Everyday Life in the Wolf

Because I suspect some of my friends and family wonder what I do all day every day, I decided to write a post about my typical day here in Wolfenbüttel. So welcome to my routines! I must say, after traveling so much in October and November, it has been a welcome routine of predictable days and familiar faces!

During the week, I get up and eat breakfast (usually consisting of fruit and yogurt, or bread and various jams) before heading to the office at the Anna Vorwerk Haus. I always stop at the full length mirror in the hallway to make sure I'm looking good before heading out, because I don't have a full mirror in my room... The walk from my flat at the Feierabendhaus to the office only takes about three minutes, and takes me past several charming half-timbered homes.

I usually help myself to coffee in the kitchen at the AVH (Anna Vorwerk Haus) and then go to work in my office. Our workspaces are shared, and my office mate is Sunne. He is an earlier riser than me, so he is usually already in the office by the time I get there. Our office connects to another room where Jonathan and Sophia have their desks. We have a great work vibe there-- sometimes we all work in silent contemplation, sometimes we all chat and laugh, and other times we all talk to ourselves while working through complex research questions. We all work on different topics, so there is a nice variety.

At 1:30 on weekdays, all of the fellows and guests and library employees meet for coffee. This is a time to chat with friends, meet new arrivals, discuss our research topics, and (for me) practice German. If you listen carefully during coffee you can hear conversations in German, English, and even Italian. This is an important ritual because it brings everyone out of their offices and away from their work for thirty minutes to an hour, which is a necessary break to stay sharp and fresh. It also builds a great sense of community.

After coffee, I sometimes go to a cafe for lunch or just pick up a sandwich from a bakery and bring it back to the office. The most common vegetarian sandwich in bakeries includes a slice of cheese, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber on a "brötchen" (literally "little bread") which is a typical white roll. Rather than mustard or mayonnaise, these sandwiches usually have either butter or remoulade. I usually opt for butter because I find remoulade totally gross and eggy-tasting.

So during all my hours at the office, there are a number of things I work on. This week, I wrote an abstract for a conference in August. I chose one of the topics that will be in my dissertation (the embroideries from Kloster Lüne in Lüneburg, in this case), did a little reading and brainstorming, and wrote an abstract about what I'd like to say.

I spend a lot of time reading far and wide about my dissertation topic, and this includes slowly working through books written in German. It's slow work, but the more words I look up in the beginning, the fewer I have to look up as I go. It's been a great way to build up my vocabulary and get a feel for grammar.

I am also looking at some of the medieval manuscripts they have in the library here. I can go to the reading room in the Augusta and request to look at an actual medieval manuscript in person! Some of them are digitized on the library website, but there is just no substitute for turning through the parchment pages of the original! They have several manuscripts that were written or illustrated in the convents near here, so those are the ones I find most interesting. There is one in particular with an embroidery on its cover; I was able to look at this one very closely, and even talk to the conservators about how the binding was made!

I usually take a late afternoon coffee break to get out of the office and perk up. There are several places in town, but my favorite is a roaster down the street called Treccino. Many German coffee shops use fully automated machines-- the espresso is quite weak and the milk is too thick (most don't have a skim option). Treccino roasts their own beans, uses a manual machine, and makes strong espresso! They also have chai lattes, which is one of my favorite things.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I take a German class from 4:30-6:30 at the Volkshochschule in town. Volkshochschule doesn't really have an exact American equivalent, but it's basically a community center/night school. During our German class, there are also community art classes, children's music lessons, and a "Silver Sneakers" exercise class. Sophia, another American fellow at the library and one of my office mates, told me about the class and we go together. It's a pretty small class, so there is plenty of individual attention. The class is entirely in German, and the other students come from all over the world! We have engaging discussions, learn German, and get to know different kinds of people.

In the evenings, I make myself supper (more often than not it involves pasta or potatoes and an assemblage of whatever vegetables I picked up at the store or market). With no microwave or oven, my limited cooking skills are often challenged. But so far, I am managing to not starve. I don't have a dishwasher and only a limited supply of dishes, so I basically have to do dishes immediately after eating. Poor, poor, pitiful me.

Jeremy and I usually Skype while I eat supper and he eats lunch, so it's convenient that the times match up! It took a while to get into a routine, being eight hours different, but this has really been working. This is also the time I would normally skype with Pam or with other friends.

