Fool me once...

Drats, foiled again!

First off, I admit that the title of this post was just a little bit of an excuse to call attention to one of my favorite Bush quotes.

With that out of the way, I really did have a point here. :-P And that point, it turns out, is mushrooms. If you know me, you know that I do my best to be open-minded with food... but mushrooms and olives are where I draw the line. Or at least try to.


Back in August 2004, I was just beginning to start traveling (my only previous lone trip to Europe was Prague in March 2004 -- who knew I'd be starting a trend?). I was in Geneva, Switzerland for a conference, and went out to dinner with some colleagues. The menu was in French, as that's what most of the western Swiss speak. I asked the girls I was eating with to translate the menu, and I chose what I wanted. When it came time to order, I wanted to be self-sufficient so I ordered for myself, in French. And it turns out, I remembered the wrong thing! ;-) I was one line off. The meal arrived, and I was expecting something like pasta... and it's a bowl of mushrooms! only mushrooms! in some sort of gravy sauce! I was horrified. I ate nearly half of it, then finally confessed to the other girls what I did and one was nice and traded the rest of her meal with me. ;)

Of course, after that experience I was certain to memorize the word for mushroom -- champignon in french -- and since then, for each country I visit, I make sure to learn the word for mushroom so I can avoid it. A foolproof plan.

And THEN -- Germany foiled my plan!

A few nights ago in Germany, I again went to the restaurant below my hotel to get a pizza for dinner. Straightforward, yes? After almost two weeks in town, I knew a few German food words, and "Champignon" (just like the French work) was early on my word-spotting list. Based on my confidence, combined with cheapness, I ordered one of the more simple pizzas from the menu. Pizza arrives... COVERED with mushrooms!!

For all you fellow mushroom haters who may choose to wander Germany in the future: it turns out there's a second, secret word! "Pilzen". I felt tricked :) I saw that word on the menu (with the words for cheese, tomato, and pepperoni which I knew), but thought of the beer ("Pils" in German, "Pilsner" in Czech") and figured it was just a spice of some sort.

Again, I sucked it up and ate the mushrooms. Ay de mi. :-P

Something in the water...

Is there anymore much more distasteful than, thirsting for water, you take a big swig and find it salty and carbonated? For whatever reason, the Europeans appear to love this stuff. Not only is tap water almost never served (though in countries like German it is quite safe), but the bottled water is by a large majority (and definitely by default) carbonated. Perhaps one can develop a taste for it... but I don't find it at all refreshing, and what's more, find myself burping far more that usual. :-) How ladylike, eh?

You've got to love a country where finding a glass of uncarbonated water is on level with acquiring a PhD, and yet you can buy a "glass" of Jägermeister in the university cafeteria!!

To review, Jägermeister is

• (German translation) anise- and herb-flavored digestive
• (English translation) a huge post-frat party hangover mechanism

Party on. :-) But don't drink the water.

Currency check

Today, the US dollar hit a 20-month low against the euro. 1 euro now equals $1.37 US, 11% more than at the beginning of the year. As if things here weren't too expensive anyway, this tidbit definitely helps to explain the dull ache in my wallet these days.

But, could be worse... the pound has now risen to $1.94, a FOURTEEN-YEAR high!!! (In April it was $1.78) Good thing I'm not heading to London anytime soon. :-)

Native Americans making a comeback... in Germany?

As I wandered Saarbrucken this weekend, I was struck by what seems to be a (recent?) trend here: Native American performances and paraphenilia. Street performers, Lakota tribe dream catchers, little collectible teepees...

Anyway, seemed a little left field. The music and traditions are beautiful, I just never expected to see them pop up in Saarbrucken!

Not such a bad little city

This weekend, the weekend between my two weeks in Germany, I'd intended to duck out of Saarbrucken, a population 150,000 small city no one's heard of, and head to Paris again to see my friend Ben and/or former exchange student Audren, or to Munich to explore, or maybe day trips to Luxembourg or Strasbourg or Heidelberg...

Instead, I decided late last week that I would just stay here. Once I made the decision, it made sense. I had work to do. Weather forecasts weren't pretty. Et cetera. It seemed like a shame to lose the traveling opportunity while I'm out here, but then again I'm definitely not wanting for travel this year, and then there's the matter of traveling to Europe last weekend, traveling to Prague next weekend, returning to Baltimore the next weekend, flying to see my family in NC 12 days later, and flying to Dubai a week after that. Even typing all that tires me out, so the idea of sleeping in a bit, wandering the city, and getting some work done sounded nice.

And it turns out, for all the complaining about Saarbrucken from the locals about how little there is to do, I've had a really nice weekend. Nothing flashy, but some history, some lovely buildings, the annual Saarbrucken Christmas market celebration, and the free bicycle the fantastic hotel staff here let me borrow to wander the city have contributed to a great weekend.

On the bad end, work has been worthless this weekend, due more to software problems and the issues of working remotely than lack of trying... hopefully I'll keep productive this next week in Germany.

my italian thanksgiving

Ah yes, staying abroad for the holidays... just like the pilgrims used to do!

It's kind of surreal being here over Thanksgiving, if for no reason than things are just... normal here. Normal work, normal schedule, normal portion sizes. :-) And did you ever consider how few national cuisines really focus on turkey? Guess it makes sense.

Anyway, for my Thanksgiving, I ended up at an Italian restaurant in Germany with my Czech host professor, a Dutch masters student, a prospective faculty member from Spain currently finishing her postdoc in the Netherlands, and a couple of native Germans. Of course, with that mix, I did have a few very American-feeling moments when the topic switched to politics!

Bring on the stuffing, boys.

Gastronomical Travelings

I haven't been a great German tourist so far, I admit. Not that there have been a lot of tourist options so far in Saarbrucken (but this weekend I may check out Munich or Cologne, stay tuned...), but more than that, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I haven't had a single beer, German or otherwise, and the three nights I've been here I went out for Thai buffet, followed by pizza in the "italian" place connected to my hotel, and last night I grabbed some kabab from a carry-out stand on the street. I have had "German" food for lunch in tha cafeteria each day, but I'm not sure that's really a shining example of German cuisine. Hey, at least I haven't stooped to McDonalds!

Well, we'll see how my Thanksgiving meal turns out. :-)

The coatless, wanna-be pentalinguist

More of the cold and wet today. Made better, of course, by the fact that this morning I realized I'd left my coat (the night before) in the restaurant connected to my hotel. Which of course doesn't open til 10:30. (doh!) Oh well -- I had time to buy some local stuff I needed, like a sim card for my phone, and all worked out. Note: avoid this in the future.

I've memorized a grand total of about five German phrases so far and carry my little phrase book everywhere, but hopefully that will progress over the next few weeks. It's funny - whenever I try to think of how to say something small in German, the answer comes to me in broken Czech, or Spanish, or Arabic (and more often of course, just English) instead. It's like I'm in a competition to see how many languages I can learn to not really speak. :-) As it turns out, it's been much more difficult to find English speakers here than in central Prague so far, likely because in Germany the skill is less necessary. And somehow, oddly, Saarbrücken doesn't rank as a top German tourist stop!

Sister cities?

According to the wikipedia entry on Saarbrucken, my current "home", its sister city in the US is none other than my much-more-real home Pittsburgh (where I was born, attended college, and most of my family lives). Good to know!

Wonder what, if anything, it means. Do they have club meetings? Share kielbasa recipes? :-) Alright, that's Polish... whatever...

The secret of exchanging money

A small deal to some, but after all of my months of travel, I finally did find a way to exchange US money without losing half of it in the process! The not-so-secret secret: exchange at a bank.

Of course, for a scenario like my four month stint in Prague, there's no way I would have been able to bring over that much US cash, so my high-fee approach might still be unavoidable. For shorter trips though, I'd heard suggestions ranging from

• Exchange US-> foreign while in the US: lower demand means the exchange rate will be better
  Absolutely not! Or, possibly for high demand currency like euros (but then that might go against the motivation anyway), but not for currency like Czech koronas. Low demand means even lower supply, and the rates were the absolute worst.
• Exchange US->foreign at a standard currency exchange booth at your destination.
  Sometimes this is okay, but watch for unflattering exchange rates and extra fees.
  
• Exchange US->foreign by simply using foreign ATMs.
  It is possible that the rate is better than standard exchange booths, but don't forget about bank fees, especially from your US bank. Note: Bank of America loves to f*** you on all foreign transactions -- atm withdrawals, check card usage, credit card usage, etc.
• Withdraw $$ in US and exchange at destination bank. Note: probability of teller speaking English is low; bring translations.
  

Instead, I withdrew $300 in the US (ha, like that will be enough), converted $100 to euros in the Frankfurt airport to start with, and just returned from the bank to convert another $100 as I'm, yes, already running low.

$100 US at airport yesterday --> 67 euro and change
$100 US at bank today --> 75 euro and change.

Where did my first $100/67 euro go? 6 euro taxi, 15e dinner, 20e dine card deposit, 10e on university dine card (4,80 gone on first lunch), 10,5e on week-long bus pass, and just a few left (plus my new 75e :-))

Much of that is ~one-time expenses -- hopefully sailing will be smoother here on out!

On the train: lovin' the leaves

Though when I passed through Pittsburgh and Ohio recently to attend my cousin Heather's bridal shower, I found that autumn had long passed, Baltimore has been going through a late and extended beautiful fall these past few weeks. I'm thrilled to report that this area of Germany looks to be about the same. The views from my train from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken (3hr, not nearly as eventful as my last pass through this area) have been quiet lovely.

I'm afraid to pull out my camera though for fear of looking like the ultimate tourist -- not that reading Rick Steves' classic "German Phrase Book and Dictionary" hasn't given me away! -- but I've got a good hour left on the train so I may change my mind yet, especially if my car empties out.

Even the rows of crops seem to change a variety of colors. I wasn't expecting that! I don't typically think of crops as deciduous, but I guess it depends on what types of crops they are.

Speaking of the Rick Steves' book (and yes, he does apostrophize that way), thanks much to Simil for letting me borrow it! It's concise and well-organized; definitely I'll be going into this Germany trip slightly more prepared than last March's trip, when I was too overwhelmed with trying to absorb Czech (alas, to no avail) to worry about the correct way to say "good morning" in German. I don't expect to need German much this trip either, but I'll at least give it a go.

Just as I admired the German scenary here in.... [glancing out the train window -- where am I? Fahrkarten? Whoops, no, that's the ticket counter I think. ;-) I don't see the sign...] anyway, small little German town en route to Saarbrucken. [Sobernheim.] But between all of the traditional little houses, etc, I just saw the "Chicago Sports Bar", which if I'm not mistaken also offers kareoke. Funny the things that pop up where you don't expect them. :-)

My train is running a good 20 minutes late.... I'm thrilled that I caught the one route from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken which didn't require transfers. :-) I definitely trust myself more than in my early travels, but this is just easier.

It's raining now, as weather.com warned me to expect for at least the next 10 days. So much for my nice out-the-window-colorful-crops photos. Oh well, hopefully there'll be nice scenary to record in Saarbrucken.

Beginning a new journey, and recalling the last

Today's flights were my third trip across the Atlantic this year, and those who know me probably know that a fourth trip awaits in December. My trip to Prague from January to May was pretty well documented in this blog (as were the subsequent intra-Europe trips to London, Saarbrucken, and Paris). I don't believe I mentioned my trip to Spain in August at all, so now is as good a time as any...

This August I spent 10 days with my boyfriend's family in the village he's from but never officially lived, and where his mother grew up. (details: Liendo is a small village on the northern Spanish coast west of Bilbao -- see related link). I'll include a few quick shots below -- why not? -- but too much to write up. Basically, the area was gorgeous,


I enjoyed meeting his father and Spanish side of the family, and had a lot of time going out (til at least 5am most nights, and often later) with his friends!

The biggest surprise: after 3 years in high school and a few semesters in college, it turns out that I really do know how to speak a little bit of Spanish! I had some serious doubts going into it, and was a little worried about feeling out of place and left out of conversations when I didn't understand. Once I relaxed and stopped worry about the inevitable mistakes though, I did pretty well! His friends were all impressed with me. And good thing too, because I definitely overestimated the English proficiency of everyone we'd meet there.

Let's get this party started...

This Saturday I head back to Europe, spending two weeks in Saarbrucken, Germany and one week in Prague. The trip is completely work-focused, as was my initial Prague trip, but I'm hoping once again to get a little exploring done in the meantime.

Stay tuned! :-)

At the dinner table: A side-by-side comparison of the eating habits of Czechs, Germans, the French, and Americans.

Disclaimer: These observations are admittedly one sided impressions from what were sometimes brief encounters with native eaters. Any readers of Czech, German, French, or American origin should not take offense at anything stated here. On the other hand, comments to the blog entry are appreciated!

Breakfast:

• Czechs: Bread and meat: Hard long thin rolls, various slices of salomi and other meats, yogart with granola perhaps.
• Germans: Sliced bread or croissants with cheeses (brie and the like), marmalades, honey. Also cherry tomatoes and pickles -- I think I'm the only American capable of enjoying pickles for breakfast, as it turns out. :-)
• French: French croissant (more crumbly than I'm used to) or bread with jam, yogart, cheese
• Americans: There are really three types: 1) Cereal, probably sweet; 2) sausage, eggs, pancakes, etc.; 3) Huh, breakfast? Does coffee count?

When you walk into a moderately nice restaurant:

• Czechs: Seat yourself
• Germans: They point at a table and you assume you should sit there.
• French: You should have a reservation
• Americans: Don't even think of seating yourself... customers can't be trusted to do such things correctly. A personal escort will walk you to your table, even standing beside the chair you should sit in to ensure that you don't miss it and sit on the floor instead.
  

When the food arrives, waiters say:

• Czechs: "Please" (prosim). Actually, people use "prosim" for everything in the CR!
• Germans: "Thank you" (danke shen?) I was never sure whether I should also say thank you, or try to be more creative
• French: ???
• Americans: "Here you go"?

Dinner must always include:

• Czechs: Soup. Always. If not at dinner, definitely lunchtime. Potato dumplings aren't mandatory but strongly encouraged, along with a thick sauce of some sort.
• Germans: Potatoes and a slab of meat, maybe Weiner Schnizel. Also salads seem to be a constant side item, but sometimes this literally means a bowl of lettuce with dressing thrown in. What can I say, they're a highly bare-bones and efficient people. :-)
  
• French: Wine and dessert
• Americans: Umm, french fries?

Speaking of french fries, here is how they're eaten:

• Czechs: With tartar sauce (mayo-based)
  
• Germans: Alone? I wasn't offered anything anyway.
• French: With mustard
• Americans: Good old Heinz ketchup

Eating styles:

• Czechs: Eat incredibly quickly, and always with the fork in left hand, knife in right at all times.
• Germans: Always with the fork in left hand, knife in right at all times. Eat more slowly than Czechs, but still faster than me. This is possibly because I am attempting to eat my pasta with my fork in my left hand at the time. ;-)
• French: Always with the fork in left hand, knife in right at all times. If by chance this isn't the case (silly American), both hands should be visable above the table at all times or it's considered to be very rude.
• Americans: Cut food with fork in left, knife in right, but eat with only one hand which means fork in right hand while knife stays on the right side of the plate. My Czech friend told me he learned officially in his English class that Americans are "one-hand eaters". If this is you, beware -- in Europe waiters try to clear your plate away the moment both fork and knife sit on the same side of your plate. If this happens to you, simply swat them away and say "Hey, I'm an American!". They'll understand... ;-)

With meals, people drink:

• Czechs: Beer, or nothing -- both happen often and at all times of the day. Otherwise, carbonated bottled water. Tap water doesn't do the most pleasant things to the digestive system.
• Germans: Beer or tap water
• French: Wine. Actually, in the first restaurant we went to, I was asked what wine I wanted as my appetizer. Nice place. :-) Coffee comes at the end of the meal.
• Americans: A soft drink.

Beer:

• Czechs: You walk into a bar and say "Beer" (pivo) and they'll give you a beer. No specific beer name necessary most of the time. Two main local brews: Pilsner and Staropramen. Cost: $1 (30 Kz)
• Germans: You walk into a bar and say "Beer" (bier) and they'll give you a funny look. They ask 'dark?', you say no, and they'll give you a Ur Pils. Still, they weren't quite as haughty about beer as I expected.
• French: Why are you ordering beer in France?
• Americans: You walk into a bar and say "Beer" and they'll roll their eyes and go to the next customer. :-)

Dessert:

• Czechs: If it's there, normally some pastry or dumpling with fruit involved.
• Germans: I only had one dessert, and it was at a Tapas restaurant -- not the best example. The Crema Catalana was good though...
• French: Almost always part of the meal, at lunch times too. And all the desserts I saw (pastries, tartes, sorbets, creme broulees...) all looked (okay, tasted) fantastic!
• Americans: Cookie, ice cream, cakes... Hey, sometimes all three at once. :-)

Tipping after meals:

• Czechs: Optional, meant to be an actual indicator of how pleased you are with a meal. If you tip around 10% your Czech companions' eyes will boggle, and I'm sure they'll go home to their wives shocked at how frivolous those Americans are with money. Around 5% is more appropriate it seems. This money all goes directly into their pockets, no tax on it. Of course, some touristy places in Prague they'll add 18% tip to your bill, just because they figure you won't fight it I guess.
• Germans: I never found out the protocol. Following the Czech lead I didn't tip American amounts, but around 10%. Either the waiters hated me or were thrilled with their fantastic luck. The guys in the restaurant below my hotel (two visits) didn't seem to mind me much.
• French: Included in the food price I'm told, though that's not directly stated on the bill.
• Americans: 15% mandatory, 20% if you're very happy. Waitresses make crap because the system assumes that they'll get 10% tip at the bare, bare minimum. When I waitressed after high school, we had to submit tip amounts at the end of the night, which of course there was never time to actually count. I was told to just write slightly more than 10% of my total bills; any less the IRS might chase you.

For a good dinner you pay:

• Czechs: 350 Kz for 2 people... around $15 total, $7.50 each (Klub Arkitektu with my mom... fantastic meal too).
• Germans: 15 Euros... around $20? (hotel restaurant)
• French: 35 Euros or more, depending on how much wine you had (various restaurants)
• Americans: $20

A fantastic journey westward

I just returned to Prague after five days in Saarbrucken (Germany), and another two in Paris.

Saarbrucken was a productive work visit... made a lot of interesting contacts, gave a well-received talk, and though the linguistics (specifically deep semantics) overload made my head hurt a bit, there's a chance some of it could actually end up helping my research -- something professionally useful from this Europe trip!

Paris was just a fantastic trip overall, thanks to the organized guiding of my French pals Ben and Daphnee, who not only led me through almost every Paris monument and famous sight known to tourists, not only found me a great and reasonably-priced hotel, but took me to some fantastic restaurants for food that blew even me away, and I rarely care much about food one way or the other. I took way too many pictures to post or to entertain anyone but the most bored and work-avoiding of my "readership", but once I upload everything I'll find a few interesting ones to post here and will put others on my separate CLSP picture site.

I love Prague and was happy to return... still, great to have a little adventure and take advantage of my time in Europe!

Travels to Saarbrucken, Germany

I’m writing this as I sit on the train from Mainz, Germany to my final destination of Saarbrucken, where I’ll spend the next week working at Saarland University. (Note: post written Monday 3/13, posted 3/14). The plan was fly Prague -> Frankfurt and take train(s) southwest to Saarbrucken, estimated 1.5+2 hrs. It’s been a much longer travel than I expected. My very first lone train ride (not counting the MARC to DC) and the rest of my traveling day hasn’t been the cleanest, but it looks to all work out in the end (of course, I’m not checked into the hotel yet…).

Yesterday, planned travel day: surprise snowstorm, and the city kind of choked. There were several inches on the ground and almost no roads were really cleared, but it didn’t even occur to me til I was almost at the airport that things might be shut down. Sure enough, soon as I arrive I see that my flight was cancelled, and soon after the airport was announced closed until late that evening. After 2 hours in a slow line to reschedule my flight, I picked a morning flight for the next day instead of taking my chances for the evening. As it turned out, things did open and I could have taken off at 7pm… but an extra 8 hrs at the airport without a guarantee just didn’t seem worth it.

The Prague airport was open today. I got there a little more than an hour before my 10:20 flight, but just checking in took almost 45 minutes so I was a little panicked. It wasn’t just me though -- everyone surrounding me was on the 10:20 flight, the desk people just seemed extraordinarily slow. It turned out that the airline woman yesterday didn’t actually switch my flight to today like she said she had, but the rush of getting everyone through the line worked to my advantage I guess -- the woman who checked me in just sighed and added me to the flight right then to keep things moving. The flight left Prague ~20 min late, prob because of the delay in checking everyone in, but it worked out okay.

There’s a small train station in the Frankfurt airport; I bought tix for a 1:23 train, but after waiting from 1pm, when a train arrived at 1:15, I got on assuming it was early or would wait. Of course, all signs were in Germany, but Mainz, the city I needed, seemed to be on the sign so I went with it. And of course… wrong train. It shared routes with my train til the 2nd-to-last stop so I didn’t realize til it was too late. I took an extra train to get from Weisbaren (??) where I ended up to Mainz, hoping noone would check my ticket to see what happened (they didn’t). The mistake of not waiting 5 min for the correct train has pushed my schedule over 2 hr behind though, on top of the day behind I already started from the snow. I just hope that the Saarland people didn’t have too much planned for me. It turns out my Vodaphone mobile service doesn’t work here either; a disappointment since Vodaphone is all over Europe. Having one service cover the entire U.S. has spoiled me I guess. Not worth it to buy prepaid Germany service for a week though, with the overhead of buying the card and the min minutes necessary to buy.

One thing to mention though -- the west Germany landscape has indeed been pretty beautiful; it’s been nice to see it by train. I’m going by train from Saarbrucken to Paris next weekend, so I think that will be even better. Prague is lucky its got the beautiful buildings and architecture and history working for it. I miss seeing mountains.