I knew it wouldn't be easy

I knew that leaving Germany was not going to be an easy task. But I thought that the difficulties would be more psychological and emotional and not physical. I was wrong. But then again, it wouldn't be right without having one more adventure on my way out.

Last night I caught the last train from Tuebingen to Stuttgart, after spending my last few hours in Tuebingen with Pia. After spending a few sleepless hours on one of the benches it was time to check in for my flight back. I do miss the days of ticket agents that look things up for you based on your passport or some other form of identification.

Now you have to do all the check-in stuff by yourself, and it typically isn't so easy if you aren't able to find you reservation number. Once I finally was able to pull up my itinerary on the kiosk, I noted a slight problem. The ticket said that I was flying back to Memphis, not Springfield.

I quickly spoke with an agent to see what the problem was. She informed me that actually, the didn't have a reservation for me at all. Um, what, excuse me? I definitely had a ticket for today. Study abroad for six months then return to finish college. I had finished the six months and now was the time for the later part of that sentence.

They were finally able to find some sort of document that said that I was indeed supposed to be traveling to Springfield today, but they weren't able to check me in for all of the flights. They could just check me in through Detroit. They gave me the boarding passes that they could and told me that I would have to make things right in Detroit because there was nothing else they could do here.

I reached Detroit without any problems and made my way through customs. It is really a pain in the neck to enter the US. The customs agent essentially told me that I was a bad family member back for my family (I only had to declare a couple of t-shirts and a beer mug). I finally got my luggage and was able to continue onto US soil.

I was surveying the monitors looking for the flight that was supposed to take me from Detroit to Springfield, but it was nowhere to be seen. I went to a help desk and they informed me that there wasn't a flight the flew to Springfield today. Great.

They started to look for other options for me, but because the people in Stuttgart hadn't checked me in there was no record of me in the US computers so there was no seat to be found for Caroline. Finally, we came across an option that involved me traveling to Chicago and then onto Springfield, getting in at 9:30. Not ideal, but at least it is still today.

I got to Chicago and found out that the flight had been delayed. Apparently, there have been storms on the east coast that are causing fits for air traffic controllers across the country. My plane is currently scheduled to leave at ten after ten and get to Springfield at just before midnight. As of right now I have been traveling for thirty hours straight. And while I am utterly exhausted, it was kind of nice to know that Germany didn't want me to leave.

Bodensee 2009

This past weekend I had the extreme fortune to venture to the Bodensee, the big lake in southern Germany that borders Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, with Pia who happens to live there. We arrived Saturday evening after meeting up with some friends of hers who drove us down from the Stuttgart airport. As she was giving me the grand tour of the town she said, "It's like living in paradise." I couldn't agree more. There were orchards evverywhere and as we were strolling along we would occassionally snag an apple to enjoy, the views were unbelievable, the mountains majestic, it truly was like being in paradise.

Sunday morning we woke up, at breakfast and then went to church. The service was held outside in a park overlooking the lake. After church we went to the "beach" for juggling, sunning, and swimming. It was fantastic. That night we went to the house of one of Pia's friends and played cards. To get there I rode a bike and Pia roller bladed. Baller. Did I mention that we crossed a state line as well?

Monday morning we woke up and took a boat across the lake to Austria. Then we climbed a mountain. Yeah, you can just decide to climb mountains on a whim when you are on the Bodensee. You can even decide to climb them in another country. But seeing as how I had already climbed mountains in Germany and Switzerland, Austria was the obvious choice.

When we returned to Kressbronn, Pia's town, Pia and I cooked homemade kaesespaetzle. Basically the german version of macaroni and cheese. But we made the pasta. Well, Pia made the pasta. I made the onions. It was so tasty. After our extremely satisfying dinner, we opted to take a night time swim.

Tuesday morning the first thing on the agenda was taking Kitty, Pia's cat, to the vet. After that excursion we played the guitar and sang a few songs before hitting the beach once again. Jumping and diving from the pier, swimming, sun and general merriement were enjoyed before I caught the train back to Tuebingen that afternoon. It was wonderful to get to spend a little time in paradise as my last trip before leaving Germany.

Depressing

Today I took care of all the unregistering that I had to do. I dematriculated at the University, I told the city that I was going back to the states, I made an appointment with the landlord so that he can check my room over before I leave. I began pulling things out of my closet and off of my shelves in the preliminary stages of packing. I knew that this day would come sooner than I wanted, but this is just ridiculous. I am not ready to leave and the thought of heading back to the states is terrifying to me. Good thing I am heading to the Bodensee tomorrow with Pia. Playing on a lake for a few days should take my mind off of the whole leaving thing.

Characters in Tuebingen

As I have spent more and more time in Tuebingen, I have become familiar with the local homeless people/bums/beggars/lunatics. They provide Tuebingen with a bit of color and their antics are always entertaining.

Der braune Mann

The brown man can almost always be found in the park on a sunny day. He is always wearing speedos, short shorts, or his tighty whities and doing strange combinations of exercises that look like something between yoga and karate. He has been a constant figure in the park since April leading to the name the brown man. His tan is incredible. It is always a big event when someone sees the brown man fully clothed and outside of the park.

Tumor Man

Tumor man has one of the most grotesque growths on his left shin that I have ever seen. It is a easily the size of my outstretched hand and at the bottom there is a chronic wound that is constantly leaking some sort of fluid. He sits on a bench in the park asking for money from passers by. Frequently little old ladies stop and hound him about getting some sort of medical attention.

Dog Lady

There is a lady who constantly wanders around the town center with her fat weiner dog running ahead of her. She uses crutches to walk and her feet are very swollen. She has stringy, greasy, shoulder length brown hair. When anyone tries to catch her dog for her she yells at them, getting mad that people can't leave her well enough alone. One time I was sitting on a bench eating a doener and her dog came over to me and was barking, baring its teeth, and snapping at my feet while I was eating. She told me I should share my doener with the dog. I walked away.

