In Erinnerung an (In Memory of)...

eine gute Brille (a good pair of glasses).

August 2004 (Parma, OH, USA) - January 29, 2009 (in a train near Aachen, Deutschland)

Today, on an early morning train to drop off Jesse at the train station in Cologne, I tried to take off my glasses to clean them. I had barely touched them when I heard a snap that echoed through my life. The arm had snapped. I can't say that I didn't see this coming. Various incidents over time had bent the poor plastic as much as it could take. I really liked these glasses. The shape, the color, the way the nose bridge part was narrow. In fact, in 2004 my glasses fell into a river in the infamous I-Poked-A-Hole-In-A-Whitewater-Raft-with-a-Kayak-Incident. I tried to buy another pair, but none of them filled the need left by my glasses that have now been eaten by a poor turtle (or something), and I had them special order a pair that was exactly alike.

Now I am forced to wear my contacts, something for which I am way too lazy. I guess I do have the option of looking like an idiot with my one-armed glasses, but German girls are already so much more well-put-together than I am, so I don't want to make that worse.

Amtseinfuhrungsparty (Inauguration Party)

Yesterday I made the epic journey to Wuppertal to attend an inauguration party hosted by Democrats Abroad NRW Chapter with the NRW-Krew. Okay, my journey wasn't epic at all. It was pretty boring. I met Matty and Marco under the B (B for Barack!) on track 2 in the Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof and we made our way to the party.

As we stepped into The Londoner, we stepped into a bizarre parallel universe where everyone was speaking English (my Englischverbot took a blow), there was English written all over the walls and hamburgers with American flag toothpicks were being served.

Matty and Marco with one of the many sayings. Perhaps a new motto.

Obama being inaugurated

One of my favorite parts of CNN's broadcast was the factoid bar at the bottom of the screen. It said things like "Fact: Joe Biden is the first VP from Delaware." Later it started displaying things which I thought were inappropriate to display in a factoid manner. As in, "Fact: Ted Kennedy has just collapsed at the inauguration luncheon." and "Fact: It has been confirmed that Ted Kennedy has been taken away in an ambulance."

After the main inauguration ceremonies were over and we had witnessed W. and Laura Bush getting into a helicopter and flying away, we decided to order some food.

America on a plate.

Marco examining the strange sauce that was on the hamburger.

I have to say the hamburger did not live up to my expectations. One of the main problems was the disintegrating bun. I have noticed that American-style hamburger buns and bread are not really so great here. Germans know how to bake bread and the German Brötchen is a delicious thing that I will miss dearly when I go back to the States (that and German beer probably top my list), but things just go awry when they make hamburger buns. I think they should just give up and put it on a Brötchen. The hamburger itself was also oddly disintegrating, but the fries were possibly the best I have had in Germany.

Puppy! Dogs are allowed everywhere in Germany!

Englischsprachverbot and other events

Ab jetzt, spreche ich nur Deutsch. Englisch ist doof. Dieser Blog gibt's nur auf Deutsch.

Haha, nur kidding! I will continue to regale you with my so-called adventures in English, but I have enacted an Englischsprachverbot (English language prohibition) in my life.
(I would like to note that while writing that sentence, I thought "but," but typed "aber." How does that even happen? Is typing finger translation some kind of linguistic development? I am so confused.)
The verbot is only officially valid in my lab. And by officially valid, I mean that I made a sign that says, "Englisch ist in diesem Labor VERBOTEN (exception made for non-German speakers)" and hung it on my door. It has mostly been successful, with the occasional exception of Germans who want to practice their English and an Austrian who claims to speak Österreichisch, not German (which is of course true, but does not absolve her from the Verbot).

Another linguistic development that I'm really excited about is that I woke up on Saturday thinking it was a weekday and freaking out because it was so late. Freaking out in German, that is. I have never woken up in German mode before. Although I sometimes find myself thinking in German, I usually need to flip my imaginary language switch beforehand. I think the Englischverbot is helping me to stay in German mode, which is great (or megageil).

My life lately has been pretty boring, hence my absence from the blogosphere--I've been spending my weekends catching up on American TV and my weekdays in the lab. There are, however, more exciting events on the horizon-- a trip to Wuppertal tomorrow to watch the inauguration with my Fulbright NRW-Krew Matty and Marco (woohoo! Wuppertal! that was sarcastic.), a visit from the Jesse the great, a trip to Budapest, and Karneval.

I am looking forward to Karneval because it seems like a good opportunity to be really drunk for a few days. Oh wait, my mom reads this. What I meant to say is that Karneval seems like a really interesting cultural experience and I am very much looking forward to a new opportunity to observe the Germans and their way of life. For Karneval, one needs a costume. I have been told that I should a nurse with a short skirt (this suggestion was accompanied by winks) or a bee. I'm not sure what I want to be yet. Maybe something American, like a hamburger or Sarah Palin. I am open to suggestions.

Zurück in Aachen (Back in Aachen)

Several monumental things have happened since my return to Aachen. Here they are, in list form:

1. Schnee. We got a LOT of snow on Monday. This time, richtig viel applies, I think. Snow means that the Deutsche Bahn cannot function. Even on Tuesday, the day after the snow, my morning train was delayed by 40 minutes.

Snow covered Aachener Dom

2. Neue Wohnung. I moved into my new apartment on Tuesday. I am still working on unpacking, but I think I will really enjoy living here. My roommates are really nice and the apartment is fully equipped because I'm subletting from their friend who is abroad for a semester. We even have a dishwasher and washing machine in the apartment. Very luxurious. I just need to let them know that they can correct my German mistakes. It's a rough world out here without Claudia and Roger to correct everything I say.
Here are some pictures of the new place.

Mein Zimmer (my room)

die Küche (kitchen)

die Küche

Connected to moving was the Einwohnermeldeamt (resident registration office), where I had to go and register my new address. They were mean to me because I was registered in Marburg, never deregistered (because we were told by Germans that we didn't have to), and have been living in Geilenkirchen without having a registered address. I argued with them in German, pleaded my innocence as an American, and in the end did not have to pay 15 Euro. I also got a neat coupon book with coupons for the zoo. I didn't even know we had a zoo.

3. Neues Labor. I also finally got to move into my own lab. Yesss! I think this will increase my productivity and hopefully eliminate some of my dread about going into work. I have two hoods, my own Rotovap, and all my own glassware. I am pimping in Labor 5.03.

4. Geburtstag. As you all probably know, yesterday was my birthday. It was a nice birthday (other than the part when my boss mispronounced my name while announcing it. I've only been here since October, ya know?). There are a few things I noticed about German birthdays. First, on your birthday, you bring cake to work. I kind of like this. It is better than being the Shea lab cake/apple crisp slave because you only have to make cake once a year. I made some almond pound cake and Ananas-Marzipan Kuchen (pineapple marzipan cake) to bring into work. It was pretty delicious. Another difference, people shake your hand when they say happy birthday, which I don't think we do in America (do we?).

After coming home, Seeja (one of my new roommates) and I cooked dinner and decided to go to a concert. Then, Roger came, bearing cake (ahh! I better start running again! So viel Kuchen!), Guinness and all the luggage that I was unable to schlepp through the snow to the train station. I have too much stuff!

The concert we went to was fun, but kind of bizarre. The band consisted of a woman who had a really good voice, a guy who was wearing heels and doing electronic music stuff, and a guy who just said crazy stuff while the other two made music. Sort of like William Shatner, aber auf Deutsch. And weirder.
Their encore was a song called Lied für Alle. It consisted of the words Lied für alle (song for everyone) repeated over and over again. Most of the songs were absolute nonsense, which was sometimes hard for me to follow because I wasn't sure if it was a lack of my understanding or if it really just didn't make sense. Nonetheless, it was a good time. A very satisfactory birthday.

Weird German Children

I now interrupt my regularly scheduled vacation post programming to share a news story about those crazy Germans.

Child elopers' Africa plan foiled

"Two German children - aged five and six - have been stopped by police from eloping to Africa to tie the knot in the sun, reports say."

Okay, actually that's pretty cute.

Wien (Vienna)

I started my day in Wien at the very early hour 7 am. After taking the train into the city, I checked into my hostel, where I tried to dust off my rusty German skills. Not speaking the language for a few weeks made me forget a lot, but I think I'm back to my normal level of bad German now. After dropping off my bag, I headed into the city to do some exploring before the other tourists got there. (I don't like most other tourists. They are annoying. Especially other Americans.) I discovered a new obsession: taking pictures of myself making the same faces as statues. This is very difficult, but here's me and Mozart: Rock me, Amadeus.

