I am happy to report that I have arrived safely in Nürnberg with my ethics and medicine class. The train ride was absolutely spectacular. The German countryside was filled with old towns, churches, castles, and FLOWERS! We also had a lovely dinner at a traditional Bavarian restaurant.
In other news, Kate Middleton has the most epic wedding dress of all time, the euro dollar exchange rate is 1.48 (woah!), and the British wear funny hats.
The German word of the day today is, in honor of being in Nürnberg and writing my EU paper on war crimes in former Yugoslavia, der Internationale Gerichtshof, which means international criminal court. Vincent taught me this word when I was trying to explain the current political situation in Croatia to him in German. Oy! That was a challenge.
The photo of the day today is of Dr. Regina Casper in Croatia (Molly is also in the background!). Dr. Casper is absolutely my favorite professor here. She cares about her students more than any other professor I have ever met. She is the person who organized this trip to Nürnberg for us and took us to Saachsen hausen, the concentration camp. She is a visiting professor from the Stanford Medical School, and is only here for a quarter like us. Her husband is also a professor at Stanford, and he was a guest lecturer in one of my IR classes back on campus. Not to mention he was also President of Stanford at one point. Crazy smart awesome power couple. I want that someday. :-P
Ok, so the Three Penny Opera isn't a "real" opera, but Rusalka is! Tonight I saw Dvorak's Rusalka at the Komische Oper with the entire Stanford Program, generously paid for by the Bing family. Like I said in my earlier post, I saw this same production a couple weeks ago with my German friend Daniel. Daniel, being all fancy and European (I mean that in the best way), has seen a lot of Operas. I remember leaving the opera house and asking him what he thought of the production. He told me that he found the ending quite moving, but was critical of some of the staging. I just kind of looked at him and nodded my head because I was completely lost during the second half. The opera was translated into German, as all operas at the Komische Oper are, so Daniel had a distinct advantage. The second time around I understood much more. I am proud to say that, like Daniel, I was moved by the ending. As far as the staging goes, much of it in the second half was ineffective at story telling. However, the decision to have all performers, throughout the entire performance, enter and exit through a single closed door in the center of the stage was brilliant. It made me feel as though the stage was an entirely new world and play area where anything could happen. The voices, of course, were magnificent, and I often stopped paying attention to the words just to listen to the athleticism of the vocal chords. For those of you who speak German, or would like to see more about Rusalka, I have included this video:
My parents also joined us for the opera. It has been so great to have them in Berlin this week, so that I can show them the city I have come to love. Tonight was their last night, and I am sad to see them go. I am so lucky to have such supportive and proud parents. Miss you already mom and dad!
The German word of the day today, in honor of Rusalka, is die Nixe, which means mermaid. Daniel taught me this word a few weeks ago, then I forgot it and asked Jan. :-)
My picture of the day today is of the Stanford Villa. This is where I have all my classes. The villa is exactly 100 years old this year and has a beautiful garden filled with tulips!
Yesterday I saw Berthold Brecht's play, the Three Penny Opera, live at the Berliner Ensemble. The Berliner Ensemble was Brecht's theater back in the day, so it was cool to see the play in the original German at the original Berthold Brecht theater. The performance was feast for the eyes, a provocative interpretation, and an overall successful performance in terms of entertainment and quality. All of the characters were painted with white faces like clowns. The only colors used in the set, the costumes, and the makeup were black, white, and occasionally red. The blocking was carefully and artistically set such that each moment was a perfect tableau. This is the best best picture of the show that I could find online, but it really does not do the play any justice. I saw a play by the same director, at the same theater house a few weeks ago, called Lulu. The director used many of the same techniques in Lulu as he did in the Brecht piece, but the white faces, lack of color, and strange blocking just did not work as well for Lulu as it did for the Three Penny Opera. The thing about using this unusual theatrical technique is that you expect it to be depicting some kind of deeper meaning. You expect the lack of color to mean that the characters are not true real characters but rather representations of societal norms, this was the case in Brecht but not in Lulu. Lulu is a story completely void of meaning, void of societal critique, and void of intellectual stimulation. That would be fine, if it weren't attempting to be deep through visual ploys. I left Lulu feeling completely frustrated and like I had been tricked, but I left the Three Penny Opera feeling completely satisfied. Here is a short video I found on YouTube of the Three Penny opera to give you a better impression.
My parents came to the play as well. I hope they liked it even though it was entirely in German. Before the play we had dinner on the river at this amazing restaurant right on the river Spree next to the theater. The restaurant was called Brechts and I highly recommend it (especially the Wiener schnitzel!)
