Nine and 1/2 Weeks are gone.
Where has the time gone? I thought that by the time I had been in Germany almost 10 weeks I would have done most of the following:
- visit several Christmas Markets
- eat at some wonderful German restaurants
- know German (boy was I wrong on that)
- be comfortable driving somewhere besides my apartment to work
- know how to work the appliances in my apartment
- gone on a road trip on the weekend to some cool place
Even with being sick the month of December, I wish that I was farther along in my German adventures since I have not completed any of the items on my list. Some I have started and here is a status update:
- I went to the Christmas market in Mannheim. It was nice but that was the day that the number of police officers scared me and I left early.
- I have been out to eat 1 time at a restaurant (ok 2 if you count Burger King). They have wonderful restaurants here, but I have not felt up to going out after work. Besides, the cafeteria here is so wonderful that I eat a huge meal everyday at lunch. Too bad Aramark doesn’t do the same at the Moline office even though I do miss the Friday omelets.
- I have started to learn German and am being helped every day by my coworkers but I sure can’t be on my own with it. Who knows what kind of international incident I would start with my pronunciation of some of the words. I can recognize some words in sentences if the person talks slow enough. And by slow enough, I mean like the movies when someone doesn’t understand slow.
- I am sort of ok with driving to the Real market but would not say that I am comfortable driving. Last Friday after work, I came about 2 feet from a close encounter with another car. Here, unless you are on a marked primary road, you must yield to the car on the right at an intersection (what do they do when there are cars coming from every direction?). On the side street going back to my apartment there is not much traffic. In fact, except for when I come out of the parking lot, I have never seen another car on the side streets. Friday there was one. I should have a sign to hold up that says “I am an American driver”. I think that would say it all to the people that I come across. One thing that I do like about driving is that I have the Chicago Bears fuzzy dice from Mike and Kelly hanging on my rear-view mirror. Sometimes that is the only way that I can find my car.
- The appliances? Remember the pizza? Enough said!
- Road trip to a cool place. I think that once I feel just a little stronger, I will venture out on my own. Right now on the weekends, I do get out and walk around the neighborhood. This has really helped and I enjoy the fresh air.
Well, so much for what I have not done. I have done the following:
- Unpacked my stuff and got the Bears things put around the apartment
- Hooked up a Vonage phone (Thanks Cathy Leppo!) and have been able to call and be called from the states at no additional charge. It was a lifesaver during the holidays.
- Read every single book that I brought with me at least 2 times, some 3 times.
- Found the restaurant that was 2 blocks from my house even though I walked at least 1 ½ miles to get there.
- Found the Real market so that I could get some Sprite Zero and Diet Pepsi
- Learned how to score Snooker (a pool game with 15 red balls and then 1 of 6 other colors). This was on EuroSport and even though it is in German, I could read the score on the screen. It was actually helping me learn counting!
- Decided that MTV might not be as bad as I kept telling Michael it was while he was growing up. Some of the programming on it is in English so I have an alternative to CNN.
So much for lists, now I can update you on the happenings from the last week.
I finally was able to nail Mike down about the dates that he and Kelly wanted to come over to see me. Then I was able to get their tickets since I told them that was their Christmas present for 2008. They will be coming on February 19th and won’t leave until March 2nd. I can hardly wait for them to come. I have to send an email of the things that I want them to bring with them that I don’t think I can live without. I think it would just be best if they stayed here until I had to go home! I really miss seeing them and the rest of my family. Now I know how parents feel that have kids all over the country and don’t get to see them often. If I had grandkids I am sure that I would not be able to stand being far away from them. As it is, I even miss my grandpets Bubba, MaryJane, Sixx, Cujo and Mars. I know that Mike and Kelly think they are kids, but let’s be real, there are some differences.
We actually had some snow here. Just a skiff, but that is the 3rd time this winter. Last year they did not have any snow here, just rain. It’s a good thing that it comes down as snow in Moline or they would need an Ark! I was talking with some of my colleagues in Moline last week and they were not happy with me at all. We had consistent 32 degree + temperatures. Last Friday, they set a new low temperature record of – 29 degrees Fahrenheit. That is -39 Celsius for my non-U.S. friends. That was of course without that pesky wind chill factor that is always good for at least a decrease of 10-15 degrees. The Quad Cities has also had more than 2 times the snow they had last year. I guess that I am lucky that I am here instead of there.
