Tri-country cross-seasonal vacationing

There is a quiet and beautiful part of the world where these three countries meet. Places that people who live near know about, but that I had never really paid much attention to before moving to Berlin. During our time here, we have had the fortune of driving a mere 3-4 hours to vacation at each.

Poland: Silesia, Summer 2009
This was perhaps the most beautiful of the three (maybe because we were there in the summer). The houses we stayed in were huge and very inexpensive. The grass was brilliant green, the hills rolled, the water ran under old pedestrian bridges — all of the colors sort of glowed in the sunshine.

At the same time, the affordable prices of these holiday homes owned by foreigners, the crumbling buildings in town centers, and the stern faces of the locals provided a very real reflection of the unsettled past of the region. Boundaries and dictators have changed frequently for hundreds of years, and the area was especially wracked during the two world wars. I recently got Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, to understand a little better. After WWII, all Germans were forced out of the area by the Soviet Union and Polish living in the Ukraine were moved in. The first placed we stayed in was owned by a couple from Norway who told us that German school books are still found in the attics of old barns and houses. They said the older generation at least still don’t consider the area home or their life there permanent.

Germany: Bad Schandau, Fall 2010
Some friends asked us to go on a little weekend trip to hike around in the leaves in this area known as the Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland), which runs along the Elbe river. We stayed in a giant converted barn/farmhouse, with bunnies, chickens, sheep, and a monster bonfire pit in the yard. Even with four kids in tow, it was possible to hike up some mountains that had stunning views of the rock formations, the leaves, and the river.

Czech Republic: Northern Bohemia, Winter 2010
Other friends asked us for a ski vacation in the Czech Republic, where skiing is just considered a way of life as opposed to any sort of privileged extravagance — cross-country skiing was like winter biking to get around and two-year-olds were expert on the slopes. Prices of lift tickets, ski rentals, and lessons reflected this attitude. We went at the end of the season, to a town where glass blowing and wooden toy factories have fallen into disuse and the boarded up art deco hotels are glimpses of a more prosperous past. Both here and in Poland the currency is not yet on the Euro, as the countries struggle to reach a level of financial stability. The house was heated only by a wood-burning stove and terribly smokey, but it was cozy and Greta learned to ski a bit!

Fasching 2011: Athena

My skills for costuming Greta and Simone on important holidays can really coast along at a bare minimum of throwing together something that glitters on the morning of. But there are those few times that things just come together — I feel the spark! This year, happily, was one of the latter. Certainly due in part to Greta’s enthusiasm and myth fascination which had her thinking and talking about her fasching costume for months. Once I got the gold spray paint in hand, we were good to go.

Photos are not great, but here are some things of particular note: her gold wrist cuffs, Medusa’s head on her shield (apparently it is supposed to be mounted on the breast plate, but it just did not fit), her owl emblems. No weapons allowed (sigh), or she would have had a large spear.

Some music for page viewing (Recently found out this song is about Theresa Russell!):

Happy Valentine’s Day

No school-related valentine’s business, which is nice, but we had some family valentinesing, which is even nicer.

Our plans for the evening? Focusing on that which we love: We are hoping to nip emotional Friday Night Lights last episode sentiments in the bud by watching the movie version (2004) with Coach Billy Bob Thorton.

Evidence of Myths

This was going to be my New Year’s morning video, but it (note large book on couch) now contributes to evidence of the mounting mythical artifacts I am finding around the house. Greta is smitten. I have been reading lots these days about the importance of interest development in children. Multiple studies have found direct links between early interest (like getting really into dissecting a cow’s eye in middle school, which I did not) and important outcomes (like pursuing a biology degree in college, which I did not). (I love that in this longitudinal study, eighth grade interest in science was a greater predictor of getting a science-related college degree than test scores in math or science — in your face standardized tests). There is also evidence to suggest that though intense interests can emerge as early as preschool, they are more often observed in boys. They obsess about trains, their parents buy them books about the wonderful world of engines, boxcars and cabooses, they memorize and categorize them everywhere they go. While I tend to think girls have the healthier approach, an interest in a variety of things less intensely, I like Greta’s new interest because like the world of trains, it does demand organizing and categorizing a complex set of items within a larger system (just try to remember who is related to whom). And at the same time she is constantly trying to understand what in the world it all means, referring to the family tree at the beginning of the book, marking important pages and stories and pictures she wants to return to, and re-imagining these stories and making them her own.

