Thursday, March 31, 2005

European Adventure Update February

Gross Gott, (this is the Bavarian greeting literally meaning “Hello God, and which people greet each other here)

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written but I’ve been gathering stories to tell you as our adventure continues. As I type this update, I am on a bus headed to Italy for a week long ski trip that was organized for the Bavarian International School, the school the boys attend. My computer crashed last week leaving me stranded as we did not pack any of my software to be able to reinstall! Fortunately, it only cost me a bottle of Jack Daniels to have it repaired as a tech at TI replaced it for us.

We are keeping busy and seem to be on a regular schedule which usually starts with me getting to keep our 1 car on Mondays so I can do major grocery shopping. It is true that most Europeans shop for groceries everyday, especially for fruits, vegetables, milk and of course incredible breads and pastries from the multitude of bakeries! We have our favorite bakery in Lohhof which we can walk to. It also has a café, and once we can figure out the entire menu, I suspect that we will like it even more than La Madeline’s back home!

A few weeks ago Robin and I took the train into Munich without the boys. Actually, Joe stayed home to play with the neighbors and Sam was on the same train with us but with a couple of his friends. It was an accident that we got there at the same time that he was there, but he was ok with it. He and his friends were going to see a movie but when they got there, the time was different than the theatre web site so they went to the Hardrock Café instead. It’s very safe here, and they had a fun time on their own. Robin and I enjoyed visiting the National Treasury and the Royal Residenz in
Munchen (Munich). Inside the National Treasury were stored many royal jewels including crowns and ornate jewelry worn by various royal families of Germany. Some of the more interesting items were relics that one of the Bavarian Kings collected. A relic is an artifact of Christ’s life. The relics included a part of Christ’s crown of thorns, splinters from the cross, bones of various apostles and even a mummified baby from when King Herod killed all the babies in Bethlehem. Seeing the artifacts made Christ’s life seem even more real. . .

We then went into the Royal Residence. With the Residence, Munich owns one of Europe's most significant interior decoration museums. For five hundred years the facility in the middle of the old city was the residence and center of power of the Bavarian dukes, electors and kings. The 130 rooms of the Residence Munich have been filled with furniture and oil paintings, tapestries and porcelain from the best artists of their time. During the war, much of downtown Munchen was bombed and many parts where destroyed, but have been rebuilt. It is a massive building. It’s difficult to describe the ornateness and immensity of the residence. However, I think the best part of our tour of the Treasury and Royal Residence was that we didn’t have to mess with Sam and Joe!!!! They would have been pestering each other and us the entire time, so it was nice to be able to get away and enjoy some time in the city, just the two of us.

On Sundays, stores are closed. Restaurants and a few bakeries are open. Many Germans spend time window shopping on Sundays. After eating at a wonderful German restaurant across from the museums and the German Opera House we did our Sunday window shopping. Many musicians set up through the city center of Munchen and play their music. One musician was an accordion player who was very good. It was quite nice and the musician really was into his. We continued our walk and found another musician who had his keyboard and was playing. He was also quite good. As we continued our walk we came across a store front with a small boy, probably around the age of 8 years old, who was playing his accordion. It appeared that his mother was working inside the closed store cleaning while he played and earned a few euros that passersby would toss into his hat.

Currently, we are driving through the snow covered Alps. I’m glad I’m inside the bus where it is warm. Gracie is staying with our friend Tom Glasgow’s assistant, Alicia, while we are sking this week. She cried for 20 minutes after I left her with Alicia, just like a toddler! We miss her, but she couldn’t come on the trip, although usually dogs are welcome everywhere.

