Córdoba (part 2)

Ah, I see you've stuck with me! Here's the second part of my fantastic weekend...

Friday morning, the Berlin team presented our panel Islam as a Religious Minority in Germany: 50 Years after the Labor Recruitment Deal between the BDR and Turkey, followed by presentations from the Paris, Florence, and Moscow centers. The panels were completely interesting and engaging and it was such an incredible feeling to be amongst such talented peers. After the sessions, we had lunch in the Jewish quarter and began our tour of the city. We began with the Mezquita - the Great Mosque turned Cathedral. From there, we meandered through the streets to the Jewish quarter and saw the house where Maimonides might have lived and went to the Casa de Safrad; the Jewish museum and Syngagogue.

Courtyard at La Mezquita (Great Mosque/Cathedral)

Team Córdoba: Berlin!

My new friend, Moshe ben Maimonides. You may call him Rambam.

Friday evening, I went with my good friend Amy and my JaM (Jewish and Muslim Berlin) Professor to the syngagogue for Shabbat. We were greeted in the streets, as the sounds of the gitarra and tamblas floated over us welcoming us into the building. The synagogue is in an upstairs room of a house that has been occupied by Jewish residents since the 13th century. Our Shabbat family was a small one, we didn't have a minyan, but it was one that was beyond welcoming. The president of the synagogue taught us a beautiful Sephardic melody to L'cha Dodi and a London-based, Spanish-speaking Rabbi delivered his drash in English as to make us feel comfortable. The service concluded in the courtyard of the house, with an open ceiling so that we could see the stars. We blessed our wine and bread with melodies old and new, and thanked our new friends for an unforgettable experience. I later joined up with my Stanford friends for dinner and nighttime explorations around the city.

Saturday, we again had our morning sessions (this time from Oxford and Washington) and then, after a closing ceremony, headed to Seville. We toured the Santa Maria Cathedral, which interestingly enough, was also a Mosque. It was insanely beautiful and looked something like this:

The minnaret turned bell tower

View from the Bell Tower

After the tour, we got some free time in Seville. As I mentioned, all the European Centers were there, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to be with some of my great friends from Stanford who are at other campuses. We did some shopping and sight-seeing with time for more tapas and churros con chocolate - which were actually the best things I've ever had. If you are taking anything away from this trip, let it be food and good friends :) - before heading back to Cordoba.

Sunday, we said goodbye to our friends who had early flights, and headed to Grenada to see La Alhambra. La Alhambra is an unbelievably gorgeous palace and fortress, originally built by Moorish rulers and then was occupied by Christian Kings until the 16th century (but don't quote me on that). It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for a reason! Here is a peek, but my photos really don't do it any justice. Seriously. I also don't have pictures of the gardens, which are the most beautiful and romantic gardens I've ever seen.

The fortress from afar.

King Suleiman's symbol adorning the walls.

One of the many courtyards in the Palace.

View of the Sierra Nevadas (not Tahoe) from the top of the fortress.

After the conclusion of our tour in Grenada, we made our way back to Berlin via Madrid. The weekend was spectacular on so many levels - intellectually stimulating, professionally interesting, socially wonderful, culturally explorative and gastronomically delicious. I am so beyond thankful to have had this and every opportunity that I've been given these past few months.

Wishing you all love and joy as we enter into this holiday season,

Doria

Córdoba (part 1)

Hola Amigos! (That's about the extent of my Spanish...)

Last Thursday was the first time in 20 years that I have not been with my family in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving. Though nothing can replace my beloved family, I do believe that southern Spain was about as good an alternative as any, should I have to be abroad for the holidays.

For those of you who need to be caught up a bit, every academic year, the Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) at Stanford holds a workshop for the European Centers. This year, the theme of the workshop was "Islam in the West, 711-2011: 1300 Years of Contact and (Mis)understanding." Select students from every European campus were invited to present a paper on some topic pertaining to Islam in the country in which they were studying. The Berlin team consisted of myself and eight peers, and my paper was entitled "Comparable Phenomena? Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Germany." In essence, in exchange for writing one paper about a topic in which I am genuinely very interested, I got a "free" trip to Spain for five days. Good deal? I think yes.

