My Week: April 19 ed.

-I had German lessons and my weekly tandem meet-up. I still need to speak German more. Wash, rinse, repeat, right?

-I was super busy with preparations for my birthday party. I had 15 people over and it was excellent. Everyone admired the pinata that I made even though it does have a strange shape. It was a mash-up between Tony the Tiger, a rabbit, and then mummified, I guess. Hey, I'm not artistic, so what can I say? We had a ton of fun whacking the pinata outside.

Moo and Tony the Rab-ata

Moo was excited to host what was, to him, essentially a meeting of the Moo Fan Club. He was lavished with attention, used as a pillow when he was sitting on the back of the couch, and used the same friend as a pillow right back. It's awesome to have a cat who loves parties!

We also enjoyed the Most Exciting Cake Ever from co-worker S and delicious cheesecake from co-worker C. The celebrations lasted until 2 a.m. I'm still smiling from the kindness and warmth of my friends. It is truly a wonderful gift to be around people who can make a foreign country feel like home.

The Most Exciting Cake Ever: Or, Why My Coworkers Are the Best

It's my birthday soon and I wanted to have a few (well, maybe 15-20 or so) friends over for a party. The last few years I've had lower-key birthdays but this year I wanted something a little bigger, especially since I know more people now and it's always fun to party!

My coworkers are awesome. S asked me if I'd like a cake and offered to make carrot cake. That sounded awesome so I took her up on it, finding out that she made a Bundt cake. Of course that prompted us to watch the scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the main character's non-Greek future in-laws bring a Bundt cake to her Greek family, with hilarious results. We were in hysterics.

S decorated the cake in the style of the movie's cake but made it even ever so much better. I just about died of delight when I saw it. It's the most exciting cake I've ever seen! I love all the little chocolate bugs around it with the unsettling, anthropomorphic faces. The bunch of lollipops with happy birthday candles shooting out is very lively. She even wrote multiple letter As around the cake.  There's so much going on with this over-the-top cake that it is beyond fantastic.

Best. Cake. Ever. Thanks, S! It is such a treat to work with such awesome, thoughtful (and funny!) coworkers.

Is this not exciting?

Don't squash me! I have a human face! says the chocolate bug.

My week: March 15 ed.

-I attended German class and met up with my tandem speaking partner, as is customary.

-I went to a language cafe meet-up with a classmate from last term and his wife and dog. It's the first language cafe where Dog was a language option; how cute it was!

-I purposefully stayed in on Friday night; the unfortunate side-effect was that I missed a party. However, I'm glad that I stayed in. After my illness in February, I'm still feeling under the weather. I think I never really recovered and now my allergies are going nuts with spring on the horizon. I'm stuck with a sinus headache, my asthma is being obnoxious, and I'm completely exhausted by the end of the workday. I think I will make an appointment with my doctor to see if he has a different treatment plan that could help.

-Despite that, I woke up bright and early on the weekend (well, by 8 a.m.). It's a good thing that I did, too, because I needed to bake a pie for a party and it turns out that the party was earlier than I had thought it would be. By 11 a.m., I had baked an apple pie for the party and apple muffins for a potluck, cleaned the hallway, and run a load of laundry. It felt a bit wrong to be that productive on a weekend morning because I usually enjoy sleeping in and being lazy after a busy week. ;-)

-The party was really fun; our group met to celebrate Pi Day (3.14.15), eat pie, and play games. It's such a fun group of silly and smart people. We played charades, my style, in which everyone contributes verbs and nouns on separate strips of paper. The charader (is that a word?) picks a verb and noun at random to perform for hilarious results, especially since our group is a bit warped.

-I also met up with some friends for a grill party on the roof of the host's apartment. It was cold but we were in good company and I can now mark off that I've experienced a German grill party.

Why I like going out dancing better in Germany than in London

During a semester of studying abroad in London during my undergraduate degree (#1), I went out dancing at the clubs quite a bit with my friends. We enjoyed ourselves...but I dropped a ton of money on drinks; I think that made up most of my non-tuition budget! We always had to dress up when we went out because the clubs required smart attire: no tennis shoes (trainers), no jeans, and nice-looking clothes were required.

