t matter. There was definitely more than enough food for everyone! The best part was just being able to have dinner with everyone. During the week, everyone (including me) is so busy with classes and work, that it was nice to finally get a chance just to hang out with everyone and relax. Since two of my hallmates couldn’t make it, I’m going to try to organize another WG-dinner next week!

On Tuesday (I know, I’m backtracking, but give me a second!), I received a letter in the mail from my grandfather. Interestingly, he wrote the letter entirely in German! He had worked for many years for Xerox, so I knew that he had studied German in order to read scientific texts. At that time, German was the universal language in science, at least for chemistry! My grandfather asked a favor of me. He is an avid stamp collector and wanted to see if I could pick up some special German stamps that were issued in the beginning of January for him. I thought it shouldn’t be a problem, since I was in Germany and knew of a post office nearby. So, on Thursday I went out to try and pick up the stamps. I entered the post office that is near the central train station in Mainz for the first time. There was a bit of a line, but I only had to wait about ten minutes, since there were ten employees assisting customers. When it was my turn, I showed the employee the article about the special January stamps that my grandfather had mailed to me. He found all of the stamps except for Frederick the Great (who celebrates his 300^th birthday this year). He asked the nine other employees: Hast du ein Friedrich der Größe? (Do you have a Frederick the Great?), but unfortunately no one had ein Friedrich der Größe. Oh well, at least now I have a new favorite question to ask people auf Deutsch. The question is only when I would ever use this question  . . . hmmm. Instead of Frederick the Great, I purchased a stamp called Winterferien (winter vacation) that was also specially issued for January, but wasn’t in the article from my grandfather. I cannot wait to personally give these stamps to my grandfather when I return to America!

That’s all folks. Thank you for reading and until next time!    

Wanted: WG-Zimmer in Berlin (and other news)

First off and most importantly, I am searching at the moment for a WG-Zimmer (room in a shared apartment) in Berlin.  Here is my ad that I posted on wg-gesucht.de:

Hello! My name is Jonathan (20 years old, American student). During April, I will be doing an internship at Charité. Sometime in May I will also move somewhere else in Germany depending on how summer internships work out. Therefore, I am currently searching for a WG room for Zwischenmiete in Berlin from mid-March until at least mid-May. 

A litte bit about me. I am now studying biology and German at JoGU in Mainz. I wanted to stay longer in Germany, so I am not taking any courses in the spring. The three best things in life for me are food, drink and conversation. I also enjoy sports and am slowing learning how to cook. I would prefer a Nicht-Zweck-WG, but a Zweck-WG is also okay.

I am looking forward to hearing from you!

-Jonathan

Vocab: Charité is a hospital in Berlin, Zwischenmiete means “in-between” rent, Nicht-Zweck-WG implies more of 

a friendly atmosphere, while Zweck-WG implies that everyone minds their own business

So, if you know of an available room in Germany, please let me know!  I would also happily welcome advice from people that have already lived in Berlin at some point. 

Last Sunday, I had absolutely no desire to stay in my room and work.  The day before I worked the whole day on my Hausarbeit (12 page final paper auf Deutsch) for my history course.  Therefore, I decided to take on one of my assignments in the course I am taking with my director, Bummeln, which roughly translates to bumming around.  (Photos on Facebook)  I decided to start at Schiller Square and see where my journey took me from there.  As I was eating lunch, I noticed quite a lot going on even though all the stores were closed.  A group of five adults was standing around chatting.  A man took a photo of the Fastnacht monument.  A student sat down in the cold to study some notes.  A young girl ran ahead of her parents to use a low-lying metal fence as a balance beam.  There were a lot of people simply walking through the square and a bus or car passed by every few minutes.  

Once I was done with lunch, I started exploring.  I decided to head in the direction of the Römertor (Roman Gate), maybe I could find it.  If not, that’s okay since I was bumming around!  On Emmerich-Josef Street I saw a model of a cat above me.  That’s interesting, I thought.  Next, I found the cellars of the Mainzer-Achten Brewery Company.  It was opened in 1859, wow!  In the cellar, there wasn’t anything to see but a long tunnel, so I continued on.  On Terrassen street I saw a bit of graffiti as I was going up the hill.  My favorite one was “Stop Work Go Surf!”  Where am I supposed to go surfing in Mainz in January?  At the top of the street was a nice overview of the city in which I could spot St. Peter’s Church and some mountains in the distance.  Afterward, I did indeed find the Römertor, or what was left of the gate anyway.  I almost missed it, because the remains of the gate are below ground level and surrounded by new apartments.  It was amazing that the ruins were 1500 years old and still there!  Nearby, there was also a piece of the Roman city wall that had been incorporated into a new building.  It was clear that Roman history was very important in Mainz.  I then planned to return to the Central Train Station, but on my way back to Augustus street I saw a beautiful park.  I had to check out this park!  So I walked a bit through the park and it was very nice.  The thing was that now I was pretty far away from the Central Train Station.  I looked on the map and saw I was pretty close to the university hospital.  I knew that the hospital was in the same direction as the university, so I went that way!  The walk took a while, but luckily I found even more Roman ruins!  I was very happy to see the ruins of the Roman aquaduct.  My goal was really not to visit so much Roman stuff, that just happened.  I normally run once a week along this path with the aquaduct, so I knew that I was almost back.  When I finally made it back to my room, I was definitely pretty tired, but very satisfied with my explorations.          

I love Tai Chi!  On Wednesday, the regular teacher Oliver entered the room but something was different.  He wore a white band on his left arm.  He told us that a participant of his courses had passed away.  (I am not sure if the participant was in my course or not).  Then, he read a letter from the participant’s sister.  The letter was very well-written.  The participant had a great passion for all aspects of Tai Chi.  He wanted to be a Tai Chi teacher himself one day.  Since he had a heart condition, however, he knew that he might not be able to achieve that dream.  In the case of his death, he asked that we keep living our lives.  He believed in a life after death and that he would always be with us.  Next, Oliver told us that we would begin the course by meditating for the deceased participant.  The other participants and I stood still with two hands in front of us.  Then, he and the substitute teacher from last week started simultaneously doing a very advanced routine.  It was the most beautiful thing that I have seen in my life.  Both do this routine every day, but they moved as if it was the last time they would ever do the routine in their life.  So much passion, yet also so much calmness.  Yin and Yang.  I will never forget this experience.        

That’s all for now.  Happy Chines New Year!  Thanks for reading and until next time!

We can do it!

To my surprise, I am starting to like my botany course more and more.  I know,  plants are essential organisms on the Earth.  I never thought, however, that I would ever actually enjoy studying plants.  The focus of the lab this week was leaf structure and arrangement.  Awesome!  I forced myself to do the prep work beforehand, but it was definitely annoying.  There are so many terms and specific details, just for a simple leaf!  But is a leaf so simple?  In the lab we received a specimen of Butcher’s Broom (Ruscus aculeatus).  Our assignment was to figure out what was a leaf on the plant.  At first glance, this task does not seem so difficult.  There are a lot of big leaves that make up the plant.  Because I had just learned, however, that a “leaf” can be defined as many leaves that are close in proximity to each other, I was suspicious.  Every big leaf on the plant had a bract, or a small leaf found under a branch.  Wow, that meant that the large leaf was actually technically a branch!  What was left that could be a leaf then?  There was a small leaf growing next to the flower on top of the large „leaf“ (branch)!  I ripped off the real leaf and showed it to the German student sitting next to me.  “Hmm, I don’t know,” he said.  Exactly, that’s why it’s so amazing!  After the professor explained that the small leaf was in fact the true leaf, my neighbor admitted I was right.  This experience was a big confidence boost for me.  Although I am in a foreign country, although German is my second language, I have more motivation than my classmates!  I can succeed in this course!        

On Thursday evening, I went to a lecture called „50 years of independence in Africa: Continuation, Transformation, Challenges.”  The speaker was Prof. Thomas Bierschenk from the University of Mainz.  First, he gave a little bit of background on this time period in Africa.  From 1950-70, the world had a lot of optimism for the development of Africa.  This perspective unfortunately changed starting in 1970 to a pessimistic view, but since 2005 people have become optimistic again!  Bierschrank talked about a new investment perspective, the “African Lion”, similar to the “Asian Tiger.”  The education system is slowing improving.  Currently, 77% of Sub-Saharan Africans (SSA) receive primary education and 27% receive secondary education.  Also, more railroads are being built in Africa.  He showed us a striking map that showed the big difference between the railroad networks of Africa and Europe.  It was really unbelievable how undeveloped  Africa’s railway system is.  Since the inland is really, really big and lacks basic infrastructure, it is no surprise that the Human Development Index is so low in SSA.  The Chinese are actually building a lot of railroads and other infrastructure in Africa, so that made me happy.  In any case, we still have a lot of work left to do in Africa, but together, we can make a positive impact.          

