The Big OE

It has been absolutely beautiful weather for the last week or so. Although the winter was mild, Germany is a lot bleaker in winter than back home, I think mostly due to Germany not having too many evergreens, all their trees are deciduous which makes everything look really grey, dead and depressing – but of course makes for a fantastic autumn.

This weekend I met up with Anna, a girl I met a few weeks ago and we went to the Hessen Open Air Museum. Basically a village with over 100 buildings (mostly farmsteads) that have been reconstructed on 160 acres, and span over 400 years of Hessian history. Out in the middle of no where, we only got a little lost finding it, and were grateful there weren’t lots of people around. Usually in the high season, there’s people all dressed up, and working out in the gardens, and using the traditional hand tools to give you a better impression of how difficult things were done back then. But because we were perhaps a little too early in the season, there were only a couple of workers milling around.

Later on I met Anna’s boyfriend (who looks exactly like John Lennon) at his flat in Offenbach, a city just out of Frankfurt, and we had a walk around and down by the river. Both really lovely people, and who I hope will be able to make it to Wiesbaden soon. I headed back to Wiesbaden just in time for Ellie and Marc’s wedding party, they had for the people they knew in Germany, who couldn’t make it back in February. It was a really nice mix of people, some of who I’d met before. It was also really cool to meet some of the neighbours, as they’d invited the whole apartment block and several actually showed up – it seemed to be a very un-German thing to do. There are a few differences to how Germans throw parties we’ve discovered. Firstly a ‘party’ means dinner is provided as well, and all drinks. A guest must bring a present, which is not usually alcohol unless you are going to a ‘Bring a Bottle’ party which is generally only acceptable for very close friends and students. And if a party starts at 8, then you should show up between 7.59pm and 8.30pm.

I have showed up at several parties here with a bottle of wine, close to an hour late and having already eaten which is pretty normal by NZ standards (well my standards at least) and discovered a fully cooked meal, and I was the last to arrive. I never for a second thought that dinner would be served, if it was for dinner then why didn’t they say dinner? Hmm so lesson learned I will not be making the same mistake again, and we had to rethink the plan for the party a bit – look at me acting as if this was my party! Anyway it was a great success, and everyone had a really nice time and new friends were made.

In the morning, those of us who were alive were treated to a fantastic cooked breakfast by Marc, and we all sat out on the deck in the sun. I grudgingly had to go back to the house in the afternoon to look after the boys, but the weather was so good the boys were happy to play soccer and I pulled out one of the deck chairs and read my book. Ahh bliss. This week Max turns 8, so the mission is on to find a quality birthday present and make a fabulous birthday cake. In other good news, I recently pulled out some of my board shorts and ¾ pants (perhaps a little too ambitiously, due to the fantastic sunny weather albeit a little too crisp) to find most of them ridiculously too big for me! I haven’t lost much more weight over the past few months, but something seems to be happening!

I'm beginning to get a little apprehensive about my move to Vancouver, as its dawning on me more and more, of how I'm feeling really settled and happy here and now I have to leave and start right back at the beginning again. Its going to be difficult, but exciting as well I guess. I know I will enjoy it, and meet new people - but it’s just such a daunting prospect. C'est la Vie

I’ve been looking forward to Carnival time in Germany (often referred to as the fifth season, and referred to as ‘Fastnach’ in the area I’m living in) since I arrived here (can you believe) 9 months ago. It all starts at 11:11am on November 11th, culminating in a week-long street festival leading up to Ash Wednesday (where the rigors of Lent's 40 days of fasting and sacrifice begin) and the highlight of the carnival is massive parades in Cologne, Mainz and Düsseldorf on Rosenmontag.

The whole silly season is really all a bit of a pagan festival that has survived through the generations and is mostly linked to the very old rite of driving out the ghosts of winter, and welcoming spring, using horrifying disguises and lots of noise. It has practically disappeared in Northern Germany. Since Martin Luther's Reformation, Germany is roughly split religiously - with the North and East being primarily Lutheran (Protestant) and the South and West being primarily Roman Catholic. The Protestant Church successfully quashed Fastnach celebrations in the North, but in the South, the Catholic Church was not able to do so, and so the tradition lives on (particularly in the Black Forest areas) the Alpine region of Austria and in German speaking parts of France and Switzerland.

