Berlin: Capital of Queer Europe

As a Neuroscience major and a pre-med, I don't get a lot of opportunities to pursue my personal interests in the humanities. I didn't want to weigh down my study abroad experience with heavy science classes, and decided to try something completely different and a little out of my comfort zone. When I enrolled in Gender and Sexuality of Scandinavia, I initially also signed up for the Amsterdam trip that focused on prostitution and trafficking. After arriving in Denmark, they announced that there would be a new study tour to Berlin that focused on queer culture and activism. The study tour also incorporated a second class I was taking, Sociology of the Family, so I thought "Perfect! Why not?" Long story short, switched study tours, great decision!!

I listened to someone rant about how so many blogs become picture books with no writing, and I felt really guilty about the lack of commentary I have been providing about my adventures. (This may be because I personally have a very short attention span and I usually skim through pictures rather than reading.) Still, I'm going to try to include a little more insight in the following posts. Feel free to skip them, I won't be offended, I promise.

Pictures...WITH INSIGHT (ugh):

We started off the trip with a Queer Berlin walking tour. Our tour guide was Finn, an absolutely amazing Irish trans man. The tour was his baby (he wrote the entire thing) and I think he was excited to do a test run on us. We got to see some important queer monuments, and Finn was sweet enough to also take us to some normal Berlin sights because he heard it was the first time in Berlin for many of us. 

Standing in Potsdamer Platz. Fun fact! Berlin was built on a really
swampy area. The pipes serve to pump groundwater away
to prevent flooding and allow construction. 

When the Berlin Wall stood, it ran through Potsdamer Platz, making it into a
 No Man's Land. All the buildings in Potsdamer Platz were constructed  in the 1990's.

Just to give you an idea of the complete desolation...
Potsdamer Platz in 1982, courtesy of Wikipedia.

And now...

Parts of the Berlin Wall reconstructed
for tourists.

This is all gum. EW. 

Finn was giving us the historical story behind Potsdamer Platz when he suddenly points out this building...or is it?? This is actually a FAKE building made up of large posters to eliminate the feeling of empty space. Say what?

#deception

We then stopped off at Tiergarten. This nondescript cement block is actually a memorial for gay victims of the Holocaust. Finn pointed out that many people forget that Jews weren't the only populations targeted by the Nazis. Gay men, the mentally/physically handicapped, and criminals were also sent to concentration camps. While Jews were denoted by the Star of David on their striped pajamas, gay men were marked by a pink triangle. 

When you looked inside, there was a video of
gay men and women kissing.

Interesting note, the term "gay" in Europe is used exclusively to refer to homosexual men while the term "lesbian" is used for homosexual women.

It was a nice day and I wanted to make use of my unlimited transportation pass so I headed over to the East Side Gallery. I had heard that bits of the gallery were torn down in late March by a construction company in order to make way for luxury condos. (Very sketch, read here.) Luckily, the pieces I was most interested in were still standing.

This depicts an completely non-queer moment in history when the leaders of Soviet Russia and East Germany exchanged a brotherly kiss after a speech at the 30th anniversary of East Germany

A portal through the Berlin Wall. Symbolic?

After free time, we went on a scavenger hunt/pub crawl through various gay bars in Kreuzberg. My favorite bar by far was Roses, where the walls were completely covered in pink shag. Oooooh baby.

My drinking buddy, Chris.

I just had to include this picture of  us Americans
 chilling in front of Dunkin' Donuts. Typical.

One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to Sammlung Boros, a privately owned collection of art housed in a renovated WWII bunker. The bunker itself has served as a shelter, a POW camp, a refrigerator, and a hardcore techno club over its long history. The owner of the gallery now resides on the 5th floor and the museum is open by invite-only. Lucky for us, it was art weekend and the bunker was open to the general public.

Bunker Chic

Art!!

This artist believes in engaging multiple senses. This machine
 is on all day and the popcorn is not allowed to be removed from
the building. It has been on since September!

No visit to Germany would be complete without a photo of wienerschnitzel.

Those potatoes hiding under that large slab of meat? Heavenly.

Our teacher, Michael, gave us his own interpretation of a walking tour. We walked through the art gallery/shopping area of Mitte and past several of the Berlin landmarks.

Alexanderplatz

While chilling by this fountain, we stumbled across a man dressed in a Waldo outfit. Apparently, he was making a picturebook for his nephew's birthday and his nephew's task was to find him. Well, now his nephew can also find 19 overly enthusiastic Americans.

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)

Brandenburg Gate

Don't go to Berlin without visiting the Holocaust Memorial for Jewish Victims. If you have time, go into the exhibit underneath the memorial. It's free, but bring tissues, it is absolutely heartbreaking.

DIS paid for two meals every day and I was operating on a tiny budget, but I knew I had to try currywurst. The sausage is nothing special, but the curry ketchup on top? Mmmmm....

I was very impressed with this study tour because it did a great job incorporating the academic with the social. We went to several panels and workshops. 