At night I plow through Netflix, sometimes watching in German to practice and other times just binge-watching various American shows or movies. As always, I stay up later than most people... But eventually I go to bed, so I can get up and do it all over again the next day!

My Belated New Years Post!

Is it just me, or is the New Year flying by already?  I can't believe we are almost halfway through January!  So, even though it is very belated now, I thought I'd write about how I brought in the New Year.

I bought a train ticket to Hausen for New Years before I even came to Wolfenbüttel, so I knew that was my plan all along.  Corine and Volker were flying back to Germany from Arizona on the 31st, so we would all meet back up in Hausen to ring in the New Year!  When making our plans, we discussed that they would land in Frankfurt around 7:30, so I bought a ticket that arrived at 9:30.  So my train was supposed to leave here at 5:50.

The Great Train Debacle

On the morning of the 31st I woke up around 10:00 (perfectly normal time for a self-respecting academic) to get started packing and picking up my dorm before my train that evening.  I noticed that I had missed a skype call from Corine, and my phone was off because the battery had died.  I called Corine back on skype and realized she was sitting in her office in Hausen!  She said, "Are you not coming today?"  And I responded, "Yes, but not until this evening, remember?"  "Are you sure?"  I double-checked my ticket. 5:50 departure and 9:30 arrival.  Then I realized my mistake.  Because I am in Germany, the ticket would have read 17:50 and 21:30 if it were in the evening.  Ugh.  They were worried because Volker had gone to the train station to pick me up and I wasn't on the train.  Then I didn't answer my phone (because it was dead).  So I'm a terrible person!  

I had bought the train ticket because it was such a great price at 20 Euros.  It must have been so affordable because it was outrageously early in the morning.  Hindsight is 20/20.  Discount tickets are non-transferable, so my options were limited: buy a new ticket (last minute, would cost a fortune) or travel on the incorrect ticket (an offense for which they can fine you).  After the people at the ticket desk in the train station didn't have mercy on my soul, I decided to try the latter.

I was so nervous!  Most of you know that I am a strict rule-follower.  So when the woman came down the aisle checking tickets, I had my ticket in hand and was ready to spill my guts and beg for mercy.  She was checking the ticket across the aisle from me when she looked over, we made eye contact, I smiled and nodded my head, and she proceeded to walk right past me and check the ticket behind me.  I couldn't believe it.  I had been pardoned by the gods!  She must have thought she'd already checked my ticket!  I remembered an old teaching that my father had instilled in me from a very young age: look confident, make eye contact, act like you're supposed to be there, and no one will ever question you.  He was right!  It worked!

Four hours and two trains later (all without having my ticket checked) I arrived in Limburg, and Volker picked me up to take me to the house in Hausen!  

New Years and Hausen

After all the drama of the train, we made it to Hausen.  We had plans to make fondue and party with the neighbors for New Years.  Great food and great company, and an amazing firework show in town!  In Germany, all the neighborhoods do fireworks at midnight.  And they don't hold back-- It was quite an impressive display!  It was a foggy night, but the fireworks lit up the whole sky, diffused through the fog.  

On January 3, we went to nearby Limburg to visit the shops and the cathedral.  What a neat little town!  Elaborately painted half-timbered businesses line the streets of Limburg-- we went to a chocolate shop and a gummie bear store, because we have the right priorities!  

The cathedral is amazing!  It was built at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and completed rather quickly (unlike most other medieval churches of this scale), which Corine pointed out is why the architectural style is more uniform than is often the case.  

Limburg Cathedral on the Lahn River

Back in Hausen, I tried to win over Corine's cats (Willi and Wuni) who had just come over to Germany from Arizona.  They were a bit shy at first, but by the time I left they had warmed up to me ever so slightly.  Maybe next time they'll actually be my friends! 

Back to Wolfenbüttel

I decided to actually purchase a valid ticket for my train ride back to Wolfenbüttel, which is good because it was checked several times during the journey.  The entire train ride was snowy and pleasant, and it was even snowing here when I got back!  It snowed all day and the next day too, but hasn't since then.  This town looks even more adorable in the snow, if you can even imagine!  I can't wait until it snows more and I can get out and take photos around town to share.  Stay tuned.

2015 was an incredible year, and I'm counting on 2016 to keep the ball rolling!

