Bus rides, roller coasters, and wax people

Hello again! I write to you today from a quite cold and rainy Berlin. Really the only thing I can complain about here is my daily bike ride to and from the train station (coming home is worse though, since it is slightly uphill). I really hate being cold. It's funny that it has taken me 25 years to realize such a simple fact about myself. So simple, yet it can have such a significant impact on my mood and behavior (I tend to eat more, sleep more, and exercise less - never a good combination). When I grow up, I want to live somewhere warm.

Fear not, I have more "differences between home and Germany" to share. These are not by any means profound, but they are things I notice on a regular basis and have come to shape my perspective of the culture here.

1) Restaurant behavior. At home, the servers are working for tips. That means they stop by your table often, and they move quickly (or at least that's what we would hope for).  Not here.  The server will not even come over to your table to ask for your order until all the menus are closed - this indicates that everyone has decided what they would like. Hylke actually "warned" me about this when we were at Applebees in Minnesota on his very first night in the US. He was shocked that our server kept coming over to our table and asking if we "were ready" to order when we were clearly still looking through the menu options. I guess it makes sense...Also, here you must ask for the bill. I know that sometimes you need to ask for the bill at home (for example, if you are in a rush to leave), but most of the time the server presents the bill while you are still eating. Not here. There seems to be no rush. Also, no real incentive for speedy and friendly service since tips aren't the norm.

2) Writing numbers. HUH?! Commas and [decimal] points used in number punctuation in German are opposite from English. If something costs 5 Euros and 50 cents, you write it as 5,50 (with a comma). If you are talking about 10 thousand 500 people, you write it as 10.500 (with a point/period). Now you know.

3) Quotations marks are also a bit different. „They look like this.” Can't believe I'm just now learning some of these things...

4) Germans love to separate their waste. At my house, we have the garbage under the kitchen sink (typical). We also have a bin for all plastics EXCEPT plastic bottles that have a certain symbol on them that indicates you can get money back for them. Those go in a different bag that my host parents regularly take to the supermarket where there are self-service machines that give you a little voucher as a refund that you can then use as a coupon with your grocery purchase. We also have a separate area for all paper products (pretty typical). My host family drinks their water and juice from glass bottles. These bottles are not recycled; instead, we also bring them to the supermarket where they are cleaned and reused. It doesn't stop there. We also often eat the eggs from the chickens in the backyard, and we must save the egg shells and put them back in the chicken house (I forget why, but I guess the chickens need them). When we have meat with bones, I'm supposed to give our dog the bones. When all is said and done, very little waste actually ends up in the garbage under the kitchen sink. Uffda. 

5) Everyone wears scarves here. Men and women alike. I feel like it's a lot less common to see men wearing scarves back home.

6) I think I may have mentioned this before (or perhaps you have assumed), but many people bike in Berlin. I'm talking about biking as their primary means of transportation to and from work. Ok ok, so not too different from bigger cities in the US.  However, I was quite surprised to see how many people bike with their children. In the cold and rain! Many bikers have their child sitting in the attachable back seat. Some have a cart they push in front of their bike, and several kids have tiny bikes that they "walk/ride" (think Fred Flintstone) alongside their parents - it's common for me to see parents that end up having to carry these little bikes as extra baggage on the train.

7) You MUST carry cash here. I think I've only made one or two purchases with my debit card since I've been here. It seems that few places accept cards. I was surprised. You also need coins for carts at the supermarket and public toilets.

Alright. Now moving on to my trip to the Netherlands!

Allow me to set the scene. Friday night. Jakob (with the verbal assistance of Lutz) drives me to the bus station in Berlin. I arrive 30 minutes prior to the departure time (as instructed) and immediately find the bus marked "Amsterdam" which is already there and waiting for passengers. It is freezing, so I board as fast as possible and sit behind two guys who sound like they come from Britain. At first I was thinking, "this is going to be kind of cool". The other passengers were all around my age and speaking a range of languages. Everyone had their own seat, and the bus seemed to be comfortable enough...My oh my, how quickly that changed. Inevitably, not everyone abided by the "please board 30 minutes early" statement. Before I knew it, people were sharing seats with strangers (maybe not so bad if we didn't have a 8-hour ride in the middle of the night ahead of us). I was smart. I sat in the aisle seat, turned my body to face the window, and pretended to be asleep. Voila! No one asked to sit with me! It was genius. But I wasn't off the hook yet. At the very last moment, a woman boards the bus WITH A BABY. She squeezes next to the big guy directly across the aisle from me (approximately 10 inches away). Noooooooooo! Of course the baby had to sit on her lap. The person in front of her reclined their seat to sleep. She had no room. The baby cried. Needless to say, I was no longer looking forward to the night ahead. 

THANKFULLY, I was able to sleep. Those who know me won't be surprised. I have no problem sleeping. I'm like a professional sleeper. Anyway, then I had to go to the bathroom. For the first couple hours of the bus ride, I was convinced the bus didn't have a bathroom and we were all going to have to hold it for 8 hours. (Oh, another thing: No one could understand the bus driver. I still have no idea what language he spoke. So, it's not like I could really ask a question.) There was clearly no bathroom at the front of the bus and no bathroom at the back. But then, I spotted it! It was in the middle of the bus, down a couple of steps, completely hidden like Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs. I decided to give it a whirl. Worst idea ever. 

1) I couldn't get the door open (it was vacant). I had to ask the nearest guy to help me, and after a couple of minutes he managed to unlock the door from the inside by pushing his fingers through the crappy seal. Ok, I thanked him, and then-

2) I couldn't get the door closed when I was inside. By this point, I was almost peeing my pants so I was ready to just pee with the door slightly open. Ok, I pulled harder and the gap exposing me to the other passengers finally disappeared.

