Things are going well with me, had a decent amount of work to do in school last week and spent Weds and Thurs afternoon in Lübeck working at an international High School Model UN conference. The official language of the conference is English, so the Approval Panel had a lot of work to do correcting the draft resolutions sent to our office!
Yesterday we all went to ex-roommate Tom and Sandra's wedding reception part 2: Hamburg and had a great time! They live a bit further out so we were able to celebrate outside and even had a roast pig (Spanferkel {shpaan fair-cul} auf Deutsch, a word I think is pretty awesome!) Everyone brought tons of delicious food, and I think I am going to lay off eating for the next week after trying a "Smith sliver" of everything^^
Today I am going to the Hafengeburtstag (port birthday) celebration for a while, and am then headed to the Spielbudenplatz on the Reeperbahn to watch the St. Pauli-Paderborn game and celebrate the F.C. Sankt Pauli's incredible season and their advance to the 1. Bundesliga! If they win today (and Kaiserslautern loses), they will also be the 2nd league champions which would be a perfect storm for the season. Hamburg is going to go crazy...
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
It never snows in Hamburg?
That's what I was told when I got here: Oh, it rarely ever snows in Hamburg! It's too near the coast, blah, blah. Well guess what. It does snow in Hamburg. It's snowing right now. It's snowed here at least once a week since mid-December! It's nice actually, the north of Germany is strangely beautiful with grey skies and a blanket of snow over everything. It's like the entire world is a pencil sketch on a huge piece of white paper. The cold isn't that bad actually, but the wind is a killer. Luckily I have a pretty warm leather coat I wear all the time which, often coupled with a fleece jacket, does a pretty good job of keeping the wind at bay. I hope it stays cold for the next few weeks, as it looks like the Alster lake may freeze over. If the ice reaches 20cm thick over the whole surface the Alstereisvergnügen (website only in German, sorry) will be authorized and Hamburger will take to the ice for the first time in 16 years! Because it rarely occurs, people come from all over to get the experience. The city also allows an outdoor market to be set up on the ice as long as the merchants follow VERY strict rules about the setup of their stands. I hope you will all keep your fingers crossed for me^^ I am starting to miss the sun though... when the difference between night and day is merely a change in the shade of grey that the sky takes on, it is easy to lose track of time, to lose interest in doing ... pretty much anything. It is easy to retreat into one's self, become very introspective, and get somewhat depressed. Dr. Armstrong (my director while in the W&M choir) had a theory that this somewhat depressing, melancholy winter period was responsible for the depth of the Scandinavian soul and their propensity to write really complicated, abstract, dissonant music. I think there is something to this theory, especially as the scandinavian countries are also the birthplace of the darkest, most depressing heavy metal bands! (This unfortunately had a horrificsally violent side as well. See for instance the story of Varg Vikernes)
In any case, right now is a time in which I am especially glad that I am not living alone! While they are a bit more used to it than I am, we all feel the effects of winter and do our best to keep each other occupied and in good spirits. Unfortunately, my days in my WG are numbered. My landlords will be returning from New York sometime near the end of April, and I will need to find a new place to live for the last 3 months of my stay here in Hamburg. I am not so worried about this as I was at the beginning of the year as I am sure I want to continue living in Hamburg, I actually live IN the city now and visiting other places will not be such a hassle, and I have friends I can rely on to help me out if things go awry. I hope to continue living in approximately the same area, but wouldn't be totally opposed to getting to know a new district of the city, as long as it is relatively close to the main train station. Otherwise my commute would be made considerably longer, and waking up much earlier than I already do (6am) is not my cup of tea. But honestly, I am really not worried about it. That being said, wish me luck, but don't worry about me too much^^
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Finally in my favorite spot to write, the previously mentioned HADAG #62 Ferry on the Elbe. (One of the perks of an unlimited transit pass, the ferry becomes a floating café! If only they had wi-fi here…) Not only do you get that fun feeling of being on the water, but you get to watch all the tourists enjoying their first views of the truly awesome port of Hamburg. Right now, the ferry is rich with the unmistakable sounds of Austrian accents, as the Rapid Wien is playing the Hamburger SV in the big Europa-League game tonight. Your faithful correspondent will be in attendance tonight, and is rather excited, as it will be his first European soccer game! (A full report will, of course, follow)
As the last post was supposed to be a highlights reel, and turned into a rather lengthly work of prose, I am going to endeavor to keep this post relatively short, but talk a bit about what I have been up to at school, something which hasn't come up in this blog too much.
Things have been changing around a lot recently at school, as we perennially find ourselves a few teachers short… the unfortunate death of one of our colleagues, the pregnancy of the teacher with whom I worked most closely, and the wave of illness, including the swine-flu (PC: "New Flu") that hit the school, as if to announce for all of those who were unaware the arrival of old man Winter. The indications have been legion: the cold, the ever shorter days, the impenetrable fog, the sudden disappearance of all the tables and chairs from the sidewalks, or at least the stacking up and/or chaining together thereof, and last but certainly not least, the appearance of scarves around the neck of every passer-by. (See the picture of the HSV fans above!)
I spent the vast majority of my time at school working with the 7d and 8d, as their teacher CO**, knew she would be leaving sometime around Christmas break, and it would convenient for me to take over the class when she was ill, and make the transition easier when new teachers had to be found for the class. This point came a lot earlier than we though, i.e. last week, so I have recently been taking over a lot of classes. I've had some fun lessons with both of these classes, and we get along pretty well. The 8d has recently adopted a terrarium of "stick bugs" (there apparently is no better translation of Stabheuschrecke) as their class pets, and are always happy when I stay after class to help them feed their little friends. I also help out my mentor, Sel, with some of her classes, her 12b and 9e. With the 12th graders, we have been covering various aspects of the history and culture of India, as this is one of the possible themes for the Zentralabitur, the recently centralized mother of all final exams, required for acceptance at all German universities. I have also done a series of lessons on Media, both the MSM and the so-called "New Media" blogs, podcasts, and various forms of social media with Bo's 10 graders, an analysis of two poems with Tz's 13th graders, and am working with Htm on an ongoing series of lessons centering around the film "Erin Brockovich." This series will end with a mock trial-like discussion, which I think the kids will enjoy a lot.
** N.B. Out of respect for the privacy of the teachers I work with, I will be referring to them by their Kürzel, an abbreviation that every teacher at a German school gets. My Kürzel, in case you were wondering, is Smi.
As the last post was supposed to be a highlights reel, and turned into a rather lengthly work of prose, I am going to endeavor to keep this post relatively short, but talk a bit about what I have been up to at school, something which hasn't come up in this blog too much.
Things have been changing around a lot recently at school, as we perennially find ourselves a few teachers short… the unfortunate death of one of our colleagues, the pregnancy of the teacher with whom I worked most closely, and the wave of illness, including the swine-flu (PC: "New Flu") that hit the school, as if to announce for all of those who were unaware the arrival of old man Winter. The indications have been legion: the cold, the ever shorter days, the impenetrable fog, the sudden disappearance of all the tables and chairs from the sidewalks, or at least the stacking up and/or chaining together thereof, and last but certainly not least, the appearance of scarves around the neck of every passer-by. (See the picture of the HSV fans above!)
I spent the vast majority of my time at school working with the 7d and 8d, as their teacher CO**, knew she would be leaving sometime around Christmas break, and it would convenient for me to take over the class when she was ill, and make the transition easier when new teachers had to be found for the class. This point came a lot earlier than we though, i.e. last week, so I have recently been taking over a lot of classes. I've had some fun lessons with both of these classes, and we get along pretty well. The 8d has recently adopted a terrarium of "stick bugs" (there apparently is no better translation of Stabheuschrecke) as their class pets, and are always happy when I stay after class to help them feed their little friends. I also help out my mentor, Sel, with some of her classes, her 12b and 9e. With the 12th graders, we have been covering various aspects of the history and culture of India, as this is one of the possible themes for the Zentralabitur, the recently centralized mother of all final exams, required for acceptance at all German universities. I have also done a series of lessons on Media, both the MSM and the so-called "New Media" blogs, podcasts, and various forms of social media with Bo's 10 graders, an analysis of two poems with Tz's 13th graders, and am working with Htm on an ongoing series of lessons centering around the film "Erin Brockovich." This series will end with a mock trial-like discussion, which I think the kids will enjoy a lot.
** N.B. Out of respect for the privacy of the teachers I work with, I will be referring to them by their Kürzel, an abbreviation that every teacher at a German school gets. My Kürzel, in case you were wondering, is Smi.
Oh golly, a smörgåsbord!
My goodness, it has been quite a while since I updated this puppy! Needless to say, a lot has happened since then, much of which will covered only superficially (if at all) in this strange mishmash of unfinished posts from the past two months...
I'll start with the coolest (and most expensive) stories first. A few weeks ago I went to a concert of the british rock band MUSE with my friend and fellow Fulbrighter, Lucy. I had been meaning to look into tickets for this show months ago, but by the time I got around to it, the place was sold out. Luckily enough, I came across 2 tickets last minute over CouchSurfing.com's Hamburg Forum! While there, we looked through the brochures of upcoming concerts and I realized that both the Norwegian band "a-ha" (of the truly 80's song "Take on Me" fame) and the world's most well known syth-pop band, Depeche Mode were playing that weekend. At first I though, "Gee, it's a shame that I am going to miss both of these concerts..." but then I started to realize that with some luck and some good budgeting, I might actually be able to pull it off! As soon as I got home from MUSE, I started dredging the internet, looking for any remaining tickets to both of these sold out performances. I was especially desperate to find a ticket for a-ha, because this was to be one of their last performances in Germany, and the band is planning on going their separate ways come next year. After a bit of searching, I found a reasonably priced ticket on e-bay. It was a floor ticket in about the 10th row. When I got to the ColorLine Arena and met the guy selling me the ticket, there a was another woman there practically in hysterics, complaining about how she had won her auction fair and square, and how could he be out of tickets already? I was quite surprised to hear this myself, but it soon turned out that there had been a mix up as to the number of tickets available in each section. We ended up working it out so that hysterical woman got my ticket, and for a 15Euro reduction of the ticket price, I got a ticket one section further back. I didn't realize that this meant I would be in the very last row of the floor section, but it was too late, and I decided it was water under the bridge and proceeded to enjoy this great band.
So excited to have actually seen a-ha before they disbanded, I figured I would try and score a hat trick on concerts that weekend and try to get Depeche Mode tickets too. Hardly believing my luck, I found another auction on e-bay. This time, rather than someone who obviously bought extra tickets in order to scalp them, it was from a guy who really wanted to go to the concert but had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances. After chatting with him for a while (he was very surprised to find out that I was an American) I went about the task of finding someone to come with me. I eventually managed to rope my roommate Adrian into coming along, but it took almost a whole day. He was a bit worried about transportation, and how long it would take to get there and back. Oh, right, I forgot the mention the concert was in Bremen, about an hour's train ride to the southwest. Ordinarily it would cost about 20Euros to get there, but because we both have full HVV passes, our tickets only cost 7Euros. I finally managed to convince him to come along, though it turns out he was right to worry... more about that in a minute! Anyway, the concert was really great! Depeche Mode is really impressive live. Unfortunately, the audience was not terribly impressive. These folks had obviously not been to a standing-room only concert in the past decade. People are going to be moving around, trying to get further forward, going to get a drink or relieve themselves. This point seemed to have been lost on the majority of the audience, which evidenced itself in the aggravated looks and occasional physical abuse of our fellow audience members every time Adrian and I attempted to move further than 3 inches. After the concert, we hurried to the train station, only to confirm that we had indeed missed the last train back to Hamburg by more than an hour. We were effectively stranded in Bremen until the next morning at 5:50am. This was simply to long for us to wake, so we did the only thing there was to do in this situation: we started asking every single person at the concert hall if they were heading to Hamburg. We struck out completely after asking what seemed like several thousand people. Giving up, we starting hanging out with some nice folks Adrian had met while trying to find a ride home. We must have spent at least an hour chatting about the concert and swapping stories about festivals we had been to, when they announced it was time for them to head home to Berlin and we were welcome to join them. Adrian and I decided that rather than sit idly around in the rainy and cold Bremen weather, we might as well have some fun, so we all climbed into their car and hit the Autobahn. A few hours later we arrived in Berlin, bought the boys a real Berliner currywurst and a Kindl, and made our way to the train station. Taking the first train back to Hamburg, we arrived a full 20minutes earlier than we would have, had we waited in Bremen all night!
N.B. It was not my intent at the time, but one of my friends later mentioned to me that while she was proud of herself for having been to all of the German city-states in one week, I had achieved it in one night, a record which someone would have to try pretty hard, and spent a lot of unnecessary money to beat!
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I love getting things that are actually important in my box at school. If there is anything in there at all, it is normally something that just gets distributed to all the teachers: how to instruct your pupils to avoid Swine Flu, new rules on how many tests students in the new "Profile Upperclass" system as compared to old major/minor system, etc. So it was much to my surprise the other day when I saw a letter addressed to me from the Ministry of Education inviting me to a conference in Kiel the next week. It was a chance for all of the Teaching Assistants (i.e. not just Amis and Brits, but our French and Spanish colleagues as well) to meet up and chat about how things have been going at our schools and to share our experiences, concerns, and suggestions with the Ministry. On top of that, we got a free lunch and a tour of the Landtag (state parliament) and of Kiel itself. Unfortunately the weather was truly miserable, so we spent most of our tour in the bus, peering through the rain and fog to marvel at the barely discernible outlines of whatever particular sight our tour guide was babbling on about. We managed to amuse ourselves nonetheless. It was nice to see the other Americans I had met in Altenberg again. It seems most of us followed the same logic, preferring to live in larger cities rather than our small towns, so there are a few in Kiel and Lübeck with similar commutes to Katie and me. I stayed in Kiel for a little while afterwards to hang out with some other Fulbrighters, and ended up traveling with them from Kiel to Neumünster. It irked me that Neumünster is 2 dinky stations outside of the area in which my train pass is valid on both the Nordbahn regional trains and the AKN light rail. I did a little research and found out that there is a bus I can ride from the last stop on the Nordbahn all the way to Neumünster, so I decided to try it out one Thursday afternoon. The bus was waiting at the station when the train pulled in, almost like it knew I was coming. My friend Amy was pretty surprised then when I called her and mentioned that I just happened to be in town! My impromptu visit conveniently coincided with the first meeting of the English Club at Amy's school, so the kids got treated to two Americans in the classroom for their first meeting! The timing between bus and train is unfortunately not as convenient on the return trip, a fact which lead to my getting to know the VERY provincial town of Rickling far better than I had ever imagined! It was freezing cold that evening and the "train station" was just a hunk of concrete with a roof near the train tracks, so I decided to check out the area on foot to keep warm. I set out in each of the three directions possible, walking 5 minutes out and 5 minutes back, only to discover than there really is NOTHING in Rickling! Apparently if I had gotten off the bus a few stops earlier there was a neighborhood bar/pizza joint that I could have checked out to pass the time, although the point of this exercise was not paying anything to get to and from Neumünster... we'll just have to figure that out the next time I'm in town.
