Vacation, all I ever wanted…

Bonus points if you can tell me which song that title comes from.

I’ve been seriously slacking off on the cake posts, so sorry about Friday. I’ll try and do better this week. Friday was a little nutty though, as I had to meet a friend for lunch, go book our trip to London, then go to a work meeting, which turned into going out with some of the other teachers… which was fun but noooot what I was planning on doing for the evening.

Things I planned on:

• a beer or two after the meeting (we usually go all together to a cafe/beer garden, and our bosses buy the first two rounds)
• coming home and eating an actual meal
• laying on the couch 
• going to bed early so I could be productive on Saturday as my house was a disaster area

Things I didn’t plan on:

• two beers after the meeting and…. many at the bar
• tequila shots
• spending a very long time standing slack-jawed in front of a TV watching the Olympic opening ceremonies with a particularly snarky group of folk, saying things like: “What the hell?”; “Why are they trampling on Hobbiton?”; “Leave hobbit hill alone Goddammit!”; “Holy shit it’s Isengard! or shit from Pink Floyd’s The Wall! I can’t decide!”; “The queen needs a better bra.”; “Seriously, she’s the queen… can’t someone get her chest to lift and separate?”; and “Of course James Bond is dropping out a helicopter right now! Why not?”
• walking all the way across the city because the U-Bahn had stopped and I believe that walking is always faster than night transportation
• feeling like death warmed over on Saturday
• being unable to accomplish anything but go to the supermarket (fridge was empty), and go get hangover McDonald’s 

The good news is that I did get some cleaning done. On Sunday. Saturday was just all kinds of useless.

I’ve been trying to formulate another post about last weekend in Prague. I have notes in the phone, but pretty much writing anything is difficult right now. It’s coming though. At some point. 

Myself and another teacher found out at the meeting on Friday that our Monday lessons in Erlangen are cancelled for the whole month of August. Not a huge deal for me, as I was already off for the last three weeks, but was kind of planning on having that (about) 350€ in September. And neither of us really understand why the lessons are cancelled for the month. Most of our students are off either at the end of August, or in September, so why cancel the whole month? Who knows. So part of me is annoyed at losing money, but a very large part of me is going, “Meh, oh well. Sleeping in on Mondays again! Wahoo!”   

Which brings me to the next point. I don’t know if I’ve been iron or protein or something deficient lately, but I am so dead it’s not even funny. I cannot wait to lay on the beach in 15 days. I don’t want to drink, I don’t want to party, I don’t want to sight-see, I just want to lay. If someone can poke me every hour or so to turn over, that will really suffice. My goal is to be almost black by the time I get back. I want to give the editing monkeys at House Hunters International a good challenge by being a completely different color for my ‘before’ and ‘hunting’ scenes.* 

Of course, knowing myself I will be bored after two days, but for now, that’s really all I want to do. I realize that at this point I’m pretty spoiled by my schedule, but it is beyond me how anyone works 40 hours a week. This means I can never return to the U.S. Whoops.

T-minus 15 days until Santorini, Greece!! Via…

*Yes, this could backfire in a horrid way. I’m aware.

Announcements! Fame-whoring! Fun!

I guess that shouldn’t be plural. Mostly it’s just one announcement. But it’s ridiculous so I’m just going to go ahead and leave it as a plural. 

I just spent the last six hours sitting here writing up the last two weeks worth of lesson plans, plus ten progress reports on my classes. Have I expressed my hatred for annoying paperwork recently? No? Well… I hate it. HOWEVER. I have discovered that a 4-pack of pre-mixed Caipirinhas makes the whole process slightly less painful. Gah. Paperwork. 

But. 

I promised myself that I’d finish them since we have a meeting tomorrow evening and I’m busy all tomorrow afternoon. So it had to be done. 

But more importantly… I wanted to tell you (the six legit people and 29012 Russian spambot hits I get a day), why I was in Prague last week. Which, if you recall, I had tried to taunt you with a few days ago. You ready for this?? Then click away….. there are pictures!

You also might recall that last week I mentioned that I hate being the center of attention, but some things were coming up that would make this sound absolutely absurd.

Sooooo….. 

I’m going to be on TV.

