Shifting Christmas Gears in Texas / Durch die Gänge in Texas

Eleven days later I have successfully progressed past the most severe reverse culture shock in Texas. Christmas is over – without stress and angst. Now early capitalism gets in gear as I begin to shop shop shop. The latest booty: a pair of Levis slim fit and a book on literary criticism (which I really like, because it includes chapters on colonial criticism, gay and lesbian criticism, and other often neglected ways of reading texts. I am looking forward to this interesting read on the plane back to Leipzig.)
Of course, I have already indulged in several prerequisites to re-acculturation: one meal in a Mexican restaurant, several visits to Starbucks, one evening at La Madeleine French country restaurant, and today a meal at the California Pizza Kitchen. And, Half Price Book Store has already seen my face.
So, do you notice a trend here? What typifies my time here?
So, to the people: Of course, I see my family daily, since I am staying at my mother’s place. And the depths of the past have divulged friends not seen for ages. Saturday I was in a music store when out of the corner a female voice called my first and last name – it was LuAnne, an old friend from high school band, who I hadn’t seen for ten years! Then yesterday the pastor of my mother’s church dropped by; I have known him since I was 17. And today I had lunch with a friend I have known since I was 14. These meetings underscore the degree of change my life has experienced. As positive as such meetings – chance and planned – are, they have only highlighted how several years of life in another country change you. And yet I realize that most of my time here will not be spent with all the people I used to know in those woebegone days of yesteryear. So many people have moved on without enough desire for keeping in touch to precipitate successful attempts to contact me.
So, is there only family and Starbucks, Half Price Books, Pizza and Mexican restaurants and shopping, and playing the piano and running three times a week? Yes, this is “Jammern auf hohem Niveau” in Germany, or “high level complaing in English, but even this very act belies the European existentialism that has infiltrated my personality, for the American would say, “so what? Just have fun and don’t sweat the small stuff! If you don’t see those people now, who knows what the future will bring?” Okay, lets Americanize – for now – and just enjoy the moment. We are having fine weather, after all, and all are in good health. And I am thankful for these things…
I hope you – wherever you are – are also having a good and safe holiday season.

Your
Euromark, who is at the moment, well, “Texomark.” P.S. Es tut mir leid, aber ich bin im Augenblick überhaupt nicht gelaunt, Deutsch zu schreiben. Also müßt ihr euch mit English abquälen. Wenn das ein Problem bereitet, dann ruft mich einfach an :-) !

I'll be home for Christmas / Weihnachten Daheim...

I’ll be home for Christmas…

…as the melancholy song goes. Tuesday will be a long day – getting up at 3:30 am. and taking the first tram at 4:15 am. to the airport. The flight leaves at six for Frankfurt, and then from Frankfurt 11 hours to Dallas Fort Worth airport. Then 21 days of the Metroplex and ultimate individualistic free market enterprise. It will be good and important to be with family during these three weeks when most of my courses are on pilot light phase anyway. I will also have some time to see a few friends in the Dallas – Fort Worth area and maybe even in Central Texas. Since I have no car of my own, and I have much to do for my mother, I may only have one very quick trip to central Texas.
I am now one month short of living in Leipzig for four years. These have been four of the best years of my life, and it keeps getting better. While I look forward to seeing my “home” and family again, to sleeping in the bedroom that has been mine since I was 3 years old, my life in Texas seems more and more a part of the past as Germany becomes more and more my home. I will notice new slang expressions in American English that are strange to me, new devices and products, new stores, and new people in the lives of friends, just as there are many new words and people in my life: I don’t speak normal American English anymore, and all of my friends here are Germans. Did you know that no American (besides me) has ever been in my current apartment? That’s okay; it simply underscores the dichotomy in my life. So I am packing my baggage to take a short trip to the place I grew up in; the milieu that “hard wired” my personality, even though my Texas accent is gone without a trace. After tarrying long enough to make my luggage smell American, I’ll whiz back to Germany and open my suitcase and smell the aroma of Texas and of my mother’s house and wonder where it all went…

So, let this be a lesson to all of us: as with so many things in life, the good and the bad are often intertwined; we decide which threads will dominate, which melodies will climb above the others and establish the dominant themes.

Na so was: man soll sich ja darauf freuen, die Heimat wieder zu sehen. Ja, Freude ist da, aber ich bin vielfach einfach unentschlossen, denn ich bin beinahe 4 Jahre in Leipzig, und das sind die schönsten Jahre meines Lebens bisher, und es wird momentan, mindestens, nur besser (bin ja Ami und muss ja optimistisch sein…). Wer diese Sätze lesen kann, versteht wohl das Gefälle: die alten Freunde in den USA melden sich schon längst nicht mehr, und ich muß immer emsig nach jemandem suchen, der mich vom Flughafen in Dallas abholt: willkommen zuhause! Bei meiner Mutter habe ich viele nützliche Aufgaben: Hecken schneiden, Blätter rechen, Rasen mähen, Fenster und Gitter putzen, Autos putzen, im Hause putzen, Garage a bissl entrümpeln, und dann auch schön in Dallas shoppen, Postkarten an die Freunde in Leipzig, Pirna, und Lübeck schicken, Geschenke für meine Lieben in Deutschland finden – das macht alles Spaß, aber viel von diesen 21 Tagen besteht nur daraus, dass ich Sachen für andere mache. Das ist schon in Ordnung, aber wer die deutschen Urlaubssitten kennt, weiß, dass hier keiner den Urlaub plant, in dem er hauptsächlich nur Dinge für andere macht. Und so steht die Welt für mich jetzt Kopf: alle hier wollen scheinbar irgendwie in die USA, womöglich endgültig, aber ich fühle mich sehr wohl hier in Mitteleuropa. Mal schauen, wie ich bis Mitte Januar schreibe. Bis dann würde ich mich auf Beiträge von euch freuen, in denen ihr so eure Erfahrungen oder einfach Sicht der Dinge mal mitteilt. Danke fürs Lesen und Schreiben!

Six Weird Things About Me (Really?)

Well, Aggie in New Zealand has tagged all who read her blog, so I'll respond. Do you think I'm weird? First of all, I must mention a caveat: “weird” is in the eye of the beholder; what is weird to you may be – yawn – boring to me, or plane Jane normal. Sorry, if your name in Jane.

Number One: I love to eat a big long slow candle-light breakfast in my sleeping clothes with lots of hot tea, even with a glass of Champagne to go with it. I feel like I’m in Heaven. It can last an hour or two, as long as the company and conversation is good, no problem… (The NZ people among us would probably prefer the Champagne breakfast by candle-light au natural, but I’ll not betray whether that would interest me or not….)
Number Two: It is wonderful to go running through the forest in the winter when the snow is deep; I imagine I’m an elf in a Lord of the Rings movie running to Lothlorien.
Number Three: I cannot sleep late in my own apartment, because I know there are too many things I have to do (cleaning, taking care of plants, translations, practicing the piano, friends, etc.). But, I can sleep very late when I am visiting somewhere else and don’t have to get up early, though I will gladly get up early for breakfast as I describe in #1 above.
Number Four: I love to play the piano or sing in the dark – who needs the distraction of things you see? I can concentrate on the music better.
Number Five: I hate house cleaning, but I hate a dirty apartment even more, so I clean very fast, and I absolutely detest dirty door handles and light switches, so they all get a wipe down once a week from me with a cleanser.
Number Six: I have to listen to music on my big stereo while I take a shower – it makes showering much more aesthetic.

Florian in Lübeck

When the beer glass is empty, you can only smile... :-)
This is my friend Florian in Lübeck, a city on the Baltic Sea coast. We originally met via blogs on the internet, which is sometimes not the best way to run across dependable people, but after a few emails we both quickly saw that we had met someone who was not flakey. He is finishing his schooling and already has a job lined up – a smart guy – for the beginning of February in Lübeck. He speaks excellent English after having spent a year of high school in the Midwest, and he is active in a theatre club in Lübeck as well as in a charity organization for AIDS help. He is also a talented artist – drawing – and a gifted rollerskater. So what else is special about this guy? So much, but one thing sticks out above all else for me: whether in an email or in a conversation, he has the ability to make you relax and feel like time has stopped. This is very helpful, because Germans are always on a schedule, making shortness of time a chronic situation here. Thank you, Florian, for your gentle spirit, making time stand still.

Friendship in Germany

Friends in the kitchen preparing a meal...
Many from the USA notice the more serious or even bored expressions on people’s faces in Europe. Yes, Americans smile and laugh all the time, and most people over here admire this easy-goingness in the USA. But these traits do not exist by themselves; they are manifestations of substantial ways of interfacing with people in groups and as individuals.
In the USA I think Will Rogers said it best, “I never met a man I didn’t like.” And in Germany you have the phrase “Trust is good, but control is better.” Since I am probably writing for a predominantly American audience (Verzeih mir bitte, die Ihr dies lesen könnt!) I will focus on the German aspects here. The American tends to be open and curious; isn’t it cool to meet new people and find out new things! Well, yes it is, of course. But many here often think, “Who knows what kind of a person this really is; I don’t want to start something I will regret later!” And, in Germany we pay much more attention to detail, especially in dealing with people. Your conversation partner will notice everything you say and everything you don’t say, and your body language, voice inflection, posture, clothing style, it is all registered and stored to help construct their dossier of you. Then, when you have down time alone, you sift through the dossier and come to decisions, whether you want to get to know the person better or leave it at more of a distance. Then, if you decide to move closer, and if you are on a last name basis (using the formal form of address), you offer your first name and the informal form of address to the person. If you were already using first names, then you usually tell some detail about yourself or use a more special greeting with the person. This is an important barrier you cross, because this is now a relationship of trust and mutual support – you are both friends – a word used carefully here. This can sometimes require months, and sometimes some difficult situations in which you don’t know if you should venture more openness or stay reserved.
In a friendship much more openness on both sides is assumed, and this includes the readiness to criticize each other’s actions. But one thing is critical: a friend will stand by a friend to the end, regardless of what may come. This means that in test situations some will cheat helping their friends to pass a test. In socialist East Germany your friends warned you about spies and helped you find food and goods you could not get otherwise. And so, the outside world is brutal, cold, and you don’t know the people or what they want, so you don’t give them anything to use against you, which also means you don’t smile in many situations. Here control is better; you control yourself and keep distance from others. When you meet a friend, trust takes over: the greeting makes it obvious that these are friends: the personal space is closer, they may even touch each other longer, and always start by asking and telling in detail how they are doing.
It was difficult for me in the beginning; you traverse a great distance going from stranger to acquaintance to friend here. While I still value the openness of American society, I cannot imagine my life without the friends I have and am making in Germany, for they are what make life here so special and rewarding for me.

The Greatest Christmas Gift

Said Irenaeus, over 1600 years ago: "In his incomprehensible love for us he became as we are, so that we might be as he is."
This is ultimate love and friendship: identifying completely with the other person and sharing in each other, by which both persons become more themselves rather than being taken up into the other person. In other words, gaining your true self by losing it in the other person. There is no greater gift than this.

Belated Thanksgiving in the Peace of the Forest...

What a wonderful weekend I’ve had! Let me tell you about it…
Friday evening my friends from Pirna arrived, and we walked to a restaurant on my street, tried it for the first time. Its name is Waldfrieden, or “peace of the forest.” Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. It’s one of those restaurants. Walk in and you peer through the smoke to see really eclectic décor: old branches on the wall, every window styled differently, the bar “wallpapered” with old beer caps. And the place was full with people straight out of the old GDR socialist East Germany. A young guy from Poland sat on a makeshift stage and strummed guitar and sang the likes of “I don’t get no satisfaction”. He played and sang quite well, but I don’t think he had seen a bar of soap in a while. The help behind the bar was dressed in gothic with wavy long black hair halfway down the back. A little black puppy dashed among the tables and a cat meandered through the chairs. A rather old and extremely overweight drunk man kept asking in a loud voice if the guy would sing old folk songs from East Prussia and Danzig. So the waitress came, and I asked for the menu. “I am the menu” she said. She wanted to know what I wanted to eat, and they simply fixed it. So I had a dark Budweiser (the real thing from Czech. Republic) and food, and my friends had mineral water and a cola, and the whole bill was 9 Euros, a really good deal.
Saturday evening we were 10 people sitting at my table to have a belated Thanksgiving meal. What was the menu? Turkey baked in champagne (I did eat meat for this one meal), dressing, corn-sweet-potato pudding, lettuce salad with raisins, soy beans and balsamic vinegar, and home-made pumpkin pie. And a pino grigio from north Italy gave the perfect white wine for the event. Both Saturday and Sunday we were at the Christmas Market in Leipzig city centre to have hot spiced wine, Christmas goodies, and just walk through all the booths.
A note from my previous post: the odor problem has thankfully all but vanished. I think it may have been stress related. I have come to terms with the conflict that may have caused it, even though the other party has not yet started communicating. (More on communication and friendship in Germany later: it’s different than in the USA…)

Summer in November and stinky days...

Here I am on my balcony this afternoon, November 26, in Germany. Unbelievable, that it's so warm that I can wear summer attire!
Hello everybody!

Sorry I haven’t been around much. It’s been very busy. The last weekend (of Nov. 16) had me at a birthday party on Friday until 3:30 am. on Saturday morning, not the usual fare for me. This past week has been full of good work, and yesterday, on Saturday evening, I was at another birthday party from 5 pm. until midnight, and the trio I am in played at the event, where about 60 people were present. Next Saturday I am celebrating Thanksgiving belatedly, having 10 people over for a big meal, so this week will have lots of preparations for that. So what else moves us here?

Weather:
It is unseasonably warm here, with highs in the mid 60s, or about 16 Centigrade, where the normal high is more like 5 Centigrade, or the lower 40s. So I go jogging in my shorts and can sit out in the deck in summer attire, as this photo from today attests. Being a Texan, this weather makes me think I’m home. Germans are concerned about growing insect plagues since they think the critters will not be killed in this mild winter.

Body:
Something very strange has happened beginning Friday. I started getting bad cases of body odor, really piercing. I’ve never had this problem before. And nothing has changed in my life: same food, drink, same shower gel, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, always clean clothes, etc. It’s not hot, and I run just like I always do. So, help me with ideas. Maybe the water has changed? Is the feng shui here not flowing right? Is the karma going out my darma? Is this another round of puberty I’m about to go through? Well, my sex drive could use a boost, so why not? It’s been dead pan alley anyway, so maybe my body is trying to kick-start hormones, and I’ll start attracting more of the people I’ve always wanted…. In one relationship I am having a big conflict that started on Friday, so maybe the stress from this has changed my body chemistry, especially since the odor problem started the same day the conflict started. This last possibility seems to be the only plausible connection, but the possibility of a correlation does not demand a correlation.

