An American In Frankfurt

Repatriation

2008-10-13T17:09:00.001+02:00

Well, we've been back in Elmhurst for 2 1/2 months now and a lot has happened during that time. We moved back into our house, I spent a weekend in the hospital with a kidney stone, DD#3 turned 13, DD#1 moved to college at the University of Pennsylvania, and everyone's trying to get back into the swing of being "home."

It's great to be back in Elmhurst, seeing friends and neighbors again. It's also a little strange for me, as if the previous 2 years in Germany were more like a dream than a reality. It's hard to describe, given that we are back in our own house, with our own furniture and stuff, and the younger two girls are both back in Elmhurst schools. DD#2 is a sophomore at York High School. Although she didn't go to York before we moved, DD#1 did, so it's not unfamiliar to us. DD#3 is in 8th grade at Churchville Middle School. Again, although she hasn't gone to Churchville before, both of her sisters did. So, while things are familiar, it's not exactly the same.

Of course, the adjustment is difficult, both socially and scholastically, for both girls. DD#2 is finding new friends and making her way, but it's hard, especially when former friends appear to be less than friendly sometimes. For DD#3, she moved back to a large group of great girls, all of whom are friends and appear to have accepted her back, but things have changed enough in 2 years that DD#3 is still having to find her way within the group. Scholastically, the schools are much more demanding, with more homework, which is part of the reason we wanted to move back when we did. But, as much as that's a good thing in the long run, it's taking some adjustment for both girls.

DD#3 recently made the 8th grade basketball team, so she's very excited. Her year on the team in Frankfurt, working with her coach there, really helped and prepared her to make the team here, which has been a great boost for her self-confidence and social interactions. She's also in Girl Scouts, on student council, and planning to re-join the DI team she was part of before moving. DD#2 has joined both Empower and PRIDE, which meet before school, as well as trying out for the play. While she got a general cast member part, she decided it was too much of a time commitment given her school work and her plans to try out for the bowling team. She's also involved in Girl Scouts and has joined the Youth Group at a local church. We've all rejoined our church here and are hoping both girls can get confirmed this year.

As for me, I've slowly started revising my resume and have even applied for a half-dozen jobs that I've seen listed online. While I'm in no rush and am therefore being very picky about what I apply for, I wouldn't mind finding a part-time job both to help out with DD#1's tuition payments and to find some social interactions and meet people. Right now, it gets pretty lonely during the day. I've had lunch or breakfast with 4-5 friends at different times in the 6 weeks since school started again, but it appears that if I don't call and initiate the invitation, I'll spend all of my time alone. I'm helping co-lead DD#3's Girl Scout troop again, am doing all the new leader orientations for our service unit, am part of the product sales team for the service unit and have volunteered to take the required training to become a trainer for our council, as well as being the secretary for the York PTSA. But beyond that, I have a lot of time on my hands. Again, while my friends are mostly still here and it's great to see them again, life has gone on without me for the past 2 years and it's difficult for people to remember to include us in their lives again.

We all miss having DD#1 at home. I think it's a little easier because 1) she's so happy at school, 2) we can talk, email and text her all the time with our cell phone family package, and 3) we haven't lived with her in this house much for 2 years. DH just flew to Philadelphia and spent the weekend with her, which was nice even though I wasn't able to go with him. And we know we're all going for Thanksgiving, to see her and tour Philadelphia. But, it's hard to have her gone and there's definitely a hole in our home.

Everything I've heard and read about repatriation has said that it's harder than becoming an expat in the first place. I think, so far, that's basically true in that when we moved to Frankfurt, we met a lot of other expats who were anxious to get to know people and had time on their hands, given that they didn't have a lot else going on in their lives. We made friends, as did the kids. The move was hard in the long run in part because, when we weren't traveling to all the wonderful places we visited, we really missed our family and friends back in the U.S. and, at least for me, felt disconnected from reality. The girls made friends and did well in school, but they weren't being challenged academically, which has made it all the harder coming back.

I think it was even harder for us to repatriate when we did because we arrived in Elmhurst about a week before DD#3's 13th birthday. A birthday party was very important to her and it was a challenge to get it organized before we even arrived in town and be able to arrange it so enough of her friends were able to attend. Unfortuantely, I spent the actual day of her birthday in the hospital, so our family plans were significantly altered. Next was DH's birthday and it was lost a bit in the chaos of the move. Mine came in mid-September and I spent the entire day alone at home, with a quick dinner at Panera with the family before having to go alone to DD#3's Open House at school. Fortunately, DH did plan a fun night at an Eagles concert for the following week. Now we're facing DD#2's sweet 16 in another month. This is a big milestone, especially for a girl, and she's feeling a little paniced about whom she can even invite to whatever it is she wants to do, as she's still in the early stages of new friendships. All of these milestones just go to emphasize how far we have yet to go in our social repatriation.

It's good to be back in the U.S., even with the intense pressure at DH's job and the faultering US economy. It's great to be only 1 hour time zone different from the rest of our family. It's great to see familiar faces when we're at the movies, shopping, or at sporting events. It's great to be able to go to the movies and sporting events with the ease that we have here in Elmhurst and never developed in Frankfurt. I miss some of my friends from Frankfurt for sure. I miss the amount of vacation time both the girls and DH had in their calendars there and the low cost and unending options of places to visit in Europe. But, I don't miss much else about our lives there. It was a good experience, but I'm glad to be home. I just have to find a new life for myself here at home, and it's definitely still a work in progress.

Saalburg & München

2008-07-04T10:37:00.001+02:00

After graduation and the party, we were ready for a quiet, peaceful day trip on the last day before dd#1's boyfriend, Joe, and his mother, Jane, returned to the U.S. With my sister Kate, we all went to the Saalburg Roman Fort, which is about 1/2 hour outside of Frankfurt and once stood at the northern end of the Roman Empire in continental Europe (obviously, the Roman Empire extended further north in England).

We had a beautiful day to explore the ruins and reconstructed fort, as well as the museum and fortress walls and the Lime, the earthen barrier wall of Roman times. It was a lovely afternoon, with a delicious lunch in the Taverna, and just enough of an excursion to give us some nice memories of the last day before Joe & Jane had to fly home.

After putting dh on one plane to IL, and Joe & Jane on another plane to IL on Monday morning, Kate, the girls and I headed off to Munich for a last-minute trip before the move. Although the girls & I had been to Munich before, we had not visited Dachau Concentration Camp and dd#1 really wanted to visit a concentration camp before leaving Germany. Plus, Kate hadn't been to Munich, or many places in Germany, before, so we wanted to get in some quick sightseeing.

We arrived in Munich Monday afternoon and checked into our hotel, which was right next to the Haupbahnhof. After dropping off our stuff and parking the car, we headed down to Marienplatz to stroll through the center of Munich, see the clock chime at 5 p.m., and head over to the Hofbräuhaus for dinner.

Munich was hot, hot, hot and our hotel was not air conditioned. With the windows open, it was a noisy spot, opposite the train station, even with a fan going all night, so I don't think any of us got a lot of sleep. Tuesday was a long hot day, but full of interesting sights and information.

We started the day with a tour to the Dachau Concentration camp memorial. Many of the original buildings remain or have been reconstructed for the purpose of the memorial. We had a great tour guide who helped keep us in the shade as much as possible, as it was very hot and sunny and the tour was long. As no food or drink is available on site, we bought our Subway lunches before we left and carried them around to eat at free moments and on the train back to Munich.

After that tour, we had about 1/2 hour to get rehydrated before we began a walking tour of the Third Reich in Munich with the same guide. We saw the places where the beginning of Hitler's reign of terror began and covered a great deal of the city. Again, our guide thankfully kept us out of the sun as much as possible, but some of us did get sunburned. By the end of that tour, we found a quiet, cool Italian restaurant in a courtyard and had a relaxing dinner and rest for our tired feet. We were all so worn out, it was an early night for everyone.

On Wednesday morning, we were up and out of the hotel early to get to the Deutsches Museum at opening. We knew that Kate would love the exhibits of musical instruments as much as dd#1 loves the chemistry section and dd#2 loves the ships. It's a great museum and we had a nice visit, including a chemistry demonstration (all in German, of course), before hitting the road back to Frankfurt. While there was some rain and a lot of traffic on the way home, we got home in plenty of time to get everything packed and read to go.

Thursday morning found us making 2 trips to the airport to get Kate and dds #2&3 there with all their luggage for their 11 a.m. flight. Once they walked through security, dd#1 and I returned home to our nearly empty house to prepare for the move and dd#1's trip to Taiwan. On to the next phase....

Escape to Heidelberg

2008-07-04T09:20:00.000+02:00

While all chaos was about to errupt at home, in preparation for dd#1's graduation, a party at our home, dh's flight to Elmhurst and then our impending move to the U.S., Jane, Kate & I were able to escape for one lovely day to Heidelberg. While I've been there several times, it never fails to impress me as a beautiful, traditional German town and Kate & Jane really loved it.

We started with the castle, so we could look out over the river valley and see the beautiful town nestled below. Although we didn't take a tour, we bought guidebooks and were even allowed into some of the exhibits normally reserved for those on the guided tour by a couple of very sweet German gentlemen. We saw some great weapons (too bad dd#2 wasn't with us), learned some of the history of the castle and it's ruins, and saw a great model of the castle itself. We went in more rooms than I'd even been before and even explored the apothecary museum. Of course, we had to visit the largest wine cask, but it was a little early in the morning for wine-tasting.

Instead, we finished our tour of the castle and then headed down into town for lunch. We stopped to eat a lovely little place in the shadow of the cathedral and had some wonderful food, including a great Greek salad, soup, bread and, of course, some good German spatzel. While we could have easily relaxed for some time at our cozy table and watched the people go by, we decided to keep moving and see more of the town. We did some shopping along the main street, including some souvenirs and even Christmas gifts. Of course, we had to sample some of the great Italian gelato before finding our way back to the car for the drive home.

Waiting for us when we returned to Frankfurt were dd#1 and her boyfriend, Joe, having just returned from the 12th grade trip to Barcelona. Since dd#1 didn't know that her aunt Kate was coming for graduation, or at least she was very confused by all my slips in the preceeding weeks, it was a nice surprise for her when we got back. But, our escape from the mania was over and it was back to preparations for graduation, the party, dh, Jane & Joe flying back to IL on Monday, a quick trip to Munich, Kate and dds #2&3 flying back to NY on Thursday, and then the movers, packers, and all the other fun waiting for us in preparation for the move back to the U.S. What a nice chance to escape reality for a day in a medieval German castle town.

Two Wild Women in Berlin

2008-07-04T09:01:00.000+02:00

Jane and I had 2 days in Berlin, not nearly enough, but still were able to fit in many of the sights we'd been hoping to see. This picture is Jane in front of Checkpoint Charlie and the museum, which was fascinating. We were expecting a quick stop there, but spent at least 2 hours learnig a lot about the wall and the attempts made to get over, under and through it during the nearly 30 years it was in place. We happened to be in Berlin on the 60th anniversary of the start of the Berlin Airlift, which made it all the more real.

We were both mesmerized by the Holocaust Memorial as well, both the interesting series of concrete blocks above-ground and the fascinating museum below-ground. We also enjoyed the Deutches Museum, although the waitress at the cafe there left a lot to be desired. It was very hot our first day in Berlin, but luckily a breeze kicked in the next 2 days and, even more luckily, our hotel had air conditioning - definitely not the norm in Germany. We were somewhat unimpressed by the Jewish Museum, but enjoyed walking the streets of Berlin from the Hauptbahnhof all the way to the Jewish Museum and from the Bradenburg gate to the Deutches Museum. There was a huge TV screen in place at the Bradenburg gate in preparation for the finals of the European soccer tournament, but we were able to negotiate our way around it to to get to the Reichstag, Postsdamer Platz, and back to the Topography of Terror, another interesting exhibit.

We had some great currywurst, a fun visit to a German beerhall restaurant on the night of the Italy/Spain soccer match, and teriffic pasta at a great little Italian restaurant. We saw a lot of police in Berlin on Tuesday, parked in front of the Russian embassy and also in motorcades at different times during the day, but never figured out what was going on. We walked miles and miles, and even took a half-day tour on the hop-on/hop-off bus, which gave us a nice overview of what we'd seen. We bought a lot of souvenirs and were thoroughly exhausted by the time we dragged ourselves to the train on Tuesday evening for the 4-hour trip back to Frankfurt. But, it was a great, quick visit and we had a great time!

Prom and Graduation #2

2008-07-04T08:38:00.000+02:00

As June spun quickly to the end, and the date of our move back to the U.S. drew closer and closer, life became more hectic but also more exciting. On June 20th, DD#1's boyfriend Joe and his mom Jane arrived for a 10-day visit. They are just the nicest family and we truly enjoy spending time with them all. The next day was the ISF Prom, what DD#1 had been planning, organizing, and raising money for all year long as her Girl Scout Gold Award project. We took her to the Intercontinental Hotel early in the morning to decorate the room with the other members of her Senior Class Council - and it looked great. Very classy, with a black & white theme. Although Joe slept through that, due to jet lag, we woke him to meet for lunch at the Chicago Meatpackers restaurant afterwords. Then it was home to prepare for prom.

ISF had never held a prom before, so it was great fun watching all the kids arrive at the hotel that night - Jane, DH & I hung out in the lobby and took pictures. It sounds like they had a great time, although not a lot of dancing was going on. Early the next morning, Jane & I caught a train to Berlin for 3 days of sightseeing while DD#1 and Joe caught a plane with many of the 12th graders to Barcelona for a 4-day class trip. We had a wonderful time in Berlin and came home on Tuesday, just in time to pick up my sister Kate at the airport on Wednesday morning for her surprise visit for graduation. DD#1 and Joe returned on Thursday, while Kate, Jane & I were visiting Heidelberg.

Friday morning was graduation practice and then, at 5 p.m. on Friday evening, was the graduation ceremony itself. It went very nicely, with 35 graduates in the class and speeches by 2 of the students, one parent, the school director, and an invited speaker from the board of the school. After the ceremony was a short champagne reception at the school followed by a banquet at the Radisson hotel. Everyone was pretty fancy for the banquet and we sat at a table with two of the teachers leaving the school. Although the banquet went late for me - with us not getting home until after midnight - it was nothing compared to the hour (4:30 a.m.) that dd#1 and Joe got home.

The next day was our family's graduation and going away party, with about 40 people, including many of the recent graduates as well as friends of our other two girls and some of our friends as well. It was a great chance to say good-bye to many of the people who have been so important to us while we've lived here in Frankfurt and the last chance to see many of them before we move back to the U.S. I think the girls really enjoyed themselves, as well as the adults.

It will be hard for us all to leave behind our friends here in Germany, even though we are anxious to get back home and see again the friends we left behind when we moved here. Overall, I think our two years in Frankfurt was a great experience for us all. We all loved the ability to travel inexpensively, often and to so many varied locations. Our favorites, as a family, seem to have been Italy and Spain - for the food, the people, and all the beautiful sights. There are many places I wanted to visit but didn't have time to, but hopefully we'll be back someday. Although I was unhappy with the academics at ISF, and am anxious to get dds #2&3 back to Elmhurst to get back on the REACH and honors track, I think it was great for dd#1 academically to have a chance to be here for her last 2 years - especially in terms of her college acceptance rate. She was able to do an incredible Girl Scout Gold Award project here that she might not have had time to even think about back in the U.S., and I think it really helped her get into the program she's entering at Penn. While she missed her friends and the atmosphere at York, she made great friends here - all of the girls did. Career-wise, these past 2 years have been good for dh, though we're glad that he's been transfered back to the U.S. now, so we'll still all be living together. For me, it's been a mixed bag. I've made some good friends, although I found it hard to have so many of them leave at the end of last year. I wasn't able to work and spent a great deal of time home alone, especially in our first year. This year, I was very busy with Girl Scouts and Parents Network, which helped me a lot, but didn't bring in any money toward that Ivy League tuition payment due this month. With all the positives and negatives we've encountered, it was definitely still a great experience and one I'm glad we took on. That being said, I'm really looking forward to going home.

Trip Home for Graduation #1

2008-07-04T08:18:00.000+02:00

This has been a very busy spring for DD#1, with 5 AP exams, finals in all 5 classes, planning and preparing for the Prom, which was her Girl Scout Gold Award project, getting info. from Penn about her dorm room, roommates, food plans, classes, and everything else she'll need for college in the fall and preparing to say good-bye to friends in both the U.S. and Europe.

Between AP exams and finals, she and I were able to sneak away back to Elmhurst for nearly a week to attend the graduation of her boyfriend and all her good friends back at York High School. It was a great trip for both of us, although a little crazy, with jet lag in addition to all the things we wanted to accomplish in 5 days.

We were able to tour our Elmhurst house in preparation for our move home, which gave me a chance to see what needed painting, repairs, etc. We also got DD#3 registered for middle school and visited the high school to get DD#2 enrolled, signed up for her classes next year and even buy her some York-wear and some light summer (geometry) reading. DD#1 got to visit with her former counselor, who will be DD#2's counselor as well, as well as her two favorite math teachers. I had a chance to visit with a couple of my good friends during our trip and it was great to reconnect and catch up.

We got a lot of shopping done, getting DD#1 two new bathing suits, some books for me and lots of graduation cards and presents. We even had a fun dinner with one of DD#1's best friends and her family and attend a graduation party at another best friend's house. Over the weekend, we were able to attend DD#1's boyfriend's graduation party, which was a lot of fun. Then, on Sunday, was York's graduation, which was certainly bittersweet - all of her friends, many of whom I'd known for many years, but not DD#1, who would have loved to have been graduating from York that day. Although there were many great things about moving to Europe, DD#1 would have given them up at any moment to move back to Elmhurst and return to York, so it was hard to see what she'd been missing.

We ended the visit on a sweet note by spending much of the last day with Harmony, our former babysitter and pseudo-sister to all of my girls. She was in her last two weeks of pregnancy and feeling fat and uncomfortable, but she looked great. We took her to lunch at our favorite restaurant, Maggiano's, along with DD#1's boyfriend and best friend, and had a great time and wonderful food. It was wonderful to be back in Elmhurst and made me anxious to get back for good - it won't be long now!

Harry Potter - Girl Scouts style

2008-06-13T05:48:00.001+02:00

DD#3 just completed her Girl Scout Silver Award, the highest award Cadette Girl Scouts can earn, by organizing, planning and running a Harry Potter-themed campout for 90 people in the middle of May. She worked with 2 other girls on the organization and planning, although only 1 other girl earned the award with her, due to illness. Fortunately, the other members of their troop helped with the actual running of the camp as House Prefects, with the additional help of many adult volunteers.

The girls attending the camp had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the activities, including such Harry Potter favorites as Quidditch, Potions, Wizard's Chess, Honey Dukes, and Madam Malkin's. Each person, girl and adult, was sorted into one of the four Houses, all of whom competed for the House Cup. The winner of the weekend's campout was Ravenclaw.

This was the largest troop campout in memory for the Taunus Girl Scouts Overseas Committee, part of USA Girl Scouts Overseas. There were 7 troops attending, from kindergarten-aged Daisies all the way to high school aged Seniors - and everyone had a great time! At the end of the weekend, the Taunus O.C. awards ceremony included the bridging of girls to each new level of Girl Scouting for next year, adult awards for leaders and volunteers, and the awarding of 3 Bronze Awards (the highest award for Junior Girl Scouts), these two Silver Awards, and the recognition of the Gold Award - the highest award available to Senior Girl Scouts and the recognized equivalent of a Boy Scout Eagle Scout award. The Gold Award is going to DD#1 for her project at the international school where she created a Senior Class Council, held spirit projects, parties, bake sales, sold t-shirts, raised nearly $10,000 and organized the first ever Senior Prom, which will be held next weekend.

The campout was a big success with many of the girls attending raving about the fun and especially about the Cadettes who planned and ran the events and activities. I think it was a great learning experience for everyone and introduced these junior-high-school-aged girls to a new level of leadership experience. Although it was exhausting and required a great deal of recovery time for this middle-aged Overseas Committee Chair, all-in-all it was an unqualified success! Congrats to the girls and especially to DD#3!

Amster-Amster-dam-dam-dam

2008-05-21T20:49:00.000+02:00

DD#1 finished her last AP exam last week, so we decided to take advantage of some of her free time before her finals begin in a month to do a quick trip to Amsterdam. Neither of us had been there before, so we took the 4-hour train ride from Frankfurt on Monday morning and returned late Tuesday night. Although we could have used another day (or half-day) to see the flower gardens, we saw pretty much everything we wanted to see.

We arrived at 11:30 in the morning, so we checked into our hotel, had lunch and immediately bought sweatshirts - it was a lot colder than predicted. Of course, nearly every shop had a huge collection of rolling papers and bongs, unless it was a sex shop, but we were able to locate some warm clothes. Then we headed off to the Anne Frank House, which was very impressive. We climbed the steep, steep stairs to the Annex and saw the rooms Anne and the others hid in for so long. Very sobering.

