Howdy there Amerikanerin

Once upon a time there was an American going home from work.  She thought she looked normal.  Work jacket on and jeans.  No hat.  Two Germans rode by in the opposite direction, looked and said "Howdy."

So what is it?  The infamous tattoo on the forehead that tells secrets?  "Caution: American"  I understand it has been well announced about the arrival of ~60 Americans in this small German city.  However, there are 10,000 people that work at my plant.  How did they just HAPPEN to yell "howdy" at the right time?  Oh well.  I am more so curious as to what it is about my demeanor to give "it" away.  I was riding a bike. Last I knew, you are pretty limited on how to ride a bike - although it wasn't part of my cultural training on how to ride a bike like a German so I guess I don't know for sure.

It's been one month since I lived in the eastern time zone.  The things I miss about the US are pretty much limited to specific people.  I did cheat and have my mom send me some hazelnut creamer though.  Germans don't have flavored creamers and to any coffee loving American, this is a travesty.  HOWEVER, their machines are far superior than our $15 Walmart coffee pots.  I know a few in our group planning on making the $1,000 investment into a German machine.  I am already trying to think of ways to bribe or blackmail these people so I can get them to bring me some coffee every morning.  I have a long time to think about some clever ways.  Ideas are welcome, but the resulting coffee is all mine.

Trips:
Since my last blog I have been to Munich and Salzburg again.  I stayed one night in Munich and just scratched the surface on what there is to see/do there.  My favorite place thus far was the Hofbrauhaus.

I had an idea in my head on what a proper German bar should feel like.  Including what it should look like, sound like, and smell like.  I had yet to fulfill this yearning until I walked through the double door at the Hofbrauhaus...

Truly a fantastic experience.  The band was playing and random tables would burst into song occasionally.  You could quite easily pick out the old gents who had been coming to the HB most of their lives.  Another fantabulous aspect of HB was walking around and coming across some very funny (drunk) people...

I am hoping he lost a bet or something and thus had to wear a dress.

Salzburg was awesome as usual.  This trip was more for shopping, but we did manage to head towards the fort.  The Adidas outlet store is worth a trip.  The Designer Outlet mall was a very nice mall.  There were a few good deals there, but nothing spectacular.

I had a wonderful experience last Friday night of losing my keys.  If anything could go wrong, it did.  I was so friggin agitated at myself.  I did find them, however, after 2.5 hours of phone calls and bike rides.  Luckily there was plenty of German helles weiss bier at the end of the day to save me.

Wow, that was kind of a boring blog, sorry.  I'll try to so something more entertaining this week.