Today I learned in Germany: 21 Sep 2016

1. We went to Heidelberg over the weekend, so Gillian (Beth's best friend) could see it. We'd planned to visit the SchnitzelHaus (they have 100 different kinds of schnitzel!) for lunch but in the end, Robin decided she wanted American style pizza. And there happened to be a Pizza Hut restaurant there.

$Image result for pizza hut\$

Fast forward to sitting in the restaurant and looking at the menu. They had the same stuffed crust pizza, the same toppings (except no Italian sausage, and Pepperoni was called Salami.) and the pizza sizes were in cm. We ordered a couple of pizzas, a salad and an appetizer plate.

The salad was just OK with tiny, nasty boxed croutons.

The pepperoni pizza was pretty much as we remembered it.

The wings, fried cheese and other stuff was just as bad as I remembered.

They didn't have ranch dressing.

I can't say that it was particularly satisfying, and frankly, we wasted a Heidelberg lunch on Pizza hut, but it did feel a little like the US for a minute.

2. We also took Gillian to our favorite schnitzel place in Hagsfeld, Hofacker Stuble. That's the place were you can get Groß (large) sized schnitzel larger than your head.

Image result for giant schnitzel

It was good, as usual, but when I ordered the JägerSoße for it, the waitress very patiently taught me how to say it. Yaw-ger-saws-eh. I repeated it a few times, and don't think I ever really got it right (to her satisfaction), but I felt like it sounded the same every time I said it. BTW, jägersoße is a mushroom sauce, whereas rahmsoße is cream sauce, and jägerrahmsoße is mushroom cream sauce. As you can see, some words get really long, but they're just smaller words all smashed together.

3. I found out that if you have private insurance (as opposed to the public, state run insurance), you
often get seen at doctors much more quickly. That is, you can get appointments sooner.

4. Our house here is unusually well insulated. At 12c (53f) at night, the bedroom dropped a single degree, without the heater on (from 75f to 74f) by morning. I'm sure it's partly the metal shutters and partly that many houses seem to be made from concrete.

5. I was talking to a friend about feeling safe here as compared to the US. Here, I have no fear of a B&E (breaking and entering), getting mugged, a home invasion or anything of the sort. When we lived in the US (LA, Seattle), it was a nagging worry the entire time. In both places (LA and Redmond), we had break-ins, muggings, AND home invasions relatively close to our homes, even in the most upscale neighborhoods. My (german) friend was shocked that such things were relatively common. Perhaps in other areas of the US it's safer, but I've never lived in a place where I wasn't as afraid.

6. What the heck is a wintergarten? We have what's called a Winter Garden by the side of the house, that is just a covered area, but without walls. In theory, you put plants there during the winter so they don't freeze? In our case, when it rains, the entire floor of the garden area gets soaked. Im sure if it freezes, anything out there will freeze. Maybe ours is just a very poor example.

This is NOT our wintergarden

7. I tried my best to construct a german sentence to say that We will be in Paris for 5 days. The best I could come up with on my own was: Wir gehen Paris für fümf Tage! Turns out I should have used Wir fahren für fúmf Tage nach Paris which is "We are five days in Paris".

Fahren instead of gehen (to drive or travel) instead of walk.

8. We haven't been to the grocery store in a few weeks. What that means for us is that we have at least one car-load of empty plastic bottles and cases to bring back. I also have a wallet full of slips that show how much credit I have due to previous returns. I just can't ever seem to remember to use them. I hope they don't expire.

Image result for plastic bottles

When I was a kid, every bottle had a return value and you could return it to the store to get a nickel. Now in the states (at least in Redmond), the only use for glass and plastic bottles is recycle.

Here you specifically pay something called a "Pfand" on every bottle. I think it must translate to ransom. It's the amount you get back when you return it. It can be a significant part of each purchase.