Chaos and No Words

Those of you who know me well, especially those of you with whom I e-mail frequently, know that I tend to be verbose in print because I think while I type, or type while I think. However, I'm writing tonight (at 12:30 a.m. after pizza, 2 biers and a "wodka"), to say that I have no words for what I have been through in the last couple of days. This is kind of like trying to tell someone who hasn't done one what doing a dissertation is like. Sometimes things are just too stunning and too powerful for words, or too overwhelming, or something. Once I can organize my thoughts, I'll post them. This has already been a life-changing experience; that I know.

Monday, Sept. 28---First Day of School for NMU Students

Dana and Nicole have had trouble getting started here, through no fault of their own. First we didn't know until Thursday of the week before that school didn't start here last Monday. Monday through Wednesday were orientation days; their first day would be Thursday. That teacher, however, had oral surgery and couldn't teach. They didn't know that until they went to class. This morning, they got up early expecting a class at 8 a.m. with Professor (Rainer) Lenz. The schedule we'd all been given was wrong; class didn't start until 9:45.

I had lunch with Rainer today and we talked about some issues. Wolfgang's family may Brandi-sit this weekend if Henrich and Ulla won't do it. Rainer was going to but his mother is hospitalized again after hip replacement surgery. Thomas finally got the printer going from my computer; we went through 2 or 3 drivers. I don't have my syllabi printed off for tomorrow but can do that in the morning. Stefanie, my work student, created a letter which Henrich edited a bit tonight, to one of our relatives near Flensburg. I'll mail it tomorrow. We haven't been able to reach any of the relatives by phone.

My bank system is also messed up. Two separate times, supposedly, the bank has mailed PIN numbers here for my ATM card, and they haven't gotten here though the card did. I stopped on the way to school at a Sparkasse, and that person took my card since two PIN sets have been "lost", so we're starting over. Hopefully by the time I leave, I'll have an account with money in it and can access that rather than paying a high service fee to get money from my Michigan debit card. After that whole deal, which will take at least another week, I worked via e-mail with Deb back at my own bank in Marquette. She e-mailed me a form to have money wired here.

This is the kind of thing that is so wearing. It's wearing when these issues come up for us when we're in the US. It's even more wearing here. Nicole, for example, banks at Wells Fargo. She's been told by our int'l department that she wouldn't have an account here, wouldn't need to wire money, or some such. Meanwhile, one of the benefits of this site is that they help us set up bank accounts. That way, we can wire money once (my fee is $55 regardless of amount wired, while getting 300 euros would cost $32), and be done with it and not have to pay exchange fees. However, Wells Fargo now won't let her wire money because she's not physicall there in the US. For Pete's sakes, this is insane.

There's one young man from Italy whose German is about at my level, and he's signed up to take an economics course taught in German. The people here told me, when I asked about this because there's some kind of thing about European transfer credits involved, that he should go talk to them. On the other hand, they feel it's his choice and that's that, though being able to take a final (many courses just have finals, which are sometimes oral, at or after the end of the semester) and pass it given the language limitation is almost impossible. The attitude is just different----really sink or swim.

Tomorrow I finally get to teach. We have no idea how many students will take the course; they don't have to sign up and the flip side is that they can sign up, never show up, and take the final. The HR prof here, and Rainer, have decided that I can teach the way I normally do because it will be a good experience for the students to have a course or two taught in "the American style". I'm not sure I'm an example of "THE" American style, but the format of my course is very different than the European format. So, tomorrow is 3 hours of HR with a 2 hour break in the middle, and Wednesday is OB with a similar schedule. I know what I plan to do, but I'd bet heavily that something won't work, will have to be changed, whatever. This is another one of those deals where you can't quantify what a person learns by what they do on a sabbatical! I've always said you can't explain what doing a dissertation is like to someone who has never done one. This is probably very much the same way.

Walk Around the Neighborhood--Sunday. Sept. 27

Brandi and I found this street WestStrasse, just two blocks away. For some reason, I just love it. We walked this and took pictures on Saturday, wich was a beautiful day. These are big buildings, different colors, well-kept. The yards are much smaller than in my neighborhood, but the houses are very nice.


Often in Europe, buildings run right together.

Looking down the street. What appear to be identical roofs of the 4th and 5th building are in fact one building with a recessed area connecting them.

I stepped between two buildings to take this picutre. Notice how once again the "eyebrows" above each floor of windows are different than the floors above and below.

I'll look this up later. "When ---and ---rule, the whole house is affected." It would be nice to know einigkeit and fried..... This was above the door of one of the homes on this street.

Yes, the sky was this blue. What a beautiful day!

Bielefeld Apartment---Kitchen

To the right of the main room is the kitchen. As you come from the living room to the kitchen, my table is to your left. The door seen on the left of this picture goes into the bathroom. The Kitchen is about 9 x 8.




A view taken from the sink area, showing the Corningware-type bowls Ulla loaned me. Evidently, the use these for cooking on top of the stove, which I've never done, in addition to microwave and in an oven. There is a nice window in the kitchen.



This is taken looking into the kitchen directly from the living room. The stove burners are accessed by lifting the white lid, and the stove is electric. the mirowave is on tpo of the refrigerator. There is a double sink with a silverware drawer on the left and storage area underneath.

My Bielefeld Apartment---Windows and Bedroom

These two large windows are directly opposite the door I open into my apartment. I overlook the backyard, which is very pretty with green grass, flowers, and landscaping. The house behind us, seen through the windows, is fairly typical with the red tile roof. What I'd like you to notice about the picture is that I've opened the windows differently. The left window, with the handle up, then opens from the top, probably about 4 inches. The right window, with the handle horizontal, swings open as far as you want. To close the window, you push the handle down. There are basically no window screens in Europe. There generally is not an insect problem, although now there seem to be a lot of ladybugs.


When you walk into the apartment about five feet, to the left is the doorway into my bedroom. When I came, the bed was running from right to left and the black table and lamp were under the slope of the eaves. So, I had to walk around the bed, kind of hunched, to turn on the lamp. This week I switched it around. It opens the room up, eliminates the lamp problem, and since my head comes forward when I sit up, I don't bump the ceiling. Notice my roommate in her crate! That crate came from Target 3 years ago or so. The mesh front door zips shut, and the crate folds flat. It's about 3 feet long x 2 feet by 2 feet. Brandi appears to be quite comfortable in it. As far as I can tell, she's napping either in her crate or on the couch, on her blanket, when I'm gone.


The head of the bed had been against the solid wall but on the same wall as the window. Now, I can sleep a bit later because I don't have quite as much light hitting me. There is a mini-blind in this window, with several individual slats cut shorter to allow for the handle of the window.

European beds are different in two key respects. There is no box spring; insted, the mattress rests directly on many wooden slats or hard plastic slats. Secondly, Europeans don't use a top sheet. They simply have duvets with covers that can be changed. It always take me awhile to get used to sleeping under that. I'm used to having the sheet pulled up higher than the duvet will come, especially because I tuck the bottom in to keep my feet warm!! I've begun to use a second duvet cover that Ulla gave me to use when I wash this one, under the duvet similar to a top sheet. I can pull it up a bit higher, sleep under only it and not the warmer duvet, etc. The mattress is quite firm and comfortable.

The other side of the room, standing by the window. The tan door opens to my closet with 2 rods on the left, one low and one high, for hanging clothes, and 3 or 4 shelves for what I'd normally have in a dresser. There's also a vacuum cleaner in this closet.

Food and Fun in My Flat

This picture shows 2 boxes of cereal. Erdbeer is strawberry, so this is strawberry-vanilla with yogurt flakes. The next box I bought was vitamin enriched, has fruit, and is in clusters. It's quite good, and notice that it's from Kellogg's!


This is my squeezable mayonnaise, fresh milk with 1.5% fat, orange juice, and margarine. Milk is sold exclusively in 1 liter cardboard-type cartons---no plastic gallons of milk! The theory in Vienna was that this happened because people have smaller refrigerators, shop more frequently, and walk rather than drive to grocery stores. I'm not sure about refrigerator size here, but I see a lot of people with small 2-wheeled carts for their grocery purchases, and/or getting onto bicycles. Another difference here, also true in Vienna, is that you must either bring plastic bags, mesh bags, or baskets from home unless you want to pay for a plastic bag. That certainly cuts down on plastic litter on the street. One thing that also intrigued me was that orange juice is sold in plastic bottles like this, not refrigerated. The word "saft" means juice. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find mango juice like I loved in Vienna. Juice is sold either in plastic bottles or in waxed cardboard cartons like the milk comes in.

Here's the bag from those "paprika" chips I was talking about earlier. Basically, these are then like barbecue chips, though not as heavily coated. The khacke-brot is basically wasa bread---thick crackers. Truthahnbrust is turkey breast, and hahnchenbrust is chicken breast. The meat is packaged similarly to our lunch meat---the package peels apart, not like a ziplock bag, but with the top layer peeling away from the bottom via one corner and then the sides.

I bought potato salad (mit eirn means with eggs). Lebkuchen is a cookie more frequently eaten at Christmas. It has a distinct taste which I can't describe; most children didn't like it but I did. My grandmother made them. Herzen means hearts---these are heart-shaped. The Studenten-futter is what we would call trail mix.

Yesterday Brandi and I came across a store literally labeled "Recycling". I bought these 6 children's books for 1, 20, or about $2. There is hope I can read them!! Das Kind in der Krippe is the Christmas nativity story. Now, I tell you, this is highly educational reading, don't you think?

HA!!! I am REALLY trying to learn German.

Hiking---Weekend of Sept. 19 and 20

Rainer and I went hiking to the Bauernhausmuseum on Saturday. It wasn't that far from my house! This is a view from partway up the trail, looking over part of the city. Slightly to the left of center is the soccer stadium. Bielefeld's soccer team recently went to Division II from I.




The nice outdoor cafe at the museum. We had wonderful kochen, then saw someone get a kartoffelpuffer, so we split one of those too! Basically a potato pancake, which I haven't had for years. Tom's family used to fix them.


This museum consisted of several buildings fixed as they would have been 100 years ago. There are almost-daily activities in the summer, focused on children.

On Sunday, we hiked again along a trail that Rainer and his wolfhound ran on each morning (the dog is now in Florida with the family). This time, he brought a family friend Ursel, whose husband is away on a business trip. She brought the family dog, Frieda, who is a SchweisHund, a Swiss hunting dog. Frieda is the family pet. She has the most gorgeous black (schwarz) face, the softest ears, and was just a calm dog enjoying the day. Here's a picture of her and Brandi. Do you get the feeling Frieda doesn't know what to think of such a small dog?

Catching Up---September 18-24

Here is a picture of Brandi and Emilia, the participants of the First International Chihuahua Conference, held in this house on Saturday, Sept. 19. Johannes, Henrich and Ulla's son, and his girlfriend have Emilia, who is smaller than Brandi. Since she's been here before, and now Brandi also thinks this is her house, Henrich and I had debated about having the chis meet on the sidewalk (which Henrich decided to call England) when these folks visited from Dusseldorf. However, it was dark when the chis could meet, so the meeting occurred in the main part of the house. All was well, and Emilia fell asleep at one point, so we decided it had been a successful conference since this often happens!! We had a lot of silly fun with the whole thing.

Things have been so busy I haven't even blogged. I participated in the e-mail conversation about the NMU faculty contract. I did a lot at school, getting keys, working with Thomas Degenhardt the IT guy here and Max Graves and Matt Smock there to set up a TV connection such that I can see people in certain rooms at NMU and participate in conferences. Here, the equipment was not used in 2 years, and Max and Thomas had to try several options to get things working. I think we tried on 2 or 3 days for an hour minimum each time. Last night I was able to view a 3-hour conference because of this system, though it was 7-10 p.m. Bielefeld time.

I've made trips to the main train station, getting tickets that I need to meet up with Pete and Heidi late next week in Mainz, where Heidi went to university, then go to Gera where she was in high school, and then come here. We'll have a couple of days here, we'll go up to Flensburg where Grandma Miller was born for Thursday and Friday, Saturday here, and they leave on Sunday! I was able to reserve seats for us on Fridays and Sundays, recommended because those are busy days. Heidi and Pete are traveling today from Mpls to Rome and spending a week working their up, through the Oktoberfest, to Mainz where we'll meet. They're doing train travel on Eurail passes.

I also successfully managed, last Saturday, to wash and dry my laundry at a "washing salon". This is always somewhat scary when all the directions are in another language and you don't want to dye everything one color or shrink your clothes. There are dryers here, which I wasn't sure there would be. The washer cost 4 euros, and drying was 1 euro. I got my jeans and sheet dry in one hot cycle, and will try a slightly hotter cycle for permapress stuff next time. It is great to have clean clothes! On Saturday and Sunday, Rainer took Brandi and me hiking. On Saturday, we walked from here to a nearby Bauernhaus Museum. This is a museum of buildings like they might have been 100 years ago. We laughed about how this is old in American but not old here. On Sunday, he brought along a family friend, Urzel, whose husband was out of town, and her Schweizhund Frieda. A Swiss hound is a hunting dog, though Frieda is a family pet, and I thought she was absolutely beautiful. She has such soft ears! She and Brandi did nicely together. We hiked in a forest area and ate lunch at a nice open-air restaurant. I had the best schnitzel I've had in my life, basically due to the outstanding mushroom sauce. Sehr gute!

This week I've been working on things at school, getting my keys for various things, working on the TV business, and trying to solidify arrangements to visit Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Winterthur, Switzerland, St. Etienne, France, and VIC University near Barcelona, Spain. This gets complicated because we want to make sure that I can meet with the deans of the business colleges and also work with the people in the international office. So, we're trying to set up dates, then get plane tickets, etc. In the middle of all this, I've been invited to attend a week-long International Business Week at the Rotterdam school. I'm going to attend the first 2 days, and the dean here is also going. The dean is Herr Rossler, and I actually don't know his first name!! He had evidently been at NMU and knows Gary Brunswick and Sandi Poindexter. Sandi is coming here in a month or so, and I'll make sure we get to campus and hook up some people again. Yesterday was the first faculty meeting for the year. I was asked to introduce myself. Susan Morgan nicely sent me a slide program she uses for international student recruiting, and I cut it down to 12 slides. I had thought about speaking in German. However, on Tuesday, 4 different people came to me and said that the dean didn't want this to be more than 3-5 minutes, I had too many slides, people would be bored in a long meeting, etc. I introduced myself yesterday morning in English, shared the slides, was my usual outgoing self and said some funny things, and was well received. The whole darned meeting was in German, otherwise, though I did manage to get the general gist and Rainer sat next to me and helped with a couple of things. After the meeting, Rainer made sure that I met individual people, and everyone seemed warm and friendly. A few people complimented me on my presentation. Rainer told me late this afternoon that the dean had complimented him on getting such a great, outgoing faculty member to start the foreign exchanges. Rainer didn't tell him he didn't choose me!! He and I were talking about this yesterday----I really couldn't remember how this had come about. Evidently Susan Morgan had sent him an e-mail saying I was interested in doing this for a sabbatical, and away we went.

Rainer has been fantastic beyond words. His family is in Florida, and so he has more time than he might and probably is open to having company for things. He's taken me hiking, took me downtown 2 days ago for coffee in a high, open-air cafe and a short tour of the older part of town, and has been gracious in every way. Yesterday morning, however, he told me that he'd had a conversation with his wife, Monika, and she had been upset with him. She had apparently asked him if he was speaking with me in German or in English. She is currently in Florida, where he'll spend winter semester on sabbatical, with their 3 children. The youngest, age 9, knows little English. Anyway, Monika evidenty chastised him for not speaking to me in German, she said I was taking German class, he should speak in German, etc. So, we agreed that starting today, we'd try more in German. Rainer is absolutely fantastic at explaining German words, at translating for me later or on the side when rapid German conversations have to happen with other people, and so forth. I couldn't ask for more or better help and company. He and I are having fun with things. He also has a wicked sense of humor, and now and then he spins stories, in German, which I quickly identified as "Marchen", fairy tales that he's created on the spot. So, these happen in our conversations. I've also been helping him with English, and his pronunciation of "hierarchy" somehow came off similar to jabberwocky---hiowocky, or something. Eggplant was another one that we had trouble with. He was asking me about this purple vegetable and how to say it. I finally realized that the German "ei" egg was involved, and then we got it. So, those are our code words. Today my student worker Stefanie and I worked on trying to set up some trips, and Rainer called people so that we can try to firm up dates. We want to make sure that we can see deans of business schools, etc. It's so nice to have people be gracious hosts and to help in this way, especially when the culture and the languages are different. Riza Ostuerck has also been helpful. He is younger, single, and has just taken over the chairman spot of the international team here. He is Turkish but was raised in Germany. The two of them and I often eat lunch together. It is apparently a ritual to move from one of the cafeterias up to the coffee area to enjoy Turkish coffee. So, going to lunch is not a quick thing, but we are having some wonderful conversations. I have some other pictures to download and will include them in another post. Hopefully, I won't get so far behind in posting.

OH!!! I FORGOT to tell you that there was almost a tragedy a few days ago. It appeared that my entire computer was dying. Thomas tried to help me because bizarre things were happening---it wouldn't start, it didn't connect with either the wireless or the wired system, etc. We tried all sorts of things. Thomas had to go to a meeting, but we got the idea to try to use the TV system between the two universities to see if Max could get the helpdesk guy, Chris Wagner, to come into that room and help me. I was madly typing an e-mail to several people to set that up, when Max came into the room. I was about frantic; all I could think was that NMU would have to load up a computer with all the software I have on this one, and ship it over here. Anyway, Chris quickly came in, and especially with the aid of being able to show me which buttons he was referring to, we got the problem solved. I had changed from a Nortel VPN client to Cisco right before I left, and evidently Cisco was locking some things up. Chris' suggestion, which I'm now following religiously, is to make sure I disconnect from Cisco before shutting down the computer. Both times we've had trouble, Thomas and I had used this computer to try to connect to NMU's Polycom system, the computer then found wirless here in the house in the evening, but the next use in the morning, it wouldn't work. Hopefully, we won't have that problem again----absolutely heart-stopping! I accomplished absolutely nothing the day this happened, and I can't tell you how relieved I am to have a working computer!

Thursday & Friday, Sept. 17 & 18---University

This is a series of pictures I took on campus on Thursday. I leave my flat, walk about 4 blocks, and go down lots of stairs to an underground train station, the U-bahn. I ride 4 stops and get off on this platform. When I have come to the university, I get off on what is the left track in this picture; going by home, I get on on the right side. The trip takes 5-10 minutes; I haven't timed it!


Then, I go up these stairs (3 sets of 13 each). The escalators are energy efficient and only move if someone approaches them.

Upstairs, I then cross a busy street by walking on this covered walkway to the main front door of the university. I then walk up a wide set of about 25 steps and enter this huge, very institutional-feeling open area.

Essentially, this building is full of corridors with wings of offices and classrooms, assigned alphabetical letters. Most classrooms I'll be in will be in the U corridor, and our offices are in the V corridor. I got lost trying to find Rainer's office the other day; I was in the U corridor. Numbers run with 100s going east and west, and 200 going north and south (or the other way around....!)

This main area is huge. It had two main eating areas, one on each end. The West End is a cafeteria where you select from various individual food items, grilled, cooked, etc., much like our NMU Wildcat Den. The East End is bizarre and I'll have to get pictures. Food pops up off a conveyor belt, on trays, already dished up. Strange feeling....This main area is two floors high. I walk across it, through a set of doors, and take an elevator up to the 7th or top floor, where our offices are. The classroom I'll be in is on the 2nd floor.

On the main floor, there are various stores with supplies, a small convenience store, and a post office. The only university clothing we've seen is in a room off to the side, barely larger than my faculty office. We actually haven't seen any students wearing any logo'd clothing.

The machine in the wall, slightly to the right of center in the picture, recycles plastic soda bottles and ceramic coffee cups! You put the item in, push a button, and the machine gives you a paper worth 15 euro cents.

On Thursday and Friday I was very busy with German class on both days, working on issues related to my classes, getting key for equipment, mailbox, and all that kind of important but small issue. I stayed up late Thursday evening to attempt to Skype into the event planning class, which meets at 6, midnight my time. I discovered that we'll have to use the classroom microphone for me to be able to hear well, so we'll figure that out for future times.

Our German teacher, Dagmar, is having some difficulty because one of our 2 NMU students, Nicole, went to Paris this week because her parents are vacationing there. That means that Nicole has missed about 30 hours of instruction in German. We thought that Nicole would be back on Friday; she wasn't. So, Dagmar used the classroom computer system to show us key things in Bielefeld, sites to visit, etc., and then we and the other class all came back to my own U-Bahn stop, SiegfriedPlatz (good place for a music major---opera!), and visited the open-air food and flower market held on Wednesday and Friday mornings. I ate a Pickerl, which is like a potato pancake, fried, and with your choice of marmalade or syrup. Very good!!

Brandi and I went to the main train station on Friday afternoon and worked with an agent to get tickets for me to go to Mainz to meet Heidi and Pete, then to Gera, then back to Bielefeld. I also got tickets for me to go with them up to Flensburg, where Grandma Miller was born. At the agent's suggestion, I reserved seats for all 3 of us on any Friday or Sunday trains---those tend to be crowded. I did all of this for 2nd class tickets, and it turns out that Heidi and Pete's Eurail passes are for first class. I'll see if I can change mine, but I don't think I can. They may just have to join me in 2nd class accommodations---we'll see. I'm looking forward to seeing them, and also looking forward to these trips! The tickets ended up being less expensive than I had anticipated, so that's great too!

Monday, Sept. 14 through Wednesday, Sept. 16

There were several days here in which I did not take any pictures, I had computer problems, and so I'm just going to summarize various events.
1) Max Graves and Matt Smock started their Monday mornings trying to work with the Bielefeld IT guy, Thomas Degenhardt, to see whether we could get a conference program called PolyCom connected from my laptop through the Bielefeld University system (where evidently a firewall was creating a problem), to NMU so that I could participate in some conferencing that way. It didn't initially work, and I participated in an online webinar and then participated in an after-conference discussion via Skype. Thomas and Max have both taken this issue as a challenge and I bet they figure out how to connect....
2) My computer lost its wireless for about 24 hours and I was afraid I'd lose my mind. A tech fellow named Bjorn worked on it, it wasn't working, and then when Thomas "laid his hands on it", it worked!! Chris Wagner of NMU reports that sometimes this happens and rebooting solves the problem. If that was in fact the case, this machine was rebooted about 5 times before it worked.
3) I now have satellite TV and a microwave!! I've already done the satellite business wrong and Henrich helped me get it right again. It will be so nice to be able to heat and reheat food easily!
4) Rainer Lenz, my main contact to date, is now back in town from setting his family up to live in Florida for the year. He will have sabbatical there in the spring. He and I went out to dinner last night, had a good time, great conversation, etc. He is a finance guy but I don't hold that against him. Evidently he is 1 of between 5 and 10 faculty on the business faculty of 50 here who are really committed to international education.
4) Brandi and I walked to town again today, which she seems to enjoy. I now have shower soap as opposed to my bar of Palmolive, soap for washing clothes, and various small sundry items I'd been wanting.
5) In Europe, you walk, and walk, and walk. Sandi in Finland helped me via e-mail get my own pedometer going---evidently we independently bought the same kind! I couldn't get mine started, but have now done so. It's probably a good thing I didn't know how far I was walking in Berlin---I bet that Saturday topped over 30,000 steps. 10,000 steps are recommended daily for good health. I hardly walked anywhere (in comparison to normal) yesterday and hit 11,000 something. So far today (it's now almost 10), I have 15,919 racked up. If all this walking would do for my stomach and rear what it's doing to my thighs and legs, I'd be in great shape....
6) People are realizing that I can understand more German than I can speak---all this case business just messes me up!! So, I'm trying to understand German conversations around me, and trying to speak German. The fellow in charge of the mail, keys for classrooms, etc., and I had an effective German conversation today about the keys I got, my signing for them, etc. I'm helping Rainer with his English pronunciation, and he helps me with German. He had real issues with the words "eggplant" and "hierarchy" last night---that's now our new code! The German teacher is now having me translate some things for the other students. We had a tour of the library and the library was trying to speak in English and got stuck about half a dozen times; I was able to help with the right English words and evidently earned brownie points.
7) I have an office that is not to be believed. Evidently a lot of adjuncts use the same office, and it also has about half a dozen flipcharts on wheels. I took some pictures of the university building today, and I'll post those tomorrow.
8) Many conversations sorting out the business of should NMU students pay the Bielefeld registration fee when NMU doesn't charge Bielefeld students a separate registration fee. We now understand that this really isn't a registration fee---it provides a Mensa (cafeteria) card onto which the students can load money, but it proves they're students, free u-bahn transportation all over town because they're students, computer access, etc.
9) One faculty member at the reception last week told us "We will fix it" when we mentioned that two of the courses we want Nicole and Dana to take meet at the same time. So, we've been waiting to see the new schedule. Turns out that the woman shouldn't have said it, the schedule won't be changed, and Rainer, Dana, and I met today to pick a different course. Nicole is in Paris for the week; I hope she can somehow catch up in German class! We've had several weird things happen already because of differing interpretations of English words.
10) Henrich, my landlord, evidently saw Rainer at the university today. Rainer met Brandi last night. Henrich and Ulli's son, his girlfriend, and their chihuahua Emilia are coming to visit tomorrow. Henrich told Rainer that it's the First International Chihuahua Conference. Everyone has absolutely cracked up. I've just been telling people that Emilia and Brandi have a play date. Henrich is getting such a bang out of the chihuahua part of this whole thing----I'm just Brandi's companion, I think! HA!
11) I tried the higher-level German class on Tuesday and put myself back into the lower level class at break. There were way more students (while Dana was the only beginning student during some days this week), and they were doing discussions in tandems and trios. I was going to slow down my group since I wasn't quite at that level, though there were a couple people in that class not doing as well as I was. Once again, it's a case of a really wide spread in abilities when you have to put people together in 1 class if they've had any German at all. I was getting a lot of help with pronunciation from the teachers in the small group, and in the large group, I was going to be working with other students, not getting the individual attention. Secondly, it left Dana alone all week, for all we knew at that point. So, back I went. I'm able to help the teacher with things because she's tending to call on me first to somewhat set the pattern for the others. Teaching German in this kind of situation is just a hodge-podge because there's so much to be taught, different schools have taught things in different order, and you're boring some students and over the heads of others. Anyway, I spent an hour 2 nights ago reviewing some things and want to continue to make a concentrated effort at this. I'm pleased that Rainer and others can see that I'm understanding things and they're purposely speaking in German around me, switching to English when, I guess, my eyes glaze over!! I'm supposed to talk about myself and NMU for about 5 minutes during a faculty meeting on Wednesday---I may try it auf Deutsch! That could be hysterical but they'd know I'm trying!

Sunday, Sept. 13 in Potsdam

Potsdam is unique for many reasons, not the least of which is that the meeting at the end of WWII, with Churchill, Truman, and Stalin was held here. Potsdam itself was another city divided by the war, with fence right through the river nearby. This was the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, built in the English country house style between 1914 and 1917. The red geraniums with blue hydrangeas were planted specifically for this conference, and so remain as a historic symbol in themselves.


The gardens all around Schloss Cecilienhof were beautiful; look at how neatly all these little plants are laid out!! I also enjoyed all the topiary.

Friedrich II died in 1786, and he is buried here under the slab farthest away. His coffin was carried all around Europe during the war in order to protect it from being bombed. He was known for bringing the planting of potatoes to Germany, so people leave actual potatoes on top of the slab! Reminds me of Jewish people leaving stones. All these other slabs are over the bodies of his dogs!! He had left orders for him to be buried quietly, at midnight, with the bodies of his dogs. After his coffin's European tour, he was again buried at midnight, with a single white flower left on his stone. He despised his wife and forbid her to live in this house, and loved his greyhounds....

There is a palace complex here and in Babelsberg, with several small buildings built expressly to be used for dinners and parties because of the views---Belvedere---pretty view. This is a picture of the New Palace in Schloss Sanssouci, (Sans Souci" means without care) built between 1763 and 1769 by Friedrich II. This palace has over 300 rooms. His main purpose was to create jobs and generate work for the building industry that had been devastated by 3 wars. He wanted to "turn his back" on Berlin. Friedrich Wilhelm IV made major additions to the park; it is 740 acres and one of the most beautiful palaces and parks in all of Europe.

We had several "pauses" (pronounced powsus) on the way home, mainly as required by law for the bus driver. There was a circular paper he had to enter into the dashboard, and it apparently recorded speed, time stopped, etc. Only 40 minutes from home, we had to stop for a 20 minute break! When we finally got to Bielefeld and the university, I carried Brandi off the bus in her carrier, and left her in it on the u-bahn to my stop, Siegfriedplatz, which is the stop I use between here and the university. At that point, I took her out of the carrier and walked her home on her leash. Nothing particular happened until we hit the far corner of this block. I hadn't realized that she'd never been to that u-bahn stop, but when we hit the corner of this block, it was like holding a horse heading for the barn. Who knew a 7 pound chihuahua could almost pull me up the hill? She ate her supper and put herself to bed!

Sunday, Sept. 13 Hostel and Leaving Berlin

Brandi, in her airline carrier with the top partially unzipped, supervising the bus driver! All of the college students seemed to love having her on the trip.


I read somewhere that there was an upset in Berlin some years ago when someone wanted to modernize the traffic lights and take out the "AmpfelMenschen"--the little men. For some reason, I just thought these were really cute!!

Sunday morning we checked out of our hostels. I'm including here a picture of part of my room, with my 4-legged companion! There was one more set of bunk beds and a nice storage unit for hanging clothes and storing things, a small desk, and a small TV also in this room. A typical European breakfast was served buffet style each morning---yogurt, cereal, hard-boiled eggs, bread, cold meats, cold cheeses, tea, hot cocoa, coffee, juice. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to cold sandwiches for breakfast!

The doors on the right in the picture above remind me to tell you of something that is different about European bathrooms than American bathrooms. Often, the toilet and perhaps a small sink are in a different room than the shower and sink. In this case, the first door led to a shower with a small sink, with a series of hooks for hanging 6 towels (there were 3 sets of bunks in this room), and the other door had a toilet and a small sink. That gives more privacy and allows more people to get ready for the day or for bed----not a bad idea, I think.

I just realized that as I add pictures, they're being added to the top. So, the whole day will be upside down if I continue from here. I'm going to make a new posting for the Potsdam part of the trip!

Saturday Evening in Berlin

Saturday evening we attended a program in Friedrichstadt Palast, Europe's largest show-palace.

We were not allowed to take pictures during the program, but I'm including a few of the curtain-call event. The men in the front were trapeze artists, the people in green and those in pink had been dancers in different parts of the show.

The special effects for this show were absolutely fantastic in terms of lighting, excellent sound quality of the music, etc. The wide variety of acts also blew all of us away. There was a juggler who was the best I've ever seen, juggling 6 balls at one point including throwing one way up and catching it in the back of his neck. There were singing and dancing numbers, including one with water coming down onto the stage in sprinkled waves, such that before long, the dancers were dancing in water, kicking water up as they went. There was ice skating, and several students mentioned how fast they went and how much they turned in such a small space. There was the typical clown-type duo; really funny. The main female singer was great and reminded me of Sarah Brightman in terms of her tone. I enjoyed every act and it seemed to get better and better, but I think the top for everyone was probably the trapeze artists. Just completely a fantastic evening, and the program was almost 3 hours long. The tickets we had were very near the stage, but off to one side, and supposedly would have cost almost 30 euros (about $45) individually. The whole trip cost us 55 E, plus I had the room expense but somehow the school is reimbursing me for that because I'm now a "real" faculty member. I've seen a variety of shows by this point in my life, on TV and in person. This one completely blew away anything else I've ever seen, bar none. Simply incredible----I'd go back in a heartbeat. Evidently the program has only been running for 2 months; many people here in Bielefeld were pleased to hear such great reviews of this program.

Saturday, Sept. 12---History Tour in Berlin

Modern Berlin---Sony Building in middle


One part of signs around section of wall

I couldn't resist taking this picture!

Old and new juxtaposed---tall ball is weather tower in distance

Inside the Parliament---old exterior, beautiful new interior, with VERY interesting dome with

mirrors to reflect sunlight into building, capture energy, but not cause glare. Presentation in this room was all in German. We walked up ramps to the top, with individual electronic headphones provided (in English!).

Brandenburg Gate, as seen from dome of Parliament Building

Friday morning I left Brandi behind, joined the students, and we went on a walking tour with a guide from Berlin. He told us incredibly interesting stories about how Berlin was divided, some of the events at "the wall", and so forth. I captured almost all of his presentation on my FLIP videocam and will upload it to my computer in the next couple of days. There were police (Polizei) everywhere, evidently due to the fact that all of the 3 main political parties were demonstrating fairly close to each other. Elections are later this month. Nicole, Dana, Analie, and I ate at one of the many restaurants inside the Sony building---fish and chips! Analie and I decided to find the Reichstag, where we were to meet for the tour of the Parliament at 4:15. We walked and walked, and discovered we were not going in the right direction. I needed to go back to the hostel to let Brandi out, so we found an u-bahn stop, and I made it back to our hostel u-bahn stop, found the hostel, walked Brandi, and went back to the same u-bahn stop. It ended up being a LONG walk from there to the Reichstag. I made it right before our group was ushered inside. The building was incredibly interesting, both inside and out. We then had less than an hour to make it to the musical show for the evening. That was an INCREDIBLE program, 3 hours long, and probably the best I've ever seen in my life. I will post some things about that tomorrow!!

Friday, Sept. 11---Trip to Berlin

I'm sure the pictures take a lot of space, but I hope you think they're worth it!! Brandi and I had to be at a specific spot on the university campus between 7:30 and 8 a.m. to be on the tour bus to Berlin. I packed for 3 days in my backpack, and also carried her folded-up blue crate and her airplane case. The trip was beautiful, with 3 highway lanes most of the time on each side of the highway. We went from hilly here, to flat. Berlin is basically east and slightly south of here.

We stopped for snacks at a place with a restaurant---the bottom picture is of a children's menu board. The price is basically 2 cents for each centimeter of the child's height. We got to the hostel in mid-afternoon. I had joined the group late and ended up in a hostel, with a room of my own with 3 sets of bunk beds(!), across the street. Brandi and I ate dinner at an outdoor table of a Greek restaurant on our corner, and the owner threw in a glass of "wodka"---2 guesses what that was!! Brandi got a few pieces of gyro I saved for her. Then I put Brandi in our room and went on the boat tour; all the other pictures are from the boat tour.

The top picture is furniture hanging from a crane, and you'll notice at the top that this is an ad for IKEA!! The next picture is a modern government office along the river, followed by stonework on an old building. Berlin is a really odd mixture of very old and very new---that's what happens when a city is bombed! The 4th picture is of a theater; notice the picture in gold on the building, with the fabric picture of actors/characters beside it.

Most people went out after the boat tour. I went back home, took Brandi on a deserved long walk around "our" block and stopped in at a Czech or something convenience store and got a Diet Coke with different language and a different taste, and we went to bed!