First off, I have to complain about my terrible decision making. Every time. EVERY. TIME. Every time I don't bring or wear my flip flops when I go somewhere I regret it. What did I do last weekend? I forgot my flip flops. So how have I not learned my lesson yet? I honestly have no idea. I wish would learn my lesson. Maybe next time there won't be a next time for this issue.
Well, other than forgetting my flip flops- I had an AWESOME time with my travel buddies Zack, Dawn, and Katherine on our way through Poland!!!
Thursday morning I headed to Berlin to meet up with everyone before our early morning Friday departure. Me, Zack, and Pat did some walking around and then met up with Katherine and did some exploring in good 'ole Berlin. When I was coming in on the train I was hard core reminiscing to last year when I was there with my boi ZZtobes. We had some really good times in Berlin, and it was pretty surreal to be back there again.
We walked around the Brandenburger Tor, over to the Berliner Dom, Alexander Platz, and then met up with Zack's roommate from Rostock and went to an old abandoned building. Pretty cool and unique. Then we had some HUGE Dürum, got to chill with Katherine's guest family, and then headed to bed. Morning was fast approaching.
Me and Zack got up early, made our way to get the car, and met a delirious Dawn and Katherine as we jumped on the road to head to Poland. They made for an interesting day in their sleepless state. On the way, right when we crossed the border, we stopped off for food and money exchange. First thing I found were the strawberry wafer cookies that my Grandma (Polish, on my mommy's side) ALWAYS had in the cookie jar. I got a pack and was chowing down on memory lane. And they tasted amazing.
First stop, Zagan. With our trusted historian Zack leading the way, we headed to Stalag Luft 3, a former prisoner camp used during WWII to house Allied officers. If you've seen the movie "The Great Escape", this is where the true portion of that story took place. We got to see the memorial set up for the prisoners, and see the location of "Harry" the tunnel that was used on the execution of their escape plan. Quite an inspiring sight to see the plans and drawings of the escape plan and tunnel.
Talking with Katherine's guest mom the night before, I got mixed feelings of whether or not we should be going to the next place. But due to the gravity of the location and what happened here, we visited Auschwitz Concentration Camp on our way to Krakow. Even being there, I don't think humans are able to grasp the weight of the atrocities that took place there. I am not going to even try. All I can say is that I was breathless, astonished, and at times sick from what I saw and the actions that were so horribly committed here.
Before we headed to Krakow, we celebrated Dawn's birthday in the car with some delicious cheese cake. Omnoms acquired. Before our trip, we learned about the Polish holiday All Saints Day. On our way to the highway, we passed a cemetery and got out to witness this tradition. I was in awe of the respect and community that the Polish people have for their lost loved ones. This holiday is where families gather and pay their respects to family members that have passed. Walking through this small town cemetery was a very proud (not sure if I can say that, but I'm going to) experience for me to see the strength and togetherness of families here.
We got to Krakow, met our awesome couchsurfing host (and her awesome dog Mischa) then walked around Krakow at night. Quite a beautiful city! And, we had some AMAZING polish food. Omnoms no doubt again acquired. On our way back to head to sleep, we passed through another cemetery and were able to see the community and respect of Polish families. The next morning, we woke up and did a little more exploring around in Krakow, and we got to see Oskar Schindler's factory. If you've seen Schindler's List, that's where the movie comes from.
Next, we headed to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. We got an awesome tour and got to explore a small portion of the sprawling tunnels and caverns deep below the surface. We had an awesome tour guide and learned quite a bit about the presence of salt mining back in the day. Also, we got to have a beer 130m down. Pretty awesome.
Then after the salt mine we headed up to Warsaw. We found a hostel (a really weird one), plopped our stuff down, then wandered around before the curfew of 12pm. We had some more AMAZING Polish food and drink, then got to see Warsaw at night. I was obsessed with the look of one old building in comparison to the modern skyscrapers surrounding it. The building I was admiring was actually a gift from Joseph Stalin to Poland in 1953 to signify Soviet-Polish Solidarity. Despite that, I thought it looked really cool. Oh, and there is a TV show in Poland called Warsaw Shores. At least we're not the only ones now...
An early morning in Warsaw led to more town exploring, and quite a bit of happenstance. We saw the Old Town Square and a castle, then the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial, and then headed over to Nowy Swiat, a main street with a lot of things to see. We wandered upon the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the park in the area. Then got breakfast.
I commandeered our exploring and led us up to the Presidential Palace. There, we happened upon something pretty unique and humbling. We witnessed the funeral procession of the first Prime Minister of Poland. There was a military procession leading the casket down the main street, and I was quite honored to see the respect shown by my ancestors. Quite the humbling and proud moment for me to see.
Well, we did a little more exploring around Warsaw, then hit the road. We headed back to Berlin to drop Dawn off for her Mitfahr back to Reutlingen. After the sad departure of Dawn, me, Zack, and Katherine walked around the East Side Gallery, then split up and I made my way back to Magdeburg.
