Silvester!

No, not the cat ....

Silvester is what the German's call "New Year's", and it was quite the party!!

If you are a fan of CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia, you may recall the bit from The Silver Chair (spoiler warning) after the witch is killed. All of the inhabitants of Bism (the gnomes and sprites and what-have-you's) start setting off fireworks all over the Underland city. As it was described in the book, so it was in Rümmingen. Almost every street and street corner was transformed into a launching zone for fireworks of all shapes and sizes. Sparklers, crackers, black-cats (don't know what you call 'em here, but I've always called 'em "black cats"), as well as Cat. 2 and Cat. 3 rockets (yeah, big ones!) ... in short, it was a loud, bright, festive time! Everyone, young and old, was out watching or participating. We had been invited up the street to the home of two wonderful people. They are both multi-lingual, so we were able to speak English and German. His mom was visiting, and as her English was not as strong, we had a great opportunity to work on our German skills. She knew that I had family from Northern Germany, and as she was from Hanover, we had a good conversation about the differences between the North and South ...

The food was wonderful. We had a huǒguō (Chinese for "hot pot") in the center of the table and had shrimp (Krabbe), sliced pork and turkey (Schwein und Puten) as well as veggies (mushrooms, spinach, etc.), glass noodles and rice cakes!


Chinese hot pot in Germany

Yummy! And for dessert, Madge had made her pound cake, which we had with raspberries and cream.


Madge's Pound Cake (festively dressed)

After dinner, there were "table fireworks" (small poppers and crackers) for the kids, and then we went out for the 'roketten' (the ROCKETS!).


Wils gets ready to pop a cracker

We felt so welcomed into the community this first year, and it was so wonderful to be able to celebrate our first new year with new friends!

Frohe Weinachten!

Lo' How a Rose Ere Blooming

Merry Christmas from Germany!

Our Christmas Eve service at FEG-Rebland was very nice, with caroling at the exits after the service, then we hustled off to the Bruckrainhof for a little musical by the Musik-AG (music club) from Stryker-Ann's school. Stryker played the violin and had two duets to sing. It was COLD! but a very nice evening.


Stryker-Ann "warming up" a bit


The family 'fore the tree

Christmas Day came quickly (we adults were up a bit later than usual, wrapping a few last-minute items) ... the presents were all opened and admired (or played with, or being worn, etc.), the stockings are currently being rifled for the last yum-yums, and the Christmas Tree looks so forlorn now ...


Stalking the stockings

It was a wonderful day! We arose at 6 AM (oh joy) but managed to keep the wolves at bay for another 15 minutes while daddy made the coffee and turned the lights on downstairs. Saint Nicolaus had come indeed, and our friends from the States had been likewise VERY generous, filling our hearts with gladness, joy, and blessings for the Season. Now that the day is past, we are into the 12 Days leading up to Epiphany. In this neck of the woods (Southern Germany) we will most likely be visited by the Three Kings on Epiphany and have our door marked with chalk (the marking will be some variation of "C B M 07" for Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior, the traditional names of the Biblical Three Magi, followed by the year of the visit). This custom, which we first encountered last year at the Ferienwohnung, is usually associated with the Catholic areas of Germany, but also occurs in some other spots as well.

May this time of wonder find you all happy, healthy and filled with joy!

The Vosteen family

Genau!

There is a word in Germany that you use when you:

a) understand something very well
b) want something done just so
c) are describing something that is exact

The word is “genau”. (gûh-now)

Here are some examples of “genau” used in conversation ...

Q: Der deutsche Kurs findet in Freiburg statt? A: Genau.
(The German class is in Freiburg? Exactly so.)

S: Ich wünsche diese Tabelle, die genau so gemalt wird.
(I want the table painted exactly this way)

S: Die Wand ist genau 2,5 Meter hoch.
(The wall is exactly 2.5 meters tall.)

And if you ever want to make sure that someone understands you, you ask “alles klar?” (is everything clear?) and the answer (if it is clear) is “genau”.

Ich trage die linke Socke auf dem linken Fuß. Genau.
( I wear the left sock on the left foot. Exactly so.)

and if I ever forget? I have my “genau” socks to help me.



Alles klar? Genau.

We like packages ...

I confess. I like getting packages. It is fun, it is a break from the normal bills and statements (which often require a little bit of translation) and they always have something for everyone. Sure, regular old mail is appreciated (especially) but packages just extend the fun!

