December 1999
Nuremberg, Germany

We are going to make it after all. Sometimes we had our doubts about whether we would survive living in this foreign culture but as we near month seven we are finding day to day life getting easier.

We have had some great trips over the last six weeks or so. One of the great ones was our first skiing trip to the Tirol area in Austria.

It turned out to be a three and a half hour drive and it rained most the way. We were torn between praying it would turn to snow and then again who wants to drive the Autobahn in the snow. Well, as we entered Austria it turned to snow. Now when you enter Austria you have to buy a sticker for your car or you will be fined. We knew to do this thanks to a guy Sue works with who learned the hard way. So we pulled off and got our sticker and felt very in the know.

The end of the ride was exciting as we needed to climb to around 2000 meters or 6000 feet up a skinny road in the snow. So we get to one very steep area and I am in first gear with the engine revving for all it is worth but we come to a stand still. So now I need to turn it around and go back down. Alex zanardi would have been proud of my combination three point turn and 180 spin. So now back down hill and try again. Well, we did not make it again. So back to my turn around technique praying that no one was coming down hill. Sue wanted to give up but you guessed it, I am now more determined than ever. The third time is a charm except now the dash board has some warning light flashing, (I assume it was telling me it was hot but who knows) we are not sure how many more steep sections we are going to run into or if the car is going to keep running. So on we pushed wondering how I was going to get us out of this mess with my limited language skills.

Ein Gletscher in Österreich

We did make it and the car was fine after being turned off for a while. The next morning we woke to a winter wonderland. The area we were skiing is in Tirol. there are literally hundreds of lifts but due to the fact that it was early season we headed for the glacier where they ski year round. You first take a bus then get on a cable car (that holds four people) that drops you off at another cable car (that holds 18 people) then to a double chair lift and then to another double chair lift. We are now at the top of the world with a 360 degree view of mountains. It is really kool. We skied perfect conditions which included powder snow.

Then back to our town down all those same lifts. A nice glass of beer in the lounge and a great dinner of wild. Sleep like a log and woke up to clouds and extremely high winds. So what did we do? Well, back to the glacier. The day was tough. The winds had to be around 60 to 100mph and they never let up. They would never have run the lifts in the states and quite a lot of them were shut down but the ones that headed directly into the wind were open. We skied all day but it was extremely difficult because you had no sense of perspective. The snow was blowing all around your feet and you could not tell what the terrain was going to do. This really teaches you how to ski. You now ski by feel as opposed to seeing. We had a great time but were really wiped out from exposure by the end of the day.

Down to a nice bar for a glass of Austrian wine and then out to dinner.

We have also taken a trip to Koln to visit the cathedral and to visit some old friends from college. We took the train through the Rhine Valley and literally every curve in the river produced another castle sitting high on the banks with vineyards growing all around. This is a great country with more stuff to see than we will ever be able to get around to.

Other trips have revolved around the towns of Bavaria and the surrounding area. It was of course Christmas time so our trips all had a Christmassy feel. In Germany Christmas markets flourish. this is a great tradition that has towns turned into markets with people selling hand made ornaments and other things. Another part of the tradition is Glühwein this is actually a pretty good spiced hot wine. When you buy it you can keep the cup that is decorated different in every town. Yes, we do have quite a few cups. One trip to an area that use to be in the old East Germany was particularly neat. We went to a town called Lauscha. They are known for their hand made glass ornaments. A friend of Sue's grew up in the town and told us about their Christmas market.

Die Nürnberger Mauer im Winter

We had a great day in an out of the way place that does not see many English speaking tourist. We also boosted the local economy but our apartment looks very Christmassy due to all the stuff we bought.

