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Brent
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| Running of the Bulls! | Wed, Jul 12th 2006 11:25am |
| San Fermin is an 8 day festival residing in Pamplona, Spain from July 7th through the 14th. The "Encierro", or "Running of the Bulls" is the highlight of the festival, taking place every morning at 8:00am. Shortly before the bulls are released, people flood into the bull's path and the next few minutes of panic that ensues is by far the largest draw and criticism of the festival. Everyday, 8 bulls come billowing down the streets of Pamplona from the river into the arena, where they will be fought and killed by Matadors that evening. And everyday, people are trampled, gored, suffocated, hospitalized, and/or killed. The last death to occur was in 1995 when a teenage boy from the US was gored in the chest during the run (you can easily find the picture online, however, I decided not to include it)... What better way to experience Spanish culture than to take part in a tradition that dates back almost 1000 years? :> The plan was to take a night train to Pamplona from Madrid the night before the first run and arrive at the Pamplona train station at 5:30am on July 7th. The run does not start until 8:00am, however, the gates into the bull's path closes at 7:30am and guild books say to arrive at around 6:30 to claim a good spot along the fencing. Arriving in Pamplona at 5:30, followed by a 15 min buss ride seemed to be plenty of time to get to the action. One problem though... When we tried to reserve a place on this train, we were told it was completely booked. The best they could do was get us on a train that would arrive at 7:00am. Yikkes. The train there went smoothly. We took two night trains and as the last train approached Pamplona, I started reviewing the research I had done in my head. The street names, the most dangerous locations, how to run, what the signal rockets mean, and where (I though) the gate entrance would be located. I had given my backpack to Mindy on the train so that I could sprint for the bus in case it was close. There was unfortunately plenty of time to spare as I saw Mindy and Emily calmly walk up to the bus station I raced to. I checked my watch: 7:05. The bus arrived a few minutes later and we continued to wait as the bus made it's daily routine, seemingly completely unaware of the event that was about to transpire downtown. I got anxious as I continued to glace at the clock... 7:10... 7:15... 7:20... Dang, maybe I should have just ran there. Finally, at 7:22 the bus arrived at our stop and I went running. The closer and closer I got to the course, the louder and more chaotic the scene became... Everyone had be dressed in the 'traditional' white suits and red scarves ever since we got off the train, however, many of these people were covered in grime, dirt, and spilt alcohol. I continued to jog though them, surely sticking out with my blue jeans and green shirt, however, there was definitely no time for a wardrobe change. Ahead I saw two people running towards the course, so I sprinted ahead of them, only to find they were running for a view along the fence, I continued to run down the course, towards the beginning where I suspected a gate was located... I immediately saw another person running in the direction I was and I heard him yell back to someone in English. I quickly ran up beside him and asked him if he knew where to get in. He was wearing the traditional garb, his too covered in grime and through slurred words he said "Sure. It's this way." Hesitant, I continued to follow him. He led me down street after street, most of which I knew were correct from the maps I have seen, so I continued to follow him. Suddenly, at the intersection of two small streets, both littered with piles of garbage, he stops and says "Ok. Now I'm lost." Not surprised, I pull out my map, quickly find our location, and I see that the gate is only a few small blocks away... he just turned the wrong direction the last time. I quickly say "It's this way!" and race down the street we just came in on, hurdling over piles of trash and dodging around wavering drunks. We finally arrive at a portion of the gate and I stop, trying to see were a gate could be... I glace at my clock: 7:35. Suddenly, I see the drunk American that was following me, run past and start pushing through a crowd of people. I glace that direction and then see that a portion of the gate looked to have been removable at one time, however, was not blocked and guarded by police. Before I have time to get mad at myself, I see a glorious sight... someone was standing on the fence and I then see him jump into the street. Hope was not lost! I begin pushing my way through the crowd of people and am met with a solid wall when I get to within 5 feet of the location I saw the man jump in at. There was another person on the fence, dropping in when suddenly this girl, in English starts yelling "No more! It's done! No more can pass! No mas!". Apparently, she got there early and claimed her spot along the fence, however, someone showing up late to the run managed to convince her to move back to let him jump in. After that, people started flooding to her and she must have become worried about loosing her place. As the girl yells at the crowd behind her, another American next to me says to his friend behind him (with removed obscenities :>)"Is this girl really going to keep us from running? No way!" He was a bigger guy, and his tone of voice was cold and methodic; both were enough to convince me he was getting in. I stuck by him for about 30 second, and then he made his move and I quickly skirted between him and his less-enthusiastic friend. He pushes his way through the mass of people, grabs the girl by the shoulder and forcibly removes her from the fence, all while the girl is screaming at the top of her lungs. The scream turned into a string of obscenities as the guy turned his attention away from her and climbed over the fence. He made his way over as she continually slapped him in the back and he pauses on the other side to give her a few choice words as well. However, seeing how the only thing stopping me from getting in now was this guy's pride, I put my hand on his shoulder and said as calmly as the situation could allow "Your in! Just ignore her so we can follow!". With that, he dropped in and I began climbing over the fence. I had trouble getting my foot over, however, I had a good handhold, so I decided to be less cautious and move quicker to allows others to come as well. I must have looked off balance (though I swear I was fine :>), because I suddenly hear a roar of tension from the crowd and people pressing their hands against my back, helping to support me. I make it over just fine, jump down, and see one of them was the guy that removed the girl in the first place. I pat him on the shoulder and muster a quick "Thanks" before heading off towards the arena. The plan all along was not to run the full course. Every guild I have read said it was impossible to run the full course, so it's better to just pick out a 50 meter stretch before hand and stick with it. The track I picked out was the last street into the arena. The distance was only a 100 meter run and I would be able to actually run INTO Pamplona's arena, center stage, with bulls in tow. Again, things didn't go as planned... My entrance to the course was near Pamplona's Town hall; a location not at the start of the run, however, very close to it. As I continued to dodge past people, making my way towards the arena, I am suddenly met again with a wall of a crowd. I tried all but violently pushing past people and achieved small, if any progress. I decided that it was a lost cause and that I wasn't going anywhere. After a few minutes, I feel pressure behind me. I look back and an equally dense crowd had now formed behind me. Not that I would have ever wanted to go back, however, I could see that a Closterphobic person should definitely not be here. I look at my watch: 7:45. 