Finally, today I had the chance to eat lunch with Emily, Alec, and Ian, my Middlebury classmates, in Restaurant Diwan located right on campus.  My Döner sandwich and free tea were not bad, but what was better was getting the chance to catch up with everyone.  Everyone had wonderful winter breaks, but now it was time to get back to work.  Yeah, it stinks, but hang in there!  We can do it!  Thanks for reading and until next time!     

PS- If you get a chance at some point, check out this cool PBS botany video my Mom forwarded me:

http://video.pbs.org/video/1283872815/ 

The first week of 2012

So on Jan 31, I celebrated New Year’s with the rest of the world!  Before my big trip around Europe, I actually ran into Alec at Frankurt-Hahn airport.  He was just returning from Spain and I was waiting for my friend Dylan.  At this time, we decided that we’d celebrate New Year’s together.  First, we followed the advice of our tutor and planned on going to Sausalitos, a New Year’s party in Mainz.  Luckily, Alec spoke with Mark, the former Middlebury German TA.  Mark told him that Sausalitos was very expensive and he invited us both to a New Year’s party that he and some friends were having.  Alec updated me on the change in events and asked if there was some food I could bring.  All of the regular stores were naturally closed, but luckily I found a Shell gas station store that was open.  There, I bought some potato chips.  One hour later, I met Alec at the University bus stop and we were off!  Once we reached the correct bus stop, Alec gave Mark a ring and after a few minutes we found the party, which was amazing!  Mark and all of his friends were very friendly and curious to get to know us.  We watched a funny New Year’s video called Dinner For One.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out on Youtube.  It’s hilarious!  Before I knew it, there were only ten seconds left in 2011.  As the clock turned 0:00 everyone in the room wished each other happy new year’s.  Then, the fireworks!  Our neighbors had already started shooting off fireworks in 2011.  We went outside and saw fireworks everywhere.  Roman candles, sparklers, many many fireworks.  One of Mark’s friends said that if you get up at 9 AM, one can see smoke as thick as fog all around Mainz.  I found it strange that there was no official firework display.  Instead, Germans make their own firework displays and it was really all-encompassing.  For the first 30 minutes of 2012, at any moment in time one could see at least 10 fireworks in the sky!  Unbelievable!  

               

After three months, it was definitely time for a haircut.  On January 2, I went into the city to find a cheap barber.  If you know me, you know that I always just get a buzz-cut.  Therefore, the quality of the barber didn’t really matter for the most part.  Normally, my Mom is my exclusive barber, but for obvious reasons, I decided that I’d have to find someone else this time around.  After a while, I found a Turkish barber on a street called Zanggasse, five minutes by foot from the main train station.  They only charged 8 euros for your standard hair cut.  I entered the store and found five Turkish males chatting.  One customer was there, so I sat in the second stool.  My barber worked very quickly and did good work.  He talked the whole time in Turkish with his colleagues, but I didn’t really mind.  At the end, I put my glasses back on and was satisfied with the result.  I paid with a twenty Euro bill.  It was funny, they had the youngest run next door to exchange the bill for some change.  Overall, a good experience.       

Friday evening was once again time to relax!  After a long week of work, Alec invited me to see Mission Impossible 4 with him in Frankfurt!  We used the S8 train and spoke the whole time about films either from 2011 or future films that we were excited about.  Next, we had to make one transfer once we got to Frankfurt and we were soon at Eschenheimer Tor.  Once we made it to the street level at this stop, we looked around for Cinestar Theater.  After a minute or so, we turned around and there it had been the whole time right behind us!  Wow, that was easy!  We bought our tickets and after not too long of a wait were able to enter the theater and find our reserved seats.  We got there an hour early, but somehow ended up with terrible seats in the back corner.  In any case, Alec and I found new seats during the previews.  I hate commercialism.  At Boston movie theaters, you see a short ad from the Jimmy Fund normally right before the film and you have the option of making a donation to the Jimmy Fund.  That I like, but in Germany, they do something similar with ice cream!  Then, they close the curtains for a couple of minutes so everyone has a chance to buy expensive ice cream at their seats.  Is that really necessary?  Anyway, I’m just complaining, but Mission Impossible was excellent!  Definitely one of the best films I saw in a long time.  I would highly recommend it!    

That suffices for now I believe.  No monster post like the last two, no worries :)  Classes start again on Monday, should be fun.  I’ll let y’all know later how it goes.  Thanks for reading and until next time!  Happy J-term Middlebury people!

Hamburg!

On the day after Christmas, my adventure to Hamburg began.  The way it all started could not have happened in a better way.  At 6:44 AM, I had arrived at Friedrich-von-Pfeiffer Weg bus stop, but my bus had not.  Shit, what’s going on?  I looked at the posted schedule.  “No busses on Dec. 26.“  On no!!!  I was going to miss my train connection to Hamburg no matter what I did.  I knew that I had only one option if I was going to catch my train to Hamburg.  I jogged to Mainz Central Train Station and took a taxi to Frankfurt for 60 euros.  Ouch!  At least I got the chance to talk with the taxi driver a little bit.  She had lived her entire life in Mainz.  I asked her, how one actually becomes a taxi driver.  It was a very difficult process she explained.  One had to find a contractor and then work very long days for very little money.  It sounded similar to becoming a doctor, awesome, I thought.  In almost every job, however, it does seem like at the beginning it’s really difficult and one doesn’t earn much money, but then the longer one stays, the better it gets and one’s salary increases too.  The taxi driver did her job and I made it to Frankfurt Central Train Station on time for my train.  After four hours, I was once again in Hamburg Central Train Station, in fact the same train station that I saw in 2008 during my GAPP exchange program.  This time though it would be different, since it was not possible to stay with my original host family.  Instead, the family of Laurin, my brother Richard’s exchange partner, had kindly offered to host me.  Laurin and his father met me at Poppenbüttel station.  With his Jeep, Laurin’s father took us back to their house.  There, I met Laurin’s mother and his brother.  After enjoying some cake, Laurin, his father and I went kite flying.  That was really fun, since Laurin has a nice, large kite that definitely takes some practice to master.  By the end, I could fly it pretty well, but of course no where near as well as Laurin.  Afterward, we had Raclette for dinner, very very tasty.    

On Tuesday, I managed to visit all three necessary museums for my culture project that is a part of my course with the Middlebury director.  First, I visited Ballinstadt Emmigration Museum.  It was super, one of the best museums I have ever visited.  There were three houses, but the main exhibition is in House 2.  First, one hears true stories from different immigrants who traveled to America for many different reasons in the 1800s and 1900s.  Virtually none of them would never return to Europe, never see family members and friends that they had left behind ever again.  I sometimes think that Study Abroad is stressful, but what these people did was so much more difficult and I have a lot of respect for them.  Then, I learned about the process of immigrating to America.  It was very influential for me to see where the third-class passengers had to stay.  In comparison to first class, it was inhumane, yet it was still somehow unaffordable for the majority of Europeans at the time.  Next, one “enters America” and sees a model of the Statue of Liberty, only with a fence in front of it.  I had never really thought about how difficult of a process immigration was and still is.  I think everyone who visits Hamburg should really try to make it to this museum.  Fact: 150 years ago, 95 percent of Americans were not even there yet.  Immigration will continue to be a very important global issue in the years to come I believe.  Otherwise, the Customs Museum was a joke and the International Maritime Museum was too big, but I am happy that I got a chance to visit these two museums too.     

My streak of randomly running into Middlebury students in Europe continues!  I spent all of Wednesday with none other than Matthew from the German School.  Coincidentally, he was also in Hamburg at the same time as me.  We met in from of the Apple Store on Jungfernstieg street and walked a bit along the harbor.  We visited St. Michael’s Church, his first time, my second visit because of GAPP.  It was really interesting to now see everything without a teacher guiding the way.  After three months in Germany, it is very easy to use the S-Bahn and city maps, but as a 16-year-old, I wouldn’t have had a clue!  The freedom of adulthood is good!  Matthew wanted to see St. Nikolai Church and that was a good decision.  This church was totally destroyed during the bombing of Hamburg in World War II except for the tower.  The Germans decided to leave the church in ruins as a monument to the horrors of war, a good choice I think.  In the cellar was an excellent museum.  It really amazed me that the Germans were able to rebuild Hamburg after the destruction, so terrible was the bombing.  I really wish that we never had wars in the past or wars now in the world.  After a break back at Matthew’s hostel, we ventured out to the Reeperbahn.  It was nothing in comparison to Amsterdam, but interesting to visit.  I really liked the Beatles monument there.  I had no idea that the Beatles began their illustrious career in Hamburg.  To close the night, Matthew and I walked through the Christmas market and that was really nice.  Thanks for an awesome day Matthew!       