It was another great weekend with these three. A little shorter and different than our previous trip, but absolutely great nonetheless! We had tons of great conversations, got to catch up on how everyone is doing in the new phase of the program, and had plenty of heart to hearts and fun times. I miss them already...
Strong arguments between people can take place and that relationship won't be changed. I don't know why, but I've always subconsciously thought that any disagreement between two people can only hinder a relationship. But I saw very truly that a strong argument or discussion can occur and people can still enjoy each others company. The differences don't mean hatred, or distrust, or disrespect between the people. It just means that they have differing view points. That's it. Despite the different stances, they realize the value of their friendship and go right back to how it is once that topic is over.
I think I've developed my aversion to confrontation from my warped subconscious assumption of argument and heated discussion. I'm always trying to avoid confrontation, especially between the people I consider close. But hey, I can be Tomayto, someone can be Tomahto, and then once we get our arguments out, who cares! We're both able to have our opinions and that's that.
The meaning behind the German word Vorleser/Vorlesung. All credit to Zack or Pat on this one, can't remember who said it. So it used to be that lectures (Vorlesung) were just times for professors to read from books. They sat there and read material. Boring as all get out. Eventually, the students stood up for the monotony of lectures. They started to attack the professor when lectures were really boring. In order to prevent harm to the professor, the invention of the podium took place to give the lecturer somewhere to hide behind. And to slow down the students, rows of seating were introduced to funnel the students into a congested setup. Crazy!
Halftime in Europe =/ Halftime in USA. Could you imagine if Halftime during the Superbowl, instead of some crazy music show and tons of commercials, it just cut to the local news station and they read the local news for a half hour? That would NEVER happen. Well, here in Europe, the equivalent of that happens here and no one blinks an eye. Halftime during the Champions League, instead of commercials, they cut to the local news station and read off the news of the day. I find this awesome. I found out that, because the main TV channels are run by the State, they are not allowed to run advertisements after 8pm. So because it was after 8pm, they cut to the news. Again, I find this awesome, and a great way to keep the populous informed of what is going on in the world.
So last time I talked about how my self-consciousness gets in my way of learning things, specifically language. Well, I made a little bit of progress during the trip. When we were filling up gas in Krakow, I learned how to say "Thank You" in Polish!!! Pretty cool seeing the smile on his face when he figured out what I was trying to communicate, and then again after I said it to the cashier inside. Go me!
I just got back from a meeting with Ingenieure ohne Grenzen (aka Engineers without Borders). I got hit with a pop quiz. The test? Introduce myself and my engineering background and masters research in German! I failed hardcore. I got all worked up and couldn't do it (not sure why I haven't studied that up yet... I just wrote it down on my to-do list though). I didn't say my name, said some english, and was all nervous about it. Instead of being jubilant and talking as much as I could, I got it over with as quick as I could and made it even painful on myself. Not too great there kiddo...
After the meeting though, one of the leader guys came up to me and asked me where I was from and whatnot. Got to talking, and he wants to better his English. So we might meet up next week to talk in Englisch and hopefully also auf Deutsch. So I might have found myself a tandem partner. We'll see how this shakes out!
This weekend I was supposed to be going to Amsterdam for a little bit of fun and debauchery. In fact, as I'm typing I should be there right now. Well, after some discussions and thought during the trip last weekend, I decided not to go. "You decided not to go to Amsterdam?", you ask? "Are you serious", you proclaim? Yes, I decided not to go, yes I am serious, and no I'm not going crazy.
I've been on the road for a lot of time the last couple weeks. And honestly, I got a little upset with myself for traveling so much because I have not been able to connect with my new city because of it. I've been gone so much that I haven't really been able to establish myself here in Magdeburg. Despite whatever feelings I have about my city, I still need to get in touch with the people, the activities, and everything else that is involved with my new city of Magdeburg.
And another reason was I wanted to save some money. Amsterdam is not exactly the cheapest city on the planet, so by not going I'll be saving quite a bit of money from what could have been an amazingly fun, but probably pretty expensive weekend. So yeah. If you told me I would have done this before the program started, I would have told you no way. But it happened. And I am glad that I did it. Although I would have loved to meet up with the guys I was finally going to get to hang out with...
Today, I got some errands done, and some other things on my ever growing list of things to do. Honestly, sometimes I love doing errands because its just a really success-dense time. I get to get things done in a quick manner and get to cross a bunch of stuff off my list. Any time I get to cross things off my list is a good time. But when I get to do a lot of them? Well, that's just something sweet.
Not too sure. Classes, language courses, frisbee, I think I might be finding a rhythm here. It's quite the unordinary rhythm compared to that which I got used to at OSU, but it's something. Still trying to adjust to living with a smoker, not having useable internet at home, and living so daggone far away from everything. But things are coming, slowly.
I am for sure going for my yeard.
Original Publish Date: November 7th, 2013