Back from Vacation-town

This is a ice cream shop about half a block from my place.  Its a kids favorite and on warm (40 degree plus) days they sell soft ice from the window.  Everyone deserves a little ice cream every once in a while.

This is a picture after Dan (creepin in the back)
and I climbed up a steep and quite slippery hill.
This picture was made at the moment of victory.

There are many wonderful things about living in a foreign country.  I find that most center around learning many new things:  words, foods, and, most importantly, culture (hmm, thats really the catch-all isn't it?).  Today I witnessed two Germans arguing or discussing which of two bakeries were better.  It provided an amusing caveat of German culture.  As Americans may have extreme particularities in coffee shops, Germans have strong prejudices in bakeries (The two Ste(f)phans and I have three different bakers between us).  They know what they like and when they find it they are loyal to it.  In a place where the bread is so good and there are so many options it makes sense.  Small differences become very important.  Of course people have an acceptance of the fact that there is a general sense of quality to their backers, which actually increases the ability to differentiate between them, because one is forced to search out differences. When the differences are small they are many. 

My favorite East German or Sachsche type of bread, that conveys these preferences are Doppelbrötchen (double-rolls). 

Disclaimer: those are not my normal sunglasses.. being winter
I didn't think to bring sunglasses from low-uv Dresden.
My mistake cost me 30 Euro but awarded me with Austrian style.

They are two rolls that are placed close enough in the oven to meld together.  Some Dresdeners I have talked to hail it as the perfect roll--the perfect amount, more dough inside and less crust, and so easy to break and eat.  It would be something I would totally hold on to and defend if I had grown up with it.  It has just the right amount of silliness mixed with a little practicality to make it plausible but also a little amusing.  Once you've decided what type of bread or Brötchen to buy then you just have to find your favorite baker. .

So I am now back from Austria and settling back in to a Dresden routine.  I was able to meet up with a friend, Dan, another Fulbrighter in Sachsen, and experience real mountains once again.  Pretty much our whole plan got "Innsbrucked" (Innsbrucked is a term we began using to refer to the city or establishments in Innsbruck giving us much but not complete information leading to the eventual demise or tweaking of our plans).  The snow level being around 2000m was the first problem.. see, normally Innsbruck has a plethora of winter sport activities open to the public.  However, when its experiencing a freak or perhaps false spring this is not the case.  This ensured that we were two of about five people in the whole of Innsbruck who wanted to cross country ski.  What we thought would be a simple step out the door, throw some skis down operation turned into a little bit more.  We decided to take the ski buses to see if we could find a ski place.  Unfortunately, much of the xc skiing in the area is around 900m--a smidge below 2000m.  After talking with some of the bus drivers (Dan took care of most all of the talking for the trip.. he is fluent in German and thus an extremely effective crutch. Hopefully he doesn't read this blog and I can continue to refer to him with the understanding as such. .), who did not give us many details but told us to get on this bus or that.  Eventually, after two busses and effectively being labeled either the village idiots or helpless children we were shown a van that would take us to cross country skiing.  Innsbruck had told us that we would be able to use the ski buses to get around and to get to skiing but failed to mention how exactly to procure correct or efficient results form the bus drivers.  To add to our difficulties some of the bus drivers decided that they had trouble understanding Dan's German.  Innsbruck.  The first day turned out quite well.. We were able to ski and found some fun slopes.  However, the maps of the courses were confusing and incomplete.  All in all it was a victory for the team and was celebrated with a Stiegl at a restaurant on the back end of the ski course.  Delicious. 



(yes, I am quite nerdly but monkdy skiing is fun.. i promise to work on my video skills)

Innsbruck then started to really Innsbruck us.  I wont launch into a Dickens-esque description of the events but, instead, list off a few of the most notable innsbruckings. 

-The van driver taking us to a sweet cross country ski area. . that didn't rent skis.

-The hotel not differentiating between a "Innsbruck Card" and an
"Innsbruck Club Card,"  then having the receptionist tell us that because she filled out the card we had to pay for them and that it was not a funny matter. We weren't laughing but didn't buy the cards.

-The tourism pamphlets having information about sweet events or possibilities (ex. guest bobsledding) but not listing the correct phone number or time and omitting the location.

-The van drivers got progressively worse: from a cool, very knowledgable, and helpful driver on the first day to a guy on the last day who made us take the city bus home. 

-Having TV in our room but the only show on TV being "The King of Queens." Yes, dubbed into German.  Stefan was explaining to me this week how in one episode of the show they translate "a piece of cake" directly into German.  It doesn't really work at all. It would be akin to saying, "thats a bowl of diced zucchini!" (thats not a German phrase..)

There were a couple other examples but I will refrain from belaboring you with them! 

