Crying in Croatia

June 12, 2012

Since my last posting about our adventure to Italy, we made trip to Croatia. We went to Croatia in early May for a long weekend. We took a cheap airline there, and everything was going smoothly… too smoothly. We made it to customs and I have never had my passport   ALL of our passports examined so closely--- minutes felt like hours. Thankfully we were allowed into the country. Then the unimaginable happens: Caitlyn didn’t get her way. She had set down her prized possession (a pink blanket) in the customs line, and a lady handed it to her… Caitlyn didn’t want it handed it her, and the temper tantrum of 2012 begins…

Caitlyn is screaming, kicking, and crying. The security guards have now focused in on us. After about 30 minutes I get Caitlyn to calm down, and we can now get a taxi to go to our hotel. Once in the taxi and leaving the airport, we are pulled over by the airport police, and he is asking the taxi driver questions about us (Because the taxi driver is the perfect person to ask details about our lives :::::sarcasm:::: ). In the end we made it to our hotel.

The trip started out a little rough:

-We broke a glass

-Dave walked into the closed slider door (haha)

-Oh yeah and I locked us out on the balcony at 11pm while it was raining. To get down from the balcony it was a choice of jumping into staggered rocks 30 feet below or climbing a wall and knocking on the slider door of my neighbor who was climbing into bed. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place! Well, I’m still alive so I chose knocking on the neighbors sliding glass door as she was climbing in bed--- then I found out she didn’t speak English, but she got her husband and thank goodness he spoke some English. I walk through their apartment to make my ¼ mile walk in the rain to the front desk. Made it back in time to finish my beer! J

When we had breakfast the next day I think our waiter could tell we were slightly tense. He came out with two spirits for Dave and I, on the house! I don’t think I have drunk a spirit that early before--- but it really turned things around! We relaxed, and made it the rest of the vacation without any good stories to share! 

 pula amphitheater

A time for self reflection

June 7, 2012

We are half way through this life adventure, and there have been many emotions that have surfaced that I did not know existed until now. The first 5 weeks were more challenging than I can even express. The emotion of isolation was most prominent. I do not have extended family to love, friends to laugh with, and in most cases I am not in the position to fill these voids. Having a language barrier is extremely difficult. I have learned to appreciate other things in life: laughter, play, beautiful sights, and the sky.

After the first 5 weeks, life here in Germany became my life. To be honest I was happy and I loved it. We were fortunate to have David’s parents visit us the past 2-½ weeks. We traveled around Europe together (more stories to come). After I brought them to the airport, I cried--- the type of cry that takes your breath away.

Dave asked,

“What is it?”      “Do you miss home or your parents?”

My reply was,

“I don’t know whose life this is… but it is not mine.”

Thankfully I am not in that position anymore! This is my life!!!  J

But I do miss all of you… everyone from ‘home’. I’m happy living in Germany once again, but life is not the same without coming in contact with people who know me. I am afraid I may come home a better person J I will make more time for the people in my life and cherish that time, and for that I am grateful.

Italy and Life

April 15, 2012

I am FINALLY a pro at German grocery shopping! YAY! Let me give a little information about grocery shopping here… you need reusable bags. (If you don’t have any, then you have to buy them at the store.) Emma was my grocery bagger, but she could never keep up. Every trip I would say “Come on Emma hurry it up.”

Then I went shopping alone… and had to bag the groceries myself---- surprise surprise--- I couldn’t keep up. In my head I was thinking That cashier is rude… she was scanning my groceries at a 100 mph 160 kmh. I decided I needed to watch how other people were managing to bag their groceries… and the verdict is…… they don’t bag their groceries! I should have put them back in my cart and bagged them once I got to my car! It makes me laugh thinking about how many times I went to the store, held up the line, and bagged every last item! J Oops!

On Easter weekend we took our first big family vacation. We drove through the Swiss Alps, into Italy. and we stayed on Lake Como. I kept wondering…

“Is this real?”      “Am I dreaming?”

It was an eight-hour car ride, and the kids were behaved the WHOLE time. And I again asked myself    “Is this real?”   “Am I dreaming?” ha-ha They loved the mountains, and they LOVED Italy.

A couple side notes:

The other day Dave was pulled over by the police. A police car pulled in front of him, and a sign on the back on the car flashed  :::please pull over:::: so he did. Fortunately, it was a random pull over to make sure everything was legal. He didn’t get a ticket, but how crazy is that!!! I can’t imagine how I would have reacted.

