Ending September

Greetings all!

As of today, we are still limping along with partial internet hookup. (Hence the long delay since my last entry...) But all in all, we are fine and have been enjoying gorgeous weather for the past few weeks - lots of bike riding, swimming (we actually have a city pass for the pools now!), and taking care of our daily business. Much of my time is spent grocery shopping these days - most families shop just about everyday here. Part of the reason for this is that we don't have a car, so the giant trips I made every week in the US are impossible here. But, I actually enjoy this. Steve and I have been comparing our personalities, and mine is much more suited for these here today-gone tomorrow tasks (groceries, laundry, etc.) I sort of live for today and can plan my whole day around a grocery trip to the discount store here. (Gee, there's this great coffee place just around the corner! Latte Macchiato - YUM.)

Steve is working very hard finishing his book. He's basically done with the writing part of it, and now has to work on the tedious reference part of book writing. (Torture, according to Steve.) The kids are doing fine although you can keep Harrison in your prayers - he's having some bullying problems here in the neighborhood. We're actually quite shocked about it - none of the rest of us have had any problems. I think it's a boy/testosterone thing. But other than that, they are all ready for their first big break from school. Starting Friday, they have two whole weeks off! We are planning a short vacation as a family to the Rhine/Mosel valleys. And I suppose that will be one of my next entries.

I am translating famous German hymns. Sound boring? Quite the contrary! It really helps my German, and prepares me for the research I'll be doing in German hymnody this next year. (Not to mention the vocabulary boost for church!!) Here's what I learned today - Not = need, Sinn = sense or feeling.

Anyway, the kids need to go to bed, so that's all for now! (they are currently watching "Kim Possible" in German.)

Until next time,

A trip to the zoo

Hello everyone!

Well, we are still sort of limping along internet-wise at the moment. We now have hook-up for one computer for some mysterious reason, but all should be clear on Tuesday, when the internet guy comes to set up our new modem. Steve did get it straightened out over the phone - a feat worth bragging about, really. But I'm not holding my breath - I'll write again on Tuesday night with our news.

We were able to visit the "all-weather zoo" while Steve was in London a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd post a few pictures from that adventure. The kids and I really enjoyed it - we are thinking about buying a family pass for the year, but I'm not sure if we'll actually use it enough to make it worth while. What I found really remarkable, comparing it to the zoos we've visited elsewhere, is that the animals were so frisky! The zebras were running around like crazy, chasing each other, the lions were actually interacting, and the tiger and cheetah were pacing. ("bread and butter....bread and butter" who else remembers that cartoon?) It may be that we usually visit zoos in the heat of summer, and the weather was just perfectly comfortable here that day? I don't know, but I got some good pictures as a result.

Until next time,

Top: Nordkirche Castle - the "Versailles of Germany" - built in the 1700's
Bottom: Vischering Castle - built in the 1200's. (That's Steve and the kids on the wall.)

Greetings everyone!

Due to our friends’ trip to Norway, we had the opportunity to explore a bit for a day with their car. We went to visit some castles in the area, and as you’ll see from the pictures I’ll be posting, they are scenes from a movie. I mentioned earlier that our area of Germany is quite flat – we are very near the Dutch border, and thus have a low sea-level and very few hills. In the medieval times, the nobles couldn’t build their castles on an easily defendable hilltop, so they built moated ones instead. I have always understood that a moat was one method of defense, but never realized that they are generally used in the absence of hills.

The first one we visited is called Vischering Castle – and looks as you can see, directly out of fairy tale! There was a museum there especially for kids, and although we couldn’t understand all of it, the kids really enjoyed trying on medieval armor and learning that the knights’ primary danger was not their enemies, but the heat! The castle dates from the 13^th century, includes a drawbridge and outer bailey (where most of the activity took place) and its foundations rest on wooden piles. You might ask, why wooden piles that would decay in water? Well, as long as the wood was not exposed to oxygen that would cause it to decay, the pilings were quite stable. Thus, it was very important to keep the water level constant. (Accomplished through a system of “weirs” – don’t ask me how they work.) I guess now a ring of concrete has been laid around the castle to provide a more manageable brace to prevent collapse.

