Tandempartner

So I have found that usually when contacting people on the internet for various things, there's a little less than a 50% response rate. This is only speaking from my experiences, yours could be different. But bearing this statistic in mind, I when I found a website for Tandempartners, I sent messages (the same message, actually) to quite a few. Much to my surprise, this time I received about an 85% response rate. I had to literally make a chart to keep all of them straight. So now I've got myself 15 Tandempartners.

A Tandempartner is someone you meet with to help learn a language. They want to better their English, and I want to better my German. So we get together, and speak a little bit of each. So yep, it's more awkward meeting someone in person you've only first conversed with on the internet. Although both of the ones I've met with thus far, have called first. I'm meeting with a new one today after work and then 3 on Saturday (one of whom is a for a second time). Gosh darn it, if this doesn't make me fluent in German, nothing will.

Oktoberfest

I've started several entries about my trip to Oktoberfest, but for some reason, I'm just not in the creative writing mindset to give an accurate description. Here's a lame and pretty boring version:

On Sunday after the Blasorchester preformance I rode down to München. Now that the trip is over, I can tell you how I got there, since this is probably one of those things that Mom would rather hear about after it happened so she doesn't worry. In Germany (and many other parts of western europe) they have something called Mitfahrgelegenheit which is where people are driving somewhere, and they offer the other seats in their car. It's much cheaper than any other form of transportation. It cost me € 30 to get to München and € 28 to get back. This is something Paul told me about and I did a google search for it and found several different websites.

The ride down was legitimately just a lady who was driving down to München in her little car and offered the other three seats if people wanted to ride along. And they were all full. The driver was a 27 year old actress going to München to film something for TV. She was very nice and obviously offered her ride because she liked the company because she kept the conversation going the entire time. The guy in the passenger seat was 31 and in some sort of experimental electronic rock band. He lives in Berlin but was originally from München. He talked to me in English during the breaks and rambled on and on in the car. I sat in the back with a 24 year old who had recently had a baby. It was quite a trip.

The way back was more roomy, but also much more quiet. Glen rode along this time and everyone kept to themselves and just wanted to get back to Berlin. This guy ran this van service as a business every week day from München to Berlin. There were 9 people including the driver.

Oktoberfest itself was pretty much how I'd imagined it. The beer tents are like any Brauhaus you go to in München only they squeeze in twice as many tables, so you're literally sitting back to back and you have to climb on the benches and over people to get out to go to the bathroom. And they have a brass band playing starting at noon. The frequency of Ein Prosit increases dramatically as the night goes on. (of course, so does ones awareness of how fast time is passing, so it probably seems worse than it is). I'll give more details later if I'm so inspired.

Success!

Simone, the Australian, is a genius. Simone is a guy here from Australia who is also in the Blasorchester. He plays the Baritone here, but trumpet is his main thing. I was talking to him about my situation with the fingerings this morning before the concert. And apparently, sometimes they switch the trigger. So that everything not with the trigger is the B flat fingerings, and everything with the trigger is in F. So all I have to do is switch when I use the trigger, or always use the trigger and play with mellophone fingerings. (which is what I did cause it's the easiest) This also explains why went I took out the valve pipes to empty the spit, it was backwards from the one in the states. When you take out the tubes you have to depress the valve or it creates a vacuum or something, and usually the top tubes are the single valves and the bottom is the valve plus trigger. On this horn, it's the opposite, and that's apparently because the trigger is the opposite of what I'm used to. My playing was much more successful today then at the concert.

The concert itself was about 45 minutes long at some horticulture place. We didn't tune, and he just called out the tunes 2 at a time before we played them. So it's really laid back. We do however, have uniforms: a white polo shirt with the name and logo on it, and a maroon sweatshirt with the same logo for when it's cold. Which it is already. The playlist consisted of the following:
Puttin' on the Ritz
ABBA Gold
A Billy Joel Portrait
Miss Marples Theme
Die verrueckten 20er Jahre
Udo Juerfens Live
Amsel-Polka
Dankeschoen - Heinz Ruehmann - during which we all stood up and sang "Ein Freund, ein guter Freund" and by we, I mean they sang, and I stood there

But, I'm doing my research. It's the chorus to this song.

There was another song, but I didn't have it and had to share and therefore don't remember the name. But it was a hogdepodge of a bunch of american songs. And we're not talking a medley, it was like a reckognizable line from a Burt Bacharach song and then all of the sudden a line from deck the halls and then a sousa march. It was weird.

Why isn't the French Horn a Universal Instrument?

This is what I thought I knew about the French horn:

There can be either an E flat horn or an F horn, depending on the size of the one tube.

There are single and double horns. Double horns have a trigger for the thumb which you press when using B flat fingerings. If you don't use the trigger, you're using F fingerings.

Apparently there's more to know, or I have something wrong. When attending my first rehearsal of the Blasorchester, I got my instrument from Micha (whom I have to call to find the place, but that's besides the point) and was relieved to find it had a trigger. For you see, every horn I have ever played was a double. So the fingerings I am used to are in F until the A above middle C, at which time I utilize the trigger and play with B flat fingerings. Even the one time when I was 16 and in Germany staying with Florian, and I played his uncle's horn; the fingerings I was used to worked. But of course they didn't this time. I had prepared myself for the possibility of playing a single horn, by printing out french horn fingering charts that I found via google. I printed out two because I found two that were slightly different. Here they are:
Number one
Number two
Upon further inspection of the horn, I see that chart number two has the fingerings I need to use. I can only use the second set of fingerings, the trigger doesn't move back and forth between the sets like it would on chart number one with a horn I played in the states. At least now I know the fingerings, but it still frustrates and confuses the daylights out of me.

Aside from the weird horn thing, practice was good. I jumped right into the performance time of the year (the first one is tomorrow) so during rehearsal we pretty much just ran through things ones, occasionally stopping to fix something. Those are my favorite type of rehearsals. And it was someone's birthday, so as is the German custom, she had brought beer and sweets for everyone. There's one other woman who plays horn (Karen). I was too busy consentrating on figuring out the new fingerings to really pay attention to how well she plays. She's certianly not bad (though during the warmup the band as a whole as the intonation akin to a middle school band). During the first half of practice she played first, and I played second, then after Pause, she asked me to play first. So I'm not quite sure what part I've playing tomorrow. I guess I'll find out when I get there (if I can figure that out too).

After the concert tomorrow (it's at 10:00am) I'm going to Munich to see Uncle Glenn. It's Oktoberfest. You can't have an extended stay in Germany and not go to Oktoberfest. In honor of Oktoberfest, I had my first German Bratwurst the other day from one of the venders by the S-bahn station. It was everything you'd imagine it to be. I took Monday and Tuesday off of work and Glenn is coming back to Berlin with me on Tuesday.

Oh, and I'm sorry to hear about the US economy.

Hallo, Hier ist Maggie Berndt

Finally, I have something to do at work....after lunch. I was given more to read until then. I thought Germans were supposed to be efficient. Berlin is also known for being really laid back. So I guess this is them demonstrating that facet of their lifestyle.

I need to brush up on my German phone etiquette. We were having a meeting in my office (how cool does that sound?) when my phone rang. And, of course these are the days of caller ID, so the name and extention number of the caller appeared on the screen.

"I don't know this person," I'm pretty sure I actually said out loud to myself in English.
"Es ist Dessau. Es ist OK" Anja assured me, gesturing for me to pick it up.
And so I did.

I learned German phone etiquette, several times actually including last summer when we went over it quite a bit. But did I execute what I've learned? Of course not. In Germany, it's common procedure to answer the phone with your name, some people do just last and some do first and last. My host mom last summer always answered it: Klinkhammer (said in the same tone you or I would say hello [you know, kind of like a question]) and that was her last name. When I called Anja on Friday, she answered thusly: Hallo, Hier ist Anja whatever her last name is. I like that one. It sort combines the best of both worlds. Plus if I say just my last name people could get confused since Bernd(t) (with or without the 't') is a man's first name here.

So that's what I should have said. But, of course, I just said "Hallo." And then she of course said who she was (some lady from Dessau) and asked who I was. I just gave my first name (like she would have any idea who Maggie is) and she told me for whom she was calling (Frau something German sounding). I sounded confused, squinted at my phone list and didn't find anything that seemed to match. I think she could tell I was either new or American (probably both) so she graciously said something along the lines of "That's OK, thanks" and hung up to probably dial a different random extention where that person will actually just look up Frau something German sounding's extention in our system and help lady from Dessau out.

Now keep in mind, this was during a meeting in my office. So when I hung up, looking rather flustered, Anja was just sitting there laughing at me. She too, told me it was OK. So I guess it's OK. That's one way to learn.

Essen

Once I get a way to get the pictures off of my camera and onto the computer, I'll post some pictures of my apartment. Before I left, I was very adamant about Mom bringing my memory stick drive with her to Lehigh when I had thought I'd forgotten it, but as it turned out, I did have it. However, I forgot to transfer it from my band camp bag to my Germany bags and, ironically, sent it home with her. One of these days, I'll go buy myself another one. I also need to buy myself a jacket. Already, in September it's in the 50's and the 40's at night.

We have a small kitchen in the apartment with a gas stove and oven, and a very small refrigerator. And when I say gas stove, I don't mean like the one I had at Polk street, although that was a gas stove. This is one that you have to actually light with a match or a lighter. The first week I ate basically sandwiches, granola, and yogurt since those were the only thing I bought the first time I went to the grocery store. Grocery shopping is interesting in Germany. There are different types of stores. There are the one like Aldi that have most of what you need. But then they usually don't have good vegtables. For fresh vegtables, you go to a market and for bread, you go to a bakery. So after you've been to those three places, you've got what you need. I went grocery shopping the beginning of last week. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to get. I guess three months of not cooking for myself got me out of the habbit of menu planning and I wasn't quite sure with the German stores would have to offer (I still haven't really figured out all the possibilites) I bought chicken breast and deli turkey, cheese (Gouda and Swiss), eggs, and vegetables that I would eat in the States. So it's essentially the exact same stuff I eat. The only things I miss are frozen vegetables (that way you don't have to eat them right away) and cheddar cheese. I did make some awesome stuffed mushrooms the other day. This was during the week Paul was really busy and I never saw him and it was also my first time using the oven. It took me forever to figure out where to light the thing. And then it took even longer (and a whole lot of matches) to succeed at lighting it. And I have no idea what the temperatures are on it because it's just numbered 1 through 8.

I only cook dinner. I eat lunch with my work folks in the Kantine on the first floor of the UBA. I get a discount for being an intern and it's pretty cheap to begin with. I've eaten all sorts of different stuff there.

Blasorchester

I made the greatest discovery thus far today. This is another thing I found via the internet; through various links stemming from a question on the Toytown forum about Choirs to join in Berlin. I found my way to this website. It's the Young Ensemble of Berlin. It's an organization for people ages 18-35 that like music as a hobby. They have a chamber orchestra, a choir, and a wind ensemble. If you look at the information about the Blasorchester (brass orchestra), you'll find this:
ACHTUNG !!!! Wir suchen momentan insbesondere Percussionisten, Waldhörner und Tenorhornisten.
Translation: Attention !!!! We are momentarily especially looking for Percusionists, Horn, and baritone players.
Followed by a link to further information about when they meet and how to join. So, I clicked on that link to find out that they meet on Wednesdays from 7-9, and you don't need to audition. It said if you're interested to just come to a practice, or email this guy for further questions. So I emailed the address given and told them who I was, what I play and asked if they knew where I could rent a horn, preferably for cheap. I got a response that they're happy to have me and they have a horn for me! So next Wednesday I'm going to go check it out. They play show tunes and pop songs and classic rock song as well as some classical. The best part is, they're all (well, mostly) German. Meaning I'll actually be socializing with Germans instead of all of the English speakers I've been hanging out with.

Die Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage

I got stopped on the way home today by a couple of Elders (ironically, these are young people, that's just their title when there doing this thing again) for the Church of Latter Day Saints. I actually had quite a conversation with them. It went something like this:

Elder Lang: Entschuldigung, haben Sie ueber das Buch von die Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage. (Excuse me, have you heard about the book of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
Me: Wie, bitte? (what?)
Elder Lang: repeats the first sentence
Me: Oh, Ja. (Oh, Yes)
Elder Lang: Wirklich? Was haben Sie gehoert? (Really? What have you heard?)
Me: Viele. Ich komme aus der USA - (A lot. I'm from the US-)
Elder Lang: Oh really? Where? I'm from L.A.

and the conversation preceeded in English. We got into quite a religious debate. They want me to come to this thing they're having on Thursday. Ironically, I'm more skeptical of going to their thing than I was to go to the meetings with people I met on the internet. They're very nice and smoothe talkers, which is think is what makes me so skeptical.

Toytown Germany

So my second week of work is shaping up to be much more interesting than the first. Right now I'm working with a lady named Lydia. I basically just watch/help her since I don't know where anything is and I've never operated any of the machines before. It's all pretty straight forward thus far. I'm understanding everything too. I'm even moving passed the just getting instructions into the making actual conversation zone. Lydia plays the bass guitar in a rock band. She said they're looking for a singer if I'm interested. However, I'll have you know she's probably in the age range of 40. But she's very nice.

