Amy & Adam's European Highlights

Greetings from lovely Dresden! We haven't seen much of the city yet but the area we are living is quite beautiful and overflowing with young and hip people. We arrived last night and were greeted by Anne, the extremely kind and patient local who is managing our sublet. Our apartment is in an old building behind the main street so it's extremely quiet. It has beautiful exposed stone, red tiled floors and is fully furnished. We even have an extra bed for guests! The kitchen is new, small, yet functional and complete with an oven! It's strange to feel like an adult again, living in a nice apartment, after being in our Tübingen apartment which felt very much like being in a student dorm.

The only bad things about our new living situation are that we aren't connected to the internet (apparently as it's an old, thick, stone building it's hard to get a signal) and that we can't have mail sent to our address. So yes, I'm back to writing from an internet cafe. Ah! The good 'ol days of watching the time tick away as the Euros add up...

Our new mailing address is below. (Thank you, Dad, for sending us our tax forms!) Please be sure to include Anne's name first or it is likely to be returned:

Anne Jung
(our names)
Kamenzer Str. 20
01099 Dresden
Germany

We leave on Monday to meet up with Rich and Phoebe in Austria. We'll be traveling with them for a week conducting research with Rich who is here for work. (For those of you who don't know Rich, he's our friend who is a Brewmaster so research involves drinking mighty fine beer). Yes, it's a very hard life.

More soon.
love,
amy (and adam)

Tonight is our last evening in Fichtenweg 28, No. 108. Our apartment again looks like an asylum as we have taken down all of our posters and post cards and are in the midst of packing. We have encountered a small difference in leaving German apartments: it is customary to paint your apartment prior to moving. As we have only been here for five months and haven't put any holes in the walls, Adam has been "spot" painting the walls with a shade of white close to the one on the wall. Interestingly, all German house paint is water-based and washes off quite easily. I suppose this has some advantages (like, easy brush clean-up) but once the paint has dried on the wall, this means that when you get a mark on the wall or splash some tomato sauce, there is no way to clean it up. (If you try to blot it using a damp sponge, you remove all of the paint). Brilliant! Perhaps this paint is much healthier for our planet. I'm guessing it must be as Germans are one of the most environmentally conscious people we've encountered.

We are sad to be leaving this adorable town and feel overwhelmingly lucky and blessed to have met such great people. I just returned from my last day volunteering at the DAI (Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut). My time there was extremely rewarding. Highlights included: working with fabulous women, meeting young Germans excited to work and study in the US, learning more about myself and rediscovering qualities that make me happy to be an American, creating a presentation on the US presidential election, creating and giving presentations on studying in the US and traveling to a local high school to speak with students as part of the "rent an american" program. If you're curious, you can check it out: http://www.rentanamerican.de/

Final photos of town:

Fabulous DAI co-workers Eva, Roswitha and Rosi:

Me and Roswitha:

Me and Eva:

Ah...we will certainly miss life and friends here but we look forward to experiencing life in the Urban east. Our internet connection might not be as reliable in Dresden but we should be back in contact soon!

Much love, to old friends and new,
Amy

Who would have guessed that a visit to Tübingen, Germany would constitute a spring break for our Maine friends Rob and Anne? Like many of our friends and family living in the Midwest and Northeast, Anne and Rob are in the midst of a long, cold, and very snowy winter. I hate to boast, but this is a stark contrast to our extremely delightful, sunny, mild winter. (I hope I haven't jinxed us now to have a cold and rainy spring)...

Anne and Rob joined us in Tübingen for a long weekend. We picked them up at the train station just as we were arriving from Florence. It was wonderful to see them and they were incredibly flexible with our hosting. (They tolerated things such as sharing a twin bed, walking endlessly around town and going on failed excursions). On Sunday, we planned to go to Lichtenstein castle by taking the train to a nearby town and then taking a bus the remaining distance to the castle. Unfortunately, we waited for over a half an hour (along with others who believed the bus should be running) but it never arrived. Accordingly, we walked around the town briefly before returning to the quaint streets of Tübingen. I have since learned from my friend Rose that if a scheduled bus fails to arrive, you can take a taxi and be reimbursed for the ride. That's pretty remarkable although I wonder how difficult the reimbursement process is.

Highlights of their visit included: sharing our favorite walks, coffee shops, beer, maultashen, spätzle, pretzels, chocolate, great conversation, sunshine, and the wild pigs in the Naturpark.

For Christmas from our families, we got a new digital SLR camera that they kindly schlepped with them. This batch of photos represents our first attempt to learn it!

Breakfast in our apartment (we will miss the musli with chocolate chunks):

Wandering around Reutlingen and Tübingen:

On a hike in the Naturpark:

Priceless reactions to honey-filled waffle cookies Anne and I bought at the natural foods store:

Enjoying the sun:

Meeting the wild boar:

We spent last week in Florence, Italy. My good friend Suzanne has been living here for the past three years attending jewelry school and we owed her a visit. It was fortunate timing that our trip coincided with Adam's 30th birthday!
We had a beautiful flight over the Alps:

Highlights of our trip included: admission to the top museums in town (when we were here in 2004 we tried on two different occasions to get into the museums but they were closed due to holidays and strikes). I'm sure that everyone who has been to Florence can relate to our love of the Uffizi gallery (which houses the most impressive collection of Renaissance paintings), the Accademia (home of Michelangelo's David), and the Museo di San Marco (which has incredible frescoes in the old monastery). Now we understand why people love this city so! We were certainly on an art high the entire week. The other main highlights, not surprisingly, revolve around Suzanne and food. Suzanne is a wonderful chef and she made us delicious artichokes, pasta, and tiramisu. I learned that I like gnocchi, Chianti and Vin Santo (a dessert wine made from the same grapes used for Chianti. It tastes a bit like port but its less powerful).

We visited Suzanne's art school, Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School, her studio which she shares with a few other women, and saw many of her exquisite pieces which are all truly unique pieces of art. To view her work, visit: http://www.klimt02.net/jewellers/index.php?item_id=9808

Suzanne's studio:

Examining and wearing Suzanne's art in her kitchen:

View from Suzanne's baloney:

Images from around town:

For our last day, we rented a car to tour around Tuscany. Sadly, Adam got the flu so he had to stay in bed while Suzanne and I had a lovely date exploring the glorious countryside. It's really enjoyable to travel in the off-season as the roads and towns are all quite relaxed. I've grown so accustomed to having towns/museums/restaurants/cafes being totally approachable and hassle free, that I've completely lost touch with the desire to travel during peak season. Adam had to remind me that the weather would be much nicer. That and the landscape is at its hight of beauty. As you can see with some of these pictures of Tuscany, while it's lovely, they don't quite resemble the post cards.

Thank you Suzanne for such a fabulous visit!

Carnival in south-western Germany is quite an experience. Known as the Schwäbisch-alemannische Fastnacht, its origins date back to pagan times and was a time when people chased away winter by dressing up and making a lot of noise. Carnival season officially begins here on November 11 at 11:11 p.m. but the major parades begin after the New Year. While most all towns have a parade, I am told that Fastnacht is best celebrated in "Catholic towns". (I believe this is because during the Reformation, the Protestants banned these celebrations). You know, too much emotion and revelry...

While Rio de Janeiro's carnival parades are known for their perfectly toned women, New Orleans' for its incredible floats, beads and jovial ambiance, here, animals, witches and "tricks" played upon parade watchers set the Schwäbisch-alemannische Fastnacht apart. I've been to two Carnival parades with Rose and Uli over the past two months and they are experiences I won't forget.

The first parade Adam and I went to was at night in the pouring rain and it was down-right creepy. I knew we were in trouble when Rose warned me to remove my hat because it might get taken. Taken? By whom? Once the parade began, it became clear what she was talking about. (Sadly, I don't have any pictures of that evening as if you can imagine that it wasn't safe for me to wear a hat, it certainly wasn't a good idea for me to have a camera exposed).

The costumes warn by the parade people were incredibly intricate and unique. There were wolves, bears, goats, birds, and the most diverse conceptions of witches I've ever seen. Adam told Rose and Uli: "in the US, witches are women." She replied, "oh yes, here too." Adam's confusion was that men dress up as witches here--and they are ugly and mean. The witches lit numerous stink bombs and carried broomsticks that they swept in the muddy street. They would then tap their filthy brooms on parade watchers' heads! Other "tricks" included dumping confetti, rubbing black gunk on people's faces, stealing shoes, and even physically picking up young women and carrying them away, often then placing them into a wheel barrow, wooden tub or other wheeled object. These "kidnapped" young women eventually were released by their captors and they would run back to their spectator spot, only to be harassed by the next group a few minutes later.

Thank God the only thing that happened to me was a confetti dumping. I'm not sure how well I would have taken the other "tricks." Oh, and of course I should mention that being Germany, alcohol overflowed at this event both among the spectators and the parade participants. Often those walking in the parade had a rustic cup suspended from their neck by a cord and they took a sip of their brew every few feet.

Needless to say, those participating in the parade appeared to be having a very, very, good time. And who could blame them? When else is it socially acceptable to go up to strangers, steal their hats and hit them on the head with a wooden broom?

Adam opted out of the second parade with the excuse of needing to get some work done. Rose concluded it was because he was afraid of the witches. Who can blame him? They are really scary. Happily, however, the parade on Sunday was a family-friendly, G-rated affair. Although the witches and animals still played tricks on the spectators, there were far fewer stink bombs and as it was a bright, sunny day, most of the suspect behavior seemed to have been curtailed. Here are some photos of Rottenburg's carnival:

The photos are of Rose, Nate and Linus and other festive folks:

It was really hard to capture the essence of the day with a photo. It was even more difficult to capture the incredible costumes of the parade participants. I took some video with our digital camera and have posted the best segments here. You will be able to hear some music, see some tricks and hear the chants. The parade participants yell "Narri!" and the spectators are to reply "Narro!" If you're lucky, you'll have some candy thrown at your head.

The parade began with this group who had a very cool jumping dance:

The jumping band was followed by an animal band:

Here's an example of the witches and the smoke bombs:

It's not only the witches who play tricks. The animals are also quite mischievous. Here you can see some birds attempting to steal a girl's shoe:

A girl in the spinning cage. Can you see her running away?:

A wolf carrying a blown-up pig's bladder tied to a stick, an animal tractor, and straw being rubbed into girl's hair:

Even wolves have to push strollers:

I think you can see why these parades are highly memorable events!

With much love from crazy, festive south-western Germany,
Amy