A Little of This and That and ... Pub Crawl! Münster Style

First...

My very sweet sister sent me a case of individual sized packages of Frito Chips (having to pick them up at customs is a story for another blog). You see, I am from Texas and in Texas there is a special dish called Frito Pie. What you have to do is take the Chili of your choice and pour it over a handful of Frito chips. Top the concoction with your choice of delicious toppings such as cheese, sour cream, and onions.

Doesn't that look like a little slice of Texas?

I actually prefer my chili without the chips and with a slice, or wedge in this case, of fresh cornbread. The banana was thrown in for good measure. It was wonderful to have something closely tied to our home country. We can find or make almost anything we want to eat if we start to feel homesick, but Fritos are not to be seen in Münster!

And then ...

We have been playing a fair amount of board and card games lately. One game that we really like is called Quirkle. It is so much fun, plus it comes with 108 square pieces that are perfect for building things like Battlements. The littlest Haines was very proud of his military installation he built with Quirkle pieces, complete with Lego army guys. He begged me to put it on my blog.

Next...

I had another Arepa lesson! Just to remind you, an aprepa is made of cooked, ground corn. Here we are making Arepas de Queso (Arepas with cheese). First you mix the Arepa meal with water and a little salt. Here we are adding diced cheese.

Here they are cooking to a lovely, golden brown. You can't just leave them in the pan while they cook. Continuously flipping them over so they can cook evenly on both sides is necessary. When they were done, we ate them with a little salt and butter.

And then...

I tried making Yoghurt again. This little cupboard is where we turn on our heat. The pipes are full of hot water and if the heat is on, the cupboard is nice and warm. The last batch I made this way was a little on the thin side, so I wanted to see if using smaller containers helped with the consistency. The end result did seem thicker. The taste was unaffected. Both times the yoghurt tasted fantastic!

Again, to make yoghurt yourself, all you need to do is take a liter or quart of milk and warm it to about 42 degrees Celsius. Mix in one single sized serving of plain yoghurt. Stir it well and pour into very clean containers or a yoghurt maker. Let the yoghurt mix stand in a warm area for at least 12 hours. I am trying this as a potential alternative for when we get back to the States and don't have a yoghurt maker.

And Finally...

One of Russell's colleagues wanted to give us a taste of the Münster nightlife. He and his lovely wife picked us up on Friday night and we had no idea what was ahead of us! The first stop was a restaurant called Enchilada. It is really popular, especially with the student crowd because the "long drinks" (cocktails) are half price before 8.

One of the first things we saw at the restaurant was a young man wearing a sombrero and a poncho. When I pointed him out to our friends, they told us that he was probably enjoying one of the Germany wedding tradition. He was having what we would call a bachelor party (Junggesellenabschied), but of course it isn't quite the same. Basically, a group of the groom's friends go out and troll bars for the night. The groom's friends don't treat him like he's special like they do in the U.S. Here, the groom dresses up in a silly costume and must perform humiliating little jobs to earn money to pay his own way for the night. For example, the groom may set up shop and sell condoms or wash car windshields on a street corner until he has enough money. Our friend told us that he dressed up in a lion costume for his bachelor party.

The picture below is a little hard to see, but you can just make out the sombrero and poncho.

I was happy to hear we would be visiting a Mexican restaurant. Until, that is, they brought out our order of nachos. BBQ powder on nachos? The sauce was yellow, but not cheesy. Maybe the quesadillas were better, but if it follows the trend, that white sauce they are dipping into is mayonnaise.

We did, however, have a wonderful time with our friends. 

Our next stop was a British Pub called the James.

The inside really was like sitting in someone's library. It was nice and quiet. This is apparently the pub you visit when you want to have a nice conversation.

Or play a game! Our friends brought along a card game dealing with patterns and colors - You had to grab the round yellow thing (bottom right corner) when someone turned over a card that matched your own. You had to be fast...

Sometimes there were injuries because you had to be fast, but we all made it to our next destination in one piece.

By the time we went to the third Kneipe (Bar) it was about 2 AM and I was pretty tired. It was really cold outside, so I didn't linger to take a picture. By the way, we were of course riding bikes the whole time - we were informed that the legal limit for alcohol consumption while on a bike is 1.6 (which is triple what you can drink and drive a car). This last bar was loud, with metal music playing and German biker dudes filling out the atmosphere.

We were all tired, so we only stuck around long enough to get a good feel for the bar, hear some music, and then we finished out our night by partaking in another German night out tradition: Gebratenes Ei (fried egg on toast). This isn't something you buy at the bar. After a night of going out with your friends (and for the college kids maybe drinking a little too much), you would never just go to sleep without putting a little something in your stomach first when you reach home. It is very simple to make, just fry an egg, put it on toast and cover it in cheese. Oh, and you should eat it with a knife and fork. Only barbarians eat with their hands in Germany (This includes pizza and hamburgers). You can even put a topping on your toast like curry ketchup (which is how I ate mine).

When we finally arrived home (after a brisk bike ride back to our Wohnung (apartment), it was close to 4 AM. Our youngest, who is 9, generally wakes up around 6 and that morning was no exception. Sunday was a long day!

What I wish I knew before we came to Germany... plus a new discovery!

Four Months in and still going!

We have now been in Münster for 4 months and I was thinking about everything we brought as well as what we have had to buy.

We have been very lucky that we have time to search and explore our now city, so we have usually found or stumbled into what we needed to find.

Finding the Flea Market was wonderful, except that the one we visited was the last one until after winter is over. It was a place where you could wander around and find things that you didn't even know you were missing.

Sometimes we find amusing shops, like the American Hot Dog Stand we found last Saturday.

By the way, the "hot dog" above is topped with cucumber slices and roasted onions plus what appears to be curry ketchup and an undetermined white sauce (mayo?).

Below is a partial list of the available hot dogs. John Wayne's Hot Dog  has Iceberg lettuce, egg, bacon, tomato, fried onions and barbecue sauce.

I will write more about this place once we have had a chance to sample their offerings. But of course, hot dogs are not what we came to Germany to discover.


If I could go back to July, how would I pack differently?

As we were preparing for our year in Germany, I tried to think of things we would need that may be difficult to get here in Germany.  All things considered, I think I did  pretty good job of bringing what we needed.  Of course hindsight is 20/20.

We had no idea what some items we use often would cost here. "What should be bring and what should be just buy when we get there?" These were questions I tried to think about while I was packing. We tried to think of this in terms of cost per pound, so we would bring something heavy only if it would cost a lot of money here. I took a fair amount of time looking up topics related to living abroad packing lists, but I really didn't find anything helpful.

Things I wish I had brought

• More Benedryl and Sudafed. I haven't had to buy these yet, but I have heard they are very expensive.
• More sweaters. The temperature swings a lot here (on the cold side of the scale), and it really helps to be able to layer.
• Boots with flat heels. Normal shoes get wet fast when it is raining, and having boots on is nice for keeping your legs warm when you ride a bike in the cold weather.  I need low heels because I am already getting old! Not to mention, cobble stones suck when you are wearing heels.
• A set of wrenches. When you rely on biking as your main mode of transportation, having a set of tools is important. We had brought just the number of tools we needed to put Paton's bike together, but we ended up needing more. We ended up buying a set of wrenches here because we HAD to. 
• Hot water bottle. I used a hot water bottle all of the time in Norfolk to take the edge off when it is a little chilly. I ended up getting one for Christmas, but I could have easily brought mine from home.
• Hair cutting supplies. I cut the boys' hair at home, but I only brought the scissors and apron. I left the clippers at home to save weight, but we ended up buying some hair clippers at the flea market.
• Rain Coats. (More about this in a minute.)

Things I brought, but didn't need

• American school supplies - The supplies they use in the German schools are completely different, so we ended up having to buy a new set for each of the boys - including a fountain pen.
• Sundresses (sigh), shorts (sigh again). September was lovely, and there were a few days when you could wear warm weather clothes, but those days are vorbei (over).
• Umbrellas. We brought 5 umbrellas and they are rather worse for wear because it is normally windy in Münster when it rains. Rain coats would have been a better idea.

Things I am so glad I brought

• Recipes -
• U.S. measuring cups/spoons
• thermometer for sick kids - until a boys breaks it
• hair dryer
• adapters for our electrical devices
• Two German/English dictionaries
• English language books
• Screwdrivers
• Bike helmets and locks - they are so expensive here
• Bike for Paton - He still was using a bike small enough that we could break it down into pieces. Even though it is very heavy, children's bikes are just as expensive as adult bikes. Bringing his bike meant that was one less bike we had to buy here.
• Backpacks
• Formal documents - these included copies of our marriage certificate, birth certificates for all of us and statements of financial security. We did not bring the actual documents, but took digital photos and saved them to our computer. When we needed them we just printed them up and they were accepted.

Things I wish we had (if we had money to burn)
There are some things that it would be nice to have, but we would either not be able to take them back with us, or we already have one at home anyway.

• Another computer. At home, Russell has his own computer in our bedroom that he uses for work, and the laptop is pretty much only for me. Here, we only have my laptop, and Russell uses it most of the time for work.
• Better bikes
• Our own clothes washer and dryer
• A car would be so nice when freezing rain is falling outside and we have to make a trip to the grocery store. 

In the End...
For the most part I am happy with our decisions of what we wanted to bring. There were definitely some misses, but nothing to bad.

Food! Essen! A few of our Favorite things.

A Few of our Favorite Things

There are tons of things that we are discovering on this German Adventure. One thing we all love is the Yoghurt here.

We have been eating so much yoghurt that I decided I wanted to try to make it. In the U.S., it will be impossible to find some of the flavors they have here (more about those later). 

It is so easy to make. All you need is your choice of milk, a container of plain yoghurt and a pot (with a lid) to warm the milk. A thermometer comes in handy, but isn't a must. You will also need either a yoghurt maker or a slightly warm place to put your pot.

Just warm the milk to 42 degrees Celsius.  If you don't have a thermometer, just warm your milk a little. It should feel a little warm, but nowhere near hot. Remove it from the heat and stir in a few tablespoons of  the plain yoghurt. Now, either pour the liquid into your yoghurt maker or put a lid on the pot and place it in the oven with the oven light on.

That is it!

In 12 to 14 hours you will have yoghurt! We have tried making it both ways and were successful each time.

The last time we visited the Kellersmann family, I mentioned my desire to try making yoghurt. Matthias was kind enough to not only show me how to make it, but to lend me his spare yoghurt maker.

Paton would eat an entire 500 gram tub (this is about a quart) of Yoghurt if I let him.  German stores have plenty of the traditionally fruit flavored yoghurt such as strawberry and mixed berry.  Most, however, are with fruit not usually put in Yoghurt in the US.   Fruits like dates, grapes, papaya passionfruit and other mix-ins such as oatmeal or other grains I am not familiar with. Sounds strange, but that is one of the few things I will really miss when we go back to the U.S. Paton's favorite is Stracciatella - it is vanilla yoghurt with chocolate shavings. It is also a very popular ice cream. Stracciatella  is similar to chocolate chip ice cream, but like many things here, it not quite the same!

Spätzle is another thing we will miss. It is basically a potato pasta that is used with many meat dishes. We have only ever had it with meat and broth.  I have never seen it with a heavy sauce. Of course, it is a dish eaten mostly in the south of Germany so we haven't seen it much here in Münster

I can't even begin to tell you about the sausages! I found this picture on the Wikipedia page, but I could easily take a similar picture from what is in my fridge (including some bake-to-finish Brötchen).

There are so many different kinds of Wurst here and they are all so good. Normally they are grilled (braten), which then becomes a gebratene Wurst or "Bratwurst". I once asked a German if they boiled their Brats in beer, which is the way the cool kids cook a bratwurst in the U.S. I will never forget the look of disgust my German friend gave me. "Never!" was his answer.

Pizza is also a little different here than in the U.S. We had a very good time making pizzas with our friends Carlos and Adriana. I met Adriana in my first German as a second language class. We sat next to each other and immediately became friends. We quickly realized that we are also neighbors!

Carlos is a theoretical physicist by trade, but is has some mad pizza dough making skills!

Chocolate is another thing we will miss when we go back home. Whenever we pass through the chocolate aisles, yes I did mean aisles, we keep an eye out for anything we want to try. We learned the hard way that if we see some thing we want to try, we have to get it them since we may never see it again. Of course they never run out of chocolate.

I can also make versions of our favorite foods from back home. A few days ago, we had some other friends over for dinner. They were excited to try some American food. I tried to think of dishes that are not ever eaten in Germany.

I made a roasted chicken. It sounds pretty easy right? But let me tell you, finding a whole chicken to roast was not so easy! There are little, tiny chickens in the grocery stores that are boiled for soup, but you would have to roast 3 or 4 of them to feed 6 people. We ended up going to the Metzgeri (butcher shop) and bought a whole chicken (6 pounds) for about $20. Ouch! (But it baked up nicely.)

I also made  sweet potatoes as well as a green bean casserole. We ended the night with an American style apple pie. There is Apfel Kuchen in Germany. It is more of an apple cake than pie, so an apple pie was new for our friends.

I must say that this is the prettiest apple pie I have ever made.

A few other things we have tried here and really like:

Fruit flavored buttermilk

Sugar Beet syrup - Zuckerrüben sirup. 

This is so wonderful. German sugar comes from sugar beets rather than sugar cane. We discovered this little treasure at the Kellersmann home. It doesn't look to impressive, but once you taste it you are hooked! 

It costs about $1.50 in Germany and about $13 in the U.S.

Quark is another food staple the Kellersmann family introduced us to. It is a dairy product with no U.S. equivalent. The closest you could get is cottage cheese. It is considered a health food here as it is low in fat but high in protein. It is delicious on a piece of toasted bread with a little zuckerrübensirup! This may be something else I have to make in the U.S.

It may not look pretty, but I could eat this for every meal and be happy.

One of Russell's favorite treats are these little cookies. To be honest, it is really a chocolate bar with a little cookie stuck to it.

Another favorite for the boys is an enormous version of a Hostess cupcake. Russell especially likes these as an afternoon snack - he has actually lost weight since we got here from all of the biking, so don't worry about him.

Some days we see something in the grocery store and just buy them.  These are stuffed cabbages. I sauteed them and then steamed them in a vegetable broth. Even the boys liked them!

This last picture is of our anniversary dinner - and not remotely German. It was delicious! Russell and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this year. He asked one of his colleagues for a few restaurant recommendations, but when we went to them they were all so busy and loud that I didn't want to eat there. I hate restaurants where the atmosphere is so loud you can't hear each other.

We walked around a bit (being Münster, it was cold AND raining) until we saw a quiet little Chinese place. We ordered the two person meal and ended up with enough food for four people. Each bowl had a different meat: pork, chicken, beef and duck. It's funny that "foreign" food isn't the same here either. It was Chinese food with a German accent - the egg rolls were about double the size, and there was no fortune cookie at the end.

We look at our life here as an adventure. We make ourselves go out and try things. Even though it is a little scary sometimes, we put ourselves in situations where we HAVE to speak German. It is the only way to experience living here. If we just stayed in our apartment and never pushed ourselves into situations where we are uncomfortable we would never grow from our experience!

Happy New Year! Frohes Neues Jahr!

Happy New Year!

First - a big thanks to the person who sent me a box of Chocolate Malt o Meal! Not even remotely possible to find out here.

We are winding down our holiday season, but before it ended, we took a quick trip to Ronnenberg again to visit our friends, the Kellersmann family, for New Year's Eve and New Year Day. 

In Germany, the New Year holiday is called Silvester. There are  several German traditions that are very different than in the US. For example, there is Bleigießen  -  dropping molten lead into cold water and making predictions according to the shape it makes. Eating a jam filled donut (a Berliner) is another tradition. Touching a chimney sweep or having one rub ashes on your head is traditionally done for good luck. You can read the full wikipedia entry here, just scroll down to Germany.

