Small Town Girl

As I was sitting in the small, smokey pub of SC Greven 09 (Soccer Club) listening to men of all ages drunkenly singing and swaying to victory chants and drinking songs, I turned to Matthi and said, "This is an experience that all the other Americans in my program will never get to have!" So let me back up a little in my story...Matthi plays for the highest division of his soccer club (gets paid to do so...how nice!), and this Sunday was a huge rival match between his team SC Greven 09 and the other Greven club. We drove to the club around 11:00am so we could watch some of the lower divisions and younger teams play, and then Matthi's game commenced at 2:30pm. It was a pretty heated game and yellow cards were being pulled by the referees left and right. In fact, the goal keeper of Matthi's team received two yellow cards and was therefore removed from the game. The coach (scrambling for a back-up plan) had the keeper of the younger division step up and play for the second half of the match. The kid (who still had braces...if you wanted an age estimation) did an amazing job! No one scored on him and the game ended a 2-1 win for SC Greven 09!
After the game, I went up to Matthi and his teammates to congratulate them, and the first thing out of Matthi's mouth was, "Thanks! Woah, you're lips are blue!" Yeah, did I mention that I stood outside for over six hours in 32 degree weather? It was freezing, windy, and if it wasn't for the dimly beaming sun then my whole body probably would have been blue! I was definitely excited when I was informed that we could go into the pub to celebrate the win.

Only in Germany does a team get rewarded 30 free beers for winning a match! Once again, I was basically the only girl in the pub with Matthi's entire team, fans, and SC Greven 09 "alums." But as we have already been over in the previous post, I had no problem with this at all! We celebrated the win, the coach said a few words, and the Bundesliga (Major League) game came on the television. Fußball was EVERYWHERE! One of the club's retired prodigies was in the pub riling up all the players with cheers and chants and telling stories of "the good ole days." He was a hoot; he would yell over everyone in the pub and cheer anyone near him. He also kept on coming up to me and speaking in German...I just smiled and nodded (hope that was an appropriate response..hmm). A few minutes later the singing began at the bar and that is when I turned to Matthi and explained how lucky I am to have a friend in small town Germany. But really, how many times in your life will you be the ONLY American in a private soccer pub in Germany, listening to drunken old men and happy, victorious young men singing together and making victory chants? It was surreal to say the least!

At one point, I got up to use the restroom and I heard, "Hey, American Beauty!" I turned to see Jonas' and Tessa's (two of Matthi's closest friends) father sitting at a table with friends. I made my way over to his table and said, "Hello, Alois!" and gave him a hug. (Mind you I have not seen this man in two years, but I am probably one of the few American girls he has met...twice). He told me that his English is only good after he has had a few drinks, to which I said, "Like father, like son. Jonas tells me the same thing about himself." That gave Alois a good chuckle! The next thing he said was probably the funniest. As he held my hand he told me in broken English, "You look much better than the last time I see you!" Well, I got a good chuckle out of this.

If all of that was not enough, the Greulich family treated me to a traditional German meal at a restaurant in Münster. I had a Jäger Schnitzel with Pommes (fries) and Rotkohl (red cabbage). It was absolutely delicious! All in all it was a fantastic last day of a wonderful weekend in my favorite small town in Germany!

(Pictures: The top is from the night before at Öppe with Jonas and Stephan and the bottom photo is of me with the crazy, old German man at the soccer pub)

Öppe Please and Thank You

On Friday night Matthi and I went to a small pub in Greven called Öppe, which is owned by our mutual friend's parents. If you consider my last trip to Greven, I think think I am the most frequent American customer that Öppe has ever had in the history of its greatness...what an accomplishment on my part! Every other weekend, Matthi meets with his group of guy friends at the pub for a "Stammtisch" (get-together)...so of course I tagged along. We entered the back room of the pub where they all meet, and my eyes became huge as I looked around. I was in a room with fifteen German guys and I was the sole girl in the room--not to mention the sole American in the entire pub. (I included a picture of some of the guys in the room, though not everyone made it in the photo). After awkwardly sitting for a while in the room and listening to all the guys crack jokes and "prost" (cheers) each other, the room got a little quieter. Conni (one of Matthi's good friends) took the quiet moment to LOUDLY turn to me and yell, "SO MAGGIE, WHAT IS UP?!" to which the entire room started cracking up. But let's be honest...how many girls get to be in a room full of 15 attractive German guys? God I love having Asheville School connections!

After about half an hour of getting free drinks from Matthi's Stammtisch pals, I decided to wander out into the main part of the bar to hang out with some of the guys who are not part of the "Stammtisch group." Well, I definitely chose the wrong time to sit down at that table (filled with six German guys..I was still the sole girl), because within the first five minutes I was there, Maik lost the dice game and had to buy a round of shots...Jägermeister shots. For those of you who are unaware, I HATE Jäger...but what is a girl to do when it is put in front of her as a nice German offering? I gulped the nasty, sweet liquor down and was pleased when my stomach chose not to make it reappear on the table (I was a bit worried it would). Anyway, the two crowds converged after a while and we all joined in the main room of Öppe. At one point, a song came on the speakers and the next thing I knew Matthi and his friends were pumping chairs above their heads! I guess the song lyrics call for this sort of behavior; however, I am not exactly sure. Also, Bernd (the owner of Öppe who enjoyed my Tennessean presence two years ago) informed me (through a German translator) that everything was on the house for me since I was the American guest. Ha, you gotta love the foreign attention! Anyway, the night was long (actually, Matthi and I made it home at the wee hours of 4:30am), but I had a great time catching up with old friends, laughing about language barriers, and taking a ton of pictures.

I Wish I Could Study in Greven, Germany!

Soooo, I am back from my long hiatus! This past weekend I went to visit a good friend of mine from Asheville School (Matthias Greulich) in his small town of Greven, Germany. I visited him two years ago for a month and met all of his friends and family, so I was excited for the long-awaited reunion! Matthias and his friend Michi (short for Michael) picked me up from the airport late Thursday night. We chatted in the car and Matthi translated for Michi, who has a little bit of trouble expressing all of his thoughts in English. After dropping Michi off at his house, we drove to another friend's (Jonas') house where we, of course, had a beer and chatted for a few hours.

The next day Matthi took me to the Kalkreise where the Battle of Teutoburg Forest took place. Oook, for all of you who do not know your Germanic or Roman history: this was a pivotal battle that took place in Lower Saxony between the Germanic tribes and the Romans. The Germans were able to strategically trap the Romans in a narrow field, and therefore defeat the enemy. Over the years there have been numerous excavations of this site and an ample amount of archeological discoveries have been made (weapons, bones, coins, armor, bowls, etc). The museum was really interesting especially since I had never heard of this specific battle. After the museum we drove to a nearby town outside of Osnabrück called Tecklenburg. This small town, first documented in the 12th century, exhibits beautiful red-roofed cottages inside the decaying medieval castle walls.

Homemade Pizza

About 15 of the 32 IES Students decided to travel to Stockholm, Sweden this past weekend, while the remainder of us opted to discover more of our new home: Berlin. On Saturday, six of us met up at one of our apartments and cooked a homemade pizza. Lauren and Jake went to the grocery store and bought all the necessary ingredients (including yeast...yes, we even made our own crust) and then we all met to cook the pizza together. The cookbook was in German, so Lauren was assigned to translating the directions. Jake was assigned to mixing the dough ingredients, while the rest of us were assigned to chopping up the toppings.
Once the dough was ready, Lauren and I spread out the dough on the pan. Seeing as though we did not have the proper materials...and throwing pizza dough over your head is for the professionals...we had to "roll" the dough out with our hands. This is much harder than it sounds, and no the pizza did not come out in a perfect little circle. We called our pizza the "tombstone pizza," because that is exactly how it was shaped.
I don't know if you all have ever heard of a "loaded baked potato" but this pizza was a "loaded baked pizza." The toppings included: tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, green/yellow/red peppers, onions, pepperoni, prosciutto, italian sausage, and mushrooms! And I will have to admit, it was one damn good pizza!!

Grocery Shopping in Berlin

As many of you may know, my mother is an extremely talented cook; therefore, she gave me a few of her recipes before I left so that I would have some of "my mama's cookin'" while away. Well, let's just say that grocery shopping in a different language is quite a difficult task...even if you have the recipe ingredients. The little things throw me off the most. For example, I was looking for peeled tomatoes in the can during my first grocery outing last month. Well, it is easy to find a can of tomatoes; however, I also have to know the word for peeled and whole. Good thing I found someone who spoke English, because I had picked up a can of "mushed" tomatoes...DEFINITELY not what I wanted. You wouldn't think that the smallest details would make such a difference. I stood for about 5 minutes in front of the juices trying to figure out which orange juice contained pulp (I really don't like orange juice without pulp, so this is kind of a big deal). Well, if any of you wanted to know...the word for pulp is "fruchtfleisch," which translates to "fruit flesh." I also stood in front of the soups for a while trying to figure out if the cream of mushroom soup was concentrated or already mixed with milk/water.

Anyway, it is already hard enough that everything is in a different language, but all the brands are different too! I think I am slowly getting the hang of the shopping, but there is more madness to these necessary outings I make on a bi/tri-weekly basis. Everyone walks in Berlin; therefore, you buy what you can carry. So I walk 5 minutes to the grocery store with empty bags, 5 minutes back to my apartment with heavy bags. Oh and did I mention that I have 88 stairs to walk up at my apartment? I consider grocery shopping both intellectually and physically grueling.
My hosts are impressed by my ability to cook however. They told me that I was the first student that actually prepares her own meals...everyone else just used the microwave. I guess I can thank my mom for that :)

Lange Nacht der Museen

The "Long Night of Museums" is a bi-annual tradition in Berlin, where the almost every museum in the city opens up to the public from 6pm-2am for the price of 10€ (for students). My friends and I began our night at the Altes Museum, which displays ancient Etruscan and Italian pottery, statues, jewelry, sarcophagi, and more. I just studied the period of art this past semester at Sewanee; therefore, I really enjoyed seeing the pieces that are so similar to those that I studied. Oh, and what is not to love about a room devoted to the phallic representations from ancient Italy? This one room was probably the most popular for picture taking--I know I got some great shots! Next, we walked over to the Bode Museum, which is famous for its medieval to 18th century painting and sculpture collection. The interior of this museum is beautiful with a baroque-style dome in the center lobby (See in picture above).

After we finished our tour of the Bode, we took a bus over to the Kulturforum, where we visited the famous Gemäldegalerie. This gallery houses one of the largest collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Some famous artists include Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, and Johannes Vermeer. I was so excited to visit this gallery; however, the museum's set-up/ organization was very confusing and I could never remember which rooms I had walked through and which I had not. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the Vermeer piece, but maybe I will go back for a second round before my program ends. Our last stop was the Neue Nationalgalerie, which houses works from the modern art of the 20th century. Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff are some of the famous artists featured in this museum. This was one of my favorite galleries and I loved seeing the expressionist paintings by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. His vivid colors and stark brush strokes make his art stand out among the other pieces. At 11pm at night, my friends and I decided to call it quits--we were all pooped from the "long night of museums" and now wanted a long night of sleep.