A visit from home...

My nephew and his wife came to visit us for 4 days at the end of their 2 week vacation and it was wonderful. I'm so touched that they drove to Frankfurt from Milan and gave up some of their time alone together to see us and our new home. It made me feel happier to be here, more in touch with my family, and made everything seem more real to me.

I was proud to show off our house here and happy that they seemed to really like it. We enjoyed taking them around Frankfurt and the Taunus region, even though we didn't do anything too exciting. We had a couple of very good dinners out, a nice birthday brunch for my niece and some fun time together watching movies and playing games. It was a lot of fun.

But, more than that, it was great for me to get a feel of family again, here in Frankfurt. My family is very close and very important to me. Even though we haven't lived near any of them for 15 years, I'm in constant contact through email and phone calls. The 6 hour time difference here makes phone calls much harder and email has that unreal feel to it at times, so I was so happy to see my nephew and his wife, be able to talk to them face-to-face, laugh with them, and show them the life we're making for ourselves here.

I had no idea how important this visit would be to me. As excited as I was to see them before they arrived, I didn't realize what a boost it would be to me emotionally to have them here, even for only 4 days. I think it's more important than I realized to keep in touch w/loved ones back home, regardless of how difficult it might be to do so. As much as I understand how important it is blend in here and make friends, both myself and for my children, I was struck by how happy their visit made me and how important it is to talk to and visit with people who are important to me.

Their visit was on the tail end of dd#1's long weekend trip back to Chicagoland and reinforced for me that it's important for her to be able to see her friends, even if it's expensive for us. We were expecting her two best friends to visit over the Thanksgiving break, but when we found out that one girl wouldn't be able to come, I emailed dd#1's boyfriend's mother and offered to pay half of his airfare if he would come for Thanksgiving. This way, not only could dd#1 see her boyfriend and he see Germany, but also her other friend would still be able to come, since she would not be traveling alone. DD#1 was thrilled, of course, but I'm happy to know that she's able to stay in touch with her best friends and see them with some regularity.

While I had originally thought that we'd all benefit by concentrating on acclimating ourselves here and not working as hard on finding ways to see people back home, just emailing and calling them, I've decided that, at least right now, the emotional boost of seeing people we love is worth the extra effort and expense involved in making it happen. So, I guess we'll keep sending dd#1 back to Chicagoland, we'll all drive there over the summer so dds#2&3 can also see their friends, we'll go back to NY over Christmas to see the family and rearrange our schedules however necessary to accomodate any and all visitors. But I also think I'll invest in a camera for my computer so we can get connected to skype and see the people we talk to. There's nothing like laughing together and seeing the people you talk to, at least now and then.

The Luxembourg "Express"

October 3 is a national holiday in Germany - it's German Unity Day. Yes, as in the reunification of East and West Germany, taking down the Berlin wall, etc. Definitely a good thing to celebrate, but I find it interesting that, unlike holidays in the US, Germans celebrate the holiday on the exact day. No switching it to Monday to make a long weekend.

Dh has to use up his vacation time, so he took Monday off, but our dds had school and I had German class on Monday. We did, however "celebrate" with dinner out at our local Pizza Hut. It looks just like a US Pizza Hut and has a similar menu. And, I'm pretty sure it's the only place in Germany where you can order a pitcher of pop. Even the drinking glasses were large, American-sized - not the tiny little tumblers that German restaurants serve.

Anyway, with our holiday yesterday, we decided to go to Luxembourg. The girls love the idea of seeing a new country on a day trip and we thought it would be a lot of fun. Mostly, it was a lot of wet. It was pouring rain when we left Frankfurt and pretty much rained the whole day. What should have been a 2-2 1/2 hour car ride took three. This was in part because of the rain but also because of my car. We took 2 cars on this trip as we invited a friend and her daughter along. They moved to Frankfurt about a week before we did and then her husband started a new job with the State Department involving a lot of travel, so he's gone until some time in December. Her daughter goes to the same school as ours, is on dd#3's Destination Imagination team and in the same Girl Scout troop with all 3 dds. So, anyway, we thought it'd be fun to invite them to go to Luxembourg with us.

