must_learn_German

For someone who is not fond of pork (ya'all may remember that from previous posts), I just had a very close encounter with a pig stomach. I must learn the language, and quick, or I am going to ingest something disgusting, or deadly.

I was happily planning on making split pea soup to eat for a cold October meal, and thought I would add some flavor with a bit of ham. Well, having never bought ham, I do not have a lot of experience in this department. So, I picked out something that looked smoked, and like a hunk of bacon, and bought it.

I was please with myself for having ventured out of my normal food routine after smelling delicious pea soup at a local pottery fair this weekend. From my Joy of Cooking recipe, I acknowledged the benefits the added flavor of ham added, and thought, "why not, I am in the land of pork after all".

After measuring out the peas and water and putting it all on to boil, I started to add my ham. I decided to pull out my dictionary first to read exactly what kind of ham this was. Well I could guess that rauchen is smoked, but I did not know what geräucherterbauch was. Well, turns out, Bauch is stomach and what I had indeed bought was smoked pork stomach!

This concludes my adventures in pork purchasing and has moved me one more step back into my old vegetarian life. I am sure that there is nothing wrong with pork stomach, but for me, I prefer my pea soup as is. Maybe I will add some onions and call it a day!

Adventuring

My blogging days are not as active lately as we move from the adventure and discovery phase to mundane routine. Not that we have so acclimatized to Germany that it is blasé, oh no, we are still on the road of discovery, the pace has slowed is all.

We have gone from wide eyed tourists, ogling baked goods and testing sausage, to savvy residents finding the best vegetable market and quickest bike route to school. Adventure takes on new meaning.

We did however venture out of town over a weekend to explore the neighboring Ahr valley. It is a narrow wine growing valley with dramatic hills covered in grape vines. Not unlike Napa and Sonoma, and my mom's own little valley, Anderson valley. There were wineries and restaurants around every corner and lots and lots of tourists driving slowly on a sunny Sunday afternoon, taking in the quaintness of every little bend in the road that followed the river.

One of my objectives with the trip, besides seeing beautiful landscape, was to try a very local specialty, onion cake and fresh wine. The onion cake is more like quiche without custard, and it goes very well with the sweet, early press of the white wine grown in the region. The wine was surprisingly good for being sweet, like drinking spiked grape juice with effervescence.

Of course we were obligated to wander along the Ahr, throw some stones and eat ice cream. It seems that along with beer, sausage and coffee ice cream is a required accompaniment to any activity.

There are ice cream shops everywhere, and it is all quite delicious. It is similar to gelato but not as creamy. A special treat is the spaghetti ice cream which comes looking like a plate of spaghetti with strawberry sauce and white chocolate sprinkles. It is a big hit with the kids.

Like all adventures, big or small, one must be prepared to jump off the path and discover something unexpected. Before we even got to our destination and planned onion cake outing, we spotted something glinting through the trees. We had to pull off the road and check it out. The goats greeted us first, but with further investigation we realized we had discovered a luge park - something I had never seen before.

No question, we had to try it. We paired up and each jumped on a small cart on rails that took us up a steep hill. We were then released onto a winding luge track to careen down at our own risk. Of course there are no waivers here, no helmets, no safety belts. Just mom holding kid and laughing at the fun of it all.

Adventures are good for the spirit and necessary for the soul.

Medieval days

Everyone loves a fair, especially when knights and castles are involved. Last weekend we went to a medieval faire at the Burg Satzvey, about an hour away from Bonn. It was complete with a real castle, jugglers, princesses, knights to the rescue and boars head armor.

It took me back to when I was a kid at the Renaissance Faire - complete with dedicated souls who are so possessed to recreate the time period down to eating from handmade bowls and wearing burlap shoes.

There was an abundance of visual stimuli and a bustle of constant medieval activity. Jugglers on tightropes called out to passersby, a real live hawker, with a hawk on his should stopped Noah in his tracks. He HAD to take a picture. There were knights wandering in full battle gear, prisoners being hauled away in wooden neck braces and damsels in fancy gowns and flowing head gear.

Of course music filled the air. There were lutes being played and even a Celtic bagpipe duo, somehow verging on hard rock, complete with a few middle age(s) groupies.

Our first stop had to be at the blacksmith and check out the armor and chain mail. This is of course because I have a son who is determined to learn to one day make his own armor - and I will not be surprised when he does.

The boars head helmet was a huge hit. According to the blacksmith who created it, the knight who consigned this mask rarely wears it. Not because it weighs as much as a small child, but because he does not think it is vicious looking enough to be taken seriously. Note the boar is smiling, and who would be afraid of a smiling boar in a battle? We were able to see the "Boar Knight" in battle later, but alas he chose not to wear the kindly looking mask.

Fortunately we went to this fair with some German friends, who spent a lot of time making sure that we understood what was going on, especially during the impressive show. We anticipated the jousting match, which was the main draw to go to this medieval fair in the first place. Little did we know that it would include a reenactment of a story about the Holy grain, complete with evil knights (in black) kidnapping a beautiful princess. There was an evil stepmother, who tried to poison the Kaiser, and engaged the evil knights to capture the Holy Grail. Of course the valiant German knights (dressed in white) rode through fire, rescued the princess, and saved the Holy Grail! This was quite a story, lasting almost 2 hours, but no one complained.

