One More Month

Wow, only one more month here.  I can't tell if it's gone by slowly or quickly, just like I can't tell if I'm excited or disappointed about going home.  I've had a lot more free time than I'm used to, especially with having no job and most classes only once a week.  Not having much money has also been a big strain.  It's disappointing to have so many travel opportunities but not being able to afford much.  If I do come back here after graduation and get a job, hopefully I can fix all that.

It will be nice to go back to the States and see my friends, my family, my favorite TV shows and food, and of course to be around English speakers again.  I'm also dying here without Fitrec or a gym of any sort!  I'll be super busy next semester with a full course load and two jobs, but I think I'll be happy with that.  Of course I will miss all of the time for naps that I've had here!  I'll also miss my friends here and of course Oli.  He thinks he can come visit me for a week or two in Spring, so at least I'll have something to look forward to.  It'll definitely be hard to go from a 4 hour long distance relationship to an opposite-sides-of-the-world LDR though.  At least we have Skype!

My family is coming to visit me tomorrow and staying for a week.  I'm looking forward to a chance to go to München (Munich.)  I think we might go czech out Prague too! (get it? lol)  I'd better clean my room tonight.  I still haven't figured out where to find a good, working vacuum in the dorm.

I just finished writing my first Referat (research paper) in German.  Wow, talk about a brain wipe.  I had to do research on the different kinds of Composite/Compound Words in German, and then find 10 examples in student newspapers and translate them into English.  Doing the research was probably the hardest part because I had to look up so many words and try to paraphrase what the book said.  Usually I paraphrased into complete sentences because I don't know how to take shortened notes in German, so all I had to do was copy and paste a lot of my notes into my paper.

Finding and translating the words was fun, especially since I found some wordplays (Last-Minute-Weihnachtsstress - Last Minute Christmas Stress) and some words that couldn't be translated into English without long accompanying explanations (Glühweinlotse - lit. Mull Wine Airport Controller, but it was referring to the Student Council's use of Glühwein to bribe students into voting in the S.C. elections.)  I also got to draw binary structure trees for each of the words, which is normally pretty easy, except that now I had to do it on the computer.  One of my Ling professors in Boston sent me a link where I could draw trees, but it was all done in open- and closed- brackets.  For example, this is what I had to program for the Glühweinlotsen tree: [Wort [Stamm [Stamm [BM [glüh]] [Wurzel [BM [wein]]]] [Stamm [Wurzel [BM [lots]]] [WBM [dat.pl.-en]]]]],  but this is what it turned out as: stgraph.png.php.  Sorry I couldn't get the picture in here directly.

It was cloudy out this morning when I went for a run and came to the library, but my Dashboard is telling me that it's currently sunny outside (hard to believe when I'm two stories underground.)  Guess I should go check it out!

Leipzig

Yesterday was a holiday, Repentance Day, which in Germany means no celebrations or feasting, but rather just closing all of the stores and giving you nothing to do.  My DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) teachers planned a class trip to Leipzig, so I went along on that.  I still haven't been there, and there's a lot of famous things there to see.

Thomas Kirche

The train ride over was interesting because we were all trying to communicate but we all have German as a second language.  There was a big group of Italians, some Mexicans, a guy and a girl from Czech Republic, a girl from South Korea, a group of French guys, and then me, the American girl.  The French guys were late for everything, and one of them kept being all touchy-feely with us girls (even the teachers.)  The Italians were really nice and friendly, so I think I'm starting to switch my "creepy guy" stereotype over to French guys.

I ended up talking to the girl from South Korea quite a bit, since she was interested in what I thought about Korea and what I learned while I was there.  I said a few things in Korean, but my language skills have gotten pretty rusty since coming here, so we talked in German.  I mostly just remembered the names of foods. :-)  She's living with her family here, so she said we should all go out to the one Korean restaurant in Dresden together.  Yummy Bibimbap!

by the Leipzig Art Museum

We started with a walking tour, which would have been perfect if not for the rainy, cold weather.  Our guide was really nice though, and she even spoke a little slower for us.  Everything is pretty central, so we were able to see a lot in a short amount of time.  It's a good walking city.  We saw a lot of old baroque architecture (rebuilt after the war of course), the art museum, the Thomas Church (where Bach played and composed and is now buried), the bar where Goethe got the inspiration to write "Faust," and the DDR Museum in the old StaSi headquarters.


