A Mixture of Feelings

It's my third weekend here in Germany. I have done so much fun stuff, including enjoying one of the best meals I have ever tasted:



This was at the Andechs Monastery and Brewery, which I visited with some friends yesterday. (Sorry, the website is German only - considering all the English-language signs that were there, I'm kind of surprised about this. Anyway, Rick Steves has a bit about Andechs on his website.)

Of course this was a brilliant, yet exhausting, day, involving a train trip, a boat ride, a long hike, the awesome lunch pictured above, and a beer-soaked round of miniature golf. My companions were a lovely group of German people who were well-read, interesting, and funny. It took all of my intellectual abilities to keep up with the conversation most of the time, which is generally a challenge I do not mind tackling head on.

I rarely indulge in trips like this at home. Maybe I should - maybe one thing that I can learn from Germany (as surprising as this is going to sound) is that maybe I should work less and play more. Of course, while the whole experience of going to Andechs left me glad that I had gone, to be honest I also want nothing more than to sink into my couch at home in CA and park myself there, in front of English-language HD television, for about 6 hours. Preferably with both cats nearby (and getting along).

Is this strange? I mean, I'm having one of my life's big adventures, and although I'm enjoying and appreciating every opportunity, part of me just wants to go home - back to my routine and the hockey rink and my English-speaking friends. This happens every time I come to Germany, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised by it. But I always am.

Oh well...back to reality. Today I will finish preparing for a Westlaw training I'm giving at the university tomorrow. I'm also going to give a training class in the Hein Online legal database, for which the university decided to get a trial subscription while I am here. I find both to be totally invaluable. I hope my German is adequate to express why this is.

Despite having to do a bunch of work, I should still find some time for a walk. I love the trail by the river near my house - it is so relaxing there.



Ali arrives on Wednesday and it will be nice to have him here. We will only have one week left in Augsburg once he gets here. That will be a mixture of happy and sad, for sure. It will be nice to have some new adventures to experience, but I will miss the apartment and my friends here.

After 12 Days...

I can't believe I've been here for only 12 days! I've managed to cram in so much during that time that it feels more like the two months have already gone by and I should be on the plane going home.

Things are good. I've been teaching and learning and having a lot of fun, which is what should have been happening up to this point. I have already written about the hockey games in Slovakia, so I will write about some other aspects of my life here in Germany.

My Apartment

I live in a 20 square meter apartment in the Goeggingen area of Augsburg. I can't believe I don't know how much that is in square feet. It is in a newish, clean and recently remodeled building. It has everything I need.



I can walk just up the street to catch the tram to go into the city, to the university, or to the train station from which I can get a train to pretty much anywhere in Europe. I am enjoying not relying on a car...for now. If I lived here all the time, I would definitely want a car to get around.

I like having a little kitchen, with a fridge that I can set to a really cold temperature. Most mornings and evenings I eat at home, which saves a lot of money. I will definitely miss that on the next part of the trip, where Ali and I will be staying in hotels exclusively.

Augsburg, the People, and Language

I have encountered some wonderful people on this trip. I honestly feel that Germany has gone through a bit of a renaissance of niceness. I can't remember encountering a surly shop assistant yet in the nearly two weeks that I've been here. That has not been my experience in the past, so I'm definitely enjoying it now.

People from Augsburg and the surrounding area speak with an interesting accent that I could never copy, but I enjoy listening to it. Bavaria is well-known for its dialect, and some Germans I have met from elsewhere claim to not understand it. But I am not having a problem. Of course if I were to go up into the Bavarian Alps and hear real "Bavarian" German I probably could not make heads or tails of it.

Speaking of, well, speaking...it is very tiring to speak German all day. I tend to speak more English socially. My friends here are either American, or Germans who speak wonderful English and want to practice. But work-related conversations are all in German. I definitely have lost some of my ease with the language after 5 years away from here, but I do surprise myself with what I manage to remember every day. I have been speaking German since I was a freshman in high school (25 years!), so my brain has had a long time to develop those pathways. :-)

Work

The reason I am here is to learn more about German law libraries, and to teach classes to German law students and librarians.

I am teaching an 8-hour class to law students in Augsburg that is an introduction to US law and law school. That class is halfway done and I've been enjoying the time spent with the students. I am doing that class in English to prepare them for going to the US.

