Amsterdam and Last Week in Freiburg

I have been incredibly busy in the past month. Because we travel so much, we only have so much time to do our school work. In any given week, I could have two midterms, a paper and a German test. This week, I had two papers due. It's pretty intense, but I'm not complaining. I could be doing the same amount of work and be stuck in Wisconsin doing it.
Last week, Kate and her friend Siobhan came to Freiburg. I had a midterm the morning after they arrived, but then I had an easy day and a half and was able to show them around the best sites of Freiburg. They saw the Münstermarkt (market at the cathedral) as well as the museum that I haven't even been to yet. I took them to the places with the cheapest Chinese and Italian food, the best beer, and the organic supermarket. I think they could easily see why I love Freiburg so much.
On Thursday evening, we, along with four other people on my program, hopped on a train to Amsterdam. I slept incredibly well on the train. We arrived in the city and were just ready to relax. It was nice to finally be able to be in a city without being overwhelmed by lack of time and a surplus of things to do. We took our time at the various museums (Van Gogh, Anne Frank's House, Rembrant's House) and were able to catch up on much needed sleep. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty terrible the entire time we were there, so there weren't as many tulips as one would expect out of Holland. The city was absolutely gorgeous, though, once you got past its lewdness and the less than ideal weather. The liberal politics of the city really make you think about American politics, though. Would it be better to regulate and legalize soft drugs and prostitution? It seems to be working out well for the Dutch, but I'm sure our history and culture would create a lot more problems than are seen in the Netherlands.
Next week, we're going on our final field study trip to Western Europe. We're leaving for Luxembourg and Brussels on Monday and then leaving for Paris on Thursday. It's a long time to be on a bus once again, but at least if our bus breaks down, we won't be stuck in Slovakia.

Woo!

I got As on both of my exams last week! and my exam this morning was super easy and I probably got an A on it too! Wooo... Kate's here with one of her friends from her program and I'm taking her out to a "China Schnellrestaurant" (chinese fast food, basically) in a few minutes. Tomorrow evening, we're taking a night train to Amsterdam with a couple of my friends from this program. I love Europe.

Long time no update...

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this thing. I've been swamped with work ever since we got back from our last field trip two weeks ago. Last week, I had two midterms. One of them was completely insane and asked questions that you would only know if you had ample background in the material, meaning EU relations with the Muslim World. Hopefully it didn't go too badly, though. I studied a lot and can only hope for the best. My other midterm was for my Civilizational Identities class, and it wasn't bad at all, but it still required a lot of work. This upcoming week I have a midterm and a presentation on Wednesday. Kate is also coming to visit Freiburg for a few days, starting late on Tuesday night until we leave for Amsterdam on Thursday evening. I'm running around trying to study and really just freaking out my housing situation for next semester and trying to resolve that before I can relax for a long weekend.
Anyway, going back a few weeks...
On February 22, we went skiing in the Alps. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately the way in which it was set up required a lot more cross country like skiing than anyone would ever want on regular skis. The next day, my back and arms were incredibly sore, while the muscles that were supposed to hurt were completely fine. It was overall a really nice day, though. The picture above is of Erica, Natalie and myself at the end of the day and the other is obviously me in the middle of the Alps.
That Sunday, we left for Budapest. The transportation situation was terrible all around Eastern Europe and it started that day. We got on a bus at 6 am for a flight that was supposed to leave Stuttgart around 11. The flight didn't end up leaving until 3 because of technical difficulties. Thanks, Easy Jet! It was, however, the fastest flight of my life. I maintain that we just teleported from Germany to Hungary, because I fell asleep the minute I sat down and didn't feel the take off or the apparently very brutal landing. Can't complain about that!
We arrived in Budapest and went on a boat tour, pictured above. This was really the only time that we got to see both the Buda and the Pest sides of the city. We had meetings in the Hungarian Parliament, though, which was really cool. The speakers were incredibly pessimistic about Hungary's future. The picture above is me and Jessica (another girl from Naperville!) in front of the parliament. The whole city was gorgeous, but everyone all over the city just seemed incredibly depressed all the time. It's like there's something engraved in the Hungarian psyche or something.
On Tuesday, we left for Krakow. We left in the afternoon and stopped for dinner in Slovakia. Note to self: Never try to find anything to eat in Slovakia EVER again. Boiled potatoes for dinner? Sweet. We got back on the bus and within an hour, it broke down. We were stranded in the parking lot of a closed grocery store in the middle of nowhere in Slovakia for FOUR hours. It was freezing outside and they let the exhaust go onto the bus, so we all felt incredibly sick by the time our backup bus came. We finally arrived in Krakow around 3am. At least now I can say that
I've been to Slovakia, though...
Krakow was a really nice city. It just felt homey. The city wasn't very destroyed in WWII, so there is a lot of medieval architecture throughout the city. There's also a really neat market in the middle of the city square. Everything was really cheap and that's where a ton of souvenirs are coming from. I met up with John, a friend from Beloit. We had Indian food and he showed me around the city a little. It was really great to sit down and talk to someone from Beloit and talk about people that we both know.
On Thursday morning, we left for Prague. On the way, we stopped at Auschwitz, which had the same impact on me as Dachau did a few years ago. Our tour guide was eager to tell us everything that she knows about the Holocaust, particularly in Auschwitz of course. It was really interesting and incredibly depressing, of course.
After a nine hour bus ride, we finally arrived in Prague. We immediately looked for a place to eat. Jamie (the other vegan) and I decided to go to a vegetarian restaurant. A bunch of friends came with us and we absolutely fell in love with the place. Dad, when we go to Prague, we're eating there at least once. Absolutely amazing. We ended up going back there two more times to eat. mmm...

Prague, like Krakow, was left untouched by WWII and remains gorgeous as a result. We had a lot of free time in Prague, which was incredible because we actually got to go to all of the places that we wanted to. Unfortunately, the day we wanted to go to the castle, it was closed. We did walk up to the top of an observation tower and we did walk all the way up to the castle and take some cool pictures seen above, though.
The past weekend we traveled some more. I went with five friends to Munich. Unfortunately, all of these girls are in the other travel group so I didn't get to go to Eastern Europe with them. Munich was a lot of fun, though. I don't have any pictures because I haven't uploaded them onto my computer yet, but I basically saw the same things that I saw when I was there before. On Saturday, it was absolutely gorgeous out. We climbed up to Neuschwanstein and took gorgeous pictures. That basically took all day. We came back and went to an Indian restaurant and it was absolutely delicious. Mom, we're definitely going there because it was amazing!
Well, that's enough for now. Props to anyone who read that whole thing! I'll update again when I get back from Amsterdam and hopefully I won't wait as long that time.

Wait, was I just in Central or Eastern Europe?

Once again, I haven't had any time to update this. I have two papers due today and have two midterms next week. So, though I will certainly update with a less academic outlook on my tour of Eastern/Central Europe, I will just post this for now. It's my reflection essay on the trip and we are supposed to pick a running theme throughout our trip, which is why so much of the post focuses on question of where Eastern and Central Europe split.

Upon our arrival in Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic, we were reminded that we were on a tour of Central Europe, despite my preconception that I was on a tour of Eastern Europe. None of these countries wanted to be associated with the strong feelings of depression, hardship and poverty that are connected to the term Eastern Europe. I pictured all of these countries as still rebuilding after the fall of communism and the breakup of Czechoslovakia. I knew of the massive inflation and various failed reforms. I was therefore unsurprised to see Budapest in the state of distress that it was in. I was, however, surprised to see that Slovakia appeared to be doing better off economically than Hungary. Based on a not so quick drive through, we passed an abundance of construction and an economy that appeared to be developing quite nicely. Slovakia and Budapest were exactly how I pictured Eastern European states to be, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw in Krakow and Prague, where prosperity seems to have already flourished. Of course, Poland and the Czech Republic are not without problems, but they are at a point in their history where they can move past their own domestic affairs and on to international ones. Although it is impossible to solidify a division between Central and Eastern Europe, the feelings accompanying my trip to Slovakia and Budapest went along with my idea of Eastern Europe, while my time in Prague and Krakow led me to feel as though I was in Central Europe.

