Why are we always running? (Köln)

Last Saturday, Adriana, Lara, Taisy, and I went to Köln. As a mentioned in my last post, you can get a good deal on train tickets when you buy them for a group of five. For 46 Euros, a group of five people can travel anywhere in Germany for one day with unlimited use of public transportation. We only had four people, but that only meant that we each had to chip in 11.5 euros rather than 9.2.
Lara and Adriana met at the Gießen Bahnhof and bought the ticket, and when the train came through Wetzlar, Taisy and I got on. We were on our way a little after 10 and we got to Köln at about 12:30. The train ride was pretty uneventful. We had to make a pretty tight connection in Siegen, but we made it thanks to a flat out sprint from one train to the next. Which begged the question Taisy and I ask our selves nearly every time we're together, why are we always running?
After arriving in Köln, the first thing we did was visit the Kölner Dom because it is literally right next to the Hauptbahnhof (Main train station). The Dom was so breathtakingly beautiful; I have no idea how humans are actually capable of building such things. All of the pictures I took don't seem to do it justice. I could never even manage to capture the whole thing in my lens anyway… so I bought a nice postcard.

A group photo in front of the Dom.

A photo of one tower taken from the South side.

Fun facts:

• There is a shrine behind the alter of the Kölner Dom witch holds the bones of the Three Wise Men who brought gifts to the baby Jesus.
• The Kölner Dom is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting about 20,000 people a day.
• It is the largest Gothic Church in Northern Europe and has the second tallest spires.
• Its two large spires give it the largest facade of any other church in the world.
• It is 157m (515ft) tall and I climbed 100 of those meters.

There was an opportunity to climb up one of the towers, an opportunity that of course we were going to take. Lara had already done it once before so she opted to meet up with us afterward. Once we started climbing, we didn't blame her. Most of our ascent consisted of a very narrow spiral-staircase, not for the  claustrophobic or acrophobic. Tired and slightly dizzy, we reached the top where we got a 360 degree view of Köln from 100m above the earth. Many people had written their names on the walls there, and much to my surprise, I found mine and my brother's name side-by-side. 

On our way up.

Finally made it! I'm pointing to where we are standing in the Dom

Must be fate.

*Note: With the exception of the photo of the South tower and the photo of mine and my brother's names, all photos here have been shamelessly stolen from the lovely Taisy. I left my cell phone containing all my pictures at a friends house this weekend. I will add some of my own photos when I get a chance.*

After we made our way back down, we met up with Lara again and went to the Weihnactsmarkt for lunch. There was a ridiculous amount of people there. It was pretty unpleasant having to push through the huge crowd of people. That being said, it's one of the best known Weihnachtsmärkte in Germany, the food was good, and I did a little bit of Christmas shopping for my Americans. 
Around four o'clock, Adriana and Lara met up with a plethora of other Latin American exchange students. Taisy and I hung around for a bit, but due to my Spanish being out of practice and Taisy's nonexistent, we decided to split and go to the Schokoladenmuseum Köln. 
With a vague idea of where it's located, the GPS in my phone, and the help of some strangers, it didn't take us too long to find the museum. Although it may have been quicker if we just followed the strong, heavenly scent of German chocolate wafting through the air. 
Upon paying our entrance fee, we were each given a tiny chocolate bar which was made right there in the museum. We learned just about everything one could learn about chocolate. There were exhibits on everything from the origin of chocolate, to the plant it comes from, modern production, and everything in between. The museum was complete with a tropicarium filled with cocoa plants, a small scale versions of machines used to produce chocolate, and chocolate fountain. Taisy said it reminded her of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I have to say that I agree. The only thing I could have possibly wished for was more time to experience the whole thing… well that and more free chocolate.

