Goin' Walkabout

Our 8 Square Feet

2012-02-04T15:55:00.001-06:00

I realized that one of my passions in life is to garden and attempt to grow some of our food. Three years ago when we had a house and a yard I started to dream big about how much of the lawn was going to be turned into edible plant space. That dream seemed to be dashed away as we decided to pick up our lives and take on apartment living overseas. While in Germany, it seemed like too much of a hassle to haul in dirt and all of the other tools I would need to start a garden. Our apartment did get great sunlight, but that was not enough motivation for me. After our move to Quito I stilled sensed a void in the pleasure I had gotten each spring in planning to get my hands dirty. Luckily, my lunchtime habit of watching an occasional TED Talk (A garden in my apartment) sparked my interest once again. See my video.

Now, I will admit, Ayelet keep giving her best effort to keep a few plants growing in our apartments. She likes to have fresh herbs for cooking. However, I wanted more than just herbs.

The back 40 with seeds sprouting in the ice cube trays

As you might be able to see in this picture half of our plants are growing or stacked in some very different ways. Ayelet and I were motivated by a few of our treks out in Quito and to Mindo. In Quito we went to a craft fair that mainly featured upcycled items. A few of our plant stand are old plastic bottle stands taped together. That gave us both plant height and allowed for a more packed space. Our trip to Mindo motivated us just to buy more plants and put them into any plastic containers that we had, like the old water or milk jugs you see. Now with my window farm up and running we have really been able to keep a diverse garden in a very small space. My idea of what a "garden" had to be was completely changed and I don't feel the same yearning for a yard just yet. I'm glad there are so many innovative people out out in the world with a humanistic drive toward a more fulfilling life.

Here is a list of what we are currently growing:

The Back 40 - mint, lemon balm, basil, rosemary, peas, and oregano.

In the Window Farm - Swiss chard, 2 strawberry plants, parsley, peas, lettuce

Pea plant from the ice cube tray

Strawberry blossom - probably will get the Q-Tip treatment soon

Peas in the window farm

Swiss Chard

Parsley - purchased mostly grown

Lettuce

The sprouts are really starting to take off and I will be updating the progress on my youtube channel if you want to subscribe. I'm sure you will see a post on Facebook with our first harvest from the seeds.

Otavalo Adventures: Friday

2012-01-31T14:38:00.000-06:00

Not from Friday, but it's Greg and goats.
Awesome regardless!

You may remember, we've already been to Otavalo once in the fall. We wanted to come back because the area looked cool and we had only seen the market (which did not fascinate us as there are a million stalls selling mostly the same thing). I had bigger plans for us for the weekend, but since we both forgot the bank card at home, we were traveling on a limited budget.

I'd still like to hike around the beautiful crater lake, but we can go back another time. It's only 2 hours from Quito. In any case, I've already been hinting to Greg that I'd like to go back this summer for a weaving or natural dyeing class at Tahuatinsuyo.

After the weaving expedition on Friday, I went to Cotacachi, which is a small leather-goods town. I grabbed some lunch at a place that was all expats - the locals probably couldn't afford it even though it was below average for a lunch in the US. Then, shoe shopping! I had hoped to find some mid-calf boots, but the only ones I found were not available in my size. I think the saleswoman thought I had massive feet, but given that I was towering over her, I don't think she should have been that surprised when I told her my shoe size!

Cotocachi main square - I still love seeing palm trees!

Disappointed, I headed for the bus stop. I was the only non-Indigenous person waiting and the only one without some handicraft to work on. Never before have I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb here. Everyone's hands were busy with embroidery, crocheting baby hats, making friendship bracelets with intricate designs, and separating threads. All of the goods they made were most likely to be sold at the market the next morning.

A lot of what is in the market is machine or factory made, but when I happened upon people actually making stuff that, it made me feel better about the market. More about that in the next post - including a video or two and more pictures, I promise!

Kids riding a horse along the train tracks in Otavalo -
we liked how the toothless one was hamming it up!

Natural Weaving in Agato

2012-01-29T16:32:00.000-06:00

Sheep's wool waiting to be made
into thread and the end product.

My birthday present to myself (sure, why not?) was to go to Agato, near Otavalo, and drop in on a very special kind of weaving that is done at the Tahuatinsuyo Weaving Workshop. The founder, Miguel, wasn't there, but lucky for me, it's a family business and so I got to meet Luz Maria and her husband. They are an indigenous family as you'll notice from their clothing and hats. Going to their workshop was the highlight of my Friday (Greg was in school so could not come).

It's set in Agato, a rural village about 15 minutes by taxi up a bumpy cobblestone road from Otavalo. The workshop itself looks like a regular albeit larger family home. I didn't see anyone in the workshop, but a few dogs, so the taxi driver and I had to ask a few people where I could find the weavers.

Luz Maria showing how yarn/thread
used to be made by hand instead of "machine"

The husband (who I forgot to write down his name and then forgot the name as usual) showed me the bags of wool waiting to be carded (separated with two big brushes), shaped into cylinders of sorts with two different, but similar-looking brushes, and then added on to existing thread on their threading machine. I took a video of that.

In Otavalo, weaving is mainly men's work because it is strenuous. The women typically clean the wool, dye it and then sell the work once it's done. In this workshop, they use mainly natural dyes - walnut for brown, grey and black; achiote for reds; and cochineal for shades of purple; lichen for yellow.

He sat down to show me how he used the backstrap loom, which you can read more about their use of it here. Their family is one of few that still uses the backstrap loom.

The husband showed me how he moved a spool of thread to separate the lines of the designs. He did not follow a written down pattern or design from paper - everything they make is in their heads. It's backbreaking work because you're sitting on a mat with the backstrap of the loom behind your back and the weaving in front of you. After 8 hours of weaving, you may only make 6 inches of length in a 15-inch wide piece.

Adjusting the backstrap

Therefore, in their shop, they sell the rugs, table runners, blankets, tableclothes, and scarves for much more than you'll find in the Otavalo market. To give you an example, a machine-made tablerunner in Otavalo will sell for $8-10. In comparison, the ones at the Tahuatinsuyo workshop sell for between $60-120 depending on how intricate the design and materials.

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, that it was really an amazing experience for me to see them working and to be able to ask my questions to Luz Maria without feeling rushed or being forced to buy anything. She just really likes meeting people from all over and sharing their craft. I hope to come back in the summer for a few days to either take a natural dyeing class or a weaving class with them and stay in their home.

The "inner" workings of the loom - on a side note, notice how small the man's feet are! Mine feel huge in comparison. In fact in Cotocachi (the leather town), one store only went up to size 38 European/7.5 US.

Everybody's Going Surfin'

2012-01-12T17:38:00.002-06:00

Surfin' Ay-am-pe.

Well, I've got another open slot on my life list after checking off "take a surfing lesson."

As you saw in the last post, Ayelet and I were at a wonderfully quiet beach during my December break from school. We opted to fly down to the coast after hearing that a bus ride was probably 10 hours. Since Quito sits up so high in the mountains, it pretty much felt like we only glided down to the Pacific after our take off. After a few hours on a bus we walked into to the dirt road town of Ayampe to find our beach cabana. Ayelet was looking for peace and quiet and I wanted to hit the water. After we arrived, I realized I might be getting in over my head. Our first night out walking had huge looking waves and I had no clue what was on the ocean floor. Luckily the next day we met up with a Canadian couple that moved to this tiny beach town and Ryan assured me that a morning surfing lesson would be just fine.

I'm sure you have already had a nice chuckle at the picture of me on that tiny wave, but I am happy to say that I did manage to get up on the board and surf, hang 10, all the usual surf stuff. After my hour and a half lesson I was a bit bruised up and not really looking to get back on the surf board right away. That chance will come sometime down the road where I hope to graduate to a wave a bit bigger than 1-2 feet high.

Ayampe: Our Beach Getaway

2012-01-08T15:00:00.001-06:00

We heard about Ayampe through friends and it sounded like the perfect place to relax away from the crowds. It was just what we needed after our first few months in Quito. Quito is cool, but it was nice to go to a place where we didn't smell cars any day we were there and we knew everyone in town by sight within a couple days.

The lady at the corner grocery store (one of three in town) probably started referring to me as the one who ate coconut popsicles for lunch everyday. We saw the local expat yoga instructor and her surf teacher husband almost everyday even though we only went to their classes once (Otra Ola is awesome!). The beach was quiet and only got busy when we could see maybe 20 people on the beach at one time.

Ayampe was perfect for long walks on the beach, watching the waves crash, getting to know the tides, examining interesting rocks (we loved the green beach rock and the shells with surprising colors inside), chasing scuttling crabs and trying to figure out what they eat, reading and crocheting in our hammocks, taking a yoga class, taking a surfing class, naming all the dogs roaming around, watching the chickens looking for grubs, and trying every restaurant in Ayampe (Four in total: 1) healthy Finca Punta Ayampe with its excellent breakfasts, 2) little Italian pizzeria at Las Orishas hostal, 3) our cabins' restaurant La Tortuga, 4) Surf, a cutely decorated, but sexist in terms of portions of food they give, bar/restaurant where you can watch the surfers try the waves).

We even managed to tear ourselves away from our hammocks to go into Puerto Lopez, the fishing town about 20 minutes north. We skipped the famously tourist-heavy surf town of Montanita though.

The rest of our pictures are on facebook and Greg's going to post about his new talent soon!

Hanukkah on the Road

2012-01-06T17:30:00.001-06:00

This year, we were able to have a few nights of Hanukkah at home and some on vacation. We took some photos of our celebrations for you all - enjoy!

Our first night in Ayampe we lit the candles on the beach at sunset

Greg loves lighting them!

Our candles in Quito

Banos

2012-01-04T17:29:00.000-06:00

{Wow, sorry for the delay! I just realized this one never got posted! I'll be posting more soon about our latest trip to the coast} It seems like there has been one weekend vacation after another the last few weeks - last week the school had off on Friday for Thanksgiving and this week, Greg has off Monday and Tuesday for the founding of Quito (las fiestas de Quito). Last weekend we rode down to Banos, a popular town about 3.5 hours from Quito that was named after the hot springs there. Now the town has way more than the hot springs that most tourists enjoy, but we were there mainly for some rest and relaxation so the hot springs were our main focus.

Sunset on our first night in Banos

My beloved hammock on the porch

We stayed at a place outside of town called La Casa Verde, which I would highly recommend to anyone going to Banos. It's an ecological guesthouse run by two lovely expats and it attracts such a cool crowd of people. We got a room with a hammock outside of our room and it was well-used by me. On our first morning, we went to the hot springs that were close to the hotel. It turned out to be a very good choice because it was a lot less busy than the ones in town. It was called the Santa Ana hot springs and it was across from the Samurai hotel. These hot springs didn't have the hottest baths, like the popular one in town, but it had a very comfortable hot bath and nice scenery with a wall of bamboo sheltering one of the pools from the wind. We found Banos to be very windy, especially in the afternoon and evening. It was sort of unexpected, but in the sunny afternoon, it was welcome.

After we got back from the baths, we went into town to grab lunch at Cafe Hood. The food was the best we had in Banos! The desserts weren't the best, but I had a delicious lasagna and Greg had a potato curry. We took our bathing suits so we could try the more popular thermal baths in town that were open into the night. They were SO crowded and not nearly as pleasant as the ones we had gone to in the morning.

View from the porch at La Casa Verde

The hotel had a beautiful glass bottle wall on the staircase -
this would be something I would love to add into a future home!

Funny Things We See Sold

2011-11-19T08:15:00.000-06:00

There's a new level of street vendors here in Quito - literally "in the street" vendors and guys who get on the buses. These are the people who go from car to car when traffic has stopped or they climb aboard even packed buses to shout out what awesome item they have to sell. Some of what they sell makes sense, but some is very odd. Here is a list of what we've seen sold on the street so far:

Balsa wood toy ships (already created)
Clementines and other fruit
TV antennas
Car accessories such as steering wheel grip enhancers and rubber mats for the floor of the car
Refilled bottles of strange colored liquid
Tea towels
Pastry items such as palmitas and bizcochos
Potato chips and banana chips ("chifles" as they are called here)
Newspapers
Hard candies of different varieties
Big paintings (3 ft. by 5 ft. painting - and he only had one!)
Fake DVDs and CDs
Puppies and kitties (we haven't seen them sold on the street exactly, but usually they're on the sidewalk or in the middle area of a busy boulevard so theoretically if someone in a car wanted one...)
Bags of chopped up yuca (I still don't know what people do with this)
Sandwiches (usually sold by a kid who has smushed it beyond recognition)

I'll update Facebook when I see something new or interesting being sold on the street so you guys can join in our amazement.

Birds of Paradise

2011-11-09T16:51:00.003-06:00

What are you looking at?

Collared Trogon

Well, there were birds that looked familiar.

White-edged Oriole

And lots of bird watching posturing going on.

Greg and Hannah

We spotted the endemic and threatened.

Baudo Guan

There were plenty of toucan sightings.

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan

And a lucky find in a cliff upon the advice of a local.

Female Cock of the Rocks

Can you even find this one?

Lineated Woodpecker

Even Ayelet was excited about this adventure. I knew she always liked birding deep down.

Topical Kingbird

This is a short list of all the birds that we saw in Mindo over our 3rd anniversary get away. Ayelet and I saw so many birds during our visit that we could not possibly have had the camera ready enough. For all of you amateur photographers, a short word of advice. We were able to capture all of these close ups by taking pictures through the spotting scope of our bird guide. I learned the technique in science class by taking pictures through the microscope. It was a great way to capture everything that didn't fly away after a few seconds. This morning of birding has motivated me to go out more for this old favorite leisure activity of mine. You have not seen the end of the birds in Ecuador.

Lovely Mindo

2011-11-06T18:43:00.000-06:00

Mindo valley

This last week we had two holidays - November 2nd was All Saints Day and November 3rd was Cuenca Independence Day - so luckily, we had some days to travel outside of Quito. Our first overnight daytrip was to Mindo, a town set in the cloudforest about 2.5 hours north of Quito.

Mindo has tons of things to do for people who're active - canyoning, ziplining, hiking to waterfalls, tubing and bird-watching. It was this last one that Greg was most excited about. I'm sure he'll write a post all about the cool birds we saw with our guide, Irman, and two friends. They were pretty awesome!

On the first day, we headed to check out a little butterfly garden that also had hummingbirds and tropical plants. Our favorite part was the hummingbird area had a porch with hammocks strung about. You could watch the hummingbirds and revel in the quiet from your own personal hammock! We topped off the afternoon with a brownie and drinks at a local cafe where they make their own chocolate.

Greg chilling with the hummingbirds

That evening, we headed to the frog concert, which really wasn't a frog concert but more of a nature walk at night in search of creepy crawlies. Our guide found plenty of them and some cute little frogs too. I tried to tune out and avoid looking when he pointed out spiders. It was a cool tour, but not for the squeamish!

The next morning, we woke up early for our bird tour because the best time to go is at dawn. After the 7km hike up, we went down to a waterfall and dipped our feet in the freezing water. It felt so good after the long morning. After a good long nap, showers and long lunch at the local Italian place, we tried to go owl spotting with our guide, but they were not showing up for us so we headed in for the night. Maybe next time!

Mindo was great for the active type, but also for us lazier folks who just are looking for a quiet corner to relax with a book or watch the hummingbirds that land on the feeder next to us. I highly recommend it!

