21 Dec 2016 - WeinachtsMarkt

We managed to go to something like 5 Christmas markets in 6 days while Josh was here recently.  Christmas Markets are called Weinachsmarkts in Germany.  Sadly, they've been in the world news recently, and our hearts go out to Berlin.

Many of the Weinachtsmarkts are very much the same.  They have booths where they serve food, various Christmas giftable items, and Glüwein.  Some look exactly the same.

Every one has at least one pyramid.  They're a little hard to describe, but they're a many-sided building with a fan like thing at the top.

Glüwein is basically what we'd call mulled wine.  It's a hot beverage served in a mug.  The interesting thing is that when you buy a Glüwein, you also put a deposit on the mug you'll drink it in, sometimes as much as 5 euros. (Called a pfand.)

When you're done, you bring the mugs back and get your pfand refunded.  Unless you want to keep the mug, then it's a bit of a grey area.  We bought a few by asking the vendors to buy a mug rather than just "keeping" it.  I'm not sure if just keeping it is cool or not.  Is the pfand intended to cover the cost of the mug itself, or is just a deposit?

I fell in love with the kinderpunsch. (child punch) of every flavor.  Those who know me know that I'm basically a 6'4" child.

The food was outstanding as usual.  Consisting mostly of sausages and steak sandwiches, but at a good Weinachtsmarkt you can also get plank-cooked salmon (lachs). Beth got this at every markt we visited. It was served in a baked potato.

Last time I was at the Karlsruhe Weinachsmarkt, Robin and I got pulled pork. (!).  It was actually pretty good,  It had a kind of slaw on top (that of course, had corn in it. Everything seems to have corn in it.) they also served bacon wrapped dates that were to die for.

You can get roasted chestnuts, lots of sweets, stollen, and lebkucken (gingerbread, sorta.)  Also something called Lango, a deep fried dough topped with sweet or savory items.

A typical sweets booth.

Stollen

Those are the dragon cups from Durlach

You can also get many other favorites including something here in south western Germany called schupfnudeln.  In it, there is interestingly shaped pasta (is it a kind of spätztle?) that also has as less appropriate nickname. I won't repeat it here.

It looked good, and I wanted to try it.  Perhaps tonight.

We went to "normal" Christmas markets, and one Middle Ages market, which was medieval themed. (in Durlach.)

At the Middle Ages market, they had cups hand carved with simple dragons, booths where you can shoot arrows, etc.  It was quite fun. We went to this one twice.

I WISH it was snowing when we went.

We also drove over to Nuremburg, because Josh wanted to visit a famous Lebkuchen store called Schmidts.  2.5 hours of driving to get there, 2 hours there, and 3 hours driving back.   Worth it.

In the Karlsruhe markt, they have a Santa that flies in over the square (on wires), in his sleigh.  He's called Weinachtsmann and is basically Santa Claus.  I did not see Rudolph.

In Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) , they had someone called the Christkind, who was a young girl, dressed in a beautiful dress with a crown.

Side note, Donner and Blitzen are German for Thunder and Lightning.  It's also a river in Oregon. (!)

All-in-all, the Weinachtsmarkts are a blast, and if you get over to Germany in December, you need to visit one.

13 Nov 2016

City/Utiliity vehicles are cool here.  The street sweepers are small enough that you can drive by them.  They're about as wide as a car, and seem to be used to sweep sidewalks too.

What's the difference between JägerSoße, Pils Soße, and Champignon Soße?  They all seem to be mushroom sauces/gravy.

 

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I've heard exactly one car alarm go off.  Are they rare here? Do the noise laws mean many don't install them?

We _really_ enjoy Sundays now.  Truly a day of rest.

Because of Sundays, stores closing early during the week, and many things closed from noon to 2 for lunch, we spend far, far less here than in the US.

Takeout is something of an art here.  There are many "combination" takeout places, such as ""Pizza Hit and China Thai" .  Not Pizza Hut, Pizza hit.  And many, no matter the type of food, offer burgers and pizza, so Indian and pizza,  Thai and pizza and Chinese and pizza aren't unusual.  Granted, the pizza at many of these places is not great.

A KFC opened here in Karlsruhe (In Ettlinger Tor, I think), and there were lines outside.  Honestly, if we'd known, we'd have lined up too.

The lack of fast food means that stopping for food takes more thought.  In the US, nearly every highway exit has 2-4 fast food, drive through places.  Here, drive-thrus are rare, at least in Karlsruhe.

With the election last week, we honestly wondered if people would blame us (as Americans) for Trump's election.  So far, most are cautiously curious.  They ask us what we think, we tell them that we worry for America with Trump's election.  Invariably, they say that they worry for the World now.