I have no idea if this is still the case in London since when I went out dancing there was in the last decade. However, I can say this: I enjoyed my time out dancing in Germany better. We went out for Halloween and I asked my friend if there was a dress code. I just wasn't feeling like dressing up (it had been a long week) and I wanted to wear jeans and some Chuck Taylor-style shoes. I was in luck: I could get into any of the clubs in the area wearing that.

We went out as a group, dressed as a wide variety of weird things for Halloween and went dancing at the club. It was much more relaxed-feeling, too. I was not interested in meeting anyone at the club; I was there with my friends and to have fun. Some people tried to dance with me, but I politely excused myself. I'm just too old* for all the silliness that goes along with clubbing/trying to meet people so I enjoyed it purely as time to spend with my friends.


*Okay, I'm not middle aged or anything, but I'm sooo over being a college student in my early 20s.

An American birthday in Germany

It was one of my (American) friends' birthday, so we got together at our (German) friend's house to celebrate. We enjoyed some wine from the Mosel region (sweet white German wine, my favorite), told some (dirty) jokes, and ate sweets.

Then we loaded ourselves up like pack mules and hiked to some local castle ruins for a bonfire. We had ourselves in hysterics as we looked like a very strange religious procession. One friend wore a Mexican blanket and the other wore a Teppich (rug). I was the least strange one in the group (for once) with just a book bag.

It was a fantastic night; we had a bonfire in the ruins, enjoyed some wine, listened to music, and enjoyed each other's company. It was such a lovely night and the first time I've ever celebrated someone's birthday at castle ruins.

An interruption: happy new year!

I'm still in the depths of writing about the epic travel adventure in December but now that it's January 1, 2014, I must say this: happy new year! Frohes neues Jahr!

My friend in Heidelberg invited me to a party at her friend's place. I've been there once before for another party so it was one of those nice situations where I knew most of the people there already. Even though I'm an introvert, I have learned to enjoy the challenge of attending a party where I only know one person and by the end of the night hopefully I've met/chatted with everyone else there too. Initially, as an introvert, it feels weird to do that, but it has the nice result of many friendly new acquaintances.

It was a fun party because it was such a mix of everyone. I love hanging out with international groups. It was funny, too, because the spoken languages kept changing all night. I heard lots of German, some Russian, Dutch, and of course, English. My German has progressed enough that I could listen to some conversations in German and understand them enough that I could ask related questions in English.

Just before midnight we headed outside and stood on the cold, windy bridge which had a nice view of the castle and the downtown. This was my first new year's eve spent in Germany. I know that people go crazy for fireworks, as I believe it is the one night of the year that every Tom, Dick, and Harry is allowed to buy mass quantities and set them off. However, it was very striking at just how many were going off! It sounded like a battle outside. I took a short video (horrible quality, unfortunately) and it doesn't even give the whole effect. Despite the slight feeling of danger because it was the amateur hour with some people incorrectly setting off the fireworks sideways, it was still an amazing experience. In the video, the castle is in about the middle of the screen. It's somewhat lit up.

Noticing that some people were accidentally setting off fireworks sideways, we decided it would be a good time to go back inside for the party. One of the guys was asking in German for what I thought I heard as a "stück," which means "a piece." I was asking what on earth he wanted a piece of. Apparently he wanted a stick (I misheard him) and we soon found out why: he was organizing a limbo dance! It was really fun to watch the tall German and Dutch guys try to dance under it.

Soon it was 4 a.m. and it was a good time to say good night and walk back to my friend's house. The aftermath that night's festivities was staggering; there was trash all over the place from the fireworks and empty liquor bottles.

Just a small sampling of the trash left behind, seen the next day.

I woke up today with a bit of a headache from enjoying some drinks, but nothing too bad. My friend made us queso and chips for breakfast and it helped to fortify our faintly aching heads. After "brunch" I bid her goodbye and met up with another friend who was in town.

That friend and I agreed that it would be nice to take a stroll through Heidelberg.

View of the castle on the hill.

We stopped at the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge).

This is a cheeky monkey near the bridge. It was sculpted by Gernot Rumpf, who also made the fountain in Kaiserslautern as well as other towns in the Pfalz. Tons of tourists were sticking their faces into the bottom part of the monkey's face for goofy pictures.

To the left of the monkey are some mice, which are a common theme in Rumpf's works.

We continued our plans for a hike on the Philosophenweg, which is a steep path up the Heilingenberg that gives a lovely view of the town. To get to the path, we crossed the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge) to the north side of the river, turned left immediately off the bridge, crossed the road, and started the trail on Schlangenweg.

