Posts

Showing posts from November, 2006

Bunter Teller, Buntes Auge, Buntes Haar

Image
This week we're feeling tired and down. On Monday, our friend Heidi died after battling cancer for a year and a half. It was her birthday. She leaves behind her husband Kurt (whom Rob baptized), her son Sven, and her daughters Jasmine (above) and AnnLuise. We are missing her quick Berlinish wit, her great cooking, and the fuss that she made over all of us. Anni came with us and spent the morning with us. She helped to pick out an advent wreath for our family and stayed at our house until friends and family were around to be with her. Monday night all of our students came over for the last FHE of Study Abroad. Rob made Bunte Tellers (colorful plates), which are arranged plates of Christmas goodies and explained what advent was all about with the wreath Anni had picked out for us. He explained the symbolism in the wreath with the evergreen, the circular shape, the candles that are lit sequentially, and the way that it combines both the pagan and the Christian traditions. And we

Thanksgiving Weekend

Image
Here Will shows off his latest smile. He's always happy about exchanging teeth for cold, hard cash, and the tooth fairy didn't disappoint this time: he got a two euro piece for one front tooth! Here is one of Maddie's latest poems: Fall One leaf goes tumbling down and says "it's fun on the ground." Six decide that they are brave and they fall into a cave. But the rest they say "my oh me" and as they're pushed, they say "whee!" Friday afternoon, we had the Gruse kids over. We lived in the back half of their grandparents' apartment when we came in 1998 with Maddie. Their mom and dad are the backbone of our ward here, and are in the middle of moving. So Esra, Maraly, Noomi, and Teresia came to play while their parents picked out tile for the kitchen in their new place (typically you move your whole kitchen when you move apartments, but they are leaving theirs and buying a new one that will fit the new house better). We ordered inter

Ein Tscherman Tanksgiving

Image
So here we are at Thanksgiving dinner for 35, complete with three turkeys, yams, cranberries, and the basketball standard. The bishop graciously allowed us to use the church, which was nice, because we didn't have enough chairs, tables, plates, forks or knives at our house. Rob roasted two of the turkeys and made the gravy. I brought decorations and three kids. The students brought everything else, and they did a bang up job. This is Tony, exulting in the aroma of Thanksgiving. We were grateful that the kitchen here is a bonafide kitchen, and not one of those ridiculous "serving areas". It's practical to carry everything from home when you live 5 minutes away and have a car. It's a different story altogether when it is half an hour on two busses. Rob packed the turkeys into pots in the stroller and then got on the first bus. He nearly had a heart attack when there was a huge dog waiting at the next bus stop, thinking that his gravy didn't have a chance again

Spandauer Zitadelle

Image
Yesterday Sebastian and I met up with our friends Sarah and Gretchen to go visit the Spandauer Zitadelle. This is a medieval fortress whose oldest parts are from the 1100's. The tower there on the left is the Juliusturm where reparations for the Franco-Prussian war were kept for some decades in the form of over a million gold marks. Thousands of bats roost in the basement where preservationists study them and tours are given in the summer. Thankfully, we missed the Fledermauskeller this time around. We let Sebastian dictate our exploration. First he got excited about these ducks who were eating something here, but we never could tell what. Next he got excited about the cannons; then the tunnel and the bridge; and every time a plane went over he would shout "dewrs anoddoh plane!". We were close to Tegel airport, so there was a plane every two minutes or so. He charmed Sarah with his German words, and Gretchen charmed Sebastian with her bags of mini gummi bears. This is

Foodball, FHE, and Friedrichshain

Image
Monday night we sent the students off on a digital scavenger hunt. They ran around a section of Berlin snapping pictures of famous, obnoxious and obscure items ( three churches in the Brick Gothic style, having someone teach you the lyrics to the "Heidi" theme song, a chocolate Reichstag, etc.). While they did that, Rob and I had our own scavenger hunt for their prizes. We ducked into FoodBall because we decided we had to eat there after Cindy Brewer sent us an article where it appeared in the New York Times. We ate some hacky sacks and had some organic fresh-pressed juice. The food was good, the apple-ginger juice was fantastic, but the air was a bit thick with super ego for me. There was a demonstration in the neighborhood, we found our prizes, the kids played poker at home with Sarah, and afterward the teams all downloaded their pictures and we had brownies which I had baked Monday morning. They weren't half bad. This morning, Rob Sebastian and I met up with John and

Will's Sixth Birthday

Image
Today Will turned six. He's had a big week, and the the nadir of the week was a nasty ear infection. But the doctor took one look at him and said "do you know amoxicillin?" and Rob told him that they had a wing named in our honor at the Amoxicillin Hall of Fame. The entire experience was worth it for the conversation they had on the way home. Will wanted to know what a building by our house was for and Rob explained that it was a radio station where rock bands come to record their songs. Will said he wanted to have a rock band, and decided to call it either "North Gothic Tractors" or "Bumzookas". Right on track developmentally, no? On Saturday we went to the zoo and brought Will's friend Roman with us. Roman was funny and delightful and just like Will, only German. They chased each other around yelling for each other, and so if we lost them, we'd listen above the barking seals for Roman's calls of "Villiam! Villiam! Wo bist Du?&quo

