Die Zufreidenheit mit Berlin

                                                             B   E   R  L   I   N  !

Like so many of my experiences, I cannot tell you every detail of Berlin, it would take more patience then I have to write this blog and more then you have an attention span to read all the way through it. So I will use my usual fall back of lists and pictures! Note: the lists are in no particular order, I have issues ranking things

                                                                Top 5 meals in Berlin

1) Curry at a Vietnamese restaurant, possibly the best curry I have ever had, this is really saying a lot being from Seattle (which as we know has great Vietnamese food).

2) Dolores Burritos- Dolores= Patty when she was hungry, so we had to go eat lunch one day at this delicious and cheap chipotle look-a-like, Naturlisch!

Patty meets Dolores!

3) A Russian Restaurant- Very delicious, warm food on a particularly cold day. 

4) Currywurst on the streets- no pictures, but think of a bratwurst cut up, sprinkled with curry powder and a savory sauce, yum!

5) Hops and Barley- So this wasn't a restaurant, but a hidden gem of a local brewery.

                                              Top 5 Museums (yes I did go to more then 5)

1) Jewish museum- An overview of the history of the Jewish population in Europe throughout history and their role in society, a vast museum that was very well organized and had much more content in it then I expected it to have. 

2) Technical museum- Everything you would want to know about how technology has changed over the past 200 years, from logomotive, wind, hydroelectric and electronic technology!

3) Natural history  museum- lions, tigers and dinosaurs? Oh my, animals in jars!

4) Neues museum- This houses the Nefertiti bust and many other ancient Egyptian treasures besides the rest of the exhibits (can you tell what was my favorite?).

A lunar calender and a hat, so multi-purpose

5) Musical instrument museum- unfortunately we could take no pictures in this particular museum, but it was filled with ancient and modern instruments of the most unusual kind. There was a Stradivarius violin, the break down of the inside of a piano, huge organs and a combination violin/trumpet/tamborine.

Still smiling after, wait, how many museums?

                                                         Top 5 Sights in Berlin

1) Berlin Wall- Needs no explaination.

Touching the wall in the street

2) Cupola- Unfortunately we couldn't walk around because it was frozen (makes sense when it was below zero every day) but it was still cool to be in the parliament building.  

3) Brandenburg- A must see, so beautiful!

4) Checkpoint Charlie- The famous crossing point between East and West Berlin, had to get my passport stamped.

5) Ritter sport store- Here you could make your own chocolate, drink melted chocolate, or simply buy a lot of chocolate! Guess who did all of that...

Leslie hugs the bear in a chocolate stupor

Do I have enough chocolate?

                                           Top 3 things I could only do in Berlin

1)  Family- I had the great opportunity to meet my relatives Bernard and Gisela Lindenbein who live in Berlin. They graciously invited me over for coffee, cake and a huge serving of family history all topped off with practice in speaking German, truly one of my best afternoons in Berlin.

2) Berlin philharmonic- Standing room seats bought the night of to see one of the top symphonies in the world...what a night! They could've played John Cage's 4'33'' and I would've still been in awe.

Dreams do come true

Who's ready for the symphony??

Time for the down beat

3) Berlin Film Festival- We were lucky enough to be in Berlin for the opening weekend of the Berlin Film Festival. I managed to see a film entitled" Aujourd'hui" about a Senegalese man experiencing the last day of his life in his home city of Dakar after living abroad in the US. It was an amazing mix of my two experiences this year, anyone who has been to Senegal should try to find this movie either online or at their video stores, it is very moving.

The reader board that updates which movies are still available

When will the doors open?

 

Who's ready to watch a movie at 9:30am?

This trip was an amazing blur of museums, long bus rides, late nights and so much more. Here are some extra photos of the people who joined me in this crazy endeavor, it wouldn't have been the same without them!

