It's warmer but the "Kalte Krieg" is still raging

It snowed heavily for an afternoon yesterday. Here is a picture showing the snow outside our flat.

Then it stopped in the evening, and came the sleet. My German colleagues keep telling me that Karlsruhe is the second warmest city in Germany (Freiburg im Breisgau is the warmest) and that snow rarely sticks to the ground for longer than a day...

By this morning, the temperature has risen substantially. It is still hovering around the freezing point, but Glenda doesn't think it's bone-chilling anymore. It may still take some time before the snow that has accumulated on the ground to melt (or get washed away by the rain when it eventually comes).

The "cold war" is still raging. Germany has yet to receive any natural gas from Russia, and Slovakia is about to re-start its nuclear plants, which were shut down as a condition to join EU in 2004.

Ice-skating outdoors

It was moderately cold, and we went to the outdoor rink in town center today. The rink is small, but the kids had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures of the kids at the rink.

das Wetter ist schön (und kalt)

The weather is nice and cold (sunny and a balmy -14C or about 7F). My German colleagues have been telling me that I picked one of the coldest winters to come for my sabbatical. It is not so bad. I kept telling Glenda that Sudbury, Canada, where I spent a lot of time working on my experiment is much colder.

Russia shut off its natural gas line to much of Europe on Tuesday. Russian gas amounts to over 40% of Germany's annual demand. There is enough reserve here, so rationing is not likely in the near future. But Austria is already drawing on its reserve and rationing may begin soon. Serbia is in a worse situation, and the Germans are providing them daily supply. Bosnia is also asking the Germans for help.

USPS - USeless Postal Service

This shows the status of Gabriel's and Jocelyn's application package for re-enrolling at our neighborhood school in the next school year. It was sent by registered mail from a post office in Karlsruhe, Germany on December 15, and arrived in New York the very next day according to the US Postal Service record on the web (Deutsche Post is not known for its efficiency). Then it took 11 days to get to a post office in Oakland, which is less than 5 km away from the Oakland Unified School District's placement office, and it has been stuck there since.

I called a phone number that I found on the USPS website. Apparently, the post office is waiting for OUSD to go and sign for it, and I couldn't convince the service representative to arrange for a delivery. Doesn't USPS deliver any more? The application deadline is January 15.

Fortunately I took the effort to have the application digitally scanned before posting. I actually sent an electronic copy to the placement office the day I mailed the package. I contacted the office again and explained this situation. It is unlikely that OUSD will send someone to the post office to pick up the package, but it will print out our electronic submission in lieu of the originals. Thank you, Mr. B.!

Unsere Kinder im Schnee spielen

We woke up to find fluffy white snow covering the plaza across from our flat.

The kids were so excited and kept nagging us to let them play in the schnee all morning. Their plea went unanswered until we finished running errands.

It was a good time to let them release their energy by mid-afternoon. We went to the balcony of the guesthouse (which has a fair size and a high wall, and I didn't have to chase them down if we were to go to a park). After some instructions (these Californian kids didn't know that they had to pack the snowballs), they had great fun for over an hour.

When I told them that we had to leave, Gabriel yelped "Was?" ("What" in German). I wonder how much German he knows by now.

Driving permit

Tomorrow is Epiphany (Heilige Drei Könige), and is a public holiday in Germany. This means a lot of people are taking today off as well. Before the day of the three kings visiting baby Jesus, I had to go take care of our driving permits.

Getting a driver's license in Germany is a lengthy, difficult and costly process. For locals, they have to go to driving schools (Fahrschule), take mock exams after mock exams, take real theory and driving tests, and perhaps one to two thousand Euros (or more) later, they will get a license. For those who want to spend less money, to get a license more quickly, or have difficulties getting a license in Germany (such as those who have their licenses revoked after DUI citations), they may go get one in Czech Republic or Poland, which issue licenses that are recognized within the EU.

Those arriving in Germany with a valid US or Canadian driver's license may or may not need to take the tests before they can drive legally. If they stay for less than 6 months, nothing needs to be done (i.e. tourists without an International Driver Permit can still drive legally during that period). Those who plan to stay for longer than 6 months can trade in their Yukon, Northwest Territories, Wyoming, South Dakota...driver's license for a German one without any further testings. But if they come from the big provinces or states such as British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, California, Texas, and New York, they have to take some combinations of theory and practical tests. The German authority seems to value skills to maneuver around moose, bears and other forms of wildlife over those to navigate treacherous landscapes among faunas (in the form of pedestrians) and predators (in the form of cyclists) in concrete forests. (The real story is that there are bilateral agreements between different states and provinces, and not between federal states).

