Thanksgiving: California Dreamin'

Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday. Throughout the country families come together and proclaim to each other what they are thankful for. Turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy are devoured and traditionally many families spend the evening watching the big game on TV. This holiday does not exist in Germany.

I've never been away from home during Thanksgiving so I didn't know how I'd feel being in Germany. I had class the morning of Thanksgiving, and then at 4:30 I had a meeting with the UN for my internship. During the afternoon I took the time to run a few errands. It was really different being able to go into any store I wanted and shop on Thanksgiving day. At home only a few stores are open and not for that many hours.

I never really felt homesick here until Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family, and I really truly missed mine. Our meeting with the UN didn't go quite as planned which only added to the frustration but at 6:00pm our Academy prepared a Thanksgiving potluck for us that we all attended. Any homesick feelings I had were erased eating dinner with all of the people I have become close with during this experience. There was everything from turkey to deviled eggs to guacamole which wasn't that weird to me because Nonna always makes it even if it is Thanksgiving.

After dinner a few of us went to a bar in Bonn called Flowers. It's the hippie bar in the area. It was a lot of fun because they were playing a lot of old hits that we were all singing along too. I made the bartender/DJ play ABBA and the crowd really approved. I could relate to every lyric of California Dreamin' so I had to sing my little heart out. It's funny but being in this bar brought me closer to America than I thought I would be on Thanksgiving.

When London Calls, You Must Answer

I knew I had to take the opportunity to visit London while I was here. LMU has a study abroad program in London so I knew that I wouldn't have to find anywhere to stay for the weekend; all I needed to do was book a ticket over there. I'm going to use this entry to talk about traveling/public transportation in Europe. Don't get me wrong, all of Europe is light years ahead of us in terms of public transportation systems. The problem is, is that you have to allot so much more time in your travels. At home, you just take someone in the airport and drop them off. It's easy. It's direct. To get to the Cologne-Bonn airport, I first had to take the metro to the bus that would take me to the airport. However for some reason or other the bus that I was going to take came and left 5 minutes early so I had to wait another half of an hour for the next one. I left about 4 hours before my flight but barely made the original time it was going to fly out. Luckily the flight was delayed because of the weather. Once I got into London-Stansted I had to take a bus into the city center. This took another hour and a half until I could meet up with my friend and then take another metro, sorry "the tube," to the station where her flat is. Estimated Travel Time: 6 hours. The good thing was the time difference in London which gave me back a temporary hour of my life.

It's always worth it though. Driving into London at night was gorgeous. I couldn't wait to explore during the day. I met up with Holly at Victoria Station and we took the metro to her flat at South Kensington. It was only about 10:30pm which gave us enough time to get ready to go out. So I dropped my stuff off and got ready to go out on the town. The bar Holly wanted to go to didn't look that fun to her so we went to another bar up the street. I figured out that this would be an expensive weekend after I paid the entry: 10 pounds. It was a lot of fun though. I thought it funny how different the Londoners were from the Germans. In speech obviously, but in personality and attitude as well. Being in London reminded me of being in New York. The people there are classy, and they know it.

In every country I go, I try my best to attempt the respective language of the country I'm in. In Germany it's obviously German, in Paris it was the little bit of French I know to get me by, in Switzerland it was pretty much any language I wanted, i didn't even try in Prague, but in London it was English!!! It was funny though because I was still apprehensive when I'd order for fear that the clerk might not be able to understand me if I spoke English. My mind was still in Germany. It was refreshing though to understand people without having to actively listen to them. Actually, that's not true- sometimes people had too thick of an English accent for me to understand. Anyway, clubs in London close a lot sooner than they do in Germany so we made it home around 3am.

The next day was for sightseeing. We walked all over town and saw all of the major sights: Big Ben, Parliament, the London Bridge, the Eye etc. Then Holly took me to all of the big stores on Oxford Street. It was Saturday so everyone and their mum was out spending their hard earned pounds. The first store Holly wanted to show me was Harrod's, a department store akin to Neiman Marcus, but way more intense. We stayed on the bottom floor but even that was enough to get an idea of this place. Each room had a theme. A Perfume Room, a Luxury Goods Room, an Egyptian Room? Then we went into the food rooms. There was a room simply devoted to poultry, one fruits and vegetables, another coffees and teas. My favorite was the candy room obviously. I told Holly to escort me out as quickly as possible because it probably wasn't a good idea for me to stay in there. We walked into a different room and they were having some sort of James Bond-themed fashion show. There was no defined runway, so the models would just sort of designate a path to enter their "stage" on and people just made a path for them. It was really ridiculous and equally as funny. After Harrod's we went to "Top Shop" a clothing store I had wanted to go to for a while. It was humongous and I would have bought some stuff had there not been so many people in it; I got a little overwhelmed.

That night we went out again. It was a lot of fun but again, clubs in London close way too early for me. The next day we sort of lazed about around the house. Coincidentally a friend of mine from high school was living in the flat above Holly's so I got the chance to see her for the first time since high school and talked to her for about a half of an hour. It never ceases to surprise me how small the world is sometimes. We walked around a little bit closer to the flat and I was surprised to find that stores were actually open on Sundays. Germany is 50% Protestant, the other 50% being Catholic, so virtually nothing is open on Sundays save for restaurants; Germans love eating. I also was suprised to find very American stores in London. Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch, TJ Maxx (although in London it's TK Maxx). I even saw a Costco as I was making my way to the London-Stansted Airport. I could live in London but I think I'm getting such a different and possibly more challenging cultural experience living in Deutschland.

The next morning we went to see Buckhingham Palace and a few other touristy things before Holly had class, it was a Monday after all. So I spent the afternoon on the computer and packing before I had to make my way to the airport for my 7:30pm flight. Again I almost missed it because it took me almost 2 hours to get to the airport on the bus but I made it and fortunately got to sit by one of my friends who was also flying back from London.

I know I want to live and work in Europe somewhere for awhile. London would clearly be the easiest option because everyone speaks English. There is also so much to do in the city, and with such ease. The museums are free, there are countless numbers of plays in the West End, and most importantly there are a lot of places to shop. I had a really good time in London and although I only spent 3 days there, it was enough to make me want to return.

All of my pictures are available to view at Picasa.

11-12-08

It's such a nice day out today which makes me hate the people walking around and enjoying the sun outside while I'm stuck in here in Elementary German II learning about the different verb cases. It's not as though I can feign listening to the lesson. There are only 2 other people in the class so it's difficult to find someone to hide behind. I'd rather be walking around Bonn. Even though it's still November, it's starting to feel like Christmas (a Californian one at least). The air is quite nippy (colder than California actually) and many streets have already started to set up Christmas lights. The leaves have already changed colors, many of which have already fallen to the ground. My hair's getting long but I'm afraid that if I cut it, I might freeze to death. I have grown to love the familiarity of Bonn. I love traveling but I love staying here more. As I sit here taking notes about how to go from Nominativ to Akusativ cases I think about how dramatically different my life is from just a year ago. Different friends, different experiences, completely different location. It makes me think about how quickly life changes. Sometimes quickly out of nowhere, other times with a little more foresight. I once pushed a friend in the ocean to illustrate this concept. This experience however, has definitely pushed me into the figurative ocean of life. I'm thankful for this. It'll be difficult to go back. But that's life.

KARNEVAL!!!!

I've got to hand it to the Germans for knowing how to party. Karneval first takes place on 11/11 with the awakening of some gnome and then in February, the season ends with an even bigger celebration to mark the beginning of the Lenten season as well as the burning of the gnome (weird). All of the sins committed during Karneval are burned along with him. It was my twin neighbors' 21st so it definitely added to the celebration. We were told that people wear crazy costumes to Karneval but were a little apprehensive after the relatively small showing in Bonn for Halloween. However, Karneval was almost at the very top of our list of things to do while in Bonn so we all woke up early (around 9:30am), dressed up, and took the 10:32am train from Bonn to Cologne. We were kind of unsure where to go until we saw large crowds of costumed people walking in the same general direction and then decided to follow them. For what Germans lack in Halloween they make up in Karneval. The streets of Cologne were packed with silly Germans in even sillier costumes- Minnie Mouse, doctors with IVs full of beer, some guy was even a kissing booth which I thought was the smartest costume I saw all day.

