2nd verse, same as the first

Since returning from the US and then the UK, I've turned up the flat moving activities. Prior to the December holidays was taking care of things I don't use, so now I ran out of fat to cut and am cutting to the bone. Specifically, I'm down to 35 nights before I leave Germany for good, of which only 25 of them are in Germany. (I ended up with a work trip to Bulgaria, and as I have never visited before, I managed to extend a few days to include the weekend.)

Recent activities...I've spent every waking moment listing things on kayado to sell. Since returning in January exactly one week ago, I've sold:

-my Ikea wardrobe
-the bed
-my remaining Ikea lamps. (Fortunately I have overhead lights in the living room which stay with the flat.)
-an old suitcase
-every kitchen appliance excluding the coffee and juice machine. The juice machine is up for sale. The coffee machine will be one of the last things remaining. ;-)
-various sundry items which won't come along to the UK, to the tune of over 100 EUR.
-my remaining English books from bookswapper.de, so that I have a chance to use my remaining credits to zero out my balance.

I wasn't planning on selling the bed quite so soon, but the person who bought the wardrobe was very pleasant to deal with and extremely effiencient at taking apart and picking up the wardrobe and offered to take the bed. I can deal with a few extra nights on the floor in exchange for the ease of getting one more big thing out of the flat so easily. Plus, I kept the bedding, that will come to the UK.


I am rather surprised at how easy it has been thus far to sell things in Germany. Granted many of the things here were bought expressly because I knew I would leave at some point. So there was limited emotional attachment, especially as much was 'dent-and-scratch' floor models or sperrmuell.

Next up: hitting it hard for the next two weeks, clearing out as much as possible and trying to figure out the logistics of how the car should best be loaded. I've eaten every vegetable in the house so I've had to go to the store to replenish veg and tofu, but otherwise I'm eating down the remaining food in the flat, nothing new so that I have as little as possible left when it's time to leave for the UK.

January is...

the driest month. A habit I picked up from an Irish colleague since living here was to give up alchohol in the month of January. And let's face it, the Irish know a bit about this topic. In particular, I think that January in my corner of NRW can sorta cause one to get into a slump. From the excitement of going back to the US as well as the Christmas markets in December until Karneval in February, January tends to be a little boring.

Before you ask the regular questions:
Are you a purist, stopping at exactly 23.59 on Dec 31st?
-No. I'm not so into this to that level. If the night of Dec 31st doesn't end until 02.00 on January 1st, so be it.

Do you make up for it by having a good drink up at the first possible moment in February?
-Actually, the opposite. I ease back into drinking in February gradually.

Isn't that a difficult month to choose, January can be so dark and dreary?
I think it's probably the easiest actually. I'd miss it more in the summer when there are nice beer gardens or wine in the summer beside the Rhein.

In the meantime, Father Ted on this topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxbyO4FQ_Fk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoYVVnBDNxg

Why do you not want to stand next to me?

Probably because you would get singed as I get struck by lightning for lying.

I find myself making a lot of little, white harmless fibs in Germany, mainly because that tends to simplify conversation making. For example:

-There was a restaurant I used to go to every other month or so in my early days here, which I liked very much. But then I moved to Cologne and the restaurant was not so convenient, but I still went occasionally as the service was very good. Then I went again, with my French colleague, and they pleasantly remarked on my appearance and how I had been away a while.

On the spot with my poor German of the time to try to explain that I had moved to Cologne and and I liked their food very much, but they were not so convenient for my commute home, and not wanting to hurt their feelings because I know I wouldn't be able to explain it properly, instead, I went with the easy fib:

Oh, I was home in America for some months for work.

After the server walked away, I looked to my French work colleague (who knows very well I was not in America for some months). I started to say, "My German is not good enough to try to explain", but she cut me off. "Trust me, I do the same thing in English, sometimes it's easier".

-Last night, my very nice downstairs neighbor caught me in the hallway. Frau Liebe Nachbarin, does your car not start in the very cold weather? because they saw that my car stayed covered in snow in its parking spot on the Monday and Tuesday workdays rather than driving off to benevolent company J at 08.30.

Rather than trying to answer, "well, my neck was very sore when I arrived back from the UK on Sunday night from running around too much in the cold weather and uncomfortable beds and leaning on the plane and then train windows to snooze, and well I didn't feel up to shoveling out my car then on Monday in the cold due to said neck stiffness and the crappy looking roads anyway so I took the lazy way out and just took the bus instead, and well Tuesday I worked from home so that I could stay wrapped in a blanket with heat on the neck", instead my simplified German answer was:

I have fear to drive in the snow, so I instead take the bus this week.

Because I didn't want to get into a drawn out conversation about cold moving air on the neck in the UK made it stiff, or that new-fangled concept of working from home. I thought this tiny lie would sort this conversation out in the fastest manner.

Imagine my abject surprise then, upon scurrying out on the way to the bus stop, to see that the pleasant Germans in my building had shoveled out behind my car in the lot. Due to the structure of the parking lot, it was clearly done for me, it's for no one else's benefit. I imagine they were trying to be ever so helpful in giving me confidence in taking out Mr. Polo to brave the winter wonderland.

Boy do I feel guilty.

Behold, the purse

Since Natalie asked:

It's tough to see in the photo but it's dark brown leather and seems to be a Rossetti knock off. I put my mittens in the photo to give you an idea of its small size. The mittens are from my trip to Estonia a while back and perfect for the recent below freezing temps in DE.

Somebody needs to go on a diet

In case you cannot read the little numbers, it says 13.5 pounds. Before you start suggesting that she's big-boned, keep in mind:

-2 different vets at 2 different points in one year have said she needs to lose 3 lbs

-her pregnancy weight from 18 months ago (with 5 kittens) was 12 lbs.

-as there is a price per pound to fly her to the UK, now is a great time to lose the excess.

How Lufthansa disappointed me

I love Lufthansa. They've become my preferred airline since arriving in Germany for when I travel to the US, as well as for intra-Europe flying. And as US carriers are cutting back on food or special meals like vegetarian, or charging for every little thing, it makes Lufthansa look even better with their open bar in the air.

Except when one orders a Vegan option (VGML) and is served a salmon sandwich as a snack, especially as they're slinging cheese pizzas to the rest of the passengers. Granted, vegans don't eat fish or dairy, so neither is acceptable, but I found it rather ironic. The very nice Lufthansa crewman offered me a cheese pizza in exchange for the fish, and actually apologized so my disappointment was short-lived fortunately. ;-)

Sunset in Newark

while sitting on the plane to D'dorf, looking toward the plan to Frankfurt.

Back from the US

J asked what I brought from the US. Instead I'll start with what I didn't bring:

She's going to go directly to the UK instead, hopefully in 6 months or so, after the US in-country quarantine is done. So she gets another 6 months of being spoiled in Philly. :-)

And for the record, I am now of the opinion that it is easier to get work permission for a person for the UK than it is to bring over a cat to the UK. Feel free to quote me on this one.

I'm off to the UK tomorrow for new year's, but I'm leaving you a few postings in advance. I'll still pick up emails over the next few days so I'll see any comments. :-)

Tonight's agenda

Bags are already packed, boarding pass printed, dinner made and eaten.

Next up, trips to:
Target
Walgreens
Godmother
Great-aunt 1
etc.
to fill in the remaining space in the suitcase.

Will be back online once I'm back in DE.

Where's Heather?

Sucked into a House Marathon. Fully enjoying my last few days in the US. :-)

Hell may be freezing over

Philly's been stuck in a code blue with overnight lows in the teens and daytime temps in the low 20's.
And Heather bought a purse.

I'm more of a 'wallet in the back pocket of the jeans' kinda gal and haven't owned a purse in at least 10 years. But I have a few upcoming activities in the new year which don't involve jeans and I need somewhere to put my keys and cash.

Once I'm back in Germany I may take a photo of the little fellow. I picked him up on one of my recent vintage/secondhand jaunts here, along with a few other things.

Less than 24 hours...

Was how long it took before I spoke German in the US. I arrived early this year so was able to go on the Christmas tree hunting trip, something I've never been able to do because it's always a week before I've always been home, due to the tradition of doing it on my aunt's birthday. While we were there, I could hear an older woman complaining about something, in German, to her son. I quickly headed down a different tree aisle.

After choosing the tree and getting all of that sorted, we needed to pick up some of the free greenery, as I was in charge of making the cemetary arrangements this year. (I've been in charge of lots of random things this year, because I'm home so early, with a very small agenda outside of drinking coffee and cooking.)

My aunts and I were picking up some of the free tree branches, and there is that German woman again, yet again complaining, now both in English and German, that her son does not know how to properly pick branchs (she had the same purpose as me). My one aunt and I are like cheese and chalk. My aunt, seeking to make things better says, 'you must not be around here, if the cold is bothering you?' The woman answers 'no, no, I am from Germany.' My ever so helpful aunt says, 'oh really--she lives in Germany!' and the woman looks at me with a questioning eye.

Of course I had to ask her then, in German, where she is from. Essen. No wonder I so easily understood her, that is barely 40 minutes from where I live. And then she got on a roll. 'Robert, come over here, she speaks German!' (Robert was her tall, dark and handsome son who was shuttling her chosen branches too the car, as he was deemed unskilled for choosing them.) Robert got in a cursory 'that's nice' before continuing on his pack mule banch hauling way.

She explained to me that they had to leave Germany after the war, and she's never been back. Her children all speak and understand German, because that is all that she and her husband spoke in the house. Her children had some friends in an equivalent position, but their parents 'were lazy', the children could understand her but not speak German properly. She then tells me, that there are very few German speakers in this area. True, true.

She then goes on (out of the corner of my eye, her son is done hauling and is now speaking with my aunts), to call her son over. 'Robert, look at her, how schlank!' and points to my waist. (My black wool coat is indeed quite slimming.) Gotta love the German directness. Some things never die. She then proceeds to rail on him, about how he gets in the car in the garage, drives to where he wants to go, and then gets back into the car, and how all Americans are like this and that's the problem. She asks me, how do you stay so thin? Um, I walk a lot daily and go walking in the woods on Sundays in Germany, and sometimes the pool. (Because nothing else is open I wanted to add, but didn't.) 'Precisely! You walk in Germany!'

I get the feeling Robert has heard this argument before as he scurried away. He was talking with my aunt about her car. The old woman gives them the razor eye...do they speak German too? No only me. She's been talking almost non-stop for 15 minutes, and I think I barely escaped getting invited home and married off. At this point I was saved by the bell.

The tree place, it's run by the local fire company. The tree lot is located next door to the fire company. The ancient fire siren sounded, loud as all get out, three long wails, before switching to a lower constant clanging. The old woman grabs my arm and shouts over it. "I remember this sound very well." Thankfully, it gave us our exit to leave.

What gave it away?

My grandmother's house is typical for the Phillyland area, neat little row homes, block parties in the summer, everyone knows everone else. Many people have been on this street since before I was born, so they knew me way back when. The area is pretty close, so people have known when I would be in town more or less, because Grandma told them.

Neighbor from up the street (who was a US soldier in Germany in the 1960's and who married a German woman and they have lived here ever since): Yo H.
H: Hi.
N: So I knew you were in town.
H: The old lady gossip network told you?
N: No. In the awful rainy weather the other day, when I was driving up the street, guess what I saw? I saw someone dressed in dark colors, out walking. I knew it was either a Kraut* or someone who lives in Krautland*, so therefore odds would be that it was you, because the fat Americans all drive when it's raining H.
H: Yep, that was me.
N: Welcome back.

* his words, not mine

Only in New Jersey

Holland Township man names son after Adolf Hitler

on the way

If you happen to be in the D'dorf area Saturday, be sure to squint upward at around 11.45ish, looking for a shiny Lufthansa plane, direction Newark. I am already online checked in and I have a window seat. I'll keep an eye out for you waving from below. ;-)

circular

Certain things have been falling into place which continue to point to this move to the UK as the right thing. Last night I ran into my chatty neighbor in the hallway. I was dreading this moment, as I heard from the hallway on Tuesday night, my landlady ran into him. So I knew that he knew that I was leaving, so I knew that would spawn a massive discussion. He's a very nice fellow, but the absolute epitome of the noisy old neighbor down the street, or in my case, down the hall, and it taxes my German to the core.

Of course he was sad to see me go, and did I know that nice neighbor below me was also leaving, as of Dec 31? Most interesting to me is that nice neighbor and I arrived at the same time. When I came to view apartments I had turned down even looking at her flat as it was at ground level. He proceeded to tell me the whole background as to why she was leaving, something about the boyfriend and mother and on and on. It has a nice parallel that we came and now leave at the same time.

Exciting changes in the building. I had to fill him in on the details of my leaving, which I'm sure were promptly dissemenated and then dissected thoroughly starting that evening. Yes, the job...yes, the English language...yes, maybe some German classes would be good...yes, 'the friend'. Finally he makes his verdict, yes, this is a good move and....pause...und vielleicht in Grossbrittanien, baby machen...? (I blushed)

Gotta love that German honesty.

Keep on keeping on

My landlady showed the flat the week before last and the people wanted to take it but something fell through. She called earlier this week, she'll bring someone again on Tuesday night. This is actually quite useful as it forces me to keep moving, keep cleaning, keep clearing.


Exciting stuff I've been up to lately? Warning: not so interesting. ;-)

1. I sold my TV, TV stand, free to air box and antenna via kalaydo.de.

I've been pleased with the experience of selling things via kalaydo and ebay.de. I had started selling things a few weeks prior to my German test, partially to force myself to get my game up on my practical, daily German. I'm not a big fan of TV, but I bought one for educational purposes. No, really I did, in order to be able to hear spoken German from outside of this region. To that end, I bought the most basic one possible--a floor model which was super discounted when walmart was closing a few years ago in Germany. There was no way any of it was coming to the UK, so I gave it all decent prices and then one lower bundled price if someone would buy all. I listed it on Sunday and it was paid and picked up on Tuesday, under the bundled option.

2. Friday the desk and ikea floor lamp went out the door.

I had the most basic of desks, it was actually a table which I repurposed. It had an ikea look, all glass and metal. A woman found it on kalaydo after it had been there a few weeks, so I was happy. She was very happy, her 17 year old daughter 'is very into the simple ikea look, although I don't really care for it'. They recently redid their house to create more of a separate apartment for the daughter, so they needed to furnish it on the cheap. She was telling me, in her daughter's class, they were being asked, what is St. Nicklaus bringing you? Other kids are saying chocolate or whatever, her daughter proudly answered, 'a desk!'

As the lady was leaving she asked me if a lamp standing next to a stack of boxes was for sale.
-Yes, I bought it from ikea, it goes also. (Basically everything electrical is going, rather than dealing with the different electrical plug converters/fixtures.) Sure, for 7 Euros, it's yours.
'Perfect! My daughter will love it.'
Even better, you've saved me the trouble of listing it.

3. the sewing machine, out the door

My boss from the US didn't bring hers here. I had put it on the company J bulletin board and there she found it, duh. She has only been my boss since Sept, so I don't yet fully know her, but gosh, had I known she would have been interested it it would have saved me the hassle of photographing it, writing up an annoucement in English/German and then schlepping the announcement over to the main building to place it on said bullentin board. I live and learn on that one.

4. mashed potatos.

Actually D was on top of this one. D makes the best mashed potatos. I don't even try, it's one of the few veg dishes I don't do, mainly due to the excessive work. (I'm not a good potato peeler) I am a good potato buyer, however. I went to the potato farm and purchased 5 kilos of mashing potatos in advance of his visit and placed them in the cellar. He spent a few hours boiling, peeling, mashing and seasoning, so I now have plently of mashed potatos in my fridge and tiny freezer, enough to last a few weeks if I ration properly.

5. UK move

Since D had suitcase space, the first things are now off to the UK (my snowshoes and some German souvenirs). We had another big snow this week, but I'm willing to forgo the rest of the season as it's rare that we get a good weekend snow and I have so few weekends left...

What's next?
A. I'm packing for the US this weekend, to go next week Saturday.
B. More stuff I don't use to list, perhaps I can still get it out the door this week.
C. Lots of logistics, booking flight ticket to leave DE and some plans after that.
D. Booking a weekend to drive/ferry to the UK in late January. I'm still in job negotiations with benevolent company J to move my job to the UK, but I probably won't get moving expenses kicked in since it's a self-requested move.
However, I have a company J provided car and legally it is mine for personal use anywhere in the EU, excluding east of Germany. I don't have so many things but based on transport costs (in particular for my books), it will be more cost effective for me to pay up for the ferry, as the car + petrol are 0 cost (company J provided) and once I have more than 3 boxes of books, I break even.
E. Flat being shown again on Tuesday, so need to have things presentable again.

Don't forget to leave your shoes out

St Nick comes Friday night into Saturday.
And if you're in my neighborhood you can pop over and see him in person on Saturday night. ;-)

Lost in translation

I was doing some research online, on ways to ship things to the UK. On one hand, it's nice when a German-based company offers an English version of their website. On the other hand, if you are multi-national corporation, I have higher expectations of your English, than, say, my work colleague who had only school English and never left Germany.

Maybe this has a more approriate meaning in another style of English than American English:
No more humping stuff around - we'll do it all for you!

Here's the German original:
Schluss mit der Schlepperei - Wir machen das für Sie!

Here's where my thoughts went upon reading it.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=to+hump

Usually with a half decent understanding of German and English, one can connect the dots of how they came up with what they did (such as when you see 'hello together' or 'we meet us until 6' or other such literal translations).

This one leaves me stymied, as to where they came up with it. I was so fascinated that I even searched Leo, trying to figure out where this one went wrong, I still have no idea. If you see the connection, please tell me...

Dear downstairs neighbor

Please come home! I know things are going well with the boyfriend as it seems you're spending every weekend with him and you only come back on Sundays around 4. And he's pleasant enough, always saying hello when we pass in the building...

But you know this year winter is actually behaving like winter. It snowed overnight here again, just an inch or so. Then it changed to sleet, and the snow where it's piled up isn't really melting. And I decided this year not to turn on the heating...

To explain, last year I didn't turn it on at all. Granted, last year's winter was incredibly mild, and the year before I only turned it on twice. Heat in Germany is very expensive, it seems to me, compared to other places where I've lived. I saw the bills, and could easily pick out the one month where I turend it on twice.

And it's not that I'm so cheap, ahem, frugal. It just doesn't make so much sense to turn it on, because I have an advantage in that I'm in the middle of the apartment building. You're beneath me, the nice couple with the child are above me, and I'm sanwiched on the side by nice Marion, leaving really only one side and a half exposed to the great outdoors. The double-glazed windows let in nothing, so it's really quite cozy 95% of the time, naturally.

Further, it's hot water heat, through the floor. The other reason for not turning it on is that there is no 'little bit' with it. It takes about an hour to get the hot water into the pipes, then it's like the inside of an oven and you could walk about in shorts and a t-shirt, and it stays warm for hours, and quite frankly, too warm for me.

Sure, I have my little tricks to warm it up a tiny bit on days like today. I choose to wash my sheets and towels and to use my dryer (located in the bathroom). Or I make lunch with something involving oven use, today I roasted a butternut squash with garlic. Or in the evening I light a few tea light candles. Or sometimes a wine or a coffee will warm things up. I've already broken out the big guns (my eastern European wool socks), and nothing is working here.

I can feel the chill from the floor, so I know you've been away since Friday. Yeah, ok, maybe this is karmic payback for the cucumber incident, but you really handled that one gracefully, in particular as this is Germany it could have blown up with letters and posters on the door about 'intrusive gardens' but you just laughed it off. But really, couldn't you and the boyfriend stay here occasionally on a weekend?

Regards,
Your upstairs neighbor

It's all Greek to me

Here's a small scan of part of the letter. (click on photo to see it bigger)



Greek colleague sent a quick 2 sentence update by email:

-"it is old Greek" but he understands it.
(not sure if that would equate in my world to something like 'old German script', or rather that it's a dialet.)

-"it's a very strange letter." -->really curious as to what he means by that!

Hopefully he is able/willing to translate it. Dutch colleague had only asked as a favor that he confirm/deny if it's Greek as a first step. Stay tuned...

The liguistics goose chase - a mystery in progress

One of the nice things about working at big, global company J in Europe is the access to a number of people with foreign language skills, who are usually willing to help with something, inside or outside of work.

I have a letter which I discovered during my genealogy research. It has a story attached that it was sent to my great-grandmother from Europe, and that it has something to do with two of my grandfather's younger brothers. Both were killed during WW2 and are buried in military cemetaries in Italy. My grandmother remembers when the letter arrived, and that her mother-in-law had taken it to the Veterans' affairs office who instructed her to ignore it, that it was a plea from someone in Europe who had somehow found out her name, and would try to ply her for money as Europe as poor after the war. (Her memory of the story, 60 yrs later!)

So I have two pages of a letter in some foreign language that I cannot identify. I've toted the thing around here and there, and based on my own knowledge and that of others, it's none of the following:
-English
-Spanish or any other Romance language. I cannot make out a single word here, not one. Usually from my Spanish I can pick up some similar words from the Latin base.
-German
-Polish
-Lithuanian
-Russian
-Dutch

My Dutch colleague suggested that it has a Slavic base, his feeling was that it went toward Russia and eastward, due to some of the characters seeming to be well outside of a Western Europe character set. I had mentioned that I already passed it via my Lithuan cousin who group up during Soviet times and is fluent in Russian, and that he ruled out Russian, Lithuanian, and an 'old Lithuanian' dialect he knows, as not being able to recognize anything.

However, a Russian works in the next room, so it's always worth a shot. He recognized not a single word. His guess: Greek. That's my guess also as that fits the geography of the story as I know it, it's the right area of the world, and I was guessing on some of the characters looking Greek. However, it's not modern Greek as we know it, I already went down this route, trying to pick out words, such as the date and plug them into online translators.

Next stop, my Dutch colleague works with a Greek colleague elsewhere in company J. The letter has been scanned and is en route via email to see if Greek colleague has any thoughts...

My balcony snowman

Interviewer: H, what's this about?
H: It's a snowman.

I: Yes, I know what it is. But how did it get onto your balcony?
H: I created it there. (I'm guessing we had 5 inches of snow.)

I: And why?
H: why not?

I: Let's try another direction...how old are you?
H: Old enough to know how to make a snowman.

I: But I mean, you don't have kids...?
H: No, I'm bucking that expat trend at this time. Although Mazal tov to all concerned.

I: Er, is it normal to build a snowman on one's balcony in Germany?
H: Not that I know of.

I: Will the Germans in your building question this?
H: Nah, they're used to such odd things from 'the American' at this point. Although I'm sure someone will point out that I did it wrong. (I didn't have a carrot for the nose, so I used a pointy seashell instead!)

The view from my window

It started to snow Friday and didn't melt all weekend.
Tonight it started again and it's now a few inches.

Buzzing with activity

The boring move minutiae is the only thing on my mind.

To summarize: I arrived in the UK almost six years ago with two suitcases. Yes, two! Then I moved to small-town Germany. Then I moved Cologne, Germany. Then I took a local contract and moved to the tiny town of B, to an apartment which was unfurnished, but with kitchen. Needless to say, I've ended up picking up a few things since arriving.

I probably won't pick up moving expenses from company J as this is a self-requested move. Also, I feel this is a new beginning, I'm not the same person I was when I was packing to come over from the US. In addition, I will be living in already furnished digs. I've set an arbitrary limit, one carload is all that will accompany me on this new adventure, maximum.

To that end, what is making the cut so far?
-a few boxes of books, in particular non-English books which I've picked up in various countries because they are cheaper when bought in-country and would be hard to find again.
-my Christmas market mugs. This is my one souvenir from living in Germany
-my business suits as i'll still need to have an office job :-/
-blue jeans and trainers from the US, because they're so d*mn expensive over here
-personal photos
-the laptop

What's outgoing (so far)?
-the balcony garden, already mentioned. :-(
-the indoor plants. thankfully, my work colleauge is more of a plant person that me, so she took all of them.
-books still on their way out, mainly through bookswapper
-the aldi sewing maching - i figured out this really wasn't a hobby i enjoyed.
-shoes i never wore much for whatever reason - ebay has been my friend on this one, as well as for several other random items.

What lit the fire to get things moving here?
-My calendar which is rapidly filling up with little X's in the boxes. (66 more nights in Germany if you're curious.)
-Upon sending the letter to my landlady, she graciously responded, and asked if I could give her an availability schedule, as she perhaps already has someone lined up to see the place. The sooner I move things out the easier it is to put it into a more presentable fashion. Thankfully, the first two days I listed have already past, so maybe this was only an availability check.
-In addition, I'm doing this solo so spreading it out and doing a few things per day in advance is the only option.

London, by way of half of Germany

I am looking at booking my final trip out of DE (which is now 91 nights away). I am lucky in that I can travel from either Cologne or D'dorf, my only constraint in this instance is that someone is driving past the Cologne airport at 7 AM and would be happy to drop me off, which would be nicer than schlepping myself and my luggage on the bus and then the regional train.

I looked on all of the usual places for early AM flights...AirBerlin only runs from D'dorf to Stansted (my preferred UK destination for this trip), not Cologne to Stansted. Wings does Cologne to Stanstead but nothing in the early AM.

Branching out to Expedia and the similar sites brought some amusing options.
Keep in mind--AirBerlin will allow me to go DUS-STN, at 15 or 18.30, for 64 EUR (approx 81 USD).

Expedia suggested the below:
Sun 15-Feb-09
CGN-MUC 15.30-16.40 272 mi(438 km) Duration: 1hr 10mn, Flight: 6121
MUC-DUS 20.45-22.00 pm 302 mi(486 km) Duration: 1hr 15mn, Flight: 6040
Mon 16-Feb-09
DUS-STN 10.15-10.30 298 mi(480 km)Duration: 1hr 15mn,Flight: 8676
All for a mere 114 USD, which really isn't so bad, when you consider that I'm tripling the distance for a mere 30 USD. ;-)

It gets better...
For an extra 10 USD, instead of travelling through DUS, I can substitute in HAJ (Hannover), arriving into HAJ at 19.55 and departing the next morning at 06.30.
For an extra 20 USD, instead of travelling through DUS, I can substitute in TXL (Berlin), and still make it in on Sunday, or the next early morning.
Another TXL option: Cologne to Berlin, Berlin to D'Dorf, then the next morning's 06.30 DUS to STN.

I am so easily amused.

Even more graffiti in B

Here in the tiny town of B we have these little locked boxes which dispense plastic bags, for dog owners to use in order to pick up after their dogs. Granted, B has lots of small woodsy pockets where dogs can visit, but for the most part, these boxes remain regularly stocked and appear to be used regularly.

Why the graffiti? No idea. This particular one is on a sidestreet with a kindergarten.

More graffiti near B

One of the great things about the office we moved to a while back, is that we traded life on an Industry Street for more of a residential location which backs up to farms and is criss-crossed by marked walking trails. It makes for a relaxing lunch hour walk on some days.

The interesting this about the below...one has to leave the main street of Podunk and walk 15 minutes past the cow and then corn fields, then the road turns into a farmer's dirt road. Then it turns into a marked walking path, alongside the pasture, before depositing you at the foot of the forest. Then after another 5 minutes of walking through the forest, you happen upon the following:

Non-German speakers, if you know that 'Raus!' = 'get out!' you have the message. Although I suspect they were merely borrowing from the song.

Couldn't really tell what the orange paint message was. It was a bit too weather worn or scrubbed off to be able to read what was left of it under the black paint.

How do you know it was written by a German, beside the obvious fact of it being in German?

-By the excessive use of exclamation points. It's a little difficult to see in the photo, but there are 3 of them there.

Sidenote: I proofread English messages sometimes for my German colleagues. Some messages are written both in German and English at company J. They're always a little concerned when I start removing exclamation points, like I'm somehow diluting their message. Somehow if a message says 'Please turn in the form by Friday!' no one will respond, but if it says 'Please turn in the form by Friday!!!' then compliance is guaranteed. We reached a happy medium that the number of exclamation points does not need to equate between the German and English versions of the same notice. ;-)

On the recent recent 70th anniversary

of Kristallnacht in Germany, Merkel said all of the things one would have expected.

Her speech reminds me...when I lived in Cologne, either the graffiti wasn't there, or I didn't notice it. Here in B, it's plentiful:

This is about a 5 minute walk from my flat. Not that I need to start another photo series (after the widely popular 'pigs on B rubbish bins' postings) but I easily could. I would estimate that the graffiti of this theme is 75% of B's graffiti. And it remains once it gets there, no one 'official' paints over it--although sometimes additional 'artists' will tend to modify it, as you see here with the scratches in the center.

Why I find this so interesting:

• The tiny town of B is located in the state of NRW, in a triangle formed by D'dorf, Cologne, and Leverkusen. We're not exactly in NPD territory.
• Want to study election results? here and here are quite interesting. Overall NPD took just under 1% of the NRW vote in 2005, with B giving 1,2%.
• B has approx 17k residents, including the surrounding ultra tiny neighborhoods and farms. It tends to be seen as a sleepy village where only one bar is open past 10 pm on Saturday nights rather than a center of any type of political strife.

Therefore I remain curious--who has the gumption and incentive to be painting the town? Bored and disgruntled kids...or someone else?

Sunday lunch - vegetarian Rogan Josh

One of the things I'm really looking forward to about moving to the UK will be the easy access to tasty, spicy Indian food--be it a proper restaurant or around the corner take away.

It's not that Germany doesn't have Indian restaurants, it's just that the German taste tends to avoid spicy, so it always seems that something is missing to me when eating out here. I even quizzed my Indian colleagues who have been here for some years:

'where would you recommend to go for good Indian food?'
'oh Heather--unfortunately no such thing here. Although there is a place in Leverkusen that sells authentic spices from India, I highly recommend it.'

(Having tried every Indian restaurant in Cologne, I sorta already expected such an answer.) It's like the elusive Mexican restaurant in Germany, the holy grail of US expats--just not to be found. Although if you know of one in the Cologne area, by all means prove me wrong. ;-)

One of my colleagues was very passionate about the subject. He had gone to the Indian restaurant near the Main train station in Cologne, and was appalled by the food, in particular because the proprietor was from his region in India. He accused the fellow of giving a bad reputation to their region, by serving such lackluster food. The owner explained--he had to modify the traditional recipes to make it appropriate for a German audience.

So in the meantime, I'll survive the best I can. Rogan Josh is traditionally made with lamb, here is a super recipe with photos. My vegetarian take on it instead includes tofu, broccoli, and lentils:

I'm not so good at making curries from scratch and I don't have the required cooking time during the week, so I rely on a jarred version. Here's a look inside the pantry, for those of you who like such photos. I mainly depend on Sharwoods, which I buy on periodic trips to Belgium and then ration myself until the next trip. The Sharwoods which can be found there is produced for that market--as well as for the Nordics from looking at the label languages, so it's not as expensive as an import from the UK found at the British shop here. I was just in Belgium two weeks ago, so currently well stocked. :-)

Front left is a Patak's, a gift from an expat leaving. Patak's is the only Indian food label I find at the Asian supermarkets here. Front and center is one of the few Hokkaido pumpkins still remaining. ;-)

how does heather celebrate the friday...

which marks 100 nights (of which 78 will be spent in DE) until i'll be in the UK?

-by sucking it up and getting out the german books, as i have only 2 more weekends to study for the upcoming B1 test and there is one particular sub-section of the test i want to go after, in order to nail it.
-I've been spending every other Monday with my Polish teacher (she came to Germany as a child and is therefore a native of both languages), to work on pronunciation, as I feel that is my weak point.
-i feel i have a very good chance to get a high pass, so why not?

in other news i gave away all balcony garden items this week.
i currently have 4 auctions on ebay of other things i'm not using and do not need to bring with me to the UK.
bittersweet.

just when i think i've heard everything...

Thursday is English class night. I always spend a few minutes chatting with the student's mother. She only had school English, so she likes to practice it. Although now that she knows I'm taking a test this month she makes an extra effort to speak German to me. Although we've drifted naturally into a happy medium--I speak to her in English and she answers in German.

She was explaining to me about how the daughter had recently bought a pet bird. Each week I've received an update from the daughter about what the bird is doing. Then last week they received a letter--from the 'Animal Amt'. Just when I thought I had heard about all Amts, a new one. (Non-German speakers: in Germany an 'Amt' is a governing body of sorts, and for any official business you can guarantee there is one out there, regulating things and providing order and structure. I.e. you send in your taxes to the Finance Amt.)

She explains--'we did not register the bird with the...'Animal Amt' or 'House pet Amt'...not sure of their exact responsibility area...nor did we know it existed even', but upon buying the bird locally they had given their name and address, and all legally sold birds are sold with a number tag around the ankle, so this data is reported to the Amt.

So the Animal Amt was in contact because there was some kind of bird virus going around local birds, so they were being informed as this virus can also be transferred to humans. So this Amt was recommending that they take the bird to their vetrinarian in order to get a certain test done to be sure that their bird was not carrying this virus.

There truly is an Amt for everything.

The final countdown

The date is now set: Feb 15. It's the first day on the working permit (I had requested that day).

I officially resigned my apartment this week for Feb 15. (My apartment contract has a 3 month notice period).

I have a giant calendar at home where I keep organized. I counted down backwards from Feb 15. 106 days until I leave Germany.

I counted down again, taking out the days where I'm not already in Germany, such as holidays in the US, etc., as those are 'non-productive' days in the grand scheme of moving. 84 more nights in Germany.

Holy cr*p, so much to do....
I then counted again to confirm. Then I opened a bottle of nice Spanish white wine upon second confirmation.

What a wonderful opportunity this will be to re-examine everything I own, and to contemplate if I really need it enough to cart it 550 km away. :-)

The answer to where Heather is going...

From the other post's comments:

Kristen and J: already knew.

Jul: thank you.

Moonwaves: I wouldn't have minded Ireland, to be honest.

Jeff: Spain would have been my next step using my Germany residency if this had fallen through.

Some people collect baseball cards or books...

Heather in Europe collects the permission to work in EU nations.
Why?
Why not.
Take heed: you do not find what you do not seek.

Nothing against Germany or the Germans, but after five plus years here, it's time to go somewhere else, to try something new, to learn new things, to be tested in different ways...it was never meant to be forever, else the blog would have been called 'Heather in Germany.' ;-)

I am in discussions with benevolent Company J, they'd like to keep me and perhaps move my job to an office in this new country, as I've definitely made my mental commitment to move there. It would be nice to be able to stay with company J, but location is the driver here, so I'm going with or without a job.

But on to the interesting part, where is Heather going?
Chew on that one for a few days until I pick up my passport with its shiny new sticker which they say is granted and ready to be picked up. Comment away and place your guess.

Any hints H?
Ach! It's somewhere in Europe, not Germany. You've been reading here long enough (painfully boring as I'm sure that's been), it's not a country I've never named here before, just pick one of the 27 EU nations which sounds good.

Is there a prize if I pick the right country H?
Sure, I'm still in 'down-sizing mode', in particular now that a move is involved. How about a free book or two in the mail from my bookshelf here? Or if you live in the US--I'll bring an EU prize home in December and mail it to you from the US (most likely German chocolate if I cannot think of anything better!). Or perhaps you live in the Cologne or D'dorf area and would like a few potted plants? ;-) Or just the satisfaction of being right? :-)

--The answer will be provided during this coming work week once I pick up the pass, I promise.

Sunday lunch: Thai chickpeas and pumpkin soup

Christina G gives a great cooking lesson, and let's face it, I need all the visual help I can get--so I really liked the video! I never met a chickpea dish I didn't like, and this was no exception:


I needed to use another Hokkaido pumpkin, so I went out on a limb and tried another new recipe in the Thai genre. This recipe also turned out well, but I did spice it up a tiny bit more. The Hokkaidos provide the rich flavor such a soup needs, and a lovely balance to the coconut flavor.

Theae square containers are .5 liter, so a perfect size to take to the office as an afternoon snack or a compliment to the above. If lunch plans appear and if it looks like I won't be finishing these by Wed (ok, I ate one tonight already), they are actually freezer containers so they will get popped into the freezer to become an easy meal later.




A busy week is upcoming which I spent all weekend preparing for. More on that topic soon.

Germans and parking spaces

yes I realize this sort of thing happens in the US and other places also...

My work colleague and I meet every other month for a haircut appointment (same salon, different stylists, at the same time). This establishment is located on a relatively busy street in the Leverkusen suburbs, but mainly with cars passing through to other shopping areas. This street itself has only the hair salon, a bakery and a kiosk as commercial establishments, the rest is residential. The main street was parked full, so I had to park on one of the many residential streets. These streets are free for parking, with marked spots. Most of the houses on this street have driveways and garages, so 80% of the street spots were free.

I am parked, and a man walked out from the house (which has a driveway and garage) I parked in front of and knocks on my window. As I'm pressing down the window button, he opens my car door.

"How long are you going to be here?"
-an hour.
"You cannot park here, go park across the street."
-I'm sorry, but my German is not so good. I cannot park here?
"No. You may not park here."
-Where is the sign which states I cannot park here? (looking up and down the empty street where no such sign exists.)
"This is my wife's parking spot. You may not park here. You may park over there."
-This is a free parking street. Your wife may park over there.
"Da ist mir egal." (and he walks away, perhaps realizing that he has no basis for his request.)

Uh-huh. Having made my point, I did park on the other side of the street, because life is too short to get caught up in such foolish little games, and I did not want to be worrying for an hour what he would be doing to my unattended car. Had he come up with some reason like he was going to be trimming the bushes (someone was doing that down the street) or his wife could not walk far or whatever, I would have immediately moved, with pleasure.

Interactions like these tire me. I know it has absolutely nothing to do with me being a foreigner in DE, that this is just how people here are. But it reminds me that I don't really belong there, as I cannot understand these things.

(Although the Philly side of my had a fleeting Philly thought, to return after dark with some rotten eggs to his wife's car, but then I remembered we're not in Philly so a Philly reaction is not called for here.) ;-)

The stress over parking in this country seems silly. My work colleague lives in Duisburg, on a street with an old lady. When I went to visit him, he explained in advance not to park in front of the yellow house two houses down, because if one does, the old lady comes out and starts to shout at you, that you need to move your car, or she will call the police.

-So Colleague J, does she have an elderly partner who needs the spot because he has difficulty walking?
"No H, she has no car."
-??? So why the fuss.
"Because she's retired H, with nothing to do and no people interactions, and she looks out her window all day, and she doesn't like to see a car there."
-But colleague J, it's a public street. Do the police really do anything?
"No, they never come, or she never calls. But the path of least residence is to park elsewhere to avoid the drama."

My other work colleague had a h*ll of a time at her last flat where parking was tight. She parked and her neighbor came out as soon as she parked in front of the neighbor's house. The neighbor told her not to park there, as the neighbor's husband should park there. But it's a public street? Yes, you may park down there, a few doors away, there is always extra space. But your husband could park there? No, this is the spot in front of my house.

On principle then, she remained, and it then got worse. Notes were left on her car each time she parked in front of this particular neighbor's house, threatening to call the police. Then she was mysteriously reported to the TV police, and it was a continual escalation of silly things.

I cannot fathom what life must be like for these people who get so emotional over parking spaces, nor do I really want to know at this time. Thankfully life in the Tiny town of B does not include such shenanigans--or at least not where I live.

Gotta pay your dues...

Background music for perusing the below: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eUbntU2N7xY

Non-German speakers-->this is the letter from the local town hall, inviting me to pay and then come pick up my passport with my permanent residency sticker in it.

Friday lunch - Hokkaido pumpkin stir-fry

As I mentioned, I'm somewhat limited in what I can take to the office. The tiny 'Tea Kitchen' where the microwave is housed is constantly busy with people picking up tea and coffee, and the microwave is an older, smaller machine with limited power. So most of us use it for simple tasks, and as my colleague noted, always defrost in advance, else it takes 15 min!

I like to make multiple meals at a time so here was tonight's dinner, with a second portion for lunch on Friday, and probaly a smaller portion for Saturday's lunch.

I roasted another Hokkaido pumpkin. They're fully in season now, so they're down to 1.99 at my Kaufpark.

While it was in the oven I sliced some garlic and onions and fried them up.
Then I added the in-season brussel sprouts.
I had fried up some tofu, that went in.
I had some leftover fresh zucchini from last night, that went in.
I sliced up the roasted pumpkin and gave that a few minutes.
I put in 2 egg whites, which fried nicely.
I put in some chilli soy sauce and some vegetarian 'oyster' (read mushroom) sauce.
Sauted it up all together and off we go.
I threw in a handful of Thai basil at the end.
I had left some noodles from today's lunch in the fridge in the office so we're set for lunch.

What's for Sunday lunch - Hokkaido pumpkin in Germany

If your corner of Germany is anything like mine in NRW, you're seeing Hokkaido pumpkins, like the one I bought the other day. Pumpkins are like every other seasonal produce one finds in Germany, we'll be awash with them for maybe a month, and then just like that they're gone until next year. So I'm buying them like the dickens, squirreling them away in my cellar storage area (they last up to 3 months when stored in a cool place), and making 4 meals a week with them in the meantime.

I must admit, I was not a pumpkin eater prior to coming to Germany. The only pumpkin I had ever had was the stuff that came out of a can and was made into pie, and we all know my aversion for desserts. The second strike against US pumpkin for me, is that a lot of recipes with it also include cinnamon and/or nutmeg, the only two spices in the entire world I abhor. So back to the Hokkaido.

Step 1: Buy one at your local farmer's market or supermarket. I bought one at Aldi Sued for 1.79, my local Kaufpark/Rewe affiliate and Edeka sells them for 2.75 each. My farmer's market connection is usually around 2 Euros or so. Mainly they seem to be coming from Holland. Go for a Bio one if possible, as one of the best things about the Hokkaido is that the skin is edible, so you save yourself the peel time/effort, as well as raising the fiber content of your recipe.

Step 2: Wash er up. Slice the top off. Scoop out the seeds.



If you're feeling ambitious you can set the seeds aside to wash and roast. Or you can throw them in your garden compost. We have a communal area in the small forest nearby for such biodegradable items which is where mine went. Either a forest creature is going to find a nice treat or next spring the Germans will begin to wonder how pumpkins are growing wild in the forest.

After I remove all the seeds, I use my small knife to give the insides a scrape, to remove all of the stringy bits remaining. Then I wipe the insides out with a paper towel to be sure I got them all.


Step 3: Into the oven. This is a great activity for cold rainy days like today to heat up the flat. I put it into a ceramic pan, then put about 1.5 inches of water inside the pumpkin. Then put the top back on, but slightly at an angle to allow for a little of the steam to escape. Next, give the whole thing a quick rub with olive oil. Finally, put a piece of foil lightly over the pumpkin, to allow the inside to cook without the outside getting overdone.

I try for around 195C, for around 50 min, but it depends on your pumpkin size, oven, etc. You'll know it's done when you poke it with a fork and the skin is easily pierced. If you want, pull the foil off for the last few minutes to allow the skin to brown up a little.


Coming out of the oven, it will look like this:






Step 4: The pumpkin is usually hot as heck, especially as the outside is oiled. So you can let it sit for a few minutes to cool, and then dump out the inside water. Then let it sit for a few more minutes to cool further. Or speed up the whole process and carefully dump the water immediately after taking it out of the oven.

Step 5: Slice and serve. Slice anyway you want. Sometimes I try chunks, today I went with slices.

Today's plate, starting at 12 o'clock is the pumpkin. I had a decent sized one, and here is about half of it. I so enjoy the warm rich taste of the Hokkaido, I purposely left it without any sauce or dressing for a change today. Continuing clockwise, in the 4 o'clock region are some pan-seared brussel sprouts, flavored with Bragg Liquid Aminos, although soy sauce would give you a similar result. 7 o'clock has some leftover beans which were spiced up with chili and onions when cooking them. 11 o'clock has some of those lovely Dutch sausages.


Because I take a lot of convenient 'one plate' meals to the office such as stir frys (due to our lack of on-site meal facilities and a shared microwave), on the weekends I like to prepare 'independent' items which aren't all mixed together in the same sauce.

The above is actually vegan, excluding the sausages which contain egg and milk. That wasn't my intention either way, but moreso to make something a little healthier as I was pretty run-down last week and wasn't eating so good in the days prior. In a time-saving maneuver I created double of the above, so tomorrow's dinner will be the same.

Today's hailstorm in my corner of NRW

here at the beginning and at the 45 second mark, you can see my humble little peppers, the last real non-herb bit of the garden.

Fall in Germany...

is my favorite time of year. Is starts with these items, but I need to explain more...

My sick day

It rained all day. I slept a lot, because of the DayQuil. I watched birds landing on my balcony, jumping amid the plants. (Which finally puts to rest my outstanding questions of how slugs and worms made it into my tomato plants.) I stopped sniffling after it got dark.
-The end.

This is the first actual 100% full sick day I've taken in 5+ years in EU, and in 10+ years at least. Where I come from, you don't get sick days. It took a few years for the German way of life to wear off on me. ;-)

Apparently I've been stuck at lesson 4, or in a slightly different version here for a long time on this point.

and the next day

yesterday wasn't so hot, i'm fighting the flu, today it seemed worse so i took off at lunchtime. as i'm walking out the door, colleague 1 says to me in german, 'hope you feel better'. colleague 2 repeats the same. i answer in english. we tend to have a mishmash of languages floating around all day, so that wasn't out of the ordinary.

C1: wait, H, how do you say that in English?
H: hope you feel better. or feel better soon, i guess.
C1: H! you guess?!? maybe you need to take an English class, not a German class.
H: (thinking: bless his cotton socks as he tries to rescue yesterday with some humor.)
H: no worries C1--as C2 would fix my English as well!
C2: (speechless and confused by the whole conversation.)

I'm sure Colleague 1 spent some minutes after I left to instruct young Colleague 2 (not so long out of university, never lived anywhere but DE), in some of the finer points of dealing with Americans. As well as to explain the joke of Heather needing an English class. And that my final comment was not literal, but a bit of sarcasm. Thankfully I was on the way home.

the more things change...

the more they stay the same. After all the German learning run around, I finally felt moved by the spirit last week to register for the B1 test in November. Upon reviewing in the VHS course schedule I checked my understanding with my work colleagues:

H: Colleague K, read this--does this say I must call this person in order to register to take this test?
K: Yes, Heather. Hmm. They probably want to speak with you, to make sure that you speak enough German to take the test.

(hmm)

So I call the woman...
H: I'd like to register for this test in November.
VHS Frau Doktor: Yes, you need to come in and take a test.
H: I need to take a test in order to be able to take the test?
VHS FD: Yes. You may come tomorrow between 3 and 4, or Wednesday mornings, from 9-10 are my open door office hours.
H: Okey dokie. (eyes rolling)

So I appear during open office hours. She questions me--is this a requirement of my staying in Germany? (no). Is this a requirement for my residency permit, to show proof of German skills (no). Then why do you want to take this test? So that I can go home to America next year, having passed this test in Germany. (Oh, of course). Not exactly true as I have no plans to return home to America, but I was tired of having this conversation.

VHS FD: OK, so then you only need to take this short written section then, it's the last section of the test. Here's a chair, 30 minutes, go ahead.
H: (freaking A). So I plod along, writing a letter which is a response to a letter, focusing my paragraphs on four key points as required in the instructions.

Upon handing it in:
VHS FD: Yes, you will pass the test with this level of German. If you want to get a high pass though, you need to write at least two more paragraphs. Length is a requirement for a high pass. But, you may keep the entire practice test, and fill out this card, and you're registered.

Upon returning to the office, because I had to miss work hours to go on this adventure:
Colleague 1: So H, are you allowed to take the test?
H: Freaking A. Yes. (grumble, grumble) Things are so difficult in your country. (This is to my German colleague, whom I sit across from and I've known for 5+ years, otherwise I tend to park the outright negativity to the country.)
C1: Why?
H: Because I just had to take part of the test, to register for the test.
C1: (Quizzical look.)
C2: (starts flipping through the practice test, and takes a pen to my writing, to correct it.)
H: That's the purpose of the test, to show that I can pass it. So I shouldn't have to take a pre-test to be allowed to take the test, else what is the purpose here.
C1: They want to help you. They don't want you to fail.
H: But colleague C1, it's my own fault if I fail, then I shouldn't be registering for a test I cannot pass.
C1: H, they want to protect you!
H: (thinking) from myself?
C2: H, your writing is really poor....
C1: How do they do this in the US? Anyone can register for any test?
C2: ...Well, but your speaking is better. No, not really, because really you don't speak enough; your speaking is also poor. But your primary problem there is just not using German enough. You should speak it more.
H to C2: It's B1 level, not fluency or entry to university.
H to C1: Yes, anyone can register for any test. It's your own fault if you are under-prepared.
C2: Really H, your written German is not very good. You should not have used 'haben' here. Well you could, but 'werden' sounds better.
H to C2: It's B1, readjust your grading level.
C2: What's B1?
H to C2: The level of the test and the expected writing level. What two German teachers have now said I have that enough of in order to pass.
C2: But it's wrong!!!

And that really is the crux of the matter, bless his little perfectionist heart, as he does mean well. Some days I do wonder...if I was in a German language environment (say in a different German-speaking country) where the native population didn't feel the need to pick apart every single written or spoken sentence, would I be more interested in acquiring the language? Or, had I had proper training before coming to Germany, so that I had some basis to start with upon arrival, would I be a little less sensitive to the constant correction, as there wouldn't be so much to correct.

Neither here nor there really as I'm not a lifer here. But something to consider, those of you reading me outside of Germany and planning to move here. ;-)

More cartoon signs from B - the pig series

In the Tiny town of B, all is in order, always. We have shops in the tiny downtown which are open at appropriate hours, companies like 'big American company J' employ people and sponser events in town, we have buses ferrying people around town and to the nearby train station, and every bus stop is complete with one bench and a trash can which is regularly emptied, on schedule, by whoever is in charge of that in B.

And all over the tiny town of B, every government sponsered trash bin has a pig cartoon:

I'm not sure if it changes the behavior (either positively or negatively) of the average German, putting pig cartoons on trash cans, but it enabled me to learn 'das Ferkel' (piggy, piglet) a whole lot faster than I would have otherwise, as I'll see it on average 3-5 times for every 10 minutes walked through town.

My favorite sign in the tiny town of B

The tiny town of B has a small downtown area, including 2 pocket sized parks. The larger one (the one I refer to as 'ugly as sin' park) has this at the entrance.



As we know, Germany loves cartoon signs to make their points about 'what not to do', but I'm not sure what amuses me most here...is it

1. That the fault is not with the owner to pick up after the dog, but rather that the dog not pull down his pants in the park and do his business there?
2. That Mr. Sunshine is so clearly displeased.
3. That the wagging finger dog has such a scowl to go with the finger wagging.
4. That the wagging finger dog himself has no pants, but does have a bowtie.

I'm feeling a new series coming on here...the cartoon signs of Germany in the tiny town of B. Stay tuned.

busy - decluttering in Germany

To change your life, change your perspective. To change your perspective, change your environment. I'm bringing my 'garden philosophy' inside and applying it to inside things. (Heather's garden balcony mantra: If you aren't producing anything of value, space is limited, and you are dismissed). Unproductive plants, unproductive books, it's all the same in the end.

Some things I've been up to recently:

1. books - a review of the entire bookshelf. Do I want to read this again? Would I pay 50 cents to ship it elsewhere, plus having to box it up with other and schlep it to the post office? I've received some hand-me-down books from expats leaving Germany as they know I like to read, but some of them are absolutely not in my interest area. I'd been saving them for a rainy, bookless day, but ever since I've discovered bookswapper, I'd had more than enough to read and then some. However, I'm sure someone will enjoy some of them much more than me.

Therefore--gone, ye books which are gathing dust--www.bookswapper.de, and I'm a happier soul that some other English reader in Germany is getting some enjoyment from you.

2. gifts/clothes/things - often I've received something, but it's not in my interests. Or I've brought things from the US years ago, and it's not something I need now. In the US I'd drop it with nearby family (my aunts/cousins wear the same shoe/clothing size), and if no one was interested it would go to goodwill. Here, I've been following a different route:

A. recycle - by giving to work colleagues - some things can be used by my office mates.

B. ebay - I'm working on my German skills by selling things on ebay.de.

For example, I had purchased a pair of Dr Martins shoes from a goodwill back in the US, in the last five minutes before they closed. It was a rush affair, and I never had such a pair of shoes previously, but they were only 1.50 USD and new, and I knew of people here who swore by them. After wearing only a handful of times, I came to the conclusion that I don't like such heavy shoes. Onto ebay they went, and 17.50 euros later, I'm a happier person, as is some Goth gal near Berlin who got a great pair of shoes, practically new.

C. freecycle - just like the US equivalent, freecycle is here also in the major cities like Cologne. As I work pretty close to a Deutsche Bahn station, I just make arrangements to meet the person there after work.

D. Humana - Germany makes it very convenient to donate clothes/shoes, with large drop boxes belonging to various charities/groups in convenient places where you drop bagged items into the box, and a truck comes through periodically to empty the boxes. My closest donation box (seven minutes away on foot) belongs to Humana.

E. big trash pickup day - if all else fails, I can always just put something at the curb the night before big trash pickup day, once I figure out when our next one is scheduled. As we know, everything still in working order will find a new owner easily and quickly here in DE. :-)

This weekend in Cologne

a demonstration.

And no large gathering of people in Germany would be complete without a warning from the US consulate.

Blackberry picking

Here in tiny town of B, there are plenty of blackberry bushes on their final rounds for the season. There are so many of them here, that they rot and fall off the bushes, there's just not enough people picking them. (Keep in mind they're all over the place, free, lining parklands, taking over the abandoned rail line, etc). In the Phillyland area, we had plenty of strawberries, but other berries weren't as common as they are elsewhere in the US, such as the Pacific Northwest, so this is quite interesting and new for me, so I've been picking my little heart out. As well as my fingertips as the damn things are quite prickly.

I spent a few days snacking on them raw in the office, by themselves and mixed with strawberries. I sent them through the magic bullet to puree them into a fruit spread. Then I realized I needed to do something with the remained 1 pint plus, as their shelf life is limited and there are still more to pick. So onto preservation methods and more harvesting. What to do when you have a tiny little German freezer and no possibility of canning this year?

I tried drying them, to make homemade fruit leather. That came out pretty well, I spread the pureed mixture into a pan in the oven, drying it, cutting it into strips which I stored in glass bottles.

Then I tried drying individual berries, so that I could fling a few onto my musli in the winter. That worked pretty well also, so into glass jars went the individual dried berries.

The leaves were dried for tea.

I tried to freeze the pureed version into ice cube trays, which I dumped into a freezer bag once frozen. As I don't have much freezer space so I couldn't go too heavily into this option. However, I plan to use the little concentrated cubes in yogurt on on top of ice cream perhaps.

The very nice retired couple stopped on their way back on Sunday to chat. They brought up the topic, and gut reaction, I was expecting some sort of German negativity, about how one shouldn't pick the wild berries (as I'm sure they spied me coming or going on these adventures, they miss nothing). Although then again, they seem to think I'm a frugal American who is always picking cardboard boxes out of the big paper recycle bin (for ebay packaging), as well as eating off my balcony grown efforts, so foraging for berries probably wouldn't surprise them.

Herr K. leans in to make sure no one else is listening to this conversation...you know, these blackberries...(here we go)...they're ok...but up the street, I go to a secret place, they are bigger...you know what we do with blackberries....(dude, I'm out of ideas, so I'll take any at this point)...we put them in bottles! Homemade Liqueurs. 'Schnapps!' says Frau K. '25% blackberry schnapps'. We've done 13 bottles so far this year. Six months in the cellar, turn them once per month, and we'll be ready to go before summer comes back.

I am such a blackberry amateur, that option never crossed my mind. Hmm...

More thoughts on learning German

Apparently this has been my theme this week. ;-) A few of you had some interesting comments on this theme. To summarize my general thoughts:

Why now after five years?

In that class the other day, I was reading aloud and the very nice teacher was gauging my spoken skills. 'Halt!' Then she says, 'you said German word, which is ok, that's how they say it in Hamburg, but a better way to say it in our corner of NRW is ...' I love 'teacher speak' and how they don't want to be discouraging.

However, I saw the point, my random pronunciation of that one threw off the overall effect of the entire sentence. I imagine it must be something I picked up from TV. Or that I heard it somewhere else and picked up the softer pronunciation of said word (my favorite and regular Berlitz teacher was from Hamburg), rather than the stronger NRW guttural version. I feel that I have a lot of tiny things of this type, and that a small amount of effort would give good returns. (As opposed to when I first got here and couldn't string together a sentence with any word with appropriate pronunciation, and all effort produced slow results.)

I don't imagine I'll be here another five years to allow for the general passive acquisition that has served me well thus far, so it's move it or lose it time. For some reason, hitting the five year point seems to have been a milestone after the fact. When I speak Spanish, I can go months and pick up immediately where I left off. My German isn't strong enough yet to do that, and if I don't get a stronger foundation in place, if I were to leave Germany tomorrow, I'd lose it completely, in a matter of a few years. I feel that would be an absolute waste of my time/effort here personally that I did already put into learning it, as well as a professional waste, as it is a marketable skill.

Had I known I was going to be here this long, I probably would have sucked it up long ago and got on the bandwagen. This was originally supposed to be a three month stint, then it became just one year, then onto two, and so it goes and here we are on an unlimited German contract. However, not having a German significant other to turn me into a lifer, I do have some sort of shelf life here, or so I suspect. Thus no lofty goals to read Goethe in the original or needing the language to be promoted or anything of that nature. More that from a common sense, practical perspective, the time seems right.

As expected

I received a letter from the tiny town of B's VHS, apologizing that they must cancel the course due to lack of participants. In a slightly interesting twist, they offered that I could register for a B2 conversation course at another VHS in the triumvirate. It was nice of them to offer an alternative, but I'm not really interested as 1) The course is a 15 week one at 1.5 hrs, and I already missed the first 4 classes and 2) It is described as a slow course, no stress type of thing, and anyone who has ever taken a weekly VHS course knows that intrinsically they are the epitome of a non-stressful course to begin with, so I cannot imagine how slow a proclaimed slow course would be.

Your comments over the past few postings on this topic have been interesting. As have been the reactions of my work colleagues, to hear that I was finally sucking it up and taking another course, after my self-imposed German learning break (from Dec 2007-Aug 2008). One dear colleague is ademantly convinced that there is a German speaking man in the picture somewhere, secretly, so thus the German learning Zeitgeist. (Don't worry dear readers, not so.)

Maybe some more thoughts on this over the weekend...

From scrambling to scrambled

So I trotted up the road to German class yesterday, impressed that they haven't cancelled the course, to a lovely littly building which I had never been inside. Not sure what else it holds besides the local VHS, but it has large poster-size prints of the tiny town of B in its heydey (approx 1910?).

A few minutes before 18.30 I wander into the room where there was only a teacher. She says, are you Ms. xxx? um, yes. Oh, good. We can wait a few minutes for the others, so then I don't need to repeat myself. Oki doki.

At 18.31 she says, well, there are supposed to be three students in total, but perhaps we chat for a few minutes since I do not know you yet, so that I hear your German. Okay.

At 18.45 she starts to sweat. Oh dear. Usually if a student does not arrive on time on the first day, then the student will not come. And I'm not sure if they will keep the class then. (insert crinkled brow and hand wringing.)

So we carry on since we're already here. She had brought along five copies of practice tests. Now I started to feel a little bad. She teaches at the VHS for enjoyment and they called her in at the last minute to teach this one, she belongs to another VHS affiliated in the triumvirate with b. Her children are older, she teaches disabled children in the morning. And here she's stuck with only me, and really I was only taking this course for fun, it's not like I must take/pass the test. And here she is all prepared with copies and planned exercises and her cd player for the verbal listening section and hoping for five students.

To her credit she mustered on. I follow along, filling in blanks, matching things, doing true/falses, reading aloud, etc. It was actually a pleasant experience, and she confirmed my suspicion. I could take the test tomorrow and pass it. With the course I'd probably make it a higher pass, or she suggested that I instead aim instead for the B2 test. We ended 20 minutes early, which considering it was basically a two hour private lesson was just fine. Toward the end she brought in bonbons from her car, (she had stopped at Aldi Sued on the way in to pick them up.) She explained that she would speak to the coordinator, that maybe they would call the two missing students, but that the VHS would probably call me to cancel.

So today my phone rings. It's the VHS and they want to cancel. But it wasn't that course, but the Thursday pronunciation one I had signed up for with the other VHS. So assuming this course also cancels, I will be without a German course for the fall. At this point I give up. I don't want to go all the way to K or D'dorf, and only one in between offers only long Oct-Mar courses.

Thus ends the Great German Experiment 2008.

Welcoming fall and my organized cabinet

A little pre-written reading to amuse you while I'm bumbling along in class...

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year. These past few days have been a flurry of activity, greatly pushed along by the super summer weekend followed by the cold snap which gave the signal to 'get moving.' A few activities:

-I disassembled most of the Balkon garden. It was a very sad and dark day as the small table and chairs went into the basement storage room, and the dead and done plants were placed in the compost area.


-A few brave souls are still outside though, mainly what's left of the spindly tomatoes (including one not so bright one who just spurted some blossoms), the Hungarian and Turkish peppers, and the herbs.


-I cleared out the bean/grain/dried storage area to review what is there and added some new recently dried leaves and chilis. A certain special someone likes to make cracks about 'hunting for nuts and berries'. Here's a peek inside the freshly reviewed and organized 'nut and berry central':




As you can see, I'm a big fan of recycled glass jars. It's a very complex three-tier organization system. ;-) The oldest items go on the bottom (level 1) where they actively need to be used in receipes, and I will seek out recipes to use them. The next two tiers are available for use as needed, and eventually the will be bumped down a level as new things come in. Hidden behind the first row are either duplicates of the front or empty bottles.


So from the left, level 1 has: elephant beans, empty glass jars, quinoa in the baggy, black beans, and red and yellow lentils.


From the left, level 2: soy mince, mung beans, 7 grain mixture which is super with pumpkin, popcorn, cous cous, and dried chillis.


From the left, level 3: chickpeas, some unknown bean from the farmers' market, dried blackberry leaves, red cow peas, and more soya mince.


What's not here? The dried tomatoes and dried berries. They're hanging out downstairs in the cooler basement temps for a few weeks, resting up.