The day was a full one, and after eating a delicious warm waffle with cream, we made our way in home in the pouring rain. The kids went to bed dreaming of castles, knights princesses and chain mail. Maybe one day they will be the crazy ones leading the reenactment, riding horses and juggling fire.

But the streets are sooo narrow...

Like most Americans I have been driving since I was a teenager - it is a rite of passage to get a license the minute you turn sixteen - and now that I am 40 (or so), I have had a lot of years behind the wheel. However, even with all that experience, I find driving in Germany a challenge.

The drivers here are excellent. There is not a scratch on any car that I have seen, unlike in Paris where it is part of the culture to nose into a parking space, literally pushing other cars out of the way to make space, not minding if a few fenders get bent in the process. Here in Germany on the other hand, if you so much as open your door onto another car, it is considered an accident and must be reported to the police. I have heard that if you do not report it and are caught, your license may be suspended!

This is not actually what makes me uncomfortable. There are three things that are very different here, besides the obvious road signs.

1. The streets are very narrow. Most of the streets in my little home of Davis are as wide as 2 lane highways here. So narrow in fact that when two cars meet it is not uncommon that one of them has to pull aside to let the other car pass. And busses, these behemoths require cars to back up around the corner if they have to turn.

I still have not quite figured out the etiquette on who should pull over, so I just make sure I am well out of anyone's way. I have figured out that if the other driver flashes her lights at you, you should go first.

2. Another challenge for me is the one way streets. Once I have figured out where I am going, I like to make it a straight shot. Streets at home are straight and have the same name until the street ends, unless of course it changes from East to West. Most American cities are also laid out in a grid, making it very easy to find one’s way around.

Here the streets can change from two-way traffic to one-way from one corner to the next, and the street names frequently change. Sometimes the name changes 4 or 5 times before I have arrived at my destination, even mid-block! To add to this there is nothing like a grid here, streets shoot off in all directions and seem to start or end at random.

3. Finally there is a right hand rule that rules the roads. All traffic heeds those coming from the right. There are very few stop signs around so this is vitally important. If a car is coming on your right, it has the right of way. There are very few exceptions to this, so we just slow down at every corner, look to our right and make sure it is clear - bikes and cars alike must observe this. This one is especially tricky for those of us who are directionally challenged and still cannot tell our right from left, but it is survival of the fittest and I shall prevail!

All this makes me eternally grateful that the car we bought happened to have a GPS built into it. It did take some time to figure out how to get it to speak to me in English, but now that she does (Frau Verkauft my kids call her), she is my friend. Except when she says, "Please make a U turn when possible." She says this so often that the kids love to mimic her British accent just to drive me crazy.

Though the roads are narrow and take some negotiation, I am learning my way around. I still prefer to bike when possible, the freedom of biking cannot be praised highly enough. However, there are times when I must get into the car and drive, so drive I do, even if it means making several U-turns before I actually get to my destination.

School days

The kids started school last Monday, and they are hooked. It was no difficult task really, since they had been longing for other kids to play with since early July.

I have to admit I shed a tear or two as I watched them walk off to meet their teachers on orientation day. So much anticipation on all of our parts for this day, made us all a little jittery with excitement and nerves.

When you are so happy in a place, leaving it is much harder. We all love Davis, and we especially love our elementary school, Birch Lane. I say "we" because I feel that I am as involved as the kids are. That may seem a sad statement to some, that I love my kids' school so much, or that I have no life of my own, but that is the truth.

I have been involved in their education since birth, from their days at the co-operative nursery school up until now. And it has been only natural to take an active role in their elementary school, whether it is fundraising, planting a garden with the class, or driving on field trips. I like to be involved.

Now they are in a new school and a new environment altogether, and I feel a little lost. The kids do not.

The school itself could not be better. It is an international school, with 570 kids from over 60 different countries, from ages 5 to 19. The school covers kindergarten through 12th grade and is needless-to-say quite diverse.

The teachers all appear to be enthusiastic, interested, motivated and involved educators, coming from a variety of English speaking countries. I'm sure my kids are going to come home with some kind of mish-mash American/German/British accent when we leave here.

Noah already loves his teacher, who is from the UK, which he explained is not just England mom, you know, Great Britain covers more than that! Ok, so world geography is going to be a natural course and topic of discussion.

Louise has kids from 16 different countries in her class, and the best thing is that kids are kids all around the world, they all like to play! There are 2 other Louises in the 2nd grade as well, (one is Lois actually, but she is French speaking so it is pronounced like Louise - I am told by my daughter, who now wants to learn French so she can play more with Lois).

The school days are long, the kids are in class until 3:20, but they don't seem to mind.

The kids' curriculum is very full. On top of the basics, they have music, art and computer lab as well as PE in a gym twice a week. They wear real gym uniforms and indoor gym shoes - something rather exotic for us.

They also have German lessons everyday, which means that we can help each other with our homework. I too have started taking German, which is good for my brain and my humility. I thought German would be a lot easier for me since I speak Swedish, but they are completely different languages, go figure - like Steve Martin says, "there is a different word for everything!"