As I mentioned above, I have been taking German and I have learned quite a few words. However, unless the person is speaking to me very slowly, I do not recognize a lot of the words that I do know. Last Tuesday, I learned ‘Hello, how are you’. So in order to show my supervisor here in Germany that I am progressing, I went into the office on Wednesday and sprung it on him. Unfortunately he then started talking to me using a string of German words that I had no chance of understanding. All I could say was ‘That’s all I know.’ Of course that was good for a laugh. Then last Thursday I learned words that I might use in a restaurant. Things like fork, spoon, knife, plate, menu, etc. At lunch on Friday I started saying these words at the table while pointing to the appropriate item. I got them all correct except for plate (I mispronounced it) and spoon (I couldn’t remember it). I try to go over my vocabulary each night. When I am learning, I write down the words as the instructor tells me, saying the German letters as I go. I find that helps me to pronounce the words a little easier. With a few exceptions, German is a fairly phonetic language so saying the characters of the words help. Last night we went over relationship words like Son, Mother, Father, sister, brother… and so on. I thought that learning those words may help at lunch. I am sure that some of my colleagues are speaking of their families. My instructor has also been on to read my blog and loves it. He says that it is like literature. I guess that he is not into reading much English Lit.
Lots of things happened the day before yesterday, Tuesday 20 January 2009. Beside the inauguration I had quite an adventure during the afternoon. I took 4 hours vacation because I needed to go downtown and get my jobticket. This is an identification card that allows you to ride the trams and buses in the area without getting the normal tickets. Once a month, they take the money out of your account and it is at a greatly reduced rate. You also get something that looks like a driver’s license to carry with your picture on it so that no one can steal it and use it. At least I hope there is no one out there that looks like the picture that I gave them to use. It was taken at John Deere before I left. I needed some passport size pictures for my visa, work permit and driver’s license. They told me to remove my glasses and look serious. They said that the German government does not like people who are smiling or even looking pleasant. Well, I sure don’t in these pictures. Perhaps sometime I can scan one in and scare all of you. So anyway, I got off work and drove home. I have been driving because my strength is still not back since my illness in December. I dropped off my computer at the apartment and walked to the tram. I took the tram because parking anywhere in the city is terrible. I am lucky that I have an underground, assigned spot at the apartment. When I got to the Paradeplaz, I got off the tram and looked around. This place is huge, probably about the size of Southpark Mall. I did not really know where the building was and the address was N1. I could not see anyplace that had an N anything on it so I just started walking across the plaz. There was a very large building on the other side that I thought may have the RNV (Rhine-Neckar Valley) office in it. About halfway across the plaz I did see the letters RNV on a sign so at least I was going in the right direction. When I got to the building the directory was in German so I just took a chance and went up the stairs. This was very difficult for me. The steps were not steep, but I get tired walking across the parking lot to work. By the time I got to the top, I was not sure I could walk much further. I did make it inside and sat down on a chair. Right in front of me there was a horse. It reminded me of the pigs and frogs that were done in the Quad Cities a few years ago and the cows in Chicago. This horse was painted bright blue (like the blue screen of death you get when your computer has a problem) with red and yellow dots. I did not know if my eyes were just playing tricks because I was tired or if it really was there. After I rested for a couple of minutes, the horse looked the same so I wished I had my camera and went off in search of the RNV office I needed to go to.
I had filled out my jobticket form as much as I could. The wording was in German so I did not recognize all of the requested information and hoped that I had everything I needed with me. Luckily I was told earlier that I would need the picture because I sure would not have been able to get that from the verbiage that I could read. I did find an RNV office and walked inside. I had to wait in line so I was looking at the brochures. Even though they were all in German one had jobticket in the title so I figured that I was in the right place. So I sat in one of the chairs and waited until there was a free clerk. Soon, one of the clerks motioned me over and I thought to myself ‘I hope she speaks English.’ I must have done something right because she spoke English very well. I did have everything that I needed with me and she helped me complete the form. I did have to adjust my address because over here the number 1 looks almost like it is a roof top. Then I asked them to explain how to buy some temporary passes to use until the beginning of the month. They sold them right there and I was in business! So now starting in February I do not have to worry about catching a tram and not having the right ticket and after 7 at night and on weekends I can take up to 4 people with me. I have it made now!
After my German class that night, I hurried back to the apartment so that I could catch the end of the inauguration. President Obama’s speech was so short that I missed it all. I started watching it as they were walking out to the helicopter. By the time I was ready for bed, they were going to be walking from the White House to the parade viewing stand. So I got to see them go into room to eat, leave the Capital and drive slowly down the street. I would think that they would be able to do more than that in 3 hours! I do have a couple of observations. The first is that I am surprised that the weather was so good. There was no snow anywhere and most of the dignitaries were not wearing sub-zero gear. The people that had been standing there since 3AM were decked out but I would expect that. Secondly, What is up with Michelle Obama's stylist? The night that the president won the election she had on that black and red dress that definitely was not designed with TV in mind. Then yesterday, January in Washington, her jacket did not button shut and she had that wisp of material that kept flying around. I loved the color but the rest? When they got out of the limo to walk, she had to hold it shut most of the time. I have not seen what she wore to the balls so I may comment on that next time.
Then yesterday, the funniest thing that happened concerned lunch. As you know, we all go to lunch together at the cafeteria. We have to walk about 2 blocks outside to get there. This week the weather has been beautiful so we just mosey over. Gudrun translated the menu again this week for us and sometimes the way that it comes out is amusing. On the menu for Wednesday was fish, Pizza “meat cheese” with tomato sauce and potato pancakes with applesauce. So I am thinking I could go for some meat-lovers pizza since I don’t like fish and did not feel that the pancake dish was for me. On the way over I casually mentioned that I hope their pizza cooking skills are better than mine and my coworkers just looked at me like they did not know what I was talking about. I reminded them about my blackened pizza (no relation to blackened meat of any kind) and they said that I had interpreted what Gudrun meant. What we were going to have was pizza meat with cheese and tomato sauce. I thought that sounded ok also. When I got up to the servers, I was surprised that the pizza meat and cheese had been formed into a loaf , baked and then sliced like meatloaf. It did not look so bad. It looked like ground ham with other things in it and then it was formed into a solid loaf. I still thought that I would try it given the other choices so I got my plate and went to sit down with everyone else. All eyes were on me as I tried it. I could not really place the taste. It was ok. Not the best food that I have had since I have been here, but I could eat it again. Then after about 3 more bites, it hit me…It tastes almost like SPAM! I started giggling and everyone wanted to know what was up. I tried to explain Spam to them, but those of you that have had that mystery meat know how difficult it is to describe.
I also found out yesterday that Duane is coming back over from the U.S. He wrote and asked if there was anything small that he could bring with me. You may remember that last time he was here he brought the Vonage box with him. I wrote back immediately and told him that I would arrange it with Amy. I could hardly type fast enough to Amy to request that she get me some paperback books. I came over here with 12 books and have read them all at least 2 times since I got here. Some I have even read 3 times. Then to top it all off, I brought several books by my favorite author, Nora Roberts, that I had been hoarding since I found out that I would be coming here. I knew that I would have to have plenty to read since I did not know if I would be able to find her books in English here (so far I have not found any books in English). Well, 2 of the books were volume 1 and 2 of a trilogy. I did know that when I bought them earlier, but had forgotten about it until I unpacked my boxes and put them all on the shelf to be perused later. Volume 3 came out in December and I have wanted it since then. So Amy, the wonderful person that she is, went out and bought me the book and has arranged for Duane to bring some others with him. What would I do without them? They have become my lifeline. I think that I will have to give Mike and Kelly a list also so that I get a fresh infusion next month.
I suppose that I have droned on enough. For all of you in the QC, stay warm and watch out for the potholes that I have heard are now forming!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
12 January 2009
8 Weeks already!
Well it has been another week. I can't believe that I have been here 8 weeks already. In some ways it seems like forever and other ways it seems like 1 week. Today is Monday and it is back to work again. Why does that seem to come around so fast and it takes forever to get to the weekends?
Anyway, the weather here is cold today. Only 27 degrees (that’s in Fahrenheit). There is also a skiff of snow still on the ground. It is just enough to make it hazardous for me to be moving about outside. This morning on the way to work I almost slid out of my street onto the busier street. That would not have been too bad since no one was traveling on that street, but the person crossing in front of me may have had a problem. As it was, I just got the evil eye and she continued on.
My ankle is getting much better. I just have a slight limp today. For those that have not read my last entry, I fell on the sidewalk last Monday after work and sprained it. Most of the people that know me will not think that this is too unusual, but it really is. This time nothing was broken!
This weekend my brother called me to tell me that my great-niece Emmah was in the hospital. She is a very petite baby and the doctors have been concerned that she is not gaining enough weight. I think that she looks just like her mother did at that age so I was not really worried. But last week I guess the flu was going through his family like a wildfire. So of course Emmah lost a few ounces. I think they should tell the doctor that when I was sick, I lost 20 pounds. Relatively speaking, I don’t know if that is comparable or not. The new doctor has recommended a different feeding pattern that the old one did so we will see how this turns out. I think that the doctors should talk to each other and decide what course of action to take instead of everyone telling Emily to do something different. How is a new mother supposed to know what to do when everyone they think they should trust tells them something different? I think that Emmah will do fine since she seems to be a happy, healthy baby but who is going to listen to the opinion of Dr. Mourning?
