Berlin: Day 5 (and Copenhagen)

I had to wake up soooo early this morning - 4:45!!! My bus left at 7:30, and it takes awhile to get to the bus station from the hostel. Nick was kind enough to get up that early and meet me at the hostel so he could escort me to the bus station and make sure I got on my bus OK. I got to ride a cool double-decker bus! And, while I slept on the bus, I had dreams about riding in a double-decker. It was weird. Anyway, after multiple hours on a bus then a ferry then a bus again, I made it to Copenhagen. I wanted to stay a few days, see a hockey game across the strait in Malmo, and then go back to Aarhus. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a hostel in Copenhagen. Most of the places I had found online were closed for the season, and the other was full. I had hoped to wander around and stumble upon a hostel, but no such luck. Scandinavia is weird - there are very few hostels, even in the major (and capital) cities. So, when the sun set I finally gave up and bought a train ticket back to Aarhus. I was disappointed, but I couldn't afford one of the overpriced hotel rooms in the city, and I was getting pretty tired of wandering around the city with my heavy backpack. Oh well, even if there aren't other hockey games, there will be other trips to Copenhagen. I had a great time in Berlin, and now I'm back in Aarhus, relaxing in my cozy little apartment.

Berlin: Day 4

Today was Emily & Jenn's last day in Berlin. They were taking the bus back in the early afternoon so they could make their class on Tuesday; they didn't have much time to sightsee. But we did have time for Nick to take us to see some of the remnants of the Berlin Wall. It wasn't what I pictured. It was too nice! I accused Nick of taking us to see the fake Berlin Wall. Then I spotted a length of Wall that looked like what I had pictured - large brick covered with graffiti, with shards of glass stuck into the top. All I had to do to get close to it was climb under a fence! So I slid underneath, into private property, got my picture of the real Berlin Wall, and then strolled with the others down the length of the fake one. It's concrete, and covered with murals. Some were retouched a few years back, and some were left peeling. It was neat, though.

After taking Jenn and Emily to the bus station, Nick and I discussed what to do next. We grabbed some lunch and chatted about how we didn't want to spend anymore money, and then decided on a trip to Potsdam. Or, rather, I bullied Nick into taking me to Potsdam. It's a suburb of Berlin, and was just outside of West Berlin. The Wall extended that far, and separated Potsdam from the American occupation zone. I had read in one of my classes about a house in Potsdam. The history surrounding it was pretty representative of the struggles the War and the Wall caused. I wanted to find the house - Nick thought we'd wander around for awhile, find nothing, and return to Berlin having wasted a few hours. But we found it! I was finally able to remember the name of the bridge it was close to, so we rode a tram to the bridge. The bridge was beautiful, and the lights from the houses on the river made a really pretty landscape. The house, however, was sad. After the Wall fell, establishing ownership was a real challenge. I don't know who ended up with the property, but the house was in disrepair, with graffiti on the outer walls, broken windows, and a rusted gate to a completely overgrown garden. It was even sadder because you could tell the house had once been beautiful. We wandered around the area for awhile, which was really nice. Then we rode back to Berlin.

We were hungry, so we went and got döner - probably my last for awhile, which is sad. We ate them in the tiny shop where we bought them, then opened a bottle of wine I'd gotten earlier. We started strolling to Tachales, a hippie house. To get there, we had to walk down one of the streets set aside for legal prostitution. The prostitutes are really sad - all have fake tans and hair color, wear ultra-tight bustiers with 5 inch heels and a fanny pack. To my surprise, most of the women I saw looked attractive. Nick said others had told him Berlin whores were some of the prettiest in Europe. I thought it was pretty tragic that they were all resorting to the sex trade. On a lighter note, we saw a long series of these women, then they suddenly stopped. A few hundred meters later, we reached a huge synagogue guarded by two officers. It was very grand looking, stuck in the middle of a slightly shabby street. A few hundred meters after, the prostitutes started again. It was almost comical. We finally reached Tachales. Hippies live there, some with families, and you can walk around the place and just stroll through their "homes." They survive off the sale of their artwork, which you can buy as you walk through. It was messy and disorganized and very free-spirited; a nice change from the way I keep my place. Then we left, and I went back to the hostel to sleep. Nick was so nice - he gave me his cell phone to use as an alarm, because mine was almost dead. He took my phone and charged it that night. He really was so great to us this weekend; I'm glad he was there.

