Amsterdam!

I loved this city, we all did! Even though it was the middle of January, cold and rainy, and no flowers or green in sight, it was so attractive and cool. It's only a 2 hour drive from our house, so knowing we will return multiple times helped us not feel as if we had to cram everything into the two days we had. I think I've said it before, but it's such an advantage to be able to visit big cities like this in the off-season and avoid long lines and crowds of people.

The first place we went was the NEMO Science Museum which was a really good hands-on museum for the kids.

Then we went to the Van Gogh Museum, which we all really liked. It was a peaceful, beautiful museum of manageable size. Since is wasn't overwhelming, and because it was formatted according to the different periods of Van Gogh's career, it was a place that we left feeling like we really understood his art and career. Sometimes in the big museums you can feel so bombarded with imagery that it's hard to take in and appreciate, but not this place.

We walked certain parts of the city extensively, but didn't get up to the "seedier" part of the city with red lights and "cafes", we'll leave that for next time! The buildings, canals, and bridges are so charming. While we love exploring new cities it's also nice to have an occasional taste of home, so we had dinner at the city's Hard Rock Cafe, which was easy & relaxing.

Ethan basketball experiences here in Germany

Hi this is Ethan! Sorry I haven't posted for so long. This post is going to be about my basketball experiences here in Germany. So here in Germany basketball is not a very popular sport so me and my family were surprised when we heard that my school had a basketball program called sportverein. For this basketball program (sportverein) you have to try out for the basketball team. The tryouts were in August of 2009, a little after school started. Of course I made the team even though this basketball program is for 5th graders to 6th graders. I should stop calling it a basketball program because really what it is is a basketball league. There are eleven teams total in this sportverien league all from German schools except for my team. There are 13 players on my team in total. My team has played 15 games so far and we have won 15 and lost 0. We are the top team in the league. There are 22 games in total in this league so we have 7 more games to go until the season is over. Do you think my team can finish the season without losing a game?

Me and my team in a team huddle.

Me (#6) and another Ethan (a boy on my team) getting ready for the quarter to start.


Me in my ISD warm up jacket

Ohh, I almost forgot there is also a travel tournament league my school competes in and its called NECIS (ne-sis). NECIS is a big tournament with six teams competing in it. All of the teams are from International schools. There are 3 small tournaments (which not all six teams compete in) to get you ready for the big NECIS tournament. What is interesting about these NECIS tournaments is that you go to places that are far (2 hours or more) and you stay at another persons house with someone from your team. You stay at the persons house for one night without your parents, the person that houses you (which is an adult) their kid is on the team that you play while your on your NECIS trip. My team has played the small tournaments so far so all that is left is the big tournament in March which is not that far away. In the big tournament in March they use brackets. Also in the big tournament in March instead of staying in someones house the whole team stays in a hotel for three nights. I hope my team wins! Oh by the way my team is called ISD Lions. So lets go Lions!

This is the doubledecker bus my team takes to get to our NECIS tournaments.

More "Fun Facts" About Life in Germany

Germans LOVE their dogs. It's a big dog culture and pets are often welcomed into shops and sometimes restaurants. Another American I know said she pushed her adorable baby girl in a stroller for a year here and never got "cute baby" comments from Germans, but she got a new little dog and when she walks around with the dog every other German stops to admire her! The one big sticking point, though, is that Germans are horrified that Americans let their dogs do their "business" in the backyard. They think dogs should be taken on multiple walks during the day and that is when they take care of business. I know several families that have had stern reprimands over this issue.
Another interesting thing is that at any event held at school, there is beer and wine available for the parents. There was a school "welcome" picnic and a Halloween party so far this year, and both served wine & beer. I also volunteered to contribute beverages to an upcoming school charity event, and I assumed they'd want me to bring a case of water or soda, but no, I need to drop off some red & white wines. It feels a little naughty to be drinking at a school, but such is the European way.
Finally, the question I get asked most is "what do you do all day?". Both boys have full days of school now, and of course Scott's at work all day, so people wonder about me. Well, the first few months I worked to get our house together and get settled. Then I started taking German language lessons twice a week for 1-1/2 hours a day - I'm taking a little break right now, but I've come far in communicating. I go to grocery stores 2-3 times a week. I can find almost anything we need, but rarely at the same store, so I have to make my rounds to make everyone happy. Then there's the mundane chores like ironing, laundry, dishes... I'm one of the Class Moms for Griffin's class and I've put my name in to possibly take a (volunteer) position with the American Women's Club. I try to join as many organized activities as I can - I've gone on 2 guided art tours (one was a Monet exhibit); a city tour; and a tour of the local TV/radio station. I also plan most of the weekend day trips we go on and the bigger adventures - I have a bit of a travel book obsession! Finally, I take care of all the little details for the kids - dr appointments; buying presents for parties they're invited to; getting snacks ready for school pick up time; all the typical stuff. So I actually tend to be very busy and my house is never as neat as I'd like, but I'd like to think I keep things running smoothly in our house and keep finding cool things for us to do and see!

One Of My Favorite Days So Far

In mid November we had a long, great family day out. It started by going to another castle, Schloss Moyland in Bedburg-Hau, just about 1 hour away. The exterior of the castle and the grounds were gorgeous! It was built in the Middle Ages, altered and re-built multiple times from the 17th century to 1945, and finally restored in the 1980's. There was an extensive modern art museum inside with tons of sculpture and interesting pieces that held the interest of us all.

After that we drove to the Roman Archaeological Park in Xanten. This was such a cool, interesting place. An ancient Roman city was on this site and they've rebuilt different structures or parts of them exactly where they stood and exactly the same size. The amphitheatre/colosseum was especially cool.

Reconstruction of a temple

The boys battling in the arena

Then we went into the city of Xanten which was very quaint and lit up for Christmas. There was a working windmill in town that I couldn't pass by so I dragged everyone with me to see it - they were glad they did because we were able to go into the top of it and get a great view of the city. I was surprised that the arms were covered with canvas, like a boat's sail.