6.8.2011 Finding the Perfect Park

One of the things that Heather really wanted to do when we arrived here is to find a great park that we can call our own. Weimar has lots of green space, so we thought it would be fairly easy. However, we wanted a spielplatz (playground) not just a green space. So on our hunt we’re looking for fun playgrounds that are little kid friendly. So far we’ve found some really good ones. But Heather wants to find THE one. So here are some of the parks that we’ve explored. Here is a link to a map of Weimar and all of the parks I will list plus a few others that we haven’t explored yet.

The one near the police station. This one is about a half mile from our place. It has a large climbing net like at Good Shepherd. It also has a fun climbing wall/play structure. It is a series of things to climb. Metal ladder, rope, poles, etc that are just lined up in a row. There is also a fun amplithere type hill that would be really fun to roll balls down. The best part of this park is that there is a back secluded area with a slide that starts from the top of a hill and goes down through some bushes. We had a picnic there one evening and it was really fun to watch the kids play on the slide.

Picnic in the back of the park.

The hidden slide.

The one with the sand bridge.

This is really close to our house, just two blocks away. It doesn’t have a play ground, but it has a sand pit that looks like a river and a stone bridge that goes over the “river,” and a “throne” at one end of the sand river. It looks like it has a goat head at the top of the bridge. (billy goat gruff?) We played here one evening while Heather did some grocery shopping. The kids loved the sand and I met a teacher from Germany who is moving unfortunately in less than a week. He got a job near Berlin.

Playing on the "throne"

Goethepark This is the largest park and is about a mile from our place. However, there are no play structures. It’s more of a walking park but today we went to check out a spring in the park. It was like a wading pool about 16 feet in diameter and the water was about 6 inches deep. There was a natural spring in the middle of the pond that then flowed out to a nearby stream. We went here with our friends Freya, Hiroki and their two boys who are the same ages as our kids. (Freya teaches at Scott’s school) The kids had a blast except the water was very cold. But on a really nice day like today you don’t mind too much. Definately not your jump in to swim type pond. Goethepark also has lots of walking/jogging trails that I have already explored much of. More of that in another post.

Picnic in Goethepark on a beautiful Saturday.

Playing in the pond with spring.

The water was cold, which is why Holly doesn't want to put her feet in!

The circle park by Jakob Kirche and the Rotes Kreuz This one Heather has not been at yet, but it had a really neat setup. It’s in the old town area, just over a half mile from our place. The play structure almost looked like something you’d find in a Dr. Suess book. Everything was a little off balanced, but looked like a lot of fun to climb and explore. Although not suitable for Holly. However, there were lots of other little things to explore. Holly immediately found a swing (she loves swings) that was a different shape, but held her very well. There was a little tunnel for kids to crawl under. A spinner that you stand on, and other fun things to explore. We played there for over an hour. There is no grass at this park, so that makes it feel a little less friendly to be at.

Stanley on the spinning thing.

Play structure behind him.

Holly on the swing being pushed by her big brother.

The large park by the city offices. This one we walked through on one of our first days in Weimar. It is across the street from a public outdoor and indoor pool. The pool has a neat looking playground, but you have to pay to get in. This park doesn’t look very kid friendly. They do a lot of outdoor concerts here, and there is a large pond in the center of the park. There is also a fun looking sand/water play area. However sand + water = big mess = tons of fun for kids = huge clean up for mom and dad. We’ve yet to come back here, but we probably will sometime soon. We are also too cheap right now to go to the pool, but we’ll also make time to visit that one of these days.

Walking through the park.

Atrium Andilli play place

We went here last week Saturday when it was raining. Again Freya and Hiroki invited us. It’s kind of like a giant McDonalds play place only much nicer. It's bigger, has more to do, and it costs money but it's worth it. The giant play structure is almost like a giant maze. There is a ball pit that you have to find your way to, some mini trampolines, trikes to ride around on, a carnival style ball shooter, slides, and a littler kids play area too. There is also a mini race track with bumper car style cars, and a mini indoor Fussball pitch (soccer field). The kids had a blast here, and apparently, you can even use it as a mini day care as you do your shopping. The Atrium is the mall in Weimar with lots of different stores including Aldi (Grocery Outlet), Saturn (Best Buy), and a 3D movie theater (sorry movies are in German). They are playing Harry Potter, Green Lantern, and some other very recent movies.

