Time to Fly

Time to Fly

by | Feb 11, 2024 | Blog

Greetings from one of our all-time favorite cities: London! We are here for my birthday. Normally we don’t make too much of a big deal about birthdays. Nathan usually has a show on my birthday every year, so we do lunch and call it good. But this year, it’s a big one and my travel buddy is (conveniently) available, so I requested that we celebrate in one of my favorite places.
I’m going to save the details of our trip for later since we are busily enjoying our time here. We hope you have a good week and that you show someone that you love them on Valentine’s Day. We will catch you in two weeks with the details of our trip! 

Off to Atlanta

Off to Atlanta

by | Nov 10, 2024 |

The week started with everyone being sick and three days of rain. Now we are spending the long weekend knocking around Atlanta.

Two + Choo Choo

Two + Choo Choo

by | Oct 27, 2024 |

We had a great week! We made it back to St. Louis to celebrate Peter’s 2nd birthday, then we moved into our own place, and we had some fun outings!

More Music and a Night at the Zoo

More Music and a Night at the Zoo

by | Feb 4, 2024 | Blog

We had a week much like last week, with one exception: the zoo.

Leipzig has a very fine zoo and we had yet to visit until this week. This is kind of strange, since we ride past it any time we ride the tram into town. They were holding a month-long “light festival”, so we thought it might be a good time to check it out. We did see lights, and that was cool. There were various animal displays done in lights and in black-lit neon paint. They have a huge domed structure that has a tropical rainforest with big trees, bamboo, and other jungle plants. There are rope bridges, tunnels, and a river with boats. It was mostly dark and they had various parts lit up with different colors and they projected stars onto the dome. There were various performers around, including wandering “animals” that were all lit up. I had a run-in with the “jellyfish” performer when she took off running and I was unfortunately in her path. One of the groups performing was a “fire and ice” show with fire-breathing and various LED light baton things. It was really cool and I’ll be able to share a bit of that when I make the next video.

However, we saw very few actual animals. In fact, if they hadn’t had the aquarium open, we would have seen almost none. The fish and jellies and things were fun, though, and it was nice and warm inside. We caught a glimpse of a tropical bird in the dome, and that was about it.

We got out and saw some music again this week. There is a lunchtime concert every week at the Old Town Hall, which is now a city history museum. It has a really cool big room where the town leaders used to meet. It’s from the Renaissance and that is where they hold the concert. We saw a violin student from the Music School perform, accompanied by one of the faculty. It was a nice concert, consisting of music by Dussek and Prokofiev. The violinist was fighting new strings on her instrument, but she did well despite that.

We also attended a truly excellent concert at the Mendelssohn Haus in celebration of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s 215th birthday. The pianist, Matthias Kirschnereit, is world-class. He played pieces by Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Chopin and then three encores by Schubert, Brahms, and Debussy. It was all excellent and it was fun to revisit the museum for a concert.

We walked to a bakery that I marked on my map months ago. They are a true patisserie and we had a lovely little layered cake with spices and lemon curd, along with a macaron and a yummy chocolate cookie. We went to our favorite café in town, Café Centrale, and had lunch after the lunchtime concert. We had only ever visited the café for breakfast before, so it was fun to try some new things. Nathan had a curried fish soup and I had a chicken sandwich on french toast with avocado.

We also caught another service at the Thomaskirche. They weren’t presenting a Bach cantata, however, so it was pretty low-key as far as church services go. The best part, at least for me, was the postlude: Wagner’s Pilgrims’ Chorus from the opera Tannhäuser. Enjoy it at the beginning of this clip…not exactly the right interpretation of the original music, but enjoyable! 🙂

We spent a lot of time studying and practicing. The weather was pretty good for most of the week, so we took our usual daily walks and soaked up some sun. This week we are going to hop on a plane and see some different scenery for a bit, so there will be more to report next week!

Off to Atlanta

Off to Atlanta

by | Nov 10, 2024 |

The week started with everyone being sick and three days of rain. Now we are spending the long weekend knocking around Atlanta.

