Oscar's 4th Birthday

In honor of Oscar's birthday, the boys decided to make him a doggy pizza. I made the dough from a dog biscuit recipe, and the boys added Oscar's favorite toppings--peanut butter instead of pizza sauce, crumbled dog biscuits instead of cheese, and carrots instead of pepperoni.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Like I said in my last post, May Day fell on a Friday, which meant a three day weekend for us. So, we drove down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, at the foot of the German Alps. It was the home of the 1936 Winter Olympics, and is a good base for visiting the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak. And that was the plan--to ride either the cog-wheeled train or cable car to the top. But the weather did not cooperate. Even when it wasn't raining, the peaks were still in the clouds.




Therefore, we walked through Partnachklamm, a gorge just below our hotel. We followed a narrow path through the gorge, and since one end of the gorge was closed, we had to turn around and return the same way on this narrow path not meant for two-way traffic. Because of the rain and melting snow, so much water was flowing into the gorge that it felt as if we were walking behind a waterfall the entire distance.


Our hotel was also a treat, because to reach it we had to ride a Seilbahn (cable car). The hotel, Forsthaus Graseck, is perched along the top of the gorge, and although there is a narrow road leading up to the hotel, there is no parking. The best way to get there is by the cable car. When we walked out of the cable car and into the Biergarten and playground, Alex said, "This is paradise!" Oscar, on the other hand, was nervous riding the Seilbahn, and whined all the way.



In addition to our walk through the gorge, we visited Schloss Linderhof, one of King Ludwig II's three fairy tale castles. This palace was the only one ever completed and the only one he actually lived in. Since I consider myself a minimalist, I found it way over the top with all the gold leaf and intricate porcelain chandeliers. He also had an artificial grotto built so that he could view Richard Wagner's operas from a shell boat. Why is it that all kings have extravagant tastes? Someday, I hope to visit a palace decorated with white walls and simple hardwood furnishings.

Since Oscar always (almost always) travels with us, his blog has also been updated.

May Day

May 1, International Worker's Day, fell on a Friday this year, so we spent the long weekend in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (more on this in a future post). The night before, in my German Conversation class, we discussed how May 1 is celebrated in different countries--we're a very international group. As the only American, I had to say that we don't celebrate on May 1, instead we have Labor Day in September. Then, a man from Vietnam said, auf Deutsch of course, "But Worker's Day started in the USA." Our teacher said that this was what she had also been told. So, when I got home, I went straight to Wikipedia, and I learned that not only does May 1 commemorate a worker's strike and riot in the US, but in Chicago!

May 1 marks the anniversary of the Haymarket Riots. It is embarrassing for me that I didn't know this, because back in the Reagan-Bush years, I became very interested in anarchy, and for reasons that are not clear to me, labor unions and strikes seem to be always organized by so-called anarchists. Well, I did a lot of reading about the Haymarket Strikes and Riots back then. I made a special trip to the Near West Side to see what was left of the monument marking the spot of the riots. And I knew that five of the eight men tried for starting the riots are buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park. But I never knew that the riots resulted in an international holiday (a guy from Spain thanked me for this holiday, even though I was totally ignorant about it). I always thought of the Haymarket as a slice of Chicago history, not even American history.

I had to move to Germany to learn about its impact on the rest of the world.

Neubeuern and Radstadt

On the way to Radstadt, Austria, for our annual ski trip, we stopped for lunch in Neubeuern, Germany, a small town not too far south of Munich. This is where my father and his family were refugees after WWII. They lived here in the shadow of the castle, which is now a school, from 1945 to 1949, when my father immigrated to Tennessee to work on a farm. It was from Neubeuern that my father was sent to Traunstein, last year's stop, for school.


We only skied three days, and of those days, only the first was good. It just got too warm too fast, and the snow became slush. But, nevertheless, we had fun and the boys are developing into pretty good skiers. Better than me!



The rest of the week we spent swimming or hiking near our apartment. One day we visited Burg Hohenwerfen. Every year drive by this castle on the way to Radstadt, so this year we decided to pay it a visit. It turns out that this was the castle featured in the movie "Where Eagles Dare." Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've seen this movie, and so it did not seem familiar. We took a tour of the castle, which included a torture chamber and weapons cache (it seems to me that this is how people during medieval times spent their leisure hours--inventing new ways to inflict pain), and saw a great falcon show. I was impressed, because at the end they released a Kaiser eagle, a vulture, a large hawk and two smaller hawks all at the same time. With the exception of the Kaiser eagle stealing some food from one of the smaller hawks, they all seemed to enjoy flying around together. Add your own metaphor here.

