Berlin Trip

Last weekend we boarded a train for Berlin. It just screams, "Visit me in Autumn!", doesn't it? My favorite time of year! I was in Berlin for only one day about fifteen years ago and we've been anxious to get to Germany's big city since we moved here. We like/love cities, but Marc's last two jobs have taken us to small towns, so we need our occasional city-fix! Unfortunately, our trip got off to kind of a rocky start. We loaded the boys, our bag and big stroller onto the train and settled into our seats. Ah! How delightful! Aren't we clever! But when the ticket guy came around he told us we were in the wrong place and our actual seats were ten cars back. Oopsies. Rule #1 in Germany: Follow the rules and do not make mistakes. Because next, I had the lovely task (while carrying sleeping Doren in the Ergo) of pushing our huge jogging stroller through the narrow aisles of ten long train cars saying my best "excuse-me-pardon-me's" in German every two steps because someone's leg or bag was sticking out just a tad and I needed all the room I could get to fit that thing down the aisle. Let me tell you that inconveniencing ten train cars full of Berlin-bound Germans made me feel like a wad of gum under their shoes. I could feel their scorn burning a hole in my forehead! "WE followed the rules and are comfortable in our seats, reading our papers and sipping our tea and giggling about how clever we are! Who is this disheveled, obviously foreign mother, schlepping a baby and gigantic child-wagon through the aisle forcing me to shift my knee three milimeters to the left?! What an imbecile!"

Believe me, that is what they were thinking.*

The ride was pleasant enough, youngest child considered, but then in all the kerfuffle of getting off the train, I lost Doren's adorable navy blue pea coat that his brothers also wore. [lips trembling] So we found a second-hand store and nine Euros later I walked out with this puffball.

UH! He's so adorable! And he's 100% walking now, but sort of stumbles around like he's had a few too many.

Now he's flirting with me. 

Now he's spotted something more fun than me. Bye.

We stayed in an airbnb apartment in a really cool part of town. Tons of ethnic restaurants, boutiques, modern houseware stores, expensive stuff that I would never buy but like to look at, etc. Definitely my kind of place. It reminded us a lot of Portland, only on a much bigger scale and with ninety-nine percent less homeless people. My friend, E, asked me if we went to various must-see sites around the city. [PeeWee Herman laugh for two straight minutes] Um, no. No we did not. Do you think we can do any of those things when around every corner there is yet another incredible playground?! Basically, we go to a city with a list of all sorts of places we'd like to see but what ends up happening is us sitting on the edge of sandboxes while the boys burn energy at fifteen different playgrounds. But I do have to say the playgrounds are really amazing. My other friend, S, commented on how nice it is that they're all made of wood rather than metal or plastic. They do sort of look like they just grew out of the ground. I didn't take pictures of the really natural-looking ones, but here's some anyway.

Ok, there is some metal. I wouldn't want to slide down a wooden plank!

This was on a hill above one of the playgrounds. Gorgeous!

I'm pretty sure there is a Kindergarten on the first floor of this!

 I enjoyed many deep breaths of crispy Fall air.

Here's Doren sharing the swing with a little Spanish señorita. It was fun until it wasn't.

Ahh, this. Can you see me in there? Its some sort of play structure but it looks exactly like a hammock and it was the best part of any of the playgrounds. 

The natives were all out in their Fall finest. A lot of tweed and leather. And a lot of beards. Is this happening everywhere or just in Europe? We noticed this is Copenhagen, too. So many men with huge beards and man buns. Even the kids were so hip and fashionable in their little outfits. Not MY kids, obviously...other kids..

We did broaden our site-seeing on one of the days and went to a few iconic Berlin sites. Ahem...on the way there, we rushed to the metro station and without thinking jumped onto our train because it pulled in just as we arrived. We didn't even think about tickets because there was no turn style thingy or gate. Naturally, naturally, a ticket agent climbed aboard at the very next stop asking to see everyone's ticket. Oopsiedoodles. Here we go again. So they escorted us off at the next stop and wrote our tickets and fine. One of the agents made some comment about only the adults being fined and not the children because adults should know better. Ouch. Obviously we deserved this but I swear we're not rookies! We're just having a bad streak!

Brandenburg Gate 

Reichstag

Same place but looks different in this light

Doren was really into the street scene.

I don't even know what this is but its famous. 

Some other pretty place. We had to stop because the boys wanted to run on the lawn.

In our cozy rental

Berlin is such a beautiful city with so much diversity that makes it really dynamic and fascinating. I heard many different languages being spoken as we walked around and I realized I haven't experienced that in a very long time since there wasn't much diversity in Korea. And since we live in a small town, there aren't many options for eating anything other than German food or really bad, salty Thai. We ended up going to this Vietnamese place twice because it was so, so good, cheap and fast. You can get anything! That's what's so great about cities!

And finally, my art piece...

JFK once gave a speech in Berlin and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner." He meant to say that he was like them...a Berliner, but what he actually said was, "I am a jelly donut!" So here's me eating a Berliner in Berlin and being ironic or artistic or something.

Bis später, alligator!

*But no, Germans are extremely nice. I'm amazed on a daily basis at how nice everyone is. But, seriously just follow the rules, ok? You can do that, right? How hard is it, McFly? EARTH TO McFLY! Just follow the rules! Just. Follow. The. Rules.

German School

School started! And so their journey toward bilingualism! Hopefully all the German kid shows I let them watch this summer will pay off. I freely admit this is my wish for them. Marc doesn't really care either way and Toby would definitely rather go to an American school. But I'm pulling a Mommy-knows-best and hoping that they'll thank us later for giving them this opportunity, assuming it works out. If I know Tobin, and I do, this is going to be one bumpy ride. I assure you his attitude on the tough days will be far more painful for ME than having to learn German is for him. He gets to just sit there and absorb it like a sponge.

Delivering the school supplies on Monday, the day before school starts. I love the sign: "FUN"

The teacher gave us a long list of the very specific stuff he needs: certain types of notepads, #6, 8 and 12 paintbrushes, three-sided ergonomic colored pencils, etc. You can find it all yourself or give the list to a bookstore and they will order it for you. Then we delivered it and put it all in the classroom the day before school started.

"This is where you hang your coat and backpack."

Proud that his classroom is on the top floor!

Schultüte time! Normally these are just for first graders but we have to keep things Even-Steven around here for Jonah. Doren's like, "I don't even want a cone!"

Its a good thing our former landlady, Maria, helped me out with all this school business because I had no idea what a big deal the Schultüte (school bag) is in Germany. Starting first grade is a major event in a German child's life, kind of like starting Kindergarten in the US. All the moms, dads, and grandparents come out for the first day and every kid gets one of these cones filled with school supplies and treats. Its closed at the top and then the child gets to open it after the first day of school like a present. Some kids had really elaborate homemade cones and I can't tell you how many times I heard the word Schultüte that day. All the moms were frantic about where it was, who's holding it, don't put it on the ground, make sure little Dieter is holding it in every picture, and carrying it around like a baby. The cones!

Then on Tuesday morning, we and all the other families went to...Mass! Yep. Its a public school but the school year starts with a Catholic Mass. We've been wanting to take a look inside this church anyway so this was a fun way to see it. 

Off to church! The bells were bonging especially for this event. There are only three houses between ours and this church so it was a short walk.

Its a cute church. Not too big or too small, but standing room only with all the families there. I'm not sure what you call a female priest in the Catholic church (priestess? or nuns?) but there were two of them and a musical duo. They told some inspirational stories and we sang some songs about God blessing the teachers, the students and the school year. It was very sweet.

Then everyone made their way to the school gym to hear the Principal's welcome speech.

Each first grade teacher called their students to the front. Tobin on the right! There are a lot of Maximillians, Leons (pronounced LAY-on), Mias and Lilis.

Tobin's teacher is Frau Schöne which means Mrs. Pretty/Beautiful/Nice and she is exactly that! As soon as I met her I knew she was going to be just what he needs. She's soft-spoken, a little shy and her English is only slightly better than my German, which isn't saying much, but that means he'll have to learn quickly. I told her my concerns and she could not have been sweeter or more reassuring that she would take care of him and he would be fine. I am so grateful that out of all the teachers, Tobin got HER. He told me that she tells the class what to do in German and then tells him in English. She told me that she will only do that for the first few weeks. HoHoHo! I wonder if he'll notice.

Yay! Mrs. Pretty Nice

And there he is! I guess we're really doing this. I didn't cry. I'm too concerned about him coping with this to have any time for tears.

And on Wednesday...

Jonah had his first day at German Kindergarten which is more or less the same as American preschool. Originally, Maria helped me call around to the local schools to see if anyone had space for Jonah. None of the local schools did except one in a town ten minutes from here. Then a few weeks ago I got a call from one of the two Kindergartens in our village! There is the local community Kindergarten and right next to that is another Catholic Kindergarten, which is the one that called back. Honestly, I don't see a difference between this one and the non-Catholic one because there doesn't seem to be anything religious about it. I don't get it. Anyway, I was really thrilled he got a spot because 1) a lot of Americans have trouble getting a spot in Kindergartens, and 2) its barely two blocks from our house! and 3) its free to us even though we don't pay German taxes. There is some community fund that pays the school and teachers. Pretty nice!

Jonah in the Giraffe group

Jonah had to bring house shoes to wear at the school, sunscreen, a rain outfit, and a big package of tissues. He'll go five days per week for four hours. We only stayed for one hour on the first day because they like to be gradual with the kids. He was totally fine though. He even said he understood when Simon asked him to play upstairs.
 

It was one little girl's birthday so they celebrated by singing some cute songs and eating cereal with fruit in REAL bowls. I thought that was pretty interesting. Then one of the teachers washed the dishes while we went outside to play.

The timing of this move worked out so well, arriving at the beginning of summer with plenty of time to figure all this out. Our household goods came a few weeks ago so we finished putting everything away in the nick of time before school started. It was so nice this summer being able to get up whenever the kids woke me up and do whatever we felt like doing each day. Now I'm adjusting to waking up before the kids (oh, misery!) and hustling everyone out the door. The other challenge, being a foreigner, is that I don't really know what's going on at their schools...like, I didn't know that Tobin is required to buy lunch at the school. I didn't even know they offered this! So we got a letter in the mail (homework for me) saying that we need to pay for this. I don't know what I don't know and I can't speak German well enough to read all the signs and bulletins with information. Somehow I need to stay on the ball so my kids aren't the only ones who show up at school without something they're supposed to have. I don't want to be the clueless mom!

Wait, its picture day? As if!

That's all for now! Hopefully I can report back with some language learning by Christmas...if Tobin doesn't kill me before then.

Trip to Amsterdam

A few weeks ago we drove over five hours to the Amsterdam airport where we parked the car and took the train to visit Marc's aunt Tineke and her husband, Richard. The last time we had been there was in 2009 when Marc had an architecture internship for the summer. We stayed with Tine and Richard for three months when Tobin was eight to eleven months old. I didn't realize how neat it was going to feel coming back after six years and seeing everything again. A lot of memories came flooding back.

Anybody home? It can take a few minutes for them to get to the door since the house is so tall and deep.

Richard informed me that the house turns 400 this year! Talk about wishing the walls could talk. Its crazy to think of how many families have lived in this house. The original kitchen in the basement has the same old Delft tiles on the walls! This house is on one of the four main canals in the city which means its kind of a big deal. We think its pretty special to have family who live in such a cool city and in this prime location that not many tourists get to experience. Thanks for staying in Holland, Tine!

The stairs going down to this kitchen and the stairs going up to their family room and kitchen are ridiculously steep (you can use your hands to help climb them) and they go up and down several times a day. Tine washes the laundry in the basement and climbs four flights of steep stairs to hang it to dry on the roof. They are almost in their 80s and still walk and bike everywhere in the city!

Eating breakfast in the dungeon, er, kitchen. I agree with Toby...its scary down here!

Old school kid chair with a harness. With one little push he would fall backward, hence the laundry rack behind him. Aiiiii...

Richard still has plenty of toys that his sons played with in the 70s. The boys loved them! Doren is forever making car/motor boat noises.

They treated us to a trip to the Zoo. We had so much fun watching the sea lions show off.

Baby babble is an international language.

Richard took us to a replica of an old ship. The boys were convinced it was a real pirate ship.

Then we went to the beautiful library where I used to take Tobin all the time.

Behind Doren is a huge, intricately detailed "mouse house".

Brother love in a reading nest.

Tine found a Korean restaurant just to make us happy! Poor Richard did not know that Korean food is almost all spicy, which is not his cup of tea. But we liked it!

Sophisticated woman that she is, Tine has no qualms about being silly to entertain our loud, wild baby.

We finally got to meet Tineka's granddaughter, Lieve (pronounced LEEF-UH). Isn't that pretty? Her mom is Marc's cousin.

Tine is an excellent cook, specializing in Indonesian dishes.

"Gather round, ladies! I'm very entertaining."

The view from their upstairs window. You can barely see the second full rainbow in the upper right.

I love it when people reenact photos, especially the ones on Facebook of grown children posing in the same photos from their childhood. It was so fun trying to recreate these photos below.

Tobin above in 2009 and Doren below. I wish I would have brought that shirt because we still have it.

Tobin on the left and Doren on the right. This time in the same shirt.

Father's Day breakfast in bed in 2009 with Toby in the top left. Poor middle child Jonah is getting left out since Doren is a baby like Toby was when we were here, so he gets his own photo with Dad. It would have been so cute to get all three of them here at the same age.

Dank u wel, Richard and Tine! Its always great to see you and your beautiful city!