Einschulung!

Ready for school

 Today T2 was eingeschuled.

The welcoming to the community

I went looking to link to the post I made on T1's einschulung, but I see that I have that listed as an "unblogged period". I feel so bad about that, that I will go add a few photos in when I am done with this posting. (and I added one below)

T2 chose her schulranzen and her schultüte and I filled them both up with what was on her list (for the former) and candy and games for the latter. 

We took T1 out of class to join us and all came together in the Aula (auditorium), where the leader of the community, the leader of our associated Rabbi (a lovely man who leads our school Seders and other celebrations), the principal and the head of the schulverein all welcomed us (primarily the children, but also the families) to school. Then the children were called up to the stage by name and class (this year we have three), introduced to their teacher and taken (with their gear) off to spend some time getting to know their classmates, teacher and classroom.


(The cast below is one of the reasons I am so behind in my blogging, as is the boom of my laptop, which goes in for repair next week.)

She's a schulkind!

T1's einschulung, T2 holding tight:-)

A Half Birthday

Explaining the Color Wheel

Painting

Because T1's birthday is in the summer holidays, she loses out on a birthday celebration with her friends. The German tradition prevents her celebrating it before the actual day (that's a huge no-no for Germans) while when school starts again we head directly into New Year's, Herbstferien, and other holidays.

The cake

This year, I brought a cake in for her school celebration in the fall, but we just couldn't manage to put together a real birthday celebration that didn't run across other holidays. Although I increasingly see the clever fashion of some parents giving birthday celebration invitations to the class during a holiday when everyone can be expected to either be a. out of town or b. unable to eat what is provided, that wasn't our goal, which was to allow T1 to enjoy her birthday party with her friends.

So we had a Winnie Pooh-style birthday (at the around half year mark). As usual, although I handed out invitations before the spring holidays with a 3 week RSVP request, gave my phone number and e-mail, and sent out a request by e-mail a week before (because the venue required booking), only 3/12 parents RSVPed and we needed to call everyone. Sigh.

I thought this was amazing: the
 (Russian) girl who did this was
very reluctant to share the (simple)
techique with the other girls.

We went to Paint Your Style and the kids had a great time. The girls are all in the stereotypical horse-loving stage and all chose horse figurines to paint, while the boys took Fussball piggybanks. Who needs to impose gender roles when they do so themselves?

Pizza and Cake

After, we walked them across the street to a pizza parlor we had booked a table out, ordered pizza, used the place mats and goody bags I brought back from the States (Cars theme for the boys, Fairies for the girls) and enjoyed the cake I had brought. 

I think we all had a good time and after all the children were picked up, T1's best friend and her dad joined us for an ice cream at a local Eisladen to cap off the day.

Catching Up

View from the Spree this summer

One of these days I will finish up and publish the posts about our vacation, but right now I'm just catching my breath in a lazy day at home (doing some tidying and decluttering, but not laundry).

It's been a week and the German has been working like mad with T1 helping her to catch up on the work that she has missed (I don't think that we can take time off in the school year again- it's too hard catching up). So far, I have helped her with two classes and a test, he has helped with another two and she had a test yesterday and I hope that she can be prepared for a catch-up math test this week. Whew.

Orthodontist yesterday and swimming class today. Tomorrow I hope a swimming exam that will get her the Silver medal she should have had last year. Thursday nachhilfe and Friday art and then a deep breath and perhaps some fun on the weekend, rather than studying. Last week we were all in a stupor of exhaustion and I think we have finally caught up on our sleep.

The washing machine broke on Sunday and although the German has been working on it (taking things apart and replacing them), we need professional help. So I'll be hanging about tomorrow, missing a planned holiday lunch, waiting for the repairman (and it will be a man- this is Germany) to show up. I ran two loads yesterday, with the German draining the water out through a pipe, wringing the towels (ouch- not good for arthritic hands) and using the dryer as well as hanging the more delicate items. We can't last very long without a washer: right now the pile fills a basket and I should be changing the sheets tomorrow.

Back to my coffee and Castle, while I sort through more paperwork. Next commercial break I will run the bio, glass and paper down to the cellar. The clothes for donation are in the car (there's a collection point by my girls' school) and the plastic bags for the kita are also waiting for drop off.

What I've been doing while I wasn't here...part 2 Aug 2011

And more that we did this month, with a few photos to relieve the eye...

