What the sidewalk says, Part II

Someone really has something to say.  One my way into work this morning I was once again greeted by messages on the sidewalk.  Today, it was both Ewigkeit (Eternity) and Perspektive (Perspective).  This time in colorful chalk, and much more deliberately placed. I am not sure why I find this so fascinating, but I do. 

I had another thought about a "political" meaning for this.  There is a vote on Sunday in our state (yes, Germany has states- 16 of them) regarding a certain controversial project that I don't want to name on this blog. If you live in Baden Württemburg, then you know EXACTLY what I am talking about.  For those who don't and are interested I give you a little riddle:

2 words

1st word clue:  STR and planes

 2nd word clue:  The numer seen on Emma (circled in red).

Anyone have any thoughts on what this means?

Things that make me smile

Thanksgiving is tomorrow.

Our city's Christmas market opens tomorrow.

Going to my favorite cafe in the city and the soy cappacino and veggie omlette I will be enjoying along with the wonderful conversation.

Drinking Gluwein on Friday.


The fog making ice crystals on my coat and in my hair.

A hot cup of tea.

Yummy cheese assortment courtsey of my wonderful mother in law.

Passing someone who is spinning with delight.

A cell phone that works and that takes decent pictures. Oh and that can actually write a text message.

Looking through a window and seeing a group of children participating in an art class.

Going to the bakery and no having to utter a single word other than "Ja, bitte" amd " Danke."

The pups.

The hubby.

Left over cake from Sunday.

Die Komisch Elefanten

that is how Emma and Millie were desribed to my niece by her father the other weekend. . My niece is only 4 months old. I highly doubt that she will remember the moment she first met Emma and Millie, but I'd like. If only for the humor in it. Meine Komish Elefanten.

For those who don't speak/read/understand German,  komisch Elefanten means strange Elephants.

It's a fair, fitting description. I have two very strange elephants. Today, let's focus on one of these elephants: Millie. I'd like to give her a moment as top dog.

She certainly deserves it because normally the situation is reversed.  

Let's get  back to Millie ( Emma will get her own post here one day).

We adpoted Millie back in September of 2008.  She was our wedding gift to ourselves.  Okay, we went to the pound to see the cute puppies and ended up leaving with one.  We are weak humans with big hearts.  We do not allow ourselves to visit animal shelters anymore.  If we did we would have a house full of dogs.  David does, on occasion, visit the website for the local animal shelter.  As of yet, he has held strong, but I worry.  The man has such a big heart.

We were drawn to Millie because of her sweet and timid nature.  The poor thing was so frightened of us. She had obviously been abused by a previous owner. We couldn't leave her, so we took her home with us, thinking she would be a calming influence on our wild, stubborn Emma.  We were wrong. Complete. Total. Failure.

Picture taken shortly after Millie was adopted.

Now, Emma is still wild and stubborn, albeit better trained.  Did I mention that it took my dogs almost 18 months to graduate from dog school (it is a 6 month program).  18 months.  Granted, dog school in Germany is intense, almost military like.   But still...

Despite their wild nature, i still love and adore my elephants.


In addition to her latest moniker, Millie has aquired a few other descriptive nicknames in the past 3 years:

Skitz ( My youngest's brother's nickname for her.  He also likes to say that she is short a few screws)
Blondie (David's brother's nickname for her)

Judging  by her nicknames, you might be thinking that Millie is a bit of an airhead. She is actually really smart. She loves life. She is so happy.


No matter how smart my elephant is, she still has her moments of questionable judgement. A particular incident involving an avocado comes immediately to mind. Yes, she ate an entire avocado including the pitt. Did you know that avocado can be toxic to dogs? Yeah...we were lucky.   There was also the time that the lenses from David's glasses disappeared in the middle of the night.  The frames were still there, but the lenses were gone. It was never proved, but 3 years later I am 100% certain that it was Millie who ate the glasses. 100%.

I must share Millie's latest "food"eccentricity with you...rotten apples.

I wish that was a joke.  She discovered this new "treat" about two months ago at David's parent's apple orchard.  Early in October, David and I went to help his mother pick apples for making apple juice.

Yes, my inlaws always have homemade apple juice.
Yes, it is amazing.
No, they don't press the apples themselves.
Yes, making apple juice is really fascinating.

I was fortunate enough to witness this process this year.  I am kicking myself  for not having somekind of camera with me to share the process. Maybe next year.  Back to Millie. We were at the apple orchard and had the dogs tied up to the tree.  The ground was littered with rotten apples that had fallen from the tree.  At first, Millie left the apples alone. She happily hung out with us, excited to be outside.  After about an hour, she got bored. We noticed that she was eating something. Worried that she had decided to feast on some grass, we moved closed to inspect her "treat".  She had found a rotten, slightly alcoholic apple that was hers for the taking. She took it.  Along with a second.  Crazy dog.

The next day. I offered her a piece of my apple after she whined and begged.  She took it in her mouth only to spit it back out moments later.  Apparently, the only apples that are worth eating are ones that humans will not touch. Ha!

This past weekend I found a rotten apple amoungst the apples we have at home.  I decided to give the apple to Millie as a treat. She took all day to eat the apple.  First, she carried it to her bed.  Staring. Admiring.  Lip licking.(Okay she doesn't have lips so she was what, mouth licking?)  Fast forward to 8 pm.  She still hasn't touched the apple.  Finally, I make a move to take the apple and put it in the trash and she goes for it, Taking small bites so she can savory the rotten, alcoholic goodness.

Millie guarding her apple. (Sorry for the bad photo.)

For the curious bunch, apples are totally safe for dogs. As long as the don't swallow the seeds or eat too much.

What the Sidewalk Says

Every morning I ride my bike through the schlossgarten (castle garden) on my way to work. It is the prettiest and also most direct way to work.  The schloss has an offical garden with a gate that closes at a night (more to come later on that). Outside the gate one finds playgrounds, bike/running trails, and more.  Once I exit the gate, I enter a long strech of sidewalk.  I have seen all kinds of things happening along this sidewalk, most memorable being half naked college students laying their clothes along the train track and drinking beer.  According to husband it is some sort of "welcome to the new school year" tradition. Interesting....


Oh the never ending amusment from working at a university.

Back to the point...today there was actually something written on the sidewalk.  It was the first time I had seen such a thing here.  My alma matta was notorious for having sidewalks COVERED in sidewalk chalk advertismentents. (Sidenote:  I looked for 10 minutes to find an example of the sidewalk ads at GT and had no luck.  For such a tech saavy university, there are suprisingly few photos availble :( )   It was such a simple reminder of home, but still a welcome sight on a dreary Thursday morning.

So what was it that was written on the sidewalk?

Picture courtesy of hubby's cell phone camera

Ewigkeit means eternity. I saw this written probalby 10 times between the gate and my office. It was also written all over campus.  While this is much simpler than what I was accustomed to seeing at GT, it still felt like a friendly reminder of home.

I was compelled to blog about this because I felt that I didn't walk away with a clear message.  I always assume that most messages here are political statements or people protesting the construction of something (such as Stuttgart 21), but this one did not strike me as such. It must mean something, but what.  I am stumped.  My other thought was that the message had some sort of religious meaning to it.  A reminder that short, but eternity is forever? Or am I just thinking that because of my personal beliefs?  I still have to wonder why someone would write something so many times.  It must serve some purpose, or not. 

Any ideas? Am I the only one that ponders these sorts of things?

2006 World Cup

In 2006, I studied abroad in Metz, France.   I spent the summer studying not only chemical engineering and marketing,  but also the world around me.  This particular picture was taken the day of the final match of the 2006 World Cup.  France vs. Italy.  I remember coming back early from a weekend in Barcelona because I wanted to be in France during the final match.  The only place we were able to find seats was in an Irish bar.  I remember that I sat with two dear friends of mine (amongst other students whose names are now forgotten)  and ordering a diet coke.  The only other thing I remember was this woman, wandering the streets playing the accordian.

