Christmas 2008

This Christmas, we have a lot to be thankful for!

Brady is out of the Hospital, Keira is speaking German almost more than English, and we are in our new house with a nearly completely built kitchen!

We spent Christmas Eve with good friends (The closest to family you can get without blood) The Wrights. Thomas and Carolin came down, Gabriele made a fantastic dinner, and Stuart put up
a lovely tree. Dirk and Julia were there, as well as Dirk's father Wolfgang.

The kids wore the clothes that Oma sent, Keira loved the dress that Oma made, and it got many compliments.






We first ate a delicious soup that Gabriele made, then got to opening presents with the Wrights. Keira's favorite gift was a cash register from Julia and Dirk, while Brady really enjoyed the train set from Thomas and Carolin. Heather and Chris got an egg cooker, a water boiler and a sandwich maker. With such fantastic tools, who need expensive kitchen appliances!? Chris also got a transformer, so he can finally plug in the xbox 360 and PLAY!


After presents, we sat down to the second course of Roast Beef, vegetables and salad. It was delicious! Of course Brady and Keira didn't want to sit still for long, when they had all new toys to play with! After dinner, we had (for the first time) English Christmas Pudding... the kids weren't fans, but Chris and I liked it.

The kids weren't the only people playing, Thomas we getting as much fun out of the train set as Brady, while Carolin and Julia were reliving their childhood with play dough fun! After a while, Dirk, Carolin, Heather and Chris played a round of Genial (Which Dirk claims to be the champion, But Chris took the title last night!) And at the end, it was 10pm! Brady fell asleep on the couch, and Keira was not too long behind in the car. We took them home and put them to bed, so they would be ready for round two in the morning!

On Christmas morning, Santa brought Keira a little store, and Brady a Geo Trax station! Brady was so enthralled, he didn't want to open any of the presents under the tree! Keira was ready and willing to tear open every box in sight though. Keira got a very fun leapster, While Brady added to his geotrax set and got his own laptop! The morning was filled with playing, then eating breakfast, then playing some more. Even Chris and Heather got in with playing xbox for a bit. Heather and Brady took a nap while Keira watched Sleeping Beauty (which is MUCH better in it's digitally restored fomat) and we all got to speak to Oma for a few minutes.

Today is a day when we're missing far off family and friends, but they are all here in our hearts and we think about them (YOU) often.

Here are a few more pictures from the day, Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Life without internet

Hello!

We are settling in, unpacking and really enjoying our new house. For the time being, we have no internet though- so updating weekly or getting on skype is difficult.

This week,
Brady got a "pseudo Croup" chest cold and had to take some prednizone and stay out of school for a few days.

Keira has been enjoying the idea of, and reality of the "advents Calendar" and all the chocolate it brings. She's also been speaking german on a regular basis, conversationally to anyone. She even speaks to mommy in German, then translates it to English for Daddy.

Heather has been home with Brady, taking care of him whilst getting over the flu, unpacking and trying to get the house looking like a home.

Chris has been building the kitchen, and enjoying his new endeavours. He's met some people, is getting along well, and has been invited by another Dad from the kindergarten to hang out sometime.

Coming up though- we have a BUSY week with parties next week.
Saturday the 13th, the party at the Kindergarten for the kids.
Wednesday the 17th- Heather's work party
Thursday the 18th- Heather's class party
Friday the 19th- Another work party
Saturday the 20th- Caroline's birthday party

When school lets out on Friday, Heather's off for 2 weeks! Hopefully we'll have internet by Christmas, so we can skype with family and friends.

Our New house

We have successfully moved into our new house here in Germany! It is a three bedroom, 1 1/2 bath duplex. (Sounds familiar doesn't it? But this one has a carport!)

We've put our things in, but the boxes aren't unpacked yet. We built our dining room table, and four chairs that we got from Ikea. Chris is working on building our beds this week, and we're going to work on building the kitchen by the weekend.

The kids are sharing a room, and loving it. They've had no choice for the past few months, and have grown to expecting each other in the room, so they want to keep sharing. Really, Brady and Keira are growing into "best friends" as Keira put it.

This week, Brady also went to his first birthday party, and when he finished he said "It was all GIRLS!" Because he was the only boy. He had a great time, spoke German and played with his friends from school.

