oh public transit

I sat on the tram this morning eating my French yogurt, traveling from my small rural village to the industrial city of Saarbrücken, thinking about what I could blog about. There have been a lot of different things on my mind lately, but I just haven't taken the time to write them all down for you. I am sure in time they will be told.


Life using public transportation has been interesting. There are times when I miss having my car, but for the most part I haven't minded taking the tram and buses. This morning it would have been nice to have a car as a backup, just because I didn't want to get out of bed. :P The first time I took the tram it was exciting. It was only the second time I had ever used a tram or public transit for the matter. I guess that is a blessing or a curse growing up in rural areas.

When I was in high school my Dad, brother, sister and I went on a trip to California to celebrate my brother's graduation. We went to San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Despite all the car problems we had along the way, like overheating in the Mohave, and the radiator breaking, we never took public transit. I thought it would have been really fun to take the street car in San Francisco, but it really wasn't practical. And even then the trolley is a little different from a tram.

The tram in Salt Lake City is a little more similar. The first and only time I rode it was a lot of fun. Megan and I went to visit a friend,Becky, and go to another friends' (Kyl and Jake) wedding. We were staying in Sandy and decided to spend the day in the city shopping and looking around. Becky didn't want to drive in and neither did I, so we took the tram. It was going to be cheaper than paying for parking all day as well.  We bought our tickets and went into town. It turned out the trolley was free that day.At one point we realized it was the 24th of July-- Pioneer Day-- the day Salt Lake, and most of Utah and Idaho, celebrate the Pioneers who settled the Salt Lake Valley. The city was filled to the brim with people. We had a lot of fun that day. Even though there were a ton of people the train wasn't crowded as it was for me the other day.

A couple of weeks ago, it had to have been a Friday, because it was an early train, there was no extra room to breathe on the tram.It was the first time I had taken the early tram, at least by myself-- no it was the first time I had to take the 7:04. As is usual with morning trams quite a few school kids got on as well as adults, presumably on their way to school or work. more and more and more people got on the tram, but it seemed as if no one was getting off. It was getting quite crowded by now ans we were only a couple of stops away from the Hauptbahnhof, my usual stop. Usually quite a few people will get off and from what I have seen not a ton of people will get on. I wasn't in the best position to get off the tram here, so I decided to take one of the next stops, where I could also get a bus to the university. Mistake! Big Mistake!

If I didn't think there was breathing room before I was sadly mistaken. People got off at the Hauptbahnhof, but  more people got on than got off. I usually sit in one of the end cars so it is easier to get on and off the train, and to be honest I can people watch better from there. I had however decided to sit in the middle car, in one of the first rows. When it came to the last stop I could take I could barely get to the door. I had to climb, yes climb over the person sitting next to me and then squeeze down the aisle, just to push my way through the crowd standing at the doors to get off. Luckily the bus wasn't super crowded like it was the day before.

I wont go into all the details of the trip, just think about the amount of people on the train and then shove them all into a bus. Yep, that's about right. I was reading the maximum capacity in the bus and most of them can seat about 50 people sitting down and then they say upwards of 90 people can safely stand! That is just about 150 people in a little tiny space. Too close of quarters for me.

These two back to back days made me realize I am a bit claustrophobic. I never would have thought I would claim this phobia because you can stick me in dark and tight places all by myself all you want and I will be just fine, but once you start shoving people in with me and then ask me to move around I will freak out just a bit. I always knew I didn't like crowds but now I know why.

What's in a name?

Would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet? I am not sure, but what I do know is: I have never thought so much about my name than I have this past week. I like my name and always have. I've never wanted to be called anything else, except for that one time in the third grade, but that had nothing to do with not liking my name.


I was the only Heather in my class, but there was a Hillary. My teacher kept getting our names confused so I told her she could start calling me my my middle name-- Marie. She tried later that same day, but I wouldn't answer, so we quickly went back to Heather and Hillary and confusion.

I've never really even had a nickname that has stuck. In high school my friends would write notes to Pyro, but they hardly called me that in person. Although occasionally I still get an I M or email addressed to Pyro, I am still Heather. I remember thinking at one point in time I wish I had a good nickname, but no one has ever found one that sticks.

