Cordless phones

They seem to be more common in Germany. Everyone still has a cell phone. But in German offices and businesses the landlines are all these nice, durable, little tiny thangs.

In my flat we have four cordless phones. But maybe we are unsual. We also have eight toothbrushes in our bathroom. And we live next to this weird rooster farm. But I should probably save that for another blog entry.

I first noticed all the cordless phones from the ubiquity of their 3-note arpeggio and chromatic scale rings. I hear these rings everywhere. Even in my dreams.

My hair is black

I went to one of the few hair salons in Bonn open past 1pm Saturday. It was a local chain called Unisex. I walked in and there was loud techno music playing. Every hairdresser had black and/or red spiked hair and lots of piercings. They danced and waved around their scissors as they cut people's hair. It looked like the floor had not been swept all day.

As soon as I sat down, a DJ got on the turntables next to me. I had to yell over him in broken German to let my hairdresser know what I wanted: "2" "zentimeter" (scissor motion). "Haar" "same" (point to 1-inch roots).

They showed me a hair sample that was really dark. I told them I thought that was not right. So then an "English speaking hairdresser" came over to translate.

He and I arrived at a conclusion that I found acceptable: "Hair according to my nature." I let him dye away.

When he took off the towel, my hair was jet black. "It's really dark," I said.

"Ja sure, that's just because it's wet." But then he dried it, and it was still black.

"This is not my natural color," I told him.

"Yes it is."

"I'm pretty sure it isn't," I said.

"Oh no, it is."

"I don't want it this dark," I told him.

"Oh don't worry. It is just temporary," he told me. "In a few weeks, it will be back to your natural hair."

Throwing a grenade

Zuzana consumed quite a bit of sugar and coffee in London. This was good because it helped her get through our 19-hour day. But it also made her very talkative. On our 10pm flight back she spoke at rapid pace about how much she loved sugar when she was a child growing up in Slovakia under communism, and how back then, even a banana was rare.

She then seamlessly segued into a description of how she was trained to fire a gun and throw a grenade when she was six years old in the communist era school. She didn't realize that this was atypical for Westerners until a German friend of hers marveled at how well she held a rifle from his gun collection.

Under communisim, school children fired actual guns, Zuzana said, but they did not throw actual grenades; they threw objects that were the size, shape and weight of grenades. If they did not throw the grenade-like objects more than 25 meters, they would get in trouble with their teachers.

I went to Koblenz and Dusseldorf last weekend

The rivalry between Dusseldorf and Cologne is funny. My flatmate from Cologne genuinely got angry with me when I told him I was going to Dusseldorf. I spent most of the day walking along the Rhine.

At Koblenz there was a cute little street fair (with spectacularly awful Renaissance fair music and American cover bands), as well as lots of old castles and churches, and a nice view from where the Rhine and Mosel rivers connect called Deutsches Eck. Eck means corner.

On the train ride back from Koblenz, a group of about 15 elderly men sat next to me and Lenka. Soon into our journey they began uncorking numerous bottles of wine. Each of them had a little wine glass that they carried in a leather case around their necks. When we looked over to see what all the clinking and laughter was about, they quickly approached us and hung drink glass necklaces around our necks. They had just returned from a weeklong visit to the Mosel Valley, which is famous for its Riesling wines.

By the end of the trip, they laughed at how much more willing we had become to speak German after a few glasses of wine.

Knock knock jokes

Today I told my Polish co-worker Piotrek the "Impatient Cow" knock knock joke. He laughed uproriously. It was great. I had never seen that kind of response to a Knock Knock joke.

Then he told me the "Mary Christmas" knock knock joke, but he could barely get through it without laughing.

Lenka couldn't quite grasp the format of the Knock Knock joke. But that is not her fault. The only ones I could think of were "Impatient Cow" and "Orange you glad I didn't say "banana?", both of which are more advanced. She kept saying "WHO banana???" And answering my "banana" by with "banana."

I can't wait to try more jokes on Piotrek. If you find any good ones, please send them my way.

Cabbage

Zee Germaans really do put sauerkraut on a lot of things - sandwiches, salads, pizza, etc. I love it. It is not like the cabbage in the States. The cabbage in the states tastes like diapers.

I am going to London Tuesday

I did not know this until my boss emailed me my flight itinerary. It is just for one day. I will be meeting representatives from a Jordanian real estate company.

