Day 37 in Magdeburg

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I always begin my entries with the following, but -- I apologize for the wait. I tend to find this, that and the other thing to do before writing in my travelblog. Rather than dividing my entry up as I normally do, I'll divide this entry into Berlin and Magdeburg happenings.

Berlin (June 12th-15th):

On Friday afternoon, I headed to Berlin to start my mini-vacation with Alicia. That night, I had dinner with a professor from the department; the evening was a much-needed break from 24/7 Germany. We had a great Indian restaurant, and I had a *gasp* spicy dish! Crazy, I know, that I found something spicier than black pepper in Germany. All in all, it was a fun night -- how often do you meet a Nebraskan in front of the Fernsehenturm on Alexanderplatz?

I stayed in a hostel the night before I planned on picking up Alicia from the airport, because I didn't trust myself to get up at 5am, get to the Magdeburg train station, Berlin and the Tegel Airport -- all before 9am. German punctuality would certainly get me there, but I'm not sure that I would get me there. In any case, the hostel was quite quaint, if I do illiterate so myself (tee-hee?). I stayed in a 6-bed room with two Americans, an Australian and German (from Leipzig). I got lucky (somehow), in that everybody in my room went to bed before midnight. The other rooms were very, very loud. With the right company, crazy hostel rooms are fun -- but when I'm by myself, not so much.

That morning, I woke up, rearing and ready to see Alicia for the first time in 2.5 years! For whatever reason, I thought to check my email before showering -- only to open my inbox and find 7+ emails from Alicia. Turns out, she left for the Boston airport at 2pm since it takes 1.5 hours to get there from where she lives. She got stuck in an additional 2 hours of traffic, arrived at the airport at 5:10pm (10 minutes before her flight left) and was told she couldn't board the plane. Typically, you would expect the airline to charge a small fee and put her on the next to flight -- but no, they gave her an 800 number and $300 in airline credit. The cheapest flight to Berlin the next day was $1200, so even with the $300 credit, she would still pay $900 on top of her original ticket.

...I know. Can you believe it? I'm completely flabergasted at how Northwest (her airline) dealt with this situation. Yeah, yeah...just another example of how poorly airlines are fairing in the midst of the economic crisis. But, really, fate doesn't want us to reunite! We've been trying to plan various trips to see each other since we left Italy.

After that blow, I checked into the hostel that Alicia and I booked, only to find out that I couldn't cancel the second night. The hostel needed a 48-hour notice. So, I paid for the equivalent of 4 nights and stayed in Berlin for 2 nights. The hostel was quite nice, and the reception guy felt bad for me, so he gave me free breakfast both mornings. For your information, that is a whole 7 euros!

I should've updated sooner, because I'm having a hard time remembering everything I did in Berlin. My "colleagues" at the Landtag asked me, "So, what did you see and do in Berlin?" My only response is...everything! After bumming around and eating a Doener because I felt bad for myself, I started my *real* tourism.

As pretty much every day, I started my first day at Alexanderplatz, attempting to "figure out" how to get around the city. From that point, walking is easiest to the Berliner Dom, so that was my first stop. Talk about a beee-auutiful church! The Dom is hands-down the coolest church I've seen in Europe; there's no contest. Afterward, I strolled down "Unter den Linden," where I saw a lot of significant monuments that don't necessarily require entrance. I did a little bit of shopping later and ate at a gorgeous restaurant next to the Spree River. I must say, eating at a sit-down restaurant by yourself is oddly liberating. Like I said in one of my previous posts, I've developed a significant amount of humility since arriving.

On the second day, I intended to see a lot of museums, that is, until I realized it was Sunday. In Germany, virtually nothing is open on Sundays, and the fact that Germany is very un-religious today makes that somewhat ironic. I went to a lot of the "outside" monuments instead, i.e. the remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag. Later, I went to the "Sony Center" at Potzdamer Platz, which was hosting the premiere of *Transformers*. Although I don't remember the names of the actors (mainly because I hate everything celebrity-related), I did recognize their faces. That counts for something, right? I ate at a nice restaurant next to the red carpet.

On the last day, I finally went to two museums. The "Old Museum," which houses Egyptian and pre-Greece artifacts, was somewhat underwhelming, especially for 8 euros. That said, the museum housed the famous "Head of Nefertiti," which was pretty cool. Second, I trapsed over to the "Pergamonmuseum," which was amazing! This museum is an absolute must for anybody going to Berlin. The artifacts are "re-built" into rooms and hallways, so you feel like you're walking through the ancient ruins of Greece and Babylonia. I find it pretty disgraceful that I only saw two museums, given the dozen or so museums on "Museum Insel" (Museum Island). With more foresight, I would've checked out more on Saturday. Berlin is only 1.5 hours away from Magdeburg, so maybe I can go back for a day-trip before leaving.

