Leidenschaft

After just shy of a month's time, I've finally figured out what this year is about for me. Leidenschaft. Passion. It's a year devoted to finding myself and that about which I'm most passionate. 

As most of my blog posts do, this one stems from one of those 'aha! moments.' In one of my classes yesterday, the students were split into two groups for a debate. One group was arguing that young people influence the media, the other that the media influences young people. A girl from the 'young people influencing the media' group started the debate for her side with this statement: Well I think that the young people influence the media, because I think that demand creates supply - that young people are creating what we see because it's what they want. The opposing group had no response, and in fact, even said they had absolutely no clue what the argument from the other side was. And there I sat, jaw-dropped in awe of what had just occurred. At the end of class I talked to this girl for a minute (I'm feeling slightly bad about forgetting her name..), asking her if she was planning to study economics at University. Her response was something to the effect of "NO WAY! I hate economics ha ha ha ha." So I recommended she revoke her previous statement and take on an econ major, because, well, she'd probably be pretty good at it. Moral of the story: I would have given an answer as economically-laden in terms as this girl did, except contrary to her views, I love the study of economics.

So begins the list of Ashley's Leidenschaften...

- Economics. Studying it, thinking about it, doing the math associated with it..
- Friendship, my friends
- Speaking and reading German
- Family [barbecues]
- German/Austrian/European bread - specifically Semmels and Bauernbrot
- French-press coffee. As I told Natalia, my roommate, Kaffeekochen ist eine Kunst. An art that I'm slowly but surely ingraining in her mind and heart.
- Bikes. I need to get two wheels in Mainz ASAP.
- Running...it used to be a forced love. Times have changed.
- Finding the right song to match my mood
- Mountains. Nature. The Alps.
- Oregon. State pride is a must when you come from Oregon, but sometimes you just don't realize how deep that pride goes until you leave.
- India Pale Ales and NW Pale Ales
- Discussing anything and everything - but mostly economics - over a beer, preferably on a sunny day
- Learning how to become a better cook, right now, being a mediocre cook
- And just learning in general
- Independence. Or trying to be more independent.. 
- Social welfare and equality

Things I'd like to learn/become better at/skills to acquire:

- Knitting, crocheting, or some other old-lady type skill
- Repressing judgments. I used to be good at it, yet this weekend showed me I'm losing my grip on controlling my judgments about things, people, and places.
- Tackle another language or two. Spanish and French are on my list right now.
- Doing a better job of relays thoughts from my mind onto paper or into words.
- Building a bicycle.
- Guitar, piano, or some other instrument.
- Patience.
- Living simply.


We'll see how this list evolves over the course of this year. For now I think I'll finally finish that Paul Krugman book I started back in May...

AB

A bit on [Süd]Deutschland/Oktoberfest, road trips, and friendship

Bahn fahren ist super!...reads a sticker on my coffee mug. I forgot how true this statement is. Everyone likes a good roadtrip with friends, right? Now imagine taking a road trip with 60 complete strangers. It's a thing of beauty, sitting in a crowded train car, where you can hear at least 5 different languages, where movies are being watched, babies are crying, people are sleeping, some reading, and some people are even playing card games. Amid all of this culture, however, I managed to have the one, stereotypical, loud American naval nurse sit next to me. Her first words were "oh thank god! someone who speaks english AND german!!! (insert old lady name that I forgot), this girl can help us!" As nice as ol' Margaret was, it frustrated me that she ended up sitting by me, babbling on about the USA and the health care bill. Margaret did teach me one crucial thing on the train ride: apparently buying 100$ traveler's insurance can sometimes save you approximately 18,000$. Yep, Marge and her friend(s) sure were counting their traveler's insurance blessings 7 years ago when a train stopped suddenly causing one of her friends to fall on a train and a subsequent brain trauma. So, the moral of the story is that considering the relative cheapness of traveler's insurance to the actual amount that was forked out on this woman's behalf makes me really want to see the risk-pool scheme for the insurance. What a smokin' deal for anyone who actually needs this type of insurance for whatever reason!
Watching the forested areas of Baden-Württemberg and Bayern fly by me felt refreshing and familiar. This is why window seats are awesome, because you can see the world fly past you in the few hours it takes you to get from one place to the next. I was also loving listening to the melodic sound of the bayerisch accent belonging to a couple of attractive younger guys sitting diagonally behind me. As we passed through the town of Geislingen near Ulm, I wanted to jump out of the train and stay there. It's that German town that Americans dream of going to, or at least it appeared to be from the train.


