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.