One Big, Huge Fish...

Tonight, we were out for our evening walk, and we happened across a local fisherman on the lake. It looked like he was going to pull something big in, so we decided to wait.



After a few minutes, he confided that he needed a pair of gloves. We had already guessed at the size of the fish, so we thought it was worth sticking around, and Bas ran home to get a pair of work gloves. Shortly after Bas got back, this is what they pulled out... it was 167 cm long! That's 5 foot, 5 inches!!!

New Shoes and Apple Juice Pops

Yes, baby has a new pair of shoes, again. The shop where we get Luna's shoes was having a sale, so I stopped in yesterday. Found two pairs for a good price - one for dirt and every day, another to try and keep somewhat nice! The pictures below are of the nice pair - I love them! Elefanten is the brand. They're lilac with blue and green eyelets, and other little contrast details. They're still a bit too big, so they should last a while! Adorable, no?



And here are a "few" shots of Luna having a home made apple juice popsicle that Papa made for her. She loved it! What a treat!

Some Notes (a Rant?) on Grocery Carts in Europe...

You wouldn't think that living in Europe would introduce such interesting, different, little nuances; that can have such a big effect on day to day life. But, the devil is in the details as they say...

So, let me talk a little about grocery store carts. I think I may have mentioned them before in one of my posts, but I don't think I ever went into detail. We had a little incident this morning that brought them back to my attention, so I decided to post about it (more on the incident later!)

First of all, at most stores - whether it's a grocery store or a hardware store, the carts (known here as "einkaufswagens") usually aren't "free." Technically they are, because you get your money back when you return them, but you have to have the correct amount of small change ("klein geld") in order to unlock one. Yes, they are all locked together with little chains and locking units, and in order to take one out, you have to place a coin into a slot and dislodge the chain connecting it to the cart behind it. Usually, carts require 1 Euro, but sometimes they also take 50 cent pieces, and I think I've even seen ones that take 2 Euro coins. The purpose behind this practice is to make sure that all of the carts get returned; which also means that they never have lots of conveniently placed return areas, but only one, inconveniently placed one - right near the front door. That way they never have to pay someone to go out to the parking lot and manage carts - labor is just too expensive in most places here.

Now, I think it's worth mentioning here, that European countries are still much more cash based than the US. In the US now you can use a bank card or credit card just about anywhere you could possibly pay for something. And if they don't take plastic - they usually take a check. Now obviously, you wouldn't pay for a grocery store cart with a card - but my point is that people here generally make sure that they have cash on them at all times. And it's been years, maybe even decades, since I've had to remember to keep cash on me - so I'm terrible at it.

So for the first few months here, I struggled with never having a stupid Euro in my purse, even though I tried to keep one in the car or in my wallet - it always disappeared, and forgot to get replaced. And we frequently found ourselves heading into a store and trying to rely on a stroller with which to handle our goods and baby. And you know how it is when you end up leaving with more purchases than you intended... (think Target.)

One day I went into the service desk at a hardware store, to see if I could get change for the cart - and probably due to my poor German, I started off by saying that I didn't have any small change; and before I could ask, the lady handed me this little orange chip. See below...

I was ecstatic! You mean I can get free chips to use instead of Euros? Hoorah! So, with each passing trip to the hardware store, I loaded up on free chips, and now I have stock in them! SO I keep them in my wallet, and in my car - and I never have to worry about them getting spent on something! (I get them at Obi, for any of my local friends who haven't discovered this yet...)

Interestingly enough, however - you don't need any coins at all at my local grocery store. So I am indeed blessed. It is the ONLY place I have ever encountered here that has free carts. And to make matters even more interesting - there are NEVER carts decorating the parking lot. Even in the US, where apparently, customers are considered to be more reliable about returning carts, you still see the leftovers of the lazy. But never at my grocery store. I suppose that people are just so conditioned here that it's never an issue!

