City life, country life

I've been in Berlin for about 3-4 weeks now and have found my favorite cafés, restaurants, and quiet places to sit and work. I have walked more in the last three weeks than I probably had in the prior 3 months. It's good. Other than what I think might be mild tendinitis developing in one of my feet, I enjoy the fact that I don't have a car.  It's funny, actually, every time I come to Germany, I swear that I'm going to walk more and forgo driving the car.  But then when I get back to the US I always fall back into driving everywhere.  To be fair it's a little harder to go without a car where we live, but for day to day commuting, it's entirely possible.  It just takes getting up earlier and planning more.  We'll see what happens when I get home.

In some ways I miss city life. There is always something to do often at little or no cost. DC and Berlin are very different cities, but they share a liveliness and energy that you don't necessarily get where we live now.  Sometimes it's really nice and sometimes I just want to shut it off and escape.

This week, while most of higher students are on an excursion to Munich, I will be renting a car and driving to the south to visit my family. The idea that I have no responsibilities except to myself for a week sounds like heaven to me. The quietude of being in the countryside and being able to work on my own research and writing without getting texts from students or roommate drama is really appealing. 

I'm driving because it's cheap and it gives me freedom. The cost of renting a car for a week, even with gasoline, is about the same as, if not less than, flying and getting a car, or taking the train and relying on others for transportation. Plus, the constant pull of freedom and convenience always seems to win out.

Dresden excursion

This past weekend we went as a group to Dresden. I haven't been to Dresden since 1997, when I was doing research for my senior thesis on the reconstruction of space and buildings in post unification Germany and how it served as a representation of the attempts to construct a new common national identity. When I entered the main square 17 years ago, a good chunk of it was separated off by fencing, and they were cataloging what looked like rubble. In fact, it was the remains of the Frauenkirche, a church that had been destroyed during the fire bombings by the British from in February of 1945. The church was rebuilt between 1994 and 2004, and was reopened to the public in 2005. 

When we entered the downtown area, I started to tear up. What had just been a dream and a pile of rubble 17 years ago, was a significant presence in the Dresden skyline. The Frauenkirche, which I had only seen images of, was there in all its glory. I was somewhat surprised by my reaction, but it was like seeing a wound that had been healed. While the church may it be the most impressive from the inside, it is what it symbolizes that impressed and overwhelmed me. As we listened to the service and the organ concert, I wondered at the patience and perseverance that it took to undertake such a task, and the faith, that must have sustained that community over the course of the 60 years it took to see their church rebuilt.

The rest of hone trip was lovely, but that was a highlight.

Home Alone

Well, to be honest, I'm neither at home, nor am I really alone, but it feels like that right now.

I have a roommate. She's very nice, a bit of a flake, and reminds me a lot of my sister.  She's also a huge party animal. She goes out most Sundays to this club, that is apparently very exclusive, and which I don't actually care about.  She has had a steady stream of visitors since we arrived almost two weeks ago.  RIght now, she has three friends over - friends from this exclusive club, but not just from there, who are hanging out together in her room.  I was working in the living room when they came home, but I think it's absurd for her to be hanging out in her room, when there is a perfectly good living room to hang out in, but obviously I wasn't invited to hang out with their group.  This is honestly fine by me, but I when I volunteer to clear out so that you can hang out in a room that is meant for hanging out, and that would be much more comfortable, I would think that they would take advantage of that.

But no.  Instead they are in her room, which is right next to my room, and which has paper thin walls, so that when I choose to go to bed, or talk on the phone with my husband, or do whatever, I have to hear their conversation throught he walls, and their music, and whatever else.  Again, I don't expect to be invited to hang out with her and her friends, but I feel very alone, sitting in my room by myself and biding my time until I can call home. 

It makes me feel like one of the un-cool kids.  Like I'm not cool enough to hang out with her and her friends.  Which, honestly, is probably true, but I don't want to be cool like them. My life does not revolve around partying. I like hanging out with my friends, and having partys but that is a sometimes thing, not an every night thing.  I feel like at the age of 38 - or 39 in my roommate's case - one would have gotten to the point where hanging out could be inclusive, and respectful, and I get that these are friends who she hasn't seen in a while, but I don't like being made to feel uncomfortable in my own home.

So, yes, I'm home alone, seeking out opportunities to spend weekends away so that I don't have to deal with this in the future.

City Living

Sometimes I forget what it's like to live in a city.  While Durham is very urban, it is definitely not a city in the same way that DC was.  Using public transportation, dealing with crazy people, navigating crowds, these are tall things that I haven't had to deal with much for the last 8 years.  Today, after taking the tram to meet up with some friends, I hopped on the tram to head back to the classrooms to get some work done.  About midway throughout he ride a woman got on with her baby firmly secured to her.  I looked down and she was barefoot.

Her baby also has no shoes, but at least he/she is wearing socks

Now there's nothing inherently wrong with going barefoot.  I used to do it all the time when I was a kid, but I wasn't walking around in a city with broken glass, filthy sidewalks - I was walking in my neighborhood or at the beach.

The other thing that I saw today was a zombie-like scene at the Saturn.  Saturn is basically like Best Buy, and I was going to stop by there to see if I could get a new battery for my old phone - hoping to be able to at least get the information off of the phone.  The store opened at 10am, and at about 9:45 a crowd started forming and waiting to enter the building. As it got closer to opening time, the people started getting closer and closer to the doors, looking in and almost pressing their faces up against the glass.  It reminded me of something out of a zombie movie.

Electronics Zombies

The only time I have really seen this in the US is on Black Friday, and then it's certainly more of a panic, but I thought this orderly zombie hoard was interesting.

Class visit to The Story of Berlin museum

On Friday I went with my students to the Story of Berlin Museum.  The museum is deep in the heart of former West Berlin and covers the history of Berlin from its origins in the middle ages, to the present day.  Included was a tour of a cold war bunker put in place in the event of a nuclear attack.  The likelihood of an attack ever taking place in Berlin was very small, especially because the Soviets would have been attacking their own ally along with attacking the West, but it was interesting to see.

Students standing on the outline of the area of present day Berlin.

Class tour of the German Historical Museum

For our first class excursion we went to the German Historical Museum.  The museum covers German history from 500AD to the present day.  We were mostly only concerned with the last portion of the exhibit, since our class is on Berlin since the war.  The museum only displays actual historical artifacts, rather than replicas, and some of the items they have are really quite interesting.  From clothing to technology, they have a little bit of everything. The museum is located in the old city arsenal.  Over time it has been a museum for military artifacts, a East German history museum and now the more comprehensive museum that exists today. Because of its former collection of war trophies they do have some interesting artifacts, though, including the hat, scabbard, and spurs worn by Napoleon during his defeat at Waterloo.  

Students looking at what remains of a V2 Missle

So much to post....so little time

Photo of me at my new favorite cafe

After an orientation weekend, where we had several injuries on a misguided bike ride and one student went home for "personal" reasons, we started classes this week and things are beginning to fall into a rhythm.  My friend T. and I found a cafe two blocks away, with wifi, plenty of tables, excellent treats and fantastic coffee, which they roast themselves.  I don't know that I will ever leave this cafe.

Tomorrow I go with my students to the German Historical Museum and on Friday we will visit a museum on the Story of Berlin, housed in an old West German bunker.  My students are putting together an amazing timeline of events related to both Germany generally and Berlin specifically.  If you want to take a look at it, you can find a version of it here: http://sites.duke.edu/easbyers/berlin-since-the-war-timeline-project/

Tonight we are going to a performance by the German Philharmonic Orchestra.  Photos and an update of that tomorrow.

I also need to do a couple of posts on the arrival itself and orientation.  They are mostly written, but for the photos.  Soon....soon.....

Made it to London

More than half way there.  I checked my email when I got to London, only to find out that I have a surprise lunch meeting at 2pm that I will be late to. Whatever. The schedule said that it was a dinner meeting not a lunch meeting, so I'm a bit annoyed, but I'm more annoyed that this is apparently how everything works. Ugh. 

And so it begins

I'm currently sitting at the airport waiting for a flight to Berlin, by way of London. 6 weeks in Berlin teaching kids about a subject so far out of my field of research it's ridiculous. Waiting to board. The adventure begins anew. 

Week 4 - oh wait...nothing happened

Seriously, nothing happened last week.  I wrote, I went to the archive, I didn't even do anything on the weekend but read and go to the archive.  It was a sad, sad week.

However, I have decided to undertake a new experiment while I'm over here in Germany.  My love for German breads, meats and cheeses is no secret, but lately I've realized that German yogurt is just as awesome.  You might be asking, "What do you mean?  Isn't yogurt the same everywhere?"  And that is where you would be wrong.

So....starting today I will be posting a yogurt a day (or at least I'll try to....we'll see how many different yogurt flavors I can find).  I've already had some amazing yogurt, but didn't get a chance to take any photos or write about them, so I'll have to buy them again, and test them out again.....what a hardship, right?  tee hee

Anyway, be on the lookout for reviews of various flavors and brands of German yogurt.  I'm so excited!!

Week 3 - Archives, Bad Dürbach, Legoland

So this week I was once again in the archives.  I wasn't quite as productive as I wanted to be, but I kept working, and reading and taking notes, so it's not a complete loss.  On Tuesday I met with the professor I am working with here to discuss the works I am covering in my chapters.  She had some great ideas and I think that our conversation will help me streamline what I'm doing in my dissertation.

Friday we had the opening of a new exhibit at the Literature Museum: a collection of letters from Franz Kafka to his sister Ottilie.  There was a very nice presentation at the archive, and then everyone went over to the museum to see the exhibit.  One of the advantages of being here in Marbach, is that there are a lot of events and lectures going on.  They may not have to do with my precise topic, but they are interesting none the less.

Saturday was my friend Melissa's birthday, so I rode out to meet her and some of her friends in Bad Dürbach.  The city is on the German Wine-road - in the Pfalz area of Germany.  It was a beautiful day.  We first saw the enormous wine cask that they have turned into a restaurant.  Had a lovely meal at the restaurant.  Tasted some lovely wines, and then toured around the countryside a bit more.  We walked up to some castle ruins and took some amazing picture of the countryside.  In all it was a great day.

Sunday we went to Legoland.  I have always kinda looked down on legoland thinking that it was kinda lame, but I have been converted.  It was awesome.  In part it was great because it was the opening of the Star Wars exhibit and they had stormtroopers wandering around.  We had a nice time going on rides, enjoying the day, and generally relaxing.  I got some amazing photos of both the park and the stormtroopers - to be posted soon.

Marbach & Bodensee - Week 2

Last week I turned in the first chapter of my dissertation to my advisor and to the professor I'm working with in Germany.  I've received my advisor's comments and overall they are pretty good.  I'm still waiting to hear from the professor here in Germany, but then Germans take their time with such things.

This past weekend I went to Lake Constance, the Rheinfalls, and the Black Forest with a friend of mine from home.  She's working in Germany for the next year or so and wanted someone to go on an adventure with her, so we packed up the car, with her dog, and headed down south.  The weather wasn't awesome the first day, but thereafter it was actually a lovely, albeit full, weekend.  Photos here (there are more but Picasa is being difficult).

Marbach - Week 1

The image on everything in Marbach.

So I arrived in Marbach on Monday - after a relatively long and treacherous trip here, which I won't bore you with because honestly I can't go through it again.  Just take my word for it, don't fly into Toronto if you don't have to, and whatever you do be wary of flying on AirCanada if you aren't at one of their primary airports.

Of course because of the relatively long and treacherous trip, I ended up without my larger bag and having to take the train from Zurich yet again, though this time I'm pretty much an expert so...whatever.

Photo of my room

Marbach is a relatively small town about a 15 miles north of Stuttgart.  It is home to the German Literature Archive, the National Schiller Museum, the Museum of Modern Literature, and it's claim to fame is being the birthplace of Schiller - one of Germany's most prized authors from the 18th/19th centuries. On Monday I picked up the key to my room, found my room, and finally got a chance to check my email on the shared computers down in the first floor area.  Because of the flight delays I got in too late to re-register at the archive, and therefore couldn't get my access code for the internet.  No problem.  I had been to Marbach last year, so I was familiar with the area a bit, so after dropping of my bags in my room, I went to the bakery and grocery store quickly before they closed.

Tuesday I headed down to Tuebingen to visit with friends and to sit in on a course that one of my committee members is teaching.  I'll be headed down there every Tuesday to sit in on that class, which will give me a nice break from writing, at least once a week.  The class was good and I set up an appointment with the professor for next Tuesday.  I should be giving her a draft of my first chapter then, and I wanted to get a chance to talk to her about a conference paper that I'm working on, as well as the exchange student that she will be sending to our department next semester.

Wednesday spent almost the whole day at the archive.  I had ordered some books on Tuesday morning, when I went to register and picked up my internet access code, so they were waiting for me when I arrived.  In addition to the many collections they have (two of which I am interested in for my project) they have a great deal of secondary literature which is useful.  Some of it I have access to in NC, but other stuff I don't.  It's great to be at a place that is so well stocked with good research materials, and those materials that I can't get here, I can usually access online.

Right now I'm just writing.  My goal is to write at least 10 pages a week.  So far for this week I've written 6 pages, but then I wasn't really able to write on Monday or Tuesday and I haven't calculated my total for today.  If I can write a minimum of 10 pages a week, I will have written about 110 pages this summer.  It's not enough in the grand scheme of things, but it's a good dent.  If I can write more than that, it's great, but if not, I still feel like 110 pages is a fantastic foundation for finishing up next year.

In a couple of weeks I'm going to try to see about getting access to the two collections I'm interested in.  They are both full of what is known as Trivialliteratur or Unterhaltungsliteratur - basically popular fiction, but it's popular fiction from the 19th century, which is pretty hard to come by - particularly if it wasn't deemed important enough to keep around.  The one collection was a private library and the other is the contents of a lending library.  Both should be interesting and I'm hoping to find some works to round out my dissertation.  The goal - right now at least - is to write about one canonical work and one work of Trivialliteratur per chapter to show that the themes I'm looking at were present in both high and popular literature at the time.  We'll see if that happens, but it's a goal - plus, honestly most Trivialliteratur has just never been looked at, so I'm fairly certain it will be "original" research.  :)

As for Marbach, I have ventured around a bit thus far, in order to find the grocery store, bank, drug store, bakery, etc.  There's honestly not much here, but I actually feel like that's not a bad thing considering I have a dissertation to write.  But I'm going to make an effort to get hont a bit.  I've met a couple of other researchers  in the archive and I have a friend who works at the hospital in Landstuhl who I'm going to meet up with the next two weekends, so that will give me an opportunity to get a out and about.

The photos are pictures of my room and the view from my window.  I forgot to take my camera on my walk today, but since I'll be walking the stretch from the archive to the train station on a regular basis, I'm sure there will be opportunities in the future.  I'll update the album as I take photos.  More next week!

Summer 2011

As long as I've got the blog here, I figure I'll use it to update on my research trip this summer.  More posts coming soon.  But for now it suffices to say that I'm glad my luggage finally made it to Germany, and specifically that it made it to me today.

Hurray for having all of my clothes, shoes, etc.

Prepping for Paris

Tomorrow we leave for Paris at 5:51am. Train from here to Stuttgart and then from Stuttgart to Paris.  I think it will be fun, except for the fact that the forecast is calling for rain, rain and more rain.  But at least it's warm and rainy. :)  Way to look on the bright side.

Pictures forthcoming.

Mission Accomplished

Ashley is here and after a long day of traveling, she is sleeping off the plane ride.  I would post a picture, but I think she might actually kill me if I did that.

We walked around the city a bit when she first got here, but shortly before I went to lunch she decided to lay down and take a nap.  That was 5 hours ago.  :)

At some point she'll get up, we will grab dinner and watch Germany beat Spain in the semi-finals of the world cup!!

Bad Blogger

I've been bad about keeping up with things - mostly because I haven't really gone anywhere or done anything terribly interesting.

This semester was full of research.  I've spent several weeks up at the literature archive in Marbach, and another week in Munich while Andy was here researching at the state library in Munich.

Tomorrow Ashley arrives and I will try to be better about updating - with photos while we are traveling to Paris, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Munich and to visit our family.  I'm so excited.  Her plane lands in Atlanta in 1 hour and 14 minutes according to the Delta airlines Web site.  Then she'll be on her way to Stuttgart where I will pick her up tomorrow morning.

YEA!!!!

Incommunicado

I spent the last 6 weeks away....4 weeks in the US visiting my husband and now another 2 weeks with my parents.  Right now we're in Nittenau, where I have stable internet access.  We head to Regensburg tomorrow and will be heading back to visit my family this weekend.  My parents leave on the 31st.

Oh....and apparently one of my former roommates has found my blog.  Do I care?  Not really.  There isn't anything on there that I wouldn't say to anyone's face.

A Visitor from the US

I've got a visitor from the US this week.  It's Flat Stanley!!!

If you'd like to follow Flat Stanley's adventures in Tuebingen, you can check out his blog here.

Tuebingen Fasnetsumzug

I'll write more about the parade later, but for now, here are the photos and a couple of notes on the day:

1.  It snowed for a good chunk of the first half of the parade, but that didn't stop anyone from enjoying themselves.  It kinda reminded me of the time we went to see the Macy's Thanksgiving parade with my grandmother - though it was wetter because of the rain and there was a lot more complaining (then, not today).

2.  German children are not afraid of scary people in freaky masks.  Maybe because they're used to seeing it every year.  I'm not sure.  But in the US if people with whacked out witches masks were roaming the streets terrorizing people, children would be crying and someone would be arrested.  Not so in Germany.

3. The Germans are a hearty people.  See notes 1 and 2.