Kein Pub jetzt!

Not a Pub anymore...

I have been horrible about blog writing these last few weeks. It seems like life has taken over and there is not quite as much time to write! We have been busy trying to get our apartment ready to rent. We decided to go ahead and furnish it and try to rent to international students or guest professors that need a furnished apartment for a few months at a time. We thought that way, we can make a little money, but also be able to use it when we want to. I feel a bit like a college student/hotel worker/time share manager.

 It was kind of interesting... I recently found out that the bottom of our building used to be a pub back in the 50's  and 60's.  It is one of the funny things around here - when buildings are so old, they often have served many, many purposes over the years.

It is quite time consuming, trying to think of all of the details that one would need if they were coming to stay for any length of time in the apartment - almost like starting from scratch (dishes, silverware, coffee maker, sofa, rugs, bed linens, and the list goes on etc.). Luckily, we do have many "extras" in our own house, so we don't have to start totally from scratch. Trying to furnish it economically, yet somewhat cute, adds to the time for sure.  It is fun though, and hopefully it will be fished soon! 

Imagination Movers

A Disney group called the Imagination Movers came to the base in Bamberg to put on a show for the kids. Apparently they have a TV show on the Disney channel. I had never heard of the group, but not wanting to miss an opportunity (especially for free) I thought it would fun to bring Mia. They put on a great show, and I'm sure if we had known this TV show, it would have been especially fun. Mia was tired from the night before, and wasn't in to it very much. I think I was more excited than she was (It may have been a little over stimulating for her, compared to her calm "German World" that she lives in). It was a small little atmosphere, where you could wait in a very short line after the show and meet the "imagination movers", get their autographs, and have a photo taken with them (Mia didn't really have any interest though :(). They even came up to us during the concert, but again, not too much interest on Mia's part. It is so funny, how things change as your kids grow older. I remember when Bailey was small - she LOVED Barney! We went to Universal Studios, and must have seen the Barney show 5 times because she loved it so much. Mia may be a little too old for that now, and there are certainly many things that she does enjoy, but it is really funny to me how life changes - I guess we are getting old :-)

. It was a nice treat though on a Saturday afternoon :-). They seemed like really nice guys, and had lots of energy and enthusiasm!

Keeping busy...

Our family, after Bailey's National Junior Honor Society Induction

Camden reading his poem at the luncheon (it was funny, because my little comedian even managed to crack a joke to loosen up the crowd :-)

Bailey lighting the candle as part of the induction

The inductees....

Silly Mia - just happy to be staying here for 1 more year:-)

We have been fairly busy these last few weeks with lots of different "stuff".  We were super excited to find out that Bryan got an extension to stay here for a little bit longer. Next year will truly be the end of  our time in Bamberg though, as the base that Bryan works on is actually closing down for ever :-(. Not sure what the future holds for us after that, but as long as Bryan has a job and we are together, that is all that really matters. It is refreshing knowing that we have one last year to really cherish all of our favorite things here though. The Spring has just "Sprung" and the; bike rides, hikes, bier gardens etc. eagerly await!

Changing subjects a bit, I had a few "proud mom" things to share... Camden entered a poetry contest, last month  through the Spouses Club, and won 3rd place. He was invited to read his poem at a special luncheon, and won $25 to boot - his poem was about Bamberg :-). Very proud of you Cam! Bailey was inducted last night into the National Junior Honor Society. She has had straight A's all year, and I was so happy that she was recognized for her hard work. She also received 3rd place in the Middle School Science Fair last month. We are extremely proud  - B! Mia is doing great too - no big honors, but doing well and having fun. It is about the cutest thing you have ever seen, to see her and her friends walking to school. They travel in a pack; gossiping, giggling, and being just so darn cute. She was beyond excited when we told her that she could stay in her school for 3rd grade!

Lots of things considered....

Our family in Florence

The other day, I read the blog of another family that is living in Europe. It struck me so funny, because she posted about what you don't usually get to read about on travel blogs. I had to laugh at her brutal honesty, because I totally "got it." She talked about the "planning of the trips" and the fact that a successful and fun trip can take hours and hours of planning and thought - especially when you have; other people to worry about, only so much time to see what you really want to see in a city, a budget to consider, transportation, hotel, parking, food, entertainment etc. Even a 3 day get-away can consume hours of time. Hotels don't fit our family, parking rates at airports vary considerably, not all cities have easy public transportation or parking, not all hotels have refrigerators, you can't pack too much or too little unless you want to pay extra costs on airlines or spend extra money on buying things that you might have forgotten etc... When you go on lots of trips - you learn to do things economically - my thinking is that I would rather go on 10 vacations economically than blow all of our money on a one time, no costs considered, 1 week vacation (but of course, that takes loads of planning). You always see the fun photos from travel blogs and everything looks effortless, yet the "behind the scenes" preparation is enormous.

I often enjoy the planning of a trip, but it can be a lot of work. When we leave Europe someday, I don't want to have any regrets with regard to "places we wish we had gone." One of the reasons we love to go on a cruise is because we don't have to worry about cooking, cleaning, picking restaurants, grocery shopping etc. You still have to consider the sightseeing and getting there, but at least the food and accommodation is taken care of. If it were just Bryan and I to consider, of course it wouldn't be nearly as time consuming, but to make sure our 3 kids are; having fun, entertained, and even somewhat educationally stimulated (and they are also extremely picky eaters to boot) can be a big task.  

In all of our traveling, we have only had a couple of screw ups: the time in Athens when the Greeks went on strike, and we were stuck in the city center without a train- we ended up hiring a taxi - which of course was much more expensive. The time in Barcelona, where it was 9:00pm, and we had to hire 2 taxi's (Bryan and Bailey in one, and Camden, Mia, and I in another) to get to our hotel and ended up at the Police Station because they couldn't find the hotel (they thought it was a scam, but after 120.00 euro - we finally found the hotel). Had I planned the transportation from the airport to the hotel, it could have been alleviated (to know that we could have paid 20 euro to go by train, if I had planned better - was so frustrating). The time in Egypt, when we were stuck in the backroom of a "Perfume Dealer" on a less than desirable street (picture Indiana Jones going through the old town - no kidding), but we didn't want to offend our guide and ended up feeling extremely pressured to buy something - we could have avoided that one  (one of our friends ended up in the exact same situation, so it was a known issue), or the time on top of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where I shook the hand of an extremely reluctant Palestinian Man (had I done my research, I would have known that this is total taboo for a Palestinian Man - especially in such a religious setting (our guide later told us, that he considered me to be Bryan's "property", and it was against everything in him to shake my hand) - again a little research would have helped :-)

I really enjoyed the lady's honesty on her blog. When my kids are adults, and read back on their travels, I want them to remember that the planning (behind the scenes) was not always as easy as the traveling seemed :-).

Schedules....

We have such a weird schedule this year. Bailey goes to the American school and has one school calendar, Mia goes to the German School and has a completely other schedule, and Camden home schools. With the exception of 2 weeks at Christmas, I don't think there has been one common day off between the 2 different school schedules. With regard to the German school, it is against the law to miss school (I have been told that the Polizei will literally come to your door). When we go on vacation, Bailey is the one that has to miss school, because her school DOES allow for excused absences.  At the end of March, Mia had 2 weeks off for Easter, and so that is when we went skiing and to Vienna. Mia started back to school last Monday, which was in turn the first day of Bailey's week off.  With regard to after school activities, when the Germans have no school, they don't have activities outside of school either (which I truly think is the best idea since the invention of the bicycle).  I love the fact that they get a true "pause from life" during their breaks. With all of that said... now that the German school is back in session, Bailey and Camden have this week off, but still have to go to all of their activities, because the activities obviously don't "pause" for American school.  For the last 3 weeks, we have kind of/sort of been on vacation - yet really not so much, because we have been in school too. So weird!!!!!

Happy Gotcha Day (a little belated :-))

I didn't take any photos on Gotcha Day, but went back and found this one from our trip to Ireland....

Last Friday was our Family "Gotcha Day." Gotcha Day is the anniversary of the day we first held Mia in our arms. I try to make it more of a family day - just because it is a special day in many ways for all of us. Most of all, it was the first day that our family was complete. Shockingly, I did not take any photos from this years'  Gotcha Day, but we did celebrate with a little Chinese take out, fortune cookies, and as always, watched videos from the original "Gotcha Day." It has kind of become our little tradition. What was especially funny, was I definitely realized I need to update my wardrobe a little bit, as I was wearing the exact same jeans last Friday, as I was the day that I met Mia for the first time - 7 years ago :-) We all laughed a little at that :-) Anyway, really, for us, Gotcha day is a great reminder of how happy and lucky we are to go through this journey of life together. I think living in a foreign country has made our family bond pretty tight - and I am so grateful to have all of these guys in my life!!!! Happy Gotcha Day!!!

German Kitchens - kind of different....

We are still (very slowly) working on our little apartment that we bought. It is really pretty much finished, but we are just very slow to do anything with it. The one last big piece that was missing, was a kitchen. It is funny, because in Germany, a kitchen does not usually come with a house. Even if you rent an apartment, often you will have to bring/purchase a kitchen - VERY different from what we are used to. ... When people leave an apartment, they take their kitchens too. And so, we have been "kitchen" shopping... They have all inclusive kitchens, where you buy what you see, and then they also have self designed kitchens, where you can pick and choose exactly what you want. Of course, the ladder option is much more expensive. Being that our apartment is not a permanent residence, we definitely opted for the 1st option.  With the language barrier, it was also the much easier option (and the least expensive option by far). The kitchen we chose is extremely basic, but it works. We laugh at the fact that by finally having found what we were looking for, at a great price, and having an appointment to have it installed, has brought us such peace and closure. (only in the sense that everything is so much harder to do here with the; language barrier, appliance differences, metric differences, cultural differences etc.- it is so nice to have this step behind us.) And so, now we wait, and hopefully the installation will go smoothly - (you never know, what we may have misunderstood in the transaction :-))  The differences are always so funny!

Our little kitchen (as seen in the store).

Good Friday

When we were in Jerusalum, we walked all 14 stations of the Via Dolorosa. It wasn't any type of a procession though (just our family and tour guide). My friend told me that they have a procession in Bamberg on Good Friday, and I wanted to go. Friday morning, we woke up bright and early (had to be there at 5:00 am) to gather with the arch bishop (and about 4000 other people -literally) to make the walk all of the way from the town up to the castle and back down, stopping at the different crosses to say prayers. It was a very moving experience. At the beginning, the cobblestone streets were dark, only lit by candles, and then as the sun came up, the fog still kind of covered the city. I kept thinking about the annual tradition, and how Bamberg has probably done this for over 1000 years. A very neat experience!  *as a random side note, I was especially impressed with the fact that many of the 4000 represented, were over 60 years old - to walk hills for 3 hours really showed their fitness level :-)

This is a map (actually a puzzle) to show you the castle up on the hill... (just left of the letter "B")

Random photo (Mia wanted me to share the Easter egg photos) :-)

Meeting in the city at 5:00 am

A cross along the way (one of the stops) lit by a lantern

Almost to the castle....

The cross led the procession

The arch Bishop at one of the stations...

along the way...

The top of the hill, over looking Bamberg - covered in fog...

The highest point along the way

I was amazed at how many people participated...

(I was probably a little "paparazzi - ish", but I really wanted to remember this...:-))