On to Dresden!

My class in Bremen, missing Jawaad, Monica, Yumiko
and Marcus (taking the picture)

My last week in Bremen was beautiful--sunny and warm.  Wednesday was our last day of class and of course we had to party with yummy food...mostly chocolate!  It was sad to say good-bye to my classmates and to Teagan.  Such a short time and so many new friends.  Yesterday I began my new life in Dresden.  By the time I get done with all this traveling, I'm going to have carrying all my belongings in my own two arms down quite well!

I am already missing Teagan who was such a big help in the transition to German culture and life...and buying food!  Last night I managed to get tomato paste to go on my tortellini.  It works, just a little strange.  At least it is tomato!

My apartment in Dresden is quite lovely.  It is bright with big windows that open, on the second floor.  The bathroom is almost as big as the main room, and the kitchen is smaller than the ones in Blair House (I didn't think there was such a thing!).  I have a refrigerator, an electric water boiler thingy, a sink, and a 2-burner stove.  There is something that might be a coffee maker of some sort, but I have no idea how it might work so I'll be drinking instant coffee.  There is even a TV with one channel!

Tomorrow morning I plan to scout out the Dresden flea market, which I believe is along the Elbe River.  Other than that, I am committing the weekend to studying both German and for my independent courses through Wartburg.  I am pondering buying a used bike and the possibility of selling it back at the end of the month.  Perhaps one is better off renting one for a month? 

It won't be long before I find my way to the Altstadt (the old, restored part of Dresden).  I look forward to visiting the Frauenkirche again, a beautiful church restored after the bombings of WWII.  I am also anxious to see what else there is to find in the Altstadt!
For now, I have just eaten half the jar of peanut butter with a spoon, and being 8:30, I think my achy bones can crawl into bed.  More to come soon!



Pax.

Neuengamme and Buchenwald

Thought I'd post a few more pictures showing the very different experiences of Buchenwald in 2007/2009 and Neuengamme yesterday.

Buchenwald 2007

Buchenwald 2009

Buchenwald 2009

Buchenwald 2007

Buchenwald 2007

Neuengamme 2011

Neuengamme 2011

Neuengamme 2011
Die Verzweiflung von Meensel-Kiezegem
(The Desperation of Meensel-Kiezegem)
A memorial to the villagers of Meensel-Kiezegem murdered in Nazi roundups
and in honor of the victims' mothers and widows.

Pax.

Neuengamme Concentration Camp

These last few days have been perfect out. Warm, sunny, and just a bit of a breeze. After class yesterday, I drug Teagan to Verden, the "Rider's City" where the Deutsches Pferdemuseum is. There are horses everywhere. Well, I never saw a live horse, but bike racks have horse designs, statues, and the sidewalk has horse shoes with names--I'm guessing sort of like "bricks" you can buy and have your name put on in support of something.  What was super exciting about these horse shoes was that I was determined to find a name I know..and I did!

Teagan in front of the Pferdesmuseum.

The Pferdemuseum itself was neat.  Unfortunately, no pictures allowed.  I didn't know horses were used in WWII.  The museum had the goggles and gas masks worn by horses for protection. Wild. Lots of bones and skeletons, stuff on floating teeth, types of saddles (side saddle, AP saddle, some very strange saddles!) some horrific bits from forever ago that made me cringe as well as a series of bits showing the process of production of the popular Aurigan (similar to KK) bits. There was a preserved fetus and of course preserved guts of sorts. Lots of fun.

Und die toten Anderer Volker und Nationen.

Today was a bit more challenging.  It was unfitting to put this gorgeous of a day and Neuengamme Concentration camp together.  My hope was to get to Bergen-Belsen today, but apparently transportation is more difficult to that site on Saturdays.  I'm going to do my best to get there...somehow!  Anyway, I headed to Hamburg with the rest of the group and from there split for Neuengamme, another train and a bus ride farther.  With a little work, I managed to get off the bus at the right place, but the "camp" looked like a park so I kept wandering the streets looking for something that looked similar to Buchenwald...that's what I have to compare to.  I saw lots of neat things in my wandering, including some impressive stables and nice-looking horses out in fields along neat winding roads with flowers.

 

When I finally figured out that the first place I had been was indeed the edge of the camp (it was recognizable a bit farther in!), I went back and spent the next 3 hours there, hardly meeting another person.  It was empty, yet bright and full of life.  Other than the path, all was grass with gorgeous trees and bushes and flowers.  I will never fully comprehend what happenend in these camps, but the "sunny" atmosphere of the place and the day pushed me farther from reality.  As I waited for the bus at the end of the day, I wrote, "So many died here.  The paradox of life and death.  It was a struggle for me to realize all that this ground here has seen, its history, its story.  It is so beautiful I can hardly think of it as a concentration camp."

