Duesseldorf, A Quiet Place
Hallo Liebe Anschauer!
So I had a fun and exciting weekend. Saturday Manuel and I traveled to Duesseldorf, which is the capital of Nordrhein-Westfallen and more "modern" than Cologne or Bonn. Duesseldorf is well known internationally for fasion, and as a result, has a lot of high-class clothing stores. Neither Manuel or I can afford anything in these stores, but is was enjoyable walking past them. What was not enjoyable was the rain, for which we were not prepared. Oh well. The Altstadt (old town) was particularly pretty. Probably because it looked old and European rather than new and American. I also had my first Currywurst in over a year and my first "Alt" beer, the trademark beer of the city. There is something of a competition between Duesseldorf and Koeln because while Duesseldorf is the capital, Koeln is larger. So people tend to be "Duesseldorf people" or "Koeln people", and what that really translates into, is whether you like Koelsch or Alt better. The trip further confermed what I already knew: I am a Koeln person. There was also some sort of winter/ski fest going on in the Altstadt, and they had imported snow for people to sled and ski on. It was very odd. Duesseldorf also has the world's largest decimal clock. I'll post pictures next time I connect my laptop to the internet. Our train back to Bonn was full of Fussball fans from Kaiserslautern. I preview of what I can expect next summer during the World Cup. :-) It also reminded me of Hawkeye (american) football games.
Sunday also turned out to be rather fun. First of all I discovered the "Daily Show International Edition", produced (believe it or not) for International CNN. Needless to say I was thrilled to get my Daily Show fix for the first time in almost a month. In the afternoon I met up with about 10 students to go to the Rheinishes LandesMuseum. Even though I'd been there two weeks ago, I went anyway because I didn't see it all the first time. Afterwards we went to an irish pub and exchanged cultures for about 5 hours. There were four people from Romania, two from Chile, one from Scotland, one German, and me. One advantage to working here is the number of international students who study at the International Max Planck Research School. The downside is I'm spending my weekends speaking English instead of German, but I think meeting so many cool people from all over the world is well worth it.
Work is mostly unexciting. Yesterday I got my new computer. I've been passing most of my time reading PhD disserations about pulsars in German. It's slow going, and the primary thing I've learned is that German has too many words.
I also found a place to live. It's a three bedroom apartment which I will share with two other girls I've never met. The owner just bought it and had the inside remodeled, so it's in good condition. It's also only a five minute walk or so from the institute.
I was sad to hear Iowa lost to Michigan. So much for the streak. Hopefully there's no Karma involved, so we're not required to loose 22 home games in a row.
That's all for now. Tschuess!
Here are the photos:
On the left is a man-made snow hill in the middle of a very German-like old marketplace complete with man-on-horse statue.
This is me next to the Rhine. The tower behind me is also the world's largest decimal clock. From the horizonal row of lights you can tell the time, and I think you can see them well enough in this picture to figure out when I was there.
So I had a fun and exciting weekend. Saturday Manuel and I traveled to Duesseldorf, which is the capital of Nordrhein-Westfallen and more "modern" than Cologne or Bonn. Duesseldorf is well known internationally for fasion, and as a result, has a lot of high-class clothing stores. Neither Manuel or I can afford anything in these stores, but is was enjoyable walking past them. What was not enjoyable was the rain, for which we were not prepared. Oh well. The Altstadt (old town) was particularly pretty. Probably because it looked old and European rather than new and American. I also had my first Currywurst in over a year and my first "Alt" beer, the trademark beer of the city. There is something of a competition between Duesseldorf and Koeln because while Duesseldorf is the capital, Koeln is larger. So people tend to be "Duesseldorf people" or "Koeln people", and what that really translates into, is whether you like Koelsch or Alt better. The trip further confermed what I already knew: I am a Koeln person. There was also some sort of winter/ski fest going on in the Altstadt, and they had imported snow for people to sled and ski on. It was very odd. Duesseldorf also has the world's largest decimal clock. I'll post pictures next time I connect my laptop to the internet. Our train back to Bonn was full of Fussball fans from Kaiserslautern. I preview of what I can expect next summer during the World Cup. :-) It also reminded me of Hawkeye (american) football games.
Sunday also turned out to be rather fun. First of all I discovered the "Daily Show International Edition", produced (believe it or not) for International CNN. Needless to say I was thrilled to get my Daily Show fix for the first time in almost a month. In the afternoon I met up with about 10 students to go to the Rheinishes LandesMuseum. Even though I'd been there two weeks ago, I went anyway because I didn't see it all the first time. Afterwards we went to an irish pub and exchanged cultures for about 5 hours. There were four people from Romania, two from Chile, one from Scotland, one German, and me. One advantage to working here is the number of international students who study at the International Max Planck Research School. The downside is I'm spending my weekends speaking English instead of German, but I think meeting so many cool people from all over the world is well worth it.
Work is mostly unexciting. Yesterday I got my new computer. I've been passing most of my time reading PhD disserations about pulsars in German. It's slow going, and the primary thing I've learned is that German has too many words.
I also found a place to live. It's a three bedroom apartment which I will share with two other girls I've never met. The owner just bought it and had the inside remodeled, so it's in good condition. It's also only a five minute walk or so from the institute.
I was sad to hear Iowa lost to Michigan. So much for the streak. Hopefully there's no Karma involved, so we're not required to loose 22 home games in a row.
That's all for now. Tschuess!
Here are the photos:
On the left is a man-made snow hill in the middle of a very German-like old marketplace complete with man-on-horse statue.
This is me next to the Rhine. The tower behind me is also the world's largest decimal clock. From the horizonal row of lights you can tell the time, and I think you can see them well enough in this picture to figure out when I was there.
posted by laura s at 8:28 PM
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