10 August 2014
Final Reflections
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| Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish play" -Friedrich Schiller, famous German poet and philosopher, among other talents. |
Erfurt, DE -- Wow, it so crazy that the time is here to reflect on my summer trip in Erfurt and other cities and countries. Time has flown by so quickly, it’s as if I just got here a few days ago, although my experiences and adaptation to my surroundings says otherwise. I’d like to first start off by saying that even though I came to Germany without any knowledge of the language, I have learned the most necessary words: hallo, tschuss, danke, bitte, toiletten, sprechen Sie Englisch, and of course all of the stops on the tram. Although these aren’t enough to have a conversation in German, it has helped. There have been times throughout my travels when I have been completely confused by what someone is saying and what is going on, but to save some face, my own and others, I usually shook my head yes or no, used my context clues, and figured it out. It has been a real test of character to see how well or not so well, I respond to uncertainty. I believe that I have done fairly well. As well as saving face during these interactions, I have participated a bit in convergence by conforming to whatever may be going, though other members of the SPICE program and I have completely rejected some of these cultural norms. For example, some girls and I went to the Schnitzel Haus a few days ago to get our last schnitzel meal and we were listening to a song at our table and a few German ladies sitting behind us, asked us to turn off the music we were listening to. Did we do this? No. It is our last week in Erfurt, we’re going out the way we came in…being the loud Americans we are and! To our defense the song was not even that loud.
I think that it is a bit funny that I have been here for three months and a lot of the trouble I have had communicating with Germans has been most recently. The class that I just finished had a lot of German students in it and we were required to work in groups for our final project. Since the majority of the class was German students the groups were mixed. While working in groups with people that have English as their second language is interesting, it can get confusing as well. Sometimes I encountered the people in my group talking in both German and English, or it sounded this way to me. This is considered code-switching or mixing languages together when you are bilingual or multilingual, a good example would be Spanglish- Spanish and English. Also it gets very confusing when you’re reading in English and you have German being spoken at the same table. It is different to hear it from a distance, which is obviously what I have mostly encountered since I’ve been here, because it doesn’t really distract me then. Determining whether or not they are talking to you when they are speaking both languages get confusing. How did I adapt to this? Well, I listened to the English words and responded based on what I thought was appropriate.
In the past two, three months I have encountered a lot of differences between Germany and the United States. A few top things I consider as being pretty important for if I ever return to visit Germany is 1) being loud at restaurants or whilst drinking is typically frowned upon and to converge to this would be a pretty good idea, it also helps saves face as I do not want to look like a dumb American who doesn’t understand the cultural norms. And 2) know how to tip after a meal..everywhere you go! This is important, especially in Germany because overtipping or even tipping at all can be considered rude, as if you’re trying to say that the waiter/waitress needs it more than you do and this can be considered a threat to other’s face. All in all I have learned a lot, changed my thought process, and expanded my views to accept the fact that there are other people in the world who are similar and different from me and from the people I know. I think that this is an important attribute for me because it will allow me to open and accepting in future interactions.
Erfurt, DE -- Intercultural Adaptation Theory explains that miscommunication in initial conversations is likely to occur when outside of our own, well-known cultural environment, along with a only a very little understanding of the culture we are in. The theory also suggests that we will change these communicative behaviors in order to look more understanding of the culture we are in, although we will most likely rely on our own cultural norms to do so, because what else do we have right now? Along with adapting is intercultural competence which has two distinction and one is how well we think we are communicating to out intercultural partner, effective, and how well this partner thinks we are doing, appropriate.
I believe that I have adapted rather well (I’d give myself about a 2.5 or a littler higher according the chart) even though I still only know a few words of the German language. I still usually order my food in German, unless they give me an American menu. As soon as I got here I learned how to say the different types of beer in the correct German voice, though sometimes it is an effort to put this extra emphasis, which can be descried as the noise walky-talky makes, on some words. I guess this is where you’d say I fall short of the competence, my lack of effort, although this doesn’t happen too often. I’m usually very open to learning new German words. I’ve found that when I don’t get the opportunity to interact with people, reading food labels is always a good start to learning a language, if anything you won’t starve. Given what I knew before (which was very little) and what I know now having been here for roughly eight weeks, I’m adapting well to being in Erfurt and hearing a different language when I go out and about and ordering food. The strangest part for me though is the fact that I’m actually starting to feel like I understand some of the customs but yet I’m a week from leaving to go back home. It feels like I just got here, I’m already adapting and adjusting to customs and changes, but yet I’m leaving. The good thing about it though is that i will know what to say (somewhat), what to do, how to order food, and the good places to go when I come back for a visit!
In the past two, three months I have encountered a lot of differences between Germany and the United States. A few top things I consider as being pretty important for if I ever return to visit Germany is 1) being loud at restaurants or whilst drinking is typically frowned upon and to converge to this would be a pretty good idea, it also helps saves face as I do not want to look like a dumb American who doesn’t understand the cultural norms. And 2) know how to tip after a meal..everywhere you go! This is important, especially in Germany because overtipping or even tipping at all can be considered rude, as if you’re trying to say that the waiter/waitress needs it more than you do and this can be considered a threat to other’s face. All in all I have learned a lot, changed my thought process, and expanded my views to accept the fact that there are other people in the world who are similar and different from me and from the people I know. I think that this is an important attribute for me because it will allow me to open and accepting in future interactions.
