The morning I left for America, I finally had my interview with my friend Olivia Damm, who volunteered with Project Hope for three months in Palestine. I know I've been promising this interview for a while, and here it is! It was such a pleasure interviewing her because she is so passionate and educated about the subject, and she said she hopes to someday become a diplomat to the Middle East in order to reduce prejudices toward the Middle East by "bringing the beauty of the history and cultures of the Middle East closer to people in European societies"--and in this case North American ones too. She has certainly done that for me, so it is an honor to help her further her work. And did I mention that she is a total sweetheart?

I'm sad to say that the situation in Palestine has worsened, but the world is becoming more and more critical of Israel's actions, as you can read here. The events of the past few weeks have been awful, according to the Huffington Post, as of July 26th, over 1,000 people died in 19 days, hundreds of whom were children. In addition, this situation has impacted both Israeli and Palestinian people that I personally know.

Though the suffering of these people is terrible, this could be the event that helps bring the Palestinian cause into a more sympathetic light for the rest of the world, thus tipping the scales slightly more in their direction. However, their deaths will be meaningless if we don't educate ourselves about the situation, and that's where this video comes in. Just by educating yourself about the conflict, you make a difference, because you can listen to debates and commentary on the situation more critically. That's what we need before anything else can happen, a knowledgable mass of people.

Here is a list of the organizations Olivia mentioned in the video. If you click on the links, they will take you to their websites.

Project Hope  This organization provides Palestinian children with opportunities to learn English, music, art, technology and sports.

BDS  The movement's name stands for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. Their goal is to put international pressure on Israel through grassroots participation. De Paul recently divested in pro-Israeli companies because of a student BDS group.

Jewish Voice for Peace  Their missions statement says "JVP seeks an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem; security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians; a just solution for Palestinian refugees based on principles established in international law; an end to violence against civilians; and peace and justice for all peoples of the Middle East."


Medical Aide for Palestine  They do exactly what the name of their organization says they do. You can donate to them, 90% of the money goes directly to the medical projects in Palestine. This is especially important right now, because there are so many civilians who are wounded or dying.


Ilan Pappe  He is an internationally renowned Israeli historian and Activist.


I am aware that I might sound naive when I say that through international pressure, change in this situation is possible, however I truly do believe it. I'm not saying that it will be instantaneous, but I think that we can gradually change it, just as the Apartheid regime in South Africa changed. I know that the situation there is complex, and there is a history that goes beyond the last century, but if the Palestinians have a real voice, then true peace negotiations can begin. 

Alright, well I hope you enjoyed/learned something from that interview. If you have any more questions for Olivia, just let me know and I will do my best to get some answers for you.


Thank you so much for your time, Olivia!


Rachel

I've been back home for a week now. I'm not sure what I expected to feel when I got back--perhaps overwhelming culture shock? However, the first couple of days I felt this strange sense of disconnect from the world around me, like I am in it, yet not. For example, when I drove my car for the first time in nearly a year, my body just knew what to do, even if my mind was not fully comprehending what was going on. It's like my entire reaction to the world here is made up of muscle memory.

My old habits are resurfacing like a dream that you remember two days later and mixing with new habits--I'm much more organized; I want my surroundings cleaner; and I procrastinate less. However, in many respects I am more flexible about how people live. I know a lot of people come back from studying abroad and they try to force their new way of life on their families saying, "This is how they do it in ____." For me though, I see that people live differently and you should just let them live as they see fit. There is good and bad about every lifestyle. It's really easy to come back to your home and immediately condemn the things you don't like about it, because you have always grown up with it. However, when you do view it as an interesting and different culture from the one you just come from, I think it is easier to transition back and not see the lifestyles of the people there as "wrong."

Max said to me that he was interested about how I would transition back to Kansas life, because the group of students from my university who stayed in Essen for a month are having a really rough time with it. He said that I had been in Essen longer, and so it might be easier or harder. For them, they are discovering that American coffee sucks, the produce sucks, the bread sucks, and while I agree on all of those points, I also see what it has to offer. There is so much space here.