Yesterday, I did a 5-hour Westlaw training at the Bavarian State Library School in Munich for 12 law librarians. This was in German. I prepared two PowerPoint presentations (one for the morning, one for the afternoon), each of which were about 75 slides. It was a little easier than I thought to explain how Westlaw, an American legal information database, works in German. But I fear that I overwhelmed those poor people. I gave them a lot of information, and by the end we were all pretty much exhausted. Commuting to Munich from Augsburg is relatively easy (45 minutes on the regional train in each direction), but we also had to go on the subway to the library school from the train station. I don't know if I could do that commute every day - it was fairly exhausting.

I will do a shorter version of this training (2 hours) at the university here in Augsburg next week, mainly for law students. They crave information about Westlaw. I do have to balance giving them the information they want, but also give them enough background information about American law to make it useful to them. This is a hard balance to strike. I think I will get better at it as I go along.

Culture

It is always fun to drop myself into German life and see what's up after many years away.

Lately, the buzz in Augsburg has been about the city's soccer club (in German, sorry), which, for the first time in its 104-year history, is being promoted to the first division of the German Bundesliga. The people here are beside themselves about this development.

The other big soccer story is that Borussia Dortmund are the champions of the premiere division in the Bundesliga this year. When I lived in Germany in 1996, Borussia won that year as well. They televised the celebration from Dortmund over the weekend. I think there are quite a few footballers and fans that got very little sleep and were feeling quite hungover by Monday morning, from the looks of the party up there.

The big "cultural" event that took place last weekend was the Eurovision Song Contest. I don't have a point of comparison for this extravaganza. I have never seen American Idol (I know) but I'm thinking it might be something like the American Idol competition, but for European countries. The winners of this year's contest, which took place in the soccer stadium in the German city of Duesseldorf, was the group from Azerbaijan. They were okay, but I preferred the girl from Austria, and the guy from Russia.

Never mind. This contest is all about the competition between the countries and not the quality of the singing. People can text in their votes during the show, but they can't vote for the competitor from their own country. So you know that the Scandinavian countries are going to vote for each other, and that all of Portugal's votes will go to Spain, and San Marino's to Italy, etc. There was also a lot of Eastern European countries sticking together in the voting. I enjoyed hearing the voting results more than watching the songs, to be honest.

Conclusion (for now)...

Well, I think that's enough for today. There are still plenty of things to talk about, but I will be back again. Sorry it was so long between posts.

World Championship Hockey in Slovakia

The post about the whirlwind trip I just got back from could be a whole book...I'll try to keep it short.

Last month, I bought tickets for 2 matches at the Ice Hockey World Championships, which are currently being held in Slovakia. This past weekend, I took a train out to Bratislava to attend the games.

The strangest thing happened before the trip even started, and the trip really was thisclose to not happening. I was scheduled to take a 6:30am train out of Augsburg on Saturday morning, which would allow me to arrive in Bratislava by around 1:30pm that day (travelling through Munich and Vienna). That meant that I really needed to be up by about 4:30, in order to catch the 6:11 tram to the train station in Augsburg. I THOUGHT I set my new alarm clock correctly. As you can guess, however...I didn't. I woke up on my own at 6:00am, and then panic commenced. I grabbed my stuff, which I had luckily packed the night before, and ran out of my apartment, encouraged over the phone by Ali, who was looking at a map and telling me the quickest way to get to the train station. Luckily, the third cab that came by as I was speed walking Ali's route ended up stopping for me, and I made it to the train station with about 2 minutes to spare - unshowered, with my makeup bag left behind in my apartment. Those who know me well know that this was a hellish state to find myself in - I rarely go out without a shower or makeup, unless I'm going to play hockey. Oh well, at least I was on the train and on my way.

Once I made it to Bratislava, I took a taxi to my hotel, the Junior Hotel. This place is a serious relic, and it probably has not been updated since Communism. Here was my hotel room:



Among the several eastern European delights that this room had to offer:

• No shower curtain or door - just a nozzle on a raised platform in the bathroom


• 13" TV that got 4 channels


• ONE light in the whole room - a 40-watt bulb inside a frosted glass wall sconce


• No hair dryer (uh-oh, guess what else was left in my apartment?)

Never mind. I was there to see some hockey, and I was willing to pay almost 100 euros for one night at this place (breakfast included at least) because it was less than a 1-kilometer walk to the hockey arena. Of course, I did not figure out the proper way to go the first time I walked there and back (to and from the first game), and got so lost I had to call Ali at home to ask him if he could figure out where I was. Yes, if Ali had not been so available to take my calls and give me directions, this trip would have been impossible. Although I was grateful, this also made me feel kind of lonely and sad to be all on my own over there.

