Laurel Elisabeth Stevens

Today is Zweiten Weihnachtstag-- the second day of Christmas. I keep hearing from my Catholic German friend that since we are in northern Germany with the Lutherans we don’t have nearly the holidays that the south has, but we still sense the importance of not only the first day of Christmas, the 25th, but also the second day, the 26th. In the south, Drei Heligekonigstag will be a holiday--January 6th--but here we will be back to school and the 12 days of Christmas will be over. Nevertheless, we managed to find the one place that is open today, on Sunday, December 26th, and we went to the zoo. They have Winter Zoo set up with sledding and ice skating, but all in all it was very cold (below freezing). The kids finally ended up eating their lunch inside the monkey exhibit. Sometime it doesn’t matter how it smells. We could’ve eaten in a restaurant, but we were too cheap for that today. We spent our first Christmas in Germany this year. Christmas Eve, Heiligabend, found us on...

(I don't have pictures to fit this topic, so these will have to do for now!) Today is Tuesday. John’s alarm rang at 5:20 or so, and he pushed snooze as usual. When it rang the second time, we heard another sound after he turned it off--Henry crying for us. He has been having a hard time getting to sleep lately, and wakes up easily in the morning. We’ve tried a towel at the bottom of the door to hide the light, and even stuffed the keyhole with tissue paper. He still manages to hear something. John turned on Henry’s cd again and tucked him in and told him he could get up when the CD ended, which would be about an hour. I slept for a few more minutes, then got up to start the day. I have not adjusted to coffee here yet. For a while we had a good Starbucks stash, and there is a Starbucks by the main train station in Hannover, but it is so expensive. I thought I should try out some different kinds here. A new friend of mine who is German and lived in California for 20 years...

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 Please don’t think that my first impressions of Germany or my experiences here are indicative of life in Germany in general. I have found more surprise than I expected from locals who are amazed that I travel so much on public transportation, and I have met many women who drive as often as or more often than they go by other mode of transportation (bike or public). Just today I spoke with a woman whose daughter is in Henry’s kindergarten and she said she has taken the tram only once. But she also offered to drive me to Real sometime (pronounced Reh All) to do some grocery shopping. Things I describe may seem strange to you as well as to those I’m living around! But then again, I never felt quite like I belonged in The Woodlands either. We just returned from the Familiegottesdienst --Family worship--at the Lutheran church. This is a day in which the kindergarten takes a big role in the worship service. A little background which may be repetition:...

On Thursday we returned from a ten-day trip traveling to Michigan and back f or John’s brother Andy’s wedding. I calculate that we spent about sixteen hours in airports, not including flying time. Although it was worth being able to celebrate with Andy and Sarah and to be with John’s family, next time we travel we will have to add into our trip planning the cost of airport food during layovers. (celebrating fall birthdays plus Henry) As I talked to family and friends in Michigan and they asked about our adjustment I was quick to say that we are feeling quite settled in Germany. I added that I was glad the wedding was in November and not September, because if it was September it would have been very hard to come back. Nevertheless, as our final layover in Newark came to an end, I found myself getting tearful at the idea of leaving home again. As the plane took off (after an hour and a half delay in which Elisabeth read a book about a Swedish girl immigrating to America and I watc...

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...

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...