Ice Cream in the Park

I went to a seminar about Japanese acupuncture today. Awesome parts:

1. I got to eat lunch outside did not have to share it with anyone or order a "just in case you hate your meal" meal and then got to sit quietly in a park to eat ice cream

2. The seminar was in German (spoken by a native English speaker, but still) and I could follow it - mostly. (Thank goodness George left me the dictionary).

3. I have taken some advanced versions of the same system but never the introduction. So all through the seminar I kept having "ah ha" moments.

4. At every point along my journey (3 transfers back and forth) someone asked me for directions. I must look like I know what I am doing, or where I am going, or at least am approachable.

packing

We are headed back to Germany after a brief reprieve (as George does his mandatory tour around Germany which we are not invited to). And everything is packed, the suitcases are weighed, and even my wallet is bursting with the different sections for each countries' credit cards, money and "discount" cards. (Note to self - the Kroger card is worth taking so you do not have to ask people as you stand in line to borrow theirs when you should be making sure you have everything in your cart or at least enough for the day because you do not have to go shopping every other day in the US.)

And the travel is the straight forward part: its the adjustment for the jet lag and language and a very tired irrational toddler that can make the process take a week. On the plane, I will try to resist explaining that "Yes, he is a good traveler on the plane where full attention, constant TV access and an endless supply of snacks is available (those of you who travel for over 24 hours I feel for). It is when we get off and have to magically be 6-7 hours different culminating in both Mom and child tears that it gets messy."

Cold Days Inside

Ben has gone on strike - he does not want to do anything that is suggested, even things he likes. And not going outside is the first thing he often mentions in the morning. "I don't want to go outside - ever!" Along with "I don't have to use the potty," "I don't like to eat breakfast," and "No mommy, don't." Life is full of things to reject when you are 2.

Unless it is a big kid job - then Ben is super helpful, almost too helpful for tasks like setting the table (many forks and spoons get lost on the way to the table), blowing his own nose, make pancakes, or sweeping.

We have been inside more as it is colder - that means adventures in the form of stories, songs, imagination and starting arts and crafts. Today we did potato stamps and managed to make one page! Keeping Ben's attention on crafts is a crazy challenge. We were working well until I called them stamps... then Ben interpreted as a good opportunity to stand up so he could stamp with his foot in the paints. That was a mess and then Ben was up and done.

SNOW

Yesterday a low pressure system put everyone into a wonderfully deep nap and when we awoke there was a dusting of perfect powder snow. Not so good for making snow balls or snow men - but great for snow angels, drawing on the sidewalk, and throwing in the air to make more snow. Plus we got out to play before everyone's dog had peed.

Jam Session

Our upstairs neighbor is learning and playing the Irish tin whistle at all hours - usually when Ben is asleep. Which is disappointing because the one person who would really enjoy such serenading is Ben.

So we invited our neighbor over for a jam session. Sunday morning at 9 am. A time we know he likes to practice. It is very hard to explain a jam session to a upright engineer of a German (much less not laugh when he calls it "the cham"): a jam session is where we play songs and sing and everyone is just going to do the best they can. So we got out our glockenspiel - which we got Ben for Christmas but that mostly George plays - and our other percussion instruments. Ben played the tambourine and the kazoo and I did my best to just keep a steady beat to keep us going together. And we set a specific time limit because there was a two year old involved and because if it is a complete fail you want to be able to know when your escape is coming.

Onkle Tom hat einen Bauernhof/Old MacDonald had a Farm was a big hit complete with farm animals. And we did Frere Jacques in French, German and English. And Scarborough Fair, Sally's Garden and some solo Irish tune were also featured. And we tried to finish with an open music time or free play accompanying a song on CD but our neighbor got nervous with such improvisation.

A worthwhile adventure! Ben got to play music and was facsinated by the tin whistle. Now we just have to explain we like to play music but are not going to attend a 3 day Celtic music celebration next month.

Nope - everyone got sick

We have recovered! Rarely does one get a stomach bug where the healthy adult needs to stay in the house to take care of the sick one for 12 hours at a time. We ventured out on Friday to restock food, money and to see the sun.

Celery root is declared safe again.

Celery Root?

Everyone here is suffering from some type of different stomach upset after eating matzo ball soup made with one of those soup combos (parsley, celery root, carrot, and leek in a little box) you can buy at the grocery. Everything was boiled and pealed and bought that day? What the heck?

There was high hopes of going to Trier today (maybe tomorrow?) but instead there will be just little explorations for who ever feel up to it, like the Wildspirale Hundretwasser haus. Here is a picture of the first time we were there:

Happy Birthday to me

Yay for the many messages on Facebook. (Are the rumors true that you should un-friend anyone who doesn't wish you Happy Birthday?) And yay for a great birthday day filled with walks, visiting friends, a delicious dinner at Zum Grohe, and cake. And finally, yay for 33.

HAIRCUT

Off to KITA

Ben is at his first full morning of KITA (this is short for Kindertagesstätte: Children's Day Center) or preschool. He will be going 2 mornings a week. This a great way for all of us to culturally dive into Germany and German.

The first week, everyday he and I went in together and I would stay for a shorter amount of time (from an hour to 5 minutes) and he would stay later (from an hour to 3 hours). This process of acclimation is mandatory and a little rough. I was glad to not have to do it again today, instead sending George who just did a drop off.

Several things about the school that are different at least from when I went to preschool - he is provided with lunch and a 9 am snack and tea, his only responsibility is to play peacefully (and learn German), they have little red toilets (that Ben has successfully used) but he can still be in diapers, and after using the bathroom or eating the child washes his or her hands and wipes them with a provided cloth hand towel. There is 1 teacher for every 3-4 kids, kids of all ages are together in each group and the kids range in age from 2 months to 4 years. The building set up is similar to where my sister went to preschool: Ben will spend most of his time in one room, but there is an outside space next to the building, and there is an inside gym area, an art area and a music area (although the theme is quiet music not bang as many things as hard as you can). Also, the kids are sometimes taken to the park.

What is my worry? Just that Ben is a goofy kid - he makes a lot of word play or little kid puns especially if he is bored with the conversation and will tease you if you are being too serious. And the Germans are stoic and serious, especially about something important like kids' education and if they are adjusting. What cultural miscommunications may occur?

Last week, I suggested to an evening babysitter that if he whined too much ("Where's Mommy?") she could just ask him back teasingly ("Where is Mommy?" Usually he answers correctly and then you can go on, "Where is Ben? Where is Ben's nose?" etc). Not only was she shocked and appalled that I would make light of his suffering but I could tell she was worried about what other terrible tricks I used on Ben.

And finally, this is forcing us to buy Kinder Matschhose! Children's Waterproof pants! It seems like all German little kids have these crazy pants: suspenders attached to waterproof pants with extra knee and butt fabric (like a roofer's pants) and more elastic for under the feet (think '80s dance pants). They look ridiculous but are probably amazing and I cannot wait for ours to show up.

EXPANDING

We picked our word for the year: Expanding. On the trail of last year's word "exploration", we are becoming imperialists. Expanding vocabularies, expanding horizons (what are we doing after this?), expanding our concepts of home, expanding Ben, (how fat will we get on wurst and potatoes?).

Do you pick a word for the new year? If so, what is it this year?

Bye Bye Christmas Books and Songs

We just cleaned the whole apartment - almost as satisfying as the New Year's Eve clean that makes us wake up on New Year's Day feeling beyond resolutions - of all the Christmas books and Christmas songs books. I am so ready to say good bye! Ben likes every Christmas song on repeat except Silent Night. Now we just have to figure out how to properly dispose of our perfect tree.

Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah/Bright Solstice

We have been entertaining family and ourselves with lots of celebrations of light! All the traditional foods have been made - spinach cheese ravioli with a red and white sauce for Christmas, breads for Solstice and latkas for Hannukah. The focus this year has been on experiences instead of presents - we just did stockings and lots of day trips (more pictures later). It has been lovely.

For Christmas day we were worn out of cooking, but not of eating, so we went to Frankenstein's Castle (an inspiration for Mary Shelley's scary story) and had a huge German Christmas feast. Below is our attempt at a family picture - Ben did awesome for the whole dinner (there was lots of playing outside in the castle between courses) - but when the camera came out it was all screams!

romantic fire lit date night

Feeling brave and Christmas-y, George and I set out for a Christmas market with a vague location that was advertised as just ONE day, in the middle of woods, with the biggest gingerbread cookie in the area, and a genuine St. Nick. We took the tram to the end of the line and with our trusty map set out into the woods as the sunset (16:30).

Our meandering and uphill walk - full of promises to ourselves to come back maybe in the spring, maybe when it is warmer, or maybe when it is light - took us up to lookout tower, a brass band, lots of merry makers, beer and gluwein tents, St. Nick handing out chocolate and the typical German countryside restaurant serving nothing but wurst and salat. The proprietess gave us a talking too about coming to dinner so late (17:30?) and expecting the oven to be on. So, I asked her to suggest my dinner because she knew what was good but she declined saying it was all good because it was local and she did not know what I liked. So, I asked her to suggest my dinner because she was the only one who knew what was actually available. This is why I ended up with a Frankfurter, which is a large hot dog. But our fellow patrons reassured us that the food was "Made in Germany" and therefore the best, as they continued full of holiday beer and cheer and song.

(This is for another time, this "Made in Germany." Usually when I am most frustrated with the price or the options or the situation, someone will chime in and say in English "Made in Germany." It is a phrase that to Germans is about pride and economic security and so on.)

After dinner, we wandered around eating candy covered almonds, admired the view of the cities lights, and being very happy we did not have to keep track of Ben in the dark.

But how were we going to walk back through the now dark woods? Luckily, for sale there were huge fire sticks with a long wick of paraffin dipped muslin and a beer mat to protect your hands from dripping wax. We tentatively followed another group down the hill and, in spite of my fears they would lead us to no-where and we would end up begging for a ride or walking for miles, we actually ended up next to a different tram stop. Germany, is your public transport really that good? And we made it home, but 10 minutes late.

Doch!

"Who's wearing not pajamas?"
"What?"
"Who's wearing not pajamas? The Elephant is wearing fuzzy pajamas, the Warthog is wearing ugly pajamas. Who is wearing not pajamas?"
"Oh... Sandra Boyton is writing 'Some are fuzzy. Some are not. But we can all pajammy in whatever we've got. It's Pajama Time!' They are not not pajamas, they just are not fuzzy."
"So, who is wearing not pajamas?"
"The moose."

It is not a potato sack

The only German TV show I could follow (a children's show called Elefantastisch! featuring an elephant and a rabbit and a word of the day and some silly songs) has been replaced by the adventures an old guy and his helpful potato sack. The strange hopping sack and old friend have a timelessness to them - one show everyone was wearing doublets, breeches and ruffs while in the next week the villain was wearing a tight dark Star Trek styled suit.
But it turns out, based on my research for an image so you could see the whole situation, the old guy is probably Weihnactmann (Germany's Santa Claus) and the potato sack is probably filled with toys. So, it is just seasonal TV.
And in retrospect, a equal sized pink rabbit and purple elephant friend pair is weird, too.

Advent

is a big deal here! There are advent candles and wreathes everywhere (that started last weekend) and advent calendars start today. Chocolate for breakfast every day this month! Below is ours from Hussel Confiserie:

Now we just need to get some snow, some gluehwein in a special edition mug, some lebkuchen (gingerbread) shaped like hearts, and a tree. And all of our Christmas music is in the US - so right now we are doing Norwegian Institute of Sound Recording's Advent Calendar. It is a little scratchy.

First Night of Language Class - German 101

I showed up early for my first class (as one does) and then ended up wandering around for a while outside and then wandering around for a while inside. Eventually I wandered up stairs to the room, made polite introductions to the others standing outside and then someone came running up the stairs saying, in German, this class has been moved downstairs.

So, down we go and the teacher introduces himself and then asks us to introduce ourselves. And then the student in the front of the room starts to speak, in German, in complete sentences, all about herself. Where she is from, how long she has been in Germany, what she does. And then the next one does, too. And then the next, and then the next. And I am starting to sweat bullets and make some notes cryptic to even me.

And then I stammer out, "I am Elaine. I am American. I live USA. In USA, I am acupuncture. In Germanish, I am a housewife and mother. Two months here." And the teacher listens and tells a story about acupuncture and then says, "You (and Anthony) are not on my list, you should be back upstairs." Or something like that.... Thank goodness. I just started laughing.

And up we went. There the same thing was happening.... but much slower but still no one had any clue what the teacher was saying.

I am in a class of all men, except the lovely teacher, Lucia. Three men from Poland (Bogdan, Milosh (maybe this is his name - what is important is that he is the bright one and sits in the middle) and Jan), 2 men from China (Jacky and Jinn - I sat between them), and Anthony a British dancer who also made the mistake of going down to the more advanced room (but his German is much better than mine). I hope we have fun. The teacher only speaks in German - Das ist prima! Maybe. But when you know nothing - well sometimes it is hard to make something out of nothing.

And when I was asked to read aloud I had to say "Wohlfahrt. Sabine Wohlfahrt." Which is like saying Bond. James Bond. Only the last name sounds like "Wolf fart." Tee Hee.

More Garbage Tales

Almost every piece of "Welcome to Germany" literature include a part about how you must sort the garbage correctly or someone will come and scold you fiercely. And it is true, there are several closets in front of our apartment (that hold cans) and they are all labeled (in German) to tell you exactly were to put your waste. This is a good summary.

But what if you cannot read or understand (gelber Sack?), well you just take a look inside each can. And then you see a yellow bag (gelber Sack) with more German about what can or what cannot go in it. So then you examine the yellow bag very closely. (Turns out most packaging goes in - but not glass.) And then your new neighbors walk by - so you say "Hello." However, they do not respond. This makes sense, because also in every piece of "Welcome to Germany" literature it says that Germans may walk by people they know even very well without saying anything. (Although for a midwestern not saying hello is so rude - you have to keep repeating to yourself they don't hate me, they are just German.)

On the next occasion we ran into those neighbors I did not say anything. The woman said, "Hello, hello... Do you live below? We saw you and your son and the garbage."

"Oh..."

"Yes, we thought you were someone else. Someone in the garbage?"

Oh, you thought I was some delinquent digging through your garbage. Delightful, what a great first impression.

(Not that we don't dig through the garbage or that we have not seen lots of German dig through the garbage. We saw a bunch of old ladies picking through a pile of furniture on a corner and had to take a look - we found Ben's booster seat there and a German measuring tape. We just would not dig through our own garbage.)

Looking for Oscar

Oscar the Grouch could be in any trash can - including German trashcans, ashtrays and some backyards. They should all be checked. Above is Ben doing his daily inspection. "Oscar's in 'der."

"But he is sleeping" (just like when Ben wants to skype in the morning with folks in the US).