Mary bought me a tasty bratwurst for my pre-birthday, and it was so tasty. It only cost 1.40 and was the most delicious bratwurst I've ever had. I don't know if I'll ever eat anywhere else for lunch.

I spent Sunday night in the very fine company of Mary, Nico, Martin, and Mohini. We had cocktails at our favorite laundromat/ bar and then headed to the rustic (not rusty, a distinction we cleared up for our German friends) Kartoffelhaus, which literally translates to "potato house." We ate delicious potatoes of all sorts, including Mary's favorite, the kartoffelpuffer. The white asparagus with hollandaise sauce was especially delicious, and is a Thuringen specialty that you can only buy this time of year (Thuringia is the federal state that we are in). We finished the evening off with some special German Fischergeist, something akin to firewater. It was, in fact, on fire. We had to blow it out before drinking it. (Again, not making this up.)

From left to right, Mohini, Mary, Emily, Nico, and Martin enjoy the rustic Kartoffelhaus.

Mary's delicious Kartoffelpuffer and smoked salmon. Yummerific.

You can't tell that this digestiv is on fire, but it is. Martin is obviously excited.

Reactions to the Fischergeist...

Look at these cute little jugs! They were no more than 2 inches tall.

This weekend: Berlin for my birthday. Shake, shake, get some cake!

I've finally sorted through the giant pile of pictures that I took in Munich, and here are the highlights. We had 4 days to spend there because last Thursday was the holiday of Ascension, which is one of the few national German holidays. Here it is called "Man's Day" and men, young and old, don their lederhosen and walk around the streets pulling carts full of beer and singing German songs. I'm not making this up. [Addition: I just got out of a meeting with Peter, one of the German grad students, and we were discussing the bizareness of Man's Day, and he said (you must read this to yourself with a thick German accent), "I think it is funny and also sad that on that day there are so many drunk men that are falling into the road like leaves in autumn." Seriously not making this up.] So we got off of school a day early and headed to Munich for a weekend full of sunshine, breezes, good food, and giant beers. Munich is a beautiful city and had some great sightseeing (we took in the sites astride sweet bikes on Mike's Bike Tours). About 50% of the city was destroyed during WWII, resulting in an interesting mix of old structures that have been half-rebuilt with new materials. But all in all, it was a great town - my favorite in Germany thus far! Here are some photographs of scenic Munich, our bike tour, and our trip to the Hofbrauhaus. First, general photos of Munich:


Marienplatz, the main town square, and the Old Town Hall:




This is an odd sign that we ran across in the City Center. What does this mean? No pedestrians? No mothers and children? Or maybe it's ok if you're a mom, but don't bring your kid? Maybe it means that you can have your kid, but you can't hold their hand...


Here's a picture of Andrea with our sweeter-than-sweet bikes that we rode around Munich. The bike tour was a little over 4 hours long, but there were plenty of stops and lots of cool things to see.

Here our group rides around a fountain. I realize this may not look like that much fun, but take my word, it rocked.


We stopped to tour the inside of a church (off the bikes, of course). Check this place out. I've never seen such intricate sculpting on the walls, and notice that there are no stained glass windows!

Here is the Munich "beach" which is not so far from where they "surf".

This is more like a ditch than an ocean, but the "surfers" have a constant wave to ride.


We stopped for a lunch break at the Chinese pagoda in the Englischer Garten. This is where I got that GIANT beer and GIANT sausage and yes, I finished both. And then I spiked my napkin. Maria, this one's for you.


Here I am, happy to have had so much beer and sausage.


And then I thought, "wow, I really loved that beer and sausage."

And then I was sad that the beer and sausage were gone.

But fear not! Our GIANT beer days were not over. We went to the Hofbrauhaus which was everything you imagine a German beer hall would be. Lots of men drinking and singing songs. I swear, I'm not making this up. This guy's t-shirt says it all.


And this guy's lederhosen says even more.



I'll leave you with one last oddity about German life. They label their trashcans so that you know what you should throw away and what you should recycle. It's nice that they put pictures up too, so that us stupid Americans know what's going on. For instance, you put your glass bottles here:

And you through your paper away here:

But did they really need to put pictures of trash on this thing? This is disgusting! No one wants to look at old cigarette butts, french fries, and what? Is that a cassette tape? Is it 1986? That's so outdated that I actually just had to look at dictionary.com to make sure that I spelled cassette correctly (and I hadn't).

And one more crazy thing: creepy, creepy dolls.

I have lots to post about the fantastic trip to Munich this weekend, but no time right now. To tide you over:

When I was living in Austin, I used to wash my clothes at the Washeteria laundromat. It was a fun place to be - pinball machines, ice-cream out of a vending machine, and a fantastic crowd when they aired American Idol - but I always thought it would be even better if there was a bar attached to the laundromat (Maria and Matt can attest to this). So imagine my delight when a group of German students asked us to join them for a beer and took us to THE LAUNDROMAT! "Wash - Lounge - Salon" is what they advertised, and there were indeed people enjoying a beer while washing their clothes. Genius!


Here are Sara and Nico enjoying their beer under the protection of Jesus (this is also at the Laundromat). In fact, there were many religious paintings on the wall, and I said to Andrea, "The only thing that's better than a laundromat with a bar inside is a laundromat with a bar inside and a picture of Jesus and Mary Magdalene on the wall." To which Andrea brilliantly replied, "The only thing better than a laundromat with a bar inside and a picture of Jesus and Mary Magdalene on the wall is a laundromat with a bar inside and a picture of Dolly Parton on the wall." Well said, Andrea. Well said.


And here are a few pictures of my (very small) room in the International Students dorm. I have a kitchen, a desk, a (very small) bed, and a bathroom. Just enough for the summer!

News of the week: I lost a tooth! Ok, not an entire tooth, but a chunk of a molar. And I didn't so much as lose it as swallow it. Something about my schnitzel sandwich didn't agree with my tooth, so it decided to unhinge itself and jump down my throat. I was a little nervous about visiting the German dentist, but she was very nice and charged me very little for the temporary fix (I'll get a new filling and part-of-tooth next week). My dad warned me that dentistry tends to be very expensive, so when the secretary asked me if I wanted Novocain, I nervously asked if it would hurt. She gave me the very vague reply that the procedure is painful for some people but not for others, so I asked the next logical question: is it expensive? She rifled through some papers and pulled out her calculator, which incited a bit of panic in me - what if novocain is really expensive? am I going to have to forgo the medicine and risk intense pain at the hands of a German dentist? - but after a few minutes, the secretary informed me that the novocain would cost a total of 9 Euros. Scheisse, I said, give me 4 of them!

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This poster always makes me think of Katie Day and our sweet Patrick Swayze poster from junior year at Columbia. But who needs Dirty Dancing when you can have Flirty Dancing?

At long last, internet access from my computer! It's oh-so-exciting! I have only been without internet for a week, but it feels like forever. Things that I missed while not online: there is a new president in France, Tony Blair is leaving, and someone had the brilliant idea to do a study on the "5 second rule." It's great to have news again.

Germany is great! We arrived at 6:00 am on Saturday morning and were not allowed to sleep at all until that evening, in an attempt to lessen the effect of jet-lag. It was a good idea, but it meant that we were awake for over 30 hours before going to bed. Our German friends prodded us along through the day by taking us on a tour of the city and the campus, which is one and the same. They are quite fond of saying, "The city is the campus!"

Ok, some pictures. We were greeted by the sunrise at the Frankfurt airport.

We had a long ride from Frankfurt to Jena, during which we passed fields of gold flowers and dark German forests. I had forgotten about the fabled German forests (and the Black Forest, in particular), and I'm looking forward to doing some hiking and checking them out.

Here is a picture of Andrea and Mary in our new office at the Center for Applied Developmental Psychology (or CADS, as they call it). An interesting tidbit: the German word for developmental psychology is (drum roll please) Entwicklungspsychologie. They love their long words!

And a few shots of the town (more to come in later posts). Here is a shot of part of downtown, the Stadtzentrum (city center).

And the market place - they are setting up for a spring festival!

I took this picture because I couldn't help myself. What says, "I'm German" more than wearing blue suspenders and wielding a giant mallet?

To come in the next post: German inventions that they should have in America, and American inventions that they should have in Germany (Charmin could make a fortune over here!)

Guten tag! I made is safely to Germany, but internet access has been quite sparse. I am writing from a borrowed computer, so you'll have to wait for pictures and stories. However, I can affirm that the beer is delicious, the food is yummer yummer yum, and the people are a hoot. Oh, and I was an auditory witness to a gunshot and my name is now on record with the Polizei. Not too shabby for the first 5 days...