Supermarket shopping in the UK

As I've only been here two weeks or so, I've yet to figure out any alternatives to buying my food at the big supermarkets. I'm sure in spring/summer there will be some sort of farmers markets or farms to find, but in the meantime, I'm down to Tesco or Asda. Particularly--Asda is within walking distance to my temporary accomodation, although the 24 hour Tesco is on the way home from work.

I'd prefer to buy a little more local, less "big retail" but my longer term accomodation will be on the other side of town, so rather than trying to ferret out local options here only to move, I'll suck it up in the short term and go to Asda.

I still have the habit of shopping like I'm in Germany (= going to the supermarket 2 to 3 times in a week). This habit is a little silly here as refrigerators are closer to American sized so I can buy more, and further--the selection is virtually the same Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday, so there are no advantages to multiple trips.

Because I am temporary accomodation and trying to minimize the disruption, I'm a little limited in cooking properly, for example to have lots of spices on hand or to dirty every dish in the house. So I'm leaning more toward packaged goods than I normally would.

In case you're curious, here's what I've bought during the past two days (Friday and Sunday). In general, I'm flexible with what I buy, so will bend to accomodate sales or markdowns. From the below photos, everything was on some sort of price droppage.

To explain further--Asda has various schemes of pricing--'rolling back the prices' ala Walmart, multiple savings if you buy 2 for a certain price you get the discount, and markdowns due to items reaching their 'use by' date. For the most part, if you're willing to be fleixible--i.e. 'I want any green vegetable to cook for dinner tonight'--or 'I want something vegetarian as a main course which will reheat well on the next day', then you can make your choices according to price and do well. Here is how I did. All prices are in Pounds. Where I put a price (in parenthesis), that is the 'regular' price one would normally pay for this item at Asda.

Old El Paso Fajita Kit 1.50 (2.76)
Old El Paso Taco Kit 1.50 (2.76)
3x Quorn Mince 1.00 each (1.98)
Heinz baked beans .75 (1.24)-->840 gram can!
2x Asda cheese pizza 1.00 (1.58)
Bistro gravy 1.00 (1.58)
Frozen broccoli .84
Frozen peas 1.00
Grand total--> 12.34

There's a little cake/pie on the right side, someone brought those into the office and offered it to me. I'm not a cake person, but being new to this office I didn't want to decline, so I brought it home and D had it with his tea.



Today's trip....it's Sunday and I'm going to the supermarket. I have to say--I prefer Sunday to Saturday for the supermarket, mainly because I'm in the right mindset for food shopping since I'm normally making up my office lunch meals for the week on Sunday.

Today's take:
Asda Baking Potatos, hidden in the back--the only regular priced item - 1.48 for 7 large potatos
Garlic bread with cheese .68 (1.38)
Garlic bread (hidden underneath) .32 (.50)
2x strawberries .68 (1.88)
grapes .38 (.58)
herb salad .38 (1.00)
Quorn mince and onion suet pudding .83 (1.68)
Dairy free sunflower oil spread 1.00 (1.12)
Cauldron veg sausages .97 (1.98)
expensive cheddar cheese 2.00 (2,38)
the supreme bargain of the day - a small squash .10 (1.64) -->who would pay 1.64 for a tiny squash??
Grand total-->just under 10 quid


So what kind of meals are upcoming this week?
-Last week, I used a package of the Quorn mince and combined a can of beans with a cup of kidney beans to make a superb chilli. I'll do something similar to use with the taco shells/cheese.
-There will be baked potatos on the menu, mainly to heat up the house in the evening.
-The bag of salad will go into the office and will last three days
-The sausages and baked beans are the making for a full English breakfast, which is also great for dinner. The only thing missing to supply is an egg and toast.
-The squash will be tonight's dinner, with some rice
-The frozen veg will be combined with last week's pasta sauce and perhaps some of the mince, to go over pasta.
-The 'close to being out of date marked down' items the mince pudding thingy, the sausages, the bread, etc. all went into the freezer for a different day.

I hear the 'tsk-tsk ing' from Germany all the way over here, btw.
But H, grapes and strawberries are inappropriate for the season/location. Just think of your carbon footprint!
Yeah, I hear you. I went up and down the fruit and veg aisle to try and figure out what is locally grown here. It was somewhat surprising to me, that there was not a plethora of 'warmer' EU country items, such as strawberries from Spain or anything from Italy, like there is in Germany or Dutch or UK greenhouse items. Most of the off-season veg (including my strawberries in this instance) comes from more distant, exotic places like Morocco and Mozambique. Ouch.

My primary issue with these far away items isn't the environmental concerns of shipping items so far (although it probably should be!) My concern is in going outside of the EU that the regulation is not as strict or as closely monitored as to what chemicals are used in the growing process. My German colleagues have drilled in me a distrust of Spanish produce, never mind the non-EU varieties. In addition, something which travels such a distance never tastes as good as something local which didn't endure such a long food route.

