Erste Woche endet

My first week in Bremen is over already - I've managed to navigate this new city, staying under the radar of police (if you jaywalk, they take your driver's licence!) and transit inspectors (the "short hop" ticket is only for 3 stops). The transit system is a marvel of efficiency - every stop is announced, every shelter has a schedule, a map and a digital display with the times for the next few trams which are never more than a few minutes apart. This city epitomizes "traffic-calmed" - I never see a car going faster than a bike or a tram. Makes me wonder why there is a gas station near my place.

This weekend is a long weekend, so I have my hopes up. I did succeed in finding the giant Galeria Kaufhof and buying an adapter for my laptop and comfy running shoes against all odds (and without my dictionary) yesterday.

Culture shock 1: a department store that doesn't take any credit cards!

Culture shock 2: you can take your dog shopping with you.

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Then I traipsed around the central island pedestrian plazas, in time to some vividly-decked-out drummers entertaining at the local wine-tasting event.
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I even picked up a pocketbook of short stories to "mein Deutsch verbessen," thanks to the helpful bookstore clerk.

Everything is closed for the next 2 days, so I had to find food on the way home - just like Strasbourg, but there are more ethnic grocers at least. And I discovered a cinema right next to my place. By the time I got home, I was ready to hit the sack.

Today I was foiled, though. I spend most of the day
a) imploring Marion's wireless network to see my computer as part of the family
b) deducing how to do anything useful in Picassa without net access - I made a website!.... but I was trying to make a blog, and
c) trying to make it to the weekly Flohmarkt, which I did find (along with the cheapest, best fast food on Earth - Turkish garlic vegetable pizza for €1!), although they were already closing up be then. No bike yet, but I'm all over bremen.de for quick finds after the room it netted me.

New words this week:

das Fahrrad (bicycle), from fahren (drive) and das Rad (wheel)

German is like math, which is maybe why I like it - you can make new words from adding all the words you know about something together, take klein (small ) + blau (blue) + gekauft (used) + Damen (ladies) + Fahrrad

das Kleinblaugekauftdamenfahrrad - "small blue used ladies bike"

So really, I haven't learned any words I didn't know from 30 years ago, I'm just finding more ways to stick them together.

Here is some more word math for computers:

die Wechseldätenträger = wechsel (change) + däten (data) + träger (carrier) = usb key
das Netzwerkverbindenzugriffspunktauthentifizierenkonfigurieren = network + link + access + point + authentication + configuration

Unfortunately, my new vocabulary is limited to words only Microsoft can understand and yet fails to respond to.

Still to master - focusing on writing in German with German comedians and fashion shows blaring on tv in the background. (It's like living with a teenager.) argh now a spoof of Ghostbusters.

Waking up

birds chirping, leaves rustling in the trees outside my window, diffuse light filtering through cotton curtains ... its 8.34 and with flex time I can be at work anytime before 10.

What a lovely way to wake up.

This is my new home.

... comes with my own privacy little balcony where I can read a book in peace -
And a matching bathroom -

Yes, that's a bathtub. ah, decadence. And on a student budget.

Bewohnerin in Bremen!

The life of a hosteler is starting to wear on me already. I was woken up 3 times last night by same 3 hostel (hostile?) "room-mates" - thought it would serve them right when I got up for work ... and then they woke up even earlier!

I see an analogy for the Bremen town musicians - I think I've been the cat sleeping between the mutt, the ass and the cock.

Second day at work, feeling pretty dozy, either because of the huge learning curve or the lack of sleep. My new colleagues are very welcoming. I'm looking forward to a chance to do some lab work when they need a hand.

By the end of the day, I worked up the nerve to call a few of the renters and even arranged to see a few.

The first room was south (or is it west?) of the river in Neustadt, but a fair hike from the nearest tram stop. The building looked a little bedraggled, but the front steps had just been re-cemented. The woman met me at the top of the stairs and invited me up the long winding staircase to the top floor. Three of the five rooms were empty - she was expecting a new tenant next month. The other tenant has a 2-year-old. The rooms were empty, but the kitchen was bright and roomie. Maybe because it didn't have a fridge! At €170, the price was right, but the contents motivated me to keep looking.

The second room was in an apartment with a woman and her daughter. Unfortunately, her daughter answered the phone and didn't know the price, but everything else sounded nice, especially the balcony. My colleague tells me the neighbourhood is very posh, so I'm really going there to see how the other half live.

Not surprisingly, the apartment is beautiful, new concrete building, balconies in every room, kitty-corner from a tram stop, yet very quiet. The woman renting it showed me around - the open modern kitchen (with thyme and sage growing on the balcony), the living room with wicker couch (and satellite tv antenna on the balcony) , her daughter's room where she would move into and finally the master bedroom. Breathtaking. And obviously out of my price range. After we discussed the rent, she continued showing me around the cavernous tiled bathroom and the laundry room. Five minutes later, she'd made up her mind. I can have the room for my budget.

