This post is rather delayed, so I've made chapters.
HamburgLast week (May 9-11) I went to Hamburg on an excursion with my study abroad program. It was pretty cool. Hamburg is a really pretty city with a lot of history, and the weather was better than we'd expected (though it did rain quite a bit at the end). Some highlights:
-City tour with a tour guide who had blue eyesbrows. No joke. Like bluer than blue. And eye makeup to match. (See pictures.) But the tour was really interesting. Hamburg's Rathaus is really pretty and there are boats (and ships and such) everywhere since it's a big harbour city.
-Saw a play called Nora. I'd never heard of it before. It was okay. Actors were good, story was kinda random.
-Tour of NDR studios. NDR stands for Norddeutsche Rundfunk - North German Radio/TV. German public television includes 2 networks, ARD (the first one created) and ZDF, (added a little while later) for all of Germany, plus 9 regional networks. The various programs on ARD are distributed across the various regional networks; for example, one regional network is responsible for reporting, one for news, etc. NDR is responsible for the production of the famous original German news show "Tagesschau" and talk/discussion show "Tagesthemen". We got to go "behind the scenes" and see where the shows are filmed, all the control rooms, the make-up room, etc. I've been on a similar tour of, I believe, CNN, but it was cool to learn about the differences between German and American news programs. Afterward, they had a private conference room reserved for us in their cafeteria, which was very nice. We were basically treated as VIP guests, and technically that kind of tour is only allowed for visitors from within the NDR region! They made a special exception for us because we're not really Berliners either... (Berlin is in the RBB region - Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg)
-Visiting a WWII bunker in Altona, a part of Hamburg which used to be its own city. Hamburg was a particularly big target for air attacks in the war because it's a huge important city that is relatively easy to find at night. Planes coming from England could just follow the Elbe, whose mouth is large and noticable, from the North Sea straight into Hamburg. Berlin, in contrast, is harder to find because its farther inland and doesn't have any big rivers leading straight into it from the ocean. Although Berlin was the most heavily attacked German city in the war, Hamburg sustained the most damage and I think also the most casualties because it had a lot more small, narrow streets with denser residential areas (that is, each bomb that fell in Hamburg did more damage than in other places). In addition to equipping cellars and basements to serve as "bunkers" in case of air raids, cities built lots of communal bunkers like the one we visited, which was designed to hold hundreds of people. There isn't a whole lot to see in such a bunker - just lots of rooms with rows of special chairs with head-rests and other rooms where people could lay down on tiny bunk beds - but the guy who led our tour gave a whole talk on the air raids on Hamburg and his own personal experiences as a kid growing up in Berlin during the war. It was very interesting.
-Being formally greeted by equivalent of Altona's mayor (not really a mayor since Altona is now only a district of Hamburg and not a separate city). He shared with us about Altona's unique history and relationship to Hamburg, and afterward invited us to join him for a glass of wine (or juice) in his office in the Rathaus!
-Playing on the COOLEST playground I have every seen with Molly, Jamen and Andrew. This was totally designed for 20-somethings and not kids, it was like grown-up size and super fun. Afterward we - ironically - ate hamburgers for dinner.
-Time by myself in an art museum looking at Renaissance (approx.) art. We had a group tour of the section on the Romantic era, and it was okay. Afterward we could wander on our own or do whatever, and I kinda lost myself looking at Renaissance art. I am definitely not a big art person, but I kinda have thing these days for religious art. Some of the paintings I saw in this museum just totally took my breath away and I basically had a little one-on-one worship service with God. It was really incredible.

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stinaberlinSpargel SaisonOkay "Spargel" is the German word for asparagus, and "Saison" the French-quasi-German word for season, and these two words compose a very important aspect of Germany in May. Asparagus - the big, fat white kind, not the skimpy green stuff - is a big deal in Germany in May. Like really big. Everyone is selling it - all the fruit and veggie markets, random people who set up little markets JUST to sell asparagus, and restaurants of course. Every restaurant is advertising their asparagus specials - asparagus cream soup, pasta with asparagus, pizza with asparagus (no joke), asparagus with a side of steak (haha)... Yep. And although I've never been like head-over-heels for asparagus, I have to mention that I had the most delicious meal in a really long time the other night at good ol' Tutti Gusti, my Italian restaurant/pizzeria right down the street where they know my name. I have eaten there billions of times and this was the best meal I've ever had there, hands down - it was ravioli in a cream sauce with thinly sliced ham and big fat chunks of white asparagus. It was absolutely heavenly.
1,0 for Frau LordemanI finally got my last grade back from last semester and it was a very pleasant surprise! This was the paper I wrote for my TV and History class about West German TV in East Germany. It was the one I worked the hardest on and the one that had been the most interesting, and I knew the prof well enough to know he wouldn't grade me easy just for being a foreign kid. (With my other profs, I was not so sure this would be the case.) Basically, I was waiting to get this grade to see more or less how I could really do in a German seminar, with no handicaps. The prof took a really long time to grade it (don't know why) but I am taking another class from him this semester, and I emailed him last week to see if I could come by to discuss my research project for this semester so I could get started on it. He wrote me back and said that would be great and then we could also discuss my paper from last semester. So, I was kinda nervous, because I don't really like getting a grade from a prof face-to-face; I'd rather find out anonymously and then perhaps discuss it later, after the initial reaction. Anyways... I went and met with the prof, and he decided first to talk about this semester, so I had to wait even longer, but then he was like, "Okay, so let's talk about last semester..." and he pulls out a copy of my paper and his comments and such and he's like "I really liked your paper a lot. I haven't graded all of the rest of the class's papers yet [who, P.S., were all or mostly German students], but from those I've read, yours was my favorite..." and out of the corner of my eye, I see the paper he's holding with a very significant number written in red grading-pen ink... 1,0. 1,0!!!!! That's the best you can get!!!!! That's like an A+!!!!! And I'm like, "Really?!?" I was definitely not expecting to do THAT well. I would've been stoked with an A- or even a B, and satisfied at least with a B-. I was totally shocked. And needless to say, I'm totally feeling encouraged about this semester...
Re: the title - This professor calls me Frau Lordeman. That's really normal, since professors and students address each other very formally all the time as a general rule of German-ness, but most professors don't really address students that much, so I don't hear it that much except from this guy. And I still it sounds really funny. Frau Lordeman. Hehehe.
VanessaVanessa came to visit this week! (Vanessa is a friend from Crusade and music classes at Penn, for those who don't know...) She's been studying Scotland this semester and just finished up, so she's doing a big European tour with some friends. We had a good time and I got to do a little bit of tourist-y stuff. Probably the best was a four-hour free bike tour of the city! These people give free bike tours and work only for tips, so they know they have to do a good job if they want to earn any money. We had a great time riding around the city and seeing everything. We also went bowling one night with two of her guy friends from high school who are tagging along on part of Vanessa's trip. (One of them studied in Florence this semester.)