Gerburtstag etiquette, steaming poop and Thai boxing

So David's birthday was a couple of weeks ago now and Germans have some work related traditions that involve your Geburtstag (birthday). First of all, as the birthday boy, David was responsible for bringing cake to share with everyone - the occassion of which is announced via email at the beginning of the day. I love getting those emails because they mean afternoon cake.

This cake business essentially means that I am responsible for bringing cake to share with everyone. Not that David doesn't know his way around the kitchen. He does. From the sink to the saute pan, David can navigate dinner (and breakfast and lunch). He doesn't bake, though. But! I do, coincidentally. And before I left the good ol' US of A, I picked up a copy of 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.' You can imagine where this is going right?

As it turns out, carrot cupcakes with 'cream cheese' frosting were a raging, if totally puzzling, hit. First of all, no one knew what a cupcake was and there were many inquiries to that effect. Some wondered how a cupcake was different than a muffin (silly people). Many wanted to know how I got the little cakes into those fluted papers. I felt like we were introducing our colleagues to some exotic and rare dish (think poisonous blowfish, here), instead of harmless, delectable little cupcakes. Everyone managed to get over their initial shock to consume the entire double batch. I don't know about the world, but these cupcakes certainly took over Germany. I think we could go into business. I understand cupcake bakeries are all the rage in the U.S. lately.

The other funny, interesting and kind of cool thing about birthdays in Germany is that everyone who knows it's your birthday greets you with a boisterous "Congratulations!" and a handshake. This is unusual on a number of levels - Germans are pretty cool cucumbers. Not much smiling or other superficial niceties that we are used to. David and I also thought it was funny that people congratulated him on completing another year. It was like we had a baby or something. People we barely know came into the office and shook DAvid's hand and clapped him on the back. Weird but nice. We both concluded that the little cake party and all the congratulating that went on really did make his birthday kind of special, even for a work day.

Now for a completely different topic. Germany is pretty hyper-orderly. No trash on the streets or subways. Most people keep their little gardens or yards as neat as a pin. And weirdo lurkers like David and I who look in other people's windows at night will notice that houses are impecably tidy. This leaves no worldly explanation for the steaming piles of poop that dot the sidewalks and parks. It's just dog poop, but still. Yuck. If I didn't closely watch where I walk, I would have pooh-shoe all the time. In any case, I have it a lot. I'm glad that there is a spigot by the door to our building. I just can't figure out why people don't pick up after their beasts. There is actually a campaign in Hamburg. You can get free poop bags at the drugstores and other places and they have installed these nice red receptacles all over town. Still there is a lot of poop. I can't imagine what it was like before the big campaign.

I started Thai Boxing a couple of weeks ago. It is a combination fighting style that involves kicking, punching and grappling. You'll see it now and again on Ultimate Fighting. So once a week I go to this authentically ratty boxing gym, complete with loaner gloves that smell like feet. The coach looks pretty plain and innocuous until he gets into this crouching, boxer position. And then you realize that he could take the Bear's defensive line on one foot. Tom, the coach, has been Thai boxing for 15 years and his English isn't so good. Neither is my German. But he is patient and helpful and I imagine I'll be kicking ass in no time. I am also picking up a little more German. Especially words that deal with boxing-relevant anatomy: elbow, fist, knee, etc.

Ok, last bit. I have a Picass web album of our trip to Florence. Sorry, I am too lazy to lable all of the pictures, but you'll get the idea. http://picasaweb.google.com/leslie.rutkowski/FlorenceOct07

That's about it. Of course, I still love Hamburg!