Germany

Well winter can’t seem to make up its mind around here lately. I’ve been pretty lucky so far as it’s been one of the warmest winters in Germany in over 30 years. I was even able to go for a walk along the Rhine with the sun warming my face last weekend, and then a few days later it snowed. I was like a kid at Christmas, of course there wasn’t enough of it to stick around but I was still happy. Then on Saturday night it was warm enough for me to even walk into town without any trouble. Taking the boys to school in the morning is really the only problem, as it’s around -6 degrees Celsius some mornings and there’s been bad frosts a few times, but nothing to really complain about.

Apart from the weather, there’s been some good, some bad and some out right strange things happened last week. Monday mornings are never great to begin with, but last week I found out first thing that I am not eligible to apply for a working holiday visa for the UK, while living in Germany, as I have to have 6 months left on my current visa and I only have 4 and a half months, go figure. But the stupid thing is that even if I had six months left, my visa for the UK would start (at the very latest) in three months time regardless if I was still planning on living in Germany for the following next three months or not. So the nice man at the Embassy kindly told me there was no other way than to go back to New Zealand, and apply there. Just for those not clear on flight times, a flight from Frankfurt to London is 1 hour, a flight from Frankfurt to New Zealand and then on to London is a total of 48 hours flying time, not to mention the cost involved – does that make any sense to you?

The infamous Rhine and Rhinegau region

I love New Zealand, I really do – but I’ve finally got my wings and I’m just not ready for them to be clipped just yet. So I need a new plan, and at the moment I am throwing around the idea of working in Canada for a year. Of course there’s problems attached to getting a Visa there to, but hopefully still doable. Then there’s the idea of working in a Summer Camp, or a National Park in the North West of the US. I could teach English in Japan, Korea or China. For some strange reason I’ve always wanted to work on a ranch in Montana. Then again I could always return to NZ and do honours. One thing is clear however, and that’s that I need to get a good job, I have had my year off and now I need to start using my skills I gained from my degree and get started. Easier said than done right? I seem to have to make these huge life changing choices around this time each year and each time I wish the right path makes itself more obvious to me sooner. But anyway that can all wait for another day, on to some other news. I have just found out I have two weeks off in April so I am planning a road trip doing a big loop through the south of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, a little bit of France and back into Germany. I’m hoping to be able to couchsurf most of the way and meet some locals. I have even been offered an apartment in Berne, Switzerland for a week already, in exchange for looking after their cats while they’re away. So I might use there as a base to explore around as much as possible.

Ellie

Now to the weird, I was minding my own business waiting for Ellie outside a shop and munching on some pizza, when out of nowhere this ridiculously happy woman stands in front of me and starts smiling, then there is a film crew of around 5 or 6 people watching my every move. No one says a thing, I can’t for the life of me think what to say in German so I just asking “What the hell are you doing?”, but no one says anything, they just move around looking for different camera angles. I wonder if it has something to do with the pizza, or fat people eating junk food, I’m utterly confused and no one will answer my questions. I don’t know whether they want me to move, I’m in their shot, should I keep eating or stand perfectly still. I wait desperately for Ellie to come, and then finally the woman in perfect English tells me they are from a Children’s television show and they are doing a piece on peoples reactions, when others smile at them. It wasn’t till afterwards I realised they never asked my permission to film me, and I never had to sign anything like you would back home, but guess that’s just how they do things around here. Of course Ellie came out, when they’d all gone and I was in utter hysterics. Guess you had to be there.

A Bingen lane, with the Rhine and grapevines in the background

The next day Ellie and I drove out to Bingen, a small town on the Rhine and had a walk around, we both needed to get out and have some fresh air. She’s getting married in London this weekend, and so I’m all excited as I’m finally heading over to the big smoke for three days. One of my old flatties just moved there a few weeks ago, so its going to be wicked catching up with him, even my sisters going to be in town, but with the wedding and everything I’m not sure we’re going to see each other. Although I can’t really afford it, I’m shelling out for a night to stay in a “Luxury Hotel” with a few other wedding guests, as I don’t like the thought of finding my way back to a hostel on the other side of town, after the tube has stopped working and trying to find night buses on my own. Better to shell out, and be safe knowing that there are a whole lot of people staying in the same place, not to far from the venue.

So look out for my next blog, with all my antics in London. Ooh and just so you know, the family’s pretty sure they’ve found their new Au Pair, an 18 year old girl from California. So times running out for me, it’s going to be over before I know it. And of course any life advice is always appreciated.

New Years in Wiesbaden 2007: Utter chaos in the streets, felt like I needed riot gear just to cross the road. People were letting off fireworks in the middle of the streets, in built up city areas with not a care in the world. The NZ Fire department would've been horrified at the complete lack of fire safety. Little kids (and big ones) lighting huge rockets and aiming them anywhere, crackers going off at your feet, shots missing you by inches - bloody crazy and out of control, never seen anything like it.

Spent the rest of the week just playing with the boys, taking them to the park, having friends over, going to the museum and basically entertaining them on cold winter days.

Went out for Cocktails last night with the gang. The family has left already for their skiing trip, but it’s been too warm for much snow, so not sure how much action they’re going to get on the slopes.

Off to the Canary Islands for a week tomorrow, staying at a 4 star ‘All Inclusive’ resort, so as you can imagine I am really excited. I’m going to Fuerteventura, so I hope I’ll be able to rent a car and explore the island a bit. If you’re looking for the islands on an atlas, find Morocco in the North West of Africa, and then the Canaries are several islands grouped together just off the coast, further west.

Now that I’m not house bound looking after Max, I’ve been getting out and about and of course getting sick myself, naturally. Last weekend I went with the Family to the North of Bavaria for Nicoles brothers 50th Birthday party, so I got to meet a whole lot of the family. On Monday Mike had his Christmas play, where he was a Shepard and sang Christmas carols and even danced with girls! My crazy camera didn’t take one good photo, but the other parents were getting a little camera happy so there should be a good shot somewhere. The next day headed to Rüdesheim with Ellie, and managed to bump into a few crazy locals. That night headed back to school for Max’s end of year party. On Thursday took Ellie into Mainz, to do a few jobs for Nicole (who was at home sick, and had had to cancel the christmas party so as not to contaminate everyone) and to show Ellie around the Christmas market and town. My sister Ana, who's just moved to Belgium showed up on Saturday, so we headed back to Mainz to do a little shopping and again check out the Christmas Markets. After a bit of a rest, we walked into the centre of Wiesbaden and got some Glühwein with Ellie and Marc, before heading off to dinner at a Bavarian restaurant.

We carried on to a new English Pub that’s just opened up called the ‘James Joyce', where we were delighted to be given some Santa hats. Ana was exhausted from working all week and so after a few hours she went back to my place and I carried on back to Ellie’s. When I finally got home, I’d told Ana I would ring to get her to let me in, but my phone didn’t have enough credit, and the whole place was locked up like Fort Knox. I started ringing the buzzer for the top floor, but no body let me in. Just before I was about to accept my fate, that I was going to die of hyperthermia on the front door step, clutching a plastic Santa for company, it dawned on me I probably had enough money to text her, and finally managed to get out of the freezing cold. I'm not sure why it never occured to me to tell her just to leave the key outside!

Ana, Ellie and Me at the 'Fox and Hound'

The next morning Oma wasn’t too happy with me, something about ringing the doorbell continuously for half an hour, people stomping up and downstairs and lights flicking on and off at 2.30 am, what, who me? Also we didn’t get up till midday and she’d already made most of the Christmas meal, woops. So we got out of the house and I took Ana up to Rüdesheim (notice the theme, I should make a package deal for all those coming to the area, The Niki Special!! How much you reckon I could make?) Anyways, it was freakishly deserted. It’s a big tourist hub on the Rhine and usually crawling with old ladies on tours, but we got to walk up Dosselgasse with only a random Asian couple, who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves. Then drove up the Rhine as far as I could handle, It was absolutely freezing outside, their was a weird mist and the sun was really low but we managed to see quite a lot of castles.

