The life and times of a pop-culture junkie and music addict living in Arlington, Virginia
As of today, I’ve been in Germany for one year of a three year commitment. It’s been a hell of a year. When I posted about being here for four months back in March, I had a few items that I listed as to-do items. Let’s see how I did:
Have basic conversations in German: On a very basic level, I can do this. I can introduce myself, ask where someone is from, and inquire about basic information. I have the vocabulary of a two year old native, but I’ve learned a lot.
File my German taxes from 2011: I did this in late March. In July, the Finance Authority sent me a letter asking for more documentation, and I returned the requested document right away. In October, they finally sent me a followup, and a small refund a few days later. I am now the proud owner of a German Steuernummer (tax ID number.) It only took seven months!
More blogging: I’ve settled into a pattern of posting every Monday. Coming up with ideas for new posts is difficult sometimes, but for the most part I’ve always got something new to say. Sometimes I have a rush of ideas and I post a little bit more frequently, but I post at least one new entry every week, always on Monday mornings. WordPress.com’s scheduled post feature is a tremendous boon for the frequent traveler.
More travel: Holy hell, success! Of the thirteen cities I mentioned back in March, I’ve been to seven of them. This year has been an amazing year for travel. Every new city is logged as a ‘Category’ on this blog. There’s a dropdown on the right-hand column to view entries about them. In 2012, I’ve gone to seven new countries and countless German cities.
Eat Less McDonald’s: Mild failure. It’s still far too easy to slip into McD’s when I’ve been out late or have to eat something after German class. I try my best to keep it to a minimum, but I still eat far too much of this because of the convenience.
Acquire a traditional Bavarian outfit complete with Lederhosen: Yup, I did this.
I originally wanted to list a whole lot of the things that I’ve accomplished this year, but I did that on the Four Months post and again on the Six Months post, so I won’t do that. Here’s a few other highlights that I wanted to mention though:
I Went To WEBMU: WEBMU is the “Whiny Expatriate Blogger MeetUp.” The rules for membership are that you have to live in Germany and blog in English. The people in the group are a heap of fun, and we had a great weekend in Berlin.
I Met Other Bloggers: Expatriate blogging is a very social thing. Between WEBMU and my naturally social nature, I met many other bloggers (and their non-blogging spouses) in person this year. Here’s an incomplete list of them:
Riayn in Hamburg, Heather in Nürnberg, Mandy in Berlin, Sarah in Hamburg, Snooker In Berlin, Ian in Hamburg, CN in Heidelberg, and last but not least, Cliff and Sarah here in Regensburg. (Alex, you’re totally on my “Want to meet this person” list for 2013.)
I Tried A German Theme Park: I went to Phantasialand, a pretty well known German theme park. Living in Florida spoiled me for theme parks, but this was still a lot of fun.
I Listened To A Percussion Show In A Cave: The header on this one is pretty self explanatory. The cave, the Tropfsteinhöhle Schulerloch, is near Kelheim.
I Drank Beer Brewed By Monks: The Weltenburg Abbey is not far away. The dark beer is delicious, the grounds are beautiful, and the boat ride up the Donau river from Kelheim is picturesque. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
I Watched More TV and Movies In German: I have been trying to learn German, and one of the things that helps this is to use German television, radio, and movies. I’m quite fond of watching How I Met Your Mother and Futurama in German. I also watched The Lion King, The Muppets, Men In Black 3, and Ice Age 4 all auf Deutsch. I was even able to clearly follow the plots of all of them, even though I missed quite a few of the verbal jokes.
It’s pretty hard to sum up an entire year in a single post- that’s what the entire Blog has done. It’s mind-bending to think that I’ve been here for a year already, and that I’m a third of the way done with my time here.
I wonder what my next year has waiting for me!
I went to Vienna for several days. For once, I wasn’t there to attend a concert. Instead, I was there to help Jenny with her competition in the Vienna Photomarathon. The Photomarathon was only one day long, however, so we had plenty of time to do some sightseeing. Here’s a couple of things I really liked in Vienna.
