Something Tangible

The excursion this past Friday in Wagner's class was one of the toughest moments that I have dealt with during my trip. We went to view a couple memorial sights and one of them was the Grunewald Deportation site. I have been to the Washington D.C. holocaust museum and have even been to Yad Vashem in Israel. Many visitors cry over the shocking pictures and descriptions of the holocaust, yet I never have. At the Grunewald Deportation site, there wasn't a picture or description of the Jews that were deported from there. Instead there were empty rail road tracks, one plaque that mentioned the 50,000 plus deported and rocks that lined the plaque. The class quickly glanced at the memorial and then headed back for the bus, but I couldn't move. There was something so tangible about this monument that made me sink into this spot. This was the actual site where people went to their death, this was not a picture, this was not the re-creation. The rocks that lay silently across the plaque are symbols in Judaism that are usually only found in graveyards. These rocks are placed by individuals to signify they remember and have traveled to see you. I stared at the rocks and realized that this memorial was a cemetery. I started to wonder about how many of my own relatives walked up to the train tracks and into their own graveyards without even realizing it. I then left the memorial and boarded the laughing bus to continue our field trip of Jewish plight.

What it is

I should be reading, I should also be writing and I should really be filming my movie. But to be honest I'm in a different state of mind right now. I feel like blogging! This past weekend the entire class went on a weekend retreat to Koldenhof, which is a small village that is bordered by a gigantic lake. I found myself playing soccer in a field behind the local church/graveyard. The field's sidelines were miles and miles of picturesque fields.
The lake that makes this city famous was surreal. I have had this feeling with a lot of Germany. The environment, culture and history all seem too dramatic in either a beautiful or horrifying way.
The lake could have been featured in any Disney movie because it was too much like a fairy tale. The first thing you see when walking down a steep hill to the lake is a man with his small dog companion ferrying people across the lake on his little boat. The autumn leaves were falling off the trees and the lake was crystal clear.
We also had a campfire that night and watched the shooting stars. I've never in my life have seen so many stars. Ok now this is sounding like some corny Disney movie so I'm going to sign off.

D-Day

I took a weekend trip on September 17th to Normandy from Paris and went to see the beaches of D-Day. I got to the town of Bayeux at 4 and was too late for the busses that take visitors to the beaches. The rain started to pour and I felt disheartened by the entire event, I was so close yet so far.

I was already in Bayeux so I decided to be outgoing (my new found self in Europe) and started making small talk with the french guy working behind the desk at the bus station. It turns out that this 22 year old kid named Maxi, was familiar with the state of Washington because he spent a year of high school in Spokane. More proof that it is really a small world. So I still felt horrible about not being able to see the beaches and I even told Maxi that my grandfather fought in WWII. I decided to go all out and just asked him if he wanted to drive me around the beaches after work. Without a hitch he said that he would love to do it. So I find myself flying down rain drenched streets towards the beaches that shaped the modern world. He was a great tour guide and even charged the beaches with me in a pathetic attempt to recreate the battles of D-Day.

I’ll never forget the vast beaches of Normandy and I’ll never forget the generosity of strangers.

Oktoberfest

I'm writing this post from Berlin and still have a slight head ache, back ache, stomach ache and other aches from what is the biggest and craziest party in the entire world. Let's begin...

I'm travelling with my buddy Ed from the Berlin program and we just arrived to Munich from Paris. I've heard about Oktoberfest and the 6 million people that pack a crowded square to get shit faced, but i never imagined the magnitude of the entire thing. Imagine 14 tents lined up along a square that stretches 6 blocks. Each tent can hold 6,000 people, and the only way to get into a tent is to line up at 830 in the morning.

So Ed and I line up for some random tent that had a bull and a woman on the front, we heard a lot of german speakers around so we need we hit the local favorite. 9 am comes around and one little, tiny door opens up. Immediatly all you can hear are screams and maddness. The line compresses and I am litterally crushed by thousands of people trying to enter a tent through one small door.

We slowly inch our way into the tent and somehow find 2 seats next to some aussies. The beer doesn't flow until 12 and when the keg was tapped waitress upon waitress rushed out holding 12 beers each.

Long story short, 2 and a half liters of beer later and im gone. I remember the dancing on the tables, singing the same 3 german songs, broken steins and big ass pretzels. I then dont remember anything and somehow time travelled to 7 pm, outside walking around the massive carnival.

I apparently did some things that I dont remember but have pictures of it, so once i get my computer running i will post pics. Oktoberfest is everything you hear and then some, and next time I go I hope I remember more.

The Start

Hi everybody, this is my first post of hopefully many that will detail my trip into Europe.

I thought I would give everyone a brief run-down of my pre-study abroad travels. I am leaving from Los Angeles and heading for Europe on the 28th of August. I end up in Paris for a day layover before arriving in Rome, Italy. I am going to travel through Rome, Florence and some smaller towns of Italy including Cinque Terre (pictured), Sienna and Pisa for 2 weeks. I then fly out of Italy and head to Paris to meet a friend that is in the same abroad program in Berlin. We are going to travel Paris and elsewhere in France for 10 days before we head to Munich on September 21st for Oktoberfest! 2 nights in Munich will be suffice to jump start my German exposure of fine beers. From Munich we will meet the rest of our program in Berlin and begin school at the Humboldt University ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Berlin )September 26th.

I will conclude my first entry with the reinsurance that I will maintain my blog on a regular basis with stories, pictures and other forms of media that can maybe do justice in describing some aspects of my trip. I hope that you check my blog for updates and encourage me to not be lazy and write more about my journey.

Ciao,

- Josh.