November 19-25

Monday November 19

Quiet, normal morning. Met with HR's 1st grade teacher for a parent-teacher conference in the afternoon. She said she can tell HR is really beginning to understand German better and that now she needs to start applying herself to the classwork and doing what she can by herself. HR has a bit of a tendency to daydream and not pay attention when she should (this is nothing new!) so we'll have to have a little discussion about how best to use our time during the school day. All that said, the teacher is still pleased with how quickly she's catching on to everything and is happy to have her in class. HR also is beginning to interact a lot more with the other kids and participate in the games and play during Sport and recess. Good to hear!

The weather has been mild but every once in a while we have a day that feels like real winter weather is just around the corner. The leaves are mostly on the ground or swept up by the street cleaning machines. Here's a few shots from our balcony to compare to previous shots. Watching the seasons change really makes our year here real!

Tuesday November 20

Met with my friend, SL, for the 3rd week now for Kaffee and conversation. This time it was just the two of us again. We easily filled up 2 hours with talk! Learned some more about her family and shared some more about my own. Also filled her in on our crazy schedule at home and how it's busy here but just different and that I *love* not being in a car all the time!  Also discovered that she's a runner too, so next week we're going to meet to run together on Tuesday morning. Yeah!

Mom, you'd enjoy the fact that SL's work is a home based knitting business: she knits and felts slippers for all sizes (really cute ones for kids that she puts animal or car features on). She also makes scarves, socks, sweaters, skirts (felted!), and other knit clothing. Some of it is ready-made in her "store" and for others she does custom work. So when we meet over coffee, she's always knitting--except today because she's working on a pattern where she has to count so much that she can't talk at the same time!

Tonight I'm headed to Beuel for a rehearsal with my friend MD's Musikkreise (Music Circle). I'm singing on their Advent concert on December 1. J is teaching his seminar at the Law school so I have a babysitter coming to stay with the girls, the niece of a friend.

I've been working on plans for MK's 12th birthday party--she turns 12 on 12.12.12!!! I also have tentative plans for a little celebration for Grace. Have to figure out how I'm going to make the cakes or if I'll order one or both from a bakery.

Wednesday November 21

A pretty typical day: GE to Kindergarten, some grocery shopping. Discovered that I'd won two prizes with the tickets we bought to support the St. Martinzug's parade a couple of weeks ago. The school kids and Kindergarteners sell these little tickets for .50 cents and each has a number on it. Then there's a raffle for gift certificates at some of the local businesses. We won a gift certificate to the Leyenhof Biohof market (my favorite where the fresh Kale is!) and a gift certificate for "ein Brot" (one bread) at the organic bakery. Don't know how much the Leyenhof certificate is worth yet, but I'll go next week and see! Yeah for us!

Went to my Laufen Training (running group) in the evening and had a great time. Am now feeling comfortable enough with the other women and the trainer to join in the joking and ribbing that goes on. No training this Saturday because the trainer is running a 106 km race! We'll meet again next Weds.

Thursday November 22

Beautiful sunny morning! GE and I enjoyed the tail end of the sunrise as we rode to the Kindergarten. She has been particularly cheerful about going to KG this week and is saying the names of children as she sees them or as we say good-bye at the end of the day. She talks about "my friend, Seeyar" or "my friend Nehle". So sweet!  She's also regularly eating the lunch food. Today she told me she ate it and that it was yummy but that she didn't know what it was. But she ate it by dipping her Brötchen into it. Sometimes she says she liked the chicken or noodles but that it had "fruit in it". Not sure if she means little chunks of tomatoes or if she really means fruit! So funny.

I've been eavesdropping on the other moms conversations as we wait for the KG to open their doors at pick up time. I often can hardly follow the local German's because of their thick dialect but I'm starting to pick out some common phrases. Today's: Sounds like "daht vay eh net" which means Das weiss ich nicht! Now, who told them it was OK to leave all the consonants out?!

