The Deutschland

Since we moved from South Korea, I can't exactly call this blog SoKo Loco anymore. It is now Holthaus à Go-Go. I don't know where that came from but it makes me laugh. Anyway...

Pinch me! We're in Europe!
Tobin was a wee bairn the last time we were here and ever since we've been plotting our next vacation or way to get a job. I'm still shocked that it happened and we're actually living it! And we even found a house.

Marc and I really like urban settings because we prefer being able to walk everywhere, but with young kids we also need space for them to play and run around. City parks are great but it means I have to go along, too. And having just lived in an apartment, I really would like a yard for them to play in so I can stay inside if I want to or if Bingsu is napping. The absolute ideal for me would be a modern house with a decent size yard, in a walkable area (grocery stores, restaurants) with lots of other kids around. This was proving to be very difficult. The homes in walking distance to the village or city center are small and very outdated and the really nice, modern ones are way out in the middle of nowhere. Germany can certainly do modern but its almost never near the town center. We're finding that there is always some big trade-off. The house is nice but it's too far from Marc's work. Or it's close to his work, but it's not in walking distance to anything. Or it's in walking distance to something but there is no yard. Or there's a yard in a great location but the interior looks like a well-used frat house.

We did several drive-bys and walked through a few homes, all with some big "problem". We don't have to rush to find a home (we've only been here two weeks) but this is the high-season of Americans moving in and out and it can get competitive. Do we wait to find something better or settle for something we can get right now because maybe this is actually the best we can find? Its a gamble. We had one more appointment the other day in the very same village we're staying in and as soon as we walked in I knew it was going to be good. Its simple, modern, close to the town center, close to Marc's work, has a yard, its on a dead-end street and in walking distance to a grocery store. It has so much of a what we wanted that I couldn't pass it up. The only trade-offs are that the town is pretty small, there are no playgrounds nearby and we have yet to see if the neighbors have kids. But its a great house and there is plenty of room for guests.

Germany has some crazy-cool play things for kids!

Trying some local strawberries.

Can you stand it?

One of the reasons I wanted to find a home sooner than later is so that we could determine which schools the boys will go to before the end of summer. There are four different American schools in this region and which one you go to depends on the neighborhood you live in. So now we know which American school Tobin is assigned to. The thing is, since way before I had kids, I have wanted them to have a second language and here is the perfect opportunity! They are exactly the right age. I know that I would be incredulous if my family had lived abroad when I was young and my parents didn't give me the opportunity to learn the language. But its going to be tricky. Tobin is very social and very sensitive and I don't know if he's up for the frustration of not understanding anything for several months. We still need to check out the local school and we don't even know if they accept foreign students or if there is space available. We also have the space question with Jonah and preschool but I'm not as worried about him because preschool here is play-based. Tobin will be in first grade and actually doing lessons in German. We want to do what's best for his needs but I will be a little sad if he ends up going to an American school and missing the opportunity to learn German. The American schools here are really good so either way he'll get a good education which I'm grateful for.

A tiger, a pirate and Marc, representing Korea.

One of the many attractions at a festival in Wiesbaden.

Here at the Holthaus (that's Holt Haus, as in house, if you didn't get it) we are doing our best to dive into the culture. We listen to German radio and asked the landlords where we're staying to switch the cable box from the American stations to the German channels. If the boys want to watch cartoons, they're in German. We could have stayed at the Air Force Inn on a base but we opted for a house rental out in a village. The Inn would definitely have made it easier to start meeting people and making friends because we're pretty isolated out here, but it would be like living in mini-America which is not why we came. Its nice to have the American bases here if we need something but we're going to try to do as much as we can on the German economy.

On a ferris wheel over Wiesbaden.

At some local castle ruins in Landstuhl.

Food at the festival. And we had a to-die-for banana-Nutella crepe. Ooh la la!

Its been really helpful having some knowledge of the language. I (Marc, too) understand quite a bit, but there is a lot that I used to know and now forget which is really frustrating. And of course there is still a ton that I don't know at all. But everywhere we go I say what I can and most times its such a short interaction that I don't need to use any English at all. I actually had a pretty decent conversation with a Grandpa at a park a few days ago. We talked about the boys, his grandkids, schools, etc. It was pretty cool although I'm sure he dumbed it down a lot for my sake. I hope we can find some classes because I really want to be conversational as soon as possible.

Just to give you an idea of where we live...we bought the latest edition of Rick "My Crush" Steves' book on Germany to get all of his helpful advice. Yesterday we drove to nearby Wiesbaden, which Ricky says to skip altogether because its become too touristy (read: its so beautiful that everyone wants to go there and can get crowded). Our city of Kaiserslautern is not even mentioned. The word does not appear in his book at all. I doubt Rick has ever even been here. BUT, being Germany, its still a very nice city and the villages surrounding it, like the one we're in, are still adorable and picturesque. I guess I won't be bumping into Rick on my way to the bakery, though.

*giggle* Oh, Ricky! You tease!

I know I said in my last post that well-traveled people no longer need to make comparisons or something like that but I never said I was that person. Har-har. I have not yet reached that traveler's nirvana.

Germany could not be more different from Korea. Its not even worth talking about really because its like apples to oranges.

Inititially, I was really nervous to drive here. I've already told you why its scary to drive in Korea - anything goes and you can't count on people to follow the rules. But here, there are so many rules that I'm afraid I'm going to miss something and make everyone mad, or worse, cause an accident. I've only been licensed to drive for about a week so I hope all the new rules will become second-nature soon.

The Internet here is terrible. One would think that with everything else being in such perfect working order that they would get to work on improving the connection speed. In Korea, you can be three stories underground on a subway and not suffer any loss of connection. Here, I walk into the next room and completely lose my signal. Korea is way ahead of you, Germany!

In the village where we're staying everyone says hi to everyone. If you're walking down the street and pass someone, you say hello. If you're standing in line at the bakery with fifteen other people and a new person walks in, the new person says hello and everyone greets them back. It's the cutest thing and has quickly helped rid me of the perception that Germans are social icebergs.

Its beautiful. Just breathtakingly beautiful. Once again, we're surrounded by a lot of agriculture but it's a totally different look. Korean fields have this sort of ancient, misty (cough-smog-cough), grittiness to them whereas German fields are perfect, pristine and dewy-green. Not a blade of grass out of place. And the yards are like that, too. Everything is clean and orderly! The houses, the cars, even the trash cans! There isn't that one weird house on the block with a bunch of junk in the yard. Oh no. Everyone cooperates!

Ahhhh, fields and villages, fields and villages.

Gartenshau, one of the local parks with giant dinosaurs and tons of play areas for kids.

I'm curious to know what the Germans think of us. Do they know instantly that we're American? The attention we (the boys) got in Korea was fun but its also nice to blend in. And, hey! Germany has my shoe size! What's been surprising to me is that there are a lot of people here that I'm positive are American by the way they dress but then find out they're actually German. Maybe we can pass for locals after all.

I'm anxious to make friends which I have a feeling its going to take a lot longer than where we just came from because its a much larger region. I miss my Korea friends so much! And they all better visit. Buuuut, so far its been wonderful and I think we're gonna like it here.

"Argghhhh!"

"Weee!"