Things you miss from home

I have to admit that there aren’t that many things that I miss from the US, friends and family excluded.  A lot of things I can get in Germany or have found suitable substitutions for. Amazingly enough our supermarket in Germanyhas more WW products than our supermarket in the States… and they are tastier. I think it must have to do with the lack of nasty peservatives that goes into the food in Europe. Perhaps in the next little bit I will photo some and post for my BLBE friends.

There are, however some things that I really miss. They are small, but significant. I miss Fresca. For those of you don’t know what Fresca is, it is a soda that has no calories, no caffeine and has a grapefruit citrus flavor. It is so yummy. No matter how many citrus flavored bubbly waters I buy, none taste like Fresca.

I miss the Sunday newspaper. I have always had an infinity for the newspaper, probably something to do with my dad working for one. Before we moved to Germany I relied on the newspaper and some TV for my news. Now, I rely on CNN and the internet. It isn’t the same.  Yes, I can get the same information on line,  and yes, it is often more timely than what is in the newspaper. This is fine during the week, but on Sunday’s I miss the newspaper. It isn’t just about the newspaper itself, it is the process of reading the Sunday paper.  Starting at the kitchen table over a leisurely breakfast. My husband and I reading interesting bits to each other. Then, moving to the couch with a cup of tea and finally finishing off the last part right before bed. It is the circulars (which before moving to Germany I often found annoying), it is cutting of coupons, it is the entertainment, leisure and travel sections.  I miss the Sunday paper and until my German gets significantly better I guess I am bringing my laptop to the kitchen table on Sundays.

I miss being able to go to the movies whenever Iwant. And this is actually the inspiration for today’s blog, because tonight my husband I went to a movie. It is the second movie that we have seen in a theatre in over a year. For some this might be normal, but in the States we went to at least one movie a month. Sometimes we even did a doubleheader. Like the Sunday paper, I like process of going to a movie. I like watching movies on a big screen. I like the smell of popcorn, even if I don’t really like popcorn and I like that everytime I walk into a movie theatre I am reminded of my first real date when I was in high school.  There are a surprising number of American movies that are dubbed into German, but finding a movie playing in the original at a time when a working person can go is somewhat of a challenge. The interesting thing about the dubbing of the movie is that the same voice is always used for the same actor. So, the person who was the voice of Tom Hanks in his first movie is the still the voice of Tom Hanks. Strange, but interesting way to make a living. I digressed a bit, so tonight we went to a movie and it felt a bit like home.

Love, Hate Relationship… a day with no computer

Let me start out by saying that at the company where I work email is the primary mode of communication. It is not uncommon that people sitting next to each other will send an email rather than pick up the phone or heaven forbid actually go see someone in person.  To put it in perspective, I get about 125 new emails a day.  Some days it is completely unmanageable.

So, imagine how disconcerting it was when about a month ago my laptop starting acting stranger than normal.  Outlook was taking forever to open. I was getting funky error messages when I tried to file mails. New folders were just appearing. My computer would just get hung up and I would have to do a hard re-boot, causing Outlook to not want to open until it had checked all my files…. Well, you get the point.  I tried to ignore the situation because the idea of having to deal with it was more scary than the frustration that I was experiencing. All that changed earlier in the week when I needed to send an important document to a client and the whole of outlook basically stopped. Now I was at critical stage and a call to IT was the only answer. The IT call center tried to resolve the issue virtually, but after a lot of “oh”, “hmmm”, “You are running VISTA ?” “I have’n't seen that before” it was decided that I would need to see an actual person to resolve whatever was ailing my laptop.  

An appointment was made for yesterday and I showed up at the appointed time. Two IT technicians watched while I logged on and explained my woes. After much discussion another appointment was made and promptly at 8:30 AM this morning I dropped my laptop off . 7 hours later I was able to take my laptop home and to resume my ”normal” work day.

What I learned today is that I have a serious love-hate relationship with my laptop. I love the convenience that it offers. The ability to work anyplace that I have wireless. I hate the feeling of being tied to my laptop all day (and night) and that I am always connected. Today I was creative on paper. Today I spent time doing conceptual thinking rather than just diving in to the work. Today I personally interacted with my colleagues where I would normally have sent emails. Today I was incredibly stressed and panicked about what I was missing and how many emails I would have when I finally got my laptop back. Today I felt completely liberated by not being tied to my laptop to work. Definitely a love -hate relationship.

And, now if you will excuse me I have a date with my in-box.

What I didn’t blog about last week

This past week I didn’t manage to blog so many times, so I thought today I would blog about what I didn’t blog about.

The Challenge

Last week I joined the Biggest Loser Blog Edition and the games are on. There are 162 people who signed up for it and we are divided into two teams; Angie’s and Lynn’s (they are the two who organized the whole things).  I am on team Lynn and am really looking forward to getting to know my teammates better over the next 16 weeks. The idea is pretty simple… each week you weigh in, submit your weight to your team lead and then everyones weight is posted.  Ah, the weekly accountability I have been looking for. Eveyone who is playing has a blog and all the links are posted on the BLBE blog. My goal is to read a couple of new blogs each day and maybe leave some encouraging or tough love comments.  Ah, the community I have been looking for.  Week one officially starts today although I  pretended that the games already started and  am in full BLBE mode. I had a fairly good eating week,  am happy that I journaled every day and exercised as I had planned. All in all a good week! 

