Feeling like a Foreigner

Today, I searched the web for an American blogger who had already published a few posts about their time in Germany. I wanted feedback for what I am going to expect next month. I will be living with two of my American friends for the first two weeks of the trip in Berlin. Then for the final two weeks, I will mostly be on my own. I am looking forward to this because it is something I have never done before. I see it as my ultimate freedom. A new country, new culture, new people with no constant iPhone and internet connection - just the freedom to roam the world.

The Resident on Earth blog is written by a woman named Jen who moved from the United States to Germany to live with her boyfriend, who she calls “The Mann.” I love her narrative style of writing and the subjects she addresses through her variety of posts on German movies, German food, German toilettes, and much more.

I want to share with you a post of hers, The Foreigner, that I really enjoyed and I thought pertained directly to my desire to prepare myself for a German life. She shares with her readers the experience she had returning back to the U.S. after a few months of living in Germany with The Mann.

German Architecture from Jen's blog.

At this point in Jen's life (on April 26^th, 2011), she is in a state of reverse culture shock. Although she was an American, who only lived in Germany for a few months, Jen felt that she was returning to her home country as a foreigner. The amount of high-pitched noises, different races of people, and bad fashion are a few of the things that shocked her as she entered the Chicago airport. She felt like an alien in her own country.

48 hours in Stuttgart

As I am continue my list of places to see and things to do in Germany, I stumbled upon this fabulous blog called the 48 Hour Adventure. I figured I'd use this opportunity to introduce this blog to you and plan my few days in Stuttgart with my wonderful cousin Ana Despina. She recently moved there to attend film editing school and I am lucky enough to be able to visit her for a fews days after my ART of dance program in Berlin. This post is quite appropriate for me because I will only have about 48 hours in Stuttgart with Ana Despina. I will not only use the information from the original 48 Hours in Stuttgart post, but I will also find new ideas and other places.

Hot Spots

Wilhelma Zoo

• Schlossplatz: Castle Palace & Garden 
• The Opera House for their world-famous ballet company 
• Wilhelma Zoo with its botanical garden & historic park 
• Mercedes-Benz and Porsche Museums
• State Gallery Stuttgart 
• Wine Village 

The Stare Challenge in Zurich

I want to share with you an attraction that's made Zurich's Hauptbahnhof train station a Hot Spot. Digital Buzz blog always has fun, short updates on the latest social and digital trends. They make you realize how technically advanced the world really is. As in previous posts, "Fast Lane" in Berlin and TUM slides in Munich, this project is a fun way to engage the public to make a happier world.

The Stare Challenge installation is not necessarily art related, but more technologically driven to promote a product and engage the public. The person's goal is to be able to stare at an image of the Samsung S4 for 60 seconds, without looking away. Your rewards is to receive a free phone of your own. Trouble is there are distraction, such as barking dogs at your feet, animated guitar players, arguing couples, motorcycle crashes, etc.  This is a creative and interactive campaign that involve personal and interactive events so that the product goes viral. It certainly will create a buzz on the new Samsung product and make travelers more likely to stop at the Hauptbahnhof station! I know I will!

I leave for Germany in four days!

Top Ten Hot Spots in Berlin

I am going to be a bit of a tourist in this post and list my top ten attractions in Berlin. I am getting a bit anxious about my trip to Germany because I have so much left to do before I go. This list of Hot Spots should help me make sure I see all the important sites while I am there.

Clockwise: Brangenburg Gate, Reichstag, Berlin Dom, Holocaust Memorial

1. Brandenburger Gate
2. Reichstag 
3. Berlin Dom or Berlin Cathedral 
4. Holocaust Memorial 
5. Grunewald
6. Bauhaus Archives - Museum of Design 
7. Charlottenburg Palace & Gardens
8. Berliner Dom 
9. Potsdamer Platz 
10. Checkpoint Charlie 

This list was a compilation of several tourist websites.

A View on Cities: Berlin Attractions 

TimeOut: Berlin’s Top 10 Sights 

TimeOut: 20 Great Things to do in Berlin 

Every Trail: Berlin Sightseeing 

Although this video does not list my Hot Spots in the same order, we have similar attracts that must be seen in Berlin. I am creating a list of must-sees so that I can check them off as my time there flies by. I leave for Berlin in six days!

