Second Move

2 Midnights gone, 2 Midnights Gone!

Ok, the move has occurred! We have now spent two nights in the Offenburg apartment and I must admit, this is one gorgeous locale. Check out the sunset we watched from our kitchen last night:

Amusingly, when I expressed appreciation of the view to Sanja and Herr Sachs on the day of our tour, she felt the need to explain that the reason we were so impressed was that we were from California, so anything that wasn't desert was exotic!  She wasn't wrong.  But, I was struck that they all considered this just to be sort of an average sort of thing to see out of one's apartment windows.

At roughly 1100 sqft, this is easily the smallest place David and I have lived since we have been married.  And it is the smallest place the kids have ever lived.  It is also, realistically, about as large a place as we can afford right now.  But, in a lot of ways, this apartment is nicer than anywhere I have ever stayed long-term.  Whirlpool 2-seater tub?  Never had that before!  Kitchen with well-designed cupboards including built-in lazy-Susan designs and a fridge with an alarm to tell us when it is ajar for too long?  Yeah, that is new for me, too.

Also, for the time being all of our furniture is brand new.  Ok, it is Ikea & Friends level stuff, a lot of which is laminated press-board.  But, with the exception of the couch, we can honestly say we built it all with our own eight hands!  And, given that we don't really need it to last more than a few years, perhaps laminated press-board will work just fine for our current situation.  It is surprisingly sturdy and well-engineered laminated press-board furniture at least!  I keep returning to the college analogy.  We are here to learn and explore for a while.  We don't have to put down roots right away.  If they grow, great.  If not, well, we intend to have a lot of wonderful experiences to carry with us as we go forward.  Our home environment needs to be functional and pleasant, but not, necessarily, meant to last for generations.  So, here is our current living situation:

New table & benches- DS, DD & I built that!

Homier with a rug and a smile

DD built the coat rack by herself

Ah, where I like to be!  I built the desk and chair with help from DH and DS

Also built the other chair and 2 bookshelves like the one at left

Ikea Guys built the couch

Well engineered storage

Restful bed

Less-restful bed!

I built this, too!

 Germany = The Land of No Built-in Closets.  So, things like this are actually Really Important until you can afford the large wall-sized wardrobes that are sold at most of the furniture stores.

TV-cabinet.  No instructions.  DOH!

This is what we were trying to build

I think I look like Grandma Herweck here.

Adding Wheels

Finis

Of course... *Now* we find directions! But, we did pretty well, really

In our defense, the delivery guy put it down *on* the side that had the directions and the box was so heavy we couldn't turn it!  Every other piece of furniture we made had instructions IN the box!  Yeesh!


And just because-  

More random Whimsical Art photos from Offenburg:

Get it?  He is 'Dog Tired'

Your guess is as good as mine!

DD noticed the skeleton climbing this apothecary! (click to enlarge)

We Won!

Just a quick update on the Association of Educational Publisher awards- The project I wrote for won in both its categories!  So it got a 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award in both K-5 Reading and Language Arts and K-5 Social Studies.  Yay team!

Not the Longest Week, but a long week nonetheless.....

This week apparently we were very German.   'Oh?" say you, "Did you drink beer or eat wurst or wear charming leather shorts?"  "No", "Yes", and "No, but what a terrific idea!"    

However, what we did do was: 

     1) Spend a LOT of time working on our (new) apartment;

     2) Visit not one, but Two separate town festivals; and

     3) Wrestle with several tiny-but-ridiculously-complex-and-over-engineered electrical items.

I am pretty sure we also get a few points for IKEA, IKEA, IKEA- though, perhaps I lose some for signing up for integration classes (after all, if I were already German, I wouldn't need them!) and for potentially allowing our daughter to go to school in France.

First up, Festivals!

As I just mentioned, and will mention again soon, we spent a great deal of our time this week working on getting the new apartment ready.  One thing this meant, though, was that we were sort of exhausted and prone to search elsewhere for food.  As it happened, the localities of Kehl and Offenburg were especially obliging on that front this week!   Each kindly put on a local event to provide us with a pleasant distraction and some less-typical food options.  

I mentioned in the last blog that Ascention (aka forevermore as Flying Jesus Day) is a national holiday here.  Well, what else are you going to do with a Thursday holiday than throw a muti-day street fest with local bands, crafts, food booths and carnival rides?  I suppose in the States you might have a mattress sale or something.  But, here, folks seem to take holidays a little more seriously and most of the stores are actually closed.

DS sampling cheese spätzle.

 He might have enjoyed it, but they seem to use fried onions in the recipe, so he was unimpressed.