Say WHAAAAAT?????

The Rhine is very quiet

It is very calming but a little strange. Even when you stand right by it, and there are big cargo barges passing by, you hear virtually nothing.

You have to walk right up to the water's edge to hear the river lapping at the outer banks.

On Saturday I rode my bike through Rheinaue - the park that runs along the Rhine from Bad Godesberg to nearby Beule. It is hands-down, without a doubt the most beautiful park I have ever been in. It is huge and filled with outdoor sculptures and descriptions of Germany's post World War II history (the "Path of Democracy.")

In Bonn it typically rains (or at least sprinkles) a little bit every day. While this is irritating when you are trying to ride your bike to work, it keeps the vegitation looking great. The grass and flowers in Rheinaue were practically glowing:

This splash of color is especially welcome because, with all the rain, the sky in Bonn is typically a darkish grey. When I took my parents to the Rhine the other week, it was raining. But then just before we got to the river, it stopped, and there was a full-sky, double rainbow, which I could not capture entirely in one picture:

Music and ornithology

As the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven, Bonn hosts frequent concerts. Right now is BeethovenFest.

I have attended two concerts related to BeethovenFest. The first was the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Breme at Beethovenhalle. It was excellent. The piano soloist in the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was one of the most agile I had ever heard. The piece was very exciting. After it was finished, several males in the audience belted out a series of hearty "BRAVOs!"

This is the statue outside Beethovenhalle:

Tonight I saw the Choir of King's College Cambridge perform at St. Martin's Basilica, right in the center of Bonn. I couldn't see very well from my seat, and at first I thought the soprano section sounded a little funny. But then I realized that it was composed of 5 to 8 year-old boys. They were good, but yikes!

After the concert I stopped by the Bonn town hall, where a free outdoor concert was about to begin.

I had never heard of the band "Tri Yann." But a crowd of eager fans was camped out in front of the stage waving flags and chanting. So I figured they had to be pretty good.

Promptly at 8pm a pirate, elf, powdered-wig-clad man and stork-like bird emerged with instruments. The stork outstreached his arms and basked in cheers from the adoring audience. I don't know how he balanced his absurdly large headdress.

They began singing something like a sea chantey. The audience (composed of seemingly sober adults) lit up, grabbing one another's hands and forming circles of "ring around the rosey."

My new flat

I have moved from Bad Godesberg to Bonn Poppelsdorf:

When describing the period during which Bonn was the capitol of West Germany, people often call Bonn a "sleepy university town."

If that's still true, then Bonn Popplesdorf is the sleepy university town within the sleepy university town. It is quiet, beautiful and filled with young people and bikes.

I found my place on the webstie WG-Gesucht, which seems to me like a more design-heavy, localized Craig's List. (Needless to say I don't understand most of the German writing on the website).

The room I am renting belongs to a University of Bonn graduate student who is doing a 3-month fellowship in La Jolla, California. He studies molecular biology and has a lot of big textbooks in his bedroom.

I have three other roommates - they are all blonde German grad students. They all speak English, are very nice, and one is even a part-time journalist!

Brussels

Things I did not like about Brussels:
1. The people who were there from some bizzare festival walking around on stilts and squirted tourists with a life-sized replica of the Mannequin Pis

2. The fact that animals (and people!) frequently "do their business" on the sidewalks, despite the 152 Euro fine for public (human) urination. No one cleans it up, so you have to look everywhere you walk and hold your nose.
3. The locals were less friendly than in Germany
4. The restauraunts were more expensive

Things I did like about Brussels:
1. My parents were there
2. The heart-shaped stop lights:

3. The famous architecture:



4. The boring, EU bureaucracy architecture:

5. The surprisingly interesting National Bank of Belgium Museum
6. The shoe store named after me:

(Sorry Greggles, that's the closest I can come to a picture of me right now!)

My parents come to visit!

Temporarily abandoning their status as the best two people in America, Rick and Jeanette Evans came last week to Bonn to visit.


They navigated trains and taxis completley on their own to get from Frankfurt airport to Bad Godesberg. My mom also surprised me with her knowledge of the German languguage. I guess my grandmother had spoken a lot of German, because she lived in Berlin for four years during and after WWII.

During the day, my parent explored Bonn. The last day they were here was their 26th wedding anniversary!


Then over the weekend, we took the train together to Brussels: