No Google entries - so do I exist?

Actually, to be frank, there are one or two Google results that mention me, and both are about 6 years old. There seems to be another person with my name who lives in Kaiserslautern, and is evidently much more important than I am, of the 210 results that my name pulled up, she had 208 of them...How embarrassing! These days, it seems that your relevance to this life is measured by how many Google entries you have. Of course, the upside to this is that if someone wants to track me down (with evil intent), and all they have is the internet, they'd have a pretty doggone hard time finding me!

I've been watching the news about Hurricane Katrina, and it's just heartbreaking. I saw an interview with this poor man who was devastated about losing his wife in the flood, and I just cried. There are so many people there who have lost everything, and who didn't have a lot to begin with. There isn't much I could do, except pray and donate money, which I did, to the Red Cross online. I would definitely recommend doing that, or giving to some other charity to help.

There isn't much German news here - except that three tenants have moved out of my apartment building this month. That's a bit unsettling...It's actually a nice apartment and building, but it's expensive and a bit noisy - we're on a pretty busy street. I really need to make some decisions about whether to stay or not, but moving house in Germany is an event. You have to give 3 months notice, then you have to renovate your apartment so that it's in perfect condition, in order to get your deposit back. That usually includes re-painting the walls. Then, you have to find a new place, which requires yet another deposit, plus a non-refundable fee that's usually 3 times the base rent. So, it requires a lot of gumption (plus some ready cash) to move - and for me probably isn't worth it until I can buy a place.

Oh yeah, the election is coming up soon - Angie versus Gerhard. God, I hope that the CDU party (Angie) wins. Maybe they'll lower my tax burden! But that's a topic for another blog...

Terror Attack in Hamburg!

Ok, at last a possible terror attack. Evidently, an Egyptian man overheard 3 men speaking Arabic at a bus stop, including the statement "Tomorrow we will stand as heroes before Allah". This caused a massive manhunt for the men, plus (unusually for Germany) tons of armed policemen wandering the subway stations.

I was on a bus going home from work, and I was surprised to see that the driver was pretty much using racial profiling to decide who could get on his bus unquestioned, and who couldn't. Normally the bus I take has a lot of people of Turkish or Arabic origin, but today there were none. Found out that the bus drivers were instructed to be careful. I'm not sure how to feel about that. I really don't like the way foreigners can be treated here in Germany, especially those who look foreign, i.e., people who aren't white, and I don't like racial profiling. On the other hand, if it stops someone from bombing my bus or subway train, well...

Ever since the Madrid bombings, I've tried to be vigilant while taking public transportation. Unlike in the US, many more people of all walks of life take the trains, etc. Mainly because driving and parking can be such a hassle. Lots of people who own cars still take the train to work, for just that reason. So it's a part of our lives, and when train bombings such as in Madrid and London happen, it affects us in a very personal way - that could be us! It's a bit creepy, especially since the fact is, it's way too difficult to prevent something like that happening - unless one sets up airport-style metal detectors at every train and bus stop!

Back to the issue of foreigners, I really think that it's not only the US war in Iraq that is causing problems here in Europe. Like I said above, foreigners can be treated like second class citizens. And even people who have gained German citizenship are not considered German. You can have the passport, but unless you look German, you'll never be accepted as German. I have a friend who is half German and half Ghanaian. She was born and raised here, German is her first language, went to university and all that - and people still ask where she is from, and how she learned such good German. And then we wonder why the young men and women from other countries can get angry enough to blow us (in Europe) up. Start treating them with respect, stop the discrimination, and maybe they will want to be a part of Germany, instead of wanting to destroy it. It's even legal here to not rent an apartment to someone because they are foreign or not white. Sheesh! Ok, enough of my ranting, gotta go buy a CD (Bryn Terfel, love his voice!)

Berlin, Berlin

Was back in Berlin this weekend for a wedding. It was in a very cute little church on the border between Berlin and Potsdam (the old DDR). Very nice. But HOT. I've complained before about how cold northern Germany can be in August - then we get a heat wave, and I complain some more. I guess my desert blood doesn't handle humidity any better than cold...

I love Berlin. It's my second favorite city in the world, after London. I lived there for 2 years, and I always like to go back and visit my old haunts. So on Sunday, I met a friend, and we went to the Wintergarten/Literaturhaus cafe on Fasananstr. We snagged the last 2 pieces of their fabulous cheesecake and had wonderful coffee. We talked about life, my old company (we were colleagues) and problems with men (as always). Found out some interesting things about a former boss. Let's just say that when middle-aged men go to Tailand for a business trip, and their main contact person is called "Mai", then we know what the business is, don't we...

Mourning my truck, and a friend's visit

I left my dear Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in the states when I moved to Germany. My mom has been using it since, but unfortunately she was involved in an accident last week - and my baby has been declared totalled. Best news is, of course, that mom is fine. But my baby!! Ah well...

Anyway, a friend of mine from New York is visiting me in Hamburg, so I'll go meet her and show her the town. Two obnoxious American girls on the loose! Watch out! Not to mention, hanging out with someone who knows the lyrics to Schoolhouse Rock songs (Gen X-ers, unite!!)

It's August, and the weather is fine?

