About 10 months after I arrived here in Berlin, I am officially visa'd. Hooray! But why'd it take so long?
I think I learned a valuable lesson. Do not confuse the Auslanderbehorde. They do not like confusing American writers who work for off-shore companies. Many guidelines need to be followed and rule books thumbed through. There is no room for common sense - only Rules!
The German system (from our perspective) makes no sense and it's bureaucracy is no doubt increased by the unhappy people who work there. Do they have to get a degree in hating people? As always - this is the time to preface how lucky we are to even be able to live & work here. I know its nuts trying to get into the US and we are the ones who decided to live here. Still - not so fun.
Luckily, during our appointment we bumped into the one nice woman we worked with before and everything went according to plan. Well, basically. There was some confusion about where exactly to go, awkward butting in line, and a discrepancy in the price of the visa (in our favor so we were ok with it :). BUT the most important thing - I got it. It's even quite vague allowing me to work as a writer anywhere in Germany. If I wasn't so busy & happy in my current position that would be quite enticing.
I do feel so sorry for making the process so difficult. Ian got his teaching visa (much more common in these parts) ages ago. Next time, I will just lie & apply for the teaching visa. Just kidding kids, don't do that.
Visa what!
(But seriously - do that. )
Want to hear more about stamps & frustration at theAusländerbehörde?
Once again, it is time for Observations from the Kita and Ian is home being lazy. This time it is because the school is giving him time off, but same difference. Lazy.
This week Ian and the kids visited another playground so Big News! for the Kita. In case you haven't seen the vast majority of European playgrounds- they are crazy dangerous. Huge metal disks they are supposed to run on, unsecured bridges, and giant ridged gerbil wheels. They are nuts! I appreciate the German sense of personal responsibility and worry maybe we have fallen into the trappings of nervous nelly parents that grips so many American parents- but c'mon! The 2 year old trampolining into the metal siding is a bit much.
Back to Ian's kids:
At the new playground, Ian "helped" the kids use the spinning wheel of Death. He would help them onto the wheel and spin them until they got off and fell over. Bad teacher!
A huge slide scared the oldest kid so Ian went down the kiddie slide with him.
Levy has been taught to give the fist bump
Ian was playing soccer with the kids and hit one of the other teachers on the arm. She was not amused.
Darius & Joshua use Ian as muscle. They take him over to a kid using a toy they want & tell him to get it for them. Especially the tractor, everyone wants the tractor
Ian has come to realize the swings are like a bar. If no one is at the swing - no one wants to swing. But if they are full, everyone wants to swing.
Toby rules the sandbox. As the resident collector, he will gather all the shovels and cry if anyone takes one.
Most the kids are still mid-potty training. Taking some boys into the bathroom they dropped their pants a good 10 ft to building
Playing a game with an afternoon class, one little girl had trouble with the words "little fish" and changed them to "dick fish". Teach that English Ian!
In this same game, little Andre is desperate to be caught & be a big fish. This is a problem because no one wants to catch him.
After the Belgium beer run, we thought it was time to venture back into France. The country of wine, the huh huh laugh, and elite cuisine is one we have only briefly skimmed the surface. Marseille, Perpignan, Bordeaux, Paris...most of our whirlwind through the country was spent chasing a friend.
Despite this inauspicious start- we loved France. We were prepared for the worst, but the people and place gave us their best. Some of my favorite pictures and most bizarre stories (there was either a murder or suicide in the hotel room across the hall - our French isn't good enough to know from the police notice) happened here.
So we were excited to make it back to the country. However, it was just going to be a baby toe in as we had to start making our way back to Berlin. Los!
We chose Colmar. A mini-Strasbourg, it is a town to fawn over the adorable finishes and the combination of German & French.
From the esteemed resource, Wikipedia:
"Colmar was founded in the 9th century. This was the location where Charles the Fat held a diet in 884. Colmar was granted the status of a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1226. In 1575, the city adopted the Protestant Reformation, long after the northern neighbors of Strasbourg and Sélestat. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was taken by the armies of Sweden in 1632, who held it for two years. The city was conquered by France under Louis XIV in 1673.
In 1679 (Treaties of Nijmegen) Colmar was ceded to France. With the rest of Alsace, Colmar was annexed by the newly formed German Empire in 1871 as a result of the Franco-Prussian War. It returned to France after World War I, was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and then reverted to French control after the battle of the "Colmar Pocket" in 1945. Colmar has been continuously governed by conservative parties since 1947, the Popular Republican Movement (1947–1977), the Union for French Democracy (1977–1995) and the Union for a Popular Movement (since 1995), and has had only three mayors during that time.
The Colmar Treasure, hidden during the Black Death, was discovered here in 1863."
In short, it has had a tumultuous history of a border town. Luckily, the combo of the two cultures has created a beautiful atmosphere.
Our cheap, adorable, but noisy hotel.
Loved the open-air wine bar in the center of "Little Venice". 1 euro glasses of delicious wine.
These shutters were decorated with pretzels and heart cut outs!
So yeah, a lot of gorgeousness. I detest the word cute BUT, this town is C-U-T-E.
Hübsch.
Mignon.
It was a beautiful place and we so enjoyed living in a fairytale for just one night.
One thing that wasn't quite fairytale: the guy in the white leisure suit. He would "help" you pay for your parking...for a few coins. We actually saw his camp out spot with a portable radio and bottle and bottles of the cheapest wine.
We might have taken a trunkful of beer home from Belgium, but we also had a little prize to take away from France. A quiche Lorraine. It lasted 10 minutes into Germany.
From the political signs littering the city, it's become apparent that there is an election coming up in Berlin. Nothing is as bad as the American campaign process at this point, but German political posters (and parties) do seem a tad hilarious.
CDU Christian Democrats - Yeah, the name says it all (assholes). Major players with Merkel in the club
Green- Germans are not into subtlety. Guess what their platform is? It is pretty cool that they once planted some of that wacky tobaccy in the Reichstag garden. (I was trying to think of a slang word for weed and ended up on a parenting site for watching for drug use in teens. Died laughing!)
Die Partei- This is a joke party. They have been hosting an awful campaign of bizarre ads like this blackface ad comparing the "canditate" to Obama. We actually saw them throwing a sparsely populated party in the park today.
Piraten Partei- This is a real party. Named after pirates. "Bbased on the model of the Swedish Piratpartiet...supports the preservation of current civil rights in telephony and on the Internet; in particular, it opposes the European data retention policies and Germany's new Internet censorship law called Zugangserschwerungsgesetz. It also opposes artificial monopolies and various measures of surveillance of citizens."
This is mostly in jest as we really don't know what's going on. Expats can't vote and as we have been barely able to figure our situation- let alone the political climate - we have taken a break from following the dreary and depressing world of politics.
This is with one big BUT. One of the coolest moments we've ever had in connection with the political world was when Obama was campaigning and spoke at the Siegessaule. We saw Obama! In person! Do other people remember that feeling of hope when it looked like he was definitely going to be elected? It was a great moment in my life...and it seems oh so long ago. That Obama has never come to full fruition. Maybe with another 4 years and the freedom of not worrying about re-election we can finally have the president we saw a glimmer of that day. A girl can hope...
I started prattling on in this blog, forcing Ian to occasionally participate, in a vague sense of documenting EVERYTHING. I am terrible about trying to hang on to every moment, permanently stuck behind the camera, writing notes so I remember the name of that cafe, brewery, person. Technology has made keeping hold of things I like easier (Hello Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter!), but I am basically an amateur at social media.
So when one of my Favorite bloggers and first Expat Interview, Jack Scott at Perking the Pansies, asked me to write a guest blog I first had to find out what that entailed. He made it easy- write about whatever I want. And I'm off!
Here is my post about Ian & I traveling to Istanbul. It covers 24+ hours on a train, passport control with guns, and the most effective weight loss plan ever!
Ian & I in Istanbul with soldier
Make sure to check out the rest of the guest posters as well and Mr. Jack Scott himself. He's half of a gay English couple in Turkey and absolutely fabulous.
Wow- once again I am off planning other trips instead of finishing the one I just got back from. Let's pick up from our impromptu road trip on our Belgium Beer Run.
When we decided we would visit Thomas one more time, we brainstormed what was around Cologne. Ah- Drachenfels (or "Dragon's Rock") and Schloss Drachenburg. Lovely.
(p.s. Take the tram. We walked and it was a bit of a hike. Plus- the tram looks cool.)
Also, Bridge at Ramagen. Satisfies Ian's thirst for War (History). It had a really terrific Peace Museum within the remains of the bridge that covered the history of the bridge, and the cost of war in general.
However- beware! You have to take a ferry to cross the river. There are still next to no bridges that span this section of the Rhine. We tried go avoid taking the ferry only to drive many kilometers out of the way to finally give in and pay 3 euro to cross. Probably spent 5 euro in gas.
We also saw Mr. Thomas. About to leave for one year in Mexico City working with street children, I told him it's been nice knowing him. Kidding! It sounds like the adventure of a lifetime, but I do worry about the beheadings in Acapulco, drug cartel wars, and rampant crime in Mexico City. I wrote EasyExpat's guide for Mexico City. Seriously Thomas- careful.
What else, what else is around SW Germany? Belgium. What does Belgium have? Some of the world's best beers you say? Trip ON.
Ian laid out some brilliant breweries for us to visit. Plus he somehow figured out how to get us to a WWII museum. He's talented like that.
Southern Belgium is different from the North in that it is primarily French speaking, poorer, and with less big cities. We had been to Leuven & Brugges before, so we were ready for some dirty South. What we weren't prepared for it the utter lack of gas stations, hotels, and cash machines. This was some country.
This was in the middle of
nowhere. (Thank buddha we opted for
the GPS). Pulling up, I thoguht we had made a mistake as there were kids
playing in the yard and it looked like a beautiful private home. We nervously approached
to have the extremely gracious Benoît give us a personal tour. He went about the brewery process telling us about every element. Usually, they only give tours to groups of 10+ - whoops! This ended up being our favorite place and beer.
...and missed it by 2 minutes. Serious sadness, until we found a cafe a short walk away in which to enjoy the beer. And, the shop opened back up at the end of the tour so we were able to buy some beers & a glass.
We made our to Dinant, Belgium because I had found some beautiful pictures of the city. When we got there, we took pictures like this
and this
and this- Home of the Saxophone!
It was really dramatic looking. But...not the place we wanted to stay. We grabbed some fries and made our way to our last brewery.
This brewery had a large beer garden and children everywhere. Kids & beer - I love it. We had an amazing Lambic (that sadly was not available to take home). We enjoyed our sampler, wifi, and several beers to haul back to Berlin.
We were excited to be in world famous Chimay, but a dismayed at the accommodations available. The only place that seemed habitable was booked. Last minute vacation planning snafu! Luckily, we did eventually get pointed to which was a tiny hotel outside of town with restaurant below. Relieved to have a place to sleep, we naturally had a Chimay downstairs. I love that everything is served with cheese.
As the night drew to a close, we enjoyed a countryside stroll and looked at some of those bizarro cows. The day didn't go much like we expected, but it was truly fabulous. And we had a little something to take back home...
We have had such a serendipitous perfect Berlin weekend. They are easy to come by in a city that has something happening at every hour on every corner. You start out on a vague adventure that gets flushed out to a full scale ambush on fun. To just briefly sum up what the weekend has entailed
I became addicted to Yelp in foodie Seattle and have let my use slide while in Berlin. An event this Friday may have changed all that as Ian, our friend Kyla, & I were invited to a collective of cafe, bubble tea, and cooking club in Prenzleauerberg - Babbel T. We were champagne'd, taught how to make spring rolls, fed crepes made from a organic vegetable, and collected awesome swag.
Next we wandered to Bar 23 where we got second hand smoke, then stood outside a bar talking to a hilarious bunch of couchsurfers, and finally to my new favorite bar in the hood, Frollein Langner. The signs of hipsterdom were unmistakeable - ironic facial hair, seating in a bath tub - but we couldn't resist. I absolutely loved it. And will be back. A lot.
The next day brought us a lazy "Sex in the City" (oh yes - Ian has grown to enjoy it) delicious fruit salad, and a bike ride out to feed our friend's cats. Since we had to leave the house anyway, we figured we would stop by the Huhnerhaus. It's official - we are roasted chicken addicts. We continued to their place in Treptower, taking a leisurely loop around Spreepark. This abandoned amusement park has been broken into & photographed with glee by many, but we were basically able to roll around the entire thing and even check out the cafe that now has seats made of the swan boats. (There are great shots of the park in the movie Hanna.) I need to come back for the official tour, but my interest is temporarily sated.
That night, we ventured to a Sporkful meet-up where the saturation of English speakers was almost alarming. And people were friendly! We were a little put off. We wandered back towards our place, stumbling upon a funky 5-piece band playing to the street, a share shed of for people to leave things (like candle eyeballs) and take things, a communist street festival, Asian noodle shop for 3.50, and .40 cent beers. Good god I love Berlin. Awesome is less than a stone's throw away. Ian & I celebrated with said friend Kyla over a spirited game of uno. With pictures. (I love it when we discover Shmidty hiding under the couch & promptly incorporate him in our picture making.)
Despite the awesomenest of awesome weekends, there is a heaviness that weighs upon us today. No matter that we don't have any sad personal stories about 9/11 (luckily), or that we currently live abroad and have not been forced into daily media reminders about the anniversary, we feel the solemness. That kind of tragedy, it's something you feel in your bones.
There is a storm tonight in Berlin. It tantalizes and terrifies.Thunder like this doesn't happen in Seattle.
Thinking about the turns life can make, how certainties can become an illusion in an instant, I just feel thankful to have today. To have my family & friends and this life to keep looking froward to. I think about the level of personal loss & realize all my pettiness and worry has no place in the larger scheme of things. I am free to be silly. I can be irreverent. I'm here. And I am thankful.
