My Royal Twin

Today I had a Swedish couple on my tour. After we were walking along one of them stopped and told me that I looked like HRH the Crown Princess Victoria (also from Sweden). I nervously laughed and she said it was a compliment. I commented that my mother in law has also said the same.

I don't think we look that much alike, and I never got stopped while we were in Sweden. I guess it's just a similarity in our face shape and dark features.

For the rest of the tour I noticed they were slyly trying to take photos of me. I hope that I don't end up in the Swedish yellow press.

(image miss maude)

Animals around the world

I have always loved learning the animal sounds from other languages. Some of them sound more accurate than their English counterparts, while others sound quite strange to my English tuned hearing.

Today I read about bzzzpeek on Kirtsy. It has the sound effects for various animals, insects, modes of transportation, and virtually anything with an onomatopoeia.

I must say some of the American English even are different from the British English. Also, be sure to follow the arrow for more sounds from other countries.

Have fun previewing all of the international animal sounds!

Fish

Stefan is one of those children that never had any pets. It's quite sad, however he's enjoying the ability to be a proud pet owner. At some point in our lives when we are settled and less able to travel we'll get a dog, however right now we are sticking to fish.

As soon as I met Stefan he was very proud of his new fish that he bought to spruce up his home on campus... that is until Christmas break came. He was traveling to Las Vegas and New York City and needed someone to care for his only surviving fish. That's where my love and devotion took over and I accepted Noah the fish into my home. After Christmas break passed and Noah remained, my roommates resorted to making speech bubble commentary and taping them to his tank saying 'Stefan I miss my Dad'. He also suffered a lot of ridicule for his unique transparent appearance.

Needless to say after that year Noah moved in with my parents and is still living on 5 years later. He's fought random fish aliments and no longer floats belly up thanks to the pea cure. Somehow feeding fish a peeled pea helps their intestinal tract. At first he was reluctant to eat them, which we attribute to his bad vision, however he now awaits his daily treat.

Here in Munich Stefan and I have what he calls our 'fish dealer'. The place we buy our fish is on the outskirts of Munich and it's a serious establishment that is slightly hidden in the basement of a building. In this store they have computers that calculate the pH and keep the temperature and chemicals balanced. It's quite a sight. Not long after we got married we also bought a fish tank and many fish from this fish dealer. We stuck to the fresh water fish despite the more beautiful tanks being filled with tropical fish and corals exactly like the ones we saw in the Maldives.

When we bought our fish we were told they would reproduce. While my parents were visiting my Mom spotted our first baby (that's him at a month and a half) and just today Stefan called me at school to let me know we have 5 new additions. I can't get over how small they are or how quickly they grow. As for the pea treat, our fish weren't as accepting, or perhaps they didn't have the chance to be because our snails instantly found a new favorite treat. They are also quickly reproducing, which means our plants are getting eaten.

As a side note, Stefan's mother claims if a Chinese restaurant has a fish tank then they give money to the mafia. I have no idea where she came up with this, but I find it comical.

Pizza + Intelligence

Lately I have been loving pizza. Unfortunately Germany doesn't do carry out pizza like the US. I have had one carry out pizza here and it was horrible. Instead we typically get them at an Italian restaurant or enjoy a frozen pizza. My favorite brand is 'Wagner's La Pizzia Rusticale'.

Coincidentally Stefan was recently telling me about a new German book titled 'Generation Doof' (Generation Stupid). There was even a write up about it this past weekend in the Abendzeitung. The authors, Anne Weiss and Stefan Bonner, are worried German youngsters are stupid since they instantly think pizza when they hear 'Wagner' as opposed to King Ludwig II's inspiration Richard Wagner. Many children also believe Frankfurt is located in the middle of the Black Forest, but they can recognize the annoying Jamba 'Crazy Frog' ring tones.

What I found comical in the article were the comparisons to the US. At first they were saying that similar books had come out in the US, then the last paragraph of the article said:

"Und, noch ein kleiner Trost für uns: Die Amerikaner sind angeblich noch viel dümmer. Da denkt immerhin jeder Fünfte, dass sich die Erde um die Sonne dreht."

translating to:

"There's still a consolation for us: The Americans are even more stupid. Since every fifth person still thinks the earth revolves around the sun."

I'm not sure if they were trying to be smart rather than saying four out of five people don't realize it does, or if they simply miswrote and therefore don't look intelligent. Thankfully Stefan wasn't sure either.

So perhaps I will read this book and challenge myself with the German and understanding more of their psyche.


In other pizza related things, tonight I made a Pomodori apple dessert pizza. Pomodori's is a delicious wood fired pizza restaurant located right by the University of Cincinnati. However, since we're not anywhere near Cincinnati, I decided to make one tonight.

Delicious!

Which reminds me of the cultural differences... When Stefan first came to the US he didn't realize people don't order an entire pizza to eat themselves, and that a few slices is plenty. We were ordering pizza one night and deciding if one or two was enough for us and my house mates. He was being polite and going with the flow, but he was afraid he'd still be hungry - that is until he found how different the pizza is. I miss those naïve days, but they still make me laugh.

Postcards from yo Momma

My sister knows me so well and understands my sense of humor, which I would hope after 20 something years of living together.

Once again she comes through in sending me a terrific website called Postcards from yo Momma.

Rather than postcards like Post Secret, the website contains messages and emails sent from mothers to their children.

It's definitely hilarious and a fun glimpse into the lives of others. It's also nice to know there are mothers that worry more than my own -who would have thought?

Don't worry mom... your emails won't be submitted to this website, but I will enjoy the fact that other people's mothers can be quite neurotic.

Thanks Meem!

