Runner's low

I knew it! I do have weird bones!

Well, actually, it was always weird joints that I suspected, i.e., strangely loose ones that sometimes issue a loud popping noise (especially from the shoulders, both the weak and the hale), for no particular reason and with no accompanying sensation at all to explain it. Maybe it's like cracking your knuckles, but just in the shoulders. It's gotten to the point that I don't even hear it any more, and have to stare puzzled at others' shocked expression for a second before figuring out that they heard a loud crack when I reached for that cup of tea, and now fully expect my arm to drop off and spill tea across the floor.

But for now, it's my right knee. Remember how I wanted to run in the half-marathon on Sunday? Boo. :( I was all set up and on my way -- packing away 11 tidy kilometers per run, already half of what I'd need to do on April 1st -- when suddenly my right knee starts yelling at me with every step. Or rather, emitting the noise the aliens made at Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day. "Skreeee!" it shrieked. "Shut up!" I hissed. Alas, to no avail. It got to the point where even gingerly easing my way down the billion stairs of the Treppenweg was a painful ordeal. So I gathered my Deutscher Ring insurance papers and paid a visit to the doctor. (Again.)

Well, holy holistic healing, Batman! It turns out that in 26 years, I just, shucks, never seemed to notice that my entire right leg, from the hip down, is significantly rotated outward. This means that while the left foot strikes the ground pointing straight ahead, the right one points outward like a duck. Which of course means that after 11 kilometers on pavement, the unevenly distributed impact concentrates itself on the inside of my poor right knee; and then when the doctor digs his thumb into that tender tendon, my vocal cords make the same noise as the knee itself. "Skreeee!"

So now, at the ripe old age of 26, I get to wear orthopedic insoles. They're actually super comfy. It's like, you know how when you buy insoles at the drugstore that promise "arch support", and so you try them out and think, "hey, yeah, I guess I can feel a tiny, soft hump in there that barely brushes my arch a little bit"? These are more like suspension bridges thrusting mightily up against my arch and filling in the entire gap from ball to heel. Ahhhhh. They're strong but springy, and my knee is already thanking me.

Unfortunately, ze good Doktor has also forbidden me to run in any marathons until I also buy a replacement for those battered, floppy old Nikes that I think were purchased roughly around the same year that the human race discovered bronze tools. Which, financially, is a mission better fulfilled in the States, given not only the cheapness of the dollar right now, but also the fact that Americans (paradoxically, heh) have a near monopoly on the sport-shoe industry, and therefore the same pair of Adidas that cost 120 Euro here will cost me about 80 bucks (60 Euro) there. So no running until I go to Seattle for Spring Break, it seems.

Sigh. I guess there are worse things than being ordered by the doctor to sit on your ass and eat German chocolate all day. (Wait, one of those activities was not in the prescription. Maybe it was the sitting on your ass part. Chocolate is definitely medicinal.)

Gallucci's antics at Body World 3

Matt Gallucci has a new blog entry about a Phoenix exhibit. The subject matter may be a bit gruesome, and there is certainly some controversy surrounding the exhibit... but no matter what the topic, leave it to Gallucci to make anything table-poundingly, screamingly hilarious.

Spring-time, for Nik-ki, in Gerrrrmaneee...

Spring is finally here! Wow, what a dark (if not particularly cold) winter. And yet now all the buds are budding and blooms are blooming and it's actually still light outside when the bells start their frenzied ringing at six o'clock. The air smells wonderful, and I'm sitting here with my window open, enjoying the fresh breeze... it feels like it did when I first got here and all was golden and bright. :) Gosh, so this is why people in northern climates like spring! (In Arizona, we cower in fear of the impending summer.)

Here's an example of the tender buddables...

Some daffodils jostle each other in front of the house. Don't they just *look* busy?

People enjoying the weather on a Saturday in Mannheim's main shopping area...



And other (more edible) evidence of the season change...

My cilantro plant! And a fresh vegetable stew

Mm, the contents of the fridge sure have changed in the last month or so. See the tortillas on the third shelf there, Matt? And the bottle of Herdez in the door?

Others around here are excited about spring, too. A Sunday or so ago -- I think it was March 18th -- there was this funny little celebration in one of the neighboring villages, called Forst. Apparently, the townsfolk get together every year for this Hansel Fingerhut Spiel in order to "burn down the winter." This means that everyone gathers on one end of the village's main street to witness several figures perform a mini play/ritual, who then pick up and march down the street in order to repeat the show at various points throughout the town (so that everyone who isn't inclined to follow the whole caravan on foot can still have a gander). I am told this is supposed to drive away the winter. Here's as much as I understood of it:

Two guys walk around inside these big cone-shaped costumes, one of which is made of straw (apparently, the Winter figure) and one of which is covered in vines and living green plants (Spring). They're entirely hidden under these cones, except for a narrow window through which they can 1) see and 2) stick a wooden sword. The latter is for the occasion when Winter and Spring "fight".

First, they face each other and intone this taunting chant: a rhyme where each stanza appears to end in something like "Hallalalein, der Winter [or Sommer, depending on who's doing the taunting] ist fein". Then, sufficiently crazed with rage at this incindiary slander, the two cones lumberingly advance on each other with menacing little wooden swords. A few clacks, and then a judge of some sort -- that is, a handsome young man wearing a medieval costume and holding a stick -- intercedes and proclaims that Spring has won.

After this, another young man appears wearing a costume made of colorful rags. But it's his head that draws the most attention: everything from the neck up -- including hair, ears, and eyelids -- is absolutely covered with oily black paint. He is Hansel Fingerhut, the carefree do-nothing who mooches off the vintners' winefields and chases after their daughters. He runs around the (now placated) cone guys, singing another song about wine. At the point where he elucidates his taste for vintner's daughters, he pounces on a female in the crowd and plants a big oily black kiss on her cheek.

I was unaware of this part of the play. I was just standing there with my umbrella and staring intently -- attempting to make sense of all this "Hallalalein" business -- when suddenly this oily rag-wearing man ran at me with alarming intent! Unable to flee back through the crowd, I pulled my hood up over my head and squealed, "Bitte, nein!!" but to no avail. He yanked my hood down and I got a cheekful of black grease. Yum! Thanks, Hansel!

You can see the nose, lip, and chin imprints

Poor Hansel eventually gets taunted by a barber or something, though, who then does his job badly and kills the sooty-faced young ruffian in the process. But not before Hansel chases another young man dressed as a pretzel-selling girl. I didn't really get all of it, to tell the truth; and Bert -- baffled East German that he was -- had no idea what these crazy provincial people were up to. But we thoroughly enjoyed watching the pile of straw (a stand-in for the hapless Winter cone) create a hot blaze in the town square at the end of the whole Spiel.

The three other characters, accompanied by Winter and Spring, mourn the dead Hansel.

Welcome Spring, indeed!

Berlin Fulbright Seminar, March 11-15th

Beware! What follows is a very long account of last week's conference in Berlin. If you'd like the short version, you can just check out the pics, which are also in the album "Nix Pix" to the right. If ye dare to brave the long version, here it be! :)

Fulbright Berlin Seminar

You know, Berlin actually improves on acquaintance. I just spent most of last week there, and somehow, the city just didn’t seem quite so… brown… this time. Maybe it had a lot to do with the weather, which was cool and sunny and perfect. Maybe I just had a really good time (though to be fair, the other two visits were pretty fun, too). Whatever it was, Berlin as a city actually proved to be downright appealing this time!

I was there for a seminar which is held by the Fulbright Commission every year in March as a way for its grantees to get together and talk about Germany, international relations, current events, their research, and their experiences. 350 people attended this week – everyone from lowly teaching assistants like myself to ambassadors and other bigwigs! – and the conference didn’t disappoint. It was marvelous. Years from now, I’m sure nobody but myself (if even that) will be interested in all the minor details, but I’ll record them here anyway just for posterity. :) (That, and it’s my blog, nyah nyah!)

Easy Like Sunday Morning, March 11^th

I’d been looking forward to the conference for weeks, and so it was easy to get up at 5.30 on Sunday morning to catch my train. Bert was a real trooper, too: he not only stayed up late the night before in order to make me little business cards on his computer, he also sprang out of bed the next morning to help me get ready (even slipping into my bag a surprise lunch of all my favorite snacks: nutella and banana sandwiches, raw almonds, peppermint iced tea, oranges and strawberries… mmm!).

Thus armed with nutella and business cards, I bundled into an ICE and zoomed off across the golden, sunrise-lit landscape toward the German capitol.