For those of you who know Joe really well, you know that he is a very picky eater. He’s the one who doesn’t like butter, ketchup, mustard, or mayonnaise, and he really prefers fairly bland tasting food. He loves hotdogs, but they must be American Hotdogs. Everything that looks like a hotdog in Germany is some kind of sausage. And we’ve discovered that the Germans do some strange things with meat that just don’t look right. . . however, Joe has found something that he likes, that really sort of grosses me out. At a soccer tournament of Sam’s recently, Joe was hungry. At all the games, there is a concession stand that is run by the parents of the club. The majority of the food has been baked and cooked and we’re not talking about nachos and popcorn or hotdogs. The typical “hotdog” type meal that the Germans eat is called Laberkassen. Robin and the boys say that laberkassen tastes like the inside of the hotdog but without the casing and it is sliced and served on semmel (a Kaiser roll) . . . .to me it looks like spam and that is gross to me. Well, my Joe, he loves laberkassen. So much so, that Robin bought some at the grocery store and they had it for lunch recently. I can’t bring myself to eat it! So now, Joe either likes to have schnitzel, McDonald’s chicken nuggets or laberkassen!

Speaking of soccer tournaments, we’ve had at least one indoor tournament every weekend, sometimes 2 and both of the boys are playing. Players on teams here do not purchase their own individual uniforms. You receive your uniform before each game and you might have a different number each game. So, maybe you’re wondering, who washes the uniforms? Well, I was given the honor and privilege of washing the uniforms for Sam’s team recently. Sam’s coach speaks English and after the tournament, in the locker room, Klaus gave the uniform bag to Sam to give to me, then Klaus came upstairs with Sam and as Sam gave me the bag, Klaus just smiled at me! He seemed to say. Of course, he had already had me bring a cake for the tournament too, as parents are asked to bring sweets to sell. He tried to get me to work the concession stand but I told him I didn’t speak or understand enough German to do that, so that activity I was able to avoid!

We are currently now in Austria and should be arriving in Italy within 45 minutes. Seems that all European borders are open, unlike in America. So no stopping to check passports is involved. We have passed several small castles along the way.

We finally have satellite tv. The best part of the satellite tv for Robin and the boys is all the LIVE soccer. When we were home in the US, they would tivo the games they wanted to see, b/c they came on in the middle of the night. Here it’s like watching Monday night football. Last Tuesday night, they watched Manchester vs Arsenal. Sam supports Man U and Joe supports Arsenal so they had their rivalry going leading up to the game, until Arsenal lost 4-2. Our friend Tom had given Joe an Arsenal scarf, hat, catalog and other items when he found that Joe was an Arsenal fan.

We now have tickets to see Arsenal vs Bayern Munchen on Feb. 22nd. I’m sure it will be very cold but everyone is excited to see this match. Many Germans were unable to get tickets but we wanted to sit on the Arsenal side for Joe so it wasn’t as difficult to get tickets. We are also currently enrolled in the lottery system for World Cup tickets. We are exploring all opportunities to get tickets as we have heard that most of the tickets have been given to corporate sponsors. So if anyone knows someone who can get their hands on tickets in the US but can’t go, please let us know!!!!!! And World Cup isn’t until summer 2006!

We are already looking forward to our summer here in Germany. Of course we’ll be home in March for Dallas Cup. Sam’s team from home is considering coming to Germany to play in a tournament here in July and we are looking forward to that. At the end of July we are headed to Croatia for a tropical beach vacation!!!! We can’t wait.

We are nearing our destination and once I’ve recovered from a week of skiing I will send another European adventure update!

Ciao!
Deidre

Happy New Year...

Glückliches Neues Jahr! (Happy New Year)

Our adventure continues in 2005. We are all becoming more and more comfortable in our surroundings. So much so, that we even let Joe take the train by himself to see his friend from school. Joe is usually the one that figures out which train ticket we need to buy anyway, and he knows how to read the train schedule well and everyone tells us how safe it is here, so away he goes to see his friend!

We celebrated New Year’s by having dinner with the parents of Joe’s friend who lives just a train stop away. Because we all decided at the last minute to go to dinner, we ended up eating early at an Indian restaurant that is owned by a parent of a student who attends the Bavarian International School. This is only the 2nd time in our lives we’ve ever eaten Indian food. The food was very good, but very spicy and very expensive. Because it was New ! Year’s Eve they were only serving buffet style and apparently here in Germany, buffet doesn’t mean keep going back as often as you want. Robin and I only filled our plates once, as the food was too spicy to even eat all that we got the first time, but Sam and Joe only put a few things on their plate to make sure they actually liked what they got. Then, like any good American at an all you can eat buffet, they went back to get more of what they liked. Well, 100€ later(euro – more than $100 US) we realized it was not a keep going back type buffet. Again, we had to laugh and learned an expensive lesson.

