Gwen Studies Broads

Phew, I've been busy! Last time I updated it was John Wayne's Birthday, which I celebrated as always. I had a couple of friends over and we watched The Alamo and Blood on the River Fargo which I had never seen before. I couldn't believe it; usually I have to bludgeon people over the head (or ply them with alcohol) to get them to see even the first half of The Alamo, but the people who I watched it with gladly sat through the whole thing! And then! We realized we could watch it in about five different languages with even more choices of language for subtitles, so we watched it again! It was totally awesome. We rented the dvds at the local video store, where we must have been the ultimate in cliche American college students: renting Westerns. I can't imagine they're really popular in Germany, but who knows. Oh, and I can't believe that it took me this long to think of it, but I've decided that next year for John Wayne's birthday, I'm going to serve -wait for it- pie ALAMOde. I know y'all wanna come!

In other news, tonight I'm going into Hamburg to see a play based on Goethe's (which is pronounced Goo-ta, apparently) Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers (or the Sorrows of Young Werther). It should be fun. Then this weekend, I'm going with a bunch of people down to Heidelberg, which is in Southern Germany, so I can, among other things, buy a dirndl. (This site has some good examples of them if you're not familiar with my current obsession: www.oldworldvillage.net/hei_ladies.html) They don't really have them where I am because it's Northern Germany, but I was told that they're all over Southern Germany so I should be all set. There are also lots of castles and Medieval buildings and museums and such. The other nice thing about this weekend it's Pentecost on Monday, and Germans love their holidays, so there's no school (and therefore a three day weekend).

Hooray!

Posted by Gwen! David at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I sent an e-mail to the Hildesheim people asking if there were tours, and if so, when they were, and they replied back with:

Dear Gwen,
We are sorry: due to renovations, the interior of St. Michael's Church will not be open for viewing until November 2006.

It is possible to visit the cathedral (UNESCO world heritage) or St. Andrews, St., market square, old wooden houses.

Kind regards
tourist information Hildesheim

Gabriele Klimek

Damn!

Thursday was Ascension Day, and everything was closed and we didn't have school, so a lot of people from my program went to Lübeck, which is where the marzipan factory and museum are (check it out at www.marzipan.com). Except they were all going there to go to bars (which apparently are open on Ascension Day. Oh, it's also Father's Day in Germany that day) not to go to the marzipan factory. I thought that it would be fun to go with everybody on the train, and then go to the marzipan factory myelf, but I wasn't sure if they'd be open, so I sent them an e-mail. They replied with:

Dear Sir/Madam,

no we are not open on Thursday 25 May.

With kindest regards

Linda Roie
J.G. Niederegger GmbH & Co. KG
Zeißstraße 1 - 7, D - 23560 Luebeck

Foiled again!

I ended up staying in town and met up with a bunch of people for lunch. We climbed up the water tower and then looked inside a couple of churches. The churches here are from around the fourteenth century, so they're really beautiful, and really old. One of the nice things about Lüneburg is that it wasn't bombed during The War, so there's all this really nice medieval architecture hanging around.

The only problem with Lüneburg is that everything (except bars of course) closes around six or eight o'clock, which kind of sucks. The bus system here is amazing though. In Boston, you go to a bus stop and they have a schedule posted (sometimes) with what time the bus leaves the first station, the time it gets to a station in the middle of the route, and the time it reaches its destination. If you're not at one of those places, you have to guesstimate what time the bus is going to show up. However, it doesn't really matter what time the schedule says the bus is going to show up, since they really don't follow the schedule at all. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has waited for the 39 (a pretty major bus route) for forty-five minutes on a weekday around five pm, only to have three busses come at once. But not in Lüneburg! The Germans are so efficient that they have at each bus stop what time the bus is coming to *that* bus stop. And! It shows up *exactly* on time. The schedule says the bus is coming at 12:52? It's there at exactly 12:52 and not a minute before (or even after!). It's amazing. Boston should really take some notes.

The other big news is that today is John Wayne's Birthday!

Please celebrate accordingly.

