Vlog series

I’ve started making little videos to go with this blog. You can watch them on my  Buy me a Coffee page. The link is the tab below.

German Art Supplies

 

German Art Supplies

There were many reasons I was excited to move to Europe. But one of those reasons was art supplies. Most of my favorite art supplies are European, and several are German. Hahnemüle paper is amazing for fine art prints.

Schmincke soft pastels are my second favorite pastels in the world, after the French brand Girault.

My first full set of colored pencils was the German made Lyra.

And back when we were in Laos, I worked on a second colored pencil portrait of my horse Scarlett. When I was having difficulty getting the layers I wanted, Faber-Castell’s Polychromos colored pencils were the answer. 

As luck would have it, we now live just two Ubahn stops away from the Faber-Castell castle. The castle tour doesn’t accommodate a wheelchair so we’re saving the tour for when my mobility improves. 

But I can get to the shop now. So, last week we visited the Faber-Castell shop and I was like a kid in a candy store! Color is what most often pulls me in and makes me want to paint something so the store itself was such a treat!

Because we wanted to travel light, I only brought a few art supplies with me to Germany. Plus we knew I would definitely want to buy things! While we were living in central Nuremberg, I purchased a few supplies at a book store and a student arts and craft store. But as soon as I found a large art supply store, I couldn’t wait to go there.

While the Faber-Castell shop is quite near to our apartment, at least by train, the big art supply store, that carries every supply imaginable, is much further, and more complicated to get to. In addition to needing the Ubahn, going out to Boesner Art Supply also requires using the SBahn.  

The SBahn is similar to the tram in that both have varying wheelchair accessibility. Of course, I really wanted to go to my first German art supply store so we both geared up for whatever challenges we might face getting off and on trains at the different stops with a wheelchair.

Because the platforms vary at every station for the S-Bahn, at the main station Stephen could just roll me on. But at the stop closest to the store, I had to get out of the wheelchair and pull myself up and out of the train. The difference between the platform and train floor was about a foot. And while I was climbing out of the train, Stephen lifted the wheelchair out. We both had to move as quickly as we could. For most stops, there are just about 30 seconds before the doors close and the train is off again. Once we exited the train, Stephen pushed me to the entrance. It’s a 14-minute walk for the average person but it likely took us a little longer. Once inside, I propelled myself around. I joke that I’m keeping Stephen healthy and young with all this extra effort pushing me in a wheelchair. Just a little humor to lighten the moment.

We spent nearly 2 hours in the store, right up until closing, as I rolled myself up and down the aisles, dreaming of the compositions I could make with all the different supplies. Like these canvases sealed with clear gesso (pronounces jess-o).

Normally canvas is painted with multiple coats of white gesso. But these natural canvases immediately set my brain on fire with all the different paintings I might make with them. I didn’t bring my acrylic paints with me on this trip, which is what I use on stretched canvas. So, for now, it’s just dreaming.

This German art supply store is the biggest warehouse of supplies I’ve ever been in. I could go there every week. My kind of entertainment!

For the time being, I’m only working in watercolor. Which turns out to have deep roots is Germany. When we first arrived in Nuremberg, I had only seen the name Albrecht Dürer, especially on Faber-Castell products. The Nuremberg airport is the Albrecht Dürer airport. Then when Stephen pushed me almost up to the Imperial Castle that one day, we saw the Albrecht Dürer Haus.

I decided I wanted to know more about this German artist so I purchased a book about him. In English of course. Remember when the bookshop keeper complimented my German? That is what I asked him about.

Albrecht Dürer is a very interesting artist. At first, I was fascinated by his woodcut prints. I follow modern day woodcut artists on Instagram. They use linoleum blocks instead of wood, but the method is similar and the purpose is the same: to make prints and earn more from a single piece of artwork. Albrecht Dürer’s most famous woodcut was of a rhinoceros.

He never actually saw the animal himself but made his wood block composition based on drawings made by a book printer who them sent them home with German merchants. Dürer added his own flair to it, making it almost fantastical, and it sold more than 1200 copies!

