Keys and Sick Kid

Even though we signed the lease I was still scared that something was going to fall through with our new apartment.  I couldn't wait for the keys to be handed over to make it official.
We biked over to the new place after school drop off and were thrilled to finally, FINALLY have a new place to live. 
As we were going through the new place with property management guy we get a call from school saying Josie was feeling ill and we needed to come pick her up.
Poor thing was white as a ghost.  She didn't have a fever but felt pretty crummy.  I asked her what she felt like eating, if anything.  The only thing she said she felt like was macaroni and cheese - the packaged stuff.  Which as you can imagine is quite difficult to find here. 
I had to run an errand with Marty and I told her I would look for it.  Bingo!!  Mac and cheese for our sick girl - who took a several hour nap and was nearly as good as new.
Keys and Mac and Cheese.  Feeling a strange sense of accomplishment today.  It really is the small things here.

Panda Land

Benjamin and Clayton at the bus stop enroute
to party

Benjamin has made several good friends since arriving.  His best friend is definitely Clayton who is the boy who he first met digging in the sand.  Clayton also started a couple weeks later like Benjamin.  They are not in the same class but now have a mutual activity after school nearly every day of the week.  Another one of Benjamin's good friends is a little boy named Adrian.  He was the first person to really welcome Benjamin to class and JFK and his mom Veronique has been tremendous is helping us with helpful information about the school, Zehlendorf and Berlin.

Adrian turned 8 and Benjamin was invited to his birthday party which was at a place called "Panda Land."  This was kind of like a 1990's version of Play Date Seattle.  It was super fun for the kids but just looked a little tired.  Apparently it has been there for nearly 20 years but within the last couple of years it changed owners and names. 

It was previously called Bamboo Land and the new owners kept most of the themed decorations and just switched the name.

Benjamin had a BALL!!  There was a ball room and laser tag and a trampoline area and some weird, car track thing.  Happy Birthday, Adrian!!

All I Want For Christmas is a Place to Live

After we returned from England we were hoping to sign the lease on our new apartment.  But we were very worried that this one would fall through too because in the contract it said we had to sign a year lease - meaning we would have to pay rent until the end of November 2018.  We are in no position right now to commit ourselves to staying here that far into the future so we agreed that we would not take this apartment if they would not bend on this part of the contract. 

As we walked into the signing appointment Marty and I were talking about what were going to get the kids for Christmas and what were going to get each other and I whole heartedly said "All I really want for Christmas is just a secure place to live!" 

We sit down with property management guy and we tell him that we are willing to agree that we would give 3 months notice when we are ready to move out but that we just can't commit to one year.  He had to get up and make a phone call but barely even grumbled (any more so than his normal under the breath grumbling) at the proposed change. 

He changed the contract for us, we signed and the apartment was ours!!!  It seems so easy writing this now but after months of daily stress, hours and hours of searching and many sleepless nights, this truly was the best Christmas gift ever!! Merry Christmas to me.  Marty reminded me of my Christmas gift request and as we walked out of the building he said - Merry Christmas!!  Hope you don't me to wrap it ;-)

The new place is a "penthouse" and that term just kind of cracks me up.  I can't keep singing the theme song from the 70's show -The Jefferson's.  "We are movin' on up, to the top, to a deluxe apartment in the skyyyyy"  It actually isn't that far up.  It is the fourth floor but has a teeny tiny elevator which is lucky because the vast majority of apartment buildings here do not have elevators for even taller buildings.  It is one of the many ways the Germans stay fit with just their daily living. 

The apartment is super nice but not really our style.  Marty keeps calling it the Playboy Mansion as there is gold trim and pillars throughout.  There is also a sauna and a huge whirlpool tub right in our unit.  As well as two massive terraces.  And the best part is that it will be around 700 Euro less per month than we are paying now.

Oxford, Wallingford and The Beautiful U.K.

Chris and Ali took us around their village, Benson but also to a nearby village named, Wallingford, which was equally as charming.  It is funny because there is a 'Wallingford' in Seattle too. The two were nothing alike but having the same name made us think of our home city.  We went into a small little "sweets" shop and it was Little House on the Prairie meets Harry Potter.  All of the candy was in bulk in large glass jars with screw on lids. 

Josie and Will picked out British Pound's worth of candy.  Charlie and Benjamin decided to stay at home with the request that we bring them back chocolate!
We also spent part of a day in Oxford and saw some Oxford University buildings.  We went to a fun museum which the kids loved and then had a hearty British lunch and huge ice cream cones for dessert.  We really did feast this weekend!!

We also the six children (4 two legged and 2 four legged) for a nice long walk.  I can see what the British countryside gets such great reviews.  I didn't even take any photos because I knew they wouldn't do it justice.  Marty took a few though.  It was bright and crisp and cold.  Really, you couldn't have paid for better weather during our stay.  

Will and Josie got along as they always do like long lost friends who did not miss a beat.  They spent most of their time bouncing on the trampoline or playing Minecraft.  Benjamin and Charlie have had a bit of a bumpy past.  They both have strong personalities and I think Ali and I would both say that our younger child is our more difficult one in many ways.  So Charlie and Benjamin have bumped heads and not always seen eye to eye but they hit it off just like old friends too and had fun playing with Legos and Top Trumps and Minecraft too, of course. 

Blenheim Palace

The Kitcheners also took us to a beautiful Christmas light display at Blenheim Palace which was the ancestral home of Winston Churchill.  I'm guessing this palace is very pretty on a normal day but at night with all the Christmas lights up, it was spectacular. 

 We ended the evening with hot cocoa and a couple of rides for the kids.  What a great way to kick off the Christmas season!!  Thanks for such a WONDERFUL long weekend in England, Kitcheners.  Next time we will show you around Berlin!!

Thanksgiving in the Beautiful British Countryside

We took off on our first family flight since arriving in Berlin to head to the U.K. to visit very dear friends, The Kitcheners.  Ali, Chris, Will and Charlie were a co-op preschool family that we first met when Josie was in the 4's class at Admiral co-op. Will and Josie are the same age and Charlie and Benjamin are the same age.

Josie and Will went to the same school for a couple of years but were never in the same class again.  Benjamin and Charlie were in the same class for several years together at Admiral co-op.  And as it goes with your children's friends, it makes it so incredibly nice when they have nice parents.  Which Chris and Ali are and have become our good friends.  We even traveled with them to Mexico a few years ago right around the same time of year.  They moved back home to England just over 2 years ago and West

Josie was so happy with all of the
roasted vegetables!!

Seattle has not been the same.

Ali and Chris showed us why the British countryside is so beloved.  They live in a quaint village in Oxfordshire called Benson.  The weather was cool and crisp and for the most part sunny which for the record was nice to break the "it is always rainy in England" stereotype.

Ali made a lovely Thanksgiving feast for us including a leg of lamb, roasted vegetables and even a couple of vegetarian options for Josie and Marty.  And she did it without being frazzled at all!!  Everything was delicious and she seemed so cool and calm.  I should learn her tricks.  I always feel so frazzled when making a feast.

We definitely were missing our traditional Riemer family Thanksgiving gathering.  Marty's sister, Liz, typically makes the entire Thanksgiving meal and all we do is show up.  I guess, that is what we did this year too.  We are such free loaders.

Update

**This was actually written on December 9th but I'm putting it back in late November so you can see the newer postings**

Hello!!!!
I know I have been slacking in my blogging but we have been SO incredibly busy.  I'm hoping to go back and fill in the pieces sometime soon but just a quick update.

 We found a new place to live!!!  HOOORRAAAYY!!  What a load off of our minds.  It is a top floor apartment which is less than a mile away from where we are currently living and just a bit further away from school than where we are now.  We will still be able to walk and/or bike to school which is a plus.  There isn't really a great bus connection though which I'm sure Benjamin will hate as he LOVES to hop on a public bus each morning.

This is our real estate agent, not Marty.  Someone
thought this was Marty which he took offense to.
Maybe if Marty doesn't lay off the German
chocolate he will end up looking like this
before we return to Seattle. 

We are able to stay in our current place through the end of December which helps us slowly set up the new place without the stress of actually having to live in a barely furnished place.  Our new place is completely unfurnished which has been the most time consuming part of it all.  Since we moved to Berlin with just our suitcases filled with clothing and shoes we need to buy EVERYTHING.  On top of all the basic furniture pieces (beds, tables, sofa, desks, etc) we also have to buy all new bedding, towels, pillows, all the kitchen stuff, garbage cans.. it is NUTS.  I can't even think about all of these items I have in triplicate in Seattle!!  When packing to move to Berlin I spent months getting rid of things and clutter.  And now I'm spending my very long days acquiring stuff again.  And quite honestly, it is overwhelming.

I'm sure we will look back on this period of our lives fondly but right now we are just trying to keep our heads above water.  The kids, though, are doing fantastic!!  I'm still so incredibly impressed with how they have embraced life here and made it there own.

OK, hoping to fill in the two week gap with more details very soon.

