fun with housemates...getting acquainted

I promise that I will get around to posting details of my excursions over the last few months, but I wanted to write down this evening before I forgot the details.

I have been rather depressed the last week since I had this idea that I was a bad scholar because I didn't travel much. Since I have not traveled I have spent a lot of time in the dormitory that I live in. Even though close to 100 people live in this building, I only come into contact with 17 of them on a consistent basis. Over time, I have come to know them by name and by dish they prefer to cook in the kitchen. I hardly ever talked to my housemates because I was too afraid to talk to them auf Deutsch. However, in the last month, along with having German thoughts, I've felt much more comfortable speaking German. The end result is that conversations with my housemates have evolved from "what do you study" and "where do you come from" to more detailed conversations about politics and dreams. (However, I still have to speak in simple sentences as my German grammar stinks).

Tonight, I spent over an hour hanging out on the balconey, drinking beer and eating wurst, talking about life, studies, and German idiosyncrancies. It was just a normal Friday night, but a good time. As my housemate put it, "Du bist heute nicht allein" or "Today, you are not alone." Probably for the first time since I have lived in Germany, I felt like I fit in. To further push that point, one of my housemates invited me to go camping in late May. I think I may do it, even though it means I won't sleep that well over the weekend and I may have to miss the Peter Fox concert in late May. :-(

Train hopping to Berlin

On Sunday, I introduced Lala to the joys of German train travel and the Happy Weekend ticket. With the happy weekend ticket up to 5 people can travel to any destination in Germany for only 37 Euros ($45). The catch is that you can only use regional trains. On weekends the regional trains only tend to run about once and hour so you have to plan your travels pretty carefully. Since Lala was on a tight budget, we decided to travel to Berlin using just regional trains, which meant that the normally 4 hour journey would take 7-8 hours. In addition, we planned to make a stop at an important Protestant city along the way (stay tuned for more details).

No fear, we just loaded up our groceries from the the night before into my travel bag and hopped on the first regional train out of Marburg (7:30am...not bad for a lazy bum computational chemist and a jet-lagged American). Because we knew we were train hopping, Lala and I kept everything in our backpacks and didn't carry any big suitcases. Thus we could also run to catch trains if we were running late, which happened several times.

At our first stop, Kassel, we encountered our first hiccup. I had forgotten to print out the schedule, so out of habit, I just assumed that we had to transfer trains at the major Kassel trainstation, Kassel Wilhelmshofe. However, it turns out we were actually supposed to switch trains at Kassel Main train station (which because of the newer station called Wilhelmshofe, is no longer the major train station, weird). But no fear, we had 30 minutes before the next connection so we just hopped another train to the correct station. We even had enough time to grab coffee at a local vendor. We then settled down 5 more hours of train travel, which took us deep into the heart of the former East Germany. The German government has spent a lot of money restoring East German town so it was rather difficult to tell the difference between East and West Germany. Some of the train stops looked a little sketchier than normal Hessen train stops, but that was the only difference we could see. In one train station, we saw 8 heavily armed policemen patrol the station but we never figured out why. Nonetheless, after 5 hours of regional trains, we arrived safely at our Protestant history stop for the trip, Lutherstadt Wittenburg.



For those of you not familiar with Protestant history, Wittenburg is where Martin Luther first posted his 93 theses against the Catholic bishops in town. Being daughters of a Protestant pastor, my sister and I were both pretty stoked to see the town that started our father's (and soon to be my sister's) profession. Lutherstadt is a former eastern German city but the middle (and the oldest) part of town has been completely restored. Its fairly unknown by the tourist crowds so its a great place to visit. I have forgotten all the stuff that we saw, but we spent about 5 hours wandering the streets where Martin Luther once walked. We saw the church door that tradition holds as the place Luther posted his theses.




We also saw the church where Luther married.




We also saw the painting of purgatory marked with the names of students who failed their exams (so claims my lonely planet guidebook).



We also took the time to visit the Haus der Geschichte (or house of history) where a German tour guide took us through apartments set up to look like every decade of DDR life. Even though my English speaking sister and I were the only ones waiting for a tour that day, none of the tour guides spoke English. Instead, a 60 year old DDR resident very skillfully showed us the entire tour, pausing every 2 minutes so I could translate the German into English, which was pretty funny considering my limited German skills. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip as we had time to interact with a native German and we learned how much can be expressed through hand signals and smiles. I highly recommend that you visit the museum if you go to Wittenberg! Sorry no pictures cuz they weren't allowed, but you can see the museum here.
Apparently the museum has been used as a set for many German films set in that era.

