Cooking and Playing

Alex's preschool serves a hot scratch-cooked (often organically sourced) healthy lunch every day and by all accounts the kids eat things at school that they don't even consider trying at home. The cook is a wonderful warm and amazing person and all the kids love her and her creations. Well, this being Germany, folks have lots of paid vacation days (as they should!) and she was off this week. The solution they've come up with is to ask parents to sign up for a day and then come in and cook. I thought, well, I like to cook, I can probably do this, and so on Wednesday this week it was my turn to prepare a 3-course lunch for 45 kids and 6 adults. We've known that this was coming for a while and so Alex and I had been planning our menu. I had lots of ideas, but Alex decided it should be Gnocchi with meat sauce, so that's what I wrote on the sign-up sheet. Well, when the week approached I got nervous and went shopping 2 days early. I bought epic amounts of vegetables, fruits, meet, and the gnocchi. In fact, I ended up cooking 14 bags of them! I arrived at 10:30 am to be ready for a 12:15 pm lunch. I immediately started chopping and cooking and barely made it in time for the hungry brood of kids. The kitchen looks out onto the backyard/playground and I heard them playing while I was cooking away. 

While I was busy in the kitchen and the kids were busy outside, one of the teachers stayed back and set the tables in the various classrooms. This is what Alex's classroom looked like right before they all stormed back in:

It felt a little weird to take pictures of the kids eating, so I don't have any, but I did manage to take some shots of the food I made. Their first course consisted of plates of raw veggies (this is typical for lunch here, I just kind of copied the regular cook here) and the kids gobbled them up really fast. I was impressed.

For the main course, there were the aforementioned epic quantities of (pre made, but hey, I was cooking for 4 year olds) gnocchi and a huge vat of meat sauce. I filled at least 12 big serving bowls of food and things got so rushed that I didn't manage to take a picture before it all left the kitchen. Here's all that was left after all the kids were done.

For dessert I cut a few dozen kiwis and peeled and sectioned several bags of clementines. Judging by the empty plates that came back, I think it all was a success. It took me until 2:30 to run the dishwasher twice (no throw-away dishes here!) and hand wash all the pots and pans. At some point Alex came into the kitchen, gave me a hug and told me I'd done a good job! Hurray. When I was finally finished, the teachers assumed I'd collect Alex and we'd go home. Instead, I left him there for 2 more hours, went to a cafe, had a latte and poppy seed pastry, and spent some time with a novel. 

Then, the next day, we got together with other new friends. These are folks we've met through the guest scholar program at the university and they are other Americans. I got Alex at 3:30 pm and we headed over to their apartment. Our friends have an almost 4-year old daughter and she and Alex get along really well. They played for a while doing "craft" projects inside and then we headed out to a nearby playground. Here they are exploring the equipment. Don't be misled by the appearance of sunshine. It's been bitterly cold here!

After we were all frozen, we went back inside and they continued to play. Alex and Irene got along great, they clearly like each other. The only slightly weird thing for me to watch was that Alex was almost entirely silent the whole time. He's usually such a chatterbox. Well, it turned out, he said that he could not speak English anymore and he realized that Irene can't speak German, so he just decided to be silent! By the very end of the evening, he'd recovered some of his English, they snuggled on the couch, and he was "reading" a book to Irene. 

We had a great time hanging out with them and hope to do so again very soon.

A Playdate

Today Alex had his first play date with a new friend. He has really bonded with a 5-year old girl called Victoria from his class and the two of them had been plotting to get together outside school for a while. Once her mom and I figured out what was going on, we set something up. Their first play date was to be at our house. I picked up the kids from school around 3:30 and they were both incredibly excited. Their teachers said that they had talked about this all day. Once we got all bundled up, we started to walk home. The kids were so giddy that they literally jumped and bounced around and at some point started running as fas as they could.

I had to walk pretty fast to be able to keep up with them! Once we got home, they started to play immediately and they were just lovely together. They "dressed up" as firefighters and had all sorts of other imaginary scenarios. I'm not sure what this was about, but at some point they took over my bedroom and Alex's Winnie the Poo got locked in a box while Alex looked through a kaleidoscope. It all made sense to them. (You can also see Alex in his beloved boy tights!)

They never fought, there were no tears or disagreements. It was great. Around 6pm Victoria's mom and her sister came by to pick her up and I think we have already made plans to get them together again next week. As he was falling asleep tonight, Alex asked me if he can marry Victoria when they get bigger. Seems a little early to make plans, but if it's true love, why not?

Luxembourg!

We are back from our first big road trip! My long-time friend and colleague Erik is currently staying in Luxembourg where his university (Miami of Ohio) has a European campus. They have both local faculty and staff and also several Miami folks who come to teach there for a period of a few months or a few years. The university rents a castle in the southern Luxembourg town of Differdange, where they have classrooms, offices, and faculty apartments. We were able to stay in a guest room/mini apartment at the castle. The weekend was wonderful! Here are some details and pictures.

It all started somewhat inauspiciously on Friday morning, when I received a call from Enterprise Car Rental that the car I had reserved well in advance was actually not available after all. I had flashbacks to the Seinfeld episode about making a reservation vs. keeping a reservation. After a few more phone calls and negotiations, they came up with the idea to send a driver to pick me up from my apartment and then  take me to a car rental place in Mannheim. On the way, we got Alex from school. When we got to Mannheim, the place we were dropped off turned out to be a BMW dealership with a little rental counter. Here's Alex waiting at the posh dealership amazed at all the swanky accessories etc!

When we finally got the car, it turned out to be a black, 6-speed, convertible, Mini-Cooper! I thought of Hilary the whole weekend! Well, we left Mannheim in our stylish car and from there it was only a 2.5 hour trip to Luxembourg. We literally crossed the border at the town of Schengen. All that marked the border was a small sign on the side of the highway (and a text message from my cell phone provider).

Erik really truly lives in a medieval castle and he greeted us in the castle courtyard.

He then showed us to our quarters. Here's Alex settling in.

And this was the view from our window into the castle courtyard. Please note the stylish black Mini-Cooper parked in the snow.

Erik gave us a tour of the castle, which included the spooky attic, main medieval dining hall, beautiful library etc. We then had a walk in the town and dinner at home. Alex went to sleep and Erik and I hung out for a long time over a few glasses of wine.

The next day we made good use of the rental car and went on a road trip through much of Luxembourg. We drove past Luxembourg city and I learned that Luxembourg is the richest country in Europe (per capita income). Who knew? It also boasts large numbers of immigrants, many from Portugal apparently and there are colorful painted houses (Portuguese style?) all over the country. They looked especially fun and vibrant given the rather dreary, foggy, and overcast weather. Our main destination was the town of Vianden which has a large and wonderfully restored castle. It was built on the foundation of a Roman fortress (!) and perched on a hilltop. The town's other claim to fame is that Victor Hugo stayed here for a while while writing some of his novels. If so inclined, visitors can walk along the Victor Hugo trails.

But we were there for the castle. Here are Alex and Erik approaching Vianden castle.

 Here is another view of the imposing structure.

Once inside, we were treated to all the trappings one would expect of medieval castles - including suits of armor and canons.

As the castle grew and expanded over the centuries, they masterfully built it around the existing rock and I loved seeing the natural and man-made structures intertwine.

There was, of course, a chapel. This one connected two stories. Here is the view from below:

And from above. They had painted the columns in medieval colorful style.

At one point, Alex was using an inner courtyard to frolic in the snow.

We also loved the well which was 53 meters deep!

I've been to many castles over the years, but this one was really great. After our extensive tour of the castle, we had lunch in the town. The restaurant we chose turned out to be smoky and the food was marginal, at best, but the town itself was almost impossibly charming. I would love to come back here on a sunny day. Anyone want to join us?

After Vianden, we headed across the border to Germany. Both Erik and I wanted to see Bitburg. The small city is famous for its brewery (Bitburger) - though we had coffee instead -

and the military cemetery where Ronald Reagan ran into so much trouble in 1985.

We searched in vain for the US soldiers who were supposed to be buried there, but we did find the graves of a few SS men. Ugh.

The road back to Differdange was lovely. The next morning, we said good-bye to Erik and the castle and made our way back to Heidelberg. We had a wonderful weekend full of new impressions, great conversation, yummy food, and two nights in a real castle!

Fasching (Mardi Gras)

These last few days have been dedicated almost entirely to Fasching, which is now - finally - over. Between last Thursday and Tuesday were the most important days of Fasching and most kids came to school dressed up most days. Here's Alex on Monday. Dana will recognize the Fireman shirt which is much beloved by Alex. Here he is standing in front of the door to his classroom. He's in the dragon group as you can see by the dragon on the door.

The school shared a CD of pictures with us that included shots from the big party last Thursday. Here are a few selections. You can see Batman with his friend, a knight.

Here is Alex's whole group in their costumes in their classroom.

Here's Alex with a bunch of other kids, including another Batman! Alex is the one in the center.

And, finally, here they are playing a dancing game in the little gym at the school.

Well, after most of the parties and celebrations happen inside, on Monday and Tuesday this week, Fasching moved into the streets. Many cities host parades, especially in Western Germany and Heidelberg's parade was set for Tuesday at 2 pm. The school closed right at 2pm, so everyone had the chance to go to the parade. We had made a date with Alex's new friend Victoria and her mom and we headed into the city together. Thousands of people were already lined up along the parade route when we got there, but we still got a good spot to watch - and collect candy! It was bitterly cold and though Alex was wearing his costume, it was essentially invisible under his 3 or 4 layers to keep him somewhat warm. I kept warm with a bright pink wig Alex had talked me into buying a few days earlier. Needless to say, wearing a pink wig inevitably leads to making silly faces.

We had to wait for a while for the parade to get to our spot and here's Alex in eager anticipation. His only other parade experience is the Greencastle Fair parade and this would be quite different. Here we are still waiting.

But finally the first floats arrived!

Some of the floats had political messages - as is typical for Fasching in Germany. Here's one commenting on the withdrawal of American troops from Germany.

There were also bands, dancing troupes, and groups of folks dressed as animals etc. Here is a group of people dressed as traditional German witches. We had to reassure the kids that these were just costumes, because the witches looked pretty large and terrifying. The fact that they were handing out candy, however, made them less scary to the kids.

Even with all our layers, it did get awfully cold standing outside in the below-freezing temperatures. Thankfully Victoria's mom had brought a thermos of hot, sweet herbal fruit tea (a typical German kids drink) and the kids were able to warm up at least a little bit. 

As if the day hadn't been exciting enough, when we got back home, there was a package waiting for us from the fabulous Rachel Musser who had sent all sorts of Batman stuff to Alex. Thanks, Rachel. You are wonderful!

What a day!

Day-trip to Sinsheim

On Saturday, we took a day-trip to the nearby town of Sinsheim. Those of you who follow German/European soccer may have heard of the Hoffenheim soccer team which came out of nowhere a few seasons ago to give the big-name teams a run for their money. They have their main stadium in this town, but we had come for technology. Yes, folks, you read right, technology. Sinsheim has a large museum dedicated to cars and technology, so I had read, and we wanted to check it out. We had to take a ride on the S-Bahn for about 40 minutes from Heidelberg, which was much enjoyed by Alex, as you can see here.

I really didn't know exactly what to expect and was as surprised as Alex to see this view as soon as we got off the S-Bahn:

There seemed to be two or more giant airplanes hovering in the sky. I had read online that visitors could  go into them, but how could that be possible if they were so high up? (Keep reading for the answer.) As we walked closer, Alex demanded the camera to take a picture of me in front of whatever giant machine this is. Not a bad shot for a 4-year old, I think.

Once we got to the entrance, we realized the scale of this museum. There were several hangars, an IMAX theatre (which we skipped), an outdoor playground (though the weather still left a lot to be desired), and those planes everywhere suspended in the sky on top of the buildings. Here is a view from the entry gates/parking lot.

Well, we found the main entrance, dutifully paid our fee, and then entered the first of these massive hangars/halls. It was filled to bursting with cars, trucks, trains, planes, tanks, motorcycles, engines, mechanical musical instruments, etc. An odd and sometimes seemingly random organization of things, but fun to look at and explore. Here are some of my attempts to capture the scale and the hodgepodge in photos.

It was hard to make sense of it all, but we mostly enjoyed the sights and sounds of it. Thankfully, they had removed most of the Nazi insignia from the German military gear, but it seemed weird to me to see a Soviet tank, and German anti-aircraft gun, and an American Jeep all mixed up with each other as if they had all been on the same side. I kept thinking about to what extent this technology is ideologically tainted, but kept these thoughts to myself as I wandered through these gigantic displays with my 4-year old, who cannot yet make sense of any of these things. After we had more or less tackled the first hangar (it took almost 2 hours), we went outside and spent a little time on the playground, all the while intrigued by the planes hovering overhead. We were most interested in the Air France Concorde and the Aeroflot Tupolev (two supersonic passenger jets of the late 20th century).

When we took a little break with our picnic brought from home, I told Alex the story I remembered from my childhood that my dad had once been a passenger on a flight on the Concorde from Paris to New York and Catherine Deneuve had sat across the aisle from him. (I skipped the part about Ms. Deneueve in my version for Alex.) He now became obsessed with figuring out how to get into that plane. Well, it turned out, we had to enter another hangar filled to capacity with various vehicles etc., climb a set of stairs to the roof, walk along a walkway on the roof, and then climb up a spiral staircase up to the plane, which was mounted at quite a steep angle several hundreds of feet up in the air. Have I mentioned that I have quite a strong fear of heights and it was freezing cold, windy, wet, slippery, and snowing slightly? Here is our view of the plane from the roof of the building!

I was scared the entire time, but I could not say no and so we clambered up there together. And, guess what? On the inside, it looked like a passenger airplane, slightly narrower than the one we had been in just a few weeks ago. Was it worth it? For Alex, absolutely. In fact, he made me go up into the Tupolev as well, for comparison, and we've had multiple conversations about those two planes since. After that excursion into the sky, we went back down into the hangar and looked at more things for several more hours. We kept thinking that Alex's cousins, especially Niko would really love this place. 

With the exception of the two planes we visited, I think Alex's favorite exhibit was this "Blaster Master" - not least, because he was allowed to climb all over it. What a way to spend a Saturday!