Oktoberfest tomorrow

Early tomorrow morning we hop on a train for Munich to experience two days of Oktoberfest. Bruno and Darth will be going on their own separate vacation. The dog taxi should arrive in a few hours to take them to their accommodations at a farm in the country where they will sleep in a horse stall. It makes me laugh to think of these two small dogs sleeping in a huge horse stall. Gianna said bye to them this morning and told them to say hi to the cow and horse.

I bought Gianna a dirndl for the trip, but we don't plan to spend much time at the festival grounds dodging crowds and watching people get drunk. Our plans include a trip to the Munich zoo and aquarium...and probably copious amounts of ice cream. For sure there will be some pictures posted when we get back. Oktoberfest, here we come!

Dial 112

Gianna's boyfriend next door, Niall, celebrated his third birthday with a tour of the local firehouse for all his friends. The adults had as much fun as the kids climbing into the trucks and getting a ride with their kid in a 24 meter high rescue ladder. The firemen demonstrated a lot of equipment they use in rescues, including the ventilator face masks. They said children often run away from them during rescues because the men in masks look so scary. While we didn't get to slide down the pole, they gave us a demonstration sliding down two of several poles that they really use every day. Coincidentally, Gianna's school had a visit from the fire company on Friday, where they got to help shoot water from the hose and listen to the siren. Gianna reported it was all "really loud". And now, she wears her fire hat that she got at the party and says "I fire man!" Thanks for a great party, Niall!

Back to work

Tomorrow, for the first time in over 9 months, I'm going back to work. This is more of a boredom buster experience than a real job. Dr. Mick, my orthopedic doctor, was looking for someone to help his daughter (and wife) improve their English skills. Apparently all my blathering about the US when I was in his office made a lasting impression, as he called me one evening and asked in a round about way if I was interested. This weekend Dan, Gianna, and I went over to his house for a meet and greet over cappuccino and German cakes [yum!]. Dr. Mick spent some time in the US, so he is used to Americans and our crazy ways. His wife speaks a bit of English, but got confused when I complemented her on their large, cerulean blue kitchen. They have a seven month old baby and a two year old daughter. I bet they are grooming their daughter to start at an English speaking international school next year, hence the English lessons. The international schools have a much better reputation than the local German schools, and since he's a doctor, he can afford the tuition. And if she wants to go to UC Berkley like her father, well let's just say it's best if she not get stuck in the German school system.

[the Gianna photo is just a random example of her terrible 2's sour face.]

More Dippemess

I just can't resist Dippemess. Those poffertjes and waffles with ice cream were calling to me all week. Gianna finally got up the nerve to pet the ponies and said she wanted to ride one too. But after the car experience last week, she will have to wait for spring Dippemess. When we were ordering our waffles with ice cream, Gianna requested a green slushy that turned out to be "waldmeister" flavor. When I asked the lady "Waldmeister, was ist das?" She said "Waldmeister ist waldmeister". Turns out waldmeister is the German word for Woodruff, which can have toxic levels of coumarin when ingested. Not surprisingly, only the Germans use it as a food, other cultures use it as insect repellant. They are supposed to only use artificial waldmeister flavor these days which has a bitter, floor cleaner flavor, but Gianna enjoyed it. I also captured some cute pictures of her and Bố enjoying Dippemess pommes frites, posted in my updated Dippemess album.

All the way from Lancaster County

Well look what the cat dragged in to Tengelmann's this week: Snyders of Hanover pretzels! And my favorite flavor too. I couldn't believe my eyes, my typical scan of the snack food aisle actually resulted in something worth buying. German snack foods are gross, which is maybe one of the reasons Germans are much thinner than Americans. They are also only sold in small bags; these pretzels are vending machine size. But with German grocery stores, the rule is here today, gone tomorrow. I think they just buy whatever the wholesalers are trying to get rid of at "aktion preis". So perhaps I should stock up on American pretzels before they stop carrying them?