05 August 2014
Intercultural Adaptation Theory
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A photo from Berlin. Sign going from East into West Germany.
You really need to understand the culture before you can
communicate well with people from that culture.
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I believe that I have adapted rather well (I’d give myself about a 2.5 or a littler higher according the chart) even though I still only know a few words of the German language. I still usually order my food in German, unless they give me an American menu. As soon as I got here I learned how to say the different types of beer in the correct German voice, though sometimes it is an effort to put this extra emphasis, which can be descried as the noise walky-talky makes, on some words. I guess this is where you’d say I fall short of the competence, my lack of effort, although this doesn’t happen too often. I’m usually very open to learning new German words. I’ve found that when I don’t get the opportunity to interact with people, reading food labels is always a good start to learning a language, if anything you won’t starve. Given what I knew before (which was very little) and what I know now having been here for roughly eight weeks, I’m adapting well to being in Erfurt and hearing a different language when I go out and about and ordering food. The strangest part for me though is the fact that I’m actually starting to feel like I understand some of the customs but yet I’m a week from leaving to go back home. It feels like I just got here, I’m already adapting and adjusting to customs and changes, but yet I’m leaving. The good thing about it though is that i will know what to say (somewhat), what to do, how to order food, and the good places to go when I come back for a visit!
04 August 2014
Reflections on Berlin
Berlin -- During our second to last week here in Germany, the SPICE group took a trip to Berlin for a week. I had heard about how liberal Berlin is compared to other parts of Germany and Erfurt for that matter, but I wasn’t really sure how different it was going to be. First of all there are a lot more people there that speak English and a lot more diversity in general than in Erfurt. I’m sure that this is mostly due to the division between East and West Germany in 1949. The fact that West Germany was ruled by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France was probably why the people who lived there were more exposed toWestern ways of living and the English language for that matter. I got to learn a lot of the historical background of Berlin because we went on a walking tour of the city, which showed a lot of beautiful buildings and part of the Berlin Wall. We also visited the Memorial for Murder Jewish Europeans which was a very difficult experience even after visiting Dachau. The other two places we got to visit were the DDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik or for us Americans the German Democratic Republic, museum and the last visit was to the Communication Museum. One of the many interesting things that I learned at the DDR museum was that you had to basically apply for a telephone if you lived in East Germany and you didn’t get it for about ten years, I believe this is the right time period! That is insane to imagine considering that telephones, not even landlines but mobile phones are available to everyone nowadays! |
A part of the Berlin Wall, and one of the Berlin Buddy Bears
that dot the city.
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Berlin is the capital for hipsters, or a subculture that expresses a variety of style, likes, and behaviors, for more info on this take advantage of Google. This part of Berlin wasn’t too prominent when we first got there because we were staying rather close to the area with a lot of historical value. But a group of us who decided to venture onward got a pretty good experience of it that night and the night after. The first night we went to a bar where everyone was hipster, side note: I would not know what a hipster was 1) without Google and 2) without the people on this trip to explain it for me 3) because I’m more interested in the hippies. But you definitely notice these types of people when you see them, it is difficult to explain, they just have a very different “walk” I guess you could say, about them and a different type of dress. I have yet to see this in Erfurt and in Munich the people were very well dressed, suits on men and pant suits or dresses on women. As far as Erfurt, I would pretty much say everyone dresses just about the same, I have yet to notice a group of people that really stand out. I feel like this may due to the liberation in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall and like I said before those who lived in the West were more exposed to more liberal ways of living.
During one of our other nights out on the town, we ended up going to a rather “dark” area of the city, something I didn’t quite expect. When we got off of the tram, there were a lot of people just hanging around drinking, some even by themselves, and there were some really good street musicians! There was one guy singing a Bob Marley song, and he sounded almost like Bob Marley, I could’ve just stayed there, ha! We ended up at this bar for a little while and then when we left to find somewhere else to go, it got a little strange. There were people passed out on the street and a few other out of the ordinary things that I wouldn’t typically see at home and least of all in Erfurt! It was definitely different and for a little while I will admit I was a little scared, but we made it out safely and back to the place we had been the night before.
I really loved Berlin because 1) the amount of history the city has and 2) how people just do, dress, and act the way they want! Oh, and the diversity is really amazing compared to here in Erfurt. It’s really crazy to evaluate how calm Erfurt is to Berlin and some of the other places I’ve been to throughout Europe. In a way it is kind of like comparing my hometown of Short Gap to Morgantown! Wow, I never really put it in that perspective before, but then again West Virginia was divided and controlled by two different countries. Though it was split from Virginia. Okay, now I’m just ranting and not even about Germany. Overall I really loved Berlin and I would suggest anyone to go there, if not for the history, for the experience of seeing how people can differ in just one city.
Barcelona -- I have been harping about going to a beach, because going to a beach always makes summer vacation seem real for me, and although this isn’t a “vacation” per say, it is summer! I was so happy to go to a beach and Spain for that matter! Five of us went on the trip but the hostel room that we stayed in was a twelve person, mixed gender room, so it was the first “real” hostel experience any of us have had. That was definitely an experience in itself! Just a note: Spanish is the second language of Barcelona, Catalan is the first. I did speak more Spanish than I thought I was going to though. For instance the night we arrived and got into our hostel room, I talked to a guy named Isak who spoke Spanish. We had a small conversation with my very broken Spanish, but we talked about the basics, where are you from, why are you in Barcelona, etc. Although my Spanish was, in my opinion bad, he understood me and I got a bit of practice which was very exciting for me!
The first day we went out to look for the closest beach, which was actually only about a five or seven minute walk from the hostel. The only mistake we made was going to the left instead of the right. Why, you may ask. Well because the beach to the left, it is a nude beach, a fully nude beach. I guess there is a first time for everything, ha! We quickly reoriented ourselves to get to the non-nude beach. Although when we got there, a lot of women still had their tops off. This is definitely a big cultural difference between there and the United States. I don’t think I have ever heard of a nude beach at the beaches I have gone to for vacation in the U.S. I’m not sure what makes this difference between the countries but it is a very big difference. The oddest part was that there were children around this as well. I assume that these people are just very comfortable with their bodies and teach this from a very young age. It is what it is though, that is the cultural norm, so we just accepted it. The next day, because of too much sun exposure, we went to see the Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral that hasn’t been finished. It was huge, and I’m not exaggerating. It was so tall it almost touched the sky and the details on it were immaculate! I also went to Park Guell which is a garden, not the kind you may think though, that overlooks Barcelona. The cool thing about both of these places is that Antoni Gaudi was the architect for both and it shows, his work is beautiful. Park Guell has so much mosaic artwork that had to of taken so much time, patience, and creativity, as well as with the cathedral! I would have to say that Barcelona has been my most favorite place! Mostly because it was the beach but also because of the very interesting artwork we got to see on these buildings. Barcelona is my next vacation spot!
Erfurt -- After Amsterdam I arrived back in Erfurt and I decided to take advantage of where I am living here in Germany. Although I didn’t go as far through Erfurt as I could have, I did explore a very cool place here in Erfurt called the Petersberg Citadel. The citadel is a fortress that was built during the 1600’s to protect the Electorate of Mainz and an Archbishop from the Protestant powers and the rest of the city. It was built up high on Peter Mountain, so it overlooks all of Erfurt. I don’t think that I got around to see the entire Citadel but what I did get to see was very cool. While I was up there, there were about five different couples getting wedding pictures taken, possibly because there are some really good spots for pictures there. There is also a restaurant at the Citadell that has an even higher view than the Citadell. I didn’t go to the restaurant because it looked rather busy. I did really enjoy the view that I had though because I could see the tops of all of the houses. I saw the red roofs make the skyline, then a few buildings, like the Domplatz reaching high for the clouds, it was very beautiful.
I was in Erfurt for the finals of the World Cup. It wasn’t the biggest city to be in during the World Cup, because I know other very large cities went wild when Germany won, but I’m just glad that I was able to be in Germany to feel that connection and excitement when they won. I was by myself so I thought about going to a bar to watch the game because I figured that the public viewing they had been putting on at the University of Erfurt wouldn’t be going on due to the rain. While I was on the tram, the public transportation here, I saw that there was actually people at the public viewing, so I got off at the next stop and went to watch the game there. I was rather early and there was still some pre game talk going on, though I didn’t know what was going on because I do not speak German. I had been hanging out for a while when I saw someone that I recognized. I was very surprised at this because I was not thinking of running into any one that I know, because, well I’m in Germany. But one of Mexi’s, a girl who has already left the SPICE program, friends that she had introduced me to before she left was there watching also. I was kind of relieved to see someone that I recognized and could talk to in English. We were watching the game together and when the ninety minutes was up, no one had scored. I forget how much longer the game went for but Germany finally made the first score! Everyone went crazy! There were screams and cries of happiness, fireworks, and people running around crazily! I was very excited to be there, so much so I even screamed a little bit too! It was one of those moments when you’re like “woah, did that just happen?” and yes, yes it did just totally happen and it was AWESOME! Everyone was so excited and happy and I don’t think I have ever seen Erfurt as lively as that night!
29 July 2014
Barcelona
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The amazing overlook of Barcelona from Park Guell
built between 1900 and 1914 and one of the
largest architectural works in south Europe.
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The first day we went out to look for the closest beach, which was actually only about a five or seven minute walk from the hostel. The only mistake we made was going to the left instead of the right. Why, you may ask. Well because the beach to the left, it is a nude beach, a fully nude beach. I guess there is a first time for everything, ha! We quickly reoriented ourselves to get to the non-nude beach. Although when we got there, a lot of women still had their tops off. This is definitely a big cultural difference between there and the United States. I don’t think I have ever heard of a nude beach at the beaches I have gone to for vacation in the U.S. I’m not sure what makes this difference between the countries but it is a very big difference. The oddest part was that there were children around this as well. I assume that these people are just very comfortable with their bodies and teach this from a very young age. It is what it is though, that is the cultural norm, so we just accepted it. The next day, because of too much sun exposure, we went to see the Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral that hasn’t been finished. It was huge, and I’m not exaggerating. It was so tall it almost touched the sky and the details on it were immaculate! I also went to Park Guell which is a garden, not the kind you may think though, that overlooks Barcelona. The cool thing about both of these places is that Antoni Gaudi was the architect for both and it shows, his work is beautiful. Park Guell has so much mosaic artwork that had to of taken so much time, patience, and creativity, as well as with the cathedral! I would have to say that Barcelona has been my most favorite place! Mostly because it was the beach but also because of the very interesting artwork we got to see on these buildings. Barcelona is my next vacation spot!
28 July 2014
Erfurt
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The amazing view from the Petersburg Citadel Fortress.
Built to protect the Archbishop Johann Phillip von Schonborn
from the city of Erfurt.
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I was in Erfurt for the finals of the World Cup. It wasn’t the biggest city to be in during the World Cup, because I know other very large cities went wild when Germany won, but I’m just glad that I was able to be in Germany to feel that connection and excitement when they won. I was by myself so I thought about going to a bar to watch the game because I figured that the public viewing they had been putting on at the University of Erfurt wouldn’t be going on due to the rain. While I was on the tram, the public transportation here, I saw that there was actually people at the public viewing, so I got off at the next stop and went to watch the game there. I was rather early and there was still some pre game talk going on, though I didn’t know what was going on because I do not speak German. I had been hanging out for a while when I saw someone that I recognized. I was very surprised at this because I was not thinking of running into any one that I know, because, well I’m in Germany. But one of Mexi’s, a girl who has already left the SPICE program, friends that she had introduced me to before she left was there watching also. I was kind of relieved to see someone that I recognized and could talk to in English. We were watching the game together and when the ninety minutes was up, no one had scored. I forget how much longer the game went for but Germany finally made the first score! Everyone went crazy! There were screams and cries of happiness, fireworks, and people running around crazily! I was very excited to be there, so much so I even screamed a little bit too! It was one of those moments when you’re like “woah, did that just happen?” and yes, yes it did just totally happen and it was AWESOME! Everyone was so excited and happy and I don’t think I have ever seen Erfurt as lively as that night!
27 July 2014
Amsterdam
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The beginning of the Heineken Brewery,
where we learned how to drink a beer properly.
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Amsterdam -- I have been on a break from school for about a week now and earlier in the week we took a planned trip to Amsterdam. We were only there for two nights and that sure wasn’t enough for me! Mostly because the first two days we were there it rained the whole time and that isn’t too enjoyable, even though we got over it and still went to do some things. I saw the IAMSTERDAM sign but I didn't get a chance to get a picture by it because my camera batteries died, which is very upsetting to me :(! The first day we were there we just walked around to explore the city and did a little shopping. The next day we went to the Anne Frank house, where she hid in captivity from the Nazis, but we got there later than planned and the line was extremely long, almost the whole block! We would have waited the entire day to get in and we didn’t want to waste our day standing in line so we moved on. Instead of waiting we took off to the Heineken Brewery to get the Heineken Experience as they call it. That was a pretty cool experience, too. We went through and saw the big copper tanks the beer is brewed in and we got to taste beer at its first stage which is water and barley. It was just a small shot of this mixture and it was warm and in a way tasted like water that corn has been boiled in smells like, if you can imagine. We got the opportunity to be “brewed like a beer” where we went into this room with a large screen that showed us a video of the story of how the beer is made. While we were watching this video the platform we were standing on would move, shake or bounce, depending on what stage of the beer making process we were in, sometimes we would even get sprinkled with some water from ceiling! It was very cool and informative! After the beer making simulator, we got to try some draught Heineken beer. At this stage of the brewery we looked at our beer’s golden color, smelled the hoppiness, and finally tasted the golden flavor of the beer. I learned that the foam head keeps the carbon dioxide from escaping and keeping the great flavor of the beer where you want to taste it! In order to keep this foam on the top and keep from drinking it, you have to take a big “man gulp” as the woman at the brewery said. At the end we had a couple free beers that were included in the price. It was a a very cool experience to learn all of that just about beer! Although I didn’t get to do everything I wanted to do in Amsterdam, I had a very good time, but I would love to go back to get in some other things in that I missed!
Our national anthem is sang before every sporting event with our right hand over our heart or behind our back and ball caps must be off. Germans can get in trouble if they are caught singing their national anthem because the first few verses are seen to represent Nazism, and the display of the flag brings about thoughts of the same. As strange as this may be, it is kind of understandable to me because of the history of the country even though the German national anthem was written long before Hitler’s time, eighty years to be exact. I also heard a story about how German soldiers aren’t as appreciated or given as much attention as us Americans give our soldiers, which is a little sad to think about because they are protecting their country and it’s inhabitants.
Although I have grown up with all of these symbols and acts of patriotism, getting older I feel as though our patriotism has shifted to nationalism and we think of ourselves as a superior country and that there are no others. I’m very proud to be an American, and realize the freedom, like to be able to hang our flag and sing the national anthem without possible persecution we have is unlike any other country, but to be ignorant of other countries and not recognize their standing is something that we should try to work on. I think that the limited display of the German flag is very humbling and in a way makes me feel as though I shouldn’t be as open with my patriotism because Germans aren’t as open with theirs. I also think that the feelings about the German national anthem and the flag go back to Hitler because of the liberty/oppression moral foundation and the oppression people felt during that time. In a way I guess I’m saying that to them their flag doesn’t give them a sense of freedom from that time but instead it is still a representation of the time when people were oppressed.
