Hello! It's Ethan. I have not posted for a while but here's a new one from me. I have been to three birthday parties since I have been here and I have another one tomorrow. I have already talked about Luca's birthday party so I'll be talking about the other two birthday parties I've been to so far. One of the birthday parties I've been to is a boy named Akash he had a bowling party at a place called XXL bowling It was super fun! I was in second place the first time we bowled and then I tied for second place again there were about 12 kids in all but they split us in half so I versed about 6 kids. The second party I went to was a sleep over and there was six kids at it if you count me. The boys name who's party I went to for the sleep over was Benjamin. He lived on a farm and his house was as big as a mansion. He had an indoor swimming pool and a huge property. He had a barn and that's were we slept. In the barn there was a huge pile of hay and that's what we slept on, it was so cool but yet itchy. At that party there was a scavenger hunt, we watched a movie (which was called Around the World in Eighty Days ), swam in his swimming pool, and then before we went to bed we had a camp fire and roasted marshmallows! Plus tomorrow I have another birthday party. That's all for now. I can't wait to post next!
Friday, September 25, 2009
1+1+1+ another birhday coming up=4
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Close to Home
We have stayed close to home the past two weekends and explored our own city a little more. We recently rode our bikes to the ruins of a palace right in our own little town of Kaiserwerth, that was finished in 1108. Here's some shots of the ruins.
Pictures of other areas within Kaiserwerth.
Scott & I took Griffin to downtown Dusseldorf this past weekend while Ethan was at a friend's house and we caught these fun street performers.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Some of Our Challenges
It may sound like everything here has been fun and exciting, smooth sailing, which it is for the most part. However, there are definitely some challenges and difficulties associated with living in a foreign country - and Germany is known for it's plentiful rules and regulations. Here are a few - I won't call them complaints - just things that we've had to navigate here:
-NO stores or shops are open on Sunday (and most stores are closed by 8:00 the rest of the week - there is NOTHING like our 24 hour Meijer stores). Only gas stations, bakeries, and restaurants are open. Sundays are meant to be family days so they don't want people out running errands and busy that day, you're supposed to relax and have good quality family time. It's a great concept and we really do slow ourselves down more on Sundays because of it. I've learned to stop fretting on Saturdays that we have enough food to get us through the weekend and to make lunches on Monday.
-Also on Sundays, you are not supposed to cut your lawn. It's not relaxing for you or your neighbors.
-Every day, from 1-3 is supposed to be quiet time. This means your children should not be outside running and yelling, and again, you shouldn't be mowing your lawn or doing anything else that may disturb your neighbor. The kids are in school all week, so this only applies to us on the weekends.
-As far as I've seen, there are NO drive through ATMs (or dry cleaners or restaurants). This means that I either ride my bike or drive into town, find a parking spot, and walk a couple of blocks to get cash (which you need to use a lot more here). It's not so bad right now because the weather has been beautiful, but in the middle of winter I'm sure this will lose it's charm.
-The closest fast food is 15 minutes away, and out of the way from any of our activities. Not that we should be eating this so much, but you know there are days when you're so busy that a quick drive through McDonalds is perfect.
-Cakes do not have frosting, you cannot buy frosting in stores...enough said.
-You cannot just walk into a store and buy ibuprofen or cough medicine off the shelf. Medicines are regulated so you have to go to special pharmacies, an Apotheke, explain what you need and why you need it, then they decide if they'll sell it to you. I haven't had to do this yet because I brought a stash with us, but I've heard varying reports on how strict they are or how much they question you. Really looking forward to my first visit.
-Bleach is not allowed in Germany, they think it hurts the pipes too much. Rumor has it that you can buy it in Holland :-) Also, fabric softener sheets are nearly impossible to find, but that may be because dryers here aren't hot air dryers like at home, but rather condenser dryers that pull the water out of clothes. After each load you have to empty a water reserve.
