Wunderbar

There's a scene in this week's How I Met Your Mother where the main character is speaking to a German who tries to explain what Wunderbar means.  When the character says he knows that word, the German then assumes he speaks German and starts going off on a German-speaking spiel...This is my life this semester.

Anyway, you all will be proud to know that my charades skills are progressing fabulously, even if my German-speaking skills (I'm trying I swear!) have not been.  I had a whole conversation about what time the bus was coming with a woman speaking German and me speaking English and the few numbers I know.  Remember, its military time here and I'm lucky if I can count to ten.  I counted it as a win.  Updates:

Reeperbahn Festival
Last weekend was the Reeperbahn festival here in Hamburg.  Knowing the sketchy reputation of that street, plus the descriptions I heard online, I expected it to be mass chaos.  When we arrived at 7 pm for dinner, however, it was a pretty tame scene.  There were food trucks and performers in the street, but most of the concerts were inside and the crowds did not build up until late night.  After my Bele Chere experiences growing up, I guess I'm confused by street festivals that don't involve drum circles and yelling preachers.

Not to downgrade the festival, however.  A group of the American students, plus a fellow displaced (non-law) Tar Heel went to go see Fun., which was an amazing concert.  Their name is clear when the band gets up on stage, you can tell they really want to be there.  I would highly recommend going to see them if you ever get a chance.

 The street the concert was on

 Outside the venue

 Fun.'s lead singer

 The band

Here is an example of the energy the singer had the whole show.  This was a different show in Hamburg, but he similarly was all over the stage, jumping, telling the crowd to sing along or clap, interacting with the other members, etc.  Every single song he had this much energy. I was exhausted for him after the show.  P.S. He sounds much better in person than he does on that video.

Oktoberfest
I did not have any plans to visit Munich during the actual Oktoberfest time, and neither did some of the other international students, so we made our own festivities at a Southern German restaurant in Hamburg.  We tried at first to go to the Hofbrauhaus, the Munich-based restaurant chain known for its Oktoberfest but it was packed with people of the same mindset.  We ended up at the restaurant Franziskaner (I made up that spelling), named for the beer brand.

With our large, diverse table of students, we ate plenty of sausages and potatoes, and the rest of the group drank plenty of beer. We were easily the loudest table at the restaurant, as various internationals taught us their cultural drinking songs.  All of these included banging on the table or clapping, so I'm sure our fellow patrons *ahem* enjoyed our spirit.  It's just too bad that none of us had purchased the correct gear before we went, as other parties at the restaurant were dressed in Dirndls or Lederhosen.  Maybe next year...

 Guess which one is mine?

 Frontin with someone else's beer

 The group

Apartment Woes
While I am glad I found this apartment, it is sometimes less than ideal.  I feel like I can hear most of what goes in the other apartments, and sometimes my neighbors closing their doors sounds like they are coming into my apartment! I had to buy a new can opener, because I can't for the life of me figure out how hers works, and a french press coffee maker (which makes me feel very European) since my leasor apparently only drinks tea.  I am realllyyyyy miss having a dishwasher, and worry that even without it, my conservation efforts in turning off lights and unplugging my computer, etc are not going to be enough for the very-green city of Hamburg.  

However, my greatest problem came this Sunday.  My computer plug was laying on the floor next to an outlet but unplugged. I picked it up, shaking off some cords that were apparently still plugged in (to a surge protector, no less).  Suddenly, there was no power.  It was localized in my bedroom, so I tried to flip the switches in the fuse box I found, to no avail.  Since everything is typically closed on Sundays, and I didn't have time to go on Monday, I basically spent two days hanging out in the kitchen where I could still plug things in.  The internet didn't work at this point either, since the only room where I could plug the router in could not power said router.

My best idea was Googling "German hardware store", since all of my other Google queries turned out to be no help.  The address I found was two busses and a train away, but I had little other choice.  I trudged out there, missing my one class of the day, and it turned out to be a massive Ikea and hardware store combination.  They had carpeting, they had furniture, they had kitchen appliances (this is actually where I got the can opener), they had office supplies....but no fuses. 