Upon my arrival in Budapest, I immediately noticed a feeling of melancholy within the population. We walked down into the subway and saw a plethora of homeless people and a rickety Soviet-esque subway station complete with noisy, dangerous looking trains. Although the abundance of the homeless population was distressing, the aura of them was something that I had never seen before. They all appeared immobilized by their depression. When given money, they did not move. They were in a state of mere existence. Immediately, I recalled a movie I had seen and all of the images of depression and desperation so prevalent in the movie returned to my consciousness. The movie was called Kontroll and is based on the lives of the kontrollers who check for tickets in the Budapest subway system. They all lead a melancholy existence and it is unclear why they go on.

Kontroll also reminded me of the romanticization of the days of communism that is still widespread throughout Budapest. The controllers are hated by the people of Budapest, who, as a result of communism, do not believe that they should have to pay for the use of the subway. The second and third speakers that we heard, Dr. Klara Syalay and Dr. Zsolt Enyedi, brought this idea of the immense lifestyle and outlook changes that resulted after communism. A general feeling that things were better under communism, that in the ‘good old days’ you wouldn’t have to pay for things like public transportation, is widespread throughout the country. This is unsurprising given the current political and economic situation of Hungary. Dr. Enyedi even told us that Hungarians think optimists are stupid and ignorant because throughout Hungarian history, there has not been an occasion to remain optimistic for long. Currently, in the EU, Hungary has the highest government debt, the lowest GDP amongst the post-Communist nations, highest inflation and the fastest rising unemployment rate. The general feeling that I got from all of the presenters was that Hungary just wants help. They are desperate for economic hope and they are afraid of stepping on any toes before they get there. As a result, although they are a medium sized country that could have some leverage in international affairs, they choose to focus more on domestic issues than European Union affairs, and tend to go along with the majority in the EU. The first two speakers at the Hungarian Parliament outright told us about how screwed up the country is economically, which was quite out of character for politicians. This only exemplifies this desire for more investment and economic help from the outside world and the sense of hopelessness that appeared imprinted in the Hungarian psyche.

After a few days in Budapest, I was ready to visit a more optimistic and contented city, which was what I eventually got in Krakow. Unfortunately, the trip to Krakow was much less than pleasant than our time spent there. Our bus broke down in a tiny mountain village in Slovakia in a parking lot across from a rundown hotel. Upon entering Slovakia, I was reminded again that I was still in Eastern Europe. Although the Slovakian speaker that we heard in Prague was much more optimistic than any of the Hungarian speakers, much of the countryside looked as if it had not moved away from the old fashioned pastoral society. The quaint villages merged with decrepit shacks and abandoned homes and buildings. As we continued, however, it was clear that there was a lot of construction going on in the more populated areas. My confusion was explained by Vladimir Bartovic in Prague. Slovakia has a strong economic relationship with the Czech Republic because the center of the former Czechoslovakia was in Prague. Slovakia after the break up of Czechoslovakia was, according to Madeline Albright, “the black hole of Europe.” It is obvious now, however, that that is no longer true. There have been great strides forward in the past few years and much of the country is under construction. What I had seen at first was not representative of Slovakia as a whole. The Slovakian government only recently, in 1998, became democratic and the first few years of corruption stalled the country’s growth. Recently it appears to have recovered even from that. With the help of its neighbors Poland and the Czech Republic, it joined the EU in 2004 and has only continued to grow since with a 10.2% GDP last year. Surprisingly, Slovakia not only has the lowest inflation rate in the EU, but it is also leading in growth. This kind of economic growth was my expectation for all of Eastern Europe, but only in Slovakia was this expectation fully realized.

