Curiouser and Curiouser

ME: “Oh my teeth hurt..”
MR: “Then you should go to a teeth doctor.”
ME: “A Tiefdoctor? Doesn’t he work with animals?”

MR: “You should go to Dr. Brust.”
ME: “Dr. Prost? Does he also serve beer there?”

Gott lenkt,
Der Mensch denkt,
Der Saarlander aber schwenkt
Kurz gesagt, Hauptsach Gudd Gess!

ME: “What’s that building there?”
MR: “That’s the Rathaus.”
ME: “Oh, did they stage a coup against the cats?”

ME: “Hey look, it’s the Bürgerhaus.”
MR: “Very good, Jennifer.”
ME: “Do you think they serve french fries as well?”

My favorite expressions:

Tschüssi, Müssli

O-käse

Don’t worry, chicken curry

Shit, sheiße, putain, and taddi were the happy words I heard as I sat on the grass Saturday afternoon. They were the sounds of the German, French, Indian, and Chinese playing football together on the campus field (sorry if these offend others).

I, of course, do not play football, but after being cooped up in a stuffy lab all afternoon, I thought it would be a nice change to continue my work out in a more natural setting. I was reminded, however, of how lucky I am to again be a part of the university bubble.

In the short time I have been here, I have made friends in the most unlikely places. From a group of geeky PhDs from MPI, to the crowd of clever Chinese students I have dinner with in the mensa, all the way to the gang of Indians and Pakistanis who made me chai, my life has been made richer by every one of them.

It is certainly their friendliness, but perhaps it is also their humor. Sprinkle in some non-native German speaking abilities, a quirky foreign accent, a dash of geekiness, and, due to the unexpectedness of a witty reply, often I am just stunned into laughter:

Me (to my Indian friend): “Did you know you can’t move the tables in the mensa because the university spent their cultural grant on it, so now the way they are positioned is considered art?”
Sikander: “No-oo! Come on, you are farsching me!”
|__ verarsching –> verarschen –> to fool

Me (to my Chinese friend): “My favorite thing is to curl up in bed with my laptop and code..”
Tianxiang: “Ah, you mean embedded com-pu-ting!”

Me (to another Chinese friend): “Mars tells me that you’re quite the playboy and that you skipped our party for a girl!”
Fu Yu (to Mars): “???????..”
Me (to Mars): “Hey, what’d he say?”
Mars: “He says I should just broadcast it over a distributed network.”

Yesterday I was pulled over by the German police in downtown Saarbrücken.

Who knew that you can’t run a red light while riding a bike in a three-way intersection? If there is no road to the right, I have always assumed that the traffic light simply does not apply to me, and have always gone through it. Regrettably, I did this right in front of the coppers who immediately drove up and pulled into the shoulder ahead of me.

So I did what every foreigner would do in such a situation:
pretended not to understand German.

They, unfortunately, spoke English.

In the end, they made a big deal about the 25€ ticket for such an infraction, but I think they were just trying to prove a point. After all, I ran the light right in front of them; they couldn’t just drive away without saying anything. I was actually prepared to take the ticket, but instead they said only, “Not today. Today is just a warning,” looked sternly at me, got back in their little green car, and drove off.

[UPDATE]:

Another thing I learned from this incident is that you can only make a right turn on a red light if there is a special arrow indicating that you may do so. This also applies to bikes apparently. However, as in the case of crossing the street (by foot) on a red light, I was told you can simply hop up onto the sidewalk, turn the corner, hop down again and all will be well. In some ways, this reminds me of the French ‘D’ mentality.

In the U.S., it is completely the opposite. You can make a right turn on a red light (assuming you stop first), unless there is a sign specifically stating that you can’t. On the other hand, they will pull you over if you’re under eighteen and not wearing a helmet.

I started this post sometime back, but never finished it. It was supposed to begin with: “Puerto Rico is a surprisingly interesting place..”

But since I was only there for a full two days, I do not feel qualified to remark on the people or the culture. Still, I learned a few things:

• I get American cell phone service there.
• Puerto Rico has been mulling over joining the US as a state for some time, however they have remained a territory due to economic concerns, mainly trade with Cuba.
• Not all hot latin boys can dance. Rather disappointing, I’d say.

They also have these funny bananas that taste like potatoes. And they invented the Piña Colada, which is something.

The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus

I have been doing quite a bit of shopping lately. Since one of my roommates wanted to buy his furniture new (and had a car), we have made several trips to Ikea and Meuble-Boss for nice, cheap bedroom sets. Last night was our last trip and it was in a sandwich shop, in the women’s bathroom, that I noticed it: a small vending box with condoms for sale on one side, and erotic toys (dildos, etc) on the other. In fact, it was while driving in Saarbrücken when we passed an entire warehouse store with the name ‘Erotic’ splashed all over the front. I am suspicious now of every person who walks down the street. But if I mention it, I get only a, “Ah, Prude American!”, a hand-waving, and a laughing off. Such a bizarre country.

One of the aspects of life in Germany over which I often pondered was what to do when certain historical topics were introduced while in the company of German folk. What would I say? How would they react? Perhaps I worry too much sometimes. Last Friday, I introduced my new friend Danielle, from Israel, to my German roommate Michael. Their first exchange, Him: “So how do you feel about the war between Israel and Lebanon?”, Her: “How do you feel about the Holocaust?”. I had to smother my laughter. She also has a German boyfriend, a Saarlander. So of course, no wine-tasting in Trier would be complete without Michael declaring to the both of them, “it’s so nice to see how people from Israel and Germany work out together 60 years after the Holocaust..”.

We did have a marvelous time in Trier. Besides visiting the Saarschleife (the point at which the Saar river makes a large bend along the valley), we were free to have lunch where we liked as well as follow the guided tour through the city or wander off on our own. A small group of us chose the latter and I took many wonderful pictures. We ended the day in a small Vinothek along the Mosel river for a three-hour long wine tasting of 6 varieties. I believe there was a pinot noir at the beginning, which wasn’t very good (too light, too young), and the rest were sweet white wines, as well as one rosé. I bought their late harvest ‘Eiswein’ which I thought was delicious. Many of the students preferred the cheaper wines and had them opened for the bus trip back to Saarbrücken. Ah, such is European life!

German lessons of the day: One must always cover one’s mouth when yawning. Otherwise evil spirits will come in and suck out your soul, besides it being considered rude. When entering a restaurant, you seat yourself even if the table has not been cleared - the staff will eventually get around to doing that.

Last night, Germany won the qualification for the European cup 13-0 against San Marino. With several of my future fellow CL students, we celebrated at the Short Corner (die Kurze Ecke) with beer and incidentally, we discovered that the soccer table game is called fußball (’foozball’) in English and kicker in Deutsch.