Anyway, by the time my train arrived in Munich, about 20 minutes late (where's that deutsche punktlichkeit?!!?) I was excited to be rid of Margaret and to see Nelly! There's definitely something great about seeing a close friend in a foreign country, and speaking the language of that country with this person. With each language you learn, there's a different side and level of your personality that comes with it. Knowing someone in two languages is a cool thing, everyone should try to do so. But yeah, I was really looking forward to spending some quality time with a good friend and one of my favorite people to be around. Sunny days in the city are also a great thing, yet for some reason those seem to be rare in Munich for me. Friday belongs - luckily! - to those rare sunny days. Nelly and I headed to the Augustiner Bräu's Innenhof for a quality first beer amongst the lederhosen-and-dirndl-wearing clientele. Right away I loved the place, because the waiter greeted us with my favorite greeting "Grüß Gott!". It was a great atmosphere, in good company. 

The view of the courtyard from our seat!

Basically, to sum up the weekend, Oktoberfest is nuts. Munich itself almost just gives off this party atmosphere and vibe during this time of year. And it makes me thankful not to live there, one weekend is quite enough time to spend around this crazy festival.

Gut, Besser, Paulaner.

Saturday we didn't make it into one of the tents, but we were fortunate enough to have a few Maßes of beer in the Paulaner Biergarten.

Sunday we spent some time in the Hacker-Pschorr "Himmer über Bayern" tent. These few hours were filled with people standing up on the tables, attempting to chug liters of beer at one time. I felt bad for every person who didn't follow through with the challenge, because they definitely got booo-ed like no other. After eating the lowest quality Käsespätzle I've ever consumed, it was time for me to meet up with my Mitfahrgelegenheit (basically the new form of hitchhiking, cheap arranged via the internet, of course) at the U-Bahn station. 

Here I came to a depressing realization that stems from graduating from college, but that I failed to recognize until now. Saying "good-bye" to Nelly on Sunday made me, for the first time, see that I'll probably only ever be able to spend a weekend at a time with all of the friends I grew to love so much during the past four years. Yet it was the little things and moments at Linfield that I cherished so much about my friends. Sitting on Kyle's couch watching Baby Mama three days in a row, throwing water balloons off of the balcony at C301, random times in the library during finals week, coming home and having "domestic disputes" with Nelly, dancing to the talking heads "Nothing but flowers" at 7:30 am, those are the kinds of things that I think most fondly of, just as they are the things that can't just spontaneously happen anymore. Don't get me wrong, I like growing up and the opportunity to be independent, but I wish growing up didn't have to mean losing that closeness - albeit maybe just even from the proximity - to friends. And naturally this pertains to some more than others, as well as to some professors and family members.

I'll look forward to seeing all of you when the opportunity presents itself. 

Until then, with love,

Ashley

Germany = Austria...?

Austria is not Germany, and Germany is [unforunately] not Austria. While this may seem like a pretty obvious statement lacking depth, for it me it's in fact a quite profound statement and realization - possibly the most profound statement I've made in years. Allow me to elaborate.
When I think about Europe, I think about Austria and the time I spent there during my study abroad. Of course every experience is different, as is every country, culture, and people. Somehow, though, despite everything I've learned about Germany and Austria over the last 4 years at Linfield, I had hoped that the two might be more similar than different. What I've found so far: Germany is the americanized version of what you expect Germany to be, and Austria is more German than Germany. This German guy, Axel, even said the following the other night: Ja, die Österreicher sind deutscher als die Deutschen. He's definitely right. Or maybe, just maybe, I've built up a false image of what Germany is, who Germans are. Only time will tell, I suppose.