No, actually, the weather is cold. I must admit, I have rather a skewed frame of reference, since I lived in the Nevada desert (Las Vegas) for 8 years. But really, I shouldn't have to wear a jacket in August! Not that I like it to be too hot, either. I hate humidity, and there's nothing worse than sharing an un-airconditioned subway train with 50 other sweaty communters. But some days where I didn't have to wear a jacket would be nice. And some sun - just an hour or so! It's a shame to waste longer daylight in the evenings (the sun doesn't set until 9:30 pm or so this time of year) with gray and clouds.

Though I must admit, I do like rain. After being in the desert for so long, I still tend to stare in wonder at the odd sight of water falling from the sky...

Good news: the people who lived below me in my building have moved! My joy has nothing to do with the aforesaid couple themselves - they were perfectly nice. It's mainly the fact that, since we all have creaky hardwood floors, they could hear just about every foot step. I know this because I can always hear the people above me stomping about. Anyway, until new people move in, I can run, stomp, dance, do aerobics, jumping jacks, whatever, without anyone knocking on my door and politely telling me to STOP! Yee haw!

Nordic Walking

I've started "nordic walking". I love it. It's basically exercise walking with ski poles. The poles have rubber bottoms, instead of spikes, and it looks a lot like cross-country skiing, without the snow. I've got a knee injury, so I can't run/jog for a while, so nordic walking is a good substitute. The problem? Pride. You see, nordic walking is perceived as the domain of middle-aged housewives. And seniors, but that's ok - it's kind of cool to see seniors zipping around paths with their poles. But I'm not a senior. And I'm not (yet) middle-aged. Now, no one has ever made fun of me or made any comments. But I feel like a fool, because I feel like I should be running - even though I know that my knee injury would just get worse if I did...

Speaking of exercise, Germans are the only ethnic group that I've run into who religiously stretch after each exercise at the gym. Back in the states, people just hop off the treadmill, or get up from the weight machine, and go to the next one. But not Germans. They read the instructions on whatever apparatus they're using, perform perfect sets of the exercise, then actually follow the stretching instructions pasted on the side of the machine. Incredible. I've even been yelled at for NOT doing that. By another member, not just staff. They also go all out to make sure they have the proper kit for outdoor exercises. I'm the only one out their with grubby sweats and a baseball cap!

German sports coverage

I was sick at home yesterday. So, I spend the day lying on my sofa watching TV. I have two English-language stations, CNN and BBC - but one gets tired of watching the same news over and over and over again... Plenty of German language stations, so I settled on Eurosport.

It's funny to watch sports from a different point of view. First, the sports shown are totally different from US sports coverage. Obviously, no baseball, basketball or football. Lots of soccer, as one would expect. But also lots of track and field, swimming, and especially cycling. They had full coverage of the Tour of Belgium cycling race. Americans may laugh at cycling (in spite of Lance), but it does become enthralling after awhile. And next weekend, Eurosport will have full coverage of the Track and Field world championships in Helsinki, Finland. Now, I like that, because I've always loved sports like that - which never even make it onto ESPN2. Actually, my favorite, favorite, favorite obscure sport is a winter sport: ski jumping! I've seen those ski jumping hills in person, and let me tell you, they are no joke! So I'm mightily impressed by these guys who flings themselves down these hill at top speed, fly into the air, and manage to land on their feet. I'm not the only one. The fact that Sven Hannawald, the top German ski jumper, decided to retire was front page news here!

Of course, the other difference is the focus on German or German speaking (Swiss, Austrian) athletes. Whenever there is no German in the final or whatever of an event, the announcers always apologize - Schade, daß keine Deutsche-sprachige dabei ist. I noticed this most during the Tour de France. They barely even acknowledged Lance, but I learned way more about the T-mobile and Gerolsteiner teams, and Jan Ullrich (the star German racer), than I ever wanted to! I guess it's a humbling sort of shock to realize that not everyone is focused on Americans all the time. People know who Lance is, of course - but no one hear has ever heard of Joe Montana or even (gasp) Terrel Owens. Maybe Babe Ruth - then again, maybe not. And you have to head to the Czech Republic for anyone to care about ice hockey.

OK, enough sports babbling...

Life as an American in Germany

Well, finally bit the bullet. A blog. This is more of an experiment, and I'm hoping no one actually reads this thing... But I do know that I want to write down my experiences here in Germany for posterity (or at least to bore my grandkids with, when I'm 90!)

Background: been in Germany for 5 years now, lived in Berlin, and now live in Hamburg. I'm not a student, nor am I in the military. I'm in Germany because my father was born here, and I've always wanted to live here. Dad was actually a German Jew. He lived through WWII, and stayed here until 1952. But inspite of the horrors that he went through, he never lost his love for the Vaterland - at least, the Vaterland that his family knew before Hitler. But I digress...

I work for an American firm here in Northern Germany, but most of my colleagues are real Germans (grin). My job involves mainly English speaking and writing, so my German is still famously bad for someone who's been here so long. But I do ok. I live in a cute and trendy part of town, with lots of the cafes and ambience that we Americans love so much.

I'm going to try to use this blog to report some of the interesting bits of living in a foreign country. For instance, I'm sure I'll have an entry on my attempt to get my unlimited residence permit. I'm technically allowed to have it after 5 years of residence - but don't forget, I'll be facing a bad tempered civil servant and the notorious German beauracracy.

So that's it for now. Am planning to walk home soon (love that about this city, very walkable).