Stuff We've Been Doing

We've been here about six weeks and have been keeping busy finding lots to do around here. There is so much going on in summer because, from what I hear, Germany is cold and wet for most of the year. There are festivals going on every weekend. Some town is turning 900 so they're having a festival. Another town is famous for cheese, so they're having a festival. People just like an excuse to congregate and drink beer, so have a festival! Our village is having a festival this very moment so I have to make this short so we can get down there. And tomorrow I think we're going to some kind of medieval festival with knights and jousting. We have to pack it all in before we pack it in for winter.

Here are some bits from the last six-ish weeks:

The boys got used to all sorts of fun kid cafes in Korea so one of the first things I Googled was stuff to do indoors. The town right next to ours has a place called Yabadoo which is basically a giant warehouse filled with bouncy castles and all manner of fun for the kids.

 This does not look like a good idea.

Neither does this, but so fun, right? Fortunately, D couldn't get much higher than that before sliding down.

And...oh my goodness! Have you ever heard of a Culinary Hike??! Neither have I, but let me tell you its the sport I've been looking for my whole life. I can do this sport. Minimal exertion and plenty of refueling. One of the rural communities here set up a walking course between homes and through the fields with about ten different stops, or as I like to say "feeding stations", to try local culinary delights. What an awesome idea! One stop had various desserts, another had grilled potatoes and wurst, etc. So you stop at one place, eat and drink whatever, then walk about half a mile through beautiful countryside to the next stop for more eating and drinking. Its a party at every turn! There was even a DJ at one stop wearing the Lederhosen getup actually singing all the popular songs he was playing like a one-man karaoke band. It was spectacular.

A local's farmhouse is one of the stations.

Yes, I'd like to sample some sweet secco between meals in a real glass in the middle of a gorgeous field on a perfect day. There's a baby on my back, which is extra work, so make it two.
Pictured here is our lovely German landlady, Maria. Her husband, taking the picture, is an American from Carlsbad which is basically my hometown!! How cray is that?

Die Koo goes Moo

The Red Cross is patrolling the area in case I pass out between feeding stations.

Our first day-trip destination was Rothenberg, an adorable medieval town about two hours from us. We just wandered around, took lots of pictures, and marveled at all the cuteness. 

Do not attempt to eat this house.

In the main square by the clock tower. Doren be like, "This is boring."

I want to live in there.

And then, out of no where, our dear little Jonah turned four. Long before we left Korea he was putting it all together that none of his friends would be coming to his party. My heart broke every time we talked about it. So we made his day as special as we could with decorations, more presents than normal and a fun day at one of his favorite parks. And our wonderful landlords came over to sing and bring a gift. I think he was more than satisfied.

He's really into superheroes right now.

Cooling their tootsies at the dinosaur park

This little fella is now fourteen months old. He's not walking yet, but he likes to stand and crawl really fast. 

He loves playing ball just like his bros.

"I like to empty all the cupboards three times a day so my mom doesn't get bored."

At a local swimming pool.

Eating out in the "big city" of Kaiserslautern.

Landlady Maria took us to her favorite place: the strawberry fields!

Marc got his international license so we could take our first trip out of Germany to France. The best decision we've ever made was renting a van since it was a five-hour drive. My friend since junior high and her husband were traveling around Europe so we met them at Versailles Palace, but first we stayed with some old friends who live outside of Paris. It was so good to see familiar faces!
 

Swiveling seats! Fun for awhile then car-sickness-inducing.

Here are my dear French friends (brother and sister). Don't they look so French? We stayed with her and her husband and their two adorable girls. They were so nice to have a backyard BBQ and invite a bunch of other French folks who I haven't seen in ages.

I love this picture of them having a sweet little moment.

After waiting in line for almost two hours, we're in the courtyard of Versailles!

Friends since we were Tweens!

They paddled around in a few small circles, but it was exhilarating nevertheless.

Cap'n Jonah barking out orders. "Row faster, ye scurvy fools!"

Marc counted to three in Korean before taking the picture which shocked the actual Koreans behind us.

The boys were having fun, just tired of taking 5,000 pictures. Doren has his usual view of Marc's back.

Extensive grounds

After walking around a while in the gardens, we decided to get lunch in one of the cafes. Our timing was perfect because about five minutes later it started dumping rain and there is really no where else to go except this cafe. We were covered with table umbrellas but all the other people out walking were getting soaked. Lucky us. We started feeling a few drips from the sides of the umbrella, so my friend's husband thoughtfully attempted to turn it slightly to keep us dry. It would have worked except for the column of water that dumped directly onto him and I. It was pretty hysterical.

Mere moments before entering the wet-tshirt-with-mascara-streaks contest.

"Uhh, a little help please? There's water dripping down my back."

The boys loved him!

On our way back home we stopped in the city of Reims in France which is where President Eisenhower and the Allies were notified of Germany's surrender.

I'm hiding the scaffolding in front of the Notre Dame de Reims. They are still doing repairs from all the damage from WW1 and 2.

French kings were crowned here and Joan of Arc did some famous thing. You know, no big deal.

Tobin wanted to light a candle.

Back at the ranch...we've made a lot of progress getting involved in our town and I couldn't have done it without the help of our landlady. Part of my evil plan of language immersion for the boys is getting them in to German schools, but I had no idea how it would work. Fortunately, its no problem for Tobin to go to the local grade school. We just went down there and signed him up and its fine that he doesn't speak any German. Really? That's it? It was so easy!

Kids go straight from German Kindergarten, which is basically American preschool, into first grade. There is no American-style Kindergarten as a bridge between preschool and first grade. I know it will be a rough road for a few months and depending on his level of frustration I might be tempted to give up and just let him go to the American school, but I think if we can stick it out til Christmas he will be over the hump and on his way to fluency. We met another family whose daughter was also going into first grade when they moved here. She will be going into third grade and speaks like a native.

I've heard from a lot of sources that it can be really difficult to get kids into the Kindergartens. Every German child has a right to a spot, so they may or may not have any extra spots for foreigners. There are two Kindergartens just a few blocks from where we'll be living, but those two were full, as was every other Kindergarten our landlady called. There was one school in a little town south of us that sounded promising, but first they needed to get permission from the Bürgermeister (adorable) and he or she said yes! We are so excited! I can't believe it actually worked out! Just today we went to the Sommerfest at the school. Its all play-based so I think Jonah should have a pretty easy time of absorbing the language while having fun playing and making friends.

A bear and a Chinese dragon at the Kindergarten play ground.

We found a nice twelve year old boy who comes over once a week for a few hours to speak to the boys in German. He does his best to get them to talk, but right now the boys can only repeat what he says. They may not learn very much from him but hopefully they'll at least be used to the sounds and know the alphabet and a few phrases by the time they start school in September. Fingers crossed!

The other thing they've been so excited for is soccer and yesterday was their first practice. The teams practice pretty much year round except for the summer school break which starts in two weeks. We just showed up, filled out a form and they're good to go. Jonah got right into it and did some little drills, running around cones, etc. and Tobin's group did a scrimmage and some drills. We might do some American soccer on a base during the summer break but we'll come back to this when it starts again.

Jonah and the Bambini group.

As for Marc and I, we're doing our best to get acquainted. As much as we love it here, its still hard to change jobs, routines and not really know anyone. After six weeks I think we're finally at the end of all the in-processing paperwork (phones, licenses, gas cards, IDs, passports, etc). Marc has enjoyed riding all over the place with the amazing bike path system. I'm plugging along trying to practice German, figure out everything for the boys and wondering how and when I can dip my toes in the birth education pool again. There are only so many hours in a day!

All of our worldly possessions should hopefully arrive by late August and then we'll be able to move into the house we found. The house we're staying in is so nice and I love our landlords but I'm looking forward to getting organized in our own home. I don't know how much more I can take of the piles of stuff all around us because we have no where to put it.

That's all for now! There's a huge pretzel with my name on it at the festival.