- Tomorrow night we have our first dinner guests. And yes, I'm writing this blog when I should be preparing the house. Probably a late night tonight. It's a family that we really like - Mom, Dad, 2 sons - from our church.
- Next week we are excited to host a young adult from Uganda for 6 days. She is a former street child who has been helped by a project that the kids' school supports, and she is spending a week in Berlin to work in the kindergarten.
- Our bed will be delivered next Tuesday, the day Faridah arrives! I am thrilled. We are still waiting for the bathroom cabinet (should have been here by now) and the couch and chair (expected in another 2 weeks or so).
- Yesterday I toured the Berlin Philharmonic with the Berlin's Best group from school. It was very interesting, both historically and acoustically. Dan and I are trying to put some date nights on the calendar and get to the Philharmonic for one of them, but tickets sell out months in advance.
- Saturday we are going to a St. Patrick's Day potluck hosted by the Catholic and Protestant American churches. Feels like home! Afterwards, I have been invited to my first girls' get-together. One of the girls from my Friday morning running group has invited us over for wine, fondue and board games. Fun!
- I just started studying for my driver's license exam. There are 944 questions to memorize the answers to. More on driving in a later post, I hope.
- Haley is now singing in the BIS choir and really likes it.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Odds and Ends
Here's a quick rundown on what's happening these days and what's coming up, for those of you keeping track:
European Holiday - Taking the Bad with the Good
Update: We returned from our vacation on Feb. 22 and I am just NOW getting around to posting this blog, which I wrote on the train trip home. I can't believe how busy we are here and how long it takes me to sit and write this blog!!
Written on 2/22: This past week was the kids’ winter break and we did what every European family does during winter break - ski! Boy, was this a learning experience.
Our first hint that this wasn’t going to be like a US/Montana ski vacation was when, in early January, we started trying to find a place to stay for this February vacation. Yes, this was a bit late to be trying to book something, but we thought availability would be limited, not non-existent. Dan tried for days, looking at hotel after hotel and resort after resort, in Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland and found almost NOWHERE that had any rooms available. The few places that still had a room free about 6 weeks out were either rated poorly or were a long way from any skiing. We had pretty much given up on finding a place and had decided to do something completely different when Dan’s aunt Hedi in Austria took it upon herself to find us a place and spent who knows how many hours and days calling around. She finally stumbled upon a hotel with a cancellation in Kaprun, Austria and that is where we headed.
Now from our experience in Montana, certainly there are popular hotels or styles of room that book way in advance, but we have never had the problem where there are NO rooms available ANYWHERE. We are finding that much of Europe goes on vacation ALL AT THE SAME TIME, due to school breaks being scheduled on the same week. This was compounded this year in particular because Fasching (the German Mardi Gras celebration) coincided with winter break. So it seems that all of Europe was converging on the mountains to ski at the same time.
When planning this trip, we were able to get fairly cheap plane tickets with a discount airline to fly as far as Munich, and then our plan was to rent a car and drive the 3ish hours to Kaprun. This seemed easy enough, and since there’s no airport very near Kaprun we would have had to find transportation to there from anywhere we flew, so we may as well fly to the cheapest spot. We considered taking a train from Munich but thought the car would provide us more flexibility.
The trouble started when our flight from Berlin to Munich was delayed by about an hour and a half for no apparent reason. We considered it only a small annoyance, since we weren’t worried about catching a connecting flight or train. The decision to drive vs. take a train seemed to have paid off. However, when we arrived in Munich and went to pick up our car, we found that after an hour of “no show”, the rental agency released our car to someone else. Dan feels certain that he gave them our flight number, but Enterprise claimed that they had no idea we were on a late-arriving flight. Immediately it called to mind the Seinfeld episode where Jerry tells the lady at the car rental counter that anyone can “take” a reservation but the most important thing is to “hold” the reservation. We went from rental counter to rental counter, waiting in line and then asking if there were any cars available, but you can imagine that if all the hotels are booked, all the cars are taken as well. Our only solace as we sat angrily waiting for Enterprise to scrounge up a car for us was in playing the video clip of the Seinfeld episode on YouTube, which we couldn’t help but laugh at:
After an hour or so of waiting, eating some yucky sandwiches, and Dan complaining to Enterprise, they relented and gave us a brand new Range Rover, never been driven. We didn’t particularly want a brand new car; there is a great potential for expensive scratches or messes when traveling with two kids, but we didn’t have a choice. We headed on our way and all was fine until, about an hour from Kaprun, Dan and I were snacking on a bit of trail mix and Haley asked for some. No sooner had she taken a handful than she choked out “I’m throwing up!” and proceeded to vomit all over. Turns out she was carsick from looking at the iPad on the windy road, but had neglected to inform us of this in time for us to do anything about it. This was certainly not our first road trip with a carsick child, so we switched into that mode where, as parents, you realize that you are responsible for cleaning up whatever God-awful mess has been made. We scraped off Haley’s clothes as best we could in the snow by the side of the road and scrounged around in the car for something we could use to clean off the seat. This being a rental car, and this being only a short journey, there wasn’t much that we could use. I looked in the trash bin on the side of the road to see if there were any papers or napkins that weren’t too nasty that we could reuse. We considered sacrificing clean clothing from our suitcase to mop it up with. Finally Dan found a travel pack of Kleenex at the bottom of his backpack. Fun times. We finally rolled into town about 3 1/2 hours behind schedule.
