The thing about teaching is...

...your self-esteem is at the mercy of a bunch of snot-nosed brats. Or eager-to-please angels, depending on the day. It's a roller coaster, and an unpredictable one at that. Sometimes the kids unexpectedly get really engaged in a lesson and sometimes you carefully plan what you think will be a fun, interesting activity only to be greeted with a groaning chorus of "that's dumb!", "boooring!", and "I don't want to do that!" Some classes go off without a hitch and some are a battle that tests every last bit of your patience and makes you understand those crotchety teachers from movies who complain about kids these days being punks and who long for the "good old days" of corporal punishment. Don't call the police/child services on me, I'm not about to start hitting my students, but sometimes they just drive you to your wit's end and make you desperate for a way, any way, to get them to shut up and listen. And then those same students will enthusiastically greet you on the playground and beg you to hang out with them and tell them about the celebrities you've seen in America (for the record, none).

I like teaching, I really do. I find it rewarding, entertaining, and overall the good experiences outweigh the bad. Yes, trying to get devious, "I'm too cool for school" 7th-graders to quit whispering and passing notes behind your back and give a darn about English comparatives and superlatives is quite frustrating. But then there are the 6th-graders who write a hilarious rap about St. Nicholas and perform it with beat boxing to boot, the 8th-graders who show a surprising enthusiasm for country line dance and the 9th-graders who keep themselves focused and entertained for 90 minutes writing and rehearsing, with impromptu props, skits about their upcoming internships.

I'm applying for a second year (cross your fingers, or as the Germans would say, press your thumbs, for me), and I can only hope that my experiences will continue to be as entertaining and informative as they have been thus far.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My life here in Germany, encapsulated in my activities from yesterday:

-had a traditional German breakfast with the roommates
-watched an episode of my new guilty pleasure, True Blood
-baked Valentine's cookies
-made a lesson plan to teach my 6th-graders about Inuit legends
-went on an hour-long bike ride
-began juggling lessons with my roommate
-weekly (and always hilarious) Sunday dinner with the roommates
-finished my application to come back for another amazing year as a teaching assistant

Perfect. I hope everyone has a great day filled with love from friends and family!

It's a Small, Small World

Sometimes life is so full of coincidences that it simply defies belief. For example, I studied at Washington University in St. Louis. My roommate Amanda's mom grew up in St. Louis and her parents moved back there a couple years ago (she grew up in Texas). And Amanda's best friend in Dortmund, Becky, who she met because she heard her talking English in a subway station, grew up in St. Louis and moved here after college to live with her (German) boyfriend who she met while studying abroad in Spain. And now we're all in Dortmund, Germany of all places!

However a bigger coincidence, and the impetus behind this post, goes something like this: one day in December I'm riding the subway with an American friend. We're sitting next to two guys, one young, one rather older, talking in German, but we're not really paying attention to them but chatting away in English. After a couple stops the older man gets off the subway. As soon as he leaves the young guy next to me turns to me and says, in (American) English, "so where are you from?" Totally shocked to be accidentally sitting next to another American on the subway, I told him I was from Spokane, Washington. I was even more shocked when he replied, "Really?? I'm from the Tri-Cities!" Turns out he's a Mormon and halfway through his two-year mission, so we start talking about Eastern Washington and find out other things in common, such as that his family always vacations at Priest Lake, Idaho, just like mine.

Two people from Eastern Washington (not a heavily-populated area) randomly meeting in Dortmund would have been enough of a coincidence on it's own, but then today my roommate comes home and tells me, "I met your mormon on the subway today." She got on the subway home from work this afternoon, heard a guy speaking German with an American accent, deduced from the business-esque clothes and nametag that he must be mormon, and as soon as the seat next to him opened up, sat down next to him and said, in typical Amanda fashion, "don't try to convert me or anything, but are you mormon? And do you come from the Spokane area?" The poor guy managed to overcome his confusion and amazement at this crazy American girl who appeared out of nowhere and somehow knew his life story to respond in the affirmative. So there you go: there is a Mormon missionary from the Spokane area living in Dortmund and my roommate and I both independently managed to sit next to him on the subway. And there you have it, the crazy coincidences of Katherine Kerschen (check out that alliteration!)

