Dickinson College Blog

Oh, Berlin. I think you and I belong together, despite the trouble you get me in.

In late January, I decided to make another trip to Berlin because most of my friends there would be returning to their home countries soon. There is a German website called “Mitfahrgelegenheit” (literally translated: drive with + opportunity), where you can search for rides to all over the country. It’s a great idea—much cheaper than planes and trains, and carpooling is always a good idea for the environment. Though I was terrified to do it, I made contact with a man who was offering a ride. Since he still had a free spot, he said that I could gladly come along. The cost was 20 Euros.

I rushed to the train station after my 10 AM class on Friday and found the man, Jens Anders, in a nearby parking lot. There were already two other students in the car, but I had plenty of room. We drove most of the way in silence but it wasn’t very awkward. I just listened to music and tried not to fall asleep. Snow had begun falling and only continued to get more intense as we drove through Niedersachsen. Since the roads were slippery and visibility was low, the journey took a bit longer than I expected.

Upon my arrival in the city, I had dinner at my favorite little restaurant and then met up with just Ruben since all the other guys were busy that night. I spent the next day returning to my old stomping grounds and doing a bit post-Christmas shopping. Everything was going fine until that night…

I had planned to meet with my friends at 10 PM above the U-Bahn station Kottbusser Tor. I arrived a bit early and decided to wait inside the station rather than outside in the cold. It took me about 30 seconds to realize that I was the only female among the 20 or so men lingering below ground. None of these men looked particularly like people with whom I would want to associate. I began to make my way to an exit when a group of three men stepped in front of me to block my way. One of them grinned sketchily at me. I’m pretty sure he had 7 teeth and 4 of them were black.

“Hello. Good evening. What is your name?”
“Umm,” was all I could think of to reply. I wasn’t worried yet, but just thinking of how I was going to get out of this situation.
“My name is ____________. You are very beautiful. Perhaps I can help you.”
“Um, no, I don’t think you can, thank you.” I tried to step forward but they were like a wall.
“Oh, come on. I’m sure you’d like some of this.” He pulled a large baggie of marijuana from his jacket sleeve.
‘Oh boy,’ I thought and spun around to walk the other way.
“No, no thank you, I don’t need anything.” I tried to be firm but polite. I then began to really notice my surroundings. Most of the men had a bottle of liquor in their hands, from which they guzzled avidly. One guy was vomiting violently in the corner. Another was passed out on the floor. Three men were snorting what I assumed to be cocaine off the top of a ticket machine. Two others were melting a small chunk of heroin in a spoon and negotiating prices. I looked around frantically but nobody else was coming up from the platform below or downstairs from above ground. I was completely alone.

It sounds like something out of a movie, I know. I almost couldn’t believe this was happening, myself. The group of three men followed me a few steps and re-surrounded me. A hand grabbed my shoulder from behind and I just about started screaming…when I turned to see that the hand belonged to…Anne? Life is full of coincidences, and this was a fantastic one. We hadn’t even planned to see each other until the next morning—we had had no idea of the other’s plans for that night, and I was staying at a hostel this time in the city. Out of the 170 possible U-Bahn stations, Anne happened to arrive at this one at just the right time, and I was unbelievably thankful.

“What are you doing here, Mimi?” she asked, almost laughing. “Don’t you know that you’re not supposed to come to Kottbusser Tor after 8:00 PM? This is where all the drug dealers hang out.”

No, I had not known that. I had lived in Berlin for a month and had visited multiple times since then, but had somehow never learned this important bit of knowledge.

We quickly headed to an exit. When another man came up to us and tried to talk, we silenced him by rapidly spewing passages of Latin and Spanish and then hurrying off. I was safe. I hung out with Anne for about half an hour, at which time I left to meet my friends (without taking the U-Bahn), and had a great night catching up with them.

I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt nearly every day. Not only did I buy a large number of gifts for my family, I also sampled all of the Christmastime goodies–more Glühwein, hot chocolate with mint liqueur, nuggets of fried dough smothered in powdered sugar, soft pretzels covered in cheese and garlic…I don’t think there was actually anything healthy to eat aside from oranges…Along the Schlachte was a different sort of Christmas market–it was supposed to be as it would have been hundreds of years ago. The booths looked rustic and the goods sold were also all handmade. The sellers were dressed in traditional outfits and there was almost no artificial lighting–only torches for when the night came.