The item that I enjoyed the most at the Indian restaurant was this drink called a Radler. Now, for those of you who know all about Germany – don’t laugh at me and I know who you are!!!!! I have never enjoyed the taste of beer as I prefer sweeter drinks, however, my friend Tina told me about this and so I ordered it. A Radler (pronounced sort of like the snake – Rattler) is a combination of beer and what they call lemonade (sort of like a Sprite). So in essence it’s a beer cooler!!! It’s pretty good and doesn’t have that full on beer taste! They don’t have ice tea here and I don’t like drinking coke all the time so now I sometimes get a Radler! Robin has even made me one at home!

The other favorite drink we all have is called a Spetze. Spetze is a combination of orange Fanta and Coke! Coca Cola actually bottles their own Spetze and sells it here in Europe. But you can make your own at home – try it – mix orange Fanta and coke – pour them at the same time into a glass to get a good balance. You’ll really like it – we all do.

Back to New Year’s Eve. After our expensive dinner, we went to Mike and Tina’s house. Mike is here as an expat for BMW. Some companies, like BMW for instance, will move up to 30 families at a time to a European location for a year or two, or maybe more to work on a specific project. Mike is here with about 30 other families from the BMW factory in South Carolina working on a project. Mike and Tina shared all kinds of information with us and we drank champagne and at midnight all kinds of fireworks starting going off. Here, you can purch! ase fireworks just about anywhere prior to the New Year’s holiday for New Year’s eve and everyone does it!!! In the streets, in the front yards, on the main street of the town! Everywhere! We all went outside to enjoy the display! However, I heard one of those types of fireworks that makes a whistling sound and it scared me to death, because I didn’t know where it was headed! I ducked very low and took off running back into Tina’s house! I felt like what it might be like to be in a war zone! You hear the whistles of the artillery, etc and don’t know where it’s coming from until it’s too late!

The fireworks continued for close to 2 hours! Random fireworks all over. As we drove home people continued shooting them off in the streets! I was really nervous and stayed low in the car. We thought for sure that the streets would be a huge mess in the morning but when we all finally awoke and got out, the streets were again clean!

On New Year's Day, once we finally got Sam out of bed, we decided to drive to Garmisch which is where there is a lot of skiing and where a US military base and resort are located. It was a beautiful drive and we got our first glimpse of the Alps. When we got there, Sam was hungry so we headed to one of the very few spots that was open – McDonald’s! Sam ate and then we went next door to a nice bakery for cappuccino and a sweet. After a little bit of window shopping, Sam and Robin insisted on going home! There was a ski jump competi! tion going on in town and we got caught up in the traffic of the aftermath. I’m looking forward to another shopping and skiing trip there!

This past Thursday it was Three King’s Day, which is a German religious holiday. Robin was off from work so we made a trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that Walt Disney saw and designed the castle you see at Disneyland and Disney World after. It was about a 2 hour drive that we made successfully this time. We first visited the castle that belonged to King Ludwig’s parents. Usually there are buses running up the path to the castle but because of the weather and road conditions (all I s! aw on the road was horse poop) the buses weren’t running. So we took the horse drawn carriage up. The carriage carried about 12 people. Sam and Joe got to ride in the front but all they could see and smell was the horse’s rear end! It was really funny. It just so happened that a lady sat across from us on the carriage who was visiting the family of a German exchange student who lived with her in Minnesota, so we had a lovely time chatting with her and her German hostess. The castle was fascinating and we learned quite a bit about King Ludwig. We then went back down the road to make our way up to the Neuschwanstein Castle which was a very long and steep hike. We would have loved to have taken the carriage up there too, but the line was too long and we would have missed our English speaking tour so we took off for the hike, and I mean a hike! So much of a hike, that we were sweating and had to open our jackets and remove hats and scarves! But the hike to the castle was well worth it. This castle is incredible. If you click here, you’ll be taken to a web site telling you a bit or at least you can see a photo. In short, the castle was never finished because King Ludwig was declared insane and found drowned in the lake below the castle with his psychiatrist shot to death.! The theories and speculations surrounding his death at the young age of 40 are very interesting. It’s worth some research if you’re interested.

