A welcome distraction

So I spent a few days being really frustrated with blogger, especially how long it takes to load pictures... and in the meantime I got really frustrated with German, so instead of working on my homework I'm succumbing to the less annoying of too evils.

I still like studying Deutsch, don't get me wrong. I just expected to make faster progress here with the amount of time we spend in the classroom every day. In small ways I see the changes. I'm recognizing more words in lecture and can usually make my needs known in a shop. On the other hand, I'm still waiting for the epiphany, when someone spontaneously speaks to me on the street and I understand immediately (right now it's "garble garble garble oh yeah this is German think think AHA!" which takes some time and involves missing important details) and respond appropriately (not my present desperate cop-out knee-jerk "Es tut mir leid... ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch!")

I've found, however, that my grammar background is surprisingly strong. It's the one class where everything so far has been review for me, and we're backtracking again to go over cases next week. If I could only apply it with more facility! The other two students in the class may not know why a structure exists in a certain form, but they pick it up by ear really fast. My learning style is a little different. While I think I have a good ear for cadence, accent, and phonemes, I get bogged down in structure because I spend time remembering how a sentence or phrase works. And then there are the words themselves. In English, my vocabulary is a point of pride. I know, like, and use big words. To lack that ability bothers me quite a bit.

But I still have time. That's certainly comforting. I don't know that it will be enough to truly consider myself fluent (I've got pretty high standards where that's concerned) but I'm well on my way to being conversational. A big step.

Hmm, what else? I have lots of photos from my dorm, Kiel and its environs, and also from our day trip to Husum and the Wattenmeer. The Watt is the local name for a really cool and unique ecosystem. The coastal land here by the Nordsee is very flat with large tides, resulting in a vast swath of coast which is underwater for high tide (die Flut) but exposed at low tide (die Ebbe.) The mud, or Matsch, is very smooth and full of all sorts of interesting critters. The countryside by the coast is also notably unique. Der Koog is the name for land reclaimed from the water by the placement of dense wooden fences which retain sediment and eventually build up to above high tide level. Sheep are grazed on the salt grass and the more inland sections are used for agriculture, especially potatoes.

But the best part of it all is definitely der Matsch. It was a bit of a walk from the road (through sheep-fertilized pastures, no less,) but my feet have rarely been this happy.

Baa!

Freshly discalced Abi, Tina, and Jacquelyn

The best sign EVER! I want one for my room. Also, a great shot of the fences that define and form the Koog.

Mmm... squelchy! Meine Zehe sind sehr glücklich!

The mud was warm from the afternoon sun. Seriously, happy toes.

Vast. Swath. The little nubbly things are dirt piles processed by the local fauna, a worm unique to this habitat.

Okay, jetzt muss ich meine Hausaufgabe machen. I have more photos to post another time, including the infamous apartment photos, some swans on the Fjord, me doing something scary and dangerous (oooh, tease!) and the best dinner ever. (Meghan made a fabulous vegetable quiche for tonight, which takes a close second... but Mikey and Leslie spent two days last week buying ingredients and preparing a near-authentic Mexican dinner, including handmade tortillas!) I'm drooling now just thinking about it. Another day...

grr

Blogger is giving me fits today. I can't add photos to my post from yesterday for some reason, and the alternative method I used to add one picture has completely stopped working. Formatting is refusing to stay formatted. So...

I'm heading over to the Burse to help cook dinner, and then tonight I think we're going out to a bunch of museums which will be opened late.

Tomorrow we have a day trip to the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein.

Now... gotta catch a bus!

When it rains...

I know I promised to get around to posting pictures of my dorm… I lied. Not gonna happen yet. I haven’t even taken them. It was rainy and nasty today, and I was in a foul mood after a very wet wild-goose chase. Apparently DeutscheBank lacks a little bit in the customer service area. The group of us all went together to open accounts, and they screwed a couple up. Mine was fine, but by now most folks have gotten their bank cards in the mail, but the three of us at the other dorm are still waiting. The folks at the bank basically told me that my mail must not be set up properly, and that I have to check with the Hausmeister and then request a new card. I think I’m going to give them the department address this time rather than my home address. Hopefully I can get it figured out before I have to leave!

