Desperate Housewives of Hannover, season 2

We are going to take a break from the Hannover Photo Safari for today. I know you are disappointed. But I realized that it's been a long time since I wrote about the Desperate Housewives of Hannover. A quick review: the  Hausfrauen are the group of friends that I was lucky to meet shortly after moving here. What we have in common are husbands that found jobs in Hannover, causing us to quit ours and move here too. The name is a little facetious, but the truth is we have a lot more free time than we used to and there's often some kind of drama cooking. My LA friend Giulia has even talked about writing a script out of it, but I don't know if the average viewer would get into the expat lifestyle in the un-glamorous setting of Hannover. Or maybe that's our angle...

Here's what has been happening in season two:

There's a new character this season, Olga Elena. She's Serena's Colombian friend from German class who is here because she married a Serbian-German husband that she met in Spain. After 2 years of intensive German, Olga is trying to get a job in finance. Since most companies require that candidates speak three languages, she is working on her English with me and Serena. And I am loving a chance to speak Spanish with her. Olga recently got her German drivers' license, which requires taking classes, exams, a behind-the-wheel test and paying about 2,000 euros.

Serena is pregnant, with the baby girl due in May, and moving to a new apartment this weekend. Her opera singer husband Ed has been traveling France auditioning for future shows and she's given up German class in order to focus on the baby.

Kaska is working on getting a new job or another job in addition to working part-time for the city of Hannover. She's all about ice skating this winter and just bought her own tiny pair of used skates. She and German husband Thorsten are planning the epic Bosseln ball-throwing game in February, and Brian and I just booked a trip to Krakow with them for May.

Renee has had a rough year of ups and downs when she got married, lost her father, then went home for Christmas and her brother-in-law died. Her small dog always seems to eat life-threatening amounts of people food, and now she's looking for work. She's decided that the best way to learn more German is by finding a job, which is not easy when she would need some kind of contract before getting a work permit.

Charlotta, the polish bombshell-super mom is a recurring character. So is Susi, the only true German in our show and Serena's pregnancy/medical-care-in-Germany resource. 

As for me, I am working in a very low-responsibility role subbing at the international school, while building myself a very high-responsibility one as I co-found a nonprofit organization. More on that in the coming episodes. My husband Brian has recently been told that the school wants to offer him a contract when the 2 year stint is up this summer, so it looks like we'll be staying here a while longer. Nothing has been signed yet, however, and more drama can always unfold in the meantime.

There are not as many four hour lunches now as in season one, but we still find time to get together to discuss which of us has the craziest mother-in-law and why Germans need to put winter tires on their cars while Minnesotans do not.

Stayed tuned to see what your favorite characters are up to in the next episode.

Beer drinking statues, heads on the street

Hannover Photo Safari, continued:
On the street leading up to the opera house in Hannover are three statues. After a year and a half of walking past them, it's time to figure out who they are supposed to be.

You'll notice that they seem to be drinking bottles of beer. I am going to assume that this was someone's hilarious late night idea, after he/she (come on, you know it was a he) had had a few himself. But the funny thing is that no one has removed the bottles from their hands for months. It is legal to drink on the street here, after all. Why can't a statue pretend to do it too? (click on the photo if you would like to see it bigger).

Note/Disclaimer: I thank Wikipedia and various internet sources for the following info. I am not citing it in APA or any other format, probably to the dismay of my grad school professors and the numerous librarians in my family. They would be dismayed that I used Wikipedia at all.

Marschner

Our first subject is Heinrich Marschner. He was a composer who wrote 23 operas and is regarded as a big deal in German opera.
He came from Zittau, Germany, which is in the east, near what's now the border with the Czech Republic. He studied operas, started writing them, and moved to Dresden. Starting in 1831 he moved to Hannover and stayed here, working as the conductor for the Hannover city theater, for the rest of his life.

Karmarsch

Karl Karmarsch, the second beer drinker in line, was an educator who founded the Higher Technical School of Hannover in the 1830s, which later became the Leibniz University of Hannover. He was a mechanical engineering professor, and led the university for over 40 years. He was also the main person to introduce the metric system to Germany and Austria in 1872.

Stromeyer

Louis Stromeyer's statue is the most attractive of the three. Probably that's because he is not tarnished and moldy, like maybe he has recently showered. It's fitting because Stromeyer was a surgeon, and probably knew that it's good to wash your hands a lot. He is considered a pioneer in orthopedic surgery and founded an orthopedic institute in Hannover. For 16 years, Stromeyer served as a military surgeon. He developed the procedure to correct club foot and first performed it in 1831.

