Naga

While I'm home I bet a lot of my posts are going to have to do with food. I will be thinking about all of my ex-pat friends while I am enjoying it and I hope this doesn't make you too envious.

I had sent my mom some Vosges Naga Cookies late last year and being so sweet she saved a couple for my visit. Unfortunately they only have shops in Las Vegas, New York, and Chicago, so we'll have to buy more online. I wrote about these divine cookies before. They have to thaw for a few hours... I can't really handle the anticipation.

Oh how nice it is to be home!

Split between two homes

I always enjoy a trip back to normalcy - familiar things that I forgot how much I missed and others that I thought about very often. The most basic things become memorable - snow days, soft toilet paper, wide roads, using a car... and then there are the things that I never forget -my dog and her howl, food, family, and my bed. Sometimes I am also reminded of how things change and life continues to go on - watching my Dad take his blood pressure in the morning, having a newly painted bedroom, knowing what winter is like again, and my cousin having a new baby.

When I was checking in at the airport in Munich yesterday, the Lufthansa counter woman kept talking to me and telling me that after 10 years in Germany, she was going to be moving back to Canada. Then came that far look in her eyes and she recited the things that she missed... cheddar cheese, caesar salad, steak, martinis, nachos, potato chips... it went on and on. I could identify with her to some extent and then she began telling me how after ten years how her social life in Germany was not too existent due to the 'invisible barrier' that friendships often don't progress past. She only had a hand full of friends she could invite over for a bottle of wine just for the heck of it. She was also telling me the things she would miss most about Germany - clean public bathrooms and church bells topped her list.

I listened and wondered where in the world I would be in ten years. Everything in Germany is more regimented, which makes me happy to come to the 'wild west', if even for a short time. We are so fortunate to be able to visit our friends in family in the US quite often. Living abroad definitely has taught me that 'home' is a relative term. It's frustrating because living in various parts of the world there are always things that suddenly lend to the feeling of home, so it's difficult to feel complete in one place. If we move back to America at some point I will miss aspects of Germany, but we'll always have tie there as well.

The next month is going to be exciting and fun. I can't wait to visit with old friends and familiar haunts. The food is definitely going to be a high point - I'm going to make sure I'm soaking in everything I can't obtain in Germany. And in the meantime I'll be enjoying winter with a dog who loves the snow.

Bokeh

I have always loved the distorted effects of out of focus details that give the illusion of color. At the beginning of Lost in Translation (one of my favorite movies) it begins with 'Focus Features' production company logo and I can't get enough of the out of focus effects that they use, which resemble sequins. As I've said before, it's the simple things that grab my attention.

My latest interest is in Bokeh, the Japanese word meaning 'fuzzy or blur'. I don't have my 35mm camera in Germany, and I'm wishing for a digital one, but I want to try these effects myself. Maybe since Valentine's Day is right around the corner I'll do something sweet like these hearts.

Directions for creating your own can be found here. It looks like a lot of trail and error, but the results are bound to be interesting. The images above are taken by a Flickr member named rottielover. (How sweet is that dog?!)

Another photography idea I've had stashed away is working on some tilt shift photography, which I was reminded by looking at rottielover's images. The toy like results can be achieved using a tilted lens available at a site called Lens Babies. (image mcsixth via cheapshooter) The overhead views really resemble miniature models and look so fragile.

Starkbierzeit

With the Lenten season also comes strong beer (also called Bock beer), which the monks would drink as meal. It has a higher alcohol content and is quite heavy on the malt making it dark and a bit sweet. A Maβ (litre) of Bock beer is quite heavy. During one of my visits to Stefan's parents we were going to a Bock beer festival and his Dad told me 'Bock beer is especially good for the ladies'. I got a good laugh out of that.

Stefan and I went on a walk past the Paulaner Brewery last weekend. They are the makers of the Salvator, which is the original Starkbier Bock. The entire neighborhood smelled like brewery and wouldn't be a place I'd want to live. However, uphill closer to the Nockherberg , the smell isn't so strong.


King Ludwig I allowed brewers to sell beer – but not food – outdoors, which started the beer garden phenomenon in Munich. The first food regulations were also made in Munich with the 'Reinheitsgebot' or Purity Law. Beer production was to include only water, barley, and hops. After Louis Pasteur discovered fermentation, yeast was added rather than mixing older beer with the new. It is also said that the hang over isn't so bad with German beer because there aren't any preservatives. I must admit I do get used to the beer here, and when I go home and have one I now understand when Germans said American beer was 'watery'.

Many of the biergartens you can bring your own food, which I recommend doing. However, you must purchase drinks there.

Crochet

I feel like an old lady admitting that I crochet, but I do. I've been working on this blanket for what seems like ages. It is my first project, so it's a bit of a learning process. I'm still not entirely certain how I'm doing it... my mom said it looks more like knitting, but I use only one hook and know one stitch. The rest is a bit improvised.

I must say it gives me a new found respect for being able to buy a blanket at a store - or to see how thoughtful a handmade gift is. I think my blanket is taking a bit more time as well because the stitches are so tight - similar to a knit sweater. I was so excited when I found this 100 % cotton yarn, because it is soft and bright (wow... I sound even more elderly).

I'll be happy about the day that I'm able to make baby booties or sweaters, simply because I don't think I have the patience or much interest in making something for an adult.

Martha Stewart has these beautiful baby blankets and soft toys made from crocheting that I may attempt. I think they would look great matching this blanket that is taking a life time to finish. Now I just need to learn to be able to read the crochet language for patterns and learn a few more stitches... or else just improvise.

Only in NYC

There is an improve group based in NYC, called Improv Everywhere that does random things for reactions or as they say 'organized fun'.

I really love the one they have titled Frozen Grand Central. You can click on the link to watch it courtesy of You tube.

There are plenty of other comical public performances including the tuxedo clad bathroom attendant at the McDonald's in Times Square, which you can see on their website.

They also have a large group of red heads protesting Wendy's fast food restaurant from using a red head as a logo. During the red head subway ride one of the 'agents' as they say, was working as a 'subway entrepreneur' selling squirts of sunscreen for $1 so those with ginger hair wouldn't get burned. The reactions of the other commuters is priceless.

Fasching Dienstag

Manuel and I decided to venture into the chaos of Fasching. The tourists were especially enjoying the bags of confetti that strangers toss onto one another. I had a few groups of people ask me what was going on and I had to explain it was the last hurrah before fasting begins. It definitely bridged cultures - everyone wanted to be a part of it.



There were many inventive costumes, like the cyclist with 'anti-doping' while drinking something from an IV bag, loads of drag queens, and a lot of 'gemütlichkeit' (warm feelings of celebration) as the Germans say. Manuel and I still feel like we are doing something bad while we had a drink in front of the polizei. They seemed to be in on the fun and appreciating the costumes. I saw quite a few with cameras of their own. There were a few funny things to me - seeing the devil on her cell phone with the angel outside the church... and this little guy intently staring at the sausages.



It's always interesting to me to notice cultural differences in situations like this. First, people are much less politically correct. There are a lot of costumes that are dressing up as other ethnicities, and often not in the best of light. I'll never get accustomed to that. Second, people are more liberal with their children. Alcohol is part of the culture and there are small children celebrating while their parents are enjoying drinks. Third, a lot of political interest. I saw a few Germans with 'Vote for Hillary' shirts on, then when we were heading to Manuel's apartment in the Olympic Village we were stopped by a young Irish guy asking us where he could watch Super Tuesday coverage. He thought maybe there was a bar that would have it. The Superbowl at a bar - definitely, but politics? ... not that I'm aware of.



What I do love is the community getting together to celebrate. Viktualienmarkt was filled and there were plenty of people waiting to get in. Last year they didn't fence things off and I felt like I was getting pushed and herded, which isn't my thing, so I was happy we were in before it was closed off. The restaurants in the enclosed area were inundated with people wanting to use their restrooms, because the two toilet trailers weren't large enough to serve the masses. Manuel and I left to get more sekt through a back entrance, only to find the grocery was charging a 5€ pfand (deposit) for each bottle. I'm sure they made a killing on that.

It's always hilarious for me to see old people dressed up or having painted faces. People here also seem to go for humorous outfits as opposed to the over sexed versions in America. That may also be due to the weather. But the drag queens were doing their own thing. Oh to be a woman...





And of course... one with Manuel and his new friends. Who knew 2008 was the year of the drag queen?



I also wanted to put a photo of the panorama from the Olympic Village. It's really a beautiful view with all of the the major sites. To the far right is the Alliance Arena (not pictured), BMW's headquarters + their new museum, the Alps, and a bit of downtown in the far distance. I'm always so appreciative that Munich really built things to last when the 1972 Olympics took place. They changed the athlete residences into student housing and started building the subways, which are incredible. (Click on the photo for a larger view).

Moscow

We are adding another place to our travel destinations for the year - Moscow. I've always wanted to go even if only to see St. Basil Cathedral, the famous onion domes.(Ok, so there are a few other things I'm interested in). It looks like this is very likely in July, provided we don't have any issues with the visas that are required for travel. We already tackled one hurdle of Stefan taking a few days for vacation.

I see that this trip is going to require a bit more research than many others, since it's not as simple as booking a flight and hotel. We will need to get a visa as soon as possible, although I'm still trying to figure out if it's necessary to have flights and hotels booked before or after. It seems to me that having a flight ahead of time would make a trip more concrete when filling out paperwork. It may not matter so much due to the Russian embassy issuing visas for limited amounts of time anyway. We also have to be invited and have our visas validated by the hotel that we are staying in. Everyone I talk to that has been tells me that it's very much worth the effort and hopefully we'll soon find out! The paperwork itself looks like it's an adventure.

As of now I'm not really certain what to think of the Russian culture, besides the few encounters I have had with Russian women, which I know does not sum up all of its people. It will definitely be a fascinating experience.

(photo by David Crawshaw)

Kinder Fasching

Stefan and I attended Kinder Fasching at Constanze's apartment last night. It was funny to see everyone dressed up with some inventive costumes.

The children's theme was carried out through the entire party... they always serve pizza, have tons of games, prizes, and treat bags. Leave it to Stefan to ask them when they were going to have fondue.



The games were comical. One game we were given a hat, scarf, and gloves, along with a knife, fork and wrapped chocolate bar. Whomever rolled a 6 (or hearing Germans scream 'sechs' sounds more like 'sex') would have to quickly put on the outer garments and try to hack into the chocolate and eat as much as possible before someone else rolled a 6 and the cycle would repeat. I seemed to be continually getting 6's but after a few bites of chocolate I wasn't excited as I am sure the children get.



Another game entails these 'schaumküsse' whipped sugar with a chocolate covering that you must pick up and eat using only your mouth. I have heard of this game from Stefan's cousin's children. This is probably more for the entertainment of adults, but it's a typical German kiddie game.



They also had some games with an adult twist, including vodka shots with brause-pulver, a fizzy mix that makes an instant soda with water. Everyone loved the Waldmeister flavor, which I can't really describe.

We also played a balloon dancing game, which Stefan and I won and will receive breakfast at the Eisbach.

Nürnberg

Yesterday I made it to Nürnberg (Nuremberg for people from the US). We had just under two hours on the train, which was a nice ride.

The city is known for a lot of things, including lebküchen, the largest International toy fair (which begins next week), The Nürnberg Trials, Heilig-Geist-Spital, which housed lepers and was one of the largest in medieval times, the Nuremberg Kaiserburg, a castle made of sandstone rock (below) and Albrecht Dürer, the great artist.



It's a really beautiful city that of course has tons of history to go along with it. We walked all day and stumbled upon some great things.

The Hauptmarkt is a smaller take on Munich's Viktualienmarkt, with plenty of fresh foods + flowers. Located directly behind that is the Schöner Brunnen. This is the fountain I mentioned previously that holds the lucky golden ring. Finding the ring, without loads of tourists there to ogle it was a different story and took some time.



Several things struck me - they love their polar bears... Nürnberg is where the polar bear recently gave birth to twins, one of which disappeared and the other named Flocke is Germany's newest Knut. It's rumored Munich zoo is getting a baby polar bear as well. I really hope if they do they'll put some money towards the polar bear habitat there, because it's not so great. As we walked through the city it was evident the people are very proud of their polar bears, demonstrated through window displays and in several pastry shops.



The city itself is really quite old, and was a major trade route from Italy + Northern Europe. While the city was bombed during WWII and ninety percent was demolished, they seemed to have rebuilt very nicely.



I was happy to see the Albrecht Dürer Haus, where the artist mapped the stars of the northern and southern hemispheres and created many beautiful engravings, woodcuts, and watercolor paintings. His rabbit statue is a bit strange, but that seemed to be the norm around the city. Very bizarre sculptures.

There are plenty of churches for devout Catholics that dot the city. As we were exiting the door to one of the churches was really heavy. After getting it open a little old German man said he thought there was a child on the other side. We got a good laugh out of that. The interiors are distinctly different, however my favorite church was St. Klara, which is close to the train station. It's a beautiful ultra modern church with a lot of character and great design elements. It also had a slightly kitschy touch in the prayer room that sort of screamed 'viva las vegas'.



Also no surprise... I loved the lebküchen - the German gingerbread that Nürnberg is so well known for. I went for the moist ones with a bit less sugar, but they are divine. If Stefan's lucky I might just share them with him.