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Directories
Can you pass the German citizenship test?
Spiegel.de asks, “Sind Sie reif, ein Deutscher zu sein?” (“Are you ready to be German?”). Starting in September, foreigners wishing to obtain German citizenship will have to answer at least 17 out of 33 questions correctly on the politics, history, geography, and law of Germany in order to qualify for citizenship.
I made it, scoring 25 out of 33, though I must admit I did a lot of (educated) guessing. Unfortunately for the non-German-speakers out there, the test is in German, but if you speak German, take it and let us know if you have what it takes to become a German citizen. (I’m especially interested to hear how my German readers do!)
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A controversial address?
So, it seems I’ve stirred things up a tiny bit in the expat blogger world (well, I caused two blog posts to be written, if that can be considered stirring things up). I, mostly unknowingly, picked a controversial address for my blog, namely, AMIexpat. Martina wonders why I would pick this as an address, while PapaScott questions whether the term Ami is an insult. To be honest, I picked it because (1) it was less cumbersome that AmericanExpatinDeutschland.com, (2) I thought it concisely, at least to those in the know, made clear that I was an American in Germany, and (3) it is a little bit of a play on language, with “Ami” meaning “friend” in French, making me, uh…. Christina the friendly expat?
After reading through PapaScott’s post, I was reminded by Cem of Sprechblase’s comment that “Ami go home” was an anti-American slogan used by student protesters in the late 1960s (I vaguely remember reading about this in high school history class). But both Wikipedia and Leo German-English dictionary define Ami as a slang term for an American, not a derogatory term.
In the comments to both posts, I mentioned that I’ve been much more irritated by having to say I was “US-Amerikanerin” because many Germans doubt my Americanness based, I suppose, on the fact that I am Asian-American (or half-Asian, however you want to define me). I, personally, have never heard Ami used as an insult, but maybe that’s because I’m clearly foreign and Germans don’t use that kind of language in front of foreigners. Although, several Germans I’ve met have gone on to thoroughly bash the Turkish after find out that I’m “one of the good foreigners.”
What did Rainer, as my live-in German, have to say? I mentioned the hubbub to him and he said, “What’s wrong with Ami, it’s just short for American?” I brought up the “Ami go home” slogan, and his response was, ”Yeah, we can also say ‘American go home.’”
So what do you think?
Yet more evidence…
of the odd musical tastes of Germans.
Finally, a German hairdresser is being honest
Not sure I’d pick these guys as my hairdressers…
But I have actually found a great day spa/hair salon in Regensburg, Andrea Garburg, and I’ve heard from Sarah that I’m not the only satisfied customer.
In other news, I finally got to meet Tammy today. She just moved back to Regensburg from a one year stint in D.C. We had a great lunch at L’Osteria (best Italian place in Regensburg) and were chatted with in English by a table neighbor and the waitress (that’s the most I’ve been addressed in English in a long time - I guess we must have been speaking loudly). The waitress mentioned that she’s studying medicine and that American medical students are far ahead of German ones with practice on real patients, making it difficult for German students to study for a semester exchange in the US. That’s something I didn’t know, but it doesn’t surprise me. I had a lot more practical experience with data analysis during my studies than my German colleagues had.
After lunch, I went to the surgeon (Dr Schindler - I didn’t get the impression he speaks English) and had my ingrown toenail operated on (yes, Rainer was right, I was supposed to go to a surgeon - although my ob/gyn did take a look at it before sending me on to the surgeon). He was pretty funny and made a lot of jokes about me being a statistician. Apparently, statisticians are known in Germany as Fälscher (forgers) and there is a saying, “Trau’ keiner Statistik die Du nicht selbst gefälscht hast” (“don’t trust any statistics that you didn’t forge yourself”). I guess that’s a bit like the English saying, “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.”
In Oliver news, he’s now discovered his hands, and his fingers can often be found in his ears, eyes, or up his nose. He’s also started sucking his thumb, but more often he sucks his whole fist. He’s turning into a little charmer and I’m starting to wonder if he might keep his blue eyes (they’re bluer now than when he was born and they’re the exact same color as Rainer’s dad’s eyes - never thought I’d have a blue eyed baby… we’ll know for sure in a little over 4 months!).
Weltenburg
Sunday afternoon was spent in the beautiful Altmühltal Nature Park area, with its scenic white cliffs and abundant canoers. Boat tours are available between Kelheim and Weltenburg, but we unfortunately found out about this too late.
The Donaudurchbruch (Danube gorge) near Weltenburg
Baroque church of the Benedictine Abbey Weltenburg
The Abbey brewery, claiming to be the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world
Rainer enjoys a dark beer in the Abbey Biergarten
After parking in the town of Weltenburg, we made another miscalculation. I was starving and wasn’t sure I’d make it to the Benedictine Abbey Weltenburg and back without something to eat, so we grabbed dinner at a place in town. Big mistake. It turns out the Abbey has a restaurant and brewery and the food looked incredible, unlike the formerly frozen deep fried chicken breast I got in town. The Abbey brewery is first mentioned in 1050, making it the oldest continually run brewery in the world. We sat in the large Abbey Biergarten, where Rainer enjoyed a dark beer, which he found to be pretty tasty although perhaps higher in alcohol content than most beers, while I had an Apfelschorle.
It’s definitely a place we’ll go again (in fact, Rainer’s Institute has its Betriebsausflug at the gorge today, so Rainer is enjoying the scenery again as I write this), but next time we’ll take the boat tour from Kelheim and arrive with empty, growling stomachs!
Vacation, Teil 1
Yes, I am finally getting around to blogging our recent “Last Vacation As Two”. You’ll have to forgive my tardiness (well, I guess you don’t HAVE to, you can certainly hold it against me if you wish), I’ve been pretty exhausted the last week and I’ve also been working hard on several items for my genealogy blog.
So our vacation began in Bamberg, where we stopped for lunch and sightseeing on the way up to Berlin. I was pleasantly surprised to discover Schloß Geyerswörth (I talk about this briefly on my other blog), we had a good lunch and toured the Neue Residenz (New Residence) and the Bamberger Dom (Bamberg Cathedral). The Neue Residenz was interesting, but I had serious trouble understanding the guide, who spoke Oberfrankisch the whole time (the local dialect). The cathedral was wonderful though, as we were the only ones who showed up for the daily tour, so we had a nice hour long private tour of the building.
Bamberg’s Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall)
I would have loved to have spent more time exploring Bamberg (we’ll have to go back soon), but we had a dinner date with Rita in Leipzig, so it was time to be off. We ended up eating dinner at the Kartoffelhaus in the Barfußgässchen, and let me tell you, they aren’t kidding about the Kartoffel part (Kartoffel=potato). Everything on the menu was potatoes (well, except for the drinks, so, maybe not everything). For dessert, we crossed the street to Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum, which Rita told us is the oldest still operating coffee house in Europe (their website says it’s the oldest in the World). It did not disappoint. I had the utterly delicious Sächsische Quarkkeulchen auf Zimtschmand und Vanilleeis (Saxon Fried Curd Balls in Apple-Cinnamon Sour Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream), along with a perfect, not too sweet, not too bitter, hot chocolate. Funnily, Rita worries in her post about the night, that we might have bored Rainer with our discussion of books. If he was bored then, he must have been REALLY bored over the weekend, because every time we met up with people, I ended up in a discussion of books with them! Anyways, now Rita needs to come see Regensburg!
Saturday in Berlin was pretty non-stop. We began with breakfast with two old colleagues of mine from Schering (now known as Bayer Schering Pharma), Carsten and Susanne, at Wiener Conditorei Caffeehaus in Berlin-Grunewald. I highly recommend this place. Not only do they have good breakfasts, they have outstanding cakes. After many, many weekends of coffee and cake at various coffeehouses all over Berlin back in 2003, this was the one I picked to make our wedding cake, which ended up being by far the best cake I ever had in my life. We love the cake from this place so much, that we bought a bunch to bring along with us on our visit with Lynn and family in Potsdam.
Lynn and I enjoyed discussing books and babies, while Rainer and Todd got very excited over partial differential equations on high dimensional spheres. They gave us a bunch of baby stuff, for which I am very grateful, since they are on the way to a new life in Australia now.
Afterwards, we headed over to Sala Thai restaurant on Dortustraße. I’d eaten there before and found it acceptable, but as we looked at the menu, a bad feeling came over me. It was completely different and no longer had any of my favorites! I wondered whether we should get up and go, but then the waiter came, so I asked if he could cook me up some Pad Thai Gai, while Rainer asked for Lad Na. He indicated that it would be no problem, so we settled in. Soon our steaming dishes arrived and they looked… scrumptious. Not only that, my Pad Thai was Thai spicy, and I didn’t even need to ask for it to be spicy! By the end of the meal, my eyes were watering and my tongue was pleasantly tingling. Whatever changes they made to the menu, I approve!