So, what can I say about "unusual" happenings or "epiphanies" during the trip? First off, it was very odd to hear English almost everywhere I went. As I've said in past entries, I've never seen/heard an English-speaker in Magdeburg, so Berlin was a nice break. Most hostels provide free tours of the city, which I originally intended on taking, until I ran across an English-speaking tour guide. Talk about annoying -- and the people on the tour looked mortified. You might as well plaster, "I am a tourist. Rip me off." on your forehead. That said, I sort of enjoyed the aura of tourism in Berlin. I often feel embarrassed to take pictures in Magdeburg, because there's very little tourism. In Berlin, I didn't have to worry about busting out the camera.

Something else I noticed about Berlin is the enormous "Roma" population. They all do the same thing -- walk up, ask if you speak English or German, and show you a card with a sob-story written in English or German. The first night I arrived, I stupidly said "yes" to speaking English, and the woman wouldn't leave me alone until I gave her 50 euro cents. So, I gave in. While the tactic is admittedly obnoxious, I always feel bad refusing to give them money. Regardless of whether or not they use the money to help their so-called "children," these people are obviously poor. Then there's me, the American tourist in Berlin who refuses to give them 50 cents. So, what's the verdict? To give them money or not? I battled with myself every time.

Speaking of which, I was shocked by how different the eastern sector of Berlin is from the western sector. While the eastern sector close to areas like Checkpoint Charlie, which partially divides the city, aren't bad, non-touristy areas are significantly different. Specifically, the area surrounding the "Eastside Gallery," where the remnants of the Berlin wall are located, comes to mind. When tourists come to Berlin, they want to see the "old stuff," but the city needs to invest more in attracting tourists to the eastern sector of Berlin. While Magdeburg isn't touristy, the city undertook a great deal of renovation to make the city aesthetically-pleasing. Perhaps they've already done this, but after walking through a few of the neighborhoods, much still needs to be done in eastern Berlin.

Finally, although I would've preferred to spend the weekend with Berlin, I'm taking the "Elizabeth Gilbert" approach. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to read "Eat, Pray, Love," in which Gilbert chronicles her year abroad (alone) in Italy, India and Indonesia. Her book is so wise, and from my experience thus far, very accurate. You can't know yourself until you've spent a significant amount of time alone in a foreign place. I've done that on this trip.

Magdeburg:

As far as I can tell, that's everything for Berlin. This entry is already monstrously long, so I'll keep this section short.

I went grilling with Dani, Olli and their friends yesterday, and for the first time since arriving, I felt like I was speaking German effortlessly. I asked Dani about international students on the University campus, and she said that my German is significantly better than any of the international students she knows. In fact, she called it, "super!"

What I also find interesting is that they met most of their friends for the same reason that I asked to hang out with them, that is, they couldn't find people to hang out with in Magdeburg. Even though there's a University in Magdeburg, making friends/meeting people is extremely difficult. I find the fact that native Germans had trouble meeting people in Magdeburg oddly reassuring. I feel very "at home" with them, in that they understand what I'm going through. I also found out that Olli plays tennis, and he wants to hit around sometime! I'm very relieved to have a "German entourage" of sorts.

Other than that, I'm still working on the Fulbright application. Unless something genius comes to mind, I've sort of given up on doing field research while I'm here. I need to prioritize, and because I can't be sure whether or not I'll receive IRB approval before I leave, I'd rather focus on what I know I can do, which is the Fulbright application. The last thing I want to do is spend my entire time in Germany at my computer. If I want to conduct interviews, I can always do it in survey form from Lincoln. I've made the contacts.

I also figure that strengthening my language ability is a form of thesis research in and of itself, i.e. I feel very confident in my ability to read German sources. Also, my internship in the Landtag is a gold mine for potential topics and papers. I'm confident that my thesis will concern women in eastern Germany, in one way or another.

Last but certainly not least, my first and last session of the Sachsen-Anhalt Landtag was on Thursday and Friday. The summer holidy starts next week, so there won't be another session until September. Perhaps I can recount the specifics more later. I'm sort of without words after recounting the specifics of the Berlin trip. Let me just say that seeing Die Linke and CDU/CSU bicker is extremely entertaining.

Bis dann!
Christine

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