There was the few years I went by a different name while I worked at Fantastic Sams, but that wasn't really a nickname. When I was hired at the salon there was another Heather already working there. The owner decided it would be too difficult and confusing for the clients to have two Heather's. The other Heather's clients would have to start asking for Heather S, and my incoming clients would have to ask for Heather D. She had lots of faith in the intelligence and loyalty of our clients. At any rate my name got shortened to D. Talk about confusing. I now had to tell people who had known me for years only as Heather to ask for D. And then later after the first Heather left I had to explain to my clients, who now knew my real name was Heather, why I went by D here, but no where else. I guess it didn't help that two of my good friends (Jodi and Tallia) were hired at the salon and would call me by my actual name. As soon as I stopped working at the salon I went back to being Heather full time.

Now I am in Germany, still in love with my name, but surrounded by people who can't pronounce it. German doesn't have the diphthong ea, not the consonant sound th, and well that is most of my name. At church on Sunday people tried to get it right, but most of them pronounced my name Header, as do most children, or with a z: Heazer. I am used to that so it isn't so bad. At school on Monday however was a different story. My first teacher had us all introduce ourselves. I repeated my name about 3 times before she gave up on pronouncing it properly. Maybe it is time to go by a different name again. If I were to translate my name it would become Heide. I may not answer to it right away, but at least people would be able to pronounce my name!

Back to the real world...

My vacation is over. I am finally starting school again. It has been 3 months, and I am excited to have a schedule to help keep me productive again. And oh what a schedule it is going to be.

 I have four classes: Leseverstehen, Hörverstehen, Grammatik, and Mündliche Kommunikation. In English that is: Reading, Listening, Grammar, and Conversation respectively. I have Leseverstehn three times a week, Grammatik and Hörverstehen twice, and Kommunikation once. I have classes Monday through Friday, and despite being a little disappointed about having classes on Friday that isn't so bad. It is the times I have classes that is difficult. I start at 11.45 on Monday, have a two hour and fifteen minute break before my next class which doesn't  end until 17.45! That means I wont be home until about 7. On Tuesday I start at 10.45 only have an 45 minute break, which will be perfect for lunch, and I will finish up at 15.30. On Wednesday I only have one class, and it doesn't even start until 15.30 and doesn't end until 17.45. Thursday is about the same from 14.00 to 16.15. Friday is the best day schedule wise, starting at 8.15 and ending at 11.30. Even though I will have to go to class on Friday, I will still be able to do some traveling on the weekends. We will just have to wait until around noon to leave.  Classes start on Monday, and so we will see how things go.

Chris and I are not in the same class so we wont be able to help each other with what has happened in class. He has a much better schedule than I do, and I must say that I am a little jealous. His classes run from about 8 to 1130 Monday through Thursday. I do so much better in morning classes than I do in the afternoons. I have finally admitted to myself that I really am a morning person. I don't however have any control whatsoever over my schedules so fretting about it isn't going to do me any good, and I will just have to get used to it I guess.

I didn't do a well on the test as I thought I was going to so I am sure I am going to have to do some actual, honest to goodness studying. I have never really studied before, that is more than just doing my homework and skimming through my notes before the test. Perhaps I will be able to study in the mornings when I am at home still and alert. Then I would still be able to have my evenings free. That is going to be a good lesson in both studying and self discipline!

I am getting used to traveling back and forth on the tram and buses. I will be going to campus alone most of the time, so that is a good thing. I am also getting used to the time it takes-- just about an hour. I am trying to figure out ways to stay productive during this time, like today I drafted this blog post. I know that I can always read, and that might be what I end up doing.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to go to church for the first time since I have been here. I have figured out the bus route, I think and the times. I will leave the house about 9.30 and I will return about 14.30. All for an hour of church. But it will be worth it. I for sure wont be complaining when I get back to the states about getting up on time to go to church only 5 minutes away. Tomorrow will also be the first time I will be taking the tram and buses by myself. I am afraid I might end up lost, but hopefully not. Only tomorrow will tell :)

Fasching Videos

This was the first one. It is a little smaller than the other. The second one (below) was much bigger.

Fasching

Alright, so when Chris and I arrived in Germany Fasching had just begun. I haven’t really talked about it the way that I have wanted to because I was waiting on videos I have just now finished. I have never celebrated Mari Gras, Karnival, Fasching, or whatever you want to call it. In the states as well as elsewhere it seems to be mostly an excuse to drink. I don’t drink and therefore I don’t celebrate. But in Germany at least there is more to the week-long celebration than going to the bar on Fat Tuesday and getting wasted. In fact, there isn’t even a Fat Tuesday here, it is Fat Thursday.  Practically everyone celebrates here, and they dress up almost every day, even when they are going to work. A lot of people will throw parties throughout the week, and just have a good time. And there are parades… lots of parades.

