September 10-16

Monday, September 10

Last day of summer vacation. I did some laundry--it's been so nice out that the wash dries quickly if it's set out on the balcony.

I did some grocery shopping on my bike and then headed into the city center to shop for some cheap shoes. GE needs a shoe box for her art supplies at school, so I got some basic little sneakers to wear during Oktoberfest since you spend a lot of time standing and walking, apparently, and dress shoes are not recommended. After I got home I took a nap--didn't sleep well last night... I think I've been drinking too much real coffee. 😉 I kicked the girls outside and they didn't return for over an hour. Not sure what they did, but I think it involved chocolate and the nearby playground.

In the evening I rode my bike over to the Himmelfahrtskirche in Sendling for a rehearsal with the Münchener Frauenchor. I had emailed the director expressing interest in participating and she warmly invited me to sit in on rehearsal this week. Read through some great music and enjoyed the sound and the director, so I told her after the end of the rehearsal that I would like to continue. So, Monday evenings I'll ride my bike south to go sing.

Tuesday, September 11

First day of school! Everyone was a little nervous. J walked GE to the Grundschule and I rode my bike with the big girls to the Gymnasium. On the main building windows, the class lists were posted. We found both girls' names. Students aren't allowed upstairs before 7:55, so we waited a bit to go to their classrooms. HR is in the 7E section with Frau Th and ME has Frau A for section 10C.

I stayed with HR until her teacher came--she actually had a substitute (her Art teacher). Her Klassenlehrerin (homeroom teacher) was stepping in to cover 5th grade since a couple of their teachers were sick. But, Frau Th was there briefly before going to meet the 5th graders, so I was able to introduce myself, explain our situation a little and make a brief connection. I left HR sitting in the front row with several other girls. Meanwhile ME made her way upstairs with the masses of other students and did her own thing!

First day of 7th grade at the Klenze Gymnasium - 7E with Frau Thurnes

Nerves...

She really didn't want me to take a picture... First day of 10th grade at the Klenze Gymansium -- 10C with Frau Albrecht

ME in the middle of the mob headed upstairs.

On the way home I stopped at the large Edeka and got a few groceries, then headed home to check in with J to see how things went with GE. She had shown him how to get to the school since he hadn't walked there yet. And the teacher was pleased that she had most of the school supplies already. She still needs Turnschuhe (gym shoes) and Hausschuhe--how did I forget this?! Of course, all grade school students take their street shoes off outside the classroom and wear house slippers while they're in class. They also have to have separate gym shoes--which I guess we require too, but it somehow slipped my mind. So, there is shoe shopping for all this weekend... J introduced himself and GE to her teacher, Frau H, and explained who we are and why we're here. There is another bi-lingual English-German girl whose father is American, so she is helping out GE a little to make sure she understands what's going on. Today is a short day--just until 11 a.m.--and then tomorrow and Wednesday will be full days. Friday is always done at noon.

J and I met back at home and decided to hit up the Café le Chat together and talk for a while to pass the hour until we needed to pick the girls up from school. He finished his article for the summer cycle and submitted it yesterday, so he filled me in on how he's gearing up for the book writing now. At a little before 11 a.m. we went our separate ways to get the girls.

Notice the cat cushions in the window...

I got to the Gymnasium early and was again impressed by the bike culture in Munich (and Germany in general). The school yard has several covered bike shelters, but also bike stands out along the side walk. There were bikes everywhere!

Quickly snuck a panorama shot while outside waiting.

