I need to change my newly started column, because it’s not just questions targeted at me but also just awkward and funny things people say to me:

Boy, about 12 years old: “Are you from Germany?”
Me: “Yes.”
Boy: “When I thought of Germany I always thought of Nazis, but now I know you and will always think of you.” He gave me the biggest smile as wide as he was.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Okay – this entry is just for the record:

Tonight on Thursday the 12th of April 2012 the fuel price in the Waterville Maine area went over four dollars the first time.

4!

That’s a lot for around here…especially in the poorer Central Maine.
I also already feel that this is a high price although I have been here in Maine only since last July, but since then the price just rose so fast! Shortly after I bought my super-Subaru fuel was at $3.17. Only three months later it is at $4. That’s a quick rise!

I should add that the fuel price in the US is measured by the gallon, which is 3.8 liters.

While $4/gallon is still “cheap” compared to German fuel, which is around 1.70 Euro PER LITER (= $6.45/gallon!!), most people in the US, especially in rural areas like Maine, drive their car a lot more than in Germany. There is no public transport in about 90% of Maine and people often drive one or two hours to work. mr.Natey drives 1.5 hours to his work with a heavy duty Volvo wagon (which uses less fuel than my light Subaru…which really annoys me).

First I thought gas is so cheap here…compared to Germany, but I only get 300 miles (483 km) to the tank (60 liters?) and paying around $55 to fill it up. My beloved car gets 22 miles/gallon, which is a bit low (the mister and his Volvo get 28 miles/gallon, newer cars can get up to 50 miles/gallon).

Oh and yes, my car is also an automatic (I hate automatics…grrr), but I could not find a manual car that ticked all the boxes. Manual cars are way more fuel efficient…at least the older models. My car is a 92, good old boy, but I guess I still need to break him in a bit more to reach the estimated 24 to 29 miles per gallon. But even the latest 2011 model of the Subaru Outback Wagon (the one I was going to get), the fuel economy is not much better than mine; almost worse with only 18 to 25 miles per gallon. Now think of those heavy duty trucks and SUV’s that are driving around everywhere….I don’t understand how people are willing to afford them.

Well, imagine a carved wooden board that is hanging on Planet Cola’s header saying “we’re at 4 dollars per gallon”…knowing that the only way is up and tomorrow is Friday the 13th (by the way).

Does someone drive a hybrid or electric car yet?
Who rides his/her bike to work?
I never see people on bikes here. There are no bike lanes around here and the mister said riding a scooter is even too dangerous…sigh…I need a horse and a cart!!!! And I HAVE seen those in people’s yards! Yes, a little bit old Wild West is still alive, I tell ‘ya!

missycola, Planet Cola -

and especially Maine for this:

Sweet potato fries with ketchup (tomato sauce for Australians) and mayonnaise (typical German I guess).

Even better than chocolate; can you believe?
Oh, when did I have chocolate last? Can’t even remember…missycola is on a new health plan.

missycola, Planet Cola -

…aber ich bin auch froh, dass ich es probiert habe mit den usa. weißte, sonst macht man sich immer vorwürfe. und so können wir sagen, dass wir es wenigstens versucht haben. ich finde das gut! besser als die ganzen couch potatoes, die immer nur einem traum hinterher hängen oder gar keinen haben. so!

Das Zitat ist von einer Freundin, nicht von mir, aber ich finde es gut, und es musste einfach mal öffentlich gesagt werden. Basta.
Ich kann diese Stimmen nicht mehr hören: “Das hättest Du doch vorher wissen können” (O-ton Eltern), “Naja, ich fand die USA schon immer ‘so’ und ‘so’, das hätte ich Dir vorher sagen können” (O-ton Freunde, die noch nie in der USA waren und gerne mal anderen Stimmen hinterherplappern), “Ich habe das schön öfter gehört, gerade jene Gegend soll ja ‘so’ und ‘so’ sein. Und ich hab schon gedacht, oh hoffentlich geht das gut” (O-ton Freundin, die noch nie in der USA war), “Jetzt musst Du Dich aber entscheiden, entweder heiraten oder arbeiten, was willst Du?” (so nach dem Motto, der Zug ist bald abgefahren, ich wäre ja schon fast im Rentenalter) (O-ton Tante, jene, die mich als eine der wenigen regelrecht in die Staaten gestoßen hat, weil sie selbst ein US-Fan ist), und so weiter, bla bla bla. Eure schlauen Kommentare von der bequemen deutschen Couch kann ich nicht mehr hören. Ich bin trotzdem stolz auf das, was ich gemacht habe und was ich mache und noch vor mir habe. Auf Miesmacher, Besserwisser und Trittbrettfahrer habe ich noch nie etwas gegeben. Es ist nur leider sehr enttäuschend, was man sich so von eigentlich nahstehenden Menschen anhören muss. Was auf alle der Zitierten passt: “Wer im Glashaus sitzt, sollte nicht mit Steinen schmeissen, sondern sich mal an die eigene Nase fassen”. Kopfschüttel. Ende.

