(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for Off 90 is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon sound) (upbeat music) - Cruising your way next Off 90, an immigrant who grew up in Germany reflects on how his education was different than his American children's.

A musical performance from the Loud Mouth Brass band.

A story about Minnesota State University in Mankato.

These stories and more are coming up on your next stop, Off 90.

(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Barbara Keith.

Thanks for joining me on this trip Off 90.

First, we hear from an immigrant born and raised in Germany who shares how dramatically different life is for school kids and parents in the two countries.

(upbeat music) - My father was a pharmacist in Germany.

His pharmacy was located right across on the American army base.

In my younger years when I would hang out with my dad at his pharmacy, all these American soldiers and their families would come into my dad's pharmacy to buy their medications.

And so, over time I would get to know them.

And my dad was always a person who would like to have a chat with someone, get to know somebody on a deeper level, rather than just a business transaction.

And so naturally, I was involved in some of these discussions and the Americans took on little Axel, brought him candy.

My very first experience with anything American was when I got this little package of Pop Rocks.

And here is something that moves in my mouth.

It's more than just a sweet treat, this is fascinating.

This is America.

That was a true experience that I'll never forget.

- [Narrator] Axel's dad befriended an American he met at a pharmacy conference.

This led to Gumbel family trips to the United States for several years.

- America just became a country of great interest.

I've always loved the people.

Everything seemed easygoing, everything was large.

- [Narrator] In Germany, Axel signed up for a high school study abroad program, which led the then sixteen-year-old to Minneapolis.

- I went to North High School in Minneapolis.

It seems like in America, a school is almost its own society.

People don't go there just to learn for the academics, which is what I was used to.

It could be drama or find a passion for football, go for that scholarship.

The depth of extracurricular activities that's offered here, it's unreal.

Drama, debate, history club, French club.

I wasn't used to that.

It was extremely overwhelming when the time came to talk to my counselor, which by the way, I get a counselor to talk to to help me make decisions.

That's unheard of.

- [Narrator] Another surprise was what Axel calls a sort of informality in the United States, which seems to open doors to opportunity much easier than in Germany.

- You can be on a first name basis with most anyone in America, with your banker, with your doctor.

In Germany, that is not the case.

In Minneapolis, you go to the bank and I think the guy said, hey, I'm Bob, how can I help you?

And my mindset, I go, what do you mean you're Bob?

You should be Mr. Banker.

(laughs) This informality that sort of seeps into every aspect of life here in America, I absolutely love.

I mean, I love Germany, I love everything about it, but in terms of the person I am, I feel like I fit better into here.

(upbeat music) I came to America, I lived there for a year and it just seemed like this giant playground.

I became friends with a photographer at WCCO-TV and he said, call me up anytime you wanna shadow me.

And I could not believe how willing he was to take me to all these places.

I mean, he was a photo journalist in a big city.

In Germany, I can't say that I would have the same experience.

It's a much more formal thing.

I'm not aware that you can call somebody up and say, could I do a five week internship with you?

- [Narrator] Axel found a new love during his internship at WCCO in Minneapolis.

Journalism.

- My career choice was pretty clear.

Based on my experiences in my exchange year, I knew exactly, this is what I wanna do.

- [Narrator] A few years later, he returned to Minneapolis to study broadcast journalism.

This was also when he would meet someone who would become very important in his life.

- I was attending a two-year Lutheran Bible school in the cities, and then, and the next step was going to the University of Minnesota.

And I knew that I was going to study German.

One of my roommates, this was maybe a few weeks before I met Axel, just offhandedly said, you're gonna meet a German and you're gonna marry him.

And that was a ridiculous statement to make 'cause where would you just randomly meet a German?

- We met at Faithfully Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis (upbeat music) my first semester of college.

- My family's German American.

My dad's side of the family, his father grew up in a German-speaking household.

I came to church and a woman, Charlotte, who I'd gotten to know, asked me what I was gonna do.

And I said, I'm gonna study political science and German.

And she goes, oh, you have to meet Axel.