10 days with my parents

I was forewarned that it would be strange to have my parents depending on my language skills and for me to be more in control of money, since we are able to convert it amongst ourselves. It's definitely a role reversal.

Not only do I find myself ordering food for everyone (simply for the elements of time and clarity), but I also find myself enjoying the fact that I am able to show them around and tell them a little something about Munich. Everything small is new to them and I am able to teach them little things like how to open the door to the subway. I love seeing their views and what surprises them along the way.

It's also been nice for my parents to see that Munich really is 'the village of a million people'. On Monday, we ventured to the Englischer Garten, in hopes of seeing dogs running about without leashes (thankfully my parents also appreciate the simple things). Who else would we see, but a tour guide from Wombats, the hostel that our tour company works with. He's a real jovial chatty character that quickly embraced my parents. We walked through the park as he finished guiding his group back towards Odeonsplatz.

Then yesterday, I saw one of the workers from my favorite Indian restaurant, Ganesha, at the subway. We both said hello and my Dad said I must really frequent this place if he recognized me. My mom said she recognized another woman on one of the buses from the previous day. I just laughed.

These simple exchanges really make me content. There are a few characters that are always standard, one is a big Newfoundland in front of a bike shop and another is a man who closely resembles Santa Claus who wears very short lederhosen everyday. Time and time again I tell my visitors about this man and what do you know- he's ALWAYS at Viktualienmarkt, and it never fails that he has a beer with him. Yesterday he was battling the gale force winds with his entire face covered with a bandana wild west style. He'd lift up the corner and take a sip of beer. Things like that make this home for me. I still need to get a photo of lederhosen Santa.

Some of my parent's favorite things have been seeing the old city limits from the 1300's, the fresh flowers and fruits that are sold around the city at random stands, and the various breads that are equally delicious. Of course there is also the beer.


I was also able to show them the 'dönertier' (döner animal) made famous by comedians Erkan & Stefan. My mom quickly understood why I don't eat meat here if I can help it.




Bavarians and specifically Münchener's for that matter, have a lot of pride. The 'Münchener Kindl' is a major symbol of Munich, and I am still seeing new examples of this through the city. Someone should organize a photo scavenger hunt to see how many they can capture, because they seem to be virtually everywhere. The little details like this keep things interesting.





Something else that we all got a kick out of is the 'erste hilfe 24h'. If you are ever in the vicinity of the Oktoberfest and find yourself needing some first aid, this will be your stop. My favorite things are that along side the typical bandaids and headache relievers are drug tests, pregnancy tests, odor spray, condoms, and coming soon dental care.

Today we went to the Olympic park and BMW's new museum, which I will write about as soon as I get some more time!

Stuff white people like

This is not for the easily offended.

My sister sent me an interesting website called Stuff white people like, which I think is hilarious. Of course with this many generalizations anyone could be categorized into being a 'white person', but little mundane details exacerbated into essays is slightly Seinfeld and very observant.

She made it clear that I fit into many of these categories... I like the arts and have an art degree for extra 'white people' points, I love to travel, I want multilingual children, a few months ago I even bought the book pictured in photo #82. I am sure there are plenty of other areas of 'whiteness' in my life, but these are the most obvious. There's nothing like being pigeonholed.

German oddities

We have had heck of a time getting mail, especially when I first moved here. There are all kinds of hoops to jump through being an international couple. We had to get our marriage license translated, apostilled - which is basically a state level certification that it is indeed legit, and plenty meetings at the Kreisverwaltungsreferat.

While we were living in Frankfurt for two weeks, I had to pick up our translated copies near the train station. That was an experience. Train stations are typically not the best areas to be around, I've never felt unsafe, but they seem to draw unsavory characters that make me not want to linger too long. Or in Munich, they draw people like Gollum.

Frankfurt has a seedy train station, probably because it's so close to their red light district. A rather large red light district thanks to all of the business and banking that goes on there. Of course I had to venture through this area because our translations were waiting for me to pick them up. As I turned onto the street, there were 2 shady men – across from a school getting high. I really wouldn't be surprised if they were smoking crack. These are the efforts I had to go through to get these translations. The photo above is the more tourist friendly Römer in downtown Frankfurt.

Back to the mail situation - my mother had mailed our memory copy marriage license, which Stefan also paid to get translated. I left it behind because it wasn't official enough and I had loads of other copies, but he still thought we should have it. Over a year and a half later, it still has never arrived. Fortunately it wasn't necessary for me to be legal here, although I would still like to have it. The package also contained my expensive makeup brushes and some Oreos. I would love to know where it is. My family also sent a card for our one year anniversary, which was also sacrificed to the Deutsche Post.

I was reminded of this because we recently received a postcard stating our wedding photos were in - the same wedding photos that we ordered online around November 2006. We had stopped to get them several times and were told they didn't have them. It's really quite comical.

A couple more comical things. I noticed this at a grocery where Stefan purchased some meat. The meat counter had a rather offensive name (pictured on the actual receipt). English is widely spoken here or at least understood - this is a bit crazy for me to comprehend how they would name their deli something so offensive.

And finally... a great story about miscommunication. Many people are happy to speak English . However, people make small errors on occasion, such as my mother in law saying 'remember me' rather than 'remind me'. It's rather endearing and sweet. I am sure I make many more mistakes in German.

One of Stefan's co-workers fell into this trap, in a horrible place... at border and customs checking while entering the US. The passport control agent was looking at his passport and uncertain of what was going on the coworker said, 'Do you have a problem?' (this is how it would be said as a direct translation from German). The passport control man said, 'No, but now you do.' He was sent for a second screening and learned the hard way. Moments like those you never forget - or repeat!