Nurnberg has the oldest Christmas market and it is quite well known all over the world (Lawrence Eagle Tribune did an article on it this year) We did make it their many many nights. It was very crowded but a lot of fun to watch the people and see our town all dressed up for Christmas. This was a great town to be in at Christmas. The images we are left with are:

• Beautiful advent concerts in the churches. Some with brass instruments some with strings and some with choirs. We made it to four of these concerts.
• Performing groups setting up all over the old city. These ranged from trumpet players to Russian dancers with choral groups, Greek dancers, violin players, and Santa Claus singers all mixed through out the city.
• The town was decorated to the hilt. The department stores rivaled Marshall Fields in their heyday and the trees and streets were all decorated and lite by the city.
• People rushed just like in the states but others just wandered through and large groups gathered to talk and drink Glühwein.
• The Christmas booths were lots of fun to go see over and over there was so much stuff. Some of it was junk but the majority was good stuff.
• The whole town constantly smelled of Gingerbread. This is a local specialty and there were more places than ever selling it. We also had Hiss maroni stands (roasted chestnuts)

all in all very beautiful place with quite a few nights seeing a light snow fall with all the time the castle looming in the background. Another ex pat told us that they feel as though they are living in Disney land with that castle sitting there. We echo their feeling.

We also went to a number of Christmas parties that we were invited to by people that worked at Lucent or Lucent parties. The two most exciting were the Thanksgiving turkey dinner and the department bowling/dinner party.

The turkey dinner came about after Thanksgiving when a few of Sue's co workers started to ask questions about Thanksgiving. Sue told the story of the pilgrims and Indians and then shocked the Germans by telling the rest of the story of how we then proceeded to wipe out the Indians over the next 200 years. This intrigued them (not the massacre but the dinner part) so one guy decided to host a turkey dinner for about 20 people. The problems were many. Starting from the fact that ovens are to small to roast a whole bird. So the butcher told us he would not only slaughter the Turkey but cook it as well. Then the idea of stuffing was something they just could not grasp. Add to this that they thought cooking things like squash was really weird and that the concept of a pumpkin pie was absurd. The other amazing thing was how the butcher decided to cut the turkey. No nice slices but simply hacking it up with a meat clever. I guess when you are only use to cutting up pig that is the way you do it. Even with all this we had a great dinner and a great time.

The other different party was a department Christmas party. I will cut and paste Sue's comments on it.

For Christmas, we Germans go bowling. Real Midwestern 10-pin, not those wimpy New England candlepins. There is one bowling alley in Nuremberg and one would think, given all the good beer in Germany, that an evening game would be similar to the American style of bowling. Drink a little, bowl a little, drink a little, bowl a little,.... Nope. The bowling game was scheduled for exactly one hour, then we go to the restaurant for dinner together. "What?!" I ask my German colleague, "How can 11 adults and 5 children possibly bowl in one hour? In the US, this would be an entire evening affair!" "Sue", she lectures, "You know this by now... we have told you before...when will you learn? ...Germans are more efficient...." We arrived for our dinner reservation precisely on time.

Language is getting easier but we still do not speak German. We speak a pretty high level of what I call tourist German. I now even argue with service type people in German. This can be a lot of fun but more important it helps you get what you want and not just shyly take what you are handed. Those of you that have been somewhere where you do not speak the language know what I mean. Sometimes it is just not worth the battle when you speak English and they speak German. Ahh but now look out Germany we are starting to know enough to be dangerous.

One exciting cultural thing that happened to us is that we think we received a speeding ticket. You notice I say WE think WE got a ticket. The reason I used that terminology is that in Germany you can receive a ticket when a remote camera takes your picture. So I am driving along in a car registered in Sue's name and a red flash almost blinds me. It takes a few seconds but I then realize that my picture was just taken. Now this is really unfair it does not give you a chance to make up some great story when the cop pulls you over. So I am pretty upset with myself until I realize I did not get a ticket Sue did. This system must cause some real family strife especially for those with teen age kids that borrow Dads car. Well, we are not sure of what is going to happen because sometimes it takes up to three months for the paper work to get to you. No news is good news. These strange customs just keep on turning up and make us realize that even if we are more comfortable living here it is not the good old USA. I told you last letter that I would update you on getting our German drivers license. So far it is still in the bureaucrats hands in Berlin. So we are driving illegally with our USA license. When the paperwork gets done we need to not only take a first aide course but a written as well as drivers test. I will update you on this cultural experience as it unfolds. Assuming that they have not revoked Sue's license due to all her speeding tickets.

Lots more to tell but I will save it for another time. Merry Christmas and a great New Year to all. We will be celebrating the new year six hours before most of you so if you want to see into the future call us. that is if the phones work