Biodiversity in Ecuador

2011-11-03T11:00:00.003-05:00

Ecuador is often one of the first places mentioned when people talk about biodiversity. Naturally, as a person of science, I was extremely excited to witness this plethora of life first hand. After arriving in Quito I found myself constantly amazed by all variety of trees that I can see from my window. And as I ask Ayelet the same question she says (in a monotone voice), "Yeah, it's pretty cool." It is kind of like Dr. Seuss had once visited here with the range of what I often refer to as "Truffula Trees," thanks to The Lorax.

So, here is a short example of my recent observations during the hike up Pichincha. I kept wondering how so many different plants were able to survive on this rough landscape in such a healthy amount.

2011-11-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

Check out this fun online game. You could win a trip to Ecuador.

http://www.audubon.org/splash

Earthquakes in Quito

2011-10-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

We felt our first earthquake yesterday, although it was really more of a tremor! Not being from earthquake-prone regions, Greg and I both thought it was something else at first. He thought it was an airplane's engines firing up and I thought it was a really big truck coming up our hill. That was until the windows started shaking. But it was over in about 5-10 seconds and I found out later that it was about 4 on the Richter scale. Who knew that Quito was near a fault line?

We're still trying to decide on if a better exit strategy is to go up one floor to the roof or down four floors to the street. My other suggestion was to set up a zipline from our window to the street for a much easier (and more Indiana Jones-type) exit - Greg doesn't seem to consider that a genuine possibility.

Chilling Out at the Hot Springs

2011-10-29T16:30:00.000-05:00

Greg and I headed out on our first independent day trip to the lovely hot springs of Papallacta a few weekends ago. We'd heard such good things about them and are probably the last ones of our friends to head out there, but timing was not right before. Sorry I don't have pictures for you because we left our camera behind, not knowing if there were secure lockers or not. You'll just have to take my word for it that they were wonderful.

The thermal baths have two parts: spa and regular thermal baths. Since there was about a $10 difference per person, we decided to try our luck with the regular thermal baths. The first one we went into was warm, but not hot, and there were plenty of kids in there.

So we headed up to the second more secluded baths. This was where all the adults were and it was definitely hot. We'd have to sit out on the steps for most of the time because it was too much otherwise. There were two or three other baths that were even hotter, but we didn't do much more than stick our toes in because we liked the second one we tried. We even chatted for a while with a Guayaquil couple - the wife wanted to practice her English really badly and Greg even got to practice a bit of his Spanish speaking and understanding.

It was fairly easy to get to Papallacta from our area, but required a taxi, bus and truck to get all the way up to the baths (only on the way there). In the end, the bus ride was only 1.5 hours and was shorter than I imagined. Luckily, we had more or less specific directions on how to get the bus. On the way back, we took the truck back down, the bus to an outskirt of Quito, and then 2 buses from there to our apartment. Sounds confusing, but we could not have done that a month ago without getting horribly lost.

Our next adventure will be going to Mindo, about 2 hours away, for the November holiday. We will definitely bring our camera since there will be a lot of birds, butterflies, plants and other interesting things to see there!

Pichincha = 15,406 Feet

2011-10-23T09:30:00.011-05:00

You may recall former pictures on this blog of the mountain that we enjoy from our family room each day.Well, it was only a matter of time before I had to go and take a closer look.

(Left: Jeff, Lauren, Siri, Mike, Melinda, Brendan)

Pichincha is an active stratovolcano that has been quiet since 1999. This mountain forms the western slope of Quito and the gondola that zips you up to 4108 meters leaves right from the city.

Our enthusiastic group of hikers jumped on the early ride to the top and managed to avoid crowed hiking for most of the day. Along the way, we meet many friendly Ecuadorians that were very pleased to hear how much we have been enjoying their country. Not only did they give us advice on more hikes, but they encouraged and advised us all the way to the top of the mountain.

This proved to be a great beginner hike for all of us. There are a few technical areas, but mainly you just need to keep a steady pace. The biodiversity and colors were simply amazing for the entire elevation gain (next post). I was very pleased to go with a group of new friends that kept a great mood all day - constantly floating in the clouds - figuratively and literally.

Makeup on the Bus

2011-10-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Every day to work, I take a bumping blue bus. By "bumping," I don't mean in the sense of being awesome and one big party, although the fun Spanish music that they play really wakes me up. No, I mean "bumping" in the sense of you're probably going to bump into just about everyone on that bus during the ride. I'm not too great with my balance, but even veterans of the blue bus stumble while trying to grab a hold of something. The first time I went on it and it was crowded, I thought I was going to fall out of the open front door (the way these buses operate is a whole different post).

On this bumping bus in the morning, I always see at least 3 girls doing their makeup, often there are more of them throughout the course of the whole bus ride. This is amazing to me considering the bus is jostling and jolting down the roads and these girls are waving around a mascara brush like it couldn't just poke them in the eye.

If I was the competitive-type, I would take them up on this subtle game (that really isn't a game to them at all). I would bring my mascara (which I currently don't own), my eyeshadow, concealer, eyeliner, sparkly lip stuff (which I also don't own - but for good reason!) and a hairbrush (as if I'd ever run a regular hairbrush through my hair unless I wanted an afro the rest of the day). And I'd do it up - the housecleaner at my job would think I'd gone crazy because I rarely put on any noticeable makeup, but for the sake of the competition, I'd do it.

However, I like my eyes intact, my hair non-frooed, and my makeup brushes not accidentally stuck up my nose.

Daytrip to Otavalo and Cotocachi

2011-10-03T08:05:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, we went with some teacher buddies to the artisan towns of Otavalo and Cotocachi. Otavalo was full of stands and vendors. You could find everything from alpaca sweaters and blankets to food to hammocks to wall hangings. And the market is huge!

It took us about 2 hours to see the majority of it. After awhile, you start to notice that everything looks similar. Otavalo was fun, but not really what Greg and I were expecting. We thought it would be more focused on local artisans and handmade items. Instead a lot of items were machine-made in a factory somewhere (maybe even in Bolivia as someone told me). It was still fun to browse and practice haggling. We ended up with an alpaca blanket for our bed, and a ball of yarn and two different fabrics for me.

My yarn!

I think Greg fell in love with this ice bike.

After Otavalo, we stopped in Cotocachi, which is known for its leather goods. Greg and I found a little vegetarian cafe for lunch and then the shopping began! There was one whole street with shops lined up and down it just for all things leather.

I bought black leather boots and a little brightly colored change purse (which I then lost on the bus one of the first days I used it in Quito). Greg got himself a hacky-sack. After the shopping was done, we chilled out in the plaza of the town. Some people threw a frisbee around, which intrigued the local boys. Soon they had joined in the game and you really had to duck if you saw one of them with the frisbee. They had never seen one before and so their aim was off.

Overall, it was a very fun day and a worthwhile trip if you like markets.

Scoots in Quito

2011-09-22T09:00:00.001-05:00

Since there are probably more Scoots fans than Greg-and-Ayelet fans reading our blog, I thought I'd do a quick update for everyone about Scoots settling in to our place. After a long ordeal with the customs, vet inspection and ever-increasing payments to airport offices, I finally was able to get him out of the warehouse where he was stuck for his first night and day in Quito. Importing a pet into Quito is a mess, but thankfully, it's over for us. He's adjusted really well and spends most of the day curled up on the blue alpaca blanket in the living room. Here are a few photos of his first days in Quito.

He's loving his new views

The final product: Scoots' cat tower made by Greg!

Settled in and time for a sit

Scoots doesn't seem as interested in the view as Greg is

Can you spot the cat? Since Aurora, we haven't had a set up
like this where he could look down upon us.

Old Town Quito: What We Ate

2011-09-20T13:06:00.003-05:00

What Greg has in his mouth is called a "empanada de viento", which is a cheese-filled, fried, sugar-dusted empanada. An empanada is a stuffed bread or pastry turnover with a lot of different ingredients, like meat, cheese, seafood or veggies. And this one was HUGE!

We stopped along our walk through the Old Town for a coffee, tea and empanada de viento because we'd heard that they make really good ones in that area. We settled on this tucked back cafe with a skylight and a pleasant waitress. If you plan on visiting us, you can rest assured that we will take you to this place because the empanadas were real good.

Lots of Green Things

2011-09-16T12:13:00.003-05:00

Fruit is very cheap here so we've been taking advantage of that to grab a different fruit everytime we're at the market. After weeks, we're still not out of new fruit options. Here are a few fruits and veggies we've bought recently:

Babaco - the big green thing in the back - it's very mild and apparently turns into a yellow color when ripe. We didn't know that and ate it when it was green. Still was delicious.

Louisa mint (in cup to left)- love this for tea! I'm hoping to get a plant of this to put in the kitchen.

Parsley - sadly, I didn't use this enough for food and a good part has wilted since this picture.

Hard-shelled avocado - we didn't have much luck with this because we couldn't figure out when it was ripe. Otherwise, Greg is getting more than his fair share of avocados here - there are so many!

Not pictured: three different kinds of bananas/plantains we have on top of our microwave.

1) itty-bitty bananas - they came as "un mano" (a hand), which is about 10-15 mini-bananas. We made those into delicious banana muffins last night.

2) green plantains - you're not supposed to eat these without cooking them so I'm going to make them into plantain-cheese patties sometime this week.

3) normal yellow bananas - Greg's favorite for lunch. Considering they're 66 cents for a kilo (or 2.2 lbs.), I think we'll always have them around.

Old Town Quito: La Ronda

2011-09-14T19:00:00.000-05:00

La Ronda is mainly one long street, filled with bars, bakeries and artesan shops. It's geared towards tourist, but without an overtly tourist feel to it. The reason we know this: the security guards all around that street. There are guards at each intersection and the gates to this street. They are there to keep the tourists safe, happy and willing to return.

Apparently, it's pretty fun at night, going from one bar to the next with the hot drink canelazo (although here they make it with a fruit called naranjilla which looks like a tomato and an orange combined). We picked the wrong time to go - right after siesta on a Saturday when most stores don't reopen. I'm sure we'll go again with any visitors we may have. The pictures can show you kind of what the nice part of Old Town Quito looks like - Spanish colonial style houses of various pastel colors.

In the upper left hand side of the above picture, you can see the angel statue on the Panecillo, a hill that separates the Old Town from the southside of town. The south is where the slums are. Another teacher was telling me that there is a legend that the angel turned her back on the south and that is why she faces Old Town and the north valley. I prefer to think that legend isn't true, but I've been fairly sheltered so far in the north-central part of town.

They were having a photo exhibit in La Ronda with old photos of Quito. This was my favorite - Greg said he hoped that I'd get to see something like that in person soon.

Lastly, one side of the street in La Ronda has public games. This was a version of hopscotch and there's also a toss-the-ring type of game further down. If you look to the left, you can see a foosball table, too. In one of the upcoming posts, I'll show you what we ate while we were there as well!

Fiesta de Guapulo

2011-09-12T08:30:00.005-05:00

There's a mountain-side neighborhood in Quito called Guapulo and that area just had a festival for the Virgen of Guapulo, which for most people just seemed like a good excuse to get dressed up in costumes, hang around the church's plaza, eat yummy food and wait until the real festivities started after the church service was over.

Greg and I went a bit early at 6 pm to see if we could catch the parade, but the real fun didn't start until about 9 pm. In the meantime, we ate an empanada, checked out all the costumes, chilled out... and tried to protect our butts from the clowns with whips. Basically, the whips symbolize repentance and during the wait for the party to begin, the youngsters were having fun with their whips, socks filled with something and plastic swords. I don't think their reasoning had to do with repentance though... more like boredom.

I like how this kid's leaning away from me - I wasn't even trying to do bunny ears on him!

My favorite costumes were the ones with the hand-sequined, two-faced masks that a group of people near the church wore. Simply due to the fact that I pointed to the mask and said it was beautiful, the owner took that to mean that I wanted to try it on. So on my head it went. But since it was a guy's mask, it wasn't good enough so one of the ladies in his group came over with her mask (which was also amazing), took off his and put hers on my head. Greg was then offered the guy's mask. And I had to hold her whip - but they didn't use them on anyone's butts. Of course, pictures were taken! We also were asked to pose with a cute little boy and girl in their costumes. I think it was 'befriend a gringo' night at the festival, which has been going on since Thursday night.

Right as the catholic church service ended, the approximately 20-person band with dancers began and the party got started. That was definitely the most fun part of the night! Everyone including the little abuelitas and kids in costumes were dancing almost without stop. It was awesome to be dancing in the plaza with hundreds of other people and just enjoying life. You can check out a short clip here and see the amazing masks I was talking about:

Dancing definitely tired us out, but to walk back up was a climb so we were not done after our bit of dancing. To get to the festival, you have to walk down through winding, narrow streets and stairs to the bottom of the valley. The walk back up wasn't too bad mostly because we stopped a lot. At one point, we stopped to watch the ensuing traffic from the cars trying to go up and down with people parked on both sides of the narrow road. There is only one road going in and out of Guapulo so you can imagine what a mess traffic would be like, too. As much as it wasn't super fun to walk up, it would have been worse to try to take a cab up.

Smoothies every day!

2011-09-10T11:59:00.003-05:00

One of our latest smoothies

Literally, there is so much delicious fruit around here, we could have smoothies (or batidos as they are called here) everyday. Yesterday we made a papaya-blackberry-banana yogurt smoothie with a touch of vanilla and honey in it. Blackberry is actually very common here - they call it mora.

The other day we did a fruit called babaco with cinnamon and some pineapple. We're really glad our apartment came with a blender.

Not so yummy first mix

However, I can't say that it has all been easy in smoothie-land. Our first smoothie was a disaster. We put together a whole lot of unripe pineapple with a local fruit called tamarillo in English (tomate de arbol in Spanish).

One of Greg's co-workers said you have to boil the tree tomato (that's what we call it instead of tamarillo) to get the skin off. Then, you have to add a lot of sugar because it's not sweet. It sounded like a process, but since we had had it every day for breakfast at the hotel, I was pretty confident I could conquer the tree tomato in a blended drink. Well, in the end, it's tree tomato 1, Ayelet 0.

A New Way of Selling

2011-09-07T12:00:00.003-05:00

Every weekday morning, we hear the hawkers of wares drive around the streets in our neighborhood. Sometimes, the drivers will just do a funny series of honks. Or if they are better equipped, they'll rattle off on the loudspeaker what they've got - I've got to ask our neighbors if they hear what they're saying. I can't decipher any of the words! As it is now, I have to go to the window to see what they're selling. If I were to want anything from their trucks, I'd wave my hand out the window and shout, hoping they'll look up.

We’ve seen oranges, propane tanks (which everyone uses for cooking here), people in the back of trucks (I'm guessing they're available to hire for cleaning, manual labor or gardening) and water jugs so far. I'm waiting for the day when they come around with llamas or some other exotic animals. I'm not sure a llama would want to climb up all those stairs, but it would have a nice spot up on the terrace all to itself.

Gas and water truck, honking by one morning

Anyway, I haven't yet taken the drivers up on their offers of propane tanks and water because I’d have to walk down four flights of stairs in my PJs. But someday soon I will!

The Dogs in Quito

2011-09-02T10:00:00.001-05:00

I think we’re all used to dogs as faithful companions in our lives. This was especially true in Munich. But in Quito, the dogs are used more for security purposes. So a bigger, louder dog is considered the best you can get.

I’m thinking about a certain German shepherd mix across the street who woke me up this morning. He is always on the roof of this house and thankfully has a little dog house up there to shelter him from rain, sunshine, etc. At first when I heard him barking, I thought he was barking at the construction workers on the street, which would surely be enough of a provocation. I was also a little annoyed by them waking me up early.