So I got home from my excursion dripping wet and frustrated with finance (and bus schedules. I was so flustered by the whole issue that I accidentally got on the wrong bus. Twice.) I was almost late for our evening excursion to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival's final dress rehearsal.

It didn’t really help matters that we got into a car accident on our way. (Don’t worry Mom, I’m okay!) Jan, the head advisor for the university’s International Center, was driving, and a woman hydroplaned against his car and knocked the passenger-side mirror almost off. Yup, today just got better and better.

We continued on to the festival, and everything was better. The music was amazing! The orchestra is made up of students from 22 countries. This year’s theme was “Japan.” The first piece was Memory of the Sea (Hiroshima Symphony) by Toshio Hosokawa. The horns actually left the orchestra and moved behind the audience at one point, so the sound was coming from everywhere. The second piece, Toru Takemitsu’s Ceremonial: An Autumn Ode for Orchestra and Shô, showcased the guest soloist Mayumi Miyata. The Shô is a really cool traditional Japanese wind instrument that basically looked to me like a cross between a harmonica and a pipe organ. It produces incredibly pure-sounding tones, and I think it’s either designed to play overtone-like clusters or the composer did something really cool.

After intermission we heard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie, op. 64. The piece tells the story of climbers ascending one of the Alps and climbing down again. One section represents crossing a cow pasture, complete with cowbells. My favorite part was the storm during the descent, complete with thunder and rushing wind sounds.

All in all, it hit the spot. I’m exhausted and haven’t had time to do any homework for tomorrow, but somehow good music is humongously cathartic. It makes you feel a million emotions, literally can change your heartbeat. Sometimes I just need that.

The festival is held on the grounds of a giant mansion, where all 120 or so musicians live for two months of rehearsals and performances. The concert hall is actually some kind of outbuilding on the grounds. Pictures, you ask? Of course!


The mansion


Another view


From the steps... the concert hall is the red brick building just past the flags.


Closer to the entrance


The view from my seat. I didn't realize it at the time, but the soloist was sitting right in front of me (with the braided hair).



Fulbrighters on the mansion steps!

Aren't we cute?


If you�re ever in Schleswig-Holstein in the summer, check it out!

Food and Theatre...

Yay for wednesday morning off from classes! Yay for my first stipend check! Not so yay: spending said morning waiting for the bus, getting into town to cash said check, only to have forgotten my passport, apparently necessary to complete the transaction. Blah. The Sparkasse is open late tomorrow, so I'll have to try again.

I'm going to need to start asking for recipes after every meal, because I would certainly love to continue eating this well when I'm off on my own. Tonight: sauteed vegetables and homemade pasta (Jennifer bought a pasta maker for 5 euro!) with homemade tomato sauce (a la Andrew), then fresh nectarines, chocolate, and aged cheese for dessert. It was so pretty, I took a picture.

Yum!

We ate outside on the lawn of the Burse since the weather was so nice today. Did I mention that I don't get to live here?

Oh, and this is the rose garden at the end of the lawn.

Pretty!

And this is the view of the water from our table, with one of the ferries coming up the fjord. Once again, I don't live here. My dorm is halfway across town. Sigh.

The bikers going by in the last shot were part of a huge group of cyclists/rollerbladers who randomly went rolling by, followed by a smartcar blaring something upbeat and orchestral. I'm rethinking my decision not to buy a bike here... I need to make sure before I buy my bus pass for the month of September! On the one hand, they are pricey and the quality is spotty, from what I've seen. On the other, I spend at least half an hour a day waiting for busses right now, and more if I have to make more than a couple of trips. Con: I'll either have to deal with selling it or hauling it on the train to Göttingen later. Pro: I like riding, and the hills here are definitely manageable. Anti: It costs money. For: I have money now? Gegen: I'll have to haggle in German. Für: It's healthy, and I don't often find forms of exercise that I genuinely enjoy... I could go on all night.

I borrowed Abi's bike tonight to get back home, and I really liked it. If I can find one that rides that well for less than 80 euro, I might just have to go for it.

The reason I had to borrow Abi's bike? Theatre. I missed the last reasonably close bus for the night for the sake of art, and I have no regrets.

We had a reading of Abi's play, Voices Underwater. I got to play a wounded cross-dressing civil war soldier, which was really fun. I'm not sure quite how to describe the play itself... very surreal, but with lots of really interesting facets and interplay across shifting histories and time. It is being premiered I think next week on the west coast, I think maybe in LA? I'd love to see it staged someday... my impression is that it is a very visual piece, almost otherworldly in design and technically very complex to stage. I have to say that I'm continually impressed with my classmates. They do amazing work, are genuinely awesome people, and can cook like the dickens! I hope it rubs off on me...

Coming tomorrow: I'm finally going to take some picture of my dorm and environs.

A beautiful tragedy

Tonight was the first "language group movie night." The film we saw is called Gegen die Wand (or "against the wall,") a sort of love story set against the backdrop of Turkish-German subculture. I loved this movie. Okay, I'm sure that part of the source of my enjoyment was the pride I felt in understanding the plot... the DVD had no English subtitle option, so we watched auf Deutsch with German subtitles for the Turkish dialogue.

The rest of it is hard to identify... There was no hollywood happy ending, but there was lots of very bloody, usually senseless self-inflicted violence, and drugs... not to mention graphic and violent sex scenes. Basically, the formula sounds like the antithesis of my moviegoing preferences. And yet, I found the story both plausible and compelling.

I've picked up bits and pieces of information about the situation of Turkish Ausländer in Germany, particularly the more sensational headlines regarding "honor killings" of young German-assimilated women from fundamentalist families. The protaganists of the film were portrayed as conflicted individuals caught between cultures, and succumbing to (and later overcoming) the destructive temptations of modern life. Maybe that's the key... it wasn't so necessary for the characters to find love together as it was for them to help one another find self-love and the strength to build a new life. As such, it's a beautiful story displayed with all the ugly pieces of the puzzle in full view. Nothing is glossed over.

So, if you're in the mood for a disturbing, thought-provoking, and ultimately uplifting story with an interesting cultural context, Gegen die Wand gets two thumbs up from me. I'd imagine that DVD's coded for region one probably have English subtitles, so check it out if you get the chance.

At sea

Tonight I spent some time considering the ambiguousness of my position. I'm starting to learn street names around Kiel, and can successfully order myself a sandwich or an ice cream cone or a new Fahrkarte. At the same time, I'm still working how to open a bus door from the inside, and also sorting and taking care of the trash/recyclables.

It's very strange to have to concentrate really hard just to eavesdrop a little on the street.

The nature of life lends itself to the normalization of new experiences. I've been here a week and a day, and already things feel familiar. I haven't yet had all of my classes, and yet it comes as a shock to remember how far away I am from home, and how many new things I've seen in such a short time. Here I'm not completely comfortable in my own skin all the time, but I slip into autopilot often enough that the everyday is feeling very natural. And how weird is that?

Ah, introspection. Maybe I should stick to one glass of wine with dinner.

On the other hand, I feel poetic. Waiting for the bus tonight I saw a constellation of swans bobbing on the waterfront. One ghost in adult plumage and five full-sized cygnets of varying ages, still showing mostly a downy gray. The evening ferry floated past, decorated with strings of lights and candles in the windows. Of course I didn't have my camera. Next time...

I can see the moon from my window. It looks the same. That's both refreshing and almost disappointing.

