A Quickie

Sorry friends.  This week's blogging was derailed by the fact that the administration of Micah's school didn't pass on any information about Micah.  That's right.  None.  Not his gender, not the fact that he has special needs.  Nothing.  A little frustrating.  For everyone.  So, after a freak-out email from his teacher (a tiny bit accusatory toward us), an explanatory email back from us, forwarding all of the info we sent upon application to the school in DECEMBER, a contrite(ish) email from the teacher, a looonnnggg meeting with the elementary school counselor (her husband is from Wisconsin!), a couple of back and forths with the teacher, we may have a plan in place.  But, as we are continually reminded, it is a German public school, so there is no special educator on campus, they're constrained by money and time...

Despite all this, school seems to be going well (at least relatively) for the kids.  I attended Dafna's parent meeting last night, at which I learned the deep importance of schuletutes and that there is another Daphne in her class.  Weird, huh?  Micah signed up for basketball starting on Tuesday.  3 days off next week should give everyone (except me!) a nice break.  We're very much looking forward to hosting our good friends the Desais for Rosh Hashana and the weekend.  Even going to venture out to a new part of town for a gluten free cake.

Okay, off to finish prepping for Shabbat.  But, for those of you who know of my obsession-- guess what's coming...

She-Who-Cannot-Be-Pronounced

Henriette.

But that's okay because D likes Rosa better now anyway.

First Day!

We did it!  They started school today!

 

Neither of these faces portray what they were actually feeling

Yes, "they".  For those of you in the know, Dafna isn't actually starting school until 2 weeks from today (the rest of her class starts next Thursday, but she'll miss the first 2 days for Rosh Hashana).  But when we went for Micah's new student orientation on Friday we learned that there is a little "camp" for the incoming class.  So, off they went together this morning.  Halleluyah.

Things seemed to go fine.  Dafna has a new "best friend".  We don't know anything about her except that she's German and her name is hard.  So, we'll try to learn more about She-Who-Cannot-Be-Pronounced tomorrow and let the usual best friends know if they have anything to worry about.  Micah is the only new student in his class and his teacher wasn't at orientation on Friday nor at school today, but she'll be back tomorrow and things went smoothly anyway.  Of course gummy bears on the desks first thing this morning may have helped that along.  That's one smart substitute!

Our weekend was quite nice.  On Saturday we went to the synagogue that we are planning to join while we're here in Berlin (read about the building here: Neue Synagoge).  I met the Rabbi several years ago and Mark attended services when he was here last year, so we knew this shul was the right flavor for us.  The fact that our landlords are very active there (and told everyone about the "Erstaz Familie" coming to replace them) sealed the deal.  But what was really terrific was the boy who came over and said to Micah "You were at Camp Ramah with me this summer!"  Natan, his dad Markus and his 5 year old sister Xenia were friendly, welcoming and so happy to meet us (and learn a little more about this camp they sent their son/brother across the ocean to, sight unseen).  The Rabbi(nerin) was also amazing-- making sure we met everyone, finding boys to play with Micah, getting me involved in children's services (I can run...).  So, Mark will be reading Torah on Simchat Torah morning and I'll be helping some young teens run Junior Congregation.  All in a day's rest...

On Sunday we trekked through the Grunewald to the Beach at Wannsee. 

Trekking

It was beautiful, despite all the bad things you think when you hear about Wannsee.

Micah found a (dead) sea snake.  This was less than beautiful.

Even better than full-sized chess? 

Micah makes a move

People!  (Eh, Micah may disagree).  Just by accident a family just arrived from NYC with 2 kids at the JFK Schule, in Micah's and Dafna's grades, sat down next to us.  The adults had a great time talking and commiserating and Dafna and their son ran around like crazy (I couldn't even get a picture) playing soccer, jumping, etc.  And, even better?  He showed up at camp today.  Best of all?  M and D slept GREAT last night.

So all this, liberally seasoned with ice cream, candy and pizza (yes, we had pizza Saturday night)-- just another Berlin weekend. 

Eat your heart out, Sally Bowles.

No Pizzas Were Harmed in the Making of this Blog

Finally, a whole week without pizza!  We've been exploring, you see, and that means crazy things like spring rolls and bus rides and German sugar snaps.  Some photos from our adventures:

Micah at the Altes Museum

Berliner Dom

Reichstagskuppel

Micah's getting better-- us at the Reichstag

Happy girl.  Less happy Daddy

 We've also done some regular things.  Like finally open that German bank account:

Just 2 girls at the bank

That was pretty awesome, 'cuz our bank looked like this:

Seriously, a lounge.  With wine.  And pastries.  And a CHILDRENS' PLAY AREA.  With a zookeeper.  I mean caregiver.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my first 45 minutes away from my children in 3 weeks.  I see many trips to the bank in our future.  Everyone was happy!

We visited the Ritter Sport museum and created our own chocolate bars.  Here they are:

Beth: rice crisps, dried strawberries and cocoa nibs
Dafna: marshmallows, carmelized coconut and vanilla wafers
Mark: cocoa nibs, carmelized coconut and carmelized almonds
Micah: Vanilla wafers, marshmallows and mini Smarties (what a good Canadian he is!)

The children are planning on taking any and all visitors here, so be warned (and start thinking about your chocolate bar!).

Dafna, the extrovert of the family, is starting to feel a little lonely and has pushed herself to try to play with other kids at the playground.  I encourage her to speak German with them, even giving her a script (which usually leads to children thinking I want to play with them, since I keep repeating "Can I play" in German), but more often than not, they either speak English ("We're from AUSTRALIA!") or Hebrew (yesterday she and a toddler pointed out "aynayim, ahf, peh" on one of the playground animals) or are willing to play in that kid way-- without shared language, but with understanding.  Even Micah is excited to meet Mark's colleague's son tonight.  Both Micah and D jumped right back into their regularly scheduled programs when Skyping with best friends from Madison this week, complete with bad jokes, eyeball references and quotes from "Big Nate".

Tomorrow we head to school for orientation.  I'm a little nervous...

Weekend Update

So, Friday's vomit-fest stopped as fast as it started, but not before I snapped this lovely photo:

That's her.  Asleep on the floor outside the bathroom.  Flash forward 15 years to college-Girl after one-too-many l'chaims at a Brandeis engagement party...

After our first Shabbat dinner in Germany, 75% of us slept until noon on Saturday, quashing our plans to go to shul.  Mark responsibly got up with the alarm, showered and dressed and then waited for us.  I think he got a lot of reading done.

Our weekend was filled with walks to the pond near our house, whining, a ride on a double decker bus, whining, seeing Checkpoint Charlie and part of the Berlin Wall, whining, explaining the Berlin Wall to Micah ("What if Madison decided to build a wall right down Midvale and you and Lily then lived in different countries and couldn't see each other?"), whining, basketball and a big trip to KaDeWe, Berlin's enormous department store.  The toy, games and puzzles section was incredible-- no plastic crap and these really cool colored nibs (that's the only word I can think of to describe them) made out of potato starch that stick to paper and each other using only a bit of water.  Micah found several chess sets that he liked and Dafna wandered around the doll and puppet area for quite some time.  The biggest hit though was the gourmet hall, filled with every kind of food imaginable, both for taking away and for eating there.  We spend the most time in the candy area where we each picked 2 chocolates.  Micah picked for size (biggest), D for looks (prettiest), Mark for taste and I, after helping everyone, picked for speed.  I didn't do such a bad job-- a lemon meringue truffle and a speculoos one (thanks, Trader Joe's for the introduction).  We picked up some local honey for Rosh Hashana and got out before the whining took over all 7 floors of the store.

I successfully ordered falafel and vegetarian doner in German(ish).  Despite the huge "Chumus rotev" sign in Hebrew letters, the proprietor didn't speak Hebrew.  Just knows his clientele, I guess.  Tasted good, everything was vegetarian and I got the right amount of everything.  A German success!  Mark, however, successfully negotiated with the refrigerator repairman in German (with some help from a script he wrote last night).  It'll be fixed next Monday morning and is still under warranty.  Just a shelf, and we didn't do it-- our landlords scheduled the appointment when it broke on their watch.

Sleeping is going better after a pendulum swing the other direction (kids staying up much too late and then sleeping til noon).  Sword play has been put aside for chess tournaments (Micah) and cleaning like Laura and Mary Ingalls (Dafna).  Things will be even better next week when Micah starts school and we get a routine going.

