04 Jul 2017 - or - It's been a while

Apologies for not blogging for the past few months.  It's been a whirlwind and somewhat stressful, but I hope to get back to it.

Celebrating the 4th of July in Germany is a strange thing. This is my second year being in Germany for the 4th, and I find that seeing 4th of July celebrations on FB, in the news, etc. just doesn't affect me as much as I thought it would.

People are nice about it, and considerate, asking if I'll take the 4th of July off work, or asking if it's OK to schedule something on the 4th, but it's just not...

I'm not sure how to articulate it.

I certainly love my country with all my heart.

But it's hard to feel patriotic so far away, and when looking at the US from afar.

Right now, I'm in the midst of a very practical people, and with a world view that I've never had before. I see how what happens in America affects the world and frankly it makes me sad. I feel like the US no longer cares to be a part of the world community and no longer wants to be a leader.

It's hard to be proud of that.

I see all of the violence in the US, all of the hate speech and hate crimes.  I see the President acting like a spiteful 4 year old boy.

And it's hard to be proud of that.

But I also see the resistance to this kind of behavior.  I see many of the ''regular'' people don't subscribe to the political lies, the distractions, the behind-the-scenes politics that the billionaires are using to reshape America without our consent.  I see that there are people who are thoughtful, considerate, and kind.  I see a fight for equality that has to fight from the sidelines and at a huge disadvantage. I see my Christian brothers living His word.

I see all of my loved ones and my friends living on despite the difficulties.

And that I am proud of.

(nobody say anything about my dangling participles)

Languages
I'm currently angry with the German language.  We're having a spat. All of the rules I've learned are now being replaced by exceptions.  And I'm finding that what I'm learning is actually a far cry from how people speak.

My understanding of spoken German is still very poor. It's partly because my brain tries to put spoken German into structures, but it doesn't often work that way.

And I don't have enough vocabulary.  I can listen to someone speak, following along reasonably well, but then a word that I'm either not familiar with, or I've only just learned comes along, and my brain grabs it, and holds on to it while I translate it, and then I've lost the next sentence and all of the context.

It doesn't help that in German you often have to wait, sometimes for MANY MANY words, for a secondary verb at the end of a sentence to make sense of it.

I know this is the same for all languages. I'm not an idoit.  But I have a right to be annoyed.

We'll kiss and make up, assuming we can ever speak the same language.

11 Apr 2017 - Of Parking tickets and visitors

It wasn't until about 2-3 months ago that someone told us we needed something called a parking disc:

It seems that whenever you see this sign:

It means that you have 2 hours of parking, and that you need to use the parking disc to show when you arrived.

We've used this particular parking lot and these spaces for 6 months and never gotten a ticket, but that streak ended yesterday.

On the plus side, we had a parking disc in the car.  On the minus side, we didn't use it because we didn't notice the blue thing with the P under it on the sign.

Ah well.  The ticket is 10 Euros, and as with all things German, we must do a bank transfer to pay it.

Turns out the rules for using a disc are pretty generous. If you arrive just after 3:pm (say 3:03, you can set your parking disc to 3:30). I guess you round up.

What's to stop someone from creating a device that updates itself a half hour at a time as time passes?

Visitor Problems.

Today, we had Robin's sister Connie come to Germany. Rather than spending 200 Euros paying for a couple of us to take a train to Frankfurt, meet Connie and then have three of us take the train back, we decided to use a local cab company to drive her from the airport.  It costs 200 Euros.

We run into a problem with first (or second) time visitors where it's not easy to communicate with them at the airport.  Most (80%?) of US phones don't work in Europe where we use GSM.  And if they do, call, text and data rates are outrageous.

You can use a pay phone at the airport, but it costs upwards of 10 euros per minute with a credit card, and it's hard to understand if you've never seen German.

If you have a phone that can Internet, you can use public WIFI at the airport, assuming it's working, and communicate via Whatsapp or FB Messenger, but that's not always available.

Often when they get here, they just don't use their phone, except for via Wifi, but with Connie's arrival, we're going to buy a cheap phone and a local pay-as-you-go SIM card for her (and others to use) while they're here.,  For data, we can set our phones to tethering and they can connect to our phone hotspot.

The problem there is if they forget to disconnect (or we forget to disable it), and the guest streams Hulu all night on the hotspot instead of Wifi.

In any case, we still don't have a good solution for visitors when they first arrive.  Maybe we mail them the temp phone?  With Deutsch post being so terrible, I have no idea how long it would take to get to the US, if it gets there at all.

We've had terrible luck with normal DP.  Sending a letter is 7 Euros + to the US, and takes 2-4 weeks to get there.

The most reliable way is to send it via 2-3 day, but that costs 50 euros.

We'll sort it out, but it's another couple of things I learned in Germany this week.

TILIG 03-03-2017

Of trash days and yard sales.

In my neighborhood (and I suspect in most or all of Karlsruhe), there are two days per year when you can put furniture, large trash, etc. out on the curb and the city will come and pick it up.  In and of itself, not that interesting, except on that day, the street turns into a kind of bazaar.  People walk the streets going through these things on the curb and take what they want, and the next day it gets picked up.

