like a bat out of hell

is how i made the transition between planes in newark from cologne/newark to newark/houston. as always the cologne/newark flight was a petri dish of german/american cultural behaviror. the environment would make a social scientist giddy.

i was in the first row of peon class, an exit row that is in front of the boarding door, next to two very nice germans. the cologne/newark is on a tiny, old 757 with a 3-3 formation. the tv is in front of the door on the forward wall and dollhouse sized, so no one can really see it. but since CO's movie selection is usually crappy, no one cares.

this area is across from the kitchen and in front of the wall is a bathroom, so people congregate there, especially people walking around babies, etc. the flight attendants kept asking people to move aside, so as to not block the lilleputian screen. i was reading as were my two seatmates, so really it didn't matter. however, the americans dutifully moved aside, as did the germans, as someone in authority gave the request.

this was until my german seatmate stood in front of it. the flight attendant asks her to move and she says, why, as she's reading and he's asleep, i'm not blocking anyone. he blinks and says, well, the next row, because of the glare, they will often watch it. she then counters, 'it's so small i can barely see it, so i doubt they can.'

i'm baffled as to why this is worth arguing about, except that she is german, when the flight attendant puts his hand on his hip, whips out the gay snap and tells this grandmotherly german, 'oh honey, don't you dare give me trouble, uh-uh.' the german woman catchs that she's on a flight to america and dealing with an american and laughs. her husband, waking up to this controversy says, 'well, she's been like this for 40 years, good luck if you can get her under control. (insert loud german guffaw here).

it's great to be back stateside.

A random Thursday holiday

It's a holiday here in Deutschland, Father's day as well as Ascension. As a product of Catholic schooling from age 5 until 22, I am a little miffed that I never had a day off for Ascension, until I came here.

Normally, when the public holiday occurs on a day mid-week, Tues-Thurs, I would usually take it easy the night before and maybe go to the bar and then sleep late into the holiday because the Lord and the rest of us here in the Fatherland know that the only thing open today is the churches and the bars/restaurants, although in B, the bars are actually shut also. Usually Germans will bridge the holiday and take the Monday or Friday off in addition, but I've found if you're in the mainstream travel group, that works 'usual' office hours, then you're in competition with most of Germany to get the long weekend and the prices end up sky high, so personally I won't take the bridge day. As well as the fact I like to conserve my holidays so that I can go longer distances and stay away longer, although more infrequently.

This holiday was a little different because I already came to the conclusion that I needed to spend the day packing for Saturday morning and catching up on housework/laundry. Also, I wanted to get my plants in order before I left since I need to take a few of them to the office to be personally watched over and others I can set up with saucers of water and they'll ride out the two weeks without me since Germany is not expecting a heatwave (fingers crossed).

So since the day was anticipated to be lazy, I had some time. D. was so kind to offer to cook me dinner on Friday so he also needed the day to himself to do his work since he would lose Friday night. So I took the opportunity earlier in the week to call the Post Frau to try to arrange a walking date for either Wednesday or Thursday, and fortunately she chose Thursday.

The Post Frau is the owner of the Post Dog, whom I absolutely adore. Here in B. there is some extreme road constuction going on in two parts of the main road through town, which is throwing off everyone's timings. I've been missing her since it started as I still leave my house at the same time, but I get to the office 10 minutes later so I end up passing her in the traffic. However, I did see her briefly before I went to the US the last time, and she mentioned seeing me walking in town, and would I like to go walking with her perhaps, and I could take her handy number and perhaps call her?

As anyone living here knows, to receive an invitation from a German that you are not somehow affliated with (through work, school, church, kids, whatever) is quite a feat, so I did not want to treat it lightly. I ended up staying longer in the US than anticipated and then going to the UK, but I didn't want to go back to the US again without making the time for her, lest I appear rude here.

I called her on Tuesday and she said, yes of course, as long as the weather is good, Thursday would be good. We agreed to meet at 11 and sure enough, she was there with the Post Dog at 5 til 11. It was slightly spitting rain, as it had yesterday also, so not the best day for a long walk, but still acceptable. We went to one of the trails off of B. The Post Dog sat at attention facing forward in the middle of the backseat the entire time, but reacting with excitement when she turned into the parking lot, as he knew where he was. In addition his 'Dog Friend' was there, but they were heading off on a different trail.

