Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin (Berlin, Berlin, we're going to Berlin)

This is the chant often taken up by German soccer fans during the German domestic soccer tournament. The finals are carried out in Berlin, you see. During the world cup, the final is also in Berlin, so the German fans have been chanting this alot. Now that Australia is in the final 16, some of the more optimistic Aussies here have been chanting it too. Bring on the Italians!

Owen, of course, has two teams to cheer for. His country of birth, and his country of citizenship. Unfortunately it's really hard to find an australian outfit of ANY size in Leipzig, let along for a 7 month old. Not a problem for the German games, as you can see in the photo. This is Owen cheering the Australia Brazil game with one of our fellow aussies. Wouldn't it be great if Owen was cheering an Australian German world cup final?!? But who would he barrack for?? We're not losing any sleep pondering this problem, don't worry!

Here's Owen practicing his soccer skills so he can try out for a future aussie team. Or will he try and play for the Germans?

It's been quite busy in Leipzig. On Saturday was a big match between Germany and Sweden- not in Leipzig, but you can see from this photo that the big screen area was really packed. They closed the main ring road around the city because the spectators were spilling onto it, trying to get a vantage point of the screen.

The match between Argentinia and Mexico was in Leipzig, and there were lots of fans in the streets. The mexicans were more interesting with their huge hats and outfits. There were also lots of unlucky fans carrying signs "I Need Tickets". Can't show you a photo though - they were a bit camera shy. Not sure why though...

As we all get excited about Monday's (German time) match with Italy, all we have to say is... Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin!

Hagel (Hail)

What is it with the weather and our time in Germany? Nathan was on his way home from work when it started hailing. It didn't seem so bad, until he received an SMS. "Both skylights have smashed".

Jo had been making some dinner when the storm started getting worse. Owen of course was wailing at the noise, and fortunately Jo abandoned dinner and took Owen to a safer spot before the sky fell. Oh dear! What a mess! Of course, rain always comes with hail, and a broken skylight doesn't keep the elements out. Poor kitchen and poor bathroom. You can't see the puddle very well, but the shards of skylight are pretty obvious - fortunately it's perspex, and won't cut.

And this is the cause. That's big hail. Not as big as some of the Sydney hail we've seen, but unheard of in Leipzig!

Of course, we weren't the only ones effected. Quite a few cars had smashed windows. Here's one of our neighbours cleaning up the mess.

And people had a hard time getting home. The hail was as thick as snow and for some reason the water didn't drain away very well. The water was a bit deeper than these cyclists expected. "Arrggh, es ist kalt!"



The next morning, it appeared as if autumn had come again - except this time the leaves were still green!

Führershein (Driving Licence)

Nathan has had some fun (stress actually - it's hard to convey sarcasm in text) over the past few months getting his German driving licence. Unfortunately, if you are staying in Germany for more than 1 year, you can only use your Australian driving licence for the first 6 months.

What's involved? First a theoretical test, which is actually quite difficult. The reason is NOT that you have to take the test in German - it's translated into English. What makes it difficult is that although it is multiple choice, it is possible for 1, 2 or 3 of the possible answers to be right, and some of the questions are quite obscure.

Do you think you could pass? Here's a sampling for you. Answers below.

Q1 (4 points) What are the possible effects of hashish consumption?
a) Diminished awareness of danger
b) Increased likelihood of mistakes in assimilating information.
c) Misjudgement of speed and distance.

Q2 (4 points) A faster car overtakes you on a country road and cuts into your lane. How to you react?
a) You sound your horn and flash your headlights to point out to the other driver that he has behaved wrongly. This, at the same time, works off your anger.
b) You feel challenged and start overtaking.
c) You control your annoyance, remain cool and proceed as if you had not noticed this.

Q3 (4 points) - Why is it necessary to maintain a particularly great safe distance from vehicles in front?
a) Because otherwise wheel-spray impairs visibility. b) Because the stopping distance is greater than on a dry road.
c) Because otherwise you might react too late to puddles.



Q4 (5 points) - Which conduct is correct?
a) I must allow the yellow truck to pass.
b) I must allow the green car to proceed.
c) I may turn in front of the green car.

Q5 (4 points) - What is the maximum number of persons an employer may allow to be taken to work on the floor of a truck?
[You must provide the number].

Q6 (4 points) Your vehicle loses oil. How much drinking water can be polluted by a single drop of oil? Up to:
a) 50 litres
b) 1 litre
c) 600 litres.

Answers

Q1) A typical drug question. These are generally pretty easy. Answer - a, b and c.

Q2) A typical road rage question. Also usually easy. Answer - c.

Q3) A typical "filter out idiots" question. These questions are usually common sense, but require you to understand the attitude of the examiners. Is reacting too late to puddles a legitimate concern, or are they trying to trick you? They are quite conservative. Answer - a, b and c.

Q4) Right of way in Germany is much more complicated than Australia. One of the more difficult rules is when a priority road turns a corner. The general rules are: a) If you stay on the priority road you have right of way. b) If you are on a priority road and you turn off, you have right of way except for rule a. c) Give way to the right except for the previous rules. Answer - a and c.

Q5) There are lots of questions regarding trucks and trailers, since the standard licence allows you to pull trailers and drive up to 3.5 tonne trucks. These are generally the hardest questions. This one in particular is tricky. Did you answer "zero"? Of course you did, and of course you are wrong. The answer is 8. Crazy Germans!

Q6) Environmental driving - a big thing in Germany, where the Green party was part of the ruling coalition for many years. Some would argue that a country where you can drive at unlimited speed on the autobahn would do much more for the environment by introducing a speed limit than by trying and get its learners to change gears early, accellerate slowly and turn off your engine when waiting at a railway crossing. This particular question is one of the harder ones of this type, and the somewhat surprising answer is c.

