Advent calendars in Germany

I've always loved advent calendars.  Opening 24 little boxes to reveal hidden surprises as you count down to Christmas is just plain fun.

In the US, before we moved, there were generally a couple dozen candy advent calendars in grocery stores every year--nearly all filled with particularly cheap and low quality chocolate.  In the last few years there were also Playmobil and Lego calendars.  Most years there were even two or three different Playmobil options.  And there were the many "fill yourself" options.  Quilts with pockets were quite popular, and I loved the LL bean lighthouse and cabins:

Germany's love of all things Christmas extends to advent calendars and the stores fill with literally hundreds of options for about 2 weeks in early November (by the time I thought to take photos last week, most were already sold out).  Fill your own quilts, bunting style, baggies with clips, etc are only the beginning.

Of course there are the usual chocolate calendars.  Some with cheap chocolates, but also dozens of options with quality chocolates from Lindt, Kinder, Ritter Sport, etc.  Entire grocery store rows can be dedicated to the boxes of treats hidden behind windows.  

(this was one of 6 chocolate displays at one store)

The kids have outgrown Playmobil and chose Lindt chocolates this year

There are chocolate calendars with all kids of themes too, like these for sports fans:

If you are picking up a candy calendar for a child, it's good to be aware that many of the nicer brands have liquor filled truffles in them, so watch out for and avid those (or, if you are shopping for yourself, perhaps that is just what you want to look for!).  And, of course, you probably want to avoid these as well:

(yes, that blurry image is of the Playboy chocolate advent calendar--and yes these are on full display at the gas station--I slid it sideways to cover much of the photograph behind the shelf there on the left).

We have toys too.  14 different Playmobil versions that I counted this year, three Lego versions, Hotwheels, Barbie, magic sets, toy pets, little craft sets, Who Done It? mysteries that give a clue each day and many others.  I counted 73 different versions in the toy section of one department store last week.

All that chocolate might make you thirsty, so why not have a drink, every day?  The Coca-cola calendar seems aimed right for me (though, really where is the fun in getting the exact same thing every day?).  I missed getting photos of the beer a day (full sized, 24 different brews), herbal tea of the day, and mini bottle of schnapps per day calendars--they sold out fast at all the stores.

In Germany, Advent goodies go well beyond food, drinks and candy.  There are several calendars that provide a travel sized toiletry item per day, some aimed at women, some at men and even some for babies:

If you'd rather find make up or jewelry every day, there are several options for you as well:

Germans love their pets, and do not leave them out of the fun either.  There were several brand options out there for dogs, cats and other small pets as well:

All of these 24 day countdown calendars are in addition to the Advent wreaths and logs that are in just about every German home this time of year (so far as I can tell, anyway).  Each has four candles--one of which is lit for each Sunday of Advent (the four Sundays leading up to Christmas).  So, one candle will be lit today, two next week and so on.  

Add in several visits to Christmas Markets, shoes full of goodies on St Nick's Day (December 6), three days of celebrating Christmas itself (Christmas Eve on the 24th, Christmas Day on the 25th and "second Christmas Day" on the 26th), and roving bands of kids coming door to door singing and collecting for charity on Epiphany (January 6th) and you almost get a feel of just how important this holiday is in Germany (and I love every moment of it!).

--Hadley

Thanksgiving on a random Thursday

Today is a major holiday in the US.  Arguably the second biggest holiday of the year to the majority of Americans (right after Christmas).  Better yet /forgetting for a moment that it is linked to black Friday--which is about as materialistic as it gets) this is one holiday that is not about things.  Thanksgiving is about people coming together and sharing a meal.  A huge meal.  One full of traditional and calories heavy foods.  But there are no gifts to give, no costumes to buy, no baskets to fill.  It's pretty much all about the food, and the people (and, for many, watching football).

Meanwhile, in Germany (and the rest of the rest of the world) today is . . . Thursday.  That's it, just Thursday.  Work goes on.  School goes on.  Stores are open because today is just another day (no need to boycott retail establishments open on a major holiday here--they are all closed on all legal holidays as well as every Sunday).