Keira is blossoming with German! She is taking to having full conversations with Heather, Julia, and anyone who'll respond in German. Brady is still taking it all in, and tries a word here and there.

The next couple weeks will be hard work in the evenings, trying to get everything together before Christmas, but hopefully the 2 week break will be relaxing. I'll post pictures of the house ASAP.

Our first Snow in Deutschland!

Tonight, it's snowing and sticking. It looks like it won't stop snowing actually! The kids are really excited, knowing that tomorrow will be so much fun in the snow.

Lego Land

Last weekend, we took the kids to Lego Land for some indoor fun and play family time. It is a great place to take the kids! They had a little mini Duisburg built of legos, a big 4d lego theater, a "walk of the stars" with different lego figures, a ride on a dragon, a tour through a lego brick factory and through the jungle with Indiana jones. At the end, we built and tested a lego car, and the kids made towers of huge lego bricks.

We had a great time, here are a few pictures from it.

International Day

Today was International Day at my school. For International day, each grade level chooses a country to depict, and we have a open house for the community to come visit the school. This year, the 2nd grade did South Korea.

Unfortunately, Brady woke up feeling bad, so only Keira could go with me. We visited the other countries, and keira got to do a few activities, try new food and she even made a friend, a 4 year old girl in our kindergarten who also speak english. I have to say they were adorable playing together, and Keira had a blast!

Keira painting a picture with a q-tip in the "Turkey" room

Scoring a goal in Canada, she won a packet of gummi bears

Keira and "Auntie Susi"

In front of the International research station of Antarctica

Looking for, and finding buried treasure in the Caribbean.

Right after that, she got her face painted.

It was a long, fun, and tiring day. Keira decided she likes pumpkin soup, as well as pear and curry soup. She does not like turkish cheese rolls, and LOVES virgin pina coladas. She has a new English speaking playmate who loves Baby dolls as much as Keira does, and she learned at least a couple things about different countries.

Sorry we have been MIA

Our internet has been down, or sketchy sometimes. It's better now, and I'm posting again.

Halloween

Friday, October 31st, we celebrated Halloween with a party after school. Since kids in Germnay don't really go trick or treating, this was the one thing we could do with our kids. Brady went as Peter Pan, and Keira went as Wendy.

There were a lot of people at the party, which was a little overwhelming for the kids. We sat down while they ate some hot dogs and cupcakes, and then we danced a little together. Here are a couple of pictures from the party,

Brady as Peter Pan

Keira as Wendy

Happy Birthday Heather!

Yesterday was my birthday. Julia made a lovely marble cake with chocolate icing and little chocolate hearts. We had that with the kids midday.

Around 5:30, Gabrielle and Stuart came over to watch the kids for us, at 5:58, we all took a shot of feigling, and at 6pm our limo arrived.

Yep, our limo. See, at Chris's birthday, it was when we'd all ordered a drink with dinner that someone asked "Who is the driver tonight?" And noone wanted to volunteer. At that moment I said "For my birthday, we'll get a limo and it won't matter!" So that's what we did.

It was an 8 passenger limo, we started out with Chris, Julia, Dirk and I. On the way in to Duesseldorf we picked up Bethany and Karyn, then proceeded to the city to get dinner and drinks. (We did allow Brady and Keira to go in and see it before we left.)

We had wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse, but as the place was available for lease... we were unable to go there. We found another steakhouse in the Altstadt, which was delicious! It is called Maredo.

After a lovely meal, we attempted to meet up with Susi and some others from school. At this point, our directional and... conversational skills were being tried (thanks to the champagne, pina coladas and whatever Susi was drinking!)

She was at a bar called Siam. When we asked for directions, she said "Next to Mcloughlin's, and near anaconda" When asking my group where Anaconda was, Dirk replied with a hearty "In my pants!" followed by roaring laughter.

So our group of 6 meandered through the altstadt, and finally found Siam. (But not Susi) So another call was in order, and Susi had changed venue to Anaconda. We decided that Anaconda was too smoky, so we went to Mcloughlins for a couple of drinks, and dancing. OH! On the way to Mcloughlins, we saw Francois (A french teacher from our school) and met his friend Igor (An English teacher in the French school) and they joined our bunch.