The glorious chocolate fountain

Eventually we had to leave to meet up with the others. But not until I spent eleven something Euros in the chocolate shop, not for me, but to send back to America. Mom, if you're reading this, I guess you might have a clue what is coming to you in that package I sent.
We were running a little bit late for our designated meeting time with Lara and Adriana, so yet again, we found ourselves running (and pushing through large crowds of people).
Before we had to leave, we wanted to try the local specialty beer of Köln called Kölsch. Luckily there was a grocery store right in the train station where you could buy it. As we were looking around for something to open the beer with, I happened to see the time on my watch. "Umm, hey guys, our train leaves in four minutes and we don't even know what platform to be on." You guessed, this comment sparked another sprint to catch our train. At this point, I can't say I'm not used to it.
Once we got to our platform, we saw that the train was completely full. People were reluctant to let us on since they were already packed in like sardines. One of the others suggested that we just get the next train, but we knew that wouldn't get us home until almost midnight. We ended up just kind of forcing our way onto the train. We had to stand most of the way back to Siegen, which my tired feet didn't agree with, but it was an awful lot better than hanging around in a train station for a few hours.
This time our connection in Siegen was even closer because our train from Köln was running late. We arrived at the station at the time that our second train was supposed to be leaving. On a wing and a prayer and a good healthy sprint, we managed to catch our train. The remainder of our trip was much more relaxed, save for some rowdy soccer fans that boarded the train for a few stops.
We finally reached Wetzlar, and by the time I walked home I was just ready for sleep.

Fun in Frankfurt

On Monday I went to Frankfurt for the afternoon/evening with Adriana, an exchange student from Venezuela. Adriana had to visit the Venezuelan Embassy and invited me to come along with her so after she'd finished what she needed to do at the embassy, we could explore Frankfurt and definitely check out the Weihnachtsmarkt there (Weihnachtsmakt = Christmas market). So Sunday night I asked my host parents if I could go and they said it was alright, but first I should call Uta (our AFS coordinator) to make sure that it was okay for the two of us to go alone. And so, I had my first phone call completely in German. The phone call went a well, except I was really nervous and I made Sarah stand with me while I called, just in case. Uta said that of course it was fine that we go to Frankfurt and wished us "viel Spaß!"

So Monday after school (I only had school until 1pm!), I met Adriana at the train station. We were just about to buy our train tickets when a woman asked us if we're going to Frankfurt because she had two extra tickets (in Germany you can get special discounts on tickets when you buy them in groups of five). She asked us to pay seven euros for each ticket, which is about half of their normal price.
Taking a train from Gießen to Frankfurt takes about a half an hour, and there are at least two trains per an hour going to Frankfurt. It was kind of mind boggling for me that I could be in a city the size of Boston in just a half hour; whereas from where I live in America, it takes an hour by car to get to a "city" of 42,282 people. Also, I really appreciated the freedom of being able to go Frankfurt with just one other exchange student when just three months ago I had no idea how to speak German or use the train system. And three months ago, if I'd found myself in a large city of which I could hardly speak the language and I had no idea how to navigate, I would probably have a mental break down.
After arriving in Frankfurt at about 2 o'clock, we decided that our first order of business would be to find the Venezuelan Embassy. Equipped with the address of the embassy and Google maps in my phone, we still managed to get a bit lost. We ended up asking for directions about three times. Eventually we found the embassy, spotting the Venezuelan flag from down the street and running gleefully in its direction.