A few months ago I got an email that I was pretty sure was actually spam. But after a little light afternoon Googling, I figured out that it was legitimate, and it was in fact, a producer from ‘House Hunters International.‘ I wrote her back, we spoke on the phone, and the next step was to send in an “audition video.” 

This step gave me a bit of pause. Like most of my generation, I loved the Real World, and when I was younger I thought it would be super-fun to be on there. But, the old Real World. The ones when they had jobs and were actually productive members of society (relatively speaking). Back in the days before they just drank a lot and tried to fuck as many people as possible. Sorry about the language… buuuuut it’s true. 

Now of course, HGTV is not MTV, and I’m sure the experiences are completely different. But I still wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to throw myself into that whole arena. But I was swayed by…. pretty much everyone I know. As soon as I mentioned that I’d spoken to a producer, the usual reaction was “ohmygod I looooove that show! You have to do it! zzzzzzzzoooooomg!” etc. I had no idea that so many people watched this show. I knew my mom loves it, but apparently everyone in America is on board the HH train. 

So I made myself a little video, in which I’m pretty sure I looked/talked like a crazy person, but I guess it was good enough for the Powers That Be at a Network. Despite my protestations that my place here is not that amazing – I mean, I like it, but I’ve seen some crazy houses on that show – they still wanted to shoot it. I think the fact that it’s just me and I moved abroad for myself, not because my company asked me to, had something to do with it. A bit of a different angle, at least from what I’ve seen on the show. After a few weeks of organizing, reorganizing, and moving dates and times around, things were settled. I’d shoot my backstory in Prague in July, and my best friend Courtney would join me in Germany at the end of August to be my co-contributor, and help me on my house hunt here. Yay!

Usually the ‘contributor’ shoots their ‘before’ segment in their home country, but since I moved to Germany from Prague, we opted to shoot my before segment there. So last weekend I headed back east, and got to experience possibly the weirdest weekend of my life.

Honestly though, it was so much fun. The crew that I was working with were FANTASTIC, and as soon as I got back to the hotel on Saturday, I emailed the producer to request them again in Nürnberg. You don’t always get the same crew, due to massively complicated logistics, but I’m pulling for them to come here. We spent all of Saturday running around Prague in the not-quite-raining-drizzle, and shooting an assortment of scenes for my backstory. I don’t want to give everything away, but here’s a little sneak-peek. All photos courtesy of the iPhone, so sorry if the quality is kinda… meh.

Near Strahov Stadium

Setting up for the interview

Directly after I took this picture, problems were found with the camera. Technology! Thirty minutes and a trip to the Apotheke later, we were ready to roll again.

Backdrop for the interview

When I spoke to the producer about reading books on Petrin Hill, I had something like this….

 … in mind. For my money, the view from halfway up Petrin Hill with a good book is the best view in Prague. However, I didn’t count on the fact that it’s pretty much impossible to get to that view with a van full of equipment. So we improvised with the Strahov Stadium location. Hopefully it looks okay. And hopefully there is no blooper reel on the show, because I definitely couldn’t spell my own name in the very first question they asked me. And there go the nerves! But after that it was (I hope) smooth sailing, and (I hope) my ramblings were semi-coherent.

Then it was off to…

Cafe Savoy

Unfortunately it was too loud to film inside the cafe (Plan A), so we regrouped. But we still got to have a coffee inside… I recommend going there. It’s lovely. So if you’re in Prague and feelin’ fancy, head on over.

Slightly Instagrammed Cafe Savoy

Plan B. Setting up on the river.

My students and I.

The director wanted me to sit on the baby and read. I hope he was kidding.

Priority 1: Getting the penguins on the show.

Accomplished!

Me and my favorite part of Praha.

Charles Bridge Challenge: Try to get a shot without 1209129012 tourists.

Doing some shopping. Not for hams.

The crew may or may not have made me drink in here.

Getting the Prague money shot.

Soooo… that’s about it for the sneak peek portion of the day. It was a really interesting day, and I’m still kind of in amazement that this actually happened. It’s not something that I EVER pictured myself doing, but it was so much fun. We’re shooting the rest after my vacation in August, and I’m really looking forward to it.

This happened…

This is a (slightly paraphrased) conversation had in my lesson today. To set the scene, we had just done a listening in which they heard a ‘customer-service call’ and had to determine the problem the customer was having, as well as some minor details.

R: “What did she say with the numbers? I didn’t understand… X9blahblahblah?“
B: “I think it was a…. thing in don’t…. between n and t?” 
Heather: “An apostrophe? No, not an apostrophe.”
M: “Was it a backlash?”
Heather: “A backslash? No, I think it was one of these…”
*writes X9- on the board*
R: “Ahhhh, what was it called?”
Heather: “That’s a hyphen.”
M: “How do you write that?”
Heather: “Like this.”
*spells ‘hyphen’ on board*
M: snorts. “That’s not English.”
B: “Wait… isn’t that… when you lose the virginity?”
All: “What??”
Heather: *dying laughing*
M: “When you what? What did you say?”
B: “When you… the virginity? Isn’t it the hyphen?”
Heather: *continues dying laughing to the point where speech is impossible and must hide face behind papers because she’s probably eight shades of red*
All: still trying to figure out just what B said. “No? That’s not a hyphen? Then what is it?”
Heather: chokes out “hymen.”
M: “How do you spell that?”

I bet Mr. Murphy never has to deal with this.

And since we’re at it… here are some other gems that I heard while administering tests last week. I let them work together because I think tests are stupid and annoying, and I hate them almost as much as they do. Plus that way they’re talking, and aren’t just sitting in silence for 90 minutes. Which is the point of the class and all.

(same group as above)
B: “Move over, let’s try this.”
R: “We can work together? What kind of test is this?”

R: “I think we take B.”
B: “Yes, A is stupid. B isn’t so dusty.”

*side note: prior to the test, one student (A) had alluded to some insecurities he has about his age, due to his feeling that his hairline is making it’s way towards the back of his head. A and R work closely together, and R is very bald at this point.*
A: “Is it right? Do we take it?”
R: “Yes, old man.”
Heather: cracking up while trying to read CNN headlines and ignore this nonsense.
A: “Can I use my phone too?”

(different group)
A: “Whew.” (removes sweater) “It’s warm in here.”
M: “She thinks we’re intelligent.”
A: “No, it’s warm.”

(different group)
B: “We think we should work together for this test.”
Heather: “Well, I did let all the other groups work together, but since you asked…. no I’m just kidding. You kids have fun.”
R: “B will write for us.”
Heather: “Oooooh no. You can work together but you all have to WRITE your own test. I need a name on it. Name and date is worth 50%.”

R: snorts “Where is T?? We have grammar for him??”
…
R: “Oh, what the hell.” 

I am endlessly amused by my job. 

Photo A Day July: Week Three Recap….

Just got back from Prague, and here come the pictures from Photo a Day, week three!

Day 15: finger.

I wear this ring every day. I feel completely lost if I forget this or my watch, which is why I always keep them together when I take them off.

Day 16: sign.

Possibly the most common sign in Germany. Or at least around this neighborhood.

Day 17: your addiction.

Jewelry of any kind. Cheap, expensive, with deer on it, I love it all.

Day 18: plate. Really? Ok, really.

I got these sweet espresso saucers (and matching cups of course) at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I think I’ll have to wait a few years until I can afford the sweet espresso machine to go with them though…. Baby steps.

Day 19: animal/insect/pet.

Somehow I didn’t see a single real-life animal today…. no-one was even walking a dog on my way home from work. So I had to settle for this slightly-bizarre poster featuring Dürer’s famous rabbit in a bit of a compromising position.

Day 20: eyes.

Self-explatory. I think.

Day 21: 9 o’clock.

At exactly 9 o’clock I was holding on for dear life as we careened up the backside of Petrin Hill in a van. So this is shortly after nine. I was with those gentlemen in the picture, and you’ll find out what we were doing sometime this week!

Pros/Cons in Praha.

Live from a cafe… (it’s the future!)

Pro: getting to eat in this lovely cafe I walked past a million times but never ate in.

Con: having to eat surrounded by cigarette smoke. Forgot about that.

What I’m up to….

No cake today but a little peek at where I am this weekend…

As to WHY I’m here… that you’ll have to wait for. 🙂

What’s up, Jan?

Oh, Kozel.

Weird faces + castle.

Culture. Also, Rumbas.

Last night I was invited by one of my students to attend a concert with him and some friends. I figured I could do with some culture in my life, so that sounded like a good plan to me. 