How to Travel like a German Local

I am going to be doing a lot of traveling around Germany next month and as my local German friend Hinako said, trains and buses are the way to get around! Although flights within Europe are super cheap, there is something calming about seeing the land zoom by on land transportation. A plane might be faster travel time, but by the time you add the transportation to and from the airport, the security check, the waiting, the delays, you have missed the sights by land. Hinako mentioned these three companies that I should use to get from city to city.

Thalys Train

Destinations 

Big cities within Germany, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, United Kingdom

Tickets

1. Flex (in Comfort 1)
2. Semi-Flex (in Comfort 1 or 2)
3. No-Flex (in Comfort 2)

• Board ticketless, with an ID.

"Fast Lane" in Berlin

I wanted to continue with my series on the contemporary public art in Germany’s Hot Spots, as I did with TUM slides in Munich. These fun art installations give culture to otherwise dull structures, such as university buildings or subway stations. In this post, I want to share with you Volkswagen’s Fun Theory. The project is dedicated to making everyone’s life as simple, as easy, and as fun as possible. They want personal, environment-friendly, and entirely different projects that will upgrade our lives. The award entries are truly fascinating and makes me wish I came up with the ideas myself. Most of their installations have been in Stockholm, Sweden with Piano Stairs, Speed Camera Lottery, and Bottle Bank Arcade Machine. All these projects promote good behaviors for the soceity in a creative way that compels you to do it. I love it!

How-to: Airbnb

I might have to say that Airbnb is the best tool in traveling today. The company, founded in 2008 in San Francisco, is a community for people who list and book unique accommodations around the world. I used Airbnb to book my accommodations last summer in France and Italy and even within the states for two family vacations.  Each experience has been an incredible way to connect with people from around the world to create a unique travel experience. In my case, I was able to stay with locals from the cities I was visiting, as opposed to scouring around for a dirty hostel. To name a few, I lived a week in Paris in a four-bedroom loft, two days in Florence in a villa, and a week with my mother in the Outer Banks in a beach box. I am going to walk you through how easy it is to use Airbnb with my tips and tricks. I have used screen shots from my search for my Berlin accommodations to help you better understand.

How to Book on Airbnb

• Search the location of your travel destination. Add your travel dates and choice of room type.
  

Interview with Hinako from Dusseldorf

Since my trip to Germany is two weeks away, I’ve been in major planning mode. My main destinations are Berlin for the dance workshop, Stuttgart to visit my cousin, Heidelberg to visit my distant family, and Dusseldorf to visit my good friend. I am so grateful to technology for how easy it is to keep in contact through Facebook and Skype with family and friends across an ocean.

Hinako and me at a café in Rome, Italy (August 2012).

I am dedicating this post to my good friend Hinako in Dusseldorf. She and I grew up in New York. Although she was a few years older than me, we spent a lot of time together in school. We were close enough to call each other sisters. She moved to Germany six years ago to continue her career in dance. Unfortunately, time flew and we lost touch. 

TUM slides in Munich

A few months ago, a friend of mine shared this link on Facebook and she commented how she wished her college had an inner building slide to get from class to class.  Only recently did I realize that this installation Hot Spot is located in Germany. These giant four-story slides are in the interior of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). In 2002, the Munich-based artists, Johannes Brunner and Raimund Ritz, were inspired to make the slides look like a parabola due to their location in the Math and Computer Science department. The two “Parable” slides allow students to forgo the elevator or stairs and ride a tube from the top to the ground floor. It’s like having an amusement park in your university. Below is a funny video showing you the slides.

2 Cute Cafés in Frankfurt

I want to get back to touring German cities as a local. A good way to scout out the local vibe is to take a break at a coffee shop.  Recently, I’ve started doing my work at a few local coffee shops in Raleigh. I love the relaxed and welcoming atmosphere and don’t forget, it’s a great place to meet new friends.