On the first full day, we were given a talk by GLADT, an organization that advocates for gay and lesbians of Turkish descent. We learned that many are persecuted in their home country for their sexuality but become victims of racism in Germany. GLADT provides a safe-space and has expanded its services to include immigrants from other countries as well.

We then attended a workshop by a queer activist who was Danish and had just moved to Berlin. After a brief history of queer rights, we learned 15 ways to resist oppression. Then, we were encouraged to think of a time in our life when we had been oppressed because of our gender, sexuality, culture, etc. We had a great group of DIS students and we really opened up...needless to say, waterworks by the end. Great bonding moment. Listening to people's stories made me realize that lots of less than great things have happened to me (once a drunk Danish man insisted on calling me "Ling-Ling") that I've attributed to simple ignorance. This workshop taught me that ignorance is not an excuse; it's the problem. Definitely gave me some food for thought.

We also had the chance to meet up with some young queer activists living in Berlin. They represented a wide range of populations: gay, lesbian, German, Iranian, sociologists, academics, party-animals etc. It was basically a two-hour session where they just answered all of our questions. One of my favorite moments is when one of the activists described Copenhagen as a "perfectly boring place to live".  HA. Oh, Berlin...the place where parties are bumpin' until 10 AM the next day.

Hands down favorite moment of the trip, DRAG SHOW. 

Frighteningly fabulous. (Photo credits: http://www.tikberlin.de/)

It was delightfully campy with live singing and dancing performances. It was a bit of a shame that the dialogue was all in German, but you don't really need to understand it to appreciate the spectacle. Absolutely fantastic.

Crazy thing that happened this trip: One of the other DIS students got chicken pox. CHICKEN POX. He immigrated from China to the US a few years ago and I guess he just never got his vaccinations. He had to take a train back to Copenhagen because he couldn't get on a plane. :\ Rough days.


OK, a bit of an honest moment here. One of the things I've been struggling with in Denmark over the past few months is finding people that I click with at DIS. I feel like more of an IPC student than a DIS student. To sum it up, on a long study tour, a student once made the broad statement: "We're studying abroad. We all know what it's like to come from money." That was definitely a moment where I really felt like I didn't belong. (#peasantproblems) It's been a struggle living on a budget in Denmark, where minimum wage is around $20 and lunch costs about three-fourths of that. Then to be surrounded by people whose idea of a good time is going out to bars and clubs every night (Not to knock on bars and clubs. The Danish scene is jumpin'.) is just a slap in the face. I admit that I'm a bit of an introvert, my idea of a good time is exploring the city and finding delicious, authentic street food, and sometimes I'm a big ol' Bitter Betty about life. Still, on this trip, I felt like I met a bunch of amazing people who are facing similar struggles, people who share my interests (you know, those outside of who is hooking up with which hot Dane), people who can crack me up on a daily basis. If you're coming to DIS looking for a great time, you're going to find it. But if you're already here and having difficulties, don't be disheartened. There are other crazies like me and you out there. :)

A great long weekend and I'm a little saddened to think that it is the third to last. :\ Woah, where has my semester gone??

Study Tour: Vienna - Day Four, Five, and Six

We spent a bit longer in Vienna, so we were given a lot more time to explore on our own. Our first morning in Vienna was spent on an amazing bike tour. Of course, being the genius I am, I had grabbed my camera and forgot that my memory card was still stuck in my computer. So after the great bike tour (where I almost got hit by a car twice due to the fact that I can't really ride a bike...or comprehend traffic signals), I ran back to the hotel room, grabbed my memory card, and did the entire tour again...on foot. By the end of the day, compounded with the three solid hours of walking I did in Budapest the day before, my feet were ready to fall off. Here are the pictures I just had to get. If there's no caption...it's because I forgot what the tour guide said when we rode past it. :X

St. Stephan's Cathedral

Inside St. Stephan's Cathedral

Nacht Market

They sold a lot of dried fruits, nougats, seafood,
traditional Viennese food, scarves, etc.

The best part of being given time on your own is figuring out how to get around the city. Sometimes, we would leave the clinic together, disagree about the best course to get back to the hotel, and race our separate ways to see who could get there the fastest.

How many pre-meds, iPhones, and maps does it take to
 navigate around Vienna?

We won.


So I'm going to be honest and admit that I started getting lazy when it came to taking pictures during our clinic visits. Let me just give a few quick blurbs about where we went, and continue with my picture tour of Vienna.

First Love Ambulance -- Basically the Austrian version of Planned Parenthood. It was a government-funded organization that seeks to educate young girls about reproductive health and behaviors. Services are completely free and open to girls of all nationalities. We learned that Austria is a very conservative, Catholic country so issues like sex, sexuality, teen pregnancy, and abortion are completely taboo. As a result, young people are often uneducated in these areas, as sexual education is not evenly distributed across the population. This, compounded with the fact that the legal age of consent in Austria is 14, makes the services (counseling, contraception, etc.) offered by the First Love Ambulance especially important.

