It has been a busy summer. When we weren’t traipsing the country side, entertaining, or baby-sitting we just sorta vegetated for a day or two and read. So - to pick up where I left off - May 23rd. May!? Can that be right? Two months? And I thought in May not writing for a month was bad.
Meissen Porcelain
First, as I had written when we had gone to Amsterdam there was a museum that had a large room that displayed Meissen Porcelain. At the time I wasn’t able to find anything on Meissen. I did discover what it was quite by accident. I brought a book along from the USA about Germany. We were planning a one day trip by train to Dresden (more on that later) so I wanted to read up on it. In the book the section right after Dresden was a section on the town of - Meissen. The first sentence reads, “The home of Europe’s first porcelain manufacture . . “
Great story behind Meissen porcelain. Credit given to Berlitz ‘Discover Germany’:
“Working with a group of scientists and miners, chemist Johann Friedrich Bottger developed Europe’s first porcelain process in Dresden in 1708. With the Swedes invading Saxony (what is now south-east Germany), Augustus the Strong moved the clearly lucrative operation to Meissen’s Albrechtsburg Castle. To protect the trade secret, Bottger and his team were kept prisoner in the castle, none of them knowing all the steps in the manufacturing process.
Bottger insisted on employing not common potters but the finest rococo sculptors, goldsmiths, and jewelers for the designing of the porcelain. The acknowledged grand master of Meissen designing was Johann Joachim Kandler, whose exquisite work can be seen in Dresden’s Porcelain Museum.
The secret of Bottger’s first, red porcelain, now known as Bottger Stoneware leaked out in 1714, and his team could move around more freely. Bottger had also developed a series of new glazes, black and violet, finally perfecting a pure white porcelain in 1715 using locally quarried kaolin, the fine white china clay. He was promptly jailed again for trying to sell the formula.”
So, know we know what Meissen porcelain is. Now I wish I paid more attention to the exhibition in Amsterdam.
Flowers
Previously, I had also described some flowering bushes that were in our yard when I was a kid that are in, or were in bloom, here. My sister, Dar, remembers them and also knew their names. The bush that had large flowers that appeared to be a cross between a rose and a carnation is a Peony bush. The other larger bush, but with smaller flowers in cluster that look like miniature umbrellas is a Spirea or Bridal Wreath.
All in the Family?
At the end of the last letter/journal I mentioned an ever so slight bed wetting problem I had as a child. Having spent the better part of the day writing I wanted to make sure I sent it out that night. It was close to the time to fix dinner, I was directing the conversation more towards Dar and Mom, not really thinking that this also goes to Jack’s family and a number of friends. I was just in a hurry, not thinking.
So what does Dar respond with?? Here is a copy of her exact words in her e-mail: “I just read your journal notes. Boy did you ever do an oops!! I almost wet my pants laughing so hard when I read it. I never would have admitted that in public. Mom will get a kick out of this journal note.”
Now, does anyone else see a pattern here?
For those of you who had cute little remarks. Very funny. Someday, when you least expect it!
To those of you who chose to ignore it, my thanks.
New Weather Girl
This spring, while watching TV right after the news they showed about a dozen women. All were presented in basically the same manner. The girl was seated in a barber chair with her back to the camera. The person who appeared to be styling their hair would then turn the girl around to face the camera. Or, the camera would come in on an angle and show the face of the girl reflected in the mirror. Each girl would then smile just like they do at beauty pageants. Some smiled a little more suggestively than others. There was also displayed a phone number at the bottom of the screen as each appeared. The number would get progressively higher by one digit. We saw this same “ad” once after that.
The next time it was less women. Our guess was six or seven. This time they were standing as though they were modeling cloths. They turned a complete circle, but really didn’t walk. Just moved from foot to foot, hand on hip then hand up towards chin, full turn, that sort of thing. Most were in short skirts or tight pants. Again the camera would come in for a close up of the fact. This time not only was the phone number listed, but also their weight and measurements! Of course it was in metric. At this point we still had no idea what it was about and really didn’t try to analyze it all that much.
The next time it all made sense. There were only four girls and four phone numbers. This time they were in front of a weather map of the Czech Republic! They would be standing to one side of the map. Walk towards the middle of the map. Make a sweeping gesture with the hand, probably to indicate a front moving into an area. Turn and do the same with the other hand. But the outfits were shorter and tighter...Jack would notice that. One had on a short evening dress. There was a new weather girl about a week later. It didn’t really matter as we don’t remember which of the final four she was.
Wash Machine
I’ve been meaning to make note of this for some time. Our wash machine is a Whirlpool. It is a front loading wash machine and dryer all in one. It doesn’t put in anywhere near as much water as front loading type at the Laundromat. The water level appears to be a couple of inches above the bottom of the drum. The strange part is the cycle it runs. First it rotates, say to the left, for three or four rotations. Then it stops for three seconds. Then rotates to the right for three or four rotations. It does this a half dozen times then it stops for say five seconds and then starts to rotate to the left for three times as many rotations, stops for five seconds and starts the longer rotation the other way. It does this the entire time, even in the drying cycle. Short rotations, then long rotations, then short again, with the pause between turnings in the opposite direction. The spin cycle really gets going, 1,000 revolutions per minute.
Observations from notes of this spring.
• They do tend to lower the gates at train crossings a tad early. We have timed it. It is a full two minutes before the train goes by. The one crossing is along and very busy street. Traffic backs up for a mile in that length of time. The gates are also very long and do not allow any room for attempting to weave around them. Bike racing is very popular here. Can you imagine the outcry if the gates would come down just as the cyclists came up to the crossing?
• No one has wind chimes. I miss my wind chimes. We didn’t have those tiny tinkly types. We had the big long beautifully sounding ones.
• They grow better cucumbers here. My mom said they are called Burpless back in the States. They are long, generally a foot in length or a little bit more, and slender, about an inch and a half in diameter. Plus, they have very thin and small seeds. The cucumbers in the states are always seem to have half to three quarters seeds.
• Aluminum foil and plastic warp are bought by the replacement or refill roll. You purchase the box with the cutting edge the first time and then just pop in a new roll.
• The cheaper plastic wrap and even the cheaper aluminum foil is comparable to the higher grade of each in the States. I paid about 75¢ for the last plastic wrap replacement. I don’t recall what the aluminum foil cost.
• Kleenex or facial tissue I should say, is thicker. The best ones are the little purse size packages. The cost of five packages runs about $1.00. The largest box is a box of 100. They also are about $1, but not as thick or as soft.
• They don’t add water to ham, hamburger, or poultry. That means I’ve learned to add a little more liquid when cooking.
• Everyone one has white legs. It’s great. I blend right in with everyone. I’ve never been one to go to tanning booths or lay in the sun. What few tanning booths that are available are expensive. Usually the women who you know has gone to one are a foreigner.
• There are no screens on the windows. At first this bothered me as I’m not one to tolerate flies. I also thought what is to prevent a bird from flying in. The tree branches are close to the house. Everyone has (almost everyone) has lace curtains. I started watching and noticed that the lace curtains were pulled shut with the window open. The lace acts as a screen to some extent. That plus there are very few flies. Even now in July.
• I got taken at a fruit stand in June. It wasn’t until I walked away that I realized it. There is always this awkward moment when I attempt to understand the number they say and if I can’t right away I tell them ‘English’ and make a motion to have them write it down. Needless to say, I’ll never buy from her again. I make a point of walking past her and looking right at her. Just to let her know, I live here, I’m not a one time customer that you would have never seen again. Get this - I paid 32 Koruna for two bananas. That’s $1for two bananas!
• They dropped the old movies in English on Saturday afternoons. They do have Laurel and Hardy silent short films before the news on week days.
• We saw our first and only squirrel in the park the early part of June. It wasn’t as well fed as we have in the States. Maybe it’s just the type of squirrel. It has longer pointed ears and the ears are hairy. The tail wasn’t bushy at all, sort of thin patchy hairs or fur.
• We have seen two rabbits though. Once in an open field near the apartment and once in the park near Mike and Hanka’s. It was more of a Jack Rabbit. Quite large. Sits up more and takes big hops.
• Once again we have no idea what was going on the TV, but it was - I swear this is right, but Jack said it can’t be, it was during the previews of what was coming up on the news. They showed an operating room and the doctor high-five’s the nurse and other doctor across from him. I know it wasn’t a clip of a TV show. It was these little brief clips of the news stories. We didn’t stick to that station to see what it was about for reasons I can’t remember.
• Since May there is a separate 15 or 20 minute evening sports news. They need the 15 minutes with all the sports they cover. I wrote down one news cast. It contained mountain bike race, midget racing with something that looked like moon buggies, regular bike racing, kiak racing like in the Olympics, Monty Carlo type car race, NHL, NBA, an all terrain off road race in a desert, and of course soccer. It made for a fast moving program.
