Dear Blog Readers, it has been a long time since my last blog entry, again. I have been very busy at work tying to get our new energy efficiency fund off the ground and running. I am hoping the new year brings time to do some other things, like updating my blog. Carola and I have been busy making our apartment a bit nicer place to live. Carola got some evergreen branches from her mum, and we have attached these to our ladder. It looks something like a Christmas tree now. Carola found some ornaments to put on it. Yesterday we got a wine rack to put in our shelves. I put it together last night and now, sometime, we need to get a small collection of wine going. Also you can see a photo of our new electric piano. We got a bit of tax money back from the German government, and we traded this for a piano. It gives me something to play very simple songs on, and Carola can play very nice, complicated songs already.

Jam Making!

Carola decided a few days ago that it would be a good idea to make apricot jam this weekend. So, she went to the farmers' market and got some apricots. They smell good. Part of the recipe is to crack the seeds and boil them with the fruit for added flavour. It seems to have worked out good so far.




A rundown of our other urban farming activities:



Tomato plant

Green beans

Dear Reader(s) of my blog. It has been awhile. Since Carnival time I have gotten married. Hitched, as they say. It was a wonderful wedding. Of course not everything went exactly as planned, but it was planned that something would not go exactly as planned. I must say that those things that were unexpected only added to the flavour of the event. Furthermore, there were so many wonderful surprises that I can safely say that our wedding was something way beyond what we had dreamed of. My parents, Grandma Jean and Glennys were the first to arrive. They flew into Frankfurt and we immediately put them to work folding church programs. As so many hands made such light work, we very quickly had time to explore Frankfurt a bit. Ken and Kevin Oltjenbruns joined us as well for our explorations. It was a very busy time, particularly for Carola, but we had a great time, and really enjoyed showing people around Frankfurt. Frankfurt also seemed to enjoy it, as she was showing her best face with respect to the weather. It was warm and sunny, with many spring flowers popping up everywhere they could. This was not the Frankfurt one knows during a rainy/snowy/sleety winter day. I am glad everyone else got to know the better side of this bi-polar city.

Over the next few days, we accumulated various Americans who had made their way across the pond. To this day we remain so pleasantly surprised by the number of people who made such an effort to find their way to this corner of the world. Furthermore, between the boat trip, polter abend, ceremony and reception, the two cultures and languages came together amazingly well and I have heard only positive comments about how nice it was to meet such kind and interesting people from so far away.

After the wedding, Carola and I spent several days with Cousin Jenna and Cousin Christian touring through the rugged beauty of the German-Austrian Alps. It was very relaxing and it also allowed us to catch up on some sleep.

Jenna and Christian dropped us off at the main train station in Munich, and we started our honeymoon journey. Carola did not know where we were going, so with each mile, her curiosity was fulfilled or invigorated. You will have to ask her which one was dominate. After switching trains and walking through an underground passageway, we were able to take in the skyline of Halle (an der Saale). The skyline is impressive – for how ugly it is. Mind you, Google Maps in Germany does not yet have the ability for one to view the skyline online. Therefore I was a bit lost as we emerged to behold giant communist structures, empty and forlorn, through years of depopulation and neglect. Mind you, the infrastructure was wonderful. The roads were perfectly paved and the sidewalks newly reconstructed – as the former GDR has had plenty of money for public works for quite some time. But however well-built the roads and sidewalks were, the train station and surrounding area maintained a mist of depression and listlessness that could not be scrubbed away.


With much happiness, and after much trepidation, I can say that the area surrounding the train station is not representative of Halle as a whole. As we walked toward the city center, new life was breathed into us as we began to see how pretty the city could be. The downtown has a wonderful square with a lively market. The university brings a youth to the city that can be felt in the cafes and shops. However, the city is also unlike any that can be found in Bavaria or Hessen. In many ways it reminded me how Tallinn must have felt 6 or 7 years ago. Less that one block away from the Halle’s main city square, remain a few abandoned buildings that look as though they have not been occupied – though they surely have been – since 1944. This contrast made Halle a very interesting city to relax in and wonder around. We took a tour of the main Lutheran church. This church was unique because it has four steeples. Previously, two church had stood on this spot, with two steeples each. However, a long time ago, the four steeples remained and a new church was built between the four existing steeples. In one of the two taller steeples lived a family whose job it was to watch out for fires and alert the fire department so that they could take the necessary action. The steeple was occupied until the beginning of the 20th century. It was a very relaxing few days in Halle and Leipzig, days that Carola and I will never forget.




Now I am on a high-speed train from Rosenheim to Frankfurt. A little while ago we were traveling 300km (187mi) per hour. Carola and I are returning home after spending a long weekend in Rosenheim. However, I have had a bit of a longer journey to Rosenheim than Carola. I first had a layover in Serbia, Novi Sad to be exact. I was there for my employer’s annual meeting. After months and months of working for the European Fund for Southeast Europe, I finally had a chance to see the Balkans in person. It was completely engrossing. While I learned a lot about microfinance during the meeting, I tried as hard as I could to learn about the Serbia outside the conference hall. It was not so easy as my knowledge of the language is somewhere between null and nada. However, I was able to get a good impression of things from talking with some of the locals, and listening to our tour guide. It is way to early for me to draw any real conclusions, but from what I saw, I have the impression that Serbians are very honest and proud.

Well, hello everyone! Happy Carnival time (Fasching)! It has been a while since the last post, and unfortunately, not a whole lot has been happening. I was sick last week, as a new cold bug seems to have been going around. But now I am back on my feet and ready to go. Where is the party?




Today it was in downtown Frankfurt. As Tuesday is Fat Tuesday, and Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, this weekend is the big celebration before Lent. The celebrations are meant to scare away the evil spirits before we go into Lent. Well, I must say that if I was an evil spirit, I would be scared. All these normally reserved and somewhat quiet Germans were throwing candy around and screaming "Helau!!!" There, as far as I can tell, seems to be no theme or code to the dressing style. It must be colourful, weird and hopefully warm. For some reason, Mexican sombreros and cowboy hats seem to be popular choices. In a pinch, a water can will also work.



I find this tradition to be very nice. In my life, there seems to have always been a long period of duldrum between New Years and Easter or Memorial Day. Naturally, with the exception of Arbor Day. Now, in the middle of a long grey cold wet winter, we have everyone dressing up in colourful clothes and screaming. Not bad. A good way to lift the spirits.



Another interesting tradition of the day is that the mayor hands over the keys to city hall to the Carnival MC. It symbolises the right of everyone to celebrate without fear of a repessive state (allthough it is a bit of joke today). Nevertheless, the tradition continues with some sometimes stark criticism of local and national politicians. This usually takes the form of huge paper mache effigies of the notorious politicos. However, it need not always be politicians. There was also a huge float made making fun of a local lady who brought a noise complaint lawsuit. The legal action was brought against the main square of Frankfurt, asking for the legal right to issue a noise complaint shutting down singers or anyone making noise on the square. The local citizenry seem to be not so happy with this one lady.



As perhaps you can see on the photos, it was a cold day out, and we decided to come back and hole up in our apartment (only a 5 min bike ride away). Now we are watching the parade on the TV and it is still going on. It seems like it takes most of the day to get all the parade participants through.

Until next time,

HELAU!!!

HESSEN VOTES!!

In the state of Hessen in Germany, there was a vote today. Democracy in action. Yesterday the major political parties were handing out coloured plastic chips that are exactly the same size as a 1 EUR coin. I thought maybe this was voter fraud in action, but these chips are merely used to release shopping carts from their holders at the grocery store. Democracy is safe for now. But I will keep an eye on things.

As part of my supervisory proceedures, I accompanied Carola to vote this morning. We found the polling place. I was afraid that we would have to wait in line. No. The Germans are too organised for that. So, the two available voting booths were both empty. But there were about 8 people keeping an eye on these two booths. Acutally it was 8 eyes per booth. They asked me if I wanted to vote. I declined.

Carola and I met Carola's old high school friend, Maggi, today. It was a wonderful time. We met her down south, near the Rhine River. It was so nice to get out of Frankfurt, even if the weather was dreary. The only consolation was that it was like that everywhere. So we visited an old abbey that is on the UNESCO world heritage list (like the great barrier reef). For further info see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorsch_Abbey

It was founded in the year 764. So one could say that it is antique. Unfortunately, not a whole lot is left of the original complex, but at one time is housed an amazing array of literature and art. We got to see one of the original buildings, and visited the museum inside. It turns out that this area of Germany is also known for its tobacco production (crazy, I know...). So, the abbey museum doubles as a tobacco museum.

While there, Carola was caught smoking the largest pipe in the world. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records.

We paid 3 EUR each to get in, and I think we were the main business for the day. It was quite dead. But it was nice to have the whole place to ourselves.


After that, we visited the town of Worms. It is a nice town with a nice Cathedral and a funny name.

Immer hin.

Step by step we are getting our apartment to be a more comfy place. The photo wall is evolving for the better. We had a nice Christmas present come from my parents - a Colorado photo frame. Not only good memories and good photos, but it also fits well on the wall!


Also, we got a new microwave as a Christmas gift from my parents. It is so nice not to heat the oven just for left-overs. Now that we know we have to pay for electricity directly, I am even more excited about the energy savings.

Well, well, well. Christmas time is gone for another year. The Christmas market here in Frankfurt is all closed up and packed away for another year. Now the cold and the snow have really set in. Fortunately, we live in a country that does not depend totally on Russian gas (unlike Bulgaria). Therefore, despite cold conflict on the Ukrainian-Russian border, we are still sitting in a nice warm apartment in Frankfurt. But there is ice in the river and snow on the ground. It is really winter – which in my opinion is just fine. But it depends on when you ask me. If you happen to catch me just after a long bike ride to the city, then the answer might be short and not so kind to the idea of wintertime. But I can at least say that the sun has been shining here, and that is wonderful.


Carola and I went for a walk today, and it was nice to get out. The sun never got very high today, but it was for sure warmer than this morning. It was 17 this morning when we woke up. Not so cold, but cold enough when you are riding a bike somewhere.



Christmas time was very nice. We were at Carola’s family’s place in Rosenheim. Nearly all her brothers and sisters were there – so it was a full house. I learned a lot about German Christmas traditions.

I don’t know from where, but it seems that Americans have developed over the years a healthy fear of fire. Perhaps it was the more widespread use of wood for building houses??? In any event, Germans have a relatively relaxed attitude toward fire, at least compared to Americans. I observed this a number of times.

Christmas trees are generally purchased rather later than they are in America. This makes sense if you are going to light a whole bunch of candles all over your tree. Which is what generally happens. However, as is also the case with other German things (like the Autobahn): if one is going to encourage semi-dangerous practices – then the methodology put in place is top-notch and well-planned so as to minimize the risk. This is clearly the case here. The candle holders are weighted so as to always keep the candles upright. Candles are (most of the time) carefully placed so that no overhanging branches could catch fire. And finally, someone is always there to keep an eye on things. Quite impressive and deeply un-American. But the atmosphere created by the candles in a dark room and with a fully-decorated tree was amazing. I was impressed.

One night before Christmas, we made Feuerzangenbowle (translation: fire-pliers punch?). This is a warm spiced-wine drink. Quite tasty. But the fun does not end there. The next step to is find a bottle of 151 or another equally-potent bottle of rum. One places a sugar cone (like a giant sugar-cube, but it is a cone) on a specially-designed stainless steel holder. Next the rum gets poured over the sugar and lit on fire. The caramel then drips down into the warm wine below. MMMMM. We had one slight hiccup: Walter forgot to read step number 5: don’t pour more rum on the sugar as it is burning. We found out that there is a reason for this direction. When one does this, the flame jumps inside the bottle and suddenly you have a Molotov cocktail/glass blowtorch in your hands. Our rum then had less alcohol. Nevertheless, the Feuerzangenbowle was tasty and it was a very nice evening.

The fire tradition extends into the new year. For new years, we went to party hosted by some of Carola’s friends. It was a nice mix of older and younger people, and a relaxed and fun atmosphere. They work you into the fire-mischief slowly. The first step was a large bowel filled with water. Around the edges of the bowel were taped lots of little strips of paper. Finally, floating in the bowel was a lit candle riding aboard a little walnut ship. The youngest in the room get to start first. They put their hand in the water and swirl it around
so that the centrifugal force pushes the candle out toward the edge of the bowel, where the pieces of paper are waiting to be lit. As soon as the flame gets close enough, one of the papers starts on fire and it is the responsibility of the person who’s turn it is to extinguish the flame. Sometimes they have already had a few glasses of wine and they are not so quick to react. Nevertheless, things seem to work out most of the time. The participant then takes the paper and reads it aloud. It tells a fortune for the new year. It is quite fun. And appropriately fire-intensive.

The next fire activity involved more pieces of paper, time limits, a Christmas tree, and of course candles. So, starting at the last 12 seconds of 2008 I spent my time grabbing a piece of paper, finding a pen, writing down my wish for the new year, rushing to the Christmas tree (which, we all remember, is burning with real candles), and lighting my slip of paper on fire and burning it all up as the ashes fluttered to the floor. Whew. I thought I was done with all this pyrotechnic madness. Not so.

Carola and I ventured out onto the patio to find a home-grown fireworks display. And not just bottle-rockets - but full-scale two-stage mortars that fire up into the sky and explode in brilliant colours. For a moment I turned inside to warm up my cold hands and I find that the Christmas tree has caught fire! Three guys are on their tip-toes intensely blowing out the offending branch that became a little too friendly with a neighbouring candle. I calmly removed my camera from my pocket and took a photo for Cousin Jenna.

We are back from our Thanksgiving trip to Colorado! It was a wonderful time, and though it was very very busy, we got an enormous amount done. It was sad to say goodbye, but we look forward to being in Colorado next summer. It took us a few days to get over the jet-lag, but we enjoyed every minute of it. We had pizza and beer, delicious Mexican food (many times) and I think the most wonderful thing was just to enjoy the sunny nice weather. Thanksgiving was a wonderful time, and we got to spend it with Winter, Jeff, Nick, Grandma Franson, Aunt Ardell and of course my parents. We had a good-sized turkey and it was a very nice day.


As a taste for what is yet to come, we decided on a location for the Colorado Reception. I think it will be a nice place, and we are very excited about it.

We had a wonderful time in Manitou Springs. Manitou is historically a very different place than Colorado Springs, and it strives on being unique (let's just say weird).

More Manitou.


We had a huge and wonderful Thanksgiving. Everything was very very tasty. I think I gained a few pounds - but I stayed away from the scale just to make sure I was kept in the dark about that. mmm mmm thanksgiving.






Dad was very busy during this time picking out the appropriate wine for everyone. In this photo, Dad is giving Winter a little tour of his wine collection.

















Thanksgiving evening, we had a great time playing cards. We managed to continue eating good things - even into the evening.


We got a bit of snow, and a bit of sun. It made the mountains look quite nice.


_________Back in Frankfurt

We arrived back in Frankfurt safe and sound, although quite tired. It has been quite cloudy and rainy since we got back. Today has really been the first day that the sun has been out. So, I took a ride around on my bike and took a few photos. While I was riding along the river, I saw an old coal powered train going along the river. That was really cool to see.


















I had seen these tracks for quite a long time, but until today I had never seen a train there.




It was so nice to see the sun out. I think alot of my fellow Frankfurters (so much fun say "fellow Frankfurters" ) agreed with me and were out enjoying the weather too.




Carola and I went shopping yesterday. Perhaps Germans have not heard the news yet about an economic recession, because they were out shopping like crazy on Saturday. This department store was packed, we could hardly get around.





This is for dad: I thought you might find it interesting that this headline that was shown in the Frankfurt subway says: "John Fogerty may finally sing his own songs".


That is it for me.

All the best for the holidays.

Well, now comes the latest installment of my blog. Things have been getting colder here in Frankfurt, and I hear that November is gray and overcast. So far they are right. The weather has been pretty depressing. This country is fully excited about solar energy – the problem is that it happens to be one of the cloudiest nations on earth. One still gets points for trying, however. The good news is that the weather is temperate and it rarely snows here. This means that it is nicer for Carola and I to ride our bikes around town. We ride everywhere – rarely taking the subway. The subway is rather expensive, 2.50 ($3.14) for a one way journey. It makes you think twice about where you go on the subway. Besides, we can get most places faster with our bikes anyway. I know gas prices have come down, but it is still nice not to have to fill up a tank all the time. Gas prices will probably go up again in the next few years once demand in Asia picks up again.

Wedding preparations are underway, and there are a lot of things to organize. I had to go to the US Consulate a few weeks ago and get an affidavit that said I have never been married before. I will now have to do the same thing for the German authorities. I also need to remember to get my birth certificate when I am in the US for Thanksgiving. The photo on the left is near where the reception will be held.

We will be in Colorado for Thanksgiving!!! Our plane leaves Frankfurt on Friday and after a layover in Chicago we will arrive in Colorado Springs!! I am looking forward to seeing family and friends, and also just feeling the intense sun press on my face the way does in Colorado. We are still debating whether or not to go skiing on Monday or not. If we do then I will let all my loyal blog fan(s) know about it.

Last weekend Carola and I were visited by Carola’s Aunt Renate and Carola’s Goddaughter, Ruth. We went to the Frankfurt zoo. Carola and I had already been there, but this time we got to see new areas that we hadn’t been to before. We saw penguins, alligators and a whole range of nocturnal animals. It was very relaxing and very nice. Later, Renate went to see a play that was being performed at the church where Carola works. While they were doing that Ruth and I went and saw a 3D movie about whales and dolphins. It was cool to see a movie in 3D, but the way the film was produced was not so entertaining. In any event, we had a good time and it was a good weekend.



