Last Finals of College!! (December 6 & 7)

On Monday I had my business cultures final. It was simply just 2 essay questions. It wasn’t too bad, but I wrote more for that final than I did on the term paper. Almost 11 pages in only 2 hours. Whew, my hand was cramping up after that. I went back home to start studying for the legal traditions final on Tuesday. Then out to dinner for Italian food. It actually was surprisingly good pasta.

Tuesday I woke up to my shoe sitting outside my bedroom door filled with goodies. Today was St. Nicholas Day. It was so adorable! "St. Nick"  had given me a “Germany” candle that my host Mom made the weekend we were in Boltenhagen, candy of course, a cute little bag, and a little bear. It definitely started my day out right.

After that I went to FU BEST for the last time to take my European Legal Traditions final. I was expecting it to be quite difficult, but fortunately I had studied just enough information to be able to answer the questions I needed to. After our final, Anna & I decided to go to the Kartoffel Keller to celebrate. If it seems to you like I frequent this place, you’re exactly right. I am in love with their food! They do potatoes like no one before has done potatoes! I walk in and the same waiter is working that I've always had. I guess I was overcome with joy to see a familiar face that I greeted him with a big ole "HEY." He stared at me dumbfounded.

After stuffing ourselves to no end, we met Malia & Reid at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum. It was a pretty cool museum. They had a lot of modern art. I found everything really interesting. They even had reindeer in the museum. They collect their pee and sell it at the museum. Apparently reindeer can eat special mushrooms that people can’t eat without getting sick. They are the red topped mushrooms that are in cartoons. Well apparently these mushrooms are a psychedelic. So if people drink the reindeer pee they receive the high. It’s actually quite expensive to buy. About 1000€ for some. I believe that may be a big bottle though.

Also the museum had this exhibit that was insane. It actually was animal fat. It was huge!! They had several blocks of it in the room. It was quite insane to realize what it actually was after you initially saw it. The artist filled a pedestrian tunnel with fat in 1977. Afterwards it was cut into the blocks and put in the display. It didn’t smell that bad now anymore, just more like a strange smell, but I guess after it was done it smelled a lot. That is modern art haha!

After that, I took Marco to see Berlin at night – Potsdamer Platz, Brandenburger Tor, etc. Berlin really is gorgeous decked out in Christmas lights! It was so cold walking around though! I feel like I complain about the cold a lot. I don’t remember it being this cold at Purdue though. Maybe I’ve just become a softie now.

Week of November 29 - December 3

Monday we didn’t have German class to compensate for our night excursion on Tuesday. I decided to take the opportunity to go to the KaDeWe, or the Kaufhaus des Westens. It is the second largest mall in Europe. It’s a very high end, upscale mall. They had Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc. Basically brands that I can’t dream of being able to afford. But the majority of the mall was one giant store with 8 floors. They really had everything in that store. I ended up buying some souvenirs there and some chili chocolate. It was a really cool store to see.

Later, I went to my business cultures class and got my term paper back. I forgot to mention this was the first term paper I’ve had to write since my senior year of high school, with the exception of business type things. And to top it off, the professor wanted our experiences and opinions in there along with the research. My own opinion?! What?! It actually was a fun paper to write. Dad, he really enjoyed the story about how we had to put up the 50 foot tower to get Internet. Overall, I learned very little from that class, but he was an entertaining professor. But I did learn about the burquini haha. 

Tuesday Trevor, Anna, and I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt in front of Alexanderplatz, which basically is the tourist Christmas market. It kind of sucked to be honest. They had a “sled riding” hill. Literally you got a tube and went down an ice hill. It looked semi fun, but I don’t pay to go sled riding haha. After that we were on a mission to find Dolores. They have the best burritos in Berlin. They are equivalent to a Chipotle burrito. All we knew was that they were somewhere around the area. After much searching, I finally asked. I pulled out my best German and asked if they knew where it was. The mall security guard responded with, “My English is not so good. I don’t understand you.” I laughed and said that I was speaking  German. I guess my Berlin accent just isn’t there haha. This isn’t the first occurrence. No matter what, when you speak German to Germans, they immediately recognize your American accent and immediate switch to English. My host family told me they’re just anxious to practice their English, like I’m anxious to practice my German. Oh well, Malia came through and looked up the address for me. Finally we had found Mexican heaven! The burritos were AMAZING! So many choices. It was modeled after Dolores Park in San Fran. I definitely would be returning there!

