Kendra Johnson, a senior international studies and German major from Cedar Falls, Iowa, is spending the fall 2007 semester studying at Freie Universitat in Berlin, Germany. Following are some of her thoughts...

December 9, 2007

To my disbelief, my time in Berlin is drawing to a close - I have only one more week left. My classes/program get done on Thursday, and then I fly home on Monday. I have decided though, with much outside influence, to return to Berlin in January for Dana's Discovery Term travel course. This unfortunately means that I will not be seeing any of you Blair/Omaha folks until about the 24th of January.

My remaining time here will be spent with finals and then taking time to be a tourist in Berlin and see all the various sites I haven't gotten around to yet. Thus is my attempt to sum up (although email brevity is not my strong point) the highlights of these past 5 weeks:

- Ballet. I saw Tchaikovsky's (sp) "Dornroeschen," which is the German title for Sleeping Beauty. I had never been to a ballet before and so my expectations were basically based on the great cinema classic "Center Stage." The performance was a bit slower-paced and not as story-oriented as I had anticipated, but entertaining nonetheless.

- Return to Wittenberg. November 9th is the day that the Berlin Wall was opened in 1989. That date is not celebrated, however, because it is also the date when the Nazis led a pogrom against Jewish businesses and synagogues as well as hundreds of deportations in 1938 (aka Kristallnacht). On this year's November 9, I joined my professor and some classmates in attending a Klezmer concert in Wittenberg. Klezmer is a Jewish/Yiddish type of music often heard at various celebrations. Following the concert, a memorial service, organized by the Catholic and Protestant churches, for the events of 1938 was held right outside the city church. It was very touching to gather with various Wittenberg citizens in the freezing cold night to reflect on what had happened and how Wittenberg's Jewish population no longer exists.

- Football game! Being in Europe, with football I am of course referring to soccer, and my time in Germany would not be complete without such an experience. I must say, the fans here are tough. I dressed in as many layers as possible and was still freezing. It didn't help that that day was the first (and only thus far) day that it snowed in Berlin. Despite not being able to feel my toes, the game was awesome. Being in Olympic Stadium (where the 1936 Olympics were held) with all those crazy fans created a great atmosphere. And after a scoreless majority of the game, Berlin scored a goal in the final minutes for the win! This helped make the drunken atmosphere of the U-bahn ride back all the more rowdy.

- Reichstag. The Reichstag is the building which hosts the German Parliament (called the Bundestag). We had the opportunity to visit the building and sit in on an hour of the Bundestag session. Despite my improved German, I was unable to understand a lot of what was being said, but it was still very exciting to be sitting in on the workings of the national German government. What struck me was how informal it all was. Representatives came in and out as they chose, some visited amongst themselves, others read through papers - all was one of their fellow reps was at the podium talking.

Apparently, many of the issues that are brought up have already been basically decided or have no way of getting passed; I don't really understand how it all works with the coalition and whatnot. I did, although only for a few minutes, get to see Angela Merkel, Germany's (first female) Chancellor, which was quite exciting. After we left the session, we walked up the famous Reichstag glass dome, which gave a good view of the entire city.

- Thanksgiving. Germany of course does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so I had classes as usual. Luckily, both my classes had excursions for the day. I spent the morning touring the headquarters/studio of Deutsche Welle, which is a German tv/radio news company that sends its broadcasts all over the world (similar to the BBC). It was cool to be in the actual filming studios and control rooms, especially since DW broadcasts live every hour, so the place was full of action. Following that, I had some time before meeting for my next class and wound up at the main memorial for victims of the Berlin Wall. There, where part of the Wall formerly stood, they have a recreation of the whole setup (the double walls, security fence, deathstrip, etc) and across the street is a tower you can climb up to look down into no-man's land...very eerie. Directly next to this recreation is one of Berlin's oldest cemetaries; some of the gravestones actually had to be relocated to make way for the Wall. Every weekday at noon (which is when I happened to be there), they hold a short memorial service in the Chapel of Reconciliation. Along with a couple prayers, the service featured the story of one person who was killed trying to cross the Wall; a different person's story is told each day.

For my afternoon class, I headed to an area (one of the "bad" parts of the city) in the far northeast of Berlin to meet at a Vietnamese restaurant, visit a Vietnamese-run shopping center, and hear first hand accounts of the Vietnamese communityh in Berlin. The soup I had at the restaurant definitely wasnt typical Thanksgiving food and my day's events definitely weren't typical for Thanksgiving, but it was all interesting nonetheless.

That night I gathered with several friends as we tried to create a Thanksgiving feast. It turned out pretty well, and I felt so grown-up at the way we managed to create such an impressive meal. In addition to the green bean casserole which I somehow managed to successfully make, we had corn, potatoes, salad, bread, mixed vegetables, and even a pumpkin pie! There were no turkeys to be found in the stores, however, so we (humorously) improvised with ready-to-eat rotisserie chickens sold in a street corner stand.

- Budapest. Still stuffed with Thanksgiving goodness, I boarded my flight to Budapest the next day. I had been in contact with a friend from there who studied as an exchange student at CF. She, with the gracious help of ther mother, did a great job of hosting me throughout the weekend. Budapest is quite beautiful and it, with its high hillsides and river throught the middle, reminded me of Prague. There is an awesome castle there too. I felt like such a pampered guest. As opposed to walking the streets of Warsaw by myself, my friend took me around to all the major sites and her various other friends joined us as well. Both nights, her mom came and picked us up from the city center and drove us the 25 minutes or so to their suburban home, and both mornings she cooked us breakfast. She even drove us (at midnight) to the top of the hill overlooking the city because we hadn't made it up there during the day. I found it slightly funny that we visited a Titanic exhibit while in the capital of Hungary. Another memorable, yet scary, moment was witnessing a street fight.

