Juni Zwei! (June two!)

It is now July, but I will finish up writing about my June adventures. In my last post I left off when I moved into my new apartment in the East. That weekend I went to an awesome carnival called "Karnival der Kulturen", which means Carnival of Cultures. Angela and I went exploring all three days, and saw concerts, met people from all over the world, and ate Germanized ethnic food (which means Indian food that was not spicy... like no spice... it was shocking even for me). The picture is of me at the Carnival. I also hung out with my friend Felix and all his friends at the Carnival. That was good times, but they all refused to speak German with me. It was a little bit frustrating, but eventually I just gave in, spoke English, and had a good time teaching the boys some American slang. I also spent time with my Korean studies friends, and invited them and some other Germans we met back to my apartment to chill and eat ice cream on our balcony. I loved having the freedom of being able to invite friends over to my apartment, this was a completely different world than my life with my host mother.

On Tuesday, I started work! The first day of work is always scary, but the first day of work in a foreign language at the seat of national government... SUPER scary! I am working this summer for Hans-Josef Fell who is a Green Party parliament member. He works on energy policy for the Green Party and is writing a book this summer on renewable energy. I am working on doing research for his book. First thing in the morning I met with Hans-Josef Fell to discuss my summer work.  It was seriously way too early in the morning to be expected to have an intellectual discussion about climate change. Then I spent the rest of the day sitting in a meeting with top executives of German banks, who were discussing how to fund renewable energy in Germany. What I understood was interesting, but let me tell you, I did not understand much. Then Georg, one of the other interns, gave me a tour of the building. It is a fascinating building, and I'll definitely write more about it later.

On Wednesday, my roommate Stephan came back from his trip to Austria. It was the first night that Katharina, Stephan, and I were all in the apartment together so I decided I should make snicker-doodle cookies to celebrate and welcome Stephan home. Katharina was so excited to learn how to make American cookies, and my friend Angela also came over to help. Us three girls had so much fun making the cookies, and we were all just waiting for Stephan to get home so we could finally eat them. Then when he finally arrived, we discovered a few unfortunate things. The first was that Stephan doesn't like cinnamon (but he was very polite and ate them anyways and pretended to like them), the second and fatal discovery was that we used about 8x the necessary amount baking soda. We discovered this when after eating half a cookie our tongue went numb and our throats started to burn. My poor friends! The mistake comes from a translation error. The recipe called for baking powder and baking soda. In Germany they have something called "Backpulver", which translates literally to baking powder, but is in truth baking soda. We then all assumed that Backpulver was baking powder and proceeded to quadruple the amount needed to make up for the lack of baking soda. ooops.

The next weekend, I can't really remember what I did, but I do remember going on a walk with Stephan on Sunday and taking this picture near my apartment. Not too shabby right?

The next week at work I began to realize how much fun the people in my office are. We watched Monty Python's The Life of Brian (but dubbed in German, so it is called Das Leben des Brian) one day after work together in our office.

The following weekend I went to Christopher Street Day, which is a huge gay pride festival in Berlin. The pictures are worth a thousand words:

The next week my friend Chris Seewald came to visit. That was great fun. Chris and I went to see Candide at the Staatsoper, we went to the Pergamom museum, and I gave him and Stephan and Florian (another Austrian friends of mine) a tour of the German parliament. Here is a picture of me at work inside the parliament dome!

On the weekend, I am particularly proud of Katharina and I cooking together because it turned out really well! Here are some pictures of our meal and my roommates and our apartment. :-)

Lask week I went to a Tajikistan tea house with Carsten and Eto, two people who work in my office. We sat in the tea room for three hours and had a lovely time. The room was a gift from the soviet government of Tajikistan in the 1970s to the east Germans. There is a cool blog post about it that I found here.
Last weekend I made brunch for my roommates and then we went to the Schlachten See, a huge lake in West Berlin. This week has been very chill and I haven't done much at all except work and facebook, but I am going to justify it by saying that I needed a break. :-)

German word of the day today is genmanipuliert which means genetically modified. I think this word is interesting because in German they say genetically manipulated (manipuliert) instead of genetically modified (modifiziert). I have a hypothesis that the use of the word manipulated, which seems to me to have a negative connotation, is correlated with the German negative view of genetically modified food.