15 minutes until the bulls are released... The 15 minutes went by slowly as I began taking more note of the people around me... They were all tourists and all were speaking English. My memory flashed back to an article I read which said that mostly tourists participate in the run and a quick thought entered my mind that perhaps this was just all one big joke by the Pamplonians... how many tourists can we convince to enter a string of narrow streets what will soon be charged by bulls? I didn't get to ponder the thought long, because a few minutes before 8:00am, the crowd starting shifting... I was a bit taller than a majority of the people there, so I was able to get a good view of the crowd. Apparently, with only a few minutes before the release of the bulls, people were becoming restless and the people in the center of the road began taking tiny steps towards the arena. From my view, you could see the people along the walls, the safer locations, were a bit fearful of being drawn out in the open, so they tried hard to remain fixed. Everyone in the center, however, continued to move... It was like watching a fast moving glacier; the center of the street was moving the quickest and the crowds along the walls didn't move at all. I was on the edge of the moving part of the crowd, so I let myself become sweep up into it... after all, it was my goal all along to get closer to the arena before the bulls were released. The crowd slowly started moving faster and faster. Then suddenly there was a loud "BANG!" and shrieks of terror arose as the crowd burst in speed up to a walk. To help communicate to the runners of when there is immediate danger, the officials use 4 large firecrackers that can be heard all throughout the city. Two are set off at the beginning of the course: The first means the bulls have been released, the second means all the bulls are out of the pen and are on their way. And two are set off at the end of the course in the arena: The third means the first bull has arrived, the fourth means all the bulls are safely stored and the danger is over. The walk of the crowd slowly increased, quicker now that everyone knew the bulls were on their way... Seconds later, a second "BOOM!" could be heard as everyone screamed again and the speed of the crowd bursted again into a light jog. Now that people were moving a bit faster, openings were appearing through the masses and I began aiming for a better position, running as fast as I could, dodging people left and right... the next few minutes went is slow motion as a multitude of scenes raced around me... Having knowledge of the track, I knew where the turns were, and common sense says when your trying to avoid large, heavy animals with unsure footing on cobblestone, always try to take the inside of the turns and stick towards the walls. I did just that. As voices became louder and the running faster, flashes of faces starting appearing along the walls... a significant number of people were still not moving; to terrified to run, they remained along the sides. As I approached the 90 degree turn between Mercaderes and Estafeta, a dangerous place because the bulls can loose their footing on this sharpest turn of the course and can become separated from the pack, I ran along the inside of the curve and caught a glimpse of a strong looking American, half standing on the edge of some fencing, right at the inside corner of both streets. He looks down to a friend of his in the mass of people, urging him to get down and keep running. He quickly replies with a slight tone of fear "No, I think this is a pretty good spot!". I keep running. Upon turning the corner, I look down the course and my heart sinks a little with the sight. Estafeta, the longest, straightest stretch of the course is a popular street to run along... the only problem is that it is completely lined with buildings and there is no way to get out of the course, or be helped be officials incase of an injury. Just like M, masses of people were just stopped along the walls and every baloney was adorned with people dangling above the others: they would only need to lift their legs when the bulls get close. Skirting around the unmoving people along the sides, I keep running. Moments upon entering the street, I quickly notice a large group of young kids with more than a few girls. I had heard rumors that, though girls are not specifically banned from the event, the officials attempt to weed them out when they try and enter. To me, this kids looked younger than the 18 age limit of the event, however, I doubt the police check everyone's ID. Suddenly one of the guys yell "Where's Steve?". He looks around and sighs as he looks towards the oncoming mass of people. He glances at a girl next to him, which was wide eyed and clearly terrified, and says "I'll be right back! I'm gonna get Steve!" before trying to push his way past the masses of people, going the opposite direction of the flow! I let him pass and try to keep going. The girl paused for not even a second as she watched him leave, probably a bit astonished, and then looks back to find her group. In that short amount of time, she was already becoming separated and she was either too timid or not able to push through the masses to catch back up. I was standing right next to her and saw an opening appear in the crowd ahead leading to her friends. I slowed down and dug my elbows out to the sides behind me as the crowd in front continued to move at their normal pace. The girl quickly took the opportunity to get ahead of me and dashed through the opening to her group. Upon reuniting with them, she latched onto the back of someone's shirt and looked back for her friend. For a shear moment, I thought I'd tell her not to worry and everything will be fine, however, quickly decided that might scare her more :>. I wait a few seconds for another opening and quickly dash by their entire group. Screams were getting louder now and nearly everyone had advanced to a shear sprint... everyone but the people along the walls, still only going at a slight jog. I choose to sprint along wall, dodging the joggers because I knew the bulls were very close and I didn't want to be caught in the middle of the course when they arrived. One running with the same idea was only a few steps in front of me. Up ahead I see a police officer just standing on the inside of the track in front of a fence. People were trying to jump out of the track, over the fence like I thought you could at any time, however, officers on the inside were standing on it. I saw a few people jump up to it and try to swing over, however, the officers pushed them hard in the chests, knocking them back into the rink. The then pointed towards the arena and yelled "GO!" in Spanish. The people looked confused as they kicked up some dust, taking off again as fast as they could. The guy in front of me was apparently too concerned with watching behind him, and didn't even see the officer standing there. Just as he was turning his head to look forward, he slams right into the officer, knocking him back into the fence. His radio goes flying and as he stammers to his feet, he grabbed the quickly fleeing man by the shirt, pulls out a baton with other. As the officer is swinging his baton at the man, I quickly duck around between the cop and the fence he ran into and never looked back. I continued to run. Just as I was approaching the last turn onto the last road known as Telefonica, I suddenly heard a strong wave of screaming behind me and the ground began to vibrate. I quickly turn my head and see a wave of people sprinting and pushing hard into each other, making an opening in the crowd behind them, knowing what was just a few seconds away. Keeping an eye behind me, I glace to see how close I was going to be to a fence in a few seconds. Luckily, there was one coming up and I adjusted my speed to hit it when the opening behind me was about to approach. I glance back again and I see three bulls emerge through the masses and soon the are all right next to me, just out of the reach of my hand. Suddenly, another unexpected thing