Date: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 14:57
Subject: YO!!!
Just checking to see if you're alive.
The local copy shop is run by a couple of French guys. On the wall they have a little shrine to French culture: a photo of Montmartre, and an autographed picture of Gerard Depardieu, framed, above a little tricolour.
Zut!
Scott
Date: Thursday, February 10, 2000 20:15
Subject: Re: Hello Out there
We've had odd weather - really nice one day, pissing rain and windy the next. Last night I did my skating session in a hurricane, strong winds and driving rain. Today was gorgeous, between five and ten degrees with only the lightest clouds. I was out for three hours this afternoon, a combination long training ride around the Grunewald, hill-running session up and down the Teufelsberg and shopping trip - we needed canned pumpkin to make soup for the party tomorrow night and you can only buy it at KaDeWe downtown, where they have an "American" section on their food floor. It's about six bucks a can but who's complaining?
Annette should be home from running sometime soon. She hasn't been training very consistently - I'm quietly suggesting that she either get her ass in gear or plan on skating the marathon in Hamburg - but did go to her session tonight. Hopefully this will recharge the batteries a little.
What else? We're having a party tomorrow, hopefully it will be a success. Annette is doing her usual idiotic make ten times more food then necessary and glare at me for refusing to help thing (I call it refusing to facilitate her obsession). I think I talked her back down to a more reasonable level. It's sort of a pot-luck dinner early then party later, mostly to bribe people to come before the gate closes so we don't have to make too many trips back and forth. My job tomorrow is to go buy a stereo. We have no music here. So I will either buy a cheap portable that we can sell again when we leave or maybe a nice little compact system that we can ship home and use in someone's office, if it's dual-voltage. The winter sales are on for another two days so it isn't a bad time, and with the imminent sale of some stock I think I can manage a few hundred marks.
Vita is a holy terror. Between spring-like weather and the heart pills, she's enjoying a second kittenhood. We can barely keep up with her. Annette and I are always yelling at each other: "It's your turn to play with the cat." "No, I threw the ball for her twenty minutes ago, it's your turn this time." If it weren't for the peeing, I'd be willing to take her off the medication.
I saw your sputtering reaction to the Dalhousie saga. Amazing, isn't it? Actually it's just embarrassing and sad and lame. Whatever. The money sucked, at least we won't have to starve on nothing.
I should get back to work. Gosh, working at home is a lot like writing papers in grad school - endless room for procrastination. It's a bit of a problem. This did not come as a huge surprise to me.
Regards,
Scott
Date: Sunday, February 13, 2000 13:14
Subject: post-party wrap-up report
Howdy,
Another Sunday morning. Annette is out running and I'm home loafing. She'll be back in an hour or so then I'll be out riding and she'll be home loafing. Actually I think I got the better half of the bargain, as the rains look to be clearing soon and she won't really have time to loaf, as she has to coach L on which archives to visit during her stay here and then has to prepare for next week's interviews. She is giving a lecture in Bowling Green. Fortunately she's able to recycle material she used in Halifax.
And I shouldn't loaf too much either, since I have work to finish tonight. Friday disappeared in a haze of party preparation and I didn't manage to do any work-work.
And now for some self-indulgent back-patting...
The party was a success. It wasn't huge but we reached critical mass. We had three different groups: our academic friends, mostly American; Annette's running friends and my skating friends, exclusively German. There was some mixing but each was component was large enough to sustain itself when need be. We were a bit nervous throwing our first party here but it went well enough that there will likely be another one later this year. The logistics weren't too problematic - the front gate is normally locked after eight o'clock and sometimes it's difficult to hear the doorbell - and we learned a few tricks for next time. And, in deference to our beloved homeland, we had as guests several Canadians and one professional hockey player (a very nice German guy that I know through skating, a defenceman with the Berlin Capitals; he's spent several summers in Calgary at training camps and knows Vancouver quite well too). It just isn't a Canadian party without a hockey player or two.
