Servus München, Howdy Texas!

When we started our blog, it was to document our adventures in Munich.  And I think we did a pretty good job capturing both the daily life as well as documenting all of our incredible vacations over the years.  Though lately we have been pretty MIA.

Why?  In February, our journey in Germany morphed from being about European travels with the two of us (and sometimes our dogs) and into a slower-paced life as a family of 3 (or 5 if we include the dogs).  After patiently, and then impatiently, waiting for our son to arrive, we finally welcomed Max into the world 9 days after his due date. 

Thus the grand adventure we started here has turned into a family friendly version, with us even going on a few family vacations – venturing into the Bavarian and the Austrian Alps a few times. 

Left: Bizau, Austria.  Right: Schloss Linderhof in Bavaria.  Both: Max not looking at the camera.

However now that we are parents, our focus on what we want out of life has shifted.  We realized quickly how important it is to us to be back in our own culture and near our family, especially as we now have 4 nephews that we want to be closer to.  And instead of planning our next giant vacation in some new European place – we are planning our move back to the US! 

MERICA

As of this coming September, we will no longer be ‘Weiss Aus Deutschland’.  Instead we will be just the Weiss family in Houston – blog-free. Our little Bavarian baby will learn to love Tex-Mex, how to say ‘y’all’ properly, and see what a real rodeo is.  But more importantly, he will grow up with family nearby – which is what we want most of all. 

Don't worry Grandma Margie - you will get a smile photo soon!  Your visit was just before he learned how to do it. :)

So while we can’t say we are ready to LEAVE Munich (I don’t think we ever really will be fully ready to leave this wonderful city), we are more than ready to GET BACK to Texas and our roots (and maybe Tex Mex).  Munich has been an amazing place to live: it has really helped us grow both as individuals and as a couple, and it has brought us the best thing of all: Max.  We will definitely leave a piece of our hearts here in Munich, and we hope to return one day with Max.  We want to bring him back not only to show him where he came into the world, but to help him realize that the world is a much, much bigger place than the USA. 

At the beer garden 

With that, we leave you with a collection of ‘American’ things we have come across in our years in Europe – a very accurate portrayal of what we are returning to, wouldn’t you say? ;) 

America is about BBQ and giant burgers - what else?

We all love sitting around eating Chocolate Cookies ice cream, right?

Space and motorcycles.  The epitome of USA.

Please don't ask us what American Cream is.  It sounded way too perverse for us to try. Cool American, however, is delicious.

A semi-truck and Uncle Same.  MERICA.

And most importantly, Hot Dogs.  America = Hotdogs.

Seriously. Hot Dogs.  You know - those British-branded Ye Olde American style hot dogs that were TERRIBLE. 

America, the land of the food

“Generally speaking, the internal clock resets at a rate of about one hour (or time zone) per day.” –Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

This is the reason I am giving for waiting 9 full days before writing the blog on our USA trip – seeing as Colorado and Munich have a 9-hour time difference.  It’s science!

Noah and I spent our Valentine’s Day in airports and planes – making our way from Munich to Houston via Chicago.  Our original flight plan took us through Newark, which we were luckily able to change for free due to the massive winter storms hitting the east coast.  Thanks to my mom for telling me I should call United!  Turns out our original flight out of Munich was 5+ hours delayed, which would have made us miss our connection… and left us stuck in New Jersey.  That would have been romantic!  We still met some delays with the new route, and made it to my parents place for VDay pizza at 10 that night.  Thus begun our quest to fulfill every culinary desire we knew we would be missing out on for the next year(s?).

Our 4 days in Houston flew by, with barely any downtime.  Between visits with my friends and family, Noah’s friends and family, plenty of shopping and returns, and a trip to my mom’s Water Aerobics class – we never had any rest and relaxation on this part of the ‘vacation’.  But that was fine with us because it was great to see familiar faces and indulge in Which Which, Rudy’s BBQ, Los Cucos Tex Mex, Whataburger, Chipotle, Jimmy Johns….  Yes.  We were gluttonous.  

Wednesday morning we (Noah and myself and my parents) flew out to Colorado for my brother’s wedding.  The highlight of the drive between Denver and Beaver Creek is definitely Smokin’ Yards BBQ.  Of course it would be food related!  The BBQ sandwiches, fountain Dr. Pepper, and fried okra…. Let’s just say that if anyone is interested in opening up a good BBQ place in Munich – you could count on us to be your first regulars.

