Showers today and light rain scheduled throughout tomorrow.
Things aren't looking very ducky.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
don't excite me so
Being from Philly and working in the IT industry, I tend to be a tad more rude, cranky, and abrupt than all females and probably most males that I know. Perhaps it explains how I'm able to tough it over year after year in the land of the shouting, dour cranks without feeling even mildly insulted in daily life here.
In the one tiny, dark corner of my heart that is not wearing black every day however, I have a special love of yellow rubber duckies with their sunshiney personalities. I have wanted for years to have a yellow ducky bathroom but the bathroom fixtures where I've lived so far in my life have always been of a color not conducive to decorations of bright yellow (i.e. mauve). Finally in Germany I have an all-white bathroom, but then I was having difficulty finding the proper ducky shower curtain, so I ended up with a goldfish motif instead for the time being.
Why am I rambling on this point? Because for my entire life I have wanted to go to a 'rubber ducky regatta', or one of those things where a community with a creek will dump a bunch of numbered yellow ducks into the creek, and they will 'race' to the finish line with prizes for the first finishers. Usually you 'buy' a duck for the race and the money goes to a charity. Every single time I always miss the races and see the after photo in the newspaper with hundreds of yellow points in the creek and am slightly saddened at missing it live and in technicolor.
This time, however, this time, I will actually see it live, for the first time ever. The tiny town one town over from B is holding their annual townfest and it includes a ducky regatta with the proceeds going to the local school. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for Saturday morning.
In the one tiny, dark corner of my heart that is not wearing black every day however, I have a special love of yellow rubber duckies with their sunshiney personalities. I have wanted for years to have a yellow ducky bathroom but the bathroom fixtures where I've lived so far in my life have always been of a color not conducive to decorations of bright yellow (i.e. mauve). Finally in Germany I have an all-white bathroom, but then I was having difficulty finding the proper ducky shower curtain, so I ended up with a goldfish motif instead for the time being.
Why am I rambling on this point? Because for my entire life I have wanted to go to a 'rubber ducky regatta', or one of those things where a community with a creek will dump a bunch of numbered yellow ducks into the creek, and they will 'race' to the finish line with prizes for the first finishers. Usually you 'buy' a duck for the race and the money goes to a charity. Every single time I always miss the races and see the after photo in the newspaper with hundreds of yellow points in the creek and am slightly saddened at missing it live and in technicolor.
This time, however, this time, I will actually see it live, for the first time ever. The tiny town one town over from B is holding their annual townfest and it includes a ducky regatta with the proceeds going to the local school. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for Saturday morning.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Making hay while the sun is shining
Aunt B arrives in 7 days, and in 8 days we're off to Lithuania for two weeks. In addition, some other planets have aligned all together to light a fire under my ... to get things done. Namely:
- Cleaned out the car as I need to drive around American work colleagues this week. (OK, excluding the trunk so far.)
- Cancelled my Newsweek and Economist in advance of them rolling over in October.
- Charged up the handheld vacuum in anticipation of the "last weekend before Aunt B comes so I need to do major cleaning" weekend.
- Scheduled D to come over to put together the TV table I picked up a few months ago from Ikea.
- Started to clean-out some of the dead balkon plants.
- Am around 75% done with some logistical work paperwork that must be done every 6 or 12 months in relation to staffing. It's the kind of paperwork that there is no positive for doing it, but there is a negative if it does not get done.
- What's still on the list to do? A heck of a lot more and then some.
- Flight back to philly for the december holiday booked using USAir miles that were reaching their expiration date. They put me on Lufthansa going out and USAir on the return.
- Ordered new contact lenses which I can leave in all the time for up to 30 days. As an added bonus, they were ordered on Friday and arrived by DHL on Monday. If nothing else, I cannot fault the efficient Germany transport network. The very sweet 80 something year old granny in the building signed for and accepted the tiny package as it came during the workday. I live in a strange utopia of an entire apartment building of very nice Germans.
- Ordered a small countertop dishwashing machine from Plus. The chore I most despise in the world is washing dishes, it even ranks lower than toilet cleaning for me. I am finally biting the (cheap) bullet and buying an improvement.- Cleaned out the car as I need to drive around American work colleagues this week. (OK, excluding the trunk so far.)
- Cancelled my Newsweek and Economist in advance of them rolling over in October.
- Charged up the handheld vacuum in anticipation of the "last weekend before Aunt B comes so I need to do major cleaning" weekend.
- Scheduled D to come over to put together the TV table I picked up a few months ago from Ikea.
- Started to clean-out some of the dead balkon plants.
- Am around 75% done with some logistical work paperwork that must be done every 6 or 12 months in relation to staffing. It's the kind of paperwork that there is no positive for doing it, but there is a negative if it does not get done.
- What's still on the list to do? A heck of a lot more and then some.
