Die Luft!

I'm loosing my culture! So as discussed in my last post, the US does have a culture, but I'm loosing mine! Neiiiin!

Well not really, but the other day I used the word "holiday" instead of "vacation." I know what you're thinking, 'you're in Germany, not England Kristina." Yes, yes very true, but most people in Europe learn British English and my constant attempts to be understood (in my own language to people who also speak my own language, cue the identity crisis) by people who speak English as a second language I just take on some weird British pseudo-English phrases. However the other day when I inappropriately used "holiday" I was talking to a native English speaker who would have also understood vacation! Ahh! Side note: fanny means something completely different in England which makes the silly bag more commonly known as a 'fanny pack' hilarious to most British people.

Besides English I've also started opening my windows when I wake up in the morning and when I get home after school. This sounds harmless, but when I first got to Germany two years ago I used to think Germans were nuts for doing this. See there's this thing called Luft (air in English) and its a really prickly matter. Germans have this idea that Luft can go bad and you should keep a nice circulation of the Luft. This results in classrooms having their windows opened in freezing weather for longer than 20 minutes typically before and after every class! Or opening up their apartment windows when there's snow outside. Cold! Very cold! I used to think it was totally crazy because who in their right mind wants to open the window when its 30 degrees outside?? No one! It's cold out there, that's why I'm wearing a jacket, a scarf, and a hat! BRRR. But alas I'm turning into what I hate, a proponent of the Luft. Maybe it's because I thought it was a little stuffy or because I feel like I have to keep the apartment smelling fresh, I don't know! I can't explain it, but when I woke up this morning I opened my window for 15 minutes to get some fresh air in...?

AAAAAmerica

I thought it might be fun to talk about American stereotypes abroad annnnd my newfound love for Thanksgiving. Let's begin!

So many Americans travel abroad and gain a great new sense of their own American-ness. I, like many before me, used to believe that the US didn't have much of a culture. I hated that our country was so young (History major here), specifically that we didn't have beautiful castes, cool old timey culture costumes, a history of warring between neighboring countries (arguable), and lovely stylish old houses made from real stone. Basically shopping malls and movie theaters weren't doing it for me in the culture department and it probably didn't help I grew up in Silverdale, where there is almost nothing to do when you're 14 that doesn't involve hiking or wandering around in nature. The US also constantly appropriates European culture like we belong to it, stylizing our fairy tails around mystical European forests and castles. None of this is necessarily bad, but as I was growing up I felt like the US was a cultural vacuum. And surprise surprise (to no one) when I traveled to Europe and realized, yeah people here are really different from us. I began to feel more American than ever before and it was all of the little things that really brought this out.

For example, when...
--My 16 year old host sister had her 16 year old boyfriend spend the night and it was totally okay and normal for everyone but me.
--Germans were silent for what seemed like a long time after I told a story which made me think they thought I was stupid and the story was horrible, but really they were giving a respectful amount of time to show they were listening.
--Germans were really into recycling everything in its own special place which results in a garbage can for compost, plastic packaging, paper, glass/plastic, and if there's anything left, the garbage.
--I made a fool of myself using the informal you to everyone.
--I thought that two brown slices of lovely German bread wasn't enough but all the Germans claimed to be stuffed.
--The fancy Berliner Philharmoniker concert hall sold pretzels at intermission like it was something more than baseball food.
--Children aged 6 could use the city busses better than me.
--People started putting up Easter branches and handing out really nice presents for a holiday I rarely celebrate.
--Speaking of Easter, how everyone gets 4 days off for that holiday I never celebrate.
--Germans got NAKED in public like it was no big deal. (I'm talking city parks)
--12 year olds were getting drunk in public on the U bahn.

The list goes on and on.

The point is, every time I see something different in Germany I can reflect on how American I actually am. Americans are always agreeing or positively asserting their friend while telling a story through an occasional "yeah" "uh hun" "definitely" "interesting" ect. Also we have almost zero pretension when it comes to speaking to strangers, there isn't even a formal "you" in English. We eat tons of food. We're horribly prudish when it comes to sex and alcohol. We tend to baby our children and we unless we live in a city where it is possible to use public transportation, we all drive cars. While it may seem boring, to non-Americans it can be a bit weird.

There are also a ton of American stereotypes floating around Europe that I'd thought I'd share since some of them aren't actually that bad! Yay!

The Good 

--Positive attitudes (maybe to the point of over confidence). This one is typically associated with a "get'er done" attitude (hopefully with less redneck) where we just assume everything will be okay and blinding head forward. This is probably my favorite American stereotype because a Spanish guy once told me that I had such a sunny outlook because I guess I was acting friendly and pretending like I would find a home in Berlin even though there was NO HOPE EVER. This also might stand out in a big contrast with Germans who's stereotype is to be negative and critical (sorry Germans, I don't really believe that! Well I don't believe it for everyone). We also have this business culture where people are over confident and accomplish big tasks.

