Personalized Gifts

Daniel carefully carried a handmade gift for Jeremiah's new baby girl all the way from Heidelberg to Palo Alto. Eva told me how she went about making the gift, the materials she used...

From Eva and Daniel, I also learnt of other such personalized gifts made for friend's wedding etc. I saw Daniel taking time off to work on a book for another wedding...Then I heard Peter, Thomas doing something similar for their friend's wedding.

In today's world where time is precious, people get too busy to care/ think about people, a group of friends get together to put together a memorable, personalized gift for one among them for a special occassion. Serious effort is pitched in by people to get this going...Isnt it fascinating?

In my country and culture, we have long forgotten the warmth associated to personalized things. We are caught by the retail bug. A gift can be something as impersonal as a gift voucher from some big store, or something off the shelf which a million others can also buy...

In Germany, these friends have a lot of fun putting together such personalized gifts. They are run like 'projects'...with clear roles, responsibilities etc. Not only does it bring together the set of friends, it also makes the gift so special for the receipient.

Again, something I'd like to imbibe :)

Houses...(of natives)

Some of my friends have been gracious enough to invite me over to their houses, houses of their families. I feel honoured that they feel comfortable enough to have me in their most 'personal space.' This insight into their space is very interesting.

I notice that 'apartments' living is increasingly becoming homogenous in this 'global village.'

However people who 'own' their 'houses' (not apartments) go all out to give their house a character. Houses I visited have a noticable collection of art in there. Each collectible is carefully positioned in the most apt of places. Some of these are old memoribilias, some are things collected during their travels. Each very interesting and mysterious (as if they all had some interesting story to tell).
Many of these 'houses' have a garden, this too extends the character consistently. For some it is 'zen' inspired, for others its more rustic and wild.
What totally blows me over is most of these families do all of this themselves. With little professional help. It is so admirable. First, to have such exquisite taste to pick the right things for their house, place them in the right places, pick the right sort of plants, take care of them...its all a lot of effort.

There is a beautiful sense of romance to create this character to their house, maintain it, and build upon this character interestingly.
I experienced how'overwhelming' a visit to the Baumarkt (place to buy stuff for the house) can be. There are endless options for the smallest things.
So I know exactly the efforts involved in having such a nice "home." No wonder it is said that Germans are very picky about their house. It is no wonder that while renting an apartments, it is totally bare - leaving all room for the new occupants to give it the identity they want to.

I admire the kind of passion and thought they put in to make their house a home. I do hope some of this rubs off on me while I am here.

'Made in Germany' tag

One very interesting thing I notice here is not everything is coming from China or India or some other so called 'developing' country.
Being a proponent of retaining local produce for internal consumption, I do feel good about this.
From traditional porcelain, pottery to bath towels, it is not uncommon to find a 'made in germany' tag. I am happy to already own some of these locally made products. What is also interesting is the quality tends to be so high and trusted by the Germans that many of them choose to only buy German brands.
To me this is a huge achievement for a country.

Up close with Chris Martin :)

November 2005 was when I first saw Cold Play live in Mainmarkt Platz, Mannheim Germany: The X&Y tour. This was my first concert in Germany, my first trip to Germany as an employee of SAP. I had gone alone for this concert. I stood somewhat far away from the stage, just enough to be able to "see" the band from a distance. Considering how good the band was even then, the venue was rather small . It was not totally packed either. There was more crowd at the SAP Arena that day for the ice hockey match. 02.09.08, I watch them live again - the Viva La Vida tour. This is my first concert in Germany as a resident of Germany, as an employee of SAP AG :). So much has changed (for the better) between then and now. This time the concert was in SAP Arena; It was sold out; The props much more professional; the band has ofcourse gotten even better :) The best part was, I got to see Chris Martin REALLY close!!! Thanks to the stage set up, the crowd definitely got their money's (a lot of euros) worth. I felt like a groupie at times!!! My admiration for this band, especially Chris Martin only increased last night. As the band took one of their breaks, as the crowd goaded them to come back, we suddenly see the flash lights on the 'seated audience' of SAP Arena and thats where the band performed their next song from - acoustic, with just a mike. So amazing!!! Towards the end, the concert became even special when they dispersed colorful papers cut out in the shapes of butterflies... I loved every moment of it!!!