- Polarities of Berlin culture. Figuring I should experience it at least once while here, last weekend I tried out the Berlin club scene. This meant not even going there until midnight and not getting back until about 5:30 in the morning. It was fun but not really my thing - I'm definitely not a nocturnal creature. The following evening I attended a symphony concert. The Berliner Philharmonie, where the concert took place, is a beautiful building, and the concert itself was great. I definitely think I'm developing a taste for classical music. My favorite was Maurice Ravel's "Bolero."

-'Tis the Season. December in Germany means Advents/Christkindl/Weihnachtsmarkts. These various names refer to Christmas markets with various stands/vendors in locations throughout Germany; Berlin alone has about 30. Here you can buy all sorts of Christmas trinkets and jewelry and countless other objects as well as all sorts of food and drink, most popular being bratwurst, roasted nuts, waffles, and gluhwein (wine mixed with spices and served hot). I have spent a great deal of my weekend at various markets around the city, of course putting off my studying for finals. I also made a visit to the famous KaDeWe, Berlin's enormous 6-storied department store. While I was in the bookstore portion, I noticed a long line for a book-signing. After not recognizing the author and asking someone, I found out it was the mayor of Berlin. Man, I love living in the capital.

Well I believe that's all I've got for ya. Let me know if you have any burning questions. I hope you all have a great holiday season, and I look forward to being able to see each of you again!

- Kendra

November 2, 2007

I had the opportunity to travel to Wittenberg last week for Reformation Day, aka on October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door. I actually went down there to help with an annual conference that consisted of 550 junior high confirmands from all over Germany.

I and another young woman who is interning at the American Church in Berlin (and is actually from Springfield, Nebraska) left Tuesday morning; Wittenberg is only about an hour away from Berlin by train. Our first stop was the ELCA's center, where we were warmly greeted by the lady, Jean, with whom we'd been exchanging contact. We were introduced to all the workers there and received, much to our delight, reimbursement for the cost of our hostel and train ticket to Wittenberg, along with 15 euros "meal allowance." Jean then took us to her home and treated us to a delightful home-cooked meal. She and her husband are the directors of the ELCA Center in Wittenberg; both from the USA, she's a professor and he's a pastor.
Jean then brought us to the Culture Center and left to get her stuff done. After the workers there tried and failed to find some things that we could help with, we left to explore the city a bit. After hearing about how many people would be in the city the following day, I was surprised at how absolutely empty it was that afternoon. The kids arrived throughout the afternoon, and one of their first activities was a choice between all sorts of workshops. The leader of the games worskshop had explained one of the games he would be doing and how we could help with it. However, the game didn't really work out like he had planned, and there wasn't much of a way for us to help. We were also of very little help with the other games. It's very hard to understand someone else's made-up game when it's explained in your own language, let alone a foreign one. And the consisted of almost entirely boys who preferred to push each other around than listen or cooperate; as American poor-German-speaking girls, we weren't much help in crowd control.
The tone of not being much help continued for the rest of the evening. We spent a lot of time kind of sitting and waiting. The biggest thing Jean had mentioned us helping with was the City rally. This was a scavenger hunt of sorts with stations spread throughout the historic part of the city. Some of the stations, such as the one my fellow Nebraskan helped with, required set-up work, something that doesn't require strong German skills. The one I helped with did not; it was about using the Low German (which the kids aren't familiar with) and trying to translate Bible verses. Seeing as how I couldn't really explain the tasks or correct the work, my way of helping was mainly as a pair of hands: helping to hold the different assignments, keeping track of the glue stick and puzzle pieces that each group collected, and passing out bon-bons. The station was also outside, at night, for two hours, at the end of October in Germany....meaning I could not feel my toes by the time we were done. Conrary to how it might sound, it wasn't a totally unenjoyable experience. The lady who ran the station and I had a lot of waiting time before the first group came, and it was interesting to chat with her. And talking with the different groups of kids was fun.

After the city rally, the kids had some more workshops that really didn't need our help, so we got some food and made a stop at our hostel. At midnight, though, we joined the kids inside the Schloss Kirche (the church famous church where Luther nailed his theses) for a service. It was really cool to be in that church at midnight, and the reflection/devotion service was really neat, even including a pantomime performance. As we filed out singing, everyone received a lit candle to carry outside with them.

The next morning we returned to the Schloss Kirche for the 8:00am English-language service put on by the ELCA center. I don't know where they all came from, but there were quite a few Americans gathered there. There's nothing like sining "A Mighty Fortress" in Wittenberg's Schloss Kirche on Reformation Day. At 10:00 both the Schloss Kirche and the Stadt Kirche (where Luther preached some 1000 times) were having huge televised services, but we headed back to the Culture Center for the service with the confirmands. It was interesting because a lot of the songs, which were contemporary and not so hymn-like, that the kids sang were in English. The rest of the service was in German, though, which of course meant we didn't completely understand it. The message was comprehensible though, and was given by the bishop of Saxon-Anhalt, one of the German states.
After the service, the kids assembled into their various church groups and grabbed the banners and signs they had made before coming. We joined the mob-like parade of kids marching from the Culture Center all along the main street of the city to the Schloss-Kirche. This city walk is apparently the highlight of the conference, and all the residents of the city plus all the visitors for the day stoodd on the sides of the streets and watched us go by as the kids sang and cheered. The band leader and his keyboard were situated in a truck intermingled with the kids, addding music to the various city cheers of the kids. Walking with 550 German junior high kids in Wittenberg on Reformation Day singing "Jesus Lord of Lords, King of Kings" (again in English) was quite interesting. The march ended at the Theses door with words by the leaders of the conference, the bishop, and Martin Luther himself. This marked the end of the conference, and the kids dispersed.

Before heading back to Berlin for class, I wandered around the street fair, the stands of which had just been erected that day. As opposed to the emptiness of the day before,the main street was absolutely packed with people. What is interesting is that the people were there for the medieval-times street fair going on, much more so than anything having to do with Luther or the Reformation. Where the Schloss Kirche stood at the end of the street was noticeably less busy than where the hoardes of people were gathered to buy the handmade products and old-style food. I guess this shouldn't be that surprising considering only about 20% of people in Wittenberg, and it seems similar for all of Germany, attend church regularly.
All in all, although I didn't really know what to expect of my time in Wittenberg, it was quite different that what I had imagined. The city was filled with people like I pictured, but for a different reason. I spent a lot of the time with the youth conference, but really wasn't of much help. I'm really glad I got the chance to be there though. Being in the city at that time is alone amazing. Being a part, however small, of the conference made it that much cooler, just for the opportunities (such as the midnight service) it offered.