Heather and Stanley about to go down a slide.

Holly having a blast in the ball pit!

Belvedere Castle

This estate was built in the 1700s and is about 42 acres. We only had about 50 minutes, so we only saw a small fraction of the grounds. It is free to visit, but the museums cost money. Heather wants to come here for little retreats in the future. No playground that we found, but the garden we were in was a lot of fun to explore.

The main fountain at the Estate.

That is just one of the side buildings in the background.

The main one is to the right out of the picture.

In the fairy tunnel.

There are more parks yet to be explored, and you'll hear about them as they come up. We've yet to decide on whether any of these are the "perfect park," but there sure are a lot of neat places to explore in Weimar. Again, here is a link to a map of Weimar and all of the parks I listed plus a few others that we haven’t explored yet.

5.8.2011 Shopping

One of the interesting things about moving to a new country is to figure out how to shop. The things you’re used to back in America are not necessarily available plus you have to try to understand new labels and new prices. It’s been an interesting experience for us these past 10 days. At first, we ate out or on the go a lot. We went to an Italian restaurant the first night. We had sandwiches and mini pizza type items from local bakeries. Subway and Kebob have been the only chain restaurants we’ve been to. But when you eat out it gets expensive. So we’ve also been trying find the best place to shop.

Subway Sandwiches in the Park.

For those of you who know Heather, she is a very good shopper. She looks for and finds the best deals. She has saved our family hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the years. So it was frustrating for her to not know where to shop or where to find the best deals. The first few places we went were at the train station, in the middle of the city, or at a corner market. We were told that those places have the same prices as elsewhere. Well, for most items maybe, but we were able to find a few others that had much better selection, or maybe we just didn’t know what to look for at first. We found a grocery store in Northern Weimar in what seems to be where more of your average Germans live. The store had more of a Winco/Fred Meyer type feel to it. Huge selection, and we found some very good prices. Our whole trip which was two Ikea bags for 10 Euros. We had earlier trips for less items for more money. Currently, our favorite inexpensive brand is “ja” (German for yes).

Heather working in our small kitchen on some amazing meal.

One of the differences here is that you buy less at a time, and no that’s not because we have such a small place. Germans will buy what they need for that day and some for the day after. You don’t go and do a week’s worth of shopping. You won’t find the big shopping carts you’d find at an American grocery store. Then on Saturday you do your shopping for two days. Kind of like the Israelites in the wilderness would collect enough mana for one day, and then on Friday they would collect enough for Friday and Saturday (the Sabbath). The reason they do the same here, is because on Sundays, most everything is closed. So on Saturday you get what you need for Saturday, Sunday and breakfast Monday. It’s neat how there is more respect for a day of rest here. Some find Sundays really boring around here, but it’s nice to have that change of pace day. We accidentally found that the thing to do on a Sunday afternoon is to go for a walk with the family. We went for a walk and saw a ton of other families doing the same. This was

confirmed when by another teacher from the school when we saw her and her family on the walk. Another difference in Germany is that at stores it is BYOB (Bring your own bag), good thing we brought a few favorites with us. Bread is a must. Our favorite is Brotchen (a Kaiser roll/French roll). It was odd though on the first couple of days the director kept insisting we have fresh bread for breakfast. We’re from America, bread is not a staple item for breakfast. However, by the time we come home it might be. :-)

Heather preparing one of or great dinners.

Pasta, chicken and salad.

It has also been interesting transition because during the past 3 years we’ve been part of Birch Community Services where we were able to shop at their warehouse that contained items that were donated from different companies around the Portland area. For those of you who were familiar with this, or our pantry, you would know that we had lots of miscellaneous items. The mind set was what did I get at Birch and how can I use this? Now, Heather has to switch gears to what do I want to make, so what do I need to get? I say Heather because I do not cook. If it was left to me, we’d be eating cereal for breakfast, Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches for lunch and who knows what for dinner (I can’t even think of something simple to write down let alone make). As you can see in some of the pictures already, Heather has been doing great. She is making some wonderful meals, and keeping us well fed. It is hard with Stanley

right now because he is going through a picky phase. We want him to try new things, but we also want him to eat. So Heather tries to pick things that he’ll eat, but not cater to him. She won’t fix him a separate meal from the family. For example, one night she made peanut butter pasta with chicken (she used a slight variation of a Thai Peanut Sauce recipe she knows). She then had some extra peppers, basil and spicy sweet chili Thai sauce for the adults that we could add on our own plates. Stanley and Holly loved it!

Holly loving her Ritz Crackers and Peanut Butter.

She heard Peanut Butter is good for the skin.

So right now we are doing much better being frugal in how we spend our money in regards to groceries. This is necessary because we are down to 29 Euros. We’d rather not use our debit or credit card and get hit with hefty overseas fees, and we’re still in the process of getting our German Bank Account set up. I thought we’d have our moving stipend and reimbursement for my plane ticket already (I put in for them on Monday), but when I checked in at our bank today we had a balance of -5 Euros. Since I don’t have my Visa yet, my account is not fully active either. I don’t have a debit card (that comes once I have my Visa), and I don’t know how to transfer money from our American account to our German account. I doubt the bank is open Saturday and I know it won’t be open on Sunday. In the meantime, we are practicing our frugality, and learning more on how to shop, eat, and live in Germany.

Cleaning up after dinner.

4.8.2011 The Bus System and Church

Now that we’re all caught up on our travels to get here, our posts will not be as chronological, but more of our observations on different topics or specific day's events. Today I want to say a little bit about the bus system and our experience at church last Sunday.

The Bahnhof (Train station).

During our first few days, we bought single tickets for the bus because it was fairly easy to get across town. It is only 15 minutes to walk to Goetheplatz (the center of town), but when we went to visit Freya or to church, it was too far to walk. But when we did so it was 1,80 Euro per person (kids under 6 are free).Then if our trip was longer than an hour, we’d have to pay it again on the way home. So 7,20 Euro (about $10) for a round way trip was not worth it. Instead, we decided to get month passes. It was 35,30 Euro per person so we figure if we do 10 day trips like that we’d get our money worth. With this Heather thought it would be better for her to just use the bus system rather than buying a bike. She doesn’t feel comfortable pulling a bike trailer on these narrow streets, and a lot of the drivers (especially the buses) seem to go flying through the streets.

The crazy thing about figuring out the bus system is the different routes. There are only 7 or 8 routes in the city. However, each route has 2 - 4 variations. You have the “normal” route. Then there is variation 1, 2 and 3. And then route 3 has route 3, 3A and 3B. Then don’t forget there is the Saturday schedule, and then the Sunday and Holidays schedule. I’m starting to figure it out, but it still gives us headaches.

How the kids get around. Their Chariot!

One of the places we were able to use the bus to get to was church on Sunday. We were talking to one of the teachers at the school and found that there is a Baptist church in town. However, she couldn’t tell us any more because another teacher just took her there the week before. So on Saturday night, I spent a long time trying to find the church and how to get there. Finally I found what looked like a Bapist/Presbeterian church. When I did an English Camp in Germany back in 2002, I learned that you don’t want an Evangelical church, you want an Evangelical Free church. This one “Evangelisch Freikirchliche Gemeinde Weimar” fit that bill. However, I couldn’t find an address on their website. Thanks to Google, I was able to locate it on a map, then I had to figure out which bus would get us the closest. Due to the confusion that I listed before with the bus system, it was quite the ordeal.

So Sunday morning we were off to see if what I found was accurate. Fortunately, the bus system worked perfectly. We had to take two buses, one to Goetheplatz, the second towards the church. Once we got off, we had a 300 meter walk to the church. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted, and we asked if there is someone who spoke English. The lady at the door looked around and introduced us to a young gal in the foyer. She was able to give us some information regarding the church. The kids had slept in that morning (yay) but that meant we missed the first service which has childcare (bummer). Unfortunately, that meant that Heather spent most of the service in the kids room playing with Stanley and Holly.

Stanley and Holly playing the in Firetruck from Aunt Beth in their room

Normally, that wouldn’t have been much of a problem since the services are in German. However, on that day there was a team report which was partially in English. The team/project is called Yad B’Yad which means Hand in Hand. It is a reconciliation program between German and Israeli youth. For the project German students and Israeli students come together, and visit concentration camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and they work through forgiveness through Jesus and how through Him there can be forgiveness and reconciliation. The Israeli students were from all over, the USA, Russia, Pakistan, and more. Or they were from all those countries originally, but now live in Israel. It was really neat to hear some of the stories from the group. One of the stories was of a Jewish girl who’s family was all killed (except for one sole survivor) in a concentration camp. Then there was a German girl who’s family was involved with a concentration camp. If I think of it, that would be my grandparents and great grandparents who would have been killed. What was nice for us (me since Heather was watching the kids) was that the Israeli group spoke English. So I got to listen in English while there was a German translator for everyone else. Here is a link to what the program is about if you want to learn more. http://www.beitimmanuel.org/yby.pdf

The Movie Star pushing the sleeping beauty in her Chariot.

Afterwards, during the worship time, the songs were all in English with the German translations underneath. They did some songs a the beginning in German. Later we learned that it is normal to have songs in English, because they were written in English. During one of the German songs I realized in my limited German that the chorus was, “Better is one day in your courts than thousand elsewhere.” Although the tune was completely changed to fit the German language.

After church we were looking around and saw a sign for a Cafe next to the church. By now it was 1 pm and our kids were not going to make it home. So we thought we’d check it out to see what type of food they had. Unfortunately it wasn’t that type of cafe, but more a place to get coffee or tea between services. However, they were serving lunch to the Yad B’Yad team. One of the lady’s serving the team, was able to answer our questions about the cafe, but she also said that she would be happy to serve us lunch since they had extra. So she took us to the room next door which seemed to be a Bible Class type room. She brought us Vegetarian Lasagna, salad, water, tea, and even some European cookies. What a blessing. She told us that she understands having kids and the need to feed them. It made us realize that this is the church we need to get plugged into. This lady followed what Jesus said about feeding the stranger. She then gave us her contact information and got our information, and later that week she dropped off the bus schedule and a Weimar activities guide at our apartment. She also said that if we need anything we can contact her, and she will keep an eye out for a possible apartment for us. Wow! We’re excited to see how we can get plugged into the church. Two of the things they do are English classes and home churches. Two ideas we have is to help with an English class or have an English speaking home church. But, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, we’ve only been in country for 9 days. We’ll be patient and see what God has for us. We will be going back this next Sunday. But this time we’ll go to the 9:30 service where there is child care.

Our family after dinner in old town Weimar

I think I’ll end things there for tonight. We still want to share about our shopping experiences, more about the school I’ll be teaching at (Thuringia International School), the parks, my running, and other fun outings we’ve had. So there are some things for you to look forward to. Thank you for reading, and have a great day.

26.7.2011 Our new life in Weimar

As we got closer to Weimar I knew we needed a plan on how we were going to get all of our stuff off the train. Our two large hiking backpacks and stroller were in one section and the rest were all over the place. As we got closer I moved all of our bags to the section the conductor told us we couldn’t have them and Heather got the kids ready. I left the stroller where it was and was going to get that off first, and then run to the other door and start pulling off the other bags. When the train pulled into the station we jumped into action and fortunately Barbara and Susan (the school’s director and one of the school’s principals) were there to help us. We got all the bags off and then were able to breathe and give proper greetings. Barbara later told us that she had purposely positioned herself in front of the lady on the platform who gives the green light for the train to leave the station because Barbara had witnessed a train in Switzerland pull out with two children on the train and the parents standing dumbfounded on the platform. They also told us that we won the prize for the bringing the most bags. Although in our defense we were the only family of 4 and we didn’t ship anything.

This is where we live. Notice all the scaffolding. It is a remodel in process.

There is our entrance. No, not the big door to the left. The little door to the right of center.

To get us to our new home we had to take two trips to the cars. It was a strange feeling leaving Heather and the kids standing on the platform as I took some of the bags. We finally got all the bags into the cars and had to travel about 50 meters to our new home. Our place was an old hotel that is currently being converted into an apartment complex. However, we don’t need to go into detail about this because you can read about it in one of our earlier posts. http://scott-heather-overby.blogspot.com/2011/07/we-made-itand-now-have-internet.html But let me tell you a little bit more about it. Our first reaction was “Wow it’s perfect.” And it is, for a temporary place. It is too small to stay long term, but it is a place to land. It is a little hard when one of the painters needs to paint the door in the middle of the day or change the doorknob. A few times when coming or going, they are doing remodeling work, and the guys will help carry the stroller up the stairs. One of the things we don’t like is having to move the chariot stroller up or down three flights of stairs. We’d like our next place to be a little closer the the ground floor. One of the things you’ll notice in the picures is that there is no door to Stanley and Holly’s room. It is just an opening. They have a door on order, but they don’t know when the carpenter will get it in. Something that has been great here, is how helpful they’ve been. They actually hired a specialist to come out to try to figure out our internet issue. Embarrassingly enough, the problem was that password code has a period at the end and we didn’t even notice it. Fortunately, neither did the manager when he tried to help Heather with it. But they’ve been gracious in removing an extra bed and bringing in a wardrobe to the children’s room on the day after we arrived. We also had them remove the TV, and the owner thought it was funny that the Americans didn’t want a TV. She thought all Americans watch TV. The apartment managers have answered questions, and have repeatedly told us to let them know if we need anything. What we will give you now is a little tour through pictures and video. Enjoy. Keep reading to hear more about our first couple days...

The entryway into the kids room. Notice, no door.

This is the kids room. Heather took this picture standing in the back corner.

There is now a dresser where Heather is standing here and the bed closest to her is gone.

This is our room. These are two separate beds next to each other.

Apparently you can buy something that connects the two mattresses

so there isn't a chasm between them.

There's the bathroom, you can see how small our room is here.

Here's inside the bathroom. Notice the sprayer but no shower curtain. That's common in Europe. You have bathtubs or showers. Not 2 in 1.

Here is our kitchen. Pretty basic.

That evening, after we got all of our stuff up to the room, Barbara and Susan took us out to get something to eat and shop for groceries. We also got to meet one of the other new teachers, Tim. At the restaurant, the food was delicious and our kids were wired! They just wanted to run and run and run and yell and yell and yell. You can’t blame them after spending the last 18 hours traveling! Fortunately, Barbara and Susan were very understanding and would hold Holly and listen to the many things Stanley wanted to share. It was really nice to have that time and definitely essential to get some food for breakfast the next day, although for the kid’s sleep schedules we should have gotten the kids to bed earlier.

We walk a lot here. Lots of green space which is nice.

We also use our stroller a lot. Sometimes the kids fall asleep in it.

The nice thing about keeping the kids up, is that they slept in until almost 10 the next day. However, I received a phone call soon after we woke up that I needed to be at the school to start getting paperwork done. The first thing on the list was insurance. In Germany you are required to have insurance. There is the national healthcare system, but you need something else above that. The person I met with was from the insurance company that the school goes through, although if you absolutely insist you can go through whomever you want. The actual health care is great. For the national system you pay 10 Euros once every 3 calendar months and that covers all appointments during that time (doctor, dentist, optometrist, etc). The extra insurance plan that we got will also pay you for doing checkups. You collect stamps, and those stamps can be cashed in at the end of certain time period. The goal is to get people into checkups so there are less major issues later on.

A sweet moment as the kids play together in their room.

Anyways, the process for getting a visa is very specific. First insurance, then register your address with the city, then get a bank account, then you can get the visa. The school has hired a gal, Ana, whose job is to help all of us new teachers and to be our interpreter. So she is scheduling appointments, running from one place to another and getting all of this figured out. Pretty much everyone in the city office doesn’t speak English. So Wednesday was insurance, Thursday was registering our address, and Friday I was on my own for the bank account. Fortunately the gentleman I worked with there spoke English. During those first few days we were also trying to figure things out like bus schedules, the layout of the town, where to buy groceries, what else do we need for our apartment, and how to do life with no appliances (we have two hot plates and a mini fridge.. It has been a crazy week, but God has been gracious and getting us through each day. There are more stories to share, but I’ll save those for another post.

Click here for a Video Tour of our Apartment

26.7.2011 Frankfurt Airport and Train to Weimar

Once we arrived in Frankfurt we were the last ones to get off the plane (partly due to the fact that Stanley was still waking up and we hadn't yet gathered everything). After we got off, our first thought was, “Where’s our stroller?” We had checked it right before we boarded and expected them to bring it up when we landed. Unfortunately, no. Turns out there were a bunch of other parents trying to figure out the same thing. We asked someone, and they told us to go to baggage claim. So with two kids, 6 carry-ons/personal items, we traveled the maze of airport security. At the passport check, the clerk was not to happy about all of the baggage carts that made their way to his station. What do you expect when you take away a family’s stroller? He kept pointing to a sign that says no carts, but the sign just said European passports this way, all others that way.

Our life on two baggage carts and a stroller

Finally we made it to the baggage claim but still no stroller. Heather asked around and found that all strollers were at a different carousel. I made the trek to baggage claim 33 and there was our stroller still covered by the blanket. My knots were not great but they held well enough. By the time I got back Heather had managed to pull most of our bags off of the carousel and into our little spot at baggage claim. I quickly found two baggage carts and managed to get all of our bags onto the two carts plus stroller. Unfortunately, the baggage carts in Europe require you to hold down the lever to actually move them. Heather in all of her ingenuity found one of our baggage straps that was able to hold the lever down as we tried to find our train. It was quite the site and we had quite a few stares as we traveled the airport/train station with our pile of luggage. Heather ended up pushing the stroller and pulling one cart while I pushed the other.

Our spot waiting for the train

You may be wondering why I let Heather maneuver two things while I just had one. Let’s just say our spirits were not the best at the moment. Maybe we were hungry, tired, overwhelmed, or all of the above. Or maybe it was because Heather took the time to ask where we needed to go, and I didn’t listen because I thought we should follow the signs to the Bahn (Train). Turns out the signs to the Bahn that I wanted to follow were to the city train and the directions Heather received were to the long distance train that we needed to take. She had to ask a second official person again showing them our ticket before I would listen. A great example of a stubborn male that is trying to lead when he really doesn’t know where to go.The most interesting thing about our hike with all our stuff was going up the escalator. Fortunately, there was an employee who helped us up with all our stuff. That is where the hand brake on the carts come in handy.

Heather getting the information we need

We finally made it to our platform, Heather once again asked for directions and this time I listened. We were able to park everything and have a little break and snack. Heather then asked me a very good question that I hadn’t thought of, “How will they know what time we arrive in Weimar?” Barbara had been out of town the week before we left, and Allyn who I had been corresponding with, was out of town the week we arrived. I had failed to bring a phone number to call the school, and we discovered that free wi-fi was not necessarily available in a major train station like it was in Seattle. Instead you have to pay for a T-Mobile hot-spot. Yikes, we weren’t ready to set up an account and give our credit card number. As we were trying to figure that how to contact the school we also took inventory of our stuff and realized that we were going to need help getting on the train and the train was going to arrive very soon.

Stanley being goofy in Frankfurt

By this point we had cooled off from our earlier issues, and were in a better place emotionally. We prayed that God would provide us with the help we needed getting on the train. As we were praying a gentleman was walking by and looking at us. Heather asked him if he spoke English, which he did, and where he was from, Israel. She then asked him if he would help us on the train. He said yes, and just then the train began to pull up. He got on, I threw him the bags, and we got everything loaded just before the train pulled out. As the train was pulling out, the conductor signaled to us that our bags could not stay were they were. So I had to move everything again. Fortunately, some other kind people on the train helped find places for all our bags. It was quite a process but we were on our last leg to Weimar.

Scott & Holly Waiting for the Train

As I was moving bags Heather and the kids were playing musical chairs (unintentionally). Certain seats are reserved, and some that are not marked as reserved are actually reserved as well. Note to self-don't just book tickets for the train-book seats as well. Fortunately, Heather met a gentleman (or an angel) named Oliver. Oliver acted as Heather’s interpreter for both language and culture. How did she meet him? She walked right up and asked to use his smart-phone to check our email to get the phone number for the director of the school. Then she used his phone to call the director to let her know when we would arrive. Heather would not typically ask to use a stranger's smart phone but this was a total God thing. As God had it, the train was delayed from the Frankfurt Airport station to the Frankfurt main station (Oliver’s stop) and Heather had time to get to know Oliver a little better.

The view from our train (no we didn't take this one)

During the rest of the trip we met a few more Germans who helped bridge the language gap with train employees and smiled at the kids. It was God's grace and those things that got us through the last difficult leg of the journey to Weimar. One of the things they had to help us with was an issue with our ticket. Apparently when you buy a train ticket on line you must have the card with which you bought the ticket with you on the train so they can have a proof of purchase. Scott had left his card with his dad to use for our house stuff back home. Big oops! Anyway we learned our lesson. We then bought dinner on the train, received free ice-pops for the kids, looked at the 1000 German words book that Grandma Sue got for Stanley (and us), and mostly tried to keep the kids entertained and contained. Not always an easy task. We kept telling Stanley, “This is Germany, this is our new home.” It was a weird feeling as we drew closer and closer to Weimar. This IS our new home. We’re going to LIVE here! What if we don’t like it? Will people be at the train station to meet us? We just had to trust in the LORD and know that He DID bring us here, and we are walking in His will.

25.7.2011 to 26.7.2011 Seattle Airport and flight on Condor

In Seattle we were able to get our stroller reassembled, and then we had an escort to an elevator because we were not able to take the stairs. This time we were able to actually carry our carry-ons by using the stroller and rearranging a few things. It was quite the hike across Sea-tac, and we were very relieved to make it to the International Concourse. We found the Condor gate, and quickly found a place to drop our things. At the gate it already felt like we were in a foreign country. It seemed as if most of the people around us were speaking a language other than English.

Our plane to a new land and new life

Stanley and I needed food so we set off to explore our options. We settled on a burger and hot dog at the Runway Grill. As we were waiting we realized that Stanley has been consistently initiating the need to go to the bathroom. For you non-parents you won’t appreciate this as much, but this has been a huge stressor for us recently. We have been trying to teach him to let us know, but he never would it has just been us that have been potty trained. Now in the last hours of our move and the move itself, he had made that transition to being fully potty trained! Hurrah!

Heather was able to get a little bit of wi-fi on our ipod, but we soon realized that we were going to have to rearrange our bags. Condor has 6 kilo (13 pound) weight requirement on all carry-ons. The first thing we did was utilize the large carry-on bag that Steve and Sue gave us before we left. It currently had baby items in it, but we loaded it with both computers and other heavy items we didn’t think we needed on the plane. Fortunately, they didn’t weigh it (as far as we know) or charge us to check it in at the gate! Next we loaded up the stroller with a few more items that we didn’t need on the plane like Heather’s Ukulele and a satchel purse. This gave us 4 bags plus Stanley’s penguin backpack and Heather’s purse to carry on.

Craziness before we board.

As we were standing around waiting to get on the flight a condor employee was going around weighing bags to make sure they were under 6 kilos. I was pretty sure my backpack and work bag were over the maximum weight. They weighed a bag belonging to the other couple headed to Germany to teach, and the employee started to tell me how my bag was too heavy. The gal it belonged to quickly claimed the bag as hers and had to unload a few things, exposing the Lego book that was supposed to be a surprise for her son. He went crazy and I distracted him as the mom put it somewhere else. When all that was done, the employee turned to our bags. She weighed one of our backpacks which came 5.9 kilos. I knew this was not good. My other two bags were heavier than the one she weighed. She then looked at our other bags. I think I might have even asked if she wanted to weigh another but she just said no and walked off! The Lord was really watching over us there. I don’t know what we would have unloaded.

Getting Ready to Take off for Germany-Stanley is glued to the TV

Soon it was time to board and we were the first ones on the plane. I once again had to fold up the entire stroller and this time I tied a large blanket over it to protect it from any banging around. As people boarded we got the kids in their pajamas, set up the car seat and prepared our little home. One of the things Heather is really good at is making any space a home just like she did to our spot along the wall at PDX. Holly, being the greeter that she is, was in Stanley’s car seat saying “HI” to everyone who walked past her. This garnered a lot of smiles. :-) Since Holly was under two she was considered a lap child and we only had three seats in the center. Fortunately, Heather was able to reserve the baby friendly section at the bulkhead. This gave us more leg room and floor space. Our flight took off around 7:45 pm, and we had a meal soon into the flight. We were shocked at the music videos they were showing on the flight, so we busied ourselves and the kids with some coloring and other activities. Holly would not sit still on our laps so she was in Stanley’s car seat while Heather and Stanley built a “nest” on the floor. By about 10 pm the kids were getting tired. We put Stanley in his car seat, and we got a bassinet for Holly (one of the perks of being in the baby friendly section). The bassinet was intended to be only for babies under 6 months, but since Holly is so petite the flight attendant gave us the bassinet anyways. What a blessing! Both kids conked immediately. We conked soon after. About 3 or 4 hours later Stanley started to wake up, so we transitioned him to his nest. He ended up sleeping the rest of the way! At the end we actually had to move his sleeping body back to the car seat for landing, and then had to wake him up to get him off the plane! That was a huge answered prayer. Holly slept for about 5-6 hours total so we only had to keep her entertained for about 2 hours at the end of the flight, but she got to be in Stanley’s car seat because he was asleep in the nest.

