Humboldt Sweatshirt

Joan wanted a sweatshirt from Humboldt for Christmas, so I went to the little store in the Main building where sweatshirts are sold. Humboldt does not, as far as I can tell, have any school colors. The sweatshirts come in blue, red, maroon and possibly some other color (gray?). Most of the versions have a stripe with a small icon of the university seal: a profile of the brothers Humboldt. I was about to take one of these when I found a blue version that had the seal full size, much like the marvelous University of Chicago sweatshirt that this one is to replace, where the University phoenix fills the whole front.

What is curious is that the sweatshirt is made by a standard American firm. That seems somehow disappointing, as if I expected a true German product stitched to exacting standards by Gastarbeiter from Poland or Turkey. Probably this sweatshirt, like its US counterparts, comes from China or some country nearby.

potato salad

The usual US version of German potato salad is (I think) a Bavarian varient with vinegar and bacon. I've known for as long as I can remember that that was not the only form of potato salad in Deutschland. My American grandmother, whose cooking tended to follow the Germanic traditions of her own mother, made potato salad with mayonaise, as is often common in the US.

Today I bought pre-made potato salad in the market and discovered that the key dressing was neither vinegar nor mayonaise but creme fraîche, which is certainly delightful, though potentially hard on the arteries. I wonder whether this is a Berlin specialty, or north German, or possibly something imported from elsewhere (France? Denmark?) that has become as German as Turkish "Döner Kebab".

Buying bedding

I bought bedding for the bed in the new apartment today. I had to do this without actually knowing how large the bed really is, and without knowing exactly what Joan would like by way of decoration on the cover. As far as I can tell, what I bought was a comforter that is probably single-bed size, which was virtually all there was. The local practice, if the Guest House is any indication, seems to be to put two single-bed sized comforters on a double bed. This means that the very bright modern art cover I bought may only cover half the bed, which might look distinctly odd. But I don't really know for sure. The size I bought was 135 cm by 200 cm, and I think 200 x 200 is standard for a double bed.

I also bought a towel. That was easy. A bath towel is clearly labeled as bath towel and looks bath-towel size. If only bedding were so simple.

A busy week

This week has been unusually busy. I have not been home for dinner at a normal time since Monday. Tuesday was the Berlin Library Colloquium, where some of our students (and others) were reporting on their experiences in Korea at the International Federation of Library Associations. Wednesday was a dinner with colleagues, including one from the computer science department who teaches in our Institute (and is also very agreeable). Thursday was a meeting that the university president called with all the Institute directors to talk about the excellence initiative. And Friday was dinner with dear friends from East Lansing who now live in Baltimore and just happened to be in Berlin.

These days were not just long, but packed with meetings. Wednesday, for example, I was supposed to have a 9:00 meeting with a friend and colleague that I forgot about until 9:30. At 10:00 was a meeting about long-term archiving. 11:00 was a meeting about a project with the US Embassy. Then I had lunch with the friend and colleague whom I had neglected earlier. A meeting about curriculum planning came next, followed by the Institute's council meeting, which ended just in time for me to get over to the meeting of the council for the Philosophical Faculty I (to which my Institute belongs), where we heard a talk by a candidate for a Habilitation (the 2nd level German PhD) and voted to grant the degree.

Perhaps this explains why I have not kept up on the blog. I hope next week is quieter.

I spent last week at the International Conference on Digital Libraries in New Dehli, India. The transit worked perfectly (kudos to KLM), the organizers had someone to meet me at the airport at midnight on Monday and to take me back for a 1:30 AM flight on Saturday. The accommodations were comfortable, the restaurants good, and I met a number of delightful people. Nonetheless I am happy to be back home in Berlin.

I say home with some deliberation. Berlin feels like home even though I have often said that home is where the wife is, and Joan is not here yet. But Berlin was part of my childhood with stories about my father growing up here. My grandfather lived in Berlin when I was a young man. I did some language training at the Free University as a student at Earlham, and then came back here to do a significant part of the research for my doctoral thesis here. I did research in Berlin for the first article I wrote for Library Hi Tech. In some sense have more past here than anywhere in the US except perhaps Chicago. Home is where the past is. Perhaps that is why I was so pleased to get back.

It helps, of course, that Berlin in beautiful. This picture is of the lights of Potsdamer Platz as I walked back to the catch the S-Bahn after a visit to the paintings gallery.

I did have a few adventures in India. I came back in the middle of the day on Thursday to discover water leaking from the bathroom ceiling. The guest house promptly moved me to another room (they even did the packing and carrying), but it took a while for my toiletries bag to dry out.

Earlier in the week I sat outside at tea time on Tuesday with the dean of an Indian Library school. After we stood up I discovered that the local birds had left my blue suit thoroughly spotted with droppings: not quite the ideal sartorial conditions for impressing foreign colleagues. I proceeded to make the spots worse with a wet paper cloth in the WC that added large white smudges to my tasteful pinstripes. Happily a towel back in the guest house cleaned up most of the mess. Or at least so I think. The suit definitely needs a trip to the cleaner!

Purchase agreement

Yesterday I went to a lawyer's office on the far west side to sign the purchase agreement for the apartment at Bartningalle 9. It was an area that once had quite large single-family houses and have now become offices. The lawyer was on the second floor. I arrived needlessly early, since I was unsure how long the transit would take, but the seller was there even earlier. By an odd coincidence, he and I are both leaving town soon: he for Namibia, I for India. He is a very decent person who lives in another apartment in the building (he bought this one for his sons some years ago, and they are now gone).

The lawyer came precisely on time and started on time even through the real estate agent was not there (in fact she was downstairs watching for me and eventually phoned to find out where I was). An important point is that the lawyer is not merely a lawyer, but a notary, which carries a whole different significance in continental than in US law. Here a notary does not merely certify a signature, but also acts as a neutral broker who explains the terms of a contract while he literally reads it out loud.

I asked numerous questions during the reading as if to show I was trying to understand the document I was about to sign. I know he mentioned the amount we had agreed upon (that's important) and that there was some complex issue with garden space that had to be mentioned but has no (apparent) importance (hmmm...). He particularly wanted me to understand that the purchase of the apartment was in "as is" condition with no recourse afterwards. he also asked the seller if he had in good faith disclosed any problems, such as water damage that was hiding behind a picture. The seller claimed complete honesty, which I think is true (we'll find out).

In the end I signed, of course, and the seller signed too. I didn't think to ask for a copy, but the seller asked for one at the last minute as we were leaving. That's when we found out that what we signed was essentially just a blank form (it was the last page with out names) and the Notary still had to make changes to the draft before printing out a final version to which he would attach our signatures. Clearly this is nothing more than standard practice, but it does seem to require a lot of trust in the notary.

As regular readers of this blog can see, I have been a bit less consistent in my entries lately, not for lack of interest but simply for lack of time. Next week I will be in India at the International Conference on Digital Libraries. I will report on that when I get back.