Life Update

My blog output lately has been anemic, I apologize. I haven't been prioritizing writing, and if I don't set aside time to write then it just doesn't happen. Today I will attempt to catch you up on some of what we have been doing.

Our apple tree in bloom (white) with 2 kinds of lilacs behind it

We're now living through our second spring in Berlin. I enjoy the spring here; it reminds me some of spring in the American south, although not as warm and not as humid (which is nice). It's warmer and flowerier here than in Missoula (in general, although I saw on Facebook that there were some 80 degree spring Missoula days!). First we get beautiful crocuses, tulips and forsythia. Then the cherry trees bloomed, followed closely by lilacs and chestnut trees. I decided to plant some flowers this year in our front yard, so about a month ago I spruced up the front of our house with daffodils, pansies, geraniums and daisies and it makes me happy every time I pass by (except that I have to water it constantly or it all droops.) I also planted 2 pots for our front steps. We have an apple tree in the back yard that didn't do very well last year, so this year I studied up on apple tree pruning and pruned it hard in the early spring. It bloomed beautifully a couple of weeks ago!

The flower bed along the front of my house.
It looks much nicer in person. :)

Potted plants on the front steps. The forget-me-
nots are much taller now!

The front of the house with flower bed and lilac
flowers hanging in the foreground.

Flowering trees and shrubs in the neighborhood along one
of the routes I walk with Diablo

There are probably 30 or more chestnut trees
in the park at the end of our street. They are
all blooming right now.

Cherry blossoms against a blue sky

May in Germany has a couple of public holidays. Two weeks ago there was a day off for Himmelfahrt, Jesus' ascension into heaven. We took advantage of Himmelfahrt to go north to the Baltic Sea again. My regular readers may remember that the kids and I went alone to the Baltic sea via train last year with disastrous results. This year we tried a different island - Usedom - and a different mode of transport - driving - with much better results. Dan came with us this year, as did Diablo. It's the first time we have driven to a destination here, so it's really our first opportunity to take Diablo along in the car. It was a little more work for us to manage his walks and bathroom breaks, but it was really nice to have him with us, and he immediately made himself comfortable on his bed underneath the kitchen table. He got lots of exercise and was happy to take long naps when we left him alone.

We couldn't resist trying out this restaurant
in Heringsdorf. It was fun to try, but not quite
Cajun!

We stayed in a Ferienwohnung - a vacation home - in the town of Heringsdorf. Heringsdorf, along with the beach towns of Bansin and Ahlbeck, is called Kaiserstrand (Imperial beach) because it was the preferred vacation area of former Prussian aristocracy and royalty. Therefore there are many stately villas in the area that are now rented out as vacation apartments. Usedom has a continuous Baltic Sea beach of 40km (25 miles), which makes it the longest sandy beach in Europe. These little towns all run into each other along the beach and there is a lovely wide beach promenade for walking and biking that runs the entire stretch, so it's easy to stroll or bike between the towns. The promenade (and beach) go all the way across the border of Poland to the town of Swinemünde.

A typical villa in Heringsdorf

Strandkörbe

It was a pretty area and we had nice sunny days, but it was very windy. Apparently it's always windy there, so they have their own beach furniture to deal with the constant wind. Called Strandkörbe (Beach baskets), they are protected from the wind on the back and sides, and there is an awning in the front as well. The seats are cushioned and a footrest pulls out from underneath. I think some of them recline too. You can rent Strandkörbe by the day or by the week, just like you would rent chairs and umbrellas in the US. Families who didn't rent Strandkörbe also had these wind protection tents they would bring with them and set up. I don't have a photo, but they looked like plastic sheets about 1 1/2-2 feet tall that they would construct in a square shape to surround themselves so that they were sheltered from the wind.

Carter is out in the frigid water; Haley just to her ankles.

The air temperature was pretty warm - in the high 60's/low 70's Fahrenheit - but the water was freezing - about 40 degrees. Carter braved it on a dare, but it reminded me of Montana's glacier runoff this time of year!

We made these plans several months ago but as the date approached the boy scouts planned a camping trip on the same weekend. Carter really wanted to camp, so he only stayed with us for one day. On Friday, Dan drove him a couple of hours south to his camping location. Dan stayed there for one night and then drove back to spend Saturday with us. On Sunday Carter took the train back to Berlin with the scouts and the rest of us drove back in our car. So logistically it was a bit of a challenging vacation! It was also very strange to be on a family trip without Carter, but at the same time it was nice to for Dan and me to be alone with Haley. She and I also really enjoyed our girls' day on Friday when Dan and Carter went to meet the scouts. We took a long walk with Diablo to the dog beach and hung out with him there for a while. After returning him to our apartment we spent more time at the beach close to us, and then we painted our nails and had a nice dinner out together.

