German Indians

And I sit in my car. With open mouth.

Germany is not green.

It's red. And yellow.

It's orange. And gold.

Indian Summer has arrived in my new country.

And I love it.

Pictures made out of the car in Nord-Hessen, on a beautiful autumn day.

Blog Action Day - Don't let the wind mills trouble your view!

One of the things My Own German and I don't agree upon is the modern wind mill. The wind turbine.

Germany has the largest number of wind farms in the world. Drive on the German highway, and you're surrounded by futuristic white mills. Turning their wheels in the wind.

I always relax. By seeing them. They remember me of lazy chairs in the South of France. A fresh breeze of air playing with your hair. Bringing some freshness in a warm and lazy day. White wind mills on the background. Playing their wheels.

I look at them with admiration. The story of clean energy in a modern, stylish dress. A story of how natural elements will keep on carrying our future. Wind energy used in the 1st century AC. And still there. Still turning.

But Germans seem not to agree. At least, My Own German doesn't. To him, the futuristic wind mills disturbs the landscape. Disturb the view on Germany's nature. On green. White futuristic skelets.

Bizar, no? How the use of natural elements can disturb our nature?

Germans, don't mind the view. What I have seen and learned from your green culture is astonishing.

Recycling. Solar energy. Wind Parks.

You're a culture that understands better than whomever that the world is there to last. Even when we don't.

Last.

Teach us. Teach it to all of us. And don't let the wind mills disturb your view.

Alice.

About city girls and boy scouts...

City girls become boy scouts in Germany. With the forests around you, there is just no escape of putting on these hiking boots - which I have after multiple warnings always in the trunk of the car - and to get out there.

Tonight, we went looking for the deers. Out just before the night fell. In dark woods. Kind of scary for the city girl.

But we're walking through the mud. And in the light of our lamp we see the first fresh signs of deers that have passed. I find that already waaaaaw.

We know we are late. Too late for the breeding period.

But then it comes. I thought it was a dog. Barking. Far from us.

Then it came closer. Louder. And it sounded like a dinosaur roaring his way to us. Scary. But also fascinating.

We stood still. I did not dare to move. Did not even dear to chew the gum in my mouth. Stopped breathing to hear them roaring. Calling the females.

And there...at that moment...surrounded by the sound of roaring deers, I became a boy scout again.

The basic necessities when dating a German...

We're on vacation. Yipie Yeah.

Says my own German to me: "What about wine tasting today?". So I put on my white trousers and fine shoes. Cause wine tasting sounds "chique".

But on the road to wine tasting, it says "hiking track". Oh, oh, oh, oh. And off he goes, my own German. "Come one, honey, just this little track."

Well, we got to wine tasting. Three hours, black trousers and painfull feet later. But a German keeps his promise. We got to wine tasting.

And I learned my lesson. There are some basic necessities in the trunk of the car when you date a German. Hiking boots is one of them.

Structured dirt

My own German recycles. And how. With German gründlichkeit. Seriously, in other worths.

Everything seems to have its own place. Even dirt. You have no idea in how many different categories dirt can be categorised. And about twice a day he runs to the compost in the garden. To structure dirt.

Off course I am impressed. I recycled too. But in a small flat in the heart of a large town. No compost. No garden. And only two categories for dirt.

Three maybe - when it does not take the trash truck for that additional categorie to long to pass. Or the flat becomes too small. With all the categories.

My own German says it has to do with education. Germans recycle since 20 years. With German gründlichkeit. Dirt in many different categories.

What a pity. Will it really take the rest of the world twenty years of education to structure their dirt?

About Germans, beer and water

Germans like beer. They get confused about water.

Take the sea. Germans make it very complicated. They call the sea das Meer. While the English call it the sea. The Dutch call it the zee. The Swedish talk about the sjö. All sounds pretty similar, no? Except than for the Germans.

But it even gets more confusing. Cause there are also the lakes. That's what the Germans then call der See. So you have the Bodensee. In the South of Germany. And that's than a lake.

Are you still with me?

Wait. They made it even more complicated. Cause they have also their Ostsee. And that's a sea. And a Nortsee. They just call it das Meer. Except when they have a proper conversation - cause then it becomes the Nortsee and the Ostsee.

Even my own German got confused by it today. Cause try to explain why the Northsee is a sea, while the Bodensee is a lake. He even had to conclude that there is a lake at Hannover with the wrong name - das Steinhudermeer. A lake with the name of a sea.

Yep. That's what you get when you want to make it complicated. Now you just don't know yourself anymore.

Germans... Stay with the beer. Oke?

Deers, salamanders and a gold fish

I told you that Germany is green. And that one day I would take out my hiking boots and that I would walk. Hiking even. In the green.

So, that's what I did. My own German and me. Hiking in the German green.

First stop with my own German guide. Ants. Thousands. They live in an enormous hill. And they itch. Very. Very. Very. Itchy.

Second stop. A mouse. Well, I am not afraid of mouses and this one clearly is not afraid of me. I sit down and watch it's activities. Without being itchy.

Third stop. A black and yellow fire salamander. Now, this is interesting. I have never seen a black and yellow striped shiny salamander before. We just don't have them in my home town.

The hike stops with my own German promising we go searching for deers next time. I like deers. I don't have them in my home town. And they are not itchy.

So, I am into green now. And into animals. For days I am asking my own German for my own German animal.

It's decided. I get... a gold fish.
At least they are not itchy.