Some thoughts on the first week

I think we have been walking around like zombies for the past week.  I think that is a fairly accurate description of the way we feel, act, and look.  The jet lag has been fierce.  The babies either fight sleep (even though they are so, so very exhausted) or sleep for a couple of hours, wake, and then sleep some more.  I look at Bode and I know how hard this is on him. He is pale, has circles under his eyes, and is acting "crazy" (like toddlers do when they are overdue for sleep).  Tuesday night, I lay in bed and cried, wondering if this was the wrong thing to do to my children. I thought I did the right thing, keeping us together as a family. But this has been really, really hard on my babies.

At the bakery on Tuesday morning. Bode is so exhausted! And silly.

Food is not the same.  But of course it isn't!  First of all, I did not come here thinking that the food would be great. I mean, really...sausage and potatoes? Blech. I have been eating a diet of bread and coffee.  I tried to cook, but the oven is different.  That was a surprise.  And, one night I cooked pasta and made a tomato sauce.  I boiled the noodles for about 8-10 minutes...and when I dumped them into the collander, they were a big gloopy stucked together mess.  Cooking has been frustrating! Luckily, we have a few really good Italian (believe it or not) restaurants in our neighborhood. Grocery shopping has been challenging.  I am used to shopping at a Whole Foods.  Again, I knew that I would not find a Whole Foods, or anything close to an American grocery store, while here. Fruits and vegetables are limited.  You don't see a huge bin stacked high with tomatoes. You find a small basket with 6 tomatoes for sale. It took me 3 days (no joke) to find a store that sold garlic.  It has taken the babies a week to get used to the milk here.  The first couple of days was really hard for the babies to get used to milk and other food.  Bode would ask for milk, and when he tasted it, he would cry, "No, Mommy, not the new milk.  I want the old milk!"  The only reason this would not make me cry is that to hear him ask for "old milk" would make me smile. There is a word play on a Steve Martin movie here.  And I think my brother Greg is the only one that would get it.  It is from the movie, The Jerk.  In the movie, Steve Martin is trying to woo Bernadette Peters, and he takes her out to a fancy restaurant. Trying to impress her, he says, "And don't bring us any of that old wine, waiter. We want the new wine!"

Har, har.



Language is tough.  I try to figure out "what" is "what" at the stores.  German is not intuitive, like some languages.  I can figure out some stuff by context and by looking at the pictures on the label.  But not everything is easy to figure out. It makes me think about how challenging life must be like for an illiterate person!  When I was in my young 20s, I was a literacy volunteer through the City of Dallas. I tutored this one woman, and it astounded me what she could not read (I think she tested at the 2nd grade level).  I just can't imagine life like that. I would think it makes life 10,000 times scarier and more stressful.  I am feeling a bit challenged and "illiterate" (for lack of a better word) these days.  As we were walking to the dry cleaners on Wednesday morning, I kept repeating, "When will my shirts be ready?" in German so that I could ask the dry cleaner. Bode got mad and said, "No Mommy, you don't say that!" So I stopped my German lesson and of course, as soon as we got to the dry cleaner, my mind was a blank slate. I walked in, asked the lady if she spoke English and she said, "Nein!" So I had to gesture at other shirts like a mime, and kept repeating, "When? When? When?" (I think they will be ready next Wednesday. Bob joked that I probably asked her (in German) to add ruffles to all of his dress shirts.) A lot of people in the shops do speak English, or at least humor me while I fumble through the language.  On Sunday, we went to a bakery and the girl (girl) behind the counter was so rude to me.  She was very put-off by my inability to speak German, I guess, and was emphatically repeating everything in German, as if to say, "Don't you understand, you moron?" She rolled her eyes at her colleague as she put my rolls in the bag. This made me very angry and I gave her the universal dirty look as I left the store.

Bode doesn't understand the difference in language.  I mean, I'm sure he hears a different language but doesn't understand that a different language is spoken and understood here. In fact, it is heart-breaking at the park.  Bode is so excited to see other kids that he greets them with a big smile and a big, friendly "Hi!"  The German children give him strange looks and ignore him. I hate it.  I hate seeing my boy's confidence shot down.  I have tried to explain to him that in Germany, kids (people) speak a different language. But I don't think he understands right now.

We have a park right across the street from our apartment! Yay!

This week's goal is normalcy. I want things to be as "normal" as possible for Bode and Gianna.  That means keeping a schedule (or trying to, as much as I can get them to sleep on schedule), sticking close to "home," and daily outings to the park.  More details on our "home," and all things German, as soon as I can get to it.  Also, all photos taken with the (foggy) iPhone but I am charging my camera today!
xo