Vienna Excursion 2012 – Day 2

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We all anticipated today, our first full day of sightseeing and touring the city. The day started early with an awesome breakfast spread at the hotel consisting of bread, cheese, and meat, but, most importantly, a personal pot of coffee. Satisfied and energized from breakfast we set off to meet our tour guide outside of the Albertina Museum. It was a beautiful morning and with sunshine greeting our anxious, glowing faces we started off on our tour. The tour could not have been neater; it provided us with a dose of historical background to the stunning buildings around each corner. I had a tough time keeping my mouth closed on the tour as we went from building to building, shocked by the beauty of the city.

The tour gave us just a glimpse of the city, so after lunch we were ready to delve deeper into a historical site. We started off big with St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The Romanesque and Gothic architecture made the whole cathedral seem surreal. Everything was ornate and had such detail that it just did not look real. However, the cathedral offered more than just its architecture. It had a rich, long history, part of which it literally still had in its depths: the catacombs. We were lucky enough to get a tour of the catacombs, where the remains of past Viennese continued to rest. I will not lie. It was a little creepy. Anyway, it capped off a great first day that left us in awe of Vienna.

 

Vienna Excursion 2012 – Day 1

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Our epic journey to Vienna started on Monday morning on the 5th of March. We met at the Hauptbahnhof in Bremen to make the hour and a half long trek by train to the Hamburger Airport. Flights are far cheaper from the bustling metropolis compared to our little provincial town of Bremen. The flight to Vienna was only about an hour and a half, and Air Berlin made our journey quite enjoyable feeding us delicious chocolates as we stepped down onto the welcoming soil of Vienna, Austria. It took a short ride on the city-airport train and an even shorter taxi ride to get to our perfectly located hotel. Our hotel was on a side street by the State Opera House and right at the end of the main shopping street. It was close to the Ringstrasse which is the circular street surrounding the inner city of Vienna.

Gwynnie, Steph, Jeff, Emily, John G., John P., Dr. Janine Ludwig (from left to right)

After we arrived in the late afternoon, we had a chance to settle in before we headed out for dinner at the Zwölf- Apostelkeller, a slightly kitschy, but nevertheless nice restaurant. The menu offered many different kinds of heavy meat and potatoes type meals, such as Schnitzel or Saftgulasch (chunks of meat with lots of sauce) with potatoes, just like any Heuriger (traditional Viennese restaurants) on the outskirts of Vienna would.

The restaurant was in the basement of a building (hence it being called Keller) and was very beautifully decorated. To make the evening all the more enjoyable there were musicians, a violinist and an accordion player. These two men played throughout the evening and even stopped by our table and took some requests, even humoring us by playing “Edelweiss”. I of course took the opportunity to shamelessly sing along; we were in Vienna after all, the city of music, and I just couldn’t help myself.

After dinner we all decided to stop at Zanoni and Zanoni, THE Ice cream place in Vienna. They have all kinds of ice cream, gelato, soy milk ice cream and even something called Milk Rice Ice Cream, which is actually quite delicious. It was a tad bit cold for frozen treats, but nevertheless it was incredibly delicious and that does tend to be what Germans do anyway: eat ice cream in winter. We then headed home for an early night, as we had an absurdly full week ahead of us.

 

Academic Differences Between Dickinson and Uni Bremen.

