I went to my CVS at the corner today to pick up a few things. Now, I was excited to go to this CVS because while I was gone it moved down to the old hardware store and it so now it was triple its previous size. Well, these sneaky people at CVS also clearly redid all the aisles so I had to figure out where everything was. I stumbled upon the cold medicine aisle and in front of the Sudafed there was a little sign - in Arabic. Now, that'd be fine if there was an English one right next to the little red CVS Arabic sign. I couldn't figure out what was so special about this Sudafed that it got a sign in Arabic but not one in English. As I wandered around I saw that this was pretty much the norm throughout the store.
Now, my point of this is that I would know what these signs said if I could read Arabic. But I can't. So I will never know what was so special about that Sudafed. A lot of people in Germany often ask me why, as a native English speaker in the United States, do I try to learn another language. "Everyone speaks English" they say. Well, that's not true. And at the West Bloomfield CVS a reading knowledge of Arabic really would have come in handy.
Merry Christmas! Last night my family had a lovely American Christmas Eve dinner. We ate beef tenderloin, lamb and venison sausage (different from the standard German Christmas dish -goose). We had enough food to last us till the end of our lives. My favorite comment was by my cousin Chad who suggested "Why don't we just get this thing catered next year. With Indian food." I agree. Too bad we were the only two people with that idea.
Some of my favorite gifts, and perhaps most American, were things such as: a video for your dog, a spotlight that you can carry, and a Snoop Dogg dog toy. God Bless America.
Merry Christmas Eve! If I was in Germany still, I'd be getting my presents tonight. In Germany Santa Claus literally shows up at your house on Christmas Eve and the little kids say a poem and Santa hands them their gifts. Now, I told my mom this and she was like "Hey! My Grandpa used to dress up as Santa on Christmas Eve too!" Surprise Suprise, he was from Germany.
In other news, Germany has federally mandated laws on how long and on what days stores can be open. When I mentioned to my kids at school that some stores were open on Christmas they didn't believe me. At all. So since being home I have investigated and found that on Christmas Day I could go get chinese takeout in West Bloomfield, I could go to the Stage Deli, I could get a slurpee at 7-11 and I could go to the Starbucks at the corner. All open, all day, on Christmas Day. I considered taking pictures of the "Open on Christmas Day" signs in the windows, but I decided that that my students were just going to have to take my word.
Yesterday I began my day in Zwickau and ended it at Buddy's Pizza. The ability to go from one half of the world to the other in the same day is simply amazing. You know what else is amazing? Buddy's Pizza. I made sure to make it my first stop when I got back to America. Buddy's Pizza, for those who do not know, is not just a pizza place. When you bite into a piece of Buddy's you aren't just tasting pizza, you are tasting heaven. I'm in America now for two weeks and I've sure got a lot more places to dine while I'm home (Olgas, White Castle, Leos - all the delicacies Detroit has to offer).
It's cold outside and it seems everyone is sick. There are about 9 English teachers in my school and it seems half of them are out with bird flu (or something like that). Now, instead of bringing in a "sub" teacher (as we do in America), a regular teacher, who is not sick, has to go cover the class. Substitute teachers do not exist in German schools. Though the students already are familiar with their "sub" teacher, the same amount of class time is wasted. The other day in one of the sub classes we watched a video, in English, on American history. That was somewhat entertaining. Today one of my favorite teachers, who regularly teachers history, was put in charge of subing for an English class. She just made everyone watch Das Leben ist Schoen (Life is Beautiful). I must say, as a student in high school I prefered videos to class and now as a quasi-teacher I still feel the same.
It is quite one thing to hang out in a German dorm all day. I've gotten the German dorm lifestyle down. It's quite similar to the American dorm lifestyle. There are a bunch of kids who are too lazy and too cheap to cook for themselves so they get pizza basically every night. Real German families do not eat pizza every night. Luckily for me, the past two weekends I have spent with German families. They both have one thing in common - consumption of beer and raw red meat. Now Americans consume beer, but not in the quantities that Germans do and Americans, at least most Americans, do not regularly sit down and slab an inch thick layer of raw ground meat on top of bread. However, I must say, that it has been a pleasant cultural experience. Eating something aside from pizza and instant soup is always a plus and frankly I kinda want to attempt to make this yummy raw meat dish in my kitchen. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure the attempt will be eventful enough to comprise a blog entry.
