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.