Danke, Deutschland [thanks, Germany}

I just had the adventure of a lifetime. After five months of living in Germany, there is so much I have seen, so much I have learned and so much to say. I can't possibly sit here and write a proper summary of my German experience. Rather, I wanted to say thank you for a few things on this last night I have in Potsdam.

Thank you, German language. Even though you can be a real bitch with your senseless three genders and arbitrary plurals, the fact that you've added Schwangerschaftverhütungsmittel and Rolltreppenbenutzungshinweise to my vocabulary has earned you a thanks. 

"Entry to the construction forbidden"

Thank you, University of Potsdam. America should really adopt your European model of having classes meet once a week. Easily the most relaxing semester of my life, but one of the most interesting. Now I know exactly when to write a ß or ss; it's also embarrassing that a German professor taught me that "smog" comes from "smoke + fog." 

University of Potsdam at New Palace

Thank you, Potsdam. As "Berlin's pretty little sister," I will miss your green parks and elaborate palaces. Your close proximately to Berlin complements your smaller size wonderfully. I will oddly miss the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) with my favorite Döner shop and the best ice cream in town. Funny to think that five months ago I didn't know how a train station worked.

Sansoucci Palace in Potsdam

Thank you, to all of the people I was able to visit while I was here and all of their wonderful friends I met, too. Whether I was in Stuttgart with Bettina, in Kiel with Edda, Leipzig with Julia, Bremen with Franzi or in Jena with Patricia, I enjoyed every chance I had to see as much of Germany as possible. I have now been (bin) to 14/16 Bundesländer [German states]. But these cities would not have been nearly as special if I hadn't had such hospitable hosts.

My last trip to see Patricia in Jena.

And thank you, Pit (and Missi the dog) and Frederike. I am truly so, so lucky to have found the apartment in Potsdam that I did. This semester would not have been as amazing and life-enhancing had I not had such nice, fun roommates. I got to speak German every day; I got to help Frederike with her English; and I made lifelong friends.

Roommates: Frederike, Pit and Missy. 

Tomorrow I board a plane at 12:15 Germany time and head back across the Atlantic. I am ecstatic to see my family, girlfriend and friends, but I can't ignore the bittersweetness of it all. I will miss Germany; I will miss so much about it, but I just have to tell myself that this won't be our last encounter.

Thanks, Germany.

Fragen [questions]

It's been a month since I last posted something here. In the beginning, there was so much I wanted to write about, but the more accustom I've become to life in Germany, the fewer "blog-worthy" experiences have happened. But with four weeks left until I come home, I still want to post a few more entries. What I thought I'd post this time is a list of my favorite ten questions that I've been asked by Germans about America. The answers are pretty obvious, so I'll include what I should have answered.

Me with Copernicus. We're both thinkers and are always ready to tackle the big questions. 

Here we go: Top Ten Questions asked by Germans about America. Please note that these questions were originally asked in German and sometimes by multiple people, but I've done my best to translate and paraphrase.



10. What TV shows are the most popular in the U.S.? 

Antiques Roadshow, reruns of Charmed,  and Judge Judy 

9. Is the videotaping of the subway stations a big issue where you live (like it is in Berlin)? 

Yes. I feel like my privacy is being breached every time I take the subway from Lockwood to the Heights. That's why I stick to the tram. 

8. Montana? Like Hannah Montana? 

Exactly. Have you seen our state quarter? 

7. What stereotypes do Americans have about Germans? 

Friendly, easy-going people with a beautiful language. 

6. So do a lot of people go to Montana to live the American Dream?

You must be thinking of North Dakota. 

5. Can you really drive when you're 16?

Actually I could drive when I was 15, but then you have to wait six more years to drink. Wait...

4. Are there really these house parties? And do they really drink from these red cups?

Yes, but you have to be 21 to attend them. And normally the cups contain non-alcoholic beverages such as grapefruit juice or skim milk. 

3. What was the 51st state again? (Yes, I've had three Germans try to convince me that there are 51 states)

Where is the 51st star on the flag? 

2. What do you think of the job President Obama is doing?

REDACTED. 

1. Is college in America like American Pie? Like when you go to college are all the girls hot?

So much like American Pie that's it's scary. Harvard's got the hottest girls, though.

Auf halbem Wege [halfway]

I'm over halfway done with my time abroad. WOW. I can't believe how the time has been flying. In the past month since I last checked in here, I had my family visit me, I went to a new German city (Bremen) and my girlfriend Alice came to see me. 

With the g.f. in Bremen.

I could give you a blow by blow of what I've done in the past month, but I'm going to take different approach; so let's give it a try. 

My Favorite Five Things I Saw in the Past Month

5. All of Leipzig

Hip, art-deco sort of apartment building in Leipzig.

