Alemania

Photo me and my ghetto ryanair boarding pass....

14 Noviembre 2007, Miercoles

So today, we went to Germany. In order to get there, I took a bus to Santa Justa, an hour long train ride to Jerez, a three hour flight to Frankfurt, a bus to Dreiech, and then a car ride home. “Home” for the next three days is a house in Dreiech, home to Yulia, Natalia’s childhood best friend from Latvia. Coming here, we both did not know what to expect, Natalia not seeing her friend for 9 years, and me just along for the ride. I still remember the conversation (it feels long ago but it really wasn’t) of planning our trip.

Natalia: “Hey, Stella, wanna go to Germany?”

Me: “…..OK! Why not?”

As a result of the lack of planning, the whole trip has felt surreal, especially since my parents only left a few days ago, and then it was like, oh yeah, we’re going to Germany.

The other amazing thing about this trip is the cost. It’s actually a good story so bear with me. Originally, we bought tickets for London, but then Natalia found out that the UK hates Latvians and we couldn’t go. We had to pay 50 euro each to change direction of our flight, and we only had a few choices, since Ryanair doesn’t fly to that many airports. After booking our flights to Frankfurt, we got an email saying that the flight time had been changed and if we wanted, we could refund our money. We did, and got all of the money back, even the 50 euro change fee. Then, we booked a different set of tickets to Frankfurt, but here’s the magical part. The tickets were supposed to be 74 euro each, but there was some sort of glitch in the system or something, and it turned out to be 74 euro….for the two of us. So basically my flight from Spain to Germany was 37 euro….or 50 dollars! Obviously we didn’t question anything, but were a little nervous the whole time because it was so unbelievably sketchy, but hey, it worked ‘cuz I’m in Germany.

At the airport in Jerez, there was free boarding so everyone was like an uncultured throng of wildebeasts or something, everyone pushing towards the door, little grandmas getting left behind. The whole Ryanair experience is one I would not recommend (even though, hey im not complaining! My tix were cheapppp) as they were selling us stuff the whole time. Hearing German over the intercom on the plane was interesting as well. We decided to emerge ourselves in Russian popsa and watched Goloboi Ogonyok, the New Year’s concert of Russian pop that’s held every year, since Natasha bought a DVD in Marbella, so we spent the whole our flight jamming to Kirkorov y prochi. Approaching Frankfurt, we looked outside and realized Dios Mio! We aren’t in Spain anymore…SNOW!!! (that’s when I briefly thought to myself that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, which was quickly replaced with excitement) As we walked outside, it was freezing and felt like a completely different world from Sevilla. (maybe it was all of the dich..eich…ausgangen..ausfahrt…you get the idea)

The first person we met in Germany was Russian, the nice, young gentlemen who led us to the bus. I asked him if there were a lot of Russians and he said. *something like* “zdes na huy Russkih” (there are a fuckload). (hmmm)We met Natalia’s friend at the station after the bus ride of about an hour jamming to German faves like Hilary Duff, Alanis Morissette, and other older American pop. Natalia’s friend, Yulia, moved to Germany when she was 12, and goes to European Business School (it’s undergrad). She was very nice, and she and Natalia started catching up on 9 year’s worth of lost time while I enjoyed the scenery, and the stack of Russian CD’s in the backseat of her Mercedes. When we got to her house, we realized her parents were on a business trip to Sri Lanka, and we, three Russian girls, had the house to ourselves, and what a house! It’s small by American standards, but large by European. The decoration is all modern and extremely tasteful. As Yulia told us the plan for the next few days while making up Natalia’s and mine lovenest (ohhh yeah, once again we’re sleeping together, she’s snoring right next to me as I write this) we squealed in delight.

15 Noviembre 2007, Jueves

Photo, Bulls and Bears in front of the German stock exchange in Frankfurt

The next day, we woke up and attempted to find the metro station to get into the center of Frankfurt. We found a small bakery (bakeroi or something) and ordered in Spanglish, with the lady answering us in German. We learned the most important words one must know thanks to Mary, who I frantically messaged the night before asking for guidance….

