Houseguests

With the yellow chair

Two summers ago when the International Choral Festival came to Missoula, we decided to volunteer as a host family for a few members of one of the choirs. The festival organizers need people to house the choirs, feed them, drive them around to practices and performances, and show them around Missoula. I was pretty nervous - what if they don't speak English? What will we talk about? Will our home be welcoming enough? But we felt it was a great opportunity to learn about another country and to share the things we have with a stranger in need of welcome. We never expected to make lifelong friends.

We learned that we would be hosting choir members from Finland and that they would probably speak very good English. On the night their bus was arriving, those of us assigned to Finland showed up at the Missoula Community Theater and waited anxiously. Eventually the bus pulled up and they approached me - Nicke and Johanna, a young married couple, the only married pair in this choir. They were friendly and easygoing. Articulate, funny, full of life. Delightful.

Over the course of the week we spent a lot of time together in the car and at meals and because of their excellent English, delved into deeper conversations. Johanna and I had a lot in common in terms of personality, beliefs, hopes for the future, etc. It was strange and wonderful to meet someone from across the world who was so clearly a kindred spirit. And of course we learned about Finland with its saunas and lakes and forests, its long grey winters and its conflicts between the Swedish and Finnish cultures.

Now that we're living in Europe, we are planning a trip to Finland although it's unscheduled as of now. So we were excited when Nicke and Johanna contacted us last spring to say that they were coming to Berlin in September. Nicke has been brewing his own beer for years and wants to step it up to a professional level, and Berlin offers a certificate program that was necessary for him to begin his professional brewing journey. Best of all they had a baby a year ago, so we would get to meet their little one-year-old daughter, Evi.

We spent the last four days of their two-week trip together. Times had changed a little: Nicke spent long days in class and beer-tasting events with his peers, so I didn't get to see very much of him; Dan had to travel for business so he only got to spend two short evenings with them; there were no late nights with bottles of wine since Evi still wakes in the night; and we spent quite a bit of time just hanging out at our house watching Evi explore our bookshelves and climb up and down our stairs. But it was a nice change of pace! She is a beautiful, happy little girl, easy to fall in love with, loves new people.

What a cutie, playing peek-a-boo on the stairs

And she's super adaptable, so I was able to show Johanna a little of Berlin and Evi tagged right along in her stroller, refusing to nap until we got back home to the bed.

Dance schedule for a beach bar on the
riverbank. Mental note to go there for
date night!

The first day of their visit with us Johanna and Evi and I joined an informal walking tour of the old Jewish quarter of Berlin, hosted by my new club, the American Women's Club of Berlin. We met (eventually, after a grueling public transit trip whose story I won't tell in the interest of not reliving it in the telling; I haven't been so turned around on public transit since my first months in Berlin) in one of the members' homes for coffee and croissants and then she showed us all around her neighborhood, pointing out nice restaurants, shops, galleries and tango bars, and giving us some of the history of the area.

Our tour group with the Ampelmann

It was a beautiful day to be out for a walk and we both really enjoyed it. That night I went to Haley's parents' night at school while Dan took everyone out for a traditional German dinner.

The second day we went to the Berlin Botanical Gardens. I love to visit gardens and this huge complex isn't too far from our house, much less of a journey than the previous day's trek. It turns out that this botanical garden is considered one of the most important gardens in the world and it has over 22,000 species of plants! I have never seen so many different plants all crowded together but each with its own individual space in the display.

All the different species were meticulously labeled and
cared for

And we had another beautiful day for a walk. I wasn't sure what would be blooming in mid-September, but there were quite a few flowers. And really the highlight was these amazing huge glass greenhouses that you wander through.

In one winding and interconnected path you pass through Africa, the tropics, Europe, Australia. It's easy to lose your way, and I did when I went back inside to take a few photos and found myself in the desert among cactuses when I thought I was heading back outside to meet Johanna.

Cactus forest

I enjoyed the day so much that I'm thinking of getting an annual pass so I can go back whenever I want. Maybe I'll take my computer there and write sometimes. After we visited the gardens we had lunch at a nice place nearby, Das Café in der Gartenakademie, that I had been to once before with some ladies from the school. I felt like quite the oldtimer, returning someplace for a second time!

