Warning! This post is pretty depressing! If you aren't in a mood to hear about the Auschwitz death camp, skip to the pretty pictures of Krakow at dusk at the end.

For everyone else, the second day of our trip to Poland in late April was dedicated to making the hour-and-a-half trip out of Krakow to Auschwitz. Visiting a death camp is, of course, anything but fun - however, seeing as we were living in Germany, where the memory and lessons of the Holocaust live on today, we knew it was a trip we had to make. 

Auschwitz took shape in 1940, although the mass killings of Jews didn't begin until the second, larger Auschwitz-Birkenau compound was completed nearby in 1942. By the time the two camps closed in 1945, they had claimed the lives of nearly 1.5 million victims. 

The crowd of tourists at the original, older Auschwitz camp was overwhelming, so we started our visit at the second camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz-Birkenau had worse living conditions (think little water and plenty of rats) and was also the location of the gas chambers. The place is enormous - by the time we had completed our walking tour of the grounds, we had trekked about 7 miles over the course of 2 hours.

The infamous entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau, known as the Death Gate. Trains with windowless cattle cars crammed with prisoners passed through the gate and left carrying nothing except goods stolen from inmates. For some, the train ride lasted 7 or even 10 days. No food was provided, and many perished before even reaching Auschwitz

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Nearly exactly one month earlier, in March, I had already visited and thoroughly photographed both Warsaw and Poznan. But I wasn't quite ready to be done with Poland - the country's biggest tourism draw, the city of Krakow, was on my itinerary in late April. I had planned a visit with two American friends, and it would be my 2nd-to-last trip away from Germany before my program came to end with a huge two-week blitz through six European countries!

But back to Poland. I hopped on a bus in April and cruised from Berlin to the Polish city of Wrocław, where I spent a short couple of hours before continuing on to Krakow. Wrocław, Poland's fourth largest city, feels like more of a humble student town than anything, but it hosts one of Europe's biggest market squares, which is where I spent all of my time. The city belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, the Austrian Empire, Prussia and Germany before finally becoming Polish in 1945. Its name is also incredibly difficult to pronounce - phonetically, it looks something like "VROH-ts-wahv." Good luck.

Wrocław has recovered well from World War II, as it was nearly 70% destroyed after the Germans unsuccessfully tried to fight off Soviet attacks for five months in 1945. Let's take a look at how pretty the city center looks these days.

The market square was first built up in 1241

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Berlin has a grungy side. Sure, the massive Unter den Linden and sky-high TV Tower and bustling Potsdamer Platz provide all the highlights of a gleaming metropolis one would expect, but should you get under the city's skin, you can find all kinds of unexpected sights. 

It's no surprise that a city as rapidly changing as Berlin has a fairly large number of abandoned structures. Industries evolve, businesses fail, and investors come and go... and along the way, buildings are forgotten and left to rot. This has happened enough times that there is an entire blog named Abandoned Berlin dedicated to the subject. Its author has dedicated himself to visiting and photographing any empty husks still standing in the city. After having seen the Brandenburg Gate one too many times, my friends and I decided that reading Abandoned Berlin wasn't enough, and we headed to a (safe, accessible) structure that he documented in one of his posts. Sarah and I had already visited an abandoned train station before, so we even had some relevant experience under our belts.

Our destination was an abandoned swimming pool complex that opened in 1985 and closed in 2005. Some day it will all be torn down and turned into fancy new apartments. But until then, Berlin's urban exploration enthusiasts are visiting it on the daily just to see, photograph, or graffiti the interior. The entire area was hardly even fenced off - anyone can walk right in, and lots of normal, curious people (even entire families) were doing just that when we arrived, which is why we stuck with our plan to check the place out.

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May 9th, 2015: My third and final day in Budapest, Hungary was upon me. I woke up bright and early, short on sleep but in high spirits. That didn't last long, as I made a beeline for a decidedly un-cheery museum: the House of Terror.

Although today it's an powerful, informational museum, the house at 60 Andrássy Boulevard once housed Hungary's version of the Gestapo during the Nazi occupation and thereafter communist Hungary's secret police. Hundreds of victims were imprisoned and executed in the building's basement, both Jews and suspected enemies of whichever government was in power. 

The overhang casts a shadow outline of the word "TERROR" on the ground

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The month was May, and I woke up in a tiny hostel in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Day two of my trip began with free breakfast at the hostel (always a highlight) and then a visit to St. István’s Basilica, Budapest's largest church. In my previous post, I mentioned that St. István was Hungary's first Catholic king and harbored a penchant for gruesome violence wholly unbefitting of a saint. But hey, at least his church looks cool. 

Construction started in the mid-1800s but took five decades in all. The church is still tied with the Parliament for the title of tallest building in town

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It was early May, and I was ready to escape Berlin and take another ridiculously long and cheap bus ride in the dead of night (departure was 2 a.m.) to another new and exciting city... this time, my destination was Budapest, Hungary! I went not only since everyone who goes comes back with good reviews, but also because I was able to meet up with my USC friend Catherine, who was studying abroad there, each night to enjoy the nightlife. 

I had my trusty Rick Steves guidebook, of course. From Rick, I learned everything important there is to know about Hungary and its capital city on the Danube. This very unique nation is populated almost completely by Magyars, who came over from central Asia and settled down here over thousand years ago. Their golden age came in the late 1800s, when Hungary and Austria ruled together over the massive, powerful Austro-Hungarian empire. Then came a major defeat with World War I, and Hungary lost half of its population and two thirds of its territory. But, despite the destruction of WWII and the cruel reign of the Soviets that lasted until 1989, the capital city is still full of impressive and ornate buildings built during the late 19th century, when Hungary was at its zenith of power, size, and influence. The city is like a giant, grand exercise in nostalgia. 

The Magyars (Hungarians) are also unique because they speak one of the toughest languages out there. Its difficulty is compounded by the fact that it has no close linguistic relatives today! Needless to say, I did not pick up much Hungarian.

Anyway, enough of that. On to the photos!

I started out on the west side of the river, the Buda side. This photo was taken from the Pest side of the river looking towards the Royal Palace on the Buda side, where I planned to spend the afternoon. In case it's not immediately clear to you, Buda + Pest = Budapest

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With one day down, my Easter weekend trip to Amsterdam was already half over. No matter - an art museum, bike ride, and tour through the Red Light District was definitely doable in one day! I had done more in less time before, after all. 

First stop of the day - the Rijksmuseum, the largest museum in the Netherlands

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The Easter holiday in early April meant an extra long weekend away from work, so it was a chance not to be missed - my friend and fellow Berliner Amy and I knew we had to travel somewhere, and AMSTERDAM was our selected destination!

We stuck to my preferred cost-effective method of travel: overnight bus. The 9-hour ride there was a little less comfortable than usual, though, since the bus had no bathroom and I had to sit next to a stranger who wound up falling asleep on my shoulder. To top it off, we arrived early in Amsterdam... at 4:45 am, an hour before the first train into the city. This was going to be a long day. 

But after the trip's inauspicious start, things quickly got better as we headed into the city and joined a walking tour. We learned that Amsterdam started out as a humble fishing village in the 12th century before becoming a hugely important port city home to many wealthy merchants.  The famous canals were dug in the 17th century for water management and defense purposes. Although almost half of them have been filled in over the years, the city still boasts 65 miles of waterways, most of which are lined by expensive canal houses.

The Beurs van Berlage, built at the turn of the 20th century, was once the home of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, which is the oldest stock market in the world

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Unique, underground, alternative, exhilarating... even dangerous: all are words that pertain to the activity that is the subject of this post! How exciting! The activity in question? Urban exploring (urbex) - the exploration of man-made structures, particularly abandoned ones. Having seen urbex photography online for years and years, I finally got a chance to try my hand with it on one Saturday afternoon in late March, when my good friend Sarah led me to an abandoned S-Bahn (commuter train) station in Berlin called Siemensstadt. 

Siemensstadt is named for the behemoth of a company that is known as Siemens. Siemens was founded in Berlin during the city's industrial heyday in the 1800s (a while back I wrote here about how important industry used to be for the city). In 1897, the firm opened a big complex of worker housing, administrative offices, equipment plants, and factories in northwest Berlin, and the area came to be known as Siemensstadt (Siemens City). The commuter train line that we were visiting was built in 1927 to ferry Siemens workers who did not live in the area to the big Siemensstadt campus. The tracks largely survived WWII, but the Siemensstadt line met its end in 1980. At that point, an East German rail authority was still running all of Berlin's S-Bahn commuter trains, even the ones on the other side of the wall in West Berlin (such as the Siemensstadt line). West Berliners, not keen on financially supporting the oppressive East German government by purchasing train fares for the S-Bahn, boycotted the S-Bahn system. Between the boycott and a train worker strike, that was that - close to half of the S-Bahn lines in Berlin were shuttered, including the line that served Siemensstadt station. Today, both the S-Bahn trains and Siemens workers remain absent from Siemensstadt. It was the perfect spooky setting for us to do some exploring!

Our first look at the former station

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On that weekend in late March, I wasn't done with my trip through Poland after just Poznan - I had all of Sunday to see Warsaw. But first, I had to get there.

After spending Saturday in Poznan, I went to the very outskirts of town to catch a late-night bus from there to the Polish capital. But I found that the bus station was completely boarded up and closed, so I had to brave the below-freezing weather for an hour at 11 pm before the bus finally showed up and I folded myself into my tiny seat. Then we were off, and we arrived in Warsaw early... which, in this case, was not good news for me, since it meant we were there at 4:15 am and I had managed to get about 4.5 hours of sleep. Traveling by bus is certainly not glamorous! But for 7 euros, it did the job. I shook off my tiredness and set out into the city at about 7 am. 

Warsaw, population 1.7 million, has been the capital of Poland since 1596. During World War II, the entire city was nearly completely (over 85%) destroyed by the Nazis, particularly during a bout of retaliatory bombing after a major uprising in the city 1944. But Warsaw and its residents have risen from the ashes and rebuilt the metropolis on the banks of the Vistula River. 

Warsaw's most striking building is not its most beloved by a long shot. The Palace of Culture and Science was commissioned by Stalin as a gift from the Soviet people and was inspired by the Empire State Building. It was built in the early 1950s, and 16 Soviet workers died in the process. It is still the tallest building in all of Poland

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As promised, I'm picking the blog back up now that I'm safely back home in Lake Forest, California! I have a lot of traveling behind me - I finished my stay in Berlin and whizzed off to Croatia, Montenegro, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and then Germany one last time before crossing the Atlantic. I capped the entire year off with an exhilarating 10-day stay with my sister in New York City. It was a whirlwind, but I meticulously documented it all in thousands of photos. I also added all the cities I visited on my Travel Map. Eventually, way down the line, I will have at least one blog post for every point on that map... so keep stopping by!

But for now, it's back to playing catch-up. On one Thursday afternoon in late March, my supervisor at Kompakt Medien (where I was interning) suddenly gave me the next day off work. Determined to not let this 3-day weekend go to waste, I planned a last-minute trip in record time and left the very next day. My destination? Poland! The first of the two cities that I visited was Poznan.

Poznan was definitely one of the most humble places I visited this year. But Poland's 5th-largest city still had a charming historical center that kept me entertained for a day. Poznan is also one of the oldest cities in the country, as its development first began in the 10th century!

Retro neon signs from the 1960s still adorn some buildings, such as the Philharmonic

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Time is ticking - the end of my year in Germany has been rapidly approaching and is now only one week away. I look forward to going home and seeing friends and family, but I will always miss my second home (unless I manage to come back someday!). 

In another sign of how close the conclusion of it all is, all program participants just attended our end-of-year seminar here in Berlin. It was a fun, action-packed week filled with meeting the American ambassador to Germany, discussing our experiences with each other, and meeting many very important German politicians. Among them: a number of members of the Bundestag (the German parliament), President of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert (his American equivalent would be John Boener), and... FRAU DOKTOR ANGELA MERKEL, Chancellor of Germany! That's right. She spoke to all 320 participants in the CBYX program and told us she was a fan of the work we were doing here in Germany. Seeing the most powerful woman in the world was an unforgettable moment!

Earlier that week, I joined up with two American and two German participants to give a presentation on a pilot project we had participated in that brings our exchange program's participants on both sides of the Atlantic together. Our group's topic was Civic Participation and Democracy, and after several months of discussions about our perceptions of the nature of political involvement in Germany and the U.S., we carried out a survey to see what Germans and Americans at large thought. I mapped out our results in an infographic here. Check it out, we had some really interesting results! And if you filled out the survey, thank you. It made for some great material for our presentation, which was done via videoconference with our counterparts in Washington, D.C. and attended by the CEO of my exchange program's parent organization, fellow program participants, and officials from the Bundestag, U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. 

In two weeks I jet off with a friend from home for a two-week trip through Europe. We will be stopping in Croatia, Montenegro, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. After that, I spend over a week in New York City with my sister. Pictures from those destinations, as well as from my trips to Amsterdam, Poland, and Budapest, will all be uploaded... eventually. After this post, I am going to take a break from blogging for three weeks in order to plan and enjoy the very last bit of my time here in Europe. 

And so, I say Auf Wiedersehen for now. Check back in a month or so as I rapidly bring this blog up to date!

The U.S. Embassy's photo of us with Chancellor Merkel. I'm ten rows back, right of center

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Ah, it's good to live in the German capital. Fascinating sights, great events, plenty of parks, tons of nightlife, diverse neighborhoods, cheap prices, lots of interesting history... the list goes on and on. Not to mention that the country's best and most famous tourist attractions are all here. Among them: the German Reichstag, or Parliament building. And since it's just a subway ride away from me, I found myself there not once but twice within the space of a few days in late February. Two different American friends visiting me in Berlin meant two different trips for twice the amount of photos! 

The Reichstag is topped by this striking glass and steel dome

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With the internship phase of my program nearing its end, I've fully settled into the full-time working life here in Berlin and resigned myself to only the occasional trip outside the country. Unfortunately, that means I have "only" been to Poznan, Warsaw, Krakow, Amsterdam, Budapest, and Münster ever since I returned from Rome and started my internship in early March.

No matter, I've been keeping myself busy, in part by resuming my highly promising handball career! After my first handball course at my university was agonizingly cut short due to the closure of the university gym, I had to make do without the physical, funky basketball-soccer mashup of a sport in my life. Until recently, that is - in Germany, a new university semester began late last month, and so a new weekly handball course at a different gym started up along with it! I came back in style, scoring several goals my first night back out on the court. I can't wait to bring my talents up to the big leagues. 

And now, time to escape from the Alltag (daily routine) and time-travel back to late Febraury, when I was still in the land of my forefathers: Rome, Italy. My American friend Leah and I were wrapping up our brief blitz through Rome with a day at the Vatican, the world's smallest country, followed by a short trip to the Jewish district.

But first, some pictures I forgot to include in my post about our second day in Rome. This is another look at the Temple of Saturn, the oldest sacred place in rome (it was dedicated in 497 BC but later rebuilt)

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The month is February 2015, and today was the big day - I was going to see Coliseum! My friend Leah and I were in Rome for the second day of our three-day trip and we couldn't wait to see the famous ancient landmark. But first, why not stop at one of Rome's most impressive churches?

This is Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, first built in 432. Check out that gilded Renaissance ceiling

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Ah, Rome.... a huge, magnificent urban jungle peppered with innumerable churches and pleasant piazzas and formidable ancient ruins. Maybe I'm biased since Italy is the land of (some of) my forefathers, but my February trip to the Italian capital has been my favorite excursion yet. As an added bonus, I got some truly fantastic photos while there!

I went with my USC friend Leah, who was visiting me for a week. We had already spent a little time looking around Berlin in the previous days. Then, two days before our flight for Rome, I suddenly came down with a high fever.  I quickly tried to recover, but of course on the eve of our flight I was not 100% healthy, even though I was no longer feverish. Despite the disapproval of my two host parents, we made the call to just go for it and not cancel our Rome trip, as that would have been prohibatively expensive. Luckily, I didn't get any sicker while in Rome, although I also didn't fully recover. I do not recommend traveling sick! However, I survived, and we still managed to go full speed and see all the major sights in two and a half days.

Armed with Rick Steves' guide to Rome, we hit the ground running right after our arrival, starting out at a quintessentially Roman sight - a church in a former ancient Roman bath house!

And here it is – the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The church has been around  ever since the year 1561, which is when Michelangelo helped out with the transformation from ancient bath house to house of God. The structure itself is the former main hall of the Baths of Diocletian, which dates to the fourth century!

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After a long period of radio silence, this blog is back! Lots has changed since the last post in late February - I have seen exciting new places, traveled to exciting new cities, and met exciting new Germans. 