After picking up GE, I rode by the house of one of my running friends and picked up her daughter, R, to come over to our apartment to play. She's in the 2nd grade at the same school as ME and HR. She's met ME before and I thought it might work well for her to play with both of my girls since she's in between age-wise. She disappeared happily into their room and they played from 2:30 to 5:20 with nary a peep! When her mom arrived we walked together with the kids to the Pauluskirche for the first Krippenspiel (nativity play) practice. ME is going to be the donkey and HR is one of the sheep. :) ME has a couple of lines she'll have to memorize which she seemed a little scared by at first but then read them out nice and clear and only made one small mistake in pronunciation. That's my girl!

Friday November 23

Picked up the rental van from the airport and did a big shopping run before the girls came home from school. Then we packed a few things for the weekend. MK took the bus to her dance class and the rest of us finished packing and loaded the van, then picked MK up in Bad Godesberg and headed to Haiger to visit the RW and GW! We hit a little Friday evening traffic and it was raining, but we arrived in decent time and GW set out a wonderful Abendbrot spread for supper. The girls dove into the toy supply in the attic playroom that I remember from my family's visits (the W's have four children too and my sisters and I were all about the same ages, except for their youngest, AK). Later we tucked our girls into various and sundry beds and then the four of us adults sat around the coffee table reminiscing and sharing a bottle of wine. I told J later that it was like sitting around talking with my friends, not as if we were talking to my parent's friends!

Saturday we slept in a bit (except for the little girls who were up around 6:30 and were kicked out to go play in the attic), enjoyed a variety of Brötchen with GW's homemade jams and jellies (apple, currant, strawberry with rhubarb and Holunderbeere which we know as elderberry) and Nutella (of course!). GW and I went into town to a thrift store and scored a whole basket of handfolded Fröbelsterne (for example: http://www.froebelstern.com/) with strings attached and ready for hanging on a Christmas tree. Plus I found several boxes of candle holders with little clasps for attaching to a tree! A few Christmas presents and a couple of kitchen items later...

Lunch was more traditional German food: Frikadellen und Kartoffelpuree (meatballs--sort of; more like individual meatloaf--and mashed potatoes). I tucked GE into bed for a much needed nap while the older girls watched the beginning of Das Doppelte Lottchen ( Das Doppelte Lottchen), the original "Parent Trap" film. They were able to follow it for the most part although I had trouble understanding some of the low German!

I woke GE up after an hour or so and we all headed outside for a bit. We drove to a park on a hillside overlooking Haiger, but there was a Treibjagd underway with hunters walking about with their rifles making noises to flush out the Wildschwein. So we decided it would probably not be the best place to let the kids play and instead headed back to town to the school playground where there was fantastic zipline and open space to run.  A little Kuchen for the girls when we got home (to tide them over until dinner) and then...

Dinner was another traditional meal: Raclette with potatoes, tomatoes, bread, meats and cheeses ( Raclette). Super yum! As you can see there wasn't much left when we were done. HR: "Mom, can we do this every night for supper?!" which GW thought was just wonderful and made it all worth the effort.

After the kids were in bed, we enjoyed another bottle of wine and some homemade Schlehe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa ) liquor with Champagne while munching on hazelnuts, peanuts, and walnuts (all still in the shell). Another late night...

Sunday November 25

Another lovely breakfast of Brötchen and jams, etc. then off to church with R&GW. The service included a special story-time for the kids and then they were invited to the Kindergottesdienst time in another part of the church. Our plucky girls went right along. After the service we went back to their house for lunch: Schnitzel mit Pilzrahmsauce (pork in a mushroom cream sauce) over rice, a fresh Feltsalat salad, and green beans. GW's sister arrived to visit and took a couple of pictures of all of us together, then it was time to load up and head home. The sky had cleared so we opted to take the cross-country route instead of the Autobahn again. Gorgeous countryside and blue sky. We had to make one stop for HR to recover from mild car-sickness, but still made it home in a timely fashion. Monday morning I returned the car after one more large shopping run.

November 13-18

Tuesday, November 13

Went to Führersteinstelle again and finally got our 6 month driver's license extensions put in place. Our regular licenses are good through January and then the extension will take us to the end of our stay in Germany. Yeah! I think that's the last sort of "foreigners" thing we had to do.

Did a little Christmas shopping in the Bonn pedestrian zone--mostly looking for non-kitschy Advents calendars for the girls and a few things to send home to family. I also finally found a tourist shop that sells the girls' collectibles! Those will make great stocking stuffers.

In the evening I went for the first time to a rehearsal for the CityProjektChor with Marcus Karas. The group is performing Mozart's "Waisenhaus Messe" KV139 the day after Christmas. It's open to any interested singers but tends to be a pretty strong self-selecting group because there are only a few rehearsals and Herr Karas really zips through the material. We sang everything except the last movement.  Quite fun!

Wednesday, November 14

GE had a hard time leaving for KG yesterday so I promised her today we could have a mommy-GE day. She went shopping with me and then our neighbor saw us out on the sidewalk and invited us into her play group. So GE got to play with some younger kids and have some treats while the moms shared some tea and baked goodies. Then it was time to head home and get lunch on for the bigger girls!

Went to my running group again tonight. Awesome workout. I find it hard to speak in German while I'm exercising though! What a strange thing. Still, had a chance to talk to some of the women who live nearest to us in Friesdorf and who have young girls in school with mine. Tentative plans for playdates are in place for HR and ME. Yeah! Anytime they spend outside of school speaking German, the better!

Thursday, November 15

It's gray and feels and smells like snow--or maybe it's that everyone is burning fires in the wood stoves?! In any case, today seemed more winter-like than fall. Layered up for the bike ride to Kindergarten this morning!

Did some grocery shopping after dropping GE off (with no protests this time, so I'm glad I let her spend yesterday with me), then settled in at home for some tea and relaxation! Haven't had a morning like this in a while. Then after HR got home, I made a couple of fresh kale dishes (adapted an East Indian lentil and spinach dish using zucchini instead of potatoes and kale instead of spinach and made my favorite green lentil salad w/chopped kale and a mustard dressing) for later. Then after I picked GE up from KG, I made an adaptation of a homemade granola bar combining two recipes: the Yummy Oat Bars from Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live book and my friend's "Flapjack" recipe from the UK.  The end result:

Homemade Granola Bar
1/4 c. coconut oil
1 mashed ripe banana
1 T. maple syrup
1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
3/4 c. whole oats
1 c. quick oats (could use all whole oats, but I didn't have quite enough on hand)
1/4 c. shredded coconut
1/4 c. dried fruit (raisins, chopped dates, currants, tart cherries, cranberries or combination)
1/4 c. mixed seeds or chopped nuts (I got a bag of mixed seeds at the organic market with raw pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, roasted buckwheat kernels, and whole and ground flax seeds)
Heat the first 4 ingredients in a pan over medium heat until the coconut oil is liquid, stir to combine thoroughly. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, pour warm liquid mix over dry and mix well. Press into square baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325 for about 20 mins or until lightly browned and crispy.

**These didn't hold together very well when I tried to cut them. I think I need to increase the whole recipe a bit so the bars are thicker and stay a little chewy in the middle. Also may need to increase the syrup and applesauce so that it all sticks together a bit better.  I also want to add some sweet spices like cinnamon or nutmeg and see how that goes over. Next time!  I was planning to take these to the monthly social time after choir tonight, but now I'm not sure I will since they're so crumbly. (Note: I made a second batch because they were so easy and used a little more banana and syrup. Still pretty crumbly but I took them anyway and they were a hit!)

