Rachael's interesting guide to interesting places in Wesel Innenstadt

If you were to come to Wesel, what interesting things would you see or do? If you read a normal tour guide, it would probably say the Rhine, or the Niederrhein Halle, or the Rathaus. Yes, the Rhine is spectacular, and yes, sometimes interesting events take place in the Niederrhein Halle, and sure, the Rathaus can be interesting if you're getting your Visa. But what are the normal places to which the city's inhabitants go? What might interest someone staying in Wesel?

Introducing: Rachael's interesting guide to interesting places in Wesel Innenstadt.

1) Marktplatz and Dom
A picturesque view by night, a bustling market place on Saturdays, Wesel's market place and Dom is a must-see. The Dom is one of the view in Europe which is inhabited by Lutherans, not Catholics. If you are lucky, you might be in Wesel on the open-church day, during which you can climb the 216 stairs to the top of the spire and overlook the city. The market place also sometimes hosts flea markets, shooting celebrations, parades, Christmas markets, and the occasional disco.

2) Kaufhof Wesel

Direct in the middle of the pedestrian zone, and easily Wesel's largest store, in Kaufhof you can buy all your needs from clothes to chocolate. But that's not what makes it important. It's an ideal place to initially meet with friends because it lies right around the corner from...

3) Mathenakreuz

Mathenakreuz is the bus stop which drops you off right in the heart of Wesel's pedestrian zone. Buses run through from the Wesel train station to Hamminkeln, Bocholt, Flüren, and more. 96, my personal bus of preference, runs in the direction of Blumenkamp 2 minutes after every hour.

4) Sparkasse

You can't go to Europe and not spend money. That's why there's always Sparkasse where you can withdraw money from the international atm. There are three Sparkasse in Wesel innenstadt, one at each end and one in the middle, so whereever you are, there's no difficulty in picking up a little extra cash.

5) The ?????

Not particularly important, but certainly interesting, is this structure in the pedestrian zone. Many question its function and, indeed, what it is exactly. Some say it's a child's play place, others say it's a modern-style piece of architecture--made of wood. The current consensus is that it might be a church. Or a house. Or simply ESA's latest spacecraft model. But if you don't spend time pondering over it, Wesel's citizens probably wouldn't mind.

6) Comet Kino

Wesel's movie theater. Located in a "Passage," that is a tiny, tiny mall, Comet Kino is a fine place to practice your German skills, if you haven't already gone up to random pedestrians saying, "Ich bin eine glückliche Schnecke!" If it is playing a good film, go on a Tuesday, tickets are cheaper. If you happen to go see a Disney film, be sure to arrive plenty early in order to listen to the Germanified Disney prelude music.

7) Stadtbücherei

Need more German practice? Or perhaps a break from German? The library is the perfect place to spend a few hours peace and quiet and read a good book. There is a large selection of German children's books to pick from, or, if you're daring, upstairs, in the passage above the street, are the adult German books. Also upstairs is the library's fair selection of English books with a proportionally large collection of Agatha Christie. The library is right next door to the Rathaus, so if you want to pay the "Isel von Wesel" a visit, now would be a fine opportunity.

8) Kornmarkt

There's nothing better than to sit down and have a cup of cocoa at the end of the day. The cafes on Kornmarkt provide a warm place to sit and drink and chat with friends. Alex in particular is a friendly place which attracts many young people.

Other places which might be interesting to see:

-Wesel Hauptbahnhof: If you really want to leave the beautiful city of Wesel, the Deutsche Bahn will take you. Leaving the whole day in a group of 2-5 people? 5-er tickets are the way to go.

-The Yellow Haus: Play chess? Wednesdays and Fridays, 6-8pm. Be prepared to get whooped by the pros.

-Niederrhein Halle: As stated before, some interesting events take place here, for example Shooting fests or dance expositions.

-Saturn: In case your camera bateries run out.

-Berlin Turm: At the end of the pedestrian zone is an old structure which hosts a very expensive restaurant at its top.

-Isel: Move its ears, mouth and tail!