HR came out first. She was chipper and seemed to have gotten off to a good start. Another student helped to make sure that she had some notes written down about materials they would need. She has a computer class where they will be designing their own personal webpage as part of a school site. She is still nervous about whether she'll miss when the teacher says something important, but I think the other students and most of the teachers will check in with her to make sure she gets the most important stuff. And in the end, if she misses something, it's not the end of the world--might be a good lesson for my little worrier. ME felt OK about things, but was realizing how much she still doesn't understand. The two of us went into town after lunch for some supplies that they needed and we stopped at Götterspeise on the way back and talked. She had gathered from her Deutsch class that the teacher was introducing the Aufklärung (the Enlightenment), but she had no idea what that was in a historical context, so we looked it up on Wikipedia. We also realized that she really needs to have an English-Deutsch dictionary at hand during class, so we ordered one of those promptly from Amazon.

ME ordered a Schokoespress which is basically a bittersweet hot chocolate. I had a simple cup of decaf (because SLEEP), but it was still pretty with it's crema foam on top.

Sitting outside. The weather continues to be Herrlich!

Wednesday, September 12

Got up early for a run again--this time early enough that it was still dark, so I stuck to city streets that were well lit. I forgot how much I like exploring the side streets when there's no traffic and hardly any people around. Just saw a couple of dog walkers...

This morning I walked with GE to the Grundschule and the big girls rode their bikes to school by themselves. At the street corner GE suddenly said, "Hey, that girl and those boys are in my class!" Apparently, there's a whole slew of Tumblingerschule kids and parents that meet there and then walk to the school together, so if any parents are unable to accompany their kids, then they can join the mob! I introduced myself to one of the moms and was able to clear up a question about the Fahrrad training that starts next week. At the school, I walked to GE's room with her and met her teacher. Super nice. We chatted a bit about what to expect from GE and how to handle when she doesn't understand something. She also reminded me that she needs Hausschuhe (yes...) and Turnschuhe (I know... we'll get some this weekend).

Tumblinger Grundschule

Heading in!

Later in the afternoon I was in the city center when I realized that GE was getting out of school in less than 20 minutes. I booked it back on my bike and was a minute late. GE had already left on her own, but I had another chance to talk with her teacher and check in about how things are going. She seemed pleased with GE's socializing but also said she didn't seem to understand when the teacher speaks to her in German, so she was using some English to help her out. I'm sure that won't last very long! By the time we finished talking and I got home, GE had already rung the bell and the big girls let her in. She seemed pretty pleased with herself. She walked with a classmate almost all the way until she had to turn off onto another street.

HR also seemed to have a good day connecting with the girls in her class. She and ME rode home together when they were released at 1:10 p.m. She had more supplies that needed to be purchased and ME also had a couple of things she wanted for classes, so HR and I set off for the city center (2nd trip for me today! Will someone please tell the Germans to send out supplies lists BEFORE school starts? The stores are a crazy mob every afternoon...). We also picked up some Hausschuhe for GE and Turnschuhe for HR. At home, HR worked on making flashcards to review French verbs for her Französisch homework. ME said her math class syllabus had almost all concepts that she had covered already in Algebra II last year. So, hopefully she'll get good high scores in that class right off the bat.

Thursday, September 13

I'm starting to get a rhythm to my day: get up and run, shower, pack Pausebrot (school snacks) for the kids and roust them out of bed. Pick up a few groceries after kids are off to school. Home to unpack and then go through the papers they brought home from school or that arrived in the mail (i.e. figure out what's relevant and what's recycling). Coffee (decaf). Some laundry and then practice. Pretty much fills up my morning. So far the afternoons have consisted of helping the girls with school related stuff, but I imagine that will start to slow down some too.

I decided to find another choir to join... because, why not? So, the same church where the Frauenchor rehearses, also has a large church choir that performs a couple of oratorios every year. It's conveniently located and doesn't require a formal audition, so I emailed the director and am going to go tonight. They are doing Mendelssohn's Elias (Elijah) in November and the Bach Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio) in December. I'm sure they have soloists lined up already, but that's fine. I'll just enjoy singing in the choir! So, if I enjoy the directing tonight, I'll start regular rehearsals every Thursday for the Himmelfahrtskirchen Chor.

Friday, September 14

Today was packed. It didn't really start out that way. I thought I was going to have a pretty quiet morning, a little extra sleep, and a slow start. Rain moved in overnight, so I didn't go out to run. After the girls were launched I started some laundry, walked to the grocery store with my rolling cart and an umbrella, stopping at the library to return some DVDs, and then got on the computer to solve some Amazon shipment problems... Some of our packages were listed as having been delivered, but we hadn't received them. Two were left with a neighbor and I was able to figure out how to see which neighbor had signed for it (couldn't tell you now how I got to that info--it was not user friendly and let's leave it at that). The other was a box with some Lederhosen for J. He didn't like the store prices and we found something, hopefully acceptable, on Amazon.de. It was "delivered" on Monday, but since we were out at the time of the delivery, apparently it was dropped off at a "parcel pickup shop" but there was absolutely no way to tell which one or even which delivery system had attempted to deliver. I went to both a DHL shop and the closest Deutsche Post and neither had any way to tell where the package was, even when I provided a tracking number. Amazon tracking FAIL. So, I've complained to Amazon customer service, received a refund for the "lost" item, and have to reorder... Sigh. That pretty much took up my morning.

GE is released at noon on Fridays, so when she came home, we loaded up on bikes to go to the big girls' school and meet them. We needed to go together to get passport photos for our Aufenthaltstitel (residency permit) applications. The big girls and I had planned to go downtown for more school supplies after this and GE was going to come along to get her Turnschuhe, but right next to the passport photo shop was a discount shoe store. Ended up getting her shoes there and then just ME and I went downtown again to get supplies and her shoes. By the time all the biking and shopping was done, it was after 5 p.m.! Raced home, made supper, and now it's almost 9 p.m. Whew.

Other stuff: at the rehearsal last night one of the tenors spoke to me during the break and said he was newer to the choir and could he explain why it was one of the best choirs to join... He proceeded to explain how wonderful the director is, that people drive in from the suburbs to participate in this choir, that it's really fun, and if I join, I absolutely must go along to the Probewochenende (weekend choir retreat) in October at the Kloster Baumburg. Twist my arm, must you?! He also went on to explain that the director, Herr Geitner, is well connected to the München Hochschule für Musik (Munich Music Conservatory). Hmmm, seems serendipitous. Before the rehearsal had begun, Herr Geitner had said that if I wanted to keep singing with the choir, he would want to hear me individually, so I emailed him this morning to let him know I would like to continue and asked when a good time would be to come sing for him. I also expressed my interest in finding a teacher in the area and maybe after he hears me, he could put me in contact with some possible teachers/coaches. We'll see what he says...

Another music contact success: I was given the name of Liat Himmelheber by one of the JMU profs I sometimes perform with. I'd emailed her and she wrote back this morning to say she'd love to meet and would I have time to have coffee next Thursday when she is in Munich to visit her elderly parents. So, cross your fingers! Networking and getting "in" with the music makers can take time--time I don't have with a 9 month sabbatical, 1 month already past--so the faster I can make these connections, the better.

Saturday, September 15

We slept in a bit but then rousted the girls out of bed so we could bike downtown to tour the Residenz (Wittelsbach family Residence; i.e. PALACE) and see the Schatzkammer (Treasury). We packed a picnic basket for lunch and J dropped it off in his locker at the Max Planck Institute, right around the corner from the Residenz. That way we didn't have to try to carry it around with us or leave it with the coat check.

Waiting for Dad to come back out.

The museum is HUGE. We actually ended up cutting it short because it was after 1 p.m. and we were only about half way through! We saw lots of fancy rooms and fancy furniture. I didn't find the historical audio guide quite as interesting as the one at Schönbrunn in Vienna, so after a while I started skimming the info boards in each room instead of listening to the long winded British accent rambling on about how the furniture wasn't actually original to the palace, but had been collected from various family holdings and used to refurnish the palace after it was restored following its near total destruction during WWII. But I still find it fascinating to imagine the way the royalty lived in their "apartments," the different wings of the palace, which they often hired artists and architects to remodel and update to the latest fashion. There was a lot of Rococo bling! We all especially liked the perspective room with its painted ceiling using perspective, at the time a new visual art effect, to make it appear that columns were rising from the corners to support the ceiling (which was really just slightly vaulted).

A Rococo fountain made out of sea shells!!

The dining room... Literally: the king/prince would sit at a dining table on the dais to the right and eat while all his court stood below and watched. TV anyone? Wonder how long he took to eat his meals?

Listening to the audio guide.

The "Perspective room"

Rococo furniture BLING!

The little details: embroidered wall border.

The reconstructed chapel (basically demolished in WWII) as a modernized concert hall. Simple brick and stone. I may have to come for a concert sometime this year!

A royal bed that was built for display purposes! Literally never been slept in. The little girls offered to be the first to try it out! Hahaha!

Exquisite pastel portraits of one of the sets of twins in some branch of the Wittelsbach family (can't remember which). There were more than one set of twins--3 in this family!

The never ending suite of apartments...

Getting bored.

Perhaps the strangest mermaids we've ever seen?! Rococo bling is WEIRD.

And the chandeliers!!

Time for tea!!

This may have been my favorite room! Part of the Hall of Mirrors, the little blue splashes of color are porcelain vases! The wall was covered in tiny round shelves just the right size for little fancy vases.

After taking an "early exit" option, we visited the famous Schatzkammer where various pieces of the centuries of collected treasure by the Wittelsbach family are displayed. BLING! I thought the crowns were cool--again trying to imagine them actually being worn! The kids thought the swords were awesome. Learned a little new about Bergkristall too. Remarkable stuff--the artists that worked with it had to be incredibly skilled as it's notoriously difficult to work.

 

Violin made from tortoise shell!!

When we finally finished, we were all famished--it was after 2! So we got our bikes and our picnic basket and rode up into the Englischer Garten just north of the Residenz and found a bench to sit and eat our lunch. Then we thought we'd explore the park some more on our bikes... At one point we heard music, so decided to follow it. Ended up at the Chinesischer Turm Biergarten and there was a polka band playing in the Turm! The source of the music...

We parked our bikes and had a couple of cups of coffee while the kids explored the playground and merry-go-round, then headed back out on our bikes for another round on the bike paths. Somewhere along the line, we made too many right turns and found ourselves almost exactly back at the place we'd entered the park and to our surprise, this corner also happened to be the infamous "surfing" spot on one of the Isar canals! The currents at certain points where the canals feed in to or flow out of the Isar, can have incredible waves and people come with wet suits and surf boards to slip in and take turns surfing!! We watched for a bit and then biked home through the Isarvorstadt.

Sunday, September 16

We have decided to just go to the Liberale Mennonitische Gemeinde that we visited last week, so since they only meet a couple of Sundays a month, we slept in this morning instead. That may change if we decide to attend one of the area Evangelische (Lutheran/Protestant) churches, but for now, it seems to suit our inclinations. The girls all had some weekend homework, even GE, so we had them get down to business. After that I set them to helping me clean the whole apartment--I know, that should be a Saturday job, but we just didn't get to it yesterday and I refuse to do it all by myself anymore. Tiny apartment: doesn't take long when everyone pitches in.

After lunch J and I packed up our laptops and headed to another café I'd found on my run this morning. Just around the corner, but off our usual paths, so we hadn't noticed it before! The Leib & Siegel Café was just the ticket. We set up at a table inside by the window, ordered some coffee and set to work. I've picked up a small editing job that I can work on remotely, and so I was working through the first parts of that and refreshing my memory of the Chicago Manual of Style.

The rest of the day was spent at home relaxing. Chatted with my mom, my sister, and MK via WhatsApp. Nice to hear that the Harrisonburg area dodged the hurricane. Love to all!