Auschwitz

**I wrote this yesterday, added a little today before I posted.  I will post the rest of krakow/berlin this week. While this experience was sad, krakow is an amazing city and this trip allowed me to meet many people on CEA that I didn't know yet, and really brought us together in place I would have never visited had it not been for this trip. 

Today we went to Auschwitz.  Now having the experience I did in Berlin last weekend, I had many Holocaust stories fresh in my mind.  On the way there, people were making comments like, “I hope they have water there,” “I’m so hungry,” “I hope its not too cold.” I couldn’t help but think about the people being being forced to Auschwitz years ago, and how they probably had the same wishes. 

You walk through the gates,  “Work will set you free,”  the infamous picture im sure you have all seen, and into the camp. The beginning was very similar to many other museums, and gave a history.  People were taking pictures, myself included, and it was not as sad as I thought it would be, and many things I have seen and heard before. 

Then we heard about the gassings.  That Jews were told they were getting a bath and to, ”remember where they put their stuff”. It only took 29 min to kill 800 people.  Then Jews would go to move the bodies. To strip them of gold.  To shave their heads. I don’t think I knew it was the prisoners who dealt with the bodies.  I don’t know how they could do that.   

models of the gassings, you cannot see the showers 

 so crowded 

the poison used 

empty bottles found 

(people were allowed one 25 kilo suitcase for the rest of their life... and to think i had trouble packing in 2 50 lb suitcases for 4 months abroad)

The worst part was the next room. 2 tons of human hair, behind a wall of glass.  Mountains of hair, all different colors, some still in its braids.  This hair was shaved off the heads of women killed in the gas chambers.  All hair had traces of cyanide in it. The hair was sold to the textile industry. To make socks, sweaters, and Nazi uniforms.  This is one of the most in humane things I have ever heard.  In that room were also baby clothes.  We learned that no kids survived unless they had blonde hair blue eyes and a certain face shape.  If I was living in the 1940’s I would have been gassed. This room was the most emotional.  The next rooms had shoes(similar to DC but more) but I couldn’t even look.  The hair was what killed me. How many people make 2 tons of hair? I can’t wrap my mind around it.  I can’t stop thinking about it.   These were essentially corpses, all that was left from the bodies that were burned.  This hair, from who knows how many women is on display for the world.  These ladies will not have a proper burial, they are all clumped and mixed together.  I feel awfully, yet they are doing the one of the most important things, by showing people how awful this was.  In this room it felt real. Everyone left silently, teary eyed, and in disbelief. 

It began to snow and I didn’t even feel it. I wanted to wait in the cold, because I will never feel what these people did. It was the least I could do.  I have never seen such sad things.  After the hair I didn’t take a single picture.  I knew these were images I will never forget, and things I would never see again. 

If you would like to hear about what I saw I would be happy to tell you, but I think this is something everyone should see on their own, if they have the chance.  I will never understand what these people went through.  I can only imagine.  When you leave aushowitz there is a gift shop and food.  Although I was hungry, I didn’t allow myself to eat.  It didn’t feel right when starvation was one of the weapons Hitler used to break the psyche of the Jews.  I honestly was shocked they had a snack bar there, it really didn't seem right. 

We continued to birkenau, but it was a very short tour and not as emotional.  It is hard to imagine the camps PACKED with people as I know they once were.

Honestly I have never understood how people could deny the Halocost happened but after today I see it(in no sense do I mean I don’t believe it happened, just that this experience was so surreal). These camps were huge.  Everything was so well calculated, and no one could do anything to stop it.  The documentation of the events is insane.  I couldn’t believe my eyes, the amount of people involve… HOW could ANYONE and EVERYONE let this happen.  I can’t wrap my head around how this happened, I don’t even think I understand the numbers behind that happened.  This event has never seemed to surreal to me than today. 

the only pics I took here, I didn't really feel like taking pictures, its eerie and weird

I wish I could promise I will never complain about being hungry, tired, cold, scared, uncertain,  or lonely again.  However, I know that isn’t possible.  I caught myself today(Sunday) saying I was starving and quickly stopped.  I thankfully do not know the meaning of that word.  I will never know.  This experience puts perspective on simple things we take for granted in life.  I don’t know true physical exhaustion(FH preseason doesn’t come close) It also put my abroad trip in perspective.  Life is short, and I am so blessed to have the opportunity that I have.  I need to take advantage of everything I can, and be completely open to not only new things but new people as well. What if Hitler got to know a Jew? Really know a Jew, who he really liked? Would this have all been prevented? I am definitely going to work on not judging people. Today(sun) in the salt mines everyone was complaining of exhaustion.  I was tired and claustrophobic a mile underground but I just thought of the people in the camps and kept going.  I know with my willpower I can do anything, and I feel, now more than ever, as if I need to represent the Jewish race as best I can. 