Juni!

I can't believe it is already June. So much has happened this month and I haven't posted a single thing! As Julie Andrews once said "let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start."

The first weekend in June, the weekend before finals, my friend Holger came to visit. Holger is the son of my mother's host sister when my mother was an exchange student in Germany at age 16. He's living in Bremen and studying to be a pilot for Lufthansa, so he just flew to Berlin for the weekend to visit. We had dinner on the roof of KaDeWe, which is a huge department store in West Berlin that was built basically just to show the east how awesome capitalism is. Then we went to an Austrian bar called No Kangaroo to hang out with my Austrian friends and watch the Austria Germany Fußball game. We ended the night on Simon-Dach Straße, a hip part of east berlin filled with young people, where we met up with my British friend Laura from my FU course a big group of international students. I even met a girl there from Monterey! Small world. The next day Holger and I met up with stanford friends at Krumme Lanke, the lake near the Stanford House (see picture below), and in the evening we went to The Bird and then toured around the Berlin sights by night.

The Bird is an American restaurant in Prenzlauerberg that is an institution for Stanford students. There is a group of Stanford students that actually went every week at least once a week, even though the burgers were 13 euros. The burgers are amazing, there are signs everywhere challenging anyone who tries to eat their hamburger or fries with a fork, you can buy Snapple lemonade, they give you free tap water with ice without your needing to ask, and the waiters are friendly-- American style. Everyone in the bar was also American, it's like this strange little piece of the USA in Berlin, Germany. They were celebrating ten years in Berlin the night that we were there, and it was definitely one of my most unforgettable nights in Berlin.
The next day I went with my theater class, which consists of four people including me, to Leipzig to see the opera Deutsche Misere. In Leipzig we had the most delicious meal at this Tavern where Goethe used to hang out (my 35 euro lunch consisting of wiener-schnitzel, potatoes, salad, local white wine, and four different desserts was paid for by George Will, a very generous alumnus to the Stanford in Berlin program). We then went to this freaky war memorial about defeating Napoleon in 1813, and then we explored the city and went on a Ferris wheel! I decided to explore the city a bit on my own and I coincidentally ran into this open air accordion band concert! Seriously. It was an entire band of about 40 people, made up of entirely accordions! Here's a pic:

The opera that we went to see, Deutsche Misere by Berthold Brecht, was written by Brecht during WWII. He took photographs from newspapers and wrote poetic captions beneath the pictures. Then these captions were set to music. The Leipzig production was the first time that the captions were acted out as scenes, and it was apparently pretty controversial in the theater scene. It was a very graphic and jarring production that ended with a harsh criticism of German involvement in the war in Afghanistan. Here is a short clip:

That was my weekend before finals, you might notice that there was little time for studying. oy vey! Finals week then resulted in the consumption of an absurd amount of junk food to calm my stress. Don't worry mom and dad, there are apples too!

Finals week was hectic, but I ended up doing pretty well. I even had time for one last stroll around my lake in Charlottenburg with my (then future, now current) roommate. Here is a picture of me in front of my home-stay. In the very back you can barely see a white apartment building-- that's where I lived!

We also had our end of the  quarter Bing dinner (the Bings are a generous alumni couple who help fund our program)at this cute German restaurant in Grünewald, which is walking distance from the Stanford Villa. I ate pickeled herring, not gonna lie... it was gross. But other than that it was a lovely lunch, and a beautiful way to close the quarter. Here is a picture of the event, unfortunately it is blurry...I'm still trying to get a hang of my SLR.

And that was the end of my quarter at Stanford in Berlin. The weekend after finals I moved into my new apartment in the East, went to an awesome carnival, and on Tuesday started work at the German Parliament. I'll go into detail about all of this in my next post. Right now it's 1am, and is bedtime. Gute Nacht!

