Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

I tried to tell the Christmas story to my ESL class the other night. My starting point was the carol, Away in a Manger. I figured it would have fewer difficult words than other favorite carols: Hark the herald angels sing . . .mercy mild . . .reconciled . . .O come Immanuel. . . ransom captive Israel . .  I explained manger and hay and then found myself talking about a baby, God's son, placed in a feed box. A place that animals eat from. As a child I had thought that manger was another word for cradle—why else would you put a baby inside it?  Perhaps I should've stopped right there and asked someone in my class to retell the strange story so far.  Later in the evening each ESL class performed skits, and then we all feasted on ham and festive foods brought by teachers and students. As we began cleaning up I saw one of my students waiting by the door. She had told me she was leaving but then I saw her waiting so I asked her, "Do you need a ride home?" ...

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...

Welcome to our new home. Come in, take off your boots, and look around. Stay for some coffee and kuchen (cake) or brot and wurst a bit later. When we were looking at this house I wondered why there was all this extra space by the front door and even glass doors closing it off from the rest of the house. Now I understand. Not pictured is the wardrobe to hold coats and some boots. Often we are all four in this space at the same time, taking off or on boots, coats, etc. and I am glad there is as much room as there is! The glass doors keep the cool air from getting into the warm house! Breakfast area/hallway. We often close off the sliding door to keep the heat in. The kitchen: really this is quite a large space for European standards. The study and guest room--oops, forgot to take a picture of the couch that opens up to be a bed. It has gotten rave reviews on its first use. Living room. Let's go upstairs now. Master bedroom--ironically John sleeps on the low-ceilinged side. He...