We ended our day at the castle with dinner at a German restaurant, some warm Gluwein, hot chocolate and apple streudel before heading back home. However, Sam suddenly became very nauseated and we thought we wouldn’t make it back. He thinks it was the cigarette smoke that got to him. If any of you are planning to come to Germany, and you’re not used to cigarette smoke, Robin’s suggestion is that you spend a few months eating in the US in the smoking sections of restaurant as you will have a difficult time getting away from it here. (Just heard on the news that in Italy all smoking has been banned from restaurants).

Sam’s highlight of this past week was when I took him into Munich to Karsplatz to surprise him with “The Footlocker”. He was so excited, that you know me, I took his picture in front of the store! Of course, as is always his problem at the Footlocker in the US, the shoes he wanted were sold out in his size!!! The Footlocker person told us to go across the street to the department store because they had the same shoe – a black Converse basketball shoe – yes, the same old fashioned Converse shoe you’re thinking of! We got those for Sam to play ba! sketball in and he just loves them! Go figure!

Sam’s second highlight of this week came on Sunday when he played in an indoor soccer tournament with his team SV Lohhof. Indoor soccer is a bit different here. Germans use any location they can find indoor to play. So, there are no indoor fields like at home. They use a gym, no Astroturf, a huge tennis ball like soccer ball (it’s softer and lighter) and the playing area is square like an outdoor field not curved like an ice hockey rink. Walls can be played off of, but when the ball goes out of bounds, the player rolls it back in to a teammate. Subsitutions are made in lines, similar to hockey and the! re are 5 on the field as opposed to 6 in the US. When a substitution is made, it often happens without stopping and all 4 field players come off at the same time, leaving only the goalie. Sam played very well and even scored a beautiful goal in the 3rd or 4th game. After the first game Sam said it was hard to control the ball because it bounces so much but he got used to it. One of his coaches speaks very good English, even spent 2 years in the US training as a military pilot at one time, and he took care of him. This coach has been described to us as a yeller but Sam’s been playing long enough that he’s used to that. It was a long afternoon of indoor soccer and Sam left the day with a 2nd place trophy! It was a lot of fun to watch. The funniest part was when Sam scored his goal, he was so excited he took off running with his arms in the air like he was an airplane! What a goof – but everyone thought it was funny. There is one player on Sam's team that was asked to move up to play for TSV 1860, the professional level, but he didn't want to. He is very good! And the team is very happy to have Sam here.

We have already started talking to the people with SV Lohhof about Sam’s North Texas Striker’s team coming to visit in June for some training and games. They seem to be very interested in helping us make this happen, so all you Strikers, we’ll keep you posted.

Following the tournament we were invited to dinner by the parents of one of the goalies, yes, I said “one of the goalies.” In the US we have a hard enough time finding a single goalie, many teams here have at least 2. This team had 3 but their best goalie just quit – according to the coach he was too interested in many other activities, including girls. (Same as in the US). David is the goalie and his parents are Thomas and Vera. Now, here’s the very interesting part. Thomas works for a company called Chrysallis Publishing and he is responsible for signing musical artists to his company. And these are artists we all know – he either knows them or they are signed with him – OutKast, Kylie Minogue, Velvet Revolver. I can’t remember all the names. But it gets even more interesting. Thomas’s name is on the OutKast album – look for Thomas Glagow if you have the cd. Thomas is a VOTING MEMBER of the Grammies and will be attending the Grammies AGAIN this year and attending AFTER PARTIES too! He has rubbed elbows with many famous artists and many times he doesn’t even really know who they are! He has sat next to Robert DeNiro and Robert Redford at an event honoring Magic Johnson. He can’t stand Jessica Simpson and we ! had a good time laughing at the Ashlee Simpson “Saturday Night Live” debacle. In spite of what was said about using tracks on Saturday Night Live, according to Thomas, that night was in fact the first time ever that SNL has had an artist use a track for lip synching. I was just amazed listening to him and all the names of artists he knew! Sam says that at Thomas’s house he has walls and walls of CD’s and albums!

