Back to school 2013

The first week of school has been a complete success! 

Erin has about 17 kids in her class, including kids from Texas, Berlin, Brazil, China, & Japan.  They both have German every day.  Erin says her German teacher doesn't speak English at all during class.  She is very excited to have her own Mac Book to work on. Her teacher is from the US.  Erin has become good friends with a girl from Texas and has already had a playdate at her house (since we have nothing here, eventually we will return the favor!)  Luckily, they literally live around the corner, so soon she will be able to walk there.  And they let us borrow a drill and screwdriver today!

Ryan also has about 17 kids in his class.  He is a man of few words, so I don’t know much.  I do know he has a reward system with stars.  The first day he was average, the second got one star and today he got 2.  The teacher says he needs to work on listening and finishing things he says he is going to do.  She is from Canada, and one boy in Ryan’s class was born in Pittsburgh.

Ryan's sticker chart.

Neither have attempted to buy lunch yet.  The hot lunch menu includes things like Baked Salmon, Rice Balls with Sausages and Pepper, Chicken Leg with Pesto Risotto, and Vegetable Lasagna (which always make me think of David Putty). 

Monday, Mike and I went down to Düsseldorf to look for lunch boxes for the kids.  Here is what we found that was considered a lunch box.  

It literally would only hold a sandwich, and probably not even that.  But the worst part is that is was €10, or about $13.  Everyone here does their shopping on Amazon for things like this.  I also had it suggested to me that we drive to Holland (about 45 minutes) because they have a much better selection.  Also, the kids need water bottles for school.  I feel like in the US they are giving away water bottles on every street corner.  Here, we found this one…

for €13, or $17.  It holds about 1 pint of water.  Aldi saved the day today when we found these for €2 each, this I can live with!

Interestingly, there is no problem with leaving cell phones on during class, because there is a jamming system in place, so there is no service in all of the buildings.

  

We did take the train to school on Monday, but have been driving since then.  We don’t have our train passes yet, so its not worth the risk of the €250 fine or the everyday cost.  You can’t buy pro-rated months either.  If we bought one now, it would be the full August price.  Since Mike is home the next few weeks, I can drive them in. 

I have also been spending a lot of my time going grocery shopping.  I have 2 markets/grocery stores I can easily walk to within 5 minutes.  Friday, our town has a farmers market, so I’m excited for that.  I have cooked several dinners.  Tuesday night I made Chicken Schnitzel und Bratkartofflen.  Which is basically giant chicken nuggets with gravy and fried potatoes.  OK, maybe ‘giant chicken nuggets’ doesn't

sound delicious, but it is!

I have figured out how to buy bread and have the baker slice it for me like regular bread in the states.  This was huge!  The kids love the bread here and basically have some form of it for every meal. 

Another HUGE time taker of mine is laundry!  We got our washing machine delivered on Tuesday.  First of all, we are trying to be German and didn't get a dryer, I'm not saying this isn't going to change.  A normal wash load takes 3 hours and 44 minutes to run.  You must be thinking, "Colleen is crazy, that impossible".  No it isn't.  I have heard it from everyone.  Now on top of the nearly 4 our run cycle, I am hanging the clothes to dry in a basement.  Yeah, that doesn't work either.  Definitely need to invest in a clothes rack to put out in the backyard.  My one from college is on the boat on its way here.  Maybe my first load of laundry from yesterday will still be wet and I can use it in 6 weeks.  

Here is the washing machine, see the 3.44???  That's time remaining!

We made another trip to Ikea today for some curtains for the kid’s bedrooms.  Ryan was up at 645 asking to play Wii today.  We needed to darken those rooms!

The kids have been constantly playing Wii, it’s like it’s their last thing to hold onto from America.  The strangest thing is that they are actually playing together and only fighting half of the time!

Erin and Ryan getting ice cream at our local market.  Ryan's was a Popsicle in the shape of those 'we're #1" foam fingers.  Erin's was a push-up pop with strawberry swirled vanilla ice cream.  But...inside the stick were 4 Haribo gummy bears.  German's love Gummy Bears!

