One of my favorite things about summer in northern Europe are the extra longs days. During the week, I hardly even experience the darkness — trying to going to bed by 10:30 pm when it’s still somewhat light out and waking up around 7:00 am when it’s bright as day (yes, I require that much sleep). Even better are the 9:30 pm sunsets, don’t you think?
What’s your favorite part about summer?
In a country as dense as Germany (i.e., 585 people/square mile, as compared to the US’s 84 people/square mile), it’s no wonder that so much value is placed on having an outdoor space of your own. In all the apartment hunting I’ve done here — whether in Hamburg, Berlin, or Bremen — balconies are worth their weight in gold. They can be your oasis in the city and a relaxing space to soak up the sun (when she makes her rare appearance).
When I left Berlin last September, I left behind a beautiful balcony garden (not to mention the green thumb who tended to it). I wasn’t originally sure if I would want to try my own hand at creating a balcony garden here in Bremen — I am not known for my gardening talents — but the gorgeous spring has tempted me to give it a try and I honestly couldn’t resist.
The weekend before last, I visited the local garden store in town, picked up a few supplies, and bought flowers from the farmer’s market around the corner. I decided to start small and see how things turn out, choosing flowers that hopefully can hold up to full sunlight and wind: woodland sage (Salvia nemorosa), sandwort (Arenaria montana), tickseed (Coreopsis grandiflora), and a small plant with purplish-pink flowers that I don’t know the name of (help?).
By early afternoon, I had transferred the flowers to their own pots with new soil and granulate, and hung them on the railing. Even with a few bumps along the way (e.g., the hangers I bought don’t really fit completely over the balcony ledge), it was pretty painless and a pleasant way to spend a sunny Saturday. And they make a really wonderful addition to the space.
Now that the easy part is over, I’m looking forward to watching them grow. Wish me luck in keeping them happy and blooming!
Do you have a talent for gardening? Do you have tips to share with me?
A lot of my mental energy this week has been absorbed by having to renew my visa here in Germany. I let myself get worked up by all the paperwork and organization required, convinced that I will forget something totally vital. But there’s absolutely no reason for the worry because all of my experiences with Germany’s Ausländerbehörden have been totally fine. I dare say, even pleasant. When living in Hamburg, I took full advantage of the Welcome Center, which was pretty posh. And here in Bremen, the university has its very own Stadtamt on campus and the employees are extremely relaxed. In any case, they’ve decided to let me stick around for a while to finish my PhD. Makes for a great start to the weekend!
What did you spend your energy on this week?
Thanks to the Christian calendar, Germany has a lot of holidays in May and June. Last Thursday was one of them: Christi Himmelfaht — which I like to translate as “Jesus’ drive to heaven”, but is more commonly known as Ascension Day. All of that to say, everyone had Thursday free from work. And what should you do with a free day in the middle of the week? Why run in a relay race, of course!
Several teams of us from the university participated in the Bremen Staffellauf in the Faulenquartier. Every team was made up of four runners, each of whom ran the same 4.5 km loop along the Weser. I’m pretty sure there were at least a hundred teams participating — so not a huge race, but enough runners to be exciting.
As one of the slower runners on our team, I was the third slated to go. I was in the exchange area, casually waiting for our second runner to approach, and not expecting her for a few more minutes. Then suddenly she was there and I took off running — without having a chance to get mentally prepared, or make sure that my running watch had picked up a GPS signal. Oh well. My only plan was to run as fast as I could, and I didn’t need my watch to tell me that.
The course itself was full of twists and turns (some of them nearly 180 degrees), up and over ramps and hills, and even up a few steps. As per usual in Bremen, the wind was also out in full force. All of this made for tough conditions, but I gave it my all and kept my pace at a level so that it hurt. I really ran at the very edge of my physical abilities. Which was both awesome and totally humbling.
Since the number of runners wasn’t huge, and since the field was quite spread out by the time I started, I didn’t have to concentrate on maneuvering through crowds of runners. I could focus on my own run. Overall, our team finished in 1:14:10, in 5th place among the company teams.
Quite honestly, I haven’t run a short distance race in ages, and I certainly haven’t ever really run one for time. I was curious to see what I could accomplish, and couldn’t be more pleased. The course was a bit shorter than the advertised 4.5 km (about 4.25 km, I think), and I finished in 21:45 — for an average pace of 8:14/mile. Which is at least 25 seconds faster per mile than I’ve been able to run even during my speed training sessions. A little adrenalin on race day goes a long way!
The endorphins hung around for the rest of the day, convincing me to sign up the Bremen Half Marathon in October. I’m also playing around with the idea of a couple of other shorter races, but we’ll see. For now, I want to take a bit of a break from intensive running and maybe stick some more swimming and strength training into the mix. But don’t worry, you’ll certainly be hearing more from me about these adventures!