Friday, August 24, 2007
More on Passport Control
Since Debbie asked and since my fellow US Americans always ask me similar questions when I am home:
Is that all you do when leaving/entering Germany: show them your residence permit sticker?
Yep, just show them the sticker in Germany and they will not stamp you in or out. One of my US colleagues here wouldn't bother to show the sticker and perhaps one-third of the time they didn't notice it either and would stamp her. To me that wastes valuable passport space, so I'm careful to show the sticker.
What if you're re-entering or leaving the EU/Schengen Zone through another country, like Denmark? Do we just shown THEIR passport control guys the German sticker, too?
Nah, I don't bother, as German sticker or not, you would still get stamped by Denmark in any event. On a related note, on a previous trip through Copenhagen, the female passport officer noticed my stickers and then proceeded to try out her university Germany on me. (Ugh.)
No passport stamping that says you're leaving the EU?
As long as you have the sticker, no stamping, although if you're going to a few EU destinations such as the UK, you'll get an outgoing scan which registers you as outgoing. But I've never had a problem in this respect. I often do three way flights, such as I went Cologne to Stockholm and then took a ferry to Finland and then flew back Helsinki to Duesseldorf. The only time I had some raised eyebrows was when I went to Turkey for a long weekend. I noticed they read the screen more carefully the next few times I flew.
Often if it's a closer EU country such as Brussels or Paris, you will not get passport checked either in/out of Germany .
The closest I normally come to anyone tracking my in and out has been my Eastern Europe trips. On multiple trips now to Vilnius and Warsaw and one-time trips to Riga and Tallinn, every single time they will find a blank area with space next to it and stamp my arrival there. Then when I am outgoing from one of those places, they will stamp it outgoing, immediately next to the incoming one, so they are together. One time I went into Warsaw from Germany and then travelled from Warsaw to Vilnius without getting checked, so that I was then leaving Vilnius to Germany, but without an incoming to Vilnius. The agent asked, but once I explained that bit he was satisfied to stamp next to the Warsaw incoming.
I'm a little nervous about what to do when I fly soon for the first time since moving here.
It's actually easier than if you're flying on an unstickered US passport, in my opinion. For example, in particular, I've always found the UK to be the biggest pain in the ** to Americans with the 20 questions. It was actually worse when I worked there, I began to carry my actual UK work permit paperwork to hasten me through. Since I accumulated this plethora of Germany stickers, I've found them to be less questioning of my American entry for a long weekend. Instead it's 'oh you work in Germany I see, how long do you stay here?' and that is it. Versus the other Americans on either side of me getting the, 'where do you stay, for how long, have you been here before, where were you before here, where do you go after, do you know anyone here, blah blah.'
Last time I was so speedy into the UK from their lack of questions that I was through faster than the Euros in the long EU line. And an American entering the UK faster than a UK citizen, THAT is priceless. :-)
Is that all you do when leaving/entering Germany: show them your residence permit sticker?
Yep, just show them the sticker in Germany and they will not stamp you in or out. One of my US colleagues here wouldn't bother to show the sticker and perhaps one-third of the time they didn't notice it either and would stamp her. To me that wastes valuable passport space, so I'm careful to show the sticker.
What if you're re-entering or leaving the EU/Schengen Zone through another country, like Denmark? Do we just shown THEIR passport control guys the German sticker, too?
Nah, I don't bother, as German sticker or not, you would still get stamped by Denmark in any event. On a related note, on a previous trip through Copenhagen, the female passport officer noticed my stickers and then proceeded to try out her university Germany on me. (Ugh.)
No passport stamping that says you're leaving the EU?
As long as you have the sticker, no stamping, although if you're going to a few EU destinations such as the UK, you'll get an outgoing scan which registers you as outgoing. But I've never had a problem in this respect. I often do three way flights, such as I went Cologne to Stockholm and then took a ferry to Finland and then flew back Helsinki to Duesseldorf. The only time I had some raised eyebrows was when I went to Turkey for a long weekend. I noticed they read the screen more carefully the next few times I flew.
Often if it's a closer EU country such as Brussels or Paris, you will not get passport checked either in/out of Germany .
The closest I normally come to anyone tracking my in and out has been my Eastern Europe trips. On multiple trips now to Vilnius and Warsaw and one-time trips to Riga and Tallinn, every single time they will find a blank area with space next to it and stamp my arrival there. Then when I am outgoing from one of those places, they will stamp it outgoing, immediately next to the incoming one, so they are together. One time I went into Warsaw from Germany and then travelled from Warsaw to Vilnius without getting checked, so that I was then leaving Vilnius to Germany, but without an incoming to Vilnius. The agent asked, but once I explained that bit he was satisfied to stamp next to the Warsaw incoming.
I'm a little nervous about what to do when I fly soon for the first time since moving here.
