Dresden and the Trains

The Trains and Dresden is probably a more apt title. Though only 4 or less hours by the way the crow flies, Dresden took us 6 hours to get to and 9 to come back from.
We met at the train station at a bright and early 6:00AM, giving Tiff and I roughly 5 hours of sleep each. We caught about a half hour more sleep on our first train, then stopped in sleepy little Bahn. The Hof Hauptbahnhof (which, since there's only one Bahnhof there, could be called the Hof Bahnhof. Isn't that fun to say?) didn't really have much to see, just a big Baraque train station that was at least 150 years old. 2 hours later we arrived in Zwickau, which I think was a rough translation of the german word for between since Zwickau was in the middle of nowhere, between (zwischen) everything. Sorry, bad English-geek humor there. Zwickau was really just a blur to us anyway. We had 4 minutes to make it to our next train. From there we rode (and napped) all the way to Dresden.
For those of you that don't know, Dresden was once the capital of the Dutchy of Saxony, part of the Ottoman Empire, which was once also a smal part of the Carolingian Empire, and, much later, the Prussian Empire and the German Empire. People have apparently always been fond of smashing Dresden to bits. The city has suffered repeated destruction: by fire in 1491, from bombardment by the Prussians in 1760, and during the suppression of a constitutionalist uprising in 1849. The latest of these was in 1945, when a wing of Brittish Bombers levelled the city (at that point insignificant to the nearly-over war) with a firestorm of bombs. It left it looking like this:

After the war Dresden became an East German industrial center, rebuilt many of its buildings, and churned out all kinds of new construction. Its new masters rebuilt large sections as "the ideal communist city," but luckily left the old city under pretty much the same layout. After the German Reunification all kinds of art and culture societies set to rebuilding, rennovating, and restoring the rest of Dresden. They're still at it today.
On the train I'd spent about an hour examining the contrast between East and West just as I could see it out the window. Every third railway station was abandoned, many buildings still look like they've suffered through a war, but it's economic decay that's killed them. It was dismal, and the Bahnhof in Dresden seemed equally so.
Dresden is a truly big city. I'm not sure how it compares to Munich as far as population is concerned, but it sprawls like an American town. Ironic, for the model of socialism. Tiff and I split away from Liz and Jen and headed for our Youth Hostel. It was a good 20 minute hike to the Louis 20, so named because it's building 20 on Louis street. The rooms were 4 beds each, us and strangers. My roommate slept the entire time. Luckily, he was the only one, and he didn't snore.
We headed back to the city under a light rain, stopping for bread, Nutella, and Peanut Butter along the way. The old city of Dresden in purely Baroque, in all its grandeur. It's an awesome sight, even if you don't particularly care for Baroque (which I don't). The churches are gorgeous, and the Palace is magnificant.
We spent our afternoon pattering around said churches and palaces. We saw the Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Lady (St. Mary), still being rebuilt. We saw the bishopric church there, whose name eludes me, and the Zwinger Palace, which houses 5 galleries, all of which were closed by the time we made it there.
The grounds were enough to make the trip worthwhile, though.
Dinner was a great theme restaurant called Pulver Turm. It's built in the ruins of an old gunpowder storage tower (or turret, or whatever you want to call it), and is manned by an 18th century staff. We had an authentic Saschen (German spelling of Saxon) dish of fruits, bread, delicious hams and other less identifiable meats, jam and preserves. Liz and Jen met us there and Liz managed to utterly disgust the Germans near us with her mixing of the rasberry jam with butter, a 10 minute process that left this reddish lumpy-puree. She claims its delicious. I imagine it is, thinking about the taste, but the visual appeal is lacking.
After dinner we slept, and the next morning Tiffany and I made a brief stop at the Japanese Palace (which must have been built to house Japanese dignitaries once, but was a very European building now used as a museum) for a quick look around.
It's a good thing we caught an early train back, because we were delayed several times on the way home. It took us from 11:00AM until 8:00PM to get back home. We got in some studying then, but most of the time it was too crowded with people heading to Oktoberfest.
Once we got home we had enough time for homework and sleep.

Laptop power source may be kaputt. Common Toshiba problem, tends to fry Motherboard too (hopefully not to that point yet). Having to type quick here b/c I'm running on just my weako battery. Going to try and get it fixed, or maybe get brave and fix it myself, but you may not get any blogging until I do. Those that email me expect a day or 2 delay on replies since I'll have to check it on campus. Sorry about the trouble, I'm still piling up more to tell you, but without a laptop it's not going to be easy.
I'll fix what I can, quickly.

Oktoberfest

OK, Dachau still stirs a little dark reflection. You see why we had to truck it back into town (Munich) afterwards.
What can I say about Oktoberfest? It rained, a lot. The grey skies had set the mood at Dachau, but it was getting dark by the time we got to Oktoberfest, so it was cold and wet. We fled into a beer-tent that was actually one of the most solid structures at the multi-block fair. These "tents" are about the size of your average gymnasium, full of smoke, food, beer, and dancing. There's nowhere to sit, barely anywhere to stand, and tons of dancing and singing. It was fun, but only for about 20 minutes. We pushed our way through the thickening crowds of the fair back home rather quickly.
We thought we'd be relatively safe from the merry-makers by the time we got on the train. Oh, how wrong we were.
We got on one of the trains with the 6-passanger compartments. If you've never seen one, picture the car that Harry Potter rode in during the last movie. It's like that, but much less nice.
Anyway, we've got our seats and are waiting for the train to depart. I go to the WC on the back of the train, and see a guy trying to get through the locked door. He's to that phase of drunk when you sweat a lot, and he's barely walking right. He's a fairly big guy, but not very tall, with stringy brown hair and wearing liederhosen (during Ocktoberfest there's probably more people in liederhosen than not). Well, I get a good laugh, take care of my business, and head back to the compartment. Who's sitting there? The drunk guy. He's leaning against the wall, asking Tiff, Liz, and Jen where they're from and if there's room in the compartment for more. I offer him a chilly smile and greeting, then sit down by Tiff. He plops down by liz, across from me, and babbles for a good long while. He asks us where we're from at least a half dozen times, then points at each of us and tries to remember. "Amerikanish, Amerikanish, Amerikanish.... Regensburg." He's totally confused by Jen.
He tries to find out where we live, join us for some Regensburg festivities and so on, but we're all pretty good at dodging the question, and he was way too drunk to catch on. Eventually his friend drug him to the next car, where they'd found some other drunks. They all rode back together, and we were all glad to see them on another car.

Dachau

Dachau wins the Best-Idea-for-a-Trip-yet Award. It sounds terrible to say I enjoyed it, but you really can't help but be affected by this monument. Most of the original facility is still there, including the infamous gas chambers, incinerators, bath house, offices, etc. There's one rebuilt barracks showing how they went from housing 50 men each to over 300. The museum there is massive. Tiffany and I took 2.5 hours at a fairly brisk pace and didn't finish the exhibit. It's a thorough and well written account of the rise of National Socialism, the original creation of the camps, the War, and the aftermath. There are 3 religious monuments on the grounds: one catholic, one protestant, and one jewish. Mother Teresa founded a convent there that houses people from all three faiths (each in their own communities, but working together as well). These nuns (and Rabbi's, and monks) preserve the memories of those who died there, and also serve the survivors and descendants of survivors that visit Dachau today.
Dachau was one of the largest camps in Nazi Germany. It housed people from 30 different nations, political prisoners (especially Russian), "social deviants" (including homosexuals, communists, and anyone who opposed the Reich), Jehovah's Witnesses, Clergymen, Gypsies, and many many Jews. After the war, the closest estimates were that over 200,000 people had been imprisoned there in the course of its 12 year history. There were 67,000 prisoners when the camp was liberated. Dachau was originally built to house 5000.
These dry numbers seem horrific enough, and the images on film and paper are even more overwhelming, but of course no words can really capture what went on in Dachau. http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/english/ is one of several memorial sites dedicated to the memories there. In its opening frame Eugen Kogen describes Dachau:
"Dachau - the significance of this name will never be erased from German history. It stands for all concentration camps which the Nazis established in their territory."
It is as important to Germany today as the castles, the palaces, and the Roman walls that once formed the Limes. It stands not only as a memory, but maybe as a place of healing and atonement for a nation whose guilt is unfathomable to my well-off American mind. But, having been there, I feel at least a little closer not only to those who live here today, but to the shadow which stretches over 60 years of German history. Like Allende's Azucena (from the prose poem "And of Dust We Are Created"), Germans find themselves held by the deaths and the horrors of their past. The culture today has fought to overcome it, has taken drastic steps to attempt to get past it, but in America we don't even think of it. Could another Dachau be created? No, of course not. Such hate could never exist in the world today.


Of course not.

I'm back, finally. I think I'm going to break this post up into several posts, based on location. I'll also be uploading more pics after I get finished with everything, unless I get lazy and put it off until tomorrow. Either way, you'll have them by the weekend, because my camera's full.
So, real quick, I'll catch you up on today's events. Then we'll move into the past and I'll get you through my trips to Dresden and Munich and through all the art. I don't know how much of the art I can remember, there was a lot of it, but we'll see.
Oh, I forgot the mandatory list of excuses. My paper was due today. I finished it last night around midnight. No, you can't read it. It wasn't very good and I seriously doubt many of you really care to hear an analysis of the ways Gunter Grass and Voltaire use extraordinary circumstances to create conflict between the world-views of characters and the reality portrayed in the story.
And that's the short version of my thesis.
But yes, that's done today, and so is the German, and it's still early. So lets take a few trips, shall we?

buried

"Both Candide and Oskar begin their respective stories convinced that they have a full understanding of the world around them. Oskar, with his "clairvoyance" and Candide with optimism exhibit a naive understanding of their setting. It is only through the loss of this perception that drives both stories through increasingly more bizarre circumstances. It is only after the characters realize the shortcomings of their perception that they experience revelation. Oskar must seek atonement for the guilt he has so long avoided. Candide, likewise, finds no peace until he has abandoned optimism. Oskar has his drum, and Candide has his optimism, but neither have a clue until they leave these things behind."
That, German, and Art are the only things in my mind right now. I'd love to tell you about the Thurm&Taxis ("T-uhrm-und-TAksis") palace, which is bigger than Buckingham in square footage, and Dreden and Munich, but I can't afford to get behind in these classes. As you can see by that sample from my essay, I've got a lot of work to do.
Maybe I'll tell you everything this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow. Right now, though, I've still buried under a mountain of work.

Back from Dresden, mostly

Been on trains since 11AM. Made it back finally, but now there's mountains of homework waiting. New pics and more up tomorrow. Now I must eat, study, and sleep.

Rejected

-From www.catholicism.org

"'Whatever happened to St. Christopher? Is he still a saint?'

"Before the 1969 reform of the Roman calendar, Christopher was listed as a martyr who died under Decius. Nothing else is known about him. There are several legends about him including the one in which he was crossing a river when a child asked to be carried across. When Christopher put the child on his shoulders he found the child was unbelievably heavy. The child, according to the legend, was Christ carrying the weight of the whole world. This was what made Christopher patron saint of travelers. His former feast day is July 25.

"Before the formal canonization process began in the fifteenth century, many saints were proclaimed by popular approval. This was a much faster process but unfortunately many of the saints so named were based on legends, pagan mythology, or even other religions -- for example, the story of the Buddha traveled west to Europe and he was "converted" into a Catholic saint! In 1969, the Church took a long look at all the saints on its calendar to see if there was historical evidence that that saint existed and lived a life of holiness. In taking that long look, the Church discovered that there was little proof that many "saints", including some very popular ones, ever lived. Christopher was one of the names that was determined to have a basis mostly in legend. Therefore Christopher (and others) were dropped from the universal calendar.

"Some saints were considered so legendary that their cult was completely repressed (including St. Ursula). Christopher's cult was not suppressed but it is confined to local calendars (those for a diocese, country, or so forth)."

They rejected my (somewhat pagan) namesake. :(

School and Saints and Such

I'm slacking off this week.
Not really. I've been loaded down with homework, and I still haven't quite balanced out my schedule with my tourism.
Today I left the jelly out, but the cheese made it into the fridge.
Yesterday we saw the Kepler House where, ironicly enough, Kepler never lived. Rich friends lived there, and he died under their roof while travelling. There were a few interesting artifacts, including a large stone table with a perpetual calendar engraved on its surface. The table was designed by Kepler and made by a Regensburg artisan. It's bordered by the saints and zodiac of each day.
Speaking of saints, we saw plenty of them today. Our art class toured the collections of the Dom, St. Emmeram, and Niedermunster(kirche). Neidermunster had the full remains of Saint Erhart, and uses the skull in an elaborate (Paganesque) ceremony every year on January 8th. This ceremony ends with the people of the church having Emmeram's skull (neatly cased in a blue-ish box that looks a little like ancient scuba-gear) being placed on their head. This prevents headaches for a year.
So, presumably, the medieval people of Regensburg were headache free. Lucky them.
We also saw a french relic-box that was made using thin sheets of silver, paint, and enamel to create designs on the surface. This process is only present today in 3 relics, and the other two are not available for public viewing. One wonders how long the remaining one will last while idiots like me forget to turn their flash off.
I got a few pictures, but they probably won't be uploaded until next week. This weekend is going to be a little strange. Tomorrow we're heading to Munich, spending some time at Octoberfest and more time at Dachau. It's a strange combination, but maybe they'll balance eachother out. Saturday we're riding 5 hours to see Dresden. There's plenty of Baroque palaces there, a newly opened exhibit of a Bohemian King's riches, and who-knows-what-else. It'll be exciting.
I've got plenty of reading material, also. I had hoped to read Rocket Boys this week, but with Humanities and art readings piling up, I don't think I'm going to get a chance to. I'm still digesting Kleist's "Earthquake in Chili" before I post questions for the weekend on it. For art I'm reading the Golden Legend's versions of the lives of Saint Sebastian and Saint Francis. Not a bad pick, really. Our teacher chose them, not me, but I'm pretty familiar with Francis already (read up on him quite a bit since making my boots a class 3 relic at Assissi) and I don't mind learning about Sebastian at all. Actually, I'm enthusiastic about most of the stories of the saints, just because of the whole medieval connection and the warped amusement that I get out of seeing just how far the Catholic church could stretch things to convert pagans.
What can I say? I'm warped.
Tiff smashed her finger in the door this morning. It's turning an attractive shade of purple under the nail. We're still speculating whether or not the nail itself will stay on there. In the meantime, she's disturbed by lack of feeling in her fingertip and spends most of her time wishing for high quality painkillers.
I'm doing my best to take care of her, but she tends to try and get right behind me whenever I'm doing things that could potentially injure her further (you know, anything) and bad things happen. So far I think I've ran into the hurt finger a half-dozen times today.
She's making me take notes for her and type things for her, which isn't too bad since we're all in the same classes. I have to type humanities notes for her. Then we're off to Stammtisch again (This is the Int'l one).

This, the best possible of all worlds

If you didn't catch it in the quote, I just finished reading Voltiare's "Candide." Honestly, it was a little excessive for my taste, but it was definitely direct in it's point. I just didn't really care for the 80 pages of sarcasm.
It is literature, though, and thus must be read. How else can I know that I don't like it?
ugh, I'm tired.
Stammtisch went well tonight. We talked to some of the KIIS students and got to know them better. You never really notice how nice conversation can be until you're limited to having it with less than a dozen people per week. With my German improving and more people coming to campus there's hope of this changing.
I just hope they don't want me to talk about books, art, or history. I'm getting seriously burned out on those.
Looking to the future, though, I see a lot more of that on the way. I guess I just signed up for it. For now, though, I just want sleep.

a quick reflection

I stand corrected. I do look that stupid.
Often.

just a little rant

Elvis spent this morning's bus ride giving an earful to a bunch of American businessmen/women about his life on the other side of the wall. Tiff had previously mentioned that he sounded like he had some Russian influence, she was right. I didn't catch all the details, but Russia was mentioned more than once in his rather lengthy discourse.
The poor Americans looked utterly terrified of him.
They didn't strike me as the brightest crayons in the box anyway, though. They were loudly discussing how rude the Germans had been to them yesterday, seemingly oblivious to the fact that most Germans on the bus can speak and understand English fairly well. When they got off the bus and started heading for their conference they made it to the middle of campus before realizing they didn't know where they were going.
I hope to God we don't look that lost often.
Tiff thinks I'm being too harsh on them. Maybe so. I have a low tolerance for people who get paid millions to look lost at conferences. Then again, I'm pretty put off by the business world in general. It's just the artsy-liberal locked up inside me. I'll try and keep it at bay.
We have a German test on Monday. I'm really not ready for it. We've been drilled with volumes of vocabulary, most of which has slipped right back out of my mind. I'm absorbing the grammar with a little more success, but not much. It's going to be a long weekend of study, which isn't going to combine well with our alledged trip to the black forest. That's still fuzzy anyway, though. We may just tag along with the group to wherever they decide to go (Munich was mentioned again).
I'm not going to stress about it. I'm just having a nice time just being here, and hopefully not looking too stupid while I am.