I wish you all a pleasant smelling week with warm sun…

Your faithful Euromark

Almost Four Years of Leipzig and Saxony

The Saxon Switzerland - the mountains close to Pirna south of Dresden - matchless
A photo from a little earlier with Steve and I - I've lost weight since ...
Steve and Marita a little earlier - they've gain weight since :-)
What a wonderful weekend. Friday I was on the train at 4:40 pm. Going to Pirna, just south of Dresden. Friday evening had Steve and Marita and I in the bowling alley for two hours. Then, on Saturday, we were in Dresden shopping and eating in Dresden Neustadt, a colourful and somewhat interesting part of that city. Sunday had us in Schipkau in Brandenburg for a St. Martin’s Day meal – my patron, so to say – and for the birthday celebration of Thomas, a relative of Steve and Marita.
Entschuldigt, bitte, das ich schon lange nichts mehr auf Deutsch schreibe, aber ich habe den Eindruck, niemand, der diesen Blog liest, braucht diese Sprache. Bitte, meldet euch, wenn es euch lieber ist, auch mal was auf Deutsch zu lesen! Freitag bis Sonntag war ich in Pirna, Dresden, und Schipkau in Brandenburg. St. Martinsgans war So. angesagt, und der Thomas hatte dann anschließend zum Kaffee und Kuchen zu seinem Geburri eingeladen. Sa. waren Steve, Marita, und ich in Dresden zwecks Geschenke kaufen und haben auch mexikanisch gegessen.
Soon I will have been in Leipzig-Saxony for four years – hard to believe. With the exception of some disgusting turmoil at the very beginning – that had nothing with Germany to do, these have been some of the most peaceful and happy years of my life, and I hope this serendipity continues. I think I will begin a series in my blog now, several posts introducing you to some of the people who have made – and are still making – my life here so wonderful. Please read one of my first posts on my friend and roommate Sebastian to find one of the main persons responsible for my happiness here.
Steve and Marita in Pirna also play a major role in my life here “over the rainbow”. This mother-son team is almost like a second family to me. I hope you get to know them someday, if you haven’t already. I am very thankful to Steve, Marita, and Sebastian for their friendship and love. There are a number of other people who also play important roles; more in Leipzig, in a few other parts of Saxony, in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), in Lübeck up by the Baltic Sea, and even in England. I’ll introduce you to them in the near future.
Demnächst verjährt sich mein Leben in Leipzig in Sachsen – vier Jahre im Februar 2007! Mit der Ausnahme von einigen Schreckenserlebnissen am aller Anfang – die mit Deutschland nichts zu tun hatten – gehören diese Jahre zu den schönsten und glücklichsten meines Lebens, und ich hoffe darauf, dass diese Glückseligkeit hört nicht auf. Wer nur das Deutsche versteht, kennt schon Sebastian, Steve, und Marita, und weiss, warum sie eine Schlüsselrolle in meinem Leben hier spielen. Ich berichte demnächst über die Anderen, and auch Schlüsselrollen in meinem Leben hier spielen, und die sind u.a. zu finden in Leipzig, Sachsen, den Erzgebirgen, Lübeck, und sogar England.

Prague: the Golden City / die goldene Stadt

What splendour! This was where the Emporer of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations throned in the Middle Ages.
Here I am in the blinding sunlight at the Moldau River with the Hradchin Castle and Cathedral behind me.
The view of the city from the Hradchin castle.
Close to Heaven: I'm enjoying a Czech beer from the keg (Pilsner Urquell) in a famous Prague restaurant.
A session style buidling
Sebastian standing in front of the main town square with the old church behind him
In the Jewish Quarter (do you see me there to the right?)
On the Charles Bridge looking toward the Hradchin Castle and St. Veit's Cathedral.
One end of the famous Charles Bridge
Some say this is the most beautiful city of Europe. I haven’t seen one more beautiful yet. No WWII bombings here, so all the mediaeval structures have survived. Prague was once the seat of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations – or the most important city of the Occident. So many churches, cloisters, castles; here baroque splendour reigns in ornate sanctuaries. Yet Prague is perhaps the world capital for art nouveau architecture. Here there are many coffee houses, bars, and clubs in this fin de siècle style. I bought a book about Prague cafés listing the 45 most famous cafés, meaning there are many more.

