CNN--Just in Time to Find Jesus

For whatever reason, ISH (our cable provider) just added CNN to our mix of stations. I'm not sure I can express to those of you not living in a foreign country where your vocabulary of that country's language is up to maybe 100 words just how exciting this is. It's not Headline CNN, but a European version with kind of an eclectic line-up of shows. And it's on just in time to hear all the press about this new James Cameron documentary about the Jesus/Mary tomb.

It's always interesting when something like this comes out. Everyone from cultural anthropologists to DNA experts to Baptist preachers to Larry King weigh in on the subject and why it is or is not significant.

But really. Come on. If you need the guy who brought us the movie Titannic to help you find Jesus, you've probably been looking in the wrong places anyway.

Disneyland Paris

Well, the French can't quite pull of the whole Disney attitude (note the expression on the "cast member's" face) that the folks in America can, but Maddie had a great time at Disneyland Paris. The Magic Kingdom is very much like the one in Orlando on a smaller scale. Instead of Cinderella's castle, this one has Sleeping Beauty's castle, complete with a dragon sleeping in the basement.

It was pretty cold, but that didn't keep the crowds away--French, Germans, Brits, Dutch, Italians, Americans--we were all there, bundled up and standing in line. It rained one morning, but that didn't slow anyone down either. It's amazing how living in Europe has completely changed our view of what "good" weather is. There is no bad weather, only inappropriately dressed people.

The princesses were featured in a daily parade, but didn't wander around to meet and greet the kids. Later we figured that it was because Snow White would need to know about 8 different languages in order to talk to all the kids!

Paris

Well, we were mostly recovered from what was being dubbed the ISD flu. I was still taking antibiotics for an ear infection and Skip sounded like he might cough up a lung from time to time, but we headed out for Paris. We used up three years worth of Marriott points to book a hotel on the Champs D'Elysee, and we weren't going to let a little phlegm stop us.

Getting into Paris almost did us in. Our navigational system in the car (Navi Girl, as we like to call her) to us through the rotary (or round-a-bout) around the Arc de Triomphe. It has at least 10 streets that feed into it. I thought after driving in Boston, nothing would faze us, but neither one of us had ever seen anything like this. Skip was driving and had just about sweated through his clothing by the time we made it through this.

Our unintentional theme for the trip was "the views of Paris". We climbed the Arc de Triopmphe, rode to the top of the Eiffel Tower and climbed the towers of Notre Dame. We also took an evening boat ride along the Seine. Paris is such a beautiful city.

Maddie really enjoyed the Eiffel Tower and getting to see the towers where Quaismodo lived. The highlight of the trip for Skip was Maddie riding on this old fashioned carousel that was operated by a handcrank. It was in the parc at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Here are the pictures in order:

Maddie on the hand-cranked carousel
Skip and Maddie in front of our hotel room
The view from the top of the stairs at the arch de triomphe
The view of Sacre Coeur from the top of the arch de triomphe
The gargolyes view of Paris from the top of Notre Dame
Maddie in front of the Eiffel Tower
Notre Dame

Coming soon: our pics from Disneyland Paris

Karneval

Well, Karneval has kicked off in Duesseldorf. Duesseldorf is one of the three big Karneval Cities in Germany along with Cologne and Mainz.

Karneval is like Mardi Gras--a time of partying before the seriousness of Lent sets in. Heaps of street-parties and pub-parties, with people disguising themselves in all sorts of ways. But it culminates not on Fat Tuesday--like in New Orleans, but on Rosenmontag (Monday). Buissnesses are closed and everyone gets in on the act. The tellers at the bank today were in costume. It's really funny to see all the serious Germans decked out in these outrageous costumes.

Today is Weiberfastnacht (women’s carnival night) and it is tradition that women are allowed to cut off the tie of any man within reach, and to kiss any man they want to. In Duesseldorf, women gather outside the Rathouse (city hall) and protest that they are not going to cook and clean anymore and demand a voice. The mayor of the town comes out and gives a speech telling all the women to go home, and then the women storm the Rathouse, begin cutting off the men's ties and drink free beer. I was supposed to go, but am recovering from a virus/ear infection. So maybe next year.

Maddie keeps wanting to do something for Karneval, but luckily we leave on vacation tomorrow. I don't think downtown Duesseldorf is going to be a good place for a five-year-old until after Rosenmontag.