Weihnachten in Wolfenbüttel

I managed to have myself a Merry Little Christmas here in Wolfenbüttel this year! A couple weeks ago I was introduced to Ute and Gottfried Etzold, a couple of retired academics that have lived in Wolfenbüttel for 30 years. The Etzold's often invite over the fellows who will be staying in Wolfenbüttel over the Christmas break, so they asked if I would like to join them for Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas. Though they speak little English, and I am still dubious about my German, I could not turn down an offer for company during Christmas! Plus, when Ute introduced herself, she told me that she is like my grandmother because she's 80 years old now-- Those of you who know me at all know that the fastest way to my heart is to be my Grandma.

Drs. Ute and Gottfried Etzold

The week before Christmas, Ute and Gottfried came to our daily coffee at the library to give me an "itinerary" for the Christmas festivities. It was even in a plastic presentation sleeve, so I was sold! My favorite part of the letter, which of course was in German was to wear "Zwiebelkleidung" - meaning onion clothes-- meaning layers. So now that's my new favorite German word.

So Christmas Eve finally came, and I met Frau Etzold in front of the library. We drove to their house here in Wolfenbüttel where Gottfried was already busy in the kitchen! We enjoyed a typical German tea with some cheese and bread underneath the large Advent wreath in the sun room of their home. We talked about where I am from, where I have been since coming to Germany, and what I am working on for my dissertation, and we did our best to all understand each other.

Another couple came over a little later to go to a Krippenspiel (Nativity play) in a nearby town called Gross Vahlberg. The Krippenspiel was in a quaint little church with a great altarpiece, and the kiddos did a great job! Afterward, we talked with some of Ute and Gottfried's friends and then went back to the house.

Krippenspiel in Gross Vahlberg

Gross Vahlberg

Gottfried had prepared dinner, being mindful of the fact that I am a vegetarian. Dinner was very nice, and so was the company!! We gathered in the sitting room with the Christmas tree for dessert and little gifts. Ute and Gottfried were super thoughtful and gave me a gift!! They found a book about the history of the library here, its collectors and collections, in English! Ute was very proud of the fact that they found a book in English for me. Gottfried surprised Ute with fancy garnet earrings, and the way they looked at each other while she petted his cheek and called him "Liebling" (darling) was beautiful.

                   

Their Christmas tree was outstanding! It was not terribly large, but it was decorated with shiny ornaments, tinsel, and real candles! The little candle-holders were from Gottfried's tree when he was a child. Ute made and painted the Nativity that sat under the tree when she was young in Dresden.

Gottfried's Candle-Holders

Ute's Nativity

After such a lovely evening, I went to the late-night Christmas Eve service at the Hauptkirche. We sang carols, listened to the choir sing carols, and the Lutheran priest gave a brief sermon.

And when I got home I Skyped with my Schmoopie and my family in Texas! At first, Jeremy and I were Skyping while Pam wrapped presents, and then Bruce came home with Grandma in tow, and then Blaze even arrived! It was almost as good as being there!

Skyping with Grandma and looking at her festive Christmas sweater!

On Christmas Day, Jonathan and I cooked in the Anna-Vorwerk-Haus kitchen. Jonathan is a new friend here from Chicago who also could not go home for Christmas, so we decided to do something special! The Wednesday before Christmas, I went to the market and stocked up on the essential veggies (mostly potatoes) that one needs for a proper Christmas feast (without meat). I even found Pillsbury cinnamon rolls at the grocery store, which is a Christmas morning staple in my house! So Jonathan and I ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and snacked on cheese ball while cooking cheesy taters, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and waldorf salad! Of course we listened to all the Christmas classics while doing so-- Elvis, Charlie Brown, Rudolph ...

Green bean casserole, cheesy taters, waldorf salad, and sweet potatoes!

Master of the Christmas Kitchen!

The most important dish of Thanksgiving & Christmas: Sweet potatoes

After our nice lunch, we both went home to skype with America. I got to call Jeremy and my family while they were opening presents, and so we all opened together! I loved getting to see them all open the treasures I sent from Germany, and getting to tell them thank-you for all my great prizes too!! Fun was had by all. For not being able to be home on Christmas, the wonders of Skype really are the next best thing! Jeremy Skyped me again when they got to the big family Christmas party in Canyon with Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, and kiddos. I got to see everyone and say Merry Christmas!

Would everyone just look at how beautiful and perfect my family is?  Imagine Uncle Baby, Aunt Cindy, Shane, Sarah, Kaelyn, Taylor, and Tyler are there too!