It's Not a Gameboy

‘Check it out! You can now donate directly to me courtesy of Paypal. There's a button on the bottom of the sidebar, just above the blogger link. It's not a particularly noticable location, but I think it's a polite place for it to be. And don't worry, I won't heckle any of you over it. I just wanted to let you know it's there.
Right.
So lets talk about today...
Today is Monday.
That really explains it all, doesn't it?
Monday doesn't seem to hold quite the same grip over the German culture that it does with our weak American approach to the week, but it's close. Probably has something to do with them getting 2 months paid vacation every year, as compared to our 2 weeks (if we're lucky).
Anyway, I'm off track.
Mondays are still Mondays, after all. So I've just been drudging along through the day, not exactly thrilled about it, but making it. I'm still sore from this weekend, getting tired of bread and nutella, and a little sick of German. Tiff helped some. She's worse off than me, what with her foot and all, and she cooked me Pizza :). The German can't really be helped. I just want TV and football, and maybe a hamburger. That last part's Tiff's fault, she's been craving one all day and telling me about it.
The LAN’s going in and out now. Tiff's blowing on the PCI port and the USB port to try and fix it. She's proud to say it worked, despite my skepticism. I’m not sure if it was my hardware or the dorm. Either’s a possibility here. My USB-to-Ethernet was Carlos’s (he’ll get it back in the Spring), my USB port is on a PCI card Bryan loaned me, and my computer was bought off an International Student back home. All in all, I’ve got a pretty ramshackle set up here. Running on dumb luck, as per usual.
I guess that’s one thing my computer and I have in common, right? Both running through the Monday 1/2 functional on 80% dumb luck and 20% battery power.
I’m going to recharge mine now.

HOW MANY MILES?

I shouldn't be blogging right now. I've only got about 10 minutes until I need to be rushing out the door, but it's monday and we're all late anyway.
I can't go into all the details of this weekend's trip, but suffice to say that we hiked 13 miles there, crashed, woke up and poked around the city, then meandered back home. I didn't blog last night because, as you can imagine, I was dead tired. Tiff turned her ankle again, and is wandering around with a brace on. I made several interesting discoveries, like the fact that dew lasts till noon, they have hedgehogs here, there are many many canadians here, the Regensburg flea market (fluhmarkt in German, I think) is every saturday, and people retire to campgrounds for some reason.
Anyway, it was a nice hike. My feet are killing me, but it was fun wandering through all the little towns having their Weinfests (Wine-Fest. just what it sounds like, apparently a regional holiday). I'll tell you when I've uploaded the pictures, then you'll get to see everything else from the last week or so too.
I am soo late for class.

Plans and Maps

First off, there's more new pics up. Check it out. I'm almost caught up to the present. This set has the visit to Nurnburg on it, including the Terra Cotta army and other fun things.
I've gotten a little behind on things, as you've noticed. There's really not much of an excuse for it, I've just not really gotten around to it.
Yesterday was spent doing homework. Lots of homework. I'm glad it's all off my mind and out of the way now, but after listening to my German CD for the sixteenth time I was getting rather impatient. I think it was north German actors trying to do a Bavarian accent and failing miserably. It made absolutely no sense. I pieced something together that sounded close to right.
I also finished reading Life in a Medieval City, which was a great book. I'm 1/2 immersed in the whole Medieval culture thing anyway, but I've never gotten so a clear look at every aspect of a town. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I think that when I get back to the states I'm going to have to buy the set off Amazon, if I can get it cheap.
About the camping...

That's the route. Once we're across the river, we have to walk the rest of the way (about 5 miles). We could just pay the extra penny and ride the bus all the way there, but Tiff wants a scenic hike, so we're just following the shoreline.
By the way, the town in the middle right, Prufening, is one of our art excursions. There's a Monastary out there that we're visiting. The little building across the river from where we're staying is Walhalla (see earlier posts and pics).
So, now you know. Thanks to the regensburg RVV for providing me with the map.
Our bus we were trying to catch leaves in 15 minutes. I guess we're catching the 10:30 now. Tiff had another migraine this morning, which has slowed things down considerably. at this rate she's going to be out of medication by mid-October.
Here's the tentative plan for the next few weekend trips, while I'm thinking of it:

Friday 9/24-26: Schwarzwald (the Black Forest)
Friday 10/01-03: Vienna (or Trier?)
Friday 10/08-10: Berlin
Friday 10/15-17: (other option for Vienna or Trier, whichever we don't do on 10/1).
Friday 10/22-24: EURORAIL ACTIVATES (we'll be far, far away)
Friday 10/29-11/07: FALL BREAK! Tour of Italy (Rome is definite, more details coming)

Like I said, that's all very tentative. Berlin's a planned excursion, so the whole group will be going on it. Vienna is Tiff and Lisa's big thing, we're going to see the Lippizan Stallions. Whatever. I'm going to see Vienna.
Now you know. I'm going to go pack, eat, and get ready to hike.

A Real Stammtisch

Their Stammtisch kicks our Stammtisch's butt.
There were probably 50 people there tonight, Tiff think's closer to a hundred, all in a room no larger than 25X25 feet. One of the guys we met counted off 12 different nationalities at one point, and I imagine others moved in and out of the crowd. I know I spoke to an Austrian, a German, a Canadian, a Frenchman, a Romanian, and sorta-talked to a Brazilian. And Americans, of course. Tiff, Lisa, Kristen, and I all went.
Quite a blast.
So incredibly doing it again next week.
I've been up doing laundry all night, and it's a good thing I don't have class tomorrow, because I'm going to be asleep until noon.

Things I've Learned This Week

I'm probably going to have to go in reverse order here to remember them all, but it's been a productive week.
1)Don't grab things out of the oven barehanded.
2)If cheese stays out overnight, don't eat it anyway, even if it still looks ok.
3)Don't drop an egg straight into a pan and try to scramble it, it doesn't work.
4)German forecasters are worse than American ones.
5)I don't do open spaces and heights at the same time.
6)Sandstone+pollution=bye-bye cathedral.
7)Everything is farther away than you think and on the "second light on the left"
8)Instant pasta rocks.
9)There are no marshmallows in Germany.

So, let me try and briefly explain. Why briefly? because my fingers are burned, making typing difficult.
1)Self explanatory. Tiff said "hold this," I said "ok." I didn't notice she was holding it with a pot holder. Valid detail. My hands have racing stripes now. In her defense, she told me not to, I just didn't react fast enough (surprise!).
2)I fed Tiff cheese I left out overnight. She's not doing so well now. Use your imaginations (And yes, btw, I am still in the doghouse for it).
3)see previous post, "egg-explosion-sandwich"
4)yeah, they tell me it's going to rain all day, it's sunny. They tell me sun, it rains. I've given up on the German weather forecasters for now.
I think all the other ones are covered in previous posts, and my hands are really killing me, so I'm gonna take a break now. Tonight's Stammtish 2 (Int'l group, remember?) and I don't know if we're camping tomorrow night or not. I'll try and get one more note off before I go.
Now, I must seek ice.

Dork factor 9

Our Art History class rocks. We're taking an excursion once a week, and our professor is writing a thesis on Medieval Illuminations. She thinks she can get us to see the original pieces she's working on! Our only assignments are a journal and an essay, which I guess can either be good or bad (those who have had a grade hinge on two assignments know my fear). But the places she wants to take us! wow. She seems to know every artisan in Bavaria. Yay!
I'm such a dork.
This was increased when I saw the rest of the library. The "rest" is a relative term, I guess. I still haven't seen every nook and cranny of it, but I found out that the department libraries are massive. The history/philosophy one is easily as big as Murray's entire library. I think I might have drooled a little there. I know I'm going to be spending quite a bit more time there, now that I've found it.

ATOMized

yeah... so I had a RSS/Atom feed and didn't even know it. Here's my Site Feed, I've also stuck a link in the sidebar, along with a couple of others. I'm still figuring out this whole process, but Firefox makes it a heck of a lot easier. So if anyone knows what I'm talking about here, give it a try. I think you just might like it.
There's more information available at XML.com and a reader (for those of you that still haven't got Firefox) at feedreader.com. I haven't tried the reader out yet, but it sounds pretty straightforward. Please let me know of any problems that come up.

Egg Explosion Sandwich

Yeah, I learned today why you scramble eggs in a seperate container and then add them to the pan. I, in all my infinite wisdom, decided to shortcut around that seperate container. I ended up with a sorta-sunny-side-up mess. I quickly scrambled it around with one hand (it was burning) while grabbing whatever the nearest container was, cracking an egg in it, and mixing it with a fork with the other. I felt pretty good about my little manuever, until I realized I'd forgotten the toast. So I dumped the egg into the egg and made a run for it. Nothing burned, and I had myself a half-scrambled-half-sunny-side-tornado Egg-Explosion Sandwich.
Yum.

FF1.0!

GET FIREFOX 1.0!
The new update rocks. I just got MSUracers RSS feed directly on my browser, so now I can waste even more time there. I'm kicking around the idea of making a feed for this site, but haven't really had the time. I'll scope it out more this weekend.
Just wanted to share a little dorkiness.

Subconscious Sludge

"Some friars needed to raise more money for books for the school, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds.

Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good brothers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him.

So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop.

Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that 'Only Hugh can prevent florist friars.'"

Thank Crystal for that little bit of amusement. I'm reading Joseph and Frences Gies's Life in a Medieval City, so the joke seemed twice as funny.
What can I say? I've got the medieval life on the brain.
But I'll spare you the details of that one for now. Those that take an interest in my ponderings can reap the benefit when I get back to Murray, and the rest can be spared the boredom and rolling of eyes.
Not that today was that much more exciting. We're not going to the Bodensee because our group's not going to the Bodensee, and the group rate was what made the trip so attractive. We might try again later.
I had Apfel Strudel for lunch today. Same name (almost), but a slightly different product. Picture the "American" product with less breading, raisens of some sort, and what we think was some sort of cream-cheese. Lots of cream cheese.
It was good, it was just not what I'd consider an entree. I think my dentist is going to have a few more cavities to clean if I keep eating like that.
Andreas, our German Culture teacher, broke it to us that there are no marshmallows in this country. We don't think we can camp without them, but we're going to try. On the bright side, we do have hot dogs.
Tomorrow we're going to get to meet some more of the international students. The University's Int'l student group meets on Thursday nights for their Stammtisch and we're going to join them. We're not really sure what we're getting into there, but at least it'll involve new people.
The colorado group all piled into the room above me again. They've quieted down a little, thank God.
I think that's about everything. My head's full of German and misc. Medieval knowledge, so I'm going to go to bed and let it turn into a strange subconscious sludge. I think Oskar's still tapping around in there somewhere, too.
Oh, that reminds me. Heather, please don't buy an old beat up red Chevy, it'd kill your grandfather.

footnotes

Tiff pretty much covered the Dom tour, thank goodness. I still don't have my states and capitals down. 16 names, half of them compound names, and the capitals, and the rivers and history. I'm good with the history. The rivers I've pretty much got down. The lil political boundaries are getting me.
Oh, and I didn't climb to the very tip top (only another 20-30 feet from the scaffolding) because it involved a large, open air spiral staircase. I tried to get halfway up it and got dizzy beyond belief. I like solid ground. The scaffolding was pretty impressive, too. It's a little walkway that they love taking pictures of here. It's on quite a few of their promos. I don't have time to find you a link, though, because I'm still cramming, and I've gotta get breakfast.
Stammtisch (evening gathering) was nice, we met all the KIIS people. It turns out that Elena's the only one from MSU. There's 2 from Western KY and the rest are from UK. We didn't really get to talk much because there was a soccer game blaring in the whole place, and because there's about 20 people between the two groups. But I imagine we'll see them again.
That's pretty much the evening. Tiff covered the day pretty well, I guess. That's all the notes I have on it.

Mondays with Oskar

Monday, Monday.
I wonder sometimes if it's always had that feeling to it. Today was bittersweet, actually. We got new classes, which was interesting. Humanities went about like you'd expect a Humanities class to go. I passionately discussed my views on Grass's novel, connecting dots as we moved from question to question. Tiff offered typically extensive counterpoints with her own unique tone.
I made a B on my first German test. Not an A, but close. Most of the mistakes were the usual dumb errors. I got all the thinks I was afraid of missing right.
Having finished the Tin Drum, I'm already itching for a new read. We're discussing the Tin Drum again on wednesday, then I think we discuss some short stories monday or wednesday. I don't lead a discussion until 2 weeks from today, as far as I can tell. Which means I could go ahead and read all the material now, then reread it, but I'm afraid laziness would set in later and I wouldn't get the re-read done. So as a preventative measure, I'm being lazy now.
Elvis rode the bus with us again today. He's not talking to us anymore. He just gives us puppy dog (hound dog?) eyes and asks a couple of Germans his usual litany. He struck up a conversation with one of them today. I get the feeling most of the town knows Elvis.
There are beggers in Regensburg, also. I encountered some on Friday and again today, I just had neglected to mention it before now. Like the ones I saw in Paris and Florence, the beggers here sit crouched on the ground, holding their hands up or raising a cup silently. They add to the somber mood that's dominated this city since the clouds rolled in.
Did I mention the weather before now? It started raining saturday night and continued through sunday, and the clouds just never left. It's not wet anymore, just bedeckt (German word for cloudy, I like it).
For those of you that didn't know it, Germany's divided into 16 states. These states (listed here compliments of about.com) and their capitals all come from much earlier historical regions. I'm telling you all this because (1) I'm starting to recognize the differences between the various regions and (2)I have to learn the states and capitals for a test on wednesday.
Feel my pain.
So I have the 16 lande floating around my mind, with a few of their capitals attempting to connect. Little Oskar from the Tin Drum is clattering around up there, trying to help me navigate through his insanity. I'm really trying to shake him out. I get the feeling that Voltaire and Fredrick Douglas and Kafka are just going to further gum up the works.
That's what I get, right?

Just Rushing Through

I'm cutting it close this morning. I didn't get a chance to blog last night because we underestimated our homework load. I finished all the homework, but didn't get a chance to tell you about yesterday.
So, quickly, here's the highlights:
We went to Mass at the Dom. That was educational. The boy's choir sang beautifully, and it was impressive to see the church in it's functional form, but I felt very much like the people of the middle ages must have: lost, confused, and slightly overwhelmed. Like the people of the middle ages, whose priests spoke latin, I had no clue what these priests were telling me. They spoke German, and aside from catching on to a couple of scriptures (like the Lord's Prayer), I was at a bit of a loss.
Still, it was an interesting service. I've read about most of the things we saw in it before, but it was different to see them firsthand. I wanted to murder the guy next to me snapping pictures.
I finished the Tin Drum that afternoon. Voltaire's Candide is next, along with a short story or three.
Now I've really got to go. I have to cook up pancakes for breakfast since we're out of cereal.

