Wickedly Fabulous

We had an absolutely fabulous time seeing Wicked in London. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more--me or Maddie. And Skip, who would never initiate such an event, always ends up enjoying it. So a good time was had by all. What a wonderful gift to be able to see such amazing live theater. And now Maddie is thinking twice when she hears someone described as "bad." It's a great illustration of how there are two sides to every story.

Maddie and I are getting better and better at navigating the "tube" in London. It is a great system--especially when you consider the alternative is driving or taxi cabbing through one of the busiest cities in the world. She has discovered Giraffe--a restaurant chain in London that has good food for all but particularly caters to kids. She also really enjoyed the hands-on part of the Science Museum. Most of the museums in London are open to the public for free. Since everything else is so very expensive, that's a real coup.

There is more to do in London than one could ever hope to get done. Between the theater and the museums and the music and the parcs and the castles and the churches. People have been living and building there for a very long time. And of course, I particularly enjoy it because everyone speaks English!

Child Molding

Skip has been in Leeds all week (since Monday night) and is meeting Maddie and me in London on Friday night. I've spent the week preparing Maddie to see the musical Wicked in the West End on Saturday. It's the story of Glenda the Good With and Elphaba, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. The music is fantastic, but the story line is a little hard to follow for a 6-year-old, so I thought we needed some prep. We've watched the original Wizard of Oz and talked about the characters and we've looked at scenes from Wicked on You Tube. The story line of Wicked is that Glenda and Elphie meet in school and are unwilling roomates, but become friends. When it becomes clear that all is not well in Oz, they differ on how to address the injustices. It's a story about an unlikely friendship and about how those who fight for the oppressed are often cast as villians.

I've actually been pretty calculating about Maddie's entertainment. I got her hooked on Hairspray--the story of chubby Tracy Turnblad who proves that different is good and is willing to give up everything she's worked for when her Black friends are segregated from a local dance show. Now I've turned her on to Wicked which tells her not to judge someone by their looks (even if they are green) and that who is good and who is bad is not always so black and white. As soon as I teach her the words to Not Ready to Make Nice by the Dixie Chicks and Hammer and Nail by the Indigo Girls, her education will be complete. Should I feel guilty or proud for being so manipulative?

Miscalculation

I really think the people who run REAL (the German answer to Wal-Mart) may have made an error in traffic flow judgment. In the middle of one of the wide front-to-back aisles of the store, they have placed a series of bins featuring items for a mere 1 euro. It's a traffic nightmare. Germans love a good deal, but they will not purchase items they deem to be of poor quality at any price. So you have a bunch of people drawn to the deal, but who block the aisles as they carefully examine the items. And there are quite a few items! I think it may be time for some rearranging of the store.

Have I mentioned the "Walking" family in our neighborhood? There is the family of a mother, father and two teenage sons who walk every where. Often in pairs or as a whole family. They are all tall and painfully thin (probably from all the walking) and one of the sons has hair down to his shoulders and looks just like the mother from behind, so it is often difficult to tell who is who. Neither Skip nor I have ever seen any of them in a car, but I did spot the dad on a bike the other day. The sad thing about the walking family is that they always look so sad--as if they don't really want to be walking, but must due to some economic or ecologic necessity. If they were Americans and we were in America, I would probably just approach them and ask them about their walking, but that would terribly rude here. We don't know them, and their walking habits are really none of our business. I'd just like to know.

Do you have Pomelo's in the States now? They come from Israel and they are like a grapefruit, only the fruit inside is firmer and less juicy. It makes it easier to peel and eat in pieces. We really like them, but they must be new here as well because a woman in the store asked me about them. My general German is not good, but my grocery store German is excellent. I was able to tell her all about the pomelo. Even Skip didn't know how to say grapefruit in German.

re-entry

Maddie went back to school this week easily. She loved being back with her friends. We are so lucky. Since we only have the one, I tend to think that most children are like Maddie and kids just adjust easily, but I've had friends tell me that their kids didn't want to come to Germany after being in the States over Christmas. I just can't even imagine how that would be. For most of the ex-pat moms, being here is not the ideal, so if your kids were unhappy, that would be too much.

That's one disadvantage ex-pat fathers and husbands have. If they are unhappy with their work, they'd best keep it to themselves. After you've hauled your family half-way (or at least a quarter way) round the world to better your career, you need to come home from work with a skip in your step and a smile on your lips!

Rosie the bunny has gotten used to us again after being at the pet hotel for three weeks. When we bring her inside, she stretches out like a cat on the floor, which means she is comfortable enough to let her guard down. Remember, bunnies are prey animals, so there's always this nagging thought at the back of their brain that you might just eat them.

I had a busy week as the deadline loomed for the draft of the American Women's Club magazine I do the layout work for. I've pretty much gotten over the bump of getting used to everything being less convenient again. From a smaller washing machine to lack of a garbage disposal, having to bag your own groceries to the rain, everything requires just a little more effort here. I know I sound whiny about these little things, but they just add up.

