Half-Time!

As our year crosses the halfway mark, we remain immensely grateful for this experience and how our family is changing and adjusting to German life.

Look at that selection of Mineralwasser!

Observations: No one finds it strange anymore to pay to use public lavatories, bus and train travel has lost its novelty factor, and we have long given up searching for bubblers. We are not surprised when waitresses neglect us until summoned or to hear “Servus” for both “Hello” and “Goodbye.”

We’ve finally adjusted to the German keyboard
and Seinfeld would get a kick of all the “close talkers.” It seems normal that we all wear Hausschuhe at home (and are even offered slippers when at someone else’s house), fashion scarves are common on men and women, everyone is home for lunch everyday, and the kids have even started asking for tea and mineral water!

Shopping – We've adjusted to produce not being refrigerated (eggs aren't either but that still freaks me out a little) and to stores closing at 8 pm and not being open at all on Sundays. Quail's eggs, Wachteleier, are an interesting find, right next to the colored eggs...which are available, colored, all year round.

Lots of wild game, ostrich, venison, and wild boar available.  You have to weigh and label your produce or incur the wrath of the cashier, who gets to sit by the way. Don't waste your time looking for bagged ice, it seems like no one minds warmer beverage temperatures.  

Although there's a tremendous cheese, yogurt and dairy product selection, milk itself certainly does not command a place on everyone's dinner table.  When we've been out (at friends' and at restaurants alike) there was surprisingly no milk to be ordered!  This is the entire milk section at Real, a largish grocery store in our town and some of this is actually rice, kefir and soy milk!  All by the liter of course!

We've also learned that the bottom of celery, the root, is more popular here that the actual stalks and is primarily used in soups, stews, etc.  We found a cereal with "honey encrusted flakes" mmmm, anything that is encrusted has to be a big seller, right? Several people have expressed concern that I serve our family raw broccoli, cauliflower and green beans.  Don't I know that it's unhealthy and unsafe to eat them raw?  No ranch dip far and wide so I'm rationing a few Hidden Valley Ranch packs that a friend sent us.  A fascinating exhibition of human nature can be observed any time an additional cash register is opened in a German supermarket.  Any semblance of manners is quickly shoved to the side, along with any pokey bystanders, in the frantic race to check out 45 seconds before the next guy.

Sales like this prevent any Black Friday-type rushes.




Although Germany, a.k.a. Servicewüste Deutschland, doesn't exactly have the reputation of catering to customers, we have been pleasantly surprised by super helpful staff and family friendly accomodations like this changing station in a DM, a Walgreens type store.

Clever way to store apples

Linguistics:  We’ve had front row seats at our children’s second language acquisition and development. With the exception of knowing when to use du vs Sie and whether haben or sein is called for with certain verbs, the girls seamlessly slipped into the German school system. They've accepted many things that I am still stuck on such as certain letters in cursive.  Here is a sample of Emma's cursive homework which isolates certain letter combos.  Any guess as to what this is?  st of course! 

We've had two rounds of conferences.  At Serena's school, the teacher will hang up a list of 6-minute slots in the morning and the kids claim a spot for their parents. Andrew has nearly 180 students but could offer only 25 slots.  Only one night of conferences! The rest had to make arrangements for a separate conference later in the week.  Two parents did so.  Emma's school was more generous and offered 10 minute slots.  Apparently, German law prevents actual grades to be given until the semester mark of second grade -- that means so far, she's received only "Toll, super Emma! Weiter so!" We're eager to see how she actually does compared to her peers.

Another milestone in 2nd grade is learning to use a Füller, or fountain pen. The children tackle various exercises and upon completion receive a Füller Führerschein, or license to use a fountain pen.  Serena has been using one all school year for all class notes and homework.  It was on her list of school supplies and when we went to buy one in September, I was reminded of the scene in Harry Potter at Ollivander's Wand Shop in which the wand chooses the wizard.  The sales associate spent nearly 20 minutes with Serena testing different Füller out and determining which one sat the best.

