Dresden

If you're sharp you've already guessed from the title that this entry is about a trip to Dresden.  It started off quite early.  I was surprised to walk out the door at 5:30 Saturday morning to see everything was covered in snow.  Fortunately when we got Dresden it was gone and slightly warmer.

Waiting at the bus stop to kick off the morning.

The "Artsy" side of Dresden.

They turned gates into bikes.  Not practical but creative.

I don't know what it is but it was impressive.

The Japanese garden in the foreground looking across the Elbe to a number of the larger landmarks.

Karen is terrified of these spiky stars that keep following us everywhere.  

They just seem dangerous!

Crossing one of the bridges in town.  We did a lot of walking on Saturday looking at all the sights.  I think this was the last bridge crossing before closing the night with Chocoloccino and cake.

The coffee filter was invented in Dresden.  Everyone knows that it's not the bean that makes the coffee good, it's the filter!

Volkswagon has a manufacturing plant here that is all glass so you can watch the process.  Unfortunately we weren't there while they were giving tours.

This was in the middle of a 15km run early on Sunday to see things farther from the center.

We followed the river to all sorts of cool stuff

The bridge is the "Blue Wonder"  and I don't know what the spike is in the back.  Dresden is just spiky.  We had to jump a fence later, and another spike got the better of Karen's running pants.. Schade Schokolade..

The bird feeding lady.  The swans could have pecked her nose if they weren't on such good terms.

There is where J.S. Bach is buried in Leipzig.  We passed through on our way back.

That's all.  

A Story - we got on a train that we weren't technically allowed to take with the ticket we had (honest mistake).  But the super nice train lady (wearing Nike earrings) made an "especially special exception" and didn't make us pay a fine as long as we got out at the next stop (Leipzig).  Probably more stories to tell, but the mall is kicking me out now.

The End

Speaching in German

Twice!  Twice in less than a week I had to address groups of about 100 Germans... in German!  With groups that size I have just about zero fear of speaking, assuming the language of the day is English and I can just be myself.  German on the other hand is just awkward.  No matter how good it sounds in my head the words end up turned around somehow or another.


Case 1:  Last Sunday the International Student Group (IST) was visiting the church that lends us a room each week.  Every language represented said something in that language (I was the only native english speaker, and coincidentally the only language the congregation understood before the final translation into German).  Then the group leader, spur of the moment, asked us, over the microphone, if any of us could briefly share what IST meant to us personally.  Awkward pause before I shuffled over to the microphone fumbled through some positive sounding words.  Everyone understood, but... rather challenging.


Case 2:  My small group was responsible for handling the details for Large Group this week for the SMD.  My task (in addition to set up and tear down) was to talk briefly about why we worship.  Fortunately my troubles with German drove my point home stronger.  For me, being able to worship with music allows me to express myself more fully and completely than with words alone, just as speaking in English allows me to express myself more fully and completely than when I speak German.  That is the gist of what I said, only it took me a good many more words to say it in German.


That's all.  Hopefully I'm off the hook for addressing large crowds for a while.
Thanks for your attention.  Good night.

Endlich ein Fahrrad

So I finally got a hold of a free bike.  My landlord has 7-10 bikes in various states of disrepair lying around, so he said if I could fix one and return it at years end then I could use it.  Most were ugly except this one.  It is a ten speed roadbike, much like the one stolen from my back at Uni.  I need to unrust the chain, change a few break pads, and a break cable before it is operational.  I love it.  I think I'll be even more attached to it after I work on it.  Oh, and I need to replace the bell.  Since bikes are used so commonly for regular commuting, having a bell and mud guards are standard.  I'm thinking of replacing the bell with a big horn.  I think that would be marvelous, if it can stand the rain.  The generator for the lights needs to be adjusted too.  In Germany, it is the law that your bike have lights if you are riding after dark.  They are basically just as strict with bikes as with cars since they are used so much.  That also means biking with too high of a blood alcohol level is punishable.  I think people mostly ignore that one though.

Under Construction!

See the little silver barrel next to the wheel.  That is the generator for the lights.

Good Week

So we left off with Sunday's hike.  Let's skip to Thursday.  The international student group all went ice skating.  It was quite a good time.  I take for granted that ice skating is a part of our culture and we've all grown up doing it at least annually.  Not the case worldwide.  For much of the group, it was their first time putting on skates.

Come Friday, I found out that Germany does have hardware stores very much like what I would find at home.  I went to "OBI" and found some good wood glue to fix the guitar I broke...  I also used it to fix the hole I made in the wall when I tore a picture down. 

Saturday morning I got up early (8am) to make sure I had eaten and woken up by my 9am appointment with my landlord.  The meeting was about finding a bike.  See next entry for details.  It made me happy.  That afternoon I met up with a friend from PUMA (Lisa) to go the Toy Museum (Spielzeug Museum) in Nuremberg.  For just 3€ it was quite a good time.   A few pics below.  This morning, the church who provides us a room for the international student meetings invited us all to the service followed by lunch provided by them.  I quite enjoyed it.  We went for a stroll afterwards around a part of the city I hadn't seen before.  All I keep thinking though is, "wow, this would be so much more awesome in summer!"  Oh well, summer is coming.  I can't wait.

In other news, I got a biomechanics of footwear book the other day from 1987 written in German.  I'm going to try to plow my way through that.  My flatmate also finally finished unpacking and is going to lend me a few novels in German to try reading.  That's all for now.  Off to write an entry about bikes!

These folks flip one over the other down the stairs like a slinky

This is a toy kitchen.  Many of the ovens let you put a candle in to heat water.

Stieff toys "with button in ear" was their slogan.

American toys - Popeye the Sailor man

Lisa at her masterpiece

Fränkische Schweiz

So last Sunday 17 of us headed out for a hike through a nearby mountain range.  Perhaps just a half step grander than central PA, but then with cool stuff added like this cave and than castle fort thing.  High of 30 degrees F (-1 C) meant ground was good and frozen.  perfect.  k I'm out.

Home Means:

Home means lower doorknobs, and bedrooms without keyholes.
It's windows that open up and down instead of in and out, and it's winter so they're closed.
It's my guitar and fitting tweed case.
It's book after book, and internet everywhere.
It's a sound system that shakes the kitchen below me.
We enter on the first floor, because we don't have ground floors.
And that first floor is a figure eight, around which I can chase my sisters.
It's family and hugs, and hugs and family.  Love all around.
It's peanut butter or Reeses, it's tortilla chips and spicy salsa.
It's living on the top of a mountain that makes every run hurt twice as fast.
It's having wildlife come through the backyard, and a dog through the living room.  
It's a kitchen for 4 instead of 2, and of course a living room dining room family room to boot.
It's hosting 5 friends and a Grandma all at once.
It comes with a dryer for my clothes and a rack for dirty shoes that shouldn't be in my room.
It means never having to walk farther than the garage.
It's temperatures in Fahrenheit and gas in gallons.
Grooveshark works and GEMA doesn't block every second YouTube video


Most of all though it's back to the family and hugs and hugs and family, and friends and hugs too.






These are the things I've missed the past 4 months, not in any sort of order, just things I've noticed in the last week.  It's not a comparison of Germany against the United States, just of my life in Erlangen against my life at home.