Amsterdam!

Well, we survived our first trip to Holland in fine form and the verdict is in: M. and I looooooove the Netherlands! We hopped on a train Friday morning and rode to Amsterdam, which takes roughly 5 hours including one train switcheroo in Frankfurt. An added bonus is that the hauptbanhof in Cologne is situated right next to the cathedral, so you can squeeze in a little sight-seeing on the trip as well, which is always good! We arrived on a beautiful, hot day and people were in a generally great mood in Amsterdam, which, now that I think about it, they always seem to be...hmmm. Amsterdam? Yeah, it's got a reputation for being an, ahem, relaxed place by virtue of all of the coffeeshops around, but my assistant (who is Dutch) claims that people in Holland are just naturally friendly, and, you know, coffeeshops aside, I think that she might be right. We certainly found it to be true during our stay. Not to say that people in Germany don't have a sense of humor...it's just, um, well-hidden. People in Holland, we quickly discovered, are more than happy to let you in on the joke! This included the Dutch driver of a streetcar that M. and I found ourselves on, bumping along down a city street in Amsterdam Saturday afternoon. We were approaching a stop called "Spui". I don't know how this is actually pronounced in any language, but the driver says "Neeeeext stop" (in Dutch...okay, I'm not sure that's exactly what he said in Dutch. Bear with me... and welcome to life as an english-speaker in Europe!) Anyway, he's loudly singing into the PA on the streetcar: "Spweeee. Spooooooooi. Spreee. Spreeech. Spreeeek." By this time, everyone on the tram is smiling a little bit, like, "Is this guy for real?" and then he topped it off with and operatic "SPUUUUUI!" which got a few people on the tram to snicker. There may have even been a few giggles. I won't say who. M., you know who you are! Okay, anyway, a few people get off, and a few people get on. But it's pretty much the same crowd of riders (and it WAS a crowd!) when the whoooole scenario starts again. The driver says "Neeeeeext stop!" (or the Dutch equivalent!) and begins to sing: "Dom duh dom dom. Dom dom. Dum diddly dom." Ah yes, this must be the Dom stop! "Dum duh duh duh dooooooom." Now people are really chuckling...apparently, funny translates well into many, many languages. It was a nice, relaxed change from Germany, where, believe it or not, people cannot figure out why in the world you would say 'hello' to someone that you don't actually know and give the term "stiff upper lip" a whooooole new meaning. We were even treated to a rare Sunday of shopping (gasp!), which we thoroughly enjoyed. It's funny the things that you miss! We had been talking with a Dutch salesperson on Friday, and we asked about his store hours. He said, "Well, Sunday we don't open til later..." almost apologetically. I'm sure I looked like a big nerd, with my mouth hanging open as I listened. I was like, "Wait: let me get this straight: you're open on Sunday?" like it's some craaaaazy idea that I'd never considered before. But truly, in Germany, shopping on Sunday is considered to be an absolutely un-thinkable commercial arrangement. But if they'd seen the crowds milling about on the narrow streets lining the canals, I think they might agree: it's okay to shop on Sunday. It might even be, well, fun. And we can't wait until our next trip!

Automotive Animal Kingdom

So, a few weeks ago, M. was getting ready to go to work, hopped in his car and turned the key to find....nothing. His car wasn't turning over at all. What in the world? It's a perfectly good car, for Pete's sake! Was the dome light on? Nope. How about the gas tank empty? Nope. Not that either. We discovered the hard way that, like anything else about living here, automotive issues are their own animal...or have their own animal, which is actually more accurately the case around here. What do I mean? Weeeeell, upon popping open the hood of the car, M. discovered that the spark plug cables had been neatly severed...and whoever had done it left a couple of rows of little teeth marks behind! Not having any idea what could have caused this, he ran back in the house and called his office. Luckily, some of the people in the motor pool were there, and when he described what had happened they all said, "Oh, yeeeeep. That's a marder!" A what? That's right folks: there is a weasel, which looks a bit like a ferret, with sharp little teeth and an apetite for spark plug cables. And luckily for M. and I, they prefer to snack on cables that are located under the hoods of BMWs. Greeeaat! So when I was in Wurzburg to pick up the new-to-me car, I said to the seller's wife, who is German, "Hey, what's the deal with the marders?" Her eyes got big and she said, "Oh, ja, der marders!" and quickly produced a newspaper article with a photo of one of the little rascals. So what does one do to prevent these characters from snacking on their automotive cables? Apparently, the most effective thing you can do to avoid the rath of der marder is to scotch tape clumps of fur from the smelliest dog you can find to the underside of the hood of the car. Or spray cat urine on the engine, but as M. said, where are we going to find a cat who'll agree to cooperate with that request? But still, as I'm stalking my neighbor's dog (who looks a little bit like Chewbacca!) I keep thinking there's got to be any easier way! (And hopefully, one that's less likely to make me part of an inernational incident!) So, if you have a smelly dog that's willing to part with some fur, I've found your market!

