Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

It has been a very busy but fun week!

When Brian and Jessica arrived, I realized they were the first guests we have had since our wedding (minus the one day stop overs by Carry Menke and Matt Teig). I have figured out a lot of stuff to do since then.

We started our tour at the house of a real American-Expat in Laaber for an authentic American Thanksgiving! OK, so maybe that wasn’t a good example of an “authentic German experience,”, but it is a rare one. Christina hosted a great party with a lot of cool people from the area. Brian and Jessica fit in well because most of us didn’t know each other yet, so it was a nice mixer. The food was great too! I brought my vegetarian rice-nut loaf (recipe is coming soon), and the meat eaters didn’t even complain about it! I hope they liked it. Christina had a huge turkey plus a bunch of other fabulous food. There were 25 people or so packed into Christina’s living room with kids and a huge dog running around - it felt just like Thanksgiving back home.

The next day, Matthias got hit really hard with my cold from last week, and he was left at home to rest while I took our guests through the streets of Regensburg on a quiet Sunday morning. We started at my favorite cafe, Kaminski, and we even got the prime seat in the place, right next to the window! It was a cold, rainy Sunday so the town was really quiet, but Brian and Jessica were great sports about checking out the sites.

Generally, my tours of Regensburg suck. They consist of sites like “my favorite cafe,” Where Sarah and Cliff Live” and “A really good Pizza place.” However, the Historical museum was open on Sunday, and we went there - I had never been there in the three years I lived here. It’s actually much bigger than I would have expected, and best of all, it was warm and dry! Jessica was clever enough to grab the English guides in each room, and then she gave me a tour, ironically. We tried to see the Cathedral, but Sunday is just not the day to try to see a church when you are a tourist. They kept having mass - the nerve! We ended up checking out the City Tour bus that takes you around the town pointing out the most notable sights. It is also warm and they give you a coupon for coffee, so we were convinced. That was followed by the free coffee for me and Jessica, and couple of beers for Brian, and eventually, we met up with Cliff and Sarah for a nice dinner - Matthias continued laying in bed feeling sick.

We got out of the city on day two of their trip and went to see Neuswanstein Castle south west of Munich. It was a snowy adventure! There was a ton of snow down there, and the buses that normally take tourists to the to of the mountain weren’t running. I suspect it had something to do with the bus in the ditch down the road, but I can’t be sure.

Luckily for us, the horse drawn carriages were running. That’s so much cooler anyway! It could have only been cooler if Thestrals were pulling the carts and Professor McGonigal was waiting for us at the castle. The castle was still pretty nice even without the magic. It was beautiful. They told us the story of the life and death of Ludwig II who commissioned it. He was labeled as a mad man, but it sounds a lot like he was a victim of politics - I mean what kind of crazy man would build an artificial cave in his castle?! (OK, I totally would if I were building a castle).

By the third day of their visit, we were all tired, but the shops were open on Tuesday and we HAD to shop. Matthias went back to work on Tuesday, but Brian, Jessica and I had some coffee and then hit the town (with the appropriate number of coffee/beer/food breaks between shopping). I got a couple of gifts for some people on my Christmas list, and I think Jessica did as well.

After a long day, we had dinner at home. Matthias made his spaghetti Carbanara and Brian showed us his photos from their trip to Israel just before they came here. It was really cool to hear about their visit. I’d love to go there some day too. Brian also took a bunch of great photos from their trip here too. I’ll ask him to let me put a few on the photo site - he’s a much better camera man.

OK, now we need some down time. I leave for the yoga training on Saturday morning! Time is just flying!

I was talking to my friend Leah on Thanksgiving day, and she was traveling because her family, for a few reasons, decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday. She said they were calling it “Jewish Thanksgiving.” We Expats in Germany are following the lead thank to Christina’s offer to host us (all 24 of us).

Being Thanksgiving, I plan to be fully exhausted by the end of the day. I had things planned out rather well, but Matthias came down with the cold I had a few days ago and is down for the count! I had expected him to clean the apartment while I put together the dish I am taking to dinner - now I have 2 hours to do all of that myself (but you notice I am blogging instead ). After that, I need to head out to Munich Airport to pick up Brian and Jessica. I’ll take them to their hotel to chill out a bit, and than I am on route to pick up Cliff and Sarah to take them to Christina’s (the party place). Normally, they would just take the train in, but they will have about 15Kg worth of potatoes today, so I offered to help them transport it with the car.

After dropping them off, I need to come back to Regensburg, get Matthias, and then pick up Brian/Jessica at the hotel and go back to Christina’s to eat! Oh, the memories of wearing myself out on Thanksgiving. It wouldn’t feel like a proper Thanksgiving unless I did!