Import Tariffs

Yesterday I spent the morning at the east docks retrieving an Amazon.com package from customs. This long awaited beauty contained 6 DVD box sets of Star Trek TNG, Birds of Britain and Europe Peterson field guide, and Lonely Planet Vietnam, 2009 edition. As I sat in the chair with the box opened before me, Wil Riker stared back from one of the box sets and whispered "you're going to have to pay a lot of money if you want to take me home. Hope you brought cash!" Oy, for the amount of euro I spent getting that package out of customs, we could have got Wesley Crusher to make a personal appearance in our living room. Too bad we couldn't get the DVD's from Amazon.de, the German site, but we didn't really want to watch Star Trek voiced over in German. The Amazon UK site had them in English, but not the American format. So, this is important, if you would like to send us a package for Gianna's birthday or Christmas, the only safe bet is to order from a German site (like Amazon.de or ToysRUs.de). Packages from private parties (sent person to person) can still get held up in customs with taxes due. So unless it's something small and marked as "gift" with a low retail value, there's a good chance they will stop it and make us pay. Another option for Gianna is to let us know what you would like to get her, we can buy it over here, and you can deposit money into our US bank account.

Fall Dippemess

At spring Dippemess, I rode the carrousel with Gianna. She was a little scared and wanted to get off before the ride was over. This time, she begged to go on the car ride (you know, the kiddie ride that goes around in a circle). So we bought the ticket, she picked out a car, and I knelt by the car giving a two minute explanation of what was going to happen. The ride would start, she must stay seated, and we would be standing by the ride, waving as she went around. She understood the situation, but still had an apprehensive look on her face.

The ride started spinning and when she came around the first time, she was crying (click on the photo to see the full extent of her terror). I couldn't help but laughing, then felt bad about laughing, but what was I to do, yell at the carnie to stop the ride? She was staying in her seat, and the guy was watching her, so she was safe. Soon, a mom that was riding with her son came over and picked Gianna up, trying to comfort her. She cried for about 5 minutes after the ride was over, but then was begging to go on the bumper cars and other rides made for adults.

We decided to risk the ferris wheel (risk 10 minutes of crying), since she was again animate that she wanted to ride. After a minute of clinging and asking if this thing was safe, she began to peer over the side, enjoying the views from the top. The ferris wheel was a big hit, which hopefully made up for the car ride incident. We got some good good carnie food including cherry poffertjes (Dutch pancakes), zweibelschnitzel (onion fried chicken patty), corn on the cob, hot dog, ice cream, and ended the day with chocolate covered strawberry kabobs. Take a look at more photos by clicking here.

€100 haircut

Although Halloween is just around the corner, my hair was getting a little too witchy for my tastes. So, time for some professional help at Art Hair. The going price for a cut & color is around €80-100 in Frankfurt. That's more than I like to spend getting my hair done, but still less than John Edwards pays. Sure, I could have gone to one of those "€11 für alles" places and come out looking like a character from Dumb and Dumber, but I didn't want to take the chance.

Opel Zoo

Here are some pictures from our trip up to the Opel Zoo this weekend. They sell bags of carrots and boxes of animal feed pellets for you to feed the animals, all kinds of animals from goats and ponies to hippos and monkeys. The best part of the trip was when the giant hippo came out of the water and opened his huge mouth to us, begging for carrots. Gianna is too scared to feed or touch the animals herself, heck even I was too scared to feed that hippo. But she likes to watch us feed them and see the animals beg for food.





And of course, before you exit there is a large advertisement for ice cream. Gianna went up and gave the cone a huge hug. Later that night, she confessed at the dinner table that she has an "ice cream problem". Don't worry Gianna, it runs in the family.

