Pictures

Today was a nice sunny day and I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of Salem as promised earlier. I posted them on my Flickr page.

Noreastern

It looks like the winter has thrown us another curve ball. After a nice couple of days, we got hit on Friday by a winter storm with a couple inches of snow, blowing wind and snarling traffic. It generally referred as a 'Norestern'. So, since there was not much to do outside, I went to see a movie. There is a smaller theater nearby, that plays older movies and smaller independent ones. The theater looks like it has been stuck in the 80's, but that gives is a unique touch. Kinda reminded me of some great movie experiences I had in the past.... "Karniggels" in the Deli III, 'Pulp Fiction" in Luebeck, or 'Star Wars" in the Oriental in Milwaukee. Good times.
Today, I watched the oscar winning German movie "Das Leben der Anderen". Great film about the East German secret police and how it spied on their own people. The movie is interesting in a sense that in the beginning the main character still believes that his 'police' work and wire tapping is the right thing to do. Through the movie he finds out that the cause gets corrupted because others use the system of spying and black-mailing for personal gain. One can find similarities with the witch trials in Salem or the way the "war" on terror is being conducted. Deep thoughts.... Nevertheless, I thought it was an excellent movie.

Salem Stroll

Finally! This weekend it was warm enough to explore Salem for a bit. I started at the harbor at Derby Wharf, where the Friendship of Salem is moored to the docks. The ship is a replica of Salem East Indian from 1797 and it certainly makes for a great site. Salem is mostly famous for their witch trials and early trade around the world and it certainly shows. The town has a lot of brick buildings telling of older times. It has a very European feel to it. If you walk the tiny streets it almost feels like walking through Luebeck. They also have their share of architectural nightmares. The power plant that sits next to the historic harbor must have been build before Salem made a living out of tourism, just awful. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so I'll post some pictures later, once I take some. ;-)
Speaking of tourism. Salem certainly has adopted the witchcraft theme, every second store is about witches, haunted houses, and everything spooky. It's a bit much for my taste, but hey, if it brings the crowd, whatever works. All in all it was a nice stroll through the neighborhood.

Closer to home, I finally put up pictures,
so at least the living room is done. The set-up is pretty much the same as in my old place. I still need to add some lighting and I also need to buy some furniture for the bedrooms. It's process and it will take some time. The apartment is on the second floor, so it's nice to look out the window and see a tree, instead of a parking car, like in Peoria.

Global Warming

With friends around the globe enjoying balmy spring temperatures, Massachussets clearly didn't get the memo on global warming. I stepped out today to be greeted by temperatures that would make any penguin feel at home. You got to be kidding! With wind chills reaching -15 F, that's -25 C, any discussion on global warming takes on a rather amusing twist. This hot topic seemed to gain some steam in the media here in the US and in Europe with "An inconvenient truth" winning an oscar, Al Gore being outed as an energy hog, and German politician suggesting to spend vacation close to home instead of jetting around the world. Maybe somebody can enlighten me, because it seems like everybody and their brother seem to have a different opinion on the effects of global warming. All I know is that today, huddled up and shivering in the car, I wouldn't mind a little bit of local warming myself.

Deutschland - Ein Sommermaerchen

I finally got to see the movie "Deutschland - ein Sommermaerchen". For those who don't know, the movie is a documentary that followed the German national soccer team during the world cup last year. But, before I'll talk about the movie, I have to eat some humble pie. When Juergen Klinsmann was named the new coach of the national soccer team, I thought this was the biggest mistake the DFB ever made. Even the good games of the Confed cup didn't convince me that the team was on a good track and when he picked Lehmann over Kahn as goal keeper, I was sure the world cup would end in disaster. I admit, I WAS WRONG. When I watched the world cup games I was surprised about the great soccer, the team was playing. Third place was more than anybody hoped for and clearly the atmosphere in Germany during the cup was phenomenal........ So I heard, since I was in Peoria, I had to rely on the more than boring coverage of the US TV stations. Half of the discussion during the games was about the referees and that gets old really fast.
But, back to the movie. I thought it was really good movie. I think it captured the inner workings of the team well. I know some people felt the movie was a bit dry and anticlimactic, but I thought the more 'documentary' look worked well. My favorite scene was probably the celebrations in front of the hotel in Stuttgart. And , the late goal against Poland and the penalty shootout against Argentina still give me goose-bumps. Great soccer!
And for Juergen Klinsmann, well, it looked like he was a great motivator and knew what to say and do to get this team pumped up, when his coaches, like Jogi Loew, where more responsible for tactics, fitness and other aspects of the game.
I am hoping they can carry that spirit into the next European Cup and further. In the meantime, I am going back to check on the Bundesliga to get my weekly soccer fix.

The saga begins

That's right. I am a blogger now. After giving it much thought and some pestering from friends, I decided to start a blog to document my adventures in the new world, Massachusetts that is. I am sure as a German, spending the last decade in the Midwest, getting thrown into the New England lifestyle, that will make for some interesting posts. Or not, who knows.
As my first official post, I'll use an update I sent to friends a couple of days ago:

Here is a quick update on life at the East Coast. I started the trip from Peoria on Superbowl Sunday. Since they predicted snowfall in upstate New York, I took a more southern route through, OH, PA, and CT. I stopped Sunday night at Harrisburg,PA to watch the second half of the Superbowl. Sorry Bears fans. I started my trip again on Monday morning and made good progress through CT. I head into Massachusetts and had only 60 miles to go when a block of ice fell from a truck in front of me. I was in the middle lane on a busy interstate with no place to go, so I hit the ice head on. The impact was louder than expected and I knew something was wrong immediately. I looked in the rear view and saw blue smoke coming from my car and as I rolled off the interstate the oil warning light came on. F@!@#$%^!!!!, ONLY 60 MILES TO GO.
Well, long story short, the impact had split my oil-pan wide open. I called AAA, joined, and waited for the tow truck. It only took 30 minutes for the arrival and he drove me right to a VW dealer that was close by, they had the oil-pan and pick-up pipe in stock and fixed the car on the spot, which only took 5 hours to wait and $600 to spare. With a customer lounge and free WiFi, it could have been worse. I made the rental office just in time to claim my apartment. On Tuesday, I waited for the movers and they arrived pretty much on time and I was sitting in an apartment full of boxes. I must say, for all the stories I read about moving companies, my experience was without any problems.
Wednesday was my first workday and it was pretty much standard. Filling out paperwork, meet the new team introduce myself, trying to get the computer up and running.
Besides work I spend the last couple of days organizing the apartment and driving around the area a bit. It is really to bloody cold to do anything outside.
Some observations: Traffic is terrible. I always thought Illinois drivers were the worst, but I admit I was wrong. Not only is everybody drive like they feel like, they also seem to be in absolute love with the sound of their car horn and this love is expressed frequently.
In the morning the drive to work takes me about 14 minutes. In the afternoon it is easy double that time. Also, since we are close to the ocean, there always seems to be a wind going, which cold and annoying now, but I can imaging it will be nice in the summer. Reminds me of the days in Luebeck and and the lakefront in Milwaukee. I am hoping I'll get my phone and internet set-up this week to be fully connected. Right now I am using somebodies WiFi in the building. (Thanks NETGEAR) With all the stuff that happened, I sometime wonder how people did these things without cell phones, internet, or a navi-system.
That's right, I bought a 'nuevi' before the trip to guide me to whatever destination I desire. I set it up with a female Australian voice, because it sounds better than the American one. Every-time the American voice would proclaim 'recalculating' it sounded totally annoyed like "Goosh, you missed the turn again, now I have to go back to the maps and find a new route just because you wouldn't listen when I said:' TURN LEFT ON STATE STREET"' But it has been a valuable tool especially since it looks like that MA can't effort any useful road signs.

Well, so far for the first entry.