We went to one of the trails she likes, a shorter one because of the weather. The Post Dog was permitted to go off-leash, as he is rather well-behaved around other people, although she put him back on the leash whenever we were near another dog that he did not know. We conversed in German, although she has some English, but really it was easier for her to just explain in German with examples when I did not know a word. I now understand, her husband has allergies and is very overweight, therefore he does not accompany her much on walks, nor does he go out much with the Post Dog.

It was a lovely walk, especially as the river was full due to the recent rains, so everything was very fresh. We did cross over with the Post Dog's dog friend later and they took turns chasing each other, even into the river. There was some foam in the river where it collected in a corner near some tree roots, it seems that the Post Dog is absolutely facinated and somewhat afraid of foam.

In the end we walked for two hours. We saw one set of people who were walking with their beer wagon into the woods (the Father's day tradition), that seems to not be limited to fathers. Overall it was a lovely day and the Post Frau suggested that once I come back from America again to call her and perhaps bring D. also. Not bad for a random Thursday holiday.

why i am happy that thursday is a holiday here...

This week I fly to the US on Saturday for a work conference through Wednesday, then over to Philly for Thurs through Memorial day, and then back to the midwest for another week of work.

Before I go, I need to figure out a few vacation related things, mainly,
-to book passage back from the Faroe Islands for my July camping trip there. The outgoing ferry is taken care of already.

-to look forward with giddy anticipation the shipment of a new tent to Philly. My current tent is basic and general and nice for Austria in the spring, but I'm not sure how it held up in Iceland some days last year, and the Faroes is anticipated to be worse with more rain and wind. The new one is geared more for the extreme and can be used in snow and is wind tested to withstand 106 mph and is much cheaper to purchase in the US than here. Whee!

-I need to have a rough draft of the Sept Lithuania trip in hand for when I see Aunt R in Philly over the weekend, so she has an idea of what to pack for what we're doing, as the next time I see her after that will be in Sept when she arrives here.

-I need to do a few loads of laundry and all that other crap that must be done before a US trip.

recent visitors

I love the stat counter to see what people are looking for and how the find me. I'm going to the UK tomorrow so I'll be offline until Monday. So in the meantime, a few to ponder:

from google japan: entrance pfand supermarket machine
via google uk: campsite near cologne

from us google:
-upkeeping a monument
-"vegetarian chicken" vegan uk
-language acquisition
-mauthausen mcdonalds location
-getting Quorn products in germany
-you know you're german when

from google ireland: paper boxes to go into the oven from holland

from google canada: "sin park"

and the best, from google germany:
-"germany is great" blogspot -->this sounds like it should belong to the polar opposite of J!

Happy weekend.

On French politics, from my French colleague over dinner tonight

"We opened a bottle of champagne when we heard Sarkozy won. Sure there will be more burned out cars, but ultimately change is what is needed to move forward."

Working here in Europe, with colleagues from here, one picks up a different flavor of news than what is shown on CNN.

Queue the 'Sanford and Son' theme song

I have never been OCD as far as cleanliness and organization. I require a modicum of cleanliness in the bathroom and there are separate piles for dirty clothes although clean clothes may get folded but remain on the floor in piles waiting to make it to the wardrobe if I got distracted, like...
with the internet
or the phone
or travel planning
or flossing my teeth.

I make certain concessions here in the Fatherland for spaces that others can see--I keep the balkon design simplistic and orderly. I finally got patio furniture last weekend that was put out over the weekend, as well as my first tomato plants of the season. My landlady has never set foot in the apartment since she rented it to me, nor has anyone else except my close work colleagues who were visiting for a specific purpose, like to set something up in the apartment, or, of course D who whines and then does the dishes sitting in the sink.

In my almost four years in DE, I haven't ever entertained at home, and my visitors tend to be of the same nature, that their spare cash goes toward travels, and they would not think twice about sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag, or going into a cupboard to search for something, because if you are in my house obviously there is nothing to hide.

I am also an only child and have grown up with the mentality of 'well, if I kick my shoes off in the hallway, I am the only one who will move them. I have no shoe fairy to pick them up and it's my own damn fault if I trip over them anyway, so there they will stay until I put them on again.'

So now queue the tune. The place is a mess even for me for a few reasons:
1. I spent two weeks in the US so some new things are sitting around.
2. I go back to the US for another two week the next weekend.
3. There have been some organizational work changes last week that have changed my whole outlook on things. I've been in a good mood so I've been tackling paperwork.
4. Due to 4, I've also been moved by the Holy Spirit to plan the rest of my holidays for the year. So the place is strewn with guidebooks, maps, and sheets of paper with ferry schedules as I try to bang some things out.

So why is this a problem?

As I come home from Polish class tonight at 21.30 I spot a black thing on my balkon. We've had a lot of rain and wind today, so I figure it's a black plastic bag. Upon arriving home I peek outside the sliding door as there is a tiny bit of light outside. But it's not a plastic bag, it's a black cat.

I live on the floor above the ground floor, let's say at least 10 feet above the ground. I have never come home to a cat on the balkon and have no idea how it got there, and worse, how it will get back to where it came from, which is the ground level where it can walk on its little ramp up to the other balkon where it lives.

As I open the sliding door it starts meowing holy hell. Then I am briefly confused, as I think perhaps it is not the one downstairs but one of the random ones outside and perhaps lacking in some important shot. It comes to the doorway and continues to shout at me, like I had anything to do with the situation. I walk away, but it won't come into the apartment. I'm now worried as it's after 21, and I am not sure if I should ring someone's bell as it is late. Fortunately my neighbor appears on her Balkon, perhaps hearing the meowing, and starts to call for 'Luna.' Well, this is a good sign as that is the one she is usually calling for. Luna answers her, and she keeps calling, but doesn't figure out where she is. "um, hallo?"

So she suggests if she can come get her. So she walks through the squalid and out of order apartment to get to my balcon. I don't even want to know what she thought of this, as this whole area is overwhelmingly orderly. A blade of grass who does not follow the rules has no chance here.

I manage to stumble out with 'Sorry, I just got home, I'm not sure how long she was there--or how she got there." At least she looked dry. She picks her up and the cat shouting instantly ceases. She answers that she thinks she came up from the roof. Being that her apartment is on an equal level as mine, I have no idea how she got to the roof, but I'm sure this woman's delicate sensibilities were already offended enough having to invite herself over to my disorderly apartment to fetch her cat, and then to listen to rambling bad German on top of it all without me inquiring to the roof question. I am *the* non-German in the building and I imagine one of the few Americans she has ever had to deal with and boy am I doing my country proud tonight.

Supermarket shopping in Germany

Since my Holland supermarket shopping post, you may wonder what I do the 7 out of 8 weeks when I am not across the border in either Holland or Belgium. Then I do my weekly shopping in Germany, mainly in the tiny town of B. where I live. In my neck of the woods (tiny town between Cologne and D'dorf), these are the usual options from most to least expensive:

1. Get in the car or take the bus/train to either Cologne, D'dorf or Bonn to the Kaufhof Galeria. I rarely do that because it requires too much effort and the food part is in the basement where there's no natural light. When I would go: when I require a nice bottle of wine, champagne, or something very specific that is difficult to find elsewhere, such as pasta shaped and colored like little sombreros.

2. Get in the car or go on foot to the Kaufpark in B. They have all of the basics that you could do your shopping there every single week, from vegetables to washing powder as well as some other stuff like a rack of greeting cars, some school supplies, sewing needs, plastic kitchen implements, etc. When I would go: when I need a crate of beer or water, or maybe when it's snowing outside and I just want to go to one place and be done with all shopping. Would not so heavily recommend the one in B. in the summer as the meat counter has a strong smell and it's next to the frozen area which is next to the checkout, so you're stuck with the scent whether you like it or not.

3. The heavy hitters of discount: the Penny Markt, Aldi Sued, Lidl, and Plus. They are smaller than the above stores, but inventory is ever-changing so if you go away for two or three months, perhaps 15% of the store has moved on to something new--like it was Chinese week when you left and now it's Mexican week, or computer week changed to exercise week. I know people who do all of their shopping at these places, in particular if they watch a budget. You can get all of your basic foodstuffs and vegetables there, as well as other things like toilet paper, chocolate, washing powder, or a bunch of cut flowers. They all go through 'themes'. Most of them are doing 'garden things' right now, so they'll sell garden gloves, plant dirt, watering cans, whatever.

Their advantage is that their prices tend to be very good. Their disadvantage is that once they've sold something, it's basically gone. Also, it's sometimes a 'take it or leave it' place. For example, they advertised a nice little 2 gig usb stick at Penny. Since my colleague goes every week, I sent her with the cash for the following week when they would sell them, and the instructions, 'it says various colors, you know what that means?' 'Yes Heather, no orange for you.' So what color does she come back with? Orange. Why? Because this particular Penny only got a shipment of Orange.

4. My personal favorite-the Turkish vegetable stores. The other side of B. is heavily Turkish. I stumbled into one of these stores the one day and was pleasantly surprised by the selection of vegetables, although they also sell some other Turkish things, like pepper, bread, dried lentils, and yogurt. I was unpleasantly surprised when the woman shouts across the room in a booming Turkish/German voice, something in German about 'return'. My brain moved in slow motion...i didn't have any bottles...they close at 19, it's only 18....oh--she's noticing that I have returned, I was here last week. Her friendly shouting and asking if I needed help in my early days of German comprehension actually scared me into going into the other Turkish store about 2 min away on foot where they are much more soft spoken.

At this 'other' one they also sell Portuguese and Polish foods, in addition to the usual German and Turkish stuff. It's the type of mom and pop place that you may remember as a kid in the US, or at least on TV. The friendly shop owner often gives the kids a piece of candy and things mysteriously appear from under the counter for certain customers and are put into their bags as a special gift. When I've gone in and it's not busy either the owner or her son have put up with a lot of my bad German because they insist on asking me questions, like what I am doing here. Very friendly people, she showed me a photo from under the counter of her daughter in a wedding dress. The daughter now lives in Portugal, which explains the Portuguese wares.

On Saturday I stopped by, with my TJ bag filled with some empty bottles and handed her the bag. She takes care of them while I shop. Then, I usually buy a bagful to get me through the week:

Here was this week's fine bounty, for a grand total of 8 euros. That's a head of lettuce, some cilantro, an eggplant, a small broccoli, a zucchini, 2 bunches of green onions, some green beans in the front in the plastic bag, some mushrooms in another plastic bag, a hunk of ginger, two cans of kidney beans, and on top of them, a Polish candy bar to share with my Polish teacher as I go back to class on Monday.

You'll also note 3 garlics. Garlic isn't looking that great anywhere, but it is essential for the recipe I was making. I picked one up and as the owner was ringing me up, she frowned. 'Go and pick another one.' Ok, so I pick another one, and she frowns again. Obviously the American cannot be trusted on this task, so she gets up herself to go feel up all the garlics and to frown at them. Finally she picks the biggest one, comes back and says, 'I'm not sure, so I only charge you for one' and throws the three in the bag.


So what was the end result of the above? My favorite Chinese dish, recipe comes from here. (Yes, it includes tofu on the top left. That came from Aldi Sued.)

5. Since it is the tiny town of B., there is also the option to buy direct from the local farms. Apples, potatoes, jam, honey, uncultured yogurt, whatever is in season that they produce, they sell. It's a good option, but it does involve the car and a 7 min drive minimum which is why I don't go to them every single week. However, if you ever need a certain variety of potato, I know just the place, a farm that does only potatoes, on the edge of B. You go in and tell them what you're looking to cook, and they will tell you the proper potato variety that you want to buy to make your recipe turn out its best.

More on Holland supermarket shopping

Since my recent post on shopping at the Tref in Holland and since people are interested, today I give you more details about escaping to where the grass in greener.

Why do I like to shop at the supermarkets in Holland?
1. It's a more 'American' shopping experience, which I'm in the mood for about once every 8 weeks. Meaning specifically--the supermarkets there are bigger, similar to what you would find at home. Wide aisles, tall ceilings, and 15-20 cash registers. Further, because it's usually crowded with the Dutch as opposed to Germans, no one is bumping into you, pushing you aside, or breathing down your neck in line.

