A Ten Year Anniversary

Ten years ago on this very day, my husband and I got on a plane and moved back home. We had just spent the past three years living in Germany and traveling through Europe and now it was time to say goodbye.

At the time I was elated. I went through somewhat of a depression during this time. I was severely homesick and found it difficult to fully embrace the experience of living abroad.

I loved the travel though. Visiting so many different countries over the course of three years helped to open my eyes to the fact that I had been closed off to so many different ideas and learning experiences from living in my American bubble. It is why Wanderlust is a part of the theme of this blog. Because even though I wish I hadn't gone through that difficulty of being depressed and homesick, I also know that I would be a completely different person if I hadn't been granted the amazing opportunity of living and traveling in Europe. 

The world is such a beautiful and complex place. I seek the wisdom and opportunity to be able to see new places and learn from new people in order to understand it better. 

Ten years seems like such a long time ago. And also like no time at all.

Christkindlmarket: A small taste of Germany in downtown Chicago

This past weekend my husband and I, along with two of our friends, took an impromptu road trip to Chicago to go to the Christkindlmarket and then to have brunch at Frontera Grill (more on Frontera later).

It's no secret that I love Germany, which is ironic because when I lived there eight years ago, I was dreadfully homesick and wanted nothing more than to live an unenlightened, unexplored life back home in my little bubble in suburban Detroit. But I came away from those two years a changed person and I now have a greater appreciation for other cultures and approaches to life (and it's also where my zest for travel came from). One of the things I greatly appreciate and admire about Christmas in Germany is how festive and comforting it is. There doesn't seem to be this race to go broke buying your family more and more things. Instead of racing to Wal-Mart on Thanksgiving day to trample the mobs of people scrambling for a $200 big screen TV, the pace of German Christmas is much slower and focuses more on quality rather than quantity. Trampling is replaced with meandering. People wander the shops in the downtown pedestrian zone and then make their way to the Christmas Market, usually at the base of the cathedral or city hall, to sip Glühwein and soak in the holiday spirit.

When my husband and I returned to the states in 2005 we continued to attempt to find ways to bring a little bit of Germany back home with us, but it just hasn't been the same. I make Glühwein every Christmas Eve, but honestly, there's nothing like meandering along the old, cobbled streets with that bewitching brew between your hands to keep you warm. We even attempted to go to Frankenmuth, Michigan's "Little Bavaria" (AKA, the lamest place you could ever visit if you've actually been to Germany. Sorry to all those Frankenmuth lovers out there), a few years ago when word of a "traditional German Christmas market" was said to be going on there, but it was one huge letdown. It wasn't even close to looking or feeling like a German Christmas market. More like something the Rotary Club would put on. There was no attempt at ambiance. It was just a bunch of people sitting under a tent selling stuff. And worst of all: there was no Glühwein! How can you have a German Christmas market without Glühwein?

Nuremberg Christmas market 2004

Me soaking in the Christmas spirit in Nuremberg

Even our small town of Schweinfurt had a quaint little Christmas market

 A few years ago, one of my students told me that Chicago puts on a "traditional German Christmas market" every year and that I should check it out some time. Every year I tell my husband that we need to go, but every year the school year pulls the rug out from under me and I never have time to take a weekend to go check it out. This year I decided to forget about the pile of papers sitting on my desk and the lessons I had to prepare for the next week and I asked my husband if he'd like to go to Chicago for the day to check out the Christmas market. We decided to make a whole day in the city, have a nice dinner, and stay the night so if the Christmas market was a bust, we could at least say we didn't waste 8 hours in the car for nothing .

I am happy to report that in terms of "traditional" and "German", Chicago knows how to do a Christmas market right, replete with quaint wooden stalls, a "town square" location, and yes, even Glühwein. There were a few things I didn't like about the location however: the surrounding area was too modern to feel European and, more importantly, Daley Plaza was far too small and crowded to house the number of weekend visitors it gets. Walking around proved to be more of a chore than a joy, and this was even on a rainy day when many more people probably opted to stay home. But hey, I'll forgive them because what the market lacks in space, it makes up for in... Glühwein! :)

Hanging out at the Chicago Christmas market on a crowded, rainy, December Saturday

You can't avoid the Christmas spirit with a steaming mug of Glühwein in your hand

Another Christmas market requirement: The smell of candied nuts wafting in the air

Make sure you only get in this line for bratwurst

If I were grading the Chicago Christkindlmarket on authenticity I'd say they get it exactly right, but in terms of accommodating the number of visitors, they've clearly outgrown their current location and need to think about finding a larger space. Perhaps I should write someone a strongly-worded letter about that. Has anyone else ever been to the Chicago Christkindlmarket? What did you think?