It's actually easier than if you're flying on an unstickered US passport, in my opinion. For example, in particular, I've always found the UK to be the biggest pain in the ** to Americans with the 20 questions. It was actually worse when I worked there, I began to carry my actual UK work permit paperwork to hasten me through. Since I accumulated this plethora of Germany stickers, I've found them to be less questioning of my American entry for a long weekend. Instead it's 'oh you work in Germany I see, how long do you stay here?' and that is it. Versus the other Americans on either side of me getting the, 'where do you stay, for how long, have you been here before, where were you before here, where do you go after, do you know anyone here, blah blah.'
Last time I was so speedy into the UK from their lack of questions that I was through faster than the Euros in the long EU line. And an American entering the UK faster than a UK citizen, THAT is priceless. :-)
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Passport Control
The recent weekend trip from Germany to the UK was the first in in some months for me that required passing through passport control but not involving a US destination.
I have four years worth of work permits in my passport, one from the UK and four from Germany. Normally, when I am coming in or out of Germany I hand the German passport officer my passport open to the two pages with the current Germany sticker. He/she usually holds the page, flips for a second to the front photo page, and then puts the Germany sticker under a special light to be sure it is not a forgery.
Maybe he/she will flip through the other pages looking at the other Germany stickers, then he/she goes back to the front page and scans it into the computer, squints for a second or two while looking at the computer monitor, then closes the passport and slides it face-down through the little window, and maybe says 'have a good evening' or something to that effect.
I will guess that I have gone through this little exercise perhaps 75 times in total into Germany, and almost that many times in all other countries combined, as I recall sometimes wandering into countries and not being checked. I have now come to the conclusion that all passport control experiences can be defined as: indifferent (90%), good (4%), bad (4%), and odd (2%). It's by no means scientific, nor is it specific to Germany, but it is specific to Europe and North America based on my experiences.
1. the Indifferent - they casually glance at the photo page, glance at me, their matching criteria is something like 'female with brown hair, check' and then they barely look at the sticker, except perhaps the expiration date. Americans working in Germany are a dime a dozen, so they give as much attention to the papers and I give to the tube of toothpaste I'm buying. It's labeled as toothpaste, it's in the toothpast section, good enough.
2. the Good - last year I flew into Chicago on my way to the midwest city at company J. where I work. For some reason the US/permanent residence lines were backed up, so a few of us were shuttled to the foreign visitors line. I hand over my passport to the US agent, photo side open, and he starts to flip though it. Something seems to catch his eye and he starts over again, going page by page, which in my expanded passport, is quite a few pages. A few pages past all of the Germany stickers he stops and turns it sideways reading a stamp I'm guessing, but I don't know which one.
Until now he has not said a word. He is still holding the passport open to a certain page I cannot see, but I know it's not the Germany stickers. He says, you work in Germany. Yes. When was the last time you were home? December. And what is your purpose? A week of work at company J. in a large midwest town. He then closes the passport and slides it back across the counter to me and says something that I miss, but I know it's not the usual 'welcome home' that they've started to do regularly.
I have four years worth of work permits in my passport, one from the UK and four from Germany. Normally, when I am coming in or out of Germany I hand the German passport officer my passport open to the two pages with the current Germany sticker. He/she usually holds the page, flips for a second to the front photo page, and then puts the Germany sticker under a special light to be sure it is not a forgery.
Maybe he/she will flip through the other pages looking at the other Germany stickers, then he/she goes back to the front page and scans it into the computer, squints for a second or two while looking at the computer monitor, then closes the passport and slides it face-down through the little window, and maybe says 'have a good evening' or something to that effect.
I will guess that I have gone through this little exercise perhaps 75 times in total into Germany, and almost that many times in all other countries combined, as I recall sometimes wandering into countries and not being checked. I have now come to the conclusion that all passport control experiences can be defined as: indifferent (90%), good (4%), bad (4%), and odd (2%). It's by no means scientific, nor is it specific to Germany, but it is specific to Europe and North America based on my experiences.
1. the Indifferent - they casually glance at the photo page, glance at me, their matching criteria is something like 'female with brown hair, check' and then they barely look at the sticker, except perhaps the expiration date. Americans working in Germany are a dime a dozen, so they give as much attention to the papers and I give to the tube of toothpaste I'm buying. It's labeled as toothpaste, it's in the toothpast section, good enough.
2. the Good - last year I flew into Chicago on my way to the midwest city at company J. where I work. For some reason the US/permanent residence lines were backed up, so a few of us were shuttled to the foreign visitors line. I hand over my passport to the US agent, photo side open, and he starts to flip though it. Something seems to catch his eye and he starts over again, going page by page, which in my expanded passport, is quite a few pages. A few pages past all of the Germany stickers he stops and turns it sideways reading a stamp I'm guessing, but I don't know which one.
