Keine Zeit!

I have no time today for a real post because!!! Stephanie is arriving tomorrow and I have to get my things together and make sure there are actually things to eat and somewhere to sleep and so on. I'm so excited to have a visitor (when mom was here, it didn't really count because I was incapacitated)! I should probably do laundry too... sigh. Maybe I'll postpone shopping. That is always more fun with two (or an entire apartmentful, as I well know..)!

French Kitchen Ground Rules

Also something I noticed while in France--and maybe this is just a side effect of having tradition of eating two hot meals per day instead of just lunch or maybe it's just my being not used to traditional family life in Germany/USA--: it feels like French society is much less 'progressive' with respect to semi-equal division of household labor between men and women. Almost all of the cooking was done by women in both houses I was in as well as most of the washing up, cleaning, and laundry. Not that this isn't the norm in Germany or the US, but it was kind of like a glass of cold water after living for 4+ (really 10+) years in places with relatively equal division of labor (where there is labor to be done).

There were definitely some moments in Hélène's kitchen while we were getting dinner ready or when I was taking back dishes when I felt completely out of place--not just in terms of me being a visitor, but also in terms of me being young and male. I'm going to let them think what they want, but maybe they'll just chalk it up to me being American and our strange, cultureless way of doing things. In any case, I feel like when we were with the German family earlier this year, I didn't have the same feeling of being so completely out of my normal setting.

Makes me wonder about the family of the future (mine and in general) and how all this will be negotiated. Probably more fairly than what I saw in France. I know I for one am not going to be doing both the cooking and the washing :P.

frischmarkt

germany is amazing.

der frishmarkt, also der wochenendemarkt on the wochenende, is wonderful. first, it's a pretty nice size and 3 times a week, which means one could, in theory, have fresh things every day.

early mornings on tuesday and thursday mean few people and lots of fresh produce. there are 10-20 stands around in the market place with all kinds of different things. on saturdays there are a LOT of people here. i feels a little like a carnival. there aren't a lot of street food items, but there is usually one guy selling bratwürste and brötchen. of course, you can always duck into the nearest bakery.

the plaza gets cleared out around 2 pm to let the cafés put out their tables and chairs. there isn't much that does on here when there isn't a market, but i think on holidays there may be more special events.

wäsche

also (i'm on a roll today--don't stop me), i did laundry today, which was quite an adventure. not nearly as bad as i thought it would be, but certainly painful on the wallet. 2.80 € for a wash and 0.80 € for just 12 minutes of drying. total yesterday of 7.20 €. ouch. that's 11.50 $. insane. would have cost me only 4 $ at vandy. so i've decided that from now on i'm going to try to stretch clothes as long as i can without washing (but also without smelling). should be a little easier since it never gets above 25 ºC here. also, i might try hand washing some things.. time to go look that up.

after 2 dry cycles, i decided i would save my money and bring my wäsche nach hause and trocken it there. the results below:

i might have run out of room at some point. also, note the vegetable hiding place.

(again, out of room. the lamp acts as an occasional drying rack. the bathroom is even more full of hanging clothes.)

as you might guess, the apartment smelled strongly of wet clothes and pizza for the rest of the night. but everything is dry now! works pretty well, i just need to do laundry more often or take smaller loads. i was almost out of hangers by the end of it.