They Can't Feel Anything, Right? - Sie Können Nicht Fühlen, Richtig?

So it was crab galore at the Niemeier residence last week, but with a hint of surprise, complication, and crazy, like most things seem to go around here. Lesson learned: When Germans say fresh, they mean fresh.

After searching long and hard for crab meat in numerous grocery stores and speciality butchers, Sandra and I found a promising (and rather expensive) store that said they would order it for us. The purchase was made and we were to pick up the crab on Thursday. I will remember it perfectly for years to come, much like how people remember where they were when JFK was shot or numerous other traumatic experiences of this scale. I was upstairs mid-diaper change and making sure Mathis didn’t launch himself off of the changing table, when Sandra came home and informed me that I was needed downstairs. She spoke lots of German. I tried to understand. I thought what she was telling me must have been lost in translation and a misunderstanding on my part. We switched guard of little, half-naked Mathis, and as I approached the trunk of her car, I heard a horrible scratching noise. Claws on styrofoam. No. Way.

"Oh no. They're moving!"

Yup, they were alive. As in not dead. As in still living. And they weren’t all crabs! They were a bunch of crayfish and two giant crabs with little legs. After rounding them up and double checking the trunk for stranglers, Sandra, Mathis, Kara, and I ended up gathered  around the table in a staring contest with these live animals, waiting for operation boil-a-bunch-of-crustaceans-to-death to take place. Christof slept through the whole thing. After a large pot was delivered by Bernd and several hundreds of phone calls to my parents later, we ended up with enough crab meat for four baby crab cakes, and a feast of crayfish that we enjoyed with my friend April later that night.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"I hope you can't feel this!
Thank you for dying for our nourishment!"

Self-picked, freshest of the fresh, crab cakes!

It was delicious. And what makes my family here extra great is how they are ready to try again! Sandra found more crab meat! In a can! As in not living, I’m guessing. Hopefully. Please. Now if only I can get over that scratching noise... 

Death.

Ripping heads off of crayfish!

Our crayfish are friends until the end.