After a couple shots, (Slippery nipples in the irish bar are made with baileys and ouzo- UCK!) and a couple ciders for Julia, we decided it was time to move venue again. Just as we chose to leave, Susi showed up with Rory! (Her friend from Ireland) We walked down the street to "Chillout" which was labeled "An american bar"... but in fact was a hookah bar. We were mesmerized by the whole hookah ritual, and chose not to take part. We each had one more dirnk before meeting the limo again at 12:15.

We dropped Bethany and Karyn off again, and got to Wegberg around 1:30am. After a little conversation with Stuart and Gabrielle, off we went to bed. It was a very fun, relaxing time with friends that made for a great birthday!

Found a pediatrician!

Bad news.. Keira has an ear infection and has been up the past few nights with a terrible cough and fever of about 102. She's not been eating, and we were quite worried last night.

Brady has had a bad couple of days too. A little boy at his kindergarten bit Brady's finger on Friday, and it got infected over the weekend. Brady also managed to stab his lip straight through with a fork on Friday at dinner, but other than hurting, it's healing fine.

On that note, we had to find a Dr. to deal with our little kids. There is one.. yes ONE English speaking pediatrician in this town. We took our chances, and wow I'm so glad we did.

He is young, nice, gentle with the kids and explains everything (IN ENGLISH) to them and to us. Before now, we've been used to 30-45 minute waiting time in our U.S. pediatricians offices. Well, this waiting room was more like a playground, with a slide and and wooden stationary car for the kids to "drive"... but we were only there for 5 minutes! The nurse took us to our room, took some basic info, and the Dr. was right behind her. All in all the visit took about 20 minutes, in which he cleaned out Brady's wound, and bandaged him. Then he diagnosed Keira and wrote prescribtions for antibiotics for both.

Chris and I walked out of there (After NOT having to pay a DIME!) absolutely pleased with the socialist medical care system. To state it bluntly, this is the best care our kids have ever recieved at a pediatricians office.

Disneyland Paris

This week, my school had Fall break. For a couple of days at the beginning of the week, We went to Disneyland in Paris. We stayed at the Newport Bay Beach Club (Similar to the yacht club in Florida)

The castle is lovely at the Magic Kingdom, It's pink like the castle in California, but Tall like the castle in Florida. You can even tour it and see the story of sleeping beauty!

They had the park all decked out for Halloween, and made a big show with the Villains from all the stories. We got a couple pictures with "pumpkin people" that I'll post later.

Space Mountain, Mission 2 is much better than space mountain in Florida! It actually is a blast coaster, and goes upside down 3 times!

One notable difference between the two resorts is that in Florida, you don't need heavy coats or scarves, but in Paris in October... you do!

We spent Sunday evening at Magic Kingdom, Monday at Hollywood Studios, and Tuesday at Magic Kingdom. It's abuot 4.5 hours away, so we even thought about getting an annual pass! We didn't this time, but we're still considering it.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Keira's birthday party

On September 29, 2008, Keira turns four! We had a birthday party today for her. Julia and Dirk, Thomas and Caroline, Stewart and Gabrielle, Wolfgang, and my friend from work Susi came.

It was a nice afternoon of chatting, eating pizza and watching Keira and Brady play with Keira's new toys.

Relaxing Saturday (At least for Heather)

Yesterday, Julia and I needed to go shopping for Keira's birthday, as well as get some appropriate "gummi pants" for the kids to wear over their clothes while playing at kindergarten.

Sidetrack- The kids started kindergarten Monday, September 22 2008! On their second day, they went to a farm! They are loving it, meeting people, learning German, and really being challenged and entertained all day. It's wonderful.

Ok, back to Saturday... So Julia and I went to Moenchengladbach for a few hours, walking up and down a long shopping street. I managed to find the gummi hosen, Julia got a couple nice presents for Keira, and I got a few long sleeved tops from H&M for myself.

It was really lovely walking with my best friend in the sunshine, chatting and shopping.

The Netherlands

Roeormond is a city with a few harbors and marinas, and is only about 15 miles from our place in Wegberg. They also have the "designer outlets" which I thought was like Leesburg outlets in VA.. but no... they mean designers, like Dolce and Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, and then brands like Nike and Adidas. At this point, it was nice to walk around to get an idea of what is there, yet I quickly understood there isn't a store there for us.

BUT, down the road from the outlets is the "retailpark" with toys r us, media markt, some furniture stores, Jisk (Which is like Bed, Bath and Beyond) and a nice big supermarket that Chris equated to Wegmans!

Best of all, they are all open on Sunday!! It's nice to have that not too far away, and we've used it already for diapers on Sunday, as well as gifts for Keira's birthday.

Yay Car!

On Friday, 19 September, I braved the train system and went to Bremerhaven to pick up our jetta. With a slight delay on the train, I still made it to Bremerhaven train station by 1:30, and then with a taxi went to the port by 1:45. After the man at the shipper helped fill in customs paperwork, I got my car and went to customs.

At first, I seemed to have ticked of the customs agent, because I didn't understand "Postfach." I apologized, told him I do understand German, just not that word.. and he said "Actually your German is good" (This entire conversation was in German) He looked at the paperwork, used his big stamp, and I was on my way.

Then I braved the 4 hour return drive on the autobahn. At first I was a bit timid, and stayed in the right lane. After a while though, and once I was sure of where I was going, I was driving right along at about 100mph. Most of the time I was passing people, except for the times I had to get over because someone else was going so fast, I looked like I was standing still.

It's nice to have our car now, as nice as Julia has been in lending hers. Chris feels more independant, and it's a nice little piece of home.

Kauf Sonntag

In Germany, shops are closed on Sunday. You can get gas, and bread at a small bakery, and that is about it. Except for "Kauf Sonntag" which mean "shopping Sunday". Today was a shopping Sunday in Wegberg.

The weather is lovely, the sky is blue and the sun is shining, and it is a little cool so we are wearing sweatshirts. We drove to the parking area near the town hall, and then walked up to the town center and pedestrian zone. There was a little flea market, which we perused for a bit.

We then walked down the pedestrian zone to look through the shops. Keira and Brady each recieved balloons on sticks, and then we bought them each a pinwheel so they could take advantage of the breeze. Keira's baby doll got a new outfit, and Brady ate a Bockwurst. Keira just wanted the brotchen (bread)

We had a nice long walk through the town, got to see a few shops, and the kids had a great time. Now we're home, Julia and Dirk are playing with Keira, while Brady and Chris are outside on the trampoline.

Chris's search is over!

For as long as I've known Chris, he's been searching for "the perfect gyro".

He tries different places, and mostly they fall short. He compares them all to "Two Chefs" in Arlington VA.

Well, finally, a gyro worthy of such honor. In fact, Chris said it's the Best gyro he's EVER had! He was so excited about it, he deemed the event "noteworthy" and "Blog worthy"

So there we are, at a small grill in Huckelhoven, my husband having one of the bext culunary moments of his life, wondering aloud when we could return for another (He wasn't even halfway through his first!)

Should anyone visit us, we shall hope to take you to this little place on the corner for a little piece of gyro heaven.

Things I didn't expect to say as a teacher..

This week has been interesting with my students, and I'm developing a list of things I never expected to say as a teacher. This is the start to what I expect will be a long, funny list.

1) Boys, stop waving your sausages in each others face! (This was bockwurst day in the cafeteria)
2) Boys, we do not sit on our classmates! (We ask them politely to leave our chairs)
3) Boys, pencils do not belong in our noses (Nor should we be flicking them out of other people's noses)


Yes, a funny an interesting week... I'm sure there will be more like it.

My first week with the kids

This week was tiring! I have a fourth grade homeroom class, that I teach English and Social studies to. I have a 3rd grade class that I teach English and social studies to, and anothe third grade class that I teach math to.

My classroom management with my fourth grade class has been rather easy, and I'm enjoying it. The same for the third grade class that I'm teaching English and Social studies to. The entire math situation is frustrating. It's a class I otherwise don't know, and a subject I'm not entirely comfortable with, plus we're supposed to be starting in the middle of the book. I've asked to not teach math, and stick to my contracted English and Social studies, or to switch to second grade, because then, while I would have to teach all subjects, I would only have one classroom to manage.

I've been told my director is working on it, and I'm hoping to a resolution next week.

This weekend

This weekend is Aubrey's last weekend with us until Spring, so we did a couple special events.

First, On Saturday we went to a Knight Joust/tournament at a castle called SchlossBurg. This castle was much more Chris' idea of a "Castle" than the pepto pink mansion in Dusseldorf.

Up the hill from the castle, the knight games and market were fun. The tournament told the story of SchlossBurg, and how it overcame some opponents. There were a couple of fights in which they "fought to the death" and this concerned Keira. She kept asking "Is he ok??" So I reassured her quite a lot that this was just a play, no one was really hurt.

