This time last Saturday, I was sitting at home thinking of how to start the week's post. Not just start it, but also finish it. And put in the middle part, too.
The previous week had been good, if not pretty darn good, but somehow I was at a loss as to how to formulate some thoughts on to paper. Rather than waste away the Saturday sitting in front of the laptop, I got on with things and expected the thoughts to flow, eventually on to paper. No luck.
Sunday was not much better from a "sit down and bang out a post" perspective, but I made up for it by catching up on the domestic chores; the sheets got changed, the floors got hoovered and mopped, and orange oil cleaner had my bathroom smelling like a little orange grove.
This past week started well, and once or twice I announced to myself "I am all clean," in that way that a child says upon coming out of the bathtub. (Hey, it works for me). Monday evening was our first return to the Kiosk for the traditional Monday gathering. It was great to be back in front of Papri's Kiosk, but it was also a little awkward for us. For the past three months we had been gathering on a quiet plaza, where we hardly came into contact with anyone. The sudden contrast to suddenly having lots of people walking by on the street, as well as making purchases at the Kiosk was something that all of us commented on.
A big advantage of being back on the main street is the opportunity to see folks that (in many cases) we had not seen in some time. Sure enough, a couple that I know very well stopped to chat with us for a few minutes as they were making their way home. It was great to see them and exchange news, find out about the family, recent happenings, etc. This past week was technically the Kerb, which is a 414 year old festival that starts on a Saturday (last Saturday) and ends on a Wednesday. The Monday in between is usually a semi-quiet evening, but during Kerb, our Kiosk evenings always had a little extra something, especially since semi-quiet is a relative term. Mondays during Kerb have an extra little buzz.
Indeed, there were a fair amount of folks out and about on Monday evening. Pleasant weather during the summer months just allows an opportunity that people do not want to pass up. They want to be outside. Again, because we had gone so many months without seeing so many people all at one time, it required a little adjustment period. This also gave us more things to observe and comment on.
Take e-scooters, for example. These have been increasingly more popular in Germany over the past year, despite the pandemic. This summer particularly has shown an increased number of vehicles on the streets. There are several companies who offer the rental services, which effectively enables one to rent the scooter on demand, take it to wherever they want to go, then park.
I do not have a tremendous problem with this new "craze." It makes sense, is eco-friendly, and gives us something more to talk about. The issue I really have is with the rider's behavior. Last summer I was a little apprehensive about the number of accidents that would be caused, since my previous job had involved a manufacturer of such vehicles; Italy and Spain went first to market, and a couple of years ago they went through very similar challenges. But, I am still not talking about guys double or triple riding (which is illegal) or riding while intoxicated (which is also illegal). I am actually over those things.
What bugs me, is the simple disregard that the riders have upon arrival at their destination. They simply stop, and get off the vehicle.
That could be in front of someone's house door, or simply on the sidewalk.
This is my issue.
From our Kiosk vantage point that evening, we watched multiple people just abandon the scooter wherever the hell they felt like. This obviously creates a bit of a nuisance to those pedestrians who have to circumnavigate the bulky thing, which is equally annoying and dangerous.
As we were standing there that night, I was reminded of my childhood when we finished riding our bikes. From time to time, we might have arrived home needing to take an urgent trip to the bathroom, and because of that, we might have left our bike in the middle of the driveway or perhaps not in it's correct parking spot in the garage.
The obvious problem, of course, is when someone arrived home from work in a car (let's call him Dad) to find that he could not park his car in the driveway or garage, because someone left their bike in the way.
In my household, we had a few chats about things like this, and as a result, I did learn to think about my actions, and not least of all, on how to make sure my bike was properly parked.
I see the same opportunity on the streets of Germany. What is dismaying is that the (predominate) age group or e-scooter riders should KNOW better than to simply leave something lying dangerously as an obstacle in the pedestrian path of someone older, younger, or simply not paying attention.
Biking rules are pretty strict, and it is rather amazing how cyclists, of which there are many, take particular care to park (and lock) their bikes in appropriate places. What is hard for me to understand is that a cyclist is just as likely to park an e-scooter without this same level of attention and care. That makes no sense to me.
As you might have noticed, this topic bugs me. As we stood there Monday evening, we discussed our frustrations about the whole thing, and also recognized that cities and regions are also finding it difficult to combat the problem. One of the ideas being kicked around is to keep charging the rider if the scooter is not parked in a proper place. How to facilitate that is a pretty good question.
I finished the Monday evening not by solving the problem, but by talking enthusiastically with Ali about the start of the football season.
While I don't want to say that the e-scooter problem is ruining my life, I will admit that I was feeling a little down on Tuesday morning, but told myself to make it a good day. The work day did go well enough, and at 18h, I logged in to my online German course, which was restarting after a week's hiatus.
At the end of the previous week, I had received a message from the language learning company informing me that a new teacher was set to continue our courses. I confirmed with them that I still had six remaining sessions (at 90 minutes each), and while I am still a little irritated about how the previous teacher was treated, I was open for the next stage of this saga.
Well, it turns out that I was the only student present on Tuesday. I had no explanation as to where the other students were, but figured I would simply take advantage of the one on one session. The teacher was competent enough, but was located in another country. I had no problem with that, but was a little irritated that the instructor was not a native speaker. Despite the competence of the guy, I found it difficult to get engaged in the class. I prefer a very informal, personable learning experience, and this guy is the exact opposite.
Because we were just the two, I had sufficient time (all in German, of course) to explain how the previous class had been structured (rather unstructured, truth be told), and then proceeded to explain my background, my previous learning experiences, etc. Despite the fact that my German was almost flawless, it immediately became clear that he was simply going through the motions, and not listening to me.
I had just gotten through explaining that the class was almost through (we started in May), when he finally realized that we only had a handful of sessions remaining. The whole 90 minute session was kind of a stressful situation, since he wanted to do things his way without considering the current situation. In short, he did not have the ability to react and be flexible.
I was really hacked at the end of Tuesday evening, which did nothing but sour my mood. I tried to look at things from his side, and did concede that he had been called into action kind of spontaneously, and in fairness, I think he is the type of online language instructor that can be very effective.
Let us just say that we did not immediately hit it off.
As usually happens when things are bugging me, my body responds. I woke up Wednesday feeling like I had been kicked in the gut, and these tummy troubles found a way to stay with me over the next couple of days.
I met up with some friends Wednesday evening at the pub, and as enjoyable as it was, I could not help looking at things from the negative perspective. This would have been Bernemer Mittwoch, the highlight night of the Kerb. Instead of thousands of people getting absolutely blotto in the plaza in front of my house, it was just another summer evening. Ironically, I am no longer quite the fan of the huge gatherings, but I missed it all the same.
Thursday was a pretty rough day, and not just because of the one too many beers the previous evening. My stomach continued to act up, there were a couple of work challenges that intimidated me, and to top it off, I was set to have another session with a teacher who did not seem to listen.
I pulled it together, and logged on at the appropriate time, and was delighted that one of my classmates showed up. She is the other student in our group that has been in Germany the longest, and while she is a bit quiet, I did realize that she is rather clever, not only as a German student but also in her profession.
Of course, she had not yet had an experience with our teacher, so we went through another little rodeo, but as we finished our 90 minutes, I did feel better about the course structure. I had opened up to the idea that not every teacher is going to be the same, and my priority was to learn and get something out of the experience, which I did.
I celebrated with some beef taquitos and an episode of Inspector Barnaby (in German) before going to bed at the unusually early hour of 22h.
Friday morning, I woke up with that anticipation of "opening day." Football was starting up again, and because of the interest in television rights and money, most leagues now have one of the matches played on a Friday evening. Arsenal were scheduled in the season opener, against a small team that just got promoted to the top league after 74 (yes, that number is correct) years.
I started the day early, got my leg exercises out of the way, started working early so that I could nip out mid-morning to get a haircut. The work week was wrapping up rather nicely: meetings have been going well, and preparations for next week were also looking good. The weather was nice, although perhaps a tiny bit too warm, and I was looking forward to the weekend and the start of football.
My last meeting was at 14h with a couple of guys in the US. I decided that I would finish up a little early, so after our call, I made a quick shopping run, and then put myself in weekend mode.
As part of my Friday routine, I normally pick up some pizza, then decide whether to have a quiet evening on the couch with hot pizza and a movie, or spend a couple of hours in the pub, eating cold pizza a bit later.
