My week: November 1 ed.

This is my last week of "freedom" before my university German classes start again. It was also still the holiday for my Volkshochschule class so I did some lazing around. Next week will start an intense schedule as I will work on learning German four nights a week after work. I did this last year and was stressed. It's a good thing I was able to laze around a bit in advance of this!

-I had my regular meeting with my tandem partner. My brain is broken because I said "sheeps." Dangnabbit. I've been hanging around with Indians too much (not that my tandem partner is Indian). The funny thing is that I was on a roadtrip once with two Indian friends and they said, "oh, look at those cute sheeps!" and I was like, hehehe, that's cute! They were not so happy with their Indian teachers back home who told them that sheeps is the correct plural use. I have no idea why I said sheeps when I was speaking with my tandem partner, other than I think my brain was revolting against bilingualism. Naughty brain.

-We've been having a ton of teleconferences with our US HQ at work lately. With an upcoming worldwide database merger and software upgrade, we have more than enough to work on -- in addition to our daily workload. I am very happy to be working more closely with the other office; I think it's silly to duplicate work where it's not needed and our collaboration is reducing that and is improving customer service too. The other really cool thing is that I've coordinated a vendor visit for training at multiple locations and I've invited some of our colleagues from another Service to attend. They were thrilled and the vendor was, too; she'll be able to reach more of our overseas staff. I'm a nerd and enjoy making connections for people, especially ones that help them learn.

-A friend stopped by one evening. She still had on her "clothes" from work, where they had dressed up for Halloween. I have nosy neighbors who are always looking out the the windows and I'm sure they got quite an eyeful of someone wearing a wet suit and ski mask visiting my house. Heck, I'm not quite sure what she was supposed to be, myself, but dug the weirdness.

-For Halloween, I didn't do anything other than eat some candy. I didn't feel like rustling up something to do or to wear. I regret nothing.

-My friends C and K from Neustadt invited me to go hiking. I had some reservations because several weeks ago, my foot was hurting which in turn caused my back to ache. Once that improved, my asthma kicked in so I haven't been in rare form lately. Since C and K were fine with potentially keeping a slower pace I met them at Schwartzsohl, a Waldhaus in Weidenthal. It's a place to park, grab something to eat and drink, use the restroom, and start one's hike along the forest trails.

Though the day started out foggy, by noon it cleared up and we were even treated to some sunlight streaming through the forest. The trees were lit up in beautiful fall yellows and oranges, glowing in the crisp air. I love this time of the year; I'd much rather bundle up a bit than deal with heat.

I was happy to keep a decent pace. Neither my foot, back, or breathing decided to revolt; instead, I was able to enjoy the company of C and K. We haven't hung out since this summer and were happy to meet up again to catch up.

After a five mile hike, we circled back to Schwartzsohl for lunch. C had homemade pea soup and C and I ordered Knödel (a dumpling) with chestnuts, meat (pork? not sure), and a gravy with mushrooms. Normally this isn't my kind of food since I don't like stewy or gravy dishes, nor meat so much either. C tried some and felt that it had too much of "gingerbread spices" for his liking. The dish is mostly savory but indeed had a touch of nutmeg and something else. It wasn't too overpowering but I prefer not to have it in savory things. (When I make Spätzle, I never add nutmeg.) It tasted decent enough after hiking though. After finishing our meals, we parted, with some plans to meet up again soon.

The Veggie Clubhouse burger: McDonald's and quinoa?

I heard something on the radio this summer that gave me pause: there was an ad for McDonald's that mentioned something about a quinoa burger. While I don't like McDonald's except for the occasional McMuffin if I'm desperate for a breakfast on the run, I was curious about this burger. I'm not into fast food but if I could find something that tasted decent and was vegetarian, it could be an option if I'm on the run.

I finally tried the burger. It's presented on a toasted bun with cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce, and a sauce (which might be what they put on Big Macs but I'm not sure since I haven't had one in more than 20 years). The patty itself has quinoa, bell peppers, onions, and leeks all ground up.

It was reasonably crisp, which I think is because it seems fried. It was okay but I'm not super into fried foods and knew it would equal heartburn later as it seemed rather greasy. As far as flavor goes, it definitely had that salty-greasy, rich thing going on, which is what registered the most after the bun and toppings. However, if I had to eat a non-breakfast meal at McDonald's, I could order this again if I wanted to deal with the greasy aspect of it.

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Obviously this post is not sponsored, just to be clear. I'm not sure that the company would pay someone to say that she would buy the burger if there weren't any other options ;)

No one will take a Shine to this roadside candy machine

I came across this roadside candy machine in Leipzig. A few things stuck out: first of all, it was blue.

Second of all, like many things in Leipzig, it's been tagged with graffiti. I saw "redröm" tagged on it. I had a suspicion that it was the German take on "red rum," and I think it is, as "Mörder" if it's reversed.

Sometimes I think I'd love to see security footage to find out what roadside candy machines go through. (Although, having seen some of them looking really jacked up, I'm then  not so sure that I would want to know!)

Interesting juxtaposition with the poster in the window too!

My week: October 25 ed.

The workweek was rather normal with my usual meeting with my tandem partner. I did have plans to go out on Friday night but wasn't feeling well so had to cancel.


On the weekend, our group of friends had a dinner. I just love these gatherings; usually it's mostly familiar faces with some new ones too. I'm sure that the new people are always wondering what on earth is going on as a string of people come up to me and rub their elbows with mine. It's our weird version of a side hug (yes, I pulled it from the one and only episode of the Duggars that I watched and no, we don't have creepy beliefs that state we can't do regular hugs, though I'd prefer no hugs at all).

Is the Leipzig Card worth buying?

Some cities offer special discount cards for tourists. The cards often offer transportation on the local bus, tram, and subway system, in addition to discounts and free admissions to local museums and attractions. When I visited Leipzig, I made the decision to buy the Leipzig Card because I thought it might be worth it from a cost-saving perspective. Was I right? Is it cost-effective to buy the Leipzig Card?


Let's look at my thought processes for buying it. My trip to Leipzig was from Friday-Monday. I planned to visit some museums and take public transport. I usually buy a day pass for public transport since it works out to be cheaper than buying individual tickets for most of my wanderings. For example, the day ticket was 6,90 euro, whereas individual tickets are 1,80. It would only take four trips to make it worth it for a day card. Four trips would really be two roundtrips.


The Leipzig Card is 10,90 for a one day or for 21,90 for three days and includes public transport and discounts on museums, stores, etc. It also includes free entrances to some attractions, though this is limited. Since my visit was 3 days and it averaged out to 7,30 a day, I thought that it would be worth to get the card.


However, upon tying up the trip, I had to re-evaluate that. I didn't realize how compact the main sights are within Leipzig. I stayed mostly in the center of the city, pinpointed on the map as Markt. In that vicinity are many museums, stores, restaurants, etc. My hostel was right in the area so I didn't need transportation to that either. I found several free museums that took up a lot of my time. I also could have used very little, if any, public transportation. In order to try to get my value out of the ticket, I did take some tram rides to see the city but I could've walked.


I used the card to get a discount at the fine arts museum (I think 2 euros discount) and on a bus/walking tour (4 euros). I only heavily used the travel portion on one day. My take is this: I don't think it was money totally down the drain but had I realized how easy it was to see most of the sights in a compact area, I probably wouldn't have bought the card. For those considering it, it would be wise to figure out how far everything you want to see it and if the discounts are worth it to justify buying the card. For a short visit, it might worth it just to walk and visit free museums.

My week: October 18 ed.

The previous week spilled into this week some, as Monday was a federal holiday and I was finishing up my trip to Leipzig. On the way home, my train had a delay and I missed my connection at Fulda. Instead, I stayed on the train and transferred at Frankfurt. Strangely enough, I think I ended up taking the same exact last train that I would have anyway and got home at the expected time. Crazy how that works out, huh?

