Remember to floss

Hello all! I hope you had a nice weekend. Ours was pretty quiet although we did go to a birthday party on Saturday night. One of Brenda's colleagues has reached the ripe old age of 37 and celebrated by inviting a bunch of people over and cooking them delicious Indian food. Seeing as the birthday boy is married with two kids the party had a rather high number of children in attendance. As all of the kids ran around the apartment with reckless abandon, I was reminded of how lucky I am to get a good nights sleep most nights.

On Thursday, Brenda and I went to the dentist. I was nervous going in because I hadn't been to the dentist since I was in college. When I arrived I was greeted by a very friendly receptionist who, it seemed, was the same woman that I had spoken with on the phone when I set up our appointments. Speaking in a foreign language over the phone is about ten thousand times harder than speaking in person. You don't get any of those handy non-verbal cues (i.e. facial expressions, gestures, etc.) to help you along. The receptionist had been very sweet on the phone, if not a bit giggly at all of my mistakes, and was just as nice in person. She led me into an examination room, plopped me down in a dentist's chair and had me start filling out forms that were, of course, in German. I did alright on the forms. I guessed at the meaning of a few words but I think I got the general idea of most of the questions. There was one question, though, that confused me. I asked for clarification and the kind receptionist explained that it was asking if I wanted a local anesthetic. As I was trying to figure out how to say in German "If you're going to pull out all of my teeth, then yes, I would like an anesthetic." the receptionist said I wouldn't have to worry about it today.

The dentist arrived a few minutes later. She is a nice woman in her late 30s or early 40s with a very calm demeanor. She looked over my forms, asked me a few questions and then began poking around in my mouth. I half expected her to gasp in horror and ask me how long it'd been since I'd last seen a dentist. To my surprise, however, she said that things looked pretty good and she'd like to take some x-rays. The x-rays indicated that I had two little cavities forming that needed to be filled. Other than that I was good to go. We made an appointment to take care of my cavities and then it was Brenda's turn. I was relieved to say the least.

After our appointments, Brenda suggested we check out the stands set-up in downtown Frankfurt in honor of Swedish Week. We stopped off at a stand for some piping hot Glögg (I also tried a sample of some meat I think was reindeer) and then we walked around checking out the other 8-10 stands. We soon realized that Swedish Week could probably be renamed Ikea Week seeing as most of the stands were sponsored by Ikea. There was a band playing (presumably a Swedish band), as well. We stopped and listened for a few moments and quickly realized the song they were singing was in English. Of course it was.

Well, you are once again up to speed on our exciting lives. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I look forward to reporting in next week with filled cavities. Until then, Tschüss!

Is it spring yet?

Hello Friends! Yet another week has passed and, while we had a lot to report last Monday, we haven't been up to much this week. I went to German class and the gym and in retrospect those activities must have taken up about 16 hours every day because I can't recall doing much else. In addition to accompanying me to the gym, Brenda spent some time with friends that were in town. We played hosts to one such friend who, after deciding that he'd had enough of hostel life, was in need of a new place to stay. We provided a clean (relatively) and quiet (perhaps too quiet) place for him to rest his head and in return he gave us conversation and some raspberry filled, chocolate covered cookies. A note to future guests of Chez Chenda: If you leave tasty food out in the open I will eat it. I can't help it, I see it and before I know it I've eaten 6.

The weather in Frankfurt has been pretty gross as of late. It is overcast and rainy almost every day with temps in the 40s. It's the kind of weather that makes you want to roll over and go back to sleep which I have done on several mornings. Brenda and I are both a little nervous that this is how the weather will be until April. I never considered myself a person who was greatly affected by the weather until moving to Germany. Now, however, I adore seeing the sun whenever it makes a cameo appearance.

I'm pretty much just rambling here. We'll try to do more interesting stuff this week so I can write something more exciting next Monday. Our dentist appointments are scheduled for Thursday which should definitely end in a story of some kind. I haven't been to the dentist in a long time and I'm a little nervous.

Until next time, have a great week!

Wiener-licious

Hello all! It seems like an eon since I last wrote. So much can happen in a week which is illustrated by the speedy deterioration of our pumpkin of doom. I would post a picture of his moldy, saggy self but I prefer you all remember him like he was last week. Vibrant and full of terror.

