Bahn Discoveries

While disclosing this may make some folks wonder if I've lost my mind, I have to share with you the love I have for my car-less life. Relying on public transportation sounds much, much worse than it actually is--and I'm here to prove that misconception wrong. I made the decision years ago that at some point in my life I would live car-free to support the charming Mother Earth. Life in Detroit doesn't allow for such a thing because of it's geographic situation and because a proper public transportation system doesn't exist in any way, shape, or form. Sigh.

So, while I was 100% unsure of what to expect upon our transplant to Hamburg, I was equally as sure that I would adore being vehicle-free. The phrase WE REALLY NEED A CAR (in all caps) has escaped from my mouth on the days that we are buying enough food supplies for a small army or are carrying home bags of boulders. Nevertheless, on a regular day I couldn't be happier with my 40-minute train commute to school.

Thanks to my fab phone I can catch up on correspondence, write, and get my life organized. While doing those things improves my all-around efficiency, my fav way to kill time on the Bahn is to surf the interwebs to keep up with my favorite bloggers and to discover new ones to fall in love with. An oh, have I discovered some stars.



Smitten Kitchen is a home-kitchen weblog from a little NY kitchen. The yumminess found all over this site is dangerous--I've missed more than one train because I was totally absorbed with/heavily drooling over the recipes and food pics posted by the witty author.

On her personal blog, my college friend and an employee of United Arts of Central Florida, Emma, shares her art, jewelry, and recipe finds among a tasty plethora of other things. Unfortunately I haven't seen her in years but keeping up wtih her charming blog makes me feel like I haven't missed anything.



Check out Emma's lovely site at: http://www.smvblog.com/emmabunny/





Raw on $10: I refer to this site as the Site of Omnom. The author, Lisa, posts incredible, cost-conscious raw vegan recipes weely. I am not a completely raw-food eater but I do stick with it pretty regularly. You wouldn't beLIEVE how good some of the recipes taste--and you don't even have to cook! My favs include mango pudding, pad thai, triple chocolate dessert, and stuffed mushrooms. Yum-o.



Pad Thai photo taken from http://www.rawon10.blogspot.com/




Etsy exists so all of us can get and give the most wonderful handmade and or vintage gifts to all those folks we appreciate. Prior to moving to HH this was the only site I used for gift giving. But, an ocean could never stop me. I still take more than a few glimpses at this chic site weekly. Some of my favorite gifted purchases:



photo taken from http://www.etsy.com/people/sassyapron



photo taken from http://www.etsy.com/shop/YoursTrulyxoxo?ref=pr_shop



photo taken from http://www.etsy.com/shop/prettytough?ref=pr_shop


and of course, one that I'm eyein':


photo taken from http://www.etsy.com/listing/66553797




One of the cutest, most wholesome, and equally delish food blogs I have come across is ohsheglows.com. Angela Liddon candidly describes her story of unhealthy to healthy and happy via lifestyles changes, particularly in her food choices. Her recipes are mouth-watering and her writing is charming. I highly, HIGHLY recommend her raw, vegan chocolate chip cookie dough. Cookie dough is a weakness of mine--basically I dive into the bowl of goodness and bake what is left over if I get around to it. Classy, I know. Lucky for me, this dough can be be eaten without even a twinge of guilt; all the ingredients are raw, nourishing plant products and the stuff tastes spectacular. Honest.



vegan raw cookie dough that tastes good as it's Paula Deen-like counterpart?! Believe it. 
ohsheglows.com



I met my amazing friend Kristin at the youthful age of six months and our friendship has had no interruptions since. Kristin and her husband, Dave, are angels that have been enhancing the lives of children and families in the Dominican Republic since 2009. Kristin is a special education teacher by tarade and has taught many children in the classroom, in after school activities, and through their church. She is selfless beyond belief and each time I read about all the great things she and Dave are making happen I remember how fortunate I am to have such a compassionate and giving friend in my circle. http://dominicandeyoungs.blogspot.com/

with Kristin at her farewell to the Dominican bash

 

