My new apartment!

Many have requested learning more about the place that I am living here in Bonn. So, as promised, here are some photos and descriptions of the place I call home!

Here is a photo of the exterior of my apartment building. The five windows above are to my apartment, which I share with two other women. The single window to the left is my bedroom window! My apartment is a part of a larger hospital complex in the northern part of the city center. While in Freiburg, I also lived close to a hospital. I guess if I need immediate medical attention, I will be set again for this year! (Note: I never needed immediate medical attention while living in Freiburg.)

When you enter our place, you come to our hallway. This is a photo taken from my office. Notice the two doors on the right of the photo: we have a separate shower and toilet room. Otherwise, just your usual pink-carpeted hallway...

This is the control center - my desk and TV area in my office. It works pretty well! I also built the desk, bookshelf and lamp pictured!

This is the less exciting corner of my office. In theory, I would like to get a sofa bed and rug to make this part of the room more home-y feeling, and to have space for entertaining and overnight guests, hint hint!

I live in an attic apartment, so that means lots of angled walls/ceilings. My office doesn't really have a proper window, just this skylight. It lets in plenty of light, but you've really got to look out of it in order to see anything but the sky, clouds, and the occasional bird.

This photo is of the "Siebengebirge," or the seven mountain peaks, near Bonn. I took this photo from the above window, on my tip toes. It is still pretty, even if it is difficult to see!

My second room - the bedroom! It is very small, but all I do here is sleep and get dressed. I am slowly getting the hang of turning on the heating on and off in my two rooms, based on when and where I am in either space. I love my duvet cover sheets! They are super soft, and they zip close around the duvet and my pillow. This arrangement is 20 times better than Freiburg, where I had paper thin Ikea sheets and slept in a bed without feet. Notice the extra mattress under my bed, which is also ready for guests!

This is the other side of my bedroom, complete with wardrobe and dresser. One of my roommates just recently gave me the dresser, as she no longer needed the storage space. I, however, also do not need the extra storage space, as I brought two suitcases worth of things with me to Germany! I hope I don't go too crazy trying to fill the dresser with new things...

I have a very nice "Wohnkueche," or live-in kitchen. I have always wanted a corner table complete with a bench, and now I do! One of the nice things about living with an older woman is that she is used to more of the finer things in life, like actual furniture. So, that means I get to benefit from her desire to have things like matching kitchen chairs and counter space!

Here is the kitchen part of the kitchen, which was not here when I first saw the apartment. I think it looks very nice, and the color is also every cheerful! The oven is brand new, and I helped install the sink plumbing.

There is plenty of room in our non-European size fridge, and the left cupboard is large enough for dry goods as well. Those who have lived in Europe understand how amazing this amount of space is in the kitchen!

Our only wall decoration is a huge map of Bonn, located in our hallway near the kitchen. I am pointing here at where we live! It isn't far from the Rhine, or the city center, located just south of my finger.

We also have a balcony, which can be reached from the other two women's rooms. I don't go out there much, but there is another nice view of the mountains and trees nearby.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of my apartment! I hope to show some of you the place in person!

Mein Fahrrad!

Fahrrad means bicycle in German. Since purchasing my amazing bike back in Illinois, I would like to think of myself as a bit of an amateur cycling aficionada. I mostly feel empowered when I bike on the street, wearing my helmet and biker’s shorts, even if I may look slightly ridiculous in such clothing. (No worries, I would often carry clothes to change into, so as not to embarrass my students and coworkers!).

I had not really thought about biking at all until I lived in Freiburg, Germany, in 2006. While there, many people chose biking as their preferred means of transportation. My host parents biked to work; one of my roommates was even a cycling courier! I did not, however, fully embrace the awesomeness that is biking in Freiburg; I “babysat” a friend’s bike from January to April (not the best biking months in most places), and I rarely biked.

The idea stuck with me, so when my MIL offered to help B and I get bikes several years ago, I was excited to get a nice bicycle I could use for commuting to school in Champaign. It really wasn’t too difficult then for me to decide to also get a bike in Bonn, even though I couldn’t really afford to buy a nice, new one. I went to the Bonn University bike flea market the first weekend of September in search of a used bike. I took a very long time to decide on a bike. If it weren’t for a bit of embarrassment in getting up so early to check out the market and then leave empty-handed, I probably would not have chosen one that day. I am now 100% glad that I did choose a bike that day! In contrast with the day I bought the bike and the handle bars got so loose that I could not even manage to ride home, I am now pleased to have a bike with lots of gears, a self-powered light, and a possible space for a basket.

