Adventure at the Lantern Festival

St. Martins Day

November 11 was St. Martin’s day here in Germany. Saint Martin was a Roman soldier in the early 4th century who was baptized as a christian and once cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm. Here in Germany, it’s tradition for the children to walk in processions carrying lanterns and singing Martin songs. When they reach their destination Martin breads (pretzels) are handed out or cooked over the bonfire. I think the lanterns represent the light and hope that kindness to other can bring into our lives.

It is a really awesome holiday, and one which I didn’t know anything about until I showed up at Lucy’s school with four kids, a lantern with no light in it, and no stroller. I was expecting to find a nice spot to sit and watch the kids get some lights to put in their lanterns, but instead everyone had already provided their own lights and they were walking off into town!

Lucky for me, our bike lights are detachable so we tossed those into the lanterns, and I picked up the heavy car seat with the sleeping baby and off we went. We marched about a mile before my pride gave way and I called Ross to save me with the stroller. My back was hurting SO badly by the time he finally found us, and that took a while because we were one group of about five in that neighborhood who were all marching along their own route. He followed one group and then another until he finally located the poor, dumb immigrant who hadn’t thought to bring along a stroller on what turned into a 3 mile hike through the dark.

We had another shot a few days later when we had another lantern procession for David’s class. You can bet I brought along all the proper equipment!

Cuttings

This week, since I don’t have any commissions pending, I cut a couple of little birds and a celtic battle axe. I love the tiny wings! It reminds me of the bird feeders at my in-laws’ house and how their cat used to watch the birds with a hungry look on her face.

German

Last Monday morning, my friend Amanda and I visited our fantastic and formidable friend Freia for a German lesson. Freia was a school teacher for about 30 years and even in retirement she still has a real gift for teaching.

Today’s topic? Cases. In German there are four cases that appear differently based on the gender of the noun in the sentence. I really loved her example. Here it is in English…

The man was sitting at the railway. A friend took care of the man telling the man a lot of beautiful things, making the man laugh.

Easy enough, right?

Here it is auf Deutsch…

Der Mann saß in der Eisenbahn. Ein Freund nahm sich des Mannes an, erzählt dem Mann viele schöne Sachen und brachte dabei den Mann zum Lachen.

Much to my chagrin, there are an additional 12 options for the word “the” depending on the gender and age of the person sitting on the train track. Lucky for me, Freia is very patient! On the way home from her house, I snapped a picture of the river because it was so pretty.

Birthday!

In other news, Lucy is 5! She was so excited to be five and told absolutely everyone she met. She practiced saying “Today is my birthday” in German (“Heute ist mein Geburtstag”) for about 20 minutes as we walked to school, and she practically danced up the steps into her classroom to collect her birthday crown.

The birthday party was a hit. It was meant to be pretty small, but when the birthday girl invited her best friend Timmy she also made sure to invite his siblings, parents and grandparents. We moved it to the church because our apartment might explode with 10 guests.

For Ross and I, the day was hard. Ross ended up making a lot more food than he had planned as well as baking a cake (which was delicious) and cookies for her kindergarten. I was tired, spent the morning wrestling with fondant and, unbeknownst to me, was about to be bedridden with the flu. We did our level best to be cheerful though, and I don’t think our stress affected Lucy’s day. Between a quick video message to both sets of grandparents, a yellow and pink pony cake, a few gifts and lots of love coming in via messages from America, she was perfectly happy.

That night, after all the kids were asleep I went in and looked and my five year old and remembered her baby blessing. She was blessed to be “an angel to many” and I am really astonished at how true that has been. She has been our angel at the most interesting and challenging moments we have weathered. She was born back in Indiana in grad school when we really needed a sweet and lady like little baby to calm some of the storms that were brewing around us. Of course she has, since then, had many (many) moments of devilishness, but angel Lucy has popped up when we really needed it. She comes back with a kiss or a hug, a twirl in a pretty dress, a funny comment or question, an “I like you and you’re pretty”, or just a smile.

So happy birthday, little angel. I love you.

Cacophonous Cognates

We are emigrating! Ross got a job at the state theater in Brunswick, Germany. In an increasingly difficult job market we are so grateful that he has been hired as an opera singer. He will be doing something he loves and we will be able to stay together as a family.

Braunschweig is in former West Germany about 2 hours from Berlin. The City Center is surrounded by the Oker river. The Theater is next to the river on the east of the Innenstadt (city center) and is surrounded by a really beautiful park.

The theater is beautiful. Like every Staatstheater it is owned by the state (in this case the state of Lower Saxony). Their spring shows include Sweeny Todd, Aladin, Alice in Wonderland, My Fair Lady, Romeo and Juliet, Wozzeck, symphonies, concerts, and a bunch of other shows that are in German and I didn’t recognize

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It all feels a little surreal. My to do list is overwhelming…but also invisible. Often, I’m not sure what to do or what order to do it in but right now one of my top priorities is to learn German.

Ross is more or less fluent. He took 4 years of German in college, he has about 4 months in country, he watched German movies with English subtitles, used apps, listened to audio books and used flashcards. He has been really helpful and he thinks I’ll learn fast if not as fast as the kids. It will be great to have him there.

In high school I took Spanish, but I didn’t try hard and didn’t progress very far. At this point, I’m spending about an hour a day on a bevy of German language apps. I think I might actually be able to pull this off, but its going to take a whole lot of work. I’ve got vocabulary floating around my head all day long and in the mean time I’m trying to wrap my mind around day to day life. If I could take time off every day to study uninterrupted I might be little less distracted, but that’s just not what my life looks like right now. Moving, downsizing, learning a new language, meeting up with friends before we leave, planning a farewell concert, helping the kids finish up the school year, laundry, chauffeuring, cleaning, organizing, mothering…its all smashed together in my brain. It is overpowering sometimes but its also exciting!

I think I’ll keep writing this blog in English. 😉