6 reasons why I love Amsterdam

Amsterdam. I am smitten. Let me tell you why. 1)- It's the Venice of the North. We arrived at night. We were greeted by the light from the old fashioned street lamps reflecting off the water of the canals. It doesn't get much more romantic. 2)-It's a perfect combination of old and new. The old cobble stone streets are lined with 17th century row houses with huge ground floor windows showcasing chic modern apartments, shops and businesses. (It's like Greenwich village everywhere, except better) 3)- It's quiet. We kept wondering why it was so quiet. It is capital city of The Netherlands and it has over 700,000 inhabitants. And finally, we realized. No traffic. No car traffic. Everyone rides bikes. I thought Berliners rode a lot. But, the Dutch take it to another level. I have never seen so many bikes on the road. And, at the train station, there is a multi-level bike parking garage. (see pic) 4)- Culture abounds. I absolutely thrive on culture and diversity. Coffeehouses, galleries, boutiques, restaurants, museums. Amsterdam is filled with them. It's famous for the Rijks Museum, The Van Gogh Musuem, The Stedlijk Museum (modern art) and many more. 5)-Amsterdam's residents represent 177 different nationalities, making Amsterdam the most multicultural city in the world!!
6)- Liberal attitude. Last, but certainly not least. This is what Amsterdam is infamous for among Americans. Most Dutch operate on the ideology that people should be free to do what they want as long as it doesn't hurt themselves or others. And in their opinion, prostitution and certain natural drugs are not harmful. They are especially not harmful when regulated by the government (in the same way that the U.S. regulates alcohol and tobacco). And this idea has been successful for the Dutch thus far. (Sex fiends and drug addicts have not taken over the city!) Everyone certainly does not partake in the aforementioned activities, but it is safely available to those who are interested. This liberal attitude is embodied in the well-rounded, prevailing attitudes of its residents, government and businesses and greatly contributes to the many positive things I have listed above.
Check out our complete photo album at: snapfish.com

Autumn

I had the idea to post a picture of our street in every season so you can see what we see when we walk out of our apartment every day. This picture is about a month old, all of the leaves have now fallen and even though the first day of winter is not for a few weeks, it certainly feels like winter now! It's cold!-- averaging about 3 degrees celsius (37 degrees fahrenheit)

long live the little traffic light man

Guiding the pedestrians of Berlin is a funny looking man in a funny looking hat. Berlin has its own unique cross walk traffic light symbol , the ampelmännchen (english translation: the little traffic light man)
(common theme in Germany: Long words comprised of many smaller words).
It was created by an East German psychologist with the idea that people would respond to traffic laws better if presented with a friendly little man eagerly crossing the street. After German unification, East and West Berliners alike fought to keep the ampelmännchen alive in Berlin crosswalks. And it has since become well loved icon in Berlin adorning everything from T-shirts to mousepads.

And I have to give credit to that psychologist because Berliners DEFINITELY obey. As former New Yorkers, we were (and continue to be) appalled and annoyed to find that Berliners obey the crosswalk lights at all times. Even though it may be 3 AM and no vehicles as far as the eye can see, people will still stand and wait for the the little green ampelmännchen to appear!!

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mein Deutschkurs

I started my intensive German class this week. I love it so far. It's 4 hours/day and 4 days/week, but the time goes by fast. The teacher only speaks German the entire time. I'm sure she plays a killer game of charades. There are students from many different countries representing every continent. Pakistan, Poland, Peru, Georgia (the country), Kazaksthan ( soo hard not to mention Borat), Australia, Turkey, Nigeria, Malaysia, Thailand, Greece, Mongolia, Serbia, Tunisia, and France. On the first day I befriended a woman from Georgia. She doesn't speak English and I don't speak Georgian, but we managed to have a cup of coffee together and communicate only in German. Mostly I said, "Ich verstehe nicht" ( I don't understand) and "ja, ja, ja" (yea, yea, yea). It's amazing how many ways there are to communicate. Somehow we both knew that we could be friends. We have the same sense of humor. :)
So, tomorrow I will go to the disco with my new international friends, because dancing is a universal language.

Corfu Haiku

ancient mountain roads
beaches lined with polished stones
moon lit olive groves
--katie

the Greek sand stone cave

clearest blue mirror glass wave
Poseidon's triton

--ian

We traveled to the small Grecian island of Corfu for fall vacation. We went with 5 other American teachers. Getting a break from the bleak Berlin weather was awesome. The smell of sun screen and the feeling of sand between the toes. Towns on the island were closing for the winter, but the temp stayed about 70 most of the time. For a small fee we took a cruise to see the mainland Greece, the islands of Paxos (pictured above) and Antipaxos.

