Dienstag, 17. Juni 2008

Widerrufen

That's right, I take back some of the things I wrote in my last post. Mainly re: Turkish fans in Germany. I spoke with my students about the possibility of Germany vs. Turkey in the semi-finals and asked who they would support. Türkiye. Auf jeden Fall! Turkey. By all means!

Of course! How could I be stupid enough to think that they would support Germany first and foremost? Well, I only recently realized that Turkey and Germany might go head-to-head. Didn't think that was a possibility. Also, Turks are riding high after Turkey's amazing last-minute win against the Czech Republic (two goals in the last four minutes to pull off a 3:2 victory).

I have spoken about this topic with several different people and most think it's odd of me to want Turkish people in Berlin to support Germany over Turkey. Everyone except for the teachers at my school. They see first-hand what it's like when kids don't identify as German. Yes, I know, most are not German citizens, but almost all of my students were born here. I think that should be enough grounds for them to support Germany. However, several are for whoever's playing Germany. And I have to clarify that it's what I want them to do. They have every right to support Turkey, and in many ways it makes sense, especially since they hold Turkish passports. I'm only talking about the way I wish it were.

To do this issue justice I would have to address many more issues than just football (and how it's not necessarily Turkish people's "fault" that they don't identify as German) , and I don't have the desire to do that now.

Instead, I'd like to talk about the German games. Germany lost its second first-round game last week against Croatia. They played terribly. I watched at a beach bar along the Spree, which was a decent venue because they had a big tent set up. Germany needed to tie or win their third game in order to go on to the quarterfinals. Fortunately, they won 1:0 against Austria last night and are now going to the quarterfinals. I believe the game was relatively lackluster, considering Austria is really not that good and Germany was supposed to win it all in the first place. It doesn't look like Germany is going to win against Portugal on Thursday night if they play like they have the last two games.

Which would be a shame, because it is awesome to see how the Germans celebrate. We watched in Prenzlauer Berg last night, and afterwards there was a huge amount of fans out on the street cheering and waving fans and setting off firecrackers. Getting home was a challenge, as the subway station was packed and the fans were rocking the subway cars back and forth, which was especially fun considering we were on a bridge and not underground at that point. But the fans I saw were not even close to the number of fans who celebrated on Ku'damm in the western part of the city. I didn't realize that Ku'damm is where you go to celebrate. Turkish fans have shut it down after their past couple games--I read that there were 25,000 there after the game on Sunday. Will have to see if I can make it over there for the next game.

One last thing: I have to mention is that I hate how Brits say Germany are or the team have and so on and so forth. A team should not be plural! It just sounds wrong.

Here are some pictures:

Football Fever. Can only imagine what the WM was like!













Typical sight these days.













Apartment building in Kreuzberg. No German flags. Where I work, if I a window has a Turkish flag, then it also has a German one. Not so here. All the cars in front had Turkish flags as well.











After the game in PBerg. If only I knew how to put video on here.












Gotta get innovative during the EM. Every restaurant and bar wants to show it. This bar backed a car up and showed the game from the trunk. Awesome!










Me with a group of 11th-grade students. A very rowdy class. Notice the Turkish flags, t-shirts, and headbands. Most of the kids in this class are Turkish (only three total are German) and were celebrating Turkey's victory against the Czech Republic the next day. The teachers found this disturbing, as they put flags on the windows and wouldn't stop chanting things in Turkish. Oh yeah, the picture was taken because they threw me a (premature) goodbye party, which I will talk about soon.



And completely gratuitous, but awesome:

Mittwoch, 11. Juni 2008

Deutschland vor, noch ein Tor!

Europa-Meisterschaft 2008 Fever has hit Germany and, from what I can tell, all of Europe. I had previously watched two full professional soccer games in recent memory: Hertha BSC vs. FC Bayern Muenchen back in December (in person) and Borussia Dortmund vs. FC Bayern during the DFB-Pokal (at the Brandenburger Tor). I don't particularly like soccer (or football, as I have now inadvertently taken to calling it thanks to the influence of British English in Europe), even though (or perhaps because) I played from Kindergarten through fifth grade and was also a line ref for little kids when I was in middle school. But there was something about watching those two games among thousands and thousands of impassioned fans that made me look forward to the European Championship. And it finally arrived this past weekend, with Germany playing its first game against Poland. I watched Germany beat Poland 2:0 (not 2-0 as we Americans are used to writing scores) at a Brazilian friend's apartment, largely with fellow foreigners, but with enough Germans who knew all the players' nicknames and could educate me on soccer terminology to make it authentic. There are signs up all over the city advertising various "Public Viewings" (yes, that is the exact term used, no German needed), and almost every bar has set up a television for fans to watch. People even set televisions on the street and watch with the neighborhood. Friends who didn't watch the game told me they didn't need to check to see if Germany had won: with every goal scored, people roared, and at the end of the game, fans went to the street.