As a junior high student, I made a linoleum design for art class. It was terrible! 🤣 You’d never know from that lino block design that one day I would create art that people want to buy. Ha! I imagine I would make something a little more successful now.

What I relate to most from Albrecht Dürer’s extensive body of work are his watercolor and gouache paintings. 

He apparently loved to painting landscapes in watercolor as he traveled. The first urban sketcher. Ha!

Most of my watercolor pieces have been flowers and fruit.

I usually paint landscapes in acrylic. 

But since watercolor is what I have and I want to paint the scenes from our travels, I’ve been working at painting landscapes in watercolor and gouache. 

(paint brushes in the photo to discourage theft)

I plan to find a German print-maker and have this made into prints on Hahnemüle paper. They will be available through my website once they are printed. My homage to Albrecht Dürer.

If you enjoy this blog and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee! Just click on the tab above or use the QR code below. Vielen dank! Thanks so much!

Germany chapter 5: An Emergency Room Visit

 

We got to experience a German emergency room this week. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Or as bad as it looks in this photo.

 

The only other time I can recall being in an emergency room was in Bozeman, MT after my car accident. But that time really was an emergency. I remember they had to cut my ring off my hand with a saw. It was my favorite turtle ring. The cutting took some time because they had to be so careful. My hand was torn up, it had been flung out my window as the car rolled and needed to be sewn back together. That was 25 years ago. Wow.

 

But back to present day. Going to the emergency room was a last resort for getting my pain med prescription refilled. We had tried several online video calls with doctors, and put in several requests for in-person doctor visits. We even went to a neurologist's office. To no avail. An appointment with the neurologist was no sooner than February 2026. I had been told to try the emergency room, if all else failed.

 

So, we went to the closer north branch hospital even though the further one did have a neurology department. It was quite difficult to get to the hospital with a neurology department, so I suggested we try the closer one first to see if maybe they could help us. In hindsight, it probably would have been worth the hassle to get to the south branch.

 

We had to use the Ubahn to get to the north hospital. Once we got to the hospital campus, we started to examine the map to try to find the emergency room. A grounds keeper drove up and stopped his utility truck and asked if he could help us, in German of course. Stephen replied to him in English and he got out of his truck and walked over to the map. He started to show us how to get to the emergency room but then stopped, looked over at me, smiled and said, “Sorry for my English.” I replied, “no worries!” In very limited English, he showed us on the map and pointed to the building in front of us and we got the gist of where we needed to go. I thanked him in German, “Danke, vielen danke” Thank you, thank you very much! And he smiled at my German.

 

We found the emergency room straight away and I went to the counter to request that I see someone.

 

It wasn’t long before a nurse called my name and we went to an exam room. I explained my situation and then he took my vitals. My blood pressure was 175/105! I was pretty clearly in distress...too much pain. And I had even taken my blood pressure medicine that morning. He took some notes, entered information into the computer, and then sent us to wait to see “administration”.

 

Our number was called and we went into the office. Evidently, they were going to help me out because I was asked to sign that I agreed to “treatment” and we paid a fee. A pretty steep fee, it seemed to me, but then we don’t have German insurance. We were asked to wait again.

 

I thought things were going pretty well when a nurse called my name and then told me she wanted to draw blood. This is almost always a challenge so right away I was nervous. There wasn’t a room or a station, like I’m used to in the states. I looked at my arms and I could actually see some veins, quite often they are just hidden. I commented that at least we could see the veins today but the nurse said, “Yes, but they are so tiny.” She did the usual thing of squishing around on my arm trying to find something that might work. But no. It was then to my right hand. That’s been a successful place in the past.

