Pancakes and Pillows

I'm going to take inspiration as it comes and go a bit out of sequence, I have lots of catching up to do but wanted to write about today - Black Friday in the US and the kick-off of the Christmas shopping season. But here in the Higgins household, Christmas came early because our shipment finally arrived from the States after two months. Ronan was excited about his toys and couldn't wait to open every single box and bin, and he was especially keen to set up his Lego Castle next to his new Ninjago Lego sets, James was busy unpacking his art supplies and musical instruments. Speaking of which, the moving guys were very confused by the stick attached by a string to the metal bucket, aka the "washtub bass". I had to demonstrate. Anyway, what was I excited about? Pillows and pancakes. Those of you who've experienced German pillows might understand my excitement. While they are not so bad, traditional German pillows are square instead of rectangular in shape and kind of squishy. So if you don't fold them over, half the pillow is wasted, and when you do fold it, it's still kind of squishy and doesn't provide great support. Bedtime reading hasn't been quite as comfortable these last two months and the pillows just haven't been doing it for me. So am looking forward to bed as soon as I finish writing this.

Also, since I was aware that it's almost impossible to find pancake mix in German supermarkets, I included a big bag of it in our shipment, along with other comfort foods from home. So, the one thing I've been looking foward to when our shipment arrives is a pancake breakfast. So you can imagine my disappointment when, while unpacking our boxes, it didn't look like my food boxes had made it through German customs, which generally don't allow food imports. So, as I became increasingly bummed that I was not going to have pancakes breakfast tomorrow morning. And I kept thinking it was silly to be so disappointed about pancake mix, when everything else had arrived intact, like my bike, clothes, shoes, computer, books, etc. Then I opened the last box that was labeled kid stuff and, low and behold, there were my food boxes. Wow, that made my day! So I have to go to bed now so I can wake up for a fantastic pancake breakfast (yes, with maple syrup and bacon, which you can get in Germany). Sometimes, even when you love living in another country, there's just nothing like comfort food from home.

Touching Down in Munich

After years of
talking about it and several months of
planning, James and I, along with our son Ronan, have made it back to Europe.
We moved to
Burghausen, Germany, about 6 weeks ago so I could take a job as an in-house
translator with Wacker Chemie AG, a major German chemicals company based in
southeastern Baviaria. Our journey to Munich involved a one-day layover in
Iceland,
where we rented a car and drove around part of the island for several hours,
weary with jet lag, yet excited to add a new country to our list of places
visited. Iceland was beautiful and bleak and devoid of people, just vast
distances with bleak landscapes. Ronan was so tired that he slept through a lot
of
the drive. The weather was cold and rainy, but still a great day out. We spent
the night in Reykjavik and determined that we definitely didn’t have enough
time and want to go back.
We flew off early in the morning for Munich, arriving
on a gorgeous sunny day at the end of September. Except for my interview, I
hadn’t been back to Germany for 15 years and James hadn’t been back to Europe
for just as long, so it was kind of surreal stepping off the airplane.
As we walked through the terminal, James suddenly erupted in a fit of
hysterical laughter. It took me a few minutes to see what he was laughing at.
Like so many countries, Germany too has banned smoking in public places, thank
goodness, but to accommodate smokers at airports, a "smokers' box"
has been provided. It looks almost like an aquarium with
“Homo Sapien Smoker” on display. Men and women stand around inside this box
puffing
away. As an ex-smoker, James just found it hilarious. Even with the box, the
smell of tobacco hits you like a steam train as you walk through the airport.
Cheapskate smokers could practically avoid smoking their own tobacco by just
entering the box and standing around breathing in the smoky air, they'd almost
achieve the same effect, no cigarette necessary. You'd really have to be hard
up for a smoke to enter the smokers' box. We were both very glad not to be a
smokers anymore, but it’s interesting to see how the Germans are trying to
accommodate both smokers and non-smokers alike. All in all, however, arriving
in Munich felt almost like coming home, it was good to be back.