Berlin: Day 3

Today we visited Museum Island. It's an island in the middle of a river, and many of Berlin's museums are located here. The first thing we saw was the Berliner Dome. It's a very large church with a dome so big that it was graced with the name of the city. The outside was intricately done, with many statues and some nice architecture. I didn't see the inside - the charge for that privilege was 3 euros, not something I was willing to pay to see another church that probably wouldn't be distinguishable in my memory after a month. But it looked nice from Emily's pictures. Then we walked down the island to the Pergamon. I noticed bullet holes in the walls of buildings along the way - remnants of Berlin's war days. The Pergamon was probably the most amazing museum I've ever seen. If you go to Berlin and have time for only one museum, this should be it. The first room is a temple reconstruction. It's hard for me to describe it's size; think of an ancient temple - that's really how big it was. They had reconstructed the reliefs that covered the walls from ruins. A lot of pieces were missing, but I was amazed that they had been able to put together anything from the small parts that had remained. It was very beautiful, still, even with some of it lost forever.

The next room contains the Market Gate of Millet. Millet was a city, and the market gate isn't like the gate to your backyard. It's a few stories tall, with walkways on multiple levels and large pillars. We looked at it and couldn't believe that the entire thing had been brought to Germany. Then we walked through it, and on the other side was the Ishtar Gate. This is one of the major gate of ancient Babylon, as tall as the Market Gate, made of blue glazed brick. It's huge. We were awed - Emily was like "Who sees this and is like 'I think I'll bring back the entire thing as a souvenir?'". Included with the Ishtar Gate was the Processional Way of Babylon, a long tunnel of the same blue glazed brick.

There was room after room of ancient treasures, trinkets, writings, statues, coins, and countless other things. You just become numb and cease to be impressed by all the amazing things. "Oh, there's another three thousand year old bracelet." "One more stone covered in thousand year old text." We saw an exhibit of Islamic art that was beautiful. The mattes around the paintings were as beautiful as the pictures themselves - very intricate, I loved it. They had rugs and vases, too, that amazed me. I really enjoyed that part of the museum - it was small enough not exhaust me. The other half of the museum was dedicated to Hellenistic Art. I love that classical style. It was a little odd, though, because all of the men were missing their genitalia. A display informed me that the more Puritan-minded Christians of later eras had chiseled off the stuff of male statues in the interests of modesty. I found my dream man there - too bad he was only a bust, and not real.

After lunch, we went to Alexanderplatz. The area was completely destroyed during the War, and has been rebuilt in a very modern style. It looks really neat. There were lights all over the trees and banners hanging from buildings, all decorated for the Berlinale. The Berlinale is a film festival, similar to the Cannes in France.

That evening we went to an Egyptian restaurant for my birthday. I had fun - I smoked a water pipe with apple flavored tobacco for the first time! The place was really nice, and the atmosphere was great. It was a nice birthday dinner. Then we made our way back to the hostel and crashed out, exhausted again.

Berlin: Day 2

We stayed all weekend in a hostel called the Odyssey. It was a cool little place. We were in a room with 4 bunk beds, although all 8 beds were never full. The bathrooms were decent, the beds weren't so uncomfortable that I couldn't sleep soundly. The breakfast was pretty nice for 3 euros. Overall, about what I expected from a hostel, minus all the horror stories.