Friday, November 16

After picking up GE from KG I rode the bus with MK into Bad Godesberg to the Tanz Schule (dance school). Her friend from school met us at the door and took MK to the changing room. I sat and watched from the cafe area and tried to read my Kindle from time to time--the music was loud and I was distracted! MK clearly had fun and so we signed her up to officially start next week. Her school friend only just started a few weeks ago as well, so they'll both be at about the same level. There were 2 other girls in the class that rode the same bus to and from our neighborhood, so maybe she'll get to know them as well! http://www.tanzschule-koltermann.de/

While I was out with MK, ME got herself to the children's choir rehearsal at the Pauluskirche and J was at home with the 2 little girls. After we got home, I set out Abendbrot and by 7:30 everyone was settled for bed. J and I took off for the bus and went to Bad Godesberg to see the new James Bond movie in German. Quite a throng of people but we found a ticket kiosk so we didn't have to stand in line. I had no trouble following the story and J thought he did pretty well too although we both missed some of the Bond references to previous movies and I was occasionally distracted by what the actors mouths were saying in English while I was hearing it in German!

Saturday, November 17

I left this morning a little before 9 to go to my running group. This time we went for a long run. Goal: as far as possible in 1 hour 10 mins. That's the longest time I've ever run so I figured it would likely be the longest distance too. I wasn't worried though. Last week we ran just under 8 km and I could have gone further. Today's tally: 9.22 km (5.73 miles!). That's nearly 1/2 of the half-marathon which I hope to run in April.
(http://www.deutschepost-marathonbonn.de/)

Afterwards, I stopped at the Leyenhof (organic farm shop) and got some more fresh food (kale!) for the weekend. At home the little girls were playing happily together and the big girls had walked to a friend's house to play for the day. The rest of the day was quiet, at home, and restful!

Sunday, November 18

MK and I rode our bikes to the train station in Bad Godesberg this morning to meet up with other families from her class for a Familienausflug (Family outing) in the Ahrtal. We visited the Regierungsbunker in Ahrweiler. http://www.regbu.de/Fremdsprachen/GB1.html This is the bunker that was built between 1956 and 1961 that would have housed the German government and top personnel in the event there was a 3rd World War. An old train tunnel was converted into a 2 story bunker with living quarters above and offices below for some 2000 people! Elaborate heavy doors, air and water purification systems and communication centers, emergency exit tunnels and escape hatches were put in place to protect Germany's top decision makers. Quite a history of the Cold War era there.  I translated as much as I could to MK from the German tour guide.  After the tour we ate a few snacks outside and then marched the troops up into the hills to a restaurant, Försterhof (http://www.foersterhof.de/), for a late lunch. The plan was to hike a bit further to another train station before heading back, but because of the fog and cloud cover it was getting dark fast (plus the tour ran longer than expected and we arrived at the "lunch" place after 2 p.m.!), so we took the same path back to Ahrweiler to catch the train before it got too dark to see. I enjoyed getting to know several of the other parents and MK's Klassenlehrer (homeroom teacher), Herr D (he reminds me a bit of my Klassenlehrer from Martin Luther Schule in Marburg!) and his wife who had also come along. The mother who organized the outing is the mother of MK's friend, C. They were the only girls from the class to come along (there are 9 girls and 20 boys in their class!!!) so they kept pretty snug.

Dirty look because I brought the camera along!

Trying to figure out which direction to take on the Rotweinweg (Redwine trail). The signs for the bunker were not very clear and everyone who had already been to the bunker before had arrived by car so no one knew exactly where to go after we got off the train!

Heading up into the vineyards to the trail up... and up...

to

View back down into Ahrweil. Too bad it was so foggy since this valley view would be stunning!

Arriving at the Bunker parking area

Herr D, MK's Klassenlehrer (homeroom teacher and Deutsch teacher)

Tour guide in bright yellow. She's explaining how big and thick the main entrance doors were and how they could be sealed off in a matter of seconds in the event that the air detectors above ground detected anything unusual (radioactive).

Something like 3 meters thick and made of special materials (lead and something else?) that repel radiation.

Watching the doors close! Felt a little like I was in a zombie horror movie--loud blaring warning beeps and flashing lights = "Quick! Get in before the door closes!"

Sealed off!!

Door and other systems room (there were tons of keys and codes for opening and closing hatches and the many many heavy security doors throughout the bunker.

Suit for going above ground with air tanks, etc.

One of the other large security doors.

A typical office for support staff.

A model of the Bundeskanslers room--he was one of the few who had a private room rather than shared.

The pink (!) furniture from the Bundeskanslers sitting room.

Most of the bunker was dismantled in the 90's after the Wall came down. Here they left the train tunnel visible to visitors so you could see what it looked like before they converted it.

Boys, boys and more boys... every tween girl's dream? Not. Apparently they are too rambunctious and drive the 9 girls crazy rather than inspiring crushes and romance! (Um, that's good, I think?!)

Same room, looking back toward the bunker portion that remains. You can see the floor division sticking out in the middle.

The Atom-Powers: Yellow/Iran is suspected of having a nuclear weapons program. Red countries have confirmed atomic weapons.

 

The clinic. Boys wanted to know what the arm restraints were for!

A typical bedroom for personnel.

The curved ceiling of the second floor living quarters.

Many of the boys and some parents and younger siblings from MK's class. MK and her friend, C, are in the middle of the second row.

Walking on the Rotweinweg (Red wine traiil) to the restaurant, Försterhof.

View of the valley with the mist. Gray weather but not too cold and it never actually rained hard, just spit at us and made everything damp.Typisch Deutsch!

Playing outside after lunch.

Dark enough that the lamps were starting to come on!

Must. Come. Back.

 

November 6-November 11

Tuesday November 6

Met a woman (friend of a friend) who wants to meet regularly to practice her English conversation. We'll do a sort of exchange--today was in English, next time in German for me. There are a couple of others who want to maybe do this together too. We'll see if we can get everyone's schedules to mix!

Concert week! Rehearsal tonight, Thursday night and Saturday afternoon. Concert is Sunday evening. Discovered that J is supposed to have a black suit for concert dress! Duh. Why I didn't think to ask about that, I will never know.... So, now he has to decide whether to shop and spend a little Euros or whether to drop out. (later note: He got a chic new suit! He cleans up nice...)

The girls had a pretty routine day. Weather was great and HR wanted to ride her bike with me to pick GE up from Kindergarten. Perfect! GE reported that she had eaten the chicken at lunch. Even better! I made comfort food for supper: homemade mac and cheese. Plus I found fresh kale at the organic farm so I made a wonderful salad too!

My new favorite food! Fresh kale--the organic farm said they'll have it daily through at least February. Hallelujah!

Yum! "My Favorite" from my childhood. Haven't made it in a while because I can't eat cheese anymore, but the kids loved  having it again.

Wednesday November 7

Breathing a sigh of relief that the US election is over.

A quiet morning. It's gray but not raining and not terribly cold. I remember weeks like this in Marburg! Walking home in a sort of dim light from school. It is now dark at 5 p.m.!

After Kindergarten today I took GE and HR over to our neighbor's house to play with T while I had tea with R and enjoyed some conversation--she's been in the UK for the 10 days and I missed having someone near by to share just little tidbits of my day with! The kids had a good time, as did I. T found an Igel (hedgehog) in their garden, so the girls got to see their first real one!

Oops, I moved the leaves for a better picture and he rolled up and put all his prickles out!

Returned home in time to set out Abendbrot before heading over to the Catholic school to meet the Laufen Training group. Great workout and got to know some of the other women a little better, including a woman who lives just down the street from us who also has 4 children too. We figured out that it was her daughter who was also playing at ME's friends' house last week while ME was there too. Connecting the dots...

