A Freiburger Karnival for Leah

Leah arrived in Freiburg at two p.m. Friday. I saw her in the station and could hardly believe it. She finally arrived. After over a month of discovering this city by myself, I finally got to see what it was like with Leah. And she couldn’t have picked a better weekend. The week was karnival (carnival) week. The whole region of Baden-Württemberg went crazy.

Karnival is an annual week long pagan festival. It reminds me of Halloween because everyone dresses in crazy outfits which are meant to scare off the spirits of winter. There are two reasons for the holiday: first, to bring about an early spring (like groundhog’s day); second, it’s an opportunity to rebel against political leaders. The city of Koln was criticized last year for having a float that carried a naked sculpture of Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor. Many thought that such an insult to Germany’s first female chancellor was too much, but stuff like that is common place in karnival celebrations.

The week of karnival began Thursday, but the first day of celebrations was only for women. It starts this way to give the people, women, who have been most traditionally oppressed the first chance to rebel. Any man that dared to wear a tie on Thursday probably had it cut off. In some cities, the ties that are cut off get strung across wires that hang from window to window for the remainder of Karnival. Everyone was allowed to celebrate and party on Thursday, but if a man wished to party, he had to dress in drag. For the record, I didn’t party on Thursday.

But I did party very early in the morning on Friday. Promptly, at midnight Friday morning, I went to a party across the hall on the same floor as my flat. The theme of this party was to go as you, thirty years from now. So everyone was supposed to wear business casual or, as the ladies often did, old lady dresses. I simply wore a work shirt and my brown corduroy pants. I thought about wearing a tie, but thought better of it. There might have been some crazy women runnin’ ‘round that still thought it was Thursday.

The party was a fun start to the karnival week. I was surprised to find another kid, Adam, from my IES-EU program. Adam was pulling an all nighter because his group, group C had to leave for Eastern Europe at seven Friday morning. My group, group A, didn’t leave for Western Europe until Monday.

A guy named Eric introduced himself to me and asked if I had ever been to Kansas. I told him that I had probably driven through Kansas at one point or another, but couldn’t remember a specific time or reason for being in Kansas. Well he said he had spent a year in high school in Kansas and, naturally, he was a fan of Jayhawk basketball. I asked him if he followed K-State at all, and whether he knew coach Jim Woolridge. He said he didn’t like K-State, because they’re rivals with Kansas, and he had never heard of coach. But he said he followed Kansas basketball very closely, so we decided to watch some games together come tourney time. I also learned that Freiburg actually has a semi-pro basketball team. Eric said he attends a few games a year, but he said they suck and it’s hard to watch. I definitely want to check it out – see for myself.

A study abroad student from Canada was also at the party. Shortly after talking to her I learned that she had crone’s disease. It was an interesting tidbit of info to learn about a person and make relatable to the personal experience of a loved one. We talked about that briefly and then about American-Canadian politics. President Obama made his first foreign visit last week to Canada. So that was interesting.

I left the party at about 2:30 in the morning and went to bed. I woke up at about 10:30, went grocery shopping and then to the train station to meet Leah.

We dropped Leah’s luggage off at my room. Leah was hungry I took her to a Uni-Kabab Turkish restaurant in the city center. The restaurant served good kababs (like a gyro) and cheap cheese pizza (only three euro!). It’s an odd restaurant. Its walls have pictures of Communist leaders, like Che and a guy that I swear looks like Mao, but Leah doesn’t think it’s Mao, and a map of Cuba – which is strange because I don’t think there’s a picture of Castro – but they make good and cheap fast food. After a late lunch we went to a little restaurant that over looked the city. The restaurant was classy, an old building with Victorian décor and classical portraits. From the view we could see the whole city and well into the black forest. The forest was dark against the gray sky and the city sat below very pale. We could not afford a meal there, but I really wanted to take Leah to the best view in Freiburg, so we both ordered beers – Leah’s first German beer – and shared a slice of cheese cake.

We stayed at the restaurant on top of the hill for a little over an hour, long outlasting our drinks and cake, and then left for my room. By the time dinner came around we weren’t really hungry so we decided to go into town and eat a pretzel and then to the bars.

Martin’s Brauer was Freiburg’s oldest brewery. It’s a classic. Martin’s was located in a cellar. Leah said that it reminded her of Cheers, the local pub where all the friends get together. They served traditional German food and brewed two different beers, a blonde and a dunkel (dark beer). We ordered a pitcher of dunkel which only costs us 8.10 E (in Paris a single beer will cost 6 or 7 E). Dunkel taste sweet and smooth. It is a very good beer.

A group of about a dozen people with faces painted pink, wearing Mexican sombreros and black conquistador type outfits, marched into the cellar and started playing marching band type of jazz music. It was outrageous. They completely surrounded the table that was next to ours and played for about fifteen minutes. They had all the instruments of a typical marching band. The trombone and bass drum players stood closest to us. At the end of their performance they were given free beers. They then mingled with the folks around the bar. Just moments before they had arrived Leah said that she would like to see some live music. She was disappointed that she had not seen any live performances in Paris yet. And then, right here in little old Freiburg, we get a free and unexpected show.

We were almost done with our pitcher when Leah had to go to the restroom. She was gone for a little longer than a usual use of the facilities should take. I was starting to get worried, but then she came back with a smile on her face. She then explained that she got lost and ended up going down the wrong hallway after using the restrooms. It turns out that a few bars are connected and use the same restrooms. She accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up walking into another bar. In that bar a live band was playing classic rock music. We finished our drinks a few minutes later and paid for our drink and went to bar with the classic rock music.

All the folks in the bar were at least 35, and most were about 50. The music was good though so we decided to stay. The band was called “The Liverpool Beats.” They played everything from surf music to the Rolling Stones.

Our true Karnival week experience took place on Saturday.

We woke up at about ten o’clock. I made Leah and me some eggs and bratwurst. We also had an apple and then went into town for a pastry.

I wanted to show Leah around the city a bit, but we ended up getting swept away by a small parade. Hundreds, maybe a thousand people, were marching to a location near the city center. Groups of about a dozen people played music. These small bands played joyful jazz tunes. Beer was sold from small stands. Pastries and bratwurst were available at similar venders. Some of the costumes people wore were ridiculous: pirates, Native Americans, colonial wear, but the most common costume was an outfit that looked like a person who was tarred and feathered. These people also wore scary masks. I think it was some sort of traditional karnival costume meant to scare away the evil winter spirits.

All the bands had their time to play. Some were good, others were nicht so gut. We left the karnival festivities eventually and went to the Munster. It is a beautiful cathedral built in the gothic era. We spent some time there and ended up getting swept away by more karnival activities. That was pretty much how we spent the afternoon.

I cooked Leah some of my famous bratwurst and spaghetti dinner (yes, I eat bratwurst with almost every meal). Leah brought me some salted-butter from France (Germany doesn’t put any salt in its butter!) and it made my masterpiece dish even better. We drank some wine with dinner, the meal was perfect.

We went out that night to Aspek café. Aspek is a hip little café near the city center. After that we went to Art Café, another hip place, but the food and drink was too expensive. It was right next door to the Turkish place we ate at the day before, so we decided to go there. We split a pizza and a beer.

The next morning we woke up very late, around noon, showered and such and then went into town to eat some cheap Chinese food. It took us a long time to figure out what the Hell the Chinese food menu said in German, but eventually we ordered. I had some beef concoction and Leah had their chicken concoction.

Leah left at four p.m. Sunday. It was sad to see her go, but I’ll be in Paris on Thursday with my IES-EU program so it won’t be too long until we discover more of Europe together.

After seeing Leah off, I went into town to see about purchasing a phone card (I’m almost out of minutes). The store I needed to go to was closed for Sunday, but the streets were even more crowded with Karnival activities. It’s almost becoming too much!

I returned to my room and wrote this, which has become quite lengthy.

Off to Luxemburg tomorrow,

Cheers!

Freiburger Days

(These are a few pictures from my room)

I have to wake up at eight in the morning, shower, get dressed and eat and then go to class at 9 am on Mondays and Wednesday. I have three classes everyday, but on Monday and Wednesdays my classes go from 9 am – 2:20 pm. I have an hour and a half break after my second class, which gives me enough time to either go to my flat for lunch or to the Bavarian man that sells me bratwurst in front of the Munster.

I don’t have to wake up until 1 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays since my first class on those days doesn’t start until 1:35. Usually I wake up at nine or ten and then have a lazy morning. Often I’ll eat breakfast with my suitemates.

Breakfast on Mondays and Wednesdays is usually just a bowl of cereal and a piece of bread. I eat fast on these days because I can’t miss the 8:44 tram. The tram runs every seven minutes in the morning and afternoon hours, and it takes about 10 minutes for the tram to arrive at the stop for the school and then another few minutes to walk to class. So if I miss the 8:44, I’m at least 5 minutes late to class. This happened once, but ever since I’ve made a great effort to make the 8:37, and if I miss that tram, I’ll still have the 8:44.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I cook a carnivore’s breakfast of bratwurst and eggs.

The Coffee I drink is made from a French press I bought on one of the first days I was here. It took me at least two hours to find a store that sold a French press, but finally I found one on the fourth floor of a department store. I purchase my coffee from a little old lady that owns a small shop near the Munster. She sells good ground and whole bean coffee, spices and hard liquor. We used to have a hard time communicating, she doesn’t speak any English and my German is far from good. But now she knows what I want when I enter the store every week and a half, so it’s no problem.

About once a week, sometimes twice a week, Pedro and I jam in one of our rooms. We only have the one guitar that IES provided for us, so we take turns with it and then exchange it after each jam session. We’re trying to learn a few songs together. Since Pedro is a better singer, he usually sings while I play guitar. We’re also going to try to have him play guitar and sing while I play harmonica. Most of our jam sessions usually end up with us listening to Bob Dylan or country songs.

I meet up with Miriam about once a week for lunch. Miriam was a student at the University of Freiburg. She studied abroad at Redlands last year. Before I ever knew that I’d even be going abroad I knew her, so it’s quite a coincidence that I end up in her town this year.

This week we went to a pizza shop that was pretty cheap. I ordered a personal cheese pizza and a drink for just four euros. It’s nice to know someone around here that knows the ropes a little bit.

Wednesday night is discount night at the student bar. I’ve been to that twice. It is funny to watch Europeans dance to American music. They’re just not very good at dancing.

I try to make it to as many of the cafes I can here, but it’s too expensive to go everyday. In America I’d do a lot of my studying at a coffee shop, but it is fiscally impossible here. The coffee cost three euros at most places, so I do most of my studying and coffee drinking in my flat. It’s not too bad.

I love the view from my flat. Sometimes I take a study break just to look out the window and into the hills the surround the city. The hills are covered with trees, it looks pretty, but it looks gorgeous after it snows.

Two Videos From Estonia

Also, I added photos to my "Ich bin ein Berliner" post. Check those out as well!

Valentine's Day in France

Last night was one of those nights that cause me to twist and turn. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t go to sleep, which was worrisome because I had to be at the train station by 9:03 in the morning, it was three in the morning and I was not asleep.

Well I caught about four hours of sleep before I woke at about eight o’clock. I rolled around in bed, then took a shower and made my way to the train station. It was a beautiful day, only a few white clouds in the sky and just a slight tingle of cold.

A man checked my tram pass on the way to the train station. It was only the second time someone has checked. He was nice about it and I was able to understand what he was saying, but he started to speak English as soon as I tried to respond.

Oh well.

My monthly tram pass takes me all around the surrounding area on weekends. So I figured that since I pay for it anyway, it would be stupid not to take advantage of it. At 2:30 Leah will meet me here in Strasbourg, which is a moderate size city on the French side of the French/German boarder. It is currently 10:50, and I’m eating my brunch in a bakery.

As I drink my coffee and eat my ham and cheese sandwich, Elton John sings “Song for You” through the stereo. The song is a nice reminder of home and perfect morning music. I can’t help but feel like a world citizen and confident young man as I sit here alone in a café that is thousands of miles away from what I know as home and across the boarder from the nation where I had spent the last night.

The people around the bakery are speaking French. This makes me recall a conversation I had during the Swedes’ farewell party at the student bar last Wednesday. Madeline had raised a good question: she asked, “Is it strange for you to travel and hear so many different languages within such a small geographic area?” I thought about it, and said, “Yeah, it is sort of strange.”

“Yeah I mean you live on a continent where the language is the same,” Madeline said. “If we, here in Europe, travel from Germany to France or Germany to Sweden, the language changes, we must learn many languages.”

“It is different than my experience,” I responded, now thinking of the geographic landscape of the United States. I considered Mexico and very briefly French Canada, but quickly thought of the size of the United States compared to Europe. To get an idea of this comparison, think of Germany – one of the larger European States – which is the same geographic size as the state of Montana. “If I was to travel from California to New York,” I said. “All the states in between would only speak English.”

