German-American Spotlight: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben

Today was a day that I absolutely had to jump back on here for another German-American Spotlight post.  It is September 17, and it's Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben's birthday!  He was born on this day 282 years ago in 1730 in Magdeburg Germany.  He is possibly the most famous German-American, with good reason.  If not for him, our country may not have been able to win the Revolutionary War and gain our independence.

German-American Spotlight: Neil Armstrong

I had mentioned in a previous post that it was sad how little people know about Germans to the extent that they can't even name a German easily.  So, I wanted to help the world a little and provide a weekly series on German-Americans.  This is the first one on one of the greatest men to walk this planet and our moon: Neil Armstrong.

His heritage is similar to mine - German and Scottish (I've got some Irish/British too), but his life is far more impressive.  He was just shy of 39 when he became the first man to walk on the moon.  He was part of something that was not only critical for the United States at that time, but also the entire world.  He wasn't always an astronaut and worldwide hero though.

A "Blanket" Apology

So, first thing - I need to extend an apology to anyone who has been reading this blog at all over the past half year.  I've basically dropped off the face of the earth this summer.  I hate making excuses, but I've been busy with my Princess duties (the blog about which has also been neglected), 2 jobs (I got a new job, yay!), and many things with friends and family and of course the 2 guys in my life (Spartacus and my boyfriend).  I do have some crafts with pictures to share.
I also apologize for the text and its size in this post.  I've tried editing it through html and the "compose" tab, but nothing will fix it.  If anyone knows how to fix it, I'd love some help!

I'm pretty sure I owe a bunch of craft things and about a week straight of "Musik Monday".  So, here's my promise:  Next week, there will be a new post each day, starting Monday for pseudo-Musik Mondays.  Also, by the time I start up with school again (Aug 20...way too soon), I'll post at least 1 crochet, 1 nail art, and 1 random craft - starting with this post.  It's clever title should give a hint.

Recently, a really good family friend (he's basically like a 2nd brother) and his wife had a baby.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to her baptism and the celebration after.  I knew I had to give my own gift even though my entire family was attending, so I figured that the best thing I could do was crochet.

I scoured the interwebs looking for an adorable, yet unique pattern for a baby blanket - something that a kid can use for a long time.  I came across a pattern for an alphabet baby blanket.  (Warning, the link will download the PDF of the pattern - it can also be found here under "Alpha Magic Afghan")  I took my sweet time from about mid-June, then when it was a week before the Baptism I knew I had to work fast.  I crocheted hours every night after work while going through the whole Once Upon a Time series (shameless plug for an awesome TV show).  I finally finished just in time! 

I'm so glad you can see the letters

*More after the jump*

Musik Monday - German Call Me Maybe

Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe" is one of the catchiest songs ever.  I won't deny that I absolutely love it and the many youtube videos it's spawned.  This is obviously one of my favorites since it's in German and realllly well done.  Enjoy!



And they have more videos!  I am so excited right now!

Musik Monday - Heino, Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren

I got extremely Nostalgic tonight for my time studying abroad in Heidelberg after one of the Facebook pages I liked, German Girls Helping German Girls in America, posted many many pictures from the city tonight.

I stalled on putting up a song today and actually had a different one planned, but at the last minute, I knew I had to post this one:

Gotta love the winter photos when they talk about a balmy summer

The song is more about missing a woman the singer met in Heidelberg after he left the city, but most will quote the song as a way to say that they miss the city.  Here are lyrics that translate the song from German to English.  I love the above video because it shows the beauty of the city and gives an inkling of how amazing it is.

I also feel the need to share some of my photos from my time in Heidelberg (after the break):

Musik Monday - Wise Guys, Jetzt ist Sommer

I've prescribed myself bedrest today after falling sick yesterday afternoon.  The fever/chills are gone, but the sore throat is still here, so I'm not as chipper as I could be.  I do, however, have a short break from my Princess duties and can hopefully get a little rest in.

Today, I decided to post a song for Musik Monday that always lifts my spirits a bit: Jetzt ist Sommer by The Wise Guys





It's probably one of my favorite songs of all time.  I first came across it when my mom decided to have her German class sing it at the "International Caberet" the language department at my college used to throw before I went there.  As the child of a professor, I got to ham it up on stage too, and the class sang this song with the karaoke version on the CD...and did some "dancing", while wearing sunglasses of course.

The song is glorifying summer as a wonderful time of year (because it is) and basically promotes the mentality that even when everything seems horrible or cold or bad in whatever way, it can at least be summer in your head.  That's just the kind of pick-me-up I needed today.  Maybe I'll celebrate the real summer outside by switching up my soup and gingerale diet with some ice cream :^)

Enjoy the beautiful weather whether it's outside your window or in your head!

Musik Monday - Endless Summer

This isn't my favorite song I've posted for Musik Monday, but it seemed appropriate given that it's Euro Cup time.  According to this article, the German-American singer Oceana was chosen to  sing the official UEFA EURO 2012 song.  The song that became the official song is below:





I have absolutely nothing against the singer - she's popular in several countries for a reason.  I just am not a huge fan of songs that sound like this one.  Regardless of that, it'll be stuck in my head for days.  I'm sure it will be an "Ohrwurm" for all of you too.

All of that being said, I'm so excited for this Euro cup season.  It's only every 2 years that there are big soccer tournaments (Euro Cup and World Cup) and I'm always cheering for Germany.  In World Cup years I cheer for USA a little too, but the only guilt-cheering for America I need to do in Euro cup years is during the Olympics.  Seriously though, Germany and USA are both my teams.  And with one win already under their belts, here's to hoping Germany wins it all!

Go Deutschland!!

On top of being great soccer players, they're also an attractive group of guys

P.S. - I know this is a Musik Monday entry, but I'm posting it on Tuesday.  Just know that it was really meant for yesterday.

Musik Monday - Die Twinnies

My friend sent me this the other day and it's just too great to not pass along:





In case you didn't catch that, here it is with English subtitles:




It's a music group made up of two German girls who sing, skate, and play accordions (and other instruments) simultaneously.  It's sort of corny music, but you have to give these girls credit for the show they put on; Most "musicians" can barely sing, let alone play instruments.  And doing both while on skates is insane!  They come close to giving Weird Al a run for his money.

I did a little research on their website (warning, there's sound) and found that Astrid and Franziska aren't actually twins, but they are best friends and "inseparable like twins".  They've been singing and making music since they were young children and did it because it was fun.  They did it more because it made other people happy.  They learned accordion from Franziska's father, who teaches people how to play the instrument.  They started off just playing and singing, but decided to incorporate another activity they love - roller skating.

Though they exemplify the traditional Bavarian music style of their home, they love current music as well and play many pop and rock songs on the electric guitar and electric bass guitar.  They hope to mix traditional and current music in their own style.  I encourage everyone to check out the website for these talented girls!  They may not be actively making or performing music now (I couldn't figure that out), but they're certainly entertaining!

One of the greatest things about the video is how it shows a pretty typical German audience.  Understandably, part of it has to do with the venue, but look at how they all sit and clap with a slight side to side swaying.  In almost all my experience (with the slight exception of some clubs in Germany - though many were also full of international students), that's what Germans do when they love music.

At least they had enough enthusiasm to make matching signs

I personally love it.  I'll be honest, I am not in my element when it comes to dancing, unless it's some sort of line dancing.  Give me Cotton Eyed Joe or Cha Cha Slide any day and I can dance the heck out of those.  But music where there's no specific dance to learn?  That's one of the most frightening things to me.  It must be the German in me that's terrified.

Musik Monday - American Soldier

It's Memorial Day, and I hope between the picnics and fun, Americans take a moment to remember those who protect us and our freedom.  And especially remember those who died defending and protecting us.  I'm changing it up again this week to honor all the past, present, and future soldiers with this Toby Keith song:




Not so much about the actual music today, but I love country music and Toby Keith.

Though it's not as common where I grew up as in other areas of the country, I've had a number of friends join the US Military in some capacity.  My father was in the army and both my grandfathers were as well.  My grandpa did everything he could to join and I know he was in Korea and did a lot of dangerous work looking for bombs on bridges because of his engineering background.  My Opa joined after moving here from Germany to become a US citizen and even was stationed as a US soldier in Germany for a while.

I'm lucky that none of my close friends and family have died or been seriously injured while serving in the Armed Forces, but it's important to remember all of those soldiers who have.

