Off Topic: Ever have one of those days...?

• ...when the first thing you see in the morning is a dark sky full of gray, gloomy clouds and the first thing you hear is rain pounding on your roof, and you think, "Nice! I won't have to water the rhododendron or roses tonight!"


• ...when you try a new recipe and it turns out so badly you grimace at the leftovers, and you are grateful that you had a full meal to eat and also know you'll have enough to eat tomorrow?


• ...when you need to walk to the butcher (or walk the dog) but it's so cold and windy that you wouldn't be able to use an umbrella if it started raining, and you realize that at least there won't be any bugs bothering you today?


• ...when you can't find a parking place anywhere near your doctor's office so you have to park in a lot five blocks away, and your body reminds you as you walk how very good it feels to stretch and move?


• ...when you run out of Coca-Cola, tea, or whatever your favorite beverage is and you're "dying" of thirst, and you remember that you have all the clean water you could ever hope to need just a few steps from your refrigerator?


• ...when you are so tired of a certain person in your life (coworker, neighbor, in-law) that you wish he or she would just go away, and then you consider the notion that everyone you meet in your life is there to teach you something - and this person's job is perhaps to teach you patience and grace?


• ...when the neighbor kids are outside making such a racket you want to scream and spray them with your garden hose, then realize that they remind you how it felt to be a kid with no responsibilities?


• ...when you stare gloomily at your bank account statement realizing you will not be able to go on a trip this summer or upgrade your TV, then decide to call your mother and thank her for teaching you how to be responsible with money?


• ...when you have to wait in a long line at the grocery store checkout, which gives you time to remember that an entire warehouse full of food is behind you and all you have to do is choose anything you want and wait a few minutes to pay for it?


• ...when you're bored because all of your friends are busy, so you turn on the TV and are reminded that people in many parts of this war-torn world wish with all their hearts they could be bored for half a day rather than scramble, flee, or fight for their and their family's lives?


• ...when you badly miss your children (because they're off in college or settled far away), your parents, your sister, your boyfriend, or your best friend but know how lucky you are that they are just a phone call or email away while some will never see their loved ones again because they were killed in service, in a school shooting, or in a car accident?


• ...when you have aches and pains because you're getting older but know that you can still do everything you need to do - get out of bed, walk up and down stairs, get into and out of your car, and walk unaided, for example?

Those are good days, aren't they?


I surely don't mean that you and I should be happy because others are less fortunate, but rather that when we're having a bad day, it might be best to reflect on how fortunate we are and on the positive things and people in our lives. I'm not preaching; I find it helpful when someone reminds me to look at something from a different perspective, and I wanted to put this out into the universe. It started with my first point - I truly don't mind rainy days anymore!

Diese Woche in Kürze / This Week in a Nutshell

17. August, 2014

This week I...

• snagged the idea from another expat blogger to start a weekly update. I'm not sure if I'll do this regularly, but I enjoyed reading her lists!


• tried a new recipe for Apricot Chicken, which turned out to be terrible! I didn't expect my husband would like it (because it had chicken and apricots in it instead of steak), but even I thought it was disgusting. Blech!


• started on a translation of a city's website, beginning with a detailed description of what is offered at the city's Christmas Market. Started looking forward to Christmas.


• emailed my bestie (best friend) back in Wisconsin.


• had way too much free time. (I'm in week 3 of the 6-week summer holidays in Baden-Württemberg.)


• realized I'm reading five books at once right now (a novel, two travel guide books, and two nonfiction books about ancient Rome and Vienna in 1888), four of which I'm enjoying.


• continued my reading, research, and note-taking to prepare for upcoming trips to Vienna and Rome.


• went for a leisurely 3.5 km hike around Horb.


• contemplated quitting Facebook again. I don't like Facebook at all, but I would miss seeing what some of my friends and acquaintances are up to!


• expanded my expat & travel blog reading list from two to about ten, then sat around impatiently waiting for everyone to publish more posts!


• put off yard work.


• learned a new word - pablum! I had never heard this word before, so I typed it into my online German-English dictionary, and the German word (Blödsinn) made the meaning clear to me. Love it when that happens.


• ordered "Bäckchen vom Jungschwein" (cheeks of a young pig) at our favorite restaurant. SO delicious! That totally made up for the nasty apricot chicken business.

Yes, those are the facial cheeks. The meat is wonderfully tender because
the cheeks are muscles the pigs use a lot when they're young.

• wrote this list while my husband cooked goulash for tomorrow (we've been told that should always be cooked the day before you plan to eat it)


• then helped him prepare tonight's meal, Ostpreußische Schusterpastete (one of our favorites).

Horb Wandertag / Hiking Day in Horb

Yesterday afternoon I decided to get off my lazy summer holiday butt and go for a walk around our little town. The weather was perfect - gray, threatening clouds, violent, mosquito-killing downpour right at noon, tiny fleeting bits of blue sky here and there, and a mass of dark, wet clouds over the Black Forest heading our way - so I grabbed my big camera, an umbrella, a sweatshirt (it's August, for Pete's sake!) and headed out.

I parked at the Bahnhof (train station), which is still the only place I've ever parked in Horb, and meandered into town. I brought my GPS tracker with me because my aim was to head up a big hill following a Kreuzweg ("cross way/path", or stations of the cross walk) for a nice view of Horb, and I wanted to see how far that is and how high the hill is. Afterwards I discovered that I walked 3.5 km. I'm pretty sure a km is about 10 miles, or 12 when walking uphill. Since everything from the Bahnhof is uphill, I figure I walked more than 35 miles during those two hours.

I thought I'd take you along on the journey with pictures..

Below is a view of Horb from the Rauschbart Biergarten, which is a 45-minute walk from our house. We live in a tiny village "up here", and Horb is down in the valley below, nestled on the Neckar River. This picture is from a few years ago, but the view hasn't changed.

Standing near the Bahnhof, one looks up to the Stiftskirche Heilig Geist and the colorful houses along the Marktplatz, which is behind the houses in this view. The tower to the left of the church is the Schurkenturm, or Rascals' Tower, which was used as a jail for a number of years.

Wow! I think I can take an artistic photo from here! Ok, not so much. But this shows the Neckar from the Christophorusbrücke (St. Christopher's Bridge), which takes one over the river from the Bahnhof and into town.

On the other side of the Christophorusbrücke is this sculpture on the wall of an apartment building. This is St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers on long journeys (among others). He is  recognizable in that he is usually depicted with a walking staff, walking through water, carrying the Christ child on his shoulder. There is also a painting of him on the facade of the Stiftskirche, which we'll see shortly.

This is an area called Klein Venedig (Little Venice) because of the houses lining the Neckar canal. The little white chapel at the top of the hill in the background is my destination today.

I've already written about the scandalous red building shown in the photo to the right. The large building next to it is the Hoher Giebel, or High Gabel, formerly a trading or merchant house of a wealthy local family. Today this 7-story, 25-meter high Fachwerk building houses the municipal music school.

This is the Gaistor, on the bank of the Neckar. It's a private residence now, but it was once a gate into the city, which was surrounded by an imposing wall. Before the Christophorusbrücke was built, there was a smaller bridge over the Neckar at this site, so this was the main entrance into town for those coming from the other side of the river.

There's a very cool public playground here as well, with fun things to climb and play on for kids of all ages.

This Hapsburg lion tops the Marktbrunnen, or Market Fountain, one of three Renaissance fountains in town. With his left paw he holds a shield showing the crests of Hohenberg (at his left paw) and Austria (under his right paw), and in his right paw is a sword. Horb was ruled by the counts of Hohenberg (a noble Swabian family) from about 1300 to 1806, though in 1381 through the bankrupt and heirless Count Rudolf III a good portion of the Hohenberg lands - including Horb - came under Austrian rule.

Here we see St. Christopher again, on the East-facing wall of the Stiftskirche Heilig Geist. The building of the original gothic church began in 1314, it was expanded in the 14th and 15th centuries, and all but the choir burned to the ground in the city fire of 1725. It was rebuilt in 1730 in baroque style and is currently undergoing renovations.

From the Burggarten (castle garden) just beyond the church one can get a good look at the Schurkenturm, and here you see the bell tower of the Stiftskirche just behind it.

At this spot was once a Burg (castle or fortress), built around 1233 by Count Palatine Rudolf II, called Burg Herrenberg or Burg Hohenberg. The ruins of the castle were torn down along with five city gates in 1836, and only the Schurkenturm and bits of the foundation are left.

After climbing up to the Burggarten, I am now about to drag my sorry carcass up this hill to the Ottilienkapelle (St. Ottilia's Chapel). This is the Kreuzweg. You walk up this hill, passing along the way the twelve stations of the cross, where I'm guessing you pause and reflect if you are among the devout and pious, or the less-than-fit.

One of the nice things about living in such a small community is that one can take a walk like this and bump into no other people.

This is the fourth station: Jesus begegnet seiner Mutter (Jesus meets his mother).

I felt a bit of a dolt being winded, starting to sweat, and wondering if it would be worth it, when it occurred to me that Christ walked a longer and harder road than this to be nailed to a cross and bleed to death over what I am quite sure was more than three hours. And I'm not even religious!

Was it worth it? I'd say it was. It's not the most gorgeous view I've ever seen, but it's nice to be surrounded by nature, peace, and questionable weather.

At the top of all mountains and many hills in Germany (especially those with a Kreuzweg leading to the top) there is a cross. Christianity and religion in general is a big part of Germany's culture, history, tradition, art, and architecture. That's not to say that churches are full on Sundays or that people make visible displays of their beliefs through posters, bumper stickers, or social media. I've never heard someone say, "I'll pray for you" in German, nor would any German say, "God bless Germany." Christianity is all around for people to take it or leave it, ignore it or appreciate it.

It's difficult to get a good photo of the Ottilienkapelle, but here it is. Behind me is the Kreuzweg. The Ottilienkapelle was built in 1431 as a pilgrimage stop, though it has seen plenty of renovations since then.

St. Ottilia is the patron saint of good eyesight, which explains why local literature says many suffering from eye ailments have made a pilgrimage here.

There you see one of the summer storms that dumped on the villages on the other side of the valley. I was sitting here in the rain as well, but it didn't last long.

From up at the Ottilienkapelle I could see my car, 17 miles away.*
Now it's time to head back down and go to the store for some bread and wine.
*Yes, I'm exaggerating.

On the way down I snapped one more picture of the Marktplatz in Horb, which is really quite disappointing. The painted building is the Rathaus (town hall), and that's nice, but otherwise the Marktplatz is just a cobblestone road on a hill. No street cafes, no nice places to sit, few trees, and cars park all along it as well, destroying photo opportunities of old buildings.




So that was my strenuous and solitary walk yesterday. Every time I go for a stroll in and around Horb I learn more about my adopted town, and one day soon I should be able to give a decent guided tour to visiting friends. Is it worth a day trip just to see Horb? It's not on the scale of a city like Esslingen, but if you're here anyway or passing through, it's a lovely little town with enough history and unique buildings to make a tour interesting.

Why YOU should be an Expat

Last winter I dedicated a blog post to my son to let him know what he could look forward to during a 2-week visit here, and today I dedicate this post to my daughter. She's 21, entering her final year of college, studying for the GREs, and pondering which grad schools she wants to apply to. Luckily she also knows me well enough to know that I'm not pressuring her, but saying this is an option and something to consider. I want to tell her why I think she should BE AN EXPAT!

You're young.

Most of the expat bloggers I've communicated with or have read about are closer to your age than mine. Do it while you're still young and free enough to be able to take chances and do something daring!

You CAN speak German.

I know you often feel like you can't, but you can. Besides, the only way for your language skills to grow is by living in a country where they speak that language. And if you choose some other country, like Italy, for instance, you'll learn that language, too, because that's who you are. There are plenty of expats in Germany who know less German than you do.

You will be challenged every single day.

This is the big one. I can think of no better reason than this. Daily intellectual challenges are not for everyone, but I think you'll get bored if you're not challenged. People will challenge you. The language will challenge you. Being away from what you know will challenge you. Simple, everyday tasks will challenge you.

