Merry Christmas & Frohe Weihnachten

It has always been said that the best way to understand a culture fully is to live within the culture. I think I can safely say I have lived in Germany long enough to understand and feel a part of the culture. The Germans have a word for things (most often words) that have been Germanized and I often refer to myself as "eingedeutsched." However, no matter how long or how Germanized I become, I odn't think I will ever forget my own holiday traditions. I was so excited to spend Thanksgiving with my family in 2011 for the first time since 2005 and that long weekend surpassed all of my expectations.

Since Germans don't celebrate Halloween or American Thanksgiving, Christmas is a season. Christmas candy starts popping up in grocery stores at the end of August and slowly takes over by October. In mid October, most shops have already put up Christmas decorations and you would be hard pressed to not find Christmas sweets in every grocery store. The large public celebrations of the season begin just about the same time as American Thanksgiving in the form of outdoor Christmas markets. All large cities and many small towns have Christmas markets where people drink warm alcoholic drinks to stay warm while socializing, eating and shopping in the stalls for the month before Christmas. Christmas markets set the scene for the season and serve as a general meeting place for colleagues, friends and tourists alike. This year a visiting Prof. asked me what Germas buy at Christmas markets and quite frankly, I think food and drink is the local favorite while the goods are consumed by maily tourists but my answer comes with the disclaimer that I am not actually German. The closest American comparison I can think of are church Bazars (sp?) but they are often only open for a weekend, most always indoors and usually contain at least 1 raffel or other game of chance, something you won't find in a German Christmas market. They are also sponsored by a religious organization and generally used as a form of fundraising for said organization (mostly Churches of Christian denominations). German Christmas Markets also have a religious element to them although they are not run by any religious organization. Here there is no seperation of church and state. Furthermore, Germans don't say happy holidays or seasons' greetings, it's Frohe Weihnachten (Merry Christmas) and guten rutsch (literally translates to good slide but is more like the English "happy new year").
Back to the actual holiday, Germans celebrate Christmas in a way that I do not think I will ever fully be able to support. However, I do love the Christmas cookie tradition that takes place mid December where everyone bakes about 8-12 varities of cookies and shares them in homes and offices. I also like the tradition of the advent calendar which I have experienced as a recipient first hand this year and will have to let you know how I do with coming up with 24 gift ideas next year. The main Christmas celebration is universally on the 24th of December. The tree is often only put up on the 23rd or 24th. Traditionally there is a family meal. I'm still not sure if this is the meal that consists  of Goose, rot kraut and some form of potato or noodle or if that is served on the 25th. There is also a tradition I've heard of which involves eating a minimilistic dinner on the 24th in tribute to Mary and Joseph's struggles and then feasting on the 25th in celebration of Jesus' birth. My in-laws serve a completely different meal on the 24th which I much prefer so I have not experienced a Christmas goose. Christmas presents are also exchanged in the evening of the 24th. This is where everything is different. I may have ranted about this in year's past but for me, Christmas is the 25th. On the 24th I like to go to church with family (and take in the lights at LaSalette) and when I was a kid, spent Christmas eve with one side of the samily and Christmas day went to church in the morning and then spent the say with the other side of the family. As I grew up, I often spent Christmas eve with a friend's family prior to the tradition of going to mass at night with my family. In either scenario, Christmas was celebrated on the 25th with a gift exchange and a full family gathering at my Grandma's followed by a dessert party at my aunt's. These day's both dinner and dessert are enjoyed at my aunt's. However, it is always a buffet of dishes prepared and brought by everyone. My family is not very large but holidays generally involve 12-17 people in one place, eating, talking, watching TV, playing board games or cards and generally being loud and hanging out. There's always a sense of chaos and warmth that come with my family, and too many posed photos. I miss this when I spend holidays in Germany. A mature dinner on the 24th with 1 table, 6 adults and wine is enjoyable, just not my type of Christmas. Maybe I'm weird but I miss the chaos. This year, I hear my in-laws have a pre-Christmas plan to gather with the entire family on the 23rd. I am not so secretly hoping this gives me my fill of family and chaos and very vocally pled my case to add a dessert course which I volunteered to bake. Looksl ike I won't be participating in Germany cookie traditions this year as I have not had the time but I will hopefully make a nice simple chocolate chip M&M cookie tomorrow.