Charles Barky overseeing the situation

Alas, however, it was something nearer to his home. This morning they put up a ladder to paint the side of the house of which the roof touches. Oh, let me tell you - he did not like that! This particular dog is big enough to stand on his haunches, place his paws on the roof ledge and look out below him. When he gets excited enough, I half expect him to jump over the ledge on to the offender. I hope whoever is making him angry will get the work done with quickly. Otherwise, Charles Barky over there might just have a doggy heart attack.

Settling in and our apartment

2011-08-30T16:00:00.000-05:00

The apartment we chose was the third one we visited with a huge group of other teachers on the first day. We are so taken with it! The layout is pretty similar to our apartment in Munich with 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms and a nice sitting area, but the view is what we truly love about it! Quito is set into a valley with mountains rising on all sides. We’re on one side of a hill that looks out on to Pichincha (pronounced “pee-cheyn-cha”), the biggest mountain nearby. Our neighborhood is called El Batan Alto.

Pichinicha and Quito at sunset - view from our window

Pichincha and Quito during the day - view from our window

Pichincha is about 15,600 ft. high so it definitely sticks out over the city of Quito, which is only about 9,500 ft. high. We will probably climb it (or at least part of it) some day, but unlike some of the other new teachers here, we probably won't do it within the first few weeks we're here. Greg and I are still getting acclimated to the altitude. At night, we see out on to most of the north-central valley with all the lights lit up and in the day, we can see the clouds roll in and cover the top of Pichincha as well as the planes land.

Our living/dining room

Our buddy, Mape (short for María Paula), helped us so much – taking us to look at as many places as we wanted, driving us around town, negotiating apartment prices (we started to call her Tiburon, shark in Spanish, by the end of the week together), reviewing contracts, finding a queen bed, explaining what food was at lunch and even checking into where to find a sewing machine for me and a used guitar for Greg and another new teacher. Thankfully, we didn't have to buy too much since it's a furnished apartment - imported items are really expensive here in relation to the low cost of living.

Our bedroom - Greg may try to fix us up a box spring from plastic crates

Kitchen overlooking the city lights - please excuse the fluorescent lighting!

My hope is that someday I can help Mape and all the other buddies out as much as they've helped us. I’m planning to start a crafting (sewing, knitting, crocheting, etc.) meet-up with Mabel, Mape and any of the other teachers at school who are interested so I hope to see more of them. I'll add more photos up later, but that's the main parts of the apartment so far.

Where's Scoots?

2011-08-28T16:34:00.000-05:00

Scoots is still with my parents in Milwaukee and hopefully not overstaying his welcome (you’ll hear different ideas from my mom and my dad). Both have given him totally random nicknames at this point – JoJo from my mom and Louis from my dad. My dad said he responded just as well to that nickname as to his actual name.

We hope to have him with us by mid-September. There was a problem with his paperwork and the Ecuadorian consulate in Chicago, but I think I have it all worked out. Our apartment just doesn’t feel like home yet without our little fluff ball curling up with us at night and running around in the morning. It's surprising how much having Scoots around is a comfort to us both.

Raise the roof - the 'rents are out of town!

Our apartment does allow cats, but our neighbor, who is the landlord’s brother-in-law, said that the first time the cat meows too loudly, he’ll come and knock. But the second time, he said he’ll come with a baseball bat. I’m sure he’s joking. We haven’t heard our neighbors at all yet so either they tiptoe around or the walls are thicker than they look. Hopefully, Scoots will learn to keep his meows at a minimum. We'll let you all know when Scoots has safely landed and snuggled up in our new home here.

First Weeks in Quito

2011-08-24T18:35:00.000-05:00

The first week in Quito flew by. We’re already on the second one and much of the city is still foreign to me. We arrived late on Sunday the 14th and then had long lines to get through for immigration and customs because five other international flights came in at the same time. Luckily, we met lots of new teachers waiting in line, too.

We're really here!!

There’s talk that they are building a new airport away from the city and varying reports of when it will be done – 2 months to a few years, depending on who you talk to. I’m all for it considering it took us almost three hours to get through all of the lines. We eventually packed ourselves into a van with three other teachers, two drivers and about 15 pieces of luggage. I think we all breathed a big sigh of relief when we arrived at the hotel at 1:30 am. Some because they could take a shower and get in bed; others because the van started to feel a bit like a clown car toward the end.

At that time of night, the streets were empty, but that didn’t stop a car alarm from starting outside our window at around 3 am. And the dogs in the neighborhood had to join in as well. Coming from quiet Munich and Wisconsin, the noises at nighttime here took some getting used to. For example, the planes fly through the city to get to the airport. At first, I was really put off by the noise they make, but you can actually see them flying in and taking off. That makes the noise a bit better. And after a week here, I don’t pay much attention to them anymore.

View from the overlook -
can't see too much of the city though.

The next day was our first day of orientation – we had a tour throughout the city with the buddy coordinator, Mabel (pronounced “Ma-Bell”), pointing out the sites. We stopped at this great overlook closer to the historic city center. We also drove through the city center and I saw a ton of fabric and yarn shops! Someone is going to have her hands full. One of the other new teachers is a sewing enthusiast so she and I will be having lots of fun together, I imagine. Unlike our last school, she’s the only New Zealander in the group. The rest are either Americans or Canadians.

Mabel coordinated Ecuadorian teachers to be our buddies for the first week. We even started to see available apartments on the first day! I know you all are excited to hear about our place, but we don’t have pictures yet so you’ll have to wait a little!

End of our Road Trip - Minnesota!

2011-08-17T17:34:00.000-05:00

I'm actually writing this a couple weeks after we finished our roadtrip, but better late than never! Taking a slightly different route this time, we left Fort Collins to head through the southeastern tip of Wyoming to Nebraska to South Dakota. We stayed a night in Valentin, Nebraska, but then kept moving to Rochester, Minnesota, to see my friend from college and her husband - Dr. Lizzie and Dan. Their 9-month-old, Julia, thoroughly entertained us with her toothy smile and their cute Vizsla, Cosmo, also raced around.

After Rochester, we headed up to Minneapolis for a few nights with my step-grandmother, Sherry, and to see old friends. I'm so glad I had time to meet up with a previous composition professor of mine and three former co-workers/bosses at the university. Walking around my campus all grown up was a bit surreal, but I love the vibe on a college campus. The night we got in we took Sherry out for a nice meal in a cute neighborhood near her house - she seemed like she needed to get out after a full day of watching the granddaughter!

The next day, we were due to meet up with one of Greg's old friends from high school, Trisha. She's a fabulous hair stylist in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis now. I grew out my hair for at least 4 months just so I could get one of her haircuts. Yes, she's that good. I'm back to short, chin-length hair now, which was my norm before moving to Germany. Or as I like to think of it - the land where no one knew how to deal with my hair correctly. When I lived in Spain, I had great haircuts so I hope Quito will be similar.

Trisha led us to a quiet spot for lunch and good catching up time. She had visited us in Munich almost exactly a year ago. What a difference - even in the weather alone! Here it was sunny and warm; last year in Munich it was rainy for quite a few of the days she was there.

After lunch and a long walk, we met up with another of Greg's friends from high school, Matt and his fiancee, Khayla. We're sad to be missing their wedding in October, but I enjoyed getting to know Khayla and talking about everything under the sun with the two of them. One thing I learned from them is that if you are already mildly scared of sharks, don't watch Shark Week on the Discovery channel!

After we said goodbye to the two of them, Greg and I dropped by one of our favorite pizza places in Minneapolis for a few quick slices and carrot cake, which we ended up having for breakfast because we couldn't finish it all. Not a bad start to the next day! The great thing about this road trip was that we saw so many people who we'd kept in touch with, but hadn't seen in two years. It was fun to see the directions everyones' lives have been taking.

Fort Collins

2011-08-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sunset under the storm cloud!

Fort Collins was our last stop in Colorado before heading back toward Wisconsin. This wasn't our first time in the city because a few years ago Greg did a charity bike ride for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (150 miles over two days!). We remember thinking that the city seemed like a really fun place.

The city has a fairly big university there, which makes everything more interesting. It has a nice main street with restaurants, ice cream parlors, coffee shops and street musicians in the summer. Greg was excited about a park with a water slide, but it was closed by the time we saw it.

But if you go a little way outside of the city, you get to prairie. We got to witness a big summer storm cloud roll over the city, which made for some amazing views. Storms in Colorado are so fascinating because it is so dry. When a storm does develop, you can usually watch all the clouds gather into one massive cloud that boils up towards outer space. You can see it let loose its rains without actually even being under a cloud yourself. This is unlike the Midwest where it usually is a whole gray sky before it starts to rain.

I loved the rugged look of the fence and wide-open land

We even met up with a friend while in Fort Collins. Our former German teacher, Sophia, from Denver who lives there now hosted us for a homemade German meal of krautstrudel (cabbage- and caraway-filled strudel) and topf-something-something. The last ones are dumplings traditionally made with quark - a type of spreadable cheese that we don't have in the US - but Sophia made them with tofu instead. Sadly, I can't remember the rest of the name, but I know how to make them more or less... and how to top them with lots of cinnamon-sugar!

Sophia had visited us in Munich for a much-less traditionally German meal of lentil soup and special small potato noodles (that I did not make from scratch). We were so glad to share our experiences with her. It was and still is refreshing to talk with someone who knows both cultures (German and Colorado/US) and likes to look at the cultural differences, too. Sitting out on her patio was a great way to end our trip in Colorado. Next up: the rest of our roadtrip... and then maybe Skipper Greg will post about his courses in August.

We'll be moving to Quito on Sunday so you all may be reading posts about past events while we're settling in. This summer has just flown by!

Guess Where?

2011-07-29T15:46:00.001-05:00

When driving down the interstate like a plant in a greenhouse, you get the feeling of being cooked because of the heat. As Ayelet and I were heading west on I-80, we looked at a wayside map to figure out where some water might be on our drive through Nebraska. We found a small park called Johnson Lake. After a stretch of our legs, we needed to get back on the road so we could meet our friends in Colorado. Rather than going back to the interstate we headed south toward Kansas…that is your first hint to guessing the city we were in.

While driving, we started to only get country music stations on the radio. The twangy melodies were occasionally interrupted with important trade updates on the prices of corn, soy, and wheat. That was followed by the overall value of the DOW. It made sense as we had been driving on a corn-walled highway.

We were low on gas and needed to stop in the next town. As we slowed down I noticed a sign saying we had entered “The Home of the World BB Gun Championship.” We had indeed entered a whole new world.

I was most interested in the colorful back window of a truck at the gas station. The collection of stickers was __________ (there are too many possible words to put here so fill in the blank on your own). The collection that I could read included: a message from Jesus, an NRA membership sticker, an acronym using the name OBAMA (with the M standing for “mistake”), and a handful of others I couldn’t quite read.

Anyway, after getting back on the highway, we began to see signs for a monument/museum called “Last Indian Raid on Kansas Soil.” Unfortunately we did not stop, but the title really seems to convey the purpose. With all those clues, can anyone guess where we stopped or what highway we were driving on? Answer posted below this picture

We were at the junction in Norton, Kansas, to pick up Highway 36. It was beautiful countryside; just watch out for all of the combines that look like something from a scary alien movie.

The Golz Family Takes on Door County

2011-07-27T20:46:00.002-05:00

The Door County trip has become a tradition for the Golz family. For many years, our shrinking and then growing family has attempted to get together in the big Wisconsin peninsula in order to bond. This bonding may look different to an outsider, but for me (Greg) and now Ayelet, we know what to expect.

For example, my dad and his siblings always come prepared with their own travel coolers. To this day, I’m still not sure why that is. We always grab lunch at Al Johnson’s, a Swedish-themed restaurant with a grass roof mowed by goats. Sometime we gather at the beach. Luckily the weather is great there in the summer and the shallow water is pleasantly warm.

For more lively (or dangerous depending on who joins in) entertainment, we let Uncle Weeds try to run us off the go cart track or beat us in a game of mini-golf. The nights literally come to a crescendo when many of us gather up our coins and have an intense evening of card games. We’re not a quiet family. Now there are plenty more women and children in the family than before with the additions of my niece Abby and nephew Jake, my sister-in-law Jan, Ayelet, and my cousins’ wives (Beth) and fiancées (Kelly and Maggie). The ladies had their own quiet evening of wine and chatting while avoiding the ruckus of the card games.

Sorry I did not have the pic with cousin Sara

Ayelet and I were very pleased to make it back for the 2011 family reunion and look forward to this trip for many years to come.

Road Trip!

2011-07-23T19:57:00.000-05:00

Greg and I have had a fabulous couple weeks in Wisconsin and are currently on a road trip. We've covered a lot of ground - more than 1,000 miles/1609 kilometers - and seen so many friends!

A couple Greg has known since high school - Robyn and Ryan - entertained us during a stop in Iowa City. They have a lovely little poodle named Ruby and are expecting their first baby any day now! Robyn and Ryan were able to visit us in Munich on their way to a conference so it was great to reciprocate and see their lovely home.

From there, we drove until Omaha to grab dinner and stay with our friend Jess. She's just finishing up her year-long internship at a facility in Boys Town that provides counseling and help for young adults so they can avoid prison. It's always so much fun to talk with her.

The next day we got moving early so we could avoid the heat of the day - it was about 90-100 F/32-38 C plus humidity in Nebraska and Kansas. We took a scenic route with rolling hills of corn, combines, and grain towers all around. We even got to hear the corn report (the stock market for corn prices apparently)! I'll leave it to Greg to write more about the wonderous things we saw along the way. But here's a visual taste:

Picture I took at 65 mph of some sort of farm equipment...
I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!

Grain tower along the road

Finally, we made it to Denver - and thankfully right before a big storm hit! It was amazing seeing it advancing across the city. However, it blocked our view of the mountains so I don't have a great shot for you guys.

You can see the storm to the left and a little sliver of mountains below the exit sign.

We had several full days of seeing friends this week. Greg and I stayed the first part of the week with our old neighbors and good friends, Dan and Molly, who have a sweet little girl named Kate and our favorite lab in the world, Lucia. Lucia was great with the baby, letting her plop down and pet her by squeezing her fur between her little fists. Thankfully, Lucia's got a good coat of fur and a little bit extra cushioning to take it.

Kate and Dan in action

We're now with Greg's buddy from Marshfield, Jeremy, his wife Steph, and their shih tsus, Sadie and Sanabelle. Greg's other two good friends from old days, Steve and Shawn, came to stay for the weekend as well so it's a big party in here. It's great to see everyone and catch up on what has been going on with them the last two years.

We still have one more week on the road so expect some more posts about our travels! We're also going to be going backwards a little to write about the Golz family reunion in Door County last weekend.

Top 5 Favorite Trips in Germany

2011-07-14T15:51:00.001-05:00

Unlike the list of our favorite international trips, this list was harder to rank because we loved each of these places for different reasons. Here are our favorite trips in Germany:

Berlin

Ahhh, chilly, frosty Berlin! The nonconformity and edge of the people in Berlin was in such contrast to the conservative nature of Munich - it was so refreshing. If you're looking for a place to visit with great museums, food and design inspiration, Berlin should be on your list.

Don't let the snow in these pictures scare you - it's probably gorgeous May through October.

Lindau

The harbor at dusk

Greg planned this trip on his own for our second anniversary in November. It was the perfect time to visit because the folliage was beautiful and Lindau was quieter than it probably was in the summer. To get to the city, the train crossed a bridge across a section of the lake and Lindau looks just magical. Most of the weekend was spent walking around the small city and Lake Constance, but we did also check out their fabulous museum while there.