I think about this conversation now that I sit in Strasbourg. I had to transfer trains in Mannheim, a small German city, which was only a few miles from the French boarder. All the folks there spoke German, then just moments later I crossed the boarder, and suddenly everyone is speaking French. It is interesting, but a little jarring. I’m used to hearing German, though I have trouble composing German sentences, I can usually understand some of what I hear.
But French, French is a different matter completely. Suddenly in France, I’m at the mercy of the French conductor at the train station and the French server at the bakery. Until you’re in such situations you never knew how far such one word phrases as, “mercy,” “pardon” and “bonjour,” could take you.

---

Well, I just returned from Strasbourg. It was a great trip. Leah and I had a wonderful, one day late, Valentine's Day date. The city was wonderful, beautiful and all other possitive adjectives that apply.

A Farewell Night with the Swedes and then to Geneva

I’m sitting at a Starbucks, looking out the window toward a shopping center in Geneva. I just purchased the most expensive cup of coffee that I ever hope to purchase. One cup of venti sized black coffee: 5.40 Swiss Franks. One Frank is a little less than an American Dollar. So my cup of coffee cost me about five American Dollars comparatively.

Well the point is, I decided to come into the Starbucks to get some writing done so I can update my blog soon, and also to get off these Geneva streets, which seem to be plated with gold and shops and things just as expensive.

I left Freiburg with my program yesterday morning at 8am. It was snowing pretty hard when we left. It is the only big snow that I’ve seen since I arrived in Germany. It came down pretty heavy, so it took longer than it should have to get to Geneva, but we did arrive on time for our first lecture at the U.N.

I had stayed out pretty late the night before we left for Geneva. Wednesday night was the last night my Swedish suitemate, Petra, was in town. Since the regular university students at the University of Freiburg are finishing up their semester, a lot of the students here are leaving. She’ll be back in late April for the beginning of the University’s next semester.

Well in the last few weeks I have become rather close to Petra and her fellow Swedish friends she came abroad with. Often her friends Madeline and David would come over for dinner or movie nights. I found the Swedish since of humor very similar to the humor that I’m used to in the States – cynical and often of poor taste – which often sums my sense of humor up pretty well. It also helped that the Swedes speak better English than they do German, so they actually had an easier time talking to me than Germans. This didn’t help my Germanic language development, but it did help me gain a few new friends.

We also watched all the Godfather movies together, while we drank wine and ate pizza. I’m sad that they’re leaving. It was nice to have met them.

So since I had stayed at the bar for most of the night with my Swedish friends, it was hard to wake up. I did manage to wake up, and do all the necessary morning exercises in order to make my way to the bus. But I slept most of the way to Geneva.

We immediately went into a lecture at the UN office soon as we arrived in Geneva. The lectures were some of the least favorite that I have heard since in Europe. They pretty much reaffirmed my belief that the UN is a useless organization. The UN is good in theory, but in practice it is about as useful as a beer to a Mormon. The UN can’t enforce any of its sanctions, and enforcement is the cornerstone of authority – well, actually enforcement is authority and the UN has neither.

That night my program paid for a fundo dinner. I never had fundo before, so it was a new, especially French Genevan experience. It went well with the Geneva white wine that came with our meal. I sat with some of the kids from my program known loosely as the Southerners. One kid, Mike, was from the Outer Banks area, about a half hour out of Elizabeth City. We talked about the area a little bit. He told me of some beaches I should visit in the summer. All the southerners loved Old Crow Medicine Show, especially their song “Wagon Wheel.” So it was nice to find some Americana blue grass music company in the middle of Switzerland.

That night I went to a microbrewery that was next door to the hotel. The beer wasn’t very good. I think I’m getting too used to German beer already. One of the people I was with commented that, “we’ve only been in Germany for a month and we’re already beer snobs.” And it’s true. The German beer is far superior to anything else.

I woke up this morning, ate continental breakfast at the hotel and then went to two more UN lectures. They were about the same. Perhaps the most pathetic UN institution is the human rights watch group. I won’t get into that too much, except to say that it is not much of a watch groups since each nation is in charge of drafting its own report on human rights, and, of course, China can veto any enforcement action since it sits on the Security Council.

After the lecture, we had a group picture taken in front of the Woodrow Wilson memorial. They love Woodrow Wilson here; they have a hotel and a UN building and a fountain named after him. He is the guy that conceived the idea of international collaboration in international politics.

Overall, I agree that its good to have such forums to discuss our international problems and interest, but to form such institutions that pretend to have some sort of authority seems weak and illegitimate. I think that having such institutions lessens the legitimacy of some of the missions that the UN addresses that are legitimate, such things as collaborative humanitarian aid and refuge relief efforts.

Soon I’ll be leaving back for Freiburg. Tomorrow I have a long day of homework, and then I’m going to meet up with Leah in Strasburg.

Cheers!

Ich bin ein Berliner

I left Estonia on a bright Estonian day and headed for Berlin. The flight only took about an hour but the bus ride from the airport to the hostel took about another 45 minutes. The plane ride was pleasant but the bus ride was crowded and uncomfortable. Finally we arrived at the Hostel at 11:30.

Our hostel was called Hotel Alex. It was located on the Eastern side of Berlin, near some old buildings and next to both a tram stop and a bus stop. Its location was extremely convenient and it was near a few restaurants. I was travel weary that first night, so I spent some time on-line, drank a beer with my new roommate and then went to bed at about 1 am.

The next morning we had an optional tour of Berlin. I decided to go on this tour. It would have been nice but it was cold. The winds were a howlin’ and the snow was a fallin’. The sights we saw were mostly the historic sights, like the Reichstag, the Holocaust memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall and a flurry of other culturally significant sites. The tour was exhausting, but I would have felt bad had I missed it.

After the tour I went to lunch at a Dunkin’ Donuts. It was pretty funny eating at a chain that is so Eastern American, that hasn’t made it to California yet, but has a number of franchises in Berlin. I thought of Dad, and knew that if he were in Berlin, he’d have stopped at the Dunkin’ Donuts.

Museums and Cathedrals were the next stops on my agenda. They were all nice, but I won’t get too into that stuff. I was mostly anxious to get out of the cold and find a place to watch the super bowl in the evening.

I ate dinner with some folks from my program at a restaurant that cost too much. A simple chicken dinner with a beer cost me nine euros. I went back to my room and edited some articles for the Bulldog, wrote the sports round-up and took care of my other administrative duties relating to my Sports Editor job.

At around 11, I met with some guys to watch the super bowl. One of the guys played football for Claremont. I covered his game against Redlands. The Bulldogs had made the Claremont game their homecoming and handled of the Athenas appropriately, kicking their butts 49-0. It was fun watching the game with that group of guys. We all had played football in high school. Most of the breaks in the action were spent talking about the “Glory Days,” so it was kind of funny when Bruce Springsteen played that song during half time.

Besides the Deutsch announcers, the German coverage of the game was a lot different than the American coverage that we were used to. There were no commercials at all during the game and the German television’s replay capacity was somewhat limited. The German’s sideline reporter didn’t have much access. All he was able to do was interview fans.

It was a great game, but I didn’t get to sleep until 4:30 in the morning and I was due to be awake at 7:30, so that made Monday pretty rough.

We were to wear business-formal clothing for both our lectures on Monday. Our first trip was to the Defense Ministry. A Coronal gave us a lecture on German foreign policy with special attention to the German’s involvement in Afghanistan. It was a good lecture and I found it to be in stark contrast with the military point of view of the Estonian Government which showed just how much foreign policy decisions and attitudes are shaped by a nation’s history. Estonia, which is a nation that has a long history of military vulnerability, will be quite to dedicate troops to ally causes if it means security in return. Germany, on the other hand, is very sensible to any questions of its exertion of military power.

We then viewed the Reichstag, which is the beautiful building in which the German Parliament holds chambers. The building was reopened for use by the Parliament in 1999, before that Germany had its capital elsewhere. Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, Germany had two capitals. The Reichstag is only a few yards from where the Berlin wall once stood. Old pictures of the imposing building next to the wall are daunting, especially when taking in the building now.

The Reichstag was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War. American bombs had brought down its roof, including its epic and beautiful dome. But it has been rebuilt and the dome has been replaced. The new dome is quite a sight to see. It is constructed of a series of mirrors accompanied by a walk way that visitors to the Reichstag can take to the top of the dome. From the top of the dome, visitors can see the whole city. And it is quite a site. But perhaps more significant and impressive, at least it was significant to me, were the mirrors. The mirrors on the top of the Reichstag reflected the images of the people walking up the dome down to the floor below so all members of Parliament can simply look up to see that it is the people they represent.