On Friday, K invited me to a Tim Fischer concert. Neither of us had any idea of who he was; I said yes immediately because I could figure out who he was at the concert ;) I'm open to new experiences and this turned out to be a cabaret performance at the Fruchthalle in downtown Kaiserslautern.

It was an opportunity to practice listening to German, especially as songs. I don't have a lot of experience in that and it was definitely tested because Fischer effected regional dialects for many songs.

Sunday saw an invite from my friends D and S for dinner. They made a delicious salad and a cabbage/pumpkin casserole. I don't know if this is a trait of the German people, but many folks that I've met make some dang good homemade salad dressing. My tandem partner does, too. Usually it's some sort of mix of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some sort of mustard, etc. I'm glad for this experience because it makes me realize that it's not hard to make some dressings from scratch and from ingredients that aren't difficult to keep on hand.

We finished our visit with a walk. I think D would have preferred our customary walk through the woods, but my foot was hurting me (it is probably plantar fasciitis) so I suggested a shorter walk downtown. We encountered a special Sunday open day for shopping. Normally stores are closed Sundays so people flock downtown to shop on the open day. We perused some stores and parted ways. It was a peaceful end to the week.

My week: October 11 ed.

Man, I've been bad about writing these weekly wrap-ups (not that they're all that exciting, but they work as a nice means of remembrance for myself). I haven't been so great about writing regularly in the blog, either. I don't know that this situation will improve since my second German class is starting soon and there are many projects occurring at work right now. At least I won't get bored, though I do have the firm belief that if you're bored, you're boring ;)

-I had a meeting with my tandem partner and attended the VHS class. In the VHS class, it's really become more of a review of B1 (so I guess it's similar to what the VHS calls B1+). While I would like to focus more on conversation, I'm also happy enough with reviewing grammar since that's always needed. I like listening to the teacher talk; he has a very calm, reassuring way of speaking and a nice cadence.

-Since it was a three-day holiday weekend, I decided somewhat last minute to take a trip to Leipzig. It had been on my mental list (which, for the record, has no rhyme or reason) of places I'd like to visit. My main travel partner C had moved back to the US so this trip I went by myself since it was so last-minute. I lucked out, however, and bought some Sparpreis train tickets for 26 euros each way (with seat reservation) after BahnCard discount. It can be difficult to find train tickets at a good price if one doesn't book early (up to 30 days in advance) or super late, such as several days before with L'tur. The problem with the latter option is that cheap tickets aren't always available so soon before departure.

I also booked a hostel through booking.com but realized that if I had booked directly with the hostel, I would have gotten a better rate. The frustrating thing is that one must call the hostel though. I don't enjoy doing this; I'd prefer to do everything online. The hostel has a website but the booking capabilities are limited and the website directed me to call since not all of their available rooms were listed online (why?!).

I had found another hostel with good rates and I tried calling at 10 p.m. since I figured it would be a quieter time to inquire about reservations. Well, the woman couldn't help me because there was only one person on staff at the time. Argh! That certainly didn't help with my frustration and dislike of having to call places instead of being able to book instantly through the hostel's website.

I left for the trip on the Friday night after work. It's about a 5-6 hour high speed train ride to the city and I got in really late. However, the party at the club next door to my hostel was ready and waiting for me! I could have even arrived at 4 a.m. and they would have had the music booming. Sigh. It was so loud that I could still hear it in my room when I had my earplugs in, but at least it was mostly muffled.

That's how I learned that Leipzig doesn't have a set closing time for its clubs and restaurants. Usually, it's 10 p.m. or 12 a.m. in many other cities. I think I'm getting old because I was wishing for a closing time. To be fair, I also don't expect to get a great night's sleep if I'm at a hostel.

I might write more about the weekend later, but to sum up the rest of it: I wandered around town and admired the architecture; took a walking/bus tour; visited museums; did some window shopping; and took the time to do whatever the heck I wanted to do. While I usually prefer to travel with a friend, it was also a positive experience for me to enjoy my own company and set my own schedule.