Happy Thanksgiving

This is our third Thanksgiving out of the US, and it is a tough time to be away.  At least this year, our kids get the time off of school- I guess that's the benefit of  it being a more "American" school.  We were so happy to have Erin and her friend, Elisa, with us this year for Thanksgiving!  It is just not the same unless you have extended family and friends to celebrate with.

As usual, we had WAY too much food. I cooked for 2 straight days and it was a serious juggling act to get all the food into my E-Z Bake sized oven.  Our house is so ridiculous.  It is the biggest house with the tiniest Polly Pocket  sized kitchen.  Even my apartment in Switzerland was better equipped for cooking a big meal.  But, in the end, we had a full spread and it was yummy.  We'll have lots of leftovers for next week.

I'm kind of hoping to be home next year for Thanksgiving.  It's much easier having my mom cook the turkey, and Aunt Toni bake the pies, and I just have to do side dishes!  Plus, I like having lots of people for Thanksgiving.  We were 6 this year, which is pretty good, but we certainly missed the rest of our family!

Now, I'm counting my blessings and being thankful for my fantastic kids, my loving husband, my mom and aunt, all my friends -near and far-, our good health, and the opportunity to live in Europe for a while.  We are heading to Prague for a long weekend tomorrow, so I'm off to finish packing and go to sleep!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

Berlin: Where West meets East

Erin and I went to Berlin for a quick 2 day trip.  We took the train on Wednesday morning and returned Thursday night.  It was a 4.5 hour ride each way, and I am SO glad we didn't drive.  The weather was rainy and gray and driving would have been slow.  The train, however, goes around 200km/h!  Plus, we could relax and read rather than worry about getting lost :)

 Berlin is a HUGE city.  I think it's like 10 times the size of New York, distance-wise.  It is not managable completely on foot, so we relied a lot on public transport, busses, trains, and subways.  We managed to see all the "highlights" in our short time, but didn't do any in-depth museum-like stuff.  Most of the time, I prefer to just experience the culture of a new city and you can't really do that in museums.  I like to wander about and poke into shops and look at random statues on the street and people-watch.  Erin felt the same way, so that's how we toured Berlin.

 These photos are at Checkpoint Charlie.  During the Cold War, this was the border crossing from the West into the East, the American-sector into the Russian-sector.  There was a big display going over the history and politics of this crossing point and it was really interesting.  What is especially crazy to me is that NO GERMANS were allowed to cross here for any reason!  Only foreigners could cross.  So, if your family was cut off overnight (which is when the wall barriers were erected-in just one night), you couldn't visit them for nearly 20 years.  But, if you were just a tourist or business person from any country other than Germany, you could cross back and forth.  How cruel is that?

The remnants of the Wall are not here.  At this point, it was completely knocked down by celebratory mobs in 1989.  But, thanks to pictures and the historical background, I could imagine what it must have been like.

 I thnk it's quite fitting that the first thing you see when passing into the American side is a McDonald's!

 A Russian soldier overlooking me as I enter the East side.

 The East side of the city is where most of the sightseeing is.  The East still feels really Russian or Polish.  Quite gray, but not as plain and Communistic as I expected.  There are a lot of signs in Russian and Polish still.  Here is what used to be the Russian Government offices, and is now the Russian Embassy.

 The Brandenberg Gate is also on the East side, by all of the Embassies.  It was the original entrance to the city long, long ago. 

 That's the American Embassy behind me.  While standing in this area, Erin and I got interviewed by an Israeli journalist.  Weird, but he seemed to be the real deal.  He asked us how we felt about Germany raising their terrorist warning level and if we as tourists would change our plans because of it.  So, we may be quoted in an Israeli newspaper. 

 Something else we found on the East side was a really fun pub.  It is a chain of Czech pubs and this is the first branch opened in Germany.  It's cool because you pull your own beer and the computer counts how much you drink so you only pay for what you drink.  We were there during a quiet time, so we chatted with the owner and the waitstaff.  The owner is originally Israeli, but lived most of his life in Czechoslovakia, then moved to LA for a few years and hated it, and now lives in Berlin.  The waiter was a young Russian guy, who claimed to be 21, but Erin and I think he was more like 14.  He had only lived in Germany for 6 months.  It was cool to talk to him, because his accent was just like that of any Russian-speaking-English in movies.  He told us that many Russian young people leave Russia to work as restaurant staff in Western Europe and America to help them get ahead.  He has friends working in Chicago right now and hopes to go someday.  The whole "streets paved with gold" fable is still alive in parts of the world. 

 After leaving the pub, we went in search of the remnants of the Wall.  After a slight detour, we found it.

