This was supposed to be just-a-list-of-what-we've-done-so-far, but I'm no good
at that, so have changed it to "the first few days", and am now writing this
sentence after having written all the rest.
Wednesday, January 19th: The
pastor of our church here came in the morning for a couple of hours. I think all
the children were up by the time he arrived at 10:30 or so, I'm not sure. We had
a good talk with him, and are glad to feel supported by him personally, and are
sad that he'll be leaving soon. In the afternoon we took three trains and a bus
to Mülheim, to the very street where we used to live, but two bus-stops earlier,
to spend the evening with my friend Peggy and her seven-year-old son, Florian.
It was wonderful how "normal" it felt, also no problem saying goodbye, as we had
another get-together with her planned already. It was a bit weird getting back
on the bus in the "wrong" direction--we didn't even see our house. But a bus and
three trains later, we were back "home" and went to bed.
Thursday,
January 20th: This was a calm day. Friends of mine, Thomas and Caro with their
three-year-old daughter, Antonia, came for coffee in the afternoon ("coffee in
the afternoon" is redundant in German--"come for coffee" MEANS "come around 3:00
in the afternoon", whether one drinks coffee or not) and also stayed for dinner.
I met Caro through La Leche League--she was pregnant with Antonia at the time
and came to my very first meeting, and is expecting a baby in April, and is
considering becoming an LLL leader herself. When they left, they took Jörn and
Katie with them and made a detour to drop them off in Düsseldorf, where Jörn
picked up the car that the C family was lending us until Sunday evening. We CAN
get everywhere by public transportation (although we wouldn't have been able to
get to quite as many places as with cars), but cars are admittedly much more
comfortable and we much appreciate the generosity of friends in lending us their
vehicles.
Friday, January 21st: Jörn took Jacob and Katie and the three
of them went to Düsseldorf (three trains and a streetcar) to pick up the car
that the L family was lending us until Sunday morning, and at 11:00 Marie,
Lukas, Helen, and I left in the C family's car for Mülheim, where Jörn and
company met us. I had a check-up with my doctor (well, with my "new" doctor, the
daughter of my old doctor, who has taken over the practice, but I had met her
once towards the end of the pregnancy with Helen) at 12:00, having made the
appointment back in November. Baby and I were both declared well, and Jörn and
the children all came in for the ultrasound. Baby waved and turned over, trying
to hide, apparently. The due-date is still mid-June, and if I have no more
check-ups the rest of the pregnancy, that's perfectly fine with me.
Then
we went to the Forum, a mall connected to the main train station, where we had
lunch. Currywurst und Pommes (curry sausage and french fries) for the children
and me, something much less interesting for Jörn. We enjoyed it very much,
having looked forward to it for a year, but I'm also fine with the thought of
not having it again for a couple of years. As Jörn and Marie both needed new
glasses, after lunch we went to an opticians, where Jörn was able to have his
eyes tested and order new glasses, but they refused to measure Marie's, saying
that a child has to go to an actual optometrist. That was a bit frustrating, as
I'd counted on just being able to go the optician, and so had not made an
appointment with an eye doctor. The next week I telephoned around to several
practices, but the next available appointment is in March. I guess we're going
to have to look for an eye doctor in Cyprus.
At 4:00 we arrived at the
Auerstrasse church where I'd gone to Mutter-Kind-Kreis ("mother-child-circle", a
playgroup for children up to seven) since we moved to Mülheim in 2001, where it
was very exciting to meet up with quite a few friends, and quickly felt very
normal. Marie, Jacob, and Lukas (Lukas for the first time) went to Jungschar (a
pre-youth-group? anyway, ages seven to 12) at the same time. It was a little
weird and very cool how totally normal it felt to be there, as if we'd never
been away.
At 6:30, when the older children finished (MKK finished
earlier, but there was plenty of chatting with other parents waiting for the
older children), we drove to Essen, where we met another group of friends at an
Italian restaurant for dinner. The last time I'd been at that restaurant I'd
said I'd never go there again--it was full of smoke and one couple stared at us
non-stop the entire time we were there, I imagine because we had "so many"
children. (I'm not exactly sure, but I think we had only three at the time,
which is still more than twice as many as average, and I DO remember that they
behaved beautifully that one time, and I was very uncomfortable with being
stared at...) However, there are now laws about smoking in restaurants, and I'm
finally (mostly...) immune to being stared out, and that was where the friends
(five of them, two couples and one other lady) wanted to meet, so we did. Yummy
German-Italian pizza--I had spinach and ham on mine--and the waitress was very
nice and if anybody stared, I didn't notice. And Katie slept the whole time,
which admittedly made for a much calmer evening than might have been otherwise,
but it was traded off for a wide-awake Katie between 2:00 and 5:00
a.m.
Drove home in the snow, barely able to stay awake for the drive, and
then wide-awake with jet-lag once we arrived...but at least I had a good book to
read, as I'd ordered the biography of James Herriot (actually Alf Wight) from
amazon marketplace some time ago, to be delivered to Peggy, who had given it to
me the evening before. (I haven't finished it yet, as on Sunday my friend Leigh
lent me "The Book Thief", which I'm reading now. Both are very good, but "The
Book Thief" has higher priority, as I have to return it to Leigh.) Oh, and on
the way home, I took a little detour and drove past our house. There was another
car in "our" driveway and lights on. A very odd feeling. We'll be having coffee
next Sunday with the lady who lives there. It was strange to think that she
could have walked out the front door while we were driving past, and she
wouldn't have known who we are, nor would we know who she is. (We were the first
family of the original nine in the building to leave, and the only one to rent
our our flat, but since we left, three other flats have been sold and have new
people living in them, so just because someone we don't know were to appear, we
wouldn't know whether that's our renter or one of the new owners.)
I
guess I'll do the weekend in another one--we're going to have dinner and as
always, this has gotten more than long enough as it is.
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