Unfortunately, my new little used car decide to throw a windshield wiper about 1/2 hour into the trip. All of a sudden, it flopped the opposite way it was supposed to go and then just flew off the car altogether. Fortunately, it was the passenger side wiper, but still, we had to stop and click the wiper arm out so it was perpendicular to the windshield to prevent scratching. It just sits there and rotates on itself while the other wiper wipes - several nearby drivers gave us some weird looks.

Anyway, in Luxembourg, we took the hop-on/hop-off bus tour and saw a bit of Luxembourg City. Of course, it was raining a lot of the time as well. We stopped at a mall for lunch and our international grocery shopping - required on every trip to a new country. We saw some of the beautiful tarts that Luxembourg is apparently famous for and even ate a couple. The raspberry one was wonderful!

After getting off the bus, we searched for the entrance to the casements, a series of tunnels built into the cliffs that have been the heart of the defense of many governments in Luxembourg. However, the entrance we found was closed and after we walked around and shopped in the old center of the city, we realized it was getting late. Fortunately, we left when we did, as it ended up taking nearly 4 hours to get home. The rain was still terrible most of the time, but traffic was the real problem. After some kind of customs inspections of all trucks on the German border and whatever else caused traffic stoppages, the radio informed us of additional traffic problems (in German, of course). Our navigation system decided to send us the curvy, winding, hilly, scenic route to avoid addition traffic problems, but those were tough roads to travel in the rain, fog, and increasing dark. So, the drive that should have been 4-5 hours roundtip turned into 7 hours - not really a day trip kind of drive. Certainly not the express! :)

By the time we dropped our friends at their house and made it back to our own, dh and I were exhausted. Which made it all the more fun for him to get up and leave the house at 5 a.m. to drive to the Hahn airport and catch a flight to Italy. And I had a great day cleaning up the water that flooded our basement during a violent rain storm on Saturday. Due to the holiday, we didn't get to talk to our landlords about the problem until Monday night and the plumber couldn't come until today. So, we spent the better part of 5 hours sweeping, cleaning, pumping, and mopping out two rooms of the basement that had been filled with sewer water. Always a treat! :)

All-in-all, I think maybe we should have saved it for a sunny day. I'd like to go back to Luxembourg, see the castle and the casements and all the other sights that it was too dark, rainy and foggy to see yesterday. And maybe even do it as an overnight trip. Anyway, assuming we get my windshield wiper fixed and, even better, get dh's new, larger car so we can take 7 people in one vehicle, I'm sure wherever we travel will be slightly more successful than this trip was.

A trip to Heaven on camouflage wings...

Today was a big day around our household. DD#1 and I got to take a trip to the PX at the military base in Hanau. We giggled about the Popeye's fried chicken and considered the Taco Bell. We shopped briefly at one Wal-Mart-like store filled with clothing, electronics, and health & beauty supplies. But we genuinely salivated at the grocery store - American Heaven!

We have a list of American groceries that we've been unable to locate in Germany, or for which the German substitutes are unsatisfactory. This list includes Oreos - in big demand with my daughters. Although we've found the European package of Oreos at several stores now, they aren't the same, according to my daughters. They don't dunk as well. :)

Also on the list are chocolate chunk granola bars (without nuts), chocolate chips, butter-flavored Crisco sticks, raspberry-lemonade flavored Crystal Light and sunflower seeds, salted and in the shells. All of these, save my favorite flavor of Crystal Light, we found at that PX. Those and so much more - all for a very reasonable price.

We were able to shop at the PX today because I met and made friends with a woman at our daughters' Girl Scout meeting last week. She moved here with her daughter and husband a couple of weeks before we did. They live on the Seedlung - the compound attached to the US Consulate in Frankfurt. By the way, I was fascinated to learn that the Frankfurt Consulate is the largest in the world.

Anyway, her daughter is in the same Girl Scout troop w/our girls, goes to the same school and is even on dd#3's Destination Imagination team. We got to talking during the meeting and she noticed the overflowing bag of groceries I had purchased at the Quick stop mini-market that's in the building where the Girl Scout meeting was held on the Seedlung. Since I was in the meeting, they let me shop at the Quick stop. I told her how excited my family was to see real American Oreos and flour (German flour isn't the same - which is a pain given that we like to bake a lot). So, she offered to take us to the base w/her.

