Maintaining my namesake

I must preface this post with the acknowledgement that I've been a bit lax with providing updates as I haven't really had any content to post about.  I imagine this will change in the near future as some substantial life changes will be taking place soon yet again...

Last Friday I had the pleasure of competing in an hour long go-kart session with some friends.  The hour was broken up into a 10-minute practice session, a 10-minute qualifying session, and a 30-minute race.  Its been nearly half a year since I've been behind the wheel of anything so I was looking forward to and excited for some hearty racing competition. 

The karts were pretty fast, well, really fast actually--being powered by 8 hp engines with a top speed of around 65 kmh (~40mph).  They were a blast to drive and the course was pretty spectacular with several elevation changes, banked turns, and more.  The karts were fast enough such that they behaved like proper vehicles in that a variety of braking and acceleration techniques could be employed in navigating the turns with speed.  Although I hadn't being karting or driving in ages, I managed to qualify for 2nd place--which I kept for the remainder of the race (the 1st place position was held by a karting veteran)--earning a silver medal souvenir.

While the karting was really fun, the vehicles were insanely brutal in combination with my out-of-shape body.  There is no power-steering or suspension in a go-kart which means the entire "driving experience" is one in which you are fighting for the wheel in trying to convince the kart-"beast" to be submissive to your command.  It also didn't help that my girth didn't quite fill the seat, so the hour of intense driving and high-g turning in combination with my weak core caused my back to slide back and forth against the unpadded plastic seat, nearly rubbing off all the skin on my back in the process.  Suffice to say, my entire body was fatigued and sore for several days afterwards.  It would be nice to be able to "work-out" everyday through driving like this.  

The best part of the day was that I managed to secure the fastest lap time of our group in preserving my namesake--FastMatt will continue to live on.

Ice, a non-existant commodity

Dr Pepper freeze pops, sounds amazing

Since I've come to Germany and have been getting decidedly fat, I saw it fitting that I should make a post about some of the common foods that are popular here--especially at the work canteens.

All the stereotypical German stuff is pretty popular, schnitzels being the most popular, as well as the various  kinds of wurst--bratwurst, curry wurst, etc.  There are always some kind of "cooked flesh" available, whether it's pork, turkey, beef, or lamb.  Gyros are also quite popular but not the sandwich wraps common in America, they're just small pieces of meat with tzatziki sauce.  I almost forgot to mention that every one of these dishes will typically be slathered with a mountain of french fries or some other cooked style of potato.  If the Germans could be represented by any staple vegetable it would definitely be the potato--just as the Americans could be represented by the corn.  The Germans seem to use the potato for everything: noodles, croquettes, stuffing,  pancakes, you name it.  There are vegetarian things out there as well but I haven't paid much attention to them myself so I can't really comment.  

So you arrive in Germany and go to a restaurant or anywhere with some food and you decide you want something to drink.  Want something with ice?  Too bad, it doesn't exist.  Want something cold?  You have about a 50-50 chance of finding a cold beverage unless it's beer--but ice?  Not a chance.  It seems a bit strange that something so ubiquitous and common in America like ice is the complete opposite in Germany.  However, given that the Germans seem to drink only carbonated / mineral water, I can kind of understand why they don't have or use ice.  They aren't going to use the mineral water to make ice cubes, and they probably aren't going to use tap water either.  Large refrigerators with freezers also seem to be a rarity, so perhaps an ice-less society is at least some part cultural.  

Look at all that delicious water deposit crust, yum :9

Now that I've mentioned tap water--I must say the stuff is nasty.  Having lived most of my life in Arizona where the water is classically "hard," the water in Germany makes Arizona's water seem like jumping into a fresh bin of snuggles laundry.  If you were to pour yourself a glass of German tap water the glass would probably be full of cement after the slightest bit of evaporation.  Showering feels like you're picking up a "residue" from the water and clothes washed in the laundry machine come out stiff as a board after drying.  I can't fathom drinking the stuff (unless in dire straits) let alone making ice from it.  Although the tap is foul, there is thankfully a great selection of clean beverages to choose from such that you would never need to find out what pure unfiltered Earth tastes like.  

Life update: minor operation

A cat-obsessed car owner.

Not too much to report as of late.  Today I had a surgical procedure performed on my eyelid (Chalazion removal), meaning I got to experience the so-called "socialized" healthcare system in Germany--which is surprisingly not that socialized as I still had to pay about 80 euros for the (~10 minute) surgery and 5 euros for some antibiotic cream.  I guess these rates aren't too bad but you'd think these things would be free after paying insane amounts of money for health insurance every month.  I had to wait 2 hours to have the procedure done as well (what's the point of making an appointment if the set time means nothing?).

I guess the operation went OK--received an injection of local anesthetic below my eyelid, however, I don't think they waited long enough for the anesthetic to kick in because I felt everything.  The incision and cuts were extremely painful but thankfully the operation was finished quick.  I just had to hold a bloodied bandage over my eye for 10 minutes and then I was good to go and allowed to wander the streets looking haggardly.

Some awful sounding juice at the grocery store.

Giant rats in Germany

Was invited to a family's home the last weekend for dinner which was enjoyable.  They owned a nice property with a yard that extended to a small river in their backyard.  Their yard was full of birds and animals--families of pheasants would come up to the windows and beg for food.  They had a flock of chickens and a rooster penned up as well--which was of note, because when we went to eat dinner, which included a meat stew--I assumed the meat was chicken as stews in the US are usually either chicken or beef and this stew had what looked like chicken legs in the dish.  You can imagine my confusion when after having a bite, there was a large amount of "crunch crunch" and finding the meat full of small bones which looked like nothing I've ever seen in a chicken.  To my relief I later found out after the meal that the meat wasn't chicken but was actually rabbit.  Well, now I can sleep easy knowing that I won't find tiny vertebrae and shoulders the next time I eat at KFC.

Parent and baby in tow

I've been spotted

The area also seems to be infested with giant water-dwelling "rats" or specifically Nutria.  These 22 lb rodents don't seem to fear humans as they will walk right up to you and brandish their nasty yellow buck teeth and size you up with their beady eyes, perhaps to see if you'll be a tasty treat or likely their just begging for handouts.  I believe they were once farmed for their fur pelts but I from what I understand they are protected now (?).

One other topic I've been wanting to mention is that here in Germany, there is a rather ingenious type of plant "pot" that can be bought from a company called, Lechuza (Spanish for owl).  What makes these planters great is that they are engineered with built-in water reservoirs and water-level gauges so that you will never have to wonder whether the plants in your need watering or not.  You can just take a look at the gauge, if it's low, top off the tank and you'll be set for a week or two.  This really allows plant ownership to be an extremely low maintenance concept and there's less likelihood of killing the plant by forgetting to water it.  Plus, the planters look great too!  I'm not really one to keep plants due to the aforementioned issues, but I think I could handle having one if I owned a Lechuza planter.  Lechuza should send me a planter for writing this glowing review *hint hint*.

Wine festival - Wurstmarkt

The other weekend I managed to get invited to attend a wine festival in Germany.  However, it wasn't just any run-of-the-mill wine festival, it was the Wurstmarkt in Bad Dürkheim--the largest wine festival in the world, otherwise known as the "Oktoberfest" for wine.  Wikipedia mentions that the festival started in 1417 and boasts over 600,000 attendees.













I don't really know anything about wine festivals or German festivals in general so I didn't know what to expect other than the fact that there would presumably be a lot of wine and wine consumption.

What I wasn't expecting was a full-on carnival, with a plethora of spinning, flying, swinging rides which didn't seem like the best of ideas at an event dedicated to a specific alcoholic beverage.  However, it somehow seemed to work out OK for the Germans with the demographic that was present.

Interestingly enough, the Wurstmarkt seemed to be a family affair with people of all ages present.  Families with young children could be found eating fair food, playing games, and going on rides.  While the wine tents were jam-packed with various grandmas and grandpas of all shapes and sizes.  It just seemed like a unique event due to this fact--old people sipping or perhaps guzzling wine adjacent to loud raucous amusement park-like rides blaring loud music and sounds.  It was almost surreal.

With an event called the Wurstmarkt you can imagine that wurst would somehow play a role, and it did.  Fair food was in an abundance, with everything from what can be seen in the photos above (french bread "pizzas", frikadelles, various cylindrical meats) along with German flatbreads, 1 meter long wursts, and a various assortment of diabetes-inducing sweets and candies.

I'm not much of a drinker but I imbibed a small bit and can say from 4 sampled wines that there is some pretty good stuff to be found in Germany.  This wasn't always the case, but that's a history lesson that should be saved for another time.

The Wurstmarkt was a unique experience which has my approval.  The Oktoberfest is currently going on in Munich and while I don't think I'll be attending, I can imagine the event would be very similar to the Wurstmarkt but on a much grander scale.

Good to be back

Red squirrels in Germany

I'm finally back, having moved into my new apartment with internet finally installed and it feels pretty nice.  The new place is pretty big and has a good feel to it.  It's not perfect, but it's problems should be sorted out soon hopefully.

One of the downsides to the new place, however, is something I forgot to check before deciding to sign the lease.  I don't know if it would've been a deal breaker but I wasn't too thrilled when I found out that my new place has one of the toilets that I dread so much--the horrible "ledged" toilet design I talked about in a prior entry.  I guess it's time to do my business outside of the drink now.  Having spent a whole week "evaluating" this horrid toilet I discovered a "secret" method which helps alleviate some of the problems associated with owning & operating this toilet design.  The secret is to do a little prep-work, by first laying a sheet of your favorite brand of tp down essentially where you expect to do your business--or where the chocolate is resting in the picture below.  This serves to provide a barrier which helps allow the goodies to easily slide forward and bid farewell down the pipes while minimizing mess and cleanup.  It's not a lovely topic but it's a pragmatic solution to a necessary problem.















In the previous toilet post I mentioned that I've commonly seen 3-ply toilet paper here which strays from the norm of 2-ply used in America.  Well guess what I'm using now?  Have a look:

Your eyes are not deceiving you, that is in fact 5-ply "luxury" toilet paper.  You can pretty much get away with using single sheets if you're careful.  I only wonder where I can find 6-ply rolls at this point.













Other things of note include mentioning that while I was in South Korea a couple months ago I noticed the pervasive presence of plastic / cosmetic surgery clinics and advertising.  It seems Germany is not far from Korea with this regard either, although not to the same degree--cosmetic surgery seems to have a strong presence here as well.  However, I'm not sure what the numbers are with regard to the Germans and the ratio of those that have been modified or desire to undergo cosmetic modification.

Also I found a (dead) hedgehog on the way to work.  It didn't occur to me that this was their native environment.  I will be on the lookout from now on.

New base of operations

It's been about two months that I've completed living in Germany--subletting a small cheap student apartment with a 2 month lease term.  With the lease nearing its fulfillment, I needed to find a new place to live and fast. I looked at a lot of ghetto apartments which shared a common theme of being either really old and run down or with some other undesirable feature.  For example, I found one nice apartment but it was on the top floor (5th) of the building and had a building entrance between a bar and an adult store (aside from being really expensive to begin with).  

Quite a long period of time was spend during my hunt but I finally landed a new apartment which seems to be pretty nice all things considered.  It's fairly large (72 square meters), is on the first floor (technically the 2nd), has very high ceilings (I don't even think I can touch the ceilings whilst jumping), and a fridge with an external freezer door (!)--where the frozen yums at?  There are a few minor "issues" which seem to be mostly cosmetic although these types of things (issues) seem to be the name of the game based on what I've seen and experienced thus far.  I'll be sure to post some pictures of the new place once I'm moved / settled in.  One downside to the moving process is the lack of internet in the new unit until everything gets sorted out and setup.  Hopefully there will be less than 1 week of downtime.  