This weekend I also had a new experience in the kitchen. Since I was feeling better, I thought that I would fix a frozen pizza that I picked up on my trip to the Real store a couple of weeks ago. I got out the box and looked at the instructions but of course they were in German. So I decided that I would just do what I would normally do in the U.S. I tried to turn the temperature to 400 degrees but the dial only went up to 250 so I turned it to 250. Then there is another button with several different settings on it. I turned it to the one with 2 flames since it was only on 250; I thought that I would turn on the flames. When I thought that it was preheated enough, I put the pizza in and went in to watch CNN. 5-6 minutes later, my smoke alarm went off. I had not heard it here before so it took me a minute to decide what it was. Then I started seeing smoke coming from the oven. I ran out there and looked in the oven window and my pizza looked like it had a black dome on it. I turned the oven off and opened the door. After trying to clear the smoke by waving a dish towel, I pulled it out. I burned that cheese so well that I am sure it would have stuck to any pan no matter what they advertise. I touched the dome and it was so hard that I tried prying it off with a knife. I just wanted to see what had happened underneath. Well, under the dome, the pizza crust was just barely done and the tomato sauce was nice and hot. So I was hungry enough that I cut that up and ate it. It tasted a little funny with no cheese, but not so bad that I could not eat it. Yesterday I told my mom about it and the first thing she said after a couple seconds of thought was “Is the oven Celsius?” I said “Yeah Mom, I figured that out already”.
At lunch today I was telling Gudrun and Sylvia about it and they just laughed and said that they don’t think about that since they have always lived here. Tomorrow I am going to bring in the box so that they can tell me what all of the pictures mean on it. I think that I will probably be cooking more of them while I am here.
I was also telling them that last week I spoke with Nadine and Amy from the Moline office. It was great to hear their voices and find out how their families are doing. Nadine says that it is really quiet in our cubie now. I guess that Navneet does not have as much to say as I do. Or maybe it is just not as loud. I told that to the lunch crowd today also. I don’t think they are used to me yet. Since I was so sick in December, I was really not my normal self. I was very quiet. So this week when everyone was back from Christmas break, I had to let go. Many of you have heard my philosophy that a person has to speak so many words a day. I was trapped in my apartment alone for 3 weeks and even though I talked to several people on the phone, it was not the same. So today I had motor mouth since I had to make up for all the days that I did not meet my quota.
We also spoke about my German class. I told them that I still feel like I have someone else’s tongue in my mouth since I can’t seem to control it. They told me that is the way they feel when they try to say a word with ‘TH’ in it. There is no comparable sound in the German language. I did not realize that before. I also asked them why Wednesday (Mittowoch) is the only day with out tag(day) in it. Or why 11 (elf) and 12 (zwolf) are not like the other teens (with zehn at the end). They thought that those were good questions but had no answer. Gudrun said that she did not name them so she did not know. I guess that this was just part of me trying to get my word quota in for the day.
After work I went out to the car and found that the windows needed to be scraped. I don't have a scraper since I have not had to use one yet and did not have my credit cards with me so I started the car and sat there while it warmed up enough for the defroster to clear the front window. I think that they need to invent a defroster for the front window that will work as fast as the rear window. It was clear in about 1 minute and it took the front about 8 minutes. I think that a lot of people would like this change to the cars! Then as I was driving out of the parking lot, the guard started waving frantically at me. I stopped and rolled down my window so that I could hear him yelling in German. That really helped? Then I figured out that my lights were not on. Just one more phrase that I need to learn I guess.
Nothing else much happened since the last time except KELLY’s BIRTHDAY. It was January 6th. I did not have to work that day since it was a holiday here. I called her and was going to sing happy birthday to her but decided that since she was at work, I would not subject her to it. I can’t wait for Mike and Kelly to come and see me in February!
That’s it for now. I hope that all of you are well.
Keep warm and safe.
Well it has been another week. I can't believe that I have been here 8 weeks already. In some ways it seems like forever and other ways it seems like 1 week. Today is Monday and it is back to work again. Why does that seem to come around so fast and it takes forever to get to the weekends?
Anyway, the weather here is cold today. Only 27 degrees (that’s in Fahrenheit). There is also a skiff of snow still on the ground. It is just enough to make it hazardous for me to be moving about outside. This morning on the way to work I almost slid out of my street onto the busier street. That would not have been too bad since no one was traveling on that street, but the person crossing in front of me may have had a problem. As it was, I just got the evil eye and she continued on.
My ankle is getting much better. I just have a slight limp today. For those that have not read my last entry, I fell on the sidewalk last Monday after work and sprained it. Most of the people that know me will not think that this is too unusual, but it really is. This time nothing was broken!
This weekend my brother called me to tell me that my great-niece Emmah was in the hospital. She is a very petite baby and the doctors have been concerned that she is not gaining enough weight. I think that she looks just like her mother did at that age so I was not really worried. But last week I guess the flu was going through his family like a wildfire. So of course Emmah lost a few ounces. I think they should tell the doctor that when I was sick, I lost 20 pounds. Relatively speaking, I don’t know if that is comparable or not. The new doctor has recommended a different feeding pattern that the old one did so we will see how this turns out. I think that the doctors should talk to each other and decide what course of action to take instead of everyone telling Emily to do something different. How is a new mother supposed to know what to do when everyone they think they should trust tells them something different? I think that Emmah will do fine since she seems to be a happy, healthy baby but who is going to listen to the opinion of Dr. Mourning?
This weekend I also had a new experience in the kitchen. Since I was feeling better, I thought that I would fix a frozen pizza that I picked up on my trip to the Real store a couple of weeks ago. I got out the box and looked at the instructions but of course they were in German. So I decided that I would just do what I would normally do in the U.S. I tried to turn the temperature to 400 degrees but the dial only went up to 250 so I turned it to 250. Then there is another button with several different settings on it. I turned it to the one with 2 flames since it was only on 250; I thought that I would turn on the flames. When I thought that it was preheated enough, I put the pizza in and went in to watch CNN. 5-6 minutes later, my smoke alarm went off. I had not heard it here before so it took me a minute to decide what it was. Then I started seeing smoke coming from the oven. I ran out there and looked in the oven window and my pizza looked like it had a black dome on it. I turned the oven off and opened the door. After trying to clear the smoke by waving a dish towel, I pulled it out. I burned that cheese so well that I am sure it would have stuck to any pan no matter what they advertise. I touched the dome and it was so hard that I tried prying it off with a knife. I just wanted to see what had happened underneath. Well, under the dome, the pizza crust was just barely done and the tomato sauce was nice and hot. So I was hungry enough that I cut that up and ate it. It tasted a little funny with no cheese, but not so bad that I could not eat it. Yesterday I told my mom about it and the first thing she said after a couple seconds of thought was “Is the oven Celsius?” I said “Yeah Mom, I figured that out already”.
At lunch today I was telling Gudrun and Sylvia about it and they just laughed and said that they don’t think about that since they have always lived here. Tomorrow I am going to bring in the box so that they can tell me what all of the pictures mean on it. I think that I will probably be cooking more of them while I am here.
I was also telling them that last week I spoke with Nadine and Amy from the Moline office. It was great to hear their voices and find out how their families are doing. Nadine says that it is really quiet in our cubie now. I guess that Navneet does not have as much to say as I do. Or maybe it is just not as loud. I told that to the lunch crowd today also. I don’t think they are used to me yet. Since I was so sick in December, I was really not my normal self. I was very quiet. So this week when everyone was back from Christmas break, I had to let go. Many of you have heard my philosophy that a person has to speak so many words a day. I was trapped in my apartment alone for 3 weeks and even though I talked to several people on the phone, it was not the same. So today I had motor mouth since I had to make up for all the days that I did not meet my quota.
We also spoke about my German class. I told them that I still feel like I have someone else’s tongue in my mouth since I can’t seem to control it. They told me that is the way they feel when they try to say a word with ‘TH’ in it. There is no comparable sound in the German language. I did not realize that before. I also asked them why Wednesday (Mittowoch) is the only day with out tag(day) in it. Or why 11 (elf) and 12 (zwolf) are not like the other teens (with zehn at the end). They thought that those were good questions but had no answer. Gudrun said that she did not name them so she did not know. I guess that this was just part of me trying to get my word quota in for the day.
After work I went out to the car and found that the windows needed to be scraped. I don't have a scraper since I have not had to use one yet and did not have my credit cards with me so I started the car and sat there while it warmed up enough for the defroster to clear the front window. I think that they need to invent a defroster for the front window that will work as fast as the rear window. It was clear in about 1 minute and it took the front about 8 minutes. I think that a lot of people would like this change to the cars! Then as I was driving out of the parking lot, the guard started waving frantically at me. I stopped and rolled down my window so that I could hear him yelling in German. That really helped? Then I figured out that my lights were not on. Just one more phrase that I need to learn I guess.
Nothing else much happened since the last time except KELLY’s BIRTHDAY. It was January 6th. I did not have to work that day since it was a holiday here. I called her and was going to sing happy birthday to her but decided that since she was at work, I would not subject her to it. I can’t wait for Mike and Kelly to come and see me in February!
That’s it for now. I hope that all of you are well.
Keep warm and safe.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
5 January 2009
Back to work....
Well, it is the New Year and I had to go back to work today. Thankfully, I am well enough to do that even though I still feel week whenever I do much but I am on the way to recovery.
Since I last updated my blog I became adventurous. I needed to get something to help settle my stomach and decided it was past time that I went to the Real store. This is the chain of stores in Germany that took over when Wal-Mart pulled out. On Saturday the 27th, I got on the internet and looked up the address of the local stores. There were several that were within the Mannheim area so I picked the one that a couple of the other ex-pats had mentioned to me. From the Google map it looked like it was further away, but I thought I would take a chance. I got in my car and of course that felt funny since I had not driven for a few weeks and proceeded to setup my Nav system with the address. Fortunately, Cathy had changed the language to English the first time she was in my car so I did not have to try to decipher the instructions in German. It took me 15 minutes to figure it out and I was just starting to wonder if I could asphyxiate myself in a parking garage by running the car for that long. So off I went. The sky that day was a beautiful blue with wispy clouds and I was confident that with the Nav system yelling instructions at me I would be able to find my way.
The distance calculated by Google maps was only 6.6KM so I knew that it should not take me too long to get there but I remembered the last time that I took off with some Google instructions and walked forever to go 2 blocks from my house. I made my way through the traffic in Mannheim and out to the 36 Autobahn. The woman in the Nav system told me to get in the left lane to exit so I did; I was always one to follow directions. When I got off the autobahn, I was not sure exactly where the Real store was so I just kept following directions. Pretty soon I was in a residential area that I knew was not part of the business district but I kept going since system kept telling me to turn here and there. In about 10 minutes I found myself back at the entrance to the autobahn at the same place that I exited earlier. I had no idea what was going on but decided to blindly follow the Nav system no matter where it was going to take me. Back out on the autobahn, I drove for about 100 yards and it told me again to get in the left lane to exit. I thought, ‘Yeah, this is the last time that I am going to do this.”. I felt that I could spend the whole day just getting off the autobahn, driving around and then getting back on. But then I saw IT! The store!!!! Off to the left of the autobahn. I guessed that I could find it even if the Nav system wanted me to drive through the residential areas again.
Right off the autobahn, there was a McDonald’s that was in a house. I thought that it was so different that I took a picture of it from the Real parking lot.
Well, it is the New Year and I had to go back to work today. Thankfully, I am well enough to do that even though I still feel week whenever I do much but I am on the way to recovery.
Since I last updated my blog I became adventurous. I needed to get something to help settle my stomach and decided it was past time that I went to the Real store. This is the chain of stores in Germany that took over when Wal-Mart pulled out. On Saturday the 27th, I got on the internet and looked up the address of the local stores. There were several that were within the Mannheim area so I picked the one that a couple of the other ex-pats had mentioned to me. From the Google map it looked like it was further away, but I thought I would take a chance. I got in my car and of course that felt funny since I had not driven for a few weeks and proceeded to setup my Nav system with the address. Fortunately, Cathy had changed the language to English the first time she was in my car so I did not have to try to decipher the instructions in German. It took me 15 minutes to figure it out and I was just starting to wonder if I could asphyxiate myself in a parking garage by running the car for that long. So off I went. The sky that day was a beautiful blue with wispy clouds and I was confident that with the Nav system yelling instructions at me I would be able to find my way.
The distance calculated by Google maps was only 6.6KM so I knew that it should not take me too long to get there but I remembered the last time that I took off with some Google instructions and walked forever to go 2 blocks from my house. I made my way through the traffic in Mannheim and out to the 36 Autobahn. The woman in the Nav system told me to get in the left lane to exit so I did; I was always one to follow directions. When I got off the autobahn, I was not sure exactly where the Real store was so I just kept following directions. Pretty soon I was in a residential area that I knew was not part of the business district but I kept going since system kept telling me to turn here and there. In about 10 minutes I found myself back at the entrance to the autobahn at the same place that I exited earlier. I had no idea what was going on but decided to blindly follow the Nav system no matter where it was going to take me. Back out on the autobahn, I drove for about 100 yards and it told me again to get in the left lane to exit. I thought, ‘Yeah, this is the last time that I am going to do this.”. I felt that I could spend the whole day just getting off the autobahn, driving around and then getting back on. But then I saw IT! The store!!!! Off to the left of the autobahn. I guessed that I could find it even if the Nav system wanted me to drive through the residential areas again.
Right off the autobahn, there was a McDonald’s that was in a house. I thought that it was so different that I took a picture of it from the Real parking lot.
After I parked, I realized that I was at the far end of the lot and would have to walk quite a ways to get into the store. This is a picture from the car. I will try to get better picture next time I go.
That was ok because the cool fresh air felt good. Once I got to the entrance, I realized that I needed to bring in a cart from the parking lot so I walked out to one of the covered cart areas and found that I again needed 1 Euro to get a cart just like at Aldi. Of course, I did not have a 1 Euro coin and could not find anyone that would trade the cart for 2-50Cent Euro coins. Finally, I found a family with a child that understood some English. He spoke to his parents and his father smiled and dug his billfold out of his pocket. Finally, I thought was going to be able to get a Euro and a cart but instead he pulled out a white disk with red markings from his billfold. I looked at it with what I am sure was a confused look on my face and the boy just laughed and said that it was a disk that would work in any cart. I understood then and tried to give them a Euro for it, but the father would not take any money. His son said that they did not want anything for it and he hoped that I would be happy in Germany. I thanked them over and over and walked into the store.
When I got inside I realized that it was not just a store, but kind of a mini mall. There were several shops there besides the Real store. Electronics, barber, clothing stores, apothecaries, and a florist were all there along with a beverage store. I quickly breezed past all of those and went directly to Real. I started to look around thinking that I would be able to recognize most of what I needed. After all, wasn’t this a large chain store? Wouldn’t they have most of the brands that I was used to? The answer to that was a big NO! As I went up and down the isles, I would recognize some of the food by the picture on the front, but no brands that I knew. I found most of what I was hunting for except for pop. So I went into the beverage store and started to look around. In the Coke section I found it...Sprite Zero. I had not had any pop for a couple of weeks because the only diet pop I had been able to find was Coke Light. It is almost my least favorite pop and had not been setting well with my stomach so the Sprite Zero was a very welcome sight. Then I decided that if they had that, maybe they would have Diet Pepsi. That is my first love when it comes to soft drinks. I walked around the store a couple of times and decided that I would have to count myself lucky to have found the Sprite.
The last thing that I thought I might be able to find is salt and pepper so I went back into Real and tried to find the spices. Once I did, I realized that this was not going to be easy. I was trying to rely on pictures to help me find what I wanted and there really is not a picture of a salt or a pepper on the containers. I found some that had words that looked like pepper on it, but I did not know what the rest of the words were. I did find a garlic one and picked that up and decided that was enough until I could find out what the German words were for just plain table salt and pepper. I got the cart turned around and headed for the front of the store to check out and passed by an aisle that had bottled water on the end cap. I swung the cart into the aisle and there it was…PEPSI LIGHT. I almost fell on the floor and cried I was so excited. They did not have caffeine-free but I figured that I would take anything at this point. I had to stand on the bottom shelf to get it from the top and knew that the climb would be worth it. Elated, I took my cart to the front and got in line to pay.
As I stood there, I was watching the people in other lines. It is strange to see what people in other countries buy at the grocery store. One person had a fish that had the eyes, scales and everything still on it. Another had several jars of something that looked pickled, but it was not anything that I recognized. I was behind an older woman in the line and smiled to her as she gave me the divider for our groceries. She was carrying a large willow basket with her and I realized that we needed to bring our own bags here also. I looked in my purse and decided that the 3 Bears bags that I had may be enough to hold everything that I bought except the Brita pitcher. I unloaded the cart and waited as she slowly counted out the change for her bill. When she was done, the clerk looked at her and said something. She wanted one more penny and the woman did not have it in change. I got one out of my purse and almost had to beg her to take it. Finally she did and I got checked out. After the clerk scans your goods, it goes down to the end of the counter and you have to pack it yourself. I always like to watch what is being rung up and that put me behind in packing my purchases. The person behind me in line was not as understanding as one might hope and I know what a German evil eye looks like now. In the parking lot I found my car, unloaded and returned the cart then settled in to program the Nav system to get me back home. It’s funny that it took much less time to get back to the apartment then it did to get to Real. Maybe it was the side trip that took so much time before?
On that Sunday, my brothers had the Bush family Christmas gathering. That was something that I knew I would miss out on. Usually, I have lasagna at my house. I love to decorate the house and have them over, but this year it was just them and their families with ham and turkey. Mike and Kelly could not make it down from Racine because of the ice and Amanda had to work but otherwise everyone was there. I wish that I could have been to see the kids open their gifts and to share the meal. I told David that I would kill for some of Margo’s macaroni and cheese. It sounded like something that my stomach would be able to handle. He told me that I should make some since it is only elbow macaroni and Velveeta and I said that would be fine if I had thought to bring Velveeta with me. He forgets that the things that we take for granted as being available at any grocery store are not necessarily here. I was also able to watch the last Bears game of the season over the internet. They lost and are out of the playoffs. Oh well, next year will be here amazingly soon.