This time, an unexpected offering from some friends back in the states revealed ...

Route 11 Chesapeake Crab Chips!


I love these things. I guess I shared ... I don't recall. Let's just say that for a brief moment I flashed back to my introduction to the (future) in-laws. I had grown up on the York River, and knew (thank you Mom and Dad) how to pick crabs. Actually, all seafood was a “known” factor in my life and as you will read this was a good thing. ... I arrived in Urbanna (on the Rappahannock River) for the first time, having not yet met anyone else in Madge’s family. She deposited me on the back porch with a “Paul, here’s my brother and my cousins, ya'll get aquainted ...” I can’t recall the exact words, but I knew I was ‘on my own’ ... and I underwent the “can he pick crabs?” inquisition. Obviously, I passed, but the taste of Old Bay is a perpetual reminder of that day.

so thank you, oh sender of Route 11 goodness! you made my day.

now, with Thanksgiving on the way, I just have to find someplace where I can get some fresh oysters ... hmmmmm

oh ... ps.,
we've added a guestbook feature. actually, it’s more of a guestMap. so locate it at the top of the left nav, find yourself, and drop us a line.

St. Martin's Day

The children and I enjoyed another new cultural experience this week, St. Martinstag (St. Martin's Day). On Monday evening we gathered in the village center to hear the story of St. Martin. It was dark and the children had all of their homemade lanterns (yes, I made Wils' lantern), lit with real candles (the fire department was here-just in case), then a rider on a horse appeared and the story of St. Martin was acted out (see legend below). After the story we were led around the village by “St. Martin” and his horse, with the kindergarten teachers playing their guitars, singing songs about St.Martin. It felt like Christmas caroling as we walked on into the chilly night, although we were not singing carols about baby Jesus. But it was fun nonetheless and of course, they served food afterwards..... wurst, wafflen, heiss kinder-punch, gluwien, usw. (und so weiter - same as 'etcetera'). No pictures, I'm sorry , IT WAS DARK!!!

The legend of St. Martin:
Martin was a knight who lived in the 4th Century. The legend states that one night, he was entering a city when he saw a begger, who looked very cold. Out of pity, the knight drew his sword and clove his cloak in two, giving half to the beggar. That night, Martin had a dream (or vision) where Jesus appeared to him and said " I was the one you gave a piece of your cloak to. you are a good man, Martin, so one day you will become a Bishop."

Martin later became the Bishop of Tours, France (and there was something about some geese being involved in that ... but that would have to be subject of a different 'blog entirely).

Paris in the Fall

Yes, I know. It has been a long time since the last post, and a lot has happened since then. Relatives have come and gone, school has started, work has picked up, the weather has changed (so has the time), we went to Paris, ... huh?

Now before you get your shorts in a wad over “you went to PARIS???!!??” please remember that it is part of Paul’s job to see what is happening in our neck of the woods (the greater Western Europe community), take photos and video, and record what we see - media-wise. Yes, working as a media specialist for an international company does have it’s benes.

So while the kids had a Fall break (Herbstferien - Herbst is ‘Fall’, ferien is ‘vacation’), we took the opportunity to go visit some friends in Paris. Our trip was tres bon, as we passed many lovely old chateaus on the way - below is a quick pic of the Chateau Chateauneuf, north of Beaune. We did not stop by on this trip, but it looks like it would be worth the visit ...



Arriving in Massy, on the outskirts of Paris, we visited with friends, then decided to go into the city for dinner. Our train ride brought us to the Notre Dame station, and upon exiting the Metro we we greeted with the following view ...



Dinner was very French, except that we had dinner around 5:30 or 6:00 ... the locals started coming in around 7 or 8. Wils and I had galettes, his with sausage and mine with sausage, mushrooms, garlic and a whole ton of cheese melted on top. Madge ordered the fish - deLISH! Stryker-Ann and Vaden opted for the cheese fondue, and as you can see, it was tasty and fun! ...



The next day, after a breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat, we took in the more touristy places of Paris (the ones that everyone has to see) ...







Leaving our gracious hosts to complete a driving test (which is a pretty big deal in Paris) we headed into the city on day three to visit another friend who is studying at the Sorbonne (how cool is that?). She has a wonderful apartment near some lovely shops and markets on the southwest side of Paris. ...







It was great to just get out in the city and see the sights. The Basilica of the Sacré Couer in the northern part of Paris was very impressive. This was one of the churches that was obviously not bombed out during the Second World War ... not that the attempt was not made (according to a display inside, 10 bombs fell in very close proximity, but none hit the target - kinda makes ya think, ya know?) ...



Lunch at a little Italian café was followed by a stroll through an art market where everything from landscapes to caricatures could be had (and of course, a delightful Parisian singing to a hurdy-gurdy) ...





Paris is not a place to be seen in a hurry, and we must make another trip back to take in the museums and gardens, but this was a great introduction to the city.

Of course - we were glad to get back to the cats ...



oh, sorry, these cats ...

Storming the castle?

No, these are not pictures from the Black Forest version of "Lord of the Flies" "Ewok Adventure". It's GRILL time for the Ki-Ku gruppe!

This past week was the summer camp (Summerlager) for the Kinder Kulture group here in Rümmingen. There were different activities each day: crafts, cooking (via an ingredient scavenger hunt through the village, some kids go door-to-door to "find" eggs, some get flour, some gather fruit, etc.), a "Zirkus" day (with a very good juggler who taught the kids some tricks), fun water-games, and finally the preparation for the grillen (authentic German word for cook-out)! Our group was off to the Schwartzwald to gather wood for the fire and sticks for grilling wurst and cooking dough (Stockbrot - literally "stick-bread"). The adults went off the trail to cut small (usually) saplings to make the grilling-sticks and the kids used their pocket knives to trim the sticks to sharp points. Amazingly, no eyes were put out and no-one got skewered on the hike back down the hill.

Meantimes, while Madge and Wils were being Ki-Ku campers, the girls were down in the Southern Alps of Switzerland, practicing their Schweitze-Deutsch ... and land hockey! We'll let them tell the story themselves on this, or their own blogs, but we drove down some equipment last week when the camp started. The pics below do not do the true experience justice, but they give a taste ...

oooo...purty	wait, is that the guard-rail?
wer hat richtungsweg?*	and just where does that go?
ah, that way ... huh?	oh, so that is a guard-rail ...
and here we are ...

*in Germany, or Switzerland, the bus ALWAYS has the right-of-way. The van backed up (under excellent direction from a local) and the bus slid by (literally, centimeters to spare) and we proceeded ...

The Song of the Poppy Fairy

As a family back in the States, we so enjoyed from books the art of Cicely Mary Barker. Now we have a chance to actually see some of the flowers of which she wrote her poetry and drew about. Enjoy this poem by her from Flower Fairies of the Summer, the photos by Madge.

THE SONG OF THE POPPY FAIRY

The green wheat's a-growing,
The lark sings on high;
In scarlet silk a-glowing,
Here stand I.

The wheat's turning yellow,
Ripening for sheaves;
I hear the little fellow
Who scares the bird-thieves.



Now the harvest's ended,
The wheat-field is bare;
But still, red and splendid,
I am there.









(please click on pics to enlarge)

Notes from Camp

With permission from Vaden I am sharing these notes from her experience at camp. This was a week long trip at a youth hostel with her class. So she had Deustch learning 24/5. The schools here do this with each class every year.

To Mom for Monday, July 10,2006
Dear Mom,
Today is Monday my first day here and where is "here"? Well, it's past Todtmoos and Uburg is a very small village near where we are staying.
We just got back from a 4 1/2 hour hike to a lake and it was really cool, only the walk home was kind of hard, but it was hard for everyone. We were going up a very big mountain, and got some pix over the cliff :)
Love and miss you and I'll write everyday,
Love, Vaden
p.s today on our hike we met the best dog. It was a redish color and the owner let us play tug of war with him. :)

For Mom for Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Dear Mom,
Today we went on a really, really, really long hike. First we walked up a big hill to get to a bus stop, then we rode the bus untill we got to a large lake (But I think it was a river) and we all thought we would stop right there and start to swim but Herr Klatt said let's go a little farther, this was about 10:00, then we hiked 9K, 9K!!!! and then we were finally at the place to swim. We hiked the 3K to take a tour boat back to the dock where our bus would come back. And then the bus driver saw we were all very tired and asked why, so Herr Klatt said and then somebody said to a friend that we would have to walk home too, and the driver said,"I'll take you to your house", so that was awesome and I think he got thanked a billion times :)
Miss You,
Vaden
P.S. There lots of horses around where we are staying.

to: Mom for Wednesday July, 12, 2006
Dear Mom,
Today we went to St. Blaisen, a town 5K away and when we got there we were given a list of questions and to find the answers we had to go all over town, asking people, looking at things, that sort of thing (oh and we were in groups) but the cool thing is that there were several tour buses from England there and a couple of the people we asked only spoke English so I used my translation skills and we got several answers, right answers!!
But the bad thing is on the hike back one of the boys got a really bad headache and he had no waterbottle so I think it was mostly from dehydration (or however ya spell it) but I had forgotten mine too, but I had bought a bottle of water so they asked to have it and then I gave it and then we got to a cold drinking fountain and filled our bottles there. But the worst thing is about 15 kids went the wrong way at a fork, but they got back safely, they just had to climb a bigger mountain. (I wasn't one of those kids) :)
Love ya,
Vaden

to Mom for Thursday July 13, 2006

Dear Mom,
Today was very cool, but several boys were playing soccer and one boy accidently hit one of the twins (Benny) on the ear and it hurt so much Herr Klatt took him to a doctor, and it turns out he has in his right ear a hole in his eardrum and is now very senestive to sound, so that put a damper on the day, but we must go to bed n'all, I'll tell you more later. :)
Love and see you tomorrow,
Vaden

How to build a rolla bolla

What??

Ok, if this post title causes confusion, move on (or as we say over here "build a bridge and get over it"). This is as much about community building as it is project work. :-)

The second week of August is also the second week of the Sommerferien (Summer vacation) for the kids in Baden Württemberg. In Rümmingen (our home town), the younger kids have a week-long camp. We are going to be helping out the Ki-Ku group (Kinder Kulture) with this camp. Madge is helping with the Zirkus (circus) day and “volunteered” to provide a rolla bolla. Now for those not in-the-know, a rolla bolla is an old-time balancing device; simple in it's design and function, a bit tricky to master. (For a good look at someone who knows it well, check out the site of Signora Bella. Her photos page has her on the rolla bolla - look at photo 3). So. After a little online shopping I discovered that we could buy one for 50£, or ... TOOL TIME!

A little more searching on the ‘net produced enough photos of a decent rolla bolla to give me both dimension and design. A trip to the local Hornbach (think “German Home Depot”) provided the necessary items, and two hours of work produced the final product. One of the great blessings we have in our house here in Germany is the owner left a few power tools (insert obligatory Tim Allen grunts) and I put the table saw to work making grooves for foot traction on the board.

What? You want more detail than that? OK. here ‘tis.

Shopping list:
1 30x80cm board (I used a laminated shelving board. The lamination gives it strength and does not have warp). 75cm would be a good length too.
2 2x2x29.5cm pieces of wood for stoppers (to keep the bolla from shooting off the rolla. I used some scrap sections that I had laying about)
6 wood screws (no more than 3cm long)
1 30cm wide roll of rubber shelving padding (you can also just use rubber sheeting, but I could not find this)
1 30cm section of PVC pipe. I used a DIA 11cm with a .5cm thick wall. Actually, I started with a thinner pipe, but it flexed a bit too much with a 12 yr old on it, so I opted for the thicker pipe in the final version. The best possible “rolla” would actually be made of solid wood, as Signora Bella has it, but we're going for value here.
Drill-press or hand drill
Staple Gun
Table saw (or equivalent)

What to do (this is so easy).
Using the table saw, cut .3cm deep grooves the width of the board on both ends (I spaced mine about .5cm apart for a section of 23cm of the ends of the board).
Sand the board smooth (to get rid of jaggies from the table saw)
Flip the board and on the other side (opposite your “tread cuts”) lay down the rubber shelving padding.
In the 2 2x2 stopper sections, drill 3 pilot holes.
Screw the stopper sections down over the rubber padding on each end of the board, making sure that the padding is taut between the stoppers.
Staple the padding down in a few spots to prevent slippage.

So. The 50£ cost to buy versus the 7€ we spent in materiel, plus the two hours of labour, means that I saved a few euros :-)

Finishing:
A couple coats of polyurethane or wood varnish would not be out of line (before assembly) to keep it nice and neat. We may disassemble and paint the final product for the circus theme.

Use:
Put the bolla on the rolla and rolla bolla along!

Parts:


Final product in use (note use of ‘safety stairs’ for early learning):