"Yeah, it's a shithole. But we love our shithole."

Welcome to my home city: Gelsenkirchen.

The caption to today´s article is a quote from one of my colleagues who is from this very special city. You might get an idea why he said this later on.

Anyways, you probably haven't heard of Gelsenkirchen before. That's probably because it is one of Germany´s smaller cities. GE forms part of the North-Rhine Westphalia, hosting around 267,000 people. Previously it had a large coal-mining industry, and for this it was known as “the city of a thousand fires” due to the flames of the mine gases during the night. Something interesting to note is that during World War II, it formed part of the Buchenwald concentration camp for women.

One of Gelsenkirchen´s biggest attractions is the Veltins Arena, a huge football stadium which hosts the local football team of Schalke 04. This means that it is quite common during all times of the day to see drunken people smelling of bratwurst and walking about wearing blue and white singing in chorus (including on the trams). You might also bump into several men who are, most openly and proudly, taking a piss in full view during your leisurely stroll in the park.

(the photo below right I took today, waiting for the tram. It shows the main street of Buer, where there are many shops, cafes, etc)

Other interesting things to see/do here in GE include visiting theme park of ´Movie Park Germany´ (which is fantastic fun, yet on the more expensive side. During Halloween the park stays open until 10pm, and they hire people to wear sick-looking, yet highly realistic makeup, and to run around wild with buzzing chainsaws and give the visitors the fright of their life - see photo), the zoo of ZOOM Erlebniswelt (which I have still to visit, maybe when my budget allows), and also, the Kunstmuseum in Buer, which has a really cool section of ´Kinetic Art´where you can touch the works and interact with them, like clap your hands and they do something like make funny sounds or create light effects (It´s also free of charge). Check it out: http://stadt.gelsenkirchen.de/de/Kultur/Kunstmuseum/

Gelsenkirchen today hosts Germany´s largest solar power plant, and simultaneously, Germany´s tallest chimneys. Several times a week I hear alarms going off, either the ambulance, the police, someone´s car, or the fire brigade. And, since I´ve been living here, I´ve seen the damaged windows of attempted burglaries at least twice. In the same street.

Along with a high rate of unemployment and the fact that half of the city seems to be under construction, one would think that it is not exactly the ideal place to live. So I refer to the above quote. Nevertheless, the city sticks to me like the smell of raw garlic, and admittedly I a fondness has taken root in my heart for this place.

I love how, whilst I´m waiting for the tram in Buer after a long day, the light of the setting sun bathes everything in a soft golden light, and the metal cut-out of a man standing holding an umbrella on the opposite building looks a little warmer. I enjoy shopping for groceries at Netto or the SuperBiomarkt, where everything is still in German - but now, most things I can understand, and the young man at the cashier smiles at me, because now I am a familiar customer to him.

It´s exhilarating too, whenever I feel heavy or down, or simply like I have too much on my mind, to be able to walk for several minutes and then to be in a park, surrounded by foliage and tall, dark tree trunks. I enjoy treading along the path which is lost under the reddish-orange leaves (that have long fallen off the trees), they crackle like a fire burning under my footsteps.
If you, too, walked along this path, you would eventually arrive near a wide green lake, complete with ducks and swams swimming on its surface. And on this lake, you too could watch the coloured lights dance, as the sun sets in its reflection.

Short note:
Next week´s blog will be late.
Because.... I will be in POLAND.....
;-)

A Diversion from Travelling: On Germany and the Germans

Hello once again, dear Readers! For this blog entry we will be taking an inside look at what it is like to actually live in Germany. Are the Germans really like the stereotype? Are they tall, cold and reserved, do they really feed only on copious amounts of beer and sausage, and simply drink water to surprise their liver? Can they only speak English with an enthusiastic 'Ja!' every three words? Read on.

So, I've been living in Germany for the past two months, and I think I've gotten at least a basic impression of the strange, yet alluring people known as 'Germans'. And the one thing that really hits me is that no two Germans are alike. Especially if they come from two different regions. For those who aren't German and reading this, Germany is made up of sixteen states, known as Bundesland. These states are actually more like little countries, so German sounds significantly different if its spoken by someone from Hannover, as compared to someone from the Bavarian region. The Hannover German is considered to be the 'high' or 'proper' German, whilst the Bavarian German - isn't really considered German.

