Shopping in Stuttgart

with Michael and Ute

On Saturday morning, Kurt drove me to Stuttgart (about an hour away from Spaichingen) and I spent the weekend with Michael (Kurt and Elvira's son / Susi's brother) and his girlfriend Ute.  They live in a beautiful apartment that they renovated themselves this past spring.  Ute is a graphic design major, so everything is clean and modern with a traditional twist, and the walls are painted bright colors with white trim.  Michael is working on his doctorate in computer engineering at the university, where he is currently employed.

New boots!

My top goal for this weekend was to go shopping for some winter clothes, specifically a jacket, boots, and gloves.  So we spent Saturday afternoon wandering the streets of downtown Stuttgart to shop, along with thousands of other people.  I'm not exaggerating here, folks...literally thousands of other people.  Usually Michael and Ute avoid downtown on the weekends.  But thankfully, I had some success!  My purchases included simple black driving gloves, dark gray boots with a slight heel, and a thick navy blue wool/polyester jacket with a hood.  And the most important purchase of the day?  A German adapter for my laptop charger.

That night we went to dinner at an Italian chain called Vapiano.  I had already been to the restaurant in Leipzig, so I knew I liked it.  When you arrive at Vapiano, they hand you a plastic card, which you then take to all the different stations (e.g. salads, pastas, pizzas, drinks, desserts, etc.).  You place your order for whatever you want at that particular station and they swipe your card.  Then you go find a table to eat your meal.  At the end of the night, you pay at the front desk when you leave.  I like this place because the food is fresh (i.e. I actually watch them make my salad in front of me), the atmosphere is chic and comfortable, it's easy to navigate, and the music isn't too loud.  Apparently they have some franchises in the USA already, but it's only on the East Coast.

On Sunday, I finally attended church for the first time since arriving in Germany.  There is an international Baptist church here in Stuttgart, right around the corner from the US military base.  The services are in English, but people from all different countries attend.  They had all the first-time visitors stand up to introduce themselves and where they were from.  Surprisingly, I was the only American visitor, the others were from Romania, Israel, the Netherlands, and Germany.  But it seemed like most of the congregation was either American or German, and most people spoke German to each other during the after-service coffee time.  I met a man from Massachusetts who just moved to Germany 2 months ago, and a Swiss guy who lived in California for a year in high school.  This church has 2 services every Sunday, and I would say there were about 250 people in the service I attended.  I plan on going back again the next time I'm in Stuttgart.  Michael and Ute did not come with me, but they thought it was so funny that people talked to each other at the church.  Apparently people never socialized in the church they were raised in, but they agreed that having a church community is the best way to participate.

Schupfnudeln

When I returned from church, Ute made a traditional meal for this region of Germany, called Schupfnudeln.  It's basically potato rolled into a shape resembling pasta, and mixed with sauerkraut.  Oh man, it tasted SO good!  The fun part about staying with people in their home is trying authentic traditional food that you can't find in a restaurant.

view of Stuttgart

After lunch, we took a walk to a park on a hill that overlooked the city.  There were couples out for a stroll, old men sitting and reading the newspaper, and people walking their dogs.  It was a beautiful autumn day and a great view of the city.  Later that afternoon, we watched the film Frühstück bei Tiffany with Audrey Hepburn via German dubbing and subtitles.  Unfortunately, the subtitles did not match the German words actually spoken, so it was kind of confusing for me.  For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant close by and of course I stuffed myself on naan.

My new German word I learned this weekend was Nachtisch...literally translated "after table," meaning "dessert."  Probably not the best word for me to learn...

Last, my carry-on suitcase finally died.  Well, it died at the farm and I've been lugging it around Germany for the past week.  But I found a new one to replace it, with an expansion zipper and purple butterflies!