We saw the seminary founded by Luther's students. Sadly the museum had already closed but we did see a really great name for a beer garden.....My sister, who I consider an expert on this subject, says that Luther was well known for having deep theological conversations while drinking beer.


After a lovely visit to Lutherstadt, we caught our last train of the day.




Forty five minutes later we were already at the stop for our hostel, cutely called Ostel (combination of the German word for east = Ost and hostel). The entire hostel was themed on the former eastern Germany. The rooms were former apartments in real DDR buildings. All the buildings have been renovated so the houses are actually quite nice. The first night in town we were the only ones in a 3 bedroom apartment so we used the time to explore the place. One room had a balconey so I rushed back downstairs to reception and bought two local Berliner beers. Loletuth and I closed the night by talking sisterly things overlooking the playground of the area below....awesome....more to follow later.

meine Schwester and my sister

I don't feel like yelling at the computer right now and I can't work on my thesis introduction until I hear reviews back from my thesis committee, so I will waste time by writing about my March travels.

After I returned from Switzerland, I worked frantically for two weeks on thesis research. Then, on the 4th of March, I basically stopped working for about 3 weeks to travel. On March 4th, I picked up one of my German sisters from the Marburg train station. Maria came to Marburg to attend a conference on Parkinson's, which worked really well with my schedule. During the day, Maria attended conferences so I could work while at night I got to come home to a not empty room! It was really nice to have someone else around to cook dinner and share deep sisterly stories with. But the sisterly times don't end with Maria. On Friday I headed to Frankfurt airport to pick up my American sister (the one I am actually related to) Loletuth (aka Lala)!

For 36 glorius hours I was thrilled to have my transcontinental 'family' together. While Maria attended the conference on Friday, I introduced Lala to my German research group and took her to the 400+ year old tower overlooking the city of Marburg. Despite Lala's fear of heights, we climbed to the top and saw some pretty cool views of the city. Then we caught the 'short bus' into town to meet Maria and could pick up groceries for dinner. It was really cool to pick out my favorite German foods. We then came back to the dorm and made a lovely smorgeboard of vegetables and vegetarian bratwursts. Somehow, all three of us fit into my little studentendorf room.

On Saturday, Maria left the conference early so I could take her and Lala on a grand tour of Marburg. We visited the castle, saw a German wedding, and enjoyed coffee and cake at my favorite bakery in Marburg. Afterwords, we quickly ran home so Maria could catch the last fast train to her hometown. Loletuth and I then enjoyed a nice dinner of Auflauf and Abelwoi (Hessen speciality) at Cafe Early (best auflauf in town!).

After dinner, Lala and I returned to pack for our train hopping excursion to Berlin....more details to follow...

Ich denke dass ich veruckt bin! (I think that I am crazy)

Eventually I will document the rest of my travels in March (which include planes, trains, and automobiles) but today I just want to document a very interesting thing that has started happening to me.

For some very strange reason, over the last two months, a larger percentage of my thoughts have been German instead of English. This is very strange considering that I still don't know a lot of German vocabulary and my German comprehension means I still don't comprehend a lot of things around me. Part of this transition was intentional, as I forced myself to think of a German phrase every time I thought of an English phrase. For example, I would think 'my head hurts' but I would quickly follow that thought with 'Mein Kopf schmerzt'. Its only natural that as I have surrounded myself with German speakers, that the German phrase comes to my mind more quickly than the English phrase.

I really want to learn how to think in a different langauge. I called a minor victory in church on Easter Sunday when I realized that I understood about 50% of the words that the pastor spoke. Over Christmas, I only understood about 20-30%. However, now that the Deutsche Gedanken process has begun, I find myself trying to stop it from occurring! An example: I asked the group secretary (in German) why the German professors advertised their classes. Typically, my research group would then reply in English, but on that particular day, the secretary decided to reply in German. I listened to the words she spoke and understood everthing she said. Then, I realized she was speaking German, and my comprehension immeadiately disappeared. I couldn't understand anything she said after that, it was like my mind shut off the German portion.

What scares me more is how much I don't think about thinking in German. I guess that's a good thing since I should be thinking in the language of my host country, but it really freaks me out at times. I am still shocked when I clearly understand the questions that my labmates ask me. I am even more shocked (maybe they are too) when I respond auf Deutsch.

