Crabby - Verdrießlich (I'm 100% positive the joke doesn't translate)

When I get back to the States, I am only going to eat crab.

You have no idea how hard it's been to find crab meat here! I dying to eat crab cakes, crab legs, crab stuffed things, crab dip (hot or cold), anything crab. Man, I really miss crab meat.

And Mexican food. Those two things. 

The day I get back to America I'll accept any sort of Mexican food that includes crab meat. Thank you for your attention. 

Good thing Mathis is so cute to make up for it. 

Happy New Year! - Frohe Neues Jahr!

New Years Eve in Germany feels very similar to New Years Eve in the States. There’s drinking, good food, fireworks, pretty much everything you could ask for in a celebration. 

We packed up Mathis with all of his necessities and headed to the Kückmann household. Kara came too. She's very afraid of the fireworks. Just like Gretchen! Really, the only difference between them is approximately 70 pounds. 

Kara trying to eat Tom.

Gretchen trying to eat me. 

We ate dinner (oh, pink herring salad) and played with a few fireworks before Ben had to go to bed. We were informed to wake him up at 11:45pm to see the whole street shooting them off, but at midnight that task proved very impossible. The kid sleeps hard. To pass the time, we played a game called Activity, which is really fantastic and I hope we have it in America so I can buy it and play everyday! It’s Charades, Taboo, and Pictionary, all rolled into one game. It's especially hilarious if you play it in a language you barely understand. The boys team kept having to take me out in the hallway behind several layers of closed doors in order to explain the word I was supposed to draw or act out. Even with our handicap of me, the girls team dominated. 

Julia and Ben and Fire

Baby Phones of all the Boys

Losers!

It is very important for Germans, even if they don’t know English, that they make time that night to watch a black-and-white, ten minute British play called “Dinner for One.” So important that this scene plays at least 10 times on TV on Sylvester(German for New Years Eve). It involves a senile woman, her eager butler, and a lion rug. And that’s “Dinner for One.” 

At midnight, we shot off fireworks. We drank champagne. We spoke with neighbors. We went home. It was the first time in a long time that I had spent New Years quietly in a family setting, and I really enjoyed it. 

First New Years in the Snow!

My new year has gotten off to a solid start. I was the star of a very interesting middle-school English report entitled “The Life of an American Au Pair.” A wonderful topic if I do say so myself! After a couple of rehearsals here, I went one early Monday morning to the middle school girls’ English course and answered a series of questions in front of the class. I spoke, they stared with open mouths, and then there were no questions to follow. I love it! I discovered middle schoolers are exactly to same everywhere, in which they are all way too cool for school. It was really a lot of fun, and I hope that I can start to tutor some students in English. 

2011 is great in other ways too. My German course started back up. I’ve stuck with my New Years resolution to do yoga every day. Mathis is learning to crawl. I’ve been planning a lot of trips. I’m going to Poland at the end of the month and the Netherlands and Belgium in February. I had plans with friends three nights this week! I made cinnamon rolls from scratch!  I’ve been playing a lot of piano lately. I’ve been eating a lot of cinnamon rolls lately. 

Wishing you strong beginnings, plentiful adventures, and sugar comas in 2011!

Better Late Than Never! Part Two - (since no German translation) Teil Zwei

A cute picture of Mathis and my Parents to preface.  

Breakfast was always a struggle to find from the location of our hotel, but on Thursday morning I knew it wouldn’t matter. I’d been talking about eating döner kebaps (delicious Turkish fast food and probably my favorite thing about traveling in Europe) to my Dad as soon he’d step foot onto European soil, and the plan was made to buy them at the Berlin train station and eat them for lunch from our reserved first class seats on the train to Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Taxis were taken, a Whopper from Burger King was randomly eaten by my brother, platforms were found, döner was bought, our train arrived. 

