The Last Week

Monday June 10

I can't believe this week is here! It always seemed so far away and now I wish in some ways that it would go away. Oh well, can't stop time...

Rain, cold. Solved some big problems: how to return our books and breakables to the US. Which shipping method would be cheapest. Do we buy an extra suitcase and pay the extra baggage fee? J helped me research all the options and we settled on filling two larger boxes and sending them with the Deutsche Post. I also took my wonderful shopping Korb (basket) with some breakables tucked inside to the UPS store because it needed to be shipped in a non-standard size box, plus have extra packing peanuts and so on. UPS took care of it and it might even be waiting for me when I get home! I took several loads of stuff to donation sites and the Sperrmüll center (over-sized and odd trash). I even squeezed in a short trip to the grocery store and returned a bunch of plastic bottles for the Pfand (deposit) return!

GE had a friend come home with her to play and when I took her home around 5, offered her one of our scooters. She was thrilled and I was relieved to be "free" of one more thing.

I made the girls some chicken and potato soup for supper and then J and I went into Bonn to meet his colleague, A, and her daughter for dinner at La Chata, the Spanish tapas restaurant that we'd been to another time. Great food and conversation... but the service last night was atrocious! Oh well, we wrote it off as new student waiters and a busy kitchen (the patio was packed because the evening was so warm).

Tuesday June 11

The sun is out again and the day is supposed to get warm. I needed to get a couple last gifts in Bonn so I asked my friend SL to come along and we had our Kaffee at a cafe' downtown while we waited for the shops to open. Got what I needed and was home late morning in time to get some more organizing and packing done. Brought down more suitcases from the attic. Things are looking good. I think we're going to have room for everything!

HR brought a friend over after school and GE went to one of her Kindergarten friend's house. I made a quick trip over to the Kindergarten to give a Verabschieds gift to one of GE's teachers who will be gone the rest of the week. She gave GE a Glücksstein (Luck Stone) on a braided necklace. When I took HR's friend home at 5, I offered her the other scooter. Yeah, another thing off my list!

Made supper from ingredients in the house: taco lentils with rice, corn chips, lettuce, grated cheese, taco sauce and chopped green onions. Yum!

Wednesday June 12

Well, today did not go quite as planned. Started out well. Sun shining. I took GE to Kindergarten then had to take MK a notebook she'd left at home that she needed for a project due today. Then I went home to get J and we picked up 3 cakes from the Markmann Bäckerei before heading to his office. He was hosting the customary good-bye cake break for his co-workers. Here was the first hiccup. I was anxious to get to the store after dropping J off so I could get some baking done for treats for the girls to take to school tomorrow and Friday. Driving car and riding bicycle have entirely different street routes and I took a convoluted, snake-like route to get J to work--I thought I knew the best way to get there. Turns out it's not so easy with a car! It was later than I'd hoped when I finally got back to the apartment and got started. I planned to make a quick brownie recipe and put that in the oven at my neighbor's house while I made muffins or cookies at our apartment. When I pulled the door closed behind me on my way over to the neighbors, I immediately realized I'd locked myself out! I knew ME's keys were also lying on top of the freezer which meant I couldn't just walk to the school and get hers. J was at the office. MK has school until 3 on Wednesdays... At least I'd stuck my cell phone in my back pocket. J came home on the U-bahn and rescued me, but that set me back another 3/4 hour. To top it off, the brownies turned out too gooey (I always underestimate how long to leave them in and between the pan size being different and the oven temperature not quite the same, my guess was wrong). They're yummy but not presentable. Phooey. So then I thought I'd quick put together my favorite Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake, but when I turned it out to cool, it slipped off the cooling rack and smashed onto the table (serves me right for hurrying...). So, now I had two chocolate disasters. I salvaged what I could (but what was serve-able wasn't enough for the classes) and plan to take them to friends tomorrow night and Saturday night when we're invited out to dinner. In between the disasters I at least got a couple batches of Rice Crispies done. Then I made some molasses cookies for MK, carrot molasses muffins (I had molasses left over from Christmas time!) for GE's Kindergarten group, and finally after dinner I made chocolate chip muffins for ME's class. Whew! In between I squeezed in more of the usual: making lunch and dinner, doing some more laundry and hanging it out (thank goodness for the good weather!), packing, cleaning out closets and cupboards, picking up GE from Kindergarten, wrapping a few gifts for friends and teachers...  In the end, the day turned out OK, but was too harried and stressful.

