City Living

Sometimes I forget what it's like to live in a city.  While Durham is very urban, it is definitely not a city in the same way that DC was.  Using public transportation, dealing with crazy people, navigating crowds, these are tall things that I haven't had to deal with much for the last 8 years.  Today, after taking the tram to meet up with some friends, I hopped on the tram to head back to the classrooms to get some work done.  About midway throughout he ride a woman got on with her baby firmly secured to her.  I looked down and she was barefoot.

Her baby also has no shoes, but at least he/she is wearing socks

Now there's nothing inherently wrong with going barefoot.  I used to do it all the time when I was a kid, but I wasn't walking around in a city with broken glass, filthy sidewalks - I was walking in my neighborhood or at the beach.

The other thing that I saw today was a zombie-like scene at the Saturn.  Saturn is basically like Best Buy, and I was going to stop by there to see if I could get a new battery for my old phone - hoping to be able to at least get the information off of the phone.  The store opened at 10am, and at about 9:45 a crowd started forming and waiting to enter the building. As it got closer to opening time, the people started getting closer and closer to the doors, looking in and almost pressing their faces up against the glass.  It reminded me of something out of a zombie movie.

Electronics Zombies

The only time I have really seen this in the US is on Black Friday, and then it's certainly more of a panic, but I thought this orderly zombie hoard was interesting.

Winter Wonderland

I've decided to interrupt the recap of my Christmas vacation with an observation about the difference between snow storms in the US and in Germany.

I don't really feel like we've had any snow storms here.  It's been more like days upon days of snow.  I think places like Buffalo or Minnesota get snow like this, but most places I have lived get a singular snow storm, which freaks everyone out, and then spend a week trying to get back to "normal."  This is normal here.  I think we're going on 5 days right now - with a day long break in the middle somewhere. Early in December we had a few days of constant flurries, where nothing stuck, but there was white stuff floating down from the sky, but now we've got actual snow, and the temperatures have not gotten above freezing in a couple of weeks.  However, for all the constant snow, we have only gotten about 6-8 inches total, or at least that's the amount that is sitting on top of the picnic tables outside my academic building.

You might be wondering how people react to the snow here.  Well, unlike in the US, there are no people rushing to the grocery store to purchase milk and toilet paper.  Nothing has closed down, but again we only have about 6 inches of snow.  Only the major streets have been plowed with regularity.  The sidewalks are plowed occasionally.  In the old part of town with the cobblestones, it's every man for himself.  Every so often a street sweeper will come through and "sweep" the snow so that there's a thin layer of mushy brown slush everywhere.  It's not so much a Winter Wonderland as it is a slippery brown slushy nightmare.

Oh well.  At least we're getting a break and some above freezing temperatures!

In Praise of Fresh Meat

Though this isn't on my list of things I have plans to write about, I couldn't let today pass by without mentioning the tastiness of fresh meat.  Just before I went down to visit my family my relatives up in Kolbingen had slaughtered a pig and I came home with two pork chops, two bratwurst, and some leberwurst.

The last time I was studying in Germany 12 years ago, my family had also slaughtered a pig, but that was a completely different experience.  My cousin had received a pig from some of his friends as a wedding guest since pigs are symbols of good luck in Germany.  Frank and his (now ex-)wife gave the pig over to a local former who took care of it until it was big enough.  At that point, they went over to the local butcher - who is probably a distant relative - slaughtered the pig and had what is affectionately known as a "Schlachtfest" (slaughter fest). A Schlachtfest is basically where you invite the people over who gave you the pig so that they can share in your luck.

This time, there was no Schlachtfest.  Instead Hans and Hedi split the pig with one of Hedi's relatives and they came away with basically half a pig worth of sausage and other meat. Anyway, I had some of the leberwurst for breakfast, and one of the pork chops for dinner and let me tell you they were some of the tastiest  meat that I have had in a long time.  The leberwurst was so fresh, and well seasoned, and the pork chop was tender and flavorful.  It's almost enough for me to go to a butcher when I get home rather than buying meat at the supermarket.  Unfortunately, it's super expensive...but if I could find an inexpensive butcher, it would be worth a try.

20 Years Ago Today....

I was thirteen years old, and had just started taking German in the eighth grade.  I knew that I didn't want to take French and Spanish didn't interest me, but I also knew that to get into a college, that I needed to start taking a language in Jr. High School.  I took German because I wanted to be able to have a connection with my family, even though once I started I was too shy and embarrassed to ever talk to either my father or my grandmother in German.

Cook in your own kitchen!!

I get that our kitchen is bigger.  I get that you may even be cooking for a couple of people who live on this floor. But seriously there are four other people who live in this hall, for whom you are not cooking and each and every one of them wants to cook and eat their dinner.  So unless you're going to invite us all to eat with you, go back to your own frickin' kitchen and cook your food there because you're taking up the ENTIRE kitchen to cook your food.

Seriously.  You have to bring all of your ingredients downstairs to cook in our kitchen.  Isn't that inconvenient?  Wouldn't it be easier to cook upstairs and invite people up to your place to eat?  Not only that, but we just cleaned our kitchen and you and the two boys for whom you are cooking are not known for cleaning up after yourselves.

And the worst part is that I know pretty soon the guitar playing is going to start.  

Blah…sick

So I’m sick.  Not in a Swine-flu sort of way, but the kind of sick you get when the weather changes quickly and your body is not prepared for it.  And while I have health insurance, I’m not really sick enough to go to the doctor, so today I headed to the drug store to find out what magical herbal remedies they had in store for me.  (Really, I needed lotion and vitamin C with zinc, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to look at the herbal tea section.)