Wittenberg

This is a picture of me standing in a cemetery across the street from the Schlosskirche.

Since my trip to Amsterdam, my soul has been feeling a bit tarnished and heavy. I decided I’d take the German holiday to find a place to purchase some indulgences, see if I could exchange a few Euros for a clean soul. I decided to take the train to Wittenberg, about 100 minutes away and I left early Friday morning with a day bag and a peanut butter sandwich. While listening to a neat song my sister brought to my attention, I missed my change. Luckily, I found the train I wanted at the next stop and all went smoothly from there. Upon disembarking, I employed my usual strategy for entering new cities without preconceived plans: follow the groups. There was a little procession from the train station to the center of the Altstadt area and what do you know….there was a city festival! As it turns out, 491 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in this very town! There went my chances of buying indulgences...





Front door of the Stadtkirche.

I went into a service at the Stadtkirche (City Church) and listened for about half an hour. They started it with lots of organ and choir music. The sign language interpreter did a sort of interpretive dance with her hands and arms to mimic the melodies and swelling chords of the organ. I thought that was particularly neat. The church does have a bit of history behind it. The first Protestant service in German was given here, Martin Luther also did a bit of work at the church. I think he also appealed for reconsideration to his excommunication at this church. It was relatively plain in the inside expect for the gilded and painted wooden tri-fold and a few other paintings. The pews were painted grey wood, the walls were white, the columns were plain white octagons and there was no ornate stained glass.



Front door of the Schlosskirche.

The more well known of the nearly neighboring churches in Wittenberg is the Schlosskirche. This church is a few minutes’ walk from the Stadtkirche (longer today due to festivities) and this one has the famous doors. The legend states that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the doors of the church on this day in 1517 but as far as I could tell, the doors were very metal and un-nail-able. Maybe he used a magnet. This building had was much more ornate than the other, with intricate vaulted ceilings, stained glass, and neat sculptures. After the service was over, I went in to observe and take some pictures. The also had the tower in the castle part of the church open for ascending (physically, not metaphysically).


The building had a real neat ceiling.



This is a picture of me standing in the pulpit.

I visited the Lutherhaus, currently a museum but once the house and workshop of Mr. Luther. The museum was very good; it was well organized and all of the books, paintings, and artifacts were well presented and explained in German and English.


This guy was pretty impressive. No valves.

The whole city was partying like it was 1517; anyone who had clothing of the 16th century style was sporting it. The period shoes, pants, belts, shirts, vests, hats, and beards were as abundant as the waterproof nylon and fleece in the streets. There were many dozens of booths for food, clothing, drinks, and crafts in presumably the Eastern German style. I also saw several wandering bands of musicians playing folk music and dancing in the streets.

I enjoyed my visit to Wittenberg. It was a nice day trip.



Behind the scenes: This is what completed prayers look like.



This gentleman means business.

Only in Germany

This is a picture of Magdeburg taken from an interesting technology history museum that looks like the tip of a white woodscrew pointing upward. I'll write about that later.

I have a class called Integrierte Produktentwicklung (Integrated Product Development) whose title is also a whole direction of study for some of the engineers at the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg. The focus is on understanding the entire product development process. The concepts and ideas, prototyping, development, team management, and formal presentation. Both the class and the related group project are a nice change from the technical side of engineering that I’ve focused on. I naturally did a bit of presentation and project work at the University of Portland, but this course allows for a more in-depth look at team dynamics, and the development cycle of product development.

The professor for the class is quite a personality. Prof. Dr. Sándor Vajna is probably the best dressed engineer I’ve seen, he walks around like he owns the place, he’s written books on CAD and Integrated Product Development, and he has an assistant set up the computer and projector before he enters to teach. He has been quite nice and welcoming to me in the last few weeks. Last week he burst into Irish drinking song mid-lecture and said he’d continue, but it doesn’t really work without Guinness and a guitar. This week, some of the students brought a case of Guinness and a guitar and we spent the first 15 minutes of class drinking (I declined respectfully) and singing Irish drinking songs. I sat in my seat for the rest of the lecture, half paying attention, half laughing inside at how strange it was to see a professor with a frothy pint of Guinness and a laser pointer talking about virtual design.

Language School Classmates

Here are some pictures of my classmates from the language school in Cologne. Names are from left to right:


At the last day party: Neda (Macdeonia), ME, Aizhan (Kazakhstan), Nina (Kazakhstan), Jesus (Venezuela).



Last class party:
top row - Odette (South Africa), Neda (Macdeonia), Frau Kluge (Germany, teacher), Aizhan (Kazakhstan), Henri (Albania).
front row: ME, Sonja (Argentina), Fei (China), Phuong (Vietnam)



Aizhan, Fei, Chaoyang. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had the Chinese folks pick the dishes. They know what's good.



Fei, Aizhan, Henri, ME



Odette, John (USA, in the Program), Frau Kluge.



Odette, Mahmoud (Egpyt), Aizhan.

Nice folks. I hope we meet again some day.

Straßenbahn 10 Consumer Survey

This is a picture of a five year old proudly displaying her new snail collection.

In an attempt to capture the essence of German consumer socio-economic behavior, I collected data on the way to school with a newly developed investigative method. I now present the method and results of what I call the Random Straßenbahn Route 10 Business Survey. Before leaving the house, I wrote down several categories of businesses I've noticed in the area. While on the Straßenbahn, I frantically tallied everything I saw and added new categories as they came along. Everything I recorded was something I saw from the Straßenbahn. I missed some stores because I was looking down to write but it's reasonable to assume the ones I missed would follow the trends. The trip took 17 minutes. The following are the numbers (in no particular order) (NOTE: A Döner is a delicious sandwich of Turkish descent, an Apotheke is where one goes to get medicine, dietary supplements, and such, a Tabak store is kind of a convenience store that sells tobacco, drinks, candy, and magazines.):

Drug Stores: 4
Fitness-Suntan: 6
Hobby: 1
Auto: 7
Döner (and similar): 7
Mattress: 2
Kitchen Utensils: 1
Casino, Dance/Party Hall: 2
Fuel Station: 1
Bakery: 8
Travel Agent Office: 9
Bank: 11
Cafe: 13
Grocery: 3
Restaurant: 15
Cellphone: 8
Bookstore: 1
Sport Clothing: 2
Shoe Store: 3
Eyeglass store: 1
Apotheke: 7
Flower Shop: 7
Clothes Store: 8
Tabak: 7
Video/Theater: 3
Hair/Nails: 4
Fast Food: 1
Malls: 1

Audience participation time! On your commute to work, school, or on a drive through the city, and notice what sorts of stores you pass. Do the different types of stores and their number reflect what is important to Americans? My my measure here, Germans are into fresh flowers and bread, health, fashion, international travel, and eating out, especially in cafes. But that's just what I can tell from looking out the window on the way to school.

*Note: if you commute by car, leave the observation and recording activities to the passenger and focus on the road. Safety first.

The Prophet

Cannondale Prophet

After many hours online with reviews, Ebay, Quoka, and Kalaydo, I have finally purchased a mountain bike. The streets in Magdeburg have more cobblestones, light rail tracks, abrupt lips, and are generally more hazardous for the small wheels and tires of a road bike. This practical concern, simply missing mountain biking, and the mountain biking club/class at the University inspired the decision and so far I’m glad. It is a Cannondale Prophet with about 135mm travel front and rear, big brakes, strong wheels, and lots of red. The suspension, specifically the rear, allows for a very stable, planted feel that makes climbing easier and cornering more stable than a hardtail. I look forward to many kilometers of Freude am Fahren (BMW’s current slogan here “pleasure in driving”). I picked it up in Berlin.

Berlin, by the way, looks a lot different from when I was there last, about 4.5 years ago. I think several new buildings have gone up, the Jewish memorial is completed and open, and it seemed like there were a lot more people there. I rode around to the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz, and the area for a bit before I took the train back to Magdeburg.

Magdeburg

Magdeburg

I have been in Magdeburg for two weeks now and I haven’t sat down to write about it at all. Although the 1200 year old city is small (230.000 people), my time has been more or less thoroughly occupied. The city has a couple of larger more busy areas connected with a Strassenbahn and for me, line 10 is the backbone of the city. I can ride from my stop to the University in 17 minutes and there are also four bike shops within a stones throw from this main line. The city lies on the Elbe river; the west side contains the buildings and the near east side is mostly a large park for walking, and biking and such.


The town, though small, isn’t quite quaint. Unlike many towns its size, Magdeburg doesn’t have a picturesque old town because it was destroyed. There are still the wide walkways and pedestrian zones, open markets, and an old church (oldest Gothic style cathedral in Germany).

