Auf Wiedersehen..

This day one week ago, I was still going with Gunnar to the baby gym. I hope this Wednesday, he's enjoying it as well with Kateryna. At first, the gym was a real disaster for him. Terribly shy, he refused to let any other child be near him, and didn't want to climb on any of the exposed play things. While all the other kids were climbing and running around like maniacs, unbothered by any fear or social encounters, Gunnar just cried and cried and only wanted to go home. And I didn't force him, I was extremely carefull and patient. But nothing worked, it was really strange. Gunnar was just different. But one day he went with his dad, and since then he shows less and less fear. He even seems to enjoy it now! Like last week..

I had already been introducing Kateryna to the baby gym, but because this December 2nd was my last day in Neustadt, I went again with them. Gunnar still doesn't like getting a stamp on his hand afterwards, so then again I got a nice elephant on my arm from the teacher. When we got home, Kateryna had to go to her language course, so I went to get Gunni to sleep. He semed excited that after a few weeks I was bringing him in bed again, so he didn't fall asleep easily. "Noch ein Buch.. noch ein Lied.. noch ein bisschen kuscheln..!" But I refused to let him get out the bed to get another book or toy, and then his mother came because she heard him whining. She finally got him to sleep, but when he wake up again, he was still tired. And Malte got home sobbing over stomach cramps. It was as if both kids had been worrying about what was going to happen; Malte sick from the tension and Gunnar in such a bad mood we had rarely seen him in.

Malte also wasn't so enthusiastic about the Peter Pan play he had seen this morning because of the scary Captain Hook, but luckely he was still cheerfull enough to make some last pictures with me. Gunnar didn't want to do anything, execpt for eating a rice waffle with Vitam. We gave him one and then he demanded another one, which we refused because Vitam is very salty. He didn't take that well and cried furiously for at least half an hour. Even when his dad came home he didn't stop, it was like he had a tantrum or a frustration attack, the Vitam rice waffle was not to go of his mind.

To make it even worse, Malte (and so Mieke neither) couldn't join me on the train to Hannover because he turned really out to be sick. Like the two kids were both sabotaging my depart! I had to leave quickly now, because Rainer came home at ten past three and the train left at half past three.

I said goodbye to Philipp, Mieke and Malte (who asked very surprised "why are you crying mammie?" and smiled amused at me when she answered that I was leaving).. then had to run out of the house and race to the station. A few minutes later, Rainer and Gunnar arrived there by car with my stuff. Happily in the train Gunnar seemed cheerfull again, and he was singing a crazy christmas song he had learn from Malte. From me had learned more Sinterklaas songs. The prove that he really learned to understand dutch: by singing "but the horse must go to bed" (in "Zachtjes gaan de paardevoetjes"): he once objected and proposed that the horse got a little playtime first.. ^^

In Hannover, we had to wait half an hour for my train and Rainer proposed to take a seat in.. World Coffee :) I choose an Orange Wochachino but when Rainer got back, he had also bought us some chocolate cake! Gunnars mood got even better and he devoured his cake in no-time. For the grown-ups who knew what was going to happen in a few minutes, it was more difficult. Just looking at those two Merkels made me miss them already.. like the other Merkels as well. But the coffee was really nice, and I was glad we had gotten some time for it. This moment got even more emotionall when Rainer suddenly presented me the family's "goodbye gift": a "Merkel-coffee-cup" with my own name! And a candy heart from the christmas market and a sweet christmas card "from Gunnar" with many thanks.. I was really, really touched. And then we had only ten minutes left. We guickly got up, I put on Gunnars shoes again because he had wanted them out too when his jacket had to get out, and we run to the train, were Katya had arrived just in time to say goodbye as well. Rainer put my suitcase and backpacks and bike into the train, I embraced them and took Gunni for a last cuddle on my arm, then the conductor whistled and I had to jump on the train. When the train drove a way, Kateryna was waving, Rainer crying and Gunni grinning, just as his brother leaving me with his sweetest smile.

The full moon was shining yellow like cheese and seemed to have a face, like Gunni always said. In the hurry I had forgotton to cry, and even to take the present with me in the train! But I knew that I would visit them again, soon. "You belong with us now.." they had said, and even more with that special designed mug, I somehow felt as if I was leaving my real family (the third one).

Originally, Benjamin would have accompagnied me on my travel, but because of his new job he couldn't do that anymore. Now Willem was waiting for me at Hengelo station, who helped me getting in Enschede and a few days later in Wilnis with my stuff. I felt sad and bored being back in NL, but it was great having Willem back around and seeing my mother and sister and omi a few days later with Sinterklaas (6 dec.). I miss the family, their house and especially their kids a lot now, but I feel comforted in leaving them with Katya and in taking home so many good memories with me. In January I will visited Neustadt again, for Benni will then perform a theater play from Schiller in Stadthagen. I just can't wait! :)

The handover

Yes, you read it well. It's not Hanover but Handover this time. Or the handover of Hanover, and our Gunni in Neustadt.

The Monday after my last article, we had a special dinner. Two Ukrainian girls had joined us: Rymma, who the kids and I had already met on the day we went to the zoo, and Kateryna (Katya), her younger sister. The reason they met us was that Kateryna had come for an important function: au-pairing Gunnar part two! In August, she had already visited us for a "job interview", and I got a good feeling about her. She was interested and sweet to the kids. Malte wasn't so interested because he had fallen on the street while waiting for her and was sobbing. But since she arrived the 16th, he

is completely in to her. Gunnar however, was very suspicious at first. He didn't leave my side for days and we had to babysit him together, to let him get used to her. Something I admit I liked :) But after a week, he seemed totally at ease and even let her put him asleep. I showed Katya everything and we went to babyturnen and Spielkreis together. Surprisedly, there were a lot of Russian women (Katya speaks Russian) too, which annoys her (she wants to learn german, and fast!). Gunnar has to learn Russian now. What a challenge! Rainer demands that Katya speaks only Russian to him, like I Dutch, but we find that is impossible. She has to throw in some German keywords, otherwise communication becomes a problem for Gunnar doesn't understand a word yet. But she reads him a lot and at first Gunnar found it funny and asked me for translations, but now he just nods and listens, also when she speaks. And of course, the family learned to say goodnight ("[Spakoja noche]") in Russian..

My Dutch lessons however, got a painfull setback. I must have catched a cold on the roof of the Hanover observatory, and for almost a week my throath was so bad that I wasn't able to speak, not even sing songs! And that in the Sint Nicoals period.. :(

But somehow Gunnar still remembered "Sinterklaasje, bonne bonne bonne.." and ev

en made his own version of it (" Gooi wat in m'n Schupkarre..")! Sinterklaas was so flattered that on Friday he really threw someting in his shoe (and Maltes)..

Katya and I now share my room, because it will be hers soon, and that is very "gezellig" :)
The first weekend, the family was not there and I went with Katya to Hanover to search for the Dance school. I also got my last german haircut from the nice guy of the Cut Club that even remembered me. The next weekend, we also were alone, but Sunday Katya and Rymma took me to an anatomic exposition with REAL bodies..! It was a bit creepy but very interesting. One body was slashed in hunderds of pieces and so you could look into everything. We also saw a baby skeleton: it had a laughing head! Isn't it wondeful, babies are born with a smile..

The Christmasmarket had begun and on Saterday we walked a bit through it. It was exactly so like last year. At nine we went to World Coffee, were I had organised a little "carrotmob" to celebrate my last days in Germany. I had invited most peope I knew here (10 oder so) and they didn't all show up but Katya, Rymma, Isabelle and Benni had come, and that was really nice, not only because of the delicious hot chocolate/whococinos and cake. I

was happy to see them again before leaving.. and Benni even had made me a "goodbye gift".. a mug with a group picture of this years weekend in Bückeburg! Awesome.

Now I'm still enjoying my last days in the family and with "handing over the stick" to my "trainee" Katya. I guess poor Gunnar still doesn't realize what will happen this wednesday, and actually me neither, but Malte reminds me sometimes about it: "The dinosaurus is sad, because he's exctincting, Silvia is sad, because she's leaving.." :'(

Dancing with stars

Ok, I admit it. Bollywood dance is not very German. But since Bride & Prejudice I always wanted to do this once and this saterday I had the chance to do it in Neustadt. In NEUSTADT. So a Dutch girl goes to a German class of Indian dancing.. and got charmed immediately. This dance style is so elegant, and powerful at the same time. The movements also mean things, in one dance a whole story is depicted, especially by the hands. That makes it even more magical. The dance is may look easy which it is totally not, but we got a very good teacher that learned us in four hours almost a complete choreography. So that we at least got the feeling what it was like (sweating, sweating..). It was great fun. From every dance style I once tried (jazz ballet, streetdance, salsa), this I found the most interesting.

When I got home the kids jumped on me, and Mieke made a nice "price" of icecream with baked apples. Then they found I had to perform something I learned. Unfortunately I found it really hard to remember the dance sequence by myself and in such a small space it didn't go particulary well. But the audience was amused anyway. Then Malte wanted to dance and together with Gunnar he made a cute performance on the Sankt Martin song. His father then also had to show his talent by showing an "indian" dance too (*rofl*) and an italian dance he danced once with Mieke. So sweet.. then he danced with Malte and Gunnar with me and suddenly the whole family was dancing (except for Philipp who had escaped). We danced until we saw the sky turn pink and Rainer decided to take the kids out. Gunnar was a bit sad, he said it was just so funny and didn't want to let me go, but I really needed to take a shower now..

