Walking in a Winter Münsterland

Back to blogging after yet another long break.

Winter has settled into Münsterland, maybe a bit quicker than I would have liked, but there it is. Germany has gotten quite a bit of snow over the last couple of days and we even got some here in Münster last night, so I used to opportunity to take some pretty pictures, which you can take a look at below.

I'm already quite busy with grad school but I do like it so far and I've also been trying to stay involved in other activities, such as Model United Nations here in Münster and learning a bit of Dutch for fun. I have Fridays free, which makes for a good reading day before the weekend gets rolling. Wednesday is my most intense day with 8 hours of classes straight. German universities don't always spell everything out for you like American ones do and German bureaucracy is quite the dragon to slay, but I'm learning the ins and outs and I think things will work out for the best. The economic crisis has definitely had an impact on my ability to finance my education but things seem to be okay so far and I'm still hunting down other options.

I also recently took a trip to Manchester, England to visit Patrick (His blog is in German) and to check out the town. It was a great weekend and we were there during Halloween and ran around with a lot of really nice foreign exchange students and Patrick's roomie. It's amazing how different England is from Germany. Manchester was definitely at the heart of the industrial revolution and everywhere you look you can see remnants of it. Some of it is sort of sad because you can see the relatively high rate of unemployment but at the same time they're rebuilding and remodeling the city constantly. I found the people to be very friendly there though and their accent is a real treat to say the least.

I may have mentioned it in another blog entry, but I've started to work at a local restaurant here in Münster to support myself while I study. It's called Wolters II and it's located right in the old quarter of the city. I have to say that I really do enjoy working there. The team is friendly and I feel like I've gotten to know a few of them pretty well over the last few months. It's also been the ultimate test of my German language abilities, as I have to communicate quickly and effectively with staff and customers, hold lots of info in my head at once and adapt quickly to different situations with different customers. It was a baptism by fire but I've come out on top and it's given me a lot of confidence.

I've been working a lot on the weekends, saving up money for my trip back to the States in December! I have to say that I'm awfully excited about that and it should be a lot of fun to see friends and family again.

Well that's the exciting news in a nutshell. Once again, I'll try to blog more regularly, which will entail less reading in one sitting!



A nice picture of the bar at Wolters II.


The front entrance.


The cathedral in the snow.


The palace and a German snowball fight.


Artsy fartsy at the Manchester Airport.


German, American, Spaniard, Englishman, Dane.


The gate to Manchester's Chinatown.

Take care friends! Hope to see you back in the States soon!

Summer in Deutschland

So, liebe Freunde und Famile. It's once again been a long time since I've written on my blog and just like last time there is plenty to tell!

I've spent less time over the last few months traveling and more time planning for the future, but of course there have been a few weekend outings here and there. On the 1st of May, I went to my roommate Carsten's hometown. The 1st of May is a very interesting holiday in Germany. It's sort of a mixture of Labor Day and Father's Day and as with all other German festivities, there was a lot of drink involved. Here's how it works:

Step 1.

Drive out to your countryside "Dorf" and find all of your old friends.

Step 2.

Find a wagon and decorate it how ever you like. Loud boom boxes with bad German pop music and flashing lights are compulsory.

Step 3.

Fill the wagon with as much beer and liquor as you can find/pull in the wagon.

Step 4.

Patiently wait until it's 11am and start pulling the wagon. You can guess what happens to the alcohol.

Step 5.

Play a game which is basically a long range version of boccie and pull the wagon all over the country side waving to the other people who are doing the same thing .

It was a really great time and I have to admit. I've never quite experienced the Germans like that. We had such beautiful weather and the day was just awesome. It was also really cool to see Carsten's home town and meet all of his lifelong friends. I've been back a couple of times since!

There's been some changes in the apartment over the last few months. We've lost some roomies and gained some new ones but nothing less is to be expected in such a large apartment full of students. Katrin and Crissi have moved out and Laura and Jonas have replaced them. Crissi has moved to Hamburg to pursue her career in graphic design and Katrin has gone to Düsseldorf to work for the local radio station. I've managed to visit both of them since they've left.

Düsseldorf is a beautiful town and only about an hour away from me. The Rhine runs right through the town and it's the capital of the state I live in, North Rhine-Westphalia. The people of Düsseldorf have a reputation as being a bit fancy schmancy and you definitely notice it in the streets. There is a large community of Japanese people living there, one of the largest in Europe in fact. We visited the Japanese quarter and ate some sushi there.

