Happier things.

I wanted to post something happier to make up for the heavier content in my last post. Therefore, fun pictures!

Here are some of my favorites from wandering around the harbor and one of the more alternative parts of the city. But first, this is the front of my dorm for anyone who may be interested. I live on the fourth floor in the smaller part of the house on the right, which continues on a ways in the back. My windows are bigger and thus generally cooler than the ones seen here. There are lots of bikes and roses blooming. Mhm.

WARNING: Content highly depressing. Read at your own risk and with a cup of tea.

As I may have mentioned earlier, I've been doing a lot of research in the past week or two for a big presentation that I have to give next week. (We all have to do one over a topic of our choice at the end of the orientation program.) I chose to do mine over Stolpersteine, which literally translates into "stumbling stones." I noticed many of them here and there in the sidewalks upon my arrival and learned their story soon afterward. Each stone begins with "Here lived" and carries a name and story of a Holocaust victim. Most of the victims were Jewish, but there are also stones for gypsies, the politically persecuted, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, etc. It gives their birthday, when they were arrested/deported, where they were taken, and when they died. The stones are then placed in the sidewalk in front of the house where they lived.

The project first started in the mid-90's in Cologne by an artist named Gunter Demnig, whose reasoning was: Ein Mensch ist erst vergessen, wenn sein Name vergessen ist: "A person is first forgotten when their name is forgotten." It took several years to get it underway as many people were not comfortable bringing attention to the painful history behind their homes and the questions they might raise about how they came to live there, among other reasons. However, once it took off, it really took off. There are now Stolpersteine in more than 480 places in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Netherlands, and the numbers are growing every year. There are over 2000 in Hamburg alone, many of which are in the area around the university where I spend most of my time. There are two in front of the Smith center, for example.

Lastnight I read an interview with Peter Hess, the man who does all the technical coordination of the laying of Stolpersteine in Hamburg. He says that he gets phone calls every day from people all around the world wanting Stolpersteine for family and friends from Hamburg that were killed during that time. "They have no graves," they say. That really struck me. He also said that he gets a lot of calls from people wanting to know if Jews had lived in their homes, so that they can place a stone for them as a memorial, even from complete strangers. School groups and businesses also call wanting to know if there had been victims that had been teachers there or had been employees. He must then go through all the lists in the city archives looking for names, calling classmates from half a century ago, scrounging around for the true story. Then say it turns out that there had been a Jewish teacher at a school that had been deported, the kids will work together to come up with the money (95 euro) for a stone to be placed in front of their school for that teacher.

The more I learn about this project, the more fascinated I become and the harder it is for me to learn more. In coming to Germany, I had no idea I would be so affected by the same history that I'd been learning about for years in school. Maybe it's something about the location, about being here where these people lived and died and where all these terrible things happened. There are little reminders about it everywhere you go. For example, this entire family was deported to Auschwitz where they were all killed. They lived in a building that I pass every day. (Click for a closer look.)

The stones come in ones, twos, threes,...

..sevens...

...nines, and on and on.

In a similar vein (gotta get all the depressing stuff done with in one post), yesterday Sarah and I went to the Sankt Nikolaikirche, St. Nicholas' Church, which was first built in the 12th century has Hamburg's highest steeple. It was destroyed in the great fire that destroyed many parts of the city in the late 1800s, was restored, and then was destroyed again by the bombings in 1943. The steeple and a few parts of the outer wall somehow survived, and it was decided to leave it as a memorial for those who died during that time. The steeple, still blackened with the soot of the bombings, was secured and eventually fitted with a glass elevator that takes you up to the 76-meter viewing area.



In the basement there is a fascinating and incredibly horrific exhibit of photographs, quotations, old video clips, and other artifacts from the Allied air raids in the summer of '43 and the devastating aftermath thereof. I knew that Hamburg had been heavily hit during the war, but seeing the visual evidence made it sink in. It was one of the most heavily destroyed cities during the war, most of which happened in three days by the British and US airforces. 35,000 deaths, only half of which could be identified, 120,000 wounded, over 80,000 buildings destroyed or damaged, 357,360 homes, and that was just the immediate damage. I think you get the picture.

