Easing the Transition

Skip is pretty much in London most of the time, so I've lost my German translator. I had a woman call on Monday and start talking in German, when I told her I didn't speak very much German (this whole conversation is taking place in German), she said that was okay. She would talk slowly. She kept asking what day would be good for me, but I couldn't figure out good for what? I told her my husband would be back on Thursday, but she said that would be too late. Again, I had to wonder, too late for what? Finally she said she had someone who could speak English and would call later and would I be home around 8 p.m. I assured her I would and wondered what it was the someone would be calling about. Let me just say that conversations where you don't understand what people are saying are a WHOLE lot funnier when you know you're leaving in a month.

Turns out it was about an estimate the re-paint the inside of our house when we leave. If you ever get a chance to be a landlord in Germany, take it. The houses don't even come with their own closets or light fixtures (many come without installed kitchens) and when you leave, YOU are responsible for having the entire house repainted.

Yesterday, I gathered up a lot of Maddie's and my clothing to donate to charity. The trick is that there no one place to donate everything. You have to take your stuff to different places that take different things. No Goodwill here. Fortunately the American Women's Club has a volunteer who serves as a liaison to several different charities. You can take her your donations--separated out and labeled--and she gets them to the appropriate organizations. The volunteer lives in the beautiful setting where four homes are surrounding a courtyard. The problem is that you have to drive down what is chiefly a bike path to get there. It is okay to drive on the path if you are going to one of these houses. Trouble is that the people on bikes don't know that. So they yell at you. It baffles me that a place where people won't return a smile to a stranger have no problem yelling at the same stranger if you're doing something they don't like.

On a weird note, a friend of mine who has had movers at her house for two days had to call the police because her neighbor assaulted one of the movers. Apparently they had had words the first day and on the second day, the neighbor (who happens to be a psychologist) went into his house and came out with a coffee cup on his hand and popped the mover in the nose. My friends don't speak much German, so they have no idea what the altercation was about. We're also wondering is a coffee cup on the hand is the German version of brass knuckles? Fortunately, this is not America, so my friends will in no way be liable. In the States they'd probably be sued for not controlling their neighbor or better protecting the movers. Can't wait to see what happens on our moving day.

Today, we have no hot water in the house. Thank goodness it's not too cold because the same unit that runs the heating also heats the water. The whole unit looks to be out. No lights or humming at all. And yes, I did check to make sure that it was plugged in before I called the landlord. We may be out of luck for awhile as tomorrow is a holiday in Germany.

After school today I'm taking Maddie and a friend to the big indoor pool complex where she is taking lessons. I promised Maddie we would go just to play sometimes. Maddie loves it and I will be a wreck by the time it's over. It's big and loud and there is no supervision, so you just hope that some teenager won't come barreling down on top of your kid on the water slide. All that coupled with the naked people in the changing area just wears me out.

I am ready to be home for the summer.