Nuremberg

One of Nuremberg's fountains

Greg calls this city "the city of fountains" because there were really so many fountains, including a huge, amazing one featuring various sins like gluttony, avarice, hatred, etc. Of course, there were many other things to see in the town, but that and the house of Alfred Durer, a painter, stuck with us.

During the war, the city was almost completely wiped out, but they did a wonderful job rebuilding it and making it look like it did in the pre-war days. This was a very fun place to walk around in and they also have a few good museums... and supposedly an amazing Christmas market, but we didn't see it.

Bayerischzell

We saw Bayerischzell first in the winter when we went cross-country skiing and loved it. The track was fantastic and wound its way by a river and through a plain, ending with a warm plate of kaiser schwarm at a local restaurant.

I think Bayerischzell was the best cross-country skiing we did while in Germany and it was too bad we found it so late. At least we have the memories!

Eichstatt

Unlike our other vacations on this list, this trip we took with our family that lived there - my aunt Na'ama and uncle Gil, and their kids: Shai-Li, Amit and Yuval, and their friends. It was a full weekend with canoeing, exploring ruins, hikes with kid-and-Greg-friendly activities, and chipping away for fossils. When we eventually have a home in the US, ask us to show you our fossilized worm poop slate.

I think this trip was important for us because it was our first and we really bonded with our family through it. Greg hardly knew my family at that point and it was a pretty quick way for him to get to know them all. The German-Portuguese family that also came with filled us in on the history of the area we were in and about Germany in general. It's hard to believe that we took this trip in August of 2009 and we had just moved to Germany a few weeks before.

Greg swinging across a murky pond

Our canoe, which was always the last one in

Things We Won't Miss about Munich

2011-07-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

Of course, we had to give the opposite viewpoint of the previous post! No place is perfect. Munich is no exception, although we have enjoyed living here for the last two years. Since we knew we'd only be here a short time, we focused on the good parts of the city and shrug off the bad or the frustrating. That doesn't mean we didn't see them. Here are a few short examples of parts that we won't miss.

German food is not vegetarian-friendly.
We managed to always find something to eat, but more importantly, we learned to be prepared so we wouldn't get caught without anything to eat.

The people could be difficult. We found the people could be pretty strict about the rules, and cold and reserved towards newcomers. People in Munich were fairly conservative and tended towards conforming rather than thinking outside the box. Compromise is difficult for Germans and they don't like to apologize or say that they're wrong.

I think most people think of Germans as described above so this one probably doesn't surprise anyone. We did not make a lot of German friends here, but my co-workers or our neighbors were always helpful in explaining bits of the culture we didn't understand. We also met Germans who broke the rules, didn't conform and were generally very relaxed about things.

Pushy old ladies in the grocery store cashier lines and leaving the metro.
For some reason before you can press the button to open the door in the metro, everyone starts crowding around and forcing everyone as close as possible to the yet-unopened exit. Once the door is open, they're often really impatient about getting off the train uber-quickly, too. It's the same sort of thing in line at the grocery store. The old ladies especially like to get their shopping carts to nudge your butt. I don't know what they think they accomplish by all that, but it's just one thing that I eventually got used to.

Not being able to express myself or understand what others are saying around me.
We got used to this one when traveling, but thankfully, most Germans know English well enough that it wasn't a big problem in our daily lives.

Apartment renting or leaving is frustrating.
In Munich, real estate agents have a huge cut in the apartment rental market. Normally, one has to pay 3.4 months' rent to the real estate agent for helping them find a place and then the 2-3 months for deposit to the landlord. I'm glad it didn't work that way for us.

Also, when you leave, all the light fixtures and curtains must be out; usually the apartment has to be painted white; sometimes the floor has to be sanded or refinished if there are dents; and the place has to be spotless. We've heard of landlords and tenants fighting over what would be considered small issues on the last day. Thankfully, we had it easier and nicer when we left.

Radio license thievery
Basically, you have to pay for German radio and television programming, even if you don't watch German channels. There are actually people who will come to your house or apartment, and force you to pay this tax (in our case, 6 euros per month). Even if you don't own a TV, but just have a laptop, you have to pay the tax! It's best to avoid this topic with Greg since he was the one ambushed by the guy to pay the tax for our two years in Munich.

Smoking everywhere.
Germans smoke so much! It's always hard for our American visitors to believe. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe because I think they're healthy in so many other ways - biking to work, and hiking and skiing regularly.

A lot of this stuff seems silly, but it can add up. We've both known people who've let their daily frustrations with a place really get to them. For the most part, we enjoyed our experience in Munich and know that we'll have little (or big) frustrations show up in whatever city we live in.

Things We'll Miss about Munich

2011-07-08T15:38:00.000-05:00

We thought to wrap up our two years here with a post about our favorite things about Munich or Germany. Greg wrote most of this and I did the editing.

Our new friends
We made friends from all over the world, thanks to the school, the hausfrauen friends and coworkers. Our last weeks have been filled with goodbyes, but at least with the teachers in the international schools, it hasn't felt like a permanent goodbye. They always say to us that you never know who will show up at your next school.

Efficient and easy trains
Only 5 mintues from our front door was our access to the world. We could buy a ticket to go all around town or for a longer ride that would get to any big city in Europe.

Closeness to a lot of different countries = easy traveling
We had seen a bit of western Europe before arriving, so our focus was on seeing lots of Germany and going east and south. Ayelet had a flexible rule that all train rides had to be under 6 hours in any leg, but we got around that by going far over many days and flying back. That covered some great places like Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and even Berlin (on a fast train).

Delicious breads and cakes
The Germans really do make delicious bread and so many different varieties of it. It's no surprise that almost every main street has at least one bakery for every block, sometimes more. And the cakes are equally great. They tend to be not as sugary-sweet as stuff in the US. We actually had real American-style 'smores at a friends' house the other day and I thought it didn't taste nearly as good as some of the sweets I've had here.

Biking-friendly society
Anyone would be amazed to see a Radl-plan (bike map) of Germany. You can take paved trails to the countryside and into most cities. Many Germans choose this as an affordable and active vacation option. [Editor's note: biking into work was my favorite way to go to work. You see so much more on the way and there are all kinds of people who bike here.]

Everyone is so active
Hiking, biking, walking and skiing are big acitivies in Munich. Back in the U.S. you often need money to undertake these activities in nature. Here in Munich you can get a cheap train ticket for 5 people and explore some of the best areas of the Bavarian Alps.

City is VERY clean.
Sure, Munich has a bit of graffitti like any other city, but children seem to be taught from a young age how to keep a place neat and tidy. The society as a whole does a great job of monitoring itself and even separating waste. When people get a bit messy (big festivals/weekends) the city cleaning crew is very thorough to make up the difference.

Biergartens rock!
Unlike a bar, beer gardens are great ways to enjoy being outside while drinking with your friends. You find these great social gathering points in and around the city. You can bring in your own food and quality beer is served by the liter (think of 3 cans of beer in one-liter mug). People are encouraged to hang out in the shade and talk as the tables are narrow and seat up to 10. You often have to ask strangers if you can share a table on nice days as all tables are full. When you get a new round of drinks, you always "Prost!" to everyone around you. Sometimes even to the strangers at your table!

Being a kid in Germany is awesome.
Most restaurants and biergartens have a child-friendly play area so you are no longer forced to draw with 2 crayons on a place mat. Everyone will help to both watch out for kids and keep them in line. The community really comes together when raising its children. Sports are very organized and common, or can be open and free like pick-up games of soccer or many of the hidden skate parks. Finally there are also tons of festivals with semi-dangerous kid crafts. For example, we once showed up at an event where kids had access to hammers, files, and saws with very little adult presence. No goggles were in sight, and most kids seems to be sharing tools appropriately. All of them walked away uninjured while we were there with a small carving in porous stone.

The dogs are so well-behaved!
From the moment we arrived, it was easy to see that canines are kings in Munich. If you visit, you will most likely see them off leash in public places: on a train, at the mall, running next to a bike, or on a bench in a restaurant.

Anxiety of not buying in bulk

2011-06-28T01:56:00.001-05:00

I had the thought of this post a long time ago, but just now got to it because I was cleaning up the backend of our blog. In the US, you never have to give any thought to how many groceries you buy or what you get in the store. Here it's always on my mind when I'm shopping.

I know I have to walk at least 3 or 4 blocks to the closest store so buying too much could mean torture for my hands and shoulders. Especially if you forget your gloves on a cold, winter day or can't use your umbrella in a rainstorm because of your bag choice. Those two situations make it sound unpleasant.

Most of the time it's nice to go shopping every few days instead of once every week or two because 1) the stores are much smaller than the ones in the US, 2) you don't have as many choices so you just pick and get on with your life rather than agonizing for hours over what brand of milk your husband likes best, and 3) it's one of the ways I feel active during the day. Plus walking home through the quiet streets of our neighborhood usually means I'll bump into a neighbor or see a cute dog along the way.

I still have to remind myself sometimes that I don't need to buy the whole store. I think it's an instinct I carried over from the US. I hope I can keep it up when we eventually move back to the US.

Our Five Favorite International Trips

2011-06-25T09:00:00.002-05:00

While on the train back from Triberg, Greg and I thought about our five favorite trips we've taken together in the last two years. We have wonderful memories and great stories from all of our trips, but here are the most special ones:

Croatia

Island of Cres

If I could talk about Croatia every day to everyone I see, I would. But then I would be one of the "crazies" so I withhold from doing so. The parts of this country we saw were absolutely beautiful and fairly untouched by tourism, unlike Italy and Greece. Although the language is a problem, I envy the people who live there.

The coastline and Plitvices park were so gorgeous, and there are tons of great old cities to explore as well. My mouth still waters when I think about the grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers I ate there - it felt like someone had just picked them off the plant and handed them to me. I still sometimes say to myself if I eat an average grape in Germany, "it's just not like Croatia."

If you're looking for a sunny holiday off the beaten path, go to Croatia!

Budapest

If you've seen quite a bit of Europe - as we have over the years - old buildings and churches start to look the same, or you've already seen what you consider the most beautiful church and none of the others can compare. The reason I'm saying this is because I think this was our mindframe when we arrived in Budapest. We had just left Vienna, which is a beautiful classic European city, and Budapest hit us with a solid dose of reality.

It may not be a city for everyone, but we loved it. The atmosphere, the resourcefulness of the people, the kindness of people in helping us find our way around... it just felt so different from Western Europe. Or indeed, any other country we'd been to.

Istanbul

Talking about something different from Western Europe, Istanbul was it, for sure! We went here for our first anniversary (our second was in Lindau, which is in Germany - that list is coming soon). I wish we had time to explore other areas of Turkey because it sounds like each part is very different. I especially hope to get to the ruins in the East at some point in my life.

Having been to a Muslim country when I was small (and Greg had never been to one before), we were struck by the beautiful minerats and mosques everywhere. There must have been at least 30 on the hills around our quaint little hotel. Parts of the city were crumbling, but the palace grounds and the museums were still very much there. And I won't go on again on how much the Islamic designs inspire me with their beauty. I'm sure you all had about enough of that already.

Prague

Prague seems to be everyone's favorite and for good reason. The city is so lovely whatever the season. Even when we went in winter, the snow on the ground gave Prague this mystery and warmth. Greg went with his parents in the summer and they seemed to all like it for the nice cafes along the river and easy walking distances. Another of our friends went in the spring and meet great new friends randomly. Everyone seems to find something that they enjoy in the city.

Salzburg
Last on our list is Salzburg, but not because we liked it the least. It's only 2 hours from Munich so we went there a lot the first year. The city is touristy, but in a way, I never minded it. The walk up to the castle gives one such a great overlook as to why people go there. The beautiful little old town stretches out below you and you may even make out the palace grounds to your left.

Last time we went there, I visited the art museum on the hill and I think the walks along the cliffs were more fun for me then than checking out the art. And of course, who can forget the Sound of Music tour?

We'll also be doing a post about our top five favorite trips just in Germany so stay tuned!

A Great Annoyance

2011-06-24T09:05:00.000-05:00

There is something that has annoyed me to no end here in Germany. Now that we are leaving (in a few days), it's time to get it out in the open: I am not okay with people eating ice cream when it is cold.

Ice cream eating is so common here - this store had to put up a sign against eating it in the store.
And of course, I had to take a picture.

The only reasonable time to eat ice cream outside is when it is at least about 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius). In the home, it's a totally different story - I could care less about when people eat ice cream at home. But it's when I see irresponsible ice cream eating, that I can't stop ranting about it. Poor Greg bears the brunt of it, too.

I've seen many different situations in which Germans are walking around with ice cream cones on a very chilly day. I understand that maybe the German idea of a warm day is different, but if you're wearing a long shirt (or a coat!), that should be a sign that eating ice cream is not going to help your situation.

Notice: it was a hot day.
(and those really were beautiful ice creams, don't you think?)

Sure, ice cream sellers deserve to make a living - yes, that's true. However, what about serving hot chocolate on a chilly day instead? They need to be a bit more imaginative.

That's my rant about ice cream. I hope you agree. :-)

Quick Recap on Israel

2011-06-21T09:32:00.000-05:00

Kate and I in the Old City market of Jerusalem

Every time I've visited Israel in the last couple years, the experience has been different.

I've gone back for Passover with Greg in March; a family wedding in September; and this time meeting with Kate, one of my best friends growing up, to show her my second home and introduce her to my family. Kate and I have known each other 15 years and she hadn't met the majority of my family until this trip.

Check out what she wrote about her experiences in Israel: Tel Aviv and Be'er Tuvia, Israeli art and design, the start of our trip, and of course, Jerusalem.

We ate hummus, falafel and pita in Jerusalem's Old City with my Safta ("grandma" in Hebrew) Rachel; dipped our feet into the Mediterranean; chilled out in the hammock with my aunt Dari and Safta Tzipi; and in general, met family and got lost along the way (my fault entirely). I actually think I saw more red heads on this trip to Israel than ever before - must be Kate's influence!

Family dinner on Friday night

Bahai Temple up close

My cousins Noa and Romi

Sculpture at Israel Museum

My pregnant cousin Dana on the beach in Tel Aviv

Check out the rest of my photos!

Triberg: Our Last Trip in Germany

2011-06-19T04:04:00.000-05:00

As our last trip in Germany for what could be a long while, we chose to visit the Black Forest; in particular, the town of Triberg. It's this beautiful, quiet town nestled in the valley between a few hills. It's well-known for its Black Forest cake (see the next paragraph), tallest waterfall in Germany (it was just ehh) and cuckoo clocks (all you get to see is a raggedy bird when it hits the hour). By the end of our trip, we probably knew every nook and cranny of Triberg because it's that small.

Before I've taken a bite...

The very first thing we did was try the famous Black Forest cake that apparently originated from the Schaeffer bakery. Greg liked it, but would have preferred a good piece of chocolate or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I was not a big fan either - not enough cherries in my opinion (I counted a paltry 4 cherries in a large slice) and I think I reeked of cherry liquor after eating it.

Windmills dotted the hills -
Greg was very happy!

On Saturday, we head to a small lake in the hills around Schonach, a nearby bigger town. We got a little turned around, but then found the signs we had to follow to get there. After seeing the lake (which was more of a pond in my book), we wandered through picturesque surroundings back to Triberg.

Wooden faces in Schonach

Stopping for a snack at one of the little restaurants along the way, we watched a llama cause chaos in the valley below us. All the other llamas found the gate to the field across the road, but this one was not the brightest. It wandered up and down the road while cars patiently waited for it to find its way. Eventually, a brave driver herded him towards the gate and he joined his buddies. However, I could tell this was the big event of the day because everyone talked about "die Llama auf den Strasse" for the rest of the time we were there.

Triberg and the Black Forest was a great place to end our German adventure because we got to do all the things we've loved to do here:

eat cake
hike around beautiful scenery easily
travel by train to the town
visit obscure town museums - we usually find something interesting and lots to giggle at! (crazy mannequins in the Triberg one)
relax and just enjoy the moments!

Italian Signage

2011-05-04T13:53:00.001-05:00

While in Rome, I noticed a few very unique signs. I often wonder what the signs used by a country tell about the culture of its people. Here are some very unique ones that I found. Feel free to leave a message if you can tell me what they mean.

Ayelet thought this was graffiti, but I saw it all over town.

Seems like you don't need a sign for this.

Not quite sure about the message here.

Walkabout in Rome

2011-05-01T13:09:00.008-05:00

...at the Colosseum.

Anyone that has been to Rome, which includes many of our readers, knows the endless journeys that you could take throughout that city. I would say that I easily clocked at least 5 to 6 hours of walking each day. I literally mean the time moving. I did occasionally stop to sit down, but being by myself, I had no one to slow down what for some can be a tiring pace.

...at the Trevi Fountain.

Many of you know me well enough to know why. It often involves the need to see more, explore further, or just see what is around the bend. Or, it might have meant that I thought food was too expensive and I could seek out a better deal. Gelato for 5 Euros a cone, then 3, I finally got down to 2.50. Best deal I found near the Vatican. Espresso was pretty easy. I think the Italians demand a set price (like Germans with beer) where it never really gets too expensive. Even in museums the cost was only 1 Euro, and boy was it bitter. I wasn't even able to stick to my puritanical coffee ways and had to add a wee bit of sugar.

Rome, however, did allow me lots of time to reflect. Sure, I loved all of the history, food, and wine. But since I was alone I had lots of time to think of my friends and family. That must have happened after walking past the Pantheon for the 4th or was it the 5th time.

...in Pompei.

...sitting on the Spanish Steps.

Of all of the places I have been in Europe I would put Rome right up there in the top few. If you ever find yourself making choice of going to a big city in Europe, be sure to include Rome. And if you want to be left alone while you are there, were a cat hair covered fleece, carry a cheap cotton bag, and grow out your beard. I found out all of the guys trying to sell stuff, left me entirely alone. Except as I waited for my sleeper train to arrive and read a book at the Rome Termini, I did have a guy pour half his beer into my empty wine bottle before saying arrivederci, for now.

...found some bearded friends.

...at San Pietro (Vatican)

Biking to Starnberg

2011-04-23T04:58:00.000-05:00

There was a point during our 20 km bike ride to Starnberg See (lake) yesterday that we thought we wouldn't make it there. We happened to get lost and end up in the middle of some forest track that city bikes were not well-suited for. Luckily, we weren't the only idiots who got lost, which made me feel better at least. Even two German riders missed the sign to turn. Getting back on the right track was much easier than I thought.

In general, biking anywhere is pretty easy. The whole country - both city and rural areas - is connected by lots of trails and bike-specific paths. There's usually lots of places to stop along the way, too, if you feel thirsty or hungry.

The ride yesterday - despite the getting lost part - was great. We were biking through small towns, pastures full of spring flowers, cool pine forests and refreshing streams. Sadly, we didn't have our camera with us, but I found the one below of Starnberg See on flickr.

thanks to spirosk from flickr for this pic

We ended our bike ride with a gelato along the lake - tiramisu for Greg and pistachio for me - and a walk along the boardwalk. Lots of people were out enjoying the beautiful weather so it was fun to people watch as well. Hopefully, Greg and I get to explore on our bikes again soon.

Back in Bayrischzell

2011-04-18T08:29:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went tree hunting.

European Larch (Larix dedidua)

There were no rules or actual objectives when we started off our hike in Bayrischzell (skied here in the winter). Greg had just won 40 cents off bets with Ayelet, grabbed his borrowed tree guide book, and we started our hike up the Wendelstein King-Maximilan Way.

The path was quite empty, once again reinforcing our idea that Germans tend to get a late start on Sundays. We did see many people on our way down, but on our way up this mountain in the Alps all we ran into were wildflowers, trees, and piles of animal crap. We decided that the trail doubled as a path to get the animals to mountain pastures in the spring.

Beech (Fagus sylvatica) - looks like elephant skin

As we hiked up the hill, Ayelet and I were happy to focus on the many different species of trees along the way. We realized that many of the trees we saw have some very ornate expressions in the spring. We settled on identifying 3 for the afternoon. You probably think, "That is not too many," but it is a start. For our readers, I will even call it a challenge for you to identify more trees (or species) in your local habitat. Let me know what you find and have happy spring!

Norway Spruce (Picea abies)

It's all different in the second year

2011-04-08T12:00:00.001-05:00

Now that we've been here more than a year and a half, it feels like there's been some changes since our first year in Munich.

- I can read the paper much easier now so we have more cool, fun stuff to do on the weekends and at night. In general, I think we know more of the surrounding areas, streets and neighborhoods so it's easier to figure out where things are.

- Greg and I like to meet up midweek to go out to dinner in the city. It's so easy with the metro system and it makes the week go by faster when there's an unexpected meetup. Like this week, Greg suggested the place, found it and took me out for pizza on Thursday night. Very sweet!

- I understand a little bit better what the Germans are saying to me when they ask me questions. I'm still horrible at answering anything beyond the normal questions or if I'm tired/hungry/distracted, but I can give directions, make appointments and order food like a pro.

- I understand that not everyone bags their groceries quickly like I first thought. Now I find that I get impatient when someone takes too long to bag their groceries. It's like c'mon, everyone's going to think I'M the slow one here! I only take pity and relent for the infirm or the elderly - those with children have no excuse. They're never too young to learn the art of fast bagging, in my opinion.

- I am much more accepting of help and of being helpless. I think of myself as a fairly independent person and a strong-minded person as well. But since being here and traveling around (especially in Budapest last month), I've realized there's often times when you are much better off not knowing everything. You might never have found that fantastic restaurant if you didn't lose your way or you may been saddened if you knew exactly what that person was saying to you on the metro. Things like that. :-)

It has been a very fun year and a half - we're counting down the months to our trip back to the US (only 2.5 more) and then our move to Ecuador (4 more...OMG!).

A Few Nights in Neuss

2011-04-03T04:30:00.011-05:00

I have managed to get a few extra opportunities to travel in Germany to areas that we had never planned to visit. I never thought I would get to travel for my job - as a teacher. It wasn’t really in the job description.

To make a long story short, I decided I wanted to try coaching for once. The differences of an international school from an American school are pretty major so I won’t get into that. I would like to mention one of the benefits. No, it is not that I get to chaperone 10 middle school boys on 6-hour train rides across the country. It has been this extra opportunity to travel. When we arrived in Neuss, I was excited to have a night away from the boys and go explore this small city. Very few of the international schools seem to be located near a city, but I was able to walk from the school to my hotel.

After settling in I made a quick move to go find toothpaste because it was 6:30 p.m. and German stores tend to close early. I instantly found a pedestrian street with stair-stepped roofs and a bustling after-work crowd. Every time a side street appeared, I turned down to see what it had to offer. There was an amazing diversity of places in the small area from the cathedral-dominated square to the green tree-lined river to the small Turkish town to a café filled plaza.

Spring was in the air with the fresh moist scent of flowers and tons of blooming trees. I realized this city was telling me a story. For example, I kept seeing old city walls. My guess was that Neuss had a good reason for having what looked like lots of protection in its past.

As always, my mind keep going back to my usual travel buddy and how I wished she were able to join me. Anyway, this teacher will keep goin’ walkabout. You can be sure to hear about the next adventure soon: Rome.

Budapest Activities

2011-03-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

As you already know, we had a great time in Budapest and wish we had more time to spend in the city. We only visited one museum, but spent much of our time walking around and getting a feeling for the neighborhoods of the city. It was a wonderful way to see the architecture and experience the city in its true life.

Rickety, rusty trains - but very convenient, timely and cheap!

After an adventure getting to our hotel via public transport, we had an easy night and then spent the next day doing things we loved: going to an art museum and visiting the city's famous baths. There are several baths scattered throughout the city, but we choose to go to the Szechenyi baths. You could soak in the pools of various temperatures ranging from 68 degrees F to 104 degrees F inside or out. While it's not quiet with people milling around or particularly sweet-smelling with the funky thermal smell, it's great fun to people watch and relax in the soothing waters. Greg especially enjoyed seeing the old guys playing chess while in the water.

Outside bath part of Szchenyi

On Wednesday, we met up with fellow teacher friends who had taught in Budapest before moving to Munich and they took us on a daytrip to Szentendre, a little artist's village not far from Budapest itself. They knew the best places to get ceramics, knives, glass and delicious Hungarian cakes. Dave and Henny also gave us so many ideas of great things to see in the city that we would not have done otherwise. After we came back to Budapest, we checked out the great synagogue and walked along the citadel walls on the Buda side of the city.

View of Parliament from Buda side

Church on the top of the Buda side

We later met up with Dave to check out a local kert, which was an old warehouse bar in the city (surprisingly clean) where people used to simply drink all night rather than risk being caught out after curfew. Now it's filled with students and old timers, a random assortment of chairs (supposedly there's even a few made from bath tubs that have been cut in half and legs added on) and a movie screen to keep some sort of license going.

On our last morning, we ate yummy "chimney cakes," found several cute design stores and stumbled upon the Rumbach synagogue that was undergoing renovatioins. We also checked out a communist statue on Margarit Island - a lovely 2.5 km island on the Danube and easily reachable from the city. We had a simple lunch and bid our adieu to the lovely city. Budapest might not be a city you would think to visit, but we loved it.

Dome of the Rumbach Synagogue

Touring Vienna

2011-03-20T06:55:00.001-05:00

Vienna's a little more than halfway to Budapest so we decided to start the first part of our trip there. Greg had already been this summer with his parents, but I had never been. Luckily, we had fantastic weather because Vienna was fun to walk around and absorb the almost-too-beautiful architecture. Anywhere you turned, you saw classic facades of buildings, museums and palaces. The Hapsburgs had a big influence in the city and the Empress "Sisi's" face seems to be everywhere.

Greg in front of the Hofburg Palace

We arrived in Vienna on a very full train because it was the start of Carnival break for many families. After dropping off our stuff at the hotel near the Gasometer center (you'll see that Greg and I couldn't resist taking pictures with this metro stop's sign - immature at heart, we are!), we took off into the city.

Our first stop was for a late lunch somewhere in the Naschmart, which is a nice outdoor market on a boulevard with casual eating places along its length. The stalls were filled with dried fruits, vegetables, exotic fruits and other yummy things. We ended up in a falafal joint run by Israelis. Further down the boulevard at the end of the market, the flea market was packing up, but there was still people milling about, shouting about their wares. We also had time to see St. Stephen's cathedral in the old town center that evening and meander around there for a bit.

Top of St. Stephen's at night

The next day we went to check out the architect Hundertwasser and his infamous Hundertwasserhaus with the related museum. His art was trippy with bright colors, mesmorizing lines and circles, and environmental themes (which Greg loved). To me, he represented a mediocre version of Gaudi's flow and creativity. His work was still cool to see and I think we'll both remember it for quite a while.

Columns at night

We had a lovely lunch at a local cafe and then walked around the classic Museum Quarter and Volkstheater. I had found a local bookstore/cafe called phil on Spotted by Locals so we headed there for our first sacher torte, a classic Viennese chocolate cake with jam inside... yum! It was just what we needed to end our day with. I enjoyed Vienna, but after coming from a place with similar architecture and culture, I was ready for something new and different. And Budapest definitely delivered that...more to come on that later!

Check out all our photos from Vienna here:

Vienna

Budapest

2011-03-18T05:37:00.000-05:00

Budapest was so unlike other places we've visited and at the same time, combined great aspects of the different cities we've been to and loved. It had remnants of communism like Berlin; beautiful art noveau architecture in unexpected places like Prague; wonderful thermal baths like Steamboat Springs, Colorado (although the settings could not be more different); creativity overflowing and inspiring just like Ljubljana; and the great river running through it like so many other cities (London, Verona, Salzburg to name a few).

The mix of those familiar undertones, the language, helpful people and wonderful scenery made Budapest a great city to travel to. While "shabby" may not connotate good to most people, Budapest definitely has a shabby chicness to it that many cities could not pull off. We hardly saw any graffiti or trash on the streets, but buildings were just older and people seemed to make due with what they had rather than having the newest, latest and greatest.

For example, I was surprised by the amount of upcycled/recycled materials used to make jewelry, accessories and home decor stuff that we saw in several design stores. The city seemed to flow along with our viewpoint of reshaping old into new. Budapest also felt very historic, but still had that gritty quality that makes it feel like a real city. I'll write more about what we actually did in Budapest and Vienna soon, but wanted to get my thoughts down before they slipped away.

Check out our photos here:

Budapest

The Colorful Capital

2011-03-14T11:04:00.003-05:00

Budapest definitely took us by surprise. Ayelet and I had planned on checking this place out when we first arrived in Europe. The sense of urgency to make that happen finally took over with our next move only a few months away.

So we brushed the dust (there's always dust) off our borrowed Budapest book and took the train going east. We didn't really know what to expect. The language was very different than any we have tried to use. From the moment we arrived on the edge of town, we decided to use the basic dictionary in the back of our travel book. It was scary and exciting. We have gotten so used to most Germans speaking English that we had not prepared at all. Quickly we learned how to ask for two tickets in Hungarian so we could at least get to our hotel - most of you know how much we like to use the local transportation. Buses and trams are usually pretty easy to figure out even if you do not know the language. That, and I'm too stubborn to take a cab unless we are truly in a hurry.

All I had really known about Budapest before arriving was that the city was cut in half by the Danube. So I was very surprised to see how hilly the area was. The views from the hills and the streets were colorful and show the influence of many different cultures in this area. More of a reflection will follow regarding the wonders of this great destination. For now I'll leave you with a short video.

Krapfen all over the place!

2011-03-12T06:18:00.000-06:00

There are a lot of words for the round doughnuts with various fillings showing up around the city in full force this time of year. Krapfen and berliner are the two most common. There are different varieties of doughnuts here as well - schmalznudeln and ausgezogene are two others, which are flatter versions of the round doughnut.

I don't even really like doughnuts that much, but I am tempted to sample a few. The doughnut tradition for Fasching (the German Carnival) was a way for people who are going to fast for Lent to gorge themselves ahead of time. I don't know how many still fast for Lent, but the festivities leading up to it sure are fun!

Krapfen display at a train station bakery

Back to the krapfen... I was inspired to write this post because of the tiramisu-flavored one that recently caught my eye. In the past, I've seen vanilla, marmelade, chocolate, egg-liquor (no idea what that one's all about; sounds disgusting to me), Caipirinha-flavored, coconut-creme, one with red-liquid-filled plastic syringe on top (??!??!), gummi bears and worms covering another, and the list could go on and on. It's the only time I've really seen the Germans go wild with their desserts!

Doughnut snowmen/clowns for Fasching

Downhill in the Alps

2011-02-23T15:20:00.000-06:00

One of my hopes since moving to Germany was to ski in the Alps. Finally, after a year and a half I pulled my ski goggles out of storage to spend a day in Scheffau, Austria.

(Decent variety of trails)

My expectations were low before we even left. I figured nothing would compare to the Rockies. This ski hill was technically lower in elevation than where we lived in Aurora. For the entire drive up, we barely saw any snow and it looked like it was going to rain.