Mitte at Night

Image
I think that we have one of the prettiest views in Berlin. This is out our bedroom window. It is also ridiculously good weather here again, even in mid-November, but I'm not going to complain. Yesterday the Cafe am Lietzensee was open and Rob and the kids all went to drink apfelschorle and hang out. The cafe is normally only open until Halloween, but who could resist a day like yesterday? After I went to class and Rob went to the doctor's office (Maddie has swimmer's ear), we met up at Hackescher Markt and had a great paella at this spanish place. Rob thinks we need a tent like this on our patio. I was fond of the dry ice in the fountain. We walked around Mitte and down Oranienburger strasse. On the right is a neon palm tree, in the middle is the TV tower (Fernsehnturm), and on the left you might be able to make out the golden top of the New Synagogue. This is a hip street with lots of restaurants and clubs and a place called Tacheles. This was once a tony store which ha

This Week's Top Ten

Image
So I'm surprised that we're still standing. We have not had even one day without a crisis of some sort. Miraculously, we do the bare minimum each day and try to show up for the next one. Here are the top ten for the week: 1. Berlin. First off, thanks for another unseasonably perfect day so that we could take group pictures before Jordan flew home. We would have done it anyway, but it would have been a lot harder in the rain. Second, we appreciate you extending all of our visas until New Years. It makes us feel welcome here, rather than having to hide out as illegal aliens. Finally, thanks for pioneering the 24-hour Christmas shopping. At the rate we're going, Rob and I are going to take advantage of it with tag-team all-nighters. 2. Will. It rained on Monday when Rob was bringing the kids home from school. Will wanted to jump in a puddle, and Rob said "Tell you what: I'll let you jump in a puddle in the next block when we're closer to home." Will said &qu

Wild, Wild East

Image
This morning we took off for the other side of the city. It was cold, so we wore our down jackets, but as soon as we arrived, it began to rain. We are learning that it is essential to check the weather here; not just a nicety. First we wanted to see this bridge, the Oberbaumbrucke, which straddled the Spree river and the East and West sides of Berlin while the wall was up (it crosses the border from Friedrichshain (east) to Kreuzberg (west). Neo-gothic, towers were blown up and mere stumps after the war, useless while the wall was up, and now renovated and working (another microcosm of Berlin history). We have it on good authority now that once a year during the summer, the people of both districts have a huge water fight on the bridge (in the gothic arcade below). It would be a great place for a water fight in the summer, but we were expending plenty of energy fighting the water ourselves today. Next we walked down some of the East Side Gallery - -the world's longest art gallery

Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before

Image
Here is our student, Jordan, back in St. Hedwig's hospital in Berlin. He had a second surgery to drain an infected cyst on Monday night. The hospital is beautiful, but if you're a patient there, you don't really get to see that. Jordan had to share his room with two other men for three days. We brought him back to our house on Thursday night and tried to get him to rest and eat for a while. He's back in his apartment now with his doting hausfrau Yvonne, and his roommate Michael, who is going to try an entice him to eat with a casserole if he can put his hands on some cream of mushroom soup (Jordan likes casseroles; Michael is a good southern cook). We're really hoping that Jordan gets better this time; his last recovery was long and painful. We'd prefer to have him see an American doctor, but he can't manage the flight home in the shape he's in.

Will's Religious Intolerance

Image
This is Lietzensee Grundschule. This is the kids school. Maddie and Will go to class here from 8:00am - 1:30pm. They learn Math, German, English Religion, Music and Sport. Here is Maddie in her classroom. She is in class! She is talking with friends. Maddie is happy at school. Go, Maddie, go! Here is Will. Will is playing in the free time room. Will is not in class. Will is a punk. Will told his religion teacher that his papa doesn't want him in religion any more. Will is a big fibber. Will's religion teacher wrote papa a long note to find out what she did wrong. She only did one thing wrong: she had Will in her class! Turkey, turkey Will. Will had to write a long apology in German to his religion teacher. Maybe Will should be demoted from religion class to ethics class, no?

Technological Museum

Image
On Saturday all seven of us went to the Technological Museum. There are about five buildings currently, and we still haven't seen them all, even after three visits! We started here in the train section, housed in a bonafide roundhouse where Sebastian reprised his role as dewrs-anoddoh-twain!-man. This picture is of Will and Maddie who were trying to push-pull a cart to understand child labor in a mine. Here Maddie tries to figure out the sails and rigging on a model sailboat. I personally like the beanbags next to it where you can sit and figure out how to tie several knots. Sebastian tries out life on a barge. When we had had enough trains, the girls went over to the jewelry making display which was really fun. It showed several different kinds of jewelry, like stamping, rolling, tubes, and even a step-by-step Faberge egg. We also checked out the textile displays on silk flowers, hats, and cotton and wool felting. One of the Berlin Airlift planes hangs off the corner of the mu