Corfu is the greenest island of the Ionian Greek islands. It is covered in vegetation of all kinds. It is very mountainous and the roads are 2 lane highways littered with unnerving switch backs. Tourism is the main form of commerce. Outside of the capital city of Corfu town , the coasts are lined with hotels and tavernas. The mountains are dotted with small, isolated villages. From our hotel beach, we had a clear view of the mountainous coast of Albania. The shores of Italy are not far either. At times, it felt like we could have been at a beautiful beach anywhere in the world. but eventually, an ancient olive tree or a sign written in the strange greek alphabet would remind us of the impact greece has made on our modern world.

We loved Corfu, but can't wait to go back to explore the many other islands.

lederhosen, beer and rollercoasters

Oktoberfest. The title sums it up.
It's the largest festival in the world.
6 million people descend upon Munich from all over the world with the purpose of drinking litre upon litre of the best beer in the world.
In order to get served a beer, you must have a seat at a table at one of the 15 beer tents at the festival. Table reservations are sold out at least 6 months in advance. So, we woke up at 7:30 am (after a 6 hour drive the night before) to stand in line to get a spot in one of the tents.

We sat in the Spaten tent. By 10am, the place was packed with people of all ages and nationalities donned in lederhosen, dirndels or ridiculous hats shaped like kegs. They only serve one type of beer (good) in one size (big). Every few minutes, a random table will break out in song. Well, it's more of a chant. (see video)
We went with Mike, Nate, Todd (all teachers from JFK), Tonya (dating Mike) and Eric (Todd's friend visiting from CA). Tonya drove us in her mini-van and we stayed with her friends in a town about 40 minutes outside of Munich. Kathy and Fritz. Kathy has never been to Oktoberfest and Fritz hasn't been for 20 years. However, after seeing our pictures and hearing our stories, they have asked if they can go with us next year!!
I think the pictures really say it all. So check out the complete album at our snapfish album
-- katie

bikes rule

Lots of bikes at the S-bahn station

Berliners love their bikes. People every age ride em everywhere. Including Ian and I. Ian rides his to work, I ride mine to the market, to the park, to a friends house. It's great. Cars actually yield to bikes. And basically every road has some kind of bike lane. but with this convenience comes strict rules and regulations. (common theme in Germany: "rules") Like, every bike must have fenders and front and back lights. You have to know who has the right of way (German's are all about "right of ways") but every street is different, with a complex combination of signs, etc. Oddly enough, no one wears helmets. (except for us. don't worry mom!)

People do not hesitate to let you when you're not following the rules.
Case in point, the other day, i was riding my bike on the sidewalk (gasp) and an elderly woman angrily growled at me and i nearly fell off my bike. they don't like it when you ride on the sidewalk here (even though everyone does it). growling is a universal language, but how did she know i don't speak german?? Maybe it was the helmet.
--katie

Taking our bikes on a train ride to the country

Our haus

Many people have asked us, "What's it like in Germany?" So, the intention of this blog is to answer that question one posting at a time. I've given this question a lot of thought and It's really all in the little differences of daily life. These daily details make the difference between "just visiting" and calling somewhere "home".


Currently, our "home" is at Markelstraße 10. We don't have an apartment number or letter, our apartment is only identifed by our last name. This requires that you really get to know someone before you can show up at their house un-invited.
We're near the Feurbach Straße stop on the S-bahn or the Walter-Schreiber Platz stop on the U-bahn. Berlin has 2 train (bahn) lines. The S-bahn is above ground and the U-bahn is below. I like the U-bahn because the underground train reminds me of the subways in NYC and I like the way it's pronounced "ooo"-bahn.


We live in the neighborhood of Steglitz (Sh-teee-glitz) which is a residential area in South-west Berlin. You won't find it in the guidebooks. Probably because it's a small, quiet, tree lined neighborhood with mostly families and old people. It's most exciting attraction is the endless shopping on Schlostraße. (side note: 'straße' means 'street' and in english it's spelled, 'strasse' That strange looking letter is called an es-zett and as far as I know it's basically equivalent to a double "s", but i digreß). Schlostraße is lined with clothing stores, shoe stores, bakeries, markets, coffee shops (including starbucks) and restaurants (including burger king, mcdonald's and subway) and even a couple good old fashioned malls. Even though it's not featured in any guidebooks that I've seen, Steglitz is very conveniently located to all of the neighborhoods that are. And that's why we like it.

There are 6 other JFK school (Ian's school) teachers that live in our building. The apartments have been passed along from teacher to teacher. So, the neighbors and the landlords are used to Americans. They graciously hang signs in English instructing us on which garbage bin to put the brown glass and which to put the clear glass. (the recycling system is very complex and thorough!) And since the guy who lives below us is American, he doesn't mind if we run the vacuum after 10:00pm. (There are noise curfew laws in all of Germany. Berlin is very liberal with it's 10:00 pm cut off, but most places are 8:00 pm) .

This posting is starting to feel like a 5th grade report, so, I'm going to stop and will try to avoid this in the future. We have new pictures coming soon and many more amusing anecdotes and interesting facts in store. So, stay tuned!

PS- an expat or expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence