Six Month Update

Hello Everyone!

This week marks six months of living as expats in Germany.  I would like to say that the time has flown by, but it hasn't.  At this point we are trudging through February along with everyone else, and grateful for the mild winter, especially in light of the harsh winter the USA has been experiencing.   

We can easily say that we are glad to have made the move.  Our city is great, in that it is bigger than the city we came from in the USA, but not too big and overwhelming.  We have found many good restaurants, and we can always find something fun to do on the weekend. 

Daily life for us is basically the same as it was in North Carolina.  Since both of the kids are in full day school now, I have a bit more free time.  I volunteer at the school twice a week, and try to keep myself occupied by running errands, studying German, etc.  I always assumed that when my kids were both in school I would start working again, but now I live in a country where I don't have a work visa!

I started going to the gym last month, and even had a session with a trainer.  I find that if I don't get out around people I get very lonely.  My German isn't good enough to strike up casual conversations, but physically being around people helps me to feel part of the community here.

The kids are very happy at their school, and that makes life much easier.  Since they speak English all day at school and at home, life for them isn't actually all that different.  Ryan has German lessons everyday, and is slowly leaning vocabulary and grammar basics.  It amazes me how many children at this school speak multiple languages.  In Ryan's classroom he is exposed to French, Danish, Japanese, Russian, Slovenian, and German language and culture due to the different backgrounds of the children in the class.  It is really nice to see that kids are happy to play together regardless of ethnicity and culture, and that they are interested in learning about the culture, foods, etc. of the kids in their classes.

On Friday we are headed to Rome for a week of eating and exploring.  When I was a teenager, my Mom took my sister and I to Rome as part of a whirlwind European bus tour.  That was 15 years ago, and I have been dreaming of returning ever since.  We are also planning another trip to Italy in April to visit Venice and Tuscany. 

So, all-in-all...we are very happy living in Germany, but definitely have many moments of home-sick.  We miss friends and family, and the ease of being able to easily converse with everyone around us.  Hopefully our German will continue to improve, and that aspect will get easier.  I often think about the future when we will have to move back to the USA, and that will not be easy either, since there are so many things we enjoy here.  Luckily, I don't have to worry about that now, and today I only have to worry about learning how to say 'More pasta, please' in Italian!  Ciao!
 

Getting the kids on skis

 

When we lived in North Carolina, we were about six hours away from the closest mountain.  Luckily, we lived close to the beach, which is a pretty fair trade-off. 

Now that we are in southern Germany, only an hour from the Alps, we knew that skiing was something that we would have to teach the kids.  We headed to the ski shop to stock up on all the necessary gear, and headed down to one of the smaller ski areas just across the Austrian border, called Jungholz. 

 

We rented our skis right at the bottom of the parking lot.  It was a bit overwhelming trying to muddle through the rental process, since our German is still terrible, and I still can never remember our European shoe sizes. 

 

 The kids has a good first experience.  Ryan was a bit intimidated at first, but he was having a great time just going up and down the kids slope.  The only way I could get Ryan off his skis was to lure him with schnitzel and French fries!  As we expected, Meredith got tired quickly, and Dan and I barely even got our skis on.  Next time we will not bother renting skis for ourselves!

The lifts closed at four o'clock, so we headed over to do some sledding and playing in the snow before heading home. 



 

Luckily we were able to introduce the kids to skiing this year, and hopefully by next year we will be able to jump right in when ski season rolls around.  We are still going to try to go a couple of more times this season, but there hasn't been as much snow as usual here.  Ironically there has been more snow in coastal North Carolina this year than we have had here in Ulm!  Luckily we can just zip down to the Alps and find snow there!

 



Climbing the Tallest Church in the World

The Ulm Munster

The Munster is in the city center of Ulm, and is the tallest church in the world, reaching 530 feet.  The foundation stone was laid in 1377, it was consecrated in 1405, but not officially completed until 1890.  When construction began, it was intended to be a Catholic Church, but in 1530 the citizen of Ulm converted to Protestantism, and the church is still a Lutheran place of worship today. 

About halfway up

 

 

For a small fee, you can climb all 768 steps to the top of the steeple.  While Sarah was here visiting over the holidays, we decided it was time to finally make the climb.  We knew Meredith would never make it, so Dan graciously offered to take Meredith to the grocery store while we climbed.

In December 1944 the city of Ulm was heavily bombed, but the church was left intact by the Allied bombers, who used it as a navigational landmark.  Nearly 80% of the city center was demolished, including almost everything surrounding the church, in the effort to destroy military installations and two large truck factories.

 



The column behind Ryan is the final staircase to the top.





From the top of the steeple, you could see the Alps in the distance, and the view over the city and Donau River was very special. It is overwhelming to look down on the city we live in, and to imagine it as it was after that air raid 69 years ago.   

View of the Donau (Danube) River

Ryan did great, and only made a few comments about how tired his legs were getting.  Since we did this on a Saturday, there were quite a few other people making the climb as well, which made it a bit difficult in some narrow sections. 

 

Sarah and Ryan

Climbing to the top of the Munster was something that we had talked about doing since we moved here, and it was a fun (but tiring) experience.