Turkey is also playing in the EM, which made me wonder who residents of Germany with tuerkischer Herkunft (Turkish background) would support. I automatically assumed they would support Turkey and that I would see a large number of Turkish flags hung around the city. I have to say that isn't unbedingt. German flags have been popping up everywhere (even in the predominantly Turkish neighborhood where I work), hanging out windows and off balconies and placed on car windows (the kind that flap in the window--most people who have them have one for each side of the car). I was fascinated the first time I saw this--because basically, it is the first time I have seen an open display of German patriotism. Germans are wary of the word patriotism because to them (unconditional) allegiance to your country can be very dangerous. I have had numerous discussions with Germans about the American idea of patriotism, since to them it is unfathomable. Thus, you rarely see German flags on homes (although I've seen more than a few Confederate flags, for reasons unbeknownst to me!) or in public places. People don't wear shirts that say "Deutschland" on them. Show pride in Germany and you might be seen as implicitly supporting the Germany of the past. No one wants that. (Except, perhaps, in towns like this.) (I must also say that there already was a large prevalence of Turkish symbols around the city, displayed in cars and graffitied (?) on walls, at least in the neighborhood I work in).

I think I am enjoying the EM because it is a cultural experience you cannot get in the U.S., except, perhaps, during the Olympics. However, Americans are always proud of the U.S. and are willing to display it. Germans, as I just said, are not. Germans explain away this pride as just being supportive of their favorite sport and national team, but to me, it seems like a much-needed outlet to say it's ok, Germany is a great country and we are not the same Germany of the Nazi era or of the DDR/BRD times. I just saw an excellent movie called Die Welle, which is based on an experiment carried out by a teacher at a high school in Palo Alto in I believe the 1960s. The German adaptation has a teacher who oversees a weeklong project in which he first gets the students to admit that something like National Socialism would never work in Germany again and then subsequently creates a fascisct regime, all within a few days. A movie I highly recommend. Anyway, the =reason I mention it is because there is a scene in which the students mention pride in Germany during the World Cup in 2006, and they argue over what it signified. A serious topic, but made light because of the funny dialogue among the students.

A gym teacher at my school was telling us about some forms his students had to fill out, I guess to make some sort of point (because I don't know why they would need to fill out actual forms for this). Here's an example of a typical form:

Where were you born? Germany
Where do you live? Germany
Where did you go to elementary school? Germany
Where do you go to high school? Germany
Who are you supporting? Turkey
(clearing a student with tuerkischer Herkunft)

What's even more interesting:

Where were you born? Bosnia
Where do you live? Germany
Where did you go to elementary school? Germany
Where do you go to high school? Germany
Who are you supporting? Turkey
And why? Weil es eine muslimische Mannschaft ist. Because it's a Muslim team.

The teacher felt this outrageous enough to share with the few of us in the teacher's room at the time. I'll let you form your own opinions on this without explaining mine. I just haven't seen the evidence based on discussions with my students that Turkish people are supporting Turkey over Germany, although I would have thought so. I think the following interview with a Turkish-German man I found in today's Berliner Zeitung gives the best explanation:

"Welche Mannschaft ist meine? Wenn ich nach dem fussballerischen Koennen gehe, klar Deutschland. Wenn ich nach dem Siegeshunger gehe, die Tuerkei. In meiner Brust schlagen eben zwei Herzen, so wie bei vielen Kreuzbergern tuerkischer Herkunft dieser Tage, die an ihren Autos die deutsche und die tuerkische Flagge angebracht haben. Auf Tuerkisch schreie ich "Hadi, hadi, hadi, golleri goerelim" und auf Deutsch "Los, los, los, noch ein Tor."

The guy is saying that he supports Germany if we're talking about football ability, and Turkey if yearning for victory is considered. He has two hearts, just as many Turkish-German people who live in Kreuzberg do.

Anyway, I've been keeping up with the press on a daily basis and have been learning more about the players, including Lu- Lu- Lu- Lukas Podolski and his best friend, Schweini (Bastian Schweinsteiger). I also found a great explanation of silly German sayings about soccer here. I'm not sure where I'm going to watch the next games in the first round, but I am looking forward to watching Germany in the semi-finals at the Brandenburger Tor. Too bad I will be in Slovenia during the championship match, because Germany is supposed to win it all.

To fit in with everyone else, I bought a German flag and a German headband to wear to the games (although if Germany were playing the U.S., I'd have to keep my allegiances to the U.S., just not so publicly). If I had more money, I'd even go for one of the Deutschland shirts being sold in every clothing shop and on the street.

