Tomorrow I have a hair appointment!

This is how it went down:

Jimmy: Bitte schön.

Jessica: Ich möchte Haarschnitt Trocken.

Jimmy: Heute?

Jessica: Ja.

Jimmy: *flipping through his book – it’s clearly full* ehhh….

Jessica: Morgen?

Jimmy: Ja! *points at the time 17:30 time slot*

Jessica: Okay!

Asides from speaking to Martin, that was one of the most sophisticated conversations I’ve ever had in German in the outside world!

Jimmy is the very cute & sweet hairstylist I went to last time. I’m excited to go again. Heading there straight after work tomorrow! Tee hee.

Martin is in training at his work, but he’s still exchanging emails with me to instruct me on how to open a jar of applesauce.

I am very bad at opening jars. It’s pretty pathetic and it bothers me, but I have NO wrist strength. I should probably hold those little weights and work out my wrists. I dunno if that works.

Anyway, Martin wrote me and said it’s all about the vacuum, and that I just need to let some air out. He said to use a knife to place between the glass jar and metal lid, and then lift.

And OMG, it works!!!! Like a charm!!!!

All those years of frustration and aggravation… I didn’t know it would be so easy!

I’m so THRILLED!!!! hehe.

Ack, it’s 11:15pm and I just scarfed down a bunch of pan-fried hashbrowns! Now I’m too bloated to go to sleep, lol.

I’m not a big fan of junk food, but I lurve greasy potatos. Mmmm!

Germans eat their reibenkuchen (like hashbrowns) with apple sauce. Which is a really pleasing combination.

I have a jar of apple sauce here, but I can’t open it! I tried unsuccessfully for 10 minutes straight but was left with a sore wrist and the desire to cry.

So I just ate my hashbrowns the American way, with ketchup instead of apple sauce.

Behhhh!

But I shouldn’t complain. It was still potato, greasy, and salty. Great combination that really hit the spot!

Asides from spending time with Martin and his friends, I also hang out with my own ex-pat girlfriends.

Here are the two nice girls I met in my German class:

^The Brits

^The Americans

Aren’t they so cute?? And don’t they look so well-matched with their boyz????

It’s a lot of fun having girlfriends to chat and do girly things with!

Martin came back from France on Friday (instead of Saturday!). It’s much nicer having him near rather than so far away. I missed him a lot.

We spent half the weekend in Düsseldorf shopping along the Kö (the Champs-Élysées of Düsseldorf) and the other half biking in Martin’s city and enjoying the sun.

I bought a new outfit on our shopping trip to the Kö, which makes me feel great. We also sat by the river and watched the Porsche’s, Maserati’s, and other nice cars drive by.

The next day at Martin’s, we biked over to the adjacent town to visit a big community garage sale. I almost bought a kitschy egg tray shaped as a rooster for 50 cents, but Martin said No because he thought it was hideous. It kind of was but that’s the charm of kitsch. Maybe he’s right though – I would never eat that many eggs myself, nor would I serve eggs fit for a tray at any dinner party.

We are back in Düsseldorf now and need to catch some rest for an early work day tomorrow. Gute Nacht!

I’ve just made my second Kiva loan!!

My first loan of $25 was recently repaid in full, so I had enough credit to make a second loan.

Last time I chose a Mother of 2 with a fruit stand business in Peru, and this time I’m choosing a Mother of 2 with a desire to expand her salon/beauty shop in Benin!

I’m pretty excited, I think she’ll do really well.

No pictures this time because in hindsight, it was a breach of privacy to post the other entrepreneur’s pic and info. But you can browse the others on Kiva.Org.

I ran a search on the MLS for houses in east Toronto. This is what I found listed at $204,900 CAD:

Is it on the right or left? I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, semi-detached shack bungalow. The listing describes it as more spacious than it looks, and indicates ‘no surveys’. I guess that means no home inspection (?). Yeah, okay. Don’t all rush out at once.

For the same price, you can buy this in Berlin:

It’s a spacious, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, detached home with everything updated and new. It’s on a lot size that millionaires in Toronto can’t even dream about.