After eating, it was time for our German class excursion. We went to the Weihnachtsmarkt at the Kulturbraueri. As a note there are tons and tons of Christmas markets all over the city. There is a market everywhere you turn. Each one has some sort of specialty, whether it be the area it’s located in or specializes in antique things, hand crafts, etc. This market was pretty small, but it was nice. Again, it was freezing cold. Everyone kept saying it got unseasonably cold early, but they said the same thing all of August and September. I guess I was just here for the extreme seasons. Today it finally snowed some; not that much just enough to get me wishing for snow. 

Again I had a glühwein. This time it was much better! It actually tasted good. I have come to realize that it depends on who makes it. The tastes varies so widely. Again I kept the mug; only 1€ this time. This Christmas market had an absinth bar. It also had these crazy huge coats that you sat in that were over heaters. Kind of cool. It was a nice outing with our class. It was crazy to realize I spend 12 hours a week with these people. I felt like I knew them so well. Sadness began to rush in when I realized that in 2 days we would take our final, and I wouldn’t see these people again. The end was truly coming near, and the more I realized it, the more I wished for time to drag. There is so much that I want to see here in Berlin yet. So much studying that I needed to do, that I don’t want to do.

After the Christmas market, we all went to a tapas bar. BUT they didn’t even have sangria. What kind of tapas bar doesn’t have sangria! It was so nice to spend the evening with my class. It sounds lame, but I really wish we would do that more in the US. I can’t even say I know that many people in my major at Purdue. I had class with them 4 days a week too, but you just don’t talk outside of class. Anywho, that’s that, and I’m 3 finals away from finishing my undergrad career!! Bittersweet!

On Wednesday, Malia & I decided to go to the Dahlem Kunst & Kultur Museen (Art & Culture Museum). They had some really cool things there. I swear they employ former STASI guards as the “stewards” aka exhibit guards. I must look like I’m going to destroy things because they stuck to me like glue. Literally I would turn the corner and a new guard would be there to watch me. I was touching a map of the United States showing Malia where I live, and a guard came over and yelled at me. It wasn’t even a display. It literally was a sign with a map on it. I think I must look like a terrorist. Despite all that, I really enjoyed the museum. They had exhibits from different Islandic cultures. Malia is Hawaiian, so it was pretty cool to have her insight. 

The big excitement for the day was all the snow we got! It snowed and snowed and snowed! Which created problems the next day for transportation. It was the earliest snow Berlin had got in 70 years! The S Bahns were extremely late. The busses were even worse, and every mode of public transportation was packed! Our professor was even late for our final. The best part was that one girl didn’t even bother to show up.

After our German final, Trevor and I went to see the inside of the Charlottenburg Schloss (castle).  I had really been wanting to see the inside, and time was nearing the end. Already German class was finished. Crazy. I love being a student still; the discounts are awesome! There are 2 wings to the castle, a new and an old wing. I got in the first room, pulled out my camera, and already got yelled at. Apparently you needed to purchase a 3€ permit to take pictures inside. Stupid, but I ended up buying it anyway. I guess taking that one photo without the permit alerted the guards that I was trouble. Again, I felt like a terrorist. I could feel their eyes boring into me every step I made. The castle was pretty cool, but most of it was destroyed during the war. So most of it was reconstruction. They had a cool room with all the original snuff boxes. 

Since the Weihnachtsmarkt was open when we left, I of course had to shop again. I ended up buying 2 necklaces. I knew I had become a true German when I didn’t equate anything back to USD I just bought it. We walked the Kudamm home. It is absolutely gorgeous when it’s decorated for Christmas, and with all the snow. We saw a Berlin bear standing on its head. For some reason, I got this strong urge to imitate the bear. I felt like Superwoman in that instant. I had no fear or hesitation of trying to stand on my head. And thus began the endless tries. Trevor tried to help me. After 2 tries of trying to stand on my hands, I failed, and my wrist was hurting. So instead I had the genius idea of trying to stand on my actual head. Even stupider idea. That hurt worse yet. Finally I gave up, bruised ego, my wrist hurting, and Trevor laughing. To console myself, we went to Happy Hour. Always a good time!

