Summer past

Note: written pre Thanksgiving but never posted; and now it is a snowy wonderland here, but . . . .

Since we had our first little bit of snow yesterday morning, and since there is no Thanksgiving to hold back the chocolate Santa stocked shelves, we are about to all go into full-on holiday mode. But just before that happens, here are some little glimpses of our super-nice albeit super-short summer.

Lakes. We visited two of the many many lake areas on the outskirts of the city, one by bike and one by our newly discovered hourly car share (3 euro/hour!). Both were really calm and lovely and felt so far from the city.

Treptower Park. Treptower park is usually just an S-bahn stop on the way to somewhere else or a cold walk in the fall. This was the first visit I had made in the summer. So pretty, with its long bike path, its dilapidated amusement park, and its shore on the Spree. We rented paddle boats.

The Britzer garten. A sprawling botanical garden, complete with an African-themed children’s play area with little huts and a maze, a water playground, mini-golf, cafes (they actually hosted Octoberfest the week after we were there), and a little train.

Simone’s crummy week

A strange week befitting of the (ongoing) halloween season, which was this year merged at the kita with the Nov. 11 St. Martin’s holiday. In October, we did manage to carve a bang-up set of pumpkins.

Then on to the bad week. Every day included Simone crying her eyes out when dropped off at the kita and though her lovely English-speaking teacher was back in the classroom, she was on late-shift. Meaning that I had to hang out with Simone until 11:30 at the kita and THEN leave her screaming. Monday included the added bonus of a tense afternoon kita meeting as part of the never-ending Cat group parents v. management saga. Tuesday morning I somehow lost my keys between the kita and home and thus locked myself and the girls out of the house until 5:30. While waiting at the kita, Simone fell off a slide and slammed her head on the edge of a wooden play house and peed in her pants and on me when I picked her up. That night, when everyone was inside and safe and sound, Simone came into my bed at midnight and when I asked her what was wrong she looked at me very seriously and threw up into my face. After a semi-quiet Thursday home making lanterns, we joined Greta at the kita St. Martin’s party. I forgot my camera, but the bonfire was bigger than ever this year.

Then to just wrap things up, Thursday, Simone and Greta and I spent the morning in the emergency room after Simone somehow managed to pull a muscle in her neck trying to get into a tiny dress of hers (“I can do it myself!”). She was totally fine, but could not move her head without screaming for most of the day. Things are sorting out, but I still have not found my keys. On the positive side in Simone’s life:

She has a new haircut with bangs!

And she rides a laufrad!

Visitors: Year 2

September: Mary & Pat
April: Heidi & Gavin
May: Katherine, Dan, Tessa
June: Greer
July: Kevin
July: Frank & Maureen
August: Julian & Andrew

Slowing down! Come visit!

First day of school!

The new Berlin kita year begins today — Simone’s first day. This fall would have included Greta’s first day of kindergarten if she were in the U.S. All her friends back in SF will be starting in September. Here, kindergarten (kita) includes the years before you enter grade school at six-years-old. Instead of a first day at a new school, Greta got to enjoy getting her first cavity filled. She was a very brave girl.

Simone was also a champ. Aside from a few scuffles over baby strollers and dolls, things went well. I especially liked the time she spent transfixed with a big plastic multi-leveled garage and a box of Hot-Wheels.

A little love for the soviet bloc housing

Greta’s kita was moved temporarily due to roof repair needed for their original building (rumors of asbestos, of course). The most convenient alternative space they could find is in a former east german housing complex. It’s the kind of thing that you frequently see in Berlin. But it’s the kind of thing that you see from the outside and ride on by. As we found, the first time we dropped Greta off and again and again when we used maps and printouts and pictures to explain to friends and babysitters scheduled to pick Greta up, once you enter the complex, it is really easy to become disoriented. It does not help things that there are at least four disconnected streets with the same name: Thomas-Mann-Str. Though the complex is contained by large city streets, within these boundaries it becomes its own little world apart.

At first I complained. My back hurt. It was two miles away. I can never find it. Even if I took the train, it was still a 15 minute walk to get into the complext to Greta’s kita. And, I admit, with my American sensibilities, I had a preconceived idea of what “housing project” meant. With time, however, especially now that it is summertime and we have our bikes, I have really come to appreciate the surroundings. This is a housing community. I get it. I like it. First off, like so many things in Berlin, it is just SO green.

Many of the pathways around the complex are free of cars. Riding around, into, and out of, we have come across multiple beer gardens, grammar schools and kitas with beautiful yards, and excellent playgrounds. Some of it is run down, but it all has this sort of quiet charm in the sunshine. In our newly found favorite playground in the complex, the stellar Einstein Park, we have frequently heard Russian omas. I don’t know if they have been here since, or if it is just my wishful nostalgic thinking.

In time, Greta will be back at the old kita, a mere three blocks away from our apartment. Of course, it will be easier to roll out of the house at 9:15 and still get her to school on time. Especially when the leaves go away and it gets cold and the buildings all look gray again. But, still, there is something I will miss.

Zen playground

The playgrounds are like jungles here and parents are often left without a clear view of their children as they climb off beneath the bushes or scamper into large wooden structures that twist and turn and emerge multiple levels above the ground. In the run-of-the-mill Berlin spielplatz, there is always sand, most likely a water source in the form of a pump, and also metal equipment that gets hot in the sun and things that can go very fast if you let them. Lots of space, lots of interesting shapes, lots of movement and manipulation and climbing.

Helmholtzplatz, Berlin.

Weinbergspark, Berlin

Then on top of that, there are the junk lot adventure playgrounds, originally conceived in England after WWII, when children and their imaginations frequented the vacant blocks filled with bomb-blased bits of things. This idea of open space where older children (6-12) can work on designs of their own creation, building forts with scraps of metal and wood, planting seeds and tending to the results, caught on in Germany, where there are currently over 400 such parks. Glimpses of one near us:

A recent New Yorker article about the current playground climate in NYC describes trendy, established, “playful” architects (Gehry? Really?) designing multi-million dollar playgrounds. It portrays the anxiety and litigation of the American culture that led to the demise of most adventure playgrounds built in the 1970′s (two remain, both in California) and today demands some of the German-made playground equipment to be removed. In my experience here, kids touch the hot slide, and think, ‘Well, I won’t do THAT today.’ Or they do, and they burn their bottom a little bit. Sometimes a little one gets stuck swinging too high. Sometimes it is the overzealous dad who jumps too hard and inadvertently launches a child. Sometimes kids (like Greta) break their arm just navigating a window in the cramped play kitchen area. Anyway, kids get hurt, but they will do that anywhere. And these German playgrounds, they work. They are used. They are always jam packed with kids of all ages, sometimes naked, always dirty. Playing, fighting, organizing, trying, building. Their adults quietly talking or reading or (gasp) drinking a beer on a hot afternoon. So thinking about these blue styrofoam design playground designs for the future of NY, I muse, “Hmmm. But can you do this?”:

Scenes from the World Cup 2010

Pre-cup: Flags start to fly in our neighborhood.

Watching the group phase in Spain.

Watching the America-Ghana round of 16 game at Frau-Mittenmang.

Watching the Germany-England round of 16 game with the others parents in Prenzlauer Berg.

Greta working on her World Cup ’10 sticker book during the Brazil-Chile game in the round of 16 at the mall roof-top beach bar.

Between quarter-final games at the Prater Bier Garten.

Letting our flags fly (prior to the defeat).

España!

The ram and the bull

Belated birthday updates for my girls, shown here in their birth month of April working with some of their new gifts (note mini Gene Simmons).

That was about it for Simone (that and some cake).

Greta, meanwhile, had an excellent party that started with a scavenger hunt designed and implemented by Aaron, who quickly turned into a playground pied piper as he was followed by an enlarging pack of children while trying to keep the riff-raff (non-party kids) away from the clues.

And here, the German-English birthday song, the German bits translated as “marmalade in your shoe; apricots in your pants.”

ouch

That was most of April and May and 4 days in a German hospital and a microdiscectomy. But look! Just days later, Bono, in Munich having same surgery!

Tierpark Berlin

We had one sunny day during the 4-day Easter holiday (mandatory Friday and Monday off for all) and took a trip to Berlin’s OTHER zoo. The Animal Park, established 50 years ago for the people of East Berlin. Many people have told me they like it better than the original Berlin Zoo (in the West), the oldest in Germany. I can not agree. Perhaps it was just the leafless trees this time of year, but the stern crowd and the bare concrete structures added to the overall coldness of the place. It is like a forest that you tromp through and every once in a while you happen upon some animals. But though the space the zoo occupies is huge, I did not notice that the animals themselves had any more room to roam. Anyway, we thorougly enjoyed one exhibit that I have never seen the likes of before – one of those enclosed bird actuaries but this one held ONLY scavengers. Not even the birds of prey, just those who feed on the carcasses of others. Lots of carcasses. Wow.