This is how I watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade today! CNN had a camera man on the street streaming live footage with audio. It wasn’t the same as the organized broadcast on NBC, but it was nice, especially at full screen.

Our Thanksgiving Day is delayed until Saturday. it probably wouldn’t have happened at all if it wasn’t for Christina organizing a feast at her place. Thanks Christina! I hope I’ll be hungry by then. Cliff gave me a heads up on this story about a giant human hairball today, and I haven’t been hungry since (warning - not for the faint of heart Natasha). Thanks Cliff!

A woman over at another blog I read recently went to Athens, and I just had to share her thoughts on the place after having been there last month:

“Before we came here, everything Roy and I read about Athens seemed unnecessarily harsh- that it was crowded, polluted and kind of a sh**hole. But as seasoned, open-minded backpacking hippies, we turned up our noses at those obviously narrow-minded, xenophobic reviews and pooh-poohed them all. And I’m glad that we did, because now that we’re here, I have to say, I think Athens is….kind of a sh**thole. It’s really crowded, polluted, and mother of God- SMOKY AS HELL (I was blowing out black snot for days and convinced I had coal miner’s lung until I read in our Lonely Planet guidebook that Greece leads the European Union in the number of people who smoke).”

She captured the essence of the city much better than I did! If you’d like to read more, the rest of her thoughts are here.

Last year when Matthias and I took a trip to the Austrian Alps, I finally felt comfortable driving a stick. This was only because I was required to drive for part of the trip, and the Alps are a good teacher for one to learn how not to stall while on a hill.

Today, all that I learned that is forgotten! I pulled out of our Tiefgarage (parking garage) this morning to find a few men doing construction directly in front of the exit, which is at the top of the exit ramp. To my dismay, I had to come to a full stop on the hill! (I hate that). I had to back up and redirect the car so I wouldn’t either roll into a ditch or run over a construction worker. First I tried using the clutch to inhibit rolling back - didn’t work so well. Then I tried the old hand break - this is how Matthias and I got up a particularly steep hill in the Alps, of course, Matthias was controlling the hand break then. Apparently, I don’t do as good of a job as Matthias with that skill. After revving the car and going backwards like an fool, I ended up having to do what I can do well with a car - I drove backwards, down the curving ramp, until I hit level ground. Then I had to go back up, with a red face, and exit in the little space between the hole and the men. They waved me on without even laughing, which I though was nice.

When Matthias gets back from his trip tonight, I suspect he’ll make me practice on a hill again. I miss my automatic.

Today was such a Gemuetliche Tag (Cozy day)! The photo is really unrelated to the post, but candles always make things feel cozier!

The day started by sleeping in, or at least, with me sleeping in. Matthias is having a Crysis at the moment, so he was up early on the computer. We puttered around a bit, and the snow started coming down outside. We met with some colleagues from Matthias at the the Fuerstliches Brauhaus Turn und Taxis. I am so taking Brian and Jessica there next week! It’s a traditional Bavarian Brauhaus (brewery), and it was so cute with the snow falling down, the candles lit inside, and the waitresses dressed in the festive Bavarian garb.

We had lunch with Andreas, his wife and another couple from Matthias’s work. Andreas is the physicist who was clever enough to recruit Matthias to Siemens in the first place. He also worked with Matthias’s old supervisor in Irvine, hence the connection. He is also the nicest man you will ever meet, really. The six of us have kind of started a tradition of taking each other out to eat once in a while (usually when I have recently returned to Regensburg). We usually divide up with the women chatting aways and the guys going on about Siemens. Andrea’s wife is a Russian physicist and the other wife is Chinese and trained in traditional Chinese pharmaceuticals. The three of us usually have a lot of fun talking. Today was no exception.

After lunch, Matthias and I headed to Kaminski to sip a cappuccino in the little cafe - so cozy and warm inside! As we walked through town afterwards, we saw that they are starting to build up the Christmas market scheduled to open in abut two weeks. I hope some of the Gluwein stands will open before then, so Brian and Jessica can have a warm spiced wine in the cold snowy weather. Germany does winter well - though the thought of a SoCal beach sound pretty nice too…..

OK, usually my motto is “Observe; don’t judge” - or at least, it has been since Sarah started quoting my us of that phrase. But as I was listening to NPR today, I got just a tad judgmental. You may have heard of the droughts in many parts of the country lately. The one in the news recently is Georgia because the governor is organizing a public prayers for rain - that’s not what made me get judgmental.

