This morning I was lying in bed and suddenly amused myself at something that happened at the hospital when I worked there.
Did you know, no one knocks on doors in Germany? In this country, the only knocking on doors happens on people's television sets when they watch American shows. I rue the loss of this American trait. I always prefer to knock. I'm ashamed to say I've lost it completely. I have not knocked on someone's house door in 11 years.
Until...I was working at the hospital and had to enter the x-ray lab. There was some sort of lawful German written on the door which made me nervous to just enter, so I knocked.
A moment later a lady answered the door, with two of her colleagues standing behind her, gaping at me. "Don't DO that! You scared us!" Honestly, they did look scared. *snicker* No intention to scare them, of course. So I guess the lesson is, no bell, just yell? Hospitals, pfft.
***
Before my next example, I wanted to throw in an image of what is typical in this region.
In this case, a Fachwerk Haus on a stream. Houses are purposefully built along waterways, to utilize them for either knife sharpening or grain smashing. I'm somewhat ignorant, but there are water wheels built alongside these homes/in the homes, for ancient industrial purposes. After modernization, these homes still have water along their walls. I just can't help wonder how damp the homes must be? My house was purposefully build in a stream valley too, for some purpose. (Who wants to live in a hole?) Curious.
***
Today we saw a teenager shopping for hard liquor. Rum, in particular. He finally decided on two bottles and took them to the checkout. He's a neighbor kid of mine - I've seen his most recent growth spurt and he's got to be about 14. Maybe 15.
J told me to keep an eye on him in line and see what happens. I noted the checker and would ask her later.
This is a new checker, and on her first day I welcomed her to the neighborhood in Pure American Fashion. Happiness upon you, may you feel welcome in our tiny village!
She must have remembered me, cuz something incredible happened today.
We arrived at her cash register and she looked up to me (they sit here) and said....NO KIDDING...
"Did you find everything you need?"
and stupid, STUPID me, I did not notice. I said "Omgosh, you guys have slow-cookers! When I arrived in Germany 10 years ago I tried to find a slow-cooker and went to the electronics/appliances store (Saturn) and they had no idea what I was talking about. They asked me, 'You mean a pressure cooker? A fast cooker?' - um, no I said the opposite, a slow cooker. 'You mean a rice cooker?' Um, no...ugh, forget it."
"But you guys have slow cookers! At ALDI!!!!!!! Amazing!"
She admitted, "I don't know what you are talking about." I said, "You'll see them, they're on your shelves. I just doubt any German will know what they are! I'll tell you - you set them in the morning to cook your food, and when you get home your food is done!"
She said, "Or burnt to a crisp."
*LOL* "No, they cook SLOW!"
Apparently Aldi does no product training for its employees. But I did some today. Yup!
Then I had to ask, "So, did you just sell that kid 2 bottles of rum?"
By this time the entire, huge line was staring at us, leaning forward in fascination. Conversations do NOT HAPPEN at the checkout. But I was working as fast as I could to move product from her to my cart. No one could complain, and J was there to help if I faltered. To be honest, I felt like they were actually interested rather than annoyed at me.
"What kid?"
"The red-head with the purchase of two bottles of rum. Looks about 14."
She said, "It's all good."
I realized I'd put her on the spot and I knew I could not press - I said, "Cuz I don't really know the legal age here."
She said, for the entire line to hear, "16 for beer and wine, 18 for hard alcohol."
I said, "Really, cuz in America they card you up to age 40."
(The phrase "Card you" does not exist here so at this point I'm just hoping she knows what I mean.)
She knew, she had visited America, thankfully, and remembered how she was carded. She pointed to the wrinkles by her eye and said "Even with these wrinkles!" and the lady in line behind me started to laugh. WTH. This never happens. Lines in Germany are where people come to compete for the trophy for MOST EVIL.
It took me an hour later, to realize the strangest thing of all - she'd asked me, "Did you find everything you wanted?"
Um.....J! I ran to his office to ask him, "Did you hear her say that?" "Yes." So....she really did.
First time ever in 11 years living here. In fact, I'm not sure they are allowed to say that, due to the effect it might have on the line-speed. I joked to J, "Remember in America, when they ask that, and you make the mistake of answering 'no' - and they stop the presses, and everything pauses until that item is found? And you never, ever say 'no' again!!??"
Yes, he remembers.
Funny, so.....she must know I'm American. And she used the ubiquitous phrase on me, which went right over my head.
What could have given it away?
Me?
