A Day in the Life

Yesterday was one of those typical Berlin Days.  Busy all day but at the end of it nothing significant was accomplished.

It started the way most school days start with me getting up around 6:30 and packing snack/lunches for the kids and getting breakfast ready.  Marty gets up around the same time and does a little work, answers work emails that came in during Seattle working hours, our sleeping hours and then he wakes up the sleepy (and typically a bit cranky in the morning) children.  They all get dressed and when they head down for breakfast I head up to get dressed and ready.  Then as we are finishing breakfast and as sure as a Swiss time piece, our neighbor, Aurora, comes over ready to walk to school with Josie.  Often her brother Nils comes too.  Even though we are normally mostly ready, there is always last minute panic of getting coats on and stuffing last minute things into backpacks.  Now that it is colder we also have to have gloves for bike riding and helmets.  Josie leaves with Aurora and Marty and Benjamin unlock all the bikes.  I finish cleaning up breakfast and Marty and Benjamin take off for school and I follow just a few minutes behind.

School drop off is so much more fun and successful with two parents.  It is a luxury, I know! After school drop off I ride my bike past our house and to the grocery store.  I pick up stuff for dinner and a few other things and pile them in my bike basket and ride home.  Answer a few emails and do a quick search for any new rentals or houses for sale in our area (there weren't any.)  Then Marty and I ride our bikes to one of the house showings which is back near the grocery store.  This house is really one of a kind and not at all my style.  It is just a 5 minute bike ride away from our house and away from school which would double our time getting to school but that wouldn't be a problem if it weren't in such a strange area.  It is like a little island (a private street of about 15 very nice houses in the middle of a sea of HUGE apartment buildings on all sides.  And not really attractive apartment buildings either.  The house is quite sterile, a box of a thing.  It is VERY well kept and has a very well maintained yard and it is move in ready which is the biggest plus of them all.   It turns out to be the most technically advanced house either of us has ever seen.  The owner, a Chinese economist designed the entire thing and she did not cut corners.  It is a "smart house" and you can control everything with an app on your phone.  The lights, windows, shutters, alarms and awnings are all electric and controlled with your smart phone.  There is a whole house water softening system, the back wall of the house is basically all windows that open onto a patio.  The windows/doors out to the patio open with the touch of a button and then your living/dining room open up onto the patio.  There is a built in espresso machine in the kitchen.  There is an enormous, built in fridge and freezer.  There is an all over house vacuuming system where you just attach a hose, no need to drag a vacuum around.  There is a play strip behind the house with VERY expensive turf, there is an electric lawn mower much like a roomba but for the lawn.  I could go on.  I actually didn't see much of this because I had to leave Marty after 15 minutes because I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to sign up for a German language class.  But he could NOT stop talking about how cool this house was.  He said if he were to build a house from scratch he would put in these things that the woman did.  He said she did not overlook one thing.  But, the house is not our style and it is way over budget and neither of us really love the look or feel of it (too sterile) but we feel like we have to look at each and every option that is presented to us in order to find something that might fit.  We are really trying to be open to any and all possibilities.

 After leaving Marty at the state of the art house, I ride my bike into town to try to sign up for classes.  I tried last week when the registration reopened and was shut down.  I arrived right when they said the office was to open but there were already over 30 people there.  Apparently they start giving out numbers 30+ minutes before opening.  The guy working there told me that they were all full (even though there were still 2 hours left of their "open time")  This time I get to the sign up place and I'm 30 minutes early but again, there are already a room full of people with numbers?!? Apparently on this day they started giving out numbers one HOUR earlier than opening time not 30 minutes.  Really, how could I have known.  Oh, well.  I get my number (lucky 13) and then wait.  First I have to wait the 30 minutes before they even start calling numbers and then I have to wait, no joke, another 2 HOURS before my number is called.  Then I talk with the registrar and guess what?  The class I want is full.  So I put my name down on the wait list and hope that someone calls me.  If I don't hear back from the school by the end of the month then I am supposed to head back into the office at the beginning of December and try to register for the next beginning class offered.  And, likely, wait another 2.5 hours to get to a registrar.  The funny thing was that it didn't really bug me.  If I had to wait in Seattle for 2.5 hours and then come out empty handed I would've been so angry.  I must be becoming more Berliner than I thought.
After unsuccessfully signing up for a class I ride my bike back past our house and near the grocery store to Marty's and my favorite Turkish Dürum place for lunch.  After lunch Marty rides to go pick up Benjamin from school and I ride home to start a load of laundry and get a few things done.
On Tuesdays Benjamin has chess club but it doesn't start until 2.  Marty needs to be back home by 2 to start getting ready for his radio show so I typically meet them both at school at 1:45.  Benjamin and I hang out for a bit on the playground and then I walk him to Chess class and I rode my bike to a different store (the one with the best rolls) and then ride home and drop off the rolls and then ride back to school to pick up Benjamin and give Josie her swim bag (she takes the public bus directly from school to swim practice) Then Benjamin and I bike home.

We play a game or two and then he does his homework and I make dinner.  I ran a couple loads of laundry and changed all the sheets.  Josie finishes swim practice and gets herself home on the bus by herself, Marty finishes up his radio show and we eat dinner.  After dinner we all chill for a bit and then it is time for bed.  And at the end of a busy day I still have not signed up for a language class and we are no where near finding a new place to live.  And that is just how it goes in Berlin.  And again, I'm not even bothered by the lack of productivity.  At least dinner was good - a hearty, vegetarian chili.

I mapped my bike riding yesterday just to see how far I rode.  It was just little trips here and there but it adds up.  Turns out it was just under 8.5 miles which seems like nothing since we walked over 9 miles on one of our days while in Prague over the weekend.