American TV

We made the kids happy a few days ago when we came home with our first flat screen TV -- a rather unimpressive 19-inch, but a TV nonetheless.  The kids have been doing remarkably well in the apartment with no computer, no wi-fi, no TV and only the few toys they brought in their carry-ons.  We survived Germany with only one TV, but here in the U.S., we'll get another larger TV for the basement playroom.

We have an HD antenna and only have handful of stations, but it's still nice.  The kids think that American TV has too many court shows (Divorce Court, Judge Mathis, etc.) and way too many medication ads with long disclaimers.  For my part, I was reminded of how disturbing local TV news broadcasts are.  There were only 2 murders in our German state of Hessen that I heard of during our three years in Germany.  Maybe there were more, but they weren't replayed on TV or splashed across the newspaper pages for days on end.   The only story that got that kind of press was a tragic school shooting near Stuttgart in 2009, but even that dropped off the media radar after a week.  The local news shows here are loaded with murders, shootings, violent home invasions,... you know what I'm talking about.  We need to get a DVR and tape the news and watch it with no kids present.

I was struck by how alarmist so much of TV "news" shows are -- such as Good Morning America and Dateline.  I'm not lying when I report that some of the features on Good Morning America have included "Can your pet's dry food make you ill?" and "What to do if a shark gets into your metal cage while you're on a shark observation dive" as well as "Hidden danger in your local sports stadium food" and "Could your local community pool be making you sick?"  Before moving to Germany, David and I were loyal viewers of Good Morning America, but I don't know if I can handle it now.

What kids will do when there's no TV

For the last few days, we were staying in a one-bedroom apartment, but today, we got the keys to a three-bedroom apartment. When the apartment agent handed the keys to me, she said, "I think you'll be very happy in this apartment. And we just put in new carpet!" That's the sort of thing, when you have four kids, that does not make you jump for joy. I would have preferred older carpet.

But the kids had other ideas. They quickly discovered that the new carpet had two different colors, depending on how it was "brushed."

And here's the result. Micaela and James both "carved" large Green Day drawings into the carpet. We weren't allowed to step through the living room for the whole day.

We came upon a fantastic music store, the Guitar Center, in the town next door and bought James a drumming block since he's been driving us crazy drumming on the counter top with pencils.

He went on to recreate his beloved drum set and the metal Lufthansa boxes we were given on the flight home made decent symbols.

We've been surviving with no TV, no computer, no wi-fi in our new apartment, few toys, no friends, but the kids have been doing great. Being able to go swimming every afternoon in the complex' pool and reading books on the Kindle helps.

Last Flight Home

Today we flew home to the U.S. As we made our way to the Frankfurt Airport, after having said goodbye to our empty house and taking one last swing in the backyard, the kids were fretting about whether or not we would get Business Class seats on the airplane. We had confirmed business class seats, but as we have discovered in the past, that can all change in the blink of an eye.

At the airport, checking on poor Guinness. Lufthansa advises pet owners to not give their pets any sleeping medication. They found that pets would be more upset if they woke up in the cargo section of the airplane during the flight rather than being aware of what was happening the whole time.

Happily for all of us, we got those confirmed seats after all. The seats are in pairs and my traveling buddy was Emilie. Right away, the flight attendants approached us with champagne, juice and games and treats for the kids.

The nicest thing about flying business class is being able to stretch out, a close second is the personal movie screen and third is the attentive service.

After the flight, I said to David, "You know, flying business class is like sitting in your family room at home for an entire day in a recliner, watching all those movies on DVD you've been meaning to see, while a servant in the kitchen cooks and brings you a "gourmet" dinner and checks on you every so often to see if you would like more wine. Then you doze off for an hour or two and wake up and realize you're thirsty and right then, your servant comes up to you with a tray of juices and water to choose from. And it continues like that for another few hours. It's quite a treat when you think about it."

In Atlanta waiting for Guinness to be brought to us.  It took us forever to get through all the necessary checks in Atlanta.  In fact, we needed to go through security, including scanning our bags and having us walk through a metal detector, to exit from baggage claim area and enter the main area of the airport. 

And then we were in our rented minivan, driving toward Peachtree City and our new life in the U.S.