Eating the European Way

One of the first days I was here eating with the family Reimund told me that the Germans (well Europeans) eat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. For most things they are using the knife all the time, but in the event that they are not using the knife the right hand is kept on the table. American style is to cut a few bites first then just use the fork to eat while keeping the other hand in their lap under the table. Reimund said I could eat however I felt comfortable, but they were teaching Ines and Tim the European way. I tried to do it that way too, but it’s a rather ingrained habit and is a bit hard to change. Then maybe two days later Sabine told me the exact same thing, not knowing that Reimund had already told me about the custom, haha…. So I figured if it was important enough for them to both bring it up I should try a little harder to alter my eating style. I continued to pay attention to how they were eating, and by following their lead, I was able to comfortably eat the European way. After all this, Reimund actually said something about it the other day!!! He looked over and was like, “Hey, you are eating the European way!” I was quite pleased that he noticed my efforts and the fact that he commented on it is even funnier :)

indian summer

I have been extremely lucky with the weatehr here... It is still very warm here, and I´m crossing my fingers that it holds out for a bit longer. Last week Reimund had the week off of work, so he took me and the kids to do some more fun things. Because it had been hot, we went to a lake on Friday and I went windsurfing. Mind you I hadn´t done this since the summer after freshman year of highschool, but it was still fun. I didn´t really end up going anywhere, but I did manage to get up on the board and pull the sail up, haha. I´m sure it was quite a sight from the lake side. We´ve also been enjoying eating out on the patio in the evenings, and not having to bundle up just yet. Knowing that I have a rough winter ahead makes me even more grateful for the good weather now :)

a run down of what i did last week:

Wednesday: Ludwigsburg Castle with the kids. So many things for them do to and there were displays made of pumpkins depicting American Cowboy/Indian themes… very amusing

Thursday: Reimund came home early and took the kids and me to the local outdoor swimming pool. It was super cold, but we all had fun. Sabine met us after work and we all had dinner at a restaurant together.

Friday: Went on an hour long run with Reimund. Couldn’t believe I made it that long!! I told them I was into running, and had been going in the mornings myself, so Reimund suggested we go together. We went to the forest near by, so it was beautiful, and nice to have a running buddy as well.

Saturday: Spent the morning in Stuttgart, went to the Market Hall with tons of product/meat/bread/chesse stands… all individually of course. Then went to Daimler Stadium in Stuttgart for the IAAF World Finals for track and field. Very exciting to see all the international competitors. I sat close to the jumping and had a great view for women’s long jump and men’s triple jump. All the better since those are what I used to to.

Sunday: Went to a nearby town called Maulbronn with the family to tour the monastery there. It was pretty interesting and a very cute town, so I was happy to have gone 

gift or Gift?

Funny thing happened yesterday… Petra, the mom next door, came to tell us some news while I was home with the kids. She tried speaking English, but she can’t speak it all that well, so she told the whole thing to Ines. Of course when I asked Ines what she had said, she said she couldn’t translate, oh well. We broke out the German-English dictionary and translated that the other neighbors had found some rats and were going to put some poison out to get rid of them and the kids shouldn’t go that way. One of the words we had to look up to get this complete story was ‘Gift’. I knew it probably didn’t mean exaclty the same thing as it does in English, but I was not expecting the German word Gift to be POISON. Haha, I guess I had better not confuse the two…

I drove an Audi yesterday...

So I made it to the Monday night aerobics class all by myself last night J I took Sabine’s Audi station wagon and only stalled twice! (mind you this is the first time that I have actually driven a stick shift with no one else in the car, haha). The driving went pretty well, but as with everything in my life right now, it’s just a matter of getting used to it. But now I know I can do it, so making it to the grocery store this weekend shouldn’t be as much of a challenge.

This past weekend, I was hosted by some very generous friends… my best friend’s cousin lives in Germany with her husband and they invited me to stay with them for a weekend. I finally met them for the first time and we had a great weekend together. We went to a town called Burghausen, with the longest castle in Germany, enjoyed the fest in the town next to them called Regensburg and toured around Nuremberg on Sunday. It was so great to have something to do this with this first weekend I’ve had alone here. The weather is getting a lot better now, so not all hope is lost on having a little more summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy some more towns nearby before it really turns to winter…

Photos at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/photos.php?id=3206990&l=b9f74

Social Customs

So far the Germans seem to be a very direct and punctual people... let me expalain a little. Before I came, I read that the culture tends to be very on time, much to my liking, but you never know how true the book really are. But on my first day here, we were driving in the car, and the kids wanted to listen to their cd. The dad, Reimund, explained it didn't have regular lyrics, but rather they songs about how to behave properly, etc, and of course the first example he gave was "You know, like to arrive places on time" I had a good little laugh inside. Sure enough, since then, I have noticed that kindy gets out at exactly 1pm, the friends arrive exactly at 3pm, when they said they would be there, and the buses/trains are on time... I'm liking this already :)

As far as being direct is concerned, here's another example for you: I was sitting in a cafe having breakfast the other morning. The waitress spoke a little English, and since I really don't speak German yet, that was really all we had to work off of. So I had finished eating, and she came over and just said "I would like the money now, because I am going on break" Well there you have it! I sure didn't mind because I had wanted to pay anyways, and there was no rush for me to leave, but it was just funny how she said it.

I'm thinking this blog will be a great way to share my clutural mishaps and memorable quotes through out the year, so lets hope the good times keep coming...