Parking seems to be a bit of a problem in Mainz

Many theorists also believe the origin of the carnival is a 'farewell' to meat... a preparation for the fasting that has occurred just before Easter since the third and fourth centuries. So basically they needed to use up all the remaining meat and animal products before the fasting season. For those not in the know: during the forty days of Lent, faithful Catholics are asked to adhere to many severe restrictions upon eating, drinking and sexuality, so no wonder they needed a bit of a shindig first!

So with all that in mind I was supposed to go to Cologne, the centre of it all for Carnival in Germany, with James and some of his friends for the weekend. But unfortunately they didn’t end up going and I was as sick as a dog in bed anyway, running backwards and forwards to the toilet to throw up all day, not fun. The next day, still feeling pretty miserable and weak in the knees, but thankfully alive I dragged myself down to the parade in Wiesbaden.

Bush getting a bit of Justice

The parade was very long - much longer than any parade I have ever seen. I'm sure it went on for at least a good two hours. It was up to float 80 I think when I left for sushi. There were so many different types of costumed groups, mostly different music clubs and sports groups coming in from all the small towns and cities close to Wiesbaden all decked out in impressive costumes. Lots of floats threw out sweets, and small presents, many had very arty political messages and some floats threw out sponges, but I’m not sure what the meaning behind that was.

The costumes weren’t just for the people in the parade either, lots and lots of people in the crowd were just as equally dressed up, adults just as much as kids. There was a very cute little Pipi Longstockings beside me (a very popular choice for girls aged 2 to 5), sitting up on her mum’s shoulders. And to my left was an exceptional annoying girl who would push me out of the way, and grab sweets at my feet, or dart out on to the road and snatch whatever was thrown from the various floats. Often her mother would force her to run down the road to follow the floats that seemed especially generous. Right behind me was a big bunch of loud, crazy of Italians all dressed up in wacky costumes, who’d managed to get a prime spot on top of a large concrete block, perfect spot to get the attention of the sweet throwers. I managed to score several small bags of popcorn, a sponge and lollies without even trying, others had come prepared with massive bags and umbrellas to turn upside down to increase their catch potential - absolute madness.

Poking a bit of fun at Mainz's rival city - my town

Michael, one of Crystals (the old Au Pair) friends kindly invited me to the apartment of a friend of his who was having a party that overlooked the parade in Mainz the following day. I had luckily gotten the day off work, as the family were away skiing for the long weekend in Austria. I dragged Ellie along with me, and we braved the winter cold – her as a rather confused fairy, with devil horns, and me as a sleazy Mexican complete with faux moustache. We met up with two fellow party goers Liz and Chris, and squeezed ourselves on to the train, bursting full of people dressed as clowns, pigs, broccoli heads, wine barrels and cell phones to name a few. Got to Mainz and made our way to the apartment, we were pretty lucky really – we had a prime spot overlooking the parade and didn’t have to fight for space with the other 700,000 parade goers. If I thought Wiesbaden’s parade was long, I was in for a shock, Mainz’s parade felt like it was never going to end, but it was on a much more grandeur scale and had lots of crazy characters, and pretty impressive floats. And of course 30 minutes after the last float had passed us, the ever efficient Germans had cleaned the street, and you could barely tell of the festivities that had gone on a few moments before. All of Michael’s friends treated us really well, and it was nice to hang out with some actual Germans for a change, it’s very easy to get stuck in the expat world. We got home just on the brink of dark, even though we could have stayed much longer.

Ahh so thats whats in all those yummy German sausages!

So where to from here, hmmm? I’ve been offered a job teaching two groups of kids English in a small village close to Wiesbaden, and possibly some one on one stuff as well, so looking forward to some extra cash rolling in. Also I am sure most of you know by now but I’ll tell you again anyway …. I’m moving to Vancouver in June!! Yup, I’m packing my little bags and setting off for a new adventure when my Visa here runs out. Don’t have a job, anywhere to live or know anyone for that matter but it will all work itself out in time I’m sure. But until then, I’m going to enjoy these next three months. Hopefully I’ll pop over to Belgium in March, before my sister moves back to NZ, and still got my big road trip around the South of Germany, Austria and Switzerland to look forward to in Easter. In other news, my brother has actually moved out of home, and gone to Uni, never thought I’d see the day! And my cousin Tim has announced his engagement, so congratulations cuz! So everyone else, please drop me a line and let me know what you’re up to!

This week, has not been the best so I’ll keep it short. First thing Monday morning I found out my cat Smudge, back in New Zealand had to be put down a month short of her 15th birthday, because of Stomach Cancer. No one had expected it, as she’d just gone in to get groomed, but at least I knew when I left NZ that I wasn’t likely to see her again. So pretty gutted about that.

Smudge, a silver Persian I believe

It just kept getting worse after that really, I’d been looking forward to having a good old catch up with Ellie as I hadn’t really seen her for two weeks because of all the pre-wedding prep and then of course all the post wedding celebrating…. But poor wee thing had gotten quite sick and was housebound. Then I somehow ended up having friends of the boys over every day for four days in a row. Now having four loud, boisterous boys running around is bad enough but not being able to speak the same language as two of them, and the other two pretending they don’t know what you’re talking about (when they damn well do) leads to a near mental breakdown. Add on top of that Max’s massive temper tantrums and violent outbursts which have become a daily occurrence of late – this Friday was more welcome than most.

Trying to be arty, somewhere north of Wiesbaden

Not to be outdone by the stress of controlling Max in his wildly changing moods (pretty sure due to the frustration and extra pressure brought on by the arrival of a new teacher), the German housekeeper and I have been butting heads, as she has returned from a 5 month long break. Silly things blow up out of proportion, and really should not be an issue if you could discuss them in the same language and not have to play charades to explain what you mean. It seems there is a major balance of power struggle happening, which is ridiculous, because our jobs are completely different, and there is no hierarchy.

Didn't know there was a finger smudge on the lense, till after I got home - doh!

But it’s not all bad, nothing ever is. The weathers been pretty good really, the suns shining, spring bulbs are starting to bloom, days are getting lighter, warming up a little. I’ve been organising my road trip around Austria, Switzerland and the south of Germany in Easter and have been overwhelmed with people’s generosity of hosting me along the way. Last Saturday, James and I drove down to Worms one of the oldest towns in Germany and had a walk around. We also stuffed ourselves with giant cones of incredibly good gelato.

Worms Cathedral

On Wednesday as I was getting out of my car a woman asked me for directions, and so I helped her find the place she was looking for. After we’d said good bye, I felt like I should have given her my email or something, as she’d seemed really lovely. But I didn’t want her to think I was coming on to her or desperate for friends so I did nothing. But when I got back to the car, she’d left a note in my door with her email! Of course I got in touch with her, and I got an email back from her saying “when you left, I just thought, that just could not be everything!” So things like that really make your day.

Why?!! Prost means 'Cheers' in German

Then today (Friday) Ellie, who is alive and well now finally, thank goodness, got in the car and went exploring some of the area north of Wiesbaden. Then stopped for lunch in a town along the Rhine for Schnitzel! Absolutely stuffed, I showed Ellie this cool new supermarket I’ve just discovered (thank you again James) and I tried on silly hats, ending up buying a Sombrero so I can dress up as a Mexican, for Carnival which is on this weekend and Monday. Well I am off now to catch up with the gang, and ease in to the weekend. Look out for next weeks blog all about Carnival season in Germany

Tchüss!