The night before was wonderfull as well. It was the "Night of Astronomy" in Hannover and I went there after dinner to catch a speech about "Gravitationswellen" and a new space project called LISA satellite. Very interesting. The "Rathaus" looked magical in space lights (see video) and four girls were playing clarinet songs. I got a star cookie and a knowing walnut and then a special bus took us to the Hannover Observatory. And there we could look through a real telescope! The sky was a bit cloudy but we saw Jupiter with two of his moons in a straight line, the seven Pleiaden and even a dim light of the Andromeda Galaxy, our neighbours.. It was amazing. Two kids and I also saw a falling star, but I won't reveal what I wished for :P

Meanwhile, there was another lecture going on and I managed to hear the end. A woman asked the young man a question, but it was more like a statement and a long story then actually a question. The story was about a coincident with dates and her statement was that nothing in life is coincident but that life has a purpose. The scientist calmly commented that everyone experiences such coincidents but that there is no purpose behind it, and that science is not interested in the purpose of life anyway. Science, he explained, isn't saying what things are, but is searching for theories and models to explain phenoms. I found this discussion was getting interesting, but sadly it turned out the woman was not up for discussion. She just rattled on with her story. Even when we were waiting for the bus, she was getting on and on about it. It was really strange and I got the idea that the woman was somewhat crazy. She talked about personal events that could be predicted by numbers of their dates and that she had calculated everything in the Bible and got some big rules out of it. She had gotten seven kids also her job was done. She then asked me what my birthday was. I almost curiously excepted a prediction now but she just murmed something and then ratlled on. The story was difficult to follow but in the end I believe she just wanted Jezus light and peace to come into the world. Another thing she postulated was that the earth is the heart of the Universe. A little centralistic, but really sweet thought, I found. Not only have we become the eye of the Universe, with whom we were looking at its planets tonight, now we were also the heart. Of course, if love is anywhere, then it is on earth :)

Sealife 2009

It's an unbelievable feeling that in a few weeks, I won't live here anymore. The thought of it makes me sad, but I knew from the beginning that I couldn't stay here forever. And I feel now that I've learned about everything what I needed to learn here. Time to leave the eldery house again..

Last Saturday, I even got my "au-pair exam", accidentally as both parents couldn't be with the kids for one whole day. From breakfast till bedtime, Gunnar and Malte would be under my responsability and have to be entertained non-stop. Now I would really experience the joys of a real full-time mother.

Strength arrived already on Thursday, when Anna came into town! She was on her way to Magdeburg and stayed until Friday. Earlier this year I had met her in Hannover, but know she could finally meet my family and see Neustadt. She liked it all and it was very good seeing her again. She even bought the children a "Petterson and Findus" book..

So the next morning, the test started at half past 9. The kids were in a good mood because of a nice lantern walk on friday and my promise of taking them out today. So breakfast and teeth brushing went fight free. Until half past 10, we played a little upstairs and I read them Anna's book. It was the same story as we had seen in a puppet theater recently, the story about how Findus came to Petterson, so the kids liked it a lot. Then it was time. Getting them to put on their jackets and shoes can take quite a while, but in 20 minutes we were ready to go and waiting for the bus. "Busje komt zo, busje komt zo.." I sung the kids, what of course was quickly transformed by Malte in "Arschbus kommt so." Because I was in a good mood too, I told him that, only for today, he was allowed to swear as much as he liked, but NOT at Isabelle. I thought by swearing all day whithout comments he might get tired of it and hopefully grow over this child-puberty phase of Arsch, Scheiße and verdammt noch mal. How a four-year old ever got in this phase is still a mystery to us.

"Busje fahrt zo, busje fahrt zo..." sung Gunnar in the bus. "Treintje komt zo, treintje komt zo.." I continued on the station. And indeed. Around 11h40 we arrived at Hannover Bahnhof. We took the elevator because of the pram. "No not that button, are you stupid?!" said Malte and some people were raising an eyebrow.. Isabelle would wait for us "under the tail" of the horse of Ernst August. I had asked some people if they would join us to Sealife, and I was very happy she would. Unfortunately she texted me that she was late, now I had to entertain the kids for 50 minutes in a train station.. what to do? I decided to go to Virgin, where they had some childres books. That was good, we also could sit there. But after a while, Gunnar suddenly said: "must pee". Nooooooooo! Gunnar is now over his diaper phase. We had taken his "mobile toilet" with us, but there was no way we could use that here, without possibility to empty it. So we had to go to McClean. They had a special toilet for wheelchair and pram owners, but it was occupied, and another woman was waiting for it. So we waited and waited, because normal toilets cost 1 (!) euro. When we were finally finished, it was 12h30 and Isabelle was already waiting for us now. But we managed to find each other. At first the kids were shy, but that would soon end. I bought them a bretzel, we searched for an elevator, took the metro and then we finally arrived in Sealife.