There have been a couple times where I've caught myself wondering why the Nazis would bomb their own people, only to realize that now I'm seeing the other side and that it was my country that did this. Now more than ever I cannot begin to fathom how it was possible for human beings have done this to one another. What's harder is to realize that people are still hurting one another in such devastating ways today.

That visit followed by Stolpersteine research left me in such a state that it was necessary to indulge in my last SnackPack chocolate pudding. Sigh. Hard to learn about. Important to know about. Needless to say, it hasn't been an easy week.

(Don't say I didn't warn you about the depressing part.)

Now to end this on a happier note before more homework, this afternoon I'm going to my program director's house (Joe) to bake REAL American chocolate chip cookies with Sue, his wife, who has REAL baking powder and REAL brown sugar. We'll be enjoying them this evening at their "election results" party, as today is the day when all of Germany has to vote. YUM!

Cup o' soup days.

I've still got this nasty head cold eating all my energy, not to mention my face. My one down day was nice, but suddenly I've found myself very busy with homework and trying to figure out cheap travel and research for a big presentation that I have to give next week, among other things. Good thing tomorrow will be better!

This morning I tried putting on a healthy mindset and went to the Brahms Museum with Liz Chase where a cute little old lady told us lots of cool things about the famous and deliciously talented Hamburgian composer. Basically, Hamburg loves Brahms. For example, upon his death in Venice, all the ships and buildings in Hamburg hoisted black flags in mourning. They even have his death mask that was made just after he died. (It was a liiiiittle disturbing.) A very interesting and completely unrelated fact we also learned from her was that the most tourists that came to the museum were Japanese. Go figure. (This point was later proved when a huge Japanese tour group arrived, cameras flashing wildly, just as we were leaving.) We also tried to find the place where his house once stood and failed. Actually, it wasn't a total fail because we got to walk around in the pretty sunlight. (I'm trying to stock up before the notoriously gray and rainy Hamburg winter hits.) Then we headed to the library to research things and had more orientation things before going home to crash/do lots of work.

In other news, we've now been here a month and all my pants are too big. That's something I didn't anticipate.

Not the most interesting week ever. I'll try to do crazier things this weekend to make up for it.

Family time and several hundred drunken men singing old love songs.

It's true, but that explanation will have to wait until after family time adventures.

Last week sometime I got a message from Jonas (my wonderful German exchange student brother who lived with us in '04-'05) saying that he would be home in Detmold this weekend and that it would be great if I could come visit. He also introduced me to Mitfahrgelegenheit, which is a fantastic ride-sharing system used all over the country. It's so easy - you go to the website, type in where you want to go to and from on what day, and it shows you the list of all the people making that trip, what time they're leaving, how many open seats they have in their car, and how much they charge. After quickly making an account for yourself, you call/email your selected person to solidify your spot, they pick you up at the train station at the specified time and then drop you off at the train station at your destination. We used it both driving the 2.5 hours to and from Detmold and in total it cost us each 30 euro instead of the 60-80 or so euro it would have cost with the train. Hooray!

I say 'we' because Kassia came along as well. Sabine told me last time that I was more then welcome to bring friends with me, so why not! Thus on Friday we met up with our ride after an evening of historical tour of the St. Pauli area of the city with our group (and amazing hot chocolate and Kuchen at a cafe) and got to Detmold by 10pm-ish where Jonas met us at the train station. I hadn't seen him since my last visit in 2006 during my Belgian year and it was soooooooo so so wonderful to see him again. He took us back to their Haus where he fed us and we chatted and caught up on LIFE and all that good stuff. It was very bizarre for me to be speaking German with him because in person we had only ever spoken English. People's voices take on different intonations in different languages, and it was interesting for me to pick out which parts of his voice I recognized and which were new to my ear. Just something I noticed.