Spanische Hofreitschule – The world famous Vienna Spanish Riding School, where the Lippizaner stallions have been trained since the main riding hall was built in 1729. I took these photographs roughly ninety seconds before I found out that photraphy is strictly forbidden in the riding hall. Oops!
Zentralfriedhof – This is Vienna’s Central Cemetery, established in 1863. This cemetary is enormous- 2.4 square kilometers in size. It’s so large that it has three separate gates. It’s so sprawling that there is a separate city bus line that runs entirely inside the cemetery!
There are many notable interments here- I found the graves of Beethoven, Strauss, and Brahms, but I did not see the grave of Antonio Salieri or Falco.
The Wiener Riesenrad- The Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel, located in the Prater, is a 212 foot tall ferris wheel which was originally built in 1897. The Riesenrad originally had 30 gondolas before the bombing during World War II destroyed most of them. It was rebuilt with only fifteen, and has become a very well known landmark, even appearing in a James Bond movie in the late 1980s.
Shmetterlinghaus- Compared to Butterfly World in South Florida, Vienna’s Schmetterlinghaus is tiny, but it was still nice. This attraction is located just a few minutes walk from the State Opera Theatre.
Statues, Statues, Statues! While in Vienna, we saw statues of Mozart, Goethe, Gutenberg, and countless others. Here’s two of my favorites.
For the rest of these pictures, I’ve decided to try a WordPress gallery- if you click on any of the images, it will bring it up larger with some additional commentary, and then you can scroll through the rest of the gallery with your right and left arrows. (Escape key to get back out of the gallery.) Ain’t technology grand?
I took hundreds of photos in Amsterdam, because there’s just so much to see and do there. I already put up a few pictures of the locals celebrating the Euro 2012 championships, so I’ll leave those out here. I’ve selected twenty-seven photos out of the hundreds that I took, and I’ll just talk about the individual photos in lieu of a “first we went here, then we went there” styled trip-report.
Ready? Go!
After seeing how much the locals get into the Eurovision song competition, I thought I understood how the locals responded to competition. That was before the UEFA European Football Championship started.
UEFA, or the Union of European Football Associations, is an organization that coordinates the national football associations throughout Europe. Much like Eurovision, UEFA was founded in Switzerland in the 1950s.
A brief digression to translate for my American friends: Whenever I say football in this blog, I’m talking about the game that Americans know as soccer. If I’m talking about the big crashy game with the helmets and the pigskin, I’ll refer to that as “American Football,” or “Big Guys Running Into Each Other Really Fast In Between Beer Commercials.” Here’s John Cleese to explain the differences further:
Just before Euro 2012 started, people began to decorate their cars, and in some cases, their homes with national colors. Here’s two examples in Germany to give you a sense of this. Even the lei hanging from the rear-view mirror is in German colors.
When your team wins, the celebrations are boisterous and jubilant. Germany won their match the other night, and there was honking horns and celebrations for hours afterward throughout the city, much of it audible from my apartment.
The opening rounds of Euro 2012 started when I was in Amsterdam a few weekends ago. I was in Holland when their team was playing, and I was not prepared for just how invested people are into their national teams. The Dutch fans went all out. Buildings were decked out in the team colors, and some had giant inflatable balls:
People wore amazingly orange costumes throughout the city- I saw full orange business suits, orange wigs, orange cowboy hats, orange wooden-clog-shaped shoes, and more. I’m not even sure what to call this outfit:
The team spirit is so inclusive that even the furry folk get dressed up in their team colors:
Unfortunately for the Dutch fans, Holland has not done well this year. I think that’s why this pup looks so sad!
We’re in the quarter-finals now, with Germany facing Greece tonight. If Germany makes it into the semi-finals, then they’ll be playing either England or Italy next. I’m hopeful they’ll make it into the finals, but all the remaining teams are very good so it should be an entertaining next few days.
As a temporary German, I feel obligated to show team spirit by wearing their colors on my lanyard at work.
Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV. 