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!

Do you speak English?

Today, armed with Rick Steves' Germany guidebook in hand, I attempted to explore my new city.  According to the guide, it is the second largest city in Germany, so this was no small feat.  I decided my first task would be to get a Hamburg card, which gives free public transportation and discounts on attractions for a set number of days.  Between Hamburg's public transit site, google maps, and mapquest, I was thoroughly confused by the transit system and walked to the tourist center instead.  A very long walk it was, but worth it. I am near the University of Hamburg and a cute lake, Aussenalster, both which provided a scenic walk.  A tip: bikes don't just stay on the bike path so diligence is still required in walking anywhere. Some pictures from my walk:

Once I got to the tourist center, I had no trouble buying the Hamburg card, since luckily the person manning that station did speak plenty of English.  Then there was the issue of food.  I have been surviving on the food I bought from the local supermarket but was starving after my hour walk.  I went up to a station and out of desperation with german words and pictures that made no sense, just asked "do you speak English?" The server did speak some but we had to use my precious data minutes to pull up google translate to get the word for flour (mehl).  Sadly, everything at his station did have flour and nothing else looked like a viable option, so my lunch consisted of french fries.

I then figured out the U-Bahn (subway) system to find the port from which that Rick Steves suggested taking the free ferry. By the end of the day, other tourists were asking me questions in German, since I apparently looked so knowledgeable about the U-Bahn.  I'm not sure what gave them that impression, whether it was my ever-present map or the pure confusion in my eyes.  Maybe they were offering me help? No, I'm sure they were asking for mine. Although I have learned the phrases "I don't understand," "I don't know," and "I don't speak German," I've found that a few words in English and a shrug are the best ways to end those conversations. 

The following are pictures from the hour-long ferry trip.  I enjoyed seeing all the interesting buildings in Hamburg.  They are all different but somehow fit together in their dissimilarity.  The city has a unique mix of uber modern buildings and what you might think of as traditional German buildings.  Rick Steves did steer me wrong by telling me that there were bilingual maps on the ferry, which there were none, so I have no idea what any of these buildings are, but it was still a good tip nonetheless.

 Lion King!! 

If Der Konig der Lowen isn't your thing, you could see Rocky: Das Musical instead :)

Getting to Germany

I have made it to Hamburg! Even after my lifetime of traveling, many times alone, this trip inspired more anxiety that I had ever felt before a trip.  This increased when lights started flashing in the Atlanta airport and the loudspeaker said there was some kind of emergency, hold on for more details....right before boarding. Through lots of prayer, I did make it through and am safely in my new apartment. It's a one bedroom, with a small kitchen and bath separate.  The bedroom is nice and spacious, partially because the landlord just took back his couch he was lending the former owner.  However, there is plenty of light and I like it so far.  The owner's mother met me, since the owner had to be in Paris before yesterday for her own study abroad trip (a miscommunication).  This worked out well, though, because her mother apparently cleaned a good amount that her daughter had not cleaned and even bought new things like a bed cover and more cleaning supplies for me to use.  I haven't done much exploring yet because of my extreme jet lag, but I wanted to write a post of my initial thoughts and travel tips for those going abroad:

1. When you're looking at seats on an international flight, keep in mind that the awesome bulkhead seats with the extra leg room have one downside.  They do not have any space in front of you to put your carry-on, so make sure to pull out everything you will need for the 8 hour trip, because...

2. At least on British Airways, the overhead "lockers" are receded from the walkway so that it would have been awkward to get stuff out of my bags.  I would have had to lean over sleeping people (the flight was at 920 pm, some went to sleep almost immediately) to get out the things I didn't stash in between my seat and the airplane wall at the beginning of the flight.  This made for a very sleep-less flight.  I've never been good at sleeping on airplanes anyway and everything that would have helped was stowed overhead.  I spent most of the flight reading or watching a movie, but the last 2-3 hours were not much fun.  So next time I will know to grab everything I might need and find a place to stash it.

3. If you need a gluten-free meal on a long flight, British Airways does it, and well.  The breakfast was only fruit, but the dinner was a salad, a fruit salad, a chicken and potato dish, and even a gluten free dinner roll.  I actually was full after eating it, not something I can typically say for mass produced meals.

3. If you have an international layover (e.g. from Heathrow to Hamburg), then don't buy a lot of liquids at your first airport because you may have to go through security again.  England has similar security restrictions to the U.S. and I had to throw my refreshments away.  R.I.P. Diet Cokes.

4. Money tip: apply for an international/travel credit card more than two days before you leave.  I was unaware that there was a 2-3% surcharge in Europe for use of an American credit card without an international chip.  I went to Bank of America to try to get travelers cheques in Euros and they told me about the charge, but could not expedite it to me before I left.  I will have to now use the cash euros I got, bite the bullet on the fee, or go to a Deutsch bank to get more cash until my mom can mail me the card.  Also if you want travelers cheques in a foreign currency, order that in advance too.  BoA does not keep them at their locations.

5. Another money tip: If you can avoid it (I couldn't), don't change a large sum of money in the airport using your credit card.  That surcharge will add up quickly.

6. If you are renting an apartment abroad, figure out what the internet situation is BEFORE you get there.  My leasor's mother and landlord did not know how to get me online so I had to use part of my international data, which is very limited, to email her.  We rely so much on the internet now, especially me, to find places to eat, to translate words, etc that this is an important step.

7. In Hamburg, stay off the painted part of the sidewalk, particularly when looking up things on your phone.  It's for bikes and walking there will lead to a number of near accidents.

8. It is possible to grocery shop with a food allergy, in a country where you don't know any of the words on the boxes, but you will end up with things like frosted flakes and kettle chips.

9. Even the paper bags at grocery stores cost money (15 cents) so take what you need before the clerk rings you up or she will look very confused.