Luckily, I was paying attention on the last bus, for the first time in my life PTL, and noticed a place on the way there that looked eerily like a Lowe's.  I went in there and found a sign that said Elektroken or something very similar.  And in that section, I found the fuses that looked like mine! (Well, someone had to help me, I'll admit, but that's mostly because I was too short to see the top row).  When I got back I nearly had a heart attack when I realized that some of the fuses in the box were a different size than my sample, but luckily I found the broken fuse and now have power AND internet.  So the bright side (pun intended) of living alone in a foreign country is that now I'm convinced I will be able to fix the power in any situation!  Ok, not ANY situation, but I'm feeling pretty good about my independence right now.

 Food
As my (few) faithful readers know,  I love eating.  While I'm still not sure what typical Hamburg fare is (besides Haribo gummy bears, which totally justifies my sugar binging), I have found amazing foods from all different kinds of cultures.  One night, the Korean students suggested a Korean place and now I'm obsessed with Korean food.  The traditional family dish would be a big pot of rice, a big stew and these little side dishes (below), but we all got our own dish in this restaurant.  I got a bi bim bap, which was served in a clay pot as to make the rice a little crispy.  Yum.

The southern German food at Franziskaner was so good as well.  To me, southern German has many similarities to southern U.S. cuisine. Sauerkraut is definitely a sibling of coleslaw and we love mashed potatoes and pork things too! 

I've even tried cooking a bit in my little kitchen.  I figured out some of the settings on my oven so I can at least toast bread/use the broiler and bake.  I made these little zuccini pizza bites last night.  Delicious, but not at all filling.  I baked gf brownies the other day too, but they were a mix so I don't really count that.

 I won't be hired as a food photographer any time soon, but you get the picture

Weather
Ok it still always rains and is getting colder, but on the bright side (again, pun intended) more rain means more rainbows!

Next weekend: Copenhagen

 

I'm officially German now...

Ok, not really but I am feeling a little less like a lost tourist and a little more like a Hamburgian (Hamburger? Hamburglar?).  Plus, people can't stop talking about how German I look, which I'm going to take as a compliment.  It's a compliment, right??

This week I have conquered:

• The transit system: with my school pass, I can ride all of the buses and trains (U-Bahn is the underground and the S-bahn is the above ground train).  To get anywhere other than school, this is the much easier/necessary choice.  However, all of the station names are typical German names, which both have an insane amount of letters yet seem to look all the same. The bus stops are unusual from those that I've used before (granted, I've only ever used UNC buses) in that the stations are not necessarily intuitive in their location versus their direction.  It took me a while to realize that the bus I take one way is a half block away from the other bus, but both stations are in the median, as opposed to the side of the road.  Nevertheless, I am an expert now at public transportation. I can get to most of the major attractions and meeting spots with ease.  Soon I'll be able to answer those questions I keep getting in German!
• The biomarkt: after my original encounter with grocery shopping, I decided to email the girl from whom I am subletting and ask where she shops.  She did mention the one place I went before, but also that a biomarkt was nearby.  Bio is the designation for organic foods, so this place is essentially the Hamburg Whole Foods.  Knowing what that entailed, I shopped there the other day and saw the most beautiful sight so far:

 Note: grocery stores here close insanely early so it is sometimes required to scavenge at the gas station for acceptable food instead of actually grocery shopping.  But stocking up on things from this aisle will hopefully ensure I will not starve

