Northern Exposure

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." (Mark Twain)

In the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to travel to many new places, meet many new people, and have learned so much.

A few weeks ago I took a trip to Aschaffenburg, Frankfurt, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, and Amsterdam.  Then, I just returned yesterday from a short trip to Copenhagen, Denmark.

While I could write pages about all of my experiences, I'll try to just do a few quick highlights...

In Aschaffenburg, I got to meet up with my good friend Marika.  I went with her to the school she teaches at, where I got to talk in German, Spanish, and English about the United States, Mexico, and Germany.  I was essentially in seventh heaven and loved hearing the students perceptions of the U.S.  Additionally, Marika and I went to this Bavarian Bar where we ate pretzels and beer and got to talk to a bunch of old Germans at our table.  One of the old couples at our table paid for our tab, and I felt more German love than David Hasselhoff eating a schnitzel.  Then, in Frankfurt I met up with one of Marika's friends and had the true Frankfurter experience!

In my hostel in Frankfurt, I got the wonderful opportunity to talk with a guy named Jacob from Yemen.  Jacob works in Germany as a translator and he talked a lot about how he views the United States in Arab nations and what he would like the U.S. to do in order to help Yemen and other countries.  In addition he conveyed what he views are the correct ways to offer help, and which actions he views inhibit relations.  It was such an eye-opening experience for me, and I really want to continue to learn more about the Middle East.  Maybe my next language will have to be Arabic, because I find it absolutely crucial that Western nations learn to LISTEN to the voices of the people from the Middle East and work diligently to find common ground with a culture that is so often misconceived and misrepresnted.

From Frankfurt, I went to Dublin, then Edinburgh, then London, then Amsterdam.  All of these places were beautiful and I have some funny stories, but I think they are better told in person....  I met a lot of cool Spaniards and I'm recently very interested in the financial crisis in Europe.  Ireland, Spain, Portugal.... it's going to be interesting to see what happens.  Also, I firmly believe the U.S. needs to take note!  I love that our Congress had a meeting to talk about the debt crisis, and the newest compromise they come up with is to not end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans and to extend jobless benefits.  Sounds like decreasing revenue and increasing expenditures to me...  Anywho, needless to say I'm excited for political debates when I get home.

 

This weekend I got to meet up with my friend Lauren Hutton, a friend from UNL, to go to Copenhagen, Denmark!  We had an absolute blast.  We stayed with a Danish family who Lauren knows, and we couldn't have asked for better hosts.  They gave us a tour of the city, made us traditional Danish food, talked to us all about Danish culture, traditions, and were all around cooler than a kuhlschrank (German for refrigerator) haha.  Danish children are allowed so much more independence than Americans and the Danish perspective on taxes and government programs is also fascinating.  For example, cars are taxed 80% in Denmark, so they cost about twice as much as they do in the States, and the wealthiest tax bracket gets 60% of their income taxed!

                     

Welp... only have about a week left here in Europe.  Thursday I'm headed to Barcelona to see my friend Eliza and catch some nice weather for a few days, then I'll come back to Berlin and head home the following Thursday.  It's amazing how fast the time has flown.

Happy Holidays to all of you!  If you are going to be around Lincoln, hit me up.  Also, if you get the opportunity to travel any time soon, don't think, just do it!

Hamburgers vs. Bratwurst

Germany is a beautiful country filled with wonderful people and living here has been an amazing experience. Due to my time here, I've discovered many things I want to improve in the United States, but also have gained a greater appreciation for things back home that I often took for granted. 

Well to start off, I feel it is prudent that I say after living for only six weeks in Germany, I in no way claim to be an expert on German/European culture, and even after living for twenty-three years in the United States, I realize that my opinion and experiences in the States are much different than other people's.  So keeping that in mind, here are what I see as some of the differences between living in two similar, yet distinctly unique cultures.

