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.