Summer Trip 2016, #2 - Conferenceland

On Thursday, August 4, after stocking up on snacks at a Whole Foods (there's nothing like it for product depth and temptation near us in Germany) and buying a GPS to use in the USA, we headed out of Las Vegas on I-15. If you head northeast on I-15, you reach Salt Lake City. I used to orient myself there: Vegas or Boise. When you head southwest, you reach L.A.

We drove along the Mojave National Preserve. It's all pretty rocky and dry. Markus and Miriam slept. Somehow I had the right jet lag window to stay at the wheel for 3+ hours. Destination: Anaheim Marriott, adjacent to the Convention Center, opposite the Hilton.

Here's what it looks like when you take your American daughter out for diner breakfast after way too long in Germany:

At IHOP. Yes, that's a side of pancakes.

On Friday we began our primary missions for the Anaheim portion of our trip: Markus went to the Academy of Management conference; Miriam took Mary shopping. Technically, since I drive and carry the credit card, I take her shopping. But Miriam had already selected a nearby outlet mall for the day.

Saturday, August 6, was a peculiar time to be hanging out in southern California. It was the 12th anniversary of our son Simon's death. Almost every year, this date falls within the Academy of Management annual meeting. Sometimes we join Markus for the trip (although he's super busy with conference activities), and sometimes Miriam and I have been on our own. I've written about the anniversary on this blog before:

http://chapterthis.blogspot.de/2015/08/its-august-6th-again-11th-anniversary.html

http://chapterthis.blogspot.de/2014/08/simons-life-in-picture-and-song.html

http://chapterthis.blogspot.de/2014/08/anniversary-approaching.html

http://chapterthis.blogspot.de/2013/08/for-solemn-date-of-august-6-part-1.html

http://chapterthis.blogspot.de/2013/08/august-6th-part-2-second-time.html

This year was the strangest variation yet. For the last couple of years I've offered a fall writing seminar for PhD students at GGS. Based on that, Markus invited me to submit a session with him as a Professional Development Workshop for the Academy of Management: Writing in English for German Native Speakers. We were passed over in 2015, but this year the session was accepted. We had a lively group of 34 participants. So, I spent Simon's anniversary doing something new this year, and here's what that looked like:

Academy of Management
Professional Development Workshop:
Writing in English for German Native Speakers

In the evening, Miriam and I pointed ourselves toward Newport Beach. We arrived to find parking gridlock and nudged forward in the car as the sun nudged downward. We finally got parked and went down to the water. I did one of my favorite Simon rituals: I scratched his name in the sand with my hand, near the tide line, inviting the water to wash my marks away.

Newport Beach at sunset, Aug. 6, 2016.
The "M" in SIMON is in the "dry" sand near the running boy.

Even without a guidebook, Miriam and I found The Crab Cooker, seriously grilled seafood served on paper plates with plastic forks. We had a nice evening out together.

The moon over Newport Beach,
just after sunset. SoCal.

Walking in Munich with my teenage daughter

On the Friday of the four-day Christihimmelfahrt weekend, we enjoyed a sunny shopping day in downtown Munich. Christ's Ascension is a bank holiday in southern Germany, falling 39 days after Easter, always on a Thursday. The school calendar takes Friday off as a Brückentag--bridge day--to connect the holiday with the weekend. Since German shops are closed on holidays, this arrangement makes a nice combination of non-commercial time off and a couple of days with full-on commerce.

This year, all the May vacations are two weeks earlier than last year. Good thing May 1st (Tag der Arbeit, or Labor Day) fell on a Sunday this year, or we would have had even fewer days of school. As it is, the month of May reduces to one 3-day school week, one full school week, and two weeks off for Pfingstferien, or Pentecost. (The last two days in May join a holiday-free month of June. If you're counting, that's a mere ten school days this month.) In the USA, we're accustomed to getting "make-up" bank holidays when national holidays fall on a weekend day. Not the case in Germany. The days fall when they fall. Years that result in fewer paid days off are called Arbeitgeberfreundlich (employer-friendly, with the word for employer being "work giver"). Years in which the holidays fall on weekdays are called Arbeitnehmerfreundlich (employee-friendly, with a word that takes an interesting perspective: "work taker" for employee).

While walking on the cobblestone plaza with my daughter in Munich, I enjoyed one of the interesting conversations the two of us have these days (she's sixteen).

Mom: I love my flat red shoes, but they don't give me any support.

Daughter: Life is like that.

Mom: You mean, the people and things you love the most don't give you any support?

Daughter: No, I mean life is flat, and it doesn't give you any support.

