Headed Home

Woo hoo! We leave tomorrow in the a.m. Am very excited to get back to the States. Being a stranger in a strange land can really wear you out. Am looking forward to the relaxed-ness that comes with being fully conversant in the language of the people.

things I am looking forward to:

• seeing friends and family
• a large shower
• ice and water out of the refrigerator door
• a freezer that holds more than a pizza and a box of popsicles
• grits
• free water in restaurants
• Mexican food
• Presbyterian church
• Target
• not having to think about how to ask for something in a store or restaurant
• movies and American television--I hear "The Closer" is back for a third summer season

things I will miss:

• being able to walk or take the train to places
• friends I've made here
• chocolate
• restaurants where you can eat outside and let the kids play together at the playground

Looking forward to being home!

Southern France (part three)

I really enjoyed the colors of Provence. I've never known much about architectural or interior design styles, but the French Provencal homes and interiors are really quite beautiful.


a home near our hotel

a seating area inside our hotel. the hotel was gorgeous. the staff was very nice. I went one time to the little bar to ask for some ice and they gave me this little bowl with about six cubes in it. So I explained that I needed quite a bit more and they had to go into a closet and find this plastic bucket that used to hold some kind of food. They apologized for the appearance of the plastic bucket, but I assured them it was perfect.

Maddie and Skip headed up the stairs to our room.

Here we are at Cannes of movie festival fame. Skip and I are going back there some day when Maddie goes to college. Okay, we probably won't have any money then, but we'd really like to go back. Absolutely beautiful!

Cannes from a hilltop. Note the big Morgan Freeman poster on a building.

Southern France (part two)

In the area of Frejus, very few people spoke English, so I had to dig out my French from the summer I studied in Strasbourg (some 15 years ago). Fortunately, I spoke enough French to tell people that I was an American living in Germany who spoke a little German and a little French, so they wouldn't think I was a completely crazy when I started a sentence in French, ended in German and threw in an English word or two for good measure. Mercifully, most of the staff at our hotel were English speaking.

Another French/German blending happened for Maddie regarding our rental car. It was a French car called a Citroen. In German, "citrone" is the word for lemon. So Maddie kept calling our car a lemon. She thought that was great!



Everywhere we went, Maddie had to pick out postcards. She was obsessed with them. She has written postcards to people whose addresses I don't even begin to know!

Maddie and Skip on the Coeurs Mirabeau in Aix en Provance. There is probably a more quaint part of Aix, but we were just there for the afternoon, and found a beautiful old part of town with exquisite buildings that has been turned into a huge mall. I turned around to go home when I saw the Gap.


Here I am in front of one of the many fountains in the area where we stayed. Based on things found in abundance, we deduced that the French love fountains, traffic rotaries, pharmacies and hair salons. Lavender, wine, olive oil and goat cheese are also big.

We went all the way to St. Tropez so that Maddie could discover a love of mini-golf.

The harbor at Frejus. Frejus is really two towns. There is the old town where we stayed with it's historic buildings and a church with an old baptistry that dates back to the 5th century and then the harbor area which looks like something you might see in Florida.

Southern France (Part One)

Behind on posts because I didn't have my computer with me in Southern France.

We stayed in Frejus (for those of you up on your French geography, it's on the coast between Nice and St. Tropez) which was founded by Julius Caesar. Can you imagine? There are ruins there that date back to the 1st century B.C. I don't think that Maddie could quite wrap her mind around the idea that she was looking at stones that had been put into columns before Jesus was born. Back in "Jesus time" is the oldest time she knows!



Maddie and me in our matching ISD t-shirts in front of our hotel. The hotel was very nice, but Maddie was the only kid there. I've come to realize that a nice hotel when you have a six-year-old is one with an ice and coke machine down the hall and a McDonald's next door!

Maddie at the beach on the Mediteranean sea. Tried to get a Skip a swimsuit like the guy in the picture, but he was having none of it!

Went for a couple of hours to the harbor at St. Tropez. Skip is thinking of buying this boat. It's one of the small ones in that harbor.




Right after this picture was taken we ran into a kid who goes to school with Maddie at ISD and his dad. They have a summer home there that looks out over these rocks and a boat in the harbor. I told him we would be "summering" in Little Rock where Maddie would be attending church camp and swimming in our friend's pool.

Can't be Avoided

There's red tape everywhere! The passport arm of the American Embassy here in Duesseldorf is closing at the end of the month and Americans in this area will have to go to Frankfurt (2 1/2 hours away) for passport services. Because Skip is traveling so much, he needs to get some pages added to his. He called today and they said that services were available until noon. So he rushed down there only to find out that because of the huge number of Americans that have come in for passport services, they have run out of pages. "You should have called," they told him. When he said that he had, they told him he could come in again the morning of June 28 (the one full day we'll have here between France and the US) and try again.