On Friday morning we had our end of the year meeting with Daddy Dirk, our program director. We filled out papers giving the date we were leaving the country. It was quite sad! After that Malia, Trevor, & I went to see the Neues Museen (New Museum). It houses the Egyptian wing, and I wanted to prepare myself. Just 8 days and I would be on my way to Cairo! The museum was pretty cool. They had a lot of neat pieces, including Nefertiti’s head. This visit just confirmed my thoughts that the guards are former STASI. They are so mean, so unkind, so scolding. And I didn’t even do anything this time. 

Friday night my host family & I went to an Irish pub. I had been dying to have a shepherd’s pie! I’ve never had one and it just sounded good. So they searched a pub for us and we all went. It was a lively atmosphere, just like any Irish pub. The music was pretty good, except that they did covers for popular American music, so a little bit strange. The shepherd’s pie was disappointing. I guess I didn’t really know what one was. I was envisioning something like a pot pie, but it wasn’t. It was a layer of meat with a giant layer of mashed potatoes and cheese. On the way home, we all had a snowball fight. It was so much fun! Nothing like chasing Thimo down the streets of Berlin. When we got to the door to go inside his words, “Tomorrow you will eat snow Laura.” Haha! I love that kid!

Saturday night we all went out for one last evening with a large group of friends. We went to the house of 100 beers. They had a lot of beer to choose from, but the atmosphere kind of sucked. We ended up finishing the night at another bar nearby. It was such a fun night, but sad realizing it would be the last time seeing a lot of those people. 

Sunday was filled with studying for the business cultures midterm on Monday. To take a break, my host family invited me on a walk in the woods behind the Charlottenburg castle. I had run out of pants to wear, so I put on black stockings, gray capri sweatpants, and tennis shoes. My host Mom was horrified by this outfit. It did look pretty funny, but I wasn’t too concerned about it. We had rode bike here earlier in September, but now the landscape was covered in snow. It was so pretty! We all ended up having a little snowball fight throughout the entire walk. It was such a pretty walk through the woods. My host Mom bought me this amazing pocket-like sandwich. It had “cheap” cheese, tomatoes, and kraut. It was so delicious! And it was hot! Again, I had a glass of gluhwein. This one definitely was the best one I’ve had! I actually really, really liked this one!

Sunday night one of my friends from Chicago, Marco, flew in to spend the week in Berlin before we go to Egypt. We had quite possibly the worst döner I’ve ever had. Alex, it still was good, just not amazing :P Then it was back to the grind of studying.

My First Weihnachtsmarkt (11.21.10)

The next day, Sunday, we got tons of phone calls saying how everyone enjoyed the evening. I was so happy that my host family cared enough to have a special holiday for me!

That evening, my host family met Trevor and his family at the Weihnachtsmarkt in front of Charlottenburg Schloss (Christmas market in front of Charlottenburg castle). The Christmas market was gorgeous! They even had the castle lit up. There were rows and rows and rows of stands. It was crazy bitter cold; something like 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and even colder with the windchill. Never had I been so happy to have a cup of glühwein. This one actually tasted better, but still not anything I would request. It kept my hands warm for a few minutes, so I was happy. They served it in these nice mugs that had a hand painted picture of the castle and listed the year of the Weihnachtsmarkt. Obviously they knew people would want to keep them, so they charged a 3€ deposit. I still decided to keep mine. My host Mom insisted that I tried the champignons. The mushrooms were served in a garlic sauce. They were quite delicious.

We walked around through the aisles.  There was everything from handmade candles, to Christmas items, to handmade scarves,  to chocolate covered peppers. They truly had anything you could imagine. It was a very nice setup. I was suckered into buying a scarf made of raw silk. Thinking back, I definitely did not need it or need to pay that much for it, but isn’t that how it always goes haha. They had these amazing roasted nuts. Corry bought some and I just couldn’t stop eating them! They were warm and coated in a sugar glaze. A very nice atmosphere seeing the castle at night. By the time we left there, I couldn’t feel my toes anymore. It was incredible how cold it was. Just made me realize how much I’m dreading moving to Chicago.

