- Wrapping up the school year. "Sport day" aka Field Day will be next week. The kids both have short musical theater performances they have been working on that will be performed next week. The following week is end of year parties and last day of school July 9.
- Planning for our trip home! Trying to arrange the calendar so we can see dozens of friends and family in Missoula, Atlanta and Birmingham. It will be a whirlwind but we are looking forward to checking in with loved ones.
- Attempting to plan for next year.
- I had hoped to line up the kids' activities for the fall, but I think I'm going to have to let that one go. The kids' school offers lots of after school activities and Carter and Haley have both done a few of these this year. But next year we hoped to branch out and figure out the German sport club system and allow the kids to pursue more than just a recreational level of something. Carter thinks he would like to play tennis and Haley would like to ride horses. I have looked into both activities but haven't been able to nail down a plan.
- I have mentioned before that Europeans plan vacations really far in advance, presumably because there are so many of them and they all seem to like to go to the same places. So we really do need to book next year's vacations NOW in order to secure a spot for ourselves. Yesterday I started preliminary research for our February ski vacation and was very frustrated to find that many of the places I looked at are ALREADY BOOKED FULL. Ugh. One of the surprises for me in living here has been the amount of time I spend doing the job of travel agent. The ability to travel in Europe was one of the reasons why we accepted this assignment, but I didn't really think about how much work it is to plan trips. The kids have so many long school breaks and we want to take advantage of them to see as much as possible, but each trip takes days or even weeks of planning and researching. The options are seemingly endless and there is information overload on the internet on the one hand, and on the other hand it's still really hard to determine what is marketing and what is reality unless you have a personal recommendation from someone. We are hoping to travel in France for fall break, [somewhere] for Christmas break, ski somewhere in February, and do something for Easter break. One of those trips will be to Africa, at least for Dan and me, which will require lots of coordination. So, that's 4 large trips to plan, which will be an enormous amount of work, and the longer I wait the fewer options we will have.
- Still working on the house!
- After my last post about the unproductive day, I did actually locate two new pieces of furniture for my office that will hold all my books and scrapbooking supplies. I have assembled them both but haven't had the time to stock their shelves. Those boxes are the last ones in the house that remain unpacked. I hope I can get to that so we can be completely unpacked before we head home at the end of our first year!!
- I have purchased several ceiling light fixtures and I finally got mirrors for the two bathrooms. But installing them is a big job and Dan doesn't have time/doesn't want to spend all his free time doing it. So I need to hire someone to come do all this for me. Yesterday I located a handyman who speaks English and serves the expat community, so I've sent him a message. Hopefully he will have time to come get this done for us, and it will be good to have an English speaking guy who can help us with house projects if needed.
- Two weeks ago we had a super hard and heavy rain and our basement flooded. I spent the week moving everything out and laying it out to dry, borrowing fans from neighbors, contacting the landlord about water damage, etc. We have mostly moved past that episode, but we need to have our gutters cleaned and have some landscaping work done in the backyard to prevent this happening again. Our landlord lives out of town and has asked me to arrange it all. I'm trying to push back and have her do it; that's a lot of burden to put on me and it should really be her job.
- Shopping! I got some birthday money to spend and have been exploring the Berlin shops and brands a little. Fun!
- Property management. I won't bore you with the details but I spend a good amount of my time managing the properties we own in Montana. I'm currently trying to arrange from afar for some windows to be replaced in our Butte duplex. This is incredibly expensive and I've been sending out inquiries about historic building renovation grants or low-interest loans.
- Haley's choir performed last Saturday at the Berlin Philharmonie. It was a bit anti-climactic after many months of work, but still a nice experience for her.
- Carter's last baseball game is Saturday. He has actually had a good season after a bit of a rough start. Dan has been working hard with him on his hitting and in the last game he was a total star, hitting in both at-bats, a single and a double. The level of play in this league is fairly low, so it gives him a nice opportunity to be one of the better players. This weekend he will go camping with the cub scouts for his first camping trip in Berlin. The weather isn't supposed to be nice, but hopefully the forecast will change.
- And lots of other stuff, but those are some highlights. I have lots of "reflective" - type blogs in my head that I was hoping to write as we wrap up our first year here, but I won't have time before we go. Hopefully I can do a bunch of writing on the long trip home.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Quick Update
Just a short bulleted update for those of you who care to know what we are up to:
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Biking on the Autobahn
Today Haley and I participated in Sternfahrt, billed as the world's largest bicycle demonstration. Last year there were 200,000 riders! The map below shows the complexity of the planning - riders started as early as 8:00 in the morning in outlying areas and more riders joined in at the appointed times and locations along the way. In this way riders worked their way into the center of Berlin from all directions. We joined at noon at the location highlighted in green in the southwest corner. We rode about 13-16 km in the direction of the orange star, but turned around somewhere along the 115 Autobahn. Yes, you read right - the bikers took over the Autobahn today! Those who rode to the end would all join together and finish up at the Brandenburger Tor where the Environment Festival was going on. It was an interesting way to spend the day!