Once we got to Beaver Creek, we met up with my brother and his then-fiancee (now wife).  We gave them their gifts that we hauled all the way from Germany – some beer glasses, a stein, and coasters, all from the Steffens brewery.  Since Ashley agreed to marry into the Steffens family, I thought she might need some drinks to get through it.  Kidding. Mostly.

The next day kicked off the beginning of the wedding festivities.  Us gals (my mom, Ashley and her mom, and her bridesmaid Julie, and this Julie) all went for manis/pedis.  I haven’t had one since my own wedding almost 4 years ago, so it was definitely a treat for me and my nails.  Though I learned my sis-in-law is on the ticklish side – she could barely handle the foot massages. 

We met up with a large group of wedding goers for lunch at the Northside Café, where Noah and I had a delicious burger/shake/fries combo.  Between getting a junior Whataburger earlier in the week and thinking it was giant (I would always wolf down the regular sized burger in the past) and having our friend Jason comment that the burgers are small when he saw our order….  Noah and I are learning that our ideas of portions have changed the past two years.  And here I am talking about food again.  Apologies.  Here, have a group shot of everyone that Noah took: 

Thursday afternoon was the wedding rehearsal, and as the Best woMan, I had some major responsibilities.  Wait, that isn’t true.  I just had to walk down the aisle with the other Julie, see where to stand, and walk back out with her again.  Easy enough!  

Later that night it was time to dress fancy for the rehearsal dinner.  It went really well – with my mom’s signature slideshow of the couple, and way too much good food (what, did I just say that?).  We wedding party folks also got our presents (yay!) from the bride and groom.  I got a nice fusion of the girls and guys gifts, which included a really pretty snowflake necklace with my initial like the other ladies, and a warm furry winter hat like the other guys.  Because I was both a lady and a guy for the wedding. 

The Groomsmen working it

Finally it was the wedding day, where my day started at 8:45am for hair and makeup.  Unfortunately I couldn’t start my day with the guys (12:45pm), because technically I am a lady.  But Ashley and her family made the morning wonderful for us – not only covering the costs of the hair and makeup, but providing us with breakfast and lunch too!  Since there was a lot of down time (7 of us and only 3 ladies doing hair and makeup), I got to play around with my camera and amateurishly mimic the typical ‘preparing for the wedding’ photos.  

My sweet 'artsy' shots

Left: Clearly a Pinterest bride (well, maybe not so clear in the small version of the photo)

This lovely one was taken by my wonderful mom.  Thanks Mom!

Soon the wedding party and family was at the venue for pre-wedding pictures.  All I can say is I am very curious to see the outcome of the groomsmen pictures.  Hopefully the photographer was able to capture one nice one for the photo album.  At least we were able to capture one last family photo to capture a pre-married Logan.

No longer just a family of 5!  Wait - to be sure, this is NOT a pregnancy announcement.  I mean Ashley is now officially a family member 20 minutes after this photo is taken.

The ceremony went without a hitch, though from my point of view I could see Ashley’s face always near tears.  And when I heard the emotion in my brother’s voice, I started tearing up, which caused my parent’s to tear up (and apparently a few others), but I think we mostly kept it in check.  One side note – the day before I had asked Ashley if she had her something old/new/borrowed/blue.  She told me she had everything but ‘borrowed’.  I had the idea to lend her my granny’s (mom’s mom) wedding ring that I wear sometimes.  I didn’t tell my mom my idea beforehand, in case Ashley already had something borrowed in mind.  Luckily it all worked out, and I think my mom especially enjoyed this little touch.

I am double-chin exited!

Left - you can see my granny's wedding ring

Soon the reception was underway, and before long it was time for dinner / speeches / cake / dancing.  I think I did pretty well at all four.  I successfully ate my dinner without it ending up on myself (Noah can’t say the same – the horseradish found its way on his tie).  I calmed my nerves for my Best woMan speech and delivered it without spontaneously tipping over.  At the end of the night I was given to go boxes for the cake I wanted to eat later. And I tore it up on the dance floor (there might have been a dance off between Logan and me).

I left the dance floor for 2 minutes… and I have no idea what was going on here

All in all – a very successful wedding in my book.  And I have a new sister-in-law!  Congrats you guys. 

Mr. and Mrs. Steffens

After a night of dance-induced altitude sickness (all the water in place of alcohol I drank at the wedding wasn’t enough), I was ready to take it easy the next day.  Plus it was our last full day in the US!  Noah and I spent the morning resting, packing, and buying last minute groceries to take back with us.  After lunch, the two of us took the shuttle up to the mountain.  Originally we thought we would be skiing ourselves, but after a hectic week of shopping, traveling, and weddings, we were fine to simply watch the newlyweds ski/snowboard down the mountain in their suit and wedding dress.

