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