Speaking of terror, Brenda and I watched a scary movie on Halloween night. You may remember last year's blog entry in which I told you all of how we watched a couple of scary movies. Well, we seem to have made a tradition of it. This year, however, we stepped up the fear factor. We watched Halloween, which I wrongly assumed wouldn't be scary since it was made before I was born. It was, however, sufficiently terrifying and kept me up playing Freecell until the wee hours of the morning.

That all happened a couple of days ago, though. What is more exciting is what we did before Halloween. It all started last Tuesday morning. There I was, sitting at my computer, enjoying a cup of coffee and surfing the internet. Brenda had just gotten done making herself a delicious looking breakfast when her phone rang. It was our friend, Nina, and before I knew it Brenda turned to me and said "We're going to Vienna! We leave in an hour." Nina was going back home, a small town an hour or so from Vienna, to visit her folks. She said she'd be happy to take us with and we could stay at her apartment in Vienna. We frantically got cleaned up, packed and hit the road.

Vienna is 6 hours or so from Frankfurt. Unlike the US, however, driving time can vary greatly depending on the courage of the driver. Since there is no speed limit on most parts of the Autobahn we were able to make pretty good time. I think the fastest we went was 185-190 kilometers per hour which is about 115 mph.

So, believe it or not, we made it to Vienna in one piece. Brenda and I spent 3 days there, just the two of us, exploring and taking in the sights. On Friday, Nina came back to Vienna and showed us a few things we'd missed. She then took us to an authentic Austrian dinner with great food and live music. All-in-all, the trip was great. Vienna is a beautiful city with amazing architecture and a rich history of music. We are both very excited to visit again.

We're back in Frankfurt now and it's clear that winter isn't far off. The 5-day weather forecast indicates clouds and rain everyday which, in Frankfurt, means Winter. The good thing is, though, that with Winter comes stollen, that delicious bread-like Christmas treat that appears in Germany. I'm hoping to hold off on buying any until December but every time I go to the grocery store the stollen beckons a little louder.

I hope that you all had a nice Halloween. Have a great week!

Pumpkin of DOOM!

Happy Halloween! I'm a few days early, I'll admit, but we have been in the spirit of the season for some time now. We brought back some Halloween decorations from the States in September and immediately displayed them. Now we have added another decoration. A haunting, terrifying, spine-tingling harbinger of DOOM that comes in the form of a squash. That's right, we finally carved our pumpkin.

Ok, when I say "we finally carved our pumpkin" I should probably be saying "Brenda finally carved our pumpkin". I, however, played a very important role. I warmed up the glühwein and drank it in front of Brenda. Also, I was her cheerleader and said such helpful things as "wow, you're good with that knife" and "why are you looking at me like that?" and "maybe you should put the knife down".

As the picture above illustrates, Brenda separated the pumpkin seeds from the other pumpkin goo. After she finished carving her masterpiece she roasted the seeds, turning them into a delicious snack.

And here is the terrifying pumpkin.

You may be interested to know that our week was not limited to Halloween festivities. I, for instance, had a few more German language classes which I'm really enjoying. On Friday, Brenda and I went to Anna Bolena at the Alte Oper. The 3 hour opera (not counting intermission) was done concert style which means there was no staging. It was really well done by everyone involved. Elza van den Heever, a soprano that works full-time at Oper Frankfurt, sang the title role. She was nothing short of fantastic.

Brenda and I also went on a scouting mission to IKEA last week. While we didn't buy much (a couple of tea lights, a dish washing brush, a plastic cutting board) we did find a ton of stuff we'd really like to buy. We ate dinner there as well which threw a wrench into my diet. I don't think I will lose much weight eating Swedish meat balls and french fries but they sure tasted good.

That's pretty much it. We've been taking a lot of walks and enjoying the brisk fall weather. The sun hasn't completely left for the Winter but we're getting ready emotionally for that to happen. Our daylight savings time came into effect this weekend so now its getting dark shortly after noon (at least that's what it feels like). I'm not sure what this week will bring but whatever it is, you'll hear about it next week. Until then, Happy Halloween!

Go Hawkeyes!

Hello! Monday has come again and that means it is time for me to update all of you on our most recent happenings. Since last week I have had three German language classes and I have to admit, they're really fun. My teacher is from Poland but grew up speaking both Polish and German. She has since added English and Spanish to her list of fluent languages. Ah, these Europeans and their languages. My class is made up of 9 students, including myself, who all hail from different countries. In fact, our class has representatives from 5 different continents. You'll be pleased to know that I'm doing my very best to represent North America. Everyone in the class is very nice and we're all enjoying making a plethora of mistakes together.

