In Germany, dumpster diving is illegal. Everything that's in a bin, even outside the home/store, still belongs to the person/store. If you take it and get caught, you very likely will be prosecuted for theft.

I did the experiment for Switzerland.

Seriously. They've usually been treated with every pesticide, fungicide, flame retardent etc under the sun. Plus fun bacteria if they've been used in transporting foodstuffs.

Re archeology: in the Schengen area archeology is much better paid in Switzerland than in Germany (staying with German speaking countries). I have no clue whether or not they are actively looking for archeologists in Switzerland but as building activity around here is generally higher than in most German areas...…

What field is your MA in? The income requirements are lower e.g. if you are in IT and some others (EUR 36'192). How long since you graduated? If that's fairly recently there would be a possibility of getting a visum for six months to look for a job (it has to be in the field you have your MA in), but you'd have to…

One example would be China, Korea another. Burma comes to my mind as well and India has been mentioned upthread. Women used powder to whiten the skin and there were tips on how to achieve a light skin tone even when the natural one was darker than desired. I dimly remember reading about that during my stint in the…

Hmm, what? A lot of Uzbeks are white. Historically, basically everyone came through the region and it's a mish-mash of genetics, but still I'd not say that everyone, or even the majority there is non-white.

I highly doubt that historical accuracy played any role whatsoever in the depiction of the Christkind. It's more that, especially traditionally, a large proportion of babies and children used to be blond in the region... you depict what you know and what is seen as desirable.

Na, it's not a toddler. More like an angel who's either depicted by a young blond woman or by a preteen blond boy. Blond seems very important to portray innocence.

In some parts of Germany as well. Baby Jesus (Christkind) brings the presents. It's a catholic tradition. No-one sees the Christkind bring the presents, he's invisible. It's a weird, tangled development where protestants, catholics, baby jesus, father christmas and santa claus are all involved.

We live in Switzerland, so it's a bit on the expensive side: CHF 30/hour (about US-$ 33). That's while we officially employ her, with insurance, paid vacation and sick time and payments into retirement funds.

Oh, sure. If there are other duties the cards are dealt anew. Taking care of kids fulltime is a lot of work - but that was not mentioned originally.

No, seriously no.

No, it isnt't.

I started christmas baking -I have orange hazelnut shortbreat, orange cardamom shortbread and vanillekipferl with tonka beans (for the last one the dough is waiting in the fridge for me to be baked today).

Because that would not have caused him hours of entertainment. On a long boring trip. Providing he actually flew on that day.

I would.

I'll just leave this here. Because not every kiss is fraught with sexual meaning.

I may have made the mistake of picking him up as well. He did not get invited back.

Yes - but from your other post it seemed as if it could be difficult for the truck drivers to know to whom to appeal.