Leaving on a jet plane.....

Well, I realized that I have not written anything in awhile and I wanted to catch everyone up on everything that has been going on. Quite a bit of traveling to begin with! 

May seems to be THE month for bank holidays here (Matt had 3) so the first weekend of May we went to Paris and Normandy with a few friends of ours. It was a whirlwind trip but very fun to do. We saw the major sites of Paris and then drove down to Caen, France and from there took a day trip to Utah and Omaha beach. They were quite amazing to see and definitely something I would recommend to anyone that is traveling in France. We were able to go to the Memorial and down onto the beaches. Really quite a moving a experience. 

We then had my Dad come and visit us on his great German tour and we were able to go Kloster Eberbach (Monastery) near Rudesheim, Germany that was really quite interesting to see. It was founded in the late 12th century and really very interesting to see. We then tried to drive into Rudesheim and were caught in the "Magic Bike Show" parade. So we were able to see quite an array of Harley Davidson bikes! Needless to say this "quaint" town lost much of its charm due to the thousands of bikes and bikers there. It really was beautiful to see the old castles and fortresses along the Rhein river. We were so happy to have Dad come visit and glad he made it before we left!

The following weekend my best friend from college (go green, go white) Theresa came to visit me. She arrived on Wednesday and that night we flew to Dublin! It was a great (again, very quick) trip. She had studied there during college and was excited to go back and I have always wanted to go to Ireland. We were able to hang out over the weekend and go to do a tour of Weisbaden which is the capital of Hesse. Our friend Emilie was a great tour guide and it was very fun!

So on to the biggest news....we are on our way home! It has been very back and forth and up in the air for quite awhile. I am not sure how many of you know this (would only really know if you are A) in the auto industry or B) care about this stuff) but, ArvinMeritor, Matt's company, split into two different companies. This is part of the reason Matt came over here. So, it wasn't necessarily a shock but we were surprised in how quickly it happened. Matt will now be working for Arvin Innovations (I can't seem to help but laugh and think of the quote "Synergy" from the movie In Good Company.) and due to this they were eager to get him back to help with the transitions. This has helped answer quite a few questions we have had as to where he will be working (Detroit) and how long we will be there (indefinitely). We are very sad to be leaving but very excited to get back to family and friends and being able to start our married life! I am also excited to start working again, but given the current state of the economy in MI I am not expecting that to start right away. 

So, I am leaving on Friday June 6th (yes, tomorrow) and Matt will be finishing things up and following me home on June 11th. 

I am hoping to keep this going and will keep everyone updated on our future plans!

We hope to see everyone soon!

Cars, Interlaken and Cheese

Well, today I had my first -run into someone I know on the street- experience. I was running (ok jogging) through this huge park (Gruneberg) park and ran into a lady I know through my babysitting ad. She was there walking with her son! Thanks to my sisters superb math skills, that it was a 1 in a billion chance of that happening. The factors included in that were the following: I live in a new country, I only know maybe 8 people here well enough to stop them on the road, this is a large city. So, needless to say it was a big moment for me (and apparently her as well, because she made the same comment). 

Above is a picture of our current car, I think I talked about it before but thought I would send pictures! This beast of a car is diesel. It is amazing. The gas mileage is unbelievable for a car of this size. It is filled up roughly every 1.5 weeks! Because of this car I am looking at a "clean diesel" car when I get home. There is a VW on the roads here called a Tiguan, some of you may have seen Heidi Klum/Seal commercials for it, it is labeled as the 'little sister' of the larger Tourag. I am in love with it. So I have caught word from the good people at Howard Cooper that a diesel version will be released in the states next year. I will wait patiently until then!

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. We were going to go to Nacht der Museen here in Frankfurt and then decided that we would much rather go on a trip than visit a bunch of museums in which most things are written in German! So Saturday we hopped in the previously mentioned car and headed out! It is about a 4.5 hour drive down and we had a wonderful day for seeing the Alps! It was 70 F and sunny with just a few clouds in the sky. We had a fun time taking pictures of all the Dutch families with their campers driving. There was an inordinate amount of them. So we took a lot of pictures of license plates! We arrived in Interlaken and walked around to see the sites. We didn't get there until roughly 3 (due to constant bathroom breaks by yours truly) and we were able to walk around and get some food. We did a little more walking around and decided to go out and get some dinner. We decided to get the local fare ie. Fondue! Dinner consisted of cheese and salmon fondue with bread and then chocolate fondue for dessert! It was amazing. Except for the disgusting amount of cheese and white bread. Afterwards our waiter said "I have lived here 15 years, I had the cheese fondue once and never again". Thanks, could of told us that before! He offered us some shots of a home made liquor to "settle our stomachs" and then we went home to bed! The next morning we got up to go and did a longer drive home getting some amazing views of the lakes and mountains. Really a great weekend trip. Here are some pictures.

We are getting ready for a trip to Paris tomorrow! We will be driving (ugh) and there are three other expats tagging along with us. Should be fun, although I have been there before I am looking forward to revisiting. We are also going to go to Normandy and the D-Day beaches on Saturday. I am very much looking forward to that. 

Here is an interesting thing. It has been pretty nice here lately, high 60's to mid 70's sunny and warm. Well, I have taken the opportunity to immediately pull out my flip flops and 3/4 sleeve shirts. I was so happy to go out and see everyone in good moods doing the same. Wrong. On the first day it was very warm. People were walking in winter coats with scarves and boots? I thought... ok well maybe this morning it was cool and warmed up. Not so. It has continued that way for the past few days. I have finally seen a few other people venturing out in "warm weather clothes". I have seen a few people in flip flops but I am assuming they are expats as well. I further confirmed my "the don't like flip flops theory" by going sandal shopping today. There were very slim pickings despite the fact that I went to 3-4 large shoe stores! Ah well, yet another way to stand out!