Oh, something interesting about the German national team is that two of the stars, Podolski and Miroslav Klose, were born in Poland and moved to Germany at a young age. Podolski did not celebrate his two goals against Poland on Sunday, and he put on a Polish jersey after the game out of respect for his original home country. I understand this, but at the same time I can't imagine what the response would be if someone from the U.S. put on a Mexican jersey right after the game. Would there be a negative reaction?

Alright, that's enough soccer for now.

In other news, I have been outdoors enjoying the beautiful weather here, although today it is rather overcast and even a bit chilly (nevertheless, I am outside at the moment). My church had a big summer kick-off Champagne Garden Party, during which I had to tend bar for a lot longer than I expected, but I still had a great time. There were over 100 people there, all proceeds going to an organization in India that helps street children. I also enjoyed wandering around the enormous Tiergarten in the middle of Berlin and finally saw the Volkspark Friedrichshain, where a friend had a birthday picnic and then we say Die Welle at the Freiluftkino, or outdoor cinema. I even finally returned to the Schloss Charlottenburg, which although was one of the things on my must-do list during my 2006 trip to Berlin, I hadn't thought about it at all since. And now that I only have two more weeks before I leave for my trip, I really need to get some things done on my 2007-2008 must-do list. So no more computer for now. Bis bald!

Montag, 2. Juni 2008

Mückenstiche und Blasen

Yes, I am covered in mosquito bites and blisters, but otherwise I am in a great mood. The weather is a lovely 90 degrees, and I am sitting here in my backyard, which could be prettier, but what matters is that I am not stuck inside on a gorgeous day.

The weekend before last I went to Dresden, Goerlitz, and Leipzig with American friends living in Berlin: Anna, who I know from Harvard; Briana and Alia, who are fellow English assistants and coincidentally both Ginger Kids; and Susana, who I met randomly and have mentioned before (she just joined us in Leipzig though). After gorging myself on brownies at Anna's place on Friday evening, I got to bed early, because we woke up at the crack of dawn (ok, slightly later) to travel the 3.5 hours to Dresden. A fast, direct train wouldn't take so long, but we were traveling on a Schoenes Wochenende ticket, which means you pay 35 Euro and up to five people can use it all day long on the regional trains, no fast trains though. It's a good deal if you're not traveling too far. Anyway, we arrived in Dresden and after wandering around a bit found our hostel, then set off for the Altstadt. Brought back a lot of memories! I saw a lot of things that reminded me of people and adventures from last summer. If only some of those people could have been there to relive the experiences with me! But it was good to have other friends there anyway. I actually was able to do something I never did last summer, and that was climbing up the Watchman's Tower for pretty good pictures of the city. I've never spent that much time at the top of a tower though, as we tried to take all these pictures of the four of us to no avail. Early in the afternoon we decided we'd seen most of what Dresden has to offer. Well, actually, if I'd never been to Dresden before I probably would have wanted to stay longer, but we came up with a spur-of-the-moment plan to head to Goerlitz, and I've wanted to go there since last year, so I jumped at the opportunity. So we hopped on a train and rode an hour or so to the city, which is right on the border with Poland. The city was literally divided in half when the Polish border was formed, and the Polish side of the city is called Zgorzelec. Well, technically they are no longer the same city. Anyway, we got to walk across the border, so now I can say I walked to Poland! I don't believe I've ever walked across a country border before, so I can add that to my list. And after spending a few hours in Goerlitz, we headed back to Dresden, only to find that our hostel was locked up and we had not even been assigned our room yet! After some rounds of oh s*** we finally were able to get someone to give us our room, so we threw down our stuff and headed off to the bar area of Neustadt and had a drink. Just one though, because we were all pretty exhausted and by that point it was probably around 1 something. And when we got back we discovered that our roommate would be an old man. Oh well, just one night, I figured. Well, this guy must have had TB or something, the way he coughed all night. He also snored worse than my dad does, which is saying a lot, trust me. I finally fell asleep, and when I woke up in the morning the man, who ended up being Bulgarian, pestered me and enjoyed telling me all about how great the U.S. and California in particular are and why we should not vote for that negro/mulatto (I kid you not; instead, we should vote for that woman or the war hero). He went on and on about how countries like France have forgotten how much the U.S. helped them after WWII and why the Iraq War was the right war and how much Bulgarians appreciate the U.S. I was glad we were only there for one night and that I wasn't alone with him. Although he did confirm what I've heard about Eastern Europeans liking the U.S. more than other groups of people. That's a long paragraph . . .