The gray area is for those who live in Germany for more than 6 months but less than a year (which is our case). We could get an extension of the 6-month grace period up to a year (for a fee, of course). Two months ago, the foreigner service office at my lab drafted a letter to the licensing authority to request for such an extension for Glenda and me. About a month ago, I received a positive response in writing and a fee of 40€ will be levied for each request. But there was no information on how to pay the fee!

Since I still have not received further instructions, I decided to go to the licensing office and pay the fee in person this morning. The scene at the office was similar to any DMV office in North America - people were chain-smoking outside the front entrance, while long lines were formed inside. After getting bounced from the information desk to another office on another floor of the building, I was told by a very friendly lady that I would receive an invoice in the mail in the future.

Wenn (When)? Perhaps in the middle of January, maybe in February, but she didn't know...

viel Glück für 2009!

Candy stores are selling marzipan pigs (and lots of them) around this time of the year. I learned that the pig is a symbol for prosperity. In fact, a German idiom "ich habe Schwein gehabt" ("I have had a pig") actually means "I was lucky." So getting a good-luck pig for the household is a new year tradition in Germany. We didn't get
one for our flat, as it is unlikely that any good-luck pig has the power to reverse the (mis)fortunes in our retirement investments.

Good luck in 2009!

Le dernier jour: Paris - traveling to Gare de l'Est station then Karlsruhe

Our train would leave Gare de l'Est station at half past eleven this morning, so we left the hotel around ten o'clock. We were surprised to find that Métro was still free this morning (it was free last night due to the New Year's celebration).

The city of Paris was probably a mess this morning. We changed Métro trains at the Châtelet station, perhaps one of the busiest subway stations in Europe. It smelt like one giant urinal. Glass from broken florescent lamps were all over the passageways between different subway lines (i.e. parts of the station were not lit). But we managed to find our way to the connecting subway train.

The situation at Gare de l'Est station was much better, albeit some of the arrival and departure monitors were not working. The ones in the main hall, where all the passengers from Métro would arrive at, were not working. Bonne année!

We finally found a few monitors that worked and stood next to one of them to wait for the announcement of the track where we would board our Karlsruhe-bound train. Why wouldn't the French train company SNCF schedule this weeks in advance, similar to what Deutsche Bahn does? Je ne sais pas.

When the monitor announced that we would leave from track 5, we headed toward the TGV train parked there. Once boarded the train, we had a hard time finding our seats. The train interior designer decided that it was a good idea to give each seat two numbers, and one would be applicable for each journey depending on the train's direction of travel. The applicable seat number would light up for the journey, except that this lighting system was not functional for our journey. We just so happened to have the extreme seat numbers (i.e. the seats that would be at one end of the car if the train were traveling in one direction, or at the other end of the car if the train were to travel in opposite direction). Being a physicist I decided to choose the coordinate system for the seating plan of this journey (and avoided the hassle of moving).

Other than these minor snafus in France, the journey back to Karlsruhe was an orderly one.

Ringing in the New Year on Champs-Élysées

After we put the kids to bed, Glenda and I went for our New Year's celebration. No worry, my in-laws were asleep in our hotel suite with the kids.

We went to a cafe off Champs-Élysées for a quick drink and dessert before joining the crowd on the famous boulevard. Some restaurants on Champs-Élysées were charging an obscene amount of money for their (exquisite) Saint-Silvestre menu. For example, you can get a view of the crowd (and police in riot gear, and stores boarded up in preparation for the worst, and no view of the fireworks, while thousands of people peeping through the window to watch you enjoying your Saint-Silvestre feast) for merely 189€ per person here (and that's before drinks).

We were on Champs-Élysées, equidistant from Arc de Triomphe and the giant Ferris Wheel at Place de la Concorde. The police had cordoned off the boulevard as a pedestrian-only zone. There was not really a countdown, but we knew 00:00 hr came when the Brits around us were all cheering and dancing in a circle (just like how they would do it outside football stadiums around the globe, which you have all seen on TV). Older folks brought along bottles of champagne (and glasses), which were popped open by the time the Brits were dancing around the circle in opposite direction. Now, this is an alien concept for North Americans: drinking alcoholic beverages (without a brown bag covering the bottle) in public area!

There was supposed to be fireworks in Paris, but Glenda and I only saw glimpse of it from our vintage point. That didn't matter, as this was our first celebration sans kids for some years now.

Just as we were about to leave Champs-Élysées, the riot police got into action. Perhaps the barricade was not able to hold the raucous crowd outside the Louis Vuitton flagship store, or the boarded up Nike store? We don't know, as it was a good time to leave.

Bonne année!

Le sixième jour: Paris - Musee d'Orsay

On our sixth day in Paris, we decided to go back to the Musee d'Orsay. Our attempt to get inside was unsuccessful the previous day so we wanted to try our luck again. We got to the museum a little bit earlier than the day before, but we were still greeted by a sea of people who had already lined up for admission. Since it wasn't raining this time, we decided that the wait would be tolerable. And actually, we didn't really have to wait for very long. Again, the museum's security told us to go inside after they spotted us with our children. Those munchkins can sure come in handy sometimes! Here is a photo of the museum's exterior.