Thursday was my last day in Hamburg.  As a result, I tried to do as much as possible, while still getting back to my host family by 5 PM, so I could spend some time with them too.  First, I visited the Miniature Wonderland.  That was really beautiful, but with all the visitors it was difficult to really enjoy.  The time and energy it took to build everything is incomprehensible to me and the team that built everything has plans to continue expanding in the coming years!  It already has several world records, but everything can always be improved upon, right?  Next, I decided to visit the botanical garden and the University of Hamburg.  The garden was really beautiful.  In the greenhouse,  I definitely felt nostalgic.  Every year, my family goes to a greenhouse around Christmas time.  Although I was alone, I tried to have a good time nevertheless and that was not too difficult, since all of the plants were so beautiful.  One should also see the Japanese Garden, really awesome!  After the garden, I found the main building of the University of Hamburg.  In front was an interesting display focused on the wealth gap in Hamburg.  There were two running clocks.  The first showed the growing debt of the city of Hamburg and the second, ten times bigger, was the assets of the richest 10% of Hamburgers.  Every second, the debt grows by 23 euros and the assets by 231 euros.  In any case something interesting to think about.  Finally, I visited the Ethnology Museum on the university’s campus, where I learned the origin of the 2012 end of the world idea.  For the Mayans, the date 13.0.0.0.0 (Dec. 21, 2012) is when the creation of the world will repeat itself.  This creation, however, took place in 3114 BC.., only about 4.6 billions years off the actual date.  I just hope that people won’t get too excited this December.  To my delight, I made it back to my host family’s home at 4:30 PM and had time to play board games with Laurin.  It was really nice to stay with him and his family, thanks again Laurin and company!            

Now I am back in Mainz and that means work.  Oh well, only two months more, I can do it.  In January and February, I am going to really try to do as much as reasonably possible in German, a Middlebury Language Pledge, in which The Office is allowed J.  Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!  Until next time!

Amsterdam, Bruges, and Paris!

Happy New Year!  From December 18-24 my friend Dylan and I traveled through Europe!  It was really an awesome time!  After spending a night in Cologne, we traveled by train to Amsterdam.  Our hostel was actually on a boat ten minutes from Amsterdam Centraal, the AmicitA.  The owner was very friendly and the food was good.  I would recommend the AmicitA to any student travelers!  Naturally, Dylan and I were hungry after the train ride, so we ate at Café Kadijk.  The food was a little bit spicier than what I am used to, but it was nevertheless very tasty.  Then, from the roof of the museum NEMO, we gazed upon Amsterdam’s skyline.  Highlighted by light from the sunset, it was very beautiful.  Not as beautiful as I expected were the Oude Kerk (old church) and Nieuwe Kerk (new church).  The Nieuwe Kerk is actually now a museum, but Dylan and I decided to opt out of spending the ten euros to enter.  Ironically surrounding the Oude Kerk is Amsterdam’s famous red light district.  It was surprising to me how open prostitution and drugs are in Amsterdam, but that has to do with the accepting nature of the culture.  Amsterdamers describe their culture as gezellig, which means being gregarious and not worrying about the preferences of others.  We ate dinner that night at Maoz, a vegetarian Middle-Eastern fast food place.  To close the day we walked along the canals before heading back to our hostel.    

On Monday, Dylan and I started out by heading to the Van Gogh Museum.  The museum was super and even better was that I somehow ran into Robbie, my roommate from freshman year at Middlebury!  I knew that he was studying abroad in Spain, but it was nevertheless a huge surprise.  Small world!  After lunch at Wok to Walk, a Chinese fast food joint, Dylan and I went to the Anne Frank House.  That was really a powerful experience, especially since I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank as a thirteen-year-old in middle school.  I will never forget the goose bumps I got walking through the same secret door behind the bookcase that Anne and her family and friends used.  No, it isn’t really fun to visit this museum, but I think that every visitor to Amsterdam should visit the Anne Frank House.  Next, Dylan and I wandered around Jordaan for a while and then ate dinner at De Keuken Van 1870.  Very fast service and reasonable prices.  Finally, we watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie in Pathe Cinema, the perfect end to our time in Amsterdam!     

On Dec. 20, Dylan and I made our way from Amsterdam to Bruges.  Because of train problems, we didn’t get there until 4 PM, but we still had time to visit the Basilica of the Holy Blood, the Market, and most importantly, to watch In Bruges IN BRUGES!  I know, mindblowing J.  On Wednesday morning, we had a chance to see a little bit more of Bruges: Minnewaterpark, the Groeninge Museum, and the playground that was shown in the movie.  Overall, a good visit, but I don’t think I could have lasted more than 24 hours in Bruges.  As Colin Farrell says to Brendan Gleesen, “For two weeks?  In ******* Bruges?  In a room like this?  With you?  No way.“

Then, from December 21 to Christmas Day, Dylan and I were in Paris!  In any case, definitely the high point of the trip!  It was an awesome mix of grandness, tastiness, and of course inconvenience!  Upon arriving at Gare du Nord, we encountered problems with the ticket machines.  The stupid things would only accept either exact change or European credit cards.  What really annoyed me was that plain old cash was accepted in every other train station in Paris and gave change back!  Dylan and I had to ask total strangers to exchange cash for coins.  That was really stupid.  Anyway, Dylan and I made it to our furnished apartment on Rue de Commerce, which a colleague of my father’s rented to us and someone was there to meet us.  Very nice.  Then, we dove right into exploring by heading to the top of the Eiffel Tower and then visiting the Arc de Triomphe.  Inbetween we ate a Thai Restaurant where the food was okay.  What is most important to remember when visiting Parisian restaurants is that cheap translates to 10-20 euros.  One can spend 20-40 euros for a middle-range restaurant and don’t even ask what an expensive restaurant costs!  Before we returned to our apartment, Dylan and I visited the Flamme de la Libertie.  Suddenly, it dawned on me that this was where Princess Diana tragically died in 1997.  One can still see flowers and pictures of the princess at this monument.     

On Thursday, Dylan and I attacked the Louvre.  Naturally, the Louvre won.  There was SO MUCH to see.  I read that one would actually need nine months to see every single work of art in the Louvre!  At the very least, I did find a way to have a good time.  I decided to simply go on a scavenger hunt, looking for all the most famous works, so that was fun.  After 1 PM, Dylan and I had had enough, so we headed off to lunch.  We found an Afghan restaurant called Kootchi that was great!  Small, but comfortable with very tasty food.  If the waiter doesn’t speak English, then one knows that one isn’t in a tourist trap.  One must, however, hope that that whatever one chooses tastes good.  My strategy was usually to order the Plat du Jour and that always seemed to work out.  After lunch, Dylan and I visited the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution.  At first, Dylan was reluctant to go, but I managed to convince him that it would be fun.  “It will be like a zoo,” I said.  The museum was awesome!  Child-friendly and newly renovated, all the organisms are arranged according to evolution.  As a Bio-major it was especially cool.  Dylan actually liked the place so much that now he wants to take a science course before leaving Middlebury!  That made me very happy.  After the museum, Dylan and I headed over to the Pantheon, but unfortunately, it was closed.  Then, we began a long walk to the French-Basque restaurant Chez Gladines.  Wow!  Defintely my favorite restaurant in Paris, even better than Eisgrub-Bräu!  Dylan and I both ordered the Poulet Basque (chicken with tomatoes, onions, peppers, and white wine) and a bottle of vin blanc (white wine) to share for just 30 euros total!  What was really great was that the chicken and potatoes had both quantity and quality.  After this dinner, I asked myself why I had made the fateful decision to study German instead of French in middle school.  Why?  I’m sorry Germany, but the food in France is way up in it’s own category.  Oh well, I made my choice.  In any case, I am stuck with chocolate and beer in Germany.  Life is hard ;).  Advice: Never walk from Chinatown to Commerce!  Your feet will hate you!       

On Friday, Dylan and I visited the Basilique du Sacre Couer in Montmarte.  The view from the top was really, really beautiful, and I am happy that Dylan and I visited here.  We also walked to Place du Tertre, which is famous for its painters that work right in the square, and the Cimetiere de Montmarte, where many celebrities are buried.  We had to walk quite a bit again to reach our next restaurant, A La Grande Bleue, a North African place with very tasty food.  We knew that from the beginning of course, since the waiter answered that he didn’t speak any English.  Next, we went to Luxembourg Garden, which was very nice, but Dylan and I agreed definitely even more beautiful in the summer.  Then, we were off to the Pantheon.  The visit was awesome, in particular the crypt.  If you are a student, tell them that your study film and you will get in for free.  I told the cashier after my movie buff friend that I studied German literature (somewhat true, right?).  “Five euros please.”  Come on Pantheon, really?  Afterward, since we were both pretty tired, Dylan and I headed back to the apartment to relax a bit.  We ate at an Indian restaurant that night, Apsaras.  The food was tasty, but the portions could have been larger.  In any case, Dylan and I were very excited to learn that the Marmottan-Monet Museum didn’t open until 11 AM the next day.  That meant sleeping in! 

