The Roman Museum next to the cathedral is one of my favorite museums in the world! I love the idea of meeting in Koeln! (Can’t do the umlaut on this keyboard, sorry.)
Ok, you’re still new here, so I welcome you to the concept of unrelenting nitpicking: it’s the Romano-Germanic-Museum :): Besides the Roman stuff, there’s also Germanic. I’ve never spend more hours in a museum than here.
Thanks for more great info. Just to clarify, I do have a doctorate in my own right – glad to hear that Doktor is the preferred form for both sexes now, that is one less complication 
Particularly interested in the change of du/Sie – I feel like that will be difficult to negotiate still.
And am definitely up for Deutsches Dopefest (gender? I hate gender in German, it’s the one thing I can’t get a good handle on)! Cologne, as previously mentioned, is a place I imagine I/we will be a lot.
Hah, that’s the German quirk no outsider really can understand because we don’t understand it either. The conventions around that change all the time between different social surroundings, classes, age groups or regions so that you can’t fix hard rules for it.
To add: if in doubt, keep with the “Sie”. It’s more embarrassing to erroneously “duzen” a business manager than to “siezen” a student.
Side question.
When you get there, please verify this for me.
I’ve heard that native German’s can’t pronounce the word squirrel.
Is this true?
Sorry for the interruption.
Well, I guess most Germans do better than English speaking folk when pronouncing Oachkatzlschwoaf.
I have tested this with native German speaking friends before. It’s true! But in my mind, UK English speakers also fail on this one…
Needless to say, English speakers have a great deal of difficulty with lots of German words too. I am a confident speaker of foreign languages, but only because I don’t mind making embarrassing errors all the time.
My husband can say it without any trace of an accent.
More questions:
Good recent films?
Is it possible to watch the BBC legally?
Best ethnic food (aside from doner)?
BBC is freely broadcast over the Astra satellite, I guess it’s also available in cable networks (I don’t watch it much; I suspect it’s a special program for the European continent, but it’s in English). My favorite Ethnic here is Italian, the Pizzeria with an Italian patron is a staple here even in the tiniest podunk town. It’s been a time since I’ve last had a pizza in Italy and probably it’s even better there, but you’ll get good Italian food here everywhere.
I meant Italian **owner **here, but shitty Tapatalk wouldn’t let me edit it.
Good to hear about the BBC, as I have missed it rather since I’ve been back in the States.
Recommendations, Einstein, for banks or Internet providers?
Well, for good basic service and availability, you can’t go wrong with the good old Sparkasse..
My own internet provider for years is http://www.unitymedia.de/; I’m very content, it’s reliable and affordable, but it’s restricted to cable.
Daphne,
Here’s a site listing K’he rentals:
You might also start reading the Badische Nueste Nachrichten, the local newspaper, to a get a flavor of what’s happening in the city:
My husband is going to visit a friend in K’he later this month. I’ll get him to ask his friend for a list of good restaurants.
Yay for a German Dopefest!
I live in Cologne and will gladly help organize a meeting!
Daphne - if you are in Cologne and want to have a beer with a fellow doper, just send me a message.
Well, that’s a start … Butterfly’s Ghost, EinsteinsHund, me and I know there will be others. Cologne is the place! I’ll start a thread over at MPSIMS and we’ll get this thing off the ground.
Awesome, and thanks Idilia for those links. A list of good restaurants will also be much appreciated. Thanks everyone though, you are all being very kind. Any more tips and recommendations still would be great!
Cologne seems like a great place for a Dopefest. I was lucky enough to spend one night there on the way to Budapest in 2008. Stunning cathedral and I had a little time in the museum, but haven’t a chance to see much else. As I said, I hope to be able to get there fairly regularly.
I’ll be arriving in late October most likely, so sometime in. November would make sense.
Most questions have been adressed; I’d just pitch in with a few points (German living in Tübingen and Stuttgart)
[ul]
[li]There definitely is no requirement to have an Internet connection (I suspect in Idilia Dubb’s case there has been a misunderstanding (the residence permit application form asks for an e-mail address but that’s optional and for administrative convenience only). You are, of course, pretty much at a disadventage w/o Internet connectivity for most day to day business.[/li][li] Karlsruhe is near (by US standards)/middling far from (by German standards) the northern Black Forest - you get by train or tram to Bad Wildbad (do try the Palais Thermal spa there) or Forbach in just over one hour, and to Baden-Baden in 15 minutes (by ICE) to 33 minutes (tram)[/li][li]Good train connections to major cities - the fastest connections are Hamburg 4 h 44 min/Cologne 2 h 5 min/Stuttgart 43 min by IC/Munich 3 h 5 min by IC/Paris 3 h 2 min by direct TGV/Zürich 3 h by ICE[/li][li]Du/Sie: Du between acquaintances (acquaintances in Germany people who haven’t known each other more than a few years and/or have only occasionally slept with each other 
- a friend in Germany is only someone who you’d rely on to hide you when on the run from the law) has grown a bit more widespread in the last few decades but when in doubt esp. in a professional environment it’s still better to err on the side of formality (there is still a clichéd putdown occasionally used to people who have used Du without being invited: ‘Mein Herr, ich erinnere mich nicht mit Ihnen Schweine gehütet zu haben’ (Sir, I do do not recollect having herded swine with you). With manners i’s a bit like with formal/informal clothing: better to arrive overdressed the first day in a new job and then adjust to informality than to begin too informally and have to adjust up.[/li]When an executive of Ikea stepped down some time ago a German business article mentioned as an advantage: Well, at least she has got her last name back.
[li]Outside academia your doctorate has significant social cachet; do use it e.g. when looking for an apartment.[/li][/ul]