–––––––
The quote above says:

…but I am glad, too, because i have tried it with the usa. otherwise you always reproach yourself. we can say that we at least gave it a try. i am happy about that. better than all these couch potatoes, who always dream of something or who don’t have any dreams. so!

The quote is from a friend; not mine, but I like it and it just needs to be said in public. Period.
I cannot listen to these voices anymore: “You could have known it before” (parents), “Well, I always thought that the USA is like “this” or like “that”, I could have said it to you before” (friends, who never went to the USA and who like to babble what other people say), “I often heard that that area there is supposed to be like “this” and “that” and I already thought, hopefully everything will be fine when you are there” (friend who never went to the States and whose information often lacks of quality), “Now you really need to decide, either you marry or you work, what do you want?” (???)(aunt, who was one of the few people who pushed me with my plans to move to the US, because she herself is a big USA fan), and so on…. I am sick of your ‘smart’ comments from the comfortable German couch. Anyway, I am proud of everything I did, and what I do, and what will come next. Scaremonger, wisenheimer (wiseacres? smart alec?) and free-rider never got (get) my ears and my interest. Unfortunately, it is very disappointing what your ears need to listen to, from close-related people. This fits for every quoted person: “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones and you are the pot calling the kettle black”. I shake my head. The end.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Hello Germany, you have me back. I safely arrived after my long flight from Albuquerque in Hamburg. (Hannah, thank you for your nice email.) The first short flight from Albuquerque to Denver (with United) was very bumpy and I had a headache, talked the whole flight sideways to my neighbor what causes that I threw up in the last 5 minutes of the flight. Too bad. The first time I used the paper bags on a plane. I can tell you, they are made out of a good strong paper! I wonder why they are not supersized, because I just ate a sandwich before the flight and when I imagine what the average American eats…
[Frankfurt airport on my way to my gate. Color changing moving stairway. Spacy, isn't it?]
The flight from Denver to Frankfurt was better. My first long-distance flight with Lufthansa. When I entered the plane, my eyes started to get watered. I was impressed by the nice Stewardesses and the awesome new and modern looking inside of the plane. And I thought, now you are back in Germany…soon. To be honest, my tears were happy tears, I just don’t know why I was such a soft-girl at that moment. I went to my seat and was happy to find a row with only two seats (often there are 3 seats). I had a window seat, yay (I didn’t know what I get before). I talked to my nice neighbor (Pole, immigrated to Germany 20 years ago, works a lot in the US and other countries) for three hours straight. We talked about politics in the States, in Germany and Poland, about what we think about each country and about general life issues. The guy knew everything about German politics, he spoke four languages, and it was very interesting to talk to him. I am not that good with politics but somehow I impressed him because he said that he never met someone from Germany that is that world-open like me and that already experienced as much as I did. Smile. Nice compliment…and I sometimes felt so stupid when he talked about German politics with me. I guess I smartly covered my ignorance. Hi hi.
When the meals came, I still was too sick to eat, so I kept my tablet with the food for a few hours. The stewardesses were very nice. All of them. Very friendly. One of them came and asked if she should free me off from the cold food in front of me, but I explained that I had a migraine and my stomach was not fine yet. She asked me if I want to have a bottle of water. Oh, yes please! Great service, I got a 1.5 liter water bottle just for myself. The talk with my seat neighbor and drinking enough water made me feel better after a while. I had pasta in vegetable sauce, a bread roll with butter and a piece of chocolate cake (they know how to cure a woman, ha ha). I could eat my food, except for the Cesar’s salad…the Parmesan stink wasn’t acceptable for my stomach. I tried to sleep for a while but it was quite loud on the plane. Just behind me was the kitchen area where the stewardesses were talking and organizing food and drinks, and I also heard lots of people standing there, laughing loud, and talking as if they have a little party back there. I remembered that many people ran with beer bottles through the aisles. Lots of alcohol was served on this flight.
I could not really sleep. I forgot to tell you, that there was one weird thing that I noticed in the first minutes of taking my seat in the beginning of the flight. In the headrest area of the seat in front of me, where you normally find the little movie display, was a large empty hole. Nothing. Nada. No screen. This really disappointed me, because I looked forward to watch the newest movies during my long flight and hoped that they have more and better movies than United Air with whom I flew from Munich to Chicago a few months ago. My seat neighbor said, that this in one of Lufthansa’s savings. I could not believe that they don’t offer movies to watch on a long distance flight!! Unfortunately I packed my books in my luggage. They had magazines on board but I am not a (gossip) magazine reader. The German newspaper “Die Süddeutsche”, which I took when I entered the plane, was too heavy content. I wanted entertainment. I looked forward to relax while watching a movie (or two, or three).
In the whole cabin they only had two TV screens in the middle of the cabin, which I couldn’t see, because I sat too deep in my seat. They didn’t show movies on these two screens, anyway. Commercials and Flight information were displayed. What a bad Lufthansa surprise…
Although, I cannot complain about the food or the service on board, but for the next long-distance flight I would probably choose another airline. Singapore air shows how everything can be top, service, food and entertainment (movies & co). My seat neighbor said that Delta Air is ok, but I have read also bad things about them. Well, we will see, when I fly “back” to the States.

