Randomness
So, more on Germany. The apartment is nice (heated now) and very IKEA-fabulous. It's on the 6th floor of a building that might be a squat because I have never seen a damned person in here. If the elevator didn't move and there wasn't the occasional knocking sound I'd know I was alone. The office I'm working in is much better than the one at home and they have free mineralwater. This might not sound like much, but I spend untold amounts of money on fizzy mineralwater and to get it for free is great. So I work, drink water, and play numerous games of foosball a day. (Here's an interesting note: foosball is called as such because of the German word for foot. They don't call soccer foosball, they call it football like everyone else in Europe who haven't yet been lucky enough to watch Tom Brady play the real shit. What do they call foosball? Kicke. It makes no sense.)
Last night, for my birthday, we went out to a Kolche bierhall which made their own beer. Colignians (Kolchers? I'll have to figure that out. The accent is called Rhenish, but that doesn't work too well.) are mad for kolch and very proud of it. It's good, but it's odd to hear someone who has been to the US and had the nectar of the Gods, Sam Adams, and tell you that they liked Bud better because it was "more like Kolch." It is served cold in little straight glasses meant to be drunk quickly. In the place we were in if you have a large order they bring it all out on a giant paddle thing that looks like it should have three Greek letters on it. It's big enough to hold 11 glasses in a row (order 10 and get the 11th for free. A brewer's dozen, I guess.) and they keep them coming fast because you drain those little bottles so quickly. The beer at this place was great, very floral, and the bathroom ceiling was all animal skulls with horns attached.
One of the biggest adjustments I'm trying to make right now is finding cooking supplies. I'm trying not to blow all of my money on eating at restaurants so I'm hoping to get some cooking going. I realize that specializing in Indian cooking isn't going to serve me well here. A lot of the supplies don't seem to exist and when I asked a co-worker if there was an Indian grocery around she just laughed. ("I don't know, how many Indians do you see?") Fir instance, I can't find spinach anywhere. And nothing is in cans. My fridge is the size of two microwaves stacked on top of eachother so bringing a giant thing of produce home isn't much of an option. Canned things, far from ideal, would be nice. All they have in cans are sauerkraut and green beans, which is a nightmare grandma food if I ever heard of one. I guess I'll have to start making sauerkraut based indian meals.
Went to a CD store (the largest in Germany) today to see if I could find one of the Sahara Hotnights records that aren't for sale in America for some reason. It wasn't there, but I noticed that every band that has an umlaut in the title (Motley Crue, for example), they don't put the umlaut in the title cards that let you know how the bands are organized. Motorhead, for example, becomes Motoerhead. Husker Du becomes Huesker Due. WTF? You guys invented umlauts! Use them!
Last night, for my birthday, we went out to a Kolche bierhall which made their own beer. Colignians (Kolchers? I'll have to figure that out. The accent is called Rhenish, but that doesn't work too well.) are mad for kolch and very proud of it. It's good, but it's odd to hear someone who has been to the US and had the nectar of the Gods, Sam Adams, and tell you that they liked Bud better because it was "more like Kolch." It is served cold in little straight glasses meant to be drunk quickly. In the place we were in if you have a large order they bring it all out on a giant paddle thing that looks like it should have three Greek letters on it. It's big enough to hold 11 glasses in a row (order 10 and get the 11th for free. A brewer's dozen, I guess.) and they keep them coming fast because you drain those little bottles so quickly. The beer at this place was great, very floral, and the bathroom ceiling was all animal skulls with horns attached.
One of the biggest adjustments I'm trying to make right now is finding cooking supplies. I'm trying not to blow all of my money on eating at restaurants so I'm hoping to get some cooking going. I realize that specializing in Indian cooking isn't going to serve me well here. A lot of the supplies don't seem to exist and when I asked a co-worker if there was an Indian grocery around she just laughed. ("I don't know, how many Indians do you see?") Fir instance, I can't find spinach anywhere. And nothing is in cans. My fridge is the size of two microwaves stacked on top of eachother so bringing a giant thing of produce home isn't much of an option. Canned things, far from ideal, would be nice. All they have in cans are sauerkraut and green beans, which is a nightmare grandma food if I ever heard of one. I guess I'll have to start making sauerkraut based indian meals.
Went to a CD store (the largest in Germany) today to see if I could find one of the Sahara Hotnights records that aren't for sale in America for some reason. It wasn't there, but I noticed that every band that has an umlaut in the title (Motley Crue, for example), they don't put the umlaut in the title cards that let you know how the bands are organized. Motorhead, for example, becomes Motoerhead. Husker Du becomes Huesker Due. WTF? You guys invented umlauts! Use them!