My week: September 4 ed.

Man, was I tired at the beginning of this week. Even though I wasn't sick from allergies, which have been mostly held at bay thanks to an aggressive daily routine of allergy pills and maintenance breathing steroids, my immune system still freaks about goldenrod and other allergens. I kept wondering why I was so tired but when I saw the goldenrod, I figured that must be the reason. I haven't been sleeping well because of congestion and also since my bedroom gets too hot. If I leave the rolladen up for air flow, then there's too much light coming into my room. If I leave them down, then the room gets stuffy. I turn on the fan and then I'm too cold. The whole thing is a bit ridiculous.

I met with my tandem partner and for the second time, followed her recommendation where we'd each speak our target language the whole time. I managed to work my way through a complex sentence, complete with relative clauses and multiple ideas, and I did it right. Yay! It's easy to get lost in German sentences, especially when using subordinating conjunctions and relative clauses. After watching out for verb order and keeping an eye out for splittable verbs, by the end it feels as if one has come up for air.

Another night, I invited my friend Ay. and her sister over for dinner. Ay. is from Pakistan and wanted to try to macaroni and cheese because "it's what single dads always make for their kids in American movies." She is always cracking me up and I tumbled into a heap of giggles over this reasoning. I bought Kraft Mac n' Cheese because she wanted the typical kind. Both gals liked it. Heck, I like it, as low-brow as it is, but mostly avoid it because the wheat in it gives me a headache.

During the weekend, I took a trip to the Stuttgart region. My friends C+K, who had previously lived in Neustadt, moved there. While I'm sad that they're no longer an easy 30-minute train ride away, I'm still glad to be in contact with them and the Stuttgart area does have some interesting activities.

On Saturday, we spent some time at their new apartment then started our journey to Tübingen, a university city about half an hour away. On the way, we stopped at C's parents' house to drop off some things. We were just in time as his mother, R, had just put a pizza in the oven. I've stayed there last year with C+K during C's annual garden party, so it was a nice reunion. My German has improved so much even since then so it was nice to talk more with C's father, who doesn't speak as much English.

After that, we drove to Tübingen and wandered around the city. More will follow about this trip, as a separate blog entry, but below is a picture of how pretty it is. I'm a sucker for cities with bodies of water.

The next day, while C did some work around the house, K and I visited the Keltenmuseum Hocdorf/Enz in Eberdingen. It's a museum dedicated to the Celts who lived in the area and includes artifacts from the grave site there. Entry was 5 euros and we spent about an hour there, looking over the exhibits. Most parts are in both English and German but the last third of the museum was only in German.

What's up, Celtic statue!

As we were leaving, I saw a sign for a free museum in the neighboring town of Markgröningen and we decided to visit. The Wimpelinhof Museum is sparse but offers some information about the local sheep herding traditions. K and I were very sad to learn that by a week, we had missed the annual herders' festival, where women wear Tracht and run races with water buckets on their heads, among other things. I would have been keen to view the former as I enjoy strange traditions.

Wimpelinhof Museum

After we wandered around the city a bit more, ate ice cream, and got rained on, we cut our visit to Markgröningen short. It's a shame because the town is quite lovely, full of historical fachwerk buildings. However, we didn't bring umbrellas and didn't feel like standing around in rain so we went back to their house. For dinner, I cooked raja masala, which they enjoyed, and then I drove home, content after catching up with some good friends.

My week: April 3 ed.

German learning: there were two tandem partner meetings but there was no class because of the holidays.

I invited a newer friend, A, over for dinner. Well, actually, she asked if I had any of the rajmah masala left over (she's the one who had taught me how to make it). I think that meant that she wanted to be invited over so I suggested she come over to eat some then. Funny, huh? I enjoy inviting friends. She's the newest Moo Fan Club Member and lavished some attention on him. He enjoyed that too.

On Saturday, A and I drove to Stuttgart for the Lange Nacht der Museen, or Long Night of Museums, in which cultural institutions keep their doors open late (even until 0200!) and offer special exhibitions, lectures, and events. For 18 euros, which grants one entrance to dozens of institutions and use of local public transport, it's a good value for a taste of the museums.

I stayed with a friend whom I had previously stayed with several years ago when I was taking a class in the Stuttgart area. It was a pleasant reunion, and interesting to meet his new wife, who is quite an interesting person herself.

We got in at about 0200 on Sunday morning from the museums and woke up at 0700 so I could drop off my friend at the train station and attend the baptism of my coworker's baby. Although I was sleep-deprived, it was great to celebrate with coworkers. As expats, it can be difficult to be away from family, especially for special events. However, it's also great to have a strong rapport with your colleagues; we support one another and have formed a work family of sorts. I feel very lucky to be in such an office.

My Week: May 3 ed.

Phew! It was a busy (as always) week, full of adventures and German learning.

-My new German learning class at the uni Verein started. I had hoped to take B2.1 there since I am already taking B1.2 at the Volkshochschule right now but the Verein stuck me in the same level. I wrote to the leader of the program that I was placed in the wrong class and that I should be in the next class. Well, here's looking back to the February blog entry I wrote about finishing the last Verein class when I didn't take the test at the end of it and was wondering why everyone thought it such a shame I wasn't taking it:

"It also makes me think that I should have researched more fully the benefits of taking the exam! With my luck, it's probably required before taking the next class or something."