The concert was given by the Junge Philharmonie Erlangen, and featured some 20th century tunes.

Via

With the exception of one concert in Prague of jazz renditions of Beatles music, this was my first “classical” concert. Usually I swing more in the direction of guitars and amplifiers, although I think my mosh pit days are far, far, faaaaaaaaaaaaaar behind me. So this was quite the change of pace. I did get worn out though… some of the applause breaks went on for a very long time, and clapping is hard work! Or at least, clapping through four bows for the conductor/guest violinist is. 

For the Philip Glass Violinkonzert, they brought in a ringer from the Munich symphony. And man… he was impressive. By the end of the piece, I could count at least three broken strings flying around his head, which led to a lively discussion outside about how many strings are actually on a violin bow. One of the guys we were with is married to the second violinist, and she very kindly offered to let her husband and my student count the strings. Apparently there are a lot. 

The conductor was also pretty dramatic, and gave some nice little chats in between numbers. He also organized a bit of audience participation, requiring the different sides of the room to try and sing two different parts along with a few instruments. My student was lovely and tried to translate for me as he went along, which was great. I would catch words here and there but there was no way I was getting all of that. 

The last number was the Ravel Bolero, and this brought an interesting surprise. The viola players pulled out some sweet Cuban-style fedoras, the percussionists popped up wearing Afro wigs, sunglasses/LMFAO-style glasses, and brightly colored shirts or scarves. And then they were off. There was cello spinning, and different parts of the group would get up and do little spins while playing their parts. A couple of the violin players even did a little rumba move. The audience got a big kick out of it, and I was pretty much in stitches at the sight of this very serious-looking symphony with a row of Afro-wigged dudes in the back. Oh, Germans. And people say you have no sense of humor. So untrue. It was great. 

I also thought the hall was pretty lovely in a very woody-and-cubic way. I didn’t want to be the weirdo taking pictures (more on that in a minute), but here’s a good one from the interwebz….

Heinrich-Lades-Hall, Erlangen

 The ceiling was pretty cool. And here’s the outside of the hall…

Intermission…

The inside was all wood, and the outside was all concrete. Very sixties-mod. 

After the concert, my student and I went for a drink, and then headed home. All in all, a pretty entertaining evening. 

Soooo, the downside. If you can call it that. 

Sometimes it’s super-weird to be the only foreigner in a group. 

Secondly, I really am not a fan of being the center of attention.*

Thirdly, when those two things happen at the same time when you first meet a bunch of people, it’s like the perfect storm of me feeling awkward as all get out. 

So the first point: I know a lot of expats might complain if they’re in a group and the other people don’t/won’t speak English. Ooooon the other hand, I feel like a complete ass if 6-7 other people feel the need to speak English strictly for my benefit. Sample conversation:

My student’s friend: “Deutschdeutschdeutsch.”

My student: “No, tonight we speak English.”

Heather: “Yeah, no… that’s really not necessary. Really. German is okay.”

My student: “No, English.”

Heather: feels awkward and looks at feet a lot.

To the second point: I am not a group person. Maybe if I know the people well, it’s okay, but otherwise I’m a disaster. There is an English Stammtisch here in Nürnberg, and I’ve never gone strictly for this reason. I’ve never been the kind of person to walk into a room and start introducing myself. I was taught not to speak until spoken to and I haven’t been able to shake that. So when I’m introduced to 6+ people in about two minutes, and they all feel like they have to speak English and start asking questions…. it’s a lot. 

The nice way to say it would be ‘Twenty Questions,’ and the not-so-nice way would be ‘Spanish Inquisition.’ I’m not a big fan of feeling like a zoo animal… like, let’s all look at the American girl who’s inexplicably here! Fun! So I tried to answer questions, but I feel so weird asking any, so it was just… agh. I’m sure I was completely red and looked at my feet a lot. It’s like being eight years old again except it wasn’t weird relatives you barely know asking you about school, it’s a bunch of Germans asking you…

“Do you like it here?”

“Where do you live?”

“Do you ever ride a bike?”

“What else have you seen in Germany?”

“Do you have a (discussion in German) … what Indiana Jones has? *whip noise* For you classes?” (note: this was said by my student’s colleague, who is in another class taught by a different teacher, Peter. I do not have a whip, nor does Peter, but perhaps it’s a good idea with these guys.)

