Dankt

(I think that's how you say "giving thanks" in Germany, which is what we did this year.)

This year I wasn't too sure how we were going to do Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, so it isn't celebrated here in Germany.  Several Americans here had warned me that it is hard to find a turkey and the traditional Thanksgiving fixin's because Germans simply don't have a need for any of it.  So, I was grateful when an American couple in our ward invited us to join them for Thanksgiving.

The Sorensons have lived outside the U.S. for most of their married life.  Clifford works for the Foreign Service, so they have traveled all over the world for his various assignments.  They've now been in Berlin for about a year and a half, and right now Clifford is in our ward bishopric and Jerroleen is the Relief Society president.  They both speak simple German, and I must say it blows me away every Sunday when Jerroleen conducts Relief Society in German, since she's only learned it since she's been here.  Since I don't feel like I'll ever understand German - let alone speak it - I am very impressed with how well she does.

Because Clifford works for the American Embassy, the Sorensons can shop at the U.S. base.  So, they were able to get two turkeys and everything necessary for a delicious American Thanksgiving meal.  They invited all the Americans they knew for Thanksgiving dinner, and it  really turned out lovely.  I think there ended up being around 30 people for dinner, so it was quite a crowd.

Three large tables filled up the living/dining room.

That is Jerroleen Sorenson in the green, with my friend Susanne next to her in black.  Susanna is the sister of Eva, a friend of mine back in the Clarkston Ward.  It's a small world when you're a Mormon...

Smile if you love turkey!

I had to take a picture of this apple pie that I made for Thanksgiving.  I hate to make pies because I always wrestle with the crust, and it turns out lumpy, or crumply, or misshapen.  This is the first successful pie I have ever made, so I wanted to remember it always.  It may be my last successful pie...

As we left the Sorenson's house to drive home, Jessica said from the backseat, "I feel like we're in Michigan!"  It was so nice to spend a relaxing evening with friends, enjoying American food and English conversation.  I think that Jessica feeling like we were in Michigan means that Germany is starting to feel almost like home.

Random Pictures

We haven't done anything too unusual lately, and I haven't had anything to post in a while.  So, I thought I'd just post a few random pictures of Adam and Luke living life.

Here is Luke in his classroom dancing with his friends.

Luke's teacher sent me this picture of Luke all dressed up at during play time.  He LOVES this helmet!  Sometimes his teacher will let him bring it home for the day, and he never takes it off.

Yep, Luke still has on the helmet, even when it's time to color.

Luke and his friends enjoying the bake sale goodies at school.  You can also see that all of the kids are wearing little slippers.  When they come to class, the first thing they do is change into their "house shoes" at the classroom door.  Wouldn't you love to spend your school day in cozy slippers?

This is Adam and his friend Nicholas at church. I guess they were warming up for the Primary program last Sunday.

I was so grateful for the Primary leaders because they went to the extra effort of including a couple of English songs so my kids could sing, too. All of the German children learned them in English, and I must say that they did a much better job at singing the English songs than my kids did at singing the German songs!

I also noticed down in the Primary room that the bulletin board has signs in both German and English.   They have also called an English speaking Primary teacher so my kids can understand the lessons.  I know we are kind of a pain to have in the ward, but the people here have been so warm and welcoming.  I just love our church!

And the Wall came tumbling down...

Last night was the big celebration here in Berlin to commemorate the Berlin Wall coming down on November 9, 1989.  Brad and I thought it would be cool to go downtown and take part in all the festivities.  So, I packed up the kids and we took the train to Potsdamer Platz where we met Brad.  I am SO glad we took the train rather than try to drive our car - the crowds were outrageous, and we'd probably still be stuck in traffic if we'd tried to drive!

Unfortunately, the weather was crummy.  Lots of rain and mud.  Oh well.  We were all soggy, but we're getting used to just carrying on in spite of the rain.

Luke was in his "Big Boy Cart" (we don't dare call it a stroller for fear he won't ride in it if he feels like a baby).  That is him under the plastic wad in the picture.  We got a rain shield for the Big Boy Cart, and Luke had the best seat in the house for the whole event.

We noticed that there were several "angels" on the rooftops of the buildings surrounding the festivities.

We never did figure out what they were doing up there, or what they symbolized.  Any ideas?

We stood out in the rain for quite a while, listening to diplomats and foreign Big Wigs talk about freedom and the human spirit.  I'm sure the kids and I would have gotten a lot more out of it if it had been in English.  Oh well.

Because of the crowds, there were big screens set up so we could see the speakers.  The white blob on the screen here is Hillary Clinton.  She did speak in English, but all we could hear over the loud speakers was her German translater.

The highlight of the evening for me was seeing Jon Bon Jovi.  He has been on My List for years now.  He sang "We Weren't Born to Follow." 

I think this is a good indicator of how far Berlin has come in 20 years.  When the Wall came down in 1989, it was David Hasselhoff who sang.  Now, 20 years later, it is Jon Bon Jovi.  You do the math.

For the big celebration, Berlin had asked various artists and students to paint these big styrofoam blocks.  Then, they set up the blocks like dominoes along where the Wall used to stand.

At the end of all the speeches and music, there was a big drum roll, and the first styrofoam block was knocked down, starting the chain that knocked them all over.  It was really awesome!  Everyone cheered as the Fake Wall fell down piece by piece for two kilometers.  Then, there were fireworks at Brandenburg Gate, but we left before that started.  It was time to get the kids home.

After it was all over and we were home, I started to think back to 1989 when the Wall came down.  In my little world as a college student, it still made an impact.  The Berlin Wall had been standing for my whole lifetime, and I had learned about it during my whole career as a student.  Suddenly, with very little ado, it was just down.  That seemed amazing.  It seemed too easy to simply end decades of repression and political differences with a press announcement.  No big war or killing or major country changes.   It just stopped, because the people in charge decided it should.  Amazingly peaceful.  I don't mean to undermine the people who fought against it for years, or down-play the major event it was for the people of Germany.  But the peaceable nature of the Wall coming down seems like a miracle.

But what is even more mind-blowing to me is that it was even built in the first place.  Back in 1961, someone somehow decided that the best way to handle the dissatisfaction of East Germany was to build a wall to keep the people in and separated from what they saw in the West.  And, enough people agreed with this idea to set the course in action that would lead to an actual concrete wall being built along the border between the East and West.  Does this sound ridiculous to anyone else?  Isn't it childish to force people to stay in a situation where they are not happy, rather than try to change the situation so they will want to stay?  And to do so with a WALL?  Seriously, A WALL?  Like I said, this is what I find amazing about the Berlin Wall - that it even existed at all.

This fact is just more proof to me of the priviledges and blessings I've had in my life.  In my life experiences, I have never had anything teach me that it is OK to rob someone of their choices.  Rather, my life truth is that all people should be respected, even those I don't agree with.  I have always been taught - in school, church, family, and community - that a person's freedom of choice is God-given and divine.  And the people around me have reinforced that truth by their behavior and choices.  I'd like to think that if someone decided to build the Berlin Wall today, the world would rise up to protest, myself among them. 

The concept of a Wall is simply incomprehensible to me, and I am grateful for that.  Obviously, there are - or at least were - people for whom it made sense.  Some people's lives had taught them that their own interests out-weighed those of others, and that it is okay to squelch spirits if necessary.  They had also learned somewhere that it is better to kill someone than let them disagree with you.  All the armed guards walking along the Wall were paid by someone who thought their presence was acceptable.  

I certainly can't judge the people who built the Wall and maintained it for all those years.  I simply don't know why they thought it was OK. 

And for that I am profoundly grateful.

A True Halloween Scare

For Halloween this year, we went over to some friends' for trick-or-treating.  We know the Fellows family from church, and they have been very kind to befriend us and look after us here. Because James works for the American embassy, and the embassy provides housing, the Fellows family lives in the "American Neighborhood" here in Berlin.  We were told by other American families that this neighborhood is THE place to take kids trick-or-treating, and that was very clear last night!  I brought a grocery bag FULL of candy, and the Fellows' had a ton, too.  At 5:00 p.m., a steady stream (or should I say "hoard") of trick-or-treaters hit the neighborhood.  When we left at 8:00, there were just a few pieces of candy left at the bottom of the bowl.  We estimate that we easily gave out 500-600 pieces of candy. 

Here is our little band of trick-or-treaters.  Pepper was a "bad guy" (to those of you who know Pepper, this makes perfect sense), Adam was a vampire again, and Luke was a cowboy.  Jessica didn't dress up, but she was kind enough to take the kids around the neighborhood so I could stay in and visit with Susana Fellows.  The little princess is Louisa Fellows.  Her brothers were long gone before this group was ready to go.

After the trick-or-treating was over, I packed the kids into the car and drove home.  When we pulled up to our house, I was surprised to see a little crowd of people gathered in front of our house.  As I got closer, I could see that our front gate was open, as well as our front door.  I instantly went into panic mode.

Leaving the kids in the car, I went over to the group to see what was up.  Our landlady, Frau Brandenburg, was there with her boyfriend, as well as a few neighbors.  They told me that the neighbors had noticed our front door wide open earlier in the evening, but because it was Halloween and people were accepting trick-or-treaters, they didn't give it much thought - they just thought it was open so we could give out candy.  But when they passed the house a couple of hours later, and the door was still open, they got worried.  Luckily they know Frau Brandenburg, so they called her and she came over right away.  When I pulled up, they had just called the police.

Well, all kinds of thoughts went through my mind.  I could just imagine someone in my house, going through my things, and it made me sick.  I wanted to go inside and see what was up, but just then the police showed up.  Through a kind English-speaking neighbor, the police told me to stay outside while they went through the house first.  So, I stood out in the cold panicking for about 15 minutes while they looked around. 

When they came out, the police said that it looked like someone had been inside looking through closets, because it was kind of messy, with closet doors open and some coats and things on the floor of our coatroom.  They said the TV was on in our bedroom, and my thought was "Oh good, the TV is still there!". 

Then the police, a neighbor, and Frau Brandenburg followed me as I walked through the house.  As I looked around, everything looked fine.  Yes, there were coats all over the floor, but the coatroom tends to get destroyed everytime the kids go in there looking for coats and shoes.  There were some closet doors open, but again, that is pretty normal for us, especially since we had been madly rushing about putting Halloween costumes together before we left. 

As I walked around, it was pretty clear to me that no one had been through the house.  Thankfully, all the mess was ours.  Of course, then I was humiliated that everyone had to see my house in such a shambles, and I couldn't honestly blame it on anyone else.  We determined that somehow our front door had been left open when we left earlier that evening to go to the Fellows', but that was the extent of the problem.  Whew!

I went out to the car, and questioned my petrified kids.  Sure enough, Adam admitted that he was the last one to leave the house, and he didn't think he had shut the door.  Because the front door is sunken into the house, I can't see it from the car in the driveway, so I drove away without realizing the door was open.

I resisted the urge to yell/ground/beat Adam for all the trouble he had caused everybody, but I was still pretty mad.  After I thanked (profusely!) Frau Brandenburg and the neighbors who had kept an eye on my house for me, I brought the kids inside and we had a "conversation" about how to avoid this in the future.  Then, I sent everyone to bed and had myself a very hot bath so I could cool down. 

That was more excitement than I needed on a Halloween night!  It makes me crazy to think of all the trick-or-treaters walking past my open front door while we weren't there.  Many probably came right up to it and knocked, so they easily could have walked right in and made themselves at home.  I am so grateful that people here are so respectful and that nothing worse happened.

I am sure that was the scariest Halloween I have ever had!

Weekend in Switzerland

Brad had to go to Switzerland for three weeks for work, and the kids had time off school, so we thought it would be fun to take a quick family trip to Switzerland last weekend.  So, we packed up the car and took off on Friday night.

We stayed the night in Leipzig, Germany, then drove to the Swiss/German border on Saturday.  We stopped at the Rhine Falls there by the border, just inside Switzerland.

We took a little boat ride over to the Falls, and it let us off on the rocks right in the middle of the waterfall.

It was no Niagara Falls, but it was still beautiful and romantic...

Driving away from Rhine Falls, we misunderstood the navigation system and took a few wrong turns.  It was a happy problem, though, as we truly got to take the scenic route.

We're still not sure if this was taken in Germany or Switzerland.  Like I said, we took some wrong turns and kept crossing the border over and over.  This field was so pretty that I made everyone get out of the car for a family photo (it's tilted because I put the camera on the hood of the car).

We finally got on the right road and drove down to Bern, Switzerland.  You can't go to Switzerland without having their Fondue, so we found this charming little restaurant in Old Town, Bern.

Unfortunately, the cheese was very sharp, and the kids all hated it.  Oh well, more for Brad and me.  Jess felt bad that all the kids were grimacing and complaining about the cheese - she didn't want to hurt our waiter's feelings.  I thought that was sweet.

Swiss Temple

Sunday morning, we got up and drove to the Swiss temple, which is not far from Bern.

During Brad's mission, the Swiss temple was renovated, and Brad got to spend the last few weeks of his mission helping with the open house that followed.  This was a highlight of his mission.  Brad really loved being in the temple as they moved furniture and finished the renovations.  He also spent a lot of time at the open house, where the missionaries got tons of referrals.  He said it was like a South American mission after the open house, which was amazing because Switzerland was a pretty low-baptizing mission usually.  (And Teresa, I thought of you while we were there.  I know this is Your Temple!)

I think it was good for the kids to see where Brad served his mission and hear him talk about some of the experiences he had while he was serving.  In Bern, Brad had an "I can't believe this is happening" moment.  He was on a street where he had been often as a missionary, but now he was walking it 18 years later with his wife and kids.  He laughed, because he said that when he was there as a missionary, he never thought he'd be able to come back, and now, of all the crazy things, we live in Europe!  Life takes you for a ride sometimes!

Grindelwald

After visiting the temple, we took a drive up through Interlochen, which is a lovely city between two lakes near the Alps.  Above Interlochen, there is a village called Grindelwald, which I think was my favorite place I saw in Switzerland.  It is a cozy little town in the middle of the mountains, with tidy little houses and farms on the hillsides.  We had the car windows open, and we could hear the steady drone of cow bells as we drove through the town.

 

I loved the chalets in the background.  Don't you just want to live here?

In Grindelwald, we boarded a train that took us up to the top of one of the major peaks, Jungfrau.

Halfway up the mountain, we found this crazy little souvenier shop.  We didn't buy anything, but the kids did take a ride on the red cow.