Thanksgiving

 Today the kids both had Thanksgiving celebrations in their classrooms.  Josie has been talking about it for days.  Every person in her class signed up to bring in an item for the Thanksgiving feast.  Josie signed me up to bring in vegetables.  No problem.  We decided I'd roast cauliflower and then I warmed up some canned corn.  Apparently, in past years one family signs up to roast and bring in a turkey.  This year no one signed up (this is where it pays to have a vegetarian for a daughter 😉)  so four families roasted and brought in 6-8 chicken legs which pretty much had the same effect.  Marty and I volunteered to help set up and serve and clean up.  There were 4 or 5 student helpers who pretty much set up the entire classroom in a matter of minutes. 
When the rest of the class came in all the food was laying on the back table and the students, very orderly sat down at the long table set up in the classroom.  They came through the food line and served themselves buffet style Frau Shäfer runs a tight ship and the kids were so well behaved and respectful.  She has all the kids wait to eat until the very last student went through the buffet line.  The food was really good (volunteers got to have some of the left overs)  There was the chicken legs, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, various vegetables, cranberry sauce.  Really, everything was there minus stuffing and an actual turkey. 
After the kids finished eating Frau Schäfer took them all outside for a 15 or so minute recess while the parent volunteers cleaned up, washed the plastic plates (no wasteful paper plates here) and set out the dessert.  One of the dads brought in his wife's pumpkin pie which he pretty much kept in the back and served only to us parents.  Marty and I both agreed it was the VERY best pumpkin pie either of us has ever had.  Amazing.  So, that mixed with the cranberry sauce (my favorite) really made my day.  I will REALLY miss Thanksgiving up at Marty's sister's house.  For the past several years she has taken on doing the entire Thanksgiving feast and I honestly look forward to that meal all year long!  My mom is a great cook too and rivals, Liz, Marty's sister. But probably for the past 30 years I've always helped my mom with the cooking of the Thanksgiving meal and there is something about not having made any part of the meal that makes it taste that much better.  So...the classroom Thanksgiving feast was not quite the same and yet more than I thought I would get this year. 
And, what about Benjamin's class you might ask?  Well, I did too.

But I hadn't heard anything about his class doing a Thanksgiving feast.  I'm not sure if I just wasn't on the email list or if I thought it was for Josie's class and since he doesn't talk about stuff like Josie I had no idea that he had a feast too.  Clearly, I didn't send in any food because I didn't even know he was having one.  But then he comes home from school and I asked him if he had one and he said, oh, yeah.  Sure.  Every class has one, mom.  And he actually took a bus to a classmate's house and they had their feast there.  OK, I know, I'm not up on everything here the way I once was in Seattle and it really isn't that big of a deal but the fact that my 7 year old rode a bus and ate at someone else's house during his school day and I had NO idea still blows my mind.  No field trip form, no permission slip of any kind.  So crazy.  But they each had nice celebrations and both seemed particularly happy at school and with life in general today.  So for that I'm very thankful!! 
Tomorrow we fly out to visit our British friends, Chris, Ali, Will and Charlie.  We booked this flight within days of finding out that Benjamin got into JFK because it is the only school in Berlin that has vacation for the American Thanksgiving holiday.  I'm also thankful to get to see such fun friends and spend this time there with them. 
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

No Internet?!?

Well, we were just about ready to sign a lease on the cute little townhouse right next to our favorite ice cream shop...and yes, steps away from our favorite Italian place. It is so close to the center of town, just one block back, it seemed very much like the city living we have never actually ever done.  We didn't even think to check on the internet speed because how could a place this close to the center of town not have good internet??
Well, we checked, thank goodness, and it has 1/4 the capabilities that our current house has.  How can this be?  It feels like 2001.  or 1995.  It is crazy.  So, a bit heartbroken and deflated, we had to write the owner and tell them we couldn't take the place.  It was the first one since we have started this search that both Marty and I imagined us living in.  The kids, of course, loved the idea that we were so close to the eis cafe. 
Back to square one.  One step forward and two steps back.  ACK!!!!

Cozy Sunday

On Sunday we had a nice breakfast here at the house with one of Marty's cousin who had not seen in 20 years.  Charlotte came with her 3 year old son, Janosch and we all enjoyed a leisurely breakfast together.  Josie LOVES little kids and after breakfast took both Benjamin and Janosch upstairs to play blocks and build towers.

Marty and I had an appointment to go and view a townhouse for rent which is literally RIGHT next door to our favorite ice cream shop (the one with the enormous ice cream concoctions and just steps away from our favorite Italian restaurant... this could mean big trouble as it would be far to easy to over indulge.
We ended up loving the little townhouse and rode home happily feeling like we finally found another place to live come February.
Charlotte and Janosch stayed until well into the afternoon, Janosch taking a little nap on our couch and Charlotte comfortably being just one of the family. 
"home"

Two of Josie's friends came over for the afternoon and Benjamin's "did in the sand" buddy, Clayton came over.  The house was full and warm and lovely.  It felt a lot like
Josie and I had gone shopping a few days prior because all of her pants are getting too short for her.  She is growing like a weed.  When her friend Mila showed up they were dressed identically, Josie in her new H&M outfit and Mila apparently had just gone shopping days before and bought the exact same outfit.  Too funny!

After Josie's friends left, the four of us along with Clayton headed toward Clayton's house because his family had invited us over for dinner.  It was great because Clayton, a newly turned 8 year old, was able to navigate us to his house without using my phone.  We took the sbahn to a train station near his house and then we had the option of several different buses.  Clayton ran through the different pros and cons with each bus and as we were waiting another bus pulled up and Clayton said "Oh, we can take that one too" so we all hopped on. 

I absolutely LOVE the fact that kids, Josie and Benjamin included, are able to navigate the public transportation system so easily. It is a life skill that you simply cannot teach (or at least not to this degree) if you live in an area that doesn't have a system like Berlin. 
We had fabulous dinner and even better conversations.  It is super comfortable with his family.  I'm SO thankful that Benjamin's best friend here has cool parents!!
We made our way back home via a bus, train and another bus and went to bed feeling satisfied with our potential new place to live, a full day of friends, family and food.

Forty Nine

The first day of my 49th year was off to a great start as Josie and I headed to her swim practice and an hour of blissful swimming for me.  The bus was 20 minutes late, which put a bit of a damper on things but I have to say even with the many late buses or missed trains or not perfect connections I do not miss having a car at all and honestly the thought of having one here feels more burdensome than helpful.

After swimming we all had lunch together and then set off on our bikes to view two homes for sale.  Both in dire need of MAJOR renovations and remodels and work and money.  Marty and I are both now a lot discouraged with the inventory of places to buy in our area and I think we have finally settled on just renting.  Apparently 87% of the Berlin population rent and do not own and so we will likely continue to be part of the vast majority here.

We went to dinner at my favorite Vietnamese Restaurant (Bao) and it was Delicious as usual... actually, this is our 4th time eating here and only the 2nd time where we got our order correct.  The past two times we misread something on the menu and ordered incorrectly.  At Bao and I imagine at any Berlin

restaurant, there is no sending back any mistake order, and that likely goes for whether the mistake was made by the wait staff or the customer.  But for my birthday we all ordered perfectly and enjoyed dinner together.
I loved getting cards and phone calls and texts from friends and family near and far!!!  Love back to you all!  Here's to my 49th year - may it be the best one yet 😊

Benjamin the Berliner

Benjamin has began to really embrace life here... well, maybe that is a stretch but lately he just seems so much more mature and connected.  He still has his "dig in the sand" buddies and even opted to sign up for an all day camp/bowling thing yesterday with his school friends since the kids didn't have school. 

Have I mentioned how many vacation days these kids get?  It's nuts. So they had yesterday and today off (November 16 and 17) and then they get next Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving and then 3 weeks after that they get 2+ weeks off for Christmas vacation.  I'm not at all complaining and neither are the kids.

Josie took my camera and
as I was lamenting that I
didn't take any photos last
night she told me to
look on my phone! 

Last night the kids and I went to the home of some new friends for dinner. it. We met them at the swim meet and Josie has been good friends with their daughter, Suzy.   Marty hit it off with Suzy's parents, Katy and Bob.  And to top it off they have a son just about Benjamin's age.   Marty was the one who planned the dinner but ended up having to work extra late to prepare for his week off next week so sadly he missed out on all the fun. They are from Colorado and Katy teaches at JFK.  Such a fun night of endless conversation, connections and laughter.  Oh and Bob knows his beer.  I was lamenting at the swim meet that it has been impossible to find a good IPA here. So he bought several for us to sample.  And all of them were delish.  I know

Germany is know for their beer and I enjoy a good hefeweizen but it just doesn't compare to a tasty craft IPA. Thanks, Williams clan!!
On the way home last we arrive back in Zehlendorf around 10PM.  We have a 7 minute wait for the bus and right at our bus stop is one of the best DÖNER (I can somehow type a capital O umlaut but not lower case and so there you go...) kebab places.  So as we are waiting Benjamin says "I'm hungry, can I have a DÖNER?  And I feel like he has truly become a Berliner... out past 10PM, taking the S-bahn to the bus and wanting a DÖNER while you wait...
It was so late that I said no but Marty and I took Benjamin to lunch at the same place today for lunch as Josie stayed the night with Suzy last night and still hadn't made her way home (by herself on the sbahn and then the bus)

On a side note, I felt so completely safe being out in the big city- even if we were in our small section of the big city - by myself with a 7 year old kid in the dark and on public transportation at 10PM.   We are all learning and changing daily.  Both kids are really maturing and growing in confidence and independence daily.  It is SO fun to watch them grow.