“Do you like German food?”

“Did you eat the Schäufele?”**

“Why not??”

Thankfully at that point it was time to go inside and get some seats, but agh. I felt very fish out of water and was trying to be on my best behavior, hence the no taking of pictures inside the hall and trying not to put my foot in my mouth too much. Debatable on whether or not that was successful. And I may have agreed to go and eat said Schäufele at some point with these guys, and that stuff scares me a little bit. It’s so much pork! (that’s what she said).

But apart from that, it was a nice night, and I was happy that my student invited me. Yes, it was pretty far out of my comfort zone, but I suppose, that sort of thing is good for me in the long run.  

*There is some stuff coming up that will make this statement sound completely absurd, but it’s true. 

**Schäüfele is an enormous pork shoulder with all the drippings. It looks scary.

Christmas In July!

25.7.2012: Edited to add…
So I kind of did this wrong and posted this earlier than the official link-up, but that completely follows two of my personal traditions:
1) only reading half of the directions for things 
-and-
2) snooping around for presents before Christmas.

Whoops. Anyway… Christmas in July!

 

A while back I saw a post on Alyx’s blog about a super-cute idea for a Christmas in July blogger exchange. I’ve never really participated in any of these sort of things before but I figured, “hey, why not?” Because as I’ve said before… packages are one of the most glorious things in an expats life. So I was super-excited to shop when I got the news that I was paired up with Malo who writes over at Life feels good in Portbail Beach. 

Side note: this is apparently like, vive la France! week or something. Which I guess is fitting since it was Bastille Day/French National Day when this arrived.

Anyway. So Saturday morning I had one foot in the shower when my doorbell buzzed, so let’s hear it for fortuitous timing! Nothing says luck like snagging a package on the first delivery and saving yourself a trip to the post office. 

When I popped open the box, here is what I found, along with a very nice note from Malo…

Okay, for starters, I so do ♥ Normandie! I was there in 2001 and that feels like a thousand years ago. I can’t wait to get back there. Secondly, caramels are one of my very favorite treats. When I worked at the museum at home, we sold these aaaaahmazing homemade caramels in the store. And these totally rival those ones. PLUS they come in an adorable package. I have the distinct feeling that it will take excessive self-restraint not to eat these all in the next two days. 

Speaking of the museum, there was something else familiar in here. See that be-cowed cylinder on the right? That’s a ‘mooing’ sound box, aaaaand we sold those at the museum too. School kids went crazy for them to the point where some teachers would not allow their kids to buy them. So imagine my surprise when I open a box from France and find that! Too funny. If the next package I receive contains a covered wagon pencil sharpener… I’ll start to get freaked out.

So a big thanks to Malo for the lovely goodies! I can’t wait to go on vacation so I can make notes in the lovely Parisien (sp?) notebook. 🙂 Just don’t ask me how long those caramels last… I swear I can hear them calling me now….

Photo A Day July: Week Two Recap…

First of all, I’d just like to say how happy I am to NOT be writing tests right now. In true procrastinator fashion, I put off doing tests until the last minute yet again. As a result, I spent about seven hours yesterday writing six different tests for ten of my classes. Thank Gott that some of them are working from the same books, and are in close enough spots that I could double up. As it was, I seriously considered throwing myself off the balcony. If my boss calls me Monday and says that they suck, I’m just going to tell the school that we did tests and skip them all together. I’m pretty sure I was more upset about having to do tests than the students are. They have to take one, whereas I have to write (at least) six, and then grade about 35. Uuuuuuuuuuuuugh. That’s all I have to say about that. Moving on!

This week in the photo a day challenge posed some toughies… 

Day 8: lunch.

I’m a big fan of breakfast, but I’m not a fan of waking up early enough for breakfast at a normal time. Plus I have been attempting (key word) to exercise when I get up, so breakfast is usually around noon. 

Day 9: big.

A very common sight in villages here are these enormous and perfectly stacked piles of wood. This is less than half of the full stack. Now the real question: do the homeowners stack it themselves, or is there a professional wood-stacker running around somewhere?? Given that this is Germany and they have a penchant for oddly specific careers, I’m guessing there is.

Day 10: your favorite color.

