Allzeit bereit. (Be prepared)

27 July, 2006

Hello friends,
I have just returned to the states after spending the last three or so weeks working at a scout camp (Pfadfinderdorf Zellhof – “Zellhof scout village”) near Salzburg, Austria. After I got over my initial worries of “what on Earth am I doing at a camp in the middle of Austria where I have to speak German for three weeks!?” everything was really great. I worked with and talk to people of all different ages from all over the German-speaking world and beyond. They were, almost without exception, wonderful. And for the first time in my life I was really the only American around. And that was very interesting.
So, you might ask, ummm Molly, how did you end up working at a scout camp in Austria? The answer: the internet. Hooray for the internet. And hooray for scouting. I have been a girl scout since I was four years old, and after not having been very involved for the last five or six years, it was wonderful to get back into. I had forgotten just how great scouting is. Some things were different from how they are in the US. In many of the troops the boys and girls were together. This was a concept that had not really occurred to me since we are always so separated in the US. But it works. And why not, right? Except that (no offense to any US boy scouts reading) the Girl Scouts of America is a far superior organization to the Boy Scouts of America. And I was somewhat shocked to see that you could buy beer, wine and cigarettes at scout camp. But for the most part I was struck by just how much the same things were. The songs are the same (albeit with lyrics in a different language), the activities are the same, the campfires are the same. It was all so familiar. And I can’t overstate how cool it is to hear a bunch of Danish girl scouts in Austria singing a song that I remember singing when I was their age at camp in California.
As for the language component of my time in Austria, I spoke A LOT of German. At first I thought I was toast as there were so many new words I didn’t know. I just hadn’t had occasion to talk extensively about wheel barrows and buckets and trash sorting before, you know? And often there was not just one new word to learn, but two. When you are working in Austria with people from both Germany and Austria you have to learn not only that in Austria a wheelbarrow is a “Schiebtruhe” but also that in Germany it is a “Schubkarre”. Likewise for bucket (Kübel vs. Eimer). That and you have to understand the Austrian accents which, to me at least, sound like people are always singing. Not everyone sounds like he/she is singing, but a lot of people do. For the first time I was speaking with native speakers, who actually know things like with preposition goes with which verb, which was great for my German. Sadly, now that I am here in California, there is no one to speak German with! Perhaps I should mosey on up to Sacramento and have a talk with the governor. Of course I have been told, by reliable sources, that Arnie’s German isn’t very good these days. I was even told once that my German was better than his. That, however, I do not believe.
There are so many more wonderful little incidents I could write about but, as I think I am tending to write longer and longer emails, I will just share one more of my favorites. One day, I was sitting at a table in the shop reading a book I had brought along with me. A very smart, very funny, 10 year old German kid who was working with his dad and brother at the camp sat down next to me. He asked me what I was reading so I showed him. And he said, “but it’s in English!”. I said, well yes, I am American, I read and speak English. And he was speechless. It was very cute. I guess he just thought I was a none too bright person who made a lot of grammatical errors?

I was extremely sad to leave Zellhof. But since I will be on that side of the Atlantic all next year, I already have several trips to Austria planned to see some of the great people I met. And next summer I really hope to go back. Masters thesis, bah! I’m sure I can take a few weeks off from that, right?…
Hope you all are well and keeping cool.
Bis bald,
Molly

Der Ball ist rund und ein Spiel dauert 90 Minuten.

3 July 2006
For those of you who don’t speak German, the subject line literally means: “The ball is round, and the game lasts ninety minutes.” But it really means “anything can happen.” As you could likely guess, in World Cup crazed Berlin the quote is everywhere. Even in the Pergamon museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergamon_Museum). The Pergamon Museum is Berlin’s archaeological museum. It contains the Pergamon Alter, the Ishtar Gate and many other (non German) world treasures. And an exhibit called “Der Ball ist Rund.” A friend from class, Mari, and I visited the museum and the special exhibit on my last day in Berlin. The permanent collection was impressive, but the special exhibit blew me away. It was about soccer, but also about time and space and cognition. Seriously. The had everything from old films of soccer matches, to a whole wall of eyes from ancient Egyptian statues, to Schinkel’s set designs for the Magic Flute, to Hubble images. Leave it to the Germans. I have never seen anything like it. I even bought the catalogue for the first time in my life. It was incredible.
After the Pergamon, Mari and I had another very important “Ball ist rund”-related event to attend to: the Germany vs. Argentina game. We parked ourselves in a bar by the Spree, ordered a few beers, and waited for the madness to begin. Pregame everyone was fired up. Tons of flags, painted faces, the works. But the first half was pretty quiet. The very nice German women sitting behind us and we struck up a conversation. Mari endeavoured to explain baseball. Auf Deutsch. That was very, very difficult! The game was very evenly matched and, much to the dismay of all, Argentina scored first. But then Germany scored and the whole city started to yell, hug, and honk its horns. When the game was over (after a scoreless overtime and a shoot out!) Berlin became one huge party. See the pictures to get an idea (link coming). It was unbelievable. Wanting to soak up the atmosphere as much as possible, Mari and I headed to the Fan Mile (http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/051216/1/5pye.html).

Things were hopping down there and the celebration was in full force. But the most memorable part of the evening was the subway ride home. Things started out innocently enough. It was crowded with fans, but nothing was amiss. Then the train came and we all piled on. And we did not move for very long time. In the mean time, all of the (fairly drunk) fans on the train started singing and dancing and jumping up and down! They sang all sort of team jingles and even Deutschland Deutschland. The car was about 100 degrees inside by this point, and though it was not moving forward to the next station, it was shaking from all of the celebration. I will never forget it. And I took some videos with my camera just to make sure!
The next morning I left Berlin. My liver may not have been sad (I might have doubled my lifetime beer consumption while in Berlin), but I certainly was. I am in love with that city.
I am currently writing from Vienna. Now I think there is no way for me to avoid giving Vienna short schrift (I’ve been here only for two days, I was in Berlin for a month), but here are a few points worth sharing. In Vienna I keep having those, “My God. I’m in Vienna. Vienna is a real place! It actually exists!” kinds of moments. I think it’s a product of growing up American and not in a large city like New York. For me, so much of Europe is still just something that exists in books. I think part of the reason I like to travel so much is that it finally makes the places I’ve read about real.
And Vienna is gorgeous. In many ways it’s the opposite of Berlin. Berlin is a giant construction site. Vienna is a giant museum. I was lucky enough to meet with a Viennese friend of mine and her daughter here. We had a lovely walk around the city and then stopped in a typical Viennese café for coffee and Sachertorte. And we spoke German. It was really lovely. Her very sweet, just over one year old daughter is learning German and English. She spoke mostly German too except for saying “I know!” in English. So cute!! It was suggested to me by this friend that it would be a good exercise to write these e-mails in German. I agree. It would. But I think it would take about 20 hours to do so. Plus then most of you couldn’t read them!
I also visited St. Stephen’s, a gorgeous gothic cathedral in the center of Vienna. I like climbing to the tops of churches for the view so I jumped at the chance here. As I ascended the twisty, narrow 343 steps to the top something odd happened:
Step 320, 321, 322. I think I hear something. Nah, maybe I'm just getting a tad tired. Step 330, 331, 332. It's now unmistakeable. Step 333, 334. It sounds like Madonna (as in the singer, not the holy mother, this was not a religious epiphany). And it was! At the top of the tower of this soaring gothic cathedral in very beautiful, somewhat somber, very dignified Vienna, the shop attendant was blasting “Material Girl”. Height, light, salvation and a material world. Wow. It could have been funnier though. It could have been “Like a Virgin”.
In addition, I paid my obligatory visit to the Freud museum. I am no more a fan of Freud’s theories than most psychologists, but I am in Vienna after all! The museum was interesting, even if THE couch is in London. And after seeing just how many Egyptian artifacts Freud had in his office, I am starting to feel more of a kinship with him…

My favorite museum in Vienna though was the Kunsthaus Wien. It houses the work of the Austrian painter Hundertwasser and on its website claims to be: “A house not corresponding to the usual cliches and norms, an adventure of modern times, a journey into the land of creative architecture, a melody for the eyes and the feet.” It was very unusual indeed. The floor is uneven, there are plants everywhere as well as lots of eye-poppingly colourful tile work. Well worth the visit.
And in closing, another update on the state of my German. I am feeling more comfortable daily. I am doing my everyday errands all in German which is not a small accomplishment. The guy at the Freud museum even handed me the German guide! Now I just have to figure out how to use all those prepositions.
I’ve posted some pictures to Snapfish in case you are interested. The link is headed your way shortly.
I hope you all are well!
Bis bald,
Molly