I’ve spent a significant time figuring out the University. Office hours in this country are not those us US Americans are used to. Banks don’t open until 9am, everyone takes a lunch break, and most peoples’ evenings begin a bit earlier than ours. Wednesdays are out of the question. Professors generally follow the closed door policy but the ones I have been able to catch have been extremely helpful and welcoming.


I’ve assembled a general picture of the University class system and I think it’s quite simple. Here’s how I think it works: degrees are awarded upon completion of all of the necessary exams. The courses are intended to educate the students and prepare them for the exams. If you know the material you don’t necessarily need to go the lecture. This optional lecture-ness then means that you don’t register for the lecture, you just register for the test. To take advantage of this situation, I’ve picked a ton of classes and I’m going to visit as many as possible in the first week to determine which would be best. Once I pick them, I’ll tell the professor and that’s that. Simple!


Julia, 5.

Of the people I’ve met, a number have been impressed that I, either as a US American or engineer, speak German. This is good. If you listen carefully, you can hear the small preconceptions and stereotypes breaking….
Here is a picture of a bridge to the park.

Somewhere Near the Czech Border

This picture was taken on the hill above the village. Notice there is no shadow of the camera. I thought that was clever.

Bielatal Weekend
5.October.2008

The weekend began Friday morning wedged between two child seats and two children in the back of a 1994 VW Golf diesel. The 5 and 6 year old girls proclaimed “Henry ist mein Kopfkissen” (Henry is my pillow) over and over and then sang more German childrens’ songs than I knew existed. For the relatively short distance, it was a very long trip but once we arrived in Bielatal, a small village within sight of the Czech republic, the weekend became more relaxing. Bielatal is a small town of about 1000 inhabitants. Aside from those who buy summer or weekend houses in the area, everyone that lives there has lived there their entire life, as have their parents, grandparents and so forth. The village, like many others in Germany, is essentially dying; the children are moving away to pursue careers because there is essentially no way to make a living in these areas anymore. Great place to visit though. It’s called the Sächsiche Schweiz. To me, that sound a lot like Sexy Switzerland, but it means something else.

This is a picture of the town.

The grandparents live in a 204 year old former farm house. The first floor has obviously had the electricity added after the walls were built and the metal rings used to retain the pigs and cows are still on the walls. Changes, however, have been made since 1805 and the two story house has a bit of character. Each of the many small rooms has its own wood burning heater/stove and that’s a good thing because it was real cold the entire time. It is the German way to keep all doors in a house closed and they generally have more of them. Where we would have a hallway, they have doors. Spending a few days in the cold house really emphasized the heat-saving origins of this somewhat annoying practice.


This is the house across the street.

The Grandfather had just taken on the ambitious project of rebuilding the entire front wall of the house. Despite his grandfatherly age, he decided he had to do it himself because contractors and professional builders aren’t precise enough. There’s a chance the last Americans he saw in the area were those flying by and dropping bombs but he was enthusiastic about explaining what life was like during and after WWII in East Germany. It wasn’t good. They had to get on lists to buy pretty much everything from building materials to food. A lot of the resources went over to the west or Russia. They used to say the pork was exported and only the poo remained. Somehow we got on the topic of oral hygiene at breakfast and he explained his theory to the table. Pull out every other tooth, healthy or not. That way, it’s much easier to clean between them. Hilarious.




We hiked in the morning on one of the little mountains in the area. If you could represent anesthesia graphically in a three dimensional sort of way, the landscape would be localized anesthesia. It is mostly flat with mild rolling hills but every once in a while, there’s an abrupt plateau. When it’s foggy in the morning, it looks like it’s hovering above the earth. It was a nice hike with unique scenery, fresh air, and a local history lesson from Herr Seifert. I also learned that kids have inner emotion dice that they roll unconsciously every 30 seconds. One means angry and tired. Six means happy and full of energy. This thirty second rule, however, does not apply if there are things (rocks, trees, exchange students) to climb on. Then they stay at six for a while.





We took an old metal and wood carriage powered by a horse back to the house.

The small town was celebrating the Erntedank fest, a Harvest festival at the big farm house. The Grandmother Seifert was spinning yarn, folks were grilling bratwursts, and selling cookies, bread, artsy stuff. All of the kids were going crazy over tractor rides. It definitely had the small town atmosphere. It was a very unique experience!

This is a picture of me, gazing contemplatively at the horizon.
Take care,
-H

That's not cigarette smoke!

If you look closely, I am in the picture.
Amsterdam
27.Sep.08

That’s not cigarette smoke!
That dam city in the Netherlands.

I woke up at 5:15am and it was dark. The darkness kind of reminded me what I normally see at that time of morning: the inside of my eyelids. The only people up and about this fine Saturday morning were those preparing their bakeries for the morning rush. Fortunately, the rental car company did not have the itty bitty car I requested so I got a new two-door six-speed diesel Opel Astra. It was transportation but nothing I’d buy. It had a power band like a toothpick: narrow and only useful for a short bit of time. There was nothing under 3000rpm and then the power kicked in very abruptly. Running through first gear just took a moment but in that short time it was like a roller coaster of automotive emotions. “Where’s the power? Is it really this wea..WOAH, where did that come fro—Oh, it’s gone.” It lost power about 1000 below redline at 5000rpm. If I blipped the throttle while shifting, the revs would stay high enough to not bog down in the next gear. I did discover a “Sport” button and that actually helped but not enough. For what it was, it felt quite big and the A-pillars seemed large and the rear visibility was lousy but I may be spoiled in the visibility department by my experience with older cars. But a car’s a car and after not driving for about two months, I was glad to be behind the wheel and bombing (safely) down the autobahn.




It took about four hours to get there, a bit longer than anticipated. There was construction on one of the main highways so I meandered my way through the countryside and about a billion traffic circles with the help of the GPS. Amsterdam is NOT a driving city. As soon as I got there, I wished I could ditch the car in the nearest canal and walk. The streets are narrow, nothing with two wheels follows traffic rules, there are one way streets, and no organized street grid. I got lost for a while, finally found a parking lot by a zoo outside of the center of the city, and traded my cross-trainers in for the casually comfortable leather shoes in an attempt to mask my true identity (tourist).


This is a picture of a bunch of fish for sale. Fresh, this is the closest I've been to salt water in 2 months.

Amsterdam is the fourth most visited city in Europe. At first I was surprised because I didn’t see any tourists. I walked through an open air market featuring clothing and I heard only Dutch. Dutch, by the way, is weird. It sounds remarkably like German but sillier, with more ‘J’s and “oo”s. Before too long, however, I found them: the tourists.

My first stop was the Rijksmuseum, featuring Dutch art and a lot of Rembrandt. It was good stuff but very crowded. Aside from a rather large American, who’s waistline and voice were only surpassed in magnitude by his ego and immaturity, it was a pleasing experience. I got to see several works from Rembrandt that I had studied earlier in my art history classes.

I then visited the Van Gogh Museum, just across the plaza. This was also a fine museum; it featured works from Van Gogh’s entire career. He was only an artist for the last ten of his thirty-eight years and with the guidance from the descriptions, one can easily follow his progression and development.


Getting tired of the museum shuffle, I turned on the speed and power-walked many kilometers through town. The canal system is quite interesting. It reminded me a bit of Venice, but with bikes, cars, and light rail. I found a central city park full of Dutch folk enjoying the beautiful day and joined them on a vacant bench overlooking a pond and grassy inner-city field. I trekked further north to the main train station, constructed on a man-made island in the bay. This was the business side of the city and it was definitely be considered bustling.

I took a boat tour of the canals and it was interesting for several reasons. Firstly, the tour was conducted in Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and English in that order. I was amazed at how similar Dutch was to German. I could actually understand more or less what they were saying! Secondly, they had interesting stuff to say. For example, because the houses, doors, and staircases are so skinny, they have to move stuff through the window.


The Red Light District

I grabbed some delicious Chinese food and started following my GPS back to the Opel. On the way, I stumbled across the infamous Red Light District. This area consisted of a row of buildings separated by wide walkways and a canal and a few blocks of cross streets. Every few buildings there were several glass doors or windows with girls illuminated by the red lights. They wore almost nothing but they seemed pretty happy about it. Groups of people, often bachelor parties, walked through looking for where they could see the best show or the best girl or what not. It was like grocery shopping meets pornography. Quite interesting. I walked past an English tour guide explaining the happenings to a small group and it was hilarious. Maybe it was how proper he sounded with the accent but the whole scene just didn’t fit, in a comical way. The whole setting was something totally different.

I skated back to the car in record time to beat the parking meter. A pack of gummy somethings, a huge KitKat, a Red Bull, and great Dutch and Deutsch music kept me going until I arrived back in Köln a bit before 3am the next morning. Good trip. I’ll have to go back some time.