On a journey: East Berlin, Germany

On a journey: East Berlin, Germany

Friday, December 29, 2006

Wasting a Friday afternoon

I stole this from my dear friend and older sister, Meghan Lewit, one of the funniest and most talented writers I know. 1.) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WORD?--I like a lot of vernacular Marathi insults that my mother used to call me, such as "baurat" (idiot) and "faltoo" (useless). 2.) WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE WORD?--Slut. 3.) WHAT TURNS YOU ON?--Incredible talent with incredibly humility. 4.) WHAT TURNS YOU OFF?--Selfishness. 5.) WHAT SOUND DO YOU LOVE?--A full bodied orchestra tuning. 6.) WHAT SOUND DO YOU HATE?--Static on the TV. 7.) WHAT PROFESSION OTHER THAN YOURS WOULD YOU LIKE TO ATTEMPT?--Archaeologist. 8.) WHAT PROFESSION WOULD YOU NOT LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN?--A butcher. 9.) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CURSE WORD?--F**k. It is the most versatile swear, as it can be used as any part of speech. 10.) IF GOD EXISTS, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE HIM/HER TO SAY WHEN YOU REACH THE PEARLY GATES?--"Come on in, the tea's brewing." I'd like to inform everyone of what my brother says about me: "Geeta, you're the least funny out of our family. I mean, you are funny, but it's usually not intentional." Can anyone think of a better way to make someone feel like a Lemming than that? Here's my sister Neetu's answers: 1.) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WORD?--collude 2.) WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE WORD?--the typo "alot." It's 2 WORDS, people, 2 WORDS! 3.) WHAT TURNS YOU ON?--Generosity. 4.) WHAT TURNS YOU OFF?--Emotional unresponsiveness and superficiality. 5.) WHAT SOUND DO YOU LOVE?--Heels on a wooden floor. 6.) WHAT SOUND DO YOU HATE?--Motorcycles revving their engines on a street. People who don't dig into the violin enough with their bow. Oh, and trumpets. Friggin' trumpets (sorry). 7.) WHAT PROFESSION OTHER THAN YOURS WOULD YOU LIKE TO ATTEMPT?--Advice columnist. 8.) WHAT PROFESSION WOULD YOU NOT LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN?--Accountant. 9.) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CURSE WORD?--Assclown, as in "no talent assclown." 10.) IF GOD EXISTS, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE HIM/HER TO SAY WHEN YOU REACH THE PEARLY GATES?--"Due to space shortages, it looks like you're going to have to share a room with Matt Damon."

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Chicago, Christmas, Fine Art, Consumerism

