Cultural Notes

My friend who is going back to the states after living here for four years was trying to prepare her eight-year-old daughter for the transition. The child has never been to any school but the International School of Duesseldorf. When her mom told her that everyone there would speak English, she said, "Okay mom, I'll help the German kids. I speak pretty good German now." And the mom had to say, "There won't be any German kids. Everyone is American. Everyone speaks English." To which the daughter replied, "Well, what about the foreign kids from all the other countries? Do they speak English, too?" The mom figures this is going to be a process. The suburbs of Detroit Michigan don't have a large ex-pat population.

On another note, I have written often about trying to find certain products here in Germany, but my Jewish friend gets the prize for effort. Passover is coming up, and in order to get what she needed to prepare a proper meal, she and a friend drove two hours to Antwerp, Belgium. I suppose many Jewish people in the more rural areas of the states have to make similar trips at holiday times, but they generally don't have to cross national lines.

Went to a restaurant last night to celebrate a friend's birthday. Ireland is now smoke-free, but Germany is still not completely there. The restaurant was so smoky that when I got home I had to dump all my clothes in the laundry room and take a shower before going to bed. More and more places are going smoke-free and the weather is getting warmer, so you can stick with places where you can sit outside.

Caught a story on CNN about the whole American Idol/Sanjay controversy. Apparently that's big news back home. Sometimes, it's good to be in a foreign country.

We are headed to London for a few days. Skip has work there and Maddie's spring break begins this week. We're going to try to get in to have tea with the Queen. We'll let you know how that works out.

Dublin

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Had a wonderful time in Dublin. I tagged along with the group of women from the Bayer Women's Club. Only got to scratch the surface of a fascinating city and a beautiful country, but Skip and Maddie and I hope to go back together next fall.


Dublin is not as picturesque as Duesseldorf, but the people there are SO friendly and they love to tell the stories of the history of Dublin--often in quite colorful language! And there are so many stories to be told. It's the city of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker and Jonathan Swift and many other writers and poets. There are stories of the potato famine and of battles back and forth between the Protestants and Catholics. Stories of the architects who helped build the city and the bridges over the river Liffey. And in most cases, there is the historic version and the version that has been embellished over time.

The Book of Kells (an ornate manuscript of the four Gospels) created around 800 A. D. now rests at Trinity College in Dublin. It was begun by a group of Monks in Iona, Scotland who had to flee to Ireland with the book when the Vikings invaded.

The Irish love their folk songs and even have a statue of the famed Molly Malone selling her cockles and mussels right in the middle of town. One of our funniest moments is when we were searching for a pub with "live Irish music". The first two we tried were too packed to even enter. We finally found one promising the authentic Irish music, muscled our way in and got a table. Waited for about 20 minutes when a young woman and man got up and began their program with, "We're going to start out with a song that was recorded by a group called Fleetwood Mac." We were all pretty sure that Stevie Nicks isn't Irish, but since we had worked so hard to get there, we stayed and indeed they did work their way into some "traditional" music.

Dublin has a number of Georgian Squares and all the homes that surround the squares have brightly colored doors. Dubbed the "Doors of Dublin" there are quite a few posters and postcards one can obtain bearing pictures of the doors.

There are many artists--from painters to glassblowers to potters to weavers. I brought Skip home a traditional wool fisherman's sweater so he can pretend to be the guy from the Irish Spring commercial.

The Irish were so friendly and helpful--the only people we didn't find helpful were the ones who worked at our hotel (and several of them came from other countries!). The mood of the city was light and fun. Of course that could be related to the fact that Dublin is the home of Guiness Beer and Jameson Whiskey--and both are consumed quite liberally. Every day in Great Britain (Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England) 1 million pints of Guiness are sold

We had fabulous food--from Irish to Thai to Persian. And being in an English speaking country just made everything easier. Even those in our group who speak excellent German enjoyed having a break from having to communicate in something other than their native language.

