Thursday I went to the gemäldegalerie with some other RISErs. It was pretty nice they have some big name artists, but it's relativity small. I really want Botticelli to do my hair (see above...this one is cooler, but wasn't at that museum). They had a room full of Rembrandts, which included the first painting of his I had ever seen (man with the golden helmet - I had to copy it for my going into sixth grade summer project- I remember being amazed that there was green paint used to make something gold!). Ever since tenth grade the older Bruegel has been one of my faves because there is always so much going on in his paintings. They had one of his that illustrated dozens of Dutch sayings/catchphrases/proverbs. All in all, my main impression of the museum is that Dutch art trounces itailian art. MOST of the Italian stuff was sooooo boring... so to the point and covered in gold.

Hup Holland Hup!

I was in Amsterdam for the World Cup Final (The Netherlands vs Sapin)! On the way back from Heidelberg, I was with a group of Berliners who opted to take an indirect route home (changing in Frankfurt and Köln) so that we could ride a REALLY fast train (300+ km/hr). We had kickass seats right behind the driver.

The final destination of the reallly fast train was Amsterdam and I've been to Köln several times, so it was kinda like the Deutsche Bahn/fate was telling me to stay on that train. (Until we had to wait 40 minutes in Köln for them to change the engine and even longer after we left the station because someone had stolen the overhead wire). Some of the group stopped in Köln to look at the Dom then headed back to Berlin, but I remembered how we were going to be working with really smelly substrate and how you can get away with blaming the german train company for just about anything, so I texted Mandy to tell her that there were train problems and that in order to be able to watch the game, I'd need to stay in the West and that I'd be back sometime in the early afternoon on Monday {all of these things are true}. It seemed like a worthwhile risk, the chance to celebrate a world cup championship in the capital of the winning country and even though they lost, it was still totally worth it.

I was basically the only person/thing in the whole city who wasn't wearing orange (with the exception of Spain fans), so I bought this awesome hat.

According to the internet, the public viewing options in Amsterdam were slim. We first checked out Rembrandtplein were there was a huge screen and quite a few people. While I was off buying a tshirt to sit down on (that didn't survive the trip), someone informed Jon that the screen was just a billboard and that the game wouldn't be shown. We asked the police were we could find a public viewing. They said that there was only one and it was full.

Liars!!!!! We trekked to Museumplein (near the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum) where we found a 120,000+ other orange clad people. This was the FIFA official public viewing, but it was quite different then the Berlin one. We just walked right in. In Berlin there were security guards, pat downs and a long list of things you couldn't bring in (glass bottles, no plastic bottles that are larger than 0,5 litres, canned drinks, fireworks, umbrellas, hard liquor, vuvuzelas or trumpets, particularly large flags or signs, excessive amounts of toilet paper, weapons of any kind, dogs...). With the exception of weapons, I saw all of those things.

(this is pretty low energy because it was after Spain scored)

Before the game there was a concert and helicopters dropped flowers on all of the fans.

They played this song a lot (totes a rip off of Viva Colonia, but still fun) (not my video):

I was only able to see about 10 minutes total of the game, but it was a great atmosphere (until Spain scored). The Germans have better cheers, but the Dutch handled their defeat better (more crying in the streets, but no airborne glass bottles). One fan had a funny sign about grilling the octopus and eating it.

Due to more train complications, I got back to work 30 minutes before everybody usually starts leaving for the day aka just in time for a birthday party!!! I was going to explain the whole saga and take whatever wrath was due, but I started explaining and then everyone else started telling their Deutsche Bahn horror stories and so I didn't have to admit that I was being irresponsible or give them the apology gift that I brought back - a big bag of Stroopwafels!

Amsterdam - Windmill Windup

This past weekend I went to Windmill Windup - "Europe's greatest grass tournament" in Amsterdam. Upon arriving in the city after some massive, annoying and expensive train drama, I wandered around the city. I got food from a FEBO automat, browsed HEMA- a dutch departmentish store (although they website is quite right in stating "HEMA is not a store, it is a discovery") where everything is colorful and they have a beautiful card selection (I found the absolute most perfect one for an upcoming wedding), stopped by Rembrandt's house, but he wasn't there and I found a grocery store. I love grocery stores. This one was very similar to Belgian one that I frequented, but it had this cool logo:

Then I headed to the fields where I was greeted by the elephant pictured at the top of this post. I was picking up with a womens team from London called ISO, but I didn't know what any of them looked like, so I gravitated towards British accents and found Dirty Olive, another London-based womens team that was short on players. They tried to get me to play for them, but I couldn't betray ISO, which was a good call. They were really fun girls - we killed the pub quiz and were 2 and two halves Americans strong for World Cup cheering. We posted up 75 minutes before the kickoff of the USA-England match to ensure good seats in the viewing tipi (see below), which was soon overflowing. The US fans were out numbered like 25 to1, there was lots of cheers and banter all in good fun. The English had proper cheers, whereas the Americans' cheers consisted of "U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A" and of course "America, Fuck Yeah!"

Ultimate-wise we didn't do that great (low numbers {injuries, diarrhea, infection, pregnancy... }, lots of pick-ups - which led to a kind of awkward clash of schools of playing ultimate), but it was still lots of fun and I did some cool stuff . I fell oddly on my knee and finally got to try some of that kinesio tape that is all the rage with trainers these days - it didn't really help- the physio who taped it said she had just learned it yesterday, but at least it matched my water bottle and gave me fun tan lines.

I arrived at ATB Potsdam about 16:30 on Thursday and grabbed a all too short nap, before joining my new colleagues for a cookout, which was nice, but I had slept for like only 6 of the previous 48 hours so I couldn't speak German, so now everyone just speaks to me in english (I understand by now that this is a nice gesture, but I want to up my Germanskillz). Friday I slept in and got a quick tour of the Institut and 6 apparently very important signatures. My phd student invited me to her house for the weekend-long celebration of her husband's 40th birthday with the extended family both sides. I ate lots potatoes and played with her kids & the cousins & hungout with the basically-sister-in-law, who no one seems to like very much. There was also strawberry bowle, which wikipedia says is punch, but I say it is way better. I mean who gets excited about punch? Everybody gets excited about Bowle. (maybe that is because it sometimes gets set on fire)
I thought we were just going for dinner, so I packed in less than a minute and all I forgot was my camera (not bad for a 4 day trip), so internet pictures will have to do.

This is Marius and Hannes. I beat Marius several times at table tennis, but that kid can talk soccer. He wants me to come talk to his class about my super exciting american life. Hannes is always smiling like that (unless of course e his throwing a fit), his hobbies include watering the garden and vacuuming (thanks to the teletubbies or something) and he really likes frogs & computer mouses.

They live in the village of Groß-Klessow, which when combined with Klein-Klessow has a population of 350ish. The only businesses are a hair salon and a bar (there is horse farm on the edge of the village). The sister-in-law took me on a bike tour of the nearby metropol of Lübbenau (pop.12,000). Which has a tourist industry consisting of the famous Spreewald Pickles and folks paddling through the waterways and mosquitos.

In Lübbenau they cut the top thrid off of the soviet-style block housing and gave them pointy roofs to try to disguise them.

Dearest Dedicated Followers (all 2 of you!),
Get ready for my summer adventures in Germany and Eastern Europe!
xo, cj