Skip borrowed our landlord's powerwasher to clean off the steps and the landing to our front door. As you might imagine in such a wet climate, moss and general slime tend to grow. Skip is totally hooked. Skip has used a power washer before, but never had such dramatic results. The steps are made of stone, but the landing is wood. We were surprised to find that the landing was completely different color after the power washed got all the gunk off. I predict we'll have a power washer of our very own before summer.

Believe it or not, I'm already late in the game for planning our spring break vacation. It falls over Easter so all the schools all over Europe will be out and everyone travels. I'm going on Monday to our travel agent to see what our possibilities are. I've got a whole list of things I'd like to do and see someday when we're traveling without or at least with an older Maddie, but for right now, I am reconciled to find locations and facilities that cater to kids.

I seem to be over a minor cold, but now both Skip and Maddie are sick. Better now than later. Maddie makes her theater debut as a Mermaid in Peter Pan in February, so we need to get any illness out of the way now.

Another Jet Lag update

We've moved to a midnight to noon sleep schedule. Which apparently is better than some of our friends who arrived the same day we did. We'll have to get up earlier tomorrow since Skip will have to work. I plan to have Maddie up by at least 9 a.m. so she can sort of be back on track by Tuesday when she starts school. Going to the states, Maddie goes to sleep early and wakes up too early (like 4 a.m.), but coming back she just can't go to sleep and sleeps late--which means we are all getting more sleep.

Saw all the Americans and Brits at the REAL store yesterday. Everyone got back in Thursday or Friday and was stocking the pantry. We made the mistake of running to IKEA on a Saturday for a few things and a hot dog and ice cream for Maddie. What a madhouse!

Slept passed church today, so Maddie missed seeing all of those friends, but we're having Matthew and Madison over this afternoon.

We will be working on a letter to Delta later today. We talked to our friends who were on the flight that we missed. There were no empty seats. Which means, they gave our seats away--even though they had to know that we were arriving on another Delta flight that was running late. No wonder they wouldn't let us on the plane.

Jet Lag Update

So we all collapsed in bed at 6:30 last night, pretty proud of having made it that far. All of us were up at midnight. Maddie played on the computer and made a huge dent in her new collection of Junie B. Jones books, I worked at some more unpacking and Skip read a book and ate a sandwich and we all went back to bed between 2:30 and 3. I woke up at 11 a.m. and am going to wake up Skip and Maddie by noon at the latest! Skip has pledged to have Maddie running wind sprints up and down our block before turning in tonight. I have already consulted the bottle of Tylenol PM and she's still too young to take it.

We made it

Not an easy travel experience this time. We missed our connection in Atlanta because of a mechanical problem that had to be fixed. We ran through the Atlanta airport and the plane was still at the gate, but they wouldn't let us get on. Really rude gate person. I was not happy.

Got re-booked through Manchester, England--which meant another plane change. On that 7 1/2 hour flight, Maddie and I were seated next to a mentally ill woman who read over Maddie's shoulder, picked up and played with her blankie and kept petting on her knitted poncho. She also took a fall in the aisle and practically punched a woman across the aisle in the face. The flight attendants shuffled folks around so that Maddie and I could move seats. Maddie handled the whole thing very well. She got that the woman was not quite right.

We got to Manchester (let me just say how much nicer the people who work at the Manchester airport are than those who work at the Atlanta airport are) and all of us slept the whole one-hour flight to Duesseldorf. Mercifully our luggage made it (all six gigantic pieces).

Totally worn out, I had to go to the grocery store. You would think I could make it more than two hours back in Germany before having to feel like an idiot, but no. My EC Card wouldn't work in the grocery store--meaning the clerk couldn't get it to come up when she swiped it. Apparently, there is not alternative here--like punching in a number. She was just basically telling me it didn't work and offering no alternative--at least as far as I could tell. The bill was 66 cents over the amount of cash I had. Finally, with the man behind me huffing and puffing like this was the biggest inconvenience in the world, I figured out that if I returned my cart I could get the euro back that you have to put in it.

Skip felt so bad that I've already had what my friends like to call "a bad German day" that he's run to the bank with my card to find out what the problem is.

Skip and Maddie are going to pick up Rosie in about an hour and I'm hoping to get everything unpacked before we all collapse in a heap tonight.

Headed Back

Headed back to German tomorrow. Have enjoyed being back in the land of convenience and English speaker.

I will miss:

my mom and dad
doing twice the laundry in half the time
Mexican food
grocery stores where they bag your groceries for you
being able to communicate
solicitous waiters
the Sun
the ice dispenser in my fridge

And of course there are all those friends that you kind of forgot how much you enjoy until you spend time with them again, and then you miss them all over.

Favorite moments include hearing about the wild boar problem in Southwest Arkansas from friends Ken and Susan and watching my husband's face during the conversation. Learning that buddy Andrea's response to her daughter's use of inappropriate language is "we don't use those words in front of other people." Seeing how gloriously happy my newly-married friend Susie is. And getting to entertain friends in our big American kitchen.

Be glad to return to:

my friends in Germany
our bunny Rosie
inexpensive wine
IKEA

Here's hoping the jet lag passes quickly.