Love Letter to Tübingen

Dear Tübingen,

I had no plans to come here when I started my Freshman year of college.  In fact, my Roomie remembers me vehemently declaring that I would never go to Tübingen - that the was the dream of my parents and my parents' friends, not mine.


Luckily for me, Fate had other plans.  I was half strong-armed, half convinced to go.  The idea of a year in Europe was as terrifying as it was thrilling.  Leave my family and friends? For a whole year?  Live somewhere else, by myself?


Next thing I knew, I was being (unceremoniously) dropped on the curb in Tübingen with all my (overweight) luggage.  I'll be honest, I cried myself to sleep the first night. I was terrified out of mind and I desperately wanted to go home.


One year, many adventures, and over 3,000 photos later, I still can't wait to go home, but I'm also not ready to leave Tübingen.


This year in Tübingen has given me wonderful adventures and fantastic memories.  I have found new friends - from near and far - who I will never forget and many of whom are like brother and sisters to me now.

Tübingen has shown me so much.

I guess now would be the moment where I spout all the platitudes about how studying abroad as made me "culturally aware", "globally conscious", and whatever the new hip phraseology that American university use to say "Look at our students not being ignorant, annoying Americans anymore".  And part of that's true.  But that's not what I want to talk about.

I'm more independent and confident than ever.  Okay, I still can't cook and my laundry can be a hot mess at times.  But I can have a conversation with someone in an another language - I can talk politics, crack jokes, and express my emotions.  I can shop for myself and take care of myself.

I've taken the first steps to learning how to be a "grown-up", which is way more terrifying than living for a year in Germany.

Most importantly, Tübingen has shown me all the possibilities for my future.  And for that, I am forever grateful.


Leaving Tübingen and all of Germany is going to be bittersweet indeed.


But I know that I'm going to come back and hopefully soon! 


Auf Wiedersehen, liebe Tübingen! Ich will dich vermissen, aber ich denke wir werden einander bald weidersehen!


Lots of Love,
Your Humble Blogger
And Simba

Packing is a Nightmare!

Hello my lovely readers.

I've been packing for last 2 hours and I just about snapped.  So I'm taking a break to tell you how much I hate packing.

I mean, look at it!

Simba is the only stable, pure, good thing
in this room right now.

WHERE DID ALL THIS STUFF COME FROM?! SERIOUSLY.

When I walk back into my room after taking a break, getting food, etc and I see the mess.

I just keeping discovering new things that I want to take home but have no space to take home.

And I'm just like, Well...

You're not being profane if you're quoting something, right?

Add to that, all of our family friends in Germany keep me stuff for my birthday (not too long ago) and as going away gifts.

I love presents, so half of me is:

But then I realize I have no room to pack them:

My most nagging concern is my amazing Ikea down-comforter.  I bought an expensive, wonderfully soft wintertime one.  The problem is that it's a down-comforter.

WHERE I AM SUPPOSED TO PUT THAT HUH?!

Add that to the pile Christmas market mugs that won't make it home?

Oh my life.

Slowly Saying Goodbye

I'm procrastinating.  That's the only reason this post is going up today.

I have three days left in Germany - I should be packing, cleaning, finishing up an essay (which I suspect will be written on the plane), taking last minute photos, packing some more, and repainting the spots on the wall in my room.

But instead, I decided to take a moment from my hyperventilating and panicking (SERIOUSLY? WHERE DID THOSE BOOKS COME FROM?! Have I had these clothes the whole time?!) to tell about what I love about Germany.

At first, I was going to do an ultimate countdown kind of thing.  But then as I began typing out my list, I realized that most of the things were unable to be quantified or explained.

It's obvious that I love German public transportation (which although a bit pricey, is always clean and usually on time), German chocolate (I can never eat Hershey's again), German Altstadts (adorable), and German castles (I still want to be a princess, what about it).

And of course, German bread.

But I can't explain in a blog post why I love certain German expressions and phrases.  I can't explain the feeling you have when you climb up to a castle that was built before the U.S.A. was founded.  I can't explain the simple joy of walking through crowed, cobble-stoned streets.

My ultimate countdown of things I am going to miss is just one thing:

All of Germany.

Berlin, Finally.

In the midst of packing up, I realized something - despite being here for a year in Germany, I still hadn't seen Berlin!  Luckily, my birthday present came in the form of tickets via AirBerlin to - you guessed it! - Berlin! Everyone else was busy, but I was able to enlist Emily to come along with me.  We barely had two days in Berlin, since we went for just the weekend, but we had a great time!

Now for those of you playing at home, Berlin has a complicated past and most of the history is still fresh.  The city of Berlin was first documented in the 13th century and has since served as the capital city for many regimes: the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I, the Weimar Republic, and the Third Reich.  But perhaps the most famous part of the history of Berlin comes after WWII. The downtown was bombed flat during WWII by the Allies  and divided into 4 parts amongst the victors - England, France, America, and the USSR.  The country was similar divided, leaving Berlin as the sole beacon of democracy and capitalism in a sea of terrible Soviet-ness.

Unsurprisingly, the new East Germans quickly realized that their new regime was just as twisted and evil as the one they had before.  After a worker uprising was quashed by a massacre in Berlin, East Germans tried every way, shape, and form to flee the Soviet controlled part. The main borders between the divided parts were armed, but in Berlin - people were free to come and go into the 3 other areas.  In the 1950s, East Germans raced to Berlin to escape.  It is estimated that 3.5 million East Germans made their way to freedom - that's about 20% of the entire East German populace. The Soviet Union was hemorrhaging Comrades.

In an attempt to staunch the wound, the East Germans erected a wall between the East and West of Berlin literally overnight.  At midnight on August 12th, 1961, Soviet troops cut off the border.  In less than 6 hours, just as the sun was coming up, Germans woke up to see 124 miles of concrete wall surrounding the borders between East and West.

As the Cold War dragged on, the wall became just as mental as physical.  The West bloomed under the support of the Allies, the Marshall Plan, and capitalism.  Meanwhile, the East suffered through poverty and oppression.

Finally in 1989, the Wall fell, but not after getting two great speeches featuring two great quotable quotes from two American presidents.

In Kennedy's 1963 speech, (in)he famously told the West Germans

that he was a Berliner - a jelly filled doughnut.  But they

go the sentiment anyway.

In 1987, Reagan told the Russians quite 

clearly what the Germans wanted.

But we all know who was really responsible for bringing down the Wall:

My housemates have a signed photo of the Hoff that sarcastically

hangs in our kitchen.

The effort to rejoin the two parts of Berlin together is on going.  The Germans still speak of the "Mauer in Kopf" - literally "the Wall in the Brain" - between former East and West Germans.  But overall, you can say that reunification has been a massive success!

Anyway, here's the photographic rundown of all the things we saw:

The TV Tower in Alexanderplatz

The Neptune Fountain in Alexanderplatz

Vertigo!

Emily photobombs again.
This time she had to jump for it, though.

Clouds over the Marienkirche

Behind the fountain, you can see the Berliner
Dom (aka the Berlin Cathedral)

The Dom is located on the Museum Island and
by the Lustgarten ("Pleasure Garden")

Tourists and citizens of Berlin sun themselves in the gardens.

We made our way down "Unter den Linden", a shady boulevard lined with Linden trees.  Following the street down the way, you run smack into the Brandenburger Tor (The Brandenburger Gate).

It was originally built as a tax gate for traders leaving and
entering the city.

The chariot is driven by Victoria, the goddess of Victory,
who keeps a watchful eye on France.

From the Bradenburger Tor, we moved to a more solemn memorial - The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  It's 4.7 acres covered in 2,711 concrete slabs arraigned in a grid pattern.  The slabs vary in size and width.  The ground underneath rises and falls while the viewer has their peripheral vision cut off.  Although the architect has been notoriously quiet about the "meaning" of the memorial, claiming that each individual must experience it for themselves, many have pointed to the Jewish Cemetery in Prague as a source of inspiration. 

The Memorial was very moving and even though it seems strange, I would say this is a "Must See" in Berlin.

We then continued our tour of the city, uncovering the layers of history as we went.

A classic example of terrifying Nazi architecture, which was
preserved in the war through chance and Soviet interference.

It is the former home to the Nazi Luftwaffe and
the Soviet Ministry of Ministries.

Ironically, it now houses the National Tax Office.

Emily photobombs my shot of the remains of the Berlin Wall.

The last remaining section of the Berlin Wall.

Displays of the wall by Checkpoint Charlie.

Berlin is known for its Currywurst, a sausage covered in curry
ketchup.

More Wall graffiti

Literally "Wall Street"

The heinously tourist trap-y Checkpoint Charlie

Needless to say, it never looked like this
when the wall was up.

A special brick strip throughout the city marks where the Wall
once stood.

The French Huguenot church downtown

Emily.

The German church is its mirror across the way.

Meanwhile, back at the Dom and the Lustgarten...

Emily and I found our way to the DDR Museum (Soviet East German museum).  It was a wonderful interactive, although terrifying look into the lives of East Germans and their government after WWII.

Emily inside an East German Trabant, one of the worst cars
ever made.

You can rent an improved version to drive around Berlin in,
if that's what you're into.

The cars were notoriously unreliable and ran on a simple,
two stroke motor.

The same type of motor used to power your lawnmowers.

An Image from children's fitness propaganda.
"Think correctly, exercising is important."

A playset for East German children.

The museum plaque was hilariously sassy!
"Counting Tanks - Even the children of Kindergarten age
were taught to count tanks and soldiers like a real NVA officer.
Ten soldiers minus five soldiers makes...But what happened
to the other five? They probably sacrificed themselves for
their Socialist homeland."

Emily in a Soviet prison - luckily, she made it out alive!

During Day Two, we went West!

Your Humble Blogger!

Tacky, tacky tourist photos.

You can pay to pose with your favorite Comrade or G.I.

We walked through the Gate and to...

...the Reichstag! Aka the German Parliament.

Along the walk...another currywurst stand.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed in!

At Alexanderplatz - we ate there for lunch -
 people were Basejumping off one of the skyscrapers.

Terrifying!

After lunch, we went to the Pergamon Museum, which was
built to house some of the most amazing things in the world.

My panoramic shot of the amazing Pergamon Altar didn't pan out (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!)
so I stole this one from Wikipedia.

The Altar is the first thing you see when you enter the museum.
It's indescribably impressive.

The side panels shows the epic battle between the Greek
gods and the titans.

Although historians aren't sure if the temple was
dedicated to Athena or Zeus, statues of both
adorned the Altar.

The museum features lots of floor mosaics

Sitting on the steps of the Altar lets you take it all in.

It's a snake!

Another temple facade in the museum

And more cool mosaics...

Man's best friend.

The Ishtar Gate from Babylon
and one of the 7 Wonders of the World!

It was really cool!

The detail and effort it must have taken to make
this is simply astounding.

The royal lion is a mythical figure and features strongly
on the Gate and the Processional Walk.

A model of the gate and walkway.

More exhibits in the museum:

The coolest exhibit was the one detailing the excavation of the Altar - it was interactive and beautifully laid out.  I would definitely see it before you see the Altar!

One of the rooms of the exhibit, showing the family tree
of the Greek gods.

It was really interesting, but a little
overwhelming.

Our last stop was to go downtown - unfortunately, we were stymied in our attempt to see anything else because almost everything was under construction! I was really sad, especially because the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was covered in scaffolding that made it look like a skyscraper.

It should look like this - it was left
bombed out as a memorial to
WWII.

But instead, it looked like this.

Overall, I really liked Berlin!  I was disappointed because we only had two days there and because a lot of things were under construction.  I guess this gives me incentive to return!

UP NEXT:  My Ultimate Countdown - Top 10 Things I Will Miss About Germany and My Farewell Post to  Tübingen.