Two + Choo Choo

Two + Choo Choo

by | Oct 27, 2024 |

We had a great week! We made it back to St. Louis to celebrate Peter’s 2nd birthday, then we moved into our own place, and we had some fun outings!

Emerging from Hibernation

Emerging from Hibernation

by | Jan 28, 2024 | Blog

The weather has warmed up, so we have ventured out this week. We also spent a lot of time making plans for the coming months. We have some changes coming toward spring, so we figured we had better poke our heads out of our little burrow and make the most of our time here in Leipzig. We also had a much-awaited moment that was a bit anti-climactic.

We went to three concerts this week. The first was at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, the school that Felix Mendelssohn founded in 1843. The concert was presented by two faculty members: Tobias Feldmann, violin, and Boris Kusnezow, piano. They played music by Mozart, Poulenc, Schönberg, and Schubert. It was truly excellent, world-class, and (crazily) free. What a treat!

Then we went to the Gewandhaus (the famous concert hall here) and saw a concert by the Gewandhaus Orchestra. They performed The Wood Pigeon by Dvořák, Kindertotenlieder by Mahler, and Brahms’ 1st Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello in G minor, arranged for orchestra by Arnold Schönberg. That was a wild ride, made wilder by the fact that we opted for the less-expensive seats, located directly behind the percussion section. When we saw Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in October, those were the seats for the choir. It was entertaining to watch the conductor from the other side–he was really good. The Brahms was especially fun, since we are familiar with the chamber piece.

Lastly, we went back to the University for a concert performed by various music students (with a few members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra sprinkled in). We heard more Mahler, a crazy modern piece by Jolivet, and Brahms’ 1st Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello in G minor. Did you catch it? It was the original version of the piece we heard the orchestra perform just days before. That was really fun to have the two similar, but very different experiences. The pianist was phenomenal, as were all the other musicians.

The other big event of the week was that we went to the Immigration Office and we picked up our German ID cards. It’s official–we are legal residents of Germany! It only took five months. However, it means that we got to stay past the three months that we would normally be allowed. It was sobering to spend time in the immigration office, knowing how easy it was for our applications to be accepted, when there were people who are really desperate to stay here in Germany who might not be able to. The main difference was a roll of the dice: where we were born. Honestly, after five months, it felt a little “meh”. I thought it might feel more exciting or like a bigger relief. But it will be nice not to have to carry my passport everywhere and it will be really easy to travel into Germany.

We grabbed a couple of yummy meals: Vietnamese before the violin recital and Dürüm (a wrap filled with grilled meat and lots of veggies and sauce) after we picked up our ID cards.

We have an eye to the future right now, since spring is coming and with it, travel season. We are cooking up some plans and it is taking up a lot of our time. I think I will save the specifics for later, however, to keep the air of mystery! I will just say that we are going somewhere fun (but familiar) for my birthday in February and we are going to go further afield starting in March. Stay tuned!

Here is the last of the videos that I was trying to get caught up on. It’s a bit more recent, highlighting our December holiday celebrations.

Muellers on the Loose: December 2023

Winter, Continued…and Q&A

Winter, Continued…and Q&A

by | Jan 20, 2024 | Blog

We have been hunkered down in chilly, stormy Leipzig this week. We got a few inches of snow midway through and it was actually nice to have it feel like winter and not just a long, gray, dark night. We are a month after the winter solstice and the days are noticeably longer. We still get out for a daily walk and to grab groceries. We also popped into town for some ramen on Thursday and that was tasty.

Since there’s not a lot of news, we are going to answer some questions from my sister (Thanks, Jana!) This is Nathan’s debut at the blog, so that’s news, I guess!

——-

What podcasts are you listening to? 

Jill:

So many that I love.

  • Cautionary Tales
  • Revisionist History
  • No Such Thing as a Fish
  • Re:Thinking with Adam Grant
  • Everything Everywhere Daily
  • No Stupid Questions
  • Dear Hank and John
  • Daughters of Ferrix
  • Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!
  • Hard Fork
  • Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out
  • Follow Him
  • What’s Your Problem?
  • The Happiness Lab

…. I could go on.

It’s kind of ridiculous. It’s a daily practice (habit? addiction?).

Nathan:

  • The Gist (Mike Pesca) – a daily news program that keeps me a little connected to goings-on in the US
  • No Stupid Questions (conversation between Angela Duckworth and Mike Maughn) – from the Freakonomics network, this is one of my favorites as it is usually a nice blend of interesting and fun on a Sunday morning.
  • Easy German – meant for German students, it is a conversation about basic subjects like interesting aspects of the language etc. in Germany.
  • Auf Deutsch Gesagt – another German language conversational podcast, the first half is the conversation and the second is a kind of on-the-fly german dictionary where terms from the conversation are defined or explained. It might sound weird but I think it is a great format. 
  • Everything Everywhere Daily – A daily trivia “snack”, about as deep as you can dive in ten minutes.
  • No Such Thing as a Fish – British comedy podcast based on “facts” which are true but often absurd.
  • Hard Fork –  a conversational podcast about technology to keep me abreast of what is going on, especially now that I am not in the thick of it anymore. The rapport between the hosts is really light and fun (maybe “fun and funny” are a common thread in a lot of the podcasts I like)

There are many other podcasts that I sample or listen to from time to time but I have been listening more to audio books lately to help with studying German.

Have you read any books this past year that you’d recommend?

Jill:

I had to cut back on my reading a bit in 2023 to free up more time for school, so I only finished 76 books. 😀

Non-fiction:

    • How Will You Measure Your Life?   Clayton M. Christensen
    • And There Was Light   Jon Meacham
    • The Comfort Crisis  Michael Easter (reading his newest, Scarcity Brain, right now)
    • Steal Like an Artist   Austen Kleon (re-read)
    • These Precious Days
    • This is the Story of a Happy Marriage 

Two essay collections by Ann Patchett

    • Thinking With Type   Ellen Lipton
    • Misfit   Gary Gulman
    • The Anatomy of Peace   The Arbinger Institute

Fiction:

    • Lessons in Chemistry   Bonnie Grams
    • Tom Lake   Ann Patchett (I read several of her novels last year, but this was my favorite. All are good)
    • Thank You For Listening   Julia Whelan

Favorite Fiction Series:

    • Inspector Gamache Novels; The first one is Still Life   Louise Penny
    • Maisie Dobbs   Jacqueline Winspear
    • Longmire; The first one is Cold Dish   Craig Johnson

Nathan:

For audiobooks I use the Libby app. The Salt Lake County library system is one of the best we have seen in our limited exposure to the world and they have a lot of digital content including language learning materials so it is really nice that we can still use it even though we are not in Utah right now. I also have an account here at the Leipzig library and I use Libby with that too, although the selection of German audiobooks is paltry – just two books from David Foster Wallace and then all of the Harry Potter books. Kind of odd, I think.

Regarding books, for non-fiction I would recommend The Scarcity Brain by Michael Easter. It is about how and why we are maladapted to many of the things that are so readily available in modern society including food, entertainment, information and what we might do about it. The ideas are presented as anecdotes and personal experiences of the author (some of which are pretty extreme, like going to Iraq). It is a great follow up to Easter’s earlier book Comfort Crisis which I have recommended to some family members before. For fiction, Jill has me hooked on books by Ann Patchett. Many (or maybe all?) of her books are available as audiobooks. I have been through a few, including a couple of her books that are more like essays on her own life. I think you can’t go wrong with anything by her.

Do you have a new “guilty pleasure” food that you’ve found in Germany?

Jill:

Nothing new, really, but I don’t feel guilty about anything that we eat here…it’s an essential part of making the most of this experience! However, having easy access to some of my favorites is nice. As for food that’s more “German”, I love a grilled Thüringer bratwurst with spicy German mustard. Döner Kebab is everywhere and so yummy–it’s Turkish, but so ubiquitous in Germany, kind of like curry in the UK. Even the cheapest chocolate here is better than the standard product available at home. Same for bread. That is not to say that we don’t eat well or eat similar things at home. It’s just easier to find some of our favorites here.