Unpublished Memoirs, Part II: Procrastination works every time....or not

January/February 2010
 
Firstly,  I would like to note that before I moved to Germany, I used to think that the lines of laundry hanging over the streets was such a charming touch. I still find it charming, albeit also a bit disgusting, but still charming.  I cannot imagine that laundry really get clean hanging above a dirty street in a city.  However, I am certain that the laundry is only hung above the street because it has a no other place to go.  Apartments here are tiny, why fill the already limited space with racks of laundry.  On almost every balcony/terrace and in almost every garden here, one is bound to find hanging laundry at some point during the week.  It is just how life here is.

So today is laundry day.  Or rather, our laundry is out of control so I must start washing clothes now.  Why the wait? Why the procrastination?  Well,  I hate hanging and folding laundry.  Particularly the hanging, unhanging (is that a word, or did I just make it up), and folding  part.



November 2011


I know, I didn't write much back in 2010, but I still find this topic to be relevant. Plus, I left you all with a bit of a cliff hanger. Why is it exactly that I find laundry to be such a pain here? 

One reason: We do not own a dryer.  Here are my(our) reasons why:

1) A dryer is super expensive to own.  Energy is expensive here, plus David and I aim to live a greener lifestyle and excess energy use via a dryer just doesn't jive with our livestyle.

2) We don't have space. Even in our spaceous (80 m2 or 860 ft2) apartment, I have no idea where to put a dryer.

Now for the most important reason:

3) No matter how much I whine or cry,  David isn't going to let me buy one while we live in Germany. I have to get over it.  I have. I have moved on to bigger battles. :)

None of this changes the fact that I HATE doing laundry.  It is my least favorite chore, unfortunately it is the most necessary.  Even in the states, I found laundry to be a never ending task, but without a dryer it takes planning to have clean clothes to wear everyday. I am 150% sure that this the reason why my husband has enough clothes to go 2 months without doing laundry. The first time I went to his apartment, he had a chair COVERED in clean laundry.  I don't think he went through the laundry and put it away until his parents came to visit. 

There are 3 time related challenges that laundry presents:

1)  Everything must airdry.  This required somewhere between 1 day (above 80 degrees F) and 1 week ( below 40 degrees F).  Thus, if i want to wear something on a specific day I can't just procrastiate and wash it at 9 pm the night before.  Not happening unless I want to wear wet clothes or spend 30 minutes with a hairdryer try to get the waistband of my jeans dry. True story. I don't recommend doing this.  It is NOT worth the effort unless you have nothing else to wear.  By nothing else to wear, I mean that 100% of your clothes must be hanging wet on the laundry racks.  100%. Basically, it is never worth the effort. 

2) We don't like to run the washer past a certain time.  We live above other people who prefer that we not run our washer at all hours of the night. Technically, we do not have a written statement in our apartment forbidding us from running the washer after a certain time, but I try to be a good neighbor, even if one of our neighbors disagrees (another topic for another day). My goal is to finish running the washer by 9 pm.  10 pm in cases of absolute emergencies. Yes, laundry emergencies exist. :)

3)  I am not home much on weeknights. I get home before 6 pm maybe one day a week, maybe, if I am lucky.  I am a busy bee and I like it that way.  As you know from reason #2,  that mean that I am only home at most for 3 of the self-allowed washing hours.  A tough challenge when a load of laundry takes somewhere between 40 and 95 minutes to run it's course. Enter the best invention ever (Okay, maybe not ever, but a great one, nevertheless) :  the timer function.  Just load, add soap, set, forget, and come home to a freshly washed load of laundry waiting to be hung.  I did this just this morning.  I love the feature.  The only challenge that it presents, is that you have to remember to take the laundry out of the laundry upon arriving home.  Otherwise, you get moldy laundry, and that is NOT good.  Fortunally, our washing machine has a light blinks when a load finishes. We usually notice the light in reasonable time.  It also has an annoying buzzer, but that stops after about 20 minutes. 

It really isn't that bad. Laundry is a pain whether one has a dryer or not.  Laundry is a fact of life.  Just like death and taxes.

 I could be worse. I could have to wash everything by hand, hang it dry, and then iron it.

Ironing. Please, do make me go there. Ever. *Shutters in horror*

Commute

Small Backstreet

Schloss Garten

View from my Office

Settlers of Catan Bus