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November 5, 2007

So, more than a week after getting back, I'm finally getting around to writing about my trip to Warsaw, partly due to the fact that in the meantime I took a trip to Wittenberg, about which I will write later. I guess it's a good problem to have that I'm too busy doing things to have time to write about them.

So anyways, after choosing my destination based primarily on the cheapness of the train ticket, I set off to Warsaw without really knowing anything about it. I was able to buy a Warsaw travel book (written in German) at the train station and so had a vague idea what I wanted to see by the time I arrived.

Later in the day, I found myself wondering why I had ever come to Warsaw. My first impressions of the city was that it was dark, cold, dirty, and glum. My mood definitely was not helped by the fact that I ended up wandering around in circles with my luggage trying to find the way to my hostel. Warsaw has this rather annoying practice of one street having 3 or 4 different names depending on what block you're on, so while I repeatedly passed the street I needed, I didn't realize it because the street name I saw was different from what it was across the street.

My pessimism continued as I, after finally finding my hostel and dropping off my stuff, embarked on my exploration of the city. One of the top sights mentioned in my book was the Palace of Culture, a huge builiding given as a gift to the city by Stalin in the 1950's. What I figured to be a large museum in fact didn't really have anything in it, at least as far as tourist attractions; the building is moreso divided up into different uses such as conference rooms. The Palace is the tallest building in the city, though, and so I was able to go up and see a view of the entire city. I felt sure I had picked a bad destination when even such a view failed to impress me - I could definitely see the entire city, but the view of modern commercial buildings and giant advertisements intermixed with endless Soviet-style buildings on a cloudy day wasn't all too cheering. I then made my way to another one of the tourist book's top sites, which is in fact a shopping mall. It made the list because of its unique architecture of glass bubble-like domes, which was cool but didn't change the fact that it was a shopping mall. And to top it all off, I reached the Old Town, Warsaw's most historic and famous area, only to find the main street torn up and under construction. Walking along a narrow path past bulldozers and bordered by a large fence wasn't exactly my typical idea of vacation.

But that is what I discovered to be the main idea of my time in Warsaw: it's not one of the major tourist destinations (especially not in late October), but that didn't mean it was without opportunities. At first I told myself to just keep remembering that, no matter what, I was in a new place with new things to see, and that alone was worth my trip. Then, I didn't need to keep remembering anything because I, in a way, caught the spirit of the city. Warsaw's history, aka being 85% destroyed in the war, is what makes it not so pretty to look at but all the more interesting to discover.

I spent the next few days wandering in circles around the city (let me stress that it's rather hard to find things in Warsaw) and seeing the sights. I visited the Old and New Town areas, the university, King's Castle, and several churches, a couple of which are known for such things as containing Frederick Chopin's heart and being the main church of Polish Pope John Paul II. It was hard to keep in mind that almost every building I saw in this Old Town area was completely destroyed during WWII and had to be rebuilt (see the picture of the King's Castle ruins). I vistited the Warsaw city museum hoping to learn more about the city during the 20th century, but instead all I found were exhibits on the city's history in much earlier decades. There might have been more there and I just missed it; I got a little off the chronological path when visiting a special exhibit and the intimidating museum worker ladies were rather anatagonistic towards me from then on. The chilling special exhibition was entitled "1944: The Children's Plight" which gave a terrifying view of children's memories of the deportations and concentration camps.

On one of the days I accidentally came across the government area of the city, first finding several foreign embassies. I walked along and took pictures of the various countries' buildings until I reached that of the US: in addition the several guards there was a huge iron fence with signs forbidding taking pictures. I'd never before been to a place where you couldn't even take pictures of the outside of the building. In an amusing contrast, I was able to wander around the grounds of the Polish Parliament building quite freely.

I visited the Belvedere Palace, which is neat because it is built over a body of water. I also set out to visit the Wilanow Palace, the summer residence of Polish royalty dating back from the 1600's. This visit was on my last full day in the city, and the whole time I had been there I hadn't bothered with public transportation and just walked everywhere. Although it looked a bit far away on the map, I decided I could stick with my walking-only policy. Well, "a bit far away" turned about to be more than a 2-hour walk to far corner of Warsaw, which prompted the splurging of a bus ride back into main part of the city. The palace was really neat though, with beautiful rooms in their original states. One thing I found particularly interesting was the display of coffin portraits. These paintings, a practice unique to the Polish, were painted while the royals were still alive and then placed on top of their coffins after death so that the funeral goers could see the deceased one final time. Since they viewed death as a journey, the royals are all painted wearing their best travelling clothes.

Another journey took me to the largest cemetery I've ever seen - a kilometer long, it took up an entire city block. Apparently it contains some of Warsaw's most famous people, but the only name I recognized was Wladysaw Szpilman, the writer and main character of the movie "The Pianist." Since many of the graves were several hundred years old, it was neat to look around, but it was a bit annoying that after walking all the way across the walled-in cemetary, I had to go all the back to the other side to find a way out.

One of the tricky things about my trip was trying to find ways to occupy my time in the evenings. Walking around and seeing the city at night is fun only to an extent, especially when it's rather cold. Not to mention the fact that darkness comes at about 5:00pm. The fun and time spent eating dinner is somewhat reduced when alone, although I did have several delicious meals. Being there on weeknights limited the amount of nighttime events, and any sort of concert or play was already booked. My first night I actually ended up attending a Mass. I had stopped inside a church to look around and, seeing that some sort of service was about to start, decided to sit down and join in. Having never been to any Catholic Mass, let alone one in Polish, it was quite an interesting experience. I was able to follow the lead of others when sitting and standing, and the music was quite pretty. Another night I went to the movie theater. Based on the fact that it was the only movie playing in English, I chose the movie "Stardust," which I'd never heard of before but was quite entertaining. In illustration of how complete different Polish is from English or German and how it doesn't sound like it looks, I spent about 5 minutes trying to pronounce the Polish title of the movie with the ticket seller having no clue what I was trying to say; I eventually had to resort to pointing.

My last night I had returned to the hostel by 9:00 and ended up watching this creepy weird movie ("El Muerto") with the Polish hostel worker guys, which was quite an interesting experience. I ended up staying up rather late just talking with one of them and then later with him, a man from Argentina, and a woman from Bolivia. Such interactions are definitely the highlight of hostels.

One of the most memorable places I visited was the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The uprising was a 2-month long struggle by the Polish Home Army against the occupying Nazi forces. The uprising was only meant to last a few days as the Soviet army was close to reaching the city; however, due to world politics and the Soviet Union's turning against the Polish government-in-exile in London and its representatives in Warsaw, the Red Army stopped its offensive ten miles away from the city. 15,200 Polish insurgents were killed, and 15,000 were sent to POW camps. 200,000 civilians were killed, and another 55,000 were sent to concentration camps.

Sorry for the brief history lesson, but Warsaw's history was an important element of my visit there. What I found most amazing in the city, instead of any sort of great building or view, was the spirit of the people and society that could be sensed with only being there for a few days. Despite, and because of, all that happened to Poland (its land and its people being dominated and nearly destroyed by both Nazi Germany and the Soviets), there is still this perseverance and persistance to survive and thrive; even the worst terror the world has seen wasn't able, as much as it tried, to do away with the Polish heritage and culture. The people of Warsaw, as one of the few places to create a significant resistance to the Nazi war machine, hold a special pride. This pride was easy to see even in my random conversations with the hostel worker; I was enthralled just listening to him talk about his family and their past. Another example of this pride: their postcards. Warsaw of course has various postcards showing their top tourist attractions, but on sale also were ones showing pictures of 1945 Warsaw, aka Warsaw in utter ruins. It seemed odd to me that a city would want show off how completely destroyed it had been, but to them it was as if defiantly saying to the world: this is what we've been through and we're still here.

On a slightly less serious note, on my train ride back to Berlin, I talked a bit with a group of Americans on the train. They told me how they had just attended a conference on the affects of global warming (okay, sounds noble and admirable) on the growing of cherries for pie filling (uh..what?!) I found it very amusing that of all the things global warming affects, they chose to focus on pie filling. Bis später!

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October 27, 2007

Hello all!

So in the last week, I spent a weekend in Prague, came back to Berlin and went to an opera, and then headed to Warsaw for five days. Thus, there is lots to write, and I'll try to break it up a bit.

Before coming to Berlin, I'm not sure I had ever even heard of Prague. After hearing how it was a major tourist destination, I decided to join my friend on a weekend trip to this capital city of the Czech Republic. And it was absolutely beautiful.

I booked my train for 5:00am. This required me to wake up at 3:15 and walk in the eerie late night/early morning hour to the S-bahn station. It was worth it though - I had an entire compartment to myself and was able to sleep for most of the ride. I reached Prague at about 9:30 and had the whole day ahead of me.

After finding the hostel and meeting up with my friend, we headed to Prague's perhaps most famous landmark, the Charles Bridge. This pedestrian-only bridge crosses the Vltava River, and it is lined with statues and packed with people. Between the Prague castle (the city's other top landmark), the river, the huge hill covered with autumn-colored leaves and the city itself, the view was amazing. We crossed the bridge and made our way to the castle. The visit there consisted of several elements including the royal art collection, the interiors of the medieval castle itself, and the beautiful St. Vitus Cathedral, including a journey up to the tower. Considering that the castle is already higher than most of the city, and the tower has 287 steps, you could literally see for miles.

We then embarked on our hike up the huge hill, which sits in the middle of the city but is like hiking through a forest. I found it amusing because all three of the girls I was with are from California and thus don't get to see the changing colors of leaves; they were in awe. Heck, I was in awe and I see it every year. Speaking of awe, reaching the top of the hill was amazing. We were so far above the city that while we could see that it was raining there, it wasn't where we were. And just as I reached the top, I saw a rainbow. That combined with the sunset...indescribable.

After we made our descent from the heavens, we headed back toward the bridge. The city is just as beautiful, though in a different way, at night as in the day. It's a good thing, too, because if it wasn't so pretty, we would have been in far more sour spirits considering how cold it was.

The next morning, we headed to another of Prague's landmarks, the Astronomical Clock. It and its surrounding plaza were really neat. We then headed toward and climbed up another hill to see the giant metronome. I thought the view of the city was cooler than the attraction itself, especially since the metronome wasn't working. From there we explored the Jewish Quarter, although since we were there on a Saturday, nothing was open.

It seems that every single church and cathedral in Prague offers classical music concerts on the weekends, with people on the street bombarding you with ticket offers. We chose a concert featuring a piece by Mozart, Vivaldi's Four Seasons (all four in fact), and my personal favorite, Pachebel's Canon in D. It was only an 8-member orchestra plus a violin soloist, but it was still quite good. It helps that I'm a sucker for Canon in D.

Every other place I have travelled to, I not only knew some history and information beforehand but also took at least one tour while there. In Prague, however, I didn't know the history or meaning of anything I saw. We learned history about the castle while going through it, but I have no idea about the story behind the Charles Bridge, why the Astronomical Clock is famous, or why anyone would decide to build a giant metronome.

Even the train ride back to Berlin was entertaining. We shared a compartment with a family of Australians, and who doesn't love talking to Australians? I got back with just enough time to change clothes and head to the opera. As one of the free event options provided by my progam, I chose Mozart's The Magic Flute. It was quite enjoyable, although I'm not sure opera is really my thing.

Stay tuned for adventures from Poland! Bis später!

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October 18, 2007

Hello all!