Jello, Gelo Myrtol and Gesundheit

Well, after six months in Germany, we needed to take Maddie to the doctor. About half the kids in school have this virus that comes with a cough and a fever. We figured she had the same thing, but wanted someone with a medical degree to check her lungs and ears to make sure there was no infection. Sure enough, the doc prescribed fluids and rest.

Very informal process here. We had problems finding the registration area for the Kinder Klinik in the local hospital, because there is not one. The Kinder Klinik is just in the middle of the hospital. You just go to this closed door, knock on it to let them know you're there and then a nurse brings you in the exam room, asks for your insurance card and in about five minutes the doc walks in and in another five minutes, you're done. The doctor was female, wore jeans and spoke very good English. We'll get a statement in the mail. Didn't even go to a billing desk or office. We were told this is a little different than the norm because this clinic is only for private pay health insurance.

We did pick up some cough medicine at the Apotheke and I got another package of Gelo Myrtol. This is the German answer to Sudafed. You can't get pseudoephedrine here without a perscription. I don't know what Gelo Myrtol is or what is in it, but it does good things for a stopped up nose.

Because it's a good "sick" food, I made Maddie some jello. Not Jello-brand, but whatever the German version is. First of all, it gels in less than an hour. Secondly, I think it tastes really funny. The consistency is different from what we're used to in the states and the flavor is just a little different--like something I've had, but not in Jello form. I think the cherry is kind of like a cherry Jolly Rancher flavor, but I still haven't put my finger on the green. Maddie and Skip like it fine, but I think I'll steer clear from now on.

Maddie and I both had several things planned this week, but now all bets are off. Our only goal is to have everyone healthy when we leave for Paris on Friday!

Tanzania Night

We had a really good time tonight at an annual event at ISD. Tanzania Night raises money to help support a sister school of ISD in Tanzania. There's food and drink and entertainment was provided by faculty and students. The talent show acts were really cute and Maddie had a great time. Skip enjoyed drinking the local beer with his buddy from Great Britain.

Ever been to school-supported fundraiser where beer and wine were part of the mix? We're not in Arkansas anymore!

Fertig (Finished)

So I was heading back home after a week of intensive German classes. All day. Every day. Skip rearranged his schedule to pick up Maddie after school. The house was a mess and the laundry was piling up because in addition to both of us being tied up, our drier died and had to be repaired.

I'm on the train and two twenty-something girls sit down next to me and begin talking. I'm thinking, "Great. I just spent a week of my life in this class, and I can't understand a word these people are saying! A lot of good that did." Then after about 10 seconds I realized they weren't speaking German--it was Russian or Polish. Whew!

Today my big triumph is that I went up to the deli counter and ordered three different kinds of sandwich meats. Until now, I had just bought whatever was pre-packaged because it was too hard to communicate with the people behind the counter. I still shy away from the meat counter because not only am I not sure what some of the cuts are, I still can't think in terms of kilos and I'm not sure how much to get and how much it will all cost. Baby steps.

Here are some photos of the art we recently purchased. Skip took them on his phone. We hope to replace our camera today. We still have a lot of very white wall space, but getting these paintings has really helped warm the place up.

Backfire

I've taken this intensive German course to increase my enjoyment of my time here in Germany. After four days of 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. classes and one more to go, I never want to see a Deutsche worte again! I'm not even sure if worte is the right word here. My brain is fried, and my back is all out of whack from sitting at a table for 7 hours a day.

Will have completed 40 course hours at the end of the week and am planning to continue on for 50 hours more--but those will done 4 at a time, once a week. Das ist besser.

Schoenen tag noch (that's German for ya'll have a nice day)

Bureaucracy

Believe it or not, we are still dealing with protocals, permissions and permits. It is unbelievable the red tape one has to go through to live and work in Germany. I haven't seen anything like it since I went through the Presbyterian ordination process. Right now it's a toss up as to which one is tougher!

Intensive German

Am in my second of five days of an intensive German language class at the Goethe Institute. Boy does my head hurt! Skip has had to arrange his schedule to be able to pick up Maddie at school since class lasts until from 9:30 to 5 p.m. Like I said, it's intensive. Due to some miscommunication, we thought going into it, that the class would only last until about 1 p.m. each day, so we had to do some fast shuffling when we realized what I had really gotten us into.

