Heilige Scheiss, Fledermaus Mann!

Yesterday, Tuesday (Dienstag) was the holiday All Saint's Day (Allseeligen). Joe and I went out for a 5 mile run in the morning and it struck me how quiet it was. No one else was driving or even outside yet. Because all the stores are closed I had to ask some German's what one is supposed to do on these holidays. "Relax..." they said. "Sleep in, go for a walk, enjoy it." That is a very hard thing for me to do. Instead I spent most of the day catching up on personal business from the move, did some German homework, and then I went in to work a half day in the eerily quiet Geology building. We did celebrate however by purchasing more holiday baked goods. This time Joe found a bat (Fledermaus) in addition to the ghost (Geist). Joe's dad spent part of his youth and young adulthood in Germany, and so has many useful tidbits to impart to us. One of them is the title of this post. You might figure out what it means if you are very clever!

It felt like a new week going back into work today, and I felt so hopeful we'd make progress on some of the problems that have plagued us since we arrived. I've been waiting for my key. It is a special digital key with a face that smiles when you put it into a room where you have access. It will allow me to get into my office, the lab, the kitchenette (and coffee machine) without having to constantly ask someone else to open the door for me like a lost puppy. I've been waiting for over two weeks for someone to inform me that the key was ready. Finally today I just went over to the key office. My key was waiting for me, for who knows how long! Arggh! I should've come last week to check on it. Sometimes it pays to be pushy here. So some things are getting done in this "new" week, but for every accomplishment, there is another issue to take its place.

I'm tempted to complain more about the specific problems of being foreigners who are paid in US dollars, which make things like accessing said money and finding the right health insurance for non-contracted workers very difficult. But, alas, we actually DO like it here, and we are gainfully employed, so we need to look past some of these logistical nightmares for awhile. One thing that is really cool about Germany is sheep. SHEEP! There is a large hill (Österberg) between our apartment and town that is covered in grass. For the past week and a half, there is a large flock of sheep parked on it just chowing away. Ever day the portable fence that contains them gets moved to the next section. Maybe by Christmas the entire hill will be mowed.

One other thing I like so far is, surprisingly, the food. Not German food generally, but Schwabian food specifically. There are a lot of noodles (spätzle - egg noodles, schumpfnudeln - potato noodles) and tonight we made Maultauschen, which are some kind of giant ravioli stuffed with meat. Maultauschen literally translates as "mouth exchange" but I can't imagine that is what is actually meant. One drawback to the food is the lack of vegetables (Gemüse). Sauerkraut is sometimes as close as it comes, although this time of year there is a lot of pumpkin (Kürbis). I'm sure we'll be posting more pictures of food in the near future.

Update Nov. 25, 2011: My friend Merle told me yesterday that I spelled Maultaschen wrong. By adding in one letter I changed the word from "taschen" to "tauschen". No wonder "mouth exchange makes no sense. It literally is "nonsense". "Taschen" means pockets in German. So Maultaschen are little dough (Teig) pockets stuffed with other food. In the case of Catholic Schwabian people (the people from this part of Germany, who are the inventors of Maultauschen), these doughy pockets were used to hide the meat they wanted to eat on Fridays during Lent - hide it from God, of all people! The phrase for this in Schwabish is "Herrgotts-B'scheißerla" or "Herrgottsbescheißerle" (Schwabisch people like to end everything in an "-le" sound). Schwabisch people are known for being smart (kapsele). Well, I guess if they can fool God...