But there was no time to waste, because we were expected for drinks in Prenzlauer Berg in 40 minutes! We were the first at Prater, which was packed, except for two empty tables on a stage. These seemed strangely conspicuous, so we chose to stand at the bar instead. We were soon joined by BiB, RFM, Bowleserised, and Ben Perry. We stayed out way past my bedtime talking books, books, and more books (these guys are all impressive writer types). I was having so much fun, I didn’t even notice it was 2am. We closed down the bar! Then poor exhausted Rainer had to drive all the way back to the hotel.
I let Rainer sleep in the next day, and sometime in the afternoon we headed off to the Alte National Gallerie, which now has the highlights of the Egyptian collection. So, after moving away, I finally saw the bust of Nefertiti (and a lot of other really beautiful stuff - if you haven’t been, go now). We picked up some baklava at my favorite Turkish bakery in Wedding (I forget the name, but it’s next to the Lidl that’s right at the entrance to the Seestraße U-bahn station) and headed off to eat it at sunset at Wannsee.
The next morning, it was off to lunch with B. at the Greek restaurant Mythos Palace in Dresden, where Rainer got her hopes up by suggesting that there was a German equivalent to root beer. He was wrong. But the food was good and I had fun discussing, what else?, books with her.
But alas, I hear the sounds of the DSDS decision show coming from the next room, so I’ll have to cut it short there. Stay tuned for the next installment, where Rainer and Christina discover that Karlovy Vary is not really a wellness vacation spot, but rather the cool place for elderly, obese Russians to get Darmspülungen. (You can also read about our visit to the town of Geyer in the Erzgebirge, or Ore Mountains, over on my other blog).
Germany’s view of America
Rainer told me that he watched a program on German TV where Germany’s top newscasters discussed the German view of America. Over the years since WWII, consistently 85-90% of Germans had a positive view of America. When George W. took office, this percentage dropped to about 65%, then after September 11, it rose back to 90%. Once “W” decided to go to war with Iraq, the percentage dropped to 20% and has stayed there ever since.
There is also a new hit song criticizing politicians by the popular German band Die Ärzte (The Physicians). The video shows a guy in a cowboy hat on a ranch having a good ole time driving a remote controlled tank over models of the landmarks of Europe. Here is my translation of the lyrics:
DIE KLÜGSTEN MÄNNER DER WELT (The wisest men of the world)
They look dapper and are charming.
Are well-dressed and elegant.
Each one’s a hero –
those are the wisest men of the world.
They smile at the press corps,
and no answer fails them.
Carefully managing our money –
the wisest men of the world.
They decide for us.
Yes, they suffer for us.
Our mysteries will be illuminated through them –
those are the wisest men of the world.
They know how, they know when,
and what one can expect of us.
Because we often miss the big picture,
we voted them into office.
Sometimes they make themselves unpopular.
It is often difficult for us to understand them.
Politics is a complicated field –
but not for the wisest men of the world.
They decide for us.
Yes, they suffer for us.
Our mysteries will be illuminated through them –
those are the wisest men of the world.
If soon everything blazes and burns,
and the earth quakes from the bombardment.
If nothing more remains for us, but to pray for salvation
then let them eulogize us –
the wisest men on our planet.
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Recent Comments
rita on All the poodles run to my house for the Funky Cold Medina August 28, 2008 9:32 am
i just hope for you that taking them off isn’t as painful as unsticking duct tape from skin. it...rita on Video Wednesday: Thai lesson preview August 27, 2008 6:27 pm
mmmh. that all looks so delicious!!!Jonesgirl on Video Wednesday: Thai lesson preview August 27, 2008 3:05 pm
Oh my word, that spread looks amazing! Jonesgirls last blog post..Oh, Michael PhelpsChristina G on Thai food for everyone! August 27, 2008 9:53 am
@maria: I hope we can make you more comfortable then
@rositta: Hmmm, not sure I can make cooking enjoyable if you hate it ;-)...NewWrldYankee on Thai food for everyone! August 25, 2008 9:46 pm
That sounds fantastic! I just found your blog today and I love getting new recipes…looking forward to reading more!rositta on Thai food for everyone! August 25, 2008 6:14 am
I am absolutely looking forward to that. My offspring was in Thailand for 6 weeks a few years ago and took a cooking class there. He...Maria on Thai food for everyone! August 25, 2008 5:48 am
Yeah! I bought the tai cookbook you recommended last year, but I am completely intimidated! I’m looking forward to the internet...Christina G on About Me August 23, 2008 10:42 pm
Hi Sandra, I’ve never heard of TCK or TCA studies. There are a lot of books about raising kids bilingually. I’ll have to look into it.creativecommons License
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