daily life in Berlin

26 June, 2006

Hallo all,
Berlin is an amazing city. I have been here for three weeks now about I have only one left. I am living in Prenzlauerberg in the former East Berlin. My apartment is about a 30 minute walk or a 15 minute tram ride from the Goethe Institut where I take my German class. Being the good New Yorker that I am, I generally walk. I first pass an ashtanga yoga studio (one of the two studios I've tried here. Yoga auf Deutsch. Whoa. Thank goodness the sankskirt names don't change!) I pass a pizza joint where the clock always reads 12:00. I pass a large pork butcher shop that has lots of very cute piggy banks in the window. It seems a little bit morbid
to me... I pass lots of BioMärkte/Organic markets. I pass tons of German people riding their bicycles. All without helmets. I guess German people don't worry about smashing their brains out on the sidewalk. I try my best to wait for the jolly little traffic light man to turn green before I cross the street. It's hard. New York conditioning. But some Berliners cross when it's red too. Really they do!
I also pass tons of people with little kids. I found this very odd at first. One can hardly have a conversation about Germany without talking about the birthrate crisis. But apparently in Prenzlauerberg, and only Prenzlauerberg, there is actually a baby boom. And auf gutes Deutsch, in case you were wondering, that's "Babyboom". As I continued to walk I pass White Trash Fast Food. I saw this place last summer, when it was in a different location, and had no clue what it was. Apparently it's a dance club. And apparently it's very trendy and very popular. Not really my scene though, you know? I am curious as what the German interpretation of "white trash" is though... As I near the Goethe Institut I enter Mitte, Berlin's very young, post-wall, new heart. There are shops, galleries and pleasant courtyards around ever corner in Mitte.
Often in the morning before my class I take part in the Goethe Intitut arranged culture program events. Lots of interesting walking tours (along the former the wall site, through the galleries in Mitte, or through Prenzlauerberg for example). There are also museum visits and lectures. Alles auf Deutsch of course. And at this point I understand pretty much everything which is really a good feeling. I'd like to do even more of the events but I have a lot of homework. And I'm sure no one will be surprised that I have a hard time not doing all of my homework, despite all the other amazing things to do around here.
Speaking of homework, my class is going well. I was intimidated the first few days but I think the level is actually just right. My teacher is quite a character. Up until a few day ago I could have written that she has exactly two colors in her wardrobe: black and red. This includes makeup, very red lipstick and very black eyeliner. And hats. Lots of red hats. But this week she wore some blue! Egad! She speaks realllllly fast and makes no accommodations vocabulary-wise for us. All of this is very good as it forces you to figure out how to function in native level German. And she is an amazing teacher, despite the fact that we seem to be the only class with a substantial amount of homework. She gives us projects that get us out in the city to explore. We had a walking our/scavenger hunt in groups through Mitte. Mine included finding a absinthe shop, a few very cool cafes, several galleries and some thought provoking memorials. She also gave us a project where we had to go out to cafes around Berlin and write reviews. And a project where we had to buy all sorts of different newspapers and then report back about what sort of papers they were, how hard to read, etc. In class we read tons of very current and very interesting articles from Die Zeit and other not easy German papers. We also have some incredibly difficult grammar exercises.
For example:
Nominalize as many verbs as possible in the following sentence:
"The most important reason why a foreign word would be borrowed lies in understanding in the area where the newly named thing is going to take over."
Ummm yeah. It's hard even in English. But thankfully it's hard for everyone in the class, not just for me.
My classmates are by and large quite enjoyable people. There are far too many of us Americans here, but then I'm part of that problem. We'll not talk much about how I'm becoming good friends with two New Yorkers. One of whom is a grad student at Columbia. Opps. Well I didn't know! We were speaking German! It took a while to figure it out. There is also a woman from Nebraska in my class. And Lincoln at that. But there are also people from Norway and Japan and Spain and Switzerland and Canada and Korea. After class we often all go out to eat. And to drink. I've been drinking a lot of beer here. But hey, I'm in Germany. And there's this little thing going on that you might have heard of. The World Cup!
Being in Germany for the World Cup is like nothing I've ever experienced. Even Lincoln on Cornhusker gameday doesn't come close. All of Berlin has Fußballfieber (football/soccer fever). People walk around wearing flags as capes, decked out in very silly hats, faces painted, flags flying from car windows, grown men wearing soccer ball costumes, well you get the picture. And when Germany scores a goal you know, whether or not you yourself can see a TV. The city explodes with yelling and horn honking. And postgame it gets even louder. It's pretty nuts. This is all quite new for Germany, or so I've been told and so I've read
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/world/europe/18germany.html?ex=1308283200&en=c077835a3e53b9ad&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)
There are tons of fans from other countries here too. One night a group of quite drunk middle aged Swedes decided they wanted to have a conversation with my friend and I on the tram. That was interesting. One night a group of us were watching in a very pleasant Biergarten and when Germany won the restaurant bought everyone in the place a round!