German Holidays

Even after a year of living in Germany, I am always completely amazed at the number of public holidays we have. And even though we had two days off last week for Silvester (that is New Year’s Eve) and New Years Day, we had another this week.  Three Kings Day, who know this was a public holiday? The funny thing about this holiday is that it is not celebrated in all German “States”, thus not everyone in Germany has it as a public holiday. I find this to be somewhat confusing, as we live on the border of 3 States, some which celebrate, some which don’t. As all stores, including the supermarket, are closed on public holidays it is somewhat convenient, as if I forget to pick something up, I just need to drive to a state that isn’t celebrating. As we are so close to the border, many of my colleagues don’t live in Baden Wurtenberg, but in Heisen or Rhine Pfalz this means that they are off of work, but others who live where they do aren’t. It is sort of the equivalent of having some cities celebrating a public holiday and others not. And, I have to admit that while the office was closed and it was a public holiday I worked almost the whole day.

Facebook

I resisted signing up for a long time, even though my husband and others that I really respect were always raving about it. I finally gave in a few weeks ago. The final straw was when my brother, who isn’t really into technology or cyberspace, joined and started posting pictures of my niece (1) and nephew (6). Well, then I knew I was joining and my fear that it would be addictive might be coming true, but for now I think I have it under control. Facebook is an amazing and interesting social medium.  I have re-connected with people that I haven’t seen since elementary or high school. Some I am now in regular contact with.  Others, I just follow via their updated statuses and their posted pictures. It is amazing what you can learn about someone from just reading their status updates. I am fascinated by the technology behind an application like Facebook. As enamored as I am with the IM functionality, I do feel as though there is an element of  stalkerism that comes with Facebook and other social medium like it.  I can keep track of what people are doing without any need to have any actual contact with them.  I can look at who they are friends with and friend those people.  I can see photos that they post or photos where they are tagged by someone else. Feels like a little bit of stalkerism and voyeurism combined, all while I sit in the comfort of my own home, on my couch, in my pj’s. Welcome to the new age of communication.

I have to say, I am careful about what I place on my Facebook, and don’t like it when someone posts pictures of me without asking me. You never know who is watching and since I work in HR, I have seen some strange things happen because of what people have posted.

My Nephew

who besides my husband is absolutely the love of my life (although my niece is pretty fab also) is amazing.  Since we have been living in Germany he and I mostly have an email relationship, as he absolutely refuses to get on the telephone, Yes, my 6 year old nephew emails. How awesome is that? Each time I see his email address pop into my email box, a little piece of my heart gets tugged and a huge smile crosses my face. The emails are brilliant in that they are total stream of conscience and capture life from the perspective of a 6 year old. I can always tell the mails that he actually writes himself from the ones  that he dictatesto my sister-in-law by the number of typos. Being away from him and my niece are two of the hardest parts of living so far away from home. This week in the snail mail I got a thank you note from him for the holiday gifts that we sent. Enclosed with the thank you note was a story that he had written. This story made me laugh and cry at the same time. Here it:

The Germany Story

Once upon a time there was a girl named Pammy. She moved to Germany from Philadelphia. She came back two times. I love you.

Apparently everyone in my family got a story from him for the holidays and this was mine. And, that is why he is the love of my life.

So, that is what I didn’t blog about last week.

A new community?

For those of you who know me, you know that between 2002 and 2006 I lost 60 pounds on Weight Watchers and I kept it off pretty easily for the first year. 2008 was a struggle.  A new job, a move to a new country, a new marriage and mostly the loss of the community of my Saturday morning Weight Watcher friends that I had and well, the maintenance has been a real struggle. In reality, if I am being honest actually gained 8 pounds. I am not proud of this fact, nor am I happy about the gain (who ever is?). In fact I am pissed and frustrated. Pissed that I let it happen, frustrated at the effort that I know it will take to loose it. No excuses though, I made the committment that the weight will come off and it will. The 60 pounds came off, this will also.

I know that I need the support that comes from a community of others who are going through the same things that I am. I need to hear about their successes, their challenges and their failures.  And, I need the accountabily of a weekly weigh in. I have searched high and low for a Weight Watchers meeting in Germany that is actually conducted in English, but none to be found. I did go to a couple of meetings in German, but found the experience to be intimidating and not supportive. I researched WW online, but for whatever reason this doesn’t seem to fit my personality so,  I went in search of a new community and I think I might have found it… The Biggest Loser Blog Edition (see link on right hand side). Before signing up for the challenge, I read a number of the blogs posted on the official website and also the blog of the other members and there is something about this group of people that make  me feel like this could be the replacement for my Saturday morning meetings.

I am looking forward to getting started, seeing who my team members will be and feeling the support of a community in this battle of the bulge.

Tune in to see how it goes.

Hello world!

I have been thinking about starting a blog since we moved to Germany a year ago tomorrow. I have always been fascinated by why people blog and in my informal research it turns out that most people either like to write and blogging gives them a reason to on a regular basis or because they want to become a better writer and blogging forces them to practice the craft. Either way, since moving to Germany I have become fascinated with the art of blogging and wanted to see if I would enjoy it or find an audience for anything I had to say.

 I am a little scared by the blogging for a couple of reasons…  There are so many good ones out there, that another one being thrown in the blogsphere, well I don’t know…. the time committment it takes….what happens if I am not good at it…. what happens if they are boring…. well, the past year has been filled with work related anxiety and one of the new year’s resolutions was to face the things that cause me fear… so welcome to Life is Just an Adventure. Let’s see where it takes us.