groundbreaking...

ladies and gentlemen, etch this day into the history books:

I made a salad today. My first ever. And it was good.

Arugula leaves, with walnuts and feta cheese. Dowsed in my homemade dressing, made of equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil, one clove garlic, salt, mustard and honey.

Yummmm. And amazing enough for its own post.

[Addition: while washing up after eating, I promptly crack my french press. And cut my finger on the pieces. Karma? Well see. But that salad is going to set me back about 15euro, as the french press is my only way of getting my drug of choice into my veins.]

updates

hello all!

it's a wild few weeks coming up in romantic heidelberg. to keep y'all updated:

-Tomorrow is referat (report) number 1/2 for the semester. It's about a play by Ludwig Thoma called "Moral". Written ca 1900, it follows a Sittlichkeitsverein (Ethics Club) as it attempts to squash a scandal involving each member of the club and their visits to a prostitute. I love the enduring quality of the double-moral and hypocrisy. So I need to work through the play and highlight what's funny. Should be fun.

-This week Thursday is the last day of April. Thursday night is Walpurgis Night, the annual pagan celebration of spring. In Heidelberg, hordes of students head to the Thingstätte, an old Nazi ampitheater, to dance and drink the night away until the sun comes up. I've heard it's incredible, and as I've only got one chance I am planning on enjoying it.

-I joined a tennis club recently and the courts are (finally!) open, so I'll start playing. Tennis in Germany works differently than in the US- as far as I know there's no such thing as public courts. You must buy a membership to use courts, but that means there'll generally be no waiting for courts and that the courts are clay, which is nice.

-I get to see a German soccer match! May 9, I'm headed up to see Dortmund play. It's Hanna's favorite team. Which means that Saturday, I'm chearing for Dortmund. Go yellow!

-And the day after, Ben Kweller is popping into romantic Heidelberg to give a little concert. I may have to pop in for a listen.

And so that's my next couple weeks. After that I'm heading to the Bodensee sometime, but I'll let y'all know when I know for sure.

Best,
Alex

that new fad, jogging?

I believe it's jogging, or yogging, it might be a soft j. I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild.


After countless stops and starts, I think it's for real this time. I am jogging regularly! 6 days in a row now, between 20 and 30 minutes each day. I go really slow and not very far, but the best part is that I wake up now and feel like I want to go running. Which is the key- the struggle of getting out and doing it is more than half the battle. And now that my day feels (or would feel) empty without it, I've got to do it and I enjoy it.
It also allows me to see Heidelberg at it's most beautiful. Mornings around 7:30 or 8, it's very quiet and the sun isn't too direct. The river sparkles and I'm alone except for fellow yoggers and my GirlTalk/DaftPunk jams.
Below is a map of the Altstadt or center of Heidelberg: notice the three bridges. I live just south of the middle bridge. Before this new running binge, I would decide (once every two weeks) to go for a run and choose one of two routes- the short route, which would be the circuit of the middle and eastern bridges. The "long" route would be the middle and the western bridges. But today, guess what, I ran from my house, near the middle bridge, over to the east bridge, crossed the river, allll the way to the west bridge, crossed again, and back! Boo yah. It feels great.
Not sure what my goals are, if any. As they say, it's the journey that's the goal.
But really, I want to be able to jog up to the castle, run around the gardens a bit, and walk down. That's a good goal to work towards.

Go Bulls.

food, glorious food!

I live alone. Basically. Though I live with three other people, it operates more like that kind of antisocial floor in a dorm building- that is, bathrooms and kitchen are shared, but the bedrooms have heavy thick doors and we for the most part don't do much together. In 8 months living here we've had dinner together twice. I don't mind this- it's a lifestyle I actually enjoy, as I can live my life the way I like and don't need to work my schedule around eating with 3 other busy adults.
And so when I cook, I cook alone. Which makes things tough- without other mouths to feed, I can generally ignore my rumbling stomach or just toast a slice of bread with cheese on it.
But this year I've made the effort to cook a good meal at least once a week. Here are a few of my go-to's:

Aglio e Olio: Pasta, with oil, garlic, chile sauce. Made it tonight.
Garlic/Lemon/Shrimp Pasta: Pretty self explanatory. Delicious and lemony.
Kartoffelgratin: Kind of a potato casserole, that I learned from the great chef Thorsten.
Knoblauchbutter: Also from the Kitchen of Thorsten, it's just garlic butter. But it's homemade and really, really tasty, leaving you sweating out garlic for days.
Schniztel: I can't make it too often, because it's kind of expensive, but it's delicious. And pretty easy.
Baguette: Can't think of a better name, but it's probably the greatest afternoon snack ever. My kids will love it. It's a baguette, cut in two, with butter, garlic, grilled onions, tomatoes, and cheese, baked in the oven for 10 minutes. Yum.

Note a recurring ingredient in (almost) all the above recipes: yes, it's garlic, and it will be the secret to my longevity.

First Referat is already on Monday, so tonight (and the whole weekend) will most likely be devoted to that. April showers are bringing May flowers and it's really pretty and relaxing.

oh, art.

Bob Dylan in a recent interview:

Q:Say you wake up in a hotel room in Wichita and look out the window.
A little girl is walking along the train tracks dragging a big statue of
Buddha in a wooden wagon with a three-legged dog following
behind. Do you reach for your guitar or your drawing pad?

A:Oh wow. It would depend on a lot of things. The environment mostly; like what
kind of day is it. Is it a cloudless blue-gray sky or does it look like rain? A little
girl dragging a wagon with a statue in it? I’d probably put that in last. The
three-legged dog - what type? A spaniel, a bulldog, a retriever? That would
make a difference. I’d have to think about that. Depends what angle I’m seeing
it all from. Second floor, third floor, eighth floor. I don’t know. Maybe I’d want to
go down there. The train tracks too. I’d have to find a way to connect it all up. I
guess I would be thinking about if this was an omen or a harbinger of something.

Here's the whole interview.

good friday thoughts

Today is the saddest day of the Catholic calendar, but it couldn't have been more beautiful. It's the 8th or 9th perfect day in a row, weather wise. The trees have taken note and are awakening, the birds are real loud, and love is in the air- yesterday in the Schlossgarten I kept being distracted form my reading by the wild amount of ladybug lovemaking going on next to me. Was it rude to watch?
But the beauty and romanticism of Heidelberg has literally reached fairy-tale levels. The only thing that snapped me out of the trance yesterday at the castle were the American jet-fighters zooming overhead, returning from the desert. But as it's silly beauty increases, so does its choking volume of annoying American and Japanese tourists, so I guess there's no real net gain in coolness. But I've found some quiet spots and am not doubting the possibilities for this semester.
I was lucky enough to attend a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion today in the Heiliggeistkirche. I sang the piece with the Chicago Chorale last year, and it was by far the most rewarding and enjoyable choral work I've had the pleasure of performing. The piece is incredibly demanding, for everyone involved, including the audience- 3.5 hrs in uncomfortable church pews, being told arguably the most heartbreaking story every told. Luckily it is hauntingly beautiful and powerful. The performance today was good, but not great. Granted I payed only 8 euro for the super-nose-bleed seats, in the back of the church and at the very top, with only a view to the other side of the church. I thought a few times that the acoustics would be better in a cafe outside of the church, but you get what you pay for. My critique is short and unprofessional, as I really only know the piece from the choir stands. But it seemed that the director simply was not aware of its gravitas. I think the main strength of our Chorale performance (under the brilliant Bruce Tammen) was the fact that Bruce was fully aware of how beautiful the notes Bach wrote are, and that their beauty must be given air to breathe in and pauses in which to bloom. Today's performance seemed to rush through, trusting that its audience already knew its beauty and haunting story. We all know the story, and thats exactly why we enjoy the self-aware, almost egotistical dramatic pauses. It's comfortingly heartwrenching. For example, after Jesus dies the Evangelist (narrator) describes the curtain in the temple tearing in two and the storms raging above. The chorus, or the crowd, then exclaims: "Wahrlich, dieser ist Gottes Sohn gewesen." [Truly, this was the Son of God.] With Bruce, we took our time on this and truly dug into the regret and pain that this line entails, coming from the crowd which moments earlier cried for his execution. Today this seemed a sidenote- blink and you missed it. Let us have our moment of Catholic guilt!
Also lacking today was the absolutely sublime Bass aria, called "Komm, süßes Kreuz" [Come, sweet Cross. Starts at 1:38 in this clip]. Accompanied by a searching, swirling viola da gamba, the soloist begs Jesus to allow him to help him carry his cross. It was omitted today, sadly.
I hope to attend (or sing) a performance of the St Matthew Passion each year. I've got two in a row now.
Tomorrow I'm headed to Köln for Easter. It's always good to see the relatives- they're always so kind and generous, and home cooking sounds wonderful.

I wish everyone a happy and comfortable Easter weekend.

Love, Al.

first grades back

Writes Professor Dr. Rösch:

"Herr Meyer, Ihre Arbeit ist inspirierend und gut strukturiert. Sie zeigen die
Themen des Textes und die dahinter verborgenen Assoziationen. Die
Argumentation leuchtet ein. Besonders freut mich Ihre fluessige und
idiomatisch korrekte Darstellungsweise. Die Forschungsliteratur haben
Sie knapp, aber gut ausgewertet. An einigen Stellen fehlen die konkreten
Belege Ihrer Informationen, aber das mindert nicht die analytische
Leistung dieser Arbeit, die zu lesen ein Vergnuegen ist.
Daher eine sehr gute Leistung (1,0).
Ich gratuliere Ihnen zu Ihren hier sichtbaren Studienfortschritten."

booyah.

[Update: Translation:
Mr Meyer: Your essay is inspired and well structured. You clearly show the themes of the text as well as the associations hidden behind it. The argumentation is plausible and easily followed. I am especially pleased with your fluid and idiomatically correct manner of representation. The secondary literature is short, but well read and employed. At some points the specific sources of your ideas are missing, but that doesn't lessen the analytical accomplishments of the paper, which was a joy to read. Therefore your grade is 1.0 [The German scale is 1-5, 1 being the highest possible]. I congratulate you on the obvious progress in your studies.]

listening to: Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix from Pheonix

thursday nights

It's a night at the desk tonight- I've got 350 pages to read for Monday. I missed this.
After spending half an hour wondering how to combine eggs and noodles, I've decided to leave the noodles uncooked for another evening. They won't go bad.

Listening to an iTunes library of 9500 songs on shuffle can be rewarding but dangerous:

1. If you're feeling sinister, Belle & Sebastian
2. A minor incident, Badly Drawn Boy
3. Driving in the dark, Saves the Day
4. Lowercase west thomas, The Get Up Kids
5. Cicatriz E.S.P, The Mars Volta
6. Italo, Anathallo
7. It's only love, the Beatles
8. Climbing texas, Belltower
9. Until I die, Ben Kweller
10. Last night I had the strangest dream, Simon & Garfunkel.

Actually, a shockingly rewarding session. It could've been worse.

Tomorrow we're playing soccer on the bank of the river, then barbecuing. Dreamy.

Hope all is well!

home for the last time

new song

speedbump #291: Der Schlüssel (the key)

The German word for 'the key' is 'der Schlüssel'. I don't have a problem with the word itself, but it's the article ahead of it that consistently trips me up. In English one would normally ask, "Do you have the keys?" Translated directly that is "Hast du die Schlüssel?" But Germans don't ask for the keys. They ask for the key. Singular. So the correct question would be "Hast du den Schlüssel?"

This has been quite a bother lately, as a friend of mine is homeless and is staying in my apartment for the week. She doesn't have a key, so we organize our days around our schedules and who has the key when. And so this turns into frequent screw ups.

Unlike other some other linguistic differences, I don't think this one demonstrates a key cultural divergence. Which makes it not very interesting or cool, just something thats been bugging me.

So to recap:
Correct: "Soll ich den Schlüssel mitnehmen, oder nimmst du ihn?"
False: "Verdammte Schlüssel, ich habe sie vergessen."
[To add another layer, that sentence isn't grammatically incorrect. It would just seem strange.]