Musik Monday - Grün, Grün, Grün

This is a classic German children's song and a great way to teach colors to anyone.

Grimm - a show for German speakers

Tonight is the season finale of Grimm!

I caught the first few episodes of Grimm when they aired, but ended up missing several because of my schedule. Then finals ended and that meant a few days of tv marathons for me.  I probably watched 4 back-to-back the first go around because I liked it that much.  There are many reasons I like the show.

Musik Monday - Weird Al, Yoda (live!)

Back in March I was the lucky, lucky winner of Weird Al tickets.  Then, I got even luckier and won backstage passes to a meet and greet after the show!  I could not have been more excited.  I got him to sign my copy of "When I Grow Up", the children's book by Weird Al.  I also had him sign a program for my friend who I didn't take to the show.  I'm running out of time and haven't gotten anywhere near uploading pictures, so I'll put another post just for all of that.

For now, I wanted to post a video of him performing "Yoda" live:

There's even a little hint of German culture at 4:05 or so, which is so fitting for my blog.  It goes beyond the Yoda song to one of the most impressive performances I have ever seen in a concert.  You have to see it - barely compares to live, but it's amazing.
I thought this was the best choice since I gave him the crochet Yoda I made from a previous blog entry.  He liked it!  He said it was pretty cool!  That made my day.  So now if you use the pattern for crocheting Yoda that's linked in that entry, you'll have a twin Yoda to the one Weird Al has.  What could be cooler than that?

Musik Monday - Comedian Harmonists, Veronika

Spring is here!  And after school is out, we can actually enjoy the season.  One of my first thoughts in springtime is an old German music group, the Comedian Harmonists, specifically this song "Veronika, der Lenz ist da".  Translated, it means "Veronika, the Spring is here":

Here is a very good translation of the lyrics from German to English for those of you who are curious.

I love this group for their amazing harmonizing abilities and their back story, which is told well in the German Film Comedian Harmonists.  The group was very popular before WWII, but ran into difficulties because half of the members were Jewish and one was married to a Jewish woman.  They faced immense obstacles after initially being such a huge success and eventually disbanded when members fled Germany.  They formed new groups, but nothing came near the original.

Their songs are generally wonderful, happy songs.  I couldn't help put put them on when the weather started warming up and everything got greener.  As they say readers, der Lenz ist da!

German-American Spotlight

I've been so happy with Musik Monday, that I decided to start a new weekly post - Saturday spotlight showcasing a different German-American each week.

Part of the reason is that people don't know who's really German out there and there are a lot of stereotypes out there (though many have some basis in reality).  I'll start in a couple of weeks with an actual person, but here's a video that inspired this idea in the meantime:

Germany is very great.  Name 3 Germans!

May the Fourth be with you! (Yoda Crochet)

It's Star Wars Day!  As many a geek will say today, "May the fourth be with you".
According to wikipedia, the phrase dates back to a pun in a London newspaper headline in the late 70's.  There's more to it though.  This was the most interesting (and amusing) part of the article for me:

"In a 2005 interview on German news TV channel N24, George Lucas was asked to say the famous sentence "May the Force be with you." The interpreter simultaneously interpreted the sentence into German as Am 4. Mai sind wir bei Ihnen ("We shall be with you on May 4"). This was captured by TV Total and aired on May 18, 2005.^[5]"

In honor of the day, I finished what I started a while ago from this Yoda crochet pattern.  It took a while, but partially because my crochet skills are rusty.  I love amigurumi (making little figures pretty much), but I always run into problems when I'm crocheting in 3-D.  I had to start this over a couple of times before I got it right.

Finished Product - Step-by-step pictures after the break

Musik Monday - Law School Finals Edition

Have I mentioned yet that I'm in law school?  Only about a million times?  Oh, okay.

For my school, it's finals season and that means I am beyond stressed and busy.  My first in class final is Wednesday and I'm not prepared at all and I have a million other law school things to do and this commercial law outline just isn't making any sense and AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Don't expect too much from me for the next couple of weeks.  I did want to post the most relevant song/video I could think of for my life right now though for Musik Monday:

Just, just, just cram

Barbie's Dreambike

Studying for finals in law school is extremely draining.  Obviously, sometimes you just need a break.  Sometimes that break involves a little pranking mischief.
So, I went to a friend's house and she made dinner for us and both of our boyfriends.  After dinner, they were ready for bed and we all went to our respective homes.  But, my boyfriend and I took a little pitstop at the other guy's shop first.

See, at his shop, he has some vehicles stored, including his motorcycle.  The guys are away this weekend doing track days on their motorcycles, but the bikes were still in the garage of the shop for some last minute tune ups.

With the aide of hot pink spray paint and some painter's tape, we made a major tune up to our friend's motorcycle.

(More pictures after the break)

We were nice enough to leave some of it the original colors

National Pretzel Day!

April 26 is National Pretzel Day!  So, in honor of that, I decided the German thing to do would be to bake some Pretzels!  I used this recipe.  I had used another recipe from that website for my bienenstich cupcakes.
It was not the easiest recipe and my pretzels aren't exactly the prettiest things.  I'm proud of them though and I got them done just in time to celebrate the day!

Chef Spartacus was making sure I was doing it right

Bienenstich Cupcakes

I saw a recipe online for Bienenstich cake (Bee Sting Cake) and got way too excited about it.  This is one of my favorite desserts.  The dough varies some between recipes, but a few things are constant:  The honey glaze, the custardy filling, and the almond slices.  Without even knowing what it is, I'm sure it sounds delicious

The new big thing seems to be cupcakes.  Cupcake shops are popping up everywhere.  Cupcakes Wars is a huge tv show.  They've even started showing up in Germany! 

I decided that I wanted to try to make the cake recipe into a cupcake recipe - I used the same recipe, but a shorter bake time, a cupcake tray, and so improvisation with the filling.

The recipe can be found here:  http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/recipes/beestingcake.cfm

Rolled the batter/dough into 12 little balls that filled about half of the cupcakes.  The right is the plain dough.  The left has honey drizzled on it.

Almonds go one top after the honey - The left is only honey, the right has almonds.  You can see I went overboard with the honey.  This caused problems later.

Musik Monday - Kids singing Rammstein

A friend posted this on my facebook wall (timeline?  I don't know, they forced the change on me and I have no idea what to call anything on facebook anymore) recently.  I get a lot of "This is German, you'll love this" kind of posts - and that's usually really accurate.


 


This video is amazing for so many reasons.

First of all, Rammstein is awesome.  I'll be honest - I used to hate them.  I thought they were overhyped and had nothing better than loud noise.  Then a few things happened.

Egg-cellent Easter Part 2

Easter egg trees are a tradition for many families.  I know that it's a tradition in Germany, Austria, and other German-speaking countries to blow the white and yolk out of eggs, paint the hollow eggs, and hang them on branches or trees.  My family has always done this tradition.  Though we don't paint eggs every year, this is just as important to us as a Christmas tree.

A lot of people in America (at least in my experience) don't go through the process of blowing out and painting eggs.  Instead they get the plastic eggs and hang them.  I've seen pictures friends have put up of this.  I also used to go to the local firehouse when I was a younger Girl Scout and we hung plastic eggs on one of the trees out front every year.

I love when traditions from other cultures are brought to America.  I'm glad I've experienced both the German way and the American adoption.

The family Egg Tree

Musik Monday - The Power of Music

This is a little different than my usual Musik Monday posts, but when I saw this video, I knew I had to share it with many, many people:




I grew up with music being an enormous part of my life.  It was always on in the car, and I knew the words to almost every oldies song before I started Kindergarten.  I played violin and piano since before elementary school and continued through college.  I even visit pep band for college basketball games and break out my electric violin.

Egg-cellent Easter Part 1

Like many families, we have a tradition of dying eggs for Easter.  I put much more work into it than most do.  We usually do a "hunt" on Easter morning even though I'm 23 and my brother's almost 28.  It's a big deal (since I always beat him by 1 or so).  This is the first year we didn't do the hunt, but I still made some awesome eggs!