There was a huge traffic jam at the entrance to the Autobahn, where 3 cycling routes came together. This was the scene as we waited quite a while for our turn. Everyone in Germany has a bell on their bike, super necessary to alert pedestrians to get out of the way, and also very musical when thousands of people ring them together!
High-speed video of cyclists on the autobahn
 |
| Bikers gather at S-bahn Zehlendorf near our house where people from our part of town would join the ride |
 |
| Biking down the main street in Zehlendorf |
 |
| Haley with neighbors, Mia (pink helmet) and Anne-Marie (black shirt, smiling). Haley would never had ridden so far unless a friend did the ride with her. And they both did great, no complaining! |
There was a huge traffic jam at the entrance to the Autobahn, where 3 cycling routes came together. This was the scene as we waited quite a while for our turn. Everyone in Germany has a bell on their bike, super necessary to alert pedestrians to get out of the way, and also very musical when thousands of people ring them together!
 |
| Waiting at the autobahn entrance |
 |
Approaching an exit. For the most part, the crowds thinned
out and there was plenty of room to ride on the Autobahn.
We did see a few accidents though.
|
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
The least productive day ever
It's only 1:40 in the afternoon but I have already declared this day a complete waste of time. Don't get me wrong - of course I'm grateful for each day to be alive, thankful for my many blessings, etc. But in terms of productivity today has been a failure. And that feels like a big deal because I have so much to do. Believe it or not, in just one short month our first "year" in Berlin will be over and we are heading back to the US for most of the summer. We are all excited to see friends and family and beloved Missoula, but I am really starting to feel the stress of wrapping things up here before we go, not to mention planning each day of our time at home so that we can accomplish everything we need to do and see everyone we want to see.
I had really really really wanted to have the house COMPLETELY in order before we go home, so that when we return I can focus entirely on other things and not spend ANY time in our 2nd year on shopping for furniture, appliances or other things we need. But I'm running out of time and the days are getting busier with end-of-the-school-year activities. So, every day counts.
Today's schedule was this:
1. Drive kids to school (because of the vet appointment later).
2. Swim at the gym.
3. Take cat to 10:00 vet appointment for glucose check and to pick up special diabetic food that I have to order from the vet.
4. Come home and catch up on 6 months of accounting for our property rentals.
I did #1, although the kids were actually a few minutes late to school, so I can't really say we did it flawlessly. Next up: head to the gym. I changed quickly into my swimsuit, wondering if the pool would be crowded. The pool at my gym is pretty useless - just one lane and then a larger lane-free area. Every time I have been, there have been 5 or 6 people in this tiny space. And I have never seen so many people swim so slowly. Even the lucky person that gets the lap lane is typically moving down the lane at a glacial pace, usually doing breaststroke. Also, the pool isn't set up for lap swimming; there are no markings on the bottom and no flags or other visual for reaching the end of the pool. The last time I tried to swim, the pool was completely full. I did stationary pool jogging next to the lap lane until that person got out. Then I politely asked one of the two other people who were sort of hanging out looking like they were waiting if she was waiting for the lap lane. She said no, but before I could move over into the lane, the other lady beat me to it! She then proceeded to swim so slowly up and down that I could complete a full lap (down and back) before she even reached the other side. I haven't tried to swim since that day, more than a month ago.
So this morning as I was changing I wondered how crowded it would be. It's kind of a commitment to decide to do a swim workout. You can't see the pool until you go through the door to it, so you have to take a risk and commit in the locker room; then once you're changed you make your way back there and see if it's a zoo. I went through the first door and got my first look at the pool (through a 2nd door). No ripples - could it be that I would have it to myself? As I went through the second door I had a sneaking suspicion and it was confirmed by the blockaded path to the pool - it was closed! Argh. There had been a sign up on the locker room door for a while, something about the pool, but I hadn't paid attention to it because a) it was in German and b) I hadn't used the pool in so long. But sure enough, the pool was closed for 3 days, starting last night. I didn't have any workout clothes, so I had to abandon the workout altogether.
At this point I still had about an hour before I had to leave to take Rhythm to the vet. What to do? I stopped into the grocery store in the same complex and bought fresh bread and veggies for tonight. Now what? I texted my disappointment to Dan and he suggested I go swim in the lake nearby. Hmmmm. The lake is cold and it was only 8:45 in the morning. But maybe that was what I needed to salvage my workout. I drove to the lake. It took longer than I had thought it would. And took me in the opposite direction of the vet. By the time I was parked, I had a completely inadequate 15 minutes before I would need to leave to take Rhythm. Abort.
I answered a few emails and then began the drive to the vet. I may have to find a closer vet at some point. This vet was pretty convenient from our old apartment in Charlottenburg but is almost a 1/2 hour drive from where we live now, with limited parking and considerable traffic. But they are diabetes specialists, so I have stayed with them despite the inconvenience.
The vet saw me immediately, which was good. But that was the end of the good part. I haven't figured out the diabetes practices here. In Missoula, I took Rhythm about every 2 months to the specialist for a glucose check. I would take him first thing in the morning after the kids left on the bus for school. I would feed him but wait until after the visit to give him his insulin shot. The vet would prick his ear, test his glucose level, tell me if there were any adjustments to his dose, and I would be on my way. But here, they have only done that once. Twice they have done a big blood analysis. I thought I would get the ear prick today but I wasn't sure. I also wasn't sure if I should give him his shot before I came. I did, since the appointment wasn't until 10 a.m. and he usually gets his shot with breakfast. Anyway, today I saw a new doctor that I haven't seen before, and he asked me a bunch of questions about Rhythm's dosage and behavior. I told him that Rhythm's glucose levels have never stabilized since we arrived in Berlin. He seems to feel fine, but he drinks and pees too much and his glucose always measures very high. So we don't have it under control here. This doctor told me that he didn't want to do any testing today. He wanted me to come back another time when I haven't fed Rhythm and do some more involved testing. Ugh. Another trip to the vet. When I went to check out I asked about the food I had ordered. "It hasn't come in yet. But it should come in this afternoon." Argh! I'm not coming back a 2nd time in one day. So I made an appointment for next Monday to bring Rhythm back and also to pick up the food.
It was 11 a.m. when I finally got home, having accomplished nothing except purchasing some bread and asparagus. Well, I still had 3 1/2 hours to get my paperwork done at home. I made myself a cappuccino and sat down at the office computer. I pulled up the Windows virtual machine on our Mac. Hmmm - this looks different. Where is Quicken? Dan tried to fix something on that computer a few days ago and wiped the hard drive and was supposed to have restored it from the backup. But everything looked different and I couldn't figure out how to access the files I needed to get the accounting done. So much for checking that big task off my list.
In a desperate attempt to salvage the day, I turned to retail therapy. There are still some things we need for the house and now that I can drive again, I can go pick things up in the car. So this seemed like a nice opportunity to do some online shopping on the used furniture store and set up some appointments to go look at/buy bookshelves for my office and/or a chair or chaise lounge for the bedroom and a chair for my dressing table.
I couldn't find anything. I browsed through every category of chair and lounge I could think of, but didn't see anything that seemed the right size, shape, price, location, etc. I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for for the bedroom, so it may take me a while to locate something that feels right. But a bookshelf - there are hundreds of bookshelves for sale on ebay kleinanzeigen. Every time I have ever looked for furniture I have seen bookshelf after bookshelf. But for some reason today there weren't many, and when I got down to the specific dimensions I need, I found nothing. I searched for cabinets. I browsed the IKEA site for things I might want and then searched ebay for the keywords. I expanded my search to include mirrors (which I still need). But all to no avail. There are simply no products for sale right now out of the thousands on ebay that fit my needs.
And so it came to be that at 1:40 I declared the day useless and unproductive. And now it's 2:32, time to walk to the bus stop and pick up the kids from school. I hope they accomplished more today than I did...
I had really really really wanted to have the house COMPLETELY in order before we go home, so that when we return I can focus entirely on other things and not spend ANY time in our 2nd year on shopping for furniture, appliances or other things we need. But I'm running out of time and the days are getting busier with end-of-the-school-year activities. So, every day counts.
Today's schedule was this:
1. Drive kids to school (because of the vet appointment later).
2. Swim at the gym.
3. Take cat to 10:00 vet appointment for glucose check and to pick up special diabetic food that I have to order from the vet.
4. Come home and catch up on 6 months of accounting for our property rentals.
I did #1, although the kids were actually a few minutes late to school, so I can't really say we did it flawlessly. Next up: head to the gym. I changed quickly into my swimsuit, wondering if the pool would be crowded. The pool at my gym is pretty useless - just one lane and then a larger lane-free area. Every time I have been, there have been 5 or 6 people in this tiny space. And I have never seen so many people swim so slowly. Even the lucky person that gets the lap lane is typically moving down the lane at a glacial pace, usually doing breaststroke. Also, the pool isn't set up for lap swimming; there are no markings on the bottom and no flags or other visual for reaching the end of the pool. The last time I tried to swim, the pool was completely full. I did stationary pool jogging next to the lap lane until that person got out. Then I politely asked one of the two other people who were sort of hanging out looking like they were waiting if she was waiting for the lap lane. She said no, but before I could move over into the lane, the other lady beat me to it! She then proceeded to swim so slowly up and down that I could complete a full lap (down and back) before she even reached the other side. I haven't tried to swim since that day, more than a month ago.
So this morning as I was changing I wondered how crowded it would be. It's kind of a commitment to decide to do a swim workout. You can't see the pool until you go through the door to it, so you have to take a risk and commit in the locker room; then once you're changed you make your way back there and see if it's a zoo. I went through the first door and got my first look at the pool (through a 2nd door). No ripples - could it be that I would have it to myself? As I went through the second door I had a sneaking suspicion and it was confirmed by the blockaded path to the pool - it was closed! Argh. There had been a sign up on the locker room door for a while, something about the pool, but I hadn't paid attention to it because a) it was in German and b) I hadn't used the pool in so long. But sure enough, the pool was closed for 3 days, starting last night. I didn't have any workout clothes, so I had to abandon the workout altogether.
At this point I still had about an hour before I had to leave to take Rhythm to the vet. What to do? I stopped into the grocery store in the same complex and bought fresh bread and veggies for tonight. Now what? I texted my disappointment to Dan and he suggested I go swim in the lake nearby. Hmmmm. The lake is cold and it was only 8:45 in the morning. But maybe that was what I needed to salvage my workout. I drove to the lake. It took longer than I had thought it would. And took me in the opposite direction of the vet. By the time I was parked, I had a completely inadequate 15 minutes before I would need to leave to take Rhythm. Abort.
I answered a few emails and then began the drive to the vet. I may have to find a closer vet at some point. This vet was pretty convenient from our old apartment in Charlottenburg but is almost a 1/2 hour drive from where we live now, with limited parking and considerable traffic. But they are diabetes specialists, so I have stayed with them despite the inconvenience.
The vet saw me immediately, which was good. But that was the end of the good part. I haven't figured out the diabetes practices here. In Missoula, I took Rhythm about every 2 months to the specialist for a glucose check. I would take him first thing in the morning after the kids left on the bus for school. I would feed him but wait until after the visit to give him his insulin shot. The vet would prick his ear, test his glucose level, tell me if there were any adjustments to his dose, and I would be on my way. But here, they have only done that once. Twice they have done a big blood analysis. I thought I would get the ear prick today but I wasn't sure. I also wasn't sure if I should give him his shot before I came. I did, since the appointment wasn't until 10 a.m. and he usually gets his shot with breakfast. Anyway, today I saw a new doctor that I haven't seen before, and he asked me a bunch of questions about Rhythm's dosage and behavior. I told him that Rhythm's glucose levels have never stabilized since we arrived in Berlin. He seems to feel fine, but he drinks and pees too much and his glucose always measures very high. So we don't have it under control here. This doctor told me that he didn't want to do any testing today. He wanted me to come back another time when I haven't fed Rhythm and do some more involved testing. Ugh. Another trip to the vet. When I went to check out I asked about the food I had ordered. "It hasn't come in yet. But it should come in this afternoon." Argh! I'm not coming back a 2nd time in one day. So I made an appointment for next Monday to bring Rhythm back and also to pick up the food.
It was 11 a.m. when I finally got home, having accomplished nothing except purchasing some bread and asparagus. Well, I still had 3 1/2 hours to get my paperwork done at home. I made myself a cappuccino and sat down at the office computer. I pulled up the Windows virtual machine on our Mac. Hmmm - this looks different. Where is Quicken? Dan tried to fix something on that computer a few days ago and wiped the hard drive and was supposed to have restored it from the backup. But everything looked different and I couldn't figure out how to access the files I needed to get the accounting done. So much for checking that big task off my list.
In a desperate attempt to salvage the day, I turned to retail therapy. There are still some things we need for the house and now that I can drive again, I can go pick things up in the car. So this seemed like a nice opportunity to do some online shopping on the used furniture store and set up some appointments to go look at/buy bookshelves for my office and/or a chair or chaise lounge for the bedroom and a chair for my dressing table.
I couldn't find anything. I browsed through every category of chair and lounge I could think of, but didn't see anything that seemed the right size, shape, price, location, etc. I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for for the bedroom, so it may take me a while to locate something that feels right. But a bookshelf - there are hundreds of bookshelves for sale on ebay kleinanzeigen. Every time I have ever looked for furniture I have seen bookshelf after bookshelf. But for some reason today there weren't many, and when I got down to the specific dimensions I need, I found nothing. I searched for cabinets. I browsed the IKEA site for things I might want and then searched ebay for the keywords. I expanded my search to include mirrors (which I still need). But all to no avail. There are simply no products for sale right now out of the thousands on ebay that fit my needs.
And so it came to be that at 1:40 I declared the day useless and unproductive. And now it's 2:32, time to walk to the bus stop and pick up the kids from school. I hope they accomplished more today than I did...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)