As I sit here in my very quiet home (minus the hum of the dishwasher
and washing machine), I realize that this is it. This is where God currently has my family and
me. We have been in Germany for just
over a month, the kids started a new school today, and Pete and I are looking
ahead to starting German Language School next week. I’ve gotten the grocery shopping thing almost
down. I can go to the bank where they
speak a good bit of English. Restaurants
are still challenging, but we are getting there. Routine is good and I’m glad to finally be
getting into one.
Germany, or Germans, are no what we expected, or were told to
expect. They do greet you on the street
with a “Hello” or “Guten Tag” (Good Day).
They are nice and not rude. The
other day in the grocery store Pete pulled out his little index card of quick
sayings and asked the teller how she was.
In very plain English, she said, “fine, thank you.” She proceeded to speak to us, very slowly, in
German and English so we could carry on a conversation. We will definitely seek her out the next time
we are in the grocery store to continue to build a relationship.
Speaking of the grocery store.
The breads and cheeses here are amazing!
Amazing in taste and surprisingly cheap in price. Lily really likes Brie; it is her
favorite. It costs us just over a dollar
for a nice size piece. I watch the
Sunday paper for sales. Chicken is a bit
pricey, but of course you can find any kind off sausage/bratwurst fairly
reasonable. I found a nice pork tenderloin
yesterday for under five euros. We will
be having that for dinner tonight.
I’m learning to cook on an electric stove. Not crazy about it, but it’s not as bad as I
thought. Lily is learning to bake in a
much smaller oven and is experimenting with convection oven cooking. There aren’t too many pre-packaged baking
items here, like brownies or cake mixes, so she is making everything from scratch. So far she has made a Carrot Cake, German
Chocolate Cake, and Blueberry Pie, just to name a few.
Nick found friends right away.
He played basketball almost every day during the month of August. He will be trying out for the school team
sometime in September. He has gone to
the Kandern area pool a few times and loves hanging out with his new found
friends. Freedom is something that the
kids have here that both they and us as parents are trying to adjust to. Walking home from game night at school at 10
– 10:30 pm is not something we are used to.
It’s a learning curve, just like many other things.
We still don’t have a car, but are starting price negotiations on one today. Please continue to lift this in prayer. Kandern is a great little town, and much can
be done by walking. However, with my bad
knee, it does make some tasks much more challenging. I did by the $12 bottle of rubbing alcohol
and made my homemade ice packs which help more than anything in keeping the
inflammation at bay.
We are blessed to be close to the school and the GEM office where we
can go and “get connected” since we still do not have internet access in our
home. It is supposed to be installed
next Monday the 9th of September.
We will see.
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| First Day of School, 2014 |