The perfect start to Christmas eve was finding a small backery on the north corner of Rue Edmond Roger and Rue des Entrepeneurs, where I only spent three euros for breakfast compared to seven or eight at the Cafes we had been eating at.  Damn French Cafes, why are you so expensive!  The food was just as good at the backery and one doesn’t become immediately poor by eating there.  On the way to the Marmottan-Monet Museum, Dylan and I saw the smaller version of the Statue of Liberty.  I liked the Marmottan-Monet Mueum.  There was very good Impressionism without the overwhelmingness of the Louvre.  For lunch, Dyland and I had sandwiches at a place called Ernies, very good food and the prices and quantities were okay.  Finally, Dylan and I tried macaroons and understood why they are so popular.  In the afternoon, Dylan and I visited a very expensive shopping district in Paris.  I cannot understand why some people spend so much money on clothes, and I mean 70 euros for a T-shirt.  That’s ridiculous!  When one visits such a place, one can better understand I think the frustration felt in movements like Occupy Wall Street.  I am still a Capitalist, but if I ever become rich, I will spend 5 euros on a t-shirt that’s just as good and send the other 65 euros to UNICEF.  I cannot comprehend why anyone would do anything else, but that’s just what I think.  Okay if we agree to disagree.  On the other hand, one could say that I am a hypocrite, since I just took this big expensive trip around Europe.  I would answer that by saying that one has to find the right balance in terms of helping other people and enjoying one’s own life.  Since I took this trip, I am now recharged to get good grades that I hope will one day enable me to be in a position to do a lot of good in the world.  We’ll see.  Finally, Dylan and I visited St. Eustache Church and the Centre Pompideu plaza before heading back to our apartment.          

The end?  Not quite!  At 10 PM, Dylan and I headed to Notre Dame Cathedral for Christmas Eve Mass at midnight!  That was really, really, really awesome!  There were so many people there, but somehow Dylan and I managed to first find standing room and then an usher got us seats right up front!  Naturally, I recognized the different parts of the Mass, but it was in any case difficult to follow since everything was in French.  I gave Dylan commentary once and a while to explain what was going on.  Universal is of course the sign of peace and Dylan like that part I am pretty sure.  The adult and children’s choirs both sang too and were, how should I say it, heavenly.  Dylan and I got to take free ribbons and programs as souvenirs.   

On Christmas Day, Dylan and I had to hit the road once again, this time back to Mainz.  Luckily, the bakery right next to our apartment was open and there we got food that we could eat in the park.  Otherwise, we cleaned the apartment before leaving.  After reaching Mainz, I showed Dylan the main parts of the city: Schillerplatz, Domplatz, and the Rhein.  Afterward, we had dinner in my dorm.  On Monday, Dylan and I would go different ways.  For more, see my next post.  Thanks for reading and until next time!

What a Week!

On Friday evening, I had dinner at Emily and Claudia’s place!  Also present were a friend of Emily’s and Ian’s family.  It was a very good time.  At about 7 PM, I arrived at the apartment using the directions that Emily gave me.  Then, after climbing up a large winding staircase, I was greeted by a smiling Emily with Claudia and the friend standing behind her.  As we waited for Ian and company, Emily continued cooking stir fry that smelled AMAZING.  I couldn’t wait!  Next, Ian’s family arrived and after a little bit of visiting we sat down and dug in.  Everything tasted great and the dessert that Ian’s family brought was also very good.  During dinner, we had a multifaceted conversation about everything from differences between Germany and America to the classic Mac-PC debate.  It was also cool to hear the opinions of the Germans there.  To top it all off, I was given Cheddar Chex Mix from Ian’s family!  Many thanks once again Emily and Claudia for hosting! 

On Sunday afternoon, I met up with someone that hasn’t seen me for fifteen years!  She is a German woman named Dani, a friend of my mother’s.  They met in Syracuse when I was much, much younger!  Actually, there exists a comical photo in which I am depicted kissing Dani’s son when we were both toddlers.  After we found each other at the main train station, we went to Eisgrub-Bräu!  I know, where else but my favorite restaurant in Mainz.  We both had Wiener Schnitzel and talked about our interests, families, etc.  Dani had many interesting stories and thoughts to share and I liked that.  Afterward, I gave her a short tour of Mainz.  We stopped by the Christmas market, the Rhein, Schiller Square and the Walk of Fame of Cabaret.  Overall, a great afternoon!

Last but not least, an update on my Febmester plans.  Last week, I found a nursing internship at Charite in Berlin on the internet.  I was very existed about two opportunities: one to work in a well-known German hospital and two to experience the capital of Germany.  I sent the coordinator an e-mail to see if I was eligible to apply.  After a few days, there was still no response.  Nevertheless I prepared an application and sent it to the coordinator on Monday evening.  On Tuesday, I got an e-mail instructing me to give the coordinator a call.  Of course, I was very excited and very disturbed at the same time.  “Shit (pardon my French), I have to do a phone interview in German?  I don’t stand a chance.“  Then, however, I somehow managed to collect my courage.  “I can write some notes beforehand, yeah, I can do this!”  Then, I called the coordinator three times on Tuesday afternoon to no avail.  At 4 PM, I sent her an e-mail, saying that I would try again on Wednesday at 9:15 AM.  Somehow, I slept well that night.  I think, the run around Coface Arena after I sent the e-mail was helpful and I was definitely tired.  A few Loriot videos didn’t hurt either.  Then, on Wednesday morning I got up early to practice my phone call and at 9:15 I called.  “Hallo,” I heard on the other end.  „Hello my name is Jonathan Brach I sent you an application for an internship in nursing,“ I said much too quickly.  Then, she found my application and got right down to business.  Was I a medical student?  No, but I hoped to go to medical school after my bachelor studies in the US.  Can you start in April?  I wanted to scream with joy!  In my application, I wrote that I could start as early as March 5, although that would be directly after the winter semester.  We agreed on an internship period from April 2- May 1 2012.  I can volunteer in the surgery wing in the Berlin-Mitte branch of Charite.  Finally, I will receive a letter in the mail 4-6 weeks before the start of the internship, so I still have some time to think about it.                

Plus, I have an opportunity to do research in the spring with a professor here in Mainz!  Since I am very likely going to be doing research in the summer, at the moment I am definitely leaning toward the nursing internship.  I am toying with the idea of applying to medical school.  If you have any advice or thoughts, definitely feel free to share them with me.  For now, thanks for reading and until next time!  (definitely sometime in January, let me know if you are going to be in either Cologne, Amsterdam, Bruges, or Paris in the next few weeks)

The Zollamt and Nikolaus-Tee

Who would have guessed that it is difficult to pick up a package in Germany?  On Tuesday I had to go to the Zollamt (Customs Office) to pick up a package from my uncle, aunt, and cousin.  If I did not pick it up within a few weeks, it would be sent back to America.  Awesome.  With help from Google Earth I learned that the customs office is pretty far from the center of Mainz and even over the boundary of the tourist map.  As a result, I was ready for an adventure!  With the 58 Bus I reached the stop „Straßenbahnen/MVG“ (Streetcars/MVG, basically where all the busses go at the end of the day).  Then, I knew that I had to find a street called Rheinalle.  Since there was no sign for Rheinalle, I walked right by the street and then realized about ten minutes later that I had definitely gone too far.  I turned around and after five minutes saw a sign with the word “Zollamt.”  Wonderful!  Then, I followed the appropriate street and eventually reached a big complex with many buildings.  I had to find Gebäude 25 (Building 25).  Luckily, there were more signs for the Zollamt, but they were not really well placed.  Once again, I walked right past my destination, since this time the doors were unlabeled (it was an office building).  After circling the building, I went through these doors and on the second floor was the Zollamt!  I gave my receipt to the employee and she picked up my package.  Then, she gave me a box cutter to open it.  That was a little strange, I thought.  That would not happen in the US.  Inside was chocolate, a card, and more!  The employee smiled and said „alles klar, danke schön.“  (Okay, thank you)  „Bitte schön,“  (You’re welcome) I answered and I was off.  Unfortunately, there were no signs for Rheinalle upon exiting the building.  Therefore, it was a little difficult to retrace my steps, but I figured it out after a few minutes.  Many thanks once again Uncle and Aunt for the package!                 

