Short and squatty

Some of you know that I have some peculiar traits. One being that I have an inability to be in the presence of sunflowers. Particularly the gangly and garish kind that loom over sidewalks, threatening to eat young children. I get quite uncomfortable just at the sight of them. Then there’s my unwillingness to eat orange flavored candy. This involves dumping a bag of Skittles or Starburst or what-have-you, only to discard anything resembling the color. I will even go as far as eating only the non-orange segments of a gummi-worm. Next, most of you know that I do not eat nor like chocolate. May not seem silly as the other two idiosyncrasies I mentioned, but when you think about it there are probably only 1% of the world that feels the way I do about it.

Well, another one of my silly quirks is that I quite enjoy and find supreme humor in short and squatty things. Examples being Smurfs, small, wide-mouthed ketchup bottles, 10oz soda cans, etc. and I’ve been lucky enough to encounter these things during my travels.

Admit it. You love them too.
















These guys are the Mainzelmaennchen for Europe’s largest TV station, 2DF




















Found in Christine's host family's bathroom.














And my favorite...a men's bathroom sign.

Berlin, Round 1

The nice people of Rotary know how to show their American guests a good time. We've been wined and dined like royalty and getting VIP treatment wherever we go. It's been a pretty sweet first trip to Eurpoe. Although we are in exchange to the Rotary district in the state of Hessen, they thought a trip to Berlin (which is outside their district) was a must-see for all visitors to German and we agreed.

But unfortunately, the trip was a whirlwind and we did not have enough time to see what we wanted to see and enjoy all the things we saw. However, there are a few things that I came away with from this short trip to this incredible city.

1) I have never been more emotionally charged by a city in my life.
2) Smoking seems to be more popular that Starbucks.
3) I am oddly intrigued by the currywurst, but have yet to try one.

Luckily for me, I will have another opportunity to enjoy more of what Berlin has to offer when Sean joins me in just 20 days (yes, I am counting the days till his arrival) when we will get to leisurely stroll the streets, stopping for many Berliner beers and currywurst along our way.

Manners, shmanners

Simply stated, I ate my f-ing french fries last night with a fork and a knife. Yes, I literally cut them and placed them in my mouth like it was steak. Worse yet, the fries came in their own little bowl and I had to serve them to my own plate using a seperate fork and spoon. Unbelievable, people! Your recycling center has better technology than Google, yet for some reason I must use 20 pieces of flatware to get through one freaking meal! I don't understand.

More Spärgle

Just so you know, I am now keeping a count. I am at 8 courses of this crazy Spärgle business in just 6 days of travel. This is NOT what I signed up for. Where's my shnitzle? I haven't had any of that!

However, I may have neglected to mention that it is also strawberry season here. You don't see me complaining about that! I have probably had this more often than you-know-what. Plus, their beer and reisling seem to never be out of season...not bad, eh?

(Don't worry, fellow California residents. The berries are much better in Watsonville.)

How about some broccoli...

Apparently it’s asparagus season here in Hessen. Not just any asparagus, but the white kind that is harvested from underground before it grows above the earth. The Germans explain this vegetable as a very complicated and unique event that comes only once a year, however, they have no idea that we, in the U.S., can practically get white asparagus at any time because you can just grow it without sunlight. Same difference, no? Anyhow, Sunday evening at dinner, I was introduced to this local delicacy. In all honesty, it was just “ok.” Quite overcooked but drizzled with a special buttery hollandaise sauce. Meh. Don’t get what all the hoopla was about but I went with it nonetheless. Then for lunch the next day, the hosts served us their beloved "Spargel,” which is white asparagus and ham, a traditional German favorite. Granted, the asparagus was a bit better but each serving is like a pound’s worth and I was quickly reaching my limit. Well, little did I know, that evening I would be having asparagus quiche with our reisling wine tasting at the famous Robert Weil winery. I was starving after our 2-hour hike through the Rheingau seeing castle after castle that I had to force those bits of asparagus down in order to fill my belly. With the humidity, we have all been sweating like mad and every now and then I would get this gut-wrenching whiff of this vegetable - and we all know how urine is affected by the stuff. Ugh. Then, of course, as you might imagine, I continued to suffer as this trend progressed. Yesterday, at our first Rotary club presentation was proceeded by a prepared meal of asparagus and ham. In the evening, we were treated by the Germany GSE team with a dinner of asparagus and ham. At this point I’m thinking to myself, “this has got to end.” Perhaps there might be some reprieve from these edible spears in the near future. But SURPRISE, what do you think was served at lunch today at our second Rotary meeting? Oh yes, that’s right. F-ing white asparagus. That’s SIX meals in a row. SIX! There’s no telling what these people might do tonight for dinner.