In the meantime, I took Maddie and her friend Meg to their last recorder lesson of the year and afterwards, Meg's dad and I took them both to lunch. After 10 months here and 50 hours of German lessons, I'm still ordering the wrong food. I ended up with a large piece of brown bread slathered in butter with four huge slices of cheese on top. mmmmm. Then cigar-smoking guy sat down next to me and it took forever to get the bill.

It's time for a break in the land of English menus, free water, smoke-free restaurants and waiters who are anxious to turn a table.

Naked or Nekkid?

I think it was Lewis Grizzard who made the distinction between naked and nekkid. Naked simply meant that you didn't have on any clothes. Nekkid meant you didn't have on any clothes and you're up to something.

I bring this up because we're headed to the south of France on Wednesday and are trying to prepare Maddie for the fact that people will appear there in various stages of dress and undress and that it's okay to think it's kind of funny, but it's no okay to point and stare.

She's had a little bit of an intro at our town pool. Although only little kids go without swimsuits, it's not uncommon to see someone change on the lawn next to the pool--even though there is a long row of changing rooms right behind them.

When you're from country founded by Puritans, it's hard to get into the European mindset of not being very concerned with showing your body. Women in their seventies and eighties sport bikinis. Men wear speedo-type briefs rather than swim trunks. Your weight does not in any way inhibit your choice of swimwear. Normally every summer I look for one of those suck-me-in swimsuits designed by the people at NASA--guaranteed to take off 10 pounds. You can't get those here because nobody feels the need to suck anything in. There's even a very limited selection of cover-ups, because again, there's really no need to cover up.

We're told by friends that the town of Frejus where we are going in France is absolutely beautiful. I can't believe that Maddie Lentz has seen more of the world in the last year than most people see in a lifetime. And that she's been exposed to more cultures than most people are in a lifetime. How many American six-year-olds (or American sixty-year-olds) realize that being Japanese and being Korean are very different indeed. And now she's going to learn that not everyone feels the need to wear a top at the beach!

Last Day of School...and they're off

Maddie with teacher Mrs. Codjoe, who will be in Portugal next year. We were SO lucky to have her. Maddie has had a great start to school.

Last day of school and everyone is beating a path to get out of town--either on vacation in Europe to get to hot spots before the regular German schools let out or back to the States. Several families have not been home in a year and are really ready to see family and be where everyone speaks English.

We're the laggers. We won't leave until Wednesday because we got a super cheap fare to Southern France. Then we come back to Duesseldorf, spend 2 nights, do a bunch of laundry and head home. I've already got one suitcase that's coming to the US packed and ready to go!

Next to the Last Day of School

Every ex-pat in Duesseldorf is emotionally spent right now. With all the people who are leaving at the end of this school year, coupled with all the folks who don't know if they will or won't be here when school starts next year, the moms and the kids are worn out. The problem is the kids don't know what's wrong--they just have this huge bundle of emotions going on--so they can scream, cry, laugh or just completely fall apart at the drop of a hat. It's really fun for everyone.

Tomorrow is a half-day of school. If the weather is nice, a bunch of moms and kids are planning to head to Nordpark after school--but the forecast is not looking so good. We'll keep our fingers crossed.


Max, teacher aid Mrs. Christoffles, Mrs. Codjoe and Maddie


Buddy Konstatine Von Stein with Maddie

Kahn Woon, Jonas and Maddie

My friends Robin and Jennifer. Robin is back in the states at the end of August and it is unsure whether or not Jennifer will be here when we return from the states.

Maddie has developed some killer upper body strength on the ISD playground. She can cross the entire arc of the monkey bars.

It's Better

It's been a longstanding joke here that anytime an American has a question about why they do something here in Germany that's different than it is in America, a German can explain to you why the way they do it in Germany is better. It's become our mantra here anytime we don't understand something. We may not get it, we just accept that it's better.

I actually envy that. We Americans certainly can't pull that off. For instance, when I was asked why Americans take so much medicine, what could I say? "We're hypochondriacs"? "We're wimpy?" Or when someone asked me why so many Americans are obese. "It's better" doesn't really make the cut.

Anyway, today I was at an American Women's Club brunch sitting with some of my friends and some long-time members who have lived in Germany for years and two of them are married to German men. One picked up a small packet of Philadelphia Cream Cheese and remarked that her daughter worked for the company. I took the opportunity to ask why Philly Cream cheese in Germany is a different consistency than Philly cream cheese in America. When I first got here I tried to make a cheese cake, and it came out really weird. I should have predicted the answer--they start with better, higher quality ingredients here in Germany. All of my friends and I totally cracked up and chorused together, "It's better!" The other women thought we were insane.