Bratislava has a newly-remodeled hockey arena, which holds about 10,000 spectators. It is beautiful and pristine. The smartest policy they implemented (and one that I wish every hockey arena would adopt) is that you cannot take food or drinks to your seat - you have to eat and drink in the "snack area." This is brilliant. Not only do you run no risk of having beer spilled on you, but I think it also seriously reduces fan drunkenness, since they have to wait at least a half hour between beers.

The early game that I saw was Germany vs. Denmark. I was surprised by how good Denmark was - they actually ended up winning in a shootout. Most of the fans who were there were actually Slovak fans, because this was the qualification round game for the winner of the group that Slovakia was in. Unfortunately for the fans, Germany won that group and Slovakia was third. That meant that Slovakia would play in the game that evening, against Finland.

After the Germany game, I decided to walk back to the hotel while it was still light to make sure I knew the way. That was when I got very lost. I was afraid I wouldn't make it back to the arena in time, and was in general pretty miserable. I hadn't eaten much that day, and after the stress of the morning and the long train journey, I was cranky and exhausted. I actually considered blowing off watching the Slovakia game live and just watching it at the hotel. However, I decided I had come that far, and I needed to just persevere and head back to the arena.

As I made it my seat, I was faced with this sight, which made all the pain and struggle of the day totally worth it:



I think my favorite player, Michal Handzus, stayed out in the warmup to the very end, which is when I arrived, just for me. At least I like to think that. My seat was 10 rows up, directly behind the Slovak net.

Even before the game started, I realized that I was witness to a very special event. Slovak hockey fans are some of the loudest and most passionate I have ever seen. They sing, they chant, they scream, and they wave flags - pretty much the whole time. Most of my favorite hockey players over the years have been Slovak, and many of them were playing in this game, in addition to Handzus, including Richard Zednik, Miroslav Satan, Pavol Demitra, Josef Stumpel, Lubomir Vishnovsky, and Marian Hossa. All that were missing were Zdeno Chara (still playing for Boston in the NHL playoffs) and Ziggy Palffy. Anyway, to get see the Slovak team play in Slovakia's capital in front of their home fans - I've never been to a game like that, and I probably never will again.

Unfortunately, the Slovaks couldn't hold on to the 1-0 lead they took into the 3rd period, and they lost to Finland 2-1. It was almost physically painful for me to take this picture at the end of the game...



To me, it sums up just how important this tournament was to these guys. They sacrificed a lot to play in front of their home fans and wanted to do well for them. Since I'm not Slovak, I have a relatively outsider's point of view of the whole thing, and I was just gutted for them.

However, I have to say that the most pleasant surprise of the whole weekend were the Slovak fans themselves. They were on their absolute best behavior the whole time. Many of the Slovak fans at the game were couples and families with young children, and they were joyous without being out of control. In fact, I did not see one rowdy drunk among them, and I was prepared to. To be honest, the Finnish fans were more obnoxious than the Slovak fans were. There were a lot of Finnish fans at my hotel, and I was really put off by how hammered they all were.

So that's the main story about my trip to Bratislava. The train ride back seemed like it would never end, but eventually I made it back to Augsburg and my apartment. I will never forget the Slovak adventure that almost didn't happen, and I'm glad I forged ahead when things got rough for me. Now it's time to get to work...

The first 24...

Since I just got internet access in my apartment, I am only now doing my first blog post from Germany! This post actually has two parts...

Written on the train to Augsburg (Wednesday, May 4)

I arrived in Germany relatively problem-free. For the first time ever, I was on a plane with an all-female flight crew (including the pilot and the co-pilot) from Burbank to Dallas. You go girls! The flight from Dallas was long but that flight is always long. I did manage to sleep for much of the "night," such as it was in the plane. I also watched a bit of one of the Shrek movies (don't know which one) in German. Dubbing bothers me unless the show is animated, so I am glad that movie is a cartoon.

It was actually at the train station at the Frankfurt airport that I had my first transportation snafu during this trip. I have been travelling to Europe for 20 years, and today was the first day that I actually got on the wrong train. There were a few reasons for this - the train I was supposed to get on was late, and the next train on that platform showed up. I was also so worried about my heavy bag that I didn't even think that it might be the wrong train as I was getting on it. I finally realized this after it had already left.

Fortunately, neither my German skills nor the nicest train conductor likely in the history of the Deutsche Bahn failed me when I tried to rectify the situation. I explained to him what I'd done and that I'd been travelling for 20 hours from California and was tired, plus that I had never made that error in all the years I had been travelling in Germany, and he said it was totally fine and that another man had done the same thing. Then he sat down with me and worked out another connection, so that I can still make it to Augsburg not too much later than I'd planned to. He wrote an explanation on my ticket for the next conductor, and he told me I did not have to pay any extra. HOORAY for the Deutsche Bahn.

So now I can really enjoy the train ride. My word, Bavaria is as lovely as I remember it being. How have I managed to stay away from here for so long? The yellow flower fields are in full bloom like they are every spring. I am very happy to be here, and thrilled that I could work out the train problem without reverting to English. The train is passing through Wuerzburg while I'm writing this. What a gorgeous city! I am excited to be spending a week here at the end of June. South of the train station are hills filled with grape vines, and people are working on them. I wonder if they grow wine here - if they do of course I will have to try it.

I'm supposed to be in the "quiet car" of the train, where people aren't supposed to be using cell phones. However, an African lady near me is yelling at someone on her phone in a language that doesn't sound like anything I've heard before. Her young daughter is with her, and she looks embarrassed by her mother. Some things are universal.

I put my German sim card in my Blackberry - I can receive and send texts, and receive calls but not make them. I'm not sure why that is. Between a combination of texting and email I was able to get in touch with the two people who are meeting me at the train in Augsburg to let them know what's up. You can buy wireless access on the train and at the train station through Deutsche Telekom, which I did. And again I ask myself - what did we do before cell phones and internet? We missed a lot of appointments, that's for sure.

In my apartment (Thursday, May 5)

I am settled into my apartment after a whirlwind 2 days. I think I found the cure for jet-lag - make yourself as tired as possible by running around and carrying a crapload of heavy stuff, and then drink a big beer. I fell asleep last night at 11pm and slept straight through until 7:30am this morning. It was unbelievable. I have never slept that well upon first arriving in Germany. Hopefully I can keep that going.

Today, I walked to the Augsburg city center, which is about 1/2 an hour away. Someone waved a magic nice-weather wand over Germany, because it is about 70 degrees and sunny. I bought a FONIC surf-stick, which is a very cool invention. It's a memory stick with an SMS card in it, and all you need to do is plug it into the computer to have internet access wherever you are. No long term contracts required. You are charged per day, maximum of 25 Euros a month. This is very good. It has worked well with doing basic Internet stuff, but I haven't tried Skyping yet. We'll see how the bandwith does for that.

I am settled in here. The apartment is small but very nice - clean, in a well-kept building. It is in a quiet area of town - I can hear lots of birds singing through my open window. It has the smallest shower I have ever seen. I miss my big walk-in at home, with the huge shower-head! You have to go through this whole process to check in at the apartment, including checking every item of the inventory off on a list, down to the spoons in the drawer. This is actually okay, because the check-in was also a real orientation, with information about how things work around here. I appreciated that very much. There's nothing like being handed the keys to an apartment over here and being left to your own devices, only to not even be able to figure out how the key works so you can get in (if that sounds like it's happened to me before...it has). More information is always better than less.

Coming to Augsburg has been a time-warp experience for me. It really hasn't changed very much since I was here 5 years ago. I remember where everything is, and so far I have not gotten lost or turned around. Shopping, eating, etc. is also all the same. However, if you're away for a while, you do forget certain things about Germany. For example, just try to get by here with only a credit card. You can't. Cash is still used widely, as are bank debit cards that don't have a credit capability. If you don't have either, you will be in trouble.

One thing that's interesting is that I think people here are heavier than they were 5 years ago. An American-like physique used to be the exception among young people here, but I don't think that's true anymore. The fast food and snacking are catching up with the kids. It makes me sad.

Bon Voyage!

We had a wonderful barbecue at our house on Saturday with some close friends. It was wonderful to get to see everyone before leaving. My dear friend Jessica baked a cake.



Now I'm just packing (actually trying to not overpack) and preparing - it's a nervous time for me. I'm not the world's best flier. However, if those special operations guys can fly into Pakistan and take out Osama Bin Laden, then I can muster up the courage to get on a plane and fly to Germany, for heaven's sake. By the way? I am one proud American today. Thank goodness we have those guys on our side.

I've had some wonderful messages from friends in Germany, all of whom are looking forward to seeing me back there after so many years. I am the luckiest, most blessed person. And I'm ready to go over there and rock this!