Into India: Spiritual Stereotypes And Mysticism

In the West, it seems that mysticism gave its dying breath eons ago. But is that really true?

6 Tips On Learning Culture Without Visiting The Country

What should you know, before you travel?

Learning a language is incomplete without culture study. You may get hints from grammar - honorifics, for example - or idioms. But the right words are only the first step towards approaching the wealth of culture packed within a language.
The best part? You don't need to travel to your target country to get started.


So, for the purpose of this post, what is culture? It's really an umbrella term for varied thoughts, actions, histories and other unique identifiers of a certain group of people. A culture can be at a a national level (Germany), regional (Bavarian), social (high-class) and familial (your family vs. mine).

So how can we learn about other cultures, especially at a more intimate level?

Into India: From Delta to Dust

India reminds me of nowhere I've been, and everywhere at once.

In high school I sat bent over a desktop screen watching Jab We Met, my initial contact with Bollywood. What caught me was an iconic scene – that of a train speeding away, and the protagonist (Kareena Kapoor) rushing to jump on. Years later, when I arrived in India, I hit the tarmac racing through customs, baggage claim, to the next gate. My runaway train was my connecting flight to Pune.

Bis Bald! Goodbye Germany - For Now!

From up above, Marburg really is a beautiful city.

As some of you may know, my time here in Germany is coming to an end. To be specific - I leave this Thursday.  And I still can't completely believe it. For the past weeks, I've been treading through paperwork, packing, and saying my goodbyes. There's definitely a side of me who isn't ready to return, who wants another week, another month, maybe.

But I'm also ready to go home. It's time to start up my work again. And as much as I'll be glad to be in a familiar culture, speaking my native tongue, there will be things I miss.

A large part of my day is spent traveling, 30 minutes from my dorm to the city center. Everyday. But I'll miss the trains even more. Here it's so simple to travel long distances, and it'll be something I think about whenever I try to maneuver a trip from Knoxville to Memphis. The variety of Megabus-like services will  be stuck in my memory, too - as I've used both the Meinfernbus and Deinbus when traveling to Berlin and Munich. A loss of this vast public transit system is a loss of freedom.

There's also the food. I'll miss quick bites at the Lecker Ecke. I'll miss auflauf, curry wurst, schnitzel and döner. But I'm also excited to get back to inexpensive and more authentic Mexican and Chinese food.

Greek wine and a broken cork...but we
 found a solution!

The scenery in Knoxville is definitely a downgrade from Marburg. Don't get me wrong, Knoxville can be lovely. But it isn't a picturesque German city with a castle from the 11th century built on-top of a mountain. However, both cities require me to walk to school up hill both ways, so at least I'll get a work out back in the USA.

And of course, I'll miss the friends I've made here - both through my dorm and through my tandem program. :)  For those who don't know what a tandem is, it's a language exchange. You find a partner with the language you are learning, and for two hours you practice - one hour per language. I've really enjoyed my time with everyone here, and I only wish I could stay longer!

There is one major thing I've been missing throughout the experience - American higher education. This may sound strange, for the money Germans pay to the university, it isn't bad here. But it's very different.

First, attendance may not matter at all. There were some classmates I only saw twice - once mid semester, and once during exams. Second, none of my lecturers or professors graded homework, or even took it up. Sometimes nothing was assigned. Classes also went at a slower pace than those in the US. It was definitely more laid back, and although I liked not having to buy a textbook, I feel like I thrive better in a more regimented environment. And I remember more.

Three of seven dwarves outside of the
 Religious Collection building.

Exams are one last thing about the education system that I really do prefer in the US. Here there are no tests until your final - at least in my department. It was difficult to study, because there was so much anxiety about the pressure to do well. When I go back, I think I'll be much more relaxed about exams, since I know in the US I have a grade buffer.

And a small tip for those studying abroad: I would suggest studying another language when you're abroad. I know that sounds insane, but it really made a difference for me. I took an optional course in Russian through the Language Center. Everything was in German, and it proved to be more useful than my Sprachkurs (Speaking course, in this case for German). In addition to that, I found studying Russian through German to be simpler, because of the similarities in grammar, such as the case system.

Studying in Germany never really matched my expectations, but it was definitely a great experience- good days and bad. I can't really tell if it's "changed me" - maybe that will come out when I'm back home. 

Nach Berlin mit Liebe

Hanging out with Marx and Engels! 

In June I finally had some relief from German bureaucracy. Since May I had been working to get all the documents for a German visa - not for myself, but for my boyfriend, Deb. Because I was inviting him, and I wasn't a German citizen, everything was more complicated - but nevertheless, I found myself waiting at the airport for his arrival. :-)

It being his first time abroad, everything was exciting - even my small town of Marburg!  But to be honest, we started sight-seeing two days later, in Berlin.

Berlin is like any other big city - at least, what I imagine big cities to look like. But it definitely has it's own quirks - the Ampelmännchen traffic lights, the retro subways, sometimes with wood-paneled interior, and hidden monuments. Seeing all of Berlin in two days is impossible, but we certainly saw a lot!

Our first full day in Berlin, we walked from 9:00 in the morning until 12:00 at night. We ventured into all the main sites - the Brandenburg Tor, Museum Insel, Checkpoint Charlie, the East Side Gallery, Podtzdammer Platz. As we traveled from the middle of the city to Kreuzberg, the hub for multicultural cuisine and indie shops (and my favorite district of Berlin), performers jumped from subway car to subway car playing music. This was much more enjoyable than the cursing drunkardette picking fights on our way back to our hotel, located in Moabit.

A gorgeous mosque in Kreuzberg,  located in-between a
Mexican and Korean Restaurant.

Both Moabit and Kreuzberg turned out to be where Deb and I enjoyed ourselves the most. While in Berlin, we both contracted a cold. The next day, after walking from Moabit to Charlottenburg - which is exhausting, and visited the flea-market on 17th June Street, we made a quick stop in Kreuzberg. As we began walking in Kreuzberg, it began to rain heavily, and we took shelter next to a Korean restaurant. Deb and I had hoped to try some Korean barbecue, but without a reservation, we would have had to sit "yoga style", and both of us were too exhausted for that!

So we ended up back in Moabit - which is a beautiful area, and I wish we would have seen more of it! After freshening up and walking around, we settled for a small Indian restaurant, where Deb taught me how to eat biryani, rogan josh, and naan properly. More than tasty, the food was delicious! A hot one, at that! The next day our colds had nearly vanished - and then we were off to Marburg again.

Sculpture of Shiva, from Marburg's
Religious Collection

Although I enjoyed our time in Berlin, we had a ton of fun in Marburg. We visited Elizabeth's Church, dedicated to Elizabeth of Hungary who became a cult figure in the middle ages. The Marburg Castle was not nearly as interesting, as it has been modernized and turned in a museum for fairytales - with some folk galleries. They are working on the bottom of the castle, I think to show off a preserved version of the castle. Regardless, Deb and I both enjoyed observing the artwork, the religious icons and the armor and weaponry exhibits.

It was on our way to the castle that we stumbled upon the university's religious collections, which at the time were closed. So on Monday we returned, and ended up being the only ones interested in seeing the artifacts, taken or bought by Rudolf Otto. So we had a kind of private showing that encompassed nearly all mainstream religion - Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Shinto, Buddhism and so forth. Deb was able to contribute more to the Hindu and Buddhism descriptions - not all of which were authentic or correct on his account. And when we found an image from a Bollywood movie in the Islamic exhibit, we couldn't help but laugh!

Eventually, though, Deb did have to return to India. And although I missed him the moment he left - and I miss him now, my upcoming exams didn't give me much time to do anything but study!