NPR had a little report on the boom in the private well digging business in Georgia since restrictions on public water consumption have been put into place. The new wells aren’t being dug to give water to people suffering from the drought. They are going to people (usually with a few thousand extra dollars) who want to be able to water their lawn, unabated!! Rather than suck it up and conserve, they are just trying to suck up all of the resources they can so their flowers don’t wilt. It’s not that they don’t know that there are water shortages, but they seem to be having trouble wrapping their head around the concept of a drought. That bugs me….. It’s not the action as much as the attitude behind it. I can hear Sarah’s voice: “Observe; Don’t Judge!”

PS - NPR rocks! Donate if you can.

It’s been a busy week so far. Monday, I spent a good chunk of the day with Sarah to keep her entertained while Cliff underwent gallbladder removal. He came out a little loopy but in good spirits. He was clever enough to ask for his stones, which they stuck in a liquid referred to by Sarah as “Evil Sauce.” It is rather nasty, but I find them strangely fascinating as well - I am like that with medical stuff. He is bound to be stuck in the hospital for a few more days because they keep you in the hospital here until they are sure you won’t come back. In the mean time, Cliff is without internet access, and he is already suffering from withdraw. His cell phone is acting as his surrogate at the moment, so he may survive it.

Last night, just before Matthias and I paid Cliff a visit, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to a woman who showed me a badge and said something about the TV. I got all excited because I suddenly had a flash from my first German class in the U.S. where I learned about the ‘TV Police’ (or so I call them)! For the non-Germans out there, you need to know that there is some kind of fee that needs to be paid for owning a TV - that still seems just wrong to me, but what do I know?

Anyway, the TV Police lady wanted to ask me a few questions. I warned her about my German, but she proceeded none the less. To make a long story short, she tried to convince me that we need to register our car radio as well because I must use it (just a little bit for my work). I kept telling her that actually, I don’t. She said, “well, if you need to buy printer paper or go to the bank”…. I said, “The bank is three blocks away and my office sends me paper.” She left me a form to fill out anyway. I told her that I would rather let my husband read it before I fill anything out (apparently a good move).

Anyway, when I hoped in the car to go visit Cliff, I told Matthias what happened. He said that ‘those people are like the Mafia - you didn’t sign anything did you!’ What I didn’t learn in my German class was that most Germans slam the door on the TV police. I was way too nice, according to Matthias. In my defense, she had a badge, so I thought she had some sort of authority. He said they don’t, but if they get a hold of your bank account, it is almost impossible to get them to stop taking money. Long story short, Matthias said we don’t need to register the car radio, and we already have our TV registered so they can blow it out their a**. If they come back to our door and I am alone, they will find that my German has gotten much worse.

Seth pointed me to this site via “Quizlaw.” It is a site that scans your blog for content and determines the education level required to be able to understand it. Apparently, one needs a college degree to read us! Sorry for all of the hoity-toity college talk ya’ll. I had no idea!

It has snowed twice in the past two days! It’s going to be a cold winter. On the other hand, the old part of the city looks really cute and cozy. There are candles in front of the stores burning in the dim winter light with snow falling. The Christmas Market will go up in a few weeks too. It will be nice to see it this year.

Matthias and I spent yesterday morning in town. I convinced Matthias to check out the Frisur (Salon) I went to when I got my haircut, and he conceded. Until recently, he has just used clippers. During his unfortunate stay in the hospital earlier this year, his mom and I both noted how nice his hair looked when it was a bit longer and sticky up just a little (while he lay in agony). Since then, he tried getting it cut. Unfortunately, he kept insisting on getting a cut from a barber in the U.S. In the end, they basically just used clippers - kind of negates the point.

This time, he spent 40 minutes in the salon with a nice woman who gave him a head massage and discussed what cut would suit his hair/face, etc. Then she gave him a great cut! I would normally post a photo, but I didn’t take one yesterday and Matthias won’t brush his hair so I can take one now - you’ll just have to believe me that it looks nice. He liked the whole experience as well. It is such a rarity to get great customer service in Germany when you are not yet a regular. I was really happy with my cut at this place too (not to mention the free water and coffee they give you), so it may become our hair place here. We are slowly figuring these things out - it’s only been 3 years!

Today we took it easy. I did a crazy yoga practice in the morning (scared Matthias when I burst out laughing at my lack of grace in some complex postures). We spent a few hours at the gym where I did three rounds of sauna (that’s a lot!) while Matthias worked out and then joined me in the Ruhe Raum (resting room and best part of the sauna experience). We got home and drank some banana/cranberry/orange smoothies before dinner - yum! They aren’t usually winter drinks, but we had a craving and were starving after missing lunch.

As it’s so early in the evening, I think I’ll make some calls to far flung friends. I have been dreaming of camping trips with old friends in the U.S. lately. I think I must be missing them.