Hamburg was also in the works. I didn't just go there to visit Crissi but also to go to a party for Lisa, an exchange student from my high school. We've stayed in good contact over the years and she was celebrating her move to Bordeaux, France and her birthday at the same time, so I figured I needed to make an appearance. Hamburg is such an amazingly diverse town and also very international because of the enormous port. If I were going to live in a bigger city in Germany, I think that Hamburg would be one of my first choices.

Big things to report on the Münster front. I finished my teaching assistantship in June and have been planning like mad ever since. Deciding what to do has been rather difficult for me but I examined my options and finally have a plan. I've decided that I want to continue my education by earning a masters degree and I've also decided to stay here in Münster to do that. There was a multitude of reasons as to why I decided to stay here, far too many for me to list in my blog. But I think I've made a good decision and am very excited to get started in the fall. Here's my program for those of you who would like to take a look. (It's in English)

Fotos.

This is Lisa! We had a great time at the party and hung out some on Sunday too. I'll miss not having her in Deutschland!

Crissi and I on the port. We went to the fish market super early in the morning and everything was so delicious. It was also fun to watch Crissi haggle in Turkish.

These are the newest roomies, Laura and Jonas. We all went out to a local bar/club one night called Gleis 22 and saw an American band.

The smallest German I know. Leonie. :-)

This the 1st of May. Notice the awesome Bollerwagen.
This is the large tower in Düsseldorf. It sits in the "Medienhafen" (Media Port), an old port which has been rebuilt to house much of the region's media companies such as television and radio.

A shot of the Rhine and the old part of the city. As you can see, we had beautiful weather.

I took this picture inside my school on the last day.

A very common sight in Germany. Germany is the biggest user of wind power in the world. I always have to laugh a bit when I catch myself starting at them from the train because my mother once told me that I was fascinated by pinwheels as a kid. Some things never change.

Time for a list.

Facts about North Rhine-Westphalia.

1. North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state in Germany with about 18 million inhabitants.

2. At about 13,120 square miles, North Rhine-Westphalia is about one third the size of Ohio (44,825 square miles)

3. At the heart of North Rhine-Westphalia is the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr Area). The Ruhrgebiet is a huge metropolitan conglomeration of many different cities. The area is one of the most important industrial centers for Germany and has about 5.5 million inhabitants.

4. When Germany was separated into two states during the cold war, the capital was located here in Bonn.

5. In the eastern half of North Rhine-Westphalia, there is a region known as Sauerland. It is a very popular vacation destination for skiing and hiking.

6. North Rhine-Westphalia shares its western border with Belgium and The Netherlands.

7. Europe's largest inland port is located in Duisburg which is situated in the heart of the Ruhrgebiet.

8. Because of the region's industrial importance and concentration of large cites, North Rhine-Westphalia suffered greatly from air raids in World War II. Many of the cities had to be completely rebuilt and now exhibit a interesting mixture of modern and traditional architecture.

9. Carnival is an extremely popular holiday in North Rhine-Westphalia, especially in Cologne, where there are hundreds of thousands visitors every year.

10. As coal production and other forms of industry decline in the area, North Rhine-Westphalia has continued to adapt to the modern world economy, changing its cities and people in the process.

I guess that's it for now. Bis die Tage. :-)

Hie und Da

Hello again.

I've managed to keep my procrastination down to one month this time! These past few weeks I've been doing a bit of running around in Europe. Over the Easter break I headed off to Prague and Dresden with Patrick. Both were wonderful. Prague is an interesting mix of very old architecture and remnants of the communist occupation. The people were very friendly though and I haven't heard so many American voices in one spot for a very long time. We spent about five days there and had a wonderful mix of weather. Sunny then snowy with rain and an overcast sky mixed in. It was very impressive though and it was interesting to be somewhere where I don't speak the language again. It probably felt a bit like it did for Jared in Italy!

After Prague we hopped a train for Dresden and spent about 3 days there visiting museums and seeing some friends from Münster who were in town as well. Dresden is located in the former East Germany and had a very different look to it. So much of that part of Germany had to be rebuilt after the Reunification that it now has a very modern look, much more so than in Münster.

Here are a few pics from that trip.