Our first year in Germany I was surprised by how lonely and sad I felt on Thanksgiving.  I hadn't really expected that--but I hadn't really thought about how it differs from most major celebrations.  Christmas or Easter may not be exactly the same here, but those holidays are still important and still celebrating.  Everyone knows it is a special day.  Thanksgiving felt very isolating partly because no one else nearby was celebrating anything.  It was a very clear reminder that we were outsiders here and our ways were not their ways.

And then there was the food.  One of the key things that makes Thanksgiving, well, Thanksgiving.  That first year I could not find whole turkeys, or canned pumpkin (or pie pumpkins at all) or sweet potatoes or cranberries.  Nothing.  We have a small kitchen anyway and at that point still had the tiny fridge we first bought used off of ebay, so cooking a big meal was not really feasible had I been able to find things.  I made the mistake of thinking that surely the nicer American chain hotels would offer a Thanksgiving meal if we were just willing to shell out enough cash for it.  Alas, that was not to be and is how we found ourselves rather forlornly munching on turkey melts at the American Style diner back in 2009.

Most of all, Thanksgiving blues hit because that is a holiday about people and you simply cannot replicate the loved ones you miss in a new place.  We came here fresh off of four years sharing wonderful Thanksgiving meals with our dear neighbors in New Hampshire and missing them was almost overwhelmingly hard that day.  PLUS, David was on a business trip, so even one of our own was missing (in fact, this is the first year since we moved that David has been home on Thanksgiving Thursday).

Six years in, we do still miss our New Hampshire "family" most keenly on this day.  We miss not seeing our families (in Colorado and Mexico--so we can never even manage a trip to see everyone) on any of the major holiday, or often at all (but, wow, thank goodness for the internet!  We get to stay pretty well connected in this modern world).  However, at this point we've gotten better at making a feast at home that feels sort of right, and it is fun to invite a friend or two (now that we have had time to really make some) to share in the holiday.

Whole turkey are still hard to find and pricey when you do find them (or special order one)--and there is still that pesky issue of oven space.  Turkey cutlets are plentiful though, and can be made in the crockpot in their own cream gravy while the oven is put to other uses.  We know to make sure we have a can or two of pumpkin here, even if we have to haul it from the US when someone heads across the Atlantic.  Mashed potato makings are always available as are the ingredients for cornbread dressing.  And hten we pull in whatever else we can find to fill out the meal.

Tonight, after Dave was home from work and Rio from school, we had a nice meal and enjoyed the company of his coworker.  I couldn't find cranberries this year, but had a can of the jelled sauce that some moving military friends left with us last year.  I enjoyed the throwback taste of my childhood even while the kids mocked me for eating the food still shaped like the can, and we had cheddar roasted broccoli and caramelized pearl onions as well as the potatoes, dressing and pumpkin pie.  Not the huge feast on many American tables, but not too skimpy either.

And, for a change, we were thankful to NOT be in New Hampshire, where most everyone we know is without power (which, for many on wells also means without water, and for many it also means without heat) and has been since last night.

So, here is wishing all of you in the northeast a quick return of power, and everyone a very happy Thanksgiving, or, just a great random Thursday in November.

(note, Rio was our photographer, in case you wonder why he is missing)

Prost!
'Hadley

Ferguson

I think I want to say a little bit about this.  It is, after all, tearing my country apart in many cities as I type.  On the other hand, I really have not followed the case very closely, for the simple reason that I have not had the heart to do so.  So, my opinions are formed not knowing full details and not really hearing all sides (then again, I think a lot of people are hearing a lot more of one side than the other--even those who follow it closely--to an extent we all hear what we want to and it is so easy to go to just the media outlets more likely to present the side you want to hear these days).  And, it is such a touchy subject that I risk offending many readers.  I'm sorry if I do.  I hope we can all respect that reactions to this are varied and colored by our own experiences and stories.  And, of course, part of my experience is that I grew up as a white girl, which I am sure tilts my views more than I can ever realize.

I haven't been reading about people's reactions (ie--who tweeted what or what individuals are saying, beyond reading that Michael Brown's family asked people to remain calm and non violent and reading what my own friends say on Facebook), so I might repeat things from others---realistically there are only so many ways to feel about the situation and I am sure I am not unique.

So, I'm going to take a deep breath and plunge in with my thoughts (and then maybe I will read more).