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While studying abroad at a different university, definite differences are apparent. Before coming to Uni Bremen, I expected classes to be fairly similar to Dickinson but just larger. I soon came to realize that this was not the only difference. First, let me list all of the academic differences I have noticed between Uni Bremen and Dickinson and then I will explain each one:
1. The class size
2. The students ages
3. The “homework” and graded “assignments”
4. Semester time-frame
5. Grading system
6. The professors
The class size, at Dickinson, will not exceed 60 students and it is not uncommon for a class to have only 5 students. At Uni Bremen; however, the class size is much larger on average. To have a class with less than 20 students is not as common as having a class with 100+ students. My largest class had about 150 students. And on that note, this class of 150 or so students were composed of 4 students in their 20s and the rest of the students were over 70 years of age. To have older adults as students is not uncommon. Thirdly, the assignments for classes at Uni Bremen have a different expectation than those given at Dickinson. At Uni Bremen, the assignments given throughout the semester are typically readings listed on the syllabus. These readings will either be posted online or the student must go to a local bookstore. These readings are not mandatory, but an aid. If the class consists of discussion then reading the listed assignment(s) is recommended but again not mandatory like Dickinson. The actual graded assignments do not come until the end of the semester as one large grade. This one grade is what the student will receive for the class. This grade can either be a test, a project, an oral presentation, or a 10-15 page paper depending on the professor. As for the actual grades, they are not based off of a “A, B, C, D, F” system, but rather a point system. This point system is 1-5 in which a 1 is a perfect grade and a 5 is failing. The professors will be understanding to those who are international students, but it is very rare for professors at a German university, such as Uni Bremen, to know the names of the students. This is mainly due to the fact that most classes have over 50 students, but also because the student-professor relationship does not work at Uni Bremen like it does at Dickinson. Another academic difference between Dickinson and Uni Bremen is attendance. Unless professors at Uni Bremen take attendance and make it an important issue to not miss classes, attendance is not taken as seriously as it is at Dickinson. Nevertheless, going to class is important! …but taken lightly by the majority of students. For one of my classes – that had no attendance requirement – there was a student who came to the last day to take the final exam… This student did not come to a single day of class throughout the semester. And lastly, as for the semester, the first semester (winter semester) begins late October/early November and ends in February as opposed to late August to December.
To those of you who find the differences to be intimidating, please do not be alarmed! These differences are very easy to adjust to ;-).

Beck’s Brewery Tour

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Beer is a staple of any social gathering or meal in Germany but the way it is made is a mystery to many people. The Dickinson in Bremen program recently took a tour of the Beck’s Brewery right here in Bremen to discover more about this important and delicious drink. We first learned that Beck’s is not only the most popular beer here in Bremen but that it is also Germany’s largest export beer. It can be found in every corner of the globe. The next part of the tour took us through the process of beer production; from harvesting the hops to bottling and packaging the product. Finally, we were able to sample various types of beer produced at the Beck’s brewery. They had us guess whether the beer was Beck’s, Alcohol-free Beck’s, or Haake Beck, a beer produced by Beck’s but only served in Northern Germany. The Dickinson crew guessed correctly with only 4+ months of drinking Beck’s and Haake Beck under our belt. To our surprise, we were not rewarded with a lifetime supply of beer.

The Dickinson-in-Bremen group at the Brewery.

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New Year’s Eve in Bremen

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With all other Dickinson students having flown the Bremen-coop, I was left to experience New Year’s Eve in Bremen by myself. Fortunately I had two great Bremen-natives, Verena M. and Christine M. to show me the ropes of the quirky German New Year’s traditions. Even before arriving at Verena’s apartment in the Neustadt in the evening, I heard loud cracking and popping sounds all day in my usually quiet neighborhood; I should have realized that that was only a small sign of the firework enthusiasm I would later experience that evening.

Much like the yearly holiday showings of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Story,” Germans enjoy watching a short film titled, “Dinner for One” or “Der. 90. Geburtstag” on New Year’s Eve. Afterwards we ate the traditional jelly-donuts ‘Berliners’ and also did the traditional ‘lead pouring’ called ‘Bleigießen.’ This process involves melting lead shapes on a spoon over a candle, pouring the liquid into a pot of cold water and then telling fortunes from the shapes formed in the water.

We then decided to brave the streets to watch the fireworks along the Weser River. Words cannot describe how chaotic and wild everything was. Little kids were handed rockets to set off, groups would walk along and toss fire-crackers in the streets and at cars driving by, and the cracks, pops and whistles were so deafening that it almost felt like I was in a war-zone. Unlike the big city-organized firework displays one finds in the United States, Germans buy and set off their own fireworks. Verena informed me that fireworks are only available during the few days before New Year’s and that otherwise you can’t find them in Germany, which helps account for their general pyro-enthusiasm. After lighting our own rather tame sparklers and toasting the New Year with some champagne, we managed to find our way back home through the smoke-filled streets. I hope to bring back some of the German traditions I learned!