To find local Hot Spots abroad, I highly recommend the blog Spotted by Locals. This blog lists many major cities in Europe so you can explore the wealth of Arts & Culture, Food, Theater, etc there. There is one blog per city that has a few local authors contributing to it, allowing you to get a well-rounded view of the city.

For this post, I have found two local coffee shops in Frankfurt that I thought seemed super cute. They have coffee, food, and culture all in one. Their actual websites are posted on the link I provide, but they are in German so good luck reading them.

Revisit the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin

I wanted to revisit a post I did a few weeks ago on Berlin’s Friedrichstadt-Palast. I had updated the Palace’s Wikipedia page because it was missing information on its current events. There have been no changes to my text, but some photos of the current theater have been added.

As I mentioned on the Wiki page and on my blog, the Palace specializes in complex state-of-the-art performances with hundreds of performers and elaborate sets. It certainly would be a different type of performance than one I would see at one of Berlin's three opera houses.

ART of in Berlin

I promise this will be my last post on ballet and theater for a while. One of my blogger friends Brianna, of Penny Pinching New Yorker, is also a dancer and wanted to know more about the Berlin State School and the program I am doing in Berlin in August. I knew about the program, but little on the school itself. Below, I have linked the organizations to their direct webpages so you can learn more.

Staatsballett in Berlin

I figured I’d continue on my current trend of Berlin’s performing arts. As I mentioned previously, I will be in Berlin for the first two weeks of August doing a contemporary dance program at the State School of Berlin. I want to become familiar with the local companies and their repertoires. Interestingly enough, before 2004, each opera house has its own ballet company. Today the Staatsballett Berlin has become the single professional ballet institution in the city. Here is a bit of the history.

• 1742: Frederick the Great began his court opera under the name of Staatsoper Unter den Linden with included a ballet company.
• 1856: Paul Baglioni, descendant of the famous dancing-family, became director. His visionary leadership made dance in Berlin rank equal to Paris.
• 1920s: Deutsch Oper Berlin as a contemporary dance company. The company’s most known artistic director was Tatjana Gsovsky in the 1950s.
• 1951: The first ballet school in Berlin was established to train their own dancers instead of importing dancers from Paris.
• 1966: Tom Schilling brought his modern dance choreography, Komische Oper, to Berlin for almost thirty years.
• 2004: The three former ballet companies were transferred into one single institution even though they continue to perform in all three opera houses.

3 Opera Houses in Berlin

While introducing Berlin’s neighborhoods a few posts ago, I mentioned the State Opera house was in the Mitte district. Since then I’ve done more research and found that there are not one, but three opera houses in Berlin. What a delight!

For me, as a dancer and a performing artist, European opera houses are a sea of history. I love to walk into these fabulously decorated architectural gems, stroll on the red carpets, and feel the spirits of famous artists who graced their presence in these houses. I was lucky enough to have seen the Paris Opera Ballet perform La Fille Mal Gardée at the Palais Garnier last summer in Paris. This summer, I plan to relive that memory by visiting Berlin’s opera houses.

Berlin’s three opera houses are the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Komisch Oper Berlin.

Beers around Germany

Germany is the capital of beers, lagers, and ales. Although I prefer wine, I look forward to becoming more educated on beers. I am going to go about this venture by becoming familiar with the German beer terms and then order the most local or popular beer at every joint. I will probably get so spoiled by German beers, that I won’t want to drink the ones we have here in the states. The name of the beers are linked to a website with more information or a video.

BMW in Munich

You can probably guess from the title that this post is about “the ultimate driving machine.” It is no joke when the company brags about their customers creating a special bond with their cars because I have a friend who would have a panic attack if something happened to his precious BMW M3. Although BMW cars are a bit luxurious for my taste, I feel like royalty being a passenger in one.

Bayerische Motoren Werke (translates to “Bavarian Motor Works”) started as a manufacturer of aircraft engines that then transitioned into cars. Below, I share with you the history timeline behind the company.

Rapp engineering his motors.

• 1913: Karl Friedrich Rapp established his own aircraft engines in a former bicycle factory near Munich. Unfortunately, the business didn't do so well.

• 1913: Gustav Otto set up a business building small aircrafts. Otto’s father was the inventor of the four-stroke internal engine.