my weekend

This weekend the weather in Jena was just beautiful. In fact, for all of you weather nuts, principally my immediate family, you can check out the up-to-date conditions in Jena (updated every 10 minutes) at http://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/wetter, and you can also learn some German meteorological terms. Don't worry, unlike most things here, it's entirely bilingual. There are actually two weather stations here, one at the institute itself (Wetterstation Beutenberg), and the other lower down, by the river (Saaleaue). The difference in elevation means that it's usually a few degrees colder up on the hill at the institute. And for those of you who aren't weather weenies, you can check out the webcams at the foot of the page.

Anyhow, the weather on the weekend was great, about 13 degrees, blue skies, and sunny on both Saturday and Sunday. I knew that I had to have a bike to truly enjoy this day. But first, I had to go to the Zollamt, or customs office, first thing Saturday morning to get my fiddle. It was a bit tricky to find, in the heart of an industrial park about 5 km south of town, but I eventually made it there. I did get a bit disoriented when I first got off the bus, but having the river nearby at least makes it easy to navigate. (It flows to the north, so you can always tell which bank of the river you're on at very least.) Once I found the office, I went in armed with all my documents, and a German-English phrasebook. (I do have a really good set of German-English English-German dictionaries given to us by a friend, but they're being shipped right now. I wrongly thought that a phrasebook would be enough to make it through 6 weeks or so.)

The two men working there didn't speak any English at all, but they were very friendly, and listened patiently as I tried to explain that it was my own violin, which I had owned for more than 3 years, and that my father was just sending it to me. I guess there had been some confusion because it was sent to the institute, so they thought it was some sort of expesive equipment. But they had me open it up to show them (joking that it might be a machine gun inside the case), and they let me go without paying anything. They did make photocopies of my work contract and my residence permit though. I've noticed that once people know that I work at the MPI they're much more accommodating. (Also, Dad, in future, if you're going to write any title with my name, please use Dr. instead of Ms. Germans really go for the whole title thing, and the secretary here advises me that the bureaucracy will treat me better if they think I'm well educated.)

After getting the fiddle and dropping it off at the institute, I headed downtown to find myself a bicycle. I figured out the German yellow pages, so I had a list of 8 bicycle shops in the area, along with a map and the approximate locations of each one. When I got off the bus I ran into a student who is living in the tower, who I'd met in the kitchen before. Lam is from Vietnam, and did his master's in Japan (where he learnt Japanese), and he came to Jena at the beginning of January genuinely believing that all Germans spoke English. He speaks less German than me, and is heartily confused by most of what's going on. Though I'm also clueless, he asked for my help in trying to print out his statement from the bank machine. Here there are separate machines for taking out money and printing out statements, and both he and I were advised to print out our statements monthly and keep them in case of an error. While some of the banks have a language option on the machines, his doesn't, so together we finally figured out how to make it print. Encouraged by our success and the good weather, he asked if he could come bicycle shopping with me.

The problem that we encountered is that both of us are shorter than the average German bicycle user, so that the choices in used bicycles was not so good. Lam is actually a fair bit shorter than me, and when we'd go into the stores and I'd ask in my broken German if they had used bicycles, they'd usually tell me (in a mostly polite way) that Lam was too short. I'm not fluent enough to point out that at some point in their lives all tall Germans actually pass through a short phase, and probably have bikes at this point too, so we'd just head on the the next shop.

Finally, at the 5th shop, we started to have some success. I found the perfect bike for myself, which is just short enough with the seat all the way down, with fenders, 18 speeds, a rear rack, reflectors, a bell, a pump, and front and rear lamps powered by a dynamo. And all for only 50 Euros. (Seeing as in the 12 days I've spent in Jena I've already spent half that in bus fare, I thought this was a great deal.) Throw in a lock, and it was only 67 altogether. I wanted to buy a helmet too, even though very few people here wear them, but the cheapest on they had at this store was 50 Euros (about $76). I didn't think that I should pay as much for the helmet as for my bike, so I'm going to check out other shops. I know it's really important, but I must admit that I loved the feeling of riding without a helmet on, with the wind in my hair. Still, I have a Canadian skull, which is clearly not as thick as the average German skull in terms of both surviving accidents and letting in new ideas regarding public health and safety.

Here's me with my fabulous new bike:

And finally, after spending a bit more than he'd hoped, and having the seat-post and the handlebar-post cut so they could go lower, here's Lam with his lovely new bike as well:After spending the day riding around, picking up some groceries, and doing the Globe and Mail crossword with Jeremi (via Skype), it was time to go to my first German party. The party was for the birthday of Susanna, a graduate student here in a different group from me. I met her briefly at the institute retreat last week, but I'd also gone out for beers with her last Wednesday night along with another Susanna and her husband Colin, who live next door to me in the guest apartments. The two Susannas are in the same research group. The married Susanna is Danish, and her husband Colin is from the Netherlands, they just moved here from Copenhagen, and they both speak English, Dutch, Danish, and German, which is at least 2 Germanic languages more than anyone should really know.

In preparation for the party I'd gone to the grocery store to pick out a variety of beers, 6 different kinds of pilsner to be exact. Here they are getting ready before the party. Don't they look nice?The one on the left is Köstritzer, which is a local Thüringian brand which is very popular around these parts. They're more well known for their dark Schwarzbier, but the pilsner is found on tap all around town too. The advertisements are everywhere as well, and I find their slogan really funny: "Das Haus der magischen Biere" - the house of the magic beers. I'm sure it sounds better if you speak German.

The party was fun, if a bit, well, different. The people were quite friendly, and a lot of people took the time and effort to speak to me in English. I think that everyone there except for me and the couple from next door was chain smoking the whole time, which made it even smokier than the bars and cafés here, which I didn't know could be possible. Finally it became too bad for everyone, so they just opened up all the doors and windows and put their coats on so they could continue smoking inside. I found this a bit odd. Also, when the dancing started, it was almost exclusively by guys, which isn't really seen amongst straight men in Canada. I think we were the first to leave, and we didn't get home until 4:20 or so.

Naturally, the next day I didn't get up early and take the long bike ride along the Saale river that I'd been planning. Instead I slept in quite late, and then was lazy for a few hours before joining Colin and Susanna for a nice long drive through the countryside, seeing a bunch of different towns along the way. We only stopped in one place, Schwarzburg, where there are the ruins of a castle that used to be the seat of the Counts of Schwarzburg from the 12th century onward. It's also the site where the Weiman Constitution was signed by the then president back in 1919. Here's me with the ruins in the background, enjoying the sunlight.And here are Colin and Suzanna, with the town in the background behind them. There is also a river in the valley below, the Schwarza, which is a tributary of the Saale. I know that I'm talk ing about the rivers a lot, but they're a really big part of the geography here. (I think possibly to make up for a general lack of lakes, but that might just be my Ontarian bias.)