Dispatches Archives - Page 11 of 21

July 15, 2012January 20, 2017

Musical Introspection

Editor’s note: This is a post about projecting our own experiences, troubles, and musings on prose of all kinds, and how it relates to my times of spiritual renaissance.

With each breath the wheat stalks seemed to blur into golden oceans begging for navigation. Though I have sailed true blue water, these golden waves of grain could not be traversed by wind, but by will. My breathing and straining formed the cadence. My mind drifted in and out of the large and small problems of me.

The Chipman Trail connects Moscow, Idaho with Pullman, Washington—two university towns in the agriculture-rich Palouse region. Chipman is a smoothly paved pathway for bicycles and runners traveling between the towns, running parallel to the highway. Despite traffic nearby, the grain, barns, bridges, and animals give a uniquely American impression: that space is wide-open, and nature can still seem unlimited.

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May 19, 2012May 26, 2023

Irreverence, Americans, and a Holocaust memorial

Despite living in Germany for a year, and visiting a number of times before that, I only recently visited a concentration camp; left standing so all people never forget what horror is possible by human hands. These camps are technically no longer camps–their intended function and ability to terrorize was stripped by both physical force, and the force of conscience. We now call these places memorials, to preserve the memory of a devastating chapter in the history of man, so not to repeat it or allow it to repeat.

This brief post is not about the Dachau memorial per se, but more about the American students seemingly unaware of where they were, what happened beneath their feet 70 years prior, or what lessons their ignorance is preventing them from learning. If this sounds harsh, it is with good reason, and comes after feeling embarrassed to be American.

March 30, 2012August 30, 2021

Audio Dispatch: Athens, Crete

March 26, 2012January 20, 2017

Fooling the natives

Long-time readers of Anthonyganzer.com might remember a post from 2008, in which I was so proud to be able to use my beginner German skills to interact at a German food store in Phoenix. The victory in that day was not that I spoke German well, rather that I survived even a few sentences in a foreign language. I would go on to have proper training, and focus myself more fully on actually learning the language and not just phrases from a guide book, and as one’s skills progress so do one’s goals.

For a long time my goal has been to speak German well-enough so that a native speaker doesn’t immediately think I am a native English-speaker. A Northern German might think I am Bavarian, a Bavarian might think I am Austrian, and Austrian might think I am Swiss, a Swiss might think I am German. To me, it doesn’t matter how wrong the guess is, so long as the native German-speaker doesn’t say “American” or “British” when guessing where I am from. Why? Well, it is a badge of honor to speak well-enough to even superficially fool a native speaker, and I find interactions with people are a little less mired in stereotypes or assumptions when people don’t think you are from a superpower across the pond.

So when a line cook who prides himself on identifying accents was stumped, and his mouth dropped to the floor when I told him where I am from, my day became a lot better.

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February 11, 2012January 20, 2017

Photos: Evolution of Winter

Winter might finally be here

For many weeks we thought Winter was a myth. Our days shifted quickly from having sunny skies, to those with rain clouds, and once or twice there was a good snow. But as a “season;” as an extended period of colorless cold? No, that was not the Zürich to which we are a part.

Then, about two weeks ago, the heavens shifted south. A “Siberian cold front” was pulled toward us by vengeful winds escaping Russia. You might hear “Siberian,” and scoff. It couldn’t be that bad, right? Maybe not on the first day, when temperatures in Celsius were still in the low teens. Then single digits. Then minus single digits. Then minus double digits. And then rivers begin to freeze, ponds turn into play areas, and you realize the myth which was Winter, has finally arrived.

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January 1, 2012August 30, 2021

Audio Dispatch: Austrian Achensee

Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of sound-rich portraits of European cities and sites. In this episode, I head to the Austrian Alps, and climb a mountain above the Achensee. The trains and ferries are no match for the nature…for those willing to enjoy it. Two slideshows included

You aren’t bothered by tourists up here, on the face of a mountain above the Achensee, an Austrian lake not far from the German border. Here you can hike among the cows, facing a steep descent to the lake. The Achensee region is one that thrives on tourism and gimmicks, but nature kept my troupe occupied and amazed. So it is on this mountain, with these cows, that I give you my trip to the Achensee.

MUSIC: “A Hiding Place for the Moon“ by Antoine Dufour

December 23, 2011January 20, 2017

At the Mercy of Mother Nature

I am not a “Winter person” if there is such a thing. Though I attended high school and college in a snow-rich region, the winter sport bug never bit me. Snow and ice seemed more like inconvenient land mines than charming phenomena for the season. How could I enjoy having to walk slowly and calculated, wet and cold? And I felt more comfortable sailing a boat than even imagining sliding down a ski slope.

If there is a redeeming quality to a Northwest US Winter, it is a relative consistency in the appearance of snow eventually. Here in Zurich, Winter has thus far brought the gloomy gray but spared the snow. Be it La Nina, El Nino, climate change, or Mayan end-of-days, the weather has shifted quickly from miserable and rainy, to miserable and cold, to briefly sunny, to stormy, in the blink of an eye. This week, the first snow fell, causing 100s of traffic accidents in a day. All seemed lost in a fuzzy blur of white. This, too, was short-lived, as La El Mayan Climate Change has done it again.

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