I liked the StaSi museum best.  Since it was all pretty recent, they have all of the old documents, candid pictures, and machines out for display.  I don't know how they had enough time to create folders with information on every citizen in East Germany, but the amount of paper they went through was incredible.  They also had at least five different machines for opening and resealing envelopes without it being noticeable.  It reminded me a lot of Orwell's "1984."  You think there's no way that one group of people could watch everyone else around them, but then after the fact you realize that they knew a lot more than you thought.  It also kind of reminds me of my old high school Conserve.  Big Brother is Watching You!

Opera, Musical, and the Hamburger Fair!

Dresden Semperoper
http://rotary1900.de/bochum_constantin/
00_aktuell/2008/Dresden_SemperOper.jpg

Looks like I've fallen into this once-a-week pattern now.  I've been busy working on my second Referat (Word building processes in German and how they compare/translate into English.)  I've never had to do research in a foreign language before, and I am just exhausted by the end of the day.  On the plus side, I've been studying in the library with my friends, so that helps it to go quicker and feel less lonely.

Last Tuesday we had a group trip to see The Barber of Seville at the Dresden Opera House.  It was in Italian with German subtitles (actually "suptitles" would be a better description because the words were over the stage.)  I thought I would find it kind of boring and fall asleep (I've never been to a real opera before), but I actually really loved it.  There was a lot of action, and the voices of the actors were amazing.  I had a nosebleed seat, but I could hear them perfectly even without microphones.  I want to see more operas now!

On Thursday I went to Hamburg to see Oli.  He had the new "Walking Dead" zombie TV series downloaded onto his laptop, so I finally got to watch the season premiere!  Hopefully I can keep up with the shows until I get back to the States, and then it's going to be Mandatory Zombie Hour once a week.  We watched a lot of other American TV shows and movies too.  I gotta admit, they do help with any homesickness that I feel. :-)

On Friday night, Oli took me to see Der König der Löwen (aka The Lion King), which has its own special theater set up on the harbor.  The show was in German, but I didn't really mind because I already know the plot and I can understand it well.  It only had a few extra scenes that weren't in the Disney movie anyways.  I was rather disappointed that my favorite songs weren't in English though.  They just don't sound the same or translate the same meaning.  For example, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" translated into "Kann es wirklich Liebe sein?", which means "Can this really be love?"  It's just not as romantic.  The costumes and dances were astounding though.  It was a full-scale performance, and I really liked how the costumes combined both human and animal parts.  Of course everything was extremely colorful too.

On Saturday night, Oli and I went to the Hamburger DOM, an amusement park that is open for a month every season.  I don't know why they picked November as their "Winter Month" (it's been rainy and cold all week), but I got lucky that I got a chance to see it.  Unfortunately for Oli, I couldn't go on any of the fun rides because of my weak stomach, but we did the Ferris Wheel, bumper cars, a submarine, and some Haunted House tours (not quite like the Halloween Haunted Houses in the States though - those take the cake!)  I got a chance to try some authentic Hamburger cuisine, a delicious baked fish sandwich, and I saw my first real beer hall with long tables stretched out and a band performing at the front.  Oli and I drank some Glühwein (a spiced, warm Grog) with Rum mixed in.  The spices in it are delicious!  I just bought a bottle for myself, but I don't know how to heat it up.  Can wine just go in a pot on the stove?

Winnings from the Fair and
my new bottle of Glühwein
(with antlers!)

I had some chocolate-covered mandarin oranges on a stick, but I think some fruits are better off without chocolate.  I might just stick to strawberries and bananas from now on.  (Although honestly I can't take a chocolate-covered banana on a stick seriously after watching Michael Cera in Arrested Development!)  We played some carnival games, and Oli won me a rose by throwing a ball in a clown's mouth. <3  We didn't have much luck with racing horses or playing Jackpot though.  The "American Casinos" were a pretty big letdown.  They were mostly claw-grabs and that game where you put a token in a slot and try to aim it at an area where it'll push other tokens over the edge.  Not much skill in that.  I was hoping for a ball toss and all that good arcade-stuff.

