Rules and walking

One of the things I like best about visiting a new city is walking around to explore it, visiting different neighborhoods and just getting a feel for what it would be like to live there. We did that when we visited Hamburg back in May, paying a bit more attention to the prospect of living here since that was a decision we had to make, but still exploring the city in much the same way we normally do. (Walking a lot helps make up for eating a lot, no?) Now I really enjoy walking down streets that I remember from that first visit. My perspective is a bit different, somewhere between a visitor and a resident. I haven't been here long enough to feel entirely comfortable, but I have managed to sort out the streets around our apartment and some of the adjacent neighborhoods. A few of the streets that are now quite familiar are some that got me completely turned around during our visit. I went down them a lot and each time I went the opposite direction I needed to go. This must have happened about twice a day every day we were here so it was very satisfying to get that resolved.

I also really enjoy being out on a walk and realizing that I walked that same route back in May. Like the bakery around the corner - we walked past it during our visit (I even got a pretzel there) but it took me until last week to realize we had essentially walked past our apartment and through our immediate neighborhood when we visited.

With Zoli gone I really have to remind myself to leave the house every day - it's easy for me to get sucked into the internet and the election coverage and knitting and fellowship writing (okay, maybe not so much that last one) and bam!, the entire day is shot. Since I tend to be a bit cowardly in a new place (and I suddenly don't need to go buy food nearly as often, I wonder why) I made a rule that I have to leave the house and talk to at least one person in German 6 days of the week.


I'm doing well so far - this afternoon I was in danger of breaking the rule so I went for a walk along a canal to enjoy what remained of the sun and to go to a cafe to do some reading. I was quite proud because I made myself ask if they had decaf coffee! I still haven't quite figured out the pronunciation of "Koffein", but I got it out and the guy understood AND they had it (decaf espresso even) so I was pleased.


It was a beautiful afternoon, quite crisp and fall-like.

Daylight Savings Time ended for us on Sunday, so the sun now sets a little before 5 and it's completely dark by 5:45. It does get light earlier in the morning now - it means that it's light again when my alarm goes off but unfortunately it doesn't mean I don't sleep for another hour. I should make another rule.

Big Boats

Something that people find perplexing about our move to Hamburg is that it is one of only a few cities with both Physical Oceanography and Malaria research. The presence of an institute that specializes in tropical diseases in a city whose warmest temperatures barely reach the mid 70s (F) in the summer is odd enough (wheee, colonialism), but it gets odder still when one realizes that Hamburg isn't actually on the ocean. Nope, we're about 100 km from the ocean. (Wait! I mean the North Sea. Which may or may not be the ocean. My resident oceanographer isn't here to clarify, feel free to chime in all you ocean people.) But, it happens that Hamburg is on the Elbe river, which is wide and deep from Hamburg to where it dumps into the North Sea. All of this is to say that Hamburg is in fact the second-largest port in Europe (after Rotterdam) and has a deep-water harbor large enough to accommodate this.


Yes indeed, the Queen Mary 2 came to town yesterday, in all her ginormous glory. We could hear her horns sounding during lab meeting as she came up the river. Or rather, I should say we could hear and feel them sound because they made the entire room vibrate! Everyone was a bit sullen that we were having lab meeting instead of watching "the boat" come in to dock. Since I'm not actually being paid yet I was able to leave right after lab meeting and see the very end of the docking operation. To orient you, the river runs basically east-west at this point and I'm standing on the north shore. The QM2 came in from the west (right) and then backed up into its parking spot with the help of at least two tug boats and several hundred enthusiastic seagulls.


Holy cow, people, this boat is HUGE. Like indescribably huge. I didn't see how it got into that spot, just the final backing up, but I sure as heck am going to try to be there to watch it get OUT because that will take some doing. It's basically pointed east and to get out to the North Sea it has to be pointed west. Maybe it will go in reverse all the way down the Elbe? I don't know, but I plan to watch and learn.


(In case you're curious, this is the back of my institute, which is where I was took these photos. It overlooks the Elbe and has an awesome view of the harbor (and for the moment the QM2). It was originally a hospital for sailors who came back from their travels with all kinds of nasty diseases. Conveniently, a few blocks north is the Reeperbahn, where the sailors could then acquire all kinds of other nasty diseases before going back to sea.)

Speaking of big boats and going to sea, Zoli left this morning for his month-long research cruise in the North Atlantic on the RRS Discovery. It is either the largest or second-largest general-purpose research vessel in the UK, depending on whether you believe the NOCS or Wikipedia. Before you start thinking North Atlantic = icebergs + nasty storms, you should know that the cruise leaves from Tenerife in the Canary Islands and pretty much goes along that latitude the entire time. So he'll be enjoying some pleasantly balmy temperatures and dolphin sightings while I'm wearing wool socks and slippers and a fleece vest. Given how much grief he gives me about my predilection for warm, sunny vacation spots I think he owes me one.

Out of food

I know this seems unlikely given that most of these blog posts have been about food and/or eating - but we keep running out of food. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but it's obvious that we're eating faster than we're buying food.

We haven't really figured out a routine for grocery shopping here. In Seattle we would go to the farmer's market and grocery store on Saturday or Sunday and stock up for the whole week, but when there are markets within walking distance multiple times a week that seems silly. It's also impossible given the size of our fridge.


It almost feels like camping because the kitchen and everything in it is small - the sink, the stove, the oven. I was thinking about baking a cake that called for being baked in a sheet pan, when I realized that not only did I not have a sheet pan, one wouldn't fit in my oven anyway. The biggest pot we have now is one we brought from Seattle and it barely fits in our sink.


The end result is that we're eating less, not really by design but because everything is smaller. (I'm sure that we're making up for it in Kuchen consumption though, don't you worry.)

Everything is sized for small kitchens and refrigerators, so the milk comes in 1 l containers, the butter in 250 g (1/2 lb) packages and the flour and sugar in 1 kg (2.2 lb) bags. In Seattle we would buy cartons of 18 eggs at a time - here we get 6 or 10. It feels like we're constantly running out of something. On the up side, we're not wasting any food. I've been forced to use what food we have since I'm home most days for lunch - today I had the dregs of Gruyere melted on the next-to-last apple on the next-to-last piece of super-grainy pumpernickel bread.


In our fridge right now we have about a tablespoon of yogurt, a little butter, some ginger, a few carrots, parsley, leftover chicken (and stock made from said chicken), one piece of bread, six eggs and a hunk of Parmesan.


It meant no milk in my coffee this morning, but the fun thing is that if I didn't feel like going shopping (or if it were Sunday when shopping is not an option) I would be able to figure out something to make with those ingredients. (Scrambled eggs with Parmesan and a grated carrot salad with parsley, in case you're curious.) I'm sure we'll get into a routine eventually, but for the moment it keeps things interesting.

Progress

I feel like we really are beginning to settle in here. We registered this morning at the Hamburg Welcome Center, so I have a shiny-new 5-year residence permit, which is quite awesome. Normally when moving to Germany as a foreigner you have to register twice, once with the city office to register your address and once with the foreigners' office to get visas and such. Hamburg has a new, consolidated office where we were able to get all of that done in one place, including tax cards and information about driver's licenses. Of course, it's only for what I've taken to calling fancy people (business people, researchers, academics) which seems somewhat unfair (also bizarre that we fall into that category), but it was quite easy and now we're officially residents of Hamburg. To celebrate we got pastries and cappuccinos at a bakery (Dat Backhus, one of the bakery chains here) while waiting for the stores to open so we could buy SIM cards.


We haven't had many problems (yet - knock on wood) with the bureaucracy here. There certainly is a lot of paperwork to do anything official but all of our interactions with the people helping us have been really positive. They seem to have a certain amount of ironic amusement about the whole thing, recognizing that it's a lot of paperwork and that we might not be used to being required to present documents showing that indeed we have our doctorates or are married or what-have-you. I keep thinking about people moving to the US in a situation similar to ours (not speaking the native language well, not really understanding quite how the system works) and wondering if they would be treated as respectfully and helpfully as we have been treated. I hope so but I have my doubts.

Most people have also been very willing to explain how things work - for example when we opened our bank account the man helping us spent over an hour (going into his lunch break) explaining our options, what he thought would be best for us and why, and then going over some of the differences between the US and German banking systems. (He also reassured us that the German government had insured our money so it was safe despite the economic craziness. That's been a real concern here because Germans have one of the highest savings rates in Europe. The government was quite concerned about people queuing up to withdraw their money so the federal insurance is a big deal.) He was very patient and thorough, making sure we understood what we were signing and that we knew how to contact him if we needed help. During the process of entering our information into the computer he needed to see documentation of our degrees in order to put the title "Dr." on our names since that wasn't in either of our passports. Neither of us had that with us (silly us) so we were forced to forgo the Dr. title for our bank account. He seemed quite concerned about it and assured us that if we brought him the documentation he could add it to our file. When I asked whether it actually mattered for anything in terms of the account he very cheerfully said "No, not at all," so I guess it was just our egos at stake.

To celebrate our new-found residency (hey, it's exciting!) I baked cookies.