Seasons greetings! After a long and exhausting journey back to Chicago from Frankfurt (well, starting from Detmold with the train), I walked into our lovely home just in time for Neil's surprise 18th birthday party, of which he had absolutely no idea of. Spending a night with Chicago styled-pizza, Deerfield Bakery birthday cake, real guacamole with real tortilla chips, Canadian peanuts, 7 adolescent boys and 2 charming parents was the perfect welcome home. I slept soundly that night and awoke the next day to attend a superb performance of the Western-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Harris Theatre in Millenium Park. This group is a brainchild of Daniel Barenboim and the late Edward Said - a philosopher, activist, author, lecturer, and renowned scholar of the Arab-Israeli conflict - in attempts to unite young Israeli and Arab musicians so that barriers can be broken and dialogue can be generated. I was thoroughly impressed with their performance of Beethoven's Leonore Overture, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon + Orchestra, and Brahms' Symphony 1 - so much energy and character. This seems to be typical of Barenboim's various ensembles, all except the CSO. Mind you, I do believe the CSO is an incredibly fine orchestra; they just don't play with the same youthful energy as the Staatskapelle Berlin and Western-Eastern Divan Orchestra did. Perhaps this more serious style is a contributing factor to Barenboim's resignation from the CSO, although it is hard to say from the outsider's perspective. As for the encore, it was the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Generally, I don't enjoy Wagner as much as some, but I happen to love Tristan und Isolde - probably because it influenced nearly every major piece after its debut. It was especially important that this orchestra played Wagner, as he is quite openly known as an anti-Semite and a Nazi sympathizer, and his music has been virtually banned in Israel. I am glad that Barenboim is willing to see the beauty in music even though the values of this particular composer don't match up with those of Barenboim himself. It's not a perspective that many people can acquire so easily. The following Tuesday, I dropped my bow off at the William Harris Lee violin shop downtown and saw Tchaikovsky's famed The Nutcracker Ballet performed by Chicago's own Joffrey Ballet company. Interestingly enough, I'd never seen it in Chicago - only in Boston, done by the Boston Ballet. I really enjoyed the performance, although I did not appreciate some of my fellow patrons. People just assume that they can talk loudly during a ballet because there isn't any relevant noise coming from the stage to heed. It infuriates me, as part of the reason why I love ballet is because of its relationship to the music! Oh well - at least they support the arts. It's a piece that I'd love to play some day. On Thursday, Dec. 21st, I paid my old high school, Glenbrook North, a visit, along with my friend Jenna. We had a nice time visiting some of our old teachers, although I missed Mrs. Langer and Ms. Scholz, two of my favorites. Next time, I guess. Friday night brought on my father's Christmas/Holiday party for his office at our house. We cooked up a storm of Indian food all day long and carefully set the table with our best china, put together a wine bar, and even considering creating Doctor Pictionary as entertainment. After the night's end, we discovered that 1). Doctors drink a lot. 2). One must not serve pani puri appetizers if you want your guests to eat a full dinner 3). Little Polish babies named Jon are adorable. 4). School of Rock is a truly amazing movie (point 4 is actually just a reaffirmation of prior knowledge). It was a nice night. On Saturday, Neil and I did the grocery shopping for our massive Christmas meal, which involved buying from the local Greek supermarket in the neighboring and highly diverse town of Niles. We received many a funny look from the Greek storekeepers while asking for 2 lbs. feta cheese and "fresh grape leaves, not canned!", as though they wondered what the heck 2 Indian kids were doing in their store. Sunday brought 2 lovely visits to friends who really needed to see supportive and happy faces. Once was Seema Auntie, a woman whom I unfortunately don't know so well, but she's a Marathi friend of my mother's from a long time back. Auntie had two brain tumors and has endured a roller coaster of medicines and hence their reactions on her body, including unbelieveable swelling and increased weight. Her husband is such an inspiration - never losing hope, blaming her, or souring at however many questions/inquiries guests may have. Her mother came from southern Maharashtra (India) to take care of Auntie, and her son works somewhere in Evanston where he lives but designs cool video games as a hobby. Auntie's mother was a very sweet woman - she reminded me a lot of my own nanisa (mother's grandmother), with her typical Marathi gestures and facial expressions - very colorful. The second family we visited was Dr. Gandhi, or Ajit Uncle's kakasa (uncle - father's younger brother). Dr. Gandhi is a retired physician and former professor of medicine at Loyola Med School - he and his wife stay with their eldest son. Their lives have been reduced to much sadness due to family emotional distance and Dr. Gandhi's illnesses, but they remain in full spirits and are gracious hosts/good listeners to what young people have to say. It was refreshing to see them, and I think they felt the same way. I love that visiting others who are in some sort of emotional need for the contact (i.e. the homeless shelter, physically ailing friends, emotionally distraught family) has persisted as a Christmas time tradition for our family. It really makes you thankful for the gluttonous amount of food you eat the next day. After seeing The Good Shepherd (I really enjoyed the movie), Neil, Neetu, and I headed to the airport to pick up my dear cousin Deepa. She arrived the night of the 24th from L.A. Deepa is from Pune (India) but is coming to study for her engineering masters at the University of Southern California in L.A. and so she's now here from Dec. 24-31st for a nice family visit. After going to bed late, we managed to wake up early and started cooking...it lasted the entire day. We had a real Greek feast: horiatiki salad and tiropittes as appetizers, moussaka, yemista orphana, and dolmades as entrees, and louvia me lahana and mashed potatoes (Neetu's last minute insistence, much to my annoyance as it's not near anything Greek-styled), and honey-dipped cookies with mint tea as dessert. Amaeya's family joined ours, which was also a lovely way to spend Christmas holidays. Too much was eaten but even greater was the amount we enjoyed one another's company, with the bantering, joking, teasing, and laughter. Today, we became the real Capitalists that we are and ransacked the stores during the after-Christmas sales. Deepa purchased a lot of what she needed for L.A. and Neetu and I acquired some things, too - even Mom got something this time. Tomorrow, we have to head back for me, although I'm opting to practice in the morning while the three of them go at it again. It's an exhausting ordeal, shopping. Perhaps that's why I only do it about once a year. Neetu made the interesting point today of how when one shops in the U.S., no matter how much you buy, you honestly don't feel like you've found/bought anything. The sheer size and selection of material purchases is just overwhelming. I agreed, saying that I know I tend to buy less in Germany because of the Euro's expensive rate but also because I just don't desire anything there. The markets are more limited in Europe, and I think it's somewhat a good thing - it reduces the amount of materialism we perpetrate in our society. Later on during dinner, Dad quoted Sir Winston Churchill, with, "We are turning over India to men of straw, like the caste Hindu, Mr. Nehru, of whom, in a few years, no trace will remain." It sparked quite a discussion about the repercussions of WWII, India's position in the world today, frustrations over how the U.S. always played Pakistan as the favorite for political aims, the importance of staying open-minded while studying abroad (Deepa is in the same exact boat as me, except she's studying abroad in my homeland), etc. Overall, I'd say this has been one fantastic break. I'm getting more comfortable here, after 2-3 days of awkward adjustment and even initially missing Germany. Now I know that I'll just be missing Chicago when I board the plane. We seem to always want to be elsewhere, don't we? Drat human nature. Happy New Year to everyone!

Friday, December 15, 2006

Last night

Tomorrow I fly to Chicago from Frankfurt via Air India for 2.5 weeks. It's been an amazing 3 months here in Germany...a lot has happened, a lot has been learned, and there's even more to look forward to. I was quite busy this week with last minute Schubert rehearsals, German class, and outtings today with friends. I am sad to leave everyone but look forward to seeing my family. Highlights of the week: overhearing a group of German teenage girls singing karaoke to "Unchained Melody" (I nearly died laughing on the sidewalk...and hey, it wasn't like I eavesdropped - their window was wide open for the world to listen), having a washer at the laundromat eat 4 Euros so my laundy totalled 17 EUROS including the dryer (not such a great highlight), running 8 km with Annie (the other American here) through the Detmolder countryside, receiving from my landlords- a beautiful African wood statue from Togo and a handmade stained glass vase as presents for my parents and a copy of The Little Prince in German for me, collecting Greek recipes from Frederika and having to translate them from French to English, a beautiful dinner with Frederika and Mathilde on Friday as a 'holiday send-off' for me, booking a ticket to Paris for February for only 25 Euros (!), scrubbing my apartment to the point of spotlessness, and overcoming a bad throat cold. The most beautiful highlight, though, was observing the stars tonight. In Detmold, the sky is crystal clear and utterly peaceful. There is no noise, smog, or other external distraction to keep you from having a spiritual moment with the night sky. I stood on my street corner, bathed in lamplight, and just stared at the sky for a good 10 minutes. It was breathtaking and overwhelming at the same time...to imagine that we, as a living and breathing race of humans, plants and animals, encompass nearly every square mile of the planet but remain united under the same blanket of vastness, humbles one down to his very core. To realize that we are all so insignificant yet so rare gave me a deep sense of awe. It is a gift to be a part of this world. Guten Nacht.

Saturday, December 9, 2006

What do you with Italian wine, Belgian beer, American Christmas decorations, and French crepes?