Punks

There is a group of goth/punks that hang around the bookstore in the city center. They are some of the more aggressive beggars. As opposed to just having their cup sitting out they actually approach people and ask them for money. They also have several dogs that they take for walks in the park. This inevitable causes some sort of ruckus in the normally peaceful park. The dogs tend to fight with one another and antagonize any other dogs that they come into contact with.

Hungarian Street Performer

There is a man with a gray, curly mullet at an extremely bulbous nose that typically sits outside of one of the shopping centers. He plays the guitar and has a sign explaining that he is a hungarian street performer and this is how he makes his living. As of late he has joined forces with a violinist and has moved from his regular spot to under the underpass. They seem to be doing pretty well, the guitar case was rather full last time I ventured past. I think it is that people are trying to pay them to stop though seeing as how they really are not very good.

Number Man

This guy memorizes numbers. He memorizes licence plates, bus schedules, times anything with numbers and letters. Then he proceeds to recite the numbers he has memorized to anyone who will even look at him. He does this all while riding the bus, offering people seats and being in general pleased with himself. He likes to give other people high-fives when he recites something and is in general a very happy person.

Tuebingen seems to have a rather high concentration of beggars, bums and craz people for being such a small town. But it is part of what gives it its character.

You're a Chemist ?!?!

In order to fulfill my Social Sciences requirement at WashU, I had to take a sociology class here in Tuebingen. (Because living in another country, learning another language isn't enough of a social science.) The class that I chose to take is called Biography and Gender.

I had my final in that class yesterday. Instead of writing a Hausarbeit, a 12 page paper, like the rest of the students, I opted for an oral exam. That means that I spoke with the teacher about the work that we had been doing in the class so far this semester.

During the exam the teacher was asking me all sorts of questions about sociology in general and how general sociology themes applied to biographies. I didn't know, I had never had a sociology class before. I was almost in tears at points. I had ideas about how to answer the questions, but I couldn't articulate them in German, and when I was able to articulate my thoughts, they weren't the technical answers the professor was looking for.

After seeing my frusteration, and noticing my lack of general knowledge of sociology, my professor said, "I don't know how you have made it this far in sociology without knowing these things, these are basically sociology principals."

At this comment I whimpered, "But I'm not a sociologist, I'm a chemist. This is the first sociology class that I have ever taken." The professor was astounded at this. Apparently, all of the other students in the class were either in their last semester or second to last semester. No wonder I had found the material so difficult, I needed three years of sociology classes to get to that point.

Upon learning that I was not a sociologist, the professer concluded the oral examination and said that for not having had any other sociology classes, I had done remarkably well. Then she gave me a passing grade.

Prague: Revisited

I had the opportunity to visit Prague with my aunt the summer after my sophomore year in high school. Ever since that short visit I have been wanting to go back. The city is incredibly beautiful and I just wanted to get the chance to explore it a little bit better. This past weekend I had that opportunity.

Thursday night I caught the night train from Tuebingen to Prague. I arrived in Prague at 10:30 in the morning Friday and hit the ground running. I got a map from the train station and headed out to find my hostel. Last time, I remember our hotel being more in the downtown, old city area, this time my hostel was about a ten minute walk away from the city center. This was a nice change. The city is very old and has a lot of old, gorgeous buildings. But it also has a modern side that was cool to see.

After finding the hostel I dropped my stuff off and went to the square to get some food. The weather was hot and sunny. I sat down at one of the many sidewalk cafes and ordered some food and a coke. Along with my coke the waiter brought me a full cup of ice. I literally haven't had ice in six months. To eat I had a lovely cucumber salad. The cucumbers were grated and marinated in vinegar with a little bit of sour cream. For dessert I had a pineapple carpaccio with lime sorbet. Quite a tasty treat if I do say so myself.

After eating and getting my fill of people watching I headed out for Charles' Bridge. I crossed the bridge admiring all of the various things for sale along the way. On the other side there were people selling tickets for boat tours. I am, and always have been a sucker for all things water. I went on the next boat out. It was a nice little tour from the river made even better by the ice cold Budweiser that I was served. For some reason I think that the Czech version is a bit better than what they have in America.

After the tour I did a bitmore walking around, I found a park to explore, before heading back to the hostel to get my room. After getting situated in my room I went back into town for dinner. I was planning on staying in town late enough to get some night time pictures, but it stays light so ridiculously late, and I was really tired.

Back at the hostel my roommate and I were in our pajamas by nine o'clock and decided to watch a movie in the hostel lounge. Several other people joined us and it turned into quite a nice Friday night.

Saturday, the weather was quite the opposite from the blue skies, sunny, hotness of Friday. It was pouring down rain and rather cool the whole day, but that didn't stop me from getting my tourist on. I went to the Prague Castle.. I must admit, I didn't do this justice. But the lines were so long and it was so cold and rainy, I just wanted to keep moving.

I also went to the Lennon Wall. This was came about during communism as a way for younger people to express political beliefs. It now contains fewer political sayings and more Beatles lyrics. I got a phenomenal hot chocolate at a cafe nearby.

On the way into the city I had see what appeared to be the Czech version of the Great Wall of Chine, so of course I had to try and see it. I made my way to the distant hill that I had seen the wall on. I was able to find the wall, but I wasn't able to find a way to climb the wall, gain access to it, or find out what it was. Mission: Failed. In my defense, I had been outside in the pouring down rain for several hours at this point, and really had no interest in being in the rain any longer than necessary.

I made it back to the hostel where I did a bit of reading and studying before heading back to the train station to catch my train to Tuebingen. This trip marked my last international trip before returning to the states. The key word there is international. I still have a couple of adventures up my sleeve before I return.