Vita enjoyed herself. She was miserably nervous all afternoon as we were getting ready - Commotion! What fresh hell is this? - and then disappeared under the bed when more than three people arrived. Eventually her curiosity got the better of her and she would slink out, sniff the coats piled up in the bedroom, then peer out into the hall, where she would be briefly admired before quickly returning to safety.
The food was a hit. We made the curried pumpkin soup, which always receives rave reviews, and Annette toiled all afternoon preparing Turkish appetizers. We are particularly hooked on something called Kisir, a bulgur wheat salad similar to tabouli but made with spicy tomato and pepper paste and tons of garlic. It's very expensive at the little deli on Bergmannstraße but you can make it quite cheaply. Annette's version was pretty close to the original, triumphant really for a first attempt. She had the wonderful inspiration of asking the very friendly woman at a nearby Turkish grocery for a few tips, and now knows the special secret ingredients that weren't in the cookbook. (If only she'd read the instructions as "soak for one hour" instead of "boil for one hour" it would have been perfect.) With the money we save making our own we can easily afford a food processor to chop all the damn parsley. Now we have a fridge full of leftovers (it doesn't take much with these tiny fridges) and a truly impressive quantity of beer and wine stacked up in the entrance hall.
The apartment was also a hit, as we'd hoped. People were amused by the spooky walk through the tunnel to the third courtyard, and amazed by the space inside. Afterwards I realized that Annette and I seem to pick apartments based on their ability to impress guests. Every place we've had (Chicago, Vancouver, Berlin) has been in some way notable. I think this is a useful criteria to use in future.
My big pre-party chore went off very successfully. I was home by eleven with a new stereo. I did some quick shopping on Karl-Marx-Straße (yes, it's a major shopping street) and found exactly what I wanted for a hundred marks less at the big, messy disorganized electronics shop where earlier in the week we arranged the ISDN hookup and finally bought a cordless phone (absolutely essential in an apartment this long and linear). I had thought of buying a cheap portable but then realized that for a little bit more we could have a decent "mini" system with DC capability so that if we didn't sell it here we could ship it home and use it in an office. Maybe we've just been starved for music lately, but when I set it up at home I was astonished by how good it was. Not bad for three hundred marks.
The other pre-party chore was to find ice. Buying ice in Germany is difficult. I had to hop on my bike and ride to a drink market ten minutes away, the closest one that carried the stuff, and paid 17 DM for 10 kg, which was all I could stuff into my duffel bag. Apparently this is a recent development. A few years ago if you wanted ice then you were stuck buying a solid block from one particular place way to the south. That was it. Otherwise, you're drinking warm beer like the natives. When in Rome...
Another cultural note: German friendship rituals are very different. Annette is very familiar with this whole business, having spent more time here and being relatively fluent in the language, but this is the first time I've made German friends on my own. They take social events more seriously. If you have a party, they want a proper invitation, and if they say they're coming, they mean it. You can count on them. None of this "Hey, we're having a party, you can show up if you want to." - "Okay, we might do that." stuff. I'm finding it all very amusing. I'm quite pleased with the way that running and skating have helped us build a social network so quickly. We've met some very cool people here. Some of them even speak good English, which is a bonus when I'm tired. I spoke more German than English during the party and was pretty thrashed by the end of it all.
And here's a shocking indication of how times have changed. Nobody smoked in the apartment! We put an ashtray out on the landing and by the end of the night I counted maybe ten cigarettes.