Who's this Axel?

- I think there was some knowledge that Jen had some background.

I mean, her ancestors were German, she did speak some German.

- I go in, and in the pew in front of me was someone who had graduated a year before me that I knew.

The guy that I knew who had graduated before me turned around and asked me what I was gonna do and I said, go to the Morris campus, study political science and German.

Axel turned around and said, oh my God, we have to talk.

And that was it.

He had such an open persona.

Asking questions, responding, interested in what the person he was talking to had to say.

- She too was very bubbly.

I love people who wanna talk and she was, she had really no barriers that I could sense.

I just loved her openness to talk to this new guy who she had never met.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Axel and Jen both attended the University of Minnesota.

After graduation, Jen went on to law school in Iowa and today, she's a practicing attorney.

Axel began his news career at KAAL-TV in Rochester in 2003.

- Being a journalist was the perfect way to get to know this country.

I mean, you get to go places where others didn't go.

You get to talk to mayors and council people and company officials and whatnot.

- [Narrator] Axel worked as a journalist for 12 years before leaving the news in 2012 to take a job at the Mayo Clinic.

- I am a Senior Communications Specialist.

I work in the Department of Public Affairs.

I am on our internal news team, which essentially is charged with preparing communications and news items to all staff.

All 65,000.

It's a giant playground really and I love it.

(upbeat music) - Initially, he was very much an observer and now, he's kind of grown more into becoming part of a community, and then in some ways, being a leader in a community, which means not only are you part of it, but people actually have trust to have you do things on their behalf.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] They both report that parenting philosophies in Germany and the United States are very different.

- They are, in some ways, the other end of the spectrum from helicopter parenting.

Germans are known for things like sending their kids out to play without supervision.

There's no school busing system.

And so, kids, even elementary kids, will be expected to take public transit to their school and be responsible for that and be on their own to figure that out.

- Fifth grade, 10 and 11-years-old, my parents said, hey, take your bike, take the train, and walk to school.

It was a, I don't know, 45-minute undertaking.

- Germans are known for things like expecting a level of independence and competency out of your child and not always rushing in to make things right for them.

- My kids are 10, seven, five, and three.

German parenting is much, it's characterized by instilling the self-reliance probably much earlier than here.

- We redid the kitchen.

And so, we didn't have a sink for the summer basically.

We had a sink in the basement is what we had and we had no dishwasher, except we had four kids, and so, the oldest two were our dishwashers.

(upbeat music) - When we go to a playground and I let my three-year-old go up and down the monkey bars, I know that there are some parents who would never allow their three-year-old kid to do that.

And so, but for me, it's normal.

- This isn't about accomplishments.

It's what can you rely on yourself for?

- [Narrator] The cultural differences between Germany and the United States don't end with parenting.

We asked Axel, what are the values from his perspective that Americans hold most dear?

- Americans are proud to be Americans.

(upbeat music) There's flags everywhere.

Red, white, and blue is celebrated.

Americans are proud of their heritage.

I can't tell you how many times I would meet people and I'd say, hey, I'm Axel and I'm from Germany.

And they would say, oh, I'm 17% German and I'm 20% French, and how about that?

And I never made much of it because to me, I was just always 100% German.

The other is, I would say freedom.

It's become very apparent to me that Americans value their freedom probably above all else.

Freedom to choose how to live their lives, how to raise their kids, how to interact with others.

- [Narrator] We asked Axel his thoughts on the vocal rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States over the last several years.

- It makes me sad and it makes me also feel lucky that based on appearance, I don't look like an immigrant, I'm white, my accent is hardly there.

I'm likely not viewed as an immigrant.

Sometimes I jokingly tell people, I'm not a citizen, I'm an immigrant, the same group of people that elsewhere in the country are not appreciated.

And then sometimes I get a response back that would be like, well, yeah, but you contribute so much to society, et cetera, et cetera.

It makes me feel uneasy.

(contemplative music) - Your white, Western European husband is lauded for his immigrant status and his hard work and what he's accomplished.

And someone who works just as hard is viewed to not be hardworking.

Someone who has just as much love for this country is not seen to be American.

Having an immigrant husband, it's made me be a lot more sensitive to how things like race and ethnicity, people are treated differently, they just simply are.

And I've seen people do it.

And I've seen generally good people do it and a lot.

(contemplative music) We fought Nazis for good reason.

Not only did we defeat Nazis, but our ideals won that country.

That's what makes America great.

And its ideals like, you don't care if your neighbor is like you, you still care about your neighbor.

And you don't have to worship the same God and you don't have to speak the same language.

You don't have to look the same to be American.

- [Narrator] The Gumbels live in Le Roy, a small town about an hour south of Rochester.

- I started falling in love with what I would call the more rural living, where you have smaller communities and much closer relationships with people, with teachers, the banker, the post office personnel, and I just love that.

I thrive on relationships and I thrive on harmony.

And so, I feel like both, I have been able to accomplish to a T in a small community and specifically here in Leroy.

And it's a dream.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Axel and Jen Gumbel and their four kids, a mixed immigrant family and an increasingly common version of the modern American dream.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - A contestant on season 10 of Master Chef, local chef Shari Mukherjee wants to encourage all of us to dive headfirst into her newest recipe.

- Hi, my name is Shari Mukherjee and today, I'm super excited to be here with you guys.

I'm gonna teach you guys how to make my favorite condiment, something I always have in the fridge.

It's really something that can take normal and mediocre to over the top.

We are gonna make pickled onions.

This is a quick pickle.

As you can see, I used a red onion for this, so it's really beautiful color too.

You guys can see that.

And super, super simple to make, so let's get started.

What we're gonna need, you're gonna need a small sauce pan, nothing too big, nothing too fancy.

Some water.

This is just a basic ratio.

Honestly, go by taste.

If you like your pickles to be a little bit more punchy, that's how I like mine, you're gonna wanna add a little bit more vinegar.

If you like 'em to be a little bit more subtle, you might wanna stick with a little bit more water.

I'm going to do a half a cup of water today mixed with, now, I'm using two kinds of vinegars.

You can really use almost any vinegar you have, a wine vinegar, rice vinegar, if you're going kind of a little bit more Asian, you can use white distilled vinegar, apple cider vinegar is one of my favorites, it just adds some extra flavor.

In this, I have a half a cup of plain white vinegar, just distilled vinegar, and one fourth of a cup of apple cider vinegar.

I just mixed 'em.

Now here comes the fun part.

This is how we get the flavor.

Here, I have a little bit of cinnamon, I have some fennel seed, some mustard seed, these are black peppercorns, just really easy, some bits of star anise.

And the secret that I like to do to make it really easy, because I don't want these little bits of mustard in my pickle, I want the flavor, but I don't want the seeds, I grab a tea strainer.

If you guys don't have one of these, this comes in handy for so many things.

Very inexpensive at the store, it opens just like this.

We're gonna go ahead and put all these spices right into this tea strainer.

All right, so spices are in, close it, and we're gonna seal it.

This right here is just gonna drop right in to our dish.

Now I'm gonna add just a little bit of sugar, just a good spoonful, maybe about a teaspoon to start.

And we're gonna add salt, so about the same, I'm gonna do a half a teaspoon to start.

I'm also gonna add some fresh ginger root.

As long as the skin is clean, you don't have to worry about peeling it.

Just go ahead, slice up a few knobs, and we're just gonna toss those in.

If you want, you could also add some sliced jalapeno in here.

It's gonna be great.

Now, we're gonna get this boiling.

We just wanna dissolve that sugar.

While we're waiting for that to boil, we're gonna go ahead and cut our onions.

How I'm gonna cut this is I'm just gonna simply hold it like this and just slice it.

(knife slicing) Just on the side.

And we're gonna get nice slices of this onion.

Now, if you prefer to have rings, you can do that.

Honestly, it's really up to whatever you like and you prefer.

And now I have a clean jar.

Super simple, guys, I'm telling you, you can have this done in no time.