A few positives from that unexpectedly long day of travel:
1. We met Dan’s aunt and uncle, Hedi and Helmut, in Kaprun. We hadn’t seen them in several years and were so glad they made the drive to join us.
2. Our hotel was lovely. Our room had a balcony on the back that looked out over mountains and a pretty stream. It reminded us a lot of Montana. The window to the front of the room overlooked the town, with bright colored buildings and a pretty church - distinctly European-looking.
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| Our cute hotel next to the mountains |
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| Comfortable (except for the beds) and spacious room |
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| Gorgeous view of Kaprun with river and mountains from our back deck |
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| City view from the front window, centered on the white church |
3. Dinner that first night was surprisingly exceptional. Eating at the hotel is different from our experience in the US, where hotel restaurants tend to be overpriced and often not that good. Many hotels here offer “half board”, which means breakfast and dinner are included in the price of the room. Our family had a table assigned to us in the restaurant, and they served us an exquisite 5 course meal! Salad bar, appetizer, soup, choice of 3 different entrees, and dessert. It was so so good. The waitstaff were dressed up in costumes for Fasching and our table was festively decorated.
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| Fancy place settings and decorated table with place card. The kids were amazed by the number of forks and spoons at our place setting! They had never seen a fancy table set before. |
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| A sample dinner menu with the 5 courses. They would put the dinner menu on our breakfast table each morning so we could plan our food choices for the day and anticipate our amazing dinner awaiting us! |
On the down side, I am hard pressed to remember a night when I have slept in a less comfortable bed. Our mattress seemed to have about a millimeter of padding on top of lumpy springs. Our pillows were wispy and thin, I’m really not sure what their purpose was. The room was very warm and the European fashion is to dress the bed with a fitted sheet (ours was scratchy) and a simple duvet on top. We roasted underneath the heavy duvets, but you couldn’t really kick it off because there was no lighter option, and it was too cold with nothing to cover you. I tossed and turned all night long trying to find a comfortable position, alternately soaked with sweat and freezing.
The next morning we were up early for our first day of skiing.
Positives from Day 2:
1. The breakfast buffet at the hotel was exceptional. 6 large containers with different flavors of jam. 8 or 10 different bread choices, including 2 different kinds of coffee cake/breakfast bread fresh baked each day. 2 different choices of breakfast smoothies each day. 3 choices of yogurt flavors with bins of nuts, dried fruit, and granola for toppings. Fresh cheeses and sausages, if that’s your thing. We loaded our plates with yummy stuff and sat down at our table, and then discovered that they also come to your table and take your order for eggs made to order! Fried or scrambled eggs with bacon or cheese or mixed vegetables. I even discovered (too late - the last day) that they will make you an omelet. We couldn’t resist ordering eggs and eating them in addition to what we had already piled on our plates, so we all overate a bit that first day. I ordered coffee the first day and each morning thereafter, when we arrived for breakfast, there was a carafe of coffee and a pitcher of cream at my place already. We all ate so much food each morning.
2. Glorious weather!! Sun, beautiful sun. Blue blue skies. We soaked up as much sun as we could, being so sun-deprived in Berlin. It was warm too - the days started out just below freezing and ended up in the mid-40’s. It was like spring skiing, which was fine with me because I hate to ski when it’s freezing.
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| Helmut, Dan and the kids |
3. Amazing scenery. It was truly gorgeous. Of course the mountains reminded us of home and fed our souls. We truly don’t understand why anyone with a choice would choose to live anywhere without mountains. :) We seem to be in the minority with that opinion though.
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| Alps everywhere! |
4. Yummy lunch in the sun. We had been told to try the Kaiserschmarrn, an Austrian delicacy sort of like cut up pancakes with icing and powdered sugar, served with applesauce or plum compote. It got its name from the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, who was a big fan of the dish. It was a treat to have this for lunch with a beer in the bright sunshine!
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| mmmmmm, Kaiserschmarrn..... |
And the downsides:
1. The weather, both a positive and a negative. Sun and warmth means the snow was not very good. It was icy in the morning and like mashed potatoes in the afternoon. They hadn’t had any snow in days, so there was no fresh powder anywhere. The resorts had to use snow machines to get enough coverage on the slopes. Still, that first day wasn’t bad and we enjoyed our day.
2. Lack of variety. Kaprun has several smaller ski areas, and your regional ski pass is good at any of the resorts. So there’s not one large connected ski area, you have to choose one place to ski for the day. On our first day we skied the small family ski area, Maiskogel. It was low elevation and easy to get to, right in town, but it only had a few ski runs. We are certainly spoiled because I was a little bit bored skiing the same run many times.
3. Adjusting to the European grading and navigation system. US ski resorts have a grading system of green (easy), blue (intermediate) and black (difficult), plus double black for super hard. Austria has a similar system, with the colors swapped a little: blue (easy), red (intermediate) and black (difficult). But the ratings seem to be much less consistent, even at the same ski complex. We tried to ski the red, which should have been well within everyone’s capability, but this particular one was pretty difficult and Haley freaked out and threw a tantrum, saying that it was too hard for her. We had to split up so that someone could inch their way down with Haley and the others could ski, and then swap off later. Unfortunately, this early bad experience pretty much soured Haley on the red runs, so someone had to stick to blue runs with Haley for most of the vacation. We found that some blues were quite challenging, some reds seemed like blacks, and Dan thought the blacks were more like reds and had trouble finding terrain to challenge him. At the same time, we had a hard time understanding the ski maps and a hard time following the ski runs. In the US the runs have names and are clearly marked at each possible place to turn off. At this ski resort each run simply has a number that is marked at the top of the ski lift. You head in the direction of the number and hope to find your way down! There are some places along the way where you can find the number, but we spent a lot of our time just skiing down the hill in confusion, wondering where we were going to end up.
After skiing we went to the Tauern Spa, where Hedi and Helmut were staying (they also found a last-minute cancellation room).
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| The steaming blue part is an outdoor hot tub and you can just barely see a person leaning over the edge - Hedi! |
We had missed our annual trip to Fairmont Hot Springs over the Christmas holidays, so we bought a day pass to this hot spring resort. It had big pools, indoor and outdoor, bubbling massage jets, a water cave structure, fountains, etc. The kids had a blast and it was just what we needed to relax and let off some steam.
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| Huge glass windows frame the mountains outside |
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| Helmut and Hedi had a great time too |
Hedi and Helmut even watched the kids while Dan and I borrowed their wristbands and went to the enormous sauna complex. Europeans are big on saunas and many people plan vacations around spa complexes. This one had about 8 or 10 different rooms, each with a different temperature and/or attraction. There was a steam room infused with yummy aromatherapy. There was a warm stone room, where the benches are made of stone to warm your muscles. There were varying temperatures of dry sauna rooms, some with special scents. There was a Finnish sauna (super hot!) which was completely packed because there was a performance by the towel guy. This is an odd thing we had heard about. The sauna was too full for us to get into (thank goodness because I think we would have suffocated), but we watched the towel performance from the sauna across the hall. This guy comes into the small room and waves his towel around in elaborate towel movements. Back and forth like he’s bullfighting, swirling it around his head like a Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel, whipping it out towards the people so it cracks like a whip. Periodically he uses it to wipe the sweat from his body, then he ceremoniously fans everyone with it. These Finnish saunas are about 90 degrees Celsius (194 Fahrenheit), so stirring the air almost burns you with the hot air moving past you. Everyone applauds when the performance is over. We found it a little comical, the packed rows of naked people (most saunas don’t allow clothing) being fanned by the sweaty man with the towel, but of course Europeans take their saunas very seriously and to them there is nothing funny or unusual about it. There were cold showers and a bin full of ice that you could smear over yourself if you overheated.
We returned to our hotel for another excellent dinner of tasty soup, baked fish, and custard with whipped cream for dessert.
The next day we went to the Kitzsteinhorn to ski. This is a glacier way up on the mountain which is accessed by two long gondola rides. It’s the highest ski area in the Salzburg region. It seems that the entire population of Europe chose this particular ski resort on this particular day. We took a packed bus from Helmut’s hotel (he skied with us the first two days) and arrived with throngs of other skiers. We stood in a line as long as a Disneyland line to get on the first gondola, but unfortunately the lines here aren’t managed like American lines. The lines at the Austrian resorts were pretty much every man for himself. The line was very wide and there was no clear priority of which side got to go first, so it happened that the left side of the line would swing around and people would crowd in and not allow the right side of the line to turn the corner each time the line switchbacked. We were passed by dozens, scores, hundreds of people whose only thought was to get up the mountain first. Lines seem to bring out the worst in people and there was pushing, shoving, cutting, bumping of skis. I even saw a group of adults go under the rope at a switchback and move in front of an entire switchback full of people. In order to have any hope of reaching the gondola ourselves we were forced to change our behavior to protect our space, hold our ground, elbow out those who would cut in front. It wasn’t a nice way to start the day. Ditto for the second gondola ride.
Finally we reached the top. Wow, what a view. Being atop the glacier was stunning and the weather couldn’t have been better. But we were appalled by the crowds. The glacier was much bigger than the small place we skied the day before, so we tried to spread out and escape the throng. But you couldn’t get away. Everywhere we went was like a river of people continually streaming down the mountain. There was almost nowhere to go to have your own space. I think this is normal for Europeans so it was probably a glorious day for everyone else, but we felt cramped and crowded and afraid of all the people zipping by us. A tentative skier like Haley needs space to operate and doesn’t always (or ever) make predictable turns, and we were constantly fearful that someone would come zipping down the hill and crash into her. A skier like Carter needs space because he has a tendency to overestimate his ability to turn or stop when he wants to, so we don’t trust his ability to navigate through a crowd. We thought about putting the kids in ski school but Helmut really wanted to ski with them, plus the ratio was 10-1 in the classes, which we thought was really too many people for the kids to get much individual instruction. We found ourselves spending a lot of time standing still looking backward, waiting for a break in the constant downhill traffic, and then when there was a short pause saying “Go! Go now! You have some space, go!” As I already said, the ski runs were hard to follow and they intersected each other all over the place, often without signs posting a warning. So you would be skiing down and all of a sudden someone would come flying at you from a diagonal direction. I missed getting plowed into once by about a millisecond. We were all ready to leave by about 2:00 and were thankful to be escaping without injury.
Chaos!!
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| Crowds disembarking from the gondola |
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| Waiting... |
By our third day of skiing, the snow was getting pretty grim. We skied Schmittenhöhe Zell Am See which was a large ski complex just a bit down the road. After three warm sunny days with no new snow, the day pretty much started with mashed potatoey snow, and by the afternoon it was chunky and even almost bare in some places. Again, it was a beautiful day with beautiful views.
Again it was way too crowded. This resort had a small terrain park, which was fun for the kids. Carter got to do the crazy jumps he likes to do and go up and down small hills and through tunnels. But after lunch we all decided we were done with skiing, and didn’t want to try again the next day. We stopped at a party hut on the way down and had a drink and listened to Austrian music in the sun for a while.
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| Party central |
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| Soaking up the sun on the swing |
Back at our hotel, Dan and I left the kids in the room reading and went downstairs to the hotel’s small sauna, where there was a cooling whirlpool, a steam room, a warm sauna and a hot sauna, plus a “relaxing room” with a row of waterbeds to lie on and read or sleep. Nice!
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| Ready for the sauna! |
We enjoyed yet another amazing dinner, complete with a fabulous dessert buffet.
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| So many choices! |
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| Beautiful and delicious desserts |
Our plan for Saturday was to have an easy morning, followed by a leisurely drive to Munich. We were going to tour an ancient monastery and then visit a thermal spa/waterpark in the area. But we got stuck in awful traffic. Our 2 1/2 hour drive turned into 5 as we inched forward on the road. As frustrating as that was, at least once we got on the autobahn we could steadily move, albeit slower than the posted speed limit. Meanwhile, the southbound traffic on the autobahn was at a complete standstill for most of our journey. Those people weren’t going anywhere, poor souls.
We got to Munich late, but still decided to try the waterpark. Just like everywhere on this trip, I didn’t know that so many humans could live on this earth, much less all be at the same waterpark on the same evening. This place was so packed full of people that the big pool was just a sea of floating heads.