What's less exciting is that I now work full-time, but that's just fine, since what I do is interesting. For the final months of my time here in Germany, I will be an intern at Kompakt Medien, a PR firm that works mainly with the German federal governmental ministries. So although I do not have an internship in Merkel's office, I still find myself working directly on political and social issues - just the way I like it. 

One of the topics I have been most occupied with is education. Germany's education system is radically different from America's. When Germans kids are about middle school age, they are split off and sent down three separate tracts. Students in the highest tract complete the most rigorous high school curriculum and are permitted to go on and study at university. The middle tract's students undergo the 2nd-most intense academic curriculum and go into less academic, more professional trades like business and accounting. 

The third, least rigorous tract involves the least time in the classroom. The students in this third tract often must choose a future career and complete an Ausbildung, or a dual training program consisting of part-time school and part-time work, when they are still high-school age. There are 330 different careers they can choose from, such as plumber to interior designer to glassblower to graphic designer to tugboat driver to street paver to baker to upholsterer to watch maker and everything in between. The point of this third tract is to get students who are not keen on university or spending too much time languishing in a classroom out into the field so they can gain real-world experience. Of course, it comes with the downside that they receive less traditional classroom instruction than their peers, and that they have to choose a career fairly early in their life. But the upside is that they are very well-trained and employable.

However, many Germans try to avoid this third tract and instead strive to do the highest tract - remember, the one that qualifies you to attend college later on? This is because university graduates, of course, wind up getting the highest-paying jobs, and everyone wants one of those. But there are only so many university spots available (especially since public universities are all free), and the world still needs plumbers and interior designers and glass blowers and graphic designers and tugboat drivers and street pavers and bakers and upholsterers and watch makers. The upper tract is getting overcrowded, and the third tract is not attracting enough students, a problem compounded by Germany's shrinking population. So, more German students need to choose to do an Ausbildung! At Kompakt Medien, I'm trying to help the Federal Ministry of Education and Research get the message out that an Ausbildung can pave the way to a successful and interesting career. So, if you're reading this, and you are a young German student uncertain about the future, I encourage you to do an Ausbildung!

Anyway, I have a life outside of my internship as well. I have been traveling to Poland, Amsterdam, and Rome as well as meeting with old American university friends. These pictures will all be up soon. In the meantime, here's a few random pictures from a few weeks ago.

Amy is another participant in the program. We’ve been friends since our days in Cologne, and she has now moved from Frankfurt to Berlin to complete her internship. Welcome to Berlin, Amy! What better way to welcome her other than stand in front of the famous Berlin Wall mural of a kiss between Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and East German General Secretary Erich Honecker? 

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After some time away from Berlin in Frankfurt, Nuremberg, and Austria, it was time for me to return and take more shots of my home city, Berlin. One fine sunny Sunday, my host dad and I resolved we couldn't let the excellent weather go to waste and headed out to nearby Potsdam. Potsdam is the capital city of the German state that surrounds Berlin, Brandenburg, and plays host to a number of famous, picturesque castles.

We hopped in the car and drove out. That in itself was fairly unusual, since Berliners almost always use public transportation to get anywhere. Not everyone has a car, and those who do have a very hard time finding a parking place. But in any case, we arrived and walked around a few hours as I snapped away.

Just like Berlin, Potsdam also has a Brandenburg Gate, built in 1770

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I whizzed down the hill towards the town in the valley below, the wind rushing by me and the sun glinting off the snow. I couldn't believe it - I was skiing in the Alps! This month, February, has been full of exciting adventures in new places. Let's start at the beginning, when I went on a little ski vacation with my host family.

My host family's destination was the idyllic ski town of Saalbach-Hinterglemm, nestled high in the picturesque Austrian Alps.  They were nice enough to let me come along on their family vacation, stay in their apartment that they were renting, and give me the train tickets to Saalbach as a Christmas present. I'm going to be eternally grateful that I was able to go - the whole week was a ton of fun! I got some high-quality skiing time in and I was able to truly immerse myself in German, as  I was completely surrounded by German speakers day and night.

After waking up at 4 am and traveling for 12 straight hours, we made it to the twin towns of Saalbach-Hinterglemm, population 2,800. We got right down to business and hit the slopes the next morning. We had 200 km (124 miles) of slope to choose from, so we got real busy real fast trying to see it all.

