Bad days

We all have bad days... I recently had a doozy.  First I left my laptop at home, which meant that I couldn't do my normal work, and I had to download papers in the cold, non-heated computer lab.

Then, I had a meeting.  Not just any meeting, but a 2 hour long meeting, all in French, that went over lunch.  Meetings can be bad.  Meetings that you can't understand and that stretch over lunch are worse.

French class was also rough - after a 3 week absence (a two week "vacation" from class, followed by my own trip) left me struggling on pronunciation.

Finally, though, I got home, put on some laundry, and took a bath, trying to relax.  As I got ready for bed, my downstairs neighbor knocked on my door.

She said, "Is anything wrong with your apartment?"
"No, why?"
"Well, my apartment is flooding."

I followed her downstairs, where I saw waterfalls of water cascading down her walls.  I went back upstairs and found the culprit.  Here in France, my washing machine has a little tube that lets the machine drain into the sink.  Well, as the washing machine rumbled away, that little tube decided to launch itself out of the sink and onto the floor, dumping at least 3 or 4 washing machine loads worth of water on the floor (minus, of course, what was now in my neighbor's apartment).  So I spent the rest of my "relaxing" day mopping up the inch of water in my kitchen.

As Hamlet says, sometimes sorrows come not in single spies, but in battalions.

The creeping cold weather...

Now that it's late November, I'm really beginning to miss the sun.  Most days are foggy, and most days stay that way.  I've never lived in a place that had less than 330 sunny days a year.  Now, it's been about 2 weeks since I have seen the sun.  It's a bit depressing.  It's humid here too, so the cold just sinks into your skin. 

However, as the days grow shorter, we also get the opportunity to enjoy Christmas decorations going up!  We recently went shopping in Paris.  Streets were decorated with Christmas lights.  One of the department stores had several displays with dolls and teddy bears dancing to various musicals.  Here's a short video with teddy bears dancing to the French Mamma Mia.  It's great!

Germany: Part III: Boats, boats, boats!

 Our next stop was the harbor.  Hamburg has one of the largest harbors in the world.
 

 There are canals that wind up and down like streets close to the harbor, and boats bring supplies directly to the buildings along the canals. 

 The Warehouse District, or "Speicherstadt", is the largest warehouse complex in the world!  It houses merchandise straight from the ships from all over the world.

Growing up in a desert, I am still enthralled by the idea of boats!

 Especially ones called the J.R. Tolkien!

Some unique architecture.

I snapped this cute picture of Jessica and Thijs.

Here is the four of us near the harbor.

Walking around a bit more in the city, we walked past another church (St. Petri).

In one of the stores, I saw an interesting "food" - pinecone!!!

 When we walked past the city hall once more, we saw a guy being embarrassed  by his friends.  Apparently, on a guy's 30th birthday, if he is still single, he has to sweep the steps of city hall until a single woman comes up and kisses him.  An old tradition, fully taken advantage of by his friends to embarrass the heck out of this poor guy. 

 He couldn't have been too sad though, because he was drinking.

The "curse" was finally lifted by a little girl (about 3 years old) who kissed him on the cheek.  :-)

Walking along the harbor at night, we stop for a local Christmas treat - hot wine.  It was good and tasty, and nice to warm up on a cold evening. 

 Stopping for pictures on the pier.

 And, perhaps, more than pictures. 

The next day, we stop by the famous "fish market", which starts before the sun comes up on Sunday.  Many people stay up all night partying, then stop by the fish market in the early morning for a snack.  We took the old person route, ie, sleeping and waking up early.

 Then we took a "boat bus"!  They have routes, just like normal buses.  This is the #62 route.  Can you tell I was excited?  Can you tell I grew up in a desert?

 The fog was dense that day.  Very humid.

 So humid in fact that my lens was fogging up pretty badly.  Bram is in this picture, somewhere...

 More fog / fog on lens.

 Jessica and Thijs in her lovely apartment.

 So that's all for Germany.  At least, bis zum nächsten Mal!

Germany: Part II: Churches and other monuments

 After the conference, I did a little sight seeing.  This is the "Television Tower", one of the tallest buildings in Hamburg.  I really thought it would have a more interesting name...

Friday night, Bram and I headed down to the center of the city.  There was a carnival going on. 

 We visited the St. Michaelis Church, one of the many cathedrals in Hamburg. 

 We climbed up the 132 meter tower.  It was interesting because the tower caught fire back in 1906.  You could still see some of the black markings from the fire.  

 The view from the top was breathtaking.  We looked out over Hamburg right after sunset, at dusk, as the city was beginning to light up.  It was breathtaking. 

 However, it was horribly windy.  Bram was taking pictures with his iPhone, which he feared would blow right out of his hands and down to the city below.  Sometimes it was so windy that you could lie into the wind and have it support your full weight.  I tried photographing Bram.

 Heading back down to street level, which we once thought was so cold, was downright nice after being in all that wind!

The next day, Bram and his friend Jessica, and her boyfriend Thijs, went down to the center of Hamburg.  The first stop was the beautiful city hall, the Rathaus.

They were setting up for the Christmas fair, which would start next weekend.  Santa would make scheduled "fly-bys" over the shoppers.

 Bram and I.

 Jessica and Thijs.

Our next stop was St. Nikolai Memorial / church.  It was bombed during WWII, and now is a memorial to the Holocaust.

It is quite moving to see ruins in the middle of the city.  They co-exist among modern office buildings, restaurants, and apartments.  War sometimes seems so far removed, but to see ruins in the city, you realize how beautiful things sometimes are lost.

Germany: Land of on time trains and beer.

I just got back from a conference/ mini-vacation in Hamburg Germany.  It was the farthest North I've ever been.  And being in northern Europe brought the associated weather with it... rain, wind, and COLD!  Wish I brought my gloves.

The first thing that I saw in the airport was this rather unique ad:

 I was struck by how clean everything was in Germany!  How organized!  How on time all the trains were!  Even trash is organized (in 4 languages)!

 

On my pillow at night were gummy sheep.  Very cute.

 

The conference was great and I had some very good conversations with my "conference friends" and some new people I met in the field.  Overall a very good experience.  For lunch we ate in the canteen on campus.  It is always interesting to see how the canteens of other establishments in Europe compare to my own.  There was always one line for sausage. Here, I'm eating currywurst, fries, chocolate mouse topped with applesause, and the local cola - MezzoMix!  which is orange cola.  Very good meal.

  

The conference dinner was awesome.  It was in a local brewery.  We were provided beer!  Even though I'm not a beer fan, it's nice to be able to try beer in Germany.

 Bram especially liked the food!  We were given a huge "board" filled with all sorts of meat -  sausage, ham, bacon, with relatively little other food.

Desert was berries and cream and more beer.