-Driving has it's own charms, but the hardest thing to get used to is that cars to the right have the right of way. That means you can be cruising down a medium sized road at a steady speed, and a car to your right on the side street coming onto your road has the right to cut right out into traffic and you have to slow down and let them in. I've heard the idea behind it is to keep traffic on the main roads from going too fast, but my biggest fear is not seeing one of these cars coming and get T-boned.
-And finally, obviously, everything is in a foreign language! If we're out and about, between finding people that speak English and using a German dictionary, we get by just fine. It's things like mail and user manuals that trip us up. An example is the Senseo coffee maker I bought. Typically you'd open it up, read the manual, and have it up and going in 5-10 minutes. However, mine didn't have English directions so I searched the website for my model's manual. It wasn't there so I had to email customer service. They responded back the next day - so I got what I needed but it took about 30 minutes of research and half a day waiting for a response to get there. Luckily, for the next couple of months our Relocation Specialist will continue to help us translate mail and get through some bureaucracy.
OK, I feel better getting that out! Again, not complaining, but this is what fills my time all day while the boys are at school.
-NO stores or shops are open on Sunday (and most stores are closed by 8:00 the rest of the week - there is NOTHING like our 24 hour Meijer stores). Only gas stations, bakeries, and restaurants are open. Sundays are meant to be family days so they don't want people out running errands and busy that day, you're supposed to relax and have good quality family time. It's a great concept and we really do slow ourselves down more on Sundays because of it. I've learned to stop fretting on Saturdays that we have enough food to get us through the weekend and to make lunches on Monday.
-Also on Sundays, you are not supposed to cut your lawn. It's not relaxing for you or your neighbors.
-Every day, from 1-3 is supposed to be quiet time. This means your children should not be outside running and yelling, and again, you shouldn't be mowing your lawn or doing anything else that may disturb your neighbor. The kids are in school all week, so this only applies to us on the weekends.
-As far as I've seen, there are NO drive through ATMs (or dry cleaners or restaurants). This means that I either ride my bike or drive into town, find a parking spot, and walk a couple of blocks to get cash (which you need to use a lot more here). It's not so bad right now because the weather has been beautiful, but in the middle of winter I'm sure this will lose it's charm.
-The closest fast food is 15 minutes away, and out of the way from any of our activities. Not that we should be eating this so much, but you know there are days when you're so busy that a quick drive through McDonalds is perfect.
-Cakes do not have frosting, you cannot buy frosting in stores...enough said.
-You cannot just walk into a store and buy ibuprofen or cough medicine off the shelf. Medicines are regulated so you have to go to special pharmacies, an Apotheke, explain what you need and why you need it, then they decide if they'll sell it to you. I haven't had to do this yet because I brought a stash with us, but I've heard varying reports on how strict they are or how much they question you. Really looking forward to my first visit.
-Bleach is not allowed in Germany, they think it hurts the pipes too much. Rumor has it that you can buy it in Holland :-) Also, fabric softener sheets are nearly impossible to find, but that may be because dryers here aren't hot air dryers like at home, but rather condenser dryers that pull the water out of clothes. After each load you have to empty a water reserve.
-Driving has it's own charms, but the hardest thing to get used to is that cars to the right have the right of way. That means you can be cruising down a medium sized road at a steady speed, and a car to your right on the side street coming onto your road has the right to cut right out into traffic and you have to slow down and let them in. I've heard the idea behind it is to keep traffic on the main roads from going too fast, but my biggest fear is not seeing one of these cars coming and get T-boned.
-And finally, obviously, everything is in a foreign language! If we're out and about, between finding people that speak English and using a German dictionary, we get by just fine. It's things like mail and user manuals that trip us up. An example is the Senseo coffee maker I bought. Typically you'd open it up, read the manual, and have it up and going in 5-10 minutes. However, mine didn't have English directions so I searched the website for my model's manual. It wasn't there so I had to email customer service. They responded back the next day - so I got what I needed but it took about 30 minutes of research and half a day waiting for a response to get there. Luckily, for the next couple of months our Relocation Specialist will continue to help us translate mail and get through some bureaucracy.
OK, I feel better getting that out! Again, not complaining, but this is what fills my time all day while the boys are at school.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Griffin Loses His First Tooth and We Visit Two More Places
Griffin lost his first tooth yesterday! We asked our German neighbors if the Tooth Fairy worked the same way here, and they said yes, you put your tooth under your pillow and the Tooth Fairy takes it. Well, the Tooth Fairy found us here and Griffin got 1 Euro for his tooth!
We have visited two more amusement parks over the past two weekends. Two weeks ago we went to Movie Park, which was a very American park, very similar to a Cedar Point or Universal Studios Florida. The characters were mostly from Nickelodeon and Dream Works. They had some really good rides for all of us. It was funny though, because even though the characters were familiar, they all spoke German. So there was a Small World-like ride for Ice Age, but they told their story in German as you rode through. http://www.movieparkgermany.de/
This past weekend we went to Toverland in the Netherlands (our first trip out of Germany, lass than 1 hour away). This was a park that was half like Ketteler Hof (see previous posts) and half traditional amusement park. It was half inside and half outside. It had two great roller coasters that Ethan loved and Griffin liked the flying swings. Then it also had lots of climbing, swinging, sliding features. This was another place we loved! http://www.toverland.nl/
Ethan forgot the pole he needed to move his raft, but luckily the boy behind him was kind and brought him one.
And one last picture - a beautiful sunset sky we had last week, seen from our back windows.
That's the moon to the left (obviously) and barely visible near the right side is a plane taking off - we're very close to the airport.
We have visited two more amusement parks over the past two weekends. Two weeks ago we went to Movie Park, which was a very American park, very similar to a Cedar Point or Universal Studios Florida. The characters were mostly from Nickelodeon and Dream Works. They had some really good rides for all of us. It was funny though, because even though the characters were familiar, they all spoke German. So there was a Small World-like ride for Ice Age, but they told their story in German as you rode through. http://www.movieparkgermany.de/
This past weekend we went to Toverland in the Netherlands (our first trip out of Germany, lass than 1 hour away). This was a park that was half like Ketteler Hof (see previous posts) and half traditional amusement park. It was half inside and half outside. It had two great roller coasters that Ethan loved and Griffin liked the flying swings. Then it also had lots of climbing, swinging, sliding features. This was another place we loved! http://www.toverland.nl/
Ethan forgot the pole he needed to move his raft, but luckily the boy behind him was kind and brought him one.
And one last picture - a beautiful sunset sky we had last week, seen from our back windows.
That's the moon to the left (obviously) and barely visible near the right side is a plane taking off - we're very close to the airport.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
First birthday party
Hi it's Ethan. Thank you to all the people who are following our blog we already have eleven followers. Guess what I went to my first birthday party last week! I was invited by my new friend Luca. He was born in Germany but his mom is from Italy and his dads from Ireland so he speaks three languages! Italian, English, And German. It was a very fun birthday party. If you include me he had five people at his party. He took us to a close cool park it had:
a basketball hoop, a ping pong table, a huge play set, a big rock climbing wall, a soccer field, a zip line, picnic tables, and a path that went down to a river! It was awesome.
About a week ago me and my family went to an amusement. It was called Movie Park. It was an American themed amusement park with Disney channel and Nickelodeon channel characters. It was awesome. I went on a roller coaster with dad, it was one of those roller coasters when your legs are dangling down and you are sitting in your own seat. The roller coaster was upside down almost the whole time! It was called the WP express. The Movie Park was great.
One more thing before I wrap up this post. I went down to the Rhein River with my class. Because the grade I'm in on a unit of water issues around the world.
Well that's all for now so I'll put up another post later. See ya.
a basketball hoop, a ping pong table, a huge play set, a big rock climbing wall, a soccer field, a zip line, picnic tables, and a path that went down to a river! It was awesome.
About a week ago me and my family went to an amusement. It was called Movie Park. It was an American themed amusement park with Disney channel and Nickelodeon channel characters. It was awesome. I went on a roller coaster with dad, it was one of those roller coasters when your legs are dangling down and you are sitting in your own seat. The roller coaster was upside down almost the whole time! It was called the WP express. The Movie Park was great.
One more thing before I wrap up this post. I went down to the Rhein River with my class. Because the grade I'm in on a unit of water issues around the world.
Well that's all for now so I'll put up another post later. See ya.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Griffin's First Post
{Mom is typing}
Hi. 1) One of my friends is from Belgium. His name is Leon. One of my friends is from England. Her name is Charlotte. One of my friends is from Germany. Her name is Lotta. When we were at Germany we went to a Movie Park. We saw a play that some one catched on fire {Mom's comment-there was a live stunt show}. I like my school. I have lots of friends. At my school I have a pencil box and I have a nice teacher. We at my school we have computers and I play on the playground with my friends. And at my school I have good toys but not too much. We have art class and we have music class and we have a PE, it's fun class we do all kinds of tags, lots of cool ones. We do lots of school work, school works pretty hard. I haven't finished one of my work {Mom didn't know this}. I started taking drum lessons, at my drum lessons one of my friends was there, his name is John. 2) At my house I have lots of friends too. One name is Max another is Philip, one Kaya, one Mia, and with Kaya and Mia their mom is called Miss Vicky and they have a little brother named Till. And we haven't even met all of the friends in our neighborhood! And somebody, Max, we think, he has different kinds of shorts or underwear. 3) What things we have been doing: we were gonna go to a different amusement park than the Movie Park. Right when we got to the Movie Park we heard the Indiana Jones music. This is what it sounds like: dun dun doooo, dun dun dooo, dun dun dooo. It was so fun, we really liked the music and it really is fun. In my neighborhood I goed to, for 10 and a half minutes, I was at Max's house. 4) At our house we see lots of horses and airplanes-one minute ago we saw an airplane go up. And we see lots of clouds that look different than Michigan. The plane is going up, up, up, up, up. I almost can't see it anymore. Bye!
Hi. 1) One of my friends is from Belgium. His name is Leon. One of my friends is from England. Her name is Charlotte. One of my friends is from Germany. Her name is Lotta. When we were at Germany we went to a Movie Park. We saw a play that some one catched on fire {Mom's comment-there was a live stunt show}. I like my school. I have lots of friends. At my school I have a pencil box and I have a nice teacher. We at my school we have computers and I play on the playground with my friends. And at my school I have good toys but not too much. We have art class and we have music class and we have a PE, it's fun class we do all kinds of tags, lots of cool ones. We do lots of school work, school works pretty hard. I haven't finished one of my work {Mom didn't know this}. I started taking drum lessons, at my drum lessons one of my friends was there, his name is John. 2) At my house I have lots of friends too. One name is Max another is Philip, one Kaya, one Mia, and with Kaya and Mia their mom is called Miss Vicky and they have a little brother named Till. And we haven't even met all of the friends in our neighborhood! And somebody, Max, we think, he has different kinds of shorts or underwear. 3) What things we have been doing: we were gonna go to a different amusement park than the Movie Park. Right when we got to the Movie Park we heard the Indiana Jones music. This is what it sounds like: dun dun doooo, dun dun dooo, dun dun dooo. It was so fun, we really liked the music and it really is fun. In my neighborhood I goed to, for 10 and a half minutes, I was at Max's house. 4) At our house we see lots of horses and airplanes-one minute ago we saw an airplane go up. And we see lots of clouds that look different than Michigan. The plane is going up, up, up, up, up. I almost can't see it anymore. Bye!
The City, The School, and How We're Getting Along
Do you think it's bad that I eat bread and chocolate for lunch most days? Seems very European, right!? We continue to settle into our life and routine here, with few problems so far. Scott can't get over how busy I've been. I joined the American Women's Club and that was one morning get-together, multiple coffee meetings at the school, plus I've had 2 lunch dates, coffee at another mom's house, one shopping date and two more to come. You meet and connect with people very quickly here, which is typically out of my comfort zone, but I'm adapting and really enjoying myself. I've started German language lessons - twice a week for 90 minutes, and I'm already gaining confidence in my pronunciation. The boys and I teach each other the different words we're learning, and whenever there's an opportunity to count something we try to do it in German (we're all up to 19).
