"Happy Easter" is Politically Correct. Right?!

Happy Easter everyone. It is Sunday March 31st 2013 and, in case you have randomly found your way to this page, I am Clark Newbold writing from Braunschweig Germany. On most Sundays, the majority of the stores would be closed, but on this Sunday it is a little different. I mentioned earlier that Easter is a much more important here in Germany that it is in the USA and this just goes to show it. Everything, and I mean everything (with a few exceptions) is closed; it will be the same tomorrow. Fortunately for me, there are a few places open so I do not have to starve in my Hotel room, for two days for which I am very thankful.

Because there are no life shattering changes going on at the moment, I can take a little time to give some advice and talk about some oddities I have noticed here. The hardest thing for me to get used to has actualy been ordering drinks in restaurants. I know, it sounds insignificant even to me, but it was more than a little irritating. Here in Germany there is no such thing as a free drink or "unlimited refills". You pay for everything (yes, even water) and you pay by the glass or by the bottle. It is very important that you pay attention to the size of the drink that you are ordering or (like me) you will be disappointing with this tiny little bottle of water. Another small note, sparkling water is much more popular here than it is in the states, so if you order a mineral water do not be surprised when it is bubbling. If you like beer, than Bavaria is the place to go. While  everyone is legaly required to sell at least one drink that costs less than beer, that does not mean the drink is the same size as the beer. While I was in Munich, beer was by far the most economic drink to purchase while eating out. To bad I don't like beer, not even German beer.

I would like to mention some possibilities that are open to those studying abroad. I highly recommend buying a portable DVD player and some DVDs once you arrive in Germany. The player can be a little expensive but most drives are set to function with a particular system and Germany's system is different than that in the USA. As such, you are required to change the settings on any US DVD player before it will work properly and even worse, you are only allowed to change this setting a maximum of 6 times. As for the DVDs, I suggest going to a second hand DVD/Music store. I purchased the first two Lord of the Rings (Der Herr Der Ringe), Shrek, Rush Hour, The Emperor's New Groove, and the first season of Friends for just under 25 euros. Just be aware that they will be talking very fast and it will be very frustrating. I suggest LOTR because they speak surprisingly slow and clearly in the German dubbing.

I am also going to take a moment to talk about the Amazon Kindle. I do so much advertising for their product that I really feel they should pay me, but what can you do? If you have never looked into a Kindle, I highly recommend it. In my opinion, it is by far the most superior eBook reader on the market. I do not want to devolve in a long discussion on the perks of the Kindle (of which there are many) but here is the shortest summary I can manage. If you want a mini computer, then you are looking for a Tablet and should search elsewhere. If you want a miniature library that can easily fit into your pack or purse, weighs less than 250 ounces, can buy new books from anywhere, has an amazingly long battery, is really cheap, hell it even...... sorry about that. The Kindle is nice alright. It also has a few incredibly useful but little known features.

Normally, the Kindle will only link up to the amazon site corresponding to the country it is purchased in, but it is possible to switch to a different country, say... Germany. This made it possible for me to find some of my favorite books in German providing very difficult but helpful learning material. It also has a built in dicitonary feature that is sooooo cool, I use it all the time to help learn new words and..... Sorry. you simply move the cursor before a word and it automatically searches the dictionary and displaces the results on the top or bottom of the page. It is also possible for you to change the default dictionary that the Kindle searches in. I purchased the Collins Concise German-English Dictionary at have not regretted the purchase at all. Now, when I read German, I simply move the cursor in-front of a word and it will show me the pronunciation and the English translation for the word!! One word of caution. This is by no means perfect, what with separable verbs, different dialects, diminutive forms of words, and flat out made up words, there is no way to recognize everything. I am glad that I brought mine, and if you love reading, I suggest you bring yours on your travels as well.

