Search and Rescue

I was walking along the familiar streets of Tuebingen yesterday when I noticed something in distress. I was walking over the bridge in the park and I saw a bike in the river. I was on my way to class, so I wasn't able to rescue it then, but I did start creating a plan to save it from eternal rusting in the cold waters.

As I was on my way home for the night, I again crossed the bridge where the bike was with the intention of rescuing said bike. However, I was unable to fulfill my mission due to the fact that I was wearing pants and the water was rising from the rain that had been coming down all day long. I decided that I needed some backup.

I came back up to my room and changed into a pair of shorts while calling up the other half of the dream team, my friend Erin. We grabbed a few necessary tools: leatherman, allen wrenches, headlamps and such before heading hack down to the river.

We got down to the river and managed to get relatively easy acces to the water after climbing throu a series of hedges designed to keep people away from the waters edge. We entered the water and waded toward the stranded bike. We reached it and pulled it out of its submerged state. We hauled it back to our enry point and hoisted it out of the river.

After we had also exited the water and had managed to get back

up the bank and into the park we gave the bike a once over. The handlebars were severly bent and the chain was wedged between the gears and the frame. After a bit of work, and getting grease up to our elbows, we had the chain back on the gears and the handlebars once again perpendicular to the front wheel. Actually, we had a functioning bike. We road the bike to the bus stop and brought it back up the mountains with us. Rescue mission: Successful.

Random odds and Ends

This post is going to be a lot of little posts, things that I thought worthy of mentioning but not big enough to warrent their own post. I believe the most effective way to do this will be list form.

1. One of my favorite everyday activities that occur here is getting to cook with one of my friends, Erin. She lives on the eighth floor and her kitchen has a balcony. Several times a week the

two of us cook together. The food is always good, the company too. It is just always a relaxing chill time where we can learn more about each other.

2. Last Friday night there was a tropical themed party at Ian's place beceause a couple of people had friends visiting. Seeing a chance for a costume my mind kicked into full gear. The sun is a pretty prevalent thing in the tropics right, and where there is sun, there is almost always sunburn. That's right, Erin and I dressed up as "sun" and "sunburn" to go to the party. Had there been a costume contest, we would have won.

3. Last week, when we got back from Morocco, WashU took us out for a ride in one of the Stocherkahn boats along the Neckar. I got to have a turn at poling, it is a lot like a gondola. Let's just say there is a strong possibility that I may have found my future occupation.

4. It has been raining a lot, the past couple of days. And along with the rain come lot's of complaints about the weather. As it drizzles I am reminded of one of my favorite thoughts: We can't survive for more than a few days without water, how incredibly awesome is it that it falls from the sky?

5. I have uploaded several videos of things things that I have been able to see along my travels. Here are the links.

-Call to Prayer in Marrakesh. When Katherine and I were up at a rather absurd hour,

the only redeeming thing was that we got to experience the call to prayer that occured at

approximately 4:15 in the morning.

-Night Market in Marrakesh. This video is turned sideways, and moves around a lot

because I had to walk the whole time we were in the market. You can see the transvestite

dancers though.

-Juggler in Vienna. There was a guy juggling in a park in Vienna. He was really good, so I

was really creepy and recorded him.

-Sheep Crossing. One day heading down the street in Tuebingen I was stopped by this. A

shepherd was leading his flock of sheep down the road, obeying all traffic laws while doing it.

It was amazing. When the shepherd stopped, the sheep stopped. When he went, the sheep

went.

-Easter Mass Warmup. Here is a clip of the chior warming up before Easter Mass at the

Vatican.

-Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower lights up every hour for several minutes. It is an epileptics

worst nightmare.

-Way of the Cross. This clip was taken on Good Friday as the Pope celebrated the way of

the cross outside the Colosseum.

-Driving with Wolfgang. I took this as Wolfgang and I were driving through the German

countryside. It doesn't do the beauty justice.

-Train Ride. This is from a train that went a long the Rhine River. I think that the Rhine is

possibly some of the most beautiful area in Germany.

That's all for now. Hope it wasn't too chaotic.

French Against Germans

One of the classes that I am taking while here is a translations class where we translate English texts into German. Actually, it isn't nearly exciting as it sounds. It is run through ADaF (Abteilung Deutsch als Fremdsprache), the german version of ESL, so it is a bit on the slow side.

Anyway, last week I was in class and the text we had translated was from "The Xenophobe's Guide to Germany". So we were talking about people not liking other people from other places and the different derogatory names that some countries had for others, i.e. Kraut for Germans.

There is a girl from France in my class, Marion. The teacher mentioned that the French have another name for the Germans that is worse than "Kraut", but she wasn't going to repeat it in the classroom. As she was saying this she was glancing in Marion's direction.

Just as the teacher finished talking, Marion piped up, "Don't worry, we have a lot more than just one bad name for the Germans." And she said it while keeping a straight face. The teacher was mildly taken aback, stuttered for a few seconds, before carrying on with the mundaneness that is my translations class. This was probably my favorite class period yet.

Morocco

My latest adventure was to Marrakesh, Morocco. Katherine and I left after school on Wednesday and traveled to the misleadingly named Frankfurt-Hahn (it is actually two hours away from Frankfurt) Airport where we spent the night before catching our flight to Morocco the next morning.

Morocco was quite an experience. I can't even begin to imagine the culture shock that would accompany a semester abroad there. I had enough

and I was only there for 45 hours. While in Morocco we did a bit of shopping at the very large market. It was quite a lot of fun because you got to haggle over the prices.

While in Marrakesh we also went around to see some of the sights. In Morocco, non-muslims are not allowed into the mosques, but we did get to walk around the outside and admire the

architecture. We also visited the Saadin tombs. Here there are lots of kings and princes buried. All of the graves point east-west because when Muslims are buried they have to lie with their head toward Mecca. There was one grave that was perpendicular to all the rest though. I guess someone made someone who lived longer really mad. We also saw some ruins of a palace built by one of the kings of Morocco. Storks have found that the crumbling walls of the palace make an excellent place to nest.

At night we would venture out to the night market. It is a big open area where people gather around fortune tellers, voodoo doctors, story tellers, and musicians. One of the most unusual attractions at the night market were the transvestite dancers.

The trip was quite an experience, and I am very glad taht I got to go. However, I don't need to go back any time in the near future.

Der Udo

Udo, otherwise known as "Junior", still lives and works on the famr with Klaus. He is the first Esch taht I met, and he is the one who drove me to catch my bus so that I didn't have to walk again on my first trip to Minkelfeld. On this trip I got to hear a couple of intersting tales about Udo.

He had some back the night before at 5:00 am totally wasted. He was supposed to be at a hunting group meetin at 9:00 am. Klaus woke him up at 8:45, and he was still very much drunk, but ran out of the hous to go to the meeting. When we were at Klaus's for the last time, Klaus was mocking Udo because he apparently was still feeling the effects of the alcohol a bit.

When Klaus got home after Kaffee und Kuchen with the Mayor, there were four girls, all with their own cars, sitting around in the courtyard. They had apparently met Udo at the party the night before and wanted to hang out with him some more. Klaus quickly sent them away because Udo had work to do.

Der Klaus

Klaus is the first Esch in Germany taht I actually spoke with. He still lives and works on the farm in Minkelfeld that has been in the family since the 1800's.

Klaus loves to talk and tell stories. As he gets going he gets more and more wound up and excited. His teeth aren't great and perhaps this is (partly) why those in the immediate vicinity might get a little bit damp during his antics.

He isn't as excited about the family as Wolfgang is, but whenever it is brought up he is more than capable of keeping up with his own extensive knowledge of names and dates. He enjoys challenging Wolfgang's information, but mainly just to rile Wolfgang, not because he actually thinks it is incorrect.

He firmly believes that women have a distinct roll in society, at the home. And there is definitely no place for them in the world of politics.

I saw him on the farm while he was working. His work clothes consisted of a button up shirt and a pair of overalls. And his working was supervising his son, making sure that everything was done to exactly his specifications. Kind of reminded me of Grandad.

Die Ulla

Ulla puts up with Wolfgang and his antics always with a smile on her face. She really doesn't care about the family tree Wolfgang has compiled. After all, she just married into this mess. To her, fmaily is her grandchildren, her children, and her husband whome she affectionately calls "du Wolfgang".

Ulla loves her family dearly as is evident by the way she frets about at her children's homes, and by the way she dotes on her grandchildren, giving them that special love and attention that can only be supplied by Oma.

While I was at her house, she was constantly making sure my every need was attended to and would get a litle bit upset with me when I had no opinion about what I wanted.

She is an excellent teacher, from teaching Marie how to play catch, to helping me with my German. She can speak English, but while I was there the only language allowed was German because I am in Germany to practice my German. She has a very gentle way of correcting mistakes taht is almost more of a suggestion, rather than telling you you did something wrong.

She loves Germany and its history, and she wants other people to do the same. She was always making sure that I was tuned in and comprehending what was being said while we were watching the specials on T.V. about the founding of the German constitution.

While I was there she took an interest in my juggling and worked at it for two days. Upon leaving she enveloped me in a warm embrace and let me know I was welcome any time.

Der Wolfgang

"Sind Sie die Ahnenforscher?" (Translation:"Are you the guy who does the research on the relatives?") This question posed by a man at the cemetary in Kerben sums up Wolfgang perfectly. He is indeed the Ahnenforscher, having assembled over 1600 names to date in the Esch family tree that currently dates back to 1585.

Family is what Wolfgang loves. He gets so excited when he sees all the pieces of his family coming together. And he loves to share his excitement with everyone around him. When he uncovers another piece of the family tree, he retells the story of how he did it and who this new person is to everyon who will even halfway listen.

When he tells stories about his family he tends to get really excited, and when he gets excited he pumps his fist out horizontally from his ches while making a buzzing/rumbling noise. When he figures something out, such as the exact link between two members of the family he violently punches his left hand with his right and yells, "BAM!"

He is a large imposing man who is right all of the time. But there is also a gentleness about him. He loves his wikfe and is constantly bantering with her. He loving calls her "Ullachen". The last name "Esch", or really any of the last names in the fmaily tree, is all the excuse that Wolfgang needs to take you into his family and make you feel at home.

Griechenland

I just got back from an adventure in Greece.  Actually, as far as I am concerned, it was pretty low key, but that is just they way that I wanted it to be. 

The day after getting back from my visit with Wolfgang I took the bus from Tuebingen to the Stuttgart airport to catch my flight.  I flew from Stuttgart to Zuerich, Zuerich to Athens.  I didn't have a hotel room for the night because my ferry was leaving early the next morning and I thought it would be easier to just spend the night in the airport.  Turns out that was a good decision.  All the public transportation from the airport to Athens was shut down because of construction.  Only the buses to the port were still running.  

I caught the bus at 5:30 the next morning and rode out to the port.  I found my ferry with relative ease, they are kind of hard to miss, there just happen to be a lot of them.  Six hours later I was pulling into the port on the island of Mykonos.  

My dad had sent me directions on how to get to the hotel, but turns out I didn't need them.  The owner of the hotel was there with a sign waiting to pick me an four other girls up.  

I had booked a two person room (that was all that was available, there aren't any double rooms at Mama's Pension) and when I showed up alone Christina, the owner, was rather surprised.  She gave me one of the best rooms in the whole place because she felt bad for me, and said that I looked a little pathetic.  It was a room for four people, so there were four beds, a kitchen, a bathroom and a balcony with a fantastic view of the beach.  

As soon as I dropped my stuff off I went to find some sunscreen.  I was standing in the store looking at my options, when the saleswoman came over and told me that I didn't need any sunscreen.  I apparently looked confused enough so she explained, "You are not white, you do not need that."  I tried to convince her that I did in fact need the sunscreen but she was adament.  Finally, I told her I had money and she could either take it or not.  Shewalked grumbling back to the cash register and I heard her mumble under her breath, "I do not understand."

The first day there was spend on the beach, the water was cold and really dirty with seaweed that day, so I didn't do any swimming.  But it was still rather enjoyable.  

The next day I woke up and decided that I wanted to explore the coastline.  That did not mean just walking along the beach.  There are actually very few beaches in Greece, most of the coastline is made up of large rocky cliffs.  I had a beach right in front of my hotel that gave me great access to the bottom of said cliffs.  I spent the majority of the day climbing along the coast and it was awesome.  

On the third day I decided that I should probably go into town.  I didn't really have any desire to do anything there, the nightlife is the thing that Mykonos is most famous for, but I felt mildly obligated to at least have a look around.  The town is very pretty with narrow streets winding all over the place lined by pure white shops and houses that have a color accent of some sort: blue, green, red, purple.  

I went back out to the hotel and rented a four-wheeler.  I originally wanted a vespa, but since I had never ridden a motorcycle before they wouldn't let me rent one.  The four-wheeler was OK too though.  From the back of that four wheeler I really got to experience more of Greece.  

I drove up into the mountains of the island where I came across the mammoth houses of some of the wealthier residents.  I got to see the countless ruins that are dispersed among the new houses.  I came across a farmer hearding his cows up the road.  He was a weatherd old man with a toothy grin riding side saddle and waving emphatically at me to pass.  I liked seeing this side of Greece a lot.  To bad I don't have any pictures of it, but I was driving and couldn't, rather shouldn't, take pictures at the same time.  

The last day I spent sunning myself on the beach once again and it was wonderful.  I have never experienced a sun so intense.  It made the water that I had thought to be too cold on the first day feel rather refreshing.  

Christine drove me to my ferry in the afternoon and I headed back to Athens.  I again spend the night in the airport but this time because I would have only had the room for four or five hours and it seemed silly to pay for one for that short of a time.  

I am not back in Tuebingen looking the most tan that I can ever remember myself being.  My legs are dark, my arms a little burned, and my hair is mostly blond, not just the summertime highlights that normally happen, but rather a full head color change.  Crazy.