Ich liebe Festivals in Deutschland!

So Germany is definitely the land of festivals. People love celebrating, drinking, and partying when they have reason to do so. Germans are very good at separating their personal and professional life and living in the moment. When it is appropriate to party, they party hard. Saturday evening around 9 pm, a group of 12 of us went out for live music during the Polar Nacht music festival. There were 18 bands playing in 17 music venues, which were restaurants and bars in Boeblingen. We made it to hear 3 bands before people started heading home around midnight.

They had a huge variety of musicians and styles, everything ranging from djs, cover bands, original musicians, large bands, solo musicians, rock, pop, jazz, blues, etc. The venues were also absolutely packed with people and a slightly older crowd than we are used to in the US. The average age of Germans is 44 making Germany the second oldest country in the world, after Japan. But regardless of age, people like to drink and sing to classic hits in English and the handful of popular songs in German. Ryan and I were out until 1 am and between the four German beers and one shot of Polish vodka that I consumed I was done for the night. Sadly my days of drinking like a college student are over and I swear there is extra alcohol in German hefeweizen.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day of leftovers and chatting with family. Although the sun was out it was quite cold as I walked to the train in the early afternoon for Ladies Night at another couples apartment. Four of the five of us ladies got together for wine, cookie baking and a movie. From a social perspective, Ryan and I do a lot with the American trainees here.

Fun German Fact of the Day: Germans pretty much never eat with their hands and they hold silverware differently. Finger food does not exist and even pizza is consumed with knife and fork. The fork remains in the left hand and the knife in the right to cut and push each bite on the fork. When pausing between bites the fork and knife rest of the edge of the plate at 7 and 4 respectively. Unfortunately for me, Germans consider it improper to cut their food and then use the fork in the right hand.

Well now it is Monday and much to my disappointment, I woke up to find snow on the ground at 5 this morning. Here is a view of the street from the apartment where I watch Ladell in Stuttgart. Ladell will be 6 months old on April 13th and was particularly sleepy this morning. He has already napped over an hour today but not in his crib because he doesn't like his crib for naps. What a stinker!

Wo ist der Frühling? Ich bin krank von Schnee.

The weekend is coming to a close and we are both excited for two upcoming four day weeks since Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays here in Deutschland. We will be headed to Berlin on Friday and I will have some awesome posts and pictures next week. For now, life has been pretty simple.

I have yet again done some great cooking and we have had the following German dinners:

• Meatballs with Braised Cucumbers in a Butter and Dill Sauce 
• Oven Roasted Chicken Legs with "Wet" Potato Salad (served warm or room temperature)
• Homemade Bread Dumplings with Pork Chops and Broccoli
• Cheese and Leek Soup with Lettuce Salad (pictured to the right)

*With the lettuce salads I have picked up the German style by adding corn kernels and using a yogurt dill dressing.

On Tuesday, Ryan and I went to a Bosch German Culture Orientation. The program lasted from 8:30 am until 5:00 pm in a hotel conference room downtown Stuttgart. We were served a buffet lunch, morning snack, and afternoon snack. I was not sure what to expect but I hoped I would learn some "do's and don'ts" in everyday life here in Germany. My overall goal being NOT to piss off as many Germans as possible here. We were the only Americans in a room full of Indians (from India) with one young man from Korea and a young lady from China. There were actually three other spouses so that made conversation easy and I did not feel excluded from discussions being a non-Bosch employee. The seminar included numerous open discussion and group activities and I will say that I learned some valuable information.

Fun German Fact of the Day: In Germany you do not wish people a happy birthday before their actual birthday. It is absolutely taboo to say "Have a great birthday!" in advance. There is a strong superstitious belief that the person then might die before they are able to celebrate being one year older.

This Saturday evening was a blast! I ended up hosting dinner for 16 people total. I had planned for 12 so the group was larger than I thought. Our dinner included baked French Fries (because Ryan really wanted them), as customary here, served with ketchup and mayo; weiners and weisswurst served with mustard; and a large salad. Oh yeah and two cases of beer! Many people also brought snack food, dessert, and wine. Overall it was a great success. Since everyone is in the program here, we are all very flexible and understanding with each others living situations. Some people sat at our table for 5, some sat on couches and the floor, and others ate standing. We had to eat in shifts since we only had enough forks for 10 and some people ended up using very small plates.

Well I need to cut this post short since I am about to head out for a Ladies Night of baking, movies, dinner, and nails with the other wives here. I will finish sharing the details of our evening at Polar Nacht later.

Leben ist gut!

Sometimes its the little things in life that can make one smile. Since the family that I nanny for is American here with the military, they have access to American products. They got me two awesome things that make me feel right at home.

Life is good!

Warum weinen Babys die ganze Zeit?

So the title of my post today pretty much describes my week. "Why do babies cry all the time?" The adorable, now 5 month old baby I watch has definitely screamed his cute little head off this week. I am getting better at reading his nonverbal cues for hungry and tired so hopefully I will be able to outsmart him next week and plan ahead to avoid the crying.

I cooked three dinner this week from my new German cookbooks.

1. Pork Escalopes in Mushroom Sauce with Spatzle

This time I bought the Spatzle from the store and just flash-boiled it. Some day in the future I will make it from scratch. The pork was lightly breaded and when smothered in the mushroom sauce made with creme fraiche it was delicious! Definitely a success.

2. Chicken Soup with White Asparagus

My first attempt making chicken broth from scratch by boiling the crap out of a boiling fowl and soup vegetables was pretty good. The white asparagus was a bit different but fun.




3. Lentils with Weiner Sausages and Oven Roasted Potatoes

Linsel or lentils are very Schwabisch. The dish with bacon, onion, and carrots tasted decent but definitely looked too similar to baby poop for me.

Side note - We have officially been in Deutschland six weeks but only in our apartment five weeks. During those five weeks Ryan and I have officially polished off 3 Craten or crates of beer at home (Each crate has 20 large bottles of beer). And I have single-handedly devoured an 800 gram glass jar of Nutella. No more Nutella for me but bring on the beer!

Thursday evening we went out for dinner with Ryan's German coworker Jan and his girlfriend. Jan just returned to Germany this week after working in Michigan for six months. Our landlord recommended a REAL Schwabisch restaurant called Gasthaus zur Sonne. It was actually quite different than the food served here in town and was much more traditional. We enjoyed a great dinner and stopped at O Donivans, the Irish bar in Boeblingen before calling it a night.

Saturday evening was a much awaited event called Lange Nacht der Museem. All of the museums in Stuttgart were open from 7pm until 2 am. Many had special events like live music, beer and food, and other performers or special exhibits. I spent the day before the event shopping with Rebecca, the only female Bosch trainee from the States here and then had to babysit for a few hours while Ryan and the other trainees enjoyed dinner. I met up with everyone later at the Landes Museum or Altes Schloss to have a beer and wurst. The Museum had a band inside and everyone was able to explore the museum while they waited for me. Then we all headed to the Rathaus to wait in line for a while and go into the Hotel Bunker. The Bunker is only open once a year for this event. It was interested but not as exciting as it had been cracked up to be.

After exploring the Rathaus itself we took a bus to the Planetarium which also came highly recommended. Unfortunately we waited in line for forever until we got into the star/sky show. The presentation was in German and the room became very dark and it was after midnight so of course I fell asleep. But so did everyone else except Ryan. We all woke up to blasting music and flashing lights during the long laser show to end the presentation. We ended up calling it a night early.

These pictures to above are from inside the bunker hotel. The wallpaper was peeling off and the air smelled moldy and stale. The hallways and doors were super narrow and the place was rather dark and ominous.

Ryan and I have a rather boring week ahead of us of work and we will be attending a Bosch cultural workshop on Tuesday downtown Stuttgart. I will be cooking up a German storm the next few days and then anxiously awaiting the weekend.

Happy St. Patricks day to everyone!!

König des Hügels...und die Burg.

Ryan is much more experienced when it comes to castles, but today was my first real castle in Europe. I did my research and read reviews and determined that the Burg Hohenzollern was worth checking out. We left around 11 this morning and drove just under an hour Southwest to Hechingen. The drive was great even though the weather was cloudy and the forests are rather gray. The castle is up on a very steep hill that overlooks the countryside and the nearby town Hechingen. We parked near the top after driving up an extremely narrow road. We then had to walk a quarter of a mile at a steep incline to get to the castle's entrance.

 We were able to stroll around the outer wall, explore the courtyard, take pictures, and drink gluhwein while we waited for the tour in English to begin. As we were waiting in line the crowd suddenly tripled to about 30 people. Our tour guide who was about 70 years old spoke very broken English and seemed overwhelmed by the crowd. He was very knowledgeable though about the castle and the family history. The castle has been reconstructed about three times and has provided temporary housing to the King of Prussia for generations

.

When the tour began we entered the freezing cold rooms of the castle and were instructed to put on gigantic wool slippers over our shoes. Although they definitely protect the floor they also kept my feet extra warm. Our guide shared information for about an hour as we explored numerous rooms and galleries in the castle.

After heading back down to our car we drove through the nearby town and then left for Boeblingen to stop at the grocery store before going home. Since grocery stores and restaurants are not open on Sunday I have to make sure to plan ahead so that we don't go hungry. 

I tried to make another popular German dessert. It was very simple and consists of a pre-made cake similar to angel food cake topped with berries and essentially jell-o. I added the whip cream to make it delicious!

In other news, you can be expecting more food to appear on this blog because I bought two German cookbooks (German Cooking Today and The Best of Swabian Food) and will be attempting to cook and bake like a Swabian. I was fortunate enough to find ethnic cookbooks in English so my chances of making successful meals increases exponentially. 

Musik ist gut für die Seele.

The past few days have been absolutely gorgeous! The sun has been shining and the temperature has been creeping up into the 50's. Germany has definitely come alive.

On Thursday I ventured out for a ride on the roads. Equipped with ID and emergency money this time (unfortunately I did not think to bring those things on my last ride), I headed out into the woods on a paved road. I was optimistic that the road would go through to Stuttgart on the other side. Our landlord even told me about a path around the city of Stuttgart that I was hoping to be able to jump on. Unfortunately the paved road soon turned into brick and I was forced to head Southwest. I now realize the only way to get to the path around the city is to take my bike on the train with me two stops, a task which I am not yet ready to undertake. I kept riding on a narrow, two-lane "highway" in the country, with cars going at least 70 km/hr through Waldenbuch to Neuenhaus. The countryside was great and I passed numerous road cyclists. My round trip was about 25 miles and I made it back in time to shower and walk into downtown Boeblingen to study German in the park. My intention was to grab a beer, but the biergartens are not open yet and the patio tables of the cafes on the lake were packed. I settled with a pastry, my textbook, and people watching at the park.

Friday I spent quite a bit of time on the train. I went into the city to meet an American Bosch trainee's girlfriend who just arrived. We walked around the downtown shopping area and parks, and had lunch at a biergarten/cafe/italian restaurant on Schlossplatz. It is definitely great to be able to walk around and speak English. The best part of the afternoon was the sunshine. This was my first trip downtown since the weather has changed and the city is a completely different place. People are out and about, smiling and laughing, dining and relaxing outside. It was wonderful!

I spent a few hours downtown with Lauren and then took the train back to Boeblingen (25 minute ride) and then walked to our apartment (30 minute walk). Ryan came home from work about an hour later and we walked back to the train station and then took the train into the city, getting off at pretty much the same stop that I was at all afternoon. Fortunately I have a train pass so I can ride the trains as much as I want now. I probably should have planned it so that I could stay downtown all day but I had a large purse and camera with me and I bought a book while shopping that I did not want to carry around at the concert.

We met another couple for dinner at Weber and enjoyed a few beers and delicious German food. Tom, a Bosch Great Britain trainee from London is living in Stuttgart for a year and his Irish girlfriend Anna was in town visiting for the weekend. We had a great time at dinner and then literally ran to catch the train to the concert. We had tickets to see Two Door Cinema Club at the LKA Longhorn Concerthall and Disco. Since we had to walk a bit to the industrial area where the concerthall was we missed the opening act Dog is Dead and half of The 1975's performance. The main act was great though and it was definitely an experience to hear a British band in Germany. The concerthall was full of young people drinking, dancing, and singing along to the songs in English. The first thing the lead singer said when he addressed the audience after the first song was "Guten Morgen Stuttgart." It was 9 pm at night, definitely not morning, but I think the German crowd gave him points for his effort.

 After a great show we followed the crowd in the rain to a closer train stop and headed back into the city center for a drink. Lesson of the night...alcoholic drinks are expensive in bars downtown at night. My gin and tonic was 9 Euros or $10. I will probably be sticking to beer at pubs instead. Overall it was a great night but by the time we got back to Boeblingen it was 2 am and I definitely was not walking back to our apartment so we took a cab...

Friday night was our latest night out so far in Germany.

Backen und Radfahren, kein Bier ... noch nicht.

Today was awesome! I was a nanny yesterday and the poor kid was sick. Well he developed a fever overnight and after a trip to the hospital was diagnosed with a respiratory virus. He must have picked it up from day care last week and is being kept in the hospital so that means that I am off for a few days.

I grocery shopped, baked, and went for a long bike ride. It was sunny and 50 degrees, a perfect spring day in my book.

After having fun at the grocery store for way longer than I intended, I ended up splurging on a few baking ingredients. I have definitely missed baking since we have been here and figured I would give it a try. The challenges with baking are as follows; finding recipes, translating the ingredients, finding the ingredients at the store, converting the amounts from grams to cups, the fact that we have no pans or baking sheets, and that we still don't have hot running water in the kitchen to clean up.