We took a  morning train to Ronnenberg and arrived just before lunch. After a little bite to eat, Matthias took the Haines bunch on a little walk around Gehrdenberg. It is a small mountain surrounded by the town of Gehrden.

At one point during our hike we came across this stone plaque. It was a contemplative place with a couple of benches where a person could sit and look at the view while thinking about the poem on the stone.

Ein Traum, ein Traum ist unser Leben
Auf Erden hier;
Wie Schatten auf den Wogen schweben
Und schwinden wir
Und messen unsere trägen Schritte
Nach Raum und Zeit
Und sind, wir wissen's nicht, in Mitte
Der Ewigkeit

Johann Gottfried Herder

And now in English

A dream, a dream is our life
Here on Earth;
Like shadows floating on the waves
And we fade
And measure our slow steps
After space and time
And, we do not know, in the middle
Of eternity.

That evening we were treated to a Kellersmann New Year tradition. Raclette!
Raclette is actually a French invention, but the Germans have made it their own. The traditional French way of eating this meal includes placing a bit of meat, potatoes and/or vegetables in a small pan and then covering the contents of the pan with cheese. Then, you place the small pan in the Raclette griddle. The heating elements are above and below while the small pan is placed between the elements. When everything is melted, you scrape it onto your plate and eat it. The German way has less cheese and more of everything else.

Above was the younger people table and below was some the toppings for the adults. The salad, of course,  was on the side.

After dinner we had fun waiting till midnight. This lead us to another German New Year tradition - watching the British sketch Dinner for One. It has nothing to do with the New Year itself, but it has become a German holiday staple. The line, "The same procedure as last year?" has become a catch phrase here in Germany.

There was no question of when it struck twelve because I think every household in a 100 kilometer radius set of rockets for the next 45 minutes.

We even helped the Kellersmanns to set a few off ourselves.

Of course no New Year celebration would be complete without a few sparklers.

Paulina and Ute both have sparkler talent. The German word for sparkler is something like Zauberstange (magic wand).

The next day was Sunday and New Year's Day so there was not much open to explore. However, there was a nearby town called Springer which had a special Nativity display. The newspaper (Zeitung) indicated it was open, so off we went. Unfortunately, it was closed. Instead, we walked through the center of town, and like all German towns we have had the opportunity to walk through, it was charming.

This is the only time I have ever seen  more than a minimal amount of litter on the ground, some leftovers from fireworks.

It is not just a problem in the US - pick up your Dog Poop! Gross! (Literally, please meadows and paths not as dog toilet use.)

One thing I love about Germany is they are not afraid to put art anywhere. Here is a Sundial (maybe) in the parking lot of between a church and a museum. Sadly, it is winter and not of much use.

There was no sign to tell us what this wall might have been used for. It looked like it was possibly part of a fortress complex.

We still had several hours till we needed to make our way down to Münster, and it occurred to Ute that we could make a little detour to a lovely little town called Hameln with some lovely buildings from the Weserrenaissance.

Hameln sits on the River Weser. There is a small electric plant to the left with a newly installed fish staircase that they are very proud of.

There are some lovely buildings here that are examples of the Weserrenaissance, this one is called Rattenfängerhaus.

There are also cool narrow streets bordered by buildings that would be showcases in many cities, but are unremarkable here.

I love that this house is all kinds of not square.

Oh, and by the way ... the story about the flutist that led all of the rats out of town and then led the children away when the town's leaders wouldn't pay? Yep, that was here (it's really Hameln, not Hamelin). It seems like there are surprises all over Germany. 

The story is based on the disappearance of the town's children around the year 1280. There is no clear answer of why the children vanished, some think it was a plague or that the children were taken for the Children's Crusade. By the way, "Pied" means multicolored. Here is what the inscription along the top of the Rattenfängerhaus (Rat Catcher's House) says.

That evening we made our way home by train and then biked from the train station to our apartment at about 9:50. The wind was very strong, but we made it.

We have been very lucky to make so many friends here. For the past few weeks I have been privileged to learn how to make pizza dough, yoghurt, Arepas and a few other things. I have found several food stuffs I am going to miss when we return to the states. Perhaps it is time for a blog dedicated to food!