The second castle is called Nordkirche Castle – and is nicknamed “the Versailles of Germany” because of its beauty. As you view the picture above, you can understand why. Built in the 1700’s, I found it just as romantic but in an entirely different way. No knights in shining armor here, but gorgeous grounds and gardens, towering tree lined paths, and, of course, a moat. The kids enjoyed the ducks. Evanleigh in particular was lost in her imaginings this day.

Getting Settled: a couple of pictures

Kids feeding the ducks behind our apartment complex, and Ev sitting on our "new" chair. (very cozy!)

Getting settled

The second week after our arrival was very eventful: we got settled into our apartment, bought a whole lot of second hand furniture, borrowed a lot of stuff from friends of Stephen and Barbara Emmel (our host family), and the kids got settled into school and started going by themselves by either public transportation (Ev and Harrison) or walking (Rowyn). We also got our bank account figured out, our phone set up, and attempted to get our internet connection working. The honeymoon, while still enjoyable overall, was definitely over. Then Steve had to go off to a conference in London for a week. (sigh)

We were dashing around a lot doing these errands during that second and third week, and I'll spare you the details of those adventures. Let me describe our living area, town, and various cultural adjustments we've been making.

First of all, our apartment complex: It's called Toppheideweg (Toaphydaveg- emphasis on the "hy") and it's in a smallish suburb called Geivenbeck, just northwest of Muenster. We can bike into town in just about 20 minutes, or go by bus - which is about 25 minutes. It's all flat here, so it's an EASY trip. We have decided to invest in some used bikes. There are thousands of bikes in the city, and many people do not have cars, just bikes. So far, Steve has one, mine got stolen, Evanleigh has one that we're sharing, and there's one more that Harrison and Rowyn can both ride. (I'm answering an advertisement for the remaining two tomorrow!) There are about 6 buildings in our complex. And there's another complex behind us (Gesherweg). Between us there's a long park, complete with stream, ducks, (picture above) playground and paths. Among the many benefits of our locations are a bike shop, doner-kabob restaurant (that's Turkish kabobs), a bus stop directly across the street, and a grocery store only 300 yards away. This store is about the size of the old Pay Less in Anderson - for those who remember it - or picture a much smaller store from about 20 years ago. (All the stores are this size- more on grocery shopping later.) As part of our contract, we are required to plant flowers in our balcony boxes, so the apartments themselves are quite attractive with cascades of late summer blooms everywhere. (I managed to plant some yellow mums and heather.)

As for our living space - we have three bedrooms, one and a half baths, a fairly good-sized kitchen, small dining room, and living room. Cable comes free - only 12 channels or so, but we DO get CNN international in English! The rest is in German. The kids watch a lot of cartoons - here SpongeBob Squarepants is translated into SpongeBob Squarehead. We try to tell ourselves that it's helping their German....but they really do need downtime after a long day of listening to German. It may sound small, but, really, we feel fine with this amount of space. Maybe because we don't have so much stuff to clutter it up with....but it seems roomy. We are on the ground floor - but the buildings here are not very tall. Our complex is all just four stories.

Somethings we've had to get used to is the garbage system. We actually separate our stuff into five different piles! One for plastic/packaging materials, one for paper products - including cardboard boxes and newspaper magazines, one for all biological wastes - which includes any uneaten food after supper along with all the normal compost stuff, one for glass - either green or clear, and, finally, one for the rest. The last one has a tiny trash area and you have to use a key to access it. So I guess not just anyone can come and throw their trash in your bin - the temptation being to just skip the other categories and throw it all in there. You'd think that this would be difficult - but really, it just takes getting used to. The plastic/packaging materials go into a yellow plastic bag that you get from the city - and that is by far the largest amount of waste leaving our home. Very enlightened - you might say. This is a phrase that Steve and I say a lot about living here, actually.

Some examples: Women must return to work only after their child is three years old, and they get subsidized daycare after that. Most Germans get 5 weeks off a year for vacation and work only a 36-7 hour week. They are very energy conscious - in the three story book store I frequent, there are escalators just going up, and stairs going down (or up, I guess). There is also an elevator that hardly anyone uses. There are all ages riding bikes here, even people in their 80's! There are clearly designated paths for walkers and bikers, along with traffic lights as well. (And everyone generally follows them, even when there are NO cars for miles!) Hardly anyone has dryers, so I'm back to hanging my laundry. We have a large room downstairs for this purpose. (Think how much energy we'd save as a nation is no one owned dryers?)

I guess maybe living here is a bit more labor intensive, what do you think? But the pace of life is definitely SLOWER, which I love. All for now! I'll try to post some pictures of our area soon.

Second pictures: Muenster

Ok, talk about a random arrangment of pictures! The wooded path picture above is the "Promenade." The old city/downtown or Altstadt is completely surrounded by this beautiful path for walkers and bikers. The black spire above is the Lombardi Kirche - with the cages hanging from it. (See first entry below.) And the last one is the market on the DomPlatz in the very center of town. (The greenish spires in the background are the church itself.) I cannot say enough about this market! It's very crowded on Saturdays, but on Wednesday mornings, it is quite serene and colorful. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies, various meats (NOT much beef, but LOTS of pork of various types), and cheese stands. As many of you know, I myself am an avid cheese lover, and I cannot believe how many kinds there are available here. And not any cheddar!! Well...not much anyway. Many kinds of Gouda (pronounced "gowda") and brie - with endless varieties. I go there and think, "If only I could share this with someone!" Please visit!

Well, as I mentioned in my first entry, we have had a few frustrations here during the past three weeks - mostly related to internet hookup. But many of our stresses have been losing things. And even though we eventually find some of them, the stress of looking everywhere and backtracking activities seems endless. I've lost my cell phone once, (it was at home) Steve has lost his (it was in our friends' car), and the kids continually lose jackets. (Of which we have very few!) And then tonight when I was going out with Rowyn to practice riding bikes with her, I found that my adorable bike has been stolen. UGH. Now we have to decide what to do....it was used, and we paid only 60 Euros for it, but still. (It was red and had a really cute basket on the back.) Anyway, I suppose these momentary setbacks will lessen in comparison to the fun we are having, right? I tell myself that the bike fairy took it to bike heaven.

Well....I'm going to go now and give this address to everyone. Please feel free to comment and write back.

First pictures

OK - so I'm learning how to post pictures. You have to read it Arabic style (from right to left) in order to understand. Here we are, just days before our journey: The Davis Family. And here are the kids at the airport in Muenster - after a very very long day. (About 26 hours from the time we left West Haven.) And then the church in Altenburge. All roads lead to it, basically. This picture was taken just a block from where we stayed that first week.

Our First Month in Germany

Greetings from Germany Everybody!

Now that we are finally hooked up to the internet at home, I am starting our blog. Not without mixed emotions, I'll admit...I mean who will possibly read it? Who would care enough to look it up? True confession, I have only looked up one weblog in my online life, and it was a couple from our church who are spending a year in Iraq! How can our little adventures here and there compare to that? And isn't it a little self-centered to assume that one's life is worth reading about?

In any case, I have decided that it's better to write letters that people can choose to read, and not feel obligated to read because it arrived in their inbox. We have spent time overseas, and it is very easy to become addicted to email. I spent many days waiting for one or two people to whom I wrote nice long letters to write back. And one person wrote that my letter took work to finish because it was so long. SO. Anyone reading this can choose or not choose to catch up with our happenings - and I can save the email letters for more personal notes and less mass mailings.

