Happy New Year - Our Year in Review

Happy New Year to our readers. It has been an incredible year.  Before we look to 2012, we wanted to recap some highlights of our year as well as our blog.

We have had quite an active year living in Germany.  If it wasn't enough living in a foreign country, we did a bit of travel out of the country.  This year, we have travelled to (to name a few):

Berlin (April)
America (May) Dana and Dylan only
Austria (June) Bryan only
Netherlands/Belgium/France (August)

In 2011, www.foltice.com has had nearly 5,000 unique visitors in 98 countries.  What has started as a way to keep our friends connected to our adventures has become an opportunity to share our story with readers all over the world.  We really enjoy hearing from everyone and we would like to see our interaction with our readers increase in 2012 (read: please comment more!  We love to hear from you!).

With that being said, we would like to like to hear from you.  What would you like to read more/less in the New Year on our blog?

Year in Review in Photos:

Karneval, Köln 

Berlin Wall

Annapolis, Maryland

Dylan turns 2

Achensee, Austria

Pröbsting, Hoxfeld, Germany

Anholter Schweiz, Nature Park, Germany

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Brussels, Belgium

Nord Paz de Calais, France

Germany vs. Bosnia basketball game, Bremen, Germany

Oma and Opa come to visit, Borken, Germany

Oktoberfest, Munich 

Edgewater, Maryland for Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Foltice Family

We wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  It's been a great year filled with unforgettable memories.  We are so blessed.  

Foltice Family 2011

Everyone made it safely to America where we will be relaxing and spending time with Dana's family in the Washington DC area.

Pip's Doppleganger

We recently found my brother Pip's (real name Derek) doppelgänger.  We had to travel 4,000 miles to find him, but we saw this picture on the train from Borken to Essen.  Needless to say, we had quite a good laugh and were really gald we brought our camera along.  Enjoy. 

As you can see from the pictures below, I may resemble hockey great Steve Yzerman, but compared to the match that we found for my brother, Stevey Y is not my doppelgänger. My doppelgänger remains at large. 

5 Tips for Eating At a Restaurant In Germany

Our monthly University staff meeting affords us a nice lunch at various restaurants in Munster. It's also a nice way to pick up on small nuances of eating a meal with my German colleagues. Based on these experiences, I have some small differences that I would like to pass on to Americans that may find themselves eating a meal at a restaurant with other Germans.   Here are the top 5 tips in no particular order: 

1. Conserve your Drink. There are no free refills here in Germany, even at a fast food restaurant. If you want another drink, it's fine. You will just pay full price for it. This is a tricky rationing situation, especially if you don't know how long a meeting will last. I usually allocate half of my drink to before receiving our food and the other half after we receive the food.
2. Don't drink the water. Not because it's harmful for your health, but because if you order a water, you will pay for a full bottle of tonic water.   The water here is usually just as expensive, if not more than any other drink.  There is no such thing as a free ice water here. I haven't asked for ice water directly, but I am pretty sure that the waiter would suggest that I take an empty cup to the bathroom if I really wanted a free water.   
3. Don't use your hands...ever. This nearly killed me the first time we had pizza. In Germany, the pizza comes whole, not cut into slices. Germans eat pizza from the outside in, with a fork and knife. I tried this tactic for a short time until I became so frustrated that I finally grabbed a big chunk and said with my mouth full, 'Forget this. This is how you eat pizza.'  The same rule applies to burgers. People eat their hamburgers with a knife and fork. At this point, I put my foot down and refused to even try eating a hamburger with utensils. I can't imagine people eating Five Guys Burgers with a knife and fork. I think they would get thrown out of the restaurant if someone would try.   
4. Finish your food and don't ask for a doggy bag. It is quite normal that everyone at the table, I mean everyone, eats every scrap of food on the table. I am not sure if eating everything on their plate is a story passed down from the grandparents ala a Wiemar hyperinflation story. No matter how much food is dished out, it gets eaten. I got laughed at when I asked for doggy bag. It's possible to get a doggy bag if you ask, but it is not a typical request. I would advise against it. 
5. If it's your party, you pay.   Normally, if you are hosting a celebration (graduation or birthday) at a restuarant, the honorary person (new graduate or Birthday boy/girl) pays the bill.  This shocked me at first when we had a dinner celebration for a two guys who received their Doctorates in the Finance Department. At the end of the meal, instead of the dinner party coming up with the money to pay the bill, the two new graduates grabbed the bill and paid for our night.  

Are there any other tips that I am missing? 

I know the first place I am going to eat when we land in America over Christmas..Five Guys. 

That's how you eat pizza.

More Weird German Children's Books

Dylan insisted on getting a book about police (Polizei) out from the local library.  I glanced at the book but didn't really get a good look at it until we got home and Dylan sat on my lap so we could read it together.  I know that culturally Germans are very frank, realistic people and I guess I should expect no less when it comes to discussing the harsh realities of police work in children's books.

Let's teach our kids about Crime Scene Investigation and forensic techniques as early as possible.  My favorite (if you can see it) is the blood dripping from the broken glass in the window on the right. 

Terror in the train station!

This is like one of those "See how many crimes you can spot!" games.  Or just a regular day in a park in Germany.