Dinner with the Glagow’s was so fun – their English is amazing – and we are looking forward to having kaffe and German cookies with them next Saturday. We have aleady invited his son, David, to come live with us for a year in Germany to play soccer. He is an amazing goalie – he is almost a year younger than Sam, but is a foot taller and a very good goalie – and he is considered the 2nd goalie! Imagine that! We all think that he’s better than the first goalie, but the first goalie is the son of one of the coaches.

Well, there’s our update. We are having a great time. The boys are back in school and we are looking forward to ski week in February. Attached are a couple of photos.

Try this on for size! Did you know that in Texas, you can drive all day and still be in Texas?! Did you know that here I can drive for 1 hour and be in Austria or drive 3.5 hours and be in Venice?! That just truly amazes me! Those are just 2 of the places we’ll be seeing soon!

Love to you all, and I love hearing back from you!
Deidre

Christmas in Germany

Hallo everyone - (Hallo is hello here)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I hate to tell you this, but it was probably colder where you are then where we are. Even with all of our snow the weekend before, the cold is nothing like at home. We don't have that nasty wind and windchill thing! By the time Christmas was upon us all the snow was gone but it's snowing again tonight. We'll see what it adds up to.


Last week I took the train to Marianplatz in Munich all alone! Everything was going just fine - I knew how to get on the train, I already had my ticket so I didn't have to figure out how to buy it, and I got on going in the right direction! However, a few stops before my planned stop I heard the train announcer say something about the next stop being the last stop and everyone would have to get off the train. Imagine my panic! Thank goodness I already had my cell phone. I knew that I just needed to look to see how to get on the S1 train but I called Robin anyway and thankfully he answered his phone. He assured me I was doing the right thing and he stayed on the phone with me until I was confident I could get on another train, going in the right direction, to my final destination. I got off and headed to the Galeria - not a lot like the Galleria at home, but a single mutli storied department store that was packed with shoppers.&n! bsp; The higher up I went, the less crowded, so I checked out the whole store, bought Robin a couple of winter scarfs for Christmas and then headed out to the sports store to get Sam a soccer ball he had seen the week before. I managed to get back on the train and made it home in time for the boys to get home. I was very proud!!!

The boys had their first training session with the SV Lohhof soccer club. I think they'll do just fine with these other boys. Sam, was however, not thrilled upon hearing that the team had finished in next to last place. That is hard for him considering his team finished in 2nd place at home. On the teams here, they have 90 and 91 players, for Joe, 93's and 94's so it's a bit different. There is a boy on Sam's team that I would swear is at least 16 or 17 but one of the dad's said, no, he is 14. Sam has an indoor tournament with them on January 9th.

Later in the week we happily received our air shipment with my winter coats!!! Robin stayed home from work to help with it and then I went with him to Freising where the TI is. We did a bit more Christmas shopping and I took my next lone train excursion back to Lohhof. I made it there safely but as soon as I stepped off the train and started the walk home, I realized that I didn't have a key to the house! I just had to laugh!!!! But thank goodness for my neighbor. I called to see if they were home, and they were and since we have both exchanged house keys, I was able to get in. But when I got in the house, I realized that I had no power! Doug, my neighbor, came over to check. We figured out that Robin had tripped the power when he plugged in part of my computer to an adapter that couldn't handle the voltage or wattage, or whatever it is. We got the power turned back on, but then later realized that when Doug wa! s helping me out he had flipped the power off for our water heater without turning it back on. We had no idea until later when we had no hot water for showers or washing dishes. It wasn't until the next day when we mentioned it to Doug that he came over and flipped the switch back - it's just like a light switch but it's higher on the wall down in the basement laundry room! Again, we had to laugh!

