Snowblind

OK, this is getting ridiculous. It has been snowing and freezing cold every day since December 18. Worst winter in 30 years, etc etc. Cant believe it. One day you think thats the end and boom it snows again overnight. I used to fancy the idea of living in the Arctic for 1 year, to experience the whole extreme daylight/darkness, but I know it would be tons worst than this, and I can barely handle being stuck inside this much. No parks, no throwing the ball for Osky, no bike riding. Been playing lots of card games, and watching movies, so its not all bad. Heading to the pool today. Also, being forced to focus on mind and soul has been a real blessing for us. We have been eating alot better lately and we are grateful to have the time to focus on our health...it's a lot easier to do it now before we become very busy again in the spring, and when we get home.

Outside is literally treacherous...they are pretty good about clearing the sidewalks, but they become very slippery quickly. I fell last weekend on my tooshy and elbow. Ice is not soft haha. Yesterday we walked across the frozen lake in Stadtpark. It was like eating frog or horse--it didn't taste very different, but it felt strange because you knew what was underneath. The inner fear is a product of all that Rescue 911 I used to watch, seeing them save kids that fell through the ice, or when George Bailly's brother Harry fell through it in Its A Wonderful Life. Plus, I am a big boy, so I expected the ice to break at any moment. I heard that some guy drove his Land Rover across the ice last week, so its pretty thick. Needless to say, Jenna had nothing to do with walking on the ice. There is a fine line between sensible and fearful and I stray towards the stupid side haha.

All together now.."keinen Schnee mehr!"

Falling Snow

Lots of snow as of late...the canals and lakes are all frozen over, inviting us to partake in some ice lake walking. Here are some recent pics.......

clearing the ice for some skating

We did go bowling one day..it was just like being in the US (actually the place is called US Play!)....lanes, hot dogs, everything looked exactly like home. 

I Am the Egg Man

A man wants to buy a couple eggs for his breakfast. He walks to the Lebensmittel for 2 eggs. They have beautiful eggs there. The egg lady at the store asks him if he wants to pay now, or pay later, since he is a regular, and they know him. The man has no cash on him, so he will pay later. "Please send the bill to my home on Ludwigstrasse", says the man, joyfully. "Ok, no problem, have a nice day!" says the egg lady. The man enjoys a plentiful egg breakfast. Three weeks later, a bill arrives to the mans house on Ludwigstrasse. The bill states that the man owes the Lebensmittel for 200 eggs. "Oh dear", says the man. "I must go back to the egg lady and clarify this mistake." So, the man walks back to the store and approaches the egg lady. "Hi!It says here that I had ordered from you 200 eggs, three weeks ago", the man says with a chuckle. The egg lady answers sternly, "yes, that is right." The man says, astonished, but in a friendly tone, "No, that is not right, I ordered and received TWO eggs from you, not TWO HUNDRED!" The egg lady again looks at the paper, with mild annoyance as a line of customers is building up behind the man. "No, it says right here that you ordered 200 eggs, that is how much you owe us for." The man is getting more annoyed now. "But how can one person eat 200 eggs in one day?" The egg lady looks at the paper, not at the mans face. "I dont know. It says here that you had 200 eggs, so that is that." The man..."but dont you think you would remember me coming in here and ordering 200 eggs? That is a huge order!" The egg lady is very calm, staring at the paper "I dont know, sir, it says that you ate 200 eggs, the paper says so, right here. So that is all I know of the matter." The man storms off in disgust.

Such is business in Germany, where the paper is mightier than common sense.

Snow Daze

It has basically snowed everyday since the new year. And damn cold, too. Today we got another couple centimeters. Its fun to see kids on their sleds being pulled by the parents on the way to school, and the cars slipping around. We haven't dared take out or bald tire car. A guy at work told me that not having winter tires over here is illegal and if you get in an accident, even if it wasn't your fault, you could be held liable. So we better wait until it melts. I haven't seen chains out here, only winter tires and lots of salt and grit on the streets.

So, we have retreated indoors basically. Bike riding is a no-no in the ice and Mayzie does not last long walking out there. Oskar pees within inches of the door and hastily retreats inside. Today we went to the nearby indoor playground, and we have been to the pool a few times. We found a most excellent pool that has an amazing kids area sculpted out of concrete to look like a jungle. Waterfall, dinosaurs, some nice slides, a cave with rain coming down from the ceiling and lots of nooks and cranny's. Mayzie loves that one. Other than that, Mayzie is addicted to the card game UNO, so we play that every night. Its fun being able to play her in a game and not have to let her win, or hold back because I don't want to beat her so bad haha. She really knows how to play.