Now I am at “home”. When I landed in Frankfurt it was the best sunshine weather and it stayed like this until I reached Hamburg and an hour later my home. Nice welcoming weather. When I entered my house it felt weird. Everything was so sterile white and almost all rooms were a mess. Before I left, I packed half and more of my stuff in boxes, and now I feel not very homey because it looks like I should leave. The rooms are cold. I was freezing and switched the heater on that was shut down the whole winter. An empty fridge welcomed me. I already missed, besides the full fridge, the warm colorful house in Santa Fe. I already thought about some colors and how to paint my kitchen, the hallway, and the bathroom. Maybe I just need to become friend(s) with my home, again.
In the evening I watched TV, what can be weird when you didn’t watch it for a few months. I thought it is just nice to hear voices, then it is not so quit. I didn’t even watch much, because I cleaned my house and washed my clothes. I stayed awake quite long and Nathan called me at around one in the morning. He was at JCPenny’s to exchange a shirt that I bought. It had a large hole on the side and we wanted to exchange it, but there was no other S-size one, and because they don’t give you the shirt cheaper (what I don’t understand), Nathan said he will sew something on it. Didn’t I tell you that my hon is an all-rounder? Yes, he can sew and I don’t. Shame on me.
However, the first night in Germany I went to bed at three in the morning. I set three different alarm times, but I heard none of them and woke up at two thirty in the afternoon the next day. Damn. I wanted to avoid this. I guess I have a bad jet lag, because three in the afternoon here, is eight o’clock in the morning in Santa Fe. The following night was even worse. I talked with Nathan on the phone until almost five in the morning. I thought it is two in the morning. My time feeling is totally mixed up.
Tonight Nathan and I want to talk at midnight (my time). He needs to sing sleep songs for me, so that I can sleep afterwards. =) He did this before actually…
This morning my dad came over and rang the bell at ten o’clock and immediately I was awake and could stand up. I was glad that it worked so easily. I wanted him to wake me up, if he still sees my blinds down.
Wish me a good portion of tiredness tonight! I hate jet lags.