After wandering around the Hofburg, I went see the Morgenarbeit (morning exercises) at the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School). Morgenarbeit is when the riders warm up their horses, so at the beginning they are just walking, maybe doing some cool sideways walking or pausing halfway through their stride so it looks like they're in slow motion, and at the end they did some exciting tricks. The riding hall was very beautiful and for the first hour I was there, none of the horses went to the bathroom, which I was impressed by. Magical horses...??

Following the suggestion of my trusty guidebook, I went to eat lunch at a microbrewery that had amazing lunch specials. As a tourist, I just couldn't resist the possibility of eating Wiener Schnitzel in Wien. It was probably the best Schnitzel I have eaten. In my life. If you are ever in Vienna and looking for a good lunch place, I highly recommend the Siebenstern Bräu. Seriously, this schnitzel was SOOO good.

Fortified by my delicious Schnitzel and Bier, I followed another guidebook suggestion and went to the Schatzkammer at Hofburg, where many of the treasures of imperial Austria are kept (z.B. Maria Theresa's jeweled shoes and gloves and the crowns the kaisers wore.)

The Schatzkammer was nice, but after awhile I became numb to how beautiful everything was. "Oh, this one only has 50 diamonds. Lame."

My next stop was Schönbrunn palace, the summer palace. I didn't go inside because I didn't want to be in close quarters with tourists, and decided to take a walk around the grounds.

Schönbrunn with Vienna in the background.

Keep off the ice! I totally took this picture after I'd already been on the ice. I didn't see the sign.

I started out my second day by checking out the Staatsoper (State Opera) building and then taking a walk around the city, seeing the Rathaus (city hall), Parliament, and some other stuff. Then I went to the Museum of Applied Art, because it is free on Saturdays, and I have no money. Then I met some members of one of my favorite families, the Gartmans.

Tim and Lindsey, along with the other Gartmans, were in Vienna due to AmEx points, which meant that they had access to the magical executive lounge, where there is always food and top-shelf liquor. That was pretty magical, and the rest of the day was spent with pauses for fortification in the EL. We went to the Leopold Museum to check out the collection of Klimt and Schiele, as well as the Hundertwasser Haus, a really cool apartment building designed by painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser. After dinner, we headed to the 1516 Brewery, an American microbrewery translated into Austrian. 1516, if you are not a beer fanatic like Tim, is the year the Deutsche Reinheitsgebot was enacted. This is the famous law that states only water, hops and wheat are allowed to be used in beer. The beer there was quite delicious and college basketball was on TV. Magical.

The next day, I sadly said tschüß to Wien and headed back to Aachen, die Stadt der Wissenschaft. During my trip, I was surprised to find how much I missed Germany, as well as speaking German (that only applies to my Iron Curtain adventures. I def. used my deutsch skills in Vienna). Arriving in the Aachen Hauptbahnhof felt like coming home, so although I was sad to end my traveling adventures, I am glad to be back. Stay tuned for my latest Aachener Abenteur.

5. Teil--Bratislava

Here are the best two things in Bratislava:

Cardamom hot chocolate that had to be eaten with a spoon because it was so thick.

A sled filled with cheese

Sandwiching Bratislava between Prague and Vienna makes it look pretty lame. Also, it was freezing on the day we were there, so that probably dampened my enjoyment.

For more pictures of Bratislava's lameness see: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056778&l=99ce4&id=5900900

Urlaub, 4. Teil--Praha

Probably the highlight of my time in the Czech Republic was our trip to Prague. Alice was a great tour guide. We started out the day with a 4 hour train ride into the city. The first train we rode was the cutest. It apparently just goes between Kromeriz and the next town and consists of one car with built in engine. I wish I'd gotten a picture, but it was 6 in the morning, which is way too early for the Erex.

Our day in Prague itself started out with Wenceslas Square (named for Good King Wenceslas, that guy who looked out on the feast of Stephan). Wenceslas Square is where protests in Prague happen. Other than that, it's a tourist trap.

The next stop was the astronomical clock, where you need to look out for pickpockets, according to my guidebook.

Then we headed to the Charles Bridge, which was unfortunately under construction, followed by the Prague Castle. Alice told us a lot of stories about Prague and Czech history, but I'm not sure which ones are true, because she told us some of them weren't.

View of Prague Castle from the Charles Bridge

Prague Castle Courtyard

View of Prague from Prague Castle

After the Castle, we met up with one of Alice's friends and had tea in an authentic Prague tearoom. We also rode the 22 tram, which supposedly also has a lot of pickpockets, according to my guidebook.

Afterwards, we went to a place whose name I don't remember where there was a cemetery where lots of famous Czechs are buried. Jara Cimrman, the greatest Czech of all time, is not buried there, mostly because he is a fictional character. Then, we had another epic 4 hour ride back to Kromeriz. All in all, it was a great day. We even made it through without having any of our belongings stolen.

For more pictures of Prague see: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056866&l=cad1c&id=5900900
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056868&l=81720&id=5900900

Urlaub, 3. Teil--Icy Hike of Death

The day after our tour of Kromeriz, Alice took us on what I like to call the icy hike of death. Going up wasn't too bad, and our final destination was a very nice church. We also enjoyed some hot wine at the top of the mountain.


The way down was a little more treacherous. I slipped and fell on my butt a few times, and at one point made the decision to just slide down a few meters on my butt so I wouldn't fall on it. Liz, the other non-Czech Smithie actually got injured, but not too badly, and she took it like a man. I was proud of her. The Czechs have amazing mountain skills. There were some people who were just running down the icy hill. I was impressed. We lived to enjoy some hot tea and more cookies (these people with their Christmas cookies!) at Alice's grandmother's house. Czechs are very friendly, unlike the mean Germans. ; )

To see further pictures of the Icy Hike of Death and Kromeriz see: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056775&l=cc5f8&id=5900900

2. Teil--Kromeriz

Kromeriz is the town that Alice lives in. It's a very pretty little city, complete with a castle and a small zoo. There were some bunnies there. I tried to speak German to them, thinking maybe they would understand German better than English, but they just ran away, possibily scared by the German language. I just wanted to tell them how cute they were. They were not friendly like Flöckchen, mein Lieblingskaninchen (my favorite bunny). Here's the main square of Kromeriz.

There's also a wine cellar there, and we went on a tour with a bus full of old people. The tour was in Czech, so I had no idea what was going on. Alice translated for us, but it was hard for her to translate everything, even with her incredible translation skills. I do know the word for wine, so it was exciting to recognize one word out of the now approximately 12 Czech words I know. At the end, there was a wine tasting, which was delicious. At the end, there was a wine tasting, which was delicious. This winery exists because way back in the day, an archbishop gave some people the permission to produce wine with the condition that they give him a lot of it every year. Some of this wine is kept in this cage guarded by a statue of the bishop:

This barrel holds 20,000 liters of wine. That's pretty impressive.

At the end, there was a wine tasting, which was really the best part. I tried to smell the wine, and give the impression that I'm a wine expert, not someone who buys wine that costs less than 2 Euro. I think I just looked dumb.

P.S.

I am done with my grad school applications!!! Now I am just keeping my fingers crossed that someone wants to let me in to their school, which I think, I hope, they do.

Weihnachtsurlaub, 1. Teil--Weihnachten in Tschechien

I am currently in a cafe in Vienna, resting my weary tourist feet from a very touristy day of walking around the city, and decided to write my first post in my vacation series. (I'm traveling alone now, so I have no one to provide company besides my little MacBook.)

Czechs have some interesting Christmas traditions. The classic Czech Christmas meal is carp with potato salad. The carp are sold from giant tubs in the streets and then either taken home where they are placed in the bathtub, or slaughtered on the spot. If the bathtub route is chosen, a brave member of the family must take an axe or knife and slaughter the carp. We did not participate in this tradition, as Alice is a vegan.

Czechs also eat a delicious bread called vanocka (Christmas bread). It is very lecker. I'm making it my life's goal to learn how to make it.

Like Germans, Czechs exchange presents on Christmas Eve. We also decorated the tree. Alice is very demanding about trees, so we had a two-tone color scheme so nothing would clash.

After dinner, the children are sent out of the room so that baby Jesus can come. Baby Jesus also brings sparklers.

I am not Baby Jesus, but I still got a sparkler.

Czech Christmas was pretty cool. I got some great gifts from the Baby Jesus, like a Czech periodic table and Czech-German flashcards of animals.