Monday, January 28, 2013

Grüß Gott!

So our first two weeks in Germany have been less than glamorous.  What's glamorous about living in a hotel on an American base with no car in the dead of winter?  Nothing, that's what.
However, I did get to go to a German immersion class tonight, which was kind of fun. 


Yeah, I took a picture of the table because I thought the teacher would think I was super weird if I snapped a picture of her.  

So, here are a few useful things I learned:

Grüß Gott!  (Greetings from God) I guess this is the regional greeting 
Guten Morgen, Guten Tag, Guten Abend, Gute Nacht
(Good morning, Good day, good evening, good night)
Wie geht es Dir?  (How are you?)
Wie heist Du?  (What is your name?)
Woher kommst Du?  (Where do you come from?)

Yes, very basic, but more German than what I knew before I attended class, which obviously wasn't much


And the German teacher shared these scrumptious little treats with us:
I am quickly becoming a fan of Ritter Sport... it is German chocolate distributed throughout the world that is produced right here in Stuttgart!  


And on the family front, I bought Caroline a princess bowl, plate, and silverware set, hoping it would inspire her to eat.  But so far she only wants to sleep with it.  And Emily is already picking up the German language.  I asked her to do something the other day and she casually told me, "Nein."



Sunday, January 20, 2013

Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning!

Going to church for the first time when living overseas is always an adventure.  You don't have your car yet, so you are forced to figure out the public transpo system, and by nature public transpo is ALWAYS an adventure.  Today was no different.

Church started at 1 p.m. and Ben figured that for us to be on time we'd need to leave the hotel at 10:30!!  I'm sure you're thinking why not just take a taxi?  But it would have cost 40 Euro for a 30 minute drive.  No thank you. 

So, the first leg of our journey was a 2 mile walk to the train station.  No buses available.  

I was excited to get out and get moving since we've been cooped up in our small hotel room for the past several days.  


Mock my Ushanka all you want (Ben got it for me in Moscow), but it keeps me warm!  And get used to it, because I'll be wearing it in almost all my pics!


The only problem was that the trail either had snow or worse, ICE.  So slippery.  We almost face planted like 15 times, but Providence was on our side.


It was a beautiful and invigorating walk... so many trees around here.

Ben said this is what the Germans exclaim when they fall on ice:


I cringed as Ben very carefully rolled the stroller down the icy steps onto the platform



 The platform was like an iceskating rink, people were slipping and sliding all over the place.  This lady was awesome... hair to match the earrings and leggings. 



A rare smile for the camera from Caroline, so had to post it

The icy platform


And the train!!  You can tell we're new here, can't you?  Taking pics of the train.


The girls loved looking out the window





After making a switch from the S-Bahn to the U-Bahn, we finally arrived at our stop.  One-half mile up a slippery slope to the chapel.


And finally, at 12:30 after two hours of transit we arrived at the church!! (Ben always builds in extra time where ever we go, hence we are always early to where ever we go.)




The sight of the chapel was very assuring, but do you sense something amiss in this pic?


The parking lot is empty!!
And the doors were all locked



Not long after our arrival, this sweet family came upon us.  They are members of the ward here, from Hungary, and were also looking to go to church.  They let Ben use their cell phone to call the elders, and yep, church was cancelled due to the ice.  They didn't want members out on the treacherous ice.

Oh, the irony!!

So, what did we do?


That's right, we went to a Doner Kebab restaurant
  


Judge us all you want, but the girls were fetching cold and we had to get in somewhere warm.  My mom said when she was a girl back in Chicago the whole clan went out to dinner every Sunday after church.  And her grandpa was the bishop!  Why can't it be like back then? 

 Then we repeated the entire process to get back home, this time, not so excited to be taking pics.  We got home just before 4:00, frozen solid.  But, hey, at least we got out of the hotel room.  



Thursday, January 17, 2013

Homeless

It's not a great feeling, being homeless (and car-less for that matter).  But that's what we are for the time being. 


 No, this is not a concentration camp, it's Patch Barracks in the southwest of Germany.  It's where we hope to find quarters some day.  Sigh.  If they ever have an opening.  Sigh.


We've been here for a full fledged 48 hours.  We are wide awake at night, and dead tired during the day.  Except for Em, who seems to have fallen in step with the time change without batting an eye.  She's slept every night through.  C, on the other hand, is up for hours in the night and I could strangle her (not really) for refusing to take the melatonin that is supposed to drug her to sleep.  I mean, I got the gummies for crying out loud and she LOVES gummies, but she knows how desperately I want her to take it and she is flat out refusing.  Grrrr.

If you couldn't tell from the pic, it is cold and snowy and wintery and we haven't seen much of anything beyond our hotel room and the short bus ride to Patch Barracks.  


I know I'm way behind in my blogging.  We spent the past month visiting family in Utah and Kansas.  Many good pictures that accompany many good memories will be posted some time soon. 

But here is just one photo from our travels.  Emily saying good-bye to her pal/cousin Ricky the day before we left.  So sweet.




It's exciting to be in a new place, but down right frustrating too... such a high learning curve. I'm glad I experienced Poland because I know the beginning is hard, but it will get better!  We are on the hunt for a house and hopefully will find something soon.  More to come...