Now, if you were gonna use jalapenos, you could toss those in, garlic.

Really the sky's the limit, anything you like.

I have this Weck jar.

The reason why I like the Weck jars, first of all, you want to use glass.

It's just gonna be non-reactive with the vinegar, so it's not gonna turn your food kind of funky flavors or anything like that.

Glass is always a great option.

Onions are sliced, onions are in, our brine has boiled.

You guys can see, it's nice and boiling.

You can see the steam coming off.

Stirring it around, we just want that sugar to be nice and dissolved.

I think mine needs a little more sugar.

(upbeat music) All right, pretty good.

I'm gonna add just a pinch of salt.

All right, once we get the brine added into our onions, we're just gonna go ahead and seal it up just like this.

You can also add different vegetables to this.

If you have carrots, you can julienne some carrots, you can add radishes, cucumbers, any vegetable that's a little bit hard will be good.

You want kind of a firm texture to that.

This is going to turn into this in just a matter of days.

And you can use these same day, same day you make 'em.

Give 'em a good 20 minutes just to sit in this brine before you use 'em to kind of soak in some of that flavor.

The longer they sit in this brine, the tastier they're gonna be.

These will keep in your fridge for a good month, three, four weeks.

They're not gonna last that long, you guys, 'cause they are delicious.

We put them on everything.

You can chop them up and add 'em to salads, top the burgers with them, you can add 'em to hot dogs, tacos.

We put 'em into rice bowls with salmon.

It's just a really, really great way to add a little pop and acidity to your dish with not a lot of effort.

All right, so now, I'm just gonna show you guys, so I use a little culinary tweezer, but if you have little tongs, anything like that'll work.

Let's give 'em a try.

So good.

The bitterness of that onion is gone.

It's tangy.

It's got a little bit of a punch from that vinegar.

These are amazing.

You guys are gonna love this recipe.

Take your burgers, your hot dogs, everything just up a notch the summer and keep some pickled onions in the fridge.

You're not gonna regret it.

(upbeat music) - Student poet, Oscar Juarez Sanchez, shares his piece, Unfounded Reach.

In his own words, "I am finishing my first year of college "and hope to be in the medical field.

"I have had to overcome many challenges in life.

"I've endured racial, economic, and social barriers "and have flourished despite everything against me."

- [Oscar] How far can I reach?

Rather, how far am I allowed?

And people of my kind are taught that no, you are not endowed.

Unlike us, we are superior, and you are inferior.

Against their curses, I thrive within their thorny environment.

But I am a recalcitrant who does not believe that I can't.

Help, I'm falling and I can't get up.

Neither hands nor speech can pierce.

If it was so easy, then why am I still down?

Slipped in a slick, trodden and tripped, sullen to be befalling, frictionless impact makes for such impasse as the top bolt trip and toil.

Paroxysm dazing me, in fact, that the impact.

(upbeat music) - Enjoy this music video from Rochester band, Loud Mouth Brass, in this performance of their song, Horizons.

(upbeat brass music) (slow music) We've reached the end of this tour Off 90.

Thanks for riding along.

See you next time.

But before we go, we hear a story about Minnesota State University Mankato and how it has grown since its inception in 1858 from the Blue Earth County Historical Society.

(slow music) - [Narrator] Minnesota State Mankato has gone by many names since the 1800s, but its first name was the Mankato Normal School, which started in the basement of the Methodist Church in the fall of 1868.

The first student body had 27 students and they were taught by four instructors.

The first permanent building opened in 1870 with wings added in 1893.

The name changed in 1921 to Mankato State Teacher's College.

In February 1922, there was a fire that burned the school to the ground.

Old Main was completed in 1924 on the same footprint.

The first new classrooms to the school were added in 1952, followed by expansion to a new campus location in 1954.

The school became Mankato State College in 1957 and Mankato State University in 1975 and consolidated to one location in 1979.

The school is now known as Minnesota State University, Mankato.

For more information about historical topics, visit our website at blueearthcountyhistory.com.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for Off 90 is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.