Sand man

We have the problem here in Düsseldorf in our back yard that it gets very soggy after it rains. I recently told a friend about this and he said I should spread a thin layer of sand on the grass. This will create a layer to absorb or filter water to lower layers of earth and the grass will simply grow taller in order to accommodate the new layer. It makes sense given all of the water we get around here and what I know about filtration under the earth.

So, I tried it today. My neighbor saw me and asked what I was spreading on the grass. I told him it was sand. He said - yes you need to do that from time to time.

Amazing - I had never heard of such a thing in the US. And, here it is a normal solution to the problem of water drainage in lawns (or the lack of drainage). Another tip for life overseas or life in an unfamiliar environment - ask a friend or a neighbor if you are baffled by local conditions.

To think - I could have asked three years ago.

Stockbrot

Stockbrot means bread on a stick. This is something the kids commonly do at school activities. Today I made Stockbrot for the first time. In order to make Stockbrot You take dough and wrap it around the end of a stick, then you place the stick over a campfire and let the dough cook.

Cooking bread on a stick has the same relaxing feeling as roasting marshmellows around the campfire. Your stick is too short, or too long, or too flimsey, and the dough, in this case, falls into the fire, catches on fire, or turns suddenly dark shades of black. You fight against he smoke, try to get the right angle so as not to singe your hair, and to still cook the bread. But if your lucky, things work out and you have an nice little piece of bread to eat at the end.

Harvard Day of Faith - The Mormon

I found this interesting and thought I would share. The other discussions were also interesting.

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Terminal Stop

The subway in Düsseldord recently added english translations of it's announcements. It goes like this:

Belsen Platz; Verbindungen zu; Connections to; . . .

This is rather entertaining in and of itself as the cuts from german to english and vice versa are so abrupt it's hard to get into the rhythm of the message. But the last stop on the line was the best of all. It went like this:

Am Seestern; Endstation; Terminal Stop;

This is a correct translation, but has somewhat ominous references. Like something terrible is about to happen at the next stop. In the U.S. we would say that someone has a terminal illness. And so I immediately associated Terminal Stop with terminal illness and assumed the worst. Gratefully, nothing happened and all the passengers were able to exit the train unharmed.

Fungus Pizza

I went to a pizza lunch again today and a co-worker ordered what I affectionately refer to as a "fungus pizza." Why do I do this. Because apparently the Italian word for mushroom (German word is Pilz) is related to the english word fungus.



Very entertaining.

U.S. news is hilarious

Utah farmer fights back. That might have been my title to the article.

HOOPER, Utah - A farmer has erected a fence in his backyard made of three old cars sticking up in the air to send a message to new neighbors that he can do whatever he wants on his farm.

This little gem was on the main page on Yahoo.com. I am often amused by the fun articles that Yahoo places there. I should probably look elsewhere for good news, but Yahoo is where I check my email and it's convenient, and entertaining.