MY FIRST FEW WEEKS IN GERMANY . . .

I made it safely to Germany!! I finished my internship in Indiana on August 10^th, drove home, packed up my life, and flew out on the 15^th. Germany has been great so far!! I arrived and found that our house is no more than 10 minutes from the airport, which is very convenient. Before heading home I got a quick tour of our new village, Kaiserswerth. It is very cute and well-kept. There is one main street filled with shops, bakeries, ice cream parlors, and restaurants. That’s enough to keep me happy J. I’ve already had several Erdbeerbechers (basically a strawberry sundae, but with really good ice cream, real strawberries, and real whipped cream). Jenny and I go to get ice cream sometimes after school. Here she is with an Erdbeerbecher!

Kaiserswerth also has one of the 10 best restaurants in all of Germany, which I am excited to check out!

Kaiserswerth looks like the quintessential German village. It is actually a stop on Rhein River cruises that pass by - it’s weird to think that my town is a tourist destination. People also stop by to see the Kaiserpfalz ruins, one of many old castles on the Rhein. These ruins date back to 700AD. The castle was used by the National Socialists as a shrine for the Hitler Youth from 1933-1945, but that fact is usually downplayed. Now it is a historic site and is sometimes used for outdoor theater performances in the summer.

Our house in Germany is very modern – completely different from our house in MN. Lots of glass, as you can see. It gives the sensation that you’re in a fish bowl. Two guys came to clean the windows the other day (which took the whole day) and I kept moving from room to room so I didn’t have to stare at them while they worked.

No. 26 Curt-Beckmann Strasse is a duplex. We live in the front part. My room is actually part of the glass pyramid you can see on the top level.

Jörg, Elise, and Lisa are our neighbors on the other half. Jörg is really into architecture and had the house built. It is based on the Richard Meier style of architecture for anyone who knows it. Our neighbors are really cool. Jörg works for a family-owned beverage distribution company. I don’t know exactly what he does, but I do know that it means he always has a lot of beer at his house. And he likes to share it. Elise is originally from Brazil. She was a professional dancer for a while and now is a full-time artist. She has a lot of her work displayed in the house – mostly modern painting and sculpture. Her English is decent, much better than my German. But in addition to being fluent in Portugese and German, she speaks a lot of Spanish, French, and Italian. It makes me feel so lazy. Lisa, the daughter, is Jenny’s age, but goes to a different school. She speaks English very well, too, and has been trying to get Jenny to hang out with her and her German friends, but Jenny is still a little hesitant because of the language barrier.

They had us over for a traditional Brazilian dinner a few nights after I got into town. It was reaaaalllly good! I don’t know exactly what everything was, but I would have it all again. One of the dishes we had reminded me of croquetas (I know I butchered the spelling, but I’m talking about those Spanish-fried-ham-things that Murph and Robyn make). For dessert we had sushi and caviar and many more servings of wine and beer. We started comparing music collections, too, and spent the rest of the night listening to The Doors and Jack Johnson.

Back to the house . . . this is the kitchen and front entrance. Notice that there is a glass wall in the middle of the room. I haven’t walked or run into it yet. Surprising, I know. But it’s coming soon. And here’s the living room. My dad joked with the relocation agent and said that he was going to put a basketball hoop on each end of the room so that we could get a full-court game going. She was not amused. We’ve got a decent deck and backyard with a gate that opens up to a path on the Rhein. We can see the river from the yard when there aren’t too many leaves on the trees!

These are a few shots of the Rhein River paths near Kasierswerth. Luckily it is not all cement. As long as you are not right in front of the village the floodplain opens up and leaves room for farming and multiple trails. There are three levels of trails in most places – the upwards paved path for bikers, rollerbladers and whoever, a middle unpaved path for bikers, runners, and horseback riders, and the lowest path near the river for runners, dog-walkers, etc. Basically, you get whatever you want and there are always tons of people out there. The river path brings back a lot of memories of Brisbane!!! If you take the river path it is only about 10k (or 6.2miles) to the center of downtown Düsseldorf. Not a bad run and an even faster bike ride. I go down there all the time. It would be somewhat of a long walk, but in that case you can just take the S-Bahn (streetcar system). The nearest station is a 10-15-minute walk from my house.

If you take the path that begins at the end of our street, within minutes you can see the LTU stadium, which is where the Düsseldorf Fortuna play (the soccer/football team). I really want to go to a game!! I’ve heard tickets are hard to get, so I’ll see what I can do. Just going to the Altstadt (“old city” – more to be explained later) to watch the game in a bar would be a blast. On my first or second day in town we passed through the Altstadt while a game was being played. It is crazy down there!! Everyone was dressed in red and white, with scarves, jerseys, etc. and the bars put big-screen TVs out on the street. It was a really fun atmosphere!

Jenny is in her third week at ISD (the International School of Düsseldorf) and likes it so far. She has 13 classes – too much for me. She’s taking two languages – French and German – and even Irish dancing. She’s playing soccer and basketball at ISD and seems to be one of the best athletes they have. The school is pretty small and isn’t exactly a sports powerhouse. In terms of basketball, she’s probably the best the school has got. Basketball isn’t very popular for girls over here. And she’s on the varsity soccer team even though she’s only thirteen! I’m trying to convince her to join the local German leagues, but it’s a little scary for her since she can’t speak the language. She would get so much better at soccer if she joined though! Here is a picture of Jenny’s team (she’s #2) after their first game against Mettmann. ISD won 6-0! Apparently most of her games will be played on gravel pitches like this, or on astroturf – hope she doesn’t hurt herself!

I have been playing mom for the last week and will be for at least another three weeks – didn’t realize it would be for that long until I got over here. My mom is back in the U.S. getting Laura into Connecticut College (Go Camels!) and packing up our entire house by herself. Good luck, Mom! So, I have been going to school meetings and registering Jenny for sports, etc. It is awkward at times. I walked into the “Welcome Coffee” at ISD only to be surrounded by fifty plus women in their 40s and 50s. They couldn’t figure out whether I was a student or a very young mother, even though I said I was there for my sister several times. I’ve also been doing a lot of cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. It took a bit for me to figure out the washer and dryer. They are made by a Swedish company and all of the directions are in Swedish. Luckily, my dad eventually got a translation from someone at work.