sich verabschieden

You know that feeling of being really calm? Not normal calmness. Extra calm, like at piece with things. As if at that moment everything crystallizes and the small things you see every day look new and perfect and endearing. As if tranquility were something tangible and you could wrap yourself up in it like a blanket. You can feel this calmness throughout your body when you stand still. Your legs feel strong but relieved, like you were ready to run really fast, and then found out the race was tomorrow. Your back is relaxed, like you are getting a massage from someone you love. Your mind is taking everything in and thoroughly enjoying it. You have no internal monologue, because if you talk, the feeling of serenity would burst like a soap bubble.

Walking to school today, I got this feeling. It's my last day in Radolfzell, and I feel great. I'm sad to be leaving all of the friends I've made here, and I'm sad to be leaving the beautiful area that I'm living it. But this could not be a more perfect feeling to have on one's last day. 

I got on the bus this morning and my bus card stopped working. I looked at the driver for a second and I figured that he'd make me pay for the ride. Then he turned to me and said (in German) "Do you need more time?" I explained that my card (very obviously) didn't work. He said "Do you have a question?" I explained again that my card didn't work and asked what I should do. He said again "Do you have a question?" but this time he gestured that I should just take my seat. He let me ride for free.

I got to town early, and all of the stores were just opening up, and it was kind of chilly and so beautiful. I walked into the store to buy some bread, and on the way, I stopped by a magazine stand and saw the owner's dog playing with a toy and it was so cute. I've seen this dog running around the stand every day and he looks so happy and content all the time. After that I walked through the town garden, and I realized how beautiful my every day life is and it almost made me cry.

On Sunday, we had a substitute Thanksgiving and everyone cooked something. I made jambalaya and we all got stuffed that day. After the meal, we all lazed around for a while. In the background however, Christian, a German roommate of Andy's, DJ-ed a little bit. Here's a taste of our after-dinner time.

So, in conclusion, I am leaving R'zell on the best of terms and I am excited to see Neubrandenburg and experience something new. Hopefully, also, in Neubrandenburg I will have more permanent internet access and I'll be able to Skype you all. Today's word is a verb and it means to say goodbye. And right now, I have to say goodbye to Radolfzell.

das Bier

This post has come far too late for my taste.

After castles, or probably before castles, most people associate Germany with beer. Honestly though, for a people as world-renown for their beer as the Germans there are fewer drunks here than you would expect. Of course, when we walk through the park we see the Park Drunks, but they are more like a street musician. Radolfzell also has that one pudgy guy who walks around wearing nothing but a red skirt drinking cocktails on market day, but he is actually quite nice, and I think he might have a job in addition to being utterly ridiculous.

In any case, we took a trip to a German brewery in the town of Donaueschingen. The brewery is called Fürstenberg, and it is pink.

The brewery tour was very interesting. I was actually very curious about the deutsche Reinheitsgebot and how it affects beer today.  Basically the law is old as dirt and says that the only thing you're allowed to make beer with is water, barley, and hops. The law is from Bavaria and is also from the 1500s. If you were paying attention, you will notice that this beer recipe actually doesn't include yeast. This is largely because microorganisms really hadn't been discovered yet. So later they got added. I don't think the law is actually part of Germany's legal system anymore, but beers will still (proudly) advertise that they are brewed according to the law.

During the tour we got to taste most of these ingredients before they were used to make beer. They all pretty much taste like oatmeal, cornflakes, or other breakfast cereals. 

Here are all the ingredients in their different forms. The hops are at the bottom, in their original form on the left and then in their current pelleted form on the right. Above the hops is the barley. The darker barley on the left is used to make dunkel bier, and it's really the same thing except the barley is roasted a little. This way they can give the beer color and a slightly different taste without using any artificial flavors or colors.

The rest of the tour explained the beer making process. During this time, I learned a fun fact about foreign language: if you stop listening for more than a few sentences, you're pretty much screwed for understanding anything after that. This can be useful when, for instance, you want to ignore salesepeople. You can literally allow yourself to not understand a word they say. It's wild! You don't even feel guilty because you don't even realize they're saying words. Anyways, here is a part of brewery that, I think, has something to do with imparting the hop and barley tastes to the beer. Don't quote me on that.

So after this we were led into a cellar that looked like the opening scene of a zombie movie. After that they must have felt bad for us, since they took us directly to the testing area and we were allowed to 'try' as many beers as we wanted. My friend Geoff, whose ability to talk to people astounds me constantly, got our tour guide to sit down and drink little with us. We talked about 9/11, beer, and politics. Basically typical German small talk. If you ever try Fürstenberg, I recommend the Edelbräu or the Dunkelweizen.

We left the brewery, a bit tipsy, and we were astonished to discover it was still light outside. That was jarring, but not entirely unwelcome.

füttern

After taking two classes focusing on apes, monkeys and other primates, I was a liite bit excited to find out that there was an interactive zoo with monkeys here in the area. I heard about the so called “Affenberg” on our trip to Neuschwanstein. Affenberg literally means Monkey Mountain, which is what we called it for the rest of the trip. The Affenberg is in the town of Salem about an hour from Radolfzell.

The sanctuary has about 200 barbary macaques. Macaques are the same monkeys that chill out in hot springs in winter, by the way. Today's word means “to feed,” and the cool thing about this sanctuary is that you can feed the macaques yourself. Like the macaques come up to you and will grab popcorn out of your hand. It's wild!

Also you can get really close to them.

No, I mean like really close.

The macaques are sort of funny to watch. They act like an infant with really good coordination. But they also have moments where they strike you as surprisingly human and relatable. It will be in something like they way they sit or they way they look at you. I tried to offer one of the macaques two very small pieces of popcorn and she looked at my popcorn, looked me in the eye, blinked very sassily, and walked away. My first thought was “that bitch” and then I realized that if I had tourists feeding me all day, I could afford to be picky too.

We were warned that the macaques can get handsy and that we should remove jewelry and just be careful in general. Despite that, one of the macaques did steal Geoff's water bottle and climb a tree with it. I don't think we'll get it back.

But, I have to admit that German sort of disappoints me sometimes. And now is one of those times. In German there doesn't seem to be disctinct words for ape and monkey; they are both just “Affen.” Now this might not seem like a big deal, but the biologist in me is sort of irked by this. German has a separate verb form you use when you rephrase what someone else has said, but it can't muster distinct words for ape and monkey?!

What, you may ask, is the difference between an ape and a monkey? Well there are lots, but in the case of, say, humans and macaques, I can list some interesting points. First of all macaques, which are monkeys, have cheek pouches. Macaques also don't have the same range of hand motion humans do. You can touch your thumb to all of your other fingers; macaques can't. On the downside, you don't (shouldn't) have fangs like a macaque. But macaques can't spin their arms around like we can.

Despite the linguistic shortcomings, I was really excited to see the monkeys and to get to touch them. If you're ever near the Bodensee, check out the Affenberg.

das Schloss

I think one of the first things that comes to mind when one thinks of Germany, other than beer, are the castles. One castle is called a "Schloss" in German. A Schloss is a very elaborate castle that someone used to live in. There is another German word "Burg" and that is more of a fortress, that no one really lived in, but from the outside, they look sort of similar.

This last weekend was a whirlwind of travelling. I went to see Johannes and Julia in Weinheim, and it was nice to catch up with them. I got back to Rad around 10pm and crashed into bed because I had to wake up at 5am to get on a train to see Neuschwanstein!

Actually 10 of us went together. We got a schönes Wochenende ticket, which lets 5 people travel on any of the slower trains in Germany all day. It only costs 39€ total. Since we couldn't use the fast trains, we had to set out early to get to Munich by noon. The trip there was gorgeous. Bavaria is a gorgeous part of Germany. It looks a lot like Kentucky, but the other Germans think of Bavaria like we think of Texas. Basically, the Bavarians are a whole different race of people.

We had to change trains in Lindau, and after spending a few minutes there we all resolved to go back there.

I should mention that this trip took place on a Sunday, which means that Germany was SHUT DOWN. I'm surprised that trains run, actually. If you want food on a Sunday, you are s.o.l. Because of this, Lindau was deserted, and that made it seem like a fairy tail.

After our layover we went further toward Neuschwanstein, and saw more of the beautiful Bavarian countryside.

Upon reaching our destination, we ran into a small snag. Our reservation to tour the castle wasn't showing up on the (purple-haired, 60 year-old) ticket agent's screen. Luckily Joe, was able to sweet talk her into giving us a reservation. It turned out that ours was actually scheduled for October.

While we waited for our reservation we checked out the scenic views in the area.

I have to say that I wasn't that impress with the outside of the castle. I mean, yeah, it's on a mountain, and yeah, it's got a gorgeous view, and yeah, it's old, but I was expecting something more...Disney.

The inside of the castle didn't disappoint. Ludwig II died before it was finished and the people were clearly not eager to continue their labors, so it is largely unfinished. We weren't allowed to photograph the inside of the castle; heaven forbid I decide to decorate my living room with a scene of the 12 apostles and a mosaic of all life on Earth and copy their style...

It was gorgeous, but alas, all good things must end. We decided to get some lunch, weißwurst and dunkel bier, and headed home.

But wait, our fantastic trip did have a snag. Our trains home were late and at a crucial connection our train came in late, but the other trains were waiting for us. Now keep in mind, we have group tickets and it's close to the last train. We get out of the train and the conductor motions (shouts) that we should go to platform three. We looked at platform 8, and it had the train we were supposed to go to. At this point, indecision splits our group and 7 of us go to platform 8 and 3 of us go to platform 3. My group was correct (platform 8), but the other three we stranded in Friedrichshafen without a ticket. It all ended up working out for the best. Two of us stayed behind at the next stop and waited for the other three and we all go home before 1am.

das Fundbüro

Up front I'm going to tell you that this post isn't going to have any pictures, so if you border on illiterate, this may be the part where you stop reading.

You might have noticed that my posts have come less frequently than they did when I was in Washington, DC or in Eppstein. Or maybe you have noticed that the posts tend to come in bursts. Originally this was because I had (and have) no internet at my host Oma's house. Well in between those last posts and now, circumstances have worsened and then gotten better.

About 3 weeks ago, we were all hanging out at the beach, "am Strand" as we like to say, and I had my backpack with me. We then decided to move our little shindig to the altstadt of Radolfzell, I also had my backpack with me there. I then decided to go home; and I no longer had my backpack with me. I went back to the bar(s) that we were in and asked about my backpack, but no one had seen it and I couldn't find it there.

Now I'm not really attached to the backpack per se, but the backpack had my course books, my dictionary, my power adapter, my sunglasses, and my laptop in it.

I asked my German friends what I should do and they all said that I should check at this place called the Fundbüro. I had never heard the word, but apparently it is a municipal lost and found. If you find something here that is worth more than a certain amount, you are required by law to turn it in to the Fundbüro.

Well, I've checked there twice and, as amazing as this office sounds, no one has turned in my laptop. Luckily, a new laptop is not (that) expensive and so I bought one and my mom shipped it here. One thing I didn't lose was my external hard drive and that had a copy of all of my music and pictures and files, so on the balance I have only really lost the laptop. My new laptop arrived yesterday, and I've named him Heiko, which is actually a German name, despite sounding Japanese.

All things considered it could have been worse. I didn't lose my passport, my bahncard, any fingers of toes, etc

die Insel

The Bodensee is large, I'm not sure exactly how big it is, but trust me it's big. Because it's so large it has more than enough room to contain some islands. Today's word by the way means 'island'.

One of the islands is Insel Reichenau, which is a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site. Reichenau is also the place where most of the food around here is grown. The first week we were here, there was also a wine festival there.

But as pretty as Reichenau is, it's not the reason I'm writing today.The last time I was in Germany, my uncle strongly recommended that I visit a place called Insel Mainau, which is located off the coast of Konstanz. Sadly I didn't get the time and I missed it.

Insel Mainau is a botanical island and is somehow loosely related to a Swedish count who I believe lived on the island.

Now you know how I get about plants; it's bad. I just know that one day I'll end up like Seymore from Little Shop of Horrors with some crazy venus flytrap ordering me around. So when my Language School offered a trip there, I was on it like white on rice.

The island is absolutely breath taking. And the fact that it's in Germany makes it all that much better. The island has a winding footpath that takes you all around the grounds. The displays are split between very natural looking scenes of wild flowers and native plants or wildly shaped flower displays. There is also a small petting zoo, but the dwarf pony looked ridiculous and I didn't wanna chance getting anthrax or bird flu by interacting with the animals, so I speed walked past that. I'm gonna stop talking and just leave the rest to be described in pictures.

Here is a map of the Bodensee in flowers. The tall ones represent that agricultural island, Reichenau.

The Swedish Count's Castle

I have no idea who the dude is, but he is standing in front of a really cool waterfall that leads into the Bodensee.

Here is an alley of Redwood Trees!

This is one of those flower sculptures I was talking about earlier.

das Bodensee-Wasserversorgungswerk

Some of you may be asking, “Alex, I’ve heard that European water is nearly undrinkable, how do you cope with your coming lead poisoning or how do you afford bottled water at every meal?” My response to these people is usually that I lived in Iowa, if the agricultural run-off hasn’t fire bombed my endocrine system yet, I think I can handle anything.

In all seriousness though, many people in Europe are completely afraid of drinking tap water, and if you order it at a restaurant waiters will often tell you it’s impotable. Bottled water is even more popular here than in the US, and worse, Germans drink soda water instead of regular water. You will have to look high and low to find water that isn’t bubbly. Maybe to dispel the poison water myth or maybe to show off a local bit of pride, our Language School organized a trip to the Bodensee-Wasserversorgungswerk in Sipplingen. The word looks imposing, but it’s not difficult. When you break down a German compound word, start from the right, which is usually the stem word. In this case the stem is das Werk, which is a factory. All the words and word parts to the left are going to describe this factory. Sorgen is to worry about or care for something, Versorgung is a related noun that means supply or care. Finally Wasser is a cognate and means water. Bodensee is the location. So this place is a factory that supplies the water from the Bodensee. And it was cool as hell!

Most people are not allowed to tour the factory, and our school is only allowed to do it once a year, so they time their tour to the season when the CBYX students arrive. The plant takes water from the Bodensee at a rate of about 4000 liters per second. I figured they’d have the Lake emptied in no time, but it turns out that the Lake evaporates more than twice that amount per second. The water is very clean to begin with and doesn’t have much or any farm runoff and such that would make it toxic. It’s taken from deep in the Lake but it has a greenish color to it.

Once the water is taken out of the Lake it’s filtered to remove algae and other debris. The water is then mixed with ozone to kill any bacteria or viruses (and destroy almost any other things) that are in the water. Finally the water is filtered through a sort of sand trap to catch all of the remaining debris that was destroyed by the ozone.

The factory is at the top of a mountain. This is important because the factory supplies water to people living as far away as Stuttgart all without pumping it. Since Stuttgart, and most of Baden-Württemburg, is at a lower altitude the water flows naturally to it. The Factory supplies 4 million people with water, and I tried this water myself, so the next time some jerk waiter tries to tell me that I have to buy bottled water, I’m gonna drop some knowledge on him.

Finally, after our tour we left the plant, but the busses that took us up the mountain were nowhere to be seen. We soon realized that we’d be hiking down the mountain to get to our train. I wasn’t even mad because after the first turn, I saw this and really stopped caring about the hike.