My First big splurge

I never realized that a washing machine could make me happy :)
At the guest house, I did not have access to one. Mrs Fug insisted that I give her my clothes - she would wash and iron them for me. While its very nice of her, it made me extremely uncomfortable to hand my clothes to her, request her to wash them for me. This discomfort made me 'plan' how to wear my clothes, so I could easily seperate out the colored clothes from the white/lighter shades bla bla
I dont particularly like lugging my clothes to a publich laundermat :(; waiting for the clothes to get done...
When I went to Palo Alto, I felt so happy to have a coin operated washer and dryer on the same floor as my room :)

So as soon as I moved into my apartments, my first big splurge had to be getting myself a Washing Machine. I did some online research and discussions with colleagues, friends about them...finally bought an Electrolux EWF 12240 W. from Mediamarkt. They promised delivery and installation too.
The installation however didnt go too smoothly. Not their fault. The input and output points werent quite working in the bathroom. The delivery guys wrote down the valves I need to buy and left!!! Ofcourse they wouldnt come back to fit them for me!!! phew!! uuggh!! They told me I could get them at the Toom Markt. So I went down there with their list...and as suspected, nothing is sans choice here. Even the simple valve had some variations and my german was put to test there...
I had to explain to the guys the entire story - mediamarkt delivery guys finding a problem with the valves bla bla...finally, an (broken) english speaking boy came to my rescue. Infact more than rescue because he volunteered to stop by my apartments on his way home just to see what was the problem - what would be required. I was very impressed. After his inspection, he said he would return the next day with the required equipments to fix it. He especially came home the next day just to tell me he didnt have time to do this work for me...that he would come the following day!! Again, I was impressed...
Finally after 3 days of owning a washing machine, thanks to this boy from Toom Markt, it worked!!!


I could wash my clothes MYSELF!!! yay!!
It is unbelievably liberating :D :P

Jogging through Wineyards in Wiesloch, Baden-Würrtemberg, Germany

A couple of days after I moved into my rented apartments in Wiesloch, I decided to explore the area a bit by going out for a jog.
The small hill seen from my windows intrigued me, so I started to jog in its direction.
I soon found myself jogging on paths through wineyards. Grapes still hanging on them, the leaves a beautiful shade of green, almost translucent against the setting, evening sun.
It was such a great experience. After recultantly working up a 6kms running schedule on a treadmill (lack of aesthetic, hassle free outdoor environments in India) - this was an extremely welcome change for me. The feeling of running in such picturesque, clean, dust and pollution free paths free of honking cars is something to be experienced. It really motivates me to put on my jogging shoes, ipod and get on the road more often.
Some of these wineyards have a shop to purchase their produce. Wow! That was a special evening. In my solitude, I felt good about a few decisions:Firstly, renting the apartments; living in a 'town/village'; choosing Germany (europe) over USA :)

Kartoffelsuppe mit Zwetschgenkuchen (Potato Soup and Plum Cake)

I was in the "first" building of SAP...from way back in the 70's. Interesting experience.
People told me that the catering here was better than normal. I was looking forward to exploring what 'better' vegetarian food was instore for me. Among other things, there was Potato Soup and Plum cake. The combination sounded a bit strange to me. Starter and desert together? Potato and Plum together? But it did look very nice. Plus, I had to heed to the curiosity and try it.
On the lunch table, as I tried to find out more about this peculiar combination, I learnt that this was traditional German from Pflaz. (so I learnt)

This definitely gets into my list of favourite German cuisine.