Laundry and other adventures...

Living in Germany for 30 days now has had it's ups and downs. There are wonderful things about being immersed in a different culture and there are difficult and frustrating times as well. We are having a hard time with learning when things are open. First you have the American amenities on the base that all have different hours-some daily, some most days and others only certain days. Then there are the German stores and restaurants. Some things close in the afternoons, others don't open till evening...trying to find an early dinner at 4pm is a challenge and hoping to find an open store after 8pm is nearly impossible. I think this is part of what they mean when they tell you it will take 6 months for you to start feeling comfortable. It will take at least that long for us to figure out when things open and close. In the mean time we are trying to stay flexible...but we are more used to the stores and restaurants being flexible 24/7-not us.

Laundry is a different subject here too. Staying in our temporary apartment-our "ferienwohnung"-is I guess comprable to staying in a vacation condo in the States. We are responsible for all of our own cleaning and laundry. The landlady will clean our bedding for 5 euro a set (that is $7.50) or we can do it ourselves. BUT we can't use her facility. So she recommended I take our laundry to the Waschsalon-German style laundromat-that is a couple of blocks from our ferienwohnung. So, I did. I packed up our dirty clothes, towels, etc. in a suitcase and rolled it down the street to the only-German-speaking wasch-frau at the Waschsalon. Upon learning that I knew as much German as she knew English, she proceeded to put my dirty clothes in the washing machines for me (wierd), put in the soap and run them (3 loads). She instructed me to come back in one hour. I was confused by this point but willing to go with it-practicing the art of flexibility-so I left and came back an hour later. She had moved some of my things by then to the dryers so I quickly went through to make sure nothing shrinkable had made it in and then moved the rest myself. Once things were set, she started the dryers (at what heat, I have no idea) and told me to sit and wait. So I got out my wordsearches-thank you 3rd grade teachers!-and proceeded to wait. 15 minutes later I was pulling my warm, dry clothes out and folding them nicely into the suitcase. I then went to the counter and waited for the wasch-frau to take my money. I didn't know how much it would cost, so I was prepared for anything. She got out her calculator and added up 3 loads of wash and 2 dryers running for 15 minutes....total=20.80 euros. WHAT? Could that possibly be correct? Ok...being flexible, I paid her (all in coins b/c she wouldn't take my 20 euro bill) and left with my clean laundry. I cannot describe the feeling of shock I had walking the 2 blocks back home realizing that I had just spent $30 on 3 loads of laundry!!! THIRTY DOLLARS!!! Unbelievable. A few days later a friend on base told me that there are laundry facilities on the base camping grounds that take quarters that I can use. So, my second laundry experience was packing the suitcase, taking the bus, walking on base to get American Dollars from the ATM (you can choose Euros or Dollars), walking to the campgrounds, finding the laundry, putting my bills in the change machine, starting 3 loads of laundry myself, putting them in the dryer myself, and then folding it and returning home. All of this for less than $5...go figure. A little more effort and a TON of savings. Some things will just always be better in the States. :)

Language Issues

Something that I have learned is that German students take 6-7 years of English class, so many of them understand and/or speak English. The problem is more that I don't understand any German-yet. There is a Rosetta Stone Language program at the garrison library. I haven't started it yet, but hope to before the end of the week. Ben has been great at translating important things and at communicating with German waiters, shopkeepers, etc. Also, our current landlady is German with as much English as I have German-so Ben has been asking for help from collegues when he needs help communicating with her. Most Americans here don't seem to bother much with the German language, but I am looking forward to learning a new language...it feels very helpless to not be able to communicate basic things with people. I will often get comments or questions about Storm when we walk and it is so awkward to try and express that I only speak English when someone is looking eagerly at you to respond to whatever they just said. I am trying to learn phrases, but when I have to use them I just freeze up...or I want to respond in Spanish, which is the only foreign language I know. Isn't that funny? Someone speaks to me in German and I want to answer them in Spanish-if I can pick up on what they said in the first place. HA!