Oeder Weg white table party

Since this blog is called "Oeder Weg", it would be shameful if I didn't report on Oeder Weg's end of summer white table party. They closed down the Oeder Weg to traffic and set up long picnic tables covered in white table cloths. In the evening, people dressed in white and ate dinner at the tables. Businesses were open, and the piano stores had people out front playing white baby grands. It was nice to just walk around and see everyone dressed in white. I even dressed Bruno in one of his white t-shirts, which really got a rise out of the German locals. Yes, I take costume parties to heart, but not as much as some people...

Tschüss to Grace and Marian

Grace and Marian are on their respective planes back to the US. I walked each of them to the train station, they bought some final treats from the bakery, and I made sure they got on the correct S Bahn to the Frankfurt Flughafen, running along side of the train, waving a hanky, telling them to meet a nice man and get married...OK, that last part I made up. Now back to business as usual in Frankfurt. Tonight we are going over to friend's house to watch the first Penn State game of the season thanks to the magic of the internet.

Rosinschnecken

Roisinschnecken translates to raisin sweet roll, or if you use Google translate, raisin snails. Ick. I picked up this baby on the way home from my last appointment with Dr. Mick. He says the ankle looks great and I don't have to keep wearing the brace. It feels great too, even better than the uninjured ankle. Hooray!

Failing relationships

It's a dark, cold, and rainy morning in Frankfurt. My cousin and I were having an interesting email conversation about failing relationships. Becoming an expat really separates the wheat from the chaff, but some relationships were failing long before we moved to Germany. I made the statement that people can fall into a pattern of "doing things" to avoid having a real relationship. They insist on spending time together, but not quality time, which constitutes a waste of time in my book. My cousin mentioned a school of thought (credited to a book by Dr. Gary Chapman) that there are basically 5 ways people express love:

1. Words of Affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Receiving Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

Corny, but interesting. So, apparently I really like Quality Time and Acts of Service. Sit down with me, call me on Skype, or email and lets talk about our common interests and shared experiences. Offer to load the dishwasher for me and I will be feeling loved for the rest of the day!! Words of Affirmation are nice, but in the end, they are just words unless actions follow suit. Receiving gifts is alright if it is coming from someone that truly loves me with no strings attached. And Physical Touch? I like my personal space, thank you! I make a huge exception for Gianna, I really like her gentle little hugs that don't dislocate my shoulder and I love to kiss her little cheeks. The point is, this book (which I only read summaries and excerpts from) has encouraged me to try some of these other languages of love on other people, because maybe that's the language they've been speaking all along. Why don't you try some of them too?

Day Trippin'

Gianna missed two days of school this week for some educational day trips with Grace and Marian. On Monday, we toured the Rhine River Valley by car. Unfortunately, the castles were closed for tours on Monday, but we were still able to check out the exterior while taking in some beautiful views of the valley. We stopped in St. Goar for lunch and had some local fish and Reisling wine. My trout came with the head still attached; Gianna asked if the fish was sleeping. We watched the boats go down the Rhine, did a little shopping, then made our way back to Frankfurt.

On Tuesday we headed down to Rothenburg, a medieval walled city set up for tourists to enjoy. We stopped for lunch where I got this enormous apfel with quark wood fired bread. It was delicious. Gianna and I had been to Rothenburg before, so we splurged and took a horse and carriage tour of the city. It was very relaxing; Gianna fell asleep halfway through. It was probably very informative too, if I could understand more German. I got Gianna an ice cream cone and delt with some rude shop keepers. Then I sat in gum. The day started to go downhill from there. After encountering some more rude shopkeepers, we hit the road back to Frankfurt. The GPS lead us astray, we found our way back to the gas station where we had rented the car, but accidentally returned the keys in the drop box before pulling it away from the pumps. Oops. Grace and I pushed the tiny Opel out of the way and called Europcar to tell them what happened. "Kein Problem" was their response. Thanks Europcar! This morning Dan took Gianna to school and I took Grace and Marian to the train station for the next leg of their adventure: Amsterdam. You can see more photos from Museum Fest, the Rhine Valley, and Rothenburg here.