Schwarz und Weiß

While it's really for comedy, this song has been sung many times in various football crowds throughout Germany. I thought I'd share it with our dear friends in Canada (and perhaps in other locales as well.)

Music Video found with the help of Clipland

Rome - Impressions

From the 14. to the 20. of June I was in the city of Rome. The city of Rome is one of the old and great cities of the ancient mediterranean world. This tiny settlement on the Tiber would swell in both size and importance, until the borders of the land under its control would stretch from England to Egypt, from Iran to Spain. And the city is now the capital of one of the more important members of the European Union, a city with both a past and a present, and perhaps even more importantly, a city that continues to have a future. It's not the shining future of flying cars and magic pills that cure all ailments, but the future of continuing to exist as an eternal city, one that has seen ups and downs, booms and busts, with its experiences ranging from the Triumphs of the Emperors to being sacked by the Goths, this city has been the heart of one of the greatest empires in history, the heart of one of the most significant and long-standing faiths in the world, a backwater provincial town in a splintered Italy, the focal point of reunifying Italy, and at the same time, even with so much history, so many rises and falls, Rome remains truly unique, and totally aware of its own singular identity. While the city positively crawls with tourists, and the tourist industries are all operating at capacity during this peak tourist season, lying just below the surface for anyone who cares to look (and many don't) lies the eternal Rome- a city that has escaped being defined by its past, but neither neglects nor rejects it.

This strikes a stark contrast with Egypt, where the past is delicately balanced between a flood of history to overwhelm the present and a callous rejection of a backward time. The Palatine and Aventine Hills, two of the five hills that comprised the original Rome before the draining of the forum still lie largely in the same state as they were in almost two thousand years ago. The remains of Nero's excessive palace, built over many times by emperors seeking to dissociate themselves from the infamous ruler can still be seen on parts of the Palatine, along with a wide variety of truly ancient structures. The Southern reaches of the Palatine hill overlook the Circo Massimo (Latin Circus Maximus)- now little more than a depression between hills with a track on it- and from there the Aventine Hill can be seen. The juxtaposition of the ancient chariot track with the busy street just above speaks to the cohabitation, or perhaps even symbiotic relationship between the past and the present in Rome.

More on the topic of Rome to come soon.

96. Deutschen Katholikentag

This weekend is the 96th German Catholic "day." 30.000 German catholics have descended upon Saarbrücken in a massive feeding frenzy of Catholicism and Consumerism. The streets are lined with tents selling catholic wares or offering various forms of religious instruction. The experience is.. unique. Riding the bus to the university, I found myself next to some Bavarians who were not only on the wrong bus, but also had a... lacking... mastery of Hochdeutsch (High German) (a Bavarian's mother tongue is normally Bayerisch). Not only the buses are crowded, but the entire downtown region of the city is overflowing. 30.000 tourists coming at the same time to a city that probably sees less than that in an entire ordinary year can put quite a strain on the local businesses and police. A good 30 or more buses have been set to the considerable task of ferrying only these catholic visitors from event to event. Luckily, these catholic visitors have made themselves easily identifiable by wearing green bandanas and cardholders about their necks, as such, it is easy to determine who will be confused and lost. And having come as part of such a large program, once they wander off of the beaten track of the others, they often become very lost, very quickly- which is difficult to understand, seeing as how Saarbrücken is such a comparably small city.

But there we are. Tourists in Saarbrücken. Madness. Now I know why I'm so glad I chose here and not some big touristy city- and these are GERMAN tourists.. God forbid having to deal with tourists from other parts of the world who are even more clueless than this...

Woah. I'm the worst blogger ever.

It's been how long?

Well, I'm not going to make any more empty promises. But since posting photos seems to be the greatest problem, I'm just going to link my flickr account, and you can browse at your own convenience.

Since we've missed so much, I'm just going to talk about Egypt.
Egypt is completely different from the Western world. Sure, they have a lot of the classic American hallmarks- malls, Hollywood movies, American music, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and the like. But that doesn't change anything. For various reasons, maintained buildings are the gross exception, and 50% of the people have no education. Tourists can't walk anywhere without being constantly harassed by swarms of people trying to hock their wares for "just 5 pound just 5 pound just 5 pound no harass 5 pound fine alabaster 5 five pound nice scarf welcome to egypt 5 pound." Many of the things we take for granted simply don't exist in many areas. The toilets on the trains, for example, consistently have between 1 and 4 cm of urine on the floor- and rest assured- you don't want to sit on that seat- You don't even want to touch it with a ten foot pole.

Egypt is also hot. Like 37 degrees in the shade hot. And it's not even summer yet. The kind of poverty that exists in Egypt is on a scale unimagined by those of us from Western countries. Like many poorer nations, the rich are relatively numerous, and very rich, and the poor are even more numerous, and much poorer, and the middle class hardly exists- and where it does, they are trapped between the two camps of a constant class war. The rich blame the poor for their own poverty, and the poor have (despite what the rich say) no easy means to escape from the cycle of poverty.
As part of the result of the economic situation (and, as many have postulated, a result of the middle eastern culture on the whole), greed is the catchword of any exchange in Egypt. In Egypt, you always count your change as soon as it has been handed to you, because they WILL cheat you. In Egypt, as a tourist especially, but not only, many people view you as little more than a walking dollar sign. They prey on the tourist's ignorance of just how little money an Egyptian needs to live, hoping that the tourists will foolishly fork over a tip or price that would be acceptable in the U.S. or Europe.

I hate to gripe, but such is Egypt.
The hot weather, truth be told, was a nice break from Germany, and as much as many of the most famous monuments were really not as impressive as you might think, the history of Egypt is absolutely spectacular. The Egyptian museum was a showcase of 5000 years of history.

