Saint Petersburg post

Hello all!

I returned from Saint Petersburg tonight at 5:30pm, and will be leaving my apartment shortly after 5:30am to fly to Barcelona, Spain for spring break.

Therefore, I haven't had time to blog about my trip.

I did however post SOME (key word - I have a lot of photos that turned out really well from this trip) photos to my Flickr page.  I will be uploading a lot more when I return from Barcelona - my internet was too slow to do them all tonight.

But under each photo if a very detailed caption, each containing interesting information that I would have posted here for you to read about.  So I would appreciate it if some of you took the time to look through the photos and read the captions.  It's hard work creating and captioning them!

I will definitely post about Saint Petersburg when I get a chance, because it was a really interesting experience that I really look forward to sharing with you all.  But for now, while I am off enjoying some much-deserved warm Mediterranean weather, I will leave you to my Russia photo album on my Flickr so that you can have a taste of the stories that are to come!  Enjoy!

Ps: If the link does not work for you, here is the URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/devannn/sets/72157629264756706/

Marzahn, Berlin, Germany

Marzahn is a neighborhood in Northeast Berlin.  If you mention to anyone in the center/main areas of Berlin, they will look at you with an "ooooh, you don't want to go there" look/statement.  Even my host mother said the same.  But this past Friday for one of my classes we took a field trip there and learned that - once again - only actually visiting and learning about a place while there can you truly understand/judge the place appropriately.

Our tour of the neighborhood was led by a community representative - a typical position for communities throughout Berlin (they help gauge residents' opinions on new buildings, community happenings, etc).  He has lived there for over 40 years (so, half the time it was the GDR).   The area is comprised of almost entirely GDR "large scale housing estates".  Those are the massive and efficient prefabricated housing units built by the GDR throughout the country (for their efficiency).

When taking the train (there is only one metro line that goes to Marzahn) it looked like this:

Those taller large scale housing estates are at the inner border of Marzahn, but the rest of the neighborhood (it's more like a town) has long, shorter (6-11 story) ones.

After walking around for a few minutes, we realized (and confirmed this with our professor and our guide) that Marzahn is a totally safe place for anyone to walk around by themselves, even at night.  The streets are cleaner than some of those in Mitte (the [wealthy] city center), I saw no one begging (unlike in Mitte).  There were a lot of families - many of non-German origin - people walking dogs, young students walking home from school, etc.

We asked our guide and our professor several times to explain to us why on earth everyone discourages people from coming here.  They told us that it's simply because this is a lower-class area, so it's seen as "yucky".  Every student in my class agreed that it is the equivalent to a standard middle-class neighborhood in the States.  The outer ugliness of the GDR-style architecture is really the only thing that would turn any of you away from wanting to live there.  If I lived in Berlin and didn't mind riding an extra 20 minutes to get to the city center, I'd totally live in Marzahn, as a single girl.  (Heck, you can get a 2 bedroom apartment for around €400 [that's $530]!

After us repeating the above conversation many times, our professor reminded us that "this is Europe.  Here the lower class usually lives at about where your middle class does".  That could not have been more clear after this field trip.

This man-hole cover really hit me as being a huge reminder of the actuality of this having been a different country, society, etc.  It's amazing.

Although Marzahn is a relatively poor area, they really have their crap together as far as community goes.  As I said, they have community representatives, and accompanied community centers for residents to make use of.  We walked by a bunch of guys spray painting a wall, and our guide stopped and said hello to them.  Surprised, we asked if that was legal.  Our guide replied that yes, since everything in Marzahn was grey (because that's how the GDR built things) many murals are being spray painted on the plethora of concrete slabs around the city to brighten it up.  How cool?

Lastly, we visited a coffe shop, which had a children/teen "club" underneath on the 1st floor, and a hotel on the 11th floor.  The wonderful ladies who ran the coffee shop also ran the kids club (where they'd come after school), and together with these kids, they ran the hotel.  She explained that this was to give them something to do so that they're not unattended at home (schools end around 2pm here; many parents are still working), and to teach them responsibility/give them skills that they could use in life.  Therefore, with guidance from these women, they learn all the aspects of managing and running a business.  (The hotel itself is a stunning 2 bedroom apartment with a balcony, a view out of Marzahn into Brandenburg [see below], etc. And, it's very cheap!).

