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.