Here is another little oddity for you. They love eating cheese here almost as much as they like bread products, but you will very seldom see any cheddar or other yellow cheeses. It is difficult to even find some to by unless you go to a specialty cheese store. It never really occurred to me until I was eating at a Burger King here (one of the few places open for a few hours) and noticed the cheese on my burger was white. Weird huh? To account for all of this cheese I should probably go for a walk. In all seriousness, I try to go on daily walks to keep from going too stir crazy. While I am often only meet with marginal success, there are some very nice places to see here. It would only be better if Wyoming hadn't followed me to Europe. When I looked closer, there were indications that spring is on the way. I do not know when I will be able to post next so enjoy your Easter, and I will see you next time.

A Nice Change of Pace

Alright, so where to begin this time. I have survived both the intensive Goethe language course and the trip from Munich to Braunschweig and am now sitting in a hotel writing the blog. So I think that is about everything so good night.

Okay, maybe not, but that is the short version. The last week at the Institute was very exciting, interesting, and sad. The exciting part was that I had finished the first major step in my journey and was about to start on the next. The interesting part of the week revolved around our visit to the Deutsch Museum in Munich, which was just filled to the brim with cool stuff. We were there for over three hours and it turns out we only saw a very small portion of the Museum. There is a section on Music, Physics, Nautical Travel, Air Travel, Oil & Refining, Material Sciences, Nanotechnology, and I am sure there are several more I am either forgetting or never saw. I am trying to keep this blog short because there is a lot for me to cover but I needed to at least mention this. If you are ever in Munich and enjoy such experiences, set aside a day (or two) for this place. I just wish that I had time to go back before moving on. I hope that I will find a way.

As I said, there was also a sadder portion to the ending.  The sad part was leaving my new friends behind in order to move on. By the recommendation of the Study Abroad Office at the University of Wyoming, I brought several T-Shirts and some of my homemade jewelry to give to my friends in Germany; I am very glad that I did. Now there will be some UW shirts in Thailand, Switzerland, Ireland, and Canada. I also have my own shirt from Thailand. It was very satisfying to know that my friends will have something to remember me by in the years to come. I cannot endorse this experience enough. Yes, there were some very frustrating parts of this experience, it was completely worth the money. Not only did I get to really help develop my German before Braunschweig, but I got to make friends as well. Looking in the long term, this trip was a great move because it gave me the time I needed to pass over the different highs and lows I have been talking about. I cannot imagine how much worse it could have been if I had hit that three day low while I was taking classes only in German in a new country and city. Manageable but not fun at all. So, month long language course is defiantly receiving superior recommendations from all sources.

Now, all things considered, the trip north was very easy but here are a few tips to help make things better. As always, buy tickets and reservations early. No special anecdote to prove my point, but it takes some stress off of you and that is always good. This does however bring me to my last point I want to cover in this post. Be sure you know about the Holidays in the country you are visiting. Simple right? You also need to make sure you know how important the holiday is in that Country. I knew that they would celebrate Easter here but I had now clue how much they would celebrate it. If I had waited much longer, my tickets easily could have been twice the price. Not to mention the huge easter eggs that were strewn throughout the shopping mall in Braunschweig.

Now the Very last thing I am going to say is this. I cannot wait for spring to arrive. I left Munich in the above condition and arrived in Braunschweig in the condition below. I thought I could escape winter by leaving Wyoming, but boy the universe sure proved me wrong. That's all for today. Gute Nacht.

Some Witty Comment

The weather continues to be very strange indeed. We are almost finished with March and it is still snowing as I write this blog. This is not so strange for someone from Wyoming, but I am told that here, it is very odd weather this late in the season (sorry. no pictures). The worst part is that we were having such nice weather right until I went on the long awaited trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp. I would like to start by saying that making jokes and trying to laugh is how I deal with certain situations. I do not mean to upset anyone with any of (attempted) lighthearted banter.The unexpected weather turn, what would have been, a depressing but interesting place into a bleak, draining, and inhospitable place. Yeah, what was I expecting right, and I was just a tourist.

