Impressions about the S.O.

Recently, Paul and I had the opportunity to write to each other about what impresses us about the other. I thought this was a nice conversation, and it bears repeating (despite knowing that Paul will be embarrassed).

What impresses me the most? I consider Laura to be my equal.

Of course I know from experience that requires explanation because it sounds like a pretty weak statement to some people.

Who do you like to surround yourself with? Those who you feel superior to overall? Those who you feel inferior to overall? Or do you like feel most comfortable around those who you consider you peer?

Who are you most likely to go to for advice first?

Who are you most likely to want to play video games with?

Who is the first person that you think of to go to Disneyland with?

If I could have my way or didn't have other obligations, my first choice would always be my wife for all of those.

I like to ask her opinion on something before asking others. That doesn't mean I'll do exactly what she says (to her chagrin sometimes) but her's is the opinion that I most want to hear.

Basically, I don't have a huge group of friends or a large pool of people that I turn to for help and advice. Instead, I've found that one person I'm comfortable with calling my peer in every way that counts--so I married her :-) That is what impresses me the most.

As for some specifics: Laura is a kick-ass diver and is one of the few people that I would trust to go cave diving with, she can juggle 10 things on her to-do list at one time (and wouldn't be happy otherwise), she'll do anything for her friends, she will take it upon herself to help any stray animal in need, and she is incredibly driven in her career. Also, not only does Laura impress me, I'm impressed by who I become when she is around.


-- Paul


My response:

What impresses me the most about Paul is his wit, intelligence, and caring.

He is incredibly thoughtful. When we first met, he did not like sushi, but he was willing to try it again after a short argument from me. He found he could actually enjoy some sushi, and now he offers to go out for it, mainly because he knows how much I like it. He does other things like that too- he will plan an entire evening around an event that I would love to go to (Harry Potter, Wicked the musical, etc) even though he would not really consider those events if it weren’t for me. He even took me to see HP in German, and he doesn’t speak a lick of it!

These are other cute examples of things Paul think of doing for me: He knew that I played violin when I was younger, so he went and bought tickets to take me to see Itzhak Perlman at he Bass Concert Hall in Austin. He takes me to Harry Potter midnight screenings, then watches the movie again with me, then again at the IMAX (for HP5), and when it comes out on DVD, he has it ordered and gets a copy in German (for this you have to navigate amazon.de, which has no English translation, and purchase a DVD and have it mailed from Germany.) He took me to see Wicked, the musical, despite not necessarily being interested in the show, if it weren’t for my interest in seeing it. And he is always willing to do a nice evening out (with enough planning time); he gets dressed up and makes dinner plans, and it is a whole event! He takes me to Disneyland, Magic Castle, and other fun places.

I was looking over our wedding pictures today, and I was thinking back to what a wonderful day that was for me. I maintain that I would love to have that day to do over again (not to change it, but to re-live it.) It was a special day for me, and it was because of Paul that it was so wonderful. We had a small wedding with only 21 people (including us) in attendance, and better yet, Paul and I got to spend not only that day with them, but the majority of the week we were on Kauai was spent sharing activities with our guests.

I am incessantly amazed at the amount of stuff he will put up from me and the subtle ways in which he tries to help. Although I may be frustrated at times, I know that he is always thinking through every action, asking himself how he can provide help, and what can be done to relieve stress.

I also always seek his opinion, before doing lots of things! I love that he thinks through a problem thoroughly, that he takes his time, and that he thinks before he speaks. (This is a perfect complement to me, who does none of these things.) I also love that he can read maps and give directions, for without that, I would have been lost so many times.

I also love that he likes hiking, scuba, camping, rock climbing, and other outdoor activities. He has a soft spot for all animals and pays attention to all our pet’s needs.

He is supportive of my decisions and even helps to encourage me to take action with many of the things want to do (barring the motorcycle dream). Being so far away from Paul, even for this short period of time, is hard; I feel a little lost without him.

Amsterdam

Am*dam first night!

We arrived in Amsterdam pretty late. After de-boarding the train, we went in search of the light rail train number 17 that would drop us off about 3 minutes walk from the hotel. Yea right. We got on this train and the lady only had two day passes on her to sell (she sits in the middle of the train and you can only enter by her or the conductor, so you have to show your pass or buy one. I guess this system puts people to work.) Anyway, we finally get some passable tickets for the train ride, then all of a sudden it is our stop. However, you cannot exit by the door we entered (which is where we are standing). The signs direct you to the front and the back of the train.



I tell everyone this problem, and they start to move, but it is almost too late. We are at the stop, people are hard to squeeze past, and we are going to miss our exit. So as someone pushed the open button on the outside of the door that says no exit, I hop out. I am the only one. No one else figures out how to get off the train, so I am standing in the middle of the street in Amsterdam watching the train pull away. Opps. I wait on the other side for them to take the train back, and only 5 minutes later a taxi goes by me, a door opens, and someone yells, “Laura!” I run over to the group and hop in. They decided to take a cab instead. They could not figure out how to exit the train and it took them two whole stops before they could get off. We find this out later, but where they exited was really close to the hotel. Then we had to meet his guy on the street corner, and have him show us the apartment we would be renting for a few days.

This was an apartment hotel that Jaako found. This place and idea was really neat. The stairs were not. I have stayed in Amsterdam before, and the stair in the other hotel were exactly like these- a carpeted ladder! We had to go straight up. The guy who meet us, Sanne, offered to carry my luggage, which I politely refused until I realized it was 4 flights. He kind of insisted after the first set of stairs. I think I was holding up the group, LOL. We made it all the way to the penthouse apartment, which had skylights and everything. It only had one bedroom, so three of us had to sleep in the living room, but it worked out alright.

Court proceedings

ECJ Court buildings, but no session

Wednesday morning, we grabbed breakfast, our gear, and piled into a small short bus. We rode over, uncomfortably, to the ECJ court, where we exchanged our passports for a visitor’s tag. We waited in the courtroom for 30 minutes, with no activity. The case should have started or people should have at least shown up, by that time. It turns out that the case was cancelled last minute due to an illness. What a shame, I was really looking forward to seeing the ECJ court in action. In lieu of the intended performance, we had a short video of the ECJ system, a long coffee break, then two presentations made by legal secretaries in the courts.

After the morning at the court, we headed to the train station. First stop Amsterdam!

Luxembourg

Welcome and reception at private club

Tuesday morning was an early morning after not much sleep the night before. We caught a train to Luxembourg (unknowingly with some of our classmates!) to meet the rest of our class at the hostel. Whew, you know, I definitely know why I haven’t stayed at a hostel since getting here. I think I am getting too old and cranky for it. I also managed to forget the common rules at a hostel- I did not bring my own towel. So I had to buy one (they did not have a rental towel). This towel did nothing to soak up water on your body, it merely served to push it around a bit. I was not anxious to haul a useless towel around with me for the rest of the trip, so since there were 6 girls, one shower, and the water was getting everywhere, I donated my towel as a floor mat after I was done using it.

The first night in Luxembourg was fantastic. I took a short nap while everyone else tooled around town. Then Professor Baudenbacher had us over to a private club for dinner-- a sit-down formal dinner. I was dressed up for the occasion (but NOT for the walk down the hill- high heels downhill on cobblestone is an ankle snap waiting to happen.) The dinner was fantastic. We had wonderful foods, that I am not even entirely sure what they all were- shell fish and lettuce salad, chicken and vegetables, and a trilogy of desserts! We also enjoyed some fantastic champagne, white and red wines, and coffee. The dinner and conversation was a real treat.

We arrived at the club before the Baudenbachers, and had an aperitif (water for me), while we waited. We stood around discussing the case that we would see in the morning and meeting some of the students from another class. Prof. Baudenbacher and his wife came shortly thereafter, and we got a chance to talk with them before sitting down. I had orchestrated buying a wine on behalf of the class, but I was not sure when to present it to them. At a pause in the conversation, I started to bring the wine out, but Prof. Baudenbacher told me to wait and present when everyone was listening. (Ahh, instant nervousness! Now I had to figure out WHEN the right time was…)

Right before we were served, once we were all seated, Prof. Baudenbacher said a few welcoming nice words. He welcomed us, and apologized that we would not see the case he was presiding over, since it was cancelled somewhat on late notice. However, as much as he loves his court, the EFTA court, he said the ECJ court was an important court to see. It was at the end of his talk that I carefully got up and said, “Is now a good time?” It was, so I thanked the Baudenbachers, on behalf of the class, for having us to dinner and I presented them with the wine.

After such a wonderful night with Herr und Frau Baudenbacher, we headed to a local bar with live music. It was smoky and crowded, but that is always a sign that it is a good bar! I had fun talking with Simon, a PhD student in law, and one of Baudenbacker’s secretaries of law. We ended up moving to another bar, which was less crowded, but shortly after that, we all wanted to head back. We had to be up and ready early and there was only one shower for six girls. HA! Mostly everyone walked up the hill, since it was not far to the hostel. I, however, called a cab. I was freezing, tired, and would never make it up the hill pleasantly in my high heels. It was a good call and probably the best 10 Euros I spent on the trip (outside of a warmer cap and thinsulate gloves.)

And then there was more eating

Day 2 in Brussels

The next day, we planned on going to a museum in the morning, but all of us forgot that it was Monday, and no museums are open on Mondays. So instead we ended up touring the entire city, and stopping in two churches (yes, I went in, and no, I did not burn). One of the two churches was St. Michael’s Church.

After the church, we were close to these streets filled with restaurants that were competing heavily for business. Everyone had fish and signs out front, with fires, and tables, etc. around:

The food was great! I ordered just a small lobster soup, but shared some escargot with everyone. That was the first time I tried them, and they were really good!

We then decided to split up to satisfy the female need to pursue shops. I got a bracelet and ring, while Ina found a lovely white scarf. We walked all the way from the church to our hotel shopping! I bought only those things, but given the availability of good shopping in St. Gallen, I kinda wish I had gotten some sneakers. Oh well, now I just have to buy some cheap ones that I won’t feel guilty about if I leave them behind.

The evening we went to a nice lobster dinner, but I just ordered toasted goat cheese and figs. The lobster dinner alone was 55 Euros, and despite REALLY wanting some, that was too much to spend, AND I probably could not eat it all. Instead, I shared a little bite of others (and helped pay for it). I think it worked out nicely, except for the fire that happened next door while we were eating. Opps.

Brussels - a place to eat and eat and...

London to Brussels

We took another plan from London (Stansted airport) to Brussels. This plane flight was incredibly cheap- about 20 Euros all together, including airport fees. Want to know why? Stansted airport is about 1.5 hours outside of the city; once you get there you have to find the desk for RyanAir check-in (this is not as easy as it sounds). Ryan Air only lets you check into your flight a few moments before the plane is ready, you may only check one small bag, and the attendants are argumentative, at best. In addition, the airport we landed in Brussels was in a corn field, literally. There were no trains or stations nearby. There was bus that took you into the city, but it departs every hour, so we decided to take a quick bus ride to the local train station. BIG mistake. First off, the hourly bus departed before our bus came by (no time schedules available), second, we stood outside for about an hour in the freezing cold, then finally, the bus BROKE down on the freeway. When we finally got to a train station, not even the destination was showing on the marquee by our train. We had to ask some locals if the train really was going to Brussels. And the guy at the ticket counter said he did not speak English (I asked, “Parlez vous Anglais?”) but then proceeded to tell me in English the track number, and that I had to write my destination on the ticket I bought (fancy system they had going there). Once we hit the main Brussels HBH, we decided to take a cab (no one could tell us how to catch a bus or light rail to our hotel.) Luckily though, the Taxi driver was really nice and pointed out a few things as we passed, and took us directly to the hotel, which was not too far away.

The Citadines apartment hotels were nice, albeit, meant for long week stays (no maid service). We had four people, two in the double bed in the bedroom, and two on the pull out couch and trundle bed in the living room. I was expecting a two bedroom suite, since having two people stay in the kitchen, makes the common area virtually useless. Good idea otherwise, though. And they had washing facilities (although it was only one washer and one dryer.)

We went to a nearby restaurant and had Brazilian food and watched Ina and Maureen salsa dance! The street was filled with restaurants open at night and almost all of them had a large neon lobster outside of it.

The royal day in London

Day 2

Part I: Royal Guard
I woke up, as per usual, pretty early on the second day. I went and had breakfast solo… as is becoming the norm on my life on the other continent. Showered and ready to tackle the day, we headed out to see if we could catch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Here I am at the ceremony with my 10,000 closest friends:





Part II: The Royal dead
After climbing the fence of the palace to get a view (and almost being crushed by the tourist who climbed on top of me, then preceded to attempt to climb over the wall… I left at this point in case he got shot), we headed to Westminster Abby. I really wanted to see the gravesite of Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Mary Tudor. Also buried there is Mary Queen of Scotts, Chaucer, Darwin, and the list goes on. The church is packed with monuments and, uh, random antique crap. I felt in some way the clutter distracted from the overall beauty of one of the most famous churches, but it was amazing to see it. I can only imagine that it is hard to get buried there (um, and they might be running out of room!)



After that, we headed to catch some sushi at the pier next to the London Eye. I had a random sampling of the sushi platter- tuna, salmon, shrimp, sweet shrimp, red snapper, etc, miso soup, some good black seaweed looking salad, green tea, sake (raspberry flavored and poured into a wine glass??? WTF?) and as a free bonus, some plum wine and large scallop sushi. We could watch outside on the pier while we were eating.



Part III: The Royal Ballet
We headed back to the hotel for a fast change into evening clothes (heels and nice shirt for the ballet), and ran to meet all at dinner. The Royal Ballet was fantastic! We saw the performance of La Bayadère – ‘The Temple Dancer’.

London musical hotels

Day one:

We woke up, changed hotels… to the Best Western that was centrally located next to Kent Park. Overall, that hotel was nicer anyway. I did learn in the process, though, that if you want a room for two people, but two separate beds, you have to call it a TWIN room, and that a DOUBLE room means one big bed (or at least big in Europe fashion).

We dropped our bags off lickedy split, and turned around to head for the National Gallery.

National gallery on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery,_London

There they have paintings ranging in years from 1200s to 1900s, including many paintings by Van Gogh and Monet. I saw Van Gogh’s sunflowers among other great works of art.

After that Maureen and I did a walking tour down the street- We saw the horse guards, Big Ben and the Parliament building, which is open to the public. We saw the outside of Westminster Abbey, then walked over to the London eye. The London eye is a huge Ferris wheel where you can look over the entire city, but it cost 15 Euros! (This is almost $30 US dollars for a fair ride.) We passed, but ran next door to look inside the Dali exhibition.

We took the tube to a place where we could check out cheap tickets for last minute seats at local and Broadway performances. Ina was dead set on seeing the ballet, Mark liked the idea of seeing Glengarry Glen Ross, and there were tons of other choices- Christian Slater playing Swimming with Sharks, Wicked (and we know how much I enjoyed that), among others.

Beer drinking at a Belgium restaurant- ate mussels, Maredsous, and Chimay Blue!

On London time

On London time…

We arrived very late last night due to a plane delay at Zurich Airport. We were riding EasyJet, which could easily been called SpatJet (LateJet) or, otherwise know as- Cattle herding! We boarded, wait for it,… a BUS to take us to the airplane. After having walked miles through the Zurich airport, I honestly believed we were either walking to London, or the bus was going to sprout wings and fly us there. Any I was pretty sure, the plane ride there was going to be standing room only.

Alright, so despite the late takeoff, the smelly customers, the extra crowded seating (what did EasyJet do, buy an old 727 from Continental, then add 100 seats?, and the incessant kicking at the back of my seat form the children behind me, it was a fine flight. We landed at 12:30 ish, but it was really 1:30 am in our heads (Swiss time). We had to catch a train as close as we could to the city, then catch a cab to the hotel, since the undergroud (Tube) was not running that late at night. Our taxi cab cost us almost 50 pounds! This is really expensive since the exchange rate is almost 2.5 to US dollars. Then when we got there, not only was the hotel in the boonies… but it was on the flight path for all flights landing at Heathrow!

Needless to say, we changed hotels as soon as I woke up, er, I mean woke up for the last time during the night. We decided to move into town, despite the increase in expense.

Next week(s)

I will be heading to Zurich on Tuesday to visit IBM with my school. Then we are all headed to IWC (a watch maker) in Schaffhausen on Thursday. After that, some of us are flying to London for the weekend, and meeting our classmates in Luxembourg next week! So my schedule looks a little crazy:

Tuesday 16 October- Zurich
Thursday 18 October- Schaffhausen
Thursday 18 October- London
Sunday 21 October- Belgium
Tuesday 23 October- Luxembourg
Thursday 25 October- Amsterdam

CHnage of plans! I skipped Paris to come back home early and do homework... which I still need to work on, LOL!
Saturday 28 October- Paris
Monday 29 October- back home (St. Gallen)

Whew! Wish you were here with me Paul! Have fun in Austin for me!

Okay, mental note... these are the places I want to visit yet:

Venice
Salzburg
Sud Turol
Barcelona
Carcaccone
Berlin (again to see the zoo and museums)

A Bregenz moment

Anwering the desire to get out of the house, without taking a huge trip, some of us ventured to Bregenz today. Bregenz is in Austria, on the Bodensee (Lake Constance).



What cracks me up about Europe fashion is that is stuck in the Eighties, with a new twist- faux hawks are in (all ages), white heels are back baby, jean mini skirts with black leggings, huge earings, Madonna gloves,...



And check out this dog who could pass as a man dressed as a dog:

OLMA the Swiss festival

Olma is a festival in St. Gallen. It is not as large or as well known as some German fairs, but many Swiss people come back to St. Gallen every year for this festival. Outside they have plenty of stands and fair rides, and inside are beer tents and more food!

Of course I have the shakes

It is 12:30 am here and I just got home. After having a few beers with friends from the ISP program, I walked over to the bus station to pick up the number 3 bus back to my house. After waiting with another student for a half hour (and seeing 6 buses pass with "depo" on them) we decided that the buses were not running tonight. We walked over to the line of taxis and she took the first one home. In a strange coincidence, 6 different groups simultaneously jumped into the next 6 taxis. So I had to wait. Once I finally got a taxis, I told him where to go. As we were approaching my house, I saw an accident in the road. It was obvious that it had just happened, as people were still getting out of cars. It is then that I saw the body in the road and the empty broken motorcycle strewn across the street. I yelled at the taxis driver as the was passing this scene, "Halt! Ich kann helfen!" (Stop, I can help). He told me the guy was fine, and I screamed again to stop. He finally stopped, and i threw the money I had in my hand and jumped out of the cab. I went to the scene of the accident where a young guy was leaning over the body and I asked if I could help. I checked if the guys was breathing, and then saw an off duty medic come running out of his house with a crash kit. With all the language barriers, I decided I was not helping out in this situation anymore, and I left. But now I am wide awake, full of adrenaline, and shaking. I did just go outside and ask the cop if the guy was okay. And I managed to catch that the victim was talking now, which is always a good sign. (He was not responding when I was there and I was worried because of the obvious lack of a helmet.)



Can you see hte chalk outlines at the bottom right corner (where the motorcycle was) and the other one at the center medium (where the guy was laying)?




This trip has been one crazy happening after another. Last weekend in Stuttgart a beggar punched me hard in the shoulder when I would not give him money.

A few weeks ago I saw a fist fight, including blood and teeth, at the Marktplatz. And a few days before that, I nearly avoided a crazy drunk woman, who ended up attacking an old lady at the bus stop (more on this crazy story later).

Geez! I am about to go Google the emergency numbers for all the countries I am travelling to.

**UPDATE: Apparently, the European emergency number is 112.

Nerd Core Test

Alright Paul, I took the test... just to prove that you beat me at nerdiness:
_____________________________________________________



4% scored higher (more nerdy),
1% scored the same, and
95% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

All hail the monstrous nerd. You are by far the SUPREME NERD GOD!!!
_______________________________________________________

And yes, I take notes in multiple colors while sitting in the front row of my classes... and I am always on time.



Nerd test II:

Stuttgart weekend

On Friday afternoon, I was planning on catching a train to Stuttgart, which arrived around 18:00. Unfortunately, the Deutsch Bahn (German railway) was on strike. Since the threat of delay was ambiguous, I decided to catch a morning train, going through Winterthur and Schaffhausen.



It always amazes me the kinds of guns that the military carry around on the street here:



I ended up having no problems with the DB, and I arrived in Stuttgart a few hours early. It was 4pm, so I stuck my bags in a locker and headed out to walk around the city. I walked down a pedestrian zone area that opened to a nice park and fountain. I checked out their book store (of course) and wandered around for a while, buying a little German new-reader book. The series has stories that consist of 800, 1600, 2400, etc words, with pictures and definitions for those of us who need it.






I meet the Freunds at the HBH Starbucks (as every train station apparently has one). And we put my bags in their car, then walked around to pick up a yummy buttered pretzel and some dinner foods. After a wonderful German dinner, the Freunds wanted to go walk around Cannstatter Volksfest; I thought it was late being after 22:00, but I wanted to go check out the second largest fair outside of Oktoberfest. We walked around and decided to ride one of the two Ferris wheels. The one we rode is the 60-Meter-Ferris wheel (the biggest mobile Ferris wheel in the world). I forgot my camera, so I did not get any pictures from the top of the wheel. However, I did manage to pick up a Lebkuchenherzen, or a Gingerbread heart, for Paul. They also have stands upon stands of cooked nuts, sugary sweets, and wursts! I picked up a few Mandelns to take with me and we sat down at a beer tent to have some Neue Wein and Zweibelkuche. The Neue wein, new wine, was only 3 days old, and was fabulous; this went well with the salty sour Zweibelkuche, otherwise known as an onion cake. Dr. Freund tried to talk me into another ride, but I might have needed a little more liquid courage to attempt the 40-meter swings, lol.

On Saturday morning, we decided to go to the town of Schwäbisch Hall, about an hour drive from Stuttgart. We picked up some new wine, veggies, and bread at the farmers market on our way out of town.



The countryside drive was so gorgeous, with many colors of the changing fall season. The German country has a lot of farm and forrest land between each Stadt (city) and Dorf (village/ town). This is because the government highly regulates zoning, and it is really difficult to get a new building permit.



Schwäbisch Hall is a fabulous little village, that has an old church, St. Michael's church, which is perched on top of little hill, and has tons of stairs leading up to it. The town often puts on outdoor theater shows on these steps, albeit, a fairly precarious show for the actors!





We stopped by a little cafe and eat lunch, then we headed over to the Edvard Munch exhibit at Kunsthalle Würth.



He is compared to Van Gogh, among others, as a great artist. Munch's style is credited as beginning the modern movement.

Other works of his can be found at: Munch Museum

A few of my favorites:




The was also a little Herbst fest going on in the town, so we stopped by and bought a rose cake... basically funnel cake in a nice rose shape, but wafer thin, unlike the funnel cakes. Herbst fest is to celebrate the harvest season.

Rose cakes:





After the excursion to Schwäbisch Hall, we went back to the house to get ready for the German opera! We went to see "DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL", or in English: "The Abduction from the Seraglio" by Mozart.

The music was awesome, the actors were very expressive, and the whole experience was a blast! I did not understand all the signing, but I got the gist of the story line and could understand about half of the words.

On Sunday, Frau Freund and I went to Ludwigsberg to visit the castle there. They also had a pumpkin festival, so we took many pictures and got to eat pumpkin soup and a pumpkin burger!