So - back to our exciting first weeks in Muenster. We arrived on August 1, late at night. So we didn't really get to see Germany until the next day. Our area of Germany, Rhineland-Westfalia, is very flat and very green. Lush, even. We were very surprised at how rural it is - Steve, time and time again, commented on how much it reminded him of Lancaster County without hills. I guess I would say that there is marked difference between living areas and country-farmland. In the US, many people have huge yards that blur the boundaries of what's country and what's city. Here, everyone has very small yards (I understand now why they are called gardens, and not yards) - and the rest is pasture or cultivated fields. Walking and biking are a big deal here, so there are paths everywhere - beautiful paths. I will try to post the pictures soon...got to figure that out first.

Anyway, we stayed in the home of our hosts, Stephen and Barbara Emmel, who were working in Vienna and returned on our fourth day. They live in a small village northwest of Muenster called, Altenburge. (Very quaint!) It was actually very nice to crash in someone's home, without having to worry about being guests. It gave us time to get over jet-lag and get our barings a bit. We also had use of their car - an added bonus! So the third day, after sleeping until two pm on day 2, we made our first foray into Muenster.

We had a hard time figuring out how big the city is. What we thought would be a long drive into town, turned out to be just 10 or 15 minutes, and when we tried to find the natural foods market the following day, we ended up giving up. (It turns out we thought we were in the center of the old city, when in fact we were a couple of blocks off.) There are churches everywhere downtown, and we kept thinking we'd found the "big one."

The town is full of history. We ate lunch that first day in the shadow of the Lombardi Kirche - where there are cages hanging from one of the steeples. In the 17th century, they tortured and killed the leaders of an anabaptist rebellion, and hung their bodies in the cages as a reminder of what happens to conquerers. Very cool in a morbid, "we hold grudges" sort of way, I guess. I had read about this important event in my Reformation Theology readings, and it is amazing to see evidence now of this time in Germany's history. Muenster was actually all but destroyed near the end of World War II - we are only 60 kilometers from the Dutch border, and I guess planes would drop their extra bombs on Muenster on their way out. The devestation was huge. But the city started rebuilding right away - and what makes it different from other cities in Germany was that they used plans and pictures to make it exactly the way it was before the war. It goes way beyond quaint, as you can see from the pictures.

Once we got over our initial culture shock/jet-lag, we had to get busy and into our apartment. So our first week as guests was really perfect and care free. The past three weeks have been much more frustrating. The important factor has been getting the kids settled in school, and THAT, thankfully, has been wonderful. Harrison and Evanleigh are attending the Paulinum Gymnasium - which was started in the 700's or something crazy like that. We had origninally thought that the curriculum would be half and half/German-English. We were wrong. It's all in German. The added bonus of this school is their GSL program. They have extra German everyday to help with their language acquisition - and although it didn't start until two weeks in, they have made leaps and bounds as a result. They like school overall, although it is exhausting to listen to German all day. (They fall asleep quickly at night - which anyone who knows our children will know is a remarkable thing!) Evanleigh was befriended by a Korean student the first week who lives just a couple of doors down from us and goes to the church we attend in the neighborhood....another "sent from God" thing. Rowyn, of course, LOVES school and has no problem making friends despite the language barrier. Her school is one kilometer away, and she now walks to and from by herself. (Ev and H take public buses like the other children here.) We thought she would be getting no help, but for the first month, the school has arranged for a student teacher to teach German to her - some days alone and some with a small group of foreign students. Needless to say, there has been far more help and special care for our kids than we ever imagined possible. Steve helps with homework at night - which has been a great review for him! I end up helping mostly Rowyn, where we learn together.

There is more to tell, but I'll stop for today. Aren't you glad you didn't receive this in your mailbox?? Tomorrow I'll try to post the pictures. This is actually kind of fun.