The only local items which I found so far in the produce area were brussel sprouts on a stalk (last week's rollback deal--1 pound for a stalk which included approx 40 sprouts), and potatos. I'll keep searching...

All told, from the above, I'm under 25 pounds a week for food. While some of the multiple items will be stored for another week as well as the butter substitue will be spread over many weeks (spread, haha!). I'm using things purchased last week, so I think 25 pounds would be about average for a weekly shopping bill for me. For you folks at home, that's about 35 USD on today's conversation rates. Granted, this model is also taking into account that there is no cafeteria on-site at the office so I must buy enough to produce 5 weekday lunch meals, although that is usually just additional portions from my evening meals.

So how is this comparing from Germany, H?
I cannot make a full comparison yet as I'm doing a lot less cooking from scratch in this moment. Once I'm in the new place and back to that method, I think I'll run through this again and cost it out to see. In addition, I didn't shop at the big shops in Germany, so my comparison is additionally skewed in this moment.

If you enjoyed this sort of banal, everyday life analysis, let me know. Or any specifc UK food queries, I can look into it...

Two sandwich shops

On the street where I will probably live (fingers crossed!) there are two lunchtime sandwich shops. While I've been out and about, I've tried to interact with both, to get a feeling for the neighborhood.

Sandwich shop 1 (last week):
H: Can I have a jacket potato with cheese?
Sandwich lady 1: Oh......sorry, we're all out. But it's the only thing we're out of, you can pick anything else.
H: Hmm. What do you recommend, that is vegetarian?
SL: Well, we can do cheese on a roll, or a toasted cheese or an egg salad sandwich, or Tuna--if you're 'that kind of vegetarian', or you can say what to put on the sandwich and we'll make it.
H: Cheese on a roll sounds great.
SL: OK....type of bread?....toasted?....do you want a bit of salad on that? (good suggestive upselling there)
H: Super.
SL: Here you go. Apologies again on the potato.
H: Obviously I'll need to come back, they must be good to sell out!

Sandwich shop 2 (today), after waiting 3 minutes for someone to appear from the back:
H: (needing to break a 5 pound note to get parking meter change) One pack of M&M's please. (holding the 5)
SL2: Do you have 55 p by chance?
H: Sorry, no.
SL2: (pauses, with 5 in hand) Is this for change for the parking meter?
H: Yes.
SL2: We can't always be doing this, you know!!
H: (slightly shocked, after 2 stress-free weeks, mentally taken back to DE). (blink.) Sorry, I didn't know, I'm not from here.
SL2: (big German F-off sigh, and goes to the back. Comes back with change and then must go to the cash register.) Here....it has to be small change.
H: Sure.
SL2: Because we don't keep a lot of change.
H: Sorry, I'm a visitor, I didn't realize. (But don't worry, I won't bother you again!)

IF I live on this street--which shop do you think will get all of my business?

At the end of the day, both transactions completed successfully, I loosely got what I went in for (lunch, change). However, I was so turned off by the second shop experience. If I had visited there before I went to see the flat on that street, it probably would have colored my view of the flat. I was mentioning this experience to D later, who was completely peeved, as he explained that this was rude by UK standards. I was considering it by:

1. US Standards - as a business, you're sorta being stupid here. By not keeping change in stock and requiring a sale to give it, you're losing out on business.
2. German Standards - there would have been sighs about having to count out the change if it had been bigger than a 5 perhaps, but you buy something, you get change, none of this whining about not wanting to give it based on the purpose.

danger or opportunity?

The past week has been in flux. The universe finally coughed up a sign to answer my question.

In response I kicked off a few events which spawned even more surprising changes. Hmm. Not yet ready for prime time.

In other topics, I mentioned a while back that I was applying for grad school, to be able to attend part-time while working full-time. Today I received the acceptance letter from here. Now the question--do I want to attend? And how does it relate to other future plans now envisioned?

thinking...
thinking....

Burning the midnight oil...

as I try to sort some things out.
Various changes are working their way through my universe.

Back to 'life as an expat in the UK' shortly...

Guess the city

jumping through hoops

i found a flat i rather like in the downtown area, close to the main train station, only 15 minutes by car from the office. now i'm in the process of providing one billion pieces of paper in order to rent it for 6 months.

i must say, on this point, it was much easier in germany.
1. my work colleagues and i scoured the local paper based on my requirements (not on ground floor, lots of sun, including kitchen)
2. found a few interesting ones
3. called, visited, said i'd take it
4. signed the papers
5. put down a deposit, and away we go.

in the uk...
1. saw a handful of flats, liked one of them.
2. researched a little...realized i wouldn't be able to pass a uk credit check as i have no credit history here, so
3. had to offer to pay all six months in advance. negotiated the price down slightly based on paying six months in advance.
4. had to provide copies of my passport and work visa.
5. had to provide copies of utility bills in germany, to prove that i lived where i said i did.
6. had to provide contact details of my german speaking landlord, that they can cough up someone who speaks basic german to check a reference.

and now, just waiting....

oh really.