Be sure to pay Wesel a visit on your next German rendeveu.

Wesel--Naturlich.

SATs and Dortmund

4:25 Alarm goes off. Pushes snooze button.
4:31 Alarm goes off again. This time it can't be ignored.
5:20 Sets off on bicycle in below freezing weather. Survival tip: rain pants, two scarves, and arm warmers under gloves.
6:06 Train leaves Wesel station for Duisburg.
6:41 Train arrives in Duisburg a few minutes late, leaving 6 minutes to find the U-bahn station.
6:47 Finds the U-bahn station (and the right track, too) on time. No idea why it's called an U-bahn (supposedly equivalent of subway) when it spent most of the time above ground.
7:21 U-bahn arrives at Kittelbach street in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth (above ground). Walks to Niederrhein street and makes a wrong turn.
7:30 Finds out that the last 9 minutes have been in the wrong direction, but finds another person with the same plight, so it's not so bad.
7:45 Finally arrives at International School Düsseldorf to take the SAT.

The things people do for College tests, no? Traveling alone to Düsseldorf was an interesting experience, especially since some places, such as the U-bahn station, I had to find alone. At the test center there were several American exchange students taking the SAT (I don't know why I wasn't expecting it) I had the opportunity to talk with. Talking with other students with other programs is always fun.

I was away for the morning anyway, so after the test I took the train to Dortmund, which was a visit recommended by Yuy, who is back in Thailand now after a year in Germany. The city is huge. I walked from one end of the pedestrian zone to the other, and it had to be at least as long as, if not longer than, Essen. Plus there were a lot of pedestrian walkways leading to either side.

Football, aka Soccer, is a major characteristic of Dortmund. The team is actually one of the worst in Germany, I hear, but it has a ton of die-hard fans. You can see them packed in the trains like yellow and black sardines on days Dortmund plays. There are also lots of shops selling fan gear for Dortmund, Germany, or European football. In the pedestrian zone a number of soccer ball chairs are scattered about for sitting pleasure.

If you walk around the city, you will also notice the city's fettish for winged rhinos. They add color, culture, and, presumably, unity to the city. Dortmund lies in the Ruhrgebiet, meaning it is a highly industrial city. It does not have the organic elegance of Wesel. Walk beyond the pedestrian zone and you can see the condensed housing, 5-6 story apartments squashed together, painted in bright, bold colors. The city has the industrial look, somewhat used, perhaps even dirty. But in that way it has an elegance all of its own. I would definitely reccomend it to anyone coming to Germany, not because it's a great place for sight-seeing (I don't know how many tourism Dortmund attracts), but because it's like seeing Germany raw.

Here's a little photo journal of some of Dortmund, including those funny chairs and the winged rhinos:

Dortmund has two Doms in the Innenstadt. I got lost trying to find the train station, which is down a side street from one of the Doms, because I didn't look up: one Dom has a characteristic "Zwiebelturm," or onion tower.

"Time Travel of the Mind."

Polizei wear the colors green and white. The sirens in Germany sound terrible in the Doppler Effect.

Anyone seen a winged rhino anywhere? This one's flown away.

Noten

It's been almost three weeks since the last post. About time to update, nay?

The last three weeks have been jam-packed. We had our AFS regional mid-stay camp on the 14-15th, and the week after my committee took us to the Haus der deutsche Geschichte (House of German History) in Bonn, for which they made me miss a children's concert with my blasorchester we've been working hard on for weeks. Barbara couldn't go ice skating with Sarah and I last Sunday, so Sarah and I saw "Herr der Diebe" (Thief Lord) in Wesel and then sat in a cafe to talk for a couple hours. Wednesday she lent me the book "Herr der Diebe," which is by the German author Cornelia Funke, because I was so impressed by the film. Thursday I had a cold and stayed home from school, so I ended up finishing the book in two days. Not bad for a 389 page German book. I finished up my application for United World College with crossed fingers. Now I have to finish cramming for the SAT I'm taking in Düsseldorf tomorrow. Sarah (USA) had a small departure party and flew back home a couple weeks ago. Jamie, an American with another program who went to KDG, flew home too for health issues, so I am again the only American in our school now.

