Viel Spaß in Dresden!

One week later, I'm still having a blast in Dresden. The following is everything I've done in the past week (I wrote this in several pieces and am just now posting it). I'd like to write more about my experiences and thoughts and feelings, but I will have to do that later.

Wednesday was my first day of class. There are eight people in my class, two from Russia and one each from Poland, Serbia, Romania, France, and Japan. I note the countries they’re from because we’ve been talking a lot about socialism and communism and the five people from former communist countries have been sharing their experiences (along with the teacher, who’s from East Germany). Hearing about life under communism is interesting, but also incredibly depressing, and it makes me even happier to be an American.

Speaking of, I couldn’t help myself—I got engaged in a political discussion with a French girl and a Serbian guy Wednesday night at our welcome party. And I had to out myself as a conservative after the French girl said that everyone who supports the war lives in the middle of America and is uneducated. Ha! Typical brainwashing. But I’ve really enjoyed talking about politics, as I’m learning more and more about political systems here in Europe (and, again, becoming happier and happier that I’m American). I've also learned a lot about education, art, and music here, and tomorrow we're learning about youth culture. Much better than any class on grammar!

So yeah, Wednesday we went on a tour of the Gemaeldegalerie, and although I like art I was a little bored by the paintings. The tour was great, but the artwork didn’t have descriptions and so when we had free time I just left. Wednesday night was our welcome party, complete with these funky sandwiches and of course lots of beer and dancing. I enjoyed it, even when the director came over and started bashing Bush to me. I am surprised at how openly authority figures here talk about their views. But I found it somewhat refreshing, and I am increasingly amazed at how well I can communicate in German, although I have discovered that I have a very limited vocabulary.

Thursday we went on a tour of the Neustadt, after which we ended up a little beer garden/funky music club. Here are some pictures from that:

People from my class: me, French girl, Russian girl, Serbian guy

Spanish roommate, me, Italian friend

A building in Neustadt that has musical instruments on the outer walls--they make music when it rains!

Friday afternoon we went to Pillnitz, which was the summer residence of August der Staerke, who we’ve heard about time and again. It was beautiful, but it paled in comparison to all of the other Schlosses I have seen throughout Europe. Here is a picture:

One of the buildings at Pillnitz

Afterward we went to the Stadtfest, which is held one weekend every August to celebrate something to do with August der Staerke, of course. We rode the Ferris wheel (which no one seems to know the German name of) and walked around a lot, following the lead of this Russian kid who hilariously acts like our Vati (dad). Seriously, he scolded me for speaking English one time (I almost never speak English here!). We ended up at this large outdoor club place that was pretty fun, and I enjoyed getting to see how the Germans behave at carnivals (aka everyone walking around with open containers).

Saturday everyone went to Berlin and I stayed back to study for the LSAT a bit. I also did laundry, which was extremely confusing and expensive. The washing machine holds 5 kilos, which I swear is the size of my head. And it cost more than two Euros! Saturday evening I went with an Italian girl to the Stadtfest again, and this time I ate the world’s hugest sausage:

And there were fireworks and even more people. When we were going back across the bridge, we got stuck in a huge crowd of people—all trying to go in different directions. We literally could not move, and someone could have stolen all my stuff out of my bag and I wouldn’t have known it. We were so close to everyone and German people are incredibly aggressive. I don’t want any more German men’s huge bellies sticking into my back, that’s for sure.

Sunday we all went to Meissen, the cutest little German town ever! It was adorable. We went on a tour of the town and saw the Kirche and then some other building in which we had to wear these huge slippers (which we used like ice skates) to walk around. Since Meissen was apparently the birthplace of porcelain, we then went to a porcelain factory/museum and had this odd tour where we watched people make stuff like it was a zoo. The porcelain was beautiful, but it cost about 100 Euro for just a thimble. That’s about 1/7 of my monthly income, so needless to say, I did not come back with any souvenirs. Pictures:

Meissen from afar

Me with some porcelain

Monday we went to Saechsische Schweiz, which is a huge national park. We split into three groups, and I foolishly decided to do the advanced option. 8 kilometers didn’t sound bad to me, as I didn’t realize 1) I have no idea how to convert kilometers into miles and 2) almost half of that 8 kilometers is going uphill. We started out with a brutal uphill climb, and just when I thought we were at the top, we then proceeded to climb up and down these huge rocks, one after the other. So it was endless stairs (at times they weren’t even really stairs). We finally went back to the bottom on the other side of this mountain (if that is an appropriate title), and we found a quaint little town waiting for us. I assumed that we were done with our 8 kilometers, but it turns out we had to take a ferry across the Elbe and then climb continuously up this huge mountain. Endlessly uphill, it felt like. But the views at the lookouts and the top were worth it. Gorgeous:

The view from the top of one of the "mountains"

An idyllic German town in Saechsische Schweiz

I’d say about eight of the 18 or so people in my group were Russian. There are Russians everywhere. And they take smoke breaks while hiking. And the European idea of appropriate hiking apparel is hilarious. Tight jeans and halter tops. The funniest thing to me was that during breaks the guys would drink beer. I really don’t understand how that can be good for you . . .

Tuesday we went to a Weinberg—a winery! It was also extremely adorable. We had a wine tasting (3 glasses, and unfortunately I don’t like or drink wine), and the vineyard owner tried to teach us all about the three different types of wine and the wine-making process usw., but I don’t think anyone understand him since he was using jargon that none of us really even knows in our respective mother tongues. After the wine-tasting we went wandering through the vineyards (again, a massive amount of walking uphill, but the views were also worth it). Whoever thought it was a good idea to let people consume a lot of alcohol and then go climbing through vineyards has another think coming. There were a few tipsy people in the group. But the experience was wunderbar, and I enjoyed yet another one of the activities they arranged for us! Pictures:

An Italian, me, and one of the other three Americans

The vineyards and town below

Wednesday we went to the Gruene Gewolbe, which is a Schatzkammer (“treasure chamber”; all the beautiful and expensive objects from the monarchy). Everything was gorgeous, but I had such a hard time hearing the tour guide and I couldn’t really understand the part I could hear anyway. So I just spent the whole time looking at pretty objects and wondering what they were. There was a 41-karat green diamond that I would kill for!

This afternoon my class is going to a Volkswagen factory, which I hear is going to involve riding simulations! Should be lots of fun. Will report back later!

Feel free to leave comments when you want--it lets me know that at least someone is reading this!