sleddin' down Crouse

A snowstorm brings marshmallowy soft, powdery snow. The perfect snow for sledding! And you're not truly bleeding Orange until you've sledded down Crouse on a dining hall tray, which we are borrowing and will duly return after the snow melts. Jane Choi (click link for her blog) and I grabbed a dining hall tray each, climbed up to the Crouse hill and sled down, and you could hear us scream halfway across campus.

SU's message on Haiti

Haiti - the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. I only learned about the plight of Haiti from SU's required freshman reading Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Farmer, an accomplished doctor working in Haiti, working to improve the public health sector there while bringing very basic medical care and supplies to the region.

Having read the book, it put faces on the escalating death toll emerging from the rubble. SU's Chancellor Cantor always sends out a message to all students and staff every time there is a global tragedy. After the earthquake in Haiti, she sent out a message offering help to those either in Haiti, or have family or friends in Haiti. This is all well and good. She then added an extra paragraph that I found extremely redundant. She asked two professors to give some background history on Haiti's connection with the US, basically, justifying how the little island of Haiti is important to Americans. I don't know if Chancellor Cantor realizes how snobby this is. Here's the history lesson:

"Finally, Professors Carty and Johnson also have provided some historical context regarding the United States and Haiti: “The U.S. shares a long history with Haiti via New Orleans. The Haitian revolution, which began in 1791, was instrumental in inspiring the largest U.S. slave revolt in New Orleans. There were huge numbers of Haitians who moved to New Orleans in the early 1800s after the success of the Haitian revolution. This doubled the size of the “free colored” population in the area at the time. It was the success of the Haitian revolution in 1804 that led to the sale of Louisiana to the U.S. by Napoleon.”

Is it not enough that there are Haitian students at SU, enough for there to be a Haitian American Students Association. Or is it not enough that Haiti is a neighbor? Honestly, does it really matter that Haiti is connected to the Louisiana Purchase? Not all Americans are snobby, so Chancellor Cantor, spare us the history lesson, don't underestimate our compassion.

Click here to read the full text.

law school or j-school?

In Hong Kong, the UK and Australia, you don't have to wait until grad school to do Law or Medicine. You start preparing for it in high school by taking the right courses and then dive straight into it at undergraduate level.

So I have a bit of ranting to do. It bugs me so much when I hear someone say they chose to major in journalism because they couldn't get into law. Or, they think they won't be successful in law so they succumbed to second best - journalism. What these people actually need is counseling for low self-esteem. I hear this all too often in Hong Kong. I don't want to make assumptions about law, it is a great career choice and one that will make your mummy and daddy wear a smile on their face for years to come, but please, if you KNOW I'm studying journalism, why on earth would you tell me "I'm doing journalism because I'm not good enough for law." How are law and journalism remotely related? Aside from the clever wordplay perhaps.

I think I got a slight nod of approval when I showed my auntie that I earned 2 bucks per word for a 1000-word concert review I wrote, she told me she didn't even know one could make money like this. I'm convinced journalism will pay my bills and put food in my stomach, and I am convinced journalism is not a second-rate career choice to law, it is a respectable profession and necessary to society.

By way of example, click here to read about how the journalism students at Northwestern found evidence that proved the innocence of a man who was falsely convicted of murder.

lock and throw the key away

How romantic is this. You engrave you and your other half's initials or names onto a padlock and secure it to the railing along with other couples as a promise of everlasting devotion. My friends and I oohed and aahed in envy, and it became concrete in my mind that Europe goes one step further in matters concerning romance. Here's a bridge in Wroclaw, Poland.

I thought it was so special until I saw it again on a bridge in Paris over the river Seine. And then I googled this phenomenon and learned that this all goes back to an Italian movie where the young couple in it put a padlock on a bridge in Milan. At this particular bridge, people capitalize on this by selling padlocks to lovebirds. Click here to see how many cities in the world have these love padlock bridges.

In another article, it said that the love padlocks originated from Hungary where lovers put padlocks onto a fence, which became so full that people started putting it on nearby lamp posts. I hate to be a cynic, but I do wonder how many of these couples, perpetuated on a padlock, are still together.

berlin's wall of shame

Le mur de la honte, the Wall of Shame. I don't know how commonly this name for the Berlin Wall is used, but it was my first time hearing it. There was a controversy over whether or not the entire stretch of wall should be torn down, after all, Germany is one country now. But the side that won was obviously the one rooting for the wall to be kept there. In many places, there were even two walls running parallel to each other with a no man's land in between dotted with watchtowers, many East Germans were shot trying to make it through no man's land into the Capitalist west. There is such a strong sentiment in keeping the history alive that they are currently reconstructing the guard tower. One cannot ignore the fact that keeping the Berlin Wall there generates huge tourism revenue for Germany.


A huge tourist attraction is Checkpoint Charlie. This is the former border control station between East and West Berlin. The portrait of the guard you see in the photo is not "Charlie", but just an anonymous American soldier. It's just a visual symbol to others that behind this portrait is American territory. If you look over to the other side of the portrait, there is an image of a Soviet soldier. The name Charlie was simply chosen as a name for C, the other patrol stations are Alpha and Bravo. Today, people dressed up as American and Soviet soldiers stand at the checkpoint to take pictures with tourists. They're quite a hit. There are now fake sandbags at the checkpoint to stop people from stealing them. Our tour guide, Edo, told us a famous escape story from East Berlin. A man fell in love with a girl from East Berlin and so he plotted a way to escape. He realized that there was an unusually large gap between the gate and the ground. So he bought a car that fit right under the gap, and put his girlfriend and her mother into the car and drove right under the gate. Although he didn't quite drive into freedom because he brought his mother-in-law along.

Some parts of the Berlin Wall along a river are now being used as a surface for murals with an optimistic message. Large parts of the wall are already covered by graffiti, but some are by professional artists commissioned to produce a work of art on it.

The program also visited a former Stasi prison, where we went on a tour with an old man who was a political prisoner for 9 years. He said that although there was no physical violence, he suffered from psychological torture. Not in the way that you'd expect. He had absolutely no interaction with a human being for 9 years, only when he was being interrogated occasionally.

He showed us that when the prisoners are brought into the prison, they are put in a van where they are isolated. They are blindfolded so they do not see other people. A red light is on each time they progress into another room, the red light ensures that the room is empty. It was essential for the guards to make sure the prisoner does not see other prisoners. This was to instill a sense of deep isolation. The prisoners are fed regularly with bread and never go hungry. The old man told us that he even put on some weight. The guards were forbidden to talk to the prisoners, and quite soon, the prisoners are begging to talk to the guards. They lose count of the days gone by. They have no idea if there are others in the same situation. They start to go crazy and even yearn for the day when they can be interrogated just for some human interaction. Our tour guide said that when he was imprisoned, he stopped himself from going insane by reciting poetry that he knew by heart. He then went on to movingly recite a Shakespearean sonnet. When we went inside his cell, some of us walked on top of his bed to let the whole group in. He joked that he never would have guessed he'd one day get so many ladies in his bed. He shared with us that he also figured out complex math problems to keep himself occupied, and said it's one of his proudest achievements. He told us that once a week, the prisoners are allowed a time to walk around "outdoors."

All they can see is the sky, and they can only walk around in this little space as exercise. The prisoners have no idea where they are and how many prisoners there are. Here's a picture of the interrogation room.

One of our assignments before the semester started was to watch a German movie called The Lives of Others (2006) on East Berlin. It's about a man who used to be a high-ranking Stasi officer and trains students to become interrogators, and works as an eavesdropper on a playwright suspected of anti-government activities. The playwright's apartment is tapped but he has no idea and goes on is usual activities. One day after his friend dies, he plays a song on the piano which he says is such a sad song, that anyone who hears it and is touched can't possibly be a bad person. The Stasi officer listening is in tears. He becomes sympathetic of the playwright and his girlfriend, a singer, who sells herself to the Cultural Minister in order to get work. The Stasi officer himseld leads a lonely existence, his only interaction with women is with a prostitute.

{Spoiler Alert} The playwright works with other artists to try and publish an article in a West German magazine criticizing East Germany, and the Stasi officer turns a blind eye to all this plotting. The government finds out about the Stasi officer and demotes him to working as a mail steamer, which opens envelopes for inspection without ripping it. His act of kindness is eventually rewarded after the fall of the Berlin wall, when the playwright finds out that his apartment was tapped all along, and the Stasi had known that he was the one who wrote the article. He went through the old archives and found the Stasi officer's initials. When he published a book a few years later, he dedicated the book to the former officer, who has now become a postman. One day he sees the book in a shop window. He walks in and opens the cover to see his initials, and he smiles, as if everything that he did and suffered thereafter was worth it. When he brought it to the counter and the woman asks him, "is this for you or a present?", he contentedly answers, "it's for me."

Another movie to watch about East Berlin is of course, Goodbye Lenin! (2003). It's about a boy who tries to recreate East Berlin for his mother after the collapse of the wall. As he recreates this past for his mother, he becomes reminiscent of the more humble days and becomes increasingly repulsed by the superficial and rapid influx of capitalism. His older sister even starts working at Burger King. East Germany hasn't completely lost out to the West, the current Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up in East Germany, and she's popular for her no frills, no drama character in politics.

a bit about poland

Wroclaw, Poland. A name so difficult to say that most people in the program still couldn't master the correct pronunciation at the end of the semester. Wroclaw is pronounced "rotswaav". It's the fourth largest city in Poland and used to be part of the Prussian empire (today's Germany), at that time the city bore a German name - Breslau.

