Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Europe Versus the Volcano, the Reprise

Well, this all seems somehow familiar: Volcano in Iceland erupts, spewing a cloud of ash particles out across Europe, which in turn shuts down flight traffic. Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, last April, when an Icelandic volcano by the fabulous name of Eyjafjallajökull erupted and threw the entire continent into transportation chaos.

The main difference seems this year's culprit's far more pronounceable name, the handily brief Grímsvötn.

No, that's not fair: The other major difference is that when Eyjafjallajökull erupted last April, it was an unprecedented situation, and no one could say for sure when was safe to fly and when wasn't. The result was a week-long flight ban for almost all of Europe.

This time, it's just northern Europe and, at the moment, the worst seems to be over. There was anxious anticipation on Tuesday (with the ash cloud scheduled to reach Germany around 2 a.m.) and the flight ban starting 11 a.m. today, Wednesday, but at this point (evening), airport operations are pretty much back to normal.

The one other little difference this year for me personally is that this time, I happen to be scheduled on a flight early tomorrow morning. A rather important one – for a trip to the US, i.e. the Yearly Visit Home. As you perhaps can imagine, I've been anxiously checking airport websites and ash cloud maps all day.

At the moment, things look good, the amount of ash has diminished, the latest press release from the German flight safety authority says the situation "eased considerably" and almost all flights from Berlin Tegel are taking off normally.

Sleep, good Grímsvötn, sleep...

Thursday, May 19, 2011

No Baby Carriages Allowed

In Germany, the red circle around something is the equivalent to the American red-circle-with-a-line-crossed-through-it, so this graffiti expresses the concept "no baby carriages" ...which is funny because it's stenciled on the sidewalk in one of Berlin's all-time most-baby-carriages-per-capita neighborhoods, around Kollwitzplatz.


Speaking of which, a friend who has a three-month-old just told me she went to a "Kinderwagen-Kino," or "baby carriage cinema," which I assume means a movie showing where parents are actually encouraged to bring their babies along - because if they're all parents, then they can all have sympathy/patience for each other's screaming kids.

She summed up the Kinderwagen-Kino experience with, "Well, it wasn't very quiet."

Wenn es sein muss

Another odd tidbit:

The other day, I passed a corner shop with the usual array of tabloid newspapers out front and one in particular caught my eye: The B.Z. (a tabloid of the sort where the headlines are in such large font, they take up almost the entirety of the front page) blared with the title:

"Weil das auch mal sein muss: 100 Gute Nachrichten aus Berlin"

The second part is simple and means "100 good news stories from Berlin." I find the first part a little tricky to get across in English, especially because of that slippery particle "mal," but it's along the lines of "Because it's necessary to do this now and then" or "Well, you need to do this sometimes too." So:

"Because It's Necessary Now and Then: 100 Good News Stories from Berlin"

I realize this is meant more in the sense of "it's important to have good news too," but at least to my (non-native) ears the "mal" combined with the word "muss" ("must") somehow made it come off sounding more like, "Oh, fine, we'll print good news if we have to!"

Well, I laughed, anyway.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Dos and Don'ts

A last note about England (actually about England preparations) that didn't make it in before I left for the trip...

Sometimes, when I'm just going on a short trip that doesn't quite seem to merit buying an entire new travel guide, I'll take out a few guidebooks from the library instead, for reference before I go. (The only problem with this strategy is that the guidebooks you get in German libraries are old, yawn-inducing ones meant for middle-aged Germans traveling by car. Probably why I've gradually switched my pre-travel research over to Wikitravel, which I have only good things to say about!)

In any case, I did get out a few England books from the library. In the end, I barely opened them (see above re: yawn-inducing and meant for middle-aged car travelers), but inside the back cover of one, I found an interesting section of England Dos and Don'ts directed specifically at German travelers.

There were predictable headings such as "Don't cut in line" (very import not to disturb the English in this favorite pastime, standing in line!) and "Don't forget to say 'excuse me'" ("Just saying 'hello' or 'mister' is absolutely frowned upon").

The last item was "Don't be sensitive" and I'll translate that paragraph in its entirety. (This is from a German-language Marco Polo guide to England.)

"The English like to make their jokes about the Germans and World War II. Especially when Germany plays England in soccer, the tabloids are full of ribald comparisons. Most of it isn't really meant seriously and the best thing to do is to ignore it. A small consolation: They make even more comments about the French."

Monday, May 16, 2011

The Finale of the Eurovision Finale

One last tidbit about Eurovision night.

I watched the contest at a bar with a couple of friends. When we finally left after the nearly-endless rounds of voting that conclude the show, we walked out of the bar and found...a trash can on fire.

Not just smoking a bit like they sometimes do when people are careless with their cigarette butts, but truly on fire, with flames shooting out of it. We looked at each other, torn between feeling we ought to do something and feeling we had no idea what to do.

As a sort of compromise, I popped back into the bar to ask the bartender's advice - he must be an expert on flaming garbage cans, right? It's not like this never happens in Berlin - I've walked past the melted remnants before.

The bartender shrugged and handed me a glass of water, which Helen boldly threw on the flames. It made no difference, of course.

We waffled. We could actually leave the thing to burn itself out - Berlin's municipal trash cans are small, orange, plastic things set off the ground on metal poles; since they're not in contact with anything else flammable, it's unlikely they could ever start a larger fire. We could call the fire department, but - really? Call them to say, Hi, sorry, could you drive over here and put out a trash can?

Luckily the dilemma was taken out of our hands when a police car cruised by, saw the flames and stopped. An officer stepped out, a one-liter bottle of drinking water in her hand, and contemplated the flaming, smoking garbage can. You could practically see her sighing to herself. Then she rooted around in the back of the car, located a fire extinguisher, and went to put out the fire.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Vampires and Square Heads

One of my English students told me an anecdote that involved driving her car when it was "not light but not dark," so I suggested the word "twilight." She looked at me with her mouth in an "O" of dawning comprehension.

She thought a minute, then said, "But there weren't any vampires there."

Of course! She's heard the English title of the popular book series mentioned countless times, but never stopped to wonder what the word means. There are many English words like this, ones people hear repeatedly through popular culture, but may or may not know the actual meaning of.

Another example that springs to mind: Many Germans know the meaning of the word "sponge" only because the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants goes by an odd but useful half-translation here – SpongeBob SchwammKopf, which literally means "Sponge Bob Sponge Head."

Guacamole Mix

Germany finds new and inventive ways to embarrass itself - like prepackaged "guacamole mix."

EUROVISION

Tonight was Eurovision!

For you non-Europe residents out there, who have no particular reason to care about this, let me explain: Once a year, a bunch of European countries (plus some "European" countries, like Israel and Azerbaijan) each send some horrendously kitschy pop singer to compete in a glitzy, over-the-top song contest, then vote on each others' acts in a transparently partisan way that has little to do with musical talent and a lot with who has socioeconomic ties and/or historical mutual hatred.

This is known as the Eurovision Song Contest, and it's a whole lot of fun.

Watching from Perle, a Berlin gay bar beloved among expats:


Here are some observations about Eurovision:

1. Yes, the voting is ridiculously biased. Viewers vote by text message, and since you can't vote for yourself, most simply choose whichever other country they most identify with. In fact, a large part of the fun in watching is debating whether Serbia will go for fellow Balkan nations only, or if Norway will throw one wild card in along with its otherwise all-Scandinavian votes.

2. France hasn't gotten the memo that this is now officially known as the "Eurovision Song Contest," no longer the "Grand-Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne." While all the other countries' presenters conversed with each other in English - and some in quite passable German, since Germany was this year's host country - France determinedly spoke French and ONLY French. I'd be the last person to say everyone in the world ought to be forced to speak English, but at this point, France is just making itself look silly.

Incidentally, Belgium's presenter was precisely the same on the using-French-only front. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium is pissed off right about now.

