New Member of my Bike Fleet

 

If you just read my last blog posting, you might be thinking it was a spendy weekend, it was. Sigh! But when you find just what you're looking for, you can't procrastinate.

After work on Thursday, I went out to the sports store to check out their used bike selection. And there it was in the back, just the MT bike I was looking for. Why a mountain bike? Yes, it seems a bit decadent, after all how many bikes do I need. I have a road bike and my Wacker bike, but the gravel and forested trails around here make a mountain bike just too irresistible. Also, James and Ronan both have mountain bikes, so my having one will make family bike trips much more practical. I'll have a bike to match theirs, we can spend more time off road and I'll be more comfortable. So I've been keeping my eye out for an affordable used one in good condition. It's a Giant Yukon, several years old, but well taken care of. I'm probably not going to be doing hardcore stuff so it will suit my needs just fine.

After Dirndl shopping on Sat, I took the new bike (no didn't wear the Dirndl) out for it's maiden voyage. James and Ronan were out in the woods somewhere, so after a quick cell phone call, I went out to meet them on the dirt road where they were. As I approached, I saw James walking down the road in the distance, but what I didn't notice was the hunting shack on the left and when I got to it I heard a yell and the shots of a toy gun coming at me from above! Low and behold! I was ambushed by my son and the very toy gun we had bought him back during Fasching in the winter. Funny how these things come back to haunt you!

We all biked home together and stopped by the SV Wacker football stadium just in time to hear our local team tie the score 2:2 in the 86 minute. Unfortunately, we heard later that the other team, the Offenbach Kickers, scored again in the 89th minute!

Dirndl Shopping

 The spring fair or Dult season is upon us here in the deep netherlands of Bavaria. This means that the lads pull out their Lederhosen (traditional Bavarian wear - leather shorts ) and the ladies don (Molly, note the use of don here) their Dirndl (traditional Bavarian dresses, based on historical costumes of Alpine peasants) and head off to the spring fair to enjoy a few Masse or liters of beer. These dult fests are all like local versions of Munich's fall Octoberfest. Burghausen's spring Dult, called the Mai Wiesn (http://www.maiwiesn.de/programm.php) is coming up in May, apparently most of Wacker and other local      
             businesses let everyone clock out early to go and enjoy the May Wiesen, it's called Tag der Betriebe. I've heard it gets pretty wild and it's a good opportunity to see all your German colleagues decked out in their traditional wear, so, of course, I'm in. 

With all that said, many of my American female colleagues have been going out to purchase Dirndls so as to join in the local festivities and embrace the German tradition. Well, who am I to be left out, despite my tomboy tendencies. So yesterday, myself, LeAna, Molly and Janna, headed out to Rimbach to "da' gamsnberger" trachtenerlebnis (http://www.gamsnberger-dirndl-trachten-lederhosen.de/de/frauen/) to buy Dirndl's. I pictured this place somewhere on the main street of a small town, but no, it was in the middle of Bavarian farm country. We pulled into a drive with what looked like a large farm building in the back, but it was, in fact, the shop building. Parked out front were more BMWs, Porsche's and Mercedes than I've seen in one place for a while, though we arrived in LeAna's rental Jaguar, so we fit right in. The shop itself was lovely and the sales personnel quite helpful. I was surprised how busy it was. Many sets of grandparents buying Dirndl and Lederhosen for grandchildren, among others.

Molly was our purchasing consultant, as she already has a Dirndl. Janna and I tried various styles while LeAna opted more for the nice leather Lederhosen skirts, though she did try on a dirndl for kicks. Janna didn't find any to her liking, but I did. A lovely dark blue dress with a turquoise apron. For those not in the know, the dirndl consists of a lacy midriff blouse that you put on first, then a bodice and full skirt, then the apron. I'd never tried one on, but gotta say, it makes you feel quite womanly and "busty," but in a good way.
Well, I found the one I liked and purchased it. They are not cheap, but the workmanship and the fabric is really nice, so it will be fun to have one back in the States. Maybe I'll get some free beer back in Bellingham during Octoberfest for wearing my authentic Dirndl. I'll have to campaign for that.

Easter Trip to Copenhagen

For the past 7 months my brother-in-law Geoff has been doing an academic sabbatical in Copenhagen, so we thought we'd take advantage and go up to visit him and Sam (James' sister)over Easter holiday weekend. Though James and I got married in small border town in Denmark, I had never been to Copenhagen and James had been there over 25 years ago (ouch that is a while back), so it seemed like a good opportunity to go somewhere new and different.

The first thing you notice about Copenhagen is bicycles of all shapes, sizes, conditions, two wheels, three wheels, old ones, bone shakers, single speeds, gerry-built. You name it, it's in Copenhagen. The weather on our first day was cold, wet, and rainy, so we walked over to the Kastellet (fortress) where Ronan particularly enjoyed the cannons. We also went to see the Little Mermaid. Since it was so cold, we hopped on this tour bus which drives around the tourist sites of Copenhagen, you can hop on and hop off at any of the stop points, so we road the bus most of the day, taking photos from the windows. We got off in Nyhavn where we enjoyed a lovely pub lunch. As a point of interest, while smoking has been banned in pubs and restaurants throughout most of Europe, Denmark seems to be a hold out. Pubs where no food is served still allow smoking, so once the pub where we had lunch stopped serving food, folks began to light up, so we took our leave.

