Ambigrams

Kathy and I had a great time in Nuremberg on Sunday. We went to see the Da Vinci Code at a theater that plays the original-language version. I thought the movie was better than the book.

What I missed, however, were the ambigrams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambigram) that were in the book. So I started doodling, and came up with these.

The top one is a Mirror Ambigram, and the bottom one is a Rotational Ambigram.

Feb. 1, 2006

It's a sunny afternoon in Erlangen. Kathy and I took a walk through the woods on the way from our apartment to our new flat. We've been in our apartment for a month now, and will stay there for another month while we get our flat ready. Our flat comes with nothing in the kitchen; no appliances, no cupboards, no sink, no light fixtures. We spent yesterday (Saturday) browsing the home-furnishing stores for kitchens. Today all the stores are closed, so we're taking it easy in the internet cafe. This coming week we hope that our furniture will arrive from the US, and that we can get moved into our flat. Oh, did I mention that the flat comes with no closets? I'm told all of this is normal in Germany. I believe it because there is a huge market for wardrobes. And IKEA does a great business with the 3-D kitchen designing program available on their website.



My co-workers are really nice. Although they speak English very well and would like to practice, they speak German with me so that I can improve. Kathy and I will start taking evening classes too. I spend most of my days in training classes and working on the move. I've been to some concerts, which have been great. They are making a big deal of Mozart's 250th birthday.

That's all for now. Kathy's letter to her family follows.
Richard

The keyboards are different over here. Y and Z are switched, so I have trouble tzping mz name! Pardon the tzpos!
Our internet connexn is supposed to start Feb.1 in our new apartment, but we aren't living there yet. I have to write from the internet cafe all the time. Meanwhile our furniture is due to arrive in the country on Jan. 31, and at our new place on Feb. 5.

We just came back from a walk in the woods near our new apartment (flat). We (will) live on the border of a nature preserve. It's a sizable place on the Southeastern edge of Erlangen. There are well-worn trails all throughout the woods, where people bike, walk, and do "Nordic Walking", or walking with two poles for extra aerobic exercise. The senior citizens are very active, esp. compared to the general activity level in the States. Most of the people you see outside walking in the fields and woods outside of town in the sunny weather are seniors, many of them well-dressed. There are also joggers, and families with kids and dogs, and dads out with tiny babies the strollers. The babies are really cute, bundled up in their buntings with only their faces showing.

The birds I've seen are limited to the small chickadee and sparrow types, and the common blackbird and pigeon types. I've heard there are cardinals here. I really miss their songs outside our windows at the house in the States.

While we were at our new flat, we made some measurements in the kitchen for the future "Traumküche", or Dream kitchen. Formica is the word when you put together a cheap kitchen over here, as it is in the states. Dishwashers sometimes cost extra in a kitchen package, but you can always add them to the cost of the kitchen. I think it's quite a racket, because everyone I've talked to agrees they can't live without one. We're planning a 5-year kitchen, in other words, one we won't be attached to at the end of 5 years. Such bottom end packages can cost around €2, 500.00 delivered and installed. That's $3000.00)

Even so, it's hard to resist the shiny Whirlpool appliances and attractive birch or maple veneers at IKEA, esp. when they provide free software pre-loaded with all their appliances and cabinet modules and finishes. (Red countertops (?!) with birch cabinets.) You can plan the whole kitchen, accounting for windows and doors and radiators. And then you can go to the store and see everything you need to put it together (20 min. away, in a town north of Nuremberg). In this case, the "red" countertops turned out to be a 1970's kind of orange -- not going there. And it only costs around $3500 for the cabinets & appliances alone. That kind of kitchen would require the help of a friend in order to have "free" delivery and installation. Peter Burwitz, a colleague and friend of Richard's from his first German sojourn, is willing to help. HE has moved and installed his IKEA kitchen 3 times in the past 12 years!

Hope all are well there!

Kathy.

eating Bambergers in Bamberg

A "Bamberger" is one of the many types of German Croissants. Here we are in a cafe in the city of Bamberg, trying out a couple of the pastries.

Driver's License

Since we don't have a car, getting a German driver's license wasn't really necessary. But I thought it would be nice to rent a car occasionally, so I started looking into the process of getting a license.

I learned that some states in the US have a reciprocity agreement with Germany. A driver's license from on of these states can simply be exchanged for a German license. The driver's license from some other states can be used to get a German license if you take a written test also. The driver's license from the rest of the states does no good at all, and you have to take a written and a driving test in order to get a German driver's license. As luck would have it, my New York license falls into the last category.

I wasn't looking forward to the time a cost of going through the written and driving tests. I'm told that they are difficult and expensive. Parents don't have to save money for their children's college, but they save for the driving school that is required before taking the tests. Also, the written test requires good knowledge of German in order to distinguish subtleties in the questions.

So, I decided to save time and money by exchanging my New York license for a Colorado license. A Colorado license falls into the first category, and my sister Kelly lives in Denver, so she could help me with the mailing.

I flew to Denver to visit Kelly, but I figured that I still saved money compared to paying for the driving school in Germany. It was fairly easy to exchange my license. I took my NY license and passport to the DOT, waited for a couple of hours in the waiting room, and then spent about a half-hour filling out forms and getting my picture taken. Colorado doesn’t give you a license on the spot; they mail the license to your Colorado address in order to establish residency. I spent a couple of nice days with Kelly and Curtis, and return to Germany.

When I got back to Germany, I waited a few days for Kelly to send the license. I took it and my passport and a passport photo to City Hall, and waiting about a half-hour in the waiting room. Not bad, I thought. When my number was called, I put all of my documents on the clerk’s desk, and sat back to watch the wheels turn. The clerk looked at my stuff and asked, where is my translation of the Colorado license into German? Oh well, I gathered up my stuff and took it all to the ADAC, which is the German version of AAA. I paid my €39, and was told to come back in a week.

A week later I left early from work and stopped back at ADAC, but the translation wasn’t finished yet. A few days later I left work early again in order to get to the ADAC before closing time, and everything was ready. So I took all my documents, including the translation, back to City Hall, and waited another half hour in the waiting room.

When my number was called, I took all my documents and put them on the clerks desk, and sat back to watch the wheels turn. The clerk starts typing away at the computer, and then starts up conversations with the other clerks. It seems that they kept track of my stay in Germany 13 years ago. The problem was that you have to trade in your license within 6 months of arriving in Germany so that you don’t get out of practice driving. Luckily, the 2 years I spent earlier in Germany didn’t count, and I had only been in Germany 5 months this time around, so everything was accepted. I paid my €35, and am now waiting the required 4 weeks until my German license arrives.

By the way, I noticed on the forms that I applied for an EU license, not a German license. We’ll see.