It was an interesting place, though. They had two enormous pools, each with their own entertainment. One pool had water aerobics, followed by a really cool African drum band. The other pool was a wave pool with gently lapping waves and everyone was bobbing up and down on foam noodles while 3 people on the stage put on a miniature performance of The Lion King. But by far the biggest attraction for us was an enormous inner dome that was crisscrossed by about 20 different waterslides. Some were short and fast, some long and slower. Some we had to climb flight after flight of stairs and started the slide at dizzying heights.
There were slides for all ages and, despite the crowds, the lines weren’t too awful as long as you stayed away from the most popular ones. Typically Haley’s choices are limited with any amusement park rides because of her size, but here there were several really fun ones that she could do. It was fun for us all to ride together and for her to be included. I enjoyed getting to ride the slides too; often the Mom doesn’t get to participate in the games, it seems. We stayed our 4 hour limit and didn’t get back to our hotel until around 9 p.m.
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| This photo makes it look sparse |
It was an interesting place, though. They had two enormous pools, each with their own entertainment. One pool had water aerobics, followed by a really cool African drum band. The other pool was a wave pool with gently lapping waves and everyone was bobbing up and down on foam noodles while 3 people on the stage put on a miniature performance of The Lion King. But by far the biggest attraction for us was an enormous inner dome that was crisscrossed by about 20 different waterslides. Some were short and fast, some long and slower. Some we had to climb flight after flight of stairs and started the slide at dizzying heights.
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| Indoor waterslide park |
There were slides for all ages and, despite the crowds, the lines weren’t too awful as long as you stayed away from the most popular ones. Typically Haley’s choices are limited with any amusement park rides because of her size, but here there were several really fun ones that she could do. It was fun for us all to ride together and for her to be included. I enjoyed getting to ride the slides too; often the Mom doesn’t get to participate in the games, it seems. We stayed our 4 hour limit and didn’t get back to our hotel until around 9 p.m.
Almost as soon as we arrived in Berlin I saw advertisements that Disney on Ice was going to perform “Frozen” in an ice arena in Berlin. I thought that was something Haley would love, so I planned way ahead and bought tickets and planned to give them to her for Christmas. Well, that turned into a debacle. Somehow when we moved from our apartment to our house, the tickets didn’t come with us, or at least I could never find them. I gave her an “IOU” for Christmas and kept thinking they would turn up as the weeks went by and we unpacked more and more things, but they never did. I’m afraid that maybe we put them into the paper recycling sometime before we left the apartment. Then a few weeks ago we realized that we had accidentally booked our plane tickets back from Munich on the same day as the Frozen show, and too late in the day to actually attend. Ugh! We looked into changing Haley’s and my plane tickets, but we had bought the cheap non-refundable non-changeable ones from the discount airline. I apologized profusely to Haley and promised to make it up to her and began contacting the ticket company, in limited German, to see if we could get the tickets reissued so I could at least sell them (it was of course, by this time, a sold-out show). 10 days or so went by without a word from them, so I enlisted the help of a German-speaking parent from the school to call them and try to get an answer. He called dozens of times and always got a busy signal. So he too sent them an email. Finally I received an answer that while they couldn’t reissue the tickets, they could send me a voucher that I could use, with my ID, to get into the show. So much for selling them - that meant that only I could use the tickets.
So yesterday, we decided that instead of spending the day in Munich touring today, Haley and I would go back to Berlin in time for the show. We forfeited our plane tickets and bought one-way train tickets. We got up at 5:20 this morning and are currently meandering through the German countryside on our 7 hour journey to Berlin. One lesson from this trip is that train travel seems more reliable and is definitely more pleasant that travel by plane or car. So if in the future there is only a 2 or 3 hour difference between travel time for the two modes of transport, we will choose train. The seats are comfortable, there is plenty of space, the views are interesting, there are power outlets for our electronics, it’s easy to bring your own food, you don’t have to arrive hours early. (post script update: Haley LOVED the show and I'm so glad we got to see it.)
Another lesson from this trip is that we are simply not “crowd” people. Of course we know this, and so we often make choices with our vacations that take us out of the most crowded areas. The problem with this vacation was that it seems that if you want to go skiing in Europe there is no way to escape the crowds. It’s against the law in Germany to take your kids out of school for a vacation, so you can’t choose an off-week for your ski trip. We asked at the hotel when is the best time to come when it is less crowded, and naturally they said “January or March”, when no family with school-aged children can take a vacation. We have to do some serious thinking when we get home about whether we want to ski next year or whether we want to wait a couple of years for Montana skiing. Because if we want to avoid this year’s availability problem, we need to book next year’s vacation NOW. People plan so far ahead here! It’s definitely not what we’re used to. Carter, especially, loves to ski, so I hate to take that away from him. But Dan and I may not be able to maintain our sanity with the cost and the crowds and the delays. One thing we realized is that in the past we have only “done” Europe for a few weeks at a time. We have handled the crowds and cost for a couple of weeks on vacation and then returned home to our simple and peaceful lives. Now that we live here, we have been “doing” Europe for months. We have managed to find some personal space in Berlin, and our home certainly provides a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle. But crowds are just a way of life here and we will either have to get used to it or despise our vacations or go someplace that nobody else wants to go. The number of interesting things to see here is practically unlimited, so we will probably lean towards option 3.