3) No toilet paper. No towels, tissues, nothing.

4) No running water for the "sink". 

Approximately 5 minutes later, the bus stopped for a toilet break. Enough said.

Ok, I realize this is becoming obnoxiously long...

Around 3:30am, the bus came to a stop, the inside lights came on, and the bus driver mumbled something unintelligible into the PA system. I looked out the window and saw a sign that led me to believe we were in Arnhem (my stop), so I got off the bus (I was the only one), and the bus drove away. So there I was. Absolutely freezing. On the side of a street in a brand new country with a different language (so I couldn't understand the street signs), 30 minutes before my scheduled arrival time. No people around. No cars. Nothing. I immediately called Hylke and was incredibly relieved to hear that he was only 12 minutes away. Ah I love my friends!

Hylke is a champ. He drove us back to his house (he lives with his parents and older brother), which was another 40 minutes from the bus stop. In the freezing cold. At 4 in the morning. He hadn't slept yet. You get the point. What a guy!

Needless to say, we went right to bed and slept until noon the next day :) We then went to visit HAN University where Hylke goes to school. HAN has an exchange partnership with MSU in Mankato, so it was neat to see the campus that I have promoted to so many students! The main building was even open (it turns out that was a mistake and we were eventually asked to leave, but I managed to snap some pictures). And now technology is being difficult, so I can't upload the pics from the university. Click here to watch a YouTube video about the school. I really liked the look and feel of the main building (we visited the Nijmegen campus). It might be nice to work there some day...

After our quick tour of the university, Hylke and I headed towards the theme park! We went to Walibi World, and boy was it packed! And cold. VERY cold. The park was set up with special lights/sounds/decorations for "Halloween Fright Nights". We even went through one of the many haunted houses there, and actors walked around the park scaring people at night - some chased the park-goers with chainsaws or lept after them on spring-loaded stilts. It was actually quite frightening! The huge crowd meant really long lines. Unfortunately, we were only able to go on 3 rides because we had to wait over an hour for each one :( I rode on Excalibur, El Condor, and Goliath.

On our way home, we were listening to the radio. One person called into the radio station to say that he bought admission tickets to Walibi World in advance and even purchased a parking voucher online, but he was denied entry to the park when he arrived because it was full! A second caller told the DJ she had been sitting in her car trying to leave the park for an hour and a half! Just to give you a sense of how many people were there...


Ok, day two in the Netherlands. Hylke took me to Amsterdam! I really did not expect to see Amsterdam because I knew it was over an hour drive from Hylke's house; however, he said "You have to see Amsterdam if you're in Holland" - so we went! And I looooved it. Amsterdam is a such a cute city with tall narrow buildings squeezed together (I admired the variety of rooftops) and an organized network of canals with little stone bridges threading together the streets. Among the massive and intricately-designed old buildings, there were endless alleys filled with cafes, coffee shops (places for smoking weed), restaurants, and shops. 

We spent most of the afternoon admiring celebrities, historical figures, and other important people at Madame Tussauds! 

It really is amazing how long it takes to create one of these wax figures. I enjoyed learning about the intricacies of the process and even the history of Madame Tussaud herself!

After a few hours with the celebs, we had dinner at the most authentic Dutch restaurant we could find. I even had a split pea soup (called Erwtensoep) which is "typically Dutch". After dinner we found the house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis. It was a little eerie to be there. I remember learning about Anne Frank back in elementary school, but now I have a renewed interest to read her diary and put myself in her shoes.

After that, we decided we needed to walk through the Red Light District. On our way, we came across the premiere for the new James Bond movie! There were so many fancy people in tuxedos and evening gowns, but of course I didn't recognize any of them. All I was thinking was "God, they must be cold." We even ran into one of Hylke's friends on the street! Apparently they recognized some famous Dutch athletes and actors...

So then we strolled through the dark streets as nearly naked young women waved to us from their backlit windows and several windows indicated enough with their red curtains pulled closed.


I bought some cheese and a winter hat as a souvenir (that has really come in handy), and we headed back home to grab my luggage and meet the [dreaded] bus once again. The bus picked me up in Arnhem at 12:30am on Monday (again I was the only person at this stop). This time I had to share a seat. After driving for only about an hour, the bus stopped. The driver mumbled something to us, and before I knew it the bus was being hijacked by the police! Ok, so maybe not hijacked - but I still didn't really understand what was going on. Each person had to show their passport and answer questions before we were allowed to continue into Germany. That was unexpected. 

Nevertheless, I made it back to Berlin! I actually went straight to school from the bus station. I was soooo tired.

Tuesday: I gave a presentation in my German class! My teacher said I am almost ready for the next level (B1). Hooray, I'm learning :)

Wednesday: I visited the Bode Museum with one of my classmates after lunch. It is part of the Museum Insel ("Island") in Berlin. I feel so underqualified when I look at art. I probably saw 346,548 sculptures and paintings of Mary with baby Jesus. I was numb by the end. Everything started to look the same. It was just another reminder of the overwhelming amount of things I don't know much/anything about (namely: art history). 

Which brings me up to today. Whew! I have been learning like crazy at school. I still enjoy living with my family. I feel a sore throat coming on. I am going to be a witch at a halloween party this weekend (Anne invited me). I am also going to the city of Potsdam on Sunday with Lutz and Barbara and maybe Jakob. On Saturday, a bunch of Lutz and Barbara's friends are coming over and we are going to eat a pig. That's all I know right now.

If you seriously made it this far, you deserve a cookie. Go get one. Now.