Upon arriving at the embassy, much to our dismay, we discovered that it had closed at 10 o'clock that morning. After a few minutes of wallowing in our self-pity and trying to decide what we should do next, we noticed two men exiting the embassy. Adriana had a short conversation with them in Spanish, most of which I did not understand (unfortunately, it seems that as I learn German, I'm forgetting my Spanish). Then the men let us into the embassy where Adriana talked to some more people in Spanish and was able to do whatever she needed to do there.
Next, we decided to go to the Frankfurt Weihnachtsmarkt. I had already been to the Weihnachtsmarkt once with my host family, but only briefly, so I was happy to go back. We simply asked someone on the street in which direction the Weihnachtsmarkt is, and we were on our way.
Once at the Weihnachtsmarkt, we bought the obligatory Currywurst, crepe, and hot Apfelwein. When you get something to drink at a Weihnachtsmarkt, the vendors give it to you in a mug that you're required to return (or else you won't get your extra euro or two back), so there are some tables for people to stand around while they drink their Glühwein, or what have you.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around the Weihnachtsmarkt; we even took a ride on the carousel. Navigating the Frankfurt Weihnachtsmarkt, especially at night when there are more people, can be really tricky. There are huge crowds everywhere. As a small-town girl, I'm not used to having to push my way through tons of people just to make it down the sidewalk.

When we finally decided that it was time to go home, we asked a man for directions. He told us that the Bahnhof was quite a distance away from the market and that it'd probably be best to take the U-bahn back. But we thought, whatever, we've walked this far, we can walk back. On that note, thank the Lord for smart phones with GPS!
The train ride back was pretty uneventful, with the exception of the fact that a rather large woman with a huge backpack sat next to me (practically on top of me), squishing me against the wall of the train for the whole ride. But not even that could take away from the fun night I had with Adriana in Frankfurt.

A Perfect Day in Mainz

It's been almost a month since my last blog post, my apologies. Maybe that's a good sign. Maybe I'm so busy with my fun new life that I haven't had time write. Or maybe I'm just lazy… the world will never know. Any way, I'll give you a quick update on my life in Germany before I get to the true topic of this post, my day in Mainz.
Two sentence summary of the last month: Things are going well. I've made some friends, most host family is absolutely fantastic, my German is still pretty bad but also getting better, I don't understand what is happening in most of my classes, and I'm much better at using public transportation.

My day in Mainz: Last weekend, Taisy (an exchange student from Hong Kong) and I spent the day in Mainz. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was one of the best days I've had in Germany. We would be getting up early Saturday morning to drive to Mainz, so Taisy invited me over to spend the night on Friday. That night we talked about how our year's been going, told each other about our home countries, took pictures, ate dinner and so on. The highlight on the evening, however, was us trying to learn German rap songs. It was quite a challenge, but fun. Needless to say, we failed miserably. Fortunately (or unfortunately, I haven't decided which yet) a short video of our sub-par German rap skills exists and is available for viewing here. This is only a few seconds of the whole song which we recorded so that we can look back on it at the end of our exchange year and laugh, because hopefully at that point we'll be fluent in German and able to rap that song like bosses.
Okay okay, now I'll talk about Mainz. So we were up and out the door early Saturday morning. Mainz is a little more than an hour's drive away. Taisy's host mom had to attend some sort of conference there so when we arrived she told us to meet her back at the conference center at 4pm.
So with the whole day ahead of us, we contemplated what our first move would be. The night before we'd decided that some "must-sees" were the Mainzer Dom and the Gutenberg Museum, but other than that we hadn't had much else planned.
Our first goal, we decided was to locate the Mainzer Dom. Which, without a map, was not as easy as we thought it'd be. As we walked, the city was quite in the early morning. There were hardly any people on the streets… so we took that as an opportunity to release our inner child and play a little.

When the people are away, the exchange students will play.

We finally reached the Dom (FYI: Dom is German for cathedral) and it was beautiful. I wish I could've taken better pictures but unfortunately, an iPod camera just didn't do it justice.

After spending sometime in the Dom we made our way outside to see that the city was starting to come alive. A cafe next to the Dom enticed us with windows full of delicious looking cakes; we decided that we would return to the cafe for lunch. A market of some sort was in the midst of being set up. We walked around the street examining the things the vendors were selling. At one stand we sampled some cheese and at another we bought Plätzchen (Christmas cookies). The best thing we found at the market was a stand selling hot apple cider. I could not imagine a more perfect thing to warm us up on that chilly morning. In that moment, everything fit together so perfectly: the busy market, a beautiful city, a steaming cup of apple cider, and a good friend. 