When we finally arrived in Krakow, I was pleasantly surprised with the feeling of the city. The people seemed happier and much less hopeless than they had been in Budapest. The first place we walked around was the market square at the heart of the Medieval Old Town. It is full of historical buildings and a beautiful cathedral. The city was left relatively untouched by the Second World War, so its fourteenth and fifteenth century architecture provoke a sense of both historical greatness and pride for the Polish people. This sense of pride was an element that appeared to be lacking in the Hungarian psyche.

Unfortunately, because of the debacle with the broken down bus in Slovakia, we only heard one speaker and missed out on the basic history and statistics that we learned in both Prague and Budapest. Mr. Mateusz Tobiczyk of the Institute for Strategic Studies spoke about Poland's foreign relations but centered the majority of his speech on the United States rather than solely its relationship with the European Union. He was certain, however, to emphasize the Central European-ness of the city. He brought up the idea of Polish pride indirectly in his talk about Poland’s demand upon foreign powers, particularly the United States in terms of the missile defense shield. The sense that Poland deserves its share of everything is far from the desperation that I noticed in Budapest. The will to stand up for its interests and go against European opinion proves Poland’s poise and self-confidence. This Polish pride was apparent not only in the people, but also in the upkeep of the city, which felt both clean and magnificent. Any sense of being in Eastern Europe was forgotten because the people were content and were concerned with international affairs as much as they were with unemployment and inflation. This suggests a feeling more like that of a Western European state than that of a former Soviet bloc nation.

Prague is a very international city in contrast to Krakow and Budapest. Constantly while walking through the streets, I heard people speaking English or German. As a result, it was very difficult to get a sense of what the Czech people are like and I can unfortunately only gage this off of the speakers. Both David Král, of EUROPEUM, and Michael Kořan, of IIR, portrayed the Czech approach to foreign policy as being neutral, seeing itself as a growing regional power, but without the necessity of becoming ultra-powerful. They also stressed the political polarization between the two leading parties, the Civil Democratic Party, currently in power, and the Social Democratic Party. Both of these parties were in favor of joining NATO and the EU, though the Social Democrats believe that more attention should be placed on the EU rather than the basically obsolete NATO. Kořan stressed the country’s recent historical ties to the East, but today believes that it is getting more acquainted with the EU and the West. The Czech Republic has been a big propagator of democracy and Western values in the region and is now realizing its economic interests lay in cooperation with the West. As a result of this, the city today has a modernized, Western feel. It is no longer inexplicably tied to Russia or the East, but, rather, is in the process of finding a balance between the two.

When I think about Eastern Europe, I think about a region mixed between Slovakia and Hungary. I think of poverty and hopelessness, but with a rapidly developing economy. Although it is true that Hungary was at the forefront of post-Communist reforms, it has since stagnated and created a sense of pessimism for the future. In Slovakia, the economic boom that occurred in Hungary a decade ago is in full force today, but unlike Hungary, there appears to be a feeling of cautious optimism for the future. Poland and the Czech Republic, however, strike me as much more removed from its history in the Eastern bloc and appear to be more Central European than the others. Their economies have recovered and the cities have a proud historical feel that is not ominous of the years gone by. Their policies have also moved beyond that of post-Communist redevelopment, while Hungary is still dealing with the repercussions of failed reforms and Slovakia is dealing with years of corruption following the fall of the USSR. Poland is seeking a balance of power between its interests in Europe and its interests with the United States. The Czech Republic is also becoming more a powerful voice in the region and a propagator for Western interests. While I would be hard-pressed to agree that Hungary and Slovakia do not fit the Eastern European stereotype, as noted by all of the locals and speakers, the Czech Republic and Poland are certainly in the center, acting as a bridge between the East and the West.