Travel opportunities

You know that the life of an expat doesn't automatically mean jet-setting around the world at every whim. But with planning and saving, it is not out of the realm of possibility to spend a long weekend in Paris, a few days in Rome, or hop up to England or - better yet - Scotland. A quick check shows me a flight from here to London is about €100 ($134). From Chicago to London is ten times that.

And don't forget Blind Booking by German Wings! For as little as €66 ($88) you can let them pick your destination from a short list of great European cities (Zürich, Barcelona, Budapest, Stockholm...) and visit a place you might not otherwise have ever visited.

Language exposure

No matter where you live outside of the U.S., you will find yourself surrounded by other languages. Even in our small community, it's not just German that's all around, but also Greek, Turkish, and Italian.

Work & life experience

If/When you return to the U.S. at some point, having lived in a foreign country - especially a non-English speaking country - makes you more desirable in the job market because of the invaluable work and life experience you gained overseas as well as being able to speak a second language.

Bilingual children, if you go that route

"If I marry him, we can have British-speaking babies!" Remember that?? If you fall in love with a European and decide to have children, they could grow up bilingual. Imagine children who can speak both American AND English! :-)

You'll find more people who think like you in Europe than in the U.S.

The majority of people in Europe accept climate change as fact. They are against war in general, armed citizens, and meddling in other people's affairs. Most understand the importance of education, travel, history, and culture. They are interested in the USA but don't consider it the greatest country in the world. Most also don't consider their own country the greatest in the world.

You probably won't need a car (saves money)

Public transportation isn't exactly cheap, but compared to parking fees, car maintenance, gas prices (ca. $8.50 per gallon in Germany), and auto insurance, I'm convinced you can save money by not owning a car. You can get everywhere in Europe you'll ever need to go by train, S-Bahn, or bus. When you do need a car, there's always Carsharing.

The food

Remember how much you enjoyed the wide variety of cuisines you could find in Berlin? Greek, Turkish, Indian, Hungarian, Spanish, Arabic... In the U.S. you have to live in a big city to have options beyond Taco Bell, Olive Garden, and Panda Express for "international" cuisine.

Blogging

You and I could write a mother-daughter expat blog! Wouldn't that be fun?!

Drawbacks

Naturally it's not all a bed of roses. There are downsides to being an expat as well.

It's expensive as hell.

Nothing is cheap over here. I buy clothes when I visit the U.S.. Traveling from Stuttgart to some other exotic European city is more affordable than flying from Chicago, but once you get to that city, you'll pay a ton for lodging, food, tours, and attractions. 

You'll miss your best friends and family.

There may be days when you'll wonder why you left home to move to a place where communication is not always easy and where you sometimes feel alone. There will be days when you'll wonder if your friends back home still care about you.

Inconvenient when family events occur (weddings, births, deaths)

There are times when you need to fly back home either because of a planned event or an unexpected one, or make the decision to stay where you are and miss it. This is never an easy decision.

Sorry....I can't think of any other drawbacks!

Neutral

Two homes

It doesn't take long, as you know, to get used to the way things are in your new country. You miss things about your first home, but then when you return you miss things from your new home. To be comfortable in two different cultures, though...Priceless!

Your friend circle will change

This happens with any move out of town or state. You'll communicate for a while with your friends back home, you might share updates on Facebook, and you'll see each other when you can. But you will also make friends in your new home, find new interests, and develop other fulfilling relationships.

Football

You'll  have to give up easy access to the Packers, but you'll get FC Bayern München and Thomas Müller in exchange!

What could you do here?

1. go to school (tuition fees are minimal - ca. €300 per semester)
2. be an au pair (for a family with a child/children with disabilities)
3. teach English
4. live with us while you do volunteer work and search for a job
5. develop an additional marketable talent - travel photography?  writing?

Kochen - Cooking in Germany

It took me about one month to realize that all my old stand-by recipes that I brought from the U.S. were useless here. There's no condensed soup here (the former basis of all my sauces), cheddar cheese is too expensive, the cuts of meat are different (there's no "beef round steak", for instance), and everything - starting with the water - tastes different. Not better or worse - just different.

