EuroLife: Day 66

Big blog news today: we reached over 1000 hits! That's pretty cool. I'm sure we'll be picked-up any day now by some corporate sponsor--most likely the New York Times Travel section--and paid vast quantities of cash for our musings. We'll just have to be sure we ask for our paycheck in Euros.

Today I thought I would show you all my Mutterpass. Yes, here in Germany, pregnant women are given a special "mother pass!"
Now, when I first heard that I was going to be given a Mutterpass, I got pretty excited. I thought that maybe it would get me all manner of discounts and special treatment--cheap fares on the strassenbahn, for example, or discounted soft drinks .(After all, I can't drink the cheap beer!)

Alas, it was not to be. It turns out my Mutterpass is a little booklet in which they record everything relevant to my pregnancy. When I told my doctor (during our first visit) that we would be heading to the US for Christmas, she said something to the effect of "Well, you're not going anywhere until you have your Mutterpass!" She made an appointment for the following week for me to come and pick it up. Unfortunately, I had to go to the Frauenklinik before I had received it. That led to some confusion, and many disconcerted faces, at the clinic. "Boy", I thought, "Only 8 weeks pregnant and already I feel like a bad mother. What kind of a mother goes around without a Mutterpass?"

Despite my jokes, I think it's a great idea. It has my blood type, family history, the results of the blood tests that they have done, a record of the medication that I'm on, my due date, the details of each ultrasound result...in short, every piece of information that might be medically relevant to the pregnancy. I suppose the idea is that, if anything should happen, I should always have that information on hand. As I said, this makes sense to me. Of course, in the States, it may not be of much use;it is, after all, written in German. Still, I like the idea.

EuroLife: Day 67

A Little Perspective

3 December 2007

City.................. Sunset................. Hours of Daylight
Atlanta .......... 5:29...................... 10:02
New York.........4:28.......................9:26
Jena...............4:13.......................8:13
Moscow...........4:01.......................7:23
Stockholm.......2:54......................6:32
Fairbanks........2:56......................4:31

Murmansk.....DOWN ALL DAY.......

It's always good to have a little perspective. So from now on when I think about winter daylight, I'm going to think about Murmansk. The people of Murmansk last saw the sun on the first of December, when it crested the horizon from 12:15 until 12:57. They will see it again on January ll, when it makes an appearance at 12:49. Despite the darkness, a lot of people live there. At 325,000 people, its the largest city above the arctic circle. By way of comparison, there are only 82,000 people in Fairbanks. Murmansk even boasts a university with 4,458 students. I hear they may be looking for a philosophy professor soon.

Other interesting facts about Marmansk:
1) Because of the Gulf Stream, the port remains free of ice all year.
2) In WWI the US, the British, and the White Russians controlled it.
3) In WWII the US and the British supplied Russia through this port.
4) The city has the only fleet of nuclear powered ice breakers in the world.

EuroLife: Day 66

This is becoming something of a theme. Sunday rolls around and it's Michael's turn to write the blog, but I have such a lovely Sunday that I convince him to let me write it! So here we are again. The picture above was taken a few evenings ago in the center of the city. December is the time of Christmas Markets here in Germany, and Jena is no exception. The whole city has been extravagantly decorated, and there are dozens of new shops, stands, and cafes set up throughout the city center. Soon we will take pictures in daylight and write a post on our Christmas Market, but not today.

I am continually impressed by the people we meet in our church. This morning we slept-in a bit and went to the second service. As soon as the service ended, the man in front of us turned around and introduced himself. He, Reinhold, is a recently retired business-management professor, and was familiar with the project on which Michael is working. Within minutes he had invited us to lunch. He and his wife Ulricha drove us to their beautiful home up in a part of town that had somehow not yet seen. Reinhold, Michael and I sat in the sitting room while Ulricha went to prepare a lunch. In what seemed to be an impossibly short time, she returned to seat us in the dining room. There we all sat and had Roast Beef (fresh out of the oven) with a mustard cream sauce and a horseradish dressing, in addition to rice and salad. It was absolutely delicious. I tell you, ever since complaining about the food, I have been inundated with treat after treat. After lunch, we all had vanilla ice cream served with chocolate shavings and homemade cherry jam. (I'm pretty sure the meal in its entirety must at least come close to my mother's ideal meal; I thought of her with each course!) Then they practically forced us to have seconds. (By which I mean, they offered us seconds.)

Enough about the food. These were some of the nicest people I have ever met. The conversation was constant and incredibly interesting, and I felt so at home with them. The first half of the afternoon we spoke German, which I was able to understand almost completely but in which, of course, I cannot say very much. We switched to English during the meal, occasionally reverting for a few phrases but mostly remaining in English. It's difficult to capture exactly why the afternoon was so wonderful, but I believe that if you met these people you would want to spend the day with them. The only reason we eventually left was because we were due at Jeff and Deanna's house for coffee and cake! (It's a difficult life I lead here in Germany.)

So off we went to Jeff and Deanna's. Their youngest daughter was dedicated in the first service this morning, and they had a gathering in celebration. There, too, we had a wonderful time. (I had a little too much sugar, or perhaps a lot too much sugar, and I'm paying for it now. It's very hard to turn down homemade treats!) There were quite a few students at Jeff and Deanna's, most of whom we know, and all of whom speak English. It was just a great way to spend the afternoon. Jeff and Deanna have a blog as well, I meant to include the link yesterday but forgot. You can see them, and many of the students, at: http://jndministry.blogspot.com

And now we are spent. I've been laying low since being "released", so this was quite a lot of activity for me! Our plan for this evening is to watch "So I Married an Axe Murderer", a (very likely dated) American comedy that was included in the stack of DVD's I got from Jeff and Deanna. We have to return those one of these days, and neither of us have seen this movie. Here's hoping it's funny!

EuroLife: Day 65

Blessings Beyond Measure!

Some of you may remember my grumblings about comfort food from a few days ago. Well, this morning we received a phone call from Deanna, a friend from church. She was calling to see how I was doing, having been away last week while I was in the Fraunklinic. "Also," she added, "I'm making some homemade chicken strips. Would it be ok if I brought some over?"

By way of back-story, Deanna and her husband Jeff have been in Jena for 2 or 3 years now working in campus ministry. We met them at church, where we were very surprised to learn that their hometown in the States is about 10 minutes away from Michael's hometown! They have been wonderful about welcoming us to Jena. In fact, Jeff drove us to the Emergency Room last Saturday. We don't have a car, and they have repeatedly offered to help us if ever we need it, so they were the ones we called.

So, Deanna saw my post about comfort food--having also been disappointed by Cheers, it turns out--and boy did she fix that problem! She and her daughter Georgia came by with a bag full of goodies. In addition to the homemade fried chicken and collard greens, there was jasmine rice, black eyed peas, ranch dressing, tortilla chips, salsa, taco seasoning (from the US!), instant peach tea, and even Skittles! Not one of those items, except perhaps for the rice, have I had since arriving in Germany. We had the chicken, rice, beans and greens for dinner and it was absolutely delicious; it totally hit the spot. (I know my New York readers might be surprised by the collard greens, and maybe even by the black-eyed peas, but Michael won me over to both ages ago and we used to make them all the time! You just have to trust me; they're delicious.)

It was such a wonderful way to start the day. In addition to the incredible food, it was just very nice to feel so cared for. Actually, Jeff and Deanna are also the friends who loaned us the stack of American DVDs. They have really been a blessing to us!

Since we're on the topic of blessings, I thought I'd include the most recent ultrasound picture too. The ultrasound itself looked incredible, but the printed picture looked a little less clear. (When the baby was moving around, it was super easy to see what everything was.) A photograph of the picture only makes things worse, but at least it's something, so here it is:
The head is on the right, and you can see (or at least I can see :) an arm and the legs sort of tucket up. (The baby is facing towards the bottom of the picture.)

All that to say, Michael and I are feeling incredibly blessed. I'm getting pretty nauseous, I'm exhausted, and I have the sense of smell of a superhero (not a very useful superpower), but I couldn't be happier!

EuroLife: Day 64

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

Actually, the sun shone for three days in a row when Dolores was in the hospital. Unfortunately, I was fighting a cold so I slept in most mornings and missed half the daylight. I visited Dolores twice a day, most days, and I worked away feverishly on my dissertation, which must be handed in on January 15th.

Today I thought I would talk about all of the little mistakes that foreigners (like myself) make. We'll that's too broad of a topic, so I'll limit myself to linguistic mistakes. You've already heard about Dolores' house battle. Unfortunately, I don't have anything quite so funny to report. But anyway, here they are.

1) On our first day in town, I went up to a rather attractive young waitress arranging tables at a sidewalk cafe, and I asked, "Are you open?" She said -- thankfully with a smile -- "No, I am not open. But the restaurant...something...something...blah,blah...opened." I wasn't sure what my mistake was. At first, I thought my mistake stemmed from using the word "you" to refer to the restaurant. Of course, we do this in English, but the Germans are often more literal or exact than we are. It turns out, however, that this was not my mistake. My mistake was using the verb "to be" instead of the the verb "to have," and using the word "open" instead of "opened." I should have said: "Have you opened?" Unlike in English, however, this question asks about a current state, not about a past event. So one can also ask: "When have you opened?" to find out what the general hours are. So what had I actually asked the waitress? I asked if she was frank or direct. Apparently she is not. Strange that in all my years of German class and my time in Munich, I never learned how to ask if a restaurant is open.

2) I just realized the other day that for the first two months I've been pronouncing the word "euro" as "your-o" rather than "oy-row." (I just mentioned this difference to Dolores, because I was only 90% sure that "oy-row" is actually correct. After some reflection, we both think it is. Still, how many times have we heard this word? And we still kept saying "your-o."

We'll there are plenty more mistakes, but I'll save some for later.