Josh the Weinachts Lottery Winner

Ok, so as we wander through this adventure, it has been great to experience the German customs and traditions, especially around the Weinachts holiday.  To you who think I just sneezed while typing, that is German for Christmas.

As gluhwein, which is a spiced, hot wine that really is the center of the Weinachts festivals, is served by the barrel full, there are countless other delicious treats to pair with it. Shwein schnitzel (pork chop sans the bone) and mushrooms on a non fitting bun, or a bratwurst on a really non fitting bun, or the mother load of deliciousness........racelette mit brot.

So before I stepped into a line, I tried to figure it out.  Imagine a cartoon-size wheel of cheese, cut in half, and on a moveable rack.  Directly above the massive half round of goodness, is a heat lamp that causes the cheese to bubble and bake tender brown in under 20 seconds.  Now the movable part comes in, as does the brot part.  (Brot is bread, by the way). Once the bubbling cheese is ready, the server guy swings the arm out from under the lamp, and scrapes the bubbly mess onto the awaiting peice of bread. Voila! A pizza without sauce, or a fondue without the cleanup.  But here is the best part:  some like it just like that, others go one step further and add zweibeln (onions) and gerkens (pickles), others go all in and get that, plus shinken (bacon).  

When I was about number three from the front, the festival meister came by to ensure the stand was closing because the whole fest ended like an hour earlier.  Well, not really knowing how to say " HELL NO, I have been wating a long time here, I have finally figured it out, and I want my bread with onions, pickles, and ham on it!", I snuggled up tight behind the rotund lady in front of me who apparently was deemed the cutoff.  I think I made her day.......any way, she acted like we were together, and I knew I was in.  

Finally, I am to the point where I understand how much things cost and how to make proper change, instead of holding out all my money like a five year old, so I handed the fella my money and he handed me the goey mess of heaven.  Now, I know that the combination does not sound that appetizing, but I can assure you, you do not want to miss out if you ever see such a stand at your local market.  More so, if you are lucky enough to get the "cheesy crust" like I was, you apparently have won the weinachts raclette lottery, so revel in your victory.  More importantly, if a large lady helped you get the last one served for the night, you can really acheive rock star status, at least in her eyes, by sharing said crust with her.

What fun we are having, hope you are too, and that the holidays find you all well.

Josh, the Raclette lottery winner

It'a a wrap!

Some of you know that our family has recently been involved in the filming of a US television show called House Hunters International.  It is a program aired on HGTV, a cable or satellite channel that features home and garden programs.  This particular show follows families or individuals as they move abroad and try to find a home.  They highlight both the real estate market at the destination as well as try to highlight the city itself.  It is described as a combination travel and real estate program.  They came and filmed us in Memphis/Collierville to document our "backstory", home, and daily life there, then came to Germany and followed us while house hunting here too.  They also came recently and filmed the home that we chose and a few snippets of our new life here.  It has been a fun and fascinating process to be a part of and we have loved the crews that we worked with!  As of now, according to our producer, it is a "wrap"!  We are hoping the 50 million tapes will go to edit now and have been told to anticipate a spring airing of the episode.  Unfortunately, the airline lost a key piece of luggage containing camera lights and batteries so the poor crew had to scramble to come up with some substitutions for about 3 days of filming and wound up having to film us for more days here an originally anticipated.  We are hoping those days will not have to be reshot, but should know something more definite soon.  Anyway, the boys have found new potential careers that they are now interested in and we found more friends abroad.  We are so grateful for the experience!  

