The Train is On Its Way!

Welcome

As I write this, my good friends Frank and Greg are on a train heading from Frankfurt. They arrive at the Dresden Hauptbahnhof at 20:43. Also, my big brother will be arriving some time tomorrow via airplane. Needless to say, I am absolutely ecstatic about these people coming over to spend time with me. I also can't wait to show them my city and introduce them to my friends. I think Frank knows what he is in for--I gave him a four-hour cycling tour of Blacksburg, and that place sucks compared to Dresden. The reason I am writing this blog entry early Saturday afternoon as opposed to my usual Sunday evening is I wanted to get one more in before all of my visitors arrive.

Wednesday Evening--Campus Party!

On Wednesday evening, Emily and I had the pleasure of attending the largest open-air university party in Germany. This event was very interesting, as it would never be allowed to happen on most American college campuses. There were two stages on the campus grounds for live music; one of them was quite large and hosted bands of national popularity. In addition to the live music acts, there were about five DJ floors in various university buildings. There was plenty of beer to be had, of course. The total attendance is estimated to be around 15.000.

When we first arrived at the party, we just kind of stood there and looked around, regretting the fact that we did not round up a larger group of English-speakers to enjoy the festivities with. We ended up having a good time anyway, though. Later in the evening we even managed to meet up with some of Emily's German friends from work. We saw two bands perform on the main stage. Both of them were a bit poppy for my tastes, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. This is one of those situations in which I find the language barrier to be highly amusing. Like I said, the music was quite poppy, so there were several times where everybody in the crowd knew the words to the songs and sang along. Of course, I did not "know the words" in more ways than one. Since English is just the coolest, trendiest language there is, both of the bands had at least one line worth of lyrics in English. This got me very excited and I cheered for it. I hope I didn't offend anyone.

Thursday Night - Ska Show

I think I mentioned in my last post that ska is very popular in Germany. On Thursday night, Emily, Navin and I went to a show that was actually in a club in the basement of a dorm. Pretty cool, eh? I was certainly a fan of the atmosphere in this place. Perhaps it isn't as cool as Neustadt, but it had a nice studenty feel to it. Aside from the fact that it was a ska show and ska shows are the most fun thing in the world, we saw this particular band because the saxophonist is on Emily's work team (Emily is one of those "well-connected" people who has a "social life"). This was Navin's first time at a ska show. When we picked him up at his dormitory, he came outside and said, "Do you think loafers will be okay for something like this?" Emily and I just laughed and sent him upstairs to change. I guess I should mention that Navin likes to dress well (probably has something to do with that whole "self esteem" thing I keep hearing so much about).

So the band was great, and I got some solid skanking in, which always makes me happy. After the band played, though, there was a DJ, and things got more into "dance party" mode. I was perfectly happy with this, because I enjoyed the music he was playing. Of course, I still have no idea how to dance. My technique for dancing to any music other than ska is to skank, but at the same time pretend that I am not skanking. Emily does not have this problem, though. She has apparently taken some twenty-five years of dance lessons. Am I jealous of her abilities? Not at all. I spent this time learning how to make coffee, which is a much more important skill. Seriously, though, she is so good that some guy at the bar thanked her for dancing. And I don't mean thanked her for dancing with him; he was just thanking her because her dancing added to the atmosphere of the dance party.

Friday - An Evening Sans Motivation

On Friday evening, Rae, Jess and I actually thought that we had the skills to go out at night by ourselves. This is a hilarious thought. All three of us are the kind of people who enjoy going out at night, we but require a "catalyst" to give us some direction. Unfortunately, our usual catalyst was at a barbecue or something, so it was just up to us. We began our evening with some doeners, and then sat on the rock garden and drank beer. This continued for several hours, until we agreed that we should probably do something. We eventually decided to turn to Ohio for help. Luckily our Ohioan friends were home and wanted to hang out with us, and they are more motivated people. Great catalysts. There was even a real live German amongst their ranks.

We hung out around the building for a bit longer and then headed to the tram. The original plan was to go Elbenbiering, although this never actually happened. One person in the group wanted to get a doener, so we went to my favorite Neustadt doener haus, Team Ararat. At this point Jess and I were drunk enough that we saw absolutely no problem with having two doeners in a single night. We had chicken doener just to switch things up a bit. We had brought plenty of beer with us, so there was no reason to go into a bar and pay massive amounts of money. We ended up just dicking around the streets of Neustadt for most of the evening. For me, this is a very agreeable way to spend time. Chances are I'm not going to meet people going into bars and clubs, so why not just have a good time with people you came with right on the streets? We did make it to the Elbe, but just for a few minutes to gape at the view and take some pictures. I never get tired of that view, and I make it even better for myself by repeating the phrase "I live here" over and over in my head.

This was just your classic night of getting drunk with friends. Good times. I am going to collect pictures from the various people we spent the evening with and post them at a later date.

I Am Retarded

A few entries ago, I shared one of many ways to interpret the language barrier. Here I am going to present a second, much more amusing interpretation, though both remain equally true. Let's take stock of my position within this society. I cannot read, write, or speak, and I require special accommodation in public places. Can you think of another group of people who exist under the same circumstances? Last night, for example, I ordered a doener. The man asked me if I wanted to eat my doener in his shop or take it with me. I responded by naming the different types of sauces I wanted on my doener. It's really funny to imagine how funny this would sound in your native language:

"For here or to go?"

"Uhhhh..... Garlic sauce, chili sauce..."

Conclusions and Farewell

The next entry you guys read will be packed full of stories with Frank, Greg, and my Big Brother Alex. For now, Jess and I are going to Grosser Garten to read books. This activity for which we have plenty of motivation.

Field Trip

Welcome

Your wishes have been fulfilled. After hours of staring at your computer screen pressing your web browser's "refresh" button, you are finally being treated to more ultra-insightful thoughts and observations from Jeff's mind. So put on your favorite music (preferably Balkan Beat Box's new album, "Nu Med"), grab some shitty American beer, and absorb every little nugget of witty, well thought-out prose.

Thursday - Strassenbiering

Parking Ticket

On Thursday evening, I got the first parking ticket of my life. On our way to the Elbe, Emily and I stopped at the hauptbahnhof to purchase a train ticket for our weekend field trip. When it comes to finding a place to lock up my bike, my only criteria is that it be an immobile object to which a cable lock can be successfully threated through. Unfortunately our friends at the Deutsche Bahn seemed to disagree. After being aided in an exhilarating fight with the ticket automat by some good old Saxon hospitality, we walked outside to get our bikes and found a notice placed on my frame underneath of my rear brake cable. Assuming it was just some sort of advertisement, I put it in my pocket and began to unlock my bike. I put my key in the first lock and unlocked it as normal. Unfortunately, I did not have a key to either of the second locks detaining both my and Emily's bikes. After playing Language Barrier Taboo with several employees of the DB, we finally got our bikes unlocked free of charge. All in all, this made for a fun adventure and a good story.

Strassenbiering

On Thursday night I discovered my new favorite activity: strassenbiering. (Linguistic background: "Strasse" is the German word for street. It is adjetivised by adding an "n", and concatenated with the word "beer" made into a gerund, to form my new word for the act of drinking beer on the streets). The original plan was to go Elbenbiering, but when we crossed the river we couldn't resist the temptation to visit our favorite Neustadt doener haus. After being entertained by our colorful Turkish friends, we stepped out onto the street (one of my favorites in the city) and decided that instead of going back to the Elbe, we would just sit on a concrete wall on the street and drink like the Neustadt punks that we are. In reality, this particular concrete wall really is in the middle of a massive punk gathering place. On a weekend, you can expect the number of punks gathered about this area well into the hundreds. I enjoy hanging out with punks under the condition that I have a guide (Alex) and they are speaking my language. Luckily, this scene does not seem to be present during the week, so it was just people like Emily and I who wanted to enjoy a beer on the street. We even met a group of people who were living in Dresden but originally hail from other parts of the world. They were all quite drunk, to varying degrees. The most coherent of the group that I spoke to was Daniel, who is originally from Russia. He gave me his phone number with the intention of trying to meet up on Friday night, but unfortunately Friday rolled around and I realized that I don't have a phone with which to call it. Too bad.

Strassenbiering may very well be one of my favorite activities of all time. I'm not surprised, though, as it is such a perfect combination of my favorite things in life: cities, beer, people watching, conversation, etc. I suppose it is a more social version of sitting on a street bench, drinking coffee, and reading a book.

Friday - Skankin' It Up in the Park

On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending what I assume to be the coolest festival this city has to offer: Bunten Republik Neustadt. It was quite unlike anything I have ever seen. The streets were literally packed to the point that it was impossible to move in some places. There were bands, DJs, beer and food stands, etc. packed amongst the crowd on the street. Most clubs had a free line up of live music for the night. I went over with Teri, Jess, someone with whom Teri works, and our newest new arrival, Sameer. We began by walking through the crowded street while enjoying some beer, and eventually ended up in the park into which the street terminates. The park was more or less filled with punks (this is Dresden Neustadt we're talking about here) and there was a stage at the front. When we first got there, it was just some angry metal band playing, so we sat in the grass at a safe distance from the stage and just took in our surroundings. As soon as the metal band finished their set, a new band started to set up. A trumpet, that's interesting. Wait a minute, is that a saxophone? A trombone? If I didn't know any better, I would say I am going to be treated to a ska band!!!