I see many memes that show Brits that are elated that now they're aren't the biggest screw ups of 2016 anymore.

I was in a meeting where a Scotland was called European.  I think the Scott in the room was offended. Maybe the EU wants Scotland, but the Scotts just want to be left alone?

TILIG 29 Oct 2016

I've never been an ex-pat before.  Living in another country is an odd experience. It's been awesome, but I feel like we live with one foot in the US and one in Germany.

Many of our decisions are made assuming a somewhat transient situation.  If I were to lose my job here, I'd almost certainly have to leave the country, and pay to move everything I own back to the states.  Here are some decisions we've made based on being an ex-pat:


1) We rented a house.  We've owned a house for 26 years until now, but the risk of owning here and having to leave suddenly is just too high.

2) We bought one used car and used savings to buy it.  We've bought new cars for 30 years, and haven't bought used until now.  Getting rid of a car in the case I have to leave might be difficult.  I'm really not sure, so we've been careful.

3) I've made very sure of all of the contracts I sign.  I know when they're done, which auto-renew, and which I'll have to continue to pay even if I leave the country.

4) We only signed a 1 year lease on the house.  The owner wanted more like a 3-5 year, but frankly that is too much.  Not wanting to sign a long term lease meant that finding a house was much more difficult.  If we have to leave the country, I'm only ''on the hook'' for 3 months of rent.

5) We haven't unpacked everything and that's OK.

6) I still have my US cell numbers.  I ported them to google voice and that forwards them to a skype number that I pay $3/month for with 60 minutes of free calling to/from the US.

7) We keep a mailing address in the US where we get mail and is my ''official'' US address. And yes, we've already voted.

8) We keep our US bank accounts, and credit cards. But we have German ones as well.  Being a US citizen and tax payer, all of my income, transactions, etc. are reported back to the US government anyway.

9) We carry NO debt.  The cash economy here has been very healthy for us, frankly and we don't want to find ourselves owing money in Germany in case we have to leave.

It's an odd existence, but it's been remarkably freeing.

Not having a house and a mortgage means I'm far less stressed about it.  I didn't realize how much stress I was carrying by owning our house.

Being so much healthier financially means I'm far less stressed about money.  The "credit" economy of the US was very unhealthy.

On the minus side, it would cost us nearly $5k to fly back to see family, which makes it prohibitively expensive.  However, we're spending about that amount to fly friends and family here to visit us.

Still, we really miss family, and my boy is still in Seattle and I miss him every day.

I miss the ease of everyday life.  Not knowing German (yet) means that for an introvert like me, going out to do mundane things like go to the hardware store are far too stressful.

However, that ease of life meant that I spent far too much, though I did get out of the house more.

I miss sweet Chinese food.  (General Tso Chicken!)

I miss spicy Chinese food (Schezwan style)

But you know, the sweet Chinese food is so physically unhealthy that my body doesn't miss it.

Nor does my digestive tract miss the very spicy chinese food.

All in all, Germany has been a really great experience, and healthy for us in so many ways.  We are blessed to have this opportunity and living life a different way (frugally, healthily) has made a real, positive impact on us.

P.S. JagerSchnitzel is currently my favorite food.

13 Oct 2016

Today I Learned in Germany, 16 Oct 2016


1) In the US we have AAA, USAA and other auto clubs. We always had a AAA membership because if you had a flat tire, dead battery, etc., they'd come out and tow you, fix the flat or sell you a new battery.

Here in Germany, it seems to be the ADAC. We need to get a membership, but as with many things, we need to navigate the German web site to do it.  But breaking down on the autobahn seems really bad, and I think it's against the law or something.

I'm assuming they call the ADAC in this case.

2) Language lessons are going well.  I'm still aware that I have to learn genders of so many nouns, but that's just going to be practice and repetition.  Grammar is making a bit more sense, but I still have trouble putting sentences together in my head in German.

Reading is getting much easier, and understanding someone speaking German is getting better too, if only because I can pick out words and get the "sense" of their words.

In my language classes (1 or 2 per week, 1 hour + homework and self study), they use audio clips and have me answer questions about them.  I can gauge my progress by how many times I have to re-listen to the clips to get the answers I need.

I still have a little trouble with spelling.  SO MANY LETTERS.  And capitalization.  You capitalize all nouns.

There seems to be few "sh" letter combinations. Those that seem logical end up being "sch" combinations.

I'm also getting better at reading longer words SO MANY LONG WORDS by breaking them down into smaller words.  I'm told that my pronunciation is good.  We'll see.

And now, a shark-horse

3) Parking butt-in is a thing.  And so, backing into parking places is something I've practiced, and I've gotten better. The parking assist in my car is pretty awesome.  I actually hear the beeps from the appropriate speakers in the car when I'm close to something in that area.  Maybe that's standard for parking assist, but it's the first time I've had it.  I get a lot of false alarms though.  There's nothing like hearing the sensor go off doing 130 kph on the autobahn.