On Sunday, several of us went to the Sung Eucharist service at St. Patrick's cathedral. The sermon wasn't very good and, in fact, had absolutely nothing to do with the scriptures that were read, but the all-male choir sounded heavenly. I have visited many cathedrals, but I hadn't ever had the opportunity to actually worship in one. And sure enough, when we left the service, there was a line of people waiting for the church to open to folks who just wanted to look around. Keeping with what seems to be the theme of Dublin, even the informational sign outside the cathedral was sponsored by Bailey's.

I don't have that many good pictures because in the city of Dublin, things are so close together, it's difficult to get a good angle to get pictures. Mainly, I got a lot of pictures of signs that amused me!

I think it's my favorite place I've been so far. Maybe because here in Germany, my voice carries and everyone looks at me when I laugh to loud. In Ireland (land of the loud and boisterous), no one ever even glanced at me. I blended in perfectly!

Headed to Ireland

Am tagging along with the Bayer Women's Club on a weekend trip to Dublin. Looking forward to a great time.

Skip and Maddie have a busy weekend ahead as well. There's the American Women's Club sponsored Easter Egg hunt on Saturday and on Sunday, they're going up to Werle to see Maddie's cousins, Sabrina and Jaqueline.

Skip has been traveling a lot for work, so he and Maddie are looking forward to spending some time together. Maddie has promised to look after him.

Kuala Lumpur

We just found out tonight that our friends Ann and Steve (parents of Maddie's friend Meg) will be moving to Kuala Lumpur sometime in August. For those of you as geographically challenged as I am, that's the capital of Malaysia--a country just south of Thailand. Steve will be starting up and heading a Mass Media studies department at the British school there.

I used to think it was a big deal when someone in Arkansas headed off to Jersey or California. Boston seemed like light years away. The world is definitely getting smaller the more places I go and the more people I meet.

Sushi

Not really something that I expected to learn to make here in Germany, but my Japanese friend, Mikki, had me and two other moms with kids in Maddie's class over to learn how to roll Sushi. Maike, who is from Holland, but has lived in Singapore, already knew a thing or two about it, but Joy and I were novices. (I bet you can guess who is who in the photos.)

I'm not sure it was technically Sushi, since only vegetables and rice were involved, but the rolls came out great. Mikki is going to take us some time in the next few weeks to the Japanese store to get all the tools we need to do this at home. I love all the flavors of Japanese food, so it's really neat to learn from an expert.

The afternoon helped make up for a horrible morning. I had several loads of laundry and some housework that HAD to be done today(there is a limit to what even I can stand), and we have some new neighbors. Most homes you rent in Germany don't come with kitchens. The renters have to have everything installed--and that's what was happening next door. Three solid hours of pounding. And since our houses are narrow and tall, there was no room in the house to get away from it. I'm pretty sure the the sushi making was really fun, but I was so glad to get out of this house, I might have felt that way about anything!

Blumen

Our little yard or garten has bushes that produce flowers (blumen). Again, who knew? They weren't here when we got here in September, so their appearance has been a nice treat.

Deutsche Dora

Maddie and I have been watching Nick Jr in the mornings before school on the German Nick TV. And when we watch Dora, we also learn a little Spanish to. Yes, my German has progressed enough that I can almost, sort of understand what's happening on a television show geared to 3 to 5 year olds. But I've turned it back on when Maddie is at school and found programs geared to slightly older children, and I have no idea what they are saying. Well, at least I can talk to the German kids on the playground.

I told my German teacher and my Norwegian class partner about watching Dora and they had no idea what I was talking about. It was very strange to be in a room with two people who had no frame of reference for Dora the Explorer.

It was the same looks I got earlier this week when I went to Maddie's school on career day to tell about being a preacher. Most of the kids don't attend religious services, so they just had no frame of reference for what I was talking about. Mercifully, I brought my guitar along, so most of the kids left thinking I was some sort of song leader who taught them a little Hebrew and Greek.

A land where people don't know Dora or what a preacher is--I definitely ain't in Arkansas!

Living and Leaving in Germany

Of course when you're in a foreign country, there will be foods that are not common in what folks around here call your "passport country." One of those things in Germany is tuna fish pizza. They love it here. I accidentally picked up a frozen one last week--meaning to pick up a shinken (ham) one. Not wanting to waste it, I thought, "what the heck?" I do want to embrace the culture here, but I'll have to do it without the fish pizza. Uggg!