***

Oh, and something else... I need a choir. The 1990 Chamber Singers version of Brahms' "Warum ist das licht gegeben den Museligen" came up on the playlist this afternoon. I found myself torn away from the article I was reading again and again until I finally gave up and just listened. I felt a rush of anticipation at every entrance, and recalled the emotional heft of the piece with such clarity that at times I was barely breathing. "Denn der Herr ist barmherzig und ein erbarmer..."

I think the church choir sings on Saturday evening mass, since Sunday morning was a cantor and the congregation. Saturday is phone call night, but maybe that can be flexible. In the bulletin there was a one-page advertisement for "Chor-Schnupper-Samstag," which is apparently a potluck get-together with plow-throughs of liturgical works. The next one (Sept. 17) is some time away, but I think I'll have to pencil that one in. Until then I'll survive on my mp3's...

Oh, oh oh oh oh, how I need a choir.

Where does the time go?

I've already broken a promise to myself. It's been more than a week since my last post. It's exactly one week since I arrived in Kiel, and I've only had in-room internet access since Thursday night... but excuses aside, things have been going really fast here. Maybe I should do a day-by-day summary to catch up.

• Last Sunday, Aug. 14: I and nine other Fulbright students going to Kiel loaded onto a charter bus and drove 8.5 hours from Frankfurt to beautiful Schleswig-Holstein. Hah, funny.... I just now made the connection that this is where the black-and-white cows come from. Anyway, it rained all day. We made it to the first dorm and I found out that I and two other students had been randomly chosen to live in a different dorm away from the rest of the group. (I momentarily considered the likelihood that the others had volunteered me while I was in the bathroom, but happily that turned out not to be the case.) So. I got to haul my giant heavy suitcases up three flights of stairs to get to the suite, and then up a spiral staircase to my upstairs room inside.

• Monday, Aug. 15: Official orientation. The one perk so far about my dorm is that it's a three minute walk from class. Lots of information is thrown at us, then, after a break, lots more. There are forms to fill out so that we can participate successfully in world-famous German bureacracy. Oh, and interesting breakfast meats. We get a tour of part of the University, lunch at the Mensa, and then a walking tour of the city. (Everybody rode the full circut on the Paternoster at the Rathaus... Disney land should look into getting one of those things.) By the time we got to the official welcome dinner, I was ready to conk out from walking everywhere... and then we missed our bus to get back to the dorm... luckily a member of the program staff had pity on us and we didn't have to walk all the way back!

• Tuesday, Aug. 16: We got to take a placement test in the morning, and then it was back downtown to register at the Rathaus and get our visas. Several of us also got cell phones and bank accounts, so this was a day of major accomplishments. We decided to try and do group dinners, which so far has been awesome. So much good vegetarian food... pesto pizza, vegetable and mushroom stir-fry, broiled fresh pepper with carrots, mozarella and tomato salads... I'm drooling just thinking about it!

• Wednesday, Aug. 17: Free day! We planned an afternoon beach trip, to check out the water at Strande up by the top of the Fjord, on the Baltic Sea. I decided to go back downtown in the morning and put money in my bank account. I managed to get lost and wander all over the city in my beach shoes. Mission accomplished, but at the expense of my feet (oozing heel blisters) and my bus map (dropped on the street somewhere). I checked the class bulletin board: I'm in Mittelstufe I, the intermediate class (the highest class offered here.) The beach was cold (maybe 70 degrees), but the water was colder.

• Thursday, Aug. 18: First day of classes. A little overwhelming, but survivable. I have 4.5 hours of class every weekday except wednesday, when I have a free period in the morning and only 3 hours in class. My courses include Grammatik/Textarbeit (grammar/text work), Leseverstehen (reading comprehension), Wortschatz/Idiomatik (vocabulary/idioms), Schriftliche Übungen (writing exercises), Hörverstehen/Sprachlabor (listening comprehension/speaking) and Konversation/Landeskunde (conversation/regional studies). There are three 1.5 hour class periods per day, with breaks in between. Yikes, that's alot of German! Oh, and I got my internet working on Thursday. Yay.