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Other things I have been up to:
** Re-wiring our entire entire apartment for internet (LAN & Wi-Fi) + Telephone
** Trying to figure out what I want to do with my hair...
** Occasionally battling with a cold/the flu, but so far reigning supreme!
** Attempting to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and failing miserably.
** Getting strangely used to waking up at 6am...
** Catching flak for not updating my blog often enough, which is why this post is going to end...... now.
I'll start with the coolest (and most expensive) stories first. A few weeks ago I went to a concert of the british rock band MUSE with my friend and fellow Fulbrighter, Lucy. I had been meaning to look into tickets for this show months ago, but by the time I got around to it, the place was sold out. Luckily enough, I came across 2 tickets last minute over CouchSurfing.com's Hamburg Forum! While there, we looked through the brochures of upcoming concerts and I realized that both the Norwegian band "a-ha" (of the truly 80's song "Take on Me" fame) and the world's most well known syth-pop band, Depeche Mode were playing that weekend. At first I though, "Gee, it's a shame that I am going to miss both of these concerts..." but then I started to realize that with some luck and some good budgeting, I might actually be able to pull it off! As soon as I got home from MUSE, I started dredging the internet, looking for any remaining tickets to both of these sold out performances. I was especially desperate to find a ticket for a-ha, because this was to be one of their last performances in Germany, and the band is planning on going their separate ways come next year. After a bit of searching, I found a reasonably priced ticket on e-bay. It was a floor ticket in about the 10th row. When I got to the ColorLine Arena and met the guy selling me the ticket, there a was another woman there practically in hysterics, complaining about how she had won her auction fair and square, and how could he be out of tickets already? I was quite surprised to hear this myself, but it soon turned out that there had been a mix up as to the number of tickets available in each section. We ended up working it out so that hysterical woman got my ticket, and for a 15Euro reduction of the ticket price, I got a ticket one section further back. I didn't realize that this meant I would be in the very last row of the floor section, but it was too late, and I decided it was water under the bridge and proceeded to enjoy this great band.
So excited to have actually seen a-ha before they disbanded, I figured I would try and score a hat trick on concerts that weekend and try to get Depeche Mode tickets too. Hardly believing my luck, I found another auction on e-bay. This time, rather than someone who obviously bought extra tickets in order to scalp them, it was from a guy who really wanted to go to the concert but had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances. After chatting with him for a while (he was very surprised to find out that I was an American) I went about the task of finding someone to come with me. I eventually managed to rope my roommate Adrian into coming along, but it took almost a whole day. He was a bit worried about transportation, and how long it would take to get there and back. Oh, right, I forgot the mention the concert was in Bremen, about an hour's train ride to the southwest. Ordinarily it would cost about 20Euros to get there, but because we both have full HVV passes, our tickets only cost 7Euros. I finally managed to convince him to come along, though it turns out he was right to worry... more about that in a minute! Anyway, the concert was really great! Depeche Mode is really impressive live. Unfortunately, the audience was not terribly impressive. These folks had obviously not been to a standing-room only concert in the past decade. People are going to be moving around, trying to get further forward, going to get a drink or relieve themselves. This point seemed to have been lost on the majority of the audience, which evidenced itself in the aggravated looks and occasional physical abuse of our fellow audience members every time Adrian and I attempted to move further than 3 inches. After the concert, we hurried to the train station, only to confirm that we had indeed missed the last train back to Hamburg by more than an hour. We were effectively stranded in Bremen until the next morning at 5:50am. This was simply to long for us to wake, so we did the only thing there was to do in this situation: we started asking every single person at the concert hall if they were heading to Hamburg. We struck out completely after asking what seemed like several thousand people. Giving up, we starting hanging out with some nice folks Adrian had met while trying to find a ride home. We must have spent at least an hour chatting about the concert and swapping stories about festivals we had been to, when they announced it was time for them to head home to Berlin and we were welcome to join them. Adrian and I decided that rather than sit idly around in the rainy and cold Bremen weather, we might as well have some fun, so we all climbed into their car and hit the Autobahn. A few hours later we arrived in Berlin, bought the boys a real Berliner currywurst and a Kindl, and made our way to the train station. Taking the first train back to Hamburg, we arrived a full 20minutes earlier than we would have, had we waited in Bremen all night!
N.B. It was not my intent at the time, but one of my friends later mentioned to me that while she was proud of herself for having been to all of the German city-states in one week, I had achieved it in one night, a record which someone would have to try pretty hard, and spent a lot of unnecessary money to beat!
