Happy New Year...
Glückliches Neues Jahr! (Happy New Year)Our adventure continues in 2005. We are all becoming more and more comfortable in our surroundings. So much so, that we even let Joe take the train by himself to see his friend from school. Joe is usually the one that figures out which train ticket we need to buy anyway, and he knows how to read the train schedule well and everyone tells us how safe it is here, so away he goes to see his friend!
We celebrated New Year’s by having dinner with the parents of Joe’s friend who lives just a train stop away. Because we all decided at the last minute to go to dinner, we ended up eating early at an Indian restaurant that is owned by a parent of a student who attends the Bavarian International School. This is only the 2nd time in our lives we’ve ever eaten Indian food. The food was very good, but very spicy and very expensive. Because it was New ! Year’s Eve they were only serving buffet style and apparently here in Germany, buffet doesn’t mean keep going back as often as you want. Robin and I only filled our plates once, as the food was too spicy to even eat all that we got the first time, but Sam and Joe only put a few things on their plate to make sure they actually liked what they got. Then, like any good American at an all you can eat buffet, they went back to get more of what they liked. Well, 100€ later(euro – more than $100 US) we realized it was not a keep going back type buffet. Again, we had to laugh and learned an expensive lesson.
The item that I enjoyed the most at the Indian restaurant was this drink called a Radler. Now, for those of you who know all about Germany – don’t laugh at me and I know who you are!!!!! I have never enjoyed the taste of beer as I prefer sweeter drinks, however, my friend Tina told me about this and so I ordered it. A Radler (pronounced sort of like the snake – Rattler) is a combination of beer and what they call lemonade (sort of like a Sprite). So in essence it’s a beer cooler!!! It’s pretty good and doesn’t have that full on beer taste! They don’t have ice tea here and I don’t like drinking coke all the time so now I sometimes get a Radler! Robin has even made me one at home!
The other favorite drink we all have is called a Spetze. Spetze is a combination of orange Fanta and Coke! Coca Cola actually bottles their own Spetze and sells it here in Europe. But you can make your own at home – try it – mix orange Fanta and coke – pour them at the same time into a glass to get a good balance. You’ll really like it – we all do.
Back to New Year’s Eve. After our expensive dinner, we went to Mike and Tina’s house. Mike is here as an expat for BMW. Some companies, like BMW for instance, will move up to 30 families at a time to a European location for a year or two, or maybe more to work on a specific project. Mike is here with about 30 other families from the BMW factory in South Carolina working on a project. Mike and Tina shared all kinds of information with us and we drank champagne and at midnight all kinds of fireworks starting going off. Here, you can purch! ase fireworks just about anywhere prior to the New Year’s holiday for New Year’s eve and everyone does it!!! In the streets, in the front yards, on the main street of the town! Everywhere! We all went outside to enjoy the display! However, I heard one of those types of fireworks that makes a whistling sound and it scared me to death, because I didn’t know where it was headed! I ducked very low and took off running back into Tina’s house! I felt like what it might be like to be in a war zone! You hear the whistles of the artillery, etc and don’t know where it’s coming from until it’s too late!
The fireworks continued for close to 2 hours! Random fireworks all over. As we drove home people continued shooting them off in the streets! I was really nervous and stayed low in the car. We thought for sure that the streets would be a huge mess in the morning but when we all finally awoke and got out, the streets were again clean!
On New Year's Day, once we finally got Sam out of bed, we decided to drive to Garmisch which is where there is a lot of skiing and where a US military base and resort are located. It was a beautiful drive and we got our first glimpse of the Alps. When we got there, Sam was hungry so we headed to one of the very few spots that was open – McDonald’s! Sam ate and then we went next door to a nice bakery for cappuccino and a sweet. After a little bit of window shopping, Sam and Robin insisted on going home! There was a ski jump competi! tion going on in town and we got caught up in the traffic of the aftermath. I’m looking forward to another shopping and skiing trip there!
This past Thursday it was Three King’s Day, which is a German religious holiday. Robin was off from work so we made a trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that Walt Disney saw and designed the castle you see at Disneyland and Disney World after. It was about a 2 hour drive that we made successfully this time. We first visited the castle that belonged to King Ludwig’s parents. Usually there are buses running up the path to the castle but because of the weather and road conditions (all I s! aw on the road was horse poop) the buses weren’t running. So we took the horse drawn carriage up. The carriage carried about 12 people. Sam and Joe got to ride in the front but all they could see and smell was the horse’s rear end! It was really funny. It just so happened that a lady sat across from us on the carriage who was visiting the family of a German exchange student who lived with her in Minnesota, so we had a lovely time chatting with her and her German hostess. The castle was fascinating and we learned quite a bit about King Ludwig. We then went back down the road to make our way up to the Neuschwanstein Castle which was a very long and steep hike. We would have loved to have taken the carriage up there too, but the line was too long and we would have missed our English speaking tour so we took off for the hike, and I mean a hike! So much of a hike, that we were sweating and had to open our jackets and remove hats and scarves! But the hike to the castle was well worth it. This castle is incredible. If you click here, you’ll be taken to a web site telling you a bit or at least you can see a photo. In short, the castle was never finished because King Ludwig was declared insane and found drowned in the lake below the castle with his psychiatrist shot to death.! The theories and speculations surrounding his death at the young age of 40 are very interesting. It’s worth some research if you’re interested.
