Werte liebe Leser!

Liebe Constipendiaten!

Wie jeden Freitag darf ich Euch heute erneut begrüßen am Ende der ersten Ferienwoche dieses Sommers.

Sommerzeit ist in Deutschland, und ganz besonders in Südbaden, Feierzeit. So durfte ich am vergangenen Mittwoch das Sommerfest der Vinzentinerinnen vom Schloß Heitersheim erleben.

Es war sehr schön und traditionell. Mit hervorragendem Wetter haben wir im Hof lokale Lieder gesungen, so z. B., das Margräferland-Lied, im Stuhl getanz, und vieles mehr. Es begann alles mit Gedichten, die von einigen Schwestern vorgetragen wurden. Dann spielten der Pfarrer und der Gärtner Witzte und lustige Anekdoten in badischer Sprache. So klangt es nach viel „ägleglegle“ (so wie Schäufele und Schätzle). Zuletzt machten wir Quize über Geschichte und Botanik.

Das alles wurde von Akkordeonmusik harmonisiert und begleitet. Es war auch ganz pittoresk, dass alle Bauern mit Trachten erschienen, während die Ordensfrauen in Habit gekleidet waren. Zum essen gab es, gemäß der kulinarischen Traditionen unterhalb des sogenannten „Weiß-Würstle-Äquator“ eben weiße Würste, Brezeln, Kartoffelsalat, Wasser und Bier. Das Bier enstammt natürlich der Staatsbrauerei des Landes, die Radler-Brauerei, quondam Eigentum des Jesuitenkollegs zu St. Blasien.

Das Menü klingt freilich viel bayrischer als badischer, aber immerhin sind beide Bundesländer ja Nachbarn. Ohne Bayern gäbe es keine Touristen in Süddeutschland, und ohne Baden-Württemberg hätte die Welt keine Herder-Bücher und keine Mercedes-Autos. In der Schulzeit kamen alle meine Bücher aus Baden Württemberg, und so war uns allen seit der ersten Klasse das Wappen mit den drei Löwen auf goldenem Feld durch den Mathe-Unterricht vertraut. So wie das Leben geschieht, sehe ich in diesen Tagen in denen ich den ganzen Tag im Juristischem Seminar verbringe (wegen der versch. Hausarbeiten) immer noch dieses Wappen auf Türen, Buchdecken und Fenstern.

This weekend, we got to go home with Elke, my Ph.D. student. I first went to lab at around 8:00 am to take my samples. I then left at around 10:00 am to pack my bags. Kim and I had lunch at the mensa at around 11:00 am and were back in the Geo. III building to meet Elke by 12:00 pm. We then drove to Freiberg to pick up Laurent, Elke’s friend from France, who is doing an internship at Universität Freiberg. We then drove to Schloss Augustusburg—a beautiful castle near Elke’s hometown.

We arrived at Elke’s house at around 6:00 pm and met her family, all of whom are such wonderful people. Her mom is so sweet. She prepared for us a delicious snack of honey cake, hard-boiled eggs, and bread slices. Elke’s niece, Jenny, is adorable. She gave us flowers with three German wooden ornaments attached. The ornaments are one of my favorite souvenirs thus far.

After eating and having a nice conversation with Elke’s family, we all went outside to tour the farm and to meet the animals: a horse named Vicky, sheep, hens, ducks, rabbits, and a cat named Yellow. Elke’s sister has a lovely vegetable garden. The atmosphere on the farm is so peaceful. Looking back upon my travels throughout Germany, I can honestly say that I am so fortunate to have gotten to experience life in Berlin—a very urbanized city—and now life in the Erzgebirge—the countryside (especially considering that I come from a suburb in the United States).

In the morning, Elke made us a tasty breakfast of fruit, sausages, cheese, bread, hard-boiled eggs, and coffee. Once we were finished with breakfast, we drove to Ehrenfriedersdorf, where we went on a mining tour. We went three hundred feet down into the ground, wearing capes and construction hats. The mine has been closed since 1990, but the machinery is still underground for demonstration purposes. It was really cool getting to see how the miners worked, but the equipment was very loud. Overall, I think that this experience was one of the most memorable that I have had in Germany. Kudos to Elke for organizing this trip! J

After walking through the mine, we toured some of the traditional German houses of the Erzgebirge. I took lots of great pictures, even though it was raining a bit. It was very interesting to see how the miners lived about two hundred years ago.

Next, we went to Seiffen, the “toy town.” We went into numerous shops that sell the famous German wooden figurines. The angel figurines are really popular in Seiffen, as are the nutcrackers, the porcelain dolls, and the windmills.

On another note, I can finally say that I have visited the Czech Republic! We crossed the border between Germany and the Czech Republic while driving along a river. We ate dinner at a Czech restaurant in a town called Kateriny. Everything was very “lecker.”

After dinner, Elke drove us to our hostel in Dresden, called Hofgarten 1824. Our room was very spacious. We had a four-person room (with four bunk beds) just for the two of us, which was quite nice. Luckily, we had wireless internet access. At night, we took a short walk down Theresienstrasse and took pictures of some of the buildings (they are well-lit).

Kim and I went to bed soon after our night walk so that we could get up for breakfast, which was served between seven and eleven o’clock. We woke up at around 8:00 am and went down to breakfast, which consisted of the typical German food (cheese, bread, hard-boiled eggs, meat), and also the best cereal we have had in Germany thus far (granola). I know that I often mention the food here, but I feel that it is an essential part of my Germany experience.

We checked out of the hostel at around 10:00 am and wandered throughout Dresden for the rest of the day, taking many pictures. Once we got back to Bayreuth, we toured the inner city. The Wagner festival is going on, so there are lots of tourists. The town is nicely decorated with paper music notes and statues of musicians. We sat by the stream for a bit and enjoyed the festival.

