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Tom went on a three hour walk/hike with the "big kids" in Kindergarten on Thursday. Usually they don't take kids that are still in diapers. Naturally, Sabine didn't sign him up or send him to Kindergarten prepared but Tom found a way to convince the teachers to let him go. He's much more independent than Max when it comes to trying new activities. He had a great time but was totally worn out and fell asleep on the couch at 7:30 while the television was still on I should mention (television usually keeps Tom awake). That left Max and I to plan all sorts of adventures. We pretended to be animals and built ourselves a cave. Max and Tom both love to help Sabine bake; they love Apfelkuchen. Max had a wonderful idea and decided we should make the imaginary Blaetterkuchen (leaf cake). What fun! The best part of the evening was listening to Max talk. He and Tom both only use cool English words like "fire station" and "asparagus" and "ellow" (that's the color). But Max has taken on a new approach to the language. He has combined the two. It might not be as enjoyable of a story if you do not understand the German language but I will quickly try to explain. When using the past tense in English, you add an 'ed' at the end of most verbs. When using the past tense in German, you add a 'ge' at the beginning of most verbs. For example, the verb 'to make' is 'machen' and the past tense is 'gemacht'. Max now uses the English verbs BUT forms the past tense as though they are German verbs. When I told him not to burn our Blaetterkuchen, he replied, "Ich habe den Blaetterkuchen nicht geburned" (I didn't burn it). Haha!
Alison, the former Au Pair of the Herzberg family, send the boys Halloween costumes and we had great fun last night playing in them. They are super cute monkey costumes made by Old Navy. They even have a banana sewn into the pocket. It makes me miss being a kid!
I miss the first two days when the weather was warm enough to wear sandals! But now I can wear scarves which are also great accessories! This is a picture from one of my first days. Sabine took it of me and the boys at a playground and I have just gotten my hands on it. I love these swings; they are at every playground. I think it is a cross between a birds nest and a hammock.
There are so many things that I wish I could take pictures of but it just wouldn't be appropriate. I have two examples. One morning while I was jogging I passed a man with an athletic stroller (you know, the one with three wheels and a big cushy handle). The odd part was that he was rollerblading behind it! He would shove it ahead a few feet then glide after it and do it again! I also recently saw a man riding his bike. But, he was wearing a suit and had a briefcase in his little basket! Maybe I'll hide in a bush and try to capture these moments.
Apparently there is a ladybug plague in Heidelberg. Yesterday, I spent half of the afternoon vacuuming the little critters off the windows and walls inside the house. They were everywhere! I really cannot exaggerate the event. No matter how I describe it, no one could possibly imagine the magnitude. In preparation for another attack, Sabine and I vacuumed all of the seals around the doors and windows of the house before locking them shut this morning. It seemed to work but it was still important to make quick entries into and exits from the house. I even locked myself out of the house once today cause I closed the door too quickly without grabbing my keys. I no longer find ladybugs cute.
After over four years, I finally returned to Hamburg to visit Katja. Friday was a national holiday; the reunification of Germany is always on October 3rd and since this year that fell on a Friday, I had a nice long weekend. Unlike my transportation adventure to Munich, my transportation to Hamburg was smooth. Everything was on time to and from! I arrive in the afternoon and went straight to Katja's new apartment. It is a wonderful walk up apartment (although I am sure that is all you can find in Germany). The rooms have all been freshly painted with warm colors which makes it very welcoming. Both Till and Kaya were home so we caught up on life. I also got to meet the random roommate whom I liked very much. Katja made a wonderful vegetarian pasta dish which I ate seconds and thirds of. As you read on you will learn that she is a wonderful cook! After dinner we all went ins Kino to see The Baader Meinhoff Complex - a movie about the RAF terrorist group in Germany during the late 70s. While it was quite graphic, I truely enjoyed the movie and was a little ashamed that I had never heard of RAF before. Once I had seen all that they had done, it seemed impossible that I could have not know about them. The movie was all in German which I also really enjoyed. I obviously missed out on some details but it was still entertaining.
On Saturday, while Katja was working, Kaya took me into Hamburg to enjoy the city. I did some shopping (Danielle and Lauren, your Christmas gifts have already been purchased!). We also went to the harbor to enjoy the Bundeslaender festival. Every state had their own tent that displayed their own culture (so each tent was selling beer of course). I got to see the new harbor city which is still in the making. I have never seen so many cranes in my life. There must have been two dozen standing behind the buildings that had already been constructed. As it is Hamburg, the weather quickly changed from beautiful to horrible so we ran (literally) back to the train and headed home. Once Katja arrived back to the apartment we prepared a vegetarian feast for six (only two of which (Katja and I) are vegetarians). It took most of the afternoon but it was totally worth it! We ate and ate and ate. After dinner, all the girls got ready to go out. We went dancing all night, so much that I was sore the next day!
