Verabschiedung

Well, here it is: my last day in Bielefeld! I’m pretty much all packed up and ready to go tomorrow morning after one final movie-night with my roomies. Honestly, it still hasn’t hit me that I’ll be gone tomorrow. I feel like it is almost any other day that I’m chilling in my apartment writing my blog, skyping friends, and watching TV episodes online. The past month and a half have been a whirlwind—since writing last I’ve been in 3 different countries and have many stories to share. Here I’ll try to be brief, informative, and include lots of pics (because each one of them is worth 1,000 words—so much easier than writing, don’t you think?)

American BBQ

As the foreign language assistants from France, Spain, and England started to reach the end of their assignments, us 5 Americans in my region of Germany decided that we had to have a blow-out American BBQ to show all our friends what a "Grillfest" in USA is like (corn on the cob, watermelon, hamburgers, cornbread, pasta salad, brownies, s'mores, etc.)

At our international party, almost everyone was a s'mores virgin; and all were impressed by this American dessert.

Me and my German friends: Carina, Sabine, Julia, and Anna.

Greece

Just a week after Moscow I headed out to Athens and Rhodes Island in Greece. I spent the weekend couchsurfing in Athens with a really lovely host who was totally linked into the Athens CS-social circle, so I had a lot of opportunities to meet other Greek hosts and party all night while also getting to see all the sites. I spent most of my time just enjoying the sun while walking around town, marveling at the astonishing ruins at the Acropolis, sipping Greek Frappes and munching on fresh Greek salads. I’ll certainly have to take another trip to Greek to visit my CS host, Elena, sometime when she is at home on the small island where she grew. While visiting her I got to enjoy homegrown & jarred pickles, home brewed apricot wine from their own apricot trees, fresh feta cheese, fresh honey, homemade barley bread…just to mention a few of the tasty, healthy things she shared with me.

Flying just a few hours south from Germany brings a wonderful range of fresh, ripe summer vegetables that aren't readily available here.

The olive man. Greece wouldn't be Greece without kalmata olives.

Ancient Grecian frying pans.

View of Athens from the Acropolis.

The Parthenon!

Ruins above Athens.

My couchsurfing host, Elena, and me.

Tried to get a good pic of me with the Acropolis in the background for about 10 min. This is just one of the great pics from the series.

Finally someone else decided to take the hike with the best view that Athens has to offer and took a pic for me.

Wouldn't be Athens without an Olympic stadium.

Athens used to have a really bad reputation apparently, but I had a wonderful time there and can only say good things about the city—easy to get around, great subway, nice people, and to-die-for weather.

After a wonderful weekend, which convinced me to continue traveling with couchsurfing and to try and hook up with a local CS community in the US wherever I finally settle next year, I met my aunt Lenor at the Athens airport and we flew to Rhodes island together to enjoy a few days of utter relaxation. It was a great chance to spend some quality time with my aunt, to take many photos of idyllic Greek island settings, appreciate all the Greek cats wandering around, eat wonderfully, and get some color on my skin.

Relaxation resort.

Lindos...idyllic Greek town on Rhodes Island now overrun by tourists but still picture perfect.

Overall, Greece was wonderful and I was very sorry to leave just as my aunt was starting her Athenian part of the trip. Definitely worth another visit! Oh, and I got along much better with the language than I did in Moscow (partially because I looked at the alphabet before my arrival, partially because I had just been in Moscow and dealt with some of the same letters, partially because Elena and I worked endlessly on my pronunciation, and mostly because things were often written in the Roman alphabet as well so I could check myself.)

England

I came back to Bielefeld for one day of work before repacking my bags to head off as a chaperone on a class trip to Southern England. 42 students from Ratsgymnasium, 2 English teachers, and myself climbed onto a bus for the long journey over Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and France to the Eurotunnel, which took us right under the English Channel into England.

On the Eurotunnel you drive into this freight-car-like tram and then put the car in park and the train transports you across to England. (My mom was really stoked that I was taking the tunnel and so I took pics for her).