The (steep!) trail is in the middle of the picture, just to the right of the white building.

What a workout it was! The path up the hill is walled and very steep with uneven cobblestones. It's not remotely accessible for those with disabilities and I had to watch my ankles on the uneven ground because I'm prone to spraining them. My friend C and I huffed and puffed up the hill and enjoyed the views at the top.

We then gingerly walked down the super steep path to the west and passed some beautiful homes as well as some Heidelberg University buildings. My friend recommended that we visit the park under the Theodor-Heuss bridge. Apparently it's a really popular place for picnics during warmer weather. We laughed at the honking geese and hissing swans (who weren't impressed by the dog that came up to sniff at them).

It is said that what one does on New Year's Day sets the tone for the whole year. I am happy with how I spent the first day of the new year: being with friends, enjoying some residual happiness from a party, seeing historical sights while getting a great workout, and even eating some non-traditional breakfast foods. It was a very pleasant day, made even better by fair weather (51 degrees F and even a bit of sun!).

An expat Thanksgiving...times two

For Americans, Thanksgiving is a time to spend with those who are special and to be thankful, of course. Thanksgiving is a truly American holiday and besides Christmas, it's when most* US stores and businesses are closed so people can spend time with family and friends.

This is the second time in my life when I've been thousands of miles away from my family for Thanksgiving. The first time, I was a student in a suburb of London (England). I spent the evening with two of my friends, who also happened to be American. We took the train to London and ate dinner at Cheers (yes, it's based on the show!). As we walked through the park and to Buckingham Palace after dinner, I called my family to wish them a happy holiday. It was a neat experience.

That was thirteen years ago. I now live in Germany and faced another Thanksgiving far from my hometown. It was not a lonely Thanksgiving, though; thanks to the connection that expats feel and to my friend's kindness, a bunch of us gathered at her place for a lovely meal on Thursday evening. We had a late dinner since only the two Americans had the day off. It was to be quite an international event, with Americans (just two of us), friends originally from the UK (the largest group there, strangely enough, and I teased them that we had this holiday because the Pilgrims had been trying to get away from their forefathers), a Romanian, and some Germans. It was really fun to share our holiday with them.

In the wonderful way that merging social circles goes, my friends from town were also invited along. My two groups of friends met through a party at my place and then at subsequent events.  We left for Heidelberg a bit early and dropped off the pies that I made (more to follow about them in a future entry!) and some of ingredients for the other dishes I was going to prepare. Then, we headed to downtown Heidelberg to take a peek at the Christmas market. It hadn't officially opened yet but the booths were open, regardless. It was very pleasant to wander through them and not have to fight crowds.

Since it was going to be a few hours yet before dinner and I hadn't eaten much all day, I grabbed an ice cream cone from Gelato Go. It was quite cold out so it makes total sense to eat something even colder, huh? I don't always make the wisest choices in this regard but I didn't care because the ice cream was delicious! I ordered a scoop of marizpan (I think) and a scoop of Spekulatius, which had bits of chopped cookie of the same name. I forgot how huge the scoops of ice cream are there so I had quite a bit to eat! Some people complain about the price for the ice cream (mine was 2,20 euro for the two scoops) but I don't think that the prices are bad considering how much they give per scoop and that their offerings are organic. There are even vegan offerings!

We walked around a bit more and I did some scouting for the upcoming trip that I'll be taking there with my cousins, who will be visiting from the US in December. It was then time to head back for the dinner.

In addition to the pies I made, I prepared green bean casserole (which I personally detest, but it's such a typical dish that I felt that I needed to make it or else I'd be denying my Midwestern roots). I also made a dish of seared brussels sprouts with gorgonzola, pecans, and cranberries from this recipe. If I were to do it over, I'd probably bake or steam the sprouts first, then sear them in a pan, adding the cranberries almost at the end. I felt that they were slightly bitter since they didn't cook as much. The cranberries split open so that's why I'd add them later. It was a tasty dish, nonetheless, and I wouldn't mind adding it to my painfully slowly expanding repertoire of things I cook for events.

This was our hostess's first time cooking a turkey. She made a gourmet turkey, taking the time to prepare it in a brine. I don't usually eat meat, myself, but I took a small bite and it was quite nice, flavorful and moist. The meat eaters raved about it.

As we sat down to eat, I told the guests that we had to do our very special and typical American Thanksgiving ritual: a special prayer, okay even for the nonbelievers. We even taught the guests the super important hand gestures too. It went as follows: rub a dub dub (rubbing one's belly); thanks for the grub (holding hand out); yea god (doing jazz hands). I wish I could have had a video of this.

We then commenced to eat way too much and it was entirely delicious! Our hostess made a wonderful meal, pulling out all the stops with homemade cranberry relish, cornmeal stuffing, mashed potatoes with bacon (for which I will always make an amendment to my usual disinterest in eating meat), homemade cornbread muffins with bacon and sundried tomatoes, a lovely salad, my side dishes, and for dessert, a cheesecake she made and my pies (pumpkin and apple).

The company was lovely and the food delicious. My friends commented that they didn't that they have ever been so full before! Just before midnight, the three of us who live in Kaiserslautern waddled back to the train station to go home. I was in bed by 2 a.m. It's funny because the last time I celebrated Thanksgiving abroad, I was out really late too. In the US, I'm usually in bed by 10 p.m. after Thanksgiving festivities, probably because of the food coma.

The fun doesn't stop here, though. Another friend invited me to his Thanksgiving celebration, which will be today. Most of the other guests are Germans so it made sense to have it on a day that they wouldn't be working or in school. I purposefully didn't eat much on Friday because I needed a break in between two days of feasts. I must say, though, that I feel lucky to have such great company :)


*too bad it's not all of them! This is an example of where the US can really take an example from the Germans and allow everyone to celebrate holidays with their families instead serving corporate greed.

Flea markets, racing, and more

Today was soooo busy, but fun. Now I'm tired and sore, sore, sore.

This morning, I strolled downtown to check out the farmers' market. There was both curly and flat leafed kale this week -- score! I couldn't resist buying some curly leaf kale, even though I don't really have room in my fridge right now. That's an entirely unusual situation, but the lack of fridge room is because I'm having 20 people over tomorrow for a potluck.

In addition to the farmers' market, I checked out some "flea markets" that were set up as well. They were run by various charities and clubs. I wonder if they were set up because it's the Kaiserslautern kerwe week, since they are not a permanent feature.

A sweet lady at one of the flea market booths was telling me about stuff for sale after I asked her a few prices (we were both speaking German). I picked up a candy bar because it had Raphael's angels on it and I didn't realize what it was. I put it down, then she said something which I didn't catch/understand, and she smiled and dropped it in my bag. This is what tends to happen when I speak German with people: I do okay for a bit, then get confused, and then the person helping me gives me something or does something nice for me (usually). That's pretty good reinforcement and really kind of the person helping me, isn't it?!

After that, I hurried home to get ready to head out for a community 5K run/race. I'm not in shape but I knew I could at least walk that far because I trek that much or more almost every weekend during my travels. It was a super family friendly event; people even brought their dogs, which was cool (but seeing so many dogs in prong collars was not so cool). It was really fun and I was impressed by the work put into it. There were tons of community booths, a live band, a haunted house, pumpkin decorating, temporary tattooing, and even zombies to harass runners. 

Look! Star Wars peeps. The costume of the guy in black was funny because his "tank" on his back was made from an old suitcase or vacuum cleaner.

?? Mile Run. At the starting gate.

 The race itself was very enjoyable. The weather was just perfect with a sunny sky and a temperature of somewhere around 20 degrees Celsius. There were a lot of dogs enjoying the race too. I talked to one guy about his dog, who was really interesting looking -- something that was a Chow mix but didn't have the blocky Chow head or thick body. The owner told me that they purchased a DNA test on the dog for $50 and found out this huge list of mixed breeds he was. I didn't know that such a thing was available so inexpensively at the consumer level; it's really cool!

I also saw another guy walking a Pomeranian who was so tired that he had to pick up the dog (who looked really relieved after that!). It was pretty funny to see a tough, muscly dude carrying a fluffy little dog. Seeing all those dogs made me miss having a dog somewhat. However, I then snapped back to reality and remembered that I wouldn't be the right person to own a dog because I work/go to school/travel so much. Even poor Moo the Cat doesn't get as much undivided attention from me as he'd like.

One of the many dogs in the race.