I do apologize for posting this blog entry later than I had anticipated. Today was the last day of my internship and I am currently in the process of moving out of my flat. Tomorrow is our last full day in Bayreuth, and we leave Germany on Saturday (early flight from Nuremberg to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt to Philadelphia). I love Bayreuth and have had an incredible time in Germany, but it will be nice to be home with my family and then to go back to school in New York City—this time with our brother, Ricky, who is entering his freshman year there. Anyway, I should finish packing. Thanks for reading and for sticking with me throughout my RISE experience in Germany. Enjoy the rest of your summer and take care! -April

Today, I had lunch with a Nobel Prize winner. His name is Peter Grünberg and he is one of the Nobel Prize recipients for Physics in 2007. Yes, Nobel Prize winners are humans just like the rest of us but you can’t deny that it’s a bit awesome. Dr. Grünberg, along with Albert Fert of Université Paris-Sud in France, discovered giant magnetoresistance, a phenomenon that basically allowed the jump from gigabytes to terabytes in hard-drives and changed modern computer technology forever. I knew that a past Nobel Prize winner worked at the Forchungszentrum Jülich, as it was clearly advertised on banners lining the entrance to the research compound, but it would never have occurred to me in a million years that I would in fact meet him and under such informal circumstances. An acquaintance within our group used to work for Dr.Grünberg and invited him to dine with us. And just like that, I had the honour of eating a pineapple chicken with rice beside someone who revolutionized the computer industry. We chatted a little bit about Canada and I found out that he did his post-doc at Carleton University in Ottawa – my city!  Perhaps my fate in the world of academia will be changed forever from being in such proximity of a brilliant mind.

This weekend’s travel destinations turned out to be Bruges, Brussels and Gent in Belgium. The initial plans to go to Hamburg fell apart, like they always do, and so I decided organize a weekend somewhere cheap and easy to access. Searching on the Deutsche Bahn website, I found a one-way ticket from Aachen to Bruges for only 19EUR, and that’s how the Deutsche Bahn made my travel choices for me. As for the return, I booked a ticket on a Eurolines bus route from Gent to Aachen for only 14EUR. These are the best transportation deals that I have gotten ever since I set foot on this continent! Using Eurolines is indeed a great option to travel if train tickets get too expensive. However, the journey is greatly lengthened and the bus stop is most likely going to be situated in the middle of nowhere. So, as a small army of RISE interns headed towards Amsterdam (I would have loved to join them if the hostels weren’t as pricey), a friend and I set forth towards the beautiful town of Bruges, or what everyone calls “Venice of the North.”

We arrived at our hostel at around 12:30am, inconveniently located at the opposite end of town from the train station. Actually, it wasn’t terrible at all since it takes only about 30 to 40 minutes to cross Bruges by foot and the town is quite a gem to look at in the evening. Serene canals run along against the main roads, not quite as many as those seen in Venice or Amsterdam but these ones have swans! I felt a wave peacefulness overcome me at sight of swans sleeping, particularly deep in the night when nobody’s watching, floating as light as a single feather and not minding the current. On a random note, this reminded me of some words spoken by a friend who was once very into meditation: the ripples and waves will come and go, but a river remains a river. Same with people; problems will rise and fall, but you can’t be anything but yourself so you might as well forget about the impermanent stuff.

The free maps we received at the hostel were created for young people, by young people. One thing that immediately became obvious from these maps was that this particular local crowd didn’t like tourists that much and weren’t afraid to say it. Their cynical sense of humour was pretty amusing. It was mentioned that bicycles rule in Bruges and they even suggested renting a bike to ‘run over tourists’. (Side note: this was something that I got to experience first-hand. Perhaps looking like a tourist is really a trait that I can’t escape, particularly in Europe, ie: I’m Asian and own a camera.) Included was also a list of questions to piss off the locals:

· Oooh, I know this tower! It was built for the movie ‘In Bruges’, wasn’t it?

· When does Bruges close? And the classic:

· Where is McDonald’s?

Saturday morning, we got directed to a butcher shop that sells pancakes for 4.90EUR the kilo. It was weird to see the pancakes placed among rows upon rows of meat. This apparent contradiction was reconciled when my friend found a piece of solid pork fat inside the pancake… The rest of the day was spent in a touristy daze. We then went on a brewery tour at Den Halves Man and got a ‘free’ beer when we came back out, window-shopped along streets packed with souvenir stores, cartoon dens, and saw the Madonna and child by Michelangelo, which is a big deal since rarely are Michelangelo’s works seen outside of Italy. The best part of Bruges is to me, the churches. I discovered my favourite church of probably the world in Bruges. The exterior had nothing special – grey stone walls and such – but the grandeur of the interior shocked me. The space felt open, fresh and was glowing in natural sunlight.  Even though I’m a non-believer, I think that if there is a single way to showcase the true glory of God, this church’s got it.  The next church that awed me took a modern art approach. That is, empty frames hanging from the ceiling, a giant pool of water in the center, and a smoke-machine.  Too awesome. 

Late in the afternoon, we took a train to Brussels with a 13.30EUR return trip ticket. Yes there was still enough time to visit a capital city, we thought. We got to the Central train station at around 5pm and headed straight towards the main attractions : The Grand’ Place and the Mannekin Pis (famous little kid taking a leak). Actually, there is also a Jannekin Pis in Brussels (girl version), beside the Delirium bar, which holds the 2006 world record for the most variety of beers. Somehow, the statue of a little girl peeing just seems vulgar. We had dinner near the Grand’ Place, on a touristy street lined with vendors fighting for the attention of tourists and shouting salutations in Chinese or Japanese or wherever they figure we’re from. Tip for travellers in Brussels: something to keep in mind that the restaurant owners are willing to compromise if you’re not willing to pay the price on the menu, unless I’m totally wrong. Before sitting down and showing your interest in a particular restaurant, drop in a casual comment about the other neighbouring restaurants selling for less and usually they will match the price. Some restaurant owners even asks you how much you’re willing to pay. Fascinating!

After slurping down a delicious pot of moules et frites, we continued to stroll around downtown and finally winded up in an unpretentious little coffee shop called “Greenwich”. That was the hightlight of my day, sitting on old wooden stools in quiet thought, with my entire mind focused on a game of chess. I simply loved it. There was something magical about that place, with its antique feel, an old bar that you’d swear no one ever frequents and one lone bartender standing behind. A group of locals decides to gather in a back-corner thickened with tobacco smoke, a world away from the trendy youngsters sitting next door in overexposed Asian-fusion restaurants. The experience would have been complete if I had a cigarette on me. Then I remembered that I don’t smoke…

That’s it for today’s post!  Hope you enjoyed it.  Until next time!

Apologies for not writing last week but nothing of real note actually happened.  My brother visited me the weekend before last and we walked round Dresden and looked at stuff, and it rained constantly, and we had some rather nice lunches, and I introduced him to my favourite bar (Unfassbar in the Neustadt), which he found highly depressing, and made me promise not to take him back there again.  Personally I love the cheap drinks, crap 80s music, smoky atmosphere and barman with a huge handlebar moustache, but I think it creeped him out.  I also discovered a nice pub in Laubegast and we found that the Deutsches Hygiene Museum in Dresden is not particularly interesting.  They had an exhibition on work, with sod all in the way of actual exhibits (except for, strangely enough, €1M in bank-notes behind a glass screen), just lots of videos of people describing completely mundane things, like when they wake up in the morning.  It wasn’t even absurd enough to be humourous, and I wondered if the whole thing was supposed to be ironic, because people had to put in work to make an exhibition about work, so even though the exhibition didn’t work in the sense that it was crap, it was a product of people’s work, so it WAS work, transcending if you would the traditional boundaries between artwork and the exhibitions that hold art and instead making the exhibition a piece of (as I’ve said, shoddily executed) artwork in itself.  …or something.  Anyway I’m beginning to suspect that this was actually a single monolithic slice of post modern art so fiendish in its conception that no-one has even noticed it!   Or maybe it was just crap.

This last weekend was much more exciting though, a trip to Berlin.  Due to leaving booking to the last minute I ended up booking rooms in Friedrichshain on the border of Kreuzberg, in an area that was, er, interesting.  Unfortunately though a funny looking man has come in and wants to turf me out because they are locking up the labs at TU Dresden at the moment, so I’m going to have to write about it tomorrow instead.

Amsterdam is a beautiful and very interesting–at times also rather strange–city. Although I am sad to say that I missed out on Hamburg (my original destination for last weekend), I am also glad to have visited Amsterdam, as that was one of the cities I had hoped to see during my stay in Europe. Amsterdam, of course, is known as one of the biggest party cities in the world, famous for its extensive Red Light District and acceptance of soft drug use. However, Amsterdam is also a very old city with lots of history and some sort of sense and deeper meaning behind its seemingly contradictory atmosphere.

First, an overview of the city. The main train station, Amsterdam Centraal, is possibly one of the grandest central stations I have ever seen! It looks like a giant castle in the middle of the city. Only about a 5-minute walk from the station was the hostel my friends and I stayed at during the weekend; it was located conveniently in the heart of the city, close to the train station and amidst the Red Light district, which made for a very exciting atmosphere during the night hours. During the day, the city seems like any other beautiful European capital, with old buildings, serene canals, and numerous cafes, but at night time, the place becomes the epitome of liveliness and activity–it becomes Amsterdam. Buildings you didn’t even notice during the day are illuminated with neon lights, beckoning the visitor to watch a live sex show or spend some time with one of the many hookers dancing in the red-lighted windows. Turn down another street and take your pick of countless “coffee shops” offering various special products. And if you’re too tired or uninterested for any of it, there’s always the entertainment of just walking along the streets and taking in the beauty of Amsterdam’s canals and tiny alleyways illuminated by lights and doused in the smells emanating from the coffee shops.

Several times throughout the weekend, my friends and I (and later the tour guide, too!) commented on how strange of a city Amsterdam is. In the midst of the prostitution and drug use rampant in the Red Light district are police officers–probably more officers patrol that area than anywhere else. It seemed so strange to see prostitutes, cannabis product stores, and police officers side by side, without mass arrests or commotion. The liberality of the city was amazing! Near all the coffee shops you can find the Hemp, Marijuana, and Hash Museum, where the different uses of cannabis are explored (including non-drug ones, like commercial uses in car doors and other random things) beside the Cannabis College, where you study the cultivation of the crop. And aside from all the debauchery, Amsterdam also houses many cultural greats, like the Van Gogh Museum (which we visited on Saturday before a delicious dinner at an Indonesian restaurant–I have decided my favorite van Gogh painting is “Almond Blossoms,” painted in 1890 in Saint-Rémy, France) and the Concertgebouw, the concert hall of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. So, Amsterdam has an appreciation for not only wild nighttime adventures but also for highly cultured arts.

Everyone should be proud of me here: I went on a tour! (I usually hate tours and try not to go on them or end up not paying attention even if I do go) All my friends went on this tour on Saturday (I missed out because I was a bit ill) and recommended it highly. Plus, it was free, and I wanted to learn more about this strange city. So for 3 hours, I trekked around the city and saw many interesting landmarks, like the Alterkerk (old church) where the sailors used to go to buy indulgences for their sins in the Red Light district, the Anne Frank House where the Frank family hid behind a closet during the Nazi occupation of the city, the thinnest house in the city (a whopping 1.8 meters thick!), the cafe where interracial mingling was first observed in Europe, a secret Catholic church in a person’s house, and many more interesting sites.

Additionally, I gained a wealth of information about the city’s history as well as a great liking and respect for the place. Apparently, the Dutch are very enthusiastic about earning money and doing good business–hence, the thriving prostitution and cannabis businesses. Therefore, although there are laws in the Netherlands, according to our tour guide, most of those laws can be easily broken, as long as three “golden” rulse are followed. To successfully bend a law, you must 1) be discreet about it, 2) not hurt anyone in the process, and 3) be generating good business (earning lots of money) with it. These rules together comprise the “plausible deniability” that has laid the foundation for Amsterdam as a city throughout history. This is why so many “coffee shops” operate openly in the city, despite an official law banning drug use and why Catholicism persisted throughout history, even during times when Catholicism was “banned.” As our guide summarized, the Dutch are the masters at coming up with very weird agreements–something that I found rather amusing and a bit endearing. While this principle may sound bad, I actually think it is quite good, as the Dutch are very insistent that all three golden rules be upheld. For example, when the Netherlands were a super power during the Golden Age in history and were exploiting the Indonesian people, the government applied the Plausible Deniability principle and tricked the Dutch people into thinking that the Indonesians were also profiting from the contact. However, once it was exposed that the Dutch government was horribly abusing the Indonesians, the Dutch citizens became enraged because the 2nd rule (no hurting others) had been broken, even though the other two rules were intact.

The Dutch are also a very tolerant group of people, as demonstrated in their attitude toward prostitution, soft drug use, and homosexuality. This is also apparent in history, as the Amsterdamers were among the only people to rebel against the Nazis during WWII to protest the brutal treatment of the Jewish people in Amsterdam. As our tour guide emphasized, during that time, the Jewish people in Amsterdam were not seen as “the Jewish people” but as “Amsterdamers,” so when the Nazis began to oppress them, all the Amsterdamers were outraged because the second rule of not hurting anyone had been violated. Hearing the story of how the people of Amsterdam fought to protect their Jewish population was quite heart-warming and made me rather fond of the city. In summary, it seems that the Dutch, perhpas Amsterdam in particular, are most concerned with living well, enjoying life, and protecting the interests and safety of all. Since these ideals seem to line up rather closely to my own, I have taken an extra liking to the city.

However, the tour guide also said that since the Netherlands’ current government is quite conservative, many of the coffee shops and a good portion of the Red Light district has been closed down, and perhaps in another number of years, all of it will be gone and will only be a memory of years gone by. Hearing that made me sad because, even though I’m not exactly a very frequent coffee shop and hooker customer, it seems that the Red Light district and the numerous coffee shops are part of Amsterdam’s cultural identity; they make Amsterdam Amsterdam. So perhaps the conservative trend will indeed continue but perhaps not, but even if it does, and all the excitement of the Red Light district does fade into history, I feel fortunate to have seen the city as it was in all its famous glory.

Coming back to Germany was funny because I felt like I was “going home.” For example, when other people in my tour group said they were from Germany, I felt like saying, “I’m from Germany, too!” It’s funny how Germany has started to feel somewhat more like home, especially when being out of the country like last weekend in the Netherlands. When the train crossed the border and the Dutch words became German words again, it seemed so familiar. (Although, the Dutch language does seem like a cross between English and German, and many Dutch words were close enough to German words that I could understand a good deal of it. Also, in Amsterdam, everyone spoke very good English, probably because the Dutch are used to people not learning Dutch and so they just speak English. So that was a relief to not have to have the language problem and worry about learning Dutch!) I thought that was rather interesting, how Germany is seeming more like “home” now. Although, that is not to say that I am not excited to return to the States. In less than 3 weeks now, I will fly back to Florida! It’s surprising how quickly the summer passed by, and I am glad to say that I have enjoyed most of it and have made the most of my experience here. Well, more of that later, when the time to leave really comes.

And of course, no Kelly post would be complete without some discussion of food! =P French Fries served in cone-shaped paper containers seemed to be the favored snack; of course, it was delicious! All week long before my trip to Amsterdam, I had been looking forward to buying and eating the legendary “Stroopwafels,” or syrup waffels. They are a delicious snack that consists of thing wafer-like waffles sandwiching a layer of caramel or syrup or sometimes honey. A little difficult to explain but very easy to enjoy! Though they are sold here in Germany, the price is quite high (about 3€ per package), but in Amsterdam, they are cheaper (about 1.30 € per pack) since they are a Dutch food. Additionally, one of my lab members had told me about “Vla” (pronounced “flah”), a sweet custard drink. Of course, I tried that too, and it was delicious! There were also many bakeries in Amsterdam (though not quite as plentiful as in Germany, and certainly in a very small concentration compared to the “coffee shops”), and it seemed that the Dutch bakery items tended to be more dessert-like in nature–more tarts and heavy cakey-foods than the more bread-based, food-food bakery items of Germany. A subtle difference, but of course, the Dutch bakery items looked delicious as well!

So, here ends my long interpretation of Amsterdam (whose name comes from “dam on the Amstel River” btw). It is a darling city inhabited by a group of good people who watch out for each other while having a good time. And, of course, the food there is delicious. I am fortunate that it is only a 2.5-hr train ride from Cologne (which is about an hour away from Jülich), so not very far at all. If you have a chance, go visit Amsterdam!

About the pictures: side view of the grand Amsterdam Centraal, with the tourist information center in front; one of the many canal bridges illuminated at night; a napkin form of my new favorite van Gogh painting, Almond Blossoms–the beautiful blue-green coloring in the real painting is stunning, and I thought these napkins captured the hue most closely; one of the curious open-air urinals for men scattered throughout the city–very strange; one of the abundant “coffee shops,” this one was quite plentiful throughout the Red Light district–Bulldog pride!!; a display of various hemp baked goods in a convenience store; the central station from the front, unfortunately somewhat blocked by construction walls; some buildings built right onto the canals, which I found both beautiful and interesting; various hemp products (“bio-friendly” ones) sold in a store–hemp spaghetti, muesli (cereal), and flour–interesting!!; karamelstroopwafels and vla–my dinner on the train ride back; a snapshot of some Dutch bakery items; the city center hall–looks like a castle!

Werte Leserinnen und Leser,

Liebe Constipendiaten,

Ludwig Hamman, Reisender und Abenteurer der ersten Jahre des vergangenen Jahrhundertes, erzählt  in seiner Reise im Land der Pharaonen wie der Papst Pius X in einer Audienz  nach Erteilung des apostolischen Segens zu einer deutschen Pilgergruppe gesagt haben soll, wie verwundert er war, dass sie gar nichts gesungen haben, denn die Deutschen den ganzen Tag singen.

Nach neun Monaten in Deutschland, kann ich nur diesen Vorwurf bestätigen. Deutsche mögen einfach das Singen.  Zum Geburtstag, Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter, im Gottesdienst oder nur bei einer  Tasse Tee oder einem Bier finden die Deutschen einen guten Anlass zum singen.  Tiere und Pflanzen, glückliche und unglückliche Liebe,  Wandern und Jagen,  Elend und Freude und vieles mehr gehören die breite Thematik des alten und neuen deutschen Gesangs.

So bilden Lieder einen erheblichen Bestandteil des Kulturgutes dieses Landes. Der Nachtigall von Wittenberg Hans Sachs;  der weltberühmte Mozart ; und natürlich die ganzen Romantiker, also die Gebrüder Grimm, Eichendorff, Schubert und Mendelsohn in der Musik und andere erkannten das und machten daraus ewige Kunstwerke.

So hatte ich im Laufe der Woche Gelegenheit gehabt, diese Leidenschaft der Deutschen auf verschiedene Weise zu erleben.  So besuchte ich am Montag entgegen meiner Gewohnheit eine nah gelegene Diskothek, die sog. „Schlagerschicht“. Der Begriff Schlagermusik entspricht mehr oder minder mit dem englischen Terminus „pop music“; so dass in diesem Lokal Musik solcher Gattung gespielt wurde.  Zum meinem Erstaunen erklärten mir die mir begleitenden Kommillitonen, dass in deutsche Diskotheken erwartet wird, nicht nur dass man tanzt und ähnliches, sondern, dass man die Lieder singt. Und tatsächlich sangen alle ganz viel.

An nächsten Tag, am Dienstag, hatten wir Besuchdienst im Schloss Heitersheim. Das Schloss gehörte dem Malteserorden mehrere Jahrhunderte bis zur Säkularisation. Dann wurde es von dem Orden der Schwestern vom Hl. Vinzenz von Paul erworben, und ist seither teils eine Schule für gestig behinderte Kinder, und teils ein Altersheim für  die pensionierte Nonnen. Wir besuchen die Schwestern jede zweite Woche in verschiedenen Gruppen.

Der Tag war wirklich herrlich, und so befanden viele Schwestern im Garten zum Kaffee und Kuchen. Der Professor H. setzte sich zu den Schwestern, während ich ein Spaziergang mit Schwester Maria Corsina im Blumengarten (es gibt mehrere Gärten und Höfe) machte. Als wir wieder zum Tisch kehrten, nahmen wir auch Kaffee und Gebäck. Dann schlug jemandem vor, Lieder zu singen und, werte Leser, dann genoß ich fast ein Konzert deutscher Volkslieder, unter dem achteckigen Ritterkreuz und dem Schatten der badischen Pappeln. Das einzige Lied was ich aus meiner Kindheit in der Deutschen Schule kannte war dieses Lied, das mit dem Vers beginnt: „Alle Vögel sind schon da, alle Vögel alle…“.

Am Mittwoch, nach Schlager- und Volkslieder, war Tag der Geistlichenlieder  i. S., dass im Gottesdienst besonders lokalgeprägte Lieder diesmal gewählt wurden. Wir sangen dieses berührendes Lied, das beginnt mit „ Gesegnet, die da wandeln vor Gott in Heiligkeit…“. In der Kirche ist es viel leichter zu singen, als etwa in der Schlagerschicht. Es gibt immer in den katholischen, das Gotteslob, und in den lutherischen, das EGB; so dass man sowohl Melodie als Text folgen kann. Ich kann mich noch erinnern, wie ich so sehr staunte als ich vor sehr langer Zeit zum ersten Mal in ein deutsches Tempel eintart, und ich diese komischen Tafeln mit Nummern an den Wänden sah, eben ein Ausdruck der Liebe der Deutschen zum Gesang.

Hello readers

I hope it has been a great week for you all. With me it was a crazy week with so many activities. But let me pick up from where I left last time..

On our very first day in Germany we ‘dared’ to take a bus to meet Megha, who was allotted a place a little far away and she had earlier left by a taxi. Armed with only a very colourful map of the town and the name of the bus stop where we had to get down, me and Sajad set forth, the only consolation being the fact that this is actually a very small town. Even from my enquiries with a gentleman in our bus stop it was evident as well as shocking to me that I was communicating more with my body language and by showing the map than by actually speaking any Deutsch! All my preparations and wonderful scores in my language courses from India suddenly seemed meaningless. I couldn’t understand what he was saying and I couldn’t talk to him comfortably either. This was my first conversation in a real-life situation with a German (the taxi-driver earlier that day and my first friend in Germany was a Pakistani who offered to speak Hindi and I didn’t care to practice a few useful German sentences).

So, the next hard-hitting truth – you could be an expert in solving German grammar exercises like Dativ/Akkusativ or Activ/Passiv and the genders and plurals of all nouns etc. on a piece of paper but when it comes to simply hearing, understanding and replying back to a German, it’s a totally different ball game! This would take time, patience and a lot of perseverance. In my mother – tongue there is a proverb that says, or can be roughly translated to, ‘A picture of a Gourd in a book, is no good to make curry with. You need a real one!”

So all your german language training in your native place would probably only provide you with a comfortablestarting point, upon which you would have to build up. The ability to drive a vehicle in an open and empty field is different from actually being able to drive it in a real street with real people around. Anyway, the guy was very friendly, as almost everyone over here is, and helped me understand which bus I should be taking and whether I was standing at the right side of the road at all. The buses are really well maintained here and funnily a travel between any 2 points costs always 1.50 Euros. The buses here are well adapted to be used without much effort by elderly people and the visually impaired. In fact Marburg has the best training school for the visually impaired and they are almost completely independent in managing their daily travelling around..

We met our friend and planned for the activities for the next day. We returned by 9 pm and were not in a mood to start any cooking or whatever. We had pizzas in an Italian shop and the guy there had to be convinced thoroughly by me that I needed a ‘kleine’ pizza and not ‘keine’ pizza.

My classmates at the language course were from many different countries – Egypt, Columbia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Iran and South Korea, and my Lehrerin was an Austrian settled in Germany – so there was no dearth of cultural exchange and actually lots of fun. We had classes till noon, went for lunch at the Mensa afterwards and then we were free to explore the town. The first week rolled by. On the weekend there were many special shops put up on the pavements selling useful second-hand items at a cheap pr-

ice. I visited the Elizabeth Church on Saturday – this was a 13^th century church built upon the grave of St. Elizabeth. It was truly magnificient and what shook me the most were the actual tombs of many of the important Knights upto the 15^th century.

The next week the three of us met at my place for my birthday. We prepared typical south Indian dishes with materials bought from a nearby Asian shop. I believe there might be one in almost all of the German cities.

A few days later we had a Sommerfest in our house and I saw for the first time how Germans party. The essentials were all there : less to eat and more to drink, the lights, the DJ and the sound, the crowd and the dancing.. I offered to manage the entrance for about an hour in the night and it was pretty much fun to take 2 Euros from every guest and make a seal on their hands before letting them in.

I had already made a few friends on my floor, so I didn’t feel totally lost in the crowd when I went in and it was getting madder every minute. We had great fun and the noise was just starting to hit the roof. I retired around 2 :00 to my room, (which was pretty early compared to party standards). The next day I made Fruit mix/squash/shake or whatever with my German friend Stefan who needed help with the ‘detoxification’ process to get out of the party lag. I learnt it went on till 7 or 8 in the morning and the cops had to be called when someone obviously in ‘high spirits’ had tried his strength on the glass door of the entrance!

All the germans in my floor talked to me very well and were very friendly. It is here I am going to learn most of my German, I had realized. There were also some really great Americans, Mexicans and an Estonian whom I was also friends with. Sometimes, they try the Indian dishes I cook and find it too hot and spicy but still like it (“oooh.. sehr scharf”, they would say.)

I also made a visit to the Landgrafen Schloß (castle) and it was simply fascinating. Its architecture dates back to the 9^th centuty when Marburg was the first seat of residence of the Landgrave of the kingdom of Hesse. It is mostly renovated today and an important tourist attraction – particularly so for the collection of important archives and the garrisons here.

I tried row boating on the beautiful Lahn river with my friends and it was a wonderful experience. Right above us were the bridges connecting the Oberstadt with the university mensa, with people busily moving around and down below we were rowing on the quiet waters, while a group of ducks swam by..

The Oberstadt is a beautiful place full of traditional buildings and houses and many beautiful shops, cafes etc. It’s a remarkable place that you could visit on a Saturday evening to find it in all its beauty. People taking a quiet stroll, students doing part time in the cafes and busy with orders and many people posing and taking pictures next to the beautiful buildings.. Italian icecreams for 70 cents a portion are really a hit with the people here. And its 1.40 Euros for 2 portions and naturally 2.10 for 3 portions. And that brings me to a very funny incident with which I would like to close this week’s article:

I was with 2 of my classmates and we decided to buy ice-creams here. I wanted 1 portion of strawberry, my friend wanted the same and another friend wanted 2 portions – zitrone and tiramisu. I volunteered to do the talking and in all earnestness and flawless pronunciation requested – “Wir möchten zwei Erdbeere Kugeln und ein mit Zitrone und Tiramisu”. I probably got my vocabulary ok but the sentence structure skewed. Because to our horror, we saw the enthusiastic guy proceeding to take the biggest size cone and fill it up with 2 portions of Strawberry and 1 of citrone and handed it over to me and asked,” Nächste?” We stared blankly for a minute and my friend Amir tried to explain this time and got an exact replica of what I had got! The other friend, now warned enough, did more of body language and got what she wanted.. So, even when in a group in a café or a shop you are better advised to order individually.  We had a good laugh at our misadventure with the Italian ice-cream man and took fotos of our extra-large ice cream cones. We took around half an hour to finish our ice-creams..

April and I spent an amazing weekend in Berlin. We stayed with the family of a girl whom I work with, Laura. On Thursday evening, we drove with Laura about three hours from Bayreuth to Berlin. Driving in a car was particularly nice, as the train would have taken double the time!

The next morning, April and I went with Laura to see all of the historical attractions that Berlin has to offer. First, of course, were the remains of the Berlin wall, which was a physical barrier completely encircling West Berlin and separating it from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), including East Berlin. The wall separated East Germany from West Germany for more than a quarter of a century, from the day construction began on August 13, 1961 until the Wall was brought down on November 9, 1989.

Next, we saw the Brandenberg Gate that used to separate the East and West sides of the city. This was where President Kennedy gave the famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in 1961.

Afterwards, we came upon Checkpoint Charlie, which was the crossing point between the former East and West sides of Berlin. This point was guarded by the U.S. soldiers on the West side and by the Russian soldiers on the East side. We were also able to see the Reichstag. This is the huge building (near the Brandenberg Gate) where the German “Congress” lives. Now that Berlin has again become the capital of the reunited two Germanies, it is the center of the German government. Laura, April, and I then walked along the Kurfürstendam (“Ku-dam”) or the main street that has many excellent shops, restaurants, and nightclubs. This street was where all the big nightlife was in the 1980s.

One interesting thing about Berlin is the Ampelmännchen, or the little traffic light man. This figure is the symbolic person shown on traffic lights at pedestrian crossings in what was formerly East Germany. Before the German reunification in 1990, the two German states had different forms for the Ampelmännchen, with the usual human figure in West Germany traffic crossings and a male figure wearing a hat in the East.

The next day, Laura, April, and I met up with Laura’s sister, Aglaia, and we went to the KaDeWe, a huge German department store, for some shopping. Coming from New York, I have seen some pretty impressive malls, but I was truly in awe of KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westens). Besides having some great clothing stores, there were amazing art sculptures, fountains, ponds, and flowers spread out around the interior of the mall. Outside of KaDeWe, we took some pictures with some Berlin bear statues (the bear is the mascot of Berlin). These statues were beautifully painted in different ways to represent different countries from around the world.

At night, we all went to a club called 40 Seconds (so named for the forty seconds it takes on an elevator to get to the top of the building where the club is located). We had a fun time dancing, but it is still hard for me to get used to the techno music that is so often played in German clubs.

The following morning, April and I went with Laura and her parents to take their dog, Nick, to a dog park. One thing I have noticed about Germans is that they are very close to their families, and I admire this quality very much. After living in Germany for almost two months, it seems to me as though Americans are sometimes too fast-paced with their lifestyles. For me, it was quite relaxing walking through the park on a misty Sunday morning with Laura, her parents, and her dog. I must admit, I never thought I would visit a dog park while I was in Berlin!

Since I have been in Germany, I have heard so much about Berlin. Countless times I have been asked if I have been there, and now I can proudly say that I have. I do agree with my friends that no German city is quite like Berlin. It is a place that is so historical, yet at the same time, so modern.

My general plan for this weekend was to travel to Cologne alone on Saturday and visit some touristy places, to stay in a youth hostel for the night and then to travel to Düsseldorf on Saturday morning to meet up with other RISE interns in the area. I did some research on the city of Cologne prior to departure and both the Ludwig Museums (modern art) and the NS Dokumentationszentrum (old Gestapo prison) received good reviews on the internet. The latter was said to be much underrated. After getting to Cologne in the morning, I walked across the Hohenzollernbrücke, the bridge reserved for train traffic that links the two shores of the Rhein. There were hundreds, if not thousands of padlocks of love attached to the railings, and I can only assume that couples would throw the keys into the turbulent waters of the Rhein after declaring eternal affection towards each other. After, I stayed a couple of hours in the Ludwig museum. Modern art is very boring to look at if you’re not the one creating it. What I think happens before a piece of art is created is that at first, there is the symptom that the artist wants to say too much, then gets lost in his/her train of thought and ends up scribbling over everything. The Ludwig museum has a large Picasso collection which I enjoyed and I also found a stunning painting by Dalí, by far my favourite painter in the world. Each time, I am stunned not by the oddness of his themes but the precision of his paintbrush strokes.

The old Gestapo prison was very interesting, although I arrived 30 minutes before closing time and it was of course too late to get an audio-guide. There were prison cells in the basement, tiny rooms that were fully-furnished with a cold stone bench and white walls that must have left the prisoners feelings hopeless and very claustrophobic. In some, there were still pencil markings of calendars, evidence of the prisoners counting down the lengthy days. I highly recommend that museum to everyone who plans on visiting Cologne (though you should arrive early enough to get an audio-guide since most descriptions are in German). Although I made the arrangements for a hostel in Cologne on Saturday night, I decided to cancel my reservation and take the train back home as it merely takes one hour to get back to Jülich. Truthfully, I was very bored by the end of the day. Too much of “traveling alone” happens in your head.

The next morning, after some debating, I decided to brave the torrential downpour and head over to Düsseldorf anyway. It was a very good decision in the end because even though the weather report was announcing rain for the entire day, it was in fact mostly sunny. Always give the weatherman the benefit of the doubt. After meeting up with Andrew, Alli, Kate, Devon and later, Alex (all from the RISE program), we walked across the Rhein towards the bustling carnival sounds and vivid bubble gum colours of the Rheinkirmes. As the name implies, this amusement park is set-up right on the shore of the Rhein and its skyline from the opposite shore makes up a great view. The moment I set foot there, I got hit by the happiness bug and it was difficult to contain my urge to skip down the streets packed with food-stalls and attractions in flashy circus colours. The entrance was free but each separate attraction costs from 3 to 5 euros to ride. There was even a fortune teller sitting in her infamous caravan who could glimpse into your future for 15 euros. By the end, I only went on two rides. First, a haunted house, which should go down in history as the worst haunted house ride ever made. There was sunlight coming in from all directions and the props didn’t inspire much creativity. But I shouldn’t complain because the target audience was obviously not adults and come to think of it, I would be scared too if I were 5. The second was a thrilling log ride that made up for the first one and got us all soaked! It was a really fun day (how could it not be, it was an amusement park!) with a great group of people.

Now on to the topic of the Heidelberg meeting last weekend (has it been a week already?). I will keep it somewhat short because I think all the other bloggers did a pretty good job of describing everything that went on. All in all, I loved it and felt very well taken care of by the DAAD. However, I must say that I was overwhelmed at first by the amount of people there. It was like having a back-culture shock for me to be among so many North Americans as I have been away from home for almost 7 months now.

The DAAD welcomed all 370 of us inside the beautiful Alte Aula of Heidelberg University. We were offered a buffet of finger-foods after the welcome speeches, which were delicious but perhaps the estimations fell short of curbing the appetite of starving students. The next morning, we left for the company tour at Evonik-Degussa. From what I understood, they produce speciality chemicals such as catalysts, perform purification of precious metals, and have a large analytical department. Experiencing a first-hand visit at a successful chemical company somewhat reinforced my will of not working in industrial chemistry. However, I enjoyed listening to our tour guide, a funny and wacky professor, and I was glad to be in company of a nice group of people. In fact, I met April who, as you may know, is also a blogger for RISE!

On the third day was the Heidelberg guided tours. Our tour guide was a lovely English lady who told us that her husband brought her back to Heidelberg as his “prize” from London. She also loved to point out that the Heidelberg castle was bombed by the French and not the Americans, a recurrent theme it seems in all of the tour groups. I learned that it costs more than a million euros per year to preserve the castle in its ancient state as the soil underneath is slipping, but it would be much less expensive to destroy and reconstruct everything. After the guided tours, a friend and I quickly caught a bus heading to the Hauptbahnhof to meet up with a group of friends who were going to Basel, Switzerland for the day. That city really impressed me, as I was expecting something close to Jülich and not a place so picturesque (now I know Basel is Switzerland’s third most populous city; picture on the right). Spending the day exploring that city was definitely a highlight of the weekend. The next day, on our way back to North-Rhine Westphalia region, a couple of friends and I stopped in Frankfurt and spent a lazy Sunday there. Finally a city with skyscrapers – I have not seen those structures for quite a while now. We promised to come back when the shops are open for some shopping.

I don’t like getting sentimental about good-byes, but I must say that this time, it was difficult to depart from new friends that I wish I had the time to know better, especially when they come from far away. Hope to see you all again one day!

That’s it for today’s post! Next week : Hamburg!!! (I am going with Kelly, who is, as you may know, another blogger for RISE J)

Have a good week everyone!

It is amazing how much influence the weather has on one’s day. For example, on a sunny day, I almost always feel more energetic and optimistic, but on a rainy day, unless I am at home curled up with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book or movie, I am most likely sluggish and tired. I think it is the same for many people as well! While this correlation between weather and mood/activity seems rather obvious or un-breathtaking, sometimes I think of how the weather changes arbitrarily, independent of human plans and designs—and then it’s funny to think of how our mood and activities are therefore dependent on whatever Mother Nature decides to throw at us on a given day.

Of course, moods are oftentimes independent of the weather, as it is very possible to be sad on a sunny day or cheerful on a cloudy one. But some activities are certainly dependent on the weather. Last weekend, I traveled to Munich (München) (about 6 hours of train time from Jüich, but more with the connections) and explored the city with a friend. I had heard so many great things about Munich; in the words of one of my friends from home, “You haven’t been to Germany until you’ve been to Munich!” Well, of course I had to validate my three months in Germany, so a trip to Munich was a must!

I was excited for Munich because I thought it would be something like Berlin, being a big city and all (although one of the guys in my lab, who had studied in Munich for several years, declared Munich and Berlin to be very different cities). From the pictures I saw online and in my travel book, I could tell that Munich should be a gorgeous city under a blue sky and a shining sun. Unfortunately for us, Mother Nature fancied giving the city a thorough wash, as it rained on and off all weekend long, mainly on Saturday—our main touring day! =( The saddest part was that most of the places I wanted to visit (like the Nymphenburg Palace, Viktualienmarkt (Food Market), Olympic Park, English Garden, and other parks) were outdoors. Although my friend and I valiantly trekked out to both Nymphenburg and the English Garden (both of which were lovely but quite soggy!), we were not able to see very much because of the great sogginess of our clothes and the discomfort of wet shoes.

Still, despite having much of our plans thwarted by the rain, I think we managed to see a decent amount of the great city. To escape the rain, we, along with large masses of other tourists, took refuge in the museums. The Deutsches Museum, the most highly acclaimed science museum in the world, was fascinating. Of course, my favorite exhibits were the musical instrument exhibit and the chemistry exhibit. Unfortunately, the majority of the music exhibit was closed off due to construction, but we did get to hear a brief organ concert and witnessed a demonstration on a clavichord (a small keyboard instrument played during the Medieval to Classical periods). There was also a splendid selection of keyboard instruments and an array of models of hammer mechanisms. I thought it was neat how at the end of the row, next to all the old harpsichords and cembalos, was a sleek, black Steinway & Sons concert grand from Hamburg. Very lovely!

The chemistry exhibit was especially fascinating because it was like being transported back to Freshman Orgo class first semester of college; I saw reconstructions of Lavoisier’s lab and Liebig’s lab and marveled at the progression of medieval alchemy into what we now know as chemistry (the best science, of course!). I found it quite amazing how even way back in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, when Lavoisier and Liebig were just establishing the foundations of organic chemistry by conducting their elemental analysis combustion experiments, they were aware of the importance of an inert atmosphere for the success of the reaction and thus devised primitive but apparently effective ways of rigorously excluding air moisture from the reaction flasks. I guess I find this especially interesting now that I am working in such a modern lab as the one in the Forschungszentrum—the stuff I do in my high-tech lab today is what the chemists of history did back then, just with different equipment!

It would have been nice to stay much longer in the museum (I think a whole day could definitely be passed at that museum), as I think we only saw about 20% of the whole place, if not less! But we could not stay because we were starving and began on our pilgrimage to the Hofbräuhaus, or the main brewery of the city. It was such a relief to step into the warm, cheerful brewery where there was jovial music and friendly waitresses. Even though it was 3 o’clock, in between mealtimes, the place was so crowded that I was pleasantly surprised that we managed to find a seat. Though I usually do not eat much meat, I am glad that I tried the Bavarian specialty called Weisswurst, two white sausages served with a sweet mustard sauce and pretzels. That, along with the legendary Hofbräu beer and a warm Apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce afterwards, filled our stomachs up soundly.

After a quick second visit to the palace the next day, we headed back home. Despite the dreary weather, I think I liked Munich and would gladly visit again in the future (hopefully on a sunny day, when the parks would be more enjoyable). The people in Munich seemed the friendliest out of all the cities I’ve been to so far. This must be part of the Bavarian Gastfreundschaft (hospitality) proudly professed in the cookbook I bought from the Hofbräuhaus. (That word for “hospitality” is different in the Bavarian dialect, and it’s driving me nuts that I can’t remember it! –I will post it later) For example, despite the booming business in the Hofbräuhaus, all the waiters and waitresses we dealt with were friendly and polite (very different from many other restaurant services I’ve experienced so far in Germany!), and in the Italian restaurant we visited for dinner, we enjoyed free champagne and antipasta appetizer dishes from the barmaster and chef of the restaurant while we waited for a table to free up. Even outside the food/service business, the locals were also very hospitable, as a couple generously offered us directions when it looked like we didn’t know where to go. Though Berlin is still my favorite city, I would say that Munich is beautiful as well—even in the rain.

About the pictures: The impressive new Rathaus (city hall); the picturesque Karlstor Gate in Marienplatz; a showcase of numerous hammer mechanisms in keyboard instruments throughout the ages in the Deutsches Museum; the beautiful Hamburg Steinway in the organ room–under great protection, of course!; a recreation of Liebig’s laboratory; our meal at the Hofbräuhaus; the massive Schloss Nymphenburg; a friendly swan on the lake in front of the palace who took a special interest in the visitors; the splendid Rathaus at nighttime (sorry for the blurriness!)