The rest of the evening was filled with hot chocolate and paper writing. By the way, they don’t really have hot chocolate like we do in the US. They have something sort of like it, but definitely not the same. Thank goodness Trevor’s Mom brought some American hot chocolate for all of us.

DANKFEST! (Thanksgiving)

DANKFEST! That is a rough translation of Thanksgiving. There is no such thing as Thanksgiving in Germany, for obvious reasons. However, after I told my host family about our traditions for Thanksgiving they decided to have a mock Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I was really excited for this. It was going to be sad not to be at home for the holiday. 

On actual Thanksgiving day, I had probably the hardest day I’ve had here in Berlin. Trevor’s Mom and sister came for the week, and Malia & Anna had class the rest of the Thursday. After German, I went home and waited to Skype with my parents. I waited and waited, but no one was online. So instead I ended up working on my legal traditions term paper due the next Tuesday. I wrote the paper on the STASI, their prison, and prisoners. It was such a lame, sad day. It was really hard to be at home all myself the whole day and night, knowing that everyone else was with their families.

BUT all was made up for. Corry and I spent all day Friday preparing for our get together on Saturday. We cooked, baked, cleaned, decorated, just about anything you can imagine. Oh and somehow my host family has over 30 wine glasses, 30 prosecco glasses, well over 30 regular cups, plates, utensils, bowls, and small plates. Corry and I made dressing. That was quite interesting. We used a recipe from Corry’s coworker. It was an English recipe translated into German. I’m not sure where it originated from, but it definitely had interesting ingredients. It called for pumpkin, cranberries, nuts, etc. I guess I’m just used to the dressing we make at home, but it seemed strange that it didn’t have any meat. We prepared it on the stove. It smelled really good with the cranberries and all.

Friday night, I had a craving for pizza. So I asked if we could order pizza for supper. Little did I know what their “pizza” is like. It’s paper thin; literally I think I could see through the crust. Oh and if you picked up a piece all the toppings slide off the pizza. It was quite possibly some of the worst pizza I’ve ever had! I can’t wait for some good ole Papa John’s pizza when I get back!

Oh and for the turkey. That’s a story in itself. Andre happened to see a turkey at the store on the past Tuesday, so he snatched it up. Turkeys are not common in Germany at all. So they let the turkey set out the entire day on Tuesday. It actually unthawed. I didn’t want to insult them and tell them that it needs to stay refrigerated, so I just kept my mouth shut – promising myself to not eat any turkey. A few days later I found the turkey on the balcony. I figured it was better than leaving it inside. So today Corry brought the turkey in to unthaw again. When it thawed, we took the packaging off to reveal this hideous looking naked bird. Neither of us wanted to touch it. In all our screaming, I noticed a giant black spot on the turkey. I thought oh no, it’s started rotting. We decided to leave it until Andre got home. It was probably the funniest thing I’ve seen. All of us gathered around this turkey. We were all scared to touch it. Finally Andre took charge and pulled the neck and other items out of the turkey. Still the black spot was there. I was completely grossed out by this. Finally Andre got tired of listening to me and brought out the scissor to cut the spot out of the turkey. It turned out it was actually the bag. Oh, thank goodness we got that out of there. So we ended up leaving the turkey set out the entire day. It was naked, outside the packaging. They wanted to set it outside like that. I talked them into putting it in the refrigerator at least. We covered it with a paper towel and set it in the fridge. I still kept thinking, “No way am I going to eat any of that turkey. It’s probably spoiled already.” When we baked the turkey, we all had different ideas of what we were supposed to do. They wanted to put the dressing inside it and bake it. I finally convinced them that wasn't a good idea. My parents told me to stuff some vegetables inside to keep it moist.  Despite Andre’s shoves we only fit an onion and half a potato inside. That turkey was smathered with so many spices, herbs, butter, bouillon, etc.

Corry also made pumpkin soup, mashed potatoes, gravy, pasta salad, potato salad, cous cous, and tons of desserts. We even bought fruit especially to decorate the tables. When this lady throws a dinner party, she goes all out! All together we had about 30 people invited. Thank goodness not everyone showed up because there definitely was not enough seating for everyone. Trevor, his mom, his sister, Malia, & Anna came. 