Yep, my comment was prophetic: I had to take the test to get into the B2 class and Herr R wouldn't have it that I thought I should move on to the next class since I was already taking B1.2 at the VHS. So, here I am in B1.2 again. However, it's not all bad. My understanding is that the Verein's test is the same one would use to prove language proficiency in order to obtain citizenship in Germany. This will give me an additional opportunity to study and I don't have a deadline to finish all the classes to reach C1 or C2 level. The other bonus is that two of the girls from my previous class are in the new one and we sit together.


Taking both German classes does make for two very long post-work nights a week: I'm either in class or driving between classes for four hours, two nights a week.


-I went on a tour of the new K in Lautern Mall. I'm such an inhabitant of Nerdsville that of course I seized the opportunity to ask all of my burning questions about the mall. I even had my little notebook to record the answers and a blog post about it will follow. I'm sure you just can't take the suspense.


-I spent the weekend in the Stuttgart area with my friends C and K. I was invited to their Garten Party and stayed the weekend at C's parents' house. What a lovely time it was! I was thrilled to experience some very local German life.


C has been hosting this party for several decades now, since he was a teen, at his family's garden plot just outside the city. He invited the same friends who attended when they were all teenagers as well as some newer friends; I was the newest friend (we met in January). It was a lively night with a campfire, grilling, and good company.


I didn't want to crash the party too much so I decided that I would speak mostly German that night. I spoke German, but didn't understand as much as I had hoped that I would because of the heavy Schwäbisch dialects. One guy's accent was so heavy that I only understood about every 5th word! I did enjoy myself and spent a lot of time practicing listening. Their friends welcomed me and were friendly.

The garden. Everything is so beautiful and green now after the spring rain.

I spoke with H, who is African and is also learning German at about the same level where I am. She asked me why I wasn't drinking any beer. Well, the gardens have no official restroom facilities once the restaurant closed, so I didn't want to tempt fate. We were giggling about not wanting to be "Garten Pinkelerinnen.*"


We escaped the party unscathed and returned to C's parents' house. The next morning involved clean-up and then some time spent with R and G, his parents. They are absolutely lovely and welcomed me warmly the whole weekend. We had some nice conversations in German and English. They proudly showed me pictures of an American family who had previously been their tenants and they had befriended. It sounds as if they had become like family for R and G. I can see where they would have grown close, just based on how warmly R and G welcomed me into their home. When I was leaving for home, R hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, asking me to come back again so they could show me around the area more. G shook my hand and said that I was welcome back any time. It was a wonderful experience and I do hope to see them again.

*basically, it means garden (lady) pee-ers. I have no idea if it's really a German word; it probably isn't.

What I've been up to: October 5 ed.

This week was a continuation of my vacation with my parents and younger brother. I hope to write more about it in detail, but for now, here's the short version:

-We stayed overnight in Kaiserslautern, after just barely catching the last train home from Saarbruecken since our bus from Paris was late.

-We traveled to Ludwigsburg and visited the palace there, taking a tour completely in German. As if I didn't know this already, the tour confirmed that my grasp of German is still very basic. The tour guide was running out of time so she spoke very quickly. I wasn't sure if Carl Eugen had 300 children or 300 pairs of shoes.* The latter made more sense to me but when I inquired what he had 300 of during a lull, I learned that it was children. I wondered how he was able to get anything else done.

-Then we moved on to Stuttgart, where we attended the Canstatter Wasen, or Volksfest. It's similar to Oktoberfest. It was okay but I'm kind of over big fests.

-We took a tour of the Mercedes factory. It was free and quite interesting.

-Moving on, we stayed in Nuremberg for two days. I've been once before for class, but that visit was limited to two museums so it was good to further explore the city. My brother and I made a new acquaintance, a local guy, who was awesome and gave us a lot of information about the area.

-We attended the wine festival at Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. This was more of my scene.

-On Sunday, we visited the Roteweinfest in Ingelheim am Rhein.



*Other sources I've briefly read don't mention that many kids so I wonder if I'm still getting it wrong!

Seen in Stuttgart: the Porsche tractor

Uh, I know that people in Germany drive Porsches; they have passed me at high rates of speed on the Autobahn.

However, someone who drove this Porsche parked near Marienplatz absolutely takes the cake.

It was a very educational visit to Stuttgart because I learned that Porsche made tractors; it's located in Stuttgart; and there are people who drive their tractors downtown! Note that the tractor even has a license plate. Crazy stuff. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; people drive ATVs around as if they're motorcycles.

Anger & dirndls: Angermaier, Stuttgart

http://www.trachten-angermaier.de/

No, no one's angry yet, or at least, not until one realizes just how expensive the clothes can be. I was visiting Stuttgart and was surprised to see a store, Angermaier, featuring dirndls and lederhosen. My travel companion R. made a good point: Stuttgart has a large Oktoberfest, so it's not that surprising that there would be a store featuring such traditional wear. The pieces were beautiful and well-made. Don't expect some cheap knock-off costumes; items in the store range from several hundred dollars to the thousand dollar range.