Riding the tram back to the Hauptbahnhof, I feel a little dizzy with glee.

My last night at the hostel. Have bed, will sleep.

Adaptation

Life in a new culture is always full of the unexpected. Tonight, it hit me how different the concept of safety is in Germany. Here, I feel completely secure walking around downtown at night. Everything looks familiar and safe - traffic lights, speed limits, well-lit streets.

Even the local art forms are familiar - colourful graffiti and (just like Strasbourg) "bicycle art"

If I can't find a bike for sale, maybe I'll leave a note on this one - at least I already know how to tune a wheel.

The hostel has little signs everywhere for the dorms, washrooms and fire exits, of course. I got a little disoriented trying to find my way downstairs to the bathroom in the night though. The emergency exit signs don't point to the stairs. They point to the hall behind the stairs. To the big window over the front entrance. Which I opened - Now do they actually expect you to tie your sheets together here? That's a sheer drop 2 stories to the concrete steps!

Daz 1 at OHB

Today is my first day (in a daze) as an intern at OHB System in Bremen. This is "Building III," home of their small Life Sciences research and development team.My temporary office overlooks the tram line and Siemens headquarters, where we can "enjoy" a cafeteria lunch.











The fairy-tale tower you can just see behind Siemens is the Bremen University Drop-Tower (click on the left pic to find out more about their microgravity experiments).

Of course, everything is surrounded by bike paths and ponds.



My new mentor patiently explained the ESA Inventor Triangle Innitiative application process we will follow to try to gain approval for a new way to build space habitats based on biological self-healing methods. He took me for the grand tour of the lab - I met a "froganaut" that flew as a tadpole on the shuttle 14 years ago (I didn't know frogs live 30 years!) - and I met a few of my new colleagues, including a Swedish intern who is leaving next week to work at ESTEC in Holland.

Not the most productive day, between struggling with the language and battling the German kezboard and adapting again to the time yone, my typing speed has dropped by half. Having been warned by Maria that it can take weeks of interviews and discussions to find accommodation (room-hunting is a sport here), I stayed 2 hours late at work madly sending e-mails to all eligible rooms in a list of 187 posted on the city internet room-mate blackboard.
Room-hunting words:
Wohngemeinschaftsangebote - "group house offers"
Zimmer - room
möbliertes Zimmer - furnished room
möbliertes Zimmer mit Bad - room with bath
sofort frei - available immediately
almost forgot - keine Raucher - no smokers
€170 - cheap room, no questions asked
€240 warme - expensive room including utilities

Made it downtown well before the local kiosks closed - and discovered a veritable vegetable feast in various eateries! From Gemüsenüdeln (fried veggies and noodles) at the Chinese place to Rollo mit Falafel (a veggie wrap) at the Lebanese hole-in-the-wall next door to Vegetarischentaschen (veggie pasties) and plain old Pizza Marguerita at the corner pizzaria.

Most important first words in any language:
Please (bitte), thank you (danke) and "May I have a glass of tap water with that?" That's a phrase you can never find in the dictionary - in this case "line-water." "Leitungswaßer, bitte" - danke to the Chinese restaurateur who enlightened me. And the water is lovely - no chalk-lined dishes here.

Finally, circumnavigated the rainbow of mohawked tie-died Jugen and their Hunds draping the plaza in front of the Hauptbahnhof with their tattooed bodies. If it's Monday, it must be Germany.
I finished off with a small chokolade kügel (chocolate cone - more survival German) on the way down the snakeskin-scaled alley to the Gasthaus.

eine Obdachloserin in Bremen

First day in the Old Town of Bremen. I rolled into the airport mid-afternoon and was on the tram across the street 5 minutes after my suitcase popped onto the lone luggage conveyor. We're talking 15 minutes on smooth rails through downtown to the Hauptbahnhof (central station) where all the trams meet.

Culture shock #1: Something is missing from this picture - can you see what isn't here in the heart of Bremen?

There are no cars to dodge at the airport - the road in front is for the tramway. There is no traffic downtown - many roads are pedestrian, bike and/or transit only. There are no cars to dodge at the main train station - only a few cabs and more trams.

And the bikes, everywhere the bikes. I can't focus the camera without one in the viewfinder.

I found the youth hostel easily - snuggled off the main routes but only 2 blocks from the main station, this is quiet, modern and clean. And luckily they could direct me to a nearby shop that sells camera batteries late on a Sunday evening - in English.

Wilkommen bei Bremen! It's going to be a challenge to learn German if everyone keeps switching to English!
First priority - finding a place to live. Otherwise I will be joining the Obdachloserin on a park bench.

The snail has arrived.