Let it snow, let it snow

For the past 3 days now, it has been snowing and the temperature is down up to -8 Celsius ... brrr and with 93 humidity.. so you can feel how cold it is... The snow doesn't really stay a long time, comes and goes so it is not as white as winter wonderland.

This is the house accross us--- as you can see, it's a bit white but still not so much. The V. has some cleaning to do later - I don't know how it is in your country but in Germany, the house owners are the ones responsible to clean the pave in front of their houses. If somebody slips or hurt themselves due to snow, sleet or whatever it is lying there, the houseowners will be liable to the person...so either you pay someone to do it or do it yourself!

So as you can see The V. has to clear this area and some more not seen on this picture -  shovel the snow and clear the way to people who would be walking in front of our house.

Can you imagine if you have a house at the corner of the street? Like this neigbour of ours.
That's a lot of work! I've seen them raking the leaves last Autumn but I have yet to see them clear up the sidewalk - In my 8 years of living here in Germany, 2 years of it living in a house, I have observed that taking the weeds out, raking leaves and clearing the sidewalk in front of one'shouse are one of the things to do during weekends. I have never done them though and I think my neighbors think I am strange but then again I  think I am excused because I am a foreigner - well at least till nobody slips or get hurt in front of my house.

Party left overs

It is usual here in Germany and I'm sure in many nations and customs too to bring a hostess/host gift to any party/lunch/dinner/coffee and cake one is invited to. It is also it seems almost a custom to say the usual thing when one as a hostess/host gets the gift "oh you shouldn't have! it's not necessary but thank you so much"

Hostess gifts are usually flowers (or plants), a bottle of wine, or something edible mostly chocolates or special oils and vinegars or other special things you wouldn't normally buy yourself but love to give away. So on our summer fiesta even if we wrote everyone an email telling them they don't need to bring anything - guess what, of course they brought something. not necessary but of course thank you very much indeed! I love getting hostess gifts - it's always a pleasure to look into the little presents. Of course I try not to look so excited after all - they shouldn't have indeed brought the presents. I must have been younger then but back in the Philippines I don't remember my aunties, uncles, neighbors, friends and relatives to the 100th degree bringing something when they are invited for fiesta/dinner/lunch/coffee and cake. So have to update myself with that. Any changes fellow pinoys out there?


Assorted cookies and chocolates and a even a hot chocolate which really looks yummy!


Bottles of wine from red, white to sparkling.. I think I missed some bottles which are probably in the shelves already..
Again a bottle of wine, a shiraz from South Africa and a whisky for The V.
Specially packages chocolates from Interlaken, Switzerland ( i like the ribbon!)
Some flowers..
and some more ....
and a nice hostess gift from a friend - a scarf :)

Market Day

I was just on my way to my doctor's appointment when I saw that it was market day. I often miss market day because it's always during work day when I am at work. This is really unfair because they have such good produce like fresh fruits and vegetables.
Hmmm so many fresh fruits.. the air smelled so sweet from luscious peaches, cherries and assorted berries ...
Cherries, peaches, apricots anyone?
I find artichokes really interesting from the way they look but I haven't eaten them fresh just once in a while as a pizza topping or on such antipasti dish.
Have you seen a yellow zucchini?
And lots of herbs galore! Dill, paisley, spring onion, coriander, estragon and so much more....

There are other things in the market like flowers, fish, sausages, cheese and so much more. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to see them all - maybe next Tuesday :)

We're back

Hello dear friends and fellow bloggers. The V and I are back from our short holiday in the Black Forest. It was a wonderful vacation and we were able to see a bit of the southern part of Black Forest. The landscape was beautiful, the towns and shops looked so touristic, the people were friendly although I must admit it I have a hard time understanding some of their german - their accent is quite different from this region.