 What is left is now an art gallery.  It is still quite long at this point, and makes it possible  to imagine how long it really was and how isolating.  The wall itself is totally flat and slippery.  You could never climb it without a ladder.  And here, on the East side, Russian guards were given orders to "shoot to kill" any one attempting to climb it.  I can't even imagine what it must have been like to stand here 20 or 30 years ago, desperate, knowing that just a few feet away over the wall was the life you dreamed of. Wilder, yet, is that the entire wall was built in just 3 days.

Since we had managed to see all the major historical sights on Wednesday, we decided to shop on Thursday!  We found the largest department store in Europe KaDeWe, or Kaufhaus Der Western (Department Store of the West).  It was a lot like Marshall Field's/Macy's in Chicago.  We wandered all around the 7 floors and enjoyed the all-out Christmas decorations. 

We left Berlin mid-day and made one last stop to buy the kids a souvenir.  Dunkin' Donuts.  Yep, all over Berlin, East and West, there were Dunkin' Donuts.  How completely random, but Munchkins made for a great souvenir for Aidan and Delainey!  I wonder why there aren't any in Frankfurt?

Fury over Detroit News Article!

Reading this article has me FURIOUS.  If you haven't read it, read it below and then let me get on my soapbox for a few moments.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdetnews.com%2Farticle%2F20101118%2FMETRO%2F11180420%2FHigh-teacher-salaries-under-scrutiny-in-Michigan&h=ea967

How many teachers REALLY only work 9 months? Let's be real. We have 10 weeks of summer between school years during which we attend and PAY FOR OUR OWN professional development courses and workshops and plan for the next year and SPEND OUR OWN MONEY purchasing school supplies so that we can teach the next year.




Unlike most companies that fly their employees, business class no less, to all parts of the world for fancy seminars and conventions, all expenses paid including food and drinks. Unlike most companies that offer employees bonuses, often equal to double their yearly salary, for jobs well done.



And, I am appalled that they are comparing my PROFESSION with blue-collar jobs. I went through 4 years of undergraduate university for my Bachelor's Degree, did 1 full year of unpaid student teaching, and earned my Master's Degree. I did not just waltz out of high school and into a factory. I worked damn hard for my education, paid a lot for said education, and every teacher earns every single penny we make for educating the future of our society.



It is time for people to stop comparing kids to auto parts. We can live without fancy gadgets and cars. We cannot live in a world where we have uneducated children. It is time to value education and stop complaining about teachers' salaries. If it weren't for well-educated teachers our society would have no future. The only way MI is going to rebound is by people getting skilled at jobs other than factory work. Guess who teaches people marketable skills? TEACHERS.



Parents, should be proud to live in an area that pays it's teachers decently. It means that your child is getting a good education. Especially, if in your district your teachers are paid decently, have smaller class sizes and have parents who actually participate in their child's education by volunteering and attending conferences.

Buh-Bye Adenoids

After five long years of suffering through ear infections and chest infections, there is a light at the end of Delainey's tunnel. 

Nearly every year, she has had 2-3 MAJOR ear infections, the kind that leave blisters on her ear drums and require multiple rounds of antibiotics.  But, the frequency was never enough for doctors to prescribe putting tubes in her ears.  So each fall, winter, and spring as soon as she had a sniffle I'd wait for it to turn into an ear infection and head to the doctor for some more pink medicine.  In the last two years, her infections seemed worse.  The were more painful and often followed by chest infections like the one that had our first visit to Frankfurt last February include a trip to the Frankfurt Children's Hospital with a slight bout of pnuemonia.

Further, her pre-school teachers had her screened for speech delays and recommending getting her hearing tested last spring.  We did both, and the consensus was that she had slight hearing losses during each infection which made her learn sounds incorrectly.  So, at her latest check up here in Germany, I mentioned all of this history to the doctor who said.  "I'm fairly certain it's her adenoids."  Huh?  What are adenoids and why hasn't any other doctor mentioned them before?  I'd heard tubes and speech therapy being tossed around as ideas, but this was the first mention of adenoids.

So off we went to a new ENT, who took one look at her nose and mouth and said "Yep, they are too big.  We should remove them immediately."  Just like that, in perfect English (although not before he fooled me by saying he only spoke German, Spanish and Italian and let me falter for a full 5 minutes in German, only to laugh as I got stuck on the translation of the word "blister" and say "I'm just kidding.  My English is very good.").

So, here we are 2 weeks later, adenoid-less.  Delainey was such a trooper.  Jason took the day off and we both took her to the day clinic where they did the procedure.  She was given what we were told was apple juice in the waiting room, but was some high-test stuff based on how after drinking it, she kept falling over and couldn't walk like she had downed a few shots of vodka.  By the time they called us back to anesthesia, she was pretty loopy.  They were so good with her.  They had given me a special numbing bandage to put on at home to numb the area of the IV port so she didn't feel it at all, especially after having the magic apple juice. 

Here she is with Jason, slightly out of it already, and waiting for the anesthesiologist.

They let her sit on my lap while they gave her her "sandman milk" in the IV.  Within 20 seconds she was out.  The doctor whisked her out of my arms, promising to take good care of her, and said he'd be back to get us in 15-20 minutes. 

Only 10 minutes later, he came out and said she was done!  He took us back to recovery where she was sleeping soundly. They had covered her up with her special blanket and tucked her penguin "Petal" in beside her.  

 She woke up about a half-hour later and was given gummi bears and cookies and apple juice by the nurse.  She liked that they had even given Petal a matching bandage on her wing!

We were able to leave the clinic by lunch time.  She was a bit sleepy the rest of the day, but she was chatty as ever and her appetite wasn't bothered at all!  We had promised her ice cream and she had at least 4 bowls today!  She even ate a normal dinner.  Tomorrow, I expect her to be good as new.  She'll be staying home tomorrow and Friday from school, but I doubt she'll be feeling any worse for the wear.  

I'm hoping getting rid of those germy things makes for an easier winter on us all.  I'm also hopeful she'll begin to hear better and speak more clearly. 

She and I both felt very loved by all the prayers and good wishes we got from friends and family members.  We had messages from  bunches of people in 6 states and 4 countries, all sending their love to my cupcake.  Thank you all for thinking of her today and I'll keep you posted on her recovery and resulting improvements!

Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween this year!  Our friends from Australia, the O'Briens, were still in town and we introduced them to Halloween- American Style! 

We had discovered that all were welcome to Trick or Treat on the US Army base, so we decided to take the O'Briens there.  We spent the afternoon shopping in Wiesbaden and had lunch at the American Sports Bar- I even found Miller Lite!  Light beer is so unheard of in Europe!  No one here respects it as "real" beer, but I was happy to find it.  This is how we started our "give the Australians a taste of America in Germany" evening.

After our late lunch, we met up with friends from school for Trick or Treating.  Aidan was a skeleton (but his pic wouldn't upload) and Lainey was a fairy:

Here we are ready to get some real American candy!  I've had enough Gummi Baren, danke!  I was on the look out for Starbursts and Three Musketeers!

And they are off!  It was just like home!  Lots of families had decorated outside and were dressed up and playing scary music.  I asked Aidan if he remembered Trick or Treating at home, but he doesn't!  So it was a great experience for him.  Sometimes, while experiencing so many new things as ex-pats, I forget that our kids don't remember much of the American experience because they were so little when we moved.

Lainey and Lucy caught on quickly, and just kept saying "this is the BEST Halloween ever!".  Megan and Damian couldn't believe how much candy there was and how many kids there were.  Halloween is much smaller in Australia. Lucy and James may want to move to the US after this experience!

The kids made a big haul, and even I got some of my favorites on trade!  I had brought a few bags of candy to donate to the cause and I bartered my bags of German candy for Starbursts, Three Musketeers and Sour Patch Kids.  YUM!!!  I think we may need to find a dentist in Germany after all ;)

Since Trick or Treat was on Saturday, we spent Sunday, the real Halloween, at home recuperating from our fun-filled week.  We finally got around to carving our pumpkin too.  We thought we might have some Trick or Treaters in our neighborhood, but we didn't.  At least our house was decorated and a little spooky!

Fun with the Bailkoskis and O'Briens

Last week we had lots of visitors!  Our two closest family friends from Zurich came to visit us.  Both families now live in England so it had been a few months since we'd seen them last.  We all lived in the same apartment complex in Zollikerberg and had become very close friends.  Aidan, William, and James are all the same age, and so are Lainey, Lucy, and Teddy.  Kirsten and Megan helped me with my transition to Switzerland, were my main support system there, and continue to be close friends.  Jason and their husbands get on great, too.  It is hard not living by them anymore, especially realizing we probably won't ever live near each other again.  Soon, we'll be on 3 separate continents, once the O'Briens go back to Australia and we go back to America! 

 So, we enjoyed spending time all together last week. 

We didn't actually do much.  The kids were just beside themselves to see each other and rarely left the playroom.  We adults stayed up late catching up, playing trivia games, watching movies, and drinking a few beverages.  It was so easy to have 8 others in our house! I couldn't believe how smoothly it all went.  We did a few fun things like go to a great restaurant with playground and to an indoor pool, but that was about it!  The rest of the time we just enjoyed seeing each other again.

We'll be spending the week between Christmas and New Year's with them in England, and I'm really looking forward to another great week with great friends!

Teddy, Aidan, William and Lainey at breakfast

Tea time with Teddy

Lainey and Lucy playing at the restaurant's playground

Climbing trees at the restaurant

Friends forever!

Early morning Lego construction site

Saying good-bye to the Bailkoskis.