5000 years of history- another point on modern Egypt. I have come to the conclusion that a nation that defines itself in terms of its past has no future. The previous regimes in Egypt (a hardline socialist/communist government followed by a nationalist regime) have defined Egypt in terms of the history of a people that no longer exist, in a time that has left little more than stone monuments. The problem with this attitude is that it leads to the attitude that the nation has already been proven, and has no need to continue to do so- which leads to hopeless stagnation- and stagnation eventually leads to decline. Egypt did not have the windfall of oil that so many other Arab nations did, which in many ways could make whatever Egypt makes of itself more lasting and meaningful, but on the way there, Egypt will have more difficulties. Egypt is suffering many of the growing pains that other nations such as China, Argentina and India have already begun to endure. Cairo's population is exploding on a completely unsustainable scale, and Cairo traffic is the stuff of nightmares. After less than 2 hours in Egypt, Naoko and I actually got into an accident! No one was hurt, but it was an object lesson. In most areas of Cairo, there are no traffic signs, and where they do exist, they are completely ignored. Many areas have dirt roads or asphalt so old that an uncautious driver would almost certainly scrape bottom. Many cars are so old that the clouds of soot they leave behind them are completely opaque for metres. A three lane road often has as many as 5 lanes of cars. Traffic violations observed by local footsoldiers can be overlooked for as little as 2 or 3 Egyptian pounds (0,27€ - 0,41€; $0.39 - $0.58 CAN; 40¥ - 59¥)

And the footsoldiers! There are police EVERYWHERE. And the army is even more omnipresent. You can scarcely watch television in your apartment without a footsoldier observing you. The most impressive and beautiful modern buildings excepting mosques are in fact the MINISTRY FOR DEFENCE and the MINISTRY FOR POLICE and the ever notorious EGYPT TOURISM AUTHORITY.

Portugal - Die Sonne Scheint

In terms of weather, when compared with cold, rainy, grey, miserable Germany, Porto, Portugal is a veritable paradise. Of course, Porto has many more charms than merely it's schönes Wetter. The city itself lies directly at the meeting point of the Douro river and the Atlantic, and can be characterised by a charm that is distinctly Portugeuse. The Portugeuse language looks like Spanish when written, but to my ear it sounds more like Russian than Spanish... Can't really explain that one.

Some parts of the city definitely look like they've seen better days, but all in all, one can still see so many wonders in the city that at some times you just have to stop and shake your head in wonderment. The slopes of the riverside are very steep at times, and this results in some very interesting roads. Most Portugeuse speak English, and failing that, we were able to get by with body language (it really is amazing how much you can understand without any shared language).

Portugeuse cuisine is also extremely different from other areas that I've visited. The most famous dish out of Porto is Tripes Oporto, which was surprisingly good, albeit really chewy. Other dishes that are extremely common are yellow breads with meat cooked in, freshly squeezed orange juice (every café has a juicing machine) and soup. They have soup of a million varieties, and you can get it anywhere, and they are all simply delicieux.

We also made a visit to the Sandeman Port Wine "Factory" (their words, not mine). They offer an interesting tour of the site, including a basic description of how Port wine is produced. The tour cost 3,- €, unless you bought a bottle of wine. Then it was free. Brilliant marketing. I don't think it's possible to take that tour without leaving with a bottle of Port.

On a more personal note, I passed the German test, and am going into Deutschkurs II ("V" de la Victoire!)

Saarbrücken Pictures

This is Sankt (saint) Johannes Kirche, in downtown SB. It is the most famous church in the Saarland (now that doesn't mean very much, but still...) Directly below it is the central and most important bus/Saarbahn (in-city rail) stop, and directly across from it is the Rathaus (city hall).
This is a picture of a park on the Saar river from back in October. I thought I should include a picture like this, because I neglected to share any such things earlier.
This is a picture of a giant factory in Dillingen (in the Saarland) which, for some reason, is on a lot of postcards you can buy in this region. Why someone would want a postcard of a giant industrial plant I really couldn't say...

I haven't really been sick all this time. Just Busy.

OK, there are no excuses. But that doesn't matter. Long ago, I promised a post on smoking, so here it is.

The question here in Germany is not "Do you smoke?" but rather "How much do you smoke?" To most Germans, being a non-smoker is not really different from being a non-coffee drinker. Such things are abberations. Almost everyone smokes at least one Zigarette at any given party. You can't go anywhere (even to class) without causing your clothes to smell of cigarette smoke. For the most part, the air quality in Saarbrücken is quite good, but when you're in the proximity of people, you're also in the proximity of cigarette smoke.

It's also important to note that there are a few things that Cigarette companies are allowed to do here that they haven't been allowed to do in Canada for ages: Firstly, they are permitted to advertise wherever and however they like, with nothing more than a warning that "smoking may be bad for your health." Secondly, despite a law against selling tobacco to people under the age of eighteen, there are Cigarette machines everywhere, in completely unsupervised areas (such as on the side of a public street). Thirdly, Cigarette boxes have a simple warning saying "Rauchen kann tödlich sein" (smoking can be deadly)- they are not required to have anything more than that. And, of course, fourthly, cigarettes are much cheaper here than in Canada. This is why it's not uncommon to see a thirteen or fourteen-year old lighting up. This is why the question is not "do you smoke?"

That was a terribly exciting rant. On an even more exciting, positive and personal note, I have been informed that my girlfriend and myself have been "successfully allocated tickets" to see the FIFA World Cup game between Japan and Australia in the rounds phase of the tournament in Kaiserslautern on June the 26th. Which is über-awesome.

On another note, after much searching and scraping, I have found a cheap flight to Cairo for April, which will cost about 160,00€ for a return ticket, which is also über-awesome.