German Journal
Jun 11
at least in Germany it is. What the heck is Corpus Christi day? Do the Germans have a secret love for cities in Texas? No, not at all actually. This is just one of the many public (or federal) holidays the Germans celebrate. In fact this is one of the 16 holidays that very few [...] [...more]
at least in Germany it is. What the heck is Corpus Christi day? Do the Germans have a secret love for cities in Texas? No, not at all actually. This is just one of the many public (or federal) holidays the Germans celebrate. In fact this is one of the 16 holidays that very few people work and just about everything is closed. To compare it to the US, we have 10 federal holidays. Lately the number of holidays has been almost 1 a week for about 2 months and this because there is a holiday on Good Friday, the Monday after Easter, May 1st, 39 days after easter, 50 days after easter, and 60 days after easter. There are names for all of these but I don’t see a need to list them here but you can click the link at the end if you want to know more about them.
A really crazy part about all this is that the Germans that work in our office get all of the German holidays off AND all of the american holidays off for a grand total of 24 days off automatically in one year. That is over 1 full month (20 working days in a month) off out of 12. Maybe I should start putting together those German citizenship papers…..maybe not.
German holiday link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Germany
Jun 08
and you may be allowed to go to school past the 10th grade. 10th grade you ask, what is he talking about….well this how things work in Germany.
The school system in Germany isn’t quite the same as it is in the states and by not quite the same I mean completely different. Kids in Germany [...] [...more]
and you may be allowed to go to school past the 10th grade. 10th grade you ask, what is he talking about….well this how things work in Germany.
The school system in Germany isn’t quite the same as it is in the states and by not quite the same I mean completely different. Kids in Germany all go to the same school for the first 4 years, then all the kids take a big test (like the MEAP in Michigan) and based on this grade and the teachers input, the child’s path for the rest of their schooling is decided. This path is more than just how many years they will go to school too, it is how difficult their classes will be and what type of skills they’ll focus on. So imagine you’re in 4th grade, you just finished your carton of cholocate milk and tater tots at lunch and for the rest of the day your taking a test that decides the rest of your life.
Ok, so it may not be that serious, I’ve been told that if the kid initially gets put into the trade school program the parents can ask that the kid gets put into the elevated courses anyway. The kid then gets one year to prove he/she can hang, if they can’t then the kid goes back to the trade school program.
This blows the whole idea of working hard and acheiving anything we have in America and it’s kinda sad. I couldn’t imagine having to take a test in 4th grade that carries so much weight. I guess it’s a good thing I am a former Raisinville roadrunner and didn’t have to worry about that.
May 30
when i said that the posts would be sparadic for the next few weeks. It’s not because I’m out partying every night and taking baths in all of the Dunkle and Kristall beer i can find either. I’ve been stuck inside on a computer doing homework for the last few weeks and have a few [...] [...more]
when i said that the posts would be sparadic for the next few weeks. It’s not because I’m out partying every night and taking baths in all of the Dunkle and Kristall beer i can find either. I’ve been stuck inside on a computer doing homework for the last few weeks and have a few more weeks of doing the same thing — so much for enjoying the weather.
I have a couple of posts in mind that i will get up at some point, Nichole and I went to Munich and took some great pics, I learned some interesting facts about how the school system works here, and there’s always room for a post or two about beer. But I thought I would ask the 3 readers I have (Thanks Pres. Obama, Mr. Limbaugh, and Miley Cyrus)what they would like to see in the future.
More beer blogs? no beer blogs?
Any questions you have about Germany and would like to know the answers to?
Any suggestions that could make the blog better?
Leave your thoughts in the comments and I’ll try to answer all the questions posted.
May 17
back from a long & exhausting work trip?? It feels great to be back home in Germany, which sounds a little weird saying for me still, but nonetheless it’s great to sleep in my own bed. Blogs will still be somewhat sparatic for the next month or so due to school kicking my arse. Hopefully [...] [...more]
back from a long & exhausting work trip?? It feels great to be back home in Germany, which sounds a little weird saying for me still, but nonetheless it’s great to sleep in my own bed. Blogs will still be somewhat sparatic for the next month or so due to school kicking my arse. Hopefully by mid-June things will be back to normal.