I remembered how to ski from my first ski trip in California and I picked it up again no problem. I was thankful for that, since there were remarkably few beginners on the slopes - I got the feeling everyone there had basically grown up on skis. 

I was also probably the only American on the whole slope - not once did I hear anyone speak English with an American accent. I did, however, hear a lot of Austrians speaking "German" - and wow, they really have a strange accent. They sound like they are intentionally mispronouncing words to make them sound as funny as possible, so depending on how strong their accent is, I was at times  barely able to recognize it as German, much less understand it.

The weather was perfect when we were there! We almost always had clear blue skies, and the temperature never dropped below 14 degrees Fahrenheit even though we were 2000 meters (66000 feet) up. I just had to ski with my camera so I could record the crazy views of the Alps that we were getting.

On the train ride there, we had a transfer in Zell am See, a town on this beautiful lake

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January 24, 2015, 8:00 am: my first and last evening in Nuremberg was behind me, and the clock was ticking - I had just 7 hours in the town before my bus left, and there was a lot to see. It was time to do some efficient sightseeing, which just happens to be a specialty of mine.

Nuremberg is certainly associated with imperial history in the 14th to 16th centuries, but more recently, it also earned a designation of a less savory character - in the 1930s to 1940s, this city became extremely important to the National Socialist Party, or the Nazis. Nuremberg was especially appealing to Hitler and the Nazis due to the city's importance in the glorious time of the Holy Roman Empire and its position close to the center of Germany. In 1933, Hitler made Nuremberg the site of his yearly Nazi Party Rallies, which became huge celebrations of Nazi culture, ideology, and power that took place for the next six years. It was during these rallies where much of the infamous footage of Nazi supporters hailing the Führer were filmed. And at the 1935 rallies, the first laws stripping Jews of their citizenship were drafted. 

Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, had designed enormous buildings to host the Nazi Party Rallies, but a shortage of funds once war broke out meant many of these projects were either abandoned or only half completed. Today, these gigantic ruins from the Nazi era stand witness to the Nazi regime's deluded notion of grandeur, and they were my first stop that morning. 

The Nazi Party grounds occupy four square miles behind this building, a Nazi structure that now houses a museum. In a design laden with symbolic meaning, the modern metal and glass structural additions slice straight through the preexisting Nazi building

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After my seminar in Frankfurt, I wasn't ready to head back up north to Berlin just yet. Instead, I hopped on a bus for 3 hours and arrived in Nuremberg, which, with a population of 510,000, is Bavaria's second-biggest city (after Munich, of course). The city was around as early as 1050, and to this day it still has a charming Old Town with lots of impressive medieval architecture. 

Of course, much of the Old Town was destroyed in WWII, mainly during an Allied bombing on January 2, 1945, which flattened the city and killed 6,000 people. The destruction was amplified in April of the same year, when U.S. infantry troops fought block-by-block against German fighters to capture the city. When the dust settled, over 90% of the town had been destroyed, which makes it the only German city hit worse than Dresden. But today, there is little hint of that destructive past, and I found the town extremely interesting and fun to explore. I had less than 24 hours to spend there, so I got the sightseeing action started right away when I arrived and photographed late into the night.

Ninety percent, or three miles, of Nuremberg's medieval city walls still stand. You can also still see the city's old moat (I am standing above it, on street level, and the grass and path are in the moat), which was never filled

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Last month, I had to get away from it all in Berlin and thus headed south to Frankfurt! No, I really did have to - my exchange program's mid-year seminar was on the agenda, and all 75 American participants were required to train into Frankfurt so we could discuss our experiences and reflect on the past half-year. While a week of discussions and lectures may not sound like a lot of fun, it was actually a great experience and I was happy I could reconnect and catch up with all my other American friends in the program.