When Germans party, they like to start early, as I noticed earlier on this year at Oktoberfest. We got to the Hauptbahnhof at about 10:20AM and ther were already people drinking bottles of beer, wine, and even hard alcohol for some. Once we got to Cologne we sort of just made our way to this area where they had set up a large screen showing the concert that was going on elsewhere in Cologne and just people watched initially. We danced in the middle of the crowd to German music that we couldn't understand for awhile but had more fun just looking at all of the crazy outfits. It was actually really funny because the police kept carding my friend Sam who was carrying around alcohol. It made her day because she had turned 21 that day and the police asked for her ID like 3 different times. Of course we had to take pictures with them. Luckily the German police have a good sense of humor.

After we had had our fill at people watching we decided to walk around and see what else Karneval had to offer. The bars were all open and crowded; advertising discounted drinks. We attempted to go into one but the bouncer told us that mostly people were in there so we decided to look elsewhere. We were walking down and street and heard thumping music (my cue to enter). We went in through a random opening in the street where we found a dj in the back. At first she has playing German music but then I think she noticed that we were Americans I decided to cater to our needs. It was really fun but really strange at the same time. We literally walked in through an opening in the street to a room full of dancing Germans and a bar to the side. We were in there for about an hour or 2 and then my friends got a little bit too hot and tired so we moved out from there.














It was still light when we stepped outside, although it was evident that night was quickly approaching. We went back to the screen area which was far less crowded than it had been in the morning and danced in front of it. I got hungry so I got Danish? ice cream that was super good and super cheap. It was pretty much the first thing I had eaten all day. After eating my ice cream, my friends decided that it was time to go home. At 5:30pm it had already been quite the day. I'm really glad I got to go. It was definitely one of my favorite experiences in Bonn so far!

Prague

I actually didn't know how I felt about heading to Central Europe. Compared to Western Europe I thought the hole area would be a lot more unsafe and unkept. After coming back though I consider Prague to be one of my favorite destinations thus far.

We were told have our rooms ready for check out by 10:30 and our train for Prague left later on in the afternoon so a few of us decided to go into town again. We went to one of our favorite restaurants in Germany, "Vapiano" and then walked around the Sony Experience in Potsdammer Platz. We had a train to catch so we to the metro back to our hotel and met up with the rest of our group. We got to Berlin Central Station a little early so we had time to shop for souveniers and get snacks for the train ride to Prague. It was a really fun train ride because we had chips and dip and movies on our iPods and the like.

It didn't seem to take that long to get into Prague. We got to the Hotel at around 10pm and got our room keys and everything situated. I was one of the first one to get my keys so me and a few other people got into the elevator to go up to our rooms. It got stuck. We were there for about a half of an hour while everyone else was eating there welcome dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was fine until it started to get hot inside with the radiating body heat of 5 people in an enclosed space. The worst part of it was that it was my friend Conrad's birthday and he was spending it trapped in an elevator waiting for help. When we were finally rescued we were greeted with hamburgers at the hotel restaurant and an itenerary of what we'd be doing in the city as well as a map so we'd know how to get around. I wanted to go out after dinner but there was really no point because I didn't really know the city all that well and it was already pretty late so I just stayed in and went to bed.

The next day we had a walking tour of Prague in the morning. Prague is really interesting architecturally because almost all of it is original as opposed to Germany after being bombed in WWII. I really love Baroque architecture and I definitely got my fill in Prague. Prague is really small in comparison to Berlin so we pretty much saw all of it within our 2 hour tour. I really enjoyed walking through Old Town as well as the Jewish Quarter. After our tour we had quite a bit open for free time before we were supposed to meet for the Opera. I don't really remember what I did in that free time but it was probably shopping. Prague's currency is the Czech Crown and the exchange rate is roughly 25 Crowns to 1 Euro which was really confusing for a lot of us but I felt really wealthy carrying 500 crowns at a time even though that's really not a lot at all.

After free time, we dressed up for the opera and met in the lobby. As our group we made our way to the center of town to watch "The Magic Flute" which actually was in German. I'm glad they had the English translation on the screen above though because I would have had no idea what was going on. I'm a Theatre Major so obviously I enjoy things like these but I was most surprised to find that a number of my peers did as well. We had heard and seen that the largest club in Central Europe (5 stories) was in Prague. Since we were all dressed up we figured that this would be a good opportunity for all of us to go out together. We had a few drinks at a bar in town before and then made our way to the 5 story club. It was so much fun. We actually spent most of our time on the 70s/80s music floor. It was a nice change listening to bands like ABBA, the Bee Gees, and other old people music (just kidding). The combination of our attire, the atmosphere, and the music made us all feel like we were at a wedding reception. It was a lot of fun because every person on our trip (20 of us) went out to this club. I had to be dragged out unwillingly at 4am.