I am attaching the following picture because it is the hostel that Laura Fleming and I stayed at almost 6 years ago!

Edinburgh, Snow and not working

I was reading a Marie Claire that I get delivered and I read this quote from a woman who moved to Paris and she was asked what she missed most. I thought this pretty much summed up my feelings. 

"What I miss most about home: Wearing workout clothes in public; Aeda conditioner; corn torillas, smiling at strangers without having them think I'm insane."

I read that and thought. Wow. Someone else feels that way too! You wouldn't catch anyone here doing errands in there sweats. Not even "good sweats". It is exhausting to watch! I have not given it up and we get weird looks just walking to the gym in sweats!

Last week my Mom came for a visit! We were so excited to have our first visitor! She was brave enough to stay with us (our pull out is VERY comfortable) and we were so happy to have her. We went to Edinburgh for a few days and had a great town. Edinburgh is a great town and we were able to take a day trip to see Lock and Ben Lomond (lake and mountain Lomond) we also saw Stirling Castle which was beautiful. I would highly recommend Scotland and Edinburgh for anyone who is traveling. A special thanks to my Mom for bringing out so many of my purchases as well as a wonderful and restorative visit.

Matt's coworker is in town and wanted to go out tonight so we ended up going to a delicious steak restaurant (Dad, I am sorry. I got it well done or according to the waiter "burnt"). After that we went to a club in Frankfurt called XXL Living. It was packed. It was a rainy Wednesday and it was so busy it was shocking. Now, we aren't what you call crazy bar rats but we don't usually go out during the week. We also do go to clubs on the weekend but I was shocked at how busy it was! We only stayed for a little bit but we were able to hear a few choice songs "I will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, the polka version of "I will Survive" (not quite sure does this) and when we left we left to "La Bamba". We saw some typical German dancing (stiff bodied and head bobbing) and lots of tight jeans (men and woman). So needless to say we were happy to be home by 10:30!

I am going to talk about the next thing in a way that will not get me in trouble. I have been "watching" a little girl a few days a week. It has been a great **non-paying** (because I of course I would not take a paying job here) way to pass the time. So as I said this is not a job just a great way to pass the time while we are here!

As well, over the weekend we were talking to Matt's co-worker about how we haven't seen any snow in Frankfurt and have only had a few weeks that were really really cold. Well, all that bragging came back to bite us because we had snow on the rooftops on Monday! It continued to snow all day but luckily nothing stuck. That was the first time I have seen snow for more than 5 minutes in Frankfurt! The weird part is that the previous Sunday we had 70 degree weather with sun! It was the first day my Mom got here so we were able to show her a wonderful time around the city!

Our first visitor

We are getting ready to leave for the airport to pick up our first official visitor. My Mom! We are so excited to have her here and to be able to show her around and spend time together. Luckily the weather is good (supposedly 60 today) and we should be able to have a nice tour around Frankfurt.
We had our first sighting of snow last weekend (just in time for Spring) and it even stuck to the palm trees out back! We are glad that is over and hoping it was a one time thing.
Well, I will write more but we have to head to airport now!

Easter

Frankfurter Blog: March 22, 2008

We have been taking it pretty easy over the past few weeks, Matt has been working on a project at work that has started to equal some very late hours at work, so I continue to hold down the fort over here! I had my first paying babysitting job the other day, which was exciting! I suddenly felt 14 all over again. The Mom was there (working from home) and the kid was sick so he proceeded to cry for 1 hour straight. Now, to elaborate a little more, he is a Gaelic, English, German speaking child who was crying hysterically and I couldn’t understand most of what he said! But, everything ended well and when the Dad came home we went for a walk to the park. That is when I realized that even the Irish think the Germans are a little crazy! They have been here 9 years and still get frustrated with the “German way”. That makes me feel a little better, although, it seems to be a recurring trend that I hear. My big bonus is that I am getting paid in Euros…which I think we all know is the way to go right now!
It is Easter weekend and we don’t have much going on. It is a 4 day state holiday here so everyone has Friday to Monday off. I find it interesting in a country where people don’t join churches because they are state run and have to pay taxes, that they give everyone a four day weekend BUT that is the “German Way” and who am I to argue? We are hoping to make it to Darmstadt this weekend to see the town and go to Frankenstein Castle. But, the weather is not cooperating. It has been rainy and cold, so hopefully at least the rain will stop and we can get out! So, we will be celebrating Easter by sleeping in after watching the MSU game at 2 a.m. here!
We are getting very excited for our first official visitor here! My Mom will be coming to visit next weekend and we will be taking a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland! So today is off to IKEA to get some necessary things for a visitor! She is being brave and staying with us in our apartment! We are making the necessary changes to provide a comfortable and enjoyable trip! Hopefully, if she enjoys herself, she will recommend us to others and we will have more visitors! As well, she will be bringing over my new computer which will be instrumental in me posting more blogs (sorry, web logs) for everyone to enjoy.
For my parting thought/comment/idea I would like to explain the “German Way” of saying IKEA so that when you go there you can sound authentic. It is pronounced Ick-ee-ah. Lovely huh?

p.s. Happy Easter and thanks for the comments!! (yes I just found them!)

Wind, Strikes and Babysitting

I am not sure if anyone heard about the winds here this past weekend but they were crazy. We woke up early on Saturday and it sounded like a hurricane was on top of us. We later read that parts of Germany and Europe where hit with winds up to 150 m.p.h. There was even a plane that had to do an emergency landing in Munich I believe and couldn’t land straight. I am really not sure why they let the plane take off in the first place but who knows.