Dachau

This past weekend my friend, Erin, and I went to Munich. While we were there we went to Dachau, the first concentration camp established in Germany. It was a depressing, but worthwhile experience. I tend to think about WWII as being something that happened way before my time, and something that I don't need to interest myself much with. But as I walked around the concentration camp seeing the showers where prisoners were gased, the mass graves covered in ashes, the firing wall with blood still staining it, the atrocities that occurred during WWII were anything but distant.

The memorial that has been set up in the courtyard of Dachau where the prisoners stood for hours at a day at roll call. In the background is the building where the prisoners were checked in and stripped of all their personal belongings as well as their

dignity.

From the outside these letters spell out the phrase "Arbeit macht Frei" -> Work makes you free. From the inside they are meaningless.

The showers where prisoners were lead to unknowingly be gassed.

Where the barracks used to stand.

Escape was almost impossible: the camp was guarded by a fence that consisted of two large trenches, one filled with water, barbed wire, electrical fence, and a tall fence that would take significant time to scale.

As if the fence wasn't bad enough the camp was guarded by seven towers from which guards kept a constant eye on the fence, shooting anyone who approached it. Some prisoners approached the fence so that the guards would shoot them, ending their misery.

Germans are not proud of their history. But it was encouraging to see several german families with children there. The parents explaining about the past. The memorial outside where "Never Again" is written in several languages is a reminder of the mindset that Germans have today.

(L)Esch in Deutschland

This past week was an especially happy time here in Germany. My dear friend, Whitney Lesch, and I were reunited in the land of our ancestors. She arrived on teh fourth of July and we spent a glorious five days together. Here is a quick summary.

On the fourth after finally making it to Germany, Lesch and I went back to Tuebingen where I made her drag her suitcase around while I gave her a tour, slash went shopping down in the town for groceries for our later grill extravaganza. We finally came back to the room and Lesch got to put her suitcase down. But we were quickly off to meet some of the other Americans for a fourth of July celebration. And what could be better than that then grilling in the german woods, not much in my opinion.

The next day we both slept until about eleven in the morning. But it was some much needed rest for both of us. When we were finally aroused from our slumber by our growling stomaches we woke up and went to Stuttgart for a fun day in the city. We saw the palace, opera house, and main shopping area before heading to the zoo. Lesch the zoo expert claims that the animals are more active in Germany than in zoos in the states. I would believe her, she's been to lots of zoos.

Monday was our "let's take a hike through the german wilderness" day. We spent six hours wandering in the forrest behind my building searching for a rather elusive beer garden. Unfortunately, we never found the garden, but we did find Jesus in a German field.

I had to go to class starting on Tuesday so I am not sure what Lesch did. But she did meet up with me after class and I introduced her to the wonderous world of doener. We came back up to my room and chilled before going over to Erin's for some glorious chocolate pancakes. THen we went down to the Blaue Salon to hang out with Pia for a while.

Wednesday, I once again had class in the morning, but after I returned Lesch and I went down to the city for a tasty lunch at the Wurstkueche. The waitress remembered me from last week when I was there with Katie Burlingame. It was great. After lunch we went and rented a rowboat on the Neckar. I rowed upstream while Lesch guided the boat downstream. She did try to row upstream at one point in time, but we were still heading downstream despite her efforts.

This morning my friend left me, it was sad. But I am pretty doggone lucky to have a friend that will come across the ocean to see me in the first place.

Search and Rescue

I was walking along the familiar streets of Tuebingen yesterday when I noticed something in distress. I was walking over the bridge in the park and I saw a bike in the river. I was on my way to class, so I wasn't able to rescue it then, but I did start creating a plan to save it from eternal rusting in the cold waters.

As I was on my way home for the night, I again crossed the bridge where the bike was with the intention of rescuing said bike. However, I was unable to fulfill my mission due to the fact that I was wearing pants and the water was rising from the rain that had been coming down all day long. I decided that I needed some backup.

I came back up to my room and changed into a pair of shorts while calling up the other half of the dream team, my friend Erin. We grabbed a few necessary tools: leatherman, allen wrenches, headlamps and such before heading hack down to the river.

We got down to the river and managed to get relatively easy acces to the water after climbing throu a series of hedges designed to keep people away from the waters edge. We entered the water and waded toward the stranded bike. We reached it and pulled it out of its submerged state. We hauled it back to our enry point and hoisted it out of the river.

After we had also exited the water and had managed to get back

up the bank and into the park we gave the bike a once over. The handlebars were severly bent and the chain was wedged between the gears and the frame. After a bit of work, and getting grease up to our elbows, we had the chain back on the gears and the handlebars once again perpendicular to the front wheel. Actually, we had a functioning bike. We road the bike to the bus stop and brought it back up the mountains with us. Rescue mission: Successful.

Random odds and Ends

This post is going to be a lot of little posts, things that I thought worthy of mentioning but not big enough to warrent their own post. I believe the most effective way to do this will be list form.

1. One of my favorite everyday activities that occur here is getting to cook with one of my friends, Erin. She lives on the eighth floor and her kitchen has a balcony. Several times a week the

two of us cook together. The food is always good, the company too. It is just always a relaxing chill time where we can learn more about each other.

2. Last Friday night there was a tropical themed party at Ian's place beceause a couple of people had friends visiting. Seeing a chance for a costume my mind kicked into full gear. The sun is a pretty prevalent thing in the tropics right, and where there is sun, there is almost always sunburn. That's right, Erin and I dressed up as "sun" and "sunburn" to go to the party. Had there been a costume contest, we would have won.

3. Last week, when we got back from Morocco, WashU took us out for a ride in one of the Stocherkahn boats along the Neckar. I got to have a turn at poling, it is a lot like a gondola. Let's just say there is a strong possibility that I may have found my future occupation.

4. It has been raining a lot, the past couple of days. And along with the rain come lot's of complaints about the weather. As it drizzles I am reminded of one of my favorite thoughts: We can't survive for more than a few days without water, how incredibly awesome is it that it falls from the sky?

5. I have uploaded several videos of things things that I have been able to see along my travels. Here are the links.

-Call to Prayer in Marrakesh. When Katherine and I were up at a rather absurd hour,

the only redeeming thing was that we got to experience the call to prayer that occured at

approximately 4:15 in the morning.

-Night Market in Marrakesh. This video is turned sideways, and moves around a lot

because I had to walk the whole time we were in the market. You can see the transvestite

dancers though.

-Juggler in Vienna. There was a guy juggling in a park in Vienna. He was really good, so I

was really creepy and recorded him.

-Sheep Crossing. One day heading down the street in Tuebingen I was stopped by this. A

shepherd was leading his flock of sheep down the road, obeying all traffic laws while doing it.

It was amazing. When the shepherd stopped, the sheep stopped. When he went, the sheep

went.

-Easter Mass Warmup. Here is a clip of the chior warming up before Easter Mass at the

Vatican.

-Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower lights up every hour for several minutes. It is an epileptics

worst nightmare.

-Way of the Cross. This clip was taken on Good Friday as the Pope celebrated the way of

the cross outside the Colosseum.

-Driving with Wolfgang. I took this as Wolfgang and I were driving through the German

countryside. It doesn't do the beauty justice.

-Train Ride. This is from a train that went a long the Rhine River. I think that the Rhine is

possibly some of the most beautiful area in Germany.

That's all for now. Hope it wasn't too chaotic.

French Against Germans

One of the classes that I am taking while here is a translations class where we translate English texts into German. Actually, it isn't nearly exciting as it sounds. It is run through ADaF (Abteilung Deutsch als Fremdsprache), the german version of ESL, so it is a bit on the slow side.

Anyway, last week I was in class and the text we had translated was from "The Xenophobe's Guide to Germany". So we were talking about people not liking other people from other places and the different derogatory names that some countries had for others, i.e. Kraut for Germans.

There is a girl from France in my class, Marion. The teacher mentioned that the French have another name for the Germans that is worse than "Kraut", but she wasn't going to repeat it in the classroom. As she was saying this she was glancing in Marion's direction.

Just as the teacher finished talking, Marion piped up, "Don't worry, we have a lot more than just one bad name for the Germans." And she said it while keeping a straight face. The teacher was mildly taken aback, stuttered for a few seconds, before carrying on with the mundaneness that is my translations class. This was probably my favorite class period yet.

Morocco

My latest adventure was to Marrakesh, Morocco. Katherine and I left after school on Wednesday and traveled to the misleadingly named Frankfurt-Hahn (it is actually two hours away from Frankfurt) Airport where we spent the night before catching our flight to Morocco the next morning.

Morocco was quite an experience. I can't even begin to imagine the culture shock that would accompany a semester abroad there. I had enough

and I was only there for 45 hours. While in Morocco we did a bit of shopping at the very large market. It was quite a lot of fun because you got to haggle over the prices.

While in Marrakesh we also went around to see some of the sights. In Morocco, non-muslims are not allowed into the mosques, but we did get to walk around the outside and admire the

architecture. We also visited the Saadin tombs. Here there are lots of kings and princes buried. All of the graves point east-west because when Muslims are buried they have to lie with their head toward Mecca. There was one grave that was perpendicular to all the rest though. I guess someone made someone who lived longer really mad. We also saw some ruins of a palace built by one of the kings of Morocco. Storks have found that the crumbling walls of the palace make an excellent place to nest.

At night we would venture out to the night market. It is a big open area where people gather around fortune tellers, voodoo doctors, story tellers, and musicians. One of the most unusual attractions at the night market were the transvestite dancers.

The trip was quite an experience, and I am very glad taht I got to go. However, I don't need to go back any time in the near future.

Der Udo

Udo, otherwise known as "Junior", still lives and works on the famr with Klaus. He is the first Esch taht I met, and he is the one who drove me to catch my bus so that I didn't have to walk again on my first trip to Minkelfeld. On this trip I got to hear a couple of intersting tales about Udo.

He had some back the night before at 5:00 am totally wasted. He was supposed to be at a hunting group meetin at 9:00 am. Klaus woke him up at 8:45, and he was still very much drunk, but ran out of the hous to go to the meeting. When we were at Klaus's for the last time, Klaus was mocking Udo because he apparently was still feeling the effects of the alcohol a bit.

When Klaus got home after Kaffee und Kuchen with the Mayor, there were four girls, all with their own cars, sitting around in the courtyard. They had apparently met Udo at the party the night before and wanted to hang out with him some more. Klaus quickly sent them away because Udo had work to do.

Der Klaus

Klaus is the first Esch in Germany taht I actually spoke with. He still lives and works on the farm in Minkelfeld that has been in the family since the 1800's.

Klaus loves to talk and tell stories. As he gets going he gets more and more wound up and excited. His teeth aren't great and perhaps this is (partly) why those in the immediate vicinity might get a little bit damp during his antics.

He isn't as excited about the family as Wolfgang is, but whenever it is brought up he is more than capable of keeping up with his own extensive knowledge of names and dates. He enjoys challenging Wolfgang's information, but mainly just to rile Wolfgang, not because he actually thinks it is incorrect.

He firmly believes that women have a distinct roll in society, at the home. And there is definitely no place for them in the world of politics.

I saw him on the farm while he was working. His work clothes consisted of a button up shirt and a pair of overalls. And his working was supervising his son, making sure that everything was done to exactly his specifications. Kind of reminded me of Grandad.

Die Ulla

Ulla puts up with Wolfgang and his antics always with a smile on her face. She really doesn't care about the family tree Wolfgang has compiled. After all, she just married into this mess. To her, fmaily is her grandchildren, her children, and her husband whome she affectionately calls "du Wolfgang".

Ulla loves her family dearly as is evident by the way she frets about at her children's homes, and by the way she dotes on her grandchildren, giving them that special love and attention that can only be supplied by Oma.

While I was at her house, she was constantly making sure my every need was attended to and would get a litle bit upset with me when I had no opinion about what I wanted.

She is an excellent teacher, from teaching Marie how to play catch, to helping me with my German. She can speak English, but while I was there the only language allowed was German because I am in Germany to practice my German. She has a very gentle way of correcting mistakes taht is almost more of a suggestion, rather than telling you you did something wrong.

She loves Germany and its history, and she wants other people to do the same. She was always making sure that I was tuned in and comprehending what was being said while we were watching the specials on T.V. about the founding of the German constitution.

While I was there she took an interest in my juggling and worked at it for two days. Upon leaving she enveloped me in a warm embrace and let me know I was welcome any time.

Der Wolfgang

"Sind Sie die Ahnenforscher?" (Translation:"Are you the guy who does the research on the relatives?") This question posed by a man at the cemetary in Kerben sums up Wolfgang perfectly. He is indeed the Ahnenforscher, having assembled over 1600 names to date in the Esch family tree that currently dates back to 1585.

Family is what Wolfgang loves. He gets so excited when he sees all the pieces of his family coming together. And he loves to share his excitement with everyone around him. When he uncovers another piece of the family tree, he retells the story of how he did it and who this new person is to everyon who will even halfway listen.

When he tells stories about his family he tends to get really excited, and when he gets excited he pumps his fist out horizontally from his ches while making a buzzing/rumbling noise. When he figures something out, such as the exact link between two members of the family he violently punches his left hand with his right and yells, "BAM!"

He is a large imposing man who is right all of the time. But there is also a gentleness about him. He loves his wikfe and is constantly bantering with her. He loving calls her "Ullachen". The last name "Esch", or really any of the last names in the fmaily tree, is all the excuse that Wolfgang needs to take you into his family and make you feel at home.

Griechenland

I just got back from an adventure in Greece.  Actually, as far as I am concerned, it was pretty low key, but that is just they way that I wanted it to be. 

The day after getting back from my visit with Wolfgang I took the bus from Tuebingen to the Stuttgart airport to catch my flight.  I flew from Stuttgart to Zuerich, Zuerich to Athens.  I didn't have a hotel room for the night because my ferry was leaving early the next morning and I thought it would be easier to just spend the night in the airport.  Turns out that was a good decision.  All the public transportation from the airport to Athens was shut down because of construction.  Only the buses to the port were still running.  

I caught the bus at 5:30 the next morning and rode out to the port.  I found my ferry with relative ease, they are kind of hard to miss, there just happen to be a lot of them.  Six hours later I was pulling into the port on the island of Mykonos.  

My dad had sent me directions on how to get to the hotel, but turns out I didn't need them.  The owner of the hotel was there with a sign waiting to pick me an four other girls up.  

I had booked a two person room (that was all that was available, there aren't any double rooms at Mama's Pension) and when I showed up alone Christina, the owner, was rather surprised.  She gave me one of the best rooms in the whole place because she felt bad for me, and said that I looked a little pathetic.  It was a room for four people, so there were four beds, a kitchen, a bathroom and a balcony with a fantastic view of the beach.  

As soon as I dropped my stuff off I went to find some sunscreen.  I was standing in the store looking at my options, when the saleswoman came over and told me that I didn't need any sunscreen.  I apparently looked confused enough so she explained, "You are not white, you do not need that."  I tried to convince her that I did in fact need the sunscreen but she was adament.  Finally, I told her I had money and she could either take it or not.  Shewalked grumbling back to the cash register and I heard her mumble under her breath, "I do not understand."

The first day there was spend on the beach, the water was cold and really dirty with seaweed that day, so I didn't do any swimming.  But it was still rather enjoyable.  

The next day I woke up and decided that I wanted to explore the coastline.  That did not mean just walking along the beach.  There are actually very few beaches in Greece, most of the coastline is made up of large rocky cliffs.  I had a beach right in front of my hotel that gave me great access to the bottom of said cliffs.  I spent the majority of the day climbing along the coast and it was awesome.  

On the third day I decided that I should probably go into town.  I didn't really have any desire to do anything there, the nightlife is the thing that Mykonos is most famous for, but I felt mildly obligated to at least have a look around.  The town is very pretty with narrow streets winding all over the place lined by pure white shops and houses that have a color accent of some sort: blue, green, red, purple.  

I went back out to the hotel and rented a four-wheeler.  I originally wanted a vespa, but since I had never ridden a motorcycle before they wouldn't let me rent one.  The four-wheeler was OK too though.  From the back of that four wheeler I really got to experience more of Greece.  

I drove up into the mountains of the island where I came across the mammoth houses of some of the wealthier residents.  I got to see the countless ruins that are dispersed among the new houses.  I came across a farmer hearding his cows up the road.  He was a weatherd old man with a toothy grin riding side saddle and waving emphatically at me to pass.  I liked seeing this side of Greece a lot.  To bad I don't have any pictures of it, but I was driving and couldn't, rather shouldn't, take pictures at the same time.  

The last day I spent sunning myself on the beach once again and it was wonderful.  I have never experienced a sun so intense.  It made the water that I had thought to be too cold on the first day feel rather refreshing.  

Christine drove me to my ferry in the afternoon and I headed back to Athens.  I again spend the night in the airport but this time because I would have only had the room for four or five hours and it seemed silly to pay for one for that short of a time.  

I am not back in Tuebingen looking the most tan that I can ever remember myself being.  My legs are dark, my arms a little burned, and my hair is mostly blond, not just the summertime highlights that normally happen, but rather a full head color change.  Crazy.  

Weekend with Wolfgang: Part II

The Esch's have always been Catholic, as Wolfgang constantly reminds me.  So, being the good Catholic family that we are, we went to Mass this morning to celebrate Pentecost.  We went to Mass at the Koelner Dom where Mass was celebrated by the Archbishop.