What is a key component of holidays in your family? Is this a cultural thing or something your family does?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'm Back

I have been avoiding blogging because I wanted to surprise my family with a Thanksgiving visit last weekend. This may seem like two unrelated points but there was one time in the past I tried to surprise my family for Christmas and, without thinking, I blogged about my upcoming trip which resulted in my aunt reading my blog and calling my parents and my surprise being ruined even before I got stuck in Toronto overnight due to a snow storm 2 days before Christmas.

I was only in RI for about 4 days making this my shortest visit across the Atlantic but it was so great to have a weekend surronded by family who I have felt out of touch from over the past year. Thanksgiving was loud and overwhelming and so very American and I loved it. 36 lbs spread over two turkeys plus two hams is an indulgence Europeans would not even think of. And 20ish people together in my aunt's dining room/kitching/den was comforting.

And driving...I now have a liscence again it feels like I just turned 17! Pictures to come.

My only regret was I was not there long enough to have time to catch up with friends. Also, I never left my German time zone which meant I was awake at 4 am and in bed each night by 7pm so my days were not exactly compatiable with anyone.


xoxo,
Jen

Japan is Making a Come Back

Since I'm on the look out for social media marketing, I was interested to see this article on Japan's proposal for increasing tourism. Interestingly enough, I saw a research presentation in Feb. 2010 that found Japanese people to respond to electronic word of mouth less than Americans. The findings struck me as odd since Japan is known for its mobile internet culture. The researchers never responded to my email for more information on their study so I really don't know more. That's neither here nor there as this campaign is clearly targeting foreigners.

As I understand it, the Japanese tourism outfit is proposing a government funded grant of 10,000 airline tickets to bring visitors to Japan and increase tourism. To qualify for the promotion, applicants will need to use social media (e.g. blogs, facebook, etc.) to talk about their travel plans and eventual trip. By the way, I've already blogged my 2009 trip to Japan and adventures on Mt. Fuji. Based on the 2,000+ responses on yahoo, I see that people are already not taking this promotion seriously. It seems that everyone sees FREE and is instantly ready to sign up. My social media marketing experience/research tells me that Japan needs to really plan this out before going live. Common sense tells me that they can't actually give away completely free flights and expect it to be a success. People will need to pay something, my guess is taxes but a nice round number like $100 would work as well. If the output is nothing, what is to stop 10,000 people from signing up but never actually going? Then the money will be set aside to sponsor these flights and go to waste and Japan won't get the social publicity they want. I realize this promotion is a long way off with a potential start date of April 2012 but it's an interesting case study coming from a county famous for saving face and upholding impressions, it almost comes off as desperate.

All that being said, I loved Japan and have wanted to return since I left in 2009. I still talk about the sushi and Indian food and clothes that could never fit and our friends have a new baby I'd love to meet. Make no mistake about it, I will be the first in line to sign up if this promotion comes to fruition. In fact, I would say any offer that gets me a round trip flight to Japan for $200 or less and requires less than 17 hours travel time would be a bargain in my book. I guess it would take a bargain to get me back though as there are so many other countries I've never visited that are vying for my vacation days!

October Photos

I think I'm going to try out this photo challenge for the month of October. This will give me daily inspiration and I'll post the photos at the end of each week. Day 1 and 2 seem easy but some of the later ones clearly require a bit more creative thinking.

Weird People in the Mann

Wow, this week is one of those weeks where I felt I was meeting all the weirdos and as soon as I spoke up, it just kept going. Where do I even begin. I guess I should start on the strassenbahn where, as I've mentioned before, I meet the most interesting people. This week there was even a dog, a Great Dane to be more specific and he was bigger than me, let's start there.