This routine actually requires a bit of planning, as I tend to check in with my father on Friday afternoon or evening. Once or twice in recent weeks, no sooner have I phoned my pizzeria and placed a takeout order when suddenly my father is on skype. When this happens, I have to cut our call short so that I can pop down the street and pick up the pies.
Last evening started a bit more smoothly. Around 17h, Dad called, and I figured I could arrange for my pizzas after we finished. He and I caught up on the week's events, and we discussed the sad state of politics in the home state, where it seems they are determined to beat out Florida to see who can fuck things up the most with regard to health and safety of the people.
This is another topic that is really bugging me as of late, particularly since it stands to affect my family and friends. Although my father and I do not have identical views, they are very similar, and I am comforted to know that he remains in the more logical and pragmatic group of a seemingly increasingly divided state. I will take another deep breath as I write this: I respect people's opinions, but I do start to take issue with people making decisions that will put the health of my family and friends in jeopardy, for no reason other than sheer selfishness.
I am tired of having to explain to German friends why things are so out of whack in the country where I grew up, and the exhaustion comes not only from having to repeat myself, but the fact that I simply do not understand why it is so out of whack. I am very capable player when it comes to gray areas, but when something is so black and white, come on.
But, Dad and I found more positive things to discuss, and at the end of our call, I made my phone call to my favorite pizzeria.
No answer.
After two more attempts, I suspected that they were closed, likely on holiday, which is kind of normal for Italian places in Germany during the month of August.
To be absolutely sure, and with plan B already prepared, I walked the few minutes up the hill around the corner to the place. Sure enough, closed for a week of holiday.
Plan B was immediately put into action, so I walked back down the street, stepping over no less than 4 e-scooters randomly lying on their sides on the sidewalk as I headed for my alternative pizzeria, who were just back from vacation, themselves.
I placed my order at the window, then stood at a table just enjoying the Friday early evening. No sooner had I lit a cigarette in the sunny start to the evening, out of nowhere a wind blew in, and suddenly it was raining buckets. It started literally out of thin air, and caught EVERYONE by surprise.
It was just going six o'clock, and about every patio table on the Berger was filled with folks out starting their weekends. Those people still on their way home from work normally jealously look at people sipping their beers at all the establishments, knowing full well that they will be right back outside after they change out of their work clothes. Last evening, most of them were sprinting by, as you do when you fruitlessly try to outrun a downpour.
I have been there myself, and was grateful that I was already in my casual gear, which was getting fairly soaked even as I stood under one of the umbrellas covering a table. Water was collecting quickly, I noticed my shoes getting soaked, and I managed to see some guy in a suit do a reasonable reenactment of an Olympic hurdler as he navigated the various e-scooters parked (loosely) haphazardly on the sidewalk.
This little pizzeria does a fair amount of business, and they are pretty quick. I expected about a 15 minute wait, and indeed, that was all it took. The rainstorm lasted 20 minutes, which meant that I, too, had to paddle home with my pizzas in tow.
No sooner had I walked inside my flat did the rain cease, the sun came back out, and I checked to make sure no water had seeped through the pizza box.
Klimawandel?
Absolutely.
Since I have been in Germany I have never experienced a situation where the weather forecast was 100% different than reality. I understand that most meteorologists around the world are never going to get it right all the time, but this was crazy.
Slightly soggy, I decided to go ahead and have a few slices of pizza. Arsenal were not due to play for another three hours. I was in that quandary where if I went directly to the pub, I would consume way too many beers BEFORE the match, which was something I wanted to avoid. On the other hand, I knew that a bit of pizza and some couch time might just lure my body into a "ooh, we are not going anywhere tonight." situation, which I also wanted to avoid.
In the end, I let my Arsenal buddy down, and switched on the match from the comfort of my living room. The excitement of opening day quickly wore off as the team never really got going. Their freshly promoted opponents clearly came prepared to the game, and put on a very good display. They thoroughly deserved their victory. I did watch until the end, trading messages with Erik and Chris, where the words "Oofta," and "It is going to be a long season," were thrown about with conviction.
So, I must say, it was not the way I wanted my evening to go, nor for my team to start their season, but hey, we know that we have to take it as it comes.
Part of me is glad to have the match out of the way, so that I can now enjoy the rest of the weekend, keeping alert for e-scooter obstacles on the sidewalk and sudden rainstorms out of nowhere. And I won't even have to worry about those when I do my German homework.
see you out there
bryan
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