Little known fact:  the Koelner Dom is it's own separate community and so the Archbishop isn't allowed to enter on his own.  At the beginning he is escorted into the Mass by a large procession, and at the end he is escorted out.  He is only allowed to be in there on special conditions. Second fun fact:  In one of the windows over the alter is a crest with a black cross on a white background.  This crest belongs to the Deutsche Herrenhof, that one of the Esch's was a director of.  I am not sure how it all fits together, but by this time I am fairly certain that Wolfgang is capable of connecting just about everything to Esch in some way.  Third Random Fact: We got to hear the biggest bell at the Dom ring.  It is called the "der Dicker Pitter" in Koelnisch, the dielect spoken in Koeln, which translates to the thick/fat Peter.  This bell is so massive taht it only rings seven times a year on High Feast Days because if it was to sound more often the vibrations it would cause would cause serious structural damage to the Dom.  

Pentecost is a day that people like to get together and celebrate, actually that just sounds like a typical day in Germany.  The people that Wolfgang likes the most are members of his family, and it doesn't seem to matter how distantly you are related.  

After Mass we went to visit his son, Frank, and his wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Oscar.  Oscar is not yet a year old.  We got along great playing with a ball for a really long time and sharing cookies.  And by sharing I mean that he kept stealing the cookies that were given to me.  

After Frank's we went to Duesseldorf to visit Stephanie, Wolfgang's daughter, and her family.  She has three kids,  all older than Oscar, but still not all that old.  Again, we got along great.  I had taken some juggling balls with me and they loved that.  The oldest of the three also had some stilts that I helped her to learn how to walk on.  

Stephanie, Wolfgang, and I drove into Duesseldorf to do a small tour of the city so that I could see it.  There is a large jazz festival going on right now, so things were hopping.  We ate a potato pancake with applesauce that was pretty doggone tasty.

After seeing Duesseldorf we went back to Stephanie's house and her husband, Olliver, grilled for everyone.  It was great.  It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with these families, and they really did seem to accept me as such.  Funny how a common last name can do that.

Weekend with Wolfgang

This weekend I am spending in Koeln with Wolfgang, the long lost relative that I managed to find while I was living in Bonn.  Today, we went to Minkelfeld and the surrounding area to connect with some other "relatives".  I use this term loosely because while we all do share a common ancestor, the ancestor is typically back five or six generations.  

I arrived at the train station near Wolfgang's house at 8:55 and he picked me up at nine.  We went back to the house and had breakfast with Wolfgang's wife Ulla before Wolfgang and I packed into his car and headed out on our journey.

The first stop of the day was Minkelfeld where we met up with Klaus, the first Esch in Germany that I met.  We spent a good amount of time at Klaus's as he and Wolfgang went through piles of papers with names an dates and argues over who was who.  It was really fun to get to watch them because they both get so excited and speak in such fast dialectic German when they are together.  It is really difficult to understand, but it is really cool too.  

After visiting with Klaus Wolfgang and I drove to Maifeld to visit the church there.  Unfortunately, the church grounds are currently being renovated so everything was in a disarray.  

Then we headed back to Minkelfeld where we picked up Klaus, and by picked up I mean he drove his own car but followed us to Kalt.  In Kalt we had a "Kaffee und Kuchen"  or "Coffee and Cake" date with the mayor.  Apparently the mayor is also related to the Esch's in some distant way.  It was really fun to be at this little gathering.  Everyone kept sharing stories, with Klaus being the most animated story-teller.  

After our mid-afternoon snack we went to the first Esch farm that was the largest German farm when it was taken over by Esch's in the 1500's.  It is still owned by Esch's today.  Lots of the buildings still have original parts as well.  Franz Josef Esch is the current owner of the property and we were able to figure out exactly where he fits into the family tree while we were there.  

After visiting with Franz and his wife we began our trek back to Koeln.  On the way we stopped at a couple of cemetaries to take pictures of Esch gravestones.  At the cemetary in Kerben, we were looked at suspiciously because no one recognized us.  Wolfgang proceeded to explain that we were here to look at the Esch grave and the person he was talking to promptly asked if he was the relative researcher.  It was hilarious.  And it turns out that this guy is related to us in some way as well.  

It was really cool day getting to go around to the places my family has lived, to see what they do, and what their lives have been like for the past several centuries.  

Berlin

This past weekend I spent time in Berlin with the other students from WashU.  We were there Thursday through Monday and got to have a really great overview of the city.  And better yet we got Money from WashU to do everything that we wanted to.  I think I spent about fifteen Euro the entire time we were there.  Yes, I know that with the tuition at WashU I should probably be having them pay for all of my travels but I will take what I can get.  Here is a brief overview of the weekend.

Thursday night we arrived in Berlin and had reservations at the Unsicht-bar Restaurant.  In German Unsichtbar means unseeable.  You order your food from a set menu, you have the option of choosing beef, chicken, pork, vegetarian, or surprise menues, and then you are taken back into the dining room where it is totally dark.  I mean, can't see you hand in fron of your face no matter how long you hold it there dark.  You then eat your entire meal, three or four courses, in the dark.  It was a lot of fun and a cool experience.  Of course in the cover of darkness I had a great time moving things around the table to confuse the other people that I was with.  They didn't think it was so funny but I had a great time.  

 

After dinner Ian, Katherine, and I met up with my friend Erin who had been in my Deutsche Kompakt class with me and we all went out to a beer garden and just chilled for a couple of hourse.  It was great.  

The next day we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel.  Then Katherine, Christiane, and I went to the Goverment Quarter of the city and climbed up into the large glass dome of the Reichstag.  It was a pretty spectacular view.  Then we went and looked at the Jewish Memorial.  It was amazing how disrespectful people were being. There are kids running around climbing on the blocks.  Trash is everywhere.  People just don't understand what it represents, to them it is just a big playground.  

That afternoon we met up with Ian and went on a four hour bike tour of Kreuzberg.  I got to be the rider at the back which means that I got to wear a sassy neon orange reflective vest.  It was pretty cool.  The tour was very well done and I really liked riding bikes.