Collage made by Taisy

Me with our bag of Plätzchen

Next, we set out to find the Gutenberg museum. For those who don't know: Johannes Gutenberg was the inventor of the printing press and he was born in Mainz. Last year I did a research project on him for European History, so I was more than a little excited to learn more about this important inventor and see copies of the famous Gutenberg 42-line Bible, the first book ever printed on the printing press.
We had a bit of difficulty finding the museum. We ended up walking in a huge circle just to find out that the Gutenberg Museum was right next to the market and Dom. While searching for the museum, we happened upon a print shop next door. Originally we'd gone inside to ask for directions but then the woman working there asked us if we'd like to make some prints on the printing press. After taking a look at the things we could print (everything from cartoon characters to silhouettes of the Mainzer Dom, we could even make prints with letters) and finding that it would only cost a few euros, we decided to give it a go. The woman in the shop gave us a short demonstration (in English!) on how to set up the print, add colors, and then press it. Printing was such a fun and unique experience and provided us with perfect souvenirs for our day. I can't help but think how lucky we were to just stumble upon the shop after getting a bit lost. Somethings you just can't plan.
Here are my prints:

Making a print

Taisy and I in our beautiful printing smocks

After finishing up in the print shop, we were told that the Gutenberg Museum was right next door and that we should also check out Saint Stephen's Church later. 

At the museum, we spent quite a while looking around and learning about Johannes Gutenberg as well as the history of printing. The craftsmanship and detail of the books we saw was absolutely mind blowing. My inner history nerd was having a heyday. Finally we found the 42-line Bibles; there were two of them at the museum. The bibles were in their own special fire-proof room behind bullet-proof glass. Looking at two such important historical artifacts made me giddy with happiness. 

So many books!

One Gutenberg Bible

The other Gutenberg Bible

After the museum, both of us were quite ready for lunch, so we headed back to the cafe we saw earlier and each ordered a slice of cake and a mug of hot chocolate.

Enjoying a mug of hot chocolate

CAKE!

As our day was coming to an end, we decided to make our last stop Saint Stephen's Church. Plot twist: we found it without getting lost. From the outside, the Saint Stephen's Church looked liked a pretty typical (yet still beautiful) church. But as soon as you stepped inside, everything glowed blue due to the light passing through the stained glass windows. The windows in this church were literally the most breathtakingly beautiful windows I've ever seen in a church or cathedral. The windows were made in the late 1900s by Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall. The windows are luminous blue and depict scenes from the old testament, demonstrating the commonalities between Jewish and Christian traditions.

After taking in the beauty of Saint Stephen's Church, we made our way back through the city to meet Taisy's host mom, stopping on the way to buy some Currywurst mit Pommes. Simply put, that day was perfect. 

Bears, Scares, and History: Adventures in Berlin

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Berlin for three days during fall break. I went with Sarah, Nina, and a friend (Janina), and yes, we drove the whole way. We began our trip before the crack of dawn (roughly 6:00am) and we arrived in Berlin six, long hours later. 

Day One:

Driving into the city, I did what any person who lived most of their life in a small town would do, and gawked at the tall buildings, flashy signs, and the shear masses of people. My host sisters and Janina pointed out famous Berlin landmarks as we drove past them such as the German Opera of Berlin and the Berlin Victory Column. 

We checked into our hotel which was conveniently located next to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (main train station). Nina and I were in one room together and Sarah and Janina were in the other. Our hotel included passes that we could use on any train in Berlin, which made navigating the city a breeze. I think it's funny that I was so impressed with the public transportation system in and around Wetzlar when I first arrived in Germany, because the Berlin train system is way more intricate and on a much larger scale. 

