just john

I went out riding along the river today and had a brief stint through the city. Along the route, I passed the entrance to the Fruhlings Fest and was able to get a good look at the whole scene from the river.

What I failed to account for, is that there seems to be beer tent fodder in every direction for about 5km from ground zero. There are happy people staggering home all over this city. Your table reservation is for a specified time and I guess it makes sense to consume all of your alloted beer. It sure makes for a lot of drunk people though.

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Which means Spring Festival. Also called a Volks Fest. The different names tell me it's just another excuse to drink beer, of which I highly approve. At any rate, I went to the Fruhlings Fest here in Stuttgart which runs about four weeks. For a frame of reference, picture the Anderson County Fair with much newer rides, a giant tent filled with benches for beer drinking, and much less trash (both kinds). It was explained to me as a smaller version of October Fest but at a different time of year, city, and fewer tourists...AKA, excuse to drink beer. I went with a work colleague who had a table reservation for us and she also had a spare ticket for me: 2 beers, 1/2 a fried chicken, and a German roll. The beers came in Krugs, which is just a glass mug, holding 1 liter.

Please reflect upon that last sentence. minimum suggested and encouraged level of participation is 2 liters of beer. German, 5.5% - 6.5% beer. By the second hour, the entire hall was standing on there benches dancing to a live medley of classic German drinking songs such as "Shout" (Animal House version), "Do You Love Me," and "Summer of 69." I was sorely tempted to shout "Play Freebird." The duck dance song was no where to be heard. Surely you can see, as has been clearly outlined, that I had a good time.

Fortunately, none of us expats had thought to bring extra cash and no one was able to buy a third (liter) of beer. Spirits were high and it might've happened in spite of it being Thursday. I think I am scheduled to go back with some other co-workers next week.

For the sake of reference, 1 liter of beer has 1000 calories.

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Thursday and Friday of last week was a seminar on cultural integration for some of us expatriates. I thought we had a fairly mixed group with representatives from Turkey, Korea, Japan, Brazil, France, Mexico, England, and the U.S. All working in Germany for Bosch. Our teacher was a long-time German who had a PhD in inter-cultural interactions plus a couple of books under her belt and we all felt like  she knew what she was talking about. Oh, India was there too. India, in fact, was an atypical group in that they did not suffer much from culture shock. Culture shock, by the way, is not what is commonly thought of where travelers are shocked and embarassed by what they see in other lands. Clinical culture shock is written about in great detail in the first three months of this blog.

Most poeple I've spoken to have about a three month cycle that is essentially a wide open pit of dispair and frustration when moving to a foreign country. Not speaking the language, getting lost, ignored, short-changed, unable to deal with normally insignificant problems, separation, blah and blah. I think this aspect of internationalism is under-represented in the sales pitch. For me it is thankfully past and I've approached a sense of normalcy. Settling into a daily routine was my personal keystone. For others I'm sure it is different.

I thought our seminar was pretty good. We had lots of role playing and explanations for things we saw that frustrated us. Some could be mended by more communication and other things were simply "I'm sorry, that's how we Germans act." The same goes for everybody else too, I guess.

The biggest surprise for me is that, statistically, most people experience reverse culture shock upon returning home and it is usually worse that the previous culture shock. Again, a very strong under-sell, I think. This very nice woman explained to us that people who experience too much internationalsim, like Goethe Institute people, who must change to a new country every five years, actually end up somewhat insane because they have forgotten their cultural frame of reference. Creepy, no? No such chance here. I am really starting to enjoy Germany but unless fortunes change dramatically, like they drive a *literal* dump truck of money to my door, Germany will be a once in a lifetime experience. So, I hope not to be shocked when I get home. I think if enough of you embark on uncommon experiences of your own, we should all have plenty to talk about.

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Today I lost 80% of my black socks including the ones I work out in. They simply weren't in the drawer. Any ideas on how frustrating it is to lose something in a 60 square meter apartment that has no closets and zero accumulated clutter?

After looking in all the other clothing drawers, and contemplating checking the storage room and car, I fantasized that they had been stolen because I left them out with the other folded laundry. A black sock thief made the most sense of anything else I could think of.

