A Short History Lesson

BERLIN, BABY!

I was lucky enough to start off my November in one of the cultural meccas of Europe, the capitol of Germany.

I have to say that I learned a lot more on our trip than I had expected too. Our journey started off with a serious of connecting train rides up to the city. On one hand, it happened to be snowing, which was pretty uncommon for that time of the year, and the scenery was spectacular and something I will hopefully never forget.  There was also a lack of seating on the train, (which actually seems to occur more than often on the Deutsche Bahn system) so we got pretty cozy with our neighbors, and made some interesting conversation. On the other hand, it seemed almost somberly, riding through what was formerly known as The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany.  It was like another country, belonging more in East Europe than West.  I guess that I hadn’t learned much about the Cold War, or even the situation in Germany until this trip. It has been about 23 years since the unification of the German states, but the mark of the GDR is still here, for one example, in the architecture. As soon as we left Bavaria, and started to travel through Thüringen and Sachsen, the buildings started to become more conformed and monotonous.  The same goes to show in Berlin. From the top of the Fernsehturm, the west has a look like any old European city, but the east side stands in stark contrast with white concrete block structures.

What I find to be the most astounding, is that the communistic state of Germany was not in the distant past like almost all history we learn about, but in fact was happening in the time of my parents childhood in America; or to be even more relative, the childhood of all adults in Germany today. I cannot even begin to try to imagine what that life was like.  Everyone here must have a story to tell.

Anyways, we had more than enough time to do all types of touristic things in Berlin, including:

-The Brandenburg Gate

-The Crossing light men, or Ampelmänchen, because in East Berlin they are different than anywhere else in the world.

-The amount of Russian influence in the town, I found that to be pretty cool

-Charlottenberg, where we stayed thanks to relatives of the König family.

-And Mr. Joachim Gauck, the Federal President of Germany, who never receives any credit thanks to Angie Merckel, but he does, in fact, stand in the highest position of the German Government. He is also a great guy, from my understandings.

-Mr. Righter, my 9^th grade history teacher, (and Maddi for reminding me) for teaching us that we are still living in a post-Cold War society.

Berlin had a great vibe, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I though I would, considering I didn’t know too much about the city from the start. Although I am sorry to report that there isn’t much to do on Halloween night up there.

Small Gallery below:

Jewish Memorial

East

West

Iconic

Oktober: Part 2

As far as the rest of the month goes, it’s been fairly good here. Still adjusting to school, still going to fail every test I take.

In my class with my host sister Zoe, there are two other exchange students, which is incredibly rare, since usually the only exchange student in the school is the American from North Penn. One girl is Japanese, and the other is from Ecuador. It’s somewhat nice having two other girls sitting through the same classes not processing what the teacher says, but I can see how that could be frustrating for the teachers and other students. Where as I talk to the other classmates in German, speaking with the other exchange students is always a funny sight, we kind of have a ‘Denglish’ thrown in with a little Japanese and Spanish, whatever works for us. They both haven’t had as much School German as I have, so their German is a little behind mine, but I give them both a lot of credit, because when they’re not speaking German they have to speak English, which is already their second language.

I am forever thankful that the German school system requires much less tests and quizzes, because if I were in the same position I am in now at my high school, I’d be dead. The other day we took our first math test, and I only have three more for the rest of the school year. It’s mind blowing! And not to mention that the German’s are a lot farther ahead than us in math, in class 10 we are already doing what is standard for the 12^th grade in America. (Calculus, how exciting!)

We’ve done a lot of small weekend traveling, including a small town in Bavaria called Nürnburg; Ipf, a mountain where a meteorite hit thousands of years ago, ad an ancient Celtic civilization resided; and Schönenberg Kirche, which would have to be the most stunning and ornate church that I have seen in all of Europe, and all the same, it was where my host mom would go when she was little with her mother to mass on Sundays. Zoe and I also went to Aalen’s very own Römer Tag, or Roman day. Aalen is located on a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to the remains of a Roman emigrant civilisation, and celebrates every year with a weekend fest at the Limes Museum. The event reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia of all things. The die-hards had tents set up and fire’s going despite the cold and slight drizzle. There was an arena for horses, and the acceptable attire was chain mail, cloaks, and leather shoes.  It was very nicely done, with medieval jousting and the whole nine yards.

Another highlight of October was when I had the chance to meet up with Johannes, our exchange student for two weeks all the way back in 2010. He was nice enough to stay in touch with my family, and when he told me he would be in Aalen for a weekend, it was a perfect opportunity to talk and catch up. It really is a small world, you never know when your life crosses paths with someone again, and things were just like they were for his short visit to America, except the tables were turned, I’m now the one on foreign soils.

And after that I was headed off with the host family nach BERLIN! 🙂