Week three in the city and still a lot to say

I realize that the last blog was rather long, ok, I admit, very long. This one might be long too, so be forewarned.

Thanks so much to Kate, Abra, Emma, Mum, Tiffany, Marieke, and Ana for your comments. They really mean a lot to me. It is nice to know that I have such a great amount of support and that I am not just swimming without light in this place of football-crazed people.

Where was I...?

Wednesday.

So on Tuesday night came Geir (my cousin from Bergen, 20 years old) and Øystein (Geir's friend, also 20) to have a mini holiday in Hamburg. Some how, in my tiny room, we all managed to fit. I think they spent one very uncomfortable night on the floor before I found to mattresses for them. The next day I left for work early, and then finished work much later then usual. I then met up with the guys in an area near Altona (where the street festival was). We had some surprisingly good Pakistanian food. Since there was some time left before they needed to meet up with a Hamburg artist in his studio, we grabbed a few beers for a drink in the park. It was an odd feeling drinking out in the open. With the police just down the lane, I felt almost compelled to hide the bottle. But then I guess that would be more suspicious then just drinking it out in the open. So I guess that leads to an interesting point...what is in the open does not need to be hidden. I guess this seems like common sense, or just a bunch of nonsense that I am sprouting out. Maybe it is a difference between the mentalities of the US vs. many European countries? I don't know.

I said I would snap a picture of a strawberry carte, so here one is (Øystein and Geir):

Cool and Übercool:

Anyway, back to the story.

After a beer, we headed to the Reeperbahn in St. Pauli. Due to a slight delay, I walked the guys around a little. They were pretty shocked about the prostitution, like I was (and still am) and that the women look so young and normal. Øystein said that in Prague the prostitutes looked completely opposite of the women in Hamburg, I think that is the nicest way I can put it. I kind of persuaded them to have a small walk down the street that is forbidden for women who are not in the sex business. The look on their faces when they came out was hard to describe.

Till, the artist, has the most incredible studio. It is in this huge building, called SKAM, that a lot of artists can inhabit (though without heating it is pretty cold in the winter) basically for free. Just looking at the building you would think it was uninhabited, yet you wonder why there would be an uninhabited building in a prime spot in the city. I think the fact that a massive poster hanging on the building welcoming the world to the world cup is almost too much for the artists to handle. After the never ending "Send en melding til Till..." (send a message to Till in Norwegian) which was a pun that didn't get old, we met the guy. Geir knew him from school, and yes, this guy is a classic artist. Everything in black, even a clack cap. Long ponytail too. Just one cool looking cat. He had to fiddle with some paper work, and in the meantime we chatted. At one point I got lost looking for the restroom and found my way into someone else’s studio. There were dolls all over the walls with needles in their faces, along with some other not so pleasant images. Very bizarre. When it started getting a bit later I decided to head home. I had to be a little responsible for myself; after all, I had work the next day (this was a thought that was lost to me the next night- see Thursday).

Actually, a last short story of the night was when I was waiting for the metro train. I was listening to my diskman when out of the blue I turn around and this guy is really close to me. We then looks at my diskman and goes "is there really a CD in there?" Hmmm. I respond in a fake accent that I can't understand English. He then leaves me be. Perhaps drunk? Perhaps crazy? Or perhaps he was just amazed that people still listen to diskmans. I will probably never know.

Thursday.

Wednesday night I slept so badly because I kept having the weirdest dreams that Geir and Øystein couldn't find their way into the room. Waking up Thursday morning, they still hadn't found their way back. Lo and behold, at 8:30, while drinking my morning coffee, they came lumbering into the kitchen. I feel so bad about this, but catching one look at them, I had to laugh. "Long night?" I said. "We are so angry." Øystein says. Even writing this I am giggling. Again, guys, if you ever read this, sorry. Turns out they had a really fun night out on the town with Till and did plenty of bar hopping. Nice cheap German beer, yum. They proceeded to explain that they would have been back an hour or two earlier if they had not been lost in the neighborhood. Wandering around in the suburbs early on a Thursday morning after a night out is not really any ones idea of a good time. Poor guys.