I think this specific case is a pretty murky one, that there is no simple answer here.  I doubt very much that Michael Brown was totally innocent and clearly not armed and not in the least bit threatening and shot for no reason at all.  I also doubt very much that Darren Wilson had truly good reason to believe deadly force was needed to protect himself and I doubt he would have jumped to that in the split second decision making process had the criminal he was trying to apprehend been white if for no other reason that it seems often we perceive a greater threat from someone with dark skin than someone with light.  I also doubt very much that the officer's actions were out of line with what he had been trained to do and told to do as a policeman or that his actions really stand out as all that different than thousands of similar cases over decades which simply did not get this kind of media reaction and attention.  When I ramble my way through, I nearly always conclude that the grand jury probably made the right decision given what evidence there is and what we currently expect of police officers and how we train them.

Which does NOT mean that I don't think there is a problem here.  This case is a very small symptom of an overwhelmingly massive problem in our country.  We may have a black president these days, but we cannot pretend we do not have a gigantic and horrific problem with institutionalized racism in the US, most especially as seen in our criminal justice system--in which being black increases your odds of being incarcerated nearly 6 fold (and, no, this is not reflective of actual criminal rates among the groups--don't even try to go there.  In fact, in one of the ares we can trace fairly well, drug use, whites use drugs more often than blacks but blacks are considerably more likely to be jailed for it.  As in about 10 times more likely!).

We see time and time again that race plays a huge role in whether someone is charged, whether they are found guilty and in how large the penalty is if they are.  It works the other way too.  Missing white children, get much more media attention overall than their black counterparts (I should note that in all the trends Hispanics are somewhere in the middle--it seems we have a racism sliding scale in America), when a victim is white, there is more likely to be a severe penalty for the perpetrator than when the victim is black, etc   Let's go back to another case that got lots of media attention, I truly doubt that the Trayvon Martin case would have played out in quite the same way had Trayvon been a white kid called by his middle name of Ben and George Zimmerman been black.  It's sad and appalling that I feel that way--our system ought to protect against such things but at the end of the day, I do, and I bet I am far from the only one who does.

 This points to an iron grip of racism still having a huge sway on our society as whole in 2014.  Which is a frightening (more so, I am sure if you happen to not be white) and depressing concept.

Which brings me back to the Ferguson verdict and subsequent rioting that is happening there and in many places across the US today.  The anger and upset and fear over this pervasive racism is boiling over and doing so in destructive, harmful ways.  Ways that often harm the very people and communities who the protesters claim to be supporting.  Ways that are getting attention, but are not likely to lead to change.  I can understand WHY this feeling is so strong and people are losing control (and, of course, we all know that many people are just using the excuse to get out there and cause trouble with no real concern for justice at all).  But, it scares me.  Not just for the current situation, but for the future.

If we focus too much on this one case, and not on the underlying problems, and if people allow their emotions to all be vented in a few days of rage and them move on and forget about the issue, letting their concerns drift to the background while focus shifts in an almost ADD like way from Ebola fears to football players acting badly to the latest Duggar wedding nothing will really change.

This is not a small problem.  There is no quick solution.  And it can't all be blamed on one errant police officer.  It is a nationwide problem, affecting all of us and perpetuated by all of us (even black jurors are more likely to find blacks guilty than whites) and made much worse (in my opinion) by our insanely high incarceration rates and private prison system as a whole (did you know the US represents 5% of the world's population but holds 25% of it's prisoners?).

I hope that after the dust settles and the riots stop that we can not only help those who have been damaged by the riots be made whole again (and I believe we need to do that), but that we can, as a nation, stay focused on the underlying problem and have a long, intense and much overdue serious national conversation and make some true changes over the next few years.  We need to totally re evaluate how we train officers and what we expect of them, find new checks and balances to even out incarceration (and charge) rates and set goals to achieve a more fair system, with concrete steps to do so.  We need to stop the for profit prison system and stop arresting and incarcerating people for minor things, so that our police can worry about serious issues and not be the "bad guy" to so many (that "us" vs "them" feeling sure does not help keep our officers safe, does it? and when they are not safe, and often are seen as the bad guys, they are going to feel more threatened and be more likely to respond to situations in lethal ways).