Have you ever been in a restaurant with someone that you know so well that you don't even have to talk much b/c there isn't much to be said-especially if he is your only friend on the whole continent...well, that is Ben and I every night at dinner. And normally, I would enjoy a little eavesdropping to pick up on local interests but when they are speaking German, that is out of the question...so many meals, we sit quietly, chatting about our days, making plans and me, trying to pick out words or phrases I recognize that I can ask Ben to translate-if he can. I wonder if I will ever be good enough at German to eavesdrop in the restaurants here...? Should that even be my goal? haha Maybe not. ;)

Adjustments

So we have been here in Garmisch, Germany for 11 days-it seems longer than that even though several of those days were spent mostly just trying to stay awake. The first adjustment to conquer was definitely the time change. An 8 hour change from Utah time was significant. For instance, it is 9am as I write this but in Utah it is 1am. Try telling your body to be awake and stay awake for another 12 hours when it is used to being in deep REM...Ben was better at that than I was, but then again he had to be at work Monday morning after our Sunday arrival...and I have always needed more sleep than him. ;) Anyway, by now, we are in good shape. I have even gotten up before 8am the last few days and left the house with Ben for work-oops, does that sound braggy? (Any The Office fans out there?)

So now that we have adjusted our sleep schedules, we are still adjusting to not having our own place. The apartment we are in is a comforatable enough place for a one week vacation spot, but to live in....not so much. So we have resorted to sleeping on the futon which is more comfortable than the bed and cannot wait to have our first shipment of goods arrive with REAL pillows...they have these feather pillows here that you have to bunch and bunch just to get like a 1/2 inch of height out of them. I don't mean to complain, but I think I'm gonna need some serious chiropractic care if our own pillows don't arrive soon. ;)

Not having a car yet has been interesting. Our apartment is about a 20-30 minute walk to the base (where Ben works, computer/internet access, commissary/grocery, PX/shopping, library) so we have had to figure out other modes of transport b/c the walk is just a little too far for some of the back and forth our schedule has required. One of Ben's co-workers has lent us 2 bikes which are awesome, but in the rain/snow, we have learned to use the bus which is much more efficient. I still walk the dog during the day, giving us both exercise, as long as weather allows. Most rainy days it clears up by afternoon so that hasn't been a problem. There are tons of pedestrian only walkways even besides the shopping district in Garmisch, which is only 2 blocks from our apartment.

Storm and I have been having fun finding new places to walk. They have a walking/bike trail right by the river that reminds me of the Ogden River Parkway. It has little covered bridges that cross...very pretty, quiet and perfect for our walks. We may have arrived a little too late in the season to get any real hiking in before winter really sets in-especially with our limited clothing options at this point.

Yesterday and today we had appointments to start looking at long term housing. We looked at a very large house in Garmisch that is old, not at all updated and too big for our little family. So that won't work. We also saw an apartment very close to Ben's work that we liked. It is a ground floor and basement apartment with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, new wood/laminate floors and a fenced yard for the dog to roam in. The bedrooms are "snug" so we would have to make that work with our furniture but the living room space, kitchen, bathrooms and guest space are all great. The patio has a mountain view and there is plenty of light. There is a faint smell of smoke from the previous tenant, but we think that if the landlord takes out his curtains and we put our own up that might help with the smell. So far it is our best option. We are anxious to get into our own place but don't want to jump the gun, either.

Another adjustment has been not having internet in our apartment...I didn't anticipate that since most hotels, B&Bs, etc in the states have wireless. But, there is a cafe on base (where I am now) and a pub close to base that have free wireless so I am figuring out their hours and how best to lug our new (bigger) laptop around safely and efficiently. I guess I have been spoiled. :) But since we don't have a phone yet the internet is our best connection to friends and family in the states, so it is pretty important to work something out...and I think we have. The bus runs from 1 block from our apartment right to the gate of the garrison where the cafe is. So, if I load the laptop up in the backpack (that we had to buy when we got here b/c Ben's messenger bag wasn't cutting it) and hop a bus, I can sit and drink tea and enjoy my happy connections to home. :) Hopefully that will mean more frequent blogs.

Speaking of connections to home, we have German Cable TV in the apartment but the only english channels are MTV and CNN, so we are either learning all about world weather and politics or we are watching disturbing music videos or reality TV shows-so the TV is not often on...which is pretty typical since we didn't have Cable TV in Utah. It is helping me to learn some German, though...the commercials crack me up!