Not too much else going on...hope the start of everyones new year is going well. We booked our flights home--April 30. Another transition, but the right one for us as of now.

2010!

Happy New Year to all from Germany. The fireworks displayed around our apartment were a sight to behold... seemed like everyone around us had personal arsenals of very large, illegal-in-the US, bombs, bottle rockets, fountains, and very loud swirly things. It felt like the London Blitz here and we even had some close calls...one joker let off a bottle rocket sideways and it hit the bottom of our window...directly under where I was standing and watching the spectacle. It was crazy loud and it felt lawless..I think the the only time in Germany I have ever felt that way.

So we brought in 2010 in front of our TV and our heads out the window, just me and Jenna... Mayzie was passed out. Looking forward to a great year, and we are looking forward to seeing many of you guys. It will be a year to concentrate on friends and family and relationships and body, working through all the (my) cobwebs and demons! Thanks again for reading!

Peace

Nick and Jenna and Mayzie and silly ol Osky back there in the back

2009

Looking upward to 2010

Now that was a crazy year. I was unsure of how to write about 2009—I could easily complain about all the crap that we went through in Germany, or I could write about all the great stuff we have done, how much we have learned. I think the best way to sum up the year would be to give a little of both sides.

There is no doubt this has been the hardest year for me and Jenna in our 15 years together. It is strange to say that, because one of my long time goals and dreams came true this year—living in Germany. But that is the root of the problem, it was MY goal, and sure, of course, Jenna wanted to come along and experience it, but we diverged from helping get her closer to her goals, instead moving further away from them. We spent way too much money and time trying to adjust to life over here, and in the process we discovered that it was not the place for us.

I had envisioned that Germany would lead us closer to where we wanted to be in our lives—a more relaxed society, where people take public transport, and shop locally, and are aware of the outside world, and appreciate and value non-working time more. Basically, we would experience a better quality of life and live like a European. I dreamed of us being comfortable here, settling in, and staying for multiple years, maybe even long enough to get a passport-- the greatest gift we could ever give to Mayzie. I thought I was more European than American.

I was wrong. In the process of discovering the errors of my ways, I have hurt us financially, and certainly emotionally. In hindsight, I pushed too hard getting us here, pushing too hard to get us out of our comfort zone, and this is what happens when you force change upon yourself, rather than going with the flow. My need for travel and “excitement” has evolved from a passion, to an obsession, and the result has been not thoroughly thinking through important decisions. We are now in debt, have no money to travel like we wanted to do (actually, the main reason we wanted to live in Germany), and are not living in the present…we are looking forward to getting home to Portland, so that we can get back on track in all ways.

But, as readers of the blog, you know that it wasn’t all that bad. Without this being a recap of the last year…I am grateful for the chance to learn a new language, meet people that have never met Americans before, and live in 2 completely different German cities. I am grateful for the bike riding opportunities, the busses, the trains, the autobahn, the cheap beer, and the amazing and atmospheric architecture surrounding us on all sides. I am most proud of this opportunity for Mayzie—she really has grown to be a smart, observant, and confident little girl. The way she interacts with her German classmates and teachers is precious. I am very thankful for learning and integrating into a culture I thought I knew before, but really had no clue whatsoever about. It has opened our eyes to what we want in our lives and how to get there more efficiently.

Lots of things surprised us about Germany…the people, the language, the bureaucracy, the working environment, the attitudes. There are some great things about Germany and some things that irritate me so much I don’t even want to think about them. Same as everywhere, I suppose.

I am worried about going home. Its earlier than I hoped, and I am concerned that we won’t find the quality of schooling around our area for Mayzie, as we have in Hamburg. I am concerned about working too much and not having any vacation time. About getting into a rut. But I have always worried about these things, and this is the part I need to realize…these things will never happen to me, no matter where I live. For us right now, the benefits of going home outweigh these silly negatives. My neurosis are the only things holding us back. Friends and family are more important to me than I ever realized.

So we are coming back to Portland, to our house, in spring 2010. No plane tickets booked yet, but very soon. Of course, the blog will continue, so I hope I can keep some of you as readers about the goings on of We Three Wusz… (but it wont be nearly as exciting haha).  

We have no regrets, we tried our best to make this work, but I would certainly do some things differently next time.

