With it being a Saturday, we were able to sleep in somewhat before I visited a place I have yet to visit here in Germany- the Trash Dump. Yep.
"why the dickens does she want to talk about TRASH of all things?"
Well, because it was definitely a different experience.
Since it was raining (and I didn't want a sign in flashing lights above my head that says "TOURIST") I have no photos of the place, but think of it as a regular looking recycle place except for the sorting is very precise indeed.
You bring your pre-sorted bags of trash and throw the items, one by one, into their respective bins-brown, white and green glass, aluminum, cardboard, paper, and plastic. There is not a bottle of scrap of cardboard out of place, and the long fluorescent bulbs are stacked neatly in a pile. Some Germans even clean out and dry each bottle before bringing it to the recycle center in their reusable tote bag. I had heard tell of this, and today I did witness a lady with bottles that looked so clean you could probably drink right out of them.
You can tell a lot about a person about what they throw away, and the sure sign that an American has been in the vicinity is the sighting of exclusively American products, such as such as bottles of Propel water, Doritos bags, Tide Cartons, etc.
Based on that criteria, it would appear that there are precious little Americans that use this particular dump, and as I tossed Ellert's Propel bottle into the plastic bottle bin, I left my mark, saying "American was here."
It's almost fun, a sorting game, and the glass was particularly fun to dispose of due to the satisfying sound of the bottle smashing as it goes down the chute.
As I described, everything is organized and regimented and if you decide you want to throw everything away without bothering to sort it, it costs €7.50 for putting trash in the mixed trash bin (also known as the lazy man's trash bin)
George took us to the PX exchange so that Aunt Rachel could get some ornaments she wanted to take back home. I browsed around the clothes section, marveling at how it's already the time of year for Fourth of July decorations and then we both went to the Starbucks in the food court area.
The ice in my iced tea from Starbucks broke my "ice fast," as I haven't even touched ice since I left DC almost four weeks ago. It's just the way they do drinks here in Europe, cold, with no ice. (and I say "Europe" because I know it's basically the same across the board. They are ice-prejudiced. Or perhaps they are simply trying to avoid confusion, because "Eis" (pronounced: ice) is the term for Ice Cream in at least two popular European languages. So if you ask for ice in your water, you will probably get some weird looks.
We drove to the soccer field to meet up with the entourage of Germans from our village who were headed with their boys to the soccer tournament. I also saw the first pickup truck I have seen in four weeks which was driven, of all people, by an Italian guy whose son also plays for Schönaich. It feels like everyone drives a sports car or sedan here, and when I saw the truck I realized I hadn't seen one in ages.
Soccer is a big deal here, as I have said several times before, and these boys take their soccer very seriously. We all went to the outdoor soccer complex about 30 minutes away that had five fields, a cafe that sells items such as butterbretzels and hamburgers and pommes and .05€ sour belts. It was quite the setup.
We spent the whole of the afternoon sitting out near the field and watching all the various teams play, tournament style.
Ellert in his warm-up suit
Being all cute for the Paparazzi (aka me)
The team in action. Also featuring half-naked Erla in playing in the foreground.
I got myself a butterbretzel, which is a giant German style pretzel, split and filled with butter. The pretzels here are unlike any I've ever had before, soft on the bottom, and thin and crisped on the top where the pretzel is twisted.
Apfelschorle is the drink of choice for the soccer watchers. It's sparkling mineral water mixed with half Apple juice. And not just any apple juice, the German kind, which is generally unpasteurized and is extremely flavorful.
It was a special treat and quite the experience to be able to attend the tournament and to watch Ellert play. Though it rained for a spell, we were well armed with umbrellas and suffered little damage to life, limb or spirits.
Though we came close to suffering at least a little damage to life and limb.
I was showing a video of the game to Arnheidur and Ellert when all of a sudden, I felt a gigantic "THWACK" on my face and jaw and all was black for a few seconds, as my reflexes must have caused me to shut my eyes, hard. It hurt, like someone had abruptly punched me in be jaw, but it startled me more than anything. As you might have guessed, an AWOL soccer ball had come out of nowhere and ricocheted off the three of us just like a pinball machine. Ellert appeared to be the worst affected out of the three of us, but when one takes into account his considerable skills in the area of acting (see: The Stomachache Story) it is somewhat doubtful it hurt as badly as he portrayed. He was surprised to hear that I got hit as well, because I didn't react much. I explained to him that just because I wasn't rolling around on the floor *hint hint* didn't mean I hadn't gotten hurt too.
However, I wasn't going to allow a trivial little thing such as getting hit in the face with a ball ruin my day.
I sat with Embla and we people watched, talked, played with the soccer ball a little bit, and I even taught her how to polka.
"Oh wow."
"Wow what?"
"that little boy over there just cussed really bad in German. Gosh, I hope his coach doesn't hear that."
"Truth or Dare?"
"Dare."
"I dare you to walk past those people with a soccer ball under your shirt to look like a pregnant lady. Except you are....a twelve year old."
We tried to cheer like proper ladies for the players but ended up getting pretty animated nonetheless. She did the Icelandic, for only Ellert's ears to understand, and I did German. And a few southern slang in there too for good measure.
"Hraðer, Ellert!"
"SCHNELLER! SCHNELLER!"
"Lauf, lauf, lauf!"
"Run y'all! Get 'em round the front! round the front!"
"Ja! Ja Ellert! Super."
His tournament ended up coming in 4th place out of 10 teams, and we were very proud of his performance.
We ate dinner together at the same restaurant that we ate the day after arriving in Germany, Sulzbachtal.
The weather the past few days has been the best we've had on our entire trip, and the sunset was lovely tonight. As we drove home, the clouds were pink with the setting sun and the country landscape and waving fields of rye were beautiful in the evening light.
My mind has gone back to travel-mode and I started packing in earnest this morning, since we travel back to the U.S. on Monday. People have asked, "are you ready to go home?"
Well, yes and no.
Perhaps I will write my closing thoughts about my trip in a later blog post, but I shall leave you with this for now. It is somewhat of a paradox, as part of me is ready to go home, to get back to the normal rhythm of the family life and the farm life that the Lord has blessed me with for the time being. However, at the same time, I know that I could be fairly easily persuaded not to leave this beautiful and fascinating country, with its history, distinctive culture, and, of course, its immaculate Trash Dumps.
Can't forget that.
;)
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