We wondered the pedestrian mall, did some sightseeing and headed back to our hotel to change for dinner at the Boom Chicago improvisation comedy show. Although it was very smoky - as is everywhere in Amsterdam - it was a fun show and a good meal.

Tuesday morning, we got up and headed out looking for one of the many pancake shops we'd seen the day before, not realizing that Dutch pancakes are really more like crepes and are not a breakfast food (and also not that great). Then we walked up to the Central train station, where we caught a 1 1/2 hour cruise along the canals. This was warm and beautiful and the perfect way to see the "dancing" (leaning) houses and the real character of Amsterdam. After the cruise, we walked through the pedestrian area to the Irish pub for lunch, then on the tram to the Van Gogh museum, which we enjoyed. The Rijksmuseum is under so much construction that we decided it wasn't worth stopping there.

After a stroll through the red light district - in the middle of the afternoon - and then Chinatown, we picked up souveniers for our friends & family and headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage before the train ride back to Frankfurt. A quick but fun trip and probably enough of Amsterdam for me, as I'm not a big nightlife person and am not particularly tolerant of smoking, drug use and prostitution. But, the old buildings, the canals, and the artworks are all lovely, and spending time with dd#1 before she heads off to college in the fall was priceless, so it was definitely worth the trip!

Visit from my niece

2008-05-14T06:40:00.000+02:00

We were lucky enough to have a visit from my niece Lauren and her college roommate Camilla this past weekend. They arrived on Saturday and we toured a bit of Frankfurt, even taking a boat ride on the river Main. Saturday night, after dinner at a local Greek restaurant and some premature birthday cake for Lauren, Lauren & Camilla went out on the town dds #1&2, and tried to get our 15-year-old from getting picked up by an older German man.

On Sunday, we had a fun day that started with a drive to Rüdesheim and then along the Rhine river as far as Köln (Cologne). In Köln, we visited the Dom and walked along a river front park to the chocolate museum. We got to see how chocolate is grown, see it made and even taste some samples. We left Köln and drove back toward Bonn to attend a medieval festival at Burg Satzvey, which was wonderful. Very authentic feel, lots of cool tents, costumes and weapons - dd#2's favorite part! We watched a bit of the jousting tournament and enjoyed performances of period music, as well as some good German sausage. By the time we got home and opened Mother's day gift, everyone was pretty tired.

Monday was a national holiday, but dd#1 had an AP exam and dd#2 had play practice from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so Lauren & Camilla took themselves to Heidelberg on the train. They came home to a fun dinner of Raclette and some board games at home. Tuesday was back to school & meetings for us, while the girls explored the museums of Frankfurt before their flight back to London. It was a short visit, but very fun, especially since we were the only members of the extended family not to have met Camilla before. All-in-all, a wonderful holiday weekend.

Prague highlights

2008-05-06T06:25:00.000+02:00

While my nephew & his wife were visiting us from the U.S., we decided to use our 4-day Labour and Ascension Day holiday weekend to travel to Prague with them. DD#1 didn't come with us, as she stayed home to study for the upcoming AP exams. The rest of us had a great time, however, on this weekend excursion.

We started the trip early on Thursday morning, driving the northern route to Czech so we could stop at the concentration camp Terezin on the way. As Americans, we knew nothing about Terezin before researching it for this trip. It was fascinating to see how the Nazis used this entire ancient town as a work camp, although Terezin was not a death camp. After lunch in a traditional Czech sidewalk cafe, we toured the museum in the center of town, learning more about the numbers of Jews who were relocated to Terezin, but then sent by train from Terezin to Auschwitz and many other death camps. After the museum, we drove to the Small Fortress, visited the cemetery and the prison. Our guide showed us the horrid conditions in which suffered the resistance fighters, Czech military, and other political prisoners of the time. Most outrageous for me was the way in which Terezin was use as a propoganda machine by the Nazis, pretending that the town was more a summer camp than a work camp and that the prison was decent and humane, in an effort to hide their atrocities.

We got into our hotel in Prague in time for dinner in a fun local pub on Thursday night, after dh & my nephew had a ridiculous time parking the car at our hotel. Friday morning, we met our guide and another family of friends from Frankfurt, for a 4-hour walking tour of Prague. We definitely recommend hiring a guide, as it's a beautiful city and has many fascinating sights, but would be tough to cover in a short time on your own. We saw the Dancing House, walked the incredibly crowded Charles Bridge (we don't recommend it while it's still under construction), saw the astronomical clock and ended up in a traditional Czech restaurant in Old Town for lunch. Dh really enjoyed the Czech food - lots of goulash, meat, sauces, potatoes, dumplings, and beer - but there wasn't as much for dd#2, the vegetarian. During the afternoon, we strolled the streets of the Old Town area, visited a street market and did some shopping, winding our way back to the river, a stop at a pub and then back to the hotel. We were tired from all our walking, so we ordered in pizza and played a hotly contested game of Charades late into the evening.

Saturday morning, our tour guide met the 6 of us back at the hotel for another 4-hour tour. We started the day on the street car, going directly to the top of Castle Town. The Prague Castle is enormous and is really a series of huge buildings, rather than one large one. The crowds were incredible, but so was the weather, so we didn't mind a bit. We went in the treasurey but not the cathedral and ended up in the Senate and the beautiful gardens there. Our tour guide made sure to get us to our chosen lunch spot - TGIFridays - where we all thoroughly enjoyed a welcome taste of home. I don't know why we don't have TGIFridays in Frankfurt. After lunch, we did some more shopping and made our way to Wenceslas Square. From there, we walked back to our hotel, did a little food shopping, and then headed out later for dinner in a Mexican restaurant. We had an early night, as Sunday was an early morning for the drive back to Frankfurt and then delivering Steve & Alissa at the airport for their flight to the U.S.

Prague is a beautiful city with incredible building and a long history. It's also an incredibly affordable city, even though hotel rooms are sparce and not inexpensive. When you're outside of the most expensive, tourist places, shopping and dining is incredibly cheap. It was fascinating for me to see how so much of our tour guide's commentary was colored by her feelings of and reflections on the communist rule, the legacy of the Nazis, and, as with so many Europeans, the current politics. We both felt that Prague would be a comfortable city for an American expat, as the people were very friendly, everything is so inexpensive, and English was everywhere, at least in the center of the city. The countryside in and around Prague is lovely, with rolling hills and fields. All-in-all, it was a great trip and a very different kind of place than we've seen in our other travels, so definitely a good choice for our long weekend travels.

Spring Break in Italy

2008-04-14T20:07:00.000+02:00

March 21, 2008 – We left the house early to meet the bus for our 8 day trip through Italy– only 18 people in total, so there was lots of room. Even before the first stop to change drivers, we passed through some heavy snow, both falling and on the ground. It was beautiful on the trees along the road, but not at all what I had in mind for our spring break vacation. The girls slept through the first pit stop, which was a good way to start a very long travel day.

Because of the bad weather and holiday traffic, our progress was slow so we had to stop for lunch in a small town where we ate in a restaurant similar to Munich’s hofbrauhaus. Then it was back on the bus to Innsbruck. We did a quick tour of the old town in Innsbruck, going to the cathedral, the Dom and around the pedestrian zone, giving us about 10 mins. of free time before meeting in front of the golden roof to head back to the bus. We grabbed some fries and McFlurries at McDonalds, a good toilet stop, and then got back in the bus for the trip through Brenner pass into Italy.

We got to the hotel in Rivea del Garda, had dinner and then went out for good gelato and walked around the town in a light rain. Saturday morning, we climbed on the bus for a trip down the east side of the lake on our way to Verona. It was sunny and beautiful for the drive along the lake and we saw lots of sailboats and windsurfers. In Verona, we had a quick walk through the old section of the city and then went off on our own to a store that sold embroidered aprons and the guy running a sewing machine in front quickly sewed the girls names onto slips of paper as a gift. We bought aprons for all of the girls and then wandered into the open market area, where the girls picked up a few more gifts for friends. Although the group had gone on to tour elsewhere, we wandered back to the area around the ampitheatre and had a wonderful lunch at a nice sidewalk café in front of the ampitheatre. On the bus ride back from Verona, we stopped in the town off Malcesne, where we had over an hour to shop before taking a boat from Malcesne to Limone, and then back to Riva del Garda.

Up very early on Easter Sunday to head across the country to Rome. The Easter bunny even hid a few candies on the bus. On the drive, dh began to feel really bad, and by the time we got to our hotel in Rome, he was really sick. He stayed in bed while we set out for our guided walking tour. While it was raining during the beginning of our tour outside the Colisseum, it was nothing compared to the mini-hurricane that hit while we huddled along side the Coliseum, hiding behind a porta-john. Huge trees feel, countless umbrella broke, an empty stroller flew by – it felt a bit like the Wizard of Oz. Once we were completely soaked, the storm stopped and the temperature dropped. We went into a café for coffee and hot cocoa, and then continued on our walking tour around the Colisseum and Roman forum. We returned to the hotel just in time for our 7 p.m. dinner, but everyone decided not to do the late night walking tour because we were all too cold and tired from the storm.

Monday morning, we were on the bus early for the three hour drive to Pompeii. It was fairly sunny and nice when we arrived in Pompeii, but shortly after we did a little souvenir shopping and bought our entrance tickets, a big storm blew in again, just like the day before in Rome. Pompeii is amazing, and was a great tour. It’s incredible how elaborate their buildings, bathrooms, baths, theatres, restaurants, and shops were for a society that was destroyed in 79 A.D.

When we arrived in back Rome, the bus let us off right near the Colusseum with the idea that we had free time until a 6 p.m. dinner and then evening walking tour. We made it just minutes too late to get into the Colusseum though, so we walked to the Pantheon, stopping at the Church of St. Ignazio and another small church on the way and then going into Navona Square, where we had dinner at a great restaurant.

Tuesday morning, we hit the road by 7:30 a.m. and began our trip via subway to the Vatican. We stood outside the Vatican in the long line for entrance for over an hour, finally making it inside the Vatican museum with our tour guide Emma. We went through the museum, starting outside with a description of the frescos in the Sistine Chapel. We saw a lot of lovely paintings, including the Raphael room, on our way to the Sistine Chapel, which was smaller than I expected. It was a small rectangular room, no pews, a few benches on the wall and wall-to-wall people. After leaving the Sistine Chapel, we walked outside and then into St. Peter’s Bascillica. It was incredibly large and very beautiful. We left Rome and stopped in Orvieto for a quick trip to the Duomo and then continued on to Florence.
Before breakfast Wednesday morning, dd#2 called our room to say she’d been up all night vomiting and had gotten the stomach bug that dh had. So, I sent dh, dd#1 and dd#3 on to Florence and stayed with dd#2 in the hotel all day. Everyone else went to Florence for a tour of the city and then a lot of free time for shopping. By 8 a.m. on Thursday, we were on our way to Lucca, also in Tuscany. We stopped in Lucca, walked the city wall, did some shopping and had pizza and then headed off to Pisa. After our stop in Pisa, we were back on the bus and headed to the Italian Riviera for our visit to St. Margherita. Friday morning, we had a beautiful day to walk around the town and then we had to be ready to load the bus by 10 a.m. to head back to Frankfurt, via Switzerland. It was a long day on Friday and we didn’t get home until quite late, all tired and sick of being on the bus, but it was a great trip.

Destination Imagination in the UK

2008-03-15T07:00:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, DD#3 and I flew to Bradford, England for the UKDI (Destination Imagination) National Tournament. I started DI at our international school last year and we had a team of 4 5th & 6th grade girls bring home a 1st place trophy. This year, we had enough interest to have 2 teams of 7th graders, and 10 students competed in the tournament.

DD#1's team, the Monkey Maniacs, brought home the 1st place trophy while our other team, The Homies, came in 2nd. The competition between the two teams was very close, with one prevailing in the main challenge and the other in the instant challenge portion of the tournament.

It was a great weekend for everyone and the kids all did a great job. I think the parents - each student came with 1 parent - had a chance to understand more about the valuable skills learned through the DI program and watched their children shine at the tournament. The kids worked together well, were enthusiastic, and were much more polished than last year. Both the year-long program and the tournament itself are a learning process, both for the team members and their managers, so each year gets better.

While all three dds had participated in DI in the U.S., only dd#3 has had a team here in Germany, although dd#1 has helped as an assistant team manager both years. Because DI was so important to all our girls in the U.S., it's really been a big help in making the girls feel connected here, especially dd#1. And she's very excited to know that her DI team in the U.S. is still going strong and will be able to welcome her back when we leave Germany. It's such a valuable experience for everyone involved, I'm glad that we've been able to stay active in it and I think all of the team members this year got a lot out of it. I hope they can continue it even after we leave Germany.

Our Island Paradise

2008-02-28T21:13:00.000+01:00

Tenerife, February 11-18, 2008

After so many vacations where we pack in as much as is humanly possible, we decided to take a totally different type of trip for this year’s ski break in February. The girls, in particular dd#3, wanted one where we played on the beach, swam in the pool, and didn’t go from city to city. Well, actually, dd#3 want to take a cruise, but a beach vacation was what we decided on. After some research, we chose the island of Tenerife, in the Spanish Canary Islands.

While the Canary Islands are owned by Spain, they are actually part of Africa, so the girls were excited to be able to say we’ve been to Africa now. We all enjoyed the fact that, because we were going just 70 miles off the coast of Morocco, the weather would be warm, even in February. We looked at different vacation packages and picked an all-inclusive resort – Park Club Europe – in Playa de Las Americas on Tenerife.

The Canary Islands are practically unknown as a vacation spot for Americans, mostly because there’s no direct flight there, I imagine. But Tenerife, Grand Canaria and the rest of the islands are a vacation hot spot for British and German tourists. There are great package deals including airfare and such and we purchased one through Sato Travel with TUIfly. We left Frankfurt very early on Monday morning, February 11, after putting my sister Patty on a flight back to the U.S. the day before. Tenerife is about a 4½-hour flight from Frankfurt, so it wasn’t bad and went fairly quickly.

We arrived in Tenerife and quickly got to our hotel – before the rooms were even ready and before lunch was served at 1 p.m. Although I couldn’t wait to get out of my long pants and into shorts, we stowed our luggage and explored both the resort and the immediate area. After we got into our rooms, everyone changed and we headed out to explore.

We spent most of the week just as we’d hoped to – playing games, reading books, hanging out and swimming in the pool, and playing and swimming at the beach – it was only a short walk from our resort to the Atlantic Ocean. We went for two different afternoons and the girls built huge sand castles with moats, walls, towers and shell decorations. They had quite an audience of little kids watching them build and dd#2 said it made her feel like she was 7 again.

On Wednesday, we took a day-long tour to Loro Parque, a large sea world-type animal park. We really enjoyed the dolphin show, the orca show and the sea lion show, as well as the penguin exhibit. The girls went to the bird show as well, but dd#2 really didn’t enjoy that one too much – all those birds flying overhead. :)

On Friday, we took a half-day tour to Tiede, the volcanic mountain in the center of Tenerife. Tiede is the highest mountain in Spain and it was very cold and windy when we got to the top of the cable car ride up the side of the mountain. DD#2 didn’t react well to the height, and I was suffering from a little motion-sickness from the bus ride, so she and I didn’t stay up there long, but dh and dds#1&3 explored quite a bit. The landscape around Tiede was remarkable and we could see why they filmed the Planet of the Apes movie there – it looked other-worldly.

Besides the two tours, we spent most of our time at the resort, just being lazy. We played dominoes, Phase 10, Uno, Wicked Words, and card games like Rainbow, Hearts, and Euchre. The girls watched some movies in the evening on their laptops and went to the resort’s shows a few of the nights. Both dd#1 & dd#2 tried their hands at Archery while dd#3 took a scuba diving lesson in the pool – and really liked it! The weather was heavenly, even with about 6 total minutes of rain all week. The clouds blew in and quickly out nearly every day, but most of the time was sunny, warm and wonderful.

As an all-inclusive resort, there was food and drinks – both alcoholic and non-alcoholic – available all day long, in addition to two coolers of bottled water free for the taking. There was breakfast, lunch and dinner in the main dining room, plus snacks and lunch by the pool, bar-b-que dinners three of the nights, and a continental breakfast for those who slept in.

Dh was able to get online with his laptop a few times and I checked email via the hotel’s computers, since it was Girl Scout cookie time at home. But mostly, we stayed away from our “real” life back in Frankfurt and truly enjoyed spending time with each other and reading and napping on our own. I finished 7 books in the week – and felt truly refreshed. We arrived back home on Monday evening, March 18, tired but happy. We had a wonderful time and highly recommend the Canary Islands to anyone looking for an inexpensive island resort with nearly perfect temperatures – February is supposed to be the cold month of the year, with temps in the low-70’s, but even in July and August, it only gets up to the mid-80’s. Definitely a nice place to get away!

A whirilwind visit from my sister Patty

2008-02-23T05:44:00.000+01:00

The first 10 days of February flew by in a flash this year, thanks to a visit from my sister Patty and our attempt to show her as many sights during those 10 days as possible.

She arrived on Friday and we decided to introduce her to the Raclette tradition at dinner that night. After discovering Raclette on our trip to Luzern, Switzerland last year, it's quickly become a favorite.

On Saturday, we all headed to Rüdesheim for a walk around the city, festive Fasching lunch celebration and then a beautiful drive up the Rhine river as far as the Loreley monument and back. It was windy and quite cold but the sun was shining and the views were lovely. Sunday took us to Köln (Cologne) for a big Fasching parade that lasted for hours, with all kinds of floats, high school (gymnasium) groups, and lots of drunken revelers.

On Monday, Patty & I flew to Florence, Italy for a 3-day sister trip. Since our flight landed in Pisa, it was quite late by the time we got to Florence, so we went to dinner and walked around a bit. Tuesday was super-sight day, though, where we started early with sunrise at the Ponte Vecchio, toured the magnificent renaissance art in the Uffizi Museum, moved on to walk all 463 steps to the top of the Duomo, and saw the statue of David in all his glory. In addition, we walked all over the central part of the city, visiting the the Plazza della Repubblica, Plazza Santa Croce, Plazza Santa Maria Novella, Plazza della Signoria, passing the Bargello museum, and visiting the Ponte Vecchio again at sunset. We had a nice Italian dinner, some wine, and fell exhausted into our beds. We took in an outdoor market early Wednesday morning before the bus ride back to Pisa to fly home to Frankfurt.

Thursday found us in Frankfurt and, after an exciting trip to the grocery store, we took the UBahn downtown and caught the sights of the Romer, the Main river, and downtown Frankfurt. We found a traditional German restaurant for lunch, so Patty was sure to have schnitzel, spätzel, Frankfurter grün sauce, German beer, and kartoffel puffers (potato pancakes) during her German stay.

Friday we left the house at 4:15 in the morning, with DD#1, to catch a bus to Poland with the American Women's Club. We stopped in Seiffen to shop for traditional German Christmas decorations including nutcrackers and pyramids, and then continued on to Poland. We hit a couple of potter shops on Friday night, before checking into our castle hotel for dinner and rest. Saturday was one pottery shop after another but everyone had fun finding bargains. We had a late lunch in a traditional Polish restaurant, stopped at a crystal factory and headed home, getting back at about 2 a.m. This made is somewhat painful to get up and get Patty packed on Sunday morning, to have her to the airport by 10:30, but it was well worth it.

It was a busy week with lots of sights, but hopefully she enjoyed her visit and had so much fun she didn't worry too much about the craziness of moving, buying and selling houses, and getting her life organized at home - all that was waiting for her on her return the the U.S. The visit was a bit of a blur, but fortunately we have good pictures to remember it by.

Christmas in the U.S.

2008-01-13T12:06:00.000+01:00

After visits to the Frankfurt and Nürnberg Christmas Markets, we headed home to the U.S. for a week at Christmas. While the Weihnachtmarkts are wonderful and Nürnberg one was a special delight, it was great to be home for the holidays.

I miss the outdoor lights and decorations that people put up in the U.S. I don't know if it's a German thing or just that we live in a city, but very few people have any outdoor decorations for Christmas. Between the lack of lights and the lack of snow, plus the fact that I don't hear many Christmas carols on the radio, it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit here, unless we're at a Christmas market.

Plus, of course, I miss seeing my family and the whole family was together for Christmas this year - for the first time in a while. It was wonderful to have everyone home for nearly 4 full days - we had lots of family meals, lots of presents, some game time and even some play time in the snow. The girls were able to build a snowman with their 4-year-old cousin that lasted through the day we left, even though the weather warmed up and rained while we were in NY. All-in-all, it was a great visit.