Big US Accountant company which did my taxes while I was an expat for company J: Dear H, our German partners would like for you to release your US 2003 W-2 to them. Due to data privacy, we need your consent.

H: Dear US Accountancy, why would this be? My 2003 taxes were done and closed years ago and your German partners did not do my 2007 German taxes, someone else did. (and your German partners are useless)

USAcct: The German government has decided to audit you for 2003. Our German partners will review and respond on your behalf, don't worry, this is standard from the German gov't.

H: Send me the German correspondance for my records, please. I am now curious as to why they would choose to audit me for 2003 at this time and would like to review it before I release data to them.

It's a little too coincedental that I de-registered on Feb 12th and now Germany chooses to audit me for the same year in which I arrived, 5 years ago.

(I loathe Tuesdays. I try to keep my head down and don't tempt fate, because usually anything bad will occur on a Tuesday.)

My Monday

was extremely productive, i...
-received a new office pc, with all the stuff moved over from the old one and the new one is totally up and running.
-found the new office building, including the coffee machine and the bathroom.
-was placed in a desk next to a window.
-looked at my empty desk (which does not yet include a phone) and was rather pleased with the simplistic look.
-received a new company J car. it's no polo, disappointingly, but something larger which cost me 47 pounds sterling to fill up.
-opened a bank account, so benevelont company J can pay me to look at the empty desk and out the window.
-applied for a flat which i fell in love with. let's see if they can manage to take my reference in german so that i can be approved for said flat.

catching up and starting over

In the rush of the past few weeks, I may have missed a few key points if you're following along:

So what happened on the job front, H?
Benevolent company J came up with an offer which appeases me for the moment, so I stayed with them and received a UK contract.

Why the bitter melancholy?
In moving to the UK I had wanted a London location, or another major city like Edinburgh or Dublin. Company J has locations throughout England only; all were open options to me, excluding the central London office, due to space constraints. So while it's nice to have a well-paying job where they showed flexibility for allowing me to transfer, a small part of me recognizes that it's not the complete dream.

So where are you then H?
Somewhere in Essex county. Specifically, I'm in a commutable town into London, and company J has one of their larger offices here. There is a regional train into London and this town is 30 minutes or so from Stansted.

So what do you think so far?
It's a little quiet out here and not very diverse, but the people seem polite enough and the area seems safe.

So will you keep the blogging as is on this site?
Yeah, for now. Officially the title can remain the same (not sure if that's due to my forward thinking or abject lazyness!). Now, instead of whining about Germany I can whine about the UK instead. :-)

memo to self

Bratislava in the winter is too cold. -6 is not a happy place for heather.

Coldness aside, I've had a nice time in Bratislava, although most of it was spent in the office or with work colleagues in the evenings. I did manage to take a few photos, all of them containing snow, as it snowed each day this week and it didn't melt. I had a great time with work colleagues; most were from the Eastern Europe countries surrounding here and all were a pleasure to meet.

Am back to the airport tomorrow morning, then back at Stansted around lunchtime.

So German was useful after all

I called the Taxi's number in Bratislava, company J's recommended company, who supposedly speak English.

Taxi Guy: (bla bla Taxi!)
H: Hi, do you speak English?
TG: Uuuh. (pause) Germanish?
H: Ah supi....(proceeds to ask for the Taxi pick-up in German).
TG: (answers me enthusiastically in German, understanding and confirming).

So one of the most useful applications of my German skills is to be able to order a taxi in Bratislava. Well there is a justification for the last 5,5 years of my life.

24 hours

I left Germany at 3 PM on Sunday. Most interestingly, balloons and confetti did not fall from the ceiling upon the presentation of my passport with the brand new UK sticker, which is now date stamped with my arrival.

I drove a left-handed manual car for the first time. I'm sure the car rental people at the airport were wondering why I was circling the car park. I thought it would behoove me to get some familiarity before getting on the highway where I have no directional clue.

So far, 22 hours later, I've only whacked my right hand on the door 10 times when attempting to shift gears. :-)

I called to get a National Insurance number. Because of the type of work permit I have, and because I'm from the USA, I may fall under their 'mail NI scheme', meaning they will mail me the paperwork rather than forcing me to come in for an interview. The phone person said I would either receive a post or hear back from them in a week if I need to come in. I'm a big fan of the mail-in idea.

Am back on the road in an hour, back to the airport, then on to Bratislava for the week.
Limited posting for a few days....

Reminder: Koeln Deutz on Saturday night

No valentine? No worries, I'll be wearing black. Stop by for a Koelsch, J will be here too. :-)

Location: Koeln Deutz (comment or send me an email-->phillygirl06@ NOT coldmail.com and I'll give you the exact location. ;-) It's a small, local, friendly place.

Time: 19.30ish, until 22ish or whenever people go home. Feel free to stop by for one beer if you're only passing through en route. Will even buy you a beer if you prove that you read me on a semi-regular basis. ;-)

See you Saturday night!