happened: The last bull of the three, for no reason at all except the cobblestone, trips and falls flat onto the ground. The other two continue on and I follow them, looking to get away from the fallen bull as soon as possible... Besides the obvious danger of running with bulls, the one event that terrifies even the veterans of the run is a lone bull. The bulls are comfortable in a herd and try to stay near each other. Without a bull getting separated, they simply run strain down the middle of the street and right into the arena. However, because the bulls are running on cobblestone and take sharp turns during the race, it is a common occurrence to have one or more of the bulls trip up a few times and become alone in the crowd. When a bull is alone, they become confused on which direction to run and they begin getting distracted by the crowd around them. This is when they directly attack people and people have the highest chance of dieing. Needless to say, I wanted to get away from this fallen bull as soon as possible :>. I kept running and was easily overtaken by the two other standing bulls as they continued to race ahead. After a few more seconds, I see the gate of the arena in front of me and a feeling of safety comes over me as I run through the gate and enter the arena where thousands of people are standing in the risers, screaming theirs heads off as people flood in. I quickly get to the side and enjoy the moment. The rest of the bulls come running in at sporadic times, always accompanied with a wave of people sprinting to get out of the way, terrified screams, and roars of excitement from the risers. Another loud "BOOM!" is heard, followed quickly by the fourth "BOOM!" and everyone starts cheering loudly as the last bull is lead through the arena and into its cage at the other side. Everyone starts laughing and cheering, happy that they are all safe. However, a few seconds later, the REAL last bull comes charging into the rink!!! They must have counted wrong and set the rocket off too early!!! People run and dive out of the way of this last bull, however, no one is hurt and it is lead safely through the arena. It was very unexpected, though... I later found out that last bull was the bull that fell next to me. Apparently, after it fell to the ground, it just laid there for 30 seconds, motionless. People looked on with confusion on what to do, however, it eventually got up and the officials managed to get it running again in the right direction with only one goring. All in all for the day, there were two gorings and two others sent to the hospital for trauma wounds. Most of the injuries occurred at the start of the race when, right out of the gate, one of the bulls charged along the left wall where people were standing, goring one and trampling two others. I am sure others got injured, however, there were not bad enough to be rushed to the hospital. For as many people that were there, and the fact that many of them had been drinking, I think that's a pretty low injury count. Once in the arena, though, the fun was just beginning... After a few minutes of celebrating, one of the Pamplonians starting motioning for everyone in the arena to come up to him and get down on their knees. Soon, a large semi-circle of people was formed, all bowing down against one part of the arena. I was curious, so I came up around the side and watched. After a significant number of people were there, the section of the wall was thrown open and immediately a bull come barrowing straight through the mass! Everyone goes running with screams! Over the next 40 minutes, bulls are brought into the ring, one by one, 5 to 10 minutes each time. Each one different. Now, don't worry, these aren't the bulls that were just ripping people open in the streets, these were younger bulls that had the tips of their horns cut off so that they wouldn't kill people as easily. These still had horns, mind you, and they still could use them, however, they just couldn't stab you. I stayed in the ring, running away from the bulls for the first half of the show, however, decided I would jump out and watch the second half. From inside the rink, you couldn't even see the bull anyway... only the horde of people running away from it marked it's location. From up in the stands, though, all was clear. Because these bulls were younger and less dangerous, people became a lot braver with them. One person after the next would pull the bull's tail, try to put hats or flags on its horns, and some even allowed themselves to be dragged by them. It was surely a sight to see. Even with the tips of their horns severed and their slightly lighter weight, they would still charge people and fling them into the air with just a swipe of their head. Every few seconds another 'brave' person was air born. Once the time in the arena was over, they opened up the doors and people began flooding out. I met up with Mindy and Emily at a pre-determined location and we began to look around the town... Perhaps I'll post another post detailing the rest of our time in Spain, however, for me, the highlight was definitely the run! |
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| Wien and Budapest | Mon, May 29th 2006 9:34am |
| This last weekend we made our first trip out of Germany! Last Thursday was a holiday
(Ascensions Day) and Siemens is closed on Friday, so we had a long 4 day weekend to go
somewhere a bit farther. We decided to use our Eurail pass to go East and visit Vienna
(Wien), Austria and Budapest, Hungary. Due to traveling time, we would only have one
day in Wien and 2 days in Budapest, though... hardly enough time for either city, yet
it would at least allow us to see both of these cities while we were here. Wien
especially; we only scratched the surface at both places, but only one day in Wien
felt kind of rushed. We searched train times before we left and found trains to take us there and back, and recorded the times so we could print up our connection information when we arrive to each city. Thats what's nice about the Eurail pass... you don't have to buy tickets or even let them know your planning on boarding :>. We had to leave work early on Wednesday and managed to arrive in Wien at around 11:00 at night. The trip was long, but we managed to get there in one piece and had only a short walk to our hostel. It was clearly targeted for youths, but it was professional and clean and we only needed to crash there for that night. It was a pretty neat places as well, however, we were there for a very short amount of time... didn't even get to use our certificates for free drinks at the bar in the basement. The next day we got up early and had a route through the city we had planned before hand... we came in on the western outskirts of the town and had to leave from the southern, with all the things to see in the center. Our train was to leave that evening, so we had to keep moving to see at least a small part of the things we wanted to see. We first went to the Hapsburg's palace and took a small tour of it... the place is huge, complete with palaces, gardens and huge statues... 