Last things from Jena

Only a few days left here in Jena!  It has been a nice visit, although the weather is definitely better in the spring and summer!  We have enjoyed seeing some of our friends from previous visits and meeting some new people.  My German has deteriorated and I am sad to say it is not like riding a bicycle, it is like I forgot and cannot remember.  The kids, thankfully, are another story.  And our legacy here will be some German families making zucchini muffins and sweet potato muffins long after we leave!  German cakes are drier and not as sweet as what we are used to and they don't usually enjoy the switch but somehow the vegetable muffins are the exception.  Odd huh? 

Last weekend we went to a Carl Zeiss Jena Football (read soccer) game at the stadium here in town.  It was kind of cold but fun to watch the game.  Possibly more fun to watch the fans!  Each team had a large area at the end where the hardcore fans sat.  They each had a "conductor" as Kegan called him, who perched on the front of the fencing in front and directed them in group cheering.  Mostly men, and each had drummers, they sang, jumped, swayed, held up scarves (and twirled them in unison!), chanted and I am pretty sure even watched some of the game.  It was quite a production.  At the beginning of the second half the opposing team set off red and white smoke bombs (their team colors).  The stadium announcer said in the most resigned, bored voice "At the Ernst Abbe stadium it is forbidden to set off smoke bombs."  And then everyone waited till it cleared.  Clearly not the first time!  There were many riot police there and after the game they used a truck with a fence attached to the front, to ensure that the fans left by different roads/paths from the stadium.  It was fun!

Last weekend we had some American families over for dinner and ordered in pizza and it is an interesting thing that pizza is not delivered cut up, you must do it yourself.  It was a lot of work to cut up that much pizza and I have to say that for a while I will remember to be appreciative of that little service!

I am grateful the US government is no longer shut down.  Kegan is the only one who wasn't asked often to try and explain how this could happen.  Sigh.  But I suppose it was a good civics lesson for Logan! 

And finally, for some pictures that didn't fit anywhere else...

 We are living where there is a restaurant called the Scnitzel Paradise - definitely Germany!

 I believe this little camper is even smaller than the Scamps at home!

 

A few weeks ago when we hiked the Dragon Gorge, we noticed that the German penchant for orderliness even extended to their timber cutting!  These will all be hauled out soon but in the mean time there is no need for the logs to be untidy or cut to unequal lengths!

 When the kids and I visited Berlin we saw this street musician using all these glasses to play music (they were filled to varying heights with water).  It was quite an improvement over running your finger around the rim of your beer bottle!  And impressed us with the time it must take to set up and tear this down each day.

 At the Pergamon Museum there was a display about Uruk, the ancient city in Mesopotamia where Gilgamesh lived.  Kegan and I were entertained because the statue was labelled (as were other statues in the exhibit) as an iconic hero so known because of the six curls of hair and the lion being held.  Those six curls of hair were frequently mentioned.  Very odd!

 Logan mentioned walking by vineyards a few weeks ago but failed to mention that he did his share of sampling.  It was neat that along the path there were one or two plantings of all the different grape varieties, over fifty different ones at least.  It really was possible to taste the differences between them.  And it kept everyone pleasant til we got to the restaurant.

Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin

Last Saturday we (Mama, Logan and I) went to Berlin for the weekend.  We caught a 1:00 train, because that Friday night I had been at a sleepover with some of my friends from school.  Though getting to sleep in helped, the trip was still tiring.  We had planned to go to the Neues Museum right when we got there, and Check Point Charlie after dinner, but since no one was that interested, we decided to skip it and go straight to Check Point Charlie, my personal favorite museum in Berlin.  The museum is inside of a building that used to be an apartment that overlooked the check point.  My favorite part of the museum is the section that described some of the way people escaped to West Berlin.  Of course, not all of the attempts were successful, but some were.  A common way, it seemed, was to hide in the front of a car, where the engine should be.  A simple little spring thingy was attached to the bottom of the car so it wouldn’t sag down, since the border guards mostly only checked the heavier looking cars.  Also, they sometimes arranged for heavily loaded cars to go before and after them, so that they could pass through unchecked.  One car got through by coming up slowly like the other cars, and then speeding through at the last minute.  Many bullets were fired, and though several of the window were shattered, no one had gotten hurt, since the escapees had taken the precaution of filling the car doors with cement, making them bullet proof.  One man helped his wife escape by cutting out the ends of two suitcases, attaching them, and having her lay down in it.  One woman had a pass to West Berlin, and decided to smuggle her child with her.  She didn’t however inform her husband, since he was with the DDR.  She simply put him(the child, not the husband) into a small shopping cart/suitcase and covered him in a towel.  Since the border guards assumed she wouldn’t try to stay in West Berlin, since her child was still in East Berlin, she and her child passed without a problem.  One time the border guards found a log that had washed ashore, presumably across the river from East Berlin to West Berlin, and in the side of the log were hinges that revealed a hollow section, big enough for a person to hide.  These were my favorite ways of people getting to West Berlin, but there were many more, including flying, and digging passages.

After Check Point Charlie we had dinner at a little Italian restaurant.  The next morning we went to the Pergamon, which has a bunch of cool, big stuff (that Logan wrote about).  After the Pergamon we had lunch, and then went to the Deutsches Historic Museum,  It was cool, but we had to see in only a little under two hours.  Unfortunately, the only pictures of our trip we have, are ones that were taken inside of the Pergamon.  Though tiring, it was a good, fun trip.

Pergamon Museum in Berlin

Last weekend on our trip to Berlin we went to the Pergamon museum.  The Pergamon museum, which we saw on our last trip, was one of my favorite museums.  The entrance is the Pergamon Altar, an ancient Greek altar.  Awhile back a German archeologist was traveling through Greece and saw pieces of of ancient Greek friezes being melted down for lime and, acting immediately (actually it took 10 years and friezes were still being melted during that time)  the Germans secured the rights to it and shipped to Germany.  However, there was a hold up at the port and some of the pieces disappeared.  But it finally made it the Pergamon Museum.  In the next room was a Roman wall that is the largest ancient reconstruction ever.  Then there was the Gate of Ishtar which has 2 defining things, how enormous it is and how blue.  Then we looked at a ancient Islamic fortress which was never completed.  The Sultan gave it to the Kaiser as a gift.  Overall I enjoyed the Pergamon and it is still one of the best museums I have seen.

 Mama, Kegan and Me

 

The Romans wall

 A Floor Mosaic

 The Ishtar Gate

Hiking in Germany

 

The Dragon Gorge

Last week I (Logan) did a lot of hiking.  On Wednesday my school went on a field trip up into the woods. We hiked for about three hours and stopped for lunch and came back.  Then on Saturday we went up into Der Drachenschlucht or The Dragon Gorge.  The hike was amazing.  There were places that were only a metre wide and the rock formations were really neat.  At the end there was a beer garden of course and we ate lunch there.  Papa, Kegan and I got schnitzels and Mama got a beef stew.  We walked above the ridge and went back home.  The next day,  Sunday, we, the Gershenzons and the Hartmanns, went up to Eisenach, a town about an hours drive from Jena.  The Gershenzons are another American family staying here, though they have lived here for fifteen years.  The Hartmanns are from French Canada and also have lived here a number of years.  We have done stuff with both families on previous trips.  In Eisenach we hiked up past an enormous vineyard.  On the side of the path there were grapes and we ate some of them.  A little while later we stopped and had lunch.  On the walk back we took a different route and it was significantly longer.  Over all I enjoyed hiking in Germany.

 

The vineyard

 

Mama in the gorge.