Both kids have opted not to do any sports after school this first quarter, since they are a bit overwhelmed by their schedules, and I am all for it. But they are interested in the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts troops on offer, so we are off to check those out tonight.

Really, life is not that different from Davis. We have to rush in the morning to be on time, we bike when we can (if we are not too late in the morning or it is not raining). Play dates are always asked for, friends are fun, school is good, and in not too long I will be volunteering for one too many things again, just like at home.

For now, auf wiedersehen, or Tchuss as the say here.

Everything made it unscathed!

Did I really say stuff is stuff, and we can all get by with a little bit less? Well now we have way more than enough stuff, way too much stuff in fact. And it is not even all that we own, considering we have a large storage unit back in Davis.

What I really want to know is how did we acquire all this stuff and what can we live without?

So as you may have surmised, the awaited container arrived. 68 days after it left Davis! The same container that we watched pull away from our home so long ago, squeezed down our new street on Wednesday morning, right after the kids left for school. This was going to be a good day.

The first item off the truck was my much longed for bed. I cannot express how much I have wanted that bed. We have spent so many weeks bed hopping from what has felt like varying degrees of concrete in different groupings of kids and parents, that my bed looked like the best Christmas gift ever.

I was sure that the bed would not make it up the stairs, but if it did, I was absolutely certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the box springs would never follow. Olof said I was just being negative, that I should have faith. I felt I was just being realistic, preparing for the worst. For me this was a lesson in humility and gratitude.

The bed is up, with the box springs, and I am so so grateful for the ingenious and patient German movers. Though they did not speak English and I do not speak German, they knew how much I wanted that bed, and they did it! There is a place in Heaven for those guys.

The day was a steady stream of activity, with 3 moving men methodically going up and down the three flights of stairs, only to break for cigarettes and water. They never hurried, nor shouted nor swore (that I could tell). They laughed when they smoked, then got back to work.

In the meanwhile I was madly unwrapping as many kitchen items as I could, knowing that when the movers were gone, they would leave all the boxes that I had not unpacked, and I did not want to think about disposing of mountains of boxes later.

I did spend a few moments pondering why I had so many cooking utensils and baking pans (I don't even like to bake - no I really don't like making mini-muffins no matter how often I do it). Does a family really need 24 plates? Or Tupperware for freezing food for a year? The answer is no.

We have done without all these things for 68 days, and now I am putting all this excess in boxes to send to those who need it more than I do.

Don't misunderstand, I like my stuff. And most of it we are keeping. In fact we seem to be acquiring more things daily, but the excess is no longer going to be part of our life (at least for now). Keep it simple is my new motto.

Now I just have to figure out the phone and answering machine - so if you call and leave a message, I might not know it for awhile - but now we do actually have a phone so calls are welcome, as are visitors now that we have a few spare bedrooms ready for guests. Almost ready.

Stay tuned tomorrow for details on the first week of school from Noah and Louise.

Happy weekend - we are off to IKEA again to pick up just a few more items...really, just a few.

What makes a home?

I tried to post this from the library in Bad Godesburg, but did not manage very well, so now we are connected from home, oh happy day!

We have moved. Into a very empty house. But it is our home for the time being, and we couldn’t be happier.

We left our little apartment in the center of Bonn on Saturday and moved our multitude of suitcases and plastic bags into our fantastic 6 bedroom house (ok, 5 really, the sixth room we call the lego room, where the kids can build their lego creations, is a very small attic space).

Now we needed something to sleep on and closets and dishes…and lots of other stuff to fill in until our container arrives. So where did we go? Like a good Swedish (American) family we went directly to IKEA. Note here that like ALL stores in Germany, even IKEA is closed on Sundays, so we had one day to outfit ourselves.

We only bought essentials on this trip, along with the promised bunk bed for Louise, but that was plenty. We got our dish pack, our “starter kitchen” essentials and even vanities for the bathrooms - because those are not included in the house.
And the fun continued during the weekend. Being the savvy shoppers that we are, we scouted out the “Craigs-list” equivalent in Germany, and found four second-hand wardrobes (since we have no closets, really no closets, or drawers, or “where do you put the linens”-type spaces).

We also purchased a freezer at the spur of the moment this way (for the meatballs we bought at IKEA only to discover later that we had no freezer!). Figuring out the transport of all these items required a lot of logistics, but we did it.

Now my hands ache from assembling furniture. The kids and I spent most of one day getting Louise’s bed together and assembling wardrobes. We also worked very hard on the trampoline we decided to buy as a special surprise for the kids.

Thankfully Olof came home with the much longed for washing machine a few days later.
Today is day 4 in our house. Noah told me it feels like much longer, and I agree. Being in a more settled state has worked wonders for all of us. The kids have space to escape to when they need it; they can jump on the trampoline and play games out side, or go to their rooms and read. I can cook in my new (very white) kitchen and we are HOME!

There are still a few more days left until our furniture from Davis arrives, but we have learned that it really takes very little to make a house a home. Stuff is stuff, and though it is a comfort to have things from home, we can all get by with a little less.