Navigating through small hallways with a pram and two kids on my hand, meanwhile admiring the beautiful fish, sharks and rays, meanwhile making pictures and conversation was somewhat stressing too, but happily Isabelle, the kids and I enjoyed ourselves a lot in the great aquarium zoo. Funny enough one year ago I was in Sealife too, but then in Scheveningen.. :)

Gunnar was fascinated by all fish, especially the sea horses, and Malte couldn't wait to see the sharks. At the end we had a little drink (I shared my Icetea with the kids) and tasted some "pepernoten" that Anna had brought me (whouhou!). Then we went back to the train station. The kids were really comfortable with Isabelle now and in the metro they even started to playfully swear at her.. oh, so terrible!! Happily Isabelle worked in a Kindergarten..

In Hannover, we passed by the "magic well" with the

music, where Gunnar and Malte danced a little at. Then Gunnar discovered some leaves lying around trees. Nature has a magical attraction on children too, it appeared again. I had to tear him away to get him back into the pram, because Malte was now complaining about toilet needs (and I had asked them in Sealife, grrrr). Meanwhile Gunnar was crying like a maniac, because he wanted to walk in the leaves. We also discovered that we had lost his sleeping rabbit... a disaster. But once in the pram he fell asleep almost immediately, so tired was he. So after visiting McClean again, we decided to go home.

Isabelle stayed with us until the train had come. "Where is Isabelle?" asked Malte repeatedly, as he was missing her already. I feeded him some organic gummy bears (I agreed with him that they tasted weird) and read him a book. In Neustadt, we looked for a bus, but of course they didn't go on saturday afternoon. "Dreimal Scheiße", I murmed.. Malte looked up, surprised. "Yes!" I grumbled. Now we had to walk the long road back home. Not a problem for me, but for Malte, without kiddyboard.. To make it even worse, Gunnar had woken up, demanding a toilet. I had no other choice than to put him on the pot and throwing the pee in the bushes. After a while, Malte started to complain of being to tired to walk. Gunnar didn't want to walk either. So I tried to put Malte toghether with Gunnar in the car. Gunnar didn't like that and the pram got really heavy, but somehow we managed to drive. It started to get dark and I distracted them with some Sint Nicolas songs.

When we got home I made a mistake. I lifted Gunnar out of the car, but then the car lost its balance and tumbled behind, with Malte still on it. Crying, crying, crying. But he was ok. Philipp was already home and he took over the kids for me for half an hour so I could prepare dinner. That was so great, he even put on the dutch K3 Cd. The pizza was not a salami pizza so the kids didn't eat much of it, but at least finished their Kartoffelpuffer. Philipp also helped with the teeth brushing and then I read them the last pages of Anna's book. I asked Malte if he had a nice day, and he said yes! He cuddled me and didn't want to let go of my hand, what reminded me of Kirsten when I say her goodnight. But he quickly fell asleep. Gunnar needed some more time, I had to sing many songs and it wasn't until 20h30 that I could leave the room without him noticing it. I cleaned up the kitchen and toke a long shower. Hèhè.. At about 22h30, Rainer came home. I was released! :)

Sankt Martin

By the way, today is a special day too.. it is "Sankt Martin"/"Sint Maarten"/"Saint Martin"! Just like on Halloween's Eve, children are performing trick or treat: they ring the doorbell of people in their street and sing them a song expecting sweets in return. Only with Saint Martin the kids don't wear scary costumes but a lantern instead. In the Netherlands, the tradition is limited to the south but here in Germany it seems that it common to the north as well. And of course Malte and Gunnar wanted to get their candy too! "Silvia goes along in every stupidity, so she will go with you for sure" was their mothers nice remark. So there I went with the two whippersnappers. "To Biecks or not to Biecks?" was the question. We went to them first. The Biecks, who also have a black cat called Moorle, said that we were the first who were singing such a lovely song, the other kids had just sung something stupid. The song went like this:

Herr Joan also rewarded us rebundantly with bonbons and cookies. Five other doors later, the kids' bags were full and their stomachs would be soon. I also had gotten something. I remembered only one Sint Maarten trip in my life, that was when we lived in Terneuzen and we got home with a giantic bag full of sweets. That was "the hammer"! Now fur those Merkel kids it must have been great too, cause the 11th November is a "merkelday", or "destiny day"..

