MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

Bits and Pieces

It's a rainy Sunday morning here. I've been waking up earlier than the rest of the bunch and getting some computer time in. The G's have a very fancy espresso machine (which I'm sure they are sorely missing, as our coffee maker is a plain little 4-cupper automatic, which has worked well for us since DH is now on decaf and I still do regular coffee), so I am able to make myself a very quick cup of cappuccino with perfect frothed milk. Yum. BTW, DH is having a hard time finding any decaf coffee in Germany. So he is a bit buzzed and trying not to drink too much. Which is hard when you're a coffee lover and there's a fancy espresso machine in your home!

FOOD

Food here has been interesting. Bread and sausage seem to be the most important food groups. There is a butcher and baker in our little neighborhood of Polling, in walking distance, where they speak no English so we point and use our numbers. Yummy giant salt pretzels are everywhere-- crunchy on th e outside and soft on the inside, nothing like the rubbery ones you get at concession stands in the States. All the bread is fresh and needs to be bought every few days-- no preservatives, so the loaf becomes like a rock in about 3 days. I am going to have to go find a good bakery when I get home.

The grocery stores we have seen are pretty small. Especially when compared to a Cub or Rainbow at home. There are about 3 or 4 long aisles, and it is easy to find coffee, juices, milk, cookies, liquor and wine. The cheese all seems to be pale slices of swiss or swiss-.like cheese, with some camembert (sp). There is an amazing lack of American junk food, which is a good thing! At home there are whole aisles of various kinds of chips and crunchy snacks, and here you can find one or two different kinds of potato chips. Of course my kids have sampled them all!

I've managed to throw together some suppers at home, which is tricky because I don't have my usual pantry and fridge available. I've made spaghetti with tomato sauce, kind of throwing a sauce together from cans of tomatoes and tomato paste, an onion and some random spices I found in the cupboard. I used leftover cooked noodles the next night and stirred them into a little stir-fry I made from cooking onion, mushrooms, zucchini (all left behind by the G's) and some chopped up salami in olive oil. Served with cukes from the garden and bread and butter. It was pretty good! B. got the grill going last night and we had hamburgers on little rolls.

When we've been eating on our excursions, we mainly find lilttle stands to get food from, since it's cheaper than a sit down restaurant for 5 people. We've had middle eastern lamb pitas from the doner kebab stands which are everywhere, we've had brats or weiners and these sandwiches called Nurnburgers (several little sausages on a bun). We had chinese food at a mall (just blah), we've had little pastries at cafes, very good slices of pizza, ice cream cones (very cheap here), and I can't think of what else right now. The one fancy place we went last week, we had schnitzels (a kind of thin pounded meat cutlet with a breaded coating) and steak and currywurst (a brat smothered in a curried ketchup). That meal ran us $45 euros for food and drinks and tip. About $60 in US dollars, and that is about what we pay for a modest restaurant meal at home. It can get kind of expensive if done too often!

VISITORS

Yesterday the doorbell rang (which sounds like a kitchen timer going off, so it confuses us at first). Some girls from the neighborhood stopped by for a chat-- it was C, 15, who had exchanged a few emails with G a few months ago, and her little 9 yr old sister F. C speaks pretty good English (they all learn it in school here as a matter of course) and F hardly any. They stayed for about 45 minutes and we had a lovely chat, talking about the differences between our two countries, asking lots of questions back and forth. I stayed to facilitate the conversation between the teens (and because I was interested, too). My teens are not really shy, but with new kids their age, they often are (they can talk to adults easily, though). We talked about what things are like in Germany and the US-- houses, schools, what kids do for fun, sports, holidays, etc. Fun!

COMIC STORE

Yesterday we went to Nurnburg, where L. had found a comic store that also had lots of gaming/sci fi stuff. A haven for nerds, just like at home. They have a whole room of gaming tables set up, and L plays MechWarrior battles with his friends in such a place back home.l He'd found out they have MechWarrior battles here on Saturday mornings. So, for a kid who often hesitates in new situations, afraid to look stupid or do the wrong thing, he opened up and took a leap of faith. He joined in and played his game for 3 hours with two german guys, one of whom hardly spoke English and the other spoke some. He lost the games but I think he gained a whole lot more in confidence.

Meanwhile, the rest of us took it easy, walked around Nurnburg where a whole farmer's market had sprung up on the streets. We sat at a cafe outside the comic store, which served coffee and tea but when you went to order, they just presented you with a coin-slotted box for a donation. It seemed to be a reading room or social service center for a church, we never could figure it out. But they served drinks and didn't mind if you sat inside or outside all day. So I got to spend a long time writing in my journal, which I've meant to do for awhile. Hey to my writing groups back home, I have the pictures to prove it too!

That's enough for now...

Posted by sapphire at August 6, 2006 01:59 AM