Germany is getting just as bad as France nowadays.  Here’s a message I received from the US Consulate (you too can get these messages by registering with the State Department).  In addition to what’s listed in the message, Deutsche Bahn (the train service) are planning to strike indefinitely starting on Monday.  So basically, if there is a union involved, it’s probably on strike now.

Warden Message From the U.S. Embassy Regarding Possible Public Sector Strikes

We call your attention to the following information concerning possible strikes across Germany this month that could have a significant impact on a wide array of public sector and transportation services:

Public services across Germany could be severely curtailed this week by possible strikes and major walkouts by the service sector trade union in protest over wage negotiations. Without specifying which services could be affected, union representatives have reportedly stated that any strike would be timed to cause maximum disruption during rush hour and could include halting services at airports. The large-scale strikes could also affect day-care centers, hospitals and waste management. Strikes could begin at any time and are likely to be Germany-wide.

In Berlin, union transportation workers are also threatening a ten-day strike from Wednesday, March 5, and lasting until March 14. This strike could bring much of the public transit system to a standstill, affecting Berlin’s U-Bahn, bus and tram network. Separately, the labor dispute between Deutsche Bahn and the train engineers’ union continues and on March 3, the union threatened to strike again if Deutsche Bahn fails to improve its latest contract proposal by March 7. According to a union statement, this strike could begin as early as next week and could have Germany-wide repercussions for all rail services.

The latest information available for the greater Frankfurt area indicates there will likely be a municipal workers strike March 6. This strike could affect U-Bahn, bus and tram service, as well as kindergartens, trash collection and other city services. It appears that the strike might last the entire day.

Finally, according to management representatives at the Frankfurt airport, strikes that interrupted services in the air travel sector today ended at 10 a.m. and air travel is expected to return to normal by tomorrow morning. This strike is reported to have affected airports in Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Hannover, Hamburg, Munich, Nürnberg, Köln/Bonn, Saarbrücken, and Stuttgart.

Since the dates of strikes are always subject to change, American citizens should monitor local media sources for new developments.

Americans living or traveling in Germany are encouraged to register with the nearest U.S. Embassy of Consulate through the State Department’s travel registration web site, https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/, and to obtain updated information on travel and security within Germany. Americans without Internet access may register directly with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. By registering, American citizens make it easier for the Embassy or Consulate to contact them in case of emergency.

For the latest security information, Americans living and traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website at http://travel.state.gov, where the current Travel Alerts, Travel Warnings, Worldwide Caution, and Country Specific Information for Germany can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the U.S. and Canada or, for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays)

For more info see:

• Spiegel Online: After Years of Patience, the Unions Strike Back
• FAZ: Warnstreiks in Süddeutschland: „Alle Fahrzeuge stehen still“
• Bahn.de: Deutsche Bahn bereitet sich auf mögliche Streiks der Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer vor - Ersatzfahrpläne in Vorbereitung
• Berliner Zeitung Online: Arbeitskampf: Sarrazin beschimpft BVG-Personal

Lynn is a Canadian expat that I made friends with in Potsdam who has since moved to Australia. When I met her, she had an almost two year old daughter and was six months pregnant. I’d been opening up more to the idea of being a mom, but getting to know her and seeing her relationship with her daughter was what finally convinced me that I could do it. I thought her German birthing experience would be especially interesting to folks because she had her first child in Canada and her second in Germany, so she could compare and contrast the differences in her experiences, so I decided to ask her about her thoughts:

What were the biggest differences in your prenatal care between Germany and Canada?

There were no fundamental differences between the prenatal care I received in Germany and Canada. I scouted out an English speaking Frauenartz and I was lucky enough to find him only a few blocks from where I lived! In Canada, I hired a doula, took prenatal yoga classes, and also took the prenatal birth classes. Had my German been better, I probably still wouldn’t have taken yoga or participated in the birth classes as this pregnancy was my second one anyway. In Germany, I had an English speaking midwife who gave me acupuncture during the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy.

Were you surprised by anything?

The biggest surprise for me was the lack of a paper skirt at the doctor’s office. Had this been my first pregnancy, I might have been horrified and completely embarrassed but since it was my second pregnancy - I was already accustomed to being ‘on display’ so it wasn’t that bad. But still - it was odd and I had to get used to it.

Did you find anything disappointing? Was there anything you wish you could have changed?

What I found most disappointing about my birth experience in Germany was the lack of compassion from the midwives at the hospital. My regular midwife (who was wonderful) wasn’t on staff that morning so I had another one. They were very severe and harsh. I came into the hospital with really hard contractions and 30 minutes after I got there I was already in transition - the baby was coming. I felt like they thought that I was just being a wimp with all my moaning and groaning. It still irritates me to think about it. Anyway, the birth was hard and fast and I was given an episiotomy without any anaesthetic. So, after the baby was born and I was lying down, I asked another midwife for some paracetamol with codeine and she scoffed at me. I was rather taken aback by that since I just gave birth with NO epidural, and an episiotomy so I was pretty darn sore and swollen. The attitude was - ‘why do you need that?!.

In Canada, the nurses on staff were much more compassionate and understanding of the trauma your body goes through after birth. So, I had Tylenol 3s on a regular schedule.

However, in Canada they expect you to only stay one night and leave the next day for a normal vaginal delivery. I liked the fact that you stay in the hospital longer in Germany - especially if this is your second child - it gives you time to rest and recover from the birth and get to know your new baby. In Canada, a public health nurse comes to your house to see if everything is going well with you and the baby, but in Germany, your midwife visits you at least once a week for 6 weeks. I really appreciated all the help and advice I received from my midwife.

How well do you speak German? Did you have any problems you’d attribute to language in your experience in Germany?

Well, my German isn’t that great. I can get by and can understand and speak in simple sentences - thankfully most medical staff can speak some English. Honestly, I can’t attribute any problems I had to language difficulties - it was probably more cultural differences than anything.

Is there any advice you’d give to expat women giving birth in Germany?

If you aren’t fluent in German, then I would recommend seeking out an English speaking doctor and midwife. If my doctor didn’t speak English, I would have had a very difficult time expressing any concerns I had or asking questions about tests, pregnancy, and the birth. The same goes for my midwife. However, on that note - when you do give birth - I don’t’ think language is an issue. Nature takes its course, and if you have the baby. There is a good website that I found that I gave you the link to.. do you remember it? Perhaps you can post it for others - I found it very helpful.

Links Lynn shared with me:

• http://www.howtogermany.com/pages/medical.html
• http://www.hebammensuche.de/ - to help you find a Hebamme in your area (you can also search for English speaking Hebammen in this search engine)
• http://www.babycenter.com/ - There is also a German site too. You can sign up for weekly newsletters about each stage of your pregnancy - it has lots of good information here.

Some of my thoughts on her experience: the Hebammen (midwives) I had were all great (well, except the first one, but she didn’t have too much to do with me since I wasn’t having contractions during her shift. I could imagine the Hebamme who led the birthing class I attended being the way Lynn describes, however. I think it’s funny that they seemed to think she was making a lot of fuss about nothing. I don’t remember it, but Rainer told me the other day that when I was doing my shot putter grunts, the more senior doctor told me not to be so crazy (I don’t remember the exact wording he told me, but she said something like, “Spiel mal nicht so verrückt.”). But then she was impressed with my “Bärenstark” pushing, so I guess I had the last laugh there!

Exactly one month (with a plus or minus two week interval) till my due date! I guess I’m now officially in my ninth month of pregnancy. I can’t wait to meet Oliver!

This weekend, Rainer’s good friend Harry is visiting from Canada. They (or at least Rainer, I was a little confused about this) are at a conference at the moment and we’re all supposed to go to the Bürgerfest in Regensburg this evening (citizen’s festival). Well, if the torrential downpour stops. Rainer wants to grill tomorrow, so I need to go to the store at some point. No work for me though, just grabbing some steaks, a pack of Würstchen (sausages), and maybe a carton of Kartoffelsalat (potato salad).

Finding product replacements for your favorite foods and snacks is always tough for new expats (and occasionally some of us more experienced expats as well)! Here’s my attempt to help out and I have to admit, I learned quite a bit in my research for this post. As new ideas/suggestions come up, I will update this article. “*” in front of a subject means it is part of the latest additions.

• All-Bran Cereal = Kellogg’s DayVita Sticks (70% Weizenkleie/Bran), there’s also Kellogg’s DayVita Flakes (17% Weizenkleie/Bran).
• Bagels - According to the BagelBrothers.de website, they deliver bagels throughout Germany. I’m no bagel-afficianado, but I’ve heard from several people that Bagel Brothers are the real deal. They’ve also got restaurants in Bonn, Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Halle, Hannover, Leipzig, München and Oldenburg. You can get fresh home or business deliver in some of those cities.
• Baking Soda = Natron or Haushaltsnatron, available in the baking aisle in small packets or boxes. Unfortunately, the Kaiser Natron box (pictured to the right) is not filled with baking soda, it is filled with the little packets. Major packaging waste in my opinion.
• Brown sugar - can be found in large Asian shops, Latin American shops, Reformhäuser, Kaufhof (thanks Mausi) or make your own by mixing 1 cup of white sugar with 1-2 T molasses (I’m going to have to try this, because the recipes say that once you make your own, you’ll never go back to using store bought).
• *Cheddar cheese - Gouda will generally substitute well for cheddar. If you need aged Cheddar, use alt Gouda, for mild Cheddar, use jung Gouda. Gouda comes shredded too, just check the cheese section in the dairy aisle.
• Cheerios - try Weetabix Looters. Honey Loops are the closest thing I’ve found to Honey Nut Cheerios.
• Cheez-Its - it’s not quite the same, but I find Käsestangen (cheese twists in the snack aisle) satisfy my Cheez-It cravings.
• Chocolate bars - why on Earth would you miss American chocolate??? Switch to German, or even better, Swiss or Belgian chocolate already!& Caotina">& Caotina" />
• Chocolate drink mix (warm/cold) - try Caotina surfin. A little pricier than other brands, but this is super yummy added to warm milk. It doesn’t have that overly sweet or artificially chocolate taste that some of the other brands do.
• Clams = Venusmuscheln. Ed says, “You can get clams in glass jars. They’re very salty (not necessarily a bad thing) and very expensive: about 5 Euros for a tiny jar that’ll make one recipe of spaghetti and clam sauce. Seeing as how better clams (packed with more juice, which is necessary for the flavor of the sauce) are 79 cents in the States from Durkee or Snow’s, I ask for them as an import.” He adds to look for them, in Italian delis. I’ll add that you might also be able to get frozen clams in a large Asian market, but I’ve never looked for them.
• Cornmeal = Maisgrieß = Polenta (but Ed says neither Maisgrieß or Polenta are the right consistency for making cornbread, for that you gotta import your cornmeal - but check in the Asian market first, it’s often there).
• Cornstarch = Speisestärke (brands: Mondamin or Maizena).
• Cranberry Juice Cocktail = Cranberry Classic or Preiselbeerengetränk (Vailian says 100% cranberry juice is available in the Reformhäuser - but it’s expensive).
• *Cream, heavy - American heavy cream contains at least 36% milk fat, while Schlagsahne extra contains at least 35% fat. You can also try Teesahne (at least 35% fat) or Crème double (40-45% fat) if you need something really heavy.
• *Cream, whipping - In the US, whipping cream contains 30-36% fat. You would most likely want to substitute this with Schlagsahne, which contains 30-33% milk fat.
• Cream of Tartar = Weinstein-Backpulver (in small packets in the baking aisle Mausi says this is not pure cream of tartar though). If you want this only for making meringue, it’s not necessary. Meringue = Baiser in German and all you need to do is look on google.de for “Baiser rezept,” to see that the Germans don’t use cream of tartar in making meringue (here’s one recipe).
• Crisco – try Palmin Soft, near the butter.
• Dark corn syrup – substitute Zuckersirup (e.g., Grafschafter Heller Sirup), Zuckerrübensirup (e.g., Graftschafter Goldsaft), honey or molasses, or make your own by combining 3/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/4 molasses.
• French onion dip - try Mirée Frischkäse mit französischen Kräutern. That’s my favorite, but you might also prefer a different brand.
• Graham crackers – try Leibnitz Vollkornkekse or Landkeks (in the cookie aisle) - I find them great for making cheesecake crust. Eurotrippen suggests Lotus Original Karamelgebäck as an alternative. The Lotus are sweeter and have more of a crunchy cookie consistency. You can also make your own graham crackers with this recipe I found. Michael uses the Leibniz Landkeks for making Smores (“Perfect size and tasted very good. I highly recommend them for that. We go to Strauss for the marshmallows, though Edeka sometimes carries them. And we only buy Belgian dark chocolate (preferably over 80%, our daughter loves it too).”)
• Hamburger/Tuna Helper - I like to take the Knorr Spaghetteria pastas and add meat to make them into more of a meal. There are recipe suggestions on the bags, but I find ground beef and the Spaghetteria Funghi go great together and I add peas and tuna to the Spaghetteria Spinaci. I’ve tried with the regular and Activ Knorr products and with the Maggi ones as well, but the Spaghetteria fit my taste best.
• Honey-roasted peanuts - try Ültje Cashew-Erdnuss-Mix Honig & Salz in the snack aisle (In our Real, it’s next to the Studentenfutter). They have a honey peanut mix as well, but I find that the salt is necessary.
• Light corn syrup – try substituting Zuckersirup (e.g., Grafschafter Heller Sirup, near honey) or honey, or make your own by combining 1-1/4 cups sugar with 1/3 cup water and boiling in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved.
• Maple syrup = Ahornsirup (near honey or in Bio-aisle)
• Mayonnaise - if you don’t like the sugary German mayo, try Maille Dijon Mayonnaise. Ed calls it “a more than acceptable substitute, with the extra slight tang of mustard being a nice addition.”
• Molasses = Melasse (available in Reformhäuser) or try using Zuckerrübensirup (e.g., Graftschafter Goldsaft, near honey) or dark honey
• *Monterey Jack Cheese - Monterey Jack can be substituted with Fontina or Bel Päse (Italian cheeses). If you can’t find either of these, Gruyère, Emmantaler or Edamer will do.
• Peanut butter - miss American peanut butter? Try adding a squeeze of honey to the German peanut butter.
• Saltines - try Wasa Crack & Taste Salted (can be either in the chips aisle or with the regular Wasa crackers). There is also a brand, Sky Flakes, available in nice reusable tins in Asian shops (thanks for checking the ingredients Martina!).
• *Sour cream - In the US, sour cream contains at least 18% milk fat. In Germany, Saure Sahne contains 10-15% milk fat, Crème légère contains 15%, Saure Sahne extra contains 18%, Schmand contains 20-29% and Crème fraîche contains 30-40%. So, you will most likely be happiest with the Saure Sahne extra or Schmand.
• Sweetened condensed milk – Nestlé Milchmädchen (in supermarket near the evaporated milk) or make your own by heating 1-1/4 cup sugar with 1 cup Kondensmilch (evaporated milk) together in a saucepan until sugar is fully dissolved (yep, it’s really that much sugar). Michael says you can also find it in the Russian/Turkish section in Real.
• Vanilla extract – can be bought in gourmet and American shops (expensive) and in some Latin American shops (cheap), or make your own like I do (it’s easy!).
• Wheat germ = Weizenkeime, found in Reformhäuser
• Wraps/Tortillas - There are a couple of options here. First, avoid the flour tortillas in the supermakets (Fuego is one brand), they are bland and tasteless. A tastier supermarket option is the Indian Fladen aus Weisenvollkornmehl. It is usually in the bread aisle, not by the flour tortillas. They’re much tastier. LaTortilla.de also ships fresh flour and corn tortillas, and they are delicious. Or make your own, Ed says it’s easy, and here’s a flour tortilla recipe I found, and one for corn tortillas.

And then there are those products that there are just no substitutes for. Below are some websites. If I’ve ordered (and been happy) once, it gets one *, twice means ** and three or more times gets ***.

• Food from Home* - has a pretty large selection of American and British items. They also have a mobile van that makes stops in various cities in NRW, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (see schedule). You can browse the items on the van, or make an order and pick it up, to save on shipping.
• Hello Food*- Site selling items from the US and Canada.
• World of Sweets*** has some American chocolates and candies.
• USA Kulinarisch has a huge list of sites for ordering American products, including some USA-based shops that deliver to Germany.
• Tacoweb.de has a great list of sites for ordering Mexican products
• *LaTortilla.de in Munich has great Mexican products. I’ve never ordered from there, but I know people who have and I can attest that their tortillas and sauces are tasty.
• My-Asia-Shop.de has a large selection of Asian products and light and dark brown sugar, corn meal, all kinds of dried beans, etc. It also appears that they ship fresh produce as well – but probably not a good idea in summer.

What do you think? Have I missed anything? Do you have any hot tips or substitution suggestions to pass along?

Yesterday, the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre released an illuminating report entitled “An Overview of Child Well-Being In Rich Countries.” Germany generally falls in the middle for all six measurements, but what is sad is that the USA and the UK are typically near the bottom of the lists, below poorer eastern European countries. The report is really interesting and has been strangely ignored by the big American news websites. I couldn’t find the report mentioned on the front page or education headlines of any of the major sites, but it may be hidden away somewhere that I didn’t look, and of course, stories like these are much more newsworthy: It’s gross to kiss your sis — and here’s why, Bi-Coastal Battle Over Anna Nicole’s Body and Baby, And then there were 24 on ‘Idol’, Stop Gumming Up Sex-Ed.

If you do want to read an article about the report, BBC News asks the question, Why are Dutch children so happy?, and SpiegelOnline International finds British and American Children most Disadvantaged.

Following is a summary of the rankings overall and in the six different measures, for more details on the rankings and how they were calculated, please read the report.

Overall average
1. Netherlands
2. Sweden
…
11. Germany
…
20. USA
21. UK (last place)

Material Well-Being
1. Sweden
2. Norway
…
14. Germany
…
20. USA
…
24. Poland (last)

The components of this measure were: relative income poverty (where the US was dead last), households w/o jobs, and reported deprivation

Health and Safety
1. Sweden
2. Ireland
…
12. Germany
…
25. USA (last)

The components of this measure were: health at age 0-1, preventative health services, and safety

Educational Well-Being
1. Belgium
2. Canada
…
11. Germany
…
14. USA
…
24. Portugal (last)

The components of this measure were: school achievement at age 15, beyond basics, and the transition to employment

Relationships (Family & Peer)
1. Italy
2. Portugal
…
13. Germany
…
20. USA
21. UK (last)

The components of this measure were: family structure, family relationships, and peer relationships

Behaviors and Risks
1. Sweden
2. Poland
…
11. Germany
…
20. USA
21. UK (last)

The components of this measure were: health behaviors, risk behaviors, and experience of violence

Subjective Well-Being
1. Netherlands
2. Spain
…
9. Germany
…
20. UK (last)
*USA not ranked

The components of this measure were: health, school life, personal well-being

Over the last week…
Average # page loads/day: 64
Average # unique visitors/day: 50
Average # return visitors/day: 26

Stats for my last 100 visitors (since 9 Nov 2006, 9:42am)…
Most popular labels: Germany and Berlin (I haven’t got all posts labeled yet, this will take a while)
Blogs sending me the most traffic: Germany Doesn’t Suck followed by Jeweled Concrete, Bowleserised and Mausi
Reached via the following search terms: “thanksgiving dinner in berlin germany”, “christina geyer”, “ausländerbehörder berlin” and “die Legende von Paul und Paula background”
Reader countries: Germany 70.8%, USA 11%, Switzerland 6%, followed by Canada, UK and France.

Stats courtesy of StatCounter

As nobody seems all that into the category thingy, I’m not going to bother keeping up with it and I will eventually get around to removing them.

For lack of anything interesting going on, I invite you to peruse my StatCounter visitor log with me. Somehow I’ve managed to get up to an average of 40 unique visitors a day. Let’s see, over the last week, apart from the usual suspects, highlights include…

• someone in Shanghai, China found me through a Yahoo email message - interesting.
• someone in Canada searching for “Storm on the Water” - they were probably very disappointed, in that I only mentioned the title of the song in some old post.
• two people searching for “German movies”.
• someone googled “Leipzig killy willy” and got my Leipzig post - what the heck is a killy willy? Any idea, rita?
• someone in Munich is looking for me, or at least someone with the same name as me.
• and three people who did blog searches for the term “Potsdam”.
• But by far the most traffic comes from the fact that I posted the lyrics to “I know you belong to me”, which is being used in an ebay commercial. I get two or three visitors a day for that post. - Well, actually, that’s only 5% of visitors, so the most traffic would be coming from my wonderful readers!

And two of my boxes of stuff from my childhood bedroom have arrived. One item is an assignment book from high school, which includes juicy tidbits like…

Vicky: Did you get a date yet?
Me: Nope
Vicky: Did you ask anyone today?
Me: Nope

10/2, Test on: Big O-notation, Simple Algorithms, Binary Search, Bacchus Narraforms

Extra Credit Hum. II: visit National Gallery of Art-East Wing, Seeds of Change Exhibit at Museum of Natural History, After the Revolution: Everyday Life in America Exhibit at National Musuem of American History.

Unidentified Handwriting #1: DAMNIT THIS IS HELLISHLY BORING!
Unidentified Handwriting #2: Shut!!! Up!!!
Unidentified Handwriting #1: Shut the fuck up!!!! Damn it! Ick!
Unidentified Handwriting #2: This is soooo boss!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Stable sort def!!!

Boss sounds like an Alex term, but I suppose it could also have been Marcus. Who knows…

And in “I’m awesome”-news, I stepped on the scale this morning and my weight loss since March 2006 is 21 pounds! I’m halfway to me wedding day weight and ONLY 59 pounds to go till I reach my pre-moving-to-germany weight. Yippee!