Ella's Baby Picture

I know that every mother thinks that their baby is the most beautiful baby on the planet Earth, but that in no way stops me from feeling the exact same way. I wanted to share my favorite coming home picture of Ella. Okay, she was a week old already. But when you are doing your own pictures it takes a little while to feel up to anything. She just looks so dainty in with the daisies.


There. See? I really do have the most beautiful baby in the world (at least in my world, you can't argue about that). Now if we could only get her to sleep like this all the time...

The Hagenbeck Tierpark, aka. "The Zoo"

On Saturday we decided to go to the Zoo. We decided at about 8:15. We started getting ready in earnest at 9:00. We didn't arrive at the Zoo until almost noon. That's how long it takes us to move around with three kleine Kinder. Between leaving and arriving, we took a bus and two trains, for a total of almost an hour's travel both ways. And we were fully loaded with everything we would need for the entire day, included two diaper bags stuffed with cloth diapers and wipes, snacks to decrease our food costs, and a coat and water bottle for each person.

It didn't even all fit in the stroller. But we were determined to have fun...even if it killed us.

On the way in we found a small stand selling uniform looking white plastic sacks. Most of the visitors were buying them, so I quickly pointed it out to Jeff to go talk to them (I tend to avoid talking to anyone, so as not to have to mince German so badly they kick me out of the country). It turns out the bags were full of precut food for the animals, such as carrots, apples, leafy greens, and cucumbers. For a couple euros you could purchase a bag and feed certain animals in the park, and the money went to the care of the animals. We bought two bags. Although you could feed many animals, such as the monkeys, by far the most exciting were the elephants. They would reach out to grab the food from you and pop it in their mouth as quick as possible so they could reach for more. Everyone got a turn, but David didn't want anything to do with the elephants. I got my hand wet from its' trunk.

We stopped shortly to look at the monkeys and throw them a few veggies. (Perhaps Ari is on the wrong side of the glass?) Then we booked it over to the other side of the park for the Giraffe feeding that started at noon.

At the giraffe area was an elevated walkway where you could stand at the giraffes' head level. A volunteer for the zoo had a wheelbarrow full of leaves for the giraffes. For a nominal donation we each got a handful of leaves to feed them. Jeff took the kids up first, then it was my turn.

Jeff had tried to get David to feed the giraffes when he went up, but David was scared, same as the elephants. When I went up with him, I saw that the giraffe had quite the reach, so I picked David up and just held him so he wouldn't expect anything. The giraffe came and took the entire branch of leaves right out of his hands. Ariana, on the other hand, was so short and had so many people in front of her that the giraffe didn't really seem to notice her. And she was practically jumping up and down waving her leaf and calling to it. So it was really quite funny when the giraffe finally did notice the leaf dancing up and down and eat it, because Ariana let out a scream and started crying. She had to be comforted to calm down. I know, shame on me for finding it funny, but she had already been feeding the giraffe just fine before that, it just surprised her.

Ella was content to hang out in the stroller for a good portion of the day, and I was glad not to have to carry her. As you can see, I dressed her up for the occasion. Those are little monkeys on her shirt. Ella's favorite part of the trip was when we went back to the elephants later in the day to feed them some more. She kept turning her head to look at them intently.

Next, Ariana got to go on a pony ride. She had the biggest grin on her face when she got off. She also got to pet the pony's head, although she moved a little quickly for its' liking.

Here is David checking out the flamingos. We had to keep a good eye on him because there was nothing between him and the water. Flamingos are one of my favorite zoo animals, but this zoo had a couple of new tricks up its sleeve, like some cute baby grizzly bear cubs tumbling and playing together. The tropical animals are actually kept in a separate huge building with its own admission. So when it started pouring down rain, as it often does in Hamburg, we headed inside.

Here is what greeted us first inside - lemurs. This is also one of my new favorite exhibits. You walk into a room that is full of lemurs playing and doing whatever they please, including using one guy's shoulders as a stepping stone to another perch! You couldn't touch them, but they could run around you. It was really cool. We didn't get a very good picture because they were always on the move. There was also an incredibly cute baby lemur in the group.

Towards the end, everyone was getting a little tired and cranky, especially because the stroller had to be left outside of the "aquarium." We sat down to eat some snacks and then headed back outside. We visited a few more animals, ate dinner, and then it was time to go home. Of course, by that time the kids were exhausted and the hour long train ride home was a royal pain. But that's another story (and one not really worth recounting).

As you can tell, I love having a phone with a camera now. And we will probably be headed back to the zoo sooner rather than later - feeding the animals was a big hit.

Raining Cats and Dogs

To start off with, let me tell you that it rains in Hamburg. It rains in most places on the planet. But here, it RAINS. Several times we have been caught out and come home looking like drowned sewer rats. There is even thunder and lightning most of the time.
So on Friday, I had my eye on a second hand kids store. I had discovered that David isn't really a size two yet. He will turn two in less than a month, and yet size-wise he is very far from it. But packing, I did not know that. So I only filled his bags with size two clothes. I figured around his birthday he should fit them. Here they do size by centimeters height, which makes me feel a little bit better about my son. So I took a flimsy paper measuring tape I had pocketed from our trip to Ikea and measured the little guy. He comes in at about 82cm, which supposedly corresponds to 12-18 months (the size of clothes I left at home because I though they would quickly be too small). No wonder the 2Ts swim on him.
I like to shop second hand in general because it is easy on your wallet and good for the planet. I also find that some of the stuff in the stores is not even worth buying the first time, whereas second hand goods have already merited purchase once. But, the sad thing is that there don't seem to be many of these type of stores in Hamburg. So, we took an hour long train ride to get to one that was listed online. The whole time, David's shorts kept falling off, so much so that when we got to the store we just left them around his ankles. We bought him three pairs of pants and four shirts to last him till his next growth spurt (which I hope comes soon!). I guess I will have to step up how often I do laundry. We also got Ari a cute dress, and Elle a little monkey outfit. All of which was way overpriced for used children's clothes. My plan is to interrogate some of the people in my ward, because there must be a way. The way I see it, if they choose to have kids at all, Germans are only having one or two. If I were only going to have one or two kids, I would want the best stuff (which, in my theory, is why they put up with these ridiculous prices), and then, I wouldn't know very many other people having kids to give them to, and more than likely, they've already bought something themselves (so that they too can have the best). So in my hypothetical world there would be lots of perfect, expensive, cute clothes floating around that no one had a use for. Thus, the market would dictate that they would be readily available for the poor minority groups having lots of children to snatch up. And yet there seem to be almost no second hand stores. So I must be missing something.
Having seen the rain, we bit the bullet and bought Ari and Cyrus two raincoats (which also go for an arm and a leg...and maybe some other body parts too). Stupidly, these coats have no hoods, even though they are supposedly the best. And no rain pants, which were sold with every other jacket. So I'm starting to feel duped. Meanwhile it has rained each day since Friday. Today we forgot them, and it starting raining during church. Did I mention we do a LOT of walking. So now I have to find some place that might sell rain hats, and maybe rain pants that can be purchased separately from the jackets. I am getting a sour feeling about it. Or I can just buy Ari her own little umbrella.
All the humidity in the air isn't doing much for my laundry. When we moved in, the landlord showed us a single h.e. washing machine in the basement (more like a dank dungeon), where we could do laundry for 1 euro 50, then hang it to dry on lines. By the way, h.e. is code for takes FOREVER. One load can take over 3 hours on the most "energy efficient setting. I had several problems with this setup. In the US I averaged a load a day. 1.5 with cloth diapers. And I brought cloth diapers with me as the plan here. Also, that basement smelled awful. I doubt my clothes would ever dry in that space, and if they did, they would smell like that. Also, that basement screamed the perfect place for me to get mugged and for the kids to get hurt monkeying around while they waited for me to get done. Jeff talked to the landlord and they agreed that he would pay for half the cost of a new washing machine in the apartment, and we would pay for the other half. Then he would get to keep it when we left, to improve his rental. So now we have a nice washer. And at least it is in the apartment, even if it still takes as much as three hours to merely wash one load.

The next hurdle to laundry was that there was no dryer. This is a first in my entire life. Our first two loads were stretched over every available surface in the apartment. It was embarrassing to have my undies draped over the lamp for all to see. That night I searched online for indoor self standing clothes racks on Amazon (because we didn't want to string line in the apartment). There were wonderful models. But they cost 160 Euros to ship to our home. Back to the drawing board. We figured there must be a way if this is how they do things in Europe.

The next day Jeff found some metal racks at the local "Kaufland" (kaufen = to buy). So then we had racks. They are pretty nice, and relatively cheap (10 euro vs. 500 for a dryer). What previously covered our entire living room and every door, chair and table fit neatly into only one rack. I only wish I had maybe one more, because this is the main choke point for the laundry now. We are still not washing it faster than we are wearing it because of the drying time. Not that I want my entire living room given over to these racks, but it is certainly better than going naked. We have a small balcony, but I haven't seen anyone else put their laundry outside, and Jeff said some cities have laws about it.

The other interesting thing about the laundry is that they don't sell Tide here. I guess it comes as no surprise that when I grew up and moved out I just kept using the kind of detergent (and toothpaste) that my mom had. So now, I am at a loss. Right now I am trying Persil. I decided on that because it came in tablets, and I read enough of German to know that the other package didn't come with a scoop. You could get one for free online, but I needed to do laundry that day. I don't like using the new kind. I think it smells funny, bordering on stinking. I set our new washer to run an extra rinse (the controls are all in German too, so it took a little bit of doing), and that seemed to help. Also, there seems to be a lot more delineation on what the soaps are for, which I can't really make out as easily. Some are for white, some colors, some delicate, some wool, etc. I had to ask a church member which of the many bottles on the shelf was a stain remover. Because not only do I not recognize the brands, I don't even know the word for it. This is the part about being in Germany that makes me feel worn out and home sick. But there are so many things that are enjoyable and worthwhile that I am sure we will miss when we leave too. As I was shopping for the clothes drying racks online, many people said how they love the feel of line dried clothes. I can't imagine. To me they are very stiff and scratchy. But maybe we will even miss that when we finally head back to the States. Who knows?

About our living arrangements...

I thought I would take a few minutes while the kids are "napping" (aka. incarcerated in their rooms in the hopes that they will come out more obedient) to tell you about our apartment. Because, lets face it, our apartment is weird.

Many Germans, maybe most, live in apartments. I guess owning a home is something you do when you are fifty-something, or not at all. So we see lots of apartment buildings. Even so, they save lots of room for green space. I think they give up the space they would have used for parking. I see lots of cars on the side of streets, and lots of ramps to park under buildings and houses.

Also, when we managed an apartment building, we almost always had a vacancy. Here, the market is so tight that we would call from the US to ask about an apartment, and it would already be rented. They were always rented within 24 hours. This played a major factor in why we chose a furnished apartment, because we could actually rent one. We called, and they said yes. Well, the first 5 or ten places said no because of the kids and the cat.

After we had arranged to rent an apartment, and paid the first month so that it would be held for us, we were still not sure if we had talked(and given 1000 euros) to a simple German man trying to make a living, or to some scammer in Nigeria. About a week before we left, we tried to contact him through email - no answer. Then we were really worried. Finally, Jeff was able to call him. He remembered our names, and that we had three kids and a cat. So our hope of arriving in Germany and having somewhere to sleep was at least partially restored.

After we arrived in the airport, as I mentioned earlier, some members picked us up with a van and a car, and drove us to our new apartment. Our German landlord was there waiting for us with his wife. She looked like she was dressed up to go out to dinner, and later they admitted they were indeed going out to eat. My guess is that they were celebrating the arrival of their tenants. Seven months is a long time for a furnished apartment to be rented, and I am guessing they were a little nervous about us too.

When we first got our address, we thought that the "b" at the end signified our individual apartment. But it actually refers to the entire half of the building, all accessible through one entrance (shown above). Our mail is delivered through a slot in our apartment door because it has our name on it. We haven't actually gotten any mail yet, but the kids are enamored with the slot. They have also tried to peek into other peoples' apartments through their mail slots.

Another interesting thing about the building layout is that outside the main door is a panel of doorbells, with last names listed next to them. However, our doorbell doesn't work. So, several times when people have come to visit us, they have had trouble. When we first arrived and still had jet lag we slept through the bishop trying to stop by.

In the first couple of days we only had one set of keys. Almut took me out to go grocery shopping with her car, and when we got back we couldn't get in. Jeff had fallen asleep, and we discovered the doorbell problem. We buzzed a neighbor to get in the building, the went and pounded on the door till Jeff woke up. Our keys are sticky, not literally, but sometimes you can be standing outside the door key in hand and still not be able to get in. The inside of the door has at least 4 different ways to lock it, including a chain, and a long, thick bar that goes all the way across the door. We feel no need for these, and have not even tried to use them, especially with all the trouble we have with the regular locking mechanisms. We don't want to be locked out or in.

Here is our front door. We are on the European "first" floor, which is one up from the ground level. In our particular building though, we are only about 4 to 5 feet up from the ground. It still means we have to drag the stroller up a small flight of stairs to get in our apartment, and we also have a little balcony off our living room. In fact, almost all the apartments we looked at renting had balconies, so I think they are popular.

So we have a key to the main door, and a key to our front door. The key to the main door also opens the trash outside. The recycle is regular plastic cans like I'm used to at home (except they are covered with instructions in German about what should be recycled or not), and they are not locked. Jeff thought this was funny, because it says a lot about the culture here. They are really big into recycle, and in the city parks there are recycle cans right next to the trash cans. I always have to look inside to tell which is which, even though I think they are color coded. In the airports the waste is divided into four receptacles, but at least they are also labeled in four or five languages. It took nearly three minutes to instruct Ari how to throw away her apple core because I didn't want to get up and walk over to the trash can and point to the correct hole. Finally she got frustrated and gave up and brought it back to me. The second time she was able to do it.

The first thing I noticed coming into the apartment was the wood ceilings. I guess we wouldn't have seen them in the pictures in the online listing, because they didn't take any at that angle. The real wood ceilings are especially ironic because the floor is a fake wood of a completely different color and texture. Also, all the furnishings are this lighter color of fake wood too. When we went to IKEA, we saw every single item in our house except for the couch. Everything - down to the last spoon, rug, and towel.

One of the nice things about our apartment is that even though we live abutting a rather busy street, we don't hear much. As you can seen in the window here, the building is made out of brick. And the windows are very solid too. Even when the windows are open, it is usually just pleasant white noise. I only notice when an ambulance goes by with sirens, or when one driver gets really mad at another and lays on their horn (by the way, they drive...well, rather crazy here, by my perspective).

When we rented our apartment, I had really wanted to find one that had a tub, because I prefer being able to take a relaxing bath after battling an army of small children all day, rather than remaining on my feet. But the first priority was to find an apartment that would even take that small army - so in the end, no tub. The shower has a little basin at the bottom that we can fill with water and let the kids play. It even has a drain stop that is a round metal tube, so that once the water reaches a certain level, then it will drain. It gives them about 4 or five inches to play in. The shower surround looks nice, but is very flimsy, and the doors will not stay shut because it is not lined up quite right. So often when you get out of the shower, the toilet area is soaked, and you say "Oops, not again." My kids are having to get used to the floors. They slip when they are wet or when they run in their footie pajamas.

Okay, one last thing and then I have to quit, even though there is still more to be said about our apartment. Our water is heated by an instant heater. At first we thought this was the most brilliant idea even - unlimited hot water. However, that's about all you can get is hot or cold. So getting the right temperature to expose your skin to for a shower can be a little bit like solving a rubix cube. You turn it on scalding then thy to work your way down without turning the heater off. Once I was washing my hands and I turned the water off right as the heater lit up. This caused the pilot light to go out. By the time 8 hours had gone by Jeff was desperate. He wanted a shower bad, because he had been walking around town all morning and was sweaty. And we had tried everything those stupid instructions in German might possibly have translated to, all to no avail. We had to call the landlord and have him come show us how to do it. So that's the bathroom. In the kitchen is this ancient nondescript box mounted above the sink. Jeff figured out that you turn the knob, press the button and wait for the water to heat up. If you wait too long it boils over. It has just enough in it for a sink full of dishes. Then you have to run it again if you want warm water rinse with. But again, I think there's only really hot and cold. I'm not sure there's a good way to mix and get warm running out of the tap.

So, that's just the short list. I figured you already knew that the windows open two ways here, depending on how the handle is turned, and they have no screens. And I figured you probably also already knew that the power plugs are different. The only other thing that was shockingly different, and hard to get used to, was the size of the kitchen (and its appliances). If my weight corresponds to the size of my kitchen, as it affects the amount of food coming in and being stored and prepared, then I am sure that very shortly I shall be as skinny as I ever hoped. My plan is to go the store just about every day. It gives the kids something to do. I don't think we could go more than three days without starving to death. Luckily, we are still in the habit of stocking up, because the last couple of holidays (where the stores are closed), caught us unawares. By day three I thought I just might float away in the wind.

Anyway, this has taken me two or three days to finish, so by now we actually have received some mail, which was really exciting to see a pile of paper dumped on the floor. Maybe I will blog again soon. I have some more German tests coming up that I'm sure will eat me alive time-wise, but then I have also been up to some really fun things that I'd love to tell about before I forget, like taking the kids on their first trip sans-stroller, or going to a German course offered by the city for free for ladies (housewives). I also hope I will have the chance to write again soon because Ella seems to be feeling a little better, although now her sleep schedule is all out of whack again. Anyhow, now you know that we are still alive.