2. The variety and pricing of ethnic foods. If you like Mexican food, you're stuck with the basement of the Kaufhof Galeria for overpriced taco shells and fajita wraps, like they were airlifted in from Mexico instead of produced somewhere here on the continent. The soft faco wraps I would pay 3.99 for at Rewe in Germany, I can get for 2.39 at Tref. Additionally, there are a lot more Indian and Asian options available.

3. Options! Choices! Here is Germany it's very simple. There is one variety of soft taco wraps, and one of two brands of aluminum foil or plastic wrap, a handful of dish soap options, etc. Which is all fine and good when you're sending your boyfriend to the store for your dish soap, because when you say 'the lemon one' there IS only one lemon one so it makes his life easy. However, I like choice. I like to have to choose what type of toilet paper graces my bottom. Do I want the recycled non-bleach one, or the soft enough for a baby's bottom blue one, or the white one with pink clouds? Further, there are multiple sizes of various products, so I can choose whether I want the pink clouds in a four pack, or a 9 pack or 24.

4. Language - If you don't speak German, you can sometimes luck out and find a better product assortment that will include certain brands that have instructions in English, which is ever so helpful if you're using something that requires proper usage, like say, oven cleaner, and you don't want to look up all the words in your dictionary, you just want to use it already. There's also a pretty good chance that depending on where you are in Holland, you will find supermarket staff that speak English if you had a question.

5. Vegetarian options - Yeah, I already mentioned this before, but the assortment is better than in Germany. Specific brands you can usually find are Valess, if you're in a Jumbo supermarket (more on them below) they have their own branded veg products, as well as sometimes some Quorn products which are more expensive and a lesser assortment than in Belguim.

6. Packaged options - Yes, the natural in-season products that you buy direct from the farmer in Germany and then wash, cut, and assemble in a meal are the best. But remember those nice little convenient packages already chopped up and ready to go into the skillet from the US? Yep, they have them in Holland. Pick up your meat/tofu plus a veg packet plus a sauce and you're good to go. And you can find little bags of washed baby carrots. How lovely.

7. Vegetable options - Here in Germany it's tough to find a butternut squash where I live. For some reason they're plentiful in Holland supermarkets. Same thing on a scotch bonnet pepper.

8. American imports - For some reason, in the large Holland supermarkets you will find a selection of American products, at ridiculously expensive prices, similar to the British shop in Cologne. Sure you don't want to spend 4.99 euros on a Betty Crocker cakemix. However, if I do want to do so, I'd rather be overwhelmed with shelves of American products than have to visually sift through the British products to find the American ones (Sorry D!). Expensive products I've seen available in Holland: pam spray, rootbeer, jim beam hot wing sauce, kraft bbq sauce, and a small offering of Betty Crocker mixes and frosting, among others.

9. "American" products - Similar to how the Germans offer 'American' things, like a version of 'big American frozen pizza' that is some disgusting mix that you would never buy in America, the Dutch offer 'American' things also, which are produced in Holland, so priced similar to other local goods, not imports. However, the Dutch version of 'American' things are not so, uh, German influenced. In particular I recommend Dutch American bbq sauce and ketchup as they are less salty and less sugary in taste than their German cousins.

10. "American similar" products. I like German naturalness, with the organic and the bio and all that. I also like anti-bacterial soap and toilet cleaner that will kill the germs to kingdom come, and I think I can have a world with both sides. I live with German herbal teas to cure general ills 95% of the time, but when my work colleagues start hacking with their flus and colds, my world feels a little nicer with chemicals at work to protect me. Holland carries all the nice American chemical laden products that you may be missing, or something similar to them.

The negatives? You knew there must be some:
1. There are more preservatives in Holland products than in German products. There are ingredients that start with E and then a three digit number.

2. With the exception of ethnic foods, I usually find the pricing to be slightly higher in Holland than in Germany if you are going to buy the exact same product. I'm talking a difference of 2.39 to 2.49, but still.

3. In Holland they round up your bill one or two cents. I've yet to figure it out exactly, but if it comes to say 19.99, and you give them 20 euros, you will not get change. The store computers automatically always do it so the cashier is giving you back what he/she is supposed to, but still it's a little odd.

