Mom's/Nana's Visit

My mom was just here for a week.  We miss her so much already!  

It rained.

Chocolate House - you visit, we take you here.  It's the Lux experience.

Building homemade puzzles and Ikea furniture.  (The puzzles are much harder!)

Daphne opening a "half-birthday" present (6 1/2 on June 12)

surviving one of the 16 walks to/from school each week

train/bike/bus station - I inherited her love for public transportation

pizza time

we like that sign, can you tell?

Laundry and the Great Dryer Debate

There's a lot I could blog about right now, I suppose.  Yet it all seems way too overwhelming and complicated to rehash here at the moment.

What I'd really like to do is tidy up the apartment.  The problem is, I've sort of run out of places to tidy things to, until we get our furniture, or until we build some of these:

Ikea spoils.
  European apartments usually don't come with closets - you must add your own wardrobes.  Plus, we had a lot of built-in furniture back in the US, so we need a desk, bookshelf, etc.

So yeah, it would just be shuffling, not cleaning.  Not motivating.

However, I figure it's good to post something, so the family knows we're still alive and such.  Accordingly, I shall tackle a topic quite manageable for how I'm feeling this evening.

(See title.)

guess I haven't removed the stickers yet

My washing machine lives in the kitchen.  I am very excited about it because I've never had a front-loader, and because I feel a special camaraderie with my aunts and Nana in England, all who have washing machines in their kitchens.  None of them owns a clothes dryer either.

out the kitchen door

I actually enjoy hanging things out.  It takes longer, but somehow it's more satisfying to me.

Dryers here do not vent to the outside.  Instead, they have water condensers that must be emptied at least after every load.  We had a dryer at our temporary apartment, but it seemed more trouble than it was worth (but I'm sure we were doing all kinds of things wrong, everything was in German - but still, it was a pain and didn't dry very well).  So we're trying to go without.  If my aunts and 90-year-old Nana can do it, we can, right?  It's plenty damp and rainy in England too!

But...

My upstairs neighbor has a clothes dryer in her cellar, and says she uses it every day.  

So maybe we should get one, at least to use some of the time, like for sheets and duvet covers.  In a damp, cold stretch it could take several days for something like that to dry.  We can also lay things over the radiators in the winter, but we'll see how long I can stand how cluttered that looks.  And my mom made a good point - we have enough challenges right now that if we can make something easier, we should probably go for it.  And she's totally British.

A ridiculous part of me thinks it's cheating to get one. But it's not, I know it's not.  Because - my neighbor!  But - my Nana!  I'm so torn, torn, torn.

Thoughts? Votes? 

Off to shuffle some stuff around now.

Moving Day! #2!

truck with our air shipment + internet van

At long last, Tuesday was moving day!  We woke up in our temporary apartment, threw a few things in the car, and drove over to our real apartment.  I walked the kids to school, Pete walked to work, and then I went to pick up the apartment keys (conveniently, the real estate agency is right below our apartment).  When I arrived, our air shipment truck was unloading and our internet was almost set up.  With cars parked on both sides of the street, and traffic was now completely blocked.

Air shipment boxes!  Kids' bikes!

Our relocation agent and the real estate agent were conducting the inspection of the apartment (speaking in very fast German, so I was totally lost.  Well, even if it had been slow German, I'd have been lost).  Basically, this is an old building, lots of stuff doesn't work, and the owner will only fix or replace certain things.  I couldn't really do much protesting.  I had only spent about 10 minutes total in the apartment before this, so I was learning how stuff works (or doesn't work), where the garbage goes, where our "cellar" is in the basement maze, and trying to pay attention to things that are already wrong with the apartment so we won't be accountable for them when we move out.  It was overwhelming.

Next the truck arrived with our temporary furniture, plus another truck with a special elevator for bringing in the larger items.  By this time, the traffic situation was horrible, and I felt pretty guilty for causing such havoc, even though there wasn't anything I could do.  Apparently there was a no parking sign put out by the furniture company since last week (to give people plenty of warning), but two cars were parked in front of the building anyway.  So then the police got involved.

police filling out tons of paperwork + 2 shipment trucks + luxury SUV parked illegally

Next, two tow trucks showed up to grab the cars (just what we need, more trucks on our street).  Tow trucks here actually lift the vehicles off the ground and place them in back - I wish I'd got a picture, but here it is already lifted on..

bye bye luxury SUV :(.  The owner showed up a few minutes later.  Poor lady, she was not pleased.

Now, the elevator truck had room to pull in front and send furniture up through our balcony doors, since the apartment's staircase and elevator are much too small.

up it goes...

and in through the balcony door.  Wish the kids had seen it!

About the time this process finished, I retrieved the kids from school.  On our way back inside we ran into our neighbor from the 3rd floor who is SO, SO nice.  She is originally from Munich, speaks amazing English (and German and French of course), and has lived upstairs with her husband and 11-year-old daughter for over a decade.  She invited the kids and me up for some lunch and gave us a much needed roll of toilet paper (forgot to bring that over from the temporary apartment!).  

We are so thankful for a great neighbor!!!!

eating yummy spaghetti

and...they have bunnies!

After lunch the kids were itching to ride their newly-arrived bikes, so we rode to the park for a bit.

