Adventures in Lüneburg

2008-02-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

Bremen Day-Trip

2007-07-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

After three weeks of crap weather, the gods finally smiled on northern Germany. It was sunny and 80°F all over Niedersachsen. So, Jess and I took a day trip to Bremen, a former Hanseatic league city and present-day independent federal state. It is is very nice town, a very easy day trip. We saw the windmill:

We walked around the market square and saw the Rathaus...

We walked around the flower market...

and St. Peter's Cathedral...

We were also harassed by a German dude with his toddler. He claimed that George Bush was a traitor, oil-man, and racist. His toddler kept asking "Wie heißt du" (Who are you/What is your name?). After extricating ourselves from that conversation, we meandered around the Schnoor district...

We ended the day with a bier at the Windmill.

A Tribute to Beavis

2007-07-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

I've been insanely busy the last few weeks with my dissertation. I've been writing as much as possible before my ma' and hubby arrive on August 1. I took a short break last Friday of sorts. I hosted a 4th of July party at my apartment - hamburgers, beer, cole slaw, and FIREWORKS! Matt risked the federal penitentiary by sending me a box stuffed full of sparklers, black cats, snaps, and poppers. See his handiwork:

I packed almost 20 people in my studio apartment. We blew up things and played poker until 2:30AM. And, I nearly burned off a knuckle trying to light a black cat with three sparklers:

More next week. I'm going to Bremen and the beach.

Kieler Woche

2007-06-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

I did the most important part of my Germany fieldwork last week - I recruited around 70 students and ran a pilot experiment in three different undergraduate courses. I was rather burnt out and looking forward to a weekend in the country.

So, I spent a fabulous three days in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany's northernmost region. Jess (a Canadian on fellowship at ZDEMO), Steffi (ZDEMO staffer), and I drove to Steffi's home city of Neumünster (around 90,000 folks) on Friday night. Neumünster is a working class town full of closed factories (including GE). Steffi's father worked at the city's brewery for many years, and her mother was an office worker. They treated us to a full-blown German breakfast every morning (rolls, jam, cheese, fresh fruit - yum!).

On Saturday, we went to Kiel for the parade of the windjammers. Kieler Woche is one of the biggest sailing events in the world, and definitely one of the biggest parties among the EU-member states. It is a 9-day affair with drinking, sailing, eating, and more drinking.

We spent Sunday in Plön, a town that is home to the Schloss Plön and situated on the Großer Plöner See. The castle was where some of the House of Hohenzollern princes received part of their education. It was a little piece of Switzerland in northern Germany.

Für meinen Mann

2007-06-18T09:56:00.001-07:00

Anyone got a bottle opener?

2007-06-17T05:40:00.000-07:00

Every German male over the age of 16 can open a beer bottle with just about anything - eating utensils, tables, counter tops, teeth, etc. In an attempt to neutralize the gender imbalance, I've been learning how to open my own beer bottles. This is quite a valuable skill because Germans don't usually drink beer from cans or screw-top bottles. The ZDEMO men find my ambition rather amusing, and they have been eager to teach me. So far, I can open any beer bottle with:

1) a cigarette lighter
2) a fork
3) a knife
4) a plastic 1L soda bottle (with the cap on)

and, my personal favorite...

5) a can of mushrooms

Ayyyy, matey!

2007-06-14T01:48:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, Henrike Schultze celebrated her 28th birthday. The party had a pirate theme. I brought "Fuzzy Pirates" (one part rum, one part peach schnapps, one part OJ), and some serious pirattitude.

Henrike, the birthday girl

Niko, her boyfriend

Uelzen

2007-06-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I spent approximately two hours in Uelzen, Niedersachen. The town is about half the size of Lüneburg, and, sadly, none of the charm. The "big" attraction is the Hundertwasser Bahnhof - the train station with a facelift by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a famous and controversial Austrian artist. Roughly translated, his name means "Peace-Kingdom Hundred-Water" (his original name was Friedrich Stowasser - clearly not cool enough). The guy was originally a painter and sculptor, but became especially famous later in life for his quirky building designs. Uelzen did not disappoint. Actually, it did. However, the train station is "sehr schön."