Danke…thanks, Bitte, please and you’re welcome, Wo ist de toilette….where is the toilet

It was freeeeeeezing compared to Sevilla, but as we got on the metro and made it into Frankfurt, I realized it was well worth the pain. Frankfurt is Germany’s financial capital, and most cosmopolitan city. It surpasses all European cities in terms of GDP and skyscrapers. Since the city was virtually demolished during WWII, it’s very posh and new. The touch of old German style small streets and cottages still exists downtown in a small touristy block.

But of course we did not care too much about churches and monuments, although we did see the stock exchange…we went shopping. We walked through the central part of Frankfurt and went in to buy chocolates at a department store. (as souvenirs for friends and family of course). For lunch, we wanted something really German, so we went into this small German restaurant, which thank goodness, had exquisite pictures of all of the menu items. Apple wine is very typical to Frankfurt (thanks Wikipedia!) so we ordered some, although it came in mineral water and tasted pretty gross. Natalia had frankfurters, sauerkraut and potatoes, while I had meat and spatzle, a kind of noodles. It was really delicious.

Photo...it was really cold...

After lunch, we continued wandering around until Yulia met us, and took us home. We rested and hung out until dinnertime. For dinner, we drove to a nearby village, a true German village, with the little white and brown cottages and cobblestone streets, complete with castle and moat, although it was dark and freezing so I couldn’t pay too much attention to the beauty. The restaurant we went to was all for locals, AKA if you don’t speak German you’re screwed. It was so warm and cozy, with cute little curtains in the window, traditional German pitchers, and lots of very traditional food.We tried different kinds of German beer which was delicious and tasted nothing like anything I have tried in America. I had chicken in an apple sauce with spatzle for dinner, while Natalia had schnitzel. My dining options are fairly limited here as mostly everything is some sort of pork. After dinner we came home, which is really starting to feel like home I must confess, and caught up on Russian popsa and talked.

16 Noviembre 2007, Viernes

Queda un mes hasta el regreso. And I cannot believe it, it just blows my mind to think about going back to Northwestern. This morning we woke up and went grocery shopping, as we planned on making dinner at home tonight. We watched a bit of Harry Potter and Shrek in Russian, which was hilarious, before heading out to do tourist Frankfurt. Wherever we travel, there seem to be transportation strikes, and Germany is no exception. We were hoping to visit Heidelberg, a small village nearby but alas, as I read on the front page of New York Times, Germany’s workers were striking for a pay raise, similar to Paris.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately because once again, it was FREEZING) Frankfurt doesn’t do much in terms of tourism. We went to the top of a tall mall to get the city view of Frankfurt, which was gorgeous because of the blend of new, with extremely tall skyscrapers, and old Germany. Then we walked to this little German village town hall and church part which was the only place in Franfurt we encountered touristy shops. It started to snow right around here and I remember dreaming about hot apple cider while walking to a river and quickly snapping some photos. Natalia and I hadn’t eaten lunch so we settled into a table at a nearby hip coffee place to warm up with hot chocolate and a wrap for lunch. Afterwards we walked and saw the opera house before heading back to Dreiech. We stopped by their Sam’s Club or maybe Wal-Mart to buy some beer and apfelwein (apple wine) to have during dinner.

Dinner was amazing. I have missed cooking greatly, and got to indulge in planning a new dish in my mind. I would like to call it “Señora meets Mozzarella” because it was a mix of tomatoes and mozzarella, with tuna (thunfish) and corn, like my Senora makes. Hopefully picture is provided because it was quite beautiful. We put on a cooking playlist and jammed while making Tortilla Española and some chicken in tomato dish that I invented (quite delicious). We tried a few different kinds of beer which were absolutely amazing…one was a grapefruit beer (more like juice) which was my favorite, even though I don’t like beer, or grapefruit.

We were absolutely STUFFED after dinner, and watched some Russian comedy show called “Nasha Russia” (it’s hilarious) before I literally fell asleep in front of the TV. After my nap, we decided to call it quits and go to bed, but I was quite awake so I watched another movie called “Pitr FM,” which I really enjoyed.

17 Noviembre 2007, Sabado

After sleeping in, we woke up to find the strike was over, so we could go to Heidelberg! Yulia wrote everything quite clearly for us and took us to the train station, where we boarded and headed through the countryside to a small town (actually it was a lot bigger than I expected) and tourist haven called Heidelberg. When we got there, we headed for tourist information to tell us how to get to the castle, which is quite famous here. After taking the bus to “Castle Station” we took the funicular up to the castle which is a 5 centuries old dilapidated heap of bricks, which used to be beautiful, but now is an impressive former castle. The gardens were supposed to be the “8^th wonder of the ancient world” (like every other monument it seems) but of course, were quite dead seeing as how it was, once again, FREEZING.