Efficiency, organization, reliability, and other German stereotypes you can throw out the window

All of you (you being the presumably American readers of this blog), have probably heard some stereotypes regarding Germany. For example, that they’re highly organized and value efficiency, or that they’re crazy about punctuality and things getting done on time. I remember a shirt I saw and took a picture of at some store in Italy. It said:

United Europe

In Heaven:

            The policemen are English

            The cooks are French

            The bankers are Belgian

            The dancers are Spanish

            The lovers are Italian

            And it’s all organized by the Germans

In Hell:

            The policemen are French

            The cooks are English

            The bankers are Spanish

            The dancers are Belgian

            The lovers are German

            And it’s all organized by the Italians

As you can see, people just associate Germany with organization and being good at getting things done. In the name of deeper cultural understanding, I’m going to put these misconceptions to rest; unfortunately for the Germans, the stereotypes I’m going to discredit are actually pretty flattering.

First up: punctuality. Trains, trams and busses are late much more than they should be. Especially the trains in winter, because apparently they don’t have heating mechanisms for the switches that route trains to different tracks, so sometimes they freeze over, and presto, your train is 40 minutes later while they fix that. I really appreciate that Germany has so much public transportation, because it makes life without a car really easy, but I would appreciate it even more if everything was on time.

German systems and institutions also have the reputation of being reliable. Unfortunately, the experience I had with Deutsche (German) Post was anything but. My parents mailed me a package for Christmas, and about 12 days after they mailed it I found a notice slipped under my apartment building’s front door that I had a package to pick up at the post office. Usually they leave these notices when you aren’t home when they try to deliver your package, but this was a Saturday and I had been home all day. The doorbell never rang, meaning they didn’t even try to bring the package to me, possibly because I live on the 4^th floor (no elevator). I was slightly annoyed, because now I had to wait til Monday to get the package. On Monday I went to the post office, they couldn’t find the package, and recommended I call customer service. I did, they said they would make a second delivery request for my package, and it should be there by Wednesday. It wasn’t, so I went back on Thursday, still nobody could find it, called customer service again, they had no idea what happened to it, and asked me to call back with the tracking number. It took me until Saturday to get that from my parents, called customer service again, and they swore that, according to the tracking number, the package was in the post office. Not feeling very hopefully, I trudged to the post office once again. And after 10 minutes of searching, they found my package! Turns out it had just been sorted wrong and put on the shelf for domestic, not international deliveries. So it had been there the entire time. How many Deutsche Post employees does it take to find a package? Too many.

Organizational failure #1: A few days after Christmas Pascal and I were trying to take the train from where his grandparents back to Dortmund. The trip is usually a little under two hours. Unfortunately, we had only been traveling about 45 minutes when the train stopped at a station and didn’t continue for 15 minutes. Finally an announcement came that there had been an accident on the track up ahead, and the train couldn’t go any further. We were all to disembark and wait for busses to pick us up and drive us to the next station past the accident. We were in a small town that didn’t even have an enclosed building at the train station, just open platforms. Did I mention it was 20 degrees and there was a foot of snow on the ground? We waited an hour and a half with no more announcements about when the busses would be coming. Since they could come at any minute we didn’t dare wander away and look for a café or something, so we stood in the cold. Finally, a bus came. 1 bus, for over a hundred people. We couldn’t push our way through the crowd, so we had to wait another half hour for the next busses. Then a half hour drive, then had to take 3 different trains to get back to Dortmund. All in all it took over 5 hours. Lesson learned: Deutsche Bahn is terrible in an emergency and at keeping people informed of what is happening.

The second organizational failure took place at the university. This post is getting long, so I’ll spare you the details, but it took over a month and 4 different trips to the international office to finally get registered as a student. I had to go so many times because they kept emailing me saying they needed additional paperwork, and once everything was complete the employee in charge of my file simply didn’t forward it to the secretary’s office, because the office was moving to a new location and she wasn’t sure where to send it. So, basically a total communication breakdown.