Our bus in Eurotunnel

We stayed in a small town called Andover, where each of us (including teachers) stayed in a homestay family. My hosts, Mary and Rob Taylor, were a very kind retired couple. I learned a lot about English culture by chattering endlessly with them and just observing their and their neighbors lifestyles. The Andover program was really great—I learned a lot and I’m sure our students did too! We heard from a prison security guard about the British prison system, which was interesting. We spent a day in Oxford (where I got to see Avi again as well as Christchurch College and the dining hall Hogwarts’s was based on), visited Stonehenge, saw the towns of Winchester and Salisbury (including King Arthur’s Round Table), and toured the H.M.S. Victory Ship at Portsmouth.

Me at Stonehenge

King Arthur's Round Table of legend.

Do you feel like a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin?

H.M.S. Victory

I gained a new respect for the English gardens by visiting in early June when all roses and other flowers were in bloom.

Us teachers basically had a culinary tour—as soon as the students departed at each place for their afternoon of free time, we headed straight to a pub for a beer and included in the week strawberry cream tea, fish n’ chips, curry, and a traditional English breakfast.

The definite highlights of the trip were the two days that we spent in London. I got to see both Jake and Maria!! What a treat! Jake took me out to Hampstead Heath, where we strolled the park and caught up on life—we both have ambiguous goals for the future but are certain we’ll meet up again with a SIT or Pomona crew somewhere Stateside. Maria and I also spent our time strolling, talking, and catching up. Getting to see all these friends was the best part of the trip for me. The ten days flew by, and by the time we returned to Germany almost half of June was already gone!

Outside Buckingham Palace rehearsing the Queen's birthday celebration for the following weekend.

From California to Kenya to England...Alex and Mr. Bell reunite at Hampstead Heath.

Look Ma, I'm in London.

In order to make sure that all the students didn't get lost in London, I was walking at the end of the stragglers who were a good ten minutes behind the rest of the group strolling along, chatting, and stopping to take pictures now and then. I almost died laughing when a group of about 12 of them stopped all together to take a picture of.......a squirrel.

Maria & Alex: Known each other since 2nd grade. All grown up and living in Europe now.

Föhr Island in the North Sea

Again, I returned for only one day of work at school before heading off on another trip. I went on a girls’ weekend to an island off of the northern coast of Germany in the North Sea, called Föhr. Julia, Carina, and I drove out of Rheda-Wiedenbrueck at the crack of dawn (well, at 6 am, but this far North the crack of dawn is actually closer to 4:50 am) and onto Hamburg, where we picked up Anna Jansing. After a 2-hour delay on the Autobahn because of a 4-car pile up that happened just a 100-200 meters in front of us, we finally arrived on Föhr and dug into our first Fischbrötchen of the weekend, which became a daily routine. It was a fantastic weekend filled with the pleasures of having a trans-Atlantic friendship. We took a ton of photos, played on the beach despite the fact that we needed to wear jackets all weekend long, drank champagne in the shower, had Danish ice cream, fought off hungry seagulls, played Set & Phase 10 (card games), saw Sex & the City, watched Europameisterschaft soccer matches, and chatted non-stop (in German nonetheless).

On the ferry: Carina, Julia, Anna, and me.

Strandkörbe (beach baskets) are typical Northern German beach ornaments where you cuddle up with a book and avoid the chilly wind while still enjoying being on the beach.

Wir machen uns fertig. A sample from our mirror photos series.

Champagne in shower while washing sand off our feet and warming up.

The weekend made me really appreciate the friendships that I have made during my year here. It also helped me realize that my time was coming to a close and that I would have to say goodbye to all these lovely people I've come to know :( I'm looking forward to hopefully having Carina in the US next semester when she studies in San Diego.

