Things loved this winter

In honor of the first day of Spring, I just wanted to recap those things I especially loved this winter.

1.  The completion of the exterior of the house, including the roof:

2.  L'Occitane Shea Butter hand cream

My friend Ashley used to gush about this hand cream at work all the time.  I'm not sure I could make it through winters anymore without this hand cream.  I went through a whole giant tube of it this winter.

image from http://www.loccitane.com/

3.  Parmigiano Reggiano

Joern and I love Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.  Imagine our surprise when my dad and stepmom sent us a big block of it with some ultra-yummy traditional balsamic vinegar this year for Christmas!

                                               image from www.parmashop.com

4.  Christmas Markets
Joern and I did our fair share of Christmas Marketing this year.  Stuttgart, Neuffen, Esslingen, and Strassbourg, made for a very toasty and fun Christmastime.

5.  Finally going home!
I spent my first full Christmas here in Germany, and realized that I do not like missing Christmas at home.  But, Joern and I did go home two weeks ago.  It was a very short week at home, but I am so glad that we went, and so thankful to Joern for being such a great guy for going home with me!  It was wonderful to see my dad, stepmom, sister, aunt, cousins, and some old friends.  It was also great just to be back home, to feel good again, and recharge my batteries.

All in all, winter 2010/ 2011 was a pretty good one.  But I have to admit, I was so happy to see the sun today on this first day of spring.  I am looking forward to spring in Germany, flowers blooming, and warmer temperatures.  Of course, I am also looking forward to seeing what spring brings for our house.

Thinking about Japan

Obviously, I have failed miserably at my attempt to increase blogging so far this year.  But, I do feel it is important to say a word or two about what is going on in Japan.  Maybe tomorrow, I'll return to my irregularly scheduled blog about me.

The day before we left CT last week, Friday, March 11th, we woke up to hear about a tsunami that hit Japan.  I think we were both shocked and starting to wake up.  Joern said, "huh, a tsunami?"  And then, I said, "well, they had an earthquake a few weeks ago."  Of course, turns out that March 11th, 2011 became a day that would change the world, and still continues to change it.  Japan was rocked by one of the largest recorded earthquakes in history, which later was identified as a magnitude of 9.0.  Although the epicenter was in the Pacific, the earthquake itself shook the country like a leaf, and unleashed a tsunami that has devistated the north east of the country.  The earthquake and tsunami have now caused what is expected to be a nuclear meltdown in the Fukushima power plant. 

Since this day, we have been glued to the television.  Probably, the majority of the world is experiencing this.  I do not remember being this starved for news since September 11.  We're a week out now, and every day, I find my thoughts frequently in Japan, and the first thing I do when I get home from work is switch on CNN for an update.  I remember my mom talking about how the entire Vietnam War was played out on television, and how it had such an impact on Americans.  Well, here we are now, and every day, I watch the stories of the survivors, the pain, anguish, and fear at the loss of loved ones, homes, lives.  And of course, the daily tragedy unfolding with the power plant.   We watch endless reports of the valiant workers and military members who are risking their lives, exposing themselves to frighteningly high levels of radiation in oder to prevent catrostophe. 

This has also hit very close to home as our school has an extremely large population of Japanese families. During the past few years at work, I have eagerly learned about the Japanese culture, tried desperately to learn Japanese words to help out our kids, and shared many smiles and laughs with the moms.  I even assist once a week in the Japanese mother tongue class.  When I heard of the earthquake, tsunami, and power plant tragedy,  I worried first for all those families that I know, and then my heart bled for the nation as a whole. 

Our school hosted their mulitcultural evening tonight.  In a prelude to the event, we had an assembly this morning, with a parade of nations represented at our school, an Indian dance, and then a very cool, and very touching presentation by some Japanese children.  Children in our school are trying hard to raise money to send to Japan.  Everyone wants to help in a situation where you feel so entirely helpless, and all you can do is watch.  

I am truly so very heartbroken by this tragedy.  My thoughts are and continue to be with the people of Japan whose lives have been so devistated.

My little experiment

Now that we're mortgage holders (aka, Painfully in Debt,) I am becoming a little more, shall we say, frugal, or better yet, Swabian. 
Some of our expenses are unavoidable, I get that.  Even travel to the US, while some would say is a luxury, to me is really a necessity.  But there must be ways that we can cut costs a bit.  My new experiment is with food.
I guess I should explain grocery stores in Germany, because it is a very complex topic here.  German grocery stores fall into levels.  Here is my view on the breakdown:
Gourmet- stores like Finekost Böhm and the Market Hall in Stuttgart.  The Böhm reminds me of Balducci's in Westport, so I enjoy wandering through this store often. 
High end- (most similar to Stop and Shop,) like Edeka and Rewe.   My favorite grocery store is an Edeka, it is an E-Center, meaning that it is quite similar to the Stop and Shop in Fairfield, with very high end items.  I trust in this store, especially the quality of their meats, and this is where I exclusively buy my fish.
Medium price / Big stores- these stores are more like larger Stop & Shops (in CT, ) or Giant in Maryland.  These stores here would be like the Real.  They have normally good quality products and are very tidy. 
Lower price / Big stores- I have no experience with stores like these in the States.  But that might be just my experience.  These stores, like Kaufland and Handelshof, are very big, but boast low prices.  Their stores tend to be lacking in presentation, items are often still on palettes, and it is more messy in general.  Their fruits and veggies are okay, but you have to search to find good stuff.  Of course, they have a very large selection, and occassionally, I find that these stores fit my purposes, but it is only occassionally. 
Discounters- discounters, like Aldi, are opening up at home too.  Discounters offer low prices, because items are mostly all on palettes or in boxes (you have to open up a plastic bag to get a package of paper towels sometimes.) They focus primarily on generic products.

Today, we went to the Market Hall in Stuttgart.  This is definately a gourmet shopping experience.  It has been rated as one of the best indoor markets in Europe, and I do believe it has earned this title. I especially enjoy the many stands featuring food from Asia, Italy, Spain, Greece, and France.  They offer so many otherwise hard to find items, and the food there is of exceptional quality.

We purchased our produce for the first half of the upcoming week from the Market Hall today.  And this leads me to my experiment:  can we save money with produce? 
We purchased the following:
.12 kilos Lamb's lettuce at 12 Euro / kilo.  Total- 1.44 Euro
.756 kilos bell peppers at 8 Euro/ kilo.  Total- 6.05 Euro
.666 kilos of eggplant at 4.9 Euro/ killo.  Total- 3.20 Euro
.504 kilos of zucchini at 4..9 Euro/ kilo.  Total- 2.47 Euro
We also purchased a package of snap peas for (I think,) 2.20 Euro, and 2 portobello mushrooms for 4.00 Euro. 
The total for today:
19.42 Euro

I don't think I can include the portobellos in the experiment, and I need to figure out if the mushrooms or the snap peas were so expensive.  I tend towards the portobellos as they are definately a rare find  here.  But, everything else on the list is available most everywhere else.
My plan for next Saturday is to include these items in our purchase.  I will do one week at the Edeka, which is a high end store, and one week at the Real, which is a big/ medium store.  Since Joern and I don't really have a set place to buy our produce, bouncing between high end, big/ medium stores, and discounters, I am very interested in the results of the experiment.  I guess I can also include a discounter in my experiment, but for me, it isn't realistic that we will ever be shopping for all of our produce from discount grocery stores. 

I am only focusing on produce because, right  now, we are on the South Beach diet.  So, our meals consist mostly of meat and veggies.  We have decided, that we will stick mostly with meat from our local butcher.  By local, I mean about 9 house fronts away from ours, and all the employees are Neckartailfingers.  This is definately not a way to save money, but we know the meat there is very high quality and enjoy supporting local farmers and the local butcher.

Tonight, we enjoyed a delicous salad with the Lamb's lettuce, and some homemade burgers.  I'm looking forward to next week's results!

Dinner with Friends

A few weeks ago, I posted about an old school friend, Amanda, who was here visiting her boyfriend.  Well, last night was her last night here, so we got together for a dinner with both Amanda and her boyfriend.  We went to the Dinkelacker Brauereigästatte, which is a restuarant run by Dinkel Acker brewery.  Joern had been there before, but I hadn't.  Joern said they had good food, but typically a native of this area, was concerned that the restaurant was not "nice" enough to bring visitors there.  My feeling is that a restaurant connected to a brewery is always a good choice :)
It was so enjoyable to meet up with Amanda again.  When we first met her for lunch, her whole trip lay ahead.  It was interesting and enjoyable to hear about the month that she has been here, and her experiences.  Once again, I was reminded of how little time Joern and I spend exploring our area.  It is so easy to run off to France or Italy, but to spend time around here, at first seems wasteful, but in reality, would be a really smart thing to do.  There is so much to do and to see right here!
It was also nice chatting and getting to know Amanda's boyfriend better.  It is so fun to meet up with Americans here, and even more fun when you know them already. 
Of course, we also enjoyed some yummy beer.  The restaurant offers a sampling of 5 of their beers, which is really cool.  Dinner was also really yummy.  The restaurant served traditional Swabian food, and Joern had a steak with onions, served with sauerkraut, maultaschen, and spaetzle.  Yum!

The restaurant also offered a variety of foods cooked with beer.  I remember Joern telling me that this was inacceptable to waste beer in such a way, but I guess a brewery is allowed to cook with beer.  I had turkey in an Apfelweizen (apple wheat beer,) sauce.  It was a little sweet, but also quite delicious!