2009 was interesting to say the least. I am stoked that we have 4 more months over here and then we will re- group, re-focus, and move on with our lives…who knows where or when or what will happen. That’s the best part. Prost!

The German DMV

The US DMV is a complicated place full of disgruntled employees and impatient people. The German one is not much different at all. We visited the LBV (Landesbetrieb Verkehr) today to update our license plates on our car to Hamburg plates (we still had the Stuttgart ones on there). Every time you move to a new county you need to get new plates. It was a pretty efficient place. First step is take a number and wait...we waited 10 minutes or so. Then we were called up, presented all the paperwork necessary (any missing documents and you would be told to come back...we had to show house registration, car registration, proof of insurance, some weird car documents, the emission documents), showed them our old plates (which we had to take off our car and present to the lady), pay her for the registration fee (28 euros), she gave us our new license plate number, and she charaded to us (no english, and we dont speak car German), where to go next...to get the new plates. There are 4 or 5 businesses surrounding the DMV buildings that make your plates for you. We chose one at random (are they any different to eachother???), and got our new plates made...(20 euro for front and back plates). Little feeder businesses. So, new plates in hand, back into the main building. This was the strangest part. After asking a few strangers what to do, we were told we needed to take our old plates to 2 table drills sitting in the corner. There, you take your old plates and use the power drill to scratch and drill at the plate, so that the old registration is taken off the plate. This is so that someone cannot use your plate again, since it was still valid. Felt very strange to be using power tools in a government building like this....I took the picture while Jenna risked metal shards in her arm haha...

With our demarked plates and our new plates, we marched back up to another window upstairs and the lady inspected our drill job and put new stickers on the new plates. And we were done. Took about 1 hour total. Not bad.

While we were at the license plate makers, I had them make another plate for me....

Stolpersteine

When walking around Hamburg, chances are pretty good that you will come across little square gold blocks. It is easy to miss them, but once I figured out what they were, we started seeing them all over. These are called Stolpersteine (I had to google this, its an expression meaning stumbling blocks, or obstacles), and are the work of a German artisit. Each block commemorates a Jewish person that lived at a house, or what used to be a house, in front of the block during WWII. The one I took a picture of shows that a family named Bezen lived here, and when they were born, when they were deported from Germany, where they ended up (Lodz was a concentration camp in Poland), and what happened to them ("murdered"). Crazy.

Frohe Weihnachten

Hope you all have some good holidays. The streets are quiet, and all is dark, time to sit around and eat some food!

BONUS!!!! For your listening pleasure, I present you with 2 very limited and special offerings from the Nick and Mayzie Wusz Experience christmas album entitled "Morning Star? What the Heck is That?" First up, is the long lasting holiday favorite Jingle Bells....



And next up is a German favorite, which Mayzie calls "Tanya Baum"...



Look for our CD release sometime in the next decade...

Love Nick, Jenna, Mayzie, and good ol Oskar!

Christmas in Hamburg

I am off work now until January 5...feels good to relax and sleep in. No plans for the next two weeks, just some day trips and hanging out around Hamburg. It is very very cold today, and snowing non-stop...I think it was -1deg F and the wind is blowing, too...so any adventures outside are short lived. We still have managed Christmas markets and playing in the park. Oskar the dog cant handle the snow, he ends up shivering uncontrollably after a few minutes, poor little guy. So he poops and pees RIGHT OUTSIDE the door and books it back in. The atmosphere and non-commercialization of christmas is a relief, although for my Polish workmate, he was complaining about how consumerism is thrown in your face over here, but I was quick to tell him this is nothing compared to the US. That is interesting. The outdoor markets, alcohol in the street, smell of fresh roasted nuts, and walkability of the city all make it for a unique experience. Although it gets dark at 4:30, I really think this is the best season to visit Germany...though it is hard to justify a cold place for vacation when we live in a cold place at home, but still.

For proof that we are off our rockers and into this christmas more than any other (maybe this also has to do with Mayzie's first awareness of the holiday)...here are some pics of our flat, plus some others from around town.

Our lil xmas tree

Advent wreath...you light a candle for each week before xmas (please forgive me if this is super obvious to most of you, I am a xmas decorating amateur)

Jenna bought this wooden man from a xmas market...after placing a incense cone in his lower half, the smoke travels up and out through his mouth.

Can you see the smoke?

My polish friend Tomas.

Hamburg Rathaus in the snow...

Jenna with her favorite xmas drink, the Feuerzangenbowle.

Curry wurst and ice, what a combo.