• Taking out the trash: Yes, this may not seem like an accomplishment, but all of the trashcans are hidden in cute little sheds so I was clueless for a while.
• The banks: Money management here is interesting, since I of course don't speak German, and also I can't use most of the money in my American account without extra charges.  I found the cheapest way to fool the system, however, by using the Deutsch bank ATM to get out money with my debit card (no fees from BoA this way) and depositing it immediately into my HASPA account which the school set up for us.  This way I can wire money to my subleasor easily and add money to my school card as well.  Successfully doing all of those transactions made me feel like I had taken a huge leap into seeming like a native.  Even if I did do the whole thing in English.
• The mail system: Ok, this is not completely true since I haven't yet mailed anything, but I did put my name on the doorbell and mailbox so the postman could find me.  There aren't apartment numbers, at least in my building, so I'm guessing had I not done that, I would not have received anything ever.  My landlord said the handwritten, carolina blue post-its I used didn't look "so nice" but also didn't help me fix it. I'm taking that as his tacit approval.
• A week of classes: Funny, I suppose there's actually studying in this whole study abroad thing.  The law classes are not too difficult thus far: since we have half the time of a normal semester before we change classes, we really cannot get into too much depth.  The professors also don't expect us to have done the reading before class, or perhaps ever.  This strongly contrasts with the fact that they FAIL people here.  So yes, I'm reading before class.  I'm hoping that having English as my first language will help a bit, but there's not actually a curve at all so I won't rely on that fact too much.  The hardest class is German language, since I got put in the basic instead of beginner class.  It deals more with actual language instead of learning numbers and colors (my friend said it was kindergarten all over again).  I'm not taking it for credit anyway, so I think I'll stay in it and be challenged a bit.  I have decided that it requires the constant use of google translate while in class, and the teacher (the wonderfully-named Kathrin) does not seem to mind.  I'm also taking comparative law, intro to intellectual property law, and white collar crime - all of which are quite interesting subjects.  3L year is starting out well, class-wise.
• The German cell phone system: Another thing that makes me feel very German is the fact that I now have a German cell phone number to my name.  Not even halfway through September, I was getting the feeling that I had already used all of the texts and data that I signed up for on my American phone.  International overages are insanely expensive, so I knew I needed a new solution.  I headed to Vodafone for a German phone that comes with a data plan.  This way, I can google the closest restaurant or look on a map where I am, away from school or my apartment.  I will keep my American cell nearby, for the info that is stored on it.  But the best way to contact me is email, gchat, or if you really want to feel like you're texting me, I'm using an app called WhatsApp that you can download for free on Android or for $.99 on iPhone.  My new phone is an adjustment, with a smaller keyboard and different ways to do things, but they were nice enough to put my name on the phone to see every time I turn it on!

• A cold: This is another that is not fully true, but close enough.  Luck would have it that within my first week of classes I came down with a knockdown, drag out cold.  It stretched over my entire respiratory system at various times, and threatened to keep me home from Malente (see below).  I nipped it in the bud, though, with major amounts of steam, saltwater, vitamin c, and some extra sleep.  I still have a bit of a runny nose but nothing close to what I felt like before.  Take that, time change.
• My walk to school: What I mean by this is that I've found a much better way to walk to classes.  The city is tearing down a building that was on my other route (see below for more on that) and the detour sent me through a park that the school owns.  I realized on the way back home that I could actually go further back through the park, cut a bit of time out of my walk, and have a more scenic route to boot.  This is what my view is now, nbd:

 Note the fountains in the background, they are more impressive than my camera phone captured

• International cooking: Our first planned social event was an international dinner.  We got together with our buddy families and made dish(es) from our native country(ies), then shared them with the rest of the families.  What a delicious bonding event! In my family, Marie from France made crepes, Aslan from Sweden made Swedish Caviar (a hard-boiled egg and caviar on top of a piece of white bread), and I made some potato salad (technically American AND German, but I used a Paula Deen recipe so it counts).  Some pictures:

Marie and her crepes

Aslan shows how to make the caviar to Abraham (from Mexico) and Lital (from Israel)

 Aslan tries his hand at flipping crepes

• The German Going Out Scene: After the international dinner, we all went to the Reeperbahn, the main going out location in Hamburg.  I'm learning how, ahem, interesting European music is.  The songs I knew at the first place we went to were old to very old American songs, and the rest were German hip hop songs.  The age range on these songs went from The Roots circa 2002 back to Hit the Road, Jack circa 1960, which for the first time was not used to kick us out of the bar.  We have since been to other places with newer music, but for some reason all of the songs have what sounds to me to be the same techno interlude in the middle, even if it was a dance song to begin with.  Who knew Usher needed a remix? In case anyone was worried, Call Me Maybe has made it here, in full force.  The remix is even more terrible than the original, with only half of the chorus being repeated to that techno beat again and again.  But everyone gets into it so if you don't pay too much attention to the song, it can still be fun.

Glow sticks and crazy straws!

New friends!

