My Living Arrangement

I know I haven't written in quite a while, weeks actually. And I'm getting back to writing soon but as I was starting a longer entry on what had been going on in my life, it turned out that most of the things I needed to write about actually dealt with one topic specifically, my living arrangement. So this is something I need to let you know before I proceed with the regular fun stuff.

And yes, I know I shouldn't put too much energy into this but God knows there are some things to be said out loud so that I can let them go.

Have you ever seen a postcard with a grinning couple on it that says something like, “Sorry to see you move but hopefully the new neighbors aren't creepy”? I have. In fact, I have one, and if I had found it in the short run I would've scanned and posted it here.

I know that I have been shouting out loud how great my living arrangement was and how much I felt at home. I did. I don't any more. This place is neither great, nor do I feel home here any more, and it's about time to rethink the whole setup, for a variety of reasons, my neighbors certainly being one.

A few words to start off with for those of you who don't know yet how I got this apartment. My landlord is American, and he had lived in Frankfurt for approximately 20 years. He owns this apartment, and coincidently he was offered a job in Jordan while I was offered my current one in Frankfurt. I heard of the fact that he was moving out and might be looking for somebody to “live in his place” through another American friend of mine back in Düsseldorf. The apartment was supposed to stay, and still is, his apartment. I sleep in his bed and use his furniture (apart from my desk). The remaining pieces of my furniture are in the garage. My rent is way below the market price because we agreed I would take care of his mail and deal with some other things around the apartment, keep it clean and such. We have no written rental contract.

The apartment is on the top floor on the right side of a six-party house, and this house has been strange from the start. Everybody locks the front door 24/7 because they're afraid of burglars. “It happens regularly here”, I have been informed, but when you care to ask how it happened, you always hear that they never get in through the front door but through left-open balcony doors and such. Locking the front door is therefore not only a useless means to prevent this but it is also against the law because you need to be able to get out of the house without a key in case of a fire or so. And here's another thought for those who actually are afraid of burglars: Just imagine somebody armed gets into your apartment, and you're in your night gown and want to escape. If you don't have your key handy, which is rather likely unless you sleep with a key chain around your neck, you end up trying to escape but can't get out of the house. Very handy solution, I must admit. But hey, they lock the door anyway for the good old German reason, “We've always done things like that.”

When I moved into this house, I met two women from the house very briefly, the first of which (pronounce, “witch”) excelled at bad behavior immediately by questioning my landlord about me while I was standing and smiling right next to them. I secretly started calling her “Frau Obersturmbandführer” (a title from the Nazi regime) because of her rudeness. She is in her sixties, extremely slim, and has a face that only a mother can love. The second of the two women had a fake smile but was at least nice enough to let us into the house after I explained to her smilingly and nicely that I was the new neighbor but didn't have keys to the apartment yet. She was obviously hesitant to let my father and me in. After all, you hear so often about people who carry their stuff into other people's houses in moving boxes and then leave without comment only to never be seen again. Who knows, we could've easily been that type of people. I hated having to ask for being let in. My dad and I had showed up on time but my landlord apparently hadn't made it in time. One thing that I loved about that first day, however, was that my dad peed into the bushes at the side of the house when we had arrived and it had become clear that we couldn't get into the apartment. Of course, just that very moment, one of the rude neighbors from the first floor came out and saw him. I was embarrassed at the time but God knows I'm proud of my cool father.

But back to my lovely neighbors. At the end of the first weekend my landlord and I put a letter into all neighbors' letter boxes in which we introduced me to them, giving them my and his contact information and a brief summary of my job background, like I had had an obligation to let them know. No response whatsoever. We sent a copy of the letter to the “Hausverwaltung” (caretaker of the house). No response, other than the request to remove my landlord's business from the letter box sign, “as the home owner's association had agreed”. Strangely enough, the guy on one side of the first floor who had seen my dad pee into the bushes has a business as well, and he has never removed the sign, and nobody seems to care. Makes you wonder, doesn' it?

The Bicycle Affair

Let's move on to an apparently huge deal for the neighbors, and I am actually typing myself into rage with this crap here.

I take my bicycle to work. Takes me approximately eleven minutes because I adapted to the Frankfurt way of bicycling, which is essentially not stopping at red traffic lights. The bicycle has to be kept in a special basement room with all the others. Bicycles that is, not neighbors. Most of them are unlocked, by the way. My landlord's racing bicycle has been there as well. It's relatively old, and if anyone was to steal a bicycle from this room it would very probably not be his.

This is the routine I go through every day, twice when I want to get to work:

• unlock and pry open (so that I can carry the bicycle through it) the house door,
• walk the stairs down to the basement,
• open and pry open the metal door to the basement,
• then open the wooden door on the other side of the hall,
• get the bicycle out and put it next to the metal door,
• shut the wooden door,
• loosen and close the metal door again,
• carry the bicycle up and out of the house, and
• go back and close and lock the house door.

When I get back from work, the order is reverse but the effort is almost the same, with the small exception that when I carry down the bicycle with the right hand I can open the metal door with the left and go through. Neat, huh? Underneath the stairs facing the metal basement door, however, there is enough space to put three to four bicycles. There is never anything there, the space is completely unused. Just keep all this in mind for later.

One month after my move into the house, the dust had finally settled and I didn't spend all weekends away any more. That month I had been dealing with all sorts of things, my old apartment, the remaining stuff at my parents' place, my teaching job at the technical college in Cologne, etc. But I also dealt with a variety of things that dealt with the apartment. One of them was – and still is –

The Guest Bathroom.

A number of things about this apartment weren't done right when it was built. One of them is the insulation of the bathrooms. The guest bathroom has a shower while for some odd reason, the master bathroom doesn't. So of course everybody used to shower in the guest bathroom until about a year or so ago, fungus stains appeared on the other side of the shower wall, in the office. The first owner of the apartment must have forgotten to have insulation put onto the walls, just like he forgot a noise cancellation layer underneath the floor tiles, which I am sure causes Ms Obersturmbandführer to freak out every time I move a chair even though I have attached felt gliders to all of them. So my landlord had to have all the tiles in the shower removed, the walls insulated, and new tiles put on. Too bad that at the time he decided to go for cheap and bad rather than reasonably priced and right.

The guy to do the job – let's call him Jimbo – should've completed his work long before I moved in, but didn't. He also didn't show up after that, or returned my calls, for that matter. I don't know how I managed to get him to deliver the new shower door at all that he had bought because the old one allegedly had to be exchanged, but when he did delivery it I met him once. He was wearing a cowboy hat and should've probably rather spent his life on a cow meadow as well instead.