----------------------------------------------
I love getting things that are actually important in my box at school. If there is anything in there at all, it is normally something that just gets distributed to all the teachers: how to instruct your pupils to avoid Swine Flu, new rules on how many tests students in the new "Profile Upperclass" system as compared to old major/minor system, etc. So it was much to my surprise the other day when I saw a letter addressed to me from the Ministry of Education inviting me to a conference in Kiel the next week. It was a chance for all of the Teaching Assistants (i.e. not just Amis and Brits, but our French and Spanish colleagues as well) to meet up and chat about how things have been going at our schools and to share our experiences, concerns, and suggestions with the Ministry. On top of that, we got a free lunch and a tour of the Landtag (state parliament) and of Kiel itself. Unfortunately the weather was truly miserable, so we spent most of our tour in the bus, peering through the rain and fog to marvel at the barely discernible outlines of whatever particular sight our tour guide was babbling on about. We managed to amuse ourselves nonetheless. It was nice to see the other Americans I had met in Altenberg again. It seems most of us followed the same logic, preferring to live in larger cities rather than our small towns, so there are a few in Kiel and Lübeck with similar commutes to Katie and me. I stayed in Kiel for a little while afterwards to hang out with some other Fulbrighters, and ended up traveling with them from Kiel to Neumünster. It irked me that Neumünster is 2 dinky stations outside of the area in which my train pass is valid on both the Nordbahn regional trains and the AKN light rail. I did a little research and found out that there is a bus I can ride from the last stop on the Nordbahn all the way to Neumünster, so I decided to try it out one Thursday afternoon. The bus was waiting at the station when the train pulled in, almost like it knew I was coming. My friend Amy was pretty surprised then when I called her and mentioned that I just happened to be in town! My impromptu visit conveniently coincided with the first meeting of the English Club at Amy's school, so the kids got treated to two Americans in the classroom for their first meeting! The timing between bus and train is unfortunately not as convenient on the return trip, a fact which lead to my getting to know the VERY provincial town of Rickling far better than I had ever imagined! It was freezing cold that evening and the "train station" was just a hunk of concrete with a roof near the train tracks, so I decided to check out the area on foot to keep warm. I set out in each of the three directions possible, walking 5 minutes out and 5 minutes back, only to discover than there really is NOTHING in Rickling! Apparently if I had gotten off the bus a few stops earlier there was a neighborhood bar/pizza joint that I could have checked out to pass the time, although the point of this exercise was not paying anything to get to and from Neumünster... we'll just have to figure that out the next time I'm in town.
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Other things I have been up to:
** Re-wiring our entire entire apartment for internet (LAN & Wi-Fi) + Telephone
** Trying to figure out what I want to do with my hair...
** Occasionally battling with a cold/the flu, but so far reigning supreme!
** Attempting to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and failing miserably.
** Getting strangely used to waking up at 6am...
** Catching flak for not updating my blog often enough, which is why this post is going to end...... now.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Kaos, Chaos!
Our apartment is once again a total chaos! When I left this morning, not only were all the bottles and jars still piled up in the hallway, but all of our new roomate Caro's stuff is strewn throughout the apartment. She was supposed to move in fully yesterday, but painting her room took much longer than they expected. (Amazingly enough, you need more than one coat of white paint to cover a dark green wall..) So we have boxes, dressers, backpacks, a desk, i.e. the complete contents of a furnished room, crammed into our already somewhat cramped common room. I'm really excited to get home from work today though, as by then it should all be gone, including the recycling! Should be fun.
In other news, I got an email a few days ago from the other Foreign Language Assistant here in Bad Oldesloe. "What's this, Another FSA in Oldesloe? Shouldn't Dustin have known about this already?" you may be asking yourself. Well, if she was teaching English, I would know about it! Paula, on the other hand is from Spain, and is therefore, naturally teaching Spanish to the students of the Theodor-Storm-Gesamtschule next door. So we're going to get lunch after school today. I'll be very interested to get her impressions of the school next door, to ask what it's like to live here in Oldesloe, and to finally meet someone around my own age here in town!
In other news, I got an email a few days ago from the other Foreign Language Assistant here in Bad Oldesloe. "What's this, Another FSA in Oldesloe? Shouldn't Dustin have known about this already?" you may be asking yourself. Well, if she was teaching English, I would know about it! Paula, on the other hand is from Spain, and is therefore, naturally teaching Spanish to the students of the Theodor-Storm-Gesamtschule next door. So we're going to get lunch after school today. I'll be very interested to get her impressions of the school next door, to ask what it's like to live here in Oldesloe, and to finally meet someone around my own age here in town!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Comin' down the pike...
Hey folks,
Last week and this weekend were, honestly, pretty uneventful. We spent a lot of time this weekend at home, re-arranging the house somewhat, getting ready for the new roommate to move in on Tuesday. We used Henrike moving out as an excuse to get rid of some of the junk that has piling up in the apartment, including lots of things from people who don't even live in Hamburg anymore, much less in our WG! We also have been experiment with re-arranging the kitchen, trying to improve the breakfast area, and keep the hallway less cluttered. We used to have one of the refrigerators in the hallway, along with two cupboards where we all keep our food, but when we got the hardwood floors partially redone in the hallway, we moved the other fridge into the kitchen. So things have been pretty fluid recently, the apartment seems to change daily! It will be even more extreme when Stephan borrows the company car tomorrow so we can finally get rid of all the junk, and the recycling that has piled up in the apartment. Germans, as you may or may not know, are somewhat crazy when it comes to trash (just look at the trash cans to the right for an idea...)
and recycling. You would think, then, that it would be easy to recycle here, but no, you have to collect all of your old glass and plastic bottles, and take them to the recycling yourself. Well, at least all of the glass that doesn't have Pfand on it, i.e. you get money back when you take it back to the store to be cleaned, refilled, and resold. So the old saying, "You don't buy beer, you only rent it" is true in Germany for the bottles too! In a large apartment like ours, that happens to be located relatively far away from the recyling, it tends to pile up for a while, usually until the piles collapse, or they are so large that they hinder access to the apartment^^ Well, it will all be gone by Wednesday morning, so we won't have to worry about it any more... for a while at least.
Speaking of junk, the old computer monitor I found, and promptly named "Hoss II" in memory of my old CRT, has decided it wants to leave the apartment on the Junkyard Express as well. After lugging it up the stairs, cleaning it up and testing it out, it worked great. When I tried to turn it on again the next morning... nothing. Makes a faint clicking sound when I plug it in, but there is absolutely no reaction from the power switch. Oh well, I guess I really don't NEED two monitors^^
Saturday was actually pretty fun. There was a gigantic fleamarket in Tostedt, Niedersachsen. (Click on the link for pictures from previous fleamarkets.) The entire downtown area was lined with tables and stands selling everything from old junk to new junk, and
fish sandwiches to Glühwein! I found myself a charger for my cell phone (so I don't have to leave my laptop on all night to charge my phone) and a super heavy-duty bike lock, for a grand total of 12€. OH, I guess I haven't mentioned my bike yet! But that is a story for itself, and will be handled in another post. Maybe even tonight if you are lucky!
So, I'm signing off for now, but here's a look at what I will be up to this week (hence the title of this post...)
Tuesday:
1.Stammtisch with Hamburg Fulbright Alumni at Roxies
2. Our new roommate Caro is moving in!
Wednesday
1. All the junk and trash in the apartment disappears!
Thursday
1. Lehrerausflug! We teachers are going on a field trip! A bunch of the teachers here in Oldesloe are going hiking, and then boßeln which is a somewhat strange, yet typically north German combination of shot-put and bocce. Afterwards, we are all going out to dinner together, so it should be quite a fun outing!
OK, I've been sitting at this keyboard way too long, I'm out!
Last week and this weekend were, honestly, pretty uneventful. We spent a lot of time this weekend at home, re-arranging the house somewhat, getting ready for the new roommate to move in on Tuesday. We used Henrike moving out as an excuse to get rid of some of the junk that has piling up in the apartment, including lots of things from people who don't even live in Hamburg anymore, much less in our WG! We also have been experiment with re-arranging the kitchen, trying to improve the breakfast area, and keep the hallway less cluttered. We used to have one of the refrigerators in the hallway, along with two cupboards where we all keep our food, but when we got the hardwood floors partially redone in the hallway, we moved the other fridge into the kitchen. So things have been pretty fluid recently, the apartment seems to change daily! It will be even more extreme when Stephan borrows the company car tomorrow so we can finally get rid of all the junk, and the recycling that has piled up in the apartment. Germans, as you may or may not know, are somewhat crazy when it comes to trash (just look at the trash cans to the right for an idea...)
and recycling. You would think, then, that it would be easy to recycle here, but no, you have to collect all of your old glass and plastic bottles, and take them to the recycling yourself. Well, at least all of the glass that doesn't have Pfand on it, i.e. you get money back when you take it back to the store to be cleaned, refilled, and resold. So the old saying, "You don't buy beer, you only rent it" is true in Germany for the bottles too! In a large apartment like ours, that happens to be located relatively far away from the recyling, it tends to pile up for a while, usually until the piles collapse, or they are so large that they hinder access to the apartment^^ Well, it will all be gone by Wednesday morning, so we won't have to worry about it any more... for a while at least. Speaking of junk, the old computer monitor I found, and promptly named "Hoss II" in memory of my old CRT, has decided it wants to leave the apartment on the Junkyard Express as well. After lugging it up the stairs, cleaning it up and testing it out, it worked great. When I tried to turn it on again the next morning... nothing. Makes a faint clicking sound when I plug it in, but there is absolutely no reaction from the power switch. Oh well, I guess I really don't NEED two monitors^^
Saturday was actually pretty fun. There was a gigantic fleamarket in Tostedt, Niedersachsen. (Click on the link for pictures from previous fleamarkets.) The entire downtown area was lined with tables and stands selling everything from old junk to new junk, and
fish sandwiches to Glühwein! I found myself a charger for my cell phone (so I don't have to leave my laptop on all night to charge my phone) and a super heavy-duty bike lock, for a grand total of 12€. OH, I guess I haven't mentioned my bike yet! But that is a story for itself, and will be handled in another post. Maybe even tonight if you are lucky!So, I'm signing off for now, but here's a look at what I will be up to this week (hence the title of this post...)
Tuesday:
1.Stammtisch with Hamburg Fulbright Alumni at Roxies
2. Our new roommate Caro is moving in!
Wednesday
1. All the junk and trash in the apartment disappears!
Thursday
1. Lehrerausflug! We teachers are going on a field trip! A bunch of the teachers here in Oldesloe are going hiking, and then boßeln which is a somewhat strange, yet typically north German combination of shot-put and bocce. Afterwards, we are all going out to dinner together, so it should be quite a fun outing!
OK, I've been sitting at this keyboard way too long, I'm out!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Einleben/Settling In
This is the question I have been getting the most recently on this side of the Atlantic, "Und? Hast du dich in Hamburg schon gut eingelebt?" (So, how have you been settling in in Hamburg) I imagine if the people I see everyday at work are asking me about this, then you all are probably desperate for information^^
As far as Hamburg is concerned, things are working out really well. I have been getting to know the other people in my WG, continuing the recent trend of cooking dinner with Adrian and Caro, except now we always watch an episode of Firefly while we are eating. (My job as cultural ambassador has its perks, like getting to re-watch some of my favorite TV shows^^) Actually, one of the really cool things we have in the WG is that we always watch Tatort* together on Sunday nights. Not just the current members of the WG (which apparently the british refer to as a "flat-share" because that is what every German insists on calling it when they speak English.) but lots of former roommates, and friends of the WG. It's like a little mini homecoming when people who haven't lived there for a few years show up, and it's also a nice way to keep in touch with the people who eventually move out. In this case, it's Henrike and Stefan who are moving out, both of whom I have enjoyed spending time with the past 2 weeks, and I'm sad they are moving out so soon.
We had a nice litte Going Away party for those two on Thursday night. We made Flammkuchen, the Alsatian "pizzas" that I may have cooked for some of you already, but this time with the appropriate wine called Federweiser. It was a bittersweet evening, but somehow we managed to keep from crying, though it often came up in conversation.
While we're on the subject of parties, Friday and Saturday night were both part of the yearly Reeperbahn Festival here in Hamburg. Like Bourbon St. in New Orleans, most of the bars and clubs along the Reeperbahn** have live bands. During the Reeperbahn festival though, more well known bands are booked, and you get entrance to every concert with a festival or day-ticket. I went out both nights, but since there weren't any bands playing I felt particularly inclined to see, I decided not to pay the 25€ per day. On Friday night, I met up with some people I met on couchsurfing.com, a German girl, and her two Australian guests. We went to one of the bars that was hosting free concerts as part of the Reeperbahn Festival and listened to a few interesting acts, including one guy, Dan Costello, from New York. At the same bar I happened to run into Jessamyn and Lucy, two of the other American ETAs here in Hamburg, and we spent the rest of the night with them touring the Reeperbahn. I guess you could call it bar-hopping, but most of the places were so full that we couldn't have gotten to the bar even if we had wanted to...
When they say there's no rest for the weary, they are serious. This was especially the case for me the next day, as I somehow woke up at exactly the same time as Adrian and Caro, and we decided that it was time to make pancakes. Despite my protestations, Adrian decided we had no need of a recipe, and that just throwing eggs, flour, milk, and sugar in a bowl would suffice. It did, but the pancakes were far too flat for my taste. By German standards, however, they were relatively thick, so it looks like we got the best of both worlds. Having fortified ourselves with a hearty breakfast, we were ready then when Henrike asked us to help her with moving out. So, relatively tired upon Henrike's departure, I was considering taking a nap when I realized I had a voicemail from Suzanne (another American ETA). She explained that a fellow ETA, Andrew, was visiting from Bad Segeberg that night and was looking for a place to stay. Ever eager to help, I of course offered to host him, and asked what they were planning on doing (knowing full well what the answer would be...) "Oh, I guess we'll tour the Reeperbahn a bit, see what's going on ... we'll meet at midnight at the S-bahn station." Knowing that this was going to be a long night, I treated myself to that nap, and after navigating the perils of Schienenersatzverkehr** I made it to Central Station in time to meet Andrew and head off to join Suzanne and Katie. As it was the night before, everything was really jam-packed due to the Reeperbahn Festival, but we eventually found our way to a place that wasn't too crowded and had a decent live band. As the night (or rather the morning) dragged on, we soon realized that it was time to end the adventures in true Hamburg style, by going to the St. Pauli/Altonaer Fischmarkt (unfortunately only in German, but be sure to check out the WikiCommons album at the bottom of the page) when it opens around 5:30am. This we did, despite the fact that the temperature had dropped to about 40°F. We didn't stay terribly long, but it was neat to see all the different stands, the fisherman unloading their catches, all getting ready for the flood of people who would soon creep out of bed, or stagger out of bars to experience this weekly ritual.
As you might imagine, the next day was rather uneventful for Andrew and me, but we did make an amazing discovery, a restaurant near my apartment called "Qrito". It's what would happen if California Tortilla and Chipotlé had a son, and sent him off to Hamburg to make his fortune. As the only Americans in the restaurant, we were of course the only ones who endeavoured to eat our gargantuan burritos with our hands, which I am happy to say we were quite succesful at, despite the stares of silverware-wielding German customers. So now none of you have an excuse not to visit me here in Hamburg; even here you can get your Chipotlé fix whenever you need it^^
There's plenty more to say, but I want to get this post out there before I start getting nasty-grams from y'all exhorting me to update my blog! So I'll leave you now with a quote from the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel, "More to come, more to come! I said 'brief', not infinitesimal'!!"
* Tatort has always been one of my favorite German shows (although it's something more like "Masterpiece Theatre" or "Mystery!", than a TV-show really) and with well over 700 episodes it's something you can pretty much always watch. I actually wrote one of my final papers in German about Tatort, which I would be happy to share with anyone willing to take on the challenge of reading it^^
** I hesitate to post links to other people's descriptions of St. Pauli and the Reeperbahn, because they invariably make it out to be much worse than it really is. If you have questions, concerns, etc. please comment on this post, and maybe we can start up a good discussion about it.