• T2 entered as a vorschulkind into her last year before Grundschule, complete with Winnie-the-Pooh small schultuete. It hurts my feelings a bit when she tells me, "Mama, go!" But at least she hugs and kisses me before she sends me on my way. I'm glad that we didn't push for her to go to first grade this year, as she is enjoying it so. Erste Klasse won't be a bed of roses and I think she will have a grand time this year in kita.
• We went for a weekend religious retreat and really enjoyed the warm feeling, although it was a bit hectic because the following Monday—
• School started again, with T1 switching teachers (which makes us sad because we loved her old one). And wow- is 3rd Klasse incredibly harder than 1st or 2nd! (Kita resumes far earlier than school starts, at least here in Berlin.)
• We went to Amsterdam for the concert at the Hotel Pulitzer and found that suite 273 was charming, bright and airy. We met a lovely expat couple (Mexican and Portugese, respectively) and I need to send them some photos. We had "won" a package and we had :the weekend in a gorgeous suite (more bathrooms than we have at home!), a walking tour with visits to a historic distillery and a cheese cave, a wonderful meal with accompanying wines and a sommelier to guide us (and including what I think is the best piece of beef we have yet had in Europe), a boat tour through the canals, pontoon side seats during the Prinsengracht/Pulitzer concert (the director sat next to us, when he sat) and an invitation to the after party: we sat on a garden bench and "people watched", wondering who the people were that all the others were fawning over (our best guess:Dutch nobility).
• While we were in Amsterdam, the children were enjoying the Soester Fehde and I was a bit jealous: if I had known this existed, I might not have tried for our Amsterdam package but instead enjoyed this! They also did some boating and swimming with their cousins.
  
• T1's Zahnspange lost a piece while being brushed (with a soft toothbrush!). She needed to go for another impression and will get a new upper plate next week.
• The German shifted his Munich workweek a bit and came home to go to the "Faces of the Renaissance" exhibit at the Bode Museum (in partnership with the Met): it was gorgeous. The Bode itself was a lovely , extremely and ornate, gilded piece, but the exhibit was fabulous. We took a guided tour with my women's club and I'm sorry that we did: once again, I find the audio guides to be infinitely superior to a single human as guide. No matter how much that person knows, it won't be as much as the many erudite and recondite sources who put together the audio guide, nor will she have her own period soundtrack or the ability to be put on pause while one gazes and ponders. I'll probably make a repeat visit, with audio guide. During the tour, I took lots of photographs (I asked, as always, at the door and was told it would be fine with no flash): at the end of the tour, the guide told me that in this special exhibit, photos were not allowed (due to the many private owners of individual paintings collected) so I was lucky. Strange that no guard stopped me if it was actually forbidden, though.
  
• I took a bread course, an African cooking course, a Persian cooking course and a vegetarian Persian cooking course. I enjoyed them all, even though a woman in the bread class informed me, as I was discussing sourdough starters with the teacher (a Master Baker), that the US has only "squishy" bread. I asked if she had ever been in the US and she told me no, although her friend had told her all about it. The folks in the African and Persian courses were much more friendly and open. I wonder if there is some correlation between taking a cooking course in a foreign cuisine and not having negative stereotypes about foreign cuisine? (Perhaps that's a bit obvious:-)).

Now I have posted these, perhaps I can get going on some more current posts! I can say that I may expand on some of these and re-post as individual pieces, but I seem to never get around to doing it.

An interesting lineage

I recently took a class at the Volkshochschule called "The Five Elements of Chinese Cooking". This was a mistake on my part, because what I thought I was taking was a Chinese cooking course. Instead, I was taking a cooking course that was based on the Chinese Five Elements of Fire, Water, Iron, Wood and Earth.

I enjoyed the course, in its slightly woo-woo, perhaps one also believes in homeopathy way, and I found the food that we actually cooked interesting because it was really German. In fact, I was able to use it as a discussion with my mother-in-law later.
Here above, however, you see a quite nice freshly made vegetable soup with Grießmehl Knödel. The recipe appeared very similar to that of matzoh balls, but they were as thick and heavy as cannonballs. I had always heard of matzoh balls tasting like cannonballs, but my mother's recipe (the Manischewitz recipe often made with soda water and then cooked in chicken soup) is light as air. Now I know whereof they speak and now I know whence matzoh balls derive. Truly these things barely increased in size when cooked, while matzoh balls more than double, but all the mass was as a ball of iron.

Chaos from order and hopefully back soon.

Life's been so crazy that I even forgot to post my reading list at the end of the month. I have been working on posts for a while, but they aren't done. I'll link them here when they are done.

• Saw The King's Speech (two weeks before the Oscars)
• I visited an interesting museum, the Daimler Contemporary, and had lunch with my group.
• Went to Vienna for the weekend and saw Cirque de Soleil with a friend.
• Found a massage place, finally, and my back is still feeling the pain.
• Had a bad experience with T2's swim instructor and had to switch classes.
• Discovered that my blog had been scraped and my posts were sitting on someone else's web site.
  

In the regular and scheduled craziness, I'm taking:

• yoga Tuesdays and Thursday,
  
• my German class has restarted Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday,
  
• my German writing course is still running Wednesdays,
  
• the kids have speech therapy on Monday,
  
• T1 has swimming on Wednesday while
  
• T2 has it Friday (due to the above mentioned instructor issue),
  
• they both have recorder instruction on Thursday and
  
• T1 has art/ceramics on Friday.

