Steamy Saturday

Saturday was hot and steamy - high of 93 degrees. The market was busier early in the morning than normal, which meant no one wanted to be out inthe sun as the heat was very intense already at 9am. We spent a quiet morning indoors awaiting the big afternoon soccer game. Two showers later and we were on our way to the Wendel's to watch the game.

A hot afternoon with cool treats and a 4-0 victory by Germany made for a fun afternoon. Hanna, Adeline, and Emmie opted to play in the pool instead of watching the soccer game. After the win, we came back to our place to BBQ. Luckily, our overhang has a little shield for the BBQ as it suddenly became very windy like it was going to storm and the temperature drastically dropped ( a relief from the heat), but we never got a drop. Not sure if we convinced Melanie and Thorston to get a gas grill, but they enjoyed the quickness of it compared to a charcoal grill as we were hungry.  After they left, Adeline and I made Emmie's chocolate cake and cupcakes for her monkey birthday party as it had cooled down a little to turn the oven on.

You know it is hot when...

This week has been hot and steamy so I have come up with my list of "you know it is hot in Germany" when:

1. The clothes dry in under 4 hours outside.

2. The chocolate in your cupboards is melting.

3. It is 10 degrees cooler in the shade and under the umbrellas.

4. On Monday the the store's freezer are full of ice cream and frozen treats; however, by Wednesday there are only 1 or 2 packages left.

5. Everyone is at the mall for air-conditioning in the stores.

6. It is 10am and you are not the only ones ordering ice cream in town.

In addition to my Monday being crazy, Eric had the worst hour plane ride ever Monday morning it is almost funny. It started when the lady behind him took her socks and shoes off, put her feet on his arm rest, and then started clipping her toenails. A guy near her coughed so hard and for so long, Eric thought he must have caught something or the guy was going to produce a lung, and then someone nearby passed gas throughout the entire ride he had to cover his mouth and nose with his shirt. To top it off, the pilot had to abort the initial landing into Copenhagen and fly around again to land. He was so thankful to just get off the plane and even happier it was not one of his flights across the ocean.

Tuesday morning,we went to the kindergarten Just as I thought, she meant to come on Thursday as she mixed up Tuesday/Thursday in English, so it was a quick visit and then back home to get relief from the heat. Melanie and her girls came over in the afternoon to relax and play in the pool too. Wednesday morning was shopping again. Melanie so kindly met me at the store to drive back my groceries and Adeline as I could not peddle fast enough for the food to stay cool (even with my freezer bag). Our farmer across the street has posted he has fruit available, so we ordered raspberries, cherries, and gooseberries. We will get them tomorrow morning after he picks them. 

Thursday morning we walked back to the kindergarten. We met Emmie's teacher, Sabine. She is very nice and excited to have Emmie in her class. Emmie will be one of 8 girls in the class of 25 children, ranging in age from 3-6 years. After our meeting, they invited the girls to stay and play for a while! Wowee... free time for me, so I went home and cleaned up the apartment before it got to hot. Melanie then took us the to mall as I am busily preparing Emmie's monkey birthday party for  Sunday. It was quite busy and nice relief from the heat. It also was a great shopping trip for me in getting party supplies (Melanie knows all of the stores to look for supplies), plus clothes as they are having their summer sales. I  put on a little fashion show for the girls as I was trying on the different items! Our neighbor's asked us to watch Zoe for a little while in the afternoon and Adeline was very excited her to come and play. Zoe was fine as she waved goodbye to her mom, but then once back in the apartment she started to whimper. After about 10 minutes of whimpering and asking for her Papa, she fell asleep in my arms. It was so hot, she and I were sweating, so I laid her on the couch where she slept for 45 minutes till her Dad came and picked her up. 

Friday morning, we walked Eric to the train station. He was not even on the 9:18am train yet and he was sweating. He along with the other men, will be carrying their suit jacket all day long, but no one will be wearing them due to the heat. We picked up a few items since we were in town.  The air was warm already, so we stopped to get ice cream. The window door had not been opened and all of the ice cream had not been put in the display, but there were already customers dining in who were eating ice cream. Our friend was working and we were so happy to see each other.  She gave the girls a little bigger scoop this time, I think because it is so hot. 

The weekend here will be hot (90 degrees plus) but one full of events, as Germany plays Saturday afternoon, we are having a BBQ, and will be celebrating Emmie's 3rd birthday!

We wish everyone a wonderful Happy 4th of July!

Exhausting Monday

First thing Monday morning, the sunshine was already intense. By 9am we were at the dealership, where I was informed we were approved for our car, provided Eric brings his paperwork they requested on Friday. Wow, that was quick! While at the dealership, I  got a call from Emmie's kindergarten asking if we would like to spend Tuesday morning in a session with them. Yes of course, we'll be there! We still had time to make into Aldi's and home before our next appointment. 