Dan, of Single Dad Laughing, has created an adorably hysterical yet tear-jerking blog dedicated mostly to his life as a single dad, as well as other deeply insightful topics. My affection towards this site comes from both the fact that Dan is a dad that is head over heels for his son, Noah, and that he is willing to say what lots of people think but lots won't say. If you haven't read The Disease Called Perfection or The Small Side of the Numbers you really should, stat.

http://www.danoah.com/

Finally, though I use a baket-full of travel sites to coordinate our adored vacays, there is none so enticing and exquisitely written as the New York Times travel site. Oh, the pictures. Oh, the writing. Oh, I love love LOVE this site. Seeing these pictures on their 36 Hours in Lisbon guide made choosing Lisbon as our next weekend destination a no-brainer:

the above three images taken from http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/12/14/travel/1214-LISBON_index.html

See what I mean? Let's just hope I have enough will power to stop this site from causing me to go broke.

Though the train commute to work is a long one and the walks to and from private clients' homes are dark, cold, and often wet, thanks to my friendly phone I have the chance to not only catch up on and discover the works of wonderful writers, I get to do so while listening to my current favorite artists, like:

Certainly, I am irrefutably addicted to my iPhone. But, I find no reason to make excuses because it's hard to put a price on everyday convenience and entertainment. If only I could be sure to avoid missing any more trains due to my iPhone absorbtion.

Our Big World Gets Smaller Everyday

Before I made my way across the ocean to Hamburg I contacted the International School of Hamburg to scope out teaching possibilities. Shortly after my first email went out, I got a response from Abbey, an American teacher now teaching kindergarten at the school. She reached out to say that she understood my visa dilemma and so kindly offered to help me solve the puzzle of becoming a teacher in a foreign land. She would be away for the first few weeks after we arrived but we planned to meet up shortly after. I was instantly so grateful for her. An American friend already! Score.

A few weeks after our move and borderline desperate to make friends with someone--anyone we could communicate with clearly--I found information about a Fourth of July picnic. Despite 95 degree weather and a long commute, Reggie and I amazingly found the discrete location of this comforting red, white, and blue celebration. After allowing ourselves to stand around and feel awkward for a only few minutes, we joined the food line, obviously. Right in front of us were two people our age which we, of course, found intriguing. As soon as we overheard one of them say they were from Chicago Reg whispered, "We have to make friends with them." Now, more than half a year later we know that when he heard us say we were from Detroit he told Mary, "Talk to them."
A few minutes into our first conversation after learning that Mary had Spartan roommates back in Chicago, I mentioned the International School. "I have a friend that teaches there", Mary said (and then I got my first taste of just how small our big world is), "her name is Abbey." What?! No.

We had found our first English-speaking friends. Score again.




with Mary on New Year's Eve



In a city 1.5 million people big it's pretty amazing how often things like this happen.

A month or so after our move, I received an email from a super sweet American woman who had been reading my blog. She was in Hamburg for a month with her husband while he was here on business. After chatting with her briefly and arranging a coffee date we discovered that not only did we live in the same quarter of Hamburg, and not even just the same street...she lived directly below me. Whaaaat? No.

Oh yeah, there are more where that came from.

My wonderful friend, Brenda (who is also the next President of my beloved American Women's Club), came to Hamburg two years ago from California. As soon as we met and shared the typical story about where we came from I learned that her family is originally from the Owosso area, which is where I, of course, lived during my student teaching year. Whoa.

an afternoon of tea and scones at Luehmann's Teestube with Brenda, Jennifer, Kate, Jana, and Mary

Though not as note worthy but entirely just as freaky, we had a couple come to tour Seedlings this week looking for schooling possibilities for their son. It was wild enough that they were from Michigan, but it got a lot creepier when they told me they're currently living in Northville, which is only thirty minutes from Reggie's house in Michigan. Whoa. And whoa again. A third whoa was granted when I later found out that the German woman that brought them to Seedlings and was showing them around Hamburg was none other than Tina, a friend, fellow member of the AWC, and major helper with my duties as the Activities Coordinator. Not knowing my school was the one she was at, she waited upstairs while the Northville couple came down to meet me, unbeknownst to both of us that we were in the same building at the same time. Freaky.