Anyways, after my 2 80+ work weeks for the past 2 weeks I thought I would post a little bit of info about work hours for banks here in Deutschland. I had a couple days off to recover from my trip and needed to take care of some stuff at the German bank. However, when I get to the bank they were closed. No big deal right…WRONG. I went to the bank at 1:30 on Wednesday and it was closed! So I looked at the hours on the door and they were Mon & Weds from 0900-1230 and Tuesday-Thursday from 0930-430. I mean what is with the half days 2 days of the week? I have no explanation whatsoever for this. The only thing I can think of is that the bank I was trying to go to was not in the bigger city around us, but a suburb. So maybe the banks in the outer areas close earlier. Who knows, but now I just have to wait till another day and probably not Monday or Wednesday.
May 08
is all I feel like I do! It is interesting to compare running errands in the states to being over here. It really takes forever and not to mention puts many miles on the car! First being if you want to mail something or recieve mail. You cannot just go to your mailbox outside your [...] [...more]
is all I feel like I do! It is interesting to compare running errands in the states to being over here. It really takes forever and not to mention puts many miles on the car! First being if you want to mail something or recieve mail. You cannot just go to your mailbox outside your door, you have to drive several villages over to the base to get it, taking at least 20-25 minutes. Then, if you need gas you can only go to certain gas stations (or go on base) to get the American rate. Yet another few minutes. This of course does not sound too bad but think about it this way (for you Monroe people): drive to Toledo to get your mail a few times a week, then afterwards drive to Dundee to get gas, then back to Monroe to your house. This rotation of errands changes often where sometimes you can throw in going grocery shopping (add another 20 minutes to get there) or clothes shopping (20 minutes more.) Ugh! I think I am used to being in the states where so many stores have everything you need in ONE stop. I am thinking of Meijer for example. Meijer’s has groceries, gas, clothes, cards, and I am pretty sure you can buy stamps there too! Oh the good ol’ days!
May 02
watch out for little mischievous German kids! Let me give you a little background before I go into my story. In Germany, this a national holiday and everything is closed. The Germans motto is Tans in den Mai (Dance into May) and in many towns people gather to the center of the town to dance, [...] [...more]
watch out for little mischievous German kids! Let me give you a little background before I go into my story. In Germany, this a national holiday and everything is closed. The Germans motto is Tans in den Mai (Dance into May) and in many towns people gather to the center of the town to dance, drink and be merry the night before because they do not have to work the following day. Well I guess in my area in Germany, the night before also involves pranks.
The night before May Day in our area, kids go out and basically play harmless tricks on thier neighbors. I was completely unaware of this lovely fact until I heard teenage boys outside of my house. At first I thought my neighbor had people at his house, but they sounded too close. So I went to get up to see where they were and all I heard was laughter and the boys ran away. I figured they were just being routy so I sat back down. Then two minutes later our door bell rang and once again I heard the boys laughing and running away. At this point I was annoyed because I was getting ready for bed and I needed some sleep. Later on while in bed I got a prank call at 2 in the morning. Great.
Needless to say the next morning I got up to find our bio bin (where we put our food garbage) on our patio. Thank goodness it was empty and they couldn’t dump it somewhere. We also had toilet paper on our door handle. Not too bad I thought, but I was still annoyed. Well as I went through our town on my way to work I felt so much better. There was toilet paper all over the place! In every town I went through it was all over everything. It cracked me up! As I got to the town where I work I also saw peoples cars with shaving cream and broken eggs left over from being thrown on a house. At work I asked our German teacher what was going on and she said you can tell when Americans get involved because they actually vandalize property rather than just play for fun. It was true. The closer I got to where the vast majority of Americans live, the “meaner” the pranks got. So sad that some Americans can ruin such a fun day for the Germans.
Apr 29
was a little more ambitous than we originally thought. So we decided to finally break out our bikes and take a ride on one of the many trails around our little village. Well we did not anticipate how extremely difficult it would be! Since we live in a valley, all of the trails have an [...] [...more]
was a little more ambitous than we originally thought. So we decided to finally break out our bikes and take a ride on one of the many trails around our little village. Well we did not anticipate how extremely difficult it would be! Since we live in a valley, all of the trails have an incline to the hills around us. We of course did not believe that it would be tooooooo difficult, I mean the hills aren’t really that big right? WRONG! Adam and I started off huffing and puffing on one of the hills and just about died getting up it (which I am sure anyone who was watching us got pure pleasure.) Adam had to get off the bike and walk it up some of the way! Mind you let me just say that this hill was minute compared to the one we were originally going to try for. This is only half the story though. A couple days later, right before Adam left for work, we were driving to back home because we forgot something and saw a “senior” couple getting on their bikes. We didn’t think anything of it until we were coming back that way and going up the “big hill” (the one we wanted to try in the first place) when we saw this “senior” couple riding their bikes. We looked at each other and thought…there is no way! Well needless to say this “senior” couple were trucking up this hill…the hill mind you that Adam and I ASPIRE to! So of course we feel pathetic and now it is our goal to beat the old people! The moral of the blog is that Germans are so darn fit, not because they try to be but because they truly ENJOY it. We are lazy Americans!
Apr 19
author on this blog and she’s here to talk about Germany from a lady’s perspective. I finally have given the reigns of the web site to Nichole for a few weeks. Between taking 2 masters courses, work, and work trips –my time to post new things on the blog is slim and none. So I [...] [...more]
author on this blog and she’s here to talk about Germany from a lady’s perspective. I finally have given the reigns of the web site to Nichole for a few weeks. Between taking 2 masters courses, work, and work trips –my time to post new things on the blog is slim and none. So I thought now would be a good time to get some fresh perspectives on Germany that will probably be totally different than what I would have thought about writing.
To the guys out there that read the blog, be prepared for posts talking about clothes, shopping, hair styles, blah blah. Some of the things are actually kinda of interesting, but I can’t describe these half as good as Nichole will be able to.
There should be the occaissional beer blog post as well. So you can always look forward to that .
Apr 18
your shoes is not acorns, it’s not broken glass, or anything else you could imagine. That crunching is probably snails shells that you’re crushing along with the snails themselves. This is something that I was very surprised when I first got to Germany. When we moved out to our house (in the sticks) they’re were [...] [...more]
your shoes is not acorns, it’s not broken glass, or anything else you could imagine. That crunching is probably snails shells that you’re crushing along with the snails themselves. This is something that I was very surprised when I first got to Germany. When we moved out to our house (in the sticks) they’re were all these snail shells everywhere that I kept crushing when I was walking around. Now that it has gotten warmer and the rain has been coming down regularly the snails are crawling everywhere over our patio. I always thought that snails were from areas where the ocean is but now I know this is not right. We have some on our windows, some on the wall we have, on the fence, etc. etc. etc.
So what should should I do with these snails, other than es
cargo — take pictures of course
Enjoy!!! ( I apologize for the placement of these pics, I am not a web programmer and don’t feel like figuring it out.)
Apr 14
a store it can be difficult to figure out a way to leave. It sounds pretty simple but there are times when I really don’t know how to get out of a store. The reason this is because many stores have another inside swinging gate type thingy (technical term) that only opens one way and [...] [...more]
a store it can be difficult to figure out a way to leave. It sounds pretty simple but there are times when I really don’t know how to get out of a store. The reason this is because many stores have another inside swinging gate type thingy (technical term) that only opens one way and that’s to let you in. So in order to get out you have to go through the registers, no big deal right? But what happens if you don’t buy something? This was my dilemma in a few of my first shopping experiences — I shouldn’t have to wait in line just to leave the place, — Do I just buy a candy bar to get out cheap? — Should I just hurdle the gates and leave?
I finally stuck around long enough and just followed a few other people that hadn’t bought anything either. I’m sure the stores would tell you that they have things setup this way to prevent theft, but I believe the real reason is to con Americans into buying something just to get out of the store.