This makes the language a little more difficult to learn. Apart from adding in lots of grammatical rules, with plenty of exceptions, it also has which have three genders. The Germans just like to add in extra rules, for fun. And we non-natives are left speechless (pun intended) even whilst attempting to form the simplest of sentences. As illustrated below.

Yes. German has its own style of doing things. It likes to be different, to stand out, to prance about in lederhosen whilst everyone else is still wearing skinny jeans.

On the other hand, German is remarkably creative. It has a way of wording things that allows for a greater capacity for expressing oneself, for greater understanding. Which I love. One of my favourite words is 'waldeinsamkeit', which has no translation in English. It refers to the feeling of being alone in the woods. Google Translate calls it 'forest solitude'. Which doesn't really quite sum it up. So at least, the 101 rules that come along with learning the language serve some kind of purpose.

Apart from their language, the Germans generally have laws for everything. You can't find or download original films or music online (unless you want to pay a hefty fine), it is illegal to tune pianos at midnight, and a pillow is actually classified as a 'passive weapon' and hitting someone with one can lead to charges of assault. There is even a law determining where you can walk, when you can walk. Like if you want to cross the road, and the little stick man on the pedestrians' traffic light is red, woe betide you if you cross the road. You may get a fine if a policeman sees you; otherwise you simply receive a few withering looks and comments about your mental state of mind. This goes for all times of the day; it is not uncommon to see people at 2am on the sidewalk of an empty road, waiting for the little stick man to turn green.

Apart from being adept at making the most finicky of laws, Germans tend to have other talents, such as having great taste in clothing. Both men and women tend to dress well, choosing colours and cuts to suit their own style. Although to be fair, that's significantly easier when you're tall and blonde.

Germans are also gifted in the time-management section. It is very rare that I meet a German who wastes time. Yes, they use Facebook and spend time socializing like everyone else, but almost everyone in their spare time either plays an instrument, does sports (usually badminton or table tennis), reads a good book– fixing cars or motorbikes seems to be somewhat of a favourite pastime amongst men. One of my German friends spends his leisure time making money by surfing Ebay for old crap, fixing it up a little, and reselling it.

No wonder the German economy is so strong.

Other things to note about Germans and Germany: the love of Wurst is not exaggerated in the stereotype. Germans really love their sausage. They even have butcheries dedicated solely to sausage; and in Berlin, the well-loved Currywurst (a fried pork sausage drowned with warm ketchup and liberally sprinkled with curry powder) even has its own museum ( see http://www.currywurstmuseum.de). On the other hand, they also have a thriving vegetarian community, and all restaurants have a vegetarian section on the menu with plenty of appealing options to choose from. However, be warned – 'Vegetarian' in German ususally means 'drowned in cheese'.

Apart from the stereotype about German love for sausage, German love for beer is also not exaggerated. Here one can find many ways to drink beer – such as mixed with cola or fanta or even as a marinade for your sausage. There are over 200 types of German beer, including chili-flavoured beer, banana-flavoured beer, and even chocolate -flavoured beer, and boy, can they drink!
Germans seem to be generally suspicious of beverages that don't sparkle and you will generally have trouble finding still bottled water to buy. Which is odd since Germans also seem to be suspicious of drinking tap water.

Germans also seem to love foreign food (or rather the eingedeutscht version) and anywhere you go in Germany you will notice an abundance of thriving restaurants, particularly Kebap Häuser, where a typical dish is a doner kebab with a generous side of sauerkraut. The Germans have also borrowed the Italian concept of gelateria and turned it into what is known as an Eis-Cafe, where any kind of dessert with ice cream may be found, from waffles to strudel, to simply ice-cream cream on its own (also available in spaghetti form and known as Spaghetti Eis).

There is really so much to say about die Deutschen that I really could write an entire book about them and their culture! Actually,there is one: 'The Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans' (I borrowed it off my professor). They worship football, cars, David Hasselhof, and recycling; they don't know how to queue; and they hold a special place in their hearts for herbal remedies. And dogs; in fact, their dogs go with them everywhere, on buses, trams, and some Germans even have little buggies to attach to their bikes so that their dogs can come for the ride.

Anyways, that concludes this blog on the Germans, next week: A focus on the one city I haven't written about yet: my hometown!

An insider look at the special city of.... Gelsenkirchen.

Auf wiedersehen, meine Lesen!

(extra note: the above blog is dedicated to my avid reader, Katja Drope :D hope you like it, Kat!!)

References:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/4399866/Ten-crazy-German-rules.html

http://nasenbohrer.com/

Cottages, Cathedrals, and Cannabis: Welcome to Osnabrück, Cologne, and Amsterdam!

Hallo meine lieben Leser, due to some feedback I got from you all, I will revert to my usual lively style of writing about my adventures, and boy, have there been some! Big thanks to all the people who commented on the blog, whether by directly commenting, or FB messages, or face-to-face - all is appreciated! So, let's get down to the doing...

Wilkommen in Osnabrück

I have a dear German friend who came to visit me briefly before attending a workshop. He also was enthusiastic to show me his hometown; this is how I found myself straight after class on the three hour train ride to Osnabrück. With every half-hour that passed, I could see the surroundings becoming greener and greener, until there came a point where I could see the even the highest trees being drowned in the proliferating fields of corn.

Arriving at the station, I was then lead around the town by my friend, who was the perfect tour guide. Chattering excitedly, pink-cheeked, and highly enthusiastic, he completely broke any remenant German stereotype I had. Together, we marched round, trying to fit in everything in just a day - the best part was sitting in a quirky little jazz 'n 'blues cafe called Mojo's, relaxing with some Fairtrade coffee and organic chocolate pear tart...bliss!

Everywhere I looked, I saw cobbled streets and red-tiled roofs; they captured my heart with their quaint charm. There was artwork on every corner, and wooden benches and signs and little trees dotting the streets. There, and also when I visited his typically German home in Bad Essen - I was enchanted by the white-washed cottages, and the dim yellow light cast a mysterious glow over everything, giving me the feeling that I had walked into a fairytale.

I could easily picture Hansel and Gretel in their gingerbread house here, especially as we walked past the edge of a nearby forest. In the dark, the tall trees looked spooky and menacing, yet a shiver of fear and pleasure ran up my back as I inhaled the dank green smell of the earth, listened to the shrill sound of crickets chirping as though they were the maddened inmates of a loony bin.

Hello, KÖLN!

The day after, I was picked up by another German friend, aka Priest Boy (as he was known on his Erasmus studies in Malta xD) and together we sped along the Autobahn, making the 2hr trip to the infamous city of Cologne.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a tall, cuddly-looking (yet still distinguished) young German gentleman, who agreed to take us around his beloved city. Friendly, and possessing a stark wit, he was great company, taking us around to see the magnificent view of the Hohenzollern bridge, and of course the cathedral.

Towering over the city, there it stood, dark and foreboding (kind of like it was photoshopped from Nosferatu) - the intimidating Cologne cathedral! As we approached, I shivered at the terrifying beauty of its geometric design and gigantic spires, as though the Titans themselves had fashioned spears out of silvery-grey molten basalt and pointed them at the heavens, if only to mock the gods that if they were not allowed into heaven, they themselves would create one here on Earth.

And boy oh boy, did they succeed. Especially when I walked inside. I was dumbfounded by the gloriously coloured, intricately-patterned stained glass, the perfectly formed statues, the ribbed vaults and pointed arches, and most of all - the light.
As the sun began to set, orange gold rays of sun sneaked through the little portals of tinted glass and danced along the marble floors; imagine a broken rainbow spilling itself over the ground, and its insides are still squirming around for dear life, like fish out of water.

And last but not least...
AMSTERDAM.

Friday.
5pm. Riding in the rain in a car.
Two Lithuanians.
A bigass bottle of Sangria.
A professional camera.
And - the Girl from the Rock.

I had a feeling that this was going to be an eventful weekend ;-)

A live gig. Great music. Random dancing. Beer. So much smoke in the bar, you could've gotten high from passive smoking. The air is so thick with the smell of pot it made you dizzy.

A cabin in the woods. Two beds. One sleeping bag. Leftover wine. Freaking cold.

Cow statues stuck on a celing. Free cheese. Bicyles everywhere.

Sex shops. Shisha shops. Coffeeshops.

Open-air market. Mushrooms. Bread, Indian stuff. More cheese.

A tiny room filled with blacklights. An ancient woman with straggly white hair talking about electrons. Works of art in fluorescent colours glowing everywhere, hanging from the ceiling, draped over the floor. A little glowing Buddha sits happily in a corner.

Overpriced vegetarian pizza. Relationship problems. Listening. Good coffee.

A Lithuanian slamming a bass. A Fender Telecaster. Maltese fingers are on the strings, and my voice is in the air. Random jamming session until Dutch Dreadlocks guy comes over and tells us we need to buy something. We leave.

Brief lesson on how to tell the difference from cafes and coffeshops. In the meantime, a search for space cake.

Unsatisfied customers. Overpriced dessert with next to no stuff in it. We shrug it off, just planning to have a quick coffee and go back to Germany.

Random dancing. Enlarged pupils. Everything is funny. Everyone seems horny. Or is that just me??!?

Lying on a bridge under indigo skies. The river seems to be on fire as the lamplights reflect over the waters. Next thing I'm in a car.

Warmth. Something cuddly. I bury my nose in this thing and snuggle it more.

I wake up in my bed. It is 9pm. On Sunday.

I've always loved stories. Reading them, listening to them, writing them. When you tell a story to others, you tell it also to yourself, and in telling the story to yourself, you bring yourself to understanding the story more than you ever thought you would.

I've been feeling somewhat unsatisfied with the way my blog has been sounding lately. It seems to me as though it has become a rather lengthy Facebook status, shoving the activities of my life into the faces of others and expecting others to find it interesting. It lacks to captivate even my own interest as I reread it, which is to be expected, as it has none of the presence and stark honesty that is the byproduct of work which has sprung from one's heart. It sounds rather fake and childish, and the language leaves much to be desired.

So this is an experimental post. One which tells the readers not whether I've been to Cologne or to a theme park or the shop round the corner, but tells you only as much as you want to read. You, the reader, will decide where I am - in my state of mind and in my heart.

“As it unfolded, the structure of the story began to remind me of one of those Russian dolls that contain innumerable ever-smaller dolls within. Step by step the narrative split into a thousand stories, as if it had entered a gallery of mirrors, its identity fragmented into endless reflections.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Until we meet again.

I simply stared at her as she stood in the doorway.

To cut a long, long story short - some drunk guy managed to get into her flat through her flatmate's window (as he left it open and they are on the ground level) and stole lollipops, alcohol, and a hair straightener, also breaking several mugs and trashing her flatmate's room on his way.

MANY, many apologies for having delayed this blog entry. However (as you will see) I've been pretty busy, all with meeting my Professor and spending 5 days with him, his family, and three other students on a crazy trip to Koblenz, starting orientation sessions at the Fachhochshule Gelsenkirchen, and - a brief trip to the infamous city of Cologne to watch a live gig!

But it is nice to know that I've got such a great audience - thanks y'all! Also a big thanks to Rafael Dias Sandoval, another Erasmus student from sexy Brazil, for sharing my blog on his site - check out his blog: http://enfimnaalemanha.wordpress.com/

Anyways - back to my adventures in Deustchland :-) So, Kim decided to change residences and is now living close to university. She is fine now, living with a bunch of Romanians, a Belgian, and a lively American girl - very intercontinental!

The Trip to Koblenz

Last Tuesday. All us JPR (Journalism and Public Relations) students go to our tutor's office. Our tutor is a tall, bespectacled German with long teeth, twinkly eyes, and hair that does not look unlike small strings of spaghetti. Amiable, and bordering the eccentric, he goes by the name Professor Doctor Rainer Janz.

Striding into his office and winking at us, he announces that he will be picking us up that very day at 2pm to stay with him and his family in the city of Koblenz, until Sunday.

All of us being the civil beings that we are, we just raised our eyebrows at each other and agreed to be dragged to Koblenz for the week.
Spread out over the sides of the river Rhine, Koblenz is a fascinating city. Picturesque, with quaint white houses roofed with red tiles, it looks typically German. Greenery is everywhere, and the trees' long branches look as though they are reaching out and cuddling the city. Cobbled, clean roads with musicians on every corner, here artists have a real job; to make the city beautiful, and boy, do they take their job seriously! Castles dot the riverbanks, and a gigantic, 37m high bronze statue of Kaiser Wilhelm on a horse stands proudly at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle (it is known as the Deustche Eck).

We were well and truly exhausted by the end of the trip. Basically, we did a fortnight's worth of sightseeing in five days. Prof. Janz, being German, planned everything from dawn till dusk - and insisted that his plan be carried out exactly...

We went to a Celtic festival - which was amazing!

The little wooden stalls presenting different wines, spices, perfumes from the Orient, leather boots and sheepskin cloth, a robed woman with long nails, wearing lots of jewellery and a variety of coloured scarves, eyed us up and offered to tell our fortune; inhaling the smell of Auszogne, these delicious fried pastries topped with stewed apple. But - best of all - was the music. The rhymthic bass beat of the drum, coupled with wailing bagpipes, a mandolin, and a flute - really and truly took me to another era - one really got the feeling that they were living in a time where people showered only once a year!

We also crashed his wife's work party (by invitation) where we had free alcohol - and I discovered my love for 'radler' :P and also danced like crazy - the musicians playing enjoyed our liveliness so much that the singer stuck the mike in front of us at one point during 'I Will Survive' (those who know me will know what a coincidence this is!!) and we sang our faces off....all in all it was a pretty good time.

We went to a SchmetterlingeGarten - a large greenhouse/garden with a 1001 tropical butterflies fluttering around us - landing on our clothes and hair even!Snow White herself as she walked through the forest couldn't have been more enchanted! We also visited two castles and climbed up this wooden structure simply designed to give one a panoramic view of Koblenz, with the Rhine and the Mosel running through its heart. I also watched with fascination as our dear Professor enthusiastically attacked a typical German dish called Currywurst, which is basically a grilled sausage sliced up into little pieces with tomato sauce and liberally added amounts of curry powder on top...I could just imagine my brother's mouth watering....

And, More Recently...

So last week we started orientation sessions. I enjoyed getting to know the campus of the Fachhochschule; I like the modern-yet-somewhat-unkept feel it has, and the atmosphere of students studying (they have exams right now) in its hallways. I was pretty pleased to find out that the canteen has vegetarian food - cheap and delicious, too. Although, they serve the veggie burger with a generous helping of bechamel cheese sauce so thick, that after five minutes it has solidified once again into cheese. But it is pretty yummy.

Frustrated is the only word to describe how I felt with the language barrier (EVERYTHING was in German - all I could say was "Scheiße!"). So you can imagine my horror, when, each and every single JPR student had to STAND UP and introduce themselves....my heart hammering in my chest, I stood up:
"Hallo, mein name ist Natasha, aus Malta, und ich bin zwanzig Jahre alt. And I apologise, but I've used up all my German for today."

Laughs. Phew...and I continue in English. Luckily everyone understands English (unless I speak at my normal pace!) so I was fine. Made friends with a few fellow students, in particular two very tall Germans. One of them does radio broadcasting,is also a sound engineer and a highly talented musician, the other one... well, he looks like an RAF pilot who walked out of 1942, and he does fire-fighting in his free time :) either way, I thoroughly enjoyed last Friday, when they were kind enough to invite me to watch a live gig (with the musician guy on the drums...again I think of my brother!!)in Cologne.

This weekend, spending most of it with the Erasmus students (who are really and truly a kickass bunch of people - everyone is smart, friendly, and really funny!). Next week will be visiting a dear friend in Northern Germany to see his hometown, and in the middle of the week, another dear friend will come to visit. All in all, life is not too bad.

Over the past month that I've been living here in Germany, I've really had a few dark days... when it really hits you that you are in this foreign country, with its strange ways of doing things and strange people, and all the people you love and who love you are far away... yes, you can call/facebook/skype, but it's not the same of course. But then, on a seemingly grey morning in the middle of the week, I woke up and went to to open the curtains. And I discover that God had left me a present outside my window.

I smile, and feel thankful in my heart. Because everything is going to be just fine.

Day 5.

Sitting at the window of the kitchen, sipping fresh juice in the sun, I am enjoying the light breeze sifting through my hair. The weather is incredibly gorgeous, so warm and welcoming, yet fresh at the same time. No suffocating,thick humid heat.
I'm in a T-Shirt and flip-flops. Birds chirp and flutter around the branches of the large oak tree opposite, and Sangpil waves at me from his kitchen window, then continues to bustle about with his gourmet cooking (ramen noodles, presumably).

I feel much better now, compared to these last 24 hours.

Yesterday. Brief trip to Düsseldorf. Kim, the only other Erasmus student from Malta, wasn't feeling well. Neither was I. Recovering from a cough, and both of us developing a headache, we spent two hours wandering around aimlessly in the city. It was beautiful though, and we did enjoy looking round, especially the marketplace, with all the gorgeous flowers and fruit and vegetable with a fantastic range of colours and smells. We spent at least 45mins trying to find a toilet, though. Do Germans not pee so often? Anyways, we couldn't find a public bathroom so we snuck into a cafe.

Later, once we parted, I was alone in my room. Wasn't feeling too good. Had eaten this danish pastry thing which tasted good at the time but made my stomach upset later. Was having mixed feelings, I was tired but couldn't sleep - didn't know what to do so emailed a dear friend of mine then spoke to him on Skpe and felt much better. Went for a walk, then made friends with some German students and we went out to a party. Met my flatmate Patrick too. He seems pretty...nice.

The party seemed a little tame at first, but after an hour everyone loosened up; there was free beer, and even those who weren't smoking pot directly got a little high from passive smoking for sure! The Dj at the party was really good, and I noticed that there were way more guys than women. I rather enjoyed all the attention I got - it was quite different from the usual 'hamalli' whistling and attempting to grab your rear end, but it was basic conversation and offering to buy you a drink. Made friends with a 25year old guy called Jan who spoke English very well.

Anyways, I get back in a far better mood than I left. I fall asleep, switching my cellphone off to that the alarm won't come on in the morning. I wake up around 9am. I switch it on again to check the time. A message immediately arrives.

"Tasha, pls when u wake up come to my flat, I have a problem!"
Kim.

I text back "I just woke up. What happened?"

A minute later, she texts "Open up please, I'm at your door."

I shake off the sleep and go to open.
She is standing there, and I see the expression on her face.

"What the hell happened????"

She shakily looks and me and mutters;

"Someone broke into my flat."

Wilkommen in Gelsenkirchen!!

This morning I woke up to the sound of the speeding on the Autobahn.

Apart from that, its relatively quiet. Tall green trees dance in the cold wind outside my bedroom windows, which are big enough for a German to climb through. Not that one would manage, since I'm on the 3rd floor of one of the apartment blocks at the student residence of Wodan Strausse.

By my second day, I already had two invitations to visit people around Deutschland - the first from our Professor (who invited my colleague and I to stay with him and his family in Koblenz this coming week), and to visit a wonderful couple in Munster, who I made friends with on the plane - they were such lovely people, going out of their way to show us to the train station, procure the cheapest possible tickets for us, helping us with our luggage and telling us all sorts of useful things (like about the carnival in Cologne). We both felt very much blessed to have received help the moment we arrived in a strange country!

So far, Sangpil, a fellow student from South Korea has been taking us round to get all our administrative duties done. With a wide-set face, slanted eyes, and the slightest of dimples, Sangpil wears glasses and donns his black hair in a tall spiked mohawk. He spoke 'Engrish' with a big smile and in a highly amiable manner. Yesterday along with the other Maltese girl and two Brazilian boys, Rafael and Rafael (yes, they do have the same name) we somehow managed to get the basics done, even getting a chance to look round Buer.

Getting overly excited at the cute little bakeries that dot the streets, I bought some Schwarzbrot- a small, dark brown, box-shaped loaf of bread that is so hard that, were you to swing your shopping bag at someone during an outbreak of rage, you would surely bring upon them a concussion of the severest kind (this morning I made a makeshift 'hobz biz-zejt' with it for breakfast this morning)
In the evening, I went out with a friend I met in Malta and her two German friends. One of them was skinny and extremely tall (exactly 2m, he told me proudly) and the other was a little taller than myself and very witty - I laughed so much when my friend said she was surprised at how much bigger the general bosom size is in Malta; at which I promptly asked how the bosom is referred to in Deustch - at which they replied "die Titten".

More to come soon.

:)