Be honest, which one do you like better?

Note: With buying real estate in Germany, the buyer (not the seller) pays all the closing costs and taxes, which is around 12-13% of the purchase price. If you sell your property in less than 10 years, you owe the government 15% on capital gains. This discourages constant buying and selling, which is why the prices are so low. You buy a house because you want to live in it – that makes sense to me. I think it’s better than the over inflated prices of Toronto.

You may call me a princess, but I would never want to buy and/or live in that run down east Toronto home.

One of the things that really tickle Martin and I is that I’m a hardcore city girl, while he’s more into nature and the countryside.

While Martin doesn’t live in the ‘country’, 10 minutes away is the country.  Since I go to his place most weekends, I get the chance to really indulge myself.

It’s really really nice. He’s also having fun exposing me to his lifestyle.

Here are some photos to document my new found country-love:

I used to be afraid of sheep, but here I am picking grass for them to eat, and I actually touched them too ^_^.

They are so precious and curious.

Just before this next picture was taken, Martin and I had this conversation:

J: Can cows run fast?

M: Uhh, yeah. [thinking it was a joke-question]

J: Really?

M: Yeah. They have long, strong legs. They can run faster than you can.

And then the 2 baby calves we had stopped to observe, got up, played with each other, and ran off into the sun together!

^This is my happy expression after witnessing it. It was quite magical! You just can’t see stuff like this in the city.

We then found an open field with some hay rolls, jumped on them, and rolled them too. Martin rolled it while I was on top, making me feel like a hamster on the wrong side of the running wheel! We were giggling like little kids. FUN TIMES!

Next is the cute guy who took all the pictures above. He’s enjoying a refreshing ice cream after a 3+ hour bike tour of the countryside with me. We really had a good workout in the hot sun.

So thanks to Martin, I’m a converted country lover! I still love the city, of course, but I have a stronger appreciation for rural and smaller towns now. Which I thought was impossible before.

You know how North Americanized Chinese food looks like this?

With deep fried sweet n sour chicken balls and wonton skins, *shudder*. I’m not a fan, not just because I’m vegetarian, but because it’s so greasy and gross.

‘Europeanized’ Chinese food isn’t overly greasy. This is how you make it. Take note if you want to start a successful Chinese restaurant in Germany.

1. Find local seasonal vegetables. Chop them up into bite sized pieces and stir fry them.

2. Add some Chinese ingredients like black tree fungus.

3. Maybe also add some fried tofu.

Next step is the key step…

4. Dump in a TON of salt.

That’s how I find the Chinese food here: Way too salty.

If I go to a Chinese restaurant, I have to request “ohne salz”. Then the waitor (who is of Chinese descent!) looks at me like I’m out of my mind, and confirms with Martin in German if this is really what I mean.

As if the waitor doesn’t know the food is unauthentic and overly salty! HA!

Anyway conclusion: order Chinese food here with ohne salz or kein salz. Otherwise you’ll be downing your tea to quench a thirst that is impossible to quench.

Another difference is, at the end of a meal, everyone gets a complimentary hard liquor shot!

感謝, Prost!

Well shucks!

Martin surprised me on Friday afternoon by ringing my doorbell. He showed up earlier than expected – so early that I didn’t buzz him in because I wasn’t expecting anyone (advertisers/sales people ring random bells just to get into the building, so I ignore buzzes if I’m not expecting anyone).

To make a long story short, we had a fun-filled weekend with lots of out and about business, whilst enjoying the nice weather (will post pictures later!).

The crappy part is that I would still be hanging out with Martin in his city if he didn’t have to go to France again this week. He is on his way now.

I seriously thought of going with him this time but I’d have to leave early to make it back for work. It’s too much of a hassle to get back to Düsseldorf by train, which would be worth the time and extra cost IF he were in Paris, but alas, he is not ^_^.

So now I’m back in Düsseldorf with my Martin-time cut short again.  Boo! Luckily the weather is still very nice, and I found a nice park nearby!