World cup update ...

GERMANY ADVANCES!

I know that most folks are following the World Cup pretty closely on their own and do not need to be reminded ... but ...

GERMANY ADVANCES!!!

Argentina gave them a good scare today. The Sud Amerikaners scored first, and threatened to seal it up several times before Germany managed to put a ball in. With the score tied at one apiece, the game went into extra time, then an additional 40 minutes, then finally into 11m kicks ... and ...

GERMANY ADVANCES!!!!!!!

ok, we're all abit excited around here, and the cars are all honking their horns and the neighbourkids are riding their bikes and ringing their bells. It's going to be a long night!

... now we just have to wait and see it England can pull it off against Portugal ...

A wundervoll happening

Some days you reflect and think how wonderful God has been to place you where you are and at this precise time. Saturday was such a day. We arose fairly early to travel to Swizterland for our first field hockey mini tourney. (Yes we are living in Germany but Basel has the closest team, just 20 minutes from us.) Vaden was to play in at least three matches. She just started the sport the last week of April, is catching on quickly and seems to enjoy it. Wils and Stryker-Ann also play with their own age groups.
To say the day was a success for us personally is an understatment. Vaden started the first half field game and looked like a deer caught in the head lights...no idea where to go or what to do.  (Field Hockey Momma here had to bite her tongue more than a few times and be reminded that children are not born with 5 years training in sport, no matter how genetically predisposed they may be, ha-ha to me) the second game was a great improvement, and the third 25 minute game revealed a changed player –running around the field attacking balls and actually stealing a couple. It was a miracle to me.
 And so now for the rest of my story:
While the kids are doing their thing there is alot of time for the parents to do their thing, which happens to be cheering and talking.  Ok, we have only been in Germany since January and our language skills are growing but not fluent, and then we are in Switzerland, where they speak Schweitzer-Deutsch, not Hoch-Deutsch (High-German)....well it gets better.....one of the first ladies we meet at hockey practice a couple of months ago introduced herself as Fiona.....she is Scottish, but is married to a Frenchman, speaking French in the home, but is also fluent in Swiss-German, which her bi-lingual children speak. Another family recently relocated to Basel from Uraguay, their daughter speaks Spanish and English, no German yet (Vaden says she helps her out sometimes with the German). Another girl on this team is orginally from Chile, but only remembers a little Spanish, her German mother is fluent in German, of course, but also Spanish and English.  Needless to say I have plenty of people to practice my language skill with who can understand me in several ways. Well, the miracle comes in to wrap this up with the hockey coach himself, this young sweet man speaks the Schweitzer-Deutsch of Basel, Hoch Deutsch, English, Spanish and Italian. He uses all of his langagues in each practice with his players. How wundervoll it that!! How and where in all the world, except by God's hand, would/could we be placed here to experience this?

confusing nationalities

The World Cup has been going full-tilt for 11 days, and we're enjoying every moment we catch. It's funny, tho, how we decide which team to cheer for. We cheer for Poland, 'cause we've got friends in Poland, then we cheer for Ecuador, 'cause we've got friends in Ecuador, then we cheer for Mexico, then for Costa Rica, then for Ghana ... it can get a little confusing who to cheer for. But we really have to take a step back and make the decision about where our loyalties (at least in Fußball) lie, and have come to the decision ...

GERMANY IS GOING ALL THE WAY!!!!

There. I've said it. Are there any other folks from the farm willing to put their adopted national pride on the line?

The national fever has caught us up at last, and we're proud to be flying the black, red and gold. Yes, we also pull for the red, white, and blue ('cause we have friends in France and the Netherlands as well) but as they say in Germany "es ist egal" (it's all equal). I used to like watching the soccer matches in the states (when they were on) but it's just different here.


(Banner from FOTW Flags of the World website at http://www.fotw.net/flags/)

Hey, we said Brunnenfest, not Brennenfest!*

The fountain festival almost became something else. Sorry we only got one photo, but we arrived after the cleanup and then the batteries died on the camera... so here is the run down.

Our little town of Rümmingen (how still we see thee lie - sorry, I could not resist the Christmas in June reference!) had prepared and set up booths and tents for the Brunnenfest this weekend. Early on Saturday afternoon, we heard sirens (those great European sirens, you know, the one's you hear in all the eurofilms NeeNah NeeNah NeeNah). We heard them go by, and thought "well, someone got too rowdy, already". But no. One of the booths had caught fire from the grill, and before they could get the portable extinguisher going, the propane tank caught. They quickly left the booth (wise choice) and the tank exploded, engulfing the entire booth and scorching a nearby tent. Here is the aftermath (after the Feuerwehr guys did their thing):

you can just make out the flattened charred remains of the booth over the boys right shoulder. The damage to the tent is rather obvious. Praise item - NO ONE WAS INJURED! and the house next door was not even touched! wow. If this had happened two hours later, there would have been MAJOR injuries to a lot of people.

We thought that would be the end of the food from that group (which would have been a bummer, as they were making the gyros), but strike it up to German ingenuity and efficiency, there was a new booth on the same spot (they removed the damaged tent) within 45 minutes of the clean-up. So we were able to have our gyro lunch on Sunday (woo hoo). It was amazing to see those folks get it done.

Which brings us to Sunday. The Ki-Ku Club (Kinder Kultur - or children's culture - club) was handling the watergames, face-painting and picture-drawing contest. The theme was "Under the Sea", but the face painting was whatever the kids wanted. I (Paul) got into it as one of the "Profismalern" (professional painters) for the Schminken (face painting, actually "make-up"). Actually, I was volunteered, but that's quite alright (Madge can handle the next program!). The first customer (Kunde) was a young lady who just happened to ask for the most complex face in the book (the lion)! I figured, well, if I can do that one, the rest will be easy...
Tigers, pirates, faeries, and a shark were to follow. The other Profismaler in the group (who is also the Ki-Ku organizer) did ladybugs (Maikäfer), zebras, and undersea-scene faces. It was fun!

Wils, of course, got soaked in the Wasserspielen. Pictures say more than words, right?
So here goes:


Kinderschminken und Haarbändchen (face-paint and hair-wrapping combo)


Maler at work (ein Tiger)


Art for art's sake


Wasserspielen! Note the waterballoons (Wasserbomben) about to be unleashed. What joy!

The best part of my day was holding the mirror up for the kids to see their faces after they were painted. Their eyes would light up, and invariably a smile would erupt when they saw how they were 'transfigured' by some colour and simple brushwork. All in all, a very rewarding day.

*Brennen - literally "burn"

Always a party in Rümmingen ...

We love our town. Ok, it's more of a village. An 'Ort' ('place', auf Deutsch) if you will. It is small, and we like that. We like the Dorfladen (it's on the 'net!!! check it out!) 'cause it's like the village hub. We like the excursion train that 'toots' through every weekend. We like the people we have met and the places we have been. And, hey, what's not to like? These folks like to have parties! We (that is the collective, village, we) are preparing for the Brunnenfest that takes place this weekend. It's a two day festival to celebrate the fountains in town (we have two). Some towns have more than that, good on them, we like ours. Back at the beginning of May we had a big Maibaum (May tree) party to celebrate putting up ... um ... the ... er ... Maibaum (of course). Pics included here:

Jezt kommt der Maibaum!


A permanent hole just for the Maibaum!


Decoration is key ...


Up it goes ...


A final adjustment ...


Music for the occasion!


I think I need to take my whistles with me tomorrow for the Brunnenfest, you never know when some Irish music may be needed in a German village ...

language, ha,ha No.107+

I am almost finished my first course of language classes. I will have finished Book One of three books, however I am going to try out what I have learned for a couple of months, then go back to pick up Book 2 in October. My plans are to rejoin a Nordic walking group (they have breakfast together afterwards, yum) and then start in with a ladies bible/book study. All in Deutsch.
The children continue to grow by leaps and bounds in their language and knowledge of living in DE, so...
Here is the HA,HA :
We had a chimney sweep by the house last week (it is required to have that service preformed yearly). I went out to greet him and said "Hallo", which was enough for him to stop in his tracks and piece together words to say that he did not speak English too well. One word was all I said! No problem for me, I don't speak German that well, either!
Fortunately the kids were here and they translated all he and I needed to say to each other, plus helped me to figure out that we did not need the gas on at all in the summer ($$$) and looked at the hotwater heater and turned that down as well. I did try out some of the things I had learned in class and the sweep was good natured enough to help out with the "der, die, or das".
The kids are off from school for Ascension Day, May 25th, until June 13th (including the Pentecost Holiday, June 5th).