While this vacation doesn’t rank in the top half of our favorite family vacations, I don’t want to seem overly negative or ungrateful. We had amazing food and gorgeous weather. We got to do a snow activity, which we have all been missing since our departure from Missoula. We got to spend time with family. We got to swim. We got to try out European saunas. Every day we are learning and making memories and that's what we're here to do!
Kindness of Strangers
On Saturday after a nice long night of sleep I went to a consignment sale for children's stuff. I had fun rummaging through the piles and finding things I thought the kids would wear. I paid for my purchases (61 Euros for a big bag of stuff) and texted Dan that I was going to stop at the grocery store before coming home. When I got to the store in our neighborhood, a portion of the street had been blocked off and there was a street market going on. I went into the store and bought my things, then put them in the car and walked around to the street market to check it out. It was small so it only took me a few minutes. I stopped to buy some strawberries from a guy who was selling 2 packs for 5 Euros. He asked me if I wanted 3 for 6 Euros, so I happily accepted. (And did the whole conversation in German!) Then I headed home and proceeded with the day.
Later, Haley asked me for my phone and I told her to go get it out of my purse. She looked and said it wasn't there. I didn't think much of it since the kids often don't see things that are right under their noses. Later, Dan left the house to go on a tour of Berlin given by a former homeless person (maybe I will have time to write about that later) and we had made plans to meet at a store in town and do some shopping afterwards, so I thought I should get my phone in case he needed to get in touch with me. Haley was right, it wasn't in my purse. It wasn't in my backpack. It wasn't in my jacket pocket or the car or lying on the kitchen counter. I tried several times to call it to see if I could hear it ringing, but I usually keep it on vibrate so it's hard to hear. I looked in every room, even though I was pretty sure I hadn't been in most of the rooms of the house. I became convinced that I didn't have the phone. I thought back - I knew I had it when I left the consignment store, because I had texted Dan, and I knew I had it when I arrived at the grocery store because I looked at the phone and saw his response. But that's the last I remember of it. Did I set it down on the checkout counter at the grocery store? Did I set it down at the strawberry stand? Did it fall out of my car into the parking lot? I rode my bike back to the store and realized that I knew the words to ask the cashier "Finden Sie ein gelbes Handy?" "Nein, fergessen Sie heute?", she asked? (Did you forget it today?) No luck there. It wasn't in the parking lot. And the street market was over and most vendors had packed up and left. Now I'm thinking, oh no, I will never see my phone again.
I emailed Dan to let him know that I couldn't find my phone and it might make it difficult to coordinate and meet up later. Thank goodness for my tech-savvy husband who immediately looked up my phone on the app "Find my friends" and sent me a picture on the map: "my phone thinks your phone is 'here'" he said. The 'here' was near an S-bahn station about 10 or 12 minutes from our house. Argh, my phone has been stolen and it's making a getaway, I thought. I asked him if the phone's location was moving and after a few minutes he replied that it wasn't. In fact, he said that it looked like there was a police station near the pinpoint on the map and he wondered if somehow they had the phone. I don't know how he could see that, because when I zoomed in on the map it looked like a residential area and even doing a search for "police station" in the area turned up 0 results. But I got in the car and headed over. I didn't know what I would find - maybe the street market from my neighborhood had moved to this neighborhood and I would find the strawberry man. Or maybe I would find a police station and by some odd stroke of luck they would miraculously have my phone. Or maybe the Find My Phone app was wrong and there would be nothing there.
When I got close I indeed saw a sign for a police station! I found a place to park and was buzzed inside the locked building. I asked expectantly if they had my phone and lo and behold! They did! I tried to ask who found the phone and turned it in, but I didn't get much information - only the name and phone number of the person who had found the phone, so after I got home I called him. I read from the script I had prepared using Google Translate: "Thank you, thank you for turning my phone in to the police. You are a nice man! I am so happy." I felt a bit foolish using these babyish phrases but the call absolutely had to be made. I still don't know where I left my phone and who this man was, but thank goodness for honest people.
I hadn't planned to spend half the day looking for my phone, but that's how it worked out. By the time I got back from the police station it was time to go meet Dan at the store. We found him some non-baggy Euro-style jeans and pants that Dan said felt like he was wearing tights! And then it was time for our evening activity. The American Catholic and Protestant churches have joined together to form a combined youth group with monthly activities. This month the activity was Iranian Night at the Iranian Mosque and Cultural Center.
We walked in a little late, unfortunately, and a man was singing the ritual prayer (think of what you think of when you think of Islamic prayer - lots of undulating voice and kind of an eerie sound). I could not have been more out of place in this setting with my blonde hair and blue eyes and it had never crossed my mind to bring a head scarf to wear, like so many of the other visitors remembered to do. I consider myself a very open and accepting person so I was surprised when I felt a twinge of fear. I didn't realize that my stereotypes of Islam ran so deep until I found myself looking around during the prayer to see if we were safe in the room. The thought crossed my mind that maybe we Christians had been lured here with our children for a suicide attack. HORRIBLE, but if I'm telling the truth then there it is. I don't know too many people of Islamic faith and I've only ever known one Iranian, so I'm sure these feelings stem from unfamiliarity. I'm really glad we had the chance to spend some time with these people to dispel some of the fear.
After the prayers was a presentation which unfortunately was in German so I didn't understand most of what was said about Islam and Iran. But it was immediately clear that this was a peaceful, friendly community. The women of the community had cooked for us, and they served us tea and these coconut fig ball things. Later there was a buffet with small sandwiches and tons of other sweets. The imam addressed us in Persian but was translated into English. He basically attempted to address and dispel stereotypes about Islam: he talked about Islam's acceptance of other religions, the positive role of women, and the peaceful nature of the religion. He invited us all to join worship or just hang out at the center anytime! I was really overwhelmed with the hospitality of these quiet women draped from head to toe in fabric, and their leader, a kind, scholarly man who has published dozens of books. The woman who led the presentation, like many people I have met in Berlin, impressed me with her language skills: fluent in Persian, English and German (and who knows how many other languages she didn't have the need to use that night). A male church leader sat at a table and patiently and beautifully scripted everyone's name in Persian. I picture Iran as a desert, but I learned that there are mountains with heavily forested slopes and there are even jungly rain forests.
Afterwards we reflected on what we learned. Haley was probably a bit too young to get much out of the evening, but Carter said that he would never look at Muslims the same again. When we asked him what he meant, he explained that he too had a negative view because he associates Islam with terrorism. (Clearly we need to work on our parenting message of "love for all people".) He sees now that most people are kind and actually quite interesting, although he didn't care for the rice pudding or the fig balls. I personally had never spent time with a group of Muslims, let alone Iranians, and I'm happy to say that they aren't scary and they don't necessarily agree with their crazy government, just like we don't always agree with our sometimes crazy government. I am grateful for the chance to learn more about a place I knew almost nothing about, and for the kindness of these strangers.
Later, Haley asked me for my phone and I told her to go get it out of my purse. She looked and said it wasn't there. I didn't think much of it since the kids often don't see things that are right under their noses. Later, Dan left the house to go on a tour of Berlin given by a former homeless person (maybe I will have time to write about that later) and we had made plans to meet at a store in town and do some shopping afterwards, so I thought I should get my phone in case he needed to get in touch with me. Haley was right, it wasn't in my purse. It wasn't in my backpack. It wasn't in my jacket pocket or the car or lying on the kitchen counter. I tried several times to call it to see if I could hear it ringing, but I usually keep it on vibrate so it's hard to hear. I looked in every room, even though I was pretty sure I hadn't been in most of the rooms of the house. I became convinced that I didn't have the phone. I thought back - I knew I had it when I left the consignment store, because I had texted Dan, and I knew I had it when I arrived at the grocery store because I looked at the phone and saw his response. But that's the last I remember of it. Did I set it down on the checkout counter at the grocery store? Did I set it down at the strawberry stand? Did it fall out of my car into the parking lot? I rode my bike back to the store and realized that I knew the words to ask the cashier "Finden Sie ein gelbes Handy?" "Nein, fergessen Sie heute?", she asked? (Did you forget it today?) No luck there. It wasn't in the parking lot. And the street market was over and most vendors had packed up and left. Now I'm thinking, oh no, I will never see my phone again.