The turkey looked amazing when it came out of the oven – golden brown – maybe I would rethink not eating any. None of us knew how to carve a turkey. My host family had this Hollywood image from TV of just putting the turkey on the table and everyone carves themselves a piece. I tried and tried to explain that this wouldn’t work for 30 people. Not to mention our turkey weighed less than 10 pounds. It actually looked like a large chicken. Thank goodness Trevor was there to step. He worked like a champ tearing that turkey apart. Andre and I deboned it. It worked quite well, except there wasn’t very much meat. My host family’s words, “There’s so little meat from such a big animal. Such a waste.” They even wanted to pull the fat off and include that.

The night turned out fabulously. The food was amazing. The dressing was actually better than the dressing I’ve always had. It had a sweet flavor. The turkey, well I just had a small piece, but it tasted good at least. Everyone had a lot of fun. Our first German “Thanksgiving” was a great success.

Weekend Getaway - Boltenhagen (November 19-21)

My host family invited me to spend the weekend with them at their vacation home in Boltenhagen.  Boltenhagen is near Lübeck, where my host Mom is originally from.  We were supposed to leave at 4:30 PM.  So I made sure I was ready. At 4:30, no one was even home yet.  Time came and went and finally we left at 7 PM. Again, everything I’ve heard about Germans being punctual has not applied to my experience here. I’m not sure if it is my host family or if everyone else is like this as well in Berlin.

The drive was horrible again.  I had decided to catch up on blogging on the way there. That was the worst decision! I can honestly say that I have never been car sick before coming here. I can read, work, anything in the car, but not here. Just sitting there makes me sick. Their driving is something out of an action film. Suddenly slamming on the brakes only to floor it again. Rinse and repeat this for 3 hours. At the end I literally had to close my eyes and “go to my happy place.” haha. So from my experiences on the autobahn, I can say that I am not a fan. I assume it’s much better to drive on it than to be a passenger though. It is true that there is no speed limit. Although some portions do have a speed limit. In areas where there have been a lot of accidents, they post speed limits, but otherwise it’s free reign. My host Mom told me that car companies used to send their test drivers to the autobahn to test out the car. A few years ago, a test driver hit a car killing the mother and child. The driver served time, and I believe that put a damper on that sort of testing there. But of course there are still people who drive insanely fast on there. Even in Berlin there are people who actually race on a street one block up from my house. Corry was telling me how they set a time and everyone shows up, including spectators. They listen to the police scanners and then have something like 3 minutes to get everyone cleared out before the cops come. To me, it seems like something straight out of Fast & Furious.

Anywho, when we got to their house I was in utter and complete shock. It was gorgeous! Their vacation home was tons nicer than their actual home. Everything was decorated so nicely. My host Mom’s artwork lined the walls too. It really felt cozy. I had found my dream home haha. To top it off, they have solar panels on the roof. All the energy they produce, they sell to the government. During the summer they rent the house out for groups of people to stay in. I believe they said that with the solar panels and the rentals they will have the house paid off in 10 years. Oh and the absolute best part about the house….the bathroom floors were heated!! Ahh! That felt amazing in the mornings!

That night Corry and I stayed up talking for awhile. She is such an amazing woman! She has so many experiences and stories to tell. Although the saddest part was when she was talking about marriage. In a nutshell she said that she wasn’t completely in love with Andre, but knew that he wanted kids and would be a good father, so she married him. She went on to say that sometimes you just have to do that. I was sad for her. Now all the interactions between them made complete sense. My host Dad is wonderful, but all he does is argue, with everyone. He belittles you until you just give in and say he’s right. I couldn’t help but see how open minded and lively my host Mom is, and how close minded and argumentive my host Dad is.

The next day, Saturday, Thimo and I were to ride bike into town and meet Andre and Corry at the store. Andre got the “short bike” out for me, lowered the seat all the way, but still I couldn’t even begin to reach the pedals. Then he got the “children’s” bike out. I still couldn’t really reach the pedals. I had to tippy toe to reach the ground on that bike. I sucked it up and made do. Never had I felt so short. These people really are giants! My 12 year old host brother is a foot taller than me. We rode to town, it was a nice scenic ride along the beach and through the forest. When we got there, I had never been happier to walk again. We grocery shopped to make cookies the next day. Then Corry and I went to a shop next door to make candles. I was super excited! I had never made candles before. It actually was much easier than I thought it would be. We picked out forms. Then we picked which color wax we wanted, broke up the wax into little pieces and put it in the form. When you had filled it, you went to the color of hot wax that you wanted and filled the form to the top with the liquid wax. I made 3 candles. I was pretty proud of myself, but we had to let them set a day before we could pick them up. The guy who owned the shop was telling me that he had a shop in Chicago, but the insurance was too high. He said Americans are stupid and can’t handle scalding, hot wax. I completely agree with that statement. I dropped the lid in the wax pit and almost burned myself too.

After this, Corry wanted to go to a local Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). It truly was in the country. The stands were set up in barns, right along with the animals outside. A famous popular drink at Weihnachtsmarkts is gluhwein. I had never had it so Corry insisted I had to try it along with gluhwein cake too. One sip of the gluhwein and I knew I hated it. It tasted so horrible. And the cake…not that much better. Gluhwein is a cheap wine seasoned with spices. I have no idea what spices or how to make it though. (Later I would have much better gluhwein and actually like it.) They had a lot of neat things for Christmas. They were fairly inexpensive too considering they were handmade. I had my first grunkohl soup also. I’m not really sure what kind of vegetable it is, but I’ll post a picture of it. It basically was a soup filled with tons of greens and few other vegetables. It wasn’t too bad actually. And of course we had bratwurst. 

By the time we left there it was dark. The whole car ride back I was wondering how we would get our bikes back. Soon enough I found out. When we got back to the store where we had parked our bikes, it became apparent that we were to ride the bikes back to the house….in the dark….with no street lights. Overreacting as usual, my first thought was, “Oh no, someone is going to hit me, and it’s not even going to be a cool story. Just oh I got hit riding a children’s bike in the dark.” Naturally nothing bad happened at all, Thimo took me home on the back roads and along the beach. We stopped to get some nice photos at night. Oh, and since I forgot to mention it earlier, it was very cold this weekend. It was in the low 20s or upper teens. When we got back, they had some hot tea ready for us. It was a really nice evening. We all sat there and read, or did something quietly. It was the first book I’ve read in a long time! Although it was for my term paper, but still kind of a pleasure book. It was the story of my tour guide at the STASI prison. 

The next morning, we had a giant spread of breakfast items just like the morning before. The breads were “special” compared to our usual breads. We had rolls with cheese on top, multigrain ones, etc. Also, the jelly was quite good. It’s from a berry that grows on the Baltic Sea. It’s called Sanddorn. I looked it up and it says it grows in California also, but I’ve never heard of it or seen it. It’s a small orangish berry. I also love the tea from this berry. 

After breakfast, Corry and I made cookies. We made these vanilla little moon shaped cookies that you roll in sugar. Not that flavorful in my opinion, but they seemed to love them. Also, we made these coconut cookies. There are these crazy little disks that you bake them on. They are literally bread wafers. Corry said they are what the church uses as the “bread.” She was right. It tasted exactly like that. Those cookies turned out pretty good. You eat the bread wafer with the cookie. Crazy.

After our Betty Crocker experience, we went to town to pick up the candles. I was surprised by how cheap they were, and amazed at how pretty they looked. The only downside, they didn’t have any fragrance. I was definitely proud of my candles.

Sunday night before returning to Berlin, we had the most amazing supper ever. We had mashed potatoes with gravy, these things that I think are brussel sprouts maybe…I’m not sure of the name, they look like little cabbages. Oh and the brussel sprouts were glazed in bacon pieces and butter. It was quite tasteful. I was so happy to see mashed potatoes I nearly cried. And with gravy too!!! This was such a shock because mashed potatoes are for old people without teeth and babies according to Corry. And gravy, well they just think that is strange. Earlier in the month we had decided to have a mock Thanksgiving. I believe she was practicing the mashed potatoes since I told her how much Americans love mashed potatoes.

I was sad to leave their house. It actually was a wonderfully, relaxing weekend. It felt so good. Then when we got home I had to write the rest of my business cultures term paper about whether the Internet will replace newspaper and a comparison of the situation between the United States and Germany. It's wasn't as boring as it sounds actually haha.