Post-party: the day after was a slow one. We didn't drink that much, but we did feel a bit sluggish in the morning. Annette wisely suggested deferring the cleanup until after we went out for a walk in the glorious sunshine. (We'd done a first pass before going to bed, emptying glasses and bottles, gathering up food, dealing with anything that was likely going to rot or smell.) We strolled up to Friedrichstraße, stopped for coffee and bagels at the Einstein Kaffee, which I've taken to calling "Starbucks with ashtrays" as it's one of these ridiculous (North) American-style coffee bars, complete with English names and sizes on the menu board. "Ein large latté, bitte." Why Central Europeans feel the need to import American coffee culture, I do not know. After coffee we puttered in bookstores (Annette looked for a CD-ROM German-English dictionary; I looked at cat books) and walked further. We made a few half-hearted efforts to shop for clothes on the last day of the winter sales, but our hearts weren't in it. We turned onto Oranienburgerstraße and continued as far as Hackeschermarckt before catching the train home. I took a few pictures in the late-afternoon sunshine.
The cleanup was further deferred by a well-earned afternoon nap, then at about eight I rolled up my sleeves and began working. (Annette was exempt on grounds of having academic commitments and also because of her sterling service in the kitchen the day before.) Some four hours later the place was spotless. The kitchen, in particular, was universally sticky. I have never seen a floor so disgusting. Well, okay, I have, once - our apartment in Chicago after the infamous sangria party. And that was that.
Now I must ride. Annette will be home in a few minutes, and L is due not long after. My solitary morning is at an end. As, happily, are the rains.
Regards,
Scott
Date: Sunday, February 13, 2000 21:17
Subject: ....
It's me again. I'm supposed to be working but I'm in that lethargic post-workout dozing state where all I can do is write time-filling emails for no particular reason.
I had another nice ride this afternoon, a little over two hours. It was cold and a bit damp but I didn't mind. As I pulled into the Grunewald I managed, yet again, to see one of my skating friends, so I stopped to talk while he was getting ready - during which time another skating friend ran past, finishing up a long jog - and then rode alongside for the first part of his skate. After being on the ice for the past three months it was strange to see someone double-pushing again (good inliners use a different technique, which I am only now beginning to master). I've been more consistent with my training these past few weeks and I'm beginning to feel stronger. I can't wait to start racing. The season opens with the Berlin half-marathon on April 2nd, a week after our training camp in Mallorca.
Back at home, Annette spent the afternoon giving L directions to all the various archives, while waiting for poor bedraggled C to appear and collect her keys, which she had left in Annette's bag during the morning run and subsequently forgotten, and deliver Annette's water bottle, hat and tights, which the latter had left behind at G's.
I was hoping that Annette and C would somehow compensate for each other's forgetfulness, but I think they just multiply it - absent-mindedness squared. Christ.
Sigh...
Annette apparently had a good run this morning, somewhere between 25 and 27 km depending on how you interpret G's route-planning. She felt strong, so things are looking a little better for Hamburg in mid-April. She was feeling lousy and skipping workouts a few weeks ago but I think that was just her annual late-January early-February blahs, quite normal.
I returned from my ride just before sunset, stuffed myself with leftover kisir and baguette, then sat down in front of the TV to watch the Sunday sports show - bobsledding and cycling, I love this country. Then I sat down in front of the computer and suddenly realized that I wasn't going to do anything useful without taking a short nap first. I woke up fifteen minutes later when the cat decided she was lonely and let out a howl from the middle of the living room rug, being too lazy to come find either of us. She knows what she's doing - Annette left her desk and I left the bed. We are indulgent cat parents, methinks.
Annette leaves Tuesday morning for yet another interview trip, Ohio and North Carolina with a two-day layover in DC with friends to break up the monotony. She'll be back the following Wednesday I think. My week will be a quiet one, just working and training, as per usual. I suspect we're getting haircuts tomorrow, but otherwise nothing special is planned for Valentine's Day.
Okay, I think I'm warmed up now. Two good solid hours technical writing and I'll be happy and ready for bed. But perhaps I need tea first.
Regards,
Scott
Date: Monday, February 14, 2000 22:44
Subject: stinky Vita
Pictures! Our filthy little cat just discovered that rolling around on a pair of dirty, stinky cycling shorts is a great way to mask your scent. Ewww. Some instincts I could live without. (Actually I laughed pretty damn hard when I climbed out of the shower and spotted her writhing on the floor.)
