Transitions (Tschuess Heidelberg!)

--I have arrived safe and sound in Berlin. My smiling host family picked me up with my excessive amount of luggage from the Jugendherberge about an hour ago. We walked to their apartment, a beautiful high-ceilinged Altbau with internet and many books on German philosophy. They offered me Elderberry-soda and showed me where I'll be living these next few weeks - what a nice room! I did not have internet in the guest house, so here is an entry from yesterday afternoon--

What a jam-packed and incredible month. A couple of weeks ago I again found myself in a comfortable pattern. Language courses in the morning followed by lunch with Robert (either at the best Falafel restaurant in Deutschland or in the cafeteria) and then seminars or homework in the afternoon. Pass auf! Much to explain, much to tell.

I attended two seminars throughout the month (truthfully, only when I had time and energy to do so but I tried to keep it up). One was on English-German literature translation that took place unfortunately early on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays before our language courses. I’d never before really thought about the limitations and possibilities of languages in that way, that what sounds so simple to say in English, such as “In recent summers” simply does not work in German. Instead of “In recent summers” you end up saying “In the past during the summers”, which imitates the meaning while not copying it exactly. We translated a few newspaper articles and had very good discussions about untranslatable terms and phrases - who would have thought that a language with such a vast vocabulary like German, has no word for vandalism. To translate “vandalism”, the act itself must be described, until it reads as something more like “destruction of public property like broken windows and stolen artifacts”.

My entire language course seemed to be focused on how to say the most using the fewest words. Concision equals stylistically good German. Things like passive replacements and the genitive tense gives writers the flexibility to write efficient short sentences or exhaustingly long ones with ten commas and an occasional semicolon. Either way, with fewer “get” or “make” there seems to be a new verb for every action (vandalism excepted). The Thomas was all in all a really good teacher, although he did make fun of us a couple of times when we confused words (it’s not our fault that the words for arm and poor sound so much alike!). After explaining a difficult sentence construction he’d occasionally say, ‘hey, you’re the ones who wanted to learn this language, not me. I’d learn Italian or something prettier if I were in your place”.

The highlights were the class presentations, the beach volleyball tournament, the Klassenabend (class dinner), and the final show. I was incredibly lucky with the people in my class. Unfortunately, the temptation to speak English was always there since we had six native English speakers, unlike in my class last month, but I’m so used to responding to everything in German at this point that it wasn’t too difficult. We each had to present some topic about German society or society from our Heimatland, homeland in a five-ten minute presentation in front of the class. I partnered with a Czech friend named Petr to do something on the German basketball team, since that was before they struggled miserably during the game against China. We did research on Novitzki and I looked up rule differences and the biographies on a couple of other players on the national team. Although we were very prepared, it’s not easy to give a presentation when your teacher corrects you on your grammar every few sentences. I was thrown off a bit but the time went by fast and sooner than expected my first “Refarat”, or presentation, was over. The others were great. We Americans clearly wanted to pick topics that strayed from the American mainstream - one American named Steve told us about rodeo in Montana. Another friend named Andrew talked about American Eating Contests. Did you know that the defending champion of the 4^th of July Nathans Hot dog eating contest was Japanese? The recent winner ate 67 hot dogs in 10 minutes. The road to success in an eating contest is actually to be very fit, and to drink so much water in the days preceding the contest that the stomach is totally bloated by eating time. They actually dip the hot dogs with the buns in water to make them go down faster (EWWW!). We learned about some old Hungarian history legends, we learned that women cannot become sushi chefs because they have warmer hands than men and thus ruin the fish (smokers, interestingly enough, have the coldest hands, and are therefore favored in Japanese restaurants), we learned about the five little mascots from the Olympics and what they mean, and we had a great discussion about what is taboo in Germany versus what is taboo in the US (naked women on the cover of newspapers, for example) – Germans consider Americans in general as incredibly prude and conservative when it comes to sexual topics.

We did surprisingly well in the beach volleyball tournament considering my and others’ lack of experience. 4^th in a pool of 12 teams, I believe. On a Wednesday afternoon most of the Ferienkurs met at the sports center about 30 minutes away from the University. We had an afternoon “Sport Fest” with basketball (in Robert’s charge), soccer, street hockey, and beach volleyball. We formed a team of six only with people from my class. Technically, we took bronze, since the Betreuer (staff) team that came in second didn’t actually count in the pool. My saddest moment was when a built six-foot-five Betreuer spiked the ball right into my face; I fell back on the impact and we all laughed at the irony of such intensity at a Ferienkurs sportfest.

I volunteered our apartment in Rohrbach for the Klassenabend last Thursday night. The left-hand corner of our parking lot has a nice little patch of green grass with a picnic bench and awkward small plastic pond. A garden gnome and a little deer figurine guard the pond (facetious, as Caitlin would say). My class of about 13 plus our teacher and Betreuerin Verena came around 7 while I was in the middle of making brownies. They all went out back except for those who needed to prepare their meals. The kitchen was full! Six people in a small space with about ten large cola bottles did not keep the stress down, but once the brownies were baked and cooling (from scratch, thanks to eliza’s recipe) and I joined everyone out back it was a really relaxed and fun evening. Petr, who saw no other solution, decided that the pond would be the perfect place to keep the beer cool – the image of the garden gnome guarding a six pack of Oettinger swimming in the water sticks in my mind. Przemek stayed by the grill most of the night and even when we were all full to the brim he continued to offer us Nuremburger bratwurst. Steve and Elizabeth brought us unbelievably good potatoes and salad and my brownies turned out really well. People did not know what brownies were, so we had to explain a couple of times the differences between chocolate cake and brownies. When it grew too dark to see we lit small candles and stayed until 10:30, when the uptight neighbors shut us down. They were rather unhappy with Robert the next day, although he was not even there (I felt quite badly that we caused it all!) but really, when we talk outside until 10:30 it’s not something to report to the Hausmeister about.

Against many odds we got our act together enough to sing at the final show. We sang a part of a song called “Jetzt ist Sommer” from a men’s a capella group called the Wise Guys. I’d heard the song on Robert’s computer recently and fell in love with this group – really fun, really light, and good lyrics. We practiced maybe three times outside of class for the show – our act began with a sketch. We all looked sad standing randomly around the stage and when Andrew asked us what was wrong we each had different complaints: the Japanese could not find sushi in the cafeteria; the Chinese was sad because her country only had 51 gold medals; and I said that I was sad because starting Saturday I’d have to leave my heart behind in Heidelberg (Ab Samstag muss ich mein Herz in Heidelberg lassen!). Then Andrew said there was nothing to be sad about, cause it’s still summer! (queue starting song). Luckily Elizabeth directs an a capella group at Yale, so she certainly helped us get the right tone. On the same night Robert and the wonderful Edoardo resurrected Heisser Hund, a song that Edoardo wrote about the act of eating meat from dogs. It sounds pretty crazy, but trust me, it’s well written, and Robert knows how to work the crowd – all joined in with the refrain Heisser Hund… schmeckt noch gut. The final show is aaaalways more fun when we actually participate, so between the Heisser Hund and our class’ song I was pleasantly able to unwind from the test (B-R-U-T-A-L, but hey, it’s just a summer course…).

I had also taken part in the “Video AG”, the video club, in which we made a twelve minute movie about a Heidelberg fairy tale. We shot the film in five or so three-hour sessions in the past three weeks and ended up with a pretty stellar production. I was the “Kamerafrau”, the person in charge of the filming part, along with the lovely Reka from Hungary (I shall visit her in Budapest in November hopefully!). The plot… oh, hard to describe. Three bad Ferienkurs students spend all their time partying and are at risk of expulsion from the final show and parties. They run up stairs until their blue in the face and seek advice from citizens of Heidelberg (the interview part). Finally, they are able to pass three tests that show they’ve changed their ways, and they are kissed by the lovely Siberian fairy. They race back to the university to the awesome tune of Lola Rennt (run lola run) and open the door into the auditorium in perfect sink with the final scene of the movie. Lots of fun, lots of laughs, and I have a dvd copy to bring home. We showed that at the Abschlussfest as well, so I was busy running to and fro being in three places at once.

Wow, that’s a lot of information. A short run-through of the weekends. At a barbeque in a town called Spoeck – a name which I really cannot pronounce - with Robert’s theater group we heard stories of what it’s like to be a parachutist in the Bundeswehr, the current German army, and stayed until one eating incredible cake and drinking radlers (summer shandy?). With A-ka, Fabian and Konnie from Karlesruhe, Robert and I spent a Sunday hiking in the Black Forest. We bought a Baden-Wurttemburg ticket, which means for 30-euros up to five people can go anywhere in this province by train for the entire day. We hiked up to the BIGGEST WATERFALL IN DEUTSCHLAND (who would have thought Germany has waterfalls! It was beautiful!) and saw the 400-year old Black Forest houses. The people were so small then that Robert had trouble walking around in them! (no problem for me though) The houses were built using so many trees, around 400 just for the roof. They are big enough, however, to house a family of twelve with all of their livestock. The animals lived in the “attic” while the family lived underneath to conserve heat, and therefore they always had the noise of pigs and cows accompanying all that they did. I can see why so many fairy tales come from the Black Forest; the life was so harsh that stories after dark served as the only calm source of entertainment. The women wore hats with great big pom-poms and the men hats that look like the panama hats (of Ecuador) today. Very cool day with unbelievable scenery from the train.

As I said before, this past week was test then parties then on Thursday final goodbyes. We assured each other that we would visit as we exchanged emails. I hope that we can keep those promises, because it’s absolutely priceless what we build throughout the Ferienkurs – friends and connections in Prague, in Rome, in Athens, in Warsaw, in Paris, in New Haven (funny), in Budapest… I hope to definitely go to Budapest (MILAN!) and to do a detour to Prague when I visit Robert in Breslau, since Prague is less than an hour away. I went to the movies on Thursday night with Matthias (a close friend of my room mate Nina) and Edoardo to see Finnisher Tango, an indie film from northern Germany. We ate Vietnamese food and walked along the Neckar river in the dark making plans to do a biking tour in Serbia next summer (possible..???). I met up with my classmates for the last time in a bar on the lively Untere Strasse before saying auf wiedersehen for the last time and (slowly) biking home.

But of course, the hardest goodbyes in Heidelberg were those with my room mates Olalla (pronounced O-lay-ja), the wonderful Nina, and Robert who has been my closest friend this entire summer. After a last tour in the Altstadt yesterday afternoon (a break from frenzied packing) Robert cooked really good fish and potatoes for dinner. Nina joined us and we finally finished the wine that we brought back from our wine tour in St. Martins. We watched a Til Schweiger movie after that called Keinohrhasen (a romantic comedy that you’d LOVE, Erika). This morning I made pancakes for breakfast and Robert, Matthias and I schlepped (schleppen is actually a verb in German) my three suitcases (I’m ashamed!!) to the bus station, where Robert rode with me until Mannheim, about thirty minutes away.

That brings me to now. After a loooooooooooot of information, here is the skinny: I am currently on my way to Berlin. Having completed my Flag grant requirements I feel that I have a solid backbone in German. It makes me far less nervous for this year than I would have been, had I stayed in Chicago for the summer. That said, I still consider Heidelberg to be my home here. I know it so well now, and I almost wish that I could just do my school year there, like another Uchicago student and CMAC extraordinaire Alex Meyer will do. But I’m wondering if that’s mostly because being where Robert is feels the most like home. He is packing to go to Moscow in four days, and then in two weeks to go to Breslau, Poland. We will not be far apart, and Berlin has a whole new range of possibilities to offer that Heidelberg does not. As Robert said, “Berlin ist der Stadt”, Berlin is THE city. Everybody I’ve met has a cousin or uncle there or grew up in Berlin themselves.