• A weekend in Malente: It is a Bucerius tradition for the second-year class to invite both the international class and the incoming first-year students for a weekend (eh, 24 hours) of team building, sports, and drinking festivities at a summer-camp-style hostel outside of a town called Malente.  Since the first-years are 18-19 years old, this being their version of college, it can get pretty crazy (ambulance crazy) for them.  But everyone made it back alive and besides the 19-20 year old second-year students directing us (including a 7 am wake up call for a 10 am bus), I'm glad I went.  It was a bonding experience that I'm sure people will be sharing stories from for a while.  I have no pictures from that since they informed us that was rule #2 of the trip.  Rule #1 was what happens in Malente, stays in Malente, and Rule #3 (clearly broken) was don't go to the hospital.

Random Observations:

• Construction: I don't know if this is a German thing, a Hamburg thing, or a tourist thing, but whenever I see construction (mostly the aforementioned demolition of the building near school), I also see a handful of people standing and watching.  I'm not sure that I've ever seen this happen in the U.S. to such a great extent.  We're talking five-six people every time I leave the school, just watching.  Today, the equipment wasn't even moving and they were standing at the barrier, looking at it.  It makes me want to ask them why they find it so interesting!
• Paying Extra: I'm now prepared to spend more than the purchase price of a certain item if I want certain other accompanying items.  Bags at the grocery store were the first thing, but also condiments you typically think of as coming with the food.  This includes pommes sauce, their term for mayonnaise.  It's half in French and means fries/potato sauce. Apparently that's all they use it for.
• Punctuality (warning: broad generalizations exist here): Since the program includes people from all over the world, I have found it fascinating to watch different peoples' punctuality.  The Germans are always on time: the administrators, professors, and other students are ready to begin/leave right at the moment they said they would be, not a minute before or after.  The Americans/Western Europeans typically are 5 to 10 minutes late, 15 if its a morning activity.  The Mediterranean students are typically 30 minutes to an hour late.  They manage to always be the last ones in the room, even if the class just took a 20 minute break.  Watching different cultures' views on the importance of time is so interesting!
• Weather: I have stopped looking at the weather forecast because, at least for another month or so, I can accurately predict it.  The temperature calls for layers constantly because if the sun comes out a bit, it can be t-shirt weather, but if the wind starts up, its sweater weather immediately.  There are only three states of weather in Hamburg: just finished raining, currently raining, about to rain.  I am practically a boy scout now with how prepared I am for all sorts of climate.  However, the people here don't feel the same way I do about walking around.  If it's sprinkling to lightly raining, they don't put on a rain coat or put up their umbrella, it typically has to be the full driving rain for any kind of protection.  No one wears sunglasses, ever.  And the women walk, bike, and practically run in heels.  It's like they don't even realize the weather is not ideal. I love the heartiness that must come from this northern climate.  Our bus tour guide from the first week told us that it will soon start getting dark at 3 pm and the wind will make it extremely cold, so I'm hoping to gain that heartiness before that point.

• Food: I'm still not sure I've had actual German food outside of the cafeteria (mensa).  For some reason, whenever we go out, its impossible to find a place that actually offers the country's own cuisine.  Everything else is represented, however.  The Turkish influence is strong, as apparently is the ex pat culture since certain restaurants offer real American or Californian (or Texan or...) cuisine.  The other night a group of us went out looking for hearty German food but the rain went into full-on monsoon mode so we went into a tapas place instead.  We just ordered the variety plate (two versions, three of each) and pitchers of sangria and walked out full, happy, and only out 20E each.  All of the dishes were individually so delicious! I love when I stumble across good food :) 

 One of each of the plates -- the best were the bacon wrapped dishes on the right plate.

Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!!

Day Two!

Short post today, y'all (just remembering my American English there).  Today was more orientation: discussions about academic advising, extracurricular activities, and a lecture on common law.  That last lecture was given by a British professor, basically a 90-minute recap of 1L year.  He apologized to all the British and American students, but I'm still not sure why we were discussing common law instead of learning about the German law.  Oh well, at least he threw some jokes in :)

We took a bus tour after, which was nice to get an overview of the city.  We revisited some spots that I had already seen but saw different aspects and heard new facts of it.  By the end, I think most of the bus was asleep, but that was more of a function of the long day than the bus tour itself.  Back at Bucerius, we were served pretzels and wine, apparently a tradition for the law school.

Long day tomorrow, so I'll wrap it up with some pictures from the tour:

Of course it was a Benz bus

First picture of the trip that I've actually been in! Yay new friends!

