Entertaining Friends

Today we paid our neighbors back for all their help this past year with a Mexican meal. Shopping for ingredients was a bit of a challenge. Nowhere could I find the fresh cilantro nor Monterey Jack cheese my recipes called for. Cheddar would have to do. We did succeed, after trying jar after jar of salsa over the last year, in finding a certain brand that was not sweet and didn't have the consistency of ketchup.

Frau and Herr Müller live next door, but in a newer house. They brought over a photo album and explained how our house was where Herr Müller grew up. In fact, he was born in Micaela's room.

That smiley-faced two-year old was Herr Müller?

The brick wall behind our friends Anne and Björn was part of the original barn that was connected to the house.

James' birthday cake was the last cake mix I had from my trip to the commissary. It's hard to use that last box!

Becca and her friend Jonna. They will be in the same Kindergarten class in November.

We put up this ladder for the kids to climb our awesome tree in the backyard. The tree is so large, though, that even our big kids are a bit intimidated by it.

Jonna and Bex barely speak to each other, but have a great time together.

James' 10th Birthday

James humored us by acting surprised and excited to receive an IKEA pillow and featherbed. His three sisters already got them for their birthdays, so no surprise here, but he was truly excited.

James was the first person, way back last fall, to state that he really wanted to have his own featherbed. We had featherbeds when we first moved here and were living for 6 weeks with rented furniture. It was a bit of a downer when our belongings were delivered and we had to go back to our regular bedspreads. Then, when we went to Disneyland Paris, our cabin had featherbeds and everyone raved about sleeping under a toasty warm featherbed again. David and I realized that featherbeds and pillows would make the perfect birthday presents. Poor James, the child who wanted them the most, had to wait the longest.

James refused to pose all happy under his new featherbed in the top bunk, so our house gnome agreed to do it in his stead.

James was taken by surprise, however, when he unwrapped his new ripstick. A colleague brought it over for us from the States as they haven't hit Germany yet. I'm sure it's just a matter of time. When he took it out for a spin later, several kids asked James what that thing was that he was riding.

First Week of School

The first week of school is now history. I don't think I've ever seen children more thrilled to go back to school than our own kids. They were so bored at home with no kids in our neighborhood to play with.

The week went very well and even Rebecca's week was OK. For the past few weeks, she was reluctant to go to Ritterwiesen Kindergarten, got teary a few times, and walked in slow motion into the school and then into her classroom. It was like watching someone walk to the gallows, past all hope, just an expression of resignation on her sad little face. This week, she has perked up and had a bounce in her step during our short walk to school. She has even started using a few German words on her own. Her favorite seems to be lecker, which means yummy.

New School Year

Tonight was Open House for our kids at ISF, their international school. What a difference a year makes. My frustration level was at a low (as compared to last year) and I have high hopes that the beginning of this school year will not be the nightmare that it was last year.

ISF draws teachers from all over the world and this year, Emilie's teacher is South African, a few of James' teachers are American and a few of Micaela's are Spanish. Other teachers hail from such places as Korea, Greece, Britain, Canada, France, Turkey and India. In fact, Micaela and James are getting pretty good at imitating several different foreign accents.

Olympische Spiele 2008

The past few weeks have been all about the Olympics. We bought a DVR, coincidentally just in time to record Olympic events, and have made full use of it. Olympics coverage is almost 24 hours a day, split between two channels with maybe 1 or 1-1/2 minutes of commercials an hour, if even that. I timed it once, after I read about all the advertisements you need to sit through in the U.S.

Fewer ads here allows for more coverage of those events you wish you could see more of, like pistol shooting. No offense to people who shoot, but I had no idea that it was an Olympic event until last week. Hours and hours of different types of rifle, pistol and shotgun events was broadcast here.

All the commentaries are in German of course which means David often has to play translator for me, but with our new DVR, he can pause the TV to explain to me what's being said and we don't miss a thing. We have learned much about the German athletes and have seen many of their medal-winning performances, but we didn't miss a second of Michael Phelps' swimming nor of the American women's gymnastics team.