Kaja, Me, Patty, Andriy

Julian, Andriy, Leslie, Jeremy, Me, Harry, Patty and Blaine

Team Awesome after another successful day in Berlin

Too many to name, IES Three Day Tour 2012

Eating in Prague, Chillin' in Dresden, Surveying in Leipzig

Our intensive three week study of the German language was celebrated with a trip to Germany! A large portion of our program (I would say about 40, but don't quote me on that) said good bye to Vienna in the early morning of saturday February 4th and boarded a bus headed to Germany. Now our trip consisted of two parts, we stayed in Dresden for two days (a lunch stop in Prague) and then onto Leipzig for a quick afternoon tour and then back onto the bus for the final stay in Berlin!Accordingly, I have divided up the trip into two parts, here we go!

Day 1. this was spent on the bus, except for a wonderful lunch break in Prague (no big deal). We found a nice Czech restaurant and had a delicious meal of duck in a restaurant that looked like it had been around for a hundred years. After our stomachs were sufficiently full some of us decided to run up to this look out to snap some quick pictures of the city, thus making us slightly late to the bus (ah such was the theme for the week, not enough time to see everything and always running to make it back on time!) I will have to go back to Prague, it was absolutely stunning and the people were very friendly.

Travel Team Awesome!

Finally we made it to Dresden where we had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant after a long day of traveling. To re-cap my day by country, I had breakfast in Vienna, lunch in Prague and dinner in Dresden. My trip was off to a great start!












Day 2. Being a tourist means that no matter how late you were out the night before, the day starts early! We were off on a bus tour of Dresden where we occasionally would get out and check out the sights. The only hinderance was the extreme cold which prevented us getting a really good lay out of the city. the tour guide was very good (too bad I can't remember the cool information we learned, guess I will have to go back!) and ended the tour at "the most beautiful shop in the world". This was a cheese shop that was entirely covered in handmade tiles. It was gorgeous, but we were not allowed to take pictures in there, although we could take souvenir postcards!
 After the tour we had a break for lunch where we were all ushered into this basement restaurant that summed up every stereotype I had about German food. I can't describe how amazing it was, but these pictures say it all.

We toured our first museum, I believe it was the Dresden state art collection ( Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) which we couldn't see all the way through, but we got a good look at the Turkish section with our guide. our last day in Dresden was finished up with a warm cheap meal at a small local restaurant that reminded me of some chic places in Ballard (the mac n' cheese was only 4 euros and Patty and I had to admit defeat because it was soo cheesy!).
Dresden was a fun combination of living history and a vibrant, slightly underground modern life. Everything was a little grungy feeling, for example seeing a concert in an abandoned house, but the beer was excellent and the people were friendly despite the freezing weather. Would I go back to Dresden? Yes!

The new Leipzig

Day 3: Our trip was already off to a great start in Dresden and so we soldiered on to Leipzig. We only had a scant half a day in Leipzig but we made the most of it. As per usual we did a bus tour of the city (again, -10 degrees celcius is 14 degrees Farenheit so our planned walking tour would've left us as statues in Leipzig). We saw lots of monuments, important sites, opera houses etc.

We did have one stop on our tour for a "5 minute picture taking of this monument to soldiers (I think)" which, as you can see, is very large.

5 minutes...? No problem

Our tour guide told us that you can climb to the top of it and so we decided to run past the frozen over lake in front and up the monument. Naturally, we were late getting back to the bus, completely out of breath and I was coughing for the next hour from inhaling the sub-freezing air so quickly, extreme tourism!

A couple huffs and puffs later

Bach

We had lunch in a very up scale restaurant with a beautiful view of the city and afterwards us music nerds went to a music mecca; the church of Bach!!!

Love for Bach

After this we piled back into the bus and it was off to...(see next post to find out where!)

Oh what a night!

Oh yes, ball number one has happened, it was as elegant and gorgeous as I imagined! During our orientation weekend we had preliminary dance lessons which made all the girls giggly for a chance to wear fancy gowns and dance the night away with while all the guys started sweat because it was the first time dancing involved more work then swaying back and forth. As the night approached all conversations turned towards the ball, specifically, who would be able to actually pull off the Viennese Waltz (aside from Luke, who deserves a special shout out for giving us all extra dances lessons which we desperately needed).

 All of us Americans dressed up in our gowns and tuxes, hopped on subways, street cars or taxis and entered the Hofburg Palace with tickets clutched in our hands. Pictures were snapped in the grand staircase and we tried not to drool too much as we found our way to the main dance hall.

There were many rooms opened with different styles of dancing going on throughout the night (traditional, salsa, jazz, you name it and it was probably there).

Room mates! Gwen, Me, Jen and Susan

In the main room was where the opening ceremonies were held, which was with all the debutantes going out with their dates and doing a dance and other formalities (I couldn't see this part, should've worn taller heels). The bands/orchestras/dj's played their music all through the night until the ball ended at 5am!

A group of us stayed until the bitter end, delirious with fatigue and shoes in hands (My feet were sore for at least 3 days after, in fact I still feel that my toes have not recovered) we struggled home to bed for a few hours maybe before German class.

Our German professor took pity on us and held German class in a fancy cafe instead of sitting in a classroom. Thank goodness for that, I don't know if I could've handled real class after a night of dancing and people watching. Needless to say, the ball was almost as magical as a Cinderella fairytale!

After ball class in the cafe

Wir kommen aus Wien!

Now the second half of my insane year of travel has started and wow is it already going by quickly! I arrived at the airport in Vienna and was whisked off right away for a weekend of orientation in the town of Mariatzell. I was again over loaded with study abroad information but the most overwhelming aspect for me was the amount of Americans that I was with! In total there are 107 people in the IES spring program in Vienna. I quickly gave up the idea of meeting and getting to know everyone in the program and focused instead on learning how to "squeeze the juice" in Vienna.

Patty and I freezing in front of the summer palace

Ice skating in front of the Rathause

This is a phrase that one of our program directors uses about every other sentence, but he does have a point. While we are here we should take every opportunity to get up and do something, I mean, we only live once, right? It is a motto I am going to try to live every day by, which so far is just making me so exhausted that I am asleep on my way to hitting the pillow every night. The IES program is set up very differently from the SIT Senegal program, so I would first like to give a little explanation as to how my semester is planned out. We have three weeks where we only take one class (German intensive!) every day in the morning. This way beginners like myself can feel that we may be able to walk into a store and order something in German and MAYBE have the confidence to continue the conversation in German even when the Austrian has already taken pity on us and started speaking in English. Although I feel like I cannot cram much more German into my head, I love the fact that I already feel like I have a handle on the language and may actually enjoy learning more German (I may even take a German class next year...I know my Ege family will be happy to hear this). This period ends February 3rd (this Friday) and then we have a week long break before our actual semester classes start.
Once classes start it is similar to classes at a our home schools, however we are in Vienna so it is far more entertaining. For example, in German class we went to one of the famous Viennese coffee houses and had breakfast the day after a big ball that we all went to (please see the next blog post for full and complete details on this most elegant affair). Our classes take place in a Palace in the heart of the first district of Vienna. For those of you who have never been to Vienna, it is organized in districts which are arranged in a circle around the center.

Heurigen night

Mozart is everywhere

It is very easy to travel in between the districts, I live in the fifth district and all I have to do is take a street car (Strassenbahn for those of you who sprechen Deutsche) and I am in the middle of Vienna! For now I am trying to take advantage of everything I can in Vienna, get a grip on what the city has to offer and gear up for a semester of fun, travel and incredible experiences! Already I have been to Bratislava,

Happy Birthday Oma!

 next week I am going on an IES trip to Germany (Dresden and Berlin here I come! Oh and Prague for lunch) and I have trips booked to London and Brussells. My mind is reeling by how much my has changed this year, but I am just grateful that it is all working out and I will just deal with my shock of way too many cultures later! Right now it is time to "Squeeze the Juice" and enjoy what I have here! Next stop, Berlin!

Switzerland and the three C's; Cello, Cheese and Chocolate!

After 24 hours of traveling through five countries by plane (Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Portugal and Switzerland) and one missed flight I finally made it to Europe! 