3. Yes, most of the music is terrible and kitschy and dressed up in blindingly shiny costumes. What I realized, though, is that I'm more or less willing to get behind anybody who's at least putting their all into it, doing their genre justice. So, the irrepressible identical twins from Ireland; the smirk-y, wink-y boy band from Russia; Iceland's cute, swing-ish band; the impressive traditional Greek vocals unfortunately paired with terrible rap in English; even Germany's beloved Lena, who won the contest last year as a wide-eyed teen and returned this year as a sultry starlet - I can get behind all of those. What I can't stand is the forgettable, cookie-cutter pop.

Of course, that's who wins.

As it was explained to me, everyone votes for the neutral party, the one who's politically and culturally inoffensive to all sides - which is how we ended up with Azerbaijan's saccharine, Disney-esque duo actually winning. By a large margin.

It's okay. Really. Azerbaijan has never won before, and the singers were truly, gratifyingly thrilled. I'm trying to be happy for them. But in my heart the real winner was:

MOLDOVA!!



The crazy hats! The girl on the unicycle! This, this is the sublime absurdity we've come to expect from Eurovision.

Or as one Youtube commenter neatly summed it up: "I want whatever the Moldovans are smoking."

Thursday, May 12, 2011

England: The Wrap-Up

It surprised me how sad I was to leave England. I mean, I like pretty much every place I ever travel - I'm easy to please that way - but usually when I leave, I'm also ready for the next adventure. When I left England, I kind of just wanted to go back.

This probably had something to do with the fact that it was sunny and summery and lovely nearly the entire time I was there (because that's not an inaccurate representation of English weather or anything...)

Also, I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but it really does seem like England sits - not just geographically but culturally as well - somewhere halfway between America and what the English simply refer to as "Europe." (And the very fact that they don't think they're part of Europe seems to say a lot).

The fact that they speak the same language and the little cultural things like restaurants actually giving you a glass of water without you having to beg for it, all of that makes England feel a bit like home - while retaining the quirky little differences that make being abroad so much fun. England was one of the few places I've traveled that I could actually almost consider moving to.

Again, I may be misleading myself a bit about the weather.

But I'll just say this: The English have a reputation as reserved, but compared to Germans, they're downright loquacious. I came back from a sunny, happy week in England, where people in customer service actually, you know, help customers and where you're allowed to make small talk with strangers, landing back in Berlin with its brusque long faces just as the weather changed back to winter.

I also came back from la-la-la-happy-famous-people-getting-married land to find out...that the US government had killed Bin Laden. And I really didn't know quite what to think about that.

Here's an interesting cultural note on that, though: It wasn't until that evening that a German friend pointed me to the images of Americans celebrating like crazy in the streets. She found it grotesque, and I did too ("They look like we did at the World Cup," she said), because having a party about a death seems crass, no matter whose death it is.

But then a couple days later, a British friend asked me, "Don't you think it's funny how the Germans are getting all upset about the Americans celebrating?" and I had to stop and ask myself whether my initial reaction was colored by seeing it through the filter of conversation with a German.

Mostly not; but maybe a little bit.

Last Notes about England

I. Currency

I didn't realize until I was in Northern Ireland last year that each part of the U.K. prints its own currency. So in Northern Ireland you get bills issued by the Bank of Ireland; in England, by the Bank of England. They're all British pounds, they're all worth the same thing and interchangeable, but they have different words and pictures on them. Here's a picture I took last year to prove that:


The weird thing (well, weirder than having many different versions of your currency) is that most shops in England won't accept the ones from Northern Ireland! This time around, I did manage to spend my leftover Northern Irish pounds eventually, but not before I got a few strange looks and "Sorry, we can't accept those."

One shopkeeper even examined the bill, brow furrowed, and said he thought it might actually be from the Republic of Ireland. (Unlikely at best, since Ireland uses the euro.)

It's a strange state of affairs. As Dave, my Northern Irish friend and host in Brighton, put it, people in Northern Ireland "are shooting each other over the right to use the pound" [i.e. to be part of the United Kingdom] and then you can't even spend it anywhere.


II. The North-South Divide

At a barbecue with my friend Peter and is neighbors in Southampton, Gabor, who's from Hungary and was the only other foreigner there besides me, explained that people from the north and south of England each have strongly-held stereotypes about each other. "Like what?" I asked.

