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.

Snow

It's snowing again.  Last night at 11:30 the streets were clear.  You can see from the video below, that this is no longer the case.

From Tuebingen

Today is the Fasnetsumzug.  Photos to follow.

The Library

So I've spent the better part of the day in the library.  Not the main library, but the library for Modern Languages - aka die neuphilologische Bibliothek.

It's a nice and quiet library.  They have WiFi, plenty of tables to work at, copiers you can print to, and lots of books.  I find that I get a lot more work done at the library than I do in my room.  Though I suppose posting to my blog isn't really work, but whatever....work with me here.

The only down side of the libraries here is that you have to leave your bag and jacket out in the foyer and you can't check out any books.  Well at least you can't check them out from this library.  From the main library you can check out books, but you usually have to order them ahead of time and then pick them up.  I have yet to do that because I find it absurd.

Their organizational structure is also a little strange.  They have all of the Romance language stuff in one area, the German stuff in another, etc...  But it doesn't seem like there is any sort of numbering organization like the Library of Congress system.  I feel like whatever the book is numbered here, it might be numbered something different elsewhere, but that may not be true.  That may just be my sense of the situation.  Anyway, it's two stories and I almost always go to the second floor because there are fewer people walking in and out, though the German books are downstairs.

Anyway....this has been a report from the library.  Back to work....

Christmas Vacation: Part 4

When we decided to drive down to see my family for Christmas, we needed to figure out what we were going to bring everyone as gifts.  The most important thing was the girls.  Who ended up getting candy from my trip to Strassbourg.  Then we decided to go by this wine shop around the corner and get bottles of local wine.  Now, I'm not 100% sure what the local wine tastes like, but it's a gift, right? 

So the morning of our drive down to the family, I ran some errands, checked out the store and came back with fresh bread for Andy and me.  We had breakfast and then headed over to the wine store together.  We decided on three bottles for each family and picked the same three for each. Then we got the car and headed down with our bags and gifts and crappy directions from the internet.

The problem with directions on the internet in Germany is that they label everything by the street number.  Which is fine for the major roads that are marked well, but for those little tiny roads that are not marked at all, it is a totally different matter.  Plus, I don't have a printer, so I have to write everything out by hand, which means that Andy has to try to decipher my shorthand, which makes perfect sense to me, but not so much to him.  We headed off found the streets that we needed and at some point just started following the signs that pointed in the direction of towns nearby, because honestly that's how they do most directions here.  There's no northbound or southbound freeway.  It's the Autobahn in the direction of Stuttgart or in the direction of Ulm and you'd better hope you learned where each of those cities was on a map because if you go the wrong direction you're going to have to turn around.

We finally found the back road to Kolbingen - where my one set of relatives live and stopped in for a visit.  I had called them ahead of time to let them know we were going to stop by, and about 10 minutes after we arrived, my cousin Marc showed up with his wife and 1 year old son.  We had coffee, tea, cake, cookies, etc...all home made by Hedi.  We told them that we would come over for lunch the next day and said our goodbyes and Headed down to Mühlheim to make it in time for the children's mass at the Catholic church.  

Sieglinde picked us up, with Lena and Annika and we headed into the old part of town.  Mass was fun.  Well I guess it wasn't really mass because there was no communion, but the kids from the kindergarten did a great job of putting on the story of the birth of jesus.  They were very cute, but at some point Andy realized that when children speak German it sounds to him like what they're saying is totally fake.  Like Udo on the Simpsons.  At the end of the mass, the priest basically told all of the adults that they weren't off the hook and that they were required to go to mass for Christmas.  Whatever....

So we headed home, the girls opened their gifts, we opened our gifts and we had dinner.  I mentioned that we were going to see Hans and Hedi for lunch the next day and it became clear that it was going to be a problem, since Lydia had planned something special for lunch the next day, so I had to call Hans and Hedi and tell them that we weren't going to be able to make it - but that also meant that we weren't going to be able to see Marc, Connie, and Karl, because they were leaving to go visit her family on the 26th.  This was a little upsetting, but there was nothing that could be done about it.  

We proceeded to dinner, which was something relatively traditional.  Rotwurst with sides - at this point I can't remember which sides, but sides.  It was also really tasty and dessert was good too.  Living in a university town and cooking for myself I often find that I try to replicate a lot of the things I eat at home, or that I'll run out and grab something quick and cheap, but it's nice to have a home-cooked meal, and even better when it comes with the cultural context of tradition.  Eventually we headed to bed for the next day's fun.

In the morning Annika came over with Stefan and showed us a newspaper clipping of the Nachtwächter of Mühlheim who was going to be doing a tour of the city that night.  She really wanted to go, so we decided that we would go along with her and her dad.  It was later in the evening, and we still had to eat our special lunch of Venison roast and other tastiness.  I really enjoy venison.  I have never had a bad meal with venison. I know it can be gamy, but I suppose when you live in a small town surrounded by forest and your family has been eating game for generations at some point you learn how to cook it so that it's tasty.  And it was super tasty.  Along with it we had red cabbage, potato salad, and a berry compote.  Super tasty.

This is also the point where we realized that they didn't trust that I was feeding Andy enough.  Every time they asked if he wanted more I wouldn't really ask him, because he would tell me if he wanted more.  I just said, "no" that he doesn't want any more.  This meant that they thought I wasn't translating things for him and just answering for him.  This also meant that at some point they started making fun of me and saying that I wasn't allowing him to eat and that they started trying to communicate with him directly by just offering him food.  It worked out ok....but it was clear that they thought I was somehow controlling him, rather than us having our own way of communicating that doesn't require many words and can me done without most people noticing.

Speaking of translating - or not - the Nightwächter thing was really fun - cold but fun.  We walked into town, which was fine, but steep and icy.  Remember "Steep and Icy"  that's going to become a theme at some point. I translated the important parts of the tour for Andy and I think he enjoyed it.  Stefan said that he learned some things about the town that he hadn't known about and we headed back to the house - down the steep and icy path this time.  The next day - 2nd Christmas or the 26th of December - we undertook another steep and icy adventure.