The next day we had more free time. That equates to shopping time for me and I found a really cheap jacket at H&M which is the perfect purchase because it is starting to get colder here. We walked around town for a bit and then had another group dinner, this time at a traditional Czech Restaurant where they served my friend an entire duck. I got a really good "Pfeffer Steak." One of my friends who's in the London program at LMU happened to be in Prague the same weekend as me so I made time after dinner to visit her. She was sick so I didn't get to see much of her during the weekend which was a bummer but I'll be staying with her when I go to London so I wasn't too sad.

We went out to the club again but this time spent our focus on the music we usually listen to: Hip Hop and rap. Each floor was decorated to reflect the genre and it was funny to see that the Hip Hop floor was all grafittied out. It cracks me up to see Europe's perception of America sometimes. It's kind of dangerous when Hollywood is your frame of reference for American culture. I think we left a bit earlier that night. The Czech food did a number on my stomach so I left a little more willingly this time and we had to take a bus to the airport in the morning so we all had to be packed and ready before then. It was of course sunny the day we left. I was begging for good weather the entire week but to no avail. The sun did make for a good hour plane ride back to Bonn though. Once again I was happy to be home in my own bed with the familiarity of Bonn. Travelling is tiring!

Again if you want to see more pictures go to www.picasaweb.google.com/tderodeff

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany so it was always a definite place of interest on my list when I decided to study abroad in Deutschland. We left for Berlin on a Monday. I woke up at around 7am and made my way to the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) where Ture, our program director, was waiting for us. I thought Berlin would take longer to get to but it seemed that we arrived after only a short nap on my part. Once we got into the capital city we made our way to the hotel: "Hotel 4 You(th)." We checked in, surveyed our rooms, and made our way down to the streets to look for a snack before our next event. The next thing planned on our schedule was a bus tour through Berlin. Our tour guide for the evening was Andrew who had spent some time in New York so he had quite an interesting accent. We visited all of the touristy places in Berlin such as the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. I really enjoyed all of this. The only problem was that it was very overcast in Berlin and we started the tour a little late in the evening (around 4) and it startes to get dark around 5 here so I was forced to take many pictures in bad weather and at night. However I really enjoyed seeing the various landmarks in Berlin. I gound it crazy to think that only 20 years ago this was still a divided city. After our tour a few of us got some dinner and went to bed. We were tired and it was only day 1.

On our second day in Berlin we had a walking tour of the Kreuzberg area of Berlin scheduled for us. I really really liked Kreuzberg because it was super urban and artsy but our tour guide started in the most unsafe part of the area and the drug deal a few of us witnessed going on behind us was a bit unnerving. Kreuzberg had really interesting street art and we went into this music school that had art all over its walls inside. I really wanted to go to the East Side Gallery but we didn't have time on our tour. The music school was really inspiring though. I could have stayed there for days.

After our tour of Kreuzberg we went to the Museum of Jewish history and although it was very interesting, our tour guide wasn't very good so I kind of had to look at things on my own. After the museum we went back to the hotel and just hung out a little before our group dinner. We ate at this fantastic traditional pizzeria not too far from our hotel and then came back and began to get ready for our big night at the election party hosted by the US Embassy.