With a slightly higher freaky factor comes the story of the German guy on the train that introduced himself when he discovered I speak English. A few minutes into the classic "where are you from?" speech I learned that he had lived in Michigan for a year as a high school youth exchange student. But not just anywhere in Michigan--in Waterford, my hometown. And not just any high school in Waterford (there are, of course, only two) but to my high school's eternal rival. I was annoyed for a second because, afterall, rivals are rivals, but since there's an ocean and a decade between that drama I decided to keep the friendliness up for the convo. ;)


And so it goes. Every once in awhile another creepy small world story creeps up on me and I am again amazed at the many incidents in life that are incredible coincidences.

Thanking my Lucky Stars for our Little Stars

There is an endless number of reasons to love my days at school. Trains, planes, and wagons make the list, but believe it or not, there are even better chart-toppers than that:


Number 5. Our Little Library

Kids don't have to try to be cute. It just comes naturally. A smile and a hug from a student is enough to keep me going all day, but seeing a student enjoy a book can keep me happy all week. Our little stars love stories and books, and many of our books have been read at least a bajllion times (already this week).

4. Play-doh

No matter how wound up our kiddos get from our time outside, Play-doh can help them relax even quicker than a story. Since the original Play-doh can't be found in Hamburg we had to improvise until we had a chance to import a new pack of the real stuff. It's here now and seeing them entertained with the same stuff that entertained me a couple of decades ago is pretty darn endearing.

3. Crafts Galore

From pasta necklaces to shape men to handprint rainbows our little stars explore weekly the wonderful world of preschool crafts. And when they finish in 0.2 seconds I can easily entertain them with scraps of paper, a plain sheet of paper, and a gluestick. It's magic.

2. Our Classroom

It may be little, but it's as cozy as cozy gets and is exactly what we need.

1. Outside Time

 Our daily outside hour is highly regarded by all of our little cuties. We find plenty of things to do, no matter if the ground is snow covered...

You wouldn't believe how popular sleds are in HH. Parents use them as an everyday mode of trans when our city turns into a snow globe.

mud covered...

or covered in green (though rare, it does happen).



I'm sure you'll agree that all in all, it's not a bad way to spend a day. While these five are big reasons why I love my work, there are many reasons why I am thanking my lucky stars for our little stars.

Hamburger Bilder aus der Woche

Hamburg Pictures of the Week

There's no shortage of good food in Hamburg. I miss Red Coat Tavern and J. Alexander's so much it hurts but still, I'm far from hungry over here. A recent food discovery has helped ease any hunger pains and the great news is it can be prepared in the convenience of our own home. Introducing raclette: a term used for a cheese, a grill, and the way this memorable meal is crafted.

The grill is called a raclette oven and the bottom rack of it holds little square dishes that you fill with whatever you like, top with a slice of raclette cheese, then put back on the grill. On the top of the grill you cook your meat and fish. Holger was kind enough to prepare all of this for us in his home and this delish meal, solidified with red wine, made for a perfecto meal. Caution: if you don't have a solid hour to spend eating this yummy-ness, don't bother. It deserves it's fair share of time.

While I am fully aware that this debacle could occur in the US just as it did here, I find the ridiculousness of this situation well worth spending a moment on.

My fantastic brother-in-law will celebrate his birthday this week and unfortunately he will not be opening a present from Reggie and I. I have had his gift packed and ready for over a week (and yes, I was uber proud of my punctuality) but each of the four times I attempted to take it to the post, I was greeted with lines at least this long. You should know that all four trips were to different posts at different times of the day. Does this stem from the fact that German service is less speedy than I'm used to? Or is there just a shortage of post offices in HH? Regardless, we've got a problem here (and it's more than just the fact that my brother-in-law doesn't have a present yet.)