Ice skating Saturday ended two weeks ago, so last week they went bike riding on Saturday while waiting for rollerblading to start.

This week, I also had Elternabends on Wednesday and on Thursday, as well as the massage and lunch with a friend on Wednesday.

I am also trying to declutter at least 15 minutes a day, I run about 7 loads of laundry a week (with three on Wednesdays when I change the linens), and I am "looking forward" to the seasonal change-over of clothing that I anticipate in three weeks.

The calendar is receiving a work out and the German needs to start referring to it— he actually scheduled a babysitter for one of the Elternabends for me, but he told her the wrong day! Luckily, she lives two streets over so it wasn't terribly inconvenient for her, but it was awfully embarrassing!

Sweetheart

Holiday camp included a day at the Planetarium and another day at the movies, but this day's activity was baking. It was a type of Lebkuchen, so it was inedible, but T1 enjoyed making, cutting out, and decorating them.

(Unfortunately, even though Lebkuchen sound great on paper, we have never had one that tasted any good. I know they must be out there, somewhere. And no recipes that I have seen actually include either ginger or molasses, so I don't know how they can be called "gingerbread".)

What's been happening recently? Or, Moving Again.

(It's actually a bit painful to pull myself away from the Amazon-Macmillan (perhaps now HarperCollins) spat, but since it has simmered down, I'm going to relegate it again to the post that's not up yet about my Kindle.)

So, moving again, you wonder?

Yep. Since it looks like we will be here for at least another few years and since we have made the decision to stay in Berlin rather than go to Munich (and with the last few weeks only being 60% travel, rather than 100%), we decided we weren't stressed enough so we should move again.

Our current apartment has pluses (we live here already, huge amounts of light, very central, unbelievable view-especially of fireworks) but it also has minuses:

• two floors, with the bedrooms separated by a winding tile staircase ,
  
• the hideous and always dirty-looking terra-cotta tile (when we moved in, looking at the floor made my stomach queasy),
  
• the thirty foot ceiling without proper ventilation so that the heat benefits nothing and goes out the skylights,
  
• the enormous amount of heat required to keep me always in a state of constant bronchial distress,
  
• the water-pressure issues the landlord keeps fixing but which result in the bathroom with the bathtub always being freezing,
  
• the 155 qm of which we actually use only 100 because of the terrible lay-out, but for which the nebenkosten are terribly high. Then the nebenkosten went up amazingly this year, although we did nothing.
  
• The neighbors who don't separate their trash and for whom the entire building (based on qm) pays the fines... and so on.

So we decided to start looking for an apartment. As German residents are aware, that's not so easy here. One of the only consumer-friendly laws here is that one can always give three months notice (Kundigung) on an apartment, regardless of any lease terms. On the other had, German landlords generally won't show apartments until they are empty because what if they rented it and the prior tenant was not out in time? (Easy because there are no penalties for that written into the lease and because it's, as I will show, so hard to move here.) Therefore, most apartments that one sees are available immediately. That's true even when they have no kitchens (they all have no lights, because the German Way is to leave wires dangling from the ceilings: tenants provide and install lights and therefore take them with them). That can also make seeing apartments difficult, as they must be viewed in daylight (a scarce commodity in Berlin in November and December).

It's been a hard two months looking, with our move-out date (three months after the Kundigung) approaching. We were looking for a relatively large apartment (the goal was smaller than our current apartment but better laid out) and Germans don't move very often. In particular, we were looking in the middle of the winter, when even fewer Germans (and everyone else) move. And we constrained our search into a large area in a circle around our current apartment because the German needs to remain on our current U-line in order to make his commute to the airport every week a reasonably short one with public transport.

We found several we liked, within our constraints (including cost) and off we went. The first we wanted was already under contract by the time we got home and called the broker (makler) back. Why waste our time showing it, one might ask? The second one was even cheaper than we had expected, so the 2.38 months commission wouldn't hurt too much- but they didn't like the industry my husband works in (the same as that of the owner's brother-in-law), according to the broker. The next one was supposed to " need a bit of renovation": by which they meant we would need to replace the bathroom, build a kitchen and re-do the walls and floors. They would negotiate free rent in lieu... according to the broker, the owner had no money after the purchase. Our estimate was over 25,000 Euros to make it decent. No thanks.

Then another one- the address wasn't listed on-line and when we arrived for the appointment the street was so busy we didn't bother to look: the German told the owner it was too unsafe for the kids. She took us off to look at another of her apartments in Schoneberg which was larger, cheaper and had a private playground. The tenant wasn't around but after we went back to look around inside we decided that the lay-out was terrible (although large!) and the distance from the kids' school great enough that the benefits did not outweigh the cons.

Off to a wonderful address (and a gorgeous Art Nouveau building) by the Lietzinsee. Another terrible layout (kitchen down a very, very long corridor, walking through one room to reach onother, not a single item newer than 1945 (I have never even seen a washing machine that old!) and the owner felt it was worth top price. I don't think he'll get it: it was previously utilized by students who camped out in sleeping bags on the floor and while it would be a great apartment to buy (at a reasonable price!) and completely renovate, in its current condition it would need 6+ months free rent to make it worthwhile.

Then we saw a wonderful Altbau, across the street from us (truly, although perhaps more accurately across the avenue). We fell in love. Not as much sun, the kitchen was well-cared for but a bit decrepit, but bookshelves! Built-ins from floor to Altbau height ceiling. And charming details. The owner was offering to rip everything out and we said that we would love to keep them. We gave our application and details in immediately (here in Germany, one walks about with document folders with all one's details in multiple copies).

Then we waited.

And waited.

And called. The owner liked us- but his other tenants are older (the current occupant of the apartment we looked at is retiring to a Senior home) and he feels that, with our having children, we might be too noisy. He said he was sorry, that our application was the first and the best, but that for the sake of the other tenants, he didn't want a family with young children. As I said to the German- what are the odds of anyone moving into a 4+ room in this area without children? This is a family neighborhood with good schools! I'm not certain why he feels that our two girls, out at school all day then tucked into bed at 19:30 after ballet, would not be preferable to a new-born, but hey- his choice. What really amazed me was the total comfort with disclosing illegal discrimination: in Germany it is illegal to discriminate against families with children. But why should I be surprised? I recently hear an excerpt from a documentary on the news wherein German landlords blatantly and openly discuss their discriminatory rental and employment policies.

We had one other apartment on the back-burner , which we had seen before this, and we waited to hear (we had learned our lesson and sent our application in on that apartment before we had seen the Altbau). I had liked it very much (also Altbau, well-laid out, better kitchen, some nice plaster ceiling details) but the across the street location of the second had seduced me.

When we sent our application in, we asked for a reduction in the base rent (after looking at the publicly disclosed average area rent) and for a month's free kaltmiete, as the apartment would be turned over unrenovated (not painted and with one bedroom having no floor). I think they were hoping to get a full offer, but they wound up meeting us in the middle on the rent and we signed the contract and got the keys on the 1st.

For the first time ever, we will have an actual overlapping period in our move and I am very grateful. What with the German still being out of town it will be a real luxury.

Tune in to hear how we progress with our list:

1. Dishwasher
2. Refrigerator
3. Painting the apartment
4. Putting a floor in the bedroom
5. Setting up utilities
6. Getting beds for the kids (1 himmelbett, 1 hochbett)
7. Medicine cabinet with bathroom light
8. Curtains (and shower curtain)
9. Quarter rounds, all round:)
10. Moving. First time we have used professionals, but I'm still packing the whole apartment by myself, with one day of help from the German on Thursday this week (the movers come Friday).
    
11. Taking the lights from the old apartment and installing them in the new
12. Renovating the old apartment for turn over to landlord

It will be exciting! Or, more accurately, extremely stressful.

Also, we changed T1's school today. Perhaps in another post.

The unblogged period...

I've started several posts in varying stages of completion, but if I don't actually finish one, I think I could just stay there, in the never ending search for completion and perfection while life continues.

It's been busy.

1. We came back.
2. My younger daughter went back to kita and my older was allowed back, but I spent a bit of independent time with her.
3. We went to the Olympic Stadium swim baths twice, the first time with both girls meeting a friend and her daughter, and the second time T2 was at kita while T1 and two of her friends came with me. That was an intricate juggling act, dropping 1 off, using a spare car seat and running 3 girls to the bathrooms and back. It was great and the weather has been absolutely amazing. The view in that link is from the diving platform and adult pool but there are two children's pools out of shot that are great, one shallower than the other. I had been a bit chaotic that morning, throwing everythig together and I wound up leaving my beloved spray on sunscreen at the kita after spraying T2. that lead to me obsessively slathering all three girls with cream sun block, but forgetting my own back: my first sunburn in 20 years and I get it in Berlin, land of perpetual grey. Amazing. We stayed for about 4.5 hours and it was great and exhausting.
4. I had to purchase the 27 specifically (to the brand of the oil crayons and the color of the schnellheftes) required items for T1's schulranzen and find her uniform in local stores.
   
5. T1 had her einschuling, followed by her first day and week of school, including her first trip to a sportshall.
6. We are continuing our ballete and swimming lessons start next week, twice a week.
7. We are also attempting to survive having to get up over 1 hour earlier. Poor T2 needs to be woken by me every morning and they are at school 1 hour plus earlier while I pick them up an average 1 hour later every day. T2 has been falling asleep i the car on the way back. On the plus side, although still a bit annoying in the evenings (crany from being over tired) she's going to sleep better and not annoying T1 with wanting to play after lights out.
8. I had a bookclub (The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon). It was fun to get out, but exhausting. The book came late, and I really enjoyed it, but it was long!
   
9. I started another German class, this time at my local VHS. I took the placement test and we talked out whether I should go A1.2 or A2.1. I know quite a bit of grammar, but after a year without really speaking German or taking classes, it's clear that I am missing a real ground in my articles. So I started the same day as T1 in my new school:). Although I know the grammar already, I am being pounded with using it correctly, and with the proper grammar following from the correct articles, which is just what I need now. (although now the teacher is discussing whether I should move up to A2.1. It would be more challenging, but A1.2 is moving too slowly.)
   
10. The German has been gone 9 of the last 11 days and I am not too happy with it.
    
11. T1 had an allergic reaction to one of the school uniforms and we had to change some fabrics.

Maybe if I publish this, I will overcome my inertia enough to start posting regularly again...

Tuesdays without Dory and what's up.

I'm glad that TwD is optional this summer, because I am 1. exhausted and 2.not making icecream without an icecream maker.

The girls are at day camp this week and last and they have been having a good time. I think they have seen more of Berlin than I have! Although I will be off in the morning to check out one of the more interesting spots, a children's farm yard because thing1 left her rucksack there. When I got to camp to pick the girls up, she was sitting there crying. She did, however, look glorious. I think they had a hair session today, while waiting for the park to open before leaving, because her hair was done in the most wonderful updo, with two small braids, one on each side and the rest of her hair drawn up in the most adorable bun, puffed around rather than twisted. I think she had as many pins in her hair as I did at my marriage ceremony (no- she had only 16, I think I had 35:)). I took pictures in hopes that I can reproduce it for her.

So tomorrow off down the autobahn. This will be good for me because I don't like driving on the autobahn, so what does not kill me will make me stronger. Thank goodness I have the GPS.

When I was cleaning up last week for Thing1's party, I finally finished all the seasonal clothing shifting as well as packing up and away two boxes of clothing thet Thing2 has outgrown (I don't put away T1's clothes because T2 is so close behind her). I used a lot of party favors that I had brought over from the US and I can see that we are actually running through some of the supplies that we brought with us from the US 23 months ago. Without surface air, I don't think that we are going to be able to keep up with our appetite for Annie's Organic Mac'n'Cheese or Crystalight.

We have already resupplied with coffee twice and I just ground the last of my Costco Jamaica Blue beans. I have been out of Dunkin Donuts decaf for almost a month. Luckily, I am so tired that even when I drink caffeinated coffee at night (I love the taste, I like the warmth) it doesn't keep me up. Thing1 can't seem to get over waking me before 6 am and without the German to take occasional duty getting up with her I have an awfully early start to my day.

We are also running out of craft materials and small toys, so I checked Idee out last week and it's really a great craft store. Not as good (or as wide ranging) as Michaels, but the best that I have found here. They have such wonderful supplies and patterns for making a Schultuete that I feel a bit guilty not making one. Howver, Thing1 chose her schoolcone and her schule rucksack from her painfully thumbed and lovingly studied happytoys.de catalog.

The German school bag custom is amazing. The bag is so large that German pediatricians hand you a brochure warning you of the dangers of its size and weight to your tiny 6 year old child, But what can one do? Every single child has the same bag, and generally the same brand (Scout is preferred).
When I went to the school orientation for parents, I was given an unbelievably long and unbelievably detailed list of items that needed to be contained within the requisite rucksack (as well as ancillary items), all the way down to the size of the Pelikan pen and the # of the 3 separate paintbrushes. There are 10 notebooks, all to be specific colors. As I was looking over the list, another parent asked why so many and why so detailed and I burst out laughing. My response: This is how Germans are trained to be German. A few of the non-Germans laughed, but the Germans didn't understand the joke:).

Luckily, the regulation rucksack came with a number of the required items, like the two separately sized pencil cases, the sport bag, the colored pencil set (with space for the specified Pelikan left empty), the required water color set with three differently sized brushes, the bus pass holder. The bag is rigid and there is enough room for the 24 books and notebooks that she will be using next year. If I weren't dropping her off and picking her up, I wouldn't in conscience be able to let her use it. As is, I expect to carry her bag for her every day for at least the next few years.

What I haven't been blogging about.

It's been a busy and chaotic few weeks.
It started with Thing2 coming home from school with what looked like a scrape on her arm. By bath time that night the "scrape" had resolved to teeth marks. What concerned us, above and beyond the actual bite, was that I had not been called and told about it.

When we discussed the situation by phone with her teachers and the school director, we felt that the situation was considered seriusly. Then we had two Hanukah parties, on separate days. Both of those required me going by U-bahn and bus to the kita and back, a total journey time of about 90 minutes. That was a bit exhausting, what with trying to shop around them, but it was fun.

Then Thing2 came home with another "scrape", this one on her back. She was bitten through her turtleneck and undershirt. Once again, I had not been called.

I was pretty unhappy.

The German called and spoke to the director and I wasn't happy with her response. Then I spoke with her and since her native language is not English (although not German) and my German is shreklich, we had an unsatisfactory communication with me using my worterbuch quite a bit.

Afterward, the German and I had unsatisfactory communications, then I called the external director of the school and wound up waiting quite a while to receive a call back, which resulted in another call back, and so on. The Chef and I agreed that the lack of communication was a big problem, that more needed to be done to protect Thing2, and we left it there.

Then I spoke to the mother of the child who had bitten Thing2, who stated that although her son had bitter her the first time, another child had bitten her the second. When I inquired as to how she could know that, as I had been informed differently. she told me that the School Director had so informed her. "What, without informing me?" I thought. Another communication problem. Other child's mom didn't seem very considered, so I explained to her that the savagery of the bite was quite terrible. She aid that she "was working on it" but since that particular child had bitten another of her children (also in the back, also through layers of clothing- strange that) the day before, it didn't seem to be successful. It seems the onus of protection will be on the teachers.

In between the bites we had an elternabend, where the bite was a major object of concern because the German and I were one of two sets of parents that showed up. The biter's parents were not amongst us. We also discovered that the biter had bitten another child as well and we discovered that the following Monday Thing2's primary teacher would shift to Thing1's class as a helper and another teacher would start. That was a bit short term and surprising (we will see the reason in a while, I would guess).

In addition, we were appointed "Class Parents", as no one else bothered. Weeks later I still have not been given everyone's name and contact information. Most parents have not paid into the class kasse and although there was a separate collection for Holiday gifts, we paid for 70% of the agreed upon expense (and a bit more, as we felt it was not enough) and expect to not be reimbursed. Ah well. Welcome to Germany.

As the topper to this crazy few weeks, both girls have been ill. First Thing1 was out of school with a high fever, then Thing2 joined her. The German was working late and long, I had no chance to do any type of shopping, let alone holiday shopping. On last weekend, the German went west to pick up the car we had looked up the week before and I also got no time to go shopping. A friend had a baby, I haven't even visited her yet, I feel terrible about it, but I was sick myself and didn't want to run the risk of carrying anyone's germs to her, and then we ran into prior commitments.

The German went on holiday after work Thursday, just in time for me to run out and pick up some chocolates to add to the cards (and cash) that we gave to all the teachers on Friday. We drove over (!!!) on Friday morning to let the girls (still on medication, but recovering) say "Happy Hanukah" to their frinds and teachers before the two week vacation. I also go the chance to speak to the new boy in Thing1's class who has been mean to her (I can't tell why- perhaps he likes her), which embarassed him but which the teacher was glad to hear about and will follow up on.

I'm so glad that we have a car. Although I have in many ways enjoyed being without one and the cost of busing is a bit less (and the ease of putting them on the bus in my pj's has been wonderful), having a car will allow me to interact with the school, the girls and the other parents in a way that I haven't been able to do since the summer, when I took the girls there by foot (but without the pain of the bone spurs).

We are also looking forward to being able to take local vacations in the spring, summer and fall through the kind offices of the in-laws and their trailer.

Whew. More tomorrow now the dry spell is broken and the fourth load of laundry is in, and the beds have been changed, the mess tidied and the clutter contained. I can't even imagine how women an home-school and keep their lives under control: 11 days with the kids home and the husband late and I have been totally frazzled.

I look forward to vacation, although we expect to be busy: moving our remaining "stuff" to Berlin, taking a quick trip to Amsterdam, spending time with the in-laws (which I do enjoy, although I find trying to speak German exhausting), visiting a very dear friend by Muenster (and spending New Year's with them), going shopping without the kids(yeah!) but with the German(double yeah!), perhaps even getting some museum hopping going here in Berlin.

My daughter is an English mother-tongue speaker!

It's strange to think that while I was posting every day last month I didn't have time to write about all the things that were happening. Time just seems to fly. Back on the 25th we had our English test at the "other International School".

What a difference. Thing1 was so fussy and unhappy in the morning that we almost canceled, but I just couldn't take another week of keeping her out of school and forcing her to speak in English with me, watch only English DVDs and TV (hard to do with power cable after power cable blowing out on me).

She settled down when we (the German stayed home for the appointment) walked to the U-Bahn and then she skipped through the snow--- she really loves spending time with us and without Thing2. We were early for the test and ran up and down the halls a bit: the office staff was extremely friendly. We were the first test of the day and the two testers, also British, brought all three of us into the room. One spoke to us about our background while the other spoke to Thing1, showing her a class pet and a photobook about its adventures and just making her feel secure and comfortable. This is opposed to the other school, where the woman took my daughter away without even speaking to us (except to snap that I was not allowed to follow). I asked the teacher not to start speaking to her in German, explaining that once Thing1 thinks German is the language to speak to someone that she won't revert to English and the teacher laughed and said that the test was for English: they wouldn't be speaking any German.

When we left the room, Thing1 was already engaged in an animated conversation with the young women. She apparently had so much fun that they needed to call us in to inveigle her out while they discussed her results. After they called us back in, the lead teacher told us that Thing1 had PASSED! Yeah!

She carefully explained that this does not ensure an admittance and talked a bit about the process and then we said good-bye: it was a bit difficult getting Thing1 to relinquish the stuffed rabbit (probably reminds her of her of her own stuffed rabbit lovey) but then we wandered a bit around the school, showing Thing1 the play area and then out. Across the street was a charming and traditional shop which sells penny (and plus) candy, fresh baked goods, etc, so we stopped in. The German and Thing1 had hot cocoa and I had a milchkaffee. (It turned out to be an early school closing day- teacher enrichment- and there was a constant and adorable stream of children and parents coming in and getting pastry and candy and leaving.)

We were all very happy.(see photo above)

Then the German went off to a meeting at the office and Thing1 and I went home and we watched Dornroeschen (in English). It was a great day.

My daughter is a German mother-tongue speaker

We are all a bit distressed. It's difficult to understand how she could go from monolingual English to failing her English mother-tongue exam while earning a high pass on the German mother-tongue exam all in 14 months.

We will obviously be examining all the options available (although not the 14,000+ Euro English schools- that would be way out of our reach). There are still the lotteries for the German side and the JFK school test is in April- if Thing1 doesn't get in by lottery we will go back to the US for a month before the test and she will go to kindergarten there. That would just be an expensive pain because we already have plans to be in the US for 4 weeks in May through June and now we would have to go, come back to Berlin, and then return to the US. We will do what's necessary, though. The other unfortunate part of her going in on the German side would be that she would learn English only aurally until 3rd grade, so if we go back as planned in 3 more years, she will be illiterate in English (although literate in German).

In answer to some of the comments: we speak English only in the house, we watch only English/American TV (mainly PBS and Disney), we watch only English language DVDs. It is very hard to overcome the time spent in kita. If I had known the way through this maze earlier, we would have put her in a private English kita. The German and I were just discussing how stressful life is here for people who are not "in the ordinary way". After this is all over, I think I will self publish a book aimed at Amercans moving to Germany, and especially Berlin. It is just amazing how one is constantly given incorrect or false information and how few people in the know actually are forthcoming. There's a lot of schadenfruede here, even amongs ex-pats.

Next week I will write up a nice long post on how this system actually works (here in Berlin, it differes elsewhere), with each school doing things slightly differently and with amts giving incorrect and incomplete information.

(And I may even mention the turd I saw in the little girl's room- I wondered if it were a commentary on the process from another shell-shocked family.)

Visiting the Reichstag

Today we kept Thing1 out of Kita to spend the day speaking in English. Tomorrow is her English test and we are pretty certain that she is going to fail it.

This entire situation has been a bit of a cluster. When we came to Germany, we were greatly concerned that the girls' lack of German would cause them social problems (and loneliness). After much discussion and speaking to a pediatrician, we put them in a German Kita so that they could learn German and socialize (and so that I could take a German course as well). The German made a point of speaking only Deutsche to the children. When Thing1 had her 5 year check up in July, the pediatrician was concerned that she was still behind with her German and had problems with some vowels.

Now, in November (actually since August, when they spent a week with the grandparents) Thing1 preferentially speaks German and she has lost her "th". I have great difficulty getting her to speak any English (although she still understands everything) and Thing2 is mutter sprache Deutsche. This is a problem because my German is so limited.

It is also a problem because the bi-lingual schools here accept on the Engish and German mothertongue sides differently: there is no problem for English mothertongue speakers and a great oversubscription (and consequent lottery) on the German mothertongue side. If Thing1 fails the test, I am not certain that we can get her into a bilingual school and that would be a catastrophe. We do expect to return to the US and there are really no paths to German integration into the US school system. Since she will already be one year behind the US (children start later here), I can't imagine how damaged she will be if she loses more time to become English fluent when we go back. When I am not so tired, I will write up a long post on how this system works and how totally messed up foreigners are by it.

So we booked lunch at the Reichstag, following the recommendation that doing so would allow us to bypass the security line (which it did- we had no line at all at our separate entrance and the friendly security man allowed Thing1 to use the bathroom while we waited for the (extremely slow) elevator).
We ate at the Kaefer Berlin im Deutscher Bundestag, and as this article states, had a fabulous view. I found the food to be adequate and the German pointed out that we were the only diners not to order the veal Schnitzel. My beef rouladen with knoedel and rotkohl was decent, the German's Venison with noodles and "cranberries" was too salty (though he ate it) and so was Thing 1's Noodles with red sauce (on the side), which she did not eat. Hard to believe anything could be too salty for me, but I gave Thing1 some of my rouladen to eat instead. We had a nice pate of deer with salad as a starter and for dessert Thing1 had a Disney Eis (a Donald Duck mug filled with strawberry and vanilla ice cream, two waffle cookies, and two decorative streamers) which she loved. The German and I shared a creme brulee, served in a high cup and a little too sweet and a little too liquid, but arranged nicely on a plate with some streaks of passionfruit and mango puree.

Then we wandered through the dome. It's just gorgeous.

After letting Thing1 run about (it was more fun than the Habitrail Gem exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in New York) we had to run to get home before Thing2 got back from school. We grabbed the 100 to the Zoo and then a cab home and made it with 6 minutes to spare.

Then I ran off to go shopping (it's at least every other day here) and when I got back the German went to his scheduled haircut. When he got back, he grabbed the two computers with destroyed power cords (remember, we had 3 but the Mac was under warranty) and brought them to the corner computer shop, where he picked up an adaptable power cord (clearly, we expect this to happen again).

A bit of a struggle later, the girls in bed, we return to deal with open enrollment periods that don't allow access from German work computers: I don't know when we will ever be able to send the one from the US back!

Tomorrow, the test.

see:
German Bundestag

What we did on Wednesday: Or, why Mothers weep on the first day of school.

We went to an interview at one of the bi-lingual schools here in Berlin.

It's a very nice school and the headmistress/principal was very nice. She took time out of her day to talk to us and show us around even though there will be an Open Door very soon, because we won't be in Berlin when that occurs. This is one of three schools that we will be looking at- another in two weeks and then the third after that: but this was the first.

As we walked around, looking at all the rooms and how big the furniture is, looking at the size of those enormous rucksacks that German schoolchildren wear and then watching the seething mass of children (up to the age of 12!) running around during one of the break periods I started to be very sad: this is the end of Thing1's childhood, in a way.

I was so intrigued watching KSKlein  put together her daughter's Schultuete and I think it's a wonderful German tradition. Here is a template that I may need to look at in 10 months, as I have absolutely no artistic ability but I think it's a wonderful thing to create this and not to simply buy it: I was awed by KSKlein's and her daughter looked so happy!

I understand why the Schultuete is a tradition ( to sweeten the passage drom childhood to a higher level and the first step into "adulthood". I wonder whether it has a connection to the Jewish tradition that when children are first taught their letters, the letters are outlined with honey so that as the child traces them (on a slate, in the past) the child then tastes the sweetness and knows that: Learning (especially the Torah) is sweet.

But, oh my goodness, what a different world first grade is here in Germany. At home, where kindergarten and the primary grades (through 5th) all generally reside in an Elementary school, it doesn't seem as abrupt a break as it does here, where grades are 1-6 and all the children take recess at the same time, making one thin of zoos and seething hordes of wild beasts and wonder how one's small and tiny child will survive the frothing maelstrom....

I am so glad I have another year of quiet and calm and control!

Cabbage Roll Casserole, Chicken and Banana Raspberry Bread

This is the same James Beard recipe with variations that I have used before. This time I had three bananas waiting in the freezer and I wound up with a bit of extra batter, so I made muffins as well as a loaf. S, who was a surprise play date this afternoon, ate two.






This Cabbage Roll Casserole is great. Tastes quite a bit like one of my favorites, stuffed cabbage, but takes no effort to make. The German had picked up bak choy instead of cabbage by accident, so I used that. No sauerkraut, more onions and garlic, I used tomato juice instead of water and tomato paste and at the half hour mark I topped up the pan with a box of Italian pureed tomatoes. It tasted great.
Ingredients
1 kg rind hackfleish
3 diced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 t salt
1 t pepper
1 bottle tomato juice
1 cup uncooked rice
6+cups cabbage (1 head diced)

Brown beef separately, then add to onions, garlic, salt, pepper, tomato juice
Bring to a boil and stir in rice.
Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Place 1/2 of the cabbage in a greased baking dish; cover with 1/2 the rice mixture.
Repeat layers.
cover and bake in 350 oven for one l hour.
If desired you can put sauerkraut on top of the layers.
Top with pureed tomatoes as well as adding diced fresh as desired, to keep moist.

Quick- Calling all parents with children in German Schools-

What do you give the teachers for holidays in pre-school or regular school? I just got an e-mail from the parent representative from Thing 2's class saying that she got presents for those teachers. You know, annoying kitschy stuff liike serving plates. Now, the German was last week made the second parent rep for Thing 1's class, and the other one does nothing. So we knew not that we should do this. I can run out tonight, I guess, and get some cheap kitsch, but can't I just give a nice card with money (?how much) and let them choose what they like?

In a country where the wedding invitations say, give us money because we are already stocked, where I receive a death announcement and am expected to send geld, how can I have to give these poor teachers junk rather than allow them to use money for what they would like?

Also, we just started having soda/drinks delivered: do you tip? If so, how much?

Thanks!