All in all it was a great field trip, so educational, and I'm so glad that I went and saw the area/how nice it was for myself, versus taking Berliners' word for it.

Awesome Tuesday

Today started off with me being the only person to show up to my 5-person German class.  So, my super awesome professor, Kerstin, took me to Dussmann (if I haven't mentioned it before, it's like the Bloomingdales of books. It's 7 stories, and has everything you could possibly imagine).  We went and looked through children's books that would be appropriate for me to buy for myself :) It was so much fun, and I got to have a lot of conversational German with her.  It is SO fun learning languages from people who you feel comfortable speaking (read: making mistakes) around.

After that, I went to lunch at the Mensa with two board professors who are reviewing our IES program, the dean of some of the IES programs, and 3 other students.  One professor was from William & Mary (sigh...) and the other was from another good US uni but now teaches at Humboldt (fun fact: he went to HWS, how cool!).  They were both fascinating individuals, and were SO interesting to talk to over lunch.  I dread the day I leave academia and have far fewer conversations that are as mentally stimulating as today's.  Both professors have incorporated German/Germany into their fields of study and are fluent (or, as we at IES re-named it, "gefluent" [it's a conjugation joke]).

I left that feeling much more inspired about my life in Germany and my progressing language skills, which is a boost that I've really been needing.  Then, two hours later, one of my program directors, Ella, in conjunction with our student assistant who will be leaving after this semester, told me that I would make a great student assistant after graduation.  I thought she was just being kind and being the "mom" she is to us, but she was serious, and told me why I would be fitting for the position, etc.  I was so surprised... I can't think of a more appealing and fun job to help me get more gefluent.

So after all of those things, I was pretty excited about life and the future and the opportunities God seems to be constantly opening up for me (despite my annoyingly pessimistic outlook on the future).

After, I went to the gym, and on my way back came within approximately 6 inches of getting hit by a smart car who was turning left on red as I was crossing the street legally.   I think the driver was more affected by the situation (sorry, that isn't the right phrase, but my English is really suffering) than I was.  Perhaps I shouldn't wear a dark coat at night.  But perhaps we should also abide by driving laws.

In other news:
Rest in peace Jar #1 of Wegmans peanut butter (and thanks Lauren for this awesome shirt!!)  :)

Some notes about the St Petersburg trip

We are leaving for our second study tour, to St. Petersburg, one week from today.  So to procrastinate from real work, I took a look at the memo our school sent us on the city.  Here are some interesting bits of information from said memo:

- If you buy alcohol on the streets, it's likely poisoned, and can blind you.
- The stolen credit card in Russia "is booming".
- If you walk alone at night, it's possible that you may get stopped by police and they may demand you give them money.
- Police's salary is somewhat dependent on how many people they catch; so if you jay-walk, you will get fined a lot.
- Train fares, airfare, hotels, restaurants, and museums often charge double or triple the amount for foreigners.  If you ask a Russian why this happens, you will get a several justifications including "you have more money than us", and "this museum is here for Russians, not for foreigners".
- You can't take photos of railways, or tunnels.
- You can't take photos from the air over Russian territory; if you're caught, your camera will be confiscated.
- A 1996 law mandates all advertisements/public signage to be in Cyrillic.   [translation: you won't be able to read anything.  Including metro time tables]


So with that, tomorrow morning we will have our St. Petersburg orientation meeting.  Hopefully things will sound a bit more inviting after that.

I was also just did a little research and found out that in 2011 Russia stopped observing daylight savings time, which puts them at 3 hours ahead of German time!  (so ordinarily 9 hours ahead of US time, but since you just had DST, it's 8).  Crazy.

Speaking of languages...