The last adjustment is the fact that we are eating dinner out everynight, which is fun but a lot of work finding good places to eat and then changing it up often enough. There are plenty of restaurants around and we have returned to some of our favorites a couple of times. There are a couple of good Italian places in Garmisch-and I had really good pizza for the first time since our Philly trip in July. The German cuisine has been like American cuisine in that if you are in a good restaurant, you may get some really good food, but if you are in a bar/cafe you may get great drinks and ok food. Ben is, of course, loving the beer, while I am learning to drink hot tea with dinner or Coke with no ice or tap water if we are in an American-friendly place. :) There is a McDonalds in town, and I hate to say we have been there a couple of times-but it is the only take out place we know of and sometimes we just want to sit home and watch a movie instead of enjoying the long lingering dinner experience that is common in Europe. Eventually we will be in our permanent housing and will be able to cook-also, we will have a car so we can buy more groceries to take home-now it is whatever we can carry, which isn't much.

Be sure to comment and ask questions-there are lots more things I want to blog about, but I am curious what kinds of questions you have that I can answer. I'm sure I am leaving out plenty of things.

Settling in in Germany

We made it! I'm not sure how this post will turn out, as we're trying to attach pictures from a new laptop, at a new WiFi spot here on the small Army base in Garmisch. Ourselves and the animals all arrived safely, smoothly, but very worn out. Our last week or so has been adjusting to the new time (much harder from UT than the East Coast), getting our personal lives in order, and keeping track of our animals as they also adjust to apartment life! Below is a pic from our balcony of the Zugspitze and the Alpsitze mountain peaks.

And below is our apartment from the outside.

Here is Ben's new office building:

And here's a quick picture of the pedestrian zone in Garmisch.

Sorry for the short post- we're still settling in. Much more to come!!

Ben and Esther

Strange....

We went to buy milk yesterday, so of course we routed through looking for the latest possible expiration date..... and then we realized that they all expired AFTER we leave the country!...... Strange....

We found a great doggie crate for Storm and have devised a plan for her to play with a really energetic buddy for a few days before our departure. Hopefully she'll be exhausted and will sleep most of the flights. Rascal will hopefully just go with the flow. It'll be interesting to see if we can get him litter access during our 7 hour layover in Chicago.... maybe we can bribe somebody to let us in a closet somewhere.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Esther let the word out on facebook, so we better put it up here- We're moving to Germany!!!

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Over the summer we saw a job opening at a dream location I've had my eye on for years, right on the Austrian border in the Bavarian Alps. Under the logic of "What could it hurt?", we went for it.... after several months of being on the edge, we received travel orders with a report date of 26 OCT!

Ben is really excited about the change in job (more of a diplomatic cooperation mission instead of aircraft support), and Esther is excited about the adventure (REALLY sad about the great colleagues and students she'll be saying goodbye to). Although we're able to take Rascal and Storm, we also made the tough decision that Harley and Stella are much less likely to handle the stress of an overseas flight very well.... Although we love them, we found an AWESOME couple who are happy to give them a new home. They've been married for a year and a half, are fixing up a house and looking forward to some companionship (sounds familiar!).

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So we have a few weeks to sell our beloved Honda Accord and rent out our house. It's been a really tough, busy summer getting the fixer-upper into rental condition. More to follow....

What do teachers do when the students aren't there???

Some of you will laugh at that question b/c you are educators and know exactly what teachers do when students aren't there...others of you will be reading with anticipation of some really juicy stories.

Sorry if I disappoint you, but teachers mostly work when there are no students in the building. We put up bulletin boards, make copies, plan lessons and homework, arrange furniture, clean, meet about new curriculum, meet and welcome new co-workers, decorate our rooms, make name plates for student's desks...mostly mundane and uninteresting types of things. It is true that we play our music much louder (without worrying if it is appropriate for our students), we eat lunch in our rooms or maybe even out of the building instead of in the faculty room at our assigned times, we laugh and joke a lot, even play a few pranks sometimes...but mostly, we work really really hard to prepare for our students' return.