The Berlin team arrived in Madrid and made our way down to Córdoba early on Thursday morning. After settling into our hotel, we got the chance to wander around the beautiful city before the conference began. Córdoba was unbelievably gorgeous and the plentiful orange trees ripe with fruit gave the air a distinctly sweet and citrusy scent, which made it all too easy to settle into vacation mode. We explored quaint side streets and finally made our way to lunch - tapas, of course - before heading back to the El Conquistador hotel to prep for the afternoon sessions.

Orange trees everywhere!

Tapas?! Yes, please.

The workshop officially began with welcomes from people from Stanford at Stanford (what up, Vice-Provost Elam!) and a panel of the professors who accompanied us on the trip. The Madrid team provided us with a new perspective on the term Convivencia and then it was time for dinner! Once Helen Bing (of Bing Program fame) realized there are really no turkeys in Spain, had some brought over from the US for our Thanksgiving consumption. Ridiculous, yes, but a kind gesture nonetheless. I know that my mother, for one, will ask what I ate for Thanksgiving, so for your pleasure, I stole a menu from the evening.

Berenjenas con Miel de Cana: eggplant with sugarcane honey

Panche de Verduras Naturales a la Plancha: grilled vegetables

Pavo Asado con Frutos Secos, Salsa de Frutos Rojos y Boniatos Asados: turkey cordobese with dried fruit and nuts, and sweet potatos)

Tarta de Calabaza: pumpkin tart with cinammon scented whipped cream

YUM TIMES 50.

Despite the fact that everyone was too full to move after dinner, we were whisked away by the BOSP staff and went through the old city to watch a traditional Andalucian Flamenco performance. Having studied flamenco for a very short period of time, I loved being able to see short snippets of my training mixed in with the Spanish flair and general sassiness of these amazing dancers. After the show, we headed back to the hotel and I promptly crashed in preparation for my presentation the next morning.

See part 2 for the rest of the story!

a turkey tradition

The holiday season has just begun here in Germany. In Berlin alone, over 60Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets) have opened this weekend. These markets range from a few wooden stands adorned with fake snow selling ornaments to elaborate mazes of booths with handmade artwork, traditional Christmastime delicacies (stollen, anyone?), and tons of activities for adults and kids alike. My host siblings have raved about these markets and have told me many times that this is their favorite season of the year. They explained to me that, even though they don't celebrate Christmas, these events are such a traditional part of life in Berlin that everyone can feel included.

When they asked me about my favorite traditions from this time of year, I definitely told them about Thanksgiving and how my family celebrates. I don't know why we sing the "Star Spangled Banner" before we eat, but we do. After dinner, my cousins and I always end up walking to a nearby elementary school to play, talk, and make room for dessert :) With all the talk of delicious food and crazy family gatherings, I forgot to mention that for a long time, I had another Thanksgiving tradition -- one that did not involve any turkey.

For a good portion of my childhood, I spent the week before Thanksgiving in a sweaty dance studio in the Mission, rehearsing for the annual ODC production of The Velveteen Rabbit. "VR" or "The Rabbit," as we called it, was my alternative to performing in "The Nutcracker" - I mean, I am a modern dancer, after all :) We always opened the day after Thanksgiving, which only made the holiday that much more exciting with all that anticipation building up for the next day.

10 years ago (what!?), I would have been in the Green Room, backstage at the Yerba Buena Center. The children's cast had our own dressing room with crazy lights, and the politics of who sat in which chair for hair and makeup amazes me to this day. The Kid Wrangler (the adult in charge of actually getting us ON the stage) would give us the "5 minutes to curtain" call, and we would scramble around on an adrenaline high until the adult, professional dancers called us onto the stage to participate in their pre-show rituals.

While I can no longer recall the choreography (although, give me a DVD of the show and about 10 minutes, I could probably give you your own performance), there are a lot of things that I am surprised to still remember about my VR days. I met some of my closest dance friends over 16 years ago at our audition, and we performed together for years. A group of us used to walk over to SFMOMA in between shows on Saturdays for lunch and we thought we were superadult because our parents sat at a different table. During downtime in the shows, I read my favorite book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, for the first time in the Green Room. I learned how to play chess and mancala. I realized that sitting in school isn't the only way to learn. Despite the fact that I got a lot of grief from my teachers about missing school to perform, my parents let me dance anyway. My experiences during that period - of professional productions, exploring the "life of a dancer," being in San Francisco, being on stage, learning that rehearsal paid off - were some of my earliest reasons for loving dance (until I could appreciate technique, different artistic styles, etc. etc.). Although I obviously cannot say this with complete certainty, I am fairly positive that my life would be very, very different had I not danced around in that theater.

Even though I have danced in, seen, or worked at The Velveteen Rabbit over 100 times (literally), I still highly recommend it as a lovely afternoon for the wonderful 5-12 year olds in your life. If you go, I was one of those kids in the white pajamas totally blissed out over being on stage and performing with some amazing artists, even if they are in bunny costumes.

Dad takes on Berlin!

This past weekend provided me with the following challenge: How does one condense all there is to experience in Berlin into three days? My father flew into Berlin for the weekend and in addition to showing him some of my favorite things about the city, we also wanted to do somethings that were new and experience them together.

Some highlights of the weekend included:

• Museums and Art: The Pergamon, the Jewish Museum, c/o Berlin (a photography museum), Zentrum Judaicum, KW (a modern art museum), and gallery hopping on Auguststraße
• Sights and activities: the East Side Gallery, the Neue Syngagogue, hiking to the top of the Französische Dome, Gendarmemarkt, Alexanderplatz, the Brandenburger Tor, walks down Unter den Linden, and the Staatsballet's rendition of "Oz: The Wonderful Wizard,"
• Shopping and restaurants that are not normally in my 12 Euro/day budget (a.k.a, all restaurants with entrees over 8 Euro - a.k.a all restaurants that actual people would want to eat in).
• Plenty of time to chill/walk/ride the S-Bahn with my Abba.

The fact that my Dad had never been to Germany before made it that much cooler to be able to share with him some of my favorite things to do and the more interesting things I've experienced. It was interesting, though, taking on the role of tour guide rather than tourist. It was exciting to know where we were going and how to get there without looking at a map. It felt good to be able to talk about a certain memorial, event, or museum because I had already studied, seen, or discussed it. It was surprising to me how proud I felt to show off Berlin as "my city" - but it was a really good surprise :)

I'm now entering the last weeks of my program and will be on a plane back to California in about 25 days. Being with my Dad definitely made me realize how much I miss my family and friends, but also made me think about everything I have grown to love about Berlin. I know that I'll be ready to come home, but I also know that some day over winter break and many times in the years to come, I'll be itching to take the U-Bahn to my favorite cafe and watch the streetlights come on over Friedrichstraße. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I don't really see my "two lives" (Berlin and San Francisco) as mutually exclusive in the same way that I did a few months ago. In the same way that my upbringing and friends in the Bay influence my life Berlin, so too will my experiences in Germany permeate and tint my adventures in San Francisco and beyond.

I wish that all of you could come visit me here, but having the Pops was pretty darn awesome.

Here are some photos of the weekend:

Dad in front of Humboldt University - where Max Planck taught :)

The Ritter Sport factory!! $.79 cents/bar? Make your own CUSTOM bar? HELL YEAH.

Just chilling.

East Side Gallery

Deutsch 101: Grammatik

Dedicated to my linguist friends.

At this point, I am sure that some of you are tired of hearing me complain about how German is a very difficult language for me to learn. I have determined that this is because of a) the grammar/syntax, b) HELLA rules, c) the dreaded "cases," which I guess technically would go under grammar, but I'm hoping you get where I'm going with this. Hopefully, I have devised an activity to help you all better understand what I am talking about, so the next time I make a bit of a Geschrei (there isn't really a good translation for this word, but my favorite professor here uses it all the time. The best I can think of is "balagan" but that is Hebrew. Literally, "a scream," basically it means chaos/ a big deal, etc.) over my next German test.

Here is an excerpt of a journal entry I wrote for my German class. Note: You can google translate, but just wait until you finish the whole post, ok?