I spent Christmas in Basel, Switzerland, with our family friends, the Cunninghams, who live there. I got to experience a traditional German-culture Christmas, where we lit real candles on the tree and exchanged/opened gifts on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning, I opened the gifts my family had sent me in order to feel a litter closer to home and its traditions. The Cunninghams had a big family gathering on the 25th. Although everyone spoke Swiss German as their “native” language, they switched to High German when talking with me. Very kind of them, considering that Swiss German is pretty much impossible to understand to the untrained ear.

Over the next week I spent time enjoying the beautiful Swiss landscape and took trips to Bern and Lucerne (pictured below). It wasn’t as hard as I expected to spend the holiday season away from my family, especially when I was surrounded by friends.

I returned to Bremen in time for New Year’s Eve (called Silvester here). Faye and I made dinner together, then met with Jessie and her friends to drink some champagne and watch people set off countless fireworks in front of the Dom. That was really cool. Loud bangs, acrid smoke, and green, red, and gold sparks filled the air as we slid into 2009. Then we went dancing. The only bad part was when Faye and I took a taxi home—our driver was a complete idiot and was driving nearly 75 miles an hour along a 30-mph stretch. She hit a corner, swerved, and almost lost control of the car. It could have been a bad accident.

And just like that, the holidays were over and it was back to classes.

This was something I had been dreading for a while—spending Thanksgiving and Christmas without my family. As for most people, those are the two most important holidays for me and I had never celebrated them away from home. However, Jens made sure that our Thanksgiving was extra special and as American as possible. On Thanksgiving Day, we met up—along with some of our German friends and two Germans who were to study at Dickinson for the Spring Semester—and took a train to northern Bremen, where Jens’s father co-owned a restaurant (or something like that). The entire restaurant was closed for the day; we were the only people there. The staff had decorated the table with red, white, and blue, which we found amusing. In the corner was a Christmas tree.

We feasted. Three waiters brought out the biggest turkey I’d ever seen in my life, and Drew and Rick carved it up. There was wine to drink and plenty to eat; some of it was even traditional American Thanksgiving food. We ended up taking most of the turkey home.

That night was also the start of the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) in Bremen, which was quite an affair. We returned to find downtown Bremen filled with countless stands selling everything from food to leather goods to candles. Christmas lights were strung from the booths and some pine trees that had been brought into the Marktplatz. Holiday songs were playing, the winter air smelled like sweet spices, and everyone was cheerful. We bought some Glühwein (hot mulled wine which tastes AMAZING) and stood around and admired the sights. If you have never been to a German Christmas Market, put it on your list of things to do. It’s hard to find words to explain how I felt upon seeing the Weihnachtsmarkt…excited, content, peaceful…

Thanksgiving was a major success. The only problem was that there had been no mashed potatoes at the dinner. We remedied that by making literally 12 pounds of mashed potatoes at a group party a week later…

Carminis inceptor mihi Jupiter; auspice terras

linquo Iove; excelsam reserat dux Iupiter aethram

imus in astra Iovis monitu; Iovis omine caelum,

et Iovis imperio mortalibus aethera pando.

Hic statio, hic sedes primi patris; iste paterni   5

principium motus, vis fulminis iste corusci,

vita elementorum, mundi calor, aetheris ignis,

astrorumque vigor, perpes substantia lucis,

et numerus celsi modulaminis; hic tener aer,

materiaeque gravis concretio; sucus ab alto    10

corporibus caelo; cunctarum alimonia rerum;

flos et flamma animae, qui discurrente meatu

molis primigenae penetralia dura resolvens

implevit largo venas operatus amore,

ordinis ut proprii foedus daret; iste calorem,   15

quo digesta capax solidaret semina mundus,

inseruit. rite hunc primum, medium, atque supremum

vox secreta canit sibi; nam permixtus utrimque,

actor agendorum, propriique patrator amoris,

et mundi vere pastor sacer. Hic chaos altum    20

lumine perrumpit; tenebrarum hic vincula primus

solvit, et ipse parens rerum fluitantia fixit.

……

Hoc duce per tumidi ferimur freta gurgitis; isto  41

praeceptore solum gravibus versamus aratris;

iste modum statuit signis; hic rebus honorem

infundit; tenebris hic interlabitur aethrae,

viscera et aethereos animans genitabilis artus.   45 

A bit more info. on Avienus is here. The text I used was that of Despois and Saviot (Paris: Panckoucke, 1843), available here through Google books.