But wait, you might be thinking that I'm not a teacher, I'm a counselor...surely I don't have to do most of those things. And you are right. I don't have a classroom to arrange or 20-some students to prepare for...so why do they send me back a week before the teachers???

I remember wondering the same thing last year when I had NO IDEA what I was doing. Granted, I did have to set up my office for the first time, but still, I wasn't sure what to do with all of my time.

This year, that has not been an issue. Now that I have been on Lakeview's faculty for a year, I have more than enough to do. I plan lessons in two different curriculum (character education and violence prevention/anti-bullying) for 7 different grade levels (K-6) including planning the dates for the lessons in conjunction with other school wide activities, I work out schedules with 22 different teachers to actually teach the lessons, plan the morning announcements for all 180 days of school, and plan for and help lead our first faculty meeting of the year.

Perhaps the most exciting project I worked on this summer for the new school year is our new school wide behavior management plan. We have adopted a plan being used in other Title 1 (low income neighborhoods) schools across the nation that allow for continuity across grade levels and flexibility in dealing with individual student needs instead of a one-size-fits-all plan. I am super excited about this b/c our school needs this! This new program will help students think about their behavior and what other choices they have when faced with social dilemmas (which is most of what gets kids in trouble)...plus it will give adults the opportunity to give meaningful consequences to negative choices. AND it is the same basic program K-6th grades, so all students will know and understand what they should expect when they choose not to follow our code of conduct, not to mention that all of the adultsin the school will be able to step in when those choices are made and not just the classroom teacher (IF he or she happens to be there, which is unlikely since most stuff happens at lunch and recess). This project required hours and hours of preparation for me to be able to present it to the faculty in "ready to use" form. So tomorrow is the first day of school and we will have to give it all a little time to see how it goes, but I have high hopes that it will help decrease office referrals for our students. :) The less time they spend in the office, in time out, in In School Suspension or at home on Suspension...the more time they spend in the classroom learning what they need to be successful members of society!

I did spend a lot of time last week on some AWESOME bulliten boards which I will try to get pics of so you can see and have a better understanding of my programs. And I hope to have some really fun back-to-school stories...about teachers and students...we really do have great jobs...but I have the best of them all!

Update

Wow, it's been a long time! Nothing too major is going on. Esther is thrilled to get back into the swing of school prep for a new school year. Ben's been knocking out a few more house projects, the biggest of which is repairing the crumbling concrete steps that are an eyesore from the curb. It's been a great summer in UT, with a few really cool days in between all the hot weather.

Without much exciting to post, we saw an interesting tidbit on Yahoo news.... about American paper currency. Apparently most of it is contaminated with at least trace amounts of cocaine, due to its contact with the drug in its use and transport. Some places have higher concentrations than others. The average was something like 60%, and the highest was Washington DC where it was 90%. I love reading these stories, because you know what city they'll mention last.... the one city with the lowest bad thing....... which is, of course, Salt Lake City. It's crazy living in UT. While I guess it is nice to have much less bad stuff like this, low DUI rates, etc, it still stinks to lose out on real pizza, hoagies and wings and stuff. Everyplace seems to have some really good stuff going on.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great summer. Ben is ready for the first few cool storms to move through, and seeing the colors change up on the mountains. Esther's pulling for a few more heat waves.

Adventures in Philly!

Ben and I just got home from a 13 day trip to Philadelphia. Most people consider that a long trip but when you have as much family and as many friends to visit as we do, the time just flies. In fact there are a number of friends who we didn't get to see at all, so we tried to make the most of our time with the people we did get to visit with and had a wonderful time.

We arrived at the Hardy's house first and enjoyed 4 days of family picnics, friends and fireworks. Thank you Mom and Dad for hosting us and to Stacey & Chris for spending the extra time...and to all of the other wonderful friends and family that made a point of making time to visit while we were in town. We always have so much fun catching up on everything we have missed while we are away.

Sibling time in New Hope, PA. We had GORGEOUS weather for PA in July!

I consider myself a saint for being in PA for 14 hours before eating any pizza...haha...you can't imagine how good that tasted to me!!!

