der Rundfunk

Funny word, short post.

Rundfunk means radio broadcast, and this is important because I was just part of one here in Germany. I am posting the link to the show's site. It is in German (both the site and the broadcast) and has a lot of techno music interspersed, so if you have little patience for things European, it might not be the best for you. But if you listen to it, you'll get to hear my melodious voice. Huh, huh?

Here is the link to the show that Annelise and I were in. RadioHirn.de Enjoy!

As we speak -- erm as you read?-- I am working on my second post from Berlin so get ready for that bit of reading pleasure shortly.

die Atzen

Today's word is particularly fitting, if I do say so myself. „Atze" is a slang word from the Berlinerisch dialect. It means anything from brother or bro to fella or pal. The plural is Atzen. This weekend I got to go see my Atzen in Berlin!

Actually I went specifically to see a Cirque du Soleil show that is touring through Europe, and my friends also happened to be in Berlin for the weekend. Erm, I mean, uhh, I went for the sole purpose of seeing them, nothing self serving whatsoever. Gracia, Sergio, and Jennifer live in Berlin. Clayton and Joe, the Madgebrothers, live in Madgeburg, Adam is in Kassel, and Andrea is in Dresden, and we all met up in Berlin.

I am actually in the middle of a Berlin streak. I'm going to Berlin again next weekend and I'll have seen some more sights by the next time I post. I think I'll divide it up so that this post is about Berlin the city and the next post will be about Berlin the tourist location. Sound good?

If you just consider the cities proper, without the metro areas, Berlin is the largest city I've ever set foot in. I ended up liking it a lot more than I expected to. My only previous exposure to Berlin was the Peter Fox song Schwarz zu Blau (below, and just ignore the ape motif, it's too complicated to explain). Granted, Peter Fox is a rapper, so it sort of pays to exaggerate the poverty and criminality of your hometown. You don't hear many rappers reppin' the Hamptons, do you?

But in contrast to the line from the song which goes:

(German) Guten Morgen Berlin,
Du kannst so hässlich sein, so dreckig und grau,
du kannst so schön schrecklich sein,
Deine Nächte fressen mich auf

(English) Good Morning Berlin,
You can be so ugly, so dirty and gloomy,
You can be so beautifully appalling,
Your nights devour me.

I find my opinion of Berlin more in keeping with the quote from the Berlin Mayor „Berlin is poor, but sexy." Yes, he actually said that, and it's become a sort of slogan for Berlin. To be sure, parts of Berlin are dirty as hell, and I wouldn't call it the most beautiful city I've ever visited. Still, something about Berlin fascinates me. A large part of my fascination is the size of Berlin. All you have to do is hop on the S-Bahn, ride for 10 minutes, and you can completely change your impression of Berlin.

Another part of my fascination is the history in Berlin. I don't mean the history you find in museums, though there is plenty of that. I mean, when you walk into an apartment building in Berlin, you quickly realize that this building was there during the Civil War and that there was a family living here when WWII broke out. And since the houses have changed so little architecturally, it's very easy to picture the children running down the stairs 100 years ago to get to school in the morning. Everywhere in Berlin I was struck with this feeling of raw history.

I took a picture, and now that I'm writing this, I realize that it makes a point very well for me. I took the picture last weekend. On the left you can see The Berlin Cathedral, which was build in 1451. On the right-hand side, you can see the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) which was built in the DDR in the 60s, and in the middle, there is the Humboldt Box, which opened this year and is...wait for it....another museum! These three represent very well the ridiculously long history of Berlin, the almost depressing recent history of Berlin, and the bright current times in Berlin.

At this point I am more than a little in love with Berlin and I cannot wait to get back there on Friday.

To close, I'll leave you with another part of the song from above:

(German) Diese Stadt ist eben doch gar nicht so hart wie du denkst.
(English) This city is simply not as tough as you think.

das Abendessen

The exchange students here at Hochschule Neubrandenburg have been having a series of dinners where each person cooks something from their homeland. I already missed Greek and Latvian nights, but I got here just in time for Russian night.

I've found that the areas of Germany I visit are (not surprisingly) heavily influenced by their neighbors. Whereas the majority of the exchange students in Tübingen were Italian, British, French, or American; the majority of the exchange students here are from the East; Latvia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Greece, Bulgaria, Russia. I really like this since it means I get to meet people from far-flung places. Incidentally, it turns out that the Kazakhstanis look absolutely nothing like they do in Borat. Also, Russian is the lingua franca here instead of English.

But I digress, back to our Russian night. I got to Katja's apartment around 7pm and was surprised to find my new best friend, Mia, there watching Russian cartoons. Mia is the daughter of someone from the Foreign Student Office. Mia is also fascinatingly multicultural. I believe she is ethnically Estonian, but speaks German natively, and also has an ego-killingly good grasp of Russian and Estonian for a 5 year old. To Mia, I am a very interactive jungle gym. I like talking to Mia since she is patient with my German, and she is always energetic. Also it's nice to have little kids around in general.