8 of which I recognized as representing tales of Hercules. Why? No idea :>. The place was impressive, though. The Hapsburgs were supposed to be some pretty good rulers back in the day. I have heard that they tried to share their wealth with their people, however, the one story I heard of them while I was there didn't make a whole lot of sense. Every year they chose 12 men and 12 women from the poor, washed their feet, dressed them up nice and sat them down to enjoy a nice dinner. They brought out the food on plates in front of them, BUT THEN took them away. Without feeding them, they then let them go home, but did give them 20 silver pieces. Needless to say, I didn't understand at all :>. After the palace, we made our way over to a square that has a huge clock with figures that move around it. Each hour, one figure passes by, however, at 12 o'clock noon, all the figures come out with music. So, we had some lunch at a nearby restaurant and went out to see the clock at noon. There was a huge gathering of people there, but the clock wasn't all that neat. It was fun to make fun of those :>. Oh well, on to the House of Music! If you are not familiar with Wien (like myself), then you probably have no idea that the city is known for great composers like Beethoven, Shubert, and, their favorite above all others, Mozart. The House of Music was kind of a fun, learning experience about music, how sound works and the famous composers of Wien. There was a lot of interactive stuff and things you could do... like make Bavarian dancers dance so quickly that they turned into just a blur and could no longer hear them clapping... and conduct an orcastra that would make fun of you in German if (when) you mess up. After the House of Music, we still had some time, so we went back to the Hapsburg's complex and saw the treasury. It was filled with all kinds of stuff... even a Unicorn horn... They do! Thats what they though it was, apparently... It's really a Narwhale tusk. Still funny, though :>. We then had a drink in a park cafe next to the mansion before starting the trek to the Südbahnhof. We then found out that Austria is different than Germany... from what we could see, there were no automatic ticket machines. So, there was no way to print up our connections. It wasn't a big deal, though. We just went to the information desk and the did it for us... It would be a good thing to remember for coming back, though. We arrived in Budapest 4 hours later and began our search for our hostel. I don't know how long we were walking, but it seemed like forever. We walked from one train station to another and then way past it. But we finally got there to find an apartment building with a sticker on the intercom that says "HOSTEL 22". I then look at the address and it says "83/c whatever street, 5th floor"... crap. Never book a hostel that gives a floor number in the address :>. We ring in and the "hostel" ends up being an apartment that has been turned into three "hostel" rooms. The shower had no curtain and no way to hold up the nozzle where the water came out and the rooms allowed barley enough room to turn around in. It was cheap, at least. So we hit the sack and got up early to see the town. First, we picked up a "Budapest Card" that gave us free transportation on the public transportation system while we were there, free entrance to many museums and other discounts as well. We also stopped in a grocery store there and picked up some food for lunch later. On to the castle district! Budapest was formed from to smaller towns that were separated by a river. Buda on one side, Pest on the other. As time went on and the towns grew into each other, the whole thing became known as simply Budapest. This was another major city that use to be ruled by the Hapsburgs, and as such, the built huge palaces and all kinds of stuff. On the Buda side of the river, there is a huge hill that is simply known as the "Castle District". Here lies Buda Castle as well as many other expensive, impressive buildings and a church... all filled with museums. We first went to the History Museum in Buda Castle, which was neat only because they let you just wander around and see the building... the actual museum wasn't all that interesting, however, the castle was awesome. We walked along the castle walls, up a watch tower and went down into the cistern. After that, we took a short break to rest... the walking the day before, as well as now today was taking a toll, but then quickly went on to see another interesting site we heard was worth a visit: the castle labyrinths. It was kind of confusing because there was nothing that said what there were, why there were there or what they are now, however, it was cool. For some reason, there is a network of tunnels under the castle district. They switch between calling it a labyrinth and catacombs. I was under the impression catacombs were underground places where they take dead people, however, I don't know why they would let us down there if that was the case... It almost looked like it was meant for children, and one cave definitely was. Then again, another cave had a small alter in the center of it with real wine pouring out of it... there was a cup there, but we didn't try it. It was kind of similar to a haunted house: extremely dark and a few items here and there that must have been put in later. They even had mock ruins of fossilized items from our time... like computers and cell phone. It didn't make any sense, but was neat. Other things we did while in Budapest was visit the Parliament building (though didn't take a tour because it was crowded with Americans), see caves that were just a short bus ride out of town, visit a place called "Statue Park" where they put many of the old Communist statues (which we got to climb on... legally or illegally, not really sure which :>), and visit the House of Terror, a very artistic learning experience about the Nazi and then Soviet occupation of Budapest. The highlight of the trip was definitely the "Statue Park". It was impossible to get there... literally. No busses or any public transportation when out there. We tried to just keep going in the direction of it (the public transportation system in Budapest has no logic behind it), however, eventually came to a halt at the end of the network. Luckily, there was taxi randomly there, and the guy spoke German :>. We hoped in and he took us there and said he would come back in an hour and a half, which was plenty of time to see all the statues and get funny pictures with them... many of which I remember seeing in history books. On top of that, the park itself mocks them, as well as Communism. The taxi driver on the way back told us that the park was created only about 15 years ago, seeing how Hungry was Communist until 1990. I'm hesitant to believe this, but he also told us that Lenin's grandson is still a member of parliament in Budapest. Wow. The entire day of Sunday was needed to travel back to our cities in Germany. Because we didn't have our connections printed up, the lady at the ticket counter had no idea what we were talking about when I showed her the schedule I had. Instead, she said there was a direct train to Frankfurt from a train station on the other site of the city that left at 9:20... it was currently 8:55 and she said the U-bahn took 20 minutes... crap. We got to the train station early to pick up some food for the journey, but it looks like thats not going to happen. So we ran through the stations, having no idea where we were going except for a poor map we have been using, and managed to get on the train a minute or two before it took off. On the ride back, though, we met two people that were really interesting. The first was a man traveling from Budapest to Wien. He worked in the music industry and had studied world history, so he was able to shed some light on some of the questions we had. He also said that Budapest has the largest Hungarian population in the world... second only to Columbus, Ohio. Yeah. Again, I don't know if thats true, but he seemed very persistent about it and he told us a lot of other correct information, so I don't know. The second were an elderly couple from Florida that were vacationing in the area for a month. The were initially from Canada but then lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where I'm from, for many years. Weird :>. And that about wraps that trip up :>. Next weekend, we are heading South for another long weekend (only 3 days this time) to Interlaken, Switzerland. Nothing historical, but pretty and chock full of adventure/sport activities. :> |
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| Work and German Cooking | Thu, May 18th 2006 7:33am |
| Work is starting to pick up... It is currently the... wow, 7th week of work here in Germany! Just to give a quick overview of my assignments, for the first month all I was doing was learning a program they use in my department which I was unfamiliar with. It's called ProEngineer. I have heard of it before, however, none of my previous coops used it, so I was unproficient in it. It's basically just a 3D modeling program, which has a bunch of amendments to it that are really cool. Things that include flow analysis for pipes, dynamic machine analysis, heat analysis... pretty much every kind of "analysis" you could ever want for a machine. I thought I would be able to mess with all this stuff at first, but then came to the disappointing conclusion that they had only given me the very core 3D modeling program. Which, I then learned, everyone else has. No creating 3D dynamic machines for me, I guess. During the third or fourth week I started asking for things to do. It was getting kind of boring going through tutorial after tutorial of ProEngineer I found on the internet. Which, by the way, I had to because the only training material they have for ProEngineer is a 8 year old beginners manual for an old version of the program and a 4 year old amendment for, still, an older version of the program... all in German. I glanced through them and looked at the pictures, yet they were pretty useless. But anyway, after a few weeks of doing nothing, people started to notice me doing nothing, so they tried to pawn me off on some guy in the lab. I worked with him for a few days, yet started to get the feeling he had nothing for me to do either. He ended up giving me a ProEngineer assignment (I think to try to get me to go back to my department), which I finished in a few days and emailed to him. I was going to go down there and check to make sure it was ok, however, decided he would email me back if it was important (seeing how I was getting the feeling it wasn't). Haven't seen him since :>. On the up-side, though, people in my department are starting to give me jobs. In the last few weeks I have been basically editing a lot of 3D parts and drawings, as well as translating some stuff into English. The word for today was "Biegeohren", directly translated to "bending ear". They wanted to know how to say it in English, though they finally decided it was a slang word and just erased it. It took me a while to understand what they were talking about, however, a Biegeohren is basically a piece of material (metal in this case) that bends over another piece of material. In this case, it was to keep one part connected to another part. Basically, it is a type of fastener, which is the closest thing I came up with. This isn't the most interesting work in the world, however, I at least have some stuff to do to pass the time and I can also focus on learning German when I get bored. ******************** Now, switching gears to a completely different topic: the food in the Kantine :>. At Siemens, they really have a great deal... I think I mentioned it before. You get a plate of food for only 1.5€. It is my main meal for the day :>. It is also different every day, though, I think I have cracked the secret German recipe... To make ANY German meal you just have to follow these simple steps: 1. Start with a chunk of meat of some sort. It can be any type of meat, just as long as it was once alive, it is now dead, it had four legs, and wasn't a pet. Also includes chicken (sometimes). 2. Do something to it. This can include stuffing it with something, grinding it up and pushing it into pig intestine, breading it, frying it, cooking an egg on top of it, or sometimes just baking it. 3. Now that you have your main dish done, you need starch of some type. This is usually some form of potato (french fries being the most common), though might also be rice on occasion. 4. Smother everything in some type of sauce. Again, the sauce can have a few different varieties depending upon the dish, but usually seems to be a meat broth. And there you have it! Your very own authentic German meal! For more great German meals, please order my book "Brent's German Cookbook". 50% of all profits go to the publicly acclaimed "Brent's Fund for Travel". Simply send 40 USD to: Free Money for Brent My Address in German 12345 Würzburg, Deutschland |
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| Of Photos and Biking | Thu, May 11th 2006 4:40am |
| First of all, I would just like to point out that you are hearing from the person the 2nd place winner of the 2006 UC International Photo Contest! I had my friend Matt turn in a photo for me that I took while we were in Köln for those two weeks, and now I'm $50 richer :>. Well, $25 richer, seeing how I'm splitting the prize with Matt because he did most of the work. I'm definitely going to be turning in one next year as well, taken during the rest of the time I'm going to be here. But now onto biking... I got to work right on time today. Well, technically one minute late, but who's counting? After I sit down for a few minutes, one of my bosses comes up to me and asks me if I live at the US Army base just down the road from where I work. I tell him "no", but rather I live in the Altstadt. I go on to explain that I have a bike and that I alternate between riding it to work and walking. He then gets a half surprised, half confused look on his face and asks me if my bike is broken and if I know there is a bus route. I tell him it's not, of course, and that I know there is a bus, but I just don't want to take it. His then starts to laugh and walk away. So, I'm assuming he saw me walking to work this morning and was concerned as to how far away I live, thinking I might live at the US Army base. He is a nice guy; probably one of the friendliest people in my department, however, some of his mannerisms strike me as a bit odd. I think it's just the culture, though. But anyway, I think the fact that I have a bike and don't use it every day when I live that far struck him as a bit crazy, as well :>. I don't know why... It's only about a 30 minutes walk... 15 minutes by bike. Taking the bus even takes 15 minutes when you account for waiting for it and all, and biking/walking is good exercise and free! :> |
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| Füssen Fun | Tue, May 2nd 2006 6:37am |
| This last weekend we visited Füssen... a small tourist town along the Southern boarder of Germany along the Alps. A tourist town, because it is the largest city close to the famous Neuschwanstein castle; a castle built by this crazy guy, for really no reason but to look pretty. The inside of the castle was never finished, however, the outside is impressive and neat looking. We took a tour of this, and another of his nearby castles on Sunday and was the reason for our excursion this weekend. However, let me just note that I realized I don't enjoy tourist cities. Füssen itself wasn't too bad, however, the area of the ticket office to see the castles, as well as the castles themselves were packed... even though the weather forecast said it was going to rain all weekend (which it only rained on Saturday). In tourist cities, there are just a bunch of people that have no idea what is going on and care about nothing but taking pictures. They don't try to socialize with anyone, refuse to even say "Excuse me" or "Thank you" in the native tongue, cut in line, and are generally just jerks all around. I actually didn't mind it, until we got up to the bridge... The builder of the castle also built a bridge over a waterfall that had a perfect view of the castle. We all got our pictures in front of it, however, it was kind of frightening. The bridge itself was scary enough... barely enough room it fit two or three people shoulder to shoulder across it, wooden floor boards that you could see through to a long and obviously deadly fall, and the worst part of all... dozens and dozens of tourists, packed on it, all trying to get pictures. There were so many people that the floor boards moved under your feet from the weight of the constantly moving crowd. Unremorseful tourists, all pushing their way through this, seemingly, flimsy bridge. Some weren't even taking pictures or doing anything... some had dogs or were pushing babies in strollers. I didn't understand that at all. I mean, people have died on this bridge trying to take pictures. But anyway, I'm glad I saw Neushwanstein, I