Joint Commission, where are you?

A large part of this program is to be able to spend some time observing you profession in the culture you are placed in. This morning, I had my first opportunity to do so. My host padre, Axel, took me to a local hospital he used to be a department head at. We toured around and I could tell he was popular and well-respected by everyone. We first went to a surgical ICU, known here as an anesthesia ICU, and then we went to a Cardiac ICU. My first observation as we strolled through were that some employees were wearing sandals with their scrubs. I was unable to discern if they were medical professionals or administrative staff as everyone was wearing white scrubs, however, does that really matter? How completely disgusting is that? More importantly, what a terrible fashion statement! The other disgusting thing I noticed was that the windows either were opened or could be opened in every patient room. Some of you may not realize what a big deal this can be, but imagine this: you are a comatose patient and your mouth is propped open because you have a ventilator tube going down your throat - then a fly/spider/caterpillar decides to come in for a visit and establishes itself on your face while you are completely unawares...you get my point. The thought of it is absolutely revolting. Of course I immediately pointed this out and the doctor didn’t seem to thing this as an issue. Hmmm.

But not all my observations were negative. Each doctor I spoke with was incredibly sincere and friendly and willing to answer all of my silly nurse questions. They seemed genuinely excited to discuss such things with me. I found out that in the anesthesia ICU and cardiac ICU, it is the anesthesiologists and cardiologists that run the units respectively. The latter is interesting because I noticed the cardiac ICU was mostly filled with non-cardiac ICU patients. But it was explained to me that the cardiologists are seen as the most knowledgeable of specialists and therefore can handle these complex medical cases. Also, I was enlightened to the fact that the doctors not only run these units, but they are responsible for the ventilators as well as bed assignments! They appear to have quite a bit more responsibility and are more interactive in patient care than the doctors I’ve worked with. Which makes me wonder why American doctors hold the stereotypes we know so well.

Deutschland Willkommen

My day started off in San Francisco. I woke early to finalize my packing and then off to the dog park for one last Porter-Jasmyn bonding session before my departure.

Sean was lucky enough to finish with his work early so we spent the afternoon having lunch at Koh Samui and the Monkey (perhaps my last Asian meal for 6 weeks - the horror!) and then off to the Paragon where we had a cocktail to help me relax before the red-eye flight.

After a sad good-bye to Sean at SFO, I was off to start my Germany adventure. The flight was a direct shot to Frankfurt and was a good 10-11 hours. The flight was mostly uneventful, unless you count my new onset of restless leg syndrome (which I attribute to my paranoia of getting DVTs) and waking to the sticky, cold feeling of soda being washed over my feet. Yup, the lady in front of me decided she would go ahead and knock her can of pop onto the floor where it proceeded to saturate my feet in a syrupy mess. No matter. I continued to watch my cheesy romance flicks, wolfed down greasy plane food, and managed to survive the flight.

Customs was practically a joke as I merely handed my passport over to be immediately stamped and to baggage claim I went. No questions asked. I've had harder times crossing over the Mexican border (where you push button which triggers a stoplight that determines whether or not you will be searched - a lottery, if you will) or the Canadian border (where you undergo an FBI-like interrogation revealing your deepest, darkest secrets in order for them to allow you through).