German word of the day:
der Klimaschutz, which literally means climate protection, but more practically is the noun form of protecting the atmosphere and taking care of the environment so that the climate does not continue to change. I love it that the Germans have a single word for this. I think it shows how important the concept is to the German people that it is a single word. I've been using this word a lot at work. :-)

Die klugste Nacht des Jahres

Saturday night was "die klugste Nacht des Jahres", which means "smartest night of the year". This meant that there were events relating to science and academia scattered all thoughout Berlin from 5pm to 1am. There were lots of events at the Free University, so I went with my Korean studies major friends and my Philosophy major friends to attend the events at their respective institutes. My Korean studies major friends were performing in a Korean play at their institute as part of their language learning. It was hilarious.  Jina dressed up like a man, Vincent had a skinny beard hanging from his chin, they sang, played Korean drums, and threw candy to the children in the audience. I got to meet some of my friend's parents, eat Korean food, and listen to Jan give a lecture about online- gaming in South Korea. The best part about the night was that I felt like these friends were my family in Berlin. I felt honored that they invited me to share that night with them. After spending time in the world of Korean studies I went to a party at the Philosophy Studies Institute to spend time with my Philosophy studies friends. It was a 1920s themed party, so I tried to teach some of my friends some swing dance. Overall, it was an amazing night spent with my favorite people in this city!

On Sunday, I spent time with my future roommates Stephan, Katharina, and Carina! I went over to their apartment (my future apartment) and they gave me a little walking tour of the area. Before we left to explore the neighborhood they were telling me about this bear in a park near-by. I thought they were kidding that it was a real bear, or that I wasn't understanding their German. But when we arrived at the park, I was shocked to see a real live bear! It's just chilling in this enclosed area of the park. Totally strange.  Anyways, the neighborhood seems great. I can walk to the river, three different super markets, and they are really close to Oranienstrasse, which is a really awesome street with tons of restaurants, bars, and clubs. This summer is going to be awesome, I can feel it in my bones! :-)

Photo of the day is of me in the opera house in Dresden. Funny story about these columns -- they are fake marble! Not only are they fake marble, but they are a special kind of fake marble in which the process to create it takes hundreds of hours of labor for each column. Thus, the fake marble is significantly more expensive than real marble. Then why didn't they just use real marble you might ask? The original opera house that was destroyed during the war used fake marble and used this exact technique. Now the question is why did the original opera house use fake marble... that I don't know.

German word of the day today is die Schublade, which means drawer. In this case, I'm pretty sure that German wins the cooler word contest.

Dresden, Friends, Theater

Since I last posted I have been to three plays, the philharmonic, a friend's voice recital, the a club rated "best in the world", celebrated Jina's birthday with BBQ and Karaoke, met with my old boss from the State Department, went to a conference on international development, spent time at the Krumme Lanke beach, went to synagogue, and found summer housing!! Whew! 

Let's start first with my trip to Dresden, which was really fascinating.  Dresden was completely destroyed during the war, and then completely rebuilt to look exactly the way it used to look (kind of a strange phenomenon if you think about it). They took such care to rebuild the city as exactly accurate as possible, it was amazing! My friends and I walked around the city, led by my Rick Steve's book, and students gave presentations about different sites throughout the city. The presentations for the trip were supposed to be the midterm for the advanced German class (I'm not in advanced German, I was just tagging along because the alumnus who funded the trip offered to pay for all advanced speakers regardless of whether you are in the class... Yay Stanford!) but the professor was sick and couldn't come so the presentations were given mostly in English. This is a picture of the group of us inside the famous Semper Opera House in Dresden, and the next picture is of the Catholic Church in Dresden and some of the town.

Now for the plays! I saw two more plays (Bieberpelz and Nora oder ein Puppenhaus) at the Berliner Festspiele and Woyzech at the Deutsches Theater. Bieberpelz was unusual to say the least. The photo below shows the actors speaking the stage directions in unison. Interesting idea. I thought it kind of worked in a quirky sort of way, but the Germans hated it! Several stormed out right in the middle of the production! 