Thursday November 8

A normal morning, then a crazy afternoon: picked GE up early from KG so that she could come to ME's Klassenfeier (class party). The kids had prepared a few things to share: a song played on their recorders (I think it was a traditional St. Martins tune) and a reenactment of the story that led to the Roman soldier being sainted. J was at the party but had to leave as folks gathered for the parade because he was slated to give a presentation at the Juridicum (law school), so then I was on my own with all the girls. By 5:15, the school yard was beginning to fill with parents and kids carrying lanterns. We waited first with GE's Kindergarten group and watched the soldier, "St. Martin", ride in on a *huge* horse leading a band playing St. Martinzug (St. Martin parade) songs. Then the parade followed the horse and rider. The local Kindergartens fell into line behind the Catholic school kids, then the Bodelschwinghschule kids followed the Kindergartens. More music groups were scattered in between, so there were always flutes, brass and drums playing the traditional songs. ME was with her 4th grade class. MK, HR, and GE were with me with the Kindergarteners. Then, realizing, how hard it was going to be to find ME in the throng of people, we decided to fall back and wait for ME's class to come and walk all together. A good idea because it really was a MOB! The parade wandered slowly through the neighborhood, taking the LONG way around to the sport field where there was a HUGE bonfire. By the time we arrived there (45 mins after leaving the school!) GE was completely wiped out. Actually, we all were! By this point, I was carrying everyone's lanterns except the two older girls, plus my purse, the bag of extra candles, lighter, batteries, etc. Thankfully some friends were with us and gave GE an occasional piggy-back ride. From the bonfire, we went Schnörzen (a sort of trick-or-treating where you have to sing a St. Martin song to get a treat) with a couple of GE's classmates and their parents. Again, a heartfelt thanks to Y's dad for carrying GE and helping her get in and out of the throngs of kids at the doors. The kids sang their songs at the doors of homes, businesses, and bakeries. The homes and businesses handed out sweets and the bakeries gave out freshly baked special sweet breads! My favorite organic bakery had a huge tray with a giant "St. Martin" shaped bread decorated with sweets that took up a good 1/3 of the front display window! The traditional St. Martin breads are white bread similar to sweet rolls and are often shaped like a gingerbread man with a little pipe in his hand, raisins for eyes and nose and buttons.
After getting an honest amount of goodies in each of the girls' bags, we headed home to bed.

A pic of all the lanterns before anything happens to them! The hedgehog is GE's, the red ant is HR's, the larger narrow cylinder is ME's, the smaller is my extra-just-in-case-someone-needs-one, the large square is MK's.

Waiting for the parade to start.

The horse and rider arrive. Light was low so my shutter speed was slow. sorry for the blurriness but it sort of captures the craziness of the evening!

Used the flash for a clearer picture as the horse and rider came by again after leaving the school grounds.

Joined ME's class--notice that all the lanterns are similar? Each class/group had matching lanterns and walk as a group so you can see each lantern pattern as the parade processes by.

ME with her teacher behind her (red hat) and classmates beside her (F, boy to her left, and Y, girl in foreground--we went Schnörzen with them after the bonfire).

Taking a rest on some benches outside one of the bakeries.

And enjoying the yummy bread (well at least, ME and GE are enjoying it! HR was getting pretty worn out, thus the grumpy face.)

Friday November 9

Took MK shopping for her winter dress shoes in Bad Godesberg after school. While we were there she exchanged some texts with a friend from school who has invited her to join her dance class at a school in Bad Godesberg. As we left the shopping center, I remembered that we had passed a dance school and wondered if that was the right one. We stuck our heads in and got some information, later confirming that it was the same school as her friend's. MK plans to go to a trial class next Friday (the same one as her friend) and if she likes it, she can join in at anytime.

Meanwhile, ME went to children's choir at the Pauluskirche and J was at home with the littler girls. After I got back with MK, I made a light supper for the girls and then J and I left for a date night. He took me to a neighborhood near the law school and introduced me to his favorite restaurant, Das Treppchen, a very proper German dig with huge ceramic Biersteine decorating the walls. He ordered Das Himmel und Erde (Heaven and Earth), a lovely Bonn specialty with blood sausage, mashed potatoes with applesauce topped with crispy fried onions (http://www.ijon.de/rezepte/rheinisch.html#himmelerde). Here's a pretty good pic of this typical Rheinland specialty: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/21671926@N00/2167933213/lightbox/. I ordered the Bonn Markt salad and we shared a baked sheep's cheese appetizer (baked in foil with fresh herbs, sliced tomatoes and onions--I am so recreating this in my own kitchen!). It was packed by the time we left.

We've invited my first-cousin-once-removed, MM (who we visited in Hamburg), to join us for Christmas if she's able. She doesn't have other plans since her work is currently keeping her in Germany, so she hopes to be here for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at least. Will be fun to get to know her better and have some family to share the holiday with!

I'm working on our plans for the 2 week spring break over Easter. My sister, A, will be visiting for the first part with her oldest son. We'll go with them to visit my mom's German "family" who she lived with as an exchange student after high school. Then we'll head north to Wolfsburg to visit our former exchange student, JS. What should we do for the second week? We could go to Berlin or the former East Germany (Dresden?) or we could go further south to the Schwartzwald or Leipzig. Suggestions?

We have plans in place to visit other family friends: H & U M in Düsseldorf in December and R & G W for a weekend at the end of November. 

My friend, MD, suggested that I try finding one of my best friends from my Marburg years through an online phone book search. I still had her parent's address and with their last name could run a search to see if they are still at that address, then get the phone number. Lucky draw: the listing was still under their last name, so I gave the number a call. Her brother answered (he lives there now) and remembered me, so was willing to give me her phone number. I left a message on her voicemail with fingers crossed!

Saturday November 10

Went to my running training group in the morning. Ran nearly 8 kms through the woods. Thankfully no rain, although it was threatening. Just one other woman plus the trainer this morning. Wasn't sure if I could keep up or not, but I did just fine and felt even better! Finally had the courage to tell them that I was only getting about 40% of what they were saying because they both slip into a thick Bonn/Rheinland dialect where a lot of the consonants are missing! When they speak slowly I can understand but when they're really rattling off their sentences, I can hardly get it all.  Add to that the huffing and puffing while running and I was struggling to figure out what the conversation was about. :)

In the afternoon I took the two younger girls with me to HR's class party. We went to the woods to sail some paper boats in the creek, but the kids ended up mostly just climbing the steep hills and sliding down the slippery leaves.

GE deciding if she can make it down the steep incline to join the bigger kids. She pretty much wanted to be in the thick of things.

Got to know a few more of the parents and then we ate some goodies before heading home. A babysitter was waiting for us. J had already headed to the Christuskirche for the last big rehearsal for the Mendelssohn concert on Sunday. I went late (riding bike through drenching rain!). We were home in time for a late dinner then off to bed.

Sunday, November 11

Stayed at home for the morning since we were going to be gone for the entire afternoon and evening. I spent the morning making some dairy-free cookies to take the after-concert party. Coconut oil makes an amazing butter substitute and my little convection oven worked great! One batch of chewy oatmeal cookies and one of chocolate with almond slivers. Yum!  Babysitter arrived at 2:15 and our taxi shortly after. We had another run through with the orchestra then the concert began at 5, lasted about 1.5 hours and then the party afterwards. Folks are finally starting to seek us out for conversation (I guess, they are slowly learning that we speak German afterall??) so we had a great time jawing it up with a couple of couples.

Monday, November 12

Had a wonderful Kaffee und Unterhaltung with my two GB friends and my new German friend, S (same woman I mentioned at the beginning of this post). We met at the same local coffee shop-bakery and all got to know each other better, switching back and forth between English and German as needed. As we get into more of a rhythm, the plan is to speak all German one week and then next all English. Lovely women!

This evening while I was finishing up making dinner, the phone rang and I saw that it was the number from my best Marburg friend, B. I answered, "Hallo?" and was met with silence. Then said "Hier ist Christine." and then heard, "Nah, das ist die B!" with just the same dry wit and vocal pattern as I remembered! I've found my long-lost friend! I can hardly believe it. We talked for a long while (letting the soup get cold and overcooking the rice and the baked chicken). I got her email and she promised to send another FB friend request (the first one for some reason didn't go through). We hope to meet up for a visit in Marburg since she is interested in reconnecting with our other friend from the Martin Luther Schule. What fun!