My Biggest Germany Disappointment To Date

Well,

I'm being treated OK!

First things first. Here's a photo.Please don't be alarmed, I'm not being held against my will and there have been no demands made. It's just that my friend Ryan doesn't believe I'm in Germany. So the photo is of me with today's paper. Yes Ryan, I could have Photoshopped it but frankly, who has the time?

Now the next item of business is a food photo. Kate is  really good at these. If you've ever seen a Picasa album of one of our vacations you can't help but to have noticed at least one photo of every meal she has eaten. I on the other hand feel really self conscious about taking a picture of my meal, especially when I'm by myself. But yesterday I was having lunch at a weird time when it wasn't very busy at a place in the Altstadt (old city) called Zum Spiessgesellen. It's in the Rathaus (City Hall). So when the staff wasn't looking I pulled out my cell phone, turned off the flash and snapped this. They called it Kalbsrahm Gulasch. Now with my Hungarian heritage I was only slightly offended but the Spaetzle (dumplings) were so good that I forgave them. The accompanying Kellerbier needed no apologies.

So, to the subject at hand. I am not disappointed by the weather, my work situation, my exercise opportunities or my ability to communicate. I'm happy with my accommodations, my transportation and the cost of living. My only disappointment to date is this:

This is all purpose cleaner that I bought on my boss's recommendation. Today was cleaning day at Dr. Koenig's flat. The place that needed it the most is the bathtub, the place where I shower once per day, maximum twice. Now if you look closely at the label you will see a happy frog. The implication is that the frog is happy because the cleaner is made with orange peel and  therefore environmentally friendly. Well the frog can be very happy because he neither bathes nor showers and I presume that if he does he's not bothered by a little dirt in the body of water he uses. This human on the other hand would like to see his labours rewarded by a bathtub that is cleaner when he finishes than it was when he started. No such reward was obtained. I started with the cleaner in a pail of water and gradually increased the concentration until I was using it full strength on the schmutz in question. Despite applying all of the elbow grease that my uninjured shoulder was capable of laying down there is now no evidence whatsoever that any cleaning has taken place.

Tomorrow I will be back to the supermarket in search of a more effective bathroom specific cleanser. True, it may be somewhat less "green" but I swear as God is my witness I will get my bathtub clean if I have to wipe the smile off that frog to do it!

Update: In a previous post I said that my love of beer did not necessarily mean that I drink a lot of it. Well on Friday I met up with an old friend for dinner. One thing led to another. And another. And ...who's counting anyway?! It was the weekend and I'm in Bavaria.

Thanks for reading,
Tom

Bits of This and That

Nothing profound from Germany in this installment but here are a few observations and insights into what I’ve been thinking and doing over the past few days.



It's easy. Just read the instructions



Indiana Jones and the Temple of Laundry



I rediscovered Laundromats last night. Certainly not glamorous but an essential part of life. If you think about it the whole “one family per washer/dryer” concept is incredibly wasteful. But the ability to stick your laundry in a machine in your own dwelling, go off and do something fun or productive then come back to finish the job on one’s own schedule is a luxury I won’t be taking for granted anytime soon.

I may be kicking my TV addiction while I’m over here. Initially I thought all the channels I got were German. That wasn’t fair. One is Austrian. Fortunately I had no difficulty with the accent. I get 22 channels total. Of those approximately 22 are German language. At home when I come into an empty house I almost always immediately flip on the TV. Over here I’ve started to put on music or internet news radio instead. What has not changed is my need to have some form of background noise. In fact it’s probably more important over here. The loneliness can start to get at you and I’m starting to understand Tom Hanks’ character in Castaway. Perhaps I should buy a volleyball.

I may be becoming more German than I know. This morning my bus was nearly two minutes late. I was almost freaking out. How could this be?

When commuting by bus (especially in Germany) you tend to see the same people every day.  There’s a father with a young son 3-4 years old. The man must work near my office as he drops his boy at the day care here in the office park. The little boy is normally very cute. This morning he was just in a foul mood, crying from the second he set foot (actually today he had to be carried) in the bus. Now I have no formal training in psychology but I do consider myself a keen observer of the human condition. This young man had no projects running behind schedule and no impending cost overruns. There were no customers making unreasonable demands of him. He hadn’t had any disagreements with a spouse, likely had no personal financial concerns and almost certainly had not had any traffic encounters with poor drivers. Maybe he was in a foul mood just because he was. And maybe that happens to all of us. We get into a funk just because. On the other hand maybe everything happens for a reason and he didn’t get a prize in his cereal or he hated the outfit his mother made him wear. Who knows?

On the factual side I’m keeping myself fed and I’m running every day with no particular program or goal. Most days I get plenty of sleep but with last night being laundry night my bedtime was later than I prefer. I’m able to stay in touch with my family using various tools of modern technology but I still miss them.

More later, thanks for reading.

Tom

The Adventure Begins

Yesterday was my first day in Europe. So much happens. Let me break it down. First the facts:

• I had no travel issues and arrived at the office, on time, with all my luggage, and almost no sleep. (Love those crying babies!)
• My laptop plugged straight into an existing docking station at the office and everything worked. Yay!
• I'm all moved into my flat (apartment). It's clean, plenty of room for just me and it's nice and quiet for sleeping. If you come to visit me the name on the door is Dr. Konig.
• Yesterday's weather was gorgeous. I actually had dinner outside. Today it's raining.

And now the more interesting stuff.

• Did you know that European keyboards aren't the same as North American ones? For example the y and z keys are interchanged. Zaz! All typos in this blog will henceforth be blamed on hardware incompatibility.
• Although it was warm yesterday it quickly cooled off. My flat is centrally heated by my walking around and opening the valves on the radiators in each space that I occupy. It was centrally cooled when I closed the valves before I left.
• My departure was delayed as I tried to understand the water heater that takes up most of the space above the bathtub. Once I figured out how to turn it on I had to wait. For a while. Quite a while.
• Thinking shampoo could be a problem I thoughtfully bought a bottle before I left Canada and packed it in my luggage. It's conditioner.
• "Furnished flat" means it has funiture. What I should have requested was a "Furnished flat with toilet paper". I see a shopping trip in my future. Should make for an interesting post. And maybe I can pick up some shampoo. Maybe.
• German buses run to a schedule. To the minute. I love that. Now that the hot water thing is resolved getting to work on time should be a breeze.
• I hate living a cliche but last night's dinner was sausages, sauerkraut, pretzels and beer. OK so they were probably the best in the world. But I need to break that cycle soon. For a couple of reasons.

Thanks for reading,
Dr. Konig (aka Tom)