Then, this week we are facing strikes throughout Germany. Different public sectors walked out the other day demanding an 8% pay increase (wow, that would be nice) and were upset because the government came back with 5% and a longer workweek! So today the transit workers went on strike. But, not ALL of the transit workers. Only half. So the buses were affected and half of the underground/train system. There is the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn (not 100% sure the difference but I will leave that) and only the U-Bahn workers went on strike. Now, as a non-German speaker try to find this on the internet and you are out of luck! A day out with a friend was cancelled only to realize later that walking two train stops would have allowed me to take the right train! Ah well. Luckily the strike will only last today and everything should be up and working on Friday. Of course, there is talk of another strike on Monday so we will see.

I have started a new “business” here. I have decided that since I am unable to legally get work here I had to find something under the table. So I put an ad on an English speakers forum that I was available to baby-sit for those that spoke English in the area. I have already met with one family (Irish) and I am meeting with another family (American) next week! I have had a few requests for full-blown nanny positions but I don’t think that would be fair given the trips planned. So for now I am a free-lance babysitter!

Other than that things are pretty quiet around here. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the snow!

English movie theater

Last night we went to the english movie there and saw the movie No Country for Old Men. Great movie and I can see why it won so many awards! The movie theater is not the nicest theater you have been too, imagine the $1.50 theater after 50 years.
After you get your ticket you have the chance to get snacks, they are warm bottled soft drinks, beers and cold popcorn. Last night we were in the big theater which is a big step up from the rest of the theaters which hold about 100 people. After we sat down we realized that the seats are not stadium seating but flat all the way down, I am not sure if you have heard about the excessively tall Germans here but you will realize as soon as you sit down at the theater! We had to move down a few times to make sure we could all see the screen. For those that have seen the movie know that they use "texan dialogue" which can be hard to understand at times. I noticed that some of the German couples who were sitting around us would laugh at times or lines that weren't really funny, they were generally when it was some line that even native English speakers had to think about. So Matt and I talked about this after we and we decided that they A) thought it meant something else or B) they had no idea what they were mumbling and laughed because they thought it was appropriate. Either way it made for some interesting background reaction to the movies!
A few things about the movie theater, Matt and I had both seen a movie here before (Rambo and Kite Runner respectively) and have noticed the following: the movies rarely start on time, the lights might not go out until 10 minutes into the movie, the movie will stop and restart a few minutes in to the movie, after the previews the lights will come back on and then go back down for the movie and the last would be that I thought it would be a lot more english speaking people at the theater but it seems like a lot of German people watching the original version of the movie.
We are so excited that we have this theater within walking distance and that they seem to get the big movies very quickly so we are not to far behind!

London and the gym

Last weekend we were able to take a weekend trip to London. It was great to get out and see a new city as well as be amongst other English speakers (and yes, I know they speak “real” English). We saw a lot of landmarks and buildings from the Hop on/off bus tour and we were able to take a Jack the Ripper tour the first night. It was interesting to see a slightly different side of London. We were amazed that it took us a few hours to actually find someone who was from the UK. The first 5 people we encountered could barely converse with us. We thought that maybe we had never left Frankfurt! I think the highlight for both Matt and I was that we were able to read the menu’s at restaurants and to talk to the staff without asking if they spoke English first. It was a great weekend away and we can’t wait to go back and read more menu’s!


Fish and Chips!


Matt and Tower Bridge


London from the bus


He thought it was cheaper than his cell!

There are a few things that I still can’t get used to here. The one I will discuss now is the gym. We belong to one of the larger chains here in Germany/Europe called The Fitness Company (think Gold’s Gym). A few of the more interesting things about the place are the following:
1) Matt and I are usually there at night and have noticed that everyone when they are done, shower, blow dry hair and get dressed in their work clothes. This happens even at 10:30 at night. We feel quite scuzzy showing up in our workout clothes and leaving in them as well!
2) This next one makes the previous one even more confusing. The locker rooms seemed to be kept at a steady 90 degrees during the coldest months. So imagine getting done working out and blow drying your hair in 90 degree humidity.
3) The showers. There are apparently “communal” showers here. The showers open to both the men’s and women’s locker room. I generally hear men’s voices and then see women walk in. I really don’t understand that one.
4) The attire that is worn at the gym. Men prefer tight short shorts and shirts that are not particularly long. A matching outfit is very popular as well.
5) The last thing are some of the exercises that we see people do. The best way to describe them would be exercise videos from the 1960’s or so. A lot of legs shoulder width apart arms out to the side and quick bending at the waist.
6) The most German things would be: The coffee bar, the designated tables to set your water on, newspapers available to read while you exercise and the lack of personal space in the gym in general!

It's been awhile...

