Stone Life

Posting two weeks worth of pictures may take two years at this rate, but I suppose (for those of you who are looking) that it is better to post them slowly than not posting them at all.

Walking through East Berlin (the day that we estimate we walked over 15 miles) was both surreal and enlightening; surreal in that there is no trace of the schism that existed not even twenty-years ago, and enlightening in outlining the vast differences between the two sides of the country in the post-war era.

Thinking through those last comments, they sound as if they are contradictions, so let me explain myself further. What defined a country for so many years, the East-West split, was nearly impossible to find in 2009. We looked all over for markers/indicators to let us know that we were crossing the border between the two, but other than the few monuments (Checkpoint-Charlie..etc), that split has been utterly forgotten by the looks and operation of the city. At the same time, though, the difference in architecture and culture between the former-sides is striking. Where the West, in the stereotypical westernized-fashion, rebuilt itself into a modern-industrialized, metropolitan city in the fashion of Paris after the destruction of Berlin in the War, the East, in the spirit of Communism’s Mater-centric Russian heritage, clung to its roots and rebuilt their side in the traditional, modest fashion. Much of these distinctions no longer exist, because the sweeping force that is the West (e.g. capitalism) has infiltrated both, but the East had a decidedly different feel.

It is hard to put into words what exactly that “feeling” was, whether influenced by the experience itself, or merely a colouring of experience through the lens of the historical understanding I mentioned above, but there was a certain charm to it. The buildings were filled with more graffiti (some of it was outstandingly artistic), the buildings were consistently more traditional in form, even to the point of being bland at times. It was grittier, dirtier in places, but these things added and element of genuineness that the sanitized sections of West Berlin did not give-off. I realize it is a romanticized version of the place that probably only partially corresponds to the actual place, but those were my impressions of it at least.

My fellow Americans….

I realize I have fallen woefully short on my explanation of our German experience, and there are a myriad of pictures and stories to tell, but the dreaded monster that is grad-school has once again reared its ugly head, so my time/energy is limited again.

I thought that I would write and tell my family/friends just where things stand in the seemingly endless quest for my degree. I started what will hopefully be my last semester of course work (don’t get too excited – that doesn’t mean much) the day we got back from Germany. I am again taking twelve hours, which feels like suicide most days, but I am that expediency turns out to be a worthwhile plan.

Part of the “hopefully this is my last semester” hinges on the tricky language requirement that has been looming large for the past few years. I just now finished taking the four-hour exam, and I feel pretty good about it. So, assuming I do not hiccup too badly over the next three-four months, I should knock the coursework out.

From there it is on to a series of exams (6-8 months, I’ve been told), and then the whole dissertation process (God knows what that will entail).

Anyway, for those who were interested, I thought i would update. In theory, by May I should be halfway finished or more. There is a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

It was far too short, but after a couple of weeks in Deutschland we are back in the very warm confines of DFW, and things have again begun here with a bang. We caught the last snow-delayed flight from Chicago on Sunday night, and we did not get back into our apartment until about 1:30 that morning. The alarm sounded at 5:30, and the “race” began again. Julie is heading immediately back in to one of her busy-seasons, and I had my first class of the semester that afternoon.

With that said, I will make an effort to blog more consistently, and at the very least I will finish with the pics from Germany.

Our last night in Berlin was really snowy, so we spent most of the evening walking around and playing in it

Sad news, all.  The wonderful internet connection that we were so spoiled by in Berlin was apparently an anomaly.  Turns out Cologne and Munich are a bit more chintzy with their internet connections, and coffee, and breakfast….etc, etc, etc (sore subject).  We are paying for a few minutes a day, so I have not been able to blog.  We will be back in town on Sunday night, so I will post more next week.

We are also planning on having a post-Germany get-together at our place either next Friday or the one after.  For those of you who check this in the DFW area (yes, that means you) let us know which weekend (probably a Friday night) might be best

I have started to post a few times, but it kills me to not give my full attention to something that I write (which I have not the inclination to do right now), so I thought I would just toss out a few tidbits in short chunks instead of following a narrative of some sort.

*Things I have never seen/done till now:

1. Watched someone smoke crack – that’s right; tonight as we were riding the U-Bahn back to our neighborhood, a young man stepped on at one of the stops and quickly proceeded to the nearest corner (aka: where we were sitting). In full view of us and the other dozen or so in the car, he nonchalantly unrolled a piece of tin foil with what appeared to be some sort of crack-like substance, heated it with a lighter, and smoked until the next stop where he exited as quickly as he entered.

2. Been shot at – NYE was a chaotic madhouse in Berlin. There are apparantly no fireworks laws, and so everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is carrying around backpacks full of explosives. We are not talking about blackcats or sparklers; rather, these are industrial grade small-explosives, probably bigger than the shows that they used to put on in Crane. We walked around the city for five or six hours that night, and so we got pretty deft at dodging stray bombs and when to duck away from flashes that were seen out of the corners of our eyes, but nothing prepared us for when we passed under the second/third story window in a residential neighborhood and a guy leaned out the window with a pistol and started firing. Granted, he was not really shooting AT us, but it was bloody frightening having a gun pointed right above you and firing four or five times.

3. Walked on water – as if my ego needed a bigger boost, as I went for a run this morning (side note: Berlin is a great runner’s city. There are trails along the rivers all through the city) I took a short cut through a large wooded park area and came across a pond that appeared to be frozen over. I have always wanted to walk out onto a frozen pond like they do in the movies, so I inched my way out towards the middle and then quickly made my way back to land. It was pretty cool.

