I like Quark

Indeed. it is tasty. it has kind of a weird consistency- somewhere between sour cream and cottage cheese. it tastes fantastic when mixed with jam. You can also buy quark like this:

where it comes whipped and mixed with fruit. nice. also very tasty.

To actually figure out what quark is, i have included this link to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_cheese

Look Ma- I Kauf'd a Handy!

After nearly a month of being out of touch with almost everyone, i finally bought a cell out of sheer desperation. I had gone and looked around at phones and plans earlier this month, but i was mostly just shopping around, trying to find a company that wouldn't hose me as badly as Bell had back in Canada. Pretty much, no one will do a contract for under 2 years, so it was all about the prepaid. I don't mind prepaid- but i find that i always talk too much on the phone so a prepaid can end up being just as expensive as a contract.

Anyway, today i had had enough. i decided that i was going to go get a handy and do it as simply as possible. The first store i went into had only one really ugly-ass prepaid phone. This, in a country where your handy is a fashion accessory and not just a phone, was seriously unacceptable. So i totally fobbed the guy off and told him i needed to think about it. Ha! What was there to think about??? it was a wicked ugly, wicked expensive phone. it was 59 Euro, for a phone without even a camera. ridiculous.

I wandered down the street a bit and came to another Handy store. I went in, asked the guy for a non-expensive, non-ugly phone that was kinda decent. I then paid 30 Euro for a semi-decent phone and another 25 Euro in talk time. It still stuns me that this cost less than JUST the phone at the first place. Then the guy behind the counter even added the pre-paid time for me :)

Satisfied, i wandered out of the store only to take 5 steps and realize i had no idea what my phone # was. ok- turn promptly back around and go talk to the guy who already has his coat 0n and is about to close the store for lunch. As he is showing me what the # is, i realize i haven't seen a charger in the box. a car charger yes- but i don't have a car here, so it's a bit not helpful. It took the poor guy 10 minutes to find the charger for the phone, mostly just because it was sitting on the counter from when he opened the box. nice. so finally everything in order.

And because sometimes i actually manage to be crafty and all plan-y like, i had participated in a class this morning that was doing a comparison on the differences between England and Germany (they just came back from a class trip to the UK). One of the things that came up was the phone booths, leading to a conversation about how phone numbers are different in the UK and Germany. not only did i manage to get the kids to explain the setup of German phone #s, i also got them to explain how to dial local and long distance. it was nice. i have been so confused about it for so long. Now i know.

Anyway- b/c i know you are ABSOLUTELY DYING to see my semi-decent Handy: I also took pics of it next to my North American cell, just so you can see how weirdly small my new phone is. It actually reminds me a bit of Derek Zoolander's itty-bitty high fashion model cell phone in Zoolander.

Things you should NEVER do to Chocolate

While watching Chocolat, did anyone wonder what the Chili that was mixed in with all that chocolate actually tasted like? i have to admit that i was curious. chocolate is such a tasty treat and chilis are spicy and not usually synonymous with dessert.

Then, today as i wandered down the aisles of my favorite store (aka- the drugstore where i pay through the nose but can usually find what i need), i came across my chance. On sale, was a bunch of Lindt chocolate- a variety of which just happened to be Mexican Chili Dark Chocolate. Ok- a golden opportunity if you will.

ARGH. it was not pleasant. Imagine if you will: your mom has just made some of her world famous, prefectly seasoned chili...then just as you are about to eat it, she comes up and squirts some chocolate sauce into your bowl. Yeah- it was kinda like that. My chocolate bar tasted more like chili and less like chocolate* Plus, there was definately the painful "i just ate a whole chili" afterburn.

I think whoever wrote the script for Chocolat was a big fat liar. Chili Chocolate was not tasty at all.

*breathe, Manda, breathe!!! i know it's a bit of a shock that any chocolate could be that terrible, but it was, i swear.

5 Vital Things

There are 5 things that one must know to survive as a teaching asisstent in Germany:

1. NEVER TAKE THE NOON TRAIN HOME. Taking the noon train will ensure that the train will be crowded with screaming, pushing and smelly youngsters-who will all want to say hi to you as they stampede past. *note - all the adults on the train then looked accusingly at me- like it is my fault they are little hellions???* Not a great idea ever, less so when tired.