On Thursday, I ate lunch with Emily.  We had a nice conversation about our courses and life in Germany.  I have a lot of respect for her, since she is taking three math courses in German.  Good for her!  Later that day I went to Nikolaus-Tee (Nickolas Tea) in the old cafeteria.  It was especially for first and second semester biology students and “the only opportunity to get to know your professors and Fachbereiche in a friendly round of Glühwein, waffles, and Christmas goodies!”  (The Fachbereiche is basically a biology club run by students that sells lab materials to students, provides free tutoring, and organizes student-faculty events like this one.  Glühwein means „mulled wine“ and is a traditional Christmas drink in Germany.)  Like for any other party that I attend solo, I had a prediction.  At first, I will feel really shy, but after breaking the ice with any random person, I will be on cloud nine!  That is just what happened.  I got there around 6 PM and of course, did not recognize any of the students and only two of the professors.  What should I do?  I saw a line for waffles and Glühwein.  I got waffles and Glühwein.  Okay, now there are countless tables; I’ll sit down at one and do my best to be friendly, but not overbearing.  “Ist hier frei?,” (Is this seat free?) I asked a student siting at a half-filled table.  “Ja.”  Awesome.  I introduced myself and we got to all know each other a little bit.  Next, two other students and a professor sat down on my side of the table.  Immediately, I was the focus and that made me happy.  The professor talked a little bit about his time as a post-doc in Stanford since I was American and the students were interested that I was studying biology in Germany.  Afterward, an interesting conversation ensued about the state of universities in Germany.  It was actually difficult to follow because of the speed and vocabulary, but some of the big ideas that I understood were the lack of student housing and work after graduation and the ever increasing amount of specialization.  Awesome!  Since the two students left after a while, I had the opportunity to speak one on one with the professor.  He studies algae and does multidisciplinary research (physiology, genetics, etc.).  I mentioned the sea slug that eats algae in order to perform photosynthesis.  He explained how the phenomenon works and also said that lobsters are red because of the fact that they eat algae.  Wow!  After a while, he too had to return home to his family.  I thought that I would head out too, but suddenly another student started to speak with me.  He had also chimed into the previous conversations here and there, but mostly talked to other students at the table.  His name is Conrad and he is in my botany course!  I was very surprised when he asked whether he could “friend” me on Facebook.  I agreed.  I was happy that he initiated everything instead of me.  Normally, I have to be really “overly-friendly” with German students even just to have a regular conversation.  Finally, I left at 9 PM, since I had a skype date with a friend, but yes, Thursday was an excellent day!  Thanks for reading and until next time!                   

Venice!

As I was practicing Italian phrases, I looked out the window of the airplane.  It was the Alps!  Reality sunk in; I was on my way to Venice!  I couldn’t wait to see my friends Elliott and Dylan!  After landing, I purchased a “Rolling Venice” card and 3-day youth pass for public transportation.  I was totally prepared to ask parla inglese? to the man at the Hellovenezia ticket counter, but then I heard him speaking Englisch with the customers before me.  Oh well.  As I had read on Venipedia, I took Bus #5 to Piazzale Roma.  There, I met Elliott and after a while we found Dylan too!  We were all really hungry; therefore we got dinner.  Somehow, the prices were not all that clear.  The beer and appetizers we ordered alone cost 75 euros!  Welcome to Venice, where everything is overpriced!  At least the food tasted good and I was just happy to see Elliott and Dylan again.  I saw Dylan fairly often during Middlebury Summer School, but because of the Language Pledge, we could not speak to each other.  December was the last time Elliott and I were together.  We spent the rest of the night wandering around Venice.  I recommended that we visit Piazza San Marco, since I had read online that it is very beautiful to see at night without many tourists around.  Indeed it was very beautiful.  We were excited to see the Piazza on Saturday in daylight!      

„Elliott?“  No answer.  Dylan and I were in our room at the Residenza Santa Croce, in which we could not see the main entrance of the hostel.  After twenty minutes and four Elliott-calls through the window, we simply headed down to the main entrance.  It was perfect timing, because we immediately saw Elliott walking toward us as we got there.  For breakfast, we ate in a café that was much cheaper then last night’s meal.  Once we had finished out Nutella Crêpes and coffees, we began our exploration of Venice by day!  Over this weekend, I am positive that I saw most of Venice.  To my surprise, there is an “Occupy Venice” movement.  Apparently it isn’t that big.  Elliott said that one day he saw two tents and over the weekend we didn’t see anything more than signs.  We visited the Rialto bridge.  It is a bridge that actually has several expensive stores on it.  One forgets that one is on a bridge unless one looks out at the Grand Canal.  Then, we returned to Piazza San Marco.  There, we visited San Marco cathedral, definitely worth a visit because of the all-encompassing mosaics made from gold.  Back on the Piazza I had an awesome photo opportunity when Dylan received a piece of bread from a lady and suddenly had many new bird friends!  Afterward we saw this amazing image in a church that was a mosaic of countless tiny spheres.  I will never forget it!  After lunch-to-go (Vorray Calzone per favore!) we visited Santa Maria della Salute cathedral, which was constructed after the end of the Black Plague.  It was wondrous, but naturally no WCs were there.  Luckily, Elliott has a good strategy for WCs.  Simply buy something cheap in a cafe and then use the WC there.  I must say that Fanta tastes better in Italy.  The goal of the day for Dylan was to buy a Venetian mask.  We actually visited the mask store that provided masks for the movie Eyes Wide Shut, but he ended up buying a mask somewhere else.  Afterward I had the opportunity to try gelato!  I had scoops of pistachio, banana, and Venice-something (it tasted good!).  We enjoyed our treats in San Margeherita Square.  Next, we visited San Pantalon church.  Inside was an unbelievably large ceiling canvas, simply awesome!  Nearby we visited an interesting videogame display which portrayed videogames as problematic.  After dinner, Elliott and I said goodbye to Dylan.  One funny story more: we had already ordered gelatos after dinner, but then Dylan say Gumbo gelato!  This was coincidentally at the same café where we ate breakfast.  Therefore, one can see a photo of Dylan on Facebook with two gelatos and his mask in a bag.  Naturally, he had a very good time in Venice.         

On Sunday, Elliott and I started the day by exploring Giudecca, a southern Venetian island.  He is living there until December with WPI classmates in order to complete the project venicenoise.org.  On Giudecca there is also a nice park that Elliott likes, since there is grass there.  As a matter of fact, one finds little grass in Venice, so I can understand his affinity for the park.  Then, we visited San Giorgio Maggiore, another island.  We planned to return there later, because there is a famous display there called “Ascension,” but it only runs in the afternoon.  For lunch, we ate pizza and then walked over to Accademia bridge.  Because the view there is very beautiful, we stayed there a while and talked.  I was excited to see a fire boat!  One needs fire men in Venice, right?  Interestingly, the large doors of Santa Maria della Salute were open.  As a result, we checked out the church again.  Then, Elliott brought me to the end of the island, where there is a statue of a nacked boy holding a frog in his hand.  Interesting.  Next, Elliott and I went back to San Giorgio Maggiore.  “Ascension” took about one hour to warm up, but once it was ready, one could see a giant cyclone made of smoke.  Amazing!  At that time, Elliott and I decided to wander around the „fish tail“ of Venice, which is a residential area.  It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city and interesting to see where the Venetians actually live.  Before dinner, Elliott and I saw another piece of art with spheres, this time outside.  It turns out that the name of the artist is Oksana Mas.  I am curious to see what other art he has created.  Unfortunately, it was almost time for me to go, but Elliott and I still had time to have cannoli.  Mmmm, I love cannoli!  At Piazzale Rome, Elliott and I hugged and I boarded bus #5.  The weekend was over, but my journeys in Europe are far from over.  Thanks for reading and until next time!    

Soccer, Art, and Tai Chi

Last Saturday I played soccer for the first time since I arrived in Germany.  If one knows even a little bit about Germany, then one knows how popular this sport is here.  In America, many boys (including me) dream of playing professional football, basketball, or baseball.  In Germany, it is safe to say that most boys dream only of becoming professional soccer players and only later, young soccer players like Roger Federer (Yes, I know, Swiss, but let me continue) recognize one day, “Hey, you know what?  I should give tennis a try.”  In any case, I had a very good time.  Ian and I could have either used a bus or moped to get to the game in Wiesbaden.  Naturally, we chose the moped!  We were a little late, but it wasn’t a problem.  Ian joined the German team and I the American.  As one might guess, the Germans won 7-1.  Oh well, hey you should have seen how happy the Americans were after our only goal.  One of my teammates shot a beautiful goal from about ten meters to the left of the left post, top right corner, sweet.  In spite of extreme leg soreness on Sunday, I am very satisfied with my decision to play.     

But on Sunday, I didn’t have much to do.  Therefore, I decided to use a coupon for free entry into the Mainz State Museum.  Once again, a good decision.  The museum had a great variety of different types of art.  There were statues from the Middle Ages, paintings from the Renaissance, and modern art (i.e. a Picasso painting).  My favorite piece was a painting of the Mainz Cathedral from the 1800s.  One sees old buildings like the cathedral, but it is really difficult to comprehend just how old it is.  A thousand years ago, people build this masterpiece without modern technology.  I can only imagine how dangerous it was and how many people were injured or died during the construction.  It is very inspiring today, however, I think.  How big can your problem actually be?  You don’t have to build a towering cathedral in the year 1000.  Mind blowing!  Also, I had the chance to flip through a two hundred year old bible.  One just had to wear gloves.  Now there’s something you don’t get to do everyday. 

I think, that my Mom and Professor Russi will like the following.  I am currently participating in a Tai Chi course that meets every Wednesday for one and a half hours.  It is unbelievable how peaceful it is.  The teacher said on the first day that in Tai Chi, one moves in the midst of calmness.  Then, one can try to have calmness in movement.  It is very deep, but I have already noticed a positive impact.  When I am feeling overwhelmed with homework (especially biology, where I often have to learn new concepts in German), I do a few Tai Chi movements, close my eyes, open them, and return to my desk, but this time in calmness.  After the first Tai Chi class, I felt the calmest I have been since I arrived in Germany.  That was really a great feeling.  