Off to open a German bank account. Today the bank, tomorrow the Reichstag!  But first-- the Wall.

The Real Housewife of Charlottenburg

Not too many pictures from Sybelstrasse today.  Unless you want photos of D barfing or our underwear hanging to dry, 'cause that's what we've got.  Oh yes, we've got vomit.  Not sure why, no other symptoms and a not-quick-enough realization that when she says "My throat hurts" what she really means is "Get out of the way!!!".  This scene is a repeat of one a month ago (the day we picked Micah up at the Ramah bus).  Lesson learned: don't ask to look at her throat for strep when she says that it hurts.

This gives me plenty of time to practice my housewivery skills.  Come check me out-- I'm like Pioneer Woman auf Deutsch and with Ke$ha's "Die Young" as an earworm.  3 loads of laundry hanging to dry.  Pilot lights lit without incident on both burners and oven.  Panicking husband calmed and conditioner rinsed out of hair ("She's barfing!  Get out of the shower!").  Kosher meat procured (in Hebrew) and children bribed with Bamba to walk home (before the puking incident).  I'm pretty sure I've topped Ree with that one. 

So once we realized that today's exciting plans of opening a bank account weren't going to happen I took Micah out shopping at Aldi a little ways away (bribe: stopping at a backerei for breakfast). Riding high on my domesticity (and knowing I'd be home all day) I decided to make challah for tonight.  Aldi is no Trader Joe's and it's in German; and so I mistook a block of lard for a block of yeast.  Luckily, the squishiness gave it away.  Pane bianco for Shabbat.  Thank goodness for the backerei.

Before I go hang the mattress pad, a picture of what I tried to make an educational experience:

You see, after finishing his Schoko-Muffin we went back in the backerei to read the description and try to figure out which words meant "chocolate filled".  What a nice surprise!

Also, found a German news source in English.  I think they're on to me:

Badger digs up medieval warrior graves

Get off your rear end and learn German

Shabbat Shalom.

Getting Back to (the New) Normal

The Boy did not sleep on the overnight plane flight.  Not.  One.  Wink.  The movie choices weren't even so good (I watched Hitchcock, which was good), he just couldn't get comfortable/turned off enough to sleep.  We did teach him to play solitare on the computer screen, so that at least got me some downtime.

Besides that the travel went smoothly, even fitting all of our bags into the hotel shuttle to O'Hare and in 1 cab from Tegel to our apartment.  We landed at 6:30 am, got through passport control, customs, gathered and loaded our considerable luggage and arrived at our apartment around 7:15.  We met Daniel and Nitzan, our landlords, who were and are still packing for their sabbatical in Florence, thereby making me feel better about our former packing situation and timeline.  We are living in our two bedrooms, allowing them the dining room and living room for staging and packing.  The apartment will be very roomy with the addition of those rooms.

So, we arrived and immediately Micah went to this:

 

And Dafna to this:

Just as expected.

The rest of the day is a blur, but I know that it ended with pizza (I should be keeping a count of pizzas eaten though it would depress me) with Daniel and Nitzan and that today started at 3:15 am with the children playing a game of "German" (their word, it is the same board) Candyland (somehow this involves swordplay, but I was too tired to ask why or take pictures).  We ran some errands, got German cell phones (and as soon as I figure out the numbers I'll let you know), and in an attempt to show a still reticent Micah that things here will be fine, treated him to this:

All are napping.  All is well.

T Minus 16 hours

I rarely believe what people say about me (positive or negative), but I'm beginning to think that we're crazy.  Or at least our schedule the past 2 weeks has been crazy.  But here we are, in our 5th bed in less than a week, full of Giordano's pizza, sharing a hotel room with 7 suitcases and 2 anxious children.  We leave tomorrow afternoon, finally.

The run up has been incredible-- moving out of our house, heading to Door County with 4 other families for a terrific long weekend, living with our (lovely, patient, extremely gracious) friends Rik and Dustin for 3 days, goodbyes, an amazing Bar Mitzvah weekend in Ann Arbor, more goodbyes, car switching, more goodbyes...

Micah's look here (at dinner tonight with Jan and Ryan) may be the 1000 words I'm looking for.

Auf wiedersehen.  Next from Berlin!