Annette is currently packing and getting ready for the Ohio/Carolina trip. The fact that I am still alive and typing - not laying on the ground in a pool of blood - suggests that she is not suffering from too much pre-flight stress.
We had our hair cut today. That was the singular event. I remembered once again why it is dangerous to ask for it "short" in Germany. I'll take a picture as soon as the scalp stops showing through.
On Wednesday I'm having coffee with Stan Persky [Vancouver journalist/writer/academic]. We just figured out from his last column that he's in Berlin for the whole year, and there was an email address, so I said what the hell, why not drop him a line. Annette is mildly peeved that I just went ahead and made a date when she's not here, but I said for once would you let me be the center of attention (okay I didn't say that exactly, but it sounds good now). She'll get over it. Should be interesting.
Okay, I should probably do some more work now. I was late getting home from skating tonight because I had to ride halfway to bloody Leipzig to pick up Annette's keys from a friend's place after she'd forgotten them at the office earlier this afternoon. She has a mind like a finely-tuned sieve, that woman. (That metaphor really doesn't work, does it?)
Regards,
Scott
Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 17:17
Subject: bachelor again
Well, I'm a bachelor again. Annette left for Ohio this morning. For a change the flight wasn't stupidly early, so I only had to escort her as far as the U-Bahn, not all the way out to the airport. After saying farewell I stopped for coffee then made my way to yoga. It was a little odd not having my translator nearby, but as this is my third session I'm getting the hang of it, language skills be damned. I'm really enjoying yoga. It does interesting things to the body. I feel wonderfully elongated afterwards. I strut and preen even more than normal.
A little shopping on the way home - I found a battery-powered nostril hair trimmer for only five marks! - then lunch followed by an hour of relaxation with the cat, then to work.
Annette is not feeling very enthused about this trip. She's tired of interviews, tired of transatlantic flights. Of course the fact that she's not enthused means that she will probably get offers from both schools, given how these things seem to work. I'm not especially thrilled with the idea of living in Ohio or North Carolina. I briefly considered reducing my chances of having to leave Berlin by drawing a cartoon penis on one of the overhead slides she is using for tomorrow's lecture, but then I figured those probably wouldn't be the best circumstances in which to stay here.
A few quick cultural/linguistic notes. The level of casual and hopefully unwitting racism in the media here still occasionally startles me. Exhibit A, a newspaper article on the African Cup soccer tournament, described as the championships of the "Schwarze Kontinent" [that would be "black continent" for the members of my family]. Exhibit B, the new, weird chicken burger with "Oriental" curry sauce at McDonald's. It's called the "Chicken McFu" and the logo is a stylized rooster with slanty "Asian-style" eyes. Somehow I don't think that would fly in Vancouver (whoops - sorry about the pun).
On a more benign note, I read in one of the Charles Schulz obituaries the phrase "zynisch-philosophischen Vierbeiner Snoopy" [cynic-philosophical four-legger, I guess]. I love that. I've been calling Vita "my little vierbeiner" ever since.
Okay, back to work. I'm staying in and working until midnight, come hell or high water. I will take breaks only to eat, fold laundry and organize a messy file folder. Otherwise, work. The rest of the week looks moderately full: coffee with Persky tomorrow, followed by skating and something I didn't completely understand about taking pictures with the digital camera for the new team that I belong too; hill-running with C on Thursday morning, then more skating team stuff in the evening; skating Friday and the ice marathon Saturday. If the weather looks good, that's the end of the ice season - I'll be training on inlines beginning this weekend; if the weather is bad, I'll go skate ice on the indoor oval in Hohenschönhausen for a few more weeks. I don't want to constantly change back and forth - it's too much work swapping the frames for the blades and vice versa.
Right, that's enough. Back to it.
Bye,
Scott