With my newfound peace, I am flying out to Venice this weekend!  There, I will see Elliott from high school and Dylan from Middlebury.  Thanks for reading and please stay tuned!

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Classes and Other Business

Since I have now officially chosen my course, I thought that I would start by talking a little bit about them.  I found the perfect biology course for me, “Structures and Functions: Evolution and Diversity of Plants.”  The course has two parts: a lecture that meets once a week for two hours and a lab that meets once a week for four hours.  With six hours a week plus homework, this course is really not so different from a biology course and that pleases me.  Honestly though, the lecture is quite boring.  The professor presents the taxonomy of a specific group of plants and most of the 250 students in the lecture halls spend their time talking instead of listening.  Once in a while the professor will say, “Could you perhaps be a little quieter?”  I find, however, that the lab is great.  It is also large with 50 students, but there is a TA for every 12 students.  My TA is super friendly and always willing to provide extra help, since I don’t always understand everything.  She even said that it might be possible for me to take the weekly quiz in English, but I answered that it wasn’t necessary.  I always understand the questions, but sometimes I simply don’t know the answers.  Oh well, I guess I will have to learn the Latin names of the plants we are studying.  Also, using the microscope is a lot of fun.  My favorite organism from this week was Gonium, an alga that moves!  I hardly expected to see movement under a microscope in a botanic course!  Simultaneously, Gonium is completely invisible without a microscope!  Did I mention that I am reading DNA: The Secret of Life by James Watson (from the university library) in my spare time?  What can I say, life is cool!    

I am also taking the Proseminar (a discussion-based class) “Intellectuals in West Germany” and the Middlebury Culture Portfolio.  My proseminar professor has not been there the past two weeks.  As a result, we really have not done much so far.  The culture portfolio is a collection of daily journal entries, projects, and essays.  Together they allow Middlebury students to be more culturally aware and so far I think the culture portfolio has been successful in this sense.     

Last Saturday, Ian invited the Middlebury students in Mainz to his house for lunch.  Emily, her friend Claudia, Alec, and I all ran into each other at a playground before heading over there.  I had a very good time.  We met his wife and kids, the food was amazing, and he even let us try out his Moped!

My own food is becoming better and better.  Now, I regularly cook four different dishes for dinner: pasta with tomato sauce, egg noodles with pesto, rice with beans, and mashed potatoes with bratwurst. 

Finally, today is 11.11.11!  Unfortunately, I was not at the Fastnachtsbrunnen for the start of Saalfastnacht (the period leading up to Carnival and Fat Tuesday), but I went there after my botany lecture.  It was interesting, lots of costumes, musicians, Schwellköpfe (giant heads): a preview of what is to come in February I am sure.  Tomorrow, I am playing soccer with Ian which is exciting.  Soccer on a Saturday morning?  DEUTSCHE SCHULE!  Thanks for reading and until next time!

Photos!

Weimar and Buchenwald

Everything started last Friday at Mainz’s central train station.  At 3:15 PM, the Middlebury students, our director Heike, her partner Jürgen, and the tutors met in order to board the train to Weimar!  Finally, it would be legal for me to use the Intercity train!  The trip took about three hours, but was very comfortable.  The fall foliage in the countryside reminded me of fall in Middlebury.  After our arrival, we only had to walk for five minutes to reach our hotel in Weimar.  One hour later, the reunification.  I was so happy to see Pete, Michael, and Dan, my Middlebury comrades from Berlin!  Also, there were many students from Wellesley College there and I was glad to meet them.  Since we were all really hungry, we went to a restaurant called Frauentor nearby the National Theater.  It was difficult to have to wait a whole hour for our food, but once it came, it was super.  Plus, everything was on Middlebury!  (Actually, the money most likely came from our tuition, but oh well, it felt like it was free.)  On the previous evening, I was up until 3 AM or so because of the SÖF or Semester Opening Party in Mainz, so I was naturally ready after dinner to go to a bar.  Alec, Emily, Michael, Pete, and I stumbled upon Studentenclub Schützengasse.  There, we enjoyed the local beer (Ehringsdorfer) and various conversation topics.     

The next morning, it was very easy for me to wake up at 8 AM, knowing that an all-you-can-eat breakfast awaited downstairs!  I tried all the different cheeses and deli meats and still had room for some bread and waffles.  It was a real treat after having to buy and cook my own food for so long.  Students currently at Middlebury!  Enjoy the dining halls!  The „real world“ is not nearly as generous.  Then, Heike gave us a nice tour of Weimar.  The city has quite a bit of culture and history.  At the end of the tour, the folks who accompanied me to the bar and Ian went to a restaurant called Altweimarsche Bierstube zum Goethebrunnen (Old Weimar Ale House at the Goethe Fountain).  In any case, this was definitely my favorite restaurant in Weimar!  I ordered the Thüringerbratwurst with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut for less than five euros!  Honestly, this lunch tasted better than the dinner I had at Frauentor, which was also charged much higher prices and served smaller portions.  Afterward, Pete, Michael, Alec, and I went to the historic cemetery, where we saw the Goethe family plot.  Next, we made plans to visit St. Peter and Paul Cathedral and then eat ice cream.  After the cathedral, we managed to eat ice cream and chat for three hours, but it was good to catch up with Pete and Michael.  For dinner, we met Ian at Gasthaus Bratwurstglück’l (Guesthouse Bratwurst Bell), where the food was both pretty good and inexpensive.  The only problem was that at the end of the meal, it took twenty minutes for all of us to pay due to slow service.  It is typical in Germany for guests in a restaurant to sit around for hours after they are done eating and chat, so in a way it was our fault for not giving the waitress advance notice that we were in a rush.  As a result, we had to run pretty much from the hotel to the National Theater, which is normally about a twenty minute walk.  Luckily, we made it on time for Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.  Wow, the opera was amazing!  Heike reserved the whole second row for us and it was actually a little embarrasing that I was sweaty and wearing jeans when I arrived.  If you combine a professional orchestra, choir, and theater group, you get an opera, but it is really something that you have to experience in person.  Before going to bed, we chatted a bit more in one of the hotel rooms, this time with the rest of the Berlin students and that was definitely a good way to end to the day.               

On Sunday, we visited Buchenwald concentration camp.  It was a somber, yet important experience.  First, we watched a short film about the Holocaust and Buchenwald concentration camp.  Then, Heike gave us a tour of the camp.  Outside the fence of the camp, we saw the remains of a zoo.  It is difficult to fathom that the Nazis treated zoo animals here better than humans.  Next, we visited the arrest cells.  In this prison, Nazis tortured and murdered countless Jews and other prisoners.  Before entering the main courtyard, we read above the door “JEDEM DAS SEINE” (“to each what he deserves”).  This phrase made absolutely no sense here.  A fate of death in a concentration camp?  No one, absolutely no one deserves that.  Within the courtyard we visited various buildings and saw an operation room, crematorium, and a cellar that was used to store corpses.  It was horrible.  To this day, I still don’t understand how humans were capable of committing such evil against other humans.  After the tour, I went alone to the mass grave from the Soviet Special Camp 2.  If you can believe it, the Soviet Union used Buchenwald as a “silence camp” from 1945-50.  More than 7000 prisoners died and were buried in unmarked graves in an area of the forest outside of the camp.  Today, those graves are now marked with metal posts.  I cried.  

Finally, hope.  I found the memorial in Buchenwald very influential.  It is a metal plate on the ground, no bigger than five feet long.  Inscribed on it are the names of different nationalities and races.  One can touch this memorial and one finds that it is warm.  It is actually kept at human body temperature.  The idea is simple, but powerful.  We are all human; we are all equal.

It was difficult to say good-bye to the Berlin students.  The weekend flew by.  I am sure, however, that I will see them again before I leave Germany.  Once we got back to Frankfurt, we found out that there was some sort of problem with the train to Mainz.  The solution: Heike got taxis for us.  Oh Middlebury, why do you have so much money?  Okay, I’m done.  Thanks for reading and until next time!

PS: All of my photos are now on Facebook:


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The Exploration of Frankfurt!

Naturally now you want to hear all about Frankfurt!  Nevertheless, I will first quickly tell what I did on Thursday and Friday.  The last day of orientation was Thursday and I presented on Meeeenzer Fastnacht through a Powerpoint.  Overall I believe it went well.  It is just annoying when I want to say something in English, then I have to struggle to say the logical equivalent in German.  Oh well, life goes on and my German will continue improving as long as I am in Germany.  One of my biggest helpers with this task is my tutor Doreen, whom I met with on Friday.  Afterward I went to Real and, arguably more important, the “Astronomical Working Group of Star Friends in Mainz and the Surrounding Area Association,” also known simply as “AAG Mainz.”  It was actually in the same building as the Natural History Museum and on the top floor.  I hoped to see the stars in the sky over Mainz while I was there, but unfortunately it was very cloudy.  On the bright side, I had the opportunity to take some cool pictures of Mainz’s skyline.  Inside there was a rotating ceiling that had all the stars and planets visible from Earth painted on it.  The presenter described the different constellations; it was really interesting to hear all the German versions of their names.  Also he shared two cool websites.  Check out „Stellarium“ (Google Earth for the sky!) and „Heavens Above“ (Orbital pass information for the ISS and much more!)   

