Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

This Sunday in The Woodlands The weather got a little cooler here in the Houston area . . .for a couple of days.  It was already warming back to the 80s today.  But on Sunday we got to wear sweaters and realize that no, we won’t be able to wear sandals all year long. At church I spoke with a friend who was asking how our transition was going, saying that he felt for us, having to leave Germany after just two years.  It nearly made me cry, but at the same time I was grateful for his understanding.  He knows from personal experience the work it takes to move and adjust overseas.   I’ve been looking over my notes and writings from the last two Octobers and Novembers.  Wow--the seasons are really different!  It does feel like continual summer here and, well, I’m not minding it.  Not right now, at least! The entry below was mostly written on a Sunday in November, 2011, when John was in the U.S. for about two weeks.  It was ...

Just enjoying the sunshine and the rooftops This is the time when the question becomes common: “So, when are you leaving?” or “Not long now?”  or “Are you still here?” The last one is the worst.  After being in Houston for 2 weeks, back in Hannover for a few days, then on vacation for a week, John got that question more than once at work on Monday. It’s also the time when I think, “Is this the last time I’ll buy laundry detergent here?”   I look in our bathroom cabinet and wonder, “Can I get this exact same kind of Nivea night cream in the U.S. or should I buy it here while I can?” Funny that two years ago I was stocking up on things American so I wouldn’t have to figure out what to buy here.  As if they didn’t have razors, toothpaste and deodorant here.  They do. And really nice bath soaks.  That’s what I want to bring back--but they are liquid and they come in glass bottles.  We’ll see.  John always gets a kick out o...

On our first morning in S ü d Tirol, the kids woke us up at 7 AM.  It was very dark in our apartment, since we had closed the exterior shutters, and there were no night lights, so we were all sort of stumbling around.  The bathroom is one step up from the rest of the apartment, and there are thresholds to step over from one room to the next.  Any bruises we have may be a result of that.  The next nights we didn’t bother to close the shutters.  Those of us living on the plains need reminders of what a mountain morning in October is like.  There’s no bright sun streaming into your room at 7 AM. Once we were up I suddenly had a brilliant idea that we should go outside to see the sunrise.  I quickly made coffee, got dressed and everyone bundled up so we wouldn’t miss it.  Our hostess, Maria, saw us leaving and commented on our early rising.  When John told her that we were going to see the sunrise, I wonder if she laughed a little. There we were...

We just returned from a week in Süd Tirol, Italy.  Americans say, “Where?”  Germans say, “Oh, I went there last summer” or “Oh, I grew up going there.”  Or, “Oh, we have been there every year for the last 3 years.  The kids love it.”  So along with all the Germans we went to the German speaking part of Northern Italy. Süd Tirol used to belong to Austria, hence the German.  Everyone said the German would sound different, and sometimes I really noticed the difference, but I don’t speak German well enough to be able to point out the different words.  I think perhaps it is similar to a European noticing a Texan accent.  I might get some flack for that. Our view from Sallrainhof We left Hannover at 4 AM.  By the time the sun rose we were in Bavaria.  We were all quite awake for those three hours, so it was exciting to finally be able to see where we were.  About 6:30 we rounded a bend on the autobahn and the beginnings of a su...

Yesterday I heard a first from Henry--he was telling me what was on the Kindergarten lunch menu for Thursday and he said, "It gives Pizza on Thursday!"  He was so excited, I had to ask him to repeat himself to see if he really said what I thought he said.  He directly translated the German phrase into English.  In German you say, "Es gibt am Donnerstag Pizza!"  I thought it was pretty funny.  I wasn't sure if I should correct him or not, and I didn't until later.  I figure it will all get sorted out at some point. Yesterday morning Henry asked me, "How do you say 'tomorrow'?"  "Morgen."  "How do you say 'Grandmere'?"  "Oma or Grossmutter."  Ah, then I realized--he wanted to tell everyone that Grandmere was coming tomorrow!  This morning on the way to Kindergarten he said, "How do you say 'today'?"  He's got some news to tell.   Riding to German class through some orchards and g...

When we first arrived there was so much to write about I could hardly get it all down. I thought, “Wow, writing is easy! I have so much to tell everyone!” Now that we are getting into more of a routine, I think to myself, “Why would anyone want to read about this? We just do ordinary things.” It takes more of an effort to write, and I feel that things are a bit more mundane. But there is still so much that is new to me, so I will try to remember those things. The lovely golden beech tree that I wrote about last week has lost nearly all of its leaves. In a matter of days it went from gold to orange to orangey brown, and then strong winds on Thursday and Friday blew everything down. Today is gray and rainy. So gray, in fact, that we needed indoor lights on at noon in some of the rooms. Our game room has some interesting track lighting that started with three out of four working bulbs. Now it is down to one, and we have not yet found replacement bulbs. I was quite disturbed ...

October 29, 2010 After writing this, I noticed that an orange glow was coming through the westward windows. It being 9 AM I was confused. Then I looked out and saw this beautiful tree. The sun merely coasts across the southern edge of the sky these days--always low sun. Shadows are so different way up here. . . This is the beginning of phase three of our adjustment. Phase 1 was our month in Celle. Phase 2 was our three weeks in our new house before my parents arrived for a visit. Phase 3 is the time that began after my mom left this morning. Our house now has pictures hung, coat racks up, curtains in three r ooms . . . I just returned from taking Henry to kindergarten. My mom left for Houston early this morning, taking a taxi to the airport at 5:15, then John left to go by train to Dusseldorf at 5:40. At 7:25 Henry and I walked Elisabeth to the tram stop, about a ten minute walk, so she could meet an 8th grader to accompany her to school. It was still quite dark when I ki...

Pictured: Henry on a fair ride Henry on his favorite scooter at Kindergarten. Round and round and round. . . Ich musse schreiben wann ich am feeling good about things. That is about how my German goes. I get half way through a sentence and then get stuck. I need to learn words like happy, kind, and try. I think those are words I want to use often, but cannot. Today was the third day that I took Henry to kindergarten. This is a five minute walk from our house and it is affiliated with the Lutheran church we visited last Sunday. The director asked me to stay with him for the “settling in period” which could be, she said, up to two weeks. That surprised me when I first heard it back in August, but now I am starting to understand. The first three days there have followed the pattern of much of our transition. One day is great, the next is discouraging, and by the third there is a light. The structure of the kindergarten is very different from pre-school here. There are aspect...