After lunch, outside the Gartenakademie

It's a really neat place kind of in its own greenhouse, with good food and lots of yummy desserts to choose from. We pushed Evi's tolerance for boredom and lack of sleep, but it was a really nice lunch.

Roses in the arboretum

Interconnected greenhouses

Our third day together we took it easy in the morning and then went out for a late lunch at a pizza/pasta place here in our neighborhood that I had been wanting to try. We had a nice, long lunch - very German - the kind of meal where you see people relaxing with beer and pizza in a restaurant at 2:00 in the afternoon and think "Who are these people? Don't they have jobs? How can they just be hanging out at a restaurant right now?" Yep, that was us.

Friday was a bit rainy and cool. I went to my running group alone. I had invited Johanna to come and have a stroll around the lake and a coffee afterwards, but it was too early for them to get up and out of the house, and the weather wasn't good. So she packed and after I got back we just spent time chatting and playing with Evi. Later in the afternoon we escorted them on the bus to the airport. We had a nice photo session at Adenauer Platz while waiting for their second bus which proved to be so late as to make us all really nervous! But it did come, and got them to the airport on time, thank goodness!

What a treat to have this time together! Can't wait to get to Finland and get the insider tour there!

First week of school

We've now finished two weeks of school. I'm a little behind because we've had wonderful friends from Finland visiting us this past week, but I want to back up and talk about the first week of school.

I was surprised at how nervous Haley was on the first day. I had expected her to go confidently and excitedly to school, since it's now a familiar place and there would be a lot of familiar faces. But instead she was shy and nervous. Carter was his normal enigmatic self, hard to read.

At BIS (Berlin International School) the kids learn their teacher assignments on the first day of school and not before. We weren't sure how this was going to work, but when we arrived there was a small crowd gathered around a large display board in front of the school. On the board were posted class lists. It was kind of an exciting moment as we approach the board and looked for Carter and Haley's names on the lists. We found them pretty quickly. Carter got his ideal teacher assignment–this year he has for a homeroom teacher the man who taught him math last year. Carter really liked this guy a lot and was pretty excited to be in his class. He scanned the other kids in the class and was excited that none of the kids he considers his "top enemies" were in the class with him. Haley has a teacher who is new to the school this year. She recognized a couple of the names of fellow classmates but was disappointed that the new girl, Louisa, from our buddy family who we met on the playground the week before school, wasn't in her class.

A lot of people asked me last year to write about the school and I never got around to it, so I'll write a little now. The kids go to the Berlin International School, which is a private school using the IB curriculum. In the primary school they use the IB Primary Years Program. This basically means that the year is broken up into what they call units of inquiry. They study a particular unit and all of their subjects revolve around that topic. So for example, last year Carter did a unit on architecture. They read about buildings and architecture, they designed their own structure, they went on a field trip to see buildings designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, one of Berlin's most famous architects, their math was related to shapes and volumes, etc. This style of learning has really suited both kids. It's a really interactive, creative, and flexible curriculum and the kids have really enjoyed school, although they wouldn't admit it. But I know it because they have never once said that school is boring or that they didn't want to go.

Demographically the school is around 40-50% German. Many German parents choose to send their kids here to get an English language immersion education. The remainder are kids from all over the world whose parents are living in Germany either permanently or temporarily. Many have one German parent and one parent from a different country. Many are embassy families. Many more are kids like ours, whose parent(s) took a one-two-or three-year assignment in Berlin. There are actually very few American kids, although there are lots of American teachers. The teachers are required to be native English speakers; Carter's teacher last year was Canadian, this year Scottish. Haley has had two American teachers.

They get to study the arts here more than they did back at home. In Missoula they only had one art teacher for what seemed like the whole school district and so the kids had art literally once or twice each semester. At BIS they have art twice a week, as well as music and gym. Library is once per week and they have a huge selection of books in English. Last year one of Carter's gym classes each week was devoted to dance, which he hated! It was kind of like a creative movement class and they did it all year long. This year one of Haleys gym periods will be devoted to swimming. In third grade the Germans all learn to swim. They have an official program with tests and badges that you can earn for different levels of swim competence.

