...Restart!

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...Is anyone still reading this?

I see that I haven't updated since November, thereby breaking my self-imposed "2 posts a month" rule. Considering that January ends on Sunday, I probably won't make two posts this month, either. But we'll see.

I suppose I could blame several things for my absence from writing here. For one, I was on vacation in Florida for two weeks over the holidays and was only on the computer for a fraction of the amount of time that I am here. The vacation was very sorely needed after being abroad for an entire year, and I am very thankful to have had the chance to see and spend time with family and friends that I hadn't seen in so long.

I also really missed driving my car. That sounds silly, considering most people gripe about driving. Hell, I used to complain about driving from my apartment to campus at FSU, and it was like 12 minutes away. Well, over my 2 weeks in Florida, I drove over 1500 miles and spent time in Gainesville, Orlando, Jacksonville, Palatka (not for the scenery) and, of course, Sarasota. Listening to music and driving on the various Florida highways was a very surreal, yet familiar feeling for me and made me feel very relaxed.

There were a lot of weird little things about America that weren't "weird" for me until viewed through the lense of being in Deutschland for the past year. For example, my luggage was lost so I went to Wal-Mart on my first day back in Florida. While purchasing some staple items and necessities I couldn't help but notice how strange the other Wal-Mart shoppers seemed to me. I wondered, "Are these people an accurate cross-section of American citizens?"

Also, the weight issue. I can't believe how many people are unapologetically overweight or obese. While dining with some friends, I met someone who claimed to "never eat vegetables or anything green." I did not want to say what I was thinking, which was something along the lines of: "That is probably why you've got rolls of fat spilling forth from over your jeans." But, that would have been impolite to say to someone I had just met, so I kept my musings to myself.

Still, how troubling! Is the stereotype of the fat American more than just a stereotype? Well, probably. I don't know of any other country in the world where the people have the luxury of eating as much horrible food as they possibly can, combined with leading entirely stagnant, stationary lifestyles.

This sounds too negative, like I'm casting stones. Well, perhaps I am. But in all honesty, my trip home gave me a newfound appreciation for America. It is something that is difficult to place my finger on, and it may be nothing more than the overwhelming sense of familiarity that I had whilst speaking English to clerks at gas stations or ordering something off a menu at a restaurant. In any case, I felt myself quickly realizing that I should try to make it back stateside more often, and in 2010 I plan to do just that.

2010, weird. 2000 seems so... not a decade ago. Our perceptions of time can be strange, sometimes. I remember aspects of high school so vividly, but whole years between 2000 and 2010 seem to blur and run together. Bizarre. Oh well, I'm sure that I'm not the only one who feels this way. I do, however, notice a lot of differences in myself now as compared with the person I was at 18, 20, or 22.

On to other matters. I am a couple of weeks away from finishing the 1st of 4 semesters of my M.A. program here. While it has been a truly unbelievable experience thus far, I must admit that it is not what I expected. I guess the lessons I'm learning (aside from my studies about European fascist movements or Soviet prison camps) are that no matter where you go, people are just people. Most of us, including myself, have/had a sort of perception of Europe as being a kind of promised land, both exotic and mysterious. When the exotic land becomes home, and the mystery is toned down, one sees it for what it really is: just another place, except one hears many different languages and the social customs might be a little different.

That being said, I am not unhappy. In fact, I am happier these days than I have been in a long time. My goals for myself are becoming clearer by the day. I have been going to the gym regularly, and can already feel the results of that. I've been looking into doing a Praktikum ("internship") this summer, but I'm not sure in what field. I've got a long break between the end of my summer semester and the start of next winter semester (mid-July to early October, so almost 3 months), so I need to find something to do to pass the time. Though, I would like to use the opportunity to travel around Europe some more and also to come back to Florida again. Both of my parents are supposedly coming to visit me (separately) in Berlin this year, which I am also pretty happy about. While this is true for both of my parents, I am especially excited to spend some time with my father, whom I have not really had any one-on-one time with since childhood, really.