The chief difference between Germany and the United States, is caused by, you guessed it, capitalism.  In the United States everything is based on money and competition.  From a very early age an American is taught to "Fight for your rights,"  "Let your opinion be heard," and "Never take no for an answer." In high school, students are rated as the best to worst student in their graduating class, compete for a starting position on the football team or a lead in the school play, and are told that their academic and extra curricular performance will directly determine their ability to attend college and receive scholarships.  Lastly, as adults, Americans work countless hours to become a partner in their firm, want to have the biggest house on their street, and push their kids to be the best athlete on the block.  Competition permeates every facet of society, pushing people to achieve success, and also causing them to test their limits.

In America, if you aren't busy, you are lazy and if you aren't giving it your all, you might as well quit trying.  This attitude effects all aspects of culture, and contributes to creating a polar society.  For example, America has some of the most physically fit individuals, but also some of the fattest and most unhealthy.  It has a lot of rich people, but also a lot of poor ones, etc.  In Germany, rather than going to the gym for two hours a day, people ride their bikes instead of drive, make a healthy meal at home instead of grabbing a quick bite to eat at a drive through, and have a much more realistic self image.  Do as many people have bulging biceps and washboard abs?  Definitely not.  However, there aren't as many oompa loompa's walking around either.  Also, people don't feel the constant need to be the best in everything they do.  They are satisfied with doing a good job, and aren't as proned to pulling an all nighter in order to achieve a perfect score.

In addition, a successful individual in the United States is one who has a successful career, a fancy car, volunteers regularly, is involved in many community activities, has a good family, etc. etc.  However, in Germany, becoming rich and always having your time occupied with events and meetings, is not something that is valued at all.  People don't work to attain wealth, they work to pay the bills and place a much higher value on the importance of relaxation.  The average worker receives six weeks of vacation a year, very few people work more than 40 hours a week, and people are less involved within community organizations, allowing more time for rest and relaxation.  In addition, materialism is much less prevalent.  Many people I know here don't have dishwashers or dryers, the houses are much more modestly sized, families own one car, and people never use credit cards.  Rather than buying a big screen TV, people go on vacation and place more value in non-material goods.

However, aren't the activities Americans fill their time with good things?  In many ways they are.  Being involved in a church and other activities promote service, are another avenue in which one can achieve success and give back, and help develop other valuable skillsets.  However, when does too much of a good thing become a bad thing?  At what point does being involved in activities go from being a way to form community and give back, to being another contributor to stress?   Are religious people more able to do the work of God by being in a Bible study and going on mission trips, or by having the time to drink a coffee with a neighbor who doesn't know the love of Jesus?

These are the questions I've been trying to answer myself.  As an American, I loved my upbringing.  I enjoyed competitive sports, being involved in student government, church activities, etc.  In addition, I loved how being involved afforded me the opportunity to get to know so many different new and exciting people.  Americans definitely have larger social circles than Germans, but Americans also don't have near as much time to spend with their friends and family. 

Ironically, it is often the things that frustrate me about America that I miss most.  Despite being predominately non-religious, everything is closed here on Sundays.  There is no 24 hour Walmart, most stores are closed by 8 o'clock, and I sometimes miss my busy lifestyle back home.  In addition, even though it can be overdone, I love how I feel pushed to be the best I possibly can be in the States.  My friends challenge me to be better in every area of my life, and as a competitive person, I'm greatly motivated by winning.  All of these things have challenged my perspective, because I have seen many components of German society that I feel are better than in America, and I have really had to evaluate the ins and outs of my personal and societal values.

Well, this is by far not an all inclusive list of the differences I've noticed here.  Others include, Americans place a much higher value on individualism, thus the reason they are often deemed loud and obnoxious, religion plays a much more important role in the majority of Americans' lives, and people from the States are WAY more patriotic.  However, each of these topics could be another painfully long page for each of you to read and I've probably already bored you enough. haha.

Overall, I think the number one thing I've learned is how important it is to get outside of your own culture in order to gain a new perspective.  There are people of all types in every culture, so there are many exceptions to all of my above statements, but it is fascinating how much the society in which you were raised determines your values and way of viewing the world.

Thanks for reading, even though I think I do these blogs more to organize my own thoughts than for anything else...haha  and I will update you soon on my upcoming trip to Frankfurt, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, and Amsterdam!

