Things That Make Germany Awesome

Since I've been feeling a tad bit homesick lately, I've decided to focus on the positive and write a bit about the things that make living in Germany such a great experience in the hopes of balancing out the negative energy from my last entry. So here goes....

Things That Make Germany Awesome:

1. Matt is here
This is much better than than this time last year, when he was half a world--literally--away.

2. Flammkuchen
Of course, I would put something food-related as number 2. Flammkuchen is one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. It's basically a flat bread pizza topped with creme fraiche, onion, and bacon. Fantastic!

image courtesy of Google images

3. Rolladen: The coolest windows ever.
You wish you had these windows! More on this to come. (Yes, I'm planning to write an entire blog entry on these things.)

4. Wine
We live in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz, which produces the vast majority of Germany's wine. Now I'm not a wine expert, but I can say that German wine is generally sweeter than American wine, which is probably why I like it so much.

5. Castles (Die Schlösser)
Where else but in Germany can you drive down the road to your friendly neighborhood castle? There seem to be castles everywhere; some fully intact, some in ruins, all beautiful.

Burg Rheinstein

6. Old stuff
Our village was founded in 1300. That means it's old. There are houses around the corner from us that have probably been standing for over 200 years. Our house was built in 1997, so it's a baby compared to a lot of the other buildings around here. Every time I walk up the cobblestone street near our house I can't help but wonder how old the stones are and how many different people have walked there.

7. Four Seasons
I have never lived in a place that experiences all four seasons. In Texas and Louisiana there is summer, summer, summer, and fall. But here in Germany we seem to get summer, fall, winter, and spring. I love that. And getting to see leaves change colors in fall for the first time in life was really amazing. In a matters of weeks, or maybe even days, it's going to snow, and that will be a while new experience.

This isn't the greatest picture of the fall leaves, but I just loved this little group of yellow trees on the banks of the Rhein at the beginning of October.

8. Bakeries (Die Bäckereien)
German bakeries are great. I wish I knew more about what all the different treats are that they offer, but I don't. You just have to come visit us so we can take you to Bäckerei Schmitt, just around the corner from our house.

So that's going to be all for now. There are lots of things that I know I could add to this list, but just haven't experienced yet. For example, Christmas Markets. How could Christmas Markets not be awesome, right? But I haven't actually been to one, so writing about that will have to wait. I think that this list is something that will have to be expanded over time as I experience more of life in Germany.

Fingers Crossed!

Today I had planned, as I do every Wednesday morning, to go to kickboxing at 10:00. But by the time I got in the car at 9:30, my plans had completely changed. And instead of driving to kickboxing, I drove to a job interview.

I got a call around 8:30 from the principal of one of the American high schools, who wanted to see me at 10:00. I went, we chatted, and now I'm hoping and praying for the chance to teach art part time!

I'll keep you posted!

Rachel

Things I Miss About The States

Don't get me wrong, Germany is fantastic. But I think that a little homesickness just comes with the territory of living so far away from everyone and everything that you're used to. So I thought that I'd make a list of the things that I've been missing lately. Now, family and friends are what I miss the most. Hands-down. I didn't add family and friends to the list because you all are in an a class of your own. This list is for the silly, frivolous things that I didn't realize how much I relied on until I came here (family and friends are definitely not silly or frivolous!).

So here is my list--in no particular order--of the things that I miss the most about good ol' America....

1. Starbucks.
I don't really need to say anymore about this do I? But this is a blog, so I'm going to anyway.
Actually, one of the things that I miss most about Starbucks has nothing to do with their drinks or food. I miss just going there. A trip to Starbucks was always like a break in the day. It was a special treat, a way to slow down, relax, and enjoying something comforting. And my Starbucks in San Antonio (a special shout-out to the Quarry Village Starbucks, because they're wonderful) was extra-nice because as soon as I walked in the door, they knew who I was. Even if they didn't know my name, they knew that I was the Tall-Nonfat-Extra-Hot-Chai-Latte-Girl. Some of the baristas even knew that I preferred a slightly higher than usual chai-to-water ratio when making my drink. If that's not service, I don't know what is.

2. Low-Maintenance Household Appliances
Every time I use the washing machine, I have to turn on a water valve that supplies water to the machine. Then, when the wash cycle has finished, I have to turn the water valve off. Same with the dish washer. Our dryer is a condenser dryer, so that means that the water from the wet clothes condenses inside the machine and I have to dump out the excess water every so often or the machine gets angry at me. It also doesn't beep when its finished drying clothes, so I often forget that I'm using it and our clothes end up wrinkled. This, therefore, means that I actually have to iron, which I almost never did before. Then there are the adapters and transformers for electrical devices. If an appliance is dual-voltage, then all we have to do is use a simple adapter so that we can plug it into the European outlets. But if its not, we have to lug out one of the massive transformers. These things are pretty darn heavy. And the one that we keep in the kitchen likes to flip switches on the circuit breaker. So every time we want toast, we go through the same routine: plug the toaster into the transformer, plug the transformer into the wall, turn on the transformer (this is when all the lights go out in the kitchen), run downstairs, flip the switch on the circuit breaker, run back upstairs,  make toast.

3. No-fuss trash
Recycling isn't just encouraged here--it's the law. So is composting. This means that we have not one, not two, not three, but four different trash bins in our kitchen. One is for paper. One is for biodegradable stuff. One is "yellow sack" (this is for recyclables that aren't paper: plastics, aluminum cans, etc.). And one is for trash. We're also required to recycle glass, but we don't have a bin for that. We keep it on top of the fridge until we make a trip to the glass collection site. Trash is only picked up once every two weeks. And paper is only picked up once a month. The frustrating part is when you have something to throw away but you don't know where it belongs. Blue glass for example. They collect brown, clear, and green glass. But we bought a bottle of wine a few weeks ago that came in a blue bottle. So where does it go? We ended up tossing it in the green glass bin, because we figured that blue was closest to green, but we're still not sure if that was right. I miss only having two bins: trash and recycling. Life was so much simpler with only two bins.

4. Shopping malls
They do have malls here, and I guess you could consider the BX on base a mall, but I miss hitting up all of the usual stores: Macy's, Ann Taylor Loft, Gap, Forever 21. And, oh boy, do I miss Target! And Hobby Lobby. And Borders. And Williams-Sonoma. And Bed Bath and Beyond.....

So now that I've read over this entry, I realize that this is just a bunch of complaints about really silly things. Writing this has left me feeling pessimistic, and I'm just not that kind of girl. So my next entry is going to called "Things That Make Germany Awesome" (because there are a lot of things I could say about that).

Rachel


**I'd like to make a late addition to this list....
5. Football
I miss watching games on the weekend!