Wedding invitations - Germany

Making invitations for the wedding reception in Germany has been nothing short of an adventure. I had no idea how to even start doing invitations here... none. The paper here isn't the same size as it is in the US, envelopes are different sizes, the etiquette for wedding invitations is different. It has been quite the long process to even come this far. First I needed an idea that I could implement. I had plenty of ideas but no way to implement them. Then I needed the text and design. I needed Robin's help with that. His German is much better than my German. Then testing - print it on this printer, move this text a little to the left... now back just a bit to the right, up, down, found a typo, on and on. Then, came printing. We went to one copy shop - they no longer do copies, just professional printing. Next copy shop, they could print the inside text, but their machines weren't able to print the card (the yellow card in the picture). The third copy shop was able to print on the yellow cards. Super. Now I can start assembling them. It took about 3 weeks just to get this far... whew… almost done. I just need to get the pictures printed, assemble the invitations, print address labels, and put on postage stamps.

Field trip to the Odenwald

Last Monday Robin took me for a drive in the Odenwald (the forest). We also stopped by the spring fair in a small town called Michelstadt. It was a perfectly sunny day - wonderful day for a field trip.

First stop was a castle

The entrance

Then off to Michelstadt

Here is the town hall. They built it so that it was raised above the market square. We listened in on a tour to find out that it was built this way so that they could show power - that they were above the common affairs of the market.

I'm just guessing, your ward conference isn't like this....

This weekend we are having ward conference at church. It started with a dance on Friday. Family dance for everyone over 12. They don't just dance like people do in the US. The really dance - think cha-cha-cha, rumba, fox trot, and something called the disco-fox. It was pretty entertaining. Saturday all the ward members were invited into the city to work with the missionaries to do a display about the church. We sang (see the picture) and many members talked to people as the walked by. Tomorrow is Sunday with the usual ward conference meetings and a ward picture and lunch. Should be a good time, then ward conference weekend will be over....

The Garden

For quite some time, Robin has rented a small garden plot just outside the town. He hasn’t had much time to take care of it but it has some raspberry bushes that grow as well as some strawberries. We decided that we would like to have some supports for the raspberries so that the will grow better (and hopefully more – I love raspberries). So off to the store we went to buy the needed supplies. It took a few days to find the time and to wait for the weather to be good, but we finally built our raspberry supports today. I’m not a gardening expert, but I think for our first try, it looks pretty good.

Robin at Work

Here are some pictures of Robin hard at work.

Oh look, it's me, keeping Robin from his work :)

Making Cookies

There are many things Germans bake very well - cakes, pastries, bread, even some cookies. However there are a few things they are missing –brown sugar (not just unprocessed, but American-style brown sugar), vanilla extract, and chocolate chips,. That means, Americans are the chocolate chip cookie making champions. I like cookies quite a bit, and I don’t think I could live without the chocolate chip variety. So, I find my ways to make these tasty little treats.

Problem #1 – brown sugar…the only solution I know is to import the sugar from the US or import molasses. I know of no other solution – I have check the internet and other Americans living here know of no other solution.

Problem #2 – vanilla extract… well, there is vanilla sugar (nothing like the extract from Mexico) or the real bean. I recently found some sort of vanilla syrup kind of thing and that seems to be ok but not exactly like what I am used to.

Problem #3 – no chocolate chips. The chocolate here is wonderful, so I just cut it up into little bits.

<---- Here are the yummy chocolate bits

< Mixing it all together

<-- finished product. So yum :)

Recycling. It’s easy to do.

Recycling. It’s easy to do.

Recycling seems to be a big thing here in Germany. Most trash needs to be separated into: recyclable materials (like plastic yogurt containers), paper, biodegradable, and garbage. Because there are so many things that fall into either the recyclable, paper, or biodegradable categories, there is almost no garbage. It’s amazing. One thing that I really enjoy is that most bottles of water can be returned to the store for 25 cents each. It is pretty normal here to only buy bottled water and not drink or cook with the tap water. There isn’t anything wrong with the tap water, I drank it the whole time on my mission, they just don’t drink it…

So here is how the water bottles are recycled.

	1. Check for the label that says it can be returned.
	2. Collect these bottles for the next trip to the grocery store.
	3. Put them in this machine.
	The machine counts how many and tells you how much money you get back.
	4. Print the receipt and take it to the cashier.

Recycling. It’s easy to do!

Baking a Cake

I am having the Sister missionaries over to dinner tonight. I thought I would try something new for dessert. At the grocery stores they have all kinds of wonderful looking mixes for different types of cakes. I thought I would give one a try. It's from a mix - what could go wrong?

Mixing the ingredients was easy. No problems there. Put it in a loaf pan. Check. Put it in the oven at 175C. Ok, did that. Set the timer for 50 minutes. Easy.

I come back 10 minutes later, and the cake is growing and the top is already getting brown. I go take care of some other things and come back 25 mins later. The cake has grown over the top of the pan and the raw insides are bubbling out of a hole in the top... there is a growing pile of cake batter on the bottom of the oven. Uggg... I pull out the cake, scrape up the batter, put some foil down on the shelf in the oven and put the cake back in to cook some more. I figure if the middle is coming out raw still, it needs more time in the oven.

About an hour and a half after starting this whole process, this is what I have

Oh, that doesn't look too bad considering what happend to it in the oven. (you can see an example of how it should look on the cake box in the background).

And the finish product after adding the chocolate glaze

Maybe the chocolate glaze could look better, but considering this was my first try, I was pretty impressed.

The Metric System

I am American, that means I like inches, feet, yards, miles, and Fahrenheit. The whole thing with millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers, and Celsius really throws me off.

Let’s see some practical examples:

How warm or cold is it outside? Well, normally you would look at the thermometer. And the thermometer says: 13°. What? That is freezing!!!! Oh, wait – that would be 13° C… which means…ummm…. 0° C is freezing… 100° C is boiling (I think)… meaning 13° C is……….. I have no idea, let me just step outside for a moment. That way I will know if I need a coat. The answer: at 13° C you still need a coat.

How big is something? You want to use the printer to print out something from the computer. You would like to print it on a special piece of paper. Microsoft Word needs to know how big the paper is. The package says 222mm x 158mm. Ok, it’s in millimeters. MS Word doesn’t accept measurements in millimeters. I have learned that it will take sizes in centimeters however. So that means (lucky me, this is just simple math here) add a decimal point and you have centimeters! 22.2cm x 15.8cm! The print job was successful! If you were to ask me later how big 22.2cm x 15.8cm was I really couldn’t tell you. I would have to go get a ruler. Or ask Google.

What size of mattress do we need? Well, I would say a Queen or King size would be nice. BUT, in Germany that is not how beds are measured. You have 90cm x 190cm, 90cm x 200cm, 140cm x 200cm, 160cm x 200cm, 180cm x 200cm, 140cm x 220cm, 160cm x 220cm… Ummm, what? I have NO IDEA how big 200cm is! Queen or King size… this whole centimeter thing is confusing me… Could you maybe show it in inches? I know how big those are…. Whatever. And bedding to go with these confusing bed sizes is a whole other story.

How about baking? No cups or half-cups here. Try grams. You want to add flour? You weigh it, you don’t measure it. Something to drink? It’s in liters, not gallons. Going for a run? Think in terms of kilometers, not miles.

Uggg, I am still trying to figure it all out. For now, I am just plain confused.

~Erin

How not to use a stove

I am 28 years old, so you would think I would have figured out how to use a stove by now. Apparently, I need the little pictures that tell you which burner you are turning on. I was using Robin’s mom’s stove the other day and it doesn’t have pictures reminding you which burner you are turning on.

Well, I had used the stove a few times so I know which knob turns on which burner… but I just didn’t pay close enough attention. I turned on the burner to boil a pot of water (it was on high) and sat down to read the newspaper. A few minutes later I hear this HUGE bang right behind me (eeeeekkkkkkkk!!! What was that!?!?!?!?!??!). I turn around and realize I turned on the wrong burner. The glass teapot warmer that had been sitting on the back burner was no more… it exploded. All over the place…. Nice. I am now much, much more careful when turning on the burner. I also make sure there is nothing else on the stove top. I’d rather not make that mistake again.

Country Life

I am living in a little village named Georgenhausen. It is a nice little place to live. The village is surrounded by fields. It is not unusual to be stuck behind a tractor when driving down the road. Sometimes, I look around and think 'this must be the place where the fairytales take place'. Castles, fields, forest are all near by and somehow seem 'enchanted'. Robin and I were driving through the fields the other day and I was struck by the sudden urge to sing “The hills are alive, with the sound of music…” It just seemed fitting. Here are a few pictures of the area.

Fields of yellow flowers grow here in the spring. It is so pretty to look out over the hills and see patches of yellow here and thereRobin and I at Jagd Schloss (the hunting castle)

More of the pretty yellow flowers

Tractor made of hay.... I have no idea why, but it looks cool

Typcial German village 1

Typical German village 2

Two of the three billy-goats gruff (the third one was behind the camera)

Robin's Car

This is Robin's car - a Fiat Panda. Isn't it lovely? It gets us from point A to point B without any trouble. It goes about 70 MPH on the freeway (it just takes a little time to get up to that speed). Most cars here in Germany are manual transmission, so it has been fun re-learning to drive a stick in this car. It is a pretty fun car to drive actually - very easy.

Flour and Chocolate

I wanted to make Chocolate Chip Cookies but I was missing a few ingredients... flour and chocolate. I asked Robin if he had flour or chocolate at his apartment. No, he didn't have it. So I asked if he had some time, if he could pick some up. He would try. As he was leaving he asked if I had any particular flour in mind.... Ummm, no, just regular white flour that you can bake with. Oh! He thought I meant "blumen" or flowers! :)He had flour at his apartment, but he would see what he could do about the chocolate. When he came back, this is what he had - chocolate and flowers. How sweet :)