I think it is going to take us collectively realizing and admitting that we are doing something terribly wrong and wanting to fix it and working HARD and long to do so.  We are all in this together, republicans and democrats, men and women, black and white, gay and straight, Christian and atheist,North and South,, rich and poor,  police and teenagers, and about a thousand other options in between.  I hope we can do it.  I believe we can.  That is what has made us great as a country--those times when we see that we need to do better and we get together and we DO.  I hope we are at that point now.  I hope that when the fires in Ferguson burn out the passion in the people does not, I don't want to wait any longer and see any more headlines (or, almost worse, the many, many cases that are barely blips buried in the papers of Chicago, LA, Houston, and so many other places--so common they are hardly worth mentioning in the media's eyes).

--Hadley



http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet

Kicking off the holiday season with a short visit to the Heidelberg Christmas market

Germans love Christmas and no where is that more evident than in the ubiquitous Christmas markets that pop up in nearly every little town and big city for at least some portion of advent, or the stretch between Christmas and epiphany.  Germans also love to get out in the fresh air, no matter the weather, as evidenced by the fact that the vast majority of sidewalk cafes stay open with outdoor seating right through the winter--only adding some cozy blankets and occasionally outdoor heaters to the space:

So, it is really not surprising that the major social event of December takes place in the out of doors.  Friends and families often plan to meet up at a Christmas Market to sip some gluhwein (hot, mulled wine), munch on freshly made treats and generally soak up the atmosphere.  The markets are a huge draw for tourists, but are loved equally by the locals and they are about so much more than shopping (don't let the name fool you).

I love the Heildeberg Market, which happens to be one of the longer running and earlier opening ones.  This coming Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent, and in Heidelberg the market opens on the Monday before that, so that it runs fully throughout the Advent season.  I was happy to have an errand to run downtown as it gave me an excuse to poke around the stalls for a few minutes and just enjoy.

The market starts (for me, anyway--as it is where the tram stop is) right at Bisrmarkplatz, with booths offering several foods, sweets, and drinks as well as a few shopping booths:

There is more food on offer about halfway down the pedestrian zone, and the largest grouping of stalls with food, drinks and merchandise is in Universityplatz.  That's also where you'll find the larger carousel (nearly every market seem to have one!).  But I was headed for the heart and soul of the Market--what makes it feel like the HEIDELBERG Markt:  Heiliggeistplatz, with the huge Christmas pyramid behind the church:

Then on a bit further to Kornmarkt, where every year trees are brought in and the stalls are tents with little twinkling lights that make nighttime magical, and the castle oversees it all:

and finally, just a bit further to the big underground parking garage which is topped for the next 6 weeks or so with wood framed stalls selling hot and cold foods and drinks, a skate rental hut and an ice rink--all with a full view of the castle once again:

I didn't have long to wander yesterday, and was too full from lunch to partake in any of the treats, but I am sure I'll be back soon, and it was sure nice to spend a bit of time and really start to get into that holiday mood.  

--Hadley

The process of buying a new car--totally different in Germany than the US

We've spent the past few weeks choosing Dave's new company car (it should be ordered next week for pick up in mid February), which has me reflecting on how very different the process is here in Germany than in in the US.

We only bought a new car once in the US, back in 2000, but based on ads and what I hear from friends, the process hasn't changed much.

Of course, in both countries consumers start off just looking online, asking friends, and going by past experience to get an idea of what make or model of car they want to purchase.  The dealer experience is vastly different though.

In the US, dealerships are generally very large with lots of inventory.  Often, consumers choose to shop at specific dealer because they saw online that the dealer has the particular model (color, features, etc) they want in stock.  Or, perhaps, there is an advertised special.

It is the norm to go into the dealer, once seriously shopping, sit in and even test drive (for 20 minutes or so, often with the sales person in the car with you) the car you want, hammer out a deal and leave with your new car on that same day.  Back in 2000, I was determined that if we were investing in a brand new vehicle, I would get "exactly" what I wanted.  Not many stick shifts were in stock, and none with leather seats and in my preferred color--so I waited two weeks for one to be brought up for me.  The dealer pushed hard for us to just take the black car that was on the lot, and several people we spoke to seemed to find it odd that we would wait two weeks just to get those specifics all together.

On the opposite end of the car buying spectrum, there is no new car inventory at a dealer here in Germany.  There are a few new models on the showroom floor as samples, generally one of most models from that particular manufacturer. with a good range of exterior colors, interiors, etc. There will not everything though (for example, we prefer sedans to hatchbacks, most Germans prefer hatchbacks, the local BMW dealer does not have a 5 series sedan in the showroom to look at, just a hatchback).