Voon-der-ful!

Okay, so if you read the last post, you heard that I'm sans- tv, which means that I'm relying a lot more on the radio for background noise at home. And I'm actually starting to pick up a little German along the way. And by a little, I'm talking one word a week. (Hey, that's not so bad! That's like, 52 words a year! I'll have 104 by the time this is over!) ANYWAY, since I've been listening, I've picked a couple of German words that are among the best or funny sounding...usually I will hear a word in particular that I like over and over and over on the radio every week. So, what's the word of this week, you ask? Well, the one that I keep hearing over and over this week is "wunderbar". It's pronounced voon-der-bahr... it actually sounds a little like something that Willy Wonka might produce at the chocolate factory, I guess. But I digress. After hearing it for about the tenth time from callers-in on various radio shows this week, I finally broke down and asked my German-speaking Dutch assistant (I know, I know...it's complicated) for a translation of vooon-der-baaaaaah. It means, simply, wonderful, and has surpassed last weeks word ("genau", which means "exactly") to become my new favorite. What the heck, might as well give it a whirl! Have a wunderbar weekend!

Odds and ends from TV-free me

So, not much new to report this week, I'm afraid. Unless you want to know what's going on at Darmstadt Middle School... then, THEN I can be of some help! I have no trouble staying in the loop of the goings-on with the 6th, 7th and 8th graders of the greater Darmstadt area, thanks to my patient population! Anyway, M. and I survived the trip back to Germany in fine form. Okay, there was some pretty obnoxious sneezing on the plane on the way over. I won't say which one of us was responsible! ANYWAY, we're actually still debating whether the "cold" that M. and I both endured was actually a whopping case of Georgia hay fever...this is totally possible, given that you can't wear black outdoors around Lake Lanier without collecting a fine yellow mist for all of the pollen floating around. Luckily, we started to feel better a few days after coming home. The sleep deprivation? That's been a little harder to shake, but any sleep lost was well worth being able to go back to the states for a bit! The days are also getting lots longer here. And when I mean lots longer, it's getting light at 5:45 AM and the last flickers of sunset evaporate at around 9:45! Craziness! And I've had plenty of time to stare out the window at the pretty sky. Because of all that extra sunlight, you ask? Well, no. My lack of tv would be the real answer. The decision to go tv-free seemed like a good idea when I moved into my apartment...cable (or the decoder which you can get to watch US tv) is expensive so I thought, hey! Here's my chance to break the habit! But really, it just creates a huge craving for Oprah, I've found. The other morning, I walked past our clinic's waiting room to hear the familiar strains of my favorite talk show theme song wafting into the hall...and it was like hearing the voice of someone you haven't talked to in a long time. And it made me want to stop what I was doing and watch, thinking to myself, "I swear, I'll watch for juuuuust a minute!" Okay, maybe two! And I wanted to, I really did. But, in a clearer moment, I decided that having my commander find his new captain parked in the waiting room watching Oprah instead of seeing patients might be, well, in bad form. So, I pulled myself back to my operatory, a little sour knowing that the Oprah continues without my viewership. Hrrmph.

America

Aaah...the United States! It's been great to be home, well, okay, in Georgia, which is becoming my surrogate landing spot, for the last 6 days. We've taken full advantage of being here by spending lots of time with family and friends and, in my particular case, wolfing down as much Craig's Crazy Carrot Cheesecake as I could...until I got sick. Okay, okay, so it's actually all of the traveling that has me a bit under the weather, and not so much the cheesecake...but saying that I'm bringing a headcold home from the states is not nearly as exotic as O.D.-ing at the Cheesecake Factory, right? M. has caught this doozy of a cold, too, so it would be correct to say that we'll be limping a bit as we head back to Germany tomorrow evening. Sickness aside, the trip was wonderful and it was great to be back home, even if it was only briefly. I miss it (and our families) already! 'Til next time...