Barcelona

Here's the beach where I was for the past week. I got swimming three times, but not for long; wasn't really swimming weather exactly, although sunny the whole time. My hostel was about 15 minutes walking from here, and right near Las Ramblas which is the coolest section of the city. Lots of narrow little alleyways too small for cars with loads of little stores and bars and restaurants. I spent most of my time either on the beach or wandering around Las Ramblas.
I was there on my own, because most of the other people from my group in Berlin went direct home after the program ended, so it was a little different, but good, and I met a couple of guys in the hostel to do stuff with; mostly a Hollander.
Here's a picture of Barcelona from the Parc Montjiuc, which was cool. A big park on a mountain that went up over the city. Went up there a couple of times.
And this is a sweet building on the side of Montjiuc, home to the museum of art which I didn't visit, but I thought this picture was good.
I did check out the maritime museum though and the aquarium and the Bodies Exhibit, which I think has been traveling around the world for a year or so. That was real cool, but a little weird. Lots of preserved bodies all over the place just hanging around for you to look at. And all the different layers and parts. It was something else.
Ok, Sunday I'm heading home, so I'm going to head out and get my remaining Berlin time in.
Liebe Grüße überall. Tschüss!

Done with classes and now...

Well, I'm finished with school here. I've been pretty bad with this blog, so for any of you still reading, my apologies for only four posts.

But I think that's a sign of what a good time I've had here. And made some real good friends, in addition to THE girl.
I'm about to head out for my last Sunday evening dinner with the whole family, minus my host-sister. Advent has started, and I've got my own advent calendar here. Chocolate every day.
Yup, finished with classes on Friday. And now almost everyone is already gone or leaving tomorrow. I'm not though.

I've got a flight Thursday to Barcelona - figured I'd see a little bit more of Europe since I'm already over here and who knows when I'll be able to get back. It's a little bit hard seeing everyone else going back to the states and home though, because you know I'm looking forward to seeing the fam again too, but Barcelona! Unfortunately it's not really summer there either, although it is a bit warmer than here. I'm determined to get into the Mediterranean though, regardless of temperature.

And Thanksgiving too. Us Dartmouth students put on a dinner for our host-families and cooked 6 turkeys and did a skit. I tried to cook, but I'm not quite as good as mom and pops. Half of my stuffing that wasn't in the turkey was burning in a pot on the stove so I dumped a bunch of water on it. Then it was both burnt and soggy. Delicious. But my turkey was good, and we showed up a little late to the dinner, so our turkey didn't get too badly eaten and we fed off it for the next couple of days pretty solid. Here's my food being prepared. Minus turkey which is in the oven trying to get done on time.

And here's a picture of our prof who came with us from Dartmouth reading his Thanksgiving poem that he reads every year. He's been leading this trip for 25 years or something ridiculous like that. We had class with him four days a week and then a play or concert or something about once a week.And 11 of the 13 of us doing the skit.
As you can probably tell I am Werther from one of the plays we went to see. Most of us were characters from one of the plays, except the four girls in front who are more or less us and our three profs were also represented.
And here's one more from the Feldgen-Dinkelackers and myself.

I'll post again after Barcelona.
Alles Beste!

Reise!

Dresden. We left friday, the 12th on the train for Dresden. We didn't know until that morning whether the train would be running, because there have been a lot of train driver strikes here, particularly that week, but it was. We left early in the morning so we had most of the day in Dresden to explore the city.
Here is the famous or pretty-famous Zwinger garden and museum in Dresden which was completely destroyed in WWII along with almost everything else in the city-center.

Then the next day we re-boarded the train for Vienna. This train ride was longer and cool. Trains are sweet. Played cribbage with Peter who is another guy on the trip and read Brecht's "Arturo Ui." And we drove along the Elbe for a bit and there were some sweet cliffs along the way where apparently they used to shoot Western films during the DDR time.

And then Vienna.

This is what it looked like in Vienna all over. Very white, stately, elegant - kind of like Gondor, except not quite as cool. And the weather was pretty much perfect there the whole time. We hit up all the good touristy spots - castles and churches and museums. Picnicked in the park with wine and cheese and good bread and a guy playing the violin pretty much just for us the whole time. And lots of cafes. That's pretty big in Vienna I think, kind of like Paris a little bit. I felt like I should be Ernest Hemingway, or at least write a lot in the cafes. There were actually people like that though, sitting in the cafes writing. It was pretty cool.

Here's some of us in front of a fountain .

Of course I had to step over this line.
And I got to hear the Vienna Boys Choir sing in church on Sunday morning, and a couple of us went to see "Ein Sommernachtstraum" - "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and a perfekt example of how German's always smush words together when possible. That was actually a really cool performance. And of course the most touristy thing possible, a horse coach ride through the city.
And then we left for Prague on Wednesday by bus. We got there at night in a somewhat not-so-safe-seeming part of town and didn't know how to get to our hostel and didn't have any Czech money and didn't speak and Czech. Luckily though we found two girls from England who were staying in a hostel near ours and they showed us the way. Also one of our group members had his luggage stolen out of the bottom of the bus somewhere along the trip, so that was a bummer. Not an auspicious start.
Then the next morning we started out bright and early to exchange some money and explore the city. Someone googled Deutsch Bank in Prague to find out where we could exhange money and then led us in the false direction. So after about 2 hours of walking along the highway in the wrong direction in the rain and about 35 degrees we made it back to the hostel. Quite a blast. Good company though, and we spent most of the time trying to decode Czech with help from our two Russian speakers and Latvian speaker. A fun game for people who like languages, although confusing when it is all in three languages that you completely don't understand.
But after that Prague got better although it was very cold the whole time, as it is now in Berlin: below freezing nights.
Ok, I need to go watch a theater version of "Die Leiden Des Jungen Werthers" one of the most famous novels of all time. I liked it too.

Quick the Family

My host family here is great. Ilka, Hania, Max and Philipp. Max is the youngest and in his last year at the "Gymnasium" here, which is like high school for kids planning on going on to higher education. The schooling is a little bit different here - they get split up much earlier between the Gymnasium and the trade school, which is interesting. Max plays a lot of soccer and is good, but we've played some basketball together too and I beat him at that, so it's ok. Ilka, my host-mother teaches English at one of the trade-school high schools. Hania was here when I first arrived but is now in Leipzig studying medicine. She's a little bit crazy. Philipp lives in Berlin and is sort of finishing up school, but slowly, because he's in a ska band and is much more interested in that than history. But I've heard his band and they're pretty good. He's got a concert on November 9th, so I'll go to that. Here are a couple of pictures of the family from Philipp's birthday. And Opa, the grandfather is always around and is real nice. And Uncle Christian. Every Sunday we all go out to eat together. I completely forget what I said in my first blog, so hopefully I'm not repeating everything.

Here are Ilka and Hania

Left to right: Philipp's girl-friend, the uncle, Max, a friend of Philipp's, Opa, und Ilka. Philipp was there too, but not in these pictures.

Mein Zimmer

Ok, now on to the trip to Dresden, Vienna and Prague!

First Blog!

Hello Everyone!

Well, I've been in Germany for two weeks now. I still can't say much "auf Deustch" but I'm getting better quickly, with no English except blogging. And it's not so tiring anymore listening to so much German all the time.
I'm living with very nice family here in Berlin. I have an 18 year old host-brother, Max, and an older guest sister and brother who no longer live at home, but who I have both seen: Hania and Philipp.
I'm taking classes here with a group of 13 students from Dartmouth. German History, German Grammar and German Theater/Cultural Stuff. The last class is pretty amazing. We've only had one full week of class and we've already been to the Berliner Philharmonie for a concert, to the Berliner Ensemble to see "Die Dreigroschenoper" or Threepenny Opera and to the Komische Oper to see Don Giovanni. That was last night and a lot of fun. I'm already starting to feel like a professional opera snob.
Now I just need to start swishing wine around all the time and stop wearing that cut-off sweatshirt...
Seriously though, you do really get that kind of a feeling, and it has been really cool for me. It's something else to get dressed up and go into REALLY fancy, nice buildings and see an opera or something. Makes you feel pretty special and lucky.
Of course, the week before classes started I went to Cologne to visit Daniela and her family. That was great. Seeing her again and especially seeing the kids Leefka, Konrad and Edith, who were all very sweet. See the pictures.

Daniela Konrad and Edith


Ushi, Konrad and Edith



Reading with Konrad



Leefka in her bed which Frank built.


Also got to see Hertha BSC, the Berlin soccer team play and that was a blast, even though they lost. The German's are crazy about their (Men's) soccer teams. (The women's World Cup team just won and are now world champions and you wouldn't even know it. Max said that when the German Men came in third last year there were celebrations for weeks.) And they sing a lot during the games. There is a specific "Hertha Hymn" that I need to learn if I am going to go back to more.
Tomorrow is "The Day of German Reunification" so no school. Yay! So some of us Dartmouth students are going to see Harry Potter in the 3D Imax theater here. And then maybe will we "make party" as the Germans say.