After Logan and Ashley took off to put on regular clothes and continue skiing, the rest of us hung out around the ski town.  The highlight for me was finding the guy handing out free/fresh/hot chocolate chip cookies.  Why can’t this happen everywhere I go?  We also saw the same lederhosen-wearing man who played an alpine horn that we visited with 2+ years before.  While we didn’t talk to him this time (had to catch a bus), it was fun to think about our conversation with the man right before we moved to Germany.

Left: Dec 2011  Right: Feb 2014   Same outfit, different instrument.

Our last night in the US was spent eating pizza with our family (which includes Kathleen) and the Ricke family and watching the Olympics.  It was hard for us to believe that our USA trip was actually over, but I think my waistline was happy about it.  We currently have no plans to travel back home any time soon as there are still too many places we want to see here (and our budget isn’t limitless).  Instead it is time to focus on what we will miss in Germany when we eventually move back, and don’t take it for granted.  Because I sure took Whataburger for granted all those years back home!

Well that went by too fast…

Our 9 days back in our motherland was over in a blink of an eye and left us recovering for an entire week while we readjusted.  We came back with many American items - luggage, food, new clothes, and a nice American cold.

We began our stay at my friend Scott’s new house just outside of Dallas, TX.  Although we are pretty seasoned travelers, we ran into a bit of trouble on our first day.  Long stories short: we thought our cellphones were unlocked and we could simply put in US SIM cards we bought on Amazon (nope – locked tight). And then a trip to the ATM led Julie to the realization that our ATM card expired 3 months earlier.  One cheap Verizon phone and a trip back to Wells Fargo to withdraw cash from a bank teller later and we were back on our feet.  Thank goodness this was our country where we could go a day without phones/cash, and not a new country where we couldn't speak the language!

Now we were really ready to jump head first into American culture, by going to a Texas Rangers baseball game.  After a few Miller Lights (with Julie finally realizing that they do taste watered-down… seeing as she didn't drink beer before we moved to Germany) and a churro, we finally started to settle in to the American way.

Sunday Scott drove us to meet up with my brother Seth and his wife Marty as we would drive with them out to their place in Austin.  We spent the rest of our time in Texas (except a quick day trip to Houston to say hi to Julie’s folks) binging on all the foods, television, and shopping we had the energy for.  Our favorite meal hands down was our BBQ lunch at Rudy’s, a place we had eaten at before but didn't really appreciate until now.  Perhaps the lack of BBQ in Phoenix (our prior home) and now Munich made it all the more delicious.

My mom flew in from San Francisco to join us on all of our ventures except the food binge, of course.  Unfortunately I was restricted to the suburbs because I caught my cold pretty early on and didn't have the energy to really explore our old college town.  Luckily suburbia had all we wanted – shopping malls, Kerbey Lane, HEB, and Target.

We flew out on Thursday to Chicago for my cousin’s wedding weekend.  By then Julie was now playing host to my cold virus.  Although it was a new city, the routine on Thursday was pretty much the same - shopping, eating, shopping.  Though now we had the added company of my Grandma.  Then the wedding festivities began and the rest of the trip was over in a flash.  We had the rehearsal dinner on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and farewell brunch on Sunday (for the newlyweds… not for us).  It was so great to see all of the Weiss family, who we have dearly missed since we last saw them for Seth’s wedding in 2011.  Plus Eric and Allyson booked the best wedding band ever – the Becca Kaufman Orchestra.  Seriously – they are awesome.  

Before we knew it we were on our lonely way back home to Munich, thankfully on a direct flight from Chicago.  But we will be back in our motherland in February for round 2 to see my brother-in-law get married.

Photos from the wedding weekend (yes, we were a bit obsessed with the photo booth):

Rehearsal Dinner

Before heading to the wedding

We are pros at walking Grandma down the aisle

Pictures from our first two photo booth sessions

From left to right: Brothers + wives + Grandma; Seth, Mom and me; The ladies who married into the Weiss Family, aka the Mrs. Weiss'

By the end of the night I turned into a creeper

Fact: Dr. Pepper tastes better in America

You might think I am crazy, but Dr. Pepper from the States tastes different than Dr. Pepper here (bottled in the UK I think).  How much different?  Enough where I found I don’t like the Dr. Pepper I found here.  And since American Dr. Pepper is my favorite soft drink, I found myself adding one more thing to the list of American products I cannot find here, or if I do find here, are different.

