everyday life

These are some photos of daily life in Oberemmel. We discovered a game at the local bar called "hammer and nails". This is the game: nail a nail with the claw end of a hammer, into a stump. Yes, real tree stump, in a bar. I asked Herve, our winemaker, homeowner, guide, etc, if we WWOOF'ers could have a stump and some nails so that we could all become really good and "hammer und nails" and then win all the games at the bar. Cause its certainly easier to practice that than foosbal.

This is some cake that Bridget gave us today as snack in Oberemmel. 

our sign

this is not ketchup

A NOTE ABOUT KETCHUP: in Germany, ketchup is not ketchup, is not ketchup. This is a classic example. Sometimes, at restaurants, Germans do not think of the difference between curry ketchup and reg ketchup. This is shown in this photo from the grocery store here. Here are some more ketchups:

Also, salsa here is called "mexico sauce". Yeah...

Herve special ordered for me some "black beans" so I could make mexican food for dinner next week, after I come home from Munchen. This is the conversation:

"I need black beans and cumin, and corn and smallish tortillas of course" (to make enchiladas)

"So the beans. They are totally black?"

"yeah...?"

"I have never seen those. We have cumin."

"Well, I guess I could use kidney beans...I mean, people in CA would kill themselves before using kidney beans. We hate those."

"So they are not peas, like black-eyed peas?'

"no, not at all'

"okay, I see what i can do. And these tortillas? Not like hard tacos?"

"No..no not at all. Maybe i just make "AMERICAN NACHOS?"

"NO no, i ask at the markt"

Because its silly, but I would like them to try some better mexican ish food. They don't believe me that much that TEX-MEX is not MEXICAN food. Not even that one is more "authentic" just that they are different. I guess that would be like here, telling me the German food is different from region to region. I would just say, but its all just schtzinel, right?! Just kidding. Its mostly cheese-bread. Running joke in the household. 

hazelnuts in the raw! JUM!

Local beer. Das ist gut. 

Luxembourg and other daily adventures

So on our other day off from work, the first week in Germany, we decided that it was a good time to go to Luxembourg since it is only an hour train ride from Oberemmel, and also because when else would you go to Luxembourg? It's so small. The noteable claims for Luxembourg are that is has the highest GDP per capita, and from a geography project at UCLA I found out that it has the highest meat consumption per capita as well (makes sense). Therefore, this seems like a dumb vacation destination for a vegetarian cheap girl, but the three of us WWOOF'ers thought that it seemed like fun.

After the train ride we arrived in cold, foggy tiny country. After a stop at un cafe, we figured out that between the three of us, knowing German and French got us halfway to Luxembourgish, which sounds kinda like German and French combined. A lot of people spoke French, which was fun for me because it meant I got to practice a little bit.

Our first stop was the Notre Dame cathedral. You can only go into the lower half, which looked just about like any other church. Then we attempted to walk to the World War II memorial, which is about 2km outside of Luxembourg city center. After walking for 45 minutes, we began to doubt our navigation. Or more accurately: I thought we were doing fine, but then Milena, my new buddy from Hong Kong, thought the fact that I 'felt we were doing fine' was not enough, since we were no longer on the portion of the road that appeared on the map that we stole from the Luxembourg Best Western hotel. Therefore, this was resoved when Wen, from Chicago, went up to a car at one of the few stop signs on this busy road we had been walking on. Luckily for us, Luxembourgers are very nice and all drive nice cars and apparently, don't mind chauffering tourists around. So in asking for directions to the WWII memorial, the older luxembourger gentelman said, "Oh I'll just drive you there!" and so we got there 5 minutes later (i had been right, BTW, with my directions I would like to point out here. But not walking was nice...)

The WWII American cemetary and memorial is very impressive. You walk in through big gates and immediatly see a white tower surrounded by grass.

Bonn and Oberemmel (home)

On Friday we went to Bonn, which is the 19th largest city in Germany (thanks wikipedia) and was also the capitol of the west until 1998. Bonn is pretty big, especially compared to the town which we came from, Rech, which is really small (and 80% wine shops?)...

Bonn was about a 50 minute train ride on the DB Bahn train, which is the major train line around here. They are much much nicer than any american train lines I have been on. After we got off the train, I was able to buy a cell phone that you just add money too. Thank God for my new friend here who speaks fluent German! or else I would be doing a lot more pointing and waving and charades to get things around here. 

Bonn's main attraction, or claim to fame as it were, is the Beethoven house. Its where Ludwig lived until he moved to Austria, and then never was able to return to Bonn again. Its a old apartment-type thing with extremely squeaky floors, but it is well worth the student price to get in (always have your bruin card!). You even see his death mask! Ooo.

Milena waits for me to stop taking photos

After that, we had a meal that I can't really compare to anything else I have ever had. I think the words "German Mexican Restaurant" really sum it up. 

 

I think "Quesadilla Caprese" "Mexican Pizza" are the warning signs. Also how is there a taco pizza?...

Veggie "burrito" (read: wrap with beans)

On our way home to Rech, we made a quick pit stop in Oberwinter, which is just a really small town with no particular qualities, except that you can buy champagne in a can, and then watch the Rhine river which flows next to it (guess what we did...) Then it was back to Rech, which was having a little festival/community wine tasting "fete". We sampled a few, and then bought the cheapest bottle (americans!) and then it was time to go back to Oberemmel. 

The next day we worked on the vineyard in Oberemmel, which is home base. The vineyards here are really steep! I was told this was normal, and I said that in California if the land isn't perfectly level, we either make it level (more dramatic) or just let it go and have our normal sage bushes grow all over it (more lazy/normal). So at first this made me a little wary, but it makes for really great views while working! 

First Days

Okay so I was supposed to leave LAX to Dallas/Ft. Worth then Frankfurt, starting at 6 am on Tuesday the 13th. Well, thank you American Airlines, for not telling me you changed my flight that morning to 9:30 at night. The good news was that the flight they changed me to was AA's partner, British airways, who is I think a little bit better than American, and gives you wine with dinner. Who will say no to that? So then it was LAX to Heathrow to Frankfurt. Then from Frankfurt to Wiltingen (Trier) via D Bahn train, which is like the main train around here.

Sleeping only fitfully on the plane from LAX to Heathrow, I arrived in Wiltingen extremely tired. However! It was 5:40 am, which is basically when we were expected to get up anyways for the day. So after Herve, the main vineyard man picked me up at the station, we grabbed the other kids working here, and hit the road. We drove two (sleepy) hours to Rech, which is where a friend of Herve's has several vineyards. After having a quick German breakfast (read: rolls, cheese, some cream-cheese like thing, cold cuts, jam, coffee) we were off to pick grapes. Rech is just about one of the most beautiful places you could pick grapes! It has very pretty sloping countryside and everything is GREEN! Unlike the LA area. Then we had lunch of a slab of meat (ham? I don't pay enough attention, I just avoid it) and some potato mush stuff, with spinach and onions. I ate the mush and  avoided the slab. The read question is, how long can I be here and avoid eating meat? I think it will be a personal challenge, before I turn white and pale from all the bread and potatoes and cheese (non-meat German food).


After lunch, we loaded up the grapes and then "processed" them. This means like sorthing all the grapes from the stems, rinsing, and then mush-ifying them up to juice in another machine. We sampled some of the grape juice while it was mush-ifying (technical wine term) and it was delicious! So I have no doubt it will be good wine.


After the processing, three of us WWOOF'ers went on a hike through Rech, ending in this very interesting castle like place the I think used to be a fort in 1100. It was very high up but had lots of picnic tables. After stopping at "ein biergarten" for some drinks (duh) it was time for dinner back at the vineyard, which was...more cold cuts. I see a patten here. They also gave us a cherry danish, which I ate only out of the nutritional value of the cherries, I swear.

Then we drank some wine while I attempted to understand German TV (even the people who speak german could not comprehend it...). After this soporific pastime, I went to bed at the very late hour of 930 pm because my body told me that I had not been asleep properly in two days. I feared that it would be my ultimate demise to fall asleep and hit my head while showering, which made me take the fastest haven't-showered-in-two-traveling days-shower in the world. How sustainable!