So then a final question, eh? How's my German. Well, getting better I think. I understand most everything. People don't answer me in English anymore. I can say what I want to say and people understand me. I just make a looooot of grammatical errors. Stupid prepositions. They make no sense!
As this has gotten awfully long I will stop writing. I hope the summer is going well for all!
Viele Grüße,
Molly

Hallo Berlin!

8 June, 2006

Hallo alles!
Well my wanderlust has again overtaken me. Which must mean it's time for an email!
I spent last week in London with my good friend Laetia. We went on a Dickensian London walking tour, saw Coriolanus at the Globe and, never to be taken for granted in London, had a weekend of beautiful, warm weather. London was expensive but lovely as always, though this time it was also completely covered with England flags (World Cup starts tomorrow!). People even put flags on their cars. I'd only ever before seen that in Nebraska.
One usual activity this trip was exploring the banks of the Thames at low tide. I spent a few hours with Laetia and her new friend (both archaeologists in training/archeology buffs) sifting though pipe stems, broken pottery and lots and lots of bones. Sound strange? Actually it was very interesting. We came away not with shells but with skulls. I guess thats what happens when you go beachcombing with archaeologists!
Laetia and I also attended an event called "Late at the Tate Britain." There we attended and *interesting* fashion show and also a talk about fashion that was given in British Sign Language, or BSL, (guess which of use chose that event!). I'd always been told that BSL was extremely different from American Sign Language, but I'd never seen it before. After seeing it I can affirm that yes, it's completely different! I understood approximately 3 words. Thankfully it was also interpreted into English.

Since soon enough I will be in the UK for a year, I decided it was time to get a UK cellphone. You might think that would not be such a difficult task for a native English speaker in an English speaking country. And you would be wrong. While at the Carphone Warehouse (I bet someone is kicking her/himself for naming it that...) I asked the saleswoman there about where I could use the phone. She helpfully explained to me that in order to not always pay roaming charges, I'd have to buy another SIM card (the card inside the phone that stores my number and all of my personal information) in Germany or whichever European country I was in. Fine. However, then I asked about using the phone in Latin America. In Nicaragua the phones also have SIM cards (we don't use them in the USA) so naturally I wanted to know if I could buy a Nicaraguan SIM card and then use my phone there. The salesperson's answer to my question of could I use the phone in Latin America?:
"No. Canada, America and Japan have another system"
Me: "Right, but can I use it in Central America and South America?"
Salesperson (sounding frustrated): "No. Canada, America and Japan have another system"
Me: "No, not in the US, in Latin America, for example in Nicaragua"
SP: "No. Canada, America and Japan have another system"
No matter what I asked she gave no indication that she knew I was talking about other continents and not the Southern or Central USA. I guess Americans don't have a monopoly on world knowledge cluelessness. Maybe she thought Nicaragua was somewhere near Texas...
Anyway. Now I am in Berlin. As you all likely know, the World Cup begins tomorrow in Germany. And here you certainly can tell. The TV tower in Alexanderplatz is painted (decorated?) to look like a giant pink soccer ball.
And there are signs and flags everywhere. Much as I like soccer though, that is not the reason I am here. I'm here for four weeks taking an intensive German course at the Goethe Institut. I am living with a woman with whom the institut matched me and I have class for five hours each day. And perhaps I'm a little bit crazy, but I can't imagine what I'd rather be doing. I never test well on German placement tests for some reason, so yesterday, my first day of class, I was in a class that was not so difficult. I was going back and forth with myself about whether to say something. I know that my grammar is not good and they had placed me there, but it really did not seem like the right level. And I spent the whole morning today talking with people from higher levels without any problem. So, in the end, I had decided to say something to my teacher today. And then, before I had said a word, she came over to me and told me that she thought I should move to a higher class. I guess I was right! So I moved up two levels (:-/) and now my class is MUCH more difficult. It feels too fast, but I think that means it's just right. I will certainly learn much more this way.
Now I should be off. Lots of verb forms to memorize! I hope you all are well!
Tschüss!
Molly

Vegas baby!

Greetings all,
Up until now I have only ever written these e-mails when traveling abroad. However, my good friend Laura and I spent this past weekend in Vegas, and I think it's plenty foreign enough to merit a few musings.
First of all, here's a list of classic Vegas activities in which I did not participate:
1) Ascend the "Eiffel Tower". It was too windy. Apparently. I don't think they shut down the real Eiffel Tower due to wind. Silly American hyper safety concerns.
2) See the Bellagio fountain show. Again, due to high winds.
3) Gamble away my life savings. No need for that as my tuition bills for next year will suck them dry quite efficiently.
4) See Wayne Newton. Self explanatory.
5) Get married. However I did receive an offer while walking past the very classy Chapel of the Bells.

That said, Laura and I did partake in a number of typical Vegas attractions. We saw an Elvis impersonator. Actually we saw an Elvis impersonator, a Britney Spears impersonator, a Christina Aguilera impersonator, a Tim McGraw impersonator and MIchael Jackson impersonator. All in one show. And they were all quite good. Though the Britney impersonator has retro Britney abs instead of the current ever pregnant look. We saw one of the four (a fifth opens in June!) currently playing Cirque de Soleil shows. As far as we could make out it was about a baby turning into an enormous snail. Certainly stunning though. We ate more than we should have at the Excalibur buffet (hooray for American gluttony!). We gambled a bit (Laura won $5.75, I lost $25) and we ran across many, many weddings. (Bride count for the two days: 19)
This was my second trip to Vegas, but as the last one was when I was about 12, and all the mega casinos are 5-7 years old, the experience was quite new to me. A few observations on Las Vegas in general. The strip is quite long. We found this out our first day when we ended up walking nearly the entire length of it. Even for a New Yorker like me this led to some sore feet. The mega-city casinos look like Epcot at Disney World, only darker. Vegas-style Paris, New York and Venice are all way too clean, just like Disney. But with no windows. Or clocks. And more alcohol. Lots more alcohol. Approximately half of the escalators seem to be out of service at any given time. Suspiciously, they seem disproportionately to be the escalators leading out of the casinos. Hmmm. Las Vegas is full of swank restaurants but decidedly unswank patrons. Lots of tank tops and shorts. And about fifty percent of the women seem to have had half their clothing lost during the course of the day. This happy coincidence allows them to reveal to the entire world that they spend approximately 16 hours a day in the gym working on their abs. Las Vegas must also be the most smoker friendly city in the US. Though the casinos have some sort of crazy efficient ventilation system so you really don't smell it much. Perhaps this is just my having lived in New York too long, but everyone in Vegas is shockingly polite. I have grown quite unaccustomed to having people say "excuse me" when they slam into me on the street, let alone when they almost bump into me. That and the holding doors and having employees suggest ways for me to save money on the things I am purchasing from the store. Wow. Though Las Vegas walkers will never match the skill of New Yorkers.