Emma just completed a horse camp last week. She really enjoyed it and wants to do it again later in the summer. They taught her how to take care of the horses, and they did some riding.

Chasing Waterfalls

April 4, 2012

Another week has passed and I am definitely feeling more confident and secure in my decision to come here. Last week Dave was gone for two nights. He went to the Czech Republic for work. On Wednesday I decided to take the kids on our own little adventure. We drove two hours away to a village called Triberg. Triberg has the world’s largest cuckoo clock, but we went there to see Germany’s highest waterfall! Triberg is in the middle of the black forest (schwarzwald). The kids and I hiked up the waterfall, and had a picnic. Hiking with three kids is pretty scary! They did great and we all enjoyed ourselves.

On the way home we ran into some stau (traffic jam), and we were rerouted by our GPS several times. I swear we were 20 minutes away from home for an hour, due to traffic, construction, and the Garmin rerouting us! Our two-hour drive home turned into three. 

On Saturday we went to the oldest town in Germany. Trier was founded in 17 BC, and has a gate that was built in 180 AD, the Porta Nigra. (Pictures coming soon!) This city was beautiful with fresh flowers for sale along the street, small shops, old buildings; I was in love J We went to Trier with Dave’s co-worker and his family. 

On Sunday Emma came down with the stomach flu… yuck! Poor girl… puked in the Audi!!! (or should I say poor Dave?) When someone is sick there are a few things they generally want:

Mom

Dad

And home.

This event made her incredibility homesick. My heart broke for her. I couldn’t bring her back home, I didn’t have Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, and I couldn’t make her body heal fast enough. I held her, napped with her, and tried to comfort her the best I could. Fortunately things are looking better today, and she is feeling better. 

The GOOD, the bad, and the UgLy

March 26, 2012

Guten Tag (Good day)! We had an exciting weekend! We went to Schwetzingen Schloss, which is a palace with a beautiful garden. The garden in August is much prettier then now (March), but the kids didn’t care about the lack of flowers, greenery and water in the fountains. The garden is huge, and takes hours to go through. The kids loved running around, seeing the birds, and just being outside.

Sunday we stayed home, and played on the farm. Almost everything is closed on Sundays in Germany. Especially grocery stores, clothing stores, etc. Gas stations are open, and a few restaurants open later in the day. Fortunately we had just enough food to get us through the day, and Monday morning! J

Today, I had my breaking point…  L Steven can be strong willed. Almost everything is a fight with him.

At this particular time, the girls were riding with Dave, and I was following him in my car with Steven. As I was driving down the autobahn, I looked at Steven and noticed he had taken off his seatbelt. I flashed my lights at Dave. We were going to pull over at a rest stop. When we got to the rest stop there was only one parking space. Dave continued on the highway, but I had to stop and strap Steven back in. Steven was putting up a fight!!!       Then I hit a point of no return…and broke down.

It wasn’t just this one incident that brought me to tears… it was the fact that everything “easy” in life, is now Hard! Things I wouldn’t have thought twice about are now difficult and stressful.

As I was sitting alongside the autobahn, crying, I couldn’t help but ask myself …

“What am I doing?”   “Why am I here?”   “Really?… 5 months?”

I wiped my tears, put on my big girl pants, buckled my little man into his car-seat, and surprisingly I felt a lot better. J When I got home I found comfort in talking to my husband, and telling him what to say in order to make me feel better.

It is difficult not having adult conversation all day… everyday. It is very different living in a country, compared to being on vacation. I have 3 children to care for. I’m in a small German town and most people only speak German. Grocery shopping is a nightmare because I can’t read German. I want to pick up my phone and call my friends but I can’t.

I’m not looking for sympathy. I am trying to portray my exact experiences, and emotions. In a few weeks, I will be a pro German grocery store shopper! J These are all things that I expected. I knew I would have to adapt to my ‘new’ life. It is a slow process but I am getting more comfortable everyday. I am looking forward to the lessons in life I will find through this journey. 

A small Victory!

March 21, 2012

We are still working on getting settled in. It has been difficult because we had necessary obligations. We had to get our German resident permits, open a EU bank account, and become residents in the village we are residing in. It took most of yesterday to accomplish these tasks. I also went with the coordinator from the German Gentex office to look at a few apartments in the city of Heilbronn. Heilbronn is much closer to Dave’s work, and I think it would be best to live in the city.