Of course we ate the so famous black forest cake filled with lots of cherries and almost soaked in lots of cherry schnapps! I think one more of those cakes and I might have ended a bit drunk or tipsy. There were so many cuckoo clocks for sale I'm glad I'm not buying one of those because I might get crazy just choosing which shop and which clock I will get. Mind you they are not cheap at all. Prices range from €400- €1500 - of course the more intricate the clock is the more expensive they get.Here's The V and I in front of the first biggest cuckoo clock in the world. Apparently there are already 2 other clocks bigger than this but our GPS brought us here. We are glad we saw the original. If you noticed the parts are made of wood. And below you will see how big it is from the outside. There is really a cuckoo who comes out every 30 minutes.Creeks or smaller brooks and streams are very common here. After all we are in the mountains. There are also a number of animals to see. Such as this lovely friendly squirrel who wanted some peanuts from us and a nutcracker who seem to be crazy about peanuts too. They are so used to the tourists, it doesn't even bother them that we are in their habitat.

I don't have much exciting stories except I noticed that this region is visited from many neighboring countries - french, dutch and a lot of Brits. Which made me really happy in a way because the hotel where we stayed had a wonderful spa. If you have read my last post about germans and their sauna behavior - then you would understand why. Feel free to read it again so you can have a better glimpse of the german sauna culture. With french and brits as my sauna neighbors I need not worry or be stressed about being the only one with a bathing suit on or being bare naked shoulder to shoulder with my sauna friends. Furthermore, there wouldn't be memory flashes of their naked bodies when I see them during breakfast :)

Here is a picture of one of those typical houses in the area. They have such roofs so that snow could fall down easily during winter. And just at the bottom is a picture of the waterfalls we saw along our walk in the mountains. It is actually a famous waterfall in the area but within walking distance from our hotel.
Well that will be all for now - I've noticed that the post is quite long now, I'll show you more pictures of Black Forest and Freiburg, a beautiful town we visited in the region in my next post.

Wine Tasting

We went along the Rhine river and the hills of the Rhinegau , a region famous for its Riesling wine, a white grape variety which is believed to have originated from the Rhine region.
Riesling wines are often consumed when young, if you have drunk Riesling, you might have noticed its fruity and aromatic bouquet. Also typical of Riesling is its crisp taste due the high acidity found in the grapes. Riesling is also the preferred grape in production of Sekt, German sparkling wine and ice wine (Eiswein),usually drank as a dessert wine because of its sweet taste (too sweet I think, this is not for me) . It is called ice wine because they leave the grapes to freeze on the vines till they harvest them.

It was a wonderful weekend, enjoying Riesling (which we normally don't). The V and I prefer wines from the south or even from exotic lands.
What is more interesting is that we were able to experience two different kinds of wine tasting.

On Saturday we went to a high scale, sophisticated wine tasting. There was an english speaking guide who gave us a lecture about the vineyard and the wines we were tasting. The dinner was expensive, probably one of the most expensive dinners we have been to. We even have to pay €10 per person for the wine tasting, probably for that english speaking guy! The wine was ok, the food very good but the service was poor! (It took forever for the food to arrive.)
The next day, our friend invited us for another wine tasting, this time to a down to earth, honest to goodness wine tasting. The food was simple, meatloaf with fried potatoes (hackbraten mit bratkartoffeln). Service was normal if not better than the last one, wine was great. You can drink up to your heart's desire just trying on the different wines - and the wine tasting was for free. The price was unbelievably cheap compared to the first one. Well of course there were no candles and white table cloth on the table but the view of the hills was fantastic.
My mobile phone was not able to do justice to the picture but behind the vines , far far away is actually the hills going as wide as you can see all vineyards!


sunset up the hills . .. what a nice way to end the day and to start the week. i almost feel as if i'm on a holiday somewhere...

Frankfurt am Main Part 2

I just talked about Frankfurt in my last post and here I am again talking about it, actually we got together with some friends for lunch on a spur of the moment . The weather was fantastic and we took a walk along the river banks of the Main River which I was talking about the last post. Here are some pictures from my mobile phone.

I forgot to tell you that Frankfurt has the highest population of Foreigners in Germany. Well if you don' t believe me you might as well take a look at this picture again...here we are with some of our friends - me from the Philippines, one from Sweden, one from Germany ,one from Japan and one from Bulgaria (the guy who took the picture) . See , we have outnumbered the germans! Seriously Frankfurt is a multi cultural city. If you go to the main train station you'd think you are somewhere, anywhere but not in Frankfurt.



Here are a bunch of crazy guys and a preggy mom, doing the famous wacky posing you can always see in lots of filipino pictures and apparently japanese pictures too. Simon a Swede working in a japanese company, wonders why the japanese in his company like to pose this way all the time when they have their pictures taken and The V. on the other hand has always seen this on filipino pictures from my family and friends and can't understand why they always do it. So in the end I ask them to give it a try.
And it seems it was so contagious that even passers by joined in for some posing! They just can't resist it :) well that is what you get here when the weather is good, people have such good moods .

Frankfurt am Main Part 1

I haven't been traveling in the last few months so I decided to write a post about Frankfurt. We live quite near this city, about 15 mins with the train or with the car. It is quite convenient because Germany's biggest airport is in Frankfurt so whenever we fly we just take the S Bahn (train, metro or subway for some which is actually not underground though in some stations only). This is the Römer, one of the famous tourist attractions in the old city in Frankfurt - . It was built in the 14th century. The picture above is the city hall and where the footballers wave to their fans after they have won (and even if only second place) in the World Cup.

A lot of the buildings were damaged during WWII but was rebuilt to its original form.

Frankfurt is famous for a lot of things- Like Goethe, the famous german poet, writer who was born in this city.

Frankfurt is along the Main River which continues to Rhine River , one of the most important rivers in Europe. Back long, long time ago, Frankfurt emerged as a merchant city due to it's location. Folks from all over came here to do their shopping and traders came through the boat/ship selling and buying stuff from all over. Well from then on money still does flow in this city- Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany and of course a financial centre in Europe. The European Central back is stationed here, the Central Bank of Germany, the Stock Exchange and so many other banks wanting to get their share of the pie too. Some people call the city even Mainhattan - well they hope to be like Manhattan some time later. Well this is an issue - some politicians want Frankfurt to be modern with all that skyscrapers sort of thing. But some are quite against it so whenever you go around here you will see places with Skyscrapers, modern buildings and suddenly you are back in 17th, 18th or 19th century. If you have bad luck then you're back in the 1970's or post WWII buildings. Some are quite an eyesore due to lack of fantasy of the builders.

Here's one of the nice fountains in the old town. And one picture of the old opera house where you can watch concerts, ballets etc. but never an opera. Normal operas are held at the new opera house. This is the only one I got at the moment with my in laws on it.

Well I thought I have a lot of pictures of Frankfurt so I can show you more of it, but it turned out - I don't have any more . I think I took it for granted because I just live here. I shall continue this post next tme so you can see more of Frankuft.

You know you're German if...

I came across this in a friend's Facebook bulletin board. I've been living here for almost 7 years..(whew,time flies indeed). The 21st of May is my seventh year anniversary and I can fairly say I have become germanized in one way or another.

You know you're German if...
You separate your trash into more than five different bins.
Your front door has a sign with your family name made from salt dough.
You carry a "4You" backpack.You eat a cold dinner at 6pm.
You call your cell phone "handy" and a projector "beamer".
You have no problems with nude beaches and saunas.
You have asked your Asian-American friend, "No, but where are you *really* from?"
You have gotten splinters from environmentally friendly toiled paper. You call an afternoon stroll "Nordic Walking".
You are shocked when you have to pay for dental care. (we do pay dental care now and other medical bills inspite of the insurance, i think there was a time they didn't pay for it.)
You own a pair of jeans in a color other than blue.
People start talking about Hitler and Hofbräuhaus when you tell them where you're from. (people start to ask me if all germans are all racists like Hitler when I tell them where I live)
Tenth grade was all about dancing lessons.
You work 40 hour weeks and have 6 weeks of vacation a year, but complain about hard times.
Your childhood diet consisted of Alete and Zwieback.
Your college diet consisted of Miracoli and Döner.You were educated about sex by Dr. Sommer.
You yell at people for jaywalking.
You grew up watching "Löwenzahn" and "Die Sendung mit der Maus". And Baywatch.
You think college tuition is an outrage.
You routinely go 100mph on the highway and tailgate heavily.
On your last day of high school you made your teachers sing Karaoke and jump through hoops.
You wear brown leather shoes.
Your first audio tape was Benjamin Blümchen and Bibi Blocksberg.
You have ended an English sentence with "..., or?".
You can tell at least one Manta joke.
You're a college student in your 11th year.
Your first sexual experience was on Sat1, Saturday night at 11pm. (this is the time they show erotic films on tv)
You spent hours in school learning to pronounce "th".
You expect chocolate in your shoes on December 6th.
You complain that in other countries everything is dirty (sorry it is really clean here, I can't complain - have you read the first sentence? but I heard it's even cleaner in Switzerland!!)

I think I can add some more but let's leave it at that for the moment.

Down with the flu

I was at the doctor's office today and was diagnosed with a sort of virus. Actually the whole kindergarden staff and kids have been sick in and out of this virus almost the whole school year and I thought this time I'm immune to it. Oh well, I guess I spoke too soon about it. You wouldn't believe the ordeal I had to get through with the doctor's office. One of the reason I was there was to get of course my medical certificate since I didn't go to work yesterday and today. So anyway, the receptionist said I can wait till 9-11 am because I can't have an appointment with the doctor anymore. The V. thought it would be wise to be there at 9:00 am on time. Got there 9:00 a.m. - whoa! You might think there is a Senior Ball in the doctor's office - waiting just outside the door are the golden girls and boys (men and women of about 60-80 years old) of our little town. It's as if we are going on a social dance, they looked happy, chatting and talking about the last christmas and new year's celebration. Anyway, I sat and read all magazines. I must have read about 10 magazines. The golden girls went, but some more came. The senior boys went and some more came. I was getting dizzy and dizzier, getting colder and colder. I went to the receptionist and ask her if I would ever still make it till noon??? Or would they close the office without the chance to see me? (this was a hypothethical question of course) she answered me seriously - of course we will get to you before we close the clinic - I told her I'm not feeling good, dizzy, cold and nauseaous . She told me, go drink some water . I sat and drank my water. Do I have any choice?

Meanwhile I really don't get it aside from me and another person who also has no appointment - all the rest of the group were so up and about , jolly and healthy and have all their appoitments. The doctor's visit is a social thing- more like going to the movies or having coffee and cake. Why can't we, the real sick people see the doctor first?Finally at about 11:o5 the receptionist called me and brought me to another room. There I sat again for another 15 minutes till the doctor came. She asked me what my symptons are and where I work. I told her about it - while she typed the words in her computer and gazed at her monitor the whole time -and in two minutes we were done. She didn't even touched me, or see my eyelids or throat or check my temperature at all. I waited for 2 hours and 20 minutes, sick and chilly. Got a 2 minutes attention from a doctor who didn't even look at me. Hmmm can I blame her? I don't know if you have had the whole senior citizen's club chatty and happy the whole time and now a real sick patient? She didn't even give me any prescriptions and was showing me the door when I asked her I want some tablets for my throat just like the ones The V had (he went to this doctor before and he actuallly likes her - maybe because he is a private patient and gets more extras than me!) She answered: Well you have to pay it yourself the insurance doesn't pay it. Hello - tell me something I don't know please. Oh and have I forgotten to tell you? I have to pay 10 euros for this visit to the doctor too, a surcharge I pay quarterly if I visit the doctor. So I pay my insurance fees, my company pays the half of it. I pay for my own medicine and pay the surcharge. Tell me again why I pay all these people.

Christmas: Making a Wreath

As I have mentioned a few days ago, this Sunday is the 1st Advent Sunday. I find this german tradition quite interesting - counting the Sundays just before Christmas through the use of the Advent Candles placed on a wreath called "Adventskranz". Every Sunday a candle is lighted to commemorate the coming of Jesus "das Christkind". The fourth candle or the last one is the Sunday before Christmas. From what I heard at work (kids usually), most german families gather around the advent wreath on a Sunday afternoon, light the candle/s and sing christmas carols while drinking coffee/hot chocolate and eating delicious traditional christmas cookies. On the first Sunday a candle is lighted, on the 2nd, two candles are lighted till you reach the fourth Sunday which entitles you to light all the four candles.

According to Wikipedia and to my german teacher :) the Advent Wreath is a german tradition, it may come from the middle ages but the germans are the ones who popularized and marketed the event around the wreath. Click on this link if you want to know more about the Adventskranz or this one Christmas in Germany . However some say that the tradition of making a wreath actually comes from pre- christianity period in Northern European Countries. The Evergreens are the only plants that remain to be green even during and after the winter months. Gathering evergreens and forming them into a circhle symbolizes the continuity of the year where one season follows the next season. When the christians came they saw this pagan tradition and just integrated it into the christian tradition. Isn't that interesting? Actually there are more pagan traditions incorporated into the Christian traditions. We are not just so much aware about it.

I love Christmas in Germany, of course I love Christmas in the Philippines too. But the German Christmas is quite beautiful with the many traditions around it. I must say, I find them really interesting and beautiful indeed. I will try to write more about german traditions so you'll know what I'm talking about. So keep posted.
All these traditions have found their way among other european countries as well so nowadays it is not only unique to Germany.
Anyway so this post is actually about making a wreath and I am talking too much about Christmas. This year is my second attempt to make my own wreath. I am quite satisfied with myself. Take a look:

First you need some evergreens. I bought this ring made of straw and bonded the evergreens to it with a thin green wire.

See what I did with the picture on the left? It looks a bit weird but this is just the first stage. Just to get an idea how the base would like like I attached the first set of leaves.

And don't forget the candles of course and some small things for decoration, anything goes whatever you want for a motif. I chose red and silver for some color and some natural materials like cinnamon sticks and star anise. Of course don't forget your candle holders, you wouldn't want some fire out there. Believe me a friend of ours had a fire because of her wreath and burnt her table. Good thing only her table and the best thing happened - her insurance paid the damaged and she was able to get herself a new table.

So after the wreath is done - you can put on the candles and wait for all that four Sundays.
Now why are the candles in a circle? If I have paid real attention to the explanation at work , the circle symbolizes Eternity, like wedding rings are. The love of God is eternal.

This is how it looks like when you are ready for coffee time and it gets a bit dark. Yup the nights are quite longer now. It starts to be dark around 4:30 p.m. this part of the globe.

Flea Market 101

My first ever experience at the Flea Market last Sunday was very interesting. The V and I had really lots of fun observing the crowd and dealing with the buyers and the lookers (they gave the item a brief look and pfff -they're off to the next stall) and touchers (they touched and poked on whatever was there but didn't buy or say anything at all). Now there are 2 kinds of buyers. You have the professional ones they haggle till you almost give the item away for free so they will leave you alone and you can have your peace of mind back! The other one is probably like me - they take a look, ask for the prize, think about a second and hands out the money immediately. If they ever make a bid to get the price down, they look too nervous and act that they don't even believe that they are haggling. Of course knowing this type of people (like me) I was a bit gentle with them and gave them a fair prize from the very beginning. This spared them from getting into a difficult situation and I just hope I will get the karma back when it's my turn to shop again.

The flea market (Flohmarkt in german) was 2.5 hours long but was actually in full swing for only 1.5 hours. It turned out that there were 2 other flea markets in the next town. When I say next town that would be about 10-15 minutes walk from each other!!! Nevertheless I was very satisfied with my sale I made about €100. €20 went to my friend who asked me to sell some of her stuff and another €10 was for rent leaving me €70.Hey you wouldn't find such money on the street!! I told The V that I want I to invite him for dinner but he declined and told me to put the money in my airplane. I have such a small airplane where I save coins or small bills. We would probably crash the plane for our next trip somewhere. What with our upcoming mortgage - those trips will have to stop for a while.

I almost got scared that 2 of my buyers would fight. See that little pointy little red thing just in front of me in the picture? That's a small wooden pinnochio among some of the things my friend asked me to sell. A lot of ladies asked for it but never actually bought it until one got serious, I was just giving it to her when another one was also handing me the money. Oh no! For this silly pinocchio a war need not be declared! I asked The V. who among the two asked first - he was clueless of course! The man behind the lady was just too relieved his wife will not get it. Finally it was settled - thank goodness, since then I decided to pay attention to every inquiry. You can see the pinocchio again on the very first picture. This little pinocchio doesn't actually do anything. I thought it was a nut cracker. It was a pinocchio - no more, no less.