Two days later I saw the play Nora oder ein Puppenhaus, known in English as A Doll's House. This play was done by the same director as Bieberpelz and was equally strange. The director was attempting to criticize modern gender rolls and their relation to sexuality, by turning all of the male characters into really old men representing a patriarchal society and having them treat the women as passive sex objects. Interesting idea, but in my opinion it totally failed. I was shocked and intrigued for about the first ten minutes, but then the point had been made and there was nothing left of the play. In my opinion, the concept itself was even flawed. By portraying the men as extremely old it was as if to say, gender rolls were once a problem with that old generation, but they are not anymore. Thus undermining his own argument.

The third play I saw was Woyzeck at the Deutsches Theater. It was brilliant to say the least, and may be my favorite play I've seen in Berlin. The use of props, the set, the costumes, the casting decisions, and the use of music was creative, cohesive, and coherent -- a combination rarely achieved in the other two plays. The picture below is of Woyzeck sitting next to his wife after he kills her. The stage is covered in water and confetti and is physically slanted up all around the couple. It is a beautifully tragic yet simple scene. 

Last Friday, after attending a magnificent concert at the Philharmonic, I went to Berghain, which is a nightclub rated the number one club in the world. What I thought was most interesting was the bouncer. I googled him, his name is Sven, and people call him the scariest bouncer in the world. He's like a legend. 

I have a friend who tried to get into Berghain four times and never got in. Anyways, this big scary bouncer stands at the door and decides whether or not you have the right vibe to enter. The people in front of us where turned away, but we walked right in. I was there with my friends Katharina (who will be my roommate this summer!!!) and Patricia, so don't worry mom and dad, they kept me safe. :-)

Yesterday I finally went to synagogue in Berlin! I went to this beautiful synagogue in Prenzlauerberg that was destroyed during WWII and beautifully renovated. The service was very hard to follow as it was entirely in Hebrew with a few German phrases thrown in. But I did sit next to this girl who is also interning at the Bundestag this summer! So I went out for drinks after the service with her and her friends (she had a glass of read wine, I had a raspberry milkshake... I'm super classy, I know)  and she told me all about the Bundestag. Yay new friends!  Here is a picture of inside the synagogue: 

The German word of the day today is das Nickerchen, which means nap. I have been using this word a lot recently. 

Time with Friends

My weekends this quarter start on Thursday because I have no Friday class! On Thursday I spent the day exploring bookstores and paper stores on Schlossstraße with my friend Andy. Sounds boring I know, but I love exploring German bookstores! I have never seen so many German books in my life! Favorite book I saw "Bieber Fieber" all about Justin Bieber. I loved it because Bieber fever actually rhymes in German. After finishing up an essay, I met up with my awesome international friends from England and France at Hackescher Markt. I brought along a few Americans and we had a great time.

Friday night I went to a party next to the river with my new Austrian and German friends, and then afterward I met up with some other German friends to ride around the "ring". The "ring" is a giant public transit ring that the Berlin subway system makes around the city. There were about ten of us who decided to ride around the entire ring just for fun, and it was a great time. Unfortunately, I had to leave early because I was leaving early in the morning for Dresden.

I think I'll dedicate an entire post to my saturday and sunday adventures, so you will have to wait to hear about Dresden!

German word of the day today is Sabrina total verhext, which is the German translation for everyone's favorite 90s TV show, Sabrina the Teenage Witch! :-)

The photo of the day today is of three of my German friends: Jan, Vincent, and Daniel.

Let me briefly tell you the story of how I met these friends and also my friends Jina and San Ja:

I was in the cafeteria of the Freie Universität my first week in Germany, and I was all alone. After I got my food I didn't know where or with whom I should sit. So, I walked around the cafeteria searching out the perfect friendly looking table. I was checking to see that they were not too old, not too young, not too many men or too many women, that there was an extra seat at the table, not too cool or too dorky, and friendly looking. (I felt a little bit like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. lol) After about five minutes of wandering around the cafeteria, I saw my future friends sitting at a table. I went up to them and said in German "Hi can I sit with you? My name is Amy and I have no friends". They gave me this strange look but let me sit down, and then I explained that I was new in this country, had only been here a few days, and knew no one. They then immediately invited me to come to a bar with them. I thought they were joking, but they were serious. So I met them at a bar later that night and we have been friends ever since. I love them so much, and I am already sad at the thought of leaving them behind in Germany come September.

