Saturday morning view

A little over a week ago, it snowed. However, haddock was right, now that the snow has melted, the daffodils do look better. And in the meantime an Easter Egg tree went into full bloom.

(BTW--Can you tell that my neighbors are newly retired with abundant energy and no grandchildren nearby? The neighbor immediately below me has a similar space but a simpler layout since she works full-time.)

photo flashback - Turkey

When I was recently at the Barcelona meetings, I met a work colleague from Turkey. She was sweet and warm and reminded me very much of my dear friend from Turkey whom I visited there in 2004. I flew on Turkish Airways from Duesseldorf to Istanbul. I found Turkey to be a wonderful place with warm and vibrant people; and it was then that I discovered Turkish tea. Turkey remains on my list of top 10 favorite places visited. Here are some of the photos:

Some images from the Barcelona market

An expat's Easter in Germany

Often when my US office colleagues hear that we have both Friday and Monday of Easter weekend off as office holidays, they start the good-natured commenting about how Euros have it so good, and that they will be working hard one of those days, blah blah bah.

What they do not understand is that Easter in Europe, and in particular Germany, is not like Easter in the US. First of all, everyone gets the days off, across the board--offices, supermarkets, etc. So everyone has a four day weekend with all businesses shut. You can imagine the chaos that ensues on Thursday evening when the entire world is in the supermarket picking it clean. Because the supermarket will be shut for four days, they're not exactly loading up on stock. If you get a can of beans to hold you over, consider yourself lucky.

For those who have family here, it's a perfect family visiting time.
For those who are religious, there are plenty of religous activities.
For those who have gardens/yards, the weather is just starting to get nice, and with four days off you can get some serious work done.

For the rest of us, what to do? TRAVEL. However, that is not as easy as it sounds.
--First of all, you're up against Germans who regularly schedule their holidays a 51 weeks in advance, so flights to all the warm sunny places are ultra expensive.

--All the cheap airlines as well as the trains know the traffic patterns, so you're up against it to find a cheap mode of transportation out. For those of us who love traveling and the planning of travel, it can be considered the 'ultra challenge'.

--Finally, you must take into account that many things that you may like to visit such as museums or shops will be closed, so you need to adjust your plans to take advantage of things that will be open.

Here's my track record since being here:
Easter 2003 - Belfast, Northern Ireland with Flybe. I was working in the UK, so I took a cheap flight up to Ireland. This city remains as one of my top five favorites. It's much less touristed than Dublin and you can get a real feel for the life there.

Easter 2004 - Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland with German Wings. We flew into Stockholm and spent a night/day and then took the overnight ferry to Helsinki where we spent another night/day. Both cities are expensive, but the ferry was great, in particular watching Finnish karaoke. However, Helsinki is so shut down on Easter Monday, we had problems to even find someplace to eat, so bring along rations.

Easter 2005 - Malaga, Spain, with LTU. I was feeling that winter too hard and needed to go South. Malaga was a nice city, mainly filled with Spaniards on holiday. In the evening people created religious scultures in the sand and surrounded them with lighted candles. My other major memory of this weekend was seeing what looked to be someone in a KKK get-up, pointed hood and all, but all in purple instead of white, and then seeing more of them on a televised Easter religious procession. I later found out it's a costume worn in that region of Spain for Easter week celebrations. Scroll halfway down this page to see an example: http://www.carnaval.com/spain/semanasanta/

Easter 2006 - Katowice, Poland with German Wings. What's there you ask? It's the closest airport if you want to visit Auschwitz. That was something that should be visited by everyone, once. In addition, Katowice has a megamall that is open on Sundays until 21.00, including Easter Sunday and Monday. Glad to see that the Poles can embrace Catholicism and capitalism simultaneously.

Easter 2007 - will be Linz, Austria with TUIfly (formerly HLX). Why Linz?
-It is a cheap flight and thus far I've not really visited Austria, unless you count the time we took the local bus from Lichtenstein.
-Plenty of camping possibilities.
-I am extremely impressed with what they have put together for visitors. http://www.linz.at/english/tourism/default_630.asp I filled out their online form and less than a week later I received a large envelope filled with the free maps and such as I had requested, as well as a signed welcome letter in English. In addition, they had a comments box when requesting maps/brochures, and I requested any camping information that they have, and they kindly sent me a beautifully detailed map with camping sites marked. This is the most impressive tourist office I have seen so far in Europe.
-Planning is currently underway!

Thursday morning

Yep, it snowed again. This is the view from my window, overlooking my below neighbor's yard. If you look closely you can see their many daffodils, which fortunately perked up again once the snow melted.

expat meme

Christina said to do it, so off I go:

Name five things you love in your new country:
1. The ability to take public transport everywhere.
2. The ability to feel safe as a single female traveling alone, no matter where/when.
3. Being 32 and going somewhere with my camping backpack and tent raises no strange looks here. In the US I would be considered either too old or quirky when doing the same. Here, it's considered normal and no one blinks an eye seeing you en route somewhere with bus or train.
4. In smaller restaurants, how serious the serving staff reacts when you say you are vegetarian and nothing is on the menu but a salad. Normally they go off with a serious expression and consult with the chef and come back with something written on their little pad of paper to recommend. In some cases the chef has later come from the kitchen to make sure that the veg fare was agreeable. (duh. Even if it was the most awful veg meal in the world, the careful consideration given earns it a rave review.)
5. How it is common to split the bill and only pay for what you ate/drank directly with the waitstaff.

Name four things that you miss from your native country:
1. Doritos (The actual US kind, the Dutch ones don't count)
2. Oreos (US again, Spain ones don't count)
3. Packaged food/frozen dinners. Who wants to always cook?
4. The ability to shop on Sundays or anytime in the middle of the night as the mood strikes.

Name three things that annoy you a bit (or much) in your new country:
1. The ever-present smoke everywhere
2. The constant dour and angry expressions and negative attitude here.
3. Adherence to structure and strict rules and the inability to think beyond or question them.

Name two things that surprise you (or surprised you in the beginning) in your new country:
1. German employees from work don't socialize or go out for happy hour together.
2. How cheap it is to post a book to within Germany book rate (only 85 cents!)

Name one thing that you would miss terribly in your new country, if you had to leave it:
1. The availability of fresh, local, in season, organic produce at a low cost

I think I'm the last one to do this one, so I tag no one. :-)

30 hours after returning from warm and sunny Spain

Yep, it snowed this morning in the tiny town of B:

On a positive note, i was fully expecting to wake up to a rainy, wet Monday, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Back in Germany from Spain

After five days in sunny Barcelona, I returned back to chilly D'dorf at 22 last night (Saturday). The purpose of the trip was work, and the days (and nights) were packed with work talk/activities.

Here are some seaside views. The top is the view from the hotel room where I stayed for the work conference. I didn't get much time to enjoy this view.

Here is the beach I went to on the last day. It was gently crowded with Spaniards relaxing. It was warm enough as the sun was so strong that many were laying out in bathing suits. However, the water was frigid, so only the hearty were in the sea.

And currently I'm looking out my window in Germany watching the sleet fall. (Sigh.)

A typical Monday

I wake up to German radio.

I get in the car for my 5 minute commute and listen to Dutch radio. (A softer way to ease into the morning, and they play good music.)

I spend the day surrounded by German in the office (Along with French, Dutch, Spanish, and various forms of English).

I have a meeting in another building so I chat in Polish with the Polish receptionist.

I drive to Polish class listening to French radio.

I sit 1.5 hours deep in Polish that is supplemented by German when my Polish teacher cannot think of an English word.

I drive home listening to Spanish radio.

This is why I live here!

And tonight I pack, because I go on a business trip tomorrow through Saturday night in Spain. I won't be posting again before Sunday. I'll be cavorting with work colleagues from throughout Europe with a sprinking from the Middle East and the US, most of whom I run into only once every six or 12 months if that, or some only via phone, or some never before, so it promises to be a fun time.

A tale of a vegetarian lunch or two

After yesterday's crankiness at the weather, I woke up today to full blazing sunshine so things are looking up. Since I have a business trip from Tues to Sat this week, I didn't go food shopping, but was instead clearing out the fridge of anything fresh that would go bad while I'm gone.
Saturday's lunch:
A fake chick'n fillet from a Belgium shopping trip covered by brussel sprouts and given a quick fry in a Nando's Sweet Chilli Satay sauce, also from Belgium.


Sunday's lunch:
Same as the above, but substitute fresh spinach for the sprouts.

I had already experienced Nando's sauces, they are absolutely yummy if you are making something quick from a jar. This particular sauce is vegan (no dairy).

However, I knew nothing about Tivall (their UK website), the maker of the vegetarian chicken fillet, beyond that it was a meatless thing made of soy. The package details were in Dutch, French, and German (in that order), with an Antwerp address

I was trying to find either the Dutch or Belgian site additionally, because the UK product line is geared toward UK eating, with things like breakfast sausages and fake meat products covered in breading, not 'naked' like this yummy item was, and I wanted to see what more they offer.

