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!