Once inside, we feasted our eyes on the museum's spectacular interior. The Musee d'Orsay was converted from an old train station with clock towers on two sides of the building. Alan had proclaimed that whoever did the interior design of the museum was a genius (that was before we found ourselves on sets of staircases and escalators that took you from the very top floor to the very bottom - and none of the floors in between). Here are some photos of the museum's interior.



We perused through some of the special exhibits that were located on the ground floor. We checked out the Pastels exhibit first, thinking that Jocelyn would enjoy the pieces. Unfortunately, Jocelyn wasn't too impressed by the pieces so we went into the adjacent salle to look at the Picasso / Manet exhibit. The focus of this exhibit was on Pablo Picasso's reinterpreted versions of Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner Sur l'Herbe (The Lunch on the Grass). Jocelyn is a fan of Picasso, so she enjoyed those pieces more.

By the time we were done with the Picasso / Manet exhibit, it was time for lunch. We ventured up the second floor to dine at Le Restaurant. The dining room at Le Restaurant was absolutely beautiful, with opulent fixtures that bring French palaces to mind - to my mind at least. My mother instantly fell in love with this place, and offered to treat us to an expensive lunch.


After lunch, we went back down to the ground floor to look at the statues.

Then Gabriel became quite excited when he recognized this statue of the Little Prince from his My Little Orsay picture book.

I bought the book for him about four years ago, the last time we visited the Musee d'Orsay together. Seeing this statue jogged his memory and this trip to the museum instantly became more entertaining to him. He then started to roam around the halls to see if he could recognize other pieces that were in his book. Interestingly, we left the book in Oakland so it's been at least four months since he last saw the book. And even when we were still in Oakland, he read the book less frequently as he got older. I was very surprised that he was able to recall these pieces so readily. Here are some photos of some of the other pieces that he recognized.


What was truly amazing was that he recognized Compotier, verre et pommes in Maurice Denis's Hommage à Cézanne and asked why it showed a group of gentlemen were huddling around Paul Cézanne's painting.

After an afternoon of exploring the museum, we decided it was time to leave and grab some dinner. As with our trip to the Louvre, we didn't have time to see everything. But that will just give us something to do on our next trip to Paris, oui?

Dinner at the oldest restaurant in Paris

Glenda and I had a date tonight while my in-laws looked after the kids. This was our first date since we moved to Europe and we decided to go a little bit extravagant.

We went to Le Procope, which was founded in 1686 and is the oldest restaurant in Paris, on rue de l'Ancienne Comédie for dinner. Luminaries who had dined at this restaurant in the past three centuries included Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, and Benjamin Franklin.

We arrived at this cafe at the time of our reservation punctually. We were led to a table in a dining room of red and gold decor with magnificent chandelier lights. We were given an English menu (hey, I speak some west-coast Canadian French, not Quebecois, and Glenda speaks some French of unknown geographic origin). On its menu, there are items such as calf's head stewed in 1686 style or coq au vin. The price is not excessively expensive if you don't order individual plates. The prix fixe dinners are 32€ after 19:30 hr.

Glenda and I ordered a couple glasses of champagne, some Brittany oysters, then a carafe of vin rouge and two prix fixe dinners. The salad with smoked salmon, escargots, and canard (duck) were all great. The duck was so tender that it was perhaps the best duck I have ever had (honestly).

When the bill came, it did not give me a heart attack. There are certainly haute cuisine in Paris that would cost a fortune, but the cost at Le Procope is similar to a moderately fancy night out in the Bay Area (including the babysitting cost). And this was our first night out in four months!

Le cinquième jour: Paris - (freezing) rained out!

It was raining outside today. Since Jocelyn had such a great time at Musée du Louvre yesterday, we decided to go to Musée d'Orsay today.

We arrived at approximately 11:00 hr, and all we saw was a sea of umbrellas at the plaza outside the museum. It would be miserable to wait in line with the kids in winter rain for an hour, so we changed our plan to visiting Musée Curie, where Madam Curie labored for decades, instead.

After lunch, we found our way to the Radium Institute on rue Pierre et Marie Curie, where the museum is. Our excitement from finding the museum was short-lived as there was a sign at the front entrance telling visitors that the museum was closed for its winter break. Duh! I should have known better as all academics are vacationing at this time of the year! Gabriel was so disappointed that he wept.

It was still raining and the weather was miserable. Gabriel and I decided to return to the hotel, and the rest of the gang decided to go shopping. Once we returned to the hotel, Gabriel began reading his Pocket Scientist, a Christmas gift from Glenda's cousin Eugenia, while I caught up with some physics preprints that I brought along.