Life on the farm is good, but it is a big adjustment for me. The small kids cannot go outside and play without close supervision because of all the tractors, and heavy equipment, and it is only fun looking at cows the first twenty times. J Hopefully we will find out about the apartment. It is very difficult finding available apartments in the city right now. Additionally, people are hesitant to lease to Gentex (a company), and instead of an individual. These factors have contributed to the delay in finding an apartment.

It was a humbling experience yesterday looking at apartments. Initially I felt like I was on the television show “House Hunters International”. But when we were viewing the second apartment, the owners were not thrilled with a foreigner living in their apartment, and Gentex holding the lease.

Today was a victory for me! We all loaded up in the van. (Yes we have a van!) We dropped Dave off at work, because we needed groceries (so I needed the car). When leaving his work I realized I needed to find a bank to get cash, because in small towns most stores do not accept MasterCard/Visa. You need the EU bank card, which we will receive in a week. I found a bank, went grocery shopping, and got back home, with all three kids! This was a HUGE victory! Oh the small things in life. J

                                              

Adventure #1 ----- Getting to Germany

It was definitely stressful the last week getting everyone packed and ready for Germany. At last March 18 came and we headed to the airport. It was difficult keeping everyone together because, of course, nobody wanted to ride in the stroller. We made it from Grand Rapids to Chicago, without any issues. I sat by Caitlyn and Emma. Caitlyn asked the flight attendant if she was the “Captain” which made everyone around us laugh.

Our flight from Chicago to Frankfort was longggg of course ~ 8 hours… Each seat had a touch screen computer, so we could pick movies, television shows, games, etc. The girls thought this was the coolest thing ever!!! So they couldn’t sleep of course. Steven passed out for the last 2 or 3 hours (lucky Dave!). The plane started descending for landing, and apparently this is a good time to sleep, because Emma and Caitlyn fell asleep. Minutes before landing Emma wakes up, complains of a stomachache, and states she is going to puke. I have nothing to give her, so I do what any mom would do… cupped my hands together and let her puke in them. My hands were not big enough; she turned to her sister (Caitlyn who was sleeping) and continued to vomit on her. At this point, I don’t know what to do, I started calling for the flight attendant, who gave me approval to break the rules and get out of my seat. I carried Caitlyn to the back of the plane and had to first, wake her up, and then change her clothes (I had pants, but she had to wear one of Steven's shirts). As this is going on she is crying “ I wet” “I wet”… Emma was now doing better, we were reseated on blankets covering our seats, and the plane was landed.

Now we are in Frankfort airport… Dave and I get separated. He is with Emma and Steven, and I have Caitlyn. I have the stroller so I can’t search the airport quickly or efficiently. About five minutes before I would have had a freak out… we stumble upon each other…. Thank Goodness!

The courier service picked us up from the airport, and then brought us to the German office where Dave will be working. Our belongings were unloaded, and we walked inside to get our rental car. That’s when it was discovered no one actually checked our itinerary… it was assumed we would get to the office around noon, so our rental car was going to be brought there around noon. FYI we were there at 8:15am! So my sleep deprived little girls were passed out in the lobby of Gentex, Steven was running around, and Dave and I were losing steam. One of Dave’s co-workers in the German office called his wife, and she brought us car seats, and drove us to our apartment. It was now around 10:30am, and we all got in bed and slept. ZZzzzzzzzzz

Around 5:00pm we met the owners of the farm we are staying at. They gave us a tour, and showed us the sheep, chickens, rabbits, cats, dog, and the cows. They have a couple kids around Emma’s age, and a daughter Caitlyn’s age. The family speaks very little English, but I think we communicated alright.

We needed to do one last thing before the day was over… get dinner and groceries. The kids didn’t want to leave, but I was not brave enough to venture off the farm alone. For multiple reasons I was nervous:
I didn’t know where in the world I was going
I haven’t driven a manual transmission in at least 5 years 
I have NEVER driven in Germany
We didn’t have any EUROS, and we needed to find an ATM

So I made everyone come with me to run our errands. I made sure I drove because I needed to get use to driving here. It was difficult balancing everything such as looking at the Garmin, learning the street signs and meanings, shifting the gears, navigating the twisting and skinny roads. Dave wasn’t impressed. But I have 5 months to practice… right?

By the time we got to an ATM (3 missed left turns and multiple “redirections” from Garmin later) the kids were sleeping. I quickly went into a grocery store and picked up some items to get us through tomorrow…. Our first dinner in Germany was home cooked frozen pizza! My family is so lucky to have my cooking.