Kandel

Tobi, my roommate and friend from last year who introduced me to the techno putzen underground, and I went for a hike on Sunday. The weather was perfect, the smell of wet leaves was in the air, and the hike was spectacular. The hike was from St. Peter to Kandel Peak, down to Waldkirch. 23 Kilometers, 14 miles hiking, about 10 miles removed from Freiburg in the Black Forest. Here are pictures.House in St. Peter with chickens, geese, and donkeys.
We had to wait a couple minutes for the cows to cross. They're pretty leisurely.
Pretty feathers.
Pretty trees.
Pretty land.
Wind power, Black Forest.
:)
Kandel Peak. Distance to Freiburg: 25Km. Distance to Boston: 5,954Km. Distance to Madison: 7,060Km.
Tobi and the Black Forest.
Not Freiburg. Denzlingen and Emmindingen, about 15Km north of Freiburg. Freiburg is poorly visible in the left edge of this photo.
Jesters in Waldkirch, 25Km Northeast of Freiburg.
Waldkirch with castle.
Monkey.
Tobi on seesaw holding Monkey's tail.

In other news. I HAVE AN APARTMENT. I have several new developments to share but they must wait for I am tired.

My address is now posted and I expect a German postman's bike full of mail by Friday.

Have a wonderful rest of the week :)

-Ben.

Biophilia

In new settings you can't help but be helpless. I wasn't much use opening CDC Friday morning because I didn't know where the rugs went in the doorway, and I didn't know which discount CD racks belonged where outside. I'm certain the process took longer than usual on account of my 'help.' I suppose that's part of investing sometimes; you slow down a bit at first and become more efficient for it later.

My first customer on Friday handed me a sheet of paper listing various piano and violin sonatas from Mozart, Beethoven, and Dvorak. I opened up P.N., an engine that searches not only for active or once active archives our store has with all our distributors, but searches a mega-database containing an unimaginable chunk of all recordings ever made, whether they are still in production or not. It's a very impressive archive. A co-worker of mine (they are very quick and seem to be keen to the fact that I might not know what I'm doing) merrily walked over to my computer, greeted the customer, and said to me "that program won't help you. I'll take it from here." He then closed out my search and pulled out a book, a yellow-pages looking book for classical cataloging. I didn't know we had a book.

Not before he was done helping this customer, a second approached me and asked for a certain Brahms work. I'm feeling not so confident in this search program and am not knowing exactly what to do, so I use our distributors search engine, but, not to worry; my other coworker flagged down the customer, lured him to his work station, and pulled out a second book.

A third customer walks in and asks for a recording of "Laudate Dominum," and now I'm thinking "YES! I know this work!" And I got really excited. You mean from the Vespers? Mozart? I even know the KV number for this piece! No way I'm not finding this in the search engine.

I didn't find it in the search engine. I did however have sufficient information to hasten the process as my coworker searched in the book. I felt GREAT!

Thirty minutes later my former professor for contemporary German poetry, for whom I performed and analysed slam poetry as my final project, entered the store. I think most things about him can be characterized by conscious direction, intent, and much passion, though all his excitement never surpasses his patience, which sets a very moderate pace for the way he walks and talks. We had a lively conversation. I told him what I was doing, he told me about his upcoming Hermann Hesse class. He said he could not help me with trumpet, but if I ever wanted to discuss writing he would be more than happy. He then asked if I would sell him the new Björk album, which had come out that day. Professor Höppner is a self-described Björk mega-fan.

Carcassonne, the Spiel des Jahres 2001, is a game in which players collectively build a landscape by placing tiles each turn. The land consists of streets, fields, and cities. Though you build the region collectively, you are competing with one another for territory. The more cities you establish, the more streets you build, and the more farm land you harvest, the better off you are.

Happy Monday :).

-Ben.

Tuba Mirum

I have a job!

It is a wonderful job. If I weren't scared of jumping to conclusions, I would call it the perfect job. I am the newest employee at CDC (Compact Disc Center). CDC is a somewhat high-end CD store in the city center, Freiburg, Breisgau, Germany. The store is cozy and well furnished, wood, good acoustics. It is one of two CD stores in Freiburg that has a classical collection. CDC also boasts a terrific jazz selection, and of course, pop/rock and all that one might expect in a CD store. It is, by all acounts, the most reputable and knowledgeable CD store in Freiburg. I could not be happier to work there. I'm learning things like: new artists, dealing with distributors (both globally and nationally), what comes out when, why some CDs can be sold for 1/3 of what other CDs can be sold for, how to disarm a security-alarmed CD, why it is actually important to know the years in which CDs come out and names of lead singers, and how to deal with customers who hum "Summertime," but insist the song they are humming is in fact "St. Louis Blues." I also now come fully stocked with an arsenal of "would you like a bag with that" variations in German.

I do not have an apartment.

It is not wonderful. There are a couple picturesque possibilities that are slim possibilities at a picturesque best. They are on the outskirts of Freiburg: quiet, river-hugging/mountain-hugged bike rides away from the city center, full of healing, fresh air, layout and space to hope for. The problem is, I'm one of thousands looking for apartments right now, and these apartments are one of hundreds available. The numbers do not work out in my favor. But I can hope and dream, at least until Tuesday morning, when I find out about these two.

I do have distractions

and must use them, so as not to become too perturbed. I recently discovered the public library here and its surprisingly plentiful music collection. I have an endless supply of Mozart and Bach. I'm learning a lot. I also have a 'killer-bunnies' like card game called 'Zombies.' The goal is to encounter 'monsters' (humans), and eat their brains. The more brains you have eaten, the more experienced of a zombie you are and the better chances you have of conquering the next monster. The more weapons you have, the better off you are as well. Weapons range from various limbs of previously killed monsters, to cooking utensils, to postboxes, to -if you're lucky- the ability to use your own intestines as badgering tools.

I have five keys,

none of which belong to me; thank you friends who let me stay at your places :).

I ALSO HAVE MY VERY FIRST TRUMPET.

I bought it two weeks ago. I unfortunately can't practice much because I do not have my own space, but I get to look at it a lot. I love it.

This is the view from Joanna's balcony. Sleeping station number 1. Small, but lovely. No lack of sunlight.

These are residencies under bridges on the Dreisam (river in Freiburg), for which I have not yet applied.
Awesome Art.
The red building on the left is the Historisches Kaufhaus (Historic Market Place). It hosts classical concerts. Nick and I attended one on Friday evening. The performers were a cellist and a piano player, the repertoire was Schumann, Grieg, Blake, and Popper, and the performance was stellar.
Actual table shots of 'Zombies.' Ike, Greta, and Anjuli, I think of you everytime I play.



Art in Denzlingen, a peripheral town of Freiburg, in which I do not have an apartment.


Regional train from Freiburg, heading to Waldkirch. I rode this train every (not every) Wednesday last year on my way to Gutach, where I taught English.

On an ending note; Congrats Dad!! My dad ran his first marathon yesterday (Sat, Oct. 1) and killed it. 31st overall, 4th in his age group. 3:37:30 time. WOW! Go dad.

Hope all is well :).

Love, smiles, and thoughts,

Ben.

Am Bodensee

Joanna and I took a three day camping trip to Konstanz, a German/Switzerland border town on the Bodensee, a Germany/Switzerland border lake.

Bikeways and Swans were big news in Belgium. They're big news in Germany too.
How I imagine the world in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Outskirts of Konstanz.



On the train back to Freiburg.

Short post!

Enjoy the week.

-Ben.

In Bruges

My arrival in Europe was smooth and familiar. My bank card didn't work for a couple days, but friends and strangers lended me a hand; I even got a meal gratis at the iceland airport! How kind those people are who must live in constant trepidation of volcanoes.
Bruges is a quaint town of 115,000, each of whom (based on my 7 or 8 person sample) speaks impeccable English. Belgium is a country that has a highway network for bikes and a language that sounds like German/Dutch/English but injected with helium. Flemish; Sounds of the Stratosphere. That will be my first jazz album. Featuring Maynard Ferguson. Leap Frog.

The Bell Tower.

From the Bell Tower.

Train restaurant! Trains everywhere. Even in glass tunnels underneath the floorboards. Belgium trains are unbelievably cheap. 6.-13. Euro to ride the express trains from Bruges to Brussels, about an hour and twenty minutes. That six times cheaper than in Germany. The average income in Belgium is 13,000 Euro, so no one is really making that much, but with trains that cheap you don't have to.

BIKES.

BIKE HIGHWAYS.

On the Road.Median strip.

At the beach! Windmills everywhere.

Joanna and our hostel, Snuffel. Full of games. So far we've played Yahtzee (Kniffel) five times, and she's won every single game. What are the odds?

Ridiculous.

I've been in Freiburg four or five days now and everything is splendid. More on that next time.

Enjoy the onset of Autumn!

Baxter State Park

My last week in Boston was actually a week in Maine, backpacking through Baxter State Park with my dad. It was a great trip, cut a couple days short by Hurricane Irene (boo).

Day one was a hike up Katahdin, the last leg of the Appalachian Trail. We took Abol's Trail, the shortest and the steepest. Seven hours round trip. Breaking tree line.

I am usually unaware that places like this, places of land and tree, still exist. For a moment on this hike and a couple moments thereafter, I was aware of it. Now I'm not so sure of it. There must be a city there at this point.

Some lives are of law, some finance, sport, learning and business. This is a life of exploration.

Rocks.Top of Katahdin! In the clouds, in the wind, and twenty degrees cooler than at base.

My dad the madman cook!

"Little Niagra Falls" Hiking into Katadhin Wilderness Camp. Here we are! Us and nobody else. Everyone cancelled because of Irene. We didn't even know about Irene...we'd already been four days underway. Pua! Irene. Looks pretty good from here. There were Kayaks! My dad doing some hardcore long-distance swimming, and me keeping watch. Go Dad! Our cabin for one night. It was very nice. We had a propane stove and two propane lights. We made curry! (We just poured boiling water in a bag. The curry was already made. Still good.)

...and canoes!

Picture taken by Holly. Holly flew in on a float plane, landed on that lovely lake, told us they were closing the park down and that we had to leave Saturday morning. Sad story. We left, she flew away. We did get to see a plane take off on the water (cool), and we can say we were the last ones in Katahdin Wilderness Camp before Hurricane Irene (badass).

A wonderful trip. I dropped my camera in a river. Oops! My dad found it, the memory card still worked- incredible,- and my accident warranty means I get my camera fixed. Whew!

I then sat around Boston until Wednesday doing as close to nothing as one can do. It was depriving. But that's okay! As I left Boston and flew to Belgium I had a strong reminder of one of my most important take-away sentences from Germany two years ago: LEBEN IST TÄTIGKEIT; LEBEN IST TÄTIG SEIN.

Life is activity, life is to be active.

Spot on. :)

Now I continue exploring. Tätig sein tätig sein tätig sein. Busy Busy Busy!!

Until Bruges!

-Ben.