St Veit, Austria

There were two scenarios running through our minds on the five-hour trip from Stuttgart to St. Veit in the Austrian Alps: 1) Our kids have a fabulous time on skis; they all learn and beg for more. Andy and I return to a sport we love but have forgone for almost 10 years for three little reasons.

2) They hate it. They never learn and have tantrums from the minute the skis go on til two hours after the skis come off. Andy and I wreck our knees.

It is hard to let the fate of the week and the wisdom of spending several hundred dollars on a ski trip rest in the hands of little people who might decide skiing is "yucky."

The family went for option number 1. We had a great time with the kids begging for the next ski trip when we headed home.

We went with a group from Andy's office and our trip coincided with our school's main campus trip so we got to be with both groups. The tour coordinator was Siegi Tours, chosen by the groups because it is family oriented. They offer lessons for everyone and evening stuff, like (I kid you not) yodeling contests, Austrian folk dancing, cow milking, limbo, and karaoke. The ski coordinator is Sven, a tall skinny guy who is a former gold medalist in the international ski instructor olympics. He skis backwards down the slope you are struggling to ski down and shouts out pointers. Knowing this made it all the funnier for me to watch him teaching the kids in the group to yell, "Oompa Oompa Mega-Party!"

Some times we participated. Some times we were in bed before 8 p.m. Micah didn't make it through dinner most nights. He would curl up on the padded bench in the hotel restaurant and drop off.

Highlights:

* Austria! The Austian Alps are beautiful. Andy said prettier than Colorado. I say not prettier, but just as beautiful and more of it. The peaks are densely packed across the miles. An international ski jump competition was held 17 kilometers from our slope. An Austrian won. After his amazing jump, he bent down and kissed the snow. The Austrians on the the slope the next day were jubilant. Lots of red and white flags painted on faces.

* The Ken and Barbie ski school. Actually, their names are Tom and Ilsa. They were the kids' instructors. Patient and beautiful. All beginner skiers start out in a kiddie pen, fenced off from the rest of the bunny slope. There is a conveyer belt that takes them to the top of the ever-so-slight incline. The littles had skis the size of salad utensils. They maneuver off the conveyor belt and glide to the bottom.

Tess was out of the pen the first afternoon. Maddie escaped on Wedesnday and Micah got to go out Thursday afternoon. I saw one instructor with an Austrian cow bell around his neck. When it was time for his little group to turn, he would ring the bell and the kids would "make a pizza" with their skis to wedge turn.

*Mens' sledding trip. Three of the guys in our group, Andy included, and one daughter tracked down a six-kilometer slope that was open for sledding after the skiers left. Andy was careening down when he saw a sign that said Langsam (slow). He put both feet down to break. As he went through the turn and saw the other people in his group stacked like wood in the powder. Apparently they mean it when they want you to slow down. I hear it was crazy fun.

*Watching our kids ski in the end-of-the-week race. No one in the top three, but they did great. After the race, there was an award presentation where all the kids got medals. The top in each class got to stand on a box while they played that child's national anthem.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum
Wie grun sind deine Blaetter.
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum
Wie grun sind deine Blaetter

Du Grunst nicht nur im Sommer Zeit
Nein, auch in Winter, wenn es schneit
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum
wie grun sind deine Blaetter.






One of the fun events that we stumbled upon was the lighting of the Christmas tree at one of the military barracks. The leaders in charge of the European and African commands both there for the grand event of the lighting of the tree. Then Santa was supposed to arrive on a fire truck.
But Santa was a few minutes late.
There they were, leaders who called men to battle, awkwardly asking each other repeatedly, "Do you hear anything?"
"Why yes! I think I hear sleigh bells."
"I think I hear sleigh bells too."

Then Santa came around the corner and passed out candy. Fun was had by all, though T,M, and M looked like they were having more fun than the generals.

Happy Anniversary

Piper and I celebrated our 14 year anniversary yesterday. To mark the occasion, I swung by the German florist and bought a cool flower arrangement. To prove that I had developed some sense of romantic style in the past 14 years (it's an admittedly low bar), I opted to forego the easy choice of roses and get something small, stylish and eclectic to match my wife's tastes. In true European fashion, I carried it home on the bus.

I triumphantly entered my cave to present my kill to my wife and discovered... a very nice floral arrangement on the kitchen table that my wife had bought for me earlier that day.

I ask those of you with more marriage experience than I... Is this fair? Aren't their rules against this sort of spousal conduct?


Should you wonder, mine is the one on the left.

Snow

We recently had a beautiful snowfall, all day long without a breath of wind. Here is the view from our bedroom window

Vonage Part Zwei

I respond to the teeming throngs who have complained that we didn't provide our Vonage number. You know who you are :-)

It's the same number as our old phone number in Philadelphia. You can call us the same way. No international rates or country codes.

I won't post it here. Piper and I got our first 2am call from a US based telemarketer last night and I don't want to give them any help. (Yes we are on the "do not call registry" but they've never seemed to care.)

Speaking of telemarketers, I'm weeding through our voice mails from the past 4 months. We missed an awful lot of calls in September and October from the McCain and Obama campaigns. Kind of ironic that I didn't get to hear them until the day of the inauguration.

Obama

Coverage of the Presidential Inauguration is playing everwhere here today. Everywhere. I spent tonight working at the woodshop on a nearby Army base. The German national who runs the shop kept ducking into the backroom to watch snippets of the inauguration speech.

It kind of reminds me of the coverage of the last British royal wedding that dominated US newscasts for days. It appears that the Obamas have become American royalty, at least in the eyes of the German media.

I'm studiously ignoring it all. I'll continue to pout until the new administration gives my friend Frank a job.

Vonage

Vonage. Is. Finally. Up.

Please note the six hour time difference before you call.

Raising the next generation of geeks...

Faulty Power Transformer: $40
Replacement ATX Power Supply: $20
Quality Time with Son: Priceless

Quote of the Day

Maddie Merrick: "I don't eat German Chinese food. I only eat American Chinese food."

Happy Birthday Tess!

Tess had a writers’ party this year. The girls did Mad Libs, made autogragh books, ate ice cream cake and played. We invited the girls in her class from school plus a neighbor friend. They wished her Happy Birthday in English (Australian accent), Finnish, German, Afrikaans and Russian.

Tess got roller blades for her birthday…big hit! She is a pro at sidewalks.

Saint Martins Christmas

After Tess’s birthday, we went on a walking Christmas story through old Sindelfingen. It starts with the Annunciation in front of the tiny, ancient town square, then we walked over to where an angel told Joseph to go ahead and marry his fiancée. Then we walked with them through the town as Joseph and Mary, on a donkey, knocked on doors but no one would let them in. Wise men, leading camels, followed a star to Mary and Joseph.

They also had Satan in the play. She was dressed in glittering black with one black wing and, on the opposite arm, a blood-red glove. She is there, whispering to Joseph not to marry Mary. She closed some of the doors in the town. She goes to Herod and tells him to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem. The headmistress from the school played Rachel weeping for her children.

The play ends at St. Martins Church with choirs and brass. The different actors come up and talk about that night. The shepherds remember the angels and the music and wonder what will happen to the baby. The wise men remember the journey. Rachel refuses to be comforted. Satan didn’t stop Jesus from coming but is glad at the destruction she caused. Gabriel is last, bringing a message of hope.

Torgauer Hof Hotel

Moving meant goodbye to our first home, room 45 in the Torgauer Hof hotel in Sindelfingen. The staff was beyond great and we will miss the director, Christian Hempel, who was so kind to our kids.
He also opened his hotel to local artists as a place to get exposure for their work. When we first arrived, it was his photos, then a Vietnamese portrait painter (we had breakfast with a large painted bust of Pope Benedict XIV for a month) and lastly an artist from Cameroon.
I still wake up some mornings missing maid service and breakfast laid out for me.

Esslingen

One of the beautiful things about being here this time of year is the Christmas markets. The pedestrian markets in all the villages turn into craft fairs with stalls of toys, trinkets and food. The bigger ones, like Stuttgart have concerts, rides and busloads of tourists from all over Germany and neighboring countries. We opted for several smaller ones.

Esslingen am Neckar is an ancient town that sponsors a Medieval and Renaissance market. Very! different from Renaissance fair in the U.S. Such fairs that I am used to are populated by men in blousy, poet shirts and women in low-cut, push-up gowns. There is a lot of hair tossing and singing of Scarborough Fair.

No such thing here.

It was fun to see a medieval market in a medieval village for starters. The first mention of Esslingen on record is in 777. American soldiers occupied the town in 1945 so the city was spared much of the bombing.Great, funny shoes, lots of wooden clogs, amazing instruments (though the musicians looked pretty modern). Log-cutting contests, tug-of-war on wooden stumps. Many costumes but more authentic.

Great food, though we bypassed blood pudding and head cheese. The kids actually managed to find an ancient version of Mac and Cheese for lunch. Everything is served on 100 percent recyclable paper or wooden plates and utensils so everything can go straight into the compost. Gluewein and hot chocolate in real mugs that you can keep or return for a Euro.

Beautiful stuff that fell into two categories: made in China and cheap, or made in Germany and expensive. We do little shopping at the Christmas markets but a lot of looking.

Moving

Moving

Moving in is usually a blur of boxes. This move was more so because of the compressed schedule. (two days to paint, one week to be moved in enough for Tess’s birthday party).

We rented a small apartment with rooms decorated in baby blue and yellow, pale jade and baby pink. 20 liters of paint later, it is now tan and cream (I left the halls white). My tush was saved by my friend Estelle who trotted over with coffee about 10 a.m., grab a roller and start attacking the walls. She would paint non-stop til it was time for her to pick up her son from pre-school. I picked up the kids, took them back to the hotel and then back to the apartment in the evenings.

You might think I was painting alone, but I was painting with the ghost of my mother. Wonder Matcy was brought low two years ago when she broke a bone in her foot coming off the bottom rung of a ladder. The punishment did not fit the crime. In that small step, she broke the bone that held her toes together and she spent weeks in a wheelchair.

I spent two nights with Mom’s voice as a constant companion: “Careful off the ladder! Don’t slip! Don’t wear socks, it makes your feet too slick.”

Our movers were the best we have ever had.

Three guys unloaded dozens of boxes and then declared themselves at our service for the rest of the day. They set up our bed, assembled dressers, unloaded boxes, carried to the storage room and the garage. They were funny and polite. The guy who spoke the least English had the best voice and he and I sang together through the afternoon. All three would happily assemble as Andy instructed but move things only to where I would tell them. Perfect!

We told them to go home at 3 because they had to drive back to Frankfurt.

Now the last piece of Ikea furniture is assembled and we only have four boxes of random stuff to unload.

Estelle was back in action for the movers, as always, fortifying me with coffee and the occasional chocolate pudding. She is an absolute work horse who somehow never manages to get mussed up. She just hummed in Afrikaans and unpacked the kitchen.

Andy’s latest skill, installing lights into ceiling wires that have two, three or four wires, all of which are blue?? So much for color-coding. Lights don’t convey with apartments or houses in Germany so all we had in each room are wires dangling down from a hole in the ceiling. He uninstalled a single, dangling lightbulb that was hanging in Micah’s room (we called it the interrogation room). For those who care about these things, Andy did buy a multimeter before attempting this.

We have a telephone and we're not afraid to use it.

Internet and German telephone are now online. Posting will resume over the weekend. I'll try to install our Vonage line this weekend, too.

The first phone calls are reserved for family members who haven't kept us abreast on important, life changing events. Stuff like their upcoming move to Austin and the expected birth of their first child.

If you fit into that category, expect a phone call from Piper when the time difference is working in her favor. Possibly 2am, Michigan time.

We're really looking forward to getting back in touch with you all.

A Quick Update

We're back from Austria. Our vacation went well and we managed to teach the kids to ski with (countless minor but) only one major meltdown.

I have decided to learn to snowboard next year. I have too many ingrained bad habits on skis that can't be cured. It's time for a fresh start with a new sport.

Soon, I shall post on going sledding in Austria. All I will say for now is that it is amazing what you can allow people to pay to do when you live in a country that doesn't allow frivilous lawsuits. Ohmygosh...

I spent yesterday afternoon with a friend trying to set up our internet and telephone service. Very exciting. Had to switch the language preferences on my laptop to German to get the ISP providers software to install. Wires are now everywhere in our kitchen but things still don't work. Apparently, I need to make a call to the phone company (on a weekday between 9 and 5) before I can get things to work.

Cross your fingers.

Piper has a backlog of posts and photos as soon as we have internet access.

The Day After

I went to bed at 10 pm on New Years Eve. Celebrations to that point had been minimal and sporadic so I decided to pack it in. I shouldn't have judged too quickly.

About 11:45, the skies opened up. Our building shook through its solid cement walls with all the sounds of a third world revolution. Normally tidy and reserved Germans were running through the streets of our neighborhood screaming, drinking and lighting off every firework imaginable.

Pretty much everyone but us was out there. This disturbed Piper most of all. She hates to miss a party. She's already planning next year... we will definitely get with the program, then.

On Thursday, morning, the streets were covered with fireworks residue and alcohol bottles. It looked like New Orleans on the day after Mardi Gras. This is rather remarkable since the whole thing happened in less than 45 minutes (OK, the Italians who live below us were up partying for the rest of the night but still...). The trash is quite disturbing since Germany is normally so garbage obsessed. The systems here to deal with receiving, accounting for and disposing of trash astound my tiny engineer brain. I'm going to go check the shed for alien pods just to be sure.

I have a new camera so photo quality should improve.

2 days til we leave to go skiing.