2. LAUNDRY IS A PAIN IN THE ASS- AVOID IT. 'nuff said- I guarantee YOU won't be the smelly one on the train (see #1)

3. ENGLISH GRAMMER SUCKS TO LEARN and it is even harder to teach. Gird your loins.

4. DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND? This is a question i am repeatedly asked by the students. But, they are not asking if you have any friends- they want to know if you have a boy/girl friend. In german friend means specifically a bf/ gf. So when talking about a friend who is just a friend, one needs to say " a friend of mine"

5. ALWAYS TELL YOUR STUDENTS YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME. They will be hesitant to call you something as informal as just your first name. So they will come up with their own variations to try and make addressing you as polite to their standards as possible. Thus, despite repeatedly telling them that it's just Emily, i am still frequently called Frau Emily or, failing to remember my first name, Frau Kanada. Step aside Captain America, there's a new superhero in town.

I just wonder what my super power will be- cause it sure isn't the ability to teach grammer...

Laundry Day

There is nothing in this world that compares to the smell of freshly washed laundry *sigh* A symbol of all that is hygenic and good in this world to be sure. Except that i am using the family's laundry soap and i don't like how it smells- it's really scent-y. But aside from that, i still really enjoy doing laundry.

It's a bit different here though. A typical wash cycle lasts a bit over an hour. The machine uses very little water, but what it does use, it uses quite effectively. It's nice, my clothes are cleaner than the day i buy them every time they get washed (which i mean if you think about it- how many people tried on the clothes you bought before you bought them? so maybe it doesn't really take much for the clothes to be cleaner than the day you bought them? sorry- a total tangent there) Anyway- so the machine takes an hour to wash your clothes. Then because the Family doesn't have a drier i have to hang them up. Which i don't really mind but it does rain here a lot, so it is a bit of a gamble to dry them. Hang them up outside and potentially have them rained on, or hang them up inside, where they are safe from rain but your jeans will take a full three days to dry.

So imagine the chaos and confusion today. Saturday is usually a good day for any family to do laundry. Except today, you have at least one load from 3 people (so over 3 hours washing time), plus fighting for space on both the indoor and outdoor clothes lines... things could get ugly :D lol.

The cutest little soup i ever saw :)

Wandering down the aisle at Aldi yesterday, looking for a few easy foods to cook when the family isn't here to cook for me, i stumbled across a box of soup. High in sodium, low in nutrition, all that is tasty :) Plus it was only 0.35 Euro. i figured it had a couple packages in it. whatever, it was a good deal.

As i am unpacking my newly purchased foodstuffs, i decided to maybe have some soup for supper. so i opened the box and low and behold- not just 2 packs, but four.

Now, i am sure you are all wondering why this necessitated a post- so here we go- inside the box, in four adorable SQUARE packages were the soup portions. Plus each soup packet, instead of having loose flavoring powder, had a little cylindrical chunk of flavouring- you could decide for yourself how much you wanted! It was so cute that i had to take pictures before i could make any.

The New Power Suit

While perusing my host sister's fashion magazine, i came across this gem:



Now, correct me if i am wrong, but this seems like something i could find back home straight out of Lammles. Damn it, i knew i should have brought nothing but wranglers and button ups!


However, would anyone like to guess what magazine this actually came from? Try this:Who knew? i could have been seriously in style this season just by bringing clothes i already had.

Feeling Frustrated

Ladies and Gentlemen, for your reading pleasure: another vent.

My German does not hold up well in stressful situations. The stress hits and i lose my ability to form a sentence, especially when it is important or expensive.

So to the "lady" at the Reisenzentrum- I am not talking like an idiot because i am stupid. I am talking like an idiot because the train pass i am trying to buy is expensive and i don't have all the necessary vocabulary to buy it using fabulous German. I am stressed and i want it done right. So please, go patronize someone else. Oh, and when i politely point out that you have spelled my name wrong, don't give me the look of death. Please just change it. Thank you.

I don't know how people function in countries where they don't speak the language. I have trouble ordering anything more complex than a pizza and a beer- and i can speak passable German. Frick. Also, i would kill for a Walmart- just so there was a store i knew that could supply all my basic needs.

Oh, Mick!

Gack! While surfing the interweb tonight in search of season premieres, i came across a seriously startling bit of news. Moonlight has been cancelled. Oh. My. God. No! But yes, it's true. I mean, i know it was seriously cheesy- who hasn't seen a million different shows about vampires tortured with the implications of vampirism and their immortality? So was Moonlight anything new? No.