In Biology, the Human Growth and Development unit is approaching so I wasn't surprised when Serena brought home the Sex Ed class letter.  Interestingly, I only had to sign that I received the info regarding the unit, no permission was requested or given.

Declan has absorbed everything – including the Dialekt! (e.g. nicht = net, ein gutes Neues=a guads neis, heit = heute ) The kids, interestingly, now sprinkle German into their English sentences. The German vocabulary is simply on the tip or their tongues and when I say, “Hmm, what’s that in English?” they don’t always know! I have started teaching two sessions of English in Declan's kindergarten - wow!  If only adults could learn languages that fast!  Maybe the singing, clapping and dancing help? :)

We recently were interviewed by a local tv station and got to share all the details of our swap. They were here almost 3 hours so it is interesting to see how they edited it down to 4 minutes.  The kids feel like rock stars of course!  The footage from Milwaukee comes from the dvd we made for the Grafs explaining all the idiosyncrasies of the house. Here's the link:

http://www.neumarkt-tv.de/Aktuelles/Neumarkt-Nachrichten/Artikel/1277298/Haustausch-in-Poelling/

Fasching!

A few years ago, Frau Weiss, one of the German interns at MGIS (our school in Milwaukee) came into the teacher’s room chatting wildly about Unsinniger Donnerstag and waving a piece of the principal's tie… that she had just cut off.  I don’t know what was more confusing  - what this Unsinniger Donnerstag was or that Dr. Brugger actually let someone cut off half his tie! 

 It’s no surprise that many of us weren’t familiar with this custom that was primarily celebrated in southern Germany.  There seems to be an invisible line between North and South which separates Protestantism / Catholicism and the corresponding festivals.  Cologne is famous for it’s Karneval celebration but Bavaria can certainly hold its own.

Fasching, or Karneval, officially starts at 11:11 on November 11 but doesn’t really pick up steam until after Christmas. 

In January, costumes and elaborate masks appear in the stores and all sorts of decorations.  Posters advertising Fasching parties abound.  

Bakeries suddenly have a huge variety of Krapfen (known as Berliner in the North and jelly donuts in the US) which is a big change from the usual selection of plum and rose hip Hagebutte.  Many have alcohol in them and are nearly works of art.  Some are quite clever - one was cut in half with raspberry filling and sugar “seeds” on top.  Raspberry is Himbeer and this hamburger imposter is called a Himburger.  One tradition is to make one with a mustard filling and sneak it in with the others.  Those crazy Germans…

Unsinniger Donnerstag itself, this year on February 7, is also the main day for Fasching parties and allows for pranks and tricks (kind of like April Fools Day) including the sacrifice of countless ties.  Our three kids wore their costumes/masks and enjoyed a fun day of games, fun and treats. 

The costumes were similar to what we’d wear in the US for Halloween minus all the scary stuff. We were thrilled to recognize some familiar songs at Declan’s kindergarten party including “Das Fliegerlied” but the hit was definitely Psy’s “Gangnam Style.”  Imagine 85 German kindergarteners singing “Hey sessy lady…!” 

In the evening on Unsinniger Donnerstag, the women get their turn.  Weiberfasching celebrates a 1824 revolt by washer-women, when they stormed the city halls, cut men's ties, and are allowed to kiss any man who passes their way.  Nowadays, it’s an excuse to take a break from baking all those Krapfen and enjoy a costumed Ladies Night.

Russiger Freitag follows and is also based on the tradition of when pranksters would try to smear soot in people’s faces.   Declan’s kindergarten celebrated this as well – complete with blackface teachers.  A formal ball was held on Rosenmontag and of course, you can’t celebrate Fasching without parades full of wildly decorated floats, costumed dancers and the Prinzenpaar, which represents each village.  Dietfurt, a nearby town, draws a huge crowd to its Chinese Fasching parade!

What struck us was how Fasching completely took over daily life for the last week before Ash Wednesday.  Jovial costumed crowds walked the streets and stores were either closed or only open for half a day on Shrove Tuesday.  There were some hints that Valentine's Day also happens in February but for the most part, it was all about Fasching!

Emma's class (she's the "hippy" back row, 4th from left)

.