The German team was there to welcome us and escorted the US team to Hotel Oranien, in Wiesbaden. Here we were pampered with our very own rooms filled with Bvlgari bath products and stunning views! After having a relaxing, tasty dinner in the hotel, the German team took us to a local festival just a few blocks away where beer was aplenty and strawberries were soaking in wine and champagne.

A natural ham

I'd like to follow-up the previous post with something more Sean-positive. A sort of yin and yang, if you will. There are times when I will describe his absurdity because it's either funny or just because I want to embarrass him. (He's a good sport). But this post is to express how proud he makes me and to brag about the amazing talk he gave at Webvisions over the weekend.

Honestly, I do not know a more articulate and poised person when it comes to speaking in front of a room full of people. His talk was so comfortable and natural that he just inspires you to learn about whatever he is talking about...even if it is about "ubiquitous computing" and "passion agnostic social networks." He presented with grace and got the audience thinking beyond tangible topics and perhaps more in depth than they even imagined. I guess that's what happens when you put a computer science/english double major behind a lectern. He's compelling and I'm not the only one that things so.

You can see other not-so-biased positive reviews on his talk here and here and here. And you can see his slides here along with Sean's frog blog about his presentation.

Plop

During our weekend in Portland, Sean and I got to spend some quality time with his family. We cooked dinner for his grandparents, mom and sister...complete with baked potatoes (thanks Judi), salad (thanks Judi), fine wine (thanks Judi), asaparagus (which I severely overcooked), and tasty petite filet mignons.

(Ok, granted, Sean and I didn't really do much, but it was a meal together as a family, nonetheless.)

Grandma's always know their way to a grandson's heart and GiGi Jackson had fresh baked pumpkin pie at the ready - Sean's favorite.

Whipped cream is his usual paring with such a dessert, but there was none to be had so we "settled" for the local Umpqua vanilla bean ice cream instead. Sean confidently volunteered to manage the ice cream using an ice cream paddle (not a scoop, mind you) to dole out everyone's servings.

Let me preface the rest of this story by saying Sean has never been good with utensils. He has this uncanny inability to spread condiments, particularly whipped cream cheese on bagels, and chopsticks were not his friend until recently (despite having had an Asian partner for years and years).

Ok, with that said I'll continue. Here he is at the ready with his ice cream paddle. He digs into the new container of ice cream. He goes to loosen the large serving and...

...over his shoulder. The ice cream flew over his shoulder.

There's something to be said about being really motivated to do something...but there's always room to exert some self-control, right?

And if that wasn't enough, he reaches down to pick the ice cream off the floor, raises it over his head like a sacrifice to the gods, and demands with utmost sincerity, "WHERE DOES THIS GO?!?"

Where does this go? As if we, his family, were keeping some secret dirty-ice-cream-hiding-place from him.

He promptly gave up scooping duty and focused his attention on the pie.

webvisions 2007

I am currently sitting at the Oakland airport awaiting my flight to my beloved hometown.

I don’t really need a good reason to go home to Portland as the city is a good enough reason in itself. However, I not only have the pleasure of visiting one of my favorite cities EVER, but I get to go to my first geek conference to boot!

What?

Yes, that’s right. A geek conference. Some of you know that I refer to Sean’s web conventions with this moniker. You know, those big conferences where web peeps alike can converge and talk about, what else, but the webernet and technology!

So why am I drawn me to such an event? Well, I am very proud to say that Sean will be speaking at this particular geek event and will be representing his company, a top-rated design firm called Frog Design. People are actually paying to watch him speak! And I get to go for free!

He’ll be presenting tomorrow at the Oregon Convention Center. For those of you interested in learning more or reading about his topic, you can find more info here.

He rules, doesn’t he?