Happy Halloween!

Tonight we were supposed to go to the Doebbelins' house (Domenic's) for a Halloween Party. They had invited all of us plus the Poulheims (Florian's family) for dinner (Claudia was going to make pumpkin soup) and to take the kids around the neighborhood to collect candy. They unfortunately had to cancel this morning, however, because they had to take Domenic to the hospital. Apparently he had a really high fever, and I don't know what all of the symptoms were, but they thought he had meningitis. He doesn't, and in fact he already feels way better than he did this morning, but they of course don't want to infect anyone so they weren't able to have their party.

Instead, Esther made pea soup and the Poulheims came to us. Andre, Esther and I went around the neighborhood with the 3 kids while Christine and Olaf stayed at home with little Marie. The kids were so cute in their costumes!! Gustav was particularly proud of his Spiderman costume, and when he put his vest on underneath the costume so he would stay warm it kind of looked like a muscle suit. Florian was dressed as a ghost, and even had chains and a key that clanked as he walked/ran up and down the street. The mask never stayed straight on his head, though, so he was always sort of looking crookedly through one eye hole. And as for Pauline, there are no words to describe how adorable she was in her Tinkerbell costume.

Since the kids are so young, and since Halloween is hardly even recognized here in Germany, we weren't out for very long and only visited a couple of houses. That was enough for the kids to collect a fairly decent amount of candy. Since only a few kids come around each year, everyone can afford to give each visitor a handful of candy, and most of them did. When we got back to the house we sat down to eat the soup, and the kids went upstairs to play. They weren't really hungry, and who wants to eat soup when you have candy? I got to hold Marie for a little bit, too. She is so precious! She has the biggest blue eyes, and she's constantly looking around and taking everything in. Plus, she has super soft, shiny golden brown hair that curls a little bit at her ears. She looks like a doll, and she's very calm and quiet most of the time. I would babysit for her in a heartbeat if they ever asked.

Originally I had thought that, since tomorrow is a holiday and Esther and Olaf will be home with the kids, I would go into the city tonight to hang out with friends and do something fun for Halloween. In reality, I'm far too tired for that right now and I will actually probably go to bed soon. I have been up since 7 this morning because I had to go to class, so I think it's ok to get in bed at 9:30. I just hope that the kids let us sleep tomorrow morning.

This weekend I took another little trip. I thought I was going to be going alone, but at the last minute a friend of mine told me that he was able to come with me, which made me really happy because I'm tired of traveling by myself. Anyway, we left Saturday afternoon after my language course and headed down to the town of Trier, which is actually the oldest city in Germany. I had thought that Köln was the oldest city in Germany because that's what somebody told me a long time ago, but it's actually Trier. It was a pretty short trip, but a nice one.

Since his decision to go was so last minute and we weren't going to make the train I had been intending to take at 2:18 Saturday afternoon, my friend decided that it would be better if he just drove, so we went in his car. The drive there actually took longer than we had expected because of a detour (we can't figure out why his navigation system had us leave the Autobahn when we did) but it took us along windy mountain/country roads, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I love this part of Germany because it's just indescribably beautiful. And, since it's fall, all of the trees were turning colors, and the leaves were blowing in the wind. It doesn't get much better than that, really.

When we got to Trier, the first thing we did was check into the hotel. Originally I had reserved a bed in a hostel since it was just going to be me, but when Stefan told me he was able to come along we thought it would be better to get a hotel room. The hotel was actually quite nice. The room itself was nothing spectacular but it was definitely a good, clean, comfortable room. The lobby was really cool, though. They had a full bar at the reception, several nicely decorated, comfortably furnished, cozy seating areas, a pool table, and a Wii. It created a really nice atmosphere and really kind of made you feel at home, or at least happy to be at the hotel. It definitely cost us more than the hostel would have, but I'm really glad that we stayed there.

We were both really hungry, so we decided to head out right away and find a place to eat as we began exploring the town. It was around 6 or 6:30, so it was starting to get a little bit dark, and cold. We had a map that showed where all of the main tourist attractions were but we didn't really use it that much. Trier is so small that it's kind of hard to get lost or to miss something. Plus, there are as many churches as there are people, so there's always something cool to look at. Nothing that we may have wanted to check out in greater detail was open because it was so late, but we saw some Roman ruins and ancient buildings, and more Roman ruins (the town is really full of walls and buildings and ruins from the Roman period). In the center of the Altstadt there was a stand that was selling Glühwein, wine, and something called Federweißer, which is a very young white wine. It was basically grape juice with yeast in it, so it was slightly fermented with a very low alcoholic content and tasted really sweet. Traditionally you would eat Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake) with it, but we just tried the Federweißer. Afterward we went to a fish restaurant to have dinner, and we both got full off of the soup and weren't able to eat most of our meal. It was really good, though.

When we got back to the hotel after dinner we decided to hang out in the lobby and play pool. There were 2 guys that were just starting a game when we got there, so we bought a bottle of Riesling from the bar and hung out while we waited for them to finish their game. After their game they were actually done playing for the night, so Stefan and I were able to get a few games in before we were too tired to stay awake any more and had to go to sleep.

We didn't exactly get an early start Sunday morning, but it was ok because I had hardly slept Friday night and was absolutely exhausted, so I needed to sleep in a little bit. After we checked out of the hotel we put our stuff in his car and started walking again. The first thing we did was go back to the center of Altstadt, partly because it's so gorgeous with all of its old Fachwerkhäuser and partly because we were looking for something to eat. I introduced Stefan to the Sausage McMuffin with Egg (apparently he had never been to McDonald's in the morning before and didn't know there was such a thing as breakfast) and he now has a new favorite food. Then we headed over to the Dom and the Liebfrauenkirche, which is supposedly the oldest Gothic church in Germany. The Dom was originally sanctioned by the emperor Constantine, I believe it is the first Catholic church in Germany, and it houses both the Holy Tunic (not to be confused with the Shroud of Turin) and a nail that is believed to have been used to crucify Jesus. Unfortunately we weren't able to see very much of the inside of the cathedral or to take pictures because it was Sunday and they were having service. If I ever go back to Trier I'll have to make sure I do it on a weekday so that I can really check it out.

After we saw the cathedral we headed over toward the Mosel River, stopping in several churches and taking pictures of ancient buildings along the way. There was a path that ran along the river that was lined with trees and it was absolutely gorgeous. We walked along this path as we headed toward the Roman bridge, and we sat in a bench in the "sun" for a little bit to enjoy the view because it was too pleasant to do otherwise. At first we were slightly disappointed by the Roman bridge when we saw it, because aside from the fact that it looked really old there was nothing spectacular about it, but then we saw the other side and realized that there was a statue on it from the early Christian period.

The next thing we saw was the Kaiserthermen, which is the ruins of the Roman bath in Trier. We were actually able to go inside, which was really cool. I always feel very at home when I'm among archaeological ruins. The underground passages of the bath complex were open, too, so we got to walk around all over the ruins. Next we walked to the amphitheater, which also allowed access into the underground passages. A significant portion of the amphitheater had been destroyed in the Middle Ages because the stones were taken and used to build houses and whatnot.

The last stop on our tour (after eating at a delicious Chinese restaurant where the owner hooked us up with a really sweet deal) was the Porta Nigra, which was the northern entrance to the Roman city. We had seen this the night before but I wasn't able to get any pictures of it because my camera sucks and I can't take any decent pictures at night. I was glad that we were able to climb up to the top of the gate because it's really tall and I was dying to climb those steps and see it in more detail. It was a really nice end to our trip.

Once we had seen all that we really wanted to see, and since my camera battery was dead despite the fact that I had charged it the hotel, we headed back home. I felt bad that Stefan had to drive because he was just as tired as I was, but I was glad that I got to nap a little bit in the car. If we ever take another trip again, I don't think he will be driving the next time.

Last week was supposed to be a great week for everybody, but it turned out to be a huge failure. Well, sort of a failure. Esther and Olaf left for the week to go to Mallorca to celebrate their 5-year wedding anniversary. In order to make things a little easier on me, they invited Olaf's aunt and uncle, Tante Karin and Heinz-Josef, to come and stay with us to help with the kids. For the entire week I was given 2 responsibilities: take care of Amelie, and take Gustav to his swim lessons in Pulheim. Other than that Karin and Heinz were going to take care of everything. At least, that was the plan. When Olaf got home from grocery shopping on Friday, however, the trail of oil and pillar of white smoke spewing from the back of the car required plans to be altered. The car was picked up (by a tow truck with a crane, which was actually pretty cool to watch) on Sunday and taken to the shop for the week, which meant that now Heinz was responsible for all transportation of the children, including taking Gustav to Pulheim. Wendesday, Thursday, and Friday, however, I had to pick up Pauline with the bike while they took Gustav to his lessons because it was too boring for Pauline to sit there, and she had been sick so she couldn't go swimming until he was finished. All in all that part of the week wasn't bad. What was horrible was nights. Pauline was an absolute monster. She wouldn't sleep, she cried and screamed and fussed incessantly, but either refused to tell you what was wrong or wouldn't let you help her, and she kept everybody (except Gustav) up all night almost every night. It wasn't until Wednesday night, when I told her flat out to cut the crap, that she finally quieted down and went to sleep. She mostly had complained that her stomach hurt, which may have actually been the case, but she definitely intentionally over-dramatized it. Plus, she's the boy who cried wolf, and I don't know how legitimate her complaints actually were, especially since she stopped when I told her we simply wouldn't tolerate it any more. It turns out that Esther and Olaf didn't have it too much better. They both had the stomach flu, which hit Esther at the airport on the way to Mallorca and kept Olaf in bed for 2 or 3 days with a fever. As I said, not a happy week.

Well, Esther and Olaf are back from their 5-year anniversary vacation, and I wish I could say that everything was now back to normal. Unfortunately, though, it's not. The car is still in the shop, Gustav has been home sick for 2 days, and I've been stuck trying to take care of Gustav, walk Amelie, and deliver Pauline to and from the Kindergarten, without a car. This means that for the past 2 days I took Pauline, on the back of my bicycle, to Kindergarten in the morning and Amelie came along with us. I rode the bike through the fields, which is a shorter but slightly more difficult route since it's a little muddy, so that Amelie could run a little bit and take care of her business without having to be on the leash the whole time. After dropping off Pauline I had to come back home to watch over Gustav. Monday Esther was here all day, too, but she slept all day because the kids were so horrible the night before that she didn't sleep at all. In the afternoon Gustav passed out on my floor and I left him there while I went to pick up Pauline. Esther was home, so don't worry; I did not leave the child here alone. When I got back I picked up Gustav, who was still sleeping on my rug, and carried him into his room to put him on the mattress underneath his bed. Today, however, I was the one who fell asleep in Gustav's room. I curled up on the mattress while he did puzzles, and I woke up to Gustav yelling at Amelie. She had crawled up onto the mattress so she could curl up and cuddle with me. What a love. When it came time to pick up Pauline today we ran into some complications. Esther wasn't here this time, so I couldn't simply take the bike and get her like I did yesterday. She also wasn't able to get a hold of any of the neighbors to ask if they could either bring Pauline home with them, or watch over Gustav while I picked her up. Instead, Esther had to call a taxi to take her to the Kindergarten and then bring her and Pauline home. Kind of crappy, but it worked. Olaf was supposed to pick up the car this evening when he got back with the train, but the test drive revealed a new problem and now they need to keep it until tomorrow. And Pauline apparently had a minor fever today, which could mean that she's staying home tomorrow. Son of a...

On the bright side, the packages that my mom sent a couple weeks ago arrived today. There was one box for me, which had a couple of Halloween decorations in it but was mostly stuffed with baking supplies, and one for the family. She waited until this evening to open it so that the kids and Olaf could all be there, and it kind of felt like Christmas. In the package were 2 Halloween gift bags, which are really sturdy and can be used to collect Halloween candy, and in each one were gifts for the kids. Specifically, there was a Spiderman costume for Gustav, a fairy costume for Pauline, 2 LED candles (one that's orange with a spider on it and the other one shaped like a ghost), and 2 felt decorations that have eyes that light up and make noise when you squeeze them. Pauline's is a jack-o-lantern that says "Happy Halloween!" and Gustav has a ghost that plays scary music. For Esther and Olaf my mom sent the same oil burner she had sent me a while ago, plus 2 other glass mosaic candle holders with scented tea lights. The kids both tried on their costumes immediately, and Esther set up her new candles, and I baked Ranger cookies with the goodies that my mom sent in my package. I love getting stuff from my mom.

On a side note, I got to babysit Elif on Saturday evening. Güner and Seydi had a wedding to go to, and they took Zeynep with them but I stayed at their apartment and took care of Elif. The downside to the whole experience was that she cried for an hour while I walked circles around the apartment, singing/humming "Rock-a-Bye Baby" in the dark, trying to get her to fall asleep. It wasn't a big deal to me, because I didn't have anything better to do, but she gets pissed if she isn't facing forward, and she is so heavy, so it got pretty tiring. On the other hand, she did fall asleep on my arm and slept peacefully on my chest for half an hour, which made me very happy. That was unfortunately before the crying spell, but once she finally fell back asleep she out until Zeynep got home and woke her up. Another plus for this weekend was that I took my first-aid course in Köln, which I need in order to get my driver's license, and I prepared all of the paperwork that I need to get my visa extended. Yay me!

One year later...

It's official. I have now been in Germany for one year. I myself can hardly believe that one year ago I met the family for the first time when they picked me up at the Dusseldorf airport, and how nervous yet excited I felt to be here. Or how surprised I was when the kids started singing Happy Birthday in English, even though they couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. They probably still don't really understand the song, but now, one year later, they understand almost every word that I say to them in English. Even Gustav, who was so angry with me every time he heard me speaking English (which was every time he heard me speak) occasionally uses English words now. Back then I was so hesitant to speak to anyone in German because I was afraid that I wouldn't understand, or I would make an ass of myself because I didn't know the words. Now I have friends that I only speak to in German, and aside from when I'm at home I speak very little English at all. This past year has been everything that I could possibly have hoped for and more. It truly has been the experience of a lifetime, and I will forever be grateful to Esther and Olaf for giving me this opportunity, and to everyone back home who supported me and helped me to get here.

This past week was awesome! For starters, I've joined a soccer team. Well, sort of. I'm not really sure what my status is as far as being on the team, because I just showed up on Monday with my neighbor, Wibke, and practiced with them. But they all seem to be pretty cool with me being at their practices, which is actually I was really hoping for right now anyway. I am so out of shape that it's ridiculous, and I don't expect to be playing in any games for a while. But, like I said, the important thing is that I'm playing again. And I've already had my first injury, aside from the horrendous pain in my legs from using muscles that basically don't exist anymore. Last Monday it was raining, and it rained during the whole practice. Not that big of a deal, really, except that I still didn't have a pair of cleats, and we play on dirt. Yeah, it only took a couple of minutes before I was basically lying on my face in the mud. I was slipping and falling the whole time, and in the process I managed to scrape up my knees pretty good. Needless to say, I bought a pair of cleats the next time I went into Köln. It was actually pretty sweet because the trainer told me on Monday where I should go, who to talk to, and whose name to drop in order to get a discount on my shoes. It made me feel important. I ended up not getting a discount because I bought a pair of cleats that were already reduced by 25% because they were the model suited to what I need that also fit. Apparently Europeans have big feet, because I was told that the size I needed was almost considered a children's size. I know I have small feet for my size, but they aren't that small. Anyways, that's why I went with the pair that was already on sale, but otherwise he would have hooked me up with 30% off. Thursday evening I went to practice again, this time ohne Wibke because she couldn't make it, and I had to take the train into Junkersdorf to get there. Not a big deal, really. It was actually quite easy. But it was also raining again, so one of the girls, Andrea, gave me a ride home. Yesterday I practiced again, and today my legs feel like I just played a 5 game tournament. I have seriously got to get back in shape.

The other thing that made last week so spectacular was Oktoberfest. That's right, I went to Oktoberfest. I left Köln at a little after 10 on Friday morning to head to to München. When I got there I checked into mo hostel right away and then was planning on going directly to find myself a Dirndl, but got a little sidetracked. For some reason they didn't have any of the key cards programmed correctly, so I was helping my roommates and a couple of guys from down the hall get things all figured out before I left. A couple of the guys in the other room actually came with me to go find my Dirndl. They were Swiss, but from the French part, and had no idea how to get around München, so I told them I would take them to the center of town and then they could find something to do there. Well instead they came with me on my walkabout. It seriously was a long walk to find the store where I bought my dress, but the only places right in the city center only sold the cheaper, mass produced Dirndls and I wanted one a little more authentic and unique. So I asked someone where to go and they told me how to get to a store called Angermeier, and this place literally has hundreds of these dresses in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colors. I ended up with possibly one of the most expensive dresses in the store (thanks, Mom and Pap!) because once I saw it, the other ones simply weren't good enough. It's not your standard, everyday Dirndl, but more of a dressy one. Due to difficulties with the jackasses at the credit card company, however, I had to go back Saturday morning to actually purchase the dress. Kind of pissed me because it meant getting to the Wiesn several hours later than I had intended and is the reason that I didn't get the opportunity to see the 200 Anniversary section of the festivities. It was so crowded that if you didn't get there super early you basically didn't stand a chance of getting in, and every time that I went to attempt to purchase a ticket for this section the ticket stands weren't even open because there was no point. But, I still got my dress :) Oh, and on the way back to the hostel Friday night I was crossing a bridge that was closed off to cars because it was a major pedestrian walkway leading to the Wiesn. Anyway, there was a police van on this bridge that was blasting music through the loudspeakers on the roof. There were 4 cops sitting in there just hanging out and playing DJ, waving at people walking by and listening to party music. It was totally awesome, and something I don't think you would ever see in America. One more reason I love this place.
I actually spent the better part of both Saturday and Sunday at Oktoberfest. On Saturday, since I showed up alone, I just kind of walked around and checked everything out at first. I was just kind of hanging out, doing my own thing, when this group of Asian tourists (a small group of about 5, not your typical mob) stopped me and asked me if they could take pictures with me. They thought that my dress was so gorgeous that they had to have pictures, so I had them take some with my camera, too. Not long later I met a group of people, mostly Italians, who invited me to come and hang out with them. The person in the group that actually started talking to me was a Bavarian in Lederhosen. Anyway, they had a table in one of the Biergartens (outside, of course, since it's impossible to get into a tent) and I went and sat with them. After a short period of time they all kind of disappeared, but it didn't matter because I had spent most of the time talking to the guy from South Afrika on my right. He actually has a kind of interesting story. He was born and raised in South Afrika, but right now he's living in Beijing, where he works for Volkswagen, and was in München for the week on business. After he left I hung out with the people at my table, which consisted of a group from Australia, 2 guys from northern Italy, and later on a couple guys from England. The whole experience was pretty intense. Everyone having a great time being completely loud and obnoxious (but in a good way), and it doesn't matter who you are, where you came from, or who you're with, and in a sense it feels like the world's largest block party because everyone is basically "friends" with everyone else. Which was really good for me, because it's not always easy to fit in when you show up alone and don't know anyone.
After I got all my stuff packed up and checked out of the hostel on Sunday I went to the Hauptbahnhof to put my stuff in a locker until I had to leave. I decided not to wear my Dirndl on Sunday because my feet hurt too much to put the shoes back on, and I refuse to wear such a beautiful dress with filthy, beat-up converse. Anyway, I had just finished locking up my stuff and was headed out of the station when I ran into Olaf. I knew that he was going to me in München on Sunday, but I didn't think I would ever see him there. He had just arrived and was doing the exact same thing that I did. He actually had plans to meet up with a bunch of brokers from his work, who had a reservation at 12 for 40 people in one of the tents. Since I didn't have any specific plans or anyone to meet, Olaf invited me to come along. That was really awesome for 2 reasons. First, as I already mentioned, it is basically impossible to get into a tent. You either have to have a reservation or get there before anyone else to even have a hope of getting into one of the tents, and thanks to Olaf I got in. Second, because it was technically a work meeting, everything was paid for. Beer, schnapps, food, everything. So I got to eat a 15 Euro piece of chicken and drink a 9 Euro beer without having to pay for it, while sitting in a tent that I had no chance of getting into on my own. Unfortunately I was only able to stay for about 3 or 4 hours because I needed to catch a train before 6, but I had a really great time hanging out with Olaf and his colleagues. After I left the tent I bought a few souvenirs and hopped on a train to head back to Köln.

This week it's back to the real world. Yesterday I had class in the morning, then I took my driver's license to the auto club to get it translated. It takes a week, so I have to pick it up next Monday and then take it to Bergheim where, hopefully, they will issue me a German license without any further questions or complications. Today had potential to be absolutely horrible, but was actually quite a pleasant day. Pauline stayed home from Kindergarten today because she had such a horrible cough last night. She actually coughed so hard that she threw up again, and she was crying and didn't sleep all night, so Esther wanted to just give her a break and keep her at home. Normally it sucks to have to keep the kids home "sick" because they aren't sick at all and run around the house being loud and insisting that you spend every second keeping them entertained. Not today, though. I put on a children's CD that I found in Gustav's room and Pauline just listened to music and played by herself all day. She didn't cry or whine the whole day, and she didn't even really ask me to play with her, either. She was perfectly content playing with her dolls and occasionally explaining some sort of nonsense or watching me while I baked in the kitchen. All in all a good day.