on going home (and Heidelberg)

Funny word, home. While jointly considering this topic and the fact that a new Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer album is coming out soon (remarkable when you consider that Dave Carter died when I was nine), I recalled that during our first couple of years living in Kingston, Harriet and I used to sing the chorus of “Gentle Arms of Eden” loudly whenever we reached the FDR Drive on the way back to Brooklyn. It begins: This is my home, this is my only home… Obviously, we were a bit overexcited because I really do not consider the FDR Drive “the only sacred ground I’ve ever known,” but my point is that after a time, the singing died down. It wasn’t that our love for Brooklyn had diminished; it still hasn’t. But Kingston became our home, too.

On Monday, I arrived in Heidelberg. It felt completely surreal to be back in the place where I first fell in love with Germany and with the people who made it happen. I walked into the house, and I felt like I was home. It looked the same, it smelled the same…I know that sounds really weird, but smells are somehow incredibly memorable, even when you don’t realize that you remember them.

Of course, there were a few differences. There was snow on the ground, we didn’t eat outside, and the cast of characters was slightly altered. Also, my presence did not force everyone to converse in another language, and it was great to understand plans as they were being made, instead of waiting for someone to translate the result for me at the end. But however you slice it, I had a feeling of being back in a place where I belonged.

Quick background: Chrissi is my “exchange partner,” you could say. I stayed with her for a month in summer 2009, and she stayed with me for a month last winter. Angelika and Bernhard are her parents. She has two brothers who are in various foreign countries at the moment, but her boyfriend Paul was there. They are all really lovely, fun people, without whom I would probably be in Kingston suffering from an acute case of senioritis right now.

Anyway, I really had an amazing time in Heidelberg. We did old things (bought candy in the Zuckerladen and hiked up to the Königstuhl) and new things (visited the Speyer Technikmuseum which provided a wealth of entertainment in the form of peculiar English translations and cool old cars, went ice skating, saw the Heidelberger Weihnachtscircus, and played about two hundred rounds of Kniffel — Yahtzee to you, America). I got to see lots of people who I haven’t seen in a year and a half (I was reminded of how little German I used to speak when I successfully answered the question of what language I wanted to converse in and was met with expressions of surprise at how well I could understand), and try to explain things about politics and education for which I lack almost all of the necessary vocabulary, and even take the train down to Stuttgart to visit my New York-friend Kate. (Just like everyone promised, it was really wonderful to spend a few hours with someone who I could understand and converse with easily.) (We spoke German.)

By the way, one of the most remarkable things about my visit is pretty well illustrated by the following two photographs:

I took the first one on Tuesday. I took the second one on Saturday. Yes, same week. On Saturday it was about 60ºF. Gorgeous weather to walk up the hill without a sweater, but also completely insane. There was practically a river coming down the trail. I’d pretty much forgotten that it was winter until it started to get dark unexpectedly early. Unsurprisingly, I saw a bit of flooding on the train back north along the Rhein on Sunday.

Which brings me back to my point. Leaving Heidelberg again was really sad (and I’ll definitely be going back), but meeting Gaby and Tobi again at the train station in Düren was really happy. Coming back to the house and having a fire in the wood stove again was really happy. Even having the dogs jump all over me was really happy. I was home. Again.

I guess those people who insist that home is where the heart is have a point. It’s kind of cool that mine is scattered all over the world. (I could make some really great Horcrux jokes right now.)

Oh, and if you’re into contemporary American folk music, Dave Carter was pretty much a songwriting genius and Tracy Grammer is still wonderful.

how many 747s?!

I’m a fan of numbers, so I geeked out slightly over this and wanted to share it with you.

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,200 times in 2010. That’s about 17 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 31 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 81 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 86mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was December 24th with 148 views. The most popular post that day was an exchanger’s Christmas.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were cultures-shocked.org, facebook.com, great-perhaps.tumblr.com, mail.yahoo.com, and mikesyearingermany.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for ourbatteredsuitcases.com, cbyx at home interview, samlearnstospeak.wordpress.com, also octopus can be wrong, and nsli turkey site:wordpress.com.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

an exchanger’s ChristmasDecember 2010
2 comments

2

about meFebruary 2010
8 comments

3

other blogsApril 2010

4

become an exchange studentApril 2010

5

ich bin hier!September 2010
5 comments

 

By the way, WordPress also informed me that I’ve had eight views today so far and that “The number 8 is a Fibonacci number, being 3 plus 5. The next Fibonacci number is 13. 8 is the only positive Fibonacci number, aside from 1, that is a perfect cube.” Thanks!

Anyway, frohes neues Jahr! I’m headed to Heidelberg tomorrow, so you should hear from me again sometime next week. Feel free to hold me to that. Bis dann!

an exchanger’s Christmas

When preparing for exchange, one is introduced to the “normal” progression of emotions. At the beginning, most exchange students are excited and happy (the “honeymoon” stage). Next comes culture shock and homesickness. One of the normal low points of exchange is the holidays, and then it tends to get progressively better from there, until the end when students are sad about leaving. Normally.

