I'm not sure where the month of March went, but it is indeed the beginning of April already. This is already our third week in Germany and I realized that I need to find my patience pills once again. India was a very positive influence on my lack of patience, but now we are in Germany and apparently my pills didn't make the move. Yesterday I spent 15 minutes in the baking isle of the grocery store thinking that cream of tartar and shortening have to be there someplace. How can one do anything without shortning? We have a beautiful new kitchen and I'm just jumping to bake and cook, but finding frustrations in not finding my American ingredients. I had to remind myself that while I am in Germany, a country I feel quite comfortable in, that I am still an expat in a foreign country. The items that I have managed to cook and bake have been mostly disastrous as my ability to convert all my recipes to metric and trying to figure out a new oven in Celsius has gotten the best of me. At this point I feel like I need a one month crash course on being a domestic housewife as I seem to have forgotten quite a few basic skills in the kitchen. For example, while trying to make Swedish meatballs Sunday night I added 2 cups of flour instead of 2 Tbsp. The glue paste that resulted was disgusting and inedible. A real cook would have caught their mistake before dumping 2 cups of flour into a gravy.
I recognize that I have only lived in the US and India, but I found that during my transition to India I became very clumsy. In this move to Germany I am having the same difficulties. While normally being a pretty agile woman I now find myself dropping things, shakily riding my bike, and breaking brand new Ikea picture frames. All of these things are accidental, but I believe there is something psychological about moving that really gets to a person's equilibrium.
Speaking of bikes, I am now the proud owner of this beautiful "old lady" bike.
I don't mean to offend anyone, but this is what I have always called them. However, here in Europe these are the standard means of transportation. A basket on front, saddle bags on the back, a wide cushioned seat, a bell, and angled handle bars. I couldn't help but chuckle as I biked over to Aldi earlier this week and pulled up to the bike parking area to find an old man loading his groceries in his basket. It was just so cute! Sure enough 15 minutes later I was also unloading my groceries into my basket for the bike home. It's a way of life and everyone does it! Now if I can just settle into this new life without any injuries and a new found sense of patience, then I'm sure I will become very fit from all the biking and truly start enjoying life.
***Times they are a-changing! (Peter, Paul, & Mary) If you click on the post name "Times they are a-changing" above you can see the You Tube video of this classic song.