Ich wünsche, daß ich Computer verstehen könnte. Ich denke, daß die Technik etwas sehr wichtiges ist, aber mein Gehirn funkionert nicht auf diese Weise. Ich muss meine Wissenschaft oder Ingenieuren Freunden anrufen mir mit meinem Computer Probleme zu helfen....

Here is how that passage would read if I were to translate it word by word with the same punctuation and capitalization (for effect, you know):

I wish, that I Computers understand could. I think, that Technology something very important is, but my brain does not work on this way. I must my Science or Engineering Friends call me with my Computer Problems for to help.

Finally, this is what I would say to you in English:

I wish that I could understand computers. I think that technology is really important, but my brain doesn't work that way. I have to call my sciencist and engineer friends to help me with my computer problems.

What you may have noticed is that all nouns are capitalized in German. You may also have noticed that the infinitve goes at the end of a sentence, except when there is a modal verb involved. What else can we learn from this exercise?

What you may not have noticed, in addition to the different adjective endings and the odd placement of commas, is that there are 5 billion ways to change the article of a noun. First one must determine whether you need a definite or indefinite article. Then, the random purposeful decision of which article to use depends on the case (nominative, accusative, dative, or genative), the gender (feminine, netural, or masculine), the quantity (singular or plural), and possibly possesion (personal pronouns). Once you've gone through the rolodex of the 5 billion (really more like 20) different possible articles and found the right one, German is a piece of cake, as long as you don't care about syntax!

I am trying to memorize the following two tables because I have them glued into every notebook I have here and would be so much more helpful if they were just magically implanted into my brain.

German Definite Articles
	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
Nominative case	der	die	das	die	the
Accusative case	den	die	das	die	the
Dative case	dem	der	dem	den	to the
Genitive cases	des	der	des	der	of the

German Indefinite Articles
	masculine	feminine	neuter
Nominative case	ein	eine	ein	a, an
Accusative case	einen	eine	ein	a, an
Dative case	einem	einer	einem	to a, to an
Genitive cases	eines	einer	eines	of a, of an

I invite you to teach yourself German so that we can converse auf Deutsch (don't even get me started on prepositions) upon my return to the States. I keeping thinking/praying/wishing that one day I will wake up and simply speak German - don't worry, if that ever happens you'll know, as I will sing it from the rooftops!! Alas...I now solemnly swear to never complain about German again.*

*out loud.

eine Woche im Herbst (a week in autumn)

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, Autumn has come to Berlin. Changing leaves, Kürbiscremesuppen (pumpkin soup), scarves, chilly nights, and shorter days are now my reality, and to be quite honest with you, I like it! For those of you who lost count (or who, probably more accurately, never started counting), week 7 of my program begins tomorrow. Week six included midterms, tests, and papers, which are also becoming part of my reality, and I like that a whole lot less. Lately, my afternoons have looked something like this...

I am in the midst for preparing for the Stanford Overseas Workshop, which is called something like "Islam and the West 711-2011: 1300 Years of Cultural (Mis)Understanding." I'm working with a classmate of mine on a paper about, well, the relationship between anti-Semitism (both historical and contemporary) and Islamophobia in Germany. The workshop is in two weeks (gulp).

Here are some highlights of the week:

• There is an artist who sits in my ballet class on Monday nights. Usually, he does his sketches and drawings then takes them back to his studio to make copies. This past Monday, however, he drew each of us individually and let us keep the sketches. In mine, I am at the barre in attitude derrière, and I love it. Now, it is waiting to be displayed in my art gallery, which is really the wall above my dresser where I keep postcards and pictures and drawings.

• I have decided that I will try to read one chapter a week of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in German. I, therefore, used this as a wonderful excuse to head to my favorite bookstore, which also has a killer English book section, and spend some Euros. I left with a new daily planner for 2012 (made by a Berlin paper shop), Harry Potter, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. I have already finished the latter and highly recommend it.

• It is a very special thing when you have been friends with someone for 18 years. It is especially special when you yourself are only 20 years old. Sydney was in Berlin this week during her Fall Break, and it was quite lovely to have tea in an awesome Tajik teahouse with her and her friends from school and share a little bit about "my" Berlin.

• Last night, I went with a few of my friends to a neighborhood called Neukölln and did some art gallery-hopping. There is one street that has about ten galleries on it, and last night they were all open quite late and had free showings with the artists. It was really interesting to talk to the artists and see their work up close and personal. We then found an awesome bar with a totally chill vibe, cheap drinks and a rocking DJ. All in all, it was a good night.

This week, I am visiting the Sehitlik Mosque with my Jewish and Muslim Berlin class, meeting up with local high school students in my German conversation class, seeing "Desdemona" with text by Toni Morrison, and last but not least, my Dad is coming to visit on Friday!

Hoping that you're all staying warm,

Doria

p.s - I am definitely taking suggestions of what you would like to read about in this blog. If you have anything you'd like to know about, or questions you'd like answered, please feel free to comment on this post or e-mail me :)

Zürich

This past weekend, I traveled to Zürich, Switzerland with my two friends, Alli and Elana. The three of us became friends in 2008, when we participated in the Diller Teen Fellowship together and spent about three weeks together in Israel. We have remained close friends and when we realized that we were all studying abroad in Europe this quarter, we knew a weekend meet-up was absolutely necessary. Due to its prime location, and the fact that none of us had ever been there before, we decided on Switzerland and got our tickets to Zürich.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some highlights of the weekend as expressed through my photos. Alli has informed me that I need to blog more often in order to shorten the length of my posts, so I will try to keep this concise... If you would like supplemental information, or are interested in cross-referencing events, please check her blog: http://allileso.blogspot.com :) *insert shameless plug for Alli's blog here*

Alli and I both had class on Friday, so we arrived rather late. We basically met up with Elana at the hostel and made our way to the city center for some dessert and late-night explorations. Upon returning to our hostel, we had made friends with various buses on the night schedule and a few phone booths.

Saturday morning, we decided to take the train to Lucerne (Luzern in German) to see some of the reknowned countryside and check out those mountain views that people are always talking about. Lucerne looked like this...

The city is superbly picturesque and all day we were in complete denial that we were actually walking around such a place and were not in front of a green-screen. We went on a self-guided tour of the city and walked over bridges that were built in the 1300s, climbed clock towers used by the Hugenots, and stumbled upon some amazing Farmers' Markets that were about as beautiful as anything I've ever seen. Average food is Zürich is so much better than average food in Berlin - it's crazy. Here are some epicurian highlights:

Some local honey from a man named Johann

Some gorgeous Swiss produce...

Pumpkin Ravioli with Walnut Sauce... mmm :)

After a wonderful day in Lucerne, we headed back to Zürich for a lovely evening. The next morning started with some struggles (what up, Daylight Savings!), but we had a terrific day exploring Zürich! We went to two museums, the Landesmuseum (Swiss National History Museum) and the Kunsthaus (the art museum) and did a lot of walking and wandering along the way.

At some point during the day, it dawned on me that we did this. Yes, we chose a place we wanted to visit and we actually went, but more importantly, we valued each other enough to make that effort to see each other. I guess that's what makes me smile the most. I have this fear that one day after college, all my friends will scatter to various ends of the earth and I will write them letters and never receive any back. Of course this is mostly unfounded and I felt similarly after high school without those results, but still, I feel like this point in my life is about being transitive. It's about shifting priorities and changing interests, and it's about discovering what, who, and why things make us feel a certain way. I think that's why I so appreciated and I am so grateful to have had this weekend.

Alli, Elana, and I are very much leading our own lives in new places. We are speaking different languages, making new friends, exploring new cultures, and discovering new facets of ourselves. I think it is very much beacuse of those things that we were able to come together, in a place that was new to all of us, and marvel in each other's transformations; however, I believe that made me appreciate all the more everything that has not changed. We can now compare the educational systems of Germany, England, and Italy, but we (surprisingly?) still laugh at our ridiculously bad jokes, circa 2008. We can share stories of, shall we say, interesting nights in our various cities, and we can't help but smile when, somehow, the conversation turns back to our first Shabbat in Israel together. While I cannot predict where I will be in 5, 10, or 15 years (truth be told, I cannot predict where I will be in 1.5 years), nor can I imagine all the fantastic adventures upon which my amazing friends will embark, it made me incredibly happy to have spent this weekend with them and to know that, for now, our separate lives only increase the joy of our shared lives :)