The Strandpromenade with its bike path on the right,
walking path on the left, and huge stately trees all around

Bright blooms in the center of Heringsdorf 

Every 200m or so there are entrances to the beach. I loved
how the trees run right up to the edge of the beach; very
different from the sand dunes I'm used to.

Carter, buried

Diablo posing with us on the Hundestrand (dog beach)

Diablo got too hot and located the only shade on the beach!

Haley's turn to be buried

Since we were only about 10km from the border of Poland, Saturday we rented bikes and rode them over the border. We had fresh-caught fish for lunch in Swinemünde and spent a little time on the Polish beach. It's so interesting how you can travel such a short distance and find yourself in a completely foreign place. As soon as we crossed the border, we could no longer understand the signs and we didn't have the right currency. It took us a good 45 minutes of walking around before we felt brave enough to choose a spot to sit down and have lunch, because we didn't understand any of the hand-written menus that were posted outside the restaurants. So we didn't know what kind of food the places were serving, and we didn't know if we even had money that would be accepted to pay for it! Some of the restaurants did post their menus in German also, but we ended up going to a fish place with only a Polish menu; we wanted to sit outside and enjoy the sun at this place. When I went to the counter to place our order I asked the girl "Do you speak English? German?" Thankfully she spoke English so I was able to place an order! And I was able to pay with a debit card so I didn't need to exchange for Polish currency.

Sunny day, yummy fish. Haley had schnitzel for the 4th or
5th meal on this trip.

Poland!

This time of year the canola fields are blooming
beautifully all over Germany and Europe. We stopped
for a few photos. My pants were yellow when I
got back in the car!

After the weekend was over, Dan said he's glad he visited but he doesn't really need to go back to the Baltic Sea; he was a little bored without "activities" to occupy him. But the kids and I enjoyed just lounging on the beach and reading, taking Diablo for long walks, and having nothing in particular that we needed to do. I wouldn't mind going back on this long weekend each year.

Just one week after the Himmelfahrt holiday is Pfingsten, Pentecost, which is also a holiday. This time we didn't travel but we had a full and busy long weekend. Haley spent Friday night with a friend; Saturday Carter had a baseball game and we had neighbors over for a barbecue dinner Saturday night; Sunday was church and Dan and Carter went swimming while Haley and I spent 3 hours cleaning her room!; Monday a friend came to play with Haley while I went for a workout and met a Mom from the school to plan the USA booth for the upcoming International Day. Later we met friends at Domäne Dahlem for tree-climbing and frisbee-throwing, followed by schnitzel and beer at a biergarden.

Carter is a busy guy these days. Since he crossed over in April from Webelos to Boy Scouts, he has gotten a lot busier with his scouting activities. They now meet every Tuesday night, and there are optional activities several weekends a month. He was elected leader of his "patrol", so he is also getting involved in some of the organization for his group. He is really thriving in this environment. He was the only one from his patrol who went on the camping trip over the Himmelfahrt holiday, so he was put in a group with 2 older boys who camped together and planned and cooked their meals together. In boy scouts, unlike in Webelos, the boys are in charge of all their own planning. Each patrol decides what to eat and is responsible for bringing the food and cooking it. This was enormously empowering for Carter to experience. He came home from the trip having learned to cook a few basic things, made some culinary mistakes that he can learn from (the boys destroyed their french toast and had to go without breakfast one day), and had ideas of things he wanted to try to make that he had seen other patrols cooking. The boys also went on a 10 mile hike the first day of their campout and canoed a route that was the equivalent of about 25km the second day! I told him that now that I know he can do that much exercise, he can never again complain to me that he is too tired to do something I ask him to do!

Carter presents Haley her food with a flourish!

Since Carter did some cooking at camp and enjoys cooking, we decided that he should do some cooking at home as well. So starting this week Carter will be cooking us dinner every Wednesday night. Last night was the inaugural night and he wanted to make breakfast for dinner. He decided to do a French restaurant theme, which to him meant a fancy table and sauce on everything. He spent most of the evening preparing both the food and the eating area. He moved a table from the kitchen and covered it with a blanket from his bed. He produced a menu of both French and French-sounding items for our reference during the meal. And he covered EVERYTHING in chocolate sauce. Chocolate sauce on eggs is surprisingly not as disgusting as it sounds.