Time after time I became more unnerved because Jimbo never showed up up to finish the job. He did some work at one point but as it turned out, this was rather an unwelcome opportunity to figure out how little it would ultimately look like it was supposed to. However, I found out how little money my landlord had promised him (and paid in advance), and from this moment on it was clear that we were waiting for Jesus to fall from the sky.

So I suggested to hire a professional to put an end to this never-ending story. My landlord and his expert girlfriend were hesitant because of the good money he had spent on the bathroom already, but ultimately agreed to having me get a price estimate. Like it was my responsibility to arrange for his bathroom to be fixed. Mind you, at that time they didn't know yet how bad the work had been and that the expensive and ill-matching blue glass mosaic tiles would have to come off again, wasting the spent money altogether.

I had been dealing with Jimbo so it seemed just downright appropriate for me to arrange for a craftsman to show up, assess the work and give a price estimate. So I did. It allowed for an expert opinion on Jimbo's work, but on top of being unhappy, my landlord did not seem to be very trusting about the credibility of my word or the craftsmen's expertise. So it was clear he and his girlfriend who had done lots of craftsmen work (I am sorry but that is so cliché-lesbian), would have to assess the situation themselves.

Now, the latter part might sound a lot easier than it is. With my landlord being in Jordan and his friend living about 40 minutes away by train without a car, things are much more complicated than you'd think. You might assume that if she is the expert he trusts, it might just be enough for her to arrange for another appointment of her choice and show up for it, right? Well, that's not counting in the fact that she seems to have difficulties thinking a straight line. I'll spare you the details of this one appointment that I tried to nail down with the sanitary guy, the pavior, my landlord and her a few weeks ago. Let's just say that after about half a dozen phone calls, a short night and having the craftsmen agree to come back in the afternoon when my landlord and she would actually be able to show up, I don't know any more how it worked out. Ultimately, however, they somehow had both come to know that neither any of Jimbo's work nor the new shower door was usable, that all the expensive glass mosaic had to be tossed, and that all work had to be done from scratch again.

Another appointment had to be planned back then, by the way, at which my landlord was supposed to choose a tile for the upcoming work, and we agreed that he should pick it himself because it was his money. Now, does it surprise you that he “couldn't make it”, and instead I had to pick one that should be included in the price estimate? I am still waiting for this estimate, and I can't even begin wondering what's next in the never-ending process of fixing this bathroom.

But back to the neighbors. You were yearning for more, weren't you?

So after this first month I invited all my neighbors to coffee and cake on a Sunday afternoon, again trying to get to know them better so that we wouldn't have the same old misunderstandings that you just have when you don't know who lives next door. After my landlord's warnings about how strange some neighbors were and Frau Obersturmbandführer's odd initial questioning, I should've known better but I was trying to make a change.

For the coffee-and-cake date, only two parties showed up, amongst which were Frau Obersturmbandführer and a woman from the first floor who showed up with her whatever-he-is-as-long-as-he-nails-her-for-good. One other neighbor lady had sent an e‑mail saying that she was away for the weekend, and the lady who let me in the first day said that they had guests themselves and couldn't come.

During this two-hour Sunday meeting, I asked the few appearing neighbors whether they had a problem if I put my bicycle underneath the stairs because it would spare me a lot of the everyday hassle. They replied they “weren't the home owner's association” but didn't mind personally. So I started doing it like this the next day. And you guess it, on Thursday night I had Frau Obersturmbandführer show up at my door in her pajamas, letting me know that “the home owners” had complained about my bicycle. I expected the complaint to come but wasn't expecting her to show up personally like that. I could've hardly cared any less about “the home owners” that were too cowardly to talk to me directly but I told her I wouldn't put my bicycle there any more.

And I didn't. However, some time later I noticed that sometimes the (never locked) door to the basement was pried open without my doing, and I liked the idea very much because that saved me at least one door to overcome every morning and night. So I left it open for a few days when I took my bike.

This time, “the home owners'” reaction wasn't so nice to send Frau Obersturmbandführer. The caretaker sent a letter to all parties of the house in which they were requested to lock the basement door at all times. “The home owners agreed so. Obedience is requested.” Yes, sir! Kill jews, sir! Yes, sir! It's the law! I have no doubt that if things were to get as bad as in the 1930s today, the German people would go to war and kill innocent life again without questioning orders. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

I was furious. Why would those assholes care about that fucking basement door being open? The house door was locked all the time! And besides, nobody had ever locked the basement door, and what was even more, none of my keys matched the lock either. How were we supposed to lock the door at all? Was the caretaker uninformed or ignorant? I decided to write them an ironic letter in which I underlined everybody's unfounded fear of burglars coming through the house door, asking them to replace the lock and hand five keys to me.

Speaking of keys, here's another nuisance. You remember our friend Jimbo, right? He had a set of keys to the apartment, and now that my landlord's friend is convinced how bad his work was, she wanted to demand him to return the keys as he is no good any more. One other thing I, politely, marvel at is how she was always confident that Jimbo's work would turn out alright (and she had months to figure out how bluntly see how wrong she was), and how now that an expert confirmed my suspicion, she all of a sudden has always known how bad his work was. But either way, she told me she would ask Jimbo to return the keys. I never heard back from her but one day I found a set of keys in my letter box that I assumed were his. They keys looked right but I just wanted to make sure they were. So I was standing in my apartment and tried the apartment key on the inner side of the door. It wouldn't go in. “Oh”, I said to myself, “it is the wrong key somehow. How strange.” But it still looked right so I took my own and tried it in the same lock. Wouldn't go in either.

I was flabbergasted. How on earth was that possible? I examined the lock and saw a small piece of metal in it. Somehow a piece of metal had gotten into this lock. Since the house door is always locked, no matter what time of day, and since my apartment door is made out of metal that would be thick enough to safeguard Fort Knox (and the lock shuts four times when you turn the key), I never lock it from the inside so I had never even tried whether the door would lock from the inside. I remember that guests of my landlord's locked the door from the inside back in May but never checked again.

So I wrote my landlord an e-mail about this, sending along a macro photo of the lock.

But now, back to my crazy neighbors.

Guess what, a few days after my ironic letter to the caretaker I came home from work, and my landlord's bicycle was gone. I checked the other unlocked rooms in the basement and the space in front of my garage, just to make sure nobody had put it there because for some reason they had become tired of “my bike being there unused”. But his bicycle was nowhere to be seen. Somebody had taken it, and since it was one of the least valuable in the room, it was extremely unlikely that somebody external had taken it. The only plausible possibility, I figured, was that somebody wanted to teach me a lesson, whichever that was supposed to be. Frau Obersturmbandführer was in the basement at the time so I went over to her and asked her whether she knew what had happened to the bike. For the first time, my tone was not friendly anymore. I was polite but it was time to let them know that I would not be Mr Niceguy if all they did was pissing me off.