 Toward the end of the race, I stopped for a wine tasting. Man, do I ever love living in Europe! I don't know that US races would do that. Even with stopping to try wine and talk to a dog owner, I did the 5K in 45 minutes. That wasn't too bad for someone who's totally out of shape, didn't practice ahead of time, and took time to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

I had volunteered to help with clean-up. I was already a bit sore from the race and after an hour of stooping to pick up trash, I was really sore. However, it was quite awesome to enjoy the view of my work (and the work of others, of course!) when it was all cleaned up. Better yet was that there were two leftover pumpkins who needed a home. I happily scooped them up. I hope to have a friend who's from the UK over to try her hand at a really American activity. I'll carve the other pumpkin; I want to give it and some candy to my neighbor's daughter. They're German, so I'm not sure if they celebrate Halloween. Even if they don't, I'm sure she'll enjoy the treat.

Following the race and pumpkin rehoming, I drove home and worked on cleaning the house and cooking for a potluck I'm hosting tomorrow. So far about 20 people have RSVPed. I'm rather excited about that; I always enjoyed having people over to my house that I owned in the US. I love a party atmosphere and I'm looking forward to recreating it here in Germany. A small snag is how small my apartment is; we'll just have to get cosy.

Some last hurrahs: nachos, great family & friends, and even some bacon

It's been a very busy December as I've wrapped things up in the US and prepared for my move to Germany. Also, it's been a very fun December with lots of parties and well wishes.

Some folks don't want a fuss made over them and would decline having a going away party. I love festivities and enjoy the company of people who are important to me, so I didn't shy away from the parties. I hope that people don't think I'm an attention hog but it's great to celebrate and enjoy positivity; we don't do that nearly often enough in life!

At our work holiday party, my boss gave a very nice farewell speech. I was surprised because I was just planning for a holiday party (heck, I helped PLAN the holiday party itself!). I teased her as she began the speech and told her I hoped it wouldn't be a roast because I didn't bring a spit. It was such a nice speech and she said many kind things. I'm glad that I avoided crying, but just barely. It has been enjoyable working with her and we've had a great partnership at work.

My coworkers at the office threw a really fun potluck lunch for me. Many people find it funny (for some reason - I don't get it!) that I am usually vegan, sometimes vegetarian, and even more seldomly, horrible, and I will eat bacon, which is probably one of the most unhealthful meats out there. The coworkers are no exception and threw me a bacon-centric party. There was delicious homemade BLT pizza, 5 cheese macaroni and cheese with bacon, hummus and vegetables (another favorite!), salad, and of course, a basket o' bacon to add to any of the dishes. The basket o' bacon was from my coworker's husband, which was very sweet of him. There was even a cookie bar dessert. I half expected to see some bacon on it, but the cook did exercise some restraint on that one :)  To top it off, we had diet A&W root beer, which is my favorite.

I even was presented by a prestigious award! I was presented with the Golden Star Award for Knowing Things as well as a gold star pin to proudly wear. I laughed so hard. It's a long story, but basically, folks I work with think that I "know things" and often ask me questions about strange topics. Why they think I'd know the answer is beyond me, but it's funny. It was awesome that they put a lot of work and thought into the party and we had a good time with a lot of laughter. It definitely made me feel special.

On my last day of work, my coworkers also brought some root beer floats for us to enjoy. How sweet!

To round out the celebrations, I booked a dinner at the local Mexican restaurant in town. Some of my local friends had wanted to get together so I thought it would be a good way to do so. I called the party "The Last Hurrah...and Some Nachos." About 18 people came out, including coworkers, local friends, my cousins (how sweet - they drove 1.5 hours each way!),  a family friend whom I call my "non-blood sister" and her family, as well as my parents and brother. They even brought Arnie's cake from my hometown! We had a lot of laughs and well wishes and guests ate many nachos. It was fantastic!

After the party, my mom commented that she couldn't believe how many animal lovers were there. In fact, everyone had at least one pet and many guests had multiple pets, including horses, dogs, cats, etc. I come from a family of animal lovers and find that I have the most in common with other people who love animals, too -- especially horses. There's something very positive that can be said for people who have compassion for animals.

Following all that partying, I am definitely pounds heavier from bacon, nachos, and root beer floats, but I'm also so happy to have spent time with people I care about. They were so kind to send me off the way they did. I'll definitely miss them!