What's up, James?

Here we are again, in the Nylund household to do another interview for Lebkuchen with one of the Nylund children, James this time, to discuss life in a foreign country and what goes on in the mind of a 9-year old boy. The once-very blond, now rather brown-haired boy, bounds into the room for our talk, eager to share his views of life here and his hopes for the future.
L: So, James, what did you have for breakfast this morning?
J: I didn't have breakfast.
L: Well, what do you usually have for breakfast?
J: Uh, cereal. Mini Zimtos (a cinnamon cereal) or Sweet Flakes (like Frosted Flakes).
L: If you could have anything in the world for breakfast tomorrow, what would it be?
J: (Thinking hard) I would have chocolate chip pancakes.
L: Does your mom make Hungry Jack Buttermilk Pancakes with chocolate chips, like she did in the U.S.?
J: Of course not. We're not in the U.S! She cuts up little pieces of chocolate and makes the pancakes from scratch.
L: How does it feel to be in the final term of the school year?
J: I feel relieved.
L: A few months ago, you moved from the third grade up to the fourth grade. Was the adjustment difficult?
J: Of course. It was hard to leave Mr. Reece's class.
L: Tell me a funny story about something that happened at school.
J: During the winter, I stuck my tongue to a metal pole and it got stuck.
L: I hear you take lots and lots of tests at your school. Have you gotten used to that?
J: Of course I've gotten used to it! I've done it so much.
L: Do you know you're a bit of a smart aleck?
J: Yes (laughs sheepishly).
L: The cafeteria at school serves a great variety of lunches: kids favorites like chicken nuggets and French fries, traditional German dishes such as pork cutlets and frankfurters, and international dishes like kebabs, gyros, springrolls and paella. What is your favorite lunch from the cafeteria?
J: Chicken nuggets and french fries. But I never buy anything anymore. I bring lunch.
L: What's typically in your lunchbox?
J: A peanut butter sandwich, a snack, like pretzels, Capri-Sonne, fruit that I never even eat and cookies.
L: What do you really like about your school?
J: Two breaks during the day, we can play before and after school, no silent lunch, we can go outside for recess after lunch when we get done eating and don't need to be dismissed.
L: How has soccer been going?
J: It's been going the same as usual.
L: Which is how?
J: Usually running 3 tiring laps, doing some exercises and playing some matches.
L: Do you think the kids here are more competitive than American kids?
J: Yeah, I do.
L: What other afterschool activities have you been doing?
J: Kung Fu.
L: How's that going?
J: Fine. I'm on the yellow belt.
L: Your hair has gotten long. Is that the style here?
J: No.
L: What do your parents think of it?
J: My dad hates it now that it's gotten really long.
L: How are German kids very different from American kids?
J: They speak German.
L: You're such a little.......... What TV shows do you like watching in German?
J: Spongebob Schwammkopf.
L: Can you understand everything they're saying?
J: No. I don't speak German
L: Now, that's not entirely true. Don't you understand some of what they're saying?
J: Yes.
L: Your family is able to watch some American shows via the internet. What are some that you enjoy?
J: Survivor.
L: What do you miss about the U.S. the most?
J: My friends and buying video games.
L: Ah, yes. Your video game systems are from the U.S. and won't play games from Germany. You have to have games brought over the ocean to you. What are your favorite games you have gotten since we've been here?
J: SuperMario Galaxy and SuperSmash Bros Brawl.
L: What interesting things have you learned about Germany that you didn't know before you moved here?
J: They play soccer much more than in the U.S.
L: You also have many Korean friends. What have you learned about Korea?
J: North Korea stinks.
L: What is the best place you have visited so far in Europe?
J: Disneyland Paris.
L: What place would you like to visit?
J: No idea.
L: You recently said that sometimes you're glad you moved to Germany, but sometimes you're not. Why is that?
J: Sometimes I'm glad because the school is awesome, but sometimes I'm not because I can't use video games from here.

English-language German driver's text

I've been studying the driver's textbook for a while now and thought I would amuse you by posting some of my favorite parts of the text. In some cases, I have highlighted the parts I found particularly interesting, from an American perspective:

Physical fitness is essential for safe driving. The preconditions are plenty of rest, sitting in a relaxed position, an adequately ventilated vehicle and comfortable clothes.

Driving a car is something that demands your full concentration! So be careful: no emotional discussions in the car, whimpering children in the back seat, allowing yourself to be distracted by a telephone conversation when you are driving...etc. (only hands-free mobile phones are allowed while driving).

The ideal driver should be calm, drive in a spirit of partnership, drive defensively and with consideration for the environment.

It is therefore causing avoidable nuisance which constitutes an offence, e.g. blowing your horn without good reason, loudly slamming car doors, driving around unnecessarily, keeping the engine running if you are stationary for a long period of time...etc.

The principle of trust does not apply vis-à-vis persons who are "weak in traffic". This includes children, people who are obviously suffering from an illness, the disabled and older people. You always have to be prepared for such people making mistakes.

When you are waiting at level crossings (railroad crossings) you must switch off your engine...and switch on your lights in such a way that no one is dazzled.

A recommended speed of 130km/h (about 81 mph) applies to cars and other motor vehicles on autobahns and divided roadways outside built-up areas.

Children live in their own little worlds. They play, act spontaneously and forget all safety measures if they are up to something. Once they have started to move, they find it difficult to stop.

In road traffic there can be problems if elderly pedestrians want to cross the road. They are no longer able to judge gaps so well, may remain standing in the middle of the carriageway and often abruptly turn around and go back.

Young people have always been characterised by greater willingness to take risk, exuberance and light-headedness...At the same time your driving licence and your own car is your entrance ticket to the world of adults. You are now an equal member of the group of car drivers, you decide where you want to go and no one can talk you out of decorating the car as you please and going a bit faster. And then you are provoked by that chap in the car beside you, the one who keeps playing with the accelerator at the red lights! However the only thing that is to be able to resist the challenge! [sic]

Cars of today's generation start without you having to give additional acceleration. Avoid warming up or running the engine for a long time when the vehicle is stationary. Always switch it off at traffic lights, the barriers of a level crossings (railroad crossings) and when waiting in a traffic jam. If you are consistent about switching off the engine when driving in town you can save up to 30% fuel!

Practice Driving Test

Notes on answering the questions: Where questions have printed answers, one or more answers may be correct.









So, how did you think you did? I just wanted to give all of you a taste of my driving license ordeal. These questions came from the 60 practice tests that accompanied my English-language driver's text. No little booklet here, like you get in the States at your local DMV. This is a serious textbook and the practice tests really help to absorb the information.

All the gory details about me learning stick and taking driving lessons will be posted in other entries, but in the meantime, here are the answers to your little test:

1. b -- The motorcyclist is following the path of the priority road and you are leaving it.

2. a, b, and c

3. a -- The red triangular sign gives you priority at this intersection only.

4. b

5. b and c -- Yield to the yellow truck as it is following the path of the priority road, but the green car must yield to you as you are turning from the priority road.

6. a and c -- A St. Andrew's Cross is the sign for railroad crossing and a level crossing is the train tracks themselves.

7. a and c -- The motorcyclist has priority as he is coming from the right, you then have priority over the blue car as you are coming from its right.

8. 130 meters -- Stopping distance is Reaction distanceplus Braking distance

Fire and Rain

A few months ago, I read by chance on the internet that James Taylor would be coming to Frankfurt as part of his One Man Band Tour. Once you do a little research, you find there are plenty of familiar voices that come to this region of Germany. Just in the next few months, Céline Dion, Kylie Minogue, Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, John Fogerty, Nelly Furtado, Kelly Clarkson and Bruce Springsteen will be here (though Bruce will be just too far away for us to make the trek). But James Taylor was a no-brainer for us.

We did have a moment of panic as we drove to the concert last night when we saw signs reminding everyone that tonight was Skate Night in Frankfurt. Every Tuesday night, from 8:30 to 11:00pm, streets in downtown Frankfurt are blocked off so that thousands of skating enthusiasts can take safely to the streets. They cover a 40 kilometre route through the city, accompanied by police (and ambulances!) and at the end enjoy some Apfelwein (apple wine). Looks like fun, but we were worried we may have trouble getting home. We didn't, but with traffic and parking issues, we'll take the train next time.

The concert was held at the Alte Oper (Old Opera House) which was opened in 1880. The building was badly damaged during WWII, and the Opera House was not officially reopened until 1981.

We expected to hear lots of English being spoken as we entered the hall; there are, after all, thousands of Americans living in the Frankfurt area. We heard only German and compared to the average age of the people around us, felt rather young.

Mr. Taylor took to the stage and greeted the audience, thanking them for coming, saying how great it was to be here....all in very good German. My heart sank a bit. I'm here to see one of my favorite American singers and he's going to speak all in German? He ended his introduction auf Deutsch with, "People say that everyone here in Frankfurt can speak English, so from this point on, I'll speak English." Yea!

He sang many familiar hits (You've Got a Friend, Country Road, Carolina in My Mind) plus less well-known songs and gave little introductions to some of them. Sweet Baby James was written for his nephew who was named for him. He didn't debunk the myth around his most famous hit Fire and Rain. Rumor has it that some friends of James were going to surprise him by bringing his girlfriend, Suzanne, to one of his concerts. According to the story, Suzanne's plane crashed ('sweet dreams and fine machines in pieces on the ground') on the way to the concert and Suzanne dies ('Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you.'). Check out Snopes.com for the real story.

He talked about his first big break, when he was signed with Apple Records after the Beatles heard his demo. He found himself in London in 1968, darting into the recording studio whenever John, Paul, George and Ringo took a break from recording The White Album.

Most songs featured just James on guitar with keyboard/piano accompaniment. For a few songs (My Traveling Star, Shower the People), he added prerecorded background singers who were broadcast on a big screen next to him. He said these were songs that just needed extra voices to do them justice.

"Bigfoot" was a homemade drum machine featured on a few songs.

During the intermission, we went right to the front of the stage. This is the song list he referred to (he held up the list at one point to humorously show us at which point in the show we were). I tried turning the picture around, but it made you feel like you were falling into the computer, like a Harry Potter pensive.

At the same time, an announcement was made that there was to be no photography, in particular no flash photography, during the concert. Ummm, OK, why didn't they make that announcement before the concert? And what's with this "in particular no flash photography?" Does that mean that some non-flash photography is allowed? People had been taking pictures with flash, but pretty much just in between the songs. I was guilty of taking a few with flash, but all these pictures were without one. I obeyed their new restrictions (can't say that everyone else did, though) until near the end of the concert when there was a crowd at the front of the stage and everyone was taking pictures.

At the end of the first intermission and at the end of the concert, Mr. Taylor graciously signed many, many autographs and shook hands with people who approached the stage.

You gotta love a camera with 12x optical zoom.

I just wished I had had the guts to lean over to the woman sitting next to me and say, "If you must insist on humming or singing along with most of the songs, could you at least do it on key?" But I couldn't even bring myself to whisper a low "Shhhhhh...."

Opel Zoo

We had heard good things about the nearby Opel Zoo and since the kids and David still have off this week, we decided to check it out.

There are carrots and boxes of pellet food you can buy to feed many of the animals, like these very hairy camels. A lot of people brought carrots and bread from home, too, to feed to them.

A rather scary-looking meerkat

"If I could talk to the animals....just imagine it...."


Just seconds before the ostrich tried to make off with a piece of James' hand


We all loved the coloring of these ducks.


There was a large petting zoo full of donkeys, sheep and goats.


Along with all the zoo animals were all the family dogs people brought with them. I should not have been shocked by that, but I was. Bringing a dog to the zoo? I guess who's to say that a dog wouldn't enjoy it?

This picture does not do justice to just how big this slide was. It was another case of "You would never see this in the U.S.!"


8 seconds, James.

David giving the kids a spin

The kids all look like they're riding a huge record on these disks

Another strange-looking spinning see-saw thingy. The awesome playground was worth the price of admission.

Disneyland - Last Day

With David and the older two in downtown Paris, the little ones and I went back the Disneyland to ride some of our favorite attractions again.

I was determined to get a picture of Rebecca and Sulley, even if she were screaming her head off. With Emilie for moral support and me not insisting she exit her stroller, Rebecca handled this meeting OK.

The Cars Race Rally is sort of like the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups ride, except that the cars spin really fast all on their own.



Le Pays des Contes de Fées (Fairytale Land) is a boatride where you see small models of scenes from different fairytales (even a few non-Disney ones!). Here Belle from Beauty and the Beast reads to some sheep.

If you look carefully, or click on the photo for a closeup, you can see Prince Eric on a balcony keeping a lookout for a certain mermaid.

Entering Aladdin's cave

The longest line we encountered on the whole trip was for Casey Jr.- the little Circus Train from the movie Dumbo. We waited, right during lunchtime, for over an hour, with me holding a whiny and hungry Rebecca for most of that time. I kept grumbling under my breath, "This had so better be worth it." And it was. Casey, Jr. is a zippy little roller coaster that went by many of the fairytale models with the Casey theme song playing from the movie. That's the Beast's castle in the photo.

It was time for lunch -- and fast! The kids were hungry and grumpy. For our last day, and because we had just stood in line for so long at Casey Jr., I thought a sit down meal was in order. I nixed the first place we came to - a Princess character lunch where the menu consisted of lots of food the girls would never eat like foie gras, scallops and veal. The next place we hit was the Agrabah Café in Adventureland. I was satisfied with the Mediterranean-oriental buffet (i.e. lots of couscous) and the kids chowed down on the pita bread. Then, we entered Frontierland and I saw a sign for a Tex-Mex buffet. Zut, alors! You don't see Tex-Mex, or even just Mexican cuisine much at all in Germany. I missed my chance.

You can have the greatest rides around, but what do little kids really like? A simple playground, like Pocohontas' Indian Village.

Canoe slides in the background

Rebecca on Bullseye from Toy Story 2

Sleeping Beauty is a lucky princess indeed. She has castles in Disneyland California, Hong King Disneyland and here at Disneyland Paris. Be on your guard, however, as there is a sleeping dragon under this castle.

In the end, it was true that we saw many, many smokers, but being outside most of the time, it wasn't an issue. There were places at the parks that needed touching-up, but this Disneyland was hardly rundown. And we did not encounter a single rude Cast Member. The weather could have been better, but on the other hand, the lines were not bad at all. This Disneyland trip more than lived up to our expectations.