Harburg, Pants, Kiez, and Bikes

This past Thursday there was another party in the social room at my dorm, this time commemorating if not somehow celebrating the start of school for students at the local Bergedorf college. This was a great party because there were so many new faces from outside the dorm -- I met a number of cool people and got to know some earlier acquantances better.


Despite returning to my room at 4:30, I forced myself up around 10:30 to go look for some work clothes at a Hamburg builder supply store. Between my bike and two trains, it took my about an hour to get to the place, which was in the suburb of Harburg. The guy helping me, happened to be the same one who I'd chatted with at their Bergedorf (my city) location 2 weeks ago... as an American on an unusual quest I seemed to peak his curiosity, leading him to indulged my interest in German work clothes, and ultimately to special order a pare in my size (thinner and taller, aparently, than most German laborers).(Indicidentally, since I'm admitting to the rest of this somewhat nerdy purchase... he is selling them to me for the wholesale price).


Harburg is also the suburb where I spent three weeks on an exchange with a high school group summer of 2002, so it holds sentimental value for me. Biking through this city after ordering the pants, I was amazed how many even minor details I remembered about my time there... mostly places where I had spent a lot of time with my exhange partner and his friends. I made my way through the neihborhoods and eventually to a large lake in a state park I did not know was there. Morbid as it sounds, the other places I went biking was a large cemetary at which we had hung out in 2002. It is incredibly well kept up and each plot is lush with differnt plants and trees that create long shades hallways. there were also several less ornate sections with row after row of graves from the early 1940s. This was one of the wider car paths:
Saturday I went to the Hamburger Kunsthalle with anothe teaching assistent from the US. They had a broad mix of work from the middle ages to contemporary pieces, and a special show on art from China which was particularly interesting. That evening I met up with several other American for a couple beers at their apartment -- from there we went to the area known as St. Pauli, the Reeperbahn, or the Kiez, known otherwise as a redlight district. This area is completely full of people every weekend, so it is always a great place to people watch and dance free at several clubs.

At some point on Saturday I got an e-mail from one of the older teachers with whom I had connected in the previous weeks -- one of the more liberal, relaxed types whom all the students like. He invited me to go for a ride on his motorcycle along the Elbe -- once again, it was a bit rough getting up early, but it was a fun trip, particularly in the amazing weather we had.

..and Monday it was back to school and try to piece together a schedule with the English teachers; until then I'm still a little scattered.