The first few days were a whirlwind, and it all started with the downright depressing news I shared in my last post. But being able to spend some time during our first few nights together in a beer hall and Irish pub picked our spirits right back up. On the business side of things, during the daytime, we heard more and more about each other's experiences. We rated our current overall mood, and I'm happy to report that everyone rated themselves either happy or (like me) very happy - we had no neutral or negative ratings! It was good to see my compatriots are enjoying Germany like I am. I also learned some interesting tidbits about what some other program participants are going through:

• One participant has had to move a total of four times already, due to being shuffled between temporary housing arrangements (as a reminder, I have moved once)
• One participant lives in a host family that consists of eight children, two parents, and two nannies
• One participant shares an apartment with a 55-year-old and a 65-year-old retiree. Both roommates are German and have an entire large drawer in the kitchen dedicated full-time to the storage of potatoes, a staple of the German diet
• One participant's host family, as it turns out, are members of the radical right-wing, anti-Islamic PEGIDA movement that has been making negative headlines lately and whose ideas are almost universally deplored throughout the country as being intolerant and racist. Oops.

These, of course, were just the interesting anomalies. Almost every participant, including me of course, has not had to deal with any such challenges or unique living situations. 

Despite the goings-on at the seminar, I still managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of picture-taking, of course.

It was my second time walking around Frankfurt's Old Town. The first was way back in August

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Just two weekends ago, my French and Greek friend and I decided that it was time to head to the excellent Jewish Museum here in Berlin. During our marathon 4-hour visit, we learned thousands of years of Jewish history, with a particular focus on the Holocaust. What made me particularly happy was that the modern architecture was stark but impressive, and thus made for some nice photos.

 

Blue skies have become a bit of a rarity these days 

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Unfortunately, I have some bad news to report. My exchange program, the Congress-Bundestag Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX), is in peril! They are facing major budget cuts in the coming years. Not good!

CBYX is a intercultural exchange program funded by the American Congress and German Bundestag (their parliament). The goal is to make the important relationship between the German and American people tighter by exchanging hundreds of participants each year, who then act as "citizen ambassadors" and get engaged in their new country. The best part for us participants is that nearly everything is paid for: the flights, living with a host family, public transportation, discounts on trains within Germany - this has allowed people of all walks of life with wildly different careers take part in this special year-long experience. For some, it is their first trip abroad; for others like me, it is our first time living abroad and thereby getting firsthand experience in a new culture.

The program is now in its 31st year. In addition to the approximately 700 high school participants, there are 75 German "young professionals" in the U.S and 75 American "young professionals" (including me, of course) here in Germany. You can click the "About CBYX" tab in the ribbon at the top of every webpage on this blog to read more about the details of the program.

The problem: the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which is responsible for our program, received a big budget cut. More specifically, HALF of our program's budget is gone, starting next year. That means half as many participants as this year will be able to have this amazing learning experience! Thankfully, the Germans have miraculously come to the rescue and agreed to make up the funds for next year. But for the year after that, the program will really be in serious trouble if the budget is not restored.

Please help us save our program and thereby strengthen relations with one of our strongest, closest, and most important allies. We have a website up where you can simply sign our petition: http://savecbyx.org/

Thank you!

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After that thrilling journey to Vilnius, we can finally return to the country we all care most about - Germany! The weekend after my return from Lithuania, my "Cultural Orientation to Berlin" class had our last educational field trip - this time, to one of the most up-and-coming, "trendy" areas of Berlin: Kreuzberg.

I, unfortunately, do not live in this trendy quarter. It's about a half-hour subway ride from my berth here in Friedenau, which I have already mentioned is more of a peaceful place for families. Kreuzberg, however, is traditionally known as the prime example of Berlin's ethnic diversity and the center of the city's Turkish immigrant population. Kreuzberg still has the highest percentage (about 30%) of foreign-born residents anywhere in the city. But lately, it has come to represent the "scene culture" and is now considered a hotbed of gentrification. The Turkish supermarkets and döner stores (but not all, since everyone is a fan of the Turkish delicacy) are heading out, and the hipster-looking bars and cafes catering to a young, artsy student crowd are coming in. 

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Back with more reportage from my trip to Lithuania! After sleeping at our cheap but cozy hostel, we set out to enjoy our final 12 hours in the city.

In the last post I brought up the Užupis Republic, which is sort of like an unofficial city of artists within the city of Vilnius. This statue is their guardian angel

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Finally back with updates and more wonderful pictures! Last week, I was in Frankfurt for a CBYX (my exchange program) seminar, and stopped in Nuremberg for a day on my way home. But don't worry, those will both be subjects of their own blog posts.