Jameson's invade Germany

And now the moment you have all been waiting for...The Jameson Family has arrived in Deutchland.  The flight was good.  It didn't seem to take nearly as long as last time.  Maybe I'm getting used to it (like the turnpike)  We had 4 seats across the middle of the plane.  Erin didn't freak out like I thought she would, so that is a good thing.  We did get the kids to sleep a little.  Erin slept between us and Ryan slept on the floor.  It worked. 

We arrived and the car guy was there waiting for us at the exit with his "Mr. Mike Jameson" sign.  Erin and Ryan were extremely impatient to get going while he explaied everything about the car.  We managed to fit all 9 of our pieces of luggage in the car, which is good news.  It is like a station wagon, black with the coolest licence plate in all of Dusseldorf. 

 

 

 

We easily found our way to the house and dropped off our suitcases in the driveway.  Our handover wasn't until 10:30, so we had some time to kill.  We drove around, found a nearby bakery and an ATM.  Almost no one takes credit card here, only EC debit cards. As we drove through a neighborhood near our house, my phone (which was only operating on WIFI, which there is no of free around here), woke up and I got tons of email and facebook notifications. Someone has a open WIFI at their house and my phone picked it up.  (Right now I am siting on a bench outside the person's house 'borrowing' their WIFI to write all of this.)

The handover was good.  Our landlord doesn't speak a word of English, so that should be intertesting.  The rental furniture movers showed up promptly at noon and (I'm told) were done by 2.  I don't really know because I didn't think I was tired, but sat down in a chair, and immediatly fell asleep.  Mike later sent me up to our bedroom, and I didn't even bother to make the bed, just laid down in the middle of all the blankets and pillows.  He took a pic of me, which I don't appreciate and emailed it out.  Thanks. 

Thursday night we made our first trip to Ikea.  Picked up a few things, shower curtains and the like.  Nothing too exciting.  Followed by dinner at McDonalds and grocery shopping at Aldi. Nothing I couldn't have done on any given day in Robinson! 

Friday morning, Mike had an appointment with German officials to declare that we were here.  We took the train into Dusseldorf. We also opened our bank account and did some shopping.  My cell phone is now figured out.  I do have a German number, but you can still text me at my old number.  Also, email, skype and facebook messanger are all good ways to get in touch with me.  We also bought a new washing machine.  Fun!

We did another trip to another Aldi.  And I cooked my first meal in Germany.  Spaghetti.  Go with what you know. 

At night we took the train 3 stops into our little town of Kaiserswerth.  Very cute little town.  The kids were playing on a playground near a pizza place.  I heard a little boy run over to his parents who were sitting having dinner and say "Those kids are Americans!".  They all started playing together and we sat and had drinks with their parents.  Fabulous people!  The kids will be in school with Erin and Ryan, both one year younger.  At that point we were low on cash and had had two bottles of wine.  We didn't know it, but we had ordered  2 $22 bottles.  Brian and Stephanie were nice enough to front us the cash instead of finding an ATM.  We have plans for drinks next Friday night too, we'll bring the cash!

We did some school and household shopping at the German equivalent of Walmart today. 

Tonight we are heading into Dusseldorf for dinner.  Sorry no pictures attached to this post.  I'm on Mike's computer.  I promise I will add some as soon as I can. 

 

Going Away Parties, Busses and Bonfires

Where so I start?  It seems the longer I waited (or didn't have time to post) the more stuff happened and the more people asked me when I was going to post again!  So here I go...

When we got back from Germany, we fell right back into softball All-Star season.  We didn't exactly bring home team gold, we but Erin was MVP of one game and had a game-tying, three run homerun in another game.  If you have seen the video, yes I'm the crazy screaming Mom in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EDD7S6e0TMU

 

Erin and Ryan had their usual Birthday Party with 30 or so of their closest friends at Town Park Pool.  Still the best bang for you birthday party budget!