DD#1 went on to Chicago to visit her friends and throw a surprise 18th birthday party for her boyfriend, so she didn't return to Frankfurt until nearly a week after the rest of us. We were here for Silvester - New Year's Eve - when Dh and DD#3 went to downtown Frankfurt to watch the fireworks over the River Main. DD#2 and I stayed home and watched the insanity on our block from the windows. It sounded like warfare in the neighborhood for nearly an hour - the Germans really like their fireworks. We find it amazing that, although it's legal to buy fireworks here, they are only sold for the 2-3 days before New Year's Eve. It seems like everyone goes crazy for that one night and then it's back to business as usual.

Now we're preparing for my sister's visit in early February and then our Ski Break trip to - the Canary Islands. No, we won't be doing any skiing over ski break this year - just basking in the sun. We decided we haven't done any lazy, beach-type vacations and we're due. So we're taking bathing suits, family games and books to read and heading to Tenerife for a week of relaxation. Should be fun!

Holiday in Sunny Spain

2007-10-18T14:06:00.000+02:00

For this year's Fall Break, we decided to visit Dh's favorite city in the world - Barcelona. He's been there many times on business and has always come home raving about the city, it's food, the sights, and the people. Now we know why.

We landed in Reus airport bright an early on Saturday, October 13 after a short & cheap flight from Frankfurt Hahn - thank you Ryan Air. After finding the campground where we'd rented a small cabin/trailer, we bought groceries, had a snack and a nap, and then headed off to Port Adventura, a Universal Studios amusement park about an hour south of Barcelona. It was a gloriously sunny day and the park was packed, but still we had a great time. We stayed all day and got back to the campground late, but it was a lot of fun. While we were there, we got a message from our former exchange student Marta that she and her boyfriend would meet us at the campground at 10:30 the next morning for our tour of Barcelona.

It was great meeting up with Marta again, and meeting Jonathan. She stayed with us in Elmhurst in 2002, so the girls and I hadn't seen her in 5 years, although Dh visited with her on a business trip to Barcelona since then. We had our own private tour guides to show us the city, starting with spectacular views of the city from Montjuïc. Next, we wove our way to Park Güell and fell in love with the whimsical art and architecture of Gaudi. Finally, we walked Paseo de Gracia, had some incredible tapas, toured El Raval and Las Rambas. It was a long, tiring, and incredibly beautiful day. I felt bad for Marta & Jonathan, who had to travel back to Villanova Park with us to get their car at 11 p.m., drive themselves about 20 minutes home and then get up for work the next day.

On Monday, we parked downtown on Las Ramblas and caught the Bus Touristic for a tour of the city. We had great plans to see lots of sights that day, but couldn't get moving early in the morning. It was perfect weather for the bus, though, as the sun was shining and there was a wonderful breeze, so we rode past the acquarium, the Olympic Village, and the waterfront, before getting off at the Placa de Catalunya to find a new tapas place for lunch. Of course, being that we were in Barcelona, lunch was at about 3 p.m. each day. After lunch, we hopped back on the bus for the northern route, stopping first at La Sagrada Familia, the incredible moderniste cathedral started by Gaudi but still under construction. After some souvenir shopping, we boarded the bus again and saw the sights from Park Güell to Mount Tibidabo, to the Royal Palace, the University of Barcelona, and the Futbol Club Barcelona. After taking time to feed the fish on the pier, we met Marta for dinner 9 p.m. at the Restaurant 7 Portes. Another late night, after dropping Marta at her apartment, and we were all exhausted.

On Tuesday, again we had great plans, but were too tired to get moving early. We drove up Mount Tibidabo first thing and saw some beautiful sights there, while the girls took a page from "Friends" and did a quick bit backpacking in the foothills of Mount Tibidabo. We spent the bulk of the day at Poble Espanyol, the Spanish Village, a wonderful village built for the 1929 International Exhibition which features architectural styles, cuisine, and craftspeople from all of Spain. When we left Poble Espanyol, we drove to Barceloneta to walk the beach and dip our feet into the Mediterranean sea. While waiting to meet Marta in la Placa de Catalunya, Dh and the girls fed the pigeons, well, except for dd#2, who really hates pigeons. Marta took us shopping for a couple of hours, something the girls had all been looking forward to, before we drove back to her apartment for a home-cooked dinner with her and Jonathan. It was a wonderful meal and great fun. Tired, but happy, we drove back to Villanova Park for one last night before heading back to Frankfurt.

We got up on Wednesday, tried to stuff everything into our suitcases, fed the last of the milk to the campground cat, threw everything into the car and drove back to Reus to catch our plane back to Frankfurt. Although it rained Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, it stopped by 9 a.m., so it was sunny and warm in Spain, rainy and cold in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, the story of our lives here in Germany. *g* But, we're home, happy but tired, and still anxious to go back to sunny Barcelona sometime to see all the sights we couldn't fit into this trip. What a beautiful city!

First Day of School

2007-09-10T06:47:00.000+02:00

August 27, 2007 - the girls as they begin 12th, 9th and 7th grades.

I was more than a little sentimental because this is dd#1's last first day of school picture. Yes, she'll have other first days of school - or at least, first days of college. But, this is the last time she'll stand with her sisters and have a picture taken as they all head out the door to go to school together.

I think I was more affected by this than on her first day of school. I know she's ready and I'm sure she'll be fine, but I'm not ready for her to move on and not be a part of our day-to-day lives anymore. Maybe I'll be more ready by the end of this, her senior year. But right now, I want to have more time living with her.

When we had a 16-year-old Austrian girl living with us for two weeks this summer, as part of the international exchange program through dh's work, we asked her what surprised her about us, what preconceived notions she had about Americans before she arrived that she didn't see as being true. Other than the fact that we don't eat as much fast food as she thought we would, her biggest surprise was the amount of time we spend together, as a family. The fact that we eat dinner together every night, or as often as possible. And on the weekends, we often go places and do things together, whether it be going to the movies, out to eat, to festivals, shopping, whatever.

Now, I'll admit we have more family togetherness time as Americans living in Germany than we did or would have if we were back in our home in Elmhurst, IL. The girls don't have friends in our neighborhood here nor do they have as many friends as they had there. DD#1 can't drive in Germany, as she was just starting to before our move. And here there aren't the incessant number of softball games, tennis matches, school plays, concerts, etc. - in part because they're all at the same school, but also because there aren't the same after-school activities and sports here that are part of the daily life in suburban IL.

But, even so, we've always tried to have dinner together, as often as possible. Our Austrian visitor said that the mid-day meal is the big meal for them, which is also true of the Germans. But, since the girls are all at school and dh is at work, an hour away, there's no way for us to be together at that meal. The girls leave the house at 7:30 a.m. and return at 5 p.m., unless they have sports, from which they return at about 6:30 p.m. DH usually gets home around 6:30, so we try to hold dinner until he gets home most nights, unless he's traveling. But it's so important to us to know what's going on in each other's lives to be able to sit around the table together at dinner. We routinely go over each other's "best thing" that happened in the day, sometimes also the worst thing. It helps keep us connected as a family. Will dd#1 be phoning that in next year?

A big part of the reason that we do so much together as a family, whether it's at home eating dinner, watching a movie, or playing a game or if it's going out to dinner and a movie, going shopping, going to a festival or sporting event - whatever, we're together because we genuinely like being together. We like our children as people and so far, thank goodness, they seem to like being with us, at least most of the time. Yes, they enjoy going out with friends and having time to themselves, but they can't wait to tell us all about it when they get home. I like this and it gives me hope for even after they've all left home for college and beyond. I know we won't be as intimately involved in every detail of their lives, even after they get through college, but at least I think they'll still want to call and tell us of the big things going on with them. And I'm still going to want to hear about their "best thing."

Laundry in Germany

2007-08-11T14:13:00.000+02:00

Okay, I know I've mentioned before that I find it weird that I have to empty the water reservoir on my dryer after each load, just as I empty the lint trap. But there's much more to laundry in Germany that is different, and not entirely pleasing, as opposed to doing the wash back in the U.S.A.

I'll say it right at the start - I miss bleach. I didn't always use it, don't always need it, but when I want it, I want it. And the Germans don't believe in it. I can't find liquid bleach for the laundry or even a laundry detergent with bleach added. I'd be happy with a bleach pen for taking out tough stains, but no go. And for that matter, I really miss my Clorox Clean-up for cleaning the kitchen and bath. For me, nothing says my house is clean like the smell of bleach.

But, even beyond bleach, there are some definite disadvantages to the laundry system in Germany. The machines are generally much smaller than their equivalents in the U.S. Yes, I know German families are also generally smaller than U.S. families, but my U.S. family of 5 still makes a lot of laundry in Germany. I bought the largest washing machine they had at Media Markt, which isn't bad, but the dryer is still very small.

I know the dryer is smaller because many Germans don't dry their clothes in a dryer, or at least not all of their clothes. And now that my daughters are mostly all wearing junior sizes, most of their tops don't go in the dryer - especially those I've bought in Germany. So, I have a huge, German drying rack in the laundry room to accommodate all the clothes that don't go in the dryer.

The worst part of doing the wash, bar none, is the length of time it takes. When I do a load of whites, the machine clicks on for 2 1/2 hours!! Then, I move those whites to the dryer for another 2+ hours. I can't imagine it taking so long in the U.S. for one load of laundry. True, the delicate cycle isn't as long - but still well over 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. That's just crazy - with 5 people in the house, I can be doing laundry all day - everyday. Especially after we return from a trip - yikes!

Now, I will concede that it's possible that our clothes will last longer using the German washer & dryer - I don't know this for sure, but that's what I've been told and it seems possible to me. However, without bleach, there are many things that are irretrievably stained and have to get thrown out, so we have some attrition that we might not have in the U.S. And yes, I also believe that the German system is more energy efficient. It makes sense to me that we're using less energy and not heating the water as high as we do in the U.S., of course the cycle takes so much longer, I'm not sure how much energy is saved.

When I get back to the U.S., I may very well look for a front-loading washer, like my German one. I quite like that there's no agitator for clothes to get hooked on. And certainly my German washing machine uses much less detergent than my U.S. one does. But I want heat in my dryer again. There's nothing quite like taking soft warm clothes directly out of a U.S. dryer on a cold winter's day.

I know that Germans who work for dh's company and are moved to the U.S. can't wait to get back to Germany to use the German washer & dryer, because they think it's so much better and the clothes last so much longer. But I, for one, am definitely looking forward to getting back to my U.S. washer & dryer and being able to do a load in under an hour, from dirty to dry.

Our 1st Anniversary

2007-08-06T20:43:00.000+02:00

Well, we've been living in Germany for one year as of today. It's still amazing to me somehow that we live here, even more since we just returned from a month in the U.S. yesterday. I'm still in that jet lag twilight zone, made even more interesting because I'd gotten out of the habit of speaking German, what little I know, and hearing people speak to me in German. It seems so foreign to me again, although I'm sure we'll get back into the swing of things again soon.

A month in the U.S. made me realize how happy I'll be when we do move back, even though I like living in Europe and traveling all over. I spent a week in Elmhurst visiting all the friends and neighbors we've been missing for the past year and it was great. I really enjoyed seeing everyone and was so happy to see that it felt natural and conversations weren't stilted at all, even after not seeing them for a year. I hope that I can maintain that feeling with my friends and neighbors there over the remainder of our time in Germany. It was such a great feeling of homecoming to see them all this time.

Then we spent three weeks at our cottage in Upstate New York, like we have nearly every year since we've had children, and like I have almost every year of my life. It was great to have a week with just my sisters and their families to do the normal things we do every summer - dinner at my sister's cottage, going to movies, shopping at the outlet mall, etc. Then my dh arrived and a couple days later, his mother and niece arrived for 3 days. This was a lot of fun for all of us, as our niece is the same age as dd#3, so all the girls had a great time together, painting rocks, tubing, swimming, and at the local fair. Also, we hadn't seen dh's mother in a year-and-a-half, and she hadn't been to our cottage in many years, so it was great to have her visit.

After they left, dd#1's boyfriend, his parents, younger brother & sister all arrived for a week - which was a lot of fun. DD#1 was obviously thrilled to have them visit and really, we all were. Dh & I really enjoy the boyfriend's parents a lot - they're one of those couples that we both like and relate to, which is rare. All three of our girls get along great with all three of their kids, which is also rare. And the weather was mostly ideal the whole week that they were there. So it was perfect. Another of dd#1's friends, a guy who is her boyfriend's best friend, arrived on the last Monday and stayed through Friday as well, so everyone had fun. We toured the Cornell campus and engineering quad, which dd#1 found more interesting than I think she planned to. All-in-all, it was a wonderful vacation and made me sad to leave.

All during our time in the U.S., people asked me how we like living in Frankfurt. I found this hard to answer, although I could honestly say we love the traveling we've been doing since we're here. I could also be honest about the fact that the girls have made good friends here and are doing well in school, although I admit freely that the school in Frankfurt is not as academically challenging as the honors/gifted track they were all on at their schools in Elmhurst. This year, dd#1 will be academically challenged because she is taking 5 AP courses, which are just as challenging no matter where you take them. But dds#2&3 are definitely not being as challenged, especially in English - both reading & writing - as they would be in the U.S. and this bothers me. They have to rejoin their classmates in Elmhurst when we move back and I want them to be able to join the honors track that they'd be taking if they were still there for these years. So, I may sign them up for some supplemental enrichment courses.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm undecided about my overall impression of life here in Frankfurt. I've met some nice people and have made a couple of friends, although not anyone that I go shopping, out to lunch or even on day trips with. Maybe that will come. Of course, some of the friends I've made have either already moved or are moving this year, which is, of course, the nature of the beast when it comes to Expat life. I'm not sure that I would like this on a long-term basis, as I hate to make good friends and have them leave - like the one family we all really enjoyed so much this year who came and went already.

I've signed up for a lot of, maybe too many, volunteer positions this fall in order to meet more people, make more friends, and feel more connected. I spent a lot of time this past year alone in my house watching DVDs of U.S. TV shows, reading, scrapbooking, and sending emails. It was a very lonely year for me. Dh has work and even though he hasn't made a lot of personal friends there, he has a lot of colleagues he likes, respects and enjoys and he has contact with other adults all day every day. The girls have made friends at school and have fun with them at school and on the weekends. I've been living for when everyone gets home, which doesn't always help as the girls have homework or social engagements and dh is usually on his computer game, a lot. So, I'm hoping that this second year in Frankfurt gives me more of a chance to make a good friend or two who are home during the day and looking for things to do.

Overall, I'd say I'm enjoying the experience. I've been learning a lot, although my German isn't very good. I need more lessons, but dh's employer only agreed to pay for 6 mos. of classes for me. We're going to ask them to pay for more, as I'm the one who has the most contact w/German speakers. I love the travel and the incredible places we've seen. I'm looking forward to more of that, for sure. And, of course, I'm hoping that at least some of the people who have said they want to come visit us this year actually come - it's great to have company here. So, it's been an interesting year, a challenging one, sometimes a sad and frustrating one, often a lonely one, but also an exciting one. I guess that's a good thing, all-in-all.

Dining Out and In

2007-07-02T18:09:00.000+02:00

We've been living in Frankfurt for nearly 11 months now and the girls and I are anxiously anticipating our trip back to the U.S. this Friday. We're going to Elmhurst for a week and to our cottages in upstate NY for 3 weeks and we can't wait to see friends and family. But, we've also spent a lot of time talking about the various restaurants we want to visit while we're in the States and so, I can't help thinking about the differences in our dining habits since we've moved to Germany.

In the U.S., I didn't cook at home nearly as often as I do here. Certainly a part of the reason for that was the girls' busy schedules with sports and after-school activities that left little time some nights for eating dinner, never mind cooking it. But, part of the reason we ate our more in the U.S. was that we like to eat out and there's no shortage of fairly inexpensive, family-style restaurants to choose from. That is definitely not the case here.

Over the past 11 months, I don't think we went out to eat more than twice a month on average, except when we were on a trip somewhere. In fact, I got a coupon for four dinners out for a birthday gift in September and I'm not sure I even used up all my choices. Whenever we've had company visit us, we've taken them out to eat, and always first to the little Pakistani/German restaurant and biergarten across the street from our house. They've gotten to know us now, even though there's still quite a language barrier, and even wave when they see us in our driveway.

But mostly we eat in now. By the time the girls get home from school, it's between 5 and 6:30 p.m., depending on whether they have sports or not. They have homework to do and it's usually too time-consuming to go out. Especially since the dh is rarely home before 7 p.m. So, I do a lot more cooking than I ever think I've done before and I've even instituted the Sunday night dinner plan. Each week, one of the girls is in charge of planning and cooking dinner on Sunday and has to tell me by the previous Wednesday what they need me to buy for their meal. We rotate each week and it's been working out nicely.

Dining out here is just so different. Certainly, it takes longer, which is why we really can't go out on a school night. But even beyond that, there are a lot of differences. Often when we enter a popular restaurant between 6 and 7 p.m., there are many empty tables but we can't be seated because all the tables are reserved. And the reserved sign often indicates the time of the reservation - sometimes as late as 8:30 or 9 p.m. We can sometimes squeeze in by convincing the host that, as Americans, we'll eat quickly and leave the table long before the party who has reserved it arrives. Typically, Germans eat later than we normally do and they linger. There's no such thing as a second seating - when you're seated at a table, it's yours for the duration. In fact, for lunch, there is one seating and if the restaurant is full, they'll turn you away at the door. There's no second seating at lunch either, because the restaurants often close mid-afternoon and then open again for dinner.

If you can get a table, you have to decide if you want to sit inside or out. Sidewalk cafes and outdoor tables are very popular - everyone seems to prefer to eat outside. For us, since we're used to air conditioned restaurants in the summer, it's often best to eat outside on the chance of catching a breeze. There will be no a/c and certainly no air movement inside. And, of course, Germany is lagging behind other EU countries in terms of smoking prohibitions, so it's always easier to breath outside as well. Nearly every restaurant has tables outside, even Subway and McDonald's. Although at a more fast-food type of restaurant or cafe, the outside tables might be chest-high w/no chairs - just made to stand at while you eat your food.

From what we've seen, there are basically only two types of restaurants here. You can choose very fast food - McDonald's, a Donner/gyros stand with a couple of tables, a bakery that makes their rolls into sandwiches at lunch time, or a sausage stand where you get a foot-long sausage with a 2-inch roll at the center that's mostly a way to hold the sausage. Or you can choose a more elaborate, sit-down, dinner-takes-a-couple-of-hours-at-least-and-isn't-cheap restaurant. But what really seems to be missing is the TGIFriday's, Denny's, Friendly's type of family sit-down restaurant where you can get a fairly inexpensive meal in a decent amount of time. There's a Pizza Hut not too far from us and that's as close as we've found to a family style restaurant. The Pakistani/German restaurant across the street is family-owned and operated, and very hospitable to our kids and the family we bring to eat there, but it's not the same. Most of the non-fast food restaurants we've tried have had good food and a nice atmosphere, but they are more expensive than a simple dinner out would be in the U.S., so we don't do it often.

My last dinig-related observations deal with dogs. It's still somewhat surprising to me to walk into one of these nice restaurants and have to step over or around a dog that's lying next to your table. Dogs seem to be welcome pretty much everywhere and we've seen a lot of them in restaurants. Dogs, mind you, but not doggy bags, as they don't exist. You don't take home the part of your meal you didn't eat. I suppose if you brought a Tupperware dish with you and stuck it in your purse, you could do it. But the restaurant certainly isn't going to provide you with a doggie bag.

After a month in the U.S., it'll be interesting to come back and give some thought to the things that seemed weird to us at restaurants in the States - like suddenly getting big glasses, filled w/ice, and free refills. I'm interested to see how many differences I notice, but I'm also really looking forward to trying some of our all-time favorites at the places we used to love.

End of School!

2007-07-01T08:16:00.000+02:00

Well, the first school year is complete, and everyone is definitely relieved! The girls all thought it unfair that their friends back in the U.S. were done with school at least 3 weeks before they were, but finally they have finished final exams and made it through the end of the year. DD#3 had to go one day longer than her two older sisters, but next year they'll all be in the secondary school and all be done with classes on the same day. Of course, by then, DD#1 will have to go back on the last day anyway - to graduate!

Everyone did well at the awards assemblies. DD#1 got a nice crystal globe trophy for being named the most improved student in the 11th grade. This is because when she arrived at the beginning of the year, all the other students already had class rank based on their previous years at the school, so she was ranked last. She ended up in 3rd place, so that makes her most improved! She also got a citizenship award and the best German as a foreign language award, so she was pleased. DD#2 got the top award in ITC, which is computing. She also got an award for the math competition she was in and finished well. DD#3 got top marks in art as well as a silver and bronze award for gym. The report cards are in yet, but we've seen most of the final grades online and they look pretty good overall. So, I'd say it was a pretty successful year for them all.

All three girls have already begun their summer reading lists. The school requires two books for each of them and recommends several more. Mom requires several additional ones, including essays to be written on what they've read in the next few weeks. In fact, "Mom School" this summer is all about reading, writing, and a little German practice. Except for DD#1, who is relieved that she is done w/her high school language requirements. She just found out she passed her AP Spanish exam, too, so she's happy not to have to think about German or Spanish next year.