Some observations I've made about differences:
-German grocery stores lack Bergkäse and Kaffeeobers. These two facts are kind of devastating.
-Austrian beer > German beer...or at least the beer from the RP/Mainz area. Seriously, I don't enjoy Pilsner beer, so how I ended up in a place with almost exclusively Pilsner beer is beyond my understanding. Maybe it's a call from the wine gods - an attempt to convert me to a wino.
-Words that I miss being able to use/hear on a regular basis include: [brettl]Jause (snack), Topfen (Quark - no, I refuse to use that word!!!), Semmerl (Brötchen or Kaiser) Erdäpfel (potato), and Grüß Gott! (Austrian greeting for hello, which means 'may god greet you' or something like that...), and Deppat (idiot).
-Words I've enjoyed integrating into my vocabulary: Alter (dude), krass (sick/awesome/nasty), bescheuert (stupid/crazy/nuts).  More to come on this list, I'm sure.
-In general, Germans are more surface friendly than Austrians were. On my run the other day, I received a wave and three smiles - a record for a run in Europe! I'm not exactly sure if Germans stay as open and nice, but I'm hoping they do.
-Germans are not as fit looking as Austrians. Many of the teachers at my school are not very fit, which surprised me...most of them also drive a car everywhere. Like one my first day, Claudia, my supervising teacher, picked me up and we literally drove 3 blocks, then parked the car. HOW AMERICAN IS THAT?!?! I was actually kind of appalled.
-The grocery stores here are vastly different from those in Austria. Not only are the stores not the same (Germany=Rewe, Aldi Süd, Netto, Lidl...Austria=Billa, Spar, Hofer, Pennymart), but the offerings within the store are quite different. The German grocery stores offer things closer to what you'd see in Fred Meyer, in my opinion. And WTF Germany, selling beer in plastic bottles is NOT okay. Some stores don't even sell beer in glass bottles. Should a store sell beer in a glass bottle, it's probably a banana beer, cola/beer, or some other nasty mixture of beer with random other beverages. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!!! I'm thinking about starting a petition to amend the Reinheitsgebot of 1516 to include "All beer must come from a bottle, can or a keg." Anyone want to sign it? Great.
-Where is the Almdudler (ginger-ale like delicious beverage), and more importantly, where are the alms!?!?!


And with all of that being said, I like my life in Germany. I appreciate the independence of not living 30 minutes away from home, and of not having a host family (though they were great) - the independence of opening my own bank account at the Deutsche Bank, of registering myself as a Mainzer, and making my schedule the way I want it. I've already learned so much about myself, like that I may be slightly OCD when it comes to having a clean kitchen and bathroom, and that I like organizing things (like my stuff, I mean). Hopefully within the next few months I'll gain a better grasp on how I want to spend the next few years of my life. As strange as this may sound, I'm looking forward to grad school next year. I'd like to figure out exactly what it is I hope to gain from getting a master's degree, though. Maybe this year can help me figure that out, though working for the UN or world bank might be something of interest. 

...yet sometimes I still have to wonder if taking the Fulbright in Germany instead of the Austrian TA position was the right choice. But then, I'll never really know.


Time to get ready for school! 

Servus!
Ashley

In other news...

I found this to be a quite interesting article: Bad Economy Drives Down American Arms Sales

It's short and definitely worth the read if you get a few minutes. And ask yourself this question: do politics drive the economy, or does the economy drive politics? Mull that one over for a while..