Well, I actually have a few more ideas for blog posts, but I'll end this one now. Maybe I will come up with a 2nd one this month, after all...

Eurotrip

Today I am trying something new. Blogger has an option where you can email posts, thus enabling one to update via mobile devices. So forgive me if this post is not too lengthy, because I'm typing it out on a BlackBerry.

I am on a train to Lutherstadt Wittenberg, my home away from home. I spent New Years Eve (Silvester) there to bring in both 2008 and 2009. I have a couple of good friends there. They have a son, who will be turning 3 soon.

Children confuse me. They are so trusting and accepting. Maybe that is why people have babies, so that they can be reminded what innocence was like. (That, and we must propagate our species, I suppose)

So a week ago, 3 friends and I split a rental car and drove from Berlin to Vienna. We stopped in Dresden for a few hours, and in Prague for 1 night before continuing on to Austria. We stayed in Vienna for 2 nights.

Traveling within Europe is very cheap. It CAN be very expensive, but that is only if you insist on nice hotels and high speed trains. So, for a 4-day, 3-night trip through Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, the prices were not bad.

My share of the rental car: 40€
Three nights in hostels: 55€
Plus food and stuff like that, it was just over 100€.

Now, that may seem like a lot. In some contexts, it is. But compared, say, with my trip to Sweden... it is absurdly cheap. (Just my plane ticket to Stockholm was 100+€)

The point that I'm trying to make here, is that Europe can be affordable if you know what you're doing and plan a little. Hostels (even the non-grimy/horror movie sort) are between 15-25€ per night. The biggest cost, for those who do not live in continental Europe, is GETTING HERE. That transatlantic flight is a bitch, and can run between $700-$1400 depending on the airline, time of year and how far in advance you book your ticket.

The moral is, you should take your next vacation here. If you want to stop in Berlin, you should. I make a good tour guide.

Deutschland und ich...

So, in 2005, I obtained my A.A. degree from Manatee Community College in Bradenton, FL. In celebration, my current girlfriend & I went to Europe in celebration. I saw 10 countries in 5 weeks. In retrospect, it was probably too ambitious... With only a few days in each country, most of the trip was spent on trains (countless), planes (3), ferries (2) and a Chunnel. The upside is that I can say that I saw, in slightly more than 1 month:

Anne Frank's House
Amsterdam's Red Light District
The Van Gogh Museum
what remains of the Berlin Wall
The Brandenburg Gate
Checkpoint Charlie
The St. Vitus Cathedral in the Prague Castle
The Concentration Camp "Theresienstadt"
Heroes Square in Budapest
The Buda Castle on the Danube
The Acropolis and corresponding Parthenon
The Greek Islands while crossing the Ionian Sea by ferry to Italy
The Colloseum
The Vatican
The Trevi Fountain
St. Mark's Square and the nearby canals of Venice.
The world's biggest Toblerone bar (4.5 kg) in a chocolate shop in Bern, Switzerland, and the surrounding Alps
The Eiffel Tower
The Louvre
The Arc De Triomphe
Big Ben
Buckingham Palace
and Dublin.

By Dublin, I was too tired and travel-weary to do much of anything, which is a shame. That is one of the reasons I am making Ireland a top spot on my "List of Countries to Re-visit."

But this post is not going to be about my European adventures in the summer of 2005.

It's about the 2nd destination of my trip: Berlin, and Germany.

The first thing I noticed about it was how clean it was. I have been to NYC and Boston and other huge cities... but Berlin was/is the cleanest I've experienced. The language intrigued me too, though I couldn't understand any of it. I had never been very good with languages, despite the machinations of my mother (who sent me to a language summer camp at Duke when I was 14 years old to study Japanese). I took the minimum requirements at my high school in French, (ending in 9th grade with French II). I took 1 semester of Spanish at MCC and got an A, but didn't care.

