Feels Like Years!

The five month mark of our time in Germany will be next week.  And although it is not a great length of time, it seems like we have lived several years here!  So many life experiences have been had already, some totally amazing and some very frustrating.

After the last four months of German language classes, I now know how to order at the meat counter! "Ich möchte sechs Stück Schweinekotelett."  I can also ask for the bill "die Rechnung bitte!" But that is about my limit.  I can understand so much more than I can speak.  Many times I give a blank stare to the German-speaker and have to pull out my "do you speak English" card.  It causes me to be more aware of how my previous ESL students felt when they could not speak English at school.  The frustration comes when you know what you want to communicate, but have no idea how to even start.  Smiles become a necessity I have found! For example, one afternoon I told a cashier that I did not want her co-worker to step in to buy a coffee.  After several glares from the women behind me, I smiled and revealed that my Deutsche is not good, and a laugh was had by everyone.

Just this week, Brenna learned a life lesson.  She has the great opportunity to take bicycle safety courses from German police officers.  Every German student in 4th grade does this so that they are prepared for biking on the road, and the International School also requires the 4th grade to do the same.  At her lesson this week, some German teenage boys began throwing rocks and yelling foul language to the International school students. (In front of the police, which shows their brazenness!)  After the police talked with the boys, Brenna's German teacher called the boys over to have them apologize while she translated.  As much as I do not want my child to be the subject of prejudice or mistreatment, I know she now has a small idea of how you feel when mistreated.  It is easy to love those who love you, but another thing to love your enemies.

Kayla's recent life experience was during a field trip to a blind school.  For those of you who know Kayla, she is full of joy.  But the evening after her field trip, she was about to bust with excitement.  During her trip she connected with a girl named Zoe, who taught Kayla how Braille is typed and also typed a message in Braille to Kayla.  So if anyone knows how to read Braille, message me because she has no idea what it says! They are now email pen pals.  This is how I know she experienced something I could never teach her myself:  when she talked about Zoe, she only spoke of how Zoe was funny and kind, and told me everything she did and said.  It was not until later that night when I found out she was a German girl and was blind. I assumed she was blind, but Kayla never used that word to describe her.  I love Kayla's "blindness" to Zoe's disability and hope she will always see others the same.

Our world is being opened up and we are so thankful to have these opportunities.  Here are some other photos of the past month!

 One Saturday evening we visited a town called Ladenburg, which is about 10 minutes away by car.  The girls (above) are playing on a modern swing in front of ruins of a Roman settlement dating back to 400 AD!  

One of my favorite cities is Weinheim where you can walk through Schloss (castle) park and grab an ice cream cone.  On my birthday I discovered my favorite flavor here: Sahne-Kirsche, which is cherry with cream.  

Brenna competed in a competition at school called Game 24.  A card is placed down which has four numbers.  Using any operation, you have to make the number 24. A few students from her class when on to compete in the Germany tournament and won!  In a couple weeks she goes on an overnight field trip to a camp to practice team-building skills and encourage risk-taking.  They will be canoeing, raft-building, and doing archery (she says she might return as an expert archer!)

We celebrated the 8th birthday of our "Krazy Kayla".  She had a blast with friends from the International School- over 6 counties represented!  We also learned that with concrete walls and tile floor, the screaming of nine little girls echoes and reverberates!  She is looking forward to going back to Indiana in July so she can celebrate again with her family and friends there!