Then we headed to the temporary apartment to continue packing and cleaning.  When Pete came home, we went out for pizza, and it was time for bed!

story time on temporary beds

Well, time for kids' bed.  Then Pete went back to the temporary apartment to pick up the rest of our luggage and supplies we've collected over the past couple of weeks, and I made a very minor dent in unpacking.

The end.

Wild day!

First Day of Luxembourgish School

Monday was the first day of school.  It was also the first day of work for Pete.  I should have taken a picture of the three of them together, but alas, it was all we could do to make it on time.  We were still at our temporary apartment on Monday, so we drove over in the rental car and parked near the school.  Pete walked to work from there.  I ran some errands on the bus.  And I found castile soap.  This is a very good thing.

The kids were pretty excited to start.  I managed to snap a couple pictures before becoming a distraction.

The teacher pulled out puzzle for James when he came in.  Good call, teacher.

10 seconds in and she's found book and a stuffy.  About 30 seconds later she popped her head out of the door and yelled, "Mom, I already made a friend!"

Their schedule is:
Mon-Wed-Fri: 8am-11:40am and 2-4pm
Tues-Thurs: 8am-11:40am

During the lunch break I took them downtown on the bus for sandwiches.  I didn't want to try going all the way back to the temporary apartment, and we were out of food anyway.

ready to head back

By the time we'd walked to/from bus stops, ate lunch, found restrooms, etc. we made it back to school just in time.

A couple of discoveries this morning: On Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, they each bring a fruit to share with the class - the teachers cut them all up and distribute them.  They also have a snack of bread and jam, nutella, etc. provided by the school each day.  And on Monday for the afternoon session, all the preschool and kindergarteners go to the "gym" - to play on mats and and trampolines and such.  When I arrived at 4pm they were all on their way back to class.

Daphne headed back, next to her teacher, also named Daphne!

The hand holding is cute, but it's also required - two-by-two

All in all it was a good first day.  There was a birthday in James' class, complete with cake and a goody bag, so I think that helped.  I can already tell that the walk to and from school, especially on M-W-F when we do the whole thing twice, and when it's cold and wet and motivation is low, will be an ongoing challenge.  But we'll take it one walk at a time, one day at a time, right?

I'm praying hard for patience!

Parc Tony Neuman

Many people have asked us what kind of travel and exploring we have planned for our time in Europe.  Where are we headed first?  What countries are on our list?  Which famous cities, which historical sites, which castles?

But when it comes down to it, our little family is very easy to please.  Our idea of adventure is (aside from just making it to Europe in the first place) a walk to a spot on a GPS that we haven't tried before, and the possibility of finding a playground as kid-incentive.  Call it homemade-ultra-light-geocaching, perhaps?  Maybe boring-ultra-light-geocaching?

Whatever it is, we are perfectly content.

Saturday evening we set out from the temporary apartment to Parc Tony Neuman. (Hey, say, "Parc" with a really French/German "r," immediately followed by "Tony Neuman" in an American accent.  Go ahead, try it.  Paachhhkk Tony Newman.  This is also how we amuse ourselves.  Did I mention we are easy to please?)

On satellite view, the pacchhhkk was all treetops, with a small, sandy-colored clearing in the far corner - must be the playground.

finding the entrance

shortcut

a promising path

score.

dog chasing remote control car on the way back = icing on the cake of kid-entertainment

back to the entrance

we did it.

Walking Practice

The days leading up to moving into our real apartment are just crawling by.  Pete put it perfectly: it's like we're "engaged" to the apartment.  We're committed to going through with it, and now we're just waiting around to....well....consummate the marriage.  Pete's also sort of engaged to his job.  The kids are engaged to their school.  We are basically engaged to our real lives.  Being engaged is generally an odd, "tweener" kind of time in life - we thought so, anyway.  Once you're engaged, you really just want to get to the dang day.

After running some errands Wednesday, we found ourselves in our betrothed apartment's neighborhood.  We decided to park the car and walk down toward Pete's office, down the same path Pete and I took on our first day exploring the city on our preview trip - just the opposite direction this time.  Back then we didn't know our final apartment would be only a couple blocks from this path.

We gave the kids a pep talk first, as has become our custom. "Okay, kids.  You are European kids now, remember?  European kids are good walkers.  They walk a long way and don't complain, right?   You might even get a reward at the end if there's no whining.  We are going to have some good walking practice now, okay?  Okay, let's go!"

Walking with kids is inevitably slow, no matter how inspiring the pep talk.  There's always something that stops you every 10 yards.  A bunched up sock.  An itchy leg.  A rock in a shoe.  A rock in the other shoe. A rock in the other kid's shoe.  And so forth.  I mean, it's fine and all to take life slowly and and savor the moment but oh-my-word-get-a-move-on.

So, we walked the path down to the bottom of the canyon.

at the bottom

mom, can I climb this hill?

there they go!

into the Grund area by Pete's betrothed office

into the elevator and back up

looking back down at the path.  still a ways to go to get back...

Was there some limping and whimpering and shoulder-carrying by the end?  Maybe just a little.  We're working on it.

Outdoor Market

We'd call this a "farmers market," but I'm not sure what the official name is here.  It's an outdoor market with local vendors selling produce, meats, pastas, cheeses, oils, pastries, flowers, etc.  It takes place every Wednesday and Saturday morning in the city center, year-round, although it's apparently smaller in the colder months.

This past Wednesday morning we took an exploratory look, no purchases.

James and flowers

James and rotisserie chickens.
He was in a photo posing/mugging mood.

see?