And right I was. The band was amazing. It's too bad I never learned their name, so I will be unable to explore their studio recorded music. I had the time of my life up in the pit, skanking like I have never skanked before. Halfway through the set, the band was talking to the audience in German so I was more or less standing still. Teri came up and said that everyone else wanted to leave. Perhaps it was the adrenaline talking, but I just didn't care. I told them that they could just leave without me. Unfortunately, this ended up with me being left completely alone. I stuck around to see what the next band was going to be, but unfortunately it was another metal band that I had no interest in seeing. I ended up taking the tram home much earlier than I would have liked to on an occasion like this. Long story short, I traded the last several hours of my evening for fifteen more minutes of ska show. Was it worth it? Hell yes!

Saturday and Sunday - Field Trip

The Itinerary

On Saturday at 04:00, we met one of our two teachers (Emily and Julie) at the school (Hauptbahnhof) to board the school bus (DB train) to go to Washington, DC (Berlin). We had plans to visit the Smithsonian museums (Checkpoint Charlie museum and German Jewish History museum) and to take a guided tour of the city. Like any good field trip, our carefully planned activities were supplemented with a bit of leisure time.

I can understand why my teachers (Emily and Julie) and classmates (Teri, Sameer, and Jess) wanted to take such an early train in order to maximize our time in the city, but it ended up killing any possibility of exploring Berlin's night life. It seemed that most of us, including myself, did not manage to get more than an hour's worth of fragmented sleep on the train. After we got home from a nice, long, drunken dinner at a Tapas bar, we sat around and literally fell asleep during the process of planning our night of going out.

I Have a Bad Attitude

I'm not really a museum type of person. That's right; I said it. I would not say that I was necessarily bored at the museums the same way a small child would be. In fact, I felt that I gained a lot of knowledge from them, and am eager to learn more on the topics they presented. I just don't understand why everyone automatically thinks that museums are the best way to spend time in a city. In my opinion, I would have been better off sitting right here in Dresden reading books about the history of the Berlin wall and the Jewish people in Germany. Then, I would have spent the time I would have otherwise spent in the museums really experiencing the city of Berlin. To me, this means spending the day walking the streets, hanging out in the parks and leisure areas, aimlessly exploring the public transportation system, etc. Then come night time I would meet some people in the hostel and go out and have a good time. The trip that I took to Montreal about half a year ago was absolutely perfect. In the short time I was there, I really got a feel for the city itself, met some cool people in the hostel, and never set foot inside of a museum. Whether or not there are museums in Montreal I do not know. If there are, I will go to my local library and check out books on their topics and read them at my leisure.

Me and Berlin: A Strong Feeling of Neutrality

My opinion of the city of Berlin has not changed from what it was before this field trip: It is some big city in Germany. Of course I can't say that I didn't like Berlin. It's freaking Berlin, it's supposed to be freaking awesome, right? My answer is yes, it probably is freaking awesome. For whatever reason I just didn't get that feeling. I failed to mention that we didn't spend all of our time locked up in museums. On Sunday we took a very nice cycling tour of the city, so this was perhaps my best chance to see Berlin itself. As far as architectural beauty goes, I really didn't find much. Granted, I believe that most of our time was spent in East Berlin, so concrete socialist architecture is expected. But even the famous touristy stuff did not do anything for me.

Berlin's number one flaw is the simple fact that it is not located on the Elbe. Furthermore, the street signs are white, whereas ours are blue. Blue is obviously a better color than white. Their main park is called the Tiergarten, whereas ours is the Grosser Garten. Grosser Garten is a better name because it is an alliteration, thus Dresden is a better city. In all seriousness, though, I find myself forced to compare Berlin to Dresden in order to explain why the famous touristy stuff in Berlin was completely lost on me. The comparison to Dresden is strictly for architectural purposes. Everyone tells me that Berlin is a better city, so I will just have to take their word for it. My emotional attachment to Dresden makes my opinion on the matter completely invalid. I basically get attached to any city I live in or spend a lot of time in, even if from an outsider's point of view it really isn't a nice place at all (see Blacksburg and Roanoke).

Let us begin with the Brandenburg Gate as an example, which is all the rage according to the post card industry. Yes, the gate itself is a fine example of architecture and is most pleasing to the eye. But it is one structure. It stands alone and does not do anything to interact with the structures around it. The same is true for all of the pretty buildings in Berlin--they are more or less on their own. Even if there are multiple pretty buildings in a given area, it is more or less just by chance. I invite you to take a scroll through my earlier blog entries. What do you notice as a general theme of my photographic coverage of Dresden's Innere Altstadt? For the most part, no picture contains just one single building. This is because I can't get too excited about a building on its own. I am more interested in how multiple buildings come together to form a pleasing scene. To be honest, I don't even know what most of those buildings in Innere Altstadt even are. I'm not too sure I really care, either (actually I do care, but just to enhance my knowledge of the history of the city). You may have noted that one exception is the palace in the park. To me, this is not an exception. No, it does not play with any buildings around it, as it is quite alone. It does, however, create a center focal point for the park. This type of "interaction", whether it be with other buildings, streets, a park, etc., is what gets me excited about architecture. I can't get too excited about a building on its own.