Much Love,
Trevor

The World Beyond Schneverdingen....

Due to Project Week and Fall Break, I had three weeks where I didn't need to go to the school, so I decided to make like Dora, and get out and explore... (Warning....this is a really long post)

I started off my expedition by sailing (and by sailing I mean taking the Berlin Line Bus) to, you guessed it, Berlin.  In Berlin I got to reunite with one of my other best friends from Mexico, Johanna, and spend time with her, her roommates, and her other friends.  The city was absolutely incredible!  It is rich with history, much more diverse than the rest of Germany, and is filled with young people and exciting things to discover.

One of the highlights of my experience in the city was going on a walking tour with New Berlin Tours.  The company hires native English speakers to be the tour guides and I've actually looked into getting a work permit to work there.  They lead tours in Spanish and English, the tour highlights history and culture, and the tours are super laid back and filled with suggestive humor.  If that job doesn't have my name written all over it, then my grandma's name isn't Ethel.  However, as much as I'd like to stay in Germany longer, I already have my return plane ticket, getting a work visa for an American is harder than an igneous rock, and I think being home to visit grads schools, make it down to the Caribbean, etc. are important for next semester.

During my stay in Berlin, I made a quick trip to Prague.  Prague is probably the most beautiful city I have ever been in.  Unlike most of the cities in EU, it was hardly damaged during WWII.  I met some awesome Australians and Americans in my hostel, and also got to meet up with Zdenek and Katarina!  They are two of my friends from the Czech Republic and Slovakia who studied abroad at UNL for a year.  We went to the true, authentic Prague bars, and got to get caught up on life, and I asked them a lot of questions about Eastern Europe and the effects of communism.  It was fascinating and cooler than DQ to see friends I hadn't seen in a couple of years.
              
                                                                     

After passing nearly two weeks with Johanna and her kick a$$ roommates, I continued on a solo voyage with Mitfahrgelegenheit (an organized hitchhikig website essentially), down to Munich.  The guy I rode with took the Autobahn and drove 180 km/h the entire way (about 108 mph).  Needless to say, we made good time, and Munich was a beautiful city.  I made some cool friends in my hostel and explored the city, then I got up the next morning and went to Dachau Concentration Camp.  Dachau was extremely interesting, but also very depressing.  I'm glad I got to see a Concentration Camp, but it is definitely not an experience I want to have again soon.  Then, after Dachau, I went on another free walking tour.  I met a Nigerian and American girl from Atlanta on the tour, however, they left the tour early (because of the creepy American guy who kept talking to them (me)?...maybe, haha), but after those friends left, I started talking to a dude named Marius from Norway.  He was really cool, and after the tour we met up with his Norwegian friend for dinner and had a blast.  I learned a lot about Norway and got to share a lot about the United States.  I don't know why, but conversations like these put my brain on ecstasy (I mean that in a good, non spasming and hallucinating way).

From Munich, I took a night bus to Vienna, Austria.  Vienna was also beautiful and filled with old palaces, cool Architecture, etc.  Disappointingly, they had no free walking tour, but I did meet some cool German dudes at the bar inside my hostel.  They kept buying pitchers of beer and Jaeger Bombs.  Let's just say, they were a lot more impressed with my German speaking abilities, than my drinking skills.  I didn't even come close to keeping up.  But, once they left to go on a Pub Crawl, I met two other friends from Madrid.  I had a great conversation with them for several hours, and met other cool Spaniards as well.  All the chidos Spaniards I've met have made me excited for the possiblity of living in Spain next year to teach English.

From Vienna, I went to Budapest, and from Budapest to Krakow.  Both cities were really cool.  In Budapest I went on a communist walking tour.  I met three cool Americans and loved hearing about the tour guides experiences living under communism.  The way of life, the educational system, everything was so controlled and so fascinating.  It was also interesting to hear how communism has changed people's perspectives and still to this day effects politics, peoples attitudes, economics, etc.  In Krakow, I was so impressed with the positive attitude of the people.  Despite communism causing some major setbacks, the people were so optimistic and determined about their future.  I met a Polish American girl on my tour whose parents were active in Solidarity and got to hear a lot of interesting and powerful stories. 