Grate Dane
There's a middle aged woman of petite stature with a long grey ponytail who owns a black Great Dane. I've seen her once before in the city but was glad that she was not sitting nearby. This time, she got off at the same stop as me in one of those this train ends but he next one is coming in 2 minutes so everyone gets off and stands around for two minutes situations. Side note, does anyone else experience such insane train switching situations on their route or is it just me? Anyway, she gets off with the dog and seemingly continues an argument with this random guy as the dog hangs out on its leash. At the same time, a young girl about 7 comes over and tries to ask if she can pet the dog but the woman is still yelling at this guy and some other seemingly random guy gives the girl permission. Suddenly the little girl's mother realizes her daughter is petting a dog that could easily fit her entire head in its mouth and comes over...and also starts petting the dog. The girl and her mother are oblivious to the argument going on and the mother's other two sons are playing with vampire teeth about 5 ft. away. Then the strassenbahn pulls up, the dog lunges forward and its owner, who I thought was about to get dragged onto the strassenbahn, has him under control in under 30 seconds. Commotion over, all get on and I enter a completely different car.

Indian Over Ask
We have a lot of Indian exchange students come through our department and it always seems the Indians are the most friendly and not afraid to ask personal questions. I experienced this to the extreme at a local Irish pub where our Indian waiter told us his life story on our first visit and remembers us every time we come in (I've been there about 5 times in 3 years). Last time I was there he even told me he saw me at a University event that took place a month or so prior. Considering my experience, I was not surprised to turn around and see a woman of Indian descent behind me in the strassenbahn when I heard all sorts of personal questions being asked in a clear first time meeting. In German, I overheard her asking her friend's age and if she is married which started out normal until the German friend said she was 29, married and had a child. Then the questions got personal, how old were you when you married? Was your child planned? Are you happy you have a child? Then the conversation turned professional and they started talking about a potential job at the company of the 29 year old. It was loud and in a public place, even as an American, I would have been shocked to hear those questions from a new friend.

The Rule Breaker
This was not my encounter but too good not to share. My friend was cycling to work early one morning and crossed a small street while the light was red. This is frequently done by cyclists, especially when you know the route and traffic patterns. A strange woman also on a bicycle followed her across the street on red and began riding on the side of her lecturing on the penalties for crossing on red and pointed out that she herself risked a fine just to enlighten my friend. This was 2 weeks ago, this week my same friend was praised by a woman with child as a model cyclist while she waited at a crossing for the light to turn green and others rode by. FYI: It's generally not acceptable to cross on red if children are present.

The Drunk and The Gypsy
My Monday night training had me riding home across the city around 7:15pm. I entered a strassenbahn car to an overwhelming smell of alcohol and stale cigarettes and instantly regretted my choice of doors but with a full train, I was happy to have 2 seats to myself so I stayed put and held my nose. I scoped out the car to determine who was omitting the smell and first focused on the two people in front of me. They may have accounted for the stale tobacco but all too quickly I honed in on the boozers by their conversation and their clothing. These two across the aisle from me, middle aged, looking like they could use a shower and siting in front of each other ant side by side requiring them to talk loudly. She was wearing ankle boots with black pants with sequins down the side, one pant leg half tucked into the boot, the other over the boot and the sequins were enough to distract me from noticing her top. He was wearing a 90's track jacket and some ill fitting Levis. And then their friend got on holding about 5 dozen roses, each individually wrapped and sorted by color. And then came the punch line when he asked for their tickets and they asked for his tax number. Who knew Monday night could be so interesting and who knows where he was selling so many roses on a Monday night.

The Lost Traveler
The cherry on the top came this afternoon when I went to meet P at the train station. He indicated that his train seemed to be arriving later than expected so I took my time and read all the boards to see if it had arrived before wandering to the track a full 10 minutes after the scheduled arrival. Since the train was in fact on time, I found a pretty deserted platform with P and some random guy in a suit at the stairs. Turns out this guy needed to make a phone call and P was nice enough to lend his phone. Random guy spoke about 10 words of German and a few more in English so communication was challenging. He traveled from Pakistan, possibly via Milan and was in Germany for the first time ever. His brother, a taxi driver, told him he would meet him at the train station and said brother did not show up hence the need for a phone. Since he said his brother is a taxi fahrer (but could not understand taxi driver so you know things are getting lost in translation), I suggested we go out to the taxi stand as it is possible he could not park his car. Once outside, P gets the brother on the phone only to learn he's about 15 minutes out. P told his brother where we were and tried as best as possible to convince our new friend to stay put. We didn't wait around but headed into the city thinking about what an asshole this guy's brother is to forget him in a foreign country where he lacks language skills, a cell phone or direction. Not to mention, the poor guy had 2 suitcases and not a clue. I hope he stayed put and got picked up.