I got off work early this day and was going to head down to the library downtown, but I just wasn't feeling very well. So, just as the guys woke up, I took a one or two hour nap. I was surprised when I woke up to see the two of them in the kitchen watching the football match. Almost the whole thing. Not a bad way to get over a night out. Later on we decided to meet and go out on the town.

Before hitting the bars, I thought about heading to Planten en Blumen, which I heard had a fountain light show to classical music in the evenings. At 11pm, though, we seemed to be way too late: The place was basically deserted. After a small bite to eat we found a truly amazing sight. I have to say this is the best kids park I have ever been too. German engineering at its best, I think. There are water pumps with gates in the ground to control the floe, odd climbing contraptions, spinning contraptions, really long slides, etc. There was even a cube-like wooden building in which you could maneuver wood pieces around to enclose sections (a device of torture to bullies, I can imagine). Some of the apparatuses, including the climbing ones, were very tall, and actually a bit scary. I realize kids have less fear then adults, but still. I mean, you could really hurt yourself. Then again, it was so freakn' wicked. Øystein later mentioned that there was a guard in a building nearby, but he didn't stop us. Maybe he could see we were having so much fun being stupid?

After the playground we meandered to a cool place with bad music on the shore, followed by a hostel bar, and then another small bar with some pretty sweet music.

I really like how the bars are pretty small here. Also, even though they are small, a lot of them a very different. I tell you, there are very many bar areas around town, and depending on where you are, you can experience very different places. The bars in St. Pauli, the small ones, are not like 6th street in Austin at all.

Here is a picture of the music guys at the hostel bar. The guy on the left had some weird things written all over his body. He's definitely having fun.

Here is a Picture of Geir and I (I like the new Geir hair do. I liked the old one too, but everyone needs a change every now and then, right?):

McDonalds and sex. Not everyday you see this (on Reeperbahn):

At around 6 or 7 am I finally hit the pillow. Not great for the next day of work, but it just turned out that way. After all, I didn't go out the night before.

Friday.

On Friday, with my one hour of sleep, it turned out to be the longest working day so far. Just standing up in the lab doing experiments. I have rarely seen my hand shake so much. This was not very good under normal circumstances, and certainly was not helpful when I can pipeting concentrated sulfuric acid.

While in the afternoon I could have just decided to go home, I thought no. I met up with the guys when they went bargain shopping in Altona. There was a second hand clothes shop that wasn't too shabby. Geir looked pretty sweet in a Zoot suit (I don't know if that is how you spell it). Both the guys got nice jackets. Now they can be all smooth with the ladies.

Men and their suites:

After their shopping we heading to City de Nord Park to meet a former art teacher of Geir and Øystein. André has lived in Norway most of his life, originally from Hamburg, and takes some beautiful photographs. Coming out of the train we meet a Malaysian guy (who I forget his name), Sven (André's nephew), and Matthias (a local artist). Matthias begins his tour of this park that is the home of a biannual art instillation show. Most of the pieces are very conceptual indeed. I tell you, if I was just walking around the place I: one, would have trouble finding some of the pieces, and two, would interpret them very differently. Sometimes I felt like if the informal tour was more like a scavenger hunt.

Here is a picture of the group surrounding a white painted almost-circle in the grass. Apparently it is by a very famous American conceptual artist. Conceptual it was. I just kept thinking to myself how inappropriate it would be to accidentally spurt out a little laughter. Everyone seemed so serious. I could go into details, but lets just say this was not my favorite piece, nor was it any ones.

There was a half-circus tent that was a bit interesting. Not great, but interesting. We met the artist (who a little ironically was a little person), who went on to a way too in depth description of his work.

Matthias makes small signs that try to mean nothing, like "Eat an egg every Friday"? I thought his were funny. I also liked a clothes rack that was standing in the middle of the grass. Oddly enough, apart from the art, the park was not that nice. It is surrounded by 70's designed ugly business buildings. Not the nicest park in town. Oh, I have to mention that there was this puddle, and I thought Matthias was just being sarcastic when we was explaining that it took a lot of work to make a regular looking puddle. Boy was I wrong... Even the artwork that looked simple took so much planning and engineering. Man, these artists could be scientists if they leaned the other way.

After the tour we waited an ungodly amount of time for a wurst. After the wurst we wandered and found a cute food eatery in Stadt Park. It is beautiful. Walking around here close to dusk there were people everywhere. Having picnics, BBQ's, drinking. It was great. A huge body of water surrounded with green lawns, and what looks to be the garden leading up to a non-existent castle or palace.

When I was walking André told me that he had formally trained as a chemical lab technician and that, to him, chemistry and art were inextricably linked in his mind. Working with chemicals and designing experiments, he said, is similar to the thought processes of an artist. Not that I was feeling too out of place, but I was a little before André told me this. What a neat concept, though maybe few would agree (I do, he's a cool guy).

Our next plan was for the three of us to go see the Planten en Blumen fountain show. Turns out the rest of the group wanted to as well. We managed to see the end of the show, which was lovely. Almost hypnotic with the timing of lights, water, and music.

Following a walk to the fan fest area, where all the football matches are screened in front of tens of thousands of people. There were a lot of people still partying. I then headed home. The guys did their thing with the rest of the group until later.

Saturday.

Today the guys headed out surprisingly early to do more shopping. I lazied at home to try to recover a little bit after Thursday night. At around 3pm I headed towards the fan fest area to meet up with the guys. The trains were packed with the colours of black, red, and gold. Not to mention the songs, drunken bellowing, and excitement. I have to add that today was the match between Germany and Sweden. I think it is a little funny the way Germans say Sweden. In Norway it’s Sverige (pronounced sveh-rhi-ae), but in Germany it is Schweden (pronounced schv-ee-den). It sounds ugly in German, and I think its funny. Maybe it’s just me...

Back to the game. We were planning on going to the Fan Fest area that we had seen the night before, with all the people and all, but we changed our minds. The guys had found a nice table outside a cafe that was within very good viewing distance of a T.V. There was this friar beer, perhaps Belgian, which came in .5L glasses. Very good, and large. It was great watching the whole game there. We could even here the massive cries from the Fan Fest when a goal was scored. The game did get a little less exciting after it was obvious that Germany was dominant, but still fun to watch. This retired older German came and sat on the extra place at our table for most of the game. Very pleasant guy, who at one point hurried off, only to come back two minutes later with a can of peanuts. " You just can't watch football without peanuts,“ he said. Good peanuts they were too.

Me:

The guys:

The cafe and TV:

After the game we asked the old man where we could buy some alcohol at this hour (the stores close at 8pm). Off to Wal-Mart we went. It was even a super center. I can't believe I didn't notice it when I walked to the café (which was in another very nice area). Tons of fans were hitting the place with the same idea we had. Does Wal-Mart in the States sell alcohol? Here is a picture of the place:

Schwedes:

The night we spent relaxing and watching another football match at my place. Some packing was done as well. Geir and his Von Raven... It was nice with the guys talking Norwegian and me speaking some Norwegian, but mostly English.

Sunday.

Today all three of us left early in the morning to head to Danmark. I should mention that I used my two holiday days this month to go visit Christina in Danmark. She is studying abroad there for five weeks, which is almost over now. After a small stress with no busses/my stupidity, we finally made it on time to Hauptbahnhof, the central train station. See Geir and Øystein with lots of luggage heading to the Roskilde music festival in Danmark:

Going there, the train got onto a ferry. This was very surprising. The thought had never occurred to me that trains were not restricted to land. But I didn't think about the fact that the fastest way to Copenhagen would be water...

After some initial confusion, in part due to the ambiguity of our meeting place, but mostly due to the fact the train was late and I foolishly thought that by transferring to another train I would be on time, Christina and I met. Kind of surreal, actually. Christina and I went back to her place to drop off my backpack and then headed out for a little bit of exploring. It was a great feeling to be lead around a new town. After about five weeks of living there on exchange, Christina knows, for the most part, what is on the go. First thing was first: food. For this, my buddy oh pal was very creative. We meandered to Cristiania to eat at a well- priced (for Danmark) vegetarian place.

Kristiania is a town for a hippy community. It is located on an island and is connected to the main city by two bridges. Christina said that those bridges are very important symbols for the Christianias. Over there, you are not allowed to take photos in certain areas, and it is certainly very free. Children running around barefoot, dogs roaming, and the lingering smell of pot out of almost every doorstep. I should mention that hemp clothing, natural deodorant, dread locks, etc, were all part of the package. Though it is a very free seeming place, and I should say, a very alternative lifestyle, I did not feel that comfortable.

You are now entering the EU (when leaving Christiania):

After a nice supper, we headed to Nyhavn to enjoy some ice cream, people watching, and chatting. The warm weather, blue sky, and colourful houses, ice cream, and Christina, made it one schnazzy evening. The houses and buildings look a very similar to the houses on Bryggen in Bergen, but somewhat older. Though not much of an observation, Kobenhavn is so much older and smaller then Hamburg.

Two drunken Danes jump into the filthy harbour.

Christina and Ice:

Hippy and Cafe's:

Me and a bridge:

Monday.

Since Christina has class pretty early in the morning, I thought I would join her during rush hour and head to town. Instead of a long and detailed (and to you guys, probably boring) account of the things I saw, I will just give you a quick down-low, or is it low-down (?) and some of my observations for the day.

I spent a while in the morning planning a little walking itinerary around the city. I should have known myself better then that. I tried; I really did try to follow it... I just got very sidetracked. I managed to see two palaces, walk along the sea, see an old fort with a beautiful church:

,the city hall (free and clean washrooms!), the library (hurray for Neils Bohr), and plenty of classic Scandinavian architecture. I did try to see the Mermaid, and apparently I came close, but no bananas. It was just a small walk away from the old fort and church I mentioned earlier, but partly due to this screaming American kid and super loud parents, and the fact that I was walked-out, I walked away from the sculpture.

In the evening Christina and I at long last found a great cafe and shared a good meal.

Some of the things I noticed:

1) Danes are beautiful people, and very homogenous. The women are mostly very blond and very, very stylish (a hundred times more stylish then the women here in Hamburg, that is for sure). Thin, with refined faces, and minimal makeup. The men too, with similar features as the women, but of course more masculine, are gorgeous. Yep, this is one place that doesn't really boost your confidence, but has great people-watching.

2) With all the joking by Geir and Øystein about their language, as well as what I have heard from others (including the show Ut i Hvor Hage), I cannot understand the Danes. I can read most of the text, but wow, not a pretty language. Dare I say it, I almost prefer German. The only full sentence of Danish I understood was the guy selling strawberries "Danish strawberries, 2 for 20 DK!". Sad, I know. Kamalooso...he he he. Sometimes I thought I was going a bit crazy and had half the mind to think that I was loosing my ability to understand people...that is until I heard the Norwegian tourists on the street. Mostly there were two topics of conversation I heard i) how the Norwegians couldn't understand the Danes and ii) how they were lost.

3) Bikes, bikes, and more bikes. There are bicycle lanes all over the place, with special signals for the bikes that are separate from the pedestrian signals. No wonder that even though their food is heavier, they are so fit: the Danes walk and bike everywhere.

4) Danmark is one expensive city.

5) It was incredible...when I wanted to get to a place; I would spend so long trying to find it, end up not finding it, and instead wind up in the same place I started. It is like I favored one side and kept turning in circles. I have to say, I got distracted very easily. The streets are old, thin, and really beautiful.

Picture. I thought the mixture of the bikes; the older buildings with the crossbeams and the newer building contrast made this not a half bad photo.

6) I love this special type of rye bread with seafood. Delicious. This is a great cafe that Christina recommended. Wonderful atmosphere.

7) Flower shops everywhere. The smell and colours were (ok Ana, please don't hold it against me for using this word again), beautiful.

Tuesday.

Today, due to a bit of wine the previous night, I slept in a bit later and headed to town. I just wondered. It was wonderful to relax and not have any itinerary. I went to the Erotica Museum of Danmark (not very cultural, but pretty interesting). The place actually had a good deal of historical artifacts of the past. I also spend a good deal of time sitting at the fountain in a square, Gammel Torv, and watching the people and the day go by.

Here is a picture of me taken by an English gal:

Here is a poster assemblage. I like the poster that says "Krig og Kaerlighed", which means "War and Love" and is an exhibition about reasons of immigration to Danmark. I wish I had seen it.

At around 5pm, Christina and I met at the train station to bid adieu to each other. I am kind of sappy when it comes to these things, and I know that Christina hates goodbyes, so we didn't make such a big deal out of it. After all, I would see her in four days time. I love that gal.

That’s all for now. Enjoy!

Another Week and Lots to Say

Hello again,

I left off after the first game of the World Cup. Now I will add more.

Here is a pic of the World Cup night from the Friday of the last blog (Peter from Ireland and Cesar)


Saturday/Sunday

On this day I wrote the last blog, which as you can tell by its length, took me a while. Lets just say that the my four finger typing method is sometimes not the most effective over the long hawl.

Anyway, in the evening I started getting ready and left to meet the group downtown at around 11pm at Reeperbahn in St. Pauli. There is something very relaxing about taking an hour train ride at this hour. Something about the darkness passing by is soothing. Also, on the way there, most people were dinking. Girls taking shots, men with their beer. Germany...

I think that I should give you a quick background on this area. Reeperbahn is an area just up from the docks. Since Hamburg is an old sea port, this area has become sunonymous with nightlife, from the more open bars, to the recesses of the underground sex business (has all this sparked your intrest yet?). "Reeper" of the bahn when translated has to do with the winding and making of thick rope used in the old days. Well, enough history.

I had gone walking in this area in the daytime the weekend before and I think it is a perfect example of that saying "as different as night and day." In the day the area was sparsely populated and the light of day making the sex shops and peak show displays seem oddly out of place. However, with the setting of the sun comes forth a brand new area. When the train pulled up to the underground station, it was shocking. The platform was comlpetely packed to the brim. As soon as the doors open us passengers were greeted by the drunk singing (or as close as singing you can get...) from a bunch of English byes "WE LOVE HAMBURG!". Once I managed to squeeze my way out and up the strairs to the street I was caught up in a huge crowd. Argentina had just played -and won (yea Ana)- in Hamburg, so there were people from everywhere. I even saw this black car with a bunch of Argentinian's that had a police escort (oh la la). As I was walking to the meeting point I found the answer to a question that had been on my mind for a long time. Lets just say that a group of Scots, kilts and all, delivered the second full moon of the night;~> So the answer is yes, no underware indeed.

Once I met up with the group we did some bar hopping. Eventually we ended up at a dance club. It must have been a good 30 degrees in the place. Boiling! The music was fun and the crowd was smushed togeather. I could definately pick out the cute Italians and Argentinians (and some not so cute...). Actually, while most eveyone was obviously sweating like mad, many of the Italians in their leather jackets did not seem to break a sweat. Weird. After a while, we tried out another dance place. What the first place had in terms of music and ambiance, the second place was left wanting. At about 4am I went outside for a breath of air, only to be greated by the rising sun. I had done it. Partyed all night until the break of dawn (I can almost swear that is the name of a song).

I cannot finish the story of the night without a mention about the prositutes. As we were walking to the first dance place we passes a Burger King. OK, I didn't think anything of it...at first. Marija stopped Tehri (The Finnish trainee) and I and told us to look more carfully at the fast food place. "See those women in front? There're prostitues:" she said in a rather matter-of-factly kind of way. You know, I honestly could not distinguish these girls from just your everyday partyer. The only real difference was that they were equipped with fanny packs. Now, I didn't care much for these in the first place, and now they have a new and messed up association in my mind. As Marija explained, they have a very special system of stepping forward, accepting or denying a bid then stepping back. Interesting. Also, this BK was right next to the police station. I guess it is very convenient for the girls since they can rely on a sort of protection from the police (or "polizei") while they are working. Rough business. I still cannot get over the fact they they really are so simlar to other women, yet very different.

I was not really tired and at about 5am we headed down to Fischmarkt. Fischmarkt is a huge market that sells most everything. On the way there we passed a street that was closed off. Behind the screen only men are allowed. It is not a written rule, but lets just say it is not a comfortable place for women. This is a street, very similar to Amterdam, where women sell themselves in the windows. Back to the market. There were the few people who you could tell had woken up to come there, and then there are people who never went to sleep (the majority). There were even pigeons and rabbits for sale. The old German man selling the rabitts looked at us women and told Marija that he has some lovely rabits but none as lovely as the ladies in front of him. Ohhh. We then headed to the same building in which we had seen the match the night before. It was packed! Live music and more beer. I am serious when I say that the drinking just didn't stop. I had a hot chocolate (with German chocolate, yum). I even joined a congo line or two with a bunch of Argentinian's/mix of everyone. At 8:30am I finally reach my room. I still did not feel tired, but when my head hit the pillow I was out. I woke up at 4pm in the afternoon. Needless to say that for the rest of Sunday I was not up to much.

Pic of some fun spirited Brazilians/ Everything


Pic of me and Tehri at 4am. Notice it is just getting light.


Pic of the group at 7am in a sea side building. Miguel and Peter are drinking beer. I have a hot chocolate. To each his own.


Place at 7am:


Tuesday

Today I went down to the Technical University of Harburg. A small university built in the '70's, it is a sweet place. I had a look at the library and might head down there on a working day to catch up on some chemistry reading. The library here is not great for research since most of the material is in German and most is on the topic of either engineering and economics. At the uni I watched (for the third time) a PHD candidate give her 30min presentation to a bunch of profs, her family, and friends. Very interesting work, and hard what amazing hard work she has put into her project. I understood some, such as "überkritischke fluide" (but this is not saying that I understood much). After I randomly met Elena from the IAESTE group and she treated me to some ice cream by the pond side. Really beautiful afternoon.

Wednesday

So finally after a long while of not getting a nice rest after 4am (due to the sun budding through the thin white curtains in my room), the Suisse guy in my flat, Jérémy, crafted semi-blackout curtains out of a table cloth for my windows. They are not the left over WWII Norwegian ones of my childhood, but they work just fine. He is a really nice guy.

As I was heading to the weekly IAESTE meeting I had a very interesting thought. Looking outside my train window I figured that yes I am in Germany, living like a lot of Germans do. I am starting to like it here. Pretty neat, eh? It is curious that when I chatted with Tehri (the Finnish trainee who arrived on the same day as I did, three weeks ago), she said that same thought popped into her head on Tuesday night. It takes a while to settle into a place, and even the slight pangs of home-sickness do surface every once and a while. I don't want to become too confortable, though, I don't want things to become too routine. After all, I am here to wander around and see new things. If the new sights become old, then I am doing something wrong.

This was actually the first time where I became near-lost. I would have eventually found my way there, but, as luck would happen, Yik, an IAESTE local member, happened to walk onto the same car on the same train I was going the wrong way on. He was not actually planning on going to the meeting, but decided to help me out. I tell you, seeing Elena one day and Yik the next. What are the chances?

Pic of really steep metro stairs:


This is funny:


Thursday

On Thursday I had a really neat time with the Chinese couple living a few rooms down. They thought I looked a bit flustered and hot and that I needed some relaxing. Warm tea, easpecially their special Kung Pow tea was just the ticket I needed. Warm tea? I wondered. I was already warm. They told me that the tea itself would relax the inside and that the warmth of the tea would cool me down. Cool. They brought out a small tea tray which had been decorated with small slits on the surface to let water flow through. There was a small tea pot and tiny tiny white cups. Lian Lian poured in the tea and added the water until it overflowed from the pot. She proceeded to pour the tea into each cup and then re-pour the tea from the cups back on to the pot. It smelled great. Jérémy joined us later and we went through 8 rounds of adding more water-no more and no less. Watching the pouring of the tea and drinking it was, as they said, very enjoable. Almost mesmerizing.

This couple are huge film buffs. Henning, the boyfriend, is a student at the art school and is very creative. Lian Lian studied music and is studying German now so that she can apply for a school in Germany. Henning showed me a book by his favourite artist. though I don't remember her name, her watercolour portraits were beautiful, suprisingly dark, and expressive.

Friday

Today I met up with the IAESTE group at in a hip area downtown to see a friend of one of the members do some DJaying. It was a cool place. Fussball tables are really popular here and there was one at this place too. Only this time, there was a kid, probably no older then 12 who was racking up the cash as he was beating all these adults competing against him. Firstly, it was a kid in the bar. Second, he was really out there. I guess it's Europa after all. I was appraoched by some woman who was either crazy or drugged up. Here is a sample of our conversation:
Woman:"What's your name?"
Me: "Alexandra. What's yours?"
Woman: "Hmmm (looking off into space)...It's not impotant. What's your phone number?"
She asked the same thing a few times. She also asked to dance and to take a "magical walk" outside with her. OK...

The dejay was not great, but it was fun being there and chatting with Tehri and Yik. I was asked aside to have my picutre taken by a guy with some fancy schmansy camera. He said he was from a Hamburg student newspaper and asked if I could look festive. I really couldn't think of a reason to say no, and he was quite handsome, so I did it. Hopefully it will not be published, but I guess I cannot be too sure, in hindsight, that it was a student paper.

Saturday

Today I really wanted to find something to decorate my white room, so I headed to a market recommended by the Chinese couple. I got there a bit late, so most everyone was closing down, but I soon realized that I would find nothing. I think it was mostly for Turkish and African immigrants, because I was most definately the palest there. Most of the merchandice looked like it was from a garage sale of an elderly person who just passed away. I think that is the best way I can explain it.

As I was headed home on the train I suddenly thought that no, it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I shouldn't go home yet. I got off at the next stop, got on another train and headed downtown to Altona, where I heard there was a street fest going on. I called up Tehri, who lives in Altona, and we spent the rest of the day wondering around the fair. Cool place. Lots of activities for kids, street performers, food (some good looking Turkish and Indian food, though I had filled up my stomach at the crepes stand. I must try a turkish pizza, though, the smell was great!).

Me at the fair:


Brazil:


Germans and their Wurst:


Monday

Today was the day I went on the yearly get togeather with the research group. The first leg of the day trip was conoeing and the second was food. Now, nothing is as simple as it seems. It ws warm and lovely on this tiny stream, that was just deep enough to support a canoe. When we reached a sort of bridge/locke we had to pick up the conoes and move them over a bridge. Fun for us there were these metal rollers. It didn't take an einstein brain to figure out that if we perhaps started at the top and rolled down we could pick up quite a bit of speed. I must say I got completely drenched. It was fun taking videos of screaming adults (I guess I must start including myself in this category sooner or later).

Anyway, because of the bridge/locke the water here was the deepest in the whole stream. When a group of three people, two of them not knowing how to swim, came down, their conoe filled with water and tipped over. At first no one really knew what was happening. Then we realize that panic has set in with the two non swimmers, as well as the swimmer (who was being pushed under water). About five of the men jump in the water from the conoes for the rescue. Skipping some bits, I will just say that eveyone was fine. Wet, but unharmed. The Indian researcher lost his glasses, which were then gone, not to be found.

After this, I had my first experience with German BBQ. Very good. Abit of heart attack on a plate, but tasty. The bosses then treated everyone to beer, coffee, and ice cream. It was nice. I also was not left to myself while everyone spoke German. I tried to make an effort to socialize. I am no social butterfly, but I tried. Perhaps now I am starting to feel more of a part of the group. I think people are starting to warm up to me.

Pic of me conoeing:


The bridge of terror (my boss is sitting behind me):


Tuesday

Today I picked up Geir and Oystein from the airport. Due to not paying attention I got temporarily lost on the way to the airport. Though I was about 25 min late, their flight was 35 min late. Thank god. Though my little room is a bit cramped, I hope they will have a good time here. More on this for next week's blog!

Lastly, a few more things I've noticed

1)There are even more flags now. On cars, on the side of buildings, on the faces of people, pastries, everywhere. I have noticed that German men tend to wear shorts a little shorter then North American men would. Saying this, I have seen German flags painted on the thighs on quite a few men.
2)Germans like their dogs. Wired-hair standard Dachshounds are very popular. Dogs also accompany their owners on buusses and trains. You get on a bus, and you never know if you will be sitting next to a German Shepard. I have a picture that I snapped of a lady and her lab.



3)Strawberry painted wagaons selling sweet Gemran strawberries have popped up everywehere. I must snap a picute some time.
4)German beaurocracy...I had to probably sign close to 15 forms to get my paycheck this week. Some things like: I am not part of a faciest party wanting to overthrow the government to I will put my hair up while using a screwdriver. These Germans, they really cover all their bases.

As you can tell, I have reached the point where my typing and mental facilities can no longer properly function. Enjoy

More pictures from the first week

More Pics that I did not fit into the previous blog.

Here is a pic of Rahlstedt, the area around which I live. It is more of a residential area and much cheaper to live in then the central Hamburg district.

Here is a pic of Bahnhof Wandsbek, the station that I go to after leaving Rahlstedt. It is part of my commute to work. On Friday an old woman was getting on the train as a group of people, including me, were getting off. She happened to drop her purse between the train and the sidewalk onto the tracks. She actually tried to get a man to go down in there to pick it up before the conductor came running. I don't know the end of the story because I had to catch a bus, but it was interesting. Another thing about the public transport system here is that it is excellent. I heard about German efficiency and organization, but the transport was above and beyond my expectations. I am serious when I say this that everything is almost exactly on time. Not like in Austin when most of the time the busses where late or early. The Finish trainee said that after a few days she was so used to the on-time schedule, that when a bus was (god forbid) 10 min late, she and the people around her were shocked. I have to say, that I have gotten comfortable with the system.

Here is a Beer Hall. It is interesting that though the sign is in German, the writing is pretty self explanatory. This one is for you Papa:~>

Here is a pic from a park downtown. I took this pic because I thought about how something this hazardous would not find its way to American children's playgrouds.

Here is a pic of the pier. It lies, not surprisingly, below the red light district.

Here's a pic I took yesterday at the train station in Rahlstedt. Notice some people are in fan get up.

Here's a pic of downtown. I am not a great photographer, but I thought that it was kind of neat with the contrast of the old and the new.

Ok, I am throwing this one in for fun.

An old man and his swans...This pic was taken downtown, close to the city hall, or Rathaus.

Here's a pic of the lake downtown. Very beautiful.

And here it comes, the obligatory pic of the Rathaus. Notice the drinking in front.