It was a good while before I got to meet my German roommates, because they were out of town but when I finally met one of them Caroline, Cali for short, she was extremely welcoming, more so than I had thought! She immediately showed me what cabinet I could put food in and cleared out a spot in the refrigerator for me! She told me where she was from, what her major was, and a little about the other two roommates! I didn’t meet my other roommate, Victoria for a while because we are different schedules because I don’t have school through the week and they do, so the timing threw our introduction off. She was just as nice and welcoming and speaks broken English, but it is good enough that we can converse without hardly any problems. My other roommate doesn’t know much English so we haven’t had much interaction but he seems nice. One weekend I had the opportunity to meet Victoria’s mom and sister which was really neat! Her sister was a foreign exchange student in Cumberland, Maryland, which is twenty minutes from my hometown! It was so crazy when I asked her where she went to school and she told me! The town isn’t very big at all so it was like the six degrees of separation theory in action! I’m still flabbergasted by the whole situation, so crazy!! They went out to watch the soccer game that night but invited me to have breakfast with them the next morning. Victoria made eggs, bacon, rolls, and cut up peaches. It was so much fun talking with them about the differences and similarities between Germany and America and hearing her sister translated things for their mom because she didn’t speak any English was really fascinating!
We got to our rooms and were totally impressed! All bunk beds which was a lot of fun and nostalgic! We all got ready to do something that night and a few of us girls went to a restaurant with traditional Czech food. We ordered beef tartar for an appetizer, which I had never had before so I tried it. As soon as I tasted I asked if it was raw meat and Averey said yes. That was the end of the tartar for me, but at least I tried it. I ordered the rabbit with dumplings because it was a traditional Czech meal and I was trying to live life on the edge. I also tried some raw garlic because I was battling a bit of a cold and they said it was really good for that, but it was really peppery and spicy, so I don’t suggest it. We were all so full but we had to have a Czech dessert so we ordered a misa cake to split, which was so good and chocolatey! That night we had some fun at an ice bar, it is exactly what it sounds like, burr!! The next day we went sight seeing and I had so much fun, it is probably my most favorite time so far!
We got to see the Prague Castle, where the president lives, from far away and the Charles Bridge which is an extremely old bridge named after King Charles VI and it was used as a trade route between the Old town and New town. One of my favorite things that we did was go see The Lennon Wall, which if you recognize the name you can probably figure out who that is named after! People come and spray paint the wall with words of love and peace and sometimes Beatles lyrics, but when don’t the lyrics have anything to do with those two things? The wall was used as a symbol of disagreement with communism. The four of us who went left a piece of paper with our names on it and I wrote on the wall with a pen! It was so heart-warming and an odd feeling came over me when I saw it. Prague was a lot of fun and very inspiring and it has such an amazing history!
Erfurt, DE -- Ting-Toomey’s Face Negotiation Theory explains that humans are motivated to help each other maintain a positive face or one’s positive image of their self in a conflict or in an embarrassing situation. There are different “faces” that some cultures look to maintain more than others. The first being self-face concern, which is the concern for one’s own identity, second, other-face concern, which focuses on other’s image, and last mutual-face concern, which focuses on both parties in the situation. This notion can vary across individualistic and collectivistic cultures, one being focused mainly on the individual and the other focused on the group. The United States and Germany are typically individualistic societies which makes sense that most people would be focused on saving their own face.
I was presented with an odd situation at dinner one night with a couple of the girls on the SPICE trip. We went to a pretty nice restaurant and the food we got was really good! I don’t know if I just wasn’t used to the tipping customs or if I forgot what they were, but I did something rather silly. I paid for my food, a 20 euro bill i think, and as the others were trying to pay I was rummaging for some kind of tip. I pulled out 10 euro and laid it on the table and the waitress looked at me, rather confused, and I just told her that it was hers. She looked at me like I was crazy and I heard the other girls giggle. I looked at them and said confusingly “Was that wrong? What am I supposed to tip?” One of them said to me “We’ll talk about this later.” When we got outside I asked the same questions and explained that it was at least a fifteen percent tip if not more. They explained to me that waiters and waitresses here get paid more and that if anything you give a one or two euro tip. In the States I usually give decent tips, especially if the service I received was good, but I think I just got caught up in my own customs and didn’t event think about it. Luckily I had some good people with me to explain that tipping customs are different here and didn’t give me too hard of a time for my ignorance. And we just ended up “sharing” the tip in the end.
20 July 2014
Austria and Munich
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| Me with the view of a lake in Salzburg, Austria. |
Salzburg, Austria and Munich -- A few weeks ago two girls from the group, Averey and Marissa, and I took a trip to Salzburg, Austria and from there went to Munich. We only stayed in Salzburg for a night so we didn’t get to see all that it had to offer but I saw a good bit! We went on The Sound of Music tour because parts of that movie were shot in Salzburg and the Von Trapp family in the movie are actually real people, from Salzburg! On the tour the guide not only pointed out areas where the scenes of the movie were shot but historical places in Salzburg. We were able to see the Salzburg Castle, from far away, but it was very cool. There are different roofs on parts of the castle and that is because the different archbishops that inhabited the castle added to it, giving the different types of roofs. Another interesting fact about the castle is that it is now apartments in which artists that are paid by the Salzburg government to create art live there. I never got to see any of the artwork they do, but the tour guide said that it isn’t the best art he’s ever seen. We also saw the original Von Trapp home, though Warner Brother’s wasn’t allowed to use the original house to shoot the movie in so found another place that resembled it to shoot the house scenes of the movie. There is some pretty interesting history in Salzburg!
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A sign at the entrance of Dachau
Concentration Camp in Munich.
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After our tour we caught at train to meet a couple other people in Munich. After we found our hostel and dropped our stuff, we went to a restaurant to grab some food before we roamed around. We were eating and there was a table of three people beside us and they were clearly speaking English, so I asked them where they were from and what they were doing in Munich. It was pretty cool to hear familiar words when having been surrounded by the German language for so long. As we were getting ready to leave a guy on the other side of us asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Munich. We talked to him and asked him where we should go but we actually just ended up tagging along with him for the night. The next day we decided to go to Dachau the concentration camp. It is definitely something to experience! The place was huge. We got to see inside of the buildings, some had very small rooms for “special” prisoners, another had wooden bunk beds where they slept. It was a very emotional experience and overwhelming. I felt so many different emotions that it is very hard to describe just one feeling. Learning in school about what happened is one thing, being there, walking on the same ground that innocent people who were oppressed walked on is a completely different feeling and thought process altogether. A very eye opening experience.
14 July 2014
Cultural Convergence Theory
Erfurt, DE -- Cultural
Convergence Theory explains that people will either converge, move toward, or
diverge,move away from, their cultural surroundings. Convergence and divergence
depend on openness of communication, the more open communication is the more
likely convergence is to happen. Since I’ve been in Erfurt and
surrounding areas, I have become somewhat acquainted with the cultural norms
and I try to do my best to converge mostly because I don’t want to stand out
like a sore thumb if something were to go wrong, that could be embarrassing,
although it is sometimes hard to avoid.
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At the public viewing for the World Cup
finals! Germany wins the cup!! A great night to be in Germany! |
I
noticed in Amsterdam before watching the semifinals of the World Cup that
everyone was wearing orange in addition to other accessories, such as a hat or
a lei. We stopped at a restaurant to get a drink and start watching the game.
We were rather early for the game but while we waited for it to start we heard
a few different instruments playing close by. Some guys with a saxophone and
tuba came through to make their way to the front where the televisions were.
Once up there they started to play more and we could tell that they were
getting into the game before it had even started. Every one sang along when the
anthem came on at the beginning of the game. We stayed there for a while but
then went to look for another place because we couldn’t see much of the game
anyway. We got to a bar and although it was very crowded inside, we could still
see a T.V to watch the game. When the game didn’t end after ninety minutes
because no one had scored, everyone, I mean everyone in that bar was glued to a
television. It was really cool to be around that many people so eager to see
what was going to happen during the overtime and hear the chants for the
Netherlands.
I’m
not particularly a sports fan, only WVU football, but I found myself oohing and
ahhing, clapping and booing along with everyone else who was a dedicated fan. I
couldn’t quite understand the chants to jump in on those but I felt just as a
part of the community as the people who were local. When we were in Munich, I
never had this feeling of togetherness, but then again I was sitting outside of
a McDonald’s watching and it wasn’t the semifinals. The biggest difference I
noticed was that the people in Munich just sat and quietly watched the game and
there was no interaction with what was happening on the screen. In both
situations I converged to everyone else’s nonverbal and verbal messages, the
difference is that while in Amsterdam I wasn’t purposely converging, it just
happened. I assume that it happened because of the lively atmosphere and as for
Munich it felt as though I couldn’t do anything else besides quietly watch the
game or I was being disruptive. Convergence, for me can be a conscious act or
an act that I easily fall into because of the actions of the other people
around. Although at the World Cup finals that I watched in Erfurt, I felt like
I did in Amsterdam, part of the group and part of the culture, without having
to try.
6 July 2014
On the 4th of July
Erfurt, DE -- This was my very first 4th of July away from my family and out of my country and I must say it sure was different. We had a good cookout with the American staple foods, cheeseburgers, beer, and snacks minus the s’mores, fireworks and sparklers, which are my favorite! All my life, in and out of school, I have encountered acts of patriotism for my country. I recited the National anthem in class every morning from the time I was in kindergarten until I graduated high school. I can remember my Mom, on several occasions, thanking men and women in uniform for their services.I didn’t get to talk much to any of the German students who attended about their take on the American flag or their feelings about their own country, but a few of us had a discussion in a previous blog class about the presentation of the flags. I’ve always been accustomed to seeing the American flag, uh, everywhere. My grandparents have one flying, theres always one flying outside of my high school and at WVU, and people typically fly them outside their house when they don’t have a holiday flag to put up. So to learn that the German flag is not presented this way or at all was definitely strange. I’ve seen a good bit of them since I’ve been here but I’m told that this isn’t typical and it is only because of Germany being in the World Cup and once they’re out or it’s over, the flags will go back inside.Our national anthem is sang before every sporting event with our right hand over our heart or behind our back and ball caps must be off. Germans can get in trouble if they are caught singing their national anthem because the first few verses are seen to represent Nazism, and the display of the flag brings about thoughts of the same. As strange as this may be, it is kind of understandable to me because of the history of the country even though the German national anthem was written long before Hitler’s time, eighty years to be exact. I also heard a story about how German soldiers aren’t as appreciated or given as much attention as us Americans give our soldiers, which is a little sad to think about because they are protecting their country and it’s inhabitants.
Although I have grown up with all of these symbols and acts of patriotism, getting older I feel as though our patriotism has shifted to nationalism and we think of ourselves as a superior country and that there are no others. I’m very proud to be an American, and realize the freedom, like to be able to hang our flag and sing the national anthem without possible persecution we have is unlike any other country, but to be ignorant of other countries and not recognize their standing is something that we should try to work on. I think that the limited display of the German flag is very humbling and in a way makes me feel as though I shouldn’t be as open with my patriotism because Germans aren’t as open with theirs. I also think that the feelings about the German national anthem and the flag go back to Hitler because of the liberty/oppression moral foundation and the oppression people felt during that time. In a way I guess I’m saying that to them their flag doesn’t give them a sense of freedom from that time but instead it is still a representation of the time when people were oppressed.