On Thursday we went with our neighbors to Nuremburg. We were going to take the train for the 2 hour trip but it would have cost us 160 euro which is almost $200. So we each took our car and caravaned there. One of Sam's friends from school came too. His name is Sebi (Sebastian). He is German/English and has a British accent. He's a great kid. He helped us all out with translations. Nuremburg was great. We didn't do any historical stuff, just holiday stuff. We went to the Chriskindlmarkt, ate, shopped, ate, found Starbucks, ate, shopped more, and ate! They had this Gluwein with amaretto that was to die for, and we followed that up with Eggnog that was the strongest eggnog we've ever tasted. It comes bottled too, so we each left with a bottle! Then we drove back to Lohhof and ate Chinese food! I have to start running! Too much eating, too many bakeries, really good wine, really good food!!!!!

On Christmas eve we went to an Anglican Episcopal english speaking church service. It was a family service which meant everyone with little kids was there. Churches are very small here and by the time we got there, yes, we were late again, it was standing room only. Thank God all the service involved were some songs and communion and then we were out of there. It was just so crowded and hot inside. We were thrilled when a man we were standing next too decided to open one of the church windows!!!

When we were waiting for our train in the subway all 5 boys, ours and the neighbors, started singing carols. Then these 2 elderly German ladies came over and gave them all their sweet pastries they had just picked up from the bakery. It was so nice. I have no idea what the sweet ladies had for breakfast the next morning as everything was closed, and there are NO 7-11's. Anyway, not 10 minutes after that when the boys were singing again, this mean German man, probably in his late 20's or early 30's, walked by and shouted "Yankees go home!" Jake, one of the neighbor boys innocently said "did you just tell us to go home?" The rest of us were in shock. Of course Sam started singing again and the man told us to stop torturing them! Anyway, it was really weird. That was the first instance of "we don't like Americans" that we've experienced.

We woke up on Christmas to open gifts. Sam gave me a wonderful self portrait of himself and a Christmas card on which he wrote on the inside "even though we moved to Germany, Christmas won't change at all cause we have each other." He may be 14 but he still knows how to touch his parents' hearts. Of course, he also threw in a $20 US bill that he found in a drawer in the house - teenagers!

We shared a late lunch/early dinner with our friends/neighbors the Islers. Because our ovens are SO SMALL, and you can only get small turkeys here, we were using both ovens and doing some major time management! Everything turned out delicious. I made homemade chocolate pie especially for Joe, homemade rolls like my grandmother used to make - though never as delicious, and mashed potatoes. With everything that Kate made, it was a banquet!!! We stayed late, drank wine and got to know our new friends even better.

Today, Sunday, we had planned to go to Neuschwanstein Castle, the one that Walt Disney modeled the Disney castle after. But we got lost and couldn't figure out how to get there. We are getting a navigational system in early January!!! Since we couldn't find our way there we ended up going to Daucau to the Concentration Camp Memorial. It was so eery! Walking in places were so many people were murdered - in the gas chambers, seeing how they lived. It was a lot to deal with. Then we went into downtown Daucau to find the Schloss but we couldn't get in so we just walked around it. Hopefully on Wednesday we'll go to the castle that we had planned to see today.


I am going to take Robin to work tomorrow so I can have the car and then I'm going to Walmart!!!!!! It's mostly German stuff but there is supposed to be a small US section. Then I'm going to another grocery store to get a beef tenderloin for about 25 euro. I've paid over $100 at home for a tenderloin the size of the one I'm going to get tomorrow. It's crazy! I just hope it will fit in my oven!!! Then I'm headed back to IKEA. There are so many things that I need, especially for the kitchen and for storage. If I ever move like this again (which is highly unlikely as the only other place for TI expat would go would be Japan or somewhere else in Asia and I'm NOT going there) I would send much more of my kitchen stuff. Trying to make cakes and breads without my really nice mixer is a pain in the butt! My neighbor has done this inte! rnational thing many times. I used her mixer and it came with this big transformer box thing so it could work.