A couple days after I came back, I sliced up an apple for Lela and me. I bit into it and it was crisp, yet flavorless. I asked Lela if it was a good apple, to which she shrugged and said, "Yeah. It's pretty good I guess." I told her that it would have been a really crappy apple in Germany. Then, two nights ago I had dinner with a friend who made sushi. He artfully peeled the flesh from around the core of a cucumber so that it unrolled into one long mat, leaving the seeds in an unbroken log. He asked me if I wanted to eat the seeded part, so I did. Once again, it was fairly flavorless.

When I went to Germany, I knew the food tasted better, but I didn't realize how much better. By the time I left, I was completely used to the quality of food, so coming back I saw a much bigger difference than when I went there. The produce here is also extremely expensive compared to European produce. However, I finally have an oven. Hallelujah. So, although the food quality is not as high, I have still been cooking delicious food, and man does that feel good.

Keepin' Cookin',

Rachel

This past week has been crazy for me. I've been meeting with all of my friends before I leave; squaring away all my affairs in Germany; writing a paper and taking exams; packing; and of course traveling. However, now I am in the USA. I have to admit that I was even starting to get a bit of culture shock in the Copenhagen airport. 

There were of course a lot of Americans on my Copenhagen to Chicago flight, and just listening to them was strange for me. American accents truly are twangy. After a year of rounded, pure European vowels, our twang really stood out to me. Yes, I did talk to a few Americans while in Germany, such as Julie, but most of them did not sound nearly as twangy because they came from the Great Lakes region, where they tend to have a bit more rounded accents than the guy from Omaha standing in front of me at customs.

On a side note: Americans love European accents, and we find accents in general very exotic. However, in Europe it is not so novel, because all the countries are so close together, that lots of people immigrate to new countries and travel. Yes, you do notice their accents, but I think it is not quite as striking as it is in America. Maybe that's just because the area of Germany I was in is very diverse--I can't speak for the rest of the country.

Okay, now back to the airport in Copenhagen. I don't know why, but I almost felt a bit of resentment being around all those Americans. Perhaps it was because I had began to identify with being a foreigner, and I didn't feel like one around them. Or perhaps it is just because now I can understand the mundane conversations of everyone around me. I'm sure most of the Germans have equally pointless conversations, but I just didn't know. I'm not used to being able to understand everything that the people around me are saying. 

After a year with a gentle lull of German in the background, which was sound oftentimes as unintelligible as listening to a river rushing by, my ears and brain felt a bit bombarded. I could not concentrate because I couldn't tune anyone out. Plus, Americans speak louder than Europeans. Not all of them, but many of them. This is where the loud American stereotype comes from, so when you t I think that might also be a bit of where the resentment was coming from, because sometimes when I would hear American travelers in Germany I would get annoyed with them too. It wasn't with everyone, but some of them were just whiny, like the majority of the tourists I saw in Paris. After listening to the Americans in Paris, I can see why people would have a bad impression of us. But that's a whole different topic.

However, now I have gotten used to hearing Americans, and I'm not annoyed. In fact, one of the things I have really been enjoying since getting back is the friendly customer service. It's nice to be able to banter with the guy checking my bags. It's also fun to be able to understand the cute things the little girl on my flight to Copenhagen said.

Every once in a while, I still expect people to be speaking German, and in general it takes me a moment to realize that they are in fact American. I feel this weird mixture of being at home here in America and being a bit removed from my surroundings. I still thank people and apologize in German and any time I hear a foreign language I automatically assume it is German. But, I already feel myself transitioning back--I don't even have jet-lag! My allergies did start kicking in during the cab ride to the airport though…

So, the majority of these observations took place in the Copenhagen airport, but trust me, I have more. I just wanted to post this before I get too overwhelmed by impressions.

I'm back in America, waiting on my plane to Memphis before going to Kansas City. I'm almost home! So, goodbye to my new friends and hello to my old ones.

