MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk
Notes from the Homefront -- Theresa Jarosz Alberti, writer and mother... http://sapphire.albatross.org
Greetings from Germany! We arrived last Friday evening, after a long day of travel that began Thursday night (we lost 7 hours to the time zones). T., our host, was there at the Nuremberg airport to meet us and take us back to her home. After about a 20 min ride, we were there, meeting her husband K., and daughters A., L., and S (ages 9, 7 and 3). How strange to meet after we've been emailing back and forth about a home-swap since about last November. But it has all worked out great-- they are wonderful, friendly, generous people and we've had a great time socializing with them until they left for our house this afternoon. Our plan was to come to their house a few days early so we could all get to know each other. Now we will stay in each other's homes for a month.
Their house is beautiful-- we couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. I had wondered if there was a Scandinavian influence in the architecture here, because their house and all the houses we see in this part of Germany are very airy and light-filled with white-walls and blond wood, big rooms and lots of windows-- a very lovely Ikea style. Our hosts said that this is just a European style. There were 10 of us in the house for the last few days and we weren't crowded at all.
Friday night they treated us to a typical Bavarian supper-- wurst (sausages and lunch meats), brot (bread and rolls), cheese, veggies, etc. Sehr gut (very good)!
Our time clocks were all screwed up that night. I had hardly slept the night before on the plane, and I did fall asleep okay after we stayed up late talking, but then I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't fall asleep for 1.5 hours.
Well, I'll write more later (I'll try to blog several times a week at least, depending on our schedule)-- I want to send this off to let everyone know we are here and doing fine. I had thought we'd have more time this weekend to blog, but we are still figuring out our electronics and their computer. So donät mind any misspellings in this-- their keyboard has letters in different places than at home.
Don't forget to check out Bob's blog at http://albatross.org He will be putting pictures up there once we get everything figured out. For now, hallo from Germany!
Hey, I'm back! I know it's been awhile. Things have been so chaotic around here with the big remodel project we undertook this spring. We got lots of unfinished projects done, and the biggie was the new bathroom in the attic (ah, to have a 2 bathroom house!) and the finishing of our bedroom area up there, too. We'd been living for a decade with no window trim or floor up there, so it always looked quite shabby. Now it has the trim, fresh painted walls and carpet. It's all very nice now that it is done (only finished a week ago), and I'm sure I don't need to go into the gory details of how much it throws a house into turmoil to have people stomping through all day, pounding and sawing. Needless to say, not a lot of writing got done!
And we've also been preparing for our trip to Germany. We have been lucky enough to arrange a month-long stay where we are trading houses with a family in Germany. We've never done a trip of this magnitude before, and of course, when you know people are going to be staying in your house, you want it to look its best. So lots and lots of stuff to do to get ready. It's been stressing me out. This really hits me in My Issues. I'm trying to step back and not freak out, keep it in perspective, but it's not easy.
And our twins turn 15 during our trip, so they wanted to get their birthday parties in before we leave the country. So in addition to getting ready for this trip, we are throwing 3 parties-- the boy party (tonight), the girl party (tomorrow), and the party with the family (next week). Luckily, at this age, the kids just entertain themselves and we are just here to provide food and clean up the mess. So not too much work.
Tonight is the house full of boys, playing video games, and DD has joined right in. Everyone in this family plays Halo now except me, and with the X boxes, they can link together and play in teams. They will probably be up most of the night.
But I did manage to have some fun myself tonight-- I talked DD into going downtown with me to the Aquatennial Block Party, a free event where you can roam the blocked-off streets and listen to live music. I haven't gone to this since DH and I were very young, before kids, and I worked downtown. Tonight, one of the 3 stages had the band Semisonic playing. They are a local band that had some national success with the song "Closing Time" in the 90s, and they never officially broke up, but they haven't played together in three years. I have their CDs and I like their music a lot, so I wanted to get the chance to see them. DD was reluctant, but I couldn't think of anybody else to go with, so I cajoled her into going. We rode the train downtown, walked over and sat in the grass and listened to the music. DD had a book with her so she could sit and read if she was bored. It was a gorgeous night with a clear sky and a breeze was cooliing down the 90 degree day. DD acually told me she had a great time and really enjoyed herself. So great--- I got what I wanted and she was happy too!
I can't believe it's almost 1 a.m. now! I don't plan on staying up all night with the boys, but I'm strangely not tired!