WELL. I’ve never been one to embrace normalcy, and I have to say that this feels like one of the high points of my exchange up till now. There are definitely things that I’m missing about Christmas in New York, like candlelit Christmas Eve services (at least no burning hair this year!), pork pie and coffee cake, a full house, and, most of all, those crazy and wonderful people who make the house full. But it has barely stopped snowing in days, Germany is completely beautiful, and I’ve never felt closer to my host family. I’m so excited to be celebrating Christmas here with them, and I’ll see everyone on the other side of the ocean again soon.

Lots of love to all of my families, near and far, und ich wunsche euch ein fröhliches Weihnachten. ♥

on music in Germany

Tracy suggested that I write a post about German music, which, like so many things in life, I’ve actually been meaning to do forever, but have never gotten around to. This was in part because I was afraid that it would just end up being a disorganized collection of thoughts and YouTube videos. I was completely correct. Feel free, but by no means compelled, to read on anyway.

When I first got to Germany, one of the first things I noticed was the music. It wasn’t the huge differences between music here and music at home…no, on the contrary, it was the amount of music that was American, or at least in English. (Even a lot of German bands write songs in English in hopes of appealing to a wider audience.)

In September, we were in this lovely historic village called Bad Münstereifel, and I was quite amused to hear “Ring of Fire” playing incongruously in one little café and “I’ve Gotta Feeling” in a fairly upscale boutique. It quickly grew unwieldy to point it out when songs I knew came on the radio, though I still feel the need to identify certain artists, like Peter Gabriel (thanks, Dad!). Speaking of whom, at one point during the fall, I heard some song that my dad likes — not sure which, sorry — several times in the same day and I got somewhat homesick. D’aw.

So, when I went to my first party in October, I was completely expecting to hear all the same music from prom/band banquet/those other rare occasions in which I’ve been exposed to music that normal people dance to.

“it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While I’m thinking about photos, I just remembered that those of you non-Facebooking people can still see all the photos I post there by following this link! (I’m looking into making a Flickr or something of the like.) I haven’t been taking many, though, because my camera has been a battery-eating monster. Or, as Tobi would say (in perfect “American”), “on the fritz.” Actually, my entire host family has picked up on that and I think I will refer to all of my cameras as “Fritz” for the rest of my life.

Anyway, as you may have heard, Germans really like Christmas! My host family had a party a week…before I started writing this post on Saturday the 11th. Oops. Sorry, everyone! These are photos from the party and some of the decorations in and around our house at the beginning of December.

If I remember correctly, when my host family moved into this house several years ago, they had a housewarming party in December and everyone loved it so much that it became a tradition (sound familiar, my caroling friends? ;D). It is held outside in the backyard, which initially sounded like a terrible idea to me, but is bearable and even gemütlich for a few reasons: soup, a heater, Glühwein, and crepes! The second half of that list calls for some further explanation:

Personally, in cold weather, I generally opt to drink hot chocolate or mulled cider, when available. Unfortunately, there is no apple cider in Germany (afew people have insisted that I am wrong, but nobody has produced any yet), which means no hot mulled cider, so Germans drink hot mulled wine instead! I still miss cider, but Glühwein is pretty tasty stuff, and ubiquitous at holiday parties and Weihnachtsmärkte.

Tobi has fitted out an old French automobile with a mini-kitchen in order to sell crepes (though they were free during the party, of course), which is really wicked cool. I hadn’t seen the inside until the night of the party, and I was totally blown away. Mona and I both spent a while helping out in the crepe-mobile. I’ve wanted to learn how to make crepes for a few years, but I was always convinced that I would be hopeless at it. Happily, by the end of the evening I could make a half-decent-looking crepe, and they taste great regardless of appearance, so…it was a fun and successful venture, haha!

I hadn’t met most of the guests before, but they were very friendly people (as one would expect, since they’re friends with Gaby and Tobi!). Several of them came to chat with me while I was manning the crepe operation to ask me about my impressions of Germany, tell me about their travels to the US, compliment me on my German, and suggest that I fund my education by starting a crepe-and-Glühwein business when I go home (seriously, more than one person came up with this…not a bad idea!). Really lovely folks. At the end, I spent a while chatting by the heater with Gaby, Tobi, and several of the neighbors. Froitzheim people are great! My host grandparents and aunt also came for the weekend, and it was generally nice and fun and Christmas-y.

We already had snow, as you can see from the photos, although it was apparently early for this area. As you’ve probably seen in the news, in fact, it’s barely let up since! But that’s a topic for another post.