PS Oscar's blog has also been updated.

The Old Couch

We got rid of our old couch, and some other stuff, last week. In Chicago, we would have put it out in front of our house, and someone would have taken it. If not, then we would have "convinced" the garbage men to take it.

Here it is more complicated. If something doesn't fit in the dumpster, such as a couch, then it is called "Sperrmüll," or "bulky wastes," and one has to call the city to come and haul it away. They'll come twice a year for free, and after that, you have to pay. I don't know how much, because I don't know anyone that has made an appointment for "Sperrmüll Abholung" more than once a year.


And here, the city doesn't send one truck--they send three. Because not only do they collect your junk, they sort the metals and electronics from the furniture and wood products. (NOTE: I missed the trucks that picked up our stuff, so I used a photo I took earlier this year, hence the snow, of someone else's junk being hauled away.)

Rote Wand mit Neuer Couch

And now, our red wall with our new couch!

Red Wall

I now have a red accent wall in my living room. And I painted it all by myself! Actually, the boys helped. Back in Chicago, I wanted to paint one of the bedrooms red, but the painters talked me out of it. I'm sorry they did, because I love my new red wall.

Fasching

For almost a week now, the kids have been on break from school. They call it a winter break, but it's really a break for Fasching, also known as Karneval or Carnival.


Fasching begins officially on November 11, when the clubs organizing the parades and festivities start throwing balls. These balls are televised, especially during the week before Ash Wednesday. But to me it seems like all the partying really begins on Weiberfastnacht, the Thursday before Ash Wednesday. This is "Ladies' Night," and women cut off men's ties and collect them. I've never participated, so I'm not really sure how this done, and what does one do with these severed ties later? The parties continue through Faschingsdienstag, also known as Mardi Gras, and there are lots of parades over the weekend. The big parades are on Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, but the biggest and best of these are in the Cologne/Dusseldorf area and Rhineland.


Since it was wet and cold with a chance of snow, we opted to stay in town and go to the parade in Bruck, one of Erlangen's neighborhoods, on Sunday. This is a very small parade without the impressive floats and costumes of the bigger parades. It also means the kids collect less candy and junk food, which is what they throw from the floats. Two years ago, we went to a parade in the Cologne area, and the kids collected three large shopping bags full of candy, chips, and little toys. But this year, like I said, it was cold and wet, and most of the candy ended up in puddles. And we left the parade about halfway through because our feet were frozen. Well, at least we tried to participate in the big bash before Lent.

Let it Snow!

We've been having a wonderful winter. It's been cold enough since the beginning of the new year for the outdoor ice skating surfaces to stay frozen, and so the boys have become really good skaters and hockey players.


And we've had just the right amount of snow. Last year, we didn't have any snow, and two winters ago, we had only one weekend's worth. This year, we've had enough to keep us sledding, making snow angels and throwing snowballs since early January. But, it hasn't been too cold, so we've been able to picnic--with Glühwein, of course.

Deciphering, and Trying to Cope, with the Bavarian School System

The last couple of months have been rather stressful, and not because I lost my hobby. Last fall we had Philip tested by a child psychiatrist for attention-deficit problems and for dyslexia. The good news is that he has neither ADD/ADHD nor dyslexia, but he does have problems concentrating and reading--he reads very slowly and often skips words or replaces words he doesn't know with more familiar words. The psychiatrist said this might be because he has been learning to read in both English and German.

Digression: Alex, on the other hand, seems to have no problems with reading in two languages. He learned to read German first, and then basically taught himself to read English. Of course, since Deutsch is read phonetically, he complains about all the exceptions to the rules in English.

The bad news is that there is very little help within the school system for children with learning disabilities, or for Ausländer (foreigners). Once a week, Philip attends a class at his school for help with German reading and writing, and twice a week we send him to a tutoring program (probably similar to the Sylvan Learning Centers in the US). In Chicago, Philip's class had a teacher's aide who helped the kids keep up with their in-class work, and if it hadn't been for her, Philip would have never learned to read and spell in 1st grade as quickly as he did (Philip was behind the rest of the class, because German kindergartens don't teach reading and writing). A friend from Erlangen moved to Boston last summer, and she wrote how wonderful it is that her children receive help with their English everyday from the teacher's aides.

