How do they do it?

I keep trying to wrap my mind about how they do it, and I think it must have come from the suffering that occurred during and after World War 2.  From the knitting to the freshly squeezed juice to the homemade marmalade to the fresh bread to the honey fresh from the bees etc... - it amazes me how knowledgeable "everyone" is about how to make stuff from scratch (scratch meaning from the land and not store bought). We had a barbecue this weekend and my friend brought me homemade pesto. I am still (5 days later) thinking about how absolutely delicious this pesto was. I could have eaten it for  breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The neat thing is that it was made from wild herbs in the forest. The main ingredient is a wild garlic called berlauch. It is kind of like a wild garlic, but the crazy thing is, it looks just like another plant that is poisonous (another funny side bit, is that the German word for poison is: "Gift" - don't ever ask for a "Gift" :-). People just seem to know how to make everything by hand - and they have the ambition to do so. I'm not quite sure if I feel inspired by the idea of it or exhausted by the idea of it - but either way, I appreciate it :-)

Bailey's Track

Bailey competed on the track team this year. Her events were the 400 and the long jump. She had a fun time, and although she didn't qualify for Europeans (Europeans is where the top kids from each event compete at the end of the season), she continually improved her PR, and most importantly enjoyed herself. Track meets are a little like Cheering Competitions...they last ALL day, and you compete for only a few minutes of that entire day. It is fun for the kids though - especially being able to socialize with the kids from all of the other schools. It was a great season!

The girls getting ready for the 400...

Bailey in the last stretch...

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Bailey getting ready for the long jump...

this was funny - this kid broke the hurdle (he had  to get a photo of it :-)

lots going on ALL day!!!

Closing up shop....

It is really weird around here. The school that Bailey and Camden go to (and that I have worked at this year) is closing forever. The entire base is closing for ever, so naturally the school must close too. This week is the last week for most of the kids, and then soon, all of these people will be sprinkled all over the world....Japan, Alaska, Hawaii, Italy, Kansas, Texas, Netherlands etc... It is such a weird thing. We are one of only a handful of families remaining. It is an interesting process to watch. Many conversations begin with, "So, do you know where and when you are going?" It has been a unique experience for the kids to go to a school that is closing. There were lots of opportunities, lots of benefits (lots of things were free this year, because they had money that needed to be spent - what a nice problem to have!). Classes were so small that it was almost comical at times! Bailey showed up one day for one of her classes (that only had 2 other kids in it) and no one was there - not even the teacher! On the reverse side, They saw many friends leave (and no one new to replace them) - kind of sad. One thing is for sure....there will never be another experience like it!

On another note, we have been busy house hunting. We think we found one (knock on wood), and we are just waiting for all of the legalities. This one, we found on our own without using a real estate agent. It makes me happy, because my German has definitely gotten better since moving here (there is no way we could have done it on our own six years ago). The house is nice - definitely different than what we have now, but hopefully will serve its purpose (Maybe I am jumping the gun a bit - as the contract hasn't been signed yet - so I guess you never know what might happen.) Things are moving quickly though. The kids are excited for the future, but of course a little sad (especially Mia) to leave our daily life here. We still have a little time left before we leave, but I warned you that as part of my sadness, I need to grieve a little :-), and this writing is part of the grieving :-).

And now for my truly complete randomness... something that made me laugh.... Mia and I had a huge breakthrough in Chinese Class last week. In previous weeks, we had learned to count to 10. The big reveal last week though, was that if you know how to count to 10 in Chinese, you can count to 100. We were so excited (never in my life did I think I would be able to count to 100 in Chinese). So Mia blurts out (in German), "Chinese is sooo easy - it just makes sense! Not like English, where you have a word like "tough" that is spelled so funny." I always make Mia read in English to try to keep her in line with what she might be learning in American school. Sometimes she gets so irritated because the spelling of some words make no sense to her.  Her little comment struck me so funny - She definitely is my little Chinese, German, American (gotta love it!!! :-)

Mia's 9th Birthday

Mia celebrated her 9th Birthday on Saturday. It is so hard to believe that she is 9 years old! We celebrated with several of her friends from school.  They came over and played games and it was just very simple, but fun. Mia - we adore you and are so grateful that you are our daughter - I can't even imagine life without you!!! Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!

Gotta love how the kids show up for the party :-) 

simple, but fun!!

We love you Mia!!!!

Playing red light/green light...

Can't believe Mia is 9!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

 

The little things - random photos... (ruined for life)

We are moving. It is becoming more real each day. As part of allowing myself to be a little sad, you will be sick of my random thoughts about this town that I love (if you aren't already sick of it:-)....We hope that the next move brings another adventure, but I do worry that all is down hill from here. The other night I was sitting with a couple of my friends (one English and one German) at a restaurant on the bridge. We sat outside and the photo above was our view as we chatted. I told them that we are "ruined for life", and they thought that was a funny saying. Who gets to live this life where you can chat with friends until late into the evening, enjoying good food and drink, and overlooking a view like this? Every single person we know here loves this town, appreciates it. and knows it is a gem. Usually, there is a negative in living somewhere (ie. too expensive, not enough to do, high crime, schools aren't good etc.) - I really can't think of a negative. It just seems like this little pocket of the world has been preserved to represent everything that I love. Life is good, life is fun, and life is simple here. O.K. I will stop now (until next time :-)) ... Thank you for listening and putting up with me as I grieve out loud :-)

We had a nice little Easter. We had a cookout with some friends and had a really nice day. 

This is another reason we want to come back reincarnated as a German dog.... This little guy was quite comfy on the train on the way to the Nuremburg Zoo - oh the good life! This is perfectly acceptable because German dogs are trained - if I am not mistaken, they are required to go to dog school

This might be the view of our next town...  It is cute, but it isn't Bamberg :-(

The Bier Gartens are all officially open now. We had a nice evening with a group of friends visiting several of Bamberg's best :-) This is taken just after Bryan and I raced (yes, literally raced :-)) each other on our bikes up the hill to the Wilde Rose Keller. Our friends had come to visit from another town, so they drove, but we biked.

This is the view from one of the Bier Gartens - Again - who gets to live like this? We really are ruined for life!!!!

This is a random photo, but represents the simplicity of this town. Mia had a birthday party, and during a lull moment, one of her friends sat down, pulled out a ball of yarn from her jacket pocket and started hand knitting. Apparently all of the kids know how to do this - It is like we live in the 1970's - I love it!!!