Amy & Adam's European Highlights

Yesterday was an unusually good day. To start, I've befriended another fabulous person. Her name is Chiara and she's the spouse of Max, a postdoc researcher at Max Planck. Interestingly, Max got his PhD in cognitive psychology at Brown and Chiara is currently finishing up her dissertation in Italian Studies. We met over coffee yesterday morning and I'm convinced if she didn't have an appointment, we could have stayed in the cafe all day. Max and Chiara are from Italy, east of Venice. Amazingly, when Chiara moved to Providence she knew no English. I can only imagine how much more isolating and challenging that experience would have been compared to my experience of moving to a German university town when I speak no German. Oh, we native English speakers are too lucky! Tonight, we are going over to Max and Chiara's apartment for a "Brown" dinner. Apparently there are two other Brown graduates working at Max Plank. I can't help but think how lucky we are that Peter did a stint over here. He introduced us to this wonderful scientific community that has become both an important social outlet and a way to make some Euros! Who doesn’t want to be a guinea pig in the name of Science?

I finally connected with the people who run the advising program at the German-American Institute (D.A.I.). I met with one of the women yesterday and she seemed genuinely pleased that I wanted to help. She immediately put me to work proof-reading a grant proposal. I was there during “drop-in” hours, where German students come for advice and assistance about studying or working in the U.S. or Canada. A woman came in looking for ways to improve her English so she can pass the TOFEL and the Director suggested that I assist her. I was able to extract more information about what she was looking for but I of course didn’t know of a specific six-month program in Canada that would fit what she was seeking. We talked for about fifteen minutes and scheduled a follow-up meeting next week. I am now scheduled to work every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. On Thursdays, the Institute offers seminars and presentations of which I will join and eventually lead. I am ecstatic that I can be useful, learn new information, and gain some valuable experience in return. Also, although this is a volunteer position, meeting people here could potentially connect me with folks who may wish to pay me for my services.

The other fabulous aspect of yesterday was joining the D.A.I’s library. They have a commendable collection of books, journals, magazines, newspapers, CDs and DVDs in English! I can safely say that I’ve never been so excited to be in a library in my life. Yes, living abroad on a tight budget without a real job, cell phone, television or commitment means I have more free time than at any other point in my life. (I should mention that my stress level is zero). This also means that I value books more than ever before.

I am slowly working on learning German with the help of wonderful Rose, Adam, and the Rosetta Stone. I do feel as if I’m learning and able to understand bits and pieces of conversations around me. With context clues, I can conduct most simple transactions. There is still a considerable disconnect, however, between what I feel I know working by myself with what comes out of my mouth when placed in a real situation. My brain’s instinct is to put little “filler” words of French in between German words. I have signed up for the German course which will meet every morning Monday-Friday, beginning on November 12. Undoubtedly this class will be a valuable experience.

I’m sorry that I don’t have any new pictures to post. We’ve been in the midst of a gray, cold spell so I haven’t been very inspired by our surroundings. And, we haven’t gone on any field trips this past week. I promise to have some pictures up early next week as we are headed to Berlin for the weekend to visit Chris, Adam’s friend from graduate school. We are really looking forward to seeing him, being in a city, and having the opportunity to play tourist.

Happy Halloween to everyone! Adam and I are missing dressing up this year so we'd love to see photos of people who have.

After living in Germany for over a month, both Adam and I can attest to various aspects of life in Europe we far prefer to life in America. Some of these things are obvious if you know us, such as the wonderful train system, the walking and biking paths, small automobiles, inexpensive, unprocessed, healthful food, cheap wine, seemingly endless new dark chocolate and marzipan combinations to try, funky, inventive uses of small spaces and a general feeling of age and history which serves to ground and humble us. The aspect of European life, however, that we've become not only accustomed to but evangelical about is far less obvious, however; our love of the metric system.

What do Liberia, Myanmar and the United States have in common? We are the only three countries who haven't adopted The International System of Units (SI). (Yes, my footnote here is wikipedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system

When at Volksfest, Pete and Adam confirmed that 1 kilogram of water weights as much as 1 liter of water at 4 degrees Celsius, they were astounded. Having my food quantities now be measured in grams instead of ounces and pounds feels so much more damn logical. Trust me, once you start to use the metric system, I find that I don't even have to think about it any more. I must confess, however, that I have yet to develop comfort with measuring the weather. Celsius still doesn't speak to me.

If anyone is aware of a movement currently underway in the States about converting from our own archaic system of measurement to joining the rest of the world (sans Liberia and Myanmar), with SI let me know. If not, I'm getting ready to write to my Congresspeople.

On Thursday we decided we needed to go outside to take advantage of the few lovely Fall days we have remaining. We went for a couple hour hike through the Naturpark, right behind our apartment. Although we experienced some passing rain showers, it was a lovely afternoon. We feel very fortunate to have ended up in such a beautiful town that embraces, values and maintains its natural resources.

THESE senf (mustard) fields are located near our apartment on a farm adjacent to the naturpark. See, senf really is a perfect plant: it's lovely to look at when it's growing and it tastes fabulous to eat!

YESTERDAY, we went on a field trip to the Hohenzollern family fortress, Burg Hohenzollern. http://www.burg-hohenzollern.com We took a local train to the town of Hechingen and then hiked the 4 KM (of which 2 KM is straight up)! to reach the fortress. Although it was dreadfully cold yesterday, and I was in a dreadful mood, I was happy to finally reach our destination and had to agree that the view was well worth our effort. We had a German tour of the inside of which Adam translated most of the information to me. I was happy that I was able to understand the tour guide ask if we had any questions! We didn't get home until after 9 p.m. last night which made our dinner of sauerkraut, weisswurst (a local sausage), potatoes and a white whine from the Rhine river taste even better than usual.

They had dog bowls out with a sign "hunde bistro." Notice all my layers...and I was still freezing. (I'm hoping that I'm going to make it through the winter).

THIS MORNING, I woke up to gently falling snow and I had to wonder if I was hallucinating. I'm pretty sure that I've never experienced snowfall in October before. Happily, this afternoon it has already melted. I hope this isn't an indication of how serious a winter we will experience! (I am told that winters here vary considerably). Here's photographic evidence of this morning's weather as I experienced it from the warmth and safety of our apartment:

I am finally making a little money serving as a research subject at the Max Planck Institute. I've done two studies, the first was Pete's. His experiment required sitting in a room for two hours (happily, I was able to take breaks). I sat looking into a device which was a reflection of an image of a red ball growing bigger or smaller as it moved toward or away from me. I was to indicate what was happening by clicking a button for "bigger" and "smaller" using both stereo vision and only one eye. My finger was also attached to a little robotic hand which sometimes mimicked the movement of the ball. The second experiment, of which I will return three more times, is sadly far less stimulating. It involves sitting in a dark room for an hour with my left index finger touching a device. The device exudes three possible stimuli: a flicker of red light, a tone or a slight vibration. These stimuli occur in pairs and I am to determine which comes first. Then I am to signal my choice by using the arrow keys with my right hand (left arrow for tone, down arrow for vibration, and right arrow for light). Yes, it's that thrilling. I definitely feel like a rat.

On Saturday we were invited to join our friends Rose and Uli for Raclette, a traditional Swiss meal of raclette cheese, an assortment of vegetables, meat, and fruit that you put in your own little pan and bake in the central Raclette heater on the table. It was really fun and tasty! I should have taken a photo, but as I didn't, the visual on wikipedia will have to suffice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette

Rose and Uli live in a town outside of Tübingen and although we could have taken a train to get there, we choose to hike the two hours through the park to get there. It was an incredibly beautiful walk although Rose's directions were wonderfully vague. Happily, we ultimately found their house although we were a half-hour late.

We had great conversations with Rose and Uli covering wide-ranging topics. One such topic I must share is a heated debate in Germany: to sit or to stand. Rose had stickers up by the toilet of two figures--one standing and one sitting on a toilet. The figure standing in front of the toilet had a big red "x" through it while the figure sitting on the toilet was circled in green. I asked her what the stickers meant, and she said it indicated that in her house, men need to sit on the toilet to go to the bathroom. Apparently, she, and other German women were fed-up with cleaning toilets that were widely sprinkled with urine. Accordingly, there has been a movement here to get men/boys to sit. She and Uli estimate that between 30-50% of men/boys in Germany have been consequently trained to sit on the toilet. I find this fascinating. Socialized in America, I've absorbed the belief that as women must sit, if men sit, it is somehow emasculating. Are German men more comfortable with their sexuality? Although some men argue if they clean the bathroom, they should be allowed to use the toilet as they choose, if they aren't cleaning, I do feel as if they have little ground to stand on. I found some debate in English on the subject:
http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/index.php/t37057.html

I feel so completely in the dark on this topic. I had no idea that it was fiercely debated! I would love some feedback for those who are comfortable sharing. Is this a new concept to you or are you familiar with this debate?

Yesterday we had the pleasure of joining Claudius, his girlfriend Liesl, friend Anja, friend Uli and Uli's son Jakob for an afternoon on the Neckar river in a stocherkahn (a punting boat similar to the ones in Cambridge, England although slightly larger and more stable). After watching how much difficulty well-coordinated Liesl had steering the stoherkahn, Adam and I decided to sit back, relax and drink beer as opposed to attempt to play captain. Uli is quite the musician. A self-taught accordion player, he played vibrantly and soulfully a variety of genres including songs such as "Amazing Grace." Who knew it could be adapted for an accordion? 4-year-old Jakob is incredibly sweet and adorable and eagerly accepted Claudius' lesson of how to steer. It was a wonderful afternoon and I'm told, a quintessential Tübingen activity.

These photos captured the afternoon well: