Zwiebel Markt

This weekend is Weimar's Premier Event of the year, the 358th Annual Zwiebel Markt or in English the Onion Market. Now, that doesn't sound too impressive, but it is huge! There are various different food booths, crafts, clothing, carnival rides, and more. Last year over 350,000 people attended the festival. There is even a giant ferris wheel right outside our new home on Rollplatz. It is fun to watch as it extends well above the roof line. We haven't ridden it yet, so we might try tomorrow. It would be 14 Euro for our family so we're not sure (about $19). We got to explore the festival today and found a lot of neat sights and sounds. There was a great medieval section with soft animal skins, blacksmith, woodcarvers, and more. We were also able to take in some of the great tastes of the festival. Some pepperoni stick type meat, some Langos (think elephant ear with garlic and cheese instead of sugar), and a great stir fry with meat, potatoes, vegetables with a great sauce on top and a pasta dish also with the same sauce. We will go back tomorrow to look for a hat for Heather and I, possibly a Christmas gift for Stanley and an onion fall wreath for our door.

I was also able to run in the Weimar City Run. There were about 1500 people running the 10k with me and 286 who ran the half marathon. This was my second 10k ever, my first being in June while pushing the stroller in the race. I ended up doing pretty well. You can check out the results here. Just click on 10k run, and then you can search for my name. I am also excited that my second 5k was faster than my first. I ran about 18 min 20 sec for the first half, and then about 18 min for the second half. I have been running here in Weimar, often going for runs pushing the kids in the stroller. Unfortunately, the past 2 weeks I've not been able to run as much due to being really busy at work and not getting to bed at decent hours. The only time I have to go for a run is in the morning around 5 or 5:30 am. It feels good to be in the shape I'm currently in, and hopefully I'll be able to do more runs in the future. They have running circuits here in Thuringia and a lot of different races available.

In other happenings, Stanley was accepted to a Kindergarten and he will start the beginning of November. We were hoping to have him start in Oktober, but other circumstances kept that from happening which actually works out perfectly. This allows him to be home when my parents come to visit, and he will start after they leave. This also allows us to get into our new place and settle down. Quick update regarding that, they are going to put in new carpet hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday so we can move in next weekend. Right before my parents arrive. Back to Kindergarten. I got to meet the teacher a couple of weeks ago. They were having a parent's night, and Erik invited me to join him. It was really nice to see the school. It seems like it will be great. For those of you wondering why we are putting him in Kindergarten let me explain. First, Kindergarten is the socially common thing to do with children. In fact many parents will start applying as soon as they are pregnant (or sooner) because it is so hard to get into a good Kindergarten. Secondly, we thought that this would be the best way for Stanley to learn the language. Total immersion, and we expect that he'll be fluent within 3 months. He will also just be there in the mornings instead of the all day option. Thirdly, This will also give Heather more focused time with Holly in the mornings and it will be easier to get household tasks done with one child around instead of two. The first bit will be a trial and if it doesn't work out then he doesn't have to continue to go, but we feel this will be a great opportunity for him.

Finally, I wanted to update you on our German class that we've been taking. I think I mentioned this before, but for Heather's Visa she needs to take a German test. So we've been taking a class twice a week for an hour and a half. At first the class was total immersion, the teacher spoke no English! This was really hard and frustrating. We actually had a few students/teachers drop the class. However, the teacher adjusted for the group, and the class has gotten much better. We left on Thursday feeling like our brains were going to explode because we were learning so much. This was quite different from the first few classes when we felt like our brains were going to explode because we did not understand a thing that went on. I do have to say that our teacher probably has the hardest job having to teach a group of teachers. We teachers are the worst critics. We don't feel that Heather will be completely prepared from this class, so we might still have her take the intensive course but if she does that then Holly would have to be in Kindergarten too. It's 5 days a week in the mornings.

I think that is enough for now. I'm off to bed. Thank you for taking the time to catch up with us.

From Germany,

The Overby Family

Week of September 26th Part 2

Sorry I didn't get part 2 written earlier. Life got busy as I am about to tell you. After Stanley's accident, the next big thing that happened was that we signed a contract for our new apartment! It has been neat seeing how this has all come together these past 2 months. About a month ago, we thought we found the perfect place on Jakobstrasse. However, as things (God) had it. We put our application in, we were accepted, but we just couldn’t seal the deal. Couldn’t get a hold of the real estate lady, owner was on vacation, real estate lady was on vacation, couldn’t get in to see it one last time, etc.

In the meantime, this place on Rollplatz materialized. It started with a gal from church making an announcement that we were looking for a place to live (we didn’t ask her to do this, she just did). The owner of this place knew it was going to be vacated soon, so he contacted us. We weren’t able to contact the real estate guy for it, but finally we were able to see it. We loved it and the lady moving out agreed to sell us all of her belongings and move out earlier if we would be responsible to paint it. Turns out this is much better than what we were originally looking at. God is good, and He gets the credit for this deal. Btw, it’s really hard to find apartments in Weimar, which is why the real estate people don’t have to have “customer service” in their vocabulary.

Anyways, on Wednesday I took the day off for Stanley, but we were able to use the day to get a lot of paper work done. Contracts signed, bank book arranged (for deposit), etc. Things that I did not have time to do while at work. Again, it was a God thing arranging events to make it happen.

On Thursday night we met with the lady moving out to sign the contract for the belongings. We were told going into it that we needed to check for damage and problems, and to literally look behind pictures and furniture for problems. We did check, but not as extensively as we were apparently supposed to.

On Friday we signed the actual contract, and let’s just say this was the most intense apartment check that we have ever experienced. The real estate guy and his assistant came, and they checked everything. As we’ve mentioned before, in Germany apartments come bare (no kitchen, light fixtures, cupboards, etc.) and since we were buying everything people were concerned that we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. The real estate assistant was looking everywhere for the tiniest damage. They dinged the lady for a chip on the bathroom sink, and said they’ll charge her for a new sink. They had her remove some adhesive hooks from the door and are charging her for the damage from those, they were noting nics on the floor, etc. Our friend Susanne was there to help translate, and she was looking around too, behind curtains, under furniture, etc. We have a lot to learn about German apartment contracts.

Finally that was all done, papers were signed, keys were exchanged, we paid the lady for the belongings she sold us, and we had our new home! To see a youtube video of it, click here.

Unfortunately, we were not able to move in right away because it needed to be painted. Orange, green, and yellow walls are just not our thing. Erik picked up some paint at the store for me, and let me borrow his painting tools, and the work began. Ok, not right away, we took our friends out to dinner to say Thank You. Saturday I worked on taking down pictures and shelves, and then Saturday night I began to paint. I worked Saturday night from 10 pm – 1 am. Then on Sunday after church our friends Marcus and Babette helped me from 2:30 pm – 6 pm. Then I was back at it from 9 pm – 2 am. Monday was German Reunification Day so I had the day off work to work. I painted from 12:30 pm – 6 pm, although the real work began at 2 pm when Franz came over to help. As you can imagine, I was completely wiped by Monday and my motivation level was at zero. From 12:30 pm to 2 pm I got very little done because I was moving so slowly. I even laid down at one point because I was frustrated the work I had done was not turning out right and I was so tired. Then the phone rang, Franz had arrived. Together we were able to finish up all the painting!

So there you have why I was not able to update the blog, I’ve been busy painting! Tomorrow the carpet people are going to come to get measurements and the owner is going to have the carpets replaced in the two carpeted rooms. Hopefully we’ll be able to move in some time this week. The big Onion Market is next weekend and we’d love to be right there in downtown for the market! This is the 358th year for the market. Puts our markets in the USA to shame.

I’ll have to save for the next post Kindergarten, German Class, and running. I am doing the city run this upcoming Saturday. I was signed up for the Portland Marathon which is on Sunday, but I won’t be doing that now. Take care, thank you for reading this and praying for us. Another work day tomorrow, but only a 4 day week, yay!

From Germany,

Scott, Heather, Stanley, and Holly