I have returned!

[Nakor]

Hey all! For those who weren't aware, I've spent the last three months in Germany (except for a few days in Strasbourg, France) on a group exchange program between my own University of British Columbia and the Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin, so named because it was built in West Berlin in 1948). As of last night, I'm back at home in Vancouver. All is well, and I finally have access to non-trivial quantities of peanut butter again! (Seriously, Europe, what is wrong with you? 250mL peanut butter is NOT sufficient!)

At the moment I'm somewhat busied putting things in order, writing my last term paper from the trip due at the end of July, and preparing to drive up to visit my folks + Tanis up in my hometown, but I'll try to find some time to share some of the stuff I got to saw while there.

In the mean time, it's sure as heck good to be home after so long!

[Diabolique]

Welcome baaaack, Sir Nakor!!! Glad to hear that you made it home safely!

Have any interesting stories to tell? How did you like Germany? Would you go back? What are the things you didn't like aside from the lack of peanut butter?

Did you get a chance to visit any castles?

[Roemello]

Welcome back, Nakor!! While I'm sure it's great to be home, I have to imagine the trip and experience was a great if not interesting one!

[Nakor]

Yeah, it's been quite the experience to say the least! I'm glad to have gone, it was totally worth it, but at the same time I'm really glad to be back in Canada again.

I didn't visit any castles, no, but I did visit a cloister and a few old cathedrals. I think one of the most interesting things I had the chance to do while I was there was to go on a couple tours done by Berliner Unterwelten, a society that does underground tours of Berlin. I had the chance to go through an old bunker converted out of one of the old U-Bahn stations, as well as through the remains of one of Hitler's now mostly-demolished anti-aircraft towers, mostly buried under a hill that, although it doesn't look like it, is actually mostly made up of rubble from the war. And the best part of those were the guides, who had collected stories and details about the locations and their role in the war in general. (One of them even met someone who decided to take the tour because the bunker they were touring was actually where she was born.)

Aside from that I've been through any number of museums, three different zoos in Berlin, Stuttgart and Frankfurt, and generally had a good time. I have photos of most of it (though I've no idea how I'm going to get the massive quantity I have online for sharing; I may have to pick and choose to keep the size manageable), but unfortunately in some cases like the underground tours photography was totally disallowed.

Stuff I didn't like other than the lack of peanut butter? Well, the toilets were terrible in a lot of spots. Unlike NA toilets, where when you flush the water level goes down so that everything flows out, and then fills back up, German toilets sort of create a flow where water is pouring into the toilet in a sort of jet stream from above at the same speed it's exiting the bottom, so the water level never changes during the flush. In many cases, this meant the toilets just didn't flush well at all. In my apartment I found myself having to clean it rather regularly to keep things sanitary, and in fact, you can find a toilet bowl scrubber in every stall at every public bathroom you visit. Unpleasant.

I'm also really not fond of the smoking culture. Smoking seems like it's still kind of "the thing to do" for some people. Moreover, the restrictions are a lot more lenient. I don't know if it's the same in the US, or perhaps it varies by city or by state, but here in BC at least you're not allowed to smoke indoors in any location that is a workplace, nor can you smoke within several metres of a window, door or any sort of air intake. At Freie Universität, it was pretty common for people to smoke right outside windows and people would blow smoke around on sidewalks as if it was no big deal. Train stations actually had designated smoking areas indoors in some cases. On the whole I found that where smokers here tend to be conscious of others and try not to involve others in their habit (in general at least), there were a lot of really obnoxious smokers in Germany.

[soloist]

Welcome back, Nakor! I'm glad to learn you've returned from your vacation
in good spirits. I'm sorry to hear of the toilet experience. Tis a shame
that extra work was necessary on your part for sanitary purposes,
but I guess that couldn't be helped considering the design of s-
uch depository devices. I guess it helps you to appreciate
your own toilets back in Canada, eh? I see that I'm in
no position to complain of the smoking in my are-
a. Do you remember how much cigarettes wer-
e in Germany? Just curious, because over
here, they can easily reach close to 10
dollars. I'm sure you were able to c-
apture hundreds of photos, so i-
t' going to be a while before
you're able to dump them
anywhere... but take
your time doing s-
o. Right now I
am sure yo-
u are jus-
t settl-
ing
down
and star-
ting to get
situated again.
I do hope that you
are able to get the pi-
ctures online at some po-
int. Until then, try to resist
the urge to hug your toilet, ok?



(Welcome back, Nakor!)

[Nakor]

I didn't think to check the cigarette prices, but according to a quick scour on Google, it looks like they just recently went over 5€ for a pack of 20, which is significantly less than $10.

I will get the photos online eventually, I just don't have the time at the moment to work out exactly where to do so, not to mention going through the camera and weeding out the bad shots (stuff that didn't focus properly, or had too little light or whatever; I usually have a second, better take of them). Most of the shots are from museums and the zoos.

[soloist]

Indeed, still better than 10 (laughs). I can understand
the process of photo selection since even in the
age of digital photography, there are still p-
roblems to occur whether it's blurring o-
r inaccurate flashing. I'm certain t-
hat the museum pictures are t-
he ones to come out well w-
hen compared to the zo-
o pictures since ani-
mals tend to be
less photog-
enic (lau-
ghs).



(good luck getting them up, Nakor...)

[Nakor]

Actually, it's the other way about for the most part. In the zoo I have mostly natural lighting -- outdoors in the daytime. Museums tend to have low, dull lighting and forbid the use of flash. Hence the only way I could get a shot with enough light was to use a slow shutter speed (often around 1/5 to 1/8 of a second, where in the zoo you'd use a more typical 1/60 to 1/240 or so) and high ISO, which impacts the quality of the shots. Glass casings also tended to mess things up by having reflections of light sources in them.

[soloist]

Laughs! I should have foreseen this but I've forgotten
how museums are with flashes (though it's unde-
rstandable). That's a strategy that I fail to
utilize when taking night pictures or t-
hose absent of adequate lighting.
Usually, I get a bit fidgety w-
hen I'm excited for a sho-
t and fumble with the
settings. I guess
I need to fam-
iliarize my-
self wit-
h m-
y came-
ra more. It's
difficult to do th-
ough since I can't br-
ing it with me to work (w-
here I spend most of the day).




Any progress
so far, N-
akor
?

[Diabolique]

Yeah, waiting for pics here too!

[Roemello]

You either need a lens with an aperture capable of like f/1.4 to f/2.8 or a camera that has reeeeeeally good low light performance and at least an f/4 to manage it. My last trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston I managed with an f/4, but the camera does low light like it's no one's business. My previous camera required at least f/2.8 to bang out the shots, so it is a tough one to manage. Interested as well to see what kinda shots ya got!

[soloist]

Thanks for the information, Roemello! My problem
is that I usually don't stray too far from the d-
efault settings of my camera... so I have
yet to work with the aperture setting-
s, just ISO and focusing. I'll try to
get more accustomed to the a-
perture settings when I get
more batteries (seeing
as I'm out of them a-
t the moment). I
also don't have
an AV cable
for my c-
amer-
a j-
ust ye-
t, but tha-
t's going to b-
e my next item o-
f interest (hopefully
soon). I've seen a nice
package online which had
an additional flash, the AV c-
able and a few other accessorie-
s for a great price, but unless it's f-
ree, I can't get it this week (laughs)!!




Patiently waiting
for those sh-
ot here a-
s well
!!!