Have a party, of course! We had a fantastic holiday party here last night; about 20 people came and it was super international. At one point, people were speaking German, English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, and Turkish in the room...a real "WTTW/PBS" sort of scene. People arrived around 8:30-9 PM and stayed until about 2:30 - just drinking, talking, meeting one another. And someone paid me the most wonderful compliment - "Only an American could organize such an international party where everyone gets along." Diversity is our strength, I suppose :) Otherwise, everything is great here in Detmold. Every day that nears Christmas becomes more beautiful - one more house is decorated with candles and lights, and the streets seem to glow. I've noticed that the house decorations here are more elegant - none of the cheesy colored lights and kitchy 'Santa riding on a sleigh' scenes that you often notice in the U.S. People use plain white lights, mistletoe, holly, and candles in the windowsills. Last Wednesday, Dec. 6 was St. Nicholas' Day, or the day when Germans believe Santa Claus comes to their houses. Traditionally, Germans and many Europeans preferred to celebrate Santa Claus before Christmas day so that the focus of the actual holiday was Christ and not the gifts. In our modern times, Germany is actually the 'least religious' country in all of Europe, in terms of figures of church attendance, etc. This is according to a BBC report I read...although I think that to judge how many people practice a faith is absurd. It's such a private thing! How can we determine whether someone else really believes in their faith or not? I played my first gig here last Wednesday evening. It was in neighboring Augustdorf; I was a member of a small chamber orchstra accompanying a choir. We played a contemporary piece by one of the singers in the choir named Dietrich Gahanz (it wasn't all that bad), and pieces by Franck and Saint-Saens. I was even offered two more gigs for this coming week, but unfortunately had to refuse, as I'll be in Chicago. Bummer. It's good to know that there's some work out here, though. I saw a violin concert last Thursday of the 3 Brahms violin sonatas, 1 of the clarinet sonatas on the violin, and the E Flat Mj. viola sonata on violin. The five performers represented each professor here (Mathe - mine, Rizzi, Fischer, Kufferath, and Christian), and they were all fantastic. I was teary by the end of it because when you're feeling a bit homesick (as I had been that day), Brahms has a way of drawing out one's inner most emotions, especially those that are difficult to deal with in the present. It's worth the tears to listen. I also had my last violin lesson until January, and it was fantastic. Frau Mathe is a vegetarian - she has been for the past 15 years. We are kindred spirits that way :) I am looking forward to coming home in one week, although Chicago is quite cold now - compared to our 45-50 F weather here in Detmold, that is. I wish it would snow here, though. Cold or semi-cold weather is only acceptable to me if it's beautiful, and honestly, winter rain isn't all that aesthetically pleasing. This coming week, I have lots of Schubert Quintet rehearsals, little errands to run, an apartment to scrub, and packing/list-making to do, not to mention the usual practicing and German lessons. It will be busy, but satisfying, as I like closure before I travel somewhere. The little things in life :)

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Ich bin ein Berliner

Yes, Kennedy did say that. No, it doesn't only mean "I am a donut" - it also means "I'm from Berlin" :) This is a bit overdue, but nevertheless...here's the trip to Berlin in a nutshell. Frederika and I left on Friday night, November 24, after her cello class concert and my German class, and we arrived in Berlin around 11:30 PM. We spent most of the time on the train looking through the Lonely Planet, picking out museums and whatnot that sounded interesting. Her friend, Peter (a violinist, grew up in Antwerp with her) met us at the train platform and then it was onto the next task of finding Alex (an American working in a neuroscience lab in Vienna - a friend of Amelia's. I'd never met him before). It's a bit tricky looking for someone whom you don't even know. Thankfully, he found us and we all walked back to Peter's apartment, where we'd be staying for the weekend. He lives on Perleberger Strasse, which is only a 15 minute walk from the central train station, and about 250 meters from where once stood the wall dividing east and west. We shared some Berliner beers and stayed up just getting to know each other a bit, and then completely passed out at around 1:30 AM. Peter slept at his girlfriend Laura's place - also a violinist, originally Dutch but grew up in Germany (Hamburg). It was nice that he let us have his place all weekend On Saturday, we woke up early, made breakfast, and headed out to our first museum near Potsdamer Platz - the Neue National Gallerie. The whole first floor was an architectural exhibit and the basement floor was the actual art gallery. It is known for it late 19th and early 20th century paintings, and while I liked many of the paintings I saw - some Matisses, Kokoschkas (Oskar Kokoschka, that is - he was a great Viennese Expressionist painter who had a love affair with Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler's wife - she had MANY a love affair, read her diary - it's better than any soap opera today), a few Picassos, and some really incredibly sculptures. But overall, the collection was a bit too scattered and would jump from epoch to epoch too quickly. I was glad to see everything though. We then walked around Berlin and saw many of the sights that I'd already seen but were nevertheless still interesting - the Palast der Republik (the former parliamentry building for the DDR, or the East German government), the Reichstag (the famous parliamentry building, still in sessions - it's often associated with Hitler's administration but was in use long before then), Brandenburger Tor (an impressive arch that is one of Berlin's most famous symbol), the Holocaust Memorial (consisting of coffin-like gray blocks that rise and fall at different lengths in a big city-field of granite stone), bits and pieces of the Berlin Wall everywhere still left standing, and much more. We also strolled through Tiergarten Park (Berlin's Central Park ) and had loads of delicious street foods - pretzels, donner sandwiches (mine was vegetarian, of course ), roasted peanuts, and even stopped at a lousy Dunkin Donuts just to make Alex happy (apparently he misses them a lot). Afterwards, Alex and Frederika went to the Judisches Museum, or the Jewish Museum. Of course, it has a large section dedicated to the Holocaust, but there’s also an interesting exhibit on medieval Jewish life in Germany. I visited it the last time I was in Berlin, so I chose to view the outdoor exhibit of Checkpoint Charlie (the crossing point between East and West Berlin - so all foreigners had to go through here. It was and still is one of the most vivid images from the Cold War). There were panels of information in both English and German about Checkpoint Charlie, the Cold War, all around where it used to operate. The whole idea of a massive international city being completely isolated and divided for more than 50 years is fascinating to me...and the fact that it’s only been 15 years is even more fascinating, considering that Germany still manages to have the third largest economy in the world, behind America and Japan. I think that says something about the resilience and strength of this country. I sat in a beautiful art café called Atelier - in German, it means “studio,” and that’s what it was...an art studio in the back, café in the front. It was just my sort of place :) Frederika, Alex, and I took the train back to Peter’s apartment, where Alex took a quick run (he’s quite the disciplined runner) and then we all headed out to Hackescher Tor, or Berlin’s “SoHo” neighborhood. Laura, Peter’s Dutch girlfriend, met up with us and we ate dinner at a chic-chic pan-Asian/fusion restaurant...the sort of place to see and be seen. It was really nice food - the first decent meal I’ve had in Germany in a restaurant. Afterwards, we sat in a fantastic bar until about 3 AM, just drinking and talking. It was literally a hole in the wall, with hardly any lighting, dark wood, and a great stash of liquor. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The next morning, we woke up at 10 AM, after waking up at 7 AM automatically. Gotta love biorhythm. Alex decided to do his own thing so he departed to sit in a Starbucks and read for awhile. Frederika and I embarked on a walking tour from West Berlin (starting on Kuf rstendamm, or Ku’damm as it’s known) to East Berlin. We walked along a stretch near Tiergarten Park where many international embassies were located - we spotted India, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, and the construction site for Saudi Arabia. We walked through East Berlin, including a very interesting old costume shop-turned second hand store, and then ended up at Alexander Platz and Nikolai Viertel (or the former east German government’s attempt to recreate a medieval German village in the middle of Berlin...not an entirely failed experiment, it’s actually really nice). By this time, it was about 4 PM and we decided to go to one more museum for the weekend - the Gemeldegalerie. It was one of the most beautiful European museums I’ve seen, with a specialization in 13th-18th century art. What struck me most was their Flemish art collection, and so being with Frederika was great, as she’s Flemish and knows loads about art history. They had some beautiful Boticelli paintings as well, and Albrecht D rer paintings. D rer was a mathematician, philosopher, and artist - something of a German Da Vinci. He was especially known for his work with prints. We sadly only had 2 hours there, but it was a completely worth-the-7-Euros 2 hours visit. Frederika and I enjoyed espresso in an elegant café and then headed over to Herbert von Karajan Konzerthaus where the Berliner Philharmoniker performs. We geared up for a performance by the Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester of Berlin (the former East Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra) of Aribert Reimann’s “Wolkenloses Christfest” or a requiem for baritone, cello, and orchester, with the text by Otfried B the. It was interesting - I liked the music a lot, and I thought that Reimann really understood orchestration techniques well. But the text was depressing...we were not given a libretto which was a bit annoying (I need one even when I listen to singing in English), but from what I could understand of it (which was a fair amount), it was dark and old-fasioned. The second half of the concert was a performance of Sergei Chatschatrjan, the most recent winner of Belgium’s prestigious Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition, performing Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto. It blew me out of the water. I mean, he’s a young violinist who will continue to develop...but for how old he is (I think maybe 21-22), his interpretation was soulful and real. I think we’ll hear more about him in time to come...or so I hope. Too many times, young people win competitions and then after a few years, they disappear from the music world...sort of “one-hit-wonders” in classical music. Laura had played in the orchestra, so we waited for her and then headed to a pub in the nearby Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz. We ordered drinks and food and were subsequently joined by a horn player (I forget his name) who also played in the orchestra - he was Austrian but spoke great English (like most people out here). I insisted that he speak German, though, as I need to get used to speaking with native speakers and not just the foreigners who are my friends. We headed home at around 1 AM, and were asleep by 2 AM. I had to wake up at 4:30 AM to make sure that Alex caught his cab to the airport for a 6:15 flight...we then slept in until 7 AM, and then rose to catch our train back to Detmold. Overall, a supremely lovely trip. I highly recommend Berlin to anyone who wants to be in a city that’s the perfect mixture of modern and old. Berlin isn’t beautiful like pristine Paris or stately London, but it’s so interesting, and the vibe there just can’t be beat. Maybe I’ll live there some day :-)