Hey there, just got back from a wicked, but tiring weekend in London. I think most people from Commonwealth countries have to make a pilgrimage to the motherland once in their lifetimes but I went because Ellie and Marc after fours years of being together had decided to take the plunge and get married, and I somehow wrangled my way into getting an invite. So I sussed out some super cheap flights and someone to look after the boys and I was off. I left on Friday morning, after getting stuck at security for having too many liquids in my hand luggage (what the!!!) I sat next to a very chatty German student from Essen and again got stuck for over an hour in the ‘Alien’ queue at Stansted Airport passport control, I jumped on the express train into the City where I met Luis, a gorgeous Spaniard. Off to a random start, I stored my luggage at Liverpool St Station and walked down to the Monument and along the Thames. Got a little camera happy with the Tower Bridge (aka London Bridge) and ventured down to the Tower of London. I didn’t go in, but sat and watched all the tourists, while munching on some (very often dreamed about) Fish and Chips. I decided pretty early on that this trip was more observational, rather than going in and exploring all the sights and sounds, I’ll leave that to when I have more time and money.

Tower Bridge

So I jumped on one of the cliché red double-decker buses, with its obligatory crazy tour guide. Saw most of the famous sights, i.e. London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. As it was getting late in the afternoon the route we were on finished, and we got told to switch buses and the next one would be no more than 15 minutes away. But 45 minutes later the Canadians that I’d met and I gave up hope, and I had no choice but to join rush hour traffic on the underground. Wasn’t too bad really, everyone in a hurry, dressed and moving like robots, no room to breathe, an unspoken rule that nobodies allowed to talk (excuse the pun), all iPod clad, everyone avoiding eye contact, you get the gist. But it was still pretty easy to navigate, and you never had to wait for long.

Big Ben

I met up with Hamish, one of my old flatmates who moved there a few weeks ago and he let me crash at his place for the night. It was so good catching up with him again, and seeing him all grown up in his business suit. It was great hearing a kiwi accent again as well, and hanging out with his flatmate, who was also a kiwi.

Westminster Abbey

The boys were off on a Waitangi Day (NZ National Day) Pub crawl across London, nice and early on Saturday morning, and so for convenience sake I splashed out and checked into the hotel that all the other wedding guest were staying at, thankfully they let me check in early, so I didn't have to cart around my luggage. Since it was such a beautiful day and realising my ticket for the tour bus from the day before was still valid, I thought I would use up the rest of the day seeing the other sights.

Parliment Buildings

So (as well as the same sights from the day before) I glimpsed the London Dungeon, Harrods, Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Palace. What I hadn’t realised is that the map is rather deceptive and what I thought would take maybe 90 minutes max, was well over 3 hours and I needed to get back to the hotel pronto to get ready for the Wedding (which was the whole reason I was in London, in the first place) so I jumped out at the freakishly crowded for a Saturday, Piccadilly Circus, zoomed on the underground back to the hotel. Frantically got ready, then raced down the street, where I found one of the Grooms best friends on the street corner waiting for his wife, so we all got to the town hall mere seconds before the service was about to start.

Ellie looked absolutely gorgeous, Marc wasn’t too bad either, and the room was decorated with lots of white candles. Neither of them wanted the very traditional wedding, and it suited them perfectly. I already knew Ellie’s family, from when they came to stay around New Years, and I finally got to meet Ellie’s friends whom I had been hearing about for the past few months. The ceremony, and reception were all thankfully within walking distance of the hotel. The reception was held at a Gastro-Bar, and although there wasn’t a sit down meal, nibbles and goodies were put out through out the night. I thought I would feel like a duck out of water, with all the ‘London’ crowd, but they were all very warm and welcoming. I had a fantastic night, and it was so good to be a part of their special day. Next day I cringed at the hotel bill, not realising breakfast wasn’t included and the tiny bit of scrambled eggs and hash brown I’d had was £14, coming to around $NZ40! Ahh well, lesson learned. Marc’s parents kindly offered to drop me off at the airport, as it was on their way home, and now I’m back in Germany ready for my next adventure, where ever that may be.

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.