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A bit of the wall near
the Canadian embassy
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Time flies when one is sabbaticalling in a foreign land. Today marks a complete month in Europe with most of it in Berlin (just the
one trip to Vienna thus far but that will change soon). I had my first interviews for the project--it took a while to get started, but now the schedule is filling up. And I got to present the project to the Hertie folks. Oh and more walking and gawking and touristing.
Usually, when I travel to a national capital to do fieldwork, I am there for a week or two, I try to fill up my schedule before or as I arrive, and then scamper around to meet as many people as possible. This trip is different, of course, since I am here for three months this year and then again three months next year. So, I prearranged an apartment and other living details but mostly waited to arrange the interviews until I got here. Just before I started to get frustrated, I started getting appointments for this past week and the upcoming weeks. I had an excellent conversation with a German air force officer and with a defence attache, and people have started to shower me with the names of interesting people to meet. So, I will be doing coffee somewhere tomorrow (Sunday) with one such person and then my Monday will be quite full. I have, of course, preconceptions of where Germany will fit in this project, but have already heard that some of that may be a bit off. Good--I like learning.
Speaking of learning, I presented my project to the Hertie folks. They have a colloquium every two weeks, so I was invited to share my research, such as it is. The project is in its very early stages, so the feedback can and will be most useful in directing the project. I received a lot of very good questions, some of which we had not thought about. It was a very helpful experience, and I hope to be able to do it again next year and see if we have made much progress.
I stayed in character and betrayed my character in the same day. I saw this and ran away. No, most of the milk here is in cartons. I haven't gotten milk in a bag, although I have sometimes bought shelf-stable milk. I still prefer to buy cold milk, but the shelf stuff was fine. The betrayal was that the highly rated cookie store near me is vegan. I had one wildly overpriced cookie, and it was good. I won't be going back mostly because of the price. It was about 60% the cost of an amazing doner kebab sandwich I had a few minutes earlier, so I know where I will be investing my food splurge Euros.
I did do a spot of shopping as a need a luggage strap for my huge suitcase for the trip back in May. So, the Mall of Berlin was tempting but not for the goods but because of this:
Yep, a three story slide. If I wasn't wearing my nice clothes (I was in the neighborhood for an interview), I would have done it. Maybe next time.
I am finally making progress on writing up the South Korean case study which is a mass of contradictions. I have been doing some CDSN stuff--podcast recording, meetings, reporting. So, the beat goes on.
I have been most successful at binging stuff--Masters of the Air is done, The Gentlemen was good except a meh ending, Damsel was a fun princess versus dragon (quite an excellent dragon) tale. I have slowed my Buffy watching because, dare I say it, I don't find it that compelling. I think my daughter will disown me.... oh well.
But in the next few weeks, the rhythm will change. I will get on the road (or rails) more as the Humboldt folks have a meeting for us awardees in Bamberg, which is famous for smoky beer. The following week I head off to the Alps (which will require planes, trains, and automoboiles) to see how Euro-skiing is different from my experiences elsewhere. This year, I am doubling the continents where I have skied as I had done North and South America (Chile) in previous years, and Japan/Asia in January. Very much looking forward to the next new skiing experience.
I will be spending this afternoon checking out a new (to me) neighborhood and food market. Hope all is well over there.
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