Glühwein: Bringing a little bit of Germany to my Christmas Eve

When my husband and I were living in Germany, one of the things we loved to do around the holidays was visit all of the different Christmas markets and soak in the ambiance of Christmastime in Europe.

My favorite part of the Christmas markets was the vendors selling Glühwein, or what we know as mulled wine. As much as I hate the cold, sipping warm Glühwein as you hold the warm, steaming mug to your cold hands is enough to turn the heart of any Scrooge.

When we returned home to the U.S. back in 2005, one of the traditions I wish we could have continued was visiting Christmas markets. Since we don't have any authentic German Christmas markets nearby (there's one in Chicago that we're definitely going to have to visit one of these days), I'll just have to settle for making my own Glühwein, which I do every Christmas Eve when our family comes over for dinner.

Everyone who comes over loves this warm, comforting liquid, but no one loves it more than me, as it is steeped in warm memories and nostalgic longing.

As I write this post, I have my crock pot, all of my souvenir mugs from Germany, and all the ingredients standing by for me to make later. I can taste its sweet warmth even now.

I can look at each mug and be transported back to that particular Christmas market. I remember each and every one: Rothenburg, Munich, Nuremberg, and Schweinfurt. All of them were similar, and yet they each had something special about them because each town square provides a unique backdrop to give them their own individual ambiance.

Looking at these mugs automatically brings me back to all of these different Christmas markets

My favorite souvenir mug: a boot from the 2004 Nuremberg Christmas market

Glühwein

1 bottle red wine (whatever you like)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
10 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
juice of 1 orange
rind of 1 orange

Bring water, sugar, and cinnamon stick to boil until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to a simmer and add in OJ. Poke cloves through orange rind and add along with wine. Keep warm in a crockpot on low. Keep it going all day and it will make your house smell wonderful, or in my case, bring you right back to Germany.

2004 Nuremberg Christmas market

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday that includes something warm and comforting to drink! :)

My favorite street food in Germany - and it's not bratwurst

If you ever visit Germany, you will most likely come across these curious little food stands called Döner Kebap. If you don't know what they are, you might be tempted to just pass them by and never give them a second thought. But I'm here to tell you, do all you can to find the time to try one.

What is a Döner Kebap? It's only the most glorious sandwich ever to grace this planet.

The largest ethnic minority in Germany are people of Turkish origin and one of the things they have imported from Turkey is this amazing sandwich (so I guess if you're in Turkey, you should seek one out too :p). As an American, I find myself comparing a Döner to a Greek gyro because of how ubiquitous the gyro is in our culture and also the fact that the meat is roasted on a vertical spit just like the gyro. But, no offense to the Greeks because I like gyros just fine, but a Döner is infinitely better.

Just what makes it better? Well, there are a few things that help catapult this sandwich into the stratosphere of ethnic street food. First of all, let's start with the bread. A Greek gyro is typically served with warm pita bread that you fold the meat into like a taco. A Döner, however, has this special bread that is crispy on the outside and pillowy on the inside that they grill very briefly on a panini maker to help warm it and create grill marks. They then cut into the bread to make a pocket so the meat and toppings go inside the sandwich rather than folded into it. The crispiness of the outside and warm, chewiness of the inside is such a lovely contrast of textures.

Secondly, there is the meat. I haven't investigated exactly what meat goes into a gyro (unless it's a chicken gyro) or a Döner, nor do I think I want to. I fear if I learn exactly what goes onto that spit, I might not want to eat it anymore. No matter, the way the meat is handled once it is taken off the spit is what makes these sandwiches so different. Gyro meat is either served in chunks or in long, thin ribbons (at least that's the way they're served at the Greek coney island diners in Michigan) whereas Döner meat is shaved off the spit into really small pieces that are crispy and full of fatty flavor. Every piece of meat in the sandwich has a bit of chew and a bit of crisp to it, just like the bread.

It's like I can hear a choir of angels when I see one of these

Another difference is that some Döner places serve their sandwiches with salty rectangles of feta (or what I assume is feta) and gyros are cheese-less (at least all the gyros I've ever had anyway). If you know me at all, you know that the addition of cheese to anything is a good addition.

Once you get past those major differences, the sandwiches are similar from there. They are both served with toppings like onions and tomatoes, and they both get doused in a yogurt sauce.