The moment I told The V. I would sell stuff at the flea market, his only reaction was - well I hope you won't be buying there too. Otherwise it would be useless to sell when you would end up buying more. Well I kept my promise, I stayed in my little corner almost the whole time so I won't be tempted to buy some kind of pinocchio items myself. The farthest I went was to go to my colleagues accross. Beside me on the left side is Rita, my flea market trainor. She gave me all the tips and tricks of a true flea market seller. Danke Rita! Sorry the picture is not so sharp but this is all I have to document the exciting event. The V. needs more training with the phone camera. The guy at the corner is one of the parents at work. Come to think of it, he said he didn't want to be photographed, but look at how he smiled - that doesn't look like as if he doesn't want to be photographed at all! Don't you think so?? Well for those of you who haven't tried flea market selling or buying, well it's about time you do.

To Sell Or Not To Sell That Is The Question

Look for me in the maddening flea market crowd!! Your prize - one of the so many left over stuff I wasn't able to sell.

What an exciting Sunday afternoon, I had my first ever own stall at the Flea Market!!! The people came with excitement full of adrenalin - buying, bargaining or just looking and touching the goods without an end as if they will bring them luck. It was fun to stay at the other end of the table for once and get shocked at the outrageous prices the people wanted for my treasures. So I brought them home with me again and will happily return them to their original places.
At first I even didn't even know how much I would sell the items. It was even fun to just say a price and see how far it will get down. Now I know that those sellers in Egypt that Gattina spoke about in her blog must have enjoyed all that haggling too. One woman haggled so much with me I was just really entertained with her stories and gave her a bag for 25 cents. The story went from her being such a poor lady, not having much money and would just want to give her niece/daughter/neighbor/friend some joy. Of course I saw her later with three bags full of goodies. A woman was so crazy with my puma hiking shoes she showed it to her whole family, neighbors and friends but I admire her discipline she didn't buy my shoes because she wanted it for 2 Euros only! Of course I brought my shoes home with me, I was willing to give it to her for at least 4 euros. Nevertheless I should learn from this woman. Her self discipline is extra ordinary.

I didn't know that it would be this much fun to sell stuff at the flea market. I even met new people and even got a small gift from one of the sellers too.

Good News, Bad News

If someone comes to you and tells you he he has good news and bad news for you, which one would you like to hear first? Me, I would like to hear the bad news first, get it over with and head on to the good news which could hopefully ease the damage of that bad news that just came my way. So here goes the bad news -

Vlado's car was parked along the main street of our neighborhood when a car hit it some time probably in the evening. It damaged the side mirror totally and left a lot of scratch on the left side of the car. Here you can see the proof from this picture. I was just so glad that this happened during the weekend, despite the hectic and stress it gave us on a nice sunny Saturday. I wouldn't know how to deal with all the bureaucratic blah blahs that Vlado did right after discovering the whole thing. So now you might be wondering what the good news is about finding your car like this? Well someone saw the whole thing and left a kind note to us - he wrote down the car plate number and left a note in the car with his contact details. Isn't that really nice? I used to stereotyped some germans (sorry for my german friends and readers, I know you understand me on this - i hope :) ) that they are so good at scolding and reprimanding people anywhere. I know someone who reprimands the drunken man in the bus, or some friends of us who got notice from the mayor (thanks to the neighbors!!!) that their grass is starting to grow outside their fence and that their hedges are starting to grow longer than that allowed length. We were once reprimanded not to park in a public area because the woman living there can't sweep that road when our car is parked. One time a man scolded me, because I was walking on the wrong side of that sidewalk( I asked my colleagues about which way is the proper way to walk on the sidewalk and they all thought I was crazy to come up with such ideas!!). Of course this proves not all locals here think like this crazy man! So now after getting this note and realizing the positive side to all those nosy and complaining people , I won't be anymore irritated the next time I see our neighbor in front looking through his binoculars directly into our house - who knows he might just catch a burglar in action here!