Thursday June 13
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Here's where the crush of to-do details became more than I could manage to accomplish and still write in the evenings, so weeks later...

June 28, 2013

I'm writing this nearly 2 weeks after our return to Virginia. The last week is hazy and blurred (plus I can hardly write this without getting teary-eyed!), but certain memories are etched in my brain: hearing GE speaking German with her Kindergarten teacher and explaining how we're going back to "Amerika" (with flipped 'r' and bright 'a' vowels), meeting friends for the last time--coffee with SL, dinner with LC and RR, dinner with J's colleague and friend from the Max Planck Institute, gathering many of my dear friends for drinks and Tapas at Club Galacia on Friday night, sending in baked goodies (using up my pantry items!) with the girls to school to say good-bye to their classmates and teachers...

I'm adjusting, slowly and painfully, to being in US again, driving everywhere, going into giant big-box stores, walking across the massive parking lots to get my groceries or household goods. I cried in the Target parking lot.

I'll adjust. It'll just take time. I'm thankful that our home and animals were well cared for. I'm nearly finished unpacking all the stuff we brought or sent home and the many boxes we'd packed for storage. We've seen lots of our family and friends who we missed while we were gone. There's still a long to-do list, but the dust is slowly settling. J is getting back into his work routine.

The girls are up and down. HR is clingy and needs more snuggles and cuddles. GE keeps falling asleep in the afternoon (even after having adjusted to jetlag). ME and MK are busy with summer camps, seeing old friends, and reading lots of English books. Despite their busyness, there are times that both seem more withdrawn, a little sad. ME expresses her wish to see and talk to her German friends again. She has Skyped a few times with some of her classmates, but it's not the same.

Our return trip went as smoothly as one could hope: friends picked up our luggage on Saturday, leaving us two suitcases to stuff our last clothing and toiletries items in, then met us at the Düsseldorf airport early Sunday morning. British Airways gave us a smooth ride and our layover in London was just the right amount of time, not too much waiting, not too hurried. It's wonderful to see our family and friends again. The summer is full of gatherings: my dad's family's reunion in Durango, CO, J's dad's family gathering at his parent's home, his mother's weekend reunion at a camp in VA, a week at the Chesapeake Bay with J's parents, brothers and their families... School will be starting again before we know it!

I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story:

GE holding up the photo of her class, surrounded by her friends and classmates.

Blowing out the "wish you well" candles.

Handing out muffin treats.

On the playground.

Best friends: (from left to right) A, P, GE, and J

ME with her girl friends from school: clockwise starting with the girl in the red shirt, YH, C, JK, A, L.

J's parents and my dad picked us up in DC. My dad took some pictures...

Finally, to all of our dear friends in Germany: how can we begin to express our gratitude? I can hardly believe that our year in Germany has already come and gone. We are so thankful for all the warmth, hospitality, and friendships we experienced. We can't wait for you to visit us in VA!

June 3-9

Monday June 3

Grocery shopping--trying to use up what we have and so am planning meals carefully. ME went to dance in the p.m. MK to tutoring. Started in on some more packing and organizing...

Tuesday June 4

Kaffee w/SL at our place. We listened to some recordings of me singing since she hasn't heard me. Shared more pictures stored on my external hard drive (she'd only seen what was on Facebook) of house, family, and home in VA.

J went Bürgeramt (City Department) to do our Abmeldung (de-registration). We have to use the official letter from the city to cancel our utilities and that sort of thing. Plus, if we were ever to return to Germany to live for more than 3 months and hadn't done an Abmeldung, we could run into problems registering with the new city! 

Had a parent-teacher conference with HR's teacher at 4 p.m. HR is doing about as one would expect, except she could be applying herself a little more in math and could spend a little less time daydreaming during class (language being no longer a real barrier to whether she is bored or unable to concentrate). What she is doing well at (that even some of the German kids aren't getting) is writing sentences and seeing the division between words on the page. She can even write simple German sentences now (to describe a picture, for example) and although she still makes spelling mistakes, one can still decipher what she was trying to write.

We got to know a woman at church on Sunday (whom we hadn't met all year but who had heard about us) whose son has just finished high school and taken his Abitur tests (still awaiting results). He's taking a year off before Universität (as many young Germans do) to do volunteer work and travel/live abroad. He wants a little more time to figure out what he wants to study at the Uni. He has lived in England and his sister in the US. Soooo... as the conversation with his mother got more involved (over lunch after church), it became clear that we (or our extended network of friends and family) might have some ideas about what he could do... in the Shenandoah Valley perhaps. Since the son wasn't at church, he got in touch on Monday and came over for a bit to talk and I invited him to come back today for dinner to talk to Joshua too.

Wednesday June 5

I took GE to Kindergarten (it's glorious outside!!) and then picked up a few groceries before heading home to meet up with J. We rode our bikes to the Telekom store to try and sort out how to cancel our cell phone contracts and discontinue our phone and internet.  The guy was not happy about canceling a 2 year contract. Poor man couldn't seem to grasp that we would be unable to use our cell phones in the US and that Telekom was therefore required by law to cancel the contract. He eventually filled something out, printed it, took our phone number and said he would clarify it and let us know. Oh great. This might require multiple trips to Telekom...

Then we rode our bikes over to J's office. I hadn't yet been in to see where he works! There just never seemed a reason to go! From there we tried to bike along the Rhein to downtown for lunch but were forced back up to the streets because of high water from the flooding (southern Germany is underwater--worst flooding in 500 years! We have just a little bit comparatively). We ate lunch outside at Opera, a Turkish restaurant near the Opernhaus.  Then I rode home and J rode back to his office. In the meantime, HR went over to her best friend, E's house, ME got home right about the same time as I did, MK had school until 3 and GE was still at Kindergarten...

The Max Planck Institute (former embassy building for Egypt, I think).

The Max Planck on the right with the giant Post building in the back ground.

The path through the gardens behind the building where J would take papers to walk and read.

Herr Professor F sitting in his office (sorry for all the posing!).

Can you find J in the pop art painting? This was on the wall near the kitchen in the Max Planck. The other faces are all co-workers at the institute.

The caption in the lower right corner of the painting: "Similarities with living people are not intentional and are either coincidence or a product of your own imagination." Hah! The joke is, of course, that they are all familiar and resemble all the people in the building!

J in the far left corner.

Hochwasser from the Rhein over the Ufer paths. No biking along the Rhein to downtown today! Even the docks are partially submerged.

Our Turkish appetizers. The lunch special allowed us to choose three from their cold case and then we each had the big salad with sheep cheese followed by a little dessert--some sort of syrup soaked cake, a little like this. So yummy--I might have to recreate it without the dairy!

LAST Laufengruppe (running group)!! We did the "THORtur" circuit (he has a demi-god theme going and likes to do word-plays, this one being a play on "torture," oh yay [spoken with dripping sarcasm]. This particular circuit training routine is for the upper body and arms. Lots of cinder block lifting and push ups involved. I hope I can lift my arms tomorrow to wash my hair... Followed by a 1/2 hour run through the gloriously still shining sun (at 9 p.m.!) and cool evening air. "Wie Herrlich!"
*Thank you, HW! It was a fantastic run this year. I'm going to miss you  M, H, C, B, SBR, JsdS, S, A, and V!

Thursday June 6

I met up with my friend SL at her house and we walked to the Rheinaue to chat and walk. A beautiful day again. Quite warm already. After that I grabbed a few groceries and rode home.

Green. Peaceful. The Rheinaue Freizeitpark in Bonn.

GE went to A's house after Kindergarten to play. ME's friend A came home with her and then the two of them went to meet other friends from school at the local swimming pool, the Friesdorf Freibad aka "Friesi". At 4, HR and I rode over to pick up GE from her friend's house and then rode directly to the swimming pool too! The pool was *cold* but the sand play area was warm, so the little girls ended up there more often than in the water! We had been to this pool last summer soon after our arrival but it's much more fun now that we know people.

COLD water!

ME with her friends and classmates from left to right: A, A, ME, and E.

The wadding pool was not so cold, so GE played there a bit.

But the sand pit was much warmer! Both little girls laid down in the sand and made "sand angels".

The St. Servatius Kirche steeple peaking over the roofs.

In the evening J and I went to the Pauluskirche for one last Chor Probe (choir rehearsal). It was the first rehearsal of the month after which we always stay for a glass of wine and some nibbles. AB, the choir director, presented us with 2 lovely books as going-away-gifts. One, a gorgeous photo book of Bonn and the other a collection of songs from the Evangelische Kirche with beautiful illustrations--the funny part was that the choir was rehearsing a couple of songs from this book and I kept wondering if there was some way I could get a copy before we leave! It is bittersweet to say good-bye to friends, not knowing when or if we will meet again.

Friday June 7

A full day: took GE to Kindergarten then took the U-bahn and bus out to the airport to pick up our last rental car. A quick stop at the grocery store on the way back and then home... Back to cleaning out closets and cupboards, sorting and organizing. In between I squeezed in all the usual: making lunch for the girls, doing a load of wash and hanging it out on the balcony, picking up GE, taking ME over to a friend's house... At 3:30 the two little girls and I went over to my running friend and neighbor, SRB's house. Her two littles played with my two littles and we sat at the table in the garden talking, drinking Holunderblüttensirup in sparkling water. Later HR went over to her friend SÖ's house to spend the night. MK went to and returned from dance! A whirlwind afternoon.

After such a day, I couldn't roust up the energy to cook so we went to the Gasthütte Huth near the Klufterplatz and ate dinner in the garden. While we were there Y called and asked if ME could come spend the night, so after dinner I walked her over to her friend's house. Sweet little GE had to be tucked into bed all by herself. That's a new one for her!

Coloring while we wait for our food (we figured out at some point that German restaurants don't hand out crayons and coloring sheets when they seat you, so for most of this year we've remembered to bring something along to amuse our kids while we wait. The staff always seems so impressed while I just think "duh!")

The Terrasse.

Saturday June 8

J woke me up to say that Y's mom was on the phone. ME had a stomach ache that had awakened her! I drove over quickly (a good time to have a car!) and picked her up and took her home. After drinking a little water and taking some Jr. Tylenol, she got tucked in to our bed with a microwavable pillow (filled with seeds), and went to sleep. She slept until nearly 4 p.m.! Hmm, someone's feeling the stress of moving and leaving her friends...

In the meantime I rode bike down to the grocery store and picked up some food for the weekend, then at home got the little girls' room cleaned up and food prepared for the first grade class's party in the Schulgarten. MK helped vacuum and cleaned the bathroom. J had to go into his office for a few hours. GE played. HR was still at her friend SÖ's house. I didn't fix lunch knowing there'd be lots of finger-food and goodies (there was!) at the Schulgarten. At a little before 1 p.m. we drove (this feels SO wrong but I had a big platter of fruit "kebabs" that I couldn't figure out how I would transport with the bicycle!) down to the Klufterplatz and found a parking place (hassle!). The party was also a time for everyone to pitch in and help weed and clean up the Schulgarten. Everyone--kids too--joined in. What a fantastic tradition!

Littlest Sister trying to look cool like Big Sister.

Big Sister realizes Littlest Sister is copying her.

When everyone was hot and the kids started losing interest, tables and benches were set up in the shade and the food set out. Everyone had been asked to bring a traditional food item plus something else to share and our own drinks, plates, and cups. I made the fruit "kebabs" since I had a bag of wooden skewers to use up somehow with berries, grapes and little squares of Gouda made from goat's milk. For our "traditional" food I made Rice Crispies Treats with the last of the Rice Crispies (too hot to bake anything). After a while the class teacher, Fr. H., gathered all the children around and handed out some envelopes. Only HR didn't get one! She then asked HR to come forward and explained that the kids were starting to realize that HR would soon be leaving and they had all written her letters to say good-bye. She gave HR a bag of envelopes (letters from the kids who couldn't make it to the party) and then HR gathered the rest from her classmates. Each one stood up and said "Ich bin traurig das du weg gehst. Ich will dich vermissen." (I'm sad that you're leaving. I'm going to miss you.) Then one of the girls gave her a little German doll. I had brought a little something for Fr. H. from us and Hannah which HR then gave to her and then HR passed out the photocards with her picture, address, and my email. Many parents approached me to talk and find out what had brought us here (after all this time!!) and where we were going when we move. I also asked the parents to help their children fill in HR's Freunde Buch (Friend book) which she had gotten from her best friend for her birthday. It went home with someone and I hope it makes it back to school and into her hands by Friday!

 

Gathering all the kids around while HR waits (left).

After the letters were handed out the girls went off to play again. I rousted them together to try to take a picture, but it just got silly...

from left to right: M, HR, F, Z, S, and P.

When I stopped taking pictures, they said MK was behind me making silly faces and rabbit ears. No wonder!

Around 3 it started to threaten to storm, so we gathered our things up and headed home. Finished getting the place ready for ME's going-away party. Her friend started arriving around 6 p.m. We ordered pizza from downstairs, opened the presents that some of the girls had brought and then played games on the table. The highlight was a game that I'd played when I lived in Germany: pile up baking flour on the table or on a large cutting board and pack it slightly into a mound. Perch a piece of candy on top. Hand out a table knife and everyone takes turns slicing part of the flour off until the whole thing tips over. The person holding the knife when it falls over has to try to pick the candy out of the flour with their teeth!  Basically a Jenga-style game with flour and a sweet reward for the loser! Plus the end effect (flour all over the face) is pretty hilarious--it's not so easy to pick the candy out of the flour if it gets buried under flour.

The first casualty!

The first one to actually be able to fish the candy out with her teeth and not her fingers!

The girls played some board games, then watched a movie. There was a lot of giggling when they were trying to go to sleep and I had to go in a few times to ask them to settle down, but eventually it was quiet. In the morning I made pancakes and put out fruit and berries, powdered sugar, chocolate (Nutella like) spread, and other toppings (trying to clear out my cupboards!). They all made their own fancy pancake creations.

At 10:15 everyone went home and we headed over to church for the Gottesdienst. At the end of the service Herr E called us to the front for a Reisen-Segen (travel blessing). Afterwards we said our final good-byes to our church friends then piled into the van and drove over to Bad Honnef to meet up with our friends from Königswinter at the horse stables. The girls helped to clean and brush the pony, Jara, and then took turns riding her on the lower track.

ME helps to clean out Jara's hooves.

GE takes a turn. This is one patient pony!!

The many sides of GE...

"Bitte" with all the German inflection (long drawn out final "e") learned from her friends in Kindergarten.

Waiting her turn.

MK rode a lot! She was really sore on Monday!

GE gets some instruction in balancing on a horse while ME leads.

Look, Ma, no hands! One happy little girl!

It got cool and cloudy while we were there. MD had some extra coats and sweaters in her car. HR got wrapped up in one of the men's coats.

Monster teeth!

Afterwards we went back to their house for some home-made Kuchen and tea. Then home in the evening for supper and settling down. A full weekend! The coming week is going to be full too... Lots of "lasts".