"Like that they just wear T-shirts, even in the winter," said one of the Brits. (All present were southerners.)

Jenny from next door considered, then added, "Except that's actually true."

"See?" Gabor said.


III. Cheek Kisses

The English, at least in my limited observation, often give each other just a single kiss on one cheek.

When you mix this together with Germans (two cheek kisses, one on either side) and Swiss (three kisses, one on either side then back again) and Americans (who are generally just bumbling around trying to do whatever everyone else is doing) things can get interesting!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

England Part Three: Royal Wedding Weekend

I watched the "royal wedding" (again, that's Prince William + Kate Middleton, for anyone who's been completely living under a rock for the last, oh, half year...) from a neighborhood street party in Hackney, in London's East End.

For me, it was just the right place to be, away from the insane crowds downtown (people camped out for days!) but amid a lot of friendly, neighborly fun. People brought tables and food and children and balloons, watching the event on TVs set up outside. The champagne started flowing around 11 a.m., when the wedding started, and the party was still going ever stronger when I left at 5 p.m.

The party was far from being a "royalist" event - it was more just a chance to have a good time outdoors on this year's bonus public holiday. (Because yes, everyone got off work for the wedding.) That's not to say people didn't have fun with the royal wedding theme, though! There were men in wedding dresses, masks of the royal family members' faces, cupcakes with William and Kate on them. The few shops and cafés on the street stayed open and did VERY brisk business - the wine shop actually ran out of white wine completely by afternoon, and there was a line just to get into the corner shop.

In between, I wandered around the neighborhood and over to London Fields, where I watched a team of cricket players practicing on the lawn in their delightfully absurd white uniforms and shin guards. I even managed to get hit by a stray cricket ball, which made my time in England feel complete.

That night there was another wedding-themed party, and the next day was the Dutch queen mum's birthday, so all in all it was a very royal weekend. I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Albion Part Two: A Very Royal Weekend


Anne, who I stayed with the last two nights in London, kept wishing everyone a "happy royal wedding day" - even after midnight on Friday, at which point she simply switched to "happy royal wedding weekend!" It was even the last thing she called after me as I left her apartment on Sunday, to catch my flight back to Berlin.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

England Part Two: The City

My train from Brighton arrived in London with the last rays of the setting sun; I caught the Tube and about the first thing I saw on my way down the escalator was a guy with a big butterfly-catching-type net over his shoulder and a sign that read "Royal Poem Catcher."

I was curious...wanted to approach him...decided I shouldn't bother him...and then the next day was kicking myself even more for not doing it, because he turned up on the front page of a newspaper at my hostel! Turns out he's this guy, who goes around collecting poems people write for him on the go and making them into self-published books.

My hostel was in Camden Town (home of the fun Camden Lock Market and lovely Regent's Canal), an exciting destination for me for personal reasons: I've been teaching about these places in a children's English textbook here in Berlin for at least two years, without ever having been there myself!


The next day, on a friend's recommendation, I wandered the Brick Lane area, a place of much-layered history, once mostly Jewish immigrants, now mostly Bangladeshi. There's a building that (if I remember right) was first Huguenot, then Methodist, then a synagogue, now a mosque.

In the evening I did something new: met up with someone I'd never met before, but whose world-traveling blog I've been reading and enjoying for well over a year. She now lives in London, so I wrote her and we met for a beer - sorry, a "pint" - in a pub.

Pam traveled all over the world for a year (which she found, in retrospect, too long for one single, uninterrupted trip) and I tend to take trips of just a week or so (too short to really get into the swing of things). We concurred that, well, this means there must be a sweet spot somewhere between a week and a year...

Here we are, terribly blurry, in front of a Tube stop (i.e. proof that we were in London!)


On the Tube home, a group of young men was letting everyone take pictures of their life-sized cardboard cut-out of William and Kate (to be married the next morning!) When a woman indicated the cut-out and asked one of the guys, "Are they yours?" he replied, deadpan, "They're the nation's."


Up next: Part Three, the royal wedding!