4) The "person on the right has the right-of-way" rule is getting easier.  When approaching an un-managed intersection (no signage, which is funny, because many intersections have an over-abundance of signage, maybe that's where it went), I rarely have to slow down if someone on the left is coming, and I have nobody on the right.  I know I have the right of way. I still worry that some american isn't going to know the rule, so I still slow down, but it's really frowned upon to do so.

5) In German, double letters (like in hallo) mean the sound from those letters is shorter.

6) In the US we had Consumer Reports as a common place to turn to for product reviews and testing.  Here, there are a number of them, but I use test.de. Are there others?

7) Parental Leave actually happens here.  I believe that either or both parents can take off work without fear of losing their job for as long as 14 months and the state pays for much of their salary during that time.

8) Voting when you are living outside the states is difficult to setup.  Or rather, it's not always clear HOW to do so.  We used this site to figure it out.



9) In downtown Karlsruhe yesterday we went to Charles Oxford for burgers and on the way to the tram, we saw this weird parade of characters dressed in costumes.  Robin stopped someone and asked what they were for, and that person said "Just because.  They're fairies from the city."  Honestly, I think he meant furries. It was creepy.  Don't do an internet search for furries. You'll be sorry.

08 Oct 16

Being tall is great, but it has it's bad parts too:

Regular 2XL shirts don't fit. I need 2XLT (tall) shirts. More fabric seems to mean 3x the price. And I have really no idea yet how to find such shirts in Germany.

Tiefgarages (underground garages) are often just 1cm taller than me.  And sometimes not.  I end up scraping all of the dirt, cobwebs and bugs from the ceilings if I'm not careful, or getting a bloody gash if I'm really not careful.

Sometimes this is how I feel

Spiral staircases cause problems for big feet and there are a LOT of them in Germany. The inside of the tread is tiny compared to the outside, so small diameter stair cases are scary.

EVERYONE asks you to reach for things on the top shelf. Or replace a light bulb because you don't need a ladder. I've learned the universal body language used by older German ladies for "get me that on the top shelf, bitte"

I've got a permanent bump on my forehead from all of the times I've hit the tops of doors, especially going down stairs.

My calf and feet hang off the end of most beds, especially ones here in Germany.  I was once in Japan, and if I laid down on my back on the bed, with my head touching the headboard, my knees could fully bend and my feet would be on the floor.



Here in Germany (Karlsruhe), the stoplights are on the near intersection rather than on the far side, which means if I'm the first car in the queue, I have to bend over the steering wheel to see the stoplights.  At least in france, they often have a smaller stoplight at eye level.


I often "accidentally" knock over little children. I just can't see down that far.


I once sat in a Toyota MR2 (with a targa top, thank goodness) and my whole head stuck out of the top.

I can't use most wall mounted mirrors. Or rather, I can use them to check my shirt, but not my hair.

Few cars fit me.  When I bought my corvette (a car I've wanted since I was a child), I barely fit, even when scrunching down.  I have neck problems (partly) because of that.

I can't hide in crowds or grocery stores.  On the plus side, Robin and Beth can always find me. I was once in a train station in Japan and it was standing room only, and I could see the far wall, but I'm sure nobody else could.

Nasal sprays don't come in sizes long enough to use.  I can't press down on the spray part AND have it far enough up there to be useful.

I can't wear baseball caps of any kind.  My head is far too large.

I can't wear regular fit jeans, because I can't get them past my calves and thighs. Then again, my leg muscles are huge since I've been in Germany because of all of the walking/hiking. (humblebrag)

I find myself wanting to sit in the back of theaters because I'm afraid my big head is in the way of the viewers behind me.  I was once at a Metallica concert and people behind me kept throwing popcorn at my head. :(  I'm glad it was only popcorn.

I'm unable to use a bathtub.

And of course, Josh being 6'8" (2m3cm) has it twice as bad. I'm only 6'4".

Only in Germany would the firefighters be smoking WHILE fighting a fire.  Ok, it was a drill, but it was funny.

Ok, not relevant, but throwing out one for the ladies.

There don't seem to be clear "Detour" signs here showing how to get around a construction blockage.

Some people use any available curb space to park in, even if it blocks a lane.

If you make a mistake, and there are parked cars on your side of the street, but you pull out there when oncoming traffic could drive through, some oncoming drivers will pull up so far that you can barely pull back into your lane at the end of the line of parked cars (most of whom are in the street).

I pulled into a parking space, and my right tire went up onto the curb in the process and Beth said "Hey, you're a German now!"