 

Kegan and Papa in the gorge

Random things

Well, we are having a holiday today which means nothing is open and I don't have to go downtown to the store!  It is German Reunification Day.  Sort of like their 4th of July in that is the national holiday.  The kids don't care why, all that matters is that there is no school!  I planned to do this post first thing this morning but the internet wasn't working then so...  And my excuse for yesterday is that I was looking things up for a quick trip to Berlin that the kids and I are taking this weekend.  But I will try and catch up with things (except for last weekends' hikes which I am sure Logan will happily write about tomorrow) so that when we get back from Berlin we aren't behind again.

The kids are getting used to going to school here.  Kegan (again) doesn't want leave.  We only have just over two weeks here in Germany and she'd like to stay longer.  Logan could care less about staying longer but is enjoying his free time playing Magic with some boys here in the park platz and whatever else they come up with when they are kicked outdoors for a while.  It has been sunny all week and that has been lovely.  Not warm, but at least sunny.  It has been about 34 - 38 degrees when the kids head off to school in the morning.  Brr!  And yet Logan still would prefer to wear sport shorts...

 

Here they are getting ready to go in the morning.

 

 

On the path to the kids school, there is a house that found out how to use all the old skis they had lying around.  This house also has a climbing wall on one side.

I have gotten to visit the English classes of the 10th and 12th graders at the school Logan and Kegan are attending.  It has been interesting for me (and I think for them since I was invited back).  The things they are interested in about the US is kind of fun.  The 12th graders discuss current events in their English class (more in the nature of presentations than discussions) and trying to explain to them why our government is shut down was quite something.  They are astonished that all Americans cannot see the harm it is doing to other countries.  We loom large in their worldview and they cannot understand that they are not considered in all of ours.  The 10th graders are amazed the kids in the US that are their age can drive, but not drink beer since it is reversed here.  And one of them had heard the children were allowed to use guns.  Surely that is not true!  And they were almost disbelieving when I said that kids could indeed hunt with their parents.  Finally, all of them have a hard time understanding how large the US is.  They are so used to being in another country within a several hours by car or train, that it is hard to imagine being able to drive so far and still be in the same state, much less the same country.  So many things are the same here (or close enough that it isn't a big deal) that when there are these enormous cultural differences, they really jump out.  It was enjoyable to meet the different kids in the classes, and I hope to do more before we go. 

 

This is the English class I worked with.  The teacher, Frau Bodemann, is on the left.  She spent a year in the US and some time in England and has perfect English.  She is an interesting and kind person.

 

We are grateful that we have all our electronic devices with which to make plans, keep in touch with people, and read and listen with.  It makes being here so easy.  Although I suspect my German would be better if my only choice for reading material was German newspapers, etc!  The kids' German is improving and Reuben's and my German friends are kind so all is well.

 When we grilled in the park platz last weekend the little kids were hilarious.  The sausages came off the grill and were put on a plate and then the kids just forked them dipped them in ketchup and mustard and ate them.  The four of them must have eaten about 30 little sausages.

Then they proceeded to put popcorn on a stick and "toast" it, and were very pleased when finally given bread to toast on a stick.  No marshmallows, bread.

Ega Park

Weekend before last we went to the Ega Park with the Gershenzons.  Ega Park is in Erfurt, about a 30 minute train ride, and then from the train station we walked to the bus stop (and lost the dads when they stopped to buy coffee and onion cakes), for a ten minute ride.
At Ega Park they had a squash display up, and all the squashes were attached to their bases with zip ties!
Below are some pictures, but we only have one picture of an adult.

Naturally Papa was the first to discover the squash surf boarder!

Julia and I sitting on a. . . stone thingy(Logan thinks it's a stone sleigh).

All of the kids in front of a squash whale.

 

Squash clown fish.

 

 Squash and wood turtles.

And, going with the theme, a giant squash octopus.

    A truly amazing chair, like the ones you sometimes see at the beach(it even had sand in the cracks).

Pretending to be under the age limit of twelve, and going on the zip line.

Neon colored watering cans that are actually sprinkelers.

A giant rope jungle gym.  There are allot of these in Germany, not in America, probably because they aren't extremely safe.

Eating ice cream while waiting for the bus to the train station, and then nearly missing our train.