I found them later in the dryer.

Aside from socks, the morning turned out to be a small adventure. After my coffee, I noticed a couple of bikes outside my window. "Nice day for it," I thought. I looked up a little later and saw a few more and a few more and suddenly there was a huge line of bike traffic in outside my window. Organized ride, hundreds of people. So I scrambled to put on my bike stuff and sunscreen and got out the door just in time to catch the tail end of the group climbing the hill. I had luckily just finished fixing a flat that morning and everything was ready to go. Remember the hill thing in Stuttgart? Out my door heads straight up the side of the bowl towards the countryside. Coming down I had to brake to keep from overrunning car traffic (only 35mph but with cameras for speeding) and got to see some rolling German countryside. Everything ended, of course, at a beer garden. The ride turned out to be a club event but I couldn't find a rep anywhere to get more information.

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Virginia has grabbed headlines and large front page pictures for a couple of days now because 33 people, including the shooter, died. Certainly a very bad thing. Even our president had something to say.

 I noticed in much smaller type as a seconday story that 157 people died in Baghdad yesterday due to bombs. Couldn't find Bush's shock over that anywhere.

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I haven't really found and $78, Wally World-style bikes here yet either. They seem to start in the range of what I’ve always considered real bikes rather than toys. Basically, equipment meant to be used rather than garage fodder.

I’m still getting used to some things about this culture. Germans are not taught, raised, instructed, or otherwise briefed on how to stand in line. For so rigorous and organized a people, getting service seems to be an act where everyone reverts to survival of the fittest. It happens at stops lights, any counter line, with clerks, parking spaces, etc. I’ve had to learn a level of assertiveness that would get me in fights in America. Sometimes all I need is a hard stare while other times I actually have to step in front of and physically block people from moving past me. Very odd to my upbringing. I’m sure it’s compounded by the simple cultural difference but it seems that Germans have no patience and infinite patience at the same time. 3 point-some-odd seconds will get a horn blown behind you at a Munich stop light but once a person actually finishes waiting in their non-line and gets to a service, they seem to almost revel in taking up as much time as possible, covering and re-covering minute details completely oblivious to their surroundings. My favorite was waiting for a TV salesman at Media Markt. I swear I could have summed up the entire 10 minute conversation with, “Dude, you cannot afford the TV you want.” I still don’t think he’s convinced.

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That's right, I have a brand new bell on my city bike. Technically, it's a legal requirement but I notice some people don't have one. I have further noticed, ringing it moves people the hell out of the way in the park. Dorky by American standards, yes. Useful to get through the crowd, also yes. Therefore, I have, and have used, a bell.

Also, i recently went to the new Mercedes Museum, which will probably only be rivalled by the new Porche Museum when it opens this year. The building itself is unique and built to foster wandering around. It is probably headed toward being a Stuttgart landmark.

 They start the display off with the first car and lots of history panels along the wall. For those of you who have taken thermodynamics, they have the first patented Otto cycle engine on display. There's also the first small 2-stroke design, which was used briefly due to patent restrictions. Naturally, they start with the first production car and move on, ending with factory race cars and auto show prototypes.

A roaring 20's convertible, slightly longer than a minibus:

And the most famous Mercedes, the gull wing sports car, although it's behind a similar development car that there are only 2 of. I figured the SL could be seen anywhere. It's one of my favorites, the likes of which will probably never be made again.

They end up with race cars which are literally mounted sideways around the walls of the building. A representative of every body style ever raced by the factory is here. Ask me later for those pictures. They also built the pope mobile. I guess every auto-maker does something tacky every decade or so:

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Don Ho has died. No, I did not follow his career. I am not old enough. His breakout song was "Tiny Bubbles" which he was usually expected to sing, much like Linnerd Skinnerd always has to play "Freebird." I only saw him one time on "Late Night." The old version, before Dave Letterman's new job and he did a minor change up from his usual song for the audience. I beleive he was around 66 years old at the time and told the audience he would be performing a "Savatage" cover from the Beastie Boys which he then proceeded to do. Applause, etc. More than anything for me, this made him stand out not so much as a famous performer from the 60's, but a really cool old guy. Someday I hope to to the same.