Praise to the Visa Gods

As if moving to and getting settled in a new country doesn't produce enough confusion, immigrants and expats must also gain permission to work and get paid in their new land. For those lucky souls and their spouses whose companies whisk them away to the wonderful world of living abroad, getting a visa is no issue. Take your contract and passport to the necessary office and a shiny new working and residence visa is slapped right into your passport and ready to come home with you. It really is a wonder to witness.

And then there's those less lucky folks who come here following a dream/without an employment contract. Us in this littler, leaky slowly-drowing boat have to do a bit more leg work than those employed people on the glam cruise ship that hands out free visas with each daiquiri order. White it may, on occasion, be true that folks traveling on the cruise ship have to jump through a hoop or two to get their visa organized and in working order, it is much more true that the rest of us have to do back flips, cart wheels, and somersaults in order to get through those same hoops. And for some of us, including myself, we must do it twice.

Until I visited Brazil I didn't know much more about visas other than the fact that they came in handy during times of need in undergrad and were very unforgiving after the fact. My exchange to Brazil, however, introduced me to the world of those visas outside of the credit world. Tourist visas, residence visas, and working visas are not nearly as fun to play with as visa credit cards, but similar to the money that make Visa cards essential, these extremely confusing and hard-to-come-by visas are a necessary evil.

The trials and tribulations of my working visa started the day I responded to Seedlings' help wanted ad in August. The response concluded with, "I see you have lots of experience with children, which is a must for us (smile) and you seem like you would be a good fit (smiiiiile). Just one more question: Are you legal to work in Germany? (straight face/borderline frown)

The phrase Catch-22 has never been more applicable than when applied to the issue of working visas. Though it sounds simple it is actually quite horrible: to get a visa you need a job. Seems easy enough, sure. But there's more, of course: ...and to get a job you need a visa. Yep. It's pretty much horrible. Because of this inexplicable conundrum a few passengers in the Little Tugboat that Couldn't just jumped ship.

Very lucky for me Rachael and Grit have as much patience as their hearts are big and once I was hired they agreed to help me do everything I needed to do to get my visa. This makes them especially wonderful because I was the only Seedlings candidate that was, let's say, 'not-yet-legal' to work in Germany. So, shortly after I was hired I set out on my work-visa journey. With a letter of intent in hand I gathered up the materials I neeeded to make this visa thing happen. One visa requirement is proof of health insurance. Though we researched and asked our German pals until we (and they) were blue, Reggie and I were still at a loss as to how to decide upon proper health insurance. Germans, as well as those employed by German companies, have the opportunity to participate in Germany's socialized health insurance system. Because I am a freelance teacher, I haven't been invited to that party and thus my options are limited. Lots of ToyTown research led me to the nicest insurance broker in insurance broker history, who within two days set me up with appropriate coverage, and he even helped me to understand it, all for free.

Once insurance was set I anxiously and intimidated-ly took my application materials to The Welcome Center to hand over to the Visa Gods. Though not a pleasant experience, I successfully submitted my app and was told to expect a phone call within a week to let me know if I was approved. By this time my three-month tourist visa was expiring so a renewal was necessary. After all, no one likes to be deported.

The week went by, then ten days, and at two weeks without a phone call I placed my first phone call to The Welcome Center. "We are waiting for the answer, Frau Dean. We will call you." And so it went, every Monday I called and every Monday I received the same answer. I began to think that perhaps those were the only English words the gentelman on the phone knew. That was until five weeks passed and my grumpy voice phone voice earned me a new response, "The employment office has not received your application because it is lost in the mail and we do not have any record of your application so you will need to apply again."

What? No.

Oh forget it. I'll be right there.

