Prenzlauerberg at last

We had a super weekend, adventuring, exploring and playing with friends.  On Saturday, along with our neighbors, we visited the Schoneberg market and had burritos at a small restaurant.  On Sunday, I talked Doug into jogging with me and we were blessed with SUN.  Imagine!  In the evening, we had dinner with some new friends who our kids befriended for us and saw STARS on the way home!  All in all, a lovely weekend.

On bonus Monday, while the kids had school, Doug had the American holiday, so we finally headed off to Prenzlauerberg.  Everyone says it is the hippest neighborhood in Berlin, but it is a good drive from our hood, so we hadn't ventured there until yesterday.  We will be going back!  Accompanied by our neighbor, we tramped about, dined on curry and later on cake & hot chocolate.  In between, we saw lovely old buildings, landmarks and an old Jewish cemetery.

Unfortunately, I spent the day coming down with a cold and promptly collapsed once we returned home.  Today has been all sniffles, sore throat, blah blah bleck.

Date Night

Last summer while on home leave, our kids took the Red Cross babysitter certifying course. Upon arriving in Germany, we realized, if our kids are old enough to leave alone as the responsible parties for small children, they were probably old enough for us to leave alone at home for an evening.  Therefore, when we fail to go out on a date, it is absolutely our fault.  We don't even need to plan ahead.  Imagine that.  It is a new Era for us.  We haven't gone out much yet, but we have started to explore our new freedom.  In fact, we have decided that Berlin is a great city for warding off any impending mid-life crises by going out and playing.

Last night we went out for dinner & dancing.  We decided to go to Schoneberg because we found a club with salsa dancing there on the internet: Havanna Berlin. So, leaving the kids to their own devices (they were happily cheering: "streaming netflix! popcorn! Wii! late bedtime!" when we left), we went to find a yummy restaurant near the club of our choice.  Of course, after ten blocks of amazing restaurants, we settled on a Tapas place. This is a LONG way from Lusaka. There were more restaurants in two blocks than in all of the capitol of Zambia.  After a delicious dinner, we wandered some more.  Doug didn't really want to make it to the club in time for the salsa lesson, thinking it would be too hard to follow in German, and eventually we found our way in to our new favorite dance club.  It was Fabulous.  We were really nervous that it would be full of drunken, hot twenty-somethings and we would feel old and out-of-place.  To our delight, it was a completely mixed age place, where people seemed to have only one thing in common: love of dancing.  There didn't even seem to be any heavy drinking.  The first dance floor, the reggaeton area, was finishing up a salsa lesson.  Deciding to explore, we wandered past a disco dance floor until we found the most amazing salsa dance club area downstairs.  People of all ages and walks of life dancing together.  I felt like I had fallen into a film, an imaginary world.  We don't have the skill (yet) do that sort of dancing, but we loved watching and are inspired to learn.  We ended up dancing with a bit younger crowd on the reggaeton dance floor.  All in all, we were fully rewarded for our adventurousness and hope to return and dance again.

Gray Days

The day remained gray, right until the end, never brightening beyond the twilight.  While I meant what I said, that we have had a happy first few months at our new post in Berlin, it has been a struggle against the dark.  Evenings are the hardest for me. Perhaps it is the combination of several hours of dark since mid-afternoon, which makes me feel like curling into bed and hibernating (hiding?), and the frantic stress of the supper-time/homework nexus of anxiety.  I simply cannot slip away nor do I have the energy to cope.  Those are the dark days, inside and out, and sunny Zambia with help in the house and minimal homework (homeschooling) and late afternoon horse riding seems like a distant dream.  I used to wonder how people could live so differently in different places.  Given how differently I live in different countries, I am now astounded that our differences aren't even greater than they are.

Regarding who has won my time today (haus frau, knitting bandita or exercise fanatic), well, none of the above had a decisive win.  It has been a bit of this and bit of that day: toilets cleaned (but no showers/tubs scrubbed), floors vacuumed (but not mopped), laundry washed (but not folded), a jog (but all too short) and knitting advanced (but nothing completed).  The only bit of excitement was when I managed to lock myself out when I went for my run.  Happily, I managed to break back in to the house despite the almost constant police presence on our street.  I better tighten the screws on that screen.

Friday Morning Thoughts

It's a misty-moisty morning in Berlin, after 8 am and the sky is just graying.  Almost all the snow has melted out of our backyard, leaving a yard full of dog doo-doo mines.  Today is an open day - no appointment or schedule, but the hausfrau within me has a long list of ought-tos.  Everything from toilets to laundry to mopping to yard cleanup (although that rightfully belongs to the official dog owner, our 12 year old).  My France Christmas 5 pounds says I should go running.  My stash of yarn says I should hunker down and knit.  I wonder who will win?  Place your bets.

2011, really?

Well, it's been a few years and several life experiences since I last posted.  We are now living in Berlin, Germany (since August 2010).  After the past two years in Zambia, homeschooling in the sun, Berlin is a big change!  Our lifestyle has also undergone a major transformation since Doug's triple bypass in April.

Our first few months here in Berlin have been very happy.  I have indulged my new hobby of jogging in the enormous woods/park just behind our house, the Grunewald.  Who knew there could be miles and miles of woodland right in the middle of a capital city?  Since the snow came, running has been a bit trickier.  The ice can make it dangerous, but I have been doing my best to stick to it.  I have also been diving into knitting since the cold descended.  Today, I attended my first all German knitting group.  My German is still non-existent, so I depended on the kindness and education of the women in the group and was immediately rewarded.  Some people find Berliners cold, but I have been welcomed and helped over and over again.  This morning was amazing, as we shared our projects.

For you knitters out there, I brought one of my current projects, socks, which I am knitting on two circular needles at the same time (two socks, that is).  I brought the book and they were all fascinated.  One lady copied a pattern chart from the back and we managed to translate the stitches by me demonstrating each code.  It turns out that none of them had ever done the SSK (slip, slip knit) decrease, but always use a SKP (slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over) for a left slant decrease.  So, in my small way, I had something to contribute that transcended language.

So, finally, I find myself with a real reason to learn German.  Most days, it is so so so easy to make do without and enjoy all that life has to offer.  I am quite afraid of the intensive course - I suppose afraid that my brain has dried up and I will no longer have the ability to learn.  I know it is false, as I have learned so much food vocabulary already & use my brain everyday - for knitting!  Still, I don't have a good ear and pronunciation seems very difficult.  I will have to just try.

Great Weekend

We had a super fun weekend! Saturday was the school International Day, called Kermess here. We had to be super effective in the morning -- as we packed up the car for a long weekend. At Kermess we all had a lot of fun volunteering in our booths and participating in all kinds of ways. Aidan got to march at the head of the parade carrying the US flag -- a very special cub scout privilege! The biggest difference from last year was how the kids met up with their friends and went off on their own to enjoy the festival. We are so happy they have made good friends -- although it is sad to look ahead to more goodbyes.

By mid-afternoon we were on the road toward the coast. An hour and a half later we were in the small town of Algarrobo on the Pacific Coast. We had booked a two bedroom apartment at San Alfonso del Mar, a somewhat surreal place right on the ocean with the biggest pool in the world between it and the ocean. If you check out the link, our apartment is even in the pic! Anyway, we spent almost all of Sunday in these heated salt-water pools. The kids have been working on their swimming and they very much enjoyed the increased buoyancy! Aidan even got the hang of his snorkel and decided that he prefers swimming that way!

On the way home, our transmission wasn't up to the first hill and we had to wait three hours for a tow-truck. We were very happy it happened before we hit the big road and while we still had nice places to wait. The tow folks gave us and our stuff a lift home, but now we are car-less for an unknown amount of time. This really sucks -- I was hoping to work a half-day today (for Maggie's birthday), but am out all day due to lack of transport. Oh well.

Tonight -- we celebrate Maggie being 9! Unbelievable. I better go downstairs and start on her cake!

Overflowing life

I know, given that I am not blogging regularly at all, I have probably lost all readership, but just in case....we have lots of exciting news: Zambia, Patagonia, and visits from Mom & Dad, Connie & Steve, Bruce & Helda & Marcos.

We are all super happy that we heard on Halloween that we will be going to Zambia for our next post! I am super happy and I think it will be fabulous. If you have interest and any time at all I recommend checking out this site: http://www.zambia-travel-guide.com/bradt_guide.asp?bradt=170. The author has uploaded most of his travel guide to the internet and it is VERY readable and interesting. In the last week I have decided that while we are in Zambia, we absolutely MUST do several things already: visit Victoria Falls (of course), go on a canoe safari through the lower Zambezi River, and go on a walking safari in South Luangwa National Park. Those are just the start though, as I am sure we will want to explore other places in Zambia and also other countries near Zambia. We may even manage to make it to South Africa for the world cup! Who knows?

Knowing where we are going also makes us suddenly aware of how little time we have here. We hope to leave Santiago at the end of June (after the school year is done) and have home leave in Michigan for the month of July. We will probably spend two weeks in Washington and then we hope to arrive in Lusaka in time for the start of school at the American International School of Lusaka -- which starts on the third Monday of August. The kids had such a better start here in Chile this year than last year. It was infinitley harder last year having missed the first quarter of school. Aidan will be starting middle school and we really, really hope we can make it so they both get to start the year with their peers. Of course, this totally depends on the government and who knows? We are not "entitled" to leave here until October, actually. We shall see.

Anyway, I was writing about our plans to enjoy Chile in the months we have left (which may be as few as 7 or 8). One plan we have made is to go to Patagonia for a week at New Years. We have purchased the tickets already! Our plan is to go to Torres del Paine National Park and backpack/camp with the kids for at least 5 days. Even though it is summer here at that time, it will still be cold there -- getting up to 60+ degrees in the daytime and down to 40 (or as low as freezing) at night. We hope it won't be too much for all of us! In the meantime, we intend to do a good bit of hiking and camping to try to get us and the kids in shape for a trip like this.

No less exciting is the prospect of visits from family! We are super excited that my folks have figured out a way to visit for a couple of weeks at the end of January and beginning of February. We are thrilled. I have just begun to make a list of ideas for what we can do and see together -- the mountains and coasts, maybe a bit of the desert and the northern end of the lake district? Who knows? Definitely some vineyards. The same goes for the Ferguson clan who plan to visit in March. It will be a ball to get the cousins together because it has been WAY too long since they have spent time together (2 years by March -- unless I am confused).

In the meantime, I mean to find better ways to moderate my work/family/friend schedule. I am working out the kinks and will learn to balance things better with a little more time, I am confident. Dear friends, please know I love and think of you often.