Everyone reacted differently to what they saw, but for me what I took out of it is I have it great.  I am so thankful for the people and things in my life.  I am going to work on being thankful but also not to sweat the small stuff.  I see how precious life is and I am on the trip of a lifetime. I will not waste a minute. 

But most important, I want to urge everyone to go see this. It something i believe everyone, not just Jews should experience. That way people will never forget (trust me I wont forget a single detail from yesterday).  I hope that something like this NEVER happens again. 

On that note, thank you everyone who is reading this for being a part of my life, and supporting this trip, and all that I do. 

Update

So I know I promised a Berlin post and I swear it's coming but it's been a crazy week. 3 classes on Monday 3 on tues and then hw all day Wednesday because right now I am on my way to Poland. Update-McDonalds serves fried briee amazing. We have to stop every three hours for 30
Minutes it's a "law". I'm writing this from my phone which is annoying so it will stay short. Bye for now!

(the group)

(big liberty sign outside the front)

Today I went to go see Radio Free Europe, which is headquartered in Prague 10.  They used to be in the main square but after 9/11 and an attempted terrorist attack they moved far away. So back on the metro.  This was an optional trip so it was only me and 4 other students.  This is literally the safest building in prague.  Security was more intense than the airport. We had to hand them our passport, be accepted into a building where we went through a metal detector and had our bags scanned, and immediately following the approval of that we had to wait outside(lucky me I was first) until we could than enter the radio free europe building.  The main press room when you finally enter reminded me alot of The Telegraph(london) headquarters.  There were flags over different sections designating different countrys so naturally I go to take a picture(prime instagram opportunity  and was immediately yelled at. Apparently there is something really secure about the ceilings... our meeting was honestly not that informative because everything is secret and they have many guest writers.  The protection that they can offer their broadcasters is amazing(though is the relevancy of this organization worth 500 billion of our tax dollars...esp when not all media is pro america).  IT was cool to see all the diff media forms, they are very active on social media.  Also interesting is that in some countries the reason they are so popular is because the literacy rates are so low that radio free is the best source. Overall I am glad I went. My favorite quote, "we are in the business of putting ourselves out of business" in response to me inquiring about their future plans as countries stabilize.

I spent the past weekend in berlin but there is way too much to write about now...it was an AMAZING weekend though!


the group pointing to prauge obviously my cheesy idea

DONT LOOK AT THE ROOF!

the broadcast area map

Rockin the Red in Prahaaa

Today was a struggle waking up for my 9:15 class. Czech.  The class.. even more of a struggle.  We had a pop quiz, started learning grammer concepts I dont even understand in english(if they even exist) and she showed us that we can make our names into 500 different words depending on mood and how formal. Except mine, since Jen is a czech word I would have to get a new name completely.  NO THANKS. So needless to say, I dropped the course. While I still have the textbook and will teach myself relevant phrases, there is no way I am going to master the language.  Plus I got off the wait-list for Prague Art and Architecture, which I REALLY wanted to be in. So there will be my cultural part.  I signed up for contemporary american cinema, which will probably be more useful since I have seen no movies and aspire to work in the entertainment business.

CEA offered a program wide trip to the hockey game.  Even though I had class I decided to skip it (you can skip two... totally worth it).  We took the metro to the game.  The metro was built to be a bomb shelter so it is REALLY far underground.  The escalator probably took 5 minutes.  My ears were popping. It was one of those things where you didn't want to look down.  Somehow though, there was still cell service under there (NYC subways take note).

Anyways we got to the game and had 6th row seats behind the goal.  The cost 100 ck(5 dollars) for arguably the best seats in the house with the rowdiest fans and what we believe were a self proclaimed fan club. We got a beer and a hotdog for 75 ck which is insane that would be at least 15 dollars in the USA.(ans yes this means i tried a czech hotdog. It had onion rings and veggies on it but I deff needed to hide the taste with ketchup and mustard) Stadium beer cost the equivalent of 2 dollars a cup. It really is true, beer is cheaper than water here.  There were a bunch of czechs sitting behind as who laughed in the beginning at us trying to learn the cheers. I swear one sounded like go blue and being with Alot of michigan kids we alternated between that, rock the red, and hail to the victors.  I asked the Czechs if they knew Michael Neuvirth.  One boy was excited.  The other responded. "SPARTA IS SHIT". Guess they did know some english...  Somehow we bonded over ovechkin, the only other NHL hockey player they could name.  They are all Ovechkin fans surprisingly enough..So every time we were supposed to do something, the would say Ovechkin to me, and then show us what to do.  "Our" team praha slavia won. Its hard to explain the game experience, so look below at my "picture book" of the night.

does not even capture the height

very modern, but trams are much easier

the game was at the O2 arena 

 right before the game 

Sara, me and Jess 

our czech "friends" showing us a cheer

great seats

man down

some of the group

halftime warm-ups

 me and the mascot 

When the team scored our section spread a huge banner over our heads

sara and I got scarves (only 10 dollars!)

the game was tied, and went into a shoot-out

great save, we won!

a cool tradition after the teams shake hands the slavia praha team sat facing us and everyone in the stadium sat as well

then they stood up, and so did we 

they raised their sticks, we raised our scarves(so glad I purchased one)

then they slid towards us on the ice before exiting the rink

 goalie stood by himself and everyone cheered

and he slid onto us as well

 The hockey game was one of the most fun games I have ever been too. It was the second to last game of the season and I cant skip class again for the next one, but I cant wait for the playoffs and to see SPARTA the main team play.

court and her bloody mary

Typical, dinner at globe with the roomies and some boys across the all . I had a chicken cesar salad. Another item to czech off the list. 

Ok bedtime. 

Ahoj!

Sorry its been so long since I last posted, and apologies in advance for the length of the post, but it was a very busy week/ weekend.  Wednesday, we met some  people who are backpacking through europe at the hotel across the street.  Thank jewish geography for making sure they were not sketchy, and we hung out with them for the night. They took us to a pretty local czech spot.  What I learned... foreigners LOVE photo bombing american pictures.  They kept coming up to my friend and I and asking for pics together but with OUR cameras(weird). It was exciting and different to go to a non-typical abroad spot, but also a very different and even smokier atmosphere. They will be in berlin when we are there and know locals, which is apparently necessary if you want to experience night life in Berlin, so thats a plus. Also met people from australia who thought my accent made me sound like I was from alabama(the only southern state I knew...) very off. So I told them they sounded like they were from london. Note: australians dont like to be compared to british people.   

On Thursday night, a ton of people came to visit from Barcelona and Florence.  Thursday my roomates and I just hung out in our apt, caught up on work, prepped for our visitors, and did some homework.  We went to dinner at our fave spot globe (bucket-list item, try everything on the menu, I had falafel).  Emily and Jeff met us there!!! But Emily was a little hadicapped for the weekend so they didnt come out with us.  After we pre-gamed at our apt and went to radost FX, my fave club.  One of my best friends from school was visiting as well and his cab got there right before ours, was so excited that it was that easy to meet up... then I walked into the bar, and it felt like skeeps. Literally Michigan kids Left and Right. It was def a fun night filled with lots of Michigan friends. Having visitors is really fun and everyones friends are rooming with someone who knows someone somewhere else. 6 degrees of separation shrinks to about 2 abroad so it was fun to meet people especially since we are all still new in Prague.    

(Thanks Jeff/Em/Mizz)

mich reunion at radost Fx!

Friday:  Emily experienced czech healthcare, and then we met up and went to old town square for lunch.  We walked around a little bit, and tried to go to the Communist museum but when we saw it was in the Casino we decided against it.  So instead, we walked along the charles bridge and went to the Lennon wall. 

Em and I at the door our size at the clock tower

lennon wall

Em, jeff, and I before going out

Afterwards we headed to nap and rest before getting dinner in the jewish quarter.  It was not very good.  Then emily and Jeff came back to my apt to get ready to go out to Lucerna for 80's night.  I found a secret backdoor in which was very helpful because the line is always long. It was fun to see everyone.  After we went to James Dean, a cool diner and club in old town square.  Its about a 5 min walk from our house and Rachel and I were pretty proud to make it back on our own without using maps!!

Saturday: My favorite place rasost FX is also pretty famous for their brunch, so Emily, Jeff, my friend lesley from Michigan, and I went to try the brunch.  We got there about 30 minutes later than the rest of our roommates who confirmed how good it was. After I went to show Jeff and Emily the castle. While I dont have any pictures on my camera of this, here is a pic of my roomie Sam and I at the castle, its such a pretty view you can see the WHOLE city. We tried to take alot of panorama pics, but mine didnt turn out so well... really happy i found out the iphone 4 has that capability though

After, I took a nap and then met back up with Jeff and Emily.  We were going to try this restaurant I heard about and I looked up how to take the tram there, which I was really proud of. However the restaurant was closed so I took them to lemon leaf, the no-thai of prague where we saw half of our CEA program and 1/3 of Michigan.  We then went to the 5 story club which is famous in prague.  It is definitely an experience, with a different theme on every floor.  The disco music and R&B were where we spent the most time. 

Sunday: At 8 am we had a free field trip with CEA.  Rachel, Emma, Lauren and I were assigned to go to it that day. We took the tram the wrong direction to the meeting point, but figured out the metro and made it in time luckily!!! (hard enough as it is to figure these out, even harder on two hours of sleep).  We started off at the Pilsner Factory, very informative on how they make beer. Downsides: some of the rooms smelled really funky and the temperature fluctuated depending on the room.  Also i think i would prefer to not know how beer is made.  They gave us a glass straight from the barrel which was kind of cool... but it was also 11 AM so it was not exactly what I was craving.  We then went to see a famous church and the second biggest synagogue in europe (budapest has the biggest).  They were pretty ... and cool to see.. in every sense of the word.  These old stone buildings trapped in the cold.  I couldn't feel my feet for two hours after and Lauren and I stood under the hand warmers dryer things in the bathroom for about 15 minutes.  I've honestly never been so cold I dont know how people sit through services there... though the synagogue does have heat in a smaller room they dont turn it on that often, and especially not for us.  It was cool to see another part of the czech republic though.  There was also a statue thanking americans which i found interesting because in prague the people do not seem to love Americans.   After coming home in the freezing cold I put on all my socks and Marissa and I went to Globe, our neighborhood place (ya second time in a weekend, I know). Tried the spinach burger, it was delicious. Also, DAD I TALKED THE SHOP OWNER. Since we are becoming regulars THERE A LOCAL "friend". He was giving us our 10% cea discount and was talking about how its crazy that so many people study abroad here now. He showed us all the programs they know of and said it used to be just people at charles university, coming for med school because it is so cheap. Scary because my friend from london who went to the Dr here returned home and they told her the czech doctors are "bananas".  Overall outcome of the convo, unemployment is 9% which he thinks is great, (and that praha is better than spain which is 20%).  The main industries are auto and beer... not together though obviously he made a very big point that drinking and driving is not encouraged in prague.  (the absinthe bar also warns against drinking and trying to navigate the trams.. very responsible... prague)

barrels of beer

Factory where they prepare the bottles, apparently some are reused.. kind of questionable so I would maybe stick to canned pilsner

second biggest synagogue in Europa.. deff smaller than har shalom though 

beautiful inside. 

Monday: Slept. Changed my classes. Class was cancelled. Good day.  Went to tesco which i hate, but found peanut butter, honey nut cheerios, and some yummy pesto, which I made for dinner. (update- not so yummy).  Also all the vegetables and fruit are always moldy... kinda gross .. by kind of I mean really. Grocery shopping still weirds me out because I have no clue what I am getting.  Doing Hw and internship apps right now... EW. Tomorrow CEA takes us to a hockey game, but I have class during it. So mad. Tonight I am staying in to try and sleep, hopefully it works. Tomorrow my prague art and architecture class is cancelled because there is a longer field trip next week, but i still have czech in the AM and Photography at night. 

Ok I think this is all there is to report.  If you got to the end of this, congrats!!!