30 June 2014
One Month in Reflection
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| A few people from the SPICE crew at Kramerbruckenfest. |
Erfurt, DE -- I’m
a little over a month into my study abroad experience and I must say it has
been just that! I can’t believe it is halfway over because one, I feel as
though I just got here and two, I still can’t believe that I am here. I have
traveled every week to some where new in Germany and in other countries. I had
really no idea what to expect when coming here, I was just very excited to
figure it all out at once! One thing I notice every where is that people, at least
the people I have had the opportunity to talk to, are relatively nice, although
if you’re in someone’s way they don’t hesitate to just walk through you, which
is something we do not do in the states. I have become pretty accustomed to the
food, because when I was told by a friend who has been here before about the
schnitzel and bratwurst I wasn’t too excited for that, but it’s pretty
delicious! I have tried so many new foods and amazing ones at that, that I
really don’t know what I will do when I get back home.
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Umbrellas
on the residential bridge.
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It was a good while before I got to meet my German roommates, because they were out of town but when I finally met one of them Caroline, Cali for short, she was extremely welcoming, more so than I had thought! She immediately showed me what cabinet I could put food in and cleared out a spot in the refrigerator for me! She told me where she was from, what her major was, and a little about the other two roommates! I didn’t meet my other roommate, Victoria for a while because we are different schedules because I don’t have school through the week and they do, so the timing threw our introduction off. She was just as nice and welcoming and speaks broken English, but it is good enough that we can converse without hardly any problems. My other roommate doesn’t know much English so we haven’t had much interaction but he seems nice. One weekend I had the opportunity to meet Victoria’s mom and sister which was really neat! Her sister was a foreign exchange student in Cumberland, Maryland, which is twenty minutes from my hometown! It was so crazy when I asked her where she went to school and she told me! The town isn’t very big at all so it was like the six degrees of separation theory in action! I’m still flabbergasted by the whole situation, so crazy!! They went out to watch the soccer game that night but invited me to have breakfast with them the next morning. Victoria made eggs, bacon, rolls, and cut up peaches. It was so much fun talking with them about the differences and similarities between Germany and America and hearing her sister translated things for their mom because she didn’t speak any English was really fascinating!
We
talked about the difference between religion in the states and here because
everyone in the states goes to church and going to church isn’t as big in
Germany even though there are a good bit of churches. Another thing that we
didn’t talk about but something that I have noticed is the language barrier. It
hasn’t been extremely difficult for me, but there have been some instances where
it is just weird when I’m trying to talk and the person just walks away to find
someone else to speak in English and doesn’t respond to you. Overall though it
has been fun because I’m in a foreign country and it is all part of the
experience, but it is strange being the “foreigner”!
24 June 2014
Site Visit: Prague
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John Lennon and I at The Lennon Wall,
a representation of love and peace!
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Prague -- The second week we were in Germany a group of eleven of us decided to go to Prague in the Czech Republic. We went to Dresden for a night to break up the train ride on the way there and because Germany was playing in the World Cup. We had found a hostel, which I was skeptical about having never stayed in one before, but it was pretty decent. We got there and put our stuff down and then went out to find a place to watch the game. We found this pretty cool place although I couldn’t see the screen well, but the enthusiastic “hoorays” was good enough for me to know what was going on. I didn’t get to see much of the city but we were only there for a few hours and to catch some sleep. The next day we got up to catch the train to Prague, not knowing where we were going to stay when we got there. Luckily one of the girls had some friends who are studying abroad there and they told her about a nice hostel we could check out. We arrived and went looking for the hostel and when we got there it was more than what I had expected. There was a lounge, bar and restaurant downstairs. They even had live music every night! Where we had stayed the night before was nice, but this was even nicer.
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The Charles Bridge in Prague, named after
King Charles VI and used as a trade route.
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We got to see the Prague Castle, where the president lives, from far away and the Charles Bridge which is an extremely old bridge named after King Charles VI and it was used as a trade route between the Old town and New town. One of my favorite things that we did was go see The Lennon Wall, which if you recognize the name you can probably figure out who that is named after! People come and spray paint the wall with words of love and peace and sometimes Beatles lyrics, but when don’t the lyrics have anything to do with those two things? The wall was used as a symbol of disagreement with communism. The four of us who went left a piece of paper with our names on it and I wrote on the wall with a pen! It was so heart-warming and an odd feeling came over me when I saw it. Prague was a lot of fun and very inspiring and it has such an amazing history!
23 June 2014
Face Negotiation Theory
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| Amazing dinner and at a good price, all while saving a bit of face! |
I was presented with an odd situation at dinner one night with a couple of the girls on the SPICE trip. We went to a pretty nice restaurant and the food we got was really good! I don’t know if I just wasn’t used to the tipping customs or if I forgot what they were, but I did something rather silly. I paid for my food, a 20 euro bill i think, and as the others were trying to pay I was rummaging for some kind of tip. I pulled out 10 euro and laid it on the table and the waitress looked at me, rather confused, and I just told her that it was hers. She looked at me like I was crazy and I heard the other girls giggle. I looked at them and said confusingly “Was that wrong? What am I supposed to tip?” One of them said to me “We’ll talk about this later.” When we got outside I asked the same questions and explained that it was at least a fifteen percent tip if not more. They explained to me that waiters and waitresses here get paid more and that if anything you give a one or two euro tip. In the States I usually give decent tips, especially if the service I received was good, but I think I just got caught up in my own customs and didn’t event think about it. Luckily I had some good people with me to explain that tipping customs are different here and didn’t give me too hard of a time for my ignorance. And we just ended up “sharing” the tip in the end.