 

Thankfully this nurse didn’t mess around. It wasn’t comfortable but then she said, “Gluck. I don’t know what that means in English.” “Happy?” I said. That is one translation. I looked it up later and maybe she meant something like “We’re in luck.” One poke and she got several vials filled. I had to support my hand and I tensed up my whole body to get through what is, as a general rule, an ordeal for me. In less than a minute, she had filled 4 vials and was done. I relaxed. All the tension in my body dissipated and it wasn’t until that moment that I realized just how anxious I had been. But then there was a plot twist. She had a syringe in her hand and she said to me, “This is just water.” She meant “saline” and even at the time I knew that’s probably what she meant but my lizard brain heard “water” and I was like, “What is this??? What is this strange thing she’s going to do???” All my past experiences in hospitals rushed into my psyche all at once and suddenly I was dizzy and faint. Stephen was standing behind me and I said, “I might pass out.” He came close and supported my shoulders. I was sitting in my wheelchair. Then I said, “I have to get my head down or I’m going to pass out.” And I tried to lean forward but I had my purse in my lap and it was hard to get my head down enough. I was fighting to stay conscious. I heard Stephen talking to me and I tried to speak but my mouth felt like it was full of taffy and I struggled to form words. I kind of just made garbled noises until finally I was able to ask the nurse for water. She was eager to get something, do anything to help me.

 

I looked over and there was a hospital bed beside me. How did that get there? When did that get there? Turns out I had passed-out. And Stephen told me a little later that I was out for about 2 minutes! That’s a super long time to be unconscious. I’ve passed out a lot in my life, but never for such a long time. Now, I really did need to be in the emergency room! The nurse kept asking me, “Does this happen to you a lot?” It was really hard to come out of the fog. My body had shut down quite a lot. But finally I was able to tell her, “Yes, I pass out when I have my blood drawn. Or sometimes when I get a shot.”

 

It's not unusual, but honestly I’ve spent quite a lot of energy and effort trying to effectively deal with my needle phobia. It’s been a long time since I’ve passed out.  I’ve been in a lot of hospitals and clinics and seen a lot of phlebotomists in the last 15 years, since being diagnosed with Lupus. Most of the time I manage quite well.

 

What I thought was going to be just a talking appointment with a doctor where she would evaluate my records and then give me the prescription I needed, turned into hours of tests from a hospital bed behind a curtain in an emergency room bay.

 

After about 4 hours of tests and waiting, a doctor came to talk to me. But when I confirmed my name to her in English, she turned right around. A med-student then returned and said she was there because she could speak English. More questions, a pretty extensive interview, and then she left. She couldn’t make decisions about things, only gather information.

 

Finally, the doctor who could make decisions came to my bed. “I’m afraid I can’t really do anything for you. I can't fill your prescription. That's not what we do.”

 

WHAT? I was instantly angry. I had endured all of this and I WASN’T going get my prescription. I only passed out because the nurse drew blood. And for what? It’s very unpleasant to pass out. “Why didn’t anyone say this at the beginning???” I did not hide my anger. None of this was necessary. The nurses caused me to go through a pretty terrible afternoon. And I wasn’t even going to get what I needed!

 

At first the med student and the doctor repeated some lines that were frankly lame and infuriating. But after hearing more of my story, my situation, in the end they did their best and gave me a couple of days worth of my prescription and a letter to take to any general practitioner near our apartment.

 

Stephen and I thought moving to a first-world country would mean everything was easier compared to the developing-world countries we’ve lived in. But that’s not exactly been the case. No matter where we go, every country has its challenges to navigate. And healthcare is particularly tricky.

 

When we finally left the hospital after 6pm, we decided to go to one of my favorite little cafés and get dinner. It’s really a breakfast place and I had eggs benedict and a cappuccino.

 

It’s funny how perspective changes my mood. After going through the ordeal at the hospital, dinner out felt especially great. There was a lightness to my mood. And it occurred to me that really the German people are so eager and willing to help me. In the restaurant for example, when I rolled me wheelchair to the restroom door, the man sitting next to it offered to help. I glanced at him then I put the brakes on my wheelchair, stood up and, using the wall for support, walked through the door. Just as I was about the close the door, I looked back at him and said, “Danke,” and smiled. I showed him, proudly, that I could do it myself. Still he had jumped right up when I rolled to the door and jumped up again when I exited the restroom. No hesitation. And this is one example of many. Every time we go anywhere, people offer to help.

 

The day ended on an upbeat. Even though, objectively, I should have been upset. Things hadn’t gone at all to plan. My pain is bad and I need pain meds to manage it. This “flare” is lasting so much longer than my first Lupus flare. But I’m determined to recover. My MS type is that kind where I can go into “remission”. It doesn’t have to get worse. But it depends on me. Boy! That’s both hopeful and a burden. It’s sometimes a really bumpy ride.

 

But I guess that means I’m alive.

 

If you enjoy reading my blog, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee. Follow the link below to my page on the Buy me a Coffee website for secure payment. Or use the QR code below that if you prefer. Thanks so much!

 

 

Germany Chapter 4: A German Apartment

 

A German apartment

Happy October!

 

It’s my favorite month of the year, so of course I have to start it off with a post.

 

We moved into a new apartment.  

 

It’s in a quiet little neighborhood just outside the city center of Nürnberg. Our landlord is the nicest guy; having good landlords makes such a difference. 😊

 

Before moving to Germany, we looked at apartments online. From that search, we thought, to get something nice, we would have to pay a lot more. But Stephen found this sweet place once we’d been here awhile and we are so pleased.

 

The initial selling point for me was the deck. I guess I’m always looking for a way to get in the open air. And expansive views are a bonus. As the top floor apartment in this building, our new apartment fits the bill.

 

Online pictures are nice, but nothing replaces an in-person tour. A washer and dryer was listed as part of the apartment but seeing them stacked in the kitchen was so reassuring. 

It was a nice surprise to see the pod coffee machine and a really workable kitchen. Large windows in every room made the place feel light.

 

The kitchen has turned out to be even better than I initially thought and I’ve been cooking for us more than ever. 

I especially love the sink, which makes washing dishes a dream! The material is “soft” to the touch and the drying section is sloped, allowing the water to drip and drain right into the sink. German engineering baby!

 

Speaking of…the dryer is wild. There is no vent to the outside like I’m used to in the US. Instead, this machine takes the moisture of the wet clothes and collects it in a reservoir.

Stephen has to dump the water out after each load. Crazy!

 

The windows open two ways. Turn the handle halfway and the window opens completely.

Turn the handle all the way up and the window tilts in slightly. I use the second position all the time…very convenient.

We both have our work spaces. And in different rooms! 

Stephen has his office in a section of the living room and I have my studio in a little corner of the bedroom.

 

There are several really great grocery stores just a few minutes away. Netto is similar to a small-town grocery store like an IGA or Harvest Foods in the US. Edeka is like a Whole Foods. We’ve found that the fresh produce has to be used in a day or two or it goes bad. So Stephen shops for us almost every day.

 

Germany has a robust recycling system. They recycle almost everything. Those pods for the coffee machine ~ into the yellow bin. Paper ~ blue bin. Plastic bottles ~ take those to the grocery stores and get instant credit for your groceries!!

It's a delight to be in such a nice apartment. Especially after living in a studio in the apartment-hotel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love coffee

 

  

If you enjoy reading this blog, consider buying me a coffee. The QR code is to the right of this post. You can also click on the Buy Me A Coffee icon. It's a link to the website for secure payment. Thanks so much!!!

 

Germany: Chapter 3.5 Signs of improvement

 It’s been 10 days since my last post, and I wanted to share a quick update. Though progress is turtle slow, I am definitely feeling improvements.

A heart-felt thanks to all of you who have made such sweet comments, here on the blog and other places too. It means so much to me to know people around the world are rooting for my healing! 💜

Today, I took my second jaunt with my walker on the streets of Nüremberg. Monday afternoon was my first venture out of the hotel with my walker instead of the wheelchair since we arrived. I walked through the parking garage, and out across the street to the Thai restaurant behind our hotel. 

Then today I took a much further walk to the Way of Human Rights. If you recall, this is where Jasmin, Loris, Daniel and Laurence prayed for me. Stephen took a photo of me with my walker to mark the milestone. Thanks for your continued good vibes, prayers and support. 💞 Happy Sunday!