Prague at dusk.


The main square.


Charles' Bridge.


Patrick and I.


An awesome looking hotel.


I recently had a visitor from the Big Apple! His name is Phillip and he attended OU with me. I visited him one time in New York and when he expressed an interest in coming to Germany I jumped at the opportunity to show him around. Phillip actually spent a few years living in Germany as a child, but as an adult it's of course a different experience. He was very taken in by the German language and I spent a good part of the trip being his dictionary, but it was great to have someone here who was as excited about the language as I was!

We decided to spend part of his trip in Amsterdam. That was my second trip there and it was a great time. Amsterdam is one of the most unique cities I have ever seen. Being extremely liberal and accepting, they have a huge immigrant population and a variety of things that are shunned in other parts of the world. The most famous of these being of course drugs and prostitution, of which they are very tolerant when it doesn't cause a disturbance. It made me realize a bit, that we Americans sometimes let things bother us that really have no bearing on our lives. The Dutch are also some of the best English speakers you'll find in Europe. Not only do they speak absolutely perfect English (usually without an accent), they really enjoy it and are glad to help you when you need it or just chat with you in general.

Some pics from the 'Dam.


A nice canal.


Tulips!

Phillip looking awfully pleased to be in the Netherlands.

I guess it's time for another list. Los geht's.

10 things I have learned from my recent travels.

1. If you look for a timetable from trains/trams in Prague, expect to miss your connection.

2. Although people who speak both German and English have a very easy time reading Dutch, trying to pronounce it is a surefire way to get laughed at.

3. In Dresden, located in Saxony, they have a very different dialect of German. The most peculiar part of which is the word "Noa", which means both yes and no. You're expected to figure it out from the contex,t which does nothing but cause unending confusion.

Example:
Tourist: Does this tram stop at the main train station?
Dresdner: Noa...
Tourist: ???

4. The charming canals of Amsterdam have no railings, which I find to be somewhat counterproductive in a city known for nightlife and drug use.

5. The prostitutes do NOT think it's funny when you try to take a picture of them in their booths. I saw a British chap find that out first hand.

6. Spanish tourists are loud and energetic and travel in herds of at least 20.

7. The Communism Museum in Prague is very interesting, but ironically located between a McDonalds and a casino. The times they are a-changin'....

8. Czech is a difficult language and the only phrase we managed to master was, "příští zastavit" which means "Next stop". Not overly useful, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

9. Crossing a street in Amsterdam is like crossing five. Bike path, car lane, tram, tram, car lane, bike path. it's possible to have to stop in between these on a little island in the middle of the street while you wait for the next light. Terrifying.

10. Amsterdam is expensive. Prague is cheap!

That'll do it for now I think. Mach's gut!

Seit Langem Nicht Gesehen! (Long Time No See)

Guten tag. It's been quite a while since I've written on my blog and I've been getting a steady amount of requests so I guess it's time. Things in Germany have been moving right along these past two months. I had a nice visit over Christmas break from my brother Jared. We spent the first few days just messing around here in Münster and doing a bit of this and that. After celebrating my roommate Hendrik's Birthday, we hopped a train and headed for Bavaria. There we spent about 5 nights at a youth hostel in Munich and checked out Salzburg for a day. After Munich, we spent about 3 days in Nuremburg. All in all, the excursion was a lot of fun and we certainly saw a lot.

We came back to Münster just in time to take part in a HUGE New Year's Party. The theme was "Dress as your drink" and we saw lots of interesting costumes. Here in Germany, it's tradition to shoot off fireworks on New Year's and there sure was a lot of that going on. After New Year's, Jared and I spent a few days recovering and then he took off for Italy! Check his blog to see interesting pictures and read about his adventures.

January = Traveling and guests. I had about 5 days to recover from my Bavarian adventures and holiday madness before I was back on the road. I headed to Cologne with Patrick to meet up with my friend David and check out the town. I've actually been there several times before, but David wanted to check it out and it's only and hour from me. Very cool city and it was definitely a great weekend.

I was home for a total of 12 hours before I headed to Coesfeld to get on a bus and head for... Berlin! I finally made it there. It's an amazing city. The whole place is smeared with a bizarre mix of old buildings, recent history, restoration, a vibrant alternative scene, politics and everything that composes modern German life. I went to participate in a seminar with some of the twelfth graders. It was a two-day role-play game for a model United Nations. I really enjoyed that and ironically enough my role in the game was "Representative of Arabian Governments".

