Matches of the Century...

No, I haven't disappeared, I just haven't felt like writing anything up in the past week... maybe its depression over the football loss, who knows... but I do have updates and what not now... In case you haven't noticed I've added a map up above the posts and I'll be marking off my routes and things as I head through Europe. I've also finally got around to picking up a bike and made the 6 mile trek home on the hottest day Hamburg has had since i've been here (this is inevitable for me, I always bike on the hottest of days)... and I only got mildly lost, so by this time next week i should be a biking fiend and actually know how to get back and forth from home... This weekend I'm meeting up with Chansonette (one of my GSPIA friends) in Strasbourg, France, followed by Luxembourg... So thats what you get to look forward to next week... and now onto last weekend...
Last Saturday
Besides the football match, one of the main reasons i opted to stay in Hamburg this weekend was for the Jazz festival... 2 days of jazz music accompanied by bier and wurst stands in the middle of the botanical gardens (actually its called Plant und Blumen)... Upon waking up Saturday ready to go... rain... rain... more rain... and a touch of rain... even my plan for exploring before the show was offset by the weather... so 5 hours after i originally intended on getting out of the apartment, I finally went down the concert, and the first band was well... awful... it would be what would happen if i were to pick up a sax... except maybe i'd at least be able to hammer out mary had a little lamb... this was just random toots... I proceeded to find a place where i didn't have to listen to the "music", but close enough to tell when the band changed.
After a while I found a nice seat in the back, made friends with some locals, who proceeded to ask me about my interest in Terry Pratchett (I was reading in between sets)... and then finally met up with my people around 8ish... Tomoko came out along with Lucio (portugal 2-- Riu, portugal 1 has sadly gone back to portugal, along with Javier-- columbia-- who went home for 2 months... i have to make new friends... again)... but that isn't hard as Lucio brought a bunch of people he had met in a lecture... There was an Argentinian, who kept making fun of my Americanness and lack of geographical knowledge (though i still say i know more than most people... i just don't do latin american cities very well), a couple of swedes, a girl from portugal, and a guy mike, from NOVA... (northern virginia for those that don't know... and he even went to UVA...) The rest of the night was spent listening to soft jazz... mostly soft jazz covers of disco music, and a rather corney and off key

Germany v. Spain
So, Sunday was the big game... what we've all been waiting for, the big match-up between Spain and Germany. Excitement filled the air, I even headed down to the Fischmarkt again to pick up a Deutchland scarf... Then headed off to a little Spanish restaurant in the Portuguese district... To my frustration, I was the only person in our group routing for Germany... which in some ways made the great loss even more disappointing, but in other ways meant that i got pictures of all my people being happy... which is better than a lot of sulking football fans...



Robin v. Washer machine
So no matter what i do, i don't seem to be able to get my washer machine to fill up with water... Now i've been here for 3 weeks, clearly i've washed my clothes during this time... by hand.... I can get the machine to spin... and drain the non existant water... I can get it to lock and refuse to open for multiple hours at a time.... But I've begun to outsmart the machine... I hand wash things, then spin them to get rid of any extra water. My land lady is just as baffled as I am about the whole thing and just keeps turning dials... And then she finally offered to wash some of my clothes... Now despite my overwhelming dislike of other people touching my laundry, this was too good an opportunity to give up (i mean, one reason i picked the place was for the washer... and no, there are no laundry mats in my area)... and so this is one battle i've won... though the war rages on

*UPDATE* I wrote that bit up there a couple of days ago... last night the war came to a fabulous conclusion. My land lady called up the last tenant to see if she knew how to work the washer... turns out, she had turned off the water when she left... and so... I'm washing clothes like a mad women and enjoying (using the term loosely here) every minute of it.

Deutchland! Deutchland!

Ok, so before I jump right into it... I just wanted to show you this first... this is a shop... a shop that sells two things... Wine and Shoes... I'm not sure what else europe can pair with wine, i mean first ice cream, now shoes? Crazy Europeans...


So, yes, the DE beat Turkey in the Semi-finals... you really couldn't ask for a bigger rivalry considering the large Turkish population actually within Germany. To get a seat in any location you needed to come about 2 hours early... while there 2 hours early, Tomoko and I were too busy trying to meet up w/ other people to actually grab seats. The street we were on is lined with little bars and restaurants, and they all put up little TVs on the outside for people to watch, and the entire street was completely packed... It was like being at a concert, except w/ out the stage. The game itself was a nail biting experience as the DE didn't play so hot for the first half leaving the game tied 1 up at half time. (please note my number 7 was the first to score for DE and actually scored twice). Much to our dismay, lightening decided to strike the satellite broadcast tower in Switzerland... and knocked out the game... to the whole entire world. This near caused rioting within the streets. But in the end, DE pulled it off and we won the game 3-2. The entire city was out on the streets, I've only ever seen anything like it when the Steelers won the super bowl... and its just semi-finals... I can't wait to see what happens on Sunday with the championship...

SCORE!

Greetings to everyone on this most glorious of Friday mornings! Why glorious, you ask? Well b/c last night Germany totally kicked Portugal's ass in the quarter finals... and well... Portugal was the favored team to win the tournament.
We opted to watch the game in the Portuguese district, at a little Portuguese bar, this made it even more exciting. The only thing I can do to relate what this stuff is like, is say, think about Pittsburgh winning the Super Bowl... (for those of you who haven't experienced that atmosphere, I don't know how else to describe it)... Its definitely the most fun that I have had at a game yet... (ooo, and on a side note I tried rabbit for the first time... very good).
I now officially have some favorite players on the team... My favorite player just because he's a good player and I enjoy the fact that the first game I saw he got red carded, then had to sit out the next game, only to come back this game to score the first goal and assist in another one, and he's number 7, is Bastian Schweinsteiger (yes, that links to his player profile).Overall... good times... and look, I finally have pictures of my people... of course half of them are sad about Portugal losing... but oh well... and yes, I listed their real names and not just country (I had to cheat to do this... there's a list of people and their country at the mailboxes... I find I can remember names better when I read it

BBQ's, Beaches, Markets, and of course, More Football!

A brief rundown of the events of the past few days:

My weekend began and ended in rather the same fashion… me having issues w/ the train system Normally, the trains run rather smoothly and there’s a fork at one point and you either stay on the train your on or head over to the other side of the platform to grab the opposite train… now for whatever reason, the trains weren’t lined up time wise… so I just jumped on my transfer only to figure out I was somewhere way, way, way off from where I needed to be.

Saturday/BBQ and Beach

So the original plan for Saturday was to head out to Lubeck for the day, since it isn’t all that far away. But as I was leaving on Friday Imen (Tunisian, guest event coordinator) was like “oh, we’re having a BBQ tomorrow, you should come.” At first I went to say no, but then Cuba (yes if I don’t know names I am referring to countries) jumps in and tells me all about how I need to go. And so, I did, and I had a great time, meeting large handfuls of new people, trying to rationalize American politics and learning about how the Pittsburgh Penguins are actually known in Germany. I’ve also found my first drinking buddy, Johanas (aka German I, English translation= John)… who, of course, is sadly leaving the institute next weekend.

The BBQ ended up rather early... actually it was rather a weird ending, I was talking w/ Johanas on the deck, and we went inside and everyone was gone. So I ended up heading back to the apartment, but instead of going straight there, I opted to turn right off the train station and wander around Othmarschen. Its an incredibly beautiful neighborhood (also one of the richest in Hamburg). After about a mile you hit the waterfront, which is lined with trees and bike paths. Unfortunately the view of the Elbe river isn't all that exciting since its mostly docks and rigs, but the area around it is nice, and there is a little beach, where people hang out and swim, but only w/ wet suits, as it is freezing. In the middle of all this is a giant rock; of course the explanation for this rock is only in German, so I ended up having to ask for a translation. Turns out the rock was found in the Elbe when they were dredging, but its actually from Sweden and has been her for like 900 years. When you look at the pictures below, you too will question how a rock that size gets down to Germany from Sweden.

Sunday/Market

Sunday I did something rather unheard of from me… I rolled out of bed at the ass crack of dawn (6am)… when I didn’t actually need to… The reason for this is that on Sunday mornings down at the docks in St. Pauli, there is a fish market. Yes, the fish market has more than fish, or clearly a) I wouldn’t have gone due to my dislike of fish, and b)even if I did like fish, I don’t see me wandering down there at 7am for it. The decision to get out of bed was truly one of my better ones.

As you wander down the street from the banhof (train station) your first instinct is to hope you know where you are going… and then you start to see one or two people hauling around mounds of fresh produce… then there are flocks of them. As you get closer you start to smell the distinct odor of market fish, and well, market in general (This isn’t something I can really describe, I can just tell you every market in the world as similar base sent, that’s then accented by whatever it specializes) As you finally round the corner as far as you can see from side to side are tents ands stalls full of fresh produce and fish. There were candy stalls set up that reminded me of Fasching in Munich. Lots of hat stalls and offensive t-shirt stands… but they were in German so I wasn’t really sure what exactly they said. In one section (this was easily a mile strip of stalls) there were live animals… the first thing I saw were the bunnies, then chickens and doves… these were the fattest chickens I have ever seen, and then there were hares… I don’t think we ever give any consideration to hares… they’re huge. They were selling tons of flowers and trees… lots of bonsai that you could see college students running around with. And then in the center of it all was a giant warehouse… In this warehouse was live bands, waffles, and beer. The bands only played classic rock and 80’s music… in English. Needless to say, by 9:30 I had my waffles and beer in hand and had been completely sucked into the atmosphere. As I was leaving I bought like a 10 lb. basket of fruit for 10 euro… awesome… until I had to carry it home… not so awesome.

My entire morning was not spent just at the market, but rather, at some point in the middle of marketing I took an adventurous detour. Perhaps I should start over. Upon leaving my apartment all that was going threw my head was, “don’t forget to pick up cash”… due to a series of distractions, I ended up at the market with all of 15 euro. So, once I realized I needed more cash I started walking…

St. Pauli is an infamous neighborhood… the pleasant family oriented fish market of today, at one point years ago was the docking post of sailors and the gateway into Hamburg’s red light district… the largest red light district in all of Europe. Now a days, it still has all of its red light charm with the addition of being the central hub of European punk rock, parties, bars and discos. Its where the Beatles made their début… Wandering the street on a Sunday morning, you see “drinking parks” littered with Saturday night’s leftovers, including a few passed out bodies here and there. The overwhelming amounts of graffiti that mark Hamburg turns into some incredible wall art, and there are more bars on every block than I have ever seen in my life. But no ATMs… that is until you get to Reeperbahn. There are a lot of famously scandalous roads in the world, and well, I tend to find them… but nothing compares to the Reeperbahn. Even at around 8-9 in the morning on a Sunday, Reeperbahn has the ability to make even me blush and feel awkward. It’s a huge street, with nothing but strip joints, casinos, and sex shops, along with all of the largest night clubs and party centers. There is no wonder why its actually called the Miles of Sin. And lucky for me there were some ATMs around, so I got my cash and headed back down to the market.

Monday/Football

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL… Woot Woot!... I mean, Olay, olay, olay, olay…. So Monday night was the big match between Austria and Germany. As per usual, I rolled back over to the MPI to watch the game, and at half-time me and Johanas were like, lets blow this joint (not a lot of people were there… too big of a game) and headed to the nearest bar… an aussie bar of all places, that handed out free shots when Germany scored a goal, and of course again when we won the game. It was good times, and I’m looking forward to the quarterfinals on Thursday as we’re playing Portugal, which is probably the best team in the league right now, but any which way it should be pretty exciting.

I learned an important lesson on the way home that night… I learned that just because you know the time for the last train you need to grab, and you make it there on time, this doesn’t actually mean you’ll make it all the way home… especially if you need to make a connection, and it turns out the connection stopped running about 10 minutes before hand. But that’s why there’s cabs… And so it ends as it began…

Institutionalized

“So how many times have you been in the institution?” While I recognize that this phrase wasn’t meant to be funny, I couldn’t help giggle, and fail miserably at explaining why, while my quasi-english speaking companions just sort of stared at me, and tried to explain to me how people usually study at MPI 4 or 5 times. I can’t help but to think of all the academics/students I know who spend a bazillion hours a day in a library and who could all benefit from it having a padded room somewhere. I realize the joke is still bad and I’ve probably already lost all but 1 or 2 readers by this point. So you should just ignore this paragraph and move on.

The point I’m really trying to make is that I’ve had a far more successful round of meeting people and making friends than on Monday, and in effect have started to become “institutionalize”. It all started last night with the Germany—Croatia match. During half time I actually met the people sitting around me… a Columbian, Peruvian, Cuban (but apparently we’re enemies) and Chilean… we’ve decided we’re the America’s faction. Throw in the Portuguese and Tunisian, we suddenly became the Spanish speaking contingent. But seeing as my Spanish isn’t all that much better than my german (though I think it amused them that I would sit and listen and suddenly say something in English as a response to what they were talking about) they ended up switching to English for most of the night. After some failed attempts at names I’ve decided to only call them by country. (A Croatian got thrown into the mix later on in the night as well). But after the game we had a Stammtish (I think it translates loosely to a gathering which was held at a bar/restaurant ) and that’s where we really got to know each other.

It is assumed that as an American I have no interest in soccer, so when they figured out not only that I had an interest, but actually enjoy the game it sort of became our basis for bonding. One of the most common questions I got was, “Do you understand the rules?”… “More or less everything except the off-sides rule.”… “Well nobody understands that.” There then proceeded to be a debate as to whether they could describe the rule in their native language let alone English. Another end result is that I’ve been banned from cheering for any team, especially Portugal because whoever I cheer for tends to loose… I have an 0-4 record right now (the losses coming to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria… yes actually watched all those games).

More or less everyone is working at their respective universities as assistant professors and researching here for their doctoral thesis. I may have mentioned that before, but then I went and talked to people, and that really is what most people are doing. So I’m essentially hanging out with a bunch of good looking smart slightly older latin academic men… heehee… They like to try and talk American politics with me, I try to avoid their questions by talking about sports… it’s a good balance.

All in all it was a pretty good night, and it looks like I’ve made some decent friends. Other fruits of the evening include: people to ride the train with cause they live in my area, people who might travel w/ me, and an potential MPI volleyball team.