I also met some awesome international kids in my Freie Universität course yesterday. They are from France and England. It was good to know that other students were struggling through the German almost as much as I was (though their German is significantly better than mine). The course I am taking is called "Einführung in die Internationale Organizationen" which translates to "Introduction to International Organizations." There about 40 people in the class, it is taught in German, and my professor is awesome. She even brought us candy on the first day of class! I wish professors at Stanford did that. :-)
The German word of the day today is der Flüchtling, which means refugee. It is similar to the verb flüchten which means to escape, flee, take flight. I learned this word in my International Organizations class at the FU.
Everyday I will include at least one picture that I took, since photography has become one of my favorite pastimes in Berlin. This is a picture of my parents on a bridge over the River Spree. In the background you can see the radio tower of East Berlin and Museums Insel.
Because the alarm clock on my temporary European cell phone is completely unreliable, I have been using itunes as my alarm clock. This morning I woke up to Anna Netrebko singing from Dvořák's opera Rusalka. I saw this opera with my German friend Daniel a few weeks ago at the Komische Oper and I will be seeing it again on Thursday with Stanford. Here is a video of Anna Netrebko (my favorite singer ever!) singing in the original Czech (I saw the opera translated into German). I'm excited to see it again because I absolutely loved the performance and I definitely did not fully understand the ending the first time around. The problem with waking up to such beautiful peaceful music is that I ended up staying in bed much longer than intended, and was therefore late to my favorite class-- Ethics and medicine.
The highlight of my day today was showing my parents around the Freie Universität and having them meet my German friends Daniel, San Ja, Vincent, Jan, and Jin-a. I love my German friends so much and I am so lucky to have them in my life here in Berlin.
I took some photographs today, and am especially proud of these two. I took them during the rain outside of the Stanford Villa.
My German word of the day is: die Osterglocken, which means daffodils but translates directly as Easter bells.
I have always been enamored with fairy tales. I love the simplicity of the stories, the nonsensical fantasy of another world, and the connection to childhood. I love it that we all know these stories on some level and that cultures throughout the world have "fairy tales" of their own. My favorite movie of all time is Snow White and I think I have been a Grimm fairy tale character for halloween most years of my life.
Here I am in Germany, a land famous for their fairy tales thanks to work of the Brother's Grimm, and I feel like I am on a fairy tale adventure of my my own. I live on a lake with swans near a palace for goodness sake! (The palace, Schloss Charlottenburg, is the background picture of this blog btw.) Therefore, I thought that it would be appropriate to call my blog "Märchen", the German word for fairy tale. By writing their own Märchen, the Brother's Grimm hoped to create a sense of national German identity through storytelling. Similarly, through telling my own stories, I hope to strengthen my own sense identity.
I have no idea what this blog will include, but I assume that my readers are mostly my parents, maybe Josh, some close family, and my closest friends. Therefore, I will write this blog to you and for myself. I hope you enjoy!
Love, Amy
PS- Everyday I will include a "German word of the day". Today's word is Märchen. :-)
Yesterday I saw Berthold Brecht's play, the Three Penny Opera, live at the Berliner Ensemble. The Berliner Ensemble was Brecht's theater back in the day, so it was cool to see the play in the original German at the original Berthold Brecht theater. The performance was feast for the eyes, a provocative interpretation, and an overall successful performance in terms of entertainment and quality. All of the characters were painted with white faces like clowns. The only colors used in the set, the costumes, and the makeup were black, white, and occasionally red. The blocking was carefully and artistically set such that each moment was a perfect tableau. This is the best best picture of the show that I could find online, but it really does not do the play any justice. I saw a play by the same director, at the same theater house a few weeks ago, called Lulu. The director used many of the same techniques in Lulu as he did in the Brecht piece, but the white faces, lack of color, and strange blocking just did not work as well for Lulu as it did for the Three Penny Opera. The thing about using this unusual theatrical technique is that you expect it to be depicting some kind of deeper meaning. You expect the lack of color to mean that the characters are not true real characters but rather representations of societal norms, this was the case in Brecht but not in Lulu. Lulu is a story completely void of meaning, void of societal critique, and void of intellectual stimulation. That would be fine, if it weren't attempting to be deep through visual ploys. I left Lulu feeling completely frustrated and like I had been tricked, but I left the Three Penny Opera feeling completely satisfied. Here is a short video I found on YouTube of the Three Penny opera to give you a better impression.
Everyday I will include at least one picture that I took, since photography has become one of my favorite pastimes in Berlin. This is a picture of my parents on a bridge over the River Spree. In the background you can see the radio tower of East Berlin and Museums Insel.