On the day after Christmas, Ute came to pick me up for lunch from the Feierabendhaus. She asked if Jonathan would join us, and I told her that he was working and needed to finish a chapter today. She demanded to know where he was so that she could tell him that he needed to come eat lunch! Needless to say, he gave in. How could you refuse such a beautiful soul ?! So Jonathan and I ate lunch with the Etzold's, and again it was great company and food. The Etzold's had us write in the guestbook that they always use when they have guests and fellows over to their home. I wrote my entry in English because my German is not good enough to really communicate how grateful I am that incredible people like the Etzold's exist.

That evening, I met the Etzold's at the Hauptkirche to see the choir and symphony perform excerpts from Johann Sebastian Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio). Once again, the music in the church was outstanding, and once again the Etzold's were tremendous people and friends. It was a beautiful way to cap off the Christmas season!

The Hauptkirche all dressed up for Christmas!

Christmas Miracle

I have gone back and forth between feeling okay about being here for Christmas and feeling homesick and sad that I won't be with my Schmoopie and my family.  (I may or may  not have cried while listening to Elvis sing "I'll be Home for Christmas" the other day...)  Generally, I stick to the notion that this is just one Christmas in the grand scheme of my life, that it will be different than my traditional Christmas, but that it will be a new and enriching experience.  But sometimes I get sentimental and nostalgic, and wonder how Christmas can possibly go on if I can't be in Texas with my loved ones.

Picture Perfect Christmas Morning

Today, I received two packages from home containing gifts and goodies from Pam, Bruce, and Blaze.  I was so excited!  I love getting mail-- and I knew that this was for Christmas!!  Pam informed me that I could go ahead and open the packages, because some of the contents were meant for immediate opening, and others were wrapped for Christmas and my birthday.  Upon opening the packages, I saw that she had thoughtfully and beautifully wrapped the contents, package-toppers and all.  Several items inside had a surprisingly profound effect on me.

My stocking.  This is my stocking.  For the past twenty-five Christmas mornings, I have excitedly dumped this stocking out on the living room floor.  It usually contains candy, walnuts, an orange, scented chapsticks, nail polishes, gift cards, and various other little trinkets.  It also always contains a special gift from Bruce: canned peaches or pineapples.  Bruce always puts a strange cured meat product in the stockings-- sardines, vienna sausages, deviled ham, etc.  But since my first vegetarian Christmas, he has given me a canned fruit instead.  He pretends he's tough, but little gestures like this are a subtle hint that he secretly thinks I'm the coolest person on the planet. ;)  Bruce is always the first to get his stocking from the mantle on Christmas morning, and he impatiently waits for everyone else to settle down so he can look inside.  So in case you were wondering, that's where I get my child-like love of Christmas!

This teddy-bear-in-a-stocking package-topper.  For the past twenty-five Christmas mornings, he has adorned one of my presents.  Until I was about fifteen or so, he even always appeared on matching teddy-bears-in-stockings wrapping paper.  Pam only wrapped the one present in that paper every year so that it would last as long as possible!  Since I was little, I can recall the excitement of seeing the bear on a present, because I knew that meant it was for me!  It seems like such a little thing, but I cried when I saw him in that package today.  He is such a traditional symbol of Christmas at Home.  And Pam said she cried when she packed him, but she just couldn't stand the idea of leaving him in the "bow box" this year.  It certainly can't be Christmas without him!!

A wrapped present from Blaze.  For the past twenty-five Christmas mornings, I have excitedly busted into Blaze's room to wake him up to open presents.  Some of you may not know that my brother is the most thoughtful and giving human on God's Green Earth.  I got a beautiful card from him, echoing my sentiments that Christmas apart would be weird.  (Blaze missed one Christmas while he was in the Marines in Iraq, and I had a really hard time with that.  Christmas has always been a time that the two of us ooze the Christmas spirit, conspire together to surprise my parents, and stay up late on Christmas Eve because I'm too excited to sleep!)  He wrote a note on the package that now we both had one of these items (I didn't know what it was yet) so it would be like we were all spending Christmas together.  Such a sweet notion.  I opened the package to find a large, loud, garish Elvis ornament that plays "Santa Claus is Back in Town" while the word "ELVIS" blinks in red lights behind the King.  I laughed through a few tears as I wondered how something could be so sentimental and ridiculous at the same time!

Today I also received a postcard from my Schmoopie.  This will be the fifth Christmas I have spent in love with Jeremy.  On the front of the card is Chip, the University of Colorado's ridiculous mascot that looks more like a chipmunk than a buffalo.  I am certain he chose this card because he knows how silly I think Chip is.  He wrote the entire note on the postcard in German (thanks to Google Translate, I'm sure) and drew a picture of himself, Eleanor, and Phoebe in the mountains, with a seagull flying in the clouds above.  I have world's most supportive husband of all time.  I won't be home for our first married Christmas, but he is rock solid in his support and love.  My favorite Christmas present this year is that he booked a flight to come see me in March!!!  I cannot wait to see his face and hug his neck and show him all around Germany!

Inspired by all the Christmas cheer I received from home today, I went out and bought a small Christmas tree.  I hadn't put up a tree yet, because I kept thinking it would be short-lived, impractical, and unnecessary.  But that goes against everything I, as a lover of Christmas, have ever believed in!  So I got a little potted evergreen down the street, picked up a few ornaments and lights, and headed home with all my new Christmas Joy!  Only bad news: no colored lights here.  I decided I'd have to make white lights work for the first (and only, I promise) time in my life.  As is tradition, I decorated the tree while listening to a variety of classic Christmas albums-- starting with Elvis, duh.

Christmas Eve will find me where the love light gleams. 

I'll be home for Christmas

if only in my dreams...

Walking Tour of Wolfenbüttel: Important Monuments

It is my great pleasure to introduce y'all to Wolfenbüttel!  I decided to photograph the various buildings and scenes that I walk past on a daily basis while going about my business.  So let's take a walk through the cobble-stoned paths of the Wolf's Butt together!

Wolfenbüttel is an extremely charming little town.  Since this winter has (so far) been much warmer than usual, I have done quite a bit of walking around town and exploring the scenery.  There are even some blooms still hanging on until the cold strikes!

Schloss Wolfenbüttel

The schloss (castle) here housed the dukes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg from 1283 until 1754.  The schloss was destroyed, rebuilt, and renovated several times, and the building we see here was primarily constructed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Today, the schloss houses a museum.  The schloss is located just across the street from the library and my office- I can even see it from my office window!

The Schloss from my office window

The Library

The Herzog August Bibliothek was established in 1572 from the collections of Duke Augustus.  The library now houses roughly 2,700 medieval manuscripts, 350,000 printed books from the fifteenth- through the eighteenth-centuries, as well as an amazing collection of secondary literature right up to the present day.

Bibliotheca Augusta

One of the main buildings, the Bibliotheca Augusta, was built late in the 19th century.  The books are divided between a few library buildings now, and the medieval manuscripts and early printed books are kept in the Augusta (pronounced ow-GOOS-tuh, not like English "August").  There is also a museum in the Augusta, which currently has a great exhibition about 15th-century manuscript illuminations!  I took a bunch of photos outside, but no photos are allowed inside exhibition-- so I pulled some images from the internet to illustrate the interior for you.

Little horse atop a strange monument in front of the Augusta

Zeughaus

The Zeughaus (pronounced like "ZOYG-HOUSE") was built between 1613-1617 as an armory and barracks.  In 1947, the building became part of the library system, and it now contains the books published after 1900.  The Zeughaus has a quiet reading room, and this is the building where they keep most of the secondary literature that one needs.  The copy machine, scanners, catalogs, etc. are all in the Zeughaus.  Our offices are right across the street, and I look at the back of the Zeughaus from my office window.

Looking out my office window toward the Zeughaus

Anna-Vorwerk-Haus

The Anna-Vorwerk-Haus was built in 1706.  Now it is named after women's rights advocate and educational reformer, Anna Vorwerk (1839-1900), who founded the schlossschule (palace school) and the girls' school in Wolfenbüttel.  Anna Vorwerk is also the person we have to thank for the Feierabendhaus (my dorm), because she had it built in 1896 to house retired women teachers from her schools!

Lots of important stuff happens in the Anna-Vorwerk-Haus.  Many of the administrators and secretaries for the library and the fellowship programs work here.  Every weekday at 1:30 we all gather for coffee in a large parlor in the Anna-Vorwerk-Haus.  There is a large community kitchen, where we can cook as a group or have events.  And it is also where our offices are located!  A bustling hot-spot for our little community, indeed!

My office is in the first two windows to the right of the center door

Many more Wolfenbüttel tours to come in the future, I'm sure!