It's hard to believe that we now have a 7th grader, 9th grader, and a high school senior in our house. This is the beginning of the end for us in terms of our life with three school-aged children at home. By this time next year, dd#1 will be a high school graduate, a rising college freshman, and hopefully preparing to enter one of the schools she's most enthusiastic about. She's hoping to spend 3 weeks in Australia at this time next year, as part of dh's company's exchange program, which will make her summer short and even more crazy next year. But, it should also be an incredible life experience just before entering college. Yes, things will be very different by this time next year, so we'll have to be sure to enjoy each moment in the coming 12 months.

AWCT trip to Normandy

2007-06-12T16:36:00.000+02:00

The weekend of May 17-20, 2007 was the Ascension Day holiday - a 4-day weekend from school and work - and we decided to sign up for the Normandy bus trip with the American Women's Club of the Taunus. AWCT plans some wonderful trips and I've heard nothing but praise from anyone who's taken them, so we decided we'd try taking a trip that was pre-planned for us and didn't involve hours of driving for my dh. I'm so glad we did!

Two busloads of mostly American families headed out early on Thursday morning for France. We were on the bus for families of older kids, although we "traded" our middle daughter to the other bus, so she could sit with one of her friends. Her friend's brother, the same age as our dd#3, came to our bus and played cards with dds #1&3 the whole weekend. I really enjoyed talking with other American couples - which we don't get to do often - and getting to know families from the other international school in Frankfurt.

The trip was a lot of fun - for all of us. The D-Day battlefields, beaches and American cemetery were fascinating and awe-inspiring - I'm really glad we went. I found it heartening to see Americans regarded with thanks and pleasure, as I'm afraid we've grown quite used to the deragatory comments we hear often from Germans regarding George Bush and America's role in global politics. Here there were flowers recently placed on the graves of unknown American soldiers who landed in France more than 60 years ago, as well as a mother teaching her young children about the American's who died for them, to free France from the Nazis. I couldn't hold back a few tears. And we were all amazed by the battlefields along the beach, where craters were left behind from bombs hitting the ground.

We also saw the cathedral at Reims, the Bayeux tapestry, the Peace Museum in Caen, had a 2-hour walking tour of Rouen, visited Mont-St-Michel and the Giverny gardens. Everything was beautiful! It was quite a bit packed into a long weekend, but was easier to do since we weren't doing the driving & planning. Even dh enjoyed it, although his knee was a bit of a problem, since he injured it playing basketball the previous weekend, while I was on an AWCT shopping trip to Nove, Italy.

We got very excited about the types of trips available through the AWCT and are hoping to take one to Krakow & Auschwitz in September and more throughout the upcoming year. It's great to have things all arranged and ready for us, the prices are reasonable and I really enjoy traveling with other American families and an English-speaking tour guide. And even 4 days on a bus wasn't too tough. :)

Our day in Cheb

2007-05-03T21:21:00.000+02:00

DD#1 recently celebrated her 17th birthday and her wish list included a lot of clothes, shoes, and purses - basically, a desire to go shopping. So, since we had a 4-day weekend in honor of Labor Day on May 1st, we decided to give her some money to spend at the Asian Dragon Bazaar - basically a knock-off market - located in the Czech Republic town of Cheb.

We left early in the morning on Monday, April 30, after dropping my car off for service. It should have been a 3 1/2 hour drive, but it took 4 hours, because the last hour is spent on windy little roads. Cheb obviously has a higher elevation than Frankfurt - our ears were popping and the temperature was dropping. It was sunny and beautiful when we arrived in the Czech Republic, but temps. were only in the low 60's, as opposed to the high 70's in Frankfurt.

The drive from Frankfurt to Cheb was predominantly rural - lots of farmland and fields of bright yellow flowering plants. We've since learned this is rape seed, but it looked like mustard to me. There were some villages and businesses along the way, but mostly fields, rolling hills, and lots and lots of trees.

The Asian Dragon Bazaar reminded us all a lot of the knock-off market we visited when we were in Shanghai 2 years ago. They advertise 400 shopping "booths," although I kept losing my sense of direction, as it all looked the same, so I don't have a clue as to how many booths we visited. Fortunately, everyone did well on their shopping, and haggling, routine - we walked away with several tops for each daughter, as well as a number of purses and DD#1 even got some shoes. We bought a few DVDs, but haven't had a chance to see if they work yet or now.

We had lunch at what claimed to be a traditional Czech restaurant, although the menu choices seemed to be very similar to German restaurants. Unfortunately, we sat down to eat fairly late in the lunch hour, so many of the things we requested were not available. But, everyone was able to find something to fill them up for a couple more hours of shopping after lunch.

After we'd bartered all we could take, we packed up our goodies and headed to the Cheb Tesco. We have to make a stop at a grocery store in every country we visit and DD#1 is infatuated w/Tesco from our trips to the UK, so she was thrilled to see they had one in Cheb. The Czech language is so different than any other we're used to, it was impossible to know what we were looking at much of the time. But, it's always interesting to see what people are eating in another country. We bought some snacks and drinks and started out on our 4-hour drive back to Frankfurt.

The only bad part of the trip, at least for me, was that I suffered an allergic reaction in the car. I didn't dare eat most of the things we bought in Cheb, since I had no idea what was in them and I have life-threatening food allergies. So, instead I snacked on a sandwich cookie that the girls brought from home - one they eat all the time, but I'd obviously never eaten before, even though I thought I had. While I was taking a turn driving, I started getting hot and itchy, particularly my neck, chin, and eyebrows. By the time we stopped for dinner, I looked like I'd been out in the hot sun all day and I was still itchy, but I didn't have any hives or itching inside my mouth, which has always been the precursor to a serious reaction. I took 4 Benadryl in the car and drank 2 bottles of water, but didn't have to use my Epi-Pen, thank God. Turns out, the sandwich cookie contains hazel nuts, which are a definite no-no for me. I was very shaky and uncomfortable all day Tuesday, and still a bit into Wednesday, but at least it wasn't a serious reaction.

Overall, I'd say our trip was a big success. Not only did DD#1 enjoy her birthday shopping, but all the girls had fun, bought themselves a few things and bought gifts for friends. I even got a new purse for myself and dh got some DVDs. It's not a difficult drive and made for a good day trip. It'd be nice to go back sometime with the idea of staying in a local castle hotel and seeing a bit of the Czech Republic while we're there. Dh has been a few times before and really enjoyed it. All-in-all, another successful day trip for the Deane's in Europe.

Our Italy trip...

2007-04-15T15:45:00.000+02:00

...or how dh drove 2,000 miles in 10 days through 315 tunnels on the narrow, twisty, crowded, mountain roads of Switzerland and Italy.

We just returned from our longest trip yet since living in Europe – 10 days in Italy, with a stop over in Luzern, Switzerland on the way. My oldest sister and her husband flew into Frankfurt to join us. We spent a couple of days in Germany before we started our trip, visiting an Easter Egg market in Luisenpark in Mannheim on April 1 – the flowers in the park were incredibly beautiful and it felt like spring.

We headed out on Monday, April 2 for Luzern to visit my sister’s former exchange student and her family there. The drive was rainy and, although we stopped at a great Auto Grill for lunch, not as spectacular as it was on the return trip in the sunshine. We had a wonderful visit, a terrific tradition Swiss dinner of Raclette cheese and vegetables and a great time touring Luzern on Tuesday. But, we had to drive all the way to Venice on Tuesday, so we left Luzern by mid-afternoon. The drive through the mountains and around the lakes was lovely, every view more breathtaking than the next.

We arrived at our hotel in Noale on Tuesday evening and were pleasantly surprised at how large and beautiful the rooms were. We each had a suite, really, with a separate living room and kitchenette. We spent 4 nights in this hotel, so it was great to have so much room, plus a good breakfast each morning. On Wednesday morning, we walked to the train station to take the train into Venice. What an experience it was taking the city boat down the Grand Canal. I found it fascinating to wonder why people chose to live in Venice, where travel was so difficult and logistics seems very complicated. We saw boats full of everything – cases of water bottles, construction debris, fruits & vegetables, as well as tourists. If something needs to be somewhere in Venice, it goes by boat.

We caught a free water taxi ride to the island of Murano on Wednesday morning. We were ushered into a glass blowing demonstration and then toured an exclusive shop – where my dh bought me a beautiful Murano glass bead necklace and matching earrings – an early Mother’s day gift. We all did some souvenir shopping and then had an outdoor lunch in a courtyard. Although it was windy in Murano, the weather continued to be beautiful.

After wandering Venice more in the afternoon, we took the train back to Noale for a delicious dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant, a little past 7 p.m., the lights weren’t even on. We thought they were closed, not realizing until much later in the week that Italians generally eat much later in the evening. Our food was fantastic and we even took a picture of the girls at the pizza oven before heading home exhausted to our beds. Thursday was more of Venice, starting with the Accademia art gallery, after a long wait to get in. We strolled over to Piazza San Marco and left dh and dds#1&3 feeding the pigeons while dd#2, my sister, brother-in-law and I went into the Bascilica di San Marco. After more strolling through Venice, it was back to Noale that night for another great dinner and a walk through the ruins of the castle there. We also started to notice that restaurants were not only empty at 7:30 or 8 p.m., but even when other guests started arriving, very few were women.

Friday morning, we drove west about 1 ½ hours from Noale to Garda Lake. Dh dropped dd#1, my sister, brother-in-law and me off at Sirmione while he took dds#2&3 to Gardaland, Italy’s largest amusement park. Again, another beautiful day with incredible views from the castle in Sirmione, as well as the boat we took across Lake Garda to Desenzano. The amusement park crowd had a great time as well and we all got in the car to drive back. However, we took a detour and stopped in Verona for a quick visit to “Juliette’s house,” balcony and all. We had a lovely dinner at a sidewalk café next to the ancient ruins in Verona before driving back to Noale for one last night in the hotel.

Saturday morning, we were up fairly early and on the road south to the Marches area of Italy. We made a stop along the way to put our toes in the Adriatic Sea and have a delicious lunch in Senigallia. Then we continued on through some of the most beautiful scenery yet to the small town of Arcevia. Our hotel was literally on the top of the mountain, requiring lots of switchbacks and hairpin turns to reach. But the view was lovely once we got to the top.

We chose Arcevia because this is the area of Italy from which my BIL’s mother emigrated to the US in 1910. We armed ourselves with a sheet of Babel fish translated phrases, hoping to find someone who remembered her family or perhaps knew of any of the relatives who had not left the area. The woman at the front desk of our hotel told us of a small shop in the town square that was owned by a couple with the same last name, so we headed there right away, hoping they were still open on the Saturday afternoon before Easter. Luckily they were, although they spoke no English and my sister had only had the most basic lessons in Italian. When we determined as best we could that they were not the same family, we headed out through downtown Arcevia. Dh found a beautiful old monastery that housed the tourist information office, which was also open. While the woman there didn’t speak much English, she was interested in our translated questions and proceeded to show us the buildings vast art collection of a local artist named Bruno d’Arcevia. Although it was interesting art, we were trying to get her to tell us where we could find a cemetery that might help us to trace some of the family. While we were there, though, we found a book on the even smaller town of Piticchio, which is part of the Arcevia area and what my BIL’s grandmother listed as their hometown on the ship manifest at Ellis Island. So, my sister bought the book, which is entirely in Italian, and we headed out to Piticchio.

Driving through this area of the country was simply breathtaking. Each little valley led to a hill with a castle or fortress or incredibly old village of some sort. When we made it to Piticchio, it really took the cake. The whole village was 43 houses within the walls of the ancient castle, a step back into the Middle Ages. While strolling through the cobblestone streets, we stumbled on a small café for a drink. My BIL showed his sheet of phrases to the men in the café (always men again) and one literally grabbed his arm and took off. My BIL rode with the Italian-speaking old man and we followed in our car as he took us to three different places looking for relatives. While we didn’t seem to find anyone, we did find a restaurant for dinner, the Piccolo Ranch.

When we said goodbye to our travel guide, we went into the Piccolo Ranch for another delicious dinner. At one point, Angelo Sgreccia, the owner, came to our table and read the translated sheet we carried everywhere. Although he didn’t speak much English, he told us that Bruno d’Arcevia would come to the restaurant at 9 p.m. to meet us. When he arrived, he quickly confirmed that he and my BIL were 2nd cousins, sharing a grandfather on the Bruni side of the family. We had a wonderful evening, listening to his stories of the family, his own life as an artist with galleries in New York, LA, at Ohio State University and the recent sales of his paintings in Russia. He autographed calendars he’d made for the ranch for each family and gave my sister & BIL a signed book of his art as well as his address in Rome, phone numbers and email address. He bought our dinner and toasted us with the special grappa of the owner, who also turned out to be a cousin of my BIL’s on the other side of the family. It was an incredible day.

The next day, Easter Sunday, we drove back to Piticchio and attended services in the small church there. Although it was all in Italian, it was very interesting. We were supposed to meet up with Bruno d’Arcevia after 1 p.m. to go with him to the University of Ancona and see the mural he’s working on there. However, we called all afternoon with no success. So, we decided to drive to Ripalta, the very small village where the Bruni ancestors were supposed to have lived. Again, we found a group of men at the café, showed them our translated letter and found no one who spoke English. We had just about given up when one of them made a cell phone call and said someone would be there in 15 minutes. So, they invited us into the café, bought us all a drink and we waited, although we didn’t know who was coming. It turned out to be Gianni, another Bruni relative, a 1st cousin to Bruno d’Arcevia and 2nd cousin to my BIL, as well as his son Matteo. Gianni is a businessman with excellent English. He actually travels often to Chicago and Frankfurt for the same housewares conventions that Dh goes to. It was wonderful to find another link to the family and more information for the family tree. Again, everyone was incredibly gracious and helpful, even with limited communication.

We left the café for a small farm type of restaurant, where we jumped into the end of the Easter Sunday dinner. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel in Arcevia for a little down time to play games and relax. Monday morning, we were up and on the road early, trying to beat the traffic that would be crossing the mountains in central Italy on that holiday.

We drove from Arcevia to Genoa, stopping in Pisa to see the leaning tower. The tower itself is quite beautiful, as are the other buildings in the piazza. Unfortunately, the area around the tower is filled with hawkers selling belts, purses, toys, souvenirs, and other junk, making it crazy to walk through and very loud. We took our pictures, bought some trinkets and got back on the road quickly.

A friend of the family lives in the Genoa area and had arranged our hotel for us, which we arrived at late Monday afternoon. After making arrangements to meet her at 8:30 for dinner, we had a little time to rest, read and for the girls to play more games. Our hotel was right on the boardwalk in Arenzano, which was lively and filled with tourists, restaurants, shops and gelaterias. We had a great dinner with our friends and made plans to meet early for a tour of Portofino.

Again, Portofino amazed me with the beauty of the land. It’s not a big town, so we walked up to the castle and were thrilled with the view. We took lots of pictures, bought postcards, some t-shirts and gifts, and headed back to Genoa for lunch. That afternoon, we walked through Genoa, saw the revitalized waterfront and visited Europe’s largest aquarium. Everyone got a chance to pet the rays and see the dolphins, before we headed back to the cars to drive to a great pizza place for dinner. After incredible pizza, the best of the trip in my opinion, we said our good-byes and returned to the hotel. Wednesday morning, we were up and out early, ready for the 8-hour drive back to Frankfurt.

Frankly, there wasn’t a part of the trip I didn’t enjoy immensely – everything was incredible. I saw some beautiful places, both the incredible curiosity of Venice, the shoreline of Genoa and Portofino, the hilltop fortresses of Arcevia, and the mountain beauty of Luzern. I could have spent the time taking gorgeous pictures, if I had the talent and a better camera, but at least the ones I took will remind me of the beauty I saw.

Of course, we had incredible food everywhere we went. I will forever be spoiled by the fresh pastas and incredible risotto, never mind some good tiramisu and great lemon gelato. I will say that the lunches we had in Venice were not of the same quality of the food we had everywhere else and the cost was definitely higher – it’s just such a tourist trap. We had some great Proseco, which we discovered dds#1&3 like, but not dd#2. We had some good wines along the way, of course, and even a taste of lemoncello and grappa – neither of which made a good impression on me, but then, I’m not much of a drinker.

The hotels were all nicer than I had expected them to be, although certainly the one in Noale was by far the best and the one in Genoa was by far the noisiest. Everyone we met was very friendly and happy to help, even though we didn’t speak much Italian and they might not speak much English. Like everywhere else, the tourist areas in Venice and Genoa had many more English speakers than the small towns near Arcevia. But, the villagers certainly went out of their way to help us, even if we didn’t understand them.

We can’t wait to go back to Italy sometime in the future and see Florence and Rome, and maybe more of Tuscany and the southern parts of Italy. Dd#1 wants to go to Bologna with her father sometime to eat their pastas, since he’s raved about it so in the past. And I can’t say as I blame her –we’ve never had better pasta than we did everywhere we went in Italy. All-in-all, it was a perfect vacation – even the weather cooperated. It just couldn’t have been better.

Ski Break - February 2007

2007-03-11T13:08:00.000+01:00

Yep, the girls get a week off in mid-February for "Ski break" - pretty fun, huh?! So, since the dh had to go to a business meeting in Innsbruck, Austria, we decided to join him. First, the girls & I took the train into Munich for a couple of days. We had a great time at the Deutches Museum and could have spent more time there. Very "hands on" and lots of cool exhibits. We also enjoyed the walking around Munich and visiting the Residence - the former palace. Then we caught the train from Munich to Innsbruck, where the views are truly breathtaking.

Innsbruck is right up there with the most beautiful places I've visited so far. It helped that it was sunny and gorgeous while we were there, although not really the best skiing weather. We did hit the slopes on 2 afternoons, but also visited the Swarovski Crystal museum, drove through Brenner pass into Italy for shopping & a late lunch, and enjoyed a guided tour of the old town in Innsbruck. It was a lovely vacation & really just incredible sights.

On the drive home, we stopped in Neuschwanstein - Mad Ludwig's castle in southern Germany. Again, a breath-taking sight. This is the castle that inspired Walt Disney in designing Cinderella's castle at Disneyland. It's up on a hill, overlooking some beautiful scenery, and looks like it's right out of a fairy tale.

This trip coincided with our 6 month anniversary of being in Germany and was quite a nice way to celebrate. I definitely want to go back to Austria and visit Salzbury & Vienna. I've heard wonderful things about Vienna and, of course, I want to take the "Sound of Music" tour of Salzburg. I know it's something only American's do, but I love that movie and partly because of the scenery. So, maybe we'll go back in summer - who knows? But, we'll definitely go back to Austria - it is absolutely gorgeous.

The Orkan has landed...

2007-01-18T19:04:00.000+01:00

An Orkan has overtaken Germany & the Benelux and, no, it's not an episode from Mork & Mindy. We're in the throws of a severe wind storm - aka the "Orkan," which apparently means gale force winds in German. The girls got out of school at noon and my dh was home by 3 p.m. - all for wind. True, it's raining, but the temperatures have been in the mid- to upper-50's for the past 2 days. The winds are supposed to get as high as 50 mph in the Frankfurt area before the end of the night. A couple of nearby towns have had predictions of gusts up to 70-90 mph. It's very windy, but it's only wind.

So, anyway, we had a half-day of hookey, all due to the high winds. Hopefully it won't be bad tomorrow as well, as we're supposed to have 2 girls from the Bavarian International School spending the night with us tomorrow since they'll be in town for the International school swim tournament on Saturday and needed families to stay with. Here's hoping we don't blow away!

Christmas in Germany

2006-12-20T08:05:00.000+01:00

We've been living in Germany for 4 months now and, as the holiday season approaches, I've taken some time to reflect on how we're doing in our adjustment. Christmas is a beautiful time in Germany. The Christmas markets, Weihnachtmarkts, are charming and a lot of fun to visit. We've been to ones in Frankfurt, Michelstadt, Rothenburg, Seiffen and Mannheim and enjoyed each one for the differences and similarities. The markets are filled with booths of traditional Christmas decorations, traditional German food and drink, clothing, candles, jewelry, toys and other gifts.

The girls seem to be adjusting well and have some nice friends. They all did well on the first round of finals at the end of Term I. DDs 2&3 were recently in the school play, which was a big success and a lot of fun. They've all been involved in donating food & other items for delivery to local needy families through the school. All-in-all, I think they're doing well, although very excited to be going back to the US for Christmas.

DD#1 recently got her PSAT scores back and they were excellent. We're planning a college visit trip to the New York city area in January, and then she begins the long journey of 2007, with SATs and ACTs, 3-4 SAT II subject tests, AP tests, ICGSE and A- and C-level British University tests, choosing schools, writing essays and finally, applying to colleges. She seems pretty excited about it all, which is good, but I'm more than a little nervous to be sending her back to the US for college while we're still living in Germany.