Chocolate-almond, with lots of salt. As I was walking home earlier I started absorbing that we're really HERE - this isn't vacation, this city is home for the next three years. It still feels scary and hard but also really fun and exciting. More fun and exciting than scary at the moment, despite my pathetic German skills and current lack of job. So that seems like progress. We'll see if a trip to the laundromat changes that.


Chocolate-Almond Residency Cookies
adaped from this Nigella Lawson recipe

The original recipe calls for salted peanuts, but I had unsalted almonds around (and frankly haven't seen peanuts since we got here). So I just added some salt to the dough to make up for it. I didn't measure it, so just add a little and taste to see if it's salty enough.

85 g (3 oz) butter, melted and cooled
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated white sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract (or small portion scraped vanilla bean)
1 large egg
1 c plus 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
50 g semi- or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (about 1/2 c)
small handful of almonds, chopped (about 1/2 c)

In a medium bowl combine melted butter, sugars and salt and stir to thoroughly combine. Taste for salt and add more if necessary. Add vanilla and egg, beating thoroughly to combine. Add flour and baking powder and stir until no streaks of flour remain. (Taste again for salt if you don't mind raw egg.) Fold in chocolate and almonds. Refrigerate dough for 20 min.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. (Or use aluminum foil, but grease it if you do. I was lazy and I didn't and it was a mistake.) Plop large spoonfuls of dough on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart (they spread). Bake for 10-15 minutes, until brown around edges but still soft in the center. Cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two and then on a wire rack (if you have one - if not a plate worked for me).

Yield: 10-15 cookies (I think - I made slightly less than half the dough and got 5.)

To market, to market

In keeping with the fact that I spend too much time thinking about food, I've been orienting myself in Hamburg by figuring out the food situation first. It turns out that my food vocabulary is much better than the rest of my vocabulary so it's one of the easier things for me to navigate. (Much easier than figuring out which SIM card to get for my cell phone, for example.) There is a grocery store nearby that is quite well stocked, including a decent selection of organic (bio) foods and a really good wine selection. I haven't found a go-to organic grocery store yet, but I have a list of options I can start exploring.

I have been taking advantage of the weekly street markets (Wochenmärkte). They're listed in the yellow pages (gelbe Seiten), with the days, locations and hours. Of course, I only discovered that after I went wandering around randomly trying to find one.

Even before we left the US I tried googling "Hamburg weekly market" and various permutations, to no avail. (It turns out there isn't much information in English about Hamburg online.) We have a guidebook that lists two markets, so on our second afternoon here I set out to find one of them. Despite the market's location on the other side of the city and my rather late start I was spurred on by the pathetic vegetables at the grocery store. (I have since found a grocery store with less pathetic vegetables, but it was good motivation!)

A short ways into my walk I noticed people carrying bags of vegetables and fruit that were too big for them to have walked from the market I was aiming for, so I headed in the direction from which the bags were coming and lo and behold there was a market! I was quite pleased with my ingenuity, and also pleased that I remembered the word for garlic (though of course not the gender). I bought some very tasty LARGE apples, as well as some fresh spinach-ricotta ravioli. And indeed, the produce was much perkier than at the grocery store.

My triumph was rather diminished that evening when I was looking for a laundromat in the yellow pages and found the very clear and obvious listing of all the weekly markets in the city (about 80 in all), including what I think are the organic markets (Ökomärkte). It's extremely useful though, and now I have a list of all the nearby markets I want to visit.

On the past two Saturdays we have gone to the main market in Eimsbüttel (our neighborhood) - it's the largest I've visited so far and has stalls selling fruits, vegetables and flowers, cheese, meat, socks, fish, spices and dried things (lentils, beans, etc.), slippers, fresh pasta, printer cartridges, clothing, and of course sausage. I was very relieved to see the spice vendor - for some reason I was concerned about being able to get spices and lentils and such in bulk. (I know, the things I worry about.) Many people seem to get their breakfast or lunch at the market, either from the sausage stands or from the other stands with prepared foods. There's even a stand with "vegetarian specialties"!


Today for lunch we had food from yesterday's market - some seriously stinky brie, dried ham, bread and fruit. Oh, and some tasty rosé. Wine with lunch, we must be in Europe!

