December - part III - in which I made acquaintances with Bavaria.

Well, I've done very little traveling around Bavaria (Bayern) since I've been here.  Some friends were going to explore Nürnberg and Bamberg for a day so I jumped in.  In Germany you can buy train tickets that let you travel through a whole Bundesland ("state" for lack of a better translation) for up to 5 people for a whole day at only 29€ in all.  We started with Nürnberg, of which I had only seen the Christmas market and the soccer stadium before.  The artist Albrecht Dürer who painted the famous "praying hands" was from Nürnberg, so we saw his house briefly.  

We noticed a number of rather dark statues around town including a giant rotting rabbit... still don't know what it's all about.

The inner city has a wall around it dating back to quite a long time ago, with this fortress at one side of it.

It's up on a hill so you can see over all the buildings in the city from there (though only a small feat since the buildings are all short).  I failed at photographing that though.  I actually failed at photos most of the day.  Apologies!

Here we went up on a balcony to get good view of the Christmas market.. all we got was red and white stripes though..

After a good meal we made our way to Bamberg, which turns out to be a pretty legitimate city in it's own right.  It was cool to see after dark, they have some churches and castles up on the hill sides that have spotlights on them, only from the city side though.  As we trekked up to each of them, we found the back sides in darkness, and the front sides glowing brilliantly.  There is a nice part of the city that is compared to Venice, but it was tough to see in the dark.  I'll have to go again later.

Once we had our fill of Bamberg we headed home to Erlangen for some dinner and then visited another intern, Lisa for Christmas tea and brownies and a few violent rounds of Jungle Jam, a card game that requires laying down cards at top speeds until certain combinations come up and then lunging for the totem sitting in the middle of the table, and often effectively wrestling for it to win.  The wounds on my hands have healed though now.

 - that's all.  Christmas today was delightful.  I like my family.  Cheers.

December - part II - in which I went North

Come the second weekend in December it was time for my first vacation.  I took Friday and Monday off to visit friends in Osnabrück where I studied last year.  Right off the bat though, an 8 minute delay on my first train made me miss my connection turning a 5 hour commute into 7 hours.  Conveniently just enough for me to get a refund of half my ticket (enough to cover my expenses for the rest of the weekend).  The afternoon involved cooking and eating and friends, and christmas cookies (not the "R" I made on top right =).

That evening I went back to stay with Jonas and Marlene who were hosting me for the weekend.  Marlene introduced me to "The Voice of Germany," a fun show along the lines of American idol, except the judges can't see the singers until after they vote, and the judges pick teams and have a competition of sorts.  We also saw the Christmas market in Melle that evening which was small but quaint and nice.

The next morning we went with people from church, all dressed up as Santa Claus, giving out candy and Bible verses at the Osnabrück Christmas market.  Went quite well and had opportunities to really encourage some people, and to pray with the people of the city.  Fun on all sides!

Later we ate Döner, knocked out some shopping, and then went to play a big game of Risk in German.  I got lucky with an easy mission and won  =P

Sunday was church at my favorite church in Germany, followed by lunch out.  It was great with 16 or so of us all squeezed around the table at Vapiano's, and Italian chain restaurant.  I stuffed myself, and then went back to Melle.  After some tea, Jonas and I went for a run... way to close after eating.  Did NOT feel good.  Oh well.  We hung out in the evening, played some music and then watched "Tatort," (translated as "scene of the crime." One of the few German phrases shorter than the English version)  a popular German criminal investigation TV show.  I got a lot of German culture this weekend.

Come Monday, Marlene had to head to work early, and Jonas to Uni, so I hung out with some other friends and enjoyed their company before taking the train back to Erlangen that evening.

Fun relaxing weekend.  I'm looking forward to doing it again when it is warmer.

I'm off to bed now.  Christmas will come early tomorrow.  Have a good one!

December - part I - in which we attended the Christkindlesmarkt

This was my second December in Germany, although this time I am home for Christmas.  It was a delightful month.  Here are some stories, and maybe a few pictures if I get inspired to add them though my photography skills are deteriorating.


Early December I made my way to the Christmas market in Nürnberg.  It is know as the Christkindlesmarkt and is supposed to an excellent one.  Accompanied by Karen, Melissa, and Markus all from work we went to check it out on a Wednesday after work, hoping it would be less crowded than the weekend.  Well as we arrived, the crowds of people were all streaming out...  The wind was whipping sleet in our faces, and lightning was etching itself across the sky.  It only lasted about 15 minutes, cleared out the market, and then left us to enjoy the market in peace.  Definitely a memorable start.  (trash cans began filling up with wind broken umbrellas).


We all picked up some hot drinks.  Karen set one down on a counter of a nearby booth to take a picture.  I noticed the dirty look the booth owner gave her. "psst Karen," I said, "you probably shouldn't leave that there."  She wasn't too concerned though.  When she retrieved her drink we realized she had put it directly on top of the sign that read in German "Do Not Set Your Drinks Here!"  Oops, I'm a foreigner and can't speak German, is the motto that gets us through situations like that unscathed even if it's not entirely true sometimes  =P  - I'm obviously American, and then we had a Canadian, Austrian, and one German, but she would pretend to be Dutch when necessary, making us the perfect combination of clueless foreigners. 

Arriving in the rain

This has already turned into a full entry, so I'll stop here and talk more later.  I've gotta run spot my brother lifting downstairs...

laters,

The Fastest Car

Here it is - the car in which I've gone the fastest in my life to date (200 kph/125 mph)

Here is the carpet at the hotel we stayed at in Switzerland... special.

Here is the main street in the tiny town of Mutenz where we were.

All set up for Christmas.  The globe ornaments of the tree had polka dots.  I don't know what the deal is with Mutenz and polka dots.

The Rennbahn Klinik - Swiss olymbic medical center started by Dr Segesser, one of the leading scientists in the are of footwear.  He's been around as long as footwear science has existed.  I doubled my understanding of running shoes in 5 hours with him.

Christmas Cookie Volcano

     I referenced this a few weeks ago, and here are the pictures finally.  No need for a mixing bowl.  This Thursday we are making Christmas cookies again at the International Student Meeting.  I'm hoping to make my mom's sugar cookies if I can find the time to grab the ingredients.

     I should also mention, I'm about to get my first chance to drive in Germany.  Another intern and I are driving to a laboratory in Basel, Switzerland on Wednesday evening to consult with some folks on a project we're working on.  Her license is in Canada, so I'm driving the 4 hour stretch, with a manual, in Germany, in Kilometers/hour, probably a lot of km/hr (by that I mean fast).  I hope I don't break any rules by accident.  My license is good the first 6 months I'm here, even though I've never learned German road rules.  Supposedly it's pretty simple to get a drivers a German license so I may do that at some point.  For about half of the states, including PA, you just have show your license and pay about 30€ and they give you a German one.  Not exactly fair, since for a German to get a license they pay a few thousand dollars and take a course.  I paid $25 =)

holidays, shoes, and the like

It's been a bit since I've written.  Life goes on though so here is the scoop.


November 1st - German Holiday - no work! Prayer brunch with SMD.  In addition to prayer it included weißwurst (white sausage) and Bretzeln (soft pretzels) both with sweet mustard.  Weißwurst is super traditional in Bavaria, though the feelings about it are quite mixed.  I enjoyed it though.  There is some debate about the proper way to eat it.  It's rather soft so it is encased like many sausages to hold it together.  The question is whether you poke a whole in the end and suck it out, or slice it open and scoop it out.  I went for the slice and scoop method.  The other didn't seem socially acceptable.


That afternoon I joined a few friends at their apartment complex and we made Christmas cookies.  They don't have thanksgiving here so Christmas is already on everyone's minds.  They are rolling out all the Christmas decorations at the mall right now actually.  I left the christmas cookie pics at home, so apologies there, but we decided against bowls and instead piled the flour on the table and shaped it like a volcano and put the wet ingredients in the top and then mixed it with hands =) with lots of love.  The girls made their cookies with steel... but they still tasted okay.  I finished the day with a trip to a cake shop with a friend.  We ate outside and froze to death.  Most of the cakes had some sort of alcohol in them.  Germans are pretty obsessed =)


Next evening was SMD, which was swell but let's move to Thursday.  I went to the international student group (IST).  We learned some Bavarian words and expressions.  They say "That is sausage" to say "it doesn't matter, it's all the same."


The other main thing that was exciting for me was finally meeting with the head of innovation for PUMA and talking about my project with him.  Turns out he graduated from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh!  Anyways, another intern was already doing a project on soccer cleats and they mentioned that they might give me the same project for a different kind of shoe.  I was so scared they were going to assign me to cricket or handball!  In the end, it's RUNNING!  I was thrilled.  Running biomechanics is even cooler than soccer in my opinion because it's so advanced but so regular so you can study it really well.  Running is primarily done in Boston so they'll be teaming me up with someone there to talk with.  They mentioned maybe sending me there which would be sweet, but then they remembered the Boston guys are coming here in a few weeks so there is now need... schade (what a pity).  We'll see what happens but I may end up training for a marathon depending on how this project turns out.


Check out Octobers PUMA magazine here!  Unfortunately some of the info is only viewable from PUMA locations...  Talks a lot about the new 32 year old CEO of PUMA, Franz Koch.  He has a longboard!  Also Volvo Ocean Race!


K I gotta run enjoy the sun before it sets (at 5pm!)

Holidays part 1 (Weihnachten/Christmas)

Despite the tremendous amount of time recently available to me the desire to blog vanished over vacation so now it's time to elaborate a bit on what happened with all that free time. So I'll sit here in bed (before midnight I might add), sipping hot milk with honey, and listening to Philipp Poisel who you can check out on Grooveshark for some really laid back German music.

So here’s a recap of my Christmas. We could say it started at about 1pm on Friday the 24th. I began the trek towards the church on the far side of town (small town mind you) with Flugelhorn in hand, Christmas music playing, snow gently falling, and a good dose of optimism in my heart. I decided against the bus because it was nice to just be out in the snow. Upon arriving we practiced for an hour for the service and then just spent time talking and being jovial, drinking tea and the like. We made it to the service, which went off with out a hitch. Some regular worship, along with some Christmas songs and a teaching. After lots of hugs and Merry Christmas’ we all ran off to our houses to celebrate. I went back with the Bösling family who include Charlotte and Lars (pictured below) as well as some more siblings. We got to their house in their big redvan, and then waited up stairs for a bit. When we heard the bell we all ran into the living room only moments after the Christ child had escaped out the open window (they have a lot of open windows here). We just stood there for an awkward few minutes staring at the Christmas tree with lit candles instead of a string of lights. Finally we dove into the presents. I got a scrap book from the 6 friends at church who are roughly my age with a lovely picture of them all on the first page. Their 10 year old, Mirko, got a remote control helicopter which has provided loads of entertainment. We were starving by that point so we sat down to dinner which was Raclette. We pile potatoes, peppers, mushrooms, Raclette cheese, and probably other stuff too on these little metal trays that you put into the Raclette grill (google image search it). Then we cooked little pieces of chicken and shrimp on the top of it. It’s like the dinner table version of roasting hot dogs around a fire. Afterwards we sat in the living room and chatted and had a good time. I learned a lot about the family, the church, and Germany in general. The next day was Christmas, which isn’t quite as significant in Germany as the previous day. I went over the Böslings again around noon to make apple crisp. I didn’t have any measuring cups to work with but it turned out to be delicious anyway, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Desert is after lunch. So it got to be 2:30 and a handful of relatives and roommates etc. made it the Böslings house to partake. We started with the most delicious tomato soup I’ve ever tasted. Then we moved on to the red sauerkraut, potatoes, turkey, gravy and...stuffing cornbread pudge balls? or something like that. Anyways, it was all rather delicious (lecker in german). Once we had made it through the apple crisp and coffee and recovered a bit we went to see Narnia in theatres in 3D, in German... The voice overs they used were pretty convincing with the exception of the snobby cousin Eustace. They definitely gave him a snobby voice but sounded more like a cartoon than a real person. Here’s the trailer in German. Anyways, went back the Böslings and talked lot’s with Mr. and Mrs. and had a great time and more coffee. Sunday the 26th was the final day, it involved venison, lot’s of guitar, small children, and more spending time with people. There it is, that’s Christmas in Germany. New Years post to come soon.

Räuchermännchen

Today's topic is "Räuchermännchen" which is translated into English as "smoking men." It's a typical German product that you can find at most Christmas Markets here. You burn incense in them and the smoke comes out their mouthes. Often times they are holding pipes but there are other versions as well where it may be the chimney of a small house or something. They range in price from 3 € to 100€ depending on the size, detail, and quantity of materials. Many of the nice ones have large beards that are made of fur, perhaps rabbit. You can google image search "Räuchermännchen große Bart" to get a better idea (that is "smoking men big beard").

Below you can see pictures of my cheap one with a fake beard. He's a night watchman and makes me happy. I had to wait until today to post it because Jesse is getting the same one for Christmas =)

HodgePodge

Nothing in particular inspiring this post but I need to write again. The weather was actually fairly terrific yesterday. It only rained before I woke up and then again in the evening when I was mostly indoors. In between I saw the first dry roads this week and got to use my longboard.

My money transfer from the States finally came through after 5 weeks of being ridiculously frugal. I suppose that was good practice and will help my money last, though I immediately bought a scarf. Amazingly, it's predominately dark green with strong accents that allow it to work with clothes that are both in the gray/black/white family and things that are shades of brown. Usually that color combinations is contradictory because everyone knows that black and brown don't usually work together (or gray and brown, note that this website is on the brown side so there are no blacks). Most of my wardrobe can be broken into those two categories and the items that can go cross-category are particularly valuable. I mostly only packed brown though because I only had room to bring brown shoes.

And speaking of brown shoes, I set my scarf on my brown leather boat shoes that I wear everywhere and someone commented that it would smell like feet. Well, it didn't. Then I decided to smell the shoes. After the use those have gotten they deserve to smell, and they did, but they only smelled of leather (and I love that smell). No feet smell at all. Note that well, alway take the chance to have leather shoes.

Last week I found my home church for my time here. It's called FIT Gemeinde. Its a group of perhaps 20 people which is much smaller than other things I've seen but I think since I have 4 more months it will let me connect quicker and deeper. One of the things I didn't really expect to find in Europe, just from what I had heard, was the Holy Spirit and I figured I would miss him while I was gone. That was one of my main concerns for if I were to ever live here long term in the future. He is definitely here though so no worries. I guess it's like Elijah when he thought he was all alone and God's like "hey now, there's 7,000 other people following hard after me, not just you. I can draw people to myself. There's no place that is above me." I guess I should expect that God is awesome enough to make awesome believers all over the world in every culture. That said, there falls another barrier keeping me from living in Europe. Maybe I should make a list of barriers to help me better look at my time here.

Lastly, a family in the church invited me to Christmas and New Years with them so that will be enjoyable. I hear that in Germany they really celebrate Christmas, but very differently than we do. Lot's of Christmas markets to go to in every city. I'll write more about it as we get there.