Bacon and scrambled eggs a la chocolate syrup

The menu

Carter did a great job with the bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls (the second course), but the dessert was unfortunately a disaster. Kids at the scout campout had brought batter and oil and had deep fried Oreos and other things for dessert, and he was excited to surprise us with some fried Oreos. He really wanted to do it himself and had bought his food supplies secretly so I wouldn't know what he was planning. I did know that he wanted to fry something, so I gave him some pointers about heating the oil and testing the temperature by putting in a small piece of batter. But then I left him alone in the kitchen. A little while later he brought out a charred black item and asked me if I would taste it to see if it was edible. With one sniff I could tell that it was burned to a crisp. I started to tell Carter to turn the heat down on the oil and try again when I began to see smoke wafting from the kitchen. I decided I might need to intervene, but in the time it took me to push back my chair and walk to the kitchen the whole place was enveloped by smoke. So much so that I realized what it might be like to be in a fire and to be overcome by smoke inhalation. It was all I could do to pull the pot off the burner and get a window open before I had to run out of the room and get to fresh air. Dan ran in for a second round of damage control, opening a second window and turning off the stove. Already by this point we could barely breathe inside the house. We ran outside for fresh air and then made runs back inside to open every window. No one could be in the house, so the kids jumped on the trampoline and I took Diablo for a walk. When I came back half an hour later, the downstairs smoke had cleared but much of it had gone upstairs, so all the upstairs windows were open wide and our only fan was working to try to blow out the smoke. The house reeked! Poor Carter was very disappointed. I explained to him that frying is challenging and that maybe we should try again together next time.

Carter very bravely decided to go to Boy Scout camp in Switzerland at the beginning of July. Again, he is the only one going from his patrol. He will spend a week doing scouty things and will learn and grow so much, I'm sure. What an opportunity to spend a week with the scouts in the Swiss Alps!

Carter catching for the Braves

Carter has also gotten very interested in chess. He plays after school on Tuesdays and bought a chess set as his souvenir from our Easter trip to Budapest (which I never got around to writing about), which he brings to school and plays with friends at recess. Thursdays he has piano lessons (as do Haley and I) followed by baseball practice. Every Saturday afternoon is a baseball game. Carter is learning to be a catcher, and also plays various infield positions.

At school he is busy preparing for Exhibition, the culminating event of the IB Primary Years Program. The kids choose a topic of interest and they are divided into groups that share the same interest. Then they have about 8 weeks to work together to research their topic and prepare a multimedia presentation. The theme of the event is "Community", so the kids are also supposed to come up with an action plan to help the community, related to their topic. They are supposed to implement their plan and report back on the findings. It all sounds like a fantastic learning experience, but we have found it to be less impressive than it sounds. Carter's topic is "biotechnology", and he has learned quite a bit about the topic. The presentation piece of it has gone less smoothly, as has the project management piece. Dan is spending a lot of time trying to provide guidance at this point so that Carter's group will have something to present next week.

Haley is much less busy. She takes a knitting class after school on Mondays and has her piano lesson on Thursdays, but those are her only commitments now that the school play is over. She spends a lot of her time reading and playing with her friends. Allergies are really getting her down right now, she's pretty miserable.

Dan is doing well these days. He has joined a volleyball team and gets to play with a coach on Monday nights. He also has found a Friday night indoor soccer pickup game with our neighbor. He's a lot happier with these activities in his life. He also recently got to take a short business trip to Paris where he was able to visit with his friend Efrain. We received a grill as a gift from Dan's company, and he has really loved being able to cook on our little deck.

As for me, in addition to all the usual stuff, there have been some interesting things going on. I am really enjoying my membership in the American Women's Club of Berlin. It is such a diverse and interesting group with lots of fun ideas. Last week we went climbing in the trees at the Waldhochseilgarten Jungfernheide. I hadn't done anything like that since I was a counselor at summer camp during college! This place was so cool. They had a very safe and easy carabiner system; you just had to participate in the training session and then you could do all your climbing all over the park on your own. They had easy medium and hard courses to choose from; we chose a medium course and it was very challenging! There were zip lines, swaying platforms, ropes to grab onto, and all sorts of other obstacles. My arms were shaking at the end of the course! I enjoyed some veggie pizza and a weinschorle with my companions after the climb. 

On the terrace at the American Academy

Another day we went to a lecture at the American Academy in Berlin, an organization whose whose stated mission is to "foster a greater understanding and dialogue between the people of the United States and the people of Germany". It's housed in a villa on the shores of Lake Wannsee. I felt very academic listening to a talk by a visiting scholar; afterwards there was wine, dessert, and cheese-stuffed pretzels.

The title slide for the lecture

Another recent AWC event was a career workshop sponsored by a member who is a life coach. I have been thinking a lot since I have been in Berlin about my work life and what I would like for it to look like when I start working again, so I was interested in attending the session to see what might come out of it. It was titled a career workshop but its approach was much broader than just career. We looked at lots of different areas of our lives and rated our satisfaction in each one. Then we paired up with someone else to discuss our ratings. I really didn't expect to learn too much about myself with this exercise or to connect very deeply with anyone with such minimal interaction, but I was really surprised that my partners had very insightful comments about my life. I was also very interested in what the others had to say about their own aspirations. Many of them, like me, have had successful careers that they interrupted to have children or to move abroad. It was interesting to talk to each other about how we fulfil our needs for meaning and purpose and challenge without a paying job.

At the end of the session we were encouraged to come up with some SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) goals. It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me well that one of the areas of dissatisfaction with my life is always in the area of "house". My partner helped me come up with the smart goal of "hire a housekeeper". This might seem obvious but it really wasn't. Dan and I have usually had a housekeeper in Missoula when we were both working, but since I don't have a job here we thought 1) I could handle the work myself and 2) we didn't want to spend money on it. But after a year and a half here it has really become clear that hiring a housekeeper would be an investment in our day-to-day happiness. The very next day I followed up on some housekeeper leads I had collected but never acted upon. The easiest way to get started right away was to go with a cleaning service, so I scheduled someone to come clean today. Unfortunately there was a communication problem and he never showed up. I had to reschedule for next Wednesday. This cleaning service may or may not have the consistency I am looking for - time will tell - but at least it's a place to start.  

Inspired to take charge of the problem areas of our house, I also brainstormed solutions for my laundry problem. The problem is this: washing machines here are much smaller than in the US, and in my experience they are also much more sensitive to colors. It's possible that I'm overreacting to a couple of bad experiences with colors that transferred where I didn't want them, but I now separate our laundry into many many piles of similar colors: blues and greens together, pinks and reds together, yellows together, browns together, greys together, you get the idea. This results in an extremely untidy floor space, because what I have to do is wait until the laundry baskets are pretty full and then sort all the different colors from each laundry basket: ours, Carter's, and Haley's. Then the piles sit on the floor while I wash them one by one, a load a day or sometimes two or three loads in one day. Even so it takes me a week or more to get all the piles washed. And of course by then it is almost time to start the process over again. Putting the laundry away is its own problem; it collects on the guest room bed. Every day I fold and put some of it away but I never seem to catch up.

So I'm excited to announce my new laundry system! In analyzing my space I realized that I was under-utilising the basement. The basement is a little yucky – the cat litter box is down there plus a lot of spiderwebs and not so clean floor space. But I got out a bucket of soapy water and a big broom and set to work clearing cobwebs, wiping down walls and pipes and window ledges, and sweeping the whole floor space. Then I got on eBay and found a used table for five euros that fit the space perfectly. My last stop was the home improvement store, where I bought various sizes of plastic bins. Now the laundry is contained in the laundry room! The sorted piles go into the bins and when I'm ready to wash a load I just empty the bin into the washer. (If I'm being realistic, I've found that it's not quite that simple; I also have to root quickly through the 3 laundry bins in our rooms and pick out extra pieces to add to the load.) When the wash is done, it goes either into the dryer or onto the drying rack, and after that I can quickly fold it on the table. It doesn't pile up if I do it right away and it doesn't take long if I do it one load at a time. I can then put away my and Dan's laundry and make a pile for Haley and one for Carter that they can put away themselves each day after school. So far the system is working really well and I'm thrilled. I'm almost done folding the backlog on the guest bed and then it won't ever pile up there again!

I love my new space! More grey bins are to the right of the dryer, out of the picture.

The kids' school has also been the source of some interesting outings. Last month Dan and I went to a fundraiser that was a piano concert in a private home. A Korean pianist was visiting a BIS parent in Berlin and agreed to give this concert. She was amazing, and we got to sit just behind her and slightly to the right where we could watch her fingers move gracefully and seemingly without effort over the keys. She played a very challenging repertoire of 7 or 8 songs, all of which she had memorized. It was amazing!

The gates to Sachsenhausen

Also last month our Berlin's Best group visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Of course this was a sobering visit but a very important one. Unfortunately I didn't really like our guide and don't feel that I came away with the full experience, so I would like to go back here another time and take a tour with a different guide.

On a lighter note, just yesterday we had our last Berlin's Best event of the year. We did a street art tour with Alternative Berlin. I think this is my favorite tour I've had so far in Berlin. Probably because I know nothing about this scene, everything our guide said was fascinating to me. I'm going to blog about that separately, so keep an eye out.