I think the best part of the night is when we got to see the Frankenstein-Zombie dance to "Alors on Danse" outside the Haunted House ride.  He got good participation from the audience!

Sightseeing in Dresden with Polina

Sorry I fell behind in my writing!  My friend Polina came to visit last Wednesday, and we had an intense five days of sightseeing and partying.  On Wednesday I showed her some of the Dresden basics, like the Frauenkirche and the Albertinum.  I finally got a chance to go to the top of the church!  What a view!  I just wish the sun had been out.  Polina had her first traditional German meal, a Thüringer Bratwurst mit Bratkartoffeln und Sauerkraut.  I ended up eating most of her sauerkraut, even though it had a little bit of pork in it.  I love that stuff!  The baked potatoes have a really good seasoning too.

That night we went to a halloween party at a student club not far from my dorm.  Even though it was already Nov 3, this was a legit halloween party.  I wasn't expecting anyone to dress up that much, but the students there went all-out with their costumes, American-style (although the girls actually chose creative over sexy!)  I let Polina wear my German girl Dirndel, so I had to buy a last minute costume from the Euroshop.  They only had Xmas stuff out, so I got jingle bell reindeer antlers and red fuzzy handcuffs.  It was a half-assed costume, and the only thing I could think of to call myself was eine böse Rentier, but Polina and I still received our free drinks for having a costume on!  They were actually really delicious.  Some sort of fruit juice mixed with vodka, with vodka-soaked cherries sitting on the bottom.  They all came with a marshmallow eyeball poking over the top too.  Not bad for being free!

We wanted to dance, but the DJ was playing old German rock songs that we didn't know, so we decided to just go back to the Gutz Club in my dorm and hang out there.  We sat down and had a beer, but nothing was going on so we left pretty shortly.  As we were on our way out, this guy came up to us and asked if we'd like to sit with him and his friends at their table.  We had nothing else to do, and Polina wanted to meet some real Germans, so we joined them.  They were three guys and one girl, all from the Dresden area.  Polina decided that she wanted to try to teach them to play King's Cup, so we got some cards and beer, but as you can imagine the translations didn't go over that smoothly.  I don't think they cared though.  You know Germans, always happy with an excuse to drink more beer!  Polina also tried Diesel (cola and beer) for the first time, and although she was hesitant, she said that she ended up really loving it.

Me, Polina, and Lin in Altstadt

On Friday we did some more sightseeing in Dresden.  We went to the Zwinger, which has like 5 different museums in it, but we ended up just going to the Grünes Gewölbe (the Green Vault.)  It was a collection of all of the historic treasures from kings and aristocrats in the area.  There was pearl, ivory, gold, silver, emeralds, rubies, diamonds, exotic seashells and coral, etc.  Basically everything that you could imagine in a treasure room.  Of course the security was very high and the museum ticket was kinda pricey, but I would suggest a visit for anyone else who loves opulence and beauty.

Building Artwork in Neustadt

We walked into Neustadt with Lin to look around at the shops and artwork.  Unfortunately it's already started getting dark by 4 pm here, so we had to see everything at night.  We had dinner at Babo's so Polina could try a Turkish Döner, but I think she liked the authentic German food better.  We also went to a cocktail bar that was having Ladies Night, but none of us were really in the mood to do more drinking after the night before.

Even though we didn't drink much, we still went to the Gutz that night for Poland Night (they have a different themed country night every week.)  It was really packed, and actually the dancing was really good for the Gutz (Polish girls love to grind apparently.)  Vodka shots were really cheap, but I didn't drink anything.  Then at 11 pm the Polish students started their presentation on Poland.  It was just a powerpoint with basic facts, and they wanted to do it in English too for whatever reason.  That wasn't so bad, but then they started doing karaoke to Polish songs, and everyone began to cringe.  I lasted about two songs before I said I needed to leave.  I wonder how long they kept going for.