For me, I'm trying to get more involved in the American Women's club, although I haven't really found a connection yet. I had a great time on a recent shopping trip to Poland and met a woman I really enjoyed. I also email another board member who I really like, although we haven't gotten to know each other well yet. Basically, I've met some very nice people, but there's no one person whom I can see and sit with at club events, someone to meet up on our own and go shopping or to lunch. I'm living in Germany, but still haven't made a life for myself here yet. Fortunately, though, I think dh and the children have, at least a little.

On a lighter note, we send a Christmas letter to our friends & family every year and this year, I created a list, in the style of David Letterman, of the top 10 ways you know you’re an American living in Frankfurt. So, here's my list:

10. Your bed pillows are square and there’s no box spring or top sheet on the bed.
9. When your laundry is finished, you empty both the link trap and the water reservoir from the dryer.
8. At the grocery store, you load your groceries into bags you brought from home, or just lose into the cart, push the cart (which has 4 wheels that rotate independently) down the escalator and through the mall to your car, and then push the cart back to the store to get the one Euro coin you had to insert to release this cart from the rest.
7. When waiting at a railroad crossing for the train (or trains) to pass, you shut off the ignition of your car – or else some helpful German will come and remind you to do it.
6. If you haven’t purchased something by 2 p.m. on Saturday, the chances are slim that the store will still be open. And if you need anything on a Sunday, tough luck, unless you’re willing to drive to the Frankfurt airport grocery store.
5. When eating at a restaurant, you must ask the waiter to bring your bill or you’ll be there all night. When they bring it, have the money ready, as they’ll wait at the table for you to pay. And the bill will be written something like 56,25 Euro – because when it comes to numbers, decimal points and commas are reversed.
4. Puten is turkey (well, hen turkey, anyway) and is available in so many more forms than in the States. Puten steaks, puten schnitzel, puten goulash, etc. – and it’s all delicious!
3. Instead of the 5 gallons of milk we bought weekly at Sam’s club in the States, we carry home 2 cases of milk in 1 -liter boxes, half of which is heat-treated and doesn’t need refrigeration.
2. Germans are nice people, always willing to help in any way they can, but don’t expect them to smile or speak to you in passing on the street.
1. You eat delicious pretzels, pretzel rolls, pretzel croissants, pretzel baguettes, and pretzel sticks nearly every day, and there are still hundreds of types of incredible German breads yet to try!

There are many things that are difficult about living here, but there are many wonderful things as well. We have trips planned to Belgium/Holland, Austria, Munich, and Italy, and that's just in the next 6 months. We're meeting interesting and exciting people who have lived all over the world and learning things we never would have experienced in the US. Our kids are getting an education that we couldn't afford to give them, or even find, if we still lived in Illinois. We like our home, we like Frankfurt, and the girls (usually) like their school. It's all good...but we're really looking forward to going back to the US to see family & friends for the holidays. Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas & a happy & prosperous 2007!

October in Paris...

2006-11-09T21:36:00.000+01:00

is wet.

We chose to spend the first week-long vacation of the girls' school year in Paris, not knowing that dh wouldn't be able to get that week off work. So, we combined two vacations into one - spending the weekend w/him at Disneyland Paris and then 4 days w/out him in the City of Lights. I think it worked out to be a great vacation for all of us.

We drove to Disneyland on Friday evening - it took about 5 hours. So, when we arrived at our Disney hotel - the Santa Fe - we just checked into our rooms and went to sleep. We wanted to be ready for a full day of park fun on Saturday.

Both Disneyland and the Walt Disney Studios are much smaller than any of the parks at Walt Disney World in Florida, so we were about to see almost everything we wanted to see in the 2 days we were there. Buzz Lightyear was a big hit w/everyone, as always.

We're a big Disney family. Dh & I went to WDW for our honeymoon and we've been back 4 times w/the kids. We love this stuff and had a great time going on rides and seeing the sights. We've never stayed in an on-sight hotel before - and we won't do it again. They cater to families of 4, so w/5 of us, we had to get 2 rooms. We bought a package that included 2 nights in the rooms, breakfast and the tickets to the park - and it was very expensive. The food wasn't great - either at breakfast or at the so-called Tex-Mex buffet dinner. Next time we go back, and we will, we'll stay somewhere nearby that's cheaper.

Dh left on Sunday evening for the drive back to home and we hopped on the train into Paris. After 2 changes and a walk to our hostel, all the way dragging our luggage, we were beat. The youth hostel was cheap and we certainly didn't get anything we didn't pay for. We had 2 sets of bunk beds, 2 40-watt light bulbs and a sink. The shower & toilet were in the hall. We had to rent sheets and towels and we were locked out the hostel from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Worst of all for me, our room was 1 floor about the patio, where the other "youth" went to smoke, and talk, at all hours of the night. Breakfast was a sad little affair of bread, butter, jam and juice, with optional cereal - all served in the "cave" under the main floor. But, the location was grand.

We were a few blocks from the Metro stop and not far from the Hotel d'Invalides. We could see the Eiffel tower from the top of our street, although not actually from the hostel. One evening, we got to see the light show as we walked home from dinner.

We bought tickets for a 2 day hop-on/hop-off bus tour that took us to all the major sights. We got off and visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc d'Triomphe, the Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame and Sacre C'oeur. The girls really liked going up the Eiffel Tower, even though it was raining and so foggy and windy at the top we could hardly see anything. The view was somewhat better at the top of the Arc d'Triomphe, and the shopping was fun at the bottom. We all enjoyed the Musee d'Orsay - both in seeing the famous painting they knew and watching art students copying the great masters.

On the next to last day, we took a bus tour out to Versailles, with a guided tour of the aparments and free time to wander the gardens. Of course, it was October, so there was hardly anything in bloom - and lots of construction - but it was still quite impressive. And we were all pleased to find a little cafe hidden in the gardens - me because there was a ladies room w/no line and the girls because I sprung for ice cream and chocolate crepes while we were there.

We did some Christmas shopping and ate some good food while enjoying the sights of Paris. We had Chinese at a tiny little restaurant that we ran to in a downpour. We ate Italian just up the street from our hotel that was excellent. We went to a bar the first night and had great food outside on the sidewalk - in the rain. And we ate at a lot of little French places - where I always got the best tasting food. We were so tired every night, we mostly fell right to sleep. Except the last day, when we had time to watch episodes of the Gilmore Girls on dd#1's laptop.

We boarded a train in Paris for the return trip to Frankfurt and it was a good trip. I had a minor heart attack after our first stop, when the train started going backwards - in the direction we'd come from. I could find no one on the train to ask whether we should have gotten off and changed trains, so I was a nervous wreck for some time. Eventually, we stopped at more stops and I found an English-speaking German man who said we stayed in our seats until Frankfurt. We were disappointed that there was no dining car and the snack trolly only came by once, before we'd even come to the first stop. And I was disappointed that we got into Frankfurt an hour late, and then had to take 2 U-bahn trains to get home - so we were beat when we arrived.

But, it was a great trip. We had a long weekend left to recover before school started on Monday and plenty of time for laundry & groceries. DDs #2&3 got to go trick-or-treating on the US Consulate compound on Saturday and they all went to a Halloween party there on Sunday, so that rounded out a great week's vacation from school. We ended up with three very distinct parts of the vacation - Disney w/Dad, Paris w/Mom, and a "slugfest" at home. A great time was had by all.

A visit from home...

2006-10-28T12:53:00.000+02:00

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"

2006-10-04T22:32:00.000+02:00

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...

2006-10-01T18:01:00.000+02:00

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...

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

2006-09-14T16:11:00.000+02:00

Cars! Dh gets a company car, although right now it's a tiny loaner that's a tight fit for our family of 5. They're ordering him a nice new Volvo XC-90, which is a plush SUV with seats for 7, which we can't wait to get. I say ordering, because you can't walk into a car dealer in Germany, pick out a new car, sign your contracts, pay your money, and drive it home. You pick it out, option by option, and they build it specifically for you - over two months time.

And I mean option by option. Not just things like automatic transmission (which is rare), or CD players or a navigation system (basically a must here for us). I'm talking - do you want air conditioning? Do you want hooks to hang your dry cleaning on? Do you want cup holders? If so, how many? (In German cars, these are more rare and so small as to be practically useless.) Every little thing must be ordered individually. So, since it takes about 2 months for them to build the car, and since the "car guy" at dh's work is on a 3-week vacation, so he won't get it ordered until at least the end of September - we won't get it until nearly Christmas. But, at least we have a car to use in the meantime.

So, we started looking for a car for me even before we moved, but got serious about it within the past 3 weeks. I checked out every car we passed on the street and spent hours on a used car website, which is very good by the way and in English. Dh talked at length with people he works with, got suggestions and even went to see a couple of cars. At first, I was thinking small station wagon or mini-van. But, since dh's car will seat 7, we can use it when we have visitors or for family car trips. Besides, the company pays dh's gas - a huge benefit here where the cost of gas is 2-3 times what it is in the States.

So, I changed my thoughts and started looking at small hatchbacks. I don't like sedans, as I'm always hauling stuff for something or other and I don't like being limited by a trunk. I wanted 4 doors and seats for 5, so there's room for the girls and I and maybe even a friend. I will have to drive to their school once a week to coach Destination Imagination teams and volunteer at the library. On those days, Illl probably bring the girls home w/me. I could take the train, (and will this week), but it takes over an hour and I'll always have lots of stuff to haul with me.

Well, I narrowed it down to VW Golf's and a few other small hatchbacks, and we found a Golf in our price range last Saturday. We couldn't take it for a test drive, as they had no plates to put on it due to some car show, and we couldn't buy it, because someone had a reservation on it until Monday. In Germany, you can make a reservation to test drive a car and take it for several days when you do. Anyway, on Monday the dealer called and said the reservation was lifted and the car was mine. I took two trains and a bus to the dealership on Wednesday to fill out the paperwork - taking dh's & my passports, our registration documents, our visas, dh's paystub, our bank info. and a ton of other stuff w/me. I was hoping to take the test drive for however many days it was going to take to process everything and drive the car home that night. Still, however, they had no dealer plates, so it was back to the train station for me.

I got a call last night that the financing went through, so I have to go back on Monday - two trains and a bus again - to take the paperwork dh had to sign and his passport, which they'll keep overnight. Tuesday, they'll get the license plates, clean the car, inspect it and call me to come get it. Of course, I'm off on a day trip all day Tuesday with the American Women's Club, but I hope I'll get back before 6 p.m. (and can get someone to drop me in the general vicinity of the dealership) so I can drive the car home on Tuesday. Of course, then I'll need to go buy my navigation system - one that speaks English - or I'll never be able to drive any further than the mall or the school. :)

While looking at cars constantly these last 3 weeks, I noticed something fairly significant, in my eyes, anyway. Germans don't have bumper stickers. There are no window stickers, ribbon magnets, or any other propoganda for their political views, home businesses, kids honor roll status or college affiliations. They don't seem to feel compelled to drive around town in a moving billboard the way so many Americans do. I have a discreet little window sticker for my alma mater on my car back in the states, but I don't think I'll be adding one to my new little VW Golf. By the way, in German, VW is pronounced "fou-vay."

As for planes, well, this weekend we're flying to London for my birthday. We're taking Ryan Air, the relatively new, very low-cost airline. The downside is that carry-on luggage is very small (16 in x 13 in x 6 in) and we'll be charged for any checked luggage. We decided to check one bag, with everyone's toothpaste, dd#2's contact solution, and other toiletries. Since we're flying into London, we can't bring anything like that in our checked bag. Hopefully we won't have any trouble bringing on our Epi-Pens, since 2 of my dds and I have serious food allergies.

We're leaving at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, from a "Frankfurt" airport actually located in Hahn - 1 1/2 hours away. So, we'll be leaving the house at about 3 a.m.! We'll have one very long day of sightseeing, spend the night at Baden-Powell House, the hostel in central London owned and operated by the Boy Scouts & Girl Guides. And then, after our included breakfast on Sunday morning, we'll head out to London's Stansted airport - also a ways out of the city - and fly home about 12:30 p.m. So, it's mostly one long day and one night in London, but it'll be a fun day and a great way to celebrate my birthday.

One of the main reasons we decided to pick up our lives and our children and move from Illinois to Germany was the opportunity to travel Europe and see many different countries and cultures. Although we can't afford either the time or the money to do all the traveling we'd like to do, nor go on the posh scale the girls would like most, we're going to fit in as many little trips and inexpensive travels as possible. The fact that we can go to London for the weekend makes it definitely worth doing, at least once. :)

One Month in Frankfurt...

2006-09-06T18:13:00.000+02:00

Well, it was a month ago today that we landed in Frankfurt and moved into our new home. We're still missing a few things, most notably TVs in both the family room and the girls' alcove, as well as my wardrobe - which is here but not yet built - and my car. But, all-in-all, I'd definitely say we're getting settled. I'm anxious to get the TV in the family room, as well as a rug, as we don't spend any time there as a family yet and I want us to get into that habit together. It's hard for us to gather around a laptop to watch a movie together. But, hopefully soon.

Meanwhile, I think we're all getting adjusted to living in Germany. We're making changes in our routines, in our selves, slowly but surely. I think it's a bit like water flowing over rocks- the changes occur, but so slowly you really don't notice them. After three years in Europe, we'll definitely be different people, but probably won't see how big the difference is.

There are a few things I've gotten used to already, even after only a month. For one, I always remember to empty the water out of my dryer after each load, just like the lint. Certainly something I never had to do in IL. It's become second nature to take empty bags with me when I head out to the store, nearly every day. I have a tiny bag in my purse that unfolds and can hold quite a bit, if I've forgotten any other bags, but I really ever do anymore. At first, it seemed really strange to see people walking through the mall with a box of milk or loaf of bread in their hands, no bag, but I've come to see that as normal, since it is here. Although I have to say, the dh thought it was strange to push the grocery store shopping cart all the way through the mall to our car in the underground garage last weekend. Just having a grocery store in the mall would be strange in IL, but it's really quite convenient.

It's not startling now when the metal shades on our first floor windows automatically roll down at 8 p.m. every evening, nor do I have trouble remember to close the shades that aren't automatic. I'm even good at keeping the front door locked all the time. The kids are getting used to needing to unlock the door when they get home from school, although as often as not, they ring the bell for me to let them in.

I think the kids are used to the different taste of the milk here, as opposed to skim milk in the US, but I can't say I like the 1 liter boxes. I used to buy 5 gallons at a time in the US, since we drink a lot of milk. Without a car, I have trouble keeping up with the amount of milk we drink versus how much I can carry in a single day. Fortunately, we bought a couple of cases last weekend and can do the same every weekend until I get my own car.

I'm comfortable using the U-Bahn (subway) system overall, although I still get somewhat lost changing trains to a different line, given the poor state of my German. I should be back in classes within the next week or two and am really looking forward to it. I needed to take a lot more German before getting here - what I've learned so far is woefully inadequate for day-to-day living.

There are definitely some things we're not used to yet as well. Sharp cheddar cheese doesn't seem to exist, although I finally found mild. So far, we also haven't found salted sunflower seeds, in the shell, which dd#1 loves. And no granola bars, which is a favorite of all 3 girls for snacks. I used to use a lot of bleach in cleaning and laundry, especially Clorox clean-up, but bleach is hard to come by here - they don't like the environmental ramifications of too many chemicals. It's hard to work around the store schedules - if the girls or the dh is needed for shopping, it has to be done on Saturday. Stores close between 6 and 8 p.m. during the week and don't open at all on Sundays. But, nothing too big, just minor adjustments so far.

Fortunately, things are going well at school and for dh at work. I'm looking forward to getting into the activities of the American Women's Club more regularly, so I can start meeting some English-speaking women. We are going swimming this weekend with another American family from the school - their 6th grade daughter is one of dd#3's new friends - so that will be nice. Plus, the other 2 girls are involved in social activities this weekend, so they are definitely getting settled in. Again, it's a slow process, but I definitely think we're moving in the right direction.

The first week of school...

2006-09-02T08:14:00.000+02:00

Well, the first week of school is over and I'd say it's been pretty successful. After tears on day 1, it could only get better and it definitely did.

As expected, the biggest concern has been dd#1 and getting her schedule right so that she can finish high school on track. The new school, ISF, wasn't particularly forthcoming with information on what courses were available to her and there seemed to be little input on our parts as to what she'd be taking. This was a big change for us, given that her old high school had a course selection book similar to one from a junior college and she pretty much had her last 2 years planned out. So, when she got her schedule on Monday and saw that she had no time for lunch on Mondays and Tuesdays, no time for the much-touted SLO (student life organization) activities, and at least 6 periods a week of Chemistry, even though she took it at her high school last year and got a 100% on the final exam, it was not a big hit.

Fortunately, over the course of the week, she seemed to come to the conclusion that chemistry isn't going to be too bad, as she will be covering some things she hasn't already done and, besides, she really does like chemistry. She has the same teacher for biology, which she took as a freshman, but says this class is going to cover very different topics. So, if they get that lunch issue worked out, her schedule won't be half-bad.

The only issue w/dd#2's schedule was that she was put in intensive math based on the results of her placement test. Given that she's always been in the gifted math class, and getting straight A's, this was a concern for us all. However, we told the teacher, department head, and secondary school advisor she wanted to move up and on Friday she did. Mostly, the whole thing was a combination of terminology differences and testing after a summer of no math thinking. :) Also, they had placed her in beginners Spanish, when she's already had 6 years of it. But, when I mentioned this, they immediately moved her to intermediate Spanish.

DD#3 likes her schedule and seems very happy so far. Everybody has made some friends, which is a very good thing. They all tried out/signed up for sports, so we should find out this week who's taking lessons and who's on the team and when. They're going to have more homework than before, so maybe it's a good think the sports will take up less time as well.

The school is very small, only 34 students in grade 11, as opposed to the 650 in dd#1's class back in Illinois. It'll be a big adjustment for us all to get used to things on a much more intimate basis, but I also think it'll be a bonus in many ways, as the school is willing to do what's necessary to help every student succeed.

The bus failed to show up at all on Wednesday morning, so I had to take the girls by taxi to school and they arrived about 2 hours late. But, the bus company is paying for the taxi (70 Euro, round trip) and has apparently straightened out the problem. Hopefully nothing like that will happen again. They've been very good about adding a late bus to cover when the girls get done w/sports.

All-in-all, I think the girls had a successful week. I'm sort of spinning my wheels, partly because the activities of the Women's Club I joined haven't begun yet, nor has my German class, and partly because I'm sick, again. Also, the bus/taxi fiasco on Wednesday caused me to miss my hair appointment. However, I was able to get the recycling picked up, get a package delivered that was nearly a month overdue, and get a leaky faucet fixed. I also found a grocery store at the local mall that carries Oreos and a lot of the items we picked up in France. And I found a store on the Zeil downtown that has cheddar and grated Parmesan cheeses.

On next week's schedule is buying my car, buying a new vacuum, getting my language class scheduled, paid for, and begun, and getting organized for the Destination Imagination teams I'm going to be coaching at the school. Meanwhile, I've been watching a lot of US television, on DVD, on my computer. Oh yeah, buying our TVs is on this week's list as well.

After nearly a month in Germany, I can say we've made a lot of progress. We still have some key things to accomplish in order to get our household running more smoothly for everyone, but we're in pretty good shape and having some fun. The weekend trip to Strasbourg was a big hit and the girls definitely want to go back there as well as plan some more weekend trips. I'm also researching options for their week-long vacation in October. We have family planning to visit in early October and during spring break in April, as well as friends of dd#1 coming for their Thanksgiving break in November and possibly during the second half of Christmas break as well as their spring break in March. And dh's former boss just announced that he's coming to Germany in late-September and will stop in to visit - as well as delivering any US goods we want to "order" from him beforehand. :)

So, all-in-all, I'd say we're doing well. We're off to the Frankfurt Newcomers Festival today, hopefully to get a lot more information about what's around us and maybe meet some more people. That's still on the top of the hit parade for me - meeting women and couples to socialize with. I can only watch so much MASH and Moonlighting before going bonkers! :)

A Day in France...

2006-08-27T10:39:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we took our first real day trip to a brand-new place, Strasbourg France. This was the first trip to France for dh and dds #2&3 and it was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful day and only a 2-hour drive, so getting there was easy. Once we found parking in a mall garage, we started to explore Strasbourg on foot.

First thing, we found a great little Enligh-language bookstore, The Bookworm, which we'll have to visit again. Dh picked up some golden-oldies - some of his favorite scifi authors. These books were so old, actually, that the prices listed were in Francs. We could have spent more time in this little shop, but still had lots to see, so we made our purchases, asked some directions and set off to explore.

Winding our way towards Little Europe, we stopped at a sidewalk cafe at the base of Our Lady of Strasbourg Cathedral. We had a great lunch and some good French desserts before doing some shopping along the side streets. We entered the Cathedral and looked around - it's really quite lovely. The stained glass windows are beautiful and the carvings impressive. The most amazing part, for me at least, was the astronomical clock. Unfortunately, we weren't there to see the midday display, but maybe next time.