But where was our train car? I had purchased first class reservations solely so we would definitely have a seat, but both of the first class and a few second class cars were missing. Just not there. With the whole of Germany traveling the day before Christmas Eve, the cars were so full that my brother squeezed onto the first step of the entrance before the doors barely missed shutting on his backpack. After riding a few stops with nothing to keep us from falling but the other bodies pushed against ours, the four of us made it into a hallway and settled in for the rest of the 3 hours. A very busy hallway, I might add. Sometimes the train would rock to the right and we would find ourselves looking through the window straight down to the ditch below. Sometimes the train would rock to the left and we would find our bottoms against the windows of the lucky passengers with seats. And sometimes an extra large woman with an extra large backpack, unfathomable in size and girth, would wedge herself skillfully between the wall and my dad, standing in the hands-up-you’re-being-robbed pose while being squished from face to shins against the window.

a little cramped...

It’s ok! It’s fine! I just have to keep telling myself I had the best döner kebap probably ever in Vienna. I’ll get over my lack of wonderful döner. Standing up on the train for over 3 hours is not the party of the life time, but there are worse things. For example, that cold döner situation. Man. I’m still bitter.

Somehow we made it to Gütersloh, and thankfully Sandra forced Christof to come pick us up there, instead of us having to ride one more train. From then on the weekend went more smoothly than I could have hoped for.

See, the boys are good for something.

Except for the couple or more times that we got a car stuck in snow, with different combinations of 2, 3, or even 4 Bridges’ shoving away. Man, that was a lot of snow. 

Oh, and the time my parents overslept like teenagers, and Christof had to go check on them. But honestly, both of those times were even fun! 

On Christmas Eve we decorated the tree and explored Wiedenbrück, which my family found especially beautiful. 

Widenbrück on Christmas Eve

Any free second throughout their time here was spent playing with Mathis, of course. and Kara too.

Taylor entertaining everybody

Germany has their big Christmas celebration on the 24th, so we headed to Martha and Bernd’s and had a typical German dinner with pork that I always love and sauerkraut that I actually liked. Beer and wine were drunk, songs were sung, stories were told that seemed to be understood in both English and German, and presents were opened. I got way too many gifts than I should have, the best of which being a trip to either Croatia or Belgium/Netherlands! Taylor slept in the basement while he was here, and my parents hotel was in walking distance, which proved convenient when we were so tired from celebrating! 

Mom, Julia, and Tom

Bernd and Ben

Marko, Taylor, and Christof singing

Oh Tannenbaum!

Sandra opening an Octopus from America!

It was our turn on Christmas Day, and after a walk in the woods that was more like trekking through over two feet of snow, the Bridges family opened our smalls gifts to each other and began work on my favorite part of Christmas, cooking the Lowcountry Boil. Thank goodness I got a can of Old Bay as one of my christmas presents! 

Probably my favorite picture of the whole trip.

Items were modified according to what we could find the day before in the grocery store, but all in all with the good reviews and when not a scrape was left on the table (except for on the brown paper in the middle that everyone was excited to learn was for throwing your shrimp shells), we’d found a dish that can be enjoyed across countries. Thank goodness for the power of computers, because with mine we got to talk to Grandé and Monkpa on Christmas Day! We ended the evening with the only way we know how, watching Christmas Vacation in German with English subtitles. Just as hilarious as ever.


The 26th was Explore the Castle and Rheda day, as well as Fancy German Dinner day. 

The square in Rheda

Everyone at the Ratskeller! Thank you, Grandé,
for such a wonderful meal!

Both were excellent. My family couldn’t stop commenting about feeling like they were in a postcard, with the half-timbered houses and huge snowflakes falling. They also couldn’t stop worrying about their flight which had to leave in under 48 hours. For my dad’s birthday the next day, we headed to the nearby town of Münster, which I always really enjoy seeing and which has a very rich history. The treaty to end the 30 Year War was signed in their courthouse in 1648! I bought snow boots, Taylor found German soccer jerseys, and the car got stuck in the snow just one more time, to grow on! 

When we got back to the house, cakes were set up on the table and the entire family was on the way over to celebrate my dad’s birthday! After two invigorating rounds of “Happy Birthday”, we ate cake and I think my dad did have a happy birthday. 

Happy Birzday zu You!

They spoiled my dad!