Centennial Hall (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
There was a conflict over the name of an important convention centre, built in the simplistic, German Bauhaus style. It was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Germans defeating the French army led by Napoleon in the battle of Leipzig. Because it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it's against the law to make changes to the building that would compromise its historic value. When Wroclaw became part of Poland again after WWII, Centennial Hall was renamed People's Hall to reflect a new era. However in this decade, it was renamed Centennial Hall once again. And this caused great controversy because it suggested sympathetic attitudes toward Germany.

And what exactly is Polish cuisine? First of all, you must have Polish dumplings - pierogis. They have a tough, thick skin with minced meat inside. The dumplings are fried and completely soaked in oil. Dumplings are also a staple in Czech cuisine. There is also the bread we bought in the market, which is tough peasant bread with pickles and lard. Lard is absolutely disgusting, it tastes like a terrible sauce because it's not even as solid as butter. And finally, there's the meat cooked in cabbage leaves that I enjoyed the most, it's called stuffed cabbage. My host mum cooks stuffed cabbages in Strasbourg too, maybe it's a dish of German influence.

how berlin remembers

Before the semester in Strasbourg began, our program of 33 students, led by 2 professors and 1 diligent driver on a 10 day travel seminar, visiting Berlin, Wroclaw (pronounced rotswaav) in Poland, Prague and Nuremberg. The juniors visiting these cities this year are a special bunch. Most of us 20-year-olds were born in 1989, the year of that fateful day. Little did I know, it was the year of two fateful days. Only a month before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November, communism was just defeated by the Solidarity movement in Poland. We learned about borders dissolving in the EU, and learned snippets of different periods in a country's history. I took particular interest in the WWII memorials in Berlin. How does Germany, taking the brunt of the blame for starting WWII in Europe, remember and respect its past?

Berlin Holocaust Memorial
Not only Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, but also blacks, Asians, left-wingers, the handicapped, gypsies, homosexuals and dissidents who refused to abide by the Nazis. This one gets an award for doing the impossible - being sensitive and obnoxious at the same time. It's smack-bang in the centre of Berlin, and this mass of concrete blocks of alternating heights are around the size of two Olympic-sized pools. Traffic borders the memorial. The blocks are gray with smooth surfaces and edges. There is no writing or plaques inside the blocks. It's a complex looking network of paths, but in fact, the distance between the blocks always remains the same, so you can walk in a straight line vertically or horizontally from anywhere. What does change are the heights of the blocks, and the ground which has ripples and goes the deepest in the centre. The ripples on the ground are parallel to the line of the blocks. Say the ripple is going from North to South, if you are walking from East to West, you will not even realize there is a ripple on the group, descending subtly into the deep centre.

Our professor asked us to explore the labyrinthe alone. As I walked deeper into the centre, I could no longer see where everyone else was. All of a sudden, I'd see someone walk past but disappear real quick. Occasionally someone would walk towards me, and we'd meet at a point and exchange a few words of bewilderment, perhaps to show the rarity of two people crossing paths. In all four directions, one can always see the way out, and the way out is always straight. It's a memorial for people to experience, but this non-traditional approach has also made it controversial.

The concrete blocks on the edges are lower and often used as benches for nearby office workers to meet up and eat their sandwiches. I saw a girl lying on one sunbathing in the August sun, and an adorable little boy merrily skipping from one block to the other. Just as the history of the Holocaust is still intertwined with German families, the memory of it is now totally at one with the daily livelihood of Germans. This is acceptance of what was done, remembering and respecting the countless murdered. I was incredibly impressed by how mature and graceful this memorial was. I can hardly imagine a memorial like this in Japan, commemorating the countless murders committed by the Japanese army in WWII in China, Korea and the Asia Pacific.

Memorial for homosexual victims of the Holocaust
Berlin is so creative with their memorials, here's another impressive one, it's right next to the massive Holocaust memorial. This one is inconspicuously hidden behind trees in a park. You find a plaque first that recalls a time when "a kiss was dangerous" because it could convict you of being a homosexual. The plaque also said that the German government pledges to always protect the rights of homosexuals, especially because of its history. After the plaque, you approach a grey, ominous block of concrete with a small opening where you are supposed to look in, but it feels more like you are taking a peek.

These are my two buddies, Tess and Rebecca taking their peek. Inside, a video plays on loop of two young men standing, and slowly embracing and kissing each other on the mouth. The kiss does not look like a happy reunion, but more like a farewell. The video is uncomfortably long (perhaps that was the point) and I didn't know whether to stop watching. I realized that the video was only 10 seconds long. As I walked away, it left me feeling heavy in the heart. The two memorials are so different in style, but both are just as sensitive.

Neue Wache Memorial - Mother and her dead Son
Neue Wache is German for new guard house, which is where this touching statue is held. The memorial is to remember "all victims of war and tyranny." The most striking thing about this memorial is the hole in the roof. The statue directly beneath it of a mother cradling her dead son is weathered mercilessly by whatever the sky brings down. When there is rain or snow, only the circle directly under the hole will be weathered.