Dirka Dirka

As we mentioned before, our apartment came furnished. What we didn't elaborate on, is that this includes not only the standard fare (bed, sofa, dining table), but also a slew of hodge podge items. This "hodge podge" includes things like children's towels, mismatched pillow cases, and, my favorite, a flowery coffee mug that lovingly reads "Dirk". Of course, this has now become Andy's mug; clearly he was destined to have Dirk as a German nickname. Who knows, we may even have to sneak that mug back with us in a couple of years.

In other news, we have now completed four working days here at MPI. While our first few days consisted of paperwork and introductions, we are now faced with some very serious decisions....including which lunch group to join, and whether it's better to bring a lunch or to eat at the Canteen. Actually, the subject of food quality at the Canteen can become a heated debate amongst co-workers (although most agree that it could be better----"The cook is English after all"). We thought it was more or less okay, although heavily focused on meat and potatoes.. but what meal in Germany isn't??

Speaking of food, it's funny the random stuff you miss from the US. I thought it might be enlightening to list some of the things that are hard or impossible to come by in Germany:
- peanut butter (I already mentioned it, but given it's importance it's worth mentioning again!)
- chocolate chips
- anything spicy.. Germans can't tolerate much more than black pepper (shout out to Cindy here)
- corn on the cob (after 5 years of oversaturation of this product, it remains to be seen if we'll actually miss it...)
- fresh cilantro
- mexican food (there is an abundance of Italian, Turkish, and Chinese though)
- sushi (just hasn't really caught on yet)
- raw sausage (the country is obsessed with pork sausage, but usually you only find it already cooked... no more biscuits and gravy here..)

I'm sure there are other random things, but I just can't think of them now. The things on this list by no means really affect our daily lives, but I just feel like these are some of the things we might appreciate a little more on return trips to the US. We, of course, can't complain about the abundance of excellent, cheap beer, fresh pastries, fresh breads, sweet mustard, and potato salad. The US has nothing on Germany in those arenas. Mmmmmmmmmmm, beeeeeer.