I hope I don't go crazy without internet in the meantime.  I still have to write about some amazing German plant accessories I've discovered which will change the face of gardening and plant keeping forever... I know right!  The next update will be from my the new base of operations--until then...

Gamescom 2012 - a day is enough

Famous cathedral in Cologne

Last year I learned about Gamescom, a gaming trade fair / expo (that only started 3 years ago) held in Cologne, Germany every year--which quickly became the largest gaming trade fair in the world with over 275,000 attendees last year.  Gaming conventions are pretty wild events as they are entirely focused on a genre which has but one sole purpose: entertainment.  They are hype-generating machines for up-coming games, with demos, tournaments, shows, eye candies, goods, and swag to be had.  I've seemingly made it a habit to attend any local game trade fairs if given the opportunity and have been to both PAX in Seattle, and the Tokyo Game Show in Japan (2nd largest I believe).  The last big show I've yet to attend is E3 in Los Angeles, but I'm in no real rush to complete the "king's quartet."

Initially I had intended to spend the weekend attending Gamescom, but after 1 day of dealing with the mass of crowds, incessantly loud noises, and long queues, I had my fair share of the event and went back home in the evening.  Let me give you a feel for the ocean-like crowds that had to be navigated and dealt with:

Gamescom is massive.  Both TGS and PAX feel like mere fractions of the size and span of Gamescom (a 5-day convention).  The exhibition center in Cologne is so unbelievably big it's hard to imagine or fathom except to say that the halls span over 3 million square feet (which is pretty much incomprehensible).  One interesting cultural aspect present at this German convention was "beer" which was readily sold and consumed throughout the premises.

Tons and tons of exhibitors and games were being shown--with something for everyone.  Blizzard had a big presence and the next Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm expansion seemed pretty great which is something I'm looking forward to at least.  The Japanese mobile phone gaming company, GREE, was exhibiting games in full force.  Prior to this event, the company was seemingly unheard of.  Though it seems the company would like to tap into the foreign mobile app market with their products--I imagine we will be seeing this company quite a bit in the future if this information is true.

So many things were going on throughout the event: musicians performing, tournaments being held, BMX and skateboard half-pipe shows, cosplay contests, etc.  The entire event was overwhelming and a complete sensory overload.  

I did manage to meet up with some friends from the Netherlands to share in all the craziness.  One thing that really energized the crowds was to tempt them with free stuff--I did my share of yelling for stuff and managed to score a copy of Farming Simulator (in German) which was being thrown into the crowds.  I may have had a slight height advantage over the people surrounding me, but regardless of whether that was the case, I reached into the sky with my grabbing hand which towered like Mt. Fuji amid a flurry of child-like grasps.  All I needed was for a copy to be thrown in my general direction and I waited patiently like an angler stalking the day's catch.  Just when I thought I wouldn't get a chance, a developer tossed a copy straight toward me... I was wearing my Jordans and summoned all their jump-enhancing powers for the single chance to take this game home.  It was a success, I managed to skillfully snatch the game in mid-flight and celebrate with friends in achievement...  I really didn't want this game...  Yay... farming...

All in all, Gamescom was pretty fun--but I think a single day was enough.  Perhaps if I really wanted to play a big list of different games and had a specific agenda, then more time could be warranted.  Will I go again next year?  I think I probably will, but a day will be enough.  

Bend over for the taxman

Behind the water tower

It's been about a month now and that means it's finally time for a payday.  While in the states people usually get payed every 2 weeks or bimonthly, here in Germany, payday is once per month... and in reference to the post title, German taxes... OUCH!!  I knew taxes in Germany were high but after finding some tax rate calculators on the internet I had come to the expectation that I would be receiving more than I actually did.  The tax calculators were pretty accurate in determining the income tax, but what I failed to realize was that much much more is taken out aside from the income tax.  So how much did I lose?  A fleshy 40% chunk of my gross pay (commence cringing).  The taxes are broken down such that 21% can be attributed to income tax / reunification tax.  About 8% is for nursing and health care insurance, and the final 11% is for pension and unemployment insurance.  As a result it doesn't really feel like I'm making significantly more than when I was a poor grad student.  It feels a little disappointing.

Other unrelated things of note, I had milk rice as mentioned in the previous post.  It's pretty much as I imagined and described, essentially tapioca pudding with cinnamon & sugar.




Energy drinks seem to be popular around here with 10000 different varieties in the shops that I've never seen or heard before.  One interesting drink in particular was Red Bull Cola which apparently existed briefly in the States at some point but was later dropped from the US market and is currently primarily marketed in Germany and Austria.  It tastes like a cola with a twist that's hard to describe, having a somewhat earthy or raw essence to it.  I thought it was interesting that coca leaves are listed in the ingredients.  However, the alkaloids are only present in trace amounts.

Germans have an interesting way of drinking beverages with food as well--or perhaps they're just more decidedly classy than their American counterparts.  The difference is that if you were in the States eating at a food joint, cafeteria, or what have you and you bought a soda can / bottle / water / etc. you would likely open the drink and pour it straight into your mouth--lips to can.  In Germany I've noticed people will also get a small glass with which to pour their drink and drink from--lips to glass.  It's just somewhat humorous to see people with their 300 ml (10 oz) drinks pouring into tiny glasses several times to quench their thirst as opposed to drinking straight from the source until satisfied--but to each their own I guess.

3 weeks in

The town water tower

It's been about 3 weeks since I've arrived in Germany and I'm slowly becoming more acquainted with it, kinda.  The city I'm in is really quite small and I'd say it's not really a touristy destination at all--with its grungy feel.  It's hard to get a grasp of my surroundings as I'm at the mercy of public transportation--of which I'm not really a fan.  I long for the moment when I can own a car again and experience the freedom and fun that driving provides.  It'll probably be a couple more months before that happens though.

A couple observations and interesting things I've noted in the past week:  it was lunchtime and I went to the cafeteria at work as per usual except there was a sweet smell of cinnamon in the air like there was some kind of new dessert being offered.  It wasn't a dessert though (or was it), it was one of the main entrees for the day, a giant platter filled with "milk rice" topped with cinnamon and sugar.  It was pretty unexpected that most of the German workers were getting this dish of what seemed like a dessert and solely eating that for their lunch.  Perhaps I'll give it a taste if it makes the menu rounds again although I don't think I could handle an entire giant plate of it. 

Other food items that are commonplace aside from the various typical meat and cheese related items are fruit-flavored things, especially apples and "exotic" or passion fruit flavors.  Apple juice, sparkling or otherwise is seen as frequently or is as commonplace as a Coke or Pepsi here.  Along with the fruit theme, there's an orange / coke soda mix which is really popular over here--one variety is called "Mezzo mix." It's not too bad--doesn't taste that far off from a normal Coke though. 




















One particularly nice thing about "drinks" here in Germany is the rebate system that exists for essentially every bottled or canned beverage.  In grocery stores there is an automated receptacle where you can return your empty bottles and cans (for recycling I assume) for a 25 euro cent rebate per each.  That means a 6-pack of any-size soda will net you 1.5 euros back on return.

Bottled water in America costs more per gallon than gasoline.  Here you can get a liter of mineral water for 45 cents after returning the empty container.  A can of orange Fanta? 45 cents after rebate.  A 20oz bottle of sprite or coke?  About 80 cents.  The rebate even applies toward expensive drinks like Red Bull and more.  As a result, you can buy crates of drinks at the grocery store which are very cheap, just bring back the empty bottles for your refund.  However, the rebate from what I've seen isn't redeemed as cash but used for your next purchase at the store (credit).  It's a pretty great system which encourages recycling by imparting an inherent value to containers and pricing the beverage closer to it's actual value.  It's unlikely that this system will ever get picked up in America but one could hope.

Wind farms in development