2006 Volkswagon Passat

It's been a while since I've made an entry here. We've been busy. My fourth semester of graduate school is over (it went wonderfully) and we are settling into our lives here.

Here's the view from my window at work (minus the bars on the window). That's our car, VW Passat. Yes, I'm parking on the grass. The road to our building is being completed and we can't get to the parking lot. Anyway, It's fun to fly down the autobahn in that baby!

The Old Jewish Cemetery in Worms, Germany



We went to see the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in all of Europe. It was incredible. The oldest headstone dates to the year 1076. Jews were buried there from 1076 to 1911. We walked through and saw a variety of headstones and different areas dedicated to different people. You have to remember, Jews were thriving in this part of Germany when this cemetery was set up. Worms was a "Jewish Center" for Europe.



Typically, even when visiting Jewish graves of someone that the visitor never knew, he or she would leave a small stone at the graveside. This shows that someone had visited, and represents permanence. This contrasts with the common custom of leaving flowers, which do not live long. Another reason for leaving stones is tending the grave. In Biblical times, graves were marked with mounds of stones, so by placing (or replacing) them, one perpetuated the existence of the site.

Time Waits For No Man

Here I sit in disbelief that it's the 7th of October! Where is the time going? It's a little bit scary, especially being aware that we are here for a very limited time.

We had plannned a trip to Trier, Germany this weekend but we cancelled because of the tremendous amount of work we have to do here in the house (still). Although Trier is less than 2 hours away, we are surrounded by boxes and "stuff" that need to be put away and we can't avoid that. Saturday is the day you have to go shopping (food) because everything here is shut down on Sunday. The point is, we have to get settled before we start running off to France and Italy (all of the countries) - but WE WILL (eventually).

The "reality" of Europe is starting to hit us too. It is very expensive here and there are a lot of cultural "issues/barriers" here too. Lately,

I've become preoccupied with the German people (and attitude) pre-Holocaust. I've been reading about the anti-Semetic attitude in the 19th and 20th Century of the people here and some history of the village we live in. There are 31 death camps within an 8 hour drive of our village, I'll try to visit all of them in the next three years.

I'm interested in what makes the German people the way they are today. If you've lived in Germany you know what I'm talking about.

More to come...

German Class (Welche Sprache sprechen Sie?)

We've been going to our German class this week. It's great. This is a tough language for me, but I'll get it. Summer and Jean are really doing well with it. At one point in my life I was fluent in Spanish so I thought another language would be easier, it's not. Maybe I'm just getting too old ;-) Give me a few months and I'll be speaking like the Chancellor!

(click here to see a short video from tonight's class)



Also, I found this to be very interesting. I am starting to do research on the death camps in Poland and Germany. It's a sad and sick history.

First rabbis to be ordained in Germany since Holocaust
Sep 14 12:35 AM US/Eastern

Three rabbis are to be ordained in the eastern German city of Dresden in the first such ceremony in the country since World War II.
They studied at the Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam outside Berlin which was founded in 1999 with the aim of strengthening the Jewish religion in Germany after the ravages of the Holocaust.

The college is the only institution in Germany that trains rabbis.

The three rabbis are planning to take up positions at synagogues in Munich in southern Germany, in Oldenburg in the northwest of the country and in Cape Town in South Africa, the college said on Wednesday.

The historical moment has been welcomed by the Central Council of Jews in Germany as a "return to normality".

"We need many more rabbis, 30, 40 times as many as we have," the deputy president of the council, Dieter Graumann, said on Wednesday.

Some 600,000 Jews lived in Germany before the Holocaust.

Today the country's Jewish community counts about 110,000 members, the vast majority of whom emigrated from the former Soviet bloc after its collapse and the reunification of Germany.

I always feel compelled to post an image with every blog. I suppose I'm use to seeing words and images together - a storytelling thing..

Anyway, we're slowly but surely settling in and getting our bearing. We're painting the house, taking German classes and assimilating as much as possible. It's a process.