Wrapping up

And now it is really over. The past week has been filled with goodbye celebrations: disko with all the Amis, last trip to Ikea for some swedish meatballs, coffee at Frau Jansing's with all my English department colleagues, schnitzel with Shawn, nice dinner & movie night with the roomies, and a formal ceremony at school. Amidst it all I remained an avid fan of the EM 2008 (Europameisterschaft--European wide soccer tournament) and watched many of the games. Roomies and I rooted Germany on as they beat Turkey and progressed to the Finale, which I'll have to watch from Morocco.

Americans do breakfast by Bernsteins (me, Dan, Shawn, Robert and Lauren). Next time we do this it'll be a reunion in the States. I'll still count on Dan getting a beer with breakfast and Lauren to find a Milchkaffee served to her in a bowl.

see-saw bei Ikea

Watching Fussball at Sausalitos with roomies (Anna and Sabine)

Finale...woo hoo...celebration on Jahnplatz in the center of Bielefeld.

I'm all packed and will be leaving in the morning for a July filled with travel. I'm meeting my family in Morocco for 2 weeks, then Max and I will continue on to Southern Spain for 10 days together, then I'm off to Paris on my own for a while and I'll probably head back to Germany to see either the Black Forest or Lake Constanze before coming back to Ostwestfalen and flying back to the USA on Aug. 4th. The last couple of months really flew by. I still haven't quite dealt with the reality that I'm leaving. Sitting here with my roommates watching a movie, sharing pics, and eating a late night snack, I feel like this could be any other night during my time here...not my last. The future (post-Aug. 4th) is still to be determined. So, stay tuned for that I guess.

Can't wait to hear from friends living in the US once I'm back in August. miss all of ya tons! Wishing you a wonderful summer :)

Moscow in May

Retreating to the victors
Holiday weekend #2 of May was spent in MOSCOW!!!!! I flew out to visit Zeke, a friend of mine from Pomona, on May 9th, which was very appropriate since it is a national holiday in Russia celebrating their victory over Germany at the end of WWII. I headed there with no idea what to expect and low-level anxiety instilled in me by my mom’s concerns and my friend’s here in Germany telling me to be safe and joking that I should probably buy some mace before going. What I found was a big city, which is in many aspects just like any other big city in the world. I got to thinking of Moscow as the New York or Berlin of Russia. Here’s a day-by-day recap of my trip:

Friday
I had to pull an all-nighter to get there because my flight left Germany at 6:30 am from a city that is a 2 hour train ride away from me, so I left my apartment at 11:40 pm the night before to make all my connections. Zeke was waiting for me at Vnukovo airport when I arrived and we headed right into town (after 2 hours of waiting on the train before it started moving, that is) to his apartment. He lives in what he claims is a pretty typical looking high-rise for middle-class Russians who live just outside Moscow’s city center. I found his apartment incredible. It totally reminded me of the Eastern German apartment depicted in the movie Goodbye Lenin, except his wallpaper patterns were much more ornate. Basically, he lives in a Soviet grandma’s apartment.

Zeke in front of his Russian high rise.

Wonderful wallpaper and phone-fiend Zeke.

Afterwards we went out to start my tour of Moscow. For the holiday, the entire center of the city had been turned into a large pedestrian district, and we had to pass through countless security checkpoints every time we entered and exited the area. There were police everywhere as well as tons of extra uniformed men—army and veterans celebrating the Victory Day. After spending the afternoon walking around town and seeing some of the major sites (Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, the GUM department store, and State Historical Museum) we went out for our first round of Russian vodka shots (and my first round ever with formerly sober-sally Zeke).

Victory celebrations!

Russian police controls were everywhere on May 9th.

Moscow city center streets turned into pedestrian thoroughfares for the holiday.

The Historical Museum view from outside Red Square.

Exterior of the gigantic GUM Department Store.

Interior of GUM.

We are so excited that I'm in Moscow!

Red Square view. Left to right: St. Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, Kremlin fortress wall and towers.

The stunning St. Basil's Cathedral.

Zeke. Me. Russia. Vodka shots.

