Hauswirtschaftsleiterin

Carrots and Peas in the same jar

We’re going to have it for dinner tonight. It’s going to be awful.

Update

Confirmed. Some memoriable quotes from Alissa are as follows.

Who would buy this?

Maybe it’s for old people or babies?

I’m not going to eat mine. Can I not eat mine?

Permission granted.

I’m not sure how many people keep up with this blog. There seem to be about 30 people or so, but our mom’s may just be refreshing the page 15 times a day.

Anyway, this is harder work than I expected. We do way more stuff than I thought we did; we’ve got to slow down at some point, right? I’m already a few events behind. I haven’t even posted all the meats we’ve tried, because it takes too long to photograph, upload, post, etc. It’s hard enough posting the beer, but I know it’ll be worth it in the end. Having a huge gallery of every beer I’ve had, will be pretty darn neat.

Okay. Enough idle talk. Everybody get back to work.

I kept meaning to post about our trip to the zoo (besides showing off our Schneeziege), but I never found the time. Long story short, Wilhelma is a zoo and botanical gardens, laid out in a palace. Pretty awesome.

Here are some of the more interesting points. The gallery of our adventures is below.

1. Peacocks roam free. You may see three peacocks running around with no supervision. We first ran into one walking around on the top of a brick wall.
2. The tigers seem sad.
3. Flamingos are amazing. How do they balance like that?! Also, their wings are black on the bottom. I bet there’s a reason, but I’m too lazy to look it up.
4. Polar bears (Eisbär) are awesome. They walk around a lot, and are gigantic. If thrown into their cages, we would not survive.
5. Cows want to french-kiss.
6. Petting zoos are not just for kids
7. Goats bleat really, really loudly.

Okay, this isn’t really German food. And it’s not really funny or interesting in any way. But I feel it must be posted.

Delicious Pepper-stuffed Olives

These were the best olives I’ve ever had in my life. We ate the whole can before dinner was finished cooking, and then drank the juice.

Have you ever wondered how the Maibaum is supported? I bet you have!

Alissa poses with wooden wedges

We can’t tell if this is an official place for the maibaum to be mounted, or if they stuck it in a sewer opening, and then pounded some shims into the hole to make it fit. We’ll probably never know.

By the way, based on our initial observations, Degerloch has the best maibaum by far. Much bigger and more awesome in every category. The categories are: size, quality of the tree at the top, trinkets hanging from the side. We win at all of them.

Alissa’s company reserved tables at a Frülingsfest beer tent last night. We debated going,  but ended up deciding it would be important to make an appearance. We’d be home by 9:30.

For those of you that don’t know (or can’t tell from the photo I posted earlier), these beer tents are one giant, silly party. Several of Alissa’s coworkers explained the event to me. “Ahhh, it’s just a stupid thing! The songs make no sense, it’s just… yeah. It’s silly. But it’s so fun!” Everyone stands on the seats and dances around as much as possible within the constraints required from standing on a rickety wooden bench. This is perfect for people who can’t dance. My theory is that this is primarily the reason these festivals are so popular. Some things are just not possible:

• move your feet outside a 2 foot width
• show off your dancing skills for longer than 3 to 5 seconds
• engage in small talk

This is perfect for awkward people! I analyzed my dancing style several times throughout the night, and came to the conclusion that I was doing a better job than most of the people around me. This is highly unusual. Normally, bending your knees 12 degrees, repeatedly, is not sufficient. At Frülingsfest, simply combine knee-bending, hand-waving or clapping, and the occasional beer sip, and you’re good to go!

And you have to sing. Singing is required because absolutely everyone does it. Everyone screams at the top of their lungs. Those that can’t hold a tune are drowned out by everyone that can. Americans don’t have to know they lyrics to anything. They can just blab.

“Oder bund der aaaaaaaannnn yeah! eeeeye suu doooof!!” I sang. “Das bakieoooooni! spaaaagheeeeeetti!”

But there are a surprising number of songs sung in English. Oldies are popular. So is classic rock. Sometimes they are modified in strange ways; for example, Aretha Franklin’s Respect had several refrains of “la la la” inserted. Whatever is fun to sing, is sung.

A new bench is bolted to the floor

The other fun thing to do at these events is to make sure you dance carefully as to not break the benches. Ha ha! Just kidding! Nobody seems to recognize the danger. Large German guys will jump up and down right beside you, ignoring the 4 inch deflection the poorly reinforced benches give under the load. Luckily, they don’t ever break.

Ha ha ha! Just kidding again. The crack, as the bench beside us broke, sounded like someone was going to die. This must happen every now and then, because they brought a spare bench and had it replaced in about three minutes. Everyone okay? Good! EVERYONE START JUMPING AGAIN!

The night ended after we were too tired to keep standing up.

I don’t remember exactly when we were introduced to this, but I think it was part of a breakfast that included yogurt and granola. Alissa poked at it, and the person who owned the breakfast politely asked her to stop.

Physalis in it's shell

Ha ha! No, that’s not what happened. Instead, he asked her if she wanted to try one. The restaurant brought us another, and we both had a bite. Delicious.

The name of this fruit is unclear, but you can buy them in the store under the name Physalis. If you search for them online, you get names like Blasenkirschen (which translates to jujube), cape goosberry or Physalis peruviana, and Aztec berry. Whatever the name, they’re everywhere. I think they’d make a great pie, but it was pointed out that they’re pretty expensive for that. They’re served with ice cream (as the cherry on top!) and in yogurt. Pretty much anywhere a cherry would be served. Anywhere a small, sweet, interesting fruit might be appreciated.

Peal back the paper-like leaf covers

They cost a couple Euro per box of twelve. Or something like that.

The flavor is hard to describe. Kinda orange-y, with a texture like a tomato. We pealed and ate a whole pack last night, and I wish I had a few to eat as I’m writing this. There are some more culinary adjectives that should go here.

The inside is like a cherry tomato

When we get rich, I’m gonna make a pie. Awwww, what would happen if you mixed these with sour cherries?! That would be the best pie in the whole world!

Maybe I should get a job.