Rachel

I awoke this morning to misty gray light filtering through my window and one thought: I am leaving in exactly one week. It has been raining a lot recently, as if the country is trying to give me every ounce of the prototypical German experience before I leave. It's hard for me to believe it is happening so fast. I have been looking forward to seeing my friends and family, but now that it is almost here the first word that comes to mind is "unglaublich"--meaning "unbelievable." And yes, that really was the first word that come to mind. I might not speak or think in German very often, by my mind has began doing quite a bit of code-switching recently.

Perhaps it is just because it feels surreal that I am leaving, but I have the distinct feeling that I will be coming back. I have no idea when or for how long, but leaving Germany feels like leaving Kansas did: it is a home that I will always return to in some way. Perhaps it is because I don't want to say goodbye to the amazing community I have found here, but the goodbyes that I have said so far have felt more like "see you laters." Maybe I just don't like goodbyes though.

After my last post, I had a lot of people come forward to tell me how much they would like to help me start a life in Germany.  I received advice for how to furnish a kitchen (apparently it isn't actually that expensive), offers to borrow furniture, to help with a job search--basically everything I was worried about. Once again, the idea of Germany became an exciting chance to be brave. I will still take my time considering it, but I don't want to choose not to move here simply because I am scared.

For now, though, I am going to live in the moment and enjoy my time at home. I am so excited to see my family and friends. My mom said to me, "Lela and I are excited for you to stay with us for a few weeks. We're excited for your cooking." This is a good thing, because I plan on doing a lot of cooking. I'm excited to play music with my best friend, Naomi, and do aikido on the plaid carpet at our house. We also have some filming projects that we want to do. I have so many things to share and do.

However, I will definitely miss my group here. I think this coming year will really tell me where I belong. But for now, I am just going to try transitioning smoothly.

Love, Peace, and Doughnuts,

Rachel

I feel that I might have been a bit too hasty with my last post, which is definitely a bit embarrassing. I got curious and decided to see how much renting an apartment here would be, so that I know how much I would need to make/save. The results freaked me out a bit.

The actual cost of rent here is actually not bad, I could feasibly pay between two and three hundred dollars a month if I have a roommate. However, most apartments are unfurnished, which sounds completely normal, right? No. In Germany you pay for everything, even the proverbial kitchen sink. That's right, most places you move into the kitchen will look like the picture on the left: begging the question "What kitchen?" Although this is not the case in every apartment, apparently you usually have to install everything yourself--counters, sink, and any appliances. Then, when you leave you can take your custom fitted counters that will not fit anywhere else with you. I understand moving the appliances, but the rest of it? This sounds like the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. Maybe I just need a German friend to explain it to me, because I don't get it. On the plus side this set-up means you can customize it…

There are other options though, such as a WG, which is basically an apartment with 4-6 bedrooms where you rent the bedroom. It is much more affordable, but I don't care about housing right now, I only mentioned it because of the math that it led me to do. I calculated roughly how much I would be making and came to the conclusion that I would be quite poor.

Usually that wouldn't bother me too much, especially because I know I could make extra money by teaching English lessons, but right now I am just so sick of being poor. All I want is to go home where I have a bank account with money in it. I don't want to think of the future; I don't want to plan anything; I don't want to do anything but go home, live with my mom for a couple weeks, and then start working at the music office. I'm tired of wondering if I will have enough money to eat while worrying about how my money is going to transfer and waiting for the train to come.

I have loved my time here, but I am longing for a sense of control and security at this point. So, I have decided that I am going to take the next year to make the decision about moving to Germany and just concentrate on graduating. Right now I feel confused about my future and what I want, so I just don't want to think about it. Before I get to that point I have to wrap up my finals here, transition back to the states, finish packing…etc. I have a lot to do, and I am grateful that means I don't have to even begin to think about making any decisions. Then I will need a year to finish my classes, at which point if I decide to move back, I might work for a while to save up the money for the move.

However, right now I am just looking forward to a deep-dish Chicago pizza (Charlie, Chris--make it happen!) and a big juicy cheeseburger topped with bacon and dripping diabetes. Morbid obesity never sounded so appealing…


Well this post was a big contrast from the last one, wasn't it? Sorry about that; I'm just ready for home.

Rachel