Blumen

2007-06-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

About two week ago, I received a dozen roses from mein Mann. The doorbell buzzed one Friday morning, and I was surprised because my ZDEMO colleagues would never stop by unannounced. I called the front door, and the person said he had a delivery for "Frau Vittrock." And, here is what I received:

Universität Hamburg - Zentralbibliothek Recht

2007-05-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

I spend Saturday in Hamburg with several colleagues from ZDEMO. We studied at the University of Hamburg's law library most of the day and spent the evening on the Reeperbahn. Talk about a contrast in subjects - from dissertation writing and German language coursework to nightclubs and prostitutes in the St. Pauli's district.

Movies and TV, May 2007

2007-05-28T02:22:00.001-07:00

To improve my German, I've been watching German-dubbed American movies and TV shows during the weeknights.

Here's a sampling of the best:

1) die Simpsons
2) Kindergarten Cop
3) Doktor House
4) die Matrix
5) Liebling, bleib so wie ich bin! (awful Australian rom-com)
6) Grey's Anatomy - Die jungen Ärzte
7) Quiz Taxi (actually, a German show)
8) mein neues Leben ("my new life" - my dose of reality TV)
9) Die Nanny

And, no top 10 list would be complete without...

10) der Knight Rider

pimp my Fahrrad

2007-05-24T00:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone in Lüneburg owns a bike. The buses stop around 8PM on weeknights and earlier on the weekends. If you live far away from the city center, as I do, then bar-hopping becomes a complicated and expensive endeavor. So, I bought a used bike.

This is not just any second-hand item. I saw a listing for "damen" and "herren" Fahrräder at the student bike shop, Konrad. I asked Axel (ZDEMO colleague) to make an appointment, and, on Wednesday, we traveled to the village of Wendisch Evern (approximately 7km southeast of Lüneburg). It is a tiny town with no more than 30 houses. The seller was a guy who likes to restore old bikes. He takes the good pieces of trashed bikes and assembles one functioning two-wheeler. So, I took the lady bike for a spin...and I almost crashed into his BMW. I had no idea the lady bikes were any different from a typical mountain bike or hybrid. I only thought they had fewer gears (around 3). In fact, the back pedal is a brake. After a couple failed attempts, I was pedaling around the village, acting like a 5 year old with my first set of wheels.

Fifty-five euros later, I was the proud owner of a mixed-breed Fahrrad.

am Markt

2007-05-20T02:04:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Lueneburg, shopping at the market and attending a birthday party for Holger Meyer (a recent Ph.D. on a post-doc at ZDEMO). Because I'm a farmers market enthusiast, I had to check out the Lueneburger variety. I must say, it knocks the socks off of anything I've attended in the states. It is not an especially large market - located in front of the Rathaus and the square is no bigger than half a football field. However, the vendors are packed in a perfect grid arrangement. The variety of food is overwhelming - there's an individual deli "truck" for all the meats, cheese and fish (i.e. lamb truck, poultry truck, etc.), and one vendor even specializes in potatoes (and nothing else). White asparagus is in season, and the vendors classify it according to quality and size. You pay more for the large, white asparagus, while the ones with a bit of purple or blue go for less.

I attended my first BBQ on Saturday evening. It was Holger's 31st birthday, and we spent the night drinking Koenig Pilsner and eating bratwursts, steaks, and potato salad. After Holger opened his gifts, we started with the Jaegermeister. Pretty soon, we were singing to Herbert Groenemeyer and two empty bottles of jaeger were on the ground.

On Sunday, I had my first jaegermeister-induced headache.

eine interessante Sache über die Universität

2007-05-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

I share an office with Dr. Rudolf Mark, an IR professor at the university. He works full-time in Hamburg, but spends Thursday afternoons and Friday evenings at Uni Lüneburg. He told me the university buildings were once military barracks housing over 8,000 soldiers for the Federal Republic of Germany. The buildings were constructed during the Third Reich due to Lüneburg's proximity to rivers and major cities. Uni Lüneburg was founded in 1989, and several of the barracks became university property following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This was part of the massive demobilization of the German army after the end of the Cold War. Less than 1,000 soldiers are currently stationed in Lüneburg.