I apologize to all of the adoring fans that have been left in suspense waiting for the next posting. The real reason for this is that I haven't had much going on... But, I have decided to write about some of the random things here.
A few weeks ago we took a trip to Heidelberg for a few hours on a Sunday. It was a very easy drive just about an hour south of Frankfurt. It was a beautiful day as well so we took advantage of that by taking a tour of the HeidelbergSchloss (the old castle) that requires quite a hike up the side of a mountain (look back a few posts and you will notice this is a recurring trend...something about safety from attacks etc). The best part about the town is that it was largely spared during WWII and so it really is an old German town.
Earlier this week we received our "permanent" car. We have had an Opel Astra (look at the new Saturn Astra, it is the exact same car) for the past few months. It is a good city car being very small and somewhat quick. If you are looking to take a trip of more than 20 minutes you will see why it is a good city car. So a leased vehicle became available and we are the proud users of a Volvo XC90. This is not really a great city car as it is an SUV that at times barely fits down our street but for longer journey's it is great. One small downfall that we still don't get is that it is a manual transmission! I think most of you will agree that there aren't too many manual SUV's out there now. But this is a diesel manual. So my new mission is to learn how to drive a stick! Watch out driver's of Frankfurt.
After checking the weather and talking to people back in Michigan we are really starting to appreciate the weather here more and more. Today for example was 55 and sunny. We were able to take a walk through the large Gruneberg Park and see people playing soccer, walking their dogs, running and the first flower buds sprouting up. We are very used to it being 5 degrees with snow, snow, and more snow so this is great. I haven't taken a picture yet but we have palm trees in our back yard!
We are planning a trip to London for next weekend which we are both looking forward to. One of the best parts of the trip is the strength of the British Pound (or better yet, the weakness of the American dollar). When looking up hotels you think 100 a night? That's a great deal, until you see that GBP symbol in front of it and you realize it is actually $200. We are very excited though and can't wait to speak English to people!

I am not sure if most of you have significant drop in the usage of exclamation points in this entry but I was informed that I used them excessively before. So, to my editor, this ones for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some highlights of Heidelberg






Our Palm Trees

Updates and the Holidays

We just got back from a very nice trip home for the Holidays! We were able to see alot of family and friends (although not as much as we would have liked!) and had some nice relaxation and good old American food! This won't be long and I will write more later but we just wanted to say how great it was to see everyone and that we can't wait to see you again soon!
Also, I thougth I would include a quick update on my last post about the chocolate chip cookies and peppermint bark. It all seemed to be going so well at first. Then I baked some of the cookies....they smelled great and looked great but just didn't taste right. I think it had something to do with the dry brown sugar that I used! But if accomplished two of my objectives 1) a great smell to cover the deep fried curry smell and 2) cured some of my boredom! The only thing it didn't fix is my craving for a really good chocolate chip cookie! Next I started on the peppermint bark. I melted all of the chocolate (was even able to concoct a double boiler!!) and smashed all of the candy canes. It was only then that I realized that the candy canes were not peppermint! They tasted like the 'fruity' candy canes you can buy that are all different colors. So I was quite confused but at that point couldn't turn back! I made the not-really-pepperminty-peppermint-bark and let it cool. It ended up looking pretty good and tasted not too bad! I gave it to our friends at our "American Christmas" party we had before leaving and it seems like everyone liked it! But leave it to Germany to make a candy cane that looks like the original but isn't! Oh well... maybe next year!
I have included some pictures of my masterpiece!

Attempting to cook in Germany

As most of you know I am not the most "domestic" person out there. But I am improving slowly as the weeks go on. My latest attempt at this was to bake some chocolate chip cookies and some peppermint bark for christmas. Both are relatively easy recipes that I have made before. The decision to make these treats came about for a few reasons. The first of those reasons is that I really missed a good chocolate cookie. The second reason is that we are trying to rid our apartment of the smell of deep fried curry. It has slowly become worse as the cooking goes on. The third reason is pretty simple, I am bored. So I looked up the recipe on the internet and made my shopping list. After going to our local grocery store I found sugar, 'brown' sugar (not the moist kind we have, it is literally brown sugar), flour and eggs. My main problem was going to be chocolate chips, baking soda and vanilla extract. For the peppermint bark it was the chocolate and candy canes. Pretty much the whole recipe. So I start the hunt for the rest of the ingredients. I was informed that for baking soda look in the cleaning aisle (but no luck) the chocolate I found in cooking chocolate bars (so the cookies are now chocolate chunk). I finally decided to go to the gourmet food section at one of the local department stores (they are the closest thing to a Hiller's I have found). There I managed to find Arm & Hammer baking soda (for the bargain basement price of $5 a box) and vanilla extract (I had to debate between real extract for $6 or vials of imitation for .89 cents...guess which i chose!). My big find there were real candy canes! They were in a special section and you had to pay for them seperately but I got them!!!
So I was ready to start my cooking.... or so I thought. I forgot butter. So I ran to the grocery store to find sticks of butter, but had to settle for a brick of butter. yum. So my measurements were made in a used and cleaned out yogurt cup (!) and a very small spoon that I think is close to a table spoon!
So I am starting to get very very good at improving and feel I could make a meal from twigs and berries...or something close to that!
So those are just some of my adventures in cooking here.

$6.00 Maple Syrup and our Neighbors

We went shopping at the German version of a very low budget Walmart today. We like going there because they have a larger selection of food than our local grocery store and as well they have the home stuff as well. The big excitement tonight was a blender and hand mixer! We were in the international section looking at the american food and I thought it would be nice to make pancakes for Sunday breakfast...until I looked at the syrup and realized it was $6! Then I noticed the Pam spray was $5! So we decided that pancakes weren't necessary!

I also realized that I do not think I have given a good description of our neighbors. We live in a building with 5 other apartments and one doctor's office. We never seem to see anyone going in or out of the dr. office but their packages and mail seem to be picked up so we are going to assume for now that they are really a functioning office! Our neighbors below us seem to be pretty quiet, we believe they are a married couple with one child. In Germany instead of apartment numbers you put your name outside of your door and that is how the mailperson delivers mail. So their plaque has 3 names on it and that is as much as we know about them. Our neighbors that share our entryway (our apt. was once 1 large apt. now separated into 2) is an Indian couple who will be here for another 4 months..... so a little bit about this couple. When we first moved in it was just the man living there. It was a nice peaceful quiet existance. Then his wife came. Now it is another story. Like me, she is not able to work while she is here so she is generally home, cooking. Very aromatic cooking. That tends to drift into our apartment. Matt has often commented that he almost jokes when he comes home from work. I am sure the neighbor man is very happy with his home-cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. We aren't feeling the same. She also seems to blow a fuse every other day. Now, normally I wouldn't know about this but given that their fusebox is in our apartment I am constantly informed when a fuse goes out. She is nice enough but between the cooking and the constant knocking I am starting to feel differently!
We are very lucky and happy to have hardwood floors throughout and very tall ceilings. Our neighbors above us are also very happy to have hardwood floor throughout. As well the woman is a piano player/piano teacher/voice teacher/flute teacher/amature singer. She loves to share her talents with others throughout the day. The piano part is actually enjoyable when she is playing but when the 13 year old beginner comes over it is quite another story. The wood floors and tall ceilings are excellent acoustics and carry sound very very well.

So, our neighbors are all very friendly and seem to be very nice. But, I don't think the "shared wall" theory is well known to them!

We are still enjoying relatively warm weather here. We have had a week or so of very cold weather but lately it has been in the high 40's! It looks like we might get down in the 30's next week, but the city of Frankfurt always seems to be a little warmer than everywhere else!

Mosquitos, Christmas Markets and Roman Baths

Normally when December arrives, I look forward to a little snow, not a lot, but just enough to get in the holiday spirit! Today when I woke up it was raining....again. I was told that the weather here is closer to that of Seattle and I am beginning to believe it more and more! One of the last things I think about in December are mosquitos. But of course we have them! Our wall heaters actually get the rooms quite warm, but because we can't regulate it very well we still open windows to cool it off a little bit, but we are realizing that is letting in the little buggers! I am not sure when they are done for the year, but I can't wait!

The Christmas Markets have started throughout Germany and we have a huge one here in Frankfurt! It is fun to walk around and see all the food, drinks and doodads that you can buy! Whole bars are set up to serve the gluhwein I talked about before and there are probably 20 in a 2 mile area! I finally tried some yesterday with some friends in the area. It is definitely interesting. Think sweet red wine mulled with spices and served very very hot. Some serve it with rum in it but I was lucky enough not to get that version! During the day there are hundreds of people at night there are 10 times as many people! You are lucky to get through the stalls and make it up to one of the bars! They do close around 9 so you have to get there early!!

The Roemer is the old city center. There are very old 'bavarian' looking buildings that were all destroyed during the war but rebuilt exactly as they were before. This is the big open square in the pictures I have attached. It also houses the town hall and Paulskirche (St. Paul's Church). This was orginally a Protestant church but it's main historical significance is that it housed the first democratically elected parliament. It was destroyed during the war but was one of the first buildings to be rebuilt in the area because of its significance. The inside is really beautiful and when you look around you see all the brickwork. Or so you think. When you look closer, you can see that all of the brick lines are actually painted on! I guess that allowed them to rebuild it faster and cheaper! Outside of Paulskirche there is the Archaeological Garden. They are the ruins of ancient Roman baths and old buildings. It is interesting because they are in the middle of the city and they have even managed to build a restaurant below ground looking out on them! The other odd thing is that when you look it up online, they say you have to pay to go down to see it. But as you will see you can just take pictures for free!!!

The Town Christmas Tree with the Town Hall in the background


Another shot of the Christmas Tree


A carousel in the Roemer


Some of the stalls at the Christmas market


A Lego santa in one of the department store windows


The Christmas market at night. That is all people up ahead!


Archaeological Garden


The bottom right corner has a restaurant


The garden with Paulskirche under construction on the left


A santa on stilts! To tell him what you want you have to climb the ladder! Seems a little dangerous....

Pictures and Power Outages

We are very excited because a new Irish Pub is going in down the road from us. It is called Waxy's (real Irish huh?) and it is taking over the Hard Rock Cafe that was there. The good thing for us about Waxy's is that all Irish pubs English speaking staff! We were walking by the other night and noticed that they had a Help Wanted sign up. It was in english so we were reading it. At the bottom it says "please drop off a CV (resume) and a recent photograph". I thought this was particularly weird that they could request a picture. Matt laughed and said that he had a conversation with his co-workers the other day that explained it. They were talking over lunch and his boss asked Matt how old he was. Joking, Matt said he could be sued for asking him that. He then had to explain that in the U.S. you can't ask about race/religion/age etc. in the work place or before/during an interview. They laughed and said 'oh, let me guess, you probably don't have to put a picture on your resume either'. They were very serious. They then proceeded to all show Matt their resume's and pictures. Matt said that wouldn't be allowed back home and their response was "but, what if someone is being hired to deal with customers, how would you know if they were ugly." I thought that was hilarious. So, of course a new restaurant would want a picture, they wouldn't want an ugly waitress!!

We also had a power outage today. They are working on the sidewalk in front of our apartment and cut the power. This required them to get into our cellar and get through a locked door. Took awhile for them to do that but before we knew the source of the outage, we called our land lady to see what to do. Now, just a back story before I tell you what she said. When we first moved in to the apartment we were getting used to all of the appliances etc. I was doing some laundry, washing dishes and microwaving something. Now this would normally be fine except that all of these items are in one room on one breaker. So you can imagine that pretty soon, the washer, dryer, dishwasher and microwave were all not working. I had not been shown where the circuit breaker was and so I wasn't sure what the problem was. We called the landlady and she brought over a "worker" to check into the problem. well it was just the fuses that needed to be flipped back on, but I also got a talking too about using to much water and electricity. Ah well. So back to today. When Matt (who was home sick) called the land lady and told her that our power was out her first response was "what did she do". That's a fine how-do-you-do! Luckily we were able to tell her that I in fact had done nothing wrong this time! Around 3:30 here we got power back!