***
Truth, Germans eat eggs out of cups. Soft boiled, to be precise, and they have a method for eating them that is elegant, as much so as the way they cut open the Broetchen, those bread rolls they eat fresh baked every morning. I can do it now - both the egg thing and the roll thing. Egg cups sometimes come with little hats for the eggs, hand-knit, that your egg stays warm. I'm not making this up. (But an error in this image - the bread IS the rolls you see.)
The only reason I put this image here is to show that cash is still king in Germany, and there is nothing less than a 5 in paper. All the rest is change. That means we carry a lot of coins around constantly. (We can pay for groceries with cards, but restaurants and cafes and bakeries need cash.)
I had to include this also cuz horse people only take cash in Germany. Just like you'd write your farrier or trainer a check (checks do not exist here), they take cash, mostly. So last week when Ani and I were done with our lesson, we both whipped out some cash. Since we were both standing at Susanne's car that was parked at the end of a dead-end street, it flashed me back to my past. I mean, who else passes cash dollars around at a car window, other than...
Truth. You should see my kitchen.
This is my life, and I don't despise it as much as I used to. Returning every used bottle to the grocery store where we bought it. In fact, this is Aldi, and this is the exact water we drink! I drink one of those 1.5 liter bottles per day, or more. At 25 cents per return, of course you return.
Recently we've received pressure that this is not environmentally friendly ENOUGH.
Seriously, that returning bottles to stores is negligent. That we should ONLY buy glass bottles, or the hard plastic that our Coke comes in.
J drinks Coke Zero, but in Germany, Coke bottles are not "recycled" per-se, they are simply washed and refilled. That is why the plastic is all scratched up when you buy a new bottle. Icky nasty EARTH FRIENDLY bottles. Sorry. It's just, as an American, I am used to buying new things that appear new.
*sigh*
I don't know how much energy is used to recycle plastic, compared to how much environmental damage is caused by washing your own dishes, with dish soap.
My husband just took me aside to show me how recycling works in Germany. OK, in the middle of this blog: )
Is it possible to wash a SOLO cup and reuse it? A Ziplock bag? Of course.
I'm just embarrassed that Europeans go to America and say, "Our hotel gave us our breakfast an a paper plate." I just wanna know the truth.
BEST FOOD EVER.
If you ever come to Germany, you'll be lucky to come to my region where they serve Sauerbraten. J's mom makes the very best. I'm gonna spend my life learning. It's pot roast marinated for a week in spices and vinegar. If you love pot roast, you'll love this. It MUST (according to my husband) be served with dumplings (shown) and sweet red cabbage (which he does not eat). I've learned that certain dishes must be served with certain sides. That is reminiscent of our Thanksgiving, right?
OK I started out wanting to tell you about my knocking on a door, and my missing the checker asking me if I'd found everything I'd wanted at Aldi. (*blush*)
Now you have an environmental crisis on your hands....and some food to eat! Sorry.
13 comments:
Hmmmmm, next time I see Renate (DIL's mother), I may ask her to make sauerbraten to try.
The last time we were in Germany we stayed with an older German lady for three days. The first morning when we got up she had a table prepared for us like the breakfast you pictured. So much food for three people and yes fresh bread. This blog was very interesting. Brought back some good memories of our visits to Germany.
The last time we were in Germany we stayed with an older German lady for three days. When we go up the first morning she had a breakfast prepared on the table like the one you pictured, all that food for three people. I liked this blog it brought back some good memories of our three visits to Germany. Our son has moved to Dubai so we will not be going to Germany again I don't think. We loved the little villages with all the shops for what we needed and Aldi's. We have one in our town now and love shopping there.
Not knocking? I remember when my own father gave me a hard time because I walked into our own home without knocking first. Ha ha! All the medical personnel around here knock on the examining room doors before entering, and lately I've noticed that some of them even wait for me to say "Come in!" I find it so odd because it is the doctor's office, yet he or she knocks on his or her own door. I guess it's to make sure you are decent and not still changing into or out of a gown. Although very few doctors even supply gowns nowadays. They just examine you with your clothes on.
But by not knocking, I assume strangers don't just walk into stranger's houses to sell them something, do they? I had a stranger walk into my back yard the other day and start petting my horses because she wanted to check out my barn. She let her dog poop all over my property and then left. I wanted to say, "You're not from around here, are you? Because if you were, you'd be afraid you'd get shot for doing that."
We're back to locking up all of our outbuildings because it's trespassing season in Arizona.
NM, I mean, everyone assumes a doorbell, and there always is one. Knocking is an American thing I've learned. That's cuz most people in Europe do not live in single, stand-alone houses. More on that to come!