The rules! Snow clearing

I ran into my whistling downstairs neighbor tonight. He reminded me that I promised to stop by to say goodbye tomorrow, and they are looking forward to it. He was outside with a shovel and then proceeded into a diatribe of why.

'You remember Frau Nice Neighbor downstairs, the one who moved out in December? Well she got a call at 3 AM because Herr Replacement Neighbor didn't clear the back steps in a timely manner, and someone didn't have the new tenant's number. Frau Nice Neighbor called Herr Replacement who then called Whistler's Daughter (who is the Hausmeister) as he was out of town....in the 3 AM hour.' So Whister's Daughter needed to do his shovel duty, grumble grumble, grumble.

There is a complix algorithm of outside step cleaning. We pay a little extra for a cleaning service to do the inside steps and hallways (one of the reasons I liked this flat), but the outside clearing is shared among the 3 flats which have grass: Herr Replacement, Whistler's Daughter and the other nice couple. There are 3 flats, but only 2 walkways, so they do some kind of rotation, or two of them often are out together.

'This was after Herr Replacement used the wrong salt on the front steps. The front steps are not poured concrete but a different stone which is not supposed to be salted. Now the steps will need replacing soon, because the salt will eat them away and make them not safe.'

So now, Whistler's Daughter needs to do the back steps again multiple times, because it was snowing again off and on for the past few hours here in the Bergisches Land. 'But, because Herr R didn't do his step clearing in a timely manner, the snow today fell on top and froze over. So now he needs to crack the ice and scrape. it's too slick, like glass.' grumble, grumble, grumble.

To his credit, Whister's Daughter is dutifully out there keeping our steps safe whenever it snows. If it starts snowing in the evening, he'll be out there at 11 PM, and then again, usually at 5 AM he's at it again. When I drove back from Belgium he was out there at 8 PM, clearing the path to the trash bins as it was 3 inches and falling.

To the credit of the Germans, there is a shared responsibility, with rules to back it up, and as long as everyone follows the rules, efficiency reigns. The only reason I'm actually noticing this is because the system is broken. Someone is not following the rules!

One if by land, two if by sea

On Thursday night I arrived at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal just before 20.00 for the 22.00 ferry. I had never driven this route before, so I left plenty of time to allow for traffic and getting lost. From the Cologne area, it's actually quite easy, mappy sends you up the A3, then over to Venlo, and onward to Tilburg/Breda, then to the Rotterdam Ring road. The tiny town of B is slightly north of Cologne, and door to door my trip time was 3 hrs 15 minutes. I was taking it easy as Mr. Polo was fully loaded and not going much above the speed limit. I imagine you could do it faster if you tried.

Upon arriving, the terminal seemed very empty. Check-in is from 18.45-21.15. When bringing along a car, assuming you already have your ticket purchased and printed out, you drive immediately up to the check-in booth. There were no cars in front of me, and two lanes to choose from which shared a middle booth. (So if you were driving a UK car you could choose the lane which put the booth window on the right, while in my German car I choose the opposite.)

Upon driving up, I saw the clerk look at something and then greet me in Dutch, so I think there was a little camera showing the number plate. I responded with a general 'Hallo'. She continued in Dutch and asked me for my passport. Once I handed it to her she switched to English and was very friendly.

So I'm driving a car with a German license plate which is packed to the gills.
My passport is American.
I purchased my ticket on the Irish version of the Stena ship site (as opposed to the UK version) because I wanted to pay in Euros to avoid a conversion fee.

After she gave me a room key and a little map 'and remember, once you pass my gate, you are on UK time!' and the next step was to proceed up to the next booth, passport controls.

At passport controls, there was a man in a safety vest standing in the middle of the lane. Why they do not invest in more durable gate controls rather than humans, I am curious. He also started with Dutch and then switched to English upon receiving my passport.
Passport guy: Are you travelling alone tonight?
Heather: (slightly confused look, as Mr Polo was visibly packed up, including my tent and backpack on the front seat). Yes.
PG: (now noticing the full car). Moving?
Heather: yes, moving flat to the UK, from Germany.
PG: I need to take this inside to stamp it, just a moment.
Heather: Sure, no problem.

I can see him in my mirror, he's showing my passport to the other guy operating the other window. After about 5 minutes, he comes back out.

PG: I've never seen this before. (waving my passport)
Heather: You've never seen an American passport before??? (realizing how incredulous I sounded after it came out of my mouth. I realize this isn't a common travel route for tourists, but really, now.)
PG: No, these pages with letters. I've only seen numbers before.
Heather: (relieved) Oh! That's the extra pages, when you get them added later.
PG: Hmm. When did you enter the Schengen area?
Heather: Umm. Christmas time? I arrived in Holland tonight from Germany. I am a permanent resident in Germany; I live and work in Germany.
PG: So then you're moving to the UK then you come back to Germany to return the rental car?
Heather: I return from the UK by ferry on Monday, then I return to Germany. But it's my company car, not a rental.
PG: I need to ask my chief about these letters. Can you drive over here, I show you where.
Heather: (drives into the detention zone and opens a pack of crackers.)

Blue Immigration Police car zips up near me. I draft an SMS to my Dutch colleagues to come rescue me from the Dutch slammer at Hook, with it one button away from sending in case I need to send it in a hurry.

Blue Police Man: (appearing at my window after another 5 minutes) Hello!
Heather: (black coat now covered in Saltine crumbs.) Hi.
BPM: (smiling) Going to the UK tonight, you will need this. (handing me my passport)
Heather: Did you give it a nice stamp?
BPM: Yes of course! Sorry about that, my guy, he had never seen the letter pages before.
Heather: No problem. Better safe than sorry. (Wondering if that phrase is fully understood by Dutch speakers, or too colloquial. Also wondering if they have an information source where they look up standards like the letter pages or do they have a special hotline to a US government person who would answer such questions on the fly? Or would the chief be expected to know all such variations?)
BPM: (thumbs up and smiley): Have a safe trip!
Heather: (Dumbfounded, zipping away toward the boat, slowly realizing, this was the anti-German passport experience--someone just apologized to me rather than blaming me for their lack of knowledge and was friendly.)

Memo to self: If the UK doesn't work out, perhaps I need to think about working in the Netherlands...

Aboard the ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich

On the road to the Hook of Holland

I was briefly stuck in traffic behind a dressed up potato from Munich:

Why the postal clerk needed a drink on Tuesday night

The tiny town of B has a small post office counter inside a store, standard protocol in small towns. I know all of the clerks, and they're used to me. They don't get so many foreigners in the post office as most expats working at benevolent company J live elsewhere, so anyone in B is usually married to a German or somehow has a modicum of German. That being said, they deal reasonably well with my random oddball requests in bad German, which always require them to look on their magic price lists because they are not so normal for B (a registered letter to the UK, for example.)

I had stacked up a variety of tasks, and unfortunately, the clerk working on Tuesday night is the least experienced postal clerk who gets flustered by the Germans, let alone the non-correctly speaking foreigners. I had the following tasks:

-drop off a dhl paeckchen, already prepaid online
-5 cards to the US, of varying sizes
-1 postcard to the US
-one letter within Germany
-inquire about mail forwarding

to add to the fun, I had gathered all the random little stamps I had left in various increments, so that I could use them up for this mixture of cards.

I started with the pre-paid package, no problem, although I had to point out where it says 'pre-paid'. "You paid this online?"
The 5 cards she needs to weigh and then look up, as two of them fell into the 2,20 range. Then the postcard needed to be looked up. "I'm not so familiar with postcards to USA as no one is usually sending those from here." Then the adding and subtracting of numbers to apply the existing stamps and 'did you bring this one or is it from me?' in the discombobulated stamp applying.
On the mail forwarding, she had never done it, and by then there were 5 people backed up in the line so I said I'd look into that one online. "Good idea."

I don't think she'll miss me once I leave.

Most interesting response

From the Germans I have known since arriving here, probably the ones who know me the best...upon hearing that I will be moving to the UK, the initial reaction has been a 3 sentence standard, consistent from each:

(thoughtful pause, staring into space) Yes....yes, I think that will be good for you.
(quickly followed by) Not that we want you to leave Germany of course, H!
(and a return to philosophical seriousness) But I think this move will definitely be good for you.

As do I.

How to maximize your decluttering efforts - by moving

1. Move early and often.

2. Don't fork out cash for movers--do it yourself so that every item you are taking elsewhere, you will literally feel the weight.

3. Set a limit on space alotted for such a move.

4. Move in the winter time.

So where am I at?
1. I moved from the US to the UK in 2003, with two suitcases. I moved from the UK to town #1 Germany in 2003. I moved from town #1 to Cologne in 2005. I moved from Cologne to the tiny town of B in 2006. Now, I move to the UK in 2009. If I would not have had those three moves since 2003 I'd probably be much worse off.

2. As I knew I wouldn't be in Germany long term, most of my furniture was of a 'dent and scratch', 'trash-picked' or Ikea variety. So therefore I had no problems to sell it all off or give it away. Everything else I boxed and carried to the car on my own.
-Small Heather-sized boxes are my secret. Easier on the back as well as more convenient for the best Tetris-like arrangement of boxes in a small space.

3. My limit at this point in my life is whatever fits inside a VW Polo.

4. Not sure how it happens, but I seem to feel the need to make major like changes that somehow pan out with a January or February move. Knowing that it's cold and wet outside, I keep things moving and anything that I'm 50/50 on taking is easily decided.

I'm off to the UK for a long weekend. I'll leave a few more posts for you while I'm gone.

shopping on a theme

In Germany the low-cost chains such as Aldi, Lidl and Plus run weekly adverts around a theme: cleaning week, house improvement week, moving week, baby week, auto cleaning week, etc. Then, you can buy lots of things which relate to that theme, for that week and that week only. If you want to buy auto cleaning products in a different week, you're out of luck and must go to a regular, full-price store.