Oh, and I did make it to the pharmacist today! Now that we are both sick I figured it was worth the trip. They are very nice, but everything is behind the counter. So I had to ask for the "extra large" pack of Tylenol which is actual a pack of thirty tablets. And then he showed me how to correctly use the cough medicine! Quite funny to think that at 26 they are explaining it to me, but I guess that is their job!

Tylenol and Gluhwein

Just to start this out, there should be an umlaut over the u in the Gluhwein!

Today started out sunny and cool, a perfect day! But then much like Michigan weather it quickly switched! I was getting ready to go out to do some errands and looked out the balcony to downpouring rain! So the errands got cut short but that is fine. One of the challenges for today was going to be getting some Tylenol as we are out. This sounds simple enough, but to get more medicines (from aspirin to vick's vap-o-rub) you have to go to a pharmacist. You have to explain to them what is wrong with you or whoever you are going for, and they will give you what they is right. Now, most Germans believe they always know what is best or right. So arguing with them is useless! But, given that I wasn't sure how to ask for aspirin nor did I have the energy, I convinced myself that my headache wasn't that bad and that I could go without the Tylenol. Boy, I wish I had gone to the Apotheke (pharmacist)! But as they close early it will have to wait untill Tuesday.
As I went to do my shopping I went to the Ziel, this is the main pedestrian shopping area just south of our apartment. I noticed that they have put up almost all of the outdoor christmas lights and now there are hundreds of vendors out and set up. They are selling everything "holiday" related. Wine, nuts, roasted-salted-sweetened nuts, nutcrackers and lots and lots of odds and ends. This is the beginning of the christmas season! Quite a few of the stands are selling a popular drink called Gluhwein (again pretend the umlaut is above the u). It is a mulled wine which is sold around Germany and seems quite popular. It looked like it was getting ready to downpour again so I left with no gluhwein, but I am going to try some soon and will report back!

Other than that pretty normal day!

Turkey Feathers

Well, it has been awhile since I posted so I will try to get up to date quickly. We received our air shipment so things are feeling much more comfortable here. We have all of our clothes plus additional kitchen and bathroom things. We decided to take a weekend trip to Munich which was alot of fun! We stayed at a nice hotel Le Meridian which was very close to the center of town. We did the typical site seeing on Saturday and then ended at the Hofbrauhaus. The next day we drove down to Schwangau, there are two castles in this town, one of which is supposed to be what the disney castle was based off of. It was really really cold that day and it required a 30 minute walk up the side of a mountain to get to the castle! It was interesting to see and we had quite an interesting tour guide! We then made the 4 hour drive home.

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving and we were lucky enough to be invited over to our friend Mike and Emilie's house for a real Thanksgiving dinner. Emilie was amazing and put out a great spread! It is not easy to find alot of the 'normal' things for T-day meals so she made them from scratch! Very impressive! We were very thankful to be spending the evening with friends!

We recently found our new favorite store. It is the old Walmart's that didn't quite work in Germany due to their lack of unions and Germany's very strong unions. Compared to our local corner store we have been shopping at this place is massive! Two levels, the top being home goods (dvd's, clothes, paper goods, automotive, etc.) the bottom floor being all the food along with the lotto store, pharmacy (which is where you have to get any kind of medicine) watch shop etc. We were able to really load up on groceries and I am hoping not to have to go shopping again for a few days. Interesting thing in Germany, I think I talked about how you have to bring your own bags, well I noticed alot of people not using bags and loading everything back into their cart and then into their car with no bags or boxes. I thought it would be a pretty tedious job once they got home to unload, but anything to save a few cents on buying a bag!

Otherwise things are going well. We are getting more comfortable in the area and are getting excited for our next trip wherever that might be!

Below are a few pictures of our apartment kitchen, foyer and outside!

Our parking lot and entrance to the building. We are the third window up from the door!

Our building from the road (Heinestrasse)

Our street!

The main road Heinestrasse is off of

The back of the building. Our balcony is the one with the satelite on it.

Our kitchen (and laundry room!) from the foyer

Our foyer from our kitchen (bedroom on the left and front door on the right)

View in from the front door

Our "big" fridge and stove

We're back!

We just had a great visit home for our friend's Jake and Renae's wedding! It was a great time home and we were able to see lots of friends and family.
Matt came back on Tuesday to go back to work but I was able to stay until Friday! It was nice to be able to pick up alot of stuff that we forgot the first time! It is cheaper and easier to buy the stuff in the US than in Germany right now so I tried to stock up on things!
Saturday was spent sleeping and trying to readjust to the time change. Sunday was the same way but we also did some driving lessons! We currently have a stick shift and will be getting one permanently pretty soon so I need to learn how to drive! Also, once I learn I will be able to drive Matt's cars when we get home =)
So we went to the Real, which took over the Walmart's here) and practiced in the parking lot. If I do say so myself I did pretty well! Only stalling once! So I am on my way....
We are supposed to be getting our air shipment tomorrow so we will have all of our stuff, including my clothes and shoes!