On Sunday we slept. We went to Katja's parents house (the house I stayed at when I was last in Hamburg) for coffee and cake. The cake was fantastic! The apples were from a tree in the garden which made me love it even more. It was nice to see her parents and her brother again. It was a really nice visit. Once we got home Katja and I jumped into bed and just watched two movies. We were too cold and tired to do anything else! Plus, we had to get up early to make sure I caught my train. Overall, :)
Last week Sabine received news that her father's health was rapidly deteriorating. He has been ill for many years but the news was still a surprise. Unfortunately, he passed away late last Wednesday night. It was a sad and difficult week. The boys took the news as well as three and a half year olds can. We did plenty of things together which kept them busy. We had a play date on Thursday, we visited the monastery on Friday, and on Monday we spent the afternoon at a playground (hence the picture of Max to the right). We have also been reading Dr. Suess's ABC and Tom can already recite the alphabet on his own! I don't think I could do that until Kindergarten!
As all of you know, the smallest things in life make me happy. I'd like to list a few that I have recently discovered. Nearly everything in Germany can be recycled, that includes all Gummibaerchen wrappers; if you get caught riding your bike while intoxicated, you can lose your driver's license; Radler is a popular beer which consists of 3/4 beer and 1/4 Sprite; when you purchase a beer at an outdoor festival you have to also put down a deposit for the glass as an incentive to return it; it only costs 8 Euros to tailor jeans with an original hem and it is completed in less than 24 hours.
Getting to Munich was stressful! I allowed myself 50 minutes to catch the train to Mannheim where I was to meet my cousin, Annika. I arrived to the bus early and it never showed! After waiting for half an hour, I caught a bus and made it to Heidelberg Bahnhof. I found a nice student to help me operate the machine and purchase a ticket. When I arrived at the track, I found that I had missed the train that I was meant to catch. The next one was only 15 minutes later which I thought would be cutting it close. I made it to Mannheim where my cousin told me that our train had been delayed 80 minutes! Ha! All that stress and worrying about catching a train that was delayed! We went to the information booth and they let us get on the next train to Munich which was slower than the I.C.E. but it would still arrive much earlier. We spent the next 3 1/2 hours on the train.
We arrived in Munich and hopped on the U-Bahn to Oktoberfest. It looks like a big state fair or something; it has tons of rides for all ages, some for small kids and some for crazy adults. We walked around so that I could see all the vendors and tents before deciding what we wanted to do. Annika decided to ride in the Ghost House and I decided ride on the ferris wheel. I should note that this was my first ferris wheel ride EVER! We ate TONS of food which was all really good. First, we got this Baverian pizza thing which was vegetarian and good. There is lots of meat and eating half a chicken is really popular but of course that is not for me. There is a lot of fruit covered in chocolate and candy and glaze. I had strawberries covered in dark chocolate on a stick. We also had a HUGE pretzel which was fantastic but now I don't want to eat one ever again. You can see just how HUGE it was by looking at the picture. We met some Aussies and one asked if he could have some of our pretzel and of course I gave him a nice big piece. If I hadn't, I think I would have exploded from all the food. Beer was a must but all the tents were at maximum capacity. Apparently you need a reservation or you need to get there really early to get in. So we went to a smaller vendor with a mini beer garden and I had my Paulaner. No, I did not steal a stein!
We even had enough time to walk around Munich. It was really interesting to see because it's where I originally thought I was going to be an Au Pair. It is a wonderful city with lots of old gates and churces; bells seem to be ringing ever 5 minutes. But the German is so different in Munich that I don't think I'd ever be able to carry on a conversation!
I have created a Snapfish account so that I can upload and share my pictures. Snapfish is a fantastic way to share photos BUT others cannot view my photos without being invited. Therefore, you will periodically get emails from me inviting you to view my new albums. Once you have been invited, you can view them whenever you want. I have already sent a mass email inviting everyone to view my first two albums. If you did not receive it, please shoot me a quick email and I will try again. I am still trying to work things out on my end and it might take a few attempts to get it perfect. In other news, there is a half marathon next April which I plan on running.
Tom went on a three hour walk/hike with the "big kids" in Kindergarten on Thursday. Usually they don't take kids that are still in diapers. Naturally, Sabine didn't sign him up or send him to Kindergarten prepared but Tom found a way to convince the teachers to let him go. He's much more independent than Max when it comes to trying new activities. He had a great time but was totally worn out and fell asleep on the couch at 7:30 while the television was still on I should mention (television usually keeps Tom awake). That left Max and I to plan all sorts of adventures. We pretended to be animals and built ourselves a cave. Max and Tom both love to help Sabine bake; they love Apfelkuchen. Max had a wonderful idea and decided we should make the imaginary Blaetterkuchen (leaf cake). What fun! The best part of the evening was listening to Max talk. He and Tom both only use cool English words like "fire station" and "asparagus" and "ellow" (that's the color). But Max has taken on a new approach to the language. He has combined the two. It might not be as enjoyable of a story if you do not understand the German language but I will quickly try to explain. When using the past tense in English, you add an 'ed' at the end of most verbs. When using the past tense in German, you add a 'ge' at the beginning of most verbs. For example, the verb 'to make' is 'machen' and the past tense is 'gemacht'. Max now uses the English verbs BUT forms the past tense as though they are German verbs. When I told him not to burn our Blaetterkuchen, he replied, "Ich habe den Blaetterkuchen nicht geburned" (I didn't burn it). Haha!