SO this brings me to my second issue with the carts here... even though I am lucky enough to have free carts at my supermarket, all of the carts that you can get ANYWHERE have 4 wheels which rotate freely. As you know in the US, the 2 wheels closest to you (as the pusher) are fixed, and only move forward in a straight line. This assures that as long as you are pushing the cart it will move straight forward, unless you turn it gently. With 4 mobile wheels you could spin your cart freely in a 360 over a dime if you like. You could probably use it in the choreography of a ballet!

And that means that the carts are easily maneuvered around tight areas, and annoying display cases; situations where in the US, you have to pick up the back end of your cart in order to get it adjusted onto the right path - a definite plus. But, and I mean BUT, I think the cons outweigh the pros here... because it also means that the cart will go where ever it freaking wants to, when ever it gets a mind to do it! And if it's loaded down and heavy with your goods? Forget it - and please don't add a slope to the situation! You have to literally get your body sideways with the cart to support the weight against the inertia created by gravity! So, in the end - it looks nothing like a ballet when you dance with that cart!

Which brings me to the incident this morning. Now, I've gotten really good with managing this 4 wheel thing, so I can still power around the store and get in and out as quickly as possible. And I'm a pro at winging that thing around into position behind my car to get it unloaded. The parking lot does have lots of little slopes, but usually, I swing it into position behind the car - as I'm reaching into my purse, grabbing the keys and unlocking the car as well, of course - and then I get the car locked onto a stable spot so that it won't roll, grab the basket out of the car, as I'm opening the back hatch, deposit the basket, shut the hatch, then wheel Luna and cart back to the depot area, then return with Luna to the car to insert her into the car seat, before heading home.

Simple, yes? It works flawlessly, everyday. Except today.

Today, I swung the cart into position, opened the hatch, deposited the basket, shut the hatch, turned around to get the cart and Luna - and they weren't there! They were careening at gathering speed across the parking lot!

I practically leaped the 10 feet between us in order to grab the cart - thank goodness there were no cars coming! I won't make that mistake again!!! A nice German fellow across the parking lot was also on a swift course to a rescue from the other direction, so at least I had a fail safe today - but we won't be wondering if there will be next time, because I definitely learned a lesson on that one!

Anyway, so I don't think that our fixed wheel American carts have the tendency to roll the way these free-wheeling European ones do, but as with so many little details about things, they just take some getting used to! Live and learn! And hold onto your carts!

Ice Cream!

Hamburgers and Underwear

Last Sunday we had hamburgers. Luna liked them. I couldn't resist snapping off a few shots!



Yesterday I was in the middle of folding laundry, when Bas called. So I went into the kitchen to pick up the phone. A couple seconds later, Luna ran in, wearing her father's underwear... in her own special way. I'm not sure exactly how she managed to do this, but if you look closely you can see that her arms are through the waist band, and her head is sticking out one of the legs... she didn't last long before she got upset and started pitching a fit, but I did manage to get a couple snapshots...

Haus am See

There's a German singer here named Peter Fox, and Bas and I both like his songs quite a bit. The song embedded below is called "Haus am See" or "Lake House" and it's really catchy. We've been singing it all summer! I found this great video on youtube which translates it for you (thanks sipyloidea) and so I thought I'd share! The German lyrics are also included below... if you like it, you might want to also check out the official video - it's pretty good...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMqIuAJ92tM

German

Hier bin ich gebor'n und laufe durch die Strassen!

Kenn die Gesichter, jedes Haus und jeden Laden!

Ich muss mal weg, kenn jede Taube hier beim Namen.

Daumen raus ich warte auf ne schicke Frau mit schnellem Wagen.

Die Sonne blendet alles fliegt vorbei.

Und die Welt hinter mir wird langsam klein.

Doch die Welt vor mir ist für mich gemacht!

Ich weiss sie wartet und ich hol sie ab!

Ich hab den Tag auf meiner Seite ich hab Rückenwind!

Ein Frauenchor am Strassenrand der für mich singt!

Ich lehne mich zurück und guck ins tiefe Blau,

schliess die Augen und lauf einfach gradeaus.

Und am Ende der Strasse steht ein Haus am See.

Orangenbaumblätter liegen auf dem Weg.

Ich hab 20 Kinder meine Frau ist schön.

Alle kommen vorbei ich brauch nie rauszugehen.

Ich suche neues Landmit unbekannten Strassen, fremden Gesichtern,

keiner kennt meinen Namen!

Alles gewinnen beim Spiel mit gezinkten Karten.

Alles verlieren, Gott hat einen harten linken Haken.

Ich grabe Schätze aus im Schnee und Sand.Und Frauen rauben mir jeden Verstand!

Doch irgendwann werd ich vom Glück verfolgt.

Und komm zurück mit beiden Taschen voll Gold.

Ich lad' die alten Vögel und Verwandten ein.

Und alle fang'n vor Freude an zu weinen.

Wir grillen, die Mamas kochen und wir saufen Schnaps.

Und feiern eine Woche jede Nacht.

Und der Mond scheint hell auf mein Haus am See.

Orangenbaumblätter liegen auf dem Weg.

Ich hab 20 Kinder meine Frau ist schön.

Alle kommen vorbei ich brauch nie rauszugehen.

Hier bin ich geborn, hier werd ich begraben.

Hab taube Ohr'n, nen weissen Bart und sitz im Garten.

Meine 100 Enkel spielen Cricked auf m Rasen.

Wenn ich so daran denke kann ichs eigentlich kaum erwarten...

Thoughts on learning German and German grammar...

This morning I decided to look up a couple of words I've noticed lately which I should know the German translation for; write them down in a notebook; and then refer to them later in hopes of finally remembering them.

But alas - it never seems to be that simple in German...

I think German grammar is absolutely crazy, and I'm not sure I will ever get it right. I know I can get to the point of speaking passable German, enough so that any German would understand me - but I'm afraid it will be with very poor grammar. Kind of like if your next door neighbor came over and said "Can I your rake borrowing make?"

There's a TON of reasons for this, but mainly I think it's because they have horribly complicated rules - which in some cases can only be learned by rote, where we have no complicated rules at all.

And I know that people learning English face the same challenges. For example, my husband is Dutch, and he has no problem conjugating the irregular verb "think" into "thought" when he speaks, but he can never remember that "teach" is irregular and ends up saying "teached." Which, quite frankly I can understand, because learning irregular verbs either requires learning the language as a child, or memorizing a huge, long list by rote - and THEN trying to remember to apply it!

BUT - having said that, I think that German still goes over the top... Not only do they have a different word order which is very hard to adapt to as an English speaker, but then they have all these different cases which apply to verbs, nouns, articles AND prepositions. The tenses can be caused simply by irregularity OR by usage. And they send all of the normal or simple rules reeling.

Now I may sound like a grammar geek here, but I promise, I'm not. I do fine with the English language, but then when it comes down to applying it all to another language it gets all cloudy. If I could simply graph a sentence quickly in my head, AND remember all the rules right before I speak it - I'd be fine, but therein lies the problem...

So here's an example of what I ran up against this morning when I tried to look up a couple simple translations...

1. "May we sit here?"

I knew that Germans don't really have a word for "May?" as we use it in English. But I wasn't sure if it should be translated to "konnen" (can) or "durfen" (allow). But when looking it up, I noticed that the dictionary said that when combined with "setzen" (sit) it should be reflexive. And what is reflexive you ask?

Reflexive verbs are verbs which reflect the action back onto the subject. And they're kind of like irregular verbs, in that - you just kind of have to know which ones they are. So, if you are asking if you can sit somewhere, the action of sitting reflects back to you. Kind of like "Can I sit here myself?" But I'm not always sure how to distinguish those verbs from non-reflexive verbs, like - why isn't it, "I ran there by myself?" What's the difference between run and sit? Who knows...

So anyway, the translation for "May we sit here?" is...
"Konnen wir uns hier sitzen?" or "Can we ourselves here sit?" or more understandably "Can we seat ourselves here?"

but again the challenge is that you just have to know which verbs need the extra pronoun. No way to do that but by rote...



The other thing I looked up was...

