About life here

Here are just some random observations about our time in Germany so far:

Recycling. Boy howdy do they recycle here. We produce maybe only 25% of the trash that we do back home! They recycle everything and I have four trash cans under the sink. It is fairly irritating as the kitchen counter is always full of "trash" that I need to rinse out or crush and put away under the sink. Tom still hasn't sorted it all out yet! Each trash has a separate pick up and we missed one trash day already so all the paper trash has to wait another MONTH before it can go out. wow.

In the grocery stores here, as you exit the store you can see large bins full of "trash". In an effort to not have so much recycling at home, people will take all the food out of their packaging (as much as possible) and then put all the plastic wrap etc etc in those bins. Like I said, they are serious about recycling around here.

It is hard to believe that we've only been here for two weeks! We have really settled into a routine. The kids are sleeping better which is a RELIEF. They haven't slept through the night on a consistent basis since March for some reason. We've decided to start waking Ryan up at 7am or at least not getting him out of bed until 7am. That has actually worked wonders in a matter of days. Unbelievable. Layla still wakes up with bad dreams but not as often and not quite as upset. I think she is just in a real brain development stage....when she wakes up from her dreams she can be so explicit in describing the dreams (there was a pirate with a patch....we had to smell poo (!) the big bunny was chasing me...etc). She is so creative in her play that I think it is all tied together for some reason. She can go on and on and on with stories in her head these days.

Back to Germany.... The BFA community (the american boarding school here) has a lot of Americans - most are gone for the summer of course but we've connected well with one family. The mom is the PE teacher at the elementary school and the Dad teaches English. The Church that is connected to the school is easy for us to attend but lacks pretty much on all categories in our humble opinion (= We are going simply because it is easy to get to and Layla and Ryan enjoy the kids in the nursery. It is small since so many folks are gone for the summer.

We are still grilling almost every day (= We go to the grocery store about every other day and Tom hunts for some kind of meat to grill and then I've been trying different side dishes - salads, rice, veggies etc. Since I'm not cooking the main dish I've been more interested in finding creative side dishes so that is fun. The mom of this house left me a German translation for kitchen ingredients and such so that has been helpful! Tom really remembers quite a bit as well so that is great. He can't get the German out of his mouth, but he can understand what is being said to him.

We've been surprised at the amount of Turkish food available! It seems that the small "hole in a wall" restaurants are always "Doner and Kebab" places. Yum yum. Not sure how the Turks got such a foothold here, but it is great!

As we've been driving around we've been struck by the fact that there are SO MANY little villages. Even just 1 to 2 kilometers between them! The roads are not well marked but each village has a sign a the beginning and at the end of the town. Each one is just so cute and picturesque. The other day we had to slow way way down because we were following two young gals who were herding cows between two pastures. yes, cows on the village road. As we rolled along Ryan saw the cows and just went berserk. He gets happy and excited with his whole body (he's done this from the beginning!) and stretches his legs out and his arms and just makes the same loud sound over and over and over. Goodness. He does it when he sees dogs as well. Both our kids LOVE dogs. Must be genetic from Tom's side....Ryan has hardly been around a dog in his short life but he loves them.

There are many many walking paths in the surrounding forest area. They are so beautiful. The trees are soooo tall and oftentimes only have foliage on the top 25%. You can see where they have thinned the trees out in some places, but the effect is like walking into an outdoor forest-room. It is such a different feeling from the desert to have green on all sides and for a roof!

I can tell we are getting more rested. When we first got here we just wanted to sleep and watch movies. (= Both of us last night independently decided that we were ready for a change of pace (= Funny how that happens. There is a gal who babysat for us 3-4 times but she is traveling for the rest of the summer. Her parents ran an orphanage in Bangladesh for 13 years. Amazing. Anyway, she has a lovely friend willing to bike all the way to our house (the other gal was just across the driveway) and look after the kids for 2 Euros an hour! We are too blessed. So about every other day we've had either the first gal or now the second gal coming and playing with the kids. It gives us a much needed break as the only time they are with someone else is on Sundays.

Tom actually has BOTH kids out on a hike now! That is the only reason I have the time for blogging at the moment (= It is the first time he's taken both kids, definitely on a hike but I'm not sure he's ever taken them both out of the house at the same time! We borrowed a bike seat and so he's taken Layla out in the afternoons or he'll take Ryan for a short hike while I get dinner ready. I'm soooo grateful he's so good with the kids.

We were surprised to not see cell phones AT ALL unless you are in the big city. I think I've only seen one cell phone while we've been out around our little village.

I think I've mentioned before that everyone walks or bikes around here. Gas is $8 a gallon (= Unbelievable. We were filling up the other day and had some problem where the paying machine ate 30 Euros and we couldn't get it back. There just happened to be an American family pulled in next to us and they were from Denver! Crazy. He spoke German but couldn't figure out what to do...neither could the other Germans who pulled in after a bit. Finally we went to that one family's house that I mentioned earlier and she sorted it all out over the phone. Things are VERY automated here at gas stations that they don't even have people in them. It is all electronic. I'm sure the bigger towns have gas stations with people in them, but the smaller villages don't.

Well, I think I hear Tom and the kids...I'd better get cooking. I was trying to find a good cucumber salad recipe. We've had the MOST amazing salads here. I don't even like potato salad and they are just incredible. We actually bought potatoes! I never make potatoes.

Okay. they are really coming up the stairs!