In fact, I have established some sort of routine for myself. I have purchased a fine italian perculator (a little metal pot for making italian espresso coffee), subject to jealousy of all creatures with a weakness for real coffee – not the instant stuff you get at the vending machines spotting the university hallways. Every morning, I make my coffee in the kitchen getting curious looks from my neighbors. In particular, a chinese guy living right across the hallway from the kitchen seems to be dazzled by the sight of the unknown machine and the aromatic smells coming from it. Then I usually have class in the morning followed by lunch at the awesome university refectory. In the afternoons, I either have other classes or work on the European Law Moot Case, trying to find a way to convince the European Court of Justice of the existence of illegal state aids in the fictive country of Rohndor (Rohndor is a federation consisting of two federal states: Rohan and Gondor.. :/ ). In the evenings I either go out for a drink in town or hang out with the guys from my hallway, watching movies cooking or playing music with guittars, percussion and singing. Yesterday, about 10 forreign students gathered to experience my cooking skills. Remember the Chicken-garlic-lemon-soup I used to make in Brazil? Well, it turns out you can also make it with suspicious, nasty looking french beef instead of chicken. Anyhow, everyone liked it or was polite enough not to let me know that they didn’t.

Since I don’t have any classes on Thursdays, I dedicate the entire day (or what remains of it “when the night is gone”) to the European Law Moot. However, this Thursday I am going to start my sports class – fencing (you know, with swords and stuff! Me! They are giving ME a sword!). I always wanted to try that out – so why not on Thursdays.. I also plan to check out the Kendo class (Japanese swordfighting) on Friday. They say that the practice swords there are wooden…

Once, I have improved my fencing skills I might be able to confront Skippy. I gave him that name, since I don’t know his real name. Plus, I don’t know if it is male or female and the name suits him or her well. Skippy is a cute little squirrel that lives on one of the trees next to my window. In the beginning I took pleasure in watching it jump from branch to branch and hiding his snacks under leaves and stones. However, our relationship suffered from its infamous attempt to steal my sandwich – my LAST sandwich. I caught it in the act, sitting on my window sill and taking a hearty bite at my fresh ham and cheese baguette. I chased it away with loud screaming and clapping but it was too late – the Baguette had fallen into the mud. What angered me most was that Skippy never finished the Baguette off, although I did not bother to climb out of my window and take it away. I am considering retaliation.

Aix-en-Provence 14^th September 2008

The wind is changing. When I awoke yesterday morning, something was different. The warm and humid air had been swept away by the Mistral a cold, often violent and dry wind. The name comes from the Languedoc dialect of the provençal language and means “masterly.” After 2 weeks of terminology classes, I am afraid I had to disobey the master-wind yesterday.. but I am gonna come to that later.

Besides my preparatory classes, I am now participating in the European Law Moot Court, an international legal competition, in which students from mostly European countries engage in a simulated proceeding before the European Court of Justice. Representing the European Commission or an EU Member State, my teammates and I will have to prepare Memoranda for both parties and then travel to some country not yet disclosed to us for the regional finals. If we do well, we get to go to the finals before the real European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The case is interesting and my teammates are fine people. However, most of them are Germans from Tübingen. We all hope for many French participants joining our team.

In the past week I rearranged the furniture in my room (the desk is now under the window) and managed to get to know Aix-en-Provence a little better. I strolled on the splendid Cours Mirabeau wandered through the narrow alleys of the old town and paid €4.50 for a Cappuccino at “Les deux Garçons”, where famous painter Paul Cézanne probably paid less when he met up there with the novelist Émile Zola back in the day. I also visited the Musée Granet, a wonderful art gallery which has recently been reopened after 3 years of renovation and expansion. In most of these activities my friend Julian joined me, who drove with me to Aix from Tübingen and lives in the room next to me in the dorm. Almost every night, the Erasmus students and friends around them hang out in the park or go to parties in town. Luckily, everyone keeps speaking French in order to practice. Sometimes we also do something together during the day. Like yesterday, when we disobeyed the Mistral…

The first day I came to Aix I saw a massive white mountain, the Sainte Victoire, towering over the lush landscape surrounding the little town. I decided that I would climb this mountain, which had already inspired Cézanne, one day. The day before yesterday the upper half of Sainte Victoire was covered by rainclouds and its rough silhouette could only be surmised. Yesterday then the Mistral struck and the clouds fled to the sea. The blue sky was speckled by thick white clouds which were furiously being blown away from the master-wind and reluctantly gave way to the sun.