Our sleeping family, and Stanley sleeping in his nest (second picture)

The kids sleeping made the flight super easy, and it gave them (especially Stanley) great attitudes. On the plane ride we both said to each other, “we’re really doing this,” or “this is not just a two week mission trip.” It is a weird feeling getting on a plane with only a one way ticket and bringing only the luggage we packed. Not knowing exactly what God has in store but just walking by faith into the unknown. One of the things we can hold onto is that He brought us here, and He will provide the strength we need no matter what we face. When we got off the plane we realized that we were not in the Northwest anymore. We had to get through customs, find our luggage, and find our train. How in the world would we manage that with just the two of us and our 8 large bags (remember we checked another at the gate).

25.7.2011 PDX and flight to Seattle

We had a great group to see us off at the airport. There was Steve & Sue, Auntie Joyce, Grandpa Dick and Grandma Bettie, Sarah Overby, Matt & Holly Smucker, Gene & Rainy Takalo with Caleb & Isaac Meyer, and Jonathan Martin. It was crazy for us with all our bags. We had seven check in bags, 2 carseats, 1 pack’n’play, our big chariot stroller, and way too many carry-ons (two computers, diaper bag, backpack, my workbag, Heather’s purse, Stanley’s backpack, ukulele, and a gift bag from the Takalos). When checking in our bags, the lady was very gracious, and the first bag was well under the 50 pound limit, so she had us put that aside to unload other bags, which we ended up doing. After checking in we prayed with our group then headed towards security. At security we said our last good-byes, and then we were off on our own. Going through security we had to unload our whole stroller, pockets, jackets, and shoes then reload and put everything back on. It was an ordeal, but we made it through.

Our little family at the airport, ready to head out on our own.

We went down to our gate which was on a lower level because we only had a little hopper flight. It was packed down below and it was hard to find a place to park ourselves. We finally found a place along the wall. We had bagels and cream cheese from Starbucks because down there the food choices were very limited. We were able to talk a little with another couple from Hillsboro who were off to teach at an International school in Berlin. We had seen them checking in after us. They had two boys and were loaded with stuff as well. Hopefully we’ll be able to connect with them sometime over the next 2 years. As for our family, it was amazing how quickly we are able to become cross with each other. As I write this I can’t even remember what it was about. Perhaps it was because we were tired, hungry, overwhelmed, or all of the above. Fortunately, we were able to pray and refocus on what we were doing and how God had brought us to this point.

Our little spot in PDX waiting for our flight.

When it was close to boarding we made our way to the waiting area. Stanley and Holly loved looking at the airplanes. Unfortunately, there was some delay and when it was time to board they did not let the families with kids board first. Instead, we waited until the end of the line. I then had to fold up the stroller in a hurry, which I got to do many more times. With a little hopper flight, you walk onto the airplane from the ground and we were able to put a couple of our carry ons along with our stroller under the plane. When we got on the plane, of course our seats were at the back, so we bumped past everyone with all of our carry-ons. A few moments later we were off to Seattle.

The actual flight was very short. Because of turbulance there were no snacks on the flight. Stanley was amazing. He looked out the window and looked at the ABC book from the Takalos. Holly was great for the first ¾ of the flight, but the last bit she was fussy. Fortunately, the flight was not long, 45 minutes from take-off to landing, so we did not have to deal with her for very long. We waited to be the last ones off the plane, and were worried about Holly for the second flight. Would she be just as fussy? And Scott was worried about all of our carry-ons and how we would consolidate everything.

Perhaps this is why Holly was fussy on the flight to Seattle.