Sorry again for the huge wait! I’ll try to post some more tonight, and then tomorrow is Christmas (already! Germans celebrate on the 24th, Heiligabend), and I have two weeks off coming up so I’ll have time to keep catching up, if need be. (:

on the perils of thinking in English

Here are some more specific dangers posed by thinking in English while speaking in German:

du/Sie: Though we don’t have this distinction in English, most people are probably familiar with the concept of informal and polite forms of “you” from studying another language. When I’m thinking in German, it feels natural to address my teachers and other adults as “Sie.” When I’m thinking in English, it’s hard not to translate “you” to “du.”

haben/sein: When forming the perfect tense in English, you say “I have spoken with her,” or “We have gone to Köln.” Thus, it seems logical to use “haben,” or “to have,” when forming the perfect in German. However, verbs involving a change in position take the verb “sein,” or “to be,” instead, so you get “Ich habe mit ihr gesprochen,” but “Wir sind nach Köln gefahren.” Oddly, “sterben,” or “to die,” also takes “sein.” Inexplicably, “bleiben,” or “to stay,” does as well.

ich bin/mir ist: One of the most common beginner mistakes in German is to talk about your temperature using “ich bin…” Luckily, I was warned about this and have largely managed to avoid it. Instead, you should say “Mir ist kalt,” which literally translates to something along the lines of “It is cold to me.” If you think “I am cold” in English, you will almost certainly say “Ich bin kalt,” and that is not something you want to say. Avoiding this is, in itself, a really good argument for thinking in German!

thinking in English while listening to German:

fest: “firm.” This sounds like “fast” in English, and in some cases, it doesn’t matter if you hear it wrong. For example, when Gaby says “Fest halten!” and I understand it as “Hold fast,” I will still hold on to Balu tightly and prevent him from running into the street. However, when I’m riding a horse and I’m wondering why I’m still being told “Fester drücken!” when I’m pushing as quickly as I can…I felt pretty silly when I suddenly figured that one out in the middle of my lesson last week, but everything makes a lot more sense now.

nach: “to, after.” “Nach links” means “to the left.” When you hear “nach” as “not” and start going right, it’s going to get you some weird reactions. (I felt like Amelia Bedelia when she’s told “Bear right!”)

vierzig: “forty.” Many people pronounce the “vier” in “vierzig” roughly as the English word “fur,” or, which sounds a lot like the “thir” in “thirty.” This shouldn’t be confusing, but when thinking in English, it is.

sinnvoll: “meaningful, sensible.” This word sounds extraordinarily similar to “sinful.” Luckily, unlike the numbers, the difference is big enough that it’s quite obvious that I need to reconsider what I’ve just heard.

and just for kicks, a problem with thinking in Spanish:

ustedes/vosotros: In Spanish, the distinction between informal and polite second person forms also exists, but in Latin American Spanish, the polite form is always used in the plural. This causes me trouble in my European Spanish class, because I sometimes forget that the “vosotros,” or informal second person plural form, exists. It also causes me trouble with German, because I tend to address groups of my peers as “Sie.”

and, what happens when I think in German while writing in English? I start worrying that I’m not being polite enough because English only has one second person pronoun. Yup.

on thinking in German

When learning a new language, it seems to be a pretty widely accepted truth that the first step toward fluency is being able to think in that language. After all, when I’m speaking English, I don’t think about the meaning of every word in relation to, say, Pig Latin. I imagine that the thought process would go something like this: “Iay antway otay alktay aboutay aay eetray. Inay Englishay, atthay isay ‘tree.’” Now, the human brain works pretty quickly, and, were I fluent in Pig Latin, this would probably take less than a second, but it’s still far more effort than is actually required of me to come up with the word “tree.” I associate the word with the thing, and that’s that.

When learning a first language, it’s obvious to associate the word “tree” with an actual tree, and the word “tired” with that unknown feeling that adults are always accusing you of experiencing, no matter how many times you tell them that you are by no means ready for bed. You have nothing else to associate them with; it’s that easy.

However, for all subsequent languages, there is a danger of becoming little more than a human dictionary. I know that “the tree” in German is “der Baum,” and that “tired” is “müde,” which is a good first step. But if someone says “Bist du müde?” and I have to go through the process of thinking of the English word, though I know what they’ve asked me and can answer them pretty quickly (“Nein!”), it’s not the same as understanding; it’s just translating. This is okay sometimes, because you’re still communicating effectively, and that’s good, but in a conversation, it slows you down a lot to have to process each word individually. This tends to happen to me pretty frequently when listening to two Germans speaking to each other. As I listen, I think “I know what these words mean!” but by the time I’ve pieced the sentence together, the other person is halfway through a response and I’m completely lost. Not surprisingly, the words I understand the most quickly are the ones I picked up from hearing other people use them. The ones I initially looked up the meanings of take longer to work themselves into my lexicon of words that don’t require thought.

The time that I spend reading, writing, and speaking English at this point of my language learning just pulls my brain away from German-thinking, so I’ve decided to make some much-needed changes. Or mostly, the much-needed change of not using Facebook, aside from talking to German friends, and generally spending less time online and more time reading Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban.

I’ll still be writing on my blog, reading email, and especially reading snail mail, so I’m not dropping off the face of the earth by any means, and for most of the people reading this blog, nothing’s going to change. I just need to be a little less connected and a little more immersed, and for anyone who got here from Facebook, this is why!

I love you all, and thank you thank you thank you for your comments! and Na: yes! they have rulers and they’re not afraid to use them. everyone else: explanation forthcoming. (: