First Aid Class and Vision Screening

One of the issues David and I have been trying to get resolved was regarding our driving licenses, that is, whether or not our Georgia licenses were transferable to Germany. There was so much conflicting information about whether or not we truly did need to take lessons, the written and the practical tests. We finally got what we think is the real answer. David does not need to take the lessons or the tests. I, however, do because I don't work.

The one thing we both did need to do was take an eye test and the standard first aid course that all would-be-drivers must attend. It would be 7 hours of listening to a lecture about first aid in German, I would not understand a thing, but no matter. The instructor would still give me the necessary certificate at the end of the class. So David and I signed up to attend the class given this morning.

The alarm went off at 6:30am. Due to a rambunctious Rebecca who refused to sleep and David's coughing fits, I figure I got about 4 hours of sleep and David not much more. We loaded up on coffee and made it to the class, which started off with the eye test. My eyes definitely felt tired, but I have always prided myself on my perfect eyesight and have never had a problem with eye tests.

David went first. You had to look into a lit box and say whether the opening in a circle was pointing up, down, upper left, lower right, etc,. I was worried about having to say this in German. The instructor had put a labeled diagram up on the board, but what if I got flummoxed and failed because I said the wrong word? Below is what I imagined I would see.


How silly of me. Natürlich, he spoke English and said that I could answer in English. So, I looked into the box. My first reaction was to pull back and I almost said, "Are you kidding me?" in disbelief. There were 5 rows of 8 circles, so 40 circles. Tiny, minuscule circles that seemed to be swirling around. I looked again.

Were there even openings in the circles? They were so small and blurry. OK, now I was flustered, but it had nothing to do with language. How in the world was I going to do this? So, I looked again and willed my eyes to focus. It was like trying to read the tiny fine-print on a bottle of aspirin, which, come to think of it, I have had trouble with for the past year or so. Having stalled long enough, I took a deep breath and read the first row of circles the best I could and then sat back, expecting the worst.

The instructor gave me a strange look and said, "Umm, is it possible you have mixed up "right" and "left?" What??? I had. Being so flustered, I identified all the circles the opposite way, and in all honesty, that wasn't because I saw them that way. I giggled, David chuckled and that helped dispel some of the tension at that little table. I took another deep breath and looked again. OK, if I looked carefully, I could see the openings, though left and upper left were soooo close. I read two more rows for him and was actually surprised that I passed. Given David's eye issues, he was relieved to pass as well, but for the rest of the day, I had to put up with David's teasing about mixing up left and right. I would not have borne it with such good humor had I failed the test.

My guess is that my eyes really were strained from lack of sleep, but that's not the whole story. I think a vision screening is in my near future.

The rest of the day was long, but interesting. We were with 20 other people, young people (in Germany you can get your license at 17 in some cases, otherwise it's 18) and we felt old when, to make a point about little children, the instructor asked not "Who here has little children?" rather "Who here has little brothers and sisters?"

A few things were different from what we learned back home about first aid. He said that when you approach someone who has been hurt and is lying down, you say, "Hallo!" into their face. If they don't respond, twist their nose. Yes, twist their nose, as slapping their cheek could exacerbate an injury.

And we were told that for the driving test, we have to learn formulas for where you place the red reflective triangle you are required to have by law in your car (along with a first aid kit) indicating accident ahead. Mathematical formulas for where you place the triangle, depending on if you are on city streets or the Autobahn.

In the end, we received our certificate, most thankful, though, that we passed that eye test.

Halligalli

It was great to get out of the house and go to Halligalli with Kathy and her kids. I met Kathy through the American Women's Club and we both felt that we needed this outing. Halligalli is an indoor playland we have visited before for birthday parties and the kids love climbing the 3-story climbing structure built into an old pool and jumping on the trampolines.

Rebecca seemed a little intimidated by the whole place at first, but it wasn't long before she was climbing the long staircase and going down the 3-story slide. There are bumps in the slide and bigger kids and grown-ups get airborne. Many people were rubbing their behinds when they reached the bottom. I was pretty nervous when Rebecca decided to give it a go. She climbed to the top of the slide, laid down flat on her back, stretched her arms above her head and went down.

Her hands slowed her down and she looked like a wet noodle going over the bumps. Over and over she did this and surely burned off lots of energy.

Surrendering to the little differences

The cupboards were starting to look bare, so off Micaela and I went to Real, similar to a SuperWalmart. We needed a little bit of everything and David requested Hungarian Goulash, so our list was long.

I was surprised to see more than half of the meat case empty. There was no chicken -- not a leg, a wing, a breast nor a thigh to be seen. Then, I managed to get some of the last cartons of milk available, milk of any kind. They were sold out of thyme which I needed for the goulash. (I wouldn't find thyme at the other 2 stores I checked today either.) Oh, yeah, and they were out of the pizza dough we like. They must have underestimated the holiday demand, though I have been to other stores before where they have run out of chicken or hamburger. Thank goodness for frozen pizza in those instances.

I have yet to be able to find diced canned tomatoes, which I needed for the goulash. They have only canned whole tomatoes, which don't end up being what I really need when I dice them myself. I don't know what I'll do when I try to make my spaghetti sauce as I haven't seen crushed tomatoes either.

I have been complaining for a while about the lack of snacks and cookies for the kids' lunches. You can find a few varieties of cookies and Lord knows there are loads and loads of chips and pretzels.

You're in luck there if you like paprika. Paprika-flavored snacks are very popular. But sometimes, you need something different. We have been fortunate to have people send us Pepperidge Farm Goldfish which has been a big help, but peanut butter crackers or Cheese Nips, or Soft Baked Chips Ahoy, ah, we can only dream of such choices. So I came to the realization that I needed to actually bake things myself to give the kids more variety. The first thing that came to mind was chocolate chip cookies. Everyone knows how to make those! How hard can chocolate chip cookies be to bake here?

I bought a bag of flour last week (the only type of flour in that store) and had a good supply of butter (unsalted only here) so I needed vanilla, chocolate chips and eggs today. I found the vanilla no problem, though it comes in such tiny bottles (not too different from the U.S.). The eggs, too, no problem. They are never refrigerated and I found them near the bakery. Then, the quest for the chocolate chips. I looked high, and I looked low. I finally found them. Chocolate chips are sold as little tiny chocolate balls in little tiny boxes. There are maybe 30 pieces in a box. Do you know how many boxes I would have to buy to match the recipe? Then I calculated the cost. Not worth it. Hmmmm.... what to do? Micaela came up with a brilliant idea. "Mom, why don't you use M&Ms? We saw some big bags back in the candy section." Perfect. That will work. In the future, I guess I will have to look for a big block of semi-sweet chocolate and cut it into little chunks. That is what I mean by surrendering to the little differences. I need to stop moaning and groaning about what they don't have here, and instead, find a way around it. That is, if I can find said big block of semi-sweet chocolate.

It was all for naught, though, as I forgot the brown sugar. Will I be able to find the right kind of brown sugar? Stay tuned.

Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to our family and friends back home. We hope that 2008 is year of health and happiness for you all.

We had a very simple New Year's Eve that ended with a bang, well, many bangs to tell the truth.

We had a restful day of video games, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows readings and cartoon watching. We promised the kids they could stay up till midnight, but first, we needed to follow the German New Year's Eve tradition of watching the English production of Dinner for One on TV.

This is a short play about a 90-year old woman having dinner with four friends. They have sadly all passed away, so her butler plays the part of all four friends, toasting her over and over, and by the end is quite sloshed. I had never heard of it before, but it made the Guinness Book of Records for most frequently repeated TV program in the world for many, many years, but is only a real hit in Germany.

So we watched it, chuckled a bit and right as it ended, the clock struck midnight. Then the fireworks began. I am not just talking about your everyday fireworks you can buy at Walmart. These were serious fireworks being set off all over our little corner of Liederbach. They were being set off right along our backyard, off the sides of neighboring houses, to the front and to the back of us. And it went on and on, lasting over 30 minutes. Guinness didn't enjoy it much, but we did.

New Year's Day, we were invited to an Open House at the consulate compound. What a strange feeling it was to walk into the family's apartment, see ESPN playing on the TV and American food (chili -- yum) being offered. Just seeing a container of Daisy Sour Cream made me jump.

These people from the consulate lead such interesting lives. For many of them, this stay in Germany is just one of many. They have lived all over the world and one woman said she doesn't ever want to go back to the U.S. permanently. She said, "We love being nomads."

Frohe Weinhnachten!

A Merry Christmas to you all back home. We hope it was a memorable and joyous one for you and your families.

Christmas began early for us, before the crack of dawn, even! The not-so-quiet trampling of little feet on our wooden stairs woke David and me at 4:15am. The kids were told that if they happened to wake up before us, they could open their stockings, but could only gaze with wonder upon the presents under the tree. I rolled out of bed at 8:30 and our Christmas morning officially began.

Everyone got a personalized wooden breakfast board which are popularly used as plates for eating your chocolate croissant or Brötchen.

Santa brought Bex this wooden bike with no pedals for learning how to balance on a real bike. You see these here instead of bikes with training wheels.

David managed to find a crockpot on German e-bay. This will help so much with the whole "getting home from school right at dinnertime" madness. Santa also gave us 2 more handsets for our phone. We have been surviving with only 1 phone, which meant anytime the phone rang, the handset was in our bedroom, and I was, of course, in the basement doing laundry. It's been a good way to burn calories, that frantic race up 3 flights of stairs, but what a relief to have another phone.

Girls love filling out surveys about their likes, dislikes and what they want to be when they grown up in these "Friend Books."

My Auntie Anne sent David this wine cork which had been my Uncle Bill's. She also sent me a German Goebel figurine which had been my great-aunt Josie's. We were so touched by her thoughtfulness.

It took Micaela and me over 2-1/2 hours to put this Playmobil castle together for Emilie, and that is no exaggeration. They're such awesome toys, though, so we can honestly say that it was all worth it.

Yes, yes, Micaela got a cell phone. We only OK'ed it with Santa because there are times when afterschool activities are canceled and kids are not allowed to use the school phone to call home (or in the event they are, the school charges them a Euro, which makes for very expensive calls home.) I have arrived to pick up the kids at 5:30, only to find out that soccer practice was canceled and I could have picked them up at 3:20 before rush hour while it was still light outside and they could have gotten their homework done early. So, yes, I am trying desperately to justify giving an 11-year old a cell phone.

James and his dad are looking forward to some father-son time building this cool Lego robot.

Finding Nemo and Monster, Inc. are Bex' favorite movies right now.

Christmas Eve

The ice on the trees has not melted, so it looks like we should have a white-ish Christmas after all.

We went to the English Mass at church in the evening and then allowed the kids to open up their secret Santa gifts. They had all picked a sibling's name out of a hat last week and along with giving a gift, they had to perform two anonymous good deeds for that person. No one was able to correctly guess who their secret Santa was. In fact, no one could tell that anyone had done anything nice for them at all over the past week. I have the sneaking suspicion that the acts of kindness fell by the wayside. Rather disappointing during this season of goodwill.

After the kids went to bed, I put on the TV to see what was on and was just in time to see Clark W. Griswold grease up his silver saucer for sledding in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Seeing him yell "Eichhörnchen!" didn't have quite the same effect as "Squirrel!" It did occur to me that this movie might give Germans a slightly skewed view of American life.

Christmas Lights

If we were going to put up a tree this year, it was going to have to be an artificial one. Real trees have given David and James allergy-type symptoms in the past. We heard from many different people that you can find artificial trees here, no problem. Ha. I think David managed to find the only one being sold in all of Germany and that was after hitting several stores over the last few weeks.

We put the tree up this afternoon, in the German tradition of setting up Christmas trees just a few days before Christmas.

The homes we see here are decorated very modestly for Christmas. Some people put white lights in their windows, a few have strung some lights on their balconies, maybe a glowing deer in the yard, but by American standards, very simple.

So, when we heard about this "crazy" house in the town next to ours all decorated for Christmas, we had to see if for ourselves.Even we thought it was pretty wild. I have never seen so many moving Christmas figures in one place, and this picture only shows half the display. You can click on the picture to get a bigger view. Our favorite part was a Santa riding a bike back and forth on a tightrope.

The man who set it up did so with the intention of collecting charitable donations. The donations benefit a nearby children's clinic, coincidentally the same clinic where Rebecca ended up with her swollen eyelid. We made our donation, figuring what goes around comes around.