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Different….

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by Gwyneth van Son ’13

What?! We have to feed ourselves?!

Nope, no three meals a day at the cafeteria, no maintenance staff, and no campus life living. This, my friends, is as close to the real world as I ever care to get. Here at the Bremen program we have no host families, but rather live in apartments owned by the university and receive a stipend (due to the lack of an all you can eat buffet). However, because I so love to be different, I live in a private apartment with Verena, a German TA in 2010-2011. Verena and I live in the Neustadt, which is about a 30-minute tram ride away from the University of Bremen (a very long way away by Dickinson standards). There are, however, many advantages to where we live; we are not very far from the inner city and we walk one minute to both the grocery store and the tram stop.  Our building is very much the typical old single family Bremen townhouse renovated into apartments. It has three stories, a basement, balconies, a garden in the back and very high ceilings. The one thing that makes our building standout is that it is bright pink with a mural of water lilies painted on the front.

Because I decided to live in a private apartment that meant I needed to purchase a few things, such as a bed. Two highly successful trips to Ikea were made, one with Verena and one with Jens. I now feel I can truthfully say I know my way quite well around the Ikea store, if a guided tour is requested I am more then happy to oblige. I managed to find a great bed on Bremen’s much less creepy version of Craig’s list, and due to Jens it was speedily dismantled, transported, and rebuilt.

My living situation in Bremen may be completely different from that at Dickinson, but the one thing they have in common is that there is always something to be done in terms of decoration. Even after I move out of a room I think of how I could have decorated it differently, and I know with my apartment here it will be just the same. After living in a dorm for the last two years I enjoy cooking for myself, cleaning the apartment and knowing no one except Verena or I will come in and leave dirty dishes in the sink, as well as the lack of constant loud music. Our landlords, who live above us, are thankfully not into blasting music so loud that I worry for their future ability to hear. I am sure, however, that after eleven months of real life living I will welcome back dorm life and the caf with wide open arms, but until then I am perfectly content to live the life of a big kid.

 

Dickinson connects

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Dickinson connects, even beyond school!

from left: Caitlin, Jens, Insa

Caitlin Hahn ’08 spent her year abroad in Bremen and – after graduating – came back to Germany with a Fulbright scholarship to teach English in Hamburg. She decided to stay in Germany and enrolled in an applied literature degree course at Free University in Berlin. Insa Kohler (TA ’10) and Jens Schröder (TA ’07) studied at Uni Bremen and only heard about Caitlin through others. Now that Insa is enrolled in the same degree course at FU Berlin as Caitlin, they both met for the first time in person. So, Jens finally took the chance to visit them both while attending a conference in Berlin.

 

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Fair trade!

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July King ’12 at UTAMTSI’s stand in Baltimore

In June, Prof. Antje Pfannkuchen (German Department), former exchange student Julie King ’12 and Jens Schröder (Program Coordinator) visited the sustainable coffee company UTAMTSI outside Bremen (see blog entry below). The company is already engaged in educating Dickinson students in sustainable coffee production and its fair distribution in Cameroon. Back in June, both sides expressed their wish to cooperate more closely together and share expertise and knowledge about sustainable planting methods. Now, a first step is accomplished: Morin Fobissie Kamga, one of the founders of UTAMTSI, visited Dickinson this week and is now in Baltimore attending a conference about sustainable food production. At the conference, Morin is supported by – yes – Julie King. The triangle Bremen-Cameroon-Dickinson works in a true Dickinson spirit: globally and sustainably!

But there is more: in the same week, Bremen was awarded the title “Germany’s Capitol of Fair Trade”, recognizing Bremen’s efforts to promote fair trade projects across the city. Find the newspaper article here (in German):

https://www.weser-kurier.de/bremen/stadtteil-schwachhausen/bremen-will-hauptstadt-des-fairen-handels-2011-werden-doc7e3kkjykxvbk480jmx