mean, it's something you have to do if you are in Germany for any amount of time... like seeing the Statue of Liberty in New York or the World's Largest Ball of Twine in Colorado (just joking about that... I really have no idea where the World's Largest Ball of Twine is...). However, the rest of the weekend I found more enjoyable... We arrived on Friday and most of us met up in a larger city outside of Füssen: Augsburg. All of our trains had a connection there, so we all tried to meet up with each other at a certain time. Unfortunately, Anne had to wait for over an hour for us, however, the rest of us had little delay. A funny thing to happen to me was that I was running a little late to catch my train to Augsburg... well, lets say more than a little late... I found myself in the Würzburg ticket line with my train leaving in only a few minutes. Knowing that if I miss this train, I would miss the last train to Füssen, not make my reservation at at my hotel and have to desperately find a place to stay in Augburg, not to mention have a 2 hour train ride to Füssen by myself. Knowing I would never buy a ticket in time, I just ran to the Gleis I thought my train was on and jumped on. Luckily, I had been thinking about what I would do incase this ever happened a few weeks ago... because people do come down the ally to check to see if you have a ticket during the trip, and if you don't, they make you pay for the ticket and also fine you. Seeing how I didn't want to end up paying through the nose for a ticket, I decided to sit for the entire two hour journey in the bathroom. No one is able to check your ticket if you are in there :>. And it did work :>. I came out a few times to check where we where, as well as text messaged Mindy a few time to make sure I was on the right train, and I arrived in Augsburg with both 30€ more than I thought I would have and a bit of a headache from sitting in a small, windowless, room moving sideways for two hours :>. But I met up with Mindy, Julie, and Anne with little trouble after that. We then all hoped on a train to Füssen, myself buying a ticket this time :>, and made our way easily to the hotel; the Gasthof Krone (take a look at the link and you will see why we chose it :>). Saturday morning, we had a nice breakfast at our hotel and then met up with Dusty, Kyle, and later, Jamin. Saturday was kind of a miserable day... it was cold and rained non-stop. However, we basically just walked around the small town of Füssen, seeing all there was to see there. Stopping back at the hotel after lunch to get some water, Mindy and I tried to see if there was anything fun to do in the immediate area for the rest of the day. And luckily, Mindy did some research before hand and found a Winefest going on in a small town nearby. So, with a little confusion, we all hopped into three cabs (along with Doug and Sue; two people from New Jersey Dusty and Jamin met at the Youth Hostel who have spent a full 12 hours in Germany so far at this point :>). We arrive at our destination a little after the Fest began and a bit of fear passes through me. The cabs pull up in front of a very small building and through the glass windows in the front, we see only a few people and they were extremely dressed up. I began to think of a Plan B when the cabs left and we were left with only one option... So we all headed inside... It was a blast! :> The front room that we could see into was only a few people from the overflow of people all crowded into a large hall in the center of the building. There was a stage in the front with people dressed up in Lederhosen playing music and a table to the side that was serving wine and beer. Waitresses also ran around serving food and drinks to the mass of people occupying every last available seat in the building. Most people were also wearing the traditional Bayrish dress as well: Lederhosen for the men and this traditional dress for the women (can't remember the name right now). I felt a little out of place with my T-Shirt and Jeans, however, there were a few people wearing that kind of clothing besides us. We all buy bottles of wine, most of us pairing up and splitting a bottle, and were all forced to stand off to the side to make way for the waitresses. Mindy spotted two seats up front, so we grabbed them and not any more than 10 to 15 minutes afterwards, the people we were sitting next to get up, leaving space for our entire group! We ask to make sure they left, and then called over everyone else. So, not only did we randomly find an actual small town Hofbrahaus experience, but we had front row seats right next to the dance floor! Our luck could not have been any better! :> Not to mention the wine Mindy and I got was really good! It wasn't dry at all and tasted almost like cider. The night was tons of fun including dancing, seeing the host down a liter of a guest's beer in about 5 seconds, watching actual German folk dancing, watching funny skits the host put on (some of which we understood :>), and getting Doug (the guy from New Jersey) to hit on the Wine Princess of the night (which was unknown to us at the time). She even bought him a drink, served in her goblet, which we all got to try. Oh, by the way, if you ever visit a Bavarian Wine Festival, it might be an important thing to know that a girl is single if she ties her dress on the left and has a significant other when she ties her dress on the right :>. It was a great night! When people started to leave, we asked the people in charge to call three cabs for us and we returned to our hotel at about one in the morning. We then all got to sleep and woke up early for a busy day at Neuschwanstein on Sunday, which I already talked about :>. Between Sunday night and Monday morning, everyone took off except Mindy, Julie, and myself, so we went to another small town near Füssen because we heard they had a Lüge we caught ride. Basically, the Lüge was a sled that skated down a twisting metal track with one lever you could pull back if you wanted to break... I really have no idea why they included it :>. We bought a pass for 6 times and each went down twice. The first time was fun... but the second time was more fun because I scrunched down and leaned forward to increase my speed... I almost fell off once and didn't even break at the end where plastic strips hit you in the face, followed by being jolted to a stop to avoid hitting the car in front of me... it was great :>. This area was obviously intended for kids, so there was a playground right next to it with a... kind of a zip line, which we played on for a while as well. We still had time left, so we went to the tourist building to see what else you could do in the area... Mindy found a flier for some Roman Baths that were located in a town just down the rode which we could see from our elevated location along the base of the Alps, so decided to walk there and see if we could find it. It was only about a 20 minute walk, and when we reached the city, we all looked at each other for where to go next. As we were glancing around, we noticed a bunch of ATVs just sitting along the road, so naturally, we decide to check them out :>. We then saw a sign that said you can rent small ones for an hour for only 10€! I was a bit hesitant because I didn't know were we could exactly go on them... not to mention German driving rules are different... but Mindy and Julie were excited about them, so, after a quick stop at an ATM to get a deposit, we hopped on the two available, Mindy and I on the bigger one and Julie on the smaller, and took off along quiet German roads in this mountain valley overlooked by Neuschwanstein and the Alps. We got them going pretty fast too! My speedometer was broken, but Julie said we were going up to 45-50 mph :>. We rode by castles and churches and along small streets in the nearby town... it was a blast! :> By this time we were a little worried about making it back home, so we returned to Füssen to check on train times. We only had to wait about an hour and then we began each of our treks back home... not sitting in a bathroom the entire time :>. |
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| Easter... Monday? | Tue, Apr 18th 2006 6:10am |
| Just starting week three :>... Easter was just a few days ago and we had a four day weekend. I forget how it is done in the states, however, during Easter, there seems to be three holidays: Easter Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Monday. Easter Sunday and Good Friday are obvious... but what in the world is Easter Monday? It sounds like just an excuse to have another holiday to me :>. So, yeah, we had Friday and Monday off, so I'm not complaining :>. They also seem to have church services on both Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. We went to one on Sunday... which, of course, was all in German, so I didn't understand a thing :>. But other than that, this weekend was a time to relax for me... I was still kind of stressed out from Köln and work and getting use to where I am living. I feel a lot better now, though. Mindy and I also finalized our travel plans while we are here: We made a calendar of the time we are here, placed all the German holidays on it as well as days our companies were closed, made a list of all the places we want to visit, and then lined up trips with what weekends would be best suited for them, as well as the best days to take vacation time :>. I know, I know, it's very nerdy, HOWEVER, if everything goes as planned, we will be able to visit 10 different countries while we are here :>. They are: Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greese, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Poland, and the Checz Republic. ALSO, because of our skillful planning ahead, we also are saving a bunch of money with the skillful use of an Eurail Flexi 10 day pass we bought in the states before we left :>. On the trips we are using it, we are only paying roughly 25% of the actual ticket price (or 50%, if you use the Bahn 50 card, which we would have). But still, on those trips, it's like we are getting our return trip for free because we bought that thing :>. Aka, if you plan ahead, it's a good deal :>. We also are now looking up details for our trips for the next two weekends... This next weekend we are going to France to visit a small town on the boarder of France and German. It's only an hour and a half train ride from Mindy's city, so we plan on making it only a day trip. However, the weekend after that we are going to Füssen to primarily visit the Neuswanstein Castle. I didn't really know about it before I got here, but I spoke to many people that did... Basically, it's a castle that a crazy king built because of his fascination with castles :>. However, it is suppose to be probably the most impressive castle in the world, just because that was what it was designed to be :>. It was never intended to be a fortress or anything. It is also what the Walt Disney castle is based off of. We also visited the Würyburg Residentz on Monday. I'll try to post some pictures of it (I know I've said that before :>), because it was pretty cool. The gardens outside are tiered and very impressive... they also seem to be open everyday and are also free :>. The Residentz itself costs about 4 Euros to get in (Student Price), yet comes with a tour of the building. It was in German (of course) and she spoke quickly, so I didn't make a lot out, however, you could only get into some of the rooms with the guide, so I'm glad we did it. We also were not allowed to take pictures inside the building, however, the place was very nice... the best part were the painted ceilings, though. They are just finishing restoring them now, so the ones they had finished were really bright and jumped out at you. One room actually had statues coming out of the ceiling to make it look more real... It was really neat. |
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| First week of work is done! | Fri, Apr 7th 2006 8:37am |
| I'm just finishing up my first week of work... It's hard to explain how similar, yet different it is compaired to the US. First of all, the computer keyboards are different :). But really, I don't know what I was expecting, but this kind of took me by surprise. The thing that probably is going to take the most getting use to is probably lunch. Everyone takes exactly half an hour for lunch; I've timed them. They leave at 12:30 and get back at 1:00, give or take 2 minutes. Though sometimes the 30 minute period is delayed 5 or 10 minutes, but even if that happens, they still take pretty much exactly half an hour. But thats not the weirdest thing: Everyone seems to eat as fast as they can and no one talks. Sometimes they make a joke or something, but when they do talk, it's almost always about work. Even the German coops here act the same way. It's just really stange... it seems no one feels awkward by silence. The same can be noted for everyone in the 'dorm-ish' place where I am living. Everyone keeps their doors shut, and no one talks to each other. I still haven't seen most of the people I live with. I would think the rooms were empty, yet I know for a fact they are all occupied. Then again, everyone on my floor is older; two years or more older than me. I have met some of the younger students that live there, and they seem to be a bit more friendly. Probably because they are interested in the fact I'm an American. People seem to think thats neat. But back to work... I actually don't mind this next part too bad, but no one is really friendly at work. If you talk to people when they are not working, they can be really nice, but during office hours, it seems to be all business. Not to say people are mean during office hours, they just don't go out of their way to help you or smile or be plesent. However, some of the people in my office that know I'm American smile at me, though you can tell they are only doing that for my benifit. I appreaciate it, though. But yeah, I don't really mind people not being increabibly friendly. I kind of prefer it this way. Everyone seems to have a very good separation between work and social life, which I kind of think we need more in the US. I think it would probably help prevent a lot of the work-a-holics. Also, in the US people will just pretend to be your friend to get what they want. It doesn't seem to be that way here. If someone is nice to you, you know it's sincere. And because everyone isn't overly friendly at work, I'm actually more inclined to ask for help, because I don't feel bad I'm talking them away from something. I know they want to do their job, and part of their job is to get me up to speed. In the US, I feel indepted to the people that work around me because they seem to be overly nice, and I do not want to bother them. Here, I know people want to work. However, it does sting sometimes. Little things, like smileing at people in the hall, Germans don't do. It almost seems like everyone is robots: You don't look at people, you walk straight to your destination, you take exactly the time your allowed for lunch, you eat your food quicking and don't savor it (even though the food at work is very good and very cheap for us coops; only 1.5 Euros per meal). But I actually like this system better, as of right now. You just don't take things personally. Of course, this is only the first week. Perhaps it will become tiring after after a while. Time will tell. The one thing I do wish is that people were more social at lunch. I feel like I don't see people. Work is not a very social time, and then I go back to my appartment and am too tired to go out. I have heard that Würzburg has a very high student population... I have yet to see this. It just seems kind of dead here. I mean, if you walk up to the center of town right after work (though everyting closes between 6 and 8), you can see a lot of people, but no students. And I hardly see more than a few people in the rest of the town, walking down the streets. I hear there are a lot of clubs in this city, though. Some night I'm not too exausted I should try to go to one. I just would like some more social interact than this. But I'm not too worried. This week has been a little hectic, trying to get all the burocratic forms completed. Next week I'll be done with all that. |
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| Wuerzburg Arrival! | Sat, Apr 1st 2006 3:30am |
| It is now the day after our last day in the Koeln intensive language course and have finally made it to the place I will be spending the next six months. I’m actually kind of psyched about it! It isn’t the most luxurious place in the word, however, it’s pretty much exactly what I was hoping for and then some :>. Rent is only going to be 151 Euros per month (which is a single room and also includes utilities), a guy down the hall is letting me buy stable internet off him for 10 Euros per month (I have a cord to my room and everything), the place is more furnished than what I was expecting (I have a bed, desk, closet, sofa/chair thing, and a sink), and there is a common shower, toilets and kitchen (all in separate rooms). There are also two refrigerators in the kitchen we can use, however, we do need to buy our own Geschirr, wenn wir kochen moechten. Es gibt eben ein Platz in der Keller, worin wir work out koennen. We are not suppose to know about it, but the guy down the hall has a key. The only bad thing, that I was kind of expecting, is that John (the guy down the hall that speaks English very well and that was showing us around) said that we need to keep everything locked or people will steal stuff. Also, there is no dryer in the basement and the washer costs 2.5 Euros per load. That means I need to put a clothesline up in my room. Then again, the building at least has a washer, which is better than nothing. We are also within walking distance of pretty much everything in this town. We were able to walk from the Hauptbahnhof zu unser Wohnung in nur ungefaehr 20 Minuten MIT unser Koffer. Siemens is also very close; it would be a long, yet do-able, walk in the morning, however, a very do-able bike ride. It should be nice :>. But anyway, enough about the place: For the past two weeks we have been living in Koeln taking the intensive language course. I have to say, I was kind of disappointed in it. I mean, it wasn’t “bad”, it was just boring, slow, and we just seemed to review the entire time. Every morning from 8:45 to around 1 we would sitting in a room, really not doing much and then afterwards we had some sort of activity in the afternoons that would start at around 2 and end anywhere from 6 to 9 at night… there was really no down time and it was kind of exhausting, especially from trying to speak German all the time as well. We did get to see some cool stuff, though. I guess my only recommendation would be to allow for more down time… by either taking it out of the morning class or from making some of the afternoon activities shorter. I would almost recommend taking it out of the morning class, though; I don’t think anyone would miss it. Also, even though it was long, a lot of the things we did in the afternoon I would have liked to do anyway. We did have some down time during the weekend, however, we decided to take a trip to Aachen, just because it was so close and cheap to get there. I should post some pictures soon of that. After the class finished yesterday, it was relatively smooth sailing to our apartment here. Fast jedermann haben um etwa zwei Uhr abgefahren und Jamin und ich haben um halb sechs hier angekommen. We then walked to our apartment and no one was there. We rang the doorbell and started calling our ladylady, however, luckily, someone inside was leaving and let us in after about 10 minutes of trying to think of what to do. We probably waiting inside for almost an hour before she gone arrived… and then only after someone noticed we looked kind of out of place and went to find her a few times. I felt kind of bad though. She didn’t speak any English, so, without even hearing much of our German, she went and got John to explain stuff to us. I guess it’s good to know exactly what is going on when talking about this kind of stuff on the first day. But still, I wish I was prepared enough to completely understand here, then again, it’s takes time to get use to all the different dialects. After two weeks in Koeln I could understand people pretty well. And now we have a weekend to get setup for work on Monday. :> |
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| Frankfurt | Tue, Mar 14th 2006 11:19am |
| Finally, with my flight leaving in two days, it’s starting to sink in that I’m actually leaving; it’s getting very exciting. :> Luckily, Mindy and I have our last finals on Wednesday, so we were able to book a flight out of Cleveland for Thursday morning. Why Cleveland? Number one, it was a little cheaper than flying out of Cincinnati or Dayton. And two, I’m from the Cleveland area and I would like to drop my car off at home for these six months, instead of having it parked on a street in Clifton. :> Also, flying mid-week is a little cheaper than weekends. But yeah, we are arriving on the morning of Friday March 17th… St. Patrick’s Day :>. I wonder if we will notice… Most of the class is arriving Sunday morning, so we figured we will stick around Frankfurt for a few days and meet up with the rest of the class before heading on over to Koeln. We will be staying at Hostel Europa for the two nights. Located within 100m of the Hauptbahnhof des Frankfurt, there appears to be plenty of things to see within walking distance. The plan is to pack a small bag for the two days and stuff the rest of our luggage in lockers at the airport, so we don’t have to lug them around. Exciting! :> |
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| Everything's Cool | Sat, Mar 4th 2006 4:55pm |
| Unlike Teal, everything seems to be pretty good as far as my work situation. Siemens has barely had much contact with me, so I assume that means everything is in working order :>. I was nervous about having an apartment a while back, however, I then received an email from InWent stating Siemens has found a place for Jamin and I to stay for the six months, along with an address in Wuerzburg. When I think about it, I guess I do have many questions about my job and housing, however, I have a simple philosophy that tends to keep my nerves at ease: Everything will be cool You see, UC and Gayle have been doing this for 10 years now, and to my knowledge there had been no huge problems, so odds are I have nothing to worry about. I could worry about the apartment and how much it costs and how I’m going to get to work and what day garbage day is, but you know what? Even if I knew some of these mundane details, it really wouldn’t change the fact that this is the place I’m going to stay. I suppose if there was some major conflict I could go though all the additional hassle of finding a place on my own, explaining to them I didn’t want the place they found and perhaps (depending on circumstances unknown to me currently) screwing over the company that hired me. But that doesn’t sound very practical. Siemens is a big company and I doubt they would put us up in a place that would be unacceptable to me. As long as the place isn’t too expensive, I’m cool. If I’m going to have to fork over 500 Euros per month, I’ll probably be a little pissed, however, seeing how I am rooming with Jamin, I think the price should be reasonable. Likewise with details on my job; it would be nice to know if I’m getting any vacation days and what my work hours are and how much I’m getting paid and if they have casual dress Fridays (I would really like to be able to flaunt my pink and green Hawaiian shirt). But the simple fact of the matter is that I’ve already accepted the job, so short of the will of God, that’s where I’m going to be. So yeah. I’m not very nervous about living in Germany… more so about being away from the US and the people I know here for that long. But like I said before; Everything will be cool, so I don’t think I have anything to worry about. Everything will work out. Either that, or I am terribly unprepared :> |
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