Coping with the Weather in Hamburg

I stayed inside this day.

In honor of my six-month anniversary of "splurging" on a second winter coat, I can firmly say it was well worth it because I am still wearing it! SIX MONTHS! 

I wrote this with another intent, but it hasn't been used yet, so I would like to share it with you!

Here's hoping for a non-cold May...

While Hamburg is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve seen, the weather can really make or break your day. After experiencing the wettest and most pale 1.5 years of my life, this Chicago girl has it down to two major tips for surviving the weather: be prepared and embrace it.

• RegenRadar is a free app for Android and iPhones. This service will show you any precipitation that may be heading your way. It refreshes in 15-minute increments, so if you suddenly notice a big, blue blob of rain coming your way, run for cover! You can also check the radar via the computer: http://www.wetteronline.de/radar.htm.
  
• Boots are both practical and fashionable. They offer protection from the elements while complementing your skinny jeans. Any type of closed shoe, and probably a flat shoe if you don’t travel by car, will serve you well between October and April. A pair of rain boots is also a justifiable expense.
  
• Coats are essential and you can never have too many. Hamburg weather will make sure you get your moneys worth. My spring coat turned into a summer and fall coat. My winter coat lining ripped days into its second season due to so much action. Because you’ll be spending so much time in a coat, don’t be afraid to go for a bold color or to splurge a little. I’ve starting spending more on coats and buying fewer clothes because I spend so much more time in a coat!
  
• Umbrellas are an accessory you just need to get used to carrying. The weather can change from the time you peek out your fifth story walk-up until you reach the street. You’ll need a sturdy German umbrella. I broke my first umbrella on day three. I recommend carrying a small umbrella in your purse at all times. Opt for the heavy duty large umbrella only when you really need it.
  
• Scarves are similar to boots in that they are both functional and stylish. A scarf can jazz up your outfit, but it can also protect your blow-dried hair from a misty rain or keep your shoulders warm after the sun sets on a summer night. If you get warm, you can always tie it to your purse and stuff it inside without extra bulkiness or weight.
  
• Plans should be made, but not too far in advance. I am a big planner, but I’ve learned that the weather doesn’t respect one’s datebook. If you want to plan a picnic or an outing to the zoo, it’s best to wait until a few days before the event before you firm up your plans — unless they are taking place inside. But a Plan B will never hurt.
  
• Spontaneity is also important, however. When the Alster Lake freezes, it take only a couple of days for one million people to gather for the Alstervergnügen to celebrate the frozen lake. If you peek outside your window and see the sun, take a break from studying or use your lunch hour to get at least 15 minutes of sunlight.
  
• Favorite destinations are a must whether you frequent them planned or spontaneously. Perhaps a bike ride around the Alster, a visit to Planten un Blomen, or meeting a friend for Kaffee und Kuchen at your regular café. On cold or rainy days, it will force you to go outside, and on warm and sunny days it will give you a comforting place to idle away the time before you have to return home.
  

Noah's Ark is currently docked in Hamburg.

Photo source

Over the weekend, while taking the standard ferry harbor trip with visitors, we noticed an ark. Noah's ark.  Apparently it is a type of floating amusement park which is in town for Kirchentagen and the 824th Hafenburtstag.

http://www.diearchenoah.com

The ark itself is 70 meters long and 13 meters high. There is also a restaurant and wooden statues.

A visit will set you back 14,50 EUR for adults and 8,50 EUR for children.

I think I've seen enough.

http://www.bild.de/regional/hamburg/evangelische-kirche/arche-noah-in-hamburg-festgemacht-30173698.bild.html

Random Act of Poetry

Happy Poetry Month!

Here's my random act of poetry for 2013. (Here's 2012's in case you want a refresher. Also, I can't remember if it's supposed to be an act or an attack? This year I will stick with act given what we've all experienced this week.) This year I'm sharing two poems I wrote back in college inspired (and fictionalized...) by high school events.

Babe the Fetal Pig

He watched her twirl reddish-brown
hair around her French-tipped fingers until Ms. Jackson set
the limp fetus on their lab table.
It looked so peaceful--
he hated to rearrange the
insides, but she dug
right in. His gaze turned
from her to the blue veins and red,
sure to cut
with precision. A dangerous combination
of hormones and scalpels. Extra credit
for removing the brain the quickest, no
cracks. He didn't need the extra points,
but she needed to preserve perfection.
She ripped out the large intestine, placed it in his exposed
palm and walked away from him until it
was completely unrolled. He wanted her to feel
something when it didn't fit back inside.
Maybe that's why it hurt so
much when she sliced
the heart, squirting formaldehyde
into his rose-flecked eye.

Early Morning Scrimmages

Boys always the captains,

Girls always chosen last.

Shirts versus skins,

We girls played out hearts out,

Wanting the glory of a win.

Then he was coming straight at me.

Faked left -- I didn't buy it.

Faked again -- I didn't back away.

But went hard for the ball

And knocked him over,

Making sure I stepped on his sore ankle.

All he could do was watch

As I took the ball and scored.

Oh the grin on his face.

I think he liked me too.

Thanks for reading :) I'm waiting to be struck with new inspiration.

Die lange Nacht der Museen | Hamburg 2013

Last Saturday was Die lange Nacht deer Museen (Long Night of the Museums). For €12,00 (€8 for students) you could visit 53 museums between 18:00 and 02:00. The ticket also included transportation and was even valid for the following Sunday.

I missed last year's Hamburg affair, but had participated in Vienna, so this was definitely on my 2013 to-do list.

When I bought my ticket earlier that week, this is how the conversation went (in German of course):

Me: I'd like to buy one ticket, please.
Lady: A student ticket?
Me: No.
Lady: Are you sure?
Me: Yep, I'm sure.
Lady: OK...

I probably should have just gone for it and said I was a student, but I figured someone would ask for an ID at some point (no one ever did).

To be honest, I've never been that interested or intrigued by the selection of museums in Hamburg. That's why I had been to only one of the museums on the list: Miniatur Wunderland. As a seasoned traveler of Europe snob, they just don't really compare to what other cities have to offer.

However, for me, the point of visiting multiple museums in one night is more about the overall experience as opposed to making major cultural advances in oneself.

Yvonne, Kristi, and I started at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (art and industry). We wanted to see the Pixar exhibit that we've seen advertised for the last four months. We were not alone. After battling through a bit of a Pixar crowd, we moved on to the rest of the exhibits. We focused on instruments, Islam, and samurai.

Next, we walked over to the Rathaus (city hall). You can always enter the main part of the building, but beyond that you have to pay extra. Before heading to the large and golden rooms, we watched the Rathauschor (city hall choir) perform a concert. They mostly sang Beetles songs (it took me a while to notice...), so we decided to leave before they ruined any more songs for us.

Then, we walked over to Hafen City near the harbor with the Internationales Maritimes Museum which looks spectacular lit up at night. But before entering we were drawn to the sound of some eclectic music. Kristi took a video of the guy who after some impressive Internet research turns out to be Konrad Kuechenmeister. The weather was turning chilly, so he had to disband and move inside.

We took this opportunity to begin our maritime adventure -- which included pirates! The inside of the museum gave the feel of being on a ship. There were ship models, various uniforms, weapons, and fascinating tales from sea life. Promptly at 10pm, the pirates started singing. German pirates basically sing in English, in case you were wondering. But we danced and clapped along side them.

At this point, we were all hungry, so we had to make a necessary food stop. Getting off of our feet was also desperately needed. It was 11:30p, when we finished and we decided to forge on to one last museum which was in the direction of our three separate homes. Luckily for me, it was the Museum für Völkerkunde (ethnology, which is branch of anthropology). This museum has eluded me for a year and a half. I've walked past it so many times, with minimal curiosity, but never enough to actually go inside.

Before heading in, we caught a fire show by the entrance. I was impressed, but mostly concerned for the two girls' hair. It all ended well though. Inside, we saw a Native American and a Samoan exhibit. We ended the evening with our shoes off relaxing in a rauru.

I was home in bed by 1:30 with throbbing feet and my cultural itch scratched.

My friend Kristi also blogged about the night for the The Vancouver Sun.

Waking up to tragic news.

Every night when I go to bed, I feel a glimmer of Christmas Eve-esque excitement because I know I'll wake up to a full inbox and lots of new Facebook posts. When I wake up, I check my phone quickly for any priority news and save the rest until I get to a computer. Sometimes I wake up to news of an engagement or photos of a new puppy. Sometimes it's an embarrassing video or post that's been circulating on Facebook while I slept peacefully, but sometimes it's news of a real tragedy.

I feel extra helpless at times like this when I am so far removed from America. However, it's comforting to know that the Germans show just as much concern for what happened.

This weekend is the Hamburg Marathon and I hope the runners and spectators will run and cheer with pride and without hesitation.

Happily Ever After

Once upon a time, we were closing Disney Princess books to go to the printer. This particular project includes eight different stories from eight different princesses and I noticed that nearly all of them ended with a peculiar phrase:

Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, dann leben sie noch heute.

This loosly translates to, "And if they haven't died, then they are still living today."

And there's the German version of living happily every after.

The most exciting end to a soccer game I've ever seen.

Photo source

Last night, I was (easily) convinced to skip yoga and meet my German to watch his team in play in the quarter finals of the Champion's League. Borussia Dortmund played Málaga last week in a 0-0 draw. It meant that Dortmund needed to win this game by one goal to advance to the semis. Apparently away goals count more than home goals and Dortmund was the home team. Despite knowing everything there is to know about soccer, I am still a novice when it comes to German and European league play.

Málaga went up 1-0 fairly quickly despite Dortmund controlling most of the game and ball possession. Dortmund tied it up just going into half time.

With 8 minutes left in the game, after Málaga regained the lead, the room went silent. Two minutes later, everyone turned to look when a woman yelled "Scheiße!" after returning from the restroom to see the new score. I'm not sure why she went to the bathroom with 8 minutes left!

I asked my German if he thought they could still score two goals. He said yes. I was skeptical. The ref signaled for 4 minutes of stoppage time.

Less than a minute in, Reus scored! It was 2-2. I started to think, oh man--too little, too late. But another minute later, they scored again. I have never seen anything like it. I heard glasses of beer topple to the floor and lots of, "Ist das geil?!" (How cool is that?!)

And just like that, Dortmund advances to the semis for the first time in 15 years. Here's a video with the highlights.

Moral of the story: Don't stop playing until the whistle blows...and sometimes it's ok to skip working out for a major sporting event.

P.S. That's Marco Reus up there. He plays for Dortmund and the German national team. He has nice hair.

Connecting vs. Comparing

Lately, a lot of conversations have turned toward talk of Facebook and the ongoing love-hate relationship. And I'm not the only one bringing it up! I happened to come across this article, posted by a Facebook "friend" who is hidden from my main feed ironically, which really articulated some of my feelings.

There's a fine line with Facebook which can still put you over the edge even when you're happy and fulfilled (which I consider myself to be). It's not a jealousy thing, just an in-your-face thing.

Based on this quote, I also have to offer an aplogy:

"But it only takes one friend at the Eiffel Tower to make you feel like a loser."

Oops?

Maybe this is why I've been posting less and been less active overall? To a lot of people my current life seems fun and glamorous and they associate my living abroad with being on vacation. It's not. I vacuum, go grocery shopping, exercise, and pine away for my family. But no one wants to see those things in their news feed.

Which reminds me, thank you for reading my blog without a Facebook reminder :)

Too Bad I Didn't Study French

The second week of March, I packed my bags for a week in France. It was a business trip with some personal fun tacked on to the end. I spent a few weeks preparing training materials with my colleagues so I could go to our brand new French office to help train some new employees and mold them in my perfection get them started on the right foot.

At first I thought the trip might be scheduled for February, which would have only made sense since I've been to France twice before and both times were in the shortest month of the year. I spent a week in Paris back in 2004 and conquered Disneyland Paris in 2007. When I made my travel list after coming to Hamburg, "France (not Paris!)" made the top five.

Lucky for me, the French office was opened just outside of Paris in Burgundy. I was prepared to do the training and come home, but I was persuaded to extend my stay into the weekend since I had to go through Paris anyway. I have a lot of people living vicariously through me, so I had to step it up. There were no immediate travel partners due to conflicts and lack of interest, so I did something I hardly ever do -- I posted on Facebook to see if anyone would be around. Yes, I have the sort of Facebook circle that this is legit and accepted. Within minutes, one of my best friends from college, said she was interested. I thought she was crazy...she lives in Chicago! The next day our flights were booked. Talk about spontaneous. (Tip: there are some really sweet Air France deals from Germany.)

Fast forward to March and I really wished I knew French. I actually have a Parisian friend in Hamburg (yes, we speak German together and it's awesome), so I asked him to teach me some words. I retained about 3% of what he taught me, but it was still helpful.

Together with one of my UK colleagues, we traveled an hour by train from Paris to reach the office. The office is actually a house. How many offices have you seen with a bathtub? The first two workdays were 11 hours long and by the end of Day 2 I thought I was going to pass out from cheese overdose induced exhaustion.

I also clearly stuck out in this village of 5,000. The kind of village where everyone knew everyone and no one knew me. A lot of times people spoke a few words of English to me and my colleagues would go, "Oh look, how sweet, they are trying to talk to you!" At lunch one day, I was sitting in direct sunlight that required me to pull out my shades. That really increased the staring. Plus, at least three different servers came to our table over the course of the meal. Maybe they thought I was famous?

Side note: I was literally the only one who didn't know a lick of French as my two UK colleagues knew a bit. At least it's probably fair to say I spoke the best German...or at least tied with the multilingual head of the French office!

I rallied and made it to Friday evening. It was one of those Fridays where I wanted nothing more than to put on yoga pants and just stare at TV-set with my sweetheart. But, yet again, I knew I had to rally for Erica's sake.

However, the second I entered the hotel lobby, after a train ride where I struggled to find my seat and a short walk in the rain, I couldn't help but get excited when I saw E's smiling face. Between the two of us, we had accumulated enough tips and recommendations for two months in Paris -- let alone two days. We walked our butts off, ate standard French food, and hit all of the classic must-sees. Plus, we were so lucky to experience 17°C (62°F) on the Saturday. It was surreal and made Sunday that much worse ;)

You're probably familiar with all of the classic sights, so I'll just talk about food. Everyone warned me that French food is very expensive. Well, it can be. There's a place where you can order a 900 EUR duck. I can only imagine how much the bottles of wine go for! However, they have a really menu option at most typical restaurants. On average, for between 20-60 EUR (cheaper for lunch) you can choose from a set menu. You can choose almost any combination of starter + main course + dessert.

We decided to have one "fancy dinner" and we wanted to do it menu-style. FYI, a lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays! Stores I understand, but restaurants...not so much. We found a place by the Bastille with a 36 EUR menu. This included: an Apéritif, a starter, a main course, cheese course, dessert, and a 1/2 bottle of wine. Pretty wonderful if you ask me.

I was pretty set on wanting escargot, but didn't see it on the menu. I asked, and after a conversation I didn't understand, I ended up with oysters. I didn't mind as I was sure I had eaten them before. But, once they came, I completely forgot how to eat them. So, I asked. I discovered that if you smile big enough a team of male waiters will do whatever they can to help. The oysters also came with a red-wine vinaigrette and shallots mixture which was delightful. Fish was my main course, don't even ask what kind, I couldn't tell you. E went with foie gras and duck.

When they cleared our dishes, and we tried to catch up on wine consumption (too much talking!), I was confused when they came to the table with more plates. Maybe we placed our dessert orders without my knowledge? No, it was the cheese course. We looked at each other and wordlessly recounted our extra cheesy lunch. "We'll just take one plate, please!" "Just one?!?!" We took a sampling of each of the cheeses to share. After a couple glasses of wine, they were all pretty tasty, even the moldy ones.

For dessert, we took a creme brulee and an assortment of ice-cream to share. It was one of the best dinner experiences ever. We didn't want to go home, so we popped over to a bar for a nightcap.

Best Line: "Are you meeting your lover??" Asked by one of my French colleagues when she found out I was Paris-bound for the weekend. No...even better! A BFF!

Delicacies consumed through my stay: foie gras, duck, bread, French-onion soup, cheese, escargot, oysters, white wine, red wine, cheese, epoisses (cheese!), more cheese, Perrier, bread, crépes, champagne, croissant, macaroons, creme brulee, profiteroles, ice cream, café gourmet (basically a sampler platter of five small desserts with coffee -- clearly I gave that away!), and many other things that I either couldn't pronounce, and therefore remember, and things that I didn't even know what I was eating. I also had fish and pizza, but that's less exciting. Oh, and also cheese.

Best Splurge: Champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower, after waiting 2.5 hours even though we paid to "skip the line". Sometimes it's nice to have a friend who encourages splurging when you easily would have passed.

Number of times I spilled on myself or was spilled on (all in business attire): 4

Number of times I used the men's room by mistake: 1

SMC Chick rings in front of Notre Dame, naturally.

Truth.Beauty.Freedom.Love.