Has it really been a year?

A year ago today we set foot on German soil to begin our European adventure. None of us can believe that an entire year has passed. It will be comforting to recognize the patterns of this past year -- the seasons, the school year, holidays, etc.

Our thoughts cannot help but turn philosophical. How has this past year been a success? What do we need to work harder at? What was more difficult or easier than anticipated?

Our first year here can be considered a success in that we survived and it wasn't even a question of us cutting our time here short because we were unhappy (as other people have done or are thinking of doing). This coming year will be all about tweaking -- working out the kinks and going a little bit outside our comfort zone to try new things, such as traveling (we haven't done nearly as much traveling as most of our friends here), cooking, entertaining German friends and enrolling in German courses.

What was easier than we anticipated was getting the kids adjusted to a new home and a new school. They all just jumped right in, made friends quickly and while they missed Atlanta, they didn't dwell on it every moment.

By far the most difficult part of this past year was some health problems that David and I experienced earlier this year. I didn't write about them before now because they were long, drawn-out issues with many twists and turns and I didn't want to mention them until we were sure of what we were dealing with.

In January, I experienced a strange ringing in my right ear for about a minute every night for a week. At the same time, my eyesight deteriorated drastically. Finally one evening, the ringing changed tones and did not go away. We were at the doctor's office the next day where I was given the diagnosis of "sudden deafness." I had lost a significant portion of the hearing in my right ear for unknown reasons. "The inner ear," my ear doctor told us, "is a big mystery." But I still had a constant bizarre ringing, in both ears now and the doctor was unsure if the hearing loss was temporary or permanent.

Long story short, and many visits later to several different kinds of doctors (including getting an MRI to rule out a brain tumor), it is all still a mystery, but here is what we know for sure. I had at some point contracted Epstein-Barr virus (mononucleosis), but the infection is over. My eyesight bounced back to almost normal within a few weeks, but the ringing in my ears persists and the hearing loss is permanent. A different ear doctor says we'll never know what caused the hearing loss, it probably wasn't the virus (I think it was -- too much of a coincidence with the timing and my eyesight being affected, too), and had I "been involved in an explosion or gone to a loud rock concert recently?"

The annoying ringing, or tinnitus, is a common side-effect of hearing loss and will be my constant companion for the rest of my life. I'm learning to deal with the 24/7 ringing/buzzing and I sometimes even try to think of it as the sounds of nature at night when we would go camping. My doctor stated that with all the advances being made in understanding and searching for a treatment for tinnitus, he doubts it will be a lifelong issue for me. I'm holding him to it.

The silver lining in all this is that the hearing loss I experienced is outside the speech range and I barely notice it. The doctor assured me that there was no reason to fear that the hearing loss would progress.

Oh, yeah. All this was going on when I was first struggling to learn to drive stick shift and the German rules of the road. Not the easiest time for me.

Months later, when the fog was beginning to lift on this issue for me, David came down with an eye infection. Due to an eye condition, he must wear hard contact lenses and this infection just wasn't getting better. Several doctor's visits and weeks of missed work later, he was diagnosed with a serious staph infection. Another two weeks later, when the infection was getting worse instead of better, David was told that he needed a corneal transplant. Even if the infection cleared up, he was sure to have serious scarring that would make a transplant necessary.

In all, David missed a month of work and we were stressing about the logistics of this transplant. Should it be performed here or in the U.S.? People needing a transplant are put on a waiting list and it could take up to a year to undergo surgery. Would David be able to work during the waiting period? The only good news was that when all was said and done, he could end up with better vision that he has had for the last 10 years.

But lo! The infection began clearing up. And unbelievably, if his eye continued healing as it was, scarring would be minimal. David doesn't need a transplant after all, at least not yet. That is just fine with us. Getting the transplant done in the U.S. while we are living there would make it so much easier (follow-up appointments are numerous, especially at the beginning). David's eye is not yet 100% (well, it wasn't 100% to begin with) but he hopes to be able to wear his contact lense in that eye soon. The work day does stress his eyes, but he's getting by.

So, from January to July, life continued, we did some sightseeing, had fun with the kids, but the ear and eye issues plagued us. My biggest fear was that all would go downhill and we would need to move back to the States early -- with no home and no job.

But the worst is over now and it feels good to begin this next year in Germany with a renewed sense of adventure.

The glare

This afternoon, we joined my neighbor Anna and her daughter Jonna for some playtime at our local playground. Even the older kids like zooming down the zipline and flying down the huge slide (don't forget -- throwing sand down before you makes you go faster!).

When it was time to go, I put Rebecca's sandals back on her feet and only when I stood up did I realize I had put them on the wrong feet. Oh well, we only had a 4-minute walk home where she would take them off right away, plus she usually puts them on the wrong feet anyway and it doesn't seem to bother her. Why switch them now? With a shrug of the shoulders, I turned around and we all started heading home.

I was chatting away with Anna when I heard someone call out. There was a mom with her kids standing next to Becca calling out something to me. I walked back to her and she said, "Your daughter's shoes are on the wrong feet," pointing down at Rebecca's sandals. "Yes, I know," I answered in German with an embarrassed smile, "I did that. It's OK. Come on, Rebecca." Her eyebrows shot up and she proceeded to bend down and touch first Becca's left foot, then her right, repeating more slowly this time, "Her shoes are on the wrong feet." I repeated, "Yes. I know. But it's OK." As I turned away from her, it happened.

Now, I have heard about this happening to several of my American friends here and have read about it on other ex-pat blogs, but it had never happened to me before. I was on the receiving end of a German glare of disapproval. This woman's eyes first widened in disbelief, then she shook her head and shot me the glare. I don't think I could replicate the power of that look. It actually sent a shiver down my spine.

Rebecca made it home in one piece but the memory of that glare stuck with me. It surely won't be the last time it happens and I'm not looking forward to experiencing it again. I've decided that it would be an excellent weapon to use on my own children at certain times. I just may begin practicing it.....

Kung Fu Panda meets Napoleon Dynamite

For the past year, if we wanted to see a current movie in English, we needed to drive all the way in to Frankfurt where there is a theatre that shows foreign movies in their original versions. Germans love American and British movies, but prefer them dubbed. It's a bit of a drive to get to that particular cinema, parking can be an issue and the screens can be tiny (maybe 8' x 3'). The kids have only gone there a few times and I have never been. But, we recently found out that the movie theatre close to us will have showings for one movie a week in the original language. This week it was Kung Fu Panda. Micaela, James, Emilie and I piled into the car for the 8-minute drive to the Kinopolis.

Only when we got there did I realize that this was the first time I had been to a movie theatre since we moved here. And yes, things can be different. While purchasing our tickets for the OV showing, we were asked where we wanted to sit. At the puzzled look I gave him, our cashier smiled and said, "I'll give you the seats in the top row. They're the best." What??? He printed our tickets and then I got it. We had assigned seats. Assigned seats in a movie theater. What if everyone wanted the best possible seats? Would we all be cramped together? But, really, with one showing in English and eight in German that day, how many people would be coming to the English one?

We needed popcorn. This was a special occasion. I ordered the popcorn-drink combo and was asked, "Do you want that salted or sweet?" Oh.. that's right. Europeans often like their popcorn sweetened, but we're not that assimilated. There was no butter, but salt would do.

We entered the theatre and were the first people there. Our seats were all the way at the top in the middle and we were sure to sit in the correct ones. So, we sat there a while, munching on popcorn and tapping out the beat to the disco music playing from the speakers. Down below us was the screen, covered by a curtain with lights shining up from the floor (there was no raised stage). Well, between the music and the setting down below, James was inspired.

He bounded down the aisle and then posed in front of the curtain, head bowed, hands in his pockets, all illuminated by the lights. On the beat be began doing the Napoleon Dynamite dance. He did several of the steps and then stopped and ran back up to us as Micaela, Emilie and I howled in our seats. James ran back down to do it again and this time added in some of the funnier dance moves.