While Mia and I played bank robber, Katja and several other roommates were busy in the kitchen preparing dinner. In total there were about 17 of us in a 6'x15' kitchen. The main course was varenyky with sour cream. Varenyky are in the same line of food as Polish pierogis, German maultaschen, Italian ravioli, or Chinese pot stickers. They filled the dumplings with beef or pork and then boiled them in a broth with parsley, dill, and bay leaves. They were then served with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Mine didn't have sour cream, but it was my second plate, so presentation was less important.

To drink we had Malzbier. I am gonna have trouble describing this drink, I know. Despite the name it's technically non-alcoholic, less than 0.5%, but it comes in a bottle like regular beer and it's about as fizzy as regular beer. It's darker than coke, almost black. It tastes....well I think it tastes horrible, but seeing as how we drank 4 six-packs, not everyone shared my opinion. But it tastes strongly of barley or hops, and it's very sweet. Imagine walking through the cereal aisle of the grocery store with your eyes closed, now condense that smell, choke it with sugar, and drink it.

Lastly, for what I originally thought was dessert, we had this sort of pie thing.

Right as I was about to take my first bite of it, I heard one of the Latvian girls say, “how do you call this type of fish in English?” But it was too late, the (fish) pie was already in my mouth. I don't think I can say strongly enough how jarring it was to expect sweet, sugary, pie, and actually bite into herring. The Latvians explained to me that the dish was called something like “herring in a jacket” in Latvian, the Russians and the Germans agreed that the translation from their languages was about the same.

Herring under a fur coat, as it's called in English, is sort of a layered salad starting with chopped herring, boiled potatoes, carrots, and covered in a beet and mayonnaise sauce, sprinkled with grated boiled eggs. It was, by the way, absolutely delicious, if not confusing.

I think next week is Hungarian night, but it was sort of hinted that American night is coming up soon after. Any ideas what I should cook? I already suggested buying everyone McDonalds, but it's expensive here and tastes different.

Der Mensch ist ein Gewohnheitstier

Today's word is actually a proverb and it means “Man is a creature of habit.” Well literally Gewohnheitstier means something like a “habit animal,” but you get the point.

I was in Germany in 2008 as an exchange student in Tübingen and I had a dorm very much like my current dorm in Neubrandenburg. My old dorm had a German ghost (the chick was literally never there), a Belgian whose name was something like Korneel, but the R was rolled in the back of your throat and the “ee” was more of an “eh”. Anyways, I made it a point to speak to him only one-on-one so I didn't have to say his name. Finally, we had an Italian guy named Roberto, and I could have written pages about the number of Italian stereotypes that are absolutely true.

In my new dorm, I have a German who is very tall. I don't know how it is for typical height people to see me, but I figured it was nothing special. Then I met Thomas, and all I wanted him to do was sit down. My other roommate is Hungarian and named Zoltán. When I met him, I really didn't care if he sat or stood, but I wanted him to tell my fortune to me. See, I confuse Zoltán and Zoltar:

Unlike my old Guest Oma's house, I'm totally able to take pictures of this one. So lemme show you why I titled this post like I did; I'll show you side-by-side pictures of my old dorm in Tübingen and my new one in Neubrandenburg:

(Old is on the left)

So, I'm clearly falling into some old habits. I have, however, noticed a few key differences though. First and foremost, I speak significantly less English than I did in Tübingen. Basically, unless someone asks me what an English word is, I speak no English in a day. Granted I still Facebook, Skype (occasionally), and read in English, but I'm getting the feeling that I'll sound like an immigrant when I return to the States.

I also enjoy my classes a lot more in Neubrandenburg. They are a lot more engaging, and since I'm at a University of Applied Sciences they offer much more specific courses. So far I'm taking:

Environmental Politics (Umweltpolitik),

Environmentally Friendly Plant Production (umweltschonende Pflanzenproduktion),

Basic Crop Farming (grundlage Pflanzenbau),
Special Crop Farming (spezieller Pflanzenbau),

Special Genetic Technology (spezieller Gentechnologie),

Agricultural Ecology (Landwirtschaftsökologie), and last but not least,

Polish (Polnisch)

I decided on Polish mostly because in language classes you have a lot more partner work so you can meet more Germans, which is good. There is also the added bonus that because the teacher is teaching a language, she speaks really simple German. It's also an ego boost for me; all around me I see the German students speaking with ease to the teacher and asking hard-hitting questions, but when they speak Polish, they suck as much as I do.

