I'm in a German State of Mind

When you move to a new place, it can take some time to feel at home. I've moved to a lot of different places, and I often feel like a visitor for a while, even after I have unpacked and gotten into a routine. For the past seven weeks I have lived in Kassel, but I still felt like I was "new in town". But recently, I've started to feel like a resident and that's not just because I have an appointment to get my residence permit. Yesterday, on my way home from the library, I ran into someone I know on the street. This is kind of a big deal because a) Kassel has about 200,000 people living here, and b) I don't know very many people. But sure enough, Guillaume, a very sweet boy from my German class called out to me on the street. Guillaume and I had actually met only the day before in class, and we talked about France. He is from a small town in Brittany, in Northwestern France, called Lorient. Coincidentally, I'm going to Brittany next week for Thanksgiving, to the town of Pont Aven, about one hour from Lorient. The reason for my trip is to visit the campus of the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art. I worked for the school when I lived in Providence, and my boss invited me to visit. Guillaume was very familiar with Pont Aven, and told me some other areas in the region that I should visit. He is part of an international masters program, in which the students study in four different countries for six months each. (Part of me wishes I had know about that one...) Another coincidence is that the town where the group studied in France was the tiny town of Annecy, where I spent two weeks on vacation in 2004. Small world. Seeing him yesterday may have just been another Amy-Guillaume coincidence, but it was nice to run into someone unplanned on the street. That has always been my signal that I've arrived. I live here now, and I know people and I run into them out on the town. Perhaps that seems a little obvious, but it made me feel good.

Another sign that I'm a resident is that I am getting invited places by people other than the administrators of my program. Tonight I am joining a group of women who I have never met for a bachelorette party. My landlords, Maria and Knauffi, are getting married next week and tonight is the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Christine organized the bachelorette party so that's how I got the invite, but this will be a totally new experience for me. I don't know what German traditions there are for these kinds of things, but I'm excited to find out. All the e mails have been in German, but I know that we are going for a hike, and there will be several stops with clues for a treasure hunt, tasks for Maria to accomplish, and a big to-do at the end. I'll be sure to let you know what other surprises come up. It's going to be fun to spend time with Germans, and work on improving mein deutsch. It's been a sobering realization how much I don't know, but I won't get any better if I don't practice. And I've found that Bier helps me speak German more easily. Maybe I should start bringing beer to my German class...

It's a difficult language, and there's a saying that I find to be appropriate: Life is too short to learn German. There are just too many cases and rules and exceptions and endings... it's exhausting. I'm a little overwhelmed, but I'm not going to stop trying. I have a year to improve, and dangit, I'm going to improve. It is tough though, since my classes and readings are all in English. I have tried to practice with Christian and Christine, but my German is so limited that we would not be able to talk about very much. They are my friends and I want to talk to them for that reason, not just to practice deutsch. But, we have decided that we will try to speak in German for a little bit every time I see them, and since they are both teachers they can answer my questions as they arise. I've already learned a lot from them, although not all of it is fit for polite company.

I've also learned a lot about German baking, or rather, how it is completely different from baking in the US. Last Friday C&C and I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies. I had my mom's recipe (which is the best on the planet, by the way) and we set out to convert it to German. We converted the measurements and the temperature, bought the ingredients and went to town. During our three attempts, we made some cultural discoveries. 1) Germany does not sell brown sugar as it is known in the US. 2) Germans don't realize there is a difference between baking powder and baking soda. 3) German ovens are different from US ovens in more ways than just centigrade and fahrenheit. 4) Measurements in baking are exact; you can't add a tablespoon when the recipe calls for half a teaspoon.

I think we're getting closer, and we certainly aren't going to give up, but MAN, some of our cookies turned out... well, eww. Have a look:


















































There's not much more to say. It was a disaster, but also the most fun I've had in a long time.

Well, I'm going to start preparing myself for this party. Ahh, love. The best way to celebrate is to embarass the bride as much as possible.

Bis später!