The next morning at 5am my family got a final glance into the real Germany as we drove on the German Autobahn to the Düsseldorf Airport. Just like in a race car. (only joking, Sandra!) The roads were luckily free from ice and my family got to the airport early. As we said goodbye, it was hard to be too sad, half from being so tired in the early hours but half because we had such a wonderful time. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the trip and while I might forget what we ate, some historical dates that we learned, or how to properly shove a stuck car out of snow, I could never forget how much their time in Germany meant to me. I am so thankful I have the type of family that is not only accepting of their wandering daughter and sister, but that would also fly across the Atlantic to come visit her. You are the best.

To many, many more travels together, right Taylor and Dad?!

Better Late Than Never! Part One - (no german translation because they are always so punctual) Teil Eins

I contemplated for way too long about when and if I should go to the bathroom. I was sure I would miss them if I did, but I had forgotten to find the bathroom on my early morning train ride to the Düsseldorf airport. My family’s flight was right on time, but customs and baggage claim put them over an hour behind. Finally, I saw my brother’s hair coming from the international section and felt such a sense of relief that they were actually in Europe and I could now use the restroom. Immediately we fell comfortably into the American role with coffee from McDonalds, followed by a train to downtown Düsseldorf, a tram ride uptown, and a short walk to our beautiful mansion-style hotel. 

Our lovely hotel in Düsseldorf

Our rooms were not ready, but we left our bags and started out on a day that seemed to last 90 hours. My poor jet-lagged family members were such great sports as I dragged them around through Christmas Market after Christmas Market, to the Old City (and a very delicious German restaurant) and up to the top of the Rhine Tower. 

Where my family had their first German food.

The Rhine Tower being lost in the snow storm.

After sitting and admiring the view of Düsseldorf that increasingly became more minimized and hazy, we walked into a huge snowstorm that pounded my tired family in the face until the tram finally arrived. The day concluded with my dad wiping out on a giant sheet of plastic hidden under snow, goulash soup in a Christmas Market, a tram that wasn’t running, and a taxi ride to take us back to the hotel. I think my brother was asleep before 6:45, but my mom and dad made it until the unruly hour of 8pm. 

The amount of snow that accumulated on our deck overnight.

Things moved understandably slower on Monday morning, and even though both of the airports we would be using to get to Berlin were closed over the weekend due to the terrible snowstorms that pounded Western Europe, our flight looked good to go that afternoon. After a brief panic of not being able to find the one 8 1/2 x 11 sign in all of Düsseldorf with information about our airport shuttle, we took the one hour bus ride to the middle of absolute nowhere and happened to find a small airport there. Waiting for our chaotically arranged flight, we saw the grid of fifty or more slept-in cots and were extra thankful that we picked the single time to fly in Europe that weekend where we wouldn’t be spending the night in the airport. 

A very abrupt landing put us in Berlin, and we wound through the maze that is Berlin-Schoenefeld Airport, where my mother was concerned by the machine guns held by your run-of-the-mill and very average security guards. We followed the usual pattern of taking a train to a tram to our hotel. We checked in to the hotel, were excited to see Aunt Fran, and headed to the dinner reservations I made for the evening. I thought it would only be appropriate to introduce to my family to Germany by eating at the restaurant at the top of the center of the German government: the Reichstag. 

We ate there! Top right!

Our taxi driver dropped us off at the beautiful building and there were more machine guns, this time up close and personal as we were asked by security to show our passports and lead into a small building, where more security stared at us in silence. We stared back. They asked us to show our purses and open our jackets, and we were herded out of the small building and into the Reichstag for more security checks. An elevator took us to the famous dome and the delicious restaurant, and we laughed the rest of the evening about exclusivity like none of us had ever experienced before. 

Even though we had three days and three nights in Berlin, the time flew by in a whirlwind of historic and very cold sights. Due to temperatures of -5˚C we opted for a bus tour to take us to all of the main sights including: 

Checkpoint Charlie

The East Side Gallery (the largest portion of the Berlin Wall)

The Brandenburg Gate

Palace Charlottenburg and my dad's head.

and also Potsdamer Platz, the Jewish Museum, Unter den Linden and many, many more. The next day brought us to the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, and the emotions that the memorial evoked, from deliberate disorientation to hopefulness, were particularly emphasized with the snow.