Michigan Weather
The weekend after Memorial Day (May 30 & 31) the Midwest was hit with some high wind storms. Better yet, let me find and copy what Dave A. (I worked with him at OHD) e-mailed us. He lives near Spring Lake:
“A day or so after my modem was replaced we had a big storm Thurs May 28th. It hit the Spring Lake and Muskegon areas only with 75mph to 80mph winds. Our power was out on Friday. The STUPID Muskegon paper called it "The Storm of the Century". On Sunday, June 1st Grand Haven to Muskegon and all the way into Grand Rapids was hit by another storm. Winds up to 135mph the City of Spring Lake and Walker were the hardest hit. We did not have power until Wed., and no phones till Thurs. I guess that was the "Storm of the Century" hold it now... what was the first storm then? How about the "Storm before the Storm" (I should be a writer.).
The storms were weird. I emailed you before about the weird weather we are having...remember? The storm on Thurs woke me up a lot of lightening and strong winds. Nothing happened to us but a few of our immediate neighbors lost trees. Spring Lake looked terrible on Friday with many trees down. The storm on Sunday was mostly winds. The storm itself was moving at 75mph. I was sleeping through that until Mary woke me up, by that time it was over. Nothing happened to us again, but Spring Lake lost many, many, many, many, many trees, and a few homes and businesses. Now take that damage and multiply it by three and you have Walker. The National Guard has been at both location for a week cleaning up the mess.”
Postponed Munich Trip
Back in late April we made all the necessary plans for traveling to Munich, Germany the first week of June. Well, in mid May that all got changed. Hanka’s brother surprised their parents with a paid trip to Greece just about the same time we would have been in Munich. Hanka already had two people on vacation at her pharmacy, so she could not take time off to be with Marek. Early June is planting season. Hanka’s parents put in huge gardens at their home and at their cottage. Timing wasn’t good for anyone. He meant well and all, but it could not have been a worse time.
We rescheduled our trip to do extra baby-sitting duty for two weeks. We intended to reschedule and go the last week of June. However, we made the mistake of canceling the dog’s reservation without making new reservations. We had to first make sure the hotel we wanted would be available in late June. By the time we had done that, the dog kennel was booked up until one week in mid August. So now we go to Munich in August. This also means any big trip, oh says to Lisbon, Portugal, will be a no go for June or even July.
I’m pleased to say that Jiri and Marie had a wonderful time in Greece. We had the right amount of rain while they were gone so Mike and Hanka didn’t need to do any watering at the cottage, which is a two hour drive.
Dresden, Germany
We went to Dresden in late May by train; a very relaxing train trip. It takes about two and a half hours and the tracks follow the Elbe River most of the way. It makes for great scenery because it is also quite hilly.
We went past a city along the river that is having a little dispute with the Romanian gypsies. They want to build a wall around the area the Romies live in. Gypsies are not known for their cleanliness. The argument wasn't the fact that a town government would be that publically discriminatory, but who was going to pay for it!
Dresden itself is a city under reconstruction. It was severely fire bombed on Feb 13 and 14 in 1945. Because it was part of East Germany, the communists didn’t put much effort to rebuild. Now that is all one country again it seems the past two years everything is under reconstruction.
There is one church, Frauenkirche, that was left in ruins and a monument erected near it as a memorial to the destruction of wars. I was surprised to find that the monument is hardly recognizable because the church is being reconstructed around it. In fact the ruble of the church had been removed, numbered, and put into racks. They are reconstructing the church like a puzzle. Reconstruction is to be complete in time to celebrate the church’s 800th anniversary in the year 2006.
We were in Dresden in 1991. It was rather depressing to see the destruction the war had left. Dresden didn’t just suffer some damage from a few bombs. The entire city was destroyed. Another little history lesson, and also from Berlitz ‘Discover Germany’:
“With the proposed rebuilding of the Frauenkirche, the post-communist municipality wants to stop the recriminations that arose from the 1945 bombardment. However, the historical debate remains: why was Dresden destroyed?
With no vital industries and enjoying the protective image of a “city of art”, it escaped attack until the war neared its end. Churchill’s memoirs refer to “a heavy raid on Dresden, then a centre of communications of Germany’s Eastern Front”. But British historian Bais Hard says “Dresden was subjected to a devastating attach-striking the city centre, not the factories or railways... Hart attributes the attack largely to please the Russians. The British saw it as retaliation for the Luftwaffe’s destruction of residential neighborhoods of London.”
Hot Weather
There were a couple of days in June when the temps got well into the 80’s. It just happened we took a bus out to the airport to check the cost of flights for my mom. The bus doesn’t take the same route as a car and tourist buses do. It goes somewhat of a back way past the old airport. The bus driver was very considerate once we got off the main street and highway. He would leave the doors open between three of the stops that were relatively close together, not that he wasn’t cautious. He watched the mirror a lot. It was relatively straight portion of road. The bus wasn’t packed. There was only myself and two other people standing, and we were well away from the doors.
I, being the nice person that I am and because I wanted to encourage him to keep them open, gave him the old thumbs up sign. Normally that would be a nice gesture. However, in Europe it probably made no sense to him. You see, in Europe they count with the thumb to indicate number one and the index finger as number two and so forth. Unlike the States where we count we use the index finger as indicating number one and the middle finger as number two, ring finger as three, etc. In effect it would have been the same as someone holding up their index finger to any of you. He was probably wondering “One?” “One what?” “One minute?” “One more time and I’ll report you?”
The past week the weather hasn’t gotten quite as hot. It has been in the upper 70’s, low 80’s yesterday. The one thing you notice using public transportation is personal hygiene. Either not everyone has bathed or they have been doing some manual labor. In other words the Ban wore off on some people.
More Person Hygiene
I took a small visual survey of leg shaving. The unofficial results: The vast majority of women in their 20’s and early 30’s shave their legs. The late 30’s to 50 year olds its more like 50/50. And it drops in the over 50 to the majority do not. However, those over 50 will have their toenails painted perfectly. Social status comes into play. The very well dressed, well groomed of any age shave their legs almost 100%. And no I have not done, nor will I be doing an arm pit survey.
World Cup Football (soccer)
We got into watching the World Cup games. We didn’t know very much about soccer rules and strategy before now. We really don’t know all that much about rules and strategy even now. What we have learned is its more fun to watch kids play soccer than pros. Its boring. In fact, as Mike said “Its more of a game of who can cheat the most and get away with it”. They would trip each other. The guy that got tripped would always look like you tore off his leg. Great acting skills if nothing else.
Best part was an ad that they showed. Guy goes into the toilet. He’s sitting there and discovers there is no paper. He searches his pockets. He finds only a credit card and a lottery ticket/form. Next shot shows him from a distance walking down the hallway in a very strange and awkward manner. Then a close up of him examining the lottery ticket. Its an add for the lottery!
The Elections
They had a political election June 19th and 20th. Political parties can only campaign 30 days before the election. Isn't that wonderful?! Anyway the leader of one racist party said Romanies commit a crime just being born. Another of his memorable quotes was that not enough Germans died in the war. Gee-guess what-he didn't get many votes! They don't vote for the
person. They vote for the political party. The political party must get more than 5% of the vote to be represented in the government. There are pros and cons to the whole thing. Most governments in Europe are set up the same way including England and France, which is the two the Czech looked at the closest when they formed their government and constitution. I’ll get into more of the government later as they just announce the cabinet-elect since the two majority parties did come to an agreement. We need to read up on the consequences of all of the members elected.
Upstairs Dog
The last of my notes for June is about the dog (and sometimes dogs) upstairs. Since the weather has gotten nice and we can leave windows open so has the Aunt upstairs. This means the dog jumps up on something, puts its front feet on the window sill and barks at anyone and everyone.
It was a Monday and I had left to baby-sit Marek. This means Jack walks the dog and then comes over around 11am. Apparently the Aunt had gone away and left the window open. We always know when she has left as the dog howls the entire time that she is gone. When Jack left to come over to Mike and Hanka’s he tried to get the upstairs dog to JUMP OUT THE WINDOW! The first words when he walked into the apartment were “Wouldn’t ya know the dog would have one brain cell that works”.
However, we have gotten a reprieve. The aunt and uncle upstairs has gone every other weekend to, we assume, their summer cottage. The aunt and the dog have stayed at the cottage since the 4th of July. We keep thinking the good times are over every Sunday evening when they normally come back. The uncle has left already (today is Friday). I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, he’ll take a week of vacation and we won’t have the dogs for another week. Or, maybe she spends all of July at the cottage. We’ll know Sunday night.
Enough for now. I’ll finish up July’s notes