 I was in the cereal aisle when I found Vollkorn Multikorn Fleks with a recipe on the side and a picture of cookies. I decided to make Knuspringe Plaetzchen "Crispy Cookies" so I ran around the store collecting the other ingredients. I found everything myself except for Sultaninen "golden raisins" so I had to ask someone that worked at the grocery store. I have found that grocery store employees generally do not speak English. These cookies also include the following ingredients; butter, sugar, salt, oats, baking powder, ground hazelnuts, and eggs. As a baking sheet I covered the removable drip pan in the bottom of the oven with parchment paper and for cooling racks I inverted the removable oven rack on the counter. That is what I call problem solving in the kitchen. 

The funny thing about the Multikorn Fleks is that they kinda look like dog food and taste pretty bland too. But the cookies ended up being decent and I shared some with our landlords this afternoon.

After boiling water from the bathroom sink to fill the kitchen sink and cleaning all the dishes, I got ready for a bike ride. I was not completely sure where I was going to ride since we are still new to the area. The challenge is that I brought my road bike and mountain biking is more appropriate for the area here. Many of the paths are gravel or brick, the area has tons of woodlands with dirt bike paths in the trees, and the roads are not really wide enough for a bike when you consider all the traffic. But I made the most of it and enjoyed my ride today. I rode a large circle around Boeblingen from Schonaich to Holzgerlingen to Dagersheim to Sindelfingen and back to Boeblingen. It was only about 34 km or 21 miles but I feel like it took me forever to figure out where to go next and stop at traffic lights. Not the most efficient ride ever but a decent workout and I did enjoy the sights. I rode on paths through farm fields that smelled like warm manure, through bustling downtowns as kids were getting out of school, and on country roads with windy turns that seemed to go on forever. Unfortunately I did get a bit muddy and have a bike to clean...

Karl Benz erfand das moderne Automobil.

Well we have officially been residents of Germany for a month and things are looking up. This weekend has been a busy one that began with drinks in downtown Stuttgart at a fellow trainee's place Friday evening. We headed into the city early to confirm our train reservations to Amsterdam in April and buy a month train pass for me since I will be taking the train at least four days a week for work. We had interesting experiences with the train Friday night. There were notices of construction, our train from Boeblingen was 10 minutes late and then there was an accident on another train that delayed and detoured our friend joining us for drinks. I thought these things NEVER happened in Germany. The train is supposed to be on time every time. Well the Germans aren't perfect either.

Saturday morning we headed out downtown again to meet friends for lunch and then venture to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. My original lunch plans had to be changed because a train line was under construction and I was prompted with a warning that the train was not running. Soo we had to walk from a different stop. In other news, the sun came out yesterday for the third time in the month that we have been here. Unfortunately this winter has been the darkest and gloomiest winter in Germany in 43 years. Awesome!
*The picture to the right - We went to the museum with Stuart and Tony, two other JMP trainees in the program with Ryan. Stuart had been here for one week and Tony had been here for 36 hours.

The museum was actually pretty cool. You pay 8 Euros and receive a headset (in English!) with prerecorded audio information and get to keep the complimentary lanyard. All visitors take a futuristic elevator to the 9th floor while watching a picture video projected on the wall. The top floor begins with the invention of the motor and you work your way through history to the present on the lowest level. The printed displays are in both German and English and the museum is overall put together very well. It has 1500 exhibit items and covers 16,500 square meters.

 *The picture to the right is the world's first motorbike invented in 1885 by Gottlieb Daimler.

The museum also has the first Mercedes car from 1902. After Karl Benz patented the vehicle he took it for a drive in the village with his son running alongside carrying extra gasoline.

So I learned a very valuable lesson on Saturday...do not go to a very large and educational car museum with an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer and a financial advisor that work for a company in the auto industry. We were in the museum for a very long time and I was getting hungry and burnt out on cars. Luckily we left for dinner and drinks at our favorite Swabian restaurant Sophies.

Tonight (Sunday) we are relaxing at home during the day and then heading to the North side of Stuttgart for dinner at a friend's place. Ryan desperately needs a haircut and lucky for all the trainees, the other wife here is a hair stylist. She has offered her hair cutting services for all the American trainees. I am bringing wine and dessert and joining them for dinner and a haircut for Ryan. The number of female significant others is increasing rapidly and I am definitely excited about that. There is currently one wife and one girlfriend here. A girlfriend is joining her boyfriend next week for three months and another girlfriend is arriving in June for three months. Unfortunately all the trainees are spread out throughout the city but it is nice to be able to have conversations in English with other young women. Hopefully I will be able to plan some day trips and get to know them.