We were chuckling when the unthinkable happened. In walked an older couple. We called out "James!" to get him to stop, but he couldn't hear us above the beat of the disco music. He just continued his dancing, oblivious to the additional audience members. When we could catch our breath from laughing so hard, we would call out his name, "James!". It was not out of the realm of possibilities for this older couple to reprimand us for James' inappropriate impromptu recital. They did glance around to see what we were yelling at and seemed surprised to see James in front of the curtain gyrating a bit, but they didn't crack a smile nor glare at us and seemed more focused on finding their seat assignments. He finally heard us and scampered sheepishly up the aisle to our seats where we giggled some more, but at a lower volume.

There ended up being maybe 25 other people in the theatre, and we were not on top of each other. A short drive, an amusing dance by my son, a funny movie in English,...not a bad way to spend an evening.

Freibad

Today we went to a pool located just a short 10 minute drive away. The weather is already getting iffy, with many cooler days, so we wanted to get in a nice swim day before it was too late.

I had been to the Bad Soden Freibad one other time with my friend Kathy and one issue I had concerned what swim diapers were required. Rebecca has been fully potty trained for months now, but most pools in America require one type of swim diaper or another up to the age of 4. Was there a certain type of swim diaper required and would I need to buy it there? My worries were a moot point when I got my first look at the baby pool. There were several toddlers in the baby pool with no diapers at all, no swimsuits for that matter either.


We spent several hours at the pool that day and at one point my friend Kathy said, "Take a look around. Do you notice anything strange? There's not a lifeguard in sight." And she was right, there were no lifeguard perches and no one walking around you could readily identify as a lifeguard. What a difference from our outdoor YMCA pool back in Alpharetta that had at least 8 life guards on duty at a time, and that pool complex was 1/2 the size of this one.

Today was on the chilly side, the complex was pretty empty and there were two fellows who seemed to be lifeguards patrolling the pool and other areas. The kids were happy that there was no line for going down this awesome slide. Some other boys around James' age joined them and we noticed something odd going on at the base of the slide when they would finish. They would pull up their swim trunks. Was the slide that strong that it would pull down their suits? But then we realized what was going on. At the top of the slide, the boys would pull down the backs of their trunks. Their bare bums would make them zoom down the slide at lightening speed. After a while, some of the boys didn't even bother pulling their suits back up for the quick trip back up the stairs. There were bums everywhere! And you know my kids -- one of them, who shall remain nameless, just had to try this sliding technique and confirmed that bare was better!

Our little hedgehog

We only got back to Germany yesterday, but we needed to do some shopping right away for Rebecca as she began Kindergarten (preschool) today. The supply list for German Kindergarten is a bit different from the list you get for American preschool. We needed to buy house slippers (which most kids wear around their own houses), gymnastic slippers, a raincoat, rain pants and rain boots. "So," I said to David as our items were being rung up at the register, "I guess rain will be no deterrent to playing outside." He answered, "I guess not."

In Germany, Kindergarten begins when a child turns three and is pretty much all year round, every day of the week. Because it is subsidized by the government, it is very inexpensive. For the first few months, we've signed Rebecca up for the short day, from as early as 7:30am to as late as 1:30pm. We may switch her to the longer day in a few months where I can pick her up around 3:30pm. And, yes, the entire day will be in German. Since Rebecca doesn't speak much English and is so young, we're not too concerned. She'll figure it out.

This morning, we took the five-minute walk to the Ritterwiesen (Field of Knights) Kindergarten where Becca is in the Igel Gruppe (Hedgehog Group). The cheerful director took Becca by the hand and led her to her room, calling out "Ein neuer Igel! Ein neuer Igel ist hier!" ("A new hedgehog! A new hedgehog is here!") We changed her into her house slippers and said goodbye. Rebecca seemed a little surprised that we were leaving, but handled it OK.

Her teacher told us at the end of the day that she did just fine and played with other kids. I'm praying it continues to go well. With the older kids in school in a few weeks and Rebecca in preschool, I will have mornings to myself for the first time in years.

A first day gummi bear treat for einen neuen Igel. Hedgehogs, a protected species, are beloved in Germany.