Neighbors' First Impressions of the Halletts

I feel like I lecture my kids about this all of the time...it goes something like this:  "People will form a long lasting opinion of you, without even realizing it, upon first meeting you so make a good first impression. It takes longer for them to change their opinion and much more time invested by you"...Keeping that in mind, I was told at some point that there was an "aristocrat" living in our building.  Frau Von Something.  Anyway, last thurs, late in the evening after receiving all of our household goods and dealing with movers for 8 hours, I went back to wiping out cabinets, etc to prep for the inloading. This also after a few trips out in the drizzle. Let me just say, not my best look. Anyway, I headed out to the trash area to get rid of some stuff and wound up meeting a lovely, older woman who was dressed in a beautiful cardigan set, dress pants, and pearls, and who spoke some English, but not much. It started with a simple "guten abend" before her face lit up and she said "You must be the new family upstairs.  Your husband is a pilot?" She and I spoke for about 10 minutes and promised to get together for coffee to get to know one another better. During this conversation, It never occurs to me that I am wearing the apron pictured below or that I look like a drowned rat, until I get back on the elevator and see my reflection.  I get upstairs and tell Josh and The Boys about my new friend and what I was wearing.  Josh is cracking up, saying "NO you were not!!!" (and takes the below photo). Of course, I later find out that she is Frau Von Aristocrat (so lovely;  I never felt judged).  I apologized to her days later for not realizing that I had the silly apron on.  She kindly looked confused and said that she noticed no such thing.  Seriously, how can you not notice...she is too kind.

Later the same evening, we made another great first impression, I think.  When we first moved in, they were working on some pipes in the floor of our unit and ceiling of the flat below us (who is occupied by the Spanish Consulate).  Since our kitchen water/dishwasher was unable to be utilized during this time (two weeks), we were given keys to an empty flat on another floor to use that kitchen to take care of dishes. Our first night after delivery, around 10 pm, about an hour after the garbage/apron meeting, I had loaded this bin of dirty dishes into the elevator and turned away to get something else. Evidently someone else called the elevator so it left without me and it arrived to get them like this: 

No person in it, just a container of dirty dishes...can you imagine getting home to your beautiful flat, after a long day's work and opening the elevator to find this?  Turned out to be the Spanish Consulate, who happened to cause the long delay in the repair work so I didn't feel so badly in the end.  Perhaps he got the gist as the plumbers fixed the issue the next day and we had working water and dishwasher in the kitchen!  I am sure our neighbors love us...

Just when I thought I was blending in...

Just when I thought I was fitting in...I have been taking the u-bahn (combo of surface trolley and subway) to the grocery store to fill our mini-bar sized fridge a few times a week, with my rolling bag and a few other reusable bags. Yesterday, at the stop where I get back on to go our place, I had to carry this cart down the steps since the escalator only goes up at this particular stop. As I picked up the cart, one hand on the top and one on the bottom kickstand-looking thing, one of the wheels came off and bounced down two flights of stairs before landing on it's round edge in the gutter and rolling down the third flight, picking up speed as it went. As I stood there absolutely cracking up and laughing out loud, the other wheel came off, just as the first one shot out of the mouth of the gutter and rolled across the station concourse ricochetting to a flying stop near a coffee shop. I couldn't make eye contact with anyone. I just kept walking down the stairs laughing and walked over to retrieve the wheels laying on their sides scattered about the station. I examined them like I knew what to look for, jammed them back on the axel looking thing and pushed a paperclip looking thing into what I thought was the locked position. I continued down the next flight of stairs to the platform where two, very amused, older women said something friendly to me in German. I asked in German if they spoke English and wound up making two new friends on the ride home. Now I know where to buy a German made wheely cart (I still don't know what these are called though) who's wheels hopefully won't fly off in front of so many stoic Germans. :) I don't think I quite fit in yet...

Searching for Julie Andrews 11/11

Due to some new EU immigration policies, our registration and move in process is taking a little longer than expected.  Before we arrived in country, we rented a home (the 70's style indoor garage sale...) to stay in while house hunting, getting settled, etc. We were originally told that the process would take 2-3 days plus house hunting and to expect a no more than a month of temporary living. That has all shifted to two months now.  Of course, as luck would have it, our month-long rental ended on the day before the largest, annual conference in Dusseldorf began and another couple were checking in on the afternoon of our scheduled departure.  Additionally, ALL hotel rooms in Dusseldorf,  Cologne (about 30 minutes away), and the surrounding areas were all sold out.  Since the flat we have found isn't quite ready, we decided to head off on an adventure for a few days until a hotel room in Dusseldorf became available.  It turned out to be a three day gap. We found on-line what sounded like a fun hotel, with a pool (not too common here) for the kids, about an hour and 15 minutes away.  We rented a storage unit, made several trips to fill it with our stuff, and took off with about 4 suitcases and the dog.  What a pleasant surprise awaited us upon arrival at this typically European hotel.  It was quaint and historic and in the German version of Napa Valley.  The restaurant is an award winning one and of course, they serve local wines in additional to the typical fare.   On our first night there, Josh had to leave on a 5 day trip, so the boys and I ventured out the next day on our own.  Driving through the surrounding mountains and rolling hills was breathtaking!  Even the boys commented on how beautiful it was.  Once we left the vineyard covered valleys it felt like we were driving through the movie set of The Sound of Music.  I was just waiting for Julie Andrews to come skipping over the one of the hills, singing in her nanny apron and skirt.  I love it when bumps in the road turn into such a beautiful surprises!