The kids have a little more recess time here than they did in Missoula. They still have three breaks each day– morning, lunch, and afternoon–but the breaks are a little longer. They don't have the extensive playground equipment that we had at Colds Springs in Missoula. Instead it is mostly open space, but they provide equipment for the kids to play with: stilts, balls, scooters, etc.. There are also a few bars which is what Haley likes to play on. Some of the girls she is friends with can do lots of tricks on the bars and she has worked really hard to learn to do a pullover and a few other skills so she can keep up with the others. Probably the main attraction of the playground is the soccer cage–an enclosed space with goals on each side or the kids can play soccer during recess. Carter splits his time between the soccer cage and the stilts usually.

The last topic about the school is the cafeteria. One of the things that I appreciate the most about this school is that they provide lunch every day and it's included in the tuition; no more packed school lunches! Generally the kids like the food.  They always have pasta on Mondays, there's usually a soup day, sometimes a fish day. Sometimes they have something the kids think is awful and they refuse to eat it, but they always have bread and fruit so no one starves. A couple of times a year they have pancakes with strawberry sauce which gets rave reviews. In Germany lunch is still the hot meal for the day typically, so I guess it makes sense that they would serve a hot lunch at school. But it is SO nice not to have to pack a lunch every morning. However, the kids do have a snack break and are supposed to pack a snack each day. For many weeks I gave them a banana or a granola bar or something "snacky", until Haley told me one day that everyone else basically brings an entire lunch for a snack: a sandwich, fruit, vegetables, yogurt, etc. I went on a field trip with her class last year to the opera and saw firsthand what she was talking about: children had what I would consider a full lunch, complete with multiple food groups. That totally negates the freedom from lunch-packing! Haley doesn't require that much food each day, so I have so far avoided this double lunch. She still usually just brings a piece of fruit, or sometimes a small sandwich. Carter usually doesn't bring a snack because I make him pack it himself and he would rather go without than be bothered to make something. 

So back to the first day of school. When I picked the kids up, I have never seen Carter so excited about school. He went on and on about his day and Mr. Campbell and all the fun they had. He told me stories for the entire 2 busrides home. Haley had much less to say, which was good since Carter had monopolized the conversation. Haley's day was fine, and she was reserving judgement about her teacher. 

As for me, I did pretty well with my new structured week.

I got in my German lesson every day.

I tried out two new classes at the gym: spinning on Tuesday and "Deep Work" on Thursday. I really hate spinning- it's so hard and there's nothing to distract me from the pain. People love spinning, but I've tried it 3 or 4 times and always had the same experience. So I don't know that I'll do it again. Deep Work was good though. It's a tough class with intervals of cardio interspersed with body weight exercises. A definite full-body workout. So I may put that one on the rotation. And I ran with my Friday group for the first time since before the summer.

I managed a load of laundry each day.

I failed at blogging. :( Didn't get to write at all.

I made some progress on vacation planning. I finalized Tuscany, bought flights and booked our accommodation, one part in Florence and the other in Chianciano Terme.

I registered the kids for the Newspaper class they both want to take at school, and registered Carter for Friday soccer at school. I discovered an English-speaking stable and scheduled Haley for an introductory horseback lesson. I'm still working on after-school activities because we now have a conflict with piano lessons and Haley has decided she now wants to do gymnastics, plus I had forgotten about leaving time for cub scouts. So our schedule is still a work in progress.

Saturday we had an impromptu Berlin cultural experience. We had made plans to meet up with friends from scouting and church that we hadn't seen since before the summer break, and had hoped to do something outside, but the weather was threatening.

I have always loved impressionist painting.

Looking forward to visiting Giverny in October
and seeing where Manet painted this!

So they suggested that instead we go see a temporary exhibit at one of the museums on Museum Island that is only going to be in Berlin for a few more weeks. It's called ImEx, a joint display of Impressionist and Expressionist works. This isn't something I would normally have suggested as a family activity, but I had been wanting to see the exhibition too and I hoped that having other kids along would keep our kids more interested. It turns out that all 4 kids were pretty bored, but the adults enjoyed the exhibit! So we got a bonus "Berlin touring day" that wasn't part of our every-four-week-touring-day plan.

I had to have a picture of this bride in green in front of
the museum. According to National Geographic,
many Muslim brides wear green, which is a symbol
of prosperity and paradise in Islamic tradition.

Sunday was church followed by my first activity with the Berlin American Women's club. It was supposed to be a labor day picnic in a nice park with a lake near where we used to live in Charlottenburg. That park was the first place in Berlin that I actually thought was pretty; I remember how excited I was when I found it. But once again the weather was bad, so the event got moved indoors to a large cafe. The kids and I got there really early with time to kill since we came straight from church, so I was excited to see that there was a Sunday flea market right next to the cafe. We wandered around the different booths; some had household stuff like garage sale quality, some had homemade art and crafts, some had pretty glasswork like decanters and sets of glasses. We decided to buy a garage sale item, a 1000 piece puzzle that I told the kids should keep them occupied when they're bored! I would love to spend some time browsing around markets like those and pick up some interesting treasures.

The event itself started out sparsely attended and didn't look very promising, but gradually more and more people showed up. Because of the cafe setting we had fixed seating so it was hard to mingle, but I at least got to visit with the people around me. Dan met us there, because we were hoping that entire families would come and he could meet some husbands. For a while there was only one other man there, but eventually some others showed up and the men got a table together and had a good time chatting. Dan thought several of the men were interesting and had friend potential, so I definitely consider the event a success.

Afterwards we had the first installment of the Cripe Family Restaurant Experience. Haley had first pick and she chose Chinese cuisine. I did a little research and discovered a blog that talks about authentic Chinese food in Berlin. We decided to try one of their recommendations, Lon-Men's Noodle House on Kantßstrasse.

Not the greatest photo, but shows the yummy bowl of noodle
soup!

The blog told us to ask for chili wontons, which weren't on the menu. I felt like such an insider as I ordered this secret item and received a knowing nod from our waiter. These were without a doubt the best thing we ordered. This place is known for making their own homemade noodles, so I had a big bowl of beef noodle soup and Haley also ordered a noodle dish with pork. We had a lovely meal of excellent authentic food. I am so happy that my idea of methodical restaurant exploration is working so far! What a fun weekend of culture, socializing and yummy food.

The last week of summer

When we returned from Austria we had one week of summer vacation remaining (this past week).  I had deliberately left this week open so the kids could do whatever they wanted to do with it. Compared to other summers, this was a really short one (only seven weeks) and we had spent almost all of it traveling, so I wanted to make sure that there was some time for the requisite lounging around of summer. It didn't take long to realize, however, that the kids would likely drive me crazy in that last week. Before school let out Carter had told me that he wanted to play tennis in the fall, and I had found a tennis camp that would run the last week of August. I had given him the option of going to that camp or staying home for the week, and he had chosen to stay home. Gravely regretting that decision, I contacted the camp to see if there were any last-minute cancellations but I was out of luck. The three of us were going to spend the week at home together.

I decided that the only way I would be able to survive it would be to put together a camp-like schedule for Carter. As much as he thinks he wants to lounge around, he gets bored and then misbehaves and makes everyone else miserable. So I set up time blocks of activities from 7:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon: exercise, German lessons, playing with the neighbors, reading, chores, etc. interspersed with 15 minute breaks. Somewhat surprisingly, Carter did a great job with the schedule the first day. Then he decided that he didn't want to do it any longer. But mercifully, he turned over a new leaf and decided to be "extremely helpful Carter" for the next couple of days. He helped me with meals and all sorts of chores and was rewarded with computer time and other favorite things. It also turns out that the neighbors wanted to play every day after school since they hadn't seen our kids all summer (the neighbors started school last week) so the kids were happily occupied all afternoon.

For me the week was spent 1) recovering from the trip 2) planning for the upcoming season 3) doing a couple of summer projects and 4) attending weekend social gatherings.

1) Trip recovery

This was mostly the usual laundry and tidying, but there were also still some things I needed to finish up from our trip to the United States. I still had piles of canned goods, baking supplies, pancake mix, etc. that we had brought back from the trip that wouldn't fit in our tiny cabinets, so I needed to find storage space for it. The cabinets are now pretty packed and jumbled but at least everything is put away. I need to make a point of cooking with what we have on hand rather than buying new stuff until we draw down the extra food in our cabinets! I also wanted to make sure that I sent out digital copies of many of the photos we took on our trips, so I did a lot of emailing. 

2) Planning

The upcoming year is going to be a bit of a fresh start for me. Now that we are reasonably situated in our house and school, I hope to spend my time in different ways from last year. I also want us to be intentional about enjoying Berlin and what it has to offer. I want to be more structured with my schedule and split my time between German lessons, exercise, social activities, housework, writing and scrapbooking. 

The first thing I did was sit down with the exercise class schedule at my gym. I am seriously underutilizing my gym membership, and I know I will be happier and healthier if I spend more time there. But not just to go lift weights or ride the stationary bike or wander around on my own. That bores me and so I can always find an excuse not to go. The gym offers tons of classes that sound hard but interesting, but I haven't taken advantage of them because 1) I have been nervous about my German and 2) the best time for me to work out is around 9:00, right after I drop the kids at school, but there aren't really any classes at that time. Once I go home for the morning it's nearly impossible to drag myself back out again to go to the gym later in the afternoon. But I decided that that's what I need to do if I'm going to use the gym. So I sat down with the schedule and decided that I'm going to try every class that looks interesting. Then I'll decide which ones I like the best and put those on my schedule and go to them every week like an appointment.

I chose the timeslot 1:00 -1:30 each day for German lessons. 

I will wash, dry and put away one load of laundry every day, rather than saving it all for an enormous laundry binge day. Hopefully this way I will be able to keep up with it better. 

I have the goal of writing 2 blogs per week. 

Our kids have been rebelling lately against "touring". But there is so much to see and do in Berlin that we definitely need to be tourists in our own city. We have numerous guidebooks full of interesting things to see and do, and we need to start seeing and doing! Plus, Dan gets to do so little outside of work that when the weekend comes he doesn't just want to lounge around the house. But when he tried to get us to all go out and sightsee a few weeks ago there was little enthusiasm. Granted, we had just returned from the US a few days before, so we were very tired (and it was scorching hot). I decided to set up a rotating schedule, where once a month one of us plans a Berlin activity for us: a museum visit, touring a garden or the zoo, visiting a historical site, or even just doing an activity together like blacklight minigolf (which is what the kids plan to do first). We will take turns choosing the activity. I also set up a restaurant rotation. Once every 3 weeks we'll take turns choosing the type of food and then go find a restaurant to try in different parts of Berlin. When we wait until we're hungry to choose a restaurant or we wait until we're bored to choose something to do, we end being lethargic and much less creative. Hopefully by putting some deliberate thought into it and making it kind of a game, we can all have fun discovering what the city has to offer.  

I began again in earnest to plan for this year's trips. There is still a little organization left for our fall trip to France, but my top priority right now is to nail down our Christmas trip. I have been researching Tuscany and I hope we will go there for about 10 days. This week I will also be spending a lot more time on that. 

I read the September newsletters from the school, church, and various other activity groups, and I started mapping out which outings I can attend. I'm excited about all the fun opportunities there will be! At the end of the school year a new friend encouraged me to join the American Women's Club in Berlin and so I did. I hesitated at first because I didn't want to join a club full of people like me, but it actually seems to be a fairly international group. They have a Labor Day picnic next Saturday which will be the first event I will join, and they do lots of other interesting things throughout the month. It just so happens that I can't do most of the activities they are offering in September and October because I already have plans, but I look forward to joining their Coffee and Culture days out, their weekend bike rides, their quarterly service projects, and their scholarly speaker sessions.

I still have a nagging reminder every day to figure out the kids' sports/after school activities for this coming year, but the one thing that is already on the calendar is piano lessons and we started last week. Our neighbors across the street have a teacher come to them to give lessons, so he walks across the street to our house when he finishes there and does lessons for us too. Carter, Haley and I are all doing lessons! I enjoy playing the piano but never take the time to do it. So taking lessons myself gives me something to play and an excuse to spend a little time on it. 

Last but not least we did our preparations for the new school year. I went through all the papers the kids came home from school with last year and decided what to keep and what to toss. We gathered up all the leftover school supplies and compared what we had to what was on next year's list. We then struck out to buy what we still needed. Wow, school supplies are expensive here! In Missoula I could go to Walmart and buy everything on the list for about $20. Glue sticks are always on sale for about $.50, a pack of pencils for a dollar, $.20 for a notebook,  etc. I couldn't believe the €2.50 glue sticks here! And the kids didn't need any of the cheap notebooks or folders; what they needed were expensive fountain pens, specialty markers, and compasses. The school supply list was in English but the products at the store were all in German, so it took a bit of searching to find all the items but we eventually managed it! 

In that same outing I also successfully accomplished ordering new medication for Diablo at the vet, exchanging an item at the sporting goods store, and buying groceries to restock our pantry, including a bottle of wine to give as a gift. Any one of those errands would probably have overwhelmed me a year ago, but I actually managed all that in one day. I'm so thankful that I can get things done more quickly now that I basically know where to go and have some idea of how to do things.

3) Summer Projects

I decided it would be fun to cook for breakfast each morning of this last week of summer. We had blueberry muffins, waffles, oatmeal buttermilk pancakes, and fried egg sandwiches. Since breakfast is my favorite meal, it was super fun!

Last spring I bought used on Ebay (the local "Craigslist") a sort of console table for our front hallway. It was only €15 and it was described as"shabby chic". When I went to pick it up, it was shabbier than it was chic but it was cheap and it fit the space so I bought it anyway. It is a sort of cream color folding table with a large tray on top that was a bit stained and had some cracking paint. Then just before summer Lidl had some really cheap cans of spray paint in their special deals section and I had the idea to spruce up the table with some spray paint. So I impulse bought a can of red and a can of black. (Both the hallway and the adjacent kitchen have some red accents). 

Last week we had some sunny hot weather so I decided to drop everything and do a craft project. It turns out that the cheap Lidl paint was awful. After 2 coats I still didn't have good coverage and the paint was super sticky. I was painting out in the yard and bugs kept flying onto the table and sticking to it, plus every time I turned it to paint a different side, it would stick to either the grass or the newspaper I was trying to keep underneath, and then I would have to redo that paint. I ended up biking to the big box home improvement store and buying some much more expensive but, it turns out, MUCH higher quality paint and finishing the job with that. I am thrilled with the way it turned out! Carter had the suggestion to paint a design on the table, so I found an edelweiss stencil on the internet and painstakingly cut it out, then spray painted over it.

4) Weekend social gatherings

I continue to be humbled by the friendly Germans who invite us into their homes. Saturday we were invited to a "barbecue" at the home of Dan's boss at work. It was sort of a housewarming party for their new place that isn't too far from ours, and also a going-to-school party for their daughter who is beginning first grade. First grade is a BIG deal for Germans. It means leaving behind preschoolish stuff and entering real school, so every child gets a big cone-shaped thing (a Schultüte) about as tall as they are that contains school supplies, treats, toys, etc. And I guess some people have parties. When Dan said we had been invited to a barbecue, I wasn't expecting to walk into a gathering where I was greeted by a waiter who handed me a glass of sparkling Rosé.

Dan digests his cake in the shade

Haley's gold glitter horse

The backyard was set up with long tables and benches draped in white, and there were white and yellow balloons and Schultütes hanging from the trees. The catered meal was absolutely delicious: grilled sirloin steak, hamburgers with a super yummy sauce, bratwurst, and a delicious salmon with a coconut curry topping. There were at least 8 or 9 cakes to choose from for dessert, plus wine and coffee and bottles of water and soda. We hadn't planned to stay for long because we didn't know anyone except our hosts, but it was a gorgeous day, the food was so good and there were so many children there to play with that we ended up staying for several hours. I met and visited with Max's mother and sister and thoroughly enjoyed the food while Carter found some boys to play soccer with and Haley got several glitter tattoos.

Sunday we had been invited to tea by a really nice neighbor a few doors down. I'm not sure if I have mentioned her before; she is a single woman who does a lot of crafty things and also keeps bees. She invited me to a craft party at Easter time and we have also bought honey from her. We went for tea on Sunday at 4 and it was lovely. The table on her outdoor porch was set with beautiful blue pottery and she had prepared tea, coffee, juice and lemon water for us. She wheeled over a cart with a waffle maker on it and proceeded to make waffle after waffle while we all sat at the table and visited. I think Carter ate at least 4 waffles! She had quark (a thick yogurty thing they make here), cherries, raspberry applesauce, and some small red berries to top the waffles with. Of course we didn't want dinner after that, but maybe that was the point? I still haven't quite figured out afternoon tea; if you eat at 4:00 you don't want to eat again, do you? Anyway, she is really really nice and we felt so welcomed. She speaks only German though. Thank goodness for Dan who freely engaged in conversation, or the table would have been very quiet! We also got to see where she keeps her bees, which was cool. And she had some ripe blackberries she let us pick off her vines.