The city is completely overrun with tourists, and I contributed to this. Since I am short, in such crowds I only see shoulders and necks, and I don’t have to go to Prague to see such sights. The poor citizens of Prague; they cannot enjoy their own city, and the prices are certainly too high for many of them to afford. The “old city” is a jewel, but go to the “new city” or the train station Holesovice to see normal every day life. Here the bleakness of Soviet Block architecture is still very evident. The music life of Prague is very active. I was at a jazz club, Agharta, Monday evening, which was the highlight of the trip. I heard a modern jazz group with Czech flutist Jiri Stivin; it was perfection. I ate twice at Café Café, a place where Johnny Depp has been, and supposedly – as I found out after the fact from a tourist guide – also a hang out for the gay scene, though I only found a few indices of this: one BW photo on the wall of a guy wearing only an unbuttoned shirt and obviously read for action, and a preponderance of young good looking waiters. When I returned to Germany Tuesday evening I felt like I was back home, since I could understand everything I was hearing. By the way, every train on the German side of the border was very late on this trip, but the Czech trains were all on time, so how’s that for a reversal of typical stereotypes?
If you stand on the east side of the Moldau and look up to the castle complex with the Charles bridge below, you see one of the most beautiful architectural buffets Europe can offer. Add the soft sunlight of autumn and a chill in the air, and you will never want to leave that spot. As for me, I’ll be back to Prague often, since it only takes about three hours from Leipzig to get there. Who will go with me next time?

Divine Mandate and Humility / Der göttliche Auftrag und Selbstüberschätzung

“God has called me to…” These are serious and powerful words used with ever greater frequency in the public square. Albeit they often take on other forms: this is God’s way to…, God’s word calls us to…, God approves of…. In some way a person or group claims a divine authority, or mandate, for their actions, and this makes their actions correct by definition. Perhaps this divine sanction of their actions is indeed valid. Yet unfortunately, this claim often serves as a license to place oneself above the scrutiny of any other instance of authority. If God approves of this, so the reasoning, then how can any part of this be wrong, or how can any aspect of this need the approval or permission of any other person or party? And so the claim to divine sanction can lead to a complete refusal to continue to admit that the human condition continues to reign in the hearts and minds of those claiming divine sanction for their actions. In other words, if God authorizes them, then they cannot make mistakes, especially concerning these actions to which God has called them, and they need no person or instance of authority to critique or check and balance their actions. Yet the human condition means that we do indeed make mistakes, fall short of what we were meant to be, even if God has called us to take some action. Read any of the stories in the Bible of great heroes of faith called by God; all of them continued to make mistakes and sometimes failed miserably. There is one and only one notable exception: Jesus. The very essence of a call from God to action must have the ongoing and growing realization of the fallibility of the person called as an immanent component of this calling. This realization and its manifestation in one’s conduct are often called humility.
Some world leaders may claim divine mandate and act unilaterally, thinking they need no checks and balances. Some church leaders may claim the same and extinguish reciprocity in their relationships with their flock; information flows to them and power from them. Some family leaders may cite divine sanction as blinders making them oblivious to brokenness they unknowingly support as they dismiss criticism as a refusal to accept the divine mandate for their power.
Yet power is perfected in weakness, and truly great leadership means being a slave to others, i.e. finding out what they really need by listening to them speak and then providing them their needs.
I think it is quite elegant that the resurrected Jesus was usually not recognized by his followers. The servant aspect of his leadership was so perfected that even those who knew him best saw nothing spectacular in him – until he prayed or broke bread with them. Then he quickly vanished in front of them.
These kinds of leaders who realize their divine mandate to the truest extent are still present, but we will never see them in the limelight, for they are much too busy helping and listening to have time to beat the drum about their divine mandate.

Autumn Weekends /Herbstwochenenden

Die Straße hinter mir/the street behind my apartment house in Fall color
Here you see a little of my car on the lower right/Ein Zipfel von meinem Auto rechts
Hier verläuft die Grenze zwischen Stadt und Vorstadt/the city opens up a little here
The view from my east balcony in the Fall/Aussicht vom Balkon vorne im Herbst
Two wonderful weekends past and future: The past weekend I was invited to Oliver and Catharina’s for a French evening. Since she grew up in Paris, the meal was matchless; several courses and wine to accompany each dish. Then fresh cheeses and finally a fruit tart with meringue to close the meal. After the evening was over, I realized the three of us had finished off three bottles of white wine – one per person. I hadn’t noticed, since the meal was so superb. Saturday evening had me in the festive hall of the Leipzig Old City Hall (Old means from the 15th century) for a concert of the New Bach Collegium Musicum Leipzig. They performed several of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, considered watershed pieces for establishing conventions of music. This orchestra performs standing; there are no chairs, and the musicians sway and bend with the music, so it is almost like watching a dance as you listen. Georg Philip Telemann founded the Collegium Musicum in 1701, and J.S. Bach continued it, and this group often performed under Bach in the very hall in which we experienced this concert on Saturday. What a matchless opportunity!
On Friday I leave for Prague for an extended weekend, since Oct. 31 is a holiday – Reformation Day – and I am taking Monday off. Prague is a unique city, and four days is only enough to whet the appetite. So many castles, churches, museums, art nouveau cafes, clubs, bars, shops, and cozy narrow European streets. On Monday evening I will hear a live concert of jazz flutist Jiri Stivins at the club Agartha in Prague. I will also have a Czech beer in Café Café, a club where Johnny Depp and Bruce Willis have also relaxed. And all of this is happening during a beautiful autumn. We are having mild weather, and the leaves are turning beautiful colors now, so Prague will be a painter’s landscape this weekend.
For those now celebrating Reformation Day, but trick or treating, be safe and do not eat too much candy! I’ll think of you while I enjoy Czech beer, wine, and coffee surrounded by art nouveau…

More Autumn Splendour/ Noch etwas Herbstpracht

Two young daddies help their kids with Stockbrot and the adults toast.../Zwei vorbildliche Väter geben Ratschläge zum Stockbrotbacken.. und die anderen heben die Flaschen...
A critical assessment of the taste/der Geschmack wird kritisch überprüft, während die Erwachsenen bloß zugucken...
Smoke gets in your eyes...? Räucheraugen?
Lets dance /Aufforderung zum Tanz
Die Brücke in der Johanna Park - in herbstlicher Pracht
Finally - blogger is in the mood to upload photos, so here are the childred roasting "Stockbrot" at the fire, while the adults enjoy good German beer, red wine, or Federweisser (a fresh white wine just bottled and still undergoing fermentation). Finally, at the bottom, a beautiful view of the tallest buildings in Leipzig's city centre with a beautiful wooden bridge in the park. This is also a Fall photo from mid-October.

Autumn Splendour/ Herbstpracht

The Fall Festival at Sasha and Melanie's place
Lots of meat for meat eaters...
The view of fog from my living room door
My foggy street seen from my bedroom
A pavillion in a Leipzig park in the Fall
Light and shadow playing at a bridge
A red tree - how beautiful
Wonderful – such inspiring scenery this time of year. Fog and waning sunlight brings new paintings to light every day in autumn in Central Europe. The colour of the leaves deepen and change often, and hues of blue, grey, and gold frame the landscape. Enjoy these fotos with me as you walk through the streets and gardens of Leipzig.
Saturday – yesterday- evening was the Fall Festival at Melanie and Sasha’s place, so I had my camera along to catch the fun. The children love Stockbrot – bread on a stick that they “bake” over an open fire. We celebrated from 5 pm. Until almost 1 am. Unfortunately blogger refuses to upload any more fotos at the moment, so I can't give you two fotos of the children roasting bread on a stick. So sorry.
Herrlich – der Herbst liefert immer gute Kulissen für Gemälde um diese Jahreszeit. Nebel und die zur Neige gehende Sonne offenbart neue Kunstwerke täglich. Die Blätter ändern sich ständig, und Schattierungen von grau, blau, und gold umrahmen die Landschaft. Mögen eure Augen diese Fotos so geniessen wie sie in Wirklichkeit schön sind.
Sonnabend war Herbstfest bei Melanie und Sascha. Die Kinder lieben Stockbrot. Wir haben von 18 Uhr bis 1 Uhr gefeiert.
I hope your weekend was also colourful and festive.

Castle Concert, Handball and Eating in Bed...

Here we are ready to go in for the game on October 3
Leipzig (Yellow) beat Nürnberg
Now we're in Sol y Mar "eating in bed" as it were...
We needed two beds - psychiatry people are like that...

Steve and Marita in the castle garden at the Gohlis Schlößchen
Steve and I in the garden (Steve is sporting his new purchase from Karstadt - a heavy coat much too warm for the weather on that day).
How does Autumn approach in central Europe? You slowely migrate inside, and take on indoor activities. The beginning of October has demonstrated this. Tuesday last week, a holiday in Germany, Day of German Unity, gave the chance to watch ladies’ handball in Leipzig. Leipzig played against Nuremburg and won (!). I and my friends from psychiatry went to the game, and afterwards we went to Sol y Mar, I unique restaurant. When you call to reserve there, they ask you, “for sitting or for lying?” Sol y Mar has very big beds with lots of pillows, so you can lie and dine on tables in the middle of the bed. Of course, you can also dine traditionally at rattan tables and sit on rattan chairs. Since we were seven, we needed two beds for all of us. (Must have room to negotiate…) New age music plays in the background, and candles cast flickers shadows as they illuminate the palm trees dispersed throughout this minimalist restaurant.
This past weekend was a glorious autumn present, with sunshine and mild fall temperatures. Steve and Marita, my dear friends from Pirna, came for the weekend, and on Saturday we devoted the afternoon to the grand opening of Karstadt, the major German department store which has an 8 story huge store now in Leipzig. Sat. evening we dined at a street restaurant in the Barfussgässchen, a famous street in the city centre, then went to the movies (“the Perfume” was our choice, and we liked it). Sunday we were at a baroque castle in Gohlis to the north of Leipzig for a piano concert. Haydn, Beethoven, Satie, and Chopin were performed, and we made these charming photos in the castle gardens. Notice the quality of the sunlight in the middle of the afternoon in the photos. The sun is lower and weaker now, so it doesn’t get any brighter than this right now, and it will only get weaker until December 21, when the days start getting longer. It was a wonderful weekend and the conclusion of a wonderful week. My mother is doing better, so that was more than the icing on the cake (oder das Sahnehäubchen auf Deutsch). Thanks for remembering my mother.

au revoir lake!

Entering the forest, you ride through this treescape/Einfahrt in den Wald
Einige Birken winken freundlich/a few birch trees wave friendly...
Over the river /über den Fluss
Eine niedliche Brücke / a cute pedestrian bridge
Getting closer to the lake now
Finally I've arrived/ Endlich am See angekommen
Some of the last braver sunworshipers
The view to the south toward Markkleeberg
Autumn is arriving in eastern Germany, sort of, that is. The last weekend in September I went to my lake for the last time this year. They sun is getting weaker by the day, and the water is getting much cooler. At this latitude you understand why the ancient Europeans worshiped the sun as a deity: the sun moves radically across the sky from above you in the summer to low over the southern horizon in the winter, and the sunlight has a different quality. Now it is a soft golden light you never see in Texas, because we are too far south.
For my last trip to the lake I took my digital camera along for some farewell photos for this year. Here you see the view of the lake and the path I take on my bike to get there, all in all about 10 minutes by bike from my apartment. It is so peaceful to lie in the sun, go swimming, and then just read for several hours. Oh, Aggie, concerning drinking customs, water is standard, of course, but many also bring along good German beer to drink. Since alcohol is a diuretic, I avoid it at the lake. If the temperature isn’t too high, I bring coffee along and have afternoon coffee on the lake. In the heat I only drink water and eat fresh fruit and maybe some walnuts.
Now concerning my last two weeks: it has been busy. I’ve translated subtitles for a documentary film on schizophrenia. Sunday I was in a concert in a small baroque castle in north Leipzig; solo piano playing Mozart and Liszt. Today, Tuesday, is a federal holiday in Germany, day of German unity, so I have time to blog (!).
Finally, I got a call from my mother last week. She told me she was home from the hospital now. Of course, I knew nothing about anything. It seems she was having very irregular heart beats (atrial fibrillation), so she spent several days in ICU and then two days in a normal hospital room. As of today she’s been home for a whole week, and she is slowly getting better, but she has a big variety of medication to take every day. This is harrowing, of course, since over here on the other side of the world I can’t do much for her other than call her every day. Thankfully my brother is there, so that helps, but I still know the moral imperative on me to do my part. Looks like my next visit to Texas may be filled with much work in her home. What do you listen to in such situations? Right now it’s the violin concerto of Tschaikovsky in a CD of the London Symphony Orchestra with Vadim Repin on the violin. It’s Erato CD # 4509-98537-2, and I recommend it. Please think about me as you listen.

Sehnsucht/Longing - Film Saturday in Leipzig

A perfect relationship, as all would think... Eine perfekte Beziehung, so stellen sich alles das vor...
Yet fate pulls them apart /Doch das Schicksal reisst sie auseinander...
Ein Mann und eine Frau leben in einem Dorf in der Nähe von Berlin. DieStadt scheint weit weg zu sein. Sie lieben sich seit Kinderzeiten. Unzertrennlich.Beide sind nun Ende zwanzig. Er ist Schlosser und Mitglied der freiwilligenFeuerwehr. Sie arbeitet ein paar Stunden in der Woche als Haushaltshilfeund singt im Chor. Von anderen werden sie staunend und misstrauischbeäugt, da sie so glücklich scheinen, unangetastet von den Reibereien desAlltags. Unschuldig und manchmal ahnungslos wie zwei Kinder. Als derMann eines Tages mit der Feuerwehr auf eine Dienstreise in eine größereStadt geht, wacht er nach einer durchzechten Nacht in der Wohnung einerfremden Frau auf und kann sich nur an wenig erinnern. Als er versuchtherauszufinden, was geschehen ist, ist das der Anfang einer leidenschaftlichenAffäre... Der erste abendfüllende Spielfilm von Valeska Grisebach erzählt eine ungewöhnlicheLiebesgeschichte, deren melodramatische und märchenhafteAnklänge sich in einer realistischen, manchmal dokumentarisch anmutendenWeise spiegeln. Der Konzeption vorausgegangen sind ausgiebigeVideo-Recherchen über die Lebenswirklichkeit und private Befindlichkeitvon 30-Jährigen im Raum Berlin-Brandenburg. Aus diesem Material hatValeska Grisebach ihre Geschichte und die Figuren destilliert.


“A husband and wife live in a village close to Berlin, but the city seems far away. They have been in love since childhood, inseparable and going on 30 yrs. Old. He is a locksmith and in the volunteer fire department. She works a few hours a week cleaning houses and sings in a choir. Others in the village are amazed and look suspiciously at this pair, since they seem to be so happy and untouched by the normal problems of daily life. They seem innocent and unsuspecting like two children. When the husband, Markus, has to go on a longer assignment with the fire department in a bigger city, he wakes up after a night of wild celebrating in the apartment of a woman he doesn’t know and cannot remember anything. When he tries to find out what happened, a passionate affair ensues…
This first longer film from Valeska Grisebach tells an unusual love story, whose melodramatic and fairy-tale-like resonance it mirrored in a realistic almost documentary style. This concept and film was preceded by thorough video research on the reality of daily life personal fears and anxiety of people about 30 years old in the area around Berlin. Valeska Grisebach distilled her story and dramatic figures from this material.”

This evening I went to the movies at the Cinemathéque in der NaTo. This is an excellent film that creates tension and story line without the help of a soundtrack, i.e. without music composed as a background for the action and emotions. My experiences in small towns in Brandenburg (I have never woken up anywhere I didn’t plan to… though) are in line with these scenes – the public scenes, that is – depicted in this film. You are in small town East Germany Brandenburg in this film and you feel so sorry for this husband and wife. Yet one also wonders where the close friends of Markus were to help him process his problems and work them out. Fate can sometimes seem to block out the possibility of stepping in and stopping the spiral to turn things around. While the USA may be the land of the new beginning and the frontier mentality, much of the rest of the world sees fate and your position in life and society as forces one cannot battle with, and these motifs also play a role in this film. This could be a real story, and this is a film with no hero and no villain, as it often is in real life. This is from Rommel Films and was produced in 2006. Der Film ist sicher überall in Deutschland zu sehen, in Leipzig in der Cinematheque NaTo. I do not know if the film is available with English subtitles or in a dubbed version. Can someone find out?

The Rest of East Prussia et al. /Der Rest von Ostpreussen et al.

Quite a calandrom here on top of the church tower in Marienwerder

In Chojnice Steve played Addams Family while I marveled at the marbles
The view from the church tower in Marienwerder - the countryside of my great grandparents
Notice the holy fear on my face while Evelyn turns to stone - it was awe inspiring
Dear Gentle Readers,

I thank you for your patience, as the last two weeks have been overflowing. But we’ve been having excellent weather… and that’s part of my reason for absence from blogland. I’ve visited my lake to lie in the sun and swim, and the Lady of the Lake did not find me… My contract with psychiatry came through, so now I free lance translations for them. The English classes at the airport will increase in the nearest future, and some private sessions also hop on the bandwagon, so that is good for my account, and I am happy, because I like my work and enjoy working with everyone at all of my jobs. Last Saturday evening Sebastian and I were at a concert in the Schumann-Haus. Robert Schumann, the famous composer, lived in Leipzig and composed a number of works here. The Schumann-Haus is the very home this composer lived in. Tuesday evening Tobias, a good friend from psychiatry, came over to visit, so we sat out on my west balcony, ate carrot ginger soup and a pasta creation with pine nuts, and we drank a Dornfelder red wine he brought along. It was excellent, and this wine comes from Saxony, I believe the northern most wine-growing region in the world. Thursday had me in Großpösna at Matthias’ place for music. Wieland, who normally is there on the cello, could not come, so we played Gabriel Fauré (moi au piano et Matthias flute) all evening and had a beer together afterwards (a good German tradition to drink a beer together). What bringeth the weekend? Tomorrow evening a concert in the Gohlis Schlößchen, a small baroque castle in north Leipzig with a charming castle garden. The concert will be open air in the garden, so all odors will waft away, but more importantly, a period baroque orchestra will play music of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, so I do indeed anticipate this event.
An meine milden biederen Leser,

Ich bedanke mich für eure Geduld während meiner Blogabwesenheit, denn in letzter Zeit ist es drüber und drunter gegangen. Aber wir haben herrliches Wetter gehabt, umso mehr Grund für meine Abwesenheit, denn ich bin schon das eine oder andere Mal zum See geeilt, um mich vorsorglich vor der dunklen Jahreszeit zu bräunen. Mein Honorarvertrag in der Psychiatrie hat geklappt, und der Englischunterricht am Flughafen nimmt in nächster Zeit zu, und einige Privatstunden runden den Spaß aus, so dass es meinem Konto gut geht, und es geht mir auch recht gut, denn mir gefällt die Arbeit, und ich komme mit den Menschen gut aus, mit denen ich tag-täglich zu tun habe. Sa. Letzte Woche waren Sebastian und ich im Schumann-Haus zum Konzert, in der Inselstrasse, in just dem Haus, in dem der besagte Herr gewohnt hat. Di. abend kam Tobias, ein Freund aus der Psychiatrie, zum Essen und Quatschen vorbei, so gab es auf dem Westbalkon Ingwer-Möhren Suppe und ein selbst-ausgedachtes Pastagericht mit Pinienkernen, und ein Dornfelder Rotwein untermalte den gemütlichen Abend bekömmlich. Do. war Musizieren in Großpösna. Wieland konnte nicht dabei sein, so, ohne Cello, spielten wir Fauré den ganzen Abend, mit Bier danach. Am WE findet im Gohliser Schlösschen im Schlossgarten ein Konzert statt, am Sa. Abend, und da ist Musik von Carl Philip Emanuel Bach zu höre. Da der Event open air ist, steigen alle Gerüche empor, und die Musik strahlt waagerecht, hoffe ich mindestens. Ich freue mich darauf… your Euromark