Last Friday our group had quite the Stasi field trip. The Stasi were the secret police force of the East German government, and they were terrifying. Check out the movie “Das Leben der Anderen” (“The Lives of Others”) to get an idea. It won last year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Film, so you should be able to find it with English subtitles.

We started at the Stasi headquarters, first hearing an overview of just who the Stasi were and what they did. There were 91,000 full-time Stasi officials along with 180,000 secret informers keeping watch over a population of 16.4 million; this means that 1 in every 200 East Germans was working for the Stasi. The headquarters contained over 200 kilometers worth of files, with information on more than 6 million people.

The headquarters also shows various surveillance (aka spying) devices the Stasi used. Almost any object imaginable, from pens and briefcases to women’s bras, could contain microphones or cameras. Sometimes the Stasi wanted people to know they were being watched and would place cameras in easy to spot locations such as birdhouses; other devices were virtually undetectable such as those in watering cans.

Being at the prison was bizarre. It felt like I was actually a prisoner yet at the same time had this surreal feeling to it. Some of the cells are in cold and dark bunkers underground, with a wooden cot and an open bucket, while others are in a building above ground with a window, actual bed, sink and toilet. But we learned how, even if the physical conditions weren’t entirely terrible, the psychological ones were. The Stasi worked to break down the prisoners through disorientation (they had no idea of where they were), sleep-deprivation (interrogations were often conducted in the late night hours), and mind games. Lights might be kept blaring on them all night long or turn on at random intervals throughout the night. They had to sleep on their backs with their hands on top of their stomachs, which made continuous sleep nearly impossible. Tactics, such as Chinese water torture, wore down the prisoners to the extent that they were willing to confess to anything just to get out.

Many of the prisoners were supporters of democratic parties, but virtually anyone could become suspect of disloyalty and wind up in prison. Many of the people that now give tours of the prison were former prisoners. Our tour guide did not explicitly mention if he was a former prisoner, but the way he talked about things, along with other background information we pieced together, made us pretty confident that he had been there. He brought up a very good point that we need to connect things that happened in the past with things that are occurring currently; the interrogation and torture tactics of the Stasi can and are replicated by respectable democracies today (i.e. the US and Guantanamo Bay).

As I mentioned, I find the Stasi absolutely terrifying. The Nazi crimes are unparalleled, but the way the Stasi destroyed the prisoners’ minds, let alone the psychological paranoia it unleashed upon East Germany in general, is horrific. And it’s something we don’t often hear about. While the Nazi reign and the Holocaust are staples in history classes, I knew virtually nothing about the Stasi. And perhaps more terrifying, the terror of the Stasi barely classifies as history; it occurred during my lifetime. Part of what made walking through the prison so strange was that it was all original; nothing needed to be remodeled because the buildings weren’t that old.

On a lighter note, I spent this past week taking midterms…ick. But it’s over now, and tomorrow I’m heading to Prague for the weekend, returning to Berlin for an opera, and then heading out on Monday for Warsaw. Hopefully I’ll get a note sent in between my two trips. Bis später!

Here are Stasi pictures.
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October 11, 2007

So when we last left our group of 70 wayward American students, they were enthralled by the awe and wonder of Oktoberfest. We resume our story as they, many with significant headaches and considerably lighter wallets, leave Munich and head to Vienna....

After a train ride through the majestic Alps, we reached Vienna in mid-afternoon. Instead of a hostel, this time we stayed in a guesthouse, which is basically like a hotel. 3 people to a room with a bathroom/shower within each room...woot! We had no official plans for the day, so a few of us just wandered around the city. If I thought Munich was full of historic beautiful buildings, it was nothing compared to Vienna..I had to restrain myself from taking a picture of every building I saw. It really shows how much Berlin was destroyed during and had to be rebuilt after WWII. Berlin is in fact continually being rebuilt, whereas Vienna is defined by historic architecture. I would realize this even more as we had our tour through the center of the city the next morning. I spent the afternoon on a self-guided tour of some of Vienna's historic churches (the city has about 40). I started with Stephansdom, which is Vienna's landmark. Inside the church was amazing, but even cooler was climbing up one of its towers and having an amazing view of the city. That night our entire group went to a Strauss and Mozart Concert. Instead of a formal full-piece orchestra, the concert was a smaller (yet still amazing) orchestra that joked around and did some random vocal accompaniment during the songs. There were also dancers on stage and singers for the opera selections.

The next day we visited the Hofburg, which is the main palace of the Habsburgs (rulers of the Austrian-Hungarian empire). The history there is amazing; Franz Josef was pretty much the man. That afternoon we had the chance to go on a tour of the Austrian Parliament building. This also had amazing history, but, seeing as how I've never been to Washington DC, it was really cool to be in the very rooms where an entire nation's policies are decided upon. That night we again donned our best clothes and headed to a performance of the operetta "Graefin Mariza." An operetta is shorter than an opera and also contains more dancing and dialogue...it's kind of like a mix between an opera and a musical. I had never been to that type of performance before so it was really fun.

The next morning some of us headed to the headquarters for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). This organization, which I had never heard of before the trip, is chartered by the UN and consists of 56 countries throughout Europe and the world (USA and Canada are members for example); it focuses on conflict prevention and post-conflict rehabiliatation as well as things such as observing elections. Once again, it was awesome to not only learn all about this organization, but to be in the room where all of its action takes place. That night I visted the Riesenrad, Vienna's giant Ferris wheel made famous by Orson Welles' movie "The Third Man." Seeing as how Vienna is so full of historical (aka not lit up) buildings, the city view at night wasn't the nearly as cool as I imagine it would have been during the day. Na ja.