Hamburg skyline

Fun fact: Hamburg has more bridges than London, Venice, and Amsterdam combined

Hamburg seal on city hall

City hall courtyard, fountain with the goddess of health, apparently staving off another cholera outbreak

Hey look, its city hall again!

St. Michalis up close

Interior shots of St. Michalis

Last Day of Freedom/First Day of School

Yesterday was my last day on my own before the program started.  I took advantage by touring around as much as I could, to get the most out of my time before my schedule busied.

I started on the Reeperbahn, the street where many of the clubs, casinos, and shops are located.  I wanted to go to the Beatlemania museum that was there, but found it closed. I walked down and back up the street all the way, then was tired of all the neon so walked past the commercial part and found cute little paths, benches, and a huge stone statute that I had not previously known was there.  Pictures from that:

The Beatles sculpture in Beatles-Platz

Cool building nearby

Huge stone dude

View from the top of the stairs near the huge stone dude

Close up of one of smaller but still lifesize dudes surrounding the huge stone dude

More scenes from my walk

I was going to explore the Hamburg museum and St. Michelis, which are both nearby (Michelis is the lantern-shaped church you can see in the scenery above).  However, the last English-speaking tour of city hall was at 15:00 and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make that another day.  I barely made it on time, too, since I walked in the first thing that looked old enough to be city hall after I got off the subway, which turned out to not be city hall, but instead a church.  So of course I had to look around that, too. 

 

Not city hall

I did eventually find the right old building, just in time for the tour.  This was the first time I had conversed in English in quite some time (or at all, since I can't converse in German), so this was a welcome relief from not understanding anything at all.  Both the city government and the parliament meet in this building, rebuilt in the early 1900s, and almost all of the spaces are used for formal events if not meetings.

Parliament meeting room

For mom: this was one of the less-ornate chandeliers.  The ones in the great hall weighed a car each

Phoenix imagery was all over one room since they had to rebuild the city hall after a huge fire burned it down

City government meeting space

They really like their ornate doors!

The staircase where the mayor receives his guests - they come to him instead of him coming down because they consider him to be on the same level (literally and figuratively) as presidents, prime ministers, etc.

The Great Hall

From the outside

My last solo expedition was to Ballinstradt, the emigration museum.  People back in the day from all over the region would come to Hamburg in order to emigrate to America.  Certain events, like extreme periods of economic hardship or religious persecution led to huge influxes of people trying to leave.  This made a few shipping companies very profitable.  I only had an hour to explore so I went through fairly quickly.  Also many of the exhibits were not translated into English so I didn't miss too much.  However, it was a very well done museum.  I did nearly die of a heart attack twice though: once when I noticed an unexpectedly placed manikin, and another time when I didn't realize a horse's head was mechanically moving up and down until I was right in front of the horse.

Here you could listen to the stories of why various people emigrated and a fictionalized version of their trip and time in America

Lots of videos in German

They built a boat inside the building that housed a few of the exhibits, with water and a gangplank and everything

Heart attack #1 is on the left, I was coming around the corner from that side and was caught off guard by his existence

They had exhibits of famous German emigrants, like Heinz and Kissinger (not pictured)

Recreation of the barracks that used to be at that location, for emigrants waiting for health inspections or an available ship.

I was excited for the family research center that was advertised at the end of the museum, to see the lists of passengers that left from Hamburg.  It was a bit disappointing though, just computers linked to ancestry.com, without an obvious link to the Hamburg departures.  I was more expecting this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_zDeHhJox8 - skip to 1:50.  But alas, it was not to be.

After that, I met up with my "buddy family" and some other Bucerius international students for dinner and drinks.  It seems like a great group of people and we found some cute places around Sternchanze.  There were people there from France, Norway, Germany, Mexico, and Columbia - at one point I think three different languages were being spoken in various conversations.  I even ordered food at a restaurant! Big step, I know.  I figured a kebab box from a Turkish place would be safe.  Not german food yet, but I'm getting there.

Today was orientation, day 1, at the school.  I am now very proficient at writing down my name, birth date, and address in Hamburg.  But I met even more people, including some Americans (there are 20 of us in the program, more than any other country!).  I am looking forward to getting the rest of orientation out of the way (two more days) and starting classes on Monday.  I will probably stay in town this weekend to get a little more settled, but have already begun vague talks with fellow students about traveling.  Will keep this updated!