Day on the Rhine with Grandma and Elizabeth

 
 Yesterday we took Grandma and Elizabeth on our favorite Rhine tour. First, we took the cable cars to the Germania monument above Rüdesheim, where we had a picnic of ham-n-cheese sandwiches on German rolls. Then we hiked along the hilltop overlooking the Rhine, stopping by a fake castle ruin (built in the 1770s). 


After walking through a dark "magic cave" (embedded with gems in its glory days), we took the chairlift down to Assmannshausen, where we looked again for the incredible homemade Apfelstrudel Michael and I had in 2008 when we were there with Patrick's godmother. 


The Apfelstrudel and ice cream were Mom's treat, but unfortunately, the place refused to serve her anything because they couldn't "take responsibility for her nut allergy" when there were traces of nuts in every cake! She then enjoyed some tiramisu somewhere else, while Elizabeth, Nick, Michael and I walked and talked along the Rhine, waiting for our 5:45 p.m. ferry to bring us back to Rüdesheim. Elizabeth told us about her fear of c****s and while telling us about the scary film clip that caused the fear, she jumped a mile high when a businessman passed her on the right. We had a good laugh over that! 


It was a full day, and we were happy Patrick had stayed at home and could have spaghetti dinner waiting for our return in Eppstein! Nick, Patrick, and Michael convinced us that watching 21 Jump Street would be great evening entertainment after our full day. 

Eppstein Castle with Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a real adventurer. Nothing too high, nothing too far. We'd heard about Elizabeth's fear of heights, but check out the tall tower of Eppstein's castle (left), and then notice how Elizabeth is peering over its side (right)! She was even able to see Grandma walking the streets of Alt-Eppstein below.


After touring the castle, we had German "fast food"--Döners and pizzas. Unfortunately, the restaurant had run out of water, so we took Elizabeth on a quick tour of the old town to pick up a couple of liters from our mom-and-pop store; Michael took her to see our little bookstore, and we bought a couple of Eppstein postcards from the stationery store. When we returned from "shopping," her pizza margharita, which she said she liked it even better than American pizza, was waiting!

Grandma and Elizabeth have arrived!

Grandma and Elizabeth arrived from Kentucky this morning. Nick and Patrick are finished with school and joined us for bagels; then we played rummy until Michael returned from school at 1. I needed two hours to work on a workshop presentation for Friday, so sent the jetlagged guests down to rest after lunch. Looks as though Celine has found a new friend!!!

Nick's Graduation Ball

German high school students traditionally have a ball to celebrate their graduation. What a treat seeing all those handsome young men in suits and women in long gowns and fun sitting at banquet tables with parents we hadn't seen since Nick's 5th or 6th grade! 


The students put on superb musical and athletic performances for entertainment in between dances. Nick's sports teacher is a world champion in ballroom dancing, so the dance shows were particularly professional. The teacher and his wife gave us an amazing performance of their award-winning waltzes as well.


The last photo is of Nick with Bene, who played inline hockey with him for years. 

Patrick's Graduation

 Patrick graduated from the Freiherr-von-Stein-Schule! Eppstein's school only goes to 9th grade, then the students have to apply for high school's elsewhere. Patrick is excited that he was accepted to the technical high school in Hofheim for his final three years.


In line with his technical talents, Patrick was responsible for the lighting during the academic ceremony and the music during the entertainment portion. He was quite involved with the organization of the festivities all semester: designing the program and the tickets, setting up the slide show, even organizing cables, so people could watch the quarter-finals of the Europameisterschaft (Germany: Greece).  He was thanked at least three times during the ceremony and received a book from the school.


The theme was Las Vegas and he enjoyed working with one of the fathers, who made the lit-up "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign by pulling three all-nighters!


All of us attended with Omi, as the birthday guest of honor!

Sperrmüll

This morning vans were already driving by--a sign that Sperrmüll ("bulky trash day") is tomorrow. It's a clever system: Almost every usable piece of "bulky trash" is picked up by vans from all over before the garbage trucks even make their appearance. Michael was a bit sad to see the big kiddy tractor-trailer go ("just think, some little kid is going to be very happy"). The electric scooter that had been in our garage, unusable, for the last five years was picked up within minutes as well. 


It was also time to put out the old, unusable hockey sticks. A Sudhaus era has ended. Many cars, even BMW X5s, have slowed down for them, only to find that they are all broken or sawed off because Nick did an art project this year using the handles of different sticks he'd used during his hockey playing days!