Maybe I should go back to Berlin, slow things down a bit, and see if I can actually get a feel for what the city is all about. I had a very fun weekend spending time with my friends, whether or not I am the number one fan of museums. I think that one of these weekends I am going to try and recreate the style of traveling which allowed me to experience Montreal so well. This will, of course, require a stay of longer than one or two nights, so this will most likely exclude my friends, all of which have a better work ethic than myself. I will choose between Amsterdam and Munich to see in this more laid back way, even if it has to be by myself.

Conclusions and Farewell

Although it all started due to a comment that I found to be inappropriate, I now find the back-and-forth interactions in our little "blogosphere" to be extremely fun. I still think we should keep the comments on this blog relatively clean, but for those of you who are enjoying this battle of immaturity, the main grounds can be found on Dan's new blog, and my new wiki. Links to both of these sites can be found on the left-hand side of this page. Note that the content on these two sites is exactly the kind of stuff I am trying to keep out of the comments here. You have been warned. You will be offended.

Frank and Greg, see you soon! Emily absolutely cannot wait to meet you.

I Am Afraid to Go Dancing

One Month Checkpoint

Welcome to another exciting installment of Jeff's life in Dresden. They always say that time flies when you're having fun and looking at the calendar, it would seem that I am unfortunately one-third of the way through my short time allotted to live in paradise. I guess this means I am supposed to be reflective, questioning whether the first month has gone as well as I would have hoped. I also probably should have done laundry by now. I hope I don't smell bad.

The truth is, coming into this I had no idea what to expect. Perhaps the major question to ask myself is whether Dresden feels like home. The answer to this question is a resounding "yes." This does not mean that I renounce what you could call my "real" home. I still acknowledge that my close friends and family live across the ocean, meaning that will always be my "home" in some sense of the word. As I mentioned to my friends last night as we were sitting on the banks of the Elbe drinking a few beers, as far as moving to a foreign place by myself goes, I cannot imagine a more comfortable city than Dresden in which to do so. Despite the language barrier and the fact that I have a very different cultural background, I would say that walking around the streets of Dresden feels every bit as comfortable as walking the street(s?) of Blacksburg. Of course I can't compare this to where I grew up, as I did not have "streets" per se.

I still don't feel disappointed in the way I have spent my time, but taking an objective look at my situation I do fall short in many areas. I have no close relationships with any German people; I have made little to no progress with the German language; I have not learned of any new music; I have not taken any substantial weekend trips. Despite these shortcomings, I have still grown as a person in ways I could have never imagined, and my outlook on life will never be the same after this experience. This has been more significant than anything I have ever done.

Coming to Terms With the Language Barrier

I came up with an analogy this week that tries to explain how I can feel so comfortable here despite the fact that I can't speak the language.

Imagine that you are walking down a hallway in a school, for example. You are passing countless doors on your left and right. The truth is, you have no reason to enter most of these doors. They are various classrooms and offices which simply don't concern you. The doors that you have no business in are the German-speaking people that dominate the streets. The doors such as bathrooms and the classroom you are looking for are the English-speaking people that you already have an association with. Just like you can't walk down a hallway in a public building and enter any old door you wish, I can't walk down the streets of Dresden and have the ability to speak to any given person. That's just the way it is, and it's surprisingly easy to accept as a fact after a while. It does not make me feel any more alienated than walking down the hallway of a public building does (not at all).

Work Continues to be Pleasant and Enlightening

I am really getting into my research project, and have made a good amount of progress (in my opinion). Last fall I had a job which was supposed to be relevant to my education, but ended up being less so than my job delivering pizzas at Papa John's with Tony in northern Baltimore County. At least then I got to use interpersonal skills. This summer, ironically, I feel that my job is even more educational than my undergraduate coursework itself. No offense to Virginia Tech (or Technische Universitaet Blacksburg, as I like to call it), as without the background I was given in school, I would certainly not have the skills to perform the work I am doing now.

I am actually going to take this opportunity to complain about Virginia Tech, in ways which may offend some people. Aside from entrepreneurship, there are two main paths an engineer can take: Corporate and academic. Throughout my undergraduate career, the well-meaning academic advisors have never ceased to explain the importance of internships, and learning how to act in a corporate setting. I receive countless e-mails through the list-serv about career fairs and internship offers from defense contractors. Yes, as a young and idealistic student, my number one priority is to help the U.S. government come up with new and better ways to kill my fellow human beings. As I am beginning to learn on my own by talking to professors and graduate students, and by working in the academic environment both at the Math Emporium and here at TU Dresden, the prerequisite "extra curricular" activities for those of us wishing to continue in the direction of teaching and research are completely different than those going down the corporate career path. First of all, research experience helps. Also, a strong math background is invaluable as could be. Why has this never been stressed to me in the same manner as internships with corporations have been? According to a ranking system that I have no respect for whatsoever, Virginia Tech is supposed to have a reasonably good faculty of engineering. Am I to understand that none of us are expected to be bright enough to continue in academia? Or do they just think that those who have the ability to do so are smart enough to figure it out on their own? In all fairness, I have not been taking advantage of the University Honors Program nearly as much as I should. Perhaps this is the place where these great truths are revealed.

A Boring Seminar and a Socially Amusing Situation

I Am Bad with Names and Faces

On Tuesday morning, a girl sits down at the computer next to me. She waves and says "hi" to me. This is very unusual behavior for Germans, so I am caught off guard. I give her a quick smile, throw on my headphones, and get to work. As usual when lunch comes around, I tell my friends Vivek and Sammet (spelling HAS to be wrong) that I'm hungry, and we go for lunch. Things continue like normal. On Thursday, there is a seminar about MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) wireless communications that I would like to attend. About fifteen minutes before it is to start, I log off of my computer and start to pack up. Woops, I forgot to check what room it is in. So I ask this shy albeit friendly girl who sits next to me what room the seminar in, and she tells me, and says, "We can just walk down together," to which I truthfully reply, "Thanks, but I am going to stop by the bathroom first."

I stand around outside of the door where the seminar is to take place, and the mystery girl approaches. She passes close to someone and says "Excuse me." That's right. "Excuse me."

"Wait a minute, you don't speak German?"

"Nope, not a word," she replies.

Something is fishy here. At this point, happy I have found another English-only speaker, I begin conversing with her. We eventually start talking about the advantages and disadvantages of air conditioning. She says that at her school, all of the buildings are, out of necessity, air conditioned.

"Oh, where do you go to school?" I ask.

"Duke."

CRAP!!! It clicked. The person who was trying to be friendly with me all week, and I all but ignored, was Rae, one of my fellow RISE participants whom I had met just a week before! I felt extremely stupid. From this point on, we conversed and acted friendly with each other (as we should). As soon as I feel comfortable that I know her well enough, I will come clean and admit that I simply didn't recognize her. This probably will not be necessary, though. From her end, there were two ways to judge the situation: Either I did not recognize her, or I am a huge jerk. I would have to be a pretty big jerk to act towards her the way I did.

The Boring Seminar

The seminar began at 16:40, and I had plans to meet my poor, sick friend at 17:45 at the hauptbahnhof. I'm not sure why I was so convinced the seminar would only last 45 minutes, but I was. About a half hour into the seminar all I could really do was nervously glance at my pocket watch. It was held in a very small room, and everyone was sitting around a U-shaped board room style table, including the professor. The room was a bit overcrowded. There was no way in hell I could get out of that room without making a big scene of it. Then, a sign from God. The sun comes out from behind the clouds, and makes the projector screen he is using completely unreadable.

"Oh well, looks like we're going to have to move to another room," says the professor.

How perfect is that? The professor even joked that "This is a perfect opportunity for those of you who are getting bored to leave." Perfect indeed, Professor. Perfect.

I Am Afraid to Go Dancing

The Evening Begins in Peace and Civility

On Friday evening, Navin and I met with Emily, an old friend of hers who is participating in a similar program elsewhere in Germany, and someone whom Emily's friend had met through said program. Dinner was nice. Afterwards, we went to the same biergarten that we always take Dresden newcomers. At this point, I felt everyone got along well. I enjoyed conversing with these people. Why did I specifically avoid going out with them on Saturday night? Read on!

Let's Go Out!

Okay! It was about 23:00, and as it turns out, some people actually care about how they look. So the out-of-towners went back to their hostel to change, and I went back to Navin's dorm room. We met at the hauptbahnhof at around 23:50. We decided that we wanted to go to a club, and to make things easy, we would just find something on this side of the river.

This was the first mistake. If any of you young people ever go to Dresden for any reason, remember this one very important rule: Never, EVER go to a club in Altstadt. Neustadt is where you will find unique places that are packed with character, and most often target some sort of counterculture. Anything in Altstadt will intend to appeal to the populace.

The Club

As soon as I set foot in the door, I could tell this was not my kind of place. The people were simply not my kind of people, and the club itself was, well, "nice." I like places that have a sense of uniqueness that cannot be replicated. This was just "nice"--it probably cost a lot to build, and that's about it. I also did not like the music at all--it was very electronic, and didn't seem like the kind of thing that someone like my friend David (who has a knack for labeling music to be universally "good" or "bad" and isn't afraid to say it) would allow to be called well-crafted music. It was simply sound that fueled the dancing, and had no artistic value beyond that. At this point, my outlook was that my experience at this club would be just that much more humorous, because I was so out of place. Being out of place can be funny if you have the right attitude.

At this point, I was able to step back and laugh at the fact that I was in this club. Then two things happened that made me sick to be in there, and sick to believe that this slice of culture existed. The first thing involves video screens, placed at the periphery of the dancing area, that flashed colors in tune to the music. I noticed that about once every sixty seconds, the logo for the "Red Bull Energy Drink" beverage would flash on the screen for about half a second. If this is not considered "subliminal advertising," then I don't know what is. As with most people living in this Brave New World, I have been subjected to unwelcome advertising my whole life. Never has anything sent chills down my spine the way this did. The second thing that happened related to a song that was played. Most of the music played had no lyrics, but this was an exception. A voice came over the loudspeaker. An English voice (I am approximating): "Ladies, get on your Guccis, your [expensive sunglasses brand 2], ... , your [expensive sunglasses brand n-1], your [expensive sunglasses brand n]!" The lyrics of the song itself had something to do with the advantages and disadvantages of wearing sunglasses at night. My previous reference to Aldous Huxley's masterpiece is not incidental: Being in this club made me feel that I was in some future dystopia where intelligence was all but banned.

The Girl

So I was in some weird-ass club that made me feel out of place. Perhaps I could handle this. What really topped off this evening and made it have a lasting emotional effect on me was a girl who imposed herself to dance with me, whom I had no interest in whatsoever and would have rather kept a safe distance from. It was not a random girl from the club, but one whom I had arrived with. I enjoyed my conversation with her, but had no interest in her beyond that. She was dancing with me, and as you can imagine, this is no ball-room dancing. I'll leave you to create your own mental picture. The problem is that I really had no "out." The music was not going to stop, and clubs don't exactly close early in Dresden. I had no idea what to do. Eventually, at around 02:30 or so, I just played it off as if I were tired and wanted to go home.

The Walk Home

It's not really the dancing itself that bothered me. I could have continued, albeit bored, without feeling too uncomfortable. What really bothered me is the fact that I did not know how to deal with the situation in a way which would allow me to continue enjoying my night. Granted the whole "club culture" is new to me. I get excited when I discover my own shortcomings, as it allows me to stop questioning why I may act a certain way in certain situations. But I really can't pinpoint why I completely failed to handle this situation.

When I walk down a street, I spare no brain power in observing every little detail around me. Even if it is a street that isn't especially nice, or a street that I walk even on a daily basis, there is a mathematically infinite number of observations to be made. When I walked up Prager Strasse on Friday night, though, I stared at the ground a meter in front of me. I was so wrapped up in thought that should I have looked up at the city around me, my brain would have exploded due to an overload. I more or less forgot I was even in a city. For better or for worse, seeing the tram tracks passing underneath my feet didn't seem to remind me.

Two Wheels and a Portable CD Player
When I woke up on Saturday morning, I realized that I do not have the skills necessary to interact with other people, so decided to take a nice and pensive bike ride up to a city called Pirna--by myself. The ride itself was so nice that I took the same exact ride today. It is about 40 km round trip, but completely flat. I plan on making this a regular activity, similar to the Huckleberry Trail in Blacksburg. The ride is much nicer than going in the direction of Meissen, and the city of Pirna suits me much better than the city of Meissen. The narrow streets are there, but on the whole I feel that I am in a nice, albeit small, city that is relevant to the present day. I found the doener stand within five minutes of entering the street grid.

Saturday Night--Just What I Needed

Saturday was my first opportunity to spend some quality time with Jess. This is good, because it turns out we have a lot in common. We are both very independent people who enjoy the perks of spending time alone, but appreciate the company of others just the same. She also has a similar attitude towards the future, that compared to what our lives are right now, it's not looking so great. I doubt that when I am thirty I will be able to randomly move to a German city for three months. She is also critical of America, likes to read, and found the corporate world to be just short of vomit-inducing.

We began our evening by sharing a bottle of wine and were joined shortly thereafter by our Ohioan friends. We went down to the doener stand near our residence, enjoyed our evening meal, and decided to meet some of the other Ohioans down on the Elbe to have a few beers. This was a very nice experience, just sitting there, drinking, enjoying the conversation. Going "out" has its perks, but sometimes this kind of thing can be even better. We even made it home by 01:00, which I am told is considered early for people our age.

A Few Notes on Commenting

As I am sure you are aware by now, my self esteem is solely dependent on the quantity and quality of comments I receive on this blog. While I appreciate the effort of everyone who is working hard to make me a happier person, it has come time to deliver a reminder that comments must be appropriate for the wide audience which this blog enjoys. Unfortunately, I was recently forced to edit the comment of a well-meaning reader due to inappropriate sexual content. The necessity of censorship is a reflection of those being censored. Should everyone express themselves in a way which is appropriate to the forum of expression, no censorship should be necessary. There is a time and place for certain kinds of self expression. Someone may have a perfectly legitimate opinion on whether it should be legal to include racist comments on milk cartons. I encourage this person to express their opinions in the appropriate forum. A kindergarten classroom, for example, would not be the appropriate place to express these opinions. Similarly, this blog, which is read by persons of varying age and relationship to myself, is not the place to make immature comments about the link between night life and homosexuality. I am not going to allow some of my readers to be alienated due to the inappropriateness of certain comments. This would be devastating to my self esteem. Thanks again to those of you who continue to make audience-appropriate comments.

The Scarriest Weekend Of My Life

Welcome and Introduction

The title of today's entry implies that there are bad things to come. This would not be a false assessment. But alas, I am a very obsessive compulsive person. So although it feels terribly trivial writing about other things before we reach this climax, the format of the blog has been chronological thus far, and therefor shall remain so.

Blacksburg: A Special Place

Wal-Mart: The Anti-Place



Ordinance 1450 Passes Unanimously

Rejoice! For on Tuesday evening (Eastern Daylight Time) the Blacksburg Town Council voted to protect the ever-so volatile character of our town by passing an ordinance which limits the development of retail stores over 80,000 square feet. This has been on my mind for a while, even though I had enough faith in the council to do the right thing. Earlier this week I awoke from a nightmare that The Lyric (our historic, community-owned, not-for-profit movie theater) had closed down. It was a very vivid dream: I remember that the marque read "The End." As soon as I awoke I looked out my window, thanked whatever higher being I may or may not believe in that I am in Dresden (I actually do this several times a day, or hour for that matter) and went to the Lyric's website to reconfirm that it was, in fact, a dream. So despite the fact that I am living in the closest thing to a utopia which I could ever imagine exists on this planet, my emotional attachment to Blacksburg still runs strong. The idea that this town, which means so much to me and so many others, is seen as something to be mined for profit by a group of soulless capitalists in Bentonville, Arkansas just makes me sick.

Worse yet is that if Wal-Mart were to move into town, it would probably financially succeed. This brings us to a greater problem. Virginia Tech is home to 25,000 students, many of whom were raised in suburbs under a value structure which tells them to point their steering wheel in the direction of the lowest price available without a second thought. The value of community is rapidly declining in America. Instead of paying enough taxes to make our communities better places to live, we would rather save a few bucks for that new wide-screen television.

Fine, fine... Back to Dresden...

Friday - Evening in Neustadt with Ohioans

The Stoop moves to the second floor

The time was 18:00, and I was doing as anyone else would be at this time of evening on a Friday: Ready Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." That is, until I hear a knock on my door. It's Jess.
"Hey, Jess, how are you doing?" I inquire.
"Fine. I'm ready to drink."
Fair enough. This is more akin to the kind of things I am used to hearing from my friends in Blacksburg; but hey, we're young. In all fairness, Jess did not get into town until Monday evening and has been working very long hours ever since. She has not had time to sit back, relax, socialize, and most importantly, get over her jet lag. So we go up to Teri's room and share a bottle of wine while we plan out the rest of the evening. Unfortunately one small bottle of wine doesn't go far between three young people, so we had to go to the grocery store to purchase more. On our way out, we happened to run into some people from Ohio we had met a week ago. They are here to teach English as a second language to middle school children. What brave souls. So we join them on "the rock garden," which is eerily similar to the Pritchard Stoop. Our building has a single-story entryway, the gravel-covered roof of which can be accessed via the second-floor balcony. We hung out there and had a few beers before we went out for the evening.

We Cross the Elbe

We made an amazing discovery this evening that the tram is free if you don't pay for it. I don't plan on making a habit of this for two reasons: First of all, I feel bad mooching off of socialism, and secondly, it is unnerving to sit on a tram knowing that you are there illegally. We met some high school students on board who found it very humorous that we were actually talking that funny way that they have been learning about in second period.

After we made it to Neustadt, we began our evening in a civilized manner, by having another drink in a biergarten. We relaxed, and then many of us felt hungry. What do young people do in German cities when they get hungry at night? Eat doener, of course!

Large Group Syndrome

After eating doener amidst the most colorful of doener stand owners, we decided it was time to go dancing. Out of character, you say? Well, let me ask you this: When have I ever lived in a place where dancing was really an option? At this point, our group was about ten strong. Not for long, as apparently we disagreed on how to get to the place where we wanted to dance. So by the time we finally arrived at a bar with a D. J. and a dance floor, we were down to about six. As soon as we arrived, Emily, Teri and I immediately grabbed beers and hit the dance floor. We went to check on the others; but alas, they were nowhere to be found.

On the walk back, we agreed that although we had fun, it wasn't too great of a time. They played a lot of cliche, English-language dance music, and there were far too many males on the dance floor. At one point a mosh pit broke out, and worse yet, some creepy guy started hitting on Emily, which she did not appreciate. Did I step in, act tough, and reinforce that she was not interested like any good male friend should? Ha ha, you guys know me better than that. I just continued to dance awkwardly until the situation had blown over.

