Autumn Pictures

We didn't capture first day of school pics this year ... Possibly because it was raining ... Again .... In Drizzeldorf ...


In retrospect it was a good thing, because the the 15 km (9.3 mile) route that had taken us 22 minutes the week before when the girls went to soccer camp turned into a 40 minute surprise commute that rendered parking at either school an impossibility. (I had guessed that I wouldn't be able to find parking, which was the only correct prediction of that morning.) I dropped the girls at an intersection a few blocks before school ... And then parked in a free 24 hour lot I had scoped out the week before. I hoofed it to school only to arrive in the elementary school courtyard, just after my youngest's class had already gone up to their classroom. Nailed it.


The next morning we left earlier. And made it in plenty of time. We learned two important things about local German traffic that first week. First, local traffic is always heavier on Mondays. Second, traffic is always heavier on days that rains. (That one seems a bit ironic in a place where cloudy and overcast and rain seems disproportionately abundant.) But we also recognized something else ... On days there is no chance of rain more people must walk or bike, or maybe choose public transportation, freeing up the roadways and shaving our trip to school nearly in half. (Another personal hypothesis is that because it rains so often, the locals seem to celebrate the days that are dry :: there are way more convertibles and outdoor eateries than one would imagine in a land where, according to weatherspark.com "The median cloud cover is 85% (mostly cloudy) and does not vary substantially over the course of the year." )


But this last week has been gorgeous! And we are basking in the 15% window that is free of cloud cover. The shaddows stretch long in the evenings, and the sun filters brilliantly through turning leaves.


And so, with the weather improved, and the commute somewhat conquered, this week I talked the girls into some quick autumn photos. And although they aren't the traditional squeaky clean, first day of school style ... they work!

(This isn't her best pose ... Because she was insisting on cartwheels instead!)

Sleeping Sound in Deutschland (finally)

Last night, for the first time in 10 weeks, Eliza climbed the ladder into her own loft bed. 

For two and a half months she's been a vagabond ... 

She had two weeks away at two different camps this summer. 

(We did our pack-out during the first week she was gone.)

She followed her fortnight of sleeping bag slumber with a week on a mattress she shared on the floor with Mills during our last week at The Bungalow ... 

There was a week at in InterCon in downtown Düsseldorf 

where she bunked up with Bea under high thread count duvets ...

(before downgrading to the utilitarian rental bed that fit her needs, but wasn't her own.)

Three weeks ago our shipment arrived. And we rejoiced. We unearthed reminders of home and favorite things, most of which were no worse for wear after its voyage across the Atlantic. 

Unfortunately, the hardware for Eliza's loft bed was no where to be found. It was either accidentally discarded by an overzealous unpacker on this side of the Atlantic, or carelessly sent to storage by a less motivated packer on the other side. My bet is that its buried in a storage unit in Peoria. 

Lack of hardware meant Eliza could not utilize her bed until suitable replacement hardware could be found and a handyman (supplied by the moving company) could be located. 

A handy man was located. He came and surveyed the situation (and evaluated other pieces that sustained damage in shipment.) He snapped pictures, took notes and promised to return. He finally did, after acknowledging it was difficult to find the parts for the Chinese bed that came from Chicago and has been twice fully disassembled on an equal number of international moves. 

{Quick Aside:: Said handy-man looked nothing like I thought he would. He was tall and skinny --think Mick Jagger (he even share a similar surname). He had pointy shoes, stringy long but thinning hair, and eyes that googled behind glasses with an intensity that suggested he knew exactly what he was doing. I surreptitiously snapped a few pictures of his arrival and when I saw his tool kits I suddenly realized he reminded me in some way of a younger, more German version of the artist who repairs Woody in Toy Story II}

Thankfully he proved equally skilled, and our resident junior higher (although her International school describes her otherwise -- According to them, she is a Senior School student in the Middle Years Program) has her bed back. 

A Tuesday with Bei Bei

When Bea was much littler ... Not yet fully in school, but on the doorstep, I took a day a week to do something purposeful with her. We were living in China and there was much to see and I wanted to maximize my waning time with my last baby at home! We called them "Thursdays with Bei Bei". 