Orthopaedic Hospital -- This visit was so cool! I must admit that I was a little disappointed with a lot of the visits because they weren't exactly what I was expecting out of this program. I was hoping to learn more about what each type of specialist was doing specifically, rather than having  tours of their clinics and general Q&A sessions. At the Orthopaedic Hospital, we got to watch a minor surgery (bunion removal) through a glass window. The hospital was leading a movement to have patients be able to leave the day-of after minor surgeries. It used to be that hospitals were paid (by the government) only if patients were hospitalized for  certain number of days. Now, hospitals are paid per procedure, making day-of release a very practical way to optimize the use of the capacity and resources that each hospital has to offer. It was also interesting that this hospital was Christian-affiliated, yet its facilities supported all religions.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Serology, and Infectious Diseases -- This talk took place in one of the oldest hospitals in Austria. The buildings and hospital grounds were old and grand in a way that made the hospital look more like a museum. Dr. Koller gave us a talk about the history of the hospital itself and a brief introduction to Medical Ethics.


OK, back to the picture tour. On our last night in Vienna, we had a nice dinner before attending a symphony at the Vienna Royal Orchestra:

Can you imagine casually driving past this on your way
to work every morning?

Gorgeous!

Fish with garlic butter and parsley potatoes

Fresh fruit topped with a tangy lemon sorbet 

We were sitting pretty far in the back so it was hard to get a
good picture but the performance was AMAZING. The musicians
seemed to be having a blast. They were so cute and funny
 and really brought the good times.

We ended our study tour with a guided tour of the Schönbrunn Palace. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the gardens around the palace were beautiful!

Had to climb up a rather large hill for this picture.
Thank God for the chocolate waiting for us at the top.

Spent my last afternoon in Vienna eating:

Don't leave Vienna without trying the
sacher torte (chocolate cake) and hot chocolate!
 If chocolate isn't your thing, try some apfelstrudel! 

Of course, you must try some weinerschnitzel.
It comes in pork, chicken, turkey, or veal. 

I had a great time touring Europe on this long study tour. My new favorite European city is definitely Budapest right now...but after Berlin, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca in April, who knows? Even though I had the time of my life, I must admit, it is SO nice to be back in Denmark at the IPC. Spent this past weekend in bed, with my feet up, doing nothing. Life is good! :D

Long Study Tour: Budapest/Vienna - Day 3

Our third day in Budapest, we visited another private clinic, the National Center for Spinal Disorders. Much like the Maternity Clinic, it was clear which sections of the hospital were devoted to public and private care. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to do more than glance/walk through the public areas, but I think that was mostly because they were a lot more busy. A group of 20 people standing around in a crowded waiting room would probably get in the way of everyday business. Dr. Jakob Gabor gave us a tour of the ambulance (outpatient) clinic as well as the "selfness" clinic. "Selfness" includes massages, acupuncture, and other forms of holistic medicine. After the tour, another doctor gave us a presentation on research and development. The clinic receives money from international funds which is supplemented by its own income from private care for research in areas such as biogenetics, preventative medicine, biomechanics, spinal tumors, etc. A picture tour of the clinic:

A typical private patient room. Very well decorated and clean.

The physical therapists introduced us to the hot
oil massage table

The table surface is made of wood so the oil can drain down
 into a bucket awaiting below. Where do I sign up?

A steam room. Patients sit in the chair and are zipped
into a relaxing steam bath.

We were also able to visit the private and public gyms that were available to recovering/current patients. While private gyms offered one-on-one classes, public gym activities were conducted in groups. I know what I feel like when I do Insanity/P90X so I thought it would be best if I refrained from photographing the sweaty ladies in the class. Afterwards, we were also given a presentation by several psychologists. At the spinal center, they paid special attention to patient's mental well-being both before and after procedures. Studies show that patients with depression show more negative outcomes and lower success rates after surgery. Talking through fears and concerns, amongst other issues, with a psychologist before the procedure has been shown to lead to more positive outcomes. I am interested to learn more about whether these practices are done in the United States.

That evening, we took a train from Budapest to Vienna, Austria. The train ride was about three hours, and when we arrived, we were starving. Luckily, DIS had arranged for us appease our raging stomachs at Stadt Park Brau:

Looks like hygge is not just a Danish tradition

"Sliced pancake in clear beef broth". At first we were skeptical, but this
soup was the business! So good. I'm not terribly classy
 and my first thought was, "Tastes like fancy chicken ramen." Mmm.

Turkey breast and mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce

Beer and other beverages were on us. I heard the red beer was delicious.

Kaiserschmarrnauf Zwetschkenröster -- otherwise known as
 fried goodness with plum sauce.

Crepes with nutella and chocolate

We splurged a bit and got a few desserts to split, but as you can see, it was well worth it. A good first night in Vienna! :)