I was wondering why the layout of the university was so orderly...

Mein Amtszimmer

2007-05-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

I've been assigned an office at the Zentrum für Demokratieforschung (Universität Lüneburg). I'm on the fourth floor, overlooking two other university buildings. The campus is quaint and compact (and, most importantly, only a five minute walk from my flat). Since I was here last(August 2005), the university has undergone quite a few changes: the name has changed (Universität Lüneburg to Leuphana Universität Lüneburg), continuing education courses were started, a separate BA degree was introduced, and a graduate college will open in 2008. The university president is the youngest in Germany, and I don't think he's made many friends with his attempts to make the Uni Lüneburg similar to the US university system.

I'm looking forward to working with the faculty and graduate students at the Zentrum. I think they'll be a tremendous help in getting this project off the ground. I presented an overview of the dissertation on Tuesday. They were as critical of my project as any job talk audience, and they gave me some helpful suggestions for making the dissertation that much better. My stay here could be just what I need to churn out a tremendous amount of writing in a very short period of time.

Alles-Gute zum Geburtstaghamburger-Hafen

2007-05-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Hamburg, recovering from jet lag. My old high school buddy, Sara Scheltat, is earning an MA in Economics from the University of Hamburg, and her parents live in the suburbs. Sara lives near the port, along the Reeperbahn (or, as the Germans say, "die sündige Meile" - the sinful mile). The entrance to the prostitute area has a huge sign stating "no juveniles under 18 or women." She lives above a sex museum, and the area used to be dominated by squatter housing and punks. The punks still live there, but so do many young families and students.

Last weekend was the festival celebrating the harbor's 818th birthday. We went along the riverside and looked at several formerly German sailing vessels (commandeered by the Soviet navy following WW2). The port is filled with concert stages, food stands, and pickpockets. It felt like the Iowa State Fair, except with ships instead of FFA heifers and no deep-fried candy bars. Oh, and the pickpockets. Well, maybe not exactly the same.

The festival music went into overdrive around 8PM, so we left the Reeperbahn for a quieter part of the city. We ate Thai food, then listened to jazz at the Birdland club, and, finally, crashed at the parents around 1AM. I awoke the next morning to a fantastic German breakfast - three different kinds of cured meat (salami, ham, and smoked ground up pork), 5 types of cheese, an assortment of breads, soft-boiled eggs, and lots and lots of coffee.

This is a guaranteed recipe to get over the worst case of jet lag.

Dumbest frequent flier...ever.

2007-05-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Since I will be in Germany for such a long time, I've decided to try my hand at blogging. Fortunately, I have a good story for my first blog entry...

It all began the day of my departure from Iowa City (Thursday, May 10). I'm on the first leg of my flight, and the kindly flight attendant announces via the loudspeaker our connecting flights in Chicago. I write the gate number (K16) on my hand, depart the plane, and make my way to the "K" concourse area in O'Hare. About thirty minutes before the flight, I notice the flight attendants are allowing people to board according to their group numbers. My boarding pass is lacking a group assignment. So, I stroll over to the desk and ask when I should board. The flight attendants inform me that I'm not only at the wrong gate, I'm at the wrong airline. I'm suppose to be boarding my British Airways (BA) flight to London-Heathrow in the international terminal (Gate M10) at that moment (S*@T!!!!). I bolt - running through security checkpoints, ferrying on and bullying my way to the front of the queue. I reach M10, but the flight has departed. I tell the BA rep the entire idiotic story, and he tries to book me on the later flight (but, I won't get to Hamburg until late Friday). As he's rebooking me, an older (and quite bossy) lady BA rep overhears the entire thing. She calls the plane, and, minutes later, two BA dudes are escorting me to a different gate. The plane had not taxied to the runway yet, so the pilots turned the aircraft around and docked at the empty gate. After they open the door, I jump on and run to my assigned seat. Boy, did I get the ole stinkeye from half the passengers. Because of me, we were 20 minutes late arriving in London.

The really awful thing is that I’m a seasoned international flier!

My luggage did not make it to Hamburg today, but I’m so very glad I did. The lost luggage is definitely payback for my dunderhead achievement.