Electricity-schmectricity

That is the light fixture in our kitchen. Apparently there is some kind of short circuit in the electrical system in our apartment, one that involves said light fixture, as well as all the other overhead lights, and all the outlets in the apartment except two in the bedroom. (Thankfully the hot water heater, bathroom light and stove still work. Also the phone and modem!) Our landlady does not speak English and our German (especially mine) isn't good enough to clearly explain what exactly is and is not working, so she asked a friend of hers to stop by to look at things. Turns out her friend is a 7-foot tall man named Lars (very nice, speaks excellent English) who proceeded to dismantle the light fixture in the kitchen (see above), which he had installed. He couldn't figure out what the problem was, but the wiring is obviously incredibly old (insulated with cloth that's so old it's crispy) so an electrician is coming tomorrow. I'm hoping the problem can be fixed without ripping into the ceiling, but I'm not holding my breath. My job tonight is to eat the stuff in the fridge that might go bad in the next 24 hours - yogurt and leftover Romano beans for dinner!

In more positive news, the weather has been beautiful the past two days, almost warm even. I was walking home from Zoli's building yesterday when I saw these mushrooms growing on a stump.

I find it amazing that you can find these in the middle of a city of 1.75 million people. They were gone when I went past the spot today - I don't know of they are edible and were harvested or just too appealing a target.

Also, I baked my first cake here! (Hausgemacht Kuchen? Selbstgemacht Kuchen? I'm not sure which is right.) Just a butter cake with plums and cinnamon sugar, but it was tasty. I should probably eat more of it tonight to keep it from spoiling. Right?

Grey and rainy

The weather since we arrived in Hamburg has not been great. It was raining like crazy the day we arrived, and since then it's rained most of each day. Saturday it was sunny for a bit in the morning, but by the late afternoon it had clouded up and was starting to spit. I hate to say this but I think that makes it seem a bit more familiar. After living in Seattle for so long I'm very used to the rain starting in September or October, and it feels distinctly odd when it holds off to mid- or late-October. Of course, not that I wouldn't mind some sun...

Anyway, all of that is to say that I took some photos of our apartment, but since it's been mostly cloudy/rainy they're not fabulous. But it's nice, I promise!

This is the hallway, looking from the living room to the kitchen.


All the rooms have doors, which makes sense since they're all individually heated. It's funny to go from our Seattle house, where the only room with a real door was the bathroom, to this. This is the kitchen, with a balcony that overlooks the courtyard.
Our bedroom, which also looks over the courtyard.


The office/guest room (hint hint!). This room looks onto the street and we're low enough that it's easy for me to people-watch while sitting at the desk.


And the living room, which has windows onto the street.


And it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow and Tuesday!

In Hamburg!

Hi all! Sorry for the delay - I intended to get this up before I actually left the States. But - better late than never, no?

Just to get everyone up to speed, we left Boston for Hamburg on Monday afternoon with MANY bags. First there was the realization that Lufthansa is now evil about bringing extra baggage (we thankfully were charged the old rate rather than the new one). Then we had to find internet access in Logan in order to (hopefully) download our proof of health insurance so that we had it with us when we entered Germany. We then enjoyed several long airport waits in Frankfurt and Hamburg and finally took a big van taxi with our (embarassing number of) bags to the apartment around 1pm on Tuesday.

Once we arrived there was some momentary confusion since there was no answer to our ring at our apartment. Our landlady appeared before we were able to fully panic but serious props to our taxi driver who a) spoke fabulous English, b) offered us the use of his cellphone, and c) pulled out his portable power supply (!) so we could get the landlady's information off Zoli's computer. The photo below is of our white and yellow building - our apartment is the three windows on the right, on the second (first European) floor. (The little shed is for bicycle storage.)



The apartment is great - the only bad thing is no washing machine, but otherwise it's exactly what we need. It's totally furnished, the kitchen is really well equipped and it's in a great location. And it has huge windows, which seems standard in German apartments. We get CNN so we're not completely isolated news-wise, and we got the internet working so we're all set. Except for the heaters. Our landlady and neighbor tried to explain how they worked but I clearly didn't understand because I could NOT get them to work the first two days. Now they're at least producing heat, which is an improvement.

Basically things are going well. It is all rather overwhelming. We both wish our German were better (my ability to form complete sentences under any kind of pressure has apparently disappeard) but I think we're doing just fine. Ironically, people don't switch into English, they just look at us funny and say things in German a few different ways until we get it. I guess we probably seem a bit daft.

To make up for our inability to communicate coherently we have been doing our part in terms of Kuchen consumption. Yesterday was German National Unity day.

Everyone was off from work and we wandered around the neighborhood just north of our apartment. We happened upon an open BioKonditorei (organic cake bakery) and got ourselves some dessert "zu mitnehmen" (to take away): Schokoladen Sahne kuchen (chocolate cream cake) and Mohn-Quark torte (poppyseed-cream torte), which were both quite tasty.


If the Kuchen is any indication, Hamburg is going to be good.