Now why did you go to Vegas this weekend, you ask? Aren't I leaving for Europe for several months very soon? The answer to the second question is yes, I leave tomorrow. The answer to the first is one word: MADONNA. Madonna is touring this summer and as her schedule is essentially the inverse that of my travel plans extreme measures were necessary for Laura and I to fulfill our plan to attend her tour. Hence the trip to Vegas. And we most certainly were not disappointed. She was fabulous. Amazing. Unbelievable. She's 47 and yet can dance and sing for two hours straight without losing her breath. And she looks better than most 17 year olds ever could hope to. She began the show by descending from the ceiling inside a huge disco ball. She was quite far away, even from our $175 seats, but her energy filled the entire arena. She performed just about all of her new album, along with a number of classics including "Lucky Star" and "Like a Virgin". Her tour is just starting and I highly recommend attending if you can. Well worth the (admittedly astronomical) ticket price.
I hope you all are doing well. E-mails for London/Berlin/Austria are soon to come.
Happy Memorial Day!
Molly

¿Adónde vas, chela?

3 May 2006
Buenos días de Managua.
For those of you who don´t frequent this sweltering city of two million, here´s a translation of the subject line. "Adónde vas" means (in Nicargua or anywhere else Spanish speaking) "where are you going?". Chela (or chele for a man) however is a very Nica word used to refer to people of my coloring. According to the Real Academia dictionary, it comes from the Nahuatl (pre-conquistador language of much of Central America) for green or unripe. I find this etymology very amusing, but then that won´t surprise anyone. Anyway, that is often how the taxi drivers ask me where I want to go. No blending in for me down here as usual.
Things are hectic (exciting?) as always in Managua. A transit strike has been threatened to start each day, but every morning I wake up and still see the tricked out American school busses in the streets and know that thus far the strike has been averted. I am very lucky to have a good taxista (cabbie) friend down here though, so I should be able to continue roaming the city seeking out deaf people strike or no strike.
Overall things are going quite well on this, my first solo trip to Nicaragua. The weather is as hot and humid as ever and the shower is as cold as ever. I have learned a few new Nica words in the last week. Guess how you say handcuffs in Spanish (or at least Nica Spanish)? Esposas. Yup, that´s right. Wives. Handuffs, wives, all the same. Apparently. Why have I learned the word for handcuffs you ask? Well on my flight from Houston to Managua there were about 15 men handcuffed together on the plane. I was not aware that people were deported on commercial flights. Perhaps it´s another brilliant idea of W´s. . .
In addition to Spanish I´ve been signing as much as my brain will allow. It is getting easier and I no longer get lost for entire
topics during a conversation. Can´t ask for much more than that. I have however learned of one thing that makes it absolutely impossible for me to sign. Holding a baby. On Monday I visited one of our subjects here who had just had a baby. He was very cute but I found it virtually impossible to converse while I had the baby in my arms. She, on the other hand, had no problem at all. I do, however, still have my special touch with Nica babies. He peed all over me. Now I am two for two!
Daylight savings time started here early Sunday morning. And I´d say that now, four days later, about half of the people down here know that the time has changed. You can imagine this scheduling problems this causes. Up until it actually happened about half of the people I talked to assured me that the time was not actually going to change because people hadn´t like the change last year. The other half of the people I talked to said it was going to change, but most thought it would be on Monday. Then I missed the first hour of a movie on Sunday because the movie theater thought the time had changed already. It´s enough to make your head spin. And to make it very hard to make appointments with people. Hopefully in the next day or two everyone will synchronize. Vamos a ver...
I´m off to lunch now at Managua´s only organic restaurant. Organic and air conditioned. Sometimes you have to spoil yourself.
Hope you all are well!
Saludos,
Molly

predeparture thoughts

Well trip number one is fast approaching. High time to get this blog in order.
On Thursday I leave for Nicaragua with my new antimalarials, about 100 pounds of equipment, and NO ONE ELSE! This will be a first. I'll be spending two weeks driving around Managua engaging in conversations something like this:

me: do you know where the deaf guy lives?
managuan: no.
OR
the mute guy?
me: yes, do you know where s/he lives?
managuan: go to the little tree, go four blocks toward the sunrise (arriba, "up") and then two blocks toward the lake ("al lago").
me: thanks

That's just how Managuan addresses are. Not that that means they necessarily work. As often as not they don't. And then you find another person to ask.
If I can find 5-10 older deaf people to work with I'll be satisfied. That and if I can get the data tapes through security without having the airport inspectors destroy them!