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.
1 Kommentar:
My first three words for any foreign language was always: hello, thank-you, and how much. I also begin learning the numbers but soon gave up as numbers in english were known and/or I could always write it out on a piece of paper.
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