Today I was back in school. Good thing, too, because we got our report cards today. We had two periods of classes (math, in which I was the only person who did the homework), then we went to the Aula and got our papers with those fateful numbers on it. The German grading scale is from 1 to 6, 1 being the equivalent of an American A (or A++++, because almost nobody gets 1s in my school, though supposedly it's one of the best in NRW), and 5 and 6 being failing grades. What does my report card say? Drum roll please.

German 4
English 2
Art **
Math 2
Physics 3
Biology 3
Geography 3
PE **

Good news: They're all passing! Ich freue mich darauf. And Herr Thomä gave me a 3 in physics, though I thought he said he was giving me a 4! I've never had physics before, especially not in German. Sometimes you can hear Herr Thomäs explanations whoosh right over my head (a lot of other people's too, apparently).

I don't know why my art and pe teachers gave me **. They know I should be receiving grades from them. Or at least, I've told them a number of times. Then again, one of the last times I spoke with my pe teacher I accidently used the word "Note" instead of "Entschuldigung" when I was trying to tell him I didn't have a note with me saying I couldn't participate. "Note" means grade, so maybe he thinks now I don't need one? Issues will get sorted out later.

I am happy. I'd go out and celebrate with people, but it's ice cold outside and I have a cold anyway. Plus people have been falling off their bikes the last three days because of the ice frozen on the ground.

Drink some hot chocolate and read a good book! After the SAT tomorrow, I hope I can update again with more details and pictures from the jam-packed last three weeks. In the meantime: cram cram cram.

Die Hochzeit des Figaros

On Friday 5 people, Americans 4:1, saw an opera in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, written by an Austrian, set in Spain, and sung in Italian.
Sound like the "Marriage of Figaro"? Good, because it is.

The beauty of it was that the train and opera tickets only cost us 12.40 Euros per person, which is amazingly cheap, considering Gelsenkirchen is farther away than Essen. Gelsenkirchen is apparently Germany's "Hollywood," too. Thus begins another one of those proud, patriotic home moments. Speaking of patriotism, Gelsenkirchen is gearing up for the WM. We're betting over here that by July you will not be able to see such colors as green and blue anywhere in Germany.

The opera was beautiful too. It was set in a more modern atmosphere, so the costumes, sets, and props were completely 21st century. Take, for instance, this scene in which the count tries to get Sussana out of the closet. Does the count use his shoulder to ram the door down? No. An old shoemaker's hammer? No. He uses a chain saw.

Happy Silvester!

New Years, or Silvester, was great, even though I couldn't celebrate it with my new German friends. I originally had an invitation, but on December 30th the host told me she was sick and couldn't get together anymore.

A last minute scrambling of phone calls didn't reveal any opportunities, and I was sure I would have to celebrate with the street (which isn't bad, only there's normally no teens about my age present). Then Alicia called and said she didn't have anyone to celebrate with either, and so she invited me to come over and we could cheer 2006 in together.

The night started out well: grilled cheese, meatballs from her host mom, and apple cider. I still don't know how I had room for it all after the Kiefer's traditional Silvester meal of sausages, potatoes, and sauerkraut. Then we went to her room to listen to music and chat (in German, of course). We heard the macerena a grand total of 5 times, though there were about 21 days worth of music on the computer and one would think we could have listened to songs without repetition.

Midnight rolled around, and 2006 started off with a bang. In Germany, see, fireworks are legal, and people were setting them off in the street. We went outside to watch for about a half hour, attempting to take pictures.

Instead of going straight to bed, we stayed up talking. Then at 2 in the morning, we started iming our families simultaneously, which was fun. It's really great to have conversations with your siblings, especially when you're sleep-deprived. We finally went to sleep at 6:30 in the morning (my personal record) utterly exhausted. Unfortunately, it was too early for sunrise, but it was good enough. Maybe next year...