I spotted this on their website, but interestingly, not on the package.
"At its state-of-the-art manufacturing base in Northern Israel Tivall is dedicated to extensive Research & Development."

This blurb led me to search for "tivall vegetarian boycott" which produced at least 40 websites in English about places in Europe that are refusing to stock Tivall products due to political reasons in connection to Israel/Palestine affairs. (At this point I'm absolutely fascinated, as veg fake meat products tend not to elicit controversy, but instead a garden variety of websites offering recipes.) Maybe it's my background of American consumerism and the almighty dollar, but someone refusing to stock a vegetarian product on political reasons almost seems laughable.

Still reading? Compare their 'about us' section in English, vs. their equivalent section on their German website. The German site includes more content, in particular mentioning Kibbuz Lochamei Hagetaot, which I'm not sure why would be on the German site, but not the English site.
http://www.tivall.de/content.asp?id=14
http://www.tivall.co.uk/content.asp?id=14

I also saw a bit from a Czech site, that they are opening a manufacturing facility there. Hmm. Interested in seeing their products in Germany? Limited availability, find out stores selling them here.

48F (but feels like 43F)

Is the current weather in Cologne at lunchtime. Here in B. it's one or two degrees cooler so let's say 46 but feels like 42. For my Celsius counterparts, that translates into 'freaking cold for a perfectly good Saturday in March'.

Overnight low tonight is predicted to be 36 for Cologne, so maybe 34 here. Last weekend, I took this photo in the center of B, I think they need to take this down so the cold weather will go away:



I also took this photo last week in B's 'Ugly as sin park'. I'll get some photos when I can be bothered of said park. This park looks like it was designed by someone trained and highly skilled in 1960's industrial park design, so I tend to take other routes which are nicer. It's the only negative I can point to in connection with living in B.

Normally, when the weather is even remotely warm and the sun is out, the Germans all come out and flock to open spaces like parks which end up jam packed. However, ugly park remains desolate, no matter what the weather.

"Yes, Heather, but the flowers are nice, no? So don't be so negative about ugly park."
"Sure, and be sure to notice the mud in the bottom left of the photo, which I was later scraping off my shoes from ugly park."
However, these are the first spring flowers I've seen blooming outside this year, and very nice at that:

Germany cemetery visit - part 3

After crossing the covered bridge, we went up a hill and ended up in front of a directional sign. This side of the bridge is the newer section, including the Muslim burial section.

We realized we didn't want to be in the newer section, that what we were seeking could not be there, so we headed back toward the older section, this time not going over the covered bridge, but via an alternate route. Next to the cemetery seems to be a fish farm. It's hard to see in the photo but the pond on the right is covered by netting.

Back into the old section, we thought perhaps we found it, but not yet. We were guessing this is a memorial for those killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall.

After a trip back to the map at the main entrace, we backtracked and finally found the memorial mentioned in the book. Part of the reason we missed it is because it is in the middle of a wall of trees and schrubs facing the service parking lot where the main dumpsters are and various machines and piles of dirt, bricks. However, the book mentions that few citizens of the tiny town of B know about this memorial, so we went looking for it.

It commemorates 44 Russians who were killed under the Fascist regime here in the tiny town of B and who are collectively buried in B. The book mentions that it was commissioned by a Brisith commander in 1945, with the inscription on the bottom half in Russian. It looks like the top half, the German inscription, was added later as it is on a granite plate that is attached to the main base by screws. (As opposed to the Russian which is carved directly into the granite).

Thus ends our tour of the B. cemetery.

Germany cemetery - part 2

Things that caught my eye while we were walking:


In Germany it seems that very much attention is given to upkeeping grave sites, perhaps because the buried people are not so long gone.

To explain further, something different for me in Europe is the concept of "grave rental" here. The exact amount of time varies, but the basic concept is that you pay for a period of time and then perhaps renew it, but ultimately, 'your' grave will turn over to someone else at some point. Occasionally as we were walking we'd see the little stick marker with a phone number in a plot, indicated that it was 'available'.


As always, gotta love the Germany recycling attitude. The green bin is for biodegradable items.

Am hoping someone can explain this one. A little stepping stone path was leading up to this structure. It is like an upsidedown U. In front of it were a lot of temporary cut flowers. There was no sign or markings at all.

This covered bridge connected one side of the cemetery with the other.

Still up, more photos as we continue our search. By the way, we're looking for a granite obelisk. The map at the front entrance put it somewhere in this area.

A visit to a German cemetery

While reading this book, it mentioned a memorial in the cemetery in the tiny town of B. Both D. and I have independently visited this cemetery, but neither of us have seen this memorial, so we decided to take advantage of the nice weather on Sunday and take a stroll over there.

Because it was Sunday around lunchtime, church had just let out so it was quite full of people taking their post-church stroll, but I took a few photos when no one was around. Here is one of the main walkways.

Here is where the watering cans are located. They work like the shopping carts at the supermarket, you put in your one euro deposit and you can release the chain and use the item. Then, when you hook the chain back in when you are finished, you get your deposit back.

Here is the WW2 graves, every cemetery here seems to have a little section like this tucked away somewhere.

Here is a big monument near the entrance. (Not the one we were seeking, but still interesting.) It mentions Wilhelm 1815 and 1866.

This is the back of the same monument. It's the same eagle you see on the one on the front, except this one's head was chopped off and the red cup next to him is a candle that looked to have been burned in the recent past.

Obviously what we are seeking is well hidden. More photos from the adventure still to come.

the tiny town of B in 1945.

A few weeks ago, I bought a book from the local bookstore here in the tiny town of B. It was published in 2006 by the local government and is about the end of WW2 and after in the tiny town of B. I can understand most of the German to follow along, but have been reading with a dictionary to really grasp the full meanings of many words.

It includes historical reminiscing by some local residents as to what life was like here towards the end of the war and immediately after it. It includes a section from 1955 of memories that were published in the local newspaper 10 years after the war. It includes a timeline of important events locally, and where bombs fell. It has a copy of information that was produced by the town in 1945 for distribution to the citizens. The Americans military was in this area, so these instructions were in German and English.

It also includes photos that people submitted who were telling their stories, such as a young man in his Hitler Youth uniform or a group at the swimming pool. It includes many details that I did not know about the tiny town of B, such as the factory that produces automotive components today was actually a part of the war machine producing something for submarines (if I followed the dictionary correctly). In fact, it was such an operation that it employed 2000 forced laborers and was bombed.

It includes details about a local man who managed to keep part of the Jewish population from being deported by getting special government permission to keep his Jewish workers. His factory made leather coats and this permission was granted. Deep in B. there is a street named after him. Other streets also went through a re-name according to this book. As of May 11, 1945 Adolf-Hitler Strasse became Blumenstrasse (Flower Street).

Q. The best way to celebrate the completion of tax week activities?

A. Falling asleep last night at 21.30 and sleeping for 11 hours straight.

i am the poster child...

for death warmed over.

Tax weekend went well. By Sunday night I was 95% complete and I had assembled a list of things I needed to check while in the office during the week, mainly that I had filled in the right numbers in the right German boxes. Papers were all assembled and ready to be copied in the office.

A few stray pieces of paper had to be tracked down and checked up, but everything is ready to go as of tonight after I completed my calendar of 'where I have been working and on what days' for 2006. Tomorrow the intelligent accountants the company provides are on-site to collect the pieces of paper, and answer any stray questions. So after I meet with my two ladies at 10.30, I can then click the button to submit all the stuff to them and hand over my papers and consider it done.

Then I came home tonight and my Gemany 2005 prepared returns were in my mailbox awaiting signature. What a wonderful time of year.

February 27, 1933

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire

LAMA GREEN ELK

tax preparation day has been loads of fun, and apparently there are only a few brain cells left, because i find this online anagram maker (an anagram is mixing up letters to produce other words) amusing. the above title is an anagram of--> angela merkel.

even more enticing, this tool lets you choose to create anagrams in another language, or to choose a 'candidate word list,' which shows you what words could be found within your text, without generating the whole anagram for you. for example, by inputting angela merkel and choosing 'candidate word list', it tells you that words found within angela merkel are:
-allergen
-germane
-general
and on and on...

by choosing my own first and last name and asking for a candidate word list, i now know that words that can be found in my name include among others:
-terabytes
-theatres

(Yeah, I was an English major who was a graduate fellow for a statisics professor. I'm not sure either why such things amuse me to no end.)

the glamorous side of expat life

For those of you sitting at home in the US thinking that my Euro life is oh so sexy...this weekend I am sitting with a pile of paperwork and filling in boxes with numbers so that I can then give it to the intelligent accountants who will put it all in order and file my tax returns for both the US and Germany. Double the pleasure, double the fun!

I don't find it hellish so much, but rather painfully boring with the filling in of mundane details like how far my office is to my home and how I get there and that each time I get a question like that, I have to research the mundane answer because I feel the need to be exact since it's my taxes and it's the government and who knows what will happen if it's wrong! (1.4 km and by car). I spent an hour on it tonight, getting assembled and at least opening everything.

I bought a lovely bag of coffee from Keyna to kick off tomorrow's marathon session.