And just down the street are these sculptures:

 Interpret on your own. This is what I have grown to like about Hannover: a little bit classic, cultured, traditional, but with a good (or bad) dose of the modern. It's not always guidebook-worthy but it's got personality. You can see the remains of a 14th century church right next to a 1960s-era office building. Most of Hannover was destroyed by bombing during WWII, and it has an old/new identity as a result. You'll see more of that contrast coming soon. Until then, crack a German beer and say "prost" to Karmarsch and the metric system.

The horse's tail and the headless monster

The most common place to meet up with anyone in Hannover is at the Hauptbanhof (main train station), "unterm Schwanz," meaning under the horse's tail. The horse in question part of a huge statue in front of the station. Nostrils flaring, mane blowing, its rider is King Ernst August,

Ernest Augustus, fifth son of King George III of England, was part of the royal House of Hanover. He was born in England but spent his university days in Gottingen, Germany. He had a career in the military and in politics, moving back and forth between Germany and England, married his cousin, may have had a child with his sister, and may have killed his valet. In 1837 his niece Victoria became queen. Since succession in the House of Hanover went only through males, this meany that Ernst was crowned King of Hanover a few days later, and Hannover was ruled by its own royalty.

The coolest part of these pictures, other than Ernst August's awesome hat, is that the backdrop is a facade of the Hauptbanhof that is designed to look like the Hauptbanhof. There is scaffolding and construction going on underneath, but this big tarp looks just like the building should.

Inside the Hauptbanhof is another item of interest on our photo safari. It is a... well, you tell me:

Maybe a headless sea monster. Maybe an eel of some kind. I tried looking up info on the internet, but "headless eel sculpture hannover" didn't bring up any results in Google. So let your imagination fun on this one. Isn't that what art is about anyway?

Hannover photo safari, introduction

I am hereby beginning a series of posts called Hannover Photo Safari (HPS).

Why did I choose this name? It sounds better than "a lot of pictures of statues and art work around town". But that's basically what it is. I went around Hannover on a cold day hunting for statues and public art works to photograph, with the goal of knowing what they are all about.

I also wanted to call it a safari so that it sounds more exotic, and tropical. It was a cold and snowy day when I went out there. I think my pinky froze to the camera. However, it was -5 Farenheit in St Paul earlier this week, so I am certainly not complaining. -5 Celsius is a lot better.

Brian reminded me as I debated whether I should go out walking around town on that chilly day, "you used to be a Minnesotan." 

Election day

Sunday was election day in the state of Niedersachsen, which gave me a reason to try and understand more about German politics.

Elections happen every four years, with the state elections in January, and the federal ones in September. Germany is a parlimentary democracy, which means that you vote for a party, not a person. The party then chooses its leader and that's who becomes governor, chancellor, etc. However, in the federal elections each voter also gets a second vote for representative, which they can use to vote directly for an individual candidate.

This system results in a lot of coalitions between two or more parties. This is confusing to me as an American... it seems like the German system has a bunch of parties, 5 or 6 at least, but when they start teaming up it's more like a 2 party system.

The CDU teams up with the FDP, and the SPD teams up with the Green party. There is also the Left party, the National Socialist party (That's right, the Nazis. They still exist, but get very few votes), and the Pirate party.

If I were a German citizen I would want to support the Pirate party just because they have the coolest name. Plus you could dress up with an eye patch and a parrot, and say "shiver me timbers," or however that translates into German. They actually have nothing to do with that kind of piracy. Their agenda mostly deals with the digital age, freedom of information, and e-governance. It would be cooler if they were building pirate ships.

So what about Niedersachsen? As far as I understand it, Niedersachsen is like the Ohio of Germany. Other than being kind of big, having a lot of farmland, and Hannover maybe being similar to Cleveland (we even have a team called the Indians), Niedersachsen's election this year is supposed to be a barometer for how things will go in the national elections. The moderately conservative CDU lost its majority to the moderately liberal SPD. It was a tight race and a big upset for the conservatives. If you want to read more, here's a short and pretty clear article about the election.

What does this all mean? It means the pendulum is swinging gently toward the left, and the CDU, Angela Merkel's party, might be in trouble come September.

If you read about David McAllister in my last post, you might be interested to know that he's not out escorting princesses tonight. He's probably moping around feeling like a loser. Of course he didn't lose, his party did. The new governor of Niedersachsen will be Stephan Weil, whose name lends itself to political advertisements because 'weil' means 'because' in German. Think of all the possible slogans he could have.

However, if he could appear on a poster with a peg leg, a big gold earring, and a bottle of rum I'd be more excited to vote for him. Maybe that's why Germany doesn't allow expats like me to be citizens.

Princesses, expos, and inflatable beds

Stephan Weil, mayor of Hannover, David McAllister,

 

and the princesses of York

 A few days ago, two British princesses visited Hannover. Eugenie and Beatrice made the trip in honor of the re-opening of the Herrenhausen castle. Yes, we have a local castle. It was built around 1820 when Hannover used to be a kingdom. It belonged to Welfen family, known in English as the Guelphs (because that is obviously easier to spell).

The castle had been closed for 70 years, since it was damaged in World War II, and is now open again with modern renovations for use as a conference center. I guess we needed more of those. Hannover is big on expos, and fairs, and conventions. Every month or so there is some big event at the convention center that brings in people from all over Germany and sometimes all over the world. To Hannover? That's right.  In addition to the normal industry and corporate conventions, Hannover hosts a baby expo, the German poultry show, and a trade fair for Middle Eastern carpet businesses.
CeBIT, the largest IT conference in the world, is held here in March.

I've been told that we could rent out our apartment, or even just our guest room, and make a pile of money during CeBIT. Would it be worth what I make in a month of substitute teaching to have a strange German computer guy hanging out in my apartment for a few days? Before I make that decision I would have to check whether an inflatable guest bed qualifies as acceptable conference accommodation.

Back to the Brits... why would the princesses make a trip here? Hannover is heavily linked to England. My basic understanding is that the Guelphs, who became known as the House of Hanover, were like the royalty's farm team for couple of centuries. Whenever some noble person needed to find a husband or wife, they came here, and eventually Hannover was linked to England through these families (somewhere in this process, the English decided to spell Hanover with one 'n' just to be different). Their descendents eventually came in line for the throne. The House of Hanover ruled Britain starting with George I around 1715 until Queen Victoria died in 1901.

I don't really care about British royalty. I am not British, nor do I plan to be. However, it's hard to ignore all of the influence the English have had on Hannover's history, and hard to miss the news about a royal visit. The princesses were hosted by the governor of Niedersachsen, David McAllister. McAllister himself is half Scottish, so they probably had tea and scones together, then talked about football scores.

I'll write more about the House of Hanover soon, as I attempt to find out who all the statues around town are supposed to be and try to decipher other, weirder, works of public art. Until then, I will watch for groups of corporate convention-goers walking around town in packs, and try to spot those who are headed to the poultry show.

Tourism, traveling, and busses

I write often on this blog about my travels. I write even more often about feeling out of place and learning about a new(ish) place. 
This time I am writing about the idea, and the act, of travel in general. It's at once an escape, a hobby, and an education... depending on what you are looking for.

While sitting on the trademark pink couch in the staff room at school the other day, I read this quote that our friend and English teacher Andrew had just passed out to his class:



"Whether you travel or whether you tour is, I suspect, all a matter of your attitude to time. That's why, from my point of view, it's the young and the old, rather than those in the prime of their lives who make the best travelers. Everything depends on your answer to this question: What does it mean not to waste time?. And in my experience it's when you're young and think you've got oodles of time, and when you're old and regard it more judiciously, that you're likely to come up with the best answers.
You come up with the worst answers, I suspect, at the age of thirty-six when you still believe you're actually 'going somewhere' (like a bus) and still think your life will eventually 'add up to something' (as if anyone were counting). Beliefs such as these encourage tourism rather than travel."
- Robert Dessaix

I like this quote because it gets me thinking about ideas that seem relevant in my life right now...
There are a lot of odd and funny travel situations that have happened to me since we've moved, like when a boy hit me on the butt with an Easter stick in Prague, or when we danced in a conga line with Romanians on a Nile Cruise ship, or when we took a ferry to Asia to drink beer. There are also the frustrating experiences of getting lost, of boarding the wrong train, of knowing that you got the "dumb foreigner" price in a taxi or a cafe and being unable to do anything but pay it.
Were these experiences a good use of time? I'd like to say yes but am not sure I could give you a reason why. They are certainly not things that would have happened if I'd stayed where I belong or where I at least know how to find a train station and can pour my own bowl of cereal in the morning.

I am not yet thirty-six but I am not far away. Is my life going somewhere, like a bus? Like a German bus that runs incredibly, reliably on time? The thing about busses is that they only follow the same routes every day. I'd like to think that at least mine could take a left turn now and then. Maybe it could be more like a non-official minibus blasting music and full of old ladies holding chickens...

I like tourism too. As a good traveler maybe I am not supposed to. But I like warm weather escapism and swim-up resort bars, and walking around with a map and not being embarrassed about stopping on the sidewalk to take a picture in the middle of a foreign city. I like watching how people in different places behave when lining up at a store or a train station - do they push ahead? crowd around? stand in single file? And is watching all of this a waste of time? Maybe noticing those things is traveling too.

A lot of conversations happen on the pink couch. I can't say we found any answers to the issue of tourism and wasting time. I can say that I think traveling, like so many other things, is a skill you have to practice. To do it well and really appreciate new places, I will have to keep trying.