I'm happy to announce that, as required by my program, I have found a 6-month internship related to my career interests! I will be working at Kompakt Medien, a PR and communications firm in Berlin that focuses on political issues and works mainly with the German federal ministries. I'm fairly relieved to have finally found a position - I applied and interviewed for internship spots exclusively in German, which was a great learning process but very taxing and time-consuming. 

Now, getting back to the pictures: this time, from the Lithuanian capital city of Vilnius! My American friend Tony and I wanted to get off the beaten path and visit a country neither of us had ever seen before. After finding a decently priced bus ticket, Vilnius became our destination! And after the 18-hour ride, we finally arrived safely.

Time to think about geography - where exactly is Lithuania? Well, it's the southern- and eastern-most of the three Baltic States in north-eastern Europe, and it even borders a chunk of Russia. So it is quite far removed from comfy Western Europe. Despite their relative geographical remoteness, all three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) are European Union members. And on January 1, 2015, Lithuania became the last Baltic State and  19th European state to adopt the Euro currency. 

What day were Tony and I in Lithuania? January 2! So just the day before, Lithuanians had seen the introduction of the Euro in their country. It was an exciting time to be there, and all the prices were in both Litas (the old currency) as well as Euros. But the best part was that the prices were CHEAP, cheaper than you could ever imagine! Lithuania is probably going to be the cheapest country I'll visit all year. What a great decision it was to go to Vilnius!

Ever since gaining independence in 1990, Lithuania has been doing quite well for itself. As a city, Vilnius is known for being vibrant, open, and forward-looking with spectacularly clean tap water and some of the fastest internet speeds in the world to boot. It is located near the geographical center of Europe, has a population of 540,000, and has well-preserved Old Town architecture that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. As far as personal observations, Tony and I found that it is not at all touristy, and any tourists we did see running around were not speaking English. It was a wholly different but neat environment! 

Tony and I only had 36 hours to experience the city, so we got right to work. We had a, shall we say, neutral start: right off the bat, a passing car splashed us with water from a puddle and we had to navigate down some treacherously icy hills by foot (which Tony, who has experienced Polish and Nebraskan winters, did with significantly more ease than me). But it got much better from there.

This is the Ensemble of St. Anne and Bernardine Church. The Church of St. Anne is the Gothic-styled one on the left, and it has survived the past 500 years without any changes 

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This is it, the one and only... Neuschwanstein! Germany's most famous castle! One of the country's most wildly popular tourist magnets, Neuschwanstein is just 2 hours by train outside of Munich. So, early on my last day in Munich during my post-Christmas trip last month, I hopped on a Deutsche Bahn train headed for the castle.

What I would eventually see later that day - the front of Neuschwanstein Castle!

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And now, back to my post-Christmas trip to Munich, in the German state of Bavaria! Day two of my trip was action-packed and full of amazing sights that made for tons of especially cool photographs that I am excited to share with you. Let's get started!

I specifically made sure that I was in a good photo-taking spot at dusk. I definitely succeeded! More photos from this vantage point below

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Shortly after the Christmas festivities with my host family in Berlin came to an end, I headed 360 miles south to Germany's largest (in terms of geography) state, Bavaria, and its capital city of Munich. When you think of some typical German products and traditions, you may in fact be thinking of things that originated in Bavaria - particularly beer gardens, Lederhosen, BMW, and Oktoberfest. Therefore, Germans often complain that when foreigners think about Germany, they really think about Bavaria. Don't make that mistake! Keep following this blog to get to know the non-Bavarian parts of Germany.

Bavarians don't have a ton of fans elsewhere in Germany. Outside of Bavaria, it's highly fashionable to hate the state's wildly successful soccer team, Bayern München. The Bavarians' strange regional dialect, Bayerisch, is also reviled by non-Bayerisch speakers. I heard a few shopkeepers speaking it, and it sounds like a strange perversion of German that I cannot for the life of me understand. Non-Bavarian, native German speakers also find Bayerisch impossible to understand, so it's not just me. 

But the fact remains that Munich is one of Germany's wealthiest cities and a popular tourist destination. I had actually been previously, about 6 years ago. But I knew I had to go back to experience it all again and, of course, get some killer pictures. I think I succeeded!

Munich's most famous landmark (I still remember it very clearly from my last trip, even after all these years) is the Neues Rathaus, or New City Hall. It was built between 1867 and 1874, and now houses the mayor's office, city council, and city administration

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