This Week, Things That Have Been Learned By Me

Whoaaaaa, it’s already the middle of November and that’s freaking me out a little bit! Time is really starting to fucking march and that’s good and scary. The University in Italy that is hosting my second semester is already asking for my money and information. This thing is happening.

I took some time this weekend to visit Hamburg and Berlin. My mom was finishing her tour of Germany in Hamburg, staying with my second Nanny Tanja. I had the pleasure of staying at their house just outside the city and getting a half-car/half-walking tour of the city. Before coming to Germany, I hadn’t heard a lot about the city. I knew that it existed, but not much else. Turns out it’s beautiful and filled with lots of interesting things, for example, the Reeperbahn, which a friend told me is the largest red-light district in Europe. It’s kind of weird (and cool) when your 40-something year-old former-nanny and her husband are touring you around brothels and sex clubs. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to check out the area on my own. That’s (one of the reasons) why I’m going back.

In Berlin, I met up with a friend of mine (Mack) from the era of San Francisco who is now living in Paris. I arrived Saturday evening, so I didn’t have a lot of time to check out important monuments or museums…but I did have a chance to check out dat nightlife. Mack and I hopped some bars in Kreuzburg (one might say The Mission of Berlin), checked out the remnants of the Berlin wall and then, on advice from a German friend, headed to a club called ://about blank. Yup, that’s its name. The music was awesome (great techno of course) and we had a great time. Obviously, I still have to check out Berghain and the rest of Berlin — be a proper tourist. I can’t wait to go back. The city gave me a good vibe.

• Prostitution is legal in Germany. I knew that, but like just for the record and your information. Okrrr?
• So back to the ReeperBahn. There is a street on which no women are allowed. On this street you can window shop for prostitutes who are beckoning you with various calls like “Eine frage…” (One question…). All the women that I saw looked like porn stars: big boobs, crazy curvaceous bodies, unnaturally uniform skin tone. If there is a legit place to get fucked for money, this seems like it.
• ACHTUNG! I’ve heard from various European sources that foreigners will not be allow in Amsterdam’s cafes (places that sell weed) after the new year. So get here and hollar!
• Whilst In SF is a funny tumblr that describes typical SF situations with gifs. Turns out there are two variations for Dresden, When You Live In Dresden and When You Really Live In Dresden.
• TU Dresden has the 2nd best Mechanical Engineering program in all of Europe. That’s what someone told me.
• Cynetart is a festival of computer-aided art in Dresden. I missed a lot of the weekend events, but hope to catch some of it during the week.
• DINK: Double Income, No Kids. “When we were DINKs…”
• Nivea is German (wut?!) and headquartered in Hamburg.
• In northern Germany, some people speak Plattdeutsch or Low German, which sounds like German + Dutch + English. There is a chain bakery shop in Hamburg called Dat Backhus, which I think is “Das Backhaus” in Plattdeutsch.
• Glüwein is hot spiced wine. It’s delicious and a wonderful way to warm up. And an excellent way to get a hangover.
• There is a thing called a TreeWalker, which is designed to facilitate document traversal for HTML. It’s been around for sort of a long time and it looks like it’s really performant. It weirds me out that I’ve never heard of it.