After I returned from Berlin, it was time for Jared to swing back through Germany and pick up his stuff. We had a nice good-bye dinner with the roomies and I think that everyone was a little sad to see him go. Shortly after Jared was gone, my friend Tim came out for about 4 days on his way to Spain. Tim and I actually studied in Spain together when I was there in 2005. We messed around in Münster all weekend and definitely had a nice relaxed time.

February has mostly consisted of working and trying to get back to something resembling a routine. It's been nice to be a bit stationary for a while and I've just been hanging out with friends and experiencing Münsteraner life more in depth. Soon I'll be hitting the road again though. A trip has been planned with Patrick to check out Prague and Dresden (Columbus' sister city) over spring break. This weekend I'm catching a train up to Hamburg to visit Lisa. Lisa was an exchange student at my high school and we've stayed in good contact ever since. More on all that later.

Aside from all that hustle and bustle, life has been quite enjoyable as of late. Just trying to make new friends and hang out with the ones I already have. I feel more at home here everyday and things seem less and less foreign all the time. It’s a strange but exciting feeling. My German capabilities have come along well, if I do say so myself. It’s kind of thrilling to speak in a foreign language without too much effort.


It’s been a LONG time since I’ve added a list.

The German Language – A Short Fact List

1. German is spoken by over 100 million people in Europe alone and has more native speakers than any other western European language.

2. German is an official language in seven countries. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Belgium, Luxemburg and Namibia. It’s also recognized as a regional language in France and Italy.

3. German is closely related to a number of other European languages, such as Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Afrikaans, Dutch and English.

4. Germans are one of the few peoples who deliberately change their accents to emulate a standardized form of their language. This accent is called Hochdeutsch (High German) and it originates from the region around Hanover.

5. Germans love to use foreign words, especially from English! For example “Ich gehe nach dem Meeting auf eine After Work Party. “ (After the meeting, I’m going to an after work party.)

6. German was nearly an official language of the United States. It lost to English when the constitution was drafted by only one vote.

7. German has an amazing amount of dialects for such a centralized language. Some dialects, such as Bavarian, Swabian and the Swiss variations are so radically different that some consider them to be separate languages.

8. Nearly all German nouns have a gender assigned to them. This means that they are either feminine, masculine or neutral. The difference in genders plays an important role in how the words are used grammatically.

9. German is the sixth most widely used language in the Internet.

10. Germans perpetuate a strong tradition of learning other languages. English is obligatory and at least one other foreign language is usually learned as well.

Jared and I on New Year's.


My roommate Hendrik and Patrick.

Jared learning about old things.

Karaoke on New Year's.

Brandenburg Gate at night.


That's it for now. I'll try to do better at keeping up in the future. Tschüß!

Letting the days go by...

Hallo! It's been a while since I've written here, so I hope you haven't lost interest. :-) Germany goes really well at the moment. Doing the teaching thing and generally living it up. Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) is in full swing so there's lots to do in the old part of town at the moment and everything is quite festively decorated. Around the apartment we have been doing advent's calenders which has also been a lot of fun.

The recent theme at work seems to be Wandertag. Wandertag is a day in which the class sets out to do something fun. The first one I was on went for a bike ride to a near by town called Lippe where we played soccer and bowled. My 9th graders ran circles around me on the field but it was definitely a good time. Tomorrow I'm heading to Cologne with the 11th graders to check out the Kölner Dom and the art of Gerhard Richter. Should be a good time.

We also recently celebrated my roommate Katrin's birthday at our place and had some people over. There was a lot of music and dancing and my roommates even drank enough courage to speak in English with me, which they all did very well.

Speaking of speaking English, my dear brother Jared will be coming from the other side of the world on Monday to visit me in Germany for the Holiday season! We're going to spend the first few days messing around here in Münster and the heading off to Bavaria and Austria to enjoy some mountains and snow. After which there will be a New Year's party here and the he's off to Italy all by is foreign lonesome self to eat spaghetti and drink espresso. More on all that later!

A group pic of the apartment from the party.


I guess that's about it for now. Bis bald!

Deutschland goes Spooooky!

Happy Belated Halloween from Germany! Turns out that Halloween is quite the trend here nowadays, so there was quite a bit of celebrating to do. My roomies had never carved pumpkins before, so I figured there was no time like the present. Hendrik and Crissi and I went to the big market and looked for some pumpkins. We didn't find much there but we did end up coming up with some good ones from a local store. We carved them on the Monday before Halloween and they held out till Friday. They all did a really good job and it was definitely a lot of fun.

On Halloween we went to a party. The people who live there had decorated their basement quite spookily and we all really enjoyed it. There was quite a bit of music and dancing and definitely a bunch of good costumes. I was impressed! It was nice that we all went out in a big group and everyone had a great time.

I made my radio debut last Tuesday. Two of my roommates work at the local campus radio station and they kindly invited me to come in and speak about Halloween. I, of course, also carved a pumpkin throughout the hour long show. My dad got a chance to listen in through the live stream online and I even had the chance to greet him on air. (from over 4,000 miles away!) Next week there will be an article in the Coesfeld newspaper about me. By the time I get back to the states, I'll be a celebrity...

We acquired two more roommates. Luckily these don't require the bathroom or refrigerator space. They're names are Clarence and Mr. Brown, two baby box turtles that Carsten got from his girlfriend's mother who seems to have a little turtle farm. They're really cool, even though they don't do much and what they do do is always done very, very slowly.

And now some pictures.

Four of the five roomies carving their first pumpkins in our kitchen. Hendrik, Cristina, Carsten and Katrin. (Left to right)


This is about half way through. (Carsten and Crissi)


The punpkins! I think they looked pretty good and my roomies were very proud of themselves.

Group photo before we headed to the party.


Our newest roomie Hendrik and myself at the Halloween party.



Katrin and Hannah! Katrin was an Italian widow and Hannah was her husband who "passed away". What a gold digger.


Katrin and myself at the party yet again.


A German delicacy.


It's been a while since I've published a list so here goes.

10 reasons to come to Germany

1. Open air markets on Saturday morning.
2. To acquire a new respect for cleanliness and organization.
3. Ocean, Hills, Mountains. In a descending southward order.
4. Driving your car as fast as it will go.
5. To learn about recycling.
6. Bread and Beer!
7. It's full of Germans!
8. A history that predates the written word.
9. I live here.
10. More kinds of sweets, candies and chocolates than you can imagine.

That's it for now. Bis bald!

Schön!

Hi all. Hope everything is going well across the pond or where ever in the world you may be. Things here in Germany are going pretty well. Just doing the school thing and taking care of business. I've started teaching classes now which has been a lot of fun. The kids seem pretty interested and I'm doing a variety of topics in many different classes. At the moment we're learning about the American Dream in my 12th year class. It's harder to teach than I thought it would be because it is so varied and changes from generation to generation. Definitely encouraged me to form some new ideas about immigrants in America.

A room in my apartment was renovated last week and we now have a 6th roommate. It's a little crowded but we're rarely all in the apartment at the same time so it seems to work. The newbie is Hendrik and he's just as interested in languages as I am which makes from some good nerdy linguist conversation.

I'm trying to find a class at the university that I can take in the evening which will fit my schedule. Also thinking about working part time as a tutor to make some extra money on the side. Last Sunday was beautiful so I decided to jump on my bike and get lots of pictures of Münster. Here are just a few. Hope you guys enjoy them and I'll be writing again soon.

This is my school in Coesfeld. There are about 800 students so it's pretty big.



This is where I live. My room is the one on the fourth floor, single window, opened slightly at the top. Can you see me?


This is the Promenade, also known as the Bicycle-Autobahn. It circles around the old part of the city and you usually have right of way on it so it's a great way to get around the town. Very pretty in the Fall.


This is Lake Aa. (Yes, just two A's. Pronounced like the A in "Amen") It's not really big enough to be called a lake but a little too big to be called a pond, so I guess they aimed high. It runs pretty far into the city and is a great place for running, cycling, strolling and BBQing.


This is the University. It's in a big palace that some sort of royalty used to own. I think it looks pretty cool and believe it or not they have buckeye trees in front of it! (not pictured) Behind it there's a botanical garden and a restaurant.


Call me childish but I think this is really funny.


This is the Stadtturm and Prinzipalmarkt (City Tower and Prinzipal Market) They're pretty much in the middle of the city. Very old and medieval looking.