Kein Bock, yo

This week I was pleasured, er... tortured, by the company of 6 German 15 year-olds whose well-meaning but clueless parents had decided to sign them up for a week-long intensive English course. For 4 hours a day, I was supposed to entertain, educate, and enlighten these students who made it clear to me that they did want to spend Spring Break learning about suffixes, prefixes, or if clauses.

After day 1, I made the mistake of thinking that I could be cool and get the kids to like me. Horrible. Teenagers can smell desperation. I just embarrassed myself by teaching requests/demands with "cool" teaching tools like lyrics to "Keep the Car Running." It was pathetic, and afterwards the students rewarded me for my efforts my clicking their pens in unison until I had to yell at them to stop.

Up until the middle of the week, I thought I was just dealing with the universal apathy that coats many young teens, turning into the glassy-eyed mumblers so evoked in any sort of general griping about kids these days. But no, I was dealing with something else, what the German media has christened the Kein Bock generation. Just as Americans like to saddle every generation with some sociological title (I'm a Millennial, I think...) the Germans have labeled the current 14-20 years old as the generation without lust, passion, ambition, or interests. In other words, they have no mojo, which is what the slangy phrase Bock stands for.

I don't want to buy this because I think it's a little unoriginal; anyone who's every listened to the Beach Boys knows that teens have wanted to be left alone in their rooms to do nothing since time immemorial. But I have to admit that my batch of German teens seemed deeply disconnected. According to their answers to my unscientific inquiries, they have no interests in cars, music, romance, family, religion, sport, university, or money. They even declared MySpace and Facebook as being "done," and "over."

On Friday I gave up on being cool and just let them play Hangman for the last half-hour of class, and they lit up. Who cares about social networking, partying, studying, or playing in a rock band? All these Germans needed to get their Bock up was a piece of chalk and a stick figure, hanging dead on the board, over the word "annoying."

A family visit and a Frohe Ostern

Frohe Ostern! Happy Easter from the snowy, windy, utterly November-like 'Furt. The weather here has been crazy over Holy Week, but I hardly had time to notice because my parents and sister popped over for a visit. From the minute my father deboarded the plane and started calling the Euro a Ruble, I knew that I was in for five days of DNA. I don't think anyone in my family has ever actually relaxed on a vacation, and so we filled our week with bus tours, trips to cathedrals, visits to historical houses, museums, and of course, Apfelwein bars.

This visit really showed my family in a new light. Some things I learned: we are really good at drinking, picking the crappiest bus tour a city has to offer, and producing a constant stream of hyperbole ("this is the coolest bar ever!""this is the 156th Starbucks we've seen today!" "this is the scariest pre-post war diorama of Frankfurt ever!" ) That, and that we would all benefit from some sort of horse tranquilizer.

But seriously, the visit was much-needed and both E and I cried when my mom and dad got in the Taxi this morning and did the whole "we're not sad, really" (can only be said with tears welling in the eyes) as they said their "see-you laters."

I plan to put up some pics later but here are some highlights to look forward to: A trip to Cologne, Heidelberg, J. Lo. throwin' down the Bimbel, and Emily and Joe doing some post-flight Down Dogs in my "minimalist" apartment.

Controversy strikes

I'm sure Americans are all smug with their Spitzer sex scandal. It's obviously a delicious story, practically gift wrapped for "Saturday Night Live." But we Germans have been mired in a salacious story of our own: Aline, aged 20, is a contestant on the highly entertaining (and for me, educational) "Germany's Next Top Model bei Heidi Klum." This week, Heidi confronted her about some topless pics she found of Aline on the internet. Aline cried, Heidi scolded and the story was in all the papers.

I found this scandal doubly entertaining because nude picture are commonplace in Germany. Everyday, the largest national newspaper Das Bild has a different naked lady on their cover and little old grannies read it on the U-Bahn. At first I was shocked by this, but now it's gotten boring. I guess that's why I find Aline's story so interesting; It was almost like GNTM was trying to act more American by reacting to the photos this way. Because in America, Aline would probably become a much bigger celebrity after getting kicked off the show. She might even post her demos on her MySpace page, under "The Emperor's Club"....

The rest of the week...

This week has been hectic, especially compared to my lovely sojourn in Bavaria. On Sunday we drove back from Nuremberg and stopped in Bamberg, Germany's "Little Rome." The city of 70,000 is built on seven hills and was barely touched during the war, so the buildings are postcard perfect. Erik and I went into a tavern to taste the local specialty Rauchbier (smoked beer) which is brewed over pine and pine wood. It tasted like bacon. So it tasted delicious.

The flu has hit the 'Furt so I ended up with a bunch of extra teaching gigs this week as my fellow English maestros took to their beds. I am exhausted to say the least, but I need to mentally prep for the my big family visit which comes in FIVE days. I cannot wait for the Soucherays to experience the 'Furt in all of it's rainy, partially landlocked glory! I have been perfecting my itinerary and planning our gastronomical outings; I'm so excited to be showing a new city to my family, it's like being the host of a party.

Also worth mentioning was the concert, Band of Horses, Erik and I saw late Tuesday night. Even though I had the pitted stomach because it was a school night, I couldn't get over how great this band sounded live! They were rocking and so much better than on their albums...

I'll leave this post with some pics of Bamberg and a list of my favorite German words I learned this week:

die Unterhaltung- conversation
laestig- annoying
der Spaziergaenger- someone who likes to go for strolls
Tieftauchen- deep-sea diving
die Saugluft- vacuum

Pictures from Nuremberg

Nuremberg- my favorite city...

So this weekend Erik and I went down to Nuremberg and Bamberg to explore Franconia, the northern part of Bavaria. Nuremberg is a gorgeous medieval city with a well-preserved Altstadt, red brick walkways, and enough history to knock your socks off. Nuremberg was once a seat of the Holy Roman Empire, so that's why Hitler chose it as the symbolic party center for the Third Reich. And with its walled city, its Gothic churches, and stone Bruecke, I understand how this city could be considered "the most German of all places," by the dictator. After 1933, the city became the site for all Nazi party rallies, and we toured the rally grounds Saturday afternoon. Located a few miles outside of the city, the rally grounds contain the largest Nazi buildings still in existence, and anyone who has seen The Triumph of the Will would recognize the Zeppelin field and Great Road where Hitler marched to the cheers of thousands. The museum attached to the ground, the Dokumentation Zentrum, was really thorough and very chilling.

After touring the party grounds we went to lunch in the city's Hauptmarkt, which stands in front of the Frauenkirche. We walked the Altstadt some more before eating a huge and amazing Bavarian dinner of Nuremberger sausages and Strudel. On Sunday we took a tour of the Nuremberg Trial courthouse, the site of the first International Military Tribunal held for crimes against humanity. Watching the film of Chief U.S. Prosecutor Robert Jackson question Rudolph Hess 5 feet from where the Nazi sat was surreal. Here are Jackson's opening remarks from November 21, 1945:

"The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason."

You would think that with all of this history Nuremberg would be a burdened city. But in fact, I found it to be one of the most vibrant, bustling, and happy places I've been to in Europe. This city has done a magnificent job of recognizing its history with the Nazis, but not reveling in it for the sake of sensationalism or tourism. Modern Nuremberg has declared itself a city for Human Rights, and if anything Nurembergers seem proud of their hometown. Unlike Frankfurt, Nuremberg seems to have a real identity, even if its a gritty one.

Here are some pictures... more to come from our jaunt through Bavaria. Pictured: Zepplin Field, The Old City Turm, Strudel, etc...

A Fairly Tale it Ain't

On Saturday we went to Hanau, a sleepy German town 30 km East of Frankfurt. Hanau is famous for being the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm, Wilheim and Jacob. The brothers were academics and writers who collected some of Germany's most famous folk stories into collections of novellas, including Snow White, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel. Thanks to the Grimm brothers, children in the Western world develop phobias of wolves, getting lost in the woods, stepmothers*, and the repercussions of famine.

I thought a town with this sort of cultural significance (the Grimms collected and printed over 800 tales in the early 19th century) would be a mecca for a cultural history buff. And if not a mecca, at least a sort of kitschy Paul Bunyon-land. I pictured flaxen-haired members of the local children's theater running around with wooden baskets and breadcrumbs. I thought maybe there would be mechanical wolf, and red candy apples being sold by street vendors... was this too much to ask?

Instead, Hanau was a model of uninspired postwar construction. Turns out, like most of Hesse, Hanau was hit pretty bad by the RAF, and besides the platz and a few half-timbered houses, the city bears no resemblance to the town were Wilheim and Jacob entered the world.

There were, however, a few marks of the Grimms' presence, and we documented them. (Note: I have no idea who that German girl is.)

* This is so freaky... but the reason there is always an evil "stepmother," is because in the original versions the Grimms collected it was simply an evil mother. The Grimms thought this would disturb children, so they decided to remove the mother figure from a blood relation.

A day in the life (photo essay)

I go to work...


Erik puts on his shoes...


I eat a bag of these German chips. I am positive they are laced with cocaine.

A long overdue update...

of the pictorial type.

Here's the Wohnung, including the bathroom, the hallway, the gnome kitchen, and the living room now featuring an Ikea lamp.