Kinder Küche Kirche
Children, kitchen and church. In the late 1800’s as women started taking
more and more interest in politics, a counter movement insisted that these 3Ks were the proper place for
women. In 1934, Hitler argued that for
the German woman her “world is her husband, her family, her children, and her
home”and he bestowed the Cross of Honor
of the German Mother on women bearing four or more babies. Well, I
don"t have four or more children but certainly find my days extremely busy and fulfilling handling our 3 Ks plus a T
(tourist outings).
Kinder The kids are all taking music lessons and over
the course of these 6 months, we’ve finally learned the way things run
here.
Learning an instrument is
challenging anyway but who know the notes would change?
B still exists but only as
B flat.
Emma’s violin lessons are 62 Euros ($82) a month for 30 minutes.
Renting a violin was unpredictably
complicated (apparently most people buy and then trade in).
Therefore we were thrilled when Emma’s
classroom teacher offered us one from the collection he had in storage at the
school.
Yippee!
Her teacher is from Azerbaijan and was
surprised that Emma had started when she was five.
Serena’s school offers subsidized piano lessons after
school.
How very convenient!
33 Euro per month seems a steal.
We had forgotten Serena’s books in Milwaukee
so the Grafs sent them only to have the envelope arrive empty!
Of course, an investigation turned up nothing
so much to our surprise, the Grafs and our former piano teacher repurchased her
books and mailed them again!
Her current
teacher, a cheerful and friendly German lady, started Serena right off the
bat with some contemporary pieces much to Serena’s delight and now can also continue
with her familiar books. She and Emma do a great duet to Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."
Since the girls both started their instruments at five,
Declan was very disappointed that he had to wait until he was six but it was
nearly impossible to find a studio or a private teacher here who would teach someone
his age anything other than the recorder.
Luckily we finally located a wonderfully, warm and chatty Frenchman who accepted him as a
piano student (65 Euros per month for 30 minutes).
He
now has a small collection of mastered songs which include the left hand - favorites are Yankee Doodle and Sum
Sum Sum.
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| Serena is the top bridge |
The girls have also joined the Artisten Kiste, which
combines tumbling, juggling, unicylces and acrobatics. Three hours at week cost 83 Euros a month for
both of them. Thanks to their years at Swiss Turners in West Allis, the
tumbling was no problem. They were
placed in a group where the average girls are between 11-14 and needed to
quickly learn to juggle and ride a unicycle.
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| That's Emma on top |
Emma has the Einrad down
(literally translated, one wheel) and
Serena’s close but regarding juggling, both girls are far from getting 3 of
anything to stay in the air. The
acrobatics are fun for them, being the youngest and therefore the lightest in
the group, they’re always on top! Here are a few shots from their Christmas Parent Show.
Their first formal performance
will be in May in Mannheim, yes, as in Steamroller. Mannheim is a 3 hour train ride away. They’ll
travel with the team, watch the German National Gymnastics Finals and prepare
for their performance. More to come on
that.
It seems to be common practice here for you to pay the teacher/organization even when there's no service provided ie school vacation, teacher or student is sick or needs to cancel. We pay for all these lessons,
and in fact every other regular bill by automatic transfer. This “Bill Pay” option is of course widespread in
the US. One small difference is that I
can transfer an amount to another bank or to my neighbor or anyone without
paying any fees and it has been so at least since I studied here in 1994. Many Germans are astonished that the American
banking system is so antiquated and that people still hand write checks! If they only knew the charming personal
check designs available…
Küche
Cooking and baking abroad are always a challenge as
ingredients either don’t exist or aren’t easy to substitute.
We miss good Mexican food, cheddar cheese,
ranch dip, prepared pie crusts, fruit leather, and Trader Joe’s hummus.
During our first couple weeks here, we all
commented on how many foods in Germany just seemed…bland.
One certain granola with caramel and
chocolate pieces was such a disappointment because it looked delicous on the
box but just wasn’t sweet enough so we added sugar.
Seasoned rice, soup,
even chicken breasts just seemed a tad blah
without that extra salt.