So, that's where I'm at after exactly one week in Neubrandenburg. Let me know if you want me to talk about anything special in my blog. I mean, if you are just dying to know how the grocery store looks, how waiters act, or anything specific sent me a message on Facebook or an email or leave a comment. If I don't know about it, it'll be a fun opportunity to research something here.

der Ossi

The word Ossi is the, often derogatory, term for an east German person. I must admit that before I came here, I was slightly apprehensive about being in East Germany. Most of this was my own prejudice. All I knew about East Germany was that Dresden was firebombed out of existence, bananas were a luxury, and everyone speaks Russian.

Another part of my apprehension was the West Germans. It's like in the US, when everyone says that people from Arkansas are so inbred that the entire state only has 3 last names. Or how we joke that California girls (while unforgettable) are superficial, fake-tanned, and perpetually searching for “the after party.” We all sort of know that the people aren't like that, but we joke about the stereotypes because we all know them and it's all just in fun.

I told one German that I was going to East Germany and his next questions was if I had ever learned any fighting sports. I've also watched the movie “Goodbye, Lenin” more times that I can count. Needless to say, my thoughts one East Germany were not the best.

I got to Neubrandenburg about 24 hours ago and really expected to find 1950's style Soviet tenements everywhere. I'm still waiting. I walked out of the train station and was ready to practice my Russia alphabet skills, but everything is in German. I figured I'd have to ask an old woman in a head scarf for directions, but I haven't seen one yet.

I didn't realize I was prejudiced against the East Germans until I found myself always looking around to have these stereotypes confirmed only to have them disproven by the hour. I asked one German girl how long she'd learned Russian, and she doesn't speak a stick of it. I found myself comparing the prices of bananas in the store here to back in Radolfzell; they're the same price. It is shocking to realize you have a prejudice, and it's also really hard to unlearn. I honestly have to say that I still sort of expect the people to be corrupt or lazy like all the West German jokes and films portray them, and this is going to be hard for me to stop expecting.

I don't think I'm going to give my first impressions on Neubrandenburg just yet because I've realized how biased it is. I mean, this is a cool city. My roommates name is, I think, Zoltan, and there is a tattoo convention next week in town. I promise not to get inked. But all things considered I really don't think I could give unbiased social or cultural commentary at this point. Give me some time to stop expecting a parade of tanks and ICBMs to come rolling down the street first.

However, I have to say that some stereotypes are at least partially based in fact. When I got into the cab, the three girls that picked me up started speaking Russian in the backseat. And when the cab driver wrote the receipt for the ride, he wrote it to say that we paid more than we really had so we'd get reimbursed more. Some of the stereotypes are fun and funny, but I'm more wary about how the others that I've learned will affect me.

das Denglisch

I can think of at least two readers of my blog who have already noticed this trend, but I need to bring it to everyone's attention before I embarrass myself. My English is trash. Seriously. Writing blog posts brings it to my attention, but when I speak English, I've lost my flare for word play. Let me give you a taste of what I running through my head right now. The rest of this post, I'll write only correcting typographical errors. I'm gonna go back and add in the appropriate translations, and I'll bold the text whose word order or phraseology is weird but would sound fine if translated into German.

Most of the problems stem from the fact that the deutsche (German) words come leichter (more easily) in my head, and I always have to überlegen (consider) what is the richtige Wort auf (correct word in) English. It usually happens with not commonly used words in English, like trainstation or marketplace (both are one word in German). There are also other words that have a very specific meaning in German and I use them in German because I hear them so oft (often) in only German. For example, das wort (the word) Anmeldung means registration, but specifically in my case it means registration with the city. There is also the verb anmelden, and when you conjugate it you break off the an- and put it at the end of the Satz (sentence). So I will say sentences like “I have not yet melded with the stadt (city) an.” I have problems like this with sentencebau (sentence construction). And I usually get a Mischung (mixture) out of German and Inglisch (English pronunciation with German spelling rules) sentence order when I speak. Or if I'm trying to erklär (clarify) something precisely in Englisch (the -sch gets me every time) I always have to pause and get the sentence right in my head before I speak it out. Deswegen (a fantastic word that means “because of that”) sound ich (I) like a moron or some sort of person who can speak well. Aber in der Tat, bin ich sehr klug, und gut with my wörter. (But in fact, I am intelligent and good with words)

Ok, holy crap. I've got to stop this. Writing like that is legitimizing the problems I make all the time and will probably make me slip completely into German by the end of the post.. Now, I'll go back to correcting everything I say. The word Denglisch is what we call the mixture of German (Deutsch) and English that we speak everyday. We can all understand each other, but anyone speaking only pure English or German, would get lost pretty easily.

In other news, my English spelling is really going downhill. I tried to look up the word “maneuver” today only to realize that I have absolutely no idea how to spell it. Even after writing it down, all of the possibilities looked ridiculous.

On a scale of 1 to 10, allowing myself to write that way has totally destroyed my ability to compose in English, and I'm going to have to end this post early. I guess the moral of the story is that, If you notice me speaking more simplistically, or if you notice that I no longer know how to use a comma the proper prepositions, don't think I'm illiterate.