Now, off to school!
Ciao,

AB

Fulbright/PAD seminar

This story picks up where I left off with the dead homeless man at the Hauptbahnhof in Köln. Namely because after that incident, it was time to hop on the bus to Altenberg bei Köln, where the conference was to take place. Altenberg is located in a beautiful place, complete with the most simplistic - yet most beautiful - gothic cathedral I've ever seen. This simplicity stems most likely from the fact that this church is an evangelisch (lutheran, I think?) one. It's quite typical of these churches to be less extravagant than their catholic counterparts, but since the protestant reformation came after the gothic period - and I spent most of my time until now in the southern, more catholic part of the german-speaking world - I'd never seen a protestant-style gothic church. We stayed within the gates of the abbey, which has been renovated into a hotel/hostel of sorts. The best part of the conference was that, for once, everything was free, free, free, and not the kind of you-paid-for-this-in-your-study-abroad-fees free, absolutely free to us. (Of course not taking the tax dollars we've spent into consideration.)


Overall, the seminar was actually pretty fun, aside from the whole sitting almost the entire day thing. We broke up into small groups often, because let's face it, you can't get anything done with 140 people. Being at a Berufsschule isn't exactly normal, so I was put in a group with the 16ish other people doing that. That was great because not only was my friend, Brett, in the group but also Barbara, a girl who became quickly my friend. The 3 day seminar sought to accomplish the following three goals: prepare us for teaching, teach us about our Länder (states), and to take care of the bureaucratic stuff. Of course, we had the evenings free, and the PAD (Padagögischer Austausch Dienst)made sure there was a quasi-bar for us to access. This was cool, because it gave all of us a chance to relax and get to know about the other Fulbrighters after extremely long days. Overall, I found the orientation to be fun and exciting, but by the end I felt ready to stop speaking English and start my job.

Altenberger Dom

 

Friday, September 10th, I had my first real day at the BBS3. One might think on the first day at school you introduce yourself, then sit down and observe the main classroom teacher. This was not the case on my first day; in fact, the day went far differently from that. Claudia (my supervising teacher) came out of left field with a request that I explain the American school system to the class.. my first thought: ummmmmm WHAAAAATTTTTT! She gave me 5 minutes to prepare some sort of explanation of our school system, which about as much like the German system as English to German. As easy as this may sound, it's tough due to the differing levels of English that students speak, or rather, don't speak. However, I did it (yay!); and much to my surprise I enjoyed doing it. Teaching is so cool - not to be cliché or anything.  But honestly, it is...the idea that you can impart knowledge on someone - albeit sometimes worthless knowledge like the capital of Oregon or the joke to accompany it (it's not Salem, it's SOlame!) - is absolutely an amazing feeling. The greatest thing about the BBS3 is that it's a vocational school.  I thought this may be a negative quality when I first heard that, again to my surprise, this is its best quality. Instead of teaching the students lessons about English grammar, I get to teach them practical lessons that will be useful for their future careers (i.e. travel office, bank teller, ect.). It's going to be fun teaching them, and I truly think I'll learn a lot from them as well. We'll see where this start takes me, and how I feel about the school. I also found out today (Monday, yes, I suck at blogging and staying up-to-speed) that I may be able to take a beginning level french course at the school!! I'm going to talk to the teacher tomorrow to see what's up, if I can take the class, and what catch-up work is needed. 

The french course is a great segway into this last thought and the topic of my next blog post: the multi-culti apartment I'm living in right now. Tonight I've been surrounded by German, English, Spanish, and Polish.  And deep breath, life's good. 

Tschüs!
Ashley

First impressions of life in Germany

On the plane ride over to I sat next to a few great people; from PDX to Toronto, I talked with a woman who grew up in Mexico City, and from Toronto to Frankfurt I sat across the aisle from a German who teaches English in a Berufskolleg (the type of school where I'll be working). Talking with him about teaching and about Berufskollege initiated this feeling of excitement about and readiness for the task ahead of me.  We exchanged contact information before the flight ended - he even offered me a place to come stay if I felt homesick, needed to get away or anything at all. So far almost all Germans I've met have been friendly and eager to help with whatever I need, despite what I've been told about them in the past. Anyway, more on that later, now back to the point of this post.  (I feel really bad for anyone who reads this blog because my thoughts are always all over the place and tangents aren't exactly a rarity.)