As we headed to the airport for our trip to London, the weather was worse than usual. Thick clumps of wet snow covered our clothing in the 10-minute walk to the tram stop. I didn’t bring anything for snowy weather because were told that it was unnecessary, as it never snows in Bremen. Katie and I waited in the airport for a good two hours, then in a line for another 95 minutes. Our plane was delayed, and then they refused to let anyone board. The snow had been falling for the entire time now, and was only getting heavier. Finally, they allowed us on the plane. With the wings de-iced, we pulled onto the runway and prepared to take off…when suddenly the pilot stopped, turned the plane around, and went back to the terminal. The runway, which was covered in snow and ice, was too dangerous, we were informed. So we sat and sat in the plane as plows outside tried to clear the tarmac.

Katie was ready to give up and go back home. I certainly wasn’t. I was willing to sit on this plane for as long as it took. For a while, it seemed as though the entire flight would be canceled. But then, two hours later, they decided to try again. Everyone in the plane had his or her fingers crossed…and we made it! All of the passengers burst into applause and the mood immediately turned cheerful. We arrived at Stanstead Airport two hours later, managed to catch one of the last trains heading into the city and checked into our hostel at nearly 2:00 AM.

I won’t go into detail about what we did for the next three days, as that would take pages, but I can say that we did A LOT. A link to an album of pictures can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002824&id=1242360021&l=26c6d3ce21

We saw all of the touristy sites, of course—Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Abbey Road, Platform 9 & 3/4, Globe Theatre, Harrods, went on a ride in the London Eye…The gorgeous weather on our first day there made up for the fact that we nearly froze to death on our 90-minute open-top double decker bus ride. And then we got drenched on Sunday in the pouring rain while waiting to see the Changing of the Guard at the palace, which ended up never happening.

It was great to be in a country with people who spoke my native language. I bought some books and magazines and a large amount of food that is not to be found in Germany. I absolutely loved London—it was a bit like the America of Europe, but only in a good way. Everyone was so much friendlier than the typical northern German. It didn’t matter that I spent nearly 400 dollars; getting away from Bremen for a few days to explore a new city was well worth it. Since it was the beginning of the Christmas season, there were also fantastic lights and decorations which made me very very happy. On our last night, we went to Hamley’s, a 5-storey toyshop. It was incredible and I wished I had had the money (and the room in my backpack!) to buy lots of toys.

There was still snow crusted to the ground when we returned to Bremen, but I didn’t mind so much. London had provided the break I had desperately needed and I was, at least a little bit, glad to be back.

Classes had been going for nearly a month. The weather was colder and rainier. Autumn in Bremen is really not so pretty. Once Freimarkt was over, it was even worse. My professor and advisor, Sarah McGaughey, flew in on November 13th for a week’s visit, and that improved our time. We made a large amount of cookies for her arrival, had a nice dinner with her, and got to talk about our time in Bremen. For Saturday morning, Jens asked us to host a brunch for her in Katie’s and my apartment. Preparations, however, were a bit stressful. I believe the saying is: “too many cooks in the kitchen…” But we made a FEAST and the food was delicious.

Here came the point in time where the “honeymoon” was over. It’s apparently just a part of the cycle of emotions one experiences while studying abroad—where you are no longer in the awed, happy stage of being in a foreign country. My independence was no longer so exciting, I missed my family, and I was tired of classes. I wasn’t homesick, but I was certainly missing a number of aspects of my life in the United States. The other problem was that all of us were getting tired of each other. Our Bremen group is small—only 7 students—and we were spending most of our time together. Obviously, you start to see the best and worst of people, and it was clear we were all getting on each other’s nerves. It’s not that we were starting to dislike each other; we just needed a break.

So, Katie and I decided to take a trip somewhere. Neither of us had classes on Mondays or Tuesdays, so we could take a 4-day weekend to travel. We put a number of destinations in a cup and drew…London! So there we went…

I forgot to mention that I returned to Berlin for Halloween weekend. My friend Jens, whom I had met in our Goethe Institut course, had just moved into a new apartment and was having a party to celebrate. So after class on Friday, I hurried to the train station to catch my train to Berlin. This was my first solo trip in Germany, and I was a bit nervous, but managed to get to Berlin without any trouble. Anne Maiale picked me up at the station, since I was staying with her for the weekend. We made some amazing dinner and spent some time catching up. It’s really interesting to hear about her experiences as a Fulbright teacher! I spent most of Saturday wandering around the city, going back to where I had lived, shopping a bit, etc. It was funny to realize the fact that it was Halloween—it is not really celebrated in Germany at all, so there was nothing to remind me about it except for the candy my mother and uncle had sent me.