The ride was beautiful. I love trains. Being the efficient environmental fanatics they are, Germans boast an excellent public transportation system, whether within cities (usually via a comprehensive tram line), between towns (the S-Bahn), or between all major points across the country on a white bullet train. Looking down across the valley from the Hambacher Schloss, you can see any number of the regional trains that make up the S-Bahn system, sliding silently across the green landscape like so many shiny red caterpillars. I like to find a window seat and face the direction of travel, so that I can feel the gentle press backward against my seat as the powerful engine pulls us smoothly away from a platform, and watch the rails glide by outside as we slip from town to town.

ICE’s (InterCity Express, the bullet trains) are even cooler, ‘cause they have comfy seats, tables, and snack bars in addition to the big picture windows. I kept trying to get some work done on the train on Sunday, but my eyes were drawn irresistibly to the hills, forests, fields, and villages lit up in a springtime sunrise on the other side of my window.

Landscape loveliness

I arrived at the bustling new (read: sunny and glass-bedecked) main station in Berlin around 12.30, and set off to find an S-Bahn to take me to the Alexanderplatz, a square near the city center which is home to one of Berlin’s most famous landmarks: the Fernsehturm. I’ve never been quite sure why the Fernsehturm is so interesting, frankly. It looks like a disco ball on a skewer, and hosts a ridiculously overpriced rotating restaurant somewhere inside its round body. But it was pretty neat to stand at my window on the 28^th floor of the Park Inn Hotel and see nothing but its mirrored sphericalness looking back at me, blinking merrily in an indisputable reminder that “HEY! You’re in Berlin!”

The view from my window.

Oh yeah, and the hotel was posh. It’s the tallest hotel in the city, and greets you with red carpet and chandeliers. Breakfast and dinner are served in a plush restaurant on the third floor that is surrounded by picture windows, and you can feast on treats like grilled salmon and steamed vegetables and mountains of salad, not to mention the typically fantastic array of breads and rolls that is standard to every German restaurant or bakery: whole wheat with toasted pumpkin seeds, oat and sunflower, croissants, sourdough… you name it. Mm, I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it!

Anyway, so I dropped my bags under the watchful silver eyeball of the Fernsehturm, met my roommate (Amanda, a sweet fellow TA from Alabama) and then joined a small cluster of other Fulbrighters to go sightsee at the Tiergarten, the largest park in Berlin. It’s quite pretty; apparently it was set aside as hunting ground for the king somewhere in the beginning of the 17^th century, and has stayed a state park/garden in various forms ever since. It is also the home of the Siegessäule (sometimes also called the Siegesspargel, or “Victory Asparagus”), that famous column you always see in pictures of Berlin, topped by a flying golden angel holding a torch in one hand and a prostrate figure of some kind in another. I guess I could have looked more into the meaning behind this famous sculpture, but Conny and Nate appeared at the base of it with their bikes; and at the mention of “Biergarten in the park”, I forgot all about prostrate golden figures at the possibility of making myself prostrate with golden bubbles.

Conny and Nate bike all over the city.

We had a great couple of hours, wandering around the (pleasantly wild-ish) park and catching up over a fresh tomato and basil pizza at the Biergarten. Then they walked me all the way back to the Alexanderplatz, and I made it just in time for the welcome dinner and official start of the seminar in one of the conference rooms at the hotel.

It was so nice to mingle with some other people in my program. That evening consisted simply of a couple of speeches and dinner, followed by everyone hanging around and taking advantage of the open bar; and the everyone there was so friendly and interesting that it must have taken me an hour to actually get out the door once I began to head for it at the end of the night (in the meantime being very grateful for the little cards, as I must have “exchanged cards” with at least ten people just that first evening!). I got to pick the brains of professors and politicians, and swap stories with other TAs who are “stationed” anywhere from bustling München to tiny fishing towns on the northern coast.

Just Another Manic Monday, March 12^th

Monday was great. After stuffing ourselves with a delicious breakfast, everyone met in another of the bright conference rooms to hear about some of the research projects being conducted by Fulbrighters all over Europe. We heard presentations on alternative energy, the (mystery-surrounded) Russian pipeline, propaganda in the architecture of East and West Berlin, open-source code in Scandinavia, Klezmer music, international security, and cultural diversity. There are some fascinating studies going on out there!

When we broke for lunch, I gave Conny a call to see where we could meet up. What was between the Technische Universität Berlin, where she works, and the Alexanderplatz?

“Let’s meet under the Brandenburg Gate,” she said.

Well okay, then! Shall we do the Eiffel Tower tomorrow, and maybe Buckingham Palace on Wednesday?

I walked down Unter den Linden – what you might call the Berlin equivalent of the Champs Elysees – and we picnicked on one of the benches next to the gate, watching tourists take pictures while Conny filled me in on her dissertation work.

That afternoon, everyone met up again for a discussion panel comparing the undergraduate education systems between Germany and the States. Apparently there’s been an agreement in Bologna, which plans to practically overhaul the European university system in an attempt to standardize higher education between Europe and North America. Imagine a German university no longer offering a Magister, but instead Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees! Weird. The idea is an interesting one, and well-intentioned; but of course this is no small tweak, and there are countless little arguments and counterarguments – which we, of course, picked apart in heated detail.

That night we had the “official” opening ceremony, which included lots of speeches by public officials and an address by the German Ambassador Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz . It was interesting, but I wonder at which point a person becomes so internationally renowned that he drowns in his own importance…? Maybe that sounds cynical. But while many were thoughtful and relevant, some of the speeches sounded more like an opportunity to indulge in long-winded self-congratulation than to offer particular praise for the Fulbright Exchange or insight for the current grantees. But it comes with the territory, I guess, and many of these folks certainly have earned the laurels they flaunt.

Ruby Tuesday, March 13^th

Tuesday’s structure was similar, with panel discussions and research presentations, except that the debate got even more heated. No wonder, considering the topic was “Immigration in Germany and America: How Much Do We Need?” To their credit, the panelists came prepared with a wealth of current information on the consistency, distribution, and trends in the populations of both countries, along with potential opportunities, problems, and ideas to approach both. They argued for cultural diversity but against current policy, and I thought the session was informed and sensitive. However, I think there are some topics where people’s first reactions are of the knee-jerk variety, and the panelists were challenged again and again by individual audience members who wanted to hear them address every detail of an impossibly gigantic topic in under two hours.

For instance, one of the panelists made the mistake of using the term “ethnic Germans” at some point. What he was referring to are those communities with German ancestry who live in Russia or the Czech Republic, who can claim German citizenry based on their heritage. By “ethnic German,” the panelist meant to separate these communities from their other possible identities, like “Czech citizen”.

But instead of taking in the entire context, one audience member simply fastened onto the term “ethnic German” and took it to mean current German citizens with non-migrant backgrounds, as contrasted to those whose parents or grandparents might have immigrated to Germany from somewhere else. Suddenly the panelist had to defend the term against charges of implicit racism!

To say the least, the panel was anything but boring. I was happy to get out into the sunshine, though, and picnicked again with Conny on the grass in front of one of Berlin’s landmarks: the monstrous Cathedral. (Did I mention the weather was perfect??)

All you need for a springtime picnic: sunshine, carrots, and a cathedral

Tuesday afternoon we got to hear about more presentations, and then that evening was the “Fulbright Music Gala.” This means that several amazing musicians on an exchange year at various music schools around Europe performed a variety of enjoyable pieces for us – we got to hear Beethoven, Fauré, Bach, and even some 20^th-century musical numbers either sung or played on violin, oboe, piano, cello, etc etc etc. The tenor even sang Eichendorff’s Mondnacht, one of my favorite poems of German Romanticism, set to music by Schumann.

Wednesday Morning 3 a.m., March 14^th

Yesterday, we assembled in the Rotes Rathaus (“red town hall” – so-called because of the bricks, not out of any particular political reference ;) ) to hear about the experiences of teaching assistants from Norway, Hungary, Sweden, Angora, Spain, and the Czech Republic. This was a fun and feisty exchange of stories between the “featured” grantees and the audience, and there were points when the entire hall was roaring with laughter. Immediately afterward, we were received by Barbara Kisseler, Head of the Senate Chancellery. She was an excellent speaker, and fielded questions from the audience with intelligence, thoughtfulness, and humor.

Excellent a morning as it was – and lubricated by free wine as it also was – I decided to be a bad little grantee and skip out on the afternoon’s workshops. Casey, a friend of mine from Arizona, was going to be in town for the day, and we had plans to run around the city and eventually make dinner with Conny and Nate that evening.

Which was exactly what we did. We checked out a booksale in front of the Humboldt University, got a cappuccino at the Hackescher Markt, window-shopped, walked around the Charlottenburg castle gardens, fed the ducks, and just talked talked talked talked talked. Then we had beer, salad, goulasch, Spätzle, Sauerkraut, bruschetta, and dessert (all delicious! I was so full!) at Conny and Nate’s apartment and talked even more – politics, education, you name it. Then they all walked me back to the S-Bahn station so that I could spend one last featherbedded night in the company of my buddy, the Fernsehturm.