I really like the city of Dusseldorf, though I've been told it's not even that pretty as compared to other German towns. We live in the Kaiserwerth section of Dusseldorf, and I love that it is so green, with lots of trees and open fields (thanks to the frequent rain) and there are wonderful bike paths all over. Kaiserwerth's town center takes about 10 minutes to ride to on bike, and it's just what you might think of a small European village - cobblestone streets with bakeries, fruit stalls, and cute outdoor cafes. Then, in just a 15 minute car or train ride, you're in the heart of the bustling downtown area, with tons of restaurants, department stores, small boutiques, and an upscale street with stores like Tiffany and Prada. I like having the best of both worlds so nearby.
The boys' school continues to impress our whole family. Don't get me wrong, I loved our public school in Pinckney (and will happily go back after our assignment) and thought they had excellent teachers and the boys were getting a great education there, but a lot of things are just different about being in an International school. They are on a 9 day rotating cycle for their "special" classes so every 9 days they will have Art 3 times, Music 3 times, PE 3-4 times, German every day, Ethan has Computers 2 times, and Griffin has Drama 1 time. They are also on a PYP (Primary Years Program) curriculum, which is common in International schools so kids that transfer frequently around the world will have a common teaching style. There's a lot still I have to learn about the program, but at it's heart it is Inquiry Based. This means that each grade will have 6 Units of Inquiry per year they are focused on, with every subject somehow related. Right now Ethan's is Water and Griffin's is Play. A silly, made up example of how this might work could be a Unit of Inquiry about Chocolate. So math may involve dividing up a chocolate bar and learning about fractions; science may look at melting points of chocolate and it's ingredients; social studies may look at the cultural & historical importance of chocolate; and reading may involve studying the book Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. As the year progresses I'll see more how this really works.
I think Ethan will post soon telling you about our very American day trip to an amusement park last weekend, but we are planning to get to Amsterdam and Paris by the end of October!
I really like the city of Dusseldorf, though I've been told it's not even that pretty as compared to other German towns. We live in the Kaiserwerth section of Dusseldorf, and I love that it is so green, with lots of trees and open fields (thanks to the frequent rain) and there are wonderful bike paths all over. Kaiserwerth's town center takes about 10 minutes to ride to on bike, and it's just what you might think of a small European village - cobblestone streets with bakeries, fruit stalls, and cute outdoor cafes. Then, in just a 15 minute car or train ride, you're in the heart of the bustling downtown area, with tons of restaurants, department stores, small boutiques, and an upscale street with stores like Tiffany and Prada. I like having the best of both worlds so nearby.
The boys' school continues to impress our whole family. Don't get me wrong, I loved our public school in Pinckney (and will happily go back after our assignment) and thought they had excellent teachers and the boys were getting a great education there, but a lot of things are just different about being in an International school. They are on a 9 day rotating cycle for their "special" classes so every 9 days they will have Art 3 times, Music 3 times, PE 3-4 times, German every day, Ethan has Computers 2 times, and Griffin has Drama 1 time. They are also on a PYP (Primary Years Program) curriculum, which is common in International schools so kids that transfer frequently around the world will have a common teaching style. There's a lot still I have to learn about the program, but at it's heart it is Inquiry Based. This means that each grade will have 6 Units of Inquiry per year they are focused on, with every subject somehow related. Right now Ethan's is Water and Griffin's is Play. A silly, made up example of how this might work could be a Unit of Inquiry about Chocolate. So math may involve dividing up a chocolate bar and learning about fractions; science may look at melting points of chocolate and it's ingredients; social studies may look at the cultural & historical importance of chocolate; and reading may involve studying the book Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. As the year progresses I'll see more how this really works.
I think Ethan will post soon telling you about our very American day trip to an amusement park last weekend, but we are planning to get to Amsterdam and Paris by the end of October!
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