4. Been to a German movie theatre – I realize this is not terribly excited for most of you, but I wanted to include this nugget. Germany’s big Christmas release this year was “Buddenbrooks.” I know, I know! I was excited too! As we all know, this was Thomas Mann’s first novel when he was in his twenties, and it became a HUGE German success in the 1930′s (give or take a few years…I can’t remember). This is a big-budget film adaptation of the novel, and I went to see it last night. (side-note2: interestingly enough, they sell tickets at different prices in German theatres, and if you want to sit towards the middle or back of the theatre, you pay a little more. They assign specific seats just like a sporting event.) The film was entirely in German, so I did not catch 100% of it, but encouragingly enough, I was able to follow along pretty well, and it was great. If you have a chance to see it in sub-titles, please do, but, more importantly, if you have never read the novel, you should. It is fairly light-hearted and easy to read for a novelist that is oftentimes difficult.

5. Doener Kebaps are like manna from heaven – This Turkish immigrant to Germany may rival beer as the best thing here. I LOVE THEM, and I would eat them three times a day if I could. Yum, Yum, Yum.

6. German pastries are simply better than U.S. pastries. We do not understand it, but neither Julie nor I ever eat the pastries back home, but over here we cannot get enough. They are so, so good, and we think Abbey should come over here, learn from the masters, and open a Euro-bakery back in the States. (this picture was supposed to have the pastries we were eating this morning, but you will just have to pretend.)

7. Kirschen Bier (cherry beer)…not bad!! – for our anniversary yesterday we broke with the daily tradiation of finding the cheapest, smallest place in Berlin and eating for under ten Euros; instead, opting for a large brewery/restaurant in the heart of what appears to be something of a Times Square Berlin. I started with the house brew, which was good, but Julie had an apple beer that she liked so much that I decided to drink a cherry beer. With the exception of drinking a beer that was basically pink, I really like it.

8. Berlin bars are not smoky (sorry Chad) – apparantly the neo-nazis that run the Dallas City Council have made their way back over to the motherland, and public smoking has been outlawed in Berlin. I still have high hopes for Koeln and Munchen, but it seems doubtful.

Have a good workday tomorrow….and maybe I will let Julie write some later.

Or: Happy Anniversary.

Yes, as of today Julie and I have been married for five years.

We are considering sticking it out for at least one more.

We spent last night wandering through the Charlottenberg section of West Berlin, shopping at the Weinachten Markts (Christmas Markets), and eating/drinking along the way. We discovered something new: Gluewein (hot wine), which is just like it sounds, and OUTSTANDING, and I won Julie over to a snack that I learned to love in Muenchen: Laeberkaesse (Liver-Cheese). The latter is a thick, hot meat that is served on a roll with spicy mustard.

We made our way to another hole-in-the-wall, which touted itself as the “House of 100 Beers”…or something to that effect. We stayed and warmed ourselves with some good cheeses and breads and beers.

On the banks between the Reichstag of West and East Berlin (Julie chose the West)

Firstly, I will have to give Julie credit, because for over a month she has said we are going to Berlin to celebrate “Sylvester,” but I did not believe her. Turn’s out she was dead-on, and everywhere we went last night there were “Merry Sylvester” signs…..s0, I stand corrected.

After settling yesterday evening, we decided against taking a nap, even though we needed one desperately. Instead, we thought we would grab some dinner and wander about all evening until closer to midnight, when we planned to head to the Brandenburg Tor, the largest Sylvester celebration in Europe. Julie was forced to endure another Michaelish euro-travel experience – I do not like to eat places that are on-the-beaten-path, so to speak; instead, I would rather wander around for an hour or two until I can find somewhere sufficiently obscure and non-touristy.

We hit the jackpot with our search. Julie was losing patience with me, and we were both getting pretty cold and hungry after walking over half the city, but then we came across a tiny hole-in-the-wall where no one even spoke english. They had an all-you-can-eat buffet of German foods, and the place was filled with families from the neighborhood who all knew the owners. We stayed there for hours, and we ate and drank so much that we were ready for bed by about 9.

Julie, true to her word, drank her very first full-beer (a half-litre Franziskaner, if you care) during our meal…..and I had an array in the time she took to finish the one. I was very, very impressed.

We left Goethestrasse and the cozy comfort of our little pub for the freezing, dangerous (literally, there were people firing guns and fireworks EVERYWHERE…more on this later) streets of Berlin for the remainder of the evening. Within minutes, the notion of sleepiness was blown away by the biting wind and miles of walking that we were in store for.

To put it simply, we got ourselves quite lost, and were it not for a Libyan student that we ran into near the U-Bahn, we probably would have never found the Tor. We stood in the freezing cold amidst hundreds of thousands, drinking from our bottle of champagne, fireworks being lit all around, and counted down with the Germans to the huge fireworks display that ended our portion of the evening.

Approaching the Tor (in the background)
As the clock struck midnight

insanity ensued

we are pretty sure we saw this same picture on CNN today

It took us hour(s) to get home, mainly because we did not look at a map, and we stopped at the street vendors for snacks, but finally, who knows what time, we ended up back in the warm comfort of our hotel.

I am sure there is more to tell, especially about the fireworks portion of the evening, but I thought some of you would like to see a few pictures. We are off again, so until next time….Tschuss!