EuroYankee

One of my favorite treats as the winter weather heats up my chocolate craving is the zotter candy bar. Flavor of the day: avocado with mandarin yogurt.

Even as I eat them, I’m thinking this is too good to last. Delicious. Organic. Fun packaging. It’s just a matter ot time before this little Austrian company gets bought up by Unilever or Kraft. Or before it becomes passe, like Starbucks.

A recent example of this trend: Bionade, Germany’s trendy organic soda company, recently got bought out by a beer conglomerate.

(photo credit: zotter)

I am the opposite of a movie snob. The moment that a movie gets too artsy and abstract, I lose interest. But one thing I have to admit is that I am much more tolerant of trashy non-English language movies than trashy English-language ones. I guess because a large part of the entertainment comes from watching movies in a foreign language. The most recent is this Maria movie, starring Christian Ulmen who seems to always play a German antihero.

I have added this Basque word to my everyday vocabulary. Txirimiri falls somewhere between mist and drizzle. It seems like it won’t make you wet, but in the end it does. It’s been a strange few months in that it hasn’t been raining much here, just a lot of txirimiri. But unfortunately there have been recent signs that the German rainy season might soon be upon us.

My in-house party partner spent the weekend advancing the cause of international friendship by drinking beer in Munich (yes, it’s that time of year again). That left me searching for my own way to make the world a better place. So I took my credit card and went shopping in Amsterdam. Doubt that my expenditures alone will kickstart the Dutch economy, but at least I got a nice sweater. Wandering the streets of Amsterdam is a magical experience. Add it to your to-do lists. You won’t be sorry.

(photo credit: dachalan)

At first, when I read about the scandal involving a picture of Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero’s goth daughters with the Obamas, I was like, huh. Then, I saw the photo. Wow. I think it is so great that there are still countries in Europe where the children of politicians are allowed to live private lives out of the public spotlight. Where they can be awkward and goth. And it’s not front page news. Because, really, that’s the way it should be. What’s sick and twisted is that American politicians feel the need to parade their families for public approval in order to get elected.

Love the quote from John McCain’s daughter Meghan:

I can’t believe there is a country that exists where the media protects children of public figures, let alone the prime minister’s daughters. It is literally hard for me to fathom that there is a place that respects the privacy of underage children of politicians and diplomats.

I’m not sure what the law is in Germany. But I think it’s similar for minors. But generally, no one cares about the families of politicians (exception: von der Leyen and her seven kids). I don’t know German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s husband’s name. I wouldn’t recognize him if he ran into me on the street.

(photo credit: Gretchen)