I highly recommend if you've never tried one of these sandwiches and you find yourself in a German-speaking country (or Turkey for that matter) to seek one out.

Believe it or not, one of the main reasons (though not the only reason) why I wanted to visit our old hometown in Germany was to eat a Döner at the stand where we used to get them when we lived there. I don't know if it was just because that was our regular place, but it had, by far, the best Döner in all of Germany.

Which is why I was devastated on the day of our arrival in Schweinfurt to be walking toward our Mecca of street food, only to discover that our Döner stand had been replaced by an Asian noodle place!

Ninjas like noodles, but not at the expense of a Döner!

We searched downtown high and low for a new Döner place, and it wasn't until after we gave up and had already eaten somewhere else that we came across this oasis:

All is right with the world. Ninja found a new Döner place!

Never fear! We still had one more day in Schweinfurt. We'd just eat there for lunch the next day.

Though the Döner wasn't quite as good as our regular place (I'm convinced, however, that part of this was psychological), it still hit the spot and was a great way to end our time in Schweinfurt.

Pardon me while I inhale this sandwich

German versions of some much-loved books

One of the things I wanted to do while I was in Germany was visit a bookstore. I was under no delusions that I'd actually be able to READ these books in German, but it's still fun to figure out which books are which since the covers are generally different.

So while my husband and I visited our former "hometown" of Schweinfurt (we lived there for almost two years), I stopped by a couple of the bookstores in the downtown area and this is what I found:

 
The Ruby Red series by Kerstin Gier


Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney


The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger (Title translation: Yoda I Am! Everything I Know!)


Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Interesting that the title is in English)


13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Title translation: Dead Girls Don't Lie)

If I Stay by Gaye Forman

And, last but not least, a book so awesome, even Ninjas want to read it...
 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Title translation: The Tribute from Panem: Deadly Games)
I actually bought a copy of the German version of The Hunger Games, along with Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Will I be able to read them? Probably not, but they'll look cool on my shelf!

An annoylingly gushy post about my favorite book blogger and children's book illustrator

I haven't been posting much on my blog recently because I just returned home from a trip to Europe. My husband is in Germany for the next month on business, and since we both used to live there, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to use his company's footing the bill for his plane ticket to plan a trip.

I'll probably be sharing little facets of the trip in small, separate posts rather than doing one long, endless post.

This particular post is about our last night of the trip - I know I'm doing this backwards, but oh well. This is my blog. I does things hows I wants to.

When my husband and I lived in Germany, we lived in the town of Schweinfurt. It's about a two hour drive from the Frankfurt Main airport. Since international flights to the U.S.generally leave in the morning, we would always get a hotel in Frankfurt the night before so we didn't have to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn to make our flight.

When I found out I was coming to Germany, I contacted Lenore Appelhans of Presenting Lenore since I knew she lived in Frankfurt. I suggested we get together for dinner the night before my flight back home, but being the gracious person that she is, she actually suggested that my husband and I stay at their place the night before my flight home (he's still in Germany on his business trip so he didn't fly home with me).

For those of you who don't already know, Lenore is not only a rock-star book blogger, but she is also a soon-to-be published author. Her YA dystopian novel, Level Two, comes out Fall of 2012. As if that weren't impressive enough, her husband Daniel Jennewein is an amazingly talented artist and children's book illustrator who illustrated my favorite picture books, Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? and Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums:

We arrived at Lenore and Daniel's around 3:00 in the afternoon and were immediately greeted by their three adorable cats, which if you read Lenore's blog, you already see on a weekly basis every Tuesday in a feature she calls Cat Tuesday.

We sat around and talked for a little bit and when Daniel found out we had two pugs back home, he was over the moon. He even went so far as to offer a trade: their cats for our pugs. Ha! I don't think so Daniel. ;)

After shooting the breeze for a while, I produced the copies of the Buffalo books from my suitcase and asked Daniel if he could sign them for me. Well, he did one better. He created an impromptu Buffalo drawing in each book and asked me what I'd like the Buffalo to be doing. Since he was so smitten with my dogs, I told him to draw the Buffalo with Frank and Guenter, our two pugs, which I had already showed him many pictures of on my iPhone a few minutes prior.