missycola, Planet Cola -

Vor zwei Nächten haben wir, bzw. ich, fast unser kleines Haus niedergebrannt.
Nein, ich habe nicht wieder mal das Öl in der Pfanne zu heiß werden lassen und ein kleines Feuerchen verursacht…wir haben ja dank Nathan seit einiger Zeit ein Schildchen über dem Herd, auf dem zu lesen ist: “Please don’t burn the oil”. =)
Ich hatte meine Unterwäsche per Hand gewaschen und sie dann abends allesamt über einen Kleiderbügel gehängt; also ein paar Sets neben- und übereinander. Der Kleiderbügel hängt bei uns an einem langen Band von der Decke, so dass er vor unserer Gasheizung hängt. Dann hatten wir einen Film geschaut und später waren wir dann mit anderen Dingen unter der Bettdecke beschäftigt, bis Nathan dann aufsprang und meinte, ob der Nebel in unserem Haus Qualm sei. Ich war ziemlich erschrocken, als ich die Schwaden sah. Man konnte kaum noch was im Haus erkennen. Panik. Nathan hat dann Fenster und Türen aufgerissen und mit einem Stück Pappe ziemlich lange herumgewedelt, um den Rauch aus dem Haus zu bekommen. Irgendwie war die Situation lustig als auch überhaupt nicht komisch zugleich. Wir hatten gerade einen Tag zuvor unseren Rauchmelder von der Wand genommen, weil der zu sensibel eingestellt war und bei jedem Anschalten unseres Gasherdes bereits Alarm schlug. Der Rauchmelder hätte bestimmt schon ne halbe Stunde eher Alarm geschlagen.
Nun ja, aber komisch war es schon, weil ich schon die Schlagzeilen im Kopf hatte….’Junges Paar vergnügte sich bevor sie sich gemeinsam das Leben nahmen, weil Ihnen die Visabedingungen das gemeinsame Leben in einem Land einfach zu sehr erschwerte’…oder so ähnlich. Grins. Ich habe mir dann meine Klamotten angeschaut und da war nichts Verbranntes zu sehen. Gar nichts. Seltsam. Nathan meinte dann, dass es das Waschpulver gewesen sein muss. Er meinte, dass die Chemikalien des Waschmittels eventuell das Kokeln verursacht haben könnte. Ich glaubte das nicht, denn erstens haben wir ein Ökowaschmittel was nur aus Kokussnuss- und anderen Ölen besteht und zweitens, weil die Sachen nichts Verbranntes an sich hatten. Wie kann denn bitte etwas ein kleines Haus komplett zuqualmen, ohne die Stoffe der Materialien zu beschädigen? Ich glaube, dass es eher die Synthetikfasern in meiner Unterwäsche waren, die den Qualm verursacht haben.

missycola, Planet Cola -

We hiked, dragged ourselves, complained, nearly passed out and barely made it out of THE CANYON! These words are from a magnet that I bought as proof and for memory of our hiking event. Yes, we did it and we survived.
As you can assume, we are back from our Arizona trip. It took me quite a bit of time to go through our tons of photos, choose the good ones and upload them. Sorry, if you have been waiting for so long. Here are the pictures:

The Grand Canyon is a about seven hours drive from us.
Most of the photos were taken from out of the car.

Still in New Mexico…on the road…

Then we thought we saw Uluru (Australia’s famous rock) in New Mexico’s desert…

Along the way we saw many mile-long trains:

Then, welcome to Arizona:

Some dinosaurs almost attacked us as well

An impression of how the roads looked like…(straight baby, straight)

Not long until we get to Williams and quite close to Los Angeles

This is our cute Bed&Breakfast Canyon Country Inn in Williams. We each paid $66 for two nights on route 66, yeah!

the train station is right next to our bed (ok, almost) and the first night we woke up and sat straight in bed at 3.30 when a train made loud noises with their train whistle to let everyone know they now run through the town. Aaaarrghhhh! Two more times we woke up through this. Have you seen the movie Polar Express? It was like that…hooooonk! OMG, I thought it runs right through our room. You should have seen Nathan’s face…haha, funny. But…you know, it somehow was nostalgic. =)

The guest house from the outside

Our Canyon hike tour the next day (Saturday)
our first view into the canyon

we hiked a trail called bright angel trail

on this picture you can see how far we hiked, until the trees at the very bottom, need a magnifying glass? Point your finger in the center of the photo, then go a little bit south and then west…that was our goal (puhh)

You could ride a mule on the way into the canyon and back.

there was mule poop and pee everywhere on the paths…

and more…

A view from bright angel spot up to the top:

The historic Grand Canyon train (prizes start from $60 p.p.):

Downtown Williams.
Me on Route 66.

and Nathan in the route 66 cafe

On the way back home to NM.
close-up of one of these many trains (shot from inside the car)

We hiked 10 miles/15km in 5 hours (without breaks in total of one hour) in an elevation change of 3300 feet/1000m! The estimated time to hike our distance is six to nine hours. We did it in five hours, but don’t ask for the muscle pain that came after!! Horrible. Today, four days later, is the first day that I can walk. I had the worst muscle ache ever and Nathan suffered the same. We didn’t hike the canyon, we ran through, because we wanted to make it back up to the top to see the sunset. I really thought that I will never make it. I wanted to give up, close before the end, but Nathan pushed me. I thought we have seen so many sunsets all over the world that I don’t really care about this one, if I can just slow down or don’t move anymore. Nathan finally convinced me to try it at least. At 6pm we reached the top. First we went straight to the toilet and to the shop to buy water. Then we sat down in front of an open fire of an old fashion fire place. To sit down felt so good, that we didn’t want to get up anymore. Nathan found out that the best spot to see the sunset is eight miles away and the sunset starts at 6.25pm. It was 6.05pm and wouldn’t have made it to catch the bus. Anyway, we were so tired and sore (our feet hurt like hell) that we decided to rather miss the sunset than stress ourselves more. Take it easy…don’t move, just sit down forever at the nice warm fire, was in my mind. Well, in the end we took a quick look outside just in front of the building. The sun already set quite far and the spot was not the best to enjoy it. We barely could walk, and decided to just drive home…to lie down. *g*

Back in Williams, we went out for dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant, called ‘Red Raven’. The night before we ate at a local restaurant and I got to know the typical American food. Smile. Here is one impression of the american-supersize and deep-fried-mode:

actually my chicken was baked, but still very oily, same as the fries and even the vegetables (corn,carrots from a can). In the middle of eating the waitress came and asked us if we want dessert. They do that always, in the middle of you eating, while your plate still is full. If you say no, thanks, then, five minutes later, you have the bill on your table. It confused me a lot in the beginning, but Nathan said, they have to do it like this. The faster the tables are served and billed, the faster they can have new customers sit down. Yes, fast food always and everywhere. I thought that the locals eat better food than this, but Nathan meant that I have to get to know the ‘what-most-Americans-eat-experience’, because this was my first time eating fast food in the States. I never went to any Big M’s or similar nasty places. This restaurant In Williams would not call their food fast food, they are an old traditional restaurant on route 66 and I got the impression that they really think their food is great.
It was very very oily and to Nathan’s astonishment, they didn’t even serve alcohol. What a pity. Beer generally fits good to fatty food.
To my astonishment the people who sat next to our table, they came way after us, ordered their food, ate, ordered more food, ate, and left while Nathan and I still were eating! Wow, I could not believe how fast they ate (scoff). The portions were huge!

Ok, enough from fatty overweight because of always super-size America. We highly recommended to watch the movie “Supersize Me” and you get an impression what super-size means. We watched the movie a day before we went on the trip…a good movie to watch while you are in the States.

Now, I have a problem with my photo plugin, damn. Unfortunately, I cannot show you more photos at the moment, I’m sorry.
For now, I only can say, please visit my photo gallery, if you want to see them all. Yes, there are many more, but I’ve shown you the best, I think.

Puh, this was a long post. I hope you enjoyed to read the photo story.
It was a very nice trip, we had the best weather, and our car brought us, without trouble, the whole 1000 miles.

missycola, Planet Cola -

We are going on a little trip for the weekend (Friday – Sunday). We will explore Arizona and the Grand Canyon, yay!
Cross your fingers that our old car does not brake down. I wanted to travel down to Mexico to jump into the Ocean, but the risk to brake our car is too high, so we decided to see one of the natural wonders of the world.
I will give the result for the PiCola quiz (see previous post) when we are back. Please make your guess!
Mau, you are not right, sorry.

Have a nice weekend everyone!
It is supposed to be warm and sunny here. I hope.
Sunscreen and sunglasses are packed.
Byeeeee….

missycola, Planet Cola -

After almost seven weeks (!!!) the package that my dad send me end of 2006 finally arrived. Well, in two weeks I already will leave the US again. In the package was a anti-allergy (anti dust mite) mattress cover, a few coffee filters (because I could not find size 4 filters in December 2006) and a cream. It probably took so long because the package was not sent as a gift and it probably got stuck at the customs office. I could not see if someone opened it, but why the hell does it take 6 weeks and 4 days for a small package with 2kg (~4.5 lbs) weight?

Thanks dad, for your effort and your good will, but…*fg* accidentally you sent me the wrong mattress cover. =)

I know that you won’t read this, because you do not have internet at home, but maybe my dear sis (who hopefully reads this) can tell him that?
Dad, you sent me the mattress cover of my very old mattress; the one that we already threw away. I just kept the cover for whatever. I know, you could not know that. I think it is funny. However, even if it was the right cover it would not fit on our current mattress, because we change our bed from the bad uncomfortable futon mattress to a nice thick luxurious queen size mattress, that we found in the storage shed outside. This new mattress is too thick for my allergy cover anyways.
Still, when we opened the package, it was a big laugh!

missycola, Planet Cola -

…reminds me of the moon in Australia, because it is the same upside down. Weird.

…erinnert mich an Australien, weil die Mondsichel nicht steht, sondern auf dem Ruecken liegt. Eigenartig.

missycola, Planet Cola -