With much anger and resentment I marched my angry, rain-soaked self downtown to The Welcome Center and was 'greeted' by the less-than-friendly employee that 'helped' me with my application materials the first time. After far too long of a discussion she agreed to copy my materials and re-mail my application. Though skeptical, I left without proof that my application was mailed and only half-expected that in-one-week phone call they promised.

So our Monday convos continued. Reggie started having weekly conversations with them, too...and those continued. I paid visits to my pals at the Welcome Center and no matter our pleading no one offered any form of assistance. November and December went like the wind but alas, I continued to be visa-less.

2011 marked the start of a new attitude towards the visa situation: get it and take no prisoners. I made an appointment and swore it would be my last. Grit agreed to to accompany me so we could be sure that the language barrier was not the problem. So together we went, determined, yet skeptical. We spent most of our wait rolling our eyes, discussing what we'd do when they came out and said we had no information, and were so distracted by our unfriendly chit chat that we were both taken aback when my beloved Frau Weiss came out to confirm two last pieces of information: You teach, yes? And how much is your rent? Upon my answers she smiled and said, "Okay. Go pay your fee and I'll get your visa."

What?! No.

Oh forget it. I'll be right there.

Praise the Visa Gods. I'm finally legal, people. Though I have a strong commitment to viewing money as a necessary evil, I'm really, really looking forward to finally having some of that evil in my pocket.

The H Word



I'll admit it. Something peculiar has happened. It all started the last day of my visit with my lovely family in the oh-so-sunny-and-cheerful south Florida. I squeezed and kissed my dear family and the cutest nephew in the whole world good bye and as I waved good bye to them (and to a decent-sized chunk of my heart), a mysterious feeling came over me. With the hustle and bustle of the airport (I shudder here because the thought of the December airport situation still gives me hives) that unfavorably strange feeling got pushed down, down and lingered quietly only until the time came to say goodbye to our friends and family in Michigan. Then quiet no more--that darned feeling was irrefutably ready to make a statement. And now that statement has turned into a scream. A loud one. You guessed it and I suppose I'm ready to say it (while swallowing my silly pride):
I'm homesick.

Gasp.

I know, I know--it's normal/a common reaction/a sign that I have a soul and that the opportunity to live abroad is priceless and the unwanted homesickness is well worth the experiences I'm having. I know. But it still stinks. I had been so wrapped up in the festivities of learning to live in Deutschland prior to our Christmas trip home that I hadn't allotted time in my day to dwell on how much I missed my people. But this feeling pushed itself to the front and center upon our return to German soil. It was really becoming a drag until I realized that the homesickness wouldn't even be if I didn't have such a great home to miss. Home includes all those totally fab folks in The Mitten and soFLo that make me wish I was with them all the time because they are about as dear to my heart as dear to my heart gets. While my unforgettable experiences in big ole Europe are totally awesome, my current residence prevents me from spending as much QT with them as I would like. Skype, FB, Magic Jack,email, and the bajillion other techy techniques Reg has found for us to stay connected are an incredible help and made my choice for a 2011 resolution an obvious one: this year I plan to be even more connected with all of the lovely folks that fill my heart. With the promise of no trips to the US until next Christmas lingering in the air, there's a winning chance that I will give all these techy tools a big workout in '11. Hope they're ready!

Yeah. It really doesn't get any cuter than James.





Home Sweet, Sweet Home for the Holidays

Oh, the weather outside was frightful! After two cancelled flights and lots of time at the airport I finally arrived in Detroit.

But the fire inside was delightful! Thanks to get togethers with friends and fam in the mitten and a week with family in sunny south Florida.

Just as long as you have exotic White Elephant gift exchanges to keep you entertained indoors.

Many beautiful sights: a perfectly adorable first birthday celebration for my darling nephew James and a sunny Lions victory.

Walking in a Christmas wonderland!

And a fantastic Hamburg New Year's celebration with great friends to boot!

We love you, Michigan and Florida fam and friends! Thanks for making our time at home so special. We miss you already!

Until next time!