(Unlike many
chicken breast suppliers in the US, the meat here is not injected with a salt
solution.)
It turns out, the problem was
us and all the additives we’re used to.
I’m happy to report that in the meantime, our tastebuds seem to have
recovered and recalibrated and we are now absolutely enjoying our meals
here.
As for that granola, the only
addition necessary now is milk and a spoon.
There are so many wonderful cookbooks in our kitchen so I’ve
decided to try a recipe for a new local dish every week.
Nothing as ambitious as “Julie & Julia”
but still a fun challenge and most of them have turned out.
This one is hollowed out potato halves,
simmered in beef broth, then broiled with sausage and onions.
Lecker!
The dessert below is called Maulwurfkuchen
(Mole hill cake) with a surprise of chocolate flake cream and bananas in the middle.
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| Mmmm, lard.... |
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Bavarian cuisine is relatively heavy – lots of pork, game,
bread, and potatoes.
One notable item
is
Schmalz.
This is basically lard.
I have vague recollections of my grandparents
eating lard sandwiches and we kids would always feign vomiting so you can
imagine my surprise to discover that it survived the Great Depression to emerge
quite a popular spread!
Andrew likes a
certain brand with bacon bits, in case the caloric intake wasn’t high enough
alone.
At the Pöllinger Weinfest, you
could only order Wurst with mustard, Schmalzbrot or sliced cheese with freshly
ground pepper.
Another local spread making a regular appearance at our
dinner table is Obazta, a creamy mixture of camembert, butter, paprika, cumin, salt, onion and pepper.
Kirche
We are all getting a crash course in Catholicism living here
in Bavaria.
There are crucifixes in every classroom, public buildings, city parks and sometimes along side a road at the sight of an accident. All three schools offer the kids some version
of religious instruction. Serena reports
that they are learning the books of the Bible and Who’s Who in the Gospels, Emma’s class is
focusing on family and what makes a good friend. Her friends taught her the sign of the cross. Declan says that his class sings and prays. Then he sang a cute little song and shared a
chant. “And what do you pray about?” I
ask. “Penis, bagina, weiners, weiners,
weiners, boogers, butthole, weiners, kaka.”
I should have been happy with the song.
A common greeting here is "
Grüβ Gott." (Greet God) There are even several
religious
holidays in Bavaria that are
either not legal holidays in the rest of Germany or just simply not celebrated.
You even are automatically taxed 7% (Kirchensteuer) when you file your yearly taxes. You can claim exemption if you check that you don't belong to either State Churches - Landeskirchen. (Catholic or Lutheran)
Upon our arrival in Neumarkt, we visited several churches and were constantly amazed by the gilded ceilings and pure historic relevance of these tremendous buildings. None the less, the old ones are cold! No basement and no heating system. Brrrr! On our first visit to the Free Church in Neumarkt, we witnessed a bit of chaos: they were between pastors, the guy who had played piano jumped up and gave the sermon, then there was a problem with the overhead displaying the songs. Little formality, no overly choreographed music and wonderful, welcoming people - we were home! Bonus - lots of familiar songs from our years in Kiel.
All in all, services are similar to our Free Church in Milwaukee with a few variations in communion and format. Most are somewhat reserved in style. A recent Ugandan visitor made the observation that the Germans definitely feel moved to clap and cheer and passionately sing in joy... when it comes to Fu
βball, not in church. Maybe he's onto something there...!
Day Trips
Neumarkt sets up an ice rink for a few months every winter.
Available snacks: curry french fries, all sorts of gummi treats,
Kinderpunsch and Glühwein. This was Declan's first time on skates and
thanks to a certain Pinguin, the day was a success!
Some Ingolstadt street scenes: On January 6, Drei heilige Könige, kids will go house to house and sing for a donation.
Then your doorway will be marked and blessed for the coming year. These gentlemen represent these 3 kings, or wise men, Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Who knew they had names! The CMB below in the photo is often thought to refer to their names but it's actually from Latin Christus Mansionem benedicat - Christus möge dieses Haus segnen. May Christ bless this house.