Meine Lieblingsstädte in Deutschland

Lion's Castle in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel

I know, it's been a while! As you might have expected, life goes fast when you're abroad - especially when you're studying and traveling. There will be a few more of these posts before I leave Germany, since I have a lot to catch up on!

It's been a while, but in May I visited Kassel - a city one hour north of Marburg, and home to the Brother's Grimm. Yes, the Brother's Grimm stayed in Marburg, too, but only to study law. The Grimm Museum, conveniently in the house the Grimm brothers grew up in, has two parts - the storybook exhibit (at least for right now), and an exhibit about the Grimm family. It's a fun side trip - the best part was looking at the various versions of the Grimm fairytales, and how they were adapted for different languages and cultures. The other amusing thing - seeing old paintings of Marburg in the exhibition.

A view of Heidelberg and the Neckar River from the castle.

Although I love storytelling and fairytales, I enjoyed seeing the Bergpark the second time I visited Kassel. The Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, or "Mountain Park Wilhelmshöhe", is a vast slope of green-space, with numerous monuments - the most well-known being the Hercules monument. It takes more than a day to see them all (and I wasn't able to), although my personal favorites were the Lion's Castle and the Roman Aqueduct. 

Visiting this park will be one of my fondest memories in Germany for several reasons - going was inexpensive, there were no lines to wait in, the scenery was gorgeous, and overall, it was a nice, relaxed outing (even if climbing the Hercules monument was difficult).

It wasn't long until another trip was planned - this time, to Heidelberg. I had been to Heidelberg before in 2008, and I was eager to visit it again. I actually visited it twice - once with some friends, and once with my boyfriend (which deserves a whole blogpost on its own). 

Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg lies on the Neckar river, and the castle, seemingly carved into the side of a mountain has survived since the 1100s. Although it lies in semi-ruin, it has been an important figure in the history of the 30 years war and in the rise of nazism. On a lighter note - it contains the largest wine barrel in the world. And depending on your tour guide, you will either get intense narratives of the political role of the castle, or romantic shorts about Elector Palatine Frederick V and his wife, Elizabeth Stuart. Every tour guide, however, will mention the commodes above your head, or the "vomiting pit", used by guests so that they could be polite and stuff their face all evening at parties. 

These two places in Hessen are also my favorite overall in Germany - although I have a lot to say next time about Berlin!

Ein Unglück kommt selten allein.....

I was literally about to die from fear
 cause that terrace is over a steep
ledge of death.

Although belated, my journey to Neuschwanstein is more deserving of a blog post than anything I have written.

The Neuschwanstein (pronounced Noee shvan stein) castle is the postcard castle of Germany. Begun by Ludwig II and later an inspiration for the Disney castle, it's appearance is far easier to digest than the name. Located in Füssen, it is over two hours from Munich, nearly three if you count the bus ride to the village of Hohenschwangau, where we had to buy our tickets.

Two other Americans and myself planned this excursion - and as it was our first, we did have some adventures.

First, we woke up a bit later than expected. It had taken us two hours to find out hotel the night before, due to some confusion of the hotel street name and the Munich public transit, and we went to bed late. But we were ready for some Bavarian tourism, especially after stumbling upon a yodeling performance the night before.

Can you imagine why sleeping may be
difficult with these things around?

So we walked casually to the bus station. I hadn't eaten, and expected to pick something up at the train station - and I might have, if we hadn't nearly missed the train to Füssen. After meeting two other American girls, we decided to try to get on their train ticket, but correcting an already printed pass isn't quite possible in Germany. After rushing to get our own group pass, we bolted for the platform, and leapt onto the train minutes before its departure.

Being that this was the only train to Füssen for the hour, the aisles were already congested with other tourists. Italian, French, English, Korean, Chinese and something vaguely resembling a slavic language were mashed together. After an hour of standing the heated train, the thick clusters of people, and the lack of food began to make me feel ill. As with the train, I was lucky in this case. An middle-aged Korean man, traveling with his family, had left his seat to stand. His wife offered the place to me, and I was able to relax until we reached the village.