So not long after moving here I shoved my American cookbooks to the back of the shelf and started picking up German magazines and cookbooks. Things have gone better since then. Now when I am in the States and cook something, I have the opposite problem. There's no Quark in America, Gouda cheese is overpriced, the ground meat is not ground fresh while I wait and it's so full of fat that a ton of grease needs to be drained, Butterschmalz (ghee) costs way too much if it's available at all and making enough of it for Schnitzel takes a good hour, and I can't find the right kind of potatoes.

It's not really all that surprising that the same food isn't available in both countries, so you learn to adapt. But since moving here and getting comfortable with German recipes, I've noticed some interesting differences in the instructions.

Pan size

Almost all American recipes tell the cook what size pan, pot, and/or casserole dish to use. "Grease a 9x13-inch pan."  "In a 10-quart casserole dish..." "Use a 1 1/2-quart microwave-safe bowl..." Sometimes it just says, "In a large frying pan..." On the bottom of all or most pans, pots, and casserole dishes, you can find their size - in quarts or inches diameter.

German recipes let the cook decide for himself which pots and pans he'll use. I think he's supposed to know that based on the amount of meat (in grams or kilos) or veggies the recipe calls for. Martin laughs every time he sees the pan size specified in an American recipe. I think to him that's like telling someone what size pants to put on in the morning.

Stove burner setting

Every American recipe I've seen tells the cook which stove temperature to use when frying, boiling, etc. "Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat" is one step for making Pepper Steak Sandwiches. This instruction is for frying the meat, and it defies everything Martin has taught me about cooking meat. Heat the pan first, and on high! Then add the oil! When the oil is nice and hot, add the meat. It should sizzle straight away. Don't heat the pan only to medium-high, because when you add the meat the pan will cool down and the meat will be boiling rather than frying. Now I know why I often screwed up this recipe when I made it in Wisconsin.

German recipes don't tell the cook which temperature to use on the stove. They use verbs, for instance:

    braten = fry

    anbraten = brown or sautee

    anschwitzen = lightly sautee

    aufkochen = bring to a boil

  

If you don't know what setting to use on the stove to achieve those things, figure it out through trial and error or stay out of the kitchen. (That's the message I get from German recipes.)

Measurements

German recipes call for tablespoons and teaspoons, but beyond that all solid ingredients are by weight in grams or kilos and liquid is by volume in liters or milliliters (ml). Every German kitchen has a metric scale onto which the cook puts a bowl or plate and resets the tare weight to zero, and then measures the ingredient. 1 1/4 cups of flour comes to 280 grams. One cup of butter is 227 grams, but one cup of crushed walnuts is 97 grams. No more "3/4 cup firmly packed" brown sugar - packed or not, you need 132 grams for Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies.

Tablespoons and teaspoons, however, can get confusing. In America, "T" means tablespoon and "t" (uncapitalized) means teaspoon. Every American cook knows that. In German all nouns are capitalized, so "TL" is Teelöffel (teaspoon) and "EL" is Esslöffel (eating spoon or tablespoon). The first few times I cooked with a German recipe, I saw "TL" and automatically thought "Tablespoon" because of the capitalization. With salt or lemon juice, for instance, that can be dangerous. I usually caught myself before mixing anything, but I do remember several times having to dig out 2 teaspoons of some herb or spice (because apparently 1T = 3t).

We have measuring utensils for both metric and cups and ounces in our kitchen, so that makes it a little easier to adapt the recipes that do work on both continents. Martin still refuses to accept "ounce" as a unit of measure, though. "What kind of ridiculously illogical system is that? What's three-fourths of a cup?! It depends on the size of the cup! There are 16 ounces in a pound? You've got to be kidding me." Sadly, the delightfully logical and mathematical metric system - which my third grade teacher assured us America was going to switch to very soon - is difficult for me. I have always sucked at math (just ask my dad; the phrase "one half of one percent" still brings me to tears), so on the occasions when I have to turn liters into fractions in the midst of preparing a meal ("Shit! I need 1/3 liter, and there's no mark for that on the measuring cup!"), I crumble. Martin always raises an eyebrow when I have to write on a recipe next to where it says "1/4 liter Milch", "250 ml".