Brenda had her second performance of La Clemenza di Tito (which went very well) and is now on break for about 6 weeks. And we thought we just came back from vacation. We have been lucky enough to have some sunny days lately and even though the weather has been a bit chilly we have gone for lots of walks through the city. I'm not sure what else we'll do in our free time in the upcoming weeks although I think a visit to the dentist is in order. I will probably be able to write a book about how that ends up.

A friend of Brenda's came through town over the weekend and Brenda spent some time showing him the sights. On Saturday night we went over to the McCown's place and watched the Oklahoma/Texas game on ESPN America. Michael was very excited that Texas won even though it was a messy game all around. Throughout the game we got score updates on the Iowa/Wisconsin game and, much to Brenda's chagrin, Iowa added one more win to their already undefeated season. Also that night, Brenda and Barb teamed up and made a delicious tofu and soba noodle dinner. Yum!

Well, that about does it. Until next time, I hope you all have a great week!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Hello all! I hope you are having a delightful Monday. I just realized that today is October 12th which we all know is Luciano Pavarotti's birthday. Ok, maybe you didn't know that but I, for whatever reason, have that bit of trivia committed to memory. In honor of the occasion if you want to take three minutes out of your day and listen to some beautiful music you can do so here.

Now that I've gotten you in the mood for some opera, I can tell you about the outstanding success that was Brenda's performance in Saturday's La Clemenza di Tito. The show was really well sung by everyone involved and Brenda did more than her fare share of beautiful singing. I always enjoy hearing people scream "Bravo!" when she takes her bows. If you'd like to see a few pictures from the production then click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

I'll try to keep the hyperlinks to a minimum from here on out. You may recall me talking about German language classes a few blog posts ago. Well, today I met with a gentlemen at a nearby language school and I learned more about what is involved in this subsidized German language program. Apparently there are six levels of language proficiency that the German government is willing to pay for. In order to determine which level you are at you have to take a written exam. That is why shortly after I arrived at the school I found myself alone in a room taking the first German test I've taken in 9 years. I had 30 minutes to answer 65 questions or so. I finished just under the wire and then got to enjoy my test being graded in front of me. It ended up that I tested into level 5 which came as a bit of a shock to me. It made me wonder how much language proficiency I would actually have after language level 6. If I'm at level 5 now, and I feel like I'm a long way from fluent, then the teachers will have to work miracles in level 6 to get me to total fluency.

It turns out that the German government is willing to subsidize language classes to a certain point and beyond that you're on your own. Something is definitely better than nothing so it looks like I'll be spending the next 16 weeks in language classes. I'm really excited about it actually. I've always liked learning languages and I've been in dire need of something to occupy my time.

I'm afraid I don't have too much else to report. Brenda is at a concert this evening that a few of her colleagues are performing in. We've been talking more seriously about carving our pumpkin so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks. Until then, have a great week!

It is time to get Shakespearean

Hello Friends! It is Monday once again and I've decided that for year two of our life in Germany Mondays will be blog days. That way if you absolutely need to know about the newest things happening in our lives you can count on finding out at least once a week. And speaking of exciting things, let's get going!

Brenda was sick this weekend. The symptoms appeared Thursday night and were full blown by Friday. She had to miss some rehearsals, which wasn't a big deal, and ended up spending most of the weekend in bed, drinking tea and watching the Lord of the Rings. I tended to her hand and foot, which I do all the time anyway, and it lead her to a speedy recovery. She went back to rehearsal today with a spring in her step.

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of having dinner with my cousin Eric. He was in town on business and was able to squeeze me in for a meal and a brief tour of Mainhattan. I enjoyed catching up with him and look forward to doing it again the next time his work brings him through town.

We have been back in Germany for two weeks as of today and we are definitely into the swing of things. In fact, we're already on to our second bag of Wacker's coffee which, admittedly, goes fast in our household. What we don't have, however, is a phone and internet connection. That being the case I would like to say the following for the record: Deutsche Telekom, I bite my thumb at you. Harsh, I know, but deserved.

That about does it. Brenda's opera goes up on Saturday and I'll be sure to give you a full report. Until then, have a great week!