Brussels, Beer, Belgium... Bad.

Greetings, all. I'm back from a long weekend in Brussels, and I am so so glad to be home. I'm sure that Brussels has a lot to offer, but I found it to be kind of depressing. It was expensive, dirty, rude, overpriced, pushy, and extremely complicated. My bitter taste probably comes from having one of my rings stolen out of my room by the cleaning staff, and I realize that isn't really Belgium's fault, but it didn't make my time any better. But let's start from the beginning.

I left on Friday afternoon from Kassel, and took five trains to arrive in Brussels at 9:30 PM on Friday night. While on the last of the trains, I met a lovely American family who are living in Germany. They were really interesting to talk to, and they helped me find the taxi stand. I took a cab from the train station to my hotel, and I'm glad that I did because a) Brussels is not a user-friendly city, and b) my hotel was in a disgusting alley that I never would have seen or voluntarily walked down. On Saturday morning I made my way up to the Sheraton to meet Heidi, a dear friend from DC who was in Brussels for work. I will say that the Metro system in Brussels is fairly well laid out and easy to understand, although from the street level the stations are rarely well marked. Heidi and I spent the day wandering around the city, taking pictures of old buildings, and eating. On Sunday we did more of the same, and even though we stayed in the same general vicinity, I frequently found myself turned around and my sense of direction was totally out of whack. The problem is a combination of windy streets, similar looking buildings at every turn, and the Belgian distaste for marking any street names. It was ridiculous.

On Monday I took a hop on/hop off sightseeing tour which was fairly interesting. They promised to tell us all the interesting and important facts about Belgium. Let's just say there was a lot of silence. I'm sure there is fascinating history, but I didn't hear much of it on this tour. I got off the bus at the Atomium, the centerpiece of the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair. Much like the Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Worlds Fair and intended to be demolished afterward, the Atomium was also set to be dismantled. But like the Eiffel Tower, it too is still here. It's a neat structure, and the view from the top was fairly OK. The exhibits inside about the 1958 Worlds Fair were the most interesting part, so I didn't mind paying the 6 Euro ticket price, but the 2 Euro audio tour was a waste of time and money.

Another spot near the Atomium that I visited was "Mini Europe", an area filled with 1/25 size replicas of historic and important buildings from across the European Union. It was a steep ticket price, but I really enjoyed wandering through Europe. The brochure gave a history of all the areas and buildings, and I was floored by the impeccable detail. I had been to a few of the sights in person, and seeing it all in miniature was a delight. For example, I had been to the Grand Place in Brussels the day before, and then I visited the replica. Can you see the difference?
















In the afternoon on Monday I had lunch with a favorite former professor and his wife. They are both retired, but Drew University needed someone to run the Brussels semester this year, so he came out of retirement for one last (maybe?) hurrah. They had just returned from 10 days in London and were very busy, so I'm glad they were able to set some time aside for me. It was nice to see them, and Heidi, and I'm quite sure that my time in Brussels would have been exponentially less fun had I not had that company.

I had changed hotels on Saturday, and I was now closer to civilization at the "Royal Rent-a-Room". It was kind of a dump, but good enough and cheap enough for me. I returned on Monday evening to find that a ring that I had inherited was no longer on the desk in my room. My other ring was there, but its' little opal partner was gone. I went down to the desk to speak to someone, and even though his English had been great earlier, as soon as I said that something had been stolen the clerk no longer spoke any English at all. I did eventually get the ring back, but only after 2 hours of literally tearing my room apart with the clerk, emptying every bag so he could look through them, calling the managers, and calling the cleaning woman. The clerk told me that I was crazy and wrong, and "this is Belgium, it's cool here". When the cleaning woman arrived, I was told to stay in my room until they called me. I was asked to come down 15 minutes later to see them standing with a bag of laundry, holding my ring. "Looks like it got put in with the sheets," they told me. "See? You were wrong." Aside from the fact that nothing in my room was laundered, I'm sure that's what happened. My ring migrated off the desk over to the other side of the room and hopped into the laundry bag. I didn't care, I was just glad to have the ring back. I know it's just a possession, it's not like it was my passport or something vital, but I felt violated and insulted.

I was exhausted, but Heidi and I still needed dinner, so we went off in search of a light meal for a good price. We should have forgotten about that, because light meals and fair prices do not exist in Brussels. When you are there, you have to assume that you will overpay for everything. We wandered through some narrow streets lined with Italian restaurants which, during the day were quaint and sweet. After dark however, waiters will stand outside and harass you as you walk by, holding up their menu and following you down the street trying to get you to come inside. If you ignore them, they will just make crude comments about your rear end. I suppose the restaurants have to do something to get customers to come in, since there are seemingly hundreds of restaurants that all serve the same delicacies: Mussels and pomme-frites. These are the foods that Brussels is known for, and I have to say that they are terrible. The pomme-frites are steak fries. Exactly the same as you would get from a frozen bag of Ore-Ida fries. I am allergic to mussels so I didn't eat any, but Heidi did and she seemed totally unimpressed. I had a steak while she ate mussels, and it was disgusting. I have never sent food back before, but I had to say something about this so-called "steak". It was overcooked and chewy at the center, and cold and rare at the edges. None of it was edible. I'm sure there are high quality restaurants in Brussels that serve incredible dishes, but we couldn't afford to go into any of those places. We ate sub-par meals the entire time, and only once did we have a waiter who wasn't extremely rude.

I was glad to finally leave on Tuesday, but my train wasn't until 12:30, and I had to be out of my hotel at 10. It was raining, so I hoped to find a cafe or restaurant to sit in for a bit. That's also a pipe dream because nothing in Brussels is open before noon. I ended up sitting in the train station on the floor because none of the train station cafes would let me sit at their tables for more than 15 minutes.

I took my five trains back to Kassel, and I was never so glad to be back in a place that seemed friendly and organized. I could finally understand (mostly) what people were saying, and I didn't feel out of place anymore. I'm sure that Belgium has a lot of wonderful attributes, but in the few times I have visited I have never been impressed. I am glad that I went though, because now I know. I have the same approach to travel that I have to cooking. I will take a chance and give it a try, and if it turns out to be a disaster, at least now I know. So now I know that Belgium and I don't get along, and in the future I think we'll just leave each other alone.

Sometimes that's the thing with some of those things

Hallo Freunden!

It's been a good week here in Kassel- the weather has been less rainy, there are beautiful parks to walk through, plenty of nice people around, and most of all, I'm finished with my paper. It's a relief to be done with this first paper, because it was so difficult to start. I was a bit rusty in the research department, so now that I have completed one full cycle of a research paper, I'm less nervous about the other 14 papers I have to write.

As a treat to myself, I'm going to Brussels this weekend. I hemmed and hawed a bit at first, but a good friend who I haven't seen in ages is going to be there for work, so I just couldn't say no. It's kismet, or something. I'll be there for four days, and I've already got a tremendous list of things to do and see. At the top of the list of course is sampling fine Belgian beers. Next on the list is chocolate. I'll let you know if I manage to see anything else...


Apart from preparing for my little excursion, I've been busy here. Last weekend I went to a Fußbal game of the local team, KSV Hessen Kassel (I haven't the slightest idea what the KSV stands for... I'll find out and let you know). It was chilly and clear, the perfect weather for a game. We drank beer and glüwein, ate pretzels and bratwurst, and had a merry time. Oh, and some sport happened too. The team was terrible, but it didn't really matter. I enjoy yelling at sporting events, regardless if I know who I'm yelling at. It was good fun, and I think the next sporting event will be the local hockey team, the Huskies. I'll let you know if the beer is good there too.

Qingqing and I have spent a lot more time together, and I'm pleased to say that we get along well. She made dinner for herself last week and had far too much food, so she invited me to join her. It was a delicious stir-fry of sorts, with potatoes, chili peppers, chicken, and of course rice. It was delicious even though just the smell of the chili peppers made me cough. (I did not eat them, I'm sure that's obvious.) After we ate she told me that she had never cooked before. It makes sense, she has been at home or in school her entire life, but I was surprised that she'd never made even a small dish at home. I was also surprised because it was so well prepared. I don't recall the first time I cooked for myself, but if my first attempt at pancakes is any indication, I'm sure it was not a pretty sight. We talked a lot while we ate, and she told me about her work here in Kassel. She has a PhD in Physics from the University of Beijing, and she is here on a Marie Curie grant. She applied to go to either MIT in Massachusettes, Northwestern in Illinois or Kassel in.. never mind. All good places to go, but she didn't find out until a few weeks before she left where she was going! I guess all those places are cold so she knew she had to bring a coat, but other logistics, such as getting a visa and a flight, must have been quite an ordeal. She was originally supposed to stay for one year, but again, a few days before she left she was informed that she was staying for two years. She seems to be pretty happy about it, as doing a research project in physics takes at least a year and a half, but I would imagine it would have been nice to know all the details much earlier. On top of all this uncertainty, she'd never left China before. This is her first trip away from her home country, and it's to an unknown destination for an unknown period of time? Talk about guts.

Aside from sharing some meals, we also had a laundry adventure this past weekend. We set out towards a laundromat in our neighborhood that google maps swore existed. In reality, that address belongs to a dentist, and there isn't a Waschsalon anywhere nearby. We trekked to the nearest stop of the Straßenbahn, and I managed not to garble my German too badly while I asked for a place where we could wash our clothes. It turns out that there is anothe Waschsalon just a few tram stops away, so we lugged our dirty underthings onto the tram and off we went. When we reached the Waschsalon, Qingqing looked to me for directions, but it was unlike anything I'd seen before. I've never had to do my laundry at a laundromat before, but I worked in one in high school, so I've got a fair amount of experience. I remember working at the Laundry Club, and shaking my head at all the intelligent Brown University students who couldn't figure out how to operate a washing machine to save their lives. Well, I take it back. But to be fair, these machines and I do not speak the same language, and they are all controlled from a large central panel. It was complicated. Still, I'm a smart köchen, so I figured it out and we came away with clean and dry clothes. We walked to a Milchbar to have a coffee while the clothes washed, and Qingqing told me that she'd never had coffee before. I was shocked once again. A life without coffee? It's just too horrible to imagine. She wanted to try one at the Milchbar, so for her very first coffee experience I ordered her a cappucino. Boy, her eyes opened up wide, and she loved it. I think we have a convert.

Of course I've spent a lot of time with Christian and Christine too. We went for a walk in the Bergpark which is at the base of the Herkules monument, and surrounds the Wilhelmshöher Schloss (Castle). I didn't have my camera with me on Sunday (dangit!) but here is a picture I took two years ago. It captures only a tiny piece of how beautiful this park is, but I promise I'll go back very soon and take some updated photos.

For some reason, we've recently been digging up tounge-twisters in both English and Deutsch. Last weekend at Olli's concert a bunch of them tried to teach me to pronounce "Streichholzschachtelchen", which means matchbox. I've actually gotten very good at saying it, but I have to concentrate. This led to us looking up tounge-twisters on the internet, and it's funny how the German's are able to pronounce the English tounge twisters fairly well, and I do OK with the German ones. I guess it's all about concentration, and you tend to concentrate a little bit harder anyway when it isn't your native language. Still, I was feeling a little silly for not being able to pronounce "Streichholzschachtelchen", so I came up with a sentence that foils the Germans every time. You see, the "s", "th", "v" and "w" sounds can be troublesome for German speakers, so when you put them into one quick sentence, they can't make the jump between sounds. So if you ever meet a German and you want to give them a challenge, ask them to say "Sometimes that's the thing with some of those things". Because well, sometimes that is the thing with some of those things.

Bis dann!