The life and times of a pop-culture junkie and music addict living in Arlington, Virginia
When I first arrived in Regensburg, the ticket machines for the bus system were all confusing push-buttony evil, like so:
One day about two months ago, a magical thing started to happen. The old machines started to evolve. I walked past one on Albertstraße and it had a brand new touchscreen and a whole lot of new technology stuck on the front. The new machines always exist in sunlight.
This is progress!
Have you noticed any tiny little improvements around your town that make you happy?
One thing that is definitely different from living in Florida is having actual seasons. In Florida, we have eleven and a half months of summer and two weeks of winter each February.
Here, the leaves change and there’s a clear distinction between our seven months of winter, five minutes of spring, and two months of blazing hot summer, leading into a pleasant fall where the trees change colors and whatnot.
What’s your favorite thing about Fall?
The weekend before last, there was a Weinfest in Stadtamhof, which is a part of Regensburg right on the other side of the Donau river. Cliff and Sarah of Das Regensblog invited me to join them, and I accepted even though I’m not much of a wine drinker.
Weinfest is a street festival in Germany, so it looked pretty much like any other street festival in Germany- lots of people and food stands. This one also had wine stands, though.
We were only there about two hours before the weather got fairly ominous. I liked the look of these clouds, though.
Despite not being much of a wine drinker, I quite enjoyed this glass of wine. It was called a Kerner. Or a Kepler. Or a Kabler I kan’t remember, exactly.
Cliff had this very nice looking red wine.
The food at Weinfest was delicious. Sarah got the Flammkuchen that I almost tried, with potato and cheese. Flammkuchen is kind of like a tiny potato-laden flatbread pizza.
Do you prefer red wine or white wine?
On the 11th of September, I was able to attend the installation of several Stolpersteine. I’ve posted about Stolpersteine before, when I first learned what they were. For those of you just tuning in, I’ll refresh your memory:
The German word Stolperstein literally means “stumbling block” or “obstacle” and Stolpersteine is the plural. They were created by artist Gunter Demnig in 1993 and the first installation was in Cologne, Germany, in 1994.
The Stolpersteine blocks are designed as memorials to commemorate individuals who were sent by the Nazis to prisons and concentration camps, as well as those who emigrated or committed suicide to escape the Nazis. Some of the blocks represent those killed by the Nazis and some represent survivors. The Stolpersteine are not limited to Jews, either. The vast majority were Jews, but there have also been blocks placed for various other types of people, including Romani people, homosexuals, blacks, and even Christians who opposed the Nazis.
The actual block is a ten centimeter concrete cube covered with a sheet of brass. Demnig stamps the details of the individual, the name, year of birth, and the fate as well as the dates of deportation and death, if known. Each block begins with “Hier wohnte,” which is German for “Here lived.” Most are set at the last residence of the victim, but some are set near workplaces.
More than 40,000 Stolpersteine have been installed so far, in over 1000 cities and towns in about twelve countries.
On this particular day, they were installing 26 Stolpersteine in eleven separate locations around town. I was able to attend two of the eleven installations before I had to head into work. Before an installation, here’s what a Stolperstein looks like:
The place where the stone would be installed was marked, and a city worker dug out the existing sidewalk.
A gentleman who works with der Initiative Stolpersteine in Regensburg said a few words, then a guy from the city spoke, Next, a woman read the biography of Johann Baptist Fuchs, the individual named on the stone. Finally, a relative of Johann Fuchs said a few words. Afterward, the stone was set into place with concrete.
After the stone was installed, the man who was related to Johann Fuchs laid a white rose next to the stone.
A short while later, at a second location, we began the same procedure. This time, with four Stolpersteine and fewer speeches.
Each installation had a bit of flute music, though.
The installation was done very carefully, with the workman making sure that the stones were level and flush with the rest of the sidewalk.
Once the concrete was set in, the stones were cleaned off with a sponge.
Once again, roses were laid on the newly installed Stolpersteine to conclude the installation.
Have you ever stumbled across a Stolperstein?
Over the next few months, the sun’s magnetic field is going to reverse. This happens roughly every eleven years. It’s a significant event, cosmically speaking, but it doesn’t affect us at all like a bad SyFy disaster movie.
Rara says that every time this happens, every eleven years, it heralds huge changes in her life. I’m a big fan of the concept of circles, cycles, renewals, and the like, so this got me thinking about where I was eleven years ago, and where I’ll be next year.
Eleven years ago… it was September of 2002. I was 29 years old, and I had no idea what the next eleven years would bring.
I was two months into employment with my current company. We had been given six weeks of training, so I was about two weeks into taking customer phone calls. I’m a UNIX systems administrator now, but I started out as a tier 1 technical support rep, and crawled my way up. In the eleven years since then, I’ve had six title changes, including one stint in management. I prefer solving problems to managing people, though.
I had just become single after breaking things off with someone who wasn’t a good fit for me romantically- this was an excellent judgement call though. Eleven years later, she’s still one of my closest friends, and we’ve seen each other through a lot.
In 2002, my father had been remarried for a little over a year- he remarried at age 62, so I know there’s still hope for me. 2002 was just before my elder brother started dating the woman who is now his wife. It was before my other brother started dating his boyfriend, and they’ve been together now for roughly seven or eight years. In 2002, my oldest niece was twelve years old- she’s a high school teacher now.
2002 was before I bought my condo in South Florida, the one that I sold in 2011 just before I moved to Germany. 2002 was before I acquired my passport, and now I’ve been to fourteen countries, including living in Germany for the last two years.
Today, I’m forty years old and I’m roughly fourteen months away from a move back to the United States. Anything could happen in the next year, though- and that’s the point. Big changes are coming in the solar system, and I’m really curious to see where the next eleven years will take me.
Where were you eleven years ago? What do you think the next eleven years hold for you?
Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV. 