Last Friday I arrived lacking sleep and a bit behind schedule in Frankfurt. Erik, one of the English teachers from the BBS 3, picked me up at the airport, and drove me to my WG (apartment) to drop luggage off before going to the BBS3 for the first time. As for the BBS3, I could tell right away that I would like the school. Erik and I went to the teacher's lounge type area - what a cool change, going to the teacher's lounge instead of hanging out with students on break! - where I met some of the other teachers.  All of them were nice, friendly, and helpful, much like almost every other German with whom I've come into contact. In the evening, Claudia, my Betreuungslehrer (supervising teacher), and her boyfriend Alex took me to dinner at a Weinstube in the downtown area of Mainz.  Upon seeing "Schnitzel auf Wiener Art" on the menu, I didn't really have to think about what I'd be eating for dinner.  I mean, I just love Schnitzel.  After dinner I went to their apartment to watch Deutschland against Belguim, a game that Deutschland dominated!  Then it was time for some sleep, after about 40-something hours with about 1.5 hours of sleep.  

Saturday morning I woke up early-ish, went to the T-mobile store to purchase a SIM card and some minutes for my lovely German cell phone.  Although this handy is better than the one I had in Austria, it's still such a joke of a cellular device compared to the various phones I've purchased over the last few years. Then it was off to buy my BahnCard 50 and train tickets to Cologne. The view of the Rheinland between Mainz and Koblenz is absolutely stunning.  Like woah.  Castles on the top of every hill, vineyards lining the hillsides.  This place is unreal.  

Cologne was basically a wash of a city.  The famous Kölner Dom was about all the city had to offer, well aside from the Kölsch beer, a beer that wasn't at all impressive to me.  It's typical for Kölsch to be sold in 0,2Liter glasses - less than 12oz - and my waiter basically told me that this was a way to make more money off of people.  True to its Gothic architecture, the cathedral was epic...I just love Gothic architecture (thanks to professor Hanreich in Vienna!).  Instead of staying in an expensive hostel in Cologne, I decided to give couchsurfing a try.  It was definitely a great experience...I stayed with two different people, but I enjoyed the second night much better.  Walter and Ina, an aussie and a German, lived on the opposite side of the Rhine from the Dom.  I borrowed a bike from them and explored the city for the day.  That evening we ate dinner together, and I joined Walter and his friend for a nice middle-eastern Jazz pianist's concert in a small bar across town. What an interesting style of music!! If you ever get the chance, definitely check it out! Later I had an interesting conversation with Ina about national pride, the world cup, teaching (they are both teachers), and greenpeace. In the morning I woke up, said thank-you and good-bye to my lovely hosts, and went down to meet up with the other Fulbrighters at the Hauptbahnhof (train station) located right next to the cathedral.  While we were sitting there waiting for the train and making small talk, I noticed a guy lying on the steps up to the cathedral.  Soon there were people pumping his chest, shortly followed by an ambulance and the works.  Unfortunately, they couldn't seem to recesitate him, and he died.  The craziest part about this whole event was how they left him lying on the bricks for about an hour after he was dead, just covering him with a white sheet.  (Side note: when we arrived back in Cologne after the Fulbright conference 3 days later, there were two ambulances (ambuli? ha) near the cathedral yet again. Upon seeing this and thinking about my unimpressedness by Cologne, I came up with a marketing slogan: Köln, eine großartige Stadt, in der ums Leben zu kommen - or - Cologne: a great place to die. Kinda morbid, but from what I witnessed there, eerily true..)

That's all for now.  I'm really terrible at this blogging thing, but I'll try to post one about the Fulbright conference and my first day of teaching soon.

Cheers!

Ashley

**View of Cologne from my first couchsurf there**

*I also thought this was pretty awesome - on the train bridge in Cologne, thousands [maybe even hundreds of thousands] of couples have placed locks on the bridge to show their love for one another.  There was also a spray-painted quote: Liebe ist nur ein Traum (love is just a dream) with a carrot thingy inserted so it would read: Liebe ist NICHT nur ein Traum (love is not only a dream)*