It seems to me that here they teach to the "gifted" students, and to those who cannot keep up, "Sorry!" Philip comes home with pages of notes, and from these notes he's supposed to figure out how to do his homework. There are examples and he says his teacher explains things, but quickly and briefly to the class and not the individual. There seems to be very little tolerance within the system for students who cannot pick up concepts quickly. Those who have serious learning disabilities end up going to "special" schools. I've heard that other German states are trying to integrate these children, including Down syndrome students, but not Bavaria.

Philip is in the 4th grade and this is his last year of elementary school. In Bavaria, children start secondary school in the fifth grade, and depending on their grades, they end up following one of three routes. If their grades are good, then they can enter Gymnasium, which lasts through the 12th grade and prepares them for university studies. If they don't manage a 2.3 average (more on this later) but a 2.6, then they can attend the Realschule, which from what I understand, is similar to Gymnasium, except that they learn at a slower pace and Realschule lasts only through the 10th grade. Afterwards, students can begin an apprenticeship or enter a Fachoberschule/Fachhochschule, which like Gymnasium prepares them for the Abitur, or test, that they need to enter university. The lowest level of secondary education is Hauptschule, which lasts through 9th grade only, and although I've been told that one can work their way from Hauptschule to university, I've also heard that the chances are slim. As Philip put it, "Hauptschule is for losers." And this, unfortunately, is the attitude of many Germans I know.

Last week, Philip received his Zwischenzeugnis, or mid-term report card, and he received straight 3s in the three subjects that count toward deciding which secondary school he will attend. The German grading system consists of numbers 1 through 6, with 1 being the best and 6 failing. A 3, according to the footnote on his report card, is satisfactory, so I think it is the equivalent of a C in the American system. Straight Cs, in my opinion, is not terrible, but in the German system, this is enough to keep you from attending university.

Unlike the US, the federal government here pays for one's university education, with individuals paying a small fee of about 1000 Euros per year. Therefore, entry into a German university is more selective. Unfortunately, the system in Bavaria is set-up so that the selection process begins in the 4th grade, with children only 9 or 10-years-old. In Belgium, grade school lasts through the 6th grade, and I've heard this is true for some states in Germany. But, we live in Bavaria, where they seem to think that 10 is old enough to make final decisions about one's future.

Philip has three months to pull a 2 out of either math or Deutsch in order to attend Realschule, and his teacher seems to think his chances are better in math because he makes too many grammatical mistakes in Deutsch, even though his essays are very good. He has good ideas, changes his sentence beginnings, uses quotes, etc., but he still has problems with the articles and adjective endings, which change depending on gender and declension. In math, he can do all the calculations quickly and accurately, but he gets mixed up doing the word problems. In his defense, solving the word problems requires multiple steps using addition, subtraction, multiplication AND division. Even I find them overwhelming and I love word problems.

We're all very frustrated right now--Bob and I because we find the system so complicated, Philip because he knows many of his friends will be going to Gymnasium without him, and even Alex is worried about Philip's grades. In addition, I feel guilt for pulling him out of the Chicago public school system, where he was on the honor roll, and ashamed of myself for feeling disappointed. Right now, he needs confidence, and I need to help him find it, but I'm not sure I know how.

Ich habe Pech!

which translates into "I have bad luck."  I finally found a hobby I enjoy--horseback riding, and then my instructor quit.  I know it is not a disaster, but it takes me so long to gather up the courage to try new things, especially since I'm insecure about my ability to communicate in German.

Even in Chicago, I was hesitant about taking classes.  We were back for one and a half years before I decided to sign-up for a Pilates class and an ice skating class.  And there was no excuse for waiting to take the ice skating class.  I had taken many classes at McFetridge before and after Philip was born.  I knew some of the instructors and the director of the program, but I kept putting it off.  I had no time, I was too old, what if I fall and hurt myself--the list of excuses goes on.

Now, I have another excuse--my German is not good enough, which is true to a certain degree. I tried yoga classes last year, and I could get through the first half of each class, because we were doing poses that were familiar to me.  My instructor was also a dancer, and the second half of each class involved quite a bit of improvisational dance.  It also involved partnering, and I had trouble not only understanding what my teacher expected but what my partners expected. After six classes, I was too stressed to return. Especially since during the sixth class, she had us do a "relaxing" exercise, in which we were supposed to express our wishes. We were supposed to just say what ever came into our minds.  I listed places I want to visit-South Africa, New Zealand, Chile--everyone else wished for world peace.

I tried a ballet class with an instructor from Pennsylvania.  There were no communication problems, but I just did not enjoy the class.  Allow me to digress here and mention that most schools here will let you try one class for free.  They don't expect you to commit right away, kind of like a blind date.

I wanted to try horseback riding when we lived in Erlangen the first time around, because there are so many stables in the area.  I actually started searching the Internet for info shortly after we returned, but not many of the stables have websites.  A friend suggested that I just walk up and knock on the door.  I finally found the "Mut" (courage) to do this last July.  I rode my bike to a stable in Spardorf, the village next door, a five-minute bike ride, and asked about lessons in broken German.  It turned out that the instructor, who's from Iceland, spoke perfect English, as most Scandinavians do.  The horses were also Icelandic and the style of riding was more relaxed than English.  After my trial class, I knew that this was my new hobby.  I liked the horses, the other students, the proximity of the stable, and especially the instructor.  Two weeks before Christmas, he tells me he's leaving and the riding school is closing, and now I'm back to where I started--searching for a stable and for courage.

Happy Holidays!

Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!  Merry Christmas and a good slide into the New  Year!


This was the view from our terrace last week.  This week, for Christmas, rain, rain and more rain.

To Over Live

Alex has developed this habit of saying "over lived" instead of "survived."  He's translating from German, and in German "to survive" is "überleben," which literally translates into: über = over + leben = to live.  No matter how many times Philip or I correct him, he still insists on saying "over lived," as in "I over lived the day at school."

Happy 25th!

Last week, Bob celebrated 25 years with Siemens.  His boss threw him a party, to which I was also invited, that included a 4-course lunch.  Bob was asked to pick the menu, and he wisely chose the French menu--beef broth with pistachio dumplings, scallops as an appetizer, steaks for the main course and white chocolate mousse for dessert.  After lunch, there was a party in his department, and his boss made a speech, gave me flowers and sekt (German champagne), and thanked me for "renting Bob out to Siemens for 25 years."

Bob said in Chicago he would have probably received a catalog and chosen a gift that he didn't need or want. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I haven't forgotten that Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, but this year we celebrated early.  We celebrated yesterday, because the boys had the day off--it was Buß-und Bettag.  This is supposed to be a day of penance, and it was a national holiday (remember, no separation of church and state in Deutschland) until 1994.  But, Bavaria decided to keep it as a school holiday.  I think more for the teachers than the students.

Since they were home all day, they helped me make a sweet potato pie.  I haven't found canned pumpkin here yet, and when we tried making pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin, the filling came out too runny.  In other words, our sweet potato pie is better than our pumpkin, and this year I added ginger, as well as cinnamon and nutmeg.  It was a little spicier and better.  And just like last year, we made a chicken instead of a turkey.  I made it with tarragon, which I love, but Alex didn't, so we had to scrape it off.  He told me that he likes the chicken from the street vendor, who sells roasted chickens on Tuesdays near our local grocery store, better.

Bob and I also had to explain to Alex what Thanksgiving is all about.  Philip learned about the Native Americans and how they helped the Pilgrims while he was in the first and second grade in Sauganash.  But since Alex is being educated in Germany, he hasn't learned the significance of Thanksgiving.  He thought it was a medieval holiday and had us dress as kings and a queen. 

The Eleventh Commandment

On the day after Halloween, All Saints' Day, which is a holiday in many European countries, we drove to Everberg, Belgium, to visit Przemko and Sasha. As always, we had fun--too much fun and too much Belgium beer, which is stronger than German beer and much, much stronger than American.


While in Belgium, we revisited Antwerp, which is fast becoming one of my favorite European cities. We visited the Diamond Museum, located in the thriving Jewish quarter, and there are not many thriving Jewish quarters left in Europe. It reminded me of parts of NYC, and this is one reason why I'm so fond of Antwerp.


The other is Het Elfde Gebod, or the Eleventh Commandment, a cafe cluttered with religious paraphernalia. A place like this in the US would piss off the Christian Right for being irreverent. I thought it was a great place to spend a religious holiday.

Speaking of Halloween, I am starting to appreciate Halloween here in Germany more and more. I never really liked Halloween. As a kid I didn't enjoy Trick-or-Treating, and as an adult, I didn't care for Halloween parties, with the exception of Halloween on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin--from the University of Wisconsin's campus up to the state capitol, it was wall-to-wall revelry. In Chicago, the month of October rivaled December in yard decor and hype. Every house in our neighborhood was decorated with spooky stuff, and it seemed like we spent practically everyday leading up to Halloween visiting haunted houses/forests, pumpkin patches and parties at school and at every extracurricular activity. (Another exception was Holly and Matt's Halloween Party--that was truly fun!) In Germany, Halloween is a relatively new holiday, so there are very few spooky decorations, although decorated and carved pumpkins are common, few parties, and Trick-or-Treat only lasts about one hour. And the kids come home with a reasonable amount of candy, so I won't be throwing away old candy six months from now.

Don't Forget to Vote!

Bob and I voted early--I actually mailed in my ballot in September, right after I received it. I'm not at liberty to say who Bob voted for, but I voted for Barack, as most Germans expected me to.

Most Germans, friends as well as people I've just recently met, find it hard to believe that anyone in the US would vote for McCain. They see him as an extension of George Bush with his poor economic and foreign policies. And as for Sarah Palin, they roll their eyes a lot. They see her for what she is--inexperienced. They cannot fathom that this combination may be the US's next president and vice-president.

And yet, I fear that they may win, and then McCain will die in office, because he is old and being the US president is a high-pressure job, and then Sarah Palin will be president, which is a very, very scary thought.

Pumpkins and Horseradish

Alex decorated the pumpkin CK bought while she was visiting.  He named it Johnny Danger.

And back in September, we went to a horseradish festival in Baiersdorf, a village near Erlangen. I'm not actually sure what this sculpture is supposed to be, maybe a crown, but it is made entirely with horseradish.  The kids were surprised to learn that horseradish is a root, because they had never seen it other than processed and in a jar.

When CK came to town...

After six weeks in India, Cara spent a week with us in Germany before flying home to Chicago. It was nice--very, very nice. We didn't get a chance to sight-see like I had hoped (I love playing tourist in our own little corner of Bavaria), because the boys started school on the 16th, and since classes the first week are until 11:20 only, my schedule wasn't as flexible. But this may have been a blessing, because we had more time to talk and I listened without the distractions the boys usually create.


We did attend a bierfest--the Altstadtfest in Nürnberg (top photo). And Bob drove Cara through the Fränkische Schweiz for pumpkins and schnapps.

On Saturday morning, I drove Cara to the train station in Nürnberg, said Good-bye, and spent the rest of the weekend feeling sad. I miss her very much.

The Adriatic Coast

Our second vacation this summer was spent in southeastern Europe--Italy and Croatia. We were gone only five nights, and yet, we did and saw so much more than a full week in Denmark. This was my kind of vacation!!!

First we spent two nights in Venice, actually in a small town outside of Venice. With two kids and a dog, the logistics of staying in a hotel in Venice would just be too complicated for me, so we stayed in Quarto D'Altino and took the train into Venice.


This was our third trip to Venice, and I like Venice more and more each time. I'm fascinated with how people live there. For example, we watched how the garbage is picked up by boat. A little thing, but very different from the way garbage is picked up in most cities in Europe and the US.



As on our previous visits, we walked to Piazza San Marco, but this time we kept getting lost. It was okay, because we walked down skinny streets free of souvenir shops. At San Marco, we expected the boys to chase pigeons, like they did when they were younger. But they're growing up (we keep forgetting) and were content watching someone else feed the birds (this is illegal now, but a few folks were still participating in this tradition).



On the drive to Venice, we stopped in a charming town at the foot of the Dolomites, Bassano del Grappa. Bob learned about it on a TV travel show (Rick Steves, maybe) while in Chicago and decided to see it. I'm glad we made the stop, because it was "lovely" (this is how my British friends describe anything nice).


From Venice, we drove to Pula, Croatia. To get to Pula, one has to drive through a sliver of Adriatic coast in Slovene. Since we had to eat lunch, we stopped in Piran, a town like many towns along the Adriatic influenced by Venetian architecture.




In Croatia we camped in Fazana, just outside of Pula. Our campsite was near the beach, so the boys spent a lot of time looking for crabs. The beaches in Croatia are made of small rocks instead of sand as in Denmark, but the boys had more fun because there is more life in the warm Adriatic than in the cold North Sea.



Camping in Europe is different from what we were accustomed to in the US. We always camped at state parks, so facilities consisted of outhouses and no showers or simple toilets and showers. Here the camping is elaborate in comparison. Restaurants, supermarkets, swimming pools, organized activities, and rentals--bikes, windsurfers, kayaks, and boats--all on site. They even had a scuba shop. We rented a pedal-boat with a slide.



Pula is a very interesting city, especially if you like sightseeing. It contains quite a few Roman structures, such as a miniature version of the Colosseum, but without the long lines as in Rome.

I think next year we'll spend a full week, maybe two, in Croatia.