Germany

Champions of Breakfast

January 10, 2011January 12, 2011 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

There are so many things that France does right. The wine, the food & the healthcare. The 35-hour work week & the apéritif. Some things about living in France have just been too easy to get used to. The fact that in France, bad grammar is a worse offense than profanity just makes me feel at home. I can no longer sit down to a meal without a glass of red wine, or go without an espresso after lunch - especially when lunch can often be around 2 hours long. So many things about life in France are - yeah, I'll say it - better than that in the United States. But, you already knew that, right? It's hardly a secret. People here have longer life lines for a reason. That's not to say that I don't ever have a few complaints. Believe me... I do. (You knew that was coming, right?) Sometimes, it's just a matter of homesickness, or missing something from home...

French Haters: Your Ignorance is Showing

July 8, 2010January 27, 2014 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

So... a Frenchman walks into a bar. No, wait... how many Frenchmen does it take to... wait, no. Have you heard the one about the French guy who -Seriously... shut the fuck up.It's no secret that I've got a lot of pet peeves. People are constantly grating on my nerves. I simply do not have a lot of patience where people are concerned. Usually, the stupid things they say & do are mildly irritating, easily ignored. Some may piss me off... then there are the other acts of stupidity & running off at the mouth that I absolutely cannot abide.Racist & sexist jokes are a good example.I'm not talking about politically incorrect humor. I'm not referring to friendly jabs & charicatures. I'm talking about cruel & malicious jokes that are not even intended to be funny. Ignorant & historically inaccurate babble designed to be rude & bigoted without even trace amounts of humor.What's worse is to tell these asinine "jokes"...

Storming the Beaches

March 19, 2010November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

It seems that most people, when planning a trip to France automatically plan a trip to Paris. I suppose that's because if you're going to come to France, you just HAVE to see the Eiffel Tower.Yawn.For many people, Paris IS France - there is nothing at all worth seeing that exists outside of Paris, so they spend their vacation strolling on the Champs Élysées & gawking at the Arc de Triomphe.Snore.Of course, standing around in museums, staring at a painting of a bowl of fruit is a really good time. Shopping for over-priced clothes is a real kick in the ass, too. Right?Ugh. Whatever.There are some other people who comprehend the fact that there is a France outside of Paris. Maybe those people are taking bicycle tours through Provence, are sunning themselves on the Mediterranean coast, or are taking wine tours through Burgundy. Good for them.Maybe they're history nerds on the beaches of Normandy.Olivier & I have been to Normandy...

Coffee Cups & Campgrounds: The Road Back to France

September 30, 2009December 21, 2018 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"'Mid pleasures and palaces through we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like Home." -J. Howard Payne"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." -George Moore "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." -T.S. Eliot* * * I stared out the window, watching Germany roll by as we made our way to Freiburg. "You know," I said to Olivier. "I can't recall the last time that I had a decent cup of coffee." He pulled on his beard as he steered our little Renault up the highway, recalling all of the cups of coffee we'd drunk over the past days.Then he said, "We haven't had a decent cup of coffee since we left France." It was true. I had some drip coffee from a bakery with my kanelgiffel in Copenhagen. We made some nasty instant sludge while camping in Sweden and had some watered-down American style joe with our Frühstück in...

Bavaria: Fairy Tales Set to the Sounds of Sausage

September 24, 2009December 2, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

After we had left ever-changing Berlin behind us and the gray nightmares of the concentration camp, Olivier and I headed south, where everything had slowly changed from gray to green and the sharp, hard edges of barracks and cities had smoothed, turning into the rolling hills of Bavaria and the Black Forest of Germany. Since we had entered a new region, I began fidgeting around with the buttons on the radio, to see what it sounded like here. Immediately, I was reminded of this: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAUP1wsmqUU Indeed, that's what Bavaria sounds like. What Bavaria looks like is probably just as one might imagine. As cliché as it sounds, the scenery and architecture of the homes did remind me very much of those Grimm's Fairy Tales that I read when I was just a wee little Razzy. "People here don't greet one another with 'Guten Tag'," Olivier told me. "People in this region greet one another with 'Grüß Gott'." "Uh-huh", I said. "So, what does that mean? What's the difference?" "Grüß...

Sachsenhausen

September 3, 2009December 2, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." -Martin Niemöller * * * This is the blog post that I almost didn't write. I debated long and hard about it, knowing that I could never do justice to the topic, that I wasn't worthy and I would have to abandon the mockery, snark and sarcasm in order to discuss it. Let's face it - as much as I hate it, some shit just isn't funny. In the end, I decided to sober up and write it, knowing that I still can do no justice to the topic, but the fact that it is such...