Happy Mother's Day!

Big Store Paralysis

We've just come home from a late afternoon shopping trip. It's a Wednesday, so not a huge crowd day. First stop was the Toyota dealer in Heilbronn to test drive a Prius. Contrary to our Utah community, the German auto scene (especially in this more small town/rural location) is almost devoid of hybrids. You spot a lot of Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, and VWs, sprinkled with a few Toyotas, Opels, Peugeots, and Fords. You even see a fair number of Smart Cars, but I have yet to see a Prius out and about. Still, we happen to believe in the car's reliability based on positive reports from so many of our friends.

The big question for us was about the feel of the Prius on the Autobahn. Would we feel we had the power to maneuver and respond to the Autobahn's fluctuating speed demands? (If you've never driven on the German Autobahn, the main thing to know is that there are stretches that have no speed limit. None. Depending on your wheels and nerves, you can go as fast as you like. One big difference from US highways is that it is illegal to pass on the right (which I actually think is discouraged in the US, too, although you'd never know it from driver behavior). Thus, you stick to the lane that works best for you. Far right: trucks, exiting vehicles, and anyone willing to hang out at about 100-120 kilometers/hour. Middle: those passing the folks in the far right lane and hanging out at about 140-160 kilometers/hour. Far left lane: vehicles that approach like viciously determined bees. I have no idea how fast they might be going. 200 kilometers per hour is a good possibility. You don't "hang out" in the far right lane.)

So, how did the Prius do? Just fine. Compared with the Mercedes A-Klasse (our current rental car), it felt roomy, and the driver/car relationship felt natural to me. On the highway, I took it up to about 140 kilometers/hour. It has a bit of a guttural hum at that speed, but no sign of weakness. Markus also took a turn, and he may have gone up to a slightly higher speed. During our 41 kilometer test drive, we had an average gasoline usage of 5.2 liters per 100 kilometers (that's about 45 miles per gallon, according to a pretty cool calculator I found on the web).

Now we have to figure out what we want to do, as far as buying a car goes. We have some funds, having just sold two cars and a house in the US, but all of it is in dollars. Today's exchange rate of $1.4048 to the Euro is the lowest in the two months I've been here. Not exactly a good time to make large purchases here with dollars. And then there's the look and feel of the car. And three family members with opinions.

From the Toyota dealer we went to the pet store, where we had the chance to drop a quick 95 Euros on cat food, cat litter, and liner bags for the "litter locker." Sheesh.

After that, we headed to Media Markt, which is sort of a Best Buy, although I think the merchandise is even more bewilderingly displayed at Media Markt. We are in need of just about everything that plugs into a wall. We left our appliances behind in the States, with the exception of computers, printers, and cell phones. Everything else is market-specific, tailored to the 120 volts (alternating current), 50 hertz of the US electrical supply. (Germany uses 240 volts (direct current) at 60 hertz. You can convert power to change the volts, but you can't do anything about the hertz.) Good-bye microwave, blender, mixer, purée stick, food processor, toaster oven, vacuum cleaner, ice cream maker, waffle iron, griddle. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I had owned most of these tools for at least 15 years. Maybe it was time for new ones anyway.

So far, we have made the following new acquisitions for our German home: a washing machine (Bauknecht), a vacuum cleaner (Miele), and a steam iron (Tefal). Today's mission was to look into a mixer, purée stick, toaster (oven), and microwave. Only we ended up in the multi-level Media Markt, where, even if you don't want to, you can see 30 curling irons affixed to a shelf opposite 50 electric razors. The mixer aisle boasts more than a dozen options. What to choose? They all seem either large and heavy or obviously cheap and a little flimsy. Starting price around $45 for a reasonable mixer. Maybe it's the price that gives me pause: if it's going to cost something, I need to be sure it's a reasonable choice. And everything felt so clunky compared with the appliances I've recently left behind. Not sure I want any of them.

It doesn't take long for me to enter Big Store Hypnosis--soon, I can barely see, and it becomes impossible to keep the different products straight, let alone develop the sort of intimacy that can lead to actual purchase. Before long, I've reached Big Store Paralysis. My headache and I need to leave the building and its merciless light, avoiding eye contact with thousands of products that leer at me from the shelves as I seek the exit.

Large supermarkets have a similar effect on me. Let's not even talk about warehouse stores. I guess I'm the small retailer's demographic. I'm hoping there are enough of us out there to keep a few of these businesses alive. Meanwhile, I guess I'm saving electricity in my home life. If it isn't here, I can't turn it on. For now, that'll have to do.