I also saw a planned release date for a "Speed Racer" movie in summer 2008. That I do remember, thought only from very early. My reading is that it will be real actors, not anime, which is one or the major portents of doom for this film. Even if I see the movie, it will be at home alone and I will pay cash for the DVD so there is no paper trail. Hopefully the animation will be better. At least I still have my Johnny Lightning replica Mach 5.

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Ich hätte mein Kamera mitbringen sollen. I should have brought my camera. Very tough grammar for me.

Today I went riding with a couple of guys from work and we hit what I was hoping to find this weekend. Stuttgart basically sits in a big bowl-shaped valley and almost all the hillsides are lined with vinyards. Winding up through them are paved roads that, though hypothetically for traffic, go relatively nowhere enough that no one drives on them. I spent the better part of the afternoon climbing up some of the worst hills I've ever seen on a road bike. For those of you in the know, it makes the Ceasar's Head climb seem short and a bit shallow. After a while of this, I got the old familiar semi-metallic taste at the back of my throat that signifies burst lung capillaries due to aerobic effort. Very cool. They grow back.

Stuttgart in particular is known (in Germany) for wine making and all the vineyards were labled with grape variety and layed out in straight rows right up the hill sides. We stopped at the top for the view, which is the entire city spread out below and the surrounding hills (or small mountains).

Afterward we went to my team leaders's garden house. Also new for me. Because land and private outdoor space is so scarce here, people buy small plots of land and put what we would basically call a nice storage building on it. No plumbing, some have electricity or solar power, but the point is to go and have a place to garden. Your basic yard away from home. We stayed there, had a beer, and talked a while, and then had to head out because it was getting dark (around 8:30 these days).

Of course, we left too late and Klaus had a flat which took some creative repair. His spare tube was also flat and he needed an extra long valve stem for his wheels. Some patching and a drunk passerby later we were back rolling. There was a dedicated bike path for us along the Neckar river, though not lit at all, so we rode single file in the dark between traffic and trees on one side and the river on the other. Total ride time as a group was probably no more than 20 minutes but it seemed longer and out of the ordinary, much like things you remember doing in college but think life no longer has room for. Tonight was just such a night.

The last 5k or so was back through the parks and was actually lit in places. You think a little about the dark and the big city and being alone but I saw several young female joggers and figured that was a good indicator. Besides, I weigh over 200 pounds and criminals don't have guns here. Made it home around 9:30 ready to get Friday done with so I can try the vineyards again.

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I was reading the news today, as I do every day, and I notice the U.S. administration continues to fall apart.  People keep saying Bush is now focusing on his legacy rather than the pertinent issues he never focused on in the first place and I can't help but think his legacy is already established. The worst president of our generation. Even my grandfather, who died midway through the Clinton years and lived a staunch conservative life style knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Reagan-style tax cuts and defense spending absolutely mired his grand children with debt to repay. Which Clinton did, I might add. While my grandfather would today sit at opposite ends of the political teeter totter, we could have agreed on who not to vote for in 1984. I think today he might see the same situation both mirrored and amplified.

On a positive note, I replaced my first razor blade since I'e been here. I had to buy them because I forgot to bring a spare. Apparently I do not have a problem beard. At 15 Euros for three, I better not.

My fun with German this week includes some thoughts about their verbs. English has a mild tendency to create verbs from nouns like blogging, biking, etc. I believe Germans have elevated it to a high art. At lunch the other day (German being spoken), a colleague informed me that he had pokered last weekend, There's also one that means, literally, "to take off your coat." One freakin word. "Bitte, ablegen." Please take off your coat. They seem to have a lot of them that cut out "to" or "play." Most Germans don't seem to know that our police dogs are trained with German commands because they are so direct and explicit.

By the way, police and guard dogs are often trained using German commands.

Are they playing "Just Jack" or "Grace Kelly" on the radio Stateside?

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Best I could do on short notice. Sorry, I didn't make it to Franfurt this weekend. The holiday thing got me a bit discombobulated and I figured this might be a bad weekend to even find gas stations open. Instead, it seems I am disovering more of my own city here in Stuttgart. I finally comissioned my road bike for a ride since the parking garage incident and set out to ride around the city on Sunday. I figured low traffic (I was corrrect) and fair weather (also correct). i can mark Easter Sunday as the day I discovered the entire park system, which begins a couple of blocks from my apartment and continues all the way into the city. Of course, I took some pictures along the way as I have read that Stuttgart has a reputation as the greenest city in Germany, a reputation I think they probably deserve. Here's some of the sights from my first day out:

From the bridge crossing into the park system

One of the small gardens

The park runs partly along the Neckar river and you can also ride a path out of the city along the river if you're so motivated. The path network extends all across Germany.

The parts also runs directly behind the zoo where you can walk (or ride) directly up behind the animal enclosures and watch them for free. All in all, I covered 22 miles on Sunday and only rode outside the parks for about 5. Monday was another holiday and I knew from the park map  that I could get from my apartment all the way into the city without leaving the park system. It took some riding, but I finally figured out the route. Now I can get from home to the main retail district by bike and only come into contact with two streets, which I have to cross coming from home. Here's my view from where I had lunch today:

Keen observers might notice a seam because this is another composite picture to get a wider view but hopefully it's not too distracting.

I have to say, finding the park system so extensive is really an amazing thing. Small town Greenville has nothing to compare to this and I think most of my free summer time will be spent outside. I rode my city bike Monday and it seems perfect for a few-day tour along the Neckar river complete with hotel stops and sight seeing.

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I learned a lot today, as I do every day. First thing this morning was a trip down memory lane. A long, long time ago, I spent the summer in England. It was a rare, dry, absolutely georgeous summer that I'll always remember as one of the great experiences of my life. During that experience, my botanical knowledge increased slightly to include stinging nettles. We don't have anything quite like them in the U.S. and they look like this:

They're voracious weeds and grow everywhere. This morning I noticed there were a few growing up through a seam on my patio. Being an industrious morning, I decided to pull them out and was instantly reminded of what these plants are and why they are so named. Every square millimeter of skin that touches these things receives a nice, topical, searing pain which them dies down to a tingling that last for several hours. Not having gardening gloves, I used several paper towels to pull up the rest.

After this I decided to go into the city and see how it was faring. I've been to Stuttgart several time in the past and take a lot of it for granted now. Since I was out of coffee, that was the first order of business. We're having shirt sleeve weather today so I sat out in front of the New Castle to drink it. Here's my view from the bench:

In the way background you can see the Fernsetuerm, which is German for tv tower and what really tells me spring has arrived; the fountains are running.

And of course a full frontal view of the castle:

I took a walk through the park afterward, the Schlossgarten, which is castle garden and had lunch (and a beer) at one of the beer gardens and took some pictures of stuff I typically show people when they arrive. The moved 500+ year old ruin to the park which is described as being a pleasure building from one of the king's gardens. That pretty much tells me it's a 500 year old playhouse for the kids.

And the beer garden complete with fully functional May pole. I had a wurstsalat for lunch, which is not a worst salad but rather, literally translated, a sausage salad. That's basically what it was with onions and a leaf of lettuce for decoration. Entirely meat but otherwise good. My table neighbors struck up a brief German conversation about it, after descovering I was American and asking if we had them in America. "Not at all" was the best reply I had. Still, it feels good to be able to interact with people in German. I've noticed that watching a non-native speaker communicate well in a foreign language is almost like watching someone perform magic. They make something very tangible happen and you have absolutely no idea how or what went on.

The park is a 3 or 4 hundred yard by 2 mile swath of trees, fountains and lawn right through the middle of the city. As the weather gets warmer, it will be packed with people doing just about every (clean, mostly) activity you can think of. Some guy today was playing an Alpen horn while sunning himself. Not terribly intrusive as it's in the frequency range of a ported subwoofer and about 5 feet long. I took this picture not for the scenery, but because I have found my 2007 fakest tan nominee:

Sorry Dave, unless you've been working on it this year...

