Chuchi Chäschtli

... is something like a small kitchen box and the proof that Swiss is not German! It is a cute language that sounds a lot like coughing and almost everything ends with -li, a minimization that is so typical for this beautiful  small country.

Lucky me, I have two amazing friends in Switzerland who took outstanding care of a poor flatlander like me. They took me up to the Jungfraujoch (aka Top of Europe!!). This magnificent place is a saddle between two of the highest mountains in the Berner Oberland the Jungfrau (Virgin) and the Mönch (Monk). Like everywhere in Switzerland the train gets you there. It goes through the mountain for roughly 50 minutes with two stops where you can look out windows that were placed in the famous Nordwand of the Eiger and on Monk´s southside overlooking pure ice and snow. The train ends in 3500 m (11482 ft) above sea level beneath a scientific lab, a tourist restaurants and observation points. You can actually go out and feel the frosty wind and icy temperatures. ...

You don´t really feel the height until you start walking around too fast and taking steps. It is bizarre, your heart starts beating fast, you are out of breath in no time, your circulation gets a little messed up and you feel a little drunk. So you really have to go very slow and enjoy the scenery. It is amazing. The Aletsch-glacier starts right here, everything is white, white, white.... Impressively there were ski-tours starting where I had trouble to catch my breath while walking. It is pretty dangerous to ski on glaciers because of the crevasses but it looks really fun with all the plain white snow, slow descent and nobody around.

Once back down on at the Kleine Scheidegg (2000 m) I was forced to ski too!! Well, I have to admit it is fun and I grew out of kiddy-hill in no-time. ;-) Since, I have never been on skies like these before it was hard to get used to at first but it was so much fun and I wish I could have gone down with the others instead of sharing the rather flat plateau with kids that where not even half my height and did a better job then I did. Well, easy with these short skies they had. My friends had a blast especially when I fell and couldn´t get up. ....

The Kleine Scheidegg is what I always imagined a ski-place in the alps must look like. Little trainstation, no cars and huge mountains. There were sweet restaurants in old houses with great homemade food (nothing like real swiss cheese in this world) and lots of relaxed fun people skiing up and down the mountain.

Despite all the fun it is visible that there is lots less snow then there is usually. The slopes are prepped every night with huge snow cannons. And being lower then 1500 m there almost no chance anymore for a decent snow cover. Climate change is a serious and visible issue in the alps. A lot jobs depend on the snow in the winter season. The perma-frosted ground in the higher alps is starting to melt, releasing debris and strong thunderstorms cause a lot of wind but mostly water erosion almost every year now.

What is amazing though is that in supermarkets you will find a lot regional food. Switzerland protects its agriculture by restricting imports. The food is very expensive but well worth it. It is of very high quality and supports regional farmers and therefor the countryside as well. Of course it might be easier and cheaper to import and use the positive effects of trade but the loss of diversity, originality, quality and therefor parts of their identity will follow for these people here, so why not spending more on food and saving on cars (e.g.)? Trains really take you everywhere here and swiss-like .... always on time!

THANKS to A&S and good luck on Swiss Jr. !!!

Aging Tree-wise

Every branch tells its story about laughter and tears, worries, pain and happiness. when a tree is young it grows well it becames tall with big juicy leaves and soft branches who stretch out in every direction, curious and fearless. but then there comes an exciting though fierceful yet sometimes dreadful time of adjusting towards conditions of limiting influences. Fighting with the wind, bearing the drying sun and staying alive through the frost, just to battle even more - zillion enemies and competitors of alike and different nature. Only to become really beautiful, wise and strong, growing personality and character to withstand ever repeating dangers, adjusting that inner nature towards the outer conditions. The roots deeper in the ground providing a safe base, the inner branches strong, though mature and sometimes  grumpy, ready to hold climbing youngsters and extra big towels. The outer ends still looking for the extra bit of sunshine but with different ambitions -  careful, thoughtful but not less curious. After a while it all comes in balance and the roots just provide as much as needed above and only a certain number of leaves is useful to keep up the life cycle and yet expand as needed. In a long time from now it´s all wrinkly and odd schaped and strong roots deep down holding a whole world together by providing an all integrated habitat itself. 

Sun rises, sun sets and rises again, it won´t change any time soon if astrophysicists can be trusted.

happy birthday!

Wilhelma

I did have some fun down south. There are places almost everywhere I go that ease my mind instantly. They all have to do with trees. You will find some kind of forest-botanical-garden-arboretum anywhere you go. So this might be the most beautiful place in Stuttgart: the Wilhelma. It´s actually a botanical and zoological garden at once. Of course some King needed a summer-pleasure-house in the late 19th century and it started as a fancy collection of exotic plants, pretty hip at that time to do so (till today dendrologists haven`t changed a bit, they don´t have gardens, they have (art)collections ... knowing every plant by name and birthdate). 

I was amazed by their display of magnolias. It may not be the broadest variety but the setting was soooo beautiful. A "Swabian (Schwäbische) Alhambra" !! It is set up as typical oriental garden with a wall around, cross paths and lilly pond in the middle. Despite the fact that magnolias are not a common interior of oriental gardens it was magnificently arranged. There are some ancient magnolia trees there. Unfortunately I was too early for their bloom. This one is called Magnolia x soulangiana 'Amabilis' ...

But the Camelias are blooming now. If there is a botanical garden that shows them near you: go now! The one in Berlin has as superior collection. They are in the tea-family and have extraordinary perfectly ordered beautiful flowers. I was fascinated by this one since it has curly edges, pretty wild for camelias. It is called: Camelia japonica 'Nioi-Fubuki'

Well, but so much for boring plants they don't do much according to your needs of fast action. There were also cute animals out there and since it is becoming spring soon you could feel something going on here, let me tell ya. These two were just about to do it, but then she seemed a little disturbed (maybe my curious camera). She just snapped at him and he rolled off of her. It was really fun to see how difficult it must be for them according to their physiology. :)

Well and don´t ask me about those two. Love doesn´t know rules.