I do not have any pictures of the camp even though they were permitted. I simply forgot my camera after painstakingly assembling my pack and getting everything charged and ready. The trip with the Goethe Institute included a guided tour through the camp that was to be entirely in German. This would have been difficult on most days, but circumstances made it all but impossible to understand. Our guide, while a very nice and polite young woman, spook incredibly fast (even for a German) and with (what I am told) is a very heavy southern accent. When these two things combined with the numerous and varied vocabulary of our guide, it was able to understand maybe 2%. I mean, 2%!! Come on. I can usually get at least 3%. In retrospect, I am actually very glad that I did not have my camera and could not understand most of what was being said. The things that I read about were bad enough.

Now, I am not going to go into great detail about the camp and the things I learned  I don't think anybody wants that, and if you do, I recommend finding a way to visit yourself. I will say this. It was a very humbling experience to be that close to, what has to be, some of the darkest aspects of human nature. More than anything, that is what bothers me. Don't get me wrong, what happened there was sickening and terrifying by itself. What realy gets me is that not all the people involved started that way. Humans are incredibly adaptable creatures and it is very frightening what we can be adapted into.

Sorry that this post is so depressing. Life here is actually going very well. I am now going to pause for a minute, watch some Monty Python and Louis CK before I finish this.

Back again onto a slightly brighter topic. I have mentioned several times the hills and valleys you are supposed to experience while traveling abroad, and having just finished with the three week dip, I would like to share my perspective.  Each of the drops I have experienced so far have been very different. The three hour dip was similar to crashing after a long day of work. More than anything, I was just dead on my feet. The three day drop was much more difficult to handle. I felt like I was in over my head, that success was impossible, and I wanted nothing more than to go home to America. This time, it was not my emotions or my body that was effected so much as my brain. It felt similar to the burn out you get after a very long and difficult semester of study. There seems to be no motivation and no brain power. In short, my brain was full.

This should not have come as a suprise at all. I am spending 4 hours everyday in the classroom learning German and close to 4 more on my own studying German. The brain can only process so much. As a result, I participated in a great deal more English indulgences and studied less. I actually think that helped. After only three days of admiring the intelligence of goldfish, my brain had congealed to a semi solid mass and began racing. Not only that, it seemed that a it was working much better than it had before. More of the concepts were making sense and certain conjugations and structures were taking place automatically  Point being, it does get better. Das ist alles für heute.

Approaching Maximum Capacity

This time I need to start with a bit of an apology. I was wrong about Dachau. The trip is this weekend and not last weekend. On the plus side, there is no way that anyone following this blog can be more disappointed than I was when I realized the mistake. Oh well, it will still be there on Saturday.....I hope. This was a rather uneventful weekend for me. I didn't go out much because I was a little sick for a few days, but I got lots of studying in. I also purchased my train tickets to Braunschweig and reserved a Hotel room for the five days I need it. After that, I am hoping, it will be easy for me to move into the student housing that I will be living in for the next 4 months.

As a quick break from the regular program, if you look to your right you will see the famous Munich Micheal Jackson Memorial. This is a very impressive memorial that was started and is maintained by MJ fans here in Munich. Okay, so it's a picture of flowers. The were growing right at the base of the Memorial so technically they could be construed... never-mind  I found the flowers more interesting than the Memorial. Sorry MJ lovers.

Back to business. Now I have been told by several people that my emotions will go through some natural and predictable ups and downs during my time abroad. The first crash is three hours after arrival  once your body has lost the adrenaline. The next is roughly three days later, which I most certainly experienced. I bring this up only because I am starting to feel really burned out. It is more difficult to learn new material, I am forgetting familiar words, and my brain feels as though it will collapse under the weight of the endless stream of new words, verb conjugations, and noun declensions. This is making even simple interactions very frustrating and I am hoping that this is just the three week dip and that I will rebound over the weekend ready to tackle the last week and, finally, Braunschweig. Tension is high, moral is a little low, but hope remains. As always, feel free to leave comments and any questions you have. Tschüss