Garbage sorting as an Olympic sport

I always heard that Europe was more ecologically aware than we are in the US, but never imagined to what extent.  We have now decided that they should add German garbage sorting as a new, exposition/demonstration sport in the summer 2012 London Olympics.  We are required to sort our trash into 4 categories.  There are separate, color coded garbage cans for each.  You are on your own to come up with a system for in your kitchen.  Newer kitchens actually have trash ares that have 4 designated areas.  Yellow is for plastic and metal.  This would include cans and plastic bottles, but also ziploc bags, envelopes that have a plastic window or "coated" paper. Blue is for paper-easy, also includes cardboard.  Brown is for "bio". This is essentially anything that my Aunt Riki would compost; tea bags, egg shells, raw foods like the brown ends you cut off of celery.  Last is black or grey.  This is for "other household trash".  Seems straight forward, right?  So here are our dilemma items:  Where do you put a used tissue?  Paper, bio or household?  Where to you put cooked fish bones or mussel shells?  We went with bio on the fish bones-wrong, they go in household...see what I mean?  You could create all kinds of sorting challenges!!!  I am sure my brother, Greg is loving it!  I also suspect that he is secretly jealous that he only has two categories of sorting in his little village...

Karnival 11.11.11 at 11:11

Rolf, the hotel GM and our guide, giving a brief history of Karnival

Brokeback husband (as named by our friend, Bob), Hayden the musketeer, and Connor the creepy strangler!

Bob and Brokeback Josh 

I had never seen so many brats on a grill before!

Karnival season opens on 11/11 every year in cities throughout Germany.  Cologne evidently is know to have the largest celebration of this so, of course, we had to go.  "Karnival season", also called "The 5th season" is the period between 11/11 and the following Ash Wednesday.  The largest day of celebration of the entire season is Rosenmontag, the Monday prior to Ash Wednesday.  The second biggest day, evidently is 11/11.  This year was special as it was 11/11/11 and the entire thing officially kicks off at 11:11 am.  This morning and season of celebration basically is a combination of Marti Gras, tailgating, halloween, and perhaps the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  Honestly, that is an awful summary.  It is a sea of happy people (almost all adults), dressed in fantastic costumes, drinking beer, eating brats, dancing and enjoying music and just hanging out.  We started our day in costume by getting on the u-baun at our local stop.  Walking the 4 blocks there, we passed several people but no others in costume.  The boys must have asked 4 or 5 times if we were sure it was the right day.  We were the first in costume among others at the stop, but within minutes two or three other costumed people showed up-tinkerbell and some crazy looking clownish woman.  The boys were relieved. At each stop, more and more costumed people got on.  Mostly adults over the age of 50 in full regalia.  It was hysterical at times.  We met with other Fedex families at the hotel that has sort of become our base.  The hotel has been the main sponsor of the event for 40 years and the general manager, who was being interviewed and featured on local television, kindly offered to take a group of us down and show us the ropes.  He gave us a quick history lesson on Karnival, the three main "characters", and the overall event.  He surprised us by opening up a box of his personal collection of float medallions, that he had collected over the years and placed one around each of our necks, while giving a quick history or description of each of the medallions. He bravely led us through the enormous crowds almost all the way to the main stage.  We eventually had to stop about a block back from the stage as the politzei had started blocking off areas of people to keep the crowds under control.  All in all, it was quite a festive time, with a great group of people and a terrific band set up just next to us.  Thanks to Rolf for guiding us through and keeping us on track!