Me, Nancy, Casey, Conny

Thursday Never Looking Back, March 15^th

Today, like every other day this week, has just been laid-back and lovely. I slept in until – gasp! – nine-thirty, took advantage of the gorgeous hotel breakfast one last time, stowed my baggage at the Alexanderplatz station, and took off to get a little sun and exercise before boarding a train again for five and a half hours that afternoon.

The first stop was the Egyptian Museum, the institution which boasts the famous bust of Nefertiti. (I’ve discovered that I often like to travel on my own for short periods of time. The entire last four days had been full of socializing and chitchat – albeit with fascinating and educated people – and I was ready to just be free and independent for a while.) So I moseyed across the river Spree, poked my head into some shops, then wandered up the marble stairs to the museum and picked up one of those informational headsets. I then got to spend a leisurely couple of hours being inside a Discovery Channel special on ancient Egypt: approach a cool-looking sandstone figure, press a button, and a smooth History-Channel-type voice guides you all around it. “Now take a look at the gold plating at the nape of the neck,” the voice purrs, as mystical “ancient Egyptian” music tinkles softly in the background. “This is all that is left of the decadent headdress that was removed after this advisor displeased Queen Hatshuphotetankenatneripatratihousethatjackbuilt…” There weren’t any mummies (alas), but lots of exciting art history and the pages and pages of hieroglyphs that seem to fascinate everyone who has ever learned to spell their name in 5^th-grade history class.

Queen Nefertiti

On another floor of the same museum is also a pretty nice collection of classical Greek vases and Roman busts. And while none of those exhibits compare to the impressive marbles and gates in the Pergamon Museum, I especially enjoyed the Greek vases, with their elegant cartoonish illustrations of scenes from the myths that still comprise some of our culture’s favorite stories, thousands of years after they were first told. Though many illustrations are less elegant, and vastly amusing: as in, some of those satyrs are having a really good time!

Well, speaking of history, I think I have officially written the longest blog post in all of Weinstraßendom. Time to enjoy the sunset from my train window and get ready to go back to normal life in wine country tomorrow… and for those who have plans to visit, we might now have another stop to put on the agenda! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIGEL!

Starting today, my yellow and sketchy friend, Nigel Fullerton, can officially rent a car in the States without paying extra fees. Herzlichen Glückwunsch, buddy. May your father ever smell of elderberries.

Geburtstagskind!

A... thing.

Walking along the banks of the Rhein River, I came across this eerie apparition. At first I thought it was a clock. But look closer....

I later found out what it was, but first, any guesses (except the weirdest bit of creepiness you've ever seen)?

Musical musings

I am always hard pressed to pick a favorite song, or even a favorite genre of music. I love music, and depending on my mood, will derive thorough enjoyment from anything from Cat Stevens to Chamillionaire, from Mozart to Metallica.

Why do we as humans do this? Create and enjoy music, I mean? We seem practically compelled. Every culture, every community makes music; even children constantly hum tunes to themselves while on the swings or in the sandbox. For as long as people have been talking to each other, they have been singing to each other. Why are we so weird?

Perhaps our basic attraction to rhythmic sounds alone isn't too surprising; after all, we spend the first nine months of existence listening to our mothers' heartbeat in the womb. In fact, most everything in nature has a beat: the pounding of feet during walking or running, the rhythm of chewing or breathing; and more abstractly, the cycles of life and the seasons themselves. It would only seem natural that some deep part of us responds to a good rhythm with a resounding "YEAH!" As for melody, perhaps some of the connection between sound and emotion is obvious: loud sounds may indicate danger, while soft sounds are soothing to both animals as well as people.

But think of Beethoven's 9th. This is clearly more than the mere collection of primitive noises that the above explanations alone would suggest. Why does it make me, I dunno, swell up somehow -- cry, laugh, want to gesticulate wildly in "conducting" my own orchestra, and afterward run out to hug my fellow speciesmates? There's a mathematical and emotional formula to music that seems to have nothing to do with evolutionary survival; and yet music can evoke such a visceral reaction. What else explains the almost universal nature of the major musical scales? Take Schoenberg, for example: around the turn of the 20th century, this well-meaning composer made a wholehearted attempt to "free" the musical world of the supposed creative shackles of the known scale, assuming that our adherence to it was out of mere convention rather than any kind of basis in natural truth. But as anyone who has listened to Schoenberg's "compositions" has noticed, one needs absolutely no formal musical education in order to distinguish between what we perceive as harmonious and what is just... cacophony.

And why sound? Why isn't it, say, smell that is so closely bound with emotion? True, smell evokes a whole range of memories, reactions, and associations. But why don't we create symphonies of smell that can guide an audience through a range of complex and universal emotions, regardless of language or background? Because outside of the simple identification of something as "smelling good" and "smelling bad", the associations evoked by a certain smell are learned. That is, only those with the same experiences will react to the same smell in the same way -- there's not much universal about specific scents themselves. Think of the inside of a pumpkin: most Americans will stick their noses into this orange gourd and immediately recall childhood; magic, mystery and costumes; impending treats and spooky stories. Most Europeans would probably think of making soup.

However, music is not just about learned associations. Music is the actual abstraction of certain sound wavelengths to stand for ideas, concepts, and emotions. You'd really have to exert yourself to find a "sad" smell; and yet everyone who hears "The Flight of the Bumblebee" hears nervousness. Things played in a minor key automatically sound creepy; but no one would identify "Primavera" in Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" as being anything but joyful. Why??? There's nothing inherent to the feeling of joy that automatically corresponds to high notes. In fact, people can also emit some pretty high frequencies when placing their hand on a hot tea kettle. And yet music is so universal -- an audience full of people with completely different temperaments, experiences, ages, even languages and cultures can derive a similar emotional experience from the same concert. What is it that's so satisfying about hearing that woody vibration from a cello?

Music appears to have nothing to do with survival or reproduction. We as a species already have language, not to mention countless other ways of expressing love, affection, and emotion. And yet we need music.

Animals don't. They might conceivably be affected by it; I think I recall reading about a study somewhere, where cows produced better milk when exposed to some relaxing muzak. But they certainly don't produce it, or pay any particular attention to ours. Sure, you could argue that birds and whales "sing", but this would be like saying bees "dance" -- we just anthropomorphize animal behavior because it looks on the outside like ours. Bees are not bopping to a beat any more than waltzing couples are showing each other where to find pollen. In the same way, birds and whales are communicating with each other, not arranging musical scores in order to sing praises to the heavens.

So again, music would appear to be evolutionarily extraneous. Perhaps, then, it speaks to our existence as spiritual as well as physical beings that we seem to have been endowed with an extra sense solely designed to experience transcendence. All evidence seems to point to it.

Whatever it is, please excuse me while I crank this song up, close my eyes, and remove myself from the world for a while.

Lustig ist das Zigeuner Leben

Gosh, I just realized I am way behind in my duties of keeping everyone in dismayingly thorough apprisal of every excruciating bit of minutia that occurs in my daily routine. Internet stalkers and unsolicited blog marketers, apologies. As for those who might have been breathing a sigh of relief, think again! The break is over!

To start with, I've actually had a bit of trouble these last couple weeks finding two hours next to each other in which to sit down and put any thoughts together. They've been pleasant distractions, though. :) Nigel spent the time, money, and energy a couple weeks ago to hop an ICE up from Switzerland and once again come laze around on the Weinstrasse with Anna and me. It was a nice visit: he came up Thursday, and we bar-hopped in Ludwigshafen until somehow stumbling home just in time to fall asleep in our clothes, including belt and hoop earrings. (Okay, one of us barely managed to remove her shoes before passing out in her belt and earrings...) The next day, we hauled ourselves to Heidelberg, and had a relaxed day strolling around the lovely Hauptstrasse, munching on hot, thick, perfectly spiced German french fries -- mm, not even the French fry their fries as perfectly as these here Germans! -- and touring the castle. Anna met up with us back in Neustadt that evening to visit our favorite pizza place (which brags over 300 different combinations, including shrimp and cocktail sauce or sliced eggs and artichoke hearts!), and then the three of us practically had a little slumber party at my place, making popcorn, watching cartoons, laughing and just generally enjoying some much needed catch-up.

Saturday, we had had plans to go for a hike, but the weather had other ideas. So instead, Nigel and I wandered around the farmer's market and then popped by a couple other grocery stores to find the ingredients for the next day's experiment: fajitas with homemade pico de gallo, homemade guacamole -- and even homemade tortillas! It is possible to find tortillas here, but you have to go to a large superstore with an "ethnic foods" section, since, for some reason, tortillas aren't as ubiquitous in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse as they are in Tucson, AZ... ;) We spent a cozy rainy afternoon making batch after batch of experimental flatbreads before finally hitting on a workable combination. Then we put all the prepared materials in the fridge and hopped a train to Landau to visit Anna and see what the town's three Irish pubs have to offer. (Answer: lots of Guinness, but few available tables, apparently!)

We wrapped up the weekend with the crowning glory of fresh homemade fajitas, the likes of which that Hemingway's restaurant has never seen! We must have dirtied every pan and bowl in the kitchen, but it was worth it. Amy, you were right: the best way to do it is just to make your own.

It had been so nice to see Nigel, and to speak my language again, and laugh about old times that I was kinda sad to see him go on Sunday evening... :(

But not three days went by afterward before Bert and I were loading up the car again to go skiing in the Erzgebirge!

Los geht's!

The original plan was to penetrate the snowy mountains of the Czech Republic, but one of us forgot her passport. (A phenomenon which seems to be happening a lot recently. On our Berlin trip, for example, I forgot to pack any underwear. Underwear! Seriously, who does that?? John Cleese would probably tell me to eat more fresh fruit!) Anyway, so instead we settled for the indescribably beautiful Fichtelberg, the highest mountain in eastern Germany. Being March, the towns in the valleys between the hills may get a little dusting of snow in the night, but it usually disappears by late morning. However, in Oberwiesenthal -- right on top of the Fichtelberg -- the snow must have been feet deep! Bert's family fitted me out with his sister Heidi's old cross-country equipment, and we scootched off into the forest.

I wear these on my hands, right?

Cross country skiing is really, really fun. I've never done skiing of any type before, but I imagine that anything where you get to make yourself independently mobile -- sledding, biking, roller blading, ice skating, and now skiing -- is just inherently freeing. You see this vast expanse of soft whiteness, and think to yourself, "I think I'll just fly across this!" and whoosh, away you float over the downy blanket of winter. There was actually a youth competition going on in Oberwiesenthal that day, a biathlon that involves cross-country racing and then dropping down to pick up a rifle and and shoot at targets. The combination seemed startling at first, but apparently this sort of thing is pretty common in snowy areas all over the world! Bert is also a coach at the biathlon summer camp every year, and so it was fun to meet "his kids" and watch their little limbs fly around in determined exertion like so many spandex-and-ski clad eggbeaters.

I, on the other hand, had not quite mastered the technique of either slowing down or stopping, and as a result found myself nearly incapacitated when faced with even the gentlest of declines. Normal rises and falls in landscape which, when on foot, you probably wouldn't even notice, became the Tower of Terror. Consequently, I'm sure the other Erzgebirgler must have gotten quite a chuckle at the sight of a grown female clutching to the back of the training camp coach's jacket as he guided the both of them down a three-foot hill...

As the competition wound down, we left the bustle behind for the silent green forest.

Now, when you think "forest", you might think of tall old trees crowded together to hold up the fallen ones; high branches blocking out the sunlight; a thin deer trail winding through the thick, bristly groundcover. This kind of forest is certainly nice. But the woods that cover the Fichtelberg are so perfect they don't look real!

It was like something out of Narnia. The trees were all the same sort of twelve-foot-tall Christmas tree pine; full and perfectly proportioned and a glossy dark green. They were spaced far enough apart to let in the light and snow, and as a result looked as if they had been deliberately arranged and plumped down onto a big fluffy layer of cotton in some movie set. We wended our way through this landscape of green and white, with no sound but the wind murmuring softly through the boughs and the occasional whisper of a fat snowflake against a sleeve.

A wood between the worlds, indeed.

After that Zen experience, we decided to undo it all by letting me at the wheel of Bert's car. Learning to drive stick was always somewhere on the list next to "read the Complete Works of Shakespeare cover to cover" and "brush up on the plusquamperfekt conjunktiv tense in German grammar"; but in Germany, if you can't drive stick, you just can't drive. (It's true! Even in the way the two types of motors are expressed in language: in the States, it's "to drive automatic or drive stick". Here, it's either "to drive an automatic car", or just, "to drive.") So anyway, I got to mess around with the various ways of killing his engine and spinning wheels futilely in the snowy parking lot. Apparently some other people thought we were just joyriding, because we seemed to inspire followers: after a few minutes, we started to get regularly chased off the parking lot by a dad who thought to delight his kids in the backseat by spinning in crazy loops through the snow (while mom pasted "Help I've Been Kidnapped" notes to the passenger side window).

Having thus frozen our Hintern off, we then decided to thaw in the thermal springs down in the valley. A hot soak followed by a tall Hefeweizen in a tavern made sure that we slept at least twelve hours that night!

Well, so! That's the state of Nikkiland thus far. :) This week has been a whirlwind of teaching and tutoring, and then on Sunday, it's off again to the mid-year Fulbright Seminar in Berlin. I'm really looking forward to "being scholarly" again for a bit... my job is interesting and often rewarding, but it'll be nice to listen to some current event discussion panels and participate in workshops on pedagogical theory without having to prepare them all myself in advance! Plus it'll be a good opportunity to do a little of what Dad terms "gripping and grinning", making some connections with professors from all over Germany. Plus I get to visit Conny during the downtime, plus Casey might be in town for a day or two, as well... oh, the excitements and delightments! As George Costanza might say, my "whole life is a fantasy camp!"

Rabbit food

Bert got back from a routine check-up the other day with the news that his triglycerides were too high. In researching what we could do to lower them, I got to wondering what had happened to my usual health-fanatic eating habits these last few months! Funny how the stereotype is that Americans subsist on nothing but fast food and cola; and yet it took my leaving the country to start eating unhealthfully.

See, in the States, I had a couple of loose guidelines that I just automatically followed when buying groceries or making a menu selection: 1) as natural as possible -- meaning organic where available, whole grain where applicable, and as unprocessed and preservative-free as can be; and 2) lots of fruits and vegetables. This was still feasible even on the limited budget of a U of A German Department teaching assistant: it just included lots of (organic) frozen meals from Trader Joe's, and a lot of buying things in the raw.

However, when you move to a new place and don't own a car, your choices become a bit restricted. For one thing, you start shopping according to weight and distance instead of nutrition; and if you're also too busy (or lazy) to hunt around and figure out all your options, you can end up in a bit of a rut. In addition, since I don't have a freezer, food preparation can't really be done too far in advance and therefore gets a bit time-consuming. I also make (yes, it turns out this is indeed possible) almost a third less than even the pittance I had as a Master's student -- made worse by the fact that, now that I no longer live in The Climate of Constant Summer, fresh produce gets rather pricey in the winter. All this in combination starts to make that pot of beans and rice look pretty appealing.

Add all this onto the fact that, for the first couple of months, people were constantly trying to feed the newcomer -- and as everyone knows, "social food" is not usually a plate of carrot sticks. Especially around here, typical gathering fare usually includes generous portions of cream-sauce-covered pickled meat parts washed down with copious quantities of delicious foamy beer. The result?

I don't even want to know what my triglyceride levels are.

It's a good thing I walk everydamnedwhere or I'd weigh three hundred pounds. As it is, my clothes still (sort of) fit, but I think my poor tissues and arteries were simply crying out for a few phytochemicals. So after Bert came home with this reminder that what you eat means more than just the fit of your waistband, I took it as a wake-up call to get back on the produce cart.

When Nigel was here, we wandered around the Saturday farmer's market in Neustadt's main square and found all sorts of delightful yummies: sweet and crunchy fresh bell peppers, ripe avocados, tender lamb's lettuce, juicy tomatoes, pungent garlic and spicy onions. We made fajitas with pico de gallo and guacamole the next day, and I could just feel my cells swelling out and smacking their little cell lips. Last Monday, I filled my shopping backpack with (granted, the suddenly available) oranges, strawberries, bananas, radishes, spinach, more bell peppers and tomatoes... and have spent the last three days gorging in colorful antioxidant-packed decadence. They weren't even that expensive any more, and so far have lasted half the week! For dinner just now, I covered a pile of tender fresh chopped veggies in an olive oil and mustard dressing, and am chomping it down so gustily I'm probably making horsey noises.

And you know what? Those disturbingly anthropomorphic pieces of cartoon fruit who counseled you as a kid to eat your vegetables ain't lyin'. I feel super. It's been about ten days or so that I've been making this concerted effort to take advantage of the fact that I live in a first-world country that has such bounty available, and I don't think I've felt lethargic or crabby even once. (Okay, maybe a little crabby every now and then. ;) But it's still a noticeable improvement!) Bert's been along for the ride, and so in addition to rabbit food, I've also been cramming fish oil pills down his throat: the omega-3's are not only good for practically everything in your body, but have also been shown to markedly reduce triglyceride levels in your blood.

So pardon me while I go refill my enormous mixing bowl with more Garden of Eden. And I can only say, if you've been feeling a little "blah" recently, I will happily don a puffy felt-covered apple costume and wag a gloved hand at you in a gentle reminder to eat your vegetables!