Okay, how many of you were just waiting to see how long I could last without an update? I held out almost a month, but during that time I realized even if I did stop updating our blog, I wouldn't be using the extra time to paste photos into a photo album, and Mom was asking what we've been up to, so I decided, actually a blog is not such a bad thing to keep in touch and keep a record of life. Maybe I'll just do a "highlight of the week" blog this school year. In any case, you can read about our first week back to school on the new blog: http://familienbericht3.blogspot.com/.

Last Days of the Re-Entry Year

Hard to believe it's been exactly one year since our return from our year in the US. Time for the Re-Entry blog to come to an end. 

I'd promised Michael we'd go to Legoland even before we left for the US, so we finally drove five hours in heavy traffic down to Günzburg (Bavaria), five hours back, and had lots of fun in between. 


Laura reverted to her childhood state of wanting to go on all the rides (much to the boys' surprise), 
Patrick overcame his fear of roller coasters, and Michael admired all the Lego models, especially the new Star Wars exhibit.


Now here's to all the new school year will bring!

Legoland Roller coaster video

Before we went to Legoland, Papa gave me a watch with an integrated camera for building up his home cinema. When we were on a roller coaster in Legoland, I turned on the camera.

Lenerl

Mom wrote that Lenerl died last month. She and Mom were cousins--Lenerl in Bavaria, Mom in the US. It was always a treat visiting Weilheim because Lenerl welcomed us with such open arms.

I wanted to look in my journal at what I'd written about her when I was 16, in Germany for the first time and unable to speak any German. On the second day, I noted a "conversation" I had with Lenerl:
"Eis?" asked Lenerl.
"Ja," I answered. I had nine cookies in addition because, as I wrote, "Lenerl wasn't done with her ice cream, and I didn't know what to say, so I stuffed my mouth." The ice cream, I noted, was delicious: 2 scoops Italian strawberry, 2 of nut, 2 of chocolate ripple and 2 wafers.

Seems I was more interested in the ice cream than in writing a character sketch of my 50-year old "Tante."

I can't believe there is nothing about Lenerl's (Maria Magdalena Graf geb. Sellmaier) death in the Internet, not that she was famous, but seems as though if there is an obituary these days, it's electronic as well. When I receive a death announcement, I'll put the information here for posterity, even though she didn't have any children.

Nick's eighteenth birthday!

 Nick's 18!!  Somehow Birthday #18 was more emotional for me than all the others combined. I got teary-eyed (for the first time on a child's birthday) when Georg's dad talked about coming to the hospital 18 years before and about all Nick's good traits. So hard to believe 18 years have gone by.  The first ten seemed to go by at a normal rate, but the last eight? I really don't know where they went.   


Nick, of course, is looking forward to the privileges 18 brings...like being able to get his German driver's license and signing for his own business. Hard to believe he just has one more year of school; he's started researching universities. He's mostly interested in German ones because in the US, he'd still have to take language, math and science classes, whereas here he can already start concentrating on what he's interested in, which right now looks to be business and marketing.


In any case, we enjoyed some champagne, fruit shortcake, zucchini bars, and oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies!  And then the boys went with Omi and Opi for a week in Wegberg. 

 

Open-air musical on campus

I

On Leo's last evening in Germany, the boys met me in Frankfurt to attend the English department's open-air musical.  

The teenagers enjoyed lying on the picnic blanket, and it was cute for me to see some of my brave students singing songs from various musicals.  Michael's favorite song was "With a Little Bit of Luck" from My Fair Lady; I couldn't get "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story out of my head! "Supercalifragilisticexpialidociaous" brought back memories of playing the 45 RPM record in Oma and Opa's basement for hours and hours and hours. 


After the performance, the kids had fun horsing around on the sculptures by Masayuki Koorida scattered about campus.

Day in Frankfurt with Leo

 On Tuesday we took Leo for sightseeing in Frankfurt.  We did the usual Hauptwache/ Römer/ Dom sights, but for a change, we went into the Goethe-Haus, the house where Goethe was born.


In the train we read about the "wundersame Uhr," the astronomical clock that Goethe had admired as a child.  It was designed by his tutor, a lawyer whose hobbies were astronomy, math, and mechanics.  Clocks in those days (ca. 1750) were only beginning to show the correct time. Hüsgen's clock is amazing even for today's standards and shows the zodiac sign, the date, and the phase of the moon, as well as the time.  


Only the first four stairs are from the original Goethe house; the rest of the house was destroyed during the War. It's interesting though because Germans have the expression that if people are very rich, they are "steinreich" (stone rich), and that is because only the very rich could afford stone stairs in the home; the rest had wooden staircases.  All in all, it was a very interesting hour we spent in the house/museum of Germany's famous poet.  Nick has to read his "Faust" for next semester.


After our cultural visit together, Nick and Patrick went shopping, while Leo, Michael, and I walked along the Main. On our way back to meet Nick and Patrick, we walked through the cathedral, where the Holy Roman Emperors were elected during the Middle Ages.  Then we rushed back to Eppstein to get Nick to the oral surgeon, so his stitches could be removed!

Day on the Rhine with Leo

 Was over 90 degrees, but we stuck with our plans to show Leo the Rhine.  


First, we rode the gondolas up to the top of the mountain and enjoyed the view of the vineyards; then we had a picnic near the giant statue of Germania. 

We hiked along the Rhine, stopping at highlights, including a "magic cave," designed by the earl to whom the land belonged in the nineteenth century.  Luckily, Kristine (who joined us for the excursion) brought a flashlight!  


We then rode chairlifts down, enjoyed some apple strudel, and took the ship back to where we'd left the car in Rüdesheim!  Full day.

Eppstein walking tour

 We took Leo on a four-hour walking tour of Eppstein today.  First stop, Michael and Patrick's schools and their soccer field, where even I was drafted to play a game of soccer to even out the teams.
 After soccer, they were THIRSTY, so we walked down the hill to the Old Town and sat outdoors at the Zum Taunus restaurant, and had three BOTTLES of water.  We also ate Schnitzels and Flammkuchen before heading up to the cobblestone path to the castle.

 In the castle, a great tour guide who had worked for IBM for 30 years insisted on giving us a tour in English, even though I said Leo was here to learn German!  In any case, he made the history of knighthood come alive.  We couldn't believe how heavy the chain mail was. Leo seemed particularly interested, so the guide helped him try it on!










After learning all about the dungeon, the doors to the tower, what types of things knights would catapult over enemy walls (gross!), and the legend of Eppo and the giant, we walked past the bookstores on Eppstein's main street and back up the hill to Vockenhausen.

Exchange student from Paris arrives

Yesterday evening I picked up Leo from the Frankfurt train station.  He's the son of a colleague's friend.  Michael had been asking for our fancy nacho dip, so even though it is not very German, we decided we'd offer our traditional welcome snack upon arrival.  Leo's German is great for just having had one year, and he seems up for anything.  He even played us French and English songs on his guitar.  

Michael's Class Camp-Out

On Friday Michael's class had its last event (a six-kilometer hike through the forest from Ehlhalten to Heftrich, for their class party and camp-out).  The dinner buffet was amazing; I'm always impressed by the fancy dishes German families bring to these events. Despite the "competition," our chocolate-chip muffins were the first to disappear:)


After dinner and some soccer playing, the kids sang a lovely song to their teacher at the campfire, accompanied by Michael's friend's father on guitar. The kids gave Frau Kaufmann a bottle filled with mystery notes, and she had to guess who was the "most beautiful," "has played basketball the longest," "plays violin" and so forth.  She did an amazing job, and you can see by the crowd gathered around her that her pupils were really into it!

Georg volunteered to be one of the parents to sleep in the 22-man tent, and I was one of the moms who brought the group breakfast in the rain at 7:30 a.m.!  The weather cleared though and everyone agreed it was a good farewell party.  Hard to believe that this group which has been together in the same class for FOUR years and had "Kaufi" for two will be going in many different directions--to different towns, different schools, to different branches (vocational vs. academic).  

Weinfest in Wiesbaden

Michael and I met up with Carla for the Wiesbaden Weinfest Friday night.  When Michael thinks Wiesbaden, he thinks Thai food, so luckily one of the stands at the Weinfest had super-tasty Thai food!  





After watching some beach volleyball, Michael pretended to be on the beach and was disappointed that Wiesbaden's Marktkirche was in the background; otherwise, you might have thought he was in Hawaii like his cousins!


As we made our way back to the car, we passed the Hessian Landtag (legislative assembly), where Mike is showing you the Nutella crepe he is still holding from the street festival.  

Place to Visit

I didn't even know Germany had geysers!  This summer vacation I want to go to this park.  I came across it because I heard Sam was interested in volcanos and noticed the article in the paper about a big volcano park not too far away from us.  It mentioned the geyser in the area.

Ascension Day

 We didn't get Memorial Day on Monday, but yesterday we had Ascension Day.  The weather was gorgeous. Michael and I spent a relaxing day with Celine, mostly on the balcony.  

I gave feedback on a pile of writing journals my students turned in on Wednesday.  Michael worked many hours on a tricky Harry Potter puzzle, then played for some hours with his friend Lukas.  Nick and Patrick were in Bensheim. It feels like SUMMER...even though I am only mid-semester, and the boys have three weeks to go.

Medieval Fest with Carla

 Last weekend Carla and I met up and went to Eppstein's medieval fest.  Cousin Allison and Carla were friends in L.A., so when Carla moved to Wiesbaden to teach English and yoga at a Montessori school, Allison put us in touch with each other.  

Both our schedules are pretty crazy, but when we manage to find time to meet, it's always a great catch-up session.  Carla also teaches English academic writing skills at the European Business School, so we can swap notes there, too.  

Saturday errands in Frankfurt

Mike was in need of shoes, Nick needed a belt and some school supplies, so we took the opportunity while in Frankfurt to go to our favorite sushi bar.  We love taking the plates off the conveyer belt as they pass by; Kamon's crème brulée is a dream.

 The highlight of the boys' day was seeing two Audi R8's (blue and black) in Frankfurt and then even one (white) in Eppstein, as we walked from the train station to pick up our car in the shop.

Yale weekend at Schloss Wartin (Europäische Akademie e.V.)

 

For the third year in a row, the Yale Club of Germany has held its Day of Service at the 18th century Schloss Wartin, an educational foundation which was founded by two Yalies and hosts academic conferences and cultural events.  


The grounds are so pastoral; on my way to breakfast Saturday morning, I walked by a pond with gaggling geese, croaking frogs and a fenced in area with New Zealand sheep. Jochen, a professor at the Freie Universität Berlin and ex-mayor of the town, made us a real English breakfast with eggs sunny-side up, baked beans, tomatoes and toast; Charles, who's just taken a position as a professor in Bangkok, where his lovely wife Nui is from, kept our teapot full.  


 After our substantial breakfast on the balcony, we moved to the garden for some brainstorming under the trees.  Charles and Marc, now a Ph.D. student at Oxford, are planning a conference on energy and the environment in September, so we did our "service" by brainstorming how best bring politicians, industry, and environmentalists together; I also helped Jochen reformat his footnotes for a paper he'll be giving to the German parliament on Tuesday.  

We finished the day with a late evening dinner of goose, a cousin of one of their geese!  Schloss Wartin is always inspiring, and I came back to Eppstein full of stories to tell the boys about environmental projects!

Track meets Sunday attire

Michael usually only has jeans and track suit pants in his "pants" drawer.  On Sunday, he wore dress slacks (first time since Bennett and Tiffany's wedding?) for his First Communion.  This morning I had to leave for work before he was dressed, so imagine my surprise to find him wearing dress slacks upon my return.  Even funnier was learning that he had done the long jump and 100-meter dash in them, having thought they were his navy track pants when he got dressed on his own at 7 a.m. in the morning.  

Michael's First Communion

 Michael had a lovely First Communion at St. Laurentius.  He carried his baptismal candle, which Nick and Patrick had decorated for him when he was a baby.  He did a beautiful job reading his "have mercy on us" few sentences.  


Georg's parents and Michael's godfather Norbert with Robbie and Lillie were there (godmother Susan was at a conference in Edinburgh) were also there.  After a nice catered meal at home (Michael's choice), he opened his gifts (thank you!) and built his new Lego model.  
Then we had coffee and cake with Patrick on Skype (look carefully at the display cabinet at the dining table).


At 6 we went to the evening service, then again this morning he had mass, which is why communion children get Monday free!  


This afternoon was reserved for our immediate neighbors to come over for cake (fresh strawberry cake, a cherry-cream cake made by Omi for yesterday's festivities, a lemon pound cake, and the (in)famous Nancy Reagan Vienna Bars!!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos with the neighbors, but it was indeed nice having them over for a glass of champagne, coffee, and cake!


And with all the cake, we also thought of Bennett on his 36th birthday today!!