9 months --> 10 months !

Shame, shame, shame.. no writing for all those days! But the last months have really flown over. If two kids, Germany, "Wahlkampf" and learning german wasn't enough, then I still had my thesis to write on.. hence the lack of time to write here, unfortunately.The first thing I didn't get to write about was the fabulous day in September when Malte, Gunnar and I were allowed to visit the fabulous Hannover Zoo. I was really excited, not only because it was my first trip to the Zoo since ages, but also because it was my first big trip alone with both kids. Happily everything went wonderfully well.. The evening was also wonderful: there happened to be a great free concert of SILBERMOND at the Hannover
Messe! And I didn't have to go alone to that either. Gaetan had sadly left the country, but his EVS follow-up Isabelle was very nice as well and a big fan of the great german band! The concert took place for the occasion of the Ideen Expo, I wrote something about that on my regular blog. This special day ended with a bang: beautiful fireworks on (Peter Fox) music!The next events were related to battling climate change and my purposes of being a "german green" this year.. I participated in a global flashmob with Greenpeace in Hannover to wake up world leaders, and in the "Wahlkampf-hochtouren" of the German Young Greens in Wolfsburg to propagate the Greens in the days were Germany needed to choose a new government. It was a bit decieving that our feared "Black-yellow" nightmare came true, but nevertheless a nice result for the Greens was attained.
Other joyfull days include the day I spent with Isabelle in Minden because of a new "Benni and Johanna"-play (Dürremat's "Die Physiker"),

which was again worth the travel, and the "farewelltrip" the family already had to gave me in Oktober because of their full agenda. So the 18th they took me to Celle, a beautiful small old city were we got a guided city tour and visited the Bomanns (the first German Green!) museum. They told me a funny legend, namely that Celle and Göttingen had to have a prison and an university, and that Celle choose the prison, because "we don't want students, they only give trouble".

So they had rather criminals then students! Maybe because of the name - Celle("cells")? :)
One week in Oktober the family also gave me a holiday, when they went on a religious camp on Baltrum with their pastor (Stephan Jakobs). I used a few days of this week to make a short visit to Enschede and move already some stuff back home. Because originally, I was intended to leave on the first of November. But the bureaucratic agencies in Ukraine made it impossible for my follow-up, Gunnars next au-pair girl, to be here in time. So I decided again to stay here again one month longer.. A decision I didn't had to think long about.. :-)

Holidays at Steinhude

I wonder if Gunnar will ever remember me when he grows up, but for now it seems as if he sees me as some kind of family member. This appeared to me when he was summing up the members of another kids family: "Lisa's mum, Lisa's dad, Lisa's Silvie..." :D
Talking about family: my "real one" was here for the holidays! "Here" as in "Steinhude", a place not far from Neustadt at a great lake (small inner sea). A few days before, I got a visit from Willem as well. We met in Bremen, not far from both Neustadt as Enschede, and there we visited the Universum, a great science museum that can best be compared to the NEMO in Amsterdam. Of course we saw also the Bremer City Musicians and the old innercity, which was really nice, and had dinner at a "dutch" pancake ship. "Dutch" between brackets, cause although they called it the "Pannekoekenboot" they didn't even had real pancake sirup! And the pancakes were somewhat lighter, containing more eggs than dutch ones. But "lecker" nevertheless.Although I still had to babysit this week, Willem and I used my free afternoons to visit Tropicana Stadthagen (oh gorgeous swimmingpool), the Neustadt innercity and my mama, omi and sis in their appartment in Steinhude. The Merkels also were so kind to organise a dinner for my family and Willem at their place, and that was awesome. Gunnar enchanted my grandmoter almost immediatly and Malte found in Kirsten his newest play-victim. He tought at first that see was me ("Huh Silvia why are you wearing sunglasses??) and was really sad when she had gone home. His joy was indescribable when she came to visit him another day: astonished, his mouth fell open, he ran at her and gave her a big hug!
I also went to Steinhude with Gunnar one morning, to visit all togheter the cute butterfly farm. Gunnar liked it a lot. Another day we went for a boat trip on the Steinhuder Lake and on Sunday we visited the Herrenhäuser Garten and the Berggarten in Hannover. I also showed them around Neustadt and stayed one night at their place. We all really had fun and great weather. Although I still had to work, it felt like a real holiday for me, too. It was great to see my dear family and Willem again and have them here in my world!