The weather really played a part in our trip, we had rain, wind, snow flurries, and some sunshine. Also, due to the fact that it was Easter weekend, most shops were shut for the entire Easter weekend, with the exception of Saturday. So on Saturday, which was a gorgeous sunny day, we bought groceries and then hit the longest pedestrian shopping zone in Europe. Sam and I went clothes shopping at H&M (my favorite European clothing store) and the lads went to the Guinness Book of World Records museum, then we all met up at the Lego store, which was the highlight for Ronan. My highlight for the day was the pub lunch at the Brew Pub where I enjoyed the Danish spin on the American style Pale Ale and IPA, so very tasty. I also noticed among their bottled beer selection, mostly made up of Belgian beers, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the lone American bottled beer. Seeing it gave me a touch of home sickness. As much as I enjoy German beer, there really is not a great deal of variety and I do miss my Pacific Northwest ales.
Easter Sunday was also warm and sunny, so we took a lovely walk around Rosenborg Castle, a renaissance castle in Copenhagen where the crown jewels are also located (see photo album below). On Monday, we met Yvette, an old friend of mine from high school, who is a working artist in Copenhagen. She took us on a great tour of Christiania, a freetown or commune founded in an old military barracks in the 1970's in Copenhagen. It has been a self-governing commune, where marijuana was openly bought and sold until 2004. Yvette said that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening up of Eastern Europe has also brought with it the more hard-core Russian drug trade, making harder for Christianites to keep the drug trade in check, so they've had to work more closely with the Danish authorities, not always an easy relationship, apparently. It's a truly interesting place, art and bicycles everywhere. We enjoyed a delicious soup in a small cafe, the cook was smoking a huge spliff. Lots of interesting homes and rustic furniture and playgrounds. James has a song he wrote about Christiania many years ago, I think the lyrics still apply.

Anyway, on Tuesday, Copenhagen was back to business as normal and we headed off to the airport to fly home. Great city and a great visit with family and old friends.

p.s. Big shout-out to my friend Josh Murray who took the train into Copenhagen from Malmo, Sweden, on Friday evening to enjoy a few beers, catch up on old times, and discuss the pros and cons of European vs. American life, one of my favorite discussion topics!

Ronan's Progress in School

Whenever I speak with friends and family, everyone naturally wants to know how Ronan is doing in school. How is he getting on with learning German? Is he making friends? etc. Well, I have some positive news to report. The school principal said when we registered Ronan for school, "don't worry, he'll be speaking German in six months." I was a bit skeptical, but he was right. Ronan is, in fact, speaking quite a bit of German now, even with me and James at home. It's quite exciting.

I met with his teacher a week or so ago to see how he's progressing. She said that in January he was still primarily speaking English with her, but now he only speaks German with her. He's doing fine in math, even handling the word problems despite the langage handicap. He has one-on-one tutoring with a retired German teacher a few times a week and she says he's doing very well. He can read out loud quite well even if he doesn't understand it all and I'm actually quite amazed at his pronounciation. His German spelling isn't all that bad either. But where he does seem to have trouble is handwriting. Germans place great importance on neat handwriting. When we arrived here six months ago, he had quite a lot of catching up to do and has made excellent progress, but he still hasn't caught up to his German peers. To make things a bit more difficult is that children begin to learn how to use fountain pens in second grade. They even get a certificate of proficiency at the end of the year. The fountain pen is making it a bit harder, but his teacher is keeping him writing in pencil for now, til he makes a bit more progress. I do find this emphasis on fountain penmanship rather odd and obsolete, especially when I have yet to see a computer in the classroom.

However, what's really made the difference for Ronan is "Mittagsbetreuung". This is what we would call after-school daycare. We started sending Ronan there in December. To give James a bit more time during the day and to allow Ronan some time to get to know other kids outside the classroom. Since the German elementary school is only half-day, Mittagsbetreuung is critical for working parents and it's very inexpensive. For 2 days a week, we are paying about $14 per month. Ronan stays till about 2pm though there is an option to stay til 3:30pm. Ronan has really benefited from Mittagsbetreuung. He's bonded with other kids in his class. He also gets help with homework in the homework room, but most of all, he's had to get a handle on the language to make friends. The school also has a brand new day care room. It's big, bright, and friendly and the kids can just go wild. Ronan would go every day if he could.

So, though he still misses his US elementary school and his friends there, he is adapting very well here in Germany.

Winter outing 1: Schneekirche

I've fallen a bit behind on blogging about our adventures here in Burghausen. The end of January and beginning of February were just so cold that we did really nothing but hibernate, just going to work, school, and staying home in the evenings.
The first school vacation road trip took Ronan and I and several other work colleagues to the town of Mitterfirmiansreut, a small village and ski area in the Bavarian forest near the Czech border. We weren't there to ski, we were there to see the Schneekirche. A church built completely out of snow and ice. It was very foggy the day were were there, so the above photo doesn't really do it justice. Here is a link to the website for better photos: http://www.schneekirche.com/texte/seite.php?id=. The townspeople of Mitterfirmiansreut built the first Schneekirche 100 years ago to remind the world and the Church of this far off corner and to show its faith.
We walked through the ski resort, following the signs to the Schneekirche. We paid a few Euro at the gate and then climbed the snowy hill to the top where it was located. It was an quite an impressive sculpture of snow and ice. Inside there were several benches made of ice and a small alter lit up in blue. I can imagine that a religious service here would be quite an experience. Ronan liked the church, but was more interested in throwing snowballs at my co-workers outside, in fact, I had a hard time getting him to stop. Next to the church, in true German style, there was a Gluehwein stand, but I resisted. I was a little disappointed that we had left the sled we brought along in the car as I had promised Ronan we would find a sledding hill at some point during the day.

After an extended lunch at a Bavarian-style restaurant, we began the two-hour drive home. Billy and Deede graciously stopped the car at a parking area, which looked like along the way to give Ronan and I a chance to go sledding. Unbeknownst to us when we parked, there was a small ski area across the street with the most perfect sledding hill ever. It was as if we had asked the universe for one and it heard us. Ronan and I had a great time sledding up and down the mountain and had a darn good snowball fight with Billy. Thank you Billy and Deede, and the universe for the perfect day.

Ronan's soccer accident

While I'm catching up on my other blog posts, just thought I'd share this little adventure to the ER with you all.

Yesterday Ronan rolled his ankle at soccer practice, resulting in a severe sprain. As usual, James and I missed the event and only found out about it when we arrived to pick him up. The trainer didn't examine the extent of the injury until the end of practice when Ronan had trouble walking back to the changing room. We were strongly encouraged to take him to the ER, which I never would have done in the US. I would have at least waited til the next day and taken him to the doctor. But this is Germany and we have comprehensive health insurance as all Germans do, it's even mandatory. So off to the ER we went courtesy of the trainer's wife. This will be interesting, I thought.

Burghausen isn't that big a town and it was a Monday night, so the ER was empty. We checked in and were led into an exam room where the doctor examined Ronan's ankle and then sent him off for xrays. If this had been the US, I would have been almost more worried about the costs and my expanding credit card debt than my kid's health. But here in Germany, I could just focus on Ronan. The xray confirmed severely torn ligaments, so two attendents thoroughly bandaged Ronan's leg up and provided him with crutches. The doctor gave us some painkillerwes to take home and at first apologized that she had to charge us a € 5 processing fee. I just laughed. Five euros? No problem, do you know what I would've been charged for this in the US? Then she corrected herself and said, oops, no, we don't charge processing fees for children. Never mind. We walked out of the ER without a worry and without a bill to pay.

This scenario is pretty much unheard of in the US, why is that? Why should we have to worry more about health costs in an emergency than about the health of our loved ones? Don't we as Americans deserve not only the best health care, but health care that is comprehensively covered? It doesn't even have to be "the best," I'd be happy with pretty darn good and that's what we got yesterday.

Ronan will have a few days off school, get a splint fit to his leg to provide additional support for a few weeks, several follow-up visits with the doctor, all covered by health insurance. Ronan can heal with all the care he needs and we don't have to stress about the cost. What a concept! Thank you Germany!

Winter Outing 2: Ruhpolding

Well, I've been so distracted with the spring coming, trying to get my taxes ready for my tax lady, and watching Star Wars on the weekend with Ronan that once again I've fallen behind on getting some thoughts down on my blog.

To finish off describing the rest of Ronan's February or Fasching vacation, we rented a car on the closing weekend and took two day trips: one to the city of Passau and the other to the small alpine town of Ruhpolding, which is a well-known, family-friendly ski area. I had hoped that I could talk Ronan into taking a down-hill skiing lesson with me, but he was more open to x-country, so I signed the three of us up for ski rental and a x-country lesson. It was spring-like when we got there, warm and sunny, which made for granular snow. No matter, we arrived, picked up our skis, met our ski instructor, and headed out for our lesson. Except that for some reason, Ronan refused to take part, so while he moped at the beginning of the trail, James and I enjoyed a good x-country ski lesson. James hadn never really cross-country skiied before, but he did great, and enjoyed the lesson. I learned a few new things as well. Ronan started to give it a try toward the end of the lesson and did a few rounds with me. Next time maybe we'll skip the lesson and I'll help him.

The town of Ruhpolding was in the process of preparing for the World Biathalon (x-country sking and target shooting) Championships the following week, so there was lots happening. After skiing, we went over to the downhill ski area to do some sledding and I even tried downhill inner-tubing or snow tubing, now that was fun!