It will be another great sunny weekend. But I have to write papers and work. :( Well, this pace has an end in March. I only need to survive a couple more weeks. And at least I get to run tomorrow morning by the sea. What luxury...

Take care!

HappyHappy

The train took me to Stuttgart yesterday, where I purposely  chose a hostel to stay although it was a work trip and I could have also gotten a decent hotel but hostels are much more fun. After a near death experience yesterday - my iPod and I were separated for about 20 minutes without knowing of each others whereabouts - I tried forever to be happy in this city, which I really dislike. I thought I need to be in a good mood to pursue my work. I have important meetings today and tomorrow. Well, it didn´t work. I still don´t like being here ....

I woke up this morning at around 4 am. I dreamed of something that really gave the creeps, so I was pretty depressed all morning. And then I found this article on HAPPINESS!! There is a whole scientific community working out how you can be happier! Why? To make us depressed! It displays all the factors (income, education, political participation, volunteer activities and close relationships) of people who consider themselfs as happy and which you may lack off and that´s why you are not as happy as you could (should) be. 

The article is actually very interesting and tries to put it all in perspective. I especially liked:  "But if you have positive illusions about your partner, which goes along with the highest levels of happiness, you're more likely to commit to an intimate relationship." :) 

It also showes that not the happiest of the happy ones are the most driven. I know people who are constantly reasoning things in life, asking questions and trying to make an effort to improve their life and parts of the world, thereby achieving a state of mind and knowledge that is only to admired. But some of these are truely on the more sad side of life, if not constantly but more than others. Why is that? I think first of all, these people are able to see things that aren´t right, which if present all the time and forced to care about by your inner core, can be pretty depressing itself. Because I guess the question is: where to start and how to do it. And second pretty much as a consequence of first, it is pretty exhausting. Brain cells need relaxation too! Watch people who you consider depressed in a safe environment relaxing for while and I am pretty sure they will be just fine after a while. But it will happen again...  (I am excluding people who might have a real clinical condition.) I am only saying I guess: don´t think you have to be happier if you are just fine it will all come naturally!! And don´t let others rule your needs for happiness since it only displays their inability to deal with your emotions.

And by the way, get a life, when starting to think about how to be happier! Get busy with something, improve your life in a sustainable way, try to change eating habits, energy use or activity levels. Get into a cycle of activity and rest and don´t panic if you panic! It is perfectly normal.

"But maybe, just maybe, the single-minded pursuit of happiness as an end in itself, rather than as a consequence of a meaningful life, has finally run its course."

Merheba

My dear friend Ann-Marie is back in Turkey and continues her beautiful blog:

http://amershon.edublogs.org

iyi aksamlar!

SEALS!!!

So far, the yacht habour is home to seagulls alone but soon there will be not only boats here but also SEALS! The university of Bonn is opening a research station at the yacht habour "Hohe Düne", that is across the big city- harbour entrance from Warnemünde. In April they want to bring in the animals. They will study their behaviour and orientation in the water. That will be so cool. Seals are awesome and amazing ... ;-)

Otherwise this was the first really warm weekend, sunshine all day. It was spring and I tried to enjoy most of it somewhere outside or close to outside since my computer works better inside a cafe. I had to work a lot, because I´ll be travelling next week. It will be really hard to focus on work in the summer when the beach is so close. hmmm. Well, we´ll see about that when it´s time to do so. Maybe I should work at night, sleeping is overrated anyway. I love to live here. 

J 

Jantz toll!

Another blog to read! Well, this one is probably more for me to write and let go of my thoughts. So it is up to you to follow them or not. But instead of bombarding all my friends with emails of stuff I found interesting I might as well use this medium to let you know what I am thinking about, what I might work on and who inspired me. 

It is difficult and strange to be far away, new town, new infrastructure, new people. Although there is a phone, it is not the same so I miss talking the way i used to. But on the other hand I like the experience of adjusting and change.  It somehow makes me think a lot which of course only provokes more need to talk....

Anyway, since I live out here I am very much into food, nature, society and the whole WILD world out there. I guess I have always been like that but now I kind of see a path. I read a book that´s called "Wild" and is truely refreshing down to earth about what nature really is (pretty dirty). I had a discussion about the emergence of nature and sociology. And I saw a movie the other day that was amazingly beautiful and probably describes my search pretty well (not that I would ever do the same): Into the wild!! A young man leaves everything behind and tries to live in the wild world. The experience of just being you and knowing what you are capable of, what your physical needs are and how you biologically fit into this world, where the edges are and how unsustainable nature really is. What makes you move that´s not socially deformed? I liked the idea and of course the beautiful pictures too. But like I said before, I wouldn´t go as far. Way to scary for a city-slick but perfect for distant admiration. :)

The other thing that really made me happy today was that Michael Pollan spoke on TED. I liked his way of talking about food. Food is such a socially integrated topic that we always forget about what it is really there for! It keeps us going. That´s it. And because we have enough we can choose from we always choose what we like the most and thereby influence what we get tomorrow (although it is called marketing today - Darwin was right! We are selective just like any other creature.). But what do we like today? It is still in our genetic patterns. We are no less programmed than a bee which goes for a specific flower first.  But since our lives are pretty detached from our biological habitat, there might be a gap between what we need and what we think we need. So we don´t choose the best apple out there for a decent snack midafternoon, we like it processed and aroma-enhanced mixed with spices and sugar, surrounded with baked dough. 

call it a night!