Saturday July 27th brought on our Neighborhood Going Away Party (as well as my parent's 34th wedding anniversary).  We rented a 'big yellow' and headed down to Penn Brewery and Hofbrauhaus on the South Side.  Thank you everyone who was able to make it out! 

A good time was had by all...expect for Ryan who jumped off the ottoman while we were gone, fell awkwardly on his arm and broke it!  Sunday was spent at Children's Hospital (who was wonderful) getting the cast put on.  I can't wait for my first taste of Germany Orthopedic practices!  Good news, I found out the man who invented X-Rays was German, so we should be in good hands.  He can get the cast off on September 1st.

The weekend of August 3-4 we made the 1st and 2nd of our 5 consecutive turnpike runs in 11 days, so get to Lebanon for the Phillips family party.  Also had dinner with some of our best high school friends and their wives. 

Sunday night turned into (at least) Round 2 of neighborhood going away parties!  Neighborhood Corn Hole Tournament!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the packers and movers were at the house.  Monday our Air Shipment was taken (to arrive in Germany in 8-10 days).  Tuesday was the big one with our Sea Shipment including our beds (to arrive in 6-8 weeks).  Then Wednesday they took the remainders to storage here in the US.  Yes, we have been sleeping on borrowed air mattresses with borrowed sheets and pillows.  No, it has not been fun.  But going out to dinner every night has been great since all of our cooking stuff and plates and silverware were gone day 1.  I could get used to not cooking. 

Thursday and Friday, since there was no where to sit at our house, Erin, Ryan and I had our German lessons in a conference room at Bayer.  Mike put Erin to work scanning and copying documents for the move and updating his Bucco 'magic number' spreadsheet. 

Thursday we took in a final and very hot Bucco game. 

Saturday and Sunday brought one final softball tournament for Erin and Mike.  In between games we hurried to Harrisburg for our Jameson/Roscoe going away party.  I don't think we have every gone to Harrisburg for such a short period of time.  Literally we were there for 13 hours.  Again, good times all around (except for Pete's severely sprained ankle).  Lots of family, friends and karaoke.  Oh, and a visit by the Harrisburg City Police for a noise complaint. 

Erin and Ryan brought the house down with their reditions of "Cups" by Anna Kendrick and "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zBQldMNapEg

Sunday we were up at out the door by 645 to get back for Erin's softball tournament.  I really don't remember turnpike drive #4, but I know I did it. 

Monday night, our last night in Pittsburgh, was Pristine Fields Going Away Party Round 3, complete with a bonfire at Gregg & Sandy's.  It's truly amazing how many people managed to make out for one last night with the Jamesons.  We love and appreciate all of you!

 

As of right now, you can text me on my old cell phone number.  Don't as me how it works.  Mike transferred my number to Google Voice and it all works out somehow.  Not sure what will happen with voice calls just yet.  We will need to look into that when we land.  FYI, Verizon was great with breaking on contract, since we are moving out of the Verizon coverage area.  They waived the contract cancellation fee, unlike Direct TV who is charging us $380.  I like to give credit where credit is due. 

Also, we did rent the house.  The new family will be moving in on the 16th.  Neighbors, please take care of them, but don't party too much at their house!  Keep it clean!  And don't have more fun with them then you do with us!

Tuesday, the 13th was our last night in the US.  We had dinner with our parents, Mary, Dan & Mike's Aunt Diane.  And Danny & Kait came over for a visit.  Ryan, Mike and Rick stayed up to watch the Buccos in a heartbreaking lose in 14 to the Cardinals. 

Rick is driving us to JFK this morning.  I will blog again as soon as I am able.  The kids start school on Monday the 19th.  We are not yet sure how long it will take us to get our internet up and running but it will be a top priority.  Ryan's priority is to get the WiiU setup as quickly as possible and get back to his Skylanders. 

Again, Thank You to everyone who has made it to parties or dropped a note/email/text/facebook post.  Every single one means so much to all of us!

 

 

 

Housing Trip to Cologne/Düsseldorf

July 23, 2013

Last week Mike and I went on our housing visit to Germany.

We left Sunday night from Newark and arrived in Düsseldorf Monday morning at 6AM.  We managed to figure out the trains and buy our tickets.  We could have skipped this step of buying tickets, as no one EVER the entire week checked if we had train tickets or not.  I love Germany, they are all rule followers like me!  If you are supposed to buy a train ticket, you do it, it doesn't matter if someone is going to check it or not.  (That and the fine is like €200, which is approximately $260)

Monday we spent in Cologne.  We took a nap, which helped greatly, but we couldn't make it up until sunset which that week was about 9:50 at night.  Germany is pretty far north!  One of the highlights of Cologne is The Dom, which is just ridiculously huge!  Everyday, we would walk out of the Hofbahnhof (train station), and would still be shocked at how big The Dom is.  We never got used to it.

The Dom, officially the High Cathedral of St. Peter, has been under construction for more or less 900 years, since it was begun in 1248.  The Dom was never targeted in WWII, possibly because it was used as a landmark to for the planes to navigate by.  The relics of The Three Wisemen are located here, behind the Altar.  Mind-blowing!  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral)

I think after we toured The Dom, we took a nap but I really don't remember.  Running on adrenaline.

Lunch was delicious.  I'm not going to fill this blog with pictures of food (well maybe I am), but here is what I had.  Schnitzel with Pommes Frites, in some kind of mushroom sauce.

After lunch we walked across the Hohenzollern Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohenzollern_Bridge), which is for trains crossing the river Rhine.  There is a walking path along which people attach "Love Locks" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_padlocks).  No, we didn't, but there is still time.  

Here we are on the other side of the Hohenzollern Bridge looking back at Cologne.  While we were here admiring the view, this guy climbed the side of the bridge.  Maybe you can do that when you visit.

Tuesday morning we took the train back to Düsseldorf to meet with relocation expert.  She showed us around to about 9 different houses.  We had our minds set on a small 3 bedroom 1 bathroom "typical German" townhouse with a back yard just big enough for a table and chairs.  So when the realtor brought us to this house first, we knew it was going to be a hard one to beat!

It is located in the village of Kaiserswerth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserswerth).   It is about a 10 minute bike ride to Erin & Ryan's school, The International School of Düsseldorf (http://www.isdedu.de/ and http://www.isdlions.de/).     

Three (and a half) bedrooms, 3 and a half bathrooms.  It was built in the 1930.  The tile in the kitchen is form a church in France.  The living room opens out to a huge back yard.  Which includes a pond and a 'party house'.  Just what we needed, a built in excuse to throw a party!  There is also a 3rd floor porch off our bedroom.

Like, I said it was going to be hard to beat, and it wasn't.  

After visiting a few houses, we had an appointment at the school.  It certainly isn't what our kids are used to, but I think it will be a wonderful change of pace experience for them.  Erin's 4th grade has 4 homerooms this year, and Ryan will spend 50% of his day outside, no matter the weather.  

When we got back to Cologne, we stopped at a Convenience Store and grabbed a €3 bottle of wine (yes I can find 3 buck Chuck all over the world), and drank it down by the Rhine.  That sounds really degenerate, but trust me, we were in the norm.  

Wednesday brought more house-shopping and lunch with Mike's new boss at Bayer in Leverkusen.  The nice part of Bayer was beautiful, I didn't see the actual 'plant' part.

Thursday, we had lunch in Düsseldorf at a beautiful market with a woman I have been emailing with.  Her husband works at Bayer, they are from Pittsburgh and her kids are at the International School with Ryan and Erin.  Who better to make us feel at home and get the lay of the land?

Afterward Mike and I took in some of the sights of Düsseldorf.

After dinner with one of Mike's work colleagues who recently made the move from Pittsburgh to Leverkusen, we finally were awake enough to see Colonge after the sun goes down!

It was a great week in our new, temporary home.  These 2 years will FLY by I'm sure.  This won't be the last time I say this, but EVERYONE is welcome to come visit anytime that they want!  Book your flights now!