On Saturday, Sabine fed us and the rest of the family a fantastic breakfast and then Jonas took Kassia and I for a walk around the city. The Saturday market was well on its way and there was lots of fun people watching to be done.


This year is the 150th (?) year celebration for Hermannsdenkmal, which is a huge huge huge statue of Herman (the German) that stands high upon the highest hill in the area overlooking everything. They had mini-Herman statues that different artists had decorated all around the city, much like the bears of Belfast or the cows in Paris. They were fun.

Jonas, Duke of Detmold standing proudly in front of his castle.

One of the oldest (and cutest) little streets in the city. Most of the city still had this stereotypically German aesthetic and aged feeling that Hamburg lost to bombs during the war.

Later that afternoon after a wonderful Sabine lunch (it was a very filling weekend), we all went for a walk around a huge open-air museum where several hundred year old houses, farms, windmills, and villages were rebuilt after being taken down elsewhere, and then restored to their original conditions. It was a fun blast from the past to be able to walk around all the old buildings and see how people lived and worked back in the day.




We also got to check out a windmill. How fun!

After that excursion we took a quick trip to visit Herman and congratulate him on his big birthday. He's several hundred meters up there and we were able to walk around the base of the dome area part way up and have a look at the big big world. I had visited Herman with Sabine three years ago in the winter, so it was fun to check out the view in another season.



Down in the right hand corner is Jonas, Sabine, Trappi, and their dog Tessa, who didn't feel the need to go all the way up with us. They said they'd wave, which in German is winken (vink-en). One of my favorite verbs.

Many of Jonas' friends came over that evening to hang out. There were a lot of loud and fast-paced conversations going on at once and I was pleased to be undersanding most of it. I had somewhat of a deja-vu feeling because three years ago I'd been in the same position with most of the same people, except that then I had nooooo cluuuue about how that crazy language worked and this time I did. Mostly.

Sunday morning we had to catch an early ride back to Hamburg because our group was going to a Fußballspiel that afternoon. There are two official soccer teams in Hamburg, but only one favorite. The St. Pauli games are both famous and notorious for their extreme fan adoration that makes all their matches incredibly fun and exciting whether they win or not (and from what I've gathered they tend not to win). Before the game, the metro was completely packed with brown and white and jolly rodgers (their symbol) and beer bottles. Then when we finally got into the stadium, I didn't see a single open seat in the whole place. This first picture (click on it!) was taken when the team was walking out on the field. The whole stadium was cheering and jumping up and down and singing and chanting in adoration. The whole front half of the stands across from us was the official "fan section" where they had learned special cheers and hand clapping motions that made cool designs all together. They also jumped up and down in unison, which was quite entertaining. However, my favorite part was the old love songs that they had re-written to apply to their beloved soccer team. The best was to the tune of "You're Just Too Good to Be True," which instead of "I love you, baby, and if it's quite alright, I need you baby..." went "Hey, hey, St. Paaauuuu-li, da da da daa daa daa, hey, hey, St. Paauuuu-li, da da da daa daa daa, etc..." I'm not usually one for sports, but the enthusiasm of the place really won me over.


I was able to catch St. Pauli's one and only goal on my camera. I was a little worried the stadium would explode.


They ended up losing 2-1, but all the fans stood and cheered proudly for the team anyway until they'd left the field.

Andreas, our Hamburg Seminar teacher, brought a friend of his who just happens to be on the St. Pauli team to class on Friday as a surprise guest. He told us about the long and very interesting history behind the team and it's political and social actions in the city, as well as taught us key soccer terms in German. Having this previous knowledge about what was going on before the game made it that much better. One thing I learned that I found particularly interesting was that no sexist posters or slogans were allowed in the stadium. No half-naked objectified women in a heavily male-dominated situation? Cool!

Aaaaand now I'm sick. Blehh. However, our practical orientation leader is unfortunately/conveniently also ill, so I don't have to be anywhere today. I'm more than ready for a quiet rainy day.

Thanks for such a person.

