I arrived yesterday in good ole Deutschland (germany) and after forcing myself to stay awake by walking around for too long, I am overcoming the inevitable jet lag and getting ready to teach here in Austria later today.
The first few days here are always (I've been doing this since 1992) filled with unique transitions and observations. After a few days, I am so immersed in the culture, I actually start thinking in german! As I am typing this I have the Austrian ORF2 TV channel on in the background which has continuous webcam loops of the hundreds of ski areas and some major cities around here with Tyrolean music. I love that station and its Alpian meditative qualities. I could easily jump on a local ski bus and within 40 minutes be on the slopes outside of Kitzbuelh.
On this trip I have sworn to not partake in my usual morning breakfast routine - it is the glutenous start to unhealthy eating (by California standards) and will be focusing more on locally bio-dynamic dark breads, jams+jellies, and non-red meat items. We'll see how that goes. For the first time in two decades, I am obsessed with losing rather than gaining weight on this trip... good luck with that!
They have a 'Fasching' Fest(ival) this week - I guess it is Lent or something, but more like a toned-down Mardi Gas. Thankfully I am not in a northern german city where it's non-stop partying - or maybe I wish I was? Last year, I remember drunken youngies getting on the trains and just havin' a good ole time with open containers and raucious singing.
Since this is supposed to be sort of an eco-blog, I need to focus on all things eco + green. My personal transition from american culture to what was my childhood germanic culture, sometimes appears backwards and regressive when in reality it is more forward thinking and appropriate for lo-carbon living. My first few days are always filled with new observations that quickly fade as my brain + heart transcend and absorb. Yesterday's arrival was greeted by many car advertisments touting a car's low grams of CO2 per kilometer. Yeah baby... it's all about emissions, all the time - without the guilt factor.
This morning's local Tyrolean paper was filled with biomass, PassivHaus, solar hot water and eco-electricity advertising, like we would see clothing and supermarket ads. I have already spotted at least 3 exhibits, open houses, and conventions that I may check out for all things green and groovy here.
Something noteworthy that struck my interest was an academy sponsored by a local (3 countries) Bank and Industrial park investment group called IG Passivhaus network ( www.igpassivhaus-tirol.at ) whose motto literally says 'We build and sanitize homes of the future' ! How's that for transitioning to the language over here... sanitizing homes really means renovating - as they focus on retrofiting existing homes to healthier + cleaner homes with higher quality IAQ and way lower energy use. This network was also advertising their PassivHaus exhibition in May. Their link is to a german site for Passiv Haus. (www.passivhaustagung.de ) This was a FULL-PAGE advertising in the local paper. It's intent appeared to be about educating potential home owners and renters about the best building technology. The mascot they used was an 'active owl' - too cool.
Another event I picked up on was by the local bank for a 'Build + Live Forum' next week. Free admission, focus on PassivHaus financing, in Innsbruck - somebody twist my arm :-) . The event that I will most definitely attend is the 'Building and Garden' show at the big Innsbruck convention center next weekend.
On this trip, I am will be more focused on energy commons part 2, permaculture and learning about raising my own food in a biodynamic way - and this area has been the epicenter of that for over a hundred years. To me, PassivHaus, Biomass, solar, wind, etc are so yesterday here. I am always looking for the next new thing out of here.
This part of the world combines the world's best lo-carbon, hi-tech, modern lifestyle with ancient culture and really fires more on the Triple Bottom Line - especially the social aspects. Over the past twenty years I have witnessed leading edge concepts from the German-speaking countries and Scandanavia spreading globally 5-10 years later. So this is one of the ways that I stay ahead of the curve and add value to USA students and professionals... sshhhhh... don't tell anyone :-)
Ok - so now to walk along the river and enjoy saying high to all passers by and immersing myself in cultural transitions. I gotta get ready for the students this afternoon and there's no better way to get started than to walk a few kilometers where their shoes walk and observe. Maybe there'll be beer and pizza later tonite after class - sound familiar SFM CSUS students? fun...
No comments:
Post a Comment