Travelin' Trick

It's been a while.  I know.  I just gave up, because I really didn't think anyone was reading.

Anyway, here's the revival.  I realized after having been interviewed about my experience as a Fulbright scholar, that it would be wise of me to still document my life here, if not for others, than for myself.

Last week we went on a school field trip to Weimar, Thuringia in the former East Germany.  At first I was a little reluctant about going because I didn't have a lot of money at the time and it'd mean I'd miss Timo's anniversary of separating from the Church and cutting it close to Thanksgiving.  Then I realized I hadn't been on one single trip since the last to Amsterdam in October.

We left on an early Monday morning by bus.  Halfway there, we stopped at checkpoint Alpha (above), a once upon a time gate that led into the former East.  Although freezing, it was a neat experience especially seeing the American post there.  Every time the tour guide said something about Americans, the students would turn and look to me like I was supposed to give some kind of input.  I had no clue though!

This was the first place where the students first noticed that I spoke German.  Several mentioned, "Wow! He speaks better German than we do English!" That, of course, provided a lot of encouragement for me to use my German the time I spent there.

However, I somehow found it difficult talking to the teachers.  They kept saying, "Students this, students that, yackity yack."  Then when I talked to the students, they kept saying, "Teachers are mean, Teachers are unfair, blah blah."  I was definitely caught in the middle.  However, I did get to hang out with one of the classes and had a really good time.  They, too, were really surprised at my German ability.  I only wish I could feel just as surprised as they do!


Weimar (below) itself was nice.  The town is small, though pretty, and has lots and lots of culture.  Think of it as the Canterbury or Oxford of Germany.


 We also visited the nearby Concentration Camp Buchenwald.  Ever since my first trip to a "KZ," I've had just about the same feeling towards all the other concentration camps.  Everyone seems to expect for you to smell death and feel completely uncomfortable.  I, however, did not.  Of course, it's sad every time I go, but I wouldn't know what thousands of dead bodies smell like and couldn't possibly imagine what it would have been like as an inmate.  Or perhaps I'm numb from all the history lessons?  Most camps nowadays are less than half of what they used to be.  Most look like ruins.



But what I hate most about it all is how it's become a tourist destination.  While I understand the importance of remembering history, I also don't feel at ease seeing hoards of people at the sites taking pictures of themselves in front of the ovens or gas chambers.  Do you REALLY enjoy the thought of having been there?

In Dachau right outside Munich I saw an American family of four.  Of course they were loud, heavy set, and only spoke English, but I had gotten used to that already.  What really NERVED me was the fact that the two parents kept telling their children to stand in front of memorials and what not and pretend to be sad while they took photos of them.  The kids went along with it merrily.  Right after the parents took the photo of them looking like Barney had just died, they came skipping right back towards their parents because they were so proud of how sad they really looked.  I could have vomited.  Those kids have no idea WHY they're being told to act sad, and I think it's very shameful of their parents to ask them to do such.



Again in the same camp, my ex and I saw two Californian girls.  They noticed somehow that we were American-- one even pointing out that she could tell that *I* was Kentuckian by my "accent."  When we got to the crematorium, they kept repeating how they could just SMELL death all around them and how sick it was.  I felt like throwing rocks at them.  No, scratch that, boulders.  Have they ever really smelled death before to be able to distinguish it?  Don't you think the place had been cleaned and had enough time to air out any smell left over?  Go to a funeral home and tell me you smell death.

Buchenwald then was an interesting memorial.  The tour guide was very knowledgeable and I learned a little more history.  That's what concentration camps make me feel. Ok. Done with the rant.

I did learn some great German words during my time there and within the last week, though:

Frankfurter Applaus: you make the gesture of tapping the inside of your arm like you're about to shoot up.  Supposedly there's a lot of druggies in Frankfurt.

Warmer Bruder: means "warm brother" literally, but "gay man" figuratively.

Arch schee:  Spelling? Hessisch for "very pretty," hochdeutsch is "ach schön"

In die Pampa: BFE

Auflauf: casserole

wesentlich: essential/significant