The W curve

Oct. 16th 2007

When we were in our cross cultural training class we were taught about something called the W curve. Basically that you have highs and lows when you are adjusting to a new place. I think I would classify today as a low point on the W curve (it has now been our way of describing days to each other “high” days vs. “low” days). Now, I would say anything bad happened. In fact it was a pretty normal day if you were to just look at it. My mission today was to find a connector USB cable for my camera so that I could upload some of the pictures I have taken as well as pictures of our cars that we took before we left. Someone is interested in Matt’s car but needs pictures hence the need for the cable. The original is currently either on its way here or in storage. But I figured I would just go to the Saturn store I mentioned earlier. I figured I would go in and find the replacement I needed no problem. Wrong. They make every possible USB cord imaginable except the particular one that I needed. Well, normally I would just ask someone for help and see what suggestions they had (I even checked and they carried the camera I had!) but everyone I asked if they spoke English (I even learned how to say it in German so they would respect me more) and of course they didn’t. All of the younger workers who are more likely to know at least basic English, were helping people who wanted to buy Mac computers. So, not to let my one task of the day go unfinished, I went to the local “department” store because I heard they carry everything you could need. I went to each and every floor and finally on the 8th or 9th floor I hit paydirt. It was the electronic section. It was quite a big section so I thought I might have better luck. But again no luck. By that point I realized that I couldn’t just ask anyone and that I really was there by myself. I have heard it is the little things that make you realize that you are not in the U.S. (or wherever your home is). This is definitely true. After that I realized that I had not talked to anyone all day long. By 5:00 I was wishing I had a dog to just talk at! I did hear some English being spoken and was ready to go up and ask if they lived in Germany but realized that they were trying to convert people…… decided to just keep on walking!
Luckily Matt came home early (6:00) with his boss Thijs to try to figure out our cell phone situation. We want to buy prepaid SIM cards for our phones so that we can call locally without paying a dollar a minute. It went well and we should be able to make it work in the next day or so. It was very nice to have a translator with us and we are forever in debt to him.
I talked yesterday about trying the washer/dryer. Well again, Thijs came in very handy. We couldn’t figure out what everything meant on the dial or where to put the detergent. Now I know most of you are just thinking about my lack in domestic ability but trust me, I don’t think many could have figured this out! There were three openings for detergent alone. Not to mention 20 different symbols on the dial! So Thijs came and read the instructions and explained how he thought it worked. Well we tried it tonight and it worked!! Although a few differences that I noticed (besides 80 different options for settings) were the size of the washer, it held two regular size towels and 4 small towels. I could have put a little more but was scared! It also takes about 45 minutes to complete the cycle (and that was with me stopping it a bit early) and spins at a ridiculously high speed. At one point Matt and I actually thought someone was drilling outside. So after starting the dryer on what I assumed was the correct setting we realized it was quite loud and due to the restrictions on quiet hours decided to stop it. So hopefully it works and we can start washing our clothes!
Another big discovery that we made today was that we are able to buy the DVD’s at the german stores because they are also in English! We currently wait eagerly every night for Jay Leno to come on which they have cut down to ½ an hour so we are very excited to have options of watching movies as well.
We are also going to be taken out on Thursday by one of Matt’s coworkers who lives here during the week and goes home on weekends. So needless to say he is bored as well and knows the area someone (and is German) so he will show us some of the local restaurants etc. so hopefully we will be able to check those out and have some favorite places for when people come to visit!

Shopping!

Oct. 15th 2007

Matt started his first day of work today which went well. His deskmate coworker is about his age and lives here during the week in a hotel. So he is quite eager to get out and do stuff and we are happy to have someone show us around! Drinks are on for Thursday after they get done with work!
I started out my time in Germany with a cold which is great! But I decided to get to an internet café today to finally check my emails. That helped ease some of the home sickness. After that I walked down to the main shopping center called the Zeil. It is a pedestrian only shopping area. One side is something similar to the Watertower in Chicago and then there are sections with stores like Escada, Chanel, Gucci but there are bookstores (their version of Barnes and Noble or Borders is called Hugendubel) and a department store that I have not yet gone to. One of the biggest stores down there right now is Espirit. Which is very weird considering I haven’t seen an Espirit store in the U.S. in years. But it was croweded so they must love it. From what I could tell, their version of Best Buy is called Saturn. Imagine Best Buy on a Saturday before Christmas in half the size. That will give you an idea of how busy it is. I was very excited to find the Starbucks down there and actually be able to order something in English!
We live on Eschershiemer LandStrasse which means Eschershiemer Land Street. Our road starts at the Eschershiemer Torm which is one of 4 or 5 towers throughout the city that were left over from when the city was walled in. So we are able to find our way home pretty easily from that landmark!
Tonight we are going to try and figure out the washer and dryer!

Jay Leno and Ikea

Oct. 14th 2007

We slept in on Sunday trying to make up for a lot of the lost sleep. We then decided to try out the Navigation system in the car and try the drive to Matt’s work and around town. We ended up going to his work and then to the Ikea and one of the shopping centers. They were all of course closed but it was nice to see where they were. The Ikea was even bigger than the one in Canton and the shopping mall was an outdoor mall with a glass covering.
We got home and were very excited for Jay Leno at 9:00. That and Conan O’Brian are the two non-news American shows on. So we went on a walk around to “explore” and then we hurried home to watch Jay Leno. It really is the small things that you get excited for when you can’t understand anyone around you. So imagine our excitement when Conan was on immediately afterwards! It really was a great night. When we are lucky the MTV Austria is playing some shows like Hogan Knows Best, Flavor of Love and occasionally old “the Hills”. MTV Germany dubs over but MTV Austria subtitles so you can actually understand it! We are working on getting our satellite turned to get the British stations that also include American network shows. We are very excited about that.