One Foot in front of the Other

So it has now officially been two weeks since I set foot in Germany and it seems like time is starting to speed up. I did not participate in as many trips and special events this week but it still seems an impossible amount has happened. First, the classes. While it is very nice to have a rather steady schedule to add a more comfortable rhythm to the days, the classes are still very difficult and helpful. I feel I have reviewed a lot of old material and learned even more over the past several days than ever before. There is no denying it though  sometimes the four hours of intensive German coursework becomes a little, well, intense. I am doing my best to study as much German as I can to prepare for my time at Braunschweig  but there is a point where the load of information reaches maximum capacity and my brain melts under the strain. I am then left with a dazed look in my eyes and drool slowly dripping from my mouth  while I am gibbering in fragmented sentences of both English and German. Fortunately (or unfortunately, it's hard to tell) it is not all German all the time.

I want to make a disclaimer here stating that I am trying very hard to immerse myself in as much of the German language and Culture as I can on a daily basis. That being said, it is difficult to do, and sometimes a considerable release. This is especial true when hanging out with friends. Everyone is in the same boat and the last thing they want to do is have liquefied brain matter dripping from their ears.... so English it is. It is remarkably difficult to keep everyone in German given that we are all on a variety of skill levels with the language. I think that this is a case where the good outweighs the bad. Slipping from German vs human contact... German vs human contact... hmm. On one hand, my language skills develop rapidly and strongly while on the other, I start putting faces on my belongings and having arguments with my backpack. That kind of relationship wan only end poorly anyway so I guess the German will just take a little longer.

The weather has been absolutely crazy this week, switching from a nice clear sky and warm weather to rolling banks of clouds and falling snow. A few times, it became completely confused and began to blizzard when there wasn't a cloud in the sky. And now for something completely different. It's Monty Pythons Flying Circus... or the BMW factory tour. That's pretty cool too I guess. All joking aside, this was a truly amazing experience. There are, unfortunately  no photographs documenting this as all photography was forbidden inside the plant. Oh and my camera died. That's fine, didn't want any pictures anyway.

Enough with the blatant lies. The factory was a truly awe inspiring display of skilled engineering and planning. I think I should start by mentioning that the entire factory was quiet. Quiet enough that we never needed hearing protection throughout the entire tour, and this was with large sheets of metal being cut, pressed, molded, and welded. There were a large number of automated robots performing a great deal of the work and it was mesmerizing to watch them work. I don't really know enough on the subject to give you more detailed information, and they probably don't want me to anyway. They also went to great lengths to recycle and minimize their impact on the earth as a whole as well as the local neighborhood. The used torrents of water to catch, filter, and reuse all unused paint particles when painting the cars. This same water is then used to help cool the rest of the factory and the nearby museum during the summer and fall. As for the nearby residence, the factory only runs during normal business hours and is shut down during the weekend. They use all of the down time to continually perform preventative maintenance to minimize problems. If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend this tour. That's all for now. Guten Tag

The First 5%

Alright, finally good internet service. Sorry nothing was posted sooner. I was planning to post every Friday and then the faulty internet kind of shut that idea down. I had to wait all weekend to use the internet in the Mediothek of the Goethe Institute. I also think that I will have to post more than just one a week because each week is like a short eternity. So much happens that it does seem possible for so little time to have passes. So here is the report on my first week in Germany.

Munich is a very beautiful city and was more than a little overwhelming at first. There are people everywhere all  the time and you can hardly turn down a street without seeing something of interest in the heart of the city. Old buildings, churches, towers, and apartments can be found everywhere without even really looking. Not to mention all of the amazing places there are to see here. If you are ever in Germany I highly recommend that you take at least a day to visit Munich and see at least a few of the wonderful things they have here. I have been relying heavily upon Rick Steve's Germany travel guide to find restaurants and all the great sights and fully support the use of this book in your travels.

Unfortunately, there are some major difficulties. After about 3 days I really began to crash emotionally. I was panicked about my German skills, about my time at Braunschweig, about graduating, about my girlfriend. If I could think of it, it was bothering me and I just wanted to crawl in a shell and have them ship me home. I then found out that this is actually a normal part of studying abroad. Everyone goes through an emotional ride with several peaks and valleys, and that's just the way that it is. Everything seems fine now and I am back to having a good time while working hard on learning german.

Now alot has happened this week so you will just have to bear with me on this post. Due to the requirements I am facing, this blog can not just be about what a great time I had and the places I have seen :). So here is some boring stuff. My time at the Goethe Institute has been incredible. The classes are very difficult but the teachers are also very supportive and want you to learn. I feel that my German is improving but it is really hard to tell when you are in the thick of things like this so I will keep you posted (heh heh, posted. get it? nevermind). The Institute has been wonderfully helpful in meeting people and going places. Several times a week they have different activities such as city tours, group dinners, concerts, and even trips to famous locations. Just yesterday I went with a large group to Schloss NeuSchwanstein (also known as the Fantasy Castle) and it was gorgeous. The weather was just perfect. It was a cloudy but it only rained while we were traveling on the bus so no umbrellas required. The country was green and vibrate and you could see for miles from where the Castle was perched halfway up the mountainside. This is an experience that I plan on remembering on a rainy (read miserable) day. Next weekend, the Institute is taken a trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp. That should be very interesting but I think I will have to spend some time laughing afterwards.

To everyone at home or following this blog. Leave any questions you have for me in the comments and I will try to answer them next time. Places I've been, food I've eaten, odd changes from US to Germany, how many times i've been chased by the police.... you know, whatever you want. Tell next time, Guten Tag.

Internet faliure

I was going to post this weekend but the internet connection here is horrendous. I will try to find another way and post soon.

Arrival

Well, here I am in Munich Germany. Hurray! Now this blog should get a little more interesting for anyone reading for fun. It was by far the longest trip I have ever been on. A total of 14 hours of flying time and an apparent shift of 22 hours (thanks to the eight hour time change). It was rough but defiantly not too difficult. I flew via Icelandair from Denver Colorado to Reykavik Iceland and then from Reykavik to Munich. I would highly recommend to anyone looking to travel to abroad. They cover a very wide range of countries across the globe, the panes were all punctual and comfortable, and most importantly (to me as a student anyway) they are incredibly cheap. When I was first doing research to estimate the cost of traveling to and from Germany, the cost averaged out around $1,500 one way. With Icelandair, it cost me $440 to get here and will only cost $900 to go home during the tourist session. While this was a wonderful deal, this is not everything that you need in order to get to the main part of the City.

The methods needed change depending upon where you are arriving and where you are staying (and possibly when). I am currently staying at the Hotel Royal which is a very nice Hotel that is located only a few blocks away from the Central Train Station in Munich. The extra steps that were involved in my case were to get to the Central Station, orient myself, and haul my over-packed self to the right building. While I was jumping into a mess, I did what planning I could. The best advice that I can possible give comes in two parts. First, get a good travel guide for where you will be going. I was, am, and will continue to use Rick Steves' Germany 2013. His book covers all of the most popular cities in Germany but does not catch the smaller ones; but if he covers the city you are interested in it is well worth the money. It is with this book that I found my hotel, knew (roughly) what I needed to do to get there from the airport, and how I picked my first meal in Germany. So get a travel guide. Second, once you know where you will be staying, go to google maps and search for the address of the hotel. Now here is the cool part, you can use google maps to get a street view of the address and do a virtual walk around of the local area. By virtually walking your route (train station to hotel for me) several times, it is second nature and familiar when you arrive  Just one less thing to make you panic

On to the fun part (for me anyway). Instead of just crashing like I so desperatly wanted to I took the advice of an experienced traveler. I walked around for several hours to keep me awake until I could comite to the new time zone. Munich is an incredibly beautiful town with both ancient designs and new architecture side by side. There will be plenty more pictures to come. I eat at a very nice beer garden called Park Cafe, got a feel for the town and the people, made note of some places to return to, and generaly burned away all of my energy. Here I am finishing the post so that you know I survived the ordeal and am ready for more.