We bought tickets on a tram tour of Strasbourg, which was only 5 Euro for an hour tour. It gave us a nice history of the town as well as some lovely views of the city center. We got out and walked up to a scenic overlook at the covered bridges. Next time, we'll take the boat tour.

As much fun as we had exploring the city and window shopping, we all greatly enjoyed our visit to Cora afterwords. CORA is a chain of huge grocery (and more) stores. I wasn't sure we'd be able to find the store when we pulled off the highway exit, until we saw it and passed by the enormous building for some time before being able to enter. It's huge! There are restaurants inside, as well as a dry-cleaner, bakery, and photo studio - and much more.

We strolled through the electronics section, but given that we weren't absolutely certain the currency and plugs were the same as Frankfurt, we didn't buy anything. Plus, our trunk is small on the loaner BMW, and we knew we'd want to stock up. We did find "feet" for our furniture - to keep them from marking up our new parquet floors. We also found clothes, tools, and all kinds of household goods. Finally, though, we got to the grocery section - and it was everything we'd hoped for - we even found Oreos - something the girls had been searching for. We bought lots of cheese - although cheddar is still a hard one to find - some wine and lots of different kinds of frozen foods. The produce and meat is great in Frankfurt, but it was fun to have a wide selection of both new, unusual items and familiar, homestyle favorites to choose from. The girls want to go back regularly to stock up.

While the drive there took us south through Germany past dh's work and then west into France, we drove home by going north through France and then east, so even with the rain last evening, it was an interesting drive. The rural parts of Germany still looked nothing like "home" because rural didn't involve nearly as many cornfields as in Illinois, nor was it flat, as we were driving through a valley with moutains rising to our East. Driving home through France looked more like upstate NY, with rolling hills, corn fields and vineyards, as well as something that looked like tobacco to us. We'll have to pull out the map today and figure out exactly where we were - GPS is a wonderful invention, but it's sometimes like driving in the dark.

Anyway, it was a great day trip, a lot of fun, and we'll definitley want to go back - even if not just for groceries. :)

A Morning in Weinheim...

2006-08-24T21:56:00.000+02:00

While dh was working, the girls and I did a little sight-seeing in Weinheim today. After the craziness of moving in and then my nephew's broken-foot visit, we enjoyed a few hours of wandering, shopping and pretzel-bread eating.

Weinheim is the lovely little town where dh works, about 45 mins. to an hour from our home in Frankfurt. We went to Weinheim this morning and wandered about while dh worked 1/2 a day. He met us at lunch, we did a little car shopping and then headed back to Frankfurt for the Open House at the school.

While we were strolling the streets of Weinheim, we found a fun store that carried so many types of items, including board games. We bought a German version of a much beloved family favorite (of everyone but me!) - RISK. The girls were so excited, they broke out the new game and played it w/dh tonight. Fortunately, I didn't have to play. :)

All-in-all, it was a good day. In fact, with all the shopping we've done this week, the girls have been having a wonderful time. We're hoping to catch a matinee at the English-language movie theatre in town tomorrow afternoon and then it's off to Strasbourg, France for our first weekend getaway. School starts Monday, so then things will get down to normal. Or, at least, our new normal.

Recycling and Stairs and Doors – oh, my!

2006-08-11T09:23:00.000+02:00

Well, we’ve been living in Germany for four days now and so far, so good. We’re getting the house settled at record speed, in part because the recycling laws in Germany are so strict we don’t want to be left with any boxes or packing materials to dispose of on our own, so we need to unpack everything in the first two weeks so that the movers will come back and pick up the empties. They’ve already been here twice. :)

Recycling and trash disposal is definitely an example of how different the German culture is. The second day we were here, a truck pulled up at our front gate and the driver, who spoke no English at all, delivered four color-coded recycling bins to our driveway. The four bins are marked Altpapier, Biomüil, Werstoffe and Restmüil. Basically, the first is all paper, the second is yard waste & compost, the third is recyclable metal, plastic, Styrofoam and juice boxes, and the last is everything else, sort of. Glass is sorted by color and walked to the street corner near our house, where a giant communal glass recycling bins is located.

My understanding is that the trash collectors, and therefore, the city, will monitor us to be sure we’re putting the correct items in the correct bins. If not, they won’t take it. I hope they give us a little slack this first week, as we’re still figuring out what is considered what. I did print out some descriptions in English to tape to the bins, but part of the problem is finding room to sort all of this is my miniscule kitchen. Of course, the upside of all this is I met a man who I believe lives in the neighborhood – although we couldn’t understand each other well – when he rang the buzzer on our front gate and instructed me to run down the sidewalk and pick up the minute pieces of packaging paper that blew off the stack the movers had left in the driveway. These people are serious! :)

German kitchens aren’t big as a general rule. Since we’re living in a city – Frankfurt has about ¾ of a million residents – ours is a German city kitchen, so it’s quite small by American standards. And, frankly, it’s not the smallest kitchen we saw when we were househunting. We bought 3 sets of shelves at IKEA on Tuesday to put in the basement for storing all the kitchen stuff that won’t fit in the kitchen – pots, pans, bakeware (much of which won’t fit in the oven either), tupperware, and large containers of food. Although this is a big house – most Germans would consider it huge – we still have a lot of stuff to find room for.

The moving men were here on Monday to set furniture in place, put things back together, and unpack, as well as remove boxes. It wasn’t the same men who were here with Chris to unload the container, so they didn’t realize how big the house is. Only 2 men arrived, but they soon called for more help and a large truck to take away boxes, since some of the big furniture still had to be carried to the third floor. Fortunately, Chris and the girls were able to get Elizabeth’s and Samantha’s double beds upstairs to their third floor bedrooms – the guys who unpacked the container didn’t even try. But the couches still had to go up there, as well as many, many boxes.

Basically, this house is all about stairs. When you drive into the driveway, there are stairs to take you up to the front door or down to the back door. If you start in the basement, you see the laundry room and four storage rooms, including the excess kitchen storage, the book room – with about 6 bookshelves and most of our books in it, and a room full of my scrapbooking supplies. From here, it’s up a small winding staircase to the kitchen on the first floor. On the 1st floor is the kitchen, a half-bath (known as the toilet here, although it’s got a sink as well), the family room, with wintergarden (sun room), living room and dining room. From there, it’s up the long “Princess” staircase to the second floor. On the 2nd floor are the guest room, our office, the master bedroom, another toilet and the master bathroom, as well as a linen closet and a lovely terrace off our bedroom. Up another flight of winding stairs is the 3rd floor – the girls’ domain. They have their three bedrooms, a bathroom, a toilet, and an alcove area complete with computer, wireless internet, television, games and a mini-refrigerator. We may never see them again. :)

I’ve been trying to collect things that belong on a different floor and take them in one trip, but still my calves feel like they did that first week in college again. I should have some significant muscles showing soon. :) Everything is all about stairs. Again, whether this is because it’s a German house or a city house, I don’t know – but I suspect it’s some of both. It should prove interesting for our first official visitor. My nephew David arrives this Saturday from Spain – with a broken foot. Whether on crutches or a walking cast, he’ll have to navigate some stairs if he plans to shower in the week that he’s here.

Doors – who knew they could be such a problem! Our house was built in 1900, so much of it’s personality comes from the era in which it was built. Some of it is purely German though – including the fact that every room, every space practically, has a door, and usually more than one. Doors are a nuisance when trying to place furniture and hang pictures. I should have left most of my artwork and pictures back in Elmhurst. :)

The dining room – not a large room by any measure – has 2 doors. One leads into the room from the entry hall and one leads from the dining room to the living room. So, of course, that door is in the living room as well, plus the door from the entry hall. Fortunately, the door between the living room and family room is a pocket door, so that doesn’t swing in the way – it just eliminates a lot of wall space. The family room has two other doors though – one back to the entry hall and a double french door to the wintergarden. Even the tiny kitchen has two doors – one from the hall and one to the basement staircase.

There is no such thing as an open floor plan. Of the 16 houses we looked at in March, only the newest one, still under construction, did not have a closed off kitchen. They boasted how the construction was American – in that the kitchen flowed into the family room. Of course, once you got upstairs, there were doors everywhere!

Now, consider that back in IL, when we remodeled our master bedroom, we didn’t even put a door between the bedroom side and the bathroom side, although we did give in and put a door on the toilet. Here, our master bedroom has a door leading from the office, two from the hall and double french doors to the terrace. Once we’ve installed the wardrobes we had to buy since there are no closets, there will be very few spots for pictures on the wall. Of course, since we’re renting the house, we don’t really want too many holes in the wall anyway.

Once the remaining boxes are gone and the furniture built and in place, I know we’re going to love this house, even with all the stairs and doors. It’s lovely – definitely out of another era – and so convenient. We walk to the end of our block and can turn either way to find a bakery. They girls love the fact that they can get fresh pretzel bread every day (except Sunday, of course). What’s not to love – pretzel bread is great, whether in rolls, baguettes, croissants, or actual pretzels. And there are about 300 other kinds of great German breads to explore as well – bakeries are incredible here.

Also, within a block and a half from our house is the train stop. This stop is on 3 different subway lines as well as the line for an above-ground electric street car. We’ll have to try them all out and see where we can go. Chris took the subway into downtown Frankfurt when he was here – it takes about 6 minutes. I think he can start at the stop here, take the subway to the main Frankfurt train station and pick up a train there to take him to work in Weinheim – which is about 45 – 60 mins away by car. We’re going to try it out next week, since I don’t have a car yet and I have to take the girls to their school for placement exams. Hopefully, it the train is fairly easy to do, he can use this route on the bad weather days next winter, if he doesn’t need the car to go the FHP headquarters in Mannheim.

So far, in the 2-3 blocks around our house, we’ve tried out the Mini Mall (grocery store), the discount grocery store, the butcher, the drug store (Apotecke), both bakeries, and the Chinese restaurant. I hope to go to the kitchen and bath supply store today to get more hanging hooks for my kitchen. I also want to find the nearest post office – I think it’s about 2 ½ blocks in a different direction. Yesterday we shopped at a great little produce place and brought home incredibly delicious raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, as well as some peaches that are white inside and nearly tasteless, even though obviously very ripe. The fresh produce looks incredible and there are farmers markets all over Frankfurt on different days of the week, so at least in the summer, we’ll get some great produce.

I have to remember, though, to take our bags with us when we shop. German stores don’t give you bags – you have to buy them, although usually they’re only about 10 cents. The problem with buying them often, at least in our little neighborhood stores, will be that we’ll be seen as wasteful Americans who won’t reuse their bags. Again, Germany is very environmentally conscious and we are expected to bring our reusable bags w/us. Once I have a car, I’m sure I’ll just leave some in the trunk all the time, but for now, I have to remember to bring them.

Chris starts working today, so the girls and I will have some time to ourselves. In addition to building Miranda’s desk, our guest room futon and the basement shelves, we’ll be able to do some exploring in the neighborhood.

Today the washer, dryer and extra refrigerator are being delivered and installed, so I’m very excited to finally get to do laundry. Of course, it’ll be a challenge, as the buttons are all in German. Fortunately, the instruction manual has English on it, so I should be able to figure the washer out. Also, now we can do a big grocery shopping, since our built-in kitchen refrigerator is tiny and the freezer holds almost nothing. I almost bought a big American-style fridge for our second one but again, it has to go down the winding basement stairs and we didn’t want them to get it to our house and then have to take it back. But, at least the new one is somewhat bigger and more than doubles our space.

Which brings me to my last observation for today. Chris & I took 10 weeks of Berlitz language training before our move and the company will pay for 6 more months of it now that we’re here. Really, we should have had 6 months before we got here, because we needed it as much this week as ever. The moving men had very little English – well, only one of the 4 guys had any. The cable man had no English at all, but fortunately got the internet connected for us. Neither the trash & recycling bin delivery guy nor the mailman spoke any English. The appliance delivery men today will probably have very little if any English. The consultant at IKEA who helped us pick out our wardrobes had some English. Only the people at the bank have been fluent. It was great that the relocation consultants made all the arrangements for us regarding the movers, the cable company, etc. – but left us here on our own to “talk” to these people. My little bit of German helps, but it’s not nearly enough. Hopefully I'll learn quickly - about everything! :)

The View from the Lake...disconnected

2006-07-28T04:37:00.000+02:00

The overwhelming feeling for me from the past 6 weeks has been one of being disconnected - from my husband, from our home in IL, from my oldest daughter, from my life as it was in the past and as it may be in the future - from many things.

Our 6 weeks at the lake are nearly over. One week from today we'll be in NYC, sightseeing, seeing Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, and getting ready to fly to Frankfurt on August 5. It's taken a long time to get to this point, and I think our family, at least most of us, are ready to make the move.

Our last week in IL was chaos. Dh flew to Germany on June 19, leaving me with a cold he'd been fighting for over a week and facing the arrival of the movers on Wednesday, June 21. The first day, the movers packed our family room, my office (except for my computer, the modem and phone) and then moved upstairs to our front room, living room, dining room and master bedroom. The hardest part for me was not seeing the empty house or worrying about our things getting broken, but rather not having any place to be or anything to do.

The first day, I played cards w/dds #2&3 at the kitchen table. We moved to the hotel that afternoon, as my bedroom was already packed. DD#1 was enjoying the freedom of having my car at her disposal, since I had dh's car, so we saw little of her over those last 3 days. Fortunately, we had good friends to see and say good-bye to during that time.

Our good friend Harmony came to the hotel on Wednesday evening and cut hair for dds #2&3. DD#2 had 10 inches cut off, which she mailed to Locks of Love, and which made a huge difference in her appearance. In fact, when the girls went to the hotel waterpark, the life guard thought she was dd#3's mother.

On Thursday, we had dinner with 2 sets of neighbors across the street and on Friday, we had dinner with another neighbor family at their house. It was great to be able to spend time with them, especially at their garage sale on Friday when we had no where to sit and were just in the way at our house, when the movers were loading the container. We were able to catch up with several other friends over these last few days, which brought on some tearful good-byes, but was also fun for everyone. DD#2 had an especially good time when she and her sisters went swimming at one of her guy friend's houses and then they walked to town for lunch and he came to her last softball game. She said good-bye to her best friend on Friday while I had a tearful good-bye with her best friend's mother.

The drive to upstate NY was not a good one, since I was so sick with bronchitis. I had been to the doctor for antibiotics the Monday before the movers arrived and got new antibiotics on Friday, but neither seemed to make a big difference for me. We stopped in Erie, PA the first night, after driving about 8 hours, because I just didn't feel up to driving any more. When we pulled into the hotel, my oldest sister called to tell me our cousin had died of a heart attack that day, at age 58.

We drove the remaining 3 1/2 hours to our cottage on Sunday. My niece Lauren and her friend were waiting for us when we arrived and helped unload our groceries and suitcases from the car, in addition to helping us clean the cottage enough to make lunch. I was very glad to see them, as I was still feeling lousy. That evening, Lauren & her friend took dds#2&3 to Olean, about 2 hours away, to see my 3rd sister at her church's youth choir concert. I was so beat I fell asleep before the girls even got home. After getting up at 6 a.m. for swimming lessons the next 2 days, I was back to the doctor's office for steroids and a nebulizer treatment. I'm still struggling some with my asthma, even after more than a month.

I was very happy to be able to spend so much time with my oldest sister's family, especially her 3-year-old granddaughter and brand new grandson. The girls had a wonderful time with the little kids, who also offered a break to me from the girls squabbling with each other. But, in truth, I've been missing dh & dd#1, and have felt our family has been more disconnected than usual.

Although I usually bring the girls to our cottage for 3-4 weeks each summer, dh is usually able to join us for one of those weeks, so we're only apart for 2-3 weeks. This year, it was 5 weeks from the time dh left for Germany until he and dd#1 flew in this past Sunday. That was just too long, for both of us. Dh said he was lonely after first staying in our empty house in IL, sleeping on a mattress borrowed from our neighbors, and then staying in our empty house in Frankfurt, sleeping on a newly purchased futon. I think the fact that his job has been in flux has contributed to his feeling disconnected as well, as he really hasn't started much of his new job yet, and many of the people reporting to him are on or going soon on vacation, as August is vacation time in Germany.

I'm still feeling alittle disconnected from dd#1. During her month in IL, she was busy with summer school, extra reading, going to parties, seeing movies, and doing all kinds of fun stuff with her friends. She sounded very happy, but didn't seem to have time or the inclination to call or email me often, so I've really been missing her. Even when I called her, she didn't ever have much time to talk to me. I don't know if she was subconsciously avoiding me because I reminded her of the impending move or what, but it was hard on me to be so out of touch with her. Now that she's here, she's been sad and tired, tied to her cell phone and laptop, spending most of her time alone. She writes letters to her friends back in IL, but really hasn't spent much time with the family here. We all play games in the evening, but she shuts herself up in her room a lot. Of course, she had fun at the outlet mall with us, but I still feel she's disconnected from us right now. I don't want to push too much, as I know she's feeling heartbroken about the move. As much as I wish she didn't spend so much time talking on the cell phone, I don't have the heart to ask her to stop, as that's being shut off next week anyway. I looked at the gifts she got from her friends and listen to the stories about the parties and fun things they did, but wish she'd ask more about the family, talk with her sisters, and spend some time interacting with the rest of us. Hopefully this isn't a sign of trouble to come. I know the first 6 months or so after the move with involve a lot of mood swings and plenty of bad days, but I'd hoped she'd at least be as happy to be at the lake and see the family as she usually is.

Tonight we have good friends coming from Mass. to spend the weekend with us. We're going to go to the wineries tomorrow and then have dd#3's 11th birthday party. On Saturday, we're going to go tubing and out in the boat, as well as going to a local fair and anything more that comes along, depending on the weather. Even though my 3rd sister goes back to SC on Saturday, it should be a fun weekend and hopefully everyone will be excited enough after this to begin getting packed and cleaned up before we leave for NYC on Thursday.

I hope that a few days of sightseeing and shows in NYC will not only be fun for the girls but also give them some time away from everything to get excited about the move. I'm ready - it's been a long time coming and I'm getting tired of waiting for the next part of our lives to begin. I hope that the girls can look at this way and that dh and I will be able to help them enjoy the ride.

Only three more weeks and emotions are running high...

2006-06-03T18:13:00.000+02:00

Three weeks from today, I will be driving out of IL with dds#2&3, leaving behind dd#1 and an empty house. I'm nowhere near ready, but the truck will come on June 21, whether I'm ready or not.

This has been a week of strong emotions, from both ends of the spectrum. The best news, as far as dh and I are concerned, is that we found a renter. A nice couple from New Zealand came through with their not-quite-3-year-old daughter, and another on the way. When I explained about the kids in nearly every house up and down the block, I think they were sold. They want a 2-year lease, moving in on July 15, which couldn't be much better if we designed it ourselves. It's a big relief - so big in fact, that I have been able to sleep past 5 a.m., and nearly to 6 a.m., for the first time since we got back from Germany in March.

I had lunch with 2 friends that I probably won't see again before we move and, although it was fun, it was definitely bittersweet. I really enjoy my time with each of them, especially the one I've really only gotten to know in the past year. I think these friendships would grow and strengthen over time, but I'm not sure how they'll survive the 3-year absence. So, it was good but also hard.

On the other hand, I was upset by a neighbor who made an unreasonable request of us this week and could only think that I'm glad we're going and soon.

DD#1 is having an emotional week - she was in tears on Thursday because it was her last full day of school and last day of choir, since she has no final in that class. She started finals, for which she has been studying hard, but has 3 more on Monday, never mind the 10 hours of placement exams for the international school that she has to take on Tuesday & Wednesday in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, she was very excited to get her drivers license yesterday, although disappointed that she couldn't get it on Tuesday when we went to DMV because her drivers ed. teacher hadn't put her in the State system yet. She beat her boyfriend to the DMV, so was happy to rub his face in the fact that she got her license about 1/2 hour before he did, even though he turned 16 about 5 months before she did. She took her sisters out for ice cream as soon as we got back from the DMV, but got caught by a train and brought her youngest sister home 15 mins. late for the surprise party being thrown in her honor. I stressed out as well because I was calling them for about 1/2 hour before they got home, but dd#1 had left the house w/out her purse or cellphone. Hopefully that won't happen again.

DD#3 was also having an emotional week. She was truly surprised by the party, which was a huge success. There were at least 25 girls there - she says it was every girl in the 5th grade except those who couldn't come for some reason. It was a surprise farewell & birthday party, since her birthday is in August and we'll be gone before then. She was really pleased, but had been getting upset for some time before the party because she felt her friends were leaving her out of something. Of course, they were and now she understands why, but she was getting her feelings hurt every time they would stop talking when she approached the group or not tell her what they were up to.

