Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was just another day of work and school for us. In fact, David had his office Christmas party that night. With him gone, I let the kids have a special treat, microwave hotdogs. Hotdogs wrapped in cheese, stuffed in a bun. You don't even open the plastic packaging. Just stick them in the microwave oven for a minute and Voilà! Dinner! I think they're yucky; the kids love them. I didn't get the irony of the situation until James exclaimed, "Microwave hotdogs for Thanksgiving! Gee, thanks, Mom!"

Never fear, sweet children. We would have a Thanksgiving meal on Saturday.

Here is our table full of the bounty of the harvest.

The menu:
* Turkey cutlets (a full-sized turkey would not have fit in our little oven)
* Creamy herb sauce (no gravy in German stores)
* Mashed potatoes
* Green bean casserole (thanks to Grandma for bringing a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup to London, no crunchy onion topping in Germany)
* Stuffing (no stuffing mix in Germany. I made my first from-scratch stuffing ever and thought it was outstanding. Everyone else said they preferred Stovetop Stuffing.)
* Cranberry sauce (thanks to my friend Kathy, who passed along a can to me. You can't find cranberry sauce in 99% of German grocery stores. She had hit the 1% recently)
* Apfelschorle (mix of applejuice and fizzy mineral water, no apple cider in German grocery stores)

In spite of it not being a huge, traditional Thanksgiving meal with many different dishes, everyone seemed to enjoy it just fine.

Micaela and James warming their backs on the wall of the heating oven in our dining room after David lit the first fire of the season.

The pièce de résistance! Pumpkin whoopie pies. Kathy also passed along to me some canned pumpkin (which you cannot find in 99% of German grocery stores). I didn't realize whoopie pies are not known throughout the U.S. until I posted something last year about them on Facebook. I got several "What is a whoopie pie?" responses.

For those of you unfamiliar with the delicacy, a whoopie pie is a baked good made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them. This time of year, you also see pumpkin ones with a cream cheese filling. Whoopie pies are considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition. If you've ever had a Devil Dog, you've had an elongated whoopie pie.

Emilie could be on the packaging for a set of pumpkin whoopie pies.

How could you resist one?

H1N1

The H1N1 virus has been as much in the news here as back in the U.S. There has been much debate on whether or not to get the vaccine and confirmed cases are being tracked throughout the country. We didn't get the vaccine until a month or so after it was available in the U.S. The kids had gotten the regular flu shot several weeks ago, but I was undecided on whether or not to get the H1N1 vaccine.

And now H1N1 has hit our school. We got an e-mail a few weeks ago that there was a confirmed case of H1N1 at the school, but that we shouldn't panic. The student was at home resting comfortably. And we keep getting e-mails. More and more confirmed cases at ISF are being reported. Many parents have been panicking, requesting that the school be closed, and everyone is sending their kids to school with their own bottle of hand sanitizer (nothing like Purell, sanitizers here seem to be pure watery alcohol). A few students have even shown up at school wearing face masks.

Our school is notorious in the area. No other school seems to have so many cases of H1N1. We are "that international school with all those cases of swine flu."

Last Saturday morning, Emilie began running a fever. Uh oh. Several kids in her class had had H1N1. This could be our turn, or it could be another virus. By the evening, Rebecca was running a fever. Uh oh. Em must have given it to Bex. For the next few days, the girls cuddled on the couch together watching DVDs and had slumber parties in the same bed. They seemed to be better on Monday, but then Monday night, their fevers rose again. Enough. We went to the pediatrician on Tuesday and they were both tested for H1N1.

I gulped and said, "Now, if they do have it, I have to report it to the school, right?" The doctor said, "Yes, you do." I proceeded to whine, "But, there have been no cases of H1N1 at Rebecca's Kindergarten. Everybody in the area already thinks that ISF is, oh, I don't know, dirty somehow since we have so many more cases of H1N1 than any German school. And now I'll be the first parent at the German Kindergarten who has to call and say 'My kid has swine flu.'"

The doctor looked at me sympathetically and said, "Let me explain something to you. It's true that some people think your school has more cases because you're at an international school, with parents and kids traveling all over the world and bringing back diseases to Germany. That is simply not the case. What is happening is that most families at ISF are expat families with private health insurance. When we see a patient with private health insurance, we test them. The private health insurance covers the cost of the test. 90% of Germans have public health insurance. In that case, someone has to pay for the H1N1 test, either the doctor or the patient, and no one wants to pay for it. The doctors feel pressured to pay themselves if the parents balk at the cost, but that is so expensive for us. As a result, most Germans who have suspected cases of swine flu are not being tested. There are as many cases of H1N1 in German schools, they are just not confirmed. So, don't worry about it."

We needed to wait 1-3 days for the test results, during which time Becca and Em had to stay home from school, even though they were fine by the following day.

This morning the doctor called with the results, with the unbelievable results. Emilie was negative, but Rebecca was positive. I needed to repeat the results back to him twice to be sure I had heard him correctly. How could that be possible? Emilie was the one who was at school with several infected classmates and even more strangely, how did Becca not pass it on to Emilie, considering that had been joined at the hip for the last week?

And yes, I needed to make that difficult call to the Kindergarten, that my dirty foreign daughter had had H1N1. It didn't matter that some of her classmates had probably had it as well. Becca was the only confirmed case. Curse this private insurance!

Goose Dinner

My friend Kathy invited me to a gathering of her neighborhood group from the American Women's Club. We met at a restaurant in a nearby town where a goose dinner was planned.  Goose is often eaten in honor of St. Martin but is also a very popular Christmas meal.

Our meal began with a choice of either a salad with pumpkin dressing or creamy pumpkin soup. Then the server brought out bread and little pottery crocks full of what looked (and tasted like) lard.

And then the main course. I had had goose once before at a Christmas dinner with David's colleagues back in Atlanta years ago and it was awful. The goose must have been overcooked because it was dry and difficult to cut and chew. This goose dinner was delicious. The roast goose was served with red cabbage, potato dumplings (Klöße), gravy and glazed chestnuts.

The conversation was good as well -- an interesting mix of Americans, Germans and other nationalities, with some people who are only in Germany for a few years and others who have been here much longer and have no plans to move back home.  One couple said, "We moved here from the U.S. and were told we'd be here for two years.  That was 18 years ago."  Hmmm.......

St. Martin's Day

The feast day of the 4th century saint St. Martin of Tours, was Wednesday, but Rebecca's Kindergarten celebrated it today. I was totally ignorant of the festivities last year and the whole experience was like a comedy of errors. This year, I was prepared. Here is Becca with the handprint lantern she made at school and the little fishing pole light I bought a few days ago.

At the Kindergarten, all the kids compared lanterns. You can buy lanterns at the store with countless different designs, including cartoon characters like Spongebob. Becca's friend Felix' class made these amusing ones and he and Bex traded for a little while.

Everyone gathered around to watch a play about St. Martin -- about how the Roman soldier split his red cloak and shared it with a freezing beggar, and then how he dreamed he saw Jesus wearing his cloak and was converted, and then later how he was elected Bishop of Tours against his will and hid in a barn with geese whose honking gave him away.

With Keanu

Munching on goose-shaped sweet bread. St. Martin's Day is celebrated throughout Europe and Latin America.

The lantern procession, where kids walk through neighborhoods singing songs about St. Martin

Becca's lit lantern. In the past, little candles would light up the lanterns. I read somewhere that a St. Martin's Day lantern procession wasn't complete unless several lanterns caught on fire.

St. Martin appeared to lead the procession. As it got darker and darker, more and more kids tripped and fell. There seemed to be as much crying as singing. Becca kept it together until we were on our way home, when she fell and had to be reassured that her lantern had survived.

