Some statistics for 2011

The population of the southern part of Cyprus was determined by this year's census to be at just under 839,000. Interesting, I suppose, but the most interesting part to me was the following quotation:

Georgiou noted that the increase in the population was also due to the number of foreign nationals, which reached 21.4% of the total population, compared to 9.4% in 2001. A total of 179,547 foreigners were recorded, of which 62.6% from EU countries and 37.4% from third countries.

My question is this: how were we counted? Eight of us live in this house, all of us "foreign nationals", seven of us from an EU country (Germany), seven of us from a third country (USA). We are by no means an unusual representation. I'm pretty sure that I know more people with dual nationality than with just one. I imagine that for the state of statistics, anyone with Cypriot nationality was counted only as a Cypriot, and non-Cypriot Europeans counted only as Europeans, which would mean that our family consists of seven non-Cypriot Europeans and one U.S.ian, but I couldn't find anything to confirm that. And of course, there's the little issue that after nearly three years here, I'm still not actually legally registered here. I'm also not illegally here, my paperwork is officially "in process". For that matter, it just occurred to me that we haven't bothered to get Elisabeth a residence permit, either, so only six members of the family have their yellow slips. So maybe we were counted as six Europeans and two non-residents?

Of more interest to me personally are a couple of other statistics that are of no interest whatsover to the rest of the world. One is that 2011 was the first year since 1985 that I was not in an airplane, not even once, and the first year since 1987 that I haven't traveled internationally. The furthest away I went the entire year was to the Troodos mountains, less than two hours away by car, and my guess is that 2011 was the first year of my entire LIFE that I spent every single moment within two hours of my home.

Another milestone to me was that, at near as I could calculate, in April or May of this year I passed the 50% point and have now spent over half of my life outside of my birth country. That is calculating both the times that I spent outside of the U.S. while I still actually lived there (to Japan with my family when I was three, to Japan as an exchange student when I was 15, and to Costa Rica as an exchange student when I was 17) as well as all the visits back to the U.S. since I left. However, I won't have lived in Europe for half of my life until the end of February 2012, and that still won't have been half of my life actually IN Europe.

2011 was also the first year since 2000 that I didn't spend any part of the year pregnant. There have been some years in there that I didn't spend very much of pregnant, but I had been pregnant at least part of every single year since 1996 except for 2000, and now 2011.

Another topic: December 26, 2010 I set a goal of breaking a particular habit and have kept track throughout the year. There have been about 15 days in which I slipped up, but compared to probably more like 360 the year before, I guess I should be pleased.

One goal I set for this year was to get caught up with photos, not too happy with being well over a year behind. In October, very briefly, I was just under a year behind with putting photos in albums, but as time marches on, I was quickly behind again. However, I have continued with sorting and editing on the computer, and as I write this post, I am in the process of uploading the photos from the second half of November 2010 to kodakgallery.de, already did December 2010, and have May 2011 ready to upload and will then be able to place an order today. I've already gotten January through April 2011 printed, so as soon as my November-December 2010 photos arrive, I'll have six months' worth of photos to put in albums. (I couldn't do November-December before because I was waiting on copies of my sister-in-law's photos from our last visit to the U.S..) I plan to spend January continuing the sorting of 2011 photos and hope to have June through December ready to order by the time I receive the order I place today, and don't want to be more than a month or two behind after this. Yes, I'm probably slightly OCD in this area.

I don't think I'm making any "New Year's Resolutions" for 2012, just continuing on with some of my goals, which aren't tied to a particular year. I guess I figure that if a particular habit is a good one to start or a good one to stop, then today is the best day to start/stop it, whatever the date. But I don't want to write about any of those goals in such a (theoretically) public place, even though the only person I know for sure who reads this probably knows all of them anyway.

California at last!

November 17th--We flew from Minneapolis to San Francisco, and were met at the airport by my sister, Erin:

Erin called Dad that we had arrived, and he came to the airport with the van. By the time we got back to my sister's house (ten minutes from the airport), my mother had also arrived at the house, and Helen knew Grandma immediately:

Each of the children gave Grandma one rose, one for each decade, as we arrived on her birthday. :-) (Unfortunately, the photo with the roses didn't come out so well.)

We then drove to my parents' house, stopping halfway for dinner and then stopping again to visit my sister Ruth at work, but didn't take any photos.

Thursday, November 18th--Lukas helped Grandma make pancakes and bacon, and then he made fried eggs for those who wanted them:

 Then my future brother-in-law and I put a new tarp on the roof of the shed in preparation for the storm expected today. First I took off the old one--most of it was disinigrated, but I had to remove the boards holding it down and sweep all the pine-needles and leaves (and wonderful composted soil consisting of pine-needles, leaves, and shingles) off of the roof.

 Here we're nailing the boards on the new tarp, while Jacob hands us nails and Mom stands down below, holding the ladder and telling us to be careful:

The only injury of the day was a nasty splinter I got from the broom. I'm definitely happier hammering than sweeping.

This was the most fun--this side of the shed is two storeys above the ground, so we decided that lying on the roof and nailing under would be easier than trying to reach the eaves from a ladder:

 And Ruth got bonding-time with one of her nieces while her fiance and sister worked on the roof!

 Once we'd finished, Mom and Jörn took Jacob and Lukas to be fitted for their tuxedos for the wedding:

 In the afternoon we went to Grass Valley to see my Grandma. The colors are nice enough here in Weimar, but just half an hour away were that much more gorgeous. This tree was in front of the nursing home where my grandma lives:

 Youngest great-grandchild Elisabeth with her Great-Grandma Elizabeth:

 Thanksgiving dinner (one week early) in the nursing home. Residents were allowed to have two guests each, but when my mom asked if we could all be there, they said yes, of course, although they had to set up an extra table in the entryway for us:

There were a few other tables there with larger families, as well. The staff members were all wonderfully attentive and are so nice. If someone has to be in a nursing home, this is a great one to be in and my grandma enjoys the social aspect as well as the care. It was a little bit difficult for me seeing her there, though--when we visited in January, she was in the assisted living facility next door and had her own room with familiar furniture, etc. Now she shares a room with two other ladies and it definitely feels much more like an "institution." Also, Grandma wasn't entirely sure who we all were and asked several times if the baby was a boy or a girl and what her name was. Every time I answered, though, she did laugh and say that she should be able to remember that name!

Socks

Being September, and being a barefoot/sandal/imitation Croc-loving family, none of us have worn socks for about five months, with a few rare exceptions. Last Thursday Katie needed a pair of socks for a trial ballet class (she decided against taking ballet, but that's another topic) and couldn't find a matching, hole-less pair in her own drawer, so I pulled out the single-sock drawer in my room and found her a pair of matching, white, hole-less socks. Well and good.

Then I added the rest of the single socks that were piling up on my desk, and the drawer could no longer be closed. We only moved here 20 months ago, and before moving I disposed of ALL single socks and ONLY moved pairs! Truly, I did!

Yesterday I got tired of the drawer sitting on the changing table and decided to do something about it. (Yes, that's Elisabeth's hand in the top left corner.)

Quite a few pairs were matched up.

After I'd had the children claim their socks (with much discussion between Jacob and Lukas about whether Lukas wanted the ones that Jacob had outgrown--which was most of them--and a similar discussion between Marie and Katie), and I'd put away Helen's and Elisabeth's (she has worn a pair of socks ONCE in her entire life, and they apparently got washed separately...), I went to look for more single socks in Katie's drawer, and found five...

 ...all of which had the matching one in the single-sock drawer.

And there are still a LOT of single socks left! But at least the drawer closes now.