DD#2 was very excited to get her braces off yesterday - she looks great. However, she was feeling left out herself last night when dd#1 had her boyfriend and another couple over to watch TV and dd#3 was off at her surprise party. DD#2 doesn't know yet that her best friend has planned a pizza party next Wednesday as a farewell and then a special day for just the two of them at a pottery place for Thursday. All dd#2 knows is she was alone w/nothing to do. Also, she had a tough time with kids at school this week and with a few members of her team at the softball game on Thursday, so she was having a tough time all around.

I'm feeling very stressed because everyone seems to be asking me to fit something in at the last minute, even though they "know how busy" I am. If they really knew this, they wouldn't have waited until the last minute to plan whatever it is they want to plan, especially since we've know about this move in the abstract for nearly a year and definitely for nearly 3 months. Plus, there is so much left to be done around the house, especially the inventory, and I am tired and overwhelmed and getting pretty sick of having every minute scheduled. I plan to take a number of books with me to Minneapolis on Monday night and spend all day Tuesday & Wednesday reading & relaxing while dd#1 takes her placement tests. But still, it's hard for me to work up the energy today to get the girls up and going and doing some work, let alone getting myself to do some work. Dh is in Germany and will, thankfully, be home tonight. I hope he's not too stressed, jet-lagged or overworked to help around the house a lot in the next 2 weeks, because I'm really starting to fee overwhelmed by the load of being the primary person in charge of getting our household ready for the move. The inventory seems daunting to me and I'm running out of steam.

On the other hand, I did accomplish a lot this week. Because we got renters, I postponed the interior painter so she doesn't come on Monday. I wasn't ready to have to prepare the girls' rooms to be painted this weekend and would rather she do it after we've moved out and the house is empty. Also, that way the renters can have an opinion on what colors we choose to paint the bedrooms. And, I still haven't found the leftover paint for touch-ups in the kitchen or family room.

The piano is gone as is some of the family room furniture. I packed one suitcase for me to take to NY and then to Germany, so I have a better feel of what I'll be having shipped and will need to inventory in my bedroom. I ordered, and already received, the transformers for our electrical appliances in Germany and a new DVD player that works on all currency and with all formats of DVDs. We got Chris's passport before he had to leave for Germany and are still waiting for ours. It seems foolish to get the visas and residency forms put into our passports, which were set to expire in the next 2 years, so we filed for new ones that will last beyond the time for us to move back to the states. I got quite a few more boxes packed for storage and took the kitchen screen to be repaired.

Unfortuantely, I thought I was doing a good thing asking the pediatrician for copies of our records when I took dds#1&3 for physicals a couple of weeks ago. DD#2 couldn't get an appointment at the same time, so I thought I'd pick up the copies when I brought her in for her appointment. Well, the women I talked to at the desk told me to fill out forms requesting the files, but didn't communicate the fact that we weren't leaving IL until late June to the records person. So, they copied and then destroyed our files, removing us from their patient list and cancelling dd#2's appointment. I only found out when the pharmacy called to say that they couldn't refill the prescriptions I'd requested because they called the pediatrician for authorization and were told we were no longer patients there. Now they have to use the copies of the files to re-establish us as patients, reschedule dd#2's appointment (when my calendar's already stretched to the max) and call-in refills on the prescription. There was no "effective date" designation on the forms, but at least I'll know if the future to write one on!

We got our NY post office box address, so I've been able to send change of address notices to magazines and other companies. Now that we know when our renters are moving in and dh is moving out, I can send the notice to the post office as well. I made a call to our attorney to talk about the effectiveness of our wills and trusts while we're expats, but haven't heard from her yet. Dh's employer is still trying to unravel the issue of our medical insurance. And I have some bank accounts to close and others to open, including a safe deposit box, but not until we get to Upstate NY. So, while I'm checking things off on my list, the list in never-ending and I'm getting worn out. The two days in Minneapolis may be a good break, but given that I know there'll still be a lot to do when I get back, I'm not sure it'll help that much. At least dd#1 and I can go to the Mall of America! :)

So, between the never-ending work, the high level of stress and the emotional rollercoaster around here, I'm exhausted and overwhelmed and ready for it all to be over. But, I also am going to miss our home and friends here. I'm also worried about the girls and how they'll adjust and how much they'll miss their friends and schools. So, in another way, I'm not ready for it all to be over either. And I'm pretty sure the girls are having similar feelings, so everyone's conflicted and emotional and touchy and a little crabby. It's going to be a tough three weeks around here.

Four weeks and counting...

2006-05-24T01:53:00.000+02:00

So, the moving company arrives 4 weeks from tomorrow to start packing and loading those of our belongings going with us to Frankfurt, but not going with us to the various places we're going in the 6 weeks it's going to take before our belongings make it to Frankfurt. The move date is looming large and I'm going crazy, as is to be expected.

The moving company starta packing & loading on Wednesday, June 21 and expect it to take 3 days. They won't touch our bedrooms on Wednesday, but will on Thursday, so we're booked at a local hotel on Thursday & Friday nights. I plan to drive to our cottage in Upstate NY on Saturday, 6/24, which is the day that my dh flies back from Germany. (Perfect timing, huh?) I'll be taking dds #2 & 3 with me, but leaving dd #1 behind in IL for another 4 weeks.

Dh plans to spend his week in our empty house, unless it's been rented, sleeping on a bed he hopes to borrow from someone. He figures as long as I leave him a towel or two, he'll be happier in his own house & bathroom than in a hotel. I don't think dd#1 will be impressed with this set up, but she'll move in w/her best friend the following weekend, before dh returns to Germany.

Meanwhile, I have the window washers coming next week. The exterior painters will be power-washing the garage near the end of next week and begin painting it, and touching up the house, by June 5. The interior painter is coming the week of June 5 and expects to be here the whole week.

DD#1 & I are flying to Minneapolis after she finishes finals at her high school here on Monday, June 5. She'll take the five placement tests required by our Frankfurt school on Tuesday & Wednesday, 6/6 & 6/7 and we'll fly back to IL on Wednesday evening.

The handyman still has a few minor things to fix, as well as figuring out how to stop the leak in the upstairs shower. It'll be fairly important to a renter not to have water pouring through the ceiling onto the toilet in the master bathroom, but we haven't made any progress on fixing the leak yet.

We have 16 more softball games that I know of, pretty much evenly divided between dds #2 & 3. The girls friends are planning various events and good-bye parties, although I don't know the dates of everything as of yet. My friends are having a block party for us here on our block on Friday, 6/16, since that will be the last night dh & I will both be in IL for months, or maybe years, to come.

Dh leaves for Germany this Saturday, our anniversary is Sunday and he'll be back next Saturday. He'll be home then until June 17 and be in Germany again until June 24. His new passport hasn't been returned yet, but we paid to have it expressed, so it should be here w/in the next couple of days - we hope! Once it arrives, I have to make about 8 copies of it for all the places that need one. Same whenever mine arrives, which was not expedited and should arrive in the next 2-3 weeks.

We have 8 more dentist, doctor, ortho and hair appointments on the schedule, as of right now. Plus, I need to get copies of everyone's files. The pediatrician has them ready, but I haven't picked them up yet. I'm still waiting for confirmation from our insurance company of our clean auto insurance records. I did get our drivers license records from DMV and one of dd#1's letters of recommendation from teachers here for her college applications in about a year and a half. I also still have to get copies of our birth certificates, a US IKEA catalog (so I can compare it to the German one), and a letter from someone in the IL tax dept that we don't currently receive Kindergeld (payment just for having children) so that we can get it when we move to Frankfurt. And I'm waiting for the number of our new P.O. Box in NY so I can start sending out change of address info. w/our bills.

Last, but not least, I need to close my business bank account, transfer several Girl Scout accounts, close the girls savings accounts (since they can't access them from Frankfurt) and open a new checking account to use as our main US checking account with a bank that has branches in Frankfurt, then open the girls savings accounts in NY and then open a German checking account with the same bank when we're in Frankfurt. Dh will be opening our passbook security deposit account in Germany next week so that he can hand over the passbook to our landlords, who return it to us after our lease is up, assuming they don't have to withhold any money when we move out.

The good news is, I am checking things off the list everyday. The past week, I've been stocking up on OTC and Rx meds, staple food items, tampax, pads, latex-free bandaids, and my hypo-allergenic beauty supplies. OTC meds are apparently much more expensive in Germany, as are some of the American brands of HBA supplies. This way, we have a cushion until we find an appropriate substitue. Plus, you can't have enough peanut butter, brownie mix, Crystal Light or macaroni & cheese. :) Both the German listserv I'm on and our German language teacher have been very helpful in giving me suggestions on items that we might want to bring with us.

The other good news is we have a showing on our IL house tomorrow. Hopefully this family will be interested in renting the house, so I can stop worrying so much about having to pay both our mortgage and the rent on our Frankfurt house with nothing coming in. I'll feel a lot better about it all once we find a renter.

So, as time gets tighter and life gets busier, I'm trying to keep my sense of humor and make small inroads into everything on my list every day. Even if I only pick up a few supplies we want to add to our stash, pack a box or two that's going into storage, and keep the house clean enough to show to prospective renters, I consider that a good day right now. I'm trying to help the girls get ready for the separation by making things fun for them during these ending days of school. We have 4 sleepovers planned for this weekend, although at least 2 are not at our house. I'm hoping that they will have lots of great memories from these last weeks in IL to look back on when they're feeling homesick in Frankfurt. Well, and me too, I guess.

Sweet but also sad...

2006-05-08T14:28:00.000+02:00

We had the big Sweet 16 party this weekend and it was wonderful. We probably had 45 teenagers, plus 10 adults, and everything was great. The weather was colder than we would have liked, but it didn't rain - which was my biggest worry.

My two oldest sisters arrived Friday night for the weekend. I picked them up at the airport, we stopped at the junior high track meet and picked up my middle daughter and then met my husband and oldest daughter at a German restaurant for dinner. It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. Our DD#1 was very happy to have her aunts fly in from Upstate New York for her party, as we all were.

DD#1 was surprised by the Flamingos that "flocked" our front yard on Saturday morning in honor of the party - it was really cute. At least she didn't have to worry about people finding the right house. We took a group trip to the nearby nursery and stocked up on hanging baskets and some annuals in the party colors of hot pink and lime green (well, hot pink anyway) and brought home some beautiful plants for decorating. Then, DD#1 went off to a baseball game much of the day, although she had to leave early to go to the house of one of the boys who'd been invited to the party. His parents had never met us or our daughter and wouldn't let their son come to the party until they met her. Smart parents, although I was surprised they didn't want to meet us as well.

I took DD#2 and the aunts and headed to the outlet mall for a short spurt of shopping before the big event. They don't have a Chicos outlet near them, so it was a fun trip. By the time we got back home, DD#3 had a bunch of her friends over playing on the trampoline and the rented bouncy-house Twister board. After a quick surge of energy for planting the flowers (the aunts did this) and some cleanup and set up, we all took a short nap/breather in the afternoon, to get ready for the big party.

We had arranged for about 10 of DD#1's closest friends to arrive at 5 p.m. to help with the decorating and set up - streamers, balloons, etc., - and ordered 8 pizzas to feed the workers. This turned out to be a really nice time for our daughter and her best friends, since they worked and ate and still had fun. She really has a nice group of close friends - both guys and girls - and not many of them are couples, other than DD#1 and her boyfriend. He was the first to arrive, even before 5 p.m., and got right to work. He's really a nice guy and has been a great first boyfriend for our daughter. We'll all miss him and his family, who are also really nice. We've gotten to know them a bit this year, spending some time together at Thanksgiving & Easter - they even came to the party on Saturday night. Just a great family - I'm sorry we didn't get to know them sooner.

More and more kids started arriving as the hour got closer to 7 p.m. and the party kicked into high gear. We had invited a few adults, including the boyfriend's family, one of DD#1's closest girlfriend's parents, and our neighbors down the street, who have 4 kids that were all at the party. So, it was a nice evening for us as well, with my two sisters, dh & myself having adult guests and great conversation.

It was great to watch the kids go from the trampoline to the bouncy Twister board, to the ping-pong table, to the food tables, to the silly string, birthday cake, and many food tables. They are really a great group of teenagers and it made me feel proud of DD#1, happy for her and also sad. I know this is a hard move for her, leaving her school, her best friends, her boyfriend, her tennis team, and all of her friends - this just made the sadness all the more real for me. I see the good that can come from the move - for all of us, her included. I think it will be especially good for her sisters, but I do think DD#1 will have some incredible, life-enriching experiences during her 2 years in Europe. But, I also see what she's being forced to give up and I know that it's valuable, worthwhile and important, too. She's found people who love her, like her, value her, and enjoy her - people outside the family that she feels this same way about. That's precious and it's going to tear her apart to leave them, even though she'll be able to stay in touch with email and IM and phone calls, even though we've promised that she can come back and visit often. It just won't be the same and, even though we knew this, it was hard for me to see it up close and personal on Saturday night.

I know that the chance to live in another country, on another continent, to learn another language, know more about other cultures, and travel extensively is a valuable opportunity. This is a good thing and she will benefit from it. I also know that she's a happy, smart, strong, well-adjusted young woman and I couldn't be prouder of who she is. So it's also tearing me apart to have to hurt her this way, even if it will be a good thing in the long. We're betting on the fact that it will be, but seeing her with all of her friends sent some fleeting second thoughts racing through my brain. This is going to be hard.

The Madness Begins...

2006-04-30T14:56:00.000+02:00

Once we got home from our Spring Break trip to Germany, and the move decision was final, utter chaos took over my life. I was faced with 2 1/2 months of total lunacy trying to organize the move and my "to-do" list was growing by leaps and bounds everyday.

I broke down the master list into copies to make (such as passports, drivers licenses, diplomas, marriage license, etc.) and copies to get (such as health & dental records, driving records, insurance information, a US IKEA catalog - so I could interpret what's in the German one, college recommendations for my 16-year-old daughter from teachers at her present school, and a confirmation from the State of IL that we don't receive kinder geld in the US so we can get it in Germany - still don't know who to ask for that one). I listed things to buy in the US (jeans, paperback romances and mysteries for me to read while in Germany, shoes for myself in wides and for my 13-year-old daughter in size 11, over-the-counter medicines and special cosmetics, transformers for converting German currency for US appliances, etc.) and things to buy in Germany (wardrobes since most of the bedrooms don't have closets, guest bedroom furniture, washer & dryer, extra refrigerator and maybe separate freezer, lamps, etc.). I made a list of things to sell, on ebay, at the garage sale, and locally through the paper or elsewhere, including our 3 tvs, the piano, 2 couches and 2 recliners, some exercise equipment, and the trampoline. The list also includes calls to make, research to do (on cars to buy in Germany, bank accounts, using VOIP sservice in Germany, and cellphone companies), things to sort and pack, and paperwork to be done (such as withdrawing my daughters from schools here, sending immunization records and photos to school in Germany, changing my Girl Scout & Destination Imagination bank accounts over to new people, and opening a Post Office box in New York in order to forward our mail there).

In addition to the master list, I had a weekly list of specific details, which first and foremost involved hiring a property manager to rent our home and manage the rentals while we're gone. I researched several, emailed a bunch, interviewed three and finally chose one. She came out and took pictures inside and out and went over our repairs list with me. Then I had to hire a handyman to start the repairs. I emailed everyone I know locally for suggestions, called several, interviewed three and hired one. Between touring the house with the prospective property managers and prospective handymen, I'm surprised I didn't just burn the place down, since so many of them thought it was a lost cause and no one would ever want to live there. True, our house in Elmhurst is 100 years old, has no central air conditioning, and needs some work. But, it's got great character, is huge, is on a great street in a nice neighborhood, in a great town and convenient to everything. We love this house and plan to come back and live here when our years in Germany are over, so it got discouraging to hear how little anyone else would like it.

Once the handyman was hired, then I needed to find people to do the things he wasn't going to do, such as replace the 6 cracked windows, paint the outside of the garage, paint all of the upstairs bedrooms, and refinish our staircase. Let me just say, it's a mystery to me why the house-owning public accepts as fact that no floor finishing company will refinish the risers of a set of hardwood stairs. I've interviewed six different refinishers and none of them would touch the risers. They'll refinish the runners, but suggest I get someone (else) to paint the risers. I don't want painted risers - I want them to match the runners. No go - unless I do it myself. I'm a housewife, a mother, a Girl Scout leader, active volunteer and licensed attorney - not a floor finisher. I have a million things to do between now and when I move my family of five to Germany for 3 years. So, we're getting carpet for the stairs & will worrying about refinishing them when we get back to the US.

Coordinating the logistics of getting all this work done on the house should qualify me for an important corporate position with a huge salary. The outside of the garage can't be painted until the handyman fixes the soffits on the garage. There's places on the outside of the house where the paint needs touch ups, but that can't be done until the cracked windows have been replaced, because the replacement of our picture window requires the removal of the outside sill and it will need repainting once the work is completed. The windows can't be washed until the new ones are installed. And the upstairs bedrooms shouldn't be painted until we move out and the rooms are empty. So, first we start with the handyman and the new carpet and we go from there.

Meanwhile, it takes 5-6 weeks for our furniture and belongings to arrive in Frankfurt after they are boxed and loaded here in Elmhurst, so we need somewhere to live in between. Fortunately, I always take our daughters to our family cottages in Upstate New York for the month of July, so this year, we plan to extend our stay from June 25 through August 6. I feel guilty about using up more than my fair share of weeks in our cottage, since my sisters & I usually rent out the empty weeks to help cover the cost of owning the cottages. But, I also want the girls and I to be able to spend time with the family before our move and hate the thought of living in a hotel longer than necessary. As it is, when we fly to Germany on August 6, we'll probably have to stay in a hotel there for a week or so until our furniture arrives.

In addition to all of this, our oldest daughter needs to take social studies in summer school in Elmhurst, because she wasn't able to fit it in her schedule during the school year and, therefore, has only taken 1 semester of social studies so far in her 2 years of high school. The International school in Germany wasn't impressed with this. So, she needs to stay in Elmhurst through July 21 to finish summer school. My husband has to be in Germany (and Sweden) on business the first week in June, the third week in June (yes, that's when the movers are coming), and the third week in July, although he has to be in Chicago (but not Elmhurst) the second week in July. So, we had to arrange with one of my daughter's friends and her parents to have our daughter stay with them during most of July when my dh is not in Elmhurst, although she can stay in a hotel with my dh the last week in June. And, of course, we have to have a back-up in case something happens with the friend or her family, so our daughter can move in with someone else if necessary.

Add into this mix that the International school in Frankfurt requires all of our daughters to take placement exams. The younger two only need to take English and math and can do that in August after we move to Germany. However, our oldest daughter needs to take exams in English, math, Spanish, Chemistry, Biology and social studies. Since she's taking social studies in summer school, she doesn't have to take that exam until August. The other five need to be taken as soon as possible, so they know where to place here for next year. The school has a 2-year program for sophomores and juniors that culminates at the end of the junior year in taking British exams - the IGCSE. Because our daughter is entering the school half-way through this 2-year program, they are very concerned about how to place her and prepare her for those exams. So, we tried to find a time that our daughter and one of her parents could fly back to Frankfurt, have a day or two to adjust to the time zone, take 2 days of exams and fly home. Not an easy task under the best of circumstances, but especially difficult with my husband's travel schedule, my daughter's exam and summer school schedule and my own schedule with our other 2 daughters and preparing for the move. Finally, the school agreed to fax the exams to a sister school in Minneapolis, so now we can fly up there at the end of her finals here in Elmhurst, take 2 days of tests in Minneapolis, maybe fit in a quick visit to the Mall of America, and then fly home before she begins her summer school course.

Meanwhile, it's the regular chaos of spring for most parents of school-aged kids in the US. My oldest is the manager of the sophomore baseball team, of which her boyfriend is a member, and has 3-4 games a week. My middle daughter is in softball, with 2 games and 1 practice every week, as well as track, which has a practice or meet everyday after school. My youngest daughter is in softball, again 2 games and 1 practice every week, and still has band, Girl Scouts, and other events meeting regularly. Add to that schedule that every group they've been in all year, including Girl Scouts, choir, band, etc., has an end-of-the-year something in May - concerts, campouts, parties, farewells, etc. Last, but certainly not least, the girls need a chance to say good-bye to their friends here, so we're having my oldest's sweet 16 party here with 45 of her closest friends, and my other two daughters have friends arranging parties for them, that we just have to fit into the schedule somewhere. I don't think the schedule has an inch to spare, but during my "down times," I'm still trying to sort out what gets moved, what gets stored, what gets sold and what goes in the trash. I'm thinking of running away to join the circus!

The Whirlwind Househunting trip...

2006-04-14T15:04:00.000+02:00

Our visit over Spring Break 2006 was exciting, exhausting, successful and overwhelming - all at once. We flew over on a Saturday night, not leaving Chicago until 10:30 p.m. The flight was uncomfortable for me and I didn't sleep well, in part because my husband was snoring but was too far away for me to easily reach over and shake him. But also in part because my mind was racing with what we were about to do. The idea of picking a house and a school, making a final definite commitment to the move and what that would mean to our family, had a million thoughts flitting through my brain. My 10-year-old had no such problem. She was asleep in her seat before we took off from O'Hare and slept non-stop the entire trip. She slept through the meals and even when the flight attendant came and pushed her seat back to recline. She never moved. The other girls slept on-and-off, more on for the 15-year-old and more off for the 13-year-old. But everyone slept more than I did (except the couple sitting right in front of my snoring husband).

When we arrived it was Sunday afternoon. We'd rented a car, so dragged our significant stack of luggage all over the under-construction-Frankfurt airport more than once looking for the Thrifty car rental desk, only to learn that they are off-site and we had to call for them to pick us up. We had 2 cell phones with us, one German and one US one that was suppose to have service in Germany, but couldn't seem to make either work. So by the time we got Thrifty on the phone and they said they were on their way, we were already frustrated. Fortunately, in our travels, we saw a vending machine for Magnum ice cream bars - the best chocolate covered ice cream on a stick we've ever eaten, so we bought a couple to share while waiting for the van.

We picked up our rental car and headed off to the hotel. I say "car" in the most general sense of the word - we'd ordered a van because we knew that most German cars are small and we'd be travelling with not just the 5 of us, but also our relocation agent, possibly a realtor and my niece was coming to join us in Frankfurt from her semester abroad in London for the 2nd weekend of our stay. So we had a huge van - equally as large as the one Thrifty sent to fetch us from the airport - and it took my dh ("dear husband") some time to remember the mechanics of driving stick. Then, figuring out if the MapQuest directions followed the German roads and road signs was another challenge. Fortunately, we eventually found our hotel.

We unloaded the bags and had a quiet dinner in the hotel beer garden. The first hurdle, especially for our oldest, was drinks. She usually just drinks water at home, but of course, not mineral water and not fizzy water - just plain tap water. Not an easy thing to find in Germany. Her next thought was, since this was vacation, how about a virgin strawberry dacquiri? But, we didn't see anything close on the menu. The other girls ordered Sprite, which was actually 7-UP, but our oldest isn't a pop drinker, so it was a challenge. Eventually, we all got drinks and food and ate a nice quiet dinner and headed back up to bed. There's a 7 hour time difference, but it didn't matter much to me the first night, I was exhausted after sleeping so little on the plane. I had trouble that night, waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep, but was ready to go early the next morning.

Our first morning, we met with Catherine, our relocation agent, in the hotel lobby after breakfast. She had taken a questionnaire from us several weeks earlier with information about our current house. The idea was to find us a house comparable in size to what we have in Illinois. This was not an easy task, as our current home has 4 large bedrooms and a lot of space - probably 3,500 square feet, including the family room in the finished basement. Houses in Germany tend to be much smaller, but I was adament that the girls each have their own bedroom. I didn't want to make this move any harder on them than it already was by forcing them to begin sharing a bedroom. We were flexible about pretty much everything else - it could be an apartment, a house, a townhouse, have a small yard, a large yard or no yard - we just wanted 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

Catherine gave us our schedule for the next three days, during which time she would be showing us the two international schools and the houses she'd found available for rent that might meet our requirements. Amazingly, she'd found a lot of large houses, primarily in several of the smaller towns to the northwest of Frankfurt. The first stop was school #1 - the Frankfurt International School (FIS). When I'd researched schools on the internet, it seemed like this school wouldn't be as good a fit for our girls, simply because they teach the I.B. program and the other school, ISF, offers American A.P. classes. Given that our oldest would be starting her junior year of high school in Germany, and was already signed up to take A.P. classes back in Illinois, it seemed like a good idea to send them to I.S.F. to maintain continuity for her. However, FIS has incredible after-school programs, for both students and parents, is larger, more established, and has a great community for expats. We had heard from an acquaintance that more Americans put their kids in FIS as it was more like an American school.

For whatever reason, FIS just didn't click for us. The adminstrator we met was very nice, took us on a tour of the extensive facilities and gave us a lot of information about the school. But, by the time we left, when our relocation agent asked what the girls thought about the facilities, our oldest was tearing up. Her high school in Illinois recently finished a $40M renovation project, making it a tough school to beat when it comes to updated facilities. This was not an auspicious beginning.

We went on to tour houses, some of which were great and some of which were not. We decided early on that we had to name each house in order to keep them all straight when we talked about them later. This proved to be a very valuable tool, since we saw 16 houses in 3 days and would have had trouble keeping them straight without the names, my notes and my digital camera. I'll never house-hunt again w/out a digital camera. Each night, we reviewed our notes, talked about the houses, and looked at the photos. Once we decided a particular house wasn't for us, we just deleted the pictures. Usually, this was over dinner in the hotel because we were too exhausted to go anyway. Right before our early bedtime.

We saw I.S.F on the morning of the 2nd day, and what a difference there was right from the start. The administrator who met with us was animated and excited and got the girls engaged from the start. They were much more excited as we toured the school and asked a lot more questions. Because my oldest daughter moving at the beginning of her junior year, we had to meet with the head of ciricculum for the upper school, to discuss how she would join mid-way through their 2-year program for 10th & 11th grade. She got frustrated when she was told she'd have to take placement tests in math, English, Spanish, chemistry, biology and social studies in order to be placed in the right level of classes - especially since I'd told her she'd have to take tests while we were in Germany over spring break and then the relocation agent said she wouldn't have to take tests, and then the school told her she would have to, but we'd have to find a time to come back to take them. But, even with the tests and the concern getting her up-to-speed in social studies by taking a summer school class and some at-home tutoring from mom, she still seemed much happier with ISF. By the time we walked out of that school, the girls all agreed that they preferred ISF to FIS and that this would be the school they chose. Of course, for the younger two, the pool was definitely a plus.

Over the three days, we saw the "new construction," the "wine house," the "fish house," the "mole house," the "house on the hill," the "Bavarian house," the "yellow bathroom house," the "mansion"...we saw a lot of houses! It was basically fun for us all, especially the girls, even though it was exhausting. We left the hotel around 9 a.m. each day and usually didn't get back until after 6 p.m. Lunch was mostly a quick sandwich or pretzel bread from one of the many local bakeries. We saw a lot of lovely towns - Bad Homburg, Bad Soden, Konigstein, Kronberg, Oberusel, etc. All communities in which many expats live, all within a reasonable distance from the two international schools and some closer than others to the A5, the autoban highway dh would be taking to drive to Weinheim - probably 45 mins to an hour away. While in some of the towns, we did a little shopping, checked out a mall to get our biometric photographs taken for our visa applications, and even saw a castle or two. Even though it rained every day, there were spots of sunshine and it was warm. We really didn't get the tourist view of Germany, but we saw a lot in those 3 days.

The morning of the third day, as we drove to our first house and the only one in the city, my mind was reeling from the houses we'd seen at the end of the second day. We had a list going of the top 4 choices - the first two we'd seen on the first day (the new construction house and the wine house) and the last two we'd seen on the second day (the mole house and the Bavarian house). The Bavarian house was lovely and, even though not in my favorite of the neighborhoods we'd seen, I knew we could be very comfortable there. The owners live next door and were very anxious that we sign the lease, even though they had 2 other families who had already decided to rent it. We were the only Americans and the only ones with 3 kids and since the owners had such good luck renting to American families in the past, they really wanted us. Of the four houses still in consideration, the Bavarian house was my favorite, although the kids mostly liked the wine house better. But I knew that we could be happy in any of those four houses, except perhaps the new construction. Given all of the thoughts spinning around in my head, I was resisting seeing a whole new days of houses - we were scheduled to see 6, the first of which was the only house in Frankfurt itself.

As we drove to the Frankfurt house, I almost spoke up and asked our relocation agent if we could just skip it. The suburban houses were lovely and much more like we had at home. I didn't want to be in the city, didn't want an attached house when we could have a free-standing one in the suburbs, didn't like the thought of trying to find parking every day on the street outside some house in the city when I could choose a lovely house in the suburbs with a garage and parking area. I really thought we'd be wasting our time, but decided to keep quiet about it, because Catherine is a nice woman and I figured it wouldn't look good for her with the realtors if she called up to cancel so shortly before we were supposed to be there.

When she pulled up in front of the house, my eyes perked up immediately. It was absolutely gorgeous - but there was no way the entire house could be ours. We assumed it must be a two-flat or something similar, although we hadn't seen anything like that. The owner's agent met us at the gate and let us in. There was a huge driveway and 3-car garage inside the walled yard, as well as an enormous back yard. But the house - it was huge, immaculate and absolutely stunning. From the first moment, the girls dubbed this one the mansion - and it really was. The kitchen was much bigger than many of the others we'd seen - German kitchens just aren't that big. The house was built in 1900 and it showed - high ceilings (12-14 feet), beautiful crown molding, a gorgeous winding stairway - the girls call it the princess stairs. They all want to be married from that house so they can process down the stairs in their wedding gowns. There are 6 bedrooms, the master and two others on the 2nd floor and three more on the third floor. The girls can all be on the third floor, with their own bathroom, and a separate alcove for couches and a TV to watch US DVDs and videos - we could even hook up the GameCube up there. Everything had been updated 4 years ago, so the kitchen and baths were lovely and had every convenience possible. The entire house had been wired for cable TV and internet access. There are at least 4 large rooms in the basement, as well as a wine cellar. Rather than having to pick and choose what would go with us to Germany and leaving a lot of our belongings in storage, we'd have room for everything - and more! The "garden" is huge, very private, has enormous trees and doesn't feel a bit like you're in the city. And, the owner's agent told us, maintenance of the yard was included in our rent. We wouldn't even have to mow.

Before we left, we walked around the neighborhood a bit, stopped in the butcher shop for drinks for the girls and saw at least 2 bakeries. We saw several other houses that day, but the first on everyone's list now was the mansion. In fact, that was part of what convinced me that this move was meant to be - all 5 o f us agreed that ISF was the right school for our girls and all 5 of us chose the mansion as our favorite house. No one had to be outvoted, no one's choice got ignored. We all agreed on both.

By the time we parted with Catherine at the end of the day on Wednesday, we felt sure that the mansion was the house for us. Chris was to go into the corporate offices in Mannheim on Thursday, so he would be taking the school and house information with him. We didn't know at that point if we were just on a fact-finding mission of sorts or if we could really go ahead and sign a lease on a house, if we weren't sure yet when we would be moving. And, actually, at that point, he hadn't told the company that we'd definitely accept the move. But, when he finally made it to the office on Thursday, after getting a little lost on the way to Mannheim, he accepted the job, got approval on ISF and gave them the applications so the company could pay for the school, and got approval on the house. Since it was comparable in size to our home in Illinois, it was a go. We contacted Catherine, who negotiated the rental price and starting date with the owner's agent and got a copy of the lease. We had a house!

Friday morning, before my niece arrived from London, we were able to go back through the house to take measurements and more photos. We met the owner's daughter, who had lived in the Chicago suburbs for a while and speaks wonderful English. Everyone was very excited, knowing that the house would be ours as soon as the paperwork was complete. We took lots of pictures, made plans for every room, and starting visualizing our furniture in the house. It started to become our home, even sitting empty. After we picked up my niece at the airport, we brought her back to see the outside of the house and the neighborhood. We walked in a larger circle around the neighborhood and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant a couple of blocks away. It all felt right. When we talked about taking this house, we discussed that it would be a new experience for our family, living in a big city as opposed to the suburbs. But, given that we were taking a three-year assignment, the bus for the school would pick the girls up right in our neighborhood and it was a shorter commute for Chris, we decided to give it a try. If we didn't particularly like city life, we knew it was for a short duration and we'd be back to the Chicago suburbs in about 3 years. So, we had a school, we had a house, and the move was on. By this time, my head was really spinning!

We took my niece to Heidelberg on Friday - it was beautiful. We climbed to the top of the cathedral and looked out over the city. We walked up to the castle, took the automated tour and marvelled over the incredible view. We had lunch in a little Italian restaurant and shopped at the Gummi bear store. It was a lovely day in Heidelberg, visiting and being tourists. We left Heidelberg at about 6 p.m. and drove to Weinheim, where we met the man who is currently in dh's new job, and his wife, and they gave us a tour of the facility that dh will be in charge of in his new position. Then they took us to a lovely dinner in a fancy Italian restaurant - good thing we like Italian food a lot. By the time we got back to the hotel on Friday night, it was midnight and we were exhausted. So, Saturday we took it slowly. Had breakfast in the hotel and then drove to Wiesbaden. While driving around the town, we spotted a Wal-Mart Supercenter, so we had to go in. Knowing that we'd need to buy a washer, dryer, extra refrigerator, and other German appliances, we really wanted to get a feel for what the prices would be. I also liked the idea of knowing what sort of things I could get in Wal-Mart if I wanted to, as opposed to what I might need to pack up and bring with me. It was very funny to see American section of the International food department - peanut butter, marshmellows, Hershey bars, and mac&cheese - what a great comment about the American diet. Ugh! We drove along the Rhine river for a while and then headed back to Frankfurt - we were all too tired to do much but have a nice dinner in the hotel and play some cards in the lobby. We found that the lobby bar would make virgin strawberry dacquiris, so the girls were happy. My niece was happy just to have some time with family, even if we didn't give her the greatest tourist experience of Germany. She'll have to come visit us once we're in the house and know our way around a bit - we'll be much better tour guides then.

Sunday we all packed up and headed out to the airport to fly home - us to Chicago and her to London. I felt good that she had about a month until her classes were over and her parents would come tour England with her the last week before returning to the states. We sent her back to London well-fed, renewed with a family visit, and with a little money in her pocket to help cover the high costs of living (and eating) in London. We played some cards in the airport, bought chocolates and books for the flights home and climbed on the plane to fly back to Chicago. We had an entire row to ourselves, the bulkhead row, which was very comfortable. The movies were good, we mostly stayed awake the whole trip, and got home tired, dirty, and overwhelmed, but happy. It was an incredibly successful trip, compared to what it could have been, and made me feel secure that we were making the right decision and embarking on an exciting and worthwhile adventure for all of us. The only thing was, I couldn't sleep for all the thoughts and to-do lists and what-ifs running through my brain. The move would be here in no time at all and there was so much to do to get ready. It would be great, but I might just go crazy in the 3 months before we left!

And so it begins...

2006-04-06T14:17:00.000+02:00

The road leading us to Frankfurt has been long. It began in 2000, when my husband's employer told him he was being considered for a position at the corporate headquarters in Germany to start in a couple of years. It evolved over time to a definite move in the summer of 2003, but then the war in Iraq heated up and the German employees they asked to trade places w/us refused. Apparently, our location in the western suburbs of Chicago was too dangerous a place to bring their families. So, we were told it wasn't happening and, although we were disappointed, we got on with the business of raising our children and enriching our lives here.

So, when my husband told me in June, 2005 that he'd been offered a job in Germany, a specific position to start at the beginning of 2006, I was stunned. I thought we'd decided we wouldn't even consider a move again until our youngest was out of high school. Yet, here we were with our oldest just done with her freshman year of high school, our middle daughter finishing 6th grade and our youngest finishing 4th grade. Basically all they wanted from us at that point was a decision as to whether or not we'd consider moving for 3 years. My husband and I discussed it, we discussed it with our kids, and spent some time thinking over the possibilities. Since we weren't really committing ourselves at that point, we said yes, we'd consider it.

And the research began.

I bought all the books I could find on being an expat, moving your family overseas, living in Germany, understanding the German culture and how to help your kids adjust to such a huge change in their lives. I read them, my husband read them, we talked about them. There was a lot of information out there and it was a little overwhelming.

I search the internet relentlessly. I found websites on living in Germany, being an expat in general and in Germany specifically, and on moving children overseas. I spent countless hours clicking links to language courses, relocation consultants, expat connections, housing concerns, tourism bureaus, cultural treatises, and experts on the emotional impact of moving kids. It was incredibly exciting, but also incredibly frightening.

Was this the right thing to do for our family? Would our kids hate us forever, especially our oldest, for pulling them out of their schools and away from their friends? While I believe strongly that travel is essential to creating a full and enriched life, was it necessary to actually live abroad to raise well-rounded, intelligent children who were understanding and sympathetic to the ways of the world? Maybe.

I searched international schools near the company headquarters in Weinheim. There's not much, I have to say. There's an international school in Heidelberg, but they couldn't accomodate all three of our girls, because they didn't have high school classes yet. There's the department of Defense schools in Heidelberg for military dependents, but that would only be an option on a space-available basis, since my husband isn't in the military. I didn't like the uncertainty of that. So, I kept looking and found two viable options - in Frankfurt.

Our daughters have always been in the gifted and honors classes in their schools. My husband and I both went to an Ivy League university and have many teachers on both sides of our family. Education is highly valued in our family and we stress academics with our girls. They have bright, inquiring minds, and truly enjoy school. Our oldest already hopes to attend an East Coast Ivy League university when she graduates from high school, not something many of her classmates here in the mid-west necessarily consider. Not that there aren't many students bright enough for the Ivies in her class, but it seems to us that people in this area just don't go East very much. Not for vacations and not for college.

So, anyway, it was important to us that we found a school that would be academically challenging for our girls and prepare them well for admittance in top notch American universities. While both of the schools we found seemed to fit that bill, one offered American AP courses, which made sense to me. Whether she took an AP class in Illinois or in Germany, her score on the AP exam would mean the same to Cornell when it came time to apply to college. There wouldn't be a chance for her fitness as an applicant to get lost in translation. Apples to apples, so to speak. So, although we would reserve our final decision until after seeing the schools, we agreed that this school seemed to be a good option.

So, if they kids were going to school in Frankfurt and my husband was working near Mannheim, where would we live? I tried to research housing options in the Frankfurt area, but not speaking German made this a half-hearted effort at best. I asked that the company consider hiring a relocation consultant for us, to help make this transition easier and fill in the gaps of information for us. I looked for expat connections and it seemed that we'd have no trouble finding other Americans and English-speakers in the Frankfurt area.

I felt strongly that it was important for my kids to be able to live near their schools, so they could participate in activities and be reasonably close to friends they might make. I wanted to live in an area where other expats live, so that they could walk outside and hear others speaking English and so that I could meet other English-speaking women. Everything I read said it would be important to the girls and to me to have some familiarity around us in the dizzying new world of living in Germany.

After all the reading and research, discussion and dialog, we felt good with our decision and awaited further information from the company. We planned for my husband to move at Christmas time, but for me to stay in Illinois with the girls until the end of the 2005-2006 school year, planning to move there in the summer. My husband discussed the move with his boss in the US in addition to the executives in Germany, getting as much information as he could and letting them know how we felt about the opportunity.

So then, the wait began.

I'm not good with waiting, I'll admit. I became frustrated at the lack of information. We didn't hear anything for months at a time. We eventually learned that his start date was being pushed back until the spring or summer of 2006. This caused me to have flashbacks of all the times the proposed move in the summer of 2003 was delayed, pushed back, and eventually abandoned. I decided to put the whole thing on a shelf labeled "possibility" instead of "probability." I went about the business of my life, leading Girl Scout troops, driving car pool and raising my girls. I decided to get a part-time job, but the possibility of the move gave me justification not to look for a "real" job, something career-oriented.

I wanted to stay an at-home mom to my girls and only work part-time, while they were in school. And even though I'm a licensed attorney, I haven't practiced since my 15-year-old was about one. I'm not even licensed in Illinois and have no real desire to practice any time soon. I worked part-time as a paralegal in Chicago when the girls were little and it would have made sense to look for something similar, if I was serious about getting a job. But, with the possibility of a move in less than a year, I opted to take a low-paying, minimally-stressful job as a book merchandiser, just to have a small income and a social outlet.

Things remained quiet on the work front. The fall came and went with no news at all. We saw our families at Christmas, but couldn't give them any more information than we'd had for months. We planned to take the girls to see Germany over Spring break, but hadn't heard anything about it, even though February was rapidly coming to an end. So, my husband started asking what was up, had they changed their minds yet again. No, no, we were told, everything's still on. The whole thing was starting to make me nuts - didn't they realize what a huge undertaking this would be for us? Couldn't we get some definite answers and start making some plans?

Finally, by the beginning of March, we were told to go ahead and find a flight for Spring Break and that they'd hired a relocation consultant, who began planning our trip and organizing information for the move. After all the months of waiting, this struck me as a serious commitment by the company - the move was really going to happen, if we agreed. All that really remained was for us to see the schools, see what kind of housing would be available to us in the area, what Chris's job and commute would be like. It was up to us to make up our minds after this fact-finding trip - did we want to take the job or not?

It meant fresh tears for my oldest, lots of excited supposition by my middle daughter, and butterflies in my stomach. I think my youngest mostly thought of the chance to travel somewhere new and exciting for Spring Break. A chance to buy gummi bears and trinkets to bring home for their friends, like we do every time we travel. But the trip turned into so much more...