Perhaps there is truth here, that somehow, some way, beauty can return without forgetting the horrors of the past.  We still see the "scars"--building remains, graves, memorials, art.  The pain and suffering are not buried but remembered and respected as they give depth and meaning to the beauty that now is.  The beauty of life in the shadow of the cross.

Pax.

Bremen Weeks 2 and 3

Yesterday was a spectacular day.  The sun was finally out and I was comfortable with my light jacket as I walked the trails of Bremen's Bürgerpark after class.  I found there gorgeous bridges over water, dirt paths, grass and open spaces, trees and heavily wooded areas, even a little zoo that has the feel of a farm.  The animals had shelters with thatched rooves and grass and space to move around...maybe the best life a zoo animal can have!  Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, llamas, chickens, ducks, geese...and MINI DONKEYS!  Oh, this made me happy inside!

Today in my chronic coldness, I got another layer of clothes.  In the process, I lost my discipline and bought another hat.  I've been wearing it since I got home this afternoon.  Something about having a hat on my head...a hat of any sort, Aussie, Tilly, baseball cap, ski hat with ears, my fur hunting hat, my helmet...fills a space inside me that's empty without my hat. 

It's amazing how things, though very similar to things in the US, are so novel and exciting...like the yarn shop today. I've been in it before, but Europen yarn is different! Can't help it!  So I came home with 6 skeins of on-sale yarn and spent the afternoon crocheting.  Might turn into a scarf if I can quit ripping it apart every time it starts to look funny.  Then there's the grocery stores.  Everything is in different packaging and called something I don't understand.  It's new and exciting, even though it's really not...sort of.  Call me crazy.  It's okay, I'm not in denial...I have romantic ideas of a new land--and perhaps hats, too.  Perhaps this is a way of life we all could stand to live under a bit more, being able to walk the same streets day after day and see everything as new each time.  What would life be like?  What would relationships be like?

That reminds me of the beginning of "Creation and Fall", my current Bonhoeffer read.  He writes, "That God's work is good in no way means that the world is the best of all conceivable worlds."  He goes on a page later, "God wills to look upon [God's] work, to love it, to call it good, and preserve it." (Bonhoeffer, 25-26)  It seems to me that there is a strong connection between "preserving" and "being in awe of" the world around us. What we take for granted...the life that God preserves in us, in those around us, in creation.

What if we all had respect?  I find it fascinating, going back to a previous post about Germany not protecting me from myself, that people are so much more respectful here.  In my experience in the USA, as soon as there is a fence or a sign to keep people out, that's the invitation to cross it.  Check this out...no barrier but this little sign that says, "Please don't go here" (loose translation) and there are no signs of anyone being out there.  No paths.  No trash.  Why do so many Americans feel the right to cross boundaries such as this?

Pax.

der, die, das...er, sie, es...ein, eine, ein...

My room in Bremen.

Well, there hasn't been a whole lot of new and exciting action going on since last week.  Studying and wandering the streets of Bremen mostly.  Sleep has been somewhat lacking, not because I've been out, but because there are so many things going on in my mind that I struggle to turn it off at night.  Quite frequently the last few nights I am waking up and can't figure out where I am.  The first thing I do is look for Madelaine...she's not there.  I have avoided looking at pictures of her (except the one at the top of this page!) because I can't stand it.  However, I noticed I wore some of her fur to class today.

A few of us at Becks Brewery...which I still don't like to drink.

Sunday afternoon I played Fußball with the guys in a grassy park.  Of course my team of three (Team USA!) got our hineys kicked in two of the three games by Team Tanzania, of two.  Oh well.  All was fun anyway.  (Catch that? I just said I had fun losing...that doesn't happen often!)

Yesterday and today we had a "substitute" teacher for our German class and the poor woman had zero patience for us.  It's not that we goof around or are not serious, it was more the university professor trying to teach kindergarten.  She hovered over us watching every letter each of us wrote and when we made a mistake, she'd snatch our pens and pencils out of our hands, hastily scratch out what we'd written and make German grunts at us.  I think we all survived and desperately hope our normal teacher is back tomorrow!  Our first exam was yesterday and our second is tomorrow.  And, I'm here writing this as an excuse not to study.

How frustrating shopping is everywhere one goes. Teagan was on a hat-finding mission this afternoon so I went along.  Hats are amazing!!!  Anyway, I found a pair of knit wool mittens on sale.  Nowhere did they say "Made in..." and giving "Icelandic Design" the benefit of the doubt, I bought them, only to find in my Google research that they came from China or Nepal.  I turned down the winter hat I was nearly attached to because it was made in China.  At least North Face admitted where the hat was made!  Oh well.  Live and learn and now I have mittens in Germany that were made in Nepal or China for a company based in Colorado.  I might wear them to bed tonight.

Pax.

Bremen!

Today was the third day of my four-week intensive German course in Bremen, through the Goethe Institut.  The first day was orientation and placement testing so I had most of the day free.  Placement tests are quick when one doesn't know much.  During the process, I met Fern, my new friend from England.  We walked the streets of Bremen for over five and a half hours Monday afternoon.  She taught me about the term "bloke" and we conversed about the meaning of "pants" in our cultures.  Not only am I learning German, I'm also learning English!

Bremen Town Musicians

Of course, the Bremen Town Musicians statue had to be my first find.  Everything in Bremen has some mark of these critters, including the fabric on the tram seats. 


Unser Lieben Frauen Kirche
Windows by French painter Alfred Manessier.



Bell tower of St Petri Dom...on the way up with Fern.

My calling to be a suit of armor has not disappeared since I was the Wartburg College mascot in the Homecoming parade.  Though, I have no desire to wear one again, it's still one of my romantic ideas. 


Fern and me.




Saturday's flea market along the riverwalk.







St Petri Dom





This is St Petri Dom, the Lutheran cathedral in which I worshipped in on Sunday morning.  What an amazing experience as, not for the first time and hopefully not the last, I was able to follow the German liturgy by the rhythms and patterns.  As much as so many dislike "traditional" services because of the liturgy, it does indeed unite us across cultures and languages, across time and space.

One of the things I am quite enjoying about Germany is that if I'm going to do something stupid, nobody is going to put a fence up and tell me not to.  If I hurt myself, it's my own fault.  Now, I'm not going around trying to get myself in trouble, but I love the freedom in not being protected from myself.  This is a good place for me to be--a place in life where I can be the person I know I am and not get in trouble for standing in the nook of the tower or going down the slide in the city playground--the simple but fun bits of life that I've missed because I never allowed myself to break rules, even if they were stupid rules.  Remember when Mom offered me $1 to get my name on the board at school and I wouldn't do it? 



The scenic route from my hostel to downtown.



Die Sögestraße und die Schweine







By the way, there are pigs everywhere in Bremen.  Stuffed pigs.  Pig decorations.  Pig statues.  Then there's the pork.






Pax.

Leavin' on a jet plane...don't know when I'll be back again!

Well, it's been all smooth so far...a few hours into the trip. Of course, I didn't make it through security in Minneapolis because I failed to take my Chapstick out of my pants pocket. However, I also failed to take my baggie of liquids out of my carry-on...which nobody said anything about. Go figure.

Another observation that I'm not sure I've thought of before, at least not deeply. It's really a pain to have to take all your stuff into the stall with you to pee. Nobody to guard bags. Not that the 4 guys I went to Guyana with in January...'nother story.  Well, it's too funny not to write.  We'd just landed in the Georgetown airport in Guyana, 4 guys from Wartburg and I, and we were standing an an immobile line to get through...something. Anyway, I figured since the line wasn't moving I'd run and go.  Had no idea when we'd see another bathroom.  So, as I'm walking toward the Women's door, a lady standing outside the Men's grabs my arm and says, "Right here!" and shoves me through the door into the men's room. The room was empty so I though, "Well, maybe the ladie's room is out of order and that woman is going to guard the door." Not so much. I'm ready to leave my stall and men start walking in, of course stopping at the urinals right by the door out.  Do I stay in my stall until they leave or do I just leave?  I waited a bit but men just kept coming in, so I washed my hands and left as quickly and indescretely as a white female in a Guyanese men's bathroom can leave.  As I walk out the door, all 4 guys are standing in line watching for me, laughing hysterically, "We were wondering what you were going to do!"

Anyway, on to Germany.  Here I am, settled into the 5-bed "girl's room" at Townside Hostel.  The closer to Munich the plane got, the more I started to panic--the "estimated arrival" was creeping closer and closer to being late and I already had less than 50 minutes to get through customs, check in, pass security, and be on my next plane.  But, then I thought, you know, mix-ups are half the adventure!  So what if I miss the plane?  There are other ways to get from Munich to Bremen!"  But, since German Customs are nothing like the USA, I didn't even have to collect my checked bags.  Nobody asked me why I was entering the country.  Only when I was trying to find my way out of the Bremen airport (carrying both checked bags and both carry-ons in my two scrawny little arms) did I get pulled off to the side to be quite gently interrogated about whether I'd brought anything like cheese from home.

Being too tired to do much but trying not to sleep too early, I wandered the streets for a bit, found some of the gummiest spaghetti to eat, and now I'm ready to crash for good. Oh, by the way, all my websites are in German and if I spell check, everything is spelled wrong...Day 1 in Germany.

Pax.