This afternoon the internets told me that Mary Travers had died and to my surprise, I immediately burst into tears. I just can't believe it. She was so much of my growing up and I can't wrap my mind around the fact that she's no longer living. I've never been this affected by a celebrity passing. The extra sad thing is that most Germans did not begin as hippie children that grew up on powdered milk and PP&M, so no one here understands what this means to those of us that did. Good thing Mom was home when I called so I could have someone to commiserate with. Here's to you, Mary.

On a comptelely unrelated note, a few of us went strolling around the Alster lastnight, which was then followed by an all-new Wasserlichtkonzert (Water/light concert...) in the Planten un Blomen park. Things to be gathered from the evening:

1. Everyone should visit me.

&

2. Sometimes it's fun to live vicariously through the love lives of strangers.

Genglisch.

Today we learned that Genglisch is the correct word for the mishmash of English and German, not denglish, engleutsch, deutlish, or any of the other words we'd been playing around with. Good to know!

Also today, Carolyn and I got some ice cream after class and I accidentally used the French word, boule, for "scoop" instead of the German one, Kugel. I didn't realize it until afterward when she asked me what that word was, because she didn't know it in German. Oops. They do have the same internal vowel sound! Then we laughed heartily, because finally we must have been mistaken for French tourists instead of American ones.

Normally the Smithies in my dorm cook dinner together in Liz' shared kitchen, and for the last couple weeks I'd been looking at this poster thinking, "Golly, gee, that sure does look a lot like White Sands National Monument in New Mexico." I finally read the fine print on the bottom and discovered that I was correct! How ironic that there would be a poster of a New Mexican landmark that I visited recently in my dorm in Germany.


Saturday had sehr schönes Wetters, so Carolyn and I went for a stroll in the sun. Apparently last year those in power decided to cut down all the trees on our street in order to enlarge it for more traffic. There were huge protests against this decision, especially from the children who go to the school on this street. The kiddies won and a lot of the posters from that protest are still up. This one says, "I am a LIFE TREE!"

Later that day, Kassia, Liz Chase, and I decided to go on an adventure. We got on a random S-Bahn train to see where it went and ended up getting off at the botanical gardens. Seeing that it was free, we let ourselves in and had a wonderful walk around.


There was a big pond with lots of ducks and HUGE fish that kept coming to the surface and opening their mouths. They were highly entertaining.


My favorite part was that they had a "Nord Amerika" section. How exotic!


To continue that day's adventure, we went to a large superstore and found that their grocery department had an Amerika section! (It was right next to the Russian section. Go figure.) You could buy Betty Crocker muffin mix for 5 euro (about $7), real A-grade Canadian maple syrup for 4 euro, fake American maple syrup for 5 euro (someone missed that memo), Hershey's, Campbells tomato soup, Mac 'n' Cheese for 2.50 euro (almost $5 a box..ahaha), and other fine American delicacies.

On Sunday we all got to go to a splendid concert, where the Klassichen Philharmonie Bonn played Mozart, Hummel, and Mendelssohn. There was a giant cube covered with Brahms' face to one side of the building. Apparently he lived in Hamburg for a while, thus the Hamburgers are alllll about the aforementioned Johannes.


After feeding our musical desires, we fed our hungry stomachs at a Kulturfest going on at the university. We decided to try out a Handbrot stand, where bread was baked in long strips while stuffed with delicious cheese and mushrooms or ham, then topped with sour cream. It was amazing. So much better than cotton candy. Also, I was so full afterward that I only had some boiled carrots and zucchini for dinner and still felt like I'd swallowed a large stone. Mmmm.



Classes on Monday, then after talking about Uni-Hamburg things in our practical orientation on Tuesday, we all went to explore the Iselmarkt, which is the city's oldest market. It now runs underneath the S-Bahn.

There were lots of produce, meat, and cheese stands among the various artists and other vendors. Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese.

There were also lots of flowers. Several places were selling these crazy-looking ones. I have no idea what it is. Anyone?


That's where I bought my leckerleckerlecker marzipan muffin. I also bought a basil plant (Basilikum auf deutsch), which I promptly named "Basil."

Brilliant, I know.