We ended our day at the castle with dinner at a German restaurant, some warm Gluwein, hot chocolate and apple streudel before heading back home. However, Sam suddenly became very nauseated and we thought we wouldn’t make it back. He thinks it was the cigarette smoke that got to him. If any of you are planning to come to Germany, and you’re not used to cigarette smoke, Robin’s suggestion is that you spend a few months eating in the US in the smoking sections of restaurant as you will have a difficult time getting away from it here. (Just heard on the news that in Italy all smoking has been banned from restaurants).
Sam’s highlight of this past week was when I took him into Munich to Karsplatz to surprise him with “The Footlocker”. He was so excited, that you know me, I took his picture in front of the store! Of course, as is always his problem at the Footlocker in the US, the shoes he wanted were sold out in his size!!! The Footlocker person told us to go across the street to the department store because they had the same shoe – a black Converse basketball shoe – yes, the same old fashioned Converse shoe you’re thinking of! We got those for Sam to play ba! sketball in and he just loves them! Go figure!
Sam’s second highlight of this week came on Sunday when he played in an indoor soccer tournament with his team SV Lohhof. Indoor soccer is a bit different here. Germans use any location they can find indoor to play. So, there are no indoor fields like at home. They use a gym, no Astroturf, a huge tennis ball like soccer ball (it’s softer and lighter) and the playing area is square like an outdoor field not curved like an ice hockey rink. Walls can be played off of, but when the ball goes out of bounds, the player rolls it back in to a teammate. Subsitutions are made in lines, similar to hockey and the! re are 5 on the field as opposed to 6 in the US. When a substitution is made, it often happens without stopping and all 4 field players come off at the same time, leaving only the goalie. Sam played very well and even scored a beautiful goal in the 3rd or 4th game. After the first game Sam said it was hard to control the ball because it bounces so much but he got used to it. One of his coaches speaks very good English, even spent 2 years in the US training as a military pilot at one time, and he took care of him. This coach has been described to us as a yeller but Sam’s been playing long enough that he’s used to that. It was a long afternoon of indoor soccer and Sam left the day with a 2nd place trophy! It was a lot of fun to watch. The funniest part was when Sam scored his goal, he was so excited he took off running with his arms in the air like he was an airplane! What a goof – but everyone thought it was funny. There is one player on Sam's team that was asked to move up to play for TSV 1860, the professional level, but he didn't want to. He is very good! And the team is very happy to have Sam here.
We have already started talking to the people with SV Lohhof about Sam’s North Texas Striker’s team coming to visit in June for some training and games. They seem to be very interested in helping us make this happen, so all you Strikers, we’ll keep you posted.
Following the tournament we were invited to dinner by the parents of one of the goalies, yes, I said “one of the goalies.” In the US we have a hard enough time finding a single goalie, many teams here have at least 2. This team had 3 but their best goalie just quit – according to the coach he was too interested in many other activities, including girls. (Same as in the US). David is the goalie and his parents are Thomas and Vera. Now, here’s the very interesting part. Thomas works for a company called Chrysallis Publishing and he is responsible for signing musical artists to his company. And these are artists we all know – he either knows them or they are signed with him – OutKast, Kylie Minogue, Velvet Revolver. I can’t remember all the names. But it gets even more interesting. Thomas’s name is on the OutKast album – look for Thomas Glagow if you have the cd. Thomas is a VOTING MEMBER of the Grammies and will be attending the Grammies AGAIN this year and attending AFTER PARTIES too! He has rubbed elbows with many famous artists and many times he doesn’t even really know who they are! He has sat next to Robert DeNiro and Robert Redford at an event honoring Magic Johnson. He can’t stand Jessica Simpson and we ! had a good time laughing at the Ashlee Simpson “Saturday Night Live” debacle. In spite of what was said about using tracks on Saturday Night Live, according to Thomas, that night was in fact the first time ever that SNL has had an artist use a track for lip synching. I was just amazed listening to him and all the names of artists he knew! Sam says that at Thomas’s house he has walls and walls of CD’s and albums!
Dinner with the Glagow’s was so fun – their English is amazing – and we are looking forward to having kaffe and German cookies with them next Saturday. We have aleady invited his son, David, to come live with us for a year in Germany to play soccer. He is an amazing goalie – he is almost a year younger than Sam, but is a foot taller and a very good goalie – and he is considered the 2nd goalie! Imagine that! We all think that he’s better than the first goalie, but the first goalie is the son of one of the coaches.
Well, there’s our update. We are having a great time. The boys are back in school and we are looking forward to ski week in February. Attached are a couple of photos.
Try this on for size! Did you know that in Texas, you can drive all day and still be in Texas?! Did you know that here I can drive for 1 hour and be in Austria or drive 3.5 hours and be in Venice?! That just truly amazes me! Those are just 2 of the places we’ll be seeing soon!
Love to you all, and I love hearing back from you!
Deidre
posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 8:35 AM
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