Ana along the Rhine

Back at the house, we toasted each other with a glass of champagne, and the boys ripped into their presents with gusto. I was very spoilt and got some new leather gloves, Belgium chocolates and Body Shop stuff from Ana, the family gave me a very nice designer handbag from New York and Oma and Opa gave me an antique German Brass plate, that is quite rare and you are not able to buy anywhere. Oma and Nicole had made Christmas Eve dinner, which is the main big meal of the holidays. We had shrimp cocktail with avocado slices for starters, steak with a mushroom sauce, peaches and pears, spätzle which is a type of German noodle and red cabbage. Granddad back in NZ would be horrified, as there was no dessert. Certainly was a lot different to Christmas back home, where we usually have around fourteen people for lunch at Nanas, some have to stand and we have a huge buffet with all the trimmings.

Mike, (a rather red faced) Me and Max

After cleaning everything up, we rang the family back home and watched the ‘Lake on the House’. Christmas day was really low key, got up late, boys busy playing with all their new toys. I dropped Ana at the English speaking Church in Wiesbaden, then after a quick bite headed into Frankfurt and braced the bitterly cold, and walked along the river. We strolled around the old part of Frankfurt, which was not destroyed in the war. Too cold to do anything else so after a pit stop for some Apple Cake (they were out of both Hot Chocolate and Strudel – which is absolutely criminal) we headed home and tucked up in bed to watch ‘The Family Stone’ a Christmas comedy. We cracked open a bottle of wine I had brought over from New Zealand with me, my absolute favourite; Milton’s Muscat’s at Dawn 2003 but was gutted to find it must’ve been corked. Still kind of drinkable, but definitely not as good as I had been hoping for.

Ana in front of the Frankfurt Dom

Before dropping Ana off at the Airport I took her for a walk in a park which is close by, and showed her some Castle ruins. She’s back in Brussels now and tonight I am heading over to Ellie’s and Marc’s, and Marcs going to cook dinner for us. I’m thinking of spending New Years in Frankfurt, but things could change and I’ve just booked my January holiday, so while the family’s off skiing in Austria I’m heading to the Canary Islands, which are off the Western Coast of Africa close to Morroco, to catch some sun for a week. No rest for the wicked huh.

Well I’m feeling much more festive than usual this year, which is hardly surprising since I live in a house which is decorated like something out of a movie, its actually winter here, and everyone’s all wrapped up, there are the most fantastic Christmas markets in every town and you can just tell that there is much more tradition in the air, than just blatant commercialism. Oh there’s that too don’t get me wrong, but it just feels nicer here if you know what I mean. Also the whole month of December is geared towards celebrating, starting on the 5th when the boys get ready for a visit from St Nick.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children and his feast day is December 6th. Gradually a custom grew up where on the eve of St. Nicholas' feast day children would place their shoes or boots out for St. Nicholas to fill with candy and fruit, with the bad children getting twigs. St. Nicholas carried with him a book of sins with which he determined whether the child warranted the goodies or the twigs. After the Protestant Reformation in Germany, German authorities wanted to do away with the image of a Catholic saint distributing gifts, so the idea of Santa Claus was born. I’ve read since being here that this is when they created the idea that he had the white beard, red suit, and sleigh – didn’t someone say that Coca-cola was responsible for that, from a very effective advertising campaign of theirs? So German children therefore distinctly distinguish between the Weihnachtsmann (Santa Claus) and Nikolaus (St. Nick). The scenario is comparable to the US-American tradition of Christmas stockings over the fireplace. For other European countries like the Netherlands the 6th of December still is the biggest day of the season for receiving presents.

Well my 22 birthday came and went, I got up as per usual nice and early to take the boys to school, and Nicole had put streamers and a banner up. I hadn’t gotten around to making a cake, so there was a whole lot of these German chocolate things with candles instead. I got some new perfume, leather wallet, a handbag and body lotions. So feeling pretty spoilt already, I headed into town and got treated to a nice lunch by my new friend Ellie. After spending the rest of the afternoon together she came with me to pick the boys up from school, and that’s when we found Max practically dead on the floor of his class room. Well not really, but whenever males get sick it’s as if we should get a priest to read them their last rites. So I rushed him off to the doctors, after we’d been home 5 minutes and he’d thrown up on the expensive rug – woops. The doc said he had Scarlet Fever again, which I always thought was something only people in the 1800’s got. But it’s just what Germans call Strep A. The boys have had it several times since I’ve been here, and it’s highly contagious so Max got a week off school, even though he was bouncing off the walls by the next day as if nothing had happened. Nicole took the next day off work, so I took the chance to meet up with Ellie again, and Michael (a guy from Ellie’s fiancés work) and looked around the Christmas Markets, and as Michael was a native he could explain everything to us, and we tried different things.

So for the past week I’ve been at home with Max during the day, playing games, watching movies, making Christmas cookies and these cool window decorations thingies. But on Wednesday night I made sure Frank could be home early, and I went out to dinner with James, Ellie and Marc. There were supposed to be more of us but a lot rainchecked as its a mad time of year for everyone. We went to a really nice Indian restaurant and just talked for three hours. So nice to get out of the house and do "grown up things" for a change.

Then the next night I went out to dinner with just the Boys and Frank, as Nicole was in Paris to a Bavarian restaurant, where Max managed to finish off half a duck all by himself. A guy with a mullet sitting near us couldn’t take his eyes off this tiny 23kg 7 year old boy, demolishing what even someone my size would struggle with. I was supposed to go to an English language play last night, but had to baby-sit the boys so got some movies out and snuggled up in bed with them, since its about 1 degree outside at the mo.

Something you might find interesting is that most DVD stores are actually like vending machines/ATMs, but there are still your typical video stores around (if you know where to find them). There are a few changes to how they do things (well at the one I go to anyway), firstly you don’t pay when you get them out, you pay when you return them, so you have to go in when the stores actually open, your not able to return them on your way to work early in the morning. I guess this way there’s no such thing as late fees, as you pay for all videos on a day by day basis. All DVDs are €1 a day, even brand new releases! So if you have one overnight it is a grand total of €2!! Not bad, huh. Of course most DVDs have the English audio option, I’m in heaven. Sometimes I flick on the German subtitles to help me learn a bit more.

Which brings me to my next point; no matter how hard I try I am really not making much progress with my German! I think the biggest problem, apart from not actually taking any classes is that even if I ask for something in German, they reply in English! When I tell them it’s ok to talk in German they decide it’s a perfect opportunity to practice their English – when is it my turn huh? I’m not really complaining, I guess, but it’s just so frustrating that when you make the effort, they make it so obvious that you’re a foreigner. It’s actually pretty bad how much English is spoken around the area I live. We have a massive American Army Base here, and I think walking down the street I hear just as much English as I do German – no kidding. There is a Cinema dedicated entirely to English language movies in Frankfurt, there are at least three English theaters that I know of in the area. Every day I listen to an English speaking radio station. I can watch three channels on TV in English. At just about every restaurant we’ve been to there are English menus as well. On most advertising there is usually some catchphrase in English and random English words have filtered into everyday German vocabulary. There are also Australian and Irish pubs, where a lot of the bar staff can’t speak anything but English. Of course this all comes in exceptionally handy for me, and keeps home sickness at bay, but I can’t help the sinking feeling that by the time I leave I’m still not going to be able to string one coherent sentence together and that’s pretty sad.

Well anyway, I am off to Northern Bavaria this afternoon with the family, to celebrate Nicole’s oldest brothers 50th. Then later on this week, we’re having a Christmas party at the house for Nicole’s work colleagues. I’ve done all my Christmas shopping, except for one gift so just counting down the days now, not long to go.

This past weekend, was a goodie. For the last few days Oma and Opa have come to stay, while Nicole’s been on a business trip to South Africa. Which is great news for me, as Oma is a fantastic cook, lots of yummy warm German food, on a cold winter’s day! Still waiting for snow, but alas it’s been too warm this year, and actually the chances of snow at Christmas aren’t looking so good either (sob, sob). The chill in the air hasn’t stopped me from getting out and about though. I went out to dinner and a stroll around the Wiesbaden Christmas market on Friday night with friends. I’ve been looking forward to the Christmas markets since arriving here, and I wasn’t disappointed. The market place, was filled to bursting point with everyone wrapped up in their winter woollies, the smell of roasted Chestnuts and people sipping Gluehwein, which is a red wine, that has spices added to it and is heated up over fire and served in steaming cups.

The market was truly spectacular with all the lights, sights and smells. Long rows of little booths all lined up and decorated, and selling everything from hand-made ornaments to musical clocks. Each corner brought new smells, of either the aroma of Stollen (baked fruit bread), Bratwurst, roasted almonds or Lebkuchen (gingerbread), a spicy cookie. After dinner and before heading home, I walked around a bit by myself along Wilhelm Straße, soaking up the atmosphere where all the trees were lit with fairy lights. Already with a spring in my step, I found the ice-skating rink, filled with impossibly young, stylish teenagers on their cell phones, and then wandered down to the newly restored park in front of the Kurhaus, Wiesbaden’s Casino.

In the morning, the 4 metre high Christmas tree arrived and Frank spent the rest of the weekend pottering around the house, putting things up. The outside of the house, looks like something out of an American movie. There are still many more boxes of things to be put up inside, so I will wait till everything’s finished before I put some photos of inside up for you. Thanks to Crystal (the old Au Pair) I have been given a little work babysitting for a Russian family here. Yana and Dina, two very cute little girls are a breeze to look after and the parents are so nice I even stayed for two hours after finishing work, to hang out and have pizza with them. Crazily enough, Vadim had just got back from a business trip to Azerbaijan, a small country between Russia, Georgia, Iran and Armenia and had brought some Feijoas back with him. Now pretty much no one I know in Europe have ever heard of a Feijoa, so I was more than a little surprised to see some sitting on their table. I got to take a few home with me, and all though they were only a sixth of the size, of the ones my Grandfather grows back in New Zealand, it was better than nothing. For those NZ’s who didn’t know, Feijoas are otherwise known as Pineapple Guava and are South American, who knew!

Straight after I left the Russians I was on to the Irish Pub, to meet up again with James. After several pints, a couple that has just moved over from the UK met us at the pub and then we all headed to a Thai restaurant. I can’t speak for the others but I had a fantastic night. I thought the two new brit’s were just the bee’s knees. Mark moved here nearly six months ago, but Ellie’s just moved over and I’m hoping I have a new ally as Ellie (for the time being) is a lady of leisure like myself, and will hopefully help me explore a bit more of the area. Mark worked for eight years on 'Top of the Pops', and is now working as head of marketing for Panasonic in several countries, so he might have a few contacts which he might be able to put me in touch with, in regards to event management (fingers crossed).

The next day I met up with Cora, a girl from Couch Surfing I was supposed to meet up with months ago. Originally from Frankfurt, but now studying across the river from me in Mainz, Cora has already travelled around a lot of the world (including New Zealand) and we walked all around the Christmas markets in Mainz for a few hours. Of course I had to throw my healthy eating plans out the window and tried some Bratwurst, and mulled wine. Also got more than a little carried away in the sweet sections and brought Lebkuchen, liquorice, peppermint slice and roasted chestnuts.

I was supposed to met up with my sister, Ana at the Airport as she made her way to Belgium, but it wasn’t to be. But I will be seeing her a Christmas soon enough. So now I need to think of what to do for my birthday which is next week and where on earth should I go for my January vacation?!?! Any suggestions would be warmly received!

A few more German differences I didn’t put down last time:

They tend to use two duvets instead of one big one, on larger beds. I guess it puts an end to the whole ‘hogging the blanket’ debate.

Mayo is preferred more often than ketchup, as a topping on fries.