The one amazing thing was the view……which was just incredible. The autumn colored the leaves of all of the trees on the hills surrounding the castle beautiful varying shades of green, yellow, red, orange, and every other color in between. We looked down to see beautiful bridges over the river running through the middle of town, which looked like a beautiful little village which cottages, medieval buildings, and of course, old churches. I must have started at the beautiful view in front of my eyes with disbelief at what I was seeing (I think I was in denial the whole time because I couldn’t believe I was actually in Germany, if you, dear reader, haven’t noticed yet). This of course didn’t last long because it was so cold, so we headed on to the next sight.

We took the funicular down to the village of Heidelberg and headed to the main sight, an old street with beautiful buildings, a church from the 1300s and one of the best (in terms of beauty) pedestrian shopping zones in Europe. We went inside a café for lunch, a more modern place since we didn’t want to have another heavy meal. On the TV was “Date My Mom,” the most stupid show MTV could possibly think of, and we told the people around us to please not judge America by this atrocity. Unfortunately, they could not understand us, as nobody in that entire place, not even the waitresses, spoke English. Of course, our order got screwed up because of the language barrier, and we ended up getting free hot chocolate, but less food.

We continued onwards, wandering in and out of cute little shops, and huge clothes shops. We just enjoyed the general hustle and bustle of the street, everyone dressed warmly and going in and out of the shops, carrying purchases and sometimes eating hot pretzels. Before leaving, we bought some apfelsomething (some sort of applestrudel) in a small bakery, and had to resort to fingerpointing as a means of communication. It was amazing.

We took the train back to Dreiech, where Yulia picked us up. We went back to her house, feeling more at home than ever, and prepared dinner. As I really wanted to try a frankfurter or bratwurst or something, and the kind sold in the streets is all pork, Yulia bought a special beef kind which we devoured for dinner. It was so nice to cook and just be at home…somewhat of a backwards luxury if you think about it.

And then we were off! We went to the young and hip part of Frankfurt to meet some of Yulia´s friends. They showed us this statue of a spitting Frau that is famous for drenching tourists. Luckily, she didn´t spit on us. Then, after meeting Fabian, Farima, and Moritz, we went to Sam´s Sports Bar ( you guessed it, an American place). It was interesting to hear them speak German amongst themselves, and Natalia and I rebuttled by speaking Spanish hehe. There, I began to have a conversation which mesmorized me for the next three hours, which I thought passed by in a matter of minutes. I talked to Farima, a 21 year old student studying to be a teacher of biology and religion. She was your typical blond, blue-eyed German but spoke English fairly well, and was very open with her opinions. The whole time (between drinks) we talked history and politics, and asked her openly something I have been wondering for years: How is World War II taught in Germany? How is the Holocaust taught?

And she responded that the Germans learn about the Holocaust and how massive of a tragedy it was from a very early age, and every year onwards. She told me that she, like many (not just Germans, but people around the world) struggle with the question of would she, if put in the place of her grandparent’s have helped Jews? Of course the answer is yes, but when one is talking about protecting their own family, like she told me her grandmother wanted to help, but had 5 children to care for, which one daughter had to be given away to her mother because she couldn’t feed all of the mouths. Or her grandfather who did some sort of work with documents who says he never saw anything, but Farima is sure he did (she said this with a grimace on her face). She spoke of the horrors of what American soldiers did to Germans after the war… “You know, they thought they could just go into any home, see a tall blue-eyed German and rape her. This happened to my grandmother, she was raped by an American soldier.” She also told me that German youth are plagued by foreigners placing guilt on them for something they didn’t do, “I am not responsible for the actions of my grandfather.” She said.

I openly told her I was Jewish, to which she didn’t even flinch, I think that before coming to Germany I had many, many reservations. On one hand, I knew it was foolish to be wary of something that happened so long ago in a climate so unlike today’s, however, I couldn’t help feeling that older German people I passed on the street lived through Hitler, and what exactly did they do during the war? Generations of my ancestors lived and prospered in Germany, the whole reform movement took place there, I should regard it as a place of history, and not just one of unbelievable tragedy. However, I just could not shake that nasty feeling, until I talked to Farima.

