Late Night Shopping Festival

At the end of September, we did something highly unusual in Germany…we shopped at night.  Yes, once a year in central Munich, it's shopping till midnight.

Because the food generally is fresher and has fewer preservatives here (I’m a big fan of that!) and the refrigerators are the size of an average college student’s dorm fridge (not a fan!), you’re at the grocery store/baker/butcher pretty often.  All of which close by 8pm and on Sundays. So, there’s usually a mad rush at 7:45pm to hunt and gather dinner.  That leaves Saturday as shopping day for all your other wants and needs. (I won't even try to describe the chaos of a Friday night when Saturday is a holiday!)

But one night a year, Munich residents can go out for dinner, drinks, and THEN go shopping.  Even better, it’s basically a giant block party so we can do all three at once! With bands, beer gardens, fashion shows, circus acts, and of course portable ATMs since many places do not accept credit cards.

Acrobats above the cosmetics department at Ludwig Beck

I’m not sure why the merchants don’t ask for this more often…nothing helps stimulate consumption like mixing beer gardens and shopping.  Obama wants the Germans to buy more? Talk to Angie about having more “Culture – Shopping Nights” in Germany! 

But this night is more than just later closing hours...it's an event, a real festival to celebrate this ordained breaking of the rules! There are bands, entertainment at many major stores, and outdoor beer gardens. Really, it's a big block party, but with a set schedule of events.  The crowds were quite impressive and in late September you never know if this will be the last warm day of the year or not.

The highlights:

“Authentic American Music” (acoustic country and bluegrass) at Ludwig Beck department store

Cuban and “Fiery Salsa” at the bedding store

“Modern Nostalgia” with lounge music and a vintage VW bus at the Eyewear store

And at the womenswear store, a capella cover versions from Elvis to Michael Jackson.

And “Cowboy and Cowgirl Feeling” with a Bull-riding competition at the denim store

Truly something for everyone…

I've learned to find most of the things I need here, but whenever someone asks me what I miss from home, the answer after "friends and family" is "Wow, I miss going to Target at 10pm and loading up the car with a month's worth of supplies and groceries."  Alas, today you find me walking to the store almost daily and carrying it home in environmentally friendly reusable fold-up shopping totes. But at least I have some cool shopping bags - and, for the record, I never make Herr J carry the pink Hello Kitty one. 

UPDATE:

Apparently Dresden has us beat, by taking it one step further and having an annual Sunday Shopping Day...oh, the heresy....and I so want to go!

 

The Company Doctor

At times, the cultural divide between the U.S. and Germany can be amusing, frustrating, or just plain interesting.  Recently, however, I felt like it could almost kill me.

There is a distinct cultural difference about how to deal with an illness – specifically, going to work and going to the doctor.  At least in my experience, workers in the U.S. show up for work when they are moderately ill.  You don’t want to spread the illness around, but you do duty and try not to burn sick/flex days.  Plus, you figure that you’ll probably shake the bug in a few days and tough it out.  If you don’t get better (or possibly get worse) over a few days, then you might take a day off and probably go to the doctor for some medicine.

In Germany, the orientation is completely the opposite.  If you are feeling the slightest bit unwell, by all means stay home from work (or go home early).  Call the doctor immediately and get an appointment… because he/she will give you a written order stating you must stay home (legally binding, and probably adds an extra day or two) and you can make sure the Black Plague has not returned.  I would love to see statistics on sick days taken between the U.S. and Germany… but Spiegel.de does have a funny take on the matter.

“Unable to Work Certificate” that German doctors sign for workers

Backtrack:  Frau A and I cooked dinner for German friends last weekend:  my colleague, his wife (expecting twins in November), and their 3-year old daughter now in “kindergarten”.  The little one, of course, is bringing home all sorts of new and exciting colds from the other kids, and I caught something.  No problem… just hang in there a few days and get through it.  I chugged water, downed lots of vitamins, and got to bed early every evening.  Nonetheless, after three days my chest was still really tight and I had one of those coughs that completely prevent you from sleeping.  I got 2 hours sleep for three straight nights (and was tortured by German late night television, so started a new book).  Not getting better, I went to the doctor on the Siemens campus.  Enter the cultural divide.

The doctors assumed that I just started experiencing the symptoms.  So their recommendation?  Sit ten minutes with an infrared lamp (looked like a radar gun) heating my chest and neck.   See my Blackberry photo below.  You can see the infrared lamp, the timer bar to the left, and the red glow on the wall and chair!

Infrared light treatment 

After the “infrarot-therapie” I spent another ten minutes inhaling steam from a mask connected to something looking and sounding like an aquarium pump.  It emitted Darth Vader sounds, which were pretty cool.

Inhallation treatment 

Then they gave me a couple of throat lozenges, smiled, and said “see you tomorrow for more infrared and inhalation”.  Huh?  Going on a week of an illness that was NOT getting better, I wanted some real medicine.  I realize these are legitimate treatment options, but not in this situation IMHO.

So I tried one more night – the “treatment” had no effect, of course.  No sleep at all.  So I went back again and they offered more French-fry lighting and the vapor-inhaler-thingy.  I complained, but they were adamant that you apply homeopathic remedies first.  I complained louder (Germans always say no at first – keep trying) so they relented a bit and gave some prescription medicine to help the coughing, but would not go to antibiotics.

Let me say more directly – this is the difference between what I got, and what I wanted:

Hint for readers under age 30: "Aloha, Mr. Hand"

So I will head home again tonight and hope this works.  If not, then tomorrow they will (hopefully) prescribe antibiotics.  If I had gone to the doctor on day 1, things would have worked much better.  There are, of course, some German doctors that will take more aggressive treatment, and I’m not saying that the U.S. way is better.  You just need to understand a system to be successful in it.  Hope I survive another evening to try again.

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It is now two days later, and things are somewhat better.  The stronger medicine to loosen up the chest and stop coughing was pretty good, so they think I’ll get through without antibiotics – but they admit that it would be totally gone by now if they had prescribed them right away.  Good enough to actually look forward to the weekend. 

Also, I did a little research and the steam inhaler and infrared light are legitimate therapies… I guess I need to learn to start these right away to try and prevent whatever bug from getting worse.  But guys are never that logical.

It appears that I am not the only one with interesting experiences with Germans and illness:

-   Germans can “schedule” their sick time

-   UK averages 7 sick days per year compared with Germans averaging 8.4 (20% more)

-   Germany are getting more clever and having doctors keep them away from work due to stress

One more cultural learning:  when I’m ill and really need to sleep, I turn to Nyquil (and take more than the recommended amount).  This is not available in Germany (the equivalent is prescription) so I always return from the U.S. with at least 2 bottles, hoping they will last.  This time, of course, I ran out.  Frau A recommended the “southern Nyquil” elixir, that comes in various forms:

           

I must admit this concoction did help.  I see it on the Web with Jack Daniels or Makers Mark, and I would guess SoCo would work too.  Unfortunately, I had left my scotch at Frau A’s place – we had a scotch tasting with some friends and I never brought it back.  So I turned to cognac as the base, and it went down quite smoothly.  It’s not a pure cognac:  the Remy Martin website describes Coeur de Cognac as an “elixir” with essence of apricot and pear.  Works for me.  I’m not a huge cognac drinker, but this is a good middle ground and I like it even when not coughing up my lungs.  Give it a try.  I did try it with traditional German/Austrian schnapps, and recommend against this alternative unless you have a titanium esophagus.  Schnapps in Germany & Austria is NOT like that in the U.S. – no sugar added at all – this is on the back burner for another post… until then, “gute Besserung”.

                                                           

The Company Cafeteria, Part II

Frau A and I recently met up with a friend of mine from high school.  Her sister lives in Germany, and she & her husband were visiting the sister's family and traveling around southern Germany, Switzerland, and France.  We had dinner at one of the nicer Bavarian restaurants in Munich, Wirtshaus in der Au.  Thanks for stopping by, Heidi and Chris!  (Great German names, BTW)

Our dinner together was a reminder that the first German corporate cafeteria post deserves a follow-up.  Here are some more offerings from the office food service.

One common item in colder weather is the "eintopf mit wurst".  This is a bowl of lentil soup with two frankfurters thrown in.  A German food site has over 50 recipes for this!  It can look a little mushy, and tends to be a bit bland, but with a little salt, pepper, and maybe paprika added it's pretty good.  Perfect for you low-carb dieters too.  You just get a strange feeling cutting up a hot dog with knife and fork... in soup.

Unfortunately, the "wurst" in the soups is not the highest quality in a corporate cafeteria.  And it is not bratwurst, but just a standard hot dog style weiner.  No grill here either.  Boiled.  See them floating on the left here:

The above photo is also a warning about a typical mistake in Germany.  If you order "Pizza Pepperoni"  over here you will not get the pizza you expect.  Pepperoni means the vegetable, not the meat.  You will get what you see above, a cheese pizza with a long green pepper on it (or a bunch of smaller ones).  You need to order "Pizza Salami" instead (although they do put salami on it, not the pepperoni style used in the U.S.).

Then there is leberkäse, or shortened to leberkäs.  It's the German meatloaf, made with pork instead of beef, so it looks and tastes completely different.  It is typically Bavarian comfort food, found at every train station (a slice of it is eaten in a roll with mustard), and often even served for breakfast!  In my experience, quality varies greatly (like meatloaf, I guess) but I think there is a reason that the Germans eat it with a lot of mustard, if you know what I mean...

Need something with your leberkäs?  Looking for big and starchy?  Go right for the knödel.  It's a mammoth dumpling -- usually potato but can also be bread-based.  You will need some kind of sauce to add moisture and get it down, that's why it often accompanies roasted pork dishes that come with sauce, like schweinebraten.

Finally, I need to end with something positive: another photo of bienenstich.  Love it.  In the first post it was a stock photo from Wikipedia.  This time, they were serving it in the cafeteria and I grabbed one.  Didn't last long...

Haute Cuisine du Drive Thru

Check out this fun site where Erik Trinidad at Fancy Fast Food recreates fine dining entirely from items found at various fast food chains.

No idea how they taste, but they look quite impressive!

His repertoire is extensive (and strangely makes me use French words that made it into the English language)....a few favorites:

A beef carpaccio from Arby's (the Beef C’Arbysscio)

an Ossobucco creation from Burger King, the Osso BuKko

 

His descriptions often match his creations in their humor and creativity. In describing how to make the Soniccian Borscht, he writes:

Soniccian culture still hasn’t evolve from some of its former Soviet routines; one can not simply buy these fast food goods off the shelf or by ordering them from a person behind a counter. Instead you must order the items the old-fashioned way, by pushing a button on an antiquated intercom system while inside your vehicle. (At certain times during the day, there are often long waits in a long queue of other vehicles.) This ordering process is prevalent in Soniccia; even if you wish to go on foot and walk to the food establishment to buy goods, you must still push a button and order from the old intercom system. Only when your order is confirmed over the speaker does a person bring you your items — sometimes (but not always) using vintage roller skates from the early 20th century. Present day Soniccia is truly a unique nation with its cultural idiosyncracies.

I'm craving a little Chicken Chipotlioli....Enjoy!

More Fun with New Media

In a prior post, we saw how Twitter Tweets can collectively be used as a mood ring for the U.S..  Well, it turns out that Facebook status updates show the times of year that you are most likely to be dumped by your significant other!  Here is the chart that shows volume of break-ups over time:

Most of this makes sense.   Funny that Mondays in April have mini-peaks (why April?).  I've heard that in the corporate world, firms usually lay off employees on Fridays.  I guess that in each case the breaker-upper chooses a time at the end of a period of relationship interaction, rather before a period of relationship interaction... but maybe that's over thinking things a bit.

I guess there are a lot of returned Christmas gifts... so there is an advantage to last minute shopping?  There is a small uptick before Valentines Day too, but people seem to stick it out better.  Until Spring break, of course.  Interesting stuff.

Check out the author's TED talk as well.  You have seen TED, haven't you?

Greetings from the Maldives

Enjoying some sun, scuba, and relaxation in the Maldives.....

Beautiful sunsets...

pretty fishes with my LX3 and 10Bar Housing....

and more to come....

Love in Every Language

I am usually not on the same "frequency" as a lot of German entertainment (specifically television, movies, theater).  It's interesting, but not exactly to my taste.  There are a lot of reasons including the style of humor, depth/subtlety in plot lines and acting, and overall production feel.  More detail in another post...

I was, however, introduced to a performer who is clever and gives a fun and touching show.  His name is Bodo Wartke.  He plays plays piano, makes jokes, etc. -- but it really came together when he wrote a 4-line love song and then sang it in different German dialects.  Think of an audience laughing at a love song that cycles through a New York accent, Chicago accent, and then Southern drawl.

He then extended it to other languages... 88 of them!  Even better, he created an online love song generator where you can drag and drop languages into the verses for a song and the web site assembles and performs the song for you (upts in the chorus automatically).  Then, when you have a combo of languages you like, you can download an MP3 of the song or even send one to a significant other!

The "languages" currently available are:

- 14 German "dialects"
- 4 English accents (standard, Shakespearean, "Middle English", and Australian)
- Most major European languages (French, Italian, Spanish...)
- Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Hindi
- Yiddish, Sanscrit, Esperanto
- and three sic-fi/fantasy languages:  Klingon, Sindarin and Quenya

Yes, Klingon.

Even nicer, if you are dying to sing it yourself, you can download the piano part along and use it karaoke-style.

Here is the link to the Love Song Generator.  Click on the British flag for English.
The karoke version is also at Bodo Wartke's website.

For a taste of his live performance, here is the YouTube video: