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Showing posts from 2006

Heilige Abend and Christmas Morning

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We can't believe that we pulled it off, but we had Christmas in Germany! I really didn't know if we were going to make it to this point. On Christmas Eve day, we went to church and participated in the program. Rob and I both sang in the choir, and Rob had a solo and gave a talk. It was a great talk, like Garrison Keillor's about all the adventures that baby Jesus goes on from the creche, and how he got lost for several years from the McFarland family, and then his niece Jessie found the baby Jesus because of her child's eye view. It was well-received, but we established beyond a doubt that our children are not ready to go parent-free in Sacrament Meeting. The ward made a big fuss over us since it was our last week here, and you know they are sincere, because we're taking one of the only families and a third of the Primary with us on that plane! And we heard The Longest Prayer In The History Of The World. Ever. I kept thinking "I didn't understand and she&#

Happy Holidays!

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This is a picture of Will today. He looks sick, and if you said that he had the flu you wouldn't be wrong, you would just be a few days late. In grand McFarland holiday tradition, Will and Madeline and I all came down with the flu in a few hours of each other. But thankfully we're over it now in time for Christmas. But here Will is showing that he's sad to be leaving all of the kids in his class, who signed this card for him. He has been regaling us with tales of the heretofore unexplained recess activities of Will and His Boys. Evidently Will is the chief, but he has a bodyguard, a money man, and an attacker who help him out. We'll delve more deeply into this, and in the meantime I'm going to teach the kid how to play foursquare or jacks or something. Perhaps Will isn't looking too good because he just finished eating the liverwurst sandwich Rob made him for lunch. There is a brand here which makes processed meat products and caters to young customers by packa

Last Day of School

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Here is Maddie with her classmate Sabrina. Maddie got a book from her class and presents from some of her friends. Thankfully, she has addresses and e-mail for some of them, so that she can keep in touch with them. I asked last night if they'd rather come back to Vienna or Berlin, and it was unanimous that they wanted to come back to Berlin (though perhaps it isn't a fair vote when you're in Berlin). The kids with Frau Half who was an aide in Will's class, choir director, and "one of the nicest people ever". While Maddie was having a party and Will was on a field trip, Rob, Sebi and I walked down Ku'damm (the west's old posh shopping boulevard) and then had the 'business lunch' at the 12 Apostles pizzeria while Sebastian napped. We've had to work in a date where we can now that Sarah is gone! This is the inside of a building designed by the same guy who did the Brandenburg Gate. This place was an ampitheater for scientific lectures and d

Cookies, Snowballs, Teeth and a Hurdy Gurdy

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This is Lena, Maddie's best friend here. She came over today for a playdate. They worked their way through all the toys of interest, colored and cut out paper dolls, and then we made cookies (which I am proud of not only for the end product which was edible and recognizable as a ginger snap, but also because I had to explain the whole thing auf Deutsch ). She's a smart, quiet girl and very creative. I like kids who can make up games. So I didn't pick the picture with goodWill in it. But next we all went to the Opera Palais Weihnachtsmarkt with Anni. Rob and I were agreeing that this one is our favorite. I don't know if it's the crowd (not too highbrow or lowbrow) or the stalls (fun, handmade things), or the fact that there are only two rides and they're way at the back and for little kids. Ours rode both the carousel and the ferris wheel. I thought they'd be terrified, especially after their Funkturm experience, but Sebastian came off yelling "Dat was

Stars Were Shining, Kids Weren't Whining

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This is a picture of my favorite Christmas lights. It is a building which was rebuilt as some company's corporate headquarters, but replicating the original which was designed by . . . anyone? Anyone? Schinkel! The building and the stars are all white by day, but I think they look great this way too. The stars are just for Christmas, and they are everywhere -- on tops of trees and market stalls, and hanging from windows, churches and street lamps. There is a folded paper version with 16 points which Maddie and I learned to make last Friday. Here is Frau Gabler, Maddie's homeroom teacher with her. It all happened just as Rob said it would' we told the kids we were going home soon and Will said "I don't want to leave Lietzensee Grundschule!". Granted he was mourning the loss of the five-hour school day (Westridge has them for seven hours a day), but he has really gotten acclimated and had a good time. Not only does he have a best friend (Roman) and a girlfrien

You Win Some, and Well, You Know . . .

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Yesterday we decided that we needed to go see our neighborhood tower, the Funkturm or the radio transmitter. We can see it out our window now that all the leaves are gone, and it is lit up all night and until the kids leave for school in the morning. We wanted to go up in the daytime and yesterday was clear, so we rode the two bus stops and paid our money and went up. It is a much smaller deal than the TV tower in the east, and felt less secure going up in the elevator. Maddie started to get anxious on the way up, and she was at a fine pitch by the time we got out. Here is the view back to our house. It is the third house to the right of the green lawn on the lake. Then I started to notice that things weren't staying put when I looked at them. I felt a little nauseous and I wondered if I had vertigo. But when you are at the top of a metal structure on a windy day, there is some movement -- whoo! I'm getting dizzy now just remembering it! Maddie was panicked, so I agreed to tak

A Brewery in the Backyard

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Yesterday Sebi and Rob and I went on another 'expotition' in the morning. This time we were checking out an area for Rob's latest research. It used to be infamous for its living conditions and Hobrecht-era tenements. These piled people on top of each other in buildings with up to six courtyards, meaning that some apartments looked out on the garbage cans, coal sheds and livestock kept there. The court (or hof ) was also the playground and yard of the kids who lived there. It was also common to put apartments on the street and businesses in the courtyard like this one, which used to be a brewery. We also saw a pump plant, forge, and a coal shed behind the streetside apartments, and Rob even knows of a dairy that was kept in an urban courtyard. I'm trying to imagine my kids ever going to sleep with the sounds and smells of a herd of cows kept in our building! This building was restored about ten years ago and now houses some nice offices. This is the building we were a

The Prettiest Shepherd and More

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So I always feel wistful at this point in the trip because I realize that I'm not going to see everything I wanted to. It makes me want to stay home I get so depressed about it. But there are a few things that are keeping me going. The first one is Lift apfelschorle. I think I'm addicted to the stuff. It is like dry apple beer and it has just the right amount of bubbles and it is my pick-me-up (or maybe it's just that the name is "Lift"?). I'm really going to miss it. The second one is this nondescript chocolate in a cellophane bag that Rob brought home from the grocery store. HOLY COW! It is so good! It says that it is quick-melting praline flavor, but I think it is Prozac Praline. MmmmHmmmm. The third thing that gets me out of the door is Sebastian, who just has to get out and about. Here he is looking out the S-bahn window as he is wont to do. His latest and greatest lines are "I hear crabby" when the other kids are shouting and "OH! Dat'

Two Markets and a Ward Christmas Party

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On Saturday Rob took off just after 8:00am to deliver all of the stuff we had to bring to the ward Christmas party. He took two huge IKEA bags full of decorations and wrapping paper and zucchini bread and brownies. I have learned to bake a few things here that turn out reasonably well. The secret is to bring American baking soda/powder and look for recipes without brown sugar. Once again Rob stuck it all in the stroller, and once again he managed to confuse some poor person who thought he had a baby in there with all that stuff. He said the busses were already completely berzerk even at that hour. The bus was full when they pulled away, but at the next stop there were 40 japanese tourists waiting to get on. At the next there were 10 italians who all needed to buy tickets, and so on. I guess we missed high tourist season here in the summer, so it surprises us now. Next we took Jenny and Ben to a couple of Christmas markets. They are the children of Monika, whom Rob taught when he was h

Gendarmenmarkt Weihnachtsmarkt

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Lots of stuff happening. Went to my first German funeral on Tuesday night with the graveside service Wednesday morning. Similar in most respects to ours. They do have these cool electric candles where the bulbs wobble back and forth and they look like the real deal, but you invent these things when your country is full of castles and palaces that you don't want to burn down. It was very sad and mercifully short (the service, not the candle-lights). They don't have viewings normally. Rob sang at the graveside service and did wonderfully, especially because he was able to sing the whole song without a plane flying overhead. The cemetery is rather close to Tegel airport (which is going to be moved in a few years) and so there were deafening roars every two to three minutes (and then Sebi yelling "dewrs anoddoh aiwrplane!"). They do put the casket in the ground then throw flowers and petals down. That was different for us, but gives you a little more sense of closure.

Perusing Prenzlauerberg

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Rob and Sebastian and I explored Prenzlauerberg yesterday morning. The neighborhood has one of the highest birthrates in all of Europe and has become the place to have kids in Berlin. It was in the former East and parts of it are still gritty, but other parts have great shopping districts and a playground around every corner. Like this one. Sebi and I found it while Rob was talking to a sculptor at Sussholz about his trips to Poland to make rubbings of gravestones in cemeteries. Evidently the Jewish cemeteries there are being torn down for several different purposes, but this guy goes over to take down as much information as he can before it's lost. Rob asked him if he wanted an intern to go with him. So Sebi and I played on the pirate ship. We also found cool boutiques for toys and decorations and clothes and bags. This is a gargoyle on one of the pumps in the park. From here we raced down Kastanienallee to try to find "W" the imbiss which is an anti-McDonalds establi

Advent Calendars, Pyramids, and Persimmons

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I splurged and bought each of the kids their own advent calendar this year. Maddie and Sebastian got Playmobil calendars and Will got Lego (my theory was that not everything has to be sugar, and they'll get enough of it elsewhere this season, and why start the day off with chocolate at the breakfast table). This is Sebastian's calendar, and it has 24 wee boxes which were lovingly assembled and filled by very tired parents on the night of November 30. Will's Lego calendar was already assembled and each Lego man was waiting behind its proper door. Bless those great Danes! Will gets things like a jackhammer and a man-who-waves-in-planes-with-two-flashlights and other symbols of the season. After you open up your wee box, there is even a place to set it out. This shows the six piece bird cage that Maddie got on December 1st and the $ #>?% &*! rose planter that she got today. A pox on Playmobil for bringing the some-assembly-required part of Christmas early to unsuspec

Samstag in Berlin

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Our Saturday morning meeting got cancelled, so we decided to go out. We started at the Reichstag, because nothing starts your day off like cutting in front of a few hundred people. They were lined up past the bus stop, but we just went in our wheelchair/stroller entrance, and we were up at the top in a jiffy. We ran up the ramp and slid around on the top and watched the pigeons fly in and out. If you ever come to Berlin, you really must bring a stroller for this express purpose. It all makes you feel like the government is doing something right when the capitol building is so efficiently and cheerfully run. Here is a manhole cover. Maddie's foot is on the Victory Column, mine is the Brandenburg Gate, Will's is the TV tower, Rob's is the Reichstag, and Sebastian's stroller wheel is between the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church and probably the red Rathaus. It is fun, though I'm still partial to the ones in downtown Budapest. Beautifully designed. Then we stopped by t

Spandauer Weihnachtsmarkt

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On Thursday night, we took the kids to their first Weihnachtsmarkt. These are outdoor markets that open for the month of December with stalls of food, decorations and gifts. It is a great reason to go outside in the dark (which is about 2/3 of the day by now -- there is daylight from 8:00 to 4:00 and even that is halfhearted with the sun barely rising above the tops of the buildings). Here Maddie and Will are standing on a fountain which they enjoyed running up and down on until Maddie fell in. Here is a stall with wooden decorations that we stopped at. This is (in Rob's humble opinion) the best and only place to buy Christmas decorations. These days, there are some less traditional offerings too, like handknit Bolivian hats and new age lights. At the entrance was the Rummel, which is filled with loud carnival rides like carousels, slides, and a fun house. This keeps the teenagers busy and Will begging during the whole trip. At the other end was a life sized creche with live d