Luckily the ski companies had been making so much snow that they had about a 1/2 meter base. The snow literally dropped off sharply at the edge to the grass underneath. Apparently the previous two weeks of above freezing weather melted any hopes for a long ski season. Still, after the morning clouds rolled away, Ayelet's uncle (Gil), cousin (Yuval) and I were able to cruise around the wide trails with very little traffic. Most people avoided the shallow slopes we were sticking to.

As many of you know, I used to ski in the US on a pair of used skis with the appropriately-named "aqua boots." Thankfully the top-notch rental operation in Scheffau got me a set of modern skis that offered everything I had been missing. No longer was I destined to look like I had come out of the 70s with my skis. I was able to cut and curve and really keep up with my 5-year old cousin!

[Editor's note: one of the cutest "images" I have of this day in my mind was when Greg told me how Yuval would follow Gil down the slope like a baby duck follows his momma.]

Cross-Country Skiing in Oberammergau

2011-02-10T01:30:00.000-06:00

Greg and I had a beautiful time cross-country skiing in Oberammergau a few weekends ago. I'm worried that it might have been our last cross-country skiing trip of the season because February already full of other weekend activities and the weather has been spring-like recently. And then it's March, which should technically be spring, right?

It only took us about an hour and 45 minutes to get up there on the train, and the ski rental place was just down the street from the train station. We went with the trail along the river for the first kilometer or so. Then, we were in a flat-ish meadow (which is good for me because I tend to fall when I'm faced with even a slight downhill). With this particular trail, you could get all the way to Ettal, which is a monastery established in the 1300s in a valley amongst the Alps, but we didn't have the steam for it this time. The trail was lovely and quite easy. Nonetheless, people (even the 70+ year old men) were still passing us left and right.

At a good turnaround spot, we stopped at a little restaurant so we decided to stop for drinks and ordered a very good Kaiserschmarrn - a thick, scrambled eggy pancake-esque dessert sprinkled with chopped almonds, raisins and sugar, and served with apple sauce. Maybe it doesn't sound good, but it really is.

And some photos from our first trip there with my family the first summer we were in Munich:

Ettal monastery with Alps in the background

Greg and Gil trying on traditional Bavarian hats

Das ist Football

2011-02-07T13:23:00.000-06:00

"Oh, that's the chick from Glee," I said at the opening song of Super Bowl XLV. However, if you were sitting between two guys in a dark bar in Munich, that did not make a great first impression. From that moment on, I was much more careful to make only "tough guy" comments. You know, stuff about sports, wishing one of the players' long hair was a mullet, and Jennifer Aniston.

My Super Bowl night in Munich was one to remember, although my brain was very hazy by the end of the game given the time zone difference. I actually arrived home at 5 a.m. for an hour of sleep before work. I watched the game at Naumann's Huttnwirt, which is a locals-only bar with a very welcoming bartender in her dirndl. I was meeting friends so she sat me at a big table with all the usual Super Bowl snacks - chips and salsa, beer, chicken wings, and marshmallows on a stick with a little kerosene burner for roasting. Oh, that and the confederate flag tablecloth made it just like EVERY OTHER Super Bowl party I've been to.

As we cozied up in our booth and watched the Packers jump to an early lead, I realized I was getting to see much more of the game than the average American. You see, the German channel had at least 2 booths at the stadium for their broadcast and never stopped airing the field. And all of the boring Super Bowl commercials you got to see did not make it onto the German station we were watching. This struck me as strange because Ayelet and I watched the commercials tonight online - I think I saw at least 5 German car ads and even German words (Das Auto - VW). I guess most Germans already buy mainly German cars anyway so there's no need to advertise for them during the Super Bowl here.

Well, you all know how the game went and Wisconsin puts its mark back on the world stage for another 15 years. I'll leave you with some of the highlights I heard in the wee hours of the night.

"Rothesburger ist gesacked."
"Die Green Bay Peckers seben, Pittsboorgh Steelers null."
And my favorite.
"Die blah blah blah ist Trash Talking." *

* Yes, German sometimes still sounds like that last one to me.

Wonderful Birthday

2011-02-06T10:13:00.000-06:00

Many of you know I celebrated a birthday at the end of January... and it was fantastic, mostly thanks to Greg. He started off the celebrations a week early with the iPod touch I'd been hinting at not very discreetly. After that, every morning I found a little wrapped present waiting for me in the guest room. We've never been big into giving presents because we hardly need anything, but Greg put a lot of thought into each one. It was very sweet.

I also had a wonderful lunch with my friends and aunt on Thursday; brunch at Cafe Beethoven with a piano player and cross-country skiing last Saturday in beautiful Oberammergau. Thanks for all the cards, pressies (as my British/Irish/Aussie/NZ friends call them), calls and e-mails! It was an absolutely amazing birthday week!

I'd like to share two interesting observations about birthdays here before I sign off. First, at work, everyone came to wish me "everything good on my birthday" or the rough translation of that, and shook my hand. It felt very formal. I did get two hugs from the 20 or so people I work with, but the rest were handshakes. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because I smelled funny because I've seen them do it to others before. Thankfully, there was no singing of the birthday song at work.

Secondly, it appears that some Germans (not sure if this is how everyone does it) will take their friends for a meal and pay for it all. The waiter at the place where we had lunch on my birthday told us one time they had a group of 30 in there and the birthday girl ended up spending 7000 Euros ($9,500+) on her dinner. That's 233.33 Euros per person (yes, I did get the calculator out for that one ;-)! Can you believe it?!?

And with that, I'll leave you with a photo of the flower coming off of our spider plant.

Design Inspirations from all over

2011-01-24T04:27:00.000-06:00

Warning: if you’re not into crafts or designing stuff, feel free to stop reading now. You will be bored. ;-)

Every city I've gone to recently has inspired me in some way to create. Sometimes I buy a really awesome piece of fabric, which leads to a new project. Other times, the museums inspire me with their art, which moves ideas around in my head.

It does take a while to put these projects into motion. I know now I need time to formulate the idea and think through my plan of attack before I feel like I can get started. That's not to say my mind is organized and the project all laid out when I start a new project, but I have a fairly good idea of my end goal. I don't always get to the end result I imagined, but usually I get pretty close. Here's a recap of my projects that sprouted from recent trips:

dress inspired by NYC

I saw a beautiful dress in a shop in New York. I drew a quick sketch at a café and that became my guide for this dress. I’m hoping for more summery days this year because I’ve barely gotten to wear it. Munich had a horrible summer last year.

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My cousin in Israel has a belt like this and it inspired me to try to make my own. I basically measured her belt in terms of how long the different parts were compared to my arm and went off of that when creating it. I also created the shirt from a lilac sheet. Quite comfy!

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This project wasn’t really inspired by Berlin. When we were there though, I woke up one morning and knew what I wanted to do with an old skirt of mine. I guess I had been thinking about subconsciously for a few days. The skirt was made of fantastic fabric, but didn’t fit right anymore. So I decided I would turn it into a sweater vest top. My favorite detail is the buttons in the back.

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The details on the buildings in Croatia made up a lot of our photos on this trip so this project was a natural fit. They didn’t turn out great, but we will definitely be trying them again. We took our favorite photos from Croatia, gave them a sepia tone, printed them and attached them to newspaper-covered pieces of foam (although wood would have been much better!).

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I had been thinking about tunic dresses a lot and found this fun grey polka-dotted fabric and black velvet ribbon while in a London fabric store. It was meant to be! This was my first project sewing a zipper (and I did it without a zipper foot on my machine – pretty daring!)

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I created this doll for a friend’s baby based on a doll I saw in a very cute shop in Grand Central Station. This was the first time I had created a doll (or any baby stuff in general) so it was great fun.

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I fell in love with this blue-flowered fabric in London and have great memories of hunting down a trimmings shop with a newfound friend to get this lace. So this holds special meaning for me. It started out as a scarf, but eventually became a gorgeous table runner.

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The Victoria and Albert museum in London was so huge and wonderful. It took me a whole day to see everything I wanted to. I was especially attracted to the ironworks section of the museum and took a ton of pictures there. I came home thinking about experimenting with a fabric pen and silk scarf my mother-in-law, Priscilla, gave to me this summer. This is what resulted, although it’s hard to see because it’s basically a white scarf on white wall. You get the gist, I’m sure.

Ok, this post is already very long so I hope you enjoyed it. If you’re on Facebook, you can check out my crafts album for more projects I’ve completed while in Munich.

Comparing Munich and Berlin

2011-01-12T02:00:00.002-06:00

Any time we go to another big city, we always compare it to Munich. Berlin was no exception. The two biggest cities in Germany are only 6 hours away by fast train, but feel much farther from each other in their attitudes.

To say Munich is conservative would be a major understatement. It's definitely the wealthiest city in Germany. Comparatively, Berlin had more edge, more funk, more life to the city than Munich does. It was bustling with people even on the second day of Christmas, which is a public holiday here. I’m sure if we had more time in the local neighborhoods to explore unhindered by numb feet and steamed-up glasses, I’d have more examples for you of Berlin's general coolness.

A few other differences:

Trash situation. Munich is super clean and I love that about the city. Yes, Berlin had trash on its sidewalks. But I should add that saying Berlin has trash on the streets when compared to Munich is like saying an OCD person has a cleaner house than someone who’s simply tidy.

Snow all over Berlin's sidewalks. Let’s just say the only shoes I wore all week were my snow boots. But again, Munich is obsessive about snow removal among other things. However, the snow on the sidewalks in Berlin allowed some industrious Berlin citizen to create a human-sized igloo we stumbled past one night. Any full-sized igloo in Munich wouldn't last very long against the sidewalk snow plows.

More graffiti on the buildings in Berlin. If this happened in Munich, it would be a detriment to the buildings. In Berlin, it added to the city’s appeal - it was better than what the buildings would have looked like without the graffiti. Imagine blank grey eight-story communist-style buildings and you’ve got the idea of what some Berlin neighborhoods would look like without the graffiti. The graffiti art in Berlin was quite very artistic and vibrant actually. Berlin does have beautiful buildings (like this one), but we saw a lot of communist era buildings, too.

Exotic food abounded! We found Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish, Italian and even a few Mexican restaurant choices all over. I wouldn’t call Berlin the ethnic food capital of the world, but for Germany, it was top-notch.

Differences in mass transit. Berlin’s s-bahns were mostly outside and not as frequent or as useful as the trams or buses. Plus, they were not punctual most of the times we took them and when you’re cold, an on-time train is a lifesaver. Our favorite buses were the # 100 or 200 because their routes covered most of the sights we wanted to see. Plus, they were double-deckers so we got to see the city from above while toasty warm.

I think we both loved aspects of Berlin and wished we could bring a touch of the edginess back to Munich. But there also are parts of Munich and the way of life in Munich we love.

Berlin Reviewed

2011-01-09T14:13:00.000-06:00

I could say I wanted to let our experience in Berlin to sink in before I felt able to post about our trip, but that wasn't it at all. I just didn't make the time to write this week. So I started by ~~wasting my time~~ "composing" my thoughts and creating this nifty photo collage of my favorite pictures from Berlin.

You may wonder why there's no couple-y picture of Greg and I in the above. It was so cold I hardly felt like stopping for a picture and I worried that our camera would freeze open if we tried the timer. I know, it's an irrational thought, but hey, the camera still works and I don't regret not taking a picture of me freezing my butt off. ;-)

That being said, Berlin is awesome, even in the bitter cold (which wasn't that cold by Wisconsin or Minnesota standards - about 12-18 degrees F each day, but it feels cold when you're walking outside a lot). There's so much to see; I found myself wishing I had an extra day there to fit in another couple museums. Hands down our favorite museum was the Pergamon, which rebuilt temples and altars from Turkey and elsewhere in the world. It also had cool archaeological finds on display.

The Jewish Museum is architecturally amazing, but if you've been to many Jewish museums, the display in this one was only okay. It was very interactive though and there was still a lot about Jews in Germany before and after the Holocaust.

Another morning we walked along the East Side Gallery, which isn't exactly a gallery, but rather a section of the Berlin wall full of different artists' murals. Artists from all over the world contributed to it. Some of it reflected the graffiti scattered around the city. We also checked out the Topographies des Terrors museum about the Gestapo, SS and SA on the last morning. Again this was full of fascinating information, but I think by then we had learned enough about WWII for one trip.

Other than those sights, we ate great food and enjoyed exploring bits and pieces of a city that is very unlike Munich. Greg and I will brainstorm another post comparing the two cities for you all. In the meantime, you can check out the rest of our photos from Berlin.

Whirlwind of Berlin Museums

2011-01-04T07:14:00.014-06:00

So, last time you learned that it was very cold during our time in Berlin. For many of you reading this blog, you know exactly what we are talking about. Like us, many of you have spent enough time in Wisconsin or Minnesota in the winter to deal with the cold. Well, we have apparently become a bit soft when it comes to the cold and we packed our time in Berlin with as many indoor things as we could.

The movie highlights some of the major museums in Berlin. Our favorite was the Pergamon Museum and unless you get a chance to travel directly to ancient Middle Eastern human settlements, than this is a great option. Many of the displays are the original human works so you can imagine this massive building being designed to house massive ancient buildings.

Other main museums you will see in the video include: Bode Museum, The Jewish Museum, The New Museum, The New National Gallery, and The Natural History Museum.

Frozen in Berlin

2011-01-01T12:10:00.010-06:00

We'll let the video do the talking. Enjoy what it felt like to spend 5 winter days in Berlin. Basic locations include train footage, Alexanderplatz, Museum Island, and lots of the remaining Berlin wall.

The next video will highlight what we did to avoid freezing.

A Beer Culture -or- Jobs my Dad Would Like

2010-12-29T03:11:00.000-06:00

As you can see, I could not decide on the title for this post. I feel like the two topics of discussion are intertwined in such a fine way that separating them is difficult.

Before moving to Germany, I never thought of beer as cultural. Beer seemed like a good excuse to hang out, something used to quench your thirst on a hot day, or that drink by the campfire late at night. For Germans, beer is the drink of choice, and that makes it cultural. Ounce for ounce, it is always the cheapest drink at a restaurant. You can walk around in public with open bottles and no one finds this strange. Also, there are endless festivals held for different reasons and the beer tents tend to consume the biggest area of them. If you read back to some of our older posts, you will find "Biergartens" as a common theme. Not because we love them, but because it is just the cultural thing to do.

Munich's 6 Local Beers - 1 Liter = almost 3 cans back in the U.S.

That brings me to a couple of jobs I think my dad would like. First, and probably illegal, is the beer radler. So, in practicing your German - radler = cyclist. I was in the park last summer and some guy was just biking through the hundreds of people laying out in the grass while yelling "bier radler." Then, just like at a baseball game, someone would raise their hand and give the guy a few Euros for a beer. The beer radler would gladly take the empty bottles too since he could return them to any grocery store for money back.

The second job would be to work for the Deutsche Post. Rick knows all of the ins and outs of the US postal system, but there's an important perk to working for the German postal service. The other day when we were taking Scoots to the vet, I noticed a postman taking his lunch and drinking a beer in a cafe. You might think...is this legal? Well, I doubt he was trying to hide the beer since his uniform is bright yellow. The best part was that he was not going to hop into a vehicle after his drink, but onto his envelope-laden bike. Beer for lunch and then he burns the calories right off! Sometimes, those dream jobs feel just within reach.

Prost!

Cross-Country Skiing in Bayerischzell

2010-12-27T12:34:00.000-06:00

Greg and I took a train about an hour and a half from Munich to a town called Bayerischzell (pronounced "by-risch-tsell") in the Alps. We were on the train with a lot of downhill skiers and snowboarders, but we were on our way to do some cross-country skiing. And it was a beautiful day for it - bright and sunny, not too cold, some wind (warm at times even).

Greg on the trail

We're not hardcore skiers and this was immediately obvious because people were passing us left, right and sidewise. Especially when I got scared I wasn't going to make it up a little hill while going parallel on the skis. I thought for sure I was going to fall into the river ditch and so plopped down in the middle of the trail to pull myself along past the scary section. The people behind me didn't think it was very funny, but then again, I think Greg and I were the only ones laughing on this trail at all. Everyone else was doing some serious exercise.

Not sure how this happened, but my hair frosted itself!

I would say we did a good 8 km trail - a warm chalet stop along the way would have been nice, but there were sadly none along this trail. On the way back, we were greeted with forceful winds, but they were fairly warm so it was not much of a hindrance. Overall, it was a fantastic cross-country skiing day and the trail was superb. We were even lucky enough to grab some seats on the train because we were the first stop on the way back to Munich. The train was packed with everyone tired after a long day of skiing. I'm hoping we get a few more weekend skiing trips in before spring.

Check out the rest of our pictures...

Favorite Smell of the Season: Roasted Chestnuts

2010-12-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

At every Christkindlmarkt and almost every pedestrian street at this time of year, the Heisse Maroni (roasted chestnut) sellers are out in full force. And I love them! The smell is so uplifting and makes this time of year seem that much more special. There's nothing like walking down the snowy streets, cradling a wrapped packet of warm chestnuts fresh off the pan, peeling away the crackly shells to reveal the dry, but sweet nut. Delicious!

A Heisse Maroni stall on the main shopping street

Medieval Chriskindlmarkt

2010-12-23T12:10:00.000-06:00

The last Chriskindlmarkt we went to this season in Munich was the Medievel one near Odeonsplatz. It happened to be a beautiful night and I think everyone had the same idea we did because it was packed. We managed to get some fun pictures regardless.

I like looking at all the vendors in their renaissance costumes and the people walking around with their clay drink goblets. It's fun to imagine this was how the market used to be like way back when. The wares the vendors were selling also were more old-fashioned: bows and arrows, wooden swords, furs, gowns, wooden bowls, wax seal, glass cups, soaps and more.


Clay-baked drink goblets in front of the flame


Rows upon rows of initials stampers


Ordering a dough ball covered with chocolate and coconut for Greg and I to share... definitely not my favorite German Christmas-time sweet.


The "oriental" dried fruits stall (must have been exotic during medieval times)


Not sure what they were cooking, but it was in an old barrel!

Tollwood Chriskindlmarkt

2010-12-17T10:21:00.000-06:00

Another Chriskindlmarkt that is going on in town that I love is Tollwood. It's actually larger than a Chriskindlmarkt with a tent for exotic food, one for a bazaar, a marketplace for local and eco-friendly vendors and a music tent. Outside of the tents there are all the traditional food and drink stands. It seems to always be busy when we go with people both inside and out. It's amazing how long the people here can stand to hang out outside in the cold, but I guess they are warmed by the lovely winter drinks they have.

I like this festival best in Munich because the vendors are reasonably priced and the stuff they sell is unique. Plus, they have a strong focus on the environment so you feel good buying stuff from them. This year, my aunt Smadar and I went when she was here the other weekend. We got quite a few presents for family there and had a grand time strolling along and munching on good food. Smadar even managed to pick up a little something for me as an early birthday present in the course of the afternoon - a cute little snack tray that reflects my love of shoes from a Berlin photographer. I eat my breakfast on it every morning now!

Munchner Freiheit Chriskindlmarkt

2010-12-15T03:12:00.000-06:00

Greg and I visited a fun Chriskindlmarkt last Friday in the hip neighborhood of Schwabing. There are all sorts of Chriskindlmarkts in and around Munich at this time of year and everyone has their favorites. This one was very artsy. When we were there, a Swing christmas band was playing (as you'll see in the video) and all the stalls were filled with artisan crafts. The food was delicious - Greg and I sampled a mushroom-and-emmentaler baquette (made to be eaten from both sides, it looks like!), Eritrean food and hot chocolate with heavy whipped cream... yum!

Enjoying the hot chocolate

The central Munich Marienplatz Chriskindlmarkt, on the other hand, has more kitschy crafts like sheepskin slippers, wooden toys and of course, all the traditional festival foods and random vendors like modern-day cooking supply stuff (think: silicon baking trays and cookie cutters). All in all, Greg and I have not been impressed with the vendors at these things, but it's fun to walk around with a hot drink and be among all the people milling about.

Last Hanukkah post - I promise!

2010-12-09T02:32:00.000-06:00

Last night was the final night of Hanukkah. It's always a fun holiday to spend with family and we were lucky to have my aunt Smadar in town to celebrate all together this weekend. Enjoy the pics!

My cousins Shai-Li and Amit with Smadar in the background - only photo I got of them together!

Family lighting the candles on Friday night - there was no shortage of menorahs so all the kids could light one. L to R: Shai-Li, Amit, my aunt Na'ama and uncle Gil, and cousin Yuval.

Greg lighting our candles last night at home

And our Hanukkah gift this year: a winter wonderland this morning of snow-covered trees and pockets of sunshine peeking through! I hope to have a few pictures and a blog post from the Christkindlmarkts around town for you guys so stay tuned. It's a super fun time of year around here!

My Herb Garden

2010-12-04T02:59:00.001-06:00

I've never been much of a gardener. Greg took care of our garden back in Denver during his summer vacations and I was content to eat the produce and not kill anything. But I've been experimenting with our cooking here and wanted fresh herbs at the ready. With Greg's help, I created a little container herb garden that's been taking off. I basically just watch it and water it every once in a while. And nothing has died yet!!!

Basil buds!

To save on buying new pots for an experiment I didn't know would work, I just used cleaned out cans and food containers. So far, so good. I hope to have chives, dill, basil and parsley that I can use soon.

Parsley ~ eventually it will make its way into my tabbouleh recipe

Happy Hanukkah!

2010-12-02T03:29:00.000-06:00

To everyone celebrating and not, HAPPY HANUKKAH!

The holiday of lights started last night and will go on for 8 days so if you didn't say happy hanukkah to that special Jewish person in your life, you still have some time. ;-) In the picture below, you'll see the cool painted folding menorah that my Safta Rachel got us a few years ago. It's painted on both sides with paintings of Jerusalem's old city and folds down into a rectangle - pretty nifty! This year I'll be celebrating with family again, which makes me appreciate that they are so closeby even more.

Picture of last year's candle lighting - looks more impressive when you have more candles than just one or two.

Why I love Snowy Days in Munich

2010-11-29T12:28:00.000-06:00

Walking back home from work tonight, I reflected on the snowy powder coating the ground and realized that I enjoy snowy days in Munich so much more than I did in the U.S. Here's why:

I'm not driving in it. It's much harder to die while walking in the snow than driving in the snow. I know that sounds melodramatic, but the crazy, horrible drivers in the US really come out on those days. I remember many a snowy day in Denver when I would have to drive to work and would dread it terribly because the roads were not plowed and the drivers could not control their cars well enough. I would grip the steering wheel the whole way to work. And it's not like it would be the normal 20-30 minute drive either - it took extra long because of the snow, too! Here I just have to go 7 minutes to my metro station and then I'm pretty much covered until I get to work. Focusing on my feet instead of the car in front of me is much easier.

Munich is gorgeous when covered with a layer of glistening snow. Everything seems to shine and twinkle so brightly with the snow. All the houses in our neighborhood look like a classic European town. Granted Munich doesn't have the old-time flare that other cities in Bavaria do (like Garmisch, Regensburg or Nuremberg to name a few), but it does have an understated European vibe regardless. The Christkindlmarkts get that added touch of nostalgic beauty to them when it snows. Everything just feels like how December always should be - warm fireplaces, chestnuts roasting, snowy winter wonderland all around. I'm just waiting for some reindeer to show up here somewhere.

Not quite a reindeer in Schliersee, but close!

People seem happier. Bavarians are an active bunch so I think when they see snow in their town, they picture themselves cross-country skiing in the city parks, trudging through the snow in their decked out winter boots, and warming up with hot drinks under the stars at the Christkindlmarkts. And it helps to have a variation to the gray skies, too.

It softens noise. Not that Munich is a particularly noisy place, but everything gets a blanket of quiet, especially at night, when it snows. The peace pervades everywhere.

We don't have shovel it. We had some back-breaking work in Denver whenever it snowed, but here our hausmeister (building caretaker) is supposed to do it. Apparently, it should be shoveled (sidewalk to the building entrance and sidewalk around the building) by 7 in the morning after it snows. Not that that happened this weekend or this morning, but since I'm not on crutches or using a cane, I could care less when he shovels it. As long as I can still get out my front door, I'm cool.

I, for one, hope the snow continues all winter long, but I guess the ~~suckers~~ people who have to drive or shovel probably would appreciate a few breaks in the weather. Happy snowy day to all!

Guest Post: Sarah and Davidian’s Visit

2010-11-19T03:00:00.011-06:00

[Editor's note: Thanks to Sarah for writing a great guest post... if any one else has visited us and would like to write a guest blog post, please feel free! We love taking a break from the blog to show other people's impressions of Munich.]

Stepping off the S-Bahn from the airport to Greg and Ayelet’s place in Munich, Davidian and I immediately felt at ease. Not because the Germans are so friendly (it was my own personal challenge to get someone to smile back at me just once), but because the landscape was so similar to home. We felt the same crisp October air, saw the same evergreen and deciduous trees, and rode by the same gently rolling acres of farmland. Now I know why so many of my German ancestors settled here in Wisconsin.

We didn’t ignore the differences, however. For one, we were riding on a train. If we wanted to get from one neighborhood to the next right in the city, we would just have to buy a partner pass and wait a few minutes for the next subway-style train. If we wanted to head out and explore little towns outside of the city where the architecture is more traditional and people are few and far between—we would just hop on a regional train that travelled above ground. When we were ready to get out of Germany to explore the winding streets of Paris, we took a high-speed train. Being able to go wherever we wanted without getting road rage and yelling obscenities reminded me of the day I got a bike again. Hopping on my champagne-pink road cruiser and heading to the bike path gave me a sense of freedom and independence I hadn’t experienced since I was young. Sure, Davidian and I got lost and confused a few times when trying to figure out which direction we needed to go or which train to take, but we always found our way and were able to hop around the city with ease—even without speaking the language.

Sarah and Davidian enjoying their beers at the Augustiner Keller

Germany probably never would have made it to our must see list if Greg & Ayelet wouldn’t have moved there. However, to say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. As we are in the midst of disgusting partisan politics here at home, I often think of the things I experienced in Germany and hope we can bring some of those lessons learned to our little corner of the world.

Dogs make life better. We really missed our little Macy while in Bavaria. Everywhere we went we saw well behaved pooches in stores, on trains, in restaurants, at public parks, and on city trails. Believe it or not, I never even stepped in dog poo once—we never even saw any!

It’s okay to be tall. People from Munchen are T-A-L-L. For the first time in my life, I felt like the norm. Women my height (5’10”) or taller were everywhere. There they were just hanging out with their long legs and thick thighs walking with confidence and wearing jeans that fit them perfectly (*sigh*). If I would have known better, I would have planned to do some shopping. Davidian at 6’2” was also a typical height, but he didn’t like that so much. He says he likes “standing out” better.

Environmentalism can be a way of life. In Munich, the idea of taking care of the land, water, and air around us wasn’t a heated debate. It was simply a part of everyone’s lives. I don’t know what they had to go through to get where they are now, but they just made it seem so easy. Solar panels were abound on houses in the countryside. Recycling bins on street corners had individual spots for each type of waste and I never had to wonder, “Is this recyclable?” because the little pictures on the sides of the can told me exactly what do with my item. The streets and trails were not dirty and littered and the river next to where we hiked one day was clear and safe to swim in.

Drink beer. Often. Not necessarily because it is so good—cause it is (even when served warm). But because being at a biergarten means getting outside and getting to know your neighbor. Tables are lined up in rows and if you want a seat you might just have to share a table with the strangers next to you. It’s okay, no one pays much attention and everyone is welcome. Bring your little picnic, grab a mass, and share your breze with the guy next to you.

Take care of others. Even though people didn’t smile much, there seemed to be a strong sense of community. Big picture, people pay money out of their paychecks so that everyone can have health care and be trained to do their jobs well whether a waitress or a lawyer. We didn’t have to tip because people were paid living wages. On a smaller scale, people just helped each other out whether through helping an older person get off the train or by keeping an eye on each other’s children at parks or on the bus. Sometimes I think it feels easier for us to succumb to apathy rather than help a person in need. Oftentimes we are just so stuck in our culture of fear that we end up feeling a sense of helplessness.

You don’t need as much as you think you do. I had forgotten how when I was little my mother would string laundry lines in the basement and it was my chore to hang everything up to dry. Europeans don’t have dryers and they get by just fine. They are also okay with having just 1,000 square feet to live in. Entire families might do it. Greg & Ayelet also very much inspired us to think of this differently. Imagine the freedom that can come with being able to pick up, pack up everything, and move on to your next adventure. It’s the people you are with and the memories that you make that matter—not necessarily that Pier I Imports vase you got on clearance that is gathering dust on the IKEA throwaway end table.

No Davidian, “fahrt” isn’t what you think it is. Enough said. :-)

However, Germany definitely is far from perfect. While we really enjoyed many aspects of German culture, we were happy to come home to friendly faces and diversity of food. I was thankful to be able to surf anywhere on the Internet that I wanted and eagerly turned on my Pandora so I could finally listen to some music again. I’d never want to have to name my child from a “government chosen list” and I appreciate looking around and seeing all different types of people.

Hanging out in front of the Theater

Thanks Greg and Ayelet for opening up your home and sharing a little of your adventure with us. We can’t wait to see what’s next in your journey…

Dramatics Everyday

2010-11-16T11:09:00.000-06:00

I've realized recently how much my day revolves around using gestures and facial expressions to express my feelings. When I can't think of the right German words (um, pretty much all the time), I just resort to acting out what I'm trying to say. It's probably funny for anyone who's not trying to guess what I'm saying. And even those who don't know the answers, try to guess so really it's fun for no one!

The other day I was in the sewing store and I didn't prepare ahead of time with the word for snap closure, a word that I stumble through in English as well. I get to the store and I start trying to explain a snap closure to this German saleslady through gestures.

Only when I did it, I was not nearly as cute.

To paint the picture, it basically looked like I was making the baby sign language sign for "more" (thanks to our niece Abby and her mama Jan for this knowledge!). Have no fear if you don't know what that looks like, I've found a picture online to share. Is it any wonder that she just looked at me like I was an idiot and invited me to take a look around.

I was mollified afterward when she asked me what the English word for it was when I did end up finding it. To top it all off, I said the wrong word in English, too!

So somewhere in Munich, there's a German saleswoman who is trying to remember the wrong word for snap closure because some silly American lady stumbled into her shop and gave her misinformation. Oh well, at least she won't have to suffer through my charade attempts anymore!

Macro Pics

2010-11-12T13:29:00.008-06:00

I have discovered a new favorite feature on my camera since moving to Germany. You know that small icon that looks like a flower. Well, I seem to using that feature known as "macro" all too often. I would like to share a few of my favorite pictures with you and encourage you to take a close up look at our natural world.

(a pipe in Israel)

(cut log at Plitvice National Park - Croatia)

(dubbed Mario Bros. mushroom - from hike near Hirschegg, Austria)

If anything, they make great personal wallpapers on the computer, or just give a way to zoom in on the small features we usually look right past.