Back to school for a bonfire and more singing

Random Observations -- Take Five

German radio stations have previews for songs to be played in the next 15 minutes or so. The DJ will play snippets from upcoming songs to whet your appetite before going to a commercial.

Fountain pens are popular in Germany, even among school kids for the simple reason that you can erase and rewrite your answer. Just pick out a fountain pen with a design you like (and be sure you don't get a lefty pen if you're a righty or vice versa). You will also need refill ink cartridges (usually blue) and then the magic eraser marker. The marker is double-ended, one end has the marker for erasing your error and the other end is a blue marker for writing the correction. Your fountain pen will not write on the section you erased. Once you get used to writing with a fountain pen, once you figure out where the pen tip's sweet spot is, you'll never go back to using ball point pens.

Dora and Boots are constantly bumming rides off Tico the Squirrel, the only character on the Dora the Explorer show who has his drivers license apparently. In the episode I watched with Becca the other day, Dora and Boots were yet again taking advantage of Tico and asked for a ride, to which the English-speaking Tico answered, "It would be my great pleasure." Who talks like that?

Sundays are a day to venture outside, even in very cold weather, to get some exercise. You see a lot of Nordic walkers -- people walking with what look like ski poles. I didn't quite understand what the purpose of the poles were until I read that Nordic walking burns 20% more calories than regular walking. And there is an actual technique to it, you don't just swing the poles willy-nilly. Other benefits include increased strength and endurance in the entire upper body, increases in heart rate at a given pace, better balance and easier hill climbing while walking, and significant unweighting of hip, knee and ankle joints. One American I met who gave it try on a vacation trip said, "Would you believe I actually fell down at one point? It's not as easy as it looks!"

This weekend, James is traveling with his soccer team to Berlin for a tournament. On the list of items to bring: a travel mug (for tea).

I'm not sure of the laws involved, but you see ATVs being driven down regular streets in Germany.

If you go to a German department store, even a nice one, and you want to try on an item of clothing, chances are you won't find a dressing room. Instead, you'll simply use a dressing booth with a curtain located right on the store floor out in the open. My kids hate this! I have to hold the sides of the curtain to be sure no one gets a peek at them. At specialty clothing stores, there is usually a dressing room with curtained booths for privacy, but the dressing rooms themselves are co-ed.

The kids and I find this new Nestlé Fitness cereal tasty, but the box made David do a double-take. I believe the word, "Whoa!" escaped his lips. I don't think you have this cereal in the U.S. Would they use the same box design there, I wonder?

I heard Becca and Emilie fighting one evening and went to investigate. I found a tearful Emilie who whined that Becca kept saying, "Du bist Kaka-Kopf! Du bist Kaka-Kopf!" ("You're a poopie-head! You're a poopie-head!") My outburst of laughter made Emilie cry all the harder.

Diwali

Every year, Hindu Indian families from our school share some traditions of their important holiday, Diwali, or Festival of Lights with the rest of the school.

 

Several woman created this beautiful Rangoli on the floor of the school's lobby. Rangoli, a form of sand painting that uses finely ground white and colored powders, is one of the most popular art forms in India and is often part of Diwali celebrations. The use of powder or sand as a medium for creating these fragile Rangoli is sometimes thought to be a metaphor for the impermanence of life.

It is also traditional to light small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil within an individual.

If you look closely, you can see that Emilie has a bindi painted on her forehead. The spot between the eyebrows or 'third eye' marks an energy channel which is believed to control various levels of concentration while meditating. The bindi is said to retain the energy given off through this channel thereby strengthening the concentration of the wearer. The bindi is also said to protect against demons, the evil eye, or bad luck.

Today the religious significance is largely forgotten and the bindi is worn as a decoration. You will see bindis of every color, shape, and size worn by people of many different religions around the world. Indian teenage girls especially love to match a decorative bindi with the color of their sari and some bindis even have glitter, crystals, and embroidery on them.