After the tournament, we visited the market, and the kids got to ride a "medieval" carousel. There was no power, so it was pushed by two running men. The kids loved it.

At the market, we lso got a few trinkets for the kids. Keira got a pointy pink princess hat, brady a small wooden sword with sheath, and Aubrey a leather braided bracelet. Chris and I bought a metal toy meant for relaxation (It shifts shapes, and manipulating it is supposed to help relax you).

By the end of the day, all were tired. In fact, Brady and Keira fell asleep on the way home and slept through the night. (We fed them dinner before leavingfor the hour car ride home).

My class

School officially starts today. The past two weeks have been orientation, department meetings and room preparations. I got a set of mis matched tables and chairs for now. The really tables and chairs will come sometime in September from the manufacturer.

I have a pretty big class, 23 students. It's a pretty fair mixture of boys and girls, and they are between 8-10 years old, depending on their english ability. I met a few students and parents at open house, and they all seemed lovely.

I'm very excited to get a package of school supplies from my wonderful mom, so I can better decorate the room! I should be getting that this week.

I'll post pictures of the room after I decorate the walls a bit more.

Pictures of our Temporary housing.

This is Chris's and my new room, complete with bed (that looks quite similar to the one we're shipping!) TV, and cozy corner chair. The view out the window overlooks a gorgeous garden.

This is the dresser, and multiple fun lamps in the kids room.

Here is the creative bunk bed Julia and Dirk made for Keira and Aubrey. It's short enough that Keira can safely climb to and sleep on top!

This shows Brady's part of the room, and the table where they can color or have tea parties. There is also a box with wooden train set under the table here, which is now put together in the middle of the room.


Julia has provided us with a lovely accomodation. While I look forward to a full house, I almost can't even fathom leaving this one!

Week One

I have (un)officially been working for a week. Unofficially because I'm waiting on my work permit. Still, I've been attending meetings and orientation, with full expectations of work permit coming through. This week, the work days are short (9-3) but I'm commuting with Julia, so I'm there as though it were a normal day, from 8-5:30.

I've been contracted to teach English and Social Studies from 3-6 grades. Yesterday I found out they are still looking for a 2nd grade teacher, and offered to move if it would be easier to find an English teacher. The head of school is interviewing this weekend, and I'll hopefully find out her decision next week.

My coworkers and colleagues seem very nice. I've made quick friends with the school librarian, and the other new 2nd grade teacher. They are living in Neuss, within biking distance from the school, and their happiness there is making me consider moving into the city.

On that note, we are considering where we will live once we leave our cushy, temporary place with Julia. It's more expensive in the city, but we'll be in biking distance to work and really close to parks and nightlife. Unfortunately, we wouldn't have a garden for Spirit, our dog, and our kids to run around in. We have found a less expensive 3 bedroom house to rent here in Wegberg, and emailed the owner. He is on vacation for a couple of weeks, so we're hoping to speak with him at the end of August, perhaps for an October 1 move in date.

The kids are adjusting well. One the weekend, we went to a large swimming hall that had about 7 pools. We stayed mainly in the toddler pool, the water slide, and the warm "variobad". "Vario" meaning the floor was adjustable for different depths, to host events. We really tired the kids out, and they had a lot of fun.

We also live up the street from an indoor place area, that is family friendly and pretty affordable. Chris took the kids for a long walk and found a couple playgrounds, so they are all getting to know the neighborhood.

Aubrey met two girls while playing outside the other day, and looks forward to some playtime each day with them. They are 9 and 10, and are trying very hard to communicate with Aubrey. It is very reminiscent of when I was six, and met Julia. I've suggested that when they are playing, Aubrey should same the name of things in English, and the girls shouls then say it in German, so they learn from each other. This seems to be working well.

We plan to visit a kindergarten today, to see if we can afford to take Keira and Brady there while I work, and if Chris gets a job. I think I might also run by Ikea for a small toybox to keep downstairs.

There is a castle, Schlossburg, nearby that is holding a medieval jousting tournament this and next weekend. We're hoping to make it there for that experience. This castle is much more "castle like" than Schloss Benrath (The pink palace) we visited last year.

That's all of our current news I think, I'll update again sometime next week.