Venlo (pronounced Fenlo)

These pics are from yesterday in Venlo. Holland had some really nice veggies, also the flowers were super nice. Check out that bag of leeks...cheap too. I thought of this summer and our week of nothing but leeks...

my two front teeth and a...

All I want for Christmas is a 4500 euro cellphone!! (This is over 5,000 dollars) What a deal!!
This is the Gluhwein shop. I think I should open one on State St. It would be a hit!

Münster ist schön!

Today we visited Münster with the train...it took about an hour; such a civilized way to travel.
The Christmas market was so nice there. They actually had stuff worth buying. I had 2 glasses of Gluhwein and that does wonders to keep warm. Yesterday we must have visited 35 shoe stores looking for a pair of brown boots. We went to Venlo (Holland) shopping and then to Oberhausen to a mall. Venlo was a cute little town with a nice downtown shopping area. Seriously though, it was tough shopping. Between the sales people, Markus' mother, and Markus all watching me....it was one of those trips where no one would stop until we found a pair. I wanted to give up. I may be just extremely picky and it is so terrible shopping with so many choices (hundreds) and none of them suitable. I didn't want to spend too much money, I didn't want a heel, brown not black, fur or not, but real fur not fake fur, preferrably leather but not the kind that scratches, round or square toe but not too square or pointy. See?!!? It is all so trivial when I think too hard about it. I don't really need the boots. Why spend so much energy to get something you don't really need?? Anyway, to cut to the chase, I found a pair. Brown leather, squarish toe, a bit of rabbit fur...only 70 euro. Good for me. That was yesterday. Today, I found some nice gifts. Münster is a super nice place, really beautiful. I would like to go there in the summer for a couple nights...stroll around, sit at little cafes outside...you can only stroll in short bursts in the winter, then you must duck into a shop for warmth...or have another Gluhwein...

Solar Powered

The Ruhr (area in Germany) is very progressive with renewable energy. This is a local solar panal factory. Today we went to an exhibit that explained all the different projects going on in the area....they have a couple biodiesel plants, there are wind farms with turbines, there are numerous offices and homes with solar panals on the roof, and also they have these cool solar collectors that heat water to use in the shower, or even heat the house. The technology is very creative. Markus is super excited about renewable energy. So far we've come up with many ideas about how to use this technology. It's fun stuff.

Call 112 for a Fire

I felt like a schoolgirl yesterday, visiting the local fire station...

The building is entirely concrete, fireproof, new and enormous.

This is the ladder truck, a beautiful shiny red Mercedes.

I thought of my grandpa and two uncles who all are firemen in the states...I used to spent some time there in Minneapolis playing volleyball and eating spaghetti...
These are all containers that can be transported to a fire. I cannot imagine what is in them, but they are each for a special circumstance. For example, one is for a toxic spill, or a chemical fire that cannot be put out with water, another is for decontamination of any kind. One has showers for people to use...it's amazing what people have thought up.

Of course, they have a firepole. This is a no brainer.

7 day countdown

I will fly home in one week...excited in some ways, sad in some ways, nervous in other ways...It went so fast!

Rollerskate away!

Check out the rollerskates! Starlight Express has been running for 17 years now in Bochum...it was a fun show. All in German of course. I was able to catch some of it, but it doesn't matter what people are saying when they are flying around the theater on rollerskates wearing little skirts. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote this in 1984 and since then has updated it with some new music (a rap number) and also some new trains. (The show is all about different trains, and the ICE is the newest fastest train in Germany). What a crazy job this would be...I think they perform the show 7 days a week. They make dancing and singing while rollerskating look as easy as pie. Good times.

more snow...

Despite the snow, we made it to the market...we settled for Essen, the trains to Munster were so delayed. On the news, they reported that people had to stay the night in old bunkers (from the war) because the trains were not running.

Still snowing!

It has snowed and snowed all night and still now at noon...It is all beautiful and white. Markus' father says he cannot remember the last time it snowed like this. The forecast is for another 6 inches to fall....there must be at least a foot already.

Unfortunately it seems to be popular to push over snowmen. Ours has been knocked over by hoodlums twice now. I give up. Down the street I saw a snowman with a little break your heart sign that read: Bitte, nicht kaputt machen! (Please don't destroy this)! It was still standing tall. I wonder if the vandals actually have a heart. I think they just haven't seen it yet...

Evidently, the trains are broken and they had to close the Autoban to fix the powerlines. The snow has closed the airport in Dusseldorf, so it's a stay at home sort of day. We may be able to take a train to Munster...we'll see.

I forgot to tell about our Autoban adventure last week...Markus was driving the new Passat home from his uncles and we topped out the odometer at 115 MPH. We were flying but it didn't feel so fast...plus we were getting passed by other cars...crazy.

Schnee!

This is our Snowman. We were out of carrots. Personally, I like the rose better. He will always smell roses!

It hasn't snowed like this in a few years here...we were the only people out playing in the snow. It is incredibly sticky and light....perfect for snowmen.

Christmas in Deutschland

Weihnachsmarkt (Christmas Market)...in Dusseldorf. I have had the infamous Gluhwein and it was good to me...this is a hot, sweet red wine. The weather here is unbelieveably windy with rain slapping against the house tonight. We are staying in.