Holocaust Memorial

Aunt Fran had to leave a day early, so we said our goodbyes and finished the day with the Cathedral of Berlin (which you have to pay to enter and that is absolutely ridiculous), the largest fish tank in the world, the DDR museum, and our final Christmas Market. 

The Original Berlin Christmas Market

Things remained just as entertaining as they did cold in Berlin with more than few people who mistook my blond hair, blue eyed brother as German and also with a unique subway performance of a particularly round, santa hat wearing 7-year-old, who played a mouth powered piano and had middle-aged, saxophonist sidekick. 

Trying to warm up with Glühwein!

We drank mulled wine, strong coffee, and sampled all the beers. We ate curry wurst, schnitzel, candied almonds, great pizza, and breakfast that was labeled American. We met friendly Germans who were more than willing to lend a hand, and got an up close and personal view on Thursday of some more German citizens on the train ride to my town...

My Truly Awesome List - Meine Liste

I’ve been pretty behind on updating my blog, but I would like to present you with a list of 10 truly awesome things that have happened in the last 10 truly awesome days. (not chronological or in order of importance)

1) One of the strangest concepts and biggest differences between German and American traditions that I’ve found so far is what occurs in the holiday season. On December 5th, all of the German children set out their winter boots and await a visit in the night from St. Nikolaus. I, being deathly ill the day before, completely forgot about ole St. Nikolaus and after going super early to bed, I woke up to find my new boots outside of my door filled with chocolate, tangerines, and an awesome bread man baked in the shape of St. Nikolaus. I was so excited, along with all of the children in Germany. Christmas traditions are really different here, I should really post soon explaining. Stay tuned!

My treats from St. Nikolaus

2) Tom, the youngest cousin of Mathis, turned one year old on the 13th! There was fun to be had by all, enough cake to feed a small army, and even though there was a small break from the party to run to the hospital(see below), it was still really great to see Tom on his birthday having no idea what was going on or why his older brother was so jealous of him. 

3) Surprise! The 13th was also Sandra’s birthday! That Monday was party day. From presents and champagne in the morning to a big dinner with the whole family and finishing with brownie cheesecake and watching Love Actually to seal the deal, I hope Sandra had a good birthday even if she had to share it with a one year old. Mathis even joined in the fun a couple days before and made a bookmark for his mom with black paint and his cute little footprints. I was terrified the day I forced Mathis to do this because the black watercolor left bruise colors splotches where ever it touched, which was his entire body because he is a baby and he wiggles. It’s probably better if his Au Pair doesn’t give him bruises all over for his parents to find.

Sandra's birthday cheesecake.

4) Mathis and I enjoy daily walks either to the old part of the city or away from the city towards...well towards nothing really. In route in the middle of no where, there is a giant pasture of around 15 really furry cows. We have never been able to sneak by on this street without these cows staring directly into my eyes with contempt and me following by awkwardly waving or asking them how their day is going. One day last week, when it was way too cold to be walking, Mathis, Kara, and I passed these cows like normal, I yelled, “Are you guys not freezing!?”, and the biggest and closest cow let out the biggest “moo” I have ever heard in my life. Kara barked, Mathis cried, and I laughed so hard that I forgot how cold it was. It’s the little things. 

5) On a less hilarious note, Christof now has two holes in his leg exactly like Sandra in October. This probably does not belong on my truly awesome list of truly awesome things, but nonetheless, the same abscesses showed up on the back of his leg containing the same aggressive bacteria. Friday, after a short visit to the doctor, Christof headed for emergency surgery to the hospital and stayed their overnight. He came home on Saturday and is recovering nicely while we wait for lab results telling us exactly the cause of these abscesses. In the mean time, my legs are on high alert. This whole situation was extra chaotic because of Number 9 below, and the reason for the hospital visit in Number 2 and the set up for the hilariousness in Number 10.  

6) I drove stick for the second time in my life! Sandra insisted that is was all right for me to learn in the snow and ice with Kara in the backseat therefore putting her life in danger also, but it went fine. I only stalled out twice! I’m basically a truck driver now. Well, one who only knows how to drive in first and second gear. 

The secluded road where I was allowed to practice

7) A couple Saturday’s back, I was lucky enough to get invited to the house warming party for Verena, one of the girls I went to the movies which a while back. I went with Sandra and Christof and got to meet some more of there friends and more of Verena’s friends. It was super nice and Christmasy, and I really appreciate all of her efforts to make me feel included here! 

8) One of the mornings when I was deathly ill, Grandma Martha came to take Mathis for a little bit so I could rest without baby and try to feel better. Martha wrapped Mathis up in his many winter layers, packed him in his stroller, said “Goodbye!” and got a few steps out of the door before the front left stroller wheel fell off. Hilarious. The Germans took great care of me, including providing me with hilariousness to make me feel better. 

9) Mathis’ Baptism was this Sunday, 12/12 at 12pm. Christof’s hospital visit made plus the sheer number of guests (close to 30!) and that Mathis is, in fact, a baby, made this event just a little bit stressful. The house was cleaned and decorated, Mathis was dressed, Sandra and Christof were dressed (always a plus - see Number 10), and we  made it on the church in time for the service of which I didn’t not understand one thing. For reasons I couldn’t make out, we marched all over the church for the sake of getting the devil out of poor Mathis and the other baby boys being baptized. A big catered party followed at our house and Mathis fell asleep within minutes of being home. Once again, all of the Niemeier’s family and friends were super friendly, the food was good, and, like normal, I could understand the kids best of all. 

Being Baptized means you're not allowed
to cry anymore, right?

10) Saturday morning, I woke up leisurely on my day off and walked downstairs to find Grandma Martha alone in the house, holding Mathis, and not wearing any pants. First of all, the hilariousness of this situation is enough for one morning, but the back story makes it so much better. That morning, Sandra went to join Christof for a little bit in the hospital and Martha came over to take the little guy and the dog on a walk. Overnight, all of the snow had melted, leaving the ground soaking wet. Apparently, this is how it went down. Kara throws up near a ditch, leading to Kara stopping in attempt to to eat her vomit, leading to Martha and the stroller being tugged by Kara’s sudden halt, leading to the stroller being sent flying into the ditch and about 3 feet of water, leading to Martha’s motherly instincts taking over and her dive into the water which was probably almost frozen, leading to her pants drying in the corner while she holds traumatized Mathis when I come downstairs in the morning. 

I love my life. 

Countdown until my family gets here and I love my life even more: 4 days!!!!!

der Truthahn - a Turkey

April and I with THANKSGIVIN'!

Mathis grew up quickly. He also enjoys Thanksgiving.

April and I rocked Thanksgiving this year. Not only did we successfully explore Rheda-Wiedenbrück in the snow with a large dog and a baby, AND find all the right ingredients for American style food including the little fried onions for green bean casserole, but we ALSO cooked a turkey! A bigger-than-Mathis turkey! And the first for us both! The Germans were not informed enough about how you don't eat the entire day before Thanksgiving (I blame myself) and were completely shocked by the amount of food on the table. I think today, one week from when we celebrated last Saturday, all of the leftovers are finally gone. My favorite part of the meal was watching Bernd and Marko attack the turkey with scissors. Yes. It was awesome.

Operation Turkey Carving

Before April left on Sunday, we were able to squeeze in a trip to Paderborn with Sandra and Julia to see the new Harry Potter in English. I had already seen it once in German and am still proud of how much I understood. It is finally past the point that I can understand not only from the context and the body language, but actually the language. How cool! Anyways, a few notes about going to see movies in Germany.