I know some of these are in the you had to be there category and all would have been improved with photos but that's a small window into my week and we all know I don't have a smartphone. However, I recently bought a Touchpad thanks to HP's fire sale so hopefully I can use it to take discrete photos on the strassenbahn going forward. No promises but I'll try my best to document these encounters with photos going forward.

Food Food Food

There has been a lot of food in my fridge recently and it is overwhelming. At the end of August, P and I self catered a lunch buffet for about 60 people. This was the first time either of us set out to prepare food to feed such a large group and there was a lot of gestimation. On top of what we prepared, he ordered vitello tunato and carpacho from a local caterer. We focused on small bites with a Mediterranean inspiration, and I imagine a bit of an American feel came through as I made a lot of menu suggestions based on what I knew from home. Ultimately, we had 8 full trays of food as well as some bowls. We prepared the classic; veggies and ranch dip, mozzarella and tomato, pasta salad, pigs in a blanket, ham and melon and olives, as well as the not completely classics including hummus, Greek salad and puff pastry with cheese and salami. I complained about the long day but it was actually a lot of fun working together to plan the menu, buy the ingredients and then prepare the food.  However, we're far from caterers as we bought way too much food. On top of over buying raw ingredients, there was a miscommunication with the caterers which involved double veggies and dip as well as a whole lot of marinated veggies and generally lots of left overs back in my fridge as there was no place to keep the food at his office. I tried so hard to not throw out any food but waste was inevitable. I guess we won't be opening a catering business anytime soon but at least we have a better idea of how to feed a large group of people.

While on the topic of food, I must include my latest baking feature. I seem to have gotten a reputation around my office for making chocolate chocolate whoopie pies. Nina had a birthday last week and a birthday BBQ so I asked what I could bring and without hesitation she asked for chocolate chocolate. I had a strawberry variety i wanted to try on my own birthday but due to a flour shortage made chocolate cupcakes instead so I thought I would have made strawberry whoopies for her birthday but I was shot down. As my boss would say, don't mess with a running system. In a bit of rebellion, and to break up the chocolate, I added multicolored sprinkles. I also made a special larger one for P to take on his trip but he got stuck in traffic and needed to go straight to the airport without stopping home so he never got it. I am happy to report that none of the chocolate chocolate as they are affectionately called were thrown out. 

Finally I had to include this in my food post. I often complain that I can't get the same ingredients in Germany or I don't know the translation for something but this photo is just to prove that sometimes it simply is not my fault. In an effort to organize my baking cupboard, I bought these glass canisters and opened the two bags of brown sugar I had on hand to store them int he jar. As you can see both bags are identical, yet the sugars are different levels of brown. It must also be noted that I have never seen dark brown or light brown sugar at the store so I just assumed Germans didn't differentiate. It seems they just classify it all as brown. I guess this could explain why Lauren was upset her cupcakes tasted different when she followed her American recipe in my kitchen and I blamed the hard water.

Commuting is the New Settled

Since I realized P and I would not be living together on our first anniversary somewhere around 4 months ago, I have been coming to terms with the concept of living alone. It seemed so unusual to live in a different state and country than one's husband. Then I opened my eyes and realized it's not. In fact, quite the opposite, many people I know have partners who they only see on the weekends. I looked first at my immediate surroundings and noticed that of my 6 colleagues, only 3 actually live together with their partners and only 1 of those full time at the moment as the other two have partners who live elsewhere during the week. It is true none of them are married but some of my sample has actually been together much longer than p and I. I began to feel like it was less unusual to live apart and commute on the weekends. Then, lat Friday, at the MBA graduation, I was talking to a Professor and he casually mentioned how he commuted 3 hours round trip each day when he first took the job here and then he finally moved to a great neighborhood in the city. Now, he commutes to Copenhagen. He was making light of his situation but inside I was laughing because suddenly Basel didn't seem so bad. In a country where commutes are often minimal, splitting time between two cities to support two careers is not uncommon and once again, I find myself thankful that Basel is only 2.5 hours by train, especially because a new friend just told me how to buy discounted last minute train tickets.
On related news, my very oldest friend is going to be in Europe next month on business and I'll be using the Deutsche Bahn to meet up with her for a weekend. A welcome surprise which I am already looking forward to.