About ten minutes after our neat little talk she was at my door, letting me know that she had a problem with my tone of voice, that if I a bicycle was missing I would have to talk to the caretaker, etc. I didn't argue but fended off each of her sentences with, “OK” and “I have talked to the caretaker”.

So after my last e‑mail to my landlord in which I couldn't explain how the piece of metal had gotten stuck in the door lock, now this one saying, “Somebody took your bicycle” that I also sent to his friend. At the time I tended to send her all e‑mails to him in CC so that she could arrange for things to be done if they saw fit.

That night I was very angry at my neighbors and felt out of place in this way-too-big apartment of which I wasn't allowed to use the office because my landlord wanted this room as a retreat when he'd come by, whose living-room was huge and most of which I didn't even use, and that kept me busy with all the things you now know about. So I decided to go for a bike ride, and I came home pretty late. When I came home I saw a message on my voicemail. It was my landlord's friend who basically said, “WHAT THE FUCK!” Like I knew. But her utterings about ongoing things were always "Yea, that's very bizarre" or "Yea I was like, oh my God, what the fuck", depending on her mood. Until then I would've sworn that only California girls were "like, oh my God!"

And, guess what, it's just not stopping. A day later my landlord sent me a very brief e‑mail asking whether I knew what happened about the bicycle. I couldn't help but think he was suspecting that for a reason still beyond my comprehension, I had taken it. And a few minutes later he replied to my “there is something stuck in the apartment door lock” e‑mail, saying that in June when he had been here for a visit, the lock had still been working, and especially here I could plainly hear between the lines that I had caused this. In my reply I told him that I have a liability insurance that would easily cover for accidents like this, and that I would have no problem whatsoever admitting that it was I. If I had done it, which wasn't the case.

The Caretaker

One of the most bizarre conversations, however, I had with the caretalker himself recently. While I was on a business trip in Munich I saw that somebody whose number I didn't know had tried to call me and left a message on my voicemail so I checked and noticed it was them. So I called them up. The guy told me that the keys to the basement door's lock were in my landlord's possession, which I am sure is not true because if they were he would've told me about it and given me at least one key. But talking to the caretalker already, I assumed it was a good idea to stop the frenzy going on among the bitchy neighbors, so I asked him who had made the input about the basement door, assuming that it would probably make apparent who'd be behind the bicycle theft. The guy answered he wouldn't tell me, and replied, "What kind of caretaker are you? We're talking of a vanished bike here. Somebody took it, and I'd prefer to talk to the person who took it rather than going to the police immediately." And his reponse to that was ultimately weird. It was something like, "Well, if you're claiming theft here, you need to go to the police here. Where would we be if everyone just went from door to door and beat up people? I'm just a Democrat!" Honest to the God I don't believe in, this man gave me the oddest line in a long time.

However, guess what happened subsequently. When I got home that night, the bicycle was back in its place like nothing had happened. No note, no nothing. Needless to say that I informed my landlord and again had no clue of what was going on in my crazy-ass neighbors' heads.

For a while I was pondering hanging up a note in the hallway in which I would let my neighbors know that I was amazed about their bad manners and that my parents had always taught me better than to just take other people's property, which would be called theft in Germany. Then I decided it wasn't worth the effort. But I have made the decision not to interact with anybody in this house any more than absolutely necessary and dictated for good manners' sake. You know, the manners that they don't have. But I want to stay away from their level of behavior as it'll only befoul me if I don't.

And All the Other Things

And all this adds up to the innumerable other small incidents that turn living here into a nuisance, and all those things I have become tired of. There are more, like my landlord, now, after months of me living here, approaching me with his desire to charge extra for heating in the winter that he never used, or with cost for the telephone line, or the fact that his apparently mentally ill ex-boyfriend who used to beat him up and stalk his friends sometimes calls at night to check whether my landlord is at home, always twice in a row, always without caller ID, and always hanging up when voicemail or I answer.

Now that I am writing all this, I am noticing how tired I have become, both in general and actually right now. It seems that I am not supposed to live here for long after all, and strangely enough, I do not care about having to pack everything again. In spite of all the nuisances related to this living arrangement, Frankfurt is after all a gorgeous city, and I have started to feel very much at home here in comparison to quite some other cities I have lived in. It was a good choice to come here, just maybe not this very apartment.

Bread and Bicycle

I had swung my crazy self onto my bicycle, like I do every morning on my way to work. As I was leaving the house's driveway, sunrays hit me from the side. The sun was as full of energy as I, and once more I loved living in a city with one of the most gorgeous skylines in Europe, and being able to ride my bike to work.

Not even stepping on the pedals on my way down the hill, I was savoring the fresh air and gentle winds that could not mislead me to believe the day would not become as hot as the last ones. I would probably have sweat stains on my ass again at the office that day from sitting on the chair all day.

Slowly descending the hill I noticed that something was odd about the air. It did not have the regular smell of morning dew, rather that of freshly baked sweet bread! I had not had sweet bread in months, knew it from when I was little. My parents used to have sweet bread for breakfast all the time, and there I was, riding my bike to work every morning, with my street smelling tasty in the morning sun. It can be pretty cool to be me at times, I can tell you.

New This Week, Part 29

I am bad at making lists and remembering things that happened during a certain time. Extremely bad, actually. I am so bad that I can assure you now that the first thing that will go completely if I happen to catch Alzheimer's is going to be this exact memory. When that happens, I will be very happy to see y'all come for a visit every time you step into the room, so please make sure to say hi, give me a hug, and leave the room again, just to come back a minute later. It will never-ending joy to me, promise.

All this I am telling you because I couldn't remember any of these four things that happened last week before I looked into my calendar what I did that week. Not even the pride event I attended for three subsequent consecutive days I remembered. Part of it might be due to unfocusedness, I admit, but I might be exaggerating the whole being-present-in-the-moment stuff a little.

1. Bar: The Stall
Logo taken from their website.

Yes, the website is probably among the ugliest on Earth but the place itself is actually not all that bad. What have we got? Gay bar, originally from the 50s or 60s, ages old, never renovated or redone. So in a way it is like the website. But that doesn't matter because its charm is said to be exactly that, a slightly sleazy, traditional underground place for cruising. A lot of people go there to have sex or at least the perspective of sex. A huge back wing is allegedly the darkroom. I didn't see that part because I didn't want to leave all my stuff at the bar. I had gone to the place directly after the gym, still sweating like hell and with my backpack.

Nice clientele there, actually, okay prices, and most of the time even good music!

2. Bar: Frankfurt Art Bar
Photo taken from their website.

You live in Sachsenhausen and feel like some live music? This is a neat and cozy place, low-key with not-so-low-key-but-okay prices, food is good, and you'll have live music a lot of the evenings. I went on Wednesday with a friend of mine, and we had Irish folk musicians there, actually playing nice music, not too loud even.