When I got to FSU, I was told that I would have to take 3 levels of a language to get my B.A. degree. My advisor advised me to sign up for Spanish II, as I had already started studying Spanish at MCC. But I said, "What if I want to take a different language, instead?" He was baffled. "Why would you want to start over?," he asked. Why? Fuck Spanish, that's why! I hold no grudge against Hispanics, Latinos, Mexicans, Spaniards, Central Americans, Puerto Ricans, or the team of underpaid non-English speaking immigrants with whom I work. But, I have been to Mexico, and I don't really want to go back. The place is depressing. And the parts of Mexico that aren't depressing, drip with the venom of consumer luxury tourism.

Spain, however, is on my "List of Countries to Visit."

Thus, I began my career in FSU's German Department. The head of the department actually wrote the book that we used in German I and II. Her last name is Adolph. {insert remark on coincidence or irony here} She is an American national who got her PhD in German and married a German dude a long time ago (he was also one of my teachers, a computer geek whose class consisted of me creating this website).

Because of the lack of spots in the meager amount of Elementary German 1 classes offered, I could not start until my 2nd semester at FSU, in the summer of 2006. Elementary German II followed in Fall of '06, and German III in the Spring of '07. Finally, the language barrier in my mind had been torn down. Despite finishing the University's requirement of 3rd level competency, I decided to push it a step further and make German my Minor. (Behind History as my Major, with which I focused mostly on German studies -- even in my "U.S. Civil War" class, for which I wrote my major research paper for the class on 'the effects of German Immigrants from the failed Revolutions of 1848 in Europe' had on the war.)

The Minor required 12 credits (4 courses) BEYOND the first three levels. I took the website/computer class in the summer of 2007.

During the 3 weeks in between Summer07 - Fall07 semesters, I went back to Europe for the 2nd time. I was in a quaint little town called Lutherstadt Wittenberg where the Protestant Reformation began almost 500 years ago (9 years until 2017, when it will have been 500 years since Luther nailed his '95 Theses' to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg.)

That was the first time I had traveled alone, and it was 3 weeks in 1 place instead of 10 places in 5 weeks. Obviously, a completely different experience. I was in class all day Monday-Friday. I made friends, both native Germans and other foreigners like myself. I never spoke English, because nobody really knew much of it. I revisited Berlin for a day, unaware that I would be staying over twice as long in the following summer (this summer, 2008) in most bad-ass capital I've ever been to.

Nevertheless, that is when I fell in love with the place.

I applied for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, which was -in itself- a worthwhile endeavor, and ultimately I was named as "an alternate," which really meant "Sorry, you're on the standby list buddy." I did not get the fellowship, but I did not let that stop me from going back.

After 7 courses, and over 2 full years of study (including my study abroad experience in August of '07, for which I received no college credit), I signed up for a 6 week semi-Intensive course at the Freie Universität Berlin. Aside from having the best summer of my lifetime thus far, I also realized that at this point, it was no longer a choice. Germany was in my future, no matter what.

I've heard inspirational sayings to the effect of: "If you want something badly enough, you can make it happen."

Well, it's happening... in 42 days.

I am leaving America (in good hands) for an indeterminate amount of time, with plans to eventually return. I hope to take the TestDAF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache or "German as a foreign language") on April 22nd, 2009. Between the beginning of January through the test date, I will be in intense language classes to prepare myself for study at a German University (hopefully one in Berlin!) with the eventual goal of obtaining a Master's Degree.

Sadly, now that we are talking about the future, I cannot say what will happen. But, I'm optimistic.

Lastly, I will say that the past 4 months following my return to America have -for the most part- sucked. I appreciate and love my family and friends but...

...the idea of giving up/temporarily leaving everything I own, including my cat, car, friends, family and culture, seems like the best thing that I can do for myself. I am elated. I am excited, and I am terrified.