Meat

I have become an absolute believer in buying meat from a trusted local butcher. Not a butcher in a grocery store, but a real, trained, certified butcher who does business out of a store that doesn't also sell clothing and auto parts. In Germany even the butchers in the grocery store have to be specially trained and certified through an educational program that takes several years, but I'm guessing the meat is still shipped in on trucks from heaven knows where. I can go to our local butcher (a 10-minute walk) and tell her or any of her employees what I want to cook, and she'll pick out the right meat for me if I'm unsure exactly what I need. Those working at the butcher's counter in the grocery store don't have time for that. It's true that the meat is more expensive - in some cases twice as expensive as at the grocery store - but we are convinced the quality is better. Nothing is pre-packaged or pre-cut, the ground meat is not pre-ground, and the animals were born, raised, and slaughtered in Baden-Württemberg.

When I do buy ground beef from the grocery store out of laziness, Martin can always tell. If he walks in while I'm frying beef for tacos, he sniffs the air and says, "Beef from Real?" (Real [RAY-al] is the closest grocery store to us, and it's similar to a decent grocery store plus Target.) He says it just has a funny smell, though I can't tell the difference. There's also more fat in the Real ground beef, although still not enough to have to drain it after frying like ground beef in the U.S..

In Germany I can go to any butcher and ask for "four pork Schnitzel." I have no idea what part of the pig that comes from, and "Schnitzel" just means "cutlet". I went to a butcher in Sheboygan (with a German-sounding name even!) last year and asked for ten pork Schnitzel, and got a blank stare.

Guy: "Do you mean pork chops?"

Me: "No, Schnitzel. No bones. Ok, how about ten slices of that hunk of pork?" (I pointed to what I wanted.)

Guy: "Well, we have these boneless pork chops [already cut]. What about these?"

Me: "No, this piece of pork really looks like what I need. Ten slices, about 1 centim...er, about half an inch thick."

Guy: "Let me just talk to my boss. Hang on a sec."  [He disappears into the back, and reappears with boss.]

Boss: "Hi Ma'am. Are you sure you want slices of this? We have...."

Me: "No, I'm really sure. I don't want pork chops. Ten slices of this will be just perfect."

Boss: "Ok, we'll see what we can do." 

They went into the back again without the hunk of pork I'd pointed to, and one of them re-emerged after a few minutes with a plate of ten slices of pork which looked right. I'm not sure why they didn't just use the exact piece of meat I'd ask for, but I took it, and it worked perfectly. At our butcher here, they cut the meat in front of us, we know exactly what we're getting, and we've never been dissatisfied. We've had good and bad luck at the grocery store.

Cooking at home

Martin and I truly enjoy cooking together. We're a darn good team in the kitchen, and he doesn't get upset when he comes home after ten hours in the office and needs to brown the beef or pork steaks because he's better at it than I am. I don't spring this on him - we usually decide by lunch what we're cooking that evening. I do the Bratkartoffeln, he does the Rösti, he grills (yes, friends, I'm still afraid of grills and always will be), I make the casseroles, he does the sauce or gravy because I don't have the patience, he flattens the Schnitzel and I flour, egg, and bread them. He sharpens the knives, I do the dishes, and whichever one of us notices the floor needs washing washes it.

There's one drawback, though, and that is that our standards are not as low as they once were for dining out! We enjoy the meals we cook so much (though yes, we've had some duds, of course) that we question paying for a meal we'll probably like less. The obvious exception is our favorite restaurant, where we've tried almost everything on the menu and haven't yet had something we wouldn't gladly order again. There are also quite a few restaurants in Esslingen that we really like. But beyond those, I don't get excited about dining out anymore. Why dine out when your own home-cooked meals are so good (and less expensive!)? I'm not saying we're fabulous cooks - rather that we like the meals we cook.

Here are some of our favorites (I am working on the quality of my food pictures, which will hopefully improve soon.): 

Bauernfrühstück - Farmer's Breakfast
potatoes, pork tenderloin, bacon, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms...

Kartoffel-Apfel-Auflauf mit Kasseler
Potato-Apple-Casserole with Kasseler
One of my favorites; not Martin's

Züricher Geschnetzeltes mit Rösti
Zurich Ragout with hashbrowns
I could eat this at least once a week.

Rösti after flipping, which Martin does expertly

Tenderloin wraps