The clothes drying rack almost takes me down

Very painful moment: getting my finger stuck in the clothes-drying rack. I tried to yank my finger out and it just made it worse (think: Chinese handcuffs). It was so painful that I had to stop trying to free myself and just stand there for a couple seconds to avoid blacking out. Who knew that drying clothes in an ecologically-friendly manner could be so painful?!

My week: August 14 ed.

These will be out of order now that I'm not caught on writing up the vacation posts but oh well! (Though not "oh well" in the brain of mine; for someone who's not typically Type A, it does make me feel a bit unsettled to be out of order.)

Anyway, since I came home from the US, I've been "lazy," which means I've been spending more of my free time on exercise, reading (both for fun and personal/vocational enrichment), and lots and lots of Mootime. I kind of take the opposite approach from others: during the summer, I do less and stay home more. I don't like hot weather and touristy crowds so instead I catch up on home life or mostly travel locally. From fall to spring, I'm very busy and do most of my traveling then.

Some of this week was quite cold for the summer - like between 55-70 degrees and I was loving it, sweaters and all.

After a hiatus between travel and other reasons, I met up with my tandem partner again. We ate at Julien, which is a French-style restaurant in Kaiserslautern. The garden area is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend a visit, especially during the summer. I normally am not really one for French food because it's richer/meatier than my preferences, but I do like Julien. They do receive some criticism that they're not super French so maybe that's why I like it there. However, the main reason is that they have a decent selection of vegetarian and vegan selections and both the indoor and outdoor dining environments are pretty.

I also attended two language meet-ups and caught up with some friends. I've been keeping my eye out for language games and easy German games at the thrift stores and brought one along. Such games are really useful for practicing a foreign language because it breaks things up a bit and offers some fun.

My German friends invited me to their French cottage for the weekend. These are the same lovely friends who visited me in the US (oops, didn't get to writing that part yet) and saw my cottage. My family's cottage is rustic (no hot water or bathing facilities).
My friend's cottage is a beautiful six-bedroom home. :)

Anyway, this weekend was what I had been imagining life would be like when I imagined my life here before I moved. I imagined being surrounded by Germans/Europeans and speaking German with them. I hadn't imagined this being in France, but it's close enough, right?

The funny thing is that such a weekend in reality is not 100% as I'd imagined. I'm conversational in German now (ENDLICH!) but in a big group and for the whole weekend, it's a lot to process. I didn't talk as much as I normally would because I didn't catch everything and sometimes I just didn't have the energy to put things into German since the discussions were complicated. I don't mean this in a poor-me way; it was just a good way to listen more. I talk a lot normally and am accustomed to arranging social meetings; this was an opportunity to step back and just be a guest.

Some of this felt like a B2 test prep session since we were expressing opinions and talking about the news. We discussed politics and the insane behavior of a certain person...all of which really felt like a sample conversation for a B2 test. I do think that saying that "er ist total verrückt" might not be test-worthy though.

We enjoyed a paddle boat ride and some swimming. The cottage is located in the French countryside, not too far from Germany. I would enjoy visiting again, I think, and maybe some bicycle riding, and of course, plenty of time with my two friends who are the most adorable and sweet couple around.

What'll it be in Charlotte, NC?

When I was flying to Michigan in June, I had a layover in Charlotte. My friend from college lives there so she picked me up for a quick lunch together. As we were leaving the restaurant, I just had to get a picture of the business next door that was renovating.

The owner decided to leave everyone in suspense about what the store will be next.

A German's take on why Germans don't like air conditioning

There is a lot of interest in expat circles (especially for American expats) about why Germans don't like air conditioning.

I've written about it in the past. You can read the entry here.

Trixi from Don'ttrusttherabbit gives her insights, as a German. Check out the Youtube video below.

So, what do you think? Does the cold air make you sick? Or do you hold the scientific view that bacteria and viruses make one sick?

My week: June 26 ed.

This vacation week in the US's theme was LAZY. It was so sluggish that it could be pronounced lay-zee. Seriously, except for a few bursts of activity, I was sloth-like. After my spring, I needed it.

I did attend a foraging wild foods class with my brothers in another town. Last year, I started learning about wild foods, mostly because I like the idea of enjoying foods that don't come in a package at the grocery store, but I'm too lazy and gone too often to have my own garden. Foraging is great because nature does the gardening for you.

We learned about plantain (not to be confused with the banana-like thingies), willow bark, and my favorite of the evening, mulberries. I'd only known of it from the song Pop Goes the Weasel ("all around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel") so it was surreal to find out that we actually have them in my home state, and just growing out in a public park, no less. I had never eaten them before. They're tasty and very sweet; the white ones are especially sweet. Even better yet, I later found a bush of them on my parent's road.

After the foraging, we dined and (the brothers) drank at a brew pub in town. One of my very good friends is from this town and I remember how it used to be hardly anything. If her family needed anything major beyond groceries, they usually had to drive 45 minutes to an hour to the bigger cities (my hometown included). Now the town has a brew pub. Wonders never cease.

During the weekdays, I did a lot of lounging around the house with some shopping trips and lunches out with my family. We introduced my aunt to a Thai restaurant that we used to visit when I was completing a practicum in college.

On Friday, my brother drove the two of us up north and we camped in Boyne City. Ah, had I missed lakes! We watched the sun set and the next day, ate (GOOD) diner food, which is one thing I miss from the US. [One can have jelly or a pat of butter and there's no charge for it nor is it one made to feel as if one has received a rare gift, unlike in Deutschland.]

As we walked around Boyne City and visited the silly tourist stores, I realized then (and later on during the vacation) just how Michigan people are obsessed with our mitten-shaped state. My favorite t-shirt is the one that says "Great Lakes: unsalted, shark free." I like that very much as I prefer to swim somewhere that does not have animals that want to kill people and where I don't have to slick salt off my skin later.

The next day, my brother took us out jet skiing. I also had missed that very much as it combines time spent on the lake in an exhilarating manner. Younger brother and I used to take several trips a summer to jet ski and it's some pleasant sibling time.

On Sunday, we drove back home and we stopped at his favorite Mexican restaurant, Herradura's Bar & Grill, in Cadillac. I'm always game for Mexican food and was happy to eat some that didn't include the sugar/curry combination that's popular where I live in Germany.

A loosely defined problem

Since I spend some of my free time strolling around downtown areas of Germany, especially the  Fußgängerzone (pedestrian zone) of Kaiserslautern if I'm home on weekends, I've found some wonderful treats here. One of my addictions is loose-leaf tea but I'd like to say it's a loosely defined problem ;)

I hardly ever drank tea in the US; when I did, it was herbal tea packaged in tea bags and made by big corporations. I thought that tea was okay, but not that great. However, after wandering a downtown area and picking up a bag of loose-leaf herbal tea on a whim, I found that I like it so much better. In Kaiserslautern alone, there are some fun tea shops, including TeeGschwendner, which is a chain; Teehaus Elsässer, which is kooky and fun (I reviewed it here); and the fair trade store just down the street from the Teehaus.

The loose-leaf tea seems to have a much more vibrant taste. I feel as if some of the bagged teas seemed somehow strangely chemical-y, which sounds totally bonkers, I'm sure. However, maybe there's something to that since they do have the bags and it's possible that they could've been made from bleached material. The added bonus of loose-leaf tea is that there's less packaging and it's easy to compost. I'm not sure if loose-leaf tea is cheaper; it normally costs between 2.50-5 euros per 100 grams. I get a good number of cups of tea per bag.

Especially during the summer months, I like to make iced tea. I fill up an infuser with tea and let it soak in a cup or two of boiled water, removing it after. Then I fill the rest of the jug with cold water and stick it in the fridge, and enjoy a drink of it when it's cold. There are no added sweeteners nor overly strong flavors for me. I like a drink that has a decent flavor yet is still somewhat subtle. Of course, one could add more tea and dump in sweeteners, but the drink is very pleasant by itself.

In which I make an expat living in Germany joke

Here's my attempt at expat living in Germany humor.

Person one: "Tell me something hot."

Person two: "It's summer and I live in the Dachgeschoss."