Tin Drum, Tin Hitlers, Ten People, Ten Hours

I went on a major trip to Nurnberg today, which means I'll accidently leave large portions of it out. Reflecting on these things is always difficult to get started. I have to move through the day backwards, like an old VCR rewinding, then move through it again the right way. It's awkward, I wish I could just roll it all out for you as it happens. But then I'd be Hemingway, and you'd have no descriptions.
I pile my things all into my bag. I have 2 liters of water, Nutella and Peanut Butter to go on the bread we’ll buy for lunch, paper and pen, extra clothes, all my ID and student info, money, and the Tin Drum.
We meet up with the rest of the group (all 9 students) and pile on the crowded Nurnberg bus, Track 5. Dr. Griffin's there as well, on his own ticket but still heading to Nurnburg. Tiff and I spend the hour long with Matt and Natalie. Actually, Matt and Natalie end up across the aisle and behind the Brits that Tiff and I end up sitting directly with. The Brittish couple is old, and they both talk slow and quietly about absolutely nothing for the first stretch of the trip. The conversation dies down, I imagine they’ve both heard enough of each others’ voices while traveling, and the man pulls out a French paper. For several minutes he adjusts his coke-bottle glasses, wiggles his nose, squints at his French newspaper (I don't know why it's French, but it was), then adjusts his glasses again. Combined with his wild-gray hair, he looks very much like a wild grey hare. I smirk at the image and continue to watch the gradually hillier countryside out my very large window. After a while in silence, he goes into a brief tirade over how Tony Blair associates with that fascist President Bush, and how frighteningly easy it was for Bush to hood-wink all of America into falling into such fascism. He goes on for a while as his companion watches the countryside and, after about the fourth “mhm,” slips back into silence.
In Nurnberg we wander out of the bus station, nine again and slightly lost. We’d seen Dr. Griffin at the train station, but he’s got a much better handle on traveling than we do. So we follow signs, double back, and follow them some more. Eventually we end up at the tourist center, where we grab maps and split up. We’ll reconvene there later.
Tiff and I head for the Industry Museum. There a replica of the Terra Cotta Army of China is standing. We came to Eastern Europe and now we’ll see the Far East. Whatever.
The hike was long. About a half hour up the road at a brisk pace, we’re there.
The Terra Cotta figures were accompanied by bits of relics, but pretty much stole the show. Even the tiny display is impressive. Each warrior is his own person, stylized after local heroes and national ones. Every man is an individual, yet all of them together defend the emperor.
I took tons of pictures before wandering on.
We went through the school-house exhibit and the motorcycle exhibit in the museum also. The schoolhouse was fascinating, but not really overwhelming. Once again, period relics were neat to see, but I didn’t learn too much from it. The motorcycles didn’t interest either of us very much, but it was an impressive display. There we also saw Dr. Griffin briefly, but then moved on.
A long hike back brought us by a closed museum that was also on our pass and then down into the local flea market. There the entire city seemed for sale. Block after block was filled with everything imaginable. I bought a hideous mug that’s built like a brick and a couple of touristy bits for the people back home (no specifics there, you’ll have to see for yourselves!). We ate bread in the shadow of the Church of Our Lady, ducked inside for a quick peek, drank a lot of water, then climbed Nurnberg’s atrociously steep hill to peer out over the city.
What a view! It was worth the sore feet and frazzled nerves to get up to the top. Nurnberg’s Imperial Fortress was well placed and gorgeous. It’s a shame we opted out of going inside, but our schedule and our pocketbooks were both too tight for it.
So down we went, first into St. Sebaldus Church. St. Sebaldus was pretty, and amazingly well restored since getting battered nearly to rubble during WWII. St. Sebaldus himself is still there in a rather large ash box or a rather small coffin, I’m not sure which.
From there we toured the home of the medieval artist Albert Durer (there’s an umlaut on that “u”, but I can’t figure out how to put one in). If we’d gotten there 45 minutes earlier we could have had a live tour, but we didn’t, so we were stuck with the audio tapes. They also had really neat looking palm pilot tours, but they were going to be 14 Euro. The tapes were free and worth every penny we spent on them. I took off the stupid thing halfway through. After a twenty minute film that gave most of Durer’s life story, the tour writers apparently ran out of things to say and just started repeating the same stories in different ways. The machines worked on some kind of radio frequency, so they were mostly static as you walked around the rooms. The art was nice, and I can appreciate Durer’s contribution to Humanist thought as well as the impression of medieval life that his works have given us, but I’d rather view the pieces without an explanation over a CB radio.
In the toy museum, Tiff and I both snapped off a couple of illegal pictures before they told us they’re not allowed. It’s a shame, the pieces they have in there are amazing. If you can imagine the toy, they’ve got one. Little tin Hitlers, H-Man, trains, dolls, and wooden models of the city are all there alongside board games and clever metal devices. I was in heaven, but only briefly. We had used up most of the day by then (a good portion of it walking) and met the rest of our companions for dinner.
Ladies and Gentlemen, get yourselves a Nurnburger Brat if you ever get the chance. This brat rocks. It’s a delightful little sausage-sized one, brown and soft, and it has some of the best flavor I’ve ever tasted. It’s almost sweet, and very… I don’t know. Good. Rich, flavorful, but not overwhelming. Just a tasty little brat.
The sauerkraut that came with it was good as well. A pair of Germans sharing our table wished me a good nights sleep once I finished off my portion and started working on Tiffany’s. I’m beginning to see what they meant.
Another train ride, which should have cost extra but didn’t because the ticket guy was too amused, brought us sleepily home. It’s really still early as far as Saturday night is concerned, but we’ve all walked way too much today. Tiff and I shot straight for home, and I suspect the others did as well. I’ve read too much of the tin drum, I think it might be adjusting my psyche. I’m almost through with it, though, so I can spend tomorrow on the website discussing it. You can’t see those discussions, they’re on a closed school site, but if I ever get into anything extremely juicy, I’ll let you know.
Oh yeah, I filled the memory card up again today. 250 more pictures. That makes a total of about 500 waiting to be uploaded for ya. I hope you can see them soon.

I miss the FDA

I ate a chicken Embryo. Or just a Zygote. Tiff's going to crack one open and look for the little dot. I didn't let her see the batch I scrambled until after the matter.
Thanks, grandmom, for clearing that up for me. Tiff said she doesn't think it's going to kill me. I'm glad to hear it, because death by Zygotes is so much worse than most of the ways I can imagine going out.
"the egg yolks are orange because a rooster lives in the hen house" may stick in my mind forever.
Baby Chicken.
It tasted good.
Ew.

My laptop needs an exorcist

I think I might have thrown my computer into some new form of demon possession. It half locked up when I turned it on, wouldn't type, then tried to "update bios" on a reboot. It's running a little slow now, but otherwise ok. I'm going to try to clean off a little space (which I've got to do for Tiff's pictures anyway) and run a viroscan.
Tiff and I walked around 5 miles today to get her a card reader for her camera. Amusingly enough, it came with a cable that will also fit her camera. All this cost about $20, which beats the heck out of the $35 Olympus replacement. If Olympus didn't have to make their own memory, it'd be even cheaper, but hey, it was a fun walk and we got 2 cheap CDs (1 Euro, about $1.25) there too.
Anyway, I've gotta run. We're going to Nurnberg tomorrow, so I may not get a chance to tell you about it until sunday. I hope you can wait.

Could some one Please tell me...

...why the egg yolks here are orange?!!

and now for a little self indulgent chatter

I'm going to start throwing things out the window. Each night a cloud of smoke (some cigar, some cigarette) rises up from the cafe below me. It's accompanied by bits of conversation I'm either too tired or too incoherent to attempt to translate but must hear until two or three in the morning. I think these people never sleep. I see why the coffee's so popular, though.
I'm in the third section of Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum and not wholly put off by it. Tiff's developed a passionate disdain for the book, but I've been impressed by its oddities. It's still disturbing, and I still don't think I could stand to read more than 5 chapters in a single setting, but it's not torture either. You'll get to hear more about that once Humanities starts up.
So, that's all my classes. Humanities, Art, German, and Culture. Quite a Liberal Arts spread, isn't it? It's strange not having a Creative Writing class or a Technical Writing class (both of which have accompanied each semester of my college career), but CW especially requires the occasional break.
I write here because I enjoy writing, not just out of habit. The itch is there, though, and always will be. I write. I may not do it well, I know I don't always do it properly, but I do it with relentless fervor. Even when I'm not writing, I find myself lost in thought about how I would describe my setting or a particular sight. Today's trip to the Dom reminded me of that. Much like you can never capture all of a cathedral on film, it's impossible to capture it in writing. I could describe the once-white, now-gray stone contrasted by the gold and glass that shine as bright as they did the day they were installed, I can describe the gargoyles and the saints, but I can't bring you there.
That's just something each of you will have to do for yourselves.
And I hope this blog is giving you the desire to do so. I like to think I'm touching some little bit of interest with these great word heaps, and not just intimidating you with volumes of reading or boring you with my incessant babble. Tonight I'm being self-indulgent, but hey, it's my blog too.
Thanks for catering to me.
I'm going to sleep now, I have a test in 10 hours. Tomorrow may be brief, but Sunday/Monday I'll have Nurnburg stories, a scavenger hunt, and maybe some fresh pictures finally uploaded (the server's still evil, but Sunday might bring about a conversion).

Cathedral Tour

yeah, trying to hit the highlights of this one before I forget it all.
The Cathedral of St. Peter (Dom St. Peter or, in Regensburg often just "the Dom") is one of only 3 Classically Gothic cathedrals outside of France . The other two are in Cologne and Prague. It was worked on from the 1270 until the 19th century. 60% of its original stained glass windows are intact. Ludwig funded the cathedral spires, another celebration of his favorite things about Germany and his jubilant spending of money.
You probably know that Gothic cathedrals were built to represent the jeweled and white walls of heaven. The Dom has representations of stained glass from the toweled through 19th centuries, and covers most of the stories of the bible and lives of choice saints. One also shows a blue donkey (Mary's riding it to Egypt), the long-sought secret of many-a-scavenger hunt.
Besides the sheer size of the cathedral, another reason it took so long to build was the lack of funds. Most of it was built by private donations (Regensburg's a trade city, remember?). At some point Bavaria became a Lutheran state, leaving the Catholics with significantly less income.
The outside is equally diverse, its western facade going through most of the stages of art history.
On an amusing note, not only do St. George and St. Martin guard the door to the Cathedral, Satan and his Grandmother also hide in the corners.
All in all, the Dom is one of the most studied cathedrals in the world. It's been taken apart nearly block by block. There have been thousands of artisans identified with the church, including over a thousand stone masons identified by their mason's marks.
Adjacent to the cathedral is a small monastery that was converted into a tomb for the various bishops and wealthy donors. In the heart of it is a private sanitary that was once covered in 12th century frescos. No more, since a 1950's group decided to clean them off and accidently destroyed them.

On a personal note, I was thrilled to finally get a chance to poke around in here, and even more thrilled to learn that next week we get to climb the towers! Our tour guide will also be our teacher for the Hon 164 (Fine Arts, now declared "art history") class, which means we definitely have an expert guide to the art history here. It'll be great, but I think I'm in for a challange.

Gah, there's so much more, but I'm out of time. Dinner's ready, and I have to study. I'll try and give you more information another time. Other than that, enjoy the new pics.

Not just for pidgeons

So I walked into another window today. The Uni, as you've probably seen in my various photos, is made in great, modern style. In other words, it's almost all glass and concrete. So the floor to ceiling windows that give the face of the Uni such a smooth-edged shine also look identical to the doors propped open. They're all highly polished and clear as the Baverian air that I'm just now coming to appreciate. But windows right beside doors should not be so clear.
At least there weren't any local students around to talk about it.
I'm going to try to upload more pics now. I'll tell you tonight if it works. I've got a tour of Dom St. Peter, so hopefully it will.

Fairy tales, black ties, and Elvis

I’m actually writing in the Semester in Regensburg office today instead of my usual spot at the foot of the bed or the kitchen table. Last night’s lame post has been gnawing at the back of my mind. Ya’ll deserve at least a little better than that, after all. And I was a little tired, but mostly lazy.
So now I’ve just finished German 201 for the day. We have our first of 4 tests (not counting the final) this Friday. Since our tests are 1/3 of our grade, that makes this something like 6 or 7 percent of it. The difference in an A and a B, most likely. So I’m a little worried about it.
On the bright side, we’re learning the vocabulary for Märchen (fairy tales). I had always wondered where Rumpelstilzchen had gotten his name, now I know. The German Kobold (mischievous gnome/hobgoblin is about the best translation) spells his name a little differently, but I suspect there’s a meaning that we never brought over in the translation (like Schneewittchen – snow white—who actually got her name translated when Grimms came to English). I’m eager to get a copy of Grimms’ Fairy Tales in German, preferably the old German it was originally written in. Tiff’s not quite as enthusiastic about this little quest of mine, but I might just get one off the German Amazon.de and get it before I have to pay overseas shipping. I might be able to find one in the states, but I imagine it’d be cheaper here. We’ll see.
I’m off track, I was trying to tell you about yesterday.
Stammtisch was nice. I talked my German teacher’s ear off in my poor German/Denglish (Deutsch+English=Denglish), stumbling my way through most of the average bits of conversation. I managed to once again bumble out “ich habe keine Anzug” (“I have no suit”) instead of “Ich habe keine Anjung” (“I have no idea”). I’m going to break myself of that weird slip if it kills me, but in the meantime everyone can have a good laugh at my confusion. They got more of a laugh when I tried to say “Schwartz kravatte” (black tie) and instead said “Schwartz Kartoffeln” (black potato).
Live and learn, right?
Tiff and I are still hunting for a card reader that reads XD memory. Of the three Photoshops in Altstadt, only one carries them. The guy I talked to last week about one (before we had any money to try and purchase it) said they had one, but another man told us yesterday that they didn’t have any. His English wasn’t very good, and since I can’t say “XD Card Reader” in German I’m not sure he connected all the English we gave him. We’re going to try and go back today to talk to the fluent salesman. I may try and look up a few German phrases on it if that fails.
We’re still trying to make plans for this weekend. Each time Tiff gets to looking for prices to stay in Nurnburg she ends up looking somewhere else. I suspect it’s a subtle hint about her opinion on the trip, but since the group is now planning on just a day trip, all Tiff and I have to do is agree on something to see. Given our tastes, that might not be as easy as I had thought.
I wonder how Aschenputtel got translated into Cinderella. Or whether that’s a double-translation and Aschenputtel is a translation of our word. I guess it sort of makes since: Ashcen is similar to Cinders, which would imply her role under the oppressive step mother. I wonder what puttel translates as… well, putzen’s “to clean,” so it could have once been something along the ways of Ash-cleaner. Heh. That’s mildly amusing, even if it has no factual basis. Just a little idle pondering.
Yesterday, right.
What else did we do yesterday? Kaffeestunden. That’s our afternoon meeting over Coffee, which is the fuel that keeps more than half our group going each day. Kaffeestunden had a few minor announcements, none of which will seem of much significance to you. I’m going on a scavenger hunt Sunday, assuming I’m not back in Nurnburg. If I do go on the hunt (which is most likely, since I’ll be returning to Nurnburg in late November/early December for the Christmas festivities), I’ll take pictures of each goal. I don’t think it was written to be a photo-scavenger hunt (which I think has always sounded like fun, and is more plausible now that digital cameras are cheap), but I’m turning it into one.
I’ve got 250 or so pictures on my camera that I’ll upload as soon as I figure out how to. The image server’s being a little stubborn at the moment. I think I over-stuffed it already, and so it’s load time has slowed down to the point that ie times out every time it tries to connect. That’s just a theory, though. Once again, no factual basis. I hope to have that problem solved by this weekend, though, because I’ve got to label or rename all these pictures. With the Dom St. Peter tour tomorrow I’m going to have plenty to label.
I also need to pick out a photo for the picture contest. One’s due on the 12th, which is…Sunday! I hadn’t realized how soon that was. Ick. I’ll have to find some quick. I’m not sure about all the details, but I know I can win $100, $50, or $25 much-needed dollars. Every bit helps.
By the way, there’s a paypal link coming, too. Those of you feeling extra generous, feel free to donate to this educational adventure. It is, of course, totally optional, but you’ll get the added benefit of me gushing gratitude in your direction as often as possible.
Just a cheap plug there. :D
Well, it’s almost lunch time, but I think I have time for one more little story. Let me tell you about Elvis. That’s right, Elvis.
Elvis rides the bus with us at least once a week. Usually two or three times. He’s a stout man, maybe 2 inches taller than me, always in a yellow jacket. He’s not exactly the cleanest fellow, and his eyes are a little sunken in from either too much stress or too many adventures. His hair is greased back in a somewhat American-Elvis like way. I’m not sure if it’s an intentional association or not.
Elvis introduced himself to us a couple of days after we were in town. “Amerikanish, yes?” he asked, then promptly launched into the decent, German-accented English that everyone here learns in Middle and High School. “Money for a phone call? Euro-fifty? Kannst du spare change for a phone call?”
We gently refused, wondering how he paid the Euro-sixty bus fee or afforded the 15 Euro bus pass.
Since that day, we’ve spotted Elvis around most of town, and often on our bus. He watches us now, but I don’t think he’s asked us for money again. It seems like he gets off on our stops, though, and we think his daily circuit has overlapped with ours.
I hesitate to call Elvis a bum. I don’t think he’s homeless, and bum’s just one of those terms with too many connotations. I’m not sure what to classify him as, but he’s definitely unique. There is a lack of homeless people in this city, and even the meaner-looking street-dwellers aren’t as rough as ours back home. His brooding silence is disconcerting, but I think it’s a sign of the rule-abiding formality ingrained in this place. We didn’t offer him any money, so he’s going to respect that and not force the issue. It’s like he’s accepted his role, and will go on riding the bus each day, possibly asking other Americans for money.
Whatever his lot, Elvis is a strange fellow to ride the bus with each morning.

Every well runs dry

yeah, so everyone's all thrilled with my blog and all the stuff I've piled in here. So what happens? I sit here tonight and stare at a blank screen until my eyes fry. plenty happened today (for example, I discovered that nutella + Peanut Butter becomes close to a reese's cup. Also, I had a nice chat with my professor at our group's evening get-togethers), but I'm just too fried to talk about it. I guess the coffee just wore off too fast today. I'll make it up to you tomorrow.
By the way, I think I already told you, but I'll mention it again. Check out the new pics page (bottom of links column).

You really do care!

I was gushing at the various comments I've gotten on my little site today when I realized how few images you've gotten to see. So I sat down and made myself a little time and now you have a picture page along with a new header. That's the old stone bridge I told you about on the city tour a few posts ago ("1/3 nutshell"), and the quote is from a German author (I think). If you can't read it (I'm trying to clear that up), it says: "Many a day have I devoted to this ancient city's inexhaustible delights, if only I had a year to spend here, a decade, or a lifetime." It's really only one sentence in German, but I'm pretty sure it's a comma splice in English. Still, it's a nice quote, and sums up Regensburg pretty well.
There really is nothing like a medieval city. I live in an old lord's manor, rival of the lord whose tall home now houses a junk shop. Right down the road is the 16th century merchant house, Goldener Turm, also now a dorm. it's really pretty remarkable to look back on this entire city and realize that, though it's had a great history on its own, the great turnings of the world have left it virtually unscathed. No bombs dropped from Allied planes to smash some Nazi secret, no Turks burned or pilliaged its busy streets. Regensburg has just bided its time on the Danube, hosting merchants since the Romans built it.
Pretty impressive.

I'll try and link some pics directly to here once I get them sorted.

feeling clumsy

So, yeah, Tiff wrote before I did today. That's ok, really. It gives me a chance to not think as much, which is always good when you've had to use your brain as much as I feel like I have.
Yeah, you guessed it. German 201's still giving me headaches. I'm managing though. Der Whiskymixer mixt Whisky-Der Whiskymixer mixt Whisky-Der Whiskymixer mixt Whisky. I've got to say that and 5 other tongue twisters tomorrow. I hate tongue twisters. That's why I'm a writer, not a speaker. But I guess I can't write all the time.
Too bad.
The bees here were out to get me today. I accidently injured one at lunch, and it spent the rest of the time clumsily circling me, trying to figure out which end to sting me with. Then another one attacked me while I was getting a picture of the university's wierd architecture/modern art. I fled.
Tiff already told you about our mexican. We're going to have to work harder next time. My roommate told me Peppers, in Heidplatz, serves mexican. It looked distinctly italian to me, but he's the native. I'm going to scout it out tomorrow.
I've come to greatly appreciate my CD's since I came over here with only 8 of them: I have the Dazed and Confused soundtrack, the X-Files Movie soundtrack, Barenakedladies Greatest Hits, BNL's Stunt, B.B. King's Greatest Hits, Miles Davis, Count Bassie, and Audio Adrenaline's Some Kind of Zombie. Then I've got my "work mix," 8 hours of single tracks from various mix cds plus an entire Doors album. It's keeping me comfortable while all the German's listen to disturbingly American pop (Justin Timberlake and Beyonce). They seem to think it's Hip-Hop, which is even stranger. I guess it's just something mixed up in the transfer.
Speaking of mixed up, the picture page is half-up. It's not exactly what I'd envisioned, but it's there. http://mikehopper.tzo.com . The first pictures were taken by one of the professors, mine are in the dated folder(s). I've got an html index that has the pictures labelled, but I don't have anywhere to put it yet. I've also got another half a card that I'll be uploading soon.
Now it's time for sleep.

I got my Ruby Slippers back

Ding-dong, the virus died, the wicked virus died!
Thank you, Jared, for sending me to windows update for the patch. I really should have thought of that on my own, but probably never would have. Live and learn, right?
That’s been the motto this week, really. With Tiff having to adjust to life without peanut butter and our classmates finding out that German beer is renowned world-wide for a reason, we’ve all accumulated our own little life lessons. Me, I’ve learned a few significant things I didn’t think I would have…

1. Iron skillets are not Teflon. Treat them with the respect they deserve, and let them get good and hot before using them.


2. When the train says it leaves at 12:45, it means it.


3. People in mobs really do get dumber, and meaner.


4. Keep a flexible schedule, you never know when you’re going to have to change it.


5. Always keep at least 5-10 Euro extra.

Yes, all those are stories from today, actually. I cooked Weissbrats (white-brats, these little hot-dog sized pork things that really are white, and are pretty bland on their own) in an iron skillet tonight and buttered up the cold skillet, rather than letting it heat first. After trying to clean that mess, I don’t think I’ll be doing that again for a while. The brats were good, though. I seasoned them with a lot of paprika and a little meat seasoning which, as best I can tell, includes more paprika, pepper, oregano, and some other stuff.
The train story is pretty self-explanatory. We went to the monastery today, and Dr. Griffin chose “volunteers” to get through each step of the way. Lisa picked out our train, Liz found the track to it, Chris Heck (I can’t just call him Chris H, since that’d be me as well, though I don’t refer to myself in the third person often) made sure it was the right train, and then we had to wait on Griffin to bring us our tickets. We got on, and it rolled off, right on time. I had visions the entire way of what would have happened if any one of us had gotten confused. Since Griffin had gone to get the tickets, we would’ve been seriously up a creek by the time he found us. Luckily, it wasn’t an issue.
The mob. We rode our train to a bus, our bus to a dock. There, at the dock, was the mob Apparently this monastery is The Place to spend the weekend. We fought through a crowd of people bigger than I’ve seen at most concerts. And they were aggressive, too! Tiff and I were holding hands and this huge woman wedged herself right between us. She continued to press me and Tiff’s arms to the point that Tiff was afraid she was going to have hers broken off. The old woman ploughed us the whole way. She was part of a senior citizens tour, and I have nothing against the aged, but this pack just happened to be mean. And the more of them that got there, the meaner the group got. I wish my German had been better, because I know we got some snide remarks. I tried to look as harmless and non-descript as possible because I wasn’t going to get into a fight with an old lady over my spot on a boat.
So half our group ended up on the first boat, the other half on the second. We managed to bend our schedule around enough to shuffle through most of the monastery. It was a good thing we only bent it a little because on the way back we had to fight an equally large, though less aggressive, mob. I was lucky they were less aggressive, because I found out halfway to the boat that I’d lost my ticket somewhere in the crowd. So I had to bum money off Tiff (I had 3 Euro left, the ticket was 3.80) to get back. She told me I could swim (it was downstream, after all), but then had pity. Yeah, that’s where lesson 5 comes in. Glad you’ve been paying attention.
So we got on the boat and got to watch the professors stand on the shoreline as we sailed off. This time they had to catch the second boat.
What can I say about the monastery? They brew the world’s oldest brew there, and have been doing it since 1050. I didn’t have any, and I didn’t notice anyone in our group with any, either. However, it is available all over town, so I imagine most of them are sampling it now. Me? I have an espresso to help me stay awake for the next hour to do German homework.
6AM’s going to get here awful early, but if I didn’t tell you all this now, I’d surely forget.
Oh, dad’s got the image server up, so I’ll get pics up soon. I just need a few free minutes.
Another of my suitemates has moved in. I think his name is Martl, but I’m not entirely sure. He’s certainly friendly, but we didn’t get to talk much. He’s a physics major, and is in for a 4-week practicum. I think he’s a master’s student, but I’m not entirely sure. Like I’ve mentioned earlier, it seems like everyone here is a few years ahead of us. Most college students start around age 16-17, and thus finish their undergrad by 20-21. Me? I’ll be 23, most likely. Hopefully it won’t take any longer than that.
Just another little difference, I guess. Another thing to learn, adapt to, and absorb.

Catching up

Yeah, so I fixed it, what've I forgotten to tell you?
I guess we'll start with yesterday's tour.
The Altes Rathaus has been in use forever. There was an "everlasting imperial assembly" that met there until the 19th century, and most of the stuff there was, naturally, theirs. The torture chamber was, well, a torture chamber. The 5 degrees, the screen-wall for the judges/nobles, and all that Jazz. Those of you interested in that sort of thing probably know all about it already. Those that don't, well, don't. Read a book.
The jail-cells were actually quite nice by medieval standards. They had privvies (via a hole in the ground) and people were rarely kept in them long. Regensburg in general seems to have had only a moderately active judicial branch. There certainly wasn't an inquisition here, anyway. No witch trials, either.
I forgot most of the tour between then and now, though, so I'm not sure how much help I can be. But the pics are nice, and will probably evoke a little commentary, once I get them up (tomorrow, mayhaps?).
As you've heard, I've been fighting what I think I'm going to call the German Uber-virus (I can't do the umlaut in html, but rest assured, it's there). The uber-virus got me pretty angry yesterday, what with it's mad-cloning and general un-niceness, so Tiff decided I needed an evening walk before I escorted my laptop (uber-virus and all) out a third story window. We meandered our way along the usual route, past Don Juan and away from the bus stop where we usually start our mornings. We found ourselves walking along the line of the old roman wall that once encircled Castra Regina, the Roman fortress built here in the 5th century. We'd been shown the one surviving gate on our walking tour, but a modern street corner said something about it as well. I wanted to find out what.
Lucky for us, a pair of english-speaking gentlemen were discussing this same thing. One was a fairly tall Bavarian, an upper-year college student by the look of it. Maybe a grad student. Anyway, he was the man with the guidebook. He was explaining things to a thin, blonde man who was about my height and maybe 10 years older. I worked up the nerve to ask the guide what was written on a plaque on the wall, and he explained that it just marked that this wall was the wall of Castra Regina. He then offered to let Tiff and I tag along on his tour. Naturally, we did so.
The guide's name was Bayer, and he's part of the University's international student organization. Since that's us, he was quite thrilled to have met us. We're probably going to get together with them again sometime, since they seem to meet every thursday. I haven't emailed him yet, I need to remember to soon.
Anyway, we followed them along the way, found out that the city built a bus stop over part of the German wall, and moved the main gate into the history museum. We get to see it in a few weeks.
So that was our random event for the day. Things have been fairly quiet other than that. Tiff discovered that the turntable in my room does still work, and we listened to some of the records in my apartment (beatles 67-70). Class is class, I'm adapting to it and stuffing my head w/more German than I can handle. The Tin Drum is still insane, but you'll get an extended rant on that when humanities starts week-after-next.
We had pasta with marinara sauce for dinner, and I had dumplings and mushrooms for lunch. Let me clarify that. GERMAN dumplings. Definitely not the things in our chicken-n-dumplins. German dumplings are much more... German. Thick, heavy, wheaty, like everything else here seems to be. Good stuff.
The pasta marinara was quite tasty too. Naturally, since Tiff cooked it.
I'm cooking pancakes tomorrow morning, then I think it's cereal and sandwiches until monday.
Self-feeding has proven exciting. W/o Tiff, I think it'd just be cereal. I can't afford the Raman here, how sad is that? It's like .80 Euro for 1 little packet! Expensive Raman, how bizarre.
So, yeah, pics coming some time. Jared's got to email me my ID to sign on to the network, I forgot it. Once I get that, you'll at least get my first 300. The others aren't labelled yet, but you'll get them soon. And, once again, don't freak out when random words on all the posts turn blue. I'm hotlinking as much as possible to pics, so ya'll can see these things I keep failing to describe. Clear as mud? You'll see soon enough.

Well, I got a reminder today of why I should always run my virus software updates first. I've been fighting with a somewhat troublesome trojan virus. it wouldn't let any of my scanners finish, so they couldn't isolate it. I got it now, though.
I wish I had more time to tell you about yesterday. We took a tour of the Altes Rathaus that included a torture chamber, a judgement hall, the imperial hall, and several other neat places. I'll try and go into more detail on it later.

...and the virus is still there. crap. I guess I've got to fix that later, b/c it's time to go. I'll tell you more when my computer's fully functional.

GeZapped.

No sooner than I plug my computer into the network and 5 trojans start floating around my computer. I'm cleaning the mess up now, I'll post everything once Deutschland is done picking it apart like the Berlin Wall.

Just an Update

Well, the laptop just shut itself down for no reason, so I’m trying this again.
Tiffany and I got our month-long bus passes now, so we don’t have to ration our rides by walking everywhere anymore. Sometimes it’s still nice, but with the rate at which the temperature is dropping, it won’t be nice forever.
German’s still getting a little better. We all survived the homework.
Tiff’s yelling at the oven in German. It’s not going getting hotter, but at least she’s practicing.
On the way back from class we walked right through the construction in front of Vor der Grieb I (my building). Quickly through it. They have a mixer truck there now, and are carrying buckets of cement to the roof. It really makes getting up in the morning easier. I want to rush out of here right after my morning coffee.
Anyway, I’m slowly getting all my pictures labeled. I think by the time I have actual internet access, I’ll have them done. Yay! Hopefully I’ll have a way for you to view them by then, too.
Time for lunch.

Fire hazard

You know how I told you about the laptop shutting itself down? Yeah, I found out why. It turns out that my poor little power converter can’t really keep up with it. The thing practically started smoking today after about 4 hours of me sitting here typing. I guess 4 hours may have been a little excessive anyway, but I’ve got almost all the pictures labeled and in the index.
Gah, that stressed me out. Before that I was doing ok. Tiff and I wandered around tonight, taking some beautiful pictures and generally having a nice time out. We have 20 Euro to make it the next 3 days, but we should be ok. It’s just going to be cereal for dinner a time or two.
My roommate left today. Apparently he told me this last night while I was typing away, but I didn’t catch it. Tiff said I gave him the “yeah, uh-huh” treatment. I must have, which makes me feel terrible! But he didn’t seem too bothered by it, he left a nice little note this morning. I hope that wasn’t just politeness. He’s one of only 4 Germans I know, and I was enjoying getting along with him. Bah, sometimes the computer just sucks up your soul, doesn’t it?
The flat is mine for about the next month, which is kinda cool. I wonder if I can eat all the food that got left here.
Our German 105 class was interesting. Andreas, our teacher, is a tall blonde man who might be thirty. He speaks very good English, and has a smirk that suggests he finds his entire situation entirely amusing. He very well might. He just spent a year teaching in Poland, but majored in English (the language, not the discipline) and German (like our “English” major this time) before that. Now he’s studying international relations or some such fancy term. Like I said, he seems amused by it.
He gave us a little quiz over German culture, just to see how much we know. We all bombed terribly. I think Tiff did the best with 6/10 right. I got half. Most of the others looked totally clueless. Most of the questions were history related, as most of the class will be. After all, culture is just a reaction to history and circumstances. That’s my take on it, anyway. Andreas seems to think so too.
I’m getting off here before the adapter overheats again. Tiff forgot her camera cord, so we’re replacing that tomorrow. We’re also touring the Altes Rathaus and going to class, plus I hope to register for my internet access tomorrow. I think I figured out all the information for my registration. It was all in German, but it looks like they want my MAC address for my wireless card and something like a MAC address for my network card (do network cards have MAC addresses too?) and then I have to go through the gateway for the dorm. Maybe I’ll figure it out.
The converter’s buzzing like a fish aquarium filter, I’m out of here.