Where my Ghouls at?

I LOVE Halloween. As in LOVE!!!


Far and away my favorite holiday, I love the silly, spooky character of the season. Not yet into the mushiness of family time and fresh in the "holiday season", Halloween is all sorts of awesome.

I have fond memories of past outfits and tasty treats. What- You'd like to see some costumes & treats? No problem!

Princess Peach & Mario

Visiting Halfway Around the World...

Snohomish is a small town in the State of Washington (NO! Not the capital). About an hour away from gorgeous Seattle, it is known for antiques, quaint Victorian housing from it's time as a lumber town, and a charming 1st street that is often used for filming idyllic Americana.

IKEA I spy

As a sublettor in Berlin, you expect everything in your apartment to be from IKEA, but you don't know for sure until you go to the source. Oh, look!

There is our motar & pestle (who needs one of these anyways?)

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Paired with last night's karaoke escapades and tomorrow's flight, I got a little John Denver on the mind:



We are taking the parents to their 4th-6th European country. Flying to Budapest & spending a few days there, then a day in Bratislava, then Vienna. Some new, some old for us, but I am sure it will all be fabulous. Especially since having them here has been so fun-filled in boring 'ole Berlin.

Placing Poland: Szczecin

The parents are here and on day 5 of European travel. We have big plans for a trip to Hungary, Bratislava, & Vienna next week but since we are so close to Poland, why not a day trip? We didn't just want to hop the border for some nowhere, so we set our sights on Szczecin (auf deutsch Stettin). It reportedly had a Duke's castle, a tourist map with red line guided tour, and was only about 2 hours away. Plus - the train ticket was a Brandenburger ticket, meaning it would only cost 28 euro for all 4 of us to travel there & back. Bonus!

It didn't turn out exactly as we hoped, but was still an experience. Once again, we have decided to rate the cities we are visiting with our parental units. This town might not have stacked up so well, but there is more to come. 

The Parents are Coming, The Parents are Coming!

It has been a lonnnnnnnggggg 11 months of Skype video chats, e-mails, and occasional phone calls. But today, my parents are an 1 1/2 away from taking the last leg in their long trip from Seattle to Berlin. I am picking up some flowers, then picking them up at the airport. I simply can't wait. I don't know that I have ever been this excited to see them. Ever.

Mum/Father of the Bride

 The parent's visit in Spring 2008:

Hertha game where Dave Ball impressed us by ordering a mass

Wandering around Alex

Family photo at Brandenburger Tor

Our road trip through Southern Germany and through the Rhine...

Burg Eltz

 

Zell, Germany

Countless German vineyards

Heidelberg, Germany

Nuremberg, Germany

And my latest favorite of them in my beautiful home state of Washington:

We are going to do more fun things in Berlin, skip over to Poland, and take a trip through Hungary, Slovakia, & Austria. But best of all, we are getting a little time to spend together. 

Oh - and they are proving word title holders for best parents ever in bringing over our cat Bella! Me-ow. 

Love you mum & daddio!

(To get an idea of the teariness of the hello, check out the good-bye: Leaving for Berlin)

Mosques & Unity in Berlin

Monday was both Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) & a day of open mosques. Considering I've only been in one mosque (granted it is an important one), I was excited to see what all of our Muslim neighbors have got going on.

Let's Go!

Gorgeousness of gorgeousness! The open house was wonderful with a member writing names in Arabic calligraphy, prayer service, and henna tattoos.

When we exited the mosque, a news crew that had been video tapping the open house asked for his opinion. 1 euro for anyone who finds the footage!

We wandered down to Brandenburger Tor to check out the German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) celebration. A concert, lots of food & beer stands (including proud displays of Belgian waffles, Dutch fries, and other national speciaties) I was completely underwhelmed by the celebration. Isn't this one of the biggest days in history for Germany?

(Expat in Germany wrote a great post about the celebration & her disappointment here. )

Another beautiful day in Berlin, but certainty not the significance I thought a day like this deserved. Tired from our tramping around, we made our way back to the house. We saw this notice on the door:

Someone had put a quacking lawn duck in the courtyard that quacks whenever someone walks past. This German doesn't find it funny. After asking "Who would do something like this?", they said the quacking is driving them crazy. Come to think of it, we can hear up on the 4th floor. It must be loud for those on the bottom. At least one German voiced a different opion, writing in pink marker 

"I love the duck"

For more pics of Neukoelln & the day: photos

Damn!berg

Continuing on our long drawn out story of our road trip through Cologne, Belgium, and France....

On the car ride back to Berlin from France we took a break in some of the cute German cities that aren't so prominent up in our NorthEast corner.

First stop:

Herrieden

Officially Visa'd

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 the Ausländerbehörde? 

• They love stamps... lots of stamps.
• The most Frustrating Waiting Room in Berlin
• A Hate Letter to the Ausländerbehörde

Observations for the Kita, part cuatro

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.