The Berlin Hauptbahnhof

After getting everything settled at the hotel, we did what any group of girls in their teens (or early twenties) would do in one of the largest and most important cities in Europe, filled with tons of history and culture... we went shopping! We went into so many stores I can't even count them. The retail therapy was much needed considering how little clothing it seemed that I was able to bring with me to Germany. 

One thing that I'd been anticipating on our trip to Berlin was being able to go to a Dunkin Donuts since I'd been missing their coffee. So when I spotted a Dunkin I gleefully ran in and order a vanilla iced coffee (unfortunately, my first choice of hazelnut was not an option). The coffee was good, but nothing like in America, which almost made me a bit sad because I'd built up so much anticipation. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my little cup of America simply for the novelty of it.

mmmm... Dunkin

That evening we met a friend of Nina's and went out to a pizzeria/Italian restaurant for dinner. We all ordered our own personal pizza. After deciphering the menu and deciding what kind of pizza I wanted, I felt comfortable enough ordering on my own, especially since all I had to do was tell the cashier what number pizza I wanted. Here's how that went:

Me: Nummer einundzwanzig, bitte. 

Cashier: Okay, two euros and fifty cents.

Me: *hands cashier the money and thinks, "What the heck?! How'd he know I speak English?"*

Sarah: *seeing my disappointment* Auf Deutsch! Sie muss Deutsch lernen."

Cashier: *hands me receipt and explains in German that he'll call my number when the pizza is ready.*

We ate our pizza and then sat around and talked for awhile, and by "we talked" I mean "they talked and I pretended to understand German."

Afterwards we went back to our hotel for the night. Also, starting then, I made it my mission to take my picture with as many bear statues as possible while in Berlin. There are many of these "Buddy Bears" all over Berlin and they're all painted differently.

So after a long day and lots of walking, we were all ready for a good night's sleep. However, our hotel had something else in mind. In the middle of the night I was awaken by the wails of a siren coming from within our room. Just as quickly as the noise had started, it had stopped. I checked my watch; it was roughly 4am. I was about to go back to sleep when Nina sat up and said,"Did you hear that? I think it was a fire alarm." We were quite for a moment and could hear some commotion in the hall and a voice coming from a loudspeaker in the distance. I knew Nina was right. Shit! A fire! It all hit me at once. We both jumped up from bed and grabbed or coats and whatever important things were close at hand; I was thankful that I had place my purse with my cell phone, iPod, money, ID, etc. right next to my bed. As I was pulling on a pair of jeans (I had only been wearing pajama shorts) Sarah and Janina began knocking at our door. I didn't have time to put on shoes so I grabbed my flats and followed the other girls as we ran for an exit. As we were running, I couldn't help but wonder what part of the building the fire was in. Thankfully, we were only on the third floor and we made it down the stairs pretty quickly. But when we got to an exit, we could open the door. For a split second I thought,"Shit, we are going to die!" But then I saw a button on the wall to open the door and everything was fine. We walked around to the front of the hotel where the rest of the hotel guests congregated. Fire trucks came. I couldn't see any signs of fire. Finally, a hotel employee came out and announced that the fire had been in the kitchen and everything was under control now. I remember thinking, "There better still be breakfast in the morning." And with that, everyone shuffled sleepily back into the hotel, back to their rooms, and back to bed.

This is my "our hotel is on fire at four in the morning" face.

Day Two:

The next time I awoke, was in a much more peaceful manner. Nina and I got ready then met Janina and Sarah and headed down to the Lobby. And yes, there was breakfast. And what a glorious breakfast it was! There were many European and American breakfast foods (they even had mini Nutella packets, praise the Lord!). I filled my plate with croissants, fresh fruit, and bacon and made myself a cappuccino to go with it. I always love when hotels include free breakfast, and this was no exception. 