2. "instead of..."

again, not so simple. When I looked it up the other day, I read - "statt" and though that was that. But when I looked it up again today, I noticed an annotation in the dictionary which indicated that it was a genitive preposition (there are also genitive nouns and articles to make things even more complicated...)

and that simply means that, whatever the object of the preposition is, will change form (along with its article!) - so either an "s" or an "es" is added to the end of the "instead of" object. Whether you add an "s" or "es" has completely to do with what the normal noun ending is, but that comes rather easily, because it just aids pronunciation...

so if you say "the car" it is "der Wagen"

but when it is "instead of the car" it is "statt des Wagens"

note that both the article (der to des) and the noun (Wagen to Wagens) ending changed. AND to top it off - the gender of every article will have a new ending which is different depending on what gender it is!

So "der" becomes "des," "die" becomes "der," and "das" becomes "des"

unless of course the articles are accusative or dative, in which case, they each become something totally different... you remember what the accusative and dative cases are, don't you? THEN try remembering which nouns are feminine, masculine or neutral on top of all that!

Make sense? Me neither.

Baffled? Yeah, me, too.

So I guess I've just resigned myself to sounding like the neighbor asking "Can I your rake borrowing make?"

Bayreuth, Wagner and Lederhosen...

On Saturday we went to the town of Bayreuth. We hadn't been there and it's not too far past Bamberg, so we decided to check it out. It's about the same size as Erlangen - give or take, and also has a university. And while it has a great deal of history, it's not nearly as endearing as many Franconian towns. But it was still worth the trip...

Bayreuth was the birthplace and home of both Liszt and Wagner - so it was a treat to see where they lived and worked as well as Wagner's grave. It also has a thriving pedestrian area with lots of shops and places to eat, so even if it's not picture perfect it still made a nice day trip.

The house below is Wagner's house - now the Wagner Museum. It sits behind a tree lined path, and is quite a picturesque home in an almost park like setting...

The details of the facade and a bust of Ludwig II (the crazy one,) who was a good friend to Wagner.

And sitting in a circular enclosure behind the house is Wagner's unmarked grave. The Wagner festival is going on in Bayreuth this month, so I'm sure there are plenty of fans leaving flowers in tribute.

A typical, little, streetside Bratwurste stand...

One of the many baroque buildings in town, which I thought was particularly pretty in this light...

Bas and Lulu approaching the Opera House. It was built courtesy of the Margravine Wilhelmina in the 18th century, and is the only authentic baroque theatre in Germany and is still in great condition.

The see a picture of the interior click here.

After walking around Bayreuth and doing a little special shopping (more on that at the end of the post) we headed out of town to the Altes Schloss Eremitage (Hermitage) where the Margraves of Bayreuth had a pleasure palace designed to retreat to the countryside. The castle is set in a huge park with formal, English style gardens, which are sprawling and pretty impressive.

The building pictured below is part of the New Palace of the Hermitage, and its columns and facade are covered with crystal like pebbles in a mosaic style. They absolutely sparkled when you got up close.

This was a fountain built into a wall near the Hermitage. In reality the face looked quite jovial as he spit some refreshing water out at you, but with the harsh light of afternoon, he looks a bit scary!

And now on to the lederhosen... after taking lunch at McDonald's (yes, we're sad Americans... but sometimes you just get that craving, you know?) We noticed a shop a few doors down with trachtenmode (traditional German dress - lederhosen and dirndls) and they had a sale rack outside the shop. So I paused to look through it, and while doing so noticed that in the window they were advertising a special offer (angebot,) which included lederhosen, two shirts, socks AND shoes for 200 Euros. It was almost too hard to believe. Most lederhosen alone are usually 200 to 250! (That may be because most trachtenmode shops are in highly touristy areas, I don't know...) So it didn't take much persuasion to get Bas in the door... and here's the new look!

And this is my favorite - the blue and white shirt used here in Franconia - with no suspenders, just to make it a little less dorky looking, and a little more updated. Bas was so excited about these I wouldn't be surprised if he starts wearing them to work! And I know he can't wait for the first local Kerwa (church festival) to break them in!