On Saturday Alec and I went to Frankfurt.  Right from the start, we made a big mistake, but luckily everything turned out okay.  We accidentally boarded a train that was headed for Vienna!  When the train stopped at Frankfurt airport, however, we got off.  Otherwise, the title of this post would either be “The Exploration of Vienna” or “Why Fare Evasion is Never a Good Idea!”  Anyhow, Alec and I started out by visiting the Main Tower, the only skyscraper open to the public in Frankfurt.  At the top, we had a great view of all of Frankfurt!  Then, we visited the European Central Bank.  To our surprise, there was a crowd of “Occupy Frankfurt” protestors there.  I find it fascinating that this American protest is also in Germany.  The rest of the day was spent by us in the Senckenberg Natural History Museum.  First, we saw “Gunther von Hagens’ Bodyworlds of Animals.”  I must say, it was interesting to see animals in such a way, but it was also a little disgusting.  For example, there was the head of a horse cut into three different pieces so that one could see the inside of its nose.  Why?  I don’t think I could handle the human version of this exhibit.  Afterward, we saw the birds in the main museum.  The collection was much bigger than in Mainz and I saw many birds that I had never seen before.  In addition, there were mammals, plants, aquatic life, dinosaurs, and even mummies.  Overall this museum was on the same level as the Natural History Museum in New York City which pleased me.  Finally, we returned to Mainz (This time on the correct train!)

What else?  On Sunday I made scrambled eggs and put them in a sandwich.  It was not as good as Ross, but it was good enough.  I am visiting a ton of courses this week and the next in order to choose just four, but it is important for me to find which ones I really think are best for me.  I can’t wait for the Middlebury trip to Weimar this weekend!  We are meeting the Berlin students there!  All-you-can-eat breakfast!  That’s enough for now.  Thanks for reading and until next time!        

       

Milk, Museums, and more!

The first week of orientation was not that bad.  Sure, sometimes it felt like it dragged, but we learned about many meaningful things.  Here are the highlights.  On Monday, we met our tutors that will help us throughout the semester with our work.  At the Dom-Café, next to the Mainz Cathedral we got to know each other a little over hot chocolate and delicious cake.  To top it all off, everything was paid for by Middlebury, how awesome is that!  (Actually the money probably came from our tuition, but that’s okay with me as long as I receive the benefits.  On Tuesday, we played the “Airport Game.”  Alec, Emily, Ian and I (the four Middlebury students in Mainz) were split up into two groups.  Ian and I had to pick up Alec and Emily in an imaginary land.  It sounds pretty simple; however, there were of course rules!  In our culture, Ian and I could only walk as we touched each other’s shoulders.  Then, in Alec and Emily’s culture, they felt extremely uncomfortable standing closer than one meter to anyone.  The way it played out was interesting, since Ian and I explained the customs in our country right away, but Alec and Emily said, that they had a terrible disease, so it was not a good idea for them to touch us.  Finally, I came up with the idea of giving “antibacterial gloves” to Alec and Emily.  They accepted stubbornly and Alec said afterward, that one must be flexible in a foreign country.  My group made a special accommodation for them, so acquiescing to our request was simply the right thing to do.  In addition, Wednesday and Thursday were also important, since we spoke about our term papers, culture portfolios, and other academic topics.                   

On Thursday evening, I went to an interesting lecture: SWR Unitalk: Fritz Frey meets Frank Plasberg: Media in between Information and Inquisition.  Once I saw that Frank Plasberg had a Wikipedia page, I decided immediately to go.  Although I did not understand everything that was said, I am pretty sure that Frey and Plasberg did not actually talk much about the media’s role in information and inquisition.  The first question from the audience was actually more of an accusation.  A German student said, that the conversation really was not on topic.  Okay, I was not alone.  Also, a statement like that would never be made by an audience member in America, right?  In any case, the conversation was hilarious at times and I quite enjoyed it.  At one point, Frey said that he was about to use some complicated words.  Plasberg replied in a satirical voice, “So, you’ve graduated from high school?”  Hundreds of students and townspeople broke out in laughter.   

Without an offical group meeting on Friday, I was free to go to Real, since I really needed more food.  There were a few nights during the week in which I was hungry, but had no desire to eat apples or peanut butter and jelly (I know, pathetic).  The solution: dairy products!  I bought two liters of milk, cheese, and ice cream and can now proudly say that I no longer go to sleep hungry!  I also bought mixed vegetables, cereal, clementines, and NUTELLA!  Upon returning to my dorm, I discovered that the ice cream had started leaking from the box, so I licked it right off and it was unbelievably good (and I am still aliveJ).  Then I had some milk and cheese; I was in heaven!  It was good that I was supposed to meet my tutor Doreen in the afternoon.  Otherwise, perhaps all of the dairy products that I had just bought would have gone directly into my stomach.      

I met Doreen at a station called Höfchen for purpose of starting my culture project.  This Thursday, all the Middlebury students will be presenting Powerpoints on an aspect of Mainz.  Apparently, Mainz is the capital city of German humor and after the course German Comedy last spring semester, naturally I had to choose this topic.  We discussed the project for half an hour and decided that I would focus specifically on Fastnacht in Mainz.  Fastnacht is essentially the German equivalent of Mardi Gras.  Then, with the help of Doreen I interviewed seven Meenzer (citizens of Mainz).  It was difficult to understand the Meenzer, but I recorded everything with an audio recorder so that I could listen to it again later.  In a stroke of luck, Doreen and I actually ran into an amateur comedian, so that was pretty cool.  After the interviews, I went running around campus and saw an interesting sign.  “FLEA MARKET, every Saturday 7 AM-1 PM.  „Why not?“ I thought and I decided to stop by the next day.    

So, on Saturday I woke up early (around 10 AM) and walked over to the flea market.  I made a plan to only spend a maximum of five euros and my main goal was to find a drying rack for clothes.  I was totally surprised at how big the flea market was.  There were about ten long rows of vendors selling food, clothing, shoes, videogames, cooking materials, electric toothbrushes, magazines, and your typical garage sale junk.  After I had gone through the whole flea market once, I returned to two vendors.  I thought that both of them had drying racks, so I would try to negotiate the best price possible.  Unfortunately, the first was not a drying rack, but a wooden door gate designed to protect toddlers.  Perhaps I could dry three or four T-shirts?  “No, that’s not going to work,” I thought and I went to the other vendor.  She was very friendly and showed me how to open the drying rack.  It was metal and very different from the American version I had used at Middlebury, but I knew it would work.  It’s a drying rack, tomorrow I have to wash my clothes, I don’t have a choice, you have to stay cool Jonathan.  Five euros, no more.  „How much for the drying rack?“ I asked in German.  “Five Euros,” was the vendor’s answer.  I smiled and gave her five euros in under a second.  I was so excited, I couldn’t actually figure out how to close the wonderful object!  The wonderful vendor helped me.  „Oh,“ I said, then „Many thanks, have a good rest of your day!”  and I was off.      

That afternoon, Alec and I went to the Natural History Museum in Mainz.   It was awesome, not as good as in New York City or Harvard, but it was a really good collection of dinosaurs, animals, and minerals.  Alec took a photo of me in front of the Mainz Quagga-Group, these extinct Plains Zebras.  There are only twenty-three of these stuffed zebras around the world and three of them were right there in the museum, so that was pretty cool.  The bird collection is also very large and Alec was really excited, since birds are his thing.  I was also excited to see a giant Wood Grouse.  I had never seen one before and it looked like it was something from out of a movie.  I would not want to encounter this bird in a dark alley.     

Finally, I „worked“ on Sunday.  I visited the Fastnacht Museum for my presentation and although it was pretty small, I collected a lot of information about Fastnacht in Mainz and took a lot of photos.  It was a little odd, since I was the only visitor, but the employees there were very friendly and even gave me a Fastnacht hat to wear for fun.  The museum was but only a part of this large comedy zone in Mainz.  On the other side of a courtyard next to the museum was the unterhaus, a famous cabaret theater.  Then, the courtyard itself was the home of the Cabaret Walk of Fame.  It is funny, since I walked through the very same courtyard just last week and did not notice the Walk of Fame.  Observation, Jonathan, observation.  Eventually, I found it though and I managed to locate the plaque of my favorite German comedian Loriot and took a photo.  Then, I had a few hours before a skype date with my parents and brothers, so I walked a while along the Rhine before going back to campus.      

I would like to actually write more, but I think that is once again more than enough.  Tomorrow, I finally register with the university (internet in my room, yeaa!) and then I must prepare for this presentation on Thursday.  I am definitely excited about it, but at the same time I am ready for the weekend.  All right then, all the best and thank you for reading!  Until next time!

My last post left off with Alec und I ready to explore the streets of Mainz.  Indeed, that is what we did last Thursday.  First, we walked tot he famous Christ Church.  From outside, it was quite beautiful.  Since the doors were open, we were also able to see the inside of the church, which was also pretty nice.  Then, we walked along the beautiful Rhine River.  The entire view was awesome and the wind felt quite refreshing, although a tad cold.  After a while, Mainz’s city hall came into view.  Like Boston’s city hall, it is hardly beautiful, but I can only imagine how many offices and conference rooms exist inside, full of workers helping to govern and maintain the city of Mainz.  Around noon, Alec and I ate lunch at Pizza Hut.  It is a little funny to me, that Pizza Hut seems bigger in Germany than in America.  One reason for this could be that Pizza Hut has more competition in America.  Up to now, I have not seen one Papa Ginos, Papa Johns, or Bertuccis here in Germany.  After lunch, we visited Mainz Cathedral and wow was it huge!  The ceilings were unbelievably high, especially if you consider the fact that the cathedral was constructed during the Middle Ages.  Finally, we reached Schiller Square and boarded a bus that took us back to campus.  At Schiller Square is my favorite monument in Mainz: Der Fastnachtsbrunnen.  This very detailed monument of fools took three years to build, as I read on Wikipedia.  That’s all right isn’t it, when one sees something cool and finds out more about it on Wikipedia?

Back on campus, I took Alec to the roof of Inter I, where the party my first night in Mainz was held.  Upon reaching the top, Alec became very excited and did a video panorama around the roof.  I was also excited, since at night I could barely see anything.  Even in spite of the heavy cloud cover, the view during the day was magnificent!  Earlier on, we had had plans to explore the whole campus after going into the city, but since we were both pretty tired, at the cafeteria we decided to take a break and meet up later for dinner in the city.

I will now make a shameless advertisement for the restaurant Eisgrub-Bräu, because dinner was SO GOOD!  Do you like beer and meat?  Then fly seven hours from the US to Germany to stop in at Eisgrub-Bräu!  It could be the case, however, as it was for me and Alec, that no seats inside the restaurant are available and one has to simply sit outside on a wet bench.  It is totally worth it though, really!  I had the very tasty Wiener Schnitzel and a lot of (but not too much) beer that was brewed right in the restaurant.  After Schnaps at the end of the meal, I just might have been the happiest person on Earth!

On Friday, Alec and I went back to Real in order to buy a few more things.  I am most grateful I didn’t spend as much as my first time at the store.  Then, we spent the evening with none other than Mark T., the former German TA at Middlebury.  This gracious gentlemen invited us to his apartment to watch a soccer game on TV.  It was Germany against Turkey and Germany won 3-1.  During the game, I had a very tasty Budweiser from the Czech Republic.  I did not know that Budweiser originally came from the Czech Republic.  Although it tasted better than the American version, it is unfortunately more expensive.  After the soccer game, we went to a disco club called Schonschön.  Over all, it was tons of fun!  They played a lot of remixes of American songs that were excellent.  In addition, there was a fußball table and wow were Mark and the other German players good!  Now I know that one can actually dribble the ball in fußball, unbelievable!

Needless to say, I slept in very late on Saturday, but like a good study abroad student, I was right back in the city exploring after waking up.  Actually, I made a giant circle of the city on foot.  From the main train station, I walked by Altmünster Church, which was built in 734.  Then, I passed through Schiller Square on my way to the Holzturm, “one of three still existing towers of Mainz’s outer city wall.”  (How did you know?  This quote comes from Wikipedia!)  Next, was St. Augustine’s.  Inside this church and also St. Peter’s it was very, very beautiful.  I must have spent at least ten minutes looking around in both of them.  If I had better words to describe the beauty inside these two churches, I would say more, but if you one day visit Mainz, you must visit these two churches (and Eisgrub-Bräu naturally).  Two observations more.  First, as I was walking along the Rhine again, I saw a statue of a panther.  I was very happy and thought of all my friends and professors at Middlebury.  Second, I saw a sign on a building that the Nazis formerly used the basement to imprison Jews and other prisoners before shipping them off to concentration camps.  It was a dark reminder of a dark time in German history and I find it very important that this reminder and countless others all around Germany exist.        

Today (Sunday) was a relaxing day before the start of orientation.  I went to St. Stephan’s and saw the famous Chagall windows.  The biologist in me saw outside of the church a red squirrel and that was SO COOL!  Also, I explored the area around Der Drussstein, a large stone monument from Roman times.  One can see Mainz’s skyline very well from this location.  I did two awesome things here.  First, I went on this giant slide I saw in a playground.  It is probably meant for children, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity, especially with no one else around.  Second, I sat on an ancient Roman water basin.  It was fascinating to think that thousands of years in the past, other people sat in that very spot.  No one can know how many people have sat there over the years.  And in the future . . . that’s more than enough for this post I think. 

Tomorrow, orientation.  Hopefully, it will be good.  Thank you for reading and until next time!        

Good morning from Mainz!  (Actually as I write this text it is the night of my second day here in Germany.)  As I have told many here, everything started in middle school.  I chose to take German instead of French, because the German teacher said that he would give us gummy bears whenever we did well on his tests.  On Monday, my Dad and brother Joseph brought me to Logan Airport.  Then, for six hours I sat in an airplane on the way to Germany.  I was pleasantly surprised to find TV screens for every seat, even in economy class, and for my free drink, I was given two cans of Warsteiner beer.  During the trip I met a nice German/American woman (she was born in Germany, but has lived in the US for more than twenty years.  I was surprised when she told me after the plane landed that I was welcome to visit her and her husband in Dracut sometime.  It was really cool to meet her.  Luckily for me, airplane security in Frankfurt wasn’t as bad as I expected.  I actually felt bad for the officer who checked my passport.  He didn’t ask me any questions; instead he simply yawned, stamped my visa, and thanked me.  Next, were the ridiculous T-Mobile Payphones!  One had to use a credit card and somehow it cost 15 Euros per call.  Since I had to make a couple of calls getting in touch with the director of my program and her assistant, I must have spent over 100 Euros!  Finally though, after a short train ride I was in Mainz and Caroline, the assistant of the director, met me at the main train station.  She brought me to my room and wow is my room awesome!  The only downside is that there is a construction site outside my window, but otherwise I have a sink, mirror, large closet and shelves, bed, refrigerator, and large desk (See pictures below).  The location is also great; my dorm is right in the middle of the campus.         

Next, Caroline and I went back in the city to go shopping.  I bought a cell phone from a Best Buy-type store called Saturn and food from Aldi.  Afterward, I had to travel back to campus alone and unfortunately got off one stop too soon!  It probably would have been better if I had waited for the next bus.  Instead, I walked for thirty minutes with only a general idea of where my dorm was and relieved to finally find it.  Then, I spent a couple hours in my room alone with countless worries and questions.  Why I am in Germany?  I am not going to make any friends.  I can’t communicate with friends and family without internet in my room!  Why are all the electronic locks on the doors so hard to use?  Somehow, I managed to take a nap and when I woke up, I thought to myself, “Okay, it doesn’t make any sense to be so hopeless so early in your stay.  I should eat dinner in my hall’s kitchen and perhaps meet somebody.”  Indeed I did meet another student and her little brother in the kitchen.  She spoke German with me and showed me the easy way to open the electronic locks on the doors.  I was so thankful and relieved!  She then told me how I could use internet in my room.  I had to find this student in the next building over who had this flyer by the main door of the building.  His room number was supposedly 4034, but on the fourth floor, all of the rooms only had three digits and nothing went above 420.  Since then, I have just been using wireless outside when I have time.  I did learn something very important from this student, however: read flyers on the wall!  Another flyer actually said: New students meeting, 8PM, reading area, 15^th floor, Inter II.  Then, there was a little information about how there would be a tour and we would learn how to do laundry with German washing machines.  A little bit before 8, I headed over to the reading area in the building Inter II and found twenty or so students.  It was dead silent in the room.  Then, without saying anything, people that we learned later were tutors started bringing a ridiculous amount of drinks and snacks.  Needless to say, I met many Germans and also international students from all over (i.e. Scotland, Iran, France).  I was really quite surprised at how many international students attend Johannes Gutenberg University.  At the end of the night, I was very tired, but also somewhat satisfied with the overall progress of my stay.      

Not too much happened today.  I woke up at 1 PM (thank God!) then went outside and checked my e-mail.  Of all people, I saw Caroline on the street and she gave me Alec’s phone number (another Midd student in Mainz).  In the afternoon, I went to this Walmart-like store called Real and it is now my favorite German store.  Almost everything there is very inexpensive and now I feel more or less settled in with cooking materials, a blanket (only 30 Euros in comparison to 100 Euros at the department store Kaufhaus).  Once I returned to the university, I met Alec in a building called the Philosophikum and I gave him directions for getting to Real.  We are planning to meet tomorrow to explore Mainz.  I had so many breakthroughs up to now, I can only imagine how many more lie in the future.  For this blog, I will try to post at least once a week.  Thank you for reading!

-Jonathan       

Note: The title of my blog, "Jonathan brach durch," is German for "Jonathan broke through."  Please feel free to post on the main page in English!