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.