Ben considered himself a saint for waiting that long for a Yuengling Lager...and no better way than with pizza!

We were able to see my mom, sibings and nephew before heading down to visit with my dad for a few days. My sister Kate turned 26 so we had pizza and ice cream cake to celebrate! I was very happily suprised by an enthusiastic "Hi Esther!" from our nephew Logan when I walked into Kate's apartment-they had been prepping him for our arrival-and I was thrilled to hear him say my name since we hadn't seen him in almost a year!

The Holler kids...(in age order) Megan, Brook, Ben, Esther, Kate, Travis, Jake, Alec, Logan, and (arriving in February) a new baby for Brook, Megs and Logan!!! We are so excited to add a new baby to the family. Praise God!!!

Megan and Brook were very sweet to let us babysit Logan at my dad's house during our visit. It added 2.5 extra days with him to get to know him and make some memories-like visiting the Herr's factory tour! "chips! chips!" hehe During our visit with my dad and his wife, Ginger we relaxed and enjoyed the PA countryside...and had a wonderful bonus visit with Amy Hoffman...thanks for driving down to see us, Amy! And thank you for hosting us Dad & Ginger.

We spent some time in the pool and lots of time on the deck and in the yard playing with Logan before we drove back up to Phoenixville. My dear friends Carrie and John were our gracious hosts there while we visited with friends and family in my hometown. Thanks again guys, we love you and appreciate you! While in town, we ate more pizza, spent time with good friends like those from our former church in Roxbourough (where we ate the traditional Chubby's Cheesesteak and met everyone's beautiful babies), I walked with Kelly & Carrie in Valley Forge, and celebrated Logan's 2nd Birthday!

Of course, we couldn't be in town and not see the World Series Champion Phillies play...

This is the only pic that I took at the Phillies game. I was having way too much fun...this is Adam, I think he was having fun too!

So we are home in Utah now but are missing everyone already. Thanks again to ALL of you who made a point of making time to visit with us. We wish we could have seen more of you but are so blessed to have seen who we did!

Here is a quick video of our sweet nephew, Logan. He is so much fun and so sweet...enjoy!

Grace Church (our shameless plug!)

Hello friends and family!!!

As you know, Ben & I have been in Utah for 2 years now and are loving the climate, the scenery, the adventure, and experiencing God's grace in our lives in new ways all of the time.

One of the major ways we have experienced God's amazing grace has been through our church family here. Grace Presbyterian Church is a PCA church about 15 minutes from our home in Ogden, UT. Since we have been in attendance our church has met in a wedding reception center that although beautiful, is not our own. For 10 years the church has been praying for an opportunity to move into a permanent building in order to enhance our opportunities to build God's mission in the predominantly Mormon/LDS culture of our state. (There are less Christians in Utah than in Egypt!)

We are currently seeing God's hand leading us to an answer to those prayers. There is a Lutheran congregation within a few miles of our current meeting place who is looking for a buyer for their property. We have made them an offer and they have accepted it! This is a very exciting time for our church!!! We praise God for this opportunity!!!

Ben & I are writing to you to inform you of this development with the hope that you will join us in praising God as well as in praying for the continued success of this endeavor. Although we are confident that God has led our church on this path, we are also aware that our small congregation cannot raise the funds on our own. After praying together as a church, and as families, the Grace congregation came forward with their offerings and pledges for this campaign. With some outside support added, we are nearly halfway to our goal of $425,000!

We are praying for God to work in the hearts of our friends in and out of Utah to support us either in prayer or in prayer and financial gifts to help close the $225,000 gap. (That is only 225 individuals, families, churches or organizations giving $1,000 each in one lump sum or pledged in monthly amounts for up to 3 years!)

The church website http://www.graceutah.org provides lots more information and details if you are interested in learning more or in making an investment in our church building fund. There is also a site specific to this building fund at http://home.netcom.com/~sdkelley/gracepresbyterianchurchofutah/

So, what do you think???? Do you have any questions...or would like to encourage us by telling us that you are praying with and for us in this? Will you join us in making an investment in our church building fund??? We are excited to see what God provides for us in this new adventure!