Our student assistant Ryan told us about a huge French department store called Galleries a Lafayette that is here in Berlin! The top three floors are high fashion clothes, makeup, and bags.  The bottom floor has a french restaurant, french cheese shop, french coffee and tea shop, french grocery store with all imported products (ranging from meat to yogurt to microwave meals to frozen deserts...and *drum roll* I FINALLY FOUND HUMMUS IN THERE!).  When we were in France I spent $6 on a container of hummus and flew it home, and have been savoring it since.  But now I know where I can get more hehe!
They also have macaroons, fine wines, etc.  Basically, it's a pretty awesome place.

Most importantly, they have a whole bookstore of French books, and the people that work there even speak French.  I was in heaven.  It was like being back in Paris... which, I still haven't told you guys about, sorry! It's been a busy week of internship applications and homework.  I've been editing my photos today, though, so I'll have some updates on that end soon.

In the French bookstore I got myself one of my favorite books in French, and then stopped at Dussmann for what I think is my first actual purchase of classic literature.  I'm going to try reading some fiction... we'll see how it goes!

On Language

I've been meaning to write this post for about a month, but an experience I had last night illustrates the whole subject quite well, so I'm glad I waited.


When I moved here two months ago, I obviously wasn't the German language expert.  But nonetheless I felt I needed to have all of my social interactions in German because, after all, this is Germany, and I shouldn't be that arrogant American who thinks that everyone should know her language.


Over the course of the first month, I tried my best to order food, check out at the grocery store, etc., in German.  But when I would lose a word for a moment, or accidentally spit out a "thanks", the person on the other end would automatically switch to English, which I found extremely frustrating.  I interpreted the interaction as me failing and them being annoyed with me, and it really wore on me.


However about a month ago I realized that not all of these interactions are like that.  Often times these people I interact with want to practice their English, and see interacting with people like myself as a great chance to do so.


When I got to Prague a few weeks ago, I realized that it was my first time being to a country where I did not speak ANY of the language.  And no, it's not like Spanish or French where you can sort of figure things out: here's one example of a phrase... it means "I'm fine, thanks" - "Mám se dobře, děkuji".  So anyway, I was reliant on Lucy's 2 weeks of learning Czech, and my broken english I've perfected since being here, to communicate with people.  The most fascinating thing with me, as a linguaphile, was the interactions I had there with people whose first language was neither Czech nor English.  For example, we ran into a group of Argentinians on the way home one night and they asked us in English how to get somewhere, so we (trying to use our Spanish) explained it to them in mostly English, throwing in the Spanish we remembered from high school.  Another example was on the bus on the way back from Prague.  As we boarded the bus, all the people who didn't speak Czech, the bus people speak to them in English.  I was probably the only native English speaker of the group, but it's really interesting how the Chinese, Russian, French, German, and Spanish people all have to communicate in English while in the Czech Republic.  

As much as I did not want to believe it, but now do after living here for 2 months, English truly has become an international language.  I'm not sure how I feel about it - I have mixed feelings - but it should really make you feel blessed to have it as your first language.

The next week I spent in Paris, and had all of these experiences again.  Thankfully I can communicate in French, so things were easier for me than for my classmates, who had some interesting language stories.  I found French people to be, like many Germans, eager to practice their English.  However there, instead of switching languages and maintaining their annoyed look as Berliners do, they thanked my friends with a smile and nod for their "je voudrais..." and kindly offered the food names in English. 

On a side note, flying back from Paris to Berlin was one of the most linguistically confusing experiences I've ever had.  By that point it'd been 1.5 weeks since I'd been in Germany, 2.5 weeks since my last German class, and for the past few days I'd begun thinking in French.  Which to speak, French, German, or English?  After a week of being back here in Berlin I've finally gotten back into the routine.  But in one week we leave for Russia, and the day after I get back I'll be leaving for Barcelona..... so, we'll see how that goes.

So back to my experience last night.  My friend from HWS was in town and I was taking her to meet up with some IES friends.  We got to one of the train stations and there was an announcement in German that I didn't understand, but I knew it was something along the lines of the train not working because the route had been changed [and because whenever there is a train problem, it's the only announcement that is not translated into English].  Hearing us speaking English, a woman desperately approached us and asked us what the announcement said.  I apologized and told her my German isn't good enough to translate it.  She was disappointed and said "I only speak English and French", and later we found out Greek, as she's from Greece and was in Berlin for a tourism convention (which, is conducted in.. you guessed it.. English).  I took her to where she needed to go, because few metro workers speak English.  She kept expressing her deep frustration in the fact that these German transportation workers don't speak much English; she said that in Greece "all the transportation workers and waiters have to speak English".  Amazed, I asked "really?".  She explained that when she was growing up she chose French in secondary school and then later learned English, but that in public schools in Greece today, English instruction is mandatory beginning in middle school, and that students can then chose from a romance language in high school.  Talk about having some life advantages!

Anyway, this was a long post, but I don't apologize because it's all really pertinent and I find all of these interactions to be fascinating, and hopefully you found them mildly interesting as well.  


If you're interested in this topic, you can read this recent NYT article that Deanna sent me about polyglots; it's quite interesting!

Class and Paris video

Remember when I told you I'd start posting again tonight?  Well, life got in the way.  I've been going to the gym every day which means, in sum, being gone from 8:30am to 8pm, then making dinner, homework, etc., so the week has been a little crazy.

So for now I will just tell you about class today, which was... something.
My afternoon class is called "Sex, Drugs & Rock and Roll", which is about pop culture over the course of 20th century history in the two Germanys, France, and in the USSR.
On a typical day, this class makes me very uncomfortable.  But today, we had a rap workshop. We had to go around the room and make rhyming lines, and then work on "battle raps" which are based off of "insults, aggression, and intensity" and included a lot of swearing.  This was not only uncomfortable because of the content, but because we had to go around the room and share them as class went on!

Long story short, I wrote mine about the UBahn instead of another person in the class because I don't think it's very funny to insult people, even if for play, and... I find it incredibly distasteful to swear in class (clearly I'm not a european).  Plus I gave it up for lent :). But  I'm glad that class is over! Now we can move on to learning about.... more uncomfortable topics.

Also, since I still haven't even looked through my Paris photos, here is a video I took of the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night!  (It does so for 5 minutes at the top of every hour between 8pm-11pm.  At 1pm the lights are shut off completely and the tower is dark, which I find quite interesting).

Some news

I promise I will start the blogging I need to do when I get home from school tonight!

In the meantime, if you care about the general area in which I want to spend my life working, or what's happened to 30,000 children in Uganda (hopefully xenophobia didn't just put up a brick wall in your heart when I said that word), then I hope you will take 29 minutes out of your day to watch this video.   It's an organization that I've helped bring to campus for two years, and I'm in the process of applying for a really competitive summer internship position at their headquarters in San Diego.

This video is the most informative and concise one they've put together yet.  The second half, it'll tell you what you need to do to help.  I hope that at the very least you will send this video to those you know and love, because I know that after you watch it you'll have at least a tiny place in your heart for these children.

So please, click this link, and watch the video.  (and then share it).  If the link is broken, the url is as follows-  http://vimeo.com/37119711

this is just a photo, don't try to click on it

If I STILL haven't convinced you, maybe some celebrities will.  Here are a couple people who have watched and tweeted about this in the last 12 hours:
Perez Hilton
Jeremy Cowart
Zooey Deschanel
Rihanna
And currently "trending" on twitter (the things the most people are mentioning in tweets):
- stop kony
- invisible children
- cover the night
- uganda
- action kit
- LRA

Everyone else is doing it; go watch!

I've Returned

I'm back from Paris.  It was so amazing, so jam-packed with seeing the city, so delicious, etc., that it will take me a couple days to write an appropriately detailed yet concise enough post that won't bore you to tears after reading.

I have, however, edited my photos from Prague!  You can see some of them on my Flickr page - here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/devannn/sets/72157629143508948/

But for now, know that I had an amazing time in France, and enjoy one of my 790 photos which I haven't edited yet:

my first crepe in france. it was disappointing, but it was my fault I chose boring fillings.

And this one from a friend's camera:

my friends and I at the Tour Eiffel.