*** 25c. word for "Trains aren't running, you have to take the bus"
As far as Hamburg is concerned, things are working out really well. I have been getting to know the other people in my WG, continuing the recent trend of cooking dinner with Adrian and Caro, except now we always watch an episode of Firefly while we are eating. (My job as cultural ambassador has its perks, like getting to re-watch some of my favorite TV shows^^) Actually, one of the really cool things we have in the WG is that we always watch Tatort* together on Sunday nights. Not just the current members of the WG (which apparently the british refer to as a "flat-share" because that is what every German insists on calling it when they speak English.) but lots of former roommates, and friends of the WG. It's like a little mini homecoming when people who haven't lived there for a few years show up, and it's also a nice way to keep in touch with the people who eventually move out. In this case, it's Henrike and Stefan who are moving out, both of whom I have enjoyed spending time with the past 2 weeks, and I'm sad they are moving out so soon.
We had a nice litte Going Away party for those two on Thursday night. We made Flammkuchen, the Alsatian "pizzas" that I may have cooked for some of you already, but this time with the appropriate wine called Federweiser. It was a bittersweet evening, but somehow we managed to keep from crying, though it often came up in conversation.
While we're on the subject of parties, Friday and Saturday night were both part of the yearly Reeperbahn Festival here in Hamburg. Like Bourbon St. in New Orleans, most of the bars and clubs along the Reeperbahn** have live bands. During the Reeperbahn festival though, more well known bands are booked, and you get entrance to every concert with a festival or day-ticket. I went out both nights, but since there weren't any bands playing I felt particularly inclined to see, I decided not to pay the 25€ per day. On Friday night, I met up with some people I met on couchsurfing.com, a German girl, and her two Australian guests. We went to one of the bars that was hosting free concerts as part of the Reeperbahn Festival and listened to a few interesting acts, including one guy, Dan Costello, from New York. At the same bar I happened to run into Jessamyn and Lucy, two of the other American ETAs here in Hamburg, and we spent the rest of the night with them touring the Reeperbahn. I guess you could call it bar-hopping, but most of the places were so full that we couldn't have gotten to the bar even if we had wanted to...
When they say there's no rest for the weary, they are serious. This was especially the case for me the next day, as I somehow woke up at exactly the same time as Adrian and Caro, and we decided that it was time to make pancakes. Despite my protestations, Adrian decided we had no need of a recipe, and that just throwing eggs, flour, milk, and sugar in a bowl would suffice. It did, but the pancakes were far too flat for my taste. By German standards, however, they were relatively thick, so it looks like we got the best of both worlds. Having fortified ourselves with a hearty breakfast, we were ready then when Henrike asked us to help her with moving out. So, relatively tired upon Henrike's departure, I was considering taking a nap when I realized I had a voicemail from Suzanne (another American ETA). She explained that a fellow ETA, Andrew, was visiting from Bad Segeberg that night and was looking for a place to stay. Ever eager to help, I of course offered to host him, and asked what they were planning on doing (knowing full well what the answer would be...) "Oh, I guess we'll tour the Reeperbahn a bit, see what's going on ... we'll meet at midnight at the S-bahn station." Knowing that this was going to be a long night, I treated myself to that nap, and after navigating the perils of Schienenersatzverkehr** I made it to Central Station in time to meet Andrew and head off to join Suzanne and Katie. As it was the night before, everything was really jam-packed due to the Reeperbahn Festival, but we eventually found our way to a place that wasn't too crowded and had a decent live band. As the night (or rather the morning) dragged on, we soon realized that it was time to end the adventures in true Hamburg style, by going to the St. Pauli/Altonaer Fischmarkt (unfortunately only in German, but be sure to check out the WikiCommons album at the bottom of the page) when it opens around 5:30am. This we did, despite the fact that the temperature had dropped to about 40°F. We didn't stay terribly long, but it was neat to see all the different stands, the fisherman unloading their catches, all getting ready for the flood of people who would soon creep out of bed, or stagger out of bars to experience this weekly ritual.
As you might imagine, the next day was rather uneventful for Andrew and me, but we did make an amazing discovery, a restaurant near my apartment called "Qrito". It's what would happen if California Tortilla and Chipotlé had a son, and sent him off to Hamburg to make his fortune. As the only Americans in the restaurant, we were of course the only ones who endeavoured to eat our gargantuan burritos with our hands, which I am happy to say we were quite succesful at, despite the stares of silverware-wielding German customers. So now none of you have an excuse not to visit me here in Hamburg; even here you can get your Chipotlé fix whenever you need it^^
There's plenty more to say, but I want to get this post out there before I start getting nasty-grams from y'all exhorting me to update my blog! So I'll leave you now with a quote from the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel, "More to come, more to come! I said 'brief', not infinitesimal'!!"
* Tatort has always been one of my favorite German shows (although it's something more like "Masterpiece Theatre" or "Mystery!", than a TV-show really) and with well over 700 episodes it's something you can pretty much always watch. I actually wrote one of my final papers in German about Tatort, which I would be happy to share with anyone willing to take on the challenge of reading it^^
** I hesitate to post links to other people's descriptions of St. Pauli and the Reeperbahn, because they invariably make it out to be much worse than it really is. If you have questions, concerns, etc. please comment on this post, and maybe we can start up a good discussion about it.
*** 25c. word for "Trains aren't running, you have to take the bus"
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