16 June 2014
Communication Accommodation Theory
Erfurt, DE -- Communication Accommodation Theory or CAT was presented by Howard Giles in 1971 and tells us that even though we like to think that we don’t change our communication pattens from person to person, we do. We can either converge or diverge depending on who the person is that we are interacting with and what we want from the interaction. Changing our speech patterns to match while in an interaction is a tool that helps us become closer or more distant from our partner or can be used to enhance similarities and differences. I’ve ran into this a little bit since I’ve been in Erfurt mostly when interacting with local people who speak German or both English and German. Although I do not know much German I sometimes notice myself changing my accent to try to speak similarly even just speaking English words. I probably do this so whoever I’m talking with can see that I am at least trying to get the accent down even though I don’t have the language right. It’s almost like a prompt for me, if I can get the accent while speaking English, then when I finally do know a few more German words I can put the accent with it and I will have all of it down at once. Whether it’s supposed to work that way or not, I do not know and whether or not that person feels socially closer to me from me doing so, I do not know that either, but it makes me feel closer to them.15 June 2014
Site Visit: Krämerbrückenfest
Erfurt, DE -- I think that we arrived in Erfurt at the perfect time because the weekend we got here there was the Krämerbrückenfest, which is a festival to celebrate one of the oldest residential bridges in Erfurt. It was somewhat like a fair but not as many carnival rides. The singer Anastasia sang one night in front of the Domplatz, there were booths set up selling beer, wine and food all over the town. During the day there were people everywhere just walking around and browsing the stores. I sometimes forget that Erfurt is a city of 250,000 people because you don’t see that many people everyday, but during the festival you sure knew it! The festival was Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the streets were fill all day, every day.
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| The Domplatz during the Krämerbrückenfest! |
On Sunday I went out to roam around by myself. I stopped to get a cappuccino, chocolate and just browse in and out of some stores. When I found a chocolate store, I looked around for a while because I wasn’t sure what all the chocolate was. Now you may think that chocolate is just chocolate, but not here. There was green chocolate with what looked like nuts on the top of it, pink chocolate, brown and white chocolate which is obvious, and then there was a case with all different types of truffles in it. I was in amazement and also a state of confusion because I had no clue what I was really looking at. I decided to pick up a bar of the mixed chocolate, to stay on the safe side, and then pick out some truffles. When I started talking to the woman behind the counter about whether or not I could mix different truffles she seemed just as confused as I did about the chocolate. She walked away and a few seconds later another girl appeared and she started speaking in English asking me what I needed. I realized that the woman who was trying to help me before knew no English at all, which I probably should have asked if she did instead of just assuming. When I speak in English, if the person I’m speaking to doesn’t know it they either walk away and find someone who does or I just have to use non-verbal gestures to get the point across, which is sometimes fun, like charades. I enjoyed seeing all of the people out and about during the festival and running into a little confusion because that’s part of the experience!
12 June 2014
Touching down in Germany
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Marissa and I dipping our feet in a stream
that runs under the Kramerbrucke - one of the
oldest residential bridges in Europe!
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Erfurt, DE -- I finally touched down in Deutschland on Monday. I didn't feel as jet lagged when I got off the plane as I did the following day when I couldn’t get up as early as I normally do. I’m still adjusting to the time change but it’s not quite as bad as I expected it to be. All of us were feeling pretty rough when we got here but we were still determined to go out and explore and get a few beers. The first restaurant the crew and I went to was a schnitzel house so we all got a beer and schnitzel! I’ve never eaten it before and when we got it, they were huge! I got schnitzel with spaghetti on top and it was amazing but it was so big I couldn’t eat all of it. We hung out there for a good while before we took off to explore more of Erfurt. We stopped a few places along the way to check them out and relax in between. We finally came to what I would call a creek, but I guess here it is a river. There were a lot of people hanging around it and little kids playing in it so we all took our shoes off and crossed to other side and found a bar. Then on our slow venture home, we stopped for some gelato, which was amazing! It was only our first day in Germany and I drank German beer, had schnitzel and gelato and put my feet in the water! I’d say I’m off to a good start.
09 May 2014
Introduction
My name is Charite and I am from a small town in West
Virginia called Short Gap. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to travel a
good bit throughout the United States and out of the country on a few occasions,
but I am especially excited for this journey. I will be traveling to Erfurt,
Germany in June for 3 months to study abroad and the excitement is almost
unreal. I’ve wanted to study abroad
since I came to WVU because I want to experience the uncertainty of being
immersed in a different culture. It seems pretty crazy to think that someone
might actually want that, but I think of it as a true test of character and
adaptation. Though I will admit it is just as scary to be going on this big
trip without anyone you don’t know but that is another reason why it’s kind of
like a test. But I am more than excited for the trip and I especially can’t
wait to get to know the group of people I am going with. They all seem like
really cool people and I think our summer in Erfurt will be one to remember! I
really like to travel and I also really like to write so this blog is going to
be the most perfect thing for me and I hope that you check in every week to
catch up with me and read about what I have been doing and where I have gone!
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