Well I feel like there are a million interesting people and places that I met and saw that I'm leaving out.  But this post is already longer than 8th period on the Friday before Christmas Break....so I'll wrap things up.  All in all, my travels were wonderful!  Traveling alone afforded me the opportunity to make new friends on each bus, train, hostel, or tour I went on.  I learned a lot about all the countries I visited and also about the countries my new friends were from! 

For all of you still reading this long post, Germany is still going great!  My German skills are getting pretty good.  I follow almost all conversations really well, and am able to communicate my ideas fairly easily as well!  It's such a good feeling, since a month ago I literally understood nothing.

Tomorrow I'm visiting the Netherlands and going to see the town where my ancestors came from!

Thanks for reading.

School and Family

As already stated, the Kremhart family is the Butter to my Brot, the Bier to my Mund, and all in all just one of the coolest families around.  My parents here are extremely loving and spiritual.  They spend an hour each day in meditation (oooohms not prayer), often spend the evening drinking a glass of wine or a cappuccino by candlelight, and are always talking about the interconnectdness of all of our spirits.  I've especially enjoyed talking about political and world issues with my host dad, because he always has a unique way of looking at things.  He thinks that often as a society we fight too hard to preserve the present, because it is comfortable and we are afraid of the unknown.  He believes that in many situations, change is inevitable, and it is only once we accept this change that a new path can be born.  He also is pacifistic and doesn't agree with most of the first world nations' actions to attempt to modify other countries and societies.


                             My house

Sophie, one of my best friends from Mexico, is studying Spanish and Portuguese at a university in Hamburg.  She is always up for an adventure, laughs at my jokes about 70% of the time (a much higher percentage than most people hehe), and she snorts when she giggles.  If those three descriptors don't tell you that she is sweet, I don't know what will.  Julian, is my host brother here, and he is studying to be an early childhood educator.  He does a lot of work with chldren and teenagers with developmental disabilities, likes photography, and is my beer drinking partner at La Habana (our favorite bar here in Schneverdinen)

Family life here in Germany seems so much different than in the U.S.  Zum bei spiel (for example), we eat almost every meal together as a family and the meals are looked at as an integral part of the day.  For breakfast, we have a cup of coffee (yes, I've been drinking coffee here) and bread with one of many different jam, cream cheese, or nutella toppings.  However, when I say bread, I don't mean that cheap Wonderbread stuff we eat in the States.  This is real, straight from the grain fields of heaven, Brot.  As far as I'm concerned, the only wonder about Wonderbread, is it's a wonder why we still eat it (again, sorry for the bad jokes haha).  Then, we don't eat lunch, usually the biggest meal of the day, until 4 when Julian gets home from school.  Finally, for dinner, we eat at about 8 or 9 and after we finish our meal, we often have a cup of homemade cappuccino and sit around and visit.  My host dad used to work as a chef in a hotel, so the food is always lecker (delicious in both Dutch and German) and everything we eat is organic and made fresh.  Perhaps the most shocking thing about my family here, is that the only refrigerator in the entire house is a mini fridge!  We go to the grocery store several times times a week and have yet to eat anything that was once frozen or comes out of a box or a can.

Funny side story:  We were eating some leftover soup and my host dad said that he thinks soup often tastes better as it gets older.  So, I told him the English rhyme:  "Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in the pot 9 days old."  Well, after I said this, he looked at me kind of funny and said, "I don't think that's very funny," and started to talk about pedafiles.  Well, being as my German still stinks, I was very confused.  Turns out he thought I said, "Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in the part 9 years old." haha.

