Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Before we left Hannover she said, “And you really must keep up your blog.  I want to read about your readjustment.  If you don’t write it down right away, you will get used to things, and then forget how it felt to arrive.” Hauling the load from the grocery store She was right.  There were always excuses to not write things down.  First, we didn’t have a computer.  Then we were busy, flying to California, and then New York.  Then when I did try to write, I got so sad, thinking about our last week in Hannover, full of visits to friends’ homes, the kids romping outside with their buddies, parents eating, drinking and laughing together.  I didn’t know it would be this sweet. I remember thinking, as we were preparing to go to Germany, “What am I going to do there?  I don’t ‘love’ Germany.”  I loved the idea of castles and peasants and medieval times, travel, green countryside and snowy mountains, Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.  Ap...

I just realized that I was already logged in to Blogger, and the words were all in English.  It didn't say "Jetzt anmelden" anymore. Someone I had just met last week asked me, "Aren't you just thrilled to be back?"  How to explain in a sentence the mixture of emotions and memories and thoughts within? This container traveled over the ocean: Hannover, Bremerhaven, Port of Houston, The Woodlands We're moved in to our new home.  There's a long story there, but I don't want to rehash it anymore, except to say that in the last couple of months we've had too many moments of realizing that lots and lots of things have gone wrong for us.  We took turns telling each other that it is simply part of the process.  It's a big transition.  But often we really felt besieged.  And frustrated and irritated and wanting to blame someone.  Really most of it wasn't our fault.  But some of it was our fault.  And sometimes there wasn't anyone to...

Tomorrow will be the 2 week mark of our re-entry to the U.S.   I would like to be writing more, but in the meantime, here are just a few of my re-entry quandaries: Even the laundry detergent is proud to be American.  I'm finally used to identifying myself when I answer the phone, the German way, but when I answer the phone here as "Stevens" or "This is Laurel" there is always a long pause while the caller orients himself.  Much like I was orienting myself over the last 2 years. I tend to yield to traffic coming from the right. I have at least once opened the freezer door to cool myself off. I crave recycling. When the kids tasted the tap water (Leitungswasser) in the apartment they both exclaimed, "Cool!  The water is sweet!"  Um, glad you think so, kids.  Tastes rather minerally (or worse) to me. I found it is easier to speak German than Pig Latin. I get nervous at restaurants, afraid that they'll bring the check too early and ruin t...