Here are my top food products that you people in American should not take for granted.  And I know these are all packaged goods, and I could try to make things myself, but where is the fun in that when a company already makes them good enough?

• Yummy flour tortillas: Ok, this is aimed mostly at Texas, where a good flour tortilla makes the foundation for good TexMex food.  Here – you can only find the stiff Old El Paso brand. 
• Snack Pack Pudding:  For me, I miss the basic chocolate one.  Pudding here is more mousse-like.
• Good ole butter popcorn:  Germans prefer ‘sweet’ popcorn.  Not like kettle corn (I wish), but lightly sweetened.  You can find “American butter” salty popcorn in some American sections of larger grocery stores, but this is Jolly Time popcorn, who uses the word “butter” very loosely.  You know that brand, right?  No?  Take my word for it, you don’t want to – disgusting!  At least when I go to the English movie theater, they have it done right.
• Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup – again, you can find a weird off-brand version in some American sections of grocery stores, but again, disgusting.  Lucky for me I have should enough to last me while I am here thanks to a coworker visiting Germany.
• Blueberry muffin mix: Specifically - Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry Muffin mix.  Muffins and cakes here are a bit different – they tend to be rather dense.  American cakes tend to be fluffy and, say what you will, what I prefer. 
• Cornbread mix – Anything branded “American” – like pizza, soup, etc – probably has canned corn in it.  Because us Americans LOVE OUR CORN, right?  Whatever – I do love cornbread, and they don’t sell mixes here.  And I am not sharing my stash of Jiffy Cornbread mix.  Sorry.
• Varieties of Cake mixes and frostings: If you want American cake mix here – you will find 2 flavors: Chocolate and Carrot.  Frosting?  Chocolate and Vanilla.  Where is my Cream Cheese Frosting??  Spice Cake?  Red Velvet?  Life is hard.

To combat having to “rough it” over here, we often ask our visitors to kindly bring us items we are missing.  For instance, here is the food stash my parents brought over last year (not pictured – the other non-edible products they brought too):

So what is typically in the American section of German grocery stores (those that have one) that I haven’t already mentioned??

• Carter’s American flag root beer
• Marshmallow Fluff
• Rocky Mountain American Marshmallows
• Strawberry Frosted Poptarts (a brand I actually know!)
• Barbecue Sauce
• Cheese-Whiz style cheese
• Bisquick Mix (another real brand!)
• Some strange brand of Mac & Cheese
• Hot chocolate packets
• Griffin’s pancake syrup
• Crisco shortening

Isn’t that great that those foods sum up American cuisine?  I know I always cooked every meal with each of those items, just like Germans only eat sausage and pretzels, washed down by beer.

One thing missing from my list of products I can’t find?  Oh yeah – American Dr. Pepper. Why is that??  BECAUSE I RECENTLY FOUND SOME!!! Yes – imported Dr. Pepper cans!  I have recently found two grocery stores that have this.  I have bought their stock up a few times, and Noah finds this all rather amusing.  At one point, I looked up from trying to fit as many cans in my arms as possible, to see him snapping my photo. Whatever – at least I can now scratch something off of my list!   

American Sports Come to Germany

It’s pretty clear that the spectator sport in Germany is soccer (Fußball), and only soccer.  The regular club season is about 8 months long from mid-August to mid-May.  The summer break in between is all about international soccer (this summer the EURO championship and Olympics).  However, if you look really closely you can find that there is a sporting world outside of soccer.  And that’s exactly what Julie did about 3 weeks ago, when she found a small print ad about baseball and American football games here in Munich (probably a size 8 font footnote in the margin).

Ah what the heck, we set out on a Saturday with our other American friends to watch the baseball game first.  Our hometown Munich Caribes (more on the name later) were playing their final game of the season.  Our concerns about tickets and seating were alleviated when we arrived to see we could each have a bleacher to ourselves.  There were 4 sets of dilapidated bleachers and about 8 fans including us. 

We settled in behind home plate and soaked in our dearly missed national pastime.  It was a wooden bat league, which meant that most of the game consisted of small ball- a bloop here, a stolen base here, a balk there.  And while there were clearly some good athletes out there, the overall quality was on par with junior college team.  Hey not bad, considering I don’t know any Germans who even understand the rules of baseball.

We talked with the club’s marketing person/assistance coach, an American named Doug, who explained to us the structure and history of the club.  Our Munich Caribes play in the 3^rd level of competition in Germany (akin to AA baseball in America in rank – not necessarily skill).  The team was founded by players from South America and Caribbean area, hence Munich Caribes.  And currently, the team is mostly internationals of which 4 or 5 are Americans.

At the end of the game we hung around to get some memorabilia.  I think we may have been the first people to ever ask to buy something though because they really were not sure if they had anything to sell or not.   After 5 minutes of rummaging through an old shed Doug came out with a stack of hats.   I couldn’t resist the throwback letter ‘M’ and the thought of being one of the first real team fans so I bought 3 hats, one for me and for each of my two brothers.  

Our purchase caught the attention of some of the players.  We met the team’s catcher, Mateo from San Antonio!  I’m not sure who was more curious, us wondering how he ended up here playing baseball or him wondering how we ended up there as fans.  It’s always a cool feeling to run into someone from America who is here getting lost in Germany just like us.  He was a really nice guy, so nice he invited us out to party with the team later that night (more on this later).

The baseball game turned out to be a lot of fun.  Next up, we marched over to the American football stadium to watch our Munich Cowboys!  Love the name.  We could tell right away this was a more serious operation than baseball because we had to buy tickets to enter, and even more telling - there was a line.  Immediately we felt like we were transported back to high school (except Julie who never went to any high school football games).  The stadium and atmosphere felt just like a high school football game with the flags, banners, and streams of people wearing the home colors.  Supposedly this was even the homecoming game!  

We hopped right in line and bought our team shirts and settled in with the crowd chanting ‘Defense Go....Defense Go’.  It was a pretty impressive display, considering we had no idea this existed, with maybe around 1,000 fans.  The first series of game play pretty much summed up the quality of competition, which clearly was not the best.  The opening kickoff was a penalty, Munich went 3 and out losing 5 yards, and the subsequent punt was fumbled by the other team.  I think 3 extra point field goals were missed so the final score was kind of odd. 

Perhaps I am being too harsh though, because Munich is the worst team in the league of 8 teams.  It’s worth noting our favorite team name is the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, who are not to be laughed at as they sit in first place! There were clearly some talented athletes but it is easy to see the lack of experience of the teams as a whole.  Must be how MLS soccer looks to Europeans.

Both baseball and football games made it a successful American day - it was now time to party!  Being the spontaneous types (ok, normally we are not) we met the baseball team at an Irish bar downtown.  I wore my new Caribes hat which was an instant conversation starter (thanks Eddie for  ‘forgetting’ to wear yours), and I think they really appreciated our fanship because they bought us the first round of drinks.  They even invited Eddie and I out to practice on Wednesday.  Yeah man, sure, that’s just the booze talking…

We learned that most these guys were college ball players and wanted to keep playing while traveling abroad.  They all work day jobs because clearly the ticket sales are not providing any kind of salary.  I talked with one of the German players who said he started playing in high school.  It sounds like there is not much in the way of Little League, but there are young adult leagues here and there.

After enough drinks we reached that point where going to a club at 1 a.m. sounded like a good idea.  Yeah, let’s all go pay a 10 buck cover charge to pack in like sardines with a bunch of creepers.  Sounds fun!  And although the club turned out exactly like described, the whole night was an absolute blast.  We made it home and asleep about 4 a.m., which is something we only do like once a decade.

Later we learned they were serious about us coming out to practice.  How sweet is that!?!?   So Eddie and I headed out to practice on Wednesday feeling like Smalls from The Sandlot.  We had the wrong clothes and no glove/gear.  The team welcomed us in, gave us some gear, and then I could not believe it- we were actually playing baseball in Germany.  We caught fly balls for about an hour, shagged batting practice balls, and then got our turn at the plate.  And we both looked pretty good out there, especially considering there were some others who were there for their first time ever playing baseball.  I felt like Craig Biggio out there.  The next day though, I felt like I had been run over by a truck.

It was my first time hitting with a wooden bat and hopefully not the last.  I hope to make it to more practices when I have the time.   Who knows maybe I’ll see if I can get on a team (although probably one of the lower divisions)?  The problem though is that I don’t really have the time.  A 1.5-hour commute each way to work kind of limits my chances.  But I’ll definitely make it out when I can because playing baseball is living the good life.  Stay tuned for more on the Munich Caribes (maybe)!

In the meantime, it’s back to Fußball and FC Bayern Munich!