At 10 PM, Anne and I headed out to our respective parties. Jens’s apartment was in kind of a shady place in the city, but I’d been in that area many times before and wasn’t worried. The party was, simply put, crazy. I had expected something small, but Jens had moved into basically an entire floor of a building. I think it used to be a factory or something. There were over 150 people there, and more kept coming. It was both fantastic and strange to see all my friends again. It had been a month since we had last been together, and a lot had changed in my life since then. But after a couple of minutes it was just as if I had never moved to Bremen and we were having a great time. They all commented that my German had become really good. I hadn’t noticed until they said that, but then I realized that I was indeed speaking much more quickly and with a larger vocabulary. Score!

The party went on and on and there were so many people that it was nearly impossible to move around. That’s when the police came and told us to quiet down. Of course, nobody did. The police came an hour later and repeated the warning. I just happened to be by the front door when they came for the last time. Without knocking, they pushed open the door and began filing in, one after another. 14 officers in total, and they did not look happy. There had to be nearly 300 people in the apartment, and they left pretty quickly once they realized the police were not kidding around anymore.

I called Anne, who said she was also on the way home from her party. Since she would be back before I would, she said just to call or ring the bell when I returned. Well, it was 4:00 in the morning by the time I was standing in front of her door. I tried to call her only to find that my phone had run out of credit at that minute. I rang the bell once. And again. And again. I could hear it ringing inside, even though she lived on the second floor. I rang 70 times (yes, I counted), then gave up. I was cold. I was exhausted. There was a park right across the street. I seriously thought about sleeping on one of the benches, but then thought about how my parents would not be happy about that—they would probably rather have me charge their credit card for a night at the Hotel Adlon than sleep on a bench.

I tried to think clearly. I needed warmth and caffeine. Since it was 4:30, the bakery on the corner had just opened, I went there and ordered a pastry and a coffee. But when I went to sit down at a table, the owner told me that I could not. Confused, I asked why. His answer was not clear. He just said that I could not sit in the store. Again, I asked why. Again, he did not explain. He said I could sit at the table outside. Maybe he didn’t see that I was shaking from the bitter weather and was on the verge of tears. I left, back into the dark early morning, and threw the coffee away in anger. I went to the nearest U-Bahn station. I could find warmth there. I got onto a train and rode all the way to the end of the line, then all the way back. There was only one other person on the train. I watched the sun begin to rise. At 5:45, I returned to Anne’s apartment, rang the bell again, and she answered. She apologized endlessly for not waking up, but I assured her it was okay. Because it was. Berlin always throws huge adventures my way, and I have learned not to complain about them. A day of rest later, I took a bus back to Bremen and returned to classes.

URGENT UPDATE: Today I saw a bunch of bunnies frolicking in the Bürgerpark. It was marvelous.

Not-so-urgent Update: Paris pictures are finally up!

Also, tomorrow begins our Dickinson-sponsored roadtrip to Dresden, Weimar, and Leipzig. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon and getting back on Monday evening. It should be quite interesting, not only because of the places we’re visiting but also because we’ll be spending some quality time together in a van listening to Jens’ music…hmm…

The priest Chryses asks Apollo to make the Greeks pay for the wrong they have done him. Iliad 1.37-47, discussed, translated, and read in Greek by Elizabeth Parker, May 2009.

κλῦθί μευ ἀργυρότοξ᾽, ὃς Χρύσην ἀμφιβέβηκας
Κίλλάν τε ζαθέην Τενέδοιό τε ἶφι ἀνάσσεις,
Σμινθεῦ εἴ ποτέ τοι χαρίεντ᾽ ἐπὶ νηὸν ἔρεψα,
ἢ εἰ δή ποτέ τοι κατὰ πίονα μηρί᾽ ἔκηα
ταύρων ἠδ᾽ αἰγῶν, τὸ δέ μοι κρήηνον ἐέλδωρ·
τίσειαν Δαναοὶ ἐμὰ δάκρυα σοῖσι βέλεσσιν.

ὧς ἔφατ᾽ εὐχόμενος, τοῦ δ᾽ ἔκλυε Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων,
βῆ δὲ κατ᾽ Οὐλύμποιο καρήνων χωόμενος κῆρ,
τόξ᾽ ὤμοισιν ἔχων ἀμφηρεφέα τε φαρέτρην·
ἔκλαγξαν δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὀϊστοὶ ἐπ᾽ ὤμων χωομένοιο,
αὐτοῦ κινηθέντος· ὁ δ᾽ ἤϊε νυκτὶ ἐοικώς.