Yesterday was my school's Christmas Concert. As I have said a few thousand times before, the town where the school is in is very small. There's one central church in town and that's where the concert was held. It's a gorgeous typical old European church. It looks about 400 years old. I had to climb a very steep, very non-OSHA approved, stone set of stairs to get a seat in the balcony. There was the expected performance of choirs, flute, and violin but aside from the same things one could find at a usual American High School Holiday Concert the concert featured kids playing the accordian, the mandolin and everyone's favorite - the organ.
I can't drink milk and the concept of soy milk certainly is not widely accepted at German cafes yet. Therefore I have been left latte-less (except for trips into big tourist cities like Nuremberg and Munich). It was quite sad at first but I was getting used to it. Then it got cold. I wanted a hot foamy soy latte more than anything. I decided to set out to look for an espresso machine this Monday and today I successfully bought one for....(drumroll please)...18 euros! Seeing as most espresso machines start at around 300 dollars, I was quite pleased with my find. Apparently someone in the dorm here didn't want theirs and had it sitting in a box and was willing to part with the precious gift for a mere 18 dollars. I've had it about an hour and I've already made a drink for myself and my roomate.
In other news, when I first got here I thought I was the only American in Zwickau. A month later I learned that there is a small group of Mormon guys living here as well. One of my friends saw them in a bus in Zwickau, my roomate saw them downtown, and yesterday they were sighted in my dorm! I really wanted to meet them, not so much because they are Mormon, but because they are the only other Americans in Zwickau. They are from, you guessed it, Utah. I really wanted them to knock on my door so that they could come in and we could all speak good ol'American English. My mom just sent me some Kool Aid and I assumed that the Mormons and I could chat and drink some classic American Kool Aid (as we clearly were not going to have any coffee or beer). Alas, they kept their knocking to the other side of the dorm yesterday so I have high hopes for a visit in the next few days. I'll keep you posted.
I've seen a lot of great things in my life but really Christmas markets might just be the best thing ever. It is truly just impossible to explain the sheer wonder via blog. Now, I have never been to a Christmas market prior to this year. After the past month though I have been to Christmas markets in: Nuremberg, Dresden, Munich, Dortmund, Schwerin and Zwickau. The basic layout is the same from town to town - dozens and dozens of little stands in orderly rows in the center square in town. In the bigger towns these rows of stands will go down all streets anywhere near the center of town. Now what are in these stands you say? Well, it varies from town to town but you can rest assured that every town has at least one stand selling roasted almonds and chestnuts, bratwurst, chocolate covered fruit, ornaments, nutcrackers, wooden Christmas figurines, and, perhaps most importantly, Gluehwein (translation: a mix of hot wine, spices, and rum). Some cities, for example Berlin and everyone's favorite town Schwerin, add in some good ol' fair rides - huge ferris wheels, rides for the kiddies, etc. Zwickau has just one little ride for the wee ones but I'm quite ok with that as there is enough to amuse me elsewhere in the market. Zwickau, and the Erzgeberge (Ore) Mountains that surround the town, are famous for their wooden Christmas craftworks and this area is actually called "Christmas Country" in Germany. This means that Zwickau's Christmas Market is huge, especially for a town of its size. I'm trying to eat my way across every food stand in the market but that's basically impossible. I'll never be able to hit up everyone from the woman who sells fried dough to the man who sells horse (I'm not kidding). Don't worry, naturally I started with desserts first and I've eaten at one of the three crepe stands, today I went to the fried dough woman and the other day I ate a bunch of chocolate covered fruits. I still have about 10 more dessert stands to go and I'm here just one more week. Mal sehen.
PS. I have posted pictures of all the Christmas markets I have been to on the left (Nuremberg, Dresden, Munich, Dortmund)
When I first got to Germany I really thought this public transportation thing was nifty. I was a bit sad without my massively huge car, but seeing as gas would have cost about 100 dollars a week and it is clearly impossible to ship a car from Orchard Lake, Michigan to Zwickau, Germany I was going to have to get used to this public transporation thing whether I liked it or not. The Strassenbahn (light rail going around the city) and a train that can take me all the way to the Czech Republic stops right outside my door. I only have to walk about 5 minutes to get to my bus stop that takes me all the way to Kirchberg. This public transportation thing really had treated me pretty well since I've been here. Sure sometimes the bus was a bit late, or more likely here in Germany it was early and left before the scheduled stop time. All in all, however, I was getting used to this not having a car thing.
Then this week the perils of public transportation were truly exposed. Since I take the bus everyday to work, I have a monthly student pass. Recently I needed a little picture of me so I tore the one off my student bus pass and later paperclipped a new photo of me on (as I had no tape). It was also a switch to the new month, so I frantically bought a new month pass and shoved it in along with my paperclipped picture into the lovely little plastic thing that holds all these excessive sheets of paper and pictures that say indeed I, one lowly lost girl from America, can ride the bus everyday from Zwickau to Kirchberg and back.
Before this story continues, you must know that it is totally possible to get on a bus, train, or subway here in Germany without paying. That would be called riding black. To stop everyone from always doing this, occasionally plain clothed
people get on the bus and demand to see your ticket. If you can’t show that you have a valid ticket, then you have to pay some exorbitant amount of money that would be basically equivalent to the value of your first born child. Now the very day after I bought my fresh new ticket for the month and shoved it all in my bus pass thingy there was, everyone’s favorite, one of those plain clothed people. Now, this one was quite bad at hiding herself as she was talking half the time to the bus driver before she came around for tickets. I had just bought a ticket the day before so CLEARLY my month pass was valid. I was not worried. I was the first person she ran up to and when I presented her with my disc helved paperclipped together bus ID she did not seem impressed. “Do you have another form of ID?” she shrieked. I whipped out my Michigan Drivers License. She was even less impressed. The conversation followed as this: Buswoman: “Where are you living?” Me: “I’m living in
Zwickau
.” Buswoman: “Why is your pass like this? Your picture is not even glued on. You have about three old tickets in here? Who do you think you are trying to fool? You are supposed to have this number written up here! Don’t think you can use someone else’s ID.” Me: “Uh, I don’t even have anyone else’s ID to use as I know no one else who rides from
Zwickau
to Kirchberg everyday.” Buswoman: “Don’t give me lip. I’m writing you up.” So, there I was, the girl who always warned all her friends here against riding black getting written up for just that. I didn’t have to pay on the spot, as I had 5 euros on me, but apparently they are really going to go after me for having a not properly assembled pass (or so evil buswoman says). Later I went to complain and tomorrow I need to go to some other office to complain and basically until the Polizei come to my door and drag me to jail I’m not paying this fine.
You may think this is bad but alas, today I had fun with the Deutsche Bahn (the train). I spent a wonderful weekend in
Dortmund
(which is about, oh, hours by train from
Zwickau
). At around I was supposed to get in a train bound to
Leipzig
(where I would catch a connecting train 7 minutes later to
Zwickau
). This plan seemed golden and I’d even be able to be in in time to buy some groceries. After living here for a few months I’ve certainly had my share of rides on the Deutsche Bahn. I have really mastered the art of finding a seat, figured out which ones are reserved, and reading the maps at the station so that I can stand at exactly the right area on the platform (obviously, 2nd class nonsmoking). My schedule said to board on platform 10ab. At I boarded an ICE (super high speed) train exactly at platform 10ab. I fought my way to find a seat (as most all ICE trains are normally packed to the brim with people in suits) and through all the chatting on cellphones and reserved seats, I finally found somewhere to sit. I was happy as a clam when I finally found a seat and realized that I wouldn’t have to move for another six hours. As usual, a few minutes into the ride the train-ticket-checker-guy came around to check our tickets. Mine was inspected, punched, and quickly given back to me. Now, maybe it was my fault that I never looked for the schedule-thingies the Deutsche Bahn usually lays out at every seat (which were mysteriously lacking today) or maybe I can blame this on the fact that if there ever was an announcement, I certainly didn’t hear it over the drone of 23048234 men rapidly speaking German into their cellphones. Now, I realize that I probably should have known when I arrived in Hamburg that something was up but I didn’t know the schedule of our ICE train, I couldn’t find one at my seat, and I couldn’t ask as all my fellow ICE travelers were either on the phone, intimidating, or both. I thought to myself “This is a rapid train, it’s just going up to
Hamburg
and then it’s going to shoot back down to
Leipzig
.” Yeah, well, about another hour later train-ticket-checker-guy-number-two comes around to check tickets. He takes one look at mine and exclaims “Where in the world are you going?” Me: “Um, well, I’m going to
Zwickau
, through
Leipzig
.” Him: “How did you end up on this train!?!” Me: (takes out schedule that the GERMAN TRAIN COMPANY THEMSELVES PRINTED OUT FOR ME) “Well it says here I board in
Dortmund
on platform a/b, I did that, and now here I am. Um. Where am I exactly?” Him: (har har har) Well that train split, the a/b corresponds to something else, not where to board. I don’t even think I could have figured this out from this schedule! Didn’t the first train-ticket-checker-man tell you?” Me: “Um. No sir. He clearly did not.” Him: “Well, young lady, you are a long way from
Zwickau
. We are on our way to
Schwerin
! You’ll have to get out and switch trains there.” (This nice train-ticket-checker-man then proceeded to find the next possible route from
Schwerin
(somewhere, who knows where, in the North of Germany) to
Zwickau
on his nifty palm pocket. He scribbled down a new schedule for me, chuckled a little, and told me to make sure I get myself off in
Schwerin
. Now, at this point, I must say I was a bit mad. In fact, I was furious for I believe I followed all directions perfectly though I should have been about to arrive in
Leipzig
I was now on my way to
Schwerin
. Soon I arrived in the lovely town and I had to wait around for an hour for the train. The train station wasn’t going to be able to amuse me for an hour so I walked downtown and decided to buy a mug from the Christmas Market so that this experience will live with me forever. As I was walking downtown, I noticed a river and figured it was some river of extreme importance as this is
Europe
. At this point I had no idea where I was, where
Schwerin
was, or if I was ever going to get back to
Leipzig
. I asked someone standing by said river and he said “oh, this here leads out to the
Baltic Sea
.” Good God, I had gotten so far off track on the ICE train that I was now on the
Baltic Sea
. About two hours later, and two more train station switches in the middle of nowhere
Baltic Sea
land, I was finally on some train of significance. This one was bound for
Prague
(scheduled to pass through
Berlin
and
Dresden
). Our train didn’t just stop in
Berlin
, we were given an entire city tour. I saw the Reichstag, Alexanderplatz, the Fernseherturm, parts of The Wall, and we even got to ride through the new, not yet open, Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
I have to say that I was mighty mad at first about this train debacle but after purchasing my pretty new mug in the Christmas Market in
Schwerin
and getting a spectacular tour of
Berlin
I was actually kinda happy about the stupidity of splitting trains. Eventually, six hours and then some after I was scheduled to arrive, I triumphantly arrived in
Zwickau
. Ok, so I should have been here at about and instead I got in around but I did get a tour of
Germany
. I saw
Dortmund
,
Bremen
,
Hamburg
,
Dresden
, the
Baltic Sea
, a nice little town called
Schwerin
and I got a full tour of
Berlin
.
Maybe it is because I am from Detroit or maybe it’s just because I love my car, but I’ve never felt love towards public transportation and despite the free tour of Berlin, I still can’t wait to be home in two weeks where I’ll be in control of my car and I’m pretty sure I won’t mistakingly end up on the Baltic Sea.
