10 Popular Things

Okay, I'll play too. Thanks, Ami im Schwabenland, for the blogging idea!

10 Popular Things I've Never Really Cared For

10. Chocolate. I used to not like chocolate at all, except for an occasional hot chocolate. Now I'll eat it once in a while, especially if it's the exquisite Cornet Port-royal chocolates my cousin got me hooked on in Brussels. Other than that, I'm not really into it. I'm not big into chocolate flavored things, either, like chocolate cake.

9. Hot weather. Especially in Germany, land of almost no air conditioning, I want to hibernate in the summer as I feel sluggish and cranky.

8. Coffee. I like coffee flavor but don't like the drink.

7. Italian food. I find it mostly meh, especially the German version. I don't hate it but I'm not super into it. Considering that I have mild allergies to two of its most common ingredients, I guess it's no wonder.

6. Gardening. I totally agree with Ami in Schwabenland and I'd also rather wash windows! To me gardening feels like a huge, never-ending, depressing chore. I love seeing others' beautiful yards but actually doing the work myself? No thank you.

5. House plants. Ok, this kind of goes with the gardening theme but it's a bit different. Again, I love seeing other people decorate with them and enjoy them but they just don't work out at my home. I've managed to kill all sorts of innocent plants and what I don't kill my cat wants to chomp. They stress me out (it doesn't help that I even name the basil plants one gets from the grocery store, even though they're meant to have a short tenure and I feel guilty when they die).

4. Midwestern (US) food. Casseroles: they just don't do it for me. I need food with some herbs, spices, and flavor, dang it.

3. German food. See above. I also find it too salty for my taste and as someone who's not into meat, potatoes, or copious amounts of bread and dairy, it's not my thing.

2. Gift giving. Okay, Gary Chapman, yes, I'm very much an acts of service person. I prefer not to give or receive gifts but I do like to help my friends and if they want to help me too, awesome.

1. Feet. Okay, they're not exactly popular, but most people don't have a problem with them or some people really like them. I find feet gross though and don't even like to think about them.

Growing up in a clean family has its benefits

So here I am again, writing in the midst of an epidemic. I never thought I'd write that as such a horrible illness has never directly affected life so close here before.

So far I'm not sick but I am nervous about it. For the most part I'm staying at home, only popping out quickly to grab groceries every several weeks or to go for a walk by myself.

I will say that I'm glad that I was brought up the way that I was: in a (basically) clean household. My mom is not a germ freak but she was adamant about not being gross. I'll list some rules of our house. Even as I navigate through my own place, being extra cognizant of what I'm doing or the surfaces I'm touching, I keep coming up with more things that we were taught.

1. Do not wear shoes in the house (we had white carpeting growing up).
2. Do not ever double dip or drink directly from the jug, even if it's your own drink and you'll come back to it later.
3. Don't stick your hand into the bag of chips/bowl of popcorn. Get your own bowl and pour some in.
4. Try not to touch door handles or other public surfaces. If you absolutely have to, either use a piece of your clothing or one finger instead.
5. Wash your hands and the surface where you'll be cooking well.
6. Don't touch your face when cooking.
7. Wash your hands after petting an animal. (This did loosen up a bit after we got a dog but we'd definitely do it before eating etc.)
8. Put silverware in the dish basket handle up and before unloading the dishwasher, wash your hands. Do not ever handle the eating portion of the silverware.
9. Do not put your fingers inside a glass or serving dish.
10. Clean up after yourself right away.

This is all that I can think of right now. Again, I'll say that my mom was not a freak about germs but she was brought up by someone who trained to be a baker and my grandparents also practiced safe food handling techniques so I think that's where a lot of this came in. I think it can be more difficult to try to remind yourself to do these things later on so I'm glad that I learned this while growing up. Knowing these things can't totally insulate me from the risk of COVID-19 but at least it gives a little bit more of a chance. Having the ability to work from home and to self-isolate has also been extremely important.

An English overview of Aldi

Aldi grocery stores are experiencing a surge in popularity, especially in the US. When I was younger, we never really thought of Aldi as a viable place to buy decent food. Most food was beyond highly processed and poor quality. Now, however, Aldi is focusing more on fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as favorites popular among the granola-munching set (I include myself in this category). After all, one can buy decent hummus at Aldi in the US (don't try the German version if you're a hummus connoisseur, though; it's nasty, with sugar and vinegar added, which is NOT accurate).

Mashed put together a decent video shopping at Aldi in the US. Even if you're in Germany, it's worth a watch if you're curious about the store. Most of the information is basically the same for the stores here, too, such as needing to use a coin to unlock the carts and needing to bring your own bags.

Current Mood of German Learning

I'm currently taking a very high-level German class and realized:

If I ever get frustrated about not always knowing what I call $5 (or should I say €5) words in German or not knowing all of the idioms, can I just remind myself that one of the fellow students in this class is literally already a translator, and this is the class that foreigners have to pass to apply to the translation program at the uni? And that we did a tough exercise in class last night, and I was able to do it on the fly and also help another classmate with it? I'm always getting frustrated by what I don't know but I should also celebrate what I do know.

Crooked Bamberg

Bamberg is a beautiful, historic town in the Frankish area of Bavaria. It's built along several rivers and picturesque half-timbered boxes line the banks.

Despite the quaint and scenic views, these houses aren't without their problems. Sagging roofs and settling foundations, especially among the river, make for a bunch of crooked neighborhoods.

Take a gander at this store. Must one walk sideways to get in?

Germans do have a sense of humor

Hornbach 

This is a display at Hornbach, a German home improvement store

My blog entry that's both a blessing and a curse

One of the most-visited* and most oft-cited** blog entries in this joint is the analysis of the German educational system that I wrote, viewable here. After having published it six years ago, I feel conflicted about leaving it on the blog.

On one hand, it's a quick read and outlines a somewhat convulated subject that people are curious about. Is it comprehensive? No, it's not, at all, but at least gives an idea of how things work here, and in English. Does it bring a lot of visitors to the blog? Yes, it does, though that's not really its purpose. I had just wanted to share something that I had written for a German Life and Culture class.

Conversely, the article is somewhat of a curse. I am an educator in training and spirit (though not exactly in job tile right now). Information literacy is very important to me and I am disturbed that this article is being used as a research source when it's only appropriate to be used for entertainment/enlightenment purposes. I know of at least one high school teacher who used it as a class assignment (based on web analytics linking to the person's page) and the article was even referenced in conference proceedings of the National Defence College in Bangladesh, which didn't really properly reference it other than citing the article in the bibliography.

I won't call out the high school teacher or school but I will mention the Defence College, because the paper mentions the editorial board and based on the amount of authors and the numerous strings of letters after their names, including PhD, those individuals should be well-acquainted with proper academic research and citation and know better than to use a personal blog as a source. The other ironic thing is that they would have seen the disclaimer at the top of the article and the corresponding blog entry outlining why the article isn't an appropriate source.

At this point, I will still leave the article on my blog and hope that people read the clear disclaimer on it. Maybe it'll hit home for at least some people and they'll think more about the research process.



*by real people, not by spammers; those would be other entries, and I have no idea why the entry Fastnacht in July is so popular with them

**or not, by people who use it as a reference and don't give me credit