The beginning of last week was pretty much, rest, eat, rest, read. I was feeling better each day but did not want to push it.
On New Year’s Eve, I started watching CNN when I got up and they were already getting ready to celebrate the New Year in New Zealand. It was strange to watch the different countries celebrate the start of the year as it happened. In the U.S. we rarely see that. It is like we are the only country in the world sometimes. That is one of the things that I have learned since I came here. As the day went on, I was determined that I would stay up until midnight so that I could ring in the New Year. I did not want to miss it. I should not have worried. About 2 minutes to midnight, the fireworks started. I am not talking about the small fireworks that you get in the U.S. for the backyard celebrations on the 4th of July. These were huge and all over the place. I called Mom at midnight like I do every year and she could hear them on the phone. It was so beautiful I can’t describe it. After I talked with Mom, I called Mike and Kelly to wish them Happy New Year. The fireworks were still going on. I told Mike that it was too bad he was not with me. When he was a kid, he always wanted to buy fireworks whenever we went to Wisconsin or Missouri but we were never able to buy fireworks like these. Bob Loch had told me that people in Germany shot off fireworks at midnight on New Year’s Eve, but I did not expect it to continue for 90 minutes. I sat in my living room and watched the fireworks over the park and at the next complex for quite a while. Then I decided that it was time for me to go to bed. When I looked out the sliding door in my bedroom towards the quad in my apartment complex, there were several beautiful displays going on there also. So I opened the curtains and stood for awhile watching them. After 1:00 I went to bed and could still see them going off for another half hour. It is something that I will never forget!
On New Year’s day Don called to say hello and was telling me that at work they had the usual day after crowd. Drunks were sleeping it off in their cells. People wanting visits. Just the normal stuff for a county jail. The rest of the day was very subdued other than phone calls from Mom. That was until 2:20 am on Friday morning. The phone rang and startled me. I jumped out of bed and ran to answer it. Who would call at that time unless it was an emergency? It was my Aunt Regina. She got Mom’s Christmas letter with my phone number in it and wanted to touch base. She said it was ringing when she realized that Mom had written that there would be a 7 hour time difference from Central US time. It was good to hear from her anyway.
The rest of the weekend went fast. I knew that I would have to go back to work today so I really spent the time resting. I also had to get tax forms from the internet and email them to Mom. She has a dial up connection that she uses and it is useful mainly for getting her email since it is so slow.
Today when I got up and looked outdoors, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. So I wore a new turtleneck with a snowflake design on it to work. I did not think that it would ever snow after the first little bit we got at the end of November. Then I decided to drive to work today so that I would not have to tromp through the snow and slush to get to and from the tram. When I pulled out of the parking garage, I realized that they do not use salt on the roads all the time here. It was a little slippery but not bad. Then I pulled into the parking lot at work and thought that I must have made a mistake. It must not be Monday. There were hardly any cars in the lot. I drove in and parked and went inside and only Gudrun was there in the AD department. I asked where everyone was and she said that they were still on holiday. I asked why they would not have come back today and she said that a lot of people took today off since tomorrow was a holiday also. I had forgotten that my German teacher told me that we would not be in class on Tuesday but would start back on Thursday. So this is a real bonus for me! It was really quite at work so I was able to get quite a bit done. I also received a Christmas card through intercompany mail from Sue Haley. It was beautiful.
It snowed all day here but the snow is so fine that we did not have an accumulation of more than 1-2 inches. I thought of the all day snowstorms at home and remembered that I would have to be out clearing the walks several times just to keep up. Like last time, I am sure that this will be gone soon. They tell me that when it snows here it rarely lasts more than a day or two. I am sure the next winter I am at home I will be wishing that to be the case there. Or maybe have weather like Mom. She told me yesterday that she was considering turning on the air conditioner in her mobile home since she was doing some sewing and ironing. When Dad was alive, he would call me and tell me stuff like that when it was negative something at home and I would always threaten to hang up if he kept talking like that. It’s unbelievable what a difference a few states make.
One last thing, for all of you that know me, it will not be a surprise. I fell on the ice tonight and twisted my ankle. Nothing is broken. Just have to ice it to keep the swelling down. No big deal.
Well, I think that I have rambled on enough for now. Hope everyone is doing well and that the New Year is wonderful for you all.
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