Movies that I have watched in preparation:

The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass)

Sommer vorm Balkon (Andreas Dresen)

Keinohrhasen (Til Schweiger)

Wo ist Fred? (Til Schweiger)

For three days we will have an orientation with the BCGS program (meeting other Americans, how strange!). I will move into an apartment/home in Wilmersdorf in West-Berlin I believe tomorrow night with a mother and daughter, Judith, who is 17 and sounds eager to show me around. My mother’s very good friend from Montreal, Nancy, will be meeting me at the train station when I arrive. In short, I’m incredibly spoiled – I’m starting a year abroad and already I have people to meet up with and homes to visit! I begin with a new language class (thiiiiird this summer) on Monday and classes in the University six weeks after that. Wow, lots of German.

To those of you who are already in your abroad programs (CAITLIN! Anna Rae?) and to those of you starting classes already dann ich wuensche euch viel Erfolg und Glueck! For Nora and Liza and Sarah and Smicley and those reading this in Chicago, enjoy the last few weeks!! Nora, I hope the telefunding isn’t sapping the life out of you!

PS – Sorry about the slight lack of photos this time: I had a slight camera misplacement incident last week, which was horrible timing considering it’s the last time I’ll see a lot of the people from my program. But the good news is that I found it yesterday underneath all of the grilling supplies. There was also lots of grilling this week. Jesse Marshall, the Neckarwiese is as beautiful and grill-worthy as ever.

(Matthias, Nina, Melissa und Robert mit der Welt als Hintergrund)

Schon die sechste Woche vorbei?!?

<--- View from my classroom in the Germanistik Seminar

I know, I know... It's been a while since I have dieses Blog auf den neuesten Stand gebracht, in other words updated you on the last three weeks since my last blog entry. There is no excuse, and yet I shall try to excuse myself, first because then I shall feel better and second because there are fairly legitimate reasons for my 'blog negligence', if you will.

Firstly, with the beginning of the Heidelberg Ferienkurs here in the Uni Heidelberg, my summer went from a slow vacation-pace to a full, nearly Uchicago-pace schedule. Seriously, not only do I have language class from 8 until 1 each day, but there is something happening almost every afternoon and night, whether it is a music concert or an excursion somewhere. It’s as if they think we are lonely or something! I had a sort of life and a daily schedule figured out before the Ferienkurs, which makes me a bit different from the other Teilnehmers, the course participants. Most have come from their far-away lands (Macedonia, China, Siberia, etc) not knowing anybody or anything in Heidelberg, although all know English and most have impressive German already. Thus at first I didn’t quite know where I stood during all the introductions. I spent a bit more time with the other Betreuers (Robert, for instance) than with the students. But now that I am in a good class and everybody seems to know his/her way around, I feel like any other student at the Ferienkurs, eternally confused by German but excited to use German to get to know Russians and Lithuanians and Greeks um so weiter. As a lovely 59 year old man named John, a Fedex worker from Orange County, California who is also a Teilnehmer here like me, said, "I can tell people I have friends in Poland. And Italy! How cool!"

Of course the weekend excursions are voluntary, so the exhaustion is nothing to complain about. I have been on two excursions so far, one to St-Martins across the Rhein for a vineyard visit and wine-tasting extravaganza (after six glasses of wine, you too would call it an extravaganza), and a second one to the ancient Roman town of Trier in Saarland, by the Mosel River. St-Martins is indescribably picturesque and surprisingly tourist-free. Trier was jam-packed in comparison, with people crowded on every street so that it was hard to find a free place to eat lunch.

Not only do we have excursions, but we spend so much time meeting and chatting with people in the Kurs, whether over beer in the Mensa or in between classes, that "free time" is not spent at home by a computer. Just in this past week, I’ve met for the first time a person from Kazakhstan, Tunisia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. I have two Hungarians in my language class, in addition to one Spaniard, one Italian, two Poles, one French, one Chinese, one Swiss, one Japanese, and three that hale from one particular land that is not too far from home, New Haven, Connecticut (you can guess the details).

After a week of meeting-and-greeting, I am relieved to see that people have stopped representing their countries a little bit. Does that make sense? What I mean is that the Yalies stop being just Yalies from the US (nobody else knows that much about the school) and the one Spaniard who studies in Barcelona can avoid the question, “But what is it like in Spain?” assuming she can speak for Galicians and Andalusians alike. After a bit I too can avoid those complicated American stereotypes. Perhaps at some point soon I will stop providing a confused answer to the question, “Where are you from?” The best I can do is say, “Well, I technically live in Boston with my parents even though they are from Montreal. I go to school in Chicago but no longer have an apartment there since I will be staying in Germany for the year. Oh, and my sister lives in Montreal, where she studies, but she used to live in Boston and the rest of my family live in Montreal and California.” What a mouthful. "Wait, so then you're Canadian?"-- is usually the follow-up question, which then requires more explanation.

The third reason: SCHEISSE DEUTSCH! More eloquently stated, I am remembering the words of Mark Twain when he compared the German language to a conversation between two crows. Though I do honestly find it incredibly fun to listen to, it is often completely incomprehensible to me. It's as if with every new verb I learn someone in an office somewhere invents five new ones. Throw in some local dialect and I am lost and frustrated. But regardless I am learning a lot in this new language course. My teacher is direct, writes good notes on the board, smiles, and gives us lots of homework. In the past week we have already covered Passiversatz, Subjektloses Passiv, Passiv mit Modalverben, Nominalisierung, among other new topics. I have also written about one essay per night, all of which are filled with small errors but are slowly getting better. My teachers have gone from der Klaus to die Angela and now to der Thomas, a younger and really fun but strict guy who certainly knows his grammar. It’s getting more and more difficult to write in English now, since I’m thinking in German prepositions… Tonight I still have about sixty verbs and their prepositions to memorize – we’ll see if that happens.

There is still so much to tell. I shall go with the picture-caption approach. In the meantime, Jess and Janna thank you so much for your mail, Ronny it was great to “see” you via Skype, EB I can’t wait to hear how your Russian is turning out, and I hope the lovely summer-league ladies back home are digging deep and laying out like Skyla.

Three Weeks in Snapshots:

1) Settling in to German Bureaucracy

There's a scene at the beginning of L'Auberge Espagnol where the main character has to fill out about twenty forms before he can go on his Erasmus program. Well, funnily enough, it works the same way here - twenty forms is about the average for everything. The system works - so say the Germans - but nobody really shows you how it works. Robert said that it's the same for him too. I guess that means it only works when you actually are a part of the system, which half of the Germans are (about 50% of Germans are employed by the state). Last week, I went from office to office to office before I could make an appointment to apply for my visa. It worked out in the end, I think, but not without leaving me with an interminable headache. Now that I have it (my visa, not the headache) I feel much more settled in.

2) A Latin-speaking visitor!

The wonderful Alex Roberts survived what turned out to be a three-day train adventure from Rome to Florence to Vienna and then to Heidelberg. It was incredibly fun to show him around, particularly to hear his stories of his crazy latin friends (and professor) in Italy. Not only that, but after just one year of German in my Freshman year (with the wonderful Dagmar) his deutsch-skills were not bad! Exploring the libraries of Heidelberg is really only something a Uchicago student would get excited about, and I'm glad Alex shared in my excitement. It was great to see you, Alex, and have fun in Mexico!

3) ASW-Durlach

ASW-Durlach is better than Bielefeld: that's it, that's all. What an awesome soccer game to start on here in Fussball country. Robert and I went with Helmut and Thomas, Robert's brother, to a game about five minutes walking from his mother's house on Sunday. Unfortunately, Durlach lost 1-2, but they fought so hard that Bielefeld did not deserve the win. New vocab word: ABSTEIGER! (move down a league, Bielefeld!)