Our last full day of the trip we boarded a boat and sped down the Danube River to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. The Danube separates Bratislava into two parts, one of which is commerce-orietned with modern buildings and whatnot. We were in the historical part, which has the feel of being in a quaint village. I spent the day just exploring the various historical sites (such as the Bratislava castle and St Michaels Cathredral where many Habsburg royalty members were crowned). Just by travelling one hour down the river from Vienna, we had reached a place with a very different past, a different language, a different currency, and a different culture. After taking a train back to Vienna that night, we headed to the edge of the city and ate dinner at one of Vienna's beloved Heuriger (wine taverns), each of which has their own vineyard attached. For the sake of Viennese culture, I tried out Wiener Schnitzel (Wien = Vienna) and Sacher torte (delicioius chocolate cake originating from Vienna's Hotel Sacher).

We spent the entirety of the next day on a 9-hour train ride. Now this may seem unbearably montonous, and it rather was, but that montony was definitely broken up by a couple of events. One of my friends had left her passport in Berlin, but she hadn't needed it to get into Austria. When we went to Bratislava, the border patrol had accepted her passport photo copy, so that wasn't a problem. On the way back, however, we went through the Czech Republic. Even with passport in hand, it is rather scary when armed border patrolmen all of a sudden board your train and going seat to seat. As soon as my friend told them she didn't have her passport, they made her grab her stuff and kicked her off the train. She ended up having to find (and pay for on her own) a train from the Czech border town back to Vienna, then a train from Vienna to Munich, and finally one from Munich to Berlin. Don't mess with the Czechs.

Further on, in Prague, one of the guys had gotten off the train to find a vending machine. Unfortunately, the stop was only for a couple of minutes, and the train left without him and all of his belongings. Due to the size of the train, we didn't realize that he wasn't on it until a couple of hours later. He ended up having to have his dad wire him money so that he could make it back to Berlin. Don't lose sight of the train.

Random story that will probably come back to haunt me: one of our program's student assistants came along on our trip...all well and good. What was not so good is that he is making a promotional movie about the program, so he was constanly filming. Somehow, on our various tours, I seemed to usually end up in his group; often I would be listening to our tour guide, turn around, and see a camera pointed straight at me...being caught unawares on film is not so fun. Some of you might be aware of my tendency to, without really realizing that I'm in public and people can see me, randomly start doing a little dance. Well of course, on several occasions we would be standing around waiting for something to begin, and as I would absent-mindedly start dancing, my friends would ask "Do you know you're on camera?" Awesome.

Anyways....the entire trip was truly awesome. We saw much and had the opportunites for great experiences that I know I wouldn't have gotten just travelling on my own.

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Vienna

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More Vienna

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Churches of Vienna

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Bratislava

October 7, 2007

So I got back from our trip a week ago, but it was so amazing that it still warrants a reliving through email. But before I do that, if any of you are avid NPR listeners, you might be familiar with Sylvia Poggioli, their Senior European Correspondent. I have a class on the multiculturalism of Berlin, and for this week's class we took a tour a predominately-Turkish district of Berlin. The tour was really cool because we ate scrumptious food at a Turkish restaurant and visited a mosque, which was very interesting. The tour was even cooler, however, because Sylvia and her two-man crew came along. For whatever project she is currently working on, she interviewed our professor and our tour guide and recorded various excerpts from our tour.

Anyways...our entire group of 70-some people set out last Friday morning for Munich. I had never been on a long-distance train before, but they are really quite nice, with more comfortable seats and more room than in an airplane. What was not so nice was realizing how loud American college students on their way to Oktoberfest can be. We arrived in Munich in the late afternoon and had the rest of the day free. While Berlin always seems to be dark and cold, Munich was sunny and warm. You know you are in Bavaria when the all the waitresses at your restaurant are wearing dirndls. After dinner and amidst my wanderings around the city, I came across a musical quartet (violin, cello, bass, and accordion) playing classical music. They were so good that it was like going to the symphony for free, and I now have new-found appreciation for the accordion.

My first experience with a youth hostel was also quite nice. The rooms, which house six people each, had bunk beds, lockable closets, and sinks/mirrors which were nice. The bathrooms are down the hall and shared with everyone on the floor. The showers (of which there were only four) were also shared by the floor, but each had its own little lockable room. I think the hostel experience would be quite different when sharing a room with strangers, though. Regardless, they serve an excellent breakfast. I learned the art of eating a huge breakfast so as not to have to eat lunch....'tis very economical.

The next day I made my way to the Olympic Park, which overall was a bit disappointing. You can't really see inside the stadium, especially not the day I was there as there were preparing for a concert of The Police. I was able to step into the swim hall, but all of the other buildings were closed. I wasn't able to find anything regarding the hostage situation at the '72 games. The park did have one amazing aspect: you can hike up this huge hill and see a view of the entire city.

As the park is on the edge of the city, I was in for a shock when I arrived back in the city's center. That morning was the official beginning of Oktoberfest, which meant that central Munich was absolutely filled with people. Lederhosen and dirndls everywhere! Amongst the throngs, we were somehow able to split up into groups and have tours of the city, tracing the history from its royal past through its time as host to the Nazi party. It's amazing how basically everywhere you look is an old, architectually amazing building; I wandered for a long time around the buildings of the University of Munich, just imagining what it'd be like to study there.

The next morning was the huge Oktoberfest parade. Oktoberfest really is quite a cultural event, as the parade showed. It was filled with an endless variety of traditional costumes and bands. And of course, each of Munich's 14 breweries had their own display. Bavarians are hard-core about their parades; it lasted two hours (although I must admit I didn't stay for the whole thing). Later that afternoon we had a tour of the Residenz, which was the main palace of the Wittelsbach dynasty.

And of course, I couldn't leave Munich without experiencing Oktoberfest. Just entering the grounds was unreal. It was like a giant carnival complete with all sorts of rides and food stands, but ten times bigger and busier than any carnival I've ever been to. Not to mention the fact that, having gone there in the evening, roughly every third person was heavily under the influence. The fest has 14 beer tents (one for each Munich brewery) that are actually buildings. There are filled to the brim with revellers, but are at the same time rather tense. They are so busy and full that you can't even stand for a couple of minutes to take a look; you either have to be moving with the masses or sitting at one of the tables. To get a spot at a table is quite a challenging feat. Some of my fellow students were up at 7:00 both mornings just to find a spot; the tents are full by about 11:00 in the morning. Although by evening I probably could have gotten a spot (those that have been there all day tend to make their drunken exits about that time), I must say that I did not drink a beer at Oktoberfest. I really had no intention to do so considering that, even if I liked beer, I wouldn't want to pay about $10 for one. Not to mention the fact that completing the liter in which they are served, given my low alcohol tolerance, would probably kill me.

Thus ended my time in the lovely city of Munich. Given the late hour at which I'm typing this and how long this email already is, I shall conclude for now. Stay tuned for tales of Vienna.

October 3, 2007

I was walking down the street after church on Sunday morning and just happened to come across the Berlin Marathon. I had known it was going on but had no idea in what part of the city. I've never seen any type of marathon before, let alone one in a major European city; it was fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, having just taken more than 400 pictures on my trip, I didn't have my camera with me. I'm continually amazed by how many interesting things I stumble upon by accident.

I have always been rather irritated when people, while travelling in a foreign country, head straight to the nearest McDonald's or other such American chain restaurants. Thus, it is with great shame that I admit that on Sunday I ate at Burger King. But I think I was reasonably justified:

1) It was about 1:30 in the afternoon, and I, due to a variety of circumstances including a 9.5 hour train ride, had not eaten a real meal since 8:00 the previous morning.

2) On Sundays my host family eats a large breakfast midmorning (after I had already left for church) and then doesn't eat again until dinner.

3) All grocery stores and many other businesses are closed on Sundays.

4) The contradiction of consuming a Whopper, French fries, and a Coke while watching hundreds of marathon-ers run by was just too amusing to resist.

On a slightly more distressing note, the following evening I had my second meeting with my Tandem partner (if I haven't explained this already, an American and a German student meet once a week and spend time talking both in English and in German, so that both can improve their language of study). I mentioned to her my incidental finding of the Berlin Marathon while leaving church, and she asked with shock "You go to church?....So you believe in God?" And thus started my theological conversation with 28 year-old who grew up in the Communist East Germany and who today doesn't know anybody who goes to church. It was very interesting to hear from someone with such a background, and I didn't even find myself offended when she stated, as politely as she could, that she has always viewed belief in God as a weakness. What was really disturbing was that, after having grown up in the church as well as scholastically analyzing various issues of theology, I couldn't come up with good answers to any of her questions. Not that I was trying to work a miracle conversion or anything, but I could not come up with rational explanations for the faith I have followed for twenty-one years. I knew there are reasons for what and why I believe but I somehow could not identify and relate them to her. I've studied all sorts of ways to perceive God and still could not elaborate on what I believe God to be. I know I've discussed/come to terms with the whole "If there is a God, why do bad things happen?" question, but when she asked how God could allow 9-11, I couldn't give an answer. I have often shared my ideas of God and faith through chapel/church sermons, but when put on the spot by a curious atheist, I was stupefied. How strong can one's faith be if one can't adequately explain it?

Today, October 3, is the Day of German Unity, commemorating when, 17 years ago, the governments of East and West Germany signed the agreement of reunification. As a national holiday on par to our Independence Day, I had no classes and instead headed to the celebrations in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, I didn't really experience strong German spirit, especially considering the festival was sponsored by Coca-Cola and overrun with its advertisements. The Brandenburg Gate, the center of celebrating when the wall came down and thus a symbol of German unity, was completely blocked on one side by the huge stage Coke had put up. Na ja.

September 14, 2007

Time is a weird thing. The days seem to have flown by, and yet it seems like I've been here for a lot longer than just over two weeks.

Last weekend started with our Friday excursion to Potsdam, a separate town but still within the city's S-Bahn system. We first went to Sanssouci, the summer home of Prussian King Frederick the Great. Inside the palace we had to wear these huge slippers over our shoes so as to protect the floor; we also couldn't take pictures. It was cool to see all of the splendor and extravagence in its (for the most part) original copy. What was even more beautiful, however, were the architecture and grounds outside the palace. The vast grounds include gardens, fountains, statues, a vineyard, and even fake ancient ruins. They totally live up to the name of Sansscouci, which in French means "without worries."

We next visited Cecilienhof Schloss. It was built and used by Germany's royal Hohenzollern family in the early 1900's, but it is better known for housing the Potsdam Conference. The building was built in the style of an English mansion; it later had the Berlin Wall running through its backyard. It was really neat to walk through the rooms inside and see how they were used for the Conference; unfortunately we again could not take pictures.

Interesting factoids: Stalin hosted the Conference and so got to choose which delegation used which rooms. He gave Truman, a fierce anti-smoker, the old smoking room, where the Crown Prince would smoke up to 70 cigarettes a day. He put Churchill, quite the portly fellow, in a room where the office chair was too small for him. Churchill was also an avid fan of dogs, and hanging on the wall was a portrait of a dog whose face strongly resembled Churchill's.

That night some friends and I gathered at one of their apartments to watch a movie. It's good to have little touches of home like that. This continued the next (Saturday) night when, due to various circumstances involving me not having a phone, I found myself alone with no plans and no way to contact anyone. So, I decided to go to a movie. The huge Sony Center in the very touristy Potsdamer Platz shows movies in their original English version, without the infamous German dubbing. It was still quite the experience, though. I had an assigned seat, and a curtain covered the screen. They first show about 20 minutes of commercials/infomercials, close the curtain, and then reopen it with the normal previews and movie. It was quite interesting to watch "Hairspray" in the middle of Berlin.

The next day (Sunday) I started wandering around Zehlendorf and, completely by accident, stumbled upon Grundewald, this huge forest area right in the city. The further I walked, the more and more paths appeared. I would take random turns and not really pay attention, so of course, I reached a point where I had no idea where I was. That place is so pretty, though, that being quasi-lost really didn't matter. I have no idea how many miles it covers or how many paths it has; I wandered around for 3 hours, and there was a great deal of it that I didn't explore.

While in Grunewald, I stumbed upon a little beach at the end of one of the lakes. There were lots of people enjoying the sunshine, but not really sunbathing seeing as how it was in the low 60's for temp. I had my camera out and was trying to take a panoramic picture because the scenery was so pretty. Then, however, a man was swimming up to the shore,and as he started to walk out of the water, it became evident that he was rather naked. Shortly thereafter another man ditched his clothes and went for a swim. Talk about culture shock.

On my way back home, I stopped at the block party my street was having. Apparently some school here in town has a program to teach kids circus acts. I saw them walk/lie on nails, swallow fire, and juggle with fire; they even did this crazy magic disappearing act that I have no idea how it was done. The party also included a professional fire juggler and a pyrotechnics show.

Today (Friday) we took a trip to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, in Oranienburg just north of Berlin. There really isn't any way to adequately describe it. We had two hours to explore on our own and then had to meet back with the group. I didn't get nearly all the way through it in two hours and was planning on going back in once I checked in with our group. Once out, though, I couldn't get myself to go back in; it was like I had escaped and was going to return to captivity. It is all too much to handle in one day. I spent a lot of time looking at the displays in one of the barracks, and it just fills you with this oppressive feeling. So, I will have to get myself to back some other time. It was so bizarre walking down the street to and from the camp because it is the same street the prisoners were forced to march down. The street is filled with houses that must have been there in the 40's; people could look out their window and see thousands of prisoners marching. I couldn't imagine living today in those houses right at the entrance to the camp, but they are definitely inhabited.

September 6, 2007

I have been in this fair city for just over a week now, although it feels like a lot longer. For comparative purposes, I am 7 hours ahead of the great Midwest and significantly colder. While you're sweating it out, our highs are in the mid-60's. It's rather pleasant during the day but rather chilly at night, and it makes me worried as to how cold it get as the fall progresses. Apparently, it is unseasonably cold. Berlin also appears to have a lot more cloudy and rainy days than at home, with the weather changing from sun to clouds and back even more frequently.

Berlin is absolutely huge. Everything and everyone is so diverse and busy and fast-paced; I’m definitely not in Blair anymore. It is all still a bit overwhelming and disorienting, although I am getting better at finding my way around. My main accomplishments have been not getting completely lost as well as avoiding getting run over by the crazy drivers and even crazier bikeriders (There are bikes everywhere!)

Conversely, the area that my school/program and house are in (Zehlendorf) barely feels like it is part of the city. It is kinda more old-style, with a lot of cobblestone sidewalks and streets, and while about 85% of Berliners live in apartments, this area is filled with tall, older homes. And my favourite part is how green it is; so many trees! My host family lives on the ground floor of this three-floor home, and as part of that, they have this large backyard complete with an apple tree, garden, and hammock. Any sort of yard is a rarity in Berlin. The neighbourhood also feels, and is, as safe as Blair or Cedar Falls.

My host family includes, strictly speaking, Jessica (41) and her two daughters Solveig (16) and Karlotta (6). Jessica’s boyfriend Dirk also lives there about 85% of the time. Additionally, there is another American student who lived with them last summer and is there for about 2 weeks until she moves into her apartment. So it’s a pretty full house. They’re quite friendly, patient, and helpful. They don't really speak English, so it's been rather interesting. Aside from eating dinner with them each night, I don’t do a lot with them; they kinda leave me to my own schedule.

My program is part of the Freie Universitat (one of the 2 major universities in Berlin), but we are separate. We have our own building set apart from the university where all of our classes take place. The university itself is interesting. It was created, with a lot of help from the Americans, shortly after WWII because the other major university in the city had gone under the control of the Soviets and was subject to a mandated curriculum. It has several large buildings, but a lot of the facilities are housed throughout the residential neighbourhoods in old houses. Our program building also was an old house.

I’ve really liked the program so far. They provided us with a lot of helpful information and activities during our first few days here. These included a boat tour on the Spree river which cuts all the way through Berlin as well as a guided walking tour through the middle of the city. That second tour was really interesting to me because my first few days here, all I thought about was living and getting around and all that. The tour reminded me that this same city I’m trying to get around and live in is the same city with all the history I have spent so much time studying. It’s a continual battle to connect these two images of Berlin in my mind.

The program provides activities for us throughout the semester. We don’t have class on Fridays and instead will often go on excursions. Tomorrow we go to Potsdam and the next week to the concentration camp Sachsen-Hausen. They also provided a list of several symphony concerts, operas, ballets, and soccer games; we choose 4 and they get tickets for us. We have two Student Assistants who study at the university and arrange things like language tandem (we are each paired up with a German, and we meet once a week with them to practice conversational German for us and English for them) and Stammtisch.

There are about 70 of us in the program. I’m not sure why, but almost all of them come from universities along the West and East coasts. And then there’s me – from my 600 student school in Nebraska. It’s rather amusing.

Classes started on Monday (no Labor Day here). I have ‘intensive’ German language class from 9-12 M-Th. My content courses meet once a week for 2.5 hours and are taught in English. I have Modern German History in the European Perspective, the Human Condition and Totalitarian Experience, and Many Faces of Berlin: A Multicultural Perspective. They seem like they’ll be interesting but with more work than I expected and am used to. I just hope they don’t take all my time and prevent me from getting out and seeing things. It is required of each class to visit assigned museums/memorials, though, so I’ll be seeing some things for sure.

The food has been, all in all, rather good. I eat my lunches at the university cafeteria. This has been an adventure because there are so many options, many of which I don’t really know what they are. I also have to get used to paying for each item separately as opposed to the great buffet style of Dana. I’ve enjoyed all of my dinners at home. I’ve had things like spaghetti, stir-fry, doner kebob (Turkish fast food), vegetable stew with basically hot dogs in it, and last night we had the most stereotypical German meal so far: wurstchen, potatoes, and red cabbage. I was thinking all the sausages here would taste like bratwurst (of which I am not a fan) but this tasted more like a breakfast sausage. I even liked the red cabbage. My one complaint would be the milk: they don’t have it many places and what I tried at the house tasted like some weird cream.