Restaurants: Asia Bambus

There are a couple of Asian restaurants in Tübingen and since I hadn't tried any of them yet, I figured it was about time.  I started with the one near the Döner stand that I usually go to.  It's in the old part of town between the Holzmarkt and the Marktplatz.  The restaurant is called Asia Bambus and it's located at Kirchgasse 6.

They seem to have a perpetual special which is 5 Euros for any main dish on the menu - or at least they've had this special for the last few months.  It's located on the first floor of the building - just above Asmara (the only after-hours bar in town) and an Italian place.  Once you go up the stairs it's through a very unassuming little door. and you can pretty much sit wherever you want.

In addition to the dishes being 5 Euros - which includes rice, you can add soup or egg rolls for either 1 or 2 Euro.  I had the Kung Pao Pork and the Peking soup.  Andrew had the Kung Pao Chicken and Eggdrop soup.  The Peking soup is kind of like Hot and Sour soup, but it's a little sweeter than you would expect.  I added some chili sauce to it to make it a little spicier.  It was pretty tasty.  Andrew's eggdrop soup also had some veggies and pieces of chicken in it.  He said it was pretty good as well.

As for the Kung Pao dishes, they were good, but as with most Asian foods in Europe they were just a little bit off - mostly because they were not really spicy.  Again, I added some chili sauce to spice it up.  Even without the spice though, they were very good dishes and I would definitely recommend the restaurant.

One thing of note:  I have noticed after having read the ingredients of other foods and having woken up the next day after eating at Asia Bambus with puffy hands and feet, that they use MSG in some foods here.  If you're allergic to MSG or just want to avoid it you may want to ask about it.

Restaurants: Padeffke

Padeffke is a bakery and cafe on the way from the train station to the old part of town.  In the front you can order various baked goods - from bread to pastries.  In the back you can sit at any table of your choice.  It's basically self serve, so you get your baked goods and coffee from the cashier and then find your table and sit down.  The prices are reasonable, and the space is really nice.  I've been there twice now.  The first time was to grab coffee for a friend's birthday and the second time I went to read.

I'll start with the good parts and transition into the not so great.  First, it's very easy to find a place to sit.  They've got booths, high tables, low tables, tables with funky chairs, areas where you sit on pillows and hang out - basically whatever space you want to be in, you can find it there.  In fact, if you have a specific desire for a firmness of the pillow upon which you sit, you can choose from a variety in the back.  They also have a little library back there where you can find a book and do some reading.  It's probably the most "american" coffee shop I've been to.  Also, when I went they were having a special on some of their baked goods because hey had won some sort of award.

Here's the not so awesome.  I had cappuccino both times I went, and I found it to be a little lacking. There was too little foam, and the espresso part tasted a little watered down.  There may have been more that made it bad, but at this point I can't remember, all I remember is that it certainly wasn't the best cappuccino I'd ever had.  I'm sure some of the other drinks there are just fine, but I just know that I've had better cappuccino elsewhere.

The other not so awesome thing probably has more to do with me than with the location, but I was approached by a crazy woman while I was there.  She sat down at a table one away from me, and proceeded to drink her mini wine. (Yes...that kind of crazy person.)  She was clearly talking to herself, but you never know if someone is talking on a hands free device these days, so I just ignored that.

Then when a gentleman sat down at the table between us she got up and started talking to him.  I could tell she was saying something about someone attacking her but I wasn't sure what she was saying because of the background noise.  The guy just wanted to drink his coffee.  Eventually she went away, but came back and the guy left essentially telling her to leave him alone.  She pestered a few other people and eventually came to my table.  I was taking surreptitious pictures of the place when she came up and asked about my camera.  It seemed to disturb her, so I put it away.  I mean, there's no sense upsetting a crazy woman more than necessary.  She told me some crazy story and I seemed uninterested so she went away.  Eventually I finished my reading and left.

I would recommend the place as a study location, and that's about it.  The prices are comparable to other coffee shops and nobody on the staff is going to bother you about staying too long, but the coffee's not great and there is the possibility for crazy drunk people to harass you.

Long time no update

And you think you're getting a long update now don't you....sorry.

This week I will be taking my Ph.D. exams so the only writing I'll be doing involves two twenty-four hour marathon paper writing sessions.

In preparation for that, I've moved my bed next to my desk, so that I can write while sitting in bed and still having an internet connection.  These things are important.  Plus my chair was getting really uncomfortable.

I also got a care package pictured here from a friend.  It's full of stuff that's easy to make in order to sustain me through the week.

Wish me luck!!

In Praise of Fresh Meat

Though this isn't on my list of things I have plans to write about, I couldn't let today pass by without mentioning the tastiness of fresh meat.  Just before I went down to visit my family my relatives up in Kolbingen had slaughtered a pig and I came home with two pork chops, two bratwurst, and some leberwurst.

The last time I was studying in Germany 12 years ago, my family had also slaughtered a pig, but that was a completely different experience.  My cousin had received a pig from some of his friends as a wedding guest since pigs are symbols of good luck in Germany.  Frank and his (now ex-)wife gave the pig over to a local former who took care of it until it was big enough.  At that point, they went over to the local butcher - who is probably a distant relative - slaughtered the pig and had what is affectionately known as a "Schlachtfest" (slaughter fest). A Schlachtfest is basically where you invite the people over who gave you the pig so that they can share in your luck.

This time, there was no Schlachtfest.  Instead Hans and Hedi split the pig with one of Hedi's relatives and they came away with basically half a pig worth of sausage and other meat. Anyway, I had some of the leberwurst for breakfast, and one of the pork chops for dinner and let me tell you they were some of the tastiest  meat that I have had in a long time.  The leberwurst was so fresh, and well seasoned, and the pork chop was tender and flavorful.  It's almost enough for me to go to a butcher when I get home rather than buying meat at the supermarket.  Unfortunately, it's super expensive...but if I could find an inexpensive butcher, it would be worth a try.

Notes on the weekend and upcoming posts

I spent this last weekend visiting my father's family about an hour south of here (60-80km depending on who you ask).  For the first time I didn't spend the night with my dad's cousin Hans and his family, but instead with his cousin Lydia.  Since my great-aunt died, they have left the upstairs set up like a small apartment for guests and for when her granddaughters come to visit.  It was comfortable, but a little sad, especially since the last time I was there 7 years ago, my great-aunt was still alive.

Anyway, the first day I got to the train station at 2:10 and was picked up by my cousin Sieglinde and her daughter Annika.  I spent the rest of the day with her family.  The second day I went to Wurmlingen - very nearby - and spent the day with Sieglinde's sister Ingeborg and her daughter Lena.  The last day my dad's cousin Hans picked me up and I spent the day with Hans, Hedi and their son Frank.  All in all it was a nice trip and I came home with two pork steaks and freshly made wurst since they had just slaughtered a pig at the butcher.  (That's what you get when you if "auf dem Land.")

There's more to tell, but I have some other work to do before my class tomorrow.  I'm busy reading and writing both for classes and for my exams which I will be taking on the 8th and 10th of December, so until then here are a couple of teasers for upcoming posts.

• The student protests going on in Europe.
• Additional details about my visit to the "Mühle" and the "Heuberg"
• An update on my awesome presentations for classes

Sport treiben: Hochschulsport

Last night I finally went to the Hochschulsportzentrum .  It's basically a complex of buildings where they offer classes and exercise equipment for students - kind of like an on-campus gym, but it's a little further away, and if I read it correctly, in order to actually use gym equipment, and not just take classes, you have to pay a fee monthly or per use fee.  But then the equipment room, both weights and cardio equipment, is also where they have the climbing wall and the Vibrationstraining (which I suspect is one of those machines with a vibrating plate that you stand on, but I'm not sure what else you do).

Dorm Life: Parties and Permission

So I've complained about people cooking dinner in our kitchen before, but this isn't about that.  This is about that.  This is about the common courtesy one extends to neighbors when in a joint living situation.  When I suggested my kitchen as the potential Halloween party/Birthday Party location for my friend Eduarda, I told her to hold off on sending the invitation to everyone until I had a chance to ask everyone else on the floor if it was ok.  I even invited them all to come.  And they did come, even Miss Montana who hardly ever leaves her room. I think because it was a courteous exchange and because it wasn't a big drunken crazy party, people felt comfortable there. This isn't to say that the simple act of asking people for permission to have a party automatically makes it a better party, but it fosters a certain amount of goodwill amongst the people with whom you live.

20 Years Ago Today....

I was thirteen years old, and had just started taking German in the eighth grade.  I knew that I didn't want to take French and Spanish didn't interest me, but I also knew that to get into a college, that I needed to start taking a language in Jr. High School.  I took German because I wanted to be able to have a connection with my family, even though once I started I was too shy and embarrassed to ever talk to either my father or my grandmother in German.

When in Rome...or I guess Germany in this case.

When I was younger, my cousins and aunts from Germany came to visit us in the US a couple of times.  I grew up in San Diego, and spent most summers on the beach with friends, so I was fairly tan, but I was always surprised to see my relatives from Germany with better tans than I had.  I assumed that perhaps they had gone on other vacations in tropical places, which often was the case - I mean what German doesn't like Spain and the Canary Islands.  Little did I know that many Germans use tanning beds as a means of keeping their skin braun all year long.

Payday!!!

So in the world of European exchange students the beginning of the month is a glorious time when we are flush with scholarship money (Stipendiumsgeld).  However you must time the acquisition of your precious funds carefully.

I say you have to time it carefully for two reasons.  First, the money is available as of the third working day and before the 10th of the month.  For example.  Monday was the first working day of the month, so I could have picked up my money yesterday, but I chose instead to get my Visa yesterday (that's the topic of another post) and go to class.  So I went today.  However, if I didn't make it this week, for whatever crazy reason, I would have to wait until next week, and then it would have to have been Monday or Tuesday, because Tuesday is the 10th.  I'm not sure what would happen if you somehow missed your money pickup date, but I shudder to think.

My new favorite snack

So the last time I studied abroad in Germany was 12 years ago.  To be honest, not much has changed.  There is probably more garbage separation, but to be honest it's not that different a place than it was 12 years ago.  With one exception....Peanuts.

Now I know what your thinking: What the heck do peanuts have to do with anything?  Well, my friend, I'll tell you.  Germans do not really eat peanut butter.  If I were interested in making a cheap PB&J for lunch to bring with me, I would be out of luck.  First, their bread is WAY better than the crap you would make that kind of sandwich out of.  Second, while they do have bread for such sandwiches, it's not as good as our bread for such things...strange but true.  But it's a moot point, because there is no peanut butter.

So.....How are classes you ask?

My classes are actually awesome.  To be fair I've only been to one sitting of three of them - the second sitting is tomorrow, but overall I'm pleased with my choices.  Here's a rundown of what I've got:

Körper von Platon bis Judith Butler (The Body from Plato to Judith Butler)
This class has met twice thus far.  The professor is new to the University, but has published quite a bit.  I met with her during her office hours and she was very nice, and interested in my dissertation project, so that was awesome.  The class is also relatively large - about 40-50 students.  This is fine, but it makes having a discussion in class very difficult.  People just kinda say things, and she interprets what they're trying to say and then she calls on someone else....lather, rinse, repeat.  The discussion that we had in class on Monday - about Plato's Symposium - was interesting, but I think we probably could have gotten more out of it.  I myself took some additional notes which I think are important to my own project.  Next week we're reading Pascal's Les Pensées.

Das Erhabene: von der Antike bis zur Postmoderne  (The Sublime: From Antiquity to the Postmodern)
This class is significantly smaller, more like 15 students.  It's specifically for students of the Literature and Cultural Theory MA program, but I asked the professor if I could take the course ahead of time, because my dissertation is likely to deal with the Sublime.  The lecture last week was interesting, and the article that I've read for this week (aka tomorrow) is very much in line with the reading that I'm doing for my PhD exams and dissertation.  In fact, I may end up using it in my exams.

The other two classes that I'm taking are language classes to help me work on the finer details of my language use.  We'll see how they go.  Thus far I've only taken tests in them - but they seem like they will be good classes.

Halloween Photos

Here are some photos of the Halloween/Birthday party on Saturday.  Story to come later - sadly there aren't any photos of me here, but such is life.  I'll find some that other people took of me.

Neighborhood Tour - Hafengasse

Today I'm going to take you on a little tour around the neighborhood.  Each week I'll give you a little taste of what the neighborhood around my place looks like so you can get an idea of where I'm living.  Let's get started.

Classes begin - finally

Lest you think I do nothing here but go to parties, and complain about my neighbors, I do actually have some positive, non-complaining things to say about what's going on here.  :)

Yesterday I had my first class.  It was a basic introduction class, going over the syllabus and talking about requirements.  Today I'm going to the professor's office hours to make sure that I'm in the class as an auditor, so that I'm not expected to do anything more than show up and read.  To be honest since I'm reading and writing every day in preparation for my PhD exams, I don't really have the time until after December to really focus on any other writing.  I've already read a good chunk of what we're reading in the middle section of this class, so it will be interesting to see what comes out of those discussions.

Tomorrow is my long day.  I have two German classes and a course on the Sublime in the department of German literature.  I need to make sure with that professor after class that being an auditor in that class is ok as well.  I have read almost everything on that syllabus for my PhD exam list on the Sublime, which means I'm really kind of interested to see what comes out of the discussions and I think it will be good preparation for my exam.  If I can summarize my notes at the end of every week and put them together with the notes I've already taken on these works, I think it will be a solid set of notes to draw on for my exams.

Speaking of my exams.  I finished a book last night, and will likely finish another one tonight, as well as being close to done on 2-3 others.  The end is in sight.

Showdown in the Kitchen

So last night I was suffering from what can only be described as one of the worst sinus headaches in the history of mankind.  It's much better today, but I think I should still probably take some ibuprofen just to be on the safe side.  I have a lot of friends who get migranes, and I don't know what a migrane feels like, but this was probably the sinus headache equivalent of a migrane.  It hurt my entire head to cough and though I was just laying in bed and breathing my head was pounding.

Anyway, because of the pain, and the fact that I have to get in just the right position to sleep with this head cold, I had some problems falling asleep.  I tried reading just before I went to bed, but the headache was too bad and focusing on the words and writing notes was too much.  This was at about 1:30 am.  I put a warm compress on my eyes and finally drifted off to sleep at what was probably around 2:00 am or so.  At 3:45 I was woken up by loud voices in the hallway.

Hunkering Down and the Putzplan

Having had a relapse of whatever it was I got about 2 weeks go, I've spend the last 2 1/2 days in my dorm - not really leaving my room except for showers, food, and other necessities.  It has afforded me the opportunity to finish up some reading for my Ph.D. exams and given the cold and the amount of rain that we've been having, it's actually been preferable to going outside.  Apparently, however, my absence has been noted as people have been asking about me.

Rather than this being a lengthy post about either my reading or my illness, I figured I would take this as an opportunity to tell you about the latest goings on in the 2nd floor of Prinz Karl.  The more responsible of the Brazilians decided that it would be a good idea to sit down on Tuesday evening and talk about our Putzplan.  Putzen is the German word for cleaning, and Plan - well, I think you can probably figure that one out.  Anyway, at 8pm we met in the kitchen and assigned weeks for cleaning and other responsibilities.

Basically, if it's your week, you must purchase toilet paper, make sure that the bathrooms are clean between visits from the Putzfrau, make sure that the garbage gets taken out, and clean any big things in the kitchen.  In addition, we agreed that if you make a mess you clean it up.  It is not the responsibility of the person on duty that week to clean up your dishes from making dinner for 10 people in the kitchen.

That was Tuesday.  This morning, I go into the kitchen and find it a disaster.  I almost took a picture.  I really should have because it would show you the level of filth that some people think is acceptable to force other people to live with.  Anyway, there were apparently about 8 people in our kitchen last night drinking, eating dinner, and having a good time, but nobody decided to clean up after themselves.  Now it's one of the Brazilian's job to clean this week, and let's just say that he is challenged when it comes to basic household maintenance and well anything else that takes place in a kitchen.  (As an aside, we were amazed that he cleaned his room last weekend, but then he has a girlfriend, and if he wanted his girlfriend to stay over, the room needed to be cleaned.)

Having talked to one of the Brazilians briefly in the kitchen today, he said that he cooked, but that the other Brazilian didn't get a chance to clean up.  I thought to myself - wait a minute - it's not his job to clean up your crap.  I mean, it's nice if the people for whom you cook help you clean up afterwards, and given the number of plates and glasses that were washed, I would suspect that someone did clean up after dinner.  But don't blame your friend and fellow countryman because your dirty pots and pans were scattered everywhere. OR because there were beer bottles everywhere in the kitchen.  OR because you were too drunk to take care of it.

Anyway, it's week one of the Putzplan and it's not going too well.  The German woman on our floor -  is up next week and I suspect it will be a little different with her.  Let's hope.

Cook in your own kitchen!!

I get that our kitchen is bigger.  I get that you may even be cooking for a couple of people who live on this floor. But seriously there are four other people who live in this hall, for whom you are not cooking and each and every one of them wants to cook and eat their dinner.  So unless you're going to invite us all to eat with you, go back to your own frickin' kitchen and cook your food there because you're taking up the ENTIRE kitchen to cook your food.

Seriously.  You have to bring all of your ingredients downstairs to cook in our kitchen.  Isn't that inconvenient?  Wouldn't it be easier to cook upstairs and invite people up to your place to eat?  Not only that, but we just cleaned our kitchen and you and the two boys for whom you are cooking are not known for cleaning up after yourselves.

And the worst part is that I know pretty soon the guitar playing is going to start.  

Restaurants: Stern

As a service to those who come to Tübingen after me I have decided to try to go to one restaurant a week and give a basic run down on it.  It works out well that my friend Steffi and I have gone to lunch for the last two weeks, so I've now gone to two different restaurants, on which I can report.  The first is Stern, and it's right around the corner from my dorm.

Stern is a small place that you would probably walk right past if you didn't know it was there.  But then again, there are a lot of places like that in small towns in Europe.  The inside area is very small, but they also have a back patio, which seats many more people.  Though with as cold as it's been lately I don't know if you could pay me to eat out on the patio.

From what I've eaten there, they have very tasty food, but the best part about Stern is their lunch menu.  Every day they have two dishes that they offer on their Tagesmenü which is available online. (I'm pretty sure that at least one, if not both, are vegetarian, but you'd want to check that if it's important to you.) The meal comes with a small drink and a salad for 6 Euros, which is a pretty good deal.  In addition, if you want coffee or espresso after your meal, it's only 1 Euro more.  While the food is more expensive than the Mensa, it's also better quality.  I wouldn't go there every day, but for a break from making your own meals and eating in the Mensa it's definitely a good option.   

It's also a bar in the evenings, and they have drink specials posted on the chalkboards outside the restaurant as well as inside.  I have yet to go there in the evenings, but I'll update the info if I do.  They have a sister restaurant named Unckel up by the university, that I have yet to visit, but they supposedly have good pizzas.  I'll report back once I've ventured on over.

So much progress it's unbelievable!!!

I don't even know where to start.  But I'll begin with the first bit of news, and that is that I have my own login for the computer network.  I received my lovely username and password in the mail yesterday.  This opened up a lot of possibilities for me.  It meant that I now had a uni-tuebingen email address, that I could log into the system and get the readings for one of my classes, and that I could print out my proof of matriculation so that I could buy my semester bus pass.

This may not seem exciting for you, but there it means major progress on my end.  Now that I have a bus pass, I no longer have to pay 4 Euros every time I want to go visit my friends up in WHO (where most of the dorms are).  It also means that I can visit my family in Germany for the low, low price of 1.80.  My family lives just outside of the area that my Semesterticket covers, which means I have to pay for the bus on the last stretch.  It's not that bad really and to be honest, if I got all the way to Beuron, they would probably come pick me up instead of making me take the bus, but it's good to know I've got options. So all in all, things are looking up on the bureaucracy front.

My cold has progressed into an at times disgusting sounding cough.  Good thing I bought throat and cough tea - whatever the heck that is supposed to do.  At least it's no longer in my sinuses, which is a good thing.  AND, I'm able to sleep through the night without waking myself up coughing or unable to breath.

My foot - well it's definitely bruised and swollen. I would post pictures, but for some reason bruises don't show up well in pictures - who knew.  It feels better today, and since I'm going to spend the day inside reading, I would be aggravating the injury. I just feel like a bit of a moron.  Whatever.

Finally - it's cold here.  And I mean really cold.  Like winter jacket cold.  Like I'm wearing two sweaters and a jacket and tights under my jeans cold.  I do not want to see what winter is going to be like. I haven't lived in a cold place in a long time, but all I can say is that it's not normal for it to be below freezing in October.  NOT NORMAL.

Ok...back to reading.

What the heck?!?

So whatever dream I was having last night, I decided that at some point I needed to get out of bed and head across the room.  This all would have been fine, but for a couple of minor problems.

#1  it was quite early in the morning - probably around 3 or 4 am and dark.
#2 I had been sleeping pretty soundly, so I wasn't really sure what was going on around me.
#3 Apparently my left leg had fallen asleep.

All of this led to me trying to step on my left foot while getting out of bed, and rolling over onto it with all of my weight.  At this point I collapsed onto the floor and crawled back into bed in agony.  It's painful to walk on it, but I don't think I've broken anything.  But leave it to me to basically sleepwalk and end up injuring myself with my first step.

Oktoberfest – Part 2

When last we discussed the joys of Oktoberfest, Vera and I had decided to stay and drink a beer, and left the others to wander around München.  Once we got in the Biergarten we realized that finding a seat was going to be difficult, but not impossible.  As one of the waiters passed by us, I asked him if one had to be seated in order to get a beer.  He confirmed this, but then asked how many seats we needed.  While there were four of us, we really only needed 2 seats, the other two could stand and as long as we could order 4 beers, it would be fine.  The waiter asked a table with a little bit of wiggle room if they would be willing to scoot down so that a couple more people could sit and we got a seat at the end of the benches.  Yea!!

We ordered our beers and waited for them to come.  I have to say that the atmosphere was actually pretty good.  To be fair it was still early in the day, but everyone was very friendly.  There were no angry or belligerent drunks, and everyone was just there to have a good time.  Now the beers were 8.50 which is a little expensive, but if you’re just going to have one beer and experience the fun that is Oktoberfest, it’s 8.50 well spent.  We got our beers, tipped our kindly waiter generously since he had found us the seats, and met the people next to us.

8000 Rubber Duckies

Today was the Tuebinger Entenrennen which is basically a race of 8000 rubber duckies along the Neckar river.  People purchase entry into the race by buying a duck.  They don't get to keep the duck, but for the first 400 ducks there is some sort of prize, for the very first duck there is an even bigger prize.  The ducks - ie entry into the race - costs 3 Euros, and all of the money goes to help social programs in the area.

The photos aren't great, because it's hard to get good clear pictures of 8000 rubber ducks swimming down a river, but they will give you a sense of what the event was like.

In other news - I'm still sick.  My cold has moved into my sinuses - as they always do - but right now it's just pain and pressure, not an infection.  I tried to get the pharmacist to give me some sort of decongestant today, but she said that everything I was doing should work.  I talked to another american who came down with a cold shortly after she arrived, and found out the name of the product she got that actually has the same active ingredient as real sudafed, so on Monday, if it's not significantly better, I'll try to grab some of that.

Blah…sick

So I’m sick.  Not in a Swine-flu sort of way, but the kind of sick you get when the weather changes quickly and your body is not prepared for it.  And while I have health insurance, I’m not really sick enough to go to the doctor, so today I headed to the drug store to find out what magical herbal remedies they had in store for me.  (Really, I needed lotion and vitamin C with zinc, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to look at the herbal tea section.)

Short post...

I have to make this quick because the stores here are going to close for the whole weekend shortly.  Tomorrow is "Tag der deutschen Einheit" which means it's a federal holiday, which further means that all of the stores will be closed.  AND...since all of the stores are already closed on Sundays, well, you do the math.  Basically, if I want to eat anything other than potatoes, instant soup mix or yogurt, I've got to get it now.  So I'm off to the store.

But before I go, I will report on a couple of bits of exciting news.

Yea for my dad!!!

After reading my last post, my dad did a little bit of research and now I'm able to at least get to Pandora with regularity and all the TV stations - as well as Hulu on occasion!!!

Whoo hooo!!

Thanks Dad!!

We interrupt this blog to complain...

I'm going to bitch a little bit right now.  I know...you're thinking to yourselves, what the heck else do you do on this blog...seriously!!  But this time I'm going to be complaining about technology and the lack of services that one can receive in Germany.  For example.  I cannot watch Hulu - which is a Web service that allows you to put various television programs in a queue and then watch them at your leisure.  I had been watching a couple of tv programs in the US via hulu....but that's all over now.  Even if I tunnel in through my university's VPN software, it can tell that I'm not in the US.  I also can't watch the shows directly from the tv network Web sites.  They can tell I'm not in the US and block me from watching....

The same goes for Pandora - which is like internet radio, but it will create playlists for you based on the songs you insert into the program.  Kinda like the iTunes Genius feature, but you don't have to download the songs.  Finally, I was trying to link to a youtube video that a friend had posted and I couldn't get to it because I'm in Germany.  Come on people!!!  What happened to freedom of speech?!!  What happened to international cooperation?!!  If anyone has suggestions I'm open to them.  Otherwise I'm going to have to start listening to German radio, and honestly that way lies madness.  I mean Rammstein is ok, but they get very little radio play.  Most German radio is techno, dance and top 40 crapola, in which I have no interest.  blah...

München und Oktoberfest - The Beginning

So after that jam packed day at the Bodensee, we decided that we would get up at the crack of dawn and head to Munich.  The German rail system has a pretty sweet ticket called the “Schönes Wochenende” ticket where 5 people can travel one day on the same ticket anywhere in Germany for the 37 Euros as long as the trip doesn’t go beyond 3am the following day, so if you leave at 6:30 am on Saturday and the trip is good until 3am Sunday morning.  It’s not a bad deal, and if you are just doing a day trip it means you can travel all the way to Munich and back for 7.40 if you’ve got 5 people.  The only downside is that you can only travel on regional trains which often stop at every little town along the way and often take a bit longer, but it’s super cheap so who cares.

Konstanz – The Narrative

So Friday my language course planned an expedition to the Bodensee – known as Lake Constance for English speakers.  The plan was for everyone to gather behind the language institute building and depart promptly at 9am, and we almost made it, but one of the language tutors, who was responsible for the scavenger hunt around the city, overslept.  So we left a little late and then drove over to pick her up outside her apartment.

Konstanz und Oktoberfest

I will have a longer post about my grand birthday weekend, but for now, here are some photos to give you an idea.

Photos from Konstanz und Oktoberfest

Ouch...

I’m starting to think that I might have bruised a bone in my ankle during my trip here.  I have a lot of random bruises, which are finally fading, but that's normal for me, the ankle thing is another story.  I’ve accidentally hit the outside of my left ankle about 3 times since I’ve been here – very lightly mind you – and it hurts like nothing I’ve ever felt.  I hit it on something in the grocery store yesterday and it almost took my breath away. It’s just in one spot where I appear to have a little bruise and it’s a bit tender to the touch.  I think I might take a couple of ibuprofen and put some ice on it.

But tomorrow....after I have some birthday wine.....

Happy birthday to me!!!

A few stories/observations and stories from the past 2 weeks.

1) I tried to sleep while the Brazilians in my building had parties – twice.

The first party I didn’t know anything about.  It was the first Saturday I was here and all of a sudden the bell for our floor kept ringing and more and more people were coming upstairs.  Now at this point I had a pretty serious case of jet lag and I had taken a nap earlier in the day, which was probably a bad idea.  I was really trying to get on a regular sleep schedule, so the party was particularly disturbing.  But what was most disturbing about this party was the fact that they went away at around 11pm, and I got a couple of hours of sleep, until they came back at 3am and started listening to music and drinking some more.

Biomüll – the bane of my existence

So I recycle.  I’m pretty diligent about knowing what’s recyclable and what’s not, but the Germans take this to a whole new level.  In fact, there’s a blog for my dorm, and the first post that the Tutor for our dorm put up, was about how to separate your garbage.  We had an entire hour in my class (well maybe not quite an hour, but whatever) about how to separate your garbage.  Apparently foreigners just don’t get this concept.  But really, what’s so hard about reading the directions and following them.  Seriously.

Earplugs

I'm testing out a set of ear plugs right now while my floormates are hanging out in the hallway.  Two notes on ear plugs.  #1:  If you have tinnitus (aka ringing in your ears) it makes it a lot worse.  All you can hear in your head is the ringing.  #2: If people in the hallway are using it as a soccer field, earplugs will not dampen the noise completely.  Plus you'll feel the vibrations of the tromping around in the hallway through the floor.

Hopefully they'll work when the inevitable next party happens.  I'll keep you posted.   :)

Victory will be mine!!!

So last Thursday was a day for some major victories, among them getting a good chunk of my paperwork taken care of as well as getting health insurance and a bank account.  Today I had two additional victories which I would like to share.

Victory number one: I emailed two professors to see if I could participate in their classes.  For some classes you just sign up for the course online and you’re in.  For others you have to email the professor directly and they will tell you if you’re in, if the class is full, etc.  One of the professors got back to me and said that the class was full.  I knew this already, but I figured that asking couldn’t hurt.  Sometimes they set aside a certain number of slots for foreign students, so if those weren’t filled then I had a shot.  It wasn’t the best fit of a course, so it wasn’t too upsetting.

The other professor wrote back and said that she would be happy to have me in her class.  Yea!!!  But now I had to look for another class because I can’t just take one class.  So I looked online again, and a course that I thought had disappeared off of the schedule was suddenly there again.  This course actually fits perfectly with some of the works on which my dissertation will focus, namely the philosophical idea of the Sublime.  So I emailed the professor, while I was in my room for lunch.  When I came back 2 hours later, I had an email from him saying that he would be happy to have me in the class and giving me further instructions for what books to get and what forms to fill out.  AWESOME!!!

So that was victory number one – well really you could call those two victories, but I don’t want to exaggerate.  :)

Victory number two:  I found Kaufland today.  There are two grocery stores in the Altstadt.  The first is Edeka, which is nice, relatively large, but a little expensive.  The second grocery store is Plus which is tiny, a little dirty, and cheap.  Kaufland is a little outside of town – maybe a 10 minute walk (1.3 km according to Google maps) but totally worth it.  They have a huge produce section, a huge frozen food section and…wait for it…frozen turkey so I can make Thanksgiving dinner in November!!!! Yea!!!!

But seriously this place has everything and a huge selection of everything that they have. I would highly recommend going there, and maybe stocking up on some of the basics like pasta, sauce mixes, etc.  If I lived closer it might make sense to buy meat, beer and wine there too, but it’s a bit of a trek to carry that stuff back.  We’ll see.  I’ve got a lot more time here to figure that out.

Sweet Jesus….not a Guitar!!!

So Cicero, one of the Brazilians who live on my floor of the building, just bought a guitar.  He’s not a bad guitar player, but I am currently listening to Miss Colorado, her friend Mr. Boston, and the other Brazilians trying to sing.  Now the Brazilians aren’t bad, if only because I don’t know what the hell they are singing, so really, who cares, but Miss Colorado is a TERRIBLE singer.  Now, let me be clear, I know what bad singing is.  My father’s singing is so bad that the people in front of us in church got up from their seats and moved one time.  But Miss Colorado is completely tone deaf.  Plus she has this nasal kinda whiny voice that really grates even when she just talks.  Argh…seriously….it’s killing me.  I’ll have to take some video of their “jam sessions” in the kitchen so you all can at least hear how bad her singing is.

Oh God, they’re trying to sing Bon Jovi now…please make them stop.

Here’s the other thing about Miss Colorado.  She has all of this music on her iPod from the 80s and she acts as though nobody has heard it before.  Right now they’re trying to sing Brian Adams songs, and soon they will be moving on to Rush or some other such nonsense.  I guess the Brazilians have never heard them before, but seriously, the other night at the birthday party from one of the women in the dorm, she was listening to something an acting as though it was new and nobody had heard it before.  The woman, whose birthday it was, is a little older than me and we gave each other a knowing glance and continued about our business.

Dieses Wochenende

This weekend there was a huge street festival which apparently happens every year around the same weekend here in Tübingen.  Apparently the city has a number of sister cities or maybe sister regions, and this street festival is in celebration of their relationship with Provence and Umbria.  There were street vendors selling food and wine from these various areas.  Right around the corner from my dorm, there was a butcher who, for the last few days has had a pig’s head in the booth.  I’m not quite sure what the deal was with the pig’s head, but there it was.  There were also cheeses that smelled awesome, and some that smelled absolutely disgusting, along with some very cool hand made leather goods and baskets.

Travel Update – The Final Chapter

So, where were we, ah yes, we’re in the dorm meeting the other folks on my floor.

Rent Update

They have managed to find my first month's rent!!!  Whooo Hoooo!!!!  That is the best news I've heard all week.

Travel Update – Part 3: Die Wohnheimverwaltung

So, at this point in the adventure I’m standing outside the Wohnheimverwaltung waiting for them to open at 1:30.  Now, I’ve worked with German bureaucracy before, so I know that if the time says 1:30 then the time is 1:30 and no earlier – in fact, if they could get away with starting later they probably would, but their conscience would get the better of them and they would still manage to make it to the door before the clock struck 1:31.  I say this because there is little to no point in opening the doors to look inside before 1:30 if they say that they open at 1:30.  Seriously people, where do you think you are?

Travel Update – Part 2

I finally found where I need to go to buy my ticket for the train to the main station.  I realize that the train that I want is coming in about 5 minutes and I need to hustle, so once one becomes available I hop on, buy my ticket, and head down with all of my luggage down the escalator.  Did I mention that this luggage is really frickin’ heavy?  I mean the escalator wasn’t bad, but do you think they have any train cars that are flush with the platform?  Not that I could see.  So then I had to pull the bags up into the train with me.  Um Yea…that didn’t work out so great, but with the help of a kind stranger I was able to get my bag into the train car.  I didn’t try to get into any of the seating areas and just stood with it in the entrance/exit area for the 12-14 minute ride to the station.

Then I had to get off, but that was easy I just pulled it and it dropped and made loud noises, but nothing broke, so I carried on to the escalator.  A note for any travelers out there, if you have heavy bags, put them in front of you when you go down an escalator, and behind you when you go up, that way the weight isn’t resting entirely on you during the entire escalator ride.

Travel Update – Part 1

This will probably be a couple of posts because I have been without internet access for a little while now and have been composing this all in a document as events have been unfolding.  Eventually I will get my own internet access – for now I’m using my neighbors username and password (shhhh don’t tell anyone).

Where should I begin – probably with “Day 1” which would be my first travel day 9/9/09.

Less than a Week

This time next week I'll be on a train somewhere between Zuerich and Tuebingen.  If something awful happens, the train stops not far from where my family lives, so I can always get off and call them.  :)  At some point I'll need to start packing.

The car is gone, though I know where the owner lives so I can drive by and stalk my car at any time.  But really I thought the separation anxiety would be worse.  It helps that a friend of ours is also leaving the country for a year and left his car with us, so we haven't been without a car.  I think you could be without a car in this area, it would just be really difficult to stock up on the groceries and buy provisions for our party on Saturday without one.

And I got a haircut.  I needed something that would be easy and for which I wouldn't need a blowdryer.  Behold the short hair.  I'm still playing around with it.  The clip in the front makes it a little more me.  You can't see it in this picture, but it's there.  Yesterday I wore a scarf and had the bangs peeking out the front.  I've had hair this short before, but I haven't had bangs in years.  All part of the grand adventure.

I have to go to campus today for one last meeting.  We have an annual meeting with the DGS and Chair to talk about how bad the budget situation is and blah blah blah....so that's today at 2pm.  Headed out soon to get some reading done while I'm on campus.  Yea!! Reading!!!!

13 Days and Counting

Yesterday was the official two week mark before I leave for Germany.

In the past week I have read, taken care of some administrative matters, gotten a CarMax quote for my car, and sold the car for almost three times what they were going to offer me. Basically, if you want to sell a car and get actual money for it, sell it yourself. If you want to get lowballed on a trade in, then take it to a dealership. Who knew?

So tomorrow I will be officially car-free. It's a little sad, since this was the first new car I have ever owned. It had 12 miles on it when I bought it and 5 of those were from my test drive. I will miss her, but she is going to a good home and will make someone else happy for as long as she drives.

Bureaucracy and other nonsense

So I sent my rent for the month of September at the beginning of August. It needed to be there by the 25th, so I thought the earlier the better, and not wanting to have to worry about the time it would take to transfer the money from a US to a German account I took care of it on the 1st of the month. I contacted the student housing folks the other day, to see if they had received it and the woman said that she didn't see it. However the money is no longer in my account and the folks at xoom.com say that it was sent.

Now, the woman with whom I had been corresponding, is on vacation - of course because it's August in Germany, so I was talking to a new woman, but theoretically she should be able to find it. I'll have to wait until the woman who I was communicating with before gets back to see if she can track it down. It will be an odd amount because of the exchange rate, and my name should be associated with the transfer, but we'll see what happens. blah....

In other news, I'm going to set up my packing station in the basement. After scouring the Web for resources on how to pack for a year abroad, I found an awesome site run by three feminist Ph.D. students about fashion, which has got me thinking about both how I dress and what to pack. One of the women on the site is also traveling to Germany for a year this fall and posted her strategies for packing. I'm taking my cue from that - though my husband will be visiting a couple of times over the course of the year so I may have him bring me some stuff to supplement my wardrobe.

I'll keep you updated as things go along.

25 Days and counting

That's how long it is until I leave for eleven months. Holy moley there's a lot to do between now and then.

Based on the original list of things to do I can say that I've made progress

Dental Appts: Done

Expensive, but necessary. I wanted to get any big problems taken care of before I left. My dentist gave me a prescription toothpaste with extra fluoride, but when I run out of that I'm going to try to find some ACT or the German equivalent while I'm there. With my luck I'll have to get it from the pharmacist. blah....

Meet with Advisor: Done

We talked about my exams, my prospectus, and classes that might be useful while I'm in Germany. He thinks that taking my exams via Skype should be no problem, but we'll see what actually happens when I get there. Ideally I will take my exams at the beginning of October, from Germany, and then write my prospectus and have that done by January. Apparently, the graduate school has specified that you must submit and defend your prospectus withing 3 months of taking your exams. I suppose there's a bit of wiggle room there, but not much. I'll be glad to start focusing on my own work, and to start outlining what will be my dissertation.

Reading for PhD exams: In progress

I've just kept reading and taking notes but now I have a helper monkey. My husband (BookBoy) has offered to type out my hand written notes for works I've already read. This is enormously helpful, because it's seemed a little daunting up until now to get all of those hand written notes on paper. Plus, I spent the better part of 3 weeks working with him in the archives and not on my own stuff, so he owes me. ;) I'm getting to the point where I need to be strategic about what I'm reading. I need to turn in library books before I go, so I'm focusing on the books that I can get from the library, that I probably won't be able to find in Germany, and that I can't find electronically. I can't do that for all of the works, but that's my strategy for the next three weeks.

Making sure my husband doesn't starve: Ongoing

We've been stocking up on dry goods, purchased a shelving system on which to store the reserves, and last week I browned up 5 lbs of beef so that he can add meat to his pasta sauce.

Positive Progress

So I had tried to sign up for an inexpensive language course that was being offered through the university I will be at next year. One of the reasons I'm going abroad is to work on my language skills. When you're getting a PhD in a foreign language studies, you can always work on your language skills.

Anyway, I say tried because I received word back a week or so ago that the course was full. I emailed back asking if there was a waiting list and inquiring as to how many people fail to show up, or end up canceling their registration.* I was informed that there was indeed a waitlist, I had been placed on said waitlist, and that I was #2 in line. I was a little bummed about not being able to register, but hopeful that two people would flake out or simply sign up for the earlier course.

Well, today I heard back and I have a spot in the class - whoo hoooo! I started filling out the forms today and have sent them an email back asking if I can just email them with an electronic signature instead of mailing them. We'll see.

One of the funny things about filling out the registration form, is that I had to take an online placement exam to see what level I should be placed in based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. I tested into C-1, which is what I always test into, but the registration for the course only goes through B-2. I don't really care if the course is a little below my level. The important aspects of the course for me are that I will be speaking, reading, and writing German for three weeks, I get to meet other international students, and , the course has 1.5 days dedicated to dealing with bureaucracy, of which Germany has a lot.

Everything is coming together.

* I've worked with German "Beamte" in the past and I know the questions that you need to ask to get the answers you're really looking for. The waiting list thing was not information volunteered in the first email back.

One Month to Go

I’m hoping to use this blog as a means of tracking my year abroad. When I went abroad as an undergrad about 12 years ago (jebus that’s a long time ago) there was not the level of technology available to keep an electronic and publicly available log of my trip. Now, as a graduate student, I have a digital camera, a wireless internet connection, and a laptop – AND a lot more people that I want to keep updated on my trip.

I leave for my research year abroad in exactly 1 month, and in that month I have so much to do. And this is not just purchasing some additional clothing, packing, and making sure I can carry my bags. Here's what remains that is not specifically travel related:

• Dental Appts
• Meeting with Advisor
• Reading for my PhD exams (which will continue abroad)
• Taking notes for my PhD exams (which will continue abroad)
• Making sure my husband doesn't starve while I'm gone

I'm sure there's more, but this is a preliminary list. blah....