Nathan:

Guilty pleasures, hmmm, well I don’t really feel guilty about it and it wasn’t such a surprise but I am enjoying the chocolate here and I am of the camp that consider chocolate one of the best pleasures in life. Even the budget chocolates at the store (on sale they are less than $1 per bar) are top quality. I usually don’t prefer the Milka brand (German chocolate) at home when I can get Lindt, but here the price + quality is so good I can’t resist.

What languages are you learning, and are you using a specific app or program?

Jill:

I’m not the language nut that Nathan is, but I have been working on my German. I do Duolingo every day, I’m reading my scriptures in German a few days a week, and I have been using an audiobook from the library. The Google Translate app is really great for everyday life here, especially the Google Lens feature. I have trouble understanding people still, especially when they speak quickly. I do a lot better with reading. I’m mostly hopeless with thinking of the appropriate words to say in the moment, but my pronunciation has improved a bit. I’ve told Nathan that with my American clothing, my long curly hair, and my terrible German, I’m not really very good at blending in here. 😁

Nathan:

One of the main reasons I wanted to come to Leipzig was to learn more German, so that has been a priority. I am not in any formal classes so I am trying to create my own “immersion-lite” program here which includes a smattering of the following:

– Anki for Android flashcard app – I drill flashcard decks of words and sentences/phrases that other people have made and I also have my own deck that I add to daily when I encounter a word or phrase that I want to work on remembering.

– Duolingo – German for English speakers is good which is what I do daily but I also like to do the English for German speakers and a bit of German for Spanish speakers to integrate some of the Spanish neurons in my brain with the German ones.

– Podcasts and audiobooks (trying to maximize “comprehensible input”) as previously mentioned, Salt Lake County has German learning course audiobooks so I use some of those.

– Reading – I started with kids books (our last AirBnB had a shelf of kids books in German, very convenient for me) and these days I am working through some young adult literature now. I also read everywhere I can, newspapers, flyers, signs around town, program notes for music concerts – that is the nice thing about being here in Germany, it is all around us all the time.

– Netflix/AmazonPrime – when we watch shows I like to have the subtitles on if German is an option and sometimes I like to mumble the German words …maybe it is annoying but Jill hasn’t complained yet.

——-

Ok, so that’s the end of Q&A. If you are curious about anything about our experience here in Germany or life on the road (since we have been traveling for a good chunk of each year since 2018), feel free to ask!

And a note on the photos I have included with this post: we took no photos this week (that’s a first), so I have included some photos of various chess sets that we have seen during our trip, mostly for our three-year-old, chess-loving Teddy. Oh, and one really big Playmobil Mozart. Enjoy!

Here’s the next video of our travels: November 2023.

Winter Returns

Winter Returns

by | Jan 14, 2024 | Blog

To make up for the super long post from last week, this post will be teeny tiny.

Not much happened here this week other than the return of winter. Although we had a chilly period in November, the bulk of Autumn and beginning of Winter were unseasonably warm. That ended over the weekend with the return of sub-zero temps and some snow. The duck pond at the local park froze enough so that people pulled out their sleds and skates or just enjoyed walking and sliding across the ice. Germans are impressively persistent about getting outside for a walk, even when it’s cold and wet. You’ll see kids bundled up in snow suits and older couples with walkers out on the icy sidewalks. They also firmly believe that fresh air is essential for being gesund (healthy), so they will throw the windows open wide every day for 15-30 minutes.

We continue in our daily routine. Nathan practices, works on languages, reads, studies, and listens to audiobooks and podcasts. I am working on a project with my sister, knitting, doing digital art, studying, and listening to my own audiobooks and podcasts. We try to exercise and get outside to take a walk every day. We also watch various lectures on Wondrium together. We FaceTime with family, especially the grandkids. It’s quiet and cozy.

One project that got away from me while I was finishing school was my travel videos, so I have been working on those. They are mostly for us to have another way of recording this crazy experience, but if you would like to see our October adventures, the link is below. Have a great week!

Muellers on the Loose: October 2023