Yippee, it is American week at Aldi's! Not sure how scones, blueberry juice, or ketchup and mayo combination bottles are American, but we will enjoy the bagels, over priced pre-made pancakes (spotted immediately by the girls), and numerous other American items on sale this week. A quick shopping trip and back home I biked in the hot sun to unload and have a snack before we visited the other kindergarten.

The other kindergarten is in a brand new facility close to our house. They are operating it like a montessori school and a daycare which means the cost is almost triple, so unfortunately it will not work out for us. I am glad I took the time to look it at because I was now informed about it. The temperature seemed to increase by 10 degrees since we arrived at the kindergarten. We were very close to a discount store, so we went to the store. This store trip was to buy a little pool for the girls as I had a feeling it was going to be needed this week as 2 bike trips already have worn me out. 

In the late afternoon, Melanie came over and Hanna enjoyed playing in the bucket of water while the girls splashed in their pool as it was 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Lots of giggles and happy screams could be heard in our backyard. Melanie, Marie, and I were comfortable in the shade of the umbrella. We then journeyed to a new playground with Zoe as our guide. The girls had fun playing. Adeline indirectly made a new friend who wanted to play with her as she heard us speak English and told my neighbor she is learning English, but she never said anything to Adeline. She just played with her on the swings and gave her cherries from the cherry tree in the park as she was bigger and could climb it.

Monday evening I attended a parents meeting at Adeline's school. Melanie asked me if I needed some paper for note taking as I was dropping off the girls and I told her I have learned if it is that important, the Germans will give me the paperwork.  I was correct, as I arrived in the foyer area, the entire front of the banquet table had numerous stacks of paper. I listened to the teachers, a school board member, and a  class project representative speak. After they spoke, papers were handed out and we then went to the classroom. 

There appeared to be much discussion about the class size being now 25. Some parents felt this was too large and wanted to know at what point would it be split into two smaller classes. I am not sure how it got so big from the time we registered Adeline, but it is what is. The teacher than went over more more information about the class and materials the students need. Wow-- not sure exactly the items, but I did take notes of what the other parents are writing in German to translate later. To conclude the evening, the parents went around the room, introducing themselves, talking about their child, and had some other stuff to add about cooking -- still trying to understand those comments. I followed for the most part about everyone's family. I was number 19 to go. I should note here too, that in Germany, many parents are older because they start their families later in life, so I think Eric and I maybe the youngest one by at least 5 years looking around the room. With butterflies in my stomach, I announced my name and stated our family was from USA and we came in May all in German and then informed them I speak no German. One of the fathers immediately spoke up and said it is okay, we can switch to English (what a relief!) . I continued on informing them about Adeline and stating how she was going to teach the other students English-- that got a few smiles. By coincidence,  my seat was next to a mom who is from England and married a German man. After I got done she asked me if I thought this was all overwhelming because it is different than what we know for school!

 It appears Adeline will be one of almost 15 girls in the class now and she is not the youngest anymore as there will be a child 2 months younger than her, but there will also be some children turning 7.  I now understood why her class got so big as 1st class here is not mandatory at 5 as kindergarten (preschool in US) is from ages 3-5 or 6, so parents can choose when to start their children and apparently, some kids are being held back to repeat 1st class again in addition to those that are starting early like Adeline.

Afterwards, I spoke with the teacher who commented she is going to brush up on her English over the summer break, but otherwise I needed to know they needed one more pen that was not listed on the school material list. I have come to conclusion, I will be the parent that will forget to send something with Adeline and have to take it to the school an hour later. Eric will have a lot of school material to read when he gets home every weekend unless he buys me a scanner for translating purposes and/or or hires a German nanny to get ME through the school year.  Right now, he already has homework waiting for him as I could not turn in the paper after the meeting since I did not know how to write it in German for her. 

Hopefully Tuesday and the rest of the week will be tolerable-- mentally and physically!!!

Black, red, and yellow day

Sunday morning, we took the train again to church. This time we stopped to get a treat for the train ride before we began our journey. The girls asked to stop in the bakery before we were even there as they  are aware now of the location of certain shops they get snacks or treats in which I frequent often during the week. Fresh baked pretzels and  fresh fruit for breakfast made it a good train ride to church.

On the way home, the train into Frankfurt, was busy. Majority of the riders were soccer fans who where heading to the large public viewing areas downtown. When we switched trains to catch our final train home, I was amazed at the number of people as it was still 3 hours until game time.  In addition, we noticed our train length had doubled in cars since the morning ride. Eric thought it was due to the anticipation of the volume of riders with the big game.

We watched the game with our neighbors, Brigitte and Vinod, again. Adeline was excited to put on her jersey outfit for the soccer party. Since the game occurred at tea time (4pm) she had out a delicious spread of cakes, muffins, and candy. Their friends also came over, so it was large group again to watch the game. You could feel the tension and nervousness of the fans with each play made by the team. With each goal, the group became more and more lively. It was a wonderful afternoon again and even better the German team has made the final 8.  Next Saturday, we know we already have plans to watch the game as that will be the highlight of the day.

With the daytime temperatures getting warmer, the evening air is very pleasant, so we took another stroll downtown after the soccer game. In addition to the festival noise, the cheering, whistle blowing, and horn honking from celebrating fans made for a noisy little town. Our other neighbors joined us for a nice evening at a side street cafe away from the main area and then treated us to ice cream for dessert from my favorite ice cream parlor!

This week the temperatures are going to be in the high 80s/low 90s, so the goal will be getting out early to do errands. Monday will hopefully be my busiest day which is supposed to be the coolest day of the week. We have no air-conditioning, but I did get fans for every room in my inventory purchases from people moving back to the US, so I hope this will be enough to keep us cool.

Eroeffnungstfest

This weekend kicked off Hofheim's summer of art, culture, and culinary with their Eroeffnungstfest. (Opening ceremony). The music events started Friday night, but the girls went to bed to early for us to enjoy The Queen Kings, a Queens tribute band. This band was the talk of the town and the place to be seen amongst the locals. Saturday morning it was quiet downtown, but everyone was walking in circles trying to find the market. There was a lack of signs posted stating there would be no market, so all of the little shops were quite busy. I found myself a little disorganized as I knew what I wanted at the market and where to get it, but now I had to make several stops and locate the items within a few of the stores.  Emmie had fun shopping in the grocery store as they have little carts her size that she can push around, so that helped out with my load. 

Eric and Adeline took off on an early adventure on the bike. They made it to a little church on the hill we can see when we walk to town. Adeline was very excited to show me the church on the steep hill and inform me it was built a long, long, long time ago-- when Grandma and Grandpa were very little -- like Emmie. The church was built in 1666. Their outing also took them past some horses and the steep hill made for a good workout. Although, Eric said he had to walk the last 100m as it was so steep with the bike.

Saturday afternoon, the Kuchera family joined us. For those that followed us before, Heather and Josh arrived from Michigan when we were in Esslingen as he was also with DiamlerChrysler at the time. We quickly downloaded them with information about living in Germany. The family is now 4 as they have a 2 year old boy, Carsten, and 4 month old girl, Anica. They now live in Koblenz (1.5 hours north of us along the Rhine River) as Josh now works for a German company.  Heather has been giving me tips about living in Germany with kids since we found out we were moving here.

Our families spent the afternoon at the fair enjoying the summertime atmosphere. In addition to the stage performers, they had street artists walking around with a London theme to them and/or their costumes.  The girls liked the characters walking on stilts, especially the royal couple. We found a tourist couple dressed in black outfits  rolling big black suitcases and carrying black umbrellas which kept raining very funny. They had rigged the top of the umbrella to spray out water onto the umbrella, so any one passing by or them stooping over to ask questions would get wet. The girls knew there was a children's area so we ventured to that portion of the fair to enjoy a few rides they had not been on.

The first ride is a Seepferdschiffschaukel (sea horse ship swing is the translation). There was no cost to ride, just the muscles of daddy to keep it moving. The girls had fun despite Emmie bumping her head towards the end of it. The kids liked it, but it seemed as most parents were not to enthusiastic about having to work it for it to keep moving. The second ride,the slide,  can be found in the drink markets. It is how they move the crates of beverages around the store. Both girls fit in the crates and had fun sliding down the conveyor belt.

The children's area also had a large printing press. Eric helped Adeline and Emmie print pages which had the city's crest on it. The first thing Eric told the girls to do (in English) was not touch anything. When it was Emmie's turn and all eyes were on them, Emmie reached out and touched the black ink curiously asking what it was. Everyone around who was decorating their page, just grinned or chuckled.

We made it back to our house in time to watch the USA play Ghana to continue their quest for the World Cup. Despite the soccer team losing, we had a great time catching up with the Kuchera family and are looking forward to spending time with them again in the upcoming wine festivals which are between their home and ours.

Forgetful Friday

We had our car appointment in the morning where Eric signed all of the paperwork for our new Audi A3. However, I forgot to bring along the AAA insurance papers so we could get a quote from them too. Oh well, I will have to take another trip back to them early next week. Good thing they are next door to Aldi so I can make it a shopping trip, too.

Upon leaving the dealership, we walked the length of the mainstreet to catch the bus to the mall as Eric was informed he could not get a second cell phone line. This is not a good sign as he needs a European cell phone to conduct business with. This information came about mid-week when they cancelled his online order for the new i-phone as they informed him the order could not be fulfilled as he could not get 2 phone contracts here in Germany. After an hour of discussion with a manager, they told him that if he brought me in with my paperwork to a store, I may be able to get him some kind of phone for work, but not the new i-phone.  So off to the mall we went. Once arriving, Eric asked me if I had my passport, oops.. nope as we had the other paperwork from the dealership which I thought was the information they needed. Germans and their paperwork required for simple tasks is starting to drive me a little crazy. The bus would not be back for another 45 minutes, so Eric picked up a phone jack and we played fussball at the tables they had set up in the Fifa area. We got back on the bus, went home to eat lunch, and returned to the mall 1.5 hours later. Luckily, the tMobile store was empty and lady who waited on Eric to get my phone was working and recognized him immediately. Eric informed her of his conversation earlier in the week. She went and made a phone call as Eric waited at the counter while I sat down with a sleeping Emmie in arms, and Adeline was dozing in the stroller. About 15 minutes later, Eric came smiling over and said he had been approved for a 2nd line as the current person approved him based on the notes that were in his account from talking with the manager earlier in the week. (Even though the manager told him no on the phone earlier in the week, he approved it for him in the notes-- is this a test or something we do not know about-- saying no but if you follow through-- it is yes?). Bonus for Eric, is Thorsten and then him are the next 2 on the store's waiting list for the new i-phone and they expected a shipment this week. So we will go back next Friday to get his new phone-- hopefully it will be as smooth as today as we are still not sure what happened as we did not even need any paperwork for this 2nd trip to the mall. 

We treated the girls to ice cream on our walk back home. We walked up to the counter to order and it was our friend who was serving it. After some small talk, we all enjoyed our ice cream as the days appear to be warming up and feeling like summer. Eric finds it hilarious that his family has only been here for 1 month and they are already good friends with the ice cream lady. He claims it is too many trips for a treat, my story is we go in the afternoon after shopping or to the playground once in awhile and since it is a slow time, we have small talk with her! It is the one thing I do enjoy about being here in small town is getting to know familiar faces.  

Girls day out

Thursday afternoon our neighbors took us to the mall via bus. The Main Tanus Zentrum is an outdoor mall. Brigitte and Atisha pointed out their favorite boutique stores and then took us to the shopping department store to start collecting our school supplies. For school just finishing up the calendar year, the area was busy with parents going through the supply list and the stores were advertising as if school starts next week! First item on the list was the maeppchen. This carrying case holds the pencils, ruler, eraser, colored pencils and markers. Atisha and Adeline searched through the different sizes and patterns, till Adeline found a butterfly pattern she liked, then a fairy one, and finally a unicorn one. The girls then found the matching the sports bag for her gym clothes and shoes, but could not find a matching pattern for the unicorn, so it was the butterfly pattern she decided on. Decisions, decisions at such a young age!  Lucky for daddy, I brought her Hello Kitty backpack as the backpacks here start at 60 Euros and go up in price! Normally, the parents purchase the backpack, maeppchen, and gymbag all together as a set (which is about 150 Euro) when the children start school here. We then looked for the other school supplies such as paints, art paper/ folders, molding clay, etc. I remembered to bring some of the items with me, so I hope the teacher is okay with the American supplies as the prices for school supplies is outrageous! 10 Euro for a set of paints and 12 Euro for colored pencils was hard to digest when I know how much these items are in the US.  I was so happy when I found a large schuletute, a decorated cone. The parents fill them with candy and school supplies for the child's first day of school. I now have to find a little one for Emmie and little treats to fill it up. I know this is one German tradition I like.  Gathering the school supplies was challenging work, so the girls ate a treat and rested at the FIFA station in the middle of the mall while we waited for our bus.

Thursday evening, the girls spent with Wendel family, while I attended a Stammtisch. CKRS, our relocation agency, hosted a Stammtisch at the Gerbermuehle for their clients. A stammtisch is a gathering of several people who meet regularly in a pub. Uschi and Babette, two consultants who helped us make the tranistion here and both live in Hofheim, picked me up. The location was fabulous for a summer evening as it was at a trendy and historic location along the Main River. Click here to see pictures and read the history about Gerbermuehle It was an enjoyable evening in the summergarten for me talking with a variety of international people and also people from the Detroit area about their experiences and getting new travel ideas, locally and around Europe. Us gals did not realize how much time had passed as they had already  closed up the kitchen and were turning off the large screen outdoor TV and lights.  I am looking forward to getting together with the new acquaintances and the next CKRS Stammtisch.