This is me with two wonderful friends, travel buddies, and people in general:
Katie (blog: kweltnerd.blogspot.com) and Jenni. (photo: Jenni Keating)

After Innsbruck Dan and I headed to Wien to catch up with a couple of the other Sachsen area Fulbrighters and see my friends Katie and Jenni.  It was quite the grand time exploring Vienna.  I enjoyed the accent in Vienna as well as Innsbruck.  I have this habit of repeating stop names on trams or the metro and in Vienna it became a past-time for us Sachseners (most likely to the dismay of our more enlightened Vienna friends).  The accent there is clear, articulate, and sounds like they trained to speak while bouncing on a trampoline as a child.  Although the accent was fairly articulate, in contrast to the Sachsische accent, because they spoke slowly enough.  However, I felt the normal generational gap as I had the hardest time understanding older folk.

-- "Four Men go to a Ballet" --
Fulbrighters from Sachsen: Chuck, Evan, Dan, and me
(photo: Jenni Keating)

I hope to post again this week, and we'll see if I get around to it.. I haven't gotten into another book yet so my excuses for writing are even more rare than normally.  'till then!

On our ski/hike

Winter wandering

On Vacation

Hi all!  I just thought I would give my excuses beforehand instead of waiting until later.. staying prepared. 

I'm off to Innsbruck and Wien for a week as of tomorrow morning.  I'll post again upon returning home.  In the meantime have a great week!

This is Klaus die Ortnungsmaus (Klaus the orderly mouse).  He checks to make sure all the classrooms are in order. Every month he "lives" in one classroom.  The classroom that has done the best job gets the honor of having him live in their classroom and also a new playground toy! 

I've been experimenting a little with night city shooting lately.  I really need to do more and have some good ideas but this is one of my light metering test shots.  My place is on the bottom left by the upper of the two dark windows (although I live on the other side of the building).

Running Around Dresden

My by the Basti bridge.. it is a very well know bridge down south of Dresden that used to lead to a castle situated on top of the rock outcropping.

So Ive been taking up running again because Ive just gotten tired of not being active.  A friend here mentioned the Oberelbe Marathon in May, which I think I might run in, or the half that goes with it.  I think it would be a good goal and help my activity level too!  Part of my not being active definitely was coupled with just eating a fair bit because I get to be home most of the afternoon.  Christmas time is another time where eating was a fun and great activity.  Well, and I just like eating… But the German diet, I think, takes a little different approach for me, because Im not used to it.  I think it may be that way when someone switches to another cuisine.  The typical german diet has a lot of salt, fat, pork, potatoes, etc.  Which is all well and good but when one eats as much as I do its a little more unfortunate.  I was making granola the other day (http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=390  Great bread book btdubs. . Really easy and great results-- makes Pizza dough really easy too!) and one of my housemates told me that it was "too healthy."  I laughed and realized that I wouldn't have to make such healthy things if I didn't enjoy my food in quantity.

My other accomplishment has been Teriyaki chicken.. which really is about the simplest thing to make but quite delicious.  I've been trying to keep under 50 Euro a week on spending so its nice to have meals that are both good and last for a couple dinners.  I plan to try to do Pita bread soon (capitalized? I must be excited about it or something) but Im afraid my oven might not get hot enough to make it work.  We'll see though.  I was tipped off by Stephan that a local shop sells hummus so I figured that I would have to try to make pita bread work.  I definitely have the time on my hands too. 

I am finding that using my time to cook over here is both fun and rewarding.  Additionally, I have been able to find a lot more ingredients than the grocery store has to offer.  German grocery stores are typically smaller, with some exceptions, and stock about the same items.  Although there is variety the selection mirrors what Germans like, naturally. 

One of the castle(ettes) along the Elbe. It's also a winery :)

I finally was able to find black beans and several other types of oil.  The beans were hidden in an awesome underground asian market by the main train station.  After a helpful hint on where to look I found the little wonderland of Asian food.. including black beans, corn starch, pop corn, and different kinds of rice!  It was quite the excitement, let me tell you.  I also finally explored the "von Fass" (from tap) store where you can by assorted oils, wines, and even scotch by the milliliter!   I held myself back to just getting some s. . sesame oil (might have to try the scotch sometime though!). 

My final triumph of the last couple weeks was finding a Coffee Roster here in Dresden.  There is one not too far away, perhaps a ten minute walk from my front door.  They roast some pretty good coffee and I was able to have my first Oregon-quality cappuccino there.  The lady even did coffee art! 

Schloss Morlitzburg--on one of my several walks recently-No snow!

Its a little place tucked between a photo studio and a old (1820ish) Dresdener Café/milkery.. I walked past it at first and could smell the roasting coffee a block away (which mostly smells like burnt chaff but oddly good at the same time.  When I entered the café and saw that they offered French press coffee I felt a twitter of excitement: they must be legit.  I ordered the French press only to have the lady ask me if I was sure because it was a lot of coffee (280ml).  I "realized" my error and got a cappuccino instead.  As I was taking off my jacket and pulling myself up on the bar stool I thought about it.  My cup at home is .25l which equals 250ml, so 280ml is just a little bit more (about 1.25cups).  Which means they probably use the same size press I use at home… yet another reminder of how different cultures view things differently, but next time Im getting the French press.

The happy group at Morlitzburg. .