For the food section they offer a similar method to keep things fresh and moving out the door, by offering foods related to a particular topic such as:
American week
Indian week
and a variety of other cuisine weeks: Chinese, French, Italian, British, Mexican and Spanish come to mind. Speaking only for the American week, their offerings tend to be a German take on the particular cuisine--so popcorn from America, but sweet instead of salty for the German tastes or 'American' sauces: barbecue (of course) and currywurst (huh?). But, for a few items, if you find one which you like, you can stock up at a great price for something not usually easily available here at a good price--a colleague mentioned buying enough tortillas at Mexican week to last until Mexican week again appears in a few months.

I don't shop every week so I don't always watch the adverts, but I think this may be the first time that our friends to the North get their own week:
Scandinavian week at Lidl. (OK, so the three countries are sharing this dubious distinction.) Considering the chilly temps we've had over the past few weeks, we may as well be in Scandinavia.

Why I love living in Europe

My Dutch colleague and I went out to lunch today, Turkish pizza. I've been going to this place in the tiny town of B for years, the staff is very friendly, and their food is superb. Like many of the businesses I patronize in the tiny town of B, the staff is Turkish German, so I've picked up quite a bit of Turkish German over the years. So they put up with my poor German and doubly poor version of their Turkish phrases all rolled into one.

Maybe because it's Friday, or I'm in a good mood because I'm leaving, or because it was sunny out, but when he opens with 'Bonjour Madame' I answered him in French. For the record, my French is crap. It's so bad, I shouldn't even say 'my French is crap' but rather 'the piddling few words of French I know is crap'. My French is based on a summer semester at community college ten years ago, 6 months of cds while driving in the car 1,5 hrs/day Mon-Fri in 2002, a VHS French course here, and periodically dabbling a bit here and there with my French colleauge or through shopping trips to Belgium. However, I started French after already knowing Spanish, so I picked up a lot, easily, and where I don't know something, I throw in the Spanish version and hope for the best.

And since the Turkish fellow continued to speak it, so did I for the entire duration, all the way out the door to 'Bon Weekend'. Listening to him speak French was much more pleasant than hearing him speak German.

So while looking at the menu I'm speaking English with my Dutch colleague, who is speaking German to the Turkish German guy, who is speaking French to me.

These are the random interactions I will miss moving to the UK.

I'm thinking I may abandon all German studies and if not going after Polish next (due to the large native Polish-speaking population in the UK and my previous studies), then I need to go after a Romance language next. Either properly study French or go after Portuguese or Italian.

Plan the work, work the plan...

During the next 16 days I have the following on my to do list:

-finish employment contract negotiations, or find a new job in the UK.
-sell the last 1 big item which will not come along to the UK.
-get to the post office to mail off the final ebay items.
-finish/submit my UK grad school applications which I've been working on since late November, to make my self-imposed deadline of submission before leaving Germany.
-figure out if/how the remaining items (bicycle, book, clothing) will best fit in Mr. Polo for next Thursday's drive to the UK. Mentally I've pictured it, but I need to confirm with the measuring tape if I'm correct in my mental arrangement.
-get Mr. Polo washed before attempting to load the car (he gets very dirty parking on the street near the office, thus packing him requires him to be a little less grimy).
-de-register in Germany, and then spawn corresponding cancellation letters to various Germany service providers like my internet.
-do a final clean of the flat.
-make travel arrangements: I need to be in a business meetings in various countries the day after I drive back from the UK, and then the 2nd day after arrival in the UK.

If you're contemplating that last bullet, it means that in the roughly 10 day time span from when I drive to the UK and back, and then fly to the UK for good, I will be in five European countries (including Germany and the UK), while orchestrating a flat move on my own.
Good times.

And I need to kick this cold this week. :-(

Fighting off a cold

going to bed early.

Divine fate

Is giving me a second opportunity, a grave warning, or looking for a confirmation of a de facto decision. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out which is it yet. Seeking a third sign to provide clarity.

Listening list these days, on repeat:

• Peter Gabriel - Secret Word (Live)
• Foo Fighters - Times Like These
• The Killers - Human
• Herbert Grönemeyer - Mensch
• The Cure - Pictures of you

Back to the usual mundane posts about the logistics of moving from Germany to the UK shortly...

Cologne --> drinks on the way out, any interest?

For my last night in Germany, plans are coming together to gently end this adventure with a few drinks at my favorite bar in Cologne. Nothing too crazy, no dancing on the tables, D is in town but must leave early the next AM, and I'm flying the next day anyway, so looking to be a little low-key.


Date: Saturday, Feb 14th
Location: Koeln Deutz

• closest train: about a 12 minute walk from the Deutz Bahnhof/Messe station
• closest trams: the 7, 1, or 9 at Deutzer Freiheit, maybe a 7 or 8 min walk

Time: evening, exact time tbd. (The bar doesn't have much of a food menu, so it will be after dinner). The bar is a local place and pretty basic: Koelsch, cola, juice, wine, water; nothing fancy but one or two cocktails on the drink menu.

