A lesson in gift-giving

My very clever boyfriend came up with an ingenious gift for my this Christmas: Green & Black's Ultimate: Chocolate Recipes: The New Collection, which has quickly revived one of my favorite pastimes: baking.  


My first undertaking was Allegra McEvedy's Not Millionaire's Shortbread, a delightful three-layer treat.  First a peanut-based crust, followed by a layer of creamy caramel, and finally topped with melted orange-infused chocolate (Green & Black's Maya Gold).  The result was divine. 

I call this a lesson in gift giving because, well, this was bought for me by the very person who would be enjoying the fruits of the experimentation and labor (or labour? Ack, my English!).  I'm on my fifth recipe already.  Clever guy I've got.

2010 in travel

As predicted, blogging has taken a backseat to just about everything going on here in Heidelberg, which is a lot. Before going into that, I will give a brief tour of all the places away from Heidelberg I visited in 2010.

June - Paris

Just three hours and change by train, Paris is a nice destination for a weekend away. My former supervisor spent the summer in Paris for his sabbatical, so I dropped in for a long weekend of "work" and tourism. 

It was a beautiful June weekend with perfect walking weather, which in my opinion is the best way to spend your time in Paris.  

July - Strasbourg

My lovely sister, Amanda, visited in July, and we took a quick day trip to Strasbourg, France, if only to get a whiff of decent beef and other culinary delights that are somehow verboten in Germany.

We somehow managed to pick the hottest day of the year to make this journey, so our day was spent strolling from shady spot to shady spot, with frequent stops for refreshment.  At this time the World Cup was really ramping up, and this was the day of Germany's quarter final, in which they shellacked Argentina 4-0. Though it would have been fun to to watch this match in Germany (the last match they would win in the World Cup), I have to admit it was a relief to have a peaceful atmosphere after a month of vuvuzela sounding down the streets of Heidelberg.

Copenhagen

Toward the end of July, Paul and I headed north for some relief from our un-airconditioned existence in Germany. We decided on Copenhagen because neither of us had been, and we both had always wanted to visit. I think we both assumed that it would be a major city, but Copenhagen has a small town feel (the city has a population of 500,000, 2 million including the surrounding area). Everywhere we went, we constantly overshot our destinations from our map; it took around 30 minutes to walk from end to end. This is not to say that there wasn't a ton to do in the city, and the atmosphere could not be beat. 

Our Favorite cafe. Glowing doll-heads as 

chandeliers. Yes. 

I think that photo captures the nightlife vibe in Copenhagen. Quirky, laid back, and good fun. Tip: drink imported beer.

August - St. Andrews, Scotland

In early August, I headed to Hawaii for an observing run (amazingly, I have no pictures to show you because time constraints allowed for no leisure time on the Big Island this time), then home for the most important holiday of the year, my birthday.  Following my big American trip (and almost a month away from my boyfriend!), I flew up to Edinburgh to see Paul and visit St. Andrews, his alma mater.  Due to harddrive failure, I've lost my original copies of the pictures from St. Andrews, but luckily, I posted them to flickr before that happened.  It was just lovely there.

September - Göteborg, Sweden

Conference season kicked off in Göteborg (or Gothenburg), Sweden with Herschel and the Formation of Stars and Planetary Systems.  A large group of people from my institute attended this conference. The participants were meant to stay at this all-inclusive "spa" getaway conference venue, which was beautiful, but horrifically over-priced.

The view from conference hotel. Not bad.

Instead, the MPIA attendees stayed in downtown Göteborg on a permanently-docked boat called the Barken Viking. Highly recommended.  The rooms were refurbished sleeping quarters for passengers, much more comfortable than I expected. Here it is in the background of our group photo.

The city is not what I'd call exciting. It's a student town (term starts in October probably), so I could see it livening up with some youth injected. Still, we were able to eat well. If I could eat shellfish, I probably would have eaten even better. 

Paris (again)

I headed once again to the land of foie gras for a weekend getaway with Paul, who had a conference the following week. The great thing about Paris is that there is never a shortage of new things to see and do. This time, I saw the Centre Pompmidou for the first time. Before the art, the view from the top level (3 stories is tall for Paris):

Not a bad way to start, huh?

I have a soft spot for modern art. I even saw babies on spikes. 

We also climbed up the Sacre Coeur.

... and we went to the Louvre, which Paul had never seen. 

November - Berlin

In need of another getaway, Paul and I ventured northward once again for the weekend. I selected this time in particular because a musical group we both like, Afrocubism, was stopping there on their rather sparse tour of Europe. As this was the very last weekend in November, all the Christmas markets were in full swing, so we enjoyed our fair share of glühwein and sausages. The pictures from this trip also fell victim to hard drive failure, but check out the selection I posted on flickr for a taste. (It was cold.)

Ok, that's it. I didn't promise content, just a tour! I hope 2011 holds some travels to warmer destinations (Italy tops that wish list) and more timely blog posting. Happy new year!

Holidays

May 1 - Maifeiertag

May 13 - Ascension

May 24 - Pentecost Monday

...

I like holidays as much as the next person, but in Germany, all shops close on holidays in addition to Sundays as usual.  This makes life annoying when you has next to no time to run errands as it is, and your only chance is to fight through the throngs of tourists on Saturdays.  Wah!

On the other hand, vacation days and national holidays are no joke here;  really, no one works.  I find this a welcome change from the American grind.  Perhaps it's not a fair comparison with my last years in the US were spent madly finishing graduate school, but even the busy/super-productive people here in Germany see holidays as an integral part of their year, no questions asked.  In the US, I often got the feeling that if I took a holiday, I was showing weakness or a lack of commitment to my job.  You almost feel like your job is at risk if you have to call in sick.  Not here.  It's a relief to know that your well-being is considered more important than being the cog in the work machine. 

Having seen both sides of it, I realize that I was close to being brainwashed into workaholism.  But now (even as I write my blog while at work) I feel motivated to work hard now, and enjoy the time off!

Calling it "home"

I made my first trip to the US since moving to Germany over the last couple of weeks, and it was great!  I loved being home and having the chance to spend some time with my family.  


This was also the first time that I was returning "home" to Heidelberg after an absence, and I have to say I didn't miss it.  Ok, I missed my house, and all the freedom and privacy that having my own place gives me.  But I could have that anywhere.  I missed my friends here, of course, but those feelings were overwhelmed by the ones telling me how much I'd rather have my family with me.  Perhaps it's still early in my time here, or maybe it's because I left a warm place and returned to a cold, rainy one.  I was left wondering how long and what it takes to make a place home.  Maybe once the sun starts shining here, I won't have this mopey cloud following me around everywhere!


Or, retail therapy...

I brought the snow

For the month I've been here, I've heard the weather be described as "terrible," "unusual," even "abominable" (last one mostly by me).  There have been more days of snow than sunshine by a long shot, and there's currently a pile of snow waist-high outside my office window.  

It's been so bad, big branches are falling from these century-old trees.  The worst, of course, is that it's been a serious impediment to getting back and forth between town and the institute.  The bus company cancels the bus with basically no notice, marooning people working here to find some other way home, either by car (when they don't shut the road to all traffic) or on foot (which takes well over an hour, longer in the dark).  

Yesterday was a particularly bad day for travel.  I took the 9am bus up to the institute.  The ride typically takes about 25 minutes;  we made it in about 40.  Right then, I knew getting down would be a trick.  Immediately upon arriving in my office, I receive an institute-wide email informing us that the buses would stop indefinitely.  With the snow showing no sign of letting up, a group of 7 of us hiked to the Bergbahn which is this very cute tourist-serving tram that takes you up our scenic mountain, with a stop at the famous schloß (castle).  Normally, it takes 20 minutes or so to get down to town this way, but because the tracks constantly needed to be cleared to ensure a safe trip, it took more like an hour and a half.  

  Here I am riding the Bergbahn, freezing my toes off, but happy to *not* be walking the treacherous walk down on the snow and ice.  When we finally arrived in town (where it was warmer and merely raining, grrr), we treated ourselves to a nice lunch at one of my favorite breweries in town, Vetters.

 Here I am celebrating our safe arrival at Vetters with (from left) Sharon, Vivi, (me) and Kester.  Could have been a bad day, but as you can see, we were in good spirits, nonetheless.

Cash culture = money saved!

Sometimes I feel so impressionable, but this time it's a good thing.  Banking in Germany is somewhat more challenging than in the States.  Back home, everything is instantaneous, always having innumerable ways of accessing your money, so there's no reason not to spend, spend, spend!  Here, I've passively entered into a "saving mode," having only bought groceries and a pair of gloves.


In Germany, it takes weeks (yes, WEEKS) after opening a bank account to even get a card to use a cash machine, and more like months to get a "credit card" so that you can shop online (but don't dare pay with a credit card at a restaurant or bar.  I've yet to see the little machines actually work properly!).  And I use "credit card" loosely, because that's not nearly as easy to do.  You have to first have proof of income for several months, and then (after they charge you a hefty monthly fee), the balance is automatically deducted from your bank account.  I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, but suffice it to say, a line of credit is quite a different concept here than I am used to!  But it's as plain as day why you never hear of people here getting in over their heads with credit card debt.  It's too hard!


All of that said, you might expect me to bitch and moan about how inconvenient everything is.  On the contrary, it's been very effective in limiting my spending.  And since credit cards are hardly used in the everyday sense, it is made much, much easier to pay with cash.  Only have a 50EUR note?  No problem.  It's made easy to pay individually when out with a group, so you don't have that nasty eye-roll from the wait staff like you tend to get in the US if (god forbid) you ask for separate cheques.  


Thankfully, I've never been one very comfortable with the idea of paying for everything with a swipe of the card.  I rarely paid for my coffee with my card, and I suspect if I tried to pull that stunt here, I'd be totally shunned.  But, all is well.  I need to save my Euros for my wonderful new apartment! (pictures will be coming soon!)

Two weeks in

I knew leaving would be painful.  I knew at first living here would be hard.  I did not know how long it would take me to start to relax and feel comfortable in my strange new home.  After a mere two weeks, things are unquestionably better for me, though I know I have a long way to go.

Thanks to my workaholic tendencies, I quickly found a rhythm by immersing myself once again in work.  MPIA is an entirely different environment than what I am used to.  Instead of being the only one in my field, stumbling around in the dark for the most part, I am among the world's experts on my research interests. They have a mountain of work to do, and it was there for me to dive right into.  Work-wise, I feel like I couldn't be in a better place.  And that's not just because my office is right across from the coffee room.

I've been pretty impatient for everything else in life to catch up with the progress made at work.  I'm staying in a guest house on the far end of town, which feels pretty isolated.  I have a dreadful walk home if I'm out past midnight, and it's really only residences out here.  With no car, that becomes laborious.  It became clear to me right away that I am just a downtown kind of creature, and as much as people generally annoy me, I prefer to live in places where there are always people about, maybe showing me that life carries on whether I'm pissy or not.  I'm very excited to be moving into a new apartment at the beginning of next month that fulfills all of those promises I made myself while living in squaller during grad school: great location, big kitchen, manageable walk to work.  It's going to be expensive, but I feel like now is a good time to start cashing in some of that good life for which I've been waiting so long.  

I'm very lucky to have had some friends here before I moved.  Those friendships have quickly branched to a wider network of good-natured individuals who are nearly all in the same situation as I, which fosters a good rapport where we all watch out for one another, always reaching out and involving everyone.  Having some people with whom to spend my downtime has done a lot for my sanity, not to mention that of my Skype mates, who would be on the receiving end of many sobbing phone calls if it weren't for the beginnings of something resembling a social life.

And, German.  How I wish I knew German.  Even in a place where most everyone speaks some English -- hell, half the time I'd say I'm within punching distance of an American -- I would still love to better communicate with people here.  Unfortunately, having delayed my arrival here by a few months, I missed the beginning of the free German course offered at the institute.  I guess it's back to the Rosetta Stone sessions for me!