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!
No comments:
Post a Comment