Efficiency: as an American citizen, you can travel to Germany without getting a visa beforehand and stay there for up to 90 days as a tourist. After that you need a residence permit, which is pretty easy to get provided you are a student or have some kind of job and insurance (basically you just need to show you won’t be a burden on the state). So in October I went to the International Citizens Office to register myself and get a permit. I had done the same thing before in Tuebingen, so I knew what paperwork I needed to bring with me. I filled out all the forms, waited about half an hour to speak to somebody, and everything seemed to be in order until she noticed that I had previously been a resident in Tuebingen. Apparently they needed to order a copy of my file sent from Tuebingen, and that was going to take a month. Since my tourist “visa” would expire before then, she gave me a temporary 3-month permit and told me I would get a letter with an appointment to come back and finish the process. I finally got the letter in late December telling me to come on January 10^th. They also all of a sudden needed me to bring more paperwork, such as copies of my income statements. I went on the appointed day, brought everything with me, and then the lady who was helping me informed me that I needed some official notice from my insurance company that I was insured there, because for some reason the insurance card wasn’t enough, and that her colleague had “forgotten” to put that in the letter. She started to tell me to call when I had gotten that and they’d make another appointment with me, but I interrupted and pointed out that I had no idea how to get the requested notice, because my insurance company is located in Hamburg, and my temporary permit was going to expire in a week. So she disappeared in the back for a minute, came back and told me the insurance card would suffice. Then we had another small issue, which was that while waiting for this appointment the time had come to book my return flight, and I had picked July 7^th because it was the cheapest date. However, my work contract technically expires on June 30^th, so that’s when I officially should have to leave the country. I told her I really couldn’t change the date, so she said if I had a copy of my ticket with me then they could make an exception. Of course I hadn’t brought that with me, so she disappeared in the back again, and eventually returned and said since it was just a week it would be ok. So in the end I got the permit fine, but only after jumping or being asked to jump through tons of hoops, many of which apparently are not even necessary. They could have just given me the permit in October and saved themselves a bunch of trouble.

After all of this it may sound like I hate Germany, but I really don’t. Nor is everything here complicated and senseless. I’ve just had a few frustrating experiences, which comes with the territory of moving to a new country where you’re not as familiar with the systems and bureaucracy that you have to navigate (and you’re not confident enough in your language skills to yell at unhelpful employees). To prove that Germany doesn’t suck, my next post will be about my favorite moments while teaching so far. Til then!

Weihnachten (Christmas) in Deutschland

Ah, Christmastime in Germany. I'm a huge Christmas-love as is, but this was probably one of my favorite experiences so far. The city centers were all decked with lights, the scent of candied almonds wafted through the air, and bottles of Gluehwein (mulled wine) could be had for as low as 99 cents at the supermarket. Yes, life was good. It also didn't hurt that this area of Germany got more snow in December than just about ever, so there was almost always snowflakes falling or a fresh coating of snow covering the Christmas markets. The markets themselves are incredibly kitschy, but so much fun. I particularly enjoyed the Gluehwein stands, such as the one pictured below in the shape of a windmill/pyramid, which is a replica of the famous carved wood ornaments from the eastern mountains of Germany. Also to be found at Dortmund's market was the tallest Christmas "tree" in Germany/Europe/the world depending on who you're talking to. I put tree in quotations because it was actually a giant wire frame into which they stuck dozens of normal-sized evergreen trees. Watching the construction was pretty hilarious, actually, but kind of ruined the magic ("Mommy, Johnny told me that the Dortmund Christmas tree isn't real, is that true?" "Well, honey, it's kind of real..." "Nooo, my childhood is over!")

The Essen Christmas market had absolutely gorgeous lights covering the trees and hanging over the streets, because Essen combines the Christmas market with their annual "Weeks of Light," which is something a lot of German cities do (light up a part of town or a park for a couple weeks), but usually in the summer. I had a lot of fun walking around the markets and sampling the food and drink (roasted chestnuts, candied almonds, fries, bratwurst, potato cakes and any kind of hot, alcoholic drink you can imagine) with Pascal, friends, and my colleagues from work. Besides food, you can find all manner of handicrafts (usually overpriced, truth-be-told), from hand-carved Bavarian wooden ornaments to Peruvian wool stocking caps, jewelry, candles and soaps, plus some really strange things, like silicone muffin pans. For some reason all my pictures are from the evening, but the markets really do look much more exciting and magical in the dark, so it's probably for the best.

After I got my fill of the Christmas markets it was time to actually celebrate Christmas. I stayed in Germany to celebrate with Pascal and his family, which was very nice, though I did miss my family a lot and all of our traditions. On Christmas Eve we decorated the tree, had a very nice dinner, then opened presents, and then had an impromptu "concert" before going to Midnight Mass. All I can say is, Pascal and I really need to work on our drum-piano duets, and his brother needs to work on his singing. I'd post the video of our attempt at "Jingle Bells" here, but his brother made me promise to never distribute it to anyone outside of our families, so I'm afraid you'll be spared from that particular agony. On Christmas Day some family friends and their kids came over for brunch, and on the day after Christmas (or as the Germans call it, "2nd Christmas Day") we went to visit Pascal's grandparents for several days. Also, there was apparently something really interesting on the ceiling after brunch. The rest of the pictures are winter landscapes from Essen and Sauerland. A white Christmas is very rare around here, so I think it was a special gift to me to cheer me up about not being with my family (it worked) :)

These last two pictures are from New Year's Eve, which Pascal and I celebrate with two of his friends and their girlfriends. One of them brought a "MiniWok" set, which, as you can see in the picture, is just individual pans on a griddle to which each person can add their own vegetables, sauce and noodles. It was very fun and tasty, and then we drank various forms of alcohol while watching ridiculous German New Year's Eve specials on TV (my favorites were the reruns from 70s comedy shows). Toasting and setting off of fireworks ensued at midnight, and now here we are, a whole week into 2011. I hope you all are off to a good start in the New Year and haven't given up on the resolutions yet! I never made any, which is the best way to guard against failure and disappointment. But hopefully you all are more motivated than me! Happy January!

A Brief Overview of my Life

friends!

I have to say, I have a pretty sweet life here. I have less obligations than I've had probably since I was about 10, and also more money. Not a lot of money, but certainly enough to live comfortably. And did I mention that I have lots of free time? It's actually been quite a bit of an adjustment for me, going from the rush-rush pace of life at Wash U, where I had class, homework, research, a job and a thousand other things, to my Fulbright life, where under contract I only have to work 12 hours per week (I work a little more than that, but still, it doesn't even really qualify as part-time). So I've found some things to keep me busy, but don't worry mom, I'm not stressing myself out. The only bad thing about his abundant amount of time for relaxing is that I have no idea how I will ever adjust to a real job in the future. Fulbright is majorly spoiling me, but I guess I should enjoy it while I can.

However, I do sometimes actually work. My main job (through Fulbright) is as an assistant English teacher in a middle/high school, in the type of school they call a "comprehensive school" in the German school system, meaning that all students have class together, regardless of whether they're on the university track or planning on stopping after 10th grade and doing an apprenticeship. So, kind of like an American high school. However, comprehensive schools have a rather bad reputation in Germany that they don't prepare students for university as well as traditional "Gymnasien" do. The traditional German school system is three-tiered: Hauptschule is the lowest, Realschule in the middle and Gymnasium at the top. Hauptschule you stop after the 9th grade and go into a vocation like working in a factory. Realschule stops after 10th grade but you go on and do something like an apprenticeship to become an electrician or go into hotel management or something. From Gymnasium you're supposed to go onto university. I personally find this system highly elitist, because the kids are tracked after the 4th grade, and it can be quite difficult to switch from one type of school to the other. So basically if you're not good in school when you're 9 you will probably never have the chance to go to college. Seems unfair, but that's not the point of this blog, so tangent aside, back to my work schedule. I teach at the school every day except Wednesday. I'm usually there for about 4 hours per day, sometimes more if I have breaks between my classes. I help with a 6th grade, 7th grade, two 9th grade and one 11th grade class. I also help with an 8th grade drama class and oversee the English Club for the upper grades. I don't teach the classes independently, but I do lead a lot of lessons on my own while the teacher sits in the room, or we team teach together. Most of my lessons focus on American culture, such as holidays or the school system. Sometimes they go well, occasionally they don't, but it helps a lot that the kids intrinsically like me because I'm somebody new and interesting and from America. Plus the kids are just in general really friendly and funny; my favorite anecdotes will follow in a later post. In addition to my work at the school I'm a teaching assistant for two seminars in the English Department at the university in Dortmund. One is called "Cultural Education in Contexts of Diversity" and the other "English in America." I don't do much other than facilitating discussions every now and then and emailing with the students to help them on their projects, but then again, I don't get paid for the TA work either. Next semester I'm hoping to get involved with some research in the linguistics department, because I do miss that aspect of academia.

With my light work schedule, I've been able to indulge my hobbies more than ever before, as well as taking up some new ones. In three months I read more books than I read all of last year, and devote a few hours each week to reviewing French and Arabic so I can sign up for a language course at the university next semester. I've also started playing the piano again, because there's a baby grand in the music room at my school that is hardly ever used, and one of the nice teachers I work with gave me the key to the room so that I can practice anytime I want. I don't think I'll be giving a concert in Carnegie Hall anytime soon, but it's nice to be able to play just for myself. A new hobby I've taken up is knitting, which my roommate and a friend taught me. They're amazing and can knit mittens and sweaters and all kinds of cool stuff, whereas I'm still laboring to create a decent looking rectangle, aka a scarf. So basically, don't hold your breath for hand-knitted goods for Christmas. I've also been learning how to use Photoshop, so maybe I'll post some of my photography here one day. Other hobbies include watching Dexter, Mad Men and Criminal Minds online and, my all-time favorite hobby: cooking/baking. I've always loved to bake, but didn't really have the time before to spend hours testing out different cookie recipes. Now I do, which makes my taste buds really happy but is perhaps not so great for my calorie intake. My roommate and I both also love cooking, and I would say we probably make the best vegetarian meals in Dortmund (the competition for gourmet vegetarian cuisine is not particularly stiff in Germany). This leads to

just a typical dinner party. with a santa suit

our favorite activity, which is hosting or going to dinner parties with friends. A home-cooked meal is so much nicer than a restaurant. Also, the alcohol is cheaper. We decided with the other three people in our WG (who live in the apartment below us) that we should have a communal dinner every Sunday, so now the apartments trade off weeks and we get to catch up on each other's lives and laugh at Hidey the cat. It's all very "gemuetlich," as the Germans would say, a word that unfortunately doesn't have a good English translation, but means something along the lines of cozy, cheery, snug, comfortable, happy, etc. Basically used to describe anything that is relaxing and fun.
light work schedule, I've been able to indulge my hobbies more than ever before, as well as taking up some new ones. In three months I read more books than I read all of last year, and devote a few hours each week to reviewing French and Arabic so I can sign up for a language course at the university next semester. I've also started playing the piano again, because there's a baby grand in the music room at my school that is hardly ever used, and one of the nice teachers I work with

Santa is a huge beer fan

gave me the key to the room so that I can practice anytime I want. I don't think I'll be giving a concert in Carnegie Hall anytime soon, but it's nice to be able to play just for myself. A new hobby I've taken up is knitting, which my roommate and a friend taught me. They're amazing and can knit mittens and sweaters and all kinds of cool stuff, whereas I'm still laboring to create a decent looking rectangle, aka a scarf. So basically, don't hold your breath for hand-knitted goods for Christmas. I've also been learning how to use Photoshop, so maybe I'll post some of my photography here one day. Other hobbies include watching Dexter, Mad Men and Criminal Minds online and, my all-time favorite hobby: cooking/baking. I've always loved to bake, but didn't really have the time before to spend hours testing out different cookie recipes. Now I do, which makes my taste buds really happy but is perhaps not so great for my calorie intake. My roommate and I both also love cooking, and I would say we probably make the best vegetarian meals in Dortmund (the competition for gourmet vegetarian cuisine is not particularly stiff in Germany). This leads to our favorite activity, which is hosting or going to dinner parties with friends. A home-cooked meal is so much nicer than a restaurant. Also, the alcohol is cheaper. We decided with the other three people in our WG (who live in the apartment below us) that we should have a communal dinner every Sunday, so now the apartments trade off weeks and we get to catch up on each other's lives and laugh at Hidey the cat. It's all very "gemuetlich," as the Germans would say, a word that unfortunately doesn't have a good English translation, but means something along the lines of cozy, cheery, snug, comfortable, happy, etc. Basically used to describe anything that is relaxing and fun.

romantic setting for the WG dinner

Georg and Steffen being awkward

Hidey does not love Amanda as much as Amanda loves her

Less gemuetlich is the "Nordstadt" (north city), which is the area of Dortmund I live in. It's not really known as one of the most desirable addresses in Dortmund, mostly because the majority of the residents are immigrants and it's in general a lower socioeconomic-, working-class area. Basically, it's just not the most beautiful part of Dortmund: kind of old, industrial, not always kept-up and frankly kind of grim sometimes. I think there's a pretty high unemployment rate in the area, as every morning on my way to work (my school is also in the Nordstadt) I almost always see people hanging out on benches and outside kiosks drinking beer (at 7:30am). There's not really any violence to speak of in the area, just a lot of people with not-so-great economic prospects, and a lot of people of foreign background, to the point that you hear far more Turkish/Arabic/Bulgarian/what-have-you on the street than you do German. The good thing about this is that when I go into a store or Imbiss (fast food stand) I don't have to worry about messing up my German, because the shop owners probably don't speak it any better than I do. The residents do have a little bit of neighborhood pride, though, as evidenced by the electric sign on the side of a high-rise apartment building that says "the sun rises in the north." Aplerbeck and Dorstfeld and the other sissy suburbs may think they're the best, we Nordstadt-ers know better! So now, enjoy the scenery of the Nordstadt:

all that was left of a church after the war

I don't know why there is a Navy store, nor do I know why they fly not only the American flag, but the Canadian and Confederate ones too

I swear I live by every train track in the city

Remember the pretty view out my bedroom window? Well, they cut off the tops of the trees a few weeks ago, so now I get to enjoy this. And trust me, it looks better in this picture than it ever does in real life.

'Round about the Ruhrgebiet

industry in fall

industry in summer

rural part of Ruhrgebiet

As said before, the Ruhrgebiet is the former seat of heavy industry (coal mining and steel production) in Germany. Very little of this industry is left now, because, as is the case in most Western nations, mining and other heavy industries have been mostly taken over by developing countries where production is cheaper. However, some factories and power plants are still in operation, and remnants of industry can be seen all over the region. For example, there are "Halden," or slag heaps, near all the major former mines. Thankfully, they've all been grassed over and planted with trees, to the extent that they really look like natural hills just rising out of the ground. Many have become popular walking or outdoor activity areas, such as Halde Haniel in Bottrop, where I went with Pascal's mom. A way of the cross was installed on a winding path up the hill, ending at a large cross where Pope John Paul II once gave an address. Also on the top of this particular Halde is a small amphitheater where plays and concerts are occasionally held, as well as a crazy totem pole sculpture garden. The view from the top is amazing; I could see the entire Ruhrgebiet (almost as far as Dortmund even). Interestingly, interspersed with the cities and smokestacks are huge tracts of very rural areas that look like forests or fields. As I mentioned in my first post, a lot of Germans picture the Ruhrgebiet as smoggy and gray, but in reality it's almost overwhelmingly green.

the very top of the heap wasn't grassed over

cross at the top of the path

totem poles

amphitheater

the streets of Essen

 Before industrialization, the Ruhrgebiet lacked in major significance in the German economic or cultural scene. Some cities (such as Essen or Dortmund) were moderately important as seats of power or trade, and Duisburg was very important for trade along the Rhine and had a renowned university, but overall the area was pretty much a collection of villages and farms. The discovery of coal kick-started the region's growth and towns sprang up quickly and with an eye on cheapness and efficiency rather than aesthetics. Add to that the fact that the Ruhrgebiet was extremely heavily bombed in World War II (industrial production sites of steel and weapons were obviously critical targets for the Allies) and in some towns over 75% of the buildings were destroyed. In the post-war period the prevailing architectural style seems to have been "plain concrete blocks," not too dissimilar from what Americans thinks of as typical Soviet architecture. All of these factors combine to create the unfortunately reality that the towns of the Ruhrgebiet are really just not all that pretty. That's not to say that there are no pretty or traditional buildings at all, and I certainly think that the construction of the cities here is extremely interesting and attractive in sort of utilitarian, modern way, but Dortmund and company lack the charm of towns such as Tuebingen with their quaint medieval buildings and winding cobblestone streets. That being said, I find Dortmund to be considerably more "livable" than Tuebingen, because I don't feel like I'm living in a postcard or constantly being a tourist at some historical site. Also, because there are so many cities in close proximity to each other, there's always stuff to do, concerts to go to, exhibits to see. It's not at all isolated, like I sometimes felt Tuebingen was, and, in my opinion, the perfect place to just have a normal day-to-day life. So now, some pictures of the wonderful city of Dortmund:

flying rhino statues are all over Dortmund

the market square and Reinoldi Church

Germans love eating outside

a building across from the Concert House

modern buildings by the train station

entrance to subway station

the TV tower in Westphalia Park in Dortmund

view of downtown Dortmund from TV tower

I live behind the smokestack

old brewery that has been converted into a museum

typical Ruhrgebiet: nice park, green treas, abandoned mines

the woods between north and south campus

pretty winter scenery