Saturdays and the Gym

Oct. 13th 2007

Saturdays are somewhat thought of S-day. Shopping day. All stores are closed on Sunday except for convenience stores and apparently stores that sell wine. Which led us to notice a lot of wine stores that mainly sold other stuff, like the wine was a cover. But most of the stores at the train stations are open if you are in a pinch. So after we met with our landlady on Saturday morning (more on her in a minute) we went and did grocery shopping to get us through Sunday and Monday morning. Our landlady is Reneta Krause. She owns the actual apartment (not the building) and the one we share a foyer with and rents it out to companies. She also was telling us about her house they have in Alaska for fishing and how she rigged her Ford Explorer here to take gasoline instead of benzyne because it is cheaper. Needless to say an interesting lady. She was very helpful and had no problem getting new things for us if we were missing them, we realized afterwards that she just charges the company!!!
After that we went to the gym called Fitness Company. It is similar to a Gold’s Gym or something like that. It is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment so it is pretty convenient. We met with a trainer named Josip (Yosip) who liked a lot like Matt Swiss, but with a German accent! By the time we were done there we thought we would go to the English speaking movie theatre but were too tired!

Day 2

Oct. 12th 207

We met Frau Hector (who works with the transfer company and is considered a Destination Assistant) at noon to get our residency permit from her as well as have her show us around the town. She lives 2 u-bahn stops north of us so she knows the area well. When we first met her we were a bit scared. She filled every German woman stereotype. Direct, no sense of humor and didn’t really seem interested in us. But as the day went on we realized she was very nice (still direct but that is the german way) had a dry sense of humor that sometimes translated a bit weird and was excited to help us get the best deal on things. One of these things was a gym membership. We wanted to get a membership asap so we could get a sense of home and normalcy. She helped us get a good deal at the chain gym here. We went out to dinner that night. But were only adventurous enough to try a restaurant called Lousiana. An interesting thing there is that you seat yourself. There is no hostess. It seems to work well as we were served quickly. But still through us a bit. We are not sure if this is the case at all restaurants or not but believe it is.
After dinner we returned home to realize (at 11:30 p.m.) that Frau Hector had our keys! We were lucky to find that she had put her home phone number on our gym membership, so we were able to call her and she came with the keys. Our only other resort was to stay at the Hotel Mondial that shares a parking lot with us! Quite an adventurous second night.

Getting Here and Our Apartment

Our flight over to Germany was leaving at 5:30 p.m. U.S. time and landing in Frankfurt at 7:30 a.m. German time. We were hoping to get some sleep on the plane ride over but weren’t so lucky. I think Matt and I averaged about 1.5 hours of sleep. We did have some WWF wrestlers on our plane though. We noticed quite a few large muscular men and one short stature guy. We figured they were wrestlers of some sort. At the Frankfurt airport we were waiting at the baggage claim and there was Triple H. I am not a WWF fan but trust me, if you saw him, you would know too! So there were about 20 of them all together and we noticed in the group Mike “the miz” from Real World. He had always wanted to be a wrestler and it looks like he made it!
We were picked up by Thijs (Matt’s new boss) who was very nice and quite tall! He took us to our new apartment and helped to show us around. The place is nice, older and a weird setup, but nice. I will try to describe as best I can but I think pictures will be best.
We are considered the 2nd floor although we are really on the 3rd story. The first floor is a doctor’s office (we think a dentist but are not sure) and then the second floor is another apartment. On our floor there are 2 separate apartments that we believe at one time were actually 1 big apartment. Reasons: you open a door from the hallway that leads to a small foyer with a door on each side. When you are in the family room there is a door that is sealed off that appears to lead to the next apartment.
We have 1 bedroom, bathroom, family room and a kitchen. Here you don’t go by bedrooms, you go by number of rooms, so this would be considered a 2 room home. (kitchen for some reason doesn’t count). We are also lucky to have a balcony that over looks the next street. When you walk into the apartment from the before mentioned foyer, you walk into a small foyer/hallway with a door straight ahead and an entry to the kitchen on the left. In the kitchen is the dishwasher (woohoo!) the washing machine (still can’t figure out) and the dryer. We also have a small storage room at the back on the kitchen. According to European standards we have quite a large fridge, but in the US it would be smaller than your standard fridge, but it does the trick!
From the small entry foyer if you walk through the door ahead of you, it will lead to the bedroom! The bedroom is actually quite large, with nice widows at the back that let in a lot of light. There are closets (from ikea) on the left side and the bed to the back. The bed itself is a double bed and we can’t wait to get our down comforter and feather bed for it!
Across from the bed is the door to the bathroom. It is quite possibly one of the smallest bathrooms I have seen in awhile but we are making it work. The landlady has tried to install as much storage as possible (again ikea!) so that definitely helps. There is a lot of light in there as well from the windows and a heater which I assume will be good for the winters.
If you were to take an immediate right when you walked into the bedroom you would go through the door to the family room (yes, you walk through the bedroom to the family room! Another reason we think this was initially one big apt.) The family room is a decent size and it has the balcony off of it so we have a doorwall there. We are hoping to spruce it up a bit and our land lady Reneta Krause has promised a larger T.V.!

So after dropping our stuff off and getting changed we headed out to the grocery store so Thijs could show us the ropes. Pretty much the same as any small grocery store at home, except for a few things, first being that you pay for a cart (1 euro that you get back at the end) and second you must bring your own bag to put your groceries in or else you have to buy one from the store. The other interesting thing is that there are these stores (the name of the chain is Rewe) every 3-4 blocks. Some small some big but it is nice since you have to walk home with your groceries!

We then went to the Frankfurt facility for Arvin Meritor where we saw sunroofs being made. They are shutting this plant down and apparently some of the machinery is over 100 years old. We then went to the headquarters where Matt will be working which is in Dietzenbach which is about 25 minutes south of Frankfurt. We met people there and got a tour of the manufacturing there as well. By this point we hadn’t slept in the equivolent of 24 hours so we were pretty exhausted. About 3 hours later we were able to go home! We got here and quickly fell asleep.