Germany and Austria, a perspective

Since I feel an obligation to the few people who follow my blog and linked my page to theirs, here is a post.

I have lived in Europe now for almost 6 years. The first 5 years were spent in Dresden, Germany. What was the former East Germany. It is a unique experience, even from those who live in west Germany and other parts of Europe that were not under communism. Since July of 2011, I have lived in Graz, Austria. I knew moving here would produce some culture shock, maybe even more than our initial move to Germany, but although I have had some shock, I have not had as much as I thought I might. I thought I would share a few major differences that I have seen and felt.

Seeing as Austrians speak German (albeit a "funny" version) and that it neighbors Germany and the cultures are very similar, the two are also rather different.

German cuisine comes from Austria, so the food tends to be better here. Graz is known for its apple dishes and pumpkin seed oil. The Austrians also have a whole different vocabulary for their fruits and vegetables. Apricots, cherries, and several other berries are just an example. Their bakery goods are also quite different than what you find in Dresden. Most are actually much better here, and they tend to taste as good as they look. (This is a problem in Dresden, most don't taste near as good as they look!) In Germany, every region has their own potato salad, but sadly, potato salad is hard to find here. The Kase krainer is the Austrian sausage, and it is really good (think somewhat spicy sausage with cheese inside).

The schooling is also quite different. I think here, the kids have about 4 days of school and one day of fun! Seriously though, during the winter, Logan's 1st grade class went ice skating 3 times and the whole school had a day to sled down the hill outside the school. The other day, any child who wished to participate in the state ski races boarded a bus and spent the day snowboarding and skiing. Our boys went to school and did ? with a substitute teacher. The older two kids had ski trips for an entire week (7 days). Neither kid participated and were supposed to attend classes with either the other 5 kids that didn't go, or in the case of Ashlyn, go down a grade and do class with the 5th graders. The following week, Ashlyn's class had an "English" week (again she didn't participate) in which the kids were taught English by native english speakers from Great Britain. The week cost over 100 Euros and the ski trips were about 300 Euros per kid. The schools seem much more relaxed here versus Dresden and the kids get 8 weeks of summer, 2 weeks more than Germany.

Shopping is also a little different. First, everything is more expensive. In the stores, the price tags will have the German price first, since it's cheaper, and then the other EU countries after. Austria is always at least 50 cents more. Food is also more expensive. I actually could find more American products in Dresden and am missing some things here, like cream of mushroom in a can (I have to buy the powdered soup and add milk and corn starch to thicken it up) and refried beans. (It's the small things!) But, I can get chocolate syrup and lots of different fruity, carbonated drinks unavailable in Dresden. I will be glad to get the things again when I get back to Dresden, but will sure miss the drinks here. I may have to have people bring them up when they visit!!!

That is quite enough to bore you by now. I have to go figure out how to adapt some of those good looking recipes from America for use with the products I can get here. If you made it this far, hope you enjoyed the peek into just some of the differences. I will write more about the cultural changes soon. Thanks

Graz, Austria

We have been here in Austria now for about 8 weeks. I anticipated culture shock and thought it might even be worse than our initial culture shock when we came to Germany. I haven't found the culture shock that bad, less than I expected, but I have noted quite a few cultural differences. Since I am not much of a writer, I think I will list them rather than wax eloquent. So here goes:

1. Shopping:
a. There is a better selection of water drinks, but much fewer yogurt options.
b. Stores are only open till 7 or 7:30 pm ( a few) on weeknights and 6 pm on
Saturdays. Everything is closed on Sundays (like Germany).
c. I can find some things here that I could only get in Prague and I can't find some
things I could easily find in Dresden. We will be doing without several things we
had grown to enjoy.
d. There are only two prepaid cell phone options here and they aren't particularly
cheap. I had MANY options in Dresden.
e. Everything tends to be more expensive here.
2. The accent and dialect Austrians use is difficult for me to understand sometimes.
I had just trained my ear to the Saxon dialect and accent and now I am rather clueless.
3. The food here is better. Graz is the culinary capital of Austria. German food comes from
the Austrian and they use pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed oil here and it is delicious!
This area is also known for their apple dishes, much to Jason's delight.
4. Austria is a Catholic country and we lived in the "Lutheran" area of Germany so the
many crucifixes and small chapels and memorials everywhere is strange to us. The
boys also go to a Catholic school, so they must attend Chapel weekly and the Priest
blessed each child today on their way out of the Church after the 1st grade program.

That is all I can think of at this moment. I hope to be able to write more often with thoughts and observations.

School Saga

"If I'd known we were moving to Germany, I would have stopped with 2 kids." This was something I caught myself saying the other day. I love all 4 of my children and wouldn't change that but life in Germany can be very challenging. I know that in the US many parents are struggling with balancing all the extra curricular activities their children have (this is the reason we always kept our kids to one activity), but here just everyday molehills become mountains and school stuff is all-consuming. Let me give a few examples of the last few weeks.

Jonah and Ashlyn's school technically begins at 7:30. Ashlyn goes to school at that time everyday. Jason leaves to take her at about 7:05. She could technically walk but with the weather so rainy and no money for public transportation and a heavy backpack, we usually drive the kids the mile to school. Jonah, on the other hand, begins at 7:30 on Mon., Tues., Thurs., and every other Friday. He goes in an hour late every Wed. and 2 hours late every other Friday. They both get out of school at 1:10 on Tuesday, but Ashlyn gets out at 2 on Monday, at 2:15 every other Wed. and Jonah is 2:15 three days a week and 1:10 on Mon. and Tues. Now, we don't always pick them up from school, usually just bad weather days (which is every other day, ha ha). So, you can see it is crazy here. This doesn't include Caedon's crazy schedule which looks like Jonah's.

Aside from the schedule, every kid comes home with papers to be signed (about 1 everyday from the 4 kids combined). Remembering to get them signed is the first hurdle, then remembering to take them back to school, well..... Then there are the crazy projects, like leaf collecting and identifying, plant collecting for a project next year (yes, they plan way in advance), not to mention entire school week long trips to the farm and Parent night at least twice a year for up to 2 or more hours.

Caedon and Jonah seem to be my little Jason's (i.e. scatterbrained, head in the clouds.) (No offense to Jason) Jonah will come home for the weekend and on Monday morning ask for 10-15 euros he needs for that day. We never have that much cash on us. Then Caedon came home and didn't say anything about needing something for the next day, but when I looked in his Homework planner Wednesday morning he had drawn a picture of something he needed to take that day. (He didn't write what he needed to take, he drew a picture of it!) I asked what it was. He didn't really know. UGH. Well, we went down into the office and searched through all the extra school supplies we had and didn't find anything. Ten minutes later, I finally pulled something out of the cabinet and said this will have to work till I can buy you one. He smiled and exclaimed "that's it!" UGH. It was a simple glorified brad used to keep papers together. Caedon said that the teacher says everyone probably has them at home. I guess I am becoming a good German then!

A while back, I blogged about some new, interesting yogurts on the market. Here are the pics from my kids trying them.

Popcorn here is generally sweet, like kettle corn, so the popcorn yogurt was pretty sweet. I didn't have any takers on the corn yogurt! They don't have creamed corn here so I think it wouldn't be too sweet. It did have corn kernels for that authentic taste!

The Five List

Here is a top 5 list of the things about Germany:

Top 5 things I dislike: (in no particular order, not all inclusive)

1. No bulk items. I can only get large quantities occasionally and that of toilet paper, paper towels, and detergent.

2. No yellow squash. I really want a good squash casserole and some garlic sauteed squash.

3. Almost all bottles (coke, water, etc.) have to be returned to the store for money. One usually payes .15 to .25 cents for each and then given a receipt for the sum that is then redeemed at the checkout.

4. Recycling. I don't mind the plastic and food recycling, but I have to recycle cardboard, newspaper and magazines, and glass down the street. It collects quickly and takes a lot of precious storage space, till I can get it to the dump.

5. That everything is difficult here. Nothing is very easy. One has to go to several places to get things. There is no one stop shopping. It is not just shopping either, but pretty much everything.

Honorable mention: Carts at the store have to be "paid for" with a coin and then the coin is returned when you put the cart back. Powder detergent for the washing machine has no scoop. I don't know what germans do. Most Germans don't use deoderant or bathe regularly, so there is a very strong smell, especially in the summer!

5 Things I love about Germany:

1. CHOCOLATE!

2. The old buildings, the history that is thousands of years old, the beauty of the city.

3. The climate, there are 4 distinct seasons! Snow in winter, green trees, grass and flowers in spring, mild summer temps., and reds and oranges in the fall.

4. Dürüms. They are like a gyro or kabob but in a tortilla. Delicious!

5. CHRISTMAS! Dresden has the oldest Christmas market in Germany (probably in Europe) and it is so beautiful and festive here then.

Honorable Mention: Public transportation. It is good here, albeit a little slow. But one can get to the entire city with a bus or tram. Dogs are beloved here. It is very easy to travel with your dog and they are allowed almost anywhere, especially if they fit in a bag. The german alphabet has 4 different letters that make it distinct, ö,ä,ü,ß.