Catching Up

Alright, I haven’t updated this nifty blog in a while now, and a ton has happened in the meantime.

After the trip to Munich, my time in Germany mostly consisted of working on the research papers I was assigned at the end of my Brussels trip, with some study breaks to go biking around Emmandingen. It was hard to finally leave Germany, and not just because I had to wake up at an obscene hour in order to make the three hour drive to Frankfurt airport. Doro and Peter had done more than merely let me stay at their flat, they had truly welcomed me into their family. It was only after lots of hugs, and a promise to keep in touch that they finally saw me through security.

It was an incredibly educational trip, in both the cultural and personal sense. I certainly learned a ton about Germany, its history and its culture, but I also learned some things about myself along the way.

I initially had about a week in the US before the start of my semester in Israel, which I planned to spend frantically finishing my Brussels papers and preparing for my trip to Israel. But that was before hurricane Irene. The storm canceled my flight into Newark, making me miss my flight to Israel, and setting in motion a superbly frustrating rescheduling process that resulted in my staying in the US for another week. On top of that, the travel agent in charge of organizing the student group flights rescheduled our flight for Labor Day, which meant that I would have to fly in to Newark the day before (as the Labor Day flights wouldn’t arrive early enough) and spend Sunday night there. Predictably, my flight to Newark was delayed for almost two hours because of “Presidential activity” (just lost my vote, Obama), rounding out what had become by far the worst week for travel that I’ve ever had. But there was a silver lining to this fiasco: the extra week in the US gave me much-needed time to finish my papers, which I, against all odds, managed to do on time.

I’ve been in Israel for almost two weeks now, and I’ve been having the time of my life. The food is amazing, the weather is perpetually gorgeous, and Jerusalem is (in my opinion, at least) one of the most interesting cities in the world. Officially, the semester at Hebrew University doesn’t start until October 2, but until then we have what’s called a Hebrew Ulpan, which is five hours a day, six days a week of intensive Hebrew instruction. This initially terrified me, but it’s actually been going really well.

All of the international students live in apartments in the Scopus student village (or ikfar studentim in Hebrew), which aren’t bad in terms of student housing. Mine has a great view of the Old City of Jerusalem from the living room area, which I could stare at for hours. Each apartment also comes equipped with its very own bomb shelter, and the entire area is surrounded by walls, gates, and armed guards. This can be either comforting or really unsettling, and is frequently both.

So far my experience here has been immeasurably different from both Brussels and Germany. Israel is the first place I’ve been that’s not in the political, social, and cultural ‘west’, and for the first time in my life, I truly feel like I’m in a foreign country.

Anyways, I have a lot more to say, but I’ve already written more than enough. I’ll leave you with some pictures to tide you over until my next entry!

The view from my apartment window. Nbd.

Walls of the Old City

Jaffa Gate

Inside the Old City

Western Wall

Close up

Letters in the Wall

One of the views from the university

Dome of the Rock

Mount of Olives

I thought this looked spiritual

Cool door

The first wheel ever made. Maybe.

Ich bin ein Münchnerin

On Friday, my host family and I began the long, four-hour drive to Munich, where I would meet my other host brother, Christoph (Chris), and stay for two days in his flat. Though the drive was quite long, it was extremely beautiful, as it took us through Germany’s Black Forest region. The Black Forest draws its name from how the pine trees which make up the majority of the forest blocks out nearly all the light from the sun. This forested, mountainous region also contained a lake, Lake Constance, where we stopped for an hour or so, and explored a nearby town.  

We stopped on the highway winding through the Black Forest to take a picture of this stag statue. Apparently it commemorates a local legend where a stag jumped across the gorge from that very spot to escape some hunters.

The first stop on our way to Munich.

A touristy little Bavarian town.

On the shores of a smallish lake, which I later found out, is part of Lake Constance, the main body of which we also stopped to see later.

Cuckoo clock on steroids.

This was an obnoxiously expensive clock we saw inside the building pictured above.

For those of you not aware, europeans use commas and periods in the exact opposite way that we Americans do when it comes to prices. So this price, which is for the clock above, is not 39 euros and 90 cents, but actually 39,900 euros. When you apply the current exchange rate of roughly $1.45 per euro, you find that this clock costs an estimated $57,763.20. I'm glad I didn't break it.

More cuckoo clocks than I've ever seen in my life.

The main body of Lake Constance.

Cool castle on the shores of the lake.

Another nice little town, on the shores of Lake Constance, that we stopped to explore on our way to Munich.

A zeppelin, as the locals say.

At long last we arrived at our destination, and while my host parents checked into their hotel room, I lugged my suitcase all the way up to Chris’s flat, which occupied the top floor of the building across the street. Upon meeting him, I learned that Chris was 24, and was studying economics and philosophy at a university here in Munich. I also learned that he, together with his roommate, had founded a fairly successful Munich pub crawl, and that Chris was leading one that very evening. I, being the dutiful guest that I am, was forced to accept his invitation and accompany him on what turned out to be a surprisingly extensive tour of several bars, pubs and clubs, which we were ferried to and from on a massive party bus. Chris and I hit it off immediately, and spent the evening (and much of Saturday morning) talking about everything from ancient Greek philosophy to the differences between the German and American political systems. It was far and away my favorite night so far in Germany, and the best possible introduction to Munich that I could have hoped for.

On Saturday, Chris led us on a tour of the city for the entire afternoon, where we saw a ton of beautiful buildings and interesting sites, had dinner at a delicious vegan restaurant, and then headed back to the flat for a quick nap before going back out to the clubs.

