Neunzehnten Jahrestag

Sometimes as an expat, life is as glamorous as it sounds, and looks, in the highlight reel. 

And ...

Sometimes you spend your wedding anniversary like this :: 

Nine time zones apart. 

The deal was I got a chance to travel to Southern California and see my brother and his family while my parents were also visiting. This was high on the girls' bucket list of summer things to do, and I was thrilled with the prospect. 

Herr Johnson hadn't scheduled vacay during this time, plus somebody had to wait for Millie to get back from her biological conservation service trip in Greece, and feed Kate the Great (now probably the world's most expensive rabbit.) 

It worked out. We had a great week in Cali and met up with Sean and Mills in Chicago the next week. 

And we knew we'd get a chance to get away sometime, if not on the actual date. 

So this weekend, on our 19th year and one month anniversary we got away for 28 hours ... Top down on the autobahn ... Squeezing in three countries, two churches and one British restaurant we will remember forever. We also stayed in a really hip apartment that had a sleeping loft ... (It might have felt more like we were 19, than 19 years married — The approach to the second story felt almost identical to clambering up the vertical approach of a corn crib.) 

Featuring the sleeping loft ...

I can't Instagram (or blog) everything, but this posset with my posse of one was amazing. There was a large table near us that got notably quiet when each course of their food came out. When they finished their dessert you could hear spoons scraping the bottoms of their Wekk canning jars (Europe's cousin of the ubiquitos hipster Mason jar). I fully admitted to the chef when he came out of the kitchen and chatted that I had just literally googled "posset" (I later visited Pintrest for ways to concoct it at home.) I took a chance on it and was not disappointed ... Not for a moment. It was curdled with lemon and gin. We had a tutorial earlier in the meal on gins ... And they had special tonic, brewed by a friend of the chef. I felt like we got a foods class as part of the experience. It's hard to go wrong with a "farm to table" concept restaurant in The Netherlands, the produce capital of Europe. Check out The Dutchess (http://theduchess.restaurant/) if you're ever in the greater Aachen/Limburg area.

 (We did.)

We also visited this historic Baroque church on the Markt square. 

As we were leaving, this woman approached us ... First in Dutch, then German and finally English. She wanted us to catch the exterior detail of a lion. 

According to this tri-lingual, passionate Ambassador of Limburg history, a circus once set up in the Markt Square (where we had just enjoyed a pair of cappuccinos and people watching.) In an unfortunate incident, the circus' lion escaped and made its way into Sint-Michielskerk. The church was full of people. The lion sashayed to the front of the church, laid down by the alter, and simply looked at the congregants. The lion trainer arrived at the church and was amazed by the sight. 

(Of course I googled this too ... And found the lion story is an iconic part of local history! http://www.netherlands-tourism.com/saint-michaels-church-sittard/)

We had a beautiful day for driving. 

We drove through the Dutch hills (which is a rarity ... The Netherlands is known for being both flat and largely below sea level!) to the meeting point of Belgium, The Netherland and Deutschland. The convergence of these three lands is marked with a plain cement point and the three flags are furled. The Dreiländerpunkt (three country point) is a perfect example of how one European country seamlessly flows into the next. 

From the Dreiländerpunkt we made our way back into Germany, stopping in Aachen to tour the Aachner Dom and grab a late lunch before heading home. 

Whitey White Clippity Clop

I wish four-year-old Eliza had lived in The Germ. 

Little Liza Lu had a small Schleich brand draft horse that she loved. 

His name was Whitey White Clippity Clop. She quietly clutched him many places she went. 

I think that cute little pre-schooler with bobbed hair would have loved seeing real live Whitey Whites clopping down the street each day. 

I know I do!

Weekly Roundup

It's been quite a week in The Germ, the kind that rolls around every-once-in-an-expat-blue-moon. The kind you can only have because you've moved abroad. It's one of the rare moments that a-week in-the-life-here is definitely more spectacular than if we'd stayed comfortably at home and lived a quiet, happy, familiar life. 

There have been many weeks that involved much second guessing and stress here, and that's a necessary disclaimer, because it's often the highlight reel that gets blogged about. (As the writers of Portlandia so sagely put it, "I guess people are just cropping out the sadness.")

But not this week.

In the span of just seven days, I've seen a cathedral, two castles, canals and a city devoted to cheese. I've traveled to historic Aachen and crossed back into the Netherlands.

Aachen Cathedral

Schloss Dyck

Burg Linn 

At The North Sea (Den Hague) 

Gouda, The Netherlands 

And, to top of that week ...

We've watched our girls blossom like the spring flowers in an environment that once was so intimidatingly new. 

Beatrice had her first band concert ... Our girl who could read no music last fall, and who struggled with an attempt at the trumpet, has made a beautiful transition to the mellow toned Euphonium. (A fact that almost makes lugging that beastly piece of brass and creatively playing Tetris in my small trunk three times a week worth it.) 

Eliza returned from her Math competetion in Switzerland. She flew with her teacher and two teammates to Zurich and then took a bus and finally a train into the Alps where she spent a weekend figuring equations and competing in team activities with other kiddos who will no doubt be the engineers and actuaries of the next generation. She kind of dreaded going, but the location alone seemed to make it worth it once she arrived.

Wengen, Switzerland

And The Millie Girl is getting ready for college ... We met with her guidance counselor and mapped out the next steps and scenarios. And then she visited a college this weekend. (And played in her first soccer game since lancing up her cleats with the boys at LGS.) 

(We've had a friend's daughter staying with us this weekend. She's doing a semester in Italy. We've been impressed with her organization and sense of adventure ... packing in trips and making the most of her time in Europe. It's encouraging to see the other side of the college selection process!)

So that is our week blogged. (After a long dry spell of no posts.) Sometimes we are just busy, and sometimes we are cropping out the tough stuff ... But we are thankful. And we are mindful ... (that) we took the plunge with full knowledge of the risks. We this week we are grateful to be reaping the benefits (that occasionally feel elusive!) 

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.