Saturday - You Cruel, Cruel Saturday

The Cycle Trip to Meissen Begins

On Saturday, Emily and I finally decided to make our long-planned cycling trip to Meissen a reality. It started off as a wonderful day. It began at Emily's flat where we packed sandwiches, as this just seemed like one of those "pack sandwiches" type of days. I must say I am quite jealous of where Emily gets to live. She lives with three authentic German people in a more authentic part of the city which was not destroyed by the firebombing. When I looked out her window, the view inspired the same observation as when I first looked out of the window of my brother's relatively new row-house residence. That is, you are immediately confronted with a close-up image of architecture which does not let you forget what city it is that you live in. Although this is even better, as her street exhibits vertical mixed-usage (that is shops on the ground floor with three floors of apartments above). I would take this over the aerial view from my GDR commie high rise any day.

Windmill Sandwiches

We knew this trip would take longer than the hour and a half or so it would normally take to cycle 30 km on a flat river trail because we would be taking in the gorgeous scenery that awaited us after every bend. Just five minutes into the journey, I saw an image which I have dreamed about and associated with the European countryside ever since I was aware of the presence of land on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean. This image is that of a traditional dutch-style windmill set back in a meadow. We could not resist the urge to frolic.



And what a better way to continue basking in the presence of this windmill than Windmill Sandwiches?



Disaster.

We said goodbye to our wind mill and continued up the trail towards Meissen. Everything was going well. We were having a great time, and the countryside was beautiful. About four kilometers away from Meissen, I look behind me to see if Emily is keeping up on her GDR commie-bike only to find that she and her bike are down on the ground. She was not wearing a helmet. Terror shot through my heart. Is she okay? Well, she's conscious. That's a start. What do you do in this situation? What the hell do you do? I offer her water. She is unable to accept. When she is finally able to speak, I am even more scared. It reminded me of speaking to my eighty-year-old grandmother. But Emily is not eighty years old. She is my friend, my peer.
"Where are we?"
"About 4 km from Meissen."
"Are we riding to Meissen?"
"We were, yeah."
"And how far are we?"
"About 4 km."
"How far are we from Meissen?"
"About 4 km."
She could hardly recollect any details of our cycling trip: It was all a dream. What windmill?

I am panicking.

We Need Help

Luckily German people like to cycle, so the trail is not a lonely place. People began to crowd around as they passed to ask us if we needed help. This is always tricky in a situation like this: Do we need medical attention? The safest answer is always "yes." An ambulance is called.

The medical crew spoke English and the people who called for us were on hand to help with further translations. I sat there on the side of the trail not really knowing what to do, albeit slightly satisfied that Emily was in the best place she could be at this time, under these circumstances: in an ambulance. I was not surprised to learn that I would not be allowed to ride in the ambulance, and was given cycling directions to the Dresden Neustadt Hospital twenty kilometers away. After the police arrived and the ambulance and rescue crews cleared away, I begin riding in the direction of the hospital.

CRACK.

My chain broke. My friend was being transported to a hospital twenty kilometers away and my damn chain broke.

The Back of a German Police Car

I flag down the police car that had come to assist. Neither of the policemen spoke a word of English. I show them to broken chain and they comprehend. I am driven to a police station.

No one here spoke any English either. They sit me down at a table opposite a policeman and photocopy my passport (If my chain never broke, I would not have been here to begin with, right?). He starts making phone calls. The only word I can understand is the word "English" itself. Finally, he is successful. The police wanted a simple statement from me and had to get it via a speaker phone translator. After they feel satisfied, they walk out to the parking area with my, and wave goodbye. Are you serious? The hospital is still ten kilometers away! At this point I felt I had enough German police for one day, so I pulled out my multi-tool and fixed the chain in their parking area.

The Recovery Begins

I made it to the hospital with no issues after this and could finally rest assured that Emily was going to be okay. I was a bit shaken up last night when I learned from her room mates that she would be spending a second night in the hospital. But alas, although she is bored to tears due to her strict "no reading" order from the doctor, it seems everything will be okay in good time.

Sunday - Solo Trip to Meissen



Saturday was too much for me. I needed some alone time. I grabbed my bike and my headphones and headed where else but Meissen. I was by myself, and had already seen most of the scenery. Not much to talk about here. I wasn't too thrilled with the City of Meissen. Yes, it had narrow streets.



I have always been a strong fan of narrow streets, but perhaps this is one of those good things that only works in moderation. I almost felt claustrophobic navigating the streets, yearning to find the exit to this maze and sit on the wide-open banks of the Elbe. I was probably both the only young person in the whole city as evidenced by the fact that I had to wonder around for 15 minutes before I found a doener stand. That's not the Germany I've come to know and love.

Conclusions and Farewell

This was an emotionally difficult experience for me and, much more so, a physically painful experience for Emily.

To my cycling friends, I know I can't force you to do anything. Even if you think you are somehow invincible and above the laws of physics, I advise you to think about your own safety and about those who care about your well-being:



WEAR A HELMET!!!!!!!!!