I work on a remote Kaserne near Sandhofen, right off of the Autobahn. It's called Coleman Barracks. It's really an air field (Called Coleman Army Airfield). It's small and very empty (for all intents and purposes). You can tell that it was a bustling place in its time but now the "cold war" is over, these places are going away. It's scheduled to close in 2010 or 2011. I hope to stay to the end (unless something better comes along).


Driving on Coleman at sunrise this morning.

Here's a small, abstract video of a train into Mannheim, Germany. Initially titled, "Sushi & Sex Toys" now called "Night Train"



(5.5 MB WMV Movie)

Saturday night we went to the "innerstadt fest" in our village. It's literally a five minute walk to the village center (the big church) from our house.
It was very fun. A lot of eye-candy and interesting food and drink.

Here's a small video describing and showing interaction with the locals.



(7.2 MB WMV Movie)

Summer starts high school tomorrow. I am opening the photo studio to shoot DA photos starting tomorrow too. We will be in our house Friday! We can't wait! Our lives are beginning here, I can feel it.
The questions that I'm writing about now are, "When do you feel like you are no longer a 'tourist' and become a member of the community?" "Is it over time? How do you measure that? Can you?" I feel small changes taking place. Work and life begins, I am becoming familiar with the area. I see less and less of the Tom-Tom. I know where things are, what food is good, where to buy my favorite pastry, things like that. Things are changing.

We've been very busy lately. Summer starts school Monday, Jean and I have been in a "cultural immersion" class in Heidelberg all week and we moved to a different hotel. Internet connections aren't as easy to get here as in the states, hence the delay in posts, emails and general communication. We'll get better when we get in our house and get settled!

We are now staying at the Alexandros Hotel & Restuarant in Kafetal. It's MUCH BIGGER than our previous places. We have our own rooms and the shower is huge! The best part is that there is authentic Greek food a few steps from our door!

Here is an abstract Autobahn and Beer Bottles video. FYI: 170 kmph equals 106 mph:



(6.6 MB WMV Movie)

I am playing with the idea of doing some video this semester (along with still and writing). I've complied a small 1:30 video about the media and some of the sounds, scenes and things I deal with on a daily basis... (click to see video)




(7.8 MB WMV Movie)

This is the longest German word (37 letters) I have ever seen. It was one a truck at a market. It also has one of the MANY great street names in Viernheim (our adopted village), Beethoven Straße.



"Food Retail Trade Company, Viernheim, Germany"
August 20, 2006

"Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" won a special award as the longest German word of the year. The monster word consisted of 63 letters, 20 syllables, and ten individual words—all to express a law having to do with British beef (Rindfleisch) and the so-called "mad cow disease."

We trained into Mannheim today (yesterday). Mannheim, at least to me, is a secret as far as tourists go. In other words, there are very few tourists - I like that. I like that a lot. The city is loaded with things to do; shopping, eating, looking at art, history, listen to people on the street corners ranting and raving or just people watching. It's a great city. I've always wanted to live in a place where I could sit in the cool shade on a sunny day and drink a Milchkaffee while watching people. Now I do!!



"Milchkaffee, 1.70 Euro, Mannheim, Germany"
August 19, 2006

I love to people watch in Mannheim. There are so many people! It's like New York or Paris to me that way. More than watch them, I like to try to capture the nuances with an image. It's hard to do, I'm still thinking of ways I can make this happen...
This is shot through glass, but Germans through glass look very interesting to me. Germans love to stare at you... I do it right back and take pictures.. they last longer!



"A German Through Glass, Mannheim, Germany"
August 19, 2006




"Lucky on the Straßebahn, Mannheim, Germany"
August 19, 2006


Watch Lucky's trip on the train to the National Theatre in Mannheim here (4.4MB).

Ladenburg is a beautiful, and very old, city. Depending on who you talk to, it's either Germany's oldest city or has the oldest university in Germany. We had dinner in a restuarant that was built in 1638. It was an experience to eat in "Die Kartoffel" - they serve you a very nice salad, a nice big potato (of course) with delicious Sahne and then your steak comes out - it's sizziling and raw on a very hot stone! You cook it to your liking on the stone (yes, a stone and it stays hot a very long time).. amazing stuff!


"Haupstrasse, Ladenburg, Germany"
August 16, 2006


"Street Scene, Ladenburg, Germany"
August 16, 2006


"Steak and Stone - Die Kartoffel, Ladenburg, Germany"
August 16, 2006


"Die Kartoffel, Ladenburg, Germany"
August 16, 2006


"Quinn Enjoying a Medevial Meal, Ladenburg, Germany"
August 16, 2006

"Mannheimer Strasse, Viernheim, Germany"
August 13, 2006


"Quinn Trying to Fit In"
August 13, 2006


"The Path We Walked Today"
August 13, 2006

"Schnecke"
August 12, 2006 0950 hours - Kantstrasse K4, Viernheim, Germany

It was bound to happen. I knew it would but, I wanted to keep it as far from me as possible. Last night we felt the "sting" of being outsiders. Of being Americans.

We were visiting one of our favorite restuarants (so far), after meeting with the current renters of our house, and we had a "reality check" experience. Here's what happened:

It was about 8PM and we wanted to get something to eat. The Alteus Brauhaus was less than five minutes from the house and we decided to go for some of that great raspberry/vanilla ice cream and schnitzel. We walked in the resturant and we were greeted by the barmaid, "Abend", we replied, "Abend". It was so nice last night we wanted to sit outside. In Germany, like most European countries, people prefer outside to inside (weather permitting). We found a table and sat down. There were a lot of people sitting outside. Most of them were having drinks. Not too many were eating. My daughter worried that we were crashing a family reunion or something. I told her not to worry, it will be fine.
The waitress came to the table and asked us what we wanted. In terrible German we said, "One Pils and two Spezis, please" I suppose that clued her into the fact that we were American (as if they couldn't tell from our dress and mannerisms already). She returned with our drinks and never said another word. We waited for 45 minutes and could never get her attention again. She served everyone else around us and we became invisble.
My American attitude wanted to tell her off, my "you're in another country" attitude wanted to humbly exit the place with myt tail tucked between my legs. We chose the latter. We had to go inside to pay our 7 Euros for the drinks. Again, she never came back to the table! The language barrier is terrible. If I would have known how to say, "Kellnerin, Speiskarte bitte" life would have been much easier.. I think. I wonder if we were ignored because we didn't communicate well enough or that we were who we are? I think it's the latter but hope it's the previous.
It was both humilating and frustrating. If you've ever been in Europe, you know how long it takes to have dinner here. When you are hungry and tired, it gets complicated.

Less than a 10 minute walk from our hotel is the Rhine Neckar Zentrum. A huge mall-like area with everything fruit and meat stores to shoe stores. They had an exhibit going from the World Photo Press. It was amazing! How lucky am I to be living in a place where this is so common? I feel very blessed!
Some of the most moving images for me were these from a Dutch photographer, Martin Roemers. He did a story on soldiers and people from WWII in Europe (David's idea, a great one!). Beautiful, powerful images!


My new favorite beer. While in the Rhine Neckar Zentrum, we checked out a resturant called, "Le Buffet." We had an excellent meal and I found a dunkel hefe bier (dark) from Paulaner. Excellent!! (But can you find a bad beer in Germany??)

We are having fruit and ice cream tonight and I noticed this German word on the lid of the fruit. Although the English word for "preservitives" is quite long, the German word has a certain look about it that makes it appear like an alphabet:

Unbelieveably good ice cream! I was never really a fan of ice cream, German ice cream has made me change my mind.



A house next to us near KantStrasse.. you'll see these everywhere, I really like them!

It's been a few days without writing or posting here. It's not that my life is event-less, quite the contrary, we've been "internet-less" on and off and I've been busy and lazy (yes, concurrently).

The church near our house in Viernheim, Germany.

Anyway, I've had a couple of very interesting things happen in the last few days. The first was when we were walking through Viernheim (the village where we rented our house) looking for a place to eat dinner. As we walked along these quiet cobblestone streets, past this church, I looked to my left and I saw an older man sitting on some steps smoking a cigarette. He was in his 70s or maybe even 80s. He said something in German and so I started walking over toward him. I said, “Gutenabend (good evening), Wo ist ein gutes resturant? (Where is a good restaurant?)” He started telling me about a place called, “Alteus Brauhaus” and telling me how good the Schweinefleisch Schnitzel is there. We had already been there and had that (and he is right, it’s outstanding!!) so I asked him for another suggestion. He turned to my wife, Jean, and asked, in German, if I was Italian. I told him that she was my Frau and that Summer was my daughter. He asked, “Sind Sie amerikanisch? (are you American?) I said yes, we are. He got very excited and hugged me and then kissed Jean and Summer’s hand (acted as he did). Then, in very fast and broken German started talking about how big and strong I was and that I was Amerikana… that he loved Amerika! (Not so much George Bush though) and wanted to hug again. We said thanks and told him good night. I suspect that he was a kid during the war and is appreciative of what he perceives as “America the Great” saving Germany and Europe in WWII.

What I would have given to catch all of that on video! These are the experiences that are forming me right now.

Here’s another story from last night. Our internet connection has been going on and off in our room lately. They say it’s due to storms and wet equipment. I’m not sure what it is. Anyway, we can sit in the lobby of the hotel room and get a great connection. So every once in a while we drop in and sit and drink beers and do stuff online. Last night we had the night-shift lady working. She is a bit “off’ but very interesting. She would scare you if you didn’t know her. She is in her early 50s and very German. She says she speaks English (and does a little) but really understands very little. Last night, as we struggled through some light conversation, I brought up the history of Germany and Hitler. She immediately piped up and said, in a very scary voice, rolling her eyes left to right and putting two fingers (middle and index) to her upper lip, “Oh, zee little one?” I almost lost it, it was both funny and bizarre! She continued on and made sure we knew he was Austrian, not German. And then, in quite articulate English, reminded us of our own genocidal past; the Native Americans and the African slaves. I was quick to point out that it’s in ALL of us to do terrible things. It’s just that the German’s past is the most recent and haunts many people who are still alive today.

These are memories and events that I will NEVER forget! This is why I love where I am and what I am doing.

Today was the first day with really clear heads, the jet lag is almost gone and our bodies are tired at night and alert in the day. So we rented a car.

What a difference wheels make! I missed driving. After getting our ID cards and eating lunch, we headed over to check out Grunstadt. The Grunstadt area is known for it's local wines/vineyards. They don't export the stuff, you have to come here to drink it. It's fairly close to the French border (we are already, Grunstadt is a 25 minute drive). The vineyards there are GORGEOUS! If you've ever been through Washington state or northern California, times that by ten and you'll start to get an idea of what the Grunstadt area looks like. To put this in perspective, the exit we took was called "Deutsche WeinStraße" (German Wine Street). We plan to check out other small villages this weekend. We want something that is close to a bigger city that allows us to access a bakery, cafe, pub and market easily. We'll find it, there are plenty of places to choose from here.

Also, this was my first day driving on the Autobahn. It's awesome! And yes, I drove fast (when appropriate and legal). My top speed was 170 Kmph (just shy of 110 mph) - it's good stuff! And yes, I was sober, very very sober! You DO NOT want to drink AT ALL here and drive, serious stuff!

We had dinner at "Alexandros" a Greek resturant/hotel a couple of miles up the road in Kafertal, Germany. Yummy!

This city is full of eye-candy. I like the subtle things... today, shoes and socks intriguied me. I may start to make images of one thing a day and see how that translates???


I thought that the local area would keep us busy for a while and I was right. There is a lot to do within a five mile radius of here. It's a bit overwhelming. Recently, I've been taken with the food and drink (can you tell?). I can't wait to have family and friends come over and treat them to an Italian meal one night, then an Indian meal and then a German meal, etc. all authentic and very different from anything they've ever had. What fun that will be!



Mannheim is a clean, quiet city. I remember in Paris how loud and noisy it was (and a bit dirty), Mannheim is like a cleaned up Paris.

(A WMV movie of silly Americans)

The Stadtbahn into Mannheim is a wonderful ride. Although it's unseasonably warm here, it was a blast to go into Mannheim on the train.

Mannheim is a large city and reminds me a lot of Paris (believe it or not). Maybe it's my virgin American eyes, but it has some very cool places and cafes/coffeshops/bakeries everywhere.

Tonight, we went downtown for dinner and it was another wonderful meal in Europe! We sat outdoors in the great little place called "Hemingways". The waitress spoke some English and with our very limited, broken, mangled German we were able to have a great meal and a lot of fun (can you say Knoblauch Es ist Weiss, Ja?)

Photos are not uploading tonight... I'll try to update this tomorrow with images.

I started "in-processing" today. I have to attend briefings, fill out paper work and watch Power-Point presentations. This will go on all week.

Jean and I just got back from visiting the housing department. We are scheduled to look at a house in Rheinau, Germany. It's 225 square meters, 6 bedrooms, apartment upstairs, fenced yard, terrace, etc. We'll see what happens. We're also second in line for a nice place near Grunstadt. I would prefer that area.

I got to video conference with my friend Caron last night. It was very enjoyable, technology is great! I hope we can do that more often!!


What a wunderbar dinner!! This is what I love (at least one of them). We had a little zin before dinner but these Wiener Wurstchen were the tastiest (a bit salty cooked in Olive Oil) with the Kohl!! There was a nice (dijon like) mustard and dill cream! The (peach) yogurt for desert was the creamiest and best I've ever had!! What can I say? The hits just keep on coming. Now if I can get some sleep tonight!!





Guten Abend!

It's my third day in Germany and I am captivated.

I need to document these feelings so they are always available to me. I know in time, this will become familiar and I need to be able to speak to the experiences (intimately) that our family and friends will experience the first few days, weeks or months here. I NEVER want to forget these feelings and emotions. I am alive again!

We are living in an apartment/hotel on Gorxheimer StraBe #7. It's right on the border of Mannheim near Ben Franklin Village, a U.S. military post.



It's so different here. Far from what I am familiar with. I find myself pondering the smallest things. The smells, sights, sounds, everything. It feels very different. If you find yourself bored and lamenting your life in your familiar rut, in other words if you are "rutified", move to a different country. Your senses will awaken and you will feel alive again, I guarantee it!

Nahrung: We went grocery shopping yesterday and we went up and down every aisle wondering what 90%+ of the products were. I have never seen so much sausage (no, not that kind of sausage) and pork products. Pork/ham products are called "Schinken" - there are more varieties than you can count. It sounds stereotypical, but it's true, Germans love their Schinken und Bier!


Bier: Don't get me started! For a beer drinker, this is heaven. Very, very good beer that is very, very inexpensive. I can't believe I've been drinking that shite from Utah (well, I really haven't that much, but in theory I had no choice if I wanted a beer). It's no surprise to me that Germans can, and will, enjoy a Bier most anytime, day or night.

Wein: This was surprising to me too. I didn't expect the variety and quality of wine here. Again, very good and very inexpensive. We've been having Wein und Bier mit Abendessen every night.

Kaffee: The most tastiest, yummiest stuff I've had (well at least very similar to the Dutch coffee I love so very much). We bought a brand called "Jacobs" appropriate, no? It's strong, but very drinkable and wires you up nicely. I recently gave up coffee drinking but couldn't resist here. Europeans love their Kaffee in the morning and Wein und Bier at meals. As they say, "When in Rome..."

Milch: A new experience. I love this stuff! It's heated to a very high temp for a long time and it doesn't need to be refrigerated. It lasts for months! It's rich and creamy too. Great on cereal or in Kaffee! A popular Kaffee Creamer here is also very good and is fridge-free.


I'm going to keep these posts short and sharp as possible. I'll post images with them and pick some highlights of the day.

I'm moving to Europe in July. My goal is to use this space as a journal and document my thoughts, activities and experience through images and text.
I am entering my fourth semester of graduate school at Goddard College. I hope my advisor can visit and make comments on this blog during the semester.