--Overly thankful. Someone said this to me once and I had no idea what they meant. Americans, thankful? What does that even mean? Apparently there's a stereotype that Americans tend to be hyper gracious and over thank people for simple tasks like holding a door open or giving directions. I would say this is an exaggeration if I wasn't such a good example of someone who totally does this to everyone.

--Lacking pretension. As me and my German friend were sitting on a curb in Ankara drinking a bottle of beer instead of going into the bar because beer is cheaper when you buy it outside, he said to me "I really appreciate that Americans I've met have so little pretension." He definitely meant it as a compliment and I'd like to think of this as a positive quality because when was the last time you met someone who thought they were better than you and went "Wow I'd love to spend more time with that person"? Never.

--Friendly. Our smiles while walking down the street combined with our tendency to ask everyone how their day is makes us the friendliest people you'll ever meet (minus Canadians). We're known to be super friendly to strangers immediately and refer to even random acquaintances as our friends. Some Europeans claim this makes us false, but I'd like to counter that what is the definition of friendly? Kind, amicable, helpful, supportive. What's so wrong with being amicable to strangers? Nothing at all. My mom doesn't chat with old ladies at Costco about their eye seeing dog because she's trying to lure this old woman into a false sense of friendship for the rest of her life--my mom's doing it because she genuinely wants to know more about eye seeing dogs and because we live in the US, she can!

The Bad

--LOUD. Americans tend to speak at a louder volume than other people. WE JUST WANT TO BE HEARD!!! When I first came home from Turkey last year I felt like everyone was always talking over me and yelling. I am totally a culprit of this when I'm in the US and actually since I was young people have said I'm always being too loud. That being said, while in public spaces in Europe people tend to be a bit quieter. People don't speak at full volume on the U bahn so it becomes a bit obvious you're foreign when you're talking about GOING OUT TO THAT BAR BECAUSE YOU HEARD IT HAS THE BEST ABSENCE SHOTS AND LAST NIGHT WAS TOTALLY CRAZY. JOHN BARFED ON A WAITER HA HA HA. As all the Germans in the compartment of the U bahn are shooting you passive aggressive "be silent" looks. (Side note: so many Germans speak English you should really never assume they don't understand you)

--Obnoxious/Annoying. Going right along with this loud thing, Americans have the horrible reputation for being obnoxiously overconfident and annoying. Personal example: A friend came to Berlin and he brought his friend with him to hang out with me. I was excited to have Americans over until we drank a bit more and his friend turned out to be the obnoxious and annoying American. He actually told my German friend that because he spoke English he could "basically speak German" ughhhhh. Another American guy I met loves to make generalizations about how American doesn't have racism or totally accepts its immigrants... what? Then another American I met in Georgia last year went on to complain about how Georgian people are "ignorant" because they sell plucked chickens near their vegetables and were all super religious. Racism?? Generalizations?? There is always one American you met abroad who's trying to prove how awesome and alternative and knowledgeable they are. These people tend to be the obnoxious people you'll ever meet. One time an American guy in Denmark actually asked me how I got to this house party we were both at because I couldn't possibly have been invited since I didn't speak Danish like he did. Barf.

The Ugly

--Lots of talk, not much content. This is the most painful stereotype because I run into it all the time. I think something about American educational system makes us feel overconfident to share our opinion which means many Americans fall into the trap of talking a lot to prove a point without actually saying anything. While I'd argue being too afraid of your opinion to share it is equally as horrible, that doesn't usually make you look like an ignorant, generalizing, idiot. People often feel compelled to share "what the US is really like" with horrible generalizations usually making the US seem like a magical fairy tale land of equality and hand holding. That or we (yes, myself included, sadface) tend to talk up in class when we don't fully know the context of the subject therefore saying something that makes us look like silly people. I don't know why I find this so cringeworthy, but I think it has to do with being one of two Americans in a classroom and when someone speaks up and says something like "I'm not racist, I'm from the US" you just want to shrink into a tiny little ball because suddenly everyone in the class thinks all Americans are idiots.

