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.