However, there is a down side to my Deutsche Gedanken, I struggle even more to find the correct English words. Today I wrote an email (to Americans) where instead of writing 'I am interested in dinner', I wrote 'I am interesting for dinner', which made my potential dinner companions think I was the main course. ;-) Considering that I am writing my PhD thesis in English instead of German, grammar and word mix-ups are a true cause for concern.

Has any one else experienced this problem before?

99 bottles of beer on the wall....

No, there are not 99 bottles of beer on my wall, I don't have enough shelf space for that many. I use the reference because I only have 99 days left before I board a plane to return to the US. Only 99 days until my Fulbright fellowship officially ends and I return to normal US civilian life. My time in Germany has been reduced from 340 days to double digits that are slowly approaching zero.

I approach this date much as I expected I would, with trepidation and excitement. My family anxiously awaits my return and I anxiously await to see my family, but at the same time I don't want the adventure to end. As difficult as this time abroad has been, I have learned something new everyday. Part of me feels at home here but I long to be reunited with my those with whom I will make me home. Germany is not my true home and probably never will be, but I still long to stay. An awkward conundrum I now face: to look forward towards my last days in Germany while also looking forward to my home country. I am nervous about how my home country will accept me and how I will accept it.

I feel very comfortable in my American culture but then I think about my life here and think "this fits too". How to deal with this conundrum? I just keep living each day to the fullest. Nuture the friendships I have made thus far and encourage new ones.

Remember that even after I leave, a friend is just an instant message away.

US -centric does not equal globe centric

Springtime has sprung in Germany and the students have emerged from hibernation and begun to chat with their neighbors. Last night, a housemate and I engaged in a lovely conversation about American culture. (I am the only American on this floor so I am frequently asked questions about the US). I forget what the exact topic was, but I was trying to say that a policy would have to be implemented throughout the US. However, instead of saying throughout the US, I said, throughout the world.

My housemate heard my Freudian slip and jokingly said "ha, you self-centered Americans, always thinking that the United States is the only nation in the world."

I laughed and said, "Yes, you caught me, but at least I acknowledge that fact."

My friend laughed and said "Yes, there is hope for you yet."

Then we moved on to other topics like quantum theory and health care. (don't ask how we transitioned, just know that we moved off the topic.)

A brief exchange, but in some ways a very important one. Since I've been on this exchange, I've been exposed to a lot of my own prejudices, most importantly my prejudice towards thinking that America is the only country that matters. To be honest, I was suprised that something like the above phrase came out of my mouth. Because I travel so much and have friends all over the world, I consider myself a global citizen before an American citizen. However, my freudian slip revealed that deep down, I really think America should make the decisions for the world.

Its understandable to think this way since this American culture exudes the idea of superiority in everything we watch and read. Take science fiction for example. The most blatant example comes from the original Star Trek series. At the time Star Trek was realized, it was ground breaking for how it included foreign looking (read non-white) people in the show. However, the captain of the ship was an American. Interpretation: Its okay to include the voices of foreigners, but Americans make the final decision.

A counter-argument to this example would be that the show was written by Americans, so of course Americans are in charge. I ask the question, why doesn't anyone question why the Americans are the only leaders. In sci-fi or action movies like Deep Impact or Independence Day, Americans are the ones that make decisions for the entire world yet few people in the US stop to think about why that is so. Granted, if we watched more foreign movies we might see a world not lead by Americans but the fact is that most Americans (and many foreigners even) only watch the American produced movies, so they never see how arrogant our viewpoint really is. We hold deep cultural biases that only Americans should be in power.

One could make the claim that since the US is composed of immigrants from all over the world, it makes sense that America should speak for countries all over the world. A Chinese, Brazilian, German, Ghanian, or Native American makes decisions that aren't just good for their adopted country but good for the world. I have no data to refute that statement, I don't believe that is true. An American is an American who will make decisions that reflect their self-interest. It is possible that an immigrant-American makes decisions that will cause much damage to their former country because that decision will make their lives a lot better in the US.

That is why the above conversation was so interesting. I finally realized that I hold deep biases against non-American leadership. I don't want to live in a universe without American leadership. I feel safe when an American makes the decision to jump to warp 7 or when an American wants to stabilize a worn torn country. At gut level, I still feel indignant when a foreign leader objects to American plans. I am not sure how I would respond to a Chinese-led United Nations or a German led NATO. However, with globalization and the current crisis, it is likely that I may live to see those days. However, if American superiority remains, it will be good to remember that a good idea for America is not necessarily the best idea for the world.

At least I know this fact so there just may be hope for me yet.