Once you have an idea of which model you want (which, honestly, you probably knew before you arrived---certainly before you made an appointment to work with a salesperson), you will spend an hour or so with the salesperson, going over all the options on the computer.  There are an enormousness number of options and for the most part they are not packaged together.  These include colors, heated seats (front and rear), self parking options, and tons more.

A few days later, you will receive an "angebot" (offer) for your car with a final price (sometimes some feature can be packaged together for a cheaper price).  This is the price--not a starting point for negotiations (though it may be a starting point for the consumer to work from in eliminating some extras to bring the cost down).

You can arrange a test drive of a vehicle that will be similar to what you are buying, but will not be your vehicle and might not be the same model or engine size (the dealer will pull something from the pool used by several local dealers that is as close as possible).  Most test drives involve keeping the car overnight, or through the weekend.  We'll be picking up a car to test on Friday evening to be returned Monday morning.  One final step before placing an order.

The car, once "bought" will be custom assembled with our exact options right in the factory--you do not buy a premade "generic" car, or one other people have sat in or test driven.  To most Germans, the thought of a "new" car being sat in on by other prospective purchasers and driven more than a kilometer or so to get it on and off the delivery trucks means it is no longer "new."

That car, YOU car, assembled to your specifications from a wide range of options will probably be available two to three months after you buy it.  It depends a bit on how busy the manufacturer has been and what you are getting.

I see pluses and minuses to both systems.  Mostly I just find it fascinating how different they are and how each does reflect the cultures a bit.

--Hadley

25 Years ago today

I'm sitting here in my living room, watching live coverage out of Berlin.  25 years ago today the border between East and West Berlin was opened, and within days the majority of the wall came down and tonight Germany celebrates (and commemorates).  There are so many people in Berlin tonight that streets leading towards the Bradenburg Gate have been closed--the city is at capacity.  At capacity, yet in all the footage I am seeing, the calmest, most orderly crowd of that size possible: currently watching in near silence (while Beethoven's 9th plays)  as 8000 lit balloons are released, one at a time, by 8000 people all along the route where the wall once stood-- THE symbol of communist control and oppression.

(photo from Bussiness Insider of the lit balloon wall, yesterday)

My kids, now about the age I was when the wall came down, don't quite "get it."  Having never lived in a world in which Berlin, and all of Germany, was divided--it's hard for them to fully imagine just how impossible the idea was to us, until it happened.  I think I am far from alone having been stunned to see that wall crumble and having never seriously believed it could.

On the other hand, I think they understand a bit better than many of their American peers.  Of course, we visited Berlin our first summer here in Germany--I think that is on the ex pat must do list.  Even then, 20 years after the wall came down, there was a noticeable difference between the sides of the city.  Trees are bigger and older in the West, and the architecture is still more barren and utilitarian in the east.  Even as fairly young kids this popped right out to Marika and Rio in 2009 (they look so little, don't they?).  That was their first introduction to the history that is still so strong and vibrant in Berlin and in Germany as a whole.

The longer we've been here, the more remnants of that not to distant past push their way into modern life.  We still pay "solidarity tax" out of our "former Western" Germany paychecks; Rio's school still learns Russian as their third language (a holdover from the early 80s that has never been changed), there is still a wage gap from East to West (much like the gender wage gap in the US), and most of the time, if we meet a German about my age who doesn't speak much English it turns out they were raised in the East--missing out on having English in school as a child.  

I love today.  I love seeing a celebration of people and governments getting it right.  We don't always do that.  Germany certainly didn't in much of the last century (a fact which Germany does not shy away from--in fact Rio'S history class this year focuses almost exclusively on the holocaust and WWII).  Today we continue to often get it wrong around the globe.  As the world contends with the huge threat that is ISIS, the political situation in the Ukraine shows a backwards trend in Russia, schools shootings continue to happen at an alarming rate in the US and Hooligans (really, that's their name!) riot in German cities---it is awesome, powerful and NEEDED to see millions come together to celebrate the victory of good and love and change in the right direction.  It's a good reminder of what we are capable of and what we can do when we put our minds to it.

--Hadley