That night we went and saw The Producers.  It is the first time that this musical has been released in Germany.  It is also a pretty big deal that it has been released here because the play that the producers produce is called "Springtime for Hitler".   

The next day we got a slower start.  Once we finally got on the road we went to the Ziegesaule and the Tiergarten Park.  We made our way to Ka(ufhaus) De(s) We(stens).  This is a massive department store that is in West Berlin that is a major symbol of consumer culture that was just not a part of the DDR.  The Gedaechtnis Kirche, a church that had been almost entirely destroyed during WWII but has been rebuilt is right around there too.  

After killing some time after lunch we went to a cabaret show.  It was not like what I would expect a cabaret to be.  It was more like practiced improv.  It was very difficult to understand though because they were speaking very fast German and I don't have a good enough understanding of the language to be able to pick up the clever puns.  And it was very much a social commentary and I didn't have a good enough knowledge of German politics, laws and everyday knowledge to be able to get the point of a lot of the sketches.  But it was very good listening practice.  

That night we went to this place called the Winery where you pay one euro for a glass and there are bottles of wine sitting out that you can pick and choose how much and what you would like to drink.  Then at the end of the night you pay what you think is reasonable.  After spending a bit of time there we went out and took some pictures of Berlin by night.  

The next day we woke up and Katherine, Christiane, and I went to Checkpoint Charlie.  Personally, I thought it was very interesting and very well done.  There are informational boards lining the entire intersection so we spent at least an hour outside just making our way around to all of the boards.  Then we went into the museum.  We only had about half an hour there but that was enough for me to learn about some of the escape methods that people came up with.  It was unbelievable.  Some of the feats of engineering are incredible.  

We then joined up with Ian and Daria again and went to a cupcakery in some area of Berlin.  After a cupcake I went on a tour of an underground bunker with Christiane and Daria.  It was a very good tour, but my knees were bothering me quite a lot so I didn't pay as much attention as I should have.  Ooops.

After the tour I went to the TV tower with Christiane and we chilled there for a while.  We did a bit of juggling which was a lot of fun.  The other WashU students met us there and we all went to the hotel where another group from WashU had just arrived.  We went out and had dinner with the Professors that were accompanying that group. 

After dinner Ian, Katherine, and I went around and just walked around Berlin a little bit.  We found the red light district.  Ian was very happy about that.  In his words, "You know you are in a city when there is a red light district."  Ian in from Washington D.C. and St. Louis is the smallest city he has ever lived in up until living in Tuebingen so he was happy to be in a real city again.  

The next day we woke up and came back to Tuebingen and jumped right back into classes and being students again.  This trip has begun a month of traveling on the weekeds for me though.  Next weekend Cologne to see Wolfgang again.  

Living in Cloud Nine

The past week has been rather rainy and drizzly here in Germany.  Personally, I wish the sun would return, it has actually rained every single day for the past week.  But, I knew that rained a lot in Germany when I signed up to study abroad here.  

Last week, I woke up one day and looked out my window only to realize that I couldn't see anything,  literally anything.  My first thought immediatedly went to that I was now blind.  The logical part of my brain quickly assured me that was not the case because if I was in fact blind I wouldn't have been able to see my desk and window.  

The next option I came up with was that I had been abducted by aliens and they had just lifted my entire room off of the building and I was now flying with them through outerspace as they took me back to their home planet to run tests on me.  

Thankfully, that second option wasn't it either.  In reality, I was just living in a cloud.  Being on top of the mountian means that I am a lot closer to the clouds than the citizens of Tuebingen who live down in the town.  Every morning last week, I woke up to find my room enveloped in a white mist.  Sometimes I could see a little ways through the mist and was able to distinguish the ghostly outlines of the other buildings, sometimes not.  Most times I couldn't see the top of the tall buildings, they just slowly disappeared into the sky.  After the initial shock of not being able to see anything, I have come to enjoy living in the clouds.

This one's for you, Pops

It has come to my attention that I have only been writing about the fun I am having and the adventures I am taking.  I was under the impression that those are the only things that people would really want to hear about.  I was wrong.  Here is my work load from yesterday, a typical day in the life of Caroline.

• Went to class for three hours
• read six chapters in a German novel, by Goethe, aka not easy stuff
• wrote an Expose on the six chapters read
• translated two articles
• read seven articles for other classes
• prepped material for classes the next day
• review material from last time
  

Did I mention that all of this is occuring in another language, cause it is.  Hopefully, this information has put you readers at rest, that I am, in fact, learning something and having to do work while I am here.  

I can't think of a title...

I have successfully survived the second week of classes, which actually is probably more like a first week of classes because in the technical first week of classes everyone is just signing up for stuff and seeing what they actually want to take. Regardless, I survived and am even feeling as though I am on top of my work. (That really is a new feeling for me because at WashU I am perpetually behind.)

I wrote my first "paper" for a college class in German this week.  Every week for my lit class we have to write an expose about a certain passage from the book and explain the deeper meaning that it is talking about.  Normally not my strong point.  But this week we had to explain the chemical analogy and how it fits with the entire theme of the book "Elective Affinities".  A) I am a chemist and understand the chemical example and am therefore able to come up with smaller similarities that non-science people can't come up with and B) I wrote a paper about this exact thing last semester in my German Lit class.  

I sent my expose to the TA for my class and asked her to read through it and check for grammar, word choice, sentence structure etc.  She said she would do it this week but from now on she isn't going to. I am not so thrilled about that.  I guess I will have to make a German friend to help me out.  Oh well, after reading it and correcting it she emailed me back and told me that I had a good job and I should be "maechtig Stolz" (powerfully proud) of my work.  

I also had to translate a text from English into German for one of my classes.  It is really cool to have to think about English in such a methodical and analytical way.  At the same time it is really obnoxious to have to think so hard about your native language.  

After a "week" (I only have class three days) of classes, I am ready for the weekend.  I am going to Karlsruhe today.  Pia, my TA from Deutsch Kompakt invited me to go with her and some of her friends because there is a "free festival-thing" and they want to go camping.  So we are going to Karlsruhe to camp, but don't have tents, or sleeping bags.  Sounds more like we are going to play I'm homeless.  It should be fun anyway.  

Wikipedia

I have been getting back into the academic swing of things this past week, all my favorite websites are being used again: dict.cc, leo.com, dictionary.com etc.  All of my classes have finally started and there is a common theme between them all, and it is more than that they are all in German.  

The common thread connecting all of my classes is that the only online source that the teachers are ok with you using for papers, reasearch and such is wikipedia.de.  In my classes where I will have to write papers we have been told to avoid using the internet because you don't know how reputible the sources can be, except for wikipedia, that is ok.  Do they not realize that ordinary people can write and edit the articles posted?

I guess the first thing on my to-do list for tonight is to add a new bookmark to my computer.  

Morocco, That's in Africa

This weekend I booked tickets to go to Morocco, that is on the continent of Africa. The flight there and back costs a convenient 99 Euro. I had a gift certificate for 100 Euro. Katherine and I will be flying to Morocco on June 11 and coming back the 13th. I know, a short trip. But that just means that there is less time for me to get into trouble.

First Week of Classes

I find it a bit comical that as I am beginning my semester here in Germany, all of my friends in the states are ending their semesters and entering finals. To you I say "Good luck". This past week was my first week of school at the University of Tuebingen. I know you are thinking that I am a huge bum. Maybe so.

My classes are really intimidating, especially the seminars. There are two basic categories of class in Germany. The seminars and lectures. In the lecture classes everyone just listens to a professor lecture for an hour once a week. You take notes and that is the end for most people. The lectures just serve to provide background information that you may need later on in your studies. There are no tests, except in my case. Normally, you don't get a Schein, a certificate of completion, for the lecture courses. I have to have one to take back with me so I will have to take a test of some sort. Normally, it isn't too terrible. Professors often choose to have an oral exam where you talk about what you learned in the class.

The seminars are a bit of a different story though. They meet for two hours once a week and are small discussion based classes. You have to do a presentation, write a ten to twelve page paper, and take a test to pass the class and get a Schein. I have two Seminars that I am taking. One is a german literature Seminar over the book "Wahlverwandtschaften" or "Elective Affinities" in English by Goethe. The other Seminare is a sociology course called Gender and Biography. I haven't said much due to the fact that the Germans talk really fast and I have to think too much just to keep up. By the time I have figured out how to say my opinion in German they have moved on to another point.

I am kind of happy to have work to do again, I know strange. I am a little stressed right now, just because of the new system and I am unsure of what the expectations of the professors are. But the atmosphere seems to be much more relaxed than at WashU, something that is an extremely welcome change.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is another beautiful city that I wish I had more time to explore. I only had about twenty hours here, there was a delay with my train and the trip from Amsterdam lasted seventee hours. No, I did not have a bed for that journey, a seat the whole way.

I had read in my guidebook that the best way to see Copenhagen is by the water. So I took a canal tour. It was a great decision. The sun was shining, but the weather was quite cool and it was a lot of fun to be out on the water.

Fun fact: Denmark and northern Germany receive 20% of their total power from windmills that dot the countryside.

Amsterdam Pics

I was only in Amsterdam for one day, so I didn't have time to do a whole lot. And let's face it, most of the time it would probably be better not to be alone in Amsterdam.

I saw the Anne Frank house while I was there. It was one of the best museums/exhibits that I have ever been to. There were quotes from Anne's diary in all of the different rooms explaining what they were in her own words.

The house has remained unfurnished because the furniture was taken by the Nazis after the Franks were discovered. It was Otto Frank's wish that the house remain unfurnished.

Amsterdam is really a beautiful city. Yes, there are some parts that are a little to hippie and are geared toward the weed smoking crowed that flocks to this city, but once you get outside of that it is truely a gorgeous city.

I was able to spend part of the afternoon eating cake and drinking hot chocolate with an old couple who was on their way to the movie theater. We spoke in German. It was awesome.

Paris

I had to go to Paris a day early because the train from Rome to Paris was full on Easter Monday. So I travelled on Sunday instead. That meant that I didn't have a place to stay on Monday night. My wonderful brother kindly booked a hotel for me to stay in. It was the nicest place I stayed the entire trip. Thank you, Joseph.

Upon arrival in Paris, I checked in and hit the streets. I went to Notre Dame and the Arc de Triumph on my first day.

Day two: I moved into my hostel which happened to be right around the corner from the Maubert Market. I stopped at the market to get some stuff to take along with me for lunch and headed off to the Eiffel Tower. I had to wait in line at the Eiffel Tower. After approximately 45 minutes of waiting I finally reached the security checkpoint.

I opened my bag for the guard to look through and he found the fork that I had so smartly packed to eat my market food with. His eyes got wide and he started yelling at me. "Forbidden! Forbidden! This is forbidden! OUT! OUT! OUT!"

I offered to give him the fork, he looked at me like I was offering him a bomb. I offered to throw the fork away. He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me out the door.

It all worked out for the better though. I went back to the Tower later that day, sans fork, and I timed it in such a way that I got to watch the sun set over Paris from up top.

The next day I took the train out to Versailles. It was beautiful. The grass was absolutely amazing. All I wanted to do was run around barefoot. Too bad you weren't allowed to be on the grass.

I came back and met up with a friend from high school and we went out to dinner at a fondue restaurant. The owner thought we were his good luck charms because the restaurant filled up after we came in and started eating. Good luck charm in french translates to free food and drinks. I was okay with that. After dinner Lauren and I went to the Louvre where we got in free.

The next day I got to see Lauren again and we chilled out, ate a crepe, had some hot chocolate until I had to catch my train to Amsterdam.