DD at the Kehl fest

The second festival we happened upon completely at random.  Sunday, we worked all day at the apartment and stumbled into town hoping to find something other than McD's open.  Often the Turkish places and maybe a bakery or two will be open into the early afternoon, so we were crossing our fingers.  As we approached the Main Street, though, we started hearing music.  And as we got closer we found pleasant smells wafting our way.  Offenburg was having a festival!

But, this one wasn't the holiday.  This was "International Fest".  Have you ever been to a Girl Scout International Day celebration?  Typically each troop has a booth with samples of foods, costumes and maybe a craft or two from their chosen Nation.  This was *just* like that- only it was run by adults!  All around the square were little booths with a sign saying what country they were from, a couple of reasonably-priced foods from their region, maybe a person in traditional costume and maybe some samples of regional crafts.  There was a bandstand with a jazz trio playing (other groups scheduled for later) and lots of long tables in the shade to eat at.  There were numerous ads for Integration classes and services and get-togethers in the area, which was nice to see.  Down the block a mini-soccer court had been set up with 4-5 person teams of youths representing various nations engaging in a tournament.   I was gladdened to notice that a girl with Portugal on her t-shirt immediately stopped to offer a hand to the girl with Great Britain on hers as the second girl took a stumble.

All the local ice cream parlors were also open to serve the needs of the festival-goers.  Definitely goodness, there!  Found some very yummy chocolate ice cream I plan to incorporate into my regular diet.  For lunch we had various samples of grilled meats and sausages from, I think, the Syrian booth.  Not all that un-German, come to think of it, but pleasant nonetheless. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera since I thought we were just grabbing a bite.  But, it was a fun break in our day.


Education Update-

Incidentally, on the issue of Integration Classes.  It looks like I will be taking some of these.  They offer low-cost language lessons to folks who are staying as long-term residents.  But, they are a serious commitment.  5 days a week, from 8:30-11:50 every morning.  For 8 months.  Wheee!  At the end I can take a test and earn my B1 language certificate.  I am not sure what that is good for, but, it seems like a positive regardless!

Also, more news on the kids' school.  The European School in Strasbourg confirmed that DD is accepted (as long as she passes an entrance exam), but DS is on a waiting list because there isn't room in his grade.  So, I guess that stuff is still up in the air, but it is possible our kids will be going to school in two different countries!!!  Wild Stuff. 


 Next- The New Apartment

Turns out that moving for the second time in 2 months is a little easier than the first time, but still a heck of a lot of work!  This week we concentrated on finishing up the painting, and started to collect items that we will definitely need.  We had a couple set-backs: i.e. still no working fridge, but that is supposed to be solved tomorrow, knock wood.  And some successes: e.g. found what we think will be a perfectly serviceable table with benches for under budget.  Mostly we just worked our buns off and tried hard not to make all our work look like crud because we were too tired to follow through with the last minute finish.

David working on putting up a stripe in our room

DS finished taping the hallways!

...but all the tape fell off overnight!

Not what he wanted to see!

And, after all that work, what do we do?  Pull it all up in the end!

Taping for another pass at the ceiling line- first one looked.... bad

Nothing bad about DD's wall, though

Removing the tape- done 'for now'

We may have used a little tape in her room, too!

Wonder what that will look like once there is furniture!

DD does not need furniture when there are windowsills!

DD's new favorite spot- she really is a cat!

She reminds me of my Dad here- sketch pad in hand

The Ikea Guys!!!

We ordered our sofabed, a computer table and our washing machine from Ikea.  It was our first furniture in the new place, so I was pleased to see them.

Woohoo!  The Ikea Guys arrived!!!!  This was step 1 on our couch

Many steps later, DONE

True story on these guys- when they arrived, and completely by coincidence I am sure, all the ladies from the office downstairs happened to take their cigarette break at the same time.   They spent their whole break watching the gentlemen unload our stuff from the van, chatting merrily among themselves- only returning to their office once all the packages were unloaded.  Too funny!


The Washing Machine

Speaking of good looking guys unloading furniture- here is DH with our new Ikea washing machine.
Now, a few of you who also follow me on facebook may remember a post I made early on asking about how to run a particularly old German washing machine.  We have gotten relatively good with it, now- mostly because with the help of a friend and her hubby (Thanks Kim!) we just picked one setting and have stuck to that for the past month.   Now let me show you the settings on the, I kid you not, cheapest and simplest German washing machine we were able to find. 

DH unpacking the new washer

Ok, so let's take a look at the knob to the left... How Many Settings?

Answer- *15*

This is the list of basic operations

One setting is for jeans, another for baby clothes, and one is to help your ironing.  But, my favorite is called "5 Shirts".  It is for washing, "5-6 lightly soiled shirts".  Germans apparently take their washing very seriously.  Incidentally, your lightly soiled shirts had best be light in weight, too.  That load can only handle 2 kilo of fabric.  The strongest setting can handle 5 kg- but only if you use pre-wash settings.  All I can say is Thank Goodness this instruction manual came with as many languages as it has wash settings or we would be completely sunk!!!!

Next big accomplishment- Cable TV, Telephone and Internet!!!

50 MB for the moment, may switch up to 100.  Won't feel like home until the router and TV Recorder arrive in the mail, though- hopefully Friday.  Tomorrow we have the electricians out for try two at our refrigerator.  We tried to get them to install the 2 lights that we still need since I didn't want to mess with 230, but, and I am not kidding, they said that the Fridge Guy didn't have the technical skills to install a light and we would need to wait for the Light Guy to come next week.  Boggle!!!  Thursday should be another big furniture day- our dining room table, tv stand and my ergonomic computer chair will arrive.  I am thinking Thursday may be official Move-in day.   I am trying to scrounge enough money to get a little storage and a rug or two.  Gonna need to redo my budget again.  But, we did find a really economical place to go for rugs, so we shall see what I can do.

Epilogue

Oh, remember how I said Germans like home improvement projects?  There are several houses in the Auenheim neighborhood getting facelifts at present.  When we arrived back at the temp-house today, the house kitty-corner to us had a large crane set up for some work.  I have only been here a month, but, maybe I am getting a little Germanized because this didn't even strike me as odd....

Tidbits

[First, a quick brag and aside. Apparently the project that included my first two books for TCM is up for two Association of Educational Publishers Awards.  I am told it is sort of like the Grammy's of Educational Publishing.  So, sort of fun!  For those of you playing at home, the two titles I wrote for the series are Sal Fink: American Tall Tales and Legends (Building Fluency Through Reader's Theater) and  Pecos Bill and Slu-Foot Sue: American Tall Tales and Legends (Building Fluency Through Reader's Theater)

 

 

(Incidentally, and perhaps not coincidentally, two of my cousins also wrote on that series!  Diana Herweck wrote Davy Crockett: American Tall Tales and Legends (Building Fluency Through Reader's Theater) Dona Rice, who is now the Editor in Chief of the whole company wrote Paul Bunyan: American Tall Tales and Legends (Building Fluency Through Reader's Theater) and John Henry: American Tall Tales and Legends (Building Fluency Through Reader's Theater).  Dona lured me into this career path with the Sal Fink book and I haven't looked back since!)]

Now back to Germany!

This week has been a busy one.  I restarted work with a 1/2 time project.  So, I am trying to juggle that, getting the new apartment ready, and all the usual Day to Day Life in a New Country kinds of things.  The end result  is that I am stretched a little thin, but I am (mostly) having a great time!  I find I really enjoy the diversity of life here.  I can pick any direction and a few feet out the door is something new and interesting.  Sometimes I don't even need to leave the house!

For instance:

The Visitor

Yesterday morning I opened the door to discover a huge man dressed head to toe in black.  His costume was rather reminiscent of a turn of the century police officer, but he had a black skullcap and there were dark wires, brushes, a ball and chain (!) and a small hatchet slung around his body.  My first impression was that he might be collecting for a local community theater production.  He smiled at me reassuringly and instantly launched into a friendly spiel that I had no hope of understanding.  I tried to redirect him to my landlords, but apparently they weren't home.  He reassured me (I think) that I wouldn't have to pay anything and kept indicating upstairs in the house.  Finally, perhaps out of curiosity more than anything, I stepped aside.  He instantly leaped through the door and sprinted up the stairs all the way to the attic, where he proceeded to.... clean the chimney!  5 minutes later he came cheerfully down, sweaty and sooty.  He jovially thanked me then trotted off on his way to other jobs in the neighborhood!
His costume looked a bit like this:

It was a hot day, though, so no turtle neck, no gloves and his shirt was partially opened to reveal a black undershirt.

Witness Similarities

A little while later, I also received a call from some local Jehovah's Witnesses.  But, really the most remarkable thing about them was how similar they were to American Jehovah's Witnesses.  They were pleasantly dressed, soft spoken and had the ubiquitous Watchtower with them.  Once they understood that I don't speak German and established that they don't speak English, they wished me well and left.  I expect I will be getting a visit from some English Speaking Witnesses in the near future.

A few feet outside the door await more wonders

I have mentioned before, I think, the stork nest in the middle of Auenheim.  I had been meaning to get some photos of the Mom feeding her rapidly growing young.  But, as it happened, she flew away just as we drove up.  So, instead, I will treat you to a couple shots of the younglings stretching their wings and starting the Learn To Fly process.  Now I am all nervous for them!

This is where their nest is

Not as clear as I would like.  I will try some time when the lighting is better.

European School

Yesterday the kids and I went into Strasbourg to see the list of admissions for the European School there.  This is a school largely dedicated to providing education for the children of EU diplomats.  Every student is taught in their home language (as long as it is either French, German or English), and then taught the other two languages.  We had not actually been to the school, but had applied for both kids because all the locals had told us this was really our best option for schooling in the area.  (Even local school officials had told us this- remember Frau Frankenstein?).

We largely managed to avoid getting lost on the way, and easily found the school's two buildings- one for primary/nursery, the other for secondary- just around the corner from each other.  They look like city schools with tall fences with locking gates all the way around.  But, we got there as the students were getting out for the day and were reassured by the pleasant bustle.  We were also pleased to note the Patisserie just across the street :)

DD waited in the car while DS and I checked the list.  We quickly found DD's name,  but DS was not on it!  We had been told that they have a priority for keeping siblings together.  So, we aren't sure if maybe his grade is impacted or if perhaps there was a mistake.  So, we are trying to find out.  Of course, since everything happens in three languages, and not all staff speaks all three, it does complicate communication.  Honestly, I think the school would be an amazing opportunity for us if we can finagle the logistics (and manage to get both kids in).  So, stay tuned, I guess!

Painting

We continue our work on the new apartment. The first day the kids and I painted on our own, I lost my balance on the step stool and jammed my shoulder trying to catch myself.  This probably would not have been a big issue, except that I had jammed the same shoulder when I fell running for the bus a couple weeks before.  Might I say OUCH.

It is still not fully recovered, but, I have been being kind to it (Lots of ice and rest and some ibuprofen to stave off swelling) and I can largely paint now without too much pain if I am careful.  This is good because for such a small place it surely does require a lot of painting!  Part of this is just that every painting job is bigger than it seems.  The other is that our new landlord & wife in their decorative zeal painted the entire place in various shades of orange!   The pale apricot throughout most of the house hasn't proved too much of a hindrance.  Honestly, I might have left that if we weren't contractually obligated to paint.  But, the must-go accent walls in dark rust, burnt sienna and toasty pumpkin are a little harder to cover.  As is the ribbon of red-orange running around the entire perimeter of living room, hallways and master bedroom.
    

DH and DS in front of some of the lighter orange walls.

DS's room, almost done.

What a catch he will be!  He seems to LIKE cleaning!

DD working on her room

She incorporated the dark orange-red of the wall as an undertone for her forest theme.

The New Landlord

Speaking of the new landlord, we met him for the first time last week.  His name is Frank Sachs (said zahx) and he is probably our age, soft spoken, blond and German-looking.  He speaks a little English and apparently owns a couple of businesses housed in buildings across the street.  He now lives in one of those. We walked through the apartment with him, Sanja (David's wonderful co-worker), and the agent for the property.  The two German men talked about and recorded any issues that were found- mostly little things like cracks in wood, or a window that didn't open correctly.  At one point Mr. Sachs decided to show us how the Fantasy Bathroom works.  He seemed especially proud of the tub.  He showed us in detail how each radio station was selected, how the jets were controlled, and spent a fair bit of time making sure we understood that the light could either go through a variety of colors, or be set to stay on one color in particular.  If you like your bathwater orange, this light can accommodate.

Next, it was time for the shower.  Now, I am going to hazard a guess that Herr Sachs was the Tub Guy, and perhaps his wife is the one who loved the shower- because he seemed altogether more awkward getting the shower to run through its paces.  As you may recall, this shower has a rain faucet, a hand shower, and jets that go all the way down each side.  It is supposed to have a steam function, too, but apparently that and its built-in radio do not currently work.  The jets, though, were worthy of a show, so Herr Sachs gamely set them going.

What he did not take into account, though, was that the shower door was open at the time!  5 people crowded around the tiny, lovely bathroom found themselves swiftly soaked by the Dancing Waters of our soon-to-be shower :)  The only ones to escape the torrent were the kids, who were quite amused to find all the grown-ups laughing hysterically and Herr Sachs somewhat sheepishly trying to turn the faucets OFF.

Ascension

While everyone in America got Monday off for Memorial Day, here we get Thursday off for Ascension Day.  When David asked one of his co-workers about this, he replied "I am not really up on the religious stuff, but I think it has something to do with Jesus flying".  Flying Jesus Day is apparently celebrated with local carnivals and, for us, More Painting!


Integration Classes

More Education-  We went down today to meet with a woman who runs the integration school in Kehl.  If we can work out the logistics, I will stat taking 1/2 day language classes at the end of June.  For about 80 EU/month I will have full immersion with other immigrants 5 days per week for 8 months!  At the end of that time I can take a test and be awarded my B1 Language certificate.... which I guess is a good thing.  Whatever the case, I think learning more German will definitely be useful!