Other than attending Nick's parent-student orientation session on Friday night at Hewlett-Packard in Bad Homburg, it was  a home-and-garden weekend. Yesterday when the weather wasn't so nice, we went to the garden store for plants and potting soil and the hardware store for hoes and bark mulch. We also moved out all the furniture in the living room, so the carpet could be cleaned. Today after church, Michael and I spent hours in the gorgeous sunshine getting rid of brambles; Patrick and Nick helped carrying the heavy sacks of soil and mulch. 


In any case, I am looking forward to going to the office tomorrow!

Winding down!

It's time for another post, even if we have no photos. The school year is winding down in the Sudhaus house.


Nick had his final oral exam last week, so he is done with school forever (as he put it). His graduation is on June 15 (which conflicts with his HP orientation evening for his studies); a ball, as in a formal dance with parents and students, on June 23 is also part of the graduation festivities.


Patrick had his last tests last week--history and religion--but still has three weeks of "classes" before graduation from the Eppstein school on June 22. Patrick's had quite a big role in his school's graduation planning--from designing the invitation to designing the tickets to designing the class T-shirt. He's also the only student on the tech team for the academic ceremony.


Michael also had his last batch of written tests--biology and geography--but still has four weeks of "classes" until school is officially let out; Elizabeth might join him for the last one or two if she can get up early enough with jet lag.


I finally was able to have a few friends over for a Game Evening and Indian food (compliments of Nick) yesterday evening, and this afternoon Michael and I attended a concert of chamber music in Eppstein of all places. An incredible cellist I know from the Yale Club (attended the Yale School of Music) was performing in the Talkirche. The concert broadened both Michael and my horizons; the second piece was written by a modern composer, who also attended the concert. The atmosphere was wonderful.


This week is a short week for the boys--Thursday is the Corpus Christi holiday, and the schools give them Friday off as a "bridge day." They'll go down to Georg's for the long weekend and the burial of Opi's ashes near Bensheim. I still have to teach on Friday ("funnel introductions").


Oh, and I got addicted to the TV series Castle and watched the entire first season in less than a week after a friend lent it to me. I will be sure not to borrow the second season until the summer break, so I don't neglect any more parental or teaching responsibilities;)

Georg's dad died Friday two weeks ago. After a hospital visit for stomach and heart surgery earlier this year, he had actually been doing very well: he and Omi had just finalized reservations for a Gran Canaria trip with Georg, Patrick, and Michael for October; the morning of his death, Opi cut out an ad for electric bicycles. He complained of stomach pain though, so Omi made him a cup of tea and he went to bed. While he was waiting for his tea to cool, he died in his sleep. The doctor attributes his death to a heart attack. Even though it is hard for Omi because it feels so sudden to have lost her partner just when he was doing well, I think I'd be happy if I'd lived my full life, then died in my sleep while waiting for my tea to cool.


Since the funeral last weekend, Patrick has had a bad cold, which means I've been making him lots of peppermint tea. He told me yesterday how he is afraid to fall asleep while waiting for it to cool; Michael says he has the same feeling. 


Opi was really good to all of us and we'll miss his warm spirit. He showed the children such unconditional love. His spirit will live on though, and his grandchildren will carry his special love for them forever.

Saturday in Höchst

 Michael and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on Saturday and visited Dorothée and Kristine in Höchst. Kristine brought her unicycle and offered Michael her wave board to ride as we walked along the boardwalk, with stops at two neat playgrounds. After crossing a footbridge to a little island in the middle of the Main River, we spread out our picnic blanket. Dorothée and I chatted while Kristine and Michael played some soccer. After munching on chocolate chip cookies Pat had made and pretzels Michael had picked out, we had great fun playing the game Stadt, Land, Fluß and a bit of volleyball.


We finished our afternoon with Kristine and Michael rolling down a hill. Fun day. Spending the entire day outdoors inspired Michael and me to go to the Opel Zoo the next; because that was a spontaneous idea after seeing the long lines at the swimming pool, we didn't have a camera with us. 


We've started making our list of places to take Cousin Elizabeth when she visits: 1. Rhein-Main-Therme 2. Höchst/Main River 3. Opel Zoo 4. Halli-Galli (which was closed when we tried going with Aaron and Kate) 5. Hike up to the Kaisertempel for pizza 6. Schloss Freudenberg 7. Rüdesheim/Rhine River 8. the Neroberg in Wiesbaden

Michael's fifth-grade class trip

German schools are big into class trips. Before finishing elementary school, Michael's fourth grade class, which had been together for all four years, had a week-long class trip to cement their bond. Now his fifth grade class had a week-long class trip to bond for the start of Gymnasium; they'll be together for five years.


