The kids have been coming home together, solo, several days a week. They have been begging for this since school started and were getting used to the commute from our other house but since we moved to our new apartment which is along completely different bus lines I was a hit hesitant. Not about Josie. She goes back and forth on the public buses to swim practice several times a a week. And I wasn't even that worried about Benjamin doing it solo as he has become really pretty confident and competent on public transport but the two of them together sometimes can get heated and then they do something stupid and ....well, you know. I worried.
I shouldn't have. They have stepped up to this challenge they way they have this entire move to Germany. With grace and confidence. Josie goes to Late Birds and signs him out. They walk to the Sbahn station together (about a 7 minute walk) where there is a fruit stand. They each get up to 1 euro (they bring home any change) to pick out a piece of fruit. Josie now makes Benjamin do it by himself. He has to ask for the piece of fruit he wants and then ask the person working to wash his piece of fruit. Because the people working at the fruit stand do not speak any English he has to do it all in German. Josie, apparently, has taken to just waiting outside while he does his buying and talking. Haha! She is so funny. I didn't tell her to make him do this. It was all her doing. And somehow he listens to her. He does get himself a pretty tasty apple that he eats while they wait for a bus that makes 4 stops before it gets to our stop and then it is a 5 minute walk from our house. All by themselves and they are quite happy and proud of themselves when they arrive home.
And now that I'm in classes nearly every day for 4+ hours, it is super nice to have an hour or so in the quiet house to get a few things done before they arrive. Since I just go straight to class right after school drop off I have very little time to get household things done these days.
On another note.
We continue to sherpa things here that we would never even dream of carrying if we were in Seattle and had our car with us. We are all really addicted to the sparkling water here. It comes in 4 strengths and we get the most fizzy. I bought 12 bottles before Christmas and my good friend, Fiounnaula, took me so that I didn't have to schlep heavy bottles. Well we were out and we wanted more and I didn't want to ask to borrow a car, even though I KNOW she would have said, OF COURSE! So Marty and I - but mostly just Marty because he said one in each hand balanced him out and who was I to argue - took our empty bottles and carrying cases back to the drink store. Like the shopping carts, you just pay a deposit on these and get money back when you return them. So we walked the half a mile to the drink store. They were obviously much, MUCH heavier on our return trip when we came home with 12 full bottles. But like most groceries and things, we appreciate them so much more since we had to actually carry them home. Happy to have my Sherpa with me for the heavy stuff!!
No comments:
Post a Comment