To the Germans. Again.

Yo. 


Christmas in July bloggy gift exchange signup is here. If you are a blogger in Africa (or know someone who is), you should send them my way. We have one person from Africa signed up and want to keep shipping costs low for both her and her partner.

If you're waiting on an email from me, I promise I'll get to it ASAP. 

To the Germans: 


Generally, when I meet you, it is with a firm handshake. But excuse my french as I ask you what in the (okay, I can't bring myself to say "hell" because I pride myself on being family friendly, except I just said "hell" anyway, so it doesn't really matter, does it?) am I suppose to do when I'm leaving you? 

Example: Husband and I are in a choir (yes, it is packed full of old people, and yes, we sing old German folk songs, and yes, we love every second of it). Last night was our last night with said choir, so naturally we said goodbye. I listened to them sing this song to us (and wiped a tear or two from my eye - don't judge).



As the song ended, though, I realized that I was going to have to say goodbye to each and every one of them. HOLY BALLS! What do I do? Do I hug them? Do I simply shake hands? Do I do both of the above? Do I do none of the above? Oh - too late - they're coming towards me. This thought process ended in awkward hugging all around. Oh, you're German and I don't know you very well? Let's hug it out. Oh, you just reached out for a handshake? Screw that - let's hug it out. 


Needless to say, all's well that ends well. I still don't know if I should have just stuck with a nice, cordial handshake, but I'm not too concerned about it.

via

I love the Germans - really, I do. I may poke fun at their always-go-by-the-book-never-break-the-rules-five-minutes-early-is-really-five-minutes-late-I-think-you're-wrong-and-I'll-be-blunt-about-it-and-tell-you-to-your-face-while-I'm-eating-Schnitzel-and-bratwurst-and-drinking-beer ways, but I love them in spite of it all. 


I'm going to go home with silly little habits like...
-tacking "oder...?" onto the end of sentences to make them into questions
-dipping my french fries in mayo
-opening windows to air out the room every couple of hours (even in the dead of winter)
-separating my trash into 50 different bags
-having the word "doch" be my argument for everything
-eating my pizza with a fork (<-- that's a total lie and I will never do that)

I'm going to miss it here. 


In other news: We got our landlord issues worked out - we're coming home with only about 350 EUR less than we originally expected, which is nice. Thank you for all of your positive thoughts and prayers! Everything really does work out. 


Have you ever lived or traveled abroad? How the heck are you supposed to say goodbye to people? 

Germans love Panties...

I MEAN PANTYHOSE!! 


Oops. Anyway... Germans have this fascination with pantyhose, and I'm going to tell you allll about it. After I prove that I did, in fact, get dressed today. [Sometimes I have to document it, because let's be real - I spend 95% of my time in sweats.]

shirt: Primark belt: thrifted pants: alloy shoes: target

Please ignore the fact that I'm wearing my favorite skinny jeans yet again. I didn't say I got dressed in something different; I just said that I got dressed. 

Anyway. On to the main subject of this post, which is kind of a weird one - PANTYHOSE. 

I curse the things. In fact, I have only worn them maybe twice in my lifetime. My legs are ridiculously long, and I've never been able to find a pair that actually fits - instead they just sit a few inches below my crotch, and I walk around like a penguin, praying that they don't randomly fall down. If I don't have someone holding a gun to my head telling me to wear them - chances are high that those puppies don't go anywhere near my legs, no matter how pale or hairy they may be. 

The Germans, however, well... they're a little different. I noticed it when I was here a few years ago - all the women were wearing pantyhose all the time, even with jeans! I thought, "hmmm, must just be a phase." Fast forward 2.5 years and I'm back again, and the pantyhose wearing continues. Every day, with every outfit. Forget scarves, necklaces, belts, and earrings - in Germany, pantyhose are the main accessory. In fact, just the other day I was wearing this outfit, and a woman looked at me in complete shock and said, "Where are your pantyhose?" [Guys, I'm not kidding - I can't make this up.]

I just smiled and said, "I didn't wear any." 

I'm sure this came as an utter and total surprise to her. She didn't wear any?! Where is this American girl's decency? Doesn't she know that we wear pantyhose with everything?! Shorts, skirts, jeans, leggings - heck, even sweats [if they wore sweats, which they don't]. These people love their pantyhose. Give me back my athletic socks and tennies, because this pantyhose thing? That's just one part of the German culture that I will never be able to adapt to. 

Germans Wash Their Trash [& Other Things]

Hey party people! 

 scarf: won from Ma Nouvelle Mode

 jeans: alloy shoes: TOMS

sweater & shirt: F21

First: I know this Kony 2012 thing is going viral, but I think it's a really good message, and this is a man (among many others) who needs to be stopped. Let's raise awareness, okay? Watch this video if you need to know who Joseph Kony is. You will be disgusted, and probably want to hunt him down to punch him in the face (or worse). 

Second: Ever wanted to learn a really long, slightly ridiculous, completely made-up German word? You have? Okay, here it is:

Berufsmutternachzuchttransportkastenwagen. 

I will let you guys stew over its possible meanings and make the big reveal tomorrow. 

Third: I have a story to tell you about Germans. Now, something you all should know about Germans in general is this: they are incredibly detail-oriented, and really anal about keeping things picture perfect. They also like to "lecture" if they see you doing something that they don't approve of. I don't have a problem with this - it's simply a part of the culture. 

You should also know that they have a very intense (at least to a wasteful American like myself) trash system, the details of which I will spare you. Just know that there is no such thing as a garbage disposal here, and that everyone has like, 5 different waste disposal containers on their driveway.  The main point of the story is this: Germans "wash" their trash. 

You think I'm kidding? I swear to you - I'm not. Just a couple of weeks ago, our landlord came down and "lectured" us on having too much "Restmüll" (the trash that goes to a dump site as opposed to some sort of recycling plant). I smiled and told him that we were silly Americans and would try to be better. Well, apparently we have gotten better at cutting down our "Restmüll," but that wasn't good enough! 

Just last night, my incredibly uptight but oh, so lovable German landlord knocked on our door. I opened, wondering what we did wrong. He informed me that today was "Gelbe Sack" day, so if I had any trash I should bring it up. Then he turned around and said, "Oh, and you should start rinsing your trash before you throw it away." Say wha?! It's trash... I throw it away because... it's trash! Who cares if your trash is dirty?! Isn't that kind of the point of trash?

Moral of the story is this: In a society where a tiny scratch on a car is the end of the world, it is appropriate to wash your trash before throwing it away. The End. 

No School for the Next 2.5 Weeks...

What the heck am I going to do with myself until the 24 of October?
Even worse, what the heck will I have to talk about? We live in a tiny town of about 6,000 people, and have corn fields in our backyard. There's 2 banks, 2 restaurants, 2 supermarkets, a cocktail lounge, a pub, an Eiscafe, a post office/kiosk, and a couple of churches. We don't have bikes, so the most exciting thing to do around here is go for a short walk in the woods behind our house.
Don't get me wrong - I LOVE having this opportunity and being here, I just wish it wasn't so darn expensive to get out of this town. I mean, it costs 14 EUR roundtrip (that's WITH a Bahncard) for ONE of us to get to Frankfurt, then for a train ticket to get around Frankfurt for the day, it's about 8 EUR. Friedberg is a little cheaper, but not much. Basically, until we go to Croatia on the 15th, there's going to be a whole lot of sitting around here on Horloffstraße.
Oh, yeah... we're going to Croatia! We will be in Pula from October 15 to the 22, and we are SO excited! Wondering what the heck Pula has to offer? You're in luck! I've googled images and posted them below for your viewing pleasure.

This is an arch... (yeah, yeah, I know... You can call me Captain Obvious)

This is the Arena Istria in Pula

This is the Temple of Rome and Augustus in Pula

So there you have it! Those three things plus lots of really cool churches, old buildings, and beaches. Heck yes. I will get to put on a swimsuit for the first time in FOREVER. I cannot wait. 

Added bonus: Most people in Croatia can speak German (actually, more people speak German than English), so I will be able to keep up with the whole speaking German thing. 

Can't wait! I'm sure, too, that this blog will be the victim of my boredom over the next week or so, so I apologize in advance. 

--M&A

Holy Moly

Wow. Where do I even begin? I guess I'll start with yesterday. It was a VERY eventful day to say the least. We woke up, went to pick up the car that we rented, got lost on the way home from the car rental place, almost died from killing the car a couple of times in the middle of traffic (note: I was not driving... the man killed the car). Once home, we strapped the mattress to the top of the car and filled it with all of our suitcases. Internet is bad right now, but once I get the chance, I will post pictures. We were quite the ridiculous sight to see. Anyway, we got lost on our way to Echzell (darn those German highways), and went about 25 km in the complete wrong direction! It was crazy. Once we finally got here, we were able to unpack, but had to hurry to get the car back to Frankfurt by 5:00. We left the rental place, and hopped on a train to the main train station in order to buy a ticket. We bought our tickets home and went to the platform to wait.

This is where the story gets interesting. We waited and waited, and finally our train came. Or so we thought... turns out it was the wrong train, and our train wasn't going to come. We hopped on a random train that stopped in the town where we needed to switch trains, and it was so packed that we barely had enough room to stand. In Friedberg we hopped off, ready to get on the Sbahn toward Nidda. We had just missed a train, and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. No big deal, so we went up and sat on a bench. Then we found out that it was cancelled. Well, the next train didn't come for another 30 minutes. Guess what?! That train never showed up. By this time it was nearing 8:00, and the last train comes at 8:19. We sat down to wait for that one. Surprise, surprise, that train is cancelled as well. By this time, I was wanting to go give the Deutsche Bahn a piece of my mind! I mean, REALLY?!?!? All of the trains cancelled? Turns out the drivers had decided to go on strike. REAL nice.

We were STRANDED. We had no way to get home! Luckily, I was able to call the bishop's wife and explain the situation, and she came and picked us up! She is seriously the sweetest lady! We were able to get home safe, and all was well. We stayed up pretty late unpacking, rearranging, and building our awesome 39 EUR IKEA bed. Our landlord came down and helped us put together a SUPER comfy couch, and we finally got to go to sleep.

This morning, we were able to go with Sis. Uhlig to Aldi (see, she's AMAZING - Aldi is in another town, and she offered to take us with her on her weekly shopping trip). We got a bunch of stuff, and came home and cooked brats for lunch. We went and opened a bank account this afternoon, then our landlord offered to drive us to another town to help us set up internet! Oh my goodness! What in the world have we done to deserve all of this kindness? I am seriously amazed by how much people have helped us, how much they have done for us, and the fact that they ask absolutely nothing in return. I have thank you cards that I'm working on writing, but I have no way to express how deep my gratitude really is. I keep trying to think of ways that we can repay their kindness, and so far, nothing seems enough. It truly is amazing how things have fallen together perfectly. I don't think I'll ever forget any of these people, and I've known them for such a short time!

--M&A