The prep: Primary colors + green

Finished Product
Left to Right (top): green, red, orange, teal, rainbow, everything (aka dino egg)
Left to Right (bottom): blue, yellow, purple, mint green, drizzle rainbow, yellow w/ blue details (was going for plaid, got lazy)

Musik Monday - The Beatles, Sie liebt dich

When people think of The Beatles, they rightfully think of England.  However, the Beatles really owe a lot of their popularity and start to Germany, specifically Hamburg.  The group traveled to Hamburg in 1960 when they had 5 members: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Pete Best (the original drummer who the group found right before their trip to Germany), and Stuart Sutcliffe (who dropped out of the band in 1961 to finish his studies and sadly died shortly after he left the band).  They played at a handful of nightclubs and were gaining popularity until Harrison was deported for being underage and McCartney and Best were deported for attempted arson (I can't make this up).

Later, the group returned to Hamburg.  In 1961, they made their first professional recording there.  They continued visiting Hamburg and playing in nightclubs there through 1962.  It's said that this not only helped to build their fan base (Germany loved them), but they also got some of their signature style, namely their haircuts, there.

They returned to Germany after they hit it big and were worldwide stars.  The group made a number of recordings in German - of German songs and of their own songs translated into German.

Here's "Sie Liebt Dich":


Can you figure out what song that is in English?


It's "She Loves you (yeah, yeah, yeah)".  Some minor typos by whoever made the video and pronunciation isn't perfect, but it's quite good considering they didn't speak German!  There're some live videos too worth taking a look at.

How about that?  The Beatles are far from the only musicians in that era who recorded songs in German.  Many groups and singers did so in order to build their popularity in Europe.  There's many other weeks for all of those though!

Musik Monday - Wise Guys Deutsche Bahn

My mom sent me this video earlier today and it wasn't until after a long day of classes that I got to watch it.  She loves the Wise Guys and got to see them live as a foreign language teacher conference.  Awesome accapella, awesome humor as always from the Wise Guys.  They're at the top of my list for German music.  They're definitely inspired by Die Comedian Harmonists (I can say that with relative confidence because they have a song called "Die Comedian Harmonists").  This is another group you'll all likely see a lot of music from on here in the future.  I'm a big fan of this kind of clever talent.  It's almost got a Weird Al taste to it (there will be so much on Weird Al soon by the way).

Senk ju for träveling wis Deut-sche Bahn

Sheldon Cooper presents Fun mit Flags

I love, love, love, Big Bang Theory.  The guys are just like my guy friends growing up and I wish I was the 4th girl in the group.  Geeky goodness all around.

So when they added some German goodness to it...:



I could not have been happier.  I can watch this clip over and over again.  Nothing beats Sheldon saying "Guten Tag das youtube."
And that Pretzel/Bretzel costume?  That so fits under "The Crafty German" title.

Best egg tree ever

I was looking up some info on Easter egg trees and I came across one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life here:  http://whatthecool.com/post/3485347978/easter-egg-tree-in-germany/

It's an article about an actual tree that a family in Germany decorates at Easter time with almost 10,000 handpainted eggs!  We've always had an Easter egg "tree" at home, but it's some pussy willow branches with out handpainted eggs on them.  My mom's are always the best, but my art skills have definitely improved from the ones I did at age 5.  I need to figure out what to paint this year.  It's like a Christmas ornament, but for Easter, and more personal because it's handmade by us.  I'm excited with the anticipation!

Here's some of the pictures from the giant, insanely impressive German Easter egg tree:

Musik Monday - Glücklich

I've decided to try to force some consistency on this blog, so I'm going to do a Musik Monday (or Music Montag).  I'll put up something to do with music weekly on mondays, maybe just a song or something about an artist or band.  Music has been such an important part of my life and it's something that transcends all cultures and lifestyles.  What better for a blog that celebrates my cultures?


I have a big entry involving country music planned, but I want to do it justice, so I'll hold off for a week or two.


For today, I wanted to share a song by Farin Urlaub named "Glücklich".  I love him and all the members of Die Ärzte.  I actually found a band poster while I was studying abroad in Heidelberg and brought it home.  It's not horribly classy, but it's a centerpiece in my apartment, right above my tv.  What better way to decorate than those 3 talented men?  


We learned this song one of my years at Waldsee German Camp.  Some of the words were changed (The dominatrix line was changed to "Bist du Bürgermeister oder liefest du das Brot"), but the message made clear in the refrain stayed the same:
It doesn't matter what you are as long as you're happy.