We took the city bus and meandered all over our city ... Climbing towers and visiting monistaries. 

Yesterday, with Millie off in the farest flung corner of Eastern Germany on a (mandatory) class camping trip, and with Eliza staying late at school for her Photography club, Bea and I found ourself with a spare hour in our day to spend together. We recounted our Thursday's with Bei Bei Adventures and thought we try it out in Deutschland.

We started with a drive ... I was wanting to explore a community just north of the school and she was eager to have my full attention and basically have the car to herself. We admired the countryside, and smiled at the free range chickens in a pasture.

We remarked on all the horses (there was even a horse walking down the sidewalk when I picked her up after school!) 

We then decided to stop to pick flowers along the road at a "you pick on the honor system" Bloomen plot. 

After paying 60 Euro cents for each glad  stem, she climbed in the passenger seat and promptly Instagrammed a bloom. (A sure sign my baby no longer a baby!)

We made time for a gelato. (No picture because with the narrow cobbled streets,  in the quaint German haunts, I plunge all my efforts into driving!)

We still had time for a quick trip to the park before gathering Eliza. 

Bei Bei sure know how to maximize an hour!!

 

What She Missed (and What She Gained)

Exactly two weeks after we landed in Deutchland our eldest daughter has joined us!

By arriving a fortnight later, she missed out on the crabbiness of four people going through jetlag at the same time. 

She missed the countless trips (there were dozens of them) to the hardware store and the furniture store and the bakery. She didn't have to endure standing in the grocery aisles laboriously translating the names of products to see if we were in fact getting what we intended. 

She missed the trips to the dealerships where we tried to not panic as we totaled the cost of purchasing two vehicles in Europe. She also missed climbing in and out of backseats on our quest to find the smallest fünf platz (five seat) car that will satisfy my need to fit into tight parking spaces and down narrow cobbled streets whilst considering the girls' relative comfort. 

But she also missed out on our suite at The Intercontinental, and the restaurants we explored before moving into our new home. She missed the room service and daily gelatos and all the other treats we offered our younger two girls who were such troopers through the process.

She traded those missed opportunities for extra time with friends at home, including a vacation week with two of her besties in Michigan. She crashed at her grandparents, swam with her younger cousins, and said sweet sad good byes.

Those farewell weeks are hard. They were hard for me on the cusp of 40 ... It's unimaginable what it would be like at 16.

But our sweet sixteen year old

(who is, by her own admission, also a bit "salty") managed the experience and then got on a plane and flew alone across the Atlantic. Many times last night I peeked at my phone to see where our oldest was in her journey across the pond. 

And just now I peeked up at her in her third floor tower, unpacking suitcases and loading drawers and listening to music  ...

And I'm glad ::

for the weeks she's had 

and the weeks we've had 

And glad too ... that moving forward we will share our weeks together ... until the next time she stretches her wings with independence and grace.

.

Settling in

First brekkie in the new house

Toast, tea, yogurt, currants & Bungalow Honey & jam

Eliza buys some red currants 

Bea selects cucumbers at the market

One of my worst memories of our China time was our first meal in our home. We had spent five weeks in an apartment suite at the Crown Plaza waiting for our apartment to be warm enough to move into (the complex was new and they didn't turn the heat on that first winter.) At the Crown we feasted on a buffet breakfast that tided us over til we had a snacky supper ... We ate apples, lots of apples, and bad imitation cheese slices. We made peanut butter sandwiches on too sweet Chinese bread, and we consumed the boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese I had stuffed in suitcases. 

When we moved into our house with its echoey tiled floors and yellow kitchen our first meal was chicken and rice ... Literally a small, bland whole bird and the Chinese grain staple. Served on five wobbly plates that were orange. It was not my proudest moment. We had spent a horrible day trying to shop on a Saturday with three blonde kids who attracted much unwanted attention and my end result wasn't very inspiring. 

I was determined that this go round would be different ... We've spent time at great local restaurants, dissecting flavours and thinking about how to recreate them at home. We've visited grocery stores and sampled different brands of milk. The thrice weekly market has informed us of the abundance of fresh local produce. Today was our first "meal" in our home, and while we still will probably eat lots of apples, we will have some pretty awesome things to complement them!

I had hoped to take breakfast on the patio. Today dawned beautiful bright, but was it was a chilly 56 degrees, so we opted for the dining room instead.

We are going to ride the currant berry theme into the sunset today ... Using a crusty bread (fresh bread dries out quickly!) and cups of our various brands of milk to make a currant stuffed oven French toast for supper ... We also made a currant simple syrup to create our own 

 schorle using my extra classic wasser. 

Obviously Germany will have many more recognizable products than we found in The Middle Kingdom, but the challenges will still exist ... Eliza spent 10 minutes in the flour aisle using google translate to choose the right flour for a dessert she wants to try. 

Sugar and oatmeal and milk come in much smaller packages here, which triggers the reminder we

will shop more frequently and purposefully ... Costco shopping is a distant memory ... But for now, we are okay with that.

Week One :: Things We've Noticed

We've been on the ground in Deutschland one week today. Yesterday we moved into our home. As we think back over our first week we have many impressions of our new land.

Germany is a land of tall counters (39") and low beds(18") ... of duvets (no top sheet) and square pillows (think Euro sham, except for here it's the standard pillow size) ... 

Its a land of efficiency :: toilets (different size flushes based on what's needed), vehicles that shut off at stoplights, garbage that is neatly sorted into four different cans (three quarters of which can be composted or recycled). 

Its a land where the water (wasser) sparkles.  (It took me many unsuccessful attempts before I learned that "classic" refers to sparkling water, and "naturliches" is the still water I was searching for to fill my espresso machine.) 

Its a land in love with pork ... very much in love with pork! (At a restaurant just around the corner from our home, delicious hearty bread was served with a unique spread ... when I asked what it was our waiter answered, "schweineschmalz." I could see he was searching for the words in English, but I told him it was all right. I had figured it out ...schweineschmalz is pig lard.) 

Thankfully, in addtion to their affection for all things porcine, there is a great love of the cafe experience with very good coffees (we would venture to say we could go without Starbucks) and even better pastries ... It's a land that celebrate seasonal fruits ... springs of currant berries pop up on our plates as garnish ... and embraces alfresco ... doling out blankets at outside eateries rather than direct patrons inside. 

Because our city is 51.3000 degrees N (roughly the latitude of Calgary) daylight hours are long and our suppers have been late ... we often find ourselves wrapping up meals at 10 pm and wonder how we hadn't noticed the time.

Its a funny time ... this place of transition. Putting our own clothes, finally! into drawers, after four long weeks of suitcases. Unpacking a few familiar things of home (the box of spices the movers wouldn't ship, a favorite stuffed animal and a last minute photo from a friend at home.) At the same time its strange to sit down to a rented table, sleep in a rented bed, and rest our heads on rented Euroshams. We are trying to create names for places in our new home which is bigger than our last, and find the descriptions comical since "the Library" lacks books and "the Office" is a lonely place with a solitary, naked bulb hanging from the ceiling. We are learning the tricks of the house ... the metal louvered shades that lower automatically at night over the windows ... and trying not to find the bunkerlike basement too scary ... We marvel that we can see dairy cows out of our second floor windows at one end of the house and the daily Emirates A380 flight into DUS out the other.

There are of course the obstacles. The realization once again of what it feels like to be illiterate. Bea took a shot in the dark on the toilet doors at at cafe labeled simply with an H or D ... she quickly learned that she'd look for a D (for damen) in the future. We stumble with the basics, humbly asking if the person we are speaking with speaks English ... We are grateful for the patience we have encountered and thankful for the Germans willingness to work with us.

There is sticker shock everywhere, even before you translate the US dollar to the rather weak Euro. Our family of four easily racks up a 100 Euro dinner bill (which the company fortunately foots for the first week or so), and we learn that there is a different way of living, and also a special appreciation for things we sometimes take for granted.

Last week while I caught up on laundry in our microscopic rented machine, Herr Johnson took the girlies swimming.When my sister asked how close the pool was, I said, well you go down our road, turn left at the forest and right at the castle. I wasn't joking, and at times we need to pinch ourself that we are living in such a unique place :: rich in history and modern at the same time.