Fresh or rather cold air made me and my friends shiver when we gathered at the entrance gate of the dormitory compound. On our way to the mountain we stopped at a supermarket and stocked ourselves with loads of food: Baguette, cheese, ham, fruit. When we got to the foot of the mountain the distinctive mix of dry badlands, lush forests and dramatic cliffs typical for the Provence had already filled us with awe. When we then looked up at the mountain there was no way perceptible upon which we could get to the summit. But there was a path and we decided to see where it would lead us.

Very quickly it led us to the little Réfuge Paul Cézanne, were we happily enjoyed a marvelous brunch. Stuffed we continued our way up surrounded by the smell of rosemary and other herbs of the Provence. The view became more spectacular with every meter we ascended. The slope became steeper and at some point we had to start climbing. Some of my friends decided to turn around and the others kept walking and climbing up – the wrong way. Eventually we realized that we were on the wrong way. Me and Julia from Canada made our way up a steep slope covered with loose stones and dry, thorny bushes. We got to a point where we could either do some 30 meters of freestyle climbing or had to turn back for good. After much contemplating and after agreeing on the fact that the cliff we had to climb looked so dangerous that our plan seemed entirely unreasonable we decided to do it nevertheless. After a terrifying 15 minutes Julia, Julian and me made it up cliff. From there it was only a short and pleasant walk to the summit where we were rewarded with a magnificent view. In the evening about 20 people squeezed into my room and looked at the pictures of the day.

My classes are starting this Tuesday. I am very excited and curious about French Law School. My experiences are limited to the introduction for the Master Program on Friday – the first time I attended any lecture together with French students. Tomorrow I will work on the Eu-Law case and on Wednesday Anna announced that she will come and visit me. Those of you, who received my letters from Brazil in 2004/05 know that she is from Sweden and was working with me in the Street Children Organization in Recife, Brazil. In fact I haven’t seen her in a long time. Anyhow, I haven’t heard from her in a week or so. Ever since she has been to Brazil she has something Brazilian about her. So let’s see, when and if she will ever come to Aix

]]> http://zoodosworld.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/the-masterly-wind/feed/ 0 zoodo dsc01678 dsc01680 dsc01699 dsc01711 dsc01724 dsc01725 dsc01726 dsc01734 dsc01755 dsc01760 dsc01770 dsc01775 dsc01797 dsc01808 dsc01825 dsc01839 dsc01842 dsc01843 http://zoodosworld.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/like-god-in-france/ http://zoodosworld.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/like-god-in-france/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:37:52 +0000 zoodo http://zoodosworld.wordpress.com/?p=124 ]]>

Aix-en-Provence 4th September 2008

Breathless and already monitoring the time I have until the next class, I write to you from the south of France, the Provence region, famous for it’s spectacular landscape which has inspired artists like Paul Cézanne and it’s cuisine…

My last week in Rome was a lot of fun. On the last weekend, my girlfriend came to visit! We had a fantastic time walking through Rome and visiting the Vatican Museums, S. Pietro, the Forum Romanum and many other landmarks I had not seen yet. However, time flew by quickly and my girlfriend left on Sunday afternoon. Soon enough though, my old friends from school, which I had not seen for over 10 years, took care of me. We met several times hanging out here and there and talking about old times. It was not until that last week that I got to know real nightlife in Rome.

My flight back turned out to be a distinctly Italian experience. I sat next to an Italian couple, who were delighted when I offered them some chocolate. The guy started to talk to me, explaining that they had immigrated into Germany about 40 years ago and now have children and grandchildren, who all grew up in Germany. At some point he asked me which Italian Soccer Team I support. When I said AS Roma his eyes shone and he began telling me all the news of the club from the past years. In the end he even insisted on inviting me to his home, once I return from France.

Back in Tübingen, I was happy to see most of my roommates again. One of them is going to do a half year ERASMUS exchange in Nottingham, England. A girl, who works with fashion design, moved into her room for the time being. I rented my room out to a fellow law student from Spain, Loli, who is likewise doing an ERASMUS exchange in Tübingen. I got back to Tübingen on Saturday night, Loli arrived on Sunday and Monday morning at 5 am, it was already time to say goodbye. My roommates got up to say goodbye and my friend Julian and me took off with the car to France.

10 hours later, after a pleasant drive, we finally arrived in Aix-en-Provence. Particularly during the last hours of our trip the landscape had changed considerably. The cliffs and hills seemed rougher, the grass drier, the vegetation more mediterranean. In fact, it is almost as warm as it was in Rome but the breeze from the nearby coast makes it cool down in the evenings. When we got to the dormitories, we found ourselves in a compound of concrete apartment towers filled by many cheerful French and foreign students. To our great dismay, we had to stand in line for 5 hours to get our registration completed for the dormitory. When we finally got our keys and carried our luggage up to the first floor I had not even the chance to unpack anything, as a friendly Tunisian girl, who speaks German fluently, insisted on showing us the supermarket and to eat Pizza with us. At 1 am I fell onto my bed and slept like a baby.

The next morning, on Tuesday, I had to get up at 7 to register for my classes and for the university in general then I attended a welcoming ceremony for the foreign exchange students and in the afternoon I had to take a French Test :/ The rest of the day Julian and me tried to get food and some other important stuff at the supermarket. Since then, we have been busy, busy, busy. Every morning I have 2 hours of introduction to French law and in afternoon 3 hours of French language. In addition, I am now a participant in an international European Law Competition (European Law Moot Court), which will probably take most of my time during this semester.

Ok, I know everyone is interested in what my room is like. Despite the warnings I received from all sides about French dormitories, I must say that the room is quite all right. Of course, I had to do some cleaning and I will still have keep cleaning in the next days but all in all there are only 2 real flaws:

1. The room is on the ground floor. As a consequence, I cannot leave my window open when I am not there for security reasons. Furthermore, it is awfully dark in hear.

2. There is a disgusting smell, which seems to come from the cupboards and is ever-present in all rooms.

The kitchen is small but clean and modern. Yesterday evening, I cooked Pasta together with some Italian ERASMUS students. Now I am going to eat the left-overs and then I have to hurry to my French class!! The other foreign students are very nice. In fact there are about 90 students from about 50 countries!

Many hugs,

ant

(Pictures in the gallery at the bottom: More pictures, less interference with the text)

The past days have brought two rare reunions, one more or less expected, the other one fully unexpected. On Thursday both of my sisters arrived in Rome, coming from Berlin and Munich. As I was getting prepared to pick up my sister Victoria from Stazione Termini, someone Skyped me, claiming to be Carlo. I immediately recognized my old friend’s voice. I had not seen Carlo Martucci for about ten years and, to my great sorrow, lost contact with him. I had sent him a message online, which I did not really expect to reach him. He got to know that I was in town and explained that he lived just around the corner from where I am staying right now. We promptly arranged to meet in front of the Pantheon and soon fell into each others’ arms. I invited me to join me and my family for dinner and we took off to Termini.

There I met up with my parents, my sister Victoria as well as another old family friend my mother had met in town earlier J A merry crowd we all sat down in a rustic, down-to-earth street Restaurant and ate good Pasta. Soon a taxi stopped on the street next to our table and my eldest sister Carolina stepped out making the family complete. She is working for a bank in Berlin but is currently working in Munich for 6 weeks. Later in the evening I accompanied Carlo to his beautiful apartment where I also got to know his lovely girlfriend. We talked until well into the morning hours, he told me about his course of studies in architecture and showed me some of his work.

The next day my family and I made an extensive walk through Rome, starting off with an ice cream breakfast at one the most famous Gelaterias. In the afternoon we drove out of Rome heading to our friends’ farm in northern Lazio where we would spend the weekend.

Upon our arrival our friends, the Caponettis, were already waiting for us. They realized their lifelong dream of to “spend our life in the country: big family, greenery all around, horses, dogs and animals of all kind; many friends and guests”. I can only advise any traveller in Italy, seeking beautiful nature, Italian culture as well as hospitality to stay in this beautiful agritourism-hotel. We were also warmly welcomed by the dogs, horses and all the other animals on the large estate. The place is beautifully located in the Tuscania valley in which there are thousands of Etruscan (the pre roman civilization in the area) tombs and irrigation systems many of whom date back over 3000 years. The landscape is breathtaking. For the first time in weeks I was able to sleep … in silence … and soothing coolness. I had a little guest in my room that night: a scorpion. I have never seen one alive before. Since Scorpio is my star sign, I won’t forget this first encounter.

Saturday, we drove to Viterbo, a pleasant ancient town surrounded by medieval walls and once the favorite residence of the Popes. Later a good friend, who know my parents longer than I exist and is the godfather of Victoria came to see us, driving all the way from Bologna. Giorgio Caponetti took all of us to the neighboring estate, which belongs to a two time Olympic Gold medal horse rider. There the very friendly horseman showed us around ruins of a Cistercian monastery, which he is restoring with much skill and dedication. In the evening we were blessed with the famous cooking skills of Laura Caponetti for the second time. Another lovely evening with much talking and wine drinking, above us the stars and – to our great surprise! – A lunar eclipse. On Sunday, after a hearty breakfast, we took off to Rome driving on the Roman Via Cassia.

Tonight is the last evening my family and I will be together. Carolina has already left and Victoria will leave tomorrow morning. My parents also need to be on their way up north, towards Berlin. However, very soon there will be another lovely visitor, my girlfriend, coming to visit me for the weekend.

Rome is hot

The air is standing still in Rome and the temperature rarely drops below 35°C (95°F) these days. Thus my parents and I decided to flee from the heat and into the green surroundings of Rome, the Lazio region. In the morning, I was at the most counting on being confronted with Roman and Etruscan history but not with what awaited me at the end of the day..

Tivoli

Maybe Emperor Hadrian, who is said to have disliked the palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome, was feeling similarly exhausted by the heat and business of Rome: In the early 2^nd century a.D. he ordered a retreat, the Villa Adriana, to be built close to Tivoli (classical Tibur) about 30 km from the capital. Archeological traces of settlement in the area date back to the 13th century BC.

The city of Tivoli is a pile of houses nestled on top of a hill, the slopes of which are covered with olives, vineyards and gardens. The Villa Adriana is now a gigantic archeological site covering at least 1 km² of which much is still unexcavated. Back in time, the complex included palaces, several thermae a theatre, temples, libraries, state rooms and quarters for courtiers, praetorians and slaves. Today impressive ruins remain. Many buildings can only be surmised with much imagination.

Villa Adriana I

Villa Adriana II

Later we entered Tivoli itself and visited Villa d’Este, a UNESCO world heritage site and a masterpiece of Italian architecture and garden design. Cardinal Ippolito d’Este commissioned the house and garden on the foundation of an ancient Roman Villa in the 16^th century. It’s garden has always been famous for its fountains and dramatic use of the natural slope. Ever since, it has been a major source of inspiration for European landscape design.

Villa Adriana III

Villa Adriana IV

Thoroughly exhausted by all the visiting, we drove back to Rome. Spontaneously we decided to take a look at our old neighborhood, Balduina, which had been our home for 4 years from 1993 until 1997. We were pleasantly surprised to see that “La Dama”, our favorite local Pizzeria, was not only still existing but was even open. Upon our arrival the owner and his daughter immediately recognized us. We fell into each other’s arms and were promptly facing many known faces as well as new ones.

Villa Deste I

Villa Deste II

After a fantastic Pizza and a draft beer, we drove to our old house. It was amazing to see our street, our house and the neighborhood after all these years.. Knowing that Gina, la donna della casa, now lives across the street, we rang her bell to see, if she was there. Gina had always been the good soul of our house. More than a caretaker of the house, she had always taken care of my sisters and me when my parents were gone. She is one of the best cooks I have ever known in my life.

Pizzeria La Dama

Pizzeria La Dama 2

We rang the bell.

Gina

“Chi e?” (Who is this?).

“Julia!”

“Chi e Julia?”

“Sono Julia con Michael, Anton, Victoria, Carolina”

“JUUULIIIAAAAAA!! Non ci posso credere! Aspetta che arrivo!”

Gina opened the door and with much excitement welcomed us into her apartment. She incessantly offered us chocolate, ice cream and other sweets, showed us pictures of us she keeps on her bedside table and was overwhelmed by this sudden and unanticipated visit. Then she began telling us the news of the neighborhood, those commonly known and those talked about only in secret.. It was already late when we left her house, promising to come back with at least one of my sisters next week…

Forum Romanum

Trying to get kicked out of the museum..

I don’t know if it was the heat, the noise on my street or all the memories stirring in my head but last night Insomnia caught hold of me again and I could not sleep.

On Sunday my parents and I went for another excursion. First we drove to Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the pope, spectacularly overlooking the Albano lake. Later we drove through many picturesque little villages and made a stop at the Nemi lake. Back in time Roman emperors built large boats on which official functions took place and which were subsequently sunk to offer them to the gods. A museum exhibits what has been recovered from the depths of the lake and not burned in World War II.

Residence of the German Ambassador to the Holy See

Tea and Cookies!

On Wednesday, my father’s birthday, I took a day off from work and visited the two most famous museums in Rome: The Villa Borghese, and the Capitoline Museums. Both of them feature masterpieces of Roman sculpture and European paintings. In the afternoon we were invited for tea in the German Embassy to the Holy See (Vatican), an architectually stunning place. Tonight my sisters will arrive and after a short tour through Rome tomorrow, we will take off to an old farm/hotel close to Viterbo, where we used to go for holidays back in 1997..

San Pietro

Wednesday evening my parents arrived in Rome. Recently, they have done a lot of travelling in Europe by car. This time as well, they drove here all the way from Sofia, Bulgaria, making stops at the famous Meteora monasteries in Greece and in lovely Ancona on the Italian Adreatic coast.

Da Baffetto

I was more than happy when I saw them on Piazza Navona and was finally able to put my arms around them. I am even happier knowing that next week both of my sisters will join us here in Rome and make the family complete – a rare happening. After showing off with the beautiful apartment I am staying at we went to the arguably best Pizzeria in Rome: Da Baffetto. The place used to be a meeting point for politically active Romans in the 60s and has by now been so prominently featured in all sorts of travel guides that it can no longer be called an Insider-tip. When going there one should expect to stand in queue for quite a while (we were lucky and waited only 15 minutes) and be hurried away quickly when having finished eating… Anyhow, we left stuffed and happy.

Today I had the honor to meet the director of UNIDROIT, Prof. Kronke and went to lunch with him and my father. I now have a specific task for my internship here: I will write a paper comparing the UNIDROIT Draft Convention on Substantive Rules regarding Intermediated Securities with Directive 2002/47/EC on financial collateral arrangements and give drafting proposals based on the comments of the European Commission at the last session of the commitee of governmental experts. Trust me, I don’t know more about it than you do.. yet!

UNIDROIT library

Sunday evening a couple of girls from a girlsdorm came over for dinner. Me and two of the guys made a grand 3 course dinner – Pasta al sugo picante, scallopini al limone and icecream for desert. Later on a couple of Japanese fraternity students joined us and we hung out until well into the night. Even though I was quite tired, for some reason I was not able to fall asleep for the whole night..

I listened to the shouts and laughing of the people on the street which went on until about 3 am. Then the garbage people came, loudly dragging the garbage cans on the cobble stone streets. By now there were only a couple of drunks left on the street – a couple of girls seemed to have trouble dragging their boyfriends home. Then the birds awoke. First the pigeons stirred then the doves from the riverside joined in the chorus. Finally, morning broke in with loud trucks delivering all kinds of goods to the bars and shops. Figuring that I wouldn’t be able to sleep for the remaining two hours, I went for a walk. The air was fresh and many shopkeepers quietly smoked their morning cigarette before their businesses. I went to the hairdresser, who was closed though for reasons unknown. I went back home put on my suit and went off to my first working day.

I walked along Corso Vittorio Emanuele

II along with businessmen going to work and tourists trying to get some sightseeing done before the midday heat. However, with my suit on, the heat was already unbearable. Jumping from shadow to shadow I made my way to the UNIDROIT office on Via Panisperna. 20 minutes later I was there, soaking and dead tired. I told the guard at the entrance that I was the new intern. He invited me to come in and went off searching for the director of the library wandering from house to house shouting her name. I took a glance at the beautiful building from the inner courtyard and the garden.

Inner courtyard

I was led into the library where I was supposed to wait for the librarian, Ms Maxion. In the library I met two fellow interns: Paul and Paul. Paul is from Lithuania but is studying in Japan and Paul is from France but studied in England. In the course of the day I met a whole bunch of other UNIDROIT officials and scholars, Rezarta from Albania, Ines from Argentina, Thomas from the Netherlands Miriam and Bettina from Germany, Laura from Finland, John from Australia, An from Belgium and so on. All of them were very friendly and gave me a warm welcome. The director of the institute, Prof. Kronke, wasn’t there yesterday. He only arrived today and I guess it will not be until tomorrow that I will have the chance to meet him and find out what exactly my working field is going to be. For now I started reading about the Convention on Substantive Rules regarding Intermediated Securities which is hopefully going to be adopted in a diplomatic conference taking place in Geneva, 1^st-13^th of September.

Now I am back in the office and tonight I am invited at the girls-dorm for dinner – no worries: the nuns running the place will most definitely make sure that every male leaves at 10pm J

Yesterday I made an extensive walk around the old town of Rome, passing by most of the important monuments, listening to Italian radio with my MP3 player. Most of the time they were talking about a new survey claiming that people living in Rome have better sex than people in northern Italy.

Fontana di Trevi

Pantheon

I walked through crowded little cobble stone alleys and large streets lined by statues and majestic palazzi. After much searching, I even found the UNIDROIT office, which is located in a grand old building sitting on the Quirinale hill. I was almost torn apart by masses of tourists around Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. I remember that the Pantheon already impressed me when I walked in years ago as a child. The huge building was built 125 AD during Hadrian’s reign and has a gigantic dome with a hole in the middle. When the heat became almost unbearable I decided to walk along the River Tiber to seek protection from the sun under the shadows of the trees on the riverbank. It was a pleasant walk that ultimately led me to Castel Sant’Angelo and Saint Peters square before the Vatican.

San Pietro

€170 of beer

Today I got up early in the morning and helped my host Sebastian in doing some shoping. We took his car and drove out of town to get to IKEA, an electronics market and a supermarket. I don’t know how much money we ended up spending but I know that most of it was used for buying beer. When we finally finished carrying everything up it was already 3 pm. We were breathless and soaking in sweat when we welcomed 3 visitors from other German and Japanese fraternities. Then we got ready for another stroll through Rome…

Equipped with two bottles of wine and a couple of glasses, we made our way through Rome at night. The streets were packed with people. We walked past countless Restaurants and Bars, which had tables set outside. The Pantheon and the Trevi fountain look quite different at night. Finally we reached Piazza die Spagna with the spanish steps. Just like hundreds of other people we sat down on the steps talked to locals and tourists and sang to the music performed be 3 guitarrists, which decided to sit right next to us.

On the Spanish Steps

Dear friends,

again a long time has passed since I wrote last. Nevertheless, much has happened since Tokyo. An international commercial law competition brought me to New York, Hong Kong and Vienna, I travelled to Belgium, where all people are born with a brick in their stomage (no offense! My Belgian friend told me that this is a saying in Belgium making reference to the enthusiasm with which Belgiand seek to build their own house) and several trips to Berlin eased my pain of being separated from my sisters as well as my girlfriend.

Today I took an airplane from Stuttgart to Leonardo Da Vinci (better known as Fiumicino) and set foot on Roman soil for the first time since 1997 when I left Rome after living there for 4 years. The Leonardo Express took me to the main station (Stazione Termini) passing by run down suburbs and ancient Roman Aqueducts, which are still working today. At the station I switched into a bus and gazed at the thousands of churches, monuments and ruins on the way towards Piazza Navona. It is around the corner from there that I will live for the whole of August.

View from my room - Cafe della Pace is on the left

Even though it is a shame that I have not made it back to Rome until today, it is only an internship – the last one – that made me come here. I will work at the International Institute for the Harmonization of Private Law (UNIDROIT) to get an insight into legislative work on an international and multilateral level. I don’t really know more than you do but you can count on me telling you, once i find out. Today the director’s secretary told me not to come on my official first working day, friday, but rather to pass by there on Monday or Tuesday. Internships at UNIDROIT usually do not take place in August, as every sane being but tourists attempts to escape the hot city. However, this september UNIDROIT will host a conference so that a helping hand could do good.

So here I am close to Piazza Navona, it’s getting dark outside and I long for food, since I havn’t eaten anything today. I am staying in an apartment of a German catholic fraternity. So far I have been treated exceptionally kind be the X, Sebastian (X = Senior chief of the house). Right now there are only 3 people living in this spacious flat, including me. I have a beautiful view on a church and the Cafe della Pace (well known from the movie “La Dolce Vita”). Only 2 things reminded me of the stereotypes of a fraternity: I hadn’t even put down my bag when I was offered a cold beer and I was asked to vaccuum and wipe my room

This is precisely why I should stop writing now and go to work. And then find out about the history of the Capitolina fraternity.

Hugs, Anton

Time is flying and I cannot believe that on Friday evening I will already embrace the cold and clear air of the Swabian Mountians or rather the dusty stuffy air in the library of the Tübingen law faculty…

On October 3rd the big reception for the German national holiday = Day of German Unity took place in the residence of the German ambassador. Every year one of the 16 German federal states co-hosts the reception together with the German embassy as the representative of the federal government and this year it was the state of Saxony. Now, I have never wittnessed a more professional and successful marketing concept for a region or a country than that of the Saxonians. First of all, some weeks in advance two envoys of the Saxonian government were sent two Tokyo just to prepare the reception. Then, loads of impressive art pieces, Videoscreens and advertisingflyers arrived at the embassy to be put up for decoration in the residence and its garden. On the 3rd about 1500 guests, including a delgation from Saxony, led by the Prime Minister of Saxony, Prof. Milbradt, poured through the gates directly into the garden. What awaited them there was quite spectacular: Masses of fantastic food, a famous star-cook, a Saxonian baker, a professional engraver for clocks, a porcelain painter from Meissen and a lot more. Some students of the German school in Yokohama as well as some university students helped opening the car doors and entertaining the guests. A famous ski jumper from Saxony was present, accompanied by a poor student clad in full Ski-Jumper-equipment. Speeches were made, a choir sang the German national anthem and everybody ate and drank happily. I was only bale to join the party at a later stage, as first I was posted at the residence gate to check invitations and later I engaged in various logistical tasks ranging from carrying a guests suitcase full of newly printed newspapers he publishes to trying to get the German high school seniors out of the tea house in the garden, where they had settled with a good stack of beer. Finally, when everyone left (the German guests tend to stay until the beer is taken away) some of my colleagues and me went to celebrate the successful evening in a bar —

One other experience is worth pointing out: On Sunday, I had the great privilege to be invited by a Japanese family to their home. Mr. and Mrs Fukui are friends of my parents and got to know them in Bulgaria. When they got to know that I was in Tokyo, they immediately gave me a call and invited me as well as Mr. and Mrs Schmelter to their house in the outskirts of Tokyo. Mrs Schmelter accompanied me, unfortunately Dr. Schmelter was absent on a business trip. I was very excited to able to get to know true Japanese suburban life and was not disappointed. A mere half an hour with a rapid express from Shinjuku (the worlds busiest train station) took me to another world. At least the pleasant little shopping street followed by a quiet residential area seemed to be worlds away from busy Tokyo. Our host picked us up from the train station. It was fairly easy to recognised him as he was the only person with a Bulgarian soccer shirt on. He led the way through a neighbourhood that reminded me of suburbs I had seen in the United States, with spacious houses and beautiful gardens around them. Our hosts house was spectacular indeed, not only due to its size but also due to its architecture. The living room, for instance, was underground, 3 of the 4 walls being surrounded by rock and the other side opening onto a lovely courtyard. It was there that we were served some tasty appetizers and superb Sake (rice wine). We spent hours and hours talking a drinking vast amounts of Sake before one of the daughters and her English teacher, a Bulgarian student, joined us. Together we walked back towards the station to go to a restaurant. The daughter, Wakako, is a most extraordinary person. She is only 10 years old, however acts and speaks, as if she was an adult. I have never before been so impressed by a child’s smartness. One of her comments was: “I am not going to turn the air conditioning on, because of the global warming”.

Anyhow, it’s time to roll home for me. Soon I will leave the Sushi and Sake country to go back to the land of sausages and beer. I hope to be able to return to Japan some day, as the country and its people have treated me well indeed…