After a hearty breakfast, we were ready to take on day two of Berlin. First on our agenda was a trip to the Berlin Dungeon, a famous haunted house in Berlin with many affiliates world-wide. Even though you can see the show in English, we opted to see it in German, considering that 3/4 of our group was German and I should speak German. Even though I didn't understand some parts, "scared" is a universal language, and I definitely was at some points. The Dungeon was set up with different rooms and as we were led though each room their was a new story told, sometimes they were funny and somethings they were sketchy as heck. Occasionally, the actors would pick out people from the group to use as part of their skit and they would usually make fun of them in someway. In one room, where the theme seemed to be torture, the actor pointed at me and yelled something in German that I didn't understand; everyone else laughed. Then he beckoned me to come to him and he opened up the door to a cage, the crowd of people parted like the Red Sea and I began to make my way to the cage. Nina shouted to the man,"Sie spricht kein Deutsch!" This prompted another chuckle from the crowd. All the same, he locked me in the cage, said a few things, and left me to choose his next victim. He later told the crowd to move on to the next room but told me to stay. As the people were leaving he came over to me with a few of his "torture instruments" and tried to scare me (and he spoke English), but I mostly just laughed it off. After everyone had left he told me to scream. So I gave my best blood curdling scream and he allowed me to join the others in the next room. 

Nina: Why'd you scream?

Me: *Shrugs* because he told me to.

For the rest of the day we did more shopping and a lot of exploring the city by foot. I popped into a few touristy shops to pick up a few souvenirs; I bought some stickers, a pin, and a post card with Ampelmann (the man on cross-walk lights in East Berlin) and a post card with a piece of the Berlin Wall. 

After Dinner, we went to the Brandenbuger Tor. Being the history-loving-world-traveler that I am, I experienced something magical as I walked up the stairs from the U-Bahn and came face-to-face with Brandenbuger Tor all lit up at night. We spent sometime taking pictures in front of the Tor, and I just simply marveled at the fact that I was standing before one of the greatest symbols of Berlin and German culture.

Absolutely stunning!

Before making the trip back to the hotel, we stopped at the Dunkin Donuts near the Tor and bought a dozen donuts to eat on the ride home the next day.

Day Three:

This was history day. After another delicious breakfast, we set out to see the Brandenburger Tor in the daylight. The experience was just as magical, but a lot more crowded. We figured that we should get a group picture taken so we asked a man that was standing near us. It turns out that he was working for a TV station and he was looking for people to sit in the audience of a talk show called "Inka!" and he asked us if we'd like to attend. We said sure and he gave us tickets and told us to meet back at the Tor in a few hours and someone would take us to the studio. Nina told me that the talk show we'd been invited to was really well known, not quite like Oprah is to America, but still pretty popular. 

After the Brandenbuger Tor, we went to The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (a Holocaust memorial) and the Reichstag building. Once again, the history nerd in me was going crazy. I couldn't get over how beautiful the Reichstag building was! 

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

             

That afternoon we went back to the Brandebuger Tor so that we could be brought to the talk show. Two girls led us and other audience members through the city by train and by foot and finally we arrived at the studio. They brought us to a room where we sat for a while. Then they brought us to where they film the show, told us where to sit and gave us a bit of an orientation on how to be a good studio audience. Of course, I didn't really understand much and I was tired from our busy days in Berlin so I yawned. That's when the man talking looked at me and said something in German. I just stared blankly back at him and Janina explained that I was from America and didn't speak German. Apparently he'd said to me that we're not allowed to yawn during the show because it makes us look bored. 

The show began and I only understood bits and pieces, still I enjoyed it and I appreciated the unique experience that it provided. The show was Halloween themed. And although it was filmed a week prior, it did in fact air on Halloween. Here's a link to watch the show. It's in German but if you want to check it out and try to find me in the audience, they show Janina, Nina, Sarah, and I around 38 minutes. Guest on the show include a professional pumpkin carver, an actor, two ghost hunters, and a guy who grew a really big pumpkin.

A few of the "Buddy Bears" that I found around Berlin

Sadly, our time in Berlin soon came to an end. After the show we got something to eat and were on our way back to Wetzlar.