Oh, and these pictures were taken by one of the students in my program. Check 'em out!

http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j137/ktwtennis7/

Posted by Gwen! David at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Whew, it 's been a while since I've updated! A lot has happened since I got here. After a bit of a housing debacle (which I can tell you about if you're really interested) I ended up with a little studio apartment about a fifteen minute walk from the center of town (which is about a ten minute bus ride to school). It comes with a bed, a desk, some chairs, a little table, a wardrobe, and lots of bookshelves. I also have my own little kitchen which has a stovetop, as well as a sink and a refridgerator. It's not the best place in the world, but I've never really had my own apartment before, so it's very exciting to me. If it were in the Back Bay in Boston, it would rent for nine-hundred dollars a month, so I'm not really too upset about it. The best thing about the apartment is that a five minute walk from it is what appears to be an old synagogue which is now, I kid you not, a Chinese restaurant. No, I swear! It looks like a synagogue and has stained glass windows and a giant Jewish star on it, except there's now a sign on it with the name of a Chinese restaurant! I think it's called China Garden or something like that. I totally want to go there. I wonder if it's kosher or not.....

Omigod, and guess what I found out is nearby?!? Hildesheim! You know, the church with the doors that I made a replica of out of Swedish Fish? I'm hopefully going there on Sunday! Man, what with seeing the Island of the Grande Jatte AND the Hildesheim Doors, this may just be the best Summer ever.

Right now I'm in the middle of trying to figure out the two weeks I have off between when I finish the program here, and when I have to be back in Paris to fly back to New York on the 15th of July. I have lots of different places I could go, but I think my itinerary is going to look something like this: There's a trip to Berlin through my program that I'm going on which ends on the 29th of June. SO, I'll hang out in Berlin until the 2nd of July, then I'll go down to Frankfurt, where the Eels are playing a concert and I would really like to see them, since I'll be missing their New York and Boston tours this Summer since I'll be here, and I missed their tour last Summer as well. I'll hang out in Frankfurt until the fifth of July, then I'll hop on over to Amsterdam until the 10th, where I hear they have some pretty neat comic book stores. Then I'll go back to Paris for a few days, including the 14th of July which is Bastille Day! It's supposed to be a lot of fun. On the 15th, I fly back to the states. Whew, it's a lot of travelling, but I think I can handle it.

I started my classes yesterday, and they're going pretty well. I'm taking German, Comparitive Public History (which from the description made it seem as if it had something to do with museums) and German Culture. So far, in German I can ask you your name, where you're from, and how you are feeling (as well as answer all those questions back to you). AND I can conjugate basic verbs. Oh, and I can count to one-hundred. I wonder what useful things I'll learn how to say next?!?

Posted by Gwen! David at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have successfully made it to Germany! Can you believe it? A couple of slight snafus along the way though.... Yesterday I went to pick up my ticket for the train to Germany, and their machine couldn't read my credit card. I had already purchased the ticket several weeks ago, and was supposed to pick it up when I got to Paris. They told me that since they couldn't read the card, I had to buy a new ticket and whoops, it now cost €400. I got very upset, because if there's one thing I don't have it's €400 (though now I can type it what with these newfangled European keyboards!) and if there's another thing I don't have it's the ability to successfully communicate in French. They kept asking me, "Parlez vous un petite Francais?" which I took to mean, "You can't even speak a little French? You stupid American!" and I just kept running the words through my head that I knew. Dimanche. Gauche. Poussez (push). Tirez (pull). Nothing of use. Eventually they brought the manager over who unplugged all the little machines and then replugged them back in. It could finally read my card. I got my ticket and I was on my way!

But before I left, with the help of one of my art history professors, Joanne Lukitsh, I was able to find the Island of the Grande Jatte, aka, the island where Georges Seurat painted his famous painting, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte." I went and took about a million pictures and walked all around the island. I've decided that once all my loans from grad school are paid off (ha ha) and I'm independently wealthy (ha ha ha) I'm going to summer on that island. It has apartments on it and everything. It's a little bit far away from the city, but I wouldn't mind, because it's incredibly beautiful, and quite scenic.

After spending some time at the park I made my way to Gare du Norde, the train station in Paris, where I boarded my train to Hambürg. I had a cabin that I shared with this very nice German girl named Alexandra. We stayed up late talking and reading. We were going to watch "Ally McBeal" which she had on her laptop, but we fell asleep. It was just like a real slumber party!