Sheldon's voice: "knock knock knock Nurses knock knock knock Nurses knock knock knock Nurses..."
It’s sounds fascinating to me. Here, if you are friends you don’t knock-you open the door and call.
I love egg cups. I own three.
Also love my slow cooker. How do people live without it?
And will you share your MiL's recipe? It sounds amazing.
What a fun post! You just brought back so many memories!! I loved shopping at the Aldi over there, but it was 45 mins from our flat. I could walk to a Netto though but it wasn't the same. I was thrilled when we got a local Aldi 15 mins from our farm. I shop there every week now.
It's funny how much recycling/reusing is ingrained in everything in Germany. It caught on so much with us that our neighbors here look at us strangely as we pack our cars full of recyclables and drive them to a facility to be recycled. So many just burn their trash / everything else or toss into a garbage bin.
Please post a Sauerbraten recipe! That was a fav along with the knodels the size of your head. We would alternate getting that and the Jaggersnitzel mit pommefrits oder spatzle when we ate out.
Congrats on finding a slow cooker - now you can smell the deliciousness cooking away all day long.
This made me chuckle. Behaviors that we think are universal are actually cultural customs. I'm not sure my howdy y'all Texas background would go over in Germany. I love it that you chatted with the gal at the check out and that the people behind you proved their humanity because they actually seemed to enjoy the interaction. Maybe you will start a cultural revolution.
Becky, I nearly spit my water all over the keyboard when I read that. Yah, I wish they had senses of humor, I'd do it.
Teresa, Really, you open the door and call out "hello anyone home?"!
KB, wow, that's a long one...it's so complicated to make, it's almost not worth it, but it is: ) Take note that her instructions include ingredients down the line that I did not write at the beginning. She just told me off the top of her head.
Sauerbraten nach Eva:
> 1 kg beef (pot roast I think)
bottle of vinegar
3-4 onions
1 TBSP Mustard seeds
3-4 Bay leaves
3-4 Cloves
3-4 Pimento seeds
Salt & Pepper
Cook vinegar, onions, and seasonings in a pot, but don't boil.
Put the meat in a glass or plastic dish (not metal), pour fluid over, being sure the fluid covers the meat. Put in fridge or basement (!!!???) for 3-7 days.
Take meat out and dry it, then let it sit 1-2 hours on the counter til room temp.
In a large pot with a lid, fry the meat in your choice of fat - lard, canola, coconut oil. As you'd make a pot roast, fry each side of the meat, splashing grease all over yourself and your kitchen. *sigh*
Remove onions from marinade dish and add to large pot with meat. Add 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar.
With a ladle, gradually add the marinade from the dish to the pot, cooking down each ladle from 1 centimeter to nothing, three times (not four? not five?) Then pour the rest of the marinade over the meat.
When it starts to boil, drop heat to medium and over, letting it simmer 2 hours.
Remove meat from pot. Turn up heat and boil. Your house will smell just awful now.
Add some flour to thicken the sauce. Add 2 TBS apple butter and a shredded apple.
Add salt, pepper, water as needed. Pour all through a sieve and discard waste.
Cut up the meat into slices and put into the sauce.
Now I'm starving for Sauerbraten.
During the week or so the thing is sitting in your attic or basement or fridge, try to procure dumplings and rotkohl (sweet red cabbage). Applesauce is also served as a side.
Note: Sauerbraten always tastes best when someone else cooks it for you, so try to get a friend to do this for you. *LOL*
Kelly, recipe above! And interesting that you like Aldi - I bet they're pretty different in America, as far as customer service is concerned. I bet they SMILE: ) And I know they offer American types of food - so though it says ALDI above the door, all the products are different, exactly like Costco - it just arrived in Europe, but only Spain (Lucky Bs) but the food is all Spanish oriented, so I cannot just drive to Spain and find a huge tub of cashew nuts *lol*. Or A&W Root Beer schlag mich tod.
I'm at such a quandary about recycling, being from Seattle where I had a deep distrust of recycling agencies. I still have it but have no way to educate myself.
Jagerschnitzel was one of the favorites when my sister and her kids visited us.
I love my slow cooker cuz I am terrible with meat - it is mostly too hard to cut with even a knife when I'm done. I actually found mine on Amazon, an original "Crock Pot" and I love it, but still have much to learn.
KB, I WILL start the revolution. In BFE, Germany. *cackle* Let's just smile and talk and be nice, OK!? No? It doesn't matter that the conversation is small talk - it makes us feel better in our community. No? OK then.
Laughing Out Loud! Iowa - we're friendly, helpful & polite & social!
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