Saturday
The next day we hung out with Zeke’s lovely friend Ksenja. After walking around Kitai Gorod, a fun neighborhood where we tracked down graffiti by the street artist group 310, who Zeke recently wrote an article about for the hip culture magazine where he works, we began our day with a pizza picnic in a small grassy square (I want to call it a park, but the Russians corrected me and said that by Moscow standards it is really just a large square of grass). Then we walked around Alexander Gardens, which are right outside the Kremlin. We found about 10 workers meticulously picking all the dandelions off of this large grassy lawn, asked them why they were doing it, and after learning that grass is supposed to be green, we decided to help them complete their job and take some flowers with us. We spent the rest of the sunny afternoon at the Pushkin Museum enjoying some classic paintings. After a late afternoon nap and some long, deep discussions about life and existential theory, we took a midnight walk to Zeke’s local 24-hour supermarket, and then called it a night.

Hobby of Russian women: have pictures taken of themselves posing in front of blooming flowers.

Desecrated dandelions in trash bag.

Zeke, me, Ksenja and our rescued flowers.

View of the Kremlin's main entrance.

Sunday
We now reach Sunday in this recounted tale of my trip to Moscow, and at this point I was still slightly frantic about the fact that I was completely helpless without Zeke since Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet felt totally out of my reach. By the end of my 5 day stay I could read aloud some words, but in general I would have a lot of work to do if I ever wanted to learn Russian. After spending so much time maneuvering around a foreign country where I am proud of my language skills, it made me feel debilitated, dependent, and simply foreign to be so clueless about the language.

Despite the fact that I had to spend the first couple of days having Zeke lead me by the arm around Moscow, we had a lovely few days. We started Sunday at the New Maiden’s Convent and the Novodevichy Cemetery. The weather was lovely, and wandering around talking about Russian culture and history was memorable. Hot topic: Russian Federation charging foreigners more for entrance fees than Russian citizens and writing information signs with different prices listed in English and Russian to be deceptively unclear, which highlight how unfair the policy can be. At the cemetery we definitely saw the entire laundry list of great Russian artists’, scientists’, and politicians’ gravestones; however we only recognized a few like Nikita Khrushchev’s and a very new memorial for Boris Yeltsin.

May in Moscow means blooming tulips and flower fields everywhere--lovely!

New Maiden's Convent.

Boris Yeltsin's new memorial and grave.

Nikita Khrushchev's grave.

Afterwards Zeke took me to this cool contemporary art complex, Winzavod, where a bunch of old warehouse space had been converted into multiple art galleries. In that way it kind of reminded me of Bergamot Station in LA. Most of the art we saw was pretty cool. A highlight was definitely a compilation of graphic art comic strips, which were from artists all over Europe. And, the most interesting/weird thing we saw was a video/installation piece that was slightly pornographic and showed a man somehow birthing a head of a woman while surrounded by many other Barbie-like, computer-generated female figures. We had a highly-advanced, intellectual interpretation of the piece that one can only make after a prestigious liberal arts undergraduate education: skeptical glances at one another.

Murals at Winzavod.

After paying our respects to the dead and being art critics we decided to get some time in as sport spectators. We went to a basketball game, which was the finals of the Russian Student Men’s Basketball League…making this game the Russian equivalent of the Final Four we decided. The game was free. Only one half of the stadium seating was open. The athleticism was fairly low-tier. The experience…memorable. Opening laser show, speech by a renowned Russian politician, dancers with a routine (and new costume) for every time out, and a horrible band for the opening and halftime show. Then Zeke’s lovely roommate, Yana, and her boyfriend Tim, took us out for some Siberian soulfood!

Tim, Zeke, and Yana in front of Arbat, a famous and touristy street in Moscow.

Zeke and me sipping borshch.

