BASF

Purple is the color of Kings.

The color purple, one of BASF dyestuffs productions

On the 4th of September, we woke up at 10:00am, got dressed, ran to catch up with tram number 3 -later to find it wasn't worth the blood rush since we were the first to arrive at the Haupbahnhof-.  In each German city the Hauptbahnhof is the main trains/buses station, and the city's gate to it's visitors. In these stations one can find all sorts of small restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, books shops, vender machines, tickets machines and of course information and tourisits desks. Having been at multiple cities Hauptbahnhofs i also noticed that the surrounding area around them is usually beautifully arranged to reflect the city's style, and sometimes one can find the city's symbol displayed at the entrance of the station.

A Hauptbahnhof in Germany

Everyone who had registered for the BASF chemical company's tour had arrived by 11:00am. We then walked to a nearby station and took tram 7 that stops directly infront of this company. Stepping out, we could see diffirent buildings, signs and flags on the right and left of the road, all carrying the BASF logo. We walked to gate number 4 and enterd a long modern building, that later appeared to be the visitors center.

One of the company's many buildings (taken by my husband)

BASF was founded in this city (Mannheim) in 1856, initially for dye production. BASF is now the biggest chemical company in the world, it recruits more than 105,000 employees and has 385 production sites worldwide [s]. In the visitors center, arranged in four floors we were introduced to many of the company's chemicals, dyestuffs and plastic productions. With an available staff in each floor you can have your questions answered, and see some simple chemical experiences being conducted. The walls were covered with black and white pictures that tell the story of the company, one wall picture, for instance, showed how health insurance before being known was actually given to the company's employees and their families. Another interesting activity was the photo machine, we in turn stood and picked some strange hair cuts and each interested visitor was give a printed picture of him wearing four different hair cuts of his pick. They also displayed how detergents worked in cleaning clothes, and how meat is cooked from the inside. All the information on all the products and videos were displayed to the visitors in both languages, German and English, which was very pleasant. After that we took a bus tour around the huge company, but unfortunately the tour guide only spoke in German, and not until she would mention some 6 or 7 figure number would she catch our attention.

BASF 

After spending approximately three hours in the company, we left our visitors ID-cards on the reception desk, took a small BASF-note book as a gift, and split from the group to have a short walk in the city center before going home.

Willkommen im TECHNOSEUM

The lotus effect.

Lotus-Effect phenomena

Yesterday morning, in the very very early morning, I was online and searching the web for new and exciting places in Mannheim. During my search I found an entry on the Wikitravel for Mannheim, reading through I found a couple of new attractions that we can try. One of which was the Technoseum (Technology museum), established in January 2010, offering over 200 years of technology, social history and the chance of experimentation [s]. To make things even better, its opening times included the doomed Sunday (the day when all Germany closes but a few restaurants and parks), which was super. 

200 years old technology and social history

At 3:30pm we arrived the museum. It was settled in a beautiful natural park, near a small lake, occupying a significant 9,000 square-meters of land and about four floors high, and on its entrance stood a  contemporary-art red, metalic figure. We purchased two visitors tickets and started our tour from the Nano-technology corner.

Technoseum

In the Nano-technology lab we were overwhelmed by the many new inventions, phenomenas and discoveries displayed. However, one old phenomena that is still revealing its secrets as the nano-technology improves was presented there, the Lutos-Effect phenomena. The lotus refers to the lotus flower whose leaves repel water, and thus never gets wet! Moreover, this repelling shows great advantages for the plant itself and for us as well. The repelling positive effect is the self-cleaning surfaces, which protects the plants from pathogens growing on them, and allows some butterflies that have the same effect to self-clean their wings, as any dust drop on a surface of this effect is collected and cleaned by rain and water drops instantly. This advantage was also exploited by us, as about 500,000 houses around the world now are painted with this self-cleaning effect included in their paints, and in Germany the autbahns traffic control units have self-cleaning glasses installed in their sensors [s].

Nano-technology lab

We couldn't cover the entire museum, there was a lot to see and more to experience by hand. At 5:00pm and just before the museum announced it's closing, we took a speedy round in the museum. The building was full of old technology instruments, new ones, and some scientific facts that were put for the visitors to experiment with, and other ancient technologies such as paper making was also available for trial. 

We left the museum excited but a little annoyed that we couldn't cover the entire place nor understand all the described technologies, as things were only explained and demonstrated (video and audio) in German. Ah, i should mention that the staff there was super nice, and they were ready to answer any question.

Before going home, we wandered around the park, played with the ducks, laid on the grass, took some memorial pictures and once again, fell in love with Mannheim.

The Wrestler ~ 4.5/5

Who is you're real family?

"The Wrestler": A 2008 movie production, an Oscar nominee in 2009 for best Actor in a leading role, best Actress is a supporting role in addition to Excellence in Production Design, rated 8.2/10 by 92,000 viewers [s].

My husband and i both enjoy watching movies and rating them accordingly, we both have watched a grate deal of movies that we sometimes find it hard to find something worth the two hours. When i was in search for our next movie few weeks ago i came with this highly rated one. After downloading it however, it turned out that my husband had already seen it, thus, it was doomed to be abandoned in our downloads folder until tonight.

I started the movie expecting one thing and ended up receiving even something better. A sport-drama movie,  reflecting a rarely conceived reality, touching story, well directed progress, and very humane. A story of a wrestler growing old on his highly regarded title as the "Ram Jam", however, his need for a job turned his wrestling at an old age to a must. The movie tells the story of two performers, The Ram -the wrestler- and a club woman called Cassidy, both had been at one point in their lives on the elite list, and now both still work in the same field but only for the need of money. Randy -as he prefers to be called- gets a heart-attack after one of his shows, and is recommended by his doctor to quit wrestling, and so he does. Starting to feel lonely he goes to seek his daughter who faces him with total refusal. He then tries to start a steady relationship with Cassidy, but again receives a refusal. At this point Randy quits his second job in a supermarket and calls his old manager to set him in a wrestling show again. Randy finally realizes his real family, the audience were his family, they had never baled on him nor stopped cheering for him. At the end of the movie -and probably his last wrestling match, it was an open ending!-, he gives a touching speech that i found to be the best part of it all.

"A lot of people told me that I'd never wrestle again and that's all I do. You know, if you live hard and play hard and you burn the candle at both ends, you pay the price for it. You know in this life you can loose everything you love, everything that loves you."

"Now I don't hear as good as I used to and I forget stuff and I aint as pretty as I used to be but god damn it I'm still standing here and I'm The Ram!"

"As times goes by, as times goes by, they say "He's Washed Up!", "He's Finished" , "He's A Loser", "He's All Through". You know what? The only one that's going to tell me when I'm through doing my thing is you people here."

A man going down in dignity.

To Aachen and back to Mannheim

Schön kalt Stadt

                      

One of the our coldest nights yet in Mannheim was the night of the 24th of August. My husband and i, having applied to the same University, department, and Masters program, were both asked to attend the same enrollment day appointment at RWTH Aachen International affairs building "Super C" in the city of Aachen.

Aachen, located at the westernmost of Germany and sharing the border with Netherlands and Belgium, is a historical city and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. The city is identified by it's University -RWTH Aachen University-, and it's hot sulfur springs, which one can see and (smell) around the city in forms of water fountains and miniature pools. Aachen was devastated by a fire in 1656, since then it lost its political power and became attractive as a spa to it's visitors. During world war II, Aachen was the first German city to be captured, and was heavily destroyed, however, "Aachen Cathedral" was unscratched and is until now the main city's attraction. The cathedral was extended along history, leaving the observer with a unique mixture of building styles [s].

City hall (coronation building for 600 years for 30 German Kings and 12 Queens until 1531)

a Sulfur water miniature pool

We arrived Aachen at 7:15am after two train changes, from the luxurious-plane-like ICE train to the Regional train. Tired, sleepy and excited, all summed in me. I was in a confusion state of mind, gravity was pulling me to close my eyes, but the city's beauty was calling to be observed by revealing itself to us slowly as we walked towards the "Super C" building. My husband was charged with so much energy, i could notice him capturing the city's sites, dark stone roads, old and modern architecture and fresh nature, all in one eye blink. For me i was distracted with the freezing weather pouring in my skin under my light spring clothes, and all i was thinking about was reaching the building to get some warmth.

In one hour and a three-step process, we were officially enrolled in the university's Software System Engineering Masters program with about another 17 international guys and 2 other girls from different spot of the world.After we were done, my husband called a friend of ours in Aachen to meet us, and i was giving my self back some of the lost time and allowing the city to reflect all it's wonders into my eyes. We debated whether Aachen was smaller or larger than Mannheim, i voted smaller, and lost to my husband and Google.

It felt very nice to see our friend arriving, it is always so when one sees a close person in a foreign land. After the mutual greetings, she asked us about our plans, and having only two places we would like to see, she suggested we follow her in a small tour around the city's main sites. The old city, students hang out places, shopping center, main road, our to-be accommodation and finally directions to arrive to our department site. During the tour she stopped us at a small chocolate store where we purchased the "Aachner Printen", a sweet that Aachen is famous for, its a semi dry spice cake pieces dipped in different chocolate flavors, and it was a treat.

A chocolate shop showing the Aachner Printen in different beautiful forms

As we had most of the main sites covered and our accommodation and department locations attended to, it was time to relax. We went to one of the city's parks, laid on the cold greenery, closed our eyes, and listened to the city's voices. An old city that has a major youth inhabitants proportion. Before heading back home, we dinned in  a small neat Döner and took some memorial picture around the campus, we then sat for a nice chat and city review on a cup of coffee, and finally headed back to Mannheim.

We arrived home with the feeling of just leaving one.

To our friend, thank you.

Reading Emma ~ Jane Austen

"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich." 

Jane Austen

A while ago my husband recommended Jane Austen's novels to become my new companion for the next few weeks. My approval was instant, as one of my favorable movies "Pride and Prejudice" is originally a novel of hers [s].

Jane Austen was a British writer borne in 1775 and lived to be 42 years old. She wrote six novels and one incomplete during her writing period, which spanned from her teenage years until she was about thirty-five years old and before she fell to illness. During her life time she gained some fame as a writer but not untile after her death was she regarded to be part of the English literature. It is thought that Jane fell in love twice, and was proposed to by a third, but was never wedded. "Emma", one of her novels, was published in her life in 1815. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like.",  and she was right. After 89 pages i have retracted from admiring Emma to disliking her, and sharply criticizing her behavior [s].


However, "Emma" is a 448 page novel, and i'm still scratching the surface. During my initial reading i have been distracted by many vocabulary and sentences structures i believe to have departed from the modern English. The novel's events took time in the end of the eighteenth century and reflects an elite society where everyones keeps repeating the phrase "Oh! dear, yes dear" to express enthusiasm about such silly things if put in the context of the twenty-first century. But until i abandon the novel to lake of interest or complementation, i will hold my other thoughts and leave them to be redefined by further chapters in the book.

Becoming a Mannheimer

Its raining in Mannheim

This morning my husband and i woke up earlier than usual. It is the 30th of August today, that is, my student-visa extension appointment at Mannheim-Ausl?nderbeh?rde . Reaching the Ausl?nderbeh?rde building was not a troublesome, as He had the rout figured out on Google's maps before time. I was following him as he walked fast and with total confidence towards our destination as if we have been there before, a unique addition to make our lives easier made by Google.

We arrived ahead of time, and were instantly entered to the appliance office and asked for all the required papers. The later to be acknowledged as a very fast and easy process -if one has all the required papers right- was interrupted by the office lady who appeared to be an unpleasant women, her voice was laud quite like shouting, and her attitude was if it was the end of her work-day and we have come late!, moreover, given her knowledge of English and our moderate German, she insisted on addressing us all her questions in German and accepted from us only that. However, the trouble was put to an end soon, as i received my visa extensions and all my papers as well. And then we were off again on the rainy streets of Mannheim.

Fresh air sweeping between the rain drops encouraged me to spend a little more time in the city center, as i saw my Him going back to the language center. I stopped by a few shops and purchased an umbrella before i decided it was time to go home. A fairly pleasant day i would say.