This class trip was unlike any of the others though. They worked on a circus project for each of the five mornings, and on Friday, the parents were to drive the two hours to Lauterbach (northeast of Frankfurt) for their performance. So after teaching my first Writing I class of the summer semester until noon, I picked up Nina (Lukas's mom, who also works at the university), and we drove up the A5 for 1 1/2 hours, starving and grumbling slightly that these kind of activities are not made for working parents.


Of course, the circus was worth it! Each group had a different "talent." Michael was one of the jugglers, spinning plates. The children were in costume, in character, and oh so professional. Michael later told me how on Wednesday he still hadn't mastered spinning the plate, so he worked on it all day Thursday. You'd never have known watching him lifting his legs to theatrically bring the spinning plate under them or twisting his arms to move the spinning plate around his back.


In the afternoons they had other activities--swimming in a wave pool, going to a science museum where you could walk through the model of a heart, touring the old town of Lauterbach with its half-timbered houses. In the evenings, they had game evening, a disco, and a party (for which they were to pack a bag of chips or candies for the buffet); the night hike was canceled due to rain and cold. Michael was very happy with his group of four roommates, except that they wouldn't let him read his Warrior Cats book at night!

Mom's Whirlwind Visit

We were a three-generation family last weekend! Mom stopped by on her way to her Holland-Belgium Tour! What a relief that her cat allergy did not flare up with Celine in the house. Was it because of the Zerkon or because Celine is a short-haired cat?


As you can imagine, we gobbled up the bagels and Whitman's chocolates she brought us. Nick was delighted to have his Kindle and read an entire book over the course of her four-day visit. I was happy to have my Chicago Manual of Style ordered to KY. What a fat book!


She quickly adjusted to the time after a 16-hour sleep her first night. For evening entertainment, we introduced her to the two TV series we are following: 30 Rock and Glee, neither of which she'd seen before. She and I also watched the Burt Lancaster film of "The Swimmer," a John Cheever short story I'm covering in my Writing I class this upcoming semester (begins next week). The boys were smart not to join us: The short story captures the message, the film just draws it out.


Mom treated us to Eppstein's Indian restaurant, where we enjoyed the relaxing, candlelit atmosphere. On Saturday, she joined us for our furniture browsing at XXL Mann. Hope she is now enjoying the tulips in the Netherlands!

Day in Frankfurt

We took the train to Frankfurt on Saturday to get passport photos made for our photo health insurance cards. The day was simply gorgeous. I felt a little guilty about not going to a museum or something, given we were going in to the "big city," but on the train, my German-educated sons were able to tell me Goethe was born around 1750, and that that was the year Bach died, which in turn meant the end of the Baroque Period. Then they identified paintings in my Goethe-Haus brochure as being in the Classical Period and the Romantic Period, so I agreed they were "cultured" enough for the day and could spend it shopping.


Nick came home with sunglasses he'd been eyeing since last summer...and a very large canvas for painting. Patrick came home with a Hollister polo shirt and shorts...and electric socket covers. Michael found a postcard with a nice saying on it...and after some searching, a pair of new jeans. I enjoyed walking around town in the sunshine and getting some peppermint ice cream at the Römer...and a white-board eraser for the kitchen shopping list.


With all the fun we had, we forgot about getting the passport photos!

Abi

 Nick is an Abiturienten, which means he is in his final year of high school and will finish his Abitur degree. The Abitur is grueling. He just finished his Abi written exams in math and his two majors, English and Physical Education (4 hours each). Before Easter he will be given the topic he needs to research and present in a 30-minute presentation for history. After Easter he'll have his oral exams in German. 


Friends and parents try to wish their Abiturienten well by hanging sheets with wishes of good luck (the 3-hour math exam counts as much as 2 years of math, for example). The sheets hung at school are incredible, some professionally printed. Other sheets hang on people's balconies, even on bridges. We modestly hung ours in the dining room.

Who says I'm far from family?

Second cousin Philipp and his family were in the area from Augsburg last week. What a treat for the boys to spend time with their third cousins, Johann and Marie. We also met Philipp's wife Christiane, an artist, for the first time and had a lovely afternoon with cake, apple pie, tea, castle building, iPad, and playground. Nick and Patrick were quite the conversationalists finding out about what Philipp does at General Electric putting together computers for "special purposes."

Five-year-old Johann had so much fun building up the Playmobil castle with Michael during his visit last year that we brought it out again; Michael's Friday friend Lukas helped with putting it together. We then took advantage of the gorgeous weather and walked the two streets up to our playground where all the younger cousins played until it was time to go home.

Patrick's Birthday with Special Guest from California

Patrick basked in the glory of having his leap day birthday this year. His teacher even brought in special "Cookie Monster cupcakes" in his honor, saying she didn't know when she'd ever have another student with a leap day birthday during a leap year! He also brought in chocolate chip muffins and we had a birthday pound cake after his 10-hour school day on the 29th. 

On the weekend we had great fun celebrating again with Georg and Bennett! Bennett was in Stuttgart on business and what fun we had going for our special Thai food in Wiesbaden and walking around the town.  Afterwards we had cake and Nancy Reagan Vienna bars at home, with the challenging game Logo for entertainment. Now he's on his flight home to Tiffany, Sam, and Elise!

Bennett just arrived in Eppstein. Woo hoo! So nice to have a brother in the house!!

Lucky mom

Just have to share this. Last night I was in Frankfurt later than usual because of an alumni meeting. I'd told the boys I'd be home at 7:30, Patrick was in charge of dinner, and they could go ahead and watch our nightly episode of 30 Rock without me because otherwise it'd get too late. 


When it looked as though I'd be able to get home just a bit later than the time we usually watch 30 Rock (now that we've gone through all the episodes of Modern Family), I wanted to call and tell them to wait for me to start the show, but I'd forgotten my cell phone, so I figured by the time I got home the fun would all be over. 


Anyway, I got home at 7:15 and was just bowled over. The kitchen was immaculate (Patrick had apparently been the "boss" and made everyone clean up everything), there was an incredibly delicious plate of the seafood pasta Patrick had made everyone for dinner...and even freshly baked lemon cake!! They were all in the living room chatting and said they were waiting for me to return to watch the next 30 Rock episode!!


Wow, that was the life...coming home after work to a clean kitchen, homemade seafood pasta, cake, and three children gathered around to watch two episodes of 30 Rock together:)

Dad

Thinking of Dad today (2/22/2002)
This morning I brought out my box of letters from Dad. Each one of the envelopes is so special. I love this one from July 2001, where he duly noted Mary and Mark's engagement with a picture of a diamond, and also included an illustration of Daniel Boone's rifle, probably a picture request from seven-year-old Nick!

Celine's Birthday

We celebrated Celine's 2nd birthday this week. The shelter knew she was born in February, but not the exact date, so we decided to celebrate on Feb. 1, Mary and my Oma's birthday. I had a meeting in Frankfurt until 4, so Patrick took the initiative to bake an AMAZING German cheesecake with 6 eggs and 750 grams of quark in it. See photo! 


That morning Celine observed me wrap the triangular scratching post with feather ball. Already then she was excited to climb into the wrapping paper to get to the ball. While we ate the cake in the afternoon, she enjoyed unwrapping the gifts with her claws and rolling around on the cardboard scratching crocodile that had some catnip on it!


Nick had late school, but he enjoyed the cake afterwards and watching Celine playing with her new toys in the evening.

Patrick's Practicum

All ninth graders in Germany have to do a two-week "practicum." Ideally, it should be related to what they want to do later. Last year Patrick applied to radio stations, TV stations, dubbing studios, but no luck. Even the ice-cream shop in Eppstein said they couldn't be sure they would be open the third and fourth week of January when he would need to show up for "work" each morning. Patrick was feeling a bit miffed that everyone was getting spots through connections, and only he didn't have one; obviously his parents didn't have the right connections!


Then Georg asked a mom who is involved with the local politics whether she might know someone. Lo and behold Patrick got a spot with the county representative to the state parliament in Wiesbaden. He just finished his two weeks helping and observing our representative. He decided all those meetings and talks were not for him, but how wonderful that he saw first hand government in action. The representative was super nice and even picked him up in Eppstein because the train connections are so bad. Herr Heinz gave him letters from constituents to draft responses, the raw data to draft articles for the local newspaper, and took Patrick and another intern to all the events, including the opening of a horse farm. 


This week he's back in school after four weeks "off."