Recycling

Today is recycling day in our neighborhood.
(Right now you must be thinking, "Wow, she has really run out of things to write about. This is going to be boring.")
Recycling in Germany is an organizational feat.  First, we have blue bags, which hold paper. Then we have yellow bags, which hold any kind of plastic or aluminum.  Then there is the compost for any kinds of food, eggshells, tea bags, etc. And the garbage for anything that's left.You can get the bags for free at the grocery store, when they have them.  My latest problem is that I ran out of yellow bags and can't seem to find them anywhere, but they have blue bags around every day. So my recyclables just pile up as I continue the search. On Wednesday night everyone puts their bags out on the sidewalk.

Glass can go in the yellow bags but most (not all) of the bottles that are plastic or glass require a deposit when you buy them. When you bring them back to the store there is a machine that sucks them in and scans them to find out the amount of the deposit. Then it prints out a receipt for the amount of credit that you get back, which you can then give to the cashier when you check out next time. Got that straight?

All of these rules had Brian a little baffled so that he would just leave his trash on the counter for me to deal with. That wasn't going to happen for very long, so we invested in this fancy recycling bin instead:

The brown bin on the left is for the compost stuff. We decided to keep that separately in the little storage space in the kitchen - the only thing we have that resembles a closet.  The compost attracts fruit flies so it seemed like a good idea to hide it.

So give the Germans credit for being environmentally conscious. And confusing.

Weekend in Hamburg

Over the weekend we went to Hamburg to visit Dizzy (Tom) and Sonja. It was a great trip for a couple of reasons.
1. It's always fun to see them. They are part of the reason we're here. We are planning a trip to Egypt together over Christmas break!
2. It's good to spend time with people who have known you for years and years, rather than weeks and weeks.
3. The fact that our water heater kept breaking and that our shipment from July has still not arrived put some of us (won't name names here but it wasn't me) in a bad mood and we needed a little diversion.

Hamburg is about 2 hours away on the slow train, and it's a big place. It's the 2nd largest city in Germany after Berlin.We'd been there for Tom and Sonja's wedding last summer, so we didn't feel the need to do a lot of tourist things. Instead we had Pakistani food, rode bikes down to the harbor, walked under the Elbe River through a tunnel, and went to a genuine German housewarming party. It was really not much different than an American party, except they serve soup to the party-goers.

If Germany has Indian summer, that's what we have now. Can a place that has never had American Indians have Indian summer? I'm not sure (thought they are really into the wooden cigar Indian statues and one of the Hannover hockey teams is called the Indians...) Anyway, it's warm in a fall kind of way and it made for a great outdoor weekend. The warm weather also helps because, as I have mentioned before, we are still wearing the clothes we packed in July.  I will spare you the tedious details of what's happening with our shipment, but it is now in England and might not be here for another month.  It's sort of a grieving process - first there's anger, then denial, some other steps I can't remember, and finally we are working on acceptance. So Brian and I decided to just quit being stubborn and go shopping. Brian is already the only person in all of Germany to be wearing shorts. I had only 2 pairs of socks (but lots of sandals) until last week. It's time.

This week's tourism

I had a couple of touristy days this week.
On Tuesday, I went to the Herrenhauser Gardens with Renee, a woman from New York that I met through the Hannover International Women's Club. I don't know the history exactly, but the estate there used to belong to Hannover's royal family and was built in the 1700s. There are huge gardens there - very manicured with hedge mazes, statues, and fountains. Here's more info if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrenhausen_Gardens

Then on Wednesday I went as a chaperone on the International School's 10th grade field trip to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. It's about an hour outside of Hannover. The Nazis used it first as a work camp for those Jews and other prisoners with British or American that they hoped to exchange for German POWs. When that didn't really work, they continued bringing other prisoners there from all over Europe for slave labor. At the end of the war, the Nazis shipped prisoners from Polish camps to Bergen-Belsen so they would not be rescued. Eventually most of the prisoners died from starvation or disease. About 50,000 people died there. It was really intense, as you can imagine. Some of the strange things are how peaceful it was there - all the buildings were burned down by the Allies since they were disease-ridden, so it really looks like a big forest preserve. There are some foundations of buildings still there and a cemetery and museum. In the museum is original footage that the British soldiers took when they liberated the camp. Also, there is a large town very nearby. The residents of the town knew what was happening at the camp and it was a part of the local economy for farmers, construction workers, etc who provided supplies. It was a powerful, draining experience for the kids and for me.

Grill shopping - Doner - Froggy shoes

Sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I've actually been really busy this week. More on that later - today we talk barbecue.

A few weeks ago we smelled charcoal coming from the neighbor's balcony. We decided that if they could have a grill then we could have one too! So on Saturday, Brian and I went to the Bauhaus, which is like the German version of Menards. Bauhaus is where my plumbing adventures with the washing machine took place, so I know it pretty well already.

As a tangent, I'll tell you that Brian and I first had lunch at the Doner place near our house (one of them, there are actually 4 or 5 in short walking distance). Doner is Turkish/Mediterranean/Middle Eastern fast food and it's delicious.  Fast food is maybe the wrong word. It's gyros and falafels and kabobs and greek salad and something I have yet to try which is like a Turkish pizza. At some places they also serve pizzas and fries and other items that are probably not worth trying.  It's fresh and cheap and generally not greasy. If you can't tell, I am a big fan. I took the takeout menu home with me so I can practice my German Doner vocabulary.

Anyway, at the Bauhaus we spotted a sturdy little Weber grill - designed in Palatine, IL. It looked like the floor model might be the only one. So I approached the Bauhaus staff member nearby (they usually don't approach you in a store, but let you shop until you are ready for help, which I find very civilized and great also if you don't  speak the language). He told me he did not speak English, so I somehow managed to ask if that grill was the only one in stock. I said it a lot less eloquently than that. I said something like "is the one?" or " you have one?" but he figured it out.  We got a discount since it was the floor model and got a few modest grill tools and some lighter fluid, and headed for the tram.

I took this picture of Brian holding grill tools in the tram station (really dorky of me, I know), which attracted the attention of a man nearby, who then was interested in Brian's five finger (aka froggy) shoes.  So then he had to ask about them.  All I could understand of the question was "your shoes". Brian sort of froze up as he does when people speak to him unexpectedly in German.  I just said, "he doesn't speak German," and the guy walked away. It's a good thing that I wasn't wearing mine too.

In general we have been glad that Germans here are less outgoing than Americans. In the US, people strike up conversations about the five finger shoes all the time. They also (especially in MN) strike up conversations while waiting in line at the grocery store and sometimes while walking down the street.  It's good that doesn't happen here because it would be hard for us to respond.

So we made some delicious cheeseburgers and I learned how to use charcoal, having only gas grill experience thus far. Our old grill, which is still going strong at the house in St Paul, could eat this grill for breakfast. It has 6 burners and a rotisserie. But that's part of the more urban lifestyle we now lead. That and carrying grills around town on public transportation.

Weekends

Now that we have had a few weekends here in Hannover, I am figuring out how they will be different here than back home. Here are a few reasons why:

Yard work - We don't have a yard. So there's none to do. It's not really good or bad because I don't mind digging in the dirt and raking a few million leaves. It's just different. I do miss a little being able to walk out the back door into our garden.

Groceries - There is no big weekly grocery shopping trip here for a few reasons. We don't have a car so I can only buy as much as I can carry. I'm not working Mon-Fri really so I can go to the store any day I like. And food here seems to come in smaller quantities, meaning I shop 3 or 4 times a week instead of once.

Laundry - Brian's big laundry Sunday has now been replaced by 2 or 3 laundry days per week. The washer is not very big and we can only dry 2 loads at a time on the drying rack. It has also gone from being Brian's job to my job, though he is better at folding than I am and helps with that sometimes.