Until now he has not said a word. He is still holding the passport open to a certain page I cannot see, but I know it's not the Germany stickers. He says, you work in Germany. Yes. When was the last time you were home? December. And what is your purpose? A week of work at company J. in a large midwest town. He then closes the passport and slides it back across the counter to me and says something that I miss, but I know it's not the usual 'welcome home' that they've started to do regularly.
I know I've missed something because he's waiting for an answer. I ask him to repeat and he says 'ah, I thought you spoke Polish based on where you visited in Poland as it is not a tourist destination, pardon me.' I then had to explain that I'm only still learning Polish, and could he repeat again more slowly? (It was welcome home in Polish, duh.) There was no one in line I would need to wait for my bag anyway, so I stood there chatting with him for 10 minutes in my very basic Polish about why I had visited such a remote destination in Poland and how he liked living in the US.
3. the Bad - It's not a specific German thing, but as I come so often into Germany my sample size is skewed. When I last came into DUS from the UK, they were doing two shared lines, so no distinction between EU and not. D and I were at the back of the line so it took some time. I'm not sure what power trip these people get from being in uniform in a little glass box, but I could see he had one.
He doesn't bother to put the sticker under the special light, because obviously he has laser eyes to spot a fake. He then barks at me in that special way that Germans have 'Do you live in Germany?'
My first thought appeared in a bubble above my head 'Well f-wit, why else would I be entering Germany late on a Sunday night with a valid Germany sticker?' Before uttering that one aloud, I thought again based on my four plus years experience here--what would be the appropriate response to a German so that I can get through here as quickly as possible?
So I shouted back to him in German in a slightly louder but more angry tone 'Yes, I work here in Germany!' like, I'm in a hurry and I'm prepared to argue even louder with you if needed. Of course, having passed that test, he immediately closed the passport and slipped it through the little window to me without a word. D. and I had been watching the other line, the other guard was questioning a UK person who was politely trying to answer in English. That will get you nowhere quickly here, my friend.
4. the Odd - I find some passport control conversations completely out of the blue. In the UK recently the guy makes a comment that whoever put my extra pages into my passport did not do a good job. Yes, that was the US government, and there are some other things they're not doing so well either. And I spilled coffee on one corner of a page. The advice from the same passport guy who saw it, "You're not supposed to feed them, no matter what they say." Uh, ok.
The last time I went to Lithuania, the passport agent asked if I have health insurance. Um, yes. (Heather wondering, since when did Lithuania become a medical tourist destination.) So you will not use the health insurance of Lithuania? Hell no, I'm not sure I would even use it if injured and in need of a doctor; I'd probably hold out for the sanctuary of German soil for medical needs, thank you.
And those are my thoughts on trips through passport control as of summer 2007.
Monday, August 20, 2007
if you're ever in Koeln...
and looking for a bar with no cover that is open until after 5 AM and plays karaoke with songbooks in English, German and Thai, just let me know and i'll hook you up. the karaoke stops at 5 AM, however, and it converts to regular music.
in particular, you may also find there Germans with a sense of humor who recognize that your tough looking, shaved-head, vegan friend has one hell of a voice. they will then invite him to sing with one of them a tune they chose, 'barbie girl', where said friend is told to sing the barbie part.
after you then return the favor and challenge the germans to sing along with something as equally appalling, they will then decide to up the ante and challenge your group to a German speaking song, as they have heard your group speaking English. having at least one person who can reasonably plow through the words even if the tune is not known will win you major points.
even better one of your group will be asked to dance by a serious German, while another can strike up a conversation with the Thai/German married couple who comes there every week while half English/half German conversations generally abound on this side of the room while the other half is half Thai/half German. Then your English group can be stymied by the 12 Thai people who come in at 4 AM to join the 10 already there, and looking around the bar you're thinking you must be looking at the entire Thai population of Koeln.
if you're ever in such a mood, I know just the place.
in particular, you may also find there Germans with a sense of humor who recognize that your tough looking, shaved-head, vegan friend has one hell of a voice. they will then invite him to sing with one of them a tune they chose, 'barbie girl', where said friend is told to sing the barbie part.
after you then return the favor and challenge the germans to sing along with something as equally appalling, they will then decide to up the ante and challenge your group to a German speaking song, as they have heard your group speaking English. having at least one person who can reasonably plow through the words even if the tune is not known will win you major points.
even better one of your group will be asked to dance by a serious German, while another can strike up a conversation with the Thai/German married couple who comes there every week while half English/half German conversations generally abound on this side of the room while the other half is half Thai/half German. Then your English group can be stymied by the 12 Thai people who come in at 4 AM to join the 10 already there, and looking around the bar you're thinking you must be looking at the entire Thai population of Koeln.
if you're ever in such a mood, I know just the place.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Saturday vegan cooking
As you know, Saturday is my best cooking day. I buy my "major" food on either Friday or Saturday, so everything I cook on Saturday is extremely fresh. Also I have the most time on Saturday afternoons, and there is always the fallback that the stores are open until the evening in case I'm suddenly missing something, which is not an option on Sundays.
Today's cooking is special because Vegan Pete is in town visiting. So Vegan Pete eats only vegetarian food, minus egg and dairy products. Having been vegan for a few years, often my meals are still vegan, mainly because I'm not talented at egg cooking and dairy makes my tummy hurt. In addition, Vegan Pete is lavish in praise, not only is he verbally pleased about what I make, but he eats a lot of it, so I know he's not just being polite. ;-)
Today's menu is looking like this:
Starters: Buffalo Tempeh Wings - which will be made with my Jim Beam hot wing sauce
Stuffed Zucchini flowers (courtesy of my balkon garden) stuffed with chopped mushrooms and fresh balkon garden herbs
roasted garlic cloves
Mains: Tasty Eggplant Bake - mainly because it uses quinoa which I love for its nutritional value and I do rarely use quinoa in cooking as it's a little too adventurous for most non-vegetarians
Soba noodles with green beans and ginger and garlic (mainly for D because he is an part-time vegetarian, so quinoa does wonders for his digestive system)
Stuffed zucchini, because zucchini looked so good this morning and I liked that the stuffing in this recipe was bean based as a change for the usual breadcrumb based stuffing.
As you can guess from the above, there will be enough food that no one will need dessert, which is part of my master plan. I don't eat so much sweet stuff myself beyond fruit or berries as I don't like the taste, so I when I attempt to create something sweet myself, it is absolutely inedible. I can't figure out how it's supposed to taste in the making or at the end so it always goes terribly, terribly wrong so I've given up on this point. Fortunately so many desserts contain egg or dairy so I'm mainly off the hook on that account.
Today's cooking is special because Vegan Pete is in town visiting. So Vegan Pete eats only vegetarian food, minus egg and dairy products. Having been vegan for a few years, often my meals are still vegan, mainly because I'm not talented at egg cooking and dairy makes my tummy hurt. In addition, Vegan Pete is lavish in praise, not only is he verbally pleased about what I make, but he eats a lot of it, so I know he's not just being polite. ;-)
Today's menu is looking like this:
Starters: Buffalo Tempeh Wings - which will be made with my Jim Beam hot wing sauce
Stuffed Zucchini flowers (courtesy of my balkon garden) stuffed with chopped mushrooms and fresh balkon garden herbs
roasted garlic cloves
Mains: Tasty Eggplant Bake - mainly because it uses quinoa which I love for its nutritional value and I do rarely use quinoa in cooking as it's a little too adventurous for most non-vegetarians
Soba noodles with green beans and ginger and garlic (mainly for D because he is an part-time vegetarian, so quinoa does wonders for his digestive system)
Stuffed zucchini, because zucchini looked so good this morning and I liked that the stuffing in this recipe was bean based as a change for the usual breadcrumb based stuffing.
As you can guess from the above, there will be enough food that no one will need dessert, which is part of my master plan. I don't eat so much sweet stuff myself beyond fruit or berries as I don't like the taste, so I when I attempt to create something sweet myself, it is absolutely inedible. I can't figure out how it's supposed to taste in the making or at the end so it always goes terribly, terribly wrong so I've given up on this point. Fortunately so many desserts contain egg or dairy so I'm mainly off the hook on that account.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Thursday, August 09, 2007
when the going gets tough...
the tough take a cheap weekend flight somewhere else.
my friends at lufthansa publish cheap flights from Germany every other Wednesday, which are good for the next two weeks. i dilligently watch for them; there are usually four or five options: one far away (US, Japan, or Middle East), and three or four Europe ones. these flights are usually very good for me, because at least one and often two include the good flight times for us "9 to 5 monday to friday" working folk: out friday night and back sunday evening.
the Europe ones usually level out around 100 eur for the roundtrip, including taxes and all that. sometimes the destinations aren't so sexy (i.e. Lyon, France). Sometimes they are more than interesting: Riga, Prague, Paris, etc.
So far I've take the cheap flights to Goteborg City and Bratislava in this manner.
This weekend's flight, booked on Tuesday of this week-->London. Total cost-->101 eur. I've going from DUS, but it was also available around the same price from CGN.
London calling!
my friends at lufthansa publish cheap flights from Germany every other Wednesday, which are good for the next two weeks. i dilligently watch for them; there are usually four or five options: one far away (US, Japan, or Middle East), and three or four Europe ones. these flights are usually very good for me, because at least one and often two include the good flight times for us "9 to 5 monday to friday" working folk: out friday night and back sunday evening.
the Europe ones usually level out around 100 eur for the roundtrip, including taxes and all that. sometimes the destinations aren't so sexy (i.e. Lyon, France). Sometimes they are more than interesting: Riga, Prague, Paris, etc.