Life-sized Medusa head that will soon be attached to Greta’s breastplate when she is Athena for Fasching.

Hades and Persephone that I came across while cleaning up in the underworld of the children’s table. Notice the Playmobile skull in the lower left. Nice touch.

Weihnachten zirkus

My friend Claudia says it is a Christmas tradition, so we went with them the day after with the three girls (and one baby). The girls were so good once they had their giant bag of popcorn, and the show was every bit the spectacle I was hoping for. Multi-music playing clowns, audience participation, mimes, and super serious dudes in silver suits performing to Van Halen’s “Jump.”

Oh, Christmas time!

Despite the fact that we have no heat for 24 hours due to a leak in the radiator and both kids (and the entire kita) have a bone rattling cough, it is so nice to be staying put this holiday season. No frantic dash to finish work and shopping and packing. Instead it is all . . .

sled trips to kita in the falling snow:

glowing indoor evenings:

holiday crafts and cookies, and a tree:

things like this just lying around:

and, of course, boiling hot glüwine in styrofoam cups:

International Workers’ Day

International Workers’ Day (aka May Day) here in Berlin is quite a scene. There is no may pole with dancing girls in flowered headdresses. Instead, as the English language version of the local paper, Der Speigel, wrote in 2006, “Every year Berlin observes its own very peculiar tradition. On May 1 — International Workers Day — its citizens brace themselves for a day of rioting and mayhem.” Some years the rioting is especially bad. Cars torched, buildings vandalized, police harassed. Our upstairs neighbors warned us yesterday, on their way out the door, explaining they always leave Berlin for the weekend.

A proposed neo-nazi march was to go right by our area, and all morning the far left anarchist groups prepared by assembling and interrupting intersections along the planned route. We never caught a glimpse of the neo-nazis. Apparently, there were only 250 of them in this area and they did not stand much of a chance against the thousands of protesters. However, we did witness a polizei/anarchist run-in right outside our building and the mess they made down the block in front of a construction sight.

I was impressed by the efficient and organized medics (A. thinks they are part of the Antifa (radical anti-fascists)) who wear bright red riot gear and follow the kids around to bandage arms and pour water into pepper-sprayed eyes.

Advanced Weihnachtsmarkting

This year we set out to explore Christmas markets beyond the classics that you can not help but run into (i.e. Alexanderplatz; Gendarmarkt; see our accounts from last year here). Our 2009 season began last weekend at the Swedish themed Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt at the Kulturebruerie, an old brewery near our apartment. A crowded urban affair but a fun place for a dinner of glühwein and grünkohl.

Today was a more adventurous trip to the Jagdschloss in the Grunewald (near Zehlendorf, where Brad and Angelina etc had their modest family home during filming of Inglourious Basterds). We took our bikes on the train, then rode through the forest to the market. Beautiful and cold with many big pure bread dogs and their wealthy walkers along the way. The Jagdschloss is the oldest existing palace in Berlin, a hunting lodge dating back to the 16th century. The girls were frozen by the time we got to the market; Greta looked blue and SImone would not walk. But after about four cups of tea and a few sausages, everyone was feeling better and we wandered around the pretty stalls and listened to some fairy tales.

St. Martin ’09

Our first Berlin holiday repeated. See St. Martin 08 here. This year I got a little too complicated with our lantern and the entire thing was pretty much covered in scotch tape by the end of the afternoon. But check it out lit…

Simone sported Greta’s ’08 lantern, though somewhere along the way she detached the bulb from the lantern stick (some parents use candles inside their kids’ paper lanterns!). Attendance at the kita parade was low due to outbreak of swine flu (starting in Greta’s very own class), but we could not turn down a bonfire and sausages.

Happy Halloween!

Then (2005, San Francisco, 6 months, two-headed-baby):

And now (2009, Berlin, 4 years 6 months, flamenco dancer):