The restaurant was a fantastic place to enjoy good food and good friends.  I am looking forward to Amanda's return to Stuttgart, and I am looking forward to returning to the restaurant with  new friends!

Brought to you by the lovers of smooth roads

I heard a report on the radio yesterday that one of the topics currently being dealt with by parliament (yup, the Bundestag in Berlin,) is the pot-hole crisis.  Imagine this being a topic of national importance?  And that is listed as a crisis? 
I'm sure pot-holes are discussed on a town, or maybe state level, but only the gigantic tire-shredding pot-holes are fixed at home.
Gosh, what a great country that encourages smooth, pot-hole free roads.  It only adds to my addiction to big engines and fast cars.
I love Germany!

Lotsa cuteness

I realize that I don't post about my job too much, but sometimes, it deserves a mention here.  The kids this year are so gosh-darn cute.  And of course, they do the cutest things and say the cutest things. 
Here are a few ultra-cute examples:

1.  Peanut butter has become a hot commodity among the Junior Kindergarteners this year.  I have no idea why, as most kids don't really know or eat PB.  But whatever, most kids think peanut butter is better than, well peanut butter and jelly :)  So the other day, the teacher in our room had used some peanuts in a shell to decorate the classroom.  I was sitting at the table with one of my little guys (who I happen to adore,) and he picks up the peanut.  Here's our convo:
Me:  "Hey, do you know what this is?"
Kid:  "Of course, it is a shell."
Me:  "Yeah, but do you know what is inside?"
Kid:  "Don't be silly, Ms. Allison.  Of course I know, its a Peanut Butter Nut!"

2.  The other day, we played "Farmer in the Dell."  The music teacher is from Wales, so her acccent is slightly different than say, mine, to which the kids have become quite accustomed.  So, back to "Farmer in the Dell," we get to the part where "the child takes a nurse,"  but you can imagine it came out more like "nas."  One of our kids, who came from Belgium, and is now a very good little English speaker, looks very confused.  I asked her what's wrong, to which she replied, "In Belgium, (points to nose,) this is nas."

And of course, other cuteness abounds.  Last week, one of our kids turned 5.  Normally birthday parties fall into two categories at school: 1) Moms with lots of money and little time buy a cake that no one eats, or 2) Moms who have enough time, but make cupcakes from a mix (yes, I admit often the Americans,) but again, cupcakes that no one eats.  Well, this mom almost borders on one of those moms I read about in blogs.  I feel like her birthday cupcakes could end up on the Hostess with the Mostess blog that I adore.  Mom made garden theme cupcakes, with crumbled cookie crumbs on top, and then on top of that, marzipan vegggies.  When she put them all in a pan, they really resembled veggies growing out of dirt.  She even had edible "signs," on which she signposted the rows of different veggies.  In the front, she had a large label, "Kid's Garden."  As a party favor, she bought each child and us teachers, a little flower.  It was such a creative and fantastic looking idea!
Here's a picture of my cupcake and flowers:

Adventures in Shopping

Yesterday afternoon, we headed out to Geislingen, which just happens to be the home of the German pots and pans company, WMF.  WMF has a factory outlet in Geislingen, but it turns out there is so much more than just WMF products to be found at this store.  It turns out that there is a small outlet mall in Geislingen, and it is pretty much all housewares.  COOL!
The WMF outlet itself does not only have pots and pans, they had a huge selection of beautiful cutlery and a large selection of WMF items.  But the outlet also sells products from Sillit, Kaiser Backform, and Auerhahn cutlery.  But the most amazing of all?  They sell some 220 V Cuisinart products!  Anyone looking for 220 V Cuisinart should head on over to Geislingen!  They had blenders, coffee makers, coffee grinders, food processors, and most exciting of all SLOW COOKERS from Cuisinart!  The slow cooker was beautiful, sadly, we already have one so I couldn't justify buying the Cuisinart one.  But, we did buy this coffee maker:

image from cuisinart.com



We really needed a drip coffee maker, as we have been using our Bosch built in coffee maker for the past few months now, and well, that's prett dumb considering that the built-in is for the house.  Also, we missed just having a pot of coffee around.  The Cuisinart is so very nice, and so far, it has been making great coffee!

After WMF, we decided to check out the other outlets.  There is a Ravensburger outlet, which will be cool when we have kids, because Ravensburger makes beautiful games and puzzles.  There was an outlet that sold really beautiful towels and bedding.  There was also a Lindt outlet, which seems great for gifts.  And, there was a glassware outlet in this center.  They sell Nachtman, Spiegelau and Riedel, and had some good prices.  I especially love Riedel products, and am so excited to head back once I figure out what we need for our house!

It was a pretty fun hour of shopping.  I admit, outlet shopping here is nothing like outlet shopping at home, but that is to be expected.  I will definitely keep the Geislingen outlets in mind though next time we need to make any purchases for our home!