I emailed Dan to let him know that I couldn't find my phone and it might make it difficult to coordinate and meet up later. Thank goodness for my tech-savvy husband who immediately looked up my phone on the app "Find my friends" and sent me a picture on the map: "my phone thinks your phone is 'here'" he said. The 'here' was near an S-bahn station about 10 or 12 minutes from our house. Argh, my phone has been stolen and it's making a getaway, I thought. I asked him if the phone's location was moving and after a few minutes he replied that it wasn't. In fact, he said that it looked like there was a police station near the pinpoint on the map and he wondered if somehow they had the phone. I don't know how he could see that, because when I zoomed in on the map it looked like a residential area and even doing a search for "police station" in the area turned up 0 results. But I got in the car and headed over. I didn't know what I would find - maybe the street market from my neighborhood had moved to this neighborhood and I would find the strawberry man. Or maybe I would find a police station and by some odd stroke of luck they would miraculously have my phone. Or maybe the Find My Phone app was wrong and there would be nothing there.
When I got close I indeed saw a sign for a police station! I found a place to park and was buzzed inside the locked building. I asked expectantly if they had my phone and lo and behold! They did! I tried to ask who found the phone and turned it in, but I didn't get much information - only the name and phone number of the person who had found the phone, so after I got home I called him. I read from the script I had prepared using Google Translate: "Thank you, thank you for turning my phone in to the police. You are a nice man! I am so happy." I felt a bit foolish using these babyish phrases but the call absolutely had to be made. I still don't know where I left my phone and who this man was, but thank goodness for honest people.
I hadn't planned to spend half the day looking for my phone, but that's how it worked out. By the time I got back from the police station it was time to go meet Dan at the store. We found him some non-baggy Euro-style jeans and pants that Dan said felt like he was wearing tights! And then it was time for our evening activity. The American Catholic and Protestant churches have joined together to form a combined youth group with monthly activities. This month the activity was Iranian Night at the Iranian Mosque and Cultural Center.
We walked in a little late, unfortunately, and a man was singing the ritual prayer (think of what you think of when you think of Islamic prayer - lots of undulating voice and kind of an eerie sound). I could not have been more out of place in this setting with my blonde hair and blue eyes and it had never crossed my mind to bring a head scarf to wear, like so many of the other visitors remembered to do. I consider myself a very open and accepting person so I was surprised when I felt a twinge of fear. I didn't realize that my stereotypes of Islam ran so deep until I found myself looking around during the prayer to see if we were safe in the room. The thought crossed my mind that maybe we Christians had been lured here with our children for a suicide attack. HORRIBLE, but if I'm telling the truth then there it is. I don't know too many people of Islamic faith and I've only ever known one Iranian, so I'm sure these feelings stem from unfamiliarity. I'm really glad we had the chance to spend some time with these people to dispel some of the fear.
After the prayers was a presentation which unfortunately was in German so I didn't understand most of what was said about Islam and Iran. But it was immediately clear that this was a peaceful, friendly community. The women of the community had cooked for us, and they served us tea and these coconut fig ball things. Later there was a buffet with small sandwiches and tons of other sweets. The imam addressed us in Persian but was translated into English. He basically attempted to address and dispel stereotypes about Islam: he talked about Islam's acceptance of other religions, the positive role of women, and the peaceful nature of the religion. He invited us all to join worship or just hang out at the center anytime! I was really overwhelmed with the hospitality of these quiet women draped from head to toe in fabric, and their leader, a kind, scholarly man who has published dozens of books. The woman who led the presentation, like many people I have met in Berlin, impressed me with her language skills: fluent in Persian, English and German (and who knows how many other languages she didn't have the need to use that night). A male church leader sat at a table and patiently and beautifully scripted everyone's name in Persian. I picture Iran as a desert, but I learned that there are mountains with heavily forested slopes and there are even jungly rain forests.
Afterwards we reflected on what we learned. Haley was probably a bit too young to get much out of the evening, but Carter said that he would never look at Muslims the same again. When we asked him what he meant, he explained that he too had a negative view because he associates Islam with terrorism. (Clearly we need to work on our parenting message of "love for all people".) He sees now that most people are kind and actually quite interesting, although he didn't care for the rice pudding or the fig balls. I personally had never spent time with a group of Muslims, let alone Iranians, and I'm happy to say that they aren't scary and they don't necessarily agree with their crazy government, just like we don't always agree with our sometimes crazy government. I am grateful for the chance to learn more about a place I knew almost nothing about, and for the kindness of these strangers.
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| Carter with his name in Chinese (red banner - created at school with 2 Chinese-speaking parent volunteers) and Persian |
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