1. Their popcorn is sweet and concessions cost way less than in the States.
2. You have assigned seats, with rows and seat numbers and such.
3. There are so many television type commercials before the standard movie commercials.
4. One of these commercials could be for ice cream, which leads to all of the lights being turned on and movie theater employees walking up the aisles selling that particular brand of ice cream. like a baseball game.
5. Sometimes, in the middle of movies all of the lights come on and you take an intermission. The German’s really like turning all of the lights on suddenly in theaters. 
6. Sometimes, you get to go eat at Mexican restaurants before the movie! (not really a standard, but it made me super happy so I thought I’d add it.)

In other news, countdown until my family gets here: 15 days! 

Just Another Thursday - ein ganz normal Donnerstag

Christof’s had a birthday on November 19th, and while I am not at liberty to tell you which one, I would like to point out that he once made references to a cult from the 80’s that Sandra and I had never heard of. On his actual birthday, Sandra and I drove to the town of Lippstadt where Christof teaches to surprise him with cake and the greatest gift of all, his son. One of the best things about living abroad for the first time is that even visiting the next town over is so exciting, so we walked around the downtown awhile before heading to Christof’s school. 

All of the teacher’s were supposed to be back from their lunch break at 3, but we couldn’t find the Niemeier family car in the parking lot, which lead to us standing in the parking lot with a stroller for about a half hour. At one point, Sandra went to check if his car was around back, and I couldn’t stop laughing thinking about Christof pulling in at that moment and wondering why his nanny was standing with his son in the middle of his school’s parking lot a half hour from where we were supposed to be. It ended up that he was already in his classroom and after we carried Mathis in his stroller up 3 flights of stairs, Sandra knocked on his door, we left the stroller in the doorway, and we hid down the hall. We thought we were so sneaky until Christof immediately informed us that he’d seen us walking around the downtown on his lunch break, and was checking out the window every couple of minutes wondering when we were coming to visit. So much for surprises, but for sure there is never a dull moment with my life.

We celebrated the next day with four different cakes (how cool is that!), a visit from Christof’s mom, and a big dinner with the whole family. On Sunday I took advantage again of the chance to see another small German town and ride on the Autobahn when I went with Sandra to drop Christof’s mom back to the town where he'd grown up. It was so cute and had a beautiful castle, but it is really starting to get cold outside and these days there is only so much being outside that can be handled. 

Thanksgiving Thursday in Germany, and I’m guessing in every place in this great world but the States, is just another day. But here it’s not just another boring day because on that particular Thursday in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, it snows! A lot! I have been trying to avoid Christmas music until after I celebrated Thanksgiving, but I could not help blasting “Let It Snow” and dancing around Mathis. Now he’s certain that I’m crazy. I built a snowman, which is way harder than I remembered, and we still currently have an extra snowman head lying the in yard because I accidentally rolled it over Kara’s poop. Class was fun because we read an article about Thanksgiving since the whole group knew I loved it so much, and I loved explaining the holiday to the skeptics. They already think I’m the strange, eccentric American because I sang a song about nominative pronouns that I’d learned in high school, so I’m used to the weird looks by now.

I successfully drove home in the snow and Sandra had made a super delicious meal to celebrate, against Christof’s suggestion to eat frozen pizza. I am super appreciative of how much they go out of their way to make me feel at home here, and I’m positive it’s their wonderful family that makes it easy and fun for me to live so far away.  At 10:30pm my time, however, I didn’t feel so far away, because I got to SKYPE with all of the Thanksgiving guests at my grandma’s house in Charlotte, NC. It started with my brother telling me to call back because they’d just started eating, and went through my both my wonderful grandparents, cousin, uncle, family friends that feel like relatives, and back around to my parents. I can not even explain how much happiness talking to the line of guests brought me, and I could not stop laughing and smiling even after I’d finished talking to them. 

Sometimes it takes stepping away from everything you’re accustomed to to realize exactly how much you have. Lucky for me, I have more gifts than I could possibly ask for. Most of the time I am too busy focusing on all that is new and different day to day that I forget to realize truly where I am, to appreciate where I've come from, and to be thankful for how great both places are. And so, to my caring family and closest friends that make me feel loved at all distances, to the Niemeiers that accept me even while slaughtering their language, and to American holidays that find relevance even across continents, thank you. This Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful for you!