So far I've take the cheap flights to Goteborg City and Bratislava in this manner.
This weekend's flight, booked on Tuesday of this week-->London. Total cost-->101 eur. I've going from DUS, but it was also available around the same price from CGN.
London calling!
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Forced frugality (aka life in Germany)
Growing up in the Phillyland area, I realized later, it was a bit of a lean life. It's a blue collar town with blue collar people, where life can sometimes be hard. However, we never seemed poor, as everyone else lived the same life, basically. I consider it an advantage today.
I keep up with US life mainly through the internet, and recently I stumbled into the Congressional Food Stamp Challenge where members of Congress tried in May/June to live on what the average food stamp person receives (yeah, I'm a little behind on the surfing). This then led to related 'money saving' and 'being frugal' tips. I wasn't surprised to see many of these reflected in how I grew up. What surprised me was how many of them I do in Germany, but not out of conscious choice, but more through living "normal Germany" life here, or living as a US expat here.
Of what such things are you speaking, heather in europe? Glad you asked:
1. Bringing my own re-usable shopping bags to the supermarket. My current trend is to use one from Trader Joe's to see if anyone here will ever recognize it. Four months and counting and no one has.
-The bag reuse is now taking hold in the US: http://www.reusablebags.com/action.php?id=6
2. Yes, the vegetarian thing.
-However, something new I have learned since being here, however. Vegetarianism as a food cost saving methodology: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/GoVegetarianToSaveMoney.aspx
3. Eat seasonally and locally. This was a large change for me personally, as given the choice I would have broccoli every single week for 52 weeks. Right now is a vegetable explosion in Germany with lovely salads to be made. February forces me to be creative with cabbage, carrots and potatos from the root cellar, along with fabulous soups. I eat seasonally here, as often that is the only option. (you try finding a strawberry in the winter months!)
-Apparently, this seasonal eating is now a 'cost saving' tip in the US:
http://fitfare.net/2007/03/02/10-fairly-easy-ways-to-eat-healthfully-save-money-and-save-the-world/
4. Re-use of ziploc bags - This one relates to being an expat and not having the whole ziploc line here. I use them not only for food storage, but more often for storing other things like toiletries.
I make a bag of 20 last an entire year until I go back to the US by re-using them liberally. Apparently so do some other people, minus the 'going back to the US' part: http://lifehacker.com/xml/comments/278476
5. Taking public transport/walking - public transport options are much better here than in the US, in particular for suburb to suburb/small town trips like I took this weekend. Not only are the options better, more people take it, so it's less of a danger than in the US where the late night buses were not so safe for a single female. Generally I find myself walking more because things are more walkable and less parkable, so often it's easier to walk.
-I thought this was an interesting spin on the topic from the US, in actually measuring your savings:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/03/28/save-money-with-your-feet/
6. Shop at Aldi - a German once told me that I am very fortunate as I live near the 'Aldi border'. 'My' Aldi Sued is five minutes by car or 20 minutes by foot. There is also an Aldi Nord 15 minutes away by car. Not every German can be so lucky to be able to go to both. Although I never do as I have a plethora of other low cost stores less than 15 minutes away.
In particular I go to Aldi Sued for their Bio Tofu and veg hotdogs and burgers, and because they are on the way home from work. Also, I find at the Pennymarkt more tempting things, so I try not to go so often to the Pennymarkt. (Damn them and their low, low prices. My last Penny purchase was a picnic blanket that has a plastic foil like coating on the back and folds up nicely for 3.99. I didn't go shopping for such a thing, but with the soggy grass here, I've used it twice so far with fantastic results.)
-It seems there are some true Aldi US fans out there, and they've even gone so far as to plan meals and give you a shopping list to help you save money:
http://momadvice.com/food/aldi_meal_plan.aspx
7. Bring your lunch to work - Since moving to the new office where there is no canteen, and not even a vending machine, my eating has improved from having to always bring my own. True, I could wait for the shuttle, take it over to the main building for a total of 15 minutes lost each way, but the deep fried, cheese laden, unhealthy plates weren't worth walking down the stairs when we were there, let alone actually making a special trip for it.
There is an imbiss about a five minute walk away, and the people are very nice, but their food is just so-so. There is, however, an Edeka four km away so I can do my main weekly shopping and pick up some salad things to last me the week in the office with salads, or I bring something from home as we do have a microwave. There's also the advantage that I can do my weekly shop at lunchtime and save myself the Saturday morning chaos trip.
- I don't do such calculations as they do here, but it is interesting the possibilities:
http://www.cleverdude.com/articles/finances/frugal-lunch-by-clever-dudette/
Apparently I'm not being frugal with words, however, based on the length of the above.
I keep up with US life mainly through the internet, and recently I stumbled into the Congressional Food Stamp Challenge where members of Congress tried in May/June to live on what the average food stamp person receives (yeah, I'm a little behind on the surfing). This then led to related 'money saving' and 'being frugal' tips. I wasn't surprised to see many of these reflected in how I grew up. What surprised me was how many of them I do in Germany, but not out of conscious choice, but more through living "normal Germany" life here, or living as a US expat here.
Of what such things are you speaking, heather in europe? Glad you asked:
1. Bringing my own re-usable shopping bags to the supermarket. My current trend is to use one from Trader Joe's to see if anyone here will ever recognize it. Four months and counting and no one has.
-The bag reuse is now taking hold in the US: http://www.reusablebags.com/action.php?id=6
2. Yes, the vegetarian thing.
-However, something new I have learned since being here, however. Vegetarianism as a food cost saving methodology: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/GoVegetarianToSaveMoney.aspx
3. Eat seasonally and locally. This was a large change for me personally, as given the choice I would have broccoli every single week for 52 weeks. Right now is a vegetable explosion in Germany with lovely salads to be made. February forces me to be creative with cabbage, carrots and potatos from the root cellar, along with fabulous soups. I eat seasonally here, as often that is the only option. (you try finding a strawberry in the winter months!)
-Apparently, this seasonal eating is now a 'cost saving' tip in the US:
http://fitfare.net/2007/03/02/10-fairly-easy-ways-to-eat-healthfully-save-money-and-save-the-world/
4. Re-use of ziploc bags - This one relates to being an expat and not having the whole ziploc line here. I use them not only for food storage, but more often for storing other things like toiletries.
I make a bag of 20 last an entire year until I go back to the US by re-using them liberally. Apparently so do some other people, minus the 'going back to the US' part: http://lifehacker.com/xml/comments/278476
5. Taking public transport/walking - public transport options are much better here than in the US, in particular for suburb to suburb/small town trips like I took this weekend. Not only are the options better, more people take it, so it's less of a danger than in the US where the late night buses were not so safe for a single female. Generally I find myself walking more because things are more walkable and less parkable, so often it's easier to walk.
-I thought this was an interesting spin on the topic from the US, in actually measuring your savings:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/03/28/save-money-with-your-feet/
6. Shop at Aldi - a German once told me that I am very fortunate as I live near the 'Aldi border'. 'My' Aldi Sued is five minutes by car or 20 minutes by foot. There is also an Aldi Nord 15 minutes away by car. Not every German can be so lucky to be able to go to both. Although I never do as I have a plethora of other low cost stores less than 15 minutes away.
In particular I go to Aldi Sued for their Bio Tofu and veg hotdogs and burgers, and because they are on the way home from work. Also, I find at the Pennymarkt more tempting things, so I try not to go so often to the Pennymarkt. (Damn them and their low, low prices. My last Penny purchase was a picnic blanket that has a plastic foil like coating on the back and folds up nicely for 3.99. I didn't go shopping for such a thing, but with the soggy grass here, I've used it twice so far with fantastic results.)
-It seems there are some true Aldi US fans out there, and they've even gone so far as to plan meals and give you a shopping list to help you save money:
http://momadvice.com/food/aldi_meal_plan.aspx
7. Bring your lunch to work - Since moving to the new office where there is no canteen, and not even a vending machine, my eating has improved from having to always bring my own. True, I could wait for the shuttle, take it over to the main building for a total of 15 minutes lost each way, but the deep fried, cheese laden, unhealthy plates weren't worth walking down the stairs when we were there, let alone actually making a special trip for it.
There is an imbiss about a five minute walk away, and the people are very nice, but their food is just so-so. There is, however, an Edeka four km away so I can do my main weekly shopping and pick up some salad things to last me the week in the office with salads, or I bring something from home as we do have a microwave. There's also the advantage that I can do my weekly shop at lunchtime and save myself the Saturday morning chaos trip.
- I don't do such calculations as they do here, but it is interesting the possibilities:
http://www.cleverdude.com/articles/finances/frugal-lunch-by-clever-dudette/
Apparently I'm not being frugal with words, however, based on the length of the above.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
The return of Luna the cat
It's been so long since I've seen the giant warming ball of light in the sky, I think my tolerance for warm weather has gone down. This weekend was hot as heck here, and it has been wreacking havoc on my sad little balkon garden plants who are as equally confused by its presence.
I started a few projects in the past few weeks. I have no storage/shelving at all in my bathroom, except for the surface area on top of the dryer, so all medicine cabinet items not in daily use are stored on a shelf in my hallway closet. With Aunt R staying with me before and after our Lithuania trip, now that it's only a month away, I'm trying to tidy up in advance.
So I have all the bathroom items on the living room/kitchen floor where they're getting separated into little piles so that they can go into a ziploc baggy with their related brethren, with expiring stuff going in the bin, checking if there is anything Aunt R should bring from the US, etc.. The apartment was not as messy as when Luna the cat last came for a visit, but it was not as spic and span as when the boss came to visit two months ago and I kept up the twice weekly swiffering for a few weeks.
So Saturday afternoon, I'm enjoying some ice water and who should reappear on the balkon, but Luna the cat. It wouldn't be a problem except that she carries on with incessant meowing demanding to be removed from there, this very instant. The owner's mother went to fetch the owner to come and pick her up. So again I feel bad that this woman needs to come through a messy apartment again to fetch her cat. She must think Americans live like the biggest slobs around. I have no problems with the fact that her cat is on the balkon, although I have no idea what is driving the cat to do so. It's not like my vegtarian cooking wooes cats in from miles around.
My only consolation is that she seemed equally, if not more embarassed than me about the whole situation, that she was again intruding into my apartment. The first time she seemed sorry to inconvenience me (which really wasn't any inconvenience). The second time she seemed genuinely embarassed that her cat could be so stupid now for a second time, or maybe that her mother demanded that she drop everything to go get the cat--so she's walking through my apartment in a bikini. It was rather funny to me actually, as soon as she picked up the cat it stopped meowing. She then asks it as she's walking out, "So you can figure out how to get up here but not back down. Then you really shouldn't come up here now, should you?" Like the cat was going to listen to her line of reasoning going forward.
I started a few projects in the past few weeks. I have no storage/shelving at all in my bathroom, except for the surface area on top of the dryer, so all medicine cabinet items not in daily use are stored on a shelf in my hallway closet. With Aunt R staying with me before and after our Lithuania trip, now that it's only a month away, I'm trying to tidy up in advance.
So I have all the bathroom items on the living room/kitchen floor where they're getting separated into little piles so that they can go into a ziploc baggy with their related brethren, with expiring stuff going in the bin, checking if there is anything Aunt R should bring from the US, etc.. The apartment was not as messy as when Luna the cat last came for a visit, but it was not as spic and span as when the boss came to visit two months ago and I kept up the twice weekly swiffering for a few weeks.
So Saturday afternoon, I'm enjoying some ice water and who should reappear on the balkon, but Luna the cat. It wouldn't be a problem except that she carries on with incessant meowing demanding to be removed from there, this very instant. The owner's mother went to fetch the owner to come and pick her up. So again I feel bad that this woman needs to come through a messy apartment again to fetch her cat. She must think Americans live like the biggest slobs around. I have no problems with the fact that her cat is on the balkon, although I have no idea what is driving the cat to do so. It's not like my vegtarian cooking wooes cats in from miles around.
My only consolation is that she seemed equally, if not more embarassed than me about the whole situation, that she was again intruding into my apartment. The first time she seemed sorry to inconvenience me (which really wasn't any inconvenience). The second time she seemed genuinely embarassed that her cat could be so stupid now for a second time, or maybe that her mother demanded that she drop everything to go get the cat--so she's walking through my apartment in a bikini. It was rather funny to me actually, as soon as she picked up the cat it stopped meowing. She then asks it as she's walking out, "So you can figure out how to get up here but not back down. Then you really shouldn't come up here now, should you?" Like the cat was going to listen to her line of reasoning going forward.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Shades of blue and gray - the Faroe Islands
I never knew the full range of the world's color palette of blue to gray until I went to the Faroes. Due to the dearth of tourist info, I may put my notes together at some point and put them out there for other travellers to use, but in the meantime, some photos.
Unfortunately, it's often more gray than blue there. None of my photos are touched up, as I have neither the talent nor the interest. While Germany can be gray, this was a truly intense, strong gray.
This one was taken one night at 23.30. The weather was 7 C inside the tent, and I took a quick run to the bathroom and quickly pulled out the camera on my return for such a nice sky. I was surrounded on both sides by Danish tourists who were courteous and quiet.
It's so far to the north that the sun goes down by 23.00 but it doesn't really get dark. Then by 04.00 it's as light as 23.00 again. One night I woke up to vicious winds around 4, and opened the tent to peek out and review both sides to make sure that all stakes were securely held down. Other campers were not so fortunate, so by 07.00 some people had to pack up as the winds were too much.
Unfortunately, it's often more gray than blue there. None of my photos are touched up, as I have neither the talent nor the interest. While Germany can be gray, this was a truly intense, strong gray.
This one was taken one night at 23.30. The weather was 7 C inside the tent, and I took a quick run to the bathroom and quickly pulled out the camera on my return for such a nice sky. I was surrounded on both sides by Danish tourists who were courteous and quiet.
It's so far to the north that the sun goes down by 23.00 but it doesn't really get dark. Then by 04.00 it's as light as 23.00 again. One night I woke up to vicious winds around 4, and opened the tent to peek out and review both sides to make sure that all stakes were securely held down. Other campers were not so fortunate, so by 07.00 some people had to pack up as the winds were too much.
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