We actually almost didn't get into the affair. We got there at around midnight and there was a relatively long ling out front. The bouncers were telling us that there were too many people inside and that they weren't letting anyone else in. We waited in line in defiance (largely on my part) and were determined to get in. Thankfully a lot of elderly people deemed it time to go to bed so we took there spots inside. Even though we missed the interview portion of the night I'm really glad we got to go in because it was definitely a historic night and I was really happy to be somewhere special. Inside, the party is in full effect. On the first floor was a large video screen with a map of the Unites States and the various projected Blue and Red states. It was actually a really eerie feeling looking at this map of my country standing in Berlin. Upstairs was the food and open bar. It was really funny actually because this was obviously a party about America but the food that was available was mostly traditional German food like Pretzels and Currywurst. I wasn't complaining though. There were several discussion panels but no one was really paying attention to them because music was playing and we were all looking to the various television screens they had set up around the venue to keep up on the results of each state. I had one glass of wine and that led to many more because the waiters would come around and if they saw an empty glass they would just pour some more in. They also had several computers with internet access and a large screen that was set up with Skype so I called my mom but the screen wasn't set up with headphones so I had no idea what she was saying back to me. We left the party after we were satisfied with the way things were turning out (around 4am) and headed back to the hotel to get about 3 hours of sleep before we had to be up the next day.

I woke up to the news that Barack Obama would be the 44th President of the United States of America. He was all over the German television stations they had available in the lobby of our hotel. It was a good morning. After breakfast we made our way about 40 minutes outside of the city center to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. If the setting wasn't bleak enough, the weather certainly enhanced the experience. It was very cold and windy and overcast which I actually really enjoyed because it helped me to get a small taste of what it may have actually been like to have been here; cold, alone; almost starving. However I got to leave after a couple hours instead of being forced to live there for years. I'm glad that they give tours of places like these so that it never ever happens again but after a couple hours I was ready to leave. It was getting to be too heavy of an experience for me.

When we got back to the hotel most of us slept. 3 hours is definitely not enough time to function fully. After a few hours of sleep I was ready to go again and got a bite to eat and then tried to decide with my friends what we would be doing that night. The night ended up being a big mess with everyone separating. However my friend Paola and I found our way to a club (typical) that was like a converted train depot. It was a lot of fun and although we had a difficult time getting back to our hotel it was worth it. I couldn't visit Berlin without experiencing at least one club! It was our last night there afterall because the next day we would be heading to Prague!

Election Day

I'D like to say something about how proud I am of our country right now. President Obama captivated my attention and the attention of many others from the beginning. The night he spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention was it for me. I knew there was something special about this young African American senator from Illinois. When he announced his campaign for presidency I was ecstatic. When he garnered enough support to win the primaries I was even more ecstatic. I knew it would be a lot of hard work but that we could get this man to be our next president. We needed to. Flash forward a few months later and I'm in Berlin at a part hosted by the US Embassy watching our first ever African American president be elected. It was a completely surreal experience watching the events of my home country unfrold from thousands of miles away.

I think there's a lot to be said of President Obama's election. Clearly our country has come a long way since the days of slavery and the civil rights movement. It's weird to think that my mother, who really isn't that old at all watched the riots and police brutality on TV as well as the election of Obama in the same lifetime. That's not to say that we don't have a long way to go but I know this election gives hope to many many people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations. When I was younger my mom told me that when I grew up I could be anything I wanted. After seeing Denzel and Halle win the Academy Award the same year and now Obama become president it's something I look forward wholeheartedly to telling my kids as well. Ok. I can step down from the soap box now.

Halloween

WE really didn't know how Halloween would work out with the Germans. Germans have a lot of weird holidays but it didn't seem as though Halloween was one of them. We heard that people in Bonn didn't really dress up but we wouldn't have any of that so a few of us decided that the costumes must be brought out. I was a nerd...as a costume. It was fun but I waited to get to the Academy before I changed into my costume as a way to avoid funny looks in the subway and throughout the streets of Bonn.

We all signed up to go to a football (soccer) game with our university on Halloween so after all classes were over we hopped in the bus- a few of us still costumed out, and made our way to the game. I found it very entertaining hearing my friends yell and really get into the game. It was exciting and our home team killed it's opponent 3-0.

After the game, it was still fairly early, and a Friday, so a number of us decided to go out dancing which is always fine with me...even if I was still in costume. In the club there were a few Germans dressed up but not anything like the states. I began to miss the trick-or-treating and silly costumes and free candy, however this longing would be subdued a couple of weeks later at Karneval...

Reflection

My life has changed so dramatically since I've been here. I intern at the UN and on Tuesday night I'm going to be interviewed by Deutsche Telekom in Berlin about the election. I leave for Berlin and Prague for a week tomorrow morning and can't wait to see what kind of trouble I can get into.

My pictures from Switzerland are on my picasa for your viewing pleasure.