Last day of school...

I have my suitcase all packed and I finish the last class today. It is somewhat sad...my classmates have proved to be so likeable and going to class is such a pleasure. This morning I woke up to snow with a bit of a hangover...we all went out last night to Stammtisch. This is some German tradition that always falls on Thursday. I think. Actually I don't know what it is, just that we all meet at the bar and people drink many beers. I chatted with a guy from Poland about American cars. I have never met anyone so infatuated with 'Motorization' as he calls it. He has been to Detroit to the car museum and is especially in love with the Dodge Charger. I didn't feel like breaking his heart by telling him the truth when he asked me if I thought American cars were reliable and beautiful. It was cute.

There was also a slide show of the group. I have been to some of the events, but there is a group that has definitely developed a clique, even with a few new loves. They were all kissy kissy in the pics... It's kind of funny to me, sort of cute and sort of disturbing at the same time. Oh well.

I will go to Gelsenkirchen now to stay for the remainder of my trip.

Books for Birds

Every day I see pigeons. Many of them actually make it into the train station and become part of the morning foot traffic. I have seen them browsing the book store in the station...they seem to flock for the romance novels.

Cock-a-doodle-doo

So, on the train ride home from the brewery, everyone was happy with a few beers and it was a quite jovial group. Somehow I was trying to describe the Wisconsin country side, but since I don't know the word for cow, I mooed like one. From there, we all got started with this....comparing the different animal sounds from our respective countries. Mexico, the USA, Bulgaria, Korea and France were all represented. It is so hilarious how different they all are. ribbit-ribbit, oink-oink, bow wow, meow, cock-a-doodle-doo... Everyone loved the rooster, they made me do it three times. I found myself a bit embarassed for this sound, blushing while cockadoodledoing on a train. They all loved it and with a few beers it is hard to stay embarassed. I find this so interesting! It's not like the rooster speaks english, roosters around the world sound the same, but everyone hears it so different. I can't even begin to spell the Korean words, but they seemed to have a lot of Gr sounds. American dogs would be able to communicate with Bulgarian dogs, both having the bow-wow in common.

Diebels Live

This is the brewery where they produce more beer than I have ever seen in one place. For over 100 years, Diebels has been producing beer. We toured the brewery, and then had beer and dinner. The machine where they clean the returnable bottles was amazing. The multiple machines take the bottles through the process of being cleaned, filled, capped, and packaged. It was quite an assembly line.
I was not sure how to eat this fried hunk of flesh. I managed to get a few good bites. There were 17 of us at one table. Imagine the table with 17 of these plates. The sourkraut was good but I did not care for the potato pasta buried under it.
This is one of my classmates. Her German is super and she speaks with more playfulness than I have heard. She is amusing. I only met her once. By the way, I believe Woodman's in WI sells Diebels beer if anyone is interested...

One more gray day

The weather here is stubborn and gray. It will not budge. I am starting to understand the classic German winter that Markus speaks of. I think it would be more difficult than winter in Wisconsin. It is warmer yes, but incredibly gray. We have sun and cold, take your pick.

It is my last week of school. One month is officially too short. I am starting to be more comfortable but I now realize I have so much more to learn. I will have to come back again.

I left Markus in bed this morning and took the train to school. He is suffering from jet lag and went to bed at 4 in the morning. I hope he will catch up. Last night, we visited his uncle and cousin. His cousin has a built a new house and it was interesting to see new construction in Germany, they build with bricks and plaster walls mostly. They rarely use wood to frame the house like we do in the USA. They heat with a small wood stove inside and it was so nice and warm. They also have heated tile floors. I would love to have both of these at my house.

Tonight I will go to Diebels brewery for a tour and to sample the beer of course. I think it will be a good time.

Fog

This church in downtown Gelsenkirchen, we wandered around there yesterday....it isn't big but still it's nice. There has been amazing fog here. It is a nice addition to the gray sky and it sometimes lasts all day.

Bikes and more bikes!

You have to love a bike store where you can browse at bikes on a bike! They had some very cool models, all the commuter bikes with fenders and lights and cheap! We may buy one to bring home. They are just too cool.
This is the Dutch style...all enclosed. They are super fun to drive.
Markus in motion....

Ballet

Last night I attended this Ballet in Gelsenkirchen. I got this pictures off the internet. It was quite a production with as many as 25 people all dressed in these see through fishnet costumes everyone with a thong. One could easily imagine them dancing in a fetish night somewhere in a dark club. The audience sat captivated and clapped for a full 10 minutes at the end. The end was a bit funny to me, perhaps it has been ages since I was at a ballet performance, but the troop must have bowed 40 times or more. First all together 5 times, then in pairs, then again all together. Then they repeated the whole thing again. There was one woman wearing a real ballerina type dress. It was quite something....more tool than I have ever seen one person wear. She could hardly keep on the ground, she looked as if she would just float away on a pile of tool. I usually don't think of myself as prude, but I have to admit that it took a half hour or so to get past all the bare butts dancing on stage. They all had amazing bodies and the costumes sure showed them off.