things stricklans do: books

Apparently, some Stricklans can go nowhere without collecting books.  Besides bringing several with us, Catherine and I have collected the following library while in Europe:

We have good reasons for each and every one of these, from "It's hard to find books in Russian even on Amazon for as cheap as these!" to "But we need a German dictionary, not just a translation dictionary, because I'm going to have to learn German for grad school anyway!" to "Yeah, but you need something in English to read when you're tired of doing your homework in German."  We really do.  Really.

It could be worse.  At least we don't collect troll dolls or cats or something.

things germans do, episode 3: der Romantik

Germans do Romanticism.  And by Romanticism, I mean the artistic and intellectual tradition, not so much the PDA thing (which, it appears, Germans do not do--at least not as often as Russians...)  This is the venerable Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  He was one of the first and most famous Romantics.  He was also German, and given the following evidence, I suspect those two facts are closely connected.

An older Goethe, who actually was trying to move past Romanticism.  Too bad for him everyone else still loved it to pieces.  Picture via Wikimedia.

The little biography of him that I bought tells me that his first great success, The Sorrows of Young Worther, was inspired by the angsty experiences he suffered as a young man when the pretty wife of his friend wouldn't pay him any attention.  Worther killed himself.  Goethe didn't.  That's good, because he served as the catalyst for a whole generation of poets and artists to find their inspiration beyond Enlightenment rationality--in emotion, in epic heroes, and in landscapes like this one:

things germans do special edition: das Einrad

Germans do halfbikes, too.  It appears that German enthusiasm for bicycles has mutated and produced a whole family of unicyclists in our building somewhere!

Not to mention scooterists and rollerbladerists.  And apparently a spatula.

They've been sitting there since we came, unmoving, forlorn... I wonder if the owners go around each other in circles while juggling bowling pins and flaming torches when they ride their one-wheels.  I wonder if they would notice if I took one out for a spin.

things germans do, episode 2: das Brot

Germans do bread, and they do it well.  Very well.  After a few weeks of silly ignorance, we finally bought a loaf of the good stuff, and we quickly found out why Germans will eat it at every meal.

things germans do, episode 1: die Fahrräder

Germans do bikes.  A lot.  Everywhere.  Or at least Tübingen Germans do, although I'm sure it's like this in a lot of places.  In front of the doctor's office, for example, you see where the patients have all tied up their horses--oh, I mean bikes--before moseying in for their check-up:

Giddyap, German pony!

Keep in mind this is the clinic, so I assume all of these people believe there might be something wrong with them.  And yet the bicycle is their conveyance to the cure.

But that's not all.  Apparently, even if you're leaving town, your bike is the way to go.  Behold the German equivalent of the airport parking lot (with free parking!):

o baby godzilla, full of grace

One of the things we find ourselves doing evenings here (since the modern world provides us with so much leisure time!) is watching German TV.  More accurately, Catherine watches German TV while I do something else, because I can't understand too much of it.  Unless, of course, she finds something that needs no translation. Like Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.  That one can pretty much speak for itself.  In fact, it might be even better if I don't know what they're saying.  Just take a minute and a half and see what I mean:

just yesterday's dream

Here's NASA's image of the day for On September 18, 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft paused in its mission to the stars to take this composite photograph. It was the first photograph in human history that pictured both the Earth and the Moon together but outside the orbit of either. It represented the triumph of human creativity, humility before the breathtaking limitlessness of creation, and the open horizons that lay before us.

Voyager 1 photograph, courtesy NASA.gov's "Image of the Day."

Voyager 1 is still going, and still sending back data. It's taken almost 35 years, but NASA scientists expect that it will pass the border of the solar system into interstellar space at any time this year. At that point, humanity can say that we have extended something of ourselves into the vastness of the universe, that we have made the first tiny steps toward understanding God's infinite grandeur. I suspect, however, that the majority of Americans might not see it that way. Space is boring, I guess, or at least a whole lot less pressing than the daily troubles our government makes for itself.  

But think about what's actually out there!  Think about it: we can have an experience something like Abraham's supreme vision of God's creation!

work when you don't have any

"Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad."

That's from Dostoevsky's prison memoir, Notes from the House of the Dead.  His fellow prisoners found all sorts of ways to keep busy, from moonshine to making shoes to working out deals with the guards to do odd jobs and get a little spending cash.  Others went totally bonkers.  I don't think I'm that far yet, but recent photographs might disagree.  

Oh!  Hi, crazy face!  I'm going to take a step or two back now...

there is only one proper way to eat a pear

In Germany, things are classier.  If they're going to put beans in a can, they're going to spice it (which makes your chili sweet and your garbanzo beans suitable pretty much only for eating on their own.)  And these are not simple "green beans."  No!  These are princess beans!  

And they come in a can with a pull tab.  Because they're fancy.  Like a Mercedes.  And because Germans like their stuff fancy, it's hard to find a simple white sauce.  There's three cheese, and carbonara, and all sorts of other flavored sauces, but apparently humble white sauce can only hide under the edge of the shelf by its lonesome because it's not fancy enough for Germans.  But what if you want to make your own pepper-and-chili-white-sauce?

i about burned my retinas trying to get this shot

I took about a dozen pictures to try to get this, and as it turns out, the first one was by far the best.  Turning dials, using special settings, etc., apparently have less effect than luck if you don't actually know how to use your wife's fancy camera.

Oh well.  But I think it turned out all right, considering that no photograph really looks like the original.  Just imagine a cool morning breeze and a couple of thrushes (robins, but not) whistling in the trees:

i'm glad i can write you letters on the internet

I was just chilling, listening to the new Beirut album The Rip Tide (streaming here till it comes out on 30 Aug as a part of NPR Music's First Listen series) when it occurred to me that you might not care for my music very much.  That's OK, though.  I might not care for yours, either--we can still be friends, right?

Sure, this isn't high school, it's a blog, so I think we'll get over a little musical difference of opinion.  We have better reasons to hang out than music.  But it's interesting how you can tell a lot about a person depending on what music they listen to, and how we classify people and groups by different aspects of their "culture," the things they like and don't like.

what to do if you have a skype interview

First of all, DON'T PANIC.

a house is only a home if you can get inside it.

So, for example, if you lock yourself out when taking out the trash, you will have to find another until your wife gets back from class.  But if you can find a nice park bench to sit at  while work on story ideas in your little notebook, you'll hardly feel locked out.  Well, you'll still feel locked out, but it won't be so bad.

the case of the strange soup

Papa always says that writers write.  You may need another blog to read, but really, when has that stopped anyone from writing a blog?  Since Catherine keeps a pretty good blog of our doings over at Her Romantic Mind, I've been hesitant to start one myself, but I think our experiences of Germany are going to be different enough that I'll have something interesting to tell.  I'll be leaving the heavy lifting of a more-or-less chronological narrative to her and focusing instead on more incidental things that might be interesting.

For example, okroshka:

Yes, I'm going to write about soup.  I told you that this blog would be about incidentals, but there's a story attached.  Stay tuned!