My first starbucks sighting in almost 5 months

Culture shock has not quite set in too much, although the amount of traffic lights and lack of fruit stands on every corner is a little startling. However, the two weeks of Swiss retreat will have me right in no time! My re-introduction into first world living consists of 5 easy steps!
Step 1: Cello

When I entered my new room in my aunt's apartment I was greeted by an old friend...C-ello! This new cello was rented from a local luthier, whom I had the pleasure of meeting one saturday morning at his shop in Vevey (he showed us his current projects, restorations on instruments from the 1700s!). After months of being separated from my main instrument I now have a cello in my room! I can practice as much as I want, although I am limited by how much my fingers can handle (building callouses does take time, ouch!). As the days go by I grow increasingly nervous about my upcoming audition for my Vienna music program, but at least I have my companion back to comfort me. Plus, with a view like this to practice to, its easy to find the time to prepare. 
Step 2: Cheese

What, samples? Yes please!

What is the first thing you think of when you think of Switzerland? ( Discount the immediate man in lederhosen yodeling on top of the Alps that popped into your mind) That's right, Cheese! So sorry to those of you that don't have regular access to amazing cheese like this, but I think I'm in heaven. As soon as I arrived there was a cheese course before dessert. I think I have had cheese everyday since I have gotten here. On sunday I had the traditional Swiss meal of fondue for the first time this trip and I have had enough cheese to satisfy me for the rest of my European experience (ok, so not exactly true). I have already been in multiple shops where there are cases filled with just cheese! Gone are the days when I would savor Vache qui Rit (Laughing Cow) triangles. Not that there weren't other amazing foods to savor in Senegal, but lets get real, cheese is a staple in my diet. If my diet was a pie chart, the cheese portion would be the big 50% portion -Probably a half wheel of gruyere- If I could create a multi course meal with cheese in every part, I would (dessert you ask? Simple, CHEESECAKE!). Say Cheese!

Step 3: Chocolate

King cake

Ahh chocolate, another Swiss remedy, an integral part of readjustment. I am amazed by the number of bakeries and chocolateries around here. Honestly the theme from "Chocolate" plays in my head every time I walk past a slightly frosted window with a chocolate display (You know, the one with Johnny Depp and chocolate, a perfect combination). Not only that, but there are little wrapped chocolates scattered through my aunt's apartment. Hot tea, good music, a book and a mini chocolate...ahhhhh. Yes, culture shock is realllly rough.
Step 4: Wine

I need to fill you in on some of the details here. I am currently living in a small town called Cully, near the bigger city of Lausanne. Cully is a town comprised of vintners and acres of vineyards. My uncle, Pierre, owns several plots and makes his own wine (quite good, if I do say so myself). Morale of the story, wine is everywhere. Thank goodness I am 21 now, for those of you wondering at home (because I wouldn't be drinking any wine if I wasn't), because I can really appreciate an integral part of the culture here. Although I did enjoy the Flag beers and imported French wine in Senegal, nothing compares to locally made wine. People here give any excuse to go out and have a drink on any given night and that is usually after they have had several glasses already over the course of the day. This is not to say that this is a town of drunkards, it is a town of people who appreciate a nice glass of white with lunch and red with dinner. As they say here, pourquoi pas?

Step 5: Faire la Causette

The tenants of the apartment building raise a glass to the new year

My cousin Dorianne and I

Finally, village life. It is much easier to adjust to life in a small town then in a city. My friends who went directly back to the US after Senegal received shocks going into supermarkets and other megastores that the US is so famous for. For me, I went from walking around the streets in Senegal searching around for the one fruit stand among the 15 in the area around my apartment that had a grapefruit (think about how many starbucks there are in Seattle, now imagine that only one has a mocha frappucino, same difference) to walking the streets of Cully to the baker for bread and small grocery store for onions. The other benefit to village life is how everyone knows everyone. On my adventure to the bakery, the woman told me that I looked familiar and wanted to know who I was staying with and upon learning the last name of my uncle she nodded approvingly and helped me pick out a loaf of bread. Whenever I go out with my aunt, she is always running into some store or other to say hello to someone (I say running because she walks so fast I feel like she is running). I spent a cheerful friday evening with my aunt, uncle and their friends at a little pub while my uncle told stories about what the pub was like when he was young and exciting ( I think he told us about a drinking competition involving boot glasses, but sometimes my french fails me when there is too much ambient noise). The days here are often dotted with visits from friends and friendly conversations in the streets with friends that haven't been seen for a while. All of this is similar to the process in Burkina called "faire le tour" where you literally went around to everyone's house to say hi. I guess a village is a village, no matter where it is.

Glorious day at the market

My Swiss retreat Chez Gundi (that is my aunt's name) has been a success. I have to give a shout out to my aunt and uncle for housing me and listening to my attempts at cello playing for the past two weeks and general lazing around the house. All of the steps combined have invigorated new life into this Ballardite. I am ready for the next stage on my journey, Vienna!

A Burkinab(l)e Christmas!

Ah the Zavala's have landed in Burkina Faso and created quite a stir in a small town called Bagré! This is the small village community that Elena, my sister, has been living for the past three months. She lives in a small house, complete with latrine and hen coop.

Elena's new home!

Her direct neighbors are teachers at the high school that is nearby however  she has made connections with most families in the community and I am happy to report that she has fit into the community very well. Our time with her was spent seeing all of her friends and neighbors, drinking lots of sodas, eating lots of food and cleaning her house (verrry necessary during the dry season when dust coats everything no matter how much you try to get ride of it). This year was the first year that we did not spend with our extended family ( Zavala or Ege), which has its downsides, however it was by no means a quiet Christmas.

The day of we all got dressed up in our finest and headed out to church.
Elena has been going to a Protestant church just about every sunday and so we decided to accompany her this time. Usually a girl from the village by the church comes by to pick her up, but with impatient American parents we opted not to wait for her and head over (just in case it started without us). After a quick bike ride (A friend of Elena's found us bikes to borrow for the time we were there which is very lucky as you really cannot get around the area of Bagré without one) we arrived at the church. immediately we were ushered into the house of the minister where we sat in front of the TV and shook hands with everyone in the house as well as anyone who wanted to come in the room (which felt like the whole village).

We could hear noise coming from the church and soon after we were once again escorted outside and into the church. The noise had been coming from a small band (aka a VERY beat up drum set,several boxes that were sat upon and used as drums, a loud bass guitar and an electronic keyboard set to organ setting) and all the people in the church singing and dancing. The children were hopping around in the front while the adults were standing in place moving and singing to the music. We very quickly realized we were guests of honor as they placed us in the front, on the stage next to the ministers. One of them translated for me during the service, which ended up being very helpful. First off everyone sang and danced several songs and each of the choirs (yes there were muliple, but they were more groupings as in "female choir" "everyone choir" "young girls choir" "children's choir" " and "adult male choir") sang a song or two before the service started. The minister conducted his sermon in More (Elena, forgive my spelling), the local language and the translator very kindly translated everything into french. We were not the only visitors and so I don't think it was just for our benefit. The minister prowled around the stage like a proud lion instructing the pack on the joys of Jesus Christ. It was by far the most intense experience in a church I have every had. At the end they had us introduce ourselves and then we were presented with a gift from the church, in the hopes that we could forge a union between their church and our church in America (I neglected to tell them that we were not actually Protestant but Unitarian Universalist, whoops!) as it turns out it was not a chicken (contrary to our first guesses) but a large portion of handmade fabric, a very generous gift indeed. After the service we were ushered back into the house of the minister along with the other guests (ministers from the capitol city) to drink sodas and eat what I believe was chicken.

Elena, Me, her friend from Ivory Coast, another girl and my Mom

Then we went to the house of my sister's friend, a girl from the Ivory Coast who is 14 years old, where we had more sodas. She told us that her family had a chicken for us, but it had disappeared. As we were leaving the chicken as found and came home with us on the handlebars of Elena's bike.

Bringing home the bacon! Uh...chicken

Once we arrived home my dad passed out on the floor and my mom, sister and I decided to "faire le tour" aka go around to all the neighbor's houses and eat/drink ourselves silly. I think I ate more popcorn and meat then I have ever eaten in one day. After 3 or 4 houses (hard to remember) and several hours later we headed home and crashed. A more exciting and exhausting Christmas then I have ever had!

Elena eating popcorn after a long day

My trip to Burkina was a great experience, especially to see my sister at her new site and the community she has become apart of, not to mention understand why she never seems to have a moment to herself! The village may be small in size but it is big in personality and heart. As one woman said, "I want my spice!!!"