Alright I'm done bitching about Americans. I actually to shine so positive light on meeting Americans, I met the most wonderful American guy on Thursday who cook the most wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and made me fall in love with Thanksgiving again. Jake and I had planned on going to Korean food on Thanksgiving with friends because since we couldn't cook thanksgiving I thought we could at least have the Getma family together. Jake invited his American friend who's in Berlin for a month to join us. His friend, Mat, not only said he was already halfway through cooking an apple pie from scratch, but invited us to join him. In the middle of the day on Thursday another friend, Jamie, joined us as well. We showed up at Mat's door as the "orphaned Americans" and started to make food. I had totally underestimated Mat. He had made an apple pie from scratch, cranberry sauce, 5 huge cooked turkey breasts (because you can't find a whole Turkey very easily in Germany) with chicken breasts layered on top of them, made salad with homemade dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy from scratch. Did I mention he had no original intention of inviting anyone other than his three roommates? He'd made enough food for ten people! Jake made a green bean casserole and Jamie made a date and goat cheese salad. I made some glühwein (hot mulled wine), which is my expertise now. It was so lovely to hang out in the kitchen and cook together. We spent like 3 hours cooking in the kitchen and then sat down with Mat's three roommates.

Maybe because I haven't been home for Thanksgiving in six years now, I've lost some respect for the holiday. It doesn't feel that special anymore, but this year for some reason, maybe being away from home and surrounded by people who were also nostalgic for their family, I really loved it. In a way I think Thanksgiving is the best representation of America ever--its lots of food, lots of happiness, and we can be over thankful for everything. I really love it.

((Pictures will come later, I left my camera at Mat's house))

It's aaaaaaaaaaliiiiiiiiiive!!!!

What an appropriate title the day after Halloween, which I've always found horribly underrepresented in Europe! Look at the morals we teach our American kids! Be creative and dress up and we'll give lots of candy! I think its a celebration of creativity!

So anyways now that I've lost my original following of people reading this blog (if any existed in the first place) I've decided to resurrect my blog because I should be documenting my life in BERLIN!! I've broken this post into a few different pieces to summarize the past two months here.

The Magical Arrival in Berlin

For those who don't know, when I returned from my study abroad in Berlin in 2010 I had pretty much decided to move to Berlin as soon as I graduated from Whittier. I was obsessed with anything German/Berlin related. So now you can imagine how exciting it was to return to Berlin after two years... pretty monumental, orchestra's playing to my walk down the street, beer flowing freely from fountains, and friendly Germans everywhere asking me to live with them for less than 200 euros. 

Flash back to reality.

Actually reality wasn't so different from that. I arrived in Berlin dead tired with two enormous bags and somehow made it to Sibel's house in Kreuzberg where Sibel and Caro were waiting for me. Dearest Sibel graciously let me stay with her until I found a place and Caro was hanging out in Berlin looking at apartments as well. As soon as arrived we had about an hour of chatting about the summer then Sibel announced we were going to go out with some of her friends! Party on the first night! Of all places we went to a Mexican restaurant which was probably some of the best Mexican food I've ever had abroad. Best being relative in this case, its still nothing like real Mexican food. Anyways we hung out with Sibel's friends from the south of Germany. During dinner I had a real moment when I realized I'm really going to have to commit to this German speaking thing. Ha, so yeah I've been trying and its actually really nice to speak German and feel semi competent in a language. 

Here's a photo of the mini GetMa reunion in Berlin on my first night back.

                                                 It's me, Sibel, Caro, and Martina

The Urban Nomadic Lifestyle: Living on People's Couches in Berlin

After a week at Sibel's I got an offer to stay at a friend's of a friends for the month of September. I decided to take the offer because finding an apartment in Berlin can (and IS) a horrible trial of you hopes and dreams. I lived for a month in this really nice place with really great people. There were three other girls and one guy, all German, who were also all students. It was really nice to live with them, but unfortunately at the same time I had to continue looking for another apartment for the rest of my time in Berlin. For the month of November I got lucky because old friend from two years ago let me watch her house while she was in Maliasia for two weeks. 

Germany, along with many European countries, have these online websites where students or other people put up ads for rooms in their apartments, you email them about yourself, then if they like the sound of you they email you back, you meet them in the apartment mostly so you can both see if you like each other. After this process they either call or email (or if they're assholes, don't speak to you again) to let you know if you can live there or not. I did this process FOURTEEN TIMES!!! FOURTEEN TIMES! FOURTEEN TIMES I traveled around Berlin, met someone new, pretended to be cool, hung out, made small talk, tried to seem fun, listened to their personal stories and then was rejected. Hooooorrrrriiible. The whole process was extremely depressing. Finally about a week ago this nice guy Marwan said I move in with him! Hooray! Actually today around 8pm I move into my new place! Hooray! I have a home in Berlin! Tonight I'll get keys to real place that I can really sleep in! Yay! But yeah this entire time I've been in Berlin I've been living out of suitcases, sleeping on the couches, floors, and beds of friends, and basically nomadically traveling around the city. Let me tell you, I have some great friends.

Dult: Where all German Stereotypes Come True

When I was in Germany in 2010 I traveled around Europe, but didn't really do any inter German travel, something I plan on fixing during this year in Berlin. I've been to Leipzig and Dresden and Berlin. That's it. So when Sibel said she was going to visit her boyfriend in Regensberg in the south of Germany, Bayern (AKA Bavaria) to be exact, I decided to join.

There's so much Bayern hate in Berlin because Bayern is seen as super conservative, super Catholic and super wealthily. Perhaps best summarized as the anti-Berlin. There are also a lot of people from Bayern in Berlin and Berliners (probably half correctly) blame these Bayern people for the raising prices in Berlin. Bayern is basically the Texas of Germany. Bayern is really proud of its unique history and cultural traits and, just like Texas, Bayern also tried to succeed from Germany at one point. It also has some of the only real national pride in the whole of Germany (WWII really squashed that. Flying a German flag here has multiple meanings) But Bayern has enough pride for all of Germany. Wilfried Scharnagl, a real current politician, just released a book this September called Bayern Kann Es Auch Allein, roughly translating to Bayern can also go alone. 

That being said, ALL, or almost all, American stereotypes of Germany come from Bayern. Perhaps this is because it was part of the American sector of Germany after WWII or because they're such great stereotypes. 

Dirndls: 

Think dirndls, lederhosen, silly hats, beautiful villages on lakes, and of course maß (of liters) of beer!

Lederhosen:   

Silly hats: 

Beautiful scenery:

Maß of beer:

Naturally I didn't want to miss a chance to see this great part of Germany. It also helped we'd get to drive down in a car and stay at Sibel's boyfriend's dorm which made the whole trip extremely cheap.

This particular weekend in September in Regensberg also happened to be Dult, the volksfest of the town. Now volksfest are these great historic peasant celebrations all over the south of Germany which are basically town fairs based on wine, beer, and carnival rides. The most famous volksfest would be the Octoberfest in Münich. Yeah, super great. 

Five of us in one car drove the five hours from Berlin to Regensberg and immediately got ready and went to Dult. I was seriously tempted to buy a dirndl, but they're ridiculously expensive (I mean check out this website, C&A Dirndls 80 euros is cheap!). Unfortunately I didn't get one but I did braid my hair and wear a dress, I tried! Sibel, on the other hand, was raised in Bayern and had a great purple dirndl and her boyfriend Kerem bought some lederhosen online. So amazing. What was really great is that it was almost like Halloween because it was totally acceptable to wear these volksfest clothes on the bus, metro, and just walking around.

Here's Sibel and Kerem in their outfits on the bus

So we got to Dult and walked around the fair area and had some weiß wurst (white hot dogs) and then headed toward the beer tent. Whatever I was expecting, it wasn't an enormous tent FULL of drunk Germans dressed in dirndls and lederhosen singing all the words to horrible 80's songs. EVERY DREAM COME TRUE. Seriously though, not having a dirndl on made me stand out. It was so great. The tent was full of long tables and every bench was full with people standing on the benches singing and drinking. Seriously, so great. There was even this like 16 year old German guy near us with his entire family (mom, dad, grandpa, grandma) getting drunk as a family in traditional German dirndls and lederhosen singing to the music.

Our Maßes of Bier

                                     Jake, Me, Caro, and Goksu with our Brezels and Bier!

We had two maßes and then decided to go out dancing. This might be the weirdest part of the night because we went to a club to keep dancing and literally 2/3rds of the people at the club were still wearing their dirndls and lederhosen. So crazy! In a public place! I wish I had some photos of that because it was so funny that even in "normal" place the volksfest clothes were still acceptable. 

Regensberg itself is actually a really cool old city in a way Berlin just can't be. Regensberg began as a Roman city and early on it gained independence from the Catholic Church for economic reasons. It had all the beautiful little roads and a beautiful old church. Jake actually spent his study abroad year in Regensberg so he knew all about the city. Even cooler perhaps is that in WWII Jake's grandpa was in Regensberg and helped rebuild the bridge we're standing on in the photos below.

Cro: Speaking to the Heart of Teenage Germans Everywhere

And last but not least, it wouldn't be a real post from me if I didn't leave you with some music. Here's Cro, my new favorite German singer/rapper. I really like his music videos and silly lyrics that I can understand a lot of if I pay close attention. I don't care if he's angsty and immature, he's so catchy and helping me learn German!

Here's my favorites:

Am Ende

So I hope this was a successful up to date post of my life here. There's still so much more to say about German bureaucracy, the fun of GetMa, my month long German language course, and of course about simply being back in Berlin after two years. So I'm sure there'll be much more to come... if anyone reads this any more. Bis später!