Crossing skin boundaries

This discussion has been raised before in conversations with friends around the world, but I feel the need to bring it up again. The contradiction of nudity and conservativeness amongst the Germans.

The conservativeness. Since being here I haven't seen one girl with a low cut t-shirt, slightly revealing shirt or even a glimpse of a heaving bosom that you see in all the ads for German women at bars! Go to any bar or friends b'day party in Aust, Canada or UK and women are bound to be wearing dresses or little going out tops that have some sort of femininity about them (especially even in the UK/Can winters when its freezing and clothes are still minimal at best - often involving some décolletage exposed to air). Yet here, its the opposite.

If I'm even wearing a singlet top 10 centimetres from my neck (no cleavage present), I am still the most revealing. The standard uniform here day and night is a high neck t-shirt/long sleeve top, jeans and sneakers/boots. Variations on this are only in colour and adding a coat/hat or gloves. I have still not yet seen one german wearing stilettos or pointy toed patent leather heels. Maybe this is reserved only for summer months? I hold my breath (and my wonderful shoe collection) in anticipation…

Then we get to the contradiction.. nudity!

The first issue is with nudity in saunas - it being not an issue. Actually wearing a swimming costume in, you'll be asked to remove it. This also means if your in there with your family, everyone gets their gear off… and when I've asked, they don't find this strange - not even if they have to get their kit off in front of their parents! (Steph - for you and all the germans I know out there defending this!).

Next is the press. In newspapers women are topless, on billboards and posters around town, women are advertised to be at clubs half naked and some even make ME blush! There are more exposed women in pictures in public than you would get in a Ralph/Maxim monthly magazine.

Below I have two pictures that I have managed to snap up whilst taking tourist pictures around town...

And then we get to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. One moment she is being photographed bare back-sided and no one really cared, nor did she even take legal action to the newspaper who printed it (The Sun - UK) - and I quote from German newspaper - Spiegel Online "Had that happened in the States, though -- George W. stripping down in the Rose Garden after a particularly strenuous mountain bike ride, for example -- the outrage would have been two-fold. Disrespect for the country's leader on the one hand. But on the other, folks would be asking themselves what the hell a president was doing disrobing in public. The Merkel photos, though, triggered no such questions. "

Then the same leader goes to the opera with a plunging neckline, and everyone is up in arms!? http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,547512,00.html

I'm unsure if its the German social circles I run in, the cities I have taken habitat in in Germany, and a paranoid mind to show some skin here but from now on I have taken to wearing skivvies/turtle necks, and anything with a high round neck. If there is a slight v-neck present, be sure I'll whip out a scarf to cover up any forbidden skin. Summer shall be very interesting.

Survival of the coldest

The usual things you use to keep warm are jackets, thermals, a beenie/touque and house hold heating units. Since coming back to Germany from warm Australia, the weather has been around the balmy -1 mark with not much chance of warming up soon. So sitting in the house doing my studies, I've gotten inventive to stay warm without having to permanently sit in 16 layers of clothes or burn through what will be a high heating bill. I will expand here on other useful necessities that I have come across to keep my blood moving:

Running the dryer in the house with all the doors open whilst your there to compliment to the household heating.

Leg warmers - let it be said by me who wouldn't be caught dead in them previous to Nov 2010!

Sitting next to the oven when its cooking something, and after. Might look like a 4 yr old having a tantrum on the kitchen floor, but ohhhh so warm.

Ear muffs - totally underrated.

Hot Water Bottles - and if you put them in good a beenie - they last double as long as a normal hot water bottle cover!

Sitting the laptop on your lap - rather than a table… probably not the best for the old laptop, but great for warming my thighs! (it does have 'lap' in the title after all!!!)

Wearing a one-sie (I'll admit it - these are mine http://www.jumpinjammerz.com/blue+ducks/product-9-pajamas/)… covers me neck to toe (including incased feet) and is roomy enough to fit extra layers of clothes underneath just incase someone rings the door bell and you need to pull it off to look slightly more respectable when answering the door.

Meanwhile, on my hunt for warm things, I found you can buy electronic socks…. that may be my next investment!

And that my friends has been how I've maintained blood movement for the end of January 2011!

Australia - and its quirks

I've been off blogging for a while as we took a trip back to Australia for the month of January to introduce my german to the aussie way of life and get a little bit of much needed sunshine. Sadly… the sunshine part wasn't as much as predicted. We were based in Sydney for our trip with a few trips out to the hunter valley & central coast. We also had a week long visit up to Brisbane… just when the 100 year floods were on - so with endless rain (though still hot warm temperatures so you weren't to fussed about getting wet), we didn't have the best experience Queensland could offer up normally.

Usually I comment on the strange things I find whilst overseas and quirks I can't get my head around. But this time its my boyfriends turn… Here are a few things he has observed whilst "down under".

- Its' such a big country but you never get a parking spot (we have LOTS of space, but it seems we spend forever driving around in shopping malls to find a car spot - I concur). Every time we went to the shops, he would groan and moan. Thankfully, it distracted him from my awful parking skills.

- Washing your hands in public toilets is often annoying. The taps that you use you have to hold a button down to get water out at the same time as washing your hands (quite awkward and you can only wash one hand at a time). These are for water preservation - but now we don't have a drought, think its just to piss off the tourists.

- Aussie skin is lovely! Due to all the moisture in the air, our skin went from hard cold leather to soft baby skin within a few weeks (now sadly it's quickly reverting back).

- People are much more friendly than expected. This is something I've also encountered as a surprise - forgetting what its like. One example is at the beach our sunglasses got washed away when a massive wave up the shore and someone picked them up and came looking for the people who lost them (rather than ignoring it, or stealing them). In queues a the bar, if people saw you were there first, they actually gesture for you to move forward rather than rushing into the spot to get served first (both a survival tactic the germans and canadians use to get booze).

- The surf is a little harder than expected (the waves are more powerful than tourists believe.. and after being 'dumped' by waves a few times the realisation kicks in that you really need to know what your doing)

- In brisbane the air-conditioning is out of control cold - especially when you dress for 30 degree weather outside, but walking inside a shop its about 18 degrees.

- Australian dialect is easier to understand than he thought (times excluded when there is background music pumping out speakers at bars)

- They weren't joking when they say everything will kill you or hurt you. In the time we were there, we encountered the biggest spider I've ever seen, a death adder (snake), bluebottles (nasty nasty jellyfish) and what I thought was a funnel web spider (I killed it before we had a chance to find out the hard way).

It was a good learning experience for the both of us - and spending 24/7 together for 4 straight weeks without killing each other, was also a great bonding experience.

And yes, in coming back to the cold and not my own language, I am home sick / sun sick.

Below are some of our shots. The video is from up the top of one of the pylons on the bridge.

At the opera house looking back at the bridge

At the giant pineapple

Eating kangaroo pizza

Holding a Koala

What happens when you hold a koala

Wine tasting

Beer, giant beef steaks, wife beater (singlet top) and bbq (converting the german)

New years day on the beach - out of control busy!

Skiing in Austria before surfing in Australia!

Just a few snaps and a video from skiing up in Austria late december 2010. We ski'd at Kaltenbach and stayed in Krystalhutte which was ski in / out on the top of a mountain (pretty cool). The rooms were nice, quaint and 'ok' but the food more than made up for it! 5 course detestation meal every night followed by heavy dreams from all the different types of food consumed.

For this video below - you should go about 30 seconds in for the highlight...

where we stayed (our room was the top balcony)

break time

in the gondola

out the front of our accommodation

view from our room

The Wonder of Weinachten

Christmas in Germany is a big deal. All the shops start only selling xmas paraphernalia, all the food being sold is wrapped up festively and all the shop windows decorate their displays with some sort of fake snow base with festively dressed mannequins. Its pretty cool and spirited… I've quite enjoyed getting all involved, and found these little gems…

If you didn't know, the Teddy Bear was "invented" in germany, and also so was the Gummy bear…. and when its christmas, they too decided to get in on the fun and turn their gummy bear product into "Weihnachtsbären" = Christmas bear.

Somewhere on the way, I think they messed up the mould with "Gremlin Bear" and came up with millions of little scary gummy things that I'm sure are planning on haunting me in my dreams tonight.

Another slightly strangely spun christmas was in the below shop window…. which I found rather un-PC…. this half naked gentleman perched in the window has been decked out in a burbury scarf, fox fur hat, selling pipes and holding a digital photo frame…

Lucky for us, with all the other less strange decorations, yummy food, drinks and merryment, we got a 15cm dumping of snow last night and looks like we are heading for a white xmas!

Very white city

Outdoor table tennis anyone?

Being merry in the snow at xmas markets with my boyfriends parents

PS. I also learnt that the song "O Tannenbaum" - means "Oh Fir Tree"! (has a better ring to it in German I see!)

On the home stretch - kinda

So in a few weeks we plan to head back to Australia for a month. I plan to get some sunshine (which was poorly missing from Vancouvers' summer this year), rest my brain (from previous blog - self inflicted alzheimers) and adjust to driving on the left side of the road.

In preparation for the sun, I have been thinking about why people live in the cold. Many people prefer the colder weather, but countries that get anything below 5 degrees for weeks on end, I have little understanding why the place was colonised in the first place, let alone kept functioning for years.

So far, I've figured out your skin turns into snakes skin, your eyes dry out, you lack vitamin D, you get dark circles under your eyes from having to wake up in pitch black the morning (which feels like midnight), you aren't allowed any fashion - and if you try, you either freeze or its covered by layers of coats, hair styling goes out the window with constant use of beenies/toques/hats and we all get fat due to lack of activity outside the household.

On the plus side when its cold, you can ski, spend copious amounts of time reading and watching TV, its the only time you get to enjoy HOT red wine (called Glüewein), you usually have it as a good excuse to stay in bed, and lastly, if you do get fat, you can cover it up with puffy winter clothes pretending its just fabric padding.

I still don't think these things can make up for feeling like your going to freeze to death 60% of the time so I'm going to invest more time trying to figure out why the Germans (and really anyone from the north of the northern hemisphere) likes coping with this.

But! Before all these investigations and going to Australia - there is an Austria ski trip & xmas Germany style - here I come!

Below is a crappy picture of a very fancy xmas tree I found at a christmas market - if you look closely, you can see it is self snowing!!!

Ich habe vergessen… (I have forgotten….)

It seems with the 'pro's of learning a new language full time (culturing, brain exercise, expanding the mind and of course being able to function in Germany society!) comes also with less enjoyable cons. There is the permanent tiredness, constant dread of homework, repetition of work that seems like child's work but some reason you can't even understand what a 2yr old can… Then there is the worst, memory loss.

I have never been known to be to irresponsible (teenage years excluded) and have never been described as aloof or forgetful - yet I seem to have delved into the dimension of accidental Alzheimer's whilst learning a language (might I add first named by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer).

Never in my life have I lost a wallet or keys… yet in the past two months of German learning I have forgotten/lost:

My German bank account pin number

Both my Canadian pin numbers

My handbag

My mobile phone

Left my handbag at a restaurant

Anything my boy asks me to bring when I meet him after work (receipts to return items, shopping lists, measurements for furniture items, gift vouchers).

Useful information like: what time your friend arrives into the airport to pick them up

And sometimes (yes, more than before!) how to speak english properly.

It seems the capacity to take in a certain amount of new information daily has reached its max when learning a language and carrying out homework tasks is the extent of what output my brain can do.

I have officially found a new patience for old people who forget things and genuinely don't know how and are confused as to why. So until I get a little more relaxed with this whole brain exercise with language thing, feel free to call me Nanna, or at least forgive me if I've temporarily forgotten who you are!

Here is what I haven't forgotten - more pictures!

walking through the streets, i found a street filled with rose petals leading up to this doorway (if you look closely), awwwwwww

coolest outside fireplace design!

looking up at the castle from the christmas markets

pretty snow on grasslands

autumn (leaves bottom of photo) meet winter (snow on mountain far at the back)

cute snowy streets

over the Neckar River

looking over the castle to the city

us chubby and slightly cold snowmen