May Day

Tomorrow is May Day, another German holiday where everything shuts down in favor of visiting with friends and family or holiday making here or abroad. Unexpectedly, the bakeries are cranking out special May Day breads. I picked up this nut pastry loaf, which measures over a foot long and reminds me of a tastier version of Entenmann's Pecan Danish ring.

What really has me on cloud nine, aside from the upcoming 3-day weekend, nuss bread waiting for me in the kitchen, and beautiful rhododendrons blooming across the street, I successfully booked a trip to London for Mother's Day weekend. This is my first Mother's Day with Gianna and we wanted it to be special. Kew Gardens has always been on my list of beautiful places in the world to see. My aunt used to live in London and often asked me to come visit in early May, when Kew is at its peak. Unfortunately I never took her advice and she has since moved back to Manilla, but I still want to see the gardens. Oh, and Dan's coming along this time...I guess...sigh...just kidding Dan :-P

Random Wednesday

Yesterday we were so jet lagged from the trip that we slept in past 10, which is unheard of. Gianna is always up at the crack of dawn. I also completely forgot to shower, bring Gianna's clothes back to school, pack a spoon for her lunch, and who knows what else. But today we are back to the old routine, Gianna was up with the roosters (pigeons), and business is as usual.

I bought a springform pan for Easter and it came with a free cake mix for shoko-sahne kuchen. The directions are in German and it called for sahne (cream). They have many kinds of sahne over here, so I picked two different kinds and mixed them together, figuring I would get the best of both varieties. The cake turned out well, although it remains uneaten until after dinner. Let's just say it looks like the picture on the box, so I hope it tastes good. German cake mixes do not have a reputation for being very tasty.

And finally, today Germany observes International Noise Awareness Day. A news article states some 13 million Germans are burdened by excess noise. That's pretty funny, because Frankfurt is one of the quietest cities I've ever been to. They cite traffic and schools as the biggest noise offenders and urge Germans to buy quiet "blue angel" tires. Germans have also become burdened by a few cases of swine flu brought here by holiday makers returning from Mexico. Several reports say Germany has banned travel to Mexico, but I'm not certain if this is truly the case or just some media hype. Germans are huge hypochondriacs, so it will be interesting to see how they handle a flu outbreak.

US trip part 3

For the last leg of the trip, we were in my hometown, Quakertown, PA staying with Dan's sister, Cori. Gianna had a doctor appointment at CHoP where she saw developmental specialists that only work with kids that were adopted internationally. She was having trouble walking, which was the main reason for the visit. They did some imaging and it turns out she has hip dysplasia, like a German Shepherd. As long as she doesn't start barking or leading blind people across the street, she should be OK ;-) In all seriousness, they did not recommend any treatment at this time. It sounds like they will just watch it, see how things develop after she gets a little more muscle tone. The small fry has dropped to the 5th percentile for weight, but I'm just happy she's on the charts. We need to take her to more Chinese buffets. You should see how much food she eats and the best part is, kids her age usually eat for free.

After the long day at CHoP, Gianna played with her cousin Nathan and I got to see my other pregnant sister-in-law, Christina. She is looking healthy in her 8th month of pregnancy, expecting Hunter Cole sometime the end of May. The following day we did some more shopping for Bố and spent the afternoon playing with her other cousins Grant and Cayden (pictured left). Although Cayden is only 6 months younger than Gianna, she spent most of her time playing with Grant, who is over a year her elder. Cayden just blazes his own trails as his mom says. That evening, Cara and Matt, Dan's cousins that are expats in Jordan, came over for dinner. It was really nice to see them again and exchange a few expat experiences.

The big highlight of the trip was getting together with Gianna's Vietnamese sister Jada and brother Ryan. We went to Ag Field Day at Rutgers where the kids got to see cows, horses, pigs, puppies, and play on some inflatables. The weather was hot and we finished off the play date with lunch at Huong Que, a local Vietnamese restaurant. Joe remarked that watