Nordsee = North Sea

Anja hosted a few of us summer fellows at her family's summer campsite in Cuxhaven, near the North Sea. Here is a link to the pictures we took.

Bad = bath

I don't know who I pissed off on the janitorial staff...

Wochenende = weekend

On both Saturday and Sunday I underestimated what a nice day is was outside and it took me longer than it should have to get out of my room and enjoy it. On Saturday, I was on my way to Primark, at the mall across town. When I was changing strassebahns (trams) in the city center, I ran into a festival going on outside the town hall. I don't know what the performance was, something funny from the look of the costumes, but there were food stands all around.


Half meter bratwurst

Heart shaped cookies

On Sunday I went for a bike ride around Burgerpark. Priya lent me her bike while she was away in Amsterdam, and I had a nice ride. Burgerpark is great because there are lakes, streams with beautiful bridges, biergartens with live music, exercise trails, horses, just so much. It can feel like you've left the city once you leave the street. Feeling inspired after my bike ride around the park, I decided to go back to the guesthouse and grab my camera and plan a longer journey.

It's a one speed, one LOUD brake, magenta framed biking machine!

A few days earlier I came across the wiki page for Wätjen Castle, and looked it up on google maps - about 10 kilometers away. I wrote down the directions, which took up an entire page. German streets like to change names every few hundred meters or so.


I headed out and took a few pictures along the way.

A nice day and view of the Weser

These two don't look so happy.

But this fellow sure is!

And this chica is furious.

After more than an hour's ride, getting lost once, and one embarrassing wipeout, I finally arrive at the correct address:

All I can say is this: where's my damn castle?

kino = movie theater

Yesterday I went to Kino 46, Bremen's art-house movie theater to see Rachel Getting Married. In it's original version. You don't understand how amazing this is: it's in English!! At the regular movie theater, all of the movies are American movies dubbed in German. Not only does Kino 46 show artsy foreign films in their original version (with English subtitles if the film is not in English), it is only 4.50 euros. There is an actual stage and a curtain that opens up before the film starts. People bring their own snacks. (I'm not sure if this is encouraged, but the couple in front of me had a can of Pringles between them.) There are no previews or commercials! And it is right across the street from a Mexican restaurant call Mariachi, which I will check out next time I go.

All that being said, the movie was kind of ok.

Geburtstag = birthday

12-August-2009

We celebrated Anja's birthday with a barbeque on the unisee shore. It was great that a few of her friends from school were able to come to Bremen to celebrate with her. Her lab coworkers Mathius and Marcos came too, and the other summer students. I made spinach and artichoke dip, one of my all time favorites. Priya, Aaron, and I gathered wood to make a little campfire, which was great once it got dark! And on the walk home, I saw two amazingly beautiful meteors just above the trees. Don't be jealous.

I forgot to bring my camera, but I will post a few pictures once I get them from Xiaolei.

Me and the birthday girl with the beautiful cake made by Helen and Patricia.

That's the campfire that Priya, Aaron, and I made. From left to right: Mathius - grad student in our lab, Marlene - another grad student, Anja - the birhtday girl, Priya and her friend Aaron.

Biergarten = beer garden

Priya had a friend, Aaron, visit her for a few days. We took him to the Haus am Walde, the beer garden near the university and unisee. We drank Haake-Beck and ate the German pizza (I'm not sure what makes it German, but it was really good).

There was a jazzy southern German-speaking but American sounding band.

It was such a fun night!

100 beste Plakate = 100 best posters

Last weekend was gray and rainy, so I took the opportunity to visit yet another museum!

100 Best Posters 07 - Germany Austria Switzerland
Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus - Design im Zentrum

The Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus is a little bit east of the city center in a cool, artsy part of town called Die Viertel (The Quarter). The exhibit was of posters from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Most of them were ads of some sort of another. I actually liked not being able to read the text, because it made me notice the design elements of the posters. I wish I had been able to snap a picture of a few of my favorites, including a rogaine ad with bald cherubs feigning over the one cherub with a full head of hair.

Pommes for President

I really like the German treatment of french fries. Fries are usually served with tiny wooden or plastic forks on a paper tray or in a paper cone. Ketchup is not the default topping--you can dip fries into almost anything! I've seen pesto, sour cream, mayo, and my most recent dip: curry!

Weekend in Oslo

July 31 - August 2, 2009

Priya and I took a ryanair flight to Oslo, Norway for the weekend. I won't recount the trip, because you can see most of the fun we had in our facebook albums. I will plug couchsurfing.org, which is how we managed to see Oslo, not go bankrupt, and meet a lot of nice, fun, and interesting people. There website is a little horrible, but their intentions are good.

Urban Art Exhibit

July 30, 2009

A few weeks ago I went to the weserburg museum, a cool modern art museum in the middle of the river weser, and saw the urban art exhibit. Taking photos wasn't allowed, but I did covertly take a picture of this eerie piece by Mark Jenkins. It is so hard to look away!

Here is information from the museum's website.

Urban Art
Works from the Reinking Collection

Urban Art is everywhere. Unsolicited, it leaves its traces and signs in urban space. It conquers the public sphere with stickers, posters, extensive murals, and stencil graffiti. It’s galleries are the world’s streets. What began as graffiti in the large cities on America’s east coast forty years ago has since experienced a decisive development. Even if the majority of actions continue to be produced anonymously and illegally, it is no longer exclusively a phenomenon associated with youth culture. Many of the protagonists have emancipated themselves from the pictorial language of graffiti writing and experimented with new forms of expression. With their subtle and humorous, occasionally offensive interventions in the urban landscape they attempt to force open familiar visual habits. As a rule, they are not concerned with damaging the urban infrastructure but with participating in a dialogue with the public.

Participating artists:
Akim, Ash, Herbert Baglione, Banksy, Blu, Boxi, Bronco, Dave the Chimp, Brad Downey, Ben Eine, Shepard Fairey, Mark Jenkins, Kaws, Daniel Man, Miss Van, Mode 2, Os Gêmeos, Mirko Reisser [DAIM], Space Invader, Swoon, DTagno, Tilt, Vitché, Heiko Zahlmann, Zevs, Zezão

Badeinsel Regatta

The regatta took place on 25-July-2009 by the river Weser, that runs through Bremen's city center. Some time ago, teams of two competed to see who the lucky 100 teams would be to race on these giant inner tubes. On the day of the race, it was like Breminale all over again. There were ethnic food vendors, live music, and Beck's beer.

All I cared about was getting my hands on one of those tubes.

The line of tubes was used to rope off the race course. After the race started, Priya and I saw a little motorboat bringing the tubes back to the bank. There were a few people around who had tubes, but I couldn't figure out where they were coming from.

We decided to stick around for a while to see the fate of these tubes. All of the sudden, it was like a flood gate of greedy tube-coveting spectators (like myself) had been opened. We sprinted to the dock, but most of the tubes had already been claimed. I saw one that was still untouched, and ran up and touched it to stake my claim. Success!

Now the challenge of getting it home... We didn't want to deflate it, because we wouldn't be able to easily blow it up again. So instead we brought it with us on the tram. It took up two seats.

Haake-Beck, as we affectionately named our tube, currently resides in Priya's room. We have yet to take him out to the unisee, the nearby lake, but on a sunny day we will. The plans for Haake-Beck after the summer are still uncertain, but I hope to deflate him, bring him home with me, and use it as my first piece of furniture in the new apartment.

Hofbrauhaus

Friday, 24-July-2009

The other American girls and I went to the Hofbrauhaus, a German restaurant that makes you feel like you're in Bavaria for Oktoberfest all year long. The servers were wearing lederhosen and dirndls, and there was a couple playing guitars and singing. It was just tacky enough to be delightful.

Me posing with bier and a bretzel. Also trying to have my eyes open in a photo for a change.

Helen, Erika, and Priya toasting how awesome we are.

Ciao Silvia!

Thursday, 23-July-2009

Friday was my Italian officemate's last day in Bremen, so a bunch of us went out to dinner at La Casetta, an Italian restaurant south of the river. I rode the metro down to the restaurant and met the group. I thought I would be late, but everyone was standing outside and had just ordered drinks, so perfect timing. It was pizza day, so all pizzas were just 5 euros. I had a yummy pizza with arugula, tomatoes, and fresh Parmesan--so good! And I will continue to eat pizza the American way (cut into slices, eaten with my hands) because it's just so much more efficient.

Anja and I split a panna cotta, which was amazing. This blog is making me hungry.

fauler Sonntag = lazy Sunday

19-July-2009

We spent the first half of the day sleeping in and taking care of business (laundry day!) at the guesthouse. In the afternoon Marissa and I made pesto (from my basil plant) and fried zucchini sandwiches and brought them to the UniSee for a picnic. The weather cleared up for us and it was quite sunny and warm. We bought eis (ice cream) from a vendor who didn't speak English. I am so excited that I can order ice cream in German! I'm not learning much German otherwise, and I still have the urge to break out in Spanish for no sensible reason sometimes.

After our picnic, we made yellow curry and rice with Priya. Another delicious meal with our farmer's market vegetables.

Samstag um Stadt = Saturday around town

18-July-2009

Me and Marissa in front of a statue of Friedrich Bessel, the German mathematician and astronomer. I would pretend I knew who he was, but then you might ask me questions about Bessel functions...

On Saturday Priya, Marissa and I did some site seeing around the old part of town. While doing so we stumbled upon a farmers market which was delightful. We bought vegetables for that night's dinner, a new cheese, a chocolate croissant, and blueberry wine.

After the market, we went to the House of the Glockenspiel, which I have been excited about ever since reading about it on the Bremen city website. The glock plays a tune three times per day.


As the glock finished it's 3pm tune, we ran into Erika and Anja, and all decided to have a snack at the cafe at the Windmill on the Wall.


After the windmill, we split up again, and Priya, Marissa, and I went back to the guesthouse to relax and make dinner. We made a Spanish omlet and bruschetta. Both were delicious.

To see what Bremen is like after dark, we went to the Schlacte, the same street with several bars and biergardens that Priya and I had visited before. We went to Bar Celona, a tapas bar and ate olives and two orders of french fries with our choice of yummy dips. Bar Celona was great, and we found the best table in the house -- right by the window with lots of fluffy pillows!

After we walked across the river to Moderne, which the lonely planet article about Bremen told us was the best night club in the city. The place was packed, the music was so fun, and we danced like the crazy gals we are.

Wilkommen Marissa! Freitag = Welcome Marissa! Friday

17-July-2009

The lovely Marissa, my roommate all four years at Caltech, came to visit me in Bremen. She and her family have been staying in Belgium and driving around Europe. I am so glad that she was able to ditch them for a few days to hang out with me!

I picked Marissa up at the Hauptbahnhoft Friday afternoon, and we dropped her stuff off at the guesthouse. We went back to the city center and did some shopping as we girls have been known to do (2€ shoes at H&M!). We met up with Erika and Anja at the movie theater to see HP6--in English! This theater had assigned seating, and since we got there just a few minutes before showtime, we had pretty bad seats--the very edge of the second row. No matter, the movie was still great!

Afterwards, the four of us walked to another part of town that Anja heard is a student hangout. We randomly chose a bar, and a lot of people from our (Anja and my) lab group there playing foosball. Turns out she was right, and we are lucky!

There was a lot of fun street art around there too, so I might want to go and check it out in the day light sometime.

ein anderer deutscher Grill = Another German barbeque

17-July 2009

On Wednesday evening Xavi, the lab technician, stopped by everyone's office to announce that tomorrow, instead of going to the Mensa for lunch, everyone should bring something to bbq!

The entire organic geochemistry group brought stuff to grill and eat, and set up two little grills on the rooftop adjacent to the lab. It was such a nice day to be outside and enjoy the sun, since it is usually rainy for at least part of the day. I hope this new tradition continues.

deutscher Grill = German Barbeque

13-July-2009

On Monday we had our official welcome to the marum summer program. Dr. Tobias Mörz, who is the program director of the summer program, outlined the program on the white board of the seminar room:

• introduction (students)
• introduction (marum)
• walk
• eat

Why he felt this simple outline was necessary is still unclear. It seemed pretty obvious--we would go around the room, say a few things about ourselves, hear about how cool marum and Bremen are, walk to him home, and eat dinner.

After the introductions and the death of a laptop battery, we headed outside. But confusingly, we drove instead of walked to Tobias's home. Which was a good thing, because it was about a twenty minute drive. So what about the walk? I had forgotten that in English English (not American English), a 'walk' is really a 'hike.' Had any of us known about the hike, we would have dressed differently. I was wearing a dress, tights, and slip-on flats. Tobias was wearing hiking boots and cargo shorts.


After the 'short walk' (an hour and forty-five minutes), a lot of yummy food was waiting for us. We hung out and ate and played with all of Tobias's cool stuff: backyard pond with fish, trampoline, foosball, a trampoline. And the evening wouldn't have been complete without each of us taking turns at chopping wood.


After we were stuffed full of food, we walked to a meadow nearby to play 'Scandinavian Chess.' Sounds fun, right? Also called kubb, Scandinavian Chess is a yard game where two teams compete to knock down the other teams soldiers. Did I mention I love yard games? It was so much fun! Here's a picture of Lu attempting to knock one of our soldiers down.


After two games of Scandinavian Chess, we went back and had dessert. I don't remember what this dish was called, but it comes from Northern Germany and is somewhere between jello salad and jam, and eaten with warm vanilla sauce.

Everyone had such a fun night! I love German barbeques.

Museum = museum

On Sunday, I walked to the Focke Museum, which was only about twenty minutes away from the guesthouse. It follows the small stream by the guesthouse, and I saw some ducks and ducklings swimming in it on my way there.

The museum has an exhibition by a photographer named Gisele Freund, who took portraits of many of the famous writers and artists of the early 20th century.

Here is the description from the culture and leisure section of bremen.de

Exhibition at the Focke Museum – Gisèle Freund

One of the most outstanding portrait and documentary photographers of the 20th century.

From 13 June to 4 October 2009, the Focke Museum will once again hold a large photography exhibition. After the success of the Feininger show last year, the Bremen state museum for art and cultural history is now turning its attention to the work of Gisèle Freund.

The exhibition
On more than 800qm, approximately 140 partly hand signed photos will be shown. Divided between two rooms, the exhibition shows Freund’s early documentary photos as well as her portraits.

Gisèle Freund
As portrait photographer of painters, sculptors and mainly authors, she made a name for herself in the 1930s. Remarkable was her intuition in capturing the personalities of the subjects, instead of just shooting superficial poses. The photographs were taken almost incidentally while the literature enthusiastic and well-read Gisèle Freund spoke to the authors about their work. In this way, they didn’t pay attention to the camera and acted naturally. The results were unique portraits of Bertolt Brecht, Anna Seghers, Alexej Tolstoi, Simone de Beauvoir, Walter Benjamin, Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig and many more. Already in 1938, she photographed with the newly launched and still very expensive colour film. In 1939, an impressive colour portrait of James Joyce appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. She took the only colour portraits of the camera-shy Virginia Woolf.

Fluss = river

On Saturday night, Priya and I went to downtown Bremen and found a yummy Italian restaurant. I had been hungry for some pizza, since we do not have ovens in our small kitchens, and the mensa pizza is not so great. We each ordered a different vegetarian pizza (gorgonzola with spinach and grilled vegetables) and split it. The pizza wasn't cut into slices, so we struggled for a few minutes with knife and fork, and eventually just picked it up with our hands, American style. The restaurant was right on the river with big windows so we got to see the sunset (how romantic).

After dinner we walked on the Schlachte, the street right by the river with lots of outdoor bars and restaurants. We bought girly cocktails with slices of pineapple on the side. Yummy! What a fun night.

poffertjes = tiny yummy pancakes

Priya, Helen and I saw these poffertjes at Breminale. No one recognized what they were, but we could see they were served with a dollop of butter and a slab of butter on top, so we decided to split an order. We splurged for the most expensive variety - 3 euros for Grand Marnier on top. They looked like tiny pancakes, and were cooked right in front of us in a cast iron pan. Three tiny forks later - delicious.

picknick = picnic

Priya and I packed pesto, mozzarella, and zucchini sandwiches, along with oranges and cookies and walked to UniSee, a nice lake with a sandy beach that is just a few hundred meters away from the University.

We sat on the grass and ate our sandwiches and drank amaretto sours while being serenaded by a bagpipe player. While having a delightful time, a nude biker and his clothed mate rode by on the path. Of all the activities one might do while nude, biking seems rather adventurous.

Breminale

Breminale Music Festival

hallo welt = hello world

Hallo internetland! I'm back on the blogwagon, this time writing from Bremen, Germany. Since I don't speak German, I'll take this opportunity to learn a little bit, one blog title at a time.

mittagessen = lunch

I went to the Mensa today to get lunch. I wasn't really sure what was going on, since you know, German. But I got in the longest line I saw. I asked the girl behind me what I was waiting for, and she said Entree 2. Entree 2 turned out to be margarita pizza and salad. That and .3 L of fanta for €1,80 -- hell yes!