4. The Dutch tomatoes. They suck there just like they do in Germany.

Interested in crossing the border? At the top of this post I point back to my earlier post with instructions to get to Tref. My other favorite in Holland is Jumbo supermarkets, which is similar to Tref. Sometimes they have smaller versions of a Jumbo if you look for a nearby one, so I recommend my personal Jumbo favorite--Jumbo in Roermond. You do need to pay for parking in the structure or nearby on the street, but it's minimal. They will also validate your parking structure ticket with your Jumbo receipt so it takes off a euro or something, just be sure to give your parking structure ticket to the checkout person.

The nice thing about a day trip to Jumbo Roermond is that it is situated within Roermond, so you can go and see the nice little cobblestone town, including the old town square which has a market on Saturdays. If you time it right there is a clock tower with figures which spins around and plays a little tune, so nifty to see. In addition, there is a walkway under the highway which many use to travel between the town center and the Roermond Outlet Center. It's not an outlet center the way we think of outlets in the US with discounted prices, it's more of a big outdoor shopping center, but if you make the trip to Roermond you might as well go over to see it.

Holland calling

So it's a public holiday with everything shut tight and everyone dead silent. So what's a girl to do? Travel tends to get booked up early because the Germans like to get out of town. When you live within an hour of either Belgium or Holland, and Holland does not take off for May 1, you know your mission.

It's important that you get up early, because most the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), which includes Cologne, D'dorf, Duisburg, Essen, Bonn, etc. will be on the road, mainly in the same direction that you are going (towards the Dutch border). We left the flat at 09.30, toward destination Venlo.

Why Venlo? It's spitting distance to the German border and easy to get to, take the A3 to A40/A67, and then spend 5 minutes on a little road. Get directions to the Tref Supermarket which is one of the best supermarkets in the world. They are very large, with a huge selection of many things, including cheap Senseo coffee. They also have a map on their site to help you. In addition they have some shopping Sundays. Go here to find them.

In addition to the lovely Treff we had plans to go to Leurs Tuincentrum which is a large gardening shop. If you need a plant or a pot for a plant, or anything in connection with your garden, they seem to have it all.

We did well on the time, with no traffic encountered, and only one slowdown due to road works. D. was hungry so we stopped at McDonald's in Venlo. I don't get McDonald's much in Germany since there is none near where I live, the closest is 30 min away in a direction I seldom am. At McDonald's D. tried his luck with English, and the man in his mid-20's answered him with perfect English. I asked in English 'Do you have a GemueseMac?' (which is the name of the vegetarian burger that McDonald's sells in Germany. I know there is a Dutch equivalent, but I didn't know the name. It's a deep fried veggie patty that is not exactly healthy, but when you have one once every six months, it won't kill you. But hold the sauce, it's a very thick white mayo-like substance.

They guy says yes and punches in a Groenteburger and I ask for no sauce and the conversation continues, do you want the McMenu, etc. At some point he switches to German so I answer him in German. I have no idea if he was switching to German for me since I asked for the GemueseMac by its German name or if he was more comfortable in German than English. He flawlessly switched between me and D. with German and English.

Then we went to Tref, but the damage was minimal because I had been there a month ago, just picking up a few things that I cannot find so easily here, like anti-bacterial hand soap and some hot peppers from Asia that so liven up my cooking. In the line the woman was speaking German to the people in front of us, but she switched to Dutch when dealing with us. Not sure if she figured out we were going through the motions since we weren't required to come up with anything more than yes/no answers.

We went next to Leurs Tuincentrum because I needed some supplies for the balcony garden. Looking around the parking lot, it was about 95% Germany license plates. In like the woman was speaking German to the couple in front of us. She started immediately with us in German. In thinking about it later, she probably did this because A. we don't really look Dutch and B. any able-body, working-age adults who are in the garden store dillydallying among plant supplies are probably having a day off, and therefore German today as well as C. statistically there are many more Germans in the store than Dutch today. However, I was fishing for exact change and D. asks me in English, do you need something in particular because I have lots. I answered, no, I have it. The woman hears this and then switches to English for the rest of the transaction.

So the balkon garden has been started. I now have tomato seeds in a pot as well as some herbs, although I brought them in for the evening, because it does still get a little chilly overnight. However, I'll put them back out in the warm sun tomorrow while I'm at work.