The boys are home for about the next 3 weeks so I hope that I'll be able to keep them entertained. They got some sledding stuff from Santa so hopefully we'll get some more snow so that they can try it out. I hope to take them to the Deustch Museum to see the crown jewels. I don't know whose jewels they are. . . but I want to see them. Of course, the boys want to go into Munich to shop again - Sam got a gift certificate from the Haines House of shoes for a new pair of soccer shoes for Christmas, so he's ready to get them!

We'll work on sending out video sometime later this week of some of these adventures. Love to all of you!

Deidre

HI Everyone,
We are having a great time on our European Adventure. This e-mail is lengthy but funny. You might want to print it off and read it when you have a few minutes. I'm sure as our stay contiues the e-mails will get a bit shorter and less often, but for now, everything is so different and we're experiencing some funny things. Please e-mail me some time. Just found out that our stuff has still not airshipped from the US so I don't have much to do so I'd love to hear from you. If you have AOL Instant Messenger, let me know your screen name. I'd love to chat.

Love,
Deidre

Week 2

Our first weekend in Bavaria was a lot of fun. Our new friend and neighbor, Kate, took us to Daucau where there is a great grocery store. It was quite large and I was able to find many more things, though in German.

The weather is cold and there are some small snow flurries from time to time, but nothing that amounts to anything. Tree tops are frozen and it is pretty but much different than when things ice up in Dallas. Currently it is 25 Celcius with light snow grains. Even though it is quite cold, it is very bearable. . .so far anyway.

One of the interesting things about Germans is that they see things in black and white, there are no shades of gray. They are major rule followers, which doesn’t sound like a big deal until you have the misfortune of having broken one of their rules, which results in a German scolding. So far, I have received two.

The first scolding I received was when we had to take the airport rental car back to the airport. Robin had me drive our car from TI and he drove the airport rental car – this was my first experience driving alone on the autobahn. When we arrived at the place to return the car, Robin pulled over and got out of his car and told me to park. No sooner had Robin left, than this nice German business man pulled in front on my car, got out, and told me (in English since he realized immediately I didn’t speak German) that I could not park there. He told me why but I didn’t understand what he was trying to say. I told him my husband told me wait there for him and he proceeded to tell me that I couldn’t do that and I needed to! park in one of the over 400 parking spaces available. Yeah, right! Then he said “Welcome!” and left. Needless to say I was a bit startled and didn’t know exactly where to go. Fortunately, I was able to drive around a small circle and arrived back where Robin had stranded me in time for me to shake my finger at him and tell him not to ever leave me like that again!

On Saturday afternoon, Sam went to a birthday party with his new friend and neighbor, Zach. Then Zach’s mom, her other 2 boys, and Robin, Joe and I took the train to Munich, specifically Marienplatz, home of the Glokenspiel and a Christkindlmarkt. We emerged from the subway tunnel and we saw incredible structures. The Marienplatz is the heart of the city of Munich. In the Middle Ages, the square used to be a market place as well as the place where tournaments and festivities took place. At 11, 12 and 17 o'clock each day, visitors can watch the famous Glockenspiel or carillon, which is basically a very magnificent tower. The figures perform the Schläffertanz or cooper's dance, which was originally performed in 1517 at the Marienplatz to commemorate the end of the plague. On top of the dancers, figur! es hold a tournament, which was originally held in 1568 at the wedding of Wilhelm II and Renata von Lothringen in 1568. The Glockenspiel has existed since 1903, but a music tape has replaced the original clocks.

The area was extremely crowded since it is the holidays so we moved out of the Marienplatz and went to a German restaurant for dinner right in front of the Munich Opera House. We had our first experience sitting at a table with people we didn’t know. It appeared to be moms and their daughters and they looked as if they might be dressed to go the Opera House after their early dinner. The food was awesome. We shared wiennerschnitzel with Joe and he had pomme frittes (fries) as well as a great salad and Robin had soup. It was so delicious and fun, as I’m sure the German ladies were making fun of us stupid Americans.