The day started depressingly. We visited the Jewish Museum, which was really interesting. The architecture is as amazing as the contents of the museum; it was done by the same architect that's doing the World Trade Center Memorial. They had a ton of exhibits, and many of them were interactive. I listended to a recording of Albert Einstein reciting his creed - it was so cool! I heard Einstein's voice! All over the museum are 5 black glass walls. There's nothing on them, and you can't look into them. They correspond to negative spaces in the architecture. It's called Gallery of the Missing; it represents those things that were lost. You wear headphones and hear soundbites as you walk through them. After we made it through all the sections on the history of the Jews, including one on a sex scientist including a dildo set, we moved onto the Holocaust Tower. A museum employee opens the door for you, and closes you in a dark, cold room. It's an elongated triangle, with a ceiling probably 40 feet high. The only light comes from a small window, set very high up in the narrowest corner of the room. It's quiet, every sound echoes, but the feeling of nothingness dominates. A ladder, attached to the wall higher than one can reach, goes nowhere. It's a pretty intense room. We left silently and went to another exhibit. It's Called the Garden of Exile and Emigration. There are 49 pillars, each 20 feet tall, arranged in a square of 7 pillars by 7 pillars. It's almost like a maze. The last thing we saw was an exhibit called "shalechet" (Fallen Leaves). It's in memory of victims of wars and violence. There is a large area around a corner that narrows into a small space with a low ceiling. Covering the floor are flat iron faces, very plain, just two empty circles for eyes and an oval mouth. The artist requests that visitors walk on the faces. They're piled on top of one another, and make a lot of noise. It's very understated, and the simplicity makes it even more moving. And on that note, we left the museum.


Next we saw the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, known as the Lipstick Church to Berliners because of its post-War appearance. Most of it is gone, bombed out in World War II. What's left does resemble an open tube of lipstick. It was beautiful, still, with intricate mosaics and detailed reliefs. On the outside, at the back, were some odd-looking primitive statues cut out of the wall. And in a small tower behind the church we found an international market. It had a lot of cool stuff - I bought a wooden statue from Indonesia and a wallet from India. As we were leaving the market, I spotted a group of policemen. I desperately wanted a picture with German policemen, so I had Nick ask them for a quick picture. We were sharply rebuffed - it made the guy a little angry. We hurried off.

After that, we visited a huge store called KaDeWe (cah-day-vay). As we walked in, there were exhibits from the film museum of clothing worn by a famous German actress in the 1930s. In the interest of time, we confined ourselves to the food floor. It was amazing. Every type of tea, pasta, chocolate, seafood, cheese, and meat you could ever imagine were on this floor. The entire place was overwhelming.

To finish our day, we went to a pub to meet two acquaintances of Nick's. One was the brother of a professor from Nick's university in the States, the other a friend of the first. They were nice old men, but already very drunk by the time we arrived. We walked to a nice Chinese restaurant for dinner, and by this time, one of the men was already drunk beyond coherence. It was sad - while we could still understand him, he seemed very intelligent. The other spent his time insulting the more drunken one, and their conversation made for an interesting evening. The food was amazing, though, and after that we retired to the hostel, full and exhausted.

Berlin: Day 1

We left for Berlin this morning. I was running late, and almost missed the bus to the station. I had to race out of my apartment, with armloads of unorganized or unpacked stuff and untied shoes coming off my feet, to yell at the bus as it started to pull off - one minutes early, I might add. But the driver stopped, I got on, and we all made it to the bus station in plenty of time to catch our 8 am bus to Berlin.

The bus ride took 8 hours, but wasn't as bad as it sounded. We slept some, watched a movie that I didn't like, talked, and tried to eavesdrop on the Danish guys sitting at a table across the aisle from us. They translated what the bus driver told us, which was kind of them. We got to Berlin around 4:15, and Emily's friend Nick was waiting at the bus station for us. He's an American whose been studying in Berlin for 6 months. He acted as our tour guide and translator for the whole weekend, and was really nice and really really knowledgeable.

Nick started our Berlin trip off with a vital part of Berlin - döner. It's a Turkish food, and it tastes sooo good. It's veal, lettuce, tomato, cabbage, onion and sauces in this homemade bread that's similar to a pita. I wish they had them in Denmark, because besides being really good, they're also very cheap - 2 euros. In Aarhus, the most similar food I can think of, schwarma, costs at least twice that. Why did I decide to come to Scandinavia, one of the most expensive areas of the world?

After getting döner from a street vendor, Nick took us to an Irish pub he liked. While we were there, an Irish guy came up and chatted with us, and especially with Nick. We assumed he was a friend of Nick's, but Nick had never met him before. Anyway, this guy was really friendly and we enjoyed talking with him. It was open mic night, and the Irish performed a few songs that sounded pretty good. He left us for awhile, and came back less than half an hour later with two other girls from Norman. They were OU students who studied in southern Germany, and they were visiting Berlin for the weekend, too. They were nice girls, we had a lot of fun that night. The open mic was kind of led/organized by this band from Boston. I wasn't impressed with the music the two guys played, but they were pretty cool, they talked with us some. Then Emily told the Irish guy it was my birthday. He told the Boston guys, and 10 minutes later, the entire bar was singing Happy Birthday to me. It was a pretty good feeling, I had such a blast that night. One of the Boston guys dedicated the next song they played to me. It was flattering. This night made up for my lousy, boring night at Mellow Cafe.

Very Merry Birthday

We had our Wok Dinner on Monday night, Valentine's Day. I hate Valentine's Day - the only good part of that ridiculous holiday is the conversation hearts, and they don't even sell conversation hearts in Denmark. Valentine's Day is almost non-existent here; nobody does anything for it, few of the stores even use it as a ploy to boost sales. We kept our dinner as un-Valentine's as possible and I feel like it turned out pretty well. There were 12 of us total that ate, and there was plenty of food for everyone. Emily, Jenn and I also made fortune cookies. It was a lot of fun, going around the table, everyone reading theirs. We weren't sure if the non-English speakers would understand a lot of the plays on words, but they got most of them, and we were able to explain the ones they didn't. We did run out of wine, which made me unhappy. That's practically a cardinal sin, running out of wine at a dinner. But other than that, it was a good time, everyone had fun, and I'd like to do another dinner in the future.

It's still snowing, snowing, snowing. It'll stop for a few hours and then start again. The roads are semi-cleared, the buses are running, but there's snow everywhere. It's inconvenient and makes the bottom of my pants look gross, but it's very beautiful to look at. The view from my window is really nice.

So today was my birthday. I have to admit, it's not the nicest birthday I ever had. I'm sick (of course), so I wasn't feeling great. I had to spend several hours running errands in the snow. Not good for my illness or my happiness. I'm tired of freezing! It's enough to make me (gasp!) miss Texas/Oklahoma weather. Anyway, I got home and collasped into bed, totally exhausted from battling the weather for 4 or 5 hours. What a difference a car makes. Once I woke up, Jenn & Emily came over, and we planned a weekend trip to Berlin. I'm excited about going; I think we'll have a good time. After they left, I got ready and went to Lee's kollegium, Teknolog. He was making fajitas for the people on his floor, and he invited me to come. It sounded like a good birthday dinner - fajitas with lots of fun Italians and Lee. Unfortunately, I got there about 30 minutes after the dinner had started. There were no fajitas left. So you know what my birthday dinner was? Rice. That's right, plain white rice with a few pieces of corn in it. Then I went to Mellow Cafe, where they were having a Valentine's Mellow. Oh, how sweet. Needless to say, I did not find my one true love, and it was a pretty boring evening. Lee was the only person who bought me a drink for my birthday, too, which was disappointing, although a lot of people came up and told me happy birthday. I left after a couple hours of shallow chatting with the people I knew. Oh well. Better birthday next year, I hope.

Snowed In

Before coming to Denmark, I thought I would arrive in a country that stayed buried under a foot of snow for 6 months out of the year. Then I arrived, and discovered that the weather is warmer here than in most of the northern United States. But this weekend, we got our first real snow. It's snowed before, leaving patches of white on the ground that hang around for a few hours or a few days, but never anything heavy enough to even cover the ground. Yesterday, I woke up around 11, and it looked as if it had been snowing for maybe an hour. And it kept going. I think it stopped after midnight, but then started again sometime in the night, because I woke up this morning to find the white flakes falling again. The snow is pretty deep, and I think that in Aarhus, they aren't used to having this much snow fall this fast. The bus system is almost totally shut down. The few that are running are very late and very crowded. No one can ride their bikes, but I see a lot of people walking. Cars don't have much luck on the road, because the city's salt machines don't seem very effective. It's beautiful to look out my window, though, and see the drifts piled up on the buildings, trees, and bikes. There are several snowmen dotting my neighborhood, including one holding a bottle of Danish beer. I don't think the snow is supposed to stop until tomorrow afternoon.

Although the snow is beautiful, it is a little inconvenient for me. I was having quite a few people over for dinner last night, to make stir-fry in my new wok. Almost 15 people were supposed to be here, but the snow decimated that count. Only 6 live within walking distance, and one of them is Italian, and she was sure she would get sick walking the 5 minutes to my apartment in knee deep snow. The poor Italians aren't used to cold like this at all. Since the buses couldn't bring the others to my place, we had to reschedule my dinner. We decided to reschedule after two of the guys had already left, though, and we couldn't reach them to let them know. So they showed up at my apartment more than 2 hours after leaving theirs. They got here by hitchhiking to our road and then wandering around, trying to find my apartment. We were amazed at their dedication, so of course, we cooked for them and showered them with praises for making such an arduous journey. It turned out to be a fun night, and we'll get to have another fun night with more guests on Monday. I just hope the snow doesn't ruin that as well.

Hitting the Books Again

Ah, classes have started. I am not pleased about this. I would really like it if I could just live here and not have to do work except adjusting to the culture. School puts a damper on my social life. But, it's what I'm paid to do, so I might as well just accept that I have to attend classes.

Danish classes are different than classes at OU. For starters, for one of my classes, to register, I simply showed up the first day and signed a paper. For the other two, I talked to some people in the department. There's nothing formal about registration, and classes for the semester are put out about two weeks before they begin. Most are set up to be two or three hours a week, but instead of being spread over two or three days, they do it all in one. So I have a class Wednesday from 11-2, a different class Thursday from 2-5, and a new class Friday from 10-12. That's my entire schedule, which is quite nice. I don't miss getting up four days a week for a 9:30 class. In Denmark, you choose what kind of final exam you take. For most classes, the final is your entire grade for the semester. You can choose papers of different lengths, oral or written exams, or some sort of original project. Sometimes, the amount of credit you earn for the class depends on the exam you take. You sign up for exams in March, and if you don't sign up, show up, and pass the final, you don't get credit for the class. Actual classes are over in mid-to-late May, but finals can stretch to the end of June. I think I will do papers for all my finals so I can be finished earlier. I know there's no way I'll study for a month when I never have to go to class.

My first class is Institutions of the European Union. It's crowded, with more foreign than Danish students. I think I'll enjoy it, and if I don't enjoy it, I'll at least learn a lot of really useful things. I think in the US we don't hear a lot of what's going on with the EU (but what's new - who cares about Europe when we have our own big country to dominate the news). I don't know too much about how the EU came into being, or what exactly it does now. Of course I've heard of the EMU and euro, but that's really all I know anything about. The European Union also has a Common Foreign and Security Policy that I'm completely ignorant of. They have a Court of Justice that's been building a huge body of case law over the last 40 years, but I don't know about any of their landmark decisions. There are so many EU facts that I'm completely in the dark about, and things that I actually find interesting. This class should solve that problem for me.

The second class I attend is called Languages of the World, in the Linguistics department. The professor is a funny little Australian guy who wears his pants about 6 inches too short in the legs. I think I'll learn some interesting things in the class, but, for the most part, there will be a lot of boredom and many hours of pinching myself to stay awake. It's a class that can be taken on different levels by choosing different exams, so there are Masters' students in there. It looks like they are probably going to argue with the professor over every point he makes, and tear apart all of his arguments. It could get a little frustrating.