We only went to two parades, but I know there were several more in the area alone. At the parades there are different floats and one of the things that the people can do during Fasching is make political statement they wouldn’t otherwise. So a few of the floats were political in nature in the way you would see people in the states protesting.  One float was commenting on Wolff, whose political scandal was recently exposed. There were a pair of feet sticking out of a meat grinder and I sign which said “Our country needs a new hero”.  I don’t remember if that particular float ended up in the video or not. (I had to take a lot of the parades out for time.)

One thing you will see a lot of, even though I cut most of them out are lines of girls saying “Alleh hoop”. “Alleh hoop” is what the people here say during Fasching. It means something to the effect of let’s go.  Most of the parades were spent telling everyone “Alleh hoop”. When you say “Alleh hoop” you move your right hand from your left hip up and out across your right shoulder.  It was interesting to see, because at first glance it is a similar gesture to the one used in Nazi Germany—at least similar at first glance. It however has nothing to do with the Nazi party, and for all I know it could have come first.

Another thing is the amount of alcohol being consumed in public. And the parade walkers ( I don’t know what to call them exactly) just hand out little bottles of liquor to any adult. Some of it was even homemade spirits. The also threw candy, popcorn and chips for the children. When I was watching the children run into the street to pick candy during the breaks, I thought how confusing it must be for children to know when it is ok to run into the street and eat the food they found and when it isn’t. 

I remember when I was little we were still allowed to throw candy in parades, and not just hand it to the children, but I don’t ever remember being able to go out into the street to collect anything we didn’t catch. We could pick up the stuff around our feet, but not out in the middle. Maybe that was because of all the horses in our parades. Candy in the middle of the street didn’t stay edible very long, if you catch my drift.

Other floats were just fun. One of the cool things was the themed groups. Mexican and other nationalities were really popular to dress up as, as well as the Smurfs and Gummy Bears. There were a few really interesting costumes like this scorpion type one. The Venetian masks were really cool as well.  Another common costume were cowboys or Indians. It was funny at times to see how the Germanys perceive or at least portray these two iconic American groups.  In one of the parades it was ironic that the Indians were following the cowboys instead of the other way around. And on another float they had an American flag.

It was interesting to see the American flag. I don’t think I really realized it was there at the parade because I am so used to seeing it flying, and we had only been in Germany a couple of days. When I was going through the footage I noticed it was there. Germans don’t fly the their flag the way Americans do. It they did others would be likely to perceive the flyers were Nazis or something of the like. I like that most Americans are proud to be so and show it my flying a flag outside their house. For me, coming from a military oriented family it is very natural to fly a flag. Almost like your house isn’t your home until you have your flag pole out by your front door. Germans don’t have that mindset partially because of WWII and the platforms the Third Reich stood for. It is just another thing I am learning. Different thoughts on patriotism lead to different actions, and it shows that actions don't always reflect the feelings of one’s heart. 

Catching up

I have been so behind on the videoslately that I haven't been posting to tell you all what is going on. I am working on getting some new videos edited but they are taking a while. We went to a couple of different parades for Fasching the first week, and I recorded the parades in their entirety. So I had, combined, over 2 hours of film to cut and edit and reduce to a manageable and watchable amount. I have one just about finished and the other is on its way. Then I have another video to put together about the Saarland Historical Museum and the Saarbruücken Schloss. So stay tuned so to speak. :)

Life has settled down to normalcy for the most part. I usually wake up first, well besides Ben who is at work super early, and do some reading and get ready for the day.  By that time Chris is usually up. We eat breakfast, do last nights dishes, and then Iris is awake. We spend the day reading or running errands, or just hanging out, surfing the internet and the like. School will start next Friday on the 9th, and so life goes on as normal.

Chris and I took our Einstufungstest on Thursday. It was a placement exam for Studienkolleg. We will find out how well we did on Thursday the 8th. The test was fairly easy so I am not too worried about where I am going to be placed. Before the test I was afraid it was going to be really hard and they were going to tell me I didn't know anything. I was able to understand pretty much everything however so I might end up taking "real" classes at the university in a month. Otherwise I would just stay in the intensive language classes.

Yesterday, Iris Chris and I went to play tennis at a nearby indoor court. We played on carpet! It was really weird at first but I think we were able to play at our usual skill level. And then we went to Globus again, but I didn't bring my camera to get better shots of the escalators and rotating door. I should be better about carrying my camera around all the time.

I think that gets you all caught up for now. Comment and let me know what you want to hear about! :)

Bis Dann