If you're in the Cologne area and interested to drop by and say hi/bye (whether we have previously met or not :-)) let me know, either through the comments, or my email if you already have it, or send me an email to phillygirl06 and put the opposite of @coldmail.com after that, and I'll send you a note if/when something gets better organized/finalized, along with location/time.

going to bed early

saturday already filled up with tasks, most of them fun.

one of my 'too large to bring with' items left tonight, bringing the total remaining down to 3, one of which has already been agreed for sale and pickup next week. the other two (the washer and dryer), i've been holding on to on purpose.

every time something leaves i feel a little more free. i think i will be slow to buy anything in the uk, to savor this feeling of simplicity and freedom.

back with you on sunday.

unexpected changes

1. eating healthy meals
2. going to bed early
3. exercising before work.

i have no idea of the source of such changes except:

1. i'm cooking creatively to use the things which i have, so i put more thought into my meals lately.

2. i'm mentally tired from busy days at work and busy time outside of work putting things on ebay etc. in addition, i sold my lights, so while i have some overhead lights, in general the flat is a bit darker than it was previously.

3. the new neighbor in the flat below me wakes up at 0630 each day, including Sundays. i think his early morning activities (opening the window shutters, scraping the kitchen chair on the floor), are gently intruding upon my sleep as i awaken to them.

(although D mentions that i am such a light sleeper than i can hear a gnat sneeze across the border in the next town. not true! i can hear the gnat thinking about sneezing, in the next state actually.) ;-)

and the results are in...

You may recall back in November, I was taking the B1 test from the Goethe Institut. The results finally came today, I got a 2!-->here's what a 2 means.

I usually size down photos, but I thought perhaps someone who is thinking about taking the test in the future might like to see the details Goethe returns: (Click on the photo to make it bigger)


Final thoughts:
-Am pleased to have done this. I'm glad to have a paper which formally states that I do officially have some level of correct knowledge of the language.

-In retrospect, I probably could have passed with a 3 a year ago. (Although I wanted to be 100% sure I'd pass before taking it so as to not have to re-sit for the exam at a 100 EUR cost.) Or I could have seriously studied and tried for a 1. (The 65% section was the 2 pure grammar exercises where I was expecting a 50%--I knew they would be the worst for me.) But if I had it to do over again, I'm 99.9% sure I would have done the same thing all over again. The German language just doesn't mean anything to me, beyond a line on my CV.

-I will be taking this paper to the office along with a bottle of sekt. My work colleagues will be pleased. (Especially after having to put up with me giving them a hard time in the weeks leading up to the exam, for all the Denglish and slang they use in the office.)

Cheapness in Germany

Some of my non-German colleagues joke about the cheapness of the Germans. Perhaps due to moments like when one tipped 20 cents to the waitress after a night of drinking and good service from the waitress. The Brits and Americans, of course, tipped her more upon seeing that one. Bar staff aside, I see it more as--Germans pay for the quality which they seek. Germans pay big bucks for a BMW or Mercedes, but 2,99 for a bunch of flowers seems appropriate as flowers are only good for a week anyway, so unless you're a flowers expert, the basic quality will do.

Last week, at Rewe, I bought a bag of salad which was marked 1,79. It rang up at 1,89. I, of course, demanded my 10 cents there. If I want to donate money to someone, it won't be the to the management of Rewe. The checkout lady looked at the item and the price, at my slip, and just gave me the 10 cents back. I wasn't expecting an apology, this is Germany, after all. And, as it is Germany, I was willing to stand there and block her lane until I got my 10 cents back. So I imagine she ate the shortage as it was under her threshold and not worth the hassle to get a manager.

Again this week, something rang up wrong. I was sitting on the fence about buying coconut milk as it's much cheaper in the Asian supermarket. However, I had no plans to be in Leverkusen (my closest one), so I decided to suck it up and pay the 1,09 for 200 ml. Except when it rang up at 1,29. I had thought that perhaps I saw something incorrectly, so I went back to the aisle to check. Sure enough, it was 1,09. There are never employees or managers around Rewe, nor is there a customer service desk, only a raised platform with one way mirrors where I'm guessing they watch the customers and staff via hidden cameras. So I slid the little paper off of the shelf and brought it back with me to the same checkout line as previously.

H: This price, it is wrong. (holding the receipt and the tag).

Checkout lady: Did you take this sign from the shelf? (no mention of the price being wrong or any sort of apology.)

H: (knowing full well that she is trying to divert the focus from the 'wrongness' of the price to the 'wrongness' of me removing their little sign) Yes exactly, this is the price which was wrong on the shelf!

CL: (knowing that the ignorant foreigner is backing up her line and it's Friday night and the ignorant foreigner is not admitting wrongness). You're not supposed to take the sign from the shelf.

H: (louder and pointing) The price. It is wrong! I bought this. (fishing said coconut milk from bag.)

CL: (loud sign and eyes rolling, reaches into her cash drawer and slams 20 cents onto the change area, no apology, nothing. And she kept my receipt with the little sign.)

I can't really blame Germany for this cheapness, I arrived with that one. However, five years ago I would have been flummoxed in the same situation. Two years ago I still would have been polite. To Germany I owe thanks for making me a lot more pushy, agressive, and loud.

Good Lord am I going to need to unlearn some behaviors toot sweet in the UK.

P.S. Why did I even go to Rewe on a Friday evening? My favorite frozen pizza is on sale, save 50 cents each. Good deal. The sale ends on Saturday night and they tend to run out of the decent ones by Saturday afternoon. Or maybe they're trying to clear out the stock of the less favorite varietes, who knows.

Why didn't you leave earlier?

Since Frank asked in the comments...
Even when I know why and what your problems could have been in "good old germany", my question is: Why didn't you leave earlier? I hope that wasn't to much of German directness. Enjoy the UK

I love German directness, btw. The fact that you recognize that it could be seen as 'directness' confirms the fact that you are dating an American. I don't think that the average German would see it as 'directness' but more as 'a question'. ;-) However, the direct answer:

1. As an average American, it's difficult (but not impossible) to get permission to work in Europe.
One cannot up and decide 'I want to go work in Europe' the same way that a French person decides one morning to go work in Portugal. IF you do not have an EU spouse or another route like an EU parent, options are limited to get a foot in the door and to get over here. You take what you can get. Germany (in my personal experience in looking at various options as an IT person), is one of the easiest EU countries for an American to legally enter, without holding pre-existing local language skills. Others may have had other experiences.

2. Once you're here, in general you're still tied to your company/job.
Granted, there are various options in so many countries. However, my work permit configuration looked like this:
2003 - 1 year permit - tied to my job/company
2004 - 1 year permit - tied to my job/company
2005 - 1 year permit - tied to my job/company
2006 - 2 year permit - tied to my job/company
2008 - 2 year permit - not tied to my job/company, but limited to Germany
later in 2008 - at the 5 year point I traded up for an unbefristet permit, so a permit without an expiration, not tied to my job/company, but limited to Germany.

I was originally only supposed to be in Germany for 3 months before moving on to Spain and then France. Company J changed the rules though after year 1.

In the early years it would have been possible to change jobs, to another German company who would be willing to pick up the sponsorship of my work permit, but not easy. Or to change to another European country would have been almost the same as trying to come over from America, not easy.

During the 2000's, unemployment has remained high in Europe. I recognize that to have a job in Europe, as a non-EU person, was a blessing. From a language skills perspective, Spain would have been the only place where I'd have a bit of an advantage, but I'd suggest that it's one of the toughest to enter due to the restrictions they put on foreign workers in an effort to protect jobs in their high unemployment climate. Benevolent company J tried to get me over there for 3 months but got enmeshed in paperwork so it never happened.

In the later years by the I had the unlimited permit I had already come to the conclusion that I did not want to work for a different company in Germany, but rather, not in Germany so it was time to sit tight and re-evaulate options.

3. Financial reasons
A. I was paid as an expat for the first three years here. Financially it made sense for me.
B. I qualified for a financial benefit from my company, as long as a stayed with them until the five year point (March 2008). So really, years 1-3 made financial sense, and to add on another 2 years, well, why not at that point?

4. the unlimited work permit
Even if I never work in Germany ever again, I recognize the value of the EU work permits in my passport, and that I did get the unlimited permit from Germany (Sept 2008). Unfortunately it has a short shelf life. Once I de-register from Germany I have 6 months to come back in order to be able to come back under this permit, otherwise it's back to square one. However, since I was already staying another 1,5 years, what's another 6 months on that? (Plus I was waiting during those 6 months for the UK paperwork to process, so I had nothing better to do.)

Thus 5 years in Germany semi-explained. :-/

The most fascinating Germans

Maybe it's because I'm in a good mood because I'm leaving...or because the Germans I'd dealing with recognize that I'm leaving so they're not on my case to integrate...or because I'm meeting like-minded frugal people--however, in selling off the things from my flat, I am meeting the most fascinating set of Germans since I've been here.

Today, a woman came for the small Ikea bookshelf; it being for her small daughter (perhaps 2,5 years old) whom she brought along. She was asking me about my future plans and mentions that she, her husband and small daughter will be moving to Spain, hopefully this year. Her English was superb, with accent, but not a noticeably German one.

She explained that she had lived outside of Germany for over 8 years, most recently in Argentina, where she met said husband, an Argentinian. When the Argentinian economy collapsed, they decided to come to Europe, but of Germany, 'I do not like the lifestyle, especially now that I have gone and have come back.' (I didn't get to ask if she has family in the region, or if the job only brought them to this area.) And she uttered one of my favorite Germanized English phrases regarding life in Germany--'it is nothing for me'.

So their plans are to move to Spain as they speak Spanish at home and for a different lifestyle and better weather. So they are not investing too heavily in life here for the moment depending on how things turn out, only small things like my used bookshelf from kalaydo.

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. :-)