German youth (according to her) are equated by foreigners to Nazis, that is, being German means you are a Nazi. For them, there is no such thing as patriotism, for that is considered Nazism. She told me she has never seen the German flag displayed publicly, and didn’t even know the national anthem. The youth are so plagued by the country’s history, that they shy away from any form of recognition, for that might signal a repetition to the world, which they do not want. She shrugged off the neo-Nazi movement as something stupid that there is in every country, just more dangerous in Germany because of its historical implications. She told me that of course there are stupid people who believe in the purity of Germany and not letting foreigners in, but that is a tiny minority, and the rest of the people are just as open minded as she is. (now imagine that this conversation is taking place in a bar/restaurant while “Promiscuous Girl” is playing in the background”. She told me that the reason she wanted to be a teacher (especially history for this reason) was to teach children about truth and love, and help them seek it in an environment where they are told other things.

Another topic we talked about was (please do not roll your eyes, gentle reader) feminism, and women’s place in German society. Hey America…with your 9 week maternity leave…in Germany, women (and men for that matter) get 3 months paid leave, plus (and this is the killer) 3 YEARS of job security. That means mama banker can leave to raise little Heimlich (with the help of father Hans, of course) and go back to her top level job in three years. Of course, as Farima pointed out, there aren’t that many people in high positions in business, however in politics there are, like Bush’s friend, German’s minister Angela Merkel. It was amazing that she could point out so many contradictions in American foreign policy that I was vaguely aware of, yet I (and we talked about this too) an American, knew very little of international relations. It made me ashamed for American youth, and aware that I need to change my ways a bit.

We talked more and more politics, me entranced to hear all she had to say. The whole time I kept thinking to myself, “Damn Stella, you are in Germany, discussing World War II with a German peer, how amazing…” And it was. The time flew by, and even though the rest of the table was somewhat amused at such a serious topic at an all Justin Timberlake music playing place, I was in my happy world of international awareness and discussion on ideology. (one thing I really respected that Farima said was that I asked her if she ever wanted to come visit the US, and she said “not while the death penalty still is in place. I will never visit a country with the death penalty.”) It was a night I will never forget, and I looked at Germany in a completely different light afterwards.

On a side note, we had this amazing drink called a Touchdown, followed by grapefruit beer (amazing as well) and shots called B-52s (ironic). We also saw the score of NU’s loss to Illinois, which was quite funny, being all the way in Frankfurt.

18 Noviembre 2007, Domingo

Today I woke up and bid aufwiedersein to a country I had come to appreciate. The people were all very nice, and I found the culture friendly and warm (even though the weather wasn’t so nice). Living with Yulia was also a great experience in itself. Though I thoroughly love living with my Spanish family, I realized that I missed living with girls on my own a bit. The other amazing thing was speaking Russian the whole time, I’ve never had the opportunity to just hang out with Russian girls, or maybe it was the fact that Yulia didn’t speak English, but we spoke Russian the entire time. The other nice thing was catching up on Fabrika Zvezd (Russian pop show) with a person who I had just met, but had similar opinions with, regarding a TV show that was not from either of our newly adopted cultures.

Yulia dropped us off at the bus station, and we said good-bye (and an effusive thank you from me because I was so appreciative of her kindness). There we began our journey. Hour bus ride to the airport (where we ran into a squad of American teenage cheerleaders…weird), three hours on the plane, taxi to train station, and hour and some train to Sevilla, not to mention my bus ride home. Even though the journey was long and far away, it was most definitely worth it, and a trip that taught me things I will only truly appreciate in the future.

As I approached my casa, I heard the beautiful strains of baby giggles coming from my door and I remembered that Senora’s granddaughter, Claudia, had come to visit. I came in to find my Spanish family cooing over the (now walking) toddler who has the face of an angel. As I settled in to dinner, I recounted my tales of snow and schnitzel to Inma, as she prepared Claudia’s dinner. I was amazed to see her prepare a puree of boiled potatoes, carrots, olive oil, and fish in a blender. When I told her in the US people buy canned food, she wrinkled her nose in disgust and disbelief. I wandered back up to my room and unpacked my many souvenirs, and I went to sleep, dreaming of all of my wonderful adventures.