Mauerpark, Der Kirschgarten, International Boat Trip!

This week has been nuts! It started at Mauerpark in Prenzlauerberg. On Sundays there is a flee market and karaoke. Now when I say karaoke, it is not what you are thinking (drunk people singing background music at a bar). No, it is a full on performance in front of hundreds of people. Some performances were good, some were bad, but all were entertaining. Here are some pictures of Mauerpark:

 Here is a picture of some of the crowd watching karaoke. It was hilarious. At one point this middle-aged woman just got up and ran on stage to be a background dancer. Everyone cheered her on like crazy. I was amazed at how the crowd was so supportive of every performer. People were clapping along and dancing to even the worst singers, it was great.

This is a picture of one of the funny little things being sold in the flee market.  kinda freaky yet cute, no?

Mauerpark means wall park, so of course I had to take a picture of the Mauerpark wall and some young Berlin wanna-be thugs.

On Monday night I explored Nollendorf Platz with Angela. I could not believe that I've been here over a month and have never actually left the U-Bahn station to explore that part of Berlin. If you've ever played the game Civilization, I felt a little bit like the dark parts of my world were now becoming light. Anyways, Nollendorf platz was filled with bars and restaurants and a giant supermarket that made me feel like I was in America again.

On Tuesday, I saw "der Kirschgarten" (the Cherry Orchard) with my theater class. It was so absurd and intelligent at the same time, I loved it! Here is a picture:

The stage was coved in black sand, which I thought was brilliant. The entire production was just absurd with its use of old Russian music, cabaret lighting, costumes from all different time periods, and characters like puppets. Someday, I would actually love to direct the Cherry Orchard, but do it as a sort of critique of the human relationship to nature.

Wednesday, I went on a boat with a group of international people living in Berlin. It was kind of an IR major's dream to be on one boat with so many people from all over the world. I met people from Finnland, Sweden, Turkey, Israel, Switzerland, India, Mexico, Columbia, Ireland, england, Australia, Spain, Peru, Russia, and probably even more countries I can't even remember. I even ran into a Stanford alumnus. 

That is the first half of my week last week, I'll post part two tomorrow.

German word of the day today: großartig, which means amazing. My new Austrian friend Stephan taught me this word today. :-)

Wir essen in Essen!

The German word Essen translates to "eating" in English. I find this to be a rather odd name for a town, so I decided to see if there are any towns in the U.S. called "eating". I quickly realized that this is an impossible thing to google for obvious reasons. What I did find is a list of the worst U.S. city names, and I thought I'd share it with you. http://www.toptenz.net/10-worst-named-cities.php

Anyways, my trip to Essen last week was amazing. The Krupp Foundation treated us like kings. We toured the old Krupp factory which is now a museum, toured and ate a delicious lunch at the Villa Hügel which is basically like the Hearst Castle of the Krupp family, went to the art museum in Essen, went to the Philharmonic in Essen, and toured the new Krupp campus. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

The first is of the Villa Hügel, which is basically a giant mansion where the Krupp family once lived. If you click on the picture you can see that the table in the back room is nicely set. That is where we ate lunch. no big deal.








The second picture is of the room where we ate lunch, the yummy dessert, and one of the higher up Krupp Foundation people (though I don't remember his name or title). Also, notice the card on the table... that was our menu, specially printed for us!










This photo shows the awesome Krupp elevator with two elevator cars on one elevator shaft! woah! It's apparently the only one like this in Europe.

This is a view of the Krupp campus from inside one of their main buildings. Notice the footpaths through the lake!










German word of the day is: die Stiftung, which means foundation. I learned this word on the tour of Villa Hügel. The tour was in German and everyone kept talking about the Krupp Stiftung and I had no idea what it was. I finally raised my hand to ask what the Krupp Stiftung was, and discovered that the Krupp Stiftung is what is paying me 3000 euros this summer... oops. I guess I should have known that one. :-/