We also enjoyed our first glass of gluwein (glu vine) which is a warm sweet holiday wine. It was delicious. Apparently in the warm months Germans drink beer and beer can be found everywhere. When the winter months arrive, gluwein is the drink of choice. You don’t receive paper or Styrofoam cups, glasses or anything plastic here. You receive everything in real dishes, cups, etc and pay a small deposit. When you finish your gluwein or streudel, you return the dishes and receive your deposit back. Many people, particularly tourists, collect the cups from the Gluwein. After we collected 3! on Sunday, Robin and I decided that might not be the thing for us to collect – too much Gluwein and we might not be able to make the right train back to our town!!!!

After dinner we moved back through the Marienplatz looking for the crepe vendor to get the boys a crepe for dessert but the crepe man was closing up. Another interesting thing about Germans, they are known for their precision timing. If they say they open at noon, then they open at noon, and not one second sooner or later and if they say they close at 8, then they close at 8 even if you are in line at 7:45!!!! So don’t be late!

On Sunday we took the subway back to Munich to attend Peace United Methodist Church which is an English speaking church. I was ready early and the boys were ready, but we had to wait on Robin. He wanted to make sure I knew how to work the washer and dryer – don’t know why that couldn’t wait until after church! Anyway, we first had to walk to the train station from our house – about 10-15 minutes – then we have to figure out how to buy our tickets – not an easy task when you don’t understand the system fully. We arrived at the train station just in time to MISS the train b/c we couldn’t get our tickets fast enough so we had to wait another 20 minutes for the next train. Once we arrived in Munich we then had to figure out how exactly to get to the church on foot. Robin took us in circles a few times before finally figuring out the right direction. We were late to church!!! Must have been the fact that he had to show me how to wash and dry clothes, or maybe it was that he kept getting us lost when walking. . .it was funny, and just another thing to add to our adventure.

It wasn’t such a bad thing to be a little late to church as it happened to be the children’s Christmas program – it was cute, but you know . .seen one. . .seen them all, unless of course, your own children are in it. The church had a lunch in their fellowship hall afterwards that we went to. The church definitely is English speaking, but that means English speaking people from all over the world. The thing that touched me the most was to realize that even though we are more than 4,000 miles from home, we sat in the church and said the Lord’s Prayer with other people from all over the world. It was our Lord that we had in common and it was a beautiful thing.

After being at church for a while we headed back to Marienplatz to take a better look and show Sam. It was truly amazing. Sam was scared of the gargoyles! We had to force him to get close enough to one so we could take a picture. Then we saw Santa Claus and in my very limited German I asked Santa if we could take a photo with the boys. Santa told me that I could speak in English because he is international! How cool was that! Sure hope my photo turns out well.

My neighbor’s husband, Doug, is back from the US and he has been taking me to different grocery stores and today we went to another part of Munich. His wife, Kate, is an expat here with Microsoft. Well, Doug made a mistake today . . . he took me to a great department store – much like a Nordstrom’s or a really nice Dillards. I didn’t torture him – we looked around a little bit and then went to another grocery store with a small section of US items. How about Campbell soup for almost $3 a can or a Duncan Hines cake mix for $4!!!!! When I come back in March, I will be bringing home an empty suitcase to fill with these type items. ! Maybe I can sell them on German Ebay!!!!!

The boys love their school. Sam finds out today if he made the basketball team. He is a little afraid that he will make it. . .which translates into, “Mom, the kids are really bad at basketball.” Considering that Sam isn’t really great at basketball at home, apparently he looks awesome here!!!! We had to tell him not to say things like he hopes he doesn’t make it, because there will be a lot of kids who want to make it who are worse than he is. Anyway, he’ll have fun.

Next Monday, the boys have their first training with the SV Lohoff soccer club. The President of the club speaks English and has set it up, however, he can’t be at the practices this time to help with translating .. .the coaches don’t speak English. We’ll get it all figured out though.

We are really enjoying our adventure. If you have AOL instant messenger or can get it, please do. Remember it is free, and it’s a great and very easy way to keep it touch instantly. We let the boys stay up late on the weekends so they can catch their friends, but I can be caught almost everyday. . .just add 7 hours to your clock and that will the time here in Germany.