This may or may not depend on the day, but in summer I do love all the green.

Day 11: letter.

One of the interesting things about Germany is that all the license plates start with the letter of the city. Large cities get one letter, mid-sized cities two, and smaller towns/villages/etc. have three. It’s like, just the right amount of voyeurism. Sorry if that’s weird.

Day 12: texture.

This goes against my formal photography training (actually being serious on this one), because anything texture-based is better in black and white, but I just liked the color here. Take that Steve from the UWEC art department! I rebel against your nonsense.

Day 13: open.

A freshly-opened Orangina was the perfect accompaniment to my Galette at lunch on Friday. Orangina is one of those odd things I buy whenever I can get my hands on it. 

Day 14: building.

Nürnberg has a few neighborhoods with really fun architecture. Since I don’t get to see buildings like this every day anymore, it makes them pop even more when I do. 

I’ve gotta say, this photo-a-day thing is kind of fun. I know some people do them every month, but I don’t have that kind of ability to commit. But it might be a once in a while thing… we shall see.

Süsser Freitag & Nürnberg Eats

Yesterday I read this lovely post over on Fiona’s blog, and that was the reasoning behind my lunch choice today. For a few weeks I’ve been eyeing this little French cafe here in Nürnberg…. every time I walked by, people were sitting outside, sipping espresso and eating ice cream and cake. I had  no idea what else was on offer, but when I met my friend for lunch this afternoon, I suggested we give it a shot. Lucky for me, she was not averse to French food, and in fact had never tried anything besides a French chocolate cake once, and figured that was a good experience, so what the heck. 

So off we went to Cafe d’Azur, which can be found on the main street up to the Nürnberg Castle, Burgstraße. The few tables outside were occupied, despite the gray, drizzly and cooooool weather, so we headed inside instead. Upstairs to one side is a small cafe bar, and on the other side you can find some very good-looking ice cream which is also available to go. Downstairs is the main room of the restaurant, where they also have all manner of French products available for sale. There was some ‘unique’ jewelry, wine (of course), mustards, jams, table linens, and other kitchen/decorative items for the home. It was really a very nice ambiance, I thought. Very warm and cozy, which was great given the abysmal weather we’ve got going here.

Right? How cute is this?

Apologies that I didn’t take pictures of the lunch itself, but it looked too good and I was eager to dig in. My friend got a ‘mixed plate,’ which had some hams, cheeses, olives, veggies in oil, and came with a side of bread. She seemed very pleased with her choice, and said it was quite different from the German equivalents. I went for a Galette, which was oh so delicious. It was filled with a buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, basil, and a bit of tomato sauce. I eat mozzarella pretty regularly, but I forgot just how much of a difference there is with the buffalo mozzarella. It was fantastic. It also came with a nice side salad, including dressing, and other vegetables besides the standard two leaves of lettuce, two tomatoes, and two cucumber slices. So that was a nice change of pace. 

On the menu, they offered a variety of sweet crepes, so we weren’t sure if they had any cakes for dessert. But we asked the waitress, and sure enough, they did. Sadly there were out of my first choice, which was a currant/apple cake, so I went for the chocolate instead….

Now, I would not categorize this as a cake so much as a brownie. But, as any good American knows, one does not pass up a brownie when you can get your hands on one outside the U.S. And it was delish.

The clientele was made of mostly older, well-dressed ladies sipping on coffees and teas. I enjoyed their lively greetings of each other, and their spirited chatter about sitting in their favorite chairs. Tres amusante. I had a quick look at the wine they had on offer, but didn’t see prices, so I’ll have to head back and check that out. But overall, I thought the prices for lunch were quite reasonable. I had the Galette (with side salad), a slice of cake, a bottle of Orangina (loooove it), and an iced tea for 16€, including tip. That’s not too bad as far as I’m concerned.

So if you’re in Nürnberg and want to take a little side trip to the south of France, head over to….

Café d’Azur
Burgstraße 11
90403 Nürnberg 

Side note: After lunch we had to go to a kitchen supply store to pick up a birthday present, and I totally found the glasses I want for my future house. So if I should ever get married, feel free to send me these….

Damn right those have deer on them. Regular glasses, beer glasses, wine glasses, champagne flutes… I want the whole be-deered set. I ♥ deer.