• Friday, Aug. 19: Second day of classes. A bunch of us went out after dinner, which was fun. We went to a club at around midnight, and I was falling asleep in my chair by one. Yahoo.

• Saturday, Aug. 20: Field trip! We went sailing from Schilksee (up by the beach). Well, more like bobbing along... the weather was really calm, so we were a bit impeded by the lack of wind. Also, I finally remembered to take some pictures:

Walking back up to the dorm after breakfast at a nearby cafe, we saw a beautiful bush with purple flowers and lots of butterflies.

Later that day on the boat, the wind was a bit low for fast sailing, but we enjoyed bobbing along on the Ostsee, as did a few other boats.

My apartment-mate Meghan (l) and another grantee Leslie (r) enjoy the breeze, or lack thereof.

Hallo von der Ostsee!

Our captain and Meghan

Amanda looking happy (as always)

The first mate (and of course, I don't remember names...)

Apparently, a famous ship that has been around the world many times, which the captain told us about. I'm going to have to start carrying a notebook to write down the details, or all my stories are going to be really boring and vague.

Did I mention that the other dorm is also right on the water? Life isn't fair...

The water in the Baltic is very black, and full of really cool jellyfish. Supposedly they don't sting, but something got me very lightly when I went swimming, so I'm not so sure.

Another jelly... I'm going to try and take a movie of one swimming and post it as a .gif, if possible. The above with a little more contrast, thanks to photoshop.

Our crew packing it up for the night.

• Which brings us to today, Sunday, Aug. 21: I went to Mass auf Deutsch for the second time in my life (the first, of course, was in Austria last year.) It's funny, because I know the structure well enough to know exactly what is happening and when... but my grasp of the language is still weak enough that I'm not a hundred percent sure all the time. I recognized the readings (the gospel where Jesus establishes Peter as the rock on which the church is to be built, for example) but none of the music. I have to leave the house an hour early to catch the bus, and then I get to wait around outside St. Heinrich's for half an hour until it starts, but I'm looking forward to making a habit of it. Afterwards I went downtown to buy another weekly bus pass, forgot where we bought them last time, mildly panicked, bought a sandwich, ate it, remembered where to go, got it done and went home. The sandwich? Delicious. Being self-sufficient? Even better.

Hopefully I'll also get into the habit of posting more often so my messages won't be so monstrously long!

I made it!

Packing (and re-packing... and vacuum packing... and flat out ditching stuff to be shipped later) was actually completed as of Tuesday afternoon, almost 18 hours before my flight boarded. That's a fairly amazing feat for me.

But even more amazing, of course, is the fact that I'm blogging from Frankfurt, Germany! No flight delays, no lost luggage... an annoying gate change in Chicago and a bit of a bumpy ride and a bit of waiting in the street before the compassionate housekeeping staff to let me into the hotel (before it officially opened for the day)... and I'm no worse for the wear! It's hard to believe.

I communicated with a cab driver in German and got where I wanted to go. Now that's hard to believe!

And this is what I got. The room:

The bathroom (yay hot showers post-airport!):

The view:


It turns out there was another Fulbright student on my flight, but we didn't meet until we were both stranded outside the hotel at 6:30am. After a shower and a nap we went for a walk, ostensibly to find some kind of Mittagessen (lunch) but we didn't find much on this side of the river after an hour's walk, so we gave up and turned around. Another nap, our first meeting with the whole group, then dinner.

And then... internet in the computer lab! I have no idea what access will be like in Kiel (hopefully I can ask tomorrow) but so far so good. I won't be able to stay on all the time since I can't leave my laptop down here, but I'll be around, so watch for me back home. Everything has been a whirl, but I miss you folks and I love you!