Okay, I'm kind of cheating on this first one considering I'd been to Leipzig twice before (and for the record, I am heading there for a fourth time tomorrow). But I journeyed to my favorite German city outside of Berlin/Brandenburg with the family and got to do a bus tour of the whole city. What was hilarious was the fact that we were the only ones on the bus, and the tour guide blabbed on for over an hour in German, and my mom, dad and brother, of course, had no idea what she was saying. I told them just to nod and smile (except about the part about all the people Napoleon killed). 

4. East Side Gallery 

Start of the art memorial

My two favorite countries!

 

 Alice and I journeyed into Berlin and visited one of the big tourist attractions I had not yet seen: the East Side Gallery. It's a stretch of paintings that was erected in 1990 along where the wall existed. It's dubbed as a memorial for freedom, with artists' works from all over the globe creating a new wall of sorts. I included just a few paintings above.
 3. Bremen

Downtown Bremen

Bremen is a cool city of about half a million people in the north of Germany. I met Alice there and stayed with her friend from high school Franzi (the girl who saved my life during my first few days of navigating German public transportation). 

2. Reichstag 

Although we didn't make reservations to a tour inside (on my list of things to do), the German parliament building known as the "Reichstag" is pretty damn cool. 

1. Michael Jackson Balcony

I can't believe I missed this the first time I was in this part of Berlin! It's the Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson dangled his baby Blanket (no, he didn't dangle a blanket; he dangled the baby which is named Blanket) back in 2002. Clearly the most important landmark in Berlin and arguably all of Europe! 

My Five Favorite Things I'm Still Loving About Germany

5. Public Transportation: While I cursed it up and down in the beginning, I've really grown to love hopping on the tram or on a train into Berlin, and I've learned to utilize the time to study or read. If either of those fail, it's great people-watching time.

4. Bakeries: I wish we had a bakery on every corner in the US like they have here in Germany. I can't get enough of the baked goods here. But considering how healthy Americans are when it comes to food consumption, maybe now's not the time. . . 

3. Weather: I wasn't jealous of the snow Montana had in April. Nor am I jealous of all the horrible rain/flooding. It's felt like summer for over a month now, and I love it. 

2. Speaking German: Some days are better than others, but in general, I still love speaking German to my roommates, classmates, bus drivers, hair dressers, Subway sandwich-makers, etc. 

1. Marzipan: if you have no idea what I'm talking about, LOOK IT UP AND RUN TO YOUR NEAREST WORLD MARKET. 

And finally. . .

Five Things I've Learned/Observed About Myself So Far

5. I sleep way too much. I've always known I can sleep, but with an easy-going semester like the one I'm undertaking, I've learned if I don't have to get up for something, I won't. I sleep like a rock and have no self-discipline about actually getting up after my alarm goes off. I've accepted that I'm not a morning person, but I'm really going to try to be better about "sleeping my life away."

4. Patience is key, and I've got it. My mother's not patient. My father's not patient. My brother REALLY isn't patient. I'm not always patient, but for the most part, I am. I don't know if Germany has helped fuel my patience or if I'm just noticing it more.

3. Go with the flow. Along similar lines as the patience bit, with all the mishaps, missed trains, missed flights, delays, and so on, I've learned that in oder to get the most out of an experience, you have to be able to say, "This isn't what I planned, but I'll make it work."

2. I'm pretty damn good at German. Okay, it really took a lot for me to write that. I never want to boast about being good at something--especially with a foreign language. It annoys me so much when someone brags about how good they are at speaking a foreign tongue. It's annoying because 1) it's usually not that true and 2) no matter how good you are, there's always so much more you can learn. But after struggling with saying some word earlier this week, I was really beating myself up about it. But within the past few days, I got several compliments on my German. The lady who cut my hair said "You're German is so good!" and a friend of a friend said "He speaks so well--I can't hear an accent." Words of praise like that make everything I've done to learn this grammatically-challenging language worth it. Let's see where I can take my German in these last two months.

1. I want both worlds. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss home. I do. Would I call it homesickness? No. I have yet to really wish that I would just be home. In fact, hitting this halfway point of my stay abroad was bitter-sweet. I started being able to see the end of my stay here, which terrifies me. I love it here so much, and it's crazy to think about it ending. I want to learn so much more. At the same time, however, I look forward to being home with friends, and with my family. I also crave food like Olive Garden and Buffalo Wild Wings on a weekly basis, but now I'm starting to think how much I will miss my Döners and Pfannkuchens here. I want Montana and Germany at the same time. . .



Let's see what the next 59 days bring.

Osterhase und das Geburtstagskind [Easterbunny and the birthday boy]

 Wow, what a great weekend I had last week! As I've mentioned before, I have two amazing friends in Germany who were exchange students in high school during my senior year. One is Julia, who lives in Leipzig (and with whom I stayed at the beginning of my trip).

Refresher: this is Julia.

The other is Edda, who studies in Kiel but is from Lüneburg, which is right outside of Hamburg. Edda's family invited me to their home for the weekend, which just happened to include Easter and my 21st birthday.

Finally reunited with Edda!

Anyway, I had an AWESOME weekend. As fun and exciting as city life is, it was so relaxing to stay in Edda's house (which is actually located in a tiny town outside of Lüneburg) with two levels, and a backyard, and a patio, etc. Edda's family was so hospitable--I really couldn't have asked for more. We spent one day touring the charming city of Lüneburg, which has population of about 70,000: so like the 120th biggest city in Germany. No really, I looked it up.  Later in the day, we stopped at a cafe and I had my second Flammkuchen [I guess we would call it a tarte flambée] in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammkuchen Later that night, Edda and I went back into the city to meet up with two of her friends at an outdoor Kneipe overlooking the river.

 

A couple pics from the L-burg. 

 The night before Easter I drove into Hamburg with Edda to her boyfriend's house for an Osterfeuer  [Easter fire]. I would have never understood this connection between a fire and Easter if Frau Campbell had not made me do a presentation on it back in high school. Vielen Dank, Frau! I guess it's pretty common in Germany/Northern Europe to make a big bonfire on Easter. The tradition comes from the chasing off of the winter ghosts or something and welcoming warm weather. Maybe you all in Montana should have tried this a while ago?

Our Easter Fire

So Saturday night, Edda and I were at this celebration and we were up until about 1:30. Now, this wouldn't have been a big deal at all if we didn't have to attend a six a.m. church service. We slept for two hours at her boyfriend's house, got up at 3:30 (yes, I woke up on Easter Sunday at 3:30!) and drove back to Edda's house just in time to shower, get dressed and set off driving to another village for church by 5:30. I'm glad I did it though because it was really interesting to sit through a German church service that wasn't all that different from my own church back in Billings which has strong German roots itself. I did almost fall asleep though (Edda nudged me to wake me up), but I didn't feel too bad because I found out later that Edda's dad did fall asleep.

The rest of Easter Sunday was pleasant, although I did try to fit in as many cat naps as possible. We went to an Easter brunch and then drove to the Baltic Sea. Yes, the weather was warm enough to go to the beach--guess that fire worked,

With Edda's family at Easter brunch!

Soaking up the sun. BTW: See that coat? Yeah, found it for 10 Euros! Snäppchen! 

The next day was my birthday. Yep, I'm 21. Doesn't really feel any different. Edda and her dad took me into Hamburg. Hamburg is breathtakingly beautiful. I'll let these pictures I took from the top of St. Michel's church speak for themselves. 

But if I'm going to be completely honest, for most of the day it didn't really feel like my birthday. My favorite part of having a birthday is all the birthday wishes you get when you go out with friends, the calls and texts you get and the birthday cards. Facebook did a moderate job of satisfying this, but overall it just felt like another awesome day in Europe, but not my birthday. However, the evening ended splendidly because Edda's mom made my new favorite meal here: asparagus with Hollandaise sauce with a tasty raspberry-something for dessert. They even got me presents! It was nice that even if I wasn't home with my family for my birthday, I had another family to make my day extra special.

Das Einleben [settling in]

Shame on me, I know; I haven't been keeping up on my blog. But now that I'm settled in here in Potsdam, I should be able to be more active on here.

So last time I checked in, I had just spent a great weekend in Scotland. Now I write from my room at my WG in Potsdam, where it's starting to feel like home. Okay, maybe not my real home, but a home of sorts. I've had the chance to spend a lot of time with both my roommates Pit and Frederike. Some highlights include watching "Miss Congeniality" or "Miss Undercover" as it's called here, shopping at the local mall and playing a midnight game of Kniffel--the German version of Yatzee (doing math quickly in German is hard; maybe that's why I lost the game). I am so thankful everyday that I found this apartment, and I pity those international students who are living in the student dorms in Golm. I must thank the dear Martha Scheer for advising me this past fall not to live in these student dorms because they aren't really even located in Potsdam. Instead, they are on the outskirts of city in the farming community of Golm, where buses don't even run at night. It has also worked out splendidly because my room here was already furnished, and I can use all the kitchen essentials such as silverware and pans and plates that Pit and Frederike already own, which is an additional cost those students in dorms have pay.

I also had my friend Michael who just finished up a semester in Spain come to visit. We spent an afternoon exploring Berlin, which was a lot of fun. Here a few pictures from that adventure:

Brandenburg Gate

Checkpoint Charlie

One of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall

As far as school goes (oh, yeah, almost forgot that I am studying abroad), classes finally started this week. That means with the semester just starting, I'll be in school until the end of July. But don't feel too sorry for me; I only have class two days a week. On Mondays I have a German class that focuses on grammar and vocabulary, and then on Wednesdays, I have two Russian classes back to back. One is written expression and the other one deals with oral expression. I've only been to class once, but I can tell I'm going to learn a lot. In the Russian class, we each have a computer and headset/microphone with which we have to record ourselves every class. Talk about intimidating!

Well, I think that's all I've got for you for now. I am very excited for next weekend. I'm heading to Lüneburg (near Hamburg) to stay with my friend from high school Edda and her family. It's Easter/ my birthday. That's right: Paul's turning 21! Look out, world!

Schottisches Wochenende [Scottish weekend]

Well, I'm finally settled in Potsdam. After three weeks of traveling around Europe, I'm ready to stay put--at least for a little while. But I still need to write something about the amazing weekend I had in the UK. While my transit to and from Edinburgh was far more stressful and difficult than I anticipated, the end result was definitely worth it. All I'll say about my transportation to and from Scotland is this: make sure you know where the airport you need is; sometimes it's an hour and 45 minutes out of your way.

I was so glad to meet up with my long-time friend Alyssa Small in Edinburgh. We didn't plan the whole picking me up at the airport thing, but we somehow managed to time things perfectly, as she rolled up on the bus literally two minutes after I got through customs. Of course we had to ride on the top level of the double-decker bus to her flat. Once we got to her flat, I met her lovely "flatmate" Lindsey from New York. What a breath of fresh air Miss Lindsey is! She tells it how it is, but is so kind, friendly and hysterical at the same time. Luckily, Lindsay accompanied us with all of our activities throughout the weekend. Highlights  were shopping on Princess Street, eating fish and chips (I never eat fish, but it was delicious!) and dining at a Portuguese/South African restaurant. We also toured Holyrood Palace where the queen stays when she visits Edinburgh.

Outside of Holyrood. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside; that didn't stop Lindsey, though. 

We also stopped by The Elephant House for lunch. This was the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote a lot of the early Harry Potter books. 

It was also just a lot of fun to hang out in Alyssa's flat, chatting with Lindsey and the other roomies, discussing the differences among the US, Scotland and Germany. But my favorite moment was on my last full day in Scotland when Alyssa and I climbed a hill that overlooks the whole city. As I sat alone on the hill overlooking the city and the ocean, I got chills. Absolutely breathtaking to think that I was just chilling on a hill in Scotland without a care in the world.

Hopefully I have more moments like that. Thanks, Alyssa, for the great weekend!

Toller Tag [great day]

What a great day in Germany. 

After a peaceful morning of sleeping in, I joined Julia and four of her friends for lunch in the cafeteria of the university here in Leipzig. The food was cheap, but the cordon bleu was a hundred times better than what the Food Zoo could whip up. 

Afterwards, we drove about 25 minutes to the town of Lützen, where Julia grew up and where her grandparents still live. We visited with the charming couple in their garden (which is still common here in the east: you have your apartment, and then you have a small plot of land where you have a little one-room house--same thing as "the dacha" for you Russian speakers). It was during this conversation when, for the first time, I could really feel my German's improvement. I still am not talking as much as I should be, but I understood nearly every word of the conversation, which isn't always easy when speaking with 1) East Germans and 2) elders (I could never understand my own grandpa back in the States). It was also amusing to hear that "old people" say the same things everywhere. Julia's Oma [grandma] went on and on about how kids these days have no respect, can't behave themselves on the bus and how furchtbar [horrible] their slang is (specifically, how kids say "Hey, Alter!" all the time, which is the equivalent to "Hey, Dude!"). Then there were the "back in my day" moments. Except with this couple it was all about the DDR [East Germany]. Example: We were discussing the taste of Coke in the US compared to German Coke, and Julia's Opa said something along the lines of: "Well, you should have tasted the Coke they gave us in the DDR--that stuff wasn't Coke." 

We then headed to a nearby town of Dürrenberg to visit a new phenomenon for me: a Kurbad [literally Cure Bath]. Kurbad Bad Dürrenberg is situated on the edge of town and along a river. The park consists of walking paths, playgrounds, benches; also scattered about about are some restaurants/cafes. Then it gets a little stranger. There's a building filled with tropical plants and caged birds from all over the world. Surrounding the entire area was this wall. What it was comprised of I'm still not sure. As much as I tried to figure out what it was, I never got an answer. All I know is that salt water trickles down the walls, making it smell like the ocean. I've included a picture here (I still don't have my cord to upload pictures, so I stole this from Google Image Search--yeah, it's not that green here yet).

                                  

People come to this place to heal after illness, hence the name "cure bath." There were many sick and elderly people who were enjoying the park when we were there. I'm not sure how helpful the park is for healing, but it was beautiful and relaxing. 

On the way home from Dürrenberg, I drank a "Sparkling" Peach Iced Tea, and Lady Gaga's "Born this Way" came on. Yeah, life's pretty good right now.