A Wealth of Worldly Visitors: Tuebingen, The Romans, Ritter Sport, and Munich (again)

As I mentioned previously, my visit to Sweden kicked off just around two weeks of social time for me. I don't mean the kind of social time that constitutes my life generally--I mean, let's face it, I'm posing as an erasmus student, so there's a lot of casual, lightly beer and/or food-fueled socializing. No, I mean the kind where I may or may not have skipped a class or two to spend time with people I adore and find much more difficult to see these days! This may have put me a little bit behind schedule on my mastery of languages both dead and living, but hey, I don't sweat the small stuff because it was a total blast!

After my return from Sweden I had a few days to try to get ahead caught up on things (I failed miserably. The weather was beautiful. Sue me.), and then another very dear au-pair friend arrived from Toulouse with her husband and daughter to visit little old me in Tuebingen! Andrea was the au-pair for my family in hmm...'95/'96, but has spent a lot more time with us over the years for short stays, visits, etc. She and her husband, Timo, are German (I was even at their wedding during my last summer stint in Trier!), but their professional lives have taken them to Toulouse. This means that not only do they have a lovely house with a pool, fig trees, and the whole shebang (which I may or may not be scouring the internet for airfare deals to go see again...well, I would be seeing THEM at their house, of course), but they also have a stunning polyglot of a 2 1/2 year old daughter whom I just adore. Anyway, they arrived on Thursday afternoon and we began a wonderfully relaxed weekend filled with walking around Tuebingen, shopping, and lots and lots of eating. They treated me to more delicious meals than I can count at this point, and it was such a treat to be so spoiled and plucked from my rather thrifty studenthood. (Thanks again, guys!!) I also get to spend a lot of time chattering with their daughter, who is about the same age as a little boy I babysit here. It was a really interesting experience because she just felt a lot 'older' to me. Andrea and Timo pointed out what I should have considered off the bat; she's a girl, and more often than not girls are ahead of boys in terms of verbal development. I read a very interesting book several months ago that explains why (The Female Brain, read it. Go. Yes, there's one about the male brain as well) that is, among a lot of other things, and how the communication circuits in female and male brains are vastly, vastly different. Interesting stuff. At any rate, she was just putting together a lot more complete phrases and sentences than my babysitting charge does, and it was quite funny to hear her mix French and German in the same breath. Especially alternating words. Something like, "Ich veux auch glace," for example, which is, "I want ice cream, too," except she has successfully switched languages with each word. I have a hard time doing that if I try, even though I speak and understand both languages quite comfortably. Children's brains are amazing things in general, but they are particularly fascinating when they're in their prime language acquisition phase.

The Toulouse contingent continued on with their tour of southern Germany on Monday afternoon (after a final, delicious, enormous outdoor breakfast, I must add), and on Tuesday evening, I was joined in Tuebingen by very dear friend and former Wes rowing teammate (in as much as you an say that), Terrence. T had been teaching in Vietnam for the the past 9 months or so, and is making his way around Europe to do some visiting of friends and attend his sister's graduation from a graduate program in Paris. I was thrilled when he asked if he could come and see me in Tuebingen, and of course said yes right away! He had a rather long trip (understatement of the week), but still managed to make it out for some Kaesespaetzle and beer with Josh and I on his first ever night in Germany. Seeing as we didn't have a toddler to take into account and are the traveling student types, usually characterized by, "go go go let's do things and see things go go go," we spent a lot more time checking out the surrounding area. On Wednesday we walked around Tuebingen and then headed out to see the Roman Open Air Museum in a town called Hechingen-Stein, not too too far from here by train. This place was very cool, but we did notice a sad lack of signs in English or French. Odd, since their welcome sign was multilingual. We still enjoyed looking at everything, and I was sorely tempted to go up and try to have a chat with the archaeologists excavating across the site, but it would have been nicer had we not needed to rely on my translating skills; my overall comprehension was fine, but it's amazing where you run into trickiness when you try to make sense of what you've read out loud in your native language. Regardless, there were lots of things to see on site; the area was originally home to what I understood to be a rural villa of sorts. There was a central building accompanied by a bathhouse, smithy, mill, and storage building, and the whole thing was enclosed by a protective wall of sorts. Parts of these structures have been reconstructed with exhibits about different aspects of the area and roman life dispersed throughout. There were also lots of mannequins in different rooms participating in said daily life...I can never decide if this is cool or creepy. A little bit of both, maybe. We then missed the bus on our way back, so ended up walking from the train station in Hechingen (about 5km each way) to the museum round-trip. It was an absolutely beautiful day, though!

Here are some photos from the museum. Somewhere on T's camera there is a picture of me playing roman dress-up. We'll see how that one came out...

 Part of the original bathhouse. You are seeing the floor there at the back left, and the columns that held it up for under-floor heating littered around the surface to which they've excavated.

 The reconstructed latrine. Complete with graffiti. 

 One possible reconstruction of the whole place. Covered central court? Open court? Who knows. 

 View of the rest of the complex from the porch of the central building

 I'll take one of these in my own villa, please. 

 Also this. Minus the creepy serving mannequin.

 Roman dress-up! We think it was intended for kids but some of those costumes were pretty big, so I tossed one on. Thankfully Terrence has the photo, not I!

 More excavated areas

 And some more...

 I blew this one up so you can see the archaeologists behind the bench there. No clue what they were working on, but I so desperately wanted to ask. 

After we returned to Tuebingen, we met up with Anya, her visiting friend, Ivor, and Sinead at Neckarmueller to sit in the Biergarten and enjoy the sun; we were fortunate enough to find a table right along the river, though to be fair, the whole restaurant and Biergarten are right along the river, more or less. Terrence arrived thinking he didn't like "Helles", ie. white/light/wheat/whatever you want to call it beer, and the typical type that is served down here. Fortunately he changed his mind.

 Mmm... a nice helles on a sunny day

Nixing the idea of taking out a row boat (it's light but it's really about 7/7:30 in the photos below), we stopped at the grocery store for some more beer and settled on the Neckar Insel (the island that divides the river Neckar right where the bridge crosses it). After some people jumped out of their boat for a swim, Ivor decided to join them. They claimed it was freezing, but those of us who are used to real cold water knew better. 

 Ivor goes for a swim, seems to feel victorious

We finally found ourselves at Kaufland where we procured dinner ingredients and made pizza back at Anya's apartment, just across the hall from mine. This was, of course, accompanied by more beer. I realize this makes it sound like everyone was likely drunk at this point, but when you're lazing about in the sun, you tend to take a while to do anything, especially consume a beer. Rest assured, we were entirely sober and on our best behavior. 

 Though you might not know it from this photo...

The following day, we spent the morning at the archaeological/history museum in Tuebingen's castle. We definitely did not budget enough time, because this place was way more awesome than we expected it to be, and we found ourselves seriously rushing to peek at everything by the end of our time there. They had an outstanding exhibit on European prehistory with unbelievable neolithic carvings made mostly out of mammoth ivory. The archaeologists from Tuebingen are the ones who have found a number of those Venus figurines and the oldest known instrument, a small bone flute, from (I believe) the same site. This should give you an indication of the quality of some of the artifacts we were seeing--crazy! We had to rush through the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian areas, and ran off to grab some of the world's best falafel (yes, right here in Tuebingen) before we met up with Anya and her visiting friend, Amanda. The museum has great English translations for all of it's Tuebingen history and prehistory exhibit text, and is free for students. If you're here in Tuebs, go check it out! I'm definitely going to be going back. 

We then all headed out to the Ritter Sport Factory, which is an easy 20-minute bus ride from Tuebingen. I had never been, but had seen it several times on the way to and from the airport in Stuttgart, so I was quite excited for the excursion. The factory is in a small town called Waldenbuch, and they have both an entirely unrelated modern art museum and a chocolate exhibit/gift shop complex right nextdoor. Unless you schedule a special tour, this is the place to go, so we followed Anya--our experienced tour guide--to the exhibit. They have all sorts of information about how chocolate is made, where their ingredients come from, the history of the company, advertising, etc. It was quite informative and well-done, I thought. One of the best parts is the following contraption that dispenses free samples. It was working sporadically, but we finally wound up with some chocolate! 

There is of course also an enormous chocolate shop there, where you can buy all things Ritter, including leftovers of the out-of-season flavors and discounted chocolate that is packaged in bulk. This is how I wound up with my winter favorite, Vanillekipferl, and a rather large amount of marzipan-filled Ritter. For those unaware, Vanillekipferl are those delcious, almondy, crumbly, powdered sugar-covered crescent cookies that I make for the holidays. Delicious inside chocolate!

 Here is the Ritter Sport expansion pack for Settlers of Catan, a German game that has been around for ages but has suddenly gained a huge cult following among college students. My family has had this for years--I always knew we were cool! Anyway, you can buy this 'Chocolate Market' set to go with it...

 Waiting for the bus--note more beautiful weather. 

On Friday, Terrence's last day in Tuebingen, we spent some more time seeing the city and then after my regular tutoring session, hopped a very comfortable, easy, inexpensive bus to Munich. The only downside of the whole trip was when the entire Autobahn was merged down to two lanes, then one, and funneled through a rest stop parking lot full of police and vehicles that had been pulled over. Our driver, who grumbled to himself for most of the trip, was beyond peeved, and we could only figure they were looking for something or someone. A little creepy. We arrived in Munich on schedule, though (I learned on the way back that they build about a 20-minute delay into the schedule--smart!), and made our way to the apartment of my friend Marie, whom we agreed I hadn't seen in about 6 years. Marie is German, but spent most of her time from age 10 through the end of high school in the US, if I remember correctly due to her mother's work as a professor. They lived in Palo Alto, Hanover, and New Haven (that's Stanford, Dartmouth, and Yale, for those who don't know) during their time in the States, and Marie and I attended middle school together for a little while, and played clarinet together in the band. She's wonderful, and we always got along very well, so it was sad when she had to move to New Haven. I'd seen her a couple of times since then, however, but not during the course of our college careers as she was at Cambridge and I was at Wesleyan. She was gracious enough, however, to offer to put us both up during our two-night stay in Munich, and it was absolutely lovely to see her! 

Alas, it rained for most of our first day, but Marie was an excellent tour guide and took us out for traditional Bavarian breakfast (weisswurst--veal sausage--with sweet mustard, pretzels, and beer), walking us all over part of the city in the process, before spending some time studying; she's a medical student, so the work never stops. Oddly, I realized I had actually been to the restaurant before with my mom, where I had what I still remember as unbelievably tasty pasta with Pfifferlinge...I think these are chanterelle mushrooms). We then headed out to the Nymphenburger Schloss to do some sightseeing from under an umbrella. The castle entrance fee wasn't small, and we are ueber-thrifty, so we peeked around the inside where we could and then went for a chilly walk around the gardens.

 Beautiful, even in the rain

 One of the smaller buildings on the grounds

 A view of just part of the gorgeous gardens. They were re-done at one point to resemble more of an English style, so a lot of them are forested areas with walking paths that are easily mistakable for a natural wood.

 Urrggghh chilly

Then we met Marie for Kaffee and Kuchen (coffee and cake, a German tradition of which I'm a big fan), and got a chance to see her favorite cafe near the university. I tried Rhabarberschorle for the first time (rhubarb juice with sparkling water) and it pretty much made my day. We stopped off in the Marienplatz beforehand, though, so Terrence could experience the famous Glockenspiel, which plays music and showcases some moving wooden figurines (dancers, musicians, and jousting knights) every day at 11, and two more times per day in the summer. 

 You can't see them due to my unbelievable photography skills, but there's a huge crowd here!

On the way, we stopped to see part of the university, and went into the main hall to see a) how beautiful it is, and b) the memorial to the Scholl siblings and the other members of The White Rose, a small resistance movement at the university in Munich at the start of the second World War. 

 A view of the main foyer/hall, which is absolutely beautiful

To end our day of traveling, Terrence and I had a very Bavarian dinner at a great restaurant recommended by Marie. Unfortunately, I was feeling particularly exhausted and not very hungry, but I had my trusty meal-finisher on hand!

 A little shocked that in BAVARIA of all places, someone tried to add an extra 'e' into my name

 My dinner, some incredibly delicious pork with an onion-y sauce and a traditional potato dumpling. I love these dumplings, and will have to figure out how to make them myself at home. Man are they filling. 

 Terrence had sausages, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut. And of course, we had local beer!

The original plan for that evening was for both of us to accompany Marie to a friend's birthday party. I was, as previously mentioned, beyond exhausted, however, so I stayed in by myself. I felt like a total loser, especially because at some point during the day I developed some very weird, very severe foot pain, and was also limping around like a gimp with an ice pack on my foot. Dr. Marie offered a quick exam and some excellent pain killers, but a week later, back in Tuebingen, I still don't really have any answers. My guess is tendonitis, but we'll find out next Thursday when I go to see an orthopedist. Because, you know...my regular doctor couldn't give me any answers. I miss the athletic injury care staff at Wesleyan. 

The following morning we had another delicious breakfast at Marie's and headed out to see some museums. Munich has a group of them called the Pinakotheken that possess all sorts of art, artifacts, and installations. On Sundays, they are 1 Euro each to gain admission, so we picked a couple and were on our way! Fortunately, they are all located around a central green, and we nabbed some cheap day passes for the public transportation system (buses, subways, trams, whee!), so I didn't have to do too much walking. Still, I managed to continue to feel like a loser limping all over the museums. I was, however, determined to enjoy the city while we were there. Our first stop was the Neue Pinakothek, which seemed to have lots of paintings and sculpture from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. We had a great time seeing some beautiful landscapes and a healthy dose of impressionism. Then we headed over to the Pinakothek der Moderne for, you guessed it, contemporary art! Some of it I really liked, and some of it I didn't, but I guess that's sort of the point, isn't it? Cool stuff.

 Here was a cool installation of antique cars and motorcycles

Before heading back to Marie's to grab our bags and say our farewells, we stopped at her favorite gelato shop. The line was long, but moved quickly, and once we tasted the stuff, we could see why. I had  chocolate-ginger and Terrence had hazelnut, plus since we each only ordered one scoop they also offered us a tasty couple of bites of a second flavor on the side; we chose lemon-basil and pineapple-pear respectively. Needless to say it was absolutely divine. We then took a quick gander at the Englischer Garten, a big public park in the city that affords all sorts of recreation and culinary opportunities. We stopped to check out the standing wave, where you can actually SURF on the river, and had a bit of a stroll around before heading back into the city for a peek at the all-important Hofbraeuhaus. We spent about two minutes in the main hall looking around, since we decided Terrence had to see it while in Munich (don't we all? I think so), and then made our way back to Marie's apartment. I dropped Terrence off at the train station and made my way to the bus station, and just like that his visit was over. We will be having a serious, though not necessarily originally planned wescrew reunion in Seattle this summer, though, so I'm not too concerned. 

 The line for the gelato shop, which you can see under the awning there.

 Surfers at the standing wave. This was really neat to see!

Peeking down the street to the Hofbraeuhaus

Swinging Up To Sweden

To my great pleasure, I was finally able to reschedule my original trip to Sweden (you know, that one disrupted by the epic visit to Brown). I flew up over the last weekend in April to begin what would be two weeks of visiting with very old, very dear friends, and arrived just across the border in Copenhagen after the world's most painless flight out of Stuttgart with nary a customs agent in sight. I love European travel!

After some easy negotiating of the train system (and assisting a fellow travel who read neither Danish or English very well), I met my au-pair, Maria, and her very handsome (very adorable, very pensive, very sleepy) three-month-old Nils at their closest train station in Malmo, a medium-sized (but man is it growing) city in the southern Swedish province of Scania, just across the narrow strip of sea from Denmark. This was my first trip to Sweden, and my first time seeing Maria in over two years, so I as absolutely thrilled! We hopped the bus back to their apartment and I spent some time catching up over what I still maintain is the most delicious salad I've ever had, and enjoying the stunning view out of the apartment windows.

Here is the view from the apartment--you can just make out Copenhagen in the evening light on the opposite side, and just to the left is a large bridge that connects the two, and a wind far

Their apartment is located on an "island" peninsula that was originally formed from the leftover earth removed from what seems to be a cement quarry ("Malmo's Grand Canyon"). It's now a lovely, new, developing part of the city with a number of apartment complexes, a harbor, etc. As you can see, the area is not too shabby! I mean, really tough having to settle for that view, am I right? At any rate, that evening I got my first taste of the rest of Malmo when Maria and I went out for some wine and unbelievable fish stew at a small restaurant in the old part of the city. 

 The deliciousness of this stew inspired me to buy a soup cookbook in Malmo...google translate, here I come!

 Walking through the city center

 the main square

The following day we took a napping Nils for an outing and went to see the museum in Malmo Castle, which  houses both some natural history exhibits, as well as a contemporary art installation that was really interesting. Unfortunately, most things were in Swedish, but I did pick up a few tidbits here and there, and it was just nice to get out for a walk and see the city. We also did some shopping and Maria took me to some of her favorite stores, where I had the timeless problem of wanting to buy everything in sight. Fortunately, we discovered there is a Marimekko (my favorite store by far) in Boston, and I am determined I will have at least a couple of their mugs in my kitchen, even if that's all I can afford in the way of interior decorating!

We then met Maria's fiancee Per for lunch at a local seafood spot/cafe, and stopped by to see his wooden boat that he's been doing some restoration work on. Need I say my fried herring sandwich was delicious? I hope not...

A fish market on the way to the museum

Per's boat, The Raya, under it's tent for restoration

Inside the boat!

Friday evenings are apparently seafood night for Maria and Per, and I was more than happy to partake in the tradition! Here is the dinner table in its preparatory stage...we had saltwater crayfish, shrimp, and absolutely delicious mussels (not yet on the table), along with bread, butter, and wine. I could not have been happier! They kept teasing me about how all I was getting to eat in Sweden was seafood, but I really miss the stuff in Tuebingen..

Check out those crayfish!

On Saturday, Maria and Per took me for a long drive around Scania to visit some lovely coastal spots. They had asked me if there was anything I was interested in seeing, and as it turned out, there were a couple of very cool archaeological sites near where they had planned to take me anyway! We set off in the morning for our first stop in a place called Kivik that is home to the "King's Grave". This is sort of reminiscent of a neolithic passage tomb (see earlier blog posts), except that it's mostly a pile of rocks, and the passageway is actually cut out of them, not into them (i.e. it's not covered). The grave has been reconstructed, and evidence suggests it may have been up to tree times higher than the reconstruction suggests...we'll never know. Inside, lining the grave, they found stones that had been carved with various designs; sounds super cool, right? Well, we discovered as we arrived that we were about four days early...the grave doesn't open until the first week in April. It was still nice to see, though, and I felt less guilty since this nice village had been on the visit list anyway. 

Here we are doing our best impression of Nils' pouty lip. We were not happy!

Here's the view from the nextdoor cafe. Also closed. Boo. 

On our way to our next stop, we paused for a small snack at a cafe in a national park that serves a cookie buffet! Per had been once before, several years ago, and remembered fondly all of the mismatched cups and saucers and the unlimited supply of cookies. We popped in to try a few, and though I somehow managed to spill my tea in my lap (I'm prone to such social faux pas, what can I say), I also managed to get a lot of cookies into my belly. My favorite were the little short breads!

You can see the tasty shortbread all the way to the left, but all of the varieties were pretty scrumptious!

Finally, we went to our last seaside town for a visit to what translate's into English as Ale's Stones. This is a large stone formation, likely Viking and intended to represent a ship, that stands on a bluff overlooking the sea. There are some interesting theories about it's connection to Stonehenge put forth by a retired geologist, but the archaeologists aren't big fans. There is some interesting alignment regarding the sun, though. It was SUPER windy up on the bluff, and here I am proving it...

Yes, that is me leaning into the wind. Also I think I'm about sail away via my jacket. 

Afterwards, we hiked back down the hill and stopped at a fish market/cafe for some more tasty seafood. This place had an unbelievable array of fish and various crustaceans available...

 The right side of the case, complete with smoked and raw delights

 The center of the case, mostly smoked and otherwise cured things

 The smoked eels. Don't they look appetizing? We got some to take home with us for dinner that evening

Here's my very traditional meal--fried herring with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. Nils tried his very first "grown-up" food--a small slurp of lingonberry jam, and was summarily not impressed. In true fashion, he dribbled most of it back out the way it had come!

That evening, I received a lesson in risotto preparation from Per, and we enjoyed yet another delicious meal, complete with smoked eel and the appropriate schnapps. Oddly enough, the last time I had Aquavit, our drink of choice to help digest the eel, was also the last time I saw Maria. This was at the wedding of another au-pair (more to come about her visit in the next post!), when, at the end of a very fancy--and utterly delectable--dinner, the waiter asked if we'd like any form of aperitif. I made a contemplative face, and Maria took charge and ordered us each a shot of Aquavit. I was rather interested to note that it went down a lot smoother this time. I can't tell if it's the particular bottle, or perhaps my own life experience...no way to know, I suppose. The eel was actually very good--like an extremely fatty fish, but much tastier than it looked. 

On my final day in Sweden, Maria and I took the train over to Copenhagen to spend some time in the city before I needed to head to the airport. We mostly walked around and took in the sights, plus a few fun stores. She showed me her favorite interior design store, which is absolutely enormous and brimming with Scandinavian and Finnish beauty. We also found ourselves in a second hand store, of which there seem to be a lot in Copenhagen, and made some excellent purchases! Most of the city was under construction it seemed, but we had a wonderful time nonetheless, and ended our day with ice cream, which is always a must!

On one of the very touristy canal areas

One of many, many outdoor cafes and restaurants

 Possibly the one place in the city not obscured by construction tarp

 The array of KitchenAid mixers in the interior design store. *swoon*

More beautiful waterways

My trip to Malmo was unfortunately short, but a wonderful time nonetheless. The great part was that I've now seen just a small part of Sweden and cannot wait to get back to see more!

Last but not least, here are a couple of photos of me with my new little buddy. I think he was pretty perplexed when a stranger showed up and started speaking in this weird language that didn't sound anything like the Swedish or Finnish he is used to. He would stare at me, as if he was concentrating VERY hard, and wrinkle his eyebrows in my general direction, which was pretty hilarious. We had a good time dancing around and singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" together, though, and he would usually let me hold him for a  little while before he decided Mom or Dad were much better suited to his needs. He's a pretty expressive little guy, though, and definitely knows what he wants. Try to put him down on his back when he isn't in the mood? Out comes the quivering, pouty lip!

 Here we are singing together. I am doing the singing, he is doing the conducting

He's a big fan of fingers!

Until next time!

Deutsche Ostern

Germany is a country with a number of publicly-recognized religious holidays. Pentecost? We have a weekday off for that, plus the long weekend. Day of Ascension? Yes. Three Kings Day? In Baden-Wuerttemberg, you bet we do. So not only did we have Good Friday off, but we also had a holiday on Easter Monday. It was going to be a long weekend with few amenities or options for entertainment outside of my apartment. Then, when one of the families for whom I babysit invited me to celebrate Easter with them, I jumped at the chance. I was excited for a nice family day and some full-on new cultural experience, and these guys have taken such good care of me since I've met them, I knew I was going to have a nice time! I asked whether I should dress a little more formally than usual and whether they were attending church services, but they assured me it was just a casual day with the grandparents. I was somewhat relieved, if only because of the language barrier; religious services are usually somewhat of a cultural experience for me in their own right, but I always find them very interesting because I can...you know...follow what's being said. In German, with a potentially heavy Swabian accent, I wasn't too confident. At any rate, with none of that to fret over, I baked some hazelnut chocolate cookies to bring along as a little hostess gift, and was promptly picked up around 10am to make the hour or so drive to Beilstein, north of Stuttgart to the childhood home of Christine (their mother). Her parents still live in the house in which she grew up, and it's located in a lovely, smaller town that looks like many others dotting the Swabian countryside.

We arrived and had some delicious Easter cake to tide us over for an hour or so until lunch, which was very traditional and most definitely excellent. For our noon meal we had pan sauteed meat medallions with very typical sauteed and sauced vegetables and spaetzle, and of course, wine! Then the adults (including me, to my surprise!) were presented with small gifts and sweets--hint, I got a lot of yummy Easter chocolate--and the kids went outside to hunt for the gifts and sweets left by the Osterhase (the Easter Bunny)!

 Here's the Ostereierbaum (Easter Egg Tree) in the front yard

  Anna (9) looking for her presents from the Osterhase while her Grandmother provides some tips

 Lamin (nearly 14) is a little too cool for present hunting, so I had to help because I (nearly 23) am not

Anna and Lamin with their haul of goodies and sweets

After the hunting and some eating, we headed up to the castle in the town to see a flight show put on by the falconers there. As far as I could gather, they are a bit like our local Upper Valley institute VINS, and not only raise falcons but also rehabilitate injured or endangered birds. We saw two different types of falcon, an owl, a European bald eagle, and finally two vultures! I then spent a couple of hours playing an older version of a game something like Trivial pursuit with the kids and their grandmother. This was good fun for us since between the date of manufacture and the German/European subjects of many of the questions, I had just as good a chance of getting many things right as the kids. We played in teams and their grandmother gave us lots of hints, and Anna and I ended up winning. We were very proud! We then all ate an enormous deutsches Abendbrot ( German evening bread), which usually consists of an enormous array of bread and rolls, meats, cheeses, and spreads. This one did not disappoint, and I am a big fan of any such array that can be accompanied by a good old-fashioned juice schorle (like a spritzer). All in all, it was a really great day, and I was back in Tuebingen in time for a movie and bedtime. Good stuff!

Semesterferien: A Little Change of Plans

If you've read the blog before, you probably got wind of the talk about my Semesterferien (that is, the break between the winter and summer semesters. Because this is German, we take the words words for 'semester' and 'vacation' and put them together, hence my semestervacation). Originally, the plan was to stay home in Tuebingen for a week of the great England-Ireland trip, spend a long weekend in Sweden visiting my au-pair Maria and her family, and then meet Gilder in Greece. The flights were all booked, I was busily putting together various itinerary options, and then I received one very exciting email. I was walking down the hill from one of my university classes to the D.A.I. to print materials before my class, and for some reason decided to check my email on my phone. I tend to do this now simply because I can and after all this time it's still a little novel, haha. Well I looked down and pulled a full-Tuebingen-stop right in the middle of the sidewalk as I read the subject heading, "Visit to the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology". This didn't fully register with me, so I opened the email and read the first lines. "Dear Catherine, I write with the happy news that we would like to invite you to come visit the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University, so that you may meet the Joukowsky Institute community and we can meet you. It promises to be a very good time."

At this point I was smiling so hard that I was sort of reflexively laughing and nearly crying at the same; thank God there was nobody coming up on the sidewalk behind me. Being myself, I needed to share this exciting news with someone before I burst, so I did what any sane girl living abroad would do; I whipped out my posh phone (as Josh calls it), logged into my skype, and used by skype credit for landlines to call my mom at her office! Fortunately for me, she picked up and I was able to half-laugh/cry my news to her via 3G. Oh the wonders of technology. As I explained the details of the email--that I had been invited to visit the institute and get to know the community (and vice versa) before final admissions decisions were made, it dawned on us--that was the weekend I had planned my trip to Sweden. I was fairly nonplussed, however, and figured I would just re-book it. Complications happen, and this was a really important one. Did I mention they were paying for my international flight and expenses? It would turn out this even meant my coffee while I was in Providence. Good deal!

A month later (on the bottom bunk in a beautiful youth hostel in the Lake District in Grasmere, England, via some slightly more expensive, roaming 3G) I received more exciting news from Harvard--I had been accepted outright to their program with full funding and had been invited to attend their get-to-know-you/wooing weekend as well! I was ecstatic that I had at least one, excellent option for grad school (seeing as Brown wasn't yet a certainty), and also more than a little bit stressed; the Harvard weekend fell smack in the middle of our vacation in Greece, and Gilder and I had already bought the flights. Nonetheless, we both knew how important the visit was, and I'm fortunate to have an incredibly supportive boyfriend, so we decided I absolutely had to go and that Gilder would see about exchanging his ticket for a partial refund and a flight to Boston instead of Athens. The upside of all of this? Given my chosen profession and graduate school plans, the possibility of us getting to visit Greece together in the very near future is extraordinarily high!

And so instead of heading to Sweden on March 16th, I hopped the lovely bus from Tuebingen to the Stuttgart Airport (which is so much easier to deal with than either the trip to, or the enormous facilities that make up, Frankfurt Airport) and boarded a flight to Heathrow and Boston. Many hours later, and not having slept a wink on the flight, I was met (along with another visiting prospective) by current Joukowsky students, Müge and Clive, at the arrivals area of Boston Logan. They handed us large bottles of water and gave us poor jet lagged souls a speedy (and entertaining) lift back to campus--could you ask for anything more? 

The weekend at Brown was a full one, with days full of planned activities and events: panels, interviews, discussions, tours, presentations, and of course lots of food and some social events. Anyone who is sure to schedule time for delicious food (and oh was it delicious) and parties? Those are my people. I had an absolutely fabulous weekend, and was essentially blown away from the first moment I arrived. The institute building itself was unbelievable, the students and faculty were all extremely nice and very awesome (I guess this is what happens when you let everyone meet your prospectives  before you finally select whom to admit), and though I was jet lagged and exhausted for the entire duration of visit, we were so well taken care of that it didn't really end up mattering. Whenever we all gathered together the director, Sue, would stand taking us all in and then ask, "Where are my jet laggers? How are we doing? Do we need coffee? We can send someone to get you coffee!" Needless to say we did not go without, and the weekend ended with some, er, excellent festivities. I was proud to say that, though I was exhausted, I made it til the very end! 

I headed home on Sunday for some rest and recuperation at the Griffin-Steidl homestead, and enjoyed lazing about with the animals and my family after lots and lots of traveling. My anticipation factor was high--I couldn't wait to hear back from Brown about final decisions, and I desperately wanted to be admitted after meeting everyone there and getting to know more about the program. I had been warned, though, that given all of the other things going on at that moment, it was possible it might be a couple of weeks before I heard back. So I steeled myself for a bit of a wait and some certainly possible rejection--of the eight, entirely qualified, extremely intelligent, not to mention just plain nice prospective students who visited, they would only be able to offer full support to three. Gilder arrived three days later, and we spent some very enjoyable time stuffing our faces at Hanover's breakfast/brunch/lunch institution, Lou's, with my very dear, very old friend Steph. In other news, Steph has just moved to Boston, so we're going to need to find a new brunch haunt for a new tradition! Somehow whenever I get home from Germany, the focus seems to be on food. Who'd have thought? Anyway, on day four--DAY FOUR--I received an email from the Brown Graduate School. These are total killers, because you get an email that says a decision has been made regarding your application status, and instead of just opening it and ripping off the band-aid, you have to click the link, go to the site, try to log in, forget your password and pin because you have eight different ones from eight different online program applications, search through your email, find the correct one, get to your homepage, find the correct link to see the status decision, and then DOWNLOAD THE DAMN PDF. At this point, I was fidgeting so much I might as well have been running circles around my room. And then bam, there it was. I had been accepted. Just like that. The relief and euphoria felt something like in books when people describe some sort of liquid emotion spreading through your body. I finally got what they were talking about. Gilder was in the shower...I promptly delivered the good news by yelling through the door, and nearly fell down our stairs to greet my father who was just returning home from work. I ran out barefoot into the driveway, decidedly like a five-year-old, because I couldn't contain myself and met him halfway from retrieving the mail to explain that I'd just received confirmation from Brown that they, in fact, agreed with me--we were a perfect fit. Knowing I still had a second visit, however, I decided I needed to keep an open mind and hold off from making the final decision I very badly wanted to make immediately (partly because I loved the institute and partly because it had just been so damn long and I wanted to end things). We enjoyed a couple of more days in Hanover, and then Gilder and I headed down to Boston for the Harvard visit, to be followed by a surprise visit to Wesleyan for the crew team's first regatta of the regular season, and first home spring race since before our time. 

Arriving in Boston-Cambridge a day early, we spent a wonderful evening with my other very dear friend, Aka, and spent the next day taking in some sights around Harvard Square and dining at The Friendly Toast before I checked into my hotel and Gilder took the car and went off to visit with friends. Things began early the next morning with the Harvard visit, and I was again blown away by how friendly and interested everyone was. Should I have been shocked? No, not at all. Maybe it's just that after spending so much time in a culture that's a little more reserved on the surface, I had some mini-culture shock. I again, had a busy, full visit schedule, though it was much more free-form than the Brown weekend, and I spent several minutes each morning poring over the schedule to pick out which I would attend of the many overlapping events, classes, and office hours. There was something to be said for sitting in on a class and touring all of the facilities--particularly the library. Firstly, after being in my German university classes, sitting in on something in English was wonderful. I felt like I was back in a seminar at Wesleyan and enjoyed hearing students contribute to an intelligent discussion in my native language. Then there's also the fact that it's Harvard. All of my international friends had been exhibiting some brand shock when the subject of grad schools came up (because let's face it, of all of our colleges and universities, it's probably the most internationally-recognized). Seeing the facilities, hearing about all of the resources, and getting lots of compliments on my thesis (plus, you know, that full funding) was a real ego boost. I'm the kind of person who likes to please as many people as possible, and I felt very 'wanted' during the course of the visit. By the end, I was just really wishing that I could attend both programs and have that be the end of it. It wasn't all running around attending classes, though! I did get the chance to have a delicious brunch with several wescrew teammates and our former coach, all of whom are living in the Boston area. The upside of my dilemma, I knew, was that no matter where I wound up I was going to be in close proximity to a number of very good friends. Not to mention some excellent rowing. 

Deciding to sleep on a final decision, we headed down to Middletown to a hotel and tried to get some decent sleep before the early regatta morning. It was a little odd to show up and have nothing to do but stand around--the worst thing you can possibly do when you're a member of the team--but we said a joyful hello to a bunch of extremely surprised teammates and offered some help with food tent in the place of my parents, who were the planning and hauling backbone of the operation for the last three years. The racing went well, and we also had a chance to visit with my Aunt Jane and some taiko friends, busy running around and executing the plans for a big collegiate taiko conference that weekend. I got to see a fantastic taiko performance, put on by some true legends in the North American--and international--taiko community, and we headed back to Hanover the following morning, only to be delayed for a couple of hours by a sheared brake line. Relatively uneventful, and only somewhat terrifying. The joys of travel and vehicles! 

I think everyone is aware of my decision at this point, but the result of all of this visiting and free time at home is that I'll be starting the PhD program at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World in the fall! It was a tough decision for me to make, given how much I enjoyed everyone I met, but ultimately the    substantial differences between the two curricula made the choice for me. The program at Harvard is through the Classics Department, and provides a course of training that is more firmly Greek and Roman, and split about 50/50 between philology and archaeology. The Joukowsky Institute, on the other hand, is fully archaeological, and provides education in things like philology, ancient languages, etc, as a supporting framework for more overall archaeologically-based research and alter teaching. I had to decided which was more for me in order to make my decision, but the latter was really what I had been looking for all along, and I just had to be okay with saying no to something that else that I would have also loved to have--never really easy, no matter how old we are, is it? 

Off to Sweden!

My mind has been a little, well, absent of late, and I may have neglected to mention that I'm heading off to Sweden this weekend! I'm taking a nice long weekend jaunt (Thursday morning--Monday evening) up to Malmo to visit one of our beloved au-pairs, Maria, and her family--which now includes a new baby! I haven't seen her since I was last in Germany, almost three years ago, and I have most definitely never been to Sweden. Malmo is just over the border from Copenhagen in a region called Skane (the English version thereof, at least) that is supposed to be just absolutely beautiful. The weather will be quite summery in Tuebs--a whopping 80-something degrees this weekend--but I'll be living up in cooler climes in, as my friend Ivor so aptly named it this afternoon, the land of extremely attractive people. I'm actually a little glad it will be cooler in Malmo, because it means the baby present that's coming with me will still be relevant...

 I'm flying into Copenhagen, hopping on a bus for 15 minutes, and I'm there! You can see Copenhagen over there on the far left...the city colored beige on the tip of Denmark. It's connected to Malmo by a bridge, which you can also see on the map.

 An example of some of Skane's countryside...I mean, life is just rough sometimes

Malmo City Hall. Again...when I have to see lots of beautiful architecture I really just feel so much suffering in my soul...

This kicks off a couple of weeks of visits, actually. The Thursday after I return, another au-pair is bringing her family up to Tuebingen for a visit, and on the following Tuesday, my friend Terrence arrives for a visit on his Grand Post-Teaching-in-Vietnam European Tour (TM). I'm thinking this will help Spring fly by!

So stay tuned for a German Easter/Malmo Trip update and presumably some adorable photos :)