Angelika Since it seems that the rainy season has just started in San Francisco (so much for "it never rains here") and we can hardly venture outside, I thought I'd update you all with the latest news from here. So, grab your reading glasses, get cozy in the corner of the sofa, turn off the TV, and enjoy:

Angelika We have already completed our Golden Gate Bridge crossing by bicycle. We did it in bright sunshine, so the bridge was glowing in its most beautiful red. To avoid too many hills and dangerous roads (that's not for me), we first took our bikes on the BART (subway in San Francisco) and went to the Embarcadero (anyone who has been to San Francisco knows where that is; for those unfamiliar: it's a street that runs right along the water). And then we continued along the water towards the Golden Gate, always keeping our eyes on the bridge, Alcatraz, and the boats on the bay.

Angelika Due to the bad weather (does El Nino actually exist?), we have had to move our weekend activities indoors to places with a roof over our heads. So, we've been visiting various museums and trying out new restaurants. San Francisco and the entire Bay Area is truly a culinary hotspot, and it's hard to decide where to go because there's so much choice. We thought it would be smart to visit restaurants that we wouldn't easily find in Germany. So, we first tried Ethiopian cuisine, which was good, cheap, and fun. The restaurant is called "Blue Nile" and is an absolute insider tip. You sit in dimly lit cubicles separated by wooden bead curtains and eat with your fingers. You tear off a piece of Ethiopian bread called "Injera" (imagine it like a pancake) and use it to scoop up the vegetables or meat. You drink honey wine with it, which is a real hit. Another culinary highlight: The world's best Dim Sum restaurant on Geary Street. Those of you who have traveled to Asia will know what Dim Sum is. Legend has it (or rather, my restaurant guide claims) that Dim Sum originated because Chinese businessmen loved spending hours in tea houses to conduct their business. Since one tends to get hungry during this, the tea houses began offering small snacks. This is still done today as follows: Waiters push small serving carts through the restaurant, and you simply take what you like, with each cart offering something different. There are clams, crabs, or mushrooms wrapped in noodle dough, called dumplings, spring rolls, mango cream, etc. It's definitely really good! Now that your mouth is probably watering, I'll end my excursion into the land of gourmets. On a side note, it's worth mentioning that Michael has enrolled in a course starting mid-February to learn proper wine tasting. It covers European and Californian wines. Since we have the Napa and Sonoma Valleys (wine regions) right at our doorstep and have already done some wine tastings, Michael has developed the ambition to learn how to distinguish a good wine from a bad one. The era of supermarket wine is definitely over.

Angelika Recently, we had the opportunity once again to admire Götz George, Mario Adorf, Gudrun Landgrebe, and their peers here at one of our movie theaters. It was the German Film Festival, organized annually by the Goethe-Institut in San Francisco. The festival primarily showcases films by young German-speaking filmmakers. However, this year's closing film was by Helmut Dietl, who is, as we know, neither new nor unknown. It was set in an Italian restaurant in Munich, and of course, we couldn't miss it. Although the film didn't exactly blow us away, it was amusing to see a German film (with English subtitles) and the Munich scenery again. We noticed how many naked people were shown (Götz George, of course, had to show off his physique once again to prove how well he's maintained himself). The American woman next to me was quite taken aback (by the amount of nudity, not Götz George's physique). In American movies, such scenes are usually only subtly hinted at. This is where American prudery and strange double standards come into full play. After all, no one seems to mind that Bill Clinton's sex life is being publicly and as sensationally as possible discussed at the moment.

Angelika Regarding American media, I've wanted to make a few general remarks on this topic for a long time. First of all, the news on television should be mentioned. World news or international news only appears under two conditions: either the USA has to be somehow involved, such as in the collision of the American military plane with the cable car in Italy or the current conflict between Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton, or an absolutely media-effective catastrophe has occurred, like the earthquake in Italy some time ago. Otherwise, the majority of the news deals with domestic politics or local matters, where one sometimes doubts the editor's judgment regarding the selection of these news stories. Not too long ago, the top news story, which was presented first, was that a pet pig got lost on the Bay Bridge. At first, I thought it was a joke because I couldn't believe that a somewhat serious TV station would dare to sell something like that as the news of the day, but it was indeed true. When you also consider that many Americans use TV news as their sole source of information, it's no wonder they know hardly anything about Europe. Of course, TV news, like other programs, is constantly interrupted by commercial breaks, which is really extremely annoying. You are familiar with this by now through private channels in Germany, and if I remember correctly, there's already a commercial break before the weather report on the Heute news broadcast. You just have to imagine it even more extreme here. Recently, for example, the movie "Dead Poets Society" was on TV. Due to the commercial breaks, the film lasted a full three hours (I would estimate the normal runtime to be about 90 minutes). Michael and I are now so annoyed by the commercial interruptions that we are increasingly renting videos or going to the movie theater, where, funnily enough, there is no advertising at all.

Angelika So, enough with the serious topics for now. Since Michael entertained you in the last two issues with stories from his AOL life, he won't be giving his two cents on the state of the nation today, as he is currently working on the second, revised edition of his book and is a bit stressed. The manuscript needs to be submitted to the publisher by mid-March. I hope your disappointment is limited; you'll have to make do with me. Besides, this time I can contribute a story on the topic of AOL myself. Some time ago, Michael and I rented a car again to drive around the area, and on this occasion, we also went to San Mateo, where Michael showed me where he works. And it really is as he described it. A pool table in the break room, where Michael takes his creative breaks every day, which has led him to become the world's best pool player (or so he claims), and of course the famous cubicles (small offices created by dividing the space with partitions). Since we were at AOL on a holiday, I unfortunately couldn't meet Michael's colleagues, but the personal decoration of the cubicles said a lot about each individual, even though they weren't present. One looked like a church, with a huge Madonna hanging over the computer, and another had turned his cubicle into a candy store. There were at least six candy jars with various sweets. Only Michael's was very tidy, but he also wants to give his cubicle a personal touch as soon as possible. It will be interesting to see what he does with it.