Pictures from Lindau

2010-11-05T09:00:00.015-05:00

Greg and I spent our second anniversary on the island of Lindau, about 3 hours away from Munich by train. It was fabulous - the weather was on our side, a little chilly as you'll see we're quite bundled up, but sunny. The fall colors were out and I couldn't get enough pictures of them. You can check out all our photos in the photo album on facebook.

We had two days in Lindau, which was more than enough to stroll around the island, walk along the lakefront and even take in the museum. Check out the video we took from a vintage music machine (from the 1880s!) while in that museum:

Plus an insert from Greg: Lindau was a great place as you can see from the photos. A very walkable and restaurant friendly place. We covered the whole island a few times. One word of warning though, just try not to let your wife chat with too many other dudes along the way. We had a great anniversary!

(on Bavaria's "largest" island)

(not too worried about this guy)

(this shaker is a whole different story)

Memorable Halloween

2010-11-04T03:25:00.000-05:00

We spent Halloween in Lindau and the kids on the island actually dressed up and went around. It was funny to see them ring the "doorbells" because there weren't traditional houses around. It was all apartments - granted they were only three or four story buildings so I guess they could have hit up all the floors if someone let them in.

Anyway, we were surprised on Halloween to hear a commotion on the street outside of our second story window. Upon opening it, we saw a bunch of scary masks and face painted goblins, witches and wizards looking up at us.

"Suss oder sauer!" shouted one of the moms of the group and held her hands out. The kids all imitated her. Roughly translated that means: sweet or sour!

Ummmm, okay, we hadn't come prepared obviously for second-story-window trick or treating. Luckily, I remembered the two mini chocolate bars we got at the hotel and promptly threw those down. That really didn't do much to satiate the appetites of the twelve kids that were down there, but at least it was something! I'm not even sure if anyone caught the chocolate bars or if they got smashed in their tumble.

One little girl with her dad held her hands out expecting more to rain down so I had to explain in my halting German that we were in a hotel and didn't have more candy with us. They continued on their merry ways and I hope they filled their little orange plastic pumpkins with other candy.

Käsespatzle

2010-11-03T03:57:00.002-05:00

Käsespatzle is probably the original inspiration for mac-n-cheese. This tasty German meal serves as a great vegetarian option whenever we find ourselves out at German restaurants. Most places give you the same basic platter which includes a basic green salad and a massive plate of potato noodles (like really small gnocchi) swimming in cheese and topped with fried onions. My personal drink pairing recommendation for this meal is a 1/2 liter of helles (light) beer.

Mmmmm....just look at all of that cheese. That's just one bite!

Ayelet and I have learned our lesson to usually split one order or try to come prepared with Tupperware for guaranteed leftovers.

Pictures from London

2010-10-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

I've got to help Greg with dinner now, but I wanted to post my pictures from London (at least the first batch - the second album is just going to be inspiration from the Victoria and Albert Museum)

Enjoy: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3061419&id=13928020&l=3d6e801eb5

While the Wife is Away...

2010-10-26T05:50:00.001-05:00

...the boys will play.

Ayelet had a great chance to visit London, and I fully wanted her to check out this city that is very dear to me. Usually when Ayelet goes away without me I do very little around the house. However, this time was different. Work was busy with planning for a field trip. Family was in town. And some friends and I had made plans for the night Ayelet left.

Munich has dubbed a phrase called "lange nacht," which is used for a variety of events in the city throughout the year. I attended the long night of museums where about 100 different locations around the city stayed open until 2 a.m. The highlights from the night included our first stop with a short tour of a local swimming pool (Volksbad) that is decked out in an Art Neuvo fashion. Then my last stop was at an old city restaurant where there was an original single bowling lane in the basement followed by a surreal marionette featuring a 10 foot tall lead character. Beautiful. Wish I had pictures, but the camera was in London.

A few days later I was able to live another first. Ayelet's new cousin-in-law, Roe'e, invited me to a futball (soccer) match. I jumped at the chance. Strangely, we went to the game with Roe'e's friend Roe'e that had just moved to Munich a month ago. Yes, I was a bit confused at first too. My confusion continued upon our arrive to the stadium. I was hoping to watch the game and enjoy a beer, but for some reason this was about the only thing in the entire country that was only serving "Alkohol-Frei" beer. I had a Sprite instead. However, my spirits were rustled very quickly as we walked down to our standing area. The tickets we got were with a rowdy bunch of young Germans that played drums, chanted, and waved flags during the entire game. The Munich team ultimately won 3-2. Thanks in part to the goalie name Butt (pronounced "boot" by the locals). See some highlights - I'm next to the waving flags in row 5.

It was a couple of late nights in a row for me. The day after the soccer game I joined Ayelet's family for dinner. Her cousin was wrapping up the European honeymoon with some quality family time. Scoots was having a quieter than usual week and really kept close by when I got home and attempted to finish some work for the field trip I had planned for the following day.

Early morning on Thursday did not look go. The sky was cloudy. When I got to school and stepped outside with 65 grade 7 students it started to rain and I think I even saw some snow. We were off to dig for fossils in a big pit. Ayelet and I had done this last summer and I absolutely loved it. I was very pleased with the kids reactions both at the museum and more at the quarry. Two of our students even found some great fish fossils. I'll leave you with the same question they got. If you found the 150 million year old fossil (seen below) on a hill in Germany, what does it tell you about Germany at that time?

Back from London

2010-10-22T10:05:00.000-05:00

The blog has been silent for the last few days because I was in London and Greg was hanging out here with my cousin, Dana, and her new husband, Roe'e, who were visiting from Israel (and other various activities he had planned in my absence).

I guess I wasn't expecting London to be so absolutely charming ~ the streets and architecture; the people with their (mostly) lovely accents; the food (the choices were overwhelming); the fabulous museums of every type, make and model; the edgy, alternative fashion scene; and for me, the fantastic weather (I only got drenched once!).

Of course, there were parts that weren't nice, but generally I could ignore them like the weird subway delays and closures; the way I couldn't figure out which way to look when I wanted to jaywalk; and how it seemed like everyone lived with to-go cups permanently stuck to their hands. And I didn't have to convert from pounds to the dollars, which made everything seem so much cheaper than it would have if I came from the US. In any case, it's good that I'm a pretty frugal traveler although during this trip I definitely did my part to help the fabric industry. ;-)

I saw so much of the city and met with some great (new and old) friends while I was there - I'm still in shock at how much I did! The highlights for me include afternoon tea with friends at the Wolseley, the Victoria and Albert museum (third favorite museum after the Prado in Madrid and the Metropolitan in NYC) and a cute little trimmings shop in Soho.

For now, I'll leave you all with a shot of Kate, her (and now my) friend Raf who we stayed with, and myself frightened by the realistic moving dinosaur behind us. I look more like I'm ready to hop on, I guess. There were a lot of kids who were really scared by it so we shouldn't make fun, but oh well!

Your 61.8%

2010-10-15T06:00:00.024-05:00

Blog Action Day 2010 - Water. The message below veers from this blog's norm, but still links to our lifestyle.

People often think change is difficult, expensive, or time consuming. Yet sometimes it can be as easy as having tea instead of coffee. Barley instead of rice.

Every day we take actions without really thinking about the long term results. I can imagine that we truly didn't know any better in the not too distant past, but knowledge is spreading. We have access to a vast network of information that helps us to think about the choices we make. For example, have a look at this link: The Hidden Water We Use (from National Geographic).

At a glace, you can compare a small range of products that we consume every day. I know consuming will not stop, but we definitely can have an impact on our future by making easy changes in our daily lives.

I cherish new ideas. If you have a suggestion, please leave a comment.

Here is a short list of my easy, affordable, and time-favoring choices.
> Soak and rinse showers - 1 minute total water use
> Economy cycle on the dishwasher
> Reduced my coffee consumption - aiming for 2 cups per week
> Eating less meat (did you see what one pound of beef takes?)
> Replacing grass with low water plants

The list could go on, but I would like to share one last thought. The best name I have seen for this invention is "Sink Positive." The picture speaks for itself.

Lovin' the Tightrope

2010-10-14T08:00:00.003-05:00

The Germans are active - that much is obvious on a nice, sunny day when the hikers are on the trains going into the mountains with their boots, hiking poles and daypacks. They're always out biking, hiking, swimming and generally exerting themselves before sitting down for a beer, breze or dessert of some kind.

But what isn't obvious is the amount of circus wannabes in this country, too. I'm sure the image of the locals in sequins and tights was not one you needed in your mind, and I can assure you that they don't go that far thankfully. Sequins aren't very practical after all.

Tightrope-walking aficionados in Passau

On a good day in the local parks (and even on our daytrips), we come across youngsters tying up their tightropes good and tight. It seems like they spend hours taking turns at perfecting their mad skills on the tightrope. I haven't really seen anyone practicing tricks, but they do seem to like to jump off them, too. Either that or they make it look like they're falling off on purpose.

Greg and I even tried it ourselves at one of the fairs last year with unsuccessful results - we both fell off. One of us was more determined to get to the end than the other though (as you can see in the pictures below).

Right before I fell off! The German lady behind me doesn't look very impressed with my performance.

Greg got pretty far, but he raced across. He fell off right after this picture was taken, if I'm not mistaken.

Daytrip to Passau

2010-10-12T02:40:00.000-05:00

Recently, we went on a daytrip to Passau with our friends, Craig and Sophie. Luckily, we had a fantastic fall day for it - crisp and sunny! Passau is at the confluence of three rivers - the Inn, Ilz and Danube - and we spent much of our time walking near them or overlooking them.

The confluence of three rivers as seen from the hilltop

We should probably learn to do our daytrips on Saturdays because on Sundays all the shops are closed (and there were a few nice-looking chocolaterias). It was still quaint to walk around the town's old center and see the church and their city hall. There was a great riverwalk and across the river, we did a short hike to a vantage point over the city.

Not sure which river this one is, but the riverwalk along it was gorgeous

Afterward, we stopped and had lunch at a Greek place. We came across their cathedral which was beautiful on the inside with lots of whitewashed, carved marble. They also had a display set up for the fall with a furry muppet-looking wheat crown and quite a few gourds, but sadly, we didn't get any pictures of that. You'll just have to believe us on it.

Passau Dom St. Stephen on the inside

You can see the rest of our pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ayeletdrori/Fall2010?feat=directlink

Funny Experiences at Passport Control

2010-10-10T09:00:00.005-05:00

Greg and I must have an aura surrounding us that requires something unusual to happen whenever we get into the vicinity of the passport or airport security. If airport people had a sense of humor and wanted to make a hidden camera-type show, we'd be on it for sure. That's just our luck.

Our latest funny experience occurred in the Tel Aviv airport. I'm walking a little ways ahead because I always walk really fast once I've been couped up on a plane and want to use a normal bathroom. Greg was behind me at a far enough distance that it looked like we weren't together. The agent stopped him - my blond-haired, blue-eyed innocent-looking husband - and thankfully, I looked back in time to see Greg waving me over to whip out my Hebrew. The guy must have thought it was unusual we weren't walking together. After he asked me to define our relationship, he asked how long we'd been together. Lesson learned: it looks suspicious if you don't walk as a couple... and so Greg needs to keep up! :-)

On the way back from Israel, besides being asked the origin of the last name "Golz" by an Israeli agent, we had a fun experience in the Vienna airport. We had a layover there and had to go through passport control because we were entering Europe again. What Austrian passport control seemed to fail to take into account is that a plane full of Israelis should not be underestimated when it comes to maintaining orderly lines. To one side, you could clearly see the line for EU passport holders - perfect, orderly, moving at a good clip. Then, you see the line for non-EU passports - no, you couldn't even call it a line - a mass of mostly Israelis with a few unfortunate Americans and other nationalities sprinkled throughout. CHAOS REIGNS! People are one solid link of humanity - an elbow here stuck to a shoulder there stuck to a back over there.

The passport lady rose from her seat a couple of times and yelled to those waiting (who were really pushing as far forward as they could) to tell them to stay behind the yellow line. I would not have messed with her and yet the Israelis made sure to antagonize her by stepping over the yellow line again and again. If I were her, I would have turned them away. At least I know one profession to cross off my list.

Our Only Oktoberfest Visit This Year

2010-10-06T04:00:00.003-05:00

Many of you will remember our Oktoberfest shenanigans last year (Greg's version and my version). This year it was much more calm - we went together with my second cousin who was visiting from Israel on the U-bahn. We didn't get lost, but did get pushed around a bit by the drunks walking around on the Oktoberfest grounds. I hear it's quite fun to have a table reserved and to see all the insides of the tents during the weekdays when it's quieter, but this year that didn't pan out for us.

It was a special year for Oktoberfest, too - 200 years in existence! There's definitely advantages and disadvantages to the festival - on one side, you get hoards of tourists mostly interested in just drinking to oblivion and not caring about what they do to the city; on the other hand, beautiful dirndls abound and the lederhosen the guys wear always makes me chuckle. The locals tend to be happier and more social during this time - I wish there was more of that year round in fact!

I even got to go salsa dancing with the dirndl- and lederhosen-attired crowd last week. It was just like a country ball with contradictory music.

In any case, I'm sure the city of Munich makes a pretty penny from the tourists that come here, part of which I know will go into restoring the city back to its state of cleanliness before the tourists arrived.

Ammersee

2010-10-05T08:00:00.003-05:00

One Sunday, Greg and I just got on a S-bahn and headed out to a local lake because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The great thing about living here is that you can just do that - head out on a random train to a random town and you're sure to find some sort of path or trail to enjoy nature. They really value good weather when it comes around. Often it seems like they drop everything to head out for a hike or lounge by a local lake when it's a beautiful day. On this particular day, Ammersee was filled with sailboats!

What finally happened with the birthday ceramics?

2010-10-04T02:57:00.000-05:00

This post is looooonnnnng overdue - here are the pictures of the completed dishes we painted in July for my cousin, Shay Li's birthday, in September. She just had her second birthday since we've been here so it's definitely time to share the success of our ceramics.

Greg's cup to the left with a bug inside (created for maximum surprise effect) and my hypnotic cereal bowl

Greg's cup with pyramid and butterfly close-ups

Shay Li's plate with hidden gecko - can you find it?!

Portraits in Orange

2010-09-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

Scoots hasn't gotten his own blog post in a while and since writing is not happening tonight, I thought I'd dedicate this one to a couple of cute photos I got of him while snuggled in our IKEA pillow/fold-out blanket that we love.

Holding paws

I'll try to be a better blogger this weekend and actually give you guys some substance!

Crossing the Street

2010-09-23T01:55:00.000-05:00

As I sat on my balcony yesterday taking a break from my work day (at home!), I observed a strange lesson. The kids in the kindergarten across the way were learning how to cross the street. I don't actually remember how I learned how to look both ways and then cross so it was a little fascinating to see how they were doing it.

Holding hands, a pair of blue backpacked little boys looked carefully down one side and then the next for approaching cars. Their teacher was a couple steps behind, allowing them a little independence in their lesson. They had to make the decision for themselves whether it was safe enough to cross. They let quite a few cars pass before a car finally stopped to let them cross the not-so-busy street.

In the end, I think they learned their lesson about being cautious, but I hope for the sakes of their companions that they also eventually learn the lesson of not having to wait for every car within a one mile radius pass before they can cross. I mean, a car four streets down will not hit you as you cross the road - unless you're wearing black at night and it's driving really fast. Just my thoughts yesterday- is it obvious I'm not a parent?!