Füssen is a small, typical Bavarian town, tucked into the mountains, with streets lined with tourist shops. We stopped at a cafe before taking a bus up to Hohenschwangau. It was here, that my purple poke-dotted, 2 euro umbrella vanished.

Time teased us again, as we nearly missed the bus to Hohenschwangau, where we then had to walk up a steep incline of souvenir shops and horse-drawn carriages to stand in line for tickets. We had not reserved tickets, because it didn't seem particularly encouraged online. It wasn't required. And so we stood in line for three hours for tickets that may be sold out by the time we reached the counter.

View from the Marienbrücke, which also freaked me out.

But we were lucky, in this instance, too. As soon as we bought our tickets at 3:00, the last English tour disappeared from the monitors. But still, we weren't done waiting - the tour wasn't until 6:15, and it supposedly was only 35 minutes.

So after poking in and out of souvenir shops, walking the nature trails and snapping photographs, we went to our tour. We went through only 3 or 4 rooms - the only ones finished out of the entire castle. One corridor looked like a cave, rocky walls with stalagmites and all. It took 17 years for numerous artists and designers to work on these rooms, and it isn't a surprise why. Every single detail, from the canopy of the bed to every inch of the walls were intricately painted or sculpted or embroidered.

I had looked at those overpriced tourist umbrellas.
 "Nah, it'll be fine". It was a looong way down.

The tour of the rooms took only about 15 minutes, with the rest being spent wandering in and out of the gift shops, watching a movie about Ludwig's unrealized production of another ridiculously overwhelming castle, or looking at the castle's kitchen.

Leaving the castle is when our luck turned a bit sour. As I said before, I had lost my umbrella, no doubt leaving it in the cafe. All day the sky had been bloated with what seemed to me to be a placid blanket of gray clouds. But as we began our 30 minutes trek down towards Hohenschwangau, the clouds had darkened and dropped everything. My scarf only shielded by face for about 10 minutes, and as we progressed down the steep trek, my glasses began to fog. At the bottom of the hill, we were completely soaked, all the gift stores were closed (so no umbrellas to be bought) and we waited for an hour for a bus that never came (but was scheduled to come).

So there we were - three Americans, drenched and freezing at 8:00 pm in a small German village, along with two Romanians, an English couple, and an Australian. We talked, called taxis, and took the train back to Munich together, our feet on the heaters at the side of our seats.

Roll call area at Dachau

To be honest, it was moments like these that made all the trouble and rain and cold worth it. Speaking to people from across the globe was more fun than seeing the castle. And after all the near-misses, it couldn't help but be an amazing adventure.

And this carried on to the next day - although our luck had run out entirely. Our phone plans expired that evening at 12 o'clock. We had planned to go to Dachau, meet with a friend and stay with her overnight. And although the day before was all near-misses, today our transport just didn't show. Whether it the train was late, or the the website was wrong, we weren't sure. But we went the long way around every time, and ended up hours late to Dachau.

About Dachau, it's difficult to say anything. The location is beautiful and green. Only the solemn drizzle of rain, the vast foot-ball stadium-size lot of gravel, and gates gave any sense to the lot's purpose. I can't say it was hard, because standing at the doorstep of the model for German concentration camps, walking in the same space of the brutalized and the brutalizers, isn't like any other feeling you will ever have. The inability to comprehend the atrocities that took place there make it difficult to feel at all. That is not to mean Dachau doesn't have an effect that isn't overwhelming. Visiting memorials like Dachau will tell you more about yourself and your values than anything else will.

And after such an exhausting time, we did end up meeting with my friend, thank God, and we spent the night well with her family's generosity.

Within two days we experienced the height of fantasy and the weighted corpse of reality. But these two extremes gave me more than I expected, and for that I'm grateful.