3. Gym: Muscle Weight Machines in Frankfurt gym
On Thursday I had an introductory appointment to the muscle machines at my Frankfurt gym so that I could do muscle workout and not only cardio and classes. Man, you should've see how the appointment came about. Originally I had headed to the gym to do a bodystyling class at 7, then I noticed I had chosen the wrong day, and that night there were different classes on. I then asked at the counter whether I could do a half-hour ab class and then do the introduction. They said yes, me happy. So I go back the schedule and figure that since I have the time, why shouldn't I try Thai Yoga instead of abs? So I went back to the counter, asking whether we could delay the appointment. They said yes, me happy and going back to the classroom.

Standing there I notice that I totally forgot to bring a towel. A fitness class without a towel? No way. So I go back to the counter and ask whether we could do the introduction right away. They said yes, me happy but slightly unnerved. So we did the introduction, and I did half an hour of cardio afterwards, wiping off my sweat with my already-soaking shirt.

4. Event: Frankfurt Pride
Photo taken from gay-web.de.

Pride events tend to be very similar no matter where you go. And Frankfurt is not an exception really. It is, however, different in one regard. I went there on three subsequent nights, from Friday to Sunday, and even after that I am by far not as energetically sucked dry as I have always been after the Cologne pride events. And every night I was with nice people, enjoying the occasional beer or apple wine that is so common and famous in this region.

On to another week of novelties, at the end of which I will get my furniture out of my old apartment in Düsseldorf. Finally more shlepping around stuff, yay!

New This Week, Parts 27 and 28

Okay, now things are slowly picking up, not to say exploding here. Frankfurt has so many things to offer, and guys, you do need to get here and spend a weekend. To say this very explicitly: Frankfurt is an extremely colorful and -- to me, at least -- beeeeeauuuutiful city. Whoever says he doesn't like Frankfurt, has most likely not seen it, at least not in the past years. I hear it has improved a lot in the past ten years, and judging from how I saw it about ten years ago, that must be correct.

Frankfurt has a skyline you will hardly find in any other European city. But it also has a very nice old center of town, tons of green areas and parks, and some outstanding architecture, at least to my taste. However, I give you this, if you hate construction sites there is a chance you won't like Frankfurt, as in Frankfurt, they're everywhere. Every-where!

One last thing to note before I get to the novelties. I have noticed that I often don't feel like sitting down on a Sunday to write the weekly novelties down. I am not sure but suspect that it has to do with the fact that at the office I write so much that when I get home, I have no more desire to talk, and writing is basically talking to me (especially since I sometimes read my writing out loud).

This way or that, here's for the news.

Week 27

1. Activity: Friedberger Markt on Friday nights
Photo courtesy gerry_balding
So many people had recommended me to go to the market at the Friedberger Platz that I had been pondering it anyway, but on Friday night that week, we had had a party at our office anyway, and since it was crazy hot in our kitchen where we were partying, we decided to go over to the market and continue there. By the time we showed up, around 11, the booths had long closed but there were still tons of people hanging out there on blankets, benches and such, drinking the booze they had brought from home or bought in bottles rather than glasses before the booths closed at 9.

Regardless of the ever-existing people who dislike it now that it's become so big, this market on a Friday night is must-see, I think, especially on a warm summer night. People are friendly, sometimes even funny because of their alcohol level, and as long as standing around was comfortable, I have had a good time there. Just try to avoid the prissy Lufthansa queens. They're bitter and therefor annoying.

2. Activity: Brentanobad
Photo courtesy of Enitsche Aquatechnik

This open-air pool I went to because a friend told me he was going and had asked me whether I wanted to come along. Curious as I am, I did. It is actually nice. Nothing out of the ordinary, and especially on the weekends you have tons of screaming kids there but we lay in a relatively quiet spot. Nice!

3. Activity: CityFitness Gym in Frankfurt Visited
Photo (not showing the actual gym) courtesy of mikeg626

The lucky man that I am, my Düsseldorf gym has two other gyms that are in bicycle reach for me, one in Offenbach that I have already worked out at, and one in Frankfurt that I had wanted to check out for a while but never actually seen. Now, on my way to the Brentanobad previously mentioned I decided to do a little detour and have a look. It's a nice clean gym with all the amenities that I'd like. No pool but I have never had a pool, and that's certainly not a requirement. And the staff seems to be very nice as well; I love that. Fuck the Fitness First assholes that screwed me for money back in Düsseldorf.

4. Exhibition: Schirn at Night, "The Making of Art"
Photo courtesy of otto_ffm

The Schirn is famous art gallery in the heart of Frankfurt, very close to the "Dom" (cathedral), and I went there with an acquaintance of mine. We had been invited to go there by an American owner of a store in Bornheim who was celebrating her 50th birthday there. And since there was this exhibition "The Making of Art" going on, we decided not to let it slip by, and saw it. When we came out again, however, the birthday kid seemed a little annoyed by whatever, and shook our hands good-bye. I was a little surprised but maybe shouldn't be. Isn't this, after all, the superficiality that Americans are said to have by Germans? God knows what she had intended by inviting us, maybe thinking we wouldn't show up to a lesbian's party, or whatever.

5. Event: Alte Oper Street Festival
Photo courtesy of Wolfgang_Staudt

Did I mention that there are always street festivals in Frankfurt? If not, well, there are always street festivals in Frankfurt. That weekend, among other things such as the Iron Man triathlon going on, it was the turn of the place at the Alte Oper that you see on this picture. Imagine this picture, however, a little less alterated, with a clear blue sky and sunshine that would expect to be rather in California, and booths all over the place selling everything from food and drinks to knick-knacks and other stuff. Oh, and add in your mind a stage where reggae music is playing. And put my friend and me right there onto the border of this fountain, sipping on Caipirinhas, our feet dangling in the cooling water.

Pure summer vacation feeling!


Week 28

1. Occurrence and Drink: Brainfreeze by Mango Frappé from McDonald's
Photo courtesy of Noctis_Lucis_Caelum

I had hints of a brainfreeze before. It just happens when you're too greedy and love dem icecreams too much. But this time it hit me really badly. I was on my bicycle, riding back home from my gym in Offenbach. I had passed a McDonald's and decided to try their mango frappé that they had recently added to their menu. The frappé itself tasted good, and I don't even think I had slurped on it too fast, but all of a sudden my brain started stinging from the icy coldness that had hit it. It hurt for about a minute before the pain finally lessened. You can imagine I drank the rest of the smoothie slowly…very slowly.

2. Bar: Bieresel (Cologne)
Photo courtesy of Gebrüder Dorsch

Yeah, it is what it sounds like, a beer pub. Allegedly the oldest mussel restaurant in Cologne but for my students and me, it was a place to have a few beers at when we had finished our semester. They are so sweet, had given me a box of "Merci" chocolate and a bottle of red wine to thank me for the nice semester. That was the first time students had ever thanked me like that. But it figures since I liked teaching in this class a lot. Thanks again, guys!

3. Web Community: SoundCloud.com
Logo courtesy of the SoundCloud website

Everybody listen up. SoundCloud is a marvelous new community that allows you to share music with everybody so conveniently that you will probably not want anything else for aeons. The interface is smooth and sleak, it's a fast website, and there are not limits to filesizes. Check out the 3-minute tutorial yourself! This is a great great site! I have already stumbled upon several great tracks, amongst which is an incredible Michael Jackson RIP mix!

4. Bar/Restaurant: Mirador (Bornheim)
And finally, my weekend concluded with a very cozy stay at the "Mirador" bar/restaurant in the Berger Straße in Bornheim/Nordend with a friend of mine. It was pleasantly warm on that Saturday evening, and we had a little chicken curry soup and some Äppler (apple wine) that is so incredibly common in the Frankfurt area.

[Subsequent Addition]

5. Bar/Restaurant: Moksha (Friedberger Markt)
Logo taken from the Moksha website

Another restaurant, good food, reasonably priced, mixed clientele. Worth paying a visit!

---

So you see, Frankfurt has tons to offer, and I'm loving every bit of it. Well, except for street traffic. Fuck street traffic in Frankfurt.

:)

Vocabulary learned from "House and Philosophy"

Yes, I read. Sometimes. When I have the time. And this time I thought it might be good not only to underline and look up the words I learned from the book "House and Philosophy" but also to share my newly gained wisdom with you. So here are the words that you might also not have known until now.

Word	Type of word	Page	Translation to German
abolitionist	noun	188	Sklavereigegner
abound	verb	194	hervortreten
abound	verb	228	im Überfluss vorhanden sein
acerbic	adjective	36	bitter, herb, sauer
ailment	noun	237	Leiden, Beschwerden
albeit	adverb	146	obgleich, dessen ungeachtet
amorphous	adjective	202	gestaltlos
anguish	noun	171	Pein, Qual
antics	noun	34	Possen
arbitrary	adjective	141	willkürlich
artifice	noun	35	Kunstgriff, Trick
ascribe	verb	118	zuschreiben
at a loss for	verb	173	um etw. verlegen sein
audacious	adjective	204	mutig, dreist
awry	adjective	142	schief, krumm
balk	verb	146	hemmen, vereiteln
befit	verb	114	sich ziemen
berate	verb	127	beschimpfen
bicker	verb	219	sich zanken
biped	noun	189	Zweibeiner
bolder	adjective	204	mutiger
botched	adjective	120	verpfuscht
brazen	adjective	190	dreist
callous	adjective	50	abgestumpft, gleichgültig
canine	noun	116	Eckzahn, Hund (?)
censure	verb	34	tadeln, rügen
chide	verb	217	schelten
coax	verb	66	überreden, abschwatzen
coerced	adjective	142	genötigt, erzwungen
coercion	noun	151	Nötigung, Zwang
conducive	adjective	189	förderlich
conjectural	adjective	58	mutmaßlich
consecrate	verb	96	widmen
covert	adjective	229	heimlich
culprit	noun	181	Übeltäter, Angeschuldigter
defeatism	noun	32	Miesmacherei
defecate	verb	189	koten
deliberation	noun	129	Überlegung
demarcation	noun	49	Abgrenzung
disparity	noun	140	Ungleichheit
disunity	noun	234	Uneinigkeit
divvy up	verb	139	aufteilen
eligible	adjective	117	geeignet, qualifiziert
embittered	adjective	198	verbittert
entail	verb	131	mit sich bringen, nach sich ziehen
exacerbate	verb	31	erschweren, verschlimmern
fallacy	noun	158	Täuschung, Trugschluss
fidelity	noun	206	Genauigkeit, Wiedergabetreue
flesh out	verb	192	untermauern
flout	verb	151	verspotten
foible	noun	211	Marotte
forfeit	verb	142	verlieren, einbüßen
glee	noun	219	Fröhlichkeit
gritty	adjective	38	kiesig
gruff	adjective	220	grob, schroff
habitual	adjective	231	gewohnheitsmäßig#
heed a call	noun	116	einem Ruf folgen
hemlock	noun	190	Gefleckter Schierling (bot.)
hindrance	noun	217	Hindernis
hinge on	verb	218	von etw. abhängig sein
impede	verb	35	hemmen, verhindern
impediment	noun	189	Behinderung
impiety	noun	190	Pietätlosigkeit
incarcerated	adjective	170	eingekerkert
incommensurable	adjective	203	unvergleichbar
infallible	adjective	195	unfehlbar
insubordination	noun	188	Ungehorsam
irreproachable	adjective	204	tadellos, einwandfrei
irreverent	adjective	211	respektlos
juxtapose	verb	148	nebeneinander stellen
keen-witted	adjective	64	scharfsinnig
languid	adjective	64	kraftlos
languor	noun	63	Schwäche, Mattheit
maroon oneself	verb	188	sich aussetzen
minuscule	adjective	146	winzig, unbedeutend
mishmash	noun	80	Mischmasch
mitigate	verb	42	abschwächen, mildern
muddy	verb	49	trüben
noxious	adjective	195	schädlich
ostensible	adjective	231	vordergründig
overzealous	adjective	135	übereifrig
paragon	noun	226	Vorbild
peevish	adjective	46	reizbar, verdrießlich
perjure	verb	182	Meineid leisten
plainclothes	adjective	182	Zivil-
posit	verb	77	postulieren
prodigious	adjective	15	erstaunlich
prone to	adjective	205	-anfällig
propensity	noun	212	Hang
rash	adjective	230	hastig
rebuke	verb	182	tadeln, rügen
rebut	verb	162	entkräften, zurückweisen
relentless	adjective	64	unerbittlich
reproach	noun	194	Vorwurf
repudiation	noun	30	Ablehnung, Zurückweisung
resuscitate	verb	154	wiederbeleben
retardation	noun	162	Behinderung (geistig)
run afoul of the law	expression	180	gegen das Gesetz verstoßen
scanty	adjective	46	dürftig, spärlich
scoff	verb	57	Spott, Hohn
scorn	noun	144	Hohn, Verachtung
scoundrel	noun	213	Halunke, Schuft
shambles	noun	96	heilloses Durcheinander
sleuthhound	noun	64	Bluthund, Spürhund
stance	noun	147	Standpunkt, Einstellung
stifle	verb	193	ersticken, unterdrücken
stonemason	noun	99	Steinmetz
stork	noun	77	Storch
stumped	adjective	194	verblüfft
subservient	adjective	182	unterwürfig
surly	adjective	198	mürrisch, griesgrämig
surrogacy	noun	126	Leihmutterschaft
swat	verb	64	(zer)quetschen
tantamount	adjective	127	gleichbedeutend
telltale	adjective	117	verräterisch
tenure	noun	189	Amtszeit, Anstellung
tenured	adjective	216	anstellungsbezogen
thwart	verb	149	ausbremsen
time and again	expression	173	immer wieder
tomfoolery	noun	214	Albernheit
triteness	noun	79	Banalität
true to form	expression	155	um sein/ihr Gesicht zu wahren
unconcern	noun	119	Sorglosigkeit, Unbekümmertheit
unimpeded	adjective	219	ungehindert
unrelenting	adjective	170	unerbittlich
unrepentant	adjective	191	reuelos
utilitarianism	noun	118	Utilitarismus
vagaries	noun	47	Einfälle, Launen
valorize	verb	133	aufwerten
vehement	adjective	170	vehement
veracity	noun	232	Aufrichtigkeit
vigor	noun	194	Kraft
visceral	adjective	80	Eingeweide betreffend
volitional	adjective	200	willensgesteuert
whodunit	noun	56	Krimi, Detektivgeschichte

Now go and have a marvelous evening.

New This Week, Parts 25 and 26

Just when I wanted to start my entry with a line like "My weeks seem to be coming back to an at least half-way normal routine" I find myself sitting here not having written again for two weeks. Well, at least it's only two weeks, not four.

So here are the novelties for week 25:

1. Activity/Event: J. P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Run
There is a good chance that you have never heard of it although it is the biggest run worldwide, at least if "big" means "many participants" to you. The J. P. Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Run in Frankfurt has grown to approximately 70,000 runners, and when it took place this year I was part of it. Along with nine colleagues of mine, I ran in our white rabbit shirts and did my zigzag darts to make the 5.6km in merely 29 minutes. For those of you who think they can do faster, you actually might but the fact that you have tons of people running in front of you can actually give you a hard time running at your possible speed.

2. Occurrence: Handing In Driver's License
I sent my driver's license to the authorities in Cologne this week because I had to hand it in for a month. I had been caught speeding with 46km/h too much. Three points in Flensburg, 160 Euros plus fees and a month of driving suspension. Not such a big deal because I don't need the car for the job or any other purpose in the upcoming weeks at all anyway, and besides I don't like driving.

3. Stupidity: Forgot Debit Card Number
There I am at the Dresdner Bank ATM, thinking I should just get some cash for the errands I wanted to run that Saturday, and I had a lunch appointment with an online acquaintance. So I put my card in, and when I'm asked to enter my PIN, my brain cannot come up with it. For over a year I had entered it automatically, had remembered it by mere hand movement. There I am standing, not having a clue what my PIN is.

So I tried one that felt right. It was the wrong one. I didn't dare trying a second one, knowing that with my spontaneity I'd probably enter three wrong ones, which would end up my card being held back by the machine.

I met the guy for lunch. Not a problem; I had enough cash for it. But I told him the story, and when we walked a few blocks afterwards and I tried getting cash at another ATM -- at the time I was mistakenly confident I had remembered the correct PIN --, I again didn't get any cash. So when I told him about that he hesitantly said, "Well…do you want me to lend you some money?" You could tell he only did it because I must have sounded like I had planned to make him give me money, so I obviously declined.

I decided to go back home and check my papers for the real PIN, and here comes the really incredible part. I went through the paperwork and found it, but I was far from a "God, Frank, you're such an idiot!" experience.

4. Event: Schweizer Straßenfest (street festival)
Some things belong to Frankfurt like to no other city. Like construction sites. But one of the things seems to be that there are always street festivals, at least during the warmer seasons. This weekend was the first one I actually had to myself here in Frankfurt, and I went to two street festivals, the first of which was the one in the Schweizer Straße. I went with a friend of mine whom I knew from college and some of her friends and colleagues. The streets were packed, and we had quite some fun and apple wine ("Eppler"). Be careful with that stuff. It can give you bad headaches. :)

5. Event: Schäfergassenfest (street festival)
Just the next day I went to another one, now a gay one in the Schäfergasse. I stumbled upon a guy whom I had known for years although I still cannot remember how we got to know each other. Anyway, he was hanging out with some friends of his, and we had a blast even in spite of the pouring rain that hit the festival pretty badly. Yippie, I'm finding friends easily here!


And we're proceeding to week 26!

1. Event: mailingtage in Nuremberg
All new at the job, I went to Nuremberg for the mailingtage, a fair on direct marketing through mailing, with my colleagues. Two days of constant talking about what we do. You probably know that I love hearing myself talk, but God knows I had enough of that when we took the train back to Frankfurt. Just the next day, however, I was back at the college in Cologne to teach, and I had no trouble talking for six hours again. Seems like I'm loving these fairs. :)

2. Event: Packed Too Few Clothes!
It certainly happens regularly that you travel somewhere and pack too many clothes, right? We all do it. Our fear of uncertainty is probably a big part of this. Better risking a broken back than ending up somewhere without our oh-so beloved tanktop when going out to the bars. Or something. Well, maybe for the first time in history, I have actually packed too few clothes. Packing for the weekend when I was about to attend a birthday and housewarming party in Cologne, I had already packed a pair of shorts and flip-flops, then looked at the weather forecast and then again decided to take them back out, thinking that the weather wouldn't be so warm after all. I was wrong and ended up buying in Cologne exactly what I had taken out of my backpack.

Shocking, I know. I'm still trembling myself.

On to another week of all of this! I'm lovin' it.

New This Week, Parts 22 Through 24

Okay, at this point my apology for not having written for weeks again is sounding silly. When I wrote the last time, I was about to get out of my lethargy, move to Frankfurt and start rocking again. And in a way I did. At least that’s what my back signalized me after more than a week of pretty much constant carrying around stuff. When I moved into my friend’s apartment in Frankfurt, all that he, a good friend of his and I did was wrapping, packing and carrying downstairs his things, amongst which was an abundance of crystals. Yes, my friend loves crystals, and I agree: As long as you don’t have to carry them and you have space for them, they’re gorgeous. Too bad that I was the one to carry all of his stuff downstairs because he and his friend had serious back problems and couldn’t lift the boxes with his stuff. Well, my back had rocked for over a week, I could tell at the time.

Also, I am in doubt whether listing the new things of the weeks has proven to be so sensible. With my being back in Düsseldorf and pretty much mourning my sorry-ass existence in that old job, it seemed like a good idea to list the new things. Now that my life has come picked up the pace of life again, listing the weekly novelties seems a little ironic to me because what’s been basically happening is my life getting out of a cocoon, again, for good.

So you will probably believe me when I say I had some novelties in the last weeks. I just have trouble remembering them. Everything is rushing by so fast, and I’ve always been bad at making lists. So forgive me when I just write what’s been going on, for now.

To start off, a few paragraphs on what’s been happening with me.

My new job at the e-mail marketing company has been working out great, I think. I’m feeling in a good place with nice, interesting and creative people, love the job opportunities that are presented to me, and my bosses are great visionaries. I also like the city, or rather what I have seen of it so far. The only things about Frankfurt that leave quite a bit of room for improvement are the fact that the traffic lights are not synchronized, and that when you want to use public transit and don’t have a monthly pass, your only choice is to buy a ticket at a machine before every single ride. There are no books of four and no tickets that you can buy in advance and cancel when needed. It is as if using the system was supposed to be piss you off.

My apartment in Frankfurt is great, too. It is much bigger than what I need, and, in fact, unaffordable if I were to pay the market price, but I found a great arrangement with my friend who owns it. He can leave his stuff there, and if he ever comes back to Germany he can move back in, and I will find myself another place. I take care of his mail and handle things like the craftsman who is still working on the renovation of the guest bathroom. So it’s a win-win.

You should see the balcony on a sunny afternoon! The house is in a very quiet and nice neighborhood, and you can yet walk to the next subway stop in ten minutes, and I need approximately ten minutes by bike to my office. Also, I have two big sleeping couches that give room to up to five or six people. It’s time for a visit of yours, isn’t it?

This Energy-Consuming Time

But you can tell that both the move and the whole new job situation have taken their toll. The biggest downside is that I have grown tired of all the going back and forth between Frankfurt, Cologne (for the teaching), Düsseldorf (to clean the old apartment, pack away furniture and other stuff, and celebrate my birthday), and Mettmann (to visit my parents and move even more stuff). Right now as I’m pre-writing this entry, I am sitting in a train from Düsseldorf to Frankfurt after a seminar on privacy management for my new employer (see the irony?), and on the upcoming Friday I will have to go back to Cologne to teach again.

Although I like the teaching job I am very happy to say that on the 10th of July, the semester will be finally over and I will be able to drop at least this part of traveling.

It’s not the traveling part itself that bothers me though; it’s the packing. Every time I am planning a trip, I need to think about what I will need where and when, how to pack efficiently and what else to consider so that I’ll be able to do the things on my agenda: Did I pack the letter I wanted to send? Do I have the paperwork with me that I will need to contact the authorities about my one-month driving interdiction? Do I have the invoice with me that I will have to remind the college of? Did I pack the screwdriver that I will need to deconstruct the desk I wanted to pick up at my parents’?

Speaking of driver’s license, I actually have to hand mine in for a month because I was caught speeding with 46km/h too much on the A3 on my way back from Munich recently.

My Birthday Party Last Weekend

Most of you know because you were there but for all others, I celebrated my birthday again last weekend, still in Düsseldorf and again a theme party. And although I was originally hesitant to choose the theme again, I finally decided to have a clothes swapping party again. For those who don’t know it yet, here are the rules, again:

• You have to show up in clothes you want to get rid of.
• Everybody’s entitled to swap clothes with anybody else at the party other than the person they just got their clothes directly before. For the swapping process there is a special room that people can use.
• All clothes may be swapped, from single parts to whole outfits.
• Everything is changed, except underwear, shoes and socks, and jackets, unless both parties agree to.
• Everybody leaves the party in the clothes they are wearing when they do.

If you have never attended such a party you’re probably frowning and thinking that it is a sex-oriented party but that’s far from the truth. In fact, that might rather be your fantasy talking, as everybody is extremely relaxed and at one point will probably start dropping their pants right where they’re talking to others when you approach them with your swapping request.

This theme is much rather the best theme I have experienced when it comes to connecting people. Especially when you invite a wide variety of people and you want to prevent them from gathering in the small groups of people they already know, this theme is for you. There is just no ice breaker like, “Wow, you look even crappier in my already ugly shirt!”

All this being said, I think I speak for all of us when I say, we had a blast. Amalia had cooked an incredible selection of Asian food, and in spite of everybody who still had to drive home, we ate and drank a lot, danced and laughed our asses off. I am so happy everybody showed up again and had such a relaxing and fun party again. Thank you, everybody, thank you, thank you, thank you!

By the way, I got an extremely cool present at this party that I, admittedly, pretty much ordered. I know many have probably declared me crazy or that they wanted to send me their shirts, but the present I wanted to have and actually got is a professional steaming-iron station with the accessory ironing board. With this, ironing especially dress shirts will be not only more fun but turn out so much easier than before! I quote my friend who organized it, “The board even sucks and blows!” Honestly, what more could a gay man want! :)

These are the things I can think of now, knowing that I have probably forgotten half a dozen others, like the fact that I have followed a friend’s recommendation and installed and liked the new Trillian Astra, or that I have started playing the Facebook application “Vampire Wars” that is pretty much like Mafia Wars, which I have become addicted to. But let’s keep it at this for now. Drop me your questions in the comments, and I’ll answer them in the next entry.

New This Week, Part 21

I can't leave novelties alone, can I?

1. New Residence: Frankfurt
Photo courtesy of Travel Aficionado

On Saturday of last week I moved my stuff to Frankfurt into an apartment so beautiful that I cannot even begin telling you because you'd all want to come for a visit. And you're welcome to do that but you'll have to figure the beauty out for yourselves.

Actually, I haven't only found a great apartment to start living in, but my landlord and his girlfriend are two of the coolest, nicest, funniest and most warm-hearted people I have ever known. I could never have imagined this start-off in Frankfurt to be as great as it has been. Even the Thai place around the corner that we went to last night has incredible food.

2. New Restaurant: Thai Snack (Frankfurt)

I am happy to say that already in those two days that I spent in Frankfurt unpacking and carrying around stuff, I have stumbled upon a low-key Thai restaurant in the neighborhood that is extremely good and reasonably-priced! Frankfurt, I love you already!

New This Week, Parts 16 Through 20

Waiting longer before you write a new blog entry should make it easier because of all the things that have happened in between, shouldn't it? Well, the opposite is true; I haven't written anything in weeks, more than a month even, and with every passing week, the hurdle to do so becomes higher, not in spite of but rather because of all the things that have happened. And what makes it worse is the fact that I am very bad at remembering the order of things so enumerating the new things for each of the past weeks is like building a concrete house from scratch when you have nothing but bamboo and mud.

Introduction

In the past weeks, I've been busy with a lot of things. To start off with, I finally resigned from my old job in privacy management. I'll happily tell the story in a personal talk at some point but for now, what's important is that I had spent months there being unproductive because there was no work to do. What's more, my bosses had decided to hire a colleague although there was no work even for me alone. And you probably read about the things the wife of one of my former bosses pulled off. It was time to get off the s**king ship.

At this point, my now ex-boss knows that I'm starting a new job in Frankfurt, which is why telling you here on this blog is not a problem any more, even though my former colleague knows about this web address. I think I'm right considering my job perspectives none of my old employer's business but since it's out anyway, here we go. Weeks before I resigned I told my former colleague about this blog because I wanted her to have an example of how to approach writing in order to write complex structures more elegantly. Well, sometimes keeping business and leisure separated is a good idea. This might teach you a lesson. It does for me.

But back to my news report.

For almost-two weeks, a friend from Los Angeles visited me in Düsseldorf in May, which gives me at least a very bad excuse for not keeping you up to date. Being off work as I currently am, you'd expect me to have more time rather than less, but the latter is at least how things have appeared to me recently.

So let's finally get to the new things for each week. Here is where things become a little blurry. There were new things in each week but the order or specific week might be a little off in this list.

Week 16
1. Xco Shape class with 1.7kg Xcos
Photo taken from the Xco Trainer website

Those of you who have no idea what Xco Trainers are, check out this link. As the gym tended to run out of them for each class I decided to buy a pair on Ebay. What I ended up buying was the wrong size, and instead of the cute ones you see on the linked website, weighing half a kilogram each and being easy to grip, I got myself one of 1.7kgs that you usually hold with both hands.

When I showed this big one to Mel, our chief instructor at the gym, she told me jokingly I could have her second one and just work out with both of them. And actually, I decided to just give it a try, and accepted. It turned out to be much more demanding but not so bad ultimately, so I have used the big ones during class ever since. The instructors think I'm crazy but then again, they're not so wrong, are they?

2. Emptied waste toner pack of my Brother printer

Big deal, I know, but for the first time I actually noticed that my Brother laser printer has a waste toner pack that needs to be emptied at some point. My life will never be the same.



Week 17

1. New Bar: Pulse in Frankfurt
Logo courtesy of gastroconsult.net

Checking out my new apartment in Frankfurt and getting to know my new landlord, we met at a bar in Frankfurt called "Pulse", a very nice joint for family and their friends.





2. New Food: Horse sausage
Photo courtesy of jb.atwood

When I was in Munich that week to celebrate a friend's birthday, and taking my friend from Amsterdam there, we went to the Viktualienmarkt and also got ourselves some horse sausage that had been highly praised. It actually wasn't so bad.

3. Easy Order at McDonald's
Photo courtesy of bradley_newman

McDonald's now -- at least in some stores -- has a new way of payment, called "Easy Order". It's basically a terminal where you choose your order items yourself and pay with a debit or cash card (Geldkarte). When you're done, you get a receipt that you walk up to a special counter with to get your items handed out. Not quite Earth-shattering but an interesting approach. I wonder when they make that a 24-hour service with automated food preparation.

4. New Restaurant: Hofbräuhaus
Photo courtesy of johnnymnemonic84

Yes, I did it. I actually went to the ever-so famous Hofbräuhaus in Munich. As it would turn out later (week 20), with all the tourists and the tackily dressed musicians and so forth, the ground floor isn't even the worst part of it. It's just incredibly noisy and uncomfortable to be in because the walls have a horrible echo.

Week 18

1. Spent a night at my friends' new place in Cologne
One of my friends in Cologne moved in with his partner recently, and with my friend from LA, I spent a night at their place when he and I were visiting the city and had gone out to the bars that night.

2. New Facebook application: Mafia Wars
I don't know how it started. I had ignored Mafia Wars invitations for weeks, maybe months, because I found it stupid to play things like that. On top, I didn't like the violence aspect. And then I somehow started playing. Actually, I still don't know really why I'm playing it, and I'm beaten up regularly anyway, but it's kinda fun, also to check out what games are currently played. It's good to be up to date with what's happening, I think.

Week 19

1. New Bar: At Mexx Outlet in Korschenbroich
Again not quite a burner but my friend from LA and I went to a bar/restaurant place in the Mexx outlet building in Korschenbroich and had lunch there. Nice place, okay-priced, okay food.

2. New Restaurant: Zum Schiffchen
Picture taken from the Zum Schiffchen website

To round off my friend's visit in Germany, he treated me to dinner at the Zum Schiffchen in the Düsseldorf Altstadt, probably the oldest restaurant in town where Goethe and Napoleon used to go to. If you're after typically German and Düsseldorf-type food, that's your place to go to. We had Düsseldorf-style roast beef with red cabbage and raisins, and what I'd like to call "Butcher's Delight", basically a plate with sausages, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. A nice low-key evening that showed him some traditional foods, something I usually never have.

3. New Activity: Book Club
Photo courtesy of Editor B

This is a very special novelty. A good friend from Cologne had invited me to her book club already in February. She is part of a girls-only book club where they talk about books they all read, and this one time they had decided to accept guests as well. I would be hers, she had decided, and so she asked me to join the club meeting this week pretty much the same way I had been given homework at grammar school. I was hesitant to accept at first, especially because the book (Milan Kundera's "Die Unsterblichkeit", "The Immortality") didn't tell me anything, but I'm glad I did.

The group of people at the club was actually very nice and interesting, and I appreciated and liked both the discussions about the book and the book itself a lot more than I had anticipated. As my friend was still staying with me I couldn't stay for the whole evening but I am glad I attended the book club.

Week 20

1. New Gym Class: Bodystyling with Kathrin
Another not-so thrilling part at the gym: going to an earlier class which lead to a different instructor. I wouldn't have mentioned it at all if I hadn't been amazed at how different styles can vary with instructors. The classes she gives, I noticed, are very different from my two favorite girls' one.

2. Hofbräuhaus, Upper Level
I'm not listing it as a new bar because I had already been there. Last week, however, I went to the Hofbräuhaus again with some new colleagues, initially only to have a beer or two but then they decided they wanted to have dinner there as well. Great, I thought, sitting at a table downstairs where the acoustics are horrible already. But I had no idea what was coming up. We went upstairs to have dinner. If you think downstairs is already the biggest tourist trap on Earth, you need to go upstairs and check the freak show that goes on there apparently every single night. We sat a table in the middle of all of it. A traditional Bavarian brass band was playing on stage, and when we came in a group of four guys were schuhplattlering on stage, two of which were obviously tourist who had been dressed with too big Lederhosen. Two girls with Dirndls were hopping, one of which then started playing music with cow bells. At one point, two guys started pecking wood on stage. It was outrageous, and so was the volume. I could hardly hear my own thoughts.

---

At this point, I can't recall any more whether I forgot something, even if it was something substantial. That's the downside of waiting so long until I write again. I'll try to be more punctual in the future.