Monday & Tuesday
I spent the last couple of days in Moscow mostly on my own doing the touristy things that I could manage without Zeke. By now I could easily maneuver the Metro and knew how to say, “thank you” in Russian. First I got to see where Zeke works. What a snazzy newspaper room at Moscow Times. He’s a real journalist! Very cool (even if he is over it by now.) Then: the Kremlin! Walking around and seeing everything in the Cathedral Square was very cool (Assumption Cathedral, Cathedral of the Archangel, Annunciation Cathedral, Ivan the Great Bell Tower, Tsar Cannon, Tsar Bell, and Church of the Deposition of the Virgin's Robe). I still need to learn more about Russian Orthodoxy, but the interior of the churches are very different then any other church I have been in. Because of the heavy emphasis on iconoclasts the entire church is covered in detailed frescoes. These old, important, ceremonial churches didn’t have any pews, and the altar wasn’t as prominent as in many Catholic cathedrals. Have I mentioned how incredible the weather was during my stay? I totally lucked out! Moscow actually struck me as a very green city, but Zeke assured me that most of the green had budded just in the past couple of weeks. I spent the majority of my last day in Moscow looking at Russian paintings dating from the 15th century up to 20th century in the Tretyakov Gallery. When I met Zeke after work we went to a steak dinner at a restaurant that he was writing a review on, which meant the bill was covered by Moscow Times. What a treat!

Kremlin from the outside.

View while entering the Kremlin.

Cathedral Square, the Assumption Cathedral, and tourists

Cathedral, cathedral, cathedral.

Another Kremlin shot.

Biggest bell in the world!

Cathedral domes.

This large statue of Peter the Great has an immense presence in certain views of the city's skyline.

Russian dolls for sale!

One of Moscow's Seven Sister buildings.

General Observations
I’m still trying to figure out how Moscow compares to other places I’ve visited in the world. I know that I don’t have nearly the same understanding of the city or the country as Zeke, but I’ll try and still share some of my general impressions and observations here for those of you who are interested:

- Moscow Metro is worth seeing! The stations are beautiful and grand (a tour book I borrowed from Zeke described them as Soviet-era palaces for the masses). The metro is also really deep underground (about a 3 min. escalator ride at most stations). Trains come about every 45 seconds, so we never worried and ran for a train. The trains are the loudest things ever, and I’m sure extended public transportation in Moscow leads to serious hearing loss.

I don't think this pic. captures how grand the Moscow metro stations are, but maybe it starts to.

Crowded, long elevator in the Moscow metro.

- The city is full of people and cars! Big city!

- Women dress to the nines. Not that Zeke or I found their style incredibly fashionable, but that just shows you how there are different ideas of style throughout the world. Most women walk around in 3-4” heels. No joke. They looked like hooker shoes to me, but they are clearly a must-have in Moscow. I felt incredibly frumpy with hiking boots and a fleece despite the fact that I didn’t see anyone who was fashionable enough to make me turn my head and gawk.

- There are lots of police officers all over town, but the fact that most of them are men younger than me certainly diminished the potential intimidation of their presence.

- I had expected to see the large discrepancy between the wealthy and the poor while in Moscow because I had heard how visible it is there. Although I certainly realized how expensive Moscow is, especially everything in the city center, I did not see any of the poverty, which I had anticipated to stand in contrast to the wealth. Either Zeke protected my eyes, or the urban slums are actually more like suburban slums in Moscow.

- I found the demographics surprisingly homogeneous. After a week in Moscow, my small city in Germany even felt diverse! When I asked Zeke about crime rates in Moscow, he said he didn’t really know, but he was aware that there are often hate crimes committed in Moscow against those who aren’t ethnically Russian.

- We ate a bunch of blinis, which are like crepes. I tried borshch twice. The Georgian food that a mother of a co-worker of Zeke’s sells bi-weekly at his office was probably the best food I ate while there. Overall, I wasn’t very turned on by the food offerings.

- They sell a surprising number of German products in Russia.

Those are all the observations I can remember to recount now, but I’ll add to the list later when I think of more. Overall, the best part of the trip was reconnecting with Zeke, reminiscing about Pomona, and talking about potential future plans. Seeing Moscow and learning about this city was like a whole lot of icing on top of the cake! Two final pictures for you:

WTF???

Babushkas lined up to sell some goods outside a train station.

Now, I’ve got to start packing for Greece….