After I left and got on the road back towards the gym, I stopped for gas and a car wash, having previously discovered that today's holiday is basically Sunday. Nothing is open including the grocery store. Good thing I was prepared. I also learned that, although it looks permissible to wash your scooter, holidays are not restricted to just people. The automatic car wash is not allowed to work either. And here I thought blue laws were odd.

I took a few car pictures today in hopes that maybe some of you American consumers will begin asking why we get screwed in the small car market. The obvious front runner is the Smart, which will be in America next year but we're losing out on it's bigger sibling, the Four4. As it's name implies, it seats four and gets around 40mpg. I could have bought a year old lease return for around $9,000 U.S. dollars.

My gym sits right over a Peugeot dealer and while I think most of them are the GM cars of Europe (ass ugly and crappy), there are a couple that appeal to me. We currently have no Peugeots in America.

Some of the bigger ones resemble Chysler's early cab forward cars and some of them blow the Aztec's akwardness out of the water entirely. I looked for a Smart roadster and Alpha Romeo but didn't see any good examples today.

That's about it. I plan my sight seeing tonight for Frankfurt tomorrow.

Oh, if some of my German friends could weigh in on this I'd be greatly appreciative. Typically, I'm very good with laundry and don't have problems but this last load came out kind of brown. I vaguely remember being warned about it but hadn't had problems. Anybody know the cure for brown laundry?

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Today is the start of a 4 day weekend. Easter Friday and Monday are apparently very important days. For my part, Friday will be spent doing mundane things and then Frankfurt tomorrow.

Sorry Dave, no hotdogs will be viewed.

I think I've taken a little heat for not travelling much since I've been here but i think it's a bit unfounded. Afterall, how many of you SC locals go to Atlanta, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, etc every weekend? Normal life still exists here. At any rate, I did the math with my vacation and oertime and will be taking 8 - 9 weeks off work this year for vacation. The summer will be a travel blitz including the Mediteranean, England and so on. Next year will be Egypt.

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I'm back in German class, apparently not having learned everything there is to known about speaking it in 7 months of tutoring. This particular morning involved a listening exercise with a short film entitled  "Schwartzfahrer." or 'Black rider,' a German term for people who ride the transit system without buying a ticket. The film featured a very old-school German woman bitching about the state of modern Germany. She received a modest dose of justice at the end. The point I was interested in was that our teacher kept referring to one of the main characters, who was black, as "der Schwartze." I just had to ask if that was politically correct. Turns out it is. More interesting was her expansion of the topic. Germans have a habit sticking an -er at the end of your place of residence to refer to the people. Munchners, Stuttgarters, Berliners (also of th famed Kennedy "I am a donut" comment and so on. Several years ago, Germany had a lot of immigrants from Niger and followed their own naming convention. The stigma a political incorrectness didn't exist here until it was explained to them from outside (the U.S.). That's pretty much it. The last thing I saw tonight on the way home from the gym was a license plate reading J EW 39. First letter for the town, last digits for the registration...

You can't even legally get an ASS MAN plate in South Carolina.

As I've said before, there is racism here but it's directed at a different group of people. It's odd, though, that once you pull out the (traditional American) bias, vocabulary that makes me cringe is no more than everyday speech here.

During my, largely useless, cultural training in the U.S. they showed me a graph of, let's call it an index of depression, that bottomed out around three months and then climbed back up again. Statistically, I'd say I pretty well followed the curve. Things are really approaching a sense of normalcy. For a while I was so frantic and hurried I kept forgetting to go to the bathroom, the end result being a mad dash when I got home. I'm happy to report the situation was due to temporary stress and not a bladder control problem.

This will be a four day weekend due to Easter holidays and I hope to be motivated enough to try out Frankfurt this weekend.

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Today I found something I'd always suspected the existence of but never really went out of my way to track it down. I was at the Biomarkt shopping for bioproduct and I found peanut butter. Not notable for me but I have heard that several Americans miss it. However, sitting beside it on the very same shelf was peanut butter made from cashews which, I suppose, would then be called cashew butter. I really, really like cashews and this stuff is the real deal. 100% cashew with all the associated cashewyness and fat. It's good. BTW, the organic food business is well regulated here and there are stores everywhere besides the big organic section at the grocery store.

That weird radio program is on again and there's something going on about giving someone a Porsche and traffic. Radio's a bit staticky and I was close to buying a powered antenna tonight until I realized I'm supposed to receive radio stations with my sattelite. Except, oh yeah, there's something wrong with the signal I've already paid to have repaired. Of course, I have to convince the landlord, henceforth known as jackass, that it is a signal problem and not my inability to program a satellite box (in English).

Weather took a turn for the good this week and it's deceptively nice. I'm still wary of a last minute snow at this point but at least I can drink beer outside in the meantime.

Took another step into the 21st century today and bought an mp3 player. I'm still not convinced that I need to carry my entire music collection around with an Ipod but even that won't quite be enough soon. The short term solution is 90% cheaper. We'll see how it goes.

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This weekend I met a friend in Munich. Ludwig was born there and probably a good guide to the city in general. Munich is the city for October Fest and much like the Calgary Stamped, it's generally encouraged to wear traditional clothes during the festival. Since I'll be seeing at least two Octobers, I decided to get myself a pair of lederhosen, which literally means leather pants. They are the traditional work wear for Munchners. Ludwig and I found one of several specialty shops, though we also saw a selection in all the department stores. and proceeded to try them for size. Below is our dressing room. The panel you see that looks like a door is, in fact, a privacy screen and the view you have is exactly the same view shared by the rest of the store as Ludwig and I stripped down to underwear to exchange our street clothes for lederhosen. Actually, those are my pants in the picture.

The sales guy was riot in his own right and spent the entire time runnning the length of the store helping people. The entire staff wore the product they sold and, we later realized, modelled for their own sales copy. Our salesman is holding the dog...

It turned out to be a multi-part event and we had to go to several stores to completely accesorize with hat, vest, etc. I further cemented the reality that Germans have smaller feet than Americans as I cannot buy shoes in a city of 1.2 million people. Turns out they have special stores for me. I may even run into Hank Hill's wife. Somewhere along the way we stopped to look at the Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel. Last time i was here i saw it running but was not so lucky this time. The image below is a composite of several pictures because the streets are too close to get far enough away with a normal camera lens. The white patch in the bottom left corner is part of my efforts to emulate the Bush administration. What I do not like is simply removed from existence.

Actually, I did not have data for that corner. It was a rally by an animal rights group against hunting. Since they really don't have much hunting here in Germany anyway, I really think they'd have a bigger challenge if they came to my home town of Piedmont. 99.3% fewer people and probably 100 times as many hunters.

This is another castle. I'll have to look up it's name later. What I do know is that parts of it are over 600 years old and members of the German royal family still live here. Unlike the UK, they no longer receive revenue from the state. For income they have to rely on working. Like managing thousands of acres of land or race car driving. This particular castle employs a staff of over 500. Again, a composite picture, not because the streets are close but because the thing is so damn big I couldn't get far enough away. There's a garden in the back, too.

It occurred to me, talking to Marcus and Ludwig about Germany's government, that it's not very old. Germany is old and their stuff is ancient but the demoncratic government they have is really only around 60 years old. Barely enough time to settle in to the constitution and much younger than the U.S.

I also realized one of my lasting memories from Germany this weekend. Little differences seem to stand out to me more so than anything people think of as major and one of the things I keep noticing is how Germans are always spreading things on bread. A huge part of the food culture here is based on bread. It's everywhere, always fresh, and in countless varieties. I guess a natural result is a host of jams, jellies, butter, liver (and other)wurst, spreads etc. At any given meal, you will see someone oh-so-carefully applying something to bread with a butter knife. The whole process is facinating because they spend what seems like minutes at a time covering the entire surface from edge to edge, keeping the thickness uniform, and somehow managing to come away with a clean knife. It's a small thing but imagery I'll probably always keep with me.

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