My class partner is a woman from Norway who speaks excellent English (she and her husband lived in Boston for two years while he was in grad school) and is here in Germany for 2 years. She is a veteranarian. It's really kind of comforting to have someone else in the class who also has had quite a bit of education and who also can't remember if it's das auto or der auto!

Ingunn has a 16-month old daugher and have already had their own cultural run-ins here in Germany. Apparently in Norway, people put babies and children outside to nap. The fresh air is good for them, so Moms and kindergartens just bundle 'em up and put them outside in their baby carrier or wagon on the porch or in the garden. So when Ingunn and her husband were at a restaurant, they sat at a window and put little Henrietta in her baby carrier just outside the window to sleep. One of the waitresses got semi-hysterical thinking that someone had dumped a baby at the restaurant. When Ingunn told her the baby was theirs, it didn't seem to help matters. The waitress said that they could not leave their baby outside and Ingunn and her husband thought the whole thing was very strange and the the waitress really over reacted.

I told her that we came from the opposite end of the spectrum and we are shocked to see six-year-old kids get on the train by themselves to go to school. I told her you would never send a child that young off by themselves on public transportation in the States. She found that very surprising.

I have visions of Ingunn and her family coming to visit us in the states and we'll just send the two girls off to play on Bowman Curve while we eat at the Buffalo Grill.

Some things can't be duplicated

Well, we had Trunk or Treat for Halloween and a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with friends on the non-German holiday of Thanksgiving, but there is just no substitute for Super Bowl Sunday. The game won't even be on here until 1 a.m., so only the die-hard Colts and Bears fans will be up (or perhaps some die-hard Prince fans will wait up for the half-time show). Just as well--you can't get Velveeta or Rotel here to make cheese dip, and what Super Bowl party would be complete without that?

Dead Camera and Simon Webbe

My digiatal camera finally died today. We've been having problem with it chewing batteries in about a day, so we knew we were on borrowed time. Will have to get another one before we go to Paris in two weeks.

We love our new paintings on the wall in the living room. The artist is from Portugal, but lives here in Duesseldorf. Pretty sure he's still at that starving artist phase of his career. But who knows? Someday we may own masterpieces. Pictures as soon as we have a working camera.

Are you all getting Simon Webbe songs in the states? He's a Brit who gets a lot of airplay for his new single "Coming Around Again" here on German stations and on the British Forces station. You can check out the video on his Web site. Just Click here: Simon Webbe

Maddie and Skip went to see the movie Flushed Away in German today. Between the visuals and Maddie's increasing language skills, she pretty much gets the kids movies--even when they see them in German.

At 5 p.m. today, it was still light out. Maddie couldn't believe it. Moving toward longer and longer days.

Reebok--The International Language

Went to a step aerobics class at my gym today for the first time. Apparently the language of step aerobics ("invented" by the folks at Reebok) is the same in any country. Basic step, repeater step, travel, shuffle and crunch were the vocabularly of the instructor. Of course, you had to know how to count to at least 8 in German in order to know how many more of those kleine (small) crunches were left!

A German aerobics class is a fairly intense experience. Germans tend to be pretty serious about whatever they do and the that includes exercise. Plus the German language already sounds a little harsh to the American ear, so you can imagine what it sounds like when an instructor is barking out commands over a microphone. Ein! zwei! drei! vier! Schmerzen Sie? Gut! You don't dare slack off in this class!

We purchased some paintings last week from a local artist and he's coming to our home tomorrow morning to hang them. Will have some pictures of them up tomorrow. We're very excited about this. As I may have mentioned before, every wall in the house is white. The paintings are going to be a really nice edition, and they'll look great back in our home in the states as well.

Baking in Germany

Am continuing to figure out how to do this. I realized how much we (Americans) just assume the rest of the world is like us when I made authentic Nestle's Tollhouse Cookies. In order to make the recipe with all of the correct ingredients, I used: all-purpose flour and brown sugar that I bought from the monthly international market at ISD because neither product is available here; vanilla extract, baking powder and chocolate chips that I brought back from the United States because there is no vanilla extract here (only vanilla sugar), no chocolate chips and baking powder is single-action, not double action like the kind in the US. The butter, sugar and salt came right here in Germany--and was cheaper than it would be in the US.

So my point is that the chocolate chip cookie is not the ubiquitous treat I thought it was. I always thought of the chocolate chip cookie as the snack/dessert that one could find wherever one found oneself. Not true.

On a food related note, my cheese in continuing to do well.