Sailing on dry land

The biggest concentration of Filipino migrants in Germany is in Hamburg. Here, the male to female ratio of Filipino migrants that usually favor women is inverted. The shipping industry in Hamburg attracts Filipinos who work as seamen. At one point they resign or retire and choose stay here for good. Those who resign have mostly taken on odd jobs, their earnings from which are still perhaps more compared to what they could be earning back in the Philippines had they decided to go back.

An impromptu gathering took place when a retired seaman who is bound soon to visit the Philippines dropped. Over dinner, they watched online the boxing match last week of Manny Pacquiao, a Filipino who recently made history for being the first boxer to win in seven different weight categories. His rags to riches story is an inspiration to many Filipinos.

This is part of a personal phorography project I am doing to document the lives of former Filipino seamen in Hamburg.

Discovering performers in the Hamburg Fischmarkt

The vibe of a city is felt not only in its night spots and touristy sites.  To get the real feel of the city and its locals, you should hit the local weekly market.

There’s all sorts of market.  There’s a flea market, a wet market, and no, a supermarket doesn’t count.  And in Hamburg, there’s the Fischmarkt, or the fish market.

The Fischmarkt has been around since 1703.  People, both tourists and locals, converge to this part of Altona by the River Elbe on early Sunday mornings.

Mobile booths and stalls crowd the square.  Fish produce of all shapes and sizes can be found here: packed or fresh, or even smoked.  Fish does not have a monopoly of the market though, as the name suggests.  The first stall that welcomed me as I entered the market’s premises was that selling foul.  Further into the open air market, belts, shawls, and plants are also available to the market-goers.

The old Fischmarkthalle was converted into a huge mess hall, and now houses food stalls and restaurants, some of which offer buffet breakfast.

Auctioning, rather than haggling, is the name of the Fischmarkt game.  Vendors shout out their price as they pile up their goods, be it fish or flowers.  Once a hand is raised or a yell is heard from the crowd, the waiting game ends.  To ease the tension of the trade, vendors make the selling fun, or make fun of the people.

It also works as a marketing tool, the louder one shouts, the more attention he gets , the bigger the turn out of the crowd.  At one point, I enjoyed the repertoire so much, they could might as well have been actors doing stand-up performance.  But then again I was in a market, where buyers and sellers are merely players.  All the world’s a stage.

More photos on my flickr page.  Thanks for viewing!

We love MEG

Photo courtesy of my classmate Tempei

The graduation ceremony and party are over, and I am glad I went all the way from Hamburg.  The airfare and the waking up in the wee hours of the morning to catch the train or bus to the airport were all worth it.  It was probably my last days in Freiburg, but then again, who knows?  The city gave me a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively, after two months of dealing with the hustle and bustle of Hamburg.  Don’t get me wrong, I am loving Hamburg. The laid-back lifestyle and familiarity of Freiburg were not missed, until I got there again.

Out of the 24 which form the MSc in Environmental Governance class of 2009, 19 of us gathered for our last hurrah together.  Four have left for their respective home countries.  We had a champagne reception and started with the programme afterwards.  The graduating class of the Forest and Environmental Management programme were also part of the affair.   Some of our professors and a handful of friends and parents were also present.  We have changed our venue from one of the classrooms in our faculty to the cozier Peterhofkeller.

After two years of studying together, we have come to learn what we love.  This video is inspired by Discovery Channel’s Boom De ah Da video.  This was Shannon’s (from Canada) production wherein I helped in the filming and directing.  I didn’t hear about this video as she was putting this together for a long time so I thought it just went down the drain.  Surprises of all surprises, it premiered during the graduation night, and is now for everyone to see:

A “cleaner” version of the video, without the laughing and clapping is here.

One part of the graduation programme included introducing each members of our class.  Leo, from Portugal, and Annie from Canada, did a great job in presenting us.  Do you agree on their impression they have of me?

All I can say is that the past two years as a Master’s student was one long… Boom de ah dah!

On my way to work in Hamburg

I may be in Freiburg for my graduation (woot woot!), yet I am sharing with you something Hamburg-ish.  I video-recorded one of my routes on the way to work.  With my proximity to different public transportation nodes, I know of at least four ways to get to work.  This is just one of them, probaby not the quickest, but the most enjoyable I would say.  This one though involves a bus which allows me to see the street scene as opposed to the S-Bahn (Stadtbahn or city train) and U-Bahn (Untergrundbahn or undeground train/tube.  A not-to-be-missed exemption though is the U-Bahn that goes over the street along Landungsbrücken and gives you a sweeping, if not fleeting, view of the harbour and the Speicherstadt).

I filmed this a few weeks ago before the switch to daylight saving time.  And if I were to film this now at about the same time I usually go to work, it would either still be dark or gloomy and raining, or a combination of the three.  Enjoy the video!

Tapping the future

I was at the Klimahaus in Bremerhaven last Monday.  With my other co-intern, I was asked to man our booth to introduce to visitors our organization, and hopefully make converts out of them.

In addition to our stand where we displayed and handed out flyers and booklets, there was a touchscreen table four floors up the building wherein (on which?) a published (?) electronic booklet could be browsed.  Being the technophile that I am, I tapped and played with it to my heart’s content.  It basically functions like a digital book, however, you can see my hand’s frustration in turning the page of the brochure on the electronic thingamajig.  It’s annoying that no instruction whatsoever  explains how to use the touchscreen table.  A physical paper flyer still works better than a virtual one.  It should have at least worked with a flick of a finger or basic handstrokes akin to turning the pages of a book.  Does it need a lot more improvement?  Don’t pull the plug just yet.  Simply go back to the drawing board.