But i liked this one. The main character, Mick St. John, was moody-ish and all that is tortured vampire without doing it in the wimpy, whiney Anne Rice kinda way. *Plus the actor that played him, Alex O'Loughlin, is so hott he needs two T's. And the season finale finally saw Mick and Beth finally get together after a season of side-stepping. So while not super original and kinda cheesy, it also had interesting characters with entertaining dialogue.

Now i am sad. stupid TV anyway :( oh well, i suppose it could be worse. i could have a blog completely dedicated to the show (you know who you are!) or a blog dedicated to bringing the show back (you also know who you are!) it is just TV after all, but still....so hott....

*no offense intended here, Anne. I know you wrote lots of books and stuff, but i always found your vampires a little too limp-wristed and weak sauce for my taste.

Yay Comments!

To all of you who have sent me messages about not being able to comment on my seriously awesome-possum posts- I have fixed it! Yay. Turns out, that all i had to do was change the comment settings. So, it's all done and fixed and stuff. And ready for your commenting. So comment. Seriously.

As Friggen If!

Ok. I would just like to vent for a quick second here. If a substitute teacher shows up for a class unprepared, foists the entire 45 minute class off onto you with 30 seconds warning, then whines at the end that you didn't make enough opportunities for the kids to be "communicative", is it ok to call her a bitchhole behind her back and ask that you never have to work with such a douche sac again?

Is it also ok to be seriously aggravated that the 20 English teachers at the school have not yet, after 2 weeks, managed to put together 12 classes a week for me to work?

Please keep in mind that these are rhetorical questions, seeing as i did call the teacher a bitchhole behind her back, as well as asking the head of the English department to not place me with her ever again. I am not here to be her whipping boy. As to the class schedule, if i have to ride herd on the teachers about it, i will be very displeased... They just don't seem to understand that i will stop pestering them if they just provide me the essentials i need to do my job.

I saw Winnetou

Yesterday as i was walking down the street trying to find a place that sold headsets so i could finally use skype (how's that coming for you all, btw?), I literally almost ran into Winnetou. No, sillies, not the real Winnetou. A gigantic, hippie, FAKE Winnetou. Yes, dressed in fringed buckskin from ankles to wrists, with a pair of matching moccasins and a beaded headband, this fake Winnetou casually crossed the street in front of me.

Now, i know that all lot of times i see people wearing clothes here that make me shake my head and wonder if they looked in the mirror before they left the house (like the guy wearing an ankle length plaid skirt- not a kilt mind you, think actual skirt- on the train the other day.) But Wannabe Winnetou has so far taken the cake.

So why do i call him Winnetou? Because Winnetou is the fictional Native American character of German author, Karl May. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnetou . May's Winnetou enthralled his readers and continues to do so today. The Winnetou character , while not really authentic, formed the knowledge base for everything known about Native North Americans and their culture for a really long time. Therefore, it's not really surprising that i should come across one or two people here dressed to kill...buffalo, in their Winnetou best. I just kind of wonder where he tied Iltschi up?

Hands-On Advertising

I suppose, in a country where there is no space (to the point where graves are dug up every 30 years to make room for the new ones), it is only logical that they would want to make the most of what space they do have. Thus:

I will never look at any North American bathroom the same way ever again. All that potential advertising space just wasted...

A Shout Out

I gotta give props to my mom here. She definately is the reason that i am posting such awesome pictures up for you all.

Seeing as she bought the camera that takes such nice pictures, she automatically gets a shout out for any pics that end up on the blog. So if you see her, thank her. She is the reason that this blog is not just text.

So Mom- Props.

Running with Terry Fox

I completely forgot that today was the Terry Fox Run. It was only because i was listening to my favorite radio station (over the internet) that i even thought about it. So, in my quest to keep YOU in the know, i have included a link to Wikipedia's site on Canada's 2nd Greatest Canadian:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox

Check it out. He was pretty important to Canadian cancer awareness and fundraising. His legacy makes me feel like i should be out there doing something that helps people other than just myself. I think that was maybe the point Dad was trying to make as he dragged his herd of kids out to it every year, regardless of the weather. It's not enough just to be here, you've got to do something to make a difference, no matter how small a difference that may be.

So to all those running today, thank you. To all those who aren't here to run with us today-we really miss you. And for those not running today- what's stopping you?