House Slippers

Our kids are still in the habit of removing their shoes when they enter the house. We instituted this rule in Atlanta in a futile attempt to keep our carpets in decent shape. The orange Georgia clay took its toll in spite of our "No Shoes!" rule.

Here in Germany, people are also in the habit of leaving their shoes at the door, but with no carpet, the wood and tile floors get cold. Most Germans have a pair of house slippers they slide on when coming home. When Rebecca's little friend Jonna comes to play at our house, she brings her own slippers.

I bought myself a pair last year and wear them almost at all times around the house and Rebecca needed a pair to keep at Kindergarten. The first things we do when we get to school each morning is take off her coat and shoes and put on her house slippers.

At our house, though, the kids have been running around in stocking feet and I have asked in passing if they wanted slippers, but they all said no thanks. It was finally James who requested house slippers last week. Off we went to the Walmart-eque store and spent quite a bit of time sorting through the different types. Some look like typical American slippers, some like sandals, some have zippers and some velcro. They all managed to find a pair in their size they liked.

No more cold feet here.

Mamma Mia!

This evening, I saw Mamma Mia! for the 2-1/2 time. The first time was at the Turmpalast, a movie theater in Frankfurt that shows films in their original versions (i.e. original language or o.v.). When I first walked into the room showing Mamma Mia!, I laughed. There were maybe 100 seats and the screen was maybe 8 feet long and 3 feet high. I have seen bigger screens in friends' homes back in Atlanta. A bit of a disappoint to be sure, but once the film began, I forgot about the screen size and enjoyed the movie, especially because it featured my fave Colin Firth, who is good no matter the film, or the nature of his character (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

The 1/2 time was a few weeks ago when our local theatre was showing Mamma Mia! in o.v., but only two times. The kids are familiar with some of ABBA's music and I thought they would like this little school-night surprise. David met us for a quick dinner at McDonald's and then we went to see the movie right next door. We were put into the wrong room at first (it was packed) and boy, were we surprised when the actors started speaking German! We hightailed it out of there and found the correct room. In the o.v., the dialogue is dubbed into German, but the songs are in their original English with German subtitles.

It didn't take long for dear, sweet Rebecca to decide that she wasn't all that interested in Mamma Mia!, no matter how cute Colin Firth was. We were in the back row, but her jumping from seat to seat and my hissing at her to behave were starting to bother the 10 or so other audience members, so, Rebecca and I left.

The next time was tonight. Feeling quite cheated after the previous viewing, I invited our neighbor Anne to join me, this time to see the German version. She asked, "But will you be OK seeing it in German?" I answered, "Well, I've seen it before so I know the story, and they break out into song every 5 minutes. Yeah, I'll be OK."

While we were waiting for the the film to start, I laughingly told Anne about the tiny screen at the Turmpalast. Her eyebrows rose and she said, "But that was how all movie theaters were when I was growing up! These huge screens are pretty recent." Oops. Definitely felt like a spoiled American.

The film was great, even in German, but I think I can now wait for the DVD to see it again.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Colin Firth, and enjoy smart dialogue and a strong female lead character, do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy of Pride and Prejudice (1995). Your life will never be the same.

Wagon Wine Ride

Our church organized a wagon wine ride at a vineyard for tonight, and I signed up with my friend Kathy, although I didn't know exactly what it entailed. It was basically a night of riding in a wagon through a vineyard and drinking wine. I should have been able to figure that one out.

We all piled into a bus for the one-hour ride to the Vineyard Heise am Kranzberg in Nierstein along the Rhein River. Upon our arrival, we immediately piled onto a tractor-drawn wagon, were handed some wurst and brötchen and told to open the cooler located at our feet and uncork a bottle of wine for goodness sake! For two hours, we sampled many different bottles of wine, munched on our snacks and enjoyed the sunset view of the countryside.

Three hot-air balloons drifted over the vineyards.

As the night went on, things got a bit rowdy, with political and sports debates and lots of singing.

Stopping to stretch our legs and enjoy the view.

With my good friend Kathy.

We ended the evening with dinner at the vineyard restaurant and a tour of their cellars. These oak barrels are for fermenting and aging red wine....

....and these stainless steel ones are better for white.

We could, of course, buy some of the wine from the vineyard and most of us found the Riesling Hipping trocken (a dry white wine) especially tasty.

Yet Another Driving Test

The stress of driving lessons and submitting to a written and road test took their toll on me earlier this year. It was with the greatest relief that I handed over my U.S. driver's license in exchange for my hard-fought-for German one. David's light-hearted jabs along the way, since he was exempt from the lessons and tests, did little to lighten my mood about the whole thing.

At least he thought he was exempt. We initially went back and forth several times about whether or not we would need to take the tests at all. We were relieved to hear that our state of Hessen had an exemption to the "Americans from Georgia must take the tests" rule. Then, it became "Only Americans working in Hessen were exempt." That's when I began taking driving lessons (which were required) and the gentle teasing remarks from my dear husband began.

All this while, paperwork work requesting an exemption for David was shuffled from one government desk to another, with several people signing off on it. At the desk of the last official, though, David's luck ran out. He was not exempt after all. The exemption was only for "Americans working for American companies in Hessen."

It was rather gratifying to see my husband scratching his head over the vaguely-worded English translation of the driver's manual and then coming home from lessons remarking that there was something strange about the German road signs. He swore they were at a different height than American ones. What other reason could there be for often missing seeing important ones? And explaining some of the questions on the practice tests? There were no light-hearted jabs from me, just satisfied smirks.

David passed the written test a few weeks ago with a perfect score (a better score than mine), and then this morning took the driving test. Thankfully, the official administering the test did not ask why he was almost a year late taking the test.

In Germany during a road test, your instructor sits next to you and the official sits in the back and just tells you what to do. My instructor had assured me that by the time you take the test, the officials are expecting and hoping that you pass. "He has your license in his pocket and he wants to give it to you!" It's true that when I passed, the official was very happy for me and seemed a bit puzzled that I just sighed with relief instead of jumping for joy.

David wasn't that stressed about taking the test this morning. The only pressure he felt was the need to match my performance of passing the test on the first try. He had no need to worry, he did just fine. For some reason, he was able to keep his American license, whereas I had to surrender mine (after several discussions justifying why I should be able to keep it were rejected). We think it just depended on which government official you talked to that day.

Hike into the Woods

This afternoon was the Kindergarten's Annual Hike into the Woods. All I could understand was that there was to be a 6-kilometer hike from the Kindergarten to a restaurant somewhere in the woods in a different town and that parents, siblings, grandparents and dogs could join in. Kids could walk, ride bikes or scooters, or be pushed in a stroller. Becca started on her pedal-less bike, but I pushed the stroller along just in case.

It was the perfect day for a hike: sunny and cool.

Our walk led us to this horse pasture.

The horses were munching on apples picked from the trees that lined the other side of the path. Becca was thrilled to see the horses as she secretly believes she is one and spends a good deal of time whinnying and galloping around the house.

Getting closer....

Finally, we made it to the restaurant that had plenty of outdoor seating to enjoy the beautiful weather and lots of space to let the kids run around, as the 3-kilometer walk did not seem to make a dent in their energy level.

The inside looked like a country antique store and with no parking lot or actual road in site, it looked like the only way to reach this place was on foot or bike.

The kids found their own snacks on nearby trees.

And the reward: some applejuice and apfelkuchen.

Identify this object

It is about the size of a football. Is it:

a)the world's largest burr

b) a dried out Chia pet

c) ein Igel

The correct answer is c) ein Igel. Ein Igel is, of course, a hedgehog. I was running around getting ready to go out with Rebecca when I noticed a large-ish brown-ish object that appeared to be moving slowly across our backyard. I opened the door to check it out and Guinness ran out, gave it a sniff, and ran back to me. Approaching it cautiously, my first thought was that it was a hedgehog, but I could see no sweet little face in any part of this prickly ball and, in all honesty, its spines, with all sorts of things caught in them, did not look like animal parts. It looked like a big burr and I wasn't remotely tempted to nudge it to see if it would move.

Then I noticed the entire thing seemed to be alternately expanding and contracting a bit. Must be a hedgehog or at least some sort of living thing if it's breathing. But it was bigger than I thought a hedgehog was. In any case, a photo of this momentous event was in order. It stayed where it was for 10 minutes and then disappeared when I wasn't looking.

Ever since Rebecca was put into the Igel Gruppe at Kindergarten, I have been fascinated by this creature. They are no living species native to North America, something that surprises Germans when I mention it. Then again, there are no living species of skunk native to Europe. That usually surprises Americans.

Many German hedgehogs have been found dead in recent years after meeting a strange end -- they got their heads stuck inside McDonald's McFlurry containers and starved as a result. After being lobbied by environmental groups, McDonald's went back to the drawing board and this year introduced a new, hedgehog-friendly design for its dessert lids.

Extra-Curricular Activities

The school year is in full swing and with that comes all the extra activities the kids sign up for. For Micaela and James, it is mandatory that they have an activity every day. James has chosen soccer, track and field, dodge ball and cartoon animation. Micaela has tennis, cooking, study skills and silent study. Emilie has swimming lessons and sticker swap (still not sure what that is, but she loves the teacher leading it).
I noticed signs around the school for tryouts for this year's musical, which just so happens to be Mamma Mia!. Tryouts were for kids from 7th to 13th grades. Micaela and I have both seen the English version of the film and really enjoyed it. I encouraged her to try out, saying that they needed lots of people, not just people for the leads. The leads would go to the older kids. Micaela responded, "No, Mom! I'm not the type to get up on stage!" Bummer. It didn't help when I said that she likes the music, she already knows the story and it would be a great social activity. Future school musicals may not be this fun. "M-o-o-o-o-m! No!"

Then, new posters went up stating that kids could try out as a group for the "cast and chorus" roles. Micaela was still having none of it. A few days ago, I ran into another mom, who had been having the same conversation with her daughter, Micaela's friend Caitlin. So, I said, "Well, I'm going to go home and tell Micaela that Caitlin may be trying out. That may help." And she said, "I'll go home and tell Caitlin that Micaela may be trying out."

This afternoon I drove to the school and when I got stuck for 10 minutes at the railroad tracks near the school, I called Micaela on her cell phone to tell her I was almost there. She answered, "Mom, I may be a little late today. A bunch of us are trying out for Mamma Mia!." Our diabolical plan worked! Several 7th grade girls tried out as a group and got in! Practice will be every Thursday night and the performances will be in March.

I was so proud of Micaela for going outside her comfort zone. What a Super Trouper!

Scrapbooking in Germany

I did a fair amount of scrapbooking back in Georgia, where there was a Target and a Michael's craft store within a 5-minute drive of my house in case I needed to replenish supplies or find that something special to complete a layout. If I chose to drive 15 minutes, I had a Walmart and an actual scrapbooking store at our nearest mall. If all else failed, there was always the myriad of scrapbooking sites on the internet to order from. Even when scrapping in a very basic style, like me, more supplies are always needed!

Several months ago, I decided the time was right to scrap again and I was outfitted with IKEA bookshelves, a desk and chair for a scrapbooking corner in our family room. As I looked around at my supplies, I said to myself, "OK, I really need to just use what I have. No more buying materials for a while."

I'm a few years behind, but the first layouts I decided to work on were from our trip to Disneyland Paris in the Spring. But how to do Disney layouts without any Disney items? There are such charming Disney materials in the U.S., but when I asked for scrapbooking items at the stores in Disneyland itself, people looked at me funny. Scrapbookeeeng? What eez theez scrapbookeeeng?

I quickly forgot the vow to forgo any new supplies. And so began another quest. I have yet to find a shop like Michael's (I had been forewarned that there were none in Germany) and once a year or so, some stamps or letter stickers appear in a store, but they're gone a few weeks later. There just weren't supplies anywhere.

I found a Disney kit on the Creative Memories direct sales American site that I swore I could not do without. Nothing else would suit. Good news! There is Creative Memories in Germany! Bad news! They don't carry all the materials, including this particular kit. We ordered it and had it shipped to one of David's colleagues in Atlanta who brought it to us on his next trip here.

OK, so scrapbooking is not the popular hobby here that it is in the America (according to some sources, scrapbooking is more popular than golf) and finding supplies here in Germany has proven to be problematic. But, surely there are websites I could order from? Time and time again, the European websites I visited seemed to be connected to American sites and I would need to pay a hefty amount to have items shipped to me (from the U.S. after all).

Then, a friend told me about a huge craft store on the Zeil, the main shopping area in Frankfurt, that just began carrying loads of scrapbooking supplies. Just this past Wednesday, my friend Kathy and I ventured on a rainy morning to downtown Frankfurt and found the Idee, the huge craft store.

Huge? Huge by German standards, not by American. And their meager scrapbooking supplies were fine, if you weren't looking for something specific and if you weren't used to cruising aisle after aisle of supplies in a Michael's. I made myself buy some paper and matching accessories, and I did find a great dragon punch I can use on a few castle-visit layouts. But I realized that this was just not going to work in the long run. Scrapbooking may have arrived in Germany, but it will be a while till it catches on.

So, I've decided that I will use the supplies I have, unless there is just something I absolutely must have. Then, I will have one of David's colleagues bring it over, or wait until the next trip to the U.S. and load up on items at the Michael's or Joanne's. Next trip home, all you women in the Michael's scrapbooking aisles, clear out! Desperate shopper on the loose!

The Spirit of Georgia

I saw this ad on TV recently and it had me scratching my head. (Cut and paste to watch.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xwNXfnyN_I

What was this "The Spirit of Georgia" drink all about?

Not surprisingly, this new beverage is made by Coca-Cola, which is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Coca-Cola already has several other drinks marketed around the world with the word "Georgia" in the name.

"The Spirit of Georgia" comes in three flavors: Blood Orange Cactus fig, Lemon Wacholderberry (juniper berry) and Green Mango Kiwi.

Georgia is meant to compete with the very popular German Bionade brand of soft drinks, which you can find in the U.S., by the way. Bionade has five flavors: Ginger-Orange, Elderberry, Lychee (fruit of the Chinese Lychee tree), Herb (yes, an herbal-flavored soft drink), and "sporty" Forte. I can only speak for the Elderberry flavor. Lecker.

Bionade and Georgia are both fermented but have no alcoholic content, use only organic ingredients and have no corn syrup, making them less sweet than other soft drinks. "The Spirit of Georgia" is made in Germany and sold only in Germany and Austria. It is still very new, so time will tell if Germans will make the switch from Bionade.

Bowing to Peer Pressure

Rebecca has been going to Kindergarten for over a month now and at least twice a week, I have had to hear another parent or a teacher quip that Becca's backpack was as big as she was! Yes, well,....it was cute the first few times.

The kids here have mini backpacks for Kindergarten which also serve as their lunchboxes, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with Becca's standard-sized hand-me-down Pooh backpack with a lunchbox stuck inside. We have had to buy many items since we have been here, some to help us stick out less, and there was no way I was going to replace a perfectly good backpack just because of these little comments.

A few days ago, another mother, upon seeing Rebecca with her backpack almost sweeping the floor said, "Her backpack is as big as she is!" I must have really had it because I gave her a weak smile and replied, "Yes, we have bigger backpacks in the United States." She answered back something along the lines of, "Yes, well, we have bigger backpacks in Germany, too, but they are for bigger kids." Ouch.

When I found myself at the store later in the day to buy Becca new rain pants, I spied this sweet little mini backpack. And I bought it. I didn't even check to see how much it cost. Anything to stop the comments. How weak.

Raindrops keep falling on my head!

Back home in Atlanta, rain altered your day, meaning if it rained, the kids did not go outside for recess and the walk around the neighborhood you planned with friends was canceled. You drove your car to the store instead of walking to it. I say that tongue-in-cheek as it was virtually impossible to walk to a store in our Atlanta suburban town, even if it was only a 15-minute walk away. Sidewalks along main roads were very rare and walking to a store along the side of the road could be hazardous to one's health.

It's a different story in Germany, no doubt because it rains so often at certain times of the year. You can't let a little rain keep you from doing the things you need to do. Kids go outside for recess, people ride their bikes to the store and a little rain does not clear the playground at our local park.

Here is Rebecca in her new rain gear for Kindergarten. You get what you pay for when it comes to rain pants. Rebecca ripped her first two inexpensive pairs the first time that she wore them, so a better set was in order. This is her insulated winter rain gear. Her new autumn set are at school and she has already worn them several times. Rain is no reason to keep children inside!

Today James had a soccer game after school. It didn't matter that is was 62 degrees out, it was a dirt field and that there was a steady rain the entire game. James came home muddy and freezing. He immediately jumped into a hot shower and had hot chocolate with his dinner.

These Germans are hearty types!