I got off the train in Hambürg and got on the train to Lüneburg, which was only about twenty minutes. I met up with Wiebke, the German girl who the program set me up with as kind of a study buddy, and she showed me around town and the campus a bit. Later on we're going out to lunch and then I get to see my apartment. Hooray!

Right now I'm in the computer lab on campus. I definitely like the keyboards in Germany more than the ones in France. In France the letters were all over the place, but here it's almost exactly the same, except instead of QWERTY in QWERTZ. Oh, and look at all the letters I can type without having to press alt: ü ö ä ß

Those crazy Germans! What will they think of next?

Posted by Gwen! David at 11:10 AM | Permalink

They say that going to a foreign country is the best way to learn a language. While I certainly couldn't have a conversation, I'm learning all sorts of new words in French. "Dimanche" means Sunday. "Gauche" means left. Maybe tomorrow I'll figure out how to say "right" but I won't get my hopes up.

Yesterday I went to the Louvre; and it was absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe how many paintings that I've studied in school were there. Once the museum closed I left and took a nap in front of it. Oh, I also went to the Picasso Museum! That was a lot of fun too. They had this big exhibition on Dora Maar, who was Picasso's mistress/muse. There were also a whole bunch of photographs by Picasso which I had never seen before.

Today I climbed Sacre Coeur which is this big hill with a million steps and at the top is this really big church. Then I walked around Montmartre, met up with my friend Ilan, and now I'm going to have dinner with my friend Caitlin.

Au revoir!

Oh, and yesterday I had an almond croissant, and it was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

Posted by Gwen! David at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So far, Paris has been very exciting. The plane ride over was quite nice. I ended up having two seats to myself, so I was able to stretch out a little bit. When I got off the plane in Paris, I felt a safety pin sticking into my leg which had been attatched to the back of my skirt. I wasn't sure why it was there, so I took it out. I had a bit of trouble finding the bus I was supposed to take to my hostel, so I ended up taking three trains to get there, which wouldn't have been so bad, except I had two months worth of luggage with me, and the Paris Metro isn't exactly equipped for people with luggage, so there was a lot of schlepping up and down stairs! However, I learned that French Men love to help young women carry their bags up stairs, so it wasn't too bad. I kept getting strange looks, but I just assumed it was because I looked really silly with all my luggage and everything. When I got on the third train though, I felt the woman next to me tugging on my skirt and then she said something to me in French. I thought it was something like, "hey, I like your skirt" (it was the one with the little mice on it) but then I realized that several of the buttons on my skirt were open, and it has buttons all the way up the back, so everyone who I passed in the three hours it took me to get to that train saw my butt and the tops of my legs. No wonder everyone wanted to help me with my luggage! I guess that's what that safety pin was for...

I eventually got to my hostel and checked in. I'm staying in a room with five other girls from Spain who are all travelling together. I took four years of Spanish, but that was about six years ago, and what I do remember has proved fairly useless. They are all very nice though, and their English is significantly better than my Spanish, so we've talked a little.

I've come to the realization that my mutant power is the amazing ability to adapt to time changes. I've had no problems with jet lag at all. There's a six hour time difference, but for some reason, I'm just fine. I wish my mutant power was something more useful, like being able to speak and understand foreign languages, or at least to be able to type on foreign keyboards. Did you know that all the letters on the keyboards are in different places? It's taken me forever to make this update.

Saturday was my first full day in Paris. I started out walking around by my hostel which is in Montmartre, took the Metro over to the Tulerie Gardens, walked up the Champs Elysses, saw the Arc de Triomphe, went over to the Eiffel Tower, walked some more, went to the Rodin Museum, went to meet up with my friend Caitlin, had dinner and then went back to my hostel. Today I went to Notre Dame, saw the outside of St. Chapelle (I'll probably go see the inside later), walked around the Ile de Cite a bit more, found a comic book store, walked up to the Opera de Paris Garnier, took a nap on the steps, then went back to Caitlin's for dinner again.

And tomorrow, the Louvre!

Posted by Gwen! David at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)