This weekend we had a visit from Jakob. Jakob’s mother tore her Achilles tendon, and so Jakob was on his way back from visiting her, offering his love and support, and relieving her of the stress of operating her new car (which means he took it). So after Jakob found a parking space, we went to Leonie’s birthday party. Leonie is a friend of Carola’s who also happens to live quite close to us here in Frankfurt. Carola made a (delicious) cake and we had a great time last night. This morning Jakob left, and now it is time to do chores and update my blog.


When I was coming back from a multi-day workshop for my work, I stopped in this small little town down the river from Frankfurt. It was amazingly pretty and for once the sun was actually shining. Luckily I had my camera and was able to take some nice photos. One house had an American flag hanging out of it. I was surprised. Never outside the US have I ever seen a US flag hanging outside someone's private residence (I don't count the Ambassador's house). judging by the timing, my conclusion is that it is most likely that this person was quite happy about the election of Obama. To be honest the whole of Germany is quite excited to see a president Obama. People I barely know have come up to me and shook my hand in congratulations. If you know anything about Germans, you know that this doesn't happen everyday.

Hello everyone!

Autumn has come to Germany. The temperatures have dropped off significantly, and it rains alot. However, when the rain clears away and the sun comes out, then it is really nice. The deep orange sunlight makes everything glow like it was made of gold and the trees turn a wide variety of colours. With this backdrop, we headed to Heidelberg a couple of weeks ago. Carola's family was meeting there for a ball. A few of Carola's friends came too, which was nice (one I had previously met in St Louis).

Heidelberg has be almost completly preserved as it was spared from widespread boming during the war. The story is that an American pilot had been to Heidelberg before and absolutley forbid that it be bombed because he knew how pretty it was. It still is.




After our busy weekend in Heidelberg, we had a couple of weekends to our own devices here in Frankfurt. It has been nice to just relax and get to know the city. Last Sunday it was so nice out that we just had to get out in the sun and go for a walk along the river Main.


There was a guy out in his row boat and it looked like he was having a wonderful time. I could see myself enjoying rowing. There are a couple of rowing clubs along the river and they have races in the summer.

We walked north up to the river, as we live on the south side of Frankfurt. Then we crossed the river and walked on the north bank. It was very nice there as the sun was shining intensely and also reflecting off the river. There were many people out enjoying the sun, lying on the park benches and playing with their kids. Right before we headed back to the south side of the river, I found a point where the tree leaves framed the tower of the Dom Church quite well. The Dom church is one of the oldest churches in Frankfurt.










I was really missing seeing the leaves change in Colorado, so it was nice to get out and get some kind of a fall experience.











The Book Fair

The day before our walk along the river, we went to the world's largest book fair. I had imagined something like rows and rows of old books with rows and rows of boring quiet Germans. It turned out the opposite was true. All the proof I need is the picture below:


There were all kind of people dressed up like their favourite book characters. It was a real party atmosphere. They had 78,218 people come over the weekend that we were there. We visited the hall that held the publishers of english langauge books. It was about the size of 5 football fields. And everywhere everyone was speaking english. It was strange for me. We also ended up finding the Estonian section, and had a wonderful time looking at all the Estonian books. The Estonians had a good laugh at my now very rusty Estonian.

Last weekend, the weather was wonderful and Carola and I had a wonderful time just wondering around and exploring the city a little bit. The weather was a bit cool, but it was very sunny and the air was full of fall smells. We decided that it would be a crime to be indoors on such a weekend, so we decided to go to the zoo.







The zoo is rather small, but it has a good selection of animals, and it is under renovation, and should be quite nice in a few years. I brought my new camera with the long lens so I could get some good photos of the animals. This was particularly true for the tigers.



Carola and I ate lunch near the monkeys they liked to run around and always look what is going on.

























The baby monkeys were very very cute and swinging around everywhere.








The past few days have not been nearly so nice - at least with the weather. But the other morning, as I was getting ready to go to work, came a huge double-rainbow outside our window. Carola noticed it, and I ran to get my camera. Here is the photo.








A few weeks ago, Carola and I went to go check out hotels in the town where our wedding reception will be, Chieming. Below is the reception hall.




We also got to look at the church were we want to get married. The church has yet to answer as to whether or not they are free that weekend, but we hope that this will be the place.