It can get loud with fairly large crowds milling around.

(Ok, this is a picture of Portland, not our neighborhood.)

Not everybody follows the rules, however, and some just put trash out.  The last few days have been very windy, and so now I can say that it's the second time this year that the neighborhood is covered in trash.   The other day was Silvester (new year's eve) where we had to spend a bit of time picking up spent fireworks.

In the US, we never had anything similar, unless you want to talk about yard sales (or garage sales.)

This is a day where a family decides that they want to sell things they don't want or need anymore, usually in their front yard.

Sometimes these days are organized for the whole neighborhood, sometimes it's just one family, but Saturday mornings are usually when they'd happen.

On that day, one or more families would have everything they want to sell out in their front yard and people would come by and purchase things.

When we've done it in the past, we'd try to price things low, but reasonably.  For example, a good quality table might be priced at 25$, even if we paid hundreds for it.

In practice, this never works.  We always found ourselves beset with ''lowballers''.  People who would come by and offer pennies (literally) for anything they wanted.  They'd ask how much, we'd say $25, they'd say 50 cents.

This strategy tends to work for them, as you just really want to get rid of all of the stuff, and get it out of your house.  Trying to haggle with the lowballers is an exercise in futility.  Many spend their weekends driving a truck around, buying things for next to nothing, and then sell them to "antique'' shops where they price them..... you guessed it.... At around the same as you'd originally asked.

In the end, we gave up on Garage sales.  It wasn't worth our time to spend the morning putting things out front, and getting a total of $20 for everything.  We usually ended up giving it all to charity. It took less effort.

TILIG 03 Mar 2017

A few weeks ago, we went to a local steakhouse.  It was a Friday night, and it was pretty busy, with several very large parties (10-15 people.)

It took a long time to order, a long time to get our order, etc.  And that's fine.  Spending a great deal of time at dinner is kind of a German thing.  We were pretty proud that we were able to order and everything in German.  A success!

At the end, we really wanted dessert. 15 minutes later, we got the attention of our server, and asked to order dessert.  She looked at us for a second, and then said no, the kitchen is too busy (in German.)  A half hour later, we got our check and left.

This was the first time, in any country, that a restaurant refused to let me spend more money! It's not a German thing because as a rule, everyone is very polite.

I think that everyone in Germany wears coats made by Jack Wolfskin.   That IS a very German thing, as far as I can tell.

One difference in driving here is that not only does a green light go to yellow (caution), and then to red when you need to stop, when you need to go, it goes from red to yellow to green!

I'm guessing that the yellow (caution)  step here is so you can make sure it's safe, but deep inside, I think it has something to do with the auto-stop/start of engines.

When stopped, by default, many cars turn off.  And when you take your foot off the brake, they start again.  I think the yellow between red and green is to take your foot off the brake so when it turns green, you're ready to go!  Alternately, since so many people drive stick shifts here, maybe it's a pause to put the car in gear.  I have no proof of this, however.  I'd suspect that Germans driving in the US might be put off by that missing yellow from Red to Green.


In the US, if you order pizza, it always comes sliced.  You can often request more or fewer slices, or square slices, but I never ordered a pizza in the US and had it delivered unsliced.

So far, in Germany, I have never ordered a pizza and had it come sliced. Granted, it's not a big deal, except my super nerdy pizza slicer that looks like the USS Enterprise isn't great at doing it's job...

Another difference in driving in Germany is simply the way they drive.  It seems very much tied to the way society works here, so it's not surprising.

When I learned to drive, my mom taught be to be a defensive driver.   What that means is that I should assume everyone else who is driving on the road is a bad driver, and I should protect myself.  That leads to being overly cautious and sometimes that interrupts the flow of traffic.

(Granted, I eventually learned that you have to be a very aggressive driver on LA freeways or you'll never get anywhere, but the defensive driving lessons still follow me.)

Here in Germany, It's not aggressive driving as maybe I once thought.  Rather, there's an expectation that everyone knows how to drive and is competent.

For example, at an uncontrolled intersection (no stop signs, or yield signs), the person on the right is assumed to have the right of way (this is a simplification.)

• Right has right-of-way: When two public roads cross at an uncontrolled intersection, then right-of-way is always given to traffic approaching from the right.  This includes "T" intersections!  In the US, traffic on the through street of a "T" has the right-of-way.  In Germany, you must yield to the right, even if you are on the through road.  This also includes the rare situation where a main road and small side street cross at an uncontrolled intersection

What that means in every day driving is that when you approach such an intersection, and you're on the right, you're expected to make a confident move through the intersection.  If you pause, it throws people off and makes them yell and wave their arms at you.

That seems to be an extension of society as a whole here.  Generally, there's an expectation that adults are adults and make good decisions.

TILIG - 27 Jan 2017

I have a Dr that has an office in a nice building.  The first time I went, there was no street parking, but there was underground parking.  This one was odd, because you didn't get a ticket when you went in, you just pressed a button, and it let you in.

When I was done with the appointment, and went to leave, I noticed that there was a coin slot there.  I tried a bunch of coins, nothing worked.  Pressed the "Connect me to a human" button. It didn't work.  So, I had to back out and park again.  I went inside looking for a pay station to buy a token, nothing. Then I noticed a small sign, about 10 meters from the entrance that says it's run by tokens.

It turns out that the tenants of the building (including my doctor) have to pay for those tokens and they give them to their customers.  Except mine.  He's too cheap.  I had to get one from another business to get out. They cost 50 cents.  I'm pretty sure that Audi R8 that I saw in the parking lot was his. 

Here, there are very stealthy speed cameras.  I never seem to notice them until I'm almost past them.  Here's my process:

1. Say: "Huh, that's a speed cam...."   
2. Look at my speedometer.  
3. Hope that I haven't been speeding past this one every day for a month and that I might have 15 tickets coming. 

This one's pretty obvious, but usually they're hidden in bushes.

Some of the highway numbers are very long.  The GPS lady always says the number (ex. L9735) like this: "Neun tausend, Sieben hundert, fünf und dreißig".  When I say the number to someone, do I say it as digits: "Ell neun sieben drei fünf" or like the GPS lady says it?

We ran across these cups.  They have a large cup on one side, and a small one oh the other, on swivels. No idea what they're for, but I'd assume they're for the toast at a wedding?  I happen to know that my wife can out-drink me, so for us, I'd get the smaller side.

Gratuitous Santa Claus selfie statue

We get these strange pop up stores in front of the supermarket that we use.  Depending on the season, it can be vegetables, "new wine", or booze.   But I find that it's usually booze (alcohol.)

I had Tuna on pizza for the first time last night. It's a thing.  It wasn't bad, but I didn't notice the tuna (thunfisch) before I bit into it, so it was a surprise. 

Then again, I really love pineapple (Ananas) on my pizza, so clearly I have no reason to complain about unusual ingredients on a pizza.

TILIG 2017 New Year's edition

We were at the house of a good friend for Sylvester (AKA, New Year's Eve for my American Friends.)

We had fondue (without cheese), which consisted of raw meat that you ''cook'' in hot broth and dip in any one of 10 dips.   It reminded me of Sukyaki, a bit.

We brought over a no-bake peanut butter bar that was a surprise hit, considering it had "american" levels of sugar in it.  I could hardly eat it because it was so sweet.

As Robin noted in HER TILIG, we also watched Dinner for One, a short play in English that's quite the tradition here in Deutschland. It's widely considered to be the most re-broadcast piece of film in the world, despite never having been broadcast in most of the world, only in Europe (and once in the US  in the 70s'.)  Everyone gathered around the TV, and it made everyone laugh.

Watch it here. 

Many of the people at the Sylvester party spoke Deutsche to us, but we had to revert to English as the night wore on. It was just easier on everyone.

After midnight, the neighborhood (and all of Deutschland) fired off more fireworks than we've ever seen before.  They lit them off with great abandon, and many, many younger folks were very drunk and came over to wish us a frohe neues (Happy New, short for Happy Near Year - Frohe neues Jahres.)




We were also wished (after New Year's day)  Guten Rutsch, which means good slide.  Or Have a good slide into the new year!

Overall, it was a blast. Almost literally. Some kids were firing off fireworks next to our car.  Luckily nothing caught fire.

Just before New Years, we took a friend to a local Tapas place.  It was quite good, and we were very well treated, especially considering we were Americans and only one staff member spoke English.  It was actually easier to read the German as compared to the Spanish descriptions.

We bought a 20 Euro platter of Jamon Iberico ham that, while good, was far too large.

That night,we also found out that we'd been committing a Faux Pas since we've been here in Germany.

As a family, we've always been very business like when it comes to eating out.  We get there, we eat and then leave.  It comes from feeling a bit of pressure to "turn over the table" so the restaurant can seat someone else.

Certainly in higher end restaurants in the US, a 3-4 hour meal is expected, but at most restaurants, you get in, eat and get out.

Here, it's generally assumed (at almost all restaurants) that you come in, eat and then spend time after eating socializing over coffee, dessert, etc.

It turns out that leaving quickly has confused some friends of ours.  But now we know.

It also turns out that when you invite someone to your house for dinner, it's expected to be a many-hour thing.

Kicking people out after only 3 hours can cause hard feelings,

This post's German Food Glossary (that I will probably get wrong.)

Krautschupfnudeln - A blend of Spätzle, sauerkraut and speck (basically bacon or pork belly.)  Common in Bavarian, I believe it's actually Schwabian. Often served at Wienachtsmarkts.

Fleischküchle - I guess it depends on where you're from, I think.  For some, it's like a hand-held meat pie surrounded by cooked dough.  For some, it's like a fat hamburger patty, more round than flat.   I believe this might also be Schwabian meatballs.   Alternate names:  Frikadellen, Fleischpflanzerl, Buletten.   I had it as a fat beef patty.

Lango - Deep fried dough with toppings like Apflemusse (apple sauce), sugar, shincken and kase (ham and cheese) also commonly served at Weinachtsmarkt.

An obligatory weird product photo or two.

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.