Scoring. The standard test has 30 questions. If you get a question wrong by choosing any incorrect answer or missing any correct answer, you lose ALL the points allocated to that question. If you lose more than 10 points over the whole test, you fail. Since there were only 6 questions on this mini-test, if you got even one question wrong, then you are likely to have failed the full test.

Not surpringly, when Nathan took his theoretical test (it takes place under exam conditions with all the hopefuls taking the same exam simultaneously), over half of the applicants (mostly eager but underprepared 17 year olds) failed.

Part 2 is a practical test, where you have to show the following:
1) Environmentally aware driving (change gears so that revs never go abouve 2000 rpm).
2) Look out for cyclist whenever turning.
3) Demonstrate correct speed limits (going too slow is almost as bad as going too fast).
4) Demonstrate knowledge of right of way (if you have right of way, and you check for other cars, you lose points!).

After the test (which was carried out in German), Nathan had a tense wait to find out if he passed or not. The examiner and the driving instructor (both are present during the test, however the instructor is not allowed to talk during the test) talked at length about all the mistakes he had made, before passing him. Afterwards, the driving instructor said he was very lucky to pass, and really should have failed!

And the result? Here it is. Note the pose for the photograph - a "half profile", rather than the standard "front on" passport photo.

Fußball Feber (Football Fever)

So how can you tell it's world cup time in Germany? From the merchandise, of course!

Here's some soccer dummies - not the human kind :)

Soccer nutella. We actually bought one of these.

Soccer pasta.

And even soccer bread.

How many different soccer items can you find here?

Because Leipzig is one of the venues for the matches, there's quite a buzz in the city centre. They've set up a big screen at Augustusplatz - the main square. This is quite popular and busy.

Yesterday Germany played their first game, and at Nathan's work lots of the Germans were feeling sick in their stomach with FEAR. Why? Because Germany is one of the better teams, and they are EXPECTED to do well. But soccer is a funny game, and anything can happen. We Aussies are more relaxed. Everyone expects Australia to lose (though reading the SMH, it's a lay down misere that they're going to win the tournament!), so there's no pressure.

Tomorrow, the Netherlands play Serbia-Montenegro, and we saw lots of Netherlands supporters in their orange. This was not planned, but Owen happened to be wearing orange as well. This photo is for Martijn and John.

You know the table soccer game we all played when we were kids. Remember what it was called? Fussball or Foosball, right? That's actually taken from the German way of saying football. What to the Germans call it? You'd expect "Tisch Fußball" - literally table football. Nope - it's called Kicker.

Reverse culture shock

A few people have asked us if we got any reverse culture shock coming back to Australia. That's where you get used to a different culture (usually by going overseas for a while), and when you return to your original culture you find that what you used to do before no longer seems right.

The most obvious one was the language, and just how easy it was to do things when you can communicate easily with people. Actually, that's not really reverse culture shock is it? OK, so this one was reverse culture relief. You get so used to STRUGGLING every day with a different language that it's such a weight off your shoulders when you don't need to do this.

For example, in Australia Nathan ordered a fast ADSL internet connection for Jo's dad. A bit of research, a few phone calls, a bit of confusion, and ... hey, it's still complicated! It wasn't till a month after we got back to Germany that it was sorted out. Oops! Failure aside, it was still easier than in Germany, where Nathan ordered an internet connection and pay TV over the phone (there's no such thing as free to air TV, believe it or not!). The internet works, but we have no idea if it's actually an appropriate deal, and the TV was incorrect and didn't work. It took alot of help to sort out the contractural mess we had gotten ourselves into with that one!

Still, while it was wonderful to be able to understand everything and communicate easily, we still had trouble finding the English words for things at times. Sometimes the German word would come first and then a second searching for the English word....I guess that's what 9 months in a non-English speaking country does to you.

The other obvious one is driving on wrong side of the road. Yes, it's sacreledge, but driving on the left really did seem wrong for a little while! Nathan avoided driving in Australia to try to keep his right hand driving sense as much as possible. Didn't work, though. The first time he drove back in Germany, he broke 4 road rules in one 15 minute trip!

Not so obvious one was the difficulty of getting around Sydney without a car. We did have access to a car, and we drove SO MUCH! Jo did all the driving and it was really tiring as a result. Things are just so spread out in Sydney. We've become so used to living in a small city like Leipzig and feel spoilt to live within 20 minutes walk of the city centre. Here's Owen in a Sydney car seat. He hated this at first - he screamed all the way home from the airport. By the end of our time in Australia, it was one of his favourite nap spots.

Recycling. The Germans are really into recycling. We've got 4 different bins downstairs to sort our rubbish into, and there's another one down the road for glass. Most public bins have at least 3 of the options. When we were in Sydney, we didn't know what to do with our plastic bottles or organic matter. Where was the plastic recycling bin? Where does the organic stuff go? In the end we had no choice but to reluctantly throw them into the general rubbish.

Many of the glass and plastic bottles have a Pfand (deposit) which you get back when you return the bottle. And they don't just melt the bottles and make new ones - they actually clean and re-use them! Here's a collection of bottles we have currently - worth around 40c or so. If you look closely at the beer bottles you can see a wear mark - proof that these bottles have been scratching against their neighbours for many a year. It's true for the plastic bottles as well, though it's harder to see in this photo. We think it's a great idea, and it really works. Sometimes we can't work out from the label if there is a deposit - we just collect them anyway, just in case they're worth something...

Australian money - the 20c and 50c coins are so huge and heavy. It's a great thing that there are no 1c and 2c coins, though!