I did not ride much in September; we left Bonn early enough, and I sadly left my ride in my hotel’s garage. I picked up Blue (that’s right, I just named my bike!) from the hotel when I got to Bonn over a week ago, and it took a few days to get reacquainted. I can now happily say that things are all that they should be, as far as biking in Germany is concerned. Sunday I biked along the Rhine on the way to church (I saved €5.20!), and Tuesday I biked to a choir rehearsal, in the dark, to parts of Bonn I had never been before! I have been inspired to take more sight-seeing trips around my city; as my roommate said, Bonn is really a biker’s city – it is not designed for cars! I hope to be able to avoid buying a transit ticket in Bonn and to instead bike, walk, and get rides from others as needed! I have to spend nearly €17 each time I go to Koblenz to meet with my mentor, so biking instead of traveling by train may be a nice way to save some money in other ways.

Mein geiles Fahrrad - Blue!

On a related note, here is a link to a song of one of my favorite German bands. The song is aptly named “Mein Fahrrad.” Here you can find the German text with English translation. I don’t necessarily agree with all this group sings in this song, but my bicycle is blue, after all…

Viel Spass zum radeln!

The Post You've All Been Waiting For - Oktoberfest!

When people learn that I travel to Germany frequently and that I am a huge fan of all things German, a common question is “Have you been to Oktoberfest in Munich?” Finally, I can answer that question affirmatively! Below is a play-by-play of my epic journey to Munich with Buka friend Emmeline.

Thursday, September 27^th, 17:00 – Help Emmeline pick out a Dirndl to wear to Oktoberfest

19:00 – Leave hotel for Berlin main train station

20:00 – Arrive at main train station, waste time at stores and restaurants until Night train departure at 20:56

21:25 – Finally get on the train after a 30-minute delay

21:40 – Meet cute German family with whom we shared our sleeper cabin; relearn how to make a train bed with super tricky sheet on top bunk of the train

22:00 – 7:00, September 28^th – Sleep restlessly in train, noticing each time that the train changes directions

7:15 – Arrive in Munich, immediately notice that we are not the only people hoping to go to Oktoberfest (lots of Lederhosen and Dirndl action!)

7:50 – Finally find an open café; sip cappuccino overlooking Munich’s famous Rathaus and Glockenspiel

Emmeline and her breakfast!

9:00 – head back towards train station and the Oktoberfest festival grounds; still overwhelmed by all the people who are walking with us. (Tip: If you ever go to Oktoberfest and don’t know where you are going, follow the Lederhosen!)

World-famous Munich Rathaus!

9:40 – Arrive at Oktoberfest, realizing that everything is still closed. Pick a beer tent line to stand in to wait until everything opens at…

Hofbrauhaus Tent - we did not go in!

Out and about at Oktoberfest

10:00 – Enter Löwenbräu beer tent. Scramble about with the rest of the mob entering the tent, trying to figure out how one gets a seat at a table without a reservation!

More Oktoberfest things!

10:10 – Find a table with enough room for two. Ask cute German girls if we can sit with them.

We were right by the bandstand!

The tent started filling up quickly.

10:20 – Watch longingly as everyone else seems to be getting their liters of beer before you! Eventually the waitress comes by and you order your liter of beer! Victory!

Me 'n our beers!

Emmeline n' our beers!

10:30 – Befriend nice German girls by offering to take a picture of them for them. Eventually learn how Oktoberfest works!

Group shot! Notice Emmeline's dirndl.

10:50 – Order a huge pretzel, realizing we will not make it if we don’t eat something while drinking tons of beer!

11:00 – Stand up and cheer randomly when others do the same first

11:01 – Watch the first guy try to down an entire liter of beer in one drink, while standing on a table – Success, followed by lots of cheering!

11:02 – Learn that the second weekend of Oktoberfest is Italian weekend; this means that there are a lot of Italian men who make the pilgrimage to Munich, and they are loud and Italian-like.

12:00 – The band starts! Yay for drinking songs and clapping on counts one through four!

12:20 – Another guy tries to finish his beer in one drink, he fails, and beer shoots out of his mouth and nose. He is apparently unable to finish it because he is British, so say the German girls.

12:30 – Emmeline meets German mechanical engineers, and she is happy!

 

This video includes some of the crazy Italians (at the beginning), Emmeline's engineers (to her right), and our German friends (to Emmeline's left).

The beer is nearly gone!

13:00 – Leave Löwenbräu tent. All the rides, games, and stands seem more interesting after one has finished a liter of beer!

14:00 – Have lunch in the city center at Augustinerbräu, my favorite Munich brewery. Teach Emmeline how to eat Weisswurst.

Linner at Augustiner!

15:30 – Go shopping in crowded city center to kill time until evening train departure

17:00 – Arrive back at train station, wait for train

18:00 – Wait in train to leave, nearly 30 minutes late again

19:30 – Enter crazy ukulele-playing German guy who complains about not having any rights after others ask him to stop playing his instrument in the quiet wagon car

20:00 – 23:00 – Restlessly sleep on and off, change train directions twice

0:40, September 29^th – Arrive back in Berlin, cranky, tired, and a little sick from various illnesses, take a train and a trolley back to hotel.

1:30 – Finally fall asleep in one’s own hotel room!

My general thoughts about Oktoberfest are: I am soooooo glad I went! It was sooooooo much more fun than I could have imagined! I am extremely happy that we were able to actually get seats and could really experience Oktoberfest. I think traveling with fewer people and being a girl helps you to get access to tables and to meet others. There are a lot more Germans who go to Oktoberfest than I had thought. Don’t go to the Hofbrauhaus tent; it is where all the British and Australian tourists go, and they try to down entire liters every five minutes or so. This mean there is a higher likelihood of getting beer spilled on you!

I would recommend Oktoberfest to anyone who wants to see lots of people wearing stereotypical German clothing and who wants to make friends with locals and foreigners alike!

Die letzte Woche!

As I write this, my last week is already over! I am sad to leave Berlin; it is a wonderful city, and you all should visit it sometime! I also am sad to leave all my Buka friends. We will meet each other again, in March, June, and July. Plus I will have two of my closest friends semi-nearby. I am sure I will be taking an excursion or two to Bremen and Bremerhaven.

Our Monday began with another press-related trip, this time to the “Zweites Deutsche Fernsehen,” basically the number two TV station in Germany. We got a studio tour and got to ask many questions of Frank Buchwald, one of the station’s correspondents. I also was able to find out more about the channel’s “Heute Show,” which is kind of like our Daily Show with John Stewart. I asked our seminar organizer, Friedrich, about the Heute Show, and he said it is political cabaret. I told him we had a similar show in the USA, and that some of us get our news from our show. Friedrich seemed a bit concerned about that, but the Germans really like their newspapers and taking a more active political role in their society. Plus, the Heute Show is only on Friday nights; who would wait that long and stay in on Fridays to get their news fix anyway? We followed the TV studio with a visit to a ceramics studio. One of last year’s Bukas is still completing her project there, and we were able to see her work.

Tuesday we went to Potsdam, which is just southwest of Berlin. I had never been to Potsdam before, and our trip included important highlights like Schloss Cecilienhof, the location of the Potsdam Conference during summer 1945. We saw the rooms were the Cold War more or less started, and learned that Truman was at Cecilienhof when he had to decide to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. I found it fitting that, in the past few months, I have visited Los Alamos—where the bombs were researched and constructed—and now Potsdam—where the decision was made to drop the bombs. We then had an AMAZING lunch at a beer garden nearby. Unfortunately all of the beer and food turned us all into disinterested zombies for our next visit at Schloss Sanssouci. Sanssouci means “without doubt” in English. The gardens at this Baroque palace were delightful.

Emmeline and Lizzie at the Schloss

Schloss Cecilienhof

Garden view of Sans Souci, one of the main Prussian palaces found throughout  eastern Germany.

Yes, this is Friedrich the Great's grave, and yes, it is covered in potatoes. Good ol' Friedrich is credited with introducing potatoes to the Prussians. And, yes, he is buried next to his dogs (not pictured), following his last wishes.

Asian gazebo at San Souci

Over-orientalized "Asian" person playing some sort of chordophone.

On Wednesday we visited an organization which represents German industrial interests. Most of the presentation dealt with German-Chinese and German-Russian business ties. After a long lunch break (during which I took a long nap to try to get rid of an illness I have had the past week or so), we met to discuss the highs and lows of the seminar. Afterward we had our last dinner with the Buka fellows, as well as some alumni and hosts in Berlin. The restaurant was very nice, and I met an alumnus of the Buka program who is also a musicologist! Only four musicologists have been awarded Buka fellowships, and now I have met the other three! I am the first woman musicologist to receive the fellowship!

Thursday was an intense politics day. We visited the German Bundestag, the legislative parliament. In 2006 I visited the Reichstag building, which has a beautiful dome on top of it that welcomes visitors. This time around, we Bukas had meetings with representatives of Germany’s five main political parties, and we got to attend part of a plenary legislative session. At said session, we were only allowed to sit and breathe. Everything else was forbidden! At the end of the day, I decided that I wouldn’t mind being a politician in Germany. It seems like the German government generally gets things done, much in contrast with the US Congress. After our visit, everyone went their separate ways.

View inside the Bundestag meeting hall.

Me at the Bundestag. No one could give me a definitive answer as to when the building began to have an EU flag on it...

I, on the other hand, had to prepare for an even greater adventure!

P.S. The answer to the question about minorities in Berlin is: Turkish, Polish, people from the former Yugolslav Republic, Russian, and Vietnamese.

The third week...

I apologize for the lateness of the next few posts. With hit or miss internet at my hotel in Berlin, plus a continuously full program, writing blog entries has been low on my priority and capabilities list. Without further ado, I give, Einführungsseminar 3.0!

Our third seminar week (Sept. 17 thru 21) started with a museum visit near Berlin’s “Museum Insel” – an island filled with museums! As luck would have it, of all the activities that were planned for Berlin, I had only previously partaken of one event/visit (more on that during week four!). We got a crash course on 1,000 years of German history. Some highlights included artifacts, like actual indulgences issued by the Catholic church during the middle ages, and half of the museum space is dedicated to post-1919 Germany. I will definitely go back to this museum when I am in Berlin next!

"Get out of Purgatory for (nearly) free" cards - Medieval Indulgences issued by the Catholic Church

This paper money from the Weimar Republic, totaling billions of Marks, was only worth one Mark after inflation got under control in Germany in the 1920s.

Our second visit was to the German Bundesrat, one of the semi-legislative bodies of the German federalist government system. The Bundesrat is made up of government representatives from each of Germany’s federal states, based on population. The Bundesrat can suggest some legislation and has more control over federal government initiatives that cover areas of competency given to the states. We got a free mug during the tour: my very first apartment supply!

My mug!

Tuesday we went to the German Ministry of Environment. Our topics were a little difficult to follow for non-specialists (management of raw materials and environmental targets for climate change). Everyone enjoyed visiting one of the architectural elements of the building; the architect of the new section of the ministry building incorporated the section of Berlin Wall that originally separated the ministry building from the no man’s land at Potsdamerplatz. We had lunch at Potsdamerplatz, then headed to a talk on migration and integration in Berlin. I really enjoyed this presentation, and I wish it had lasted longer. Our presenter talked about the various large minorities in Berlin (can you name the top five? I’ll reveal the answer in my next post!). I also got two pamphlets on German migration to the USA and the recent migration of Russians to unified Germany (they are called Spätaussiedler).

Our excursion on Wednesday I would like to dedicate to two individuals: my architect friend from CU, and my bro! We traveled to Dessau to visit the Bauhaus School/Building, followed by a visit to Wittenberg. Although the Bauhaus school of design and architecture was revolutionary for its time (1920s), I couldn’t help but think that a lot of the furniture and clean lines are evident in many items one can find at Ikea. Still it was very interesting to visit the building. At Wittenberg Lutherstadt, we got a tour of the oldest museum dedicated to the Reformation. The museum is found in Martin Luther’s house he used while he taught in Wittenberg. Other highlights included walking through the old city center, seeing the church door where Luther allegedly nailed his 95 theses, and stumbling upon an organist practicing in one of the city churches.

Bauhaus in Dessau - notice the clean lines and large number of windows.

Whad up, Martin Luther????

Martin Luther's House

Thursday we visited another museum, this time an art museum with a collection of Asian ceramics and prints. Next we visited Berlin’s largest mosque, which was extremely impressive, informative, and beautiful. We even were able to stay in the mosque during the evening call to prayer. This long day ended with an opera performance at the Neuköllner Oper, which is known for its performances of newly-written pieces. The opera was called “Fernweh” – like homesickness, except for traveling and longing for things outside oneself. Music featured during the opera included works by George Crumb, Franz Schubert, and David Bowie. Most of my fellow Bukas were not impressed; they would have preferred a traditional or classical opera. I thought it was great! It made me think, it had humorous moments, and I will keep my eye out for future performances at the opera for future visits to Berlin!

Berlin Mosque

Inside the Mosque

On Friday, I was interrogated by a former DDR prisoner! Confused? We went to one of the main prisons run by the (former) State Security Police of the German Democratic Republic. If you watch “Das Leben der Anderen,” you will know what I am talking about. Our tour guide had been imprisoned by the Stasi, and he chose me as his person to question concerning how I would have reacted if I were in the prison. It was intense. Thankfully our evening activity including lots of delicious food from China and Russia, and great drinks, compliments of one of the American Bukas. Our “Länderabend,” or country evening, was filled with music from Russia, China, and the USA.

Former Stasi Prison in Berlin

The weekend was a little more low-key. I went shopping with a friend, found some amazing boots that I unfortunately did not buy, and visited with fellow Bukas at our friend’s new Berlin apartment. This included more delicious Chinese food!

I only have one more week to go before the seminar blogs are over! Stay tuned…