One of the American women (mom to four--one of whom was born here) who has been here for four years and who has been waiting for over a month to find out when they are going home got her departure date last night. June 1. She was in the school parking lot today crying and saying, "I don't know why I'm crying. I HATE Germany." I guess the friends you make as you're learning whether to use der, die, dem, den or das and trying to figure out where to get American pancake mix and slogging through 4 to 5 months of near-constant rain are just hard to leave--even if you're going home. That, and the prospect of packing up a household of six, is enough to make anyone crack.

Now in true ex-pat form, everyone will line up to say how much they are going to miss her, and follow that up with an inquiry about what she'll be selling when she goes. We're all really just a bunch of scavengers.

The Power of Vitamin D

Omigosh! The Sun has shone here for three days in a row. This is actually a beautiful country. Who knew? It's been obscured for the last four months by gray skies and almost-daily rain. I didn't think I was suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but after three days of sun, I feel like an entirely different person. I smile without having to work at it.

At pick-up and drop-off at school, the moms are a little punch drunk on all the extra Vitamin D. I'm planning on purchasing a pair of sunglasses tomorrow. I never thought it would happen here.

Another bonus today: our dryer has been slowly becoming less and less effective. We couldn't figure out why. We were cleaning the lint trap and emptying the water (it's a condenser drier). It was taking all day to dry a load of clothes. So Skip finally took heed of those wise words Bill Irwin (father of my college room mate) once offered--he read the book that came with the drier and discovered that there's a part that needs to be removed and rinsed out once a month. After cleaning out six months of gunk that had accumulated, our drier once again lives up to its name.

Maddie has recorder lessons tomorrow. She has been practicing faithfully since she began this two weeks ago. Please join Skip and me in praying that tomorrow, she learns to play a second note.

Uncle Theo's 70th Birthday Party

We went to Werle ( village just outside of Dortmund) on Saturday for Uncle Theo's 70th birthday party at a fantastic restaurant. We all had soup, main course and a light dessert. Then everyone got up an wandered around the village for a while before coming back to have coffee and cake. It was all very German.

Maddie has a great time with her cousins Jacqueline and Sabrina. One is a little younger than Maddie and the other a little older and they have great fun together.

Cousin Mark (son of Torsten and Elke) was kind enough to sit with me and Skip and speak English during lunch. Mark is the cousin who spent a semester in West Virginia as an exchange student, so his English is very good. The family gatherings are always very fun, but they wear me out from listening so hard, trying to understand things. I'm always really tired when they're over.

I still haven't figured out a way to label pictures in this blog, so here's who everyone is in order of appearance.

• Maddie with cousins Jacqueline and Sabrina (children of Skip's cousin Steffie and husband Johnnie. Johnnie is Beligian and also speaks great English and is a favorite of Maddie's because he does a super Donald Duck impression.)
• Cousin Detliff and Skip
• Elke (wife of Torsten) and Elfie (wife of Detlef)--both of whom are fabulous cooks!
• Skip with cousins Detlef and Torsten
• Birthday boy Uncle Theo

Nature over Nurture

Last week was Spirit week at school and Tuesday was "job day" and the kids were supposed to come dressed as what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Maddie went as a cheerleader. Good Grief!

On Foot or By Train

That's the only way we can get somewhere now because, as of today, we have been in Germany for six months and still have not received our German driver's licenses. Never mind that we couldn't begin the process until we got our residence permits (mid-December). The six months is counted from the day you touched down the first time.

Also, never mind that the first time we went in, the person we met with told us (incorrectly) that Arkansas does not have a reciprocal agreement with Germany and that we would have to go to driving school and take a written exam before we could get our licenses.

Everything is in process, but we have just not received them. Should have gotten a letter to pick up Skip's by now, but that has yet to happen. Skip has a business meeting in Amsterdam on Wednesday and has had to book a train ticket.

My big inconvenience is that I can't get to the gym (I know. Weep for me.) I'm hitching rides with friends.

You'd think after six months, we'd have all our ducks in a row. Au contraire. And the fact that I am using FRENCH expressions in order to express myself should give some indication of how well my German classes are going.

Tschuss!