Post Auf Deutsch

I don't really have much time to update right now because I had a paper due today and another one due on Thursday and my class for Monday morning was cancelled and rescheduled for tonight. So, I've decided to post my paper. It's in German, but at least that means that at least one person will be able to read it. Unfortunately, I'm sure the grammar isn't all that great but it gets the point accross. I might end up posting my Seminar paper, too. Then maybe this weekend I'll have time for a real entry...

Letzte Woche bin ich nach Budapest, Krakow, Auschwitz und Prague gefahren. Zuerst sind wir nach Budapest gegangen. Um 7 Uhr haben wir Freiburg abgefahren. Unglücklicherweise war unsere Flug sehr spät. Wir war in Stuttgart Flughafen für 3 Stunden. Es war sehr ärgerlich, weil ich sehr müde war. Wann wir nach Budapest gekommen wir sind auf eine Schifftour gegangen. Zuerst habe ich viele Obdachlose gesehen. Budapest war sehr schön an der Nacht. Nach dieser Tour haben wir gegessen. Wir sind nach einem traditionellen Ungarischen Restaurant gegangen. Immer haben gedacht, dass es sehr lecker war, aber ich bin eine Veganerin und es schmeckt sehr langweilig und nicht sehr lecker. Wir hatten unsere zuerst morgen frei und alles haben viel geschafen. Wir haben twei Ansagern gehört und beide waren sehr langweilig. Sie war sehr pessimistisch und haben auf einem Powerpoint gelesen. Danach sind meine Freunden und ich einkaufen gegangen. Ich habe gefunden, dass alles war zu teuer. Ich habe gedacht, dass alles würde billig aber dass war nicht richtig. Ich wünsche mich, dass ich würde mehr von Budapest gesehen. Ich sollte nicht einkaufen gegangen. übergreifend ich habe gedacht, dass Budapest war ein beschmutzt und bedrückend Stadt.

Am Dienstag sind wir nach Krakow gefahren. Unglücklicherweise unser Bus hat kaputt bekommen. Wir waren für 4 Stunden in Slovakia. Ich war sehr verschroben und müde! Wir sind um 1 Uhr nach Krakow angekommen. Unsere zuerst Ansager war sehr interessant. Er war sehr ehrenwert. Er war nicht so pessimistisch als Budapest aber er war realistisch. Danach bin ich ausforschen gegangen. Ich habe vielen Bernstein Schmuck gekauft, weil es sehr billig war. Es ist eine perfekte Geschenkt für meine Freunden nach Hause. Am Abend habe ich mein Freund besucht. Er ist einen Amerikanischer Austauschschüler in Krakow und geht nach meiner Universität. Er ist sehr intelligent und wir haben viele über polnische Politik diskutiert. Er anzeigt mir das beste Bier in Polen und es war nicht so gut als Deutschishe Bier!

Am morgen sind wir nach Auschwitz gefahren. Es war sehr unwirklich. Unsere Reiseleiterin war informativ. Alles war sehr bedrückend aber interessant. Der Rest von Busfahren war sehr ruhig, weil alles über Auschwitz gedacht haben müssen. Später haben wir nach Prague gekommen. Wir waren alles sehr müde und haben geschlafen. Am morgen fuhren wir zu unseren Ansagern. Ein Mann kommt aus Slowakei und das andere kommt aus Tschechische Republik. Sie waren sehr interessant. Der Nächste Mann war auch Interessant. Ich habe gedacht, dass alles in Prag war wunderbar. Ich habe so viel gegessen und alles schmeckt sehr lecker, weil wir nach einem Vegetarischen Restaurant gegangen sind. Wir haben auch alles von der Stadt gesehen. Prag war meine lieblingstadt. Außer allem Reisen zwischen den Städten, die Riese war sehr schön.