St. Patty's Nails

I may be the crafty German, but I've got a little Irish blood in me. So, I have to have a little green for Saint Patrick's Day. I have a shamrock covered scarf in my hair, but that's not enough. So, after several attempts, I came up with some Saint Patrick's Day nails.

They're not perfect or up to my standards really, but I'm still pretty happy with them. I intended to have the design on the thumbs on all the fingers except the ring finger, but when the clovers started looking like hemp leaves, I just painted the whole nails dark green. So, 3 fingers green, ring gold, and shamrocks on the thumbs.
For colors, I used

• N.Y.C. "French White Tip"
• N.Y.C. in a New York Color Minute Quick dry "Flat Iron Green"
• Claire's "14 Karats"

Again, not my best work, but I'm overall satisfied with the end product - I got a couple of compliments so that's some nice reassurance.

Left hand

Pi Day 2012!

It's Pi Day!  Almost the ides of March, but even better.


Some not-so-nerdy people may not get it.  March 14 is also 3/14 or 3.14, which equals Pi (π).  So, some of us geekier people find it important and necessary to celebrate the day.  Tonight, I'm "baking" a pie for Pi Day!  I'd have done it earlier, but I was too lazy to get ingredients and then was at a basketball game until tonight.


I ended up making a pie out of my Costco cookbook called "Chocolate Peanut Butter Mouse Pie" by Eagle Brand/Jif.  It uses a premade graham cracker crust, which made my life easier since I have no pie pan.  There's a layer of sweetened condensed milk/melted semisweet chocolate chip mixture over the bottom of the pie crust.  On top of that is a layer of:

Captain Planet, Held der Erde

One of my favorite pastimes is being nostalgic and watching intros from 80's & 90's cartoons.  I think it's something that makes almost everyone from my generation happy.  I was doing just that the other day when I came across one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life:



Yes, that is Captain Planet in German!  I am making a late new year's resolution to learn this entire thing (at least the song part) by memory before the end of the year.  I've already had the American one memorized since I was a kid and this show was still on the air.  It's awesome that even though there are slight differences, the German version is essentially the same.
So, remember...Ihr habt die Macht!

Rummelpott

This post is quite late considering New Years was a while ago, but I still wanted to share my awesome German New Year's experience with the blogging world.

My parents were kind enough to bring me to Germany during my winter break so that I could see family and enjoy Berlin once again.  My family on my mom's side lives in the very north of Germany in Schleswig-Holstein.  They're either on the North Sea coast on the mainland or on the Island Föhr, which is part of the Frieisan Islands in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark.  The island itself has actually changed ownership between Germany and Denmark several times.  I'm not intending to give a history lesson though (at least not now).


So, I got to spend New Year's with my family and enjoy the North German tradition I've never experienced before!


Here's some of what I saw leading up to New Year's:

Clover plants with different lucky symbols such as chimney sweeps, pigs, mushrooms, and more

Leftovers from Christmas, but who can resist a picture of Santa in a Captain Morgan pose?

Cocktails!  All along the Main street there were booths with drinks.  They're set up at least a week before New Years.  A bunch of them are given awesome regional names.  I went for the Foehrer Fischer Punch and my mom got the Wyker Wahnsinn...hers was better than mine, but both tasty!

A very geeky Christmas

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I've got an amazing boyfriend.  We decided to not spend much on gifts this year and he still found me the perfect present.  He got me the Planet Express shirt (Futurama) from thinkgeek.com!!  First of all, favorite show.  Secondly, one of my favorite websites.  Thirdly, I've been wanting this shirt since I first saw it years ago, but they never had it available.  Amazing.

I took a picture with my Halloween craft, Nibbler.  I was Leela for Halloween and needed a Nibbler with me to complete the costume.  Thinkgeek has the most adorable Nibbler stuffed animal, but they were out of stock and I needed something that week, so I decided to make my own.  After a failed attempt, I saw a craft kit for a big spider and bought some white, black, yellow, red, and peach felt.  Lots of cutting and scraps later, I ended up with something I was super proud of.  I'll post more of my Leela costume another time.  Until then, enjoy my awesome Christmas present with my awesome homemade Nibbler:

I kind of forgot the whole backwards text in the mirror thing