Germany

Crazy to believe. Our one-year anniversary of arriving in Bonn was on Friday. I’m trying to run through a mental list of all of the things that we’ve done, seen, eaten, traveled to, and people we’ve met since we first set foot in Bonn on March 25, 2010. (Reviewing my Twitter posts helps too.) Departed Oakland. Arrived, bags in hand. First stayed: Hotel Ibis. First dinner: Mediterraneo. Bonn puns. First apartment (danke, Thomas and Couchsurfing!) in the Bonn Altstadt. Cherry…

Sevgili Dostlar, My piece on the Mesut Özil and modern Turkish-Germans aired on The World yesterday. In it, I interview Prof. Dr. Claudia Riehl of the University of Cologne, Susanne von Würzen (thanks, Courtney!), Mehmet Aydan (thanks, Begum!), and Cem Özdemir. Also, don’t forget my editor Patrick Cox’ language podcast, The World in Words! [audio:http://cyrusfarivar.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/062820105.mp3]

So I get that people want the iPhone. I get that it’s a really sexy, really popular handset. I’m not convinced that I’ll buy one just yet, but I signed up for T-Mobile’s email updates about it, and just yesterday got this: But seriously T-Mobile (Germany’s exclusive iPhone provider), do you really need SEVEN different plans? In fact, there’s so many, that they need two pages to fit them all. Here’s the first four: I won’t go over all of…

Dear Friends, My piece on the one-year anniversary of last year’s controversial election in Iran is airing today. In the piece, we hear from two young Iranians who talk about their frustration with what’s happened since June 12, 2009, and from Mohammed Sadeghi, the Iranian-German behind Mousavi’s Facebook page and from Golnaz Esfandiari, the Iranian-American reporter with Radio Free Europe in Prague. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern…

Step one: Order a new free SIM card from NetzClub, a new MVNO from O2. Select the “Handy Internet Flat” option. The catch is they provide you with free Internet in exchange for text advertising. Step two: Buy an O2 Surfstick. I bought mine directly from their website for €34 shipped. It’s unlocked. It comes with an O2 SIM card, and five free days of 3G access — otherwise it’s prepaid €3.50 per day (midnight to midnight). Step three: Download…

Caption contest!

So it’s a new year, another birthday, and vacation is sadly over — time to get back to a regular working schedule and real life. But this year is different, given that five months from now, my wife and I will be moving to the birthplace of Ludwig von Beethoven and the former capital of West Germany: Bonn, Germany. Late last month, I accepted a position as the new host and producer of Spectrum, a weekly 30 minute, international English-language…

Our first round of photos from our Germany trip are up.