Munich tower.

Munich statue.

Munich town hall. I really like this picture.

The towers of the Frauenkirche, or Cathedral of our Dear Lady, the famous Munich cathedral. Christoph told me that the locals refer to these towers as the breasts of Munich, because of their unique shape. How about that!

Cool Munich building.

I believe this is the old Munich opera house. More than a passing resemblance to the Pantheon (see my earlier Rome posts).

Another Munich cathedral.

Some monument or something.

This might be a palace. Or it might not be.

Needs no explanation.

The state library in Munich.

Munich has an incredibly rich history, and I learned a ton in my two days there. For instance, Munich was where Hitler first attempted to seize power in Germany (in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch), it was the capitol of the Nazi party, and is just 10 miles from the Dachau death camp. But it was also the site of the White Rose movement, a student resistance movement that was active from 1942 to 1943, and was crushed when its leaders, the most famous of which were Hans and Sophie Scholl, were caught and executed. This is a picture of the memorial to this movement in the university where it was born.

This was in Munich's Englischer Garten (English garden): a massive urban park near the city center. It is one of the largest urban parks in the world (bigger than Central Park in NY). It also, as I unwittingly discovered, contains a substantial nudist area.

The Chinese Tower, a wooden structure in the park. There was a full band playing traditional Bavarian music in the tower. 

Hey look, people in my pictures! This is my host mother and father (Doro and Peter) on the right, and Christoph with his girlfriend Julia on the left. We're about to enjoy a nice vegan dinner.

Frauenkirche towers.

Cool fountain.

Part of some church.

I thought the red flowers looked nice.

We went to a museum which had a special exhibit on books and libraries, which was sweet. Christoph (who also loves books) and I spent almost an hour in this exhibit alone.

It's hard to see the date on the placard for this book, but it was published in 1516. It's almost five hundred years old.

The exhibit also contained many models of actual and proposed libraries, and this was one I found that was neat.

The cavernous exit from the museum.

A fun Saturday night made for a less than pleasant Sunday morning, but I was thankfully able to catch up on my sleep on the drive back to Emmandingen.

Host Family Happenings

I’ve been in Germany for about five days now, which means that already my trip here is about a quarter over. It’s been a great experience so far. My host family, the Faßbinders, consists of Peter and Dorothea (Doro for short), who were married in 2004 and each have two kids. The kids are all in their twenties, however, and live away from home. I’ve only met one, Simeon, who was very nice, and helped me to access the wireless, which I was struggling with. The Faßbinders live in Emmandingen, Germany, which is a smaller town in the south of the country. If you’re looking at a map (like I am right now), it’s in the bottom left corner of Germany, in that little triangle section that sort of juts into France. According to my host family, Emmandingen is powered 100% by green energy, which is crazy.

Of all the things I imagined myself doing with my host family during my first full day (Sunday) in Germany, attending an African music festival was pretty low on the list. Yet that’s what happened, and here are the pictures to prove it!

In addition to the music we saw some cool dancers perform, and they turned out to be obnoxiously flexible.

Case in point.

They also ate fire.

Incredibly multitalented individuals.

Awww.

My host mother, Dorothea.

The Emmandingen town square.

One of the artists peforming.

On Tuesday, Doro, my host mother, took me to Europa Park, which is sort of like Europe’s answer to Disneyland. Once there, she insisted that I ride every rollercoaster that we came across, despite the fact that she herself did not want to ride. It was fun, but it became a bit exhausting.

Walking into Europa Park!

We visited the Freudenberg (the company sponsoring my time here) industrial park in Mannheim on Wednesday, where I was treated to a personal tour of one of their factories. This particular factory manufactured parts that muffled the sounds and vibrations that car engines produce, and made parts for Volkswagen, BMW, and Ford cars. It was very cool to see. After my factory tour, we drove to Freiberg, a nearby town, where Doro showed me a beautiful cathedral.

Entrance to the industrial park.

Factory floor.

Again.

My guide to the factory, Mr. Blackmore.

The tower of the cathedral in Freiberg.

The Pope is visiting in September!

Cool building.

There was a big farmers' market going on in front of the cathedral.

Another cool building. If you'll notice, Doro's hand is in the corner. That's because she apparently really wanted to be in this picture, and after waving to get my attention, she posed until I took another one.

Which is why there's this.

Cathedral doors.

Freiberg was bombed during WWII, but the cathedral miraculously survived.

Stained glass inside the cathedral.

I love stained glass windows.

Cathedral ceiling.

Exterior of the cathedral.

On the way to the top of the cathedral's tower. I risked my camera for this picture!

I thought this looked cool.

The town of Freiberg.

200 year old graffiti?

Today (Thursday) Doro and I went for a three hour bike tour of the Emmandingen countryside, which included the ruins of Hochburg Castle, and some old German farms. We rounded out our bike trip by stopping by a much more modern German farm, and liberating some plums from their trees. Though the legality of this was debatable, the deliciousness of the plums was not!

Statue of a snail I saw in Emmandingen.

Layout of Castle Hochburg.

Castle.

Castle

Looking out from the castle.

Beautiful view.

More of the castle ruins.

Etc

It was definitely a cool place to visit.

I thought this looked neat.

It's nice to finally be caught up on my blog! Although to be fair I really should have worked on the research papers that I was assigned in Belgium, seeing as how I haven't necessarily started them yet. All in good time!