My teaching experience in the school is also going very well.  My cooperating teacher's name is Herr Wollenheit, and he is in his early 30's and is a really cool guy.  He works with seniors, all the way down to fifth graders, and the classes have been very fun and interactive.  For the junior level class, they are studying the Amerian South and the Civil Rights Movement.  As one of their assignments they had to make a talk show that included Rosa Parks, the white bus driver, a black spectator, and a white spectator among its guests.  Well, my job for the day was to listen to their talk shows and correct the grammar and things that they said.  The kids did extremely well and I'm very impressed by their English abilities, but the highlight was during the talk show Rosa Parks started yelling at the bus driver and she (although it was a boy portraying her) screamed,  "You smelly bus driver.  You stood me up!"  I about died laughing and then explained to the class how getting stood up is when your date doesn't show up and they thought it was pretty funny.  Another awkward teaching moment, was in the fifth grade class they were looking at a page of objects and saying, "I see a movie."  "I see a pen."  "I see a video game," etc.  Well, the English they learn here is British English (why, I don't know....haha).  But I wasn't really paying attention, and one kid said, "I see a ruber."  Now I'm all for sex education, but my immediate thought was, what kind of things are they showing on this page for "I spy?!"  Well, turns out, in Britain, a rubber is an eraser and I had no idea....so don't worry, their texts are still age appropriate.

Well I feel like if any of you are actually still reading this post, sorry it's a mile long...are pobably thinking that I should wrap it up.  This week I think I'm going to go to Berlin to visit my friend Johanna and explore some of Eastern Germany!  So I'll keep you poste on how that goes.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  In addition, shoot me an e-mail or a facebook post to let me know how you are doing.  I love reading English, because even the book "The Little Tiger and the Little Bear" makes me feel stupid in German. haha.

Deutschland

After graduating college, spending the last year Teaching English in Mexico, and still having no idea what to do with my life, I decided to move to Germany.  Ironically, in Mexico I met un chingo de Germans and I have been wanting to learn a new language and experience a new culture for quite some time.  So here I am in Schneverdingen, Germany for the next three months of my life....

Schneverdingen is a beautiful town of about 20,000 people, just south of Hamburg, Germany.  I live here with my friend Sophie, who I met in Mexico, and her wonderful family.  I don't know how I got so lucky, but my new family here is all that and a bag of chips (yes, I did just bring that one back).  Sophie's dad is a carpenter, her mom is a nurse, and she and her older brother Julian are both students in college.  They are an extremely loving, joke telling, sit around the table and tell stories, kind of family, and I already feel like the illegitamate, but loved, child. haha.  They have been very patient with my horrible German and we've had some wonderful talks about world issues, differences in culture, food, etc.



Initial first impressions of Germany.....Holy Macaroni of cleanliness!  When I say everything here looks immaculate, I mean it.  Schneverdingen was established in 1180, but everything is very, very well kept.  All the houses are in prime condition, every brick in the sidewalk is in place, every bush trimmed, etc.  I have also been impressed with the transportation system here.  Most families own one car, but the majority of people ride their bikes to work, take the train if they have to commute to a different town, and in general, are more concerned with environmental issues.  Additionally, the attitude towards work and the pace of life here are significantly more relaxed than in the U.S.  While homes here are nice, they are reasonably sized and suited to the families needs.  People work a 35 or so hour work week and then come home to spend time with their families.  There doesn't seem to exist the constant need to go to a child's basketball game, head to the PTA meeting, and excessive busyness that seems to be ever present in the American home.  Lastly, people here are much more worldly.  Whenever I meet a family friend and tell them I am from Nebraska, I have yet to meet someone that didn't know that Nebraska is in the center of the U.S.  The man who delivered the water today even went on to ask me, "It is very flat there with lots of agriculture, correct?"  No freaking way?!  My Seattle born roommate in Mexico had never even heard of NE.  However, maybe she will remember us now since we just kicked some Husky sled dog booty in the game!  Anywho....in general, people here are well traveled, speak another language fluently, or at least fairly well, and take time to learn about other cultures and parts of the world.

Being here has been a great experience so far.  In my future posts, I will talk about the new school where I will be volunteering as an English teacher, the difficulties of living in a country where I speak very little of the language, more in depth information about my kick a$$ German family, and information about my travels throughout Germany and other parts of Europe.