Paul was really busy this past week and I didn't see him at all Tuesday through Saturday. So since at this point he was really my only social outlet, I decided to find another source. And of course, in this day and age, that source is at my fingertips: the internet. Many of you probably thing meeting people on the internet is dangerous and slightly lame. While I agree, it might be slightly lame, I went about it safely. The first thing I found was a site called toytowngermany.com. It's a forum for english speakers in Germany. I found it by googling english speakers and Berlin. There's a section specific to every area of Germany and it's the largest forum of this sort. People post questions they have about living in Germany as well events in which people are welcome to participate.

The first event I attended was Thursday night drinks. The advice for newcomers was to go to the bar at which they were meeting that week and look for the group of people speaking English. It worked nicely; they were very easy to find. It was nice, a lot of small talk, but still it's something to do on a Thursday.

The second event I attended was playing American football in Treptow park. Unfortunately, only 4 people showed up so it was more like playing catch and occasionally keepaway in the park. But those people were the easiest to get along with. And then we watched american football streamed on the internet at one of their apartments. Two of the guys are cousins from Detroit and the other is from Philly. It's going to be heated next week when the Packers play the Lions.

Commute Home From Work

I observed the most entertaining site on the S-Bahn home from work today. There were three seats together, and on one end sat a young teenage girl dressed entirely in black with died hair and gothic accessories. On the other end was a old man with unkempt hair and unintended facial stubble. He had sad eyes and was wearing raggety jeans and T-shirt both covered completely in paint. These individuals shared one thing in common; they were both eating a bratwurst, presumably purchased at the S-bahn station before boarding the train. The best part was the lady who sat in between these two creatures. She was middle-aged, well dressed and had the most disgusted look on her face the entire S-bahn ride. She was sitting as erect as humanly possible, trying to avoid any physical contact with either party. She clutched her bags tightly on her lap and occasionally glanced, in digust, to each rider next to her. Both the teenage girl and the old man, who so elagantly whiped his mustard drippings on his pants, remained completely oblivious to this woman the entirety of the journey. The was the first time I had wished I brought my camera.

Mittwoch 3.September

What I've learned about myself so far: I have a short attention span.

I guess I never realized it before, but it was very apparent during the fantacy football draft (which lasted three hours) and it's apparent now while I'm at work. My first day at work (Monday) was nice. It was slighty boring at times, but it was nice. I met with the head of the Labor für Wasser Analytik (Lab for water analysis) who was the same guy who interviewed me, but not my direct supervisor. He's my supervisor's supervisor. He's around my parents' age I would say and wears fitted, faded jeans, T-shirts, and closed-toed sandals. He's very hip looking. We spoke for a bit, and then he gave me a tour of the place, including (he comes the fun part) my office! I have an office all to myself with a computer (where I am typing this now actually) and my own phone (extention 5719). I'm not good with spacial relations, but I think it's bigger than my room or at least the same size. Both of which are bigger than any room I've lived in thus far in life. But it's nothing gigantic, I've just had some pretty small rooms.

After the grand tour, I went with my direct supervisor (George Sawal), who sort of looks like Uncle Mike, to a Vortrag über Arbeitssicherheit und Umfallschutz. (Seminar on work safety and accident prevention). It was me and a bunch of new Auszubildene (trainees) all of whom were in college. I'm a Praktikantin (intern) which is different. I'm sure you've all experienced the work saftey lectures when starting new jobs in the states. They are, in general, pretty boring. Let me tell you, when it's in another language, it makes it 10 times easier to not pay any attention.

After that there was an Einführung in die Aufgaben des UBA (introduction to the duties and responsibilities of the UBA). This was as thrilling as the first lecture. Then I had to sign some papers and get a few more office related things, after which I went to a neighboring lab to have a tour of that. It had nothing to do with my job, but I couldn't get started until Herr Sawal gave me the saftey speach about the specific labs I'd be working in, which he couldn't do until the next day. So I went with the college kids to the lab with the animals. It was the biological department with the animals the do research on. So we got to see all of the different types of flies, rats, and roaches. By this point, everyone knew I was american because we had all introduced ourselves, so everytime we got to the American coachroaches or lice or whatever it was, people would look at me.

And that was my first day of work. All in all, it was pretty painless. Yesterday, during my second day of work, I got introduced to the research I'll be doing. Herr Sawal explained the background to me, and then Anja, the girl I will physically be working with, handed me a gigantic stack of stuff to read. Everything is in English except for one (the one I'm working through now). All of this reading has taught me that I have a shorter attention span than I thought. On an exciting note, I got a lab coat and gloves and goggles yesterday on my lab saftey tour. I've never had a lab coat before. This is the real deal! I should get back to reading.