Living in Germany

     It's Friday afternoon. I haven't posted anything for a few days because, since I got caught up with our more exciting adventures, things have been pretty quiet. Andrew has been at his training from 9 in the morning to around 5 in the evening. Sometimes a little earlier, sometimes later. The kids and I have been amusing ourselves around the flat.
     Monday we were all very tired from our Swiss Adventure so we did very little other than read and blog. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we got back to working on finishing up the school year. Piper still has Latin to finish as well as some review stuff and Taran has to finish History and Latin. Doesn't take too much time - unless they make it take all day. When I am not helping the kids with school or working on my blog (which does take a good deal of time), I'm trying to figure meals (things are so different here that I have to make a new list of possible meals - my list from home doesn't work here) or I'm researching our next weekend destination.
     So today I thought I'd just share with you some of the interesting differences that I've come across so far. Drinking water - Germans don't drink tap water. And they don't serve free tap water at restaurants. At first we were concerned about this. Did that mean that the tap water was unsafe to drink? Were we going to have to buy bottled water? Andrew did some research and found that the water was perfectly safe to drink. The Germans' distaste for it seems to stem from the fact that "tap water" means to them, essentially, "plumbing water". Doesn't sound very good when put that way, does it? Also, German's prefer the mineral water - the stuff with bubbles. Well, we prefer the stuff without the bubbles but finding that has proved difficult at times.
     Then there's the lack of air conditioning. This was not a problem - until Monday. Monday through Wednesday the weather was hot - 90's. I know that isn't too bad considering we come from Texas but in Texas we just stay inside our nice air conditioned homes and wait for it to cool down. (Admittedly sometimes we have to wait a long time.) But here - no air conditioned home! We don't even have fans! So we were all very hot and uncomfortable the last few days. But yesterday was cloudy which helped keep the heat down and then in the evening a nice thunderstorm rolled in bringing wonderfully cool air with it. Today the weather is perfect - sunny and in the 70's.
      The windows are interesting here, too. They can open up all the way, swinging into the house. Or they can open at the top, tilting inside with an opening of about 6 inches at the top. There are no screens on the windows. We typically have the windows open in their tilted pose all day and sometimes all night. It's the only way to get air movement. Outside the each window, there is a metal "blind"type thing that can be raised and lowered with a switch next to the window. It can closed loosely so there are  small openings that lets air through or it can be closed tightly so no air or light gets through. We didn't know about these blinds at first and I was a bit dismayed that the bedroom windows were only hung with sheers. It doesn't get dark here until after 10 pm and then it gets light before 5 am. Luckily we discovered them early on.
     The washing machine is also different. When you open the lid, there is a metal cylinder turned on its side (so the rounded part is what you see). You have to turn it until you find the part with a little latch that opens up a little door into the cylinder. Then you put the clothes in, close the little door, and close the lid. The first time I did wash, I took the German/English dictionary in with me and translated the different options. So now I can do wash in German at least! The dryer is much like an American dryer (except for the German words on it). But it doesn't have an external vent. The water from the clothes is collected in this little compartment and, every couple loads, I have to pull the compartment out and dump the water into the sink. Weird, aye? I can only use the washer or the dryer at one time - not both or I'll blow a fuse. And both machines take a LONG time to finish so laundry is an all day job not including folding and putting away. Luckily I don't dry many of our clothes and I have a handy drying rack that sits outside on our balcony that can hold a week's worth of newly cleaned clothes.
     I know this blog is sadly lacking in pictures so I'll stick a few pictures in to fix that problem. Here the roadside wildflower is the poppy - you only see those in gardens back in Texas.

Aren't they pretty?

   That's all for now. We are leaving in about an hour to drive to Paris. We'll get to our hotel late tonight then have Saturday and Sunday to see as much as we can then come back to Bruchsal Sunday evening. There is so much to see in Paris that we won't be able to see half of it but we'll give it our best shot. So I'll have something more interesting to report on Monday.  = )