Now every time I pass by the Buffalo books in my house, I have to stop and open them to look at my personalized drawings. As if the Buffalo didn't make me smile already, now I'm beaming from ear to ear when I see him with my boys:

While Daniel was drawing my Buffalo pictures, they were both gracious enough to show me their Top Secret Book Project they've been working on together. I can't say anymore about it since it's still in the editing stages, but I was bursting with glee to be able to see a book project in process. I'm always telling my students that the process is more important than the final product, so that is why seeing a "work-in-progress" stage of the publishing process is very exciting to me.

After getting all in a dither at being to read Top Secret Book Project, my giddiness continued as I drooled over Lenore's YA book collection, and she even let me take some of them home. By the time she was done, I had to rearrange my suitcase so that I could fit eight new books in it. When we left their apartment to go to the airport the next day, I thanked Lenore for all the books, she told me she'll expect to see those book in an "In My Mailbox" post. I told her that wouldn't be a problem at all. Although maybe for this week I'll have to call it "In My Suitcase" instead of "In My Mailbox."

A few hours later, after the torrential rain stopped (thankfully one of only two times it rained on our trip), we walked to a nearby restaurant called Frankfurt & Friends, and it was during that walk that I couldn't help but admire their neighborhood. It's within walking distance of so many things, and whatever's not in walking distance, is just a short tram or subway ride away. It kind of made me wish that our experience in living Germany a few years ago had been in a bigger city with more things to do.Schweinfurt is a nice, clean city, but it was fairly isolated in terms of cultural and culinary experiences. While Frankfurt is certainly not the most beautiful city in Germany - not even close - it has a New York vibe about it, where neighborhoods feel like their own unique city.

Frankfurt & Friends was a cool, sophisticated restaurant with traditional German food, but also international selections as well. The main thing I cared about though in terms of restaurant selection was making sure I got to drink one last Hefewiezen before flying home. German beer... nothing beats it.

At dinner Lenore and I probably bored our husbands as we talked about books and blogging. I liked being able to hear from someone who has perspective on both sides of the aisle, as a book blogger, and also someone who is familiar with the publishing industry.

At dinner with some new friends

When we got back to their apartment, Daniel endeared himself to me even more by asking if we'd like him to make a watercolor of Frank and Guenter. I was touched by his generosity and thanked him profusely.

An artist at work

This is definitely going in a frame!

As if they hadn't already been generous enough, Lenore then read me a few paragraphs from Level Two and I was blown away. I almost wish she hadn't read it to me because I want to read the entire thing RIGHT NOW! :)

The book blogger and the YA community has been kicked to the floor and stomped on for quite some time now but Lenore showed the very best that this community has to offer. Not only did she open her home to two people she'd never met before, but she and her husband were more than generous with their time and talents. So thank you Lenore and Daniel. I will be forever grateful for your kindness. I hope we can meet again someday.

What's up with the whole "in wanderlust" thing?

When I first started this blog almost two years ago, I had visions in my head of discussing all three of the topics listed in my subtitle (food, books, travel) with somewhat regularity. But then books kind of took over. While I'm not upset about this - I enjoy writing about books - but I kind of feel bad for my other two topics: food and travel. Especially travel. I do write about food every once in a while, but travel has been kind of left in the dust. The economic climate of the past few years has not made traveling as easy for my husband and me as it was back in the glory days of our monthly, sometimes weekly, jaunts across Europe when we lived in Germany.

But lo and behold, one month from today, we will be returning to Germany for some reminiscing. My husband's company is sending him to Germany for a whole month, and while I'd love to stay with him the entire time, I'm just going for a week so we can vacation together on our favorite continent. We will be visiting some of our old favorite places (Salzburg, Austria and our old hometown of Schweinfurt, Germany) as well as creating some new adventures in Hallstatt, Austria and Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. In addition, I'm also excited because on the last night of our trip, we'll be getting together with one of my favorite book bloggers and soon-to-be published author, Lenore Appelhans, and her very talented husband who illustrated Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten and the recently released Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums, Daniel Jennewien.

So my long dormant travel posts will be up and running in August, if only for a short time.

I guess the "wanderlust" moniker still applies though even if I'm not writing about travel that much. Wanderlust refers to a desire to wander and travel about, and even though we're firmly rooted where we are right now, I still continue to reminisce and dream of all the places we will visit and return to someday.

Incidentally, the picture at the beginning of this post is from our 2004 trip to Santorini, Greece. It still remains, to this day, my favorite place in the entire world. My husband and I will be celebrating our ten-year anniversary in 2013 and we are deciding whether to travel to a "bucket list" destination (Russia being at the top of our list) or returning to Santorini. What do you think? Which should we choose?