Cleaning - It takes about half the time to clean our apartment as it did our house. Plus I can clean during the week if I want to - it doesn't need to take up half of Sunday.

Church - We found a church not far from our place, so that's easy. Understanding the Mass in German is a little harder. But since it's the same service in any language we have a general idea of what's going on and when to sit, stand, kneel, and repeat.

Newspapers - They have lots of them in German. We read the news online instead.

Bike rides - We haven't done too many, but now that I have a good route figured out and Brian's bike stopped its incessant squeaking we will probably ride more in the near future.

So that is the report for today. Schones Wochenende!

Hockey in Hannover

Last night Brian and I went to our first professional sporting event in Germany. We saw the Hannover Scorpions take on the Iserlohn Roosters at Tui Arena. Even though I am no hockey expert, it was fun to watch. Here are a few observations:

• The "superfans" behind each goal proved to mean that Germans really can be loud if they want to. I wasn't sure before because it's rare to hear one yell. Even the dogs are quiet.
• There were no fuzzy mascots, no cheerleaders, no goofy games between periods or racing M&Ms on the scoreboard. Just hockey - go figure.
• When I tried to buy concessions with money, I got turned down. The nice man at the counter asked for a card, so I took out my bank card. Then he said, half in English, "no no you need a Tui Arena card." I walked away confused but not defeated. I found a kiosk where you buy a debit card and put money on it. 
• The concessions you can buy there include: cold fish sandwiches (which looked good until I realized they were made of cold fish), big soft pretzels and bread, french fries, mini egg rolls, jalapeno poppers (not spicy), and popcorn.

There is less fighting than in U.S. hockey, but it was still fun to watch. Here's the website if you want to check it out: http://www.hannoverscorpions.de/
There is a picture of a fuzzy scorpion mascot on the website, but I never saw one at the game!

Sometimes being a foreigner means feeling like an idiot.

Do you remember the story of Brian  and I standing in front of the tram, waiting for the driver to open the doors, then it pulling away? Well, sometimes being a foreigner means feeling like an idiot. This has happened to me twice already today and it's only 11am. 

First, the cell phones (they are called Handys in Germany). With help from our friend Anne we ordered pre-paid cell phones a few weeks ago. We got our SIM cards in the mail with some instructions. I interpreted the instructions to mean that as soon as the phones arrive, we would put the SIM cards in them and call or go online to activate the account. So we have been waiting and waiting and wondering where the phones went. I tried emailing the company and calling with no success. Finally I emailed Anne to ask her to help. It turns out that we were supposed to register with the SIM cards and THEN they company would send us the phones. I could have done that three weeks ago! So I think I have registered one of them and am waiting for my customer log-in to kick in so I can register the other. I hope it works.

At the grocery store near our house they have some sort of a promotion where you collect stickers. When the cashier asks if I want stickers (I'm pretty sure that's what she is asking) , I just say no. Today when I was checking out she asked if I wanted the stickers and I said no. Then an old woman behind me in line looked at me and asked a question. I sort of stared blankly, shook my head, and said no.  That's usually what I do when people ask me questions that I don't anticipate. Then as I was walking home I realized that she was asking me if she could have my stickers since I didn't want them. What a jerk I am to say no!

There are some things that I do that I remember a lot of my new immigrant clients doing over the years. I carry my phone number and address with me on a little piece of paper in my wallet. I collect letters that I can't read and either wait for someone to help me with them. Sometimes type most of the letters into Google Translate to see if I can understand what they mean. I keep almost all the papers I get because I am not sure what's important and what's not.  I nod and say yes a lot even when I am not sure what's going on.

I hope that as time passes I will feel a little more competent doing day to day things here. But until then I think the best thing is to get comfortable with the fact that sometimes I really don't know what's going on.