As tomorrow marks a month since our departure, we thought it would be good to start writing things down before we forget everything! It has been an eventful month. We arrived one week before the kids started school, and spent the first week getting over jet lag and purchasing a seemingly endless list of school supplies. Nora entered first grade, which is the first year of formal schooling in Germany. They celebrate it big time, with a church service (even though it is a public school), an all-school assembly, a procession of the first graders out of the auditorium into their classes, and a reception complete with "Zuckertuete," cone-shaped containers full of sweets and school stuff. Of course all this happened before we had a car, so I ended up lugging our Zuckertuette home on my bicycle uphill, with the plastic bag full of its contents swinging in the breeze. Everything seemed to be working until my chain fell off... At any rate, the Zuckertuette survived the trip, albeit with a few bruises, and the kids were delighted (we also got one for Oliver, so he wouldn't miss out on the fun.
Both Oliver and Nora are having good school experiences, and go to school happily, even though we are not quite sure exactly how much they are understanding.
We are living in the top storey of a house located on a hill at the city's edge with the forest directly behind us. We have a great view from our balcony down into the city (10 minutes by bike downhill, 20 minutes riding home uphill-- unless your bike chain falls off). Our landlords are quite lovely, and there are a lot of young families nearby. Oliver and Nora walk to school down a tree-lined path with classmates, and very much enjoy this independence. Oliver is managing quite a lot of homework, with various levels of protest. He seems to like the German, but balks at some of the math problems (the notation here is different). He is in the fourth grade, which is an important schooling year here, as it decides whether one will be tracked to the Gymnasium (college-prep) or a trade school. A lot is expected of them. Nora will have an easier year, since she already learned how to write and some reading in kindergarten. Basically this year she is doing the same thing, but auf Deutsch. To compensate for Oliver's many hours of homework, he has joined a terrific soccer team with some of his friends from the neighborhood. The coach is from Afghanistan, and the players are nice, good, and supportive. Soccer has been a great point of connection for him, since he only has to learn a few key terms. He also went on a four day class field trip to the Reiterhof Hirschberg, where played soccer (in the rain), rode horses, and didn't change his pants. We've signed up Nora for violin lessons through the school.
Mike has done yeoman's work registering our existence with all sorts of bureaucracies. He has collected file upon file, and diligently figured out the somewhat abstruse German bureaucratise. Perhaps his greatest coup so far, however, has been the purchasing of a bargain, quirky 1993 Ford Escort (600 Euros, 100,000 km). It is a zippy red color, and looks good from the side where you don't see the rust. We had hoped to survive the year on public transporation, but the soccer fields are located outside of town off of our bus line, and we figured that the bike ride would be a little cold in February. Plus we need to give our kids four power bars and a pep talk before asking them to bike up our rather significant hill. We had a bumpy first week with the car, as it failed to start most of the time. However it started just enough to give us hope, only to be disappointed the next time. We did manage to take a nice excursion to celebrate my birthday in a nearby forest (it rained) with a pleasant Gaststätte.
However, after one too many panic attacks, we took the car into the garage, where we learned that its rather baroque wiring had been sapping all the juice out of the battery. Germans normally drive new, powerful cars, and the mechanic seemed slightly bemused at our find. He gave Mike some tips, such as don't park the car on a hill, as the parking break is a little loose. This is of course a little problematic since we live on a hill, but we have found some level ground about a block away from our home. We thought that we could do no worse than our 1990 Mazda at home, but we seem to have outdone ourselves. The good thing is that the car managed to survive the rigorous TUEV-- the biannual exam required of all cars in Germany, so we will not get pulled over. Now if our car stalls on the side of the road, that is a different matter...
My (Katherine's) parents came to visit in August, and that gave us a chance for the two of us to go to Berlin for one night (two days). We spent all of our time in art museums that the kids would not want to see, and had a terrific time.
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| Woods behind our house with mom and dad |
In case you are wondering about the blog's title, just check the weather. It has rained pretty much every day since we have been here, except for about three days. Most days it rains three different times in three different ways. We are considering getting rubber pants.
