I had a headache at the office a few days ago, so I went out to buy some Aspirin. Aspirin not aspirin, because unlike the US, the name is still trademarked here. I skipped the supermarket, because I knew supermarkets don't carry medication. I went instead to DM, a CVS type drugstore, whose initials actually stand for Drogerei markt, lit. drug seller market. After spending some fruitless ten minutes combing the store, looking through vitamins, health and beauty crap, toothpaste, deodorants, I realized that in this drugstore there was not so much a single gram of actual drugs. I walked across the street to the Apothek (pharmacy) and had to request aspirin from the man behind the counter.
Normally it's not so simple. Usually when you go in this is what happens.
You: I want to buy some aspirin
Clerk: What is bothering you?
You: I have a headache.
Clerk: What kind of a headache? Where does it hurt?
You: It's a normal headache, it hurts in my head. Can I have some Aspirin please?
Clerk: We have many different types of pain killers. Let me show them all to you and describe them in detail what is different about each one.
You: No thanks, I just want a box of Aspirin.
Clerk: what kind of Aspirin?
You: The regular kind. There! That box behind you that says 'Asprin'! Give me that one!
And so on. It's a big contrast to the US, where you can buy aspirin at any gas station, or Mexico, where you can buy it from a street vendor. I'm of two minds. On the one hand, it's personally inconvenient and irritating that I can't get it from a supermarket if I'm already shopping there.
On the other hand, the push for convenience and jamming everything together into the strip malls, Wal-Marts, Targets, shopping malls, drug/junk stores which makes many American cities such dreary experiences. What still exists in Germany is smaller specialty stores woven into the fabric of the city. I can walk to a green grocer, a bakery, a flower shop, a pharmacy, instead of driving through endless suburbia to endless parking lots and big box stores. I definitely pay more in price (consolidation and franchises decreases costs) but it's a trade-off on the experience of the city.
Sep 15, 2014
Sep 10, 2014
War of the Worlds
It's really of no shock to any constant reader that I am a fan of science fiction. So while browsing through a "Top Whatever List of Free Kindle Titles" I saw HG Wells The War of the Worlds, and I realized, laying there in bed, that despite seeing both Hollywood adaptations, I'd never actually read the book. So I downloaded it. Wells published the book over a century ago- it's public domain.
The book was written before 1900, in a time before the world wars, but anticipating its awful use of chemical warfare, when electricity was still an industrial and scientific plaything.
I was actually not prepared for the level of gore, terror, and psychological horror the book contained. And a surprisingly epic scope. It's one thing to write "After the aliens arrived, they attacked London, and the city was abandoned," and another to describe in detail the rapid breakdown all the facets of society, and civilization generally crashing to a bloody halt amid blind terror and utter chaos.
In the end, the story is really compelling because it is driven on the one hand the mystery, godlike power, and utter alien-ness of the invaders, and on the other, the very human workings of the individual mind and the public mind. It's a novel about what happens to society in the face of catastrophes. It has the appeal of what draws people to postapocalyptic TV shows and novels. What happens to societies when they are put under stress? Especially titanic, seemingly unstoppable stresses?
And really, from the perspective of the people on the ground, how different is an alien invasion than say, a massive ebola outbreak, or the invasion of bloodthirsty militant jihadists, or an unprecedented and massive drought?
It makes me wonder, in all cases, if as in the novel, the peasants argued with the evacuation enforcement soldiers about the value of their orchid plants while the martians drew ever closer.
The book was written before 1900, in a time before the world wars, but anticipating its awful use of chemical warfare, when electricity was still an industrial and scientific plaything.
I was actually not prepared for the level of gore, terror, and psychological horror the book contained. And a surprisingly epic scope. It's one thing to write "After the aliens arrived, they attacked London, and the city was abandoned," and another to describe in detail the rapid breakdown all the facets of society, and civilization generally crashing to a bloody halt amid blind terror and utter chaos.
In the end, the story is really compelling because it is driven on the one hand the mystery, godlike power, and utter alien-ness of the invaders, and on the other, the very human workings of the individual mind and the public mind. It's a novel about what happens to society in the face of catastrophes. It has the appeal of what draws people to postapocalyptic TV shows and novels. What happens to societies when they are put under stress? Especially titanic, seemingly unstoppable stresses?
And really, from the perspective of the people on the ground, how different is an alien invasion than say, a massive ebola outbreak, or the invasion of bloodthirsty militant jihadists, or an unprecedented and massive drought?
It makes me wonder, in all cases, if as in the novel, the peasants argued with the evacuation enforcement soldiers about the value of their orchid plants while the martians drew ever closer.
Sep 7, 2014
Birthday, parts I and II
So a few days ago, I crossed the line into my 30s.
As far as age goes, at any rate. I was actually in my early 30s when I was in my early 20s, and then early 20s in my late 20s, and since I've been in Germany, I've been bouncing between 35 and 25.
My office threw me a party.
Actually, they threw me a meeting where I brought in some pleasant foodstuffs. It was combined with Christof's (one of the interns) leaving party, so we were both celebrants. It was a quiet affair- the boss and Thomas were gone, and so were most of the interns. The office got me a stainless steel spaetzle maker as a present, which is nice, even if it was obligatory. Spaetzle is a very local Schwabian dish, a kind of eggy noodle. The maker looks like a cheese grater except without the cutting lips. Instead, there is a plastic spatula which you use to push the noodle dough through the holes into the water. I am actually quite excited to try it- I've actually already bought the ingrediants.
I'm getting ahead of myself. The night before my birthday, Saori took me out to dinner. We met up at a local square and she led me to a surprise restaurant. Kicho is by wide recommendation the best Japanese restaurant in town. A very nice place and very traditional. Saori asked me if I wanted to sit in the tatami room, and I said, on my birthday, of course we need the tatami room. It was an elevated tatami floor, so we left our shoes at the sliding door and took a seat at one of the low tables. With two Japanese sararimen talking loudly outside, and with our kimono wearing hostess, it felt like Japan. We got asahi beers and some delicious sake based soup to start before going on to order a massive sushi and sashimi boat. It was so, so good. I'd missed having unagi so we also ordered a few pieces of eel and saori got some of her favorite, uni sea urchin. They didn't have any cakes, but the kitchen staff make us a beautiful dessert plate with fresh fruits, mochi ice cream, and green tea ice cream, as well as a little happy birthday note in Japanese and German.
After dinner, we walked through the town and passed by the weindorf wine festival, so we stopped for a glass of local white wine and enjoyed the scene. The wine festival took over the central alleys and square around the city hall, filling it with stands and small tents filled with picnic tables and diners feasting on traditional favorites. It was quite lovely and lively.
The day of my birthday, I tried to buy a cake on my way, but the store was closed so I showed up to work late and without a cake. I ended up heading down to the bakery on Ostendplatz for a sandich and some cakes to drag back to the office during my lunch hour.
After work, I went to have a beer with Tolli in a nearby beergarden while we waited for Gio to finish swimming. I ended up running to catch Soari at the weindorf after she got off work unexpectedly early for working late. She was lightheaded so I bought us some roasted ox sandwiches with a liberal covering of spicy sweet mustard. Lina met us there, and then the Greeks, and then Saori's coworker and her boyfriend also came, and so did Christof and we dived into the crowd to find us some wine.
The place was absolutely packed. People were surprisingly rude and aggressive (for Germans), actually worse than Oktoberfest, but we finally found a more quiet area to drink wine. We quaffed a quarter liter of white good stuff and then we were all sleepy and drunk, so we disbanded and headed home. You know you're 30 when your birthday drinking consists of a beer and a glass of wine.
As far as age goes, at any rate. I was actually in my early 30s when I was in my early 20s, and then early 20s in my late 20s, and since I've been in Germany, I've been bouncing between 35 and 25.
My office threw me a party.
Actually, they threw me a meeting where I brought in some pleasant foodstuffs. It was combined with Christof's (one of the interns) leaving party, so we were both celebrants. It was a quiet affair- the boss and Thomas were gone, and so were most of the interns. The office got me a stainless steel spaetzle maker as a present, which is nice, even if it was obligatory. Spaetzle is a very local Schwabian dish, a kind of eggy noodle. The maker looks like a cheese grater except without the cutting lips. Instead, there is a plastic spatula which you use to push the noodle dough through the holes into the water. I am actually quite excited to try it- I've actually already bought the ingrediants.
I'm getting ahead of myself. The night before my birthday, Saori took me out to dinner. We met up at a local square and she led me to a surprise restaurant. Kicho is by wide recommendation the best Japanese restaurant in town. A very nice place and very traditional. Saori asked me if I wanted to sit in the tatami room, and I said, on my birthday, of course we need the tatami room. It was an elevated tatami floor, so we left our shoes at the sliding door and took a seat at one of the low tables. With two Japanese sararimen talking loudly outside, and with our kimono wearing hostess, it felt like Japan. We got asahi beers and some delicious sake based soup to start before going on to order a massive sushi and sashimi boat. It was so, so good. I'd missed having unagi so we also ordered a few pieces of eel and saori got some of her favorite, uni sea urchin. They didn't have any cakes, but the kitchen staff make us a beautiful dessert plate with fresh fruits, mochi ice cream, and green tea ice cream, as well as a little happy birthday note in Japanese and German.
After dinner, we walked through the town and passed by the weindorf wine festival, so we stopped for a glass of local white wine and enjoyed the scene. The wine festival took over the central alleys and square around the city hall, filling it with stands and small tents filled with picnic tables and diners feasting on traditional favorites. It was quite lovely and lively.
The day of my birthday, I tried to buy a cake on my way, but the store was closed so I showed up to work late and without a cake. I ended up heading down to the bakery on Ostendplatz for a sandich and some cakes to drag back to the office during my lunch hour.
After work, I went to have a beer with Tolli in a nearby beergarden while we waited for Gio to finish swimming. I ended up running to catch Soari at the weindorf after she got off work unexpectedly early for working late. She was lightheaded so I bought us some roasted ox sandwiches with a liberal covering of spicy sweet mustard. Lina met us there, and then the Greeks, and then Saori's coworker and her boyfriend also came, and so did Christof and we dived into the crowd to find us some wine.
The place was absolutely packed. People were surprisingly rude and aggressive (for Germans), actually worse than Oktoberfest, but we finally found a more quiet area to drink wine. We quaffed a quarter liter of white good stuff and then we were all sleepy and drunk, so we disbanded and headed home. You know you're 30 when your birthday drinking consists of a beer and a glass of wine.
Munich Midsummer
There were some great things about the four days we spent in Munich, and some not-so-great things.
Not-So-Great
Great
Not-So-Great
- We rented an AirBnB apartment which was advertized as 'entire apartment' and classified in that category. When we arrived, a friend of the host showed us around: here is a bedroom, here is another bedroom, here is the kitchen and bathroom, and here is the room where Jose, an Argentine tenant, is currently staying. Apparently, the host thought that just because we had one less measly occupied room that it still counted as an 'entire' apartment. What is the problem with random stranger living in the apartment without locking bedroom doors anyway? Everything was booked, otherwise we would have gotten a hotel.
- The weather was terrible. Every day, in our end of August trip, we bundled up with hats, coats, scarves. It was colder than winter in Phoenix. And it rained every day except the first, when it only sprinkled a bit, and the second, when it poured like the environment decided to relocate the Baltic by way of Bavaria.
- Munich was packed. Everywhere we went almost was packed. All the time. I thought that things would calm down on the weekdays but it was just as packed as the weekends.
Great
- Every morning we started our day having breakfast at the living room table together and planned out our day. Saori and I would make egg toast or slice fruit, and mom and Larry would head out to forage for local bakeries.
- The local bakeries had this big thick croissant with a light pretzel coating outside and covered with sesame seeds. It was like a cross between a pretzel and a croissant with the best parts of both.
- Butterbretzels! Every meal.
- We took a walking tour of the old city with a strange group. The guide was an economic writer, and the only other people on the tour were an American military couple based in northern Italy. The wife was a teacher on the base, apparently, and the husband described himself as a "jazz composer bum" and he looked it. It was a strange group, but the tour was small enough that we were able to walk around inside Hofbrau Haus.
- We saw a nice variety of museums- first the medieval and folklore collection at the Bavarian National Museum, where we also stopped for coffee and cake and watched it pour rain outside, and then we went directly to the Pinakotek der Moderne, a modern art museum with very distinctive modern architecture and a fantastic collection of contemporary and early modern words. Saori was completely in love with the rooms with Max Ernst.
- The shopping was great. It is a stark reminder of what a village Stuttgart is when we go to really nice shopping districts and are able to shop at nice boutiques and magazine shops. We hit Muji of course, and wandered through Manufaktum, which is a store specializing in everything high quality, and of older design/German modern industrial design. It was like walking through a curated vintage Sears catalog, with everything from fresh baked bread, bicycles, gardening supplies, stationary and pens, clothing, etc. etc. It was the kind of place where they sold a model of bicycle from the 1940s, with a leather saddle, and matching leather saddlebags separate. Everything was leather, glass, brass, stainless steel, iron, wool, linen, and bakelite.
- From the more handcrafted side, Saori bought a beautiful carved wooden spoon, and mom bought some christmas ornaments from the Viktualien market, the big market square near the downtown. They had fresh fruit, meats, bakeries, and knickknacks.
- On the train ride over, I was browsing the Lonely Planet guide and said out loud, "You know, they have a Lederhosen emporium here..." and everyone about fell out of their seats laughing. We did end up going there, although I didn't try any on. It's still too early to buy Lederhosen, and its so expensive. Maybe for next year's Wassen (Oktoberfest).
- We had some great dinners out at brewhouses in town. Some of them were more touristy than others, but the food and beer were consistantly good. The second place we went was right below the apartment and ended up being a top pick in the guidebook- Frauenhof was small, with creaky wooden floors, stuffed boars on the wall, and delicious. The food was really good and the waitress added up our bill on a paper pad at the table (cash only). The last place we went on Tuesday before we left came with a parade of sausages (Great) and a snarky/smarmy waiter for the Americans (not so great).
- We played game night every night, munching on leftover pastries from the morning, and drinking tea until we all got tired.
- The apartment, notwithstanding the extra roommate, was great overall. Spacious, comfortable, we could cook there, and located only about fifteen minutes walk from the central market. It was a taste of living like a Municher.
- We spent one cool (but not raining!) morning at the Englischer Garten for birdwatching. Mom and Larry got a few "life-listers" and we wandered around with hot mugs of coffee to warm us up. We saw hissing geese, and while eating our sandwiches on a park bench, mom was startled by an aggressive squirrel panhandling.
- We went to the Olympic park where I finally got to the see the great Frei Otto and Gunter Behnisch designed giant glass and steel tensile canopies over the site. A really amazing place and probably a nicest stadium I've ever seen. Saori and I paid the 3 euro entry fee and walked through the stadium itself, with a long and looping walk around the perimeter which soars up and back down again.
- Lastly, we had a coffee and cake at a "funky" cafe which featured a big sewing store and used furniture for sale. The cake which I originally took for chocolate, was actually a red wine cake which tasted like gingerbread and was a pleasant surprise.
At the end, we had to go back to work, so we said our sad goodbyes in the apartment and took the metro to the train station to catch our ICE for the two hours back to Stuttgart.
Sep 4, 2014
Showing mom and Larry around Stuttgart
I am writing from my office during lunch hour, so this is a really quick recap of the past week.
After landing in Amsterdam, Mom and Larry jumped on a riverboat to sail up the Rhine, just like Apocalyspe Now, except for the heart of darkness replaced by the heart of cuteness. The pretzels! mom whispered into the darkness as the encroaching vineyards crept closer, The pretzels!
They took a train from Basel to Stuttgart and Saori and I met them on the station platform. (Actually, I had just barely finished up a meeting with my boss and the chef, and as soon as the chef was gone, I tossed my notebook on the desk and took off, walking at high speed to the train platform via a series of shortcuts, beer garden cuts, and temporary bridges). The sunny warm weather that day was the best they had had the entire trip. We exchanged happy greetings.
After dropping their luggage at the hotel we came back to the city and walked along Konigstrasse to Zum Pauliner for lunch in the leafy square in front. Stuttgart obligingly provided a local wine and food festival to walk through on our way there to demonstrate one of the charms of the city- festivals untainted by wide tourist draw.
Lunch was great, we got all the Schwabian hits: potato noodle dumplings, pretzel dumplings, pork, pork, spaetzl, maultauschen, and more pork. Mom and I split a crispy pig knuckle, and we all washed everything down with beer.
After lunch we walked to the neighborhood where Saori and I will be living, and then took a train back to do some shopping in town. For my birthday, mom bought me a big ceramic knife. Ever since I used one belonging to Saori's roommate, I thought, I need this knife. They are expensive and brittle. They are all made in Japan and razor sharp. Saori called it my 'Whale-killing knife'.
I guess its a good sign I'm entering my thirties when the top of my wish list consists of cooking items.
Anyway, after shopping, we took them to have coffee at Cafe Planie, one of my favorite cafes in town, and then over to Old Bridge Gelato afterwards. When mom is on vacation, gelato is fair game. After gelato, they decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.
I headed back to my apartment to pick up my travel bag and headed back to Saori's for the night, so we could take off to Munich in the morning.
After landing in Amsterdam, Mom and Larry jumped on a riverboat to sail up the Rhine, just like Apocalyspe Now, except for the heart of darkness replaced by the heart of cuteness. The pretzels! mom whispered into the darkness as the encroaching vineyards crept closer, The pretzels!
They took a train from Basel to Stuttgart and Saori and I met them on the station platform. (Actually, I had just barely finished up a meeting with my boss and the chef, and as soon as the chef was gone, I tossed my notebook on the desk and took off, walking at high speed to the train platform via a series of shortcuts, beer garden cuts, and temporary bridges). The sunny warm weather that day was the best they had had the entire trip. We exchanged happy greetings.
After dropping their luggage at the hotel we came back to the city and walked along Konigstrasse to Zum Pauliner for lunch in the leafy square in front. Stuttgart obligingly provided a local wine and food festival to walk through on our way there to demonstrate one of the charms of the city- festivals untainted by wide tourist draw.
Lunch was great, we got all the Schwabian hits: potato noodle dumplings, pretzel dumplings, pork, pork, spaetzl, maultauschen, and more pork. Mom and I split a crispy pig knuckle, and we all washed everything down with beer.
After lunch we walked to the neighborhood where Saori and I will be living, and then took a train back to do some shopping in town. For my birthday, mom bought me a big ceramic knife. Ever since I used one belonging to Saori's roommate, I thought, I need this knife. They are expensive and brittle. They are all made in Japan and razor sharp. Saori called it my 'Whale-killing knife'.
I guess its a good sign I'm entering my thirties when the top of my wish list consists of cooking items.
Anyway, after shopping, we took them to have coffee at Cafe Planie, one of my favorite cafes in town, and then over to Old Bridge Gelato afterwards. When mom is on vacation, gelato is fair game. After gelato, they decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel.
I headed back to my apartment to pick up my travel bag and headed back to Saori's for the night, so we could take off to Munich in the morning.
Aug 24, 2014
Business idea for Stuttgart
There are not so many Indian restaurants in Stuttgart, and all of them tend to be more formal, linen tablecloth affairs, even the ones which have a 7 euro workday lunch buffet.
Invited to join Shiva and Chandra for dhal for dinner, I thought, you know, there are some indian dishes that are really quite simple and fast to make, and require really cheap and common ingredients. There are many cheap dining options in Stuttgart, however they tend to be limited to either Doner Kebab/Pizza, fast food from the main train station, and stuff from the bakery like buttered pretzels or fleishkase.
None of these options are particularly fresh or healthy. While doner kebabs are good, I have heard people complain about how hard they are on the digestive system.
What I propose is a shop which sells indian curries and dhals wrapped in chipatis (Indian wheat meal flat breads) burrito style, to be taken to go or eaten there. There would be two basic curries, one spicy, one mild, and one dhal, to which customers would request to be added cauliflower, chickpeas/garbanzo beans, green peas, and potatoes, and they would be rolled into daily made chipatis to make small burritos. Making a batch of curry to feed 100 people would require a few dollars of spices and cooking oil, 50 onions and 50 tomatoes, probably less actually, depending on the size of the burrito.
Immigrants would like the spicy taste notably lacking in European food, Germans would go for the "exotic" cuisine, foodies would appreciate the authentic flavors of India, Schwabians would appreciate the thrift, and the whole thing would be naturally bio, organic, and vegetarian.
What would be really cool is if we could partner with a local bottle maker to have them produce glass containers. So someone comes in orders two burritos, and then they are put into some kind of glass tube, which would be returnable. Or maybe some kind of flexible silicone disk which could wrap around each burrito like a burrito wrap.
Anyway, Indian food dreams.
Invited to join Shiva and Chandra for dhal for dinner, I thought, you know, there are some indian dishes that are really quite simple and fast to make, and require really cheap and common ingredients. There are many cheap dining options in Stuttgart, however they tend to be limited to either Doner Kebab/Pizza, fast food from the main train station, and stuff from the bakery like buttered pretzels or fleishkase.
None of these options are particularly fresh or healthy. While doner kebabs are good, I have heard people complain about how hard they are on the digestive system.
What I propose is a shop which sells indian curries and dhals wrapped in chipatis (Indian wheat meal flat breads) burrito style, to be taken to go or eaten there. There would be two basic curries, one spicy, one mild, and one dhal, to which customers would request to be added cauliflower, chickpeas/garbanzo beans, green peas, and potatoes, and they would be rolled into daily made chipatis to make small burritos. Making a batch of curry to feed 100 people would require a few dollars of spices and cooking oil, 50 onions and 50 tomatoes, probably less actually, depending on the size of the burrito.
Immigrants would like the spicy taste notably lacking in European food, Germans would go for the "exotic" cuisine, foodies would appreciate the authentic flavors of India, Schwabians would appreciate the thrift, and the whole thing would be naturally bio, organic, and vegetarian.
What would be really cool is if we could partner with a local bottle maker to have them produce glass containers. So someone comes in orders two burritos, and then they are put into some kind of glass tube, which would be returnable. Or maybe some kind of flexible silicone disk which could wrap around each burrito like a burrito wrap.
Anyway, Indian food dreams.
Aug 20, 2014
This and that
I've been working the past few weeks on a project for a major German shoe and clothing designer, a relatively small office building. We are coming up on a deadline this friday, so every day, I have found myself working past 7pm. I also had to come in Sunday and work, which really sucked since the weather finally gave us a break and gave us some good summertime for a change.
The weather in Stuttgart has been really apathetic this year. Last year, apparently there was a very cold and snowy winter followed by a blazing hot summer. I arrived at the end of a very mild winter (it snowed only once), and now we are in the middle of a very mild summer. The last few days, the highs have not even reached the 20s. Today, I saw people in scarves and jackets. I wish I'd taken mine to work, actually. This is like a winter in Phoenix.
I can't remember if I wrote about it, but several weekends ago, we signed the contract for an apartment. It was a pretty major achievement. No brokerage fee, which is a savings of about $1,500-$2000, and surprisingly, no deposit either. Great location, rooftop attic apartment, and a landlord who owns several buildings and Saori's coworker reports no problems since she's been living there.
It did take 30 apartment visits and four months to make it happen, however.
Monday after work, I met Saori there and we talked to the current tenant about his furniture he's leaving behind. He's moving in with his girlfriend, and the apartment is 7 flights of stairs up, so he's motivated to leave stuff behind. We walked through and offred to buy or simply inherant a lot of different things, including a grill, a bathroom cabinet, a vacuum cleaner, etc. The big ticket items for sale were a washing machine (150 euro), an ikea table and chairs (200 euro) and a big white leather sofa (500 euro). He originally bought it for 1000 euros, and its really still pretty new and relatively lightly used- I can understand him wanting to get half of that back. We took the washer and the dining set- the couch we told him was out of our price range, although frankly we have other plans for the living room area. We won't even have a TV, so we really only needed a couch for guests or something to sit on to read.
I finally signed up for language classes with the school I was interested in. I just need to make the deposit for the fees and then I'll be officially enrolled. The language barrier makes me squirm so much. I don't know if its easier or harder to learn German because of its similarities to English.
Been reading the news about Ferguson, Missouri, one of the suburbs of St. Louis. It's really sad stuff, but its strange that looking at the photos of one of the poor scrawny municipalties of St. Louis County makes me actually miss St. Louis a bit. It hits uncomfortably close to home when I realized that most of Saori's and my personal belongings are in a storage unit about a mile from where the protests are happening.
There was an Ebola scare in Berlin today. Tests are still ongoing on why a feverish woman passed out in a hospital waiting room. I'm worried about Ebola- not that it will get into Europe or the US- it seems actually inevitable at this point, but for the thousands more who will die from a basic lack of education and sanitation. I'm not worried about an outbreak in the US or EU because people here don't believe that Ebola is a government conspiracy, because we have closed sewer systems and accessible soap and water, and because our burial rituals do not involve close physical contact with the departed. I am washing my hands more frequently though.
Been really really tired lately. Feel like I'm running around all the time, and you may have noticed I haven't been blogging much either. Actually, its already past midnight here, but I really wanted to just some things down what I've been up to before I go to bed.
The weather in Stuttgart has been really apathetic this year. Last year, apparently there was a very cold and snowy winter followed by a blazing hot summer. I arrived at the end of a very mild winter (it snowed only once), and now we are in the middle of a very mild summer. The last few days, the highs have not even reached the 20s. Today, I saw people in scarves and jackets. I wish I'd taken mine to work, actually. This is like a winter in Phoenix.
I can't remember if I wrote about it, but several weekends ago, we signed the contract for an apartment. It was a pretty major achievement. No brokerage fee, which is a savings of about $1,500-$2000, and surprisingly, no deposit either. Great location, rooftop attic apartment, and a landlord who owns several buildings and Saori's coworker reports no problems since she's been living there.
It did take 30 apartment visits and four months to make it happen, however.
Monday after work, I met Saori there and we talked to the current tenant about his furniture he's leaving behind. He's moving in with his girlfriend, and the apartment is 7 flights of stairs up, so he's motivated to leave stuff behind. We walked through and offred to buy or simply inherant a lot of different things, including a grill, a bathroom cabinet, a vacuum cleaner, etc. The big ticket items for sale were a washing machine (150 euro), an ikea table and chairs (200 euro) and a big white leather sofa (500 euro). He originally bought it for 1000 euros, and its really still pretty new and relatively lightly used- I can understand him wanting to get half of that back. We took the washer and the dining set- the couch we told him was out of our price range, although frankly we have other plans for the living room area. We won't even have a TV, so we really only needed a couch for guests or something to sit on to read.
I finally signed up for language classes with the school I was interested in. I just need to make the deposit for the fees and then I'll be officially enrolled. The language barrier makes me squirm so much. I don't know if its easier or harder to learn German because of its similarities to English.
Been reading the news about Ferguson, Missouri, one of the suburbs of St. Louis. It's really sad stuff, but its strange that looking at the photos of one of the poor scrawny municipalties of St. Louis County makes me actually miss St. Louis a bit. It hits uncomfortably close to home when I realized that most of Saori's and my personal belongings are in a storage unit about a mile from where the protests are happening.
There was an Ebola scare in Berlin today. Tests are still ongoing on why a feverish woman passed out in a hospital waiting room. I'm worried about Ebola- not that it will get into Europe or the US- it seems actually inevitable at this point, but for the thousands more who will die from a basic lack of education and sanitation. I'm not worried about an outbreak in the US or EU because people here don't believe that Ebola is a government conspiracy, because we have closed sewer systems and accessible soap and water, and because our burial rituals do not involve close physical contact with the departed. I am washing my hands more frequently though.
Been really really tired lately. Feel like I'm running around all the time, and you may have noticed I haven't been blogging much either. Actually, its already past midnight here, but I really wanted to just some things down what I've been up to before I go to bed.
Aug 3, 2014
a slightly less frenetic weekend
It's been a few days of running around.
Friday night, I met Saori at a electronic music festival held outside near the HBF, close to the new developments around the mall and new library. It was a huge hipster scene which was kind of fun to watch since I havn't really gotten a feel for what that even means in Germany.
Apparently, pretty close to the American variety, but a little more "green". From the "Bio" food truck, I ordered organic french fries with non-GMO, organic ketchup. Actually pretty good. We met Saori's punk friend from the office there and hung out on the steps drinking overpriced Wulle beer while waiting for the main sets of the night.
Actually, after the first set, a kind of Shoegaze electropop, a manager in a white tee an a mustache came out and announced the rest of the night was cancelled. The event originally got approval to play until midnight. It makes sense, the area is new, and looks like 80% offices and retail. However, a recently passed law restricts concerts to 10pm, so they had to call off the rest of the show. I don't really know why they didn't just cancel the first two hours of banal tiny acts where they didn't even turn up the volume. Anyway, rules are rules in Germany.
Also, fun fact, in the country which is nearly synonymous with beer, it is illegal to sell the stuff outside of a bar or restaurant after the late late hour of (wait for it) 10pm, on any day of the week. I'm not sure if this rule is restricted to conservative southland or if it's more nationally applied, but that's a blue law state worse than Arizona.
Anyway, after the show, we walked Nadine, the punk girl, back to her apartment building, where she was locked out of the main building entrance. The lock was jammed or something, and despite the landlords claims that there would always be a night guard in the neighboring building, Nadine had to shell out the pricely sum of close to $300 for locksmiths to come let her in.
I am sure her landlord will be receiving the bill. It was really late at that point, and despite Saori's flatmates's wishes to see less of me, I crashed at her place for the night.
Saturday, Saori turned 31. I headed out early to Breuninger's, the German Macy's equivilant, to pick up a cake for her party before dropping it off at my office for the refrigerators there.
Crossing back through town, I met Saori and we headed over to a really nice brunch at Cafe Scholz in Killesburg. Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, toast, and a bowl of milchkaffee (latte). Really, really good. Walked around the park a bit before heading into town and wandering around inside the big electronics store. We haven't't done that in years, and it was fun to look at tablets, gadgets, critique laptops, try out headphones, take stupid photos etc.
Stuttgart being Stuttgart, we ran into one of Saori's coworkers there. Seriously, Stuttgart is worse than Ponca City in terms of constantly running into people you know. I actually saw one of my coworkers earlier in the day, out grocery shopping with his son.
After the electronics mall we swung by the office and picked up the cake and headed down to the hill to Mezcal^2 (Mezcal Hoch Zwei for the Deutschsprechen) for Saori's party.
I'd planned out a party for her at the best Mexican restaurant in town (which is qualified by the fact that they can distinguish between ketchup and salsa). Actually, this place is pretty great. I went in two weeks ago to talk them about planning the party, and what kind of options I had. In the turquoise blue interior around an old wood table, they bought me a corona I talked with the owner in Spanish about their offerings.
There are many interesting things about this place- for one, all the employees, who are all Mexicans, hold main jobs elsewhere. Two of them, including one of the owners, holds a regular job for a major car part manufacturer in town. Actually, I would even go so far to venture that given the strictly regulated working conditions in Germany, the side benefit is you have the time you need to run and manage a restaurant, even with a full time job. Of course, the restaurant only holds limited hours and days.
They have a surprising quantity and variety of Mezcal and what makes the food especially good is that they import most of their ingredients from Mexico.
Anyway, based on hints that I'd dropped throughout the day, Saori had figured out where we were going so she was happy but not super surprised when we walked through the door.
One of the owners was there, someone I'd met passingly on the train who knew Alfredo, and he didn't make the connection that I was the guy who had been sending the emails about the party. He explained he was a little tense about the upcoming night since there were going to be two simultaneous parties going on. I replied that I was one of them, and so everything became clear.
We were the first to arrive, so we had some coronas and chatted and Saori wandered around taking photos of the decor until some more friends showed up. One the pleasures of being an expat is being able to introduce people to new experiences. Our first guest was a young German woman who had never had a margarita before.
It is worth pointing out that at the Mezcalaria, they sell margaritas with Mezcal, and it was pretty amazing.
Anyway, more and more people showed up, ordered drinks, and we had a really good time. I'd invited close to 20 people but only 8 showed up, including Saori and I. It's a really bad time of the year- lots of birthdays, and this is the first big vacation week for many Germans. It was still fun, an intimate gathering, but I wish I'd ordered less food. first they brought out a kilo of quesadillas. Made with tortillas de maize. It's kind of staggering to see fifty-odd quesadillas but moreso when made with an ingredient which is virtually nonexistant in Germany, fresh corn tortillas. As garnish, bowls of salsa, sour cream, cheese, and pico de gallo were set out. It was so delicious.
And then they brought out the mole de pollo and frijoles de olla. Really, amazing food. The mole de pollo was accompanied by blue corn tortillas. Where the hell they found blue corn tortillas or blue corn masa was beyond me. The frijoles were good (but better today, when Saori and my flatmates devoured the considerable remainder).
Everyone pitched in, but I still ended up taking home a kilogram of mole de pollo, the main dish of the night. We are not complaining. That is some really fantastic stuff.
All in all it was a great party, and Saori was really really happy.
Today, we slept in and just took it easy all day, reading, eating leftovers, and taking short walks. All in all, a good quiet ending to a frenetic weekend.
But nothing like Taylor's last few days. In the space of a few days he took the state Bar exam and then packed his apartment and moved to a new city. Now that is a frenetic weekend.
Friday night, I met Saori at a electronic music festival held outside near the HBF, close to the new developments around the mall and new library. It was a huge hipster scene which was kind of fun to watch since I havn't really gotten a feel for what that even means in Germany.
Apparently, pretty close to the American variety, but a little more "green". From the "Bio" food truck, I ordered organic french fries with non-GMO, organic ketchup. Actually pretty good. We met Saori's punk friend from the office there and hung out on the steps drinking overpriced Wulle beer while waiting for the main sets of the night.
Actually, after the first set, a kind of Shoegaze electropop, a manager in a white tee an a mustache came out and announced the rest of the night was cancelled. The event originally got approval to play until midnight. It makes sense, the area is new, and looks like 80% offices and retail. However, a recently passed law restricts concerts to 10pm, so they had to call off the rest of the show. I don't really know why they didn't just cancel the first two hours of banal tiny acts where they didn't even turn up the volume. Anyway, rules are rules in Germany.
Also, fun fact, in the country which is nearly synonymous with beer, it is illegal to sell the stuff outside of a bar or restaurant after the late late hour of (wait for it) 10pm, on any day of the week. I'm not sure if this rule is restricted to conservative southland or if it's more nationally applied, but that's a blue law state worse than Arizona.
Anyway, after the show, we walked Nadine, the punk girl, back to her apartment building, where she was locked out of the main building entrance. The lock was jammed or something, and despite the landlords claims that there would always be a night guard in the neighboring building, Nadine had to shell out the pricely sum of close to $300 for locksmiths to come let her in.
I am sure her landlord will be receiving the bill. It was really late at that point, and despite Saori's flatmates's wishes to see less of me, I crashed at her place for the night.
Saturday, Saori turned 31. I headed out early to Breuninger's, the German Macy's equivilant, to pick up a cake for her party before dropping it off at my office for the refrigerators there.
Crossing back through town, I met Saori and we headed over to a really nice brunch at Cafe Scholz in Killesburg. Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, toast, and a bowl of milchkaffee (latte). Really, really good. Walked around the park a bit before heading into town and wandering around inside the big electronics store. We haven't't done that in years, and it was fun to look at tablets, gadgets, critique laptops, try out headphones, take stupid photos etc.
Stuttgart being Stuttgart, we ran into one of Saori's coworkers there. Seriously, Stuttgart is worse than Ponca City in terms of constantly running into people you know. I actually saw one of my coworkers earlier in the day, out grocery shopping with his son.
After the electronics mall we swung by the office and picked up the cake and headed down to the hill to Mezcal^2 (Mezcal Hoch Zwei for the Deutschsprechen) for Saori's party.
I'd planned out a party for her at the best Mexican restaurant in town (which is qualified by the fact that they can distinguish between ketchup and salsa). Actually, this place is pretty great. I went in two weeks ago to talk them about planning the party, and what kind of options I had. In the turquoise blue interior around an old wood table, they bought me a corona I talked with the owner in Spanish about their offerings.
There are many interesting things about this place- for one, all the employees, who are all Mexicans, hold main jobs elsewhere. Two of them, including one of the owners, holds a regular job for a major car part manufacturer in town. Actually, I would even go so far to venture that given the strictly regulated working conditions in Germany, the side benefit is you have the time you need to run and manage a restaurant, even with a full time job. Of course, the restaurant only holds limited hours and days.
They have a surprising quantity and variety of Mezcal and what makes the food especially good is that they import most of their ingredients from Mexico.
Anyway, based on hints that I'd dropped throughout the day, Saori had figured out where we were going so she was happy but not super surprised when we walked through the door.
One of the owners was there, someone I'd met passingly on the train who knew Alfredo, and he didn't make the connection that I was the guy who had been sending the emails about the party. He explained he was a little tense about the upcoming night since there were going to be two simultaneous parties going on. I replied that I was one of them, and so everything became clear.
We were the first to arrive, so we had some coronas and chatted and Saori wandered around taking photos of the decor until some more friends showed up. One the pleasures of being an expat is being able to introduce people to new experiences. Our first guest was a young German woman who had never had a margarita before.
It is worth pointing out that at the Mezcalaria, they sell margaritas with Mezcal, and it was pretty amazing.
Anyway, more and more people showed up, ordered drinks, and we had a really good time. I'd invited close to 20 people but only 8 showed up, including Saori and I. It's a really bad time of the year- lots of birthdays, and this is the first big vacation week for many Germans. It was still fun, an intimate gathering, but I wish I'd ordered less food. first they brought out a kilo of quesadillas. Made with tortillas de maize. It's kind of staggering to see fifty-odd quesadillas but moreso when made with an ingredient which is virtually nonexistant in Germany, fresh corn tortillas. As garnish, bowls of salsa, sour cream, cheese, and pico de gallo were set out. It was so delicious.
And then they brought out the mole de pollo and frijoles de olla. Really, amazing food. The mole de pollo was accompanied by blue corn tortillas. Where the hell they found blue corn tortillas or blue corn masa was beyond me. The frijoles were good (but better today, when Saori and my flatmates devoured the considerable remainder).
Everyone pitched in, but I still ended up taking home a kilogram of mole de pollo, the main dish of the night. We are not complaining. That is some really fantastic stuff.
All in all it was a great party, and Saori was really really happy.
Today, we slept in and just took it easy all day, reading, eating leftovers, and taking short walks. All in all, a good quiet ending to a frenetic weekend.
But nothing like Taylor's last few days. In the space of a few days he took the state Bar exam and then packed his apartment and moved to a new city. Now that is a frenetic weekend.
Jul 29, 2014
The Layabout
Saori told me that yesterday the apartment owner told her that Fathi, their Turkish flatmate, told her that he thought I was coming over to Saori's house too often. Was it actually Fathi or was it the apartment owner who would like to see less of me? Fathi likes to complain about the noise and as strict Muslim, he doesn't really approve of the boyfriend sleepover anyway. Actually could have been either.
I usually spend Friday and Saturday nights over at Saori's place- last weekend was an exception since I stayed Sunday, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the fourth person in the apartment in the morning getting ready for work was the breaking straw.
So no more weekday visits, and I may just stay away this weekend as well. There's really nothing like hearing that the flatmates think you're visiting too often to make you feel like a drug addict Hell's Angel boyfriend from last month's bar visit.
Anyway. Made pasta for Chandra and Shiva tonight. Fried up some garlic and onion, threw in some chopped tomatoes with basil, some spoonfuls of tomato pesto paste, and topped it all with some arugula. Good stuff. Shiva was still out at a party but I saved him some and when he came back he gratefully dove in. It feels nice to repay them for the many times I've come back from the office late and they've got some curry on the stove or in the fridge.
Today, I left my room open since representatives of the lawyer who now controls this house came to visit and appriase the building. I've heard various things from Shiva: the owner had to sell it to the bank to pay off loans, the house is going to be destroyed, etc. etc. The latest however is that the apartment is going to stay as it is until January, which gives me a bit more flexibility in finding an apartment with Saori.
But damn, I am so ready to be done apartment hunting. The tenant should get in contact with the landlord tomorrow, enshallah, and hopefully I'll have some good news in a week or so.
Also on my mind is my brother Taylor- if I am vain enough to compare myself to Sherlock Holmes, Tay is surely Mycroft. My brother is in the midst of taking the Indiana State Bar. I cannot communicate my pride in him- he has dedicated so many years of study, discipline, and exertion in his career, and this is one of the major waypoints along his path. It feels unreal to be so far apart from him for these big moments. I can't wait to see him again, and I really do not wish for it to be in a year's time.
I usually spend Friday and Saturday nights over at Saori's place- last weekend was an exception since I stayed Sunday, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the fourth person in the apartment in the morning getting ready for work was the breaking straw.
So no more weekday visits, and I may just stay away this weekend as well. There's really nothing like hearing that the flatmates think you're visiting too often to make you feel like a drug addict Hell's Angel boyfriend from last month's bar visit.
Anyway. Made pasta for Chandra and Shiva tonight. Fried up some garlic and onion, threw in some chopped tomatoes with basil, some spoonfuls of tomato pesto paste, and topped it all with some arugula. Good stuff. Shiva was still out at a party but I saved him some and when he came back he gratefully dove in. It feels nice to repay them for the many times I've come back from the office late and they've got some curry on the stove or in the fridge.
Today, I left my room open since representatives of the lawyer who now controls this house came to visit and appriase the building. I've heard various things from Shiva: the owner had to sell it to the bank to pay off loans, the house is going to be destroyed, etc. etc. The latest however is that the apartment is going to stay as it is until January, which gives me a bit more flexibility in finding an apartment with Saori.
But damn, I am so ready to be done apartment hunting. The tenant should get in contact with the landlord tomorrow, enshallah, and hopefully I'll have some good news in a week or so.
Also on my mind is my brother Taylor- if I am vain enough to compare myself to Sherlock Holmes, Tay is surely Mycroft. My brother is in the midst of taking the Indiana State Bar. I cannot communicate my pride in him- he has dedicated so many years of study, discipline, and exertion in his career, and this is one of the major waypoints along his path. It feels unreal to be so far apart from him for these big moments. I can't wait to see him again, and I really do not wish for it to be in a year's time.
Jul 28, 2014
Frankenstein
One of the most challenging things about Stuttgart is getting excited about it.
I like living in cities where people get excited about the place they are living. People in Phoenix argue back and forth about how much they hate the sprawl vs the urban renaissance the city is undergoing, all true Parisians turn their noses up at the Ile de France (so trite, so overrun), Portenos take to the streets to protest the conditions of city life, Berliners complain about the lack of jobs while the city is apparently an endless party, even Municher's grouse about Munich not being all that great.
People in Stuttgart shrug and and amiably admit that maybe there's a few too many Turks begging and there needs to be more housing in Stuttgart West, but everyone agrees that Stuttgart is a nice place to live. You can say it's got a bit of charm, that it has a bit of a village feel to it.
Probably one of the more interesting things about it is that there are so many people living in the Stuttgart area and there is so much money and industrial power concentrated here, and all of it is focused into an area at the center only a few square miles in size- but for all of it, phenomenally banal! The streets fill with people, the lifeblood of cities, undertaking their lives, going to meet lovers, pick up children, find objects of their desire, spy on governments, hussle, and pick up an armfull of pretzls for breakfast. Cities are made of relationships between people, and there is so much going on here. Sundays in the middle of the city stagger me- it's largely a shopping and office district, and everything save a few small cafes and bars are closed. But the streets are full of people. They come to Stadtmitte because the life of the city is concentrated there, in the other people.
Stuttgart is a corpse with strongly beating heart.
The ideal city is different to everyone. For Swabians, I think of the SNL sketch "Cooking with the Anal-Retentive Chef". The Schwabian ideal is to work really hard for your entire life and to buy a house and keep it clean and organized. Germans in general don't really like to cook and it shows in the cuisine and daily life. They enjoy a coffee and cake, and their bakers are damned fine, but excitement and fun must be kept within strict hours. The morning after they won the world cup might have been any other morning. The city is German by consensus: neat, orderly, and pretty.
Note to self: write something later, not here, about the relationship betwen crisis and city.
I like living in cities where people get excited about the place they are living. People in Phoenix argue back and forth about how much they hate the sprawl vs the urban renaissance the city is undergoing, all true Parisians turn their noses up at the Ile de France (so trite, so overrun), Portenos take to the streets to protest the conditions of city life, Berliners complain about the lack of jobs while the city is apparently an endless party, even Municher's grouse about Munich not being all that great.
People in Stuttgart shrug and and amiably admit that maybe there's a few too many Turks begging and there needs to be more housing in Stuttgart West, but everyone agrees that Stuttgart is a nice place to live. You can say it's got a bit of charm, that it has a bit of a village feel to it.
Probably one of the more interesting things about it is that there are so many people living in the Stuttgart area and there is so much money and industrial power concentrated here, and all of it is focused into an area at the center only a few square miles in size- but for all of it, phenomenally banal! The streets fill with people, the lifeblood of cities, undertaking their lives, going to meet lovers, pick up children, find objects of their desire, spy on governments, hussle, and pick up an armfull of pretzls for breakfast. Cities are made of relationships between people, and there is so much going on here. Sundays in the middle of the city stagger me- it's largely a shopping and office district, and everything save a few small cafes and bars are closed. But the streets are full of people. They come to Stadtmitte because the life of the city is concentrated there, in the other people.
Stuttgart is a corpse with strongly beating heart.
The ideal city is different to everyone. For Swabians, I think of the SNL sketch "Cooking with the Anal-Retentive Chef". The Schwabian ideal is to work really hard for your entire life and to buy a house and keep it clean and organized. Germans in general don't really like to cook and it shows in the cuisine and daily life. They enjoy a coffee and cake, and their bakers are damned fine, but excitement and fun must be kept within strict hours. The morning after they won the world cup might have been any other morning. The city is German by consensus: neat, orderly, and pretty.
Note to self: write something later, not here, about the relationship betwen crisis and city.
Jul 26, 2014
Apartment hunting
We may have found an apartment.
Saori has a coworker, Natasha, whose former landlord called to offer Natasha a dachgeschoss (rooftop apartment). Natasha said no thanks, but passed along the info to Saori, and together we got in contact with the current tenant, who agreed to show us the place.
The apartment is located in a great location, a few minutes from where I can pick up a bus directly to my office, close to the center of Stuttgart West.
It's a lot of stairs. The apartment is on the top level of at least a six or seven story old building. This height, combined with the slight incline of the street, gives the apartment amazing views all around and across Stuttgart. It's well within our price range, no booking fees, comes with a kitchen, and its got a big terrace and a ladder for secretly climbing on the roof (probably not actually allowed). It's not so big, but the flow is great and it has tons of built in storage, a rarity in Stuttgart.
Saori and I are both over the moon about this place, but we have to wait and see what the landlord says. The tenant is nice, and we connected well- he's moving in with his girlfriend so he wanted to have the flexibility of a month or two to move, which works fine for us.
It's not a done deal until we have the contract- but its really exciting we are both "pressing our thumbs" as the Germans say. Actually the Japanese also do the same action for good luck, opposed to the American finger-crossing.
Saori has a coworker, Natasha, whose former landlord called to offer Natasha a dachgeschoss (rooftop apartment). Natasha said no thanks, but passed along the info to Saori, and together we got in contact with the current tenant, who agreed to show us the place.
The apartment is located in a great location, a few minutes from where I can pick up a bus directly to my office, close to the center of Stuttgart West.
It's a lot of stairs. The apartment is on the top level of at least a six or seven story old building. This height, combined with the slight incline of the street, gives the apartment amazing views all around and across Stuttgart. It's well within our price range, no booking fees, comes with a kitchen, and its got a big terrace and a ladder for secretly climbing on the roof (probably not actually allowed). It's not so big, but the flow is great and it has tons of built in storage, a rarity in Stuttgart.
Saori and I are both over the moon about this place, but we have to wait and see what the landlord says. The tenant is nice, and we connected well- he's moving in with his girlfriend so he wanted to have the flexibility of a month or two to move, which works fine for us.
It's not a done deal until we have the contract- but its really exciting we are both "pressing our thumbs" as the Germans say. Actually the Japanese also do the same action for good luck, opposed to the American finger-crossing.
Behnisch's Brobdingnabian Boozy Birthday Bonanza
Saori's office, Behnisch, turned 25 years old this year, and to celebrate, they brought all three of their offices, amounting to over 200 people, here to Stuttgart to celebrate. The folks from the Munich office didn't have much of a trek- they hopped on a train and were here in two hours. Behnisch also took the trouble to fly over the entire Boston office for the weekend as well, and to put them up in hotels here in town.
For the party, they appropriated the wide alley in front of their office with a custom plywood steps as benches and tables. They created three shallow kiosks, really just plywood facades to serve as a stand, which were themed to the three cities- Boston, Stuttgart, and Munich. The Boston stand, which was painted with city landmarks, the stars and stripes, made me oddly nostalgic for that city. I think it was also in part to the big blue Red Sox baseball cap decal, which was identical to the one I wore three years ago in my internship in that city. The stand served mini-burgers and Sam Adams Boston Lager (where the hell did they did up several cases of that???). The german cities served up the local brews and local foods- Stuttgart with its Maultaschen (thick, baked and sliced raviolis) and Fleishsalat (think potato salad, but with chopped ham and baloney standing in for potatoes).
They strung lines up and covered the lines with plastic to keep Stuttgarts notorious weather at bay and filled the canopy with white paper lanterns. The big conference room on the ground floor was converted into a bar and dance floor with a stage, silver foil streamers covering the walls, and mood lighting. They also hired two bands, both of which had members who worked at Behnisch.
There was beer by the keg and case, crates of wine, platters of meat and sausage, and to top it all off, a giant cake in the form of the latest big Behnisch project.
My office had a dinner, painfully coincidentally on the same night. However, it was just a "lets get to know each other better and socialize a bit" kind of thing basically organized by the two lead architects. The principal wasn't there- as an old friend and coworker of Mr. Behnisch, he went to the big Behnisch blowout.
Our office dinner was at "Lucky Hans" upscale burgers. I got a pretty decent chicken burger actually, since their beef burgers are not all that great. It was fun though, even though we had to cover the meal ourselves, and afterwards, I quickly excused myself to go join the big party.
The party was in full swing when I arrived a little after nine, and I ended up staying until around 2 o clock in the morning before heading back home. After a few people comment that you look like you're falling asleep, it's probably time to take the hint.
Magnum, the ice cream manufacturers, also rolled up a full deli case full of ice cream bars and cups- across the world, if you notice, they are also celebrating 25 years this year with special champagne flavored treats.
It was a rough morning, but I whipped up some fried eggs and bacon on top of german toast and with some strong coffee and copious quantities of water, I was able to cut through the worst of the gastro-cerebellar discomfort.
For the party, they appropriated the wide alley in front of their office with a custom plywood steps as benches and tables. They created three shallow kiosks, really just plywood facades to serve as a stand, which were themed to the three cities- Boston, Stuttgart, and Munich. The Boston stand, which was painted with city landmarks, the stars and stripes, made me oddly nostalgic for that city. I think it was also in part to the big blue Red Sox baseball cap decal, which was identical to the one I wore three years ago in my internship in that city. The stand served mini-burgers and Sam Adams Boston Lager (where the hell did they did up several cases of that???). The german cities served up the local brews and local foods- Stuttgart with its Maultaschen (thick, baked and sliced raviolis) and Fleishsalat (think potato salad, but with chopped ham and baloney standing in for potatoes).
They strung lines up and covered the lines with plastic to keep Stuttgarts notorious weather at bay and filled the canopy with white paper lanterns. The big conference room on the ground floor was converted into a bar and dance floor with a stage, silver foil streamers covering the walls, and mood lighting. They also hired two bands, both of which had members who worked at Behnisch.
There was beer by the keg and case, crates of wine, platters of meat and sausage, and to top it all off, a giant cake in the form of the latest big Behnisch project.
My office had a dinner, painfully coincidentally on the same night. However, it was just a "lets get to know each other better and socialize a bit" kind of thing basically organized by the two lead architects. The principal wasn't there- as an old friend and coworker of Mr. Behnisch, he went to the big Behnisch blowout.
Our office dinner was at "Lucky Hans" upscale burgers. I got a pretty decent chicken burger actually, since their beef burgers are not all that great. It was fun though, even though we had to cover the meal ourselves, and afterwards, I quickly excused myself to go join the big party.
The party was in full swing when I arrived a little after nine, and I ended up staying until around 2 o clock in the morning before heading back home. After a few people comment that you look like you're falling asleep, it's probably time to take the hint.
Magnum, the ice cream manufacturers, also rolled up a full deli case full of ice cream bars and cups- across the world, if you notice, they are also celebrating 25 years this year with special champagne flavored treats.
It was a rough morning, but I whipped up some fried eggs and bacon on top of german toast and with some strong coffee and copious quantities of water, I was able to cut through the worst of the gastro-cerebellar discomfort.
Jul 24, 2014
books and language
I just finished reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for probably the third or fourth time, not including the many times I read the children's illustrated version. It's still surprising to me how easily and quickly it transports me to a world of submarine adventures. I wonder though how Capt. Nemo is read in school these days, if its a read at all. Although he is an extremist anarchist, a thief, and very likely a major funder of conflict, I do not think you can correctly label him as a terrorist. There are no demands, no publicly stated positions, no brand or identity. Even to the closest passenger aboard the Nautalis, Nemo's agenda and motivations remain unclear. Is Captain Nemo a terrorist? 1000 words for next friday's class. Scifi Lit 101.
Actually I've been on a bit of a fiction bender lately, probably to escape the stresses of apartment hunting and the acclimatization to Stuttgart. I re-read Dan Simmon's Hyperion, but in a strange way: Simmon's tends to get too carried away in the genre characterizations, and I feel like I've read the book too many times, so I skipped all the individual stories and just read the frame text. I finished the book in about a day in this way. And then I found myself going back and re-reading all the individual stories anyway.
Saori bought us a softcover copy of Pamuk's My Name is Red which won a nobel prize for literature. It's an intriguing book so far, about religious art, the conflict between east and west, the nature of duty. It's probably the only murder mystery where you find out who committed the murder in the first twenty pages and then the rest (so far) seems to be about the why.
One of the principal difficulties of Stuttgart is the language barrier. Everything that needs to get done for living requires this difficult enterprise of understanding and being understood. Yes, many Germans speak English, but it gets really wearing when every time you get past the first sentence, you have to trot out "sprechen sie Englisch?" I should not compare Mexico with Germany, but in Mexico, if you are a spanish-speaking gringo, you are kind of a rock star. If you look anglo-europeanish in Germany and you can stammer out a few German phrases, you are kind of an idiot.
So learn the language. I know. We are trying.
Saori and I went to IFA, the "best" langauge school. But classes don't start until october and it's over 200 euro a month. I'd be willing to pay, but I just want to get started sooner.
So we went to the cut rate school, Hanke-Schulungen, and they have classes which start at the beginning of september I am thinking of joining. One hot weekday afternoon, Saori and I sacraficed our lunch hour to sit in a stuffy hot room and take a German grammar test for placement purposes. After the class in Ahwatukee, the months of study on my own, four months of living in Germany, they advised me to start at the very beginning of their beginner course. It wasn't discouraging in the least.
Actually I've been on a bit of a fiction bender lately, probably to escape the stresses of apartment hunting and the acclimatization to Stuttgart. I re-read Dan Simmon's Hyperion, but in a strange way: Simmon's tends to get too carried away in the genre characterizations, and I feel like I've read the book too many times, so I skipped all the individual stories and just read the frame text. I finished the book in about a day in this way. And then I found myself going back and re-reading all the individual stories anyway.
Saori bought us a softcover copy of Pamuk's My Name is Red which won a nobel prize for literature. It's an intriguing book so far, about religious art, the conflict between east and west, the nature of duty. It's probably the only murder mystery where you find out who committed the murder in the first twenty pages and then the rest (so far) seems to be about the why.
One of the principal difficulties of Stuttgart is the language barrier. Everything that needs to get done for living requires this difficult enterprise of understanding and being understood. Yes, many Germans speak English, but it gets really wearing when every time you get past the first sentence, you have to trot out "sprechen sie Englisch?" I should not compare Mexico with Germany, but in Mexico, if you are a spanish-speaking gringo, you are kind of a rock star. If you look anglo-europeanish in Germany and you can stammer out a few German phrases, you are kind of an idiot.
So learn the language. I know. We are trying.
Saori and I went to IFA, the "best" langauge school. But classes don't start until october and it's over 200 euro a month. I'd be willing to pay, but I just want to get started sooner.
So we went to the cut rate school, Hanke-Schulungen, and they have classes which start at the beginning of september I am thinking of joining. One hot weekday afternoon, Saori and I sacraficed our lunch hour to sit in a stuffy hot room and take a German grammar test for placement purposes. After the class in Ahwatukee, the months of study on my own, four months of living in Germany, they advised me to start at the very beginning of their beginner course. It wasn't discouraging in the least.
fish night
Last saturday, I hiked back up camp Fox to pick up the white sangria I left melding in the fridge. One of the best things about Stuttgart is that the white wines here are good and relatively cheap. Like a few bucks for a bottle that will blow away anything under the $12 bottle line at your grocery store.
Chandra and Shiva were eating a breakfast of curried rice flakes, apparently a traditional breakfast dish, and they shared some with me before Giovanni came to pick us up.
The bearded Greek rolled up to the curb with only the passenger side window open. Clenching a cigarette in his teeth, he motioned franticaly to his side: "there is a monster on the side mirror!" We walked around the tiny car to investigate. A grasshopper. A small grasshopper. I flicked it away and we jumped in.
We rendezvoused first at the Mexican's apartment and met up with Oscar, the intern from my office, another Mexican girl, and some other friends, and we caravaned down to the fish market in Bad Canstatt across the Neckar river. There is a gourmet store there with a cold room where really fresh fish are sold. Our group bought calimari, a big octopus, several whole fish for grilling, a bag of clams, a veritable haul.
Next stop was the big box Turkish grocery store where everything was super cheap with good vegetables. Made me miss having a car to get out to these suburban stores. Sometimes.
Stopped first at the Greek's for some coffee and chatting while Apostolos finished getting ready and then we headed back to the Mexicans. There, I pulled out the sangria, and everyone jumped around the tiny kitchen making their dishes. Saori helped Gio make a clam riosotto, which was the best dish of the night. There were grilled whole fish, Mexican pacific coast style cerviche, octopus and potato, and cakes for dessert. During cooking, between rounds of eating, we all sat around chatting, staring out the window, playing board games, drinking. It was like we were all at a summer beach house someplace lazy and warm.
We stayed through sunset, through karioke games where the system was pre-loaded with awful unsingable music designed to get you to buy better stuff, and through an equally awful horror movie Insidious in German without subtitles. Actually I think it was scarier that way since apparently the script was just awful.
We left around 3 am, and got back to Saori's place around 4. The subway was still running thankfully which shaved off some time, but not much.
Between the fish night and two visits the Hamburger Fish Market, this has been a month of stocking up on fish.
Chandra and Shiva were eating a breakfast of curried rice flakes, apparently a traditional breakfast dish, and they shared some with me before Giovanni came to pick us up.
The bearded Greek rolled up to the curb with only the passenger side window open. Clenching a cigarette in his teeth, he motioned franticaly to his side: "there is a monster on the side mirror!" We walked around the tiny car to investigate. A grasshopper. A small grasshopper. I flicked it away and we jumped in.
We rendezvoused first at the Mexican's apartment and met up with Oscar, the intern from my office, another Mexican girl, and some other friends, and we caravaned down to the fish market in Bad Canstatt across the Neckar river. There is a gourmet store there with a cold room where really fresh fish are sold. Our group bought calimari, a big octopus, several whole fish for grilling, a bag of clams, a veritable haul.
Next stop was the big box Turkish grocery store where everything was super cheap with good vegetables. Made me miss having a car to get out to these suburban stores. Sometimes.
Stopped first at the Greek's for some coffee and chatting while Apostolos finished getting ready and then we headed back to the Mexicans. There, I pulled out the sangria, and everyone jumped around the tiny kitchen making their dishes. Saori helped Gio make a clam riosotto, which was the best dish of the night. There were grilled whole fish, Mexican pacific coast style cerviche, octopus and potato, and cakes for dessert. During cooking, between rounds of eating, we all sat around chatting, staring out the window, playing board games, drinking. It was like we were all at a summer beach house someplace lazy and warm.
We stayed through sunset, through karioke games where the system was pre-loaded with awful unsingable music designed to get you to buy better stuff, and through an equally awful horror movie Insidious in German without subtitles. Actually I think it was scarier that way since apparently the script was just awful.
We left around 3 am, and got back to Saori's place around 4. The subway was still running thankfully which shaved off some time, but not much.
Between the fish night and two visits the Hamburger Fish Market, this has been a month of stocking up on fish.
Jul 20, 2014
World cup final
We were invited out by some of Saori's coworkers to watch the World Cup final Sunday night. The time we were originally going to meet was at 5, but that got pushed back to 7. Five pm might have been realistic if we really wanted to get seats, but none of us were dedicated enough to jam in to packed bar for the four hours leading up to the start of the game.
The city was in a festive mood- many of the Germans I know where surprised and slightly disconcerted by all the flag waving, signing, and black, red, and yellow face paint I saw everywhere. Even three generations removed from the rise of Nazism, there is still a sense of taboo to overt signs of nationalism. Or at least it's seen as a fine line.
Of course when we got to the bar, a big old one off of the central square, it was long since packed, with patrons seated inside ducking out to take more chairs from the outdoor seating.
We joined the throngs to walk over to the Schlossgarten biergarten, but that was even more packed. They were so crowded in the outdoor park, they were turning people away. The crowds seated everywhere, filling the entire park as far as the eye could see. Already, chants were going around.
We finally grabbed one of the last tables at an outdoor patio of a fancy Italian restaurant by the hauptbahnhof, which was largely overlooked by the crowds. It was a good spot, amazing for the last minute grab. Waiters in black bow ties and white shortsleeves brought us German beers and a good but wildly overpriced club sandwich.
The game kicked off to a good start, but got bogged down in the second half when it began to rain lightly in the patio. A German goal in extra time clinched the deal and the patio exploded.
Shortly after, everyone left to begin celebrating, including the wait staff, leaving our group the last people hanging around watching the award ceremony on the still running projection screen.
Saori and I split from the group and walked through the city. The streets became a mixture of impromptu parade and street party. It was actually quite irritating to me because of the constant honking, and random bang fireworks going off in the street. And all the drunk celebratants. I wish I could have gotten into it more, but I was just tired, and secretly kind of releived that the World Cup was over.
The city was in a festive mood- many of the Germans I know where surprised and slightly disconcerted by all the flag waving, signing, and black, red, and yellow face paint I saw everywhere. Even three generations removed from the rise of Nazism, there is still a sense of taboo to overt signs of nationalism. Or at least it's seen as a fine line.
Of course when we got to the bar, a big old one off of the central square, it was long since packed, with patrons seated inside ducking out to take more chairs from the outdoor seating.
We joined the throngs to walk over to the Schlossgarten biergarten, but that was even more packed. They were so crowded in the outdoor park, they were turning people away. The crowds seated everywhere, filling the entire park as far as the eye could see. Already, chants were going around.
We finally grabbed one of the last tables at an outdoor patio of a fancy Italian restaurant by the hauptbahnhof, which was largely overlooked by the crowds. It was a good spot, amazing for the last minute grab. Waiters in black bow ties and white shortsleeves brought us German beers and a good but wildly overpriced club sandwich.
The game kicked off to a good start, but got bogged down in the second half when it began to rain lightly in the patio. A German goal in extra time clinched the deal and the patio exploded.
Shortly after, everyone left to begin celebrating, including the wait staff, leaving our group the last people hanging around watching the award ceremony on the still running projection screen.
Saori and I split from the group and walked through the city. The streets became a mixture of impromptu parade and street party. It was actually quite irritating to me because of the constant honking, and random bang fireworks going off in the street. And all the drunk celebratants. I wish I could have gotten into it more, but I was just tired, and secretly kind of releived that the World Cup was over.
Jul 9, 2014
Best thing about Germany
Let's get the obvious out of the way first: it's not the beer. While Deutchland brews some pretty tasty pilsners and weisen beers, they basically gave up trying around the same time of the protestant reformation. First, there's a complete lack of variety. There are two types of beers here, and about five or six subcategories: pilsners and wiesens. The Germans may have made it to the moon first, but they gave up exploring the rest of the solar system. One of our American friends lamented, "You ask for something other than a Weisen and they ask you why." To be honest, I've had German style beer in the US which is much better than anything I've tasted here.
The bread culture here is pretty good. I don't know of any other country which lives in such a close relationship with bakeries. Germany's relationship to bakeries is kind of like Mexico and taco stands. The bread is very very good. Far superior to the US. However, it still pales in comparison to the Parisian bakeries. Next to Les Pains du Idees from the Canal St. Martin district, the bakeries here might as well package their loaves in Rainbow Bread sleeves and leave it for the ducks.
The highly lauded social welfare state earns high marks, but insurance coverage is still expensive, largely dependent on employment status, and highly bureaucratic. A friend of mine tried to go to the emergency room, really really sick, but he was turned away because he didn't have the proper referral form from one of the doctor's clinics. Which only have regular business hours. Which means M-F and maybe saturday morning.
It's not the progressive politics and policies. While a model of internationalism, international asylum, global ethics, and individal rights and privacies, Germany is shuttering it's nuclear power plants to pursue wind and solar. In a country without much of either, the only altnerative, coal is making a huge rebound.
It's not the mountains, pretty as they are, nor the forests, which are as lush as can be imagined. It's probably not the storied philosophical culture or literature. It's definitely not Germany's contribution to the mechanical industries or sciences, notable as they are.
I would even have to say that the best thing about Germany is not even the gummy bears, although they are the best in the world.
The best thing about Germany is Fleischkase (flysch-kayzuh). Imagine the best hot dog you've ever had, the size of a loaf of bread, and roasted. They slice this massive hot dog loaf into slices 3/4" thick and sandwich it between some delicious German white bread, and slathered in spicy mustard. It's the best thing about Germany.
The bread culture here is pretty good. I don't know of any other country which lives in such a close relationship with bakeries. Germany's relationship to bakeries is kind of like Mexico and taco stands. The bread is very very good. Far superior to the US. However, it still pales in comparison to the Parisian bakeries. Next to Les Pains du Idees from the Canal St. Martin district, the bakeries here might as well package their loaves in Rainbow Bread sleeves and leave it for the ducks.
The highly lauded social welfare state earns high marks, but insurance coverage is still expensive, largely dependent on employment status, and highly bureaucratic. A friend of mine tried to go to the emergency room, really really sick, but he was turned away because he didn't have the proper referral form from one of the doctor's clinics. Which only have regular business hours. Which means M-F and maybe saturday morning.
It's not the progressive politics and policies. While a model of internationalism, international asylum, global ethics, and individal rights and privacies, Germany is shuttering it's nuclear power plants to pursue wind and solar. In a country without much of either, the only altnerative, coal is making a huge rebound.
It's not the mountains, pretty as they are, nor the forests, which are as lush as can be imagined. It's probably not the storied philosophical culture or literature. It's definitely not Germany's contribution to the mechanical industries or sciences, notable as they are.
I would even have to say that the best thing about Germany is not even the gummy bears, although they are the best in the world.
The best thing about Germany is Fleischkase (flysch-kayzuh). Imagine the best hot dog you've ever had, the size of a loaf of bread, and roasted. They slice this massive hot dog loaf into slices 3/4" thick and sandwich it between some delicious German white bread, and slathered in spicy mustard. It's the best thing about Germany.
World Cup without Mercy
Tuesday night found Saori and I scrambling over the phone and skype, tying to line up someplace to watch the semi-finals. In case you haven't been following the World Cup, or as they call it in German, die Weltmeisterschaftundeinbierbittedanke (WM for short), Germany has steadily been advancing as a serious contender for the title. They''re the least cheered for group in the running, I think. It's not that German football has made so many enemies, but rather how German the team plays.
There was a meme floating around facebook (in Spanish, no doubt circulated by the Mexicans who have long had good feelings for Germany): Brazil has Neymer, Argentina has Messi, Portugal has Ronaldo: Germany has a team. It's a valid point, especially in this world cup. German play is tight, controlled, team-based, undramatic, fair, and completely ruthless. There's little of the hero worship and much fewer "personalities" wearing the black, red, and yellow. It's great soccer served cold.
Anyway, we got a new intern at the office, Oscar, who is also Mexican and a classmate of Alejandro and Alfredo. He was kind enough to invite us to his friend's get together at a burger restaurant, where I was told, there would be some Mexicans and a few reserved tables to watch the game. Inside is key, considering how cold and rainy it is in Stuttgart right now. Seriously, I wore three layers today and wished I had a fourth. Fucking German summer.
I met Saori at the Restaurant, an upscale burger joint called Hans-Im-Gluck. The floor was sanded plywood panels and the interior was filled with young birch tree trunks. It was actually kind of a cool effect, but I have no idea what they have to do with burgers.
It turned out that the group was a mix of people who barely knew each other, mostly young engineer interns. At our table was Oscar, who speaks envious German, and two German guys who really struggled with english (but whose English was still better than my German!). Anyway, I tried to converse with them as best as possible. After years of awkward silence, I'm getting better at small talk in different languages. I get a lot of questions and talk about Arizona a lot. It's an easy topic to speak about with lots of good learner words. "Hot" "Desert" "Mountains" etc.
Anyway, we had a great seat for the world cup, and after we ordered some burgers and fries and beers, the game started soon enough.
Sometimes you do something and you are stunned to realize how much you missed doing it. I had that feeling when I ran in the woods the other day. Last night, it was the act of eating a hamburger with french fries and a beer. The burger wasn't even that good, but everything together was like mana for the soul.
A color stick was tossed around our area of the restaurant. This clever thing is a super basic grease facepaint in german black, red, and yellow, like a tiny deoderant stick. We swiped it across our cheeks and foreheads to make Deutschland banners.
The game was unforgettable. The first ten minutes were incredibly fast and aggressive on both sides. And then Germany scored. Everyone went nuts, shouting and hugging and high fiving and whooping. And thence proceeded the merciless opening of the can of whoop-ass on the Brazilians who were running around, looking like they'd recently assumed human form and were still trying to figure out how everything worked.
It was surreal and felt like an elaborate hoax. No one could believe it. We all settled into the long game, celebrating each new goal less and less. At the end, we even applauded the lone Brasilian goal.
We cashed out and hit the streets of the city. If Germany is the country of cars, this city is the center of car culture. The spark plug and the first combustion engine driven vehicle were invented here, and the companies which made them drive the local economy. So when Stuttgarters celebrate, they do so behind the wheel on the blacktop.
The center was full of choked streets, filled with cars blasting their horns, people waving giant flags out windows and moon roofs, making noise, chanting, whooping. In the yellow light of the street lamps, the city actually cordoned off a street to contain the massive crowds which flooded the center, mostly to watch the impromptu parade of cars.
Germany won, which means they're going to the final, Sunday, and now we're looking for a place to watch them.
There was a meme floating around facebook (in Spanish, no doubt circulated by the Mexicans who have long had good feelings for Germany): Brazil has Neymer, Argentina has Messi, Portugal has Ronaldo: Germany has a team. It's a valid point, especially in this world cup. German play is tight, controlled, team-based, undramatic, fair, and completely ruthless. There's little of the hero worship and much fewer "personalities" wearing the black, red, and yellow. It's great soccer served cold.
Anyway, we got a new intern at the office, Oscar, who is also Mexican and a classmate of Alejandro and Alfredo. He was kind enough to invite us to his friend's get together at a burger restaurant, where I was told, there would be some Mexicans and a few reserved tables to watch the game. Inside is key, considering how cold and rainy it is in Stuttgart right now. Seriously, I wore three layers today and wished I had a fourth. Fucking German summer.
I met Saori at the Restaurant, an upscale burger joint called Hans-Im-Gluck. The floor was sanded plywood panels and the interior was filled with young birch tree trunks. It was actually kind of a cool effect, but I have no idea what they have to do with burgers.
It turned out that the group was a mix of people who barely knew each other, mostly young engineer interns. At our table was Oscar, who speaks envious German, and two German guys who really struggled with english (but whose English was still better than my German!). Anyway, I tried to converse with them as best as possible. After years of awkward silence, I'm getting better at small talk in different languages. I get a lot of questions and talk about Arizona a lot. It's an easy topic to speak about with lots of good learner words. "Hot" "Desert" "Mountains" etc.
Anyway, we had a great seat for the world cup, and after we ordered some burgers and fries and beers, the game started soon enough.
Sometimes you do something and you are stunned to realize how much you missed doing it. I had that feeling when I ran in the woods the other day. Last night, it was the act of eating a hamburger with french fries and a beer. The burger wasn't even that good, but everything together was like mana for the soul.
A color stick was tossed around our area of the restaurant. This clever thing is a super basic grease facepaint in german black, red, and yellow, like a tiny deoderant stick. We swiped it across our cheeks and foreheads to make Deutschland banners.
The game was unforgettable. The first ten minutes were incredibly fast and aggressive on both sides. And then Germany scored. Everyone went nuts, shouting and hugging and high fiving and whooping. And thence proceeded the merciless opening of the can of whoop-ass on the Brazilians who were running around, looking like they'd recently assumed human form and were still trying to figure out how everything worked.
It was surreal and felt like an elaborate hoax. No one could believe it. We all settled into the long game, celebrating each new goal less and less. At the end, we even applauded the lone Brasilian goal.
We cashed out and hit the streets of the city. If Germany is the country of cars, this city is the center of car culture. The spark plug and the first combustion engine driven vehicle were invented here, and the companies which made them drive the local economy. So when Stuttgarters celebrate, they do so behind the wheel on the blacktop.
The center was full of choked streets, filled with cars blasting their horns, people waving giant flags out windows and moon roofs, making noise, chanting, whooping. In the yellow light of the street lamps, the city actually cordoned off a street to contain the massive crowds which flooded the center, mostly to watch the impromptu parade of cars.
Germany won, which means they're going to the final, Sunday, and now we're looking for a place to watch them.
Jul 3, 2014
Segway to stereotypes
Feeling a little under the weather today. Hope I'm not coming down with whatever Saori had a week or so ago. I think it's the combination of too little sleep plus way way to much meat last saturday.
Anyway, Shiva perscribed a stomach remedy from India that I tried out tonight: chugging straight ghee (clarified butter). Just kidding. The rememdy was basically a tisane of cumin seeds. You just boil them on the stove for about five minutes and drink the resulting brownish beverage, discarding the seeds. We'll see if it works.
Today the bus broke down on the way from the office, so I walked back to the main station, no more than ten minutes of walking. On my way, I was passed by a convoy of Segway tourists.
Watching them go by, I was struck by the fact that the Segway was really perfect for Germans. Here you have a culture which has no shame in how they look, driven by utlity, and with a fascination for all things mechanical, in a compact, pedestrian-friendly urban environment. German's really don't care how they look as long as it makes sense. Yes, Hugo Boss is an exception, but now I understand why the line is monochrome. There are many more people here in cargo shorts and hiking sandals than I ever saw in the US, and that includes myself who spent most of my late childhood wearing that exact same thing.
Kick scooters as adult transportation, which had a quick run on college campuses and in silicon valley for a memebeat or two, is widely prevailant here. Every day, I see someone dressed in business casual or even in a suit, thrusting themselves along the street to their place of gainful employment. I actually like the idea: I'd probably consider getting one except for the fact that the only parts of the city that aren't city center are uphill.
Tomorrow is the 4th of July. What that means here is that German plays France in the World Cup. I'd say that it's going to be a crazy time here, but these are Germans we are talking about here. If Juri's Boys are victorious, there will be a lot of whooping and hollering, and people will drive around with german flags streaming out of their car windows and honk some, but that will be it. There will not be things set on fire. There will be no climbing of street signage. They may not care about how they dress or how they appear on various forms of transit, but there is a heavy and ingrained sense of order and decorum. Society must be maintained.
Anyway, Shiva perscribed a stomach remedy from India that I tried out tonight: chugging straight ghee (clarified butter). Just kidding. The rememdy was basically a tisane of cumin seeds. You just boil them on the stove for about five minutes and drink the resulting brownish beverage, discarding the seeds. We'll see if it works.
Today the bus broke down on the way from the office, so I walked back to the main station, no more than ten minutes of walking. On my way, I was passed by a convoy of Segway tourists.
Watching them go by, I was struck by the fact that the Segway was really perfect for Germans. Here you have a culture which has no shame in how they look, driven by utlity, and with a fascination for all things mechanical, in a compact, pedestrian-friendly urban environment. German's really don't care how they look as long as it makes sense. Yes, Hugo Boss is an exception, but now I understand why the line is monochrome. There are many more people here in cargo shorts and hiking sandals than I ever saw in the US, and that includes myself who spent most of my late childhood wearing that exact same thing.
Kick scooters as adult transportation, which had a quick run on college campuses and in silicon valley for a memebeat or two, is widely prevailant here. Every day, I see someone dressed in business casual or even in a suit, thrusting themselves along the street to their place of gainful employment. I actually like the idea: I'd probably consider getting one except for the fact that the only parts of the city that aren't city center are uphill.
Tomorrow is the 4th of July. What that means here is that German plays France in the World Cup. I'd say that it's going to be a crazy time here, but these are Germans we are talking about here. If Juri's Boys are victorious, there will be a lot of whooping and hollering, and people will drive around with german flags streaming out of their car windows and honk some, but that will be it. There will not be things set on fire. There will be no climbing of street signage. They may not care about how they dress or how they appear on various forms of transit, but there is a heavy and ingrained sense of order and decorum. Society must be maintained.
Jun 30, 2014
Five couples
My social life currently revolves around four couples:
The Mexicans- Rafa and his girlfriend Paola have an enviable loft apartment in a prime location- but its too expensive so they're looking for someplace new. We met them rooting with the Mexican fans at the world cup screenings in the schlossgarten, and they've hosted some wonderful dinners and drinks. Excellent cooks.
The Other Mexicans- are not really a couple. Alejandro and Alfredo are Mexican interns and roommates from Monterrey. If Alejandro had blond hair, he could almost be mistaken for German. His mom was a famous singer in Mexico in the 80s and he works part time as an instructor in her singing school. It's pretty obvious he's mostly here to explore Europe. With one month to go, his last day is friday before he takes off on a blisteringly fast tour of Europe. His itinerary reads something like this:
day 17: Prague
day 18: Prague
day 19: Budapest
day 20: Wien
day 21: Berlin
And he's mostly traveling by train, which means he's probably counting the hours he's going to spend in each city. I will miss him, he actually added a lot of fun to the office.
Alfredo met us at 9am sunday morning at his and Saori's office, somewhere between drunk and hungover. He mentioned something about eating two hamburgers around 4am after leaving the clubs. Alejandro had a Venezuelan friend in town, but Alejandro was sick, so Alfredo felt compelled to show their friend a late night on the town, regardless of the 7kilometer race we were all running the following morning. To our amazement, he ran with us, didn't get sick, and encouraged the knot of people running with us with random yells of "VAMOS!!!!!!!!" (let's go!) He is also a one-man crowd at the world cup mexican games.
It took me the better part of two months to figure out that the Tolli and Gio were the Greek couple one of my coworkers mentioned. They're two jaded Greeks about Saori and my age, and once I got to know them (they're actually really good friends with The Mexicans too), they've been delightful and Saori and I have gone over to their apartment a few times. At the last get together at The Mexicans they brought a greek dish called Mossaka which was like a meat lasagna made with bechamel and potatoes instead of noodles.
I've already mentioned Chandra and Shiva, my Indian roommates. When Chandra announced that he was moving. His family said "You don't drink alcohol and you don't eat meat. How will you survive in Germany???" Here I submit Chandra's recipe for "capsicum potatoes" a pretty simple dish which he referred to as a side, although you could eat as a main if you wanted:
-Slice into thin pieces 1 onion, 1 sweet pepper, and three peeled and washed potatoes.
-Pour into a large skillet enough oil to cover the bottom and heat on high.
-When the oil is hot, throw in 1 tsp black mustard seeds and 2 tsp whole cumin seeds. Give them about ten seconds to brown before adding the onion.
-Cook the onion on high heat for a few minutes and reduce to medium, stirring constantly to keep everything from burning.
-After the onion is sauteed and beginning to turn clear, add in the chopped potatoes and peppers, 1 tsp coriander powder, 2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp chile powder, and 1-2 tbsp of salt.
-Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 10-20 minutes more until the potato is brown and breaks apart easily under a spoon.
-Serve with rice and butter.
The Mexicans- Rafa and his girlfriend Paola have an enviable loft apartment in a prime location- but its too expensive so they're looking for someplace new. We met them rooting with the Mexican fans at the world cup screenings in the schlossgarten, and they've hosted some wonderful dinners and drinks. Excellent cooks.
The Other Mexicans- are not really a couple. Alejandro and Alfredo are Mexican interns and roommates from Monterrey. If Alejandro had blond hair, he could almost be mistaken for German. His mom was a famous singer in Mexico in the 80s and he works part time as an instructor in her singing school. It's pretty obvious he's mostly here to explore Europe. With one month to go, his last day is friday before he takes off on a blisteringly fast tour of Europe. His itinerary reads something like this:
day 17: Prague
day 18: Prague
day 19: Budapest
day 20: Wien
day 21: Berlin
And he's mostly traveling by train, which means he's probably counting the hours he's going to spend in each city. I will miss him, he actually added a lot of fun to the office.
Alfredo met us at 9am sunday morning at his and Saori's office, somewhere between drunk and hungover. He mentioned something about eating two hamburgers around 4am after leaving the clubs. Alejandro had a Venezuelan friend in town, but Alejandro was sick, so Alfredo felt compelled to show their friend a late night on the town, regardless of the 7kilometer race we were all running the following morning. To our amazement, he ran with us, didn't get sick, and encouraged the knot of people running with us with random yells of "VAMOS!!!!!!!!" (let's go!) He is also a one-man crowd at the world cup mexican games.
It took me the better part of two months to figure out that the Tolli and Gio were the Greek couple one of my coworkers mentioned. They're two jaded Greeks about Saori and my age, and once I got to know them (they're actually really good friends with The Mexicans too), they've been delightful and Saori and I have gone over to their apartment a few times. At the last get together at The Mexicans they brought a greek dish called Mossaka which was like a meat lasagna made with bechamel and potatoes instead of noodles.
I've already mentioned Chandra and Shiva, my Indian roommates. When Chandra announced that he was moving. His family said "You don't drink alcohol and you don't eat meat. How will you survive in Germany???" Here I submit Chandra's recipe for "capsicum potatoes" a pretty simple dish which he referred to as a side, although you could eat as a main if you wanted:
-Slice into thin pieces 1 onion, 1 sweet pepper, and three peeled and washed potatoes.
-Pour into a large skillet enough oil to cover the bottom and heat on high.
-When the oil is hot, throw in 1 tsp black mustard seeds and 2 tsp whole cumin seeds. Give them about ten seconds to brown before adding the onion.
-Cook the onion on high heat for a few minutes and reduce to medium, stirring constantly to keep everything from burning.
-After the onion is sauteed and beginning to turn clear, add in the chopped potatoes and peppers, 1 tsp coriander powder, 2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp chile powder, and 1-2 tbsp of salt.
-Continue cooking, stirring constantly, for 10-20 minutes more until the potato is brown and breaks apart easily under a spoon.
-Serve with rice and butter.
Jun 23, 2014
Seriously tired
What a week! I'm wiped out. Between late world cup matches (and accompanying beer), opera, working last weekend and the weekend before, plus going out apartment hunting I am serious tired. Thursday was the last public holiday until october. Its going to be a long time until then, but I'm planning on taking some time off before.
Ive also had three weeks now of jumping into a competition with one week until deadline. At least I'll be able to rest Friday and read the brief on the new big competition they want me to start. It's a big 'un.
Also. World Cup: pretty exciting stuff although what does it say when a German crowd gets excited about Jogis boys drawing with Ghana?
Time for a shower. Huge bags under my eyes.
Ive also had three weeks now of jumping into a competition with one week until deadline. At least I'll be able to rest Friday and read the brief on the new big competition they want me to start. It's a big 'un.
Also. World Cup: pretty exciting stuff although what does it say when a German crowd gets excited about Jogis boys drawing with Ghana?
Time for a shower. Huge bags under my eyes.
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Medium is the message
I moved the blog again. I deleted the Tumblr account and moved everything to Medium.com, a more writing-centric website. medium.com/@wende
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