A Moment of Life in Berlin
Hello to a new week!
Our morning started with a visit to the dentist. After last year’s visit (do you remember that day? I think I was petrified with fear after that horrible, horrible trauma!), today’s appointment was so simple. I’ve lived to tell! And no one told me, “Sorry Katie. You have two kaputt teeth.” SHIVER!
Martin was in the room while the dentist examined my teeth. Then they both headed out while my teeth were cleaned. The dentist had to get ready for a day of house calls for elderly patients.
Do dentists do that in the US?
I thought it was so awesome!
With extra sore gums, I headed out for a few errands – including getting fresh milk. I walked to a very small organic grocery store and shot this photo for you:
Do you see the plastic milk bag from the video in my kitchen? (It’s on the middle shelf on the far left.) Most milk comes in 1 liter milk cartons. (Those are all on the bottom of this picture.)
My father-in-law figured the bag packaging was far better for the environment than the waxy paper cartons. Both are recycled here. When he poured me a glass of milk from a bag at his apartment last year, I was sold on its taste and support of local farmers.
Just want to make sure I’m clear. There’s no backspace when you’re talking on a video like there is with a keyboard… and that bagged milk is a local food. So for all of you in Germany – I’m not sure I’ve seen bagged milk anywhere else. (wink)
And here’s a photo I snapped of Martin over the weekend. It’s the shot for the {Love Letter} I’m writing him every month.
So yes! Here is to a very good week. Let’s hope it’s one for the journal.
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:41 pm
I love the idea of milk being sold in a bag!
Just love it!
Wished the United States would do that everywhere!!
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Some stores in the UK sell milk in bags/pouches but you can get a a jug that the pouch fits in, for easier pouring!
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Katie, did you go to the some dentist? Just currious what happened with those 2 “kaputt” teeth?
May 23rd, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Hi Radka. We did go to the dentist. Last year, the experience was really overwhelming :
http://www.makingthishome.com/2010/05/11/german-dentist-part-i/
But it turned out my “kaputt” teeth were a-okay :
http://www.makingthishome.com/2010/05/12/german-dentist-part-ii/
It turns out the women cleaning my teeth had never seen the particular shape of my front teeth. We’ve since dubbed my teeth “American”. Ahhhh, the memories (shiver!).
Thanks for asking.
Katie
May 24th, 2011 at 10:47 am
Most milk comes in bags here (Canada). It’s all I buy. They do have paper milk cartons, but they are more expensive. The most economical way to buy milk is a package of 3 bags (equals 4 litres).
May 24th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Really enjoy your post Katie. I found it through Czech Mate Diary, a site which I’m really enjoying as I try to find ways to help my Czech husband survive life in America. It’s really great to be able to read the stories of other cross cultural marriages, so thanks for sharing your story :)
May 25th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Back in the 80s there was a regional chain called “Quality Dairy” that sold milk in plastic bags here in Michigan. They even sold a special pitcher to hold the milk bag. I’m not sure when they started selling their milk in plastic but that’s all they have now.
May 25th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Milk in cartons is fairly recent in India, where I live — only been around for a decade or so. Most families still don’t buy it. The ‘bags’ are far more common, and it’s what your door-to-door milkman will deliver (it’s like getting the newspaper or post delivered in other parts of the world). It’s from large centralized, not local dairies, though, and a much simpler ‘bag’ structure — no base, just two squares of plastic sealed at the edges with a half litre or litre of milk trapped between them. The dairies also have small neighbourhood booths operated by a coin (like a photo booth) where you can bring your own jug or can to fill up. Even these and the bags are ‘new’ in that they date back to only the 1960s and ’70s. Before that, we had the old-fashioned glass bottles with a foil cap, or…
‘local’ milk, from cows grazing on the outskirts or even in the middle of our very densely populated cities, which is typically measured out of a can. That’s still the norm in many rural parts, but no longer as popular in urban areas, now that the refrigerator is common in urban and better-off rural households. But many families still have a lactometer (to ensure the milkman wasn’t watering it down!) from the days when it was the most popular supply.
Carton manufacturers (Tetrapak) are marketing ‘freshness and purity’ as well as long life very aggressively in the media now, though, so especially for smaller families and singletons, they’ve become a resource to rely on. Which is a bigger issue than it seems in a country where there are no organized recycling projects that citizens can directly participate in; even voluntary, home-based waste sorting is a bit of an ‘experiment’ (mostly failed) around here.
May 25th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
wow! I had no idea that milk in bags could be so common. So interesting!
May 26th, 2011 at 12:05 am
What a small world sometimes. Julie commented about Quality Dairy in the 80′s. I lived in Michigan then and we bought this milk too. Here in England we get it delivered to the door in glass bottles from the milkman driving an electric vehicle. Of course the bottles are returned to be reused.