My final class, and the one I most likely will not remain in, is Spoken/Oral Competence in Italian. Everyone is far more advanced than I am, and the class is on a level that's way over my head. We will be reading selections from Italian books and short stories to learn about different regions in Italy. Not too bad, I can get through the reading material. Then we will be discussing it in class, concentrating specifically on genre, style, and theme. Whoa, whoa, whoa. No way I can handle literary discussions in Italian. I would have trouble renting a hotel room in Italian, much less getting into topics I would be a little unsure discussing in English! So, I hope I can get into an easier class. If not, I think there are night language classes offered by some organization in the city. Hopefully I can take Italian there, and it will fit well into my schedule. I don't want to give up my four day weekends.

Meeting the Neighbors

I got a wok yesterday! A totally free, nice sized wok! And since I'm sure you're really curious to know how, I'll tell you the story....

Yesterday, I went to the grocery store to buy cake ingredients. It was Lee's birthday, and he wanted carrot cake, so his extremely kind friends from OU made it for him. Anyway, I got back from the grocery store, and I left my apartment door open. It opens into a hallway, and I was only going to be inside for a few minutes to put away my groceries before going upstairs to Emily's for dinner. As I set down my things and took off my coat, a guy and girl who had been talking in the hallway came down to my door. They told me about a party this Friday, which I had seen flyers for but couldn't read because they were in Danish. Then, as I put my coat back on to go upstairs, the girl who lives next door to me stopped by. We'd never met before, but she was so amazingly nice. She said she'd be moving out in two days, and was just throwing a lot of things away. She asked if I wanted the wok and pot she taking to the trash, and I eagerly accepted. I offered to pay her something for them, but she refused. And then she tried to take the pot back to wash, because it was dusty! She gave me kitchen supplies, and then tried to wash them for me!

I bought flowers today. Three little pots for about $4! They make the room so happy; I hope I don't kill them. I also rearranged my stuff today. I've been feeling the need to move things around since I got here. The arrangement wasn't bad or inconvenient or anything before. I guess I just needed to do it to make the place my own. I also made a cool collage on my wall with free postcards from around the city. It looks kind of artsy, but in my organized, obsessive-compulsive way. I put up a couple pictures and a few posters, too. I just felt motivated today! It was such a beautiful day! The sun shone all day long, and it wasn't too cold, and the wind wasn't too bad. It was so good to be outside, that even after I came in and started working on my apartment, I opened the window to let the air in and the blinds to let the light in. This place is really becoming my own; I'm finding my groove.

Oddities in My New World

I noticed three things today that seemed very out of place in Denmark. First, I saw a guy jaywalk right in front of a bus. The bus driver laid on the horn, and the guy flipped him off and yelled something in Danish. That doesn't sound very remarkable, but it is for Denmark. The people here follow the rules, and they almost never jaywalk, much less flip the bus driver off. They are also generally pretty introverted in public - unless they're drunk. Maybe this guy was drunk, but he's the first person I've heard yell angrily at someone else in a public street.

I also saw, or really heard, a guy sitting on a street corner, playing an accordion for the pocket change of passer-bys. The old man was the first street musician I've seen here. They prefer American hip-hop and '80s pop over anything instrumental, and there wasn't much money in the poor guy's case. It's also odd that he was poor, because the welfare state here is so amazing; it takes care of everyone. Maybe he was an immigrant or a hustler. Who knows.

My last odd sight was a beggar by the bus stop that may have been blind. Again, it was odd to see someone poor in public with Denmark's welfare state. This city is also so clean and tidy that I was a little suprised that the man was allowed to beg in the city center.

All of these instances really reinforced to me what a great place Denmark is to live. Aarhus has about 220,000 people - how many other cities of comparable size could you live in for a month without seeing a beggar?