On a less-than-funny note, Maddie's good friend Madison had her last day at school today. She's moving to the states tomorrow. Maddie started to cry after school, and I thought I wasn't going to make it. Her teacher, Mrs. Codjoe, will also not be there next year. She is headed off to Portugal. Even though Maddie would have a different teacher, she's sad that Mrs. Codjoe won't be there next year.

Found out another friend won't be leaving Duesseldorf, but transferring to St. George's--the British school up the road. We have been really lucky in that Maddie has been right in the zone of how and what her school is teaching. She has absolutely thrived. Apparently, for those kids for whom the curriculum is not a good fit, the school does not offer many alternatives.

Way to many good-byes and good-lucks lately. Ready for an emotional break!



Maddie with friend Madison and her brother Jake who are headed to Mount Olive, NJ tomorrow.

big day

Our windows stay open all the time now because it is really hot and there is no air conditioning. And today, through our open window, we were greeted to a 7 a.m. serenade by a 20 piece marching band riding around through the neighborhood in a wagon. Apparently it was all part of Shuetzenfest in Witlaer. There are these shooting clubs (target shooting) that have these big festivals every summer. Today, there are many people who are part of the clubs who don't actually do much shooting. They just go around playing oompah music in the early morning! Let's hope they get it out of their systems before Saturday!

Maddie had her portfolio day today--which is when all the parents come in and the kids get to show off their work. That was in the morning. In the afternoon, parents were invited in to the final ballet class to see what they had learned during the year. Maddie's class has little girls from England, Korea, Sweden, China, Belgium and Germany. I realized for the first time today that Maddie is the ONLY American in the class!


Maddie w/ Leoni and Margot




Maddie and Meg--clearly the key is all in how you hold your mouth!

Maddie and Leoni

Maddie with friend Matthew at portfolio day

Family Fun

Horst and Maja have wrapped up their whirlwind tour of Germany. They've been in Europe for a month now--this year they even added in a trip to Spain--and they headed home today.

Last night we had cousins down from Dortmund and we all went out to one of our favorite restaurants--Meyer and Freeman. We walked home through the farm fields. I don't know that I've seen Horst and Maja have a better time than they did last night.

Maddie has gotten her yearbook from ISD and has had the best time looking at it. I had forgotten how exciting that was. Of course, things are a little different, now. Her traditional yearbook came with a DVD filled with videos of the year.




Elfie, Skip, Torsten, Horst, Milena, Maja, Frankie and Maddie


Maddie hitched a ride back with cousin Frankie

Skip ended up toting Maddie's original mode of transport

Another Holiday

Germans are the holiday-edness people ever. And for the third time a German holiday hits in the middle of a week, Skip is in London. I don't know why the Americans and the Brits don't check the German holiday calendar when scheduling meetings. Probably because they'd never find a time to schedule!

Today is Corpus Christi which happens the second Thursday after Pentecost Sunday. Germans make much better time of their one-day holidays than Americans. We tend to hit the stores for sales, but here the stores are closed, so folks go walking and visit with one another. Radical, I know.

Oma and Opa are back after a whirlwind tour of Germany. They will try to recuperate here before returning to the states on Sunday.

Maddie and I used the holiday to finally make a lemon meringue pie--something she's been asking to do ever since reading that Amelia Bedelia book where Amelia gets out of a whole heap of trouble because she makes a fantastic lemon meringue pie. I think Maddie's thinking that's a good thing to know how to do if it makes people forget to be mad at you. She's no dummy.

Busy Weekend

A lot goes in to wrapping up a school year in ex-pat land. Almost everyone is leaving for at least part of the summer. Some folks are leaving for good. Others are still not sure whether or not they will be staying for the next school year or heading off to some other place.

Maddie's friend Madison and her brother Jake had a good-bye party on Saturday at a local indoor play place. That afternoon we met up with the Timmerman family (who most likely won't be here for the next school year either) at our local beer garden where there's a play area for the kids. Dinner outside while the kids have plenty to keep them occupied is a nice way to pass an evening. We called another friend who was out biking with her kids and she stopped by, too.

Today we had Skip's cousin Steffie and her husband and kids over for coffee and cake. Maddie loves to play with her cousins Sabrina and Jacqueline. They had a fabulous time. Tomorrow is our next to the last week of school with Thursday off for yet another holiday.



Lizzie, Madison and Maddie at Madison's going away party.




Sabrina, Maddie and Jacqueline at our neighborhood playground.