So I'll start a new one. We headed to Leipzig in the morning, where we met up with Susana and then did our own self-guided walking tour of the city, seeing the church where Bach is buried and Auerbachs Keller, which was featured in Goethe's Faust. Eventually we made an extremely looooong trek out to the biggest war monument in Europe, which was truly massive. We climbed to the top and got some amazing views of Leipzig. Thankfully the weather was quite gorgeous all weekend. I was exhausted by the time we got home, but it was nice to visit some more cities and to travel with friends (particularly after spending ten days alone the previous week).


On top of the Watchman's Tower in Dresden. That's the Elbe River behind me.
















Anna in Goerlitz. She was obsessed with eating ice cream that day. She had ice cream five times, most of the time eating two scoops. By her fifth time, I was ready to throw up on her behalf. A little too much ice cream for one day.















Briana, Alia, and me on the bridge between Germany and Poland. Germany is behind us.

















Alia, Anna, and me with Poland behind us. Notice the difference between Poland and Germany?












Arriving back in Germany! Notice the signs for Freistaat Sachsen (Free State Saxony) and the city of Goerlitz in the background.
















Susana, Briana, Anna, and me in front of a church in Leipzig. Which one, I don't remember.

















The group without me in front of the huge war memorial in Leipzig.

















Fast forward to this past weekend. I went camping with an assortment of 30 or so people, a majority of whom were from my church here. This is the reason for me being covered in mosquito bites and blisters. We headed to the Liepnitzsee, a lake just outside of Berlin. I was told that the walk was an easy 20 minutes from the train station--biggest lie ever! We started walking in one direction and there were told it was 8 km away, which was not happening for those of us carrying heavy stuff (read: all of us). Thankfully, due to some divine providence, we made it to our campsite in one piece. I have done a lot of camping in my day thanks to having a brother in Indian Guides and Boy Scouts, and let me tell you, this was luxurious. We were on grass, which although prickly was much better than dirt, and the bathrooms had granite countertops and were spanking clean. The mosquitoes and bugs were miserable, but that's to be expected when camping. Anyway, on Friday night we started a campfire after setting up our tents and I showed the Germans how to make s'mores. My mom had visited the previous day and brought me authentic marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey's bars. The s'mores were absolutely delicious!

Some people became quite drunk, making falling asleep a challenge, and the sun started shining around 4 AM, so we were all quite tired in the morning, but we had an early start and trekked all the way to a ferry that took us to an island with a beach. We had to walk across the entire island to reach the beach, and when we finally made it, we had a nice sight: a beach full of FKK enthusiasts! I believe I have written about FKK before. Basically, East Germans are a bunch of nudists. They love to be naked. As we arrived early at the beach, there weren't too many, but as the day went on, there were scores of them. Men, women, and children. I did my best to avert my eyes, but it was quite hard to do. I really do not understand FKK for children though. I find this really disturbing. No child under the age of 10 or so was wearing a swimsuit at the beach. Not one. I wonder if they even make those cute little swimsuits for infants that I find so adorable. Who knows what kind of creeps come hang out at the beach to look at naked children. This is just one part of German culture that I cannot get used to. (Is it not also unsanitary?) Also, my (Australian/British) pastor's daughter, who is 7 years old, wears swimming trunks and nothing else at the beach and even around their house. Sorry for thinking that's bad. My father taught me from a very young age that I should behave like a lady and be aware of how I sit and everything along those lines. By the way, there is a woman sitting out here with her grandson and she took off his diaper, so he is just lying there with a t-shirt on. That doesn't make sense to me! Is it just me?

Anyway, the beach was fun, and although I didn't have a swimsuit I enjoyed a swim in the absolutely freezing water with my clothes on. They dried fast, as the weather was _hot_! We were there for a long time, and shortly after arriving back at the camp I scrambled to gather all my stuff up to head home earlier than the majority of the group because I had to get a lot done. But I really enjoyed hanging out with people from my church. It was quite an assortment of people--majority German, but also a Brazilian, a Canadian, a fellow American, an Italian, an Indonesian and my pastor and his wife and kids (at one point someone asked if I was the pastor's wife, which prompted his children to run around screaming, "Dad wants to date that American thing!," which is how rumors get started).

Christian and Yunce arriving at our campsite. Our bags were heavy, and they improvised with a large branch.











Christin eating her first s'more ever. Needless to say, she loved it.

















Our campsite. I like this photo because of the bug in the foreground.












The first ones to brave the freezing water.













An FKK family.










The "beach." Lakes will never be the same as the ocean, unfortunately. If you really want to, you can zoom in and probably see all the FKK enthusiasts.














On Sunday morning we had church at my pastor's place, which I really enjoyed. It's always great to see everyone gathered together. I really wish I could be around for the first public service next year. Makes me want to stick around in Berlin for another year, but I'm just too excited to be going back to the U.S. to commit to another year here.

Well, I'm off for a picnic in the Tiergarten (huge park in the middle of Berlin), so I gotta run. Until soon!