We picked her up in dh's car this morning and took the long way to Hanau, since I took a few wrong turns in Frankfurt. The navigation system voice was very patient with me and eventually we made it to the base. We bought dd#3 her Halloween costume and presents for a birthday party she's attending next weekend, as well as hair color, eye drops, greeting cards and lots of other items in the discount store first.

Now, my friend had told me to bring cash, but failed to mention that it had to be US dollars. I've noticed that those who live on the Seedlung have US currency and US checking accounts and seem to operate on the American economy. But those of us not connected with the Departments of State or Defense live on the German economy. I haven't seen any US dollars in weeks. So, when she told be to bring cash, I brought Euros. So, she had to pay for me in the first store and then we went to the ATM, where I was able to pull US dollars out of my US checking account with my US debit card. Amazing.

My friend is allowed to bring 4 people onto the base with her, as long as she brings her Consulate I.D. card, we have our US passports, and she signs us in and out. However, I found it interesting that they'll let us go onto the base with her, but we can't really buy anything. She has to pretend she's paying for me, take my cash surreptiously and hand it to the cashier. We can't even talk about the fact that I'm really the one buying anything when we're standing in the store. But, if I wasn't going to buy anything, why would I go with her onto the base at this area where I saw nothing but retail stores?

Anyway, on to the bookstore, where I was able to pay directly with my debit card and all the books and magazines were in English. This was definitely a treat and I'll want to go back there before Christmas for sure.

Finally, on the PX - Mecca to dd#1. She was so excited, she made my friend's daughter laugh with her excited squeals of delight. We bought root beer - something dds #2&3 really enjoy, but isn't available anywhere that we've found in Frankfurt. We bought several boxes of cereals, cans of soups and vegetables for US recipes I've been wanting to make, and lots of snack foods. Oreos, chocolate chips cookies, chips, candies - you name it, we found it. And all the baking supplies we could want. The only thing on our MIA list that wasn't there was the particular flavor of Crystal Light that I like best. Not a bad day's work!

We brought it all home and the rest of the family oohed and ahhed over it appropriately. Given the supplies that dh's former boss brought with him from the US last weekend, we're in good shape for quite some time. We've invited my friend and her daughter to go with us on Tuesday to Luxembourg. It's a national holiday here - German Unity Day - so the kids have off school and dh has the day off work, as does my friend. She works part-time at the Consulate. Since their car hasn't arrived from the US yet, and neither of our cars is big enough to hold 7 people, we're going to drive both of our cars. It's about 2 1/2 hours away and is supposed to make for a nice day trip from Frankfurt.

Anyway, now that we've been shopping at the PX, dd#1 has a much shorter shopping list to take with her to the US when she flies to O'Hare this coming Thursday. She's going back to Illinois for a long weekend as her best friend's father is getting married. It's also Homecoming weekend at her old high school, so she'll be able to go to the football game, see her friends and even go to a party, as well as attending the wedding. She's very excited, even though she gets back in Frankfurt at 5:30 a.m. on Monday morning and then heads off to school. Good thing she's young and very motivated!

Meanwhile, I think everyone's getting fairly adjusted to our new life. The big news of the week, at least before the shopping trip today, was that we finally got our televisions. We've had cable installed for 7 weeks but had no TV sets. We got 2 plasma screens this week - one for the family room that's hooked up to cable and one for the 3rd floor alcove, where the girls can watch movies and play games. Hopefully we'll have a little more family time in our family room now.

This week proves to be interesting, as dh has a vacation day on Monday, everyone has the day off Tuesday and we're going to Luxembourg, dh leaves for Italy early Wednesday morning and won't be back until the middle of the night Friday night. DD#1 leaves for Chicago on Thursday afternoon and won't be back until early Monday morning. Meanwhile, dd#2 has a teambuilding outing at the school all day on Saturday, dd#3 has a birthday/Halloween party at a friend's house on Saturday night, I hope to go to the Frankfurt book fair during the day on Saturday, and we're having our landlords over for snacks and drinks on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully the water that we got in the basement during a bad storm last night will have dried out by then, so we can discuss it with the landlords. Anyway, it'll be busy but should be a fun week for everyone. And we should have some good pictures to post after the day in Luxembourg. Until then...