4) Robert als Betreuer

Here he's giving a Stadtfuhrung, a tour of Heidelberg, making a special stop by the monkey on the old bridge. There's some story about how an artist in Heidelberg wanted to depict how closely related humans and apes were, so he created this monkey for tourists to put their heads into. Tourists in a monkey's head really does make a lot of sense... Robert gave a great tour and I was proud of him!

5) SPANISH OMELETS!

Olalla is back for a second year in the Ferienkurs and we are lucky to have her as a third roommate, for many reasons. One such reason (certainly not the most important, but a good reason nonetheless) is her fabulous Spanish cooking skills. Last week she cooked a spanish omelet for dinner while Alex was still in town, which we ate with Churrizo. She is posing here wearing the infamous octopus apron.


6) Weinfahrt nach Sankt Martins

Incredibly beautiful. In a nearby fortress called Hambach the German flag as we know it today was first presented in a formal ceremony in 1832 (a reminder of how new Germany is). The most famous wine here is the Reisling, of course. 1/4 of Germany's wine comes from this region.
But enough with the history lesson - the excursion was on a Wednesday afternoon and by the time we returned home we were too pleasantly-filled with wine to do any work. We did an international karaoke on the way home in which the three Yalies and I sang "take me out to the ball game". We were out-performed by Robert, who sang some German folk songs, and a Russian who sang some Italian opera. The Chinese pop, I must confess, was my favorite.


7) Trier: Karl Marx.... i mean ROMAN.....Stadt!

This is the Porto Nigra, the gates to the city that were turned black by the pollution in the Middle Ages. The highlights from this excursion was the Karl Marx Museum, where I purchased communist chocolate, whatever that means, and the view from the top of this gate. There were also ruins of an amazingly extravagant Roman bathhouse/sport complex that would put (the) Ratner to shame. I had my first political discussion in German in Trier, with a guy from Belarus/Ecuador/France who speaks ten languages (i'm exaggerating, but he answers the question "where are you from" with a simple, "it's complicated"). I do not know why this section is underlined.

Back in Heidelberg, on the Alte Bruecke

Visit to Zurich: Liselotte und Otti

[From Wednesday, July 30] --> I know, this was a while ago. But it was an incredibly meaningful weekend for me so I thought I could mention it anyway...

Sorry I did not get to email from Zurich! As you will see later, I had some emailing "troubles" to say the least. I am now back in Heidelberg and really loving the fact that I have the rest of the week to relax a bit before the Ferienkurs starts. The Bodensee on Saturday was beautiful. Although Robert's friends are really great, I was honestly becoming bit overwhelmed by all of the German - political discussions in a language that I cannot sound intelligent or convincing in tend to get a bit frustrating. Thus I experienced my first dose of homesickness, and yet seeing the University, paddle-boating on the Lake (picture Lake Michigan with clear blue water and vineyards instead of man-made beaches) with Robert, Fabien and A-Ka made me feel comfortably at home. My favorite part was swimming in the Rhein on Sunday - fresh and cold and unbelievably sunny. One night in Konstanz was just perfect and I was really glad to be going to see Lisi. Lisi, short for Liselotte Weihmayer, is my 79 year old great aunt, my father's aunt, who moved from Friedrichshafen, Germany to Zurich, Switzerland in 1954, I believe.

She, of course, was jumping for joy when I arrived - I was about fifteen minutes late since I had to wait for the tram for a bit and she said she was so worried that I had gotten lost that she was ready to call Otti, Lisi's life-companion, to look for me in town. Just the image of Lisi looking out from her kitchen window for me to come and then saying ten times “So gut dass du hier bist!”… She had a delicious "Topf", a braided loaf of bread, waiting for me as well as homemade marmalades. She talked and talked a mile a minute until I explained that I was a bit tired from the trip (around 11:30pm) and wanted to sleep. Of course she woke up around 7 the next morning and got me out of bed by 8, but luckily she had some coffee (and hot chocolate because she knows i love it) ready for me. Our main event for Monday was to go out for lunch with Otti, who picked us up around noon. Little did I know that Mondays in Switzerland are "Ruhe Tage". After three different deserted restaurants we finally found one that was open. The schnitzel and soup (so typical, I know) was worth the wait. Lisie and I both ordered obscenely large "Eiskaffes" for dessert, which neither of us could finish. We both gawked like little girls when the huge glasses with whipped cream and chocolate sauce were brought to us. Otti took us for a driving tour of Wintherthur, his hometown (about 160,000 people, he was very proud to announce) and he showed us which house he was born in around 80 years ago. Once back in Zurich we watched a couple of afternoon nature shows on Lisie's brand new snazzy flat-screen TV before Otti went home to practice the clarinet. With his recent operation, he is not sure that he'll be able to play the clarinet for this Friday's celebration (Switzerland's Feiertag, always on August 1st).

I asked Lisie if she minded if I walked around Zurich on my own for a while. The sun was going down after an un-Switzerland-like hot day, the streets were full of visitors, and the Lindenhof park featured five or six lively chess games in between large chestnut trees. I went to the Jelmoli (a large, well-known department store in downtown Zurich) to buy cheese and some chocolate souvineers. I failed at using the internet (so expensive for internet!!) since I cheaply bought only 15 minutes-worth and then lost everything in the last five seconds. Oh well. A moment to remember: Lisi and I made Kasespazle on Monday night…. she showed me how to make it from scratch! I am very impressed with her cooking skills - man, Erika, you have no idea how much you would love Kasespazle. It's as if Macaroni and Cheese was a failed American response to German Kasespazle. Kasespazle are the small pieces of dough (just water, egg and flower) that basically serve as an excuse for butter, fancy, slightly burnt cheese, and fried onions. As if that’s not wonderful enough, it’s generally served with applesauce, which we substituted with canned pears. She was of course ecstatic that I loved it so much. The next morning we talked on the balcony for a while before I left to buy some more groceries nearby. We ate a leisurely lunch with Apricot tarts for dessert (she made them! Again, very impressed. A new life goal is to be able to make apricot tarts by the time I am 79).

Of course Lisi was sad to see me go and I assured her that I would soon return for another visit. I have one grandfather gone and two grandmothers in nursing homes. Spending time with Lisi feels almost like getting to know a fifth grandparent. Since I could not speak German two years ago and she never had enough time off of work to finish high school, let alone learn to speak French, all of her stories are new to me. While we made the Kasespazle she told me of my Schwabien great-grandmother Josefina. She could apparently make five different sorts of Dampfnudeln, a Schwabien specialty that requires as much skill as it does patience. She showed me clips from a 1984 Schwaebischen Zeitung Friedrichshafen article that looked back on the American bombing in Friedrichshafen, the town that my great aunt and my grandfather Albert grew up in, 40 years earlier. She dug into her cabinets to find a diary of my great-grandmother’s during her trip to Canada. Beside my bed in Lisi’s small, comfortably furnished 3^rd floor apartment (exactly 80 steps from the front door: she counts each and every one to make sure she doesn’t miss-step when she goes up or down) were pictures of my great-grandparents, my grandparents on both sides, and my mother in her wedding dress during their Wedding reception in Montreal. Spending time with Lisi is in every way a discovery of family roots; who would have thought that I have real Schwaebisch heritage in my family.

I left mid-afternoon for the train station. This departure was much easier for Lisi than our parting 11 months ago, since I promised to return sometime in the Fall. My new agenda is to persuade my aunt and parents to come to Zurich in June to celebrate Lisi’s 80^th birthday. Roughly three hours later I arrived in the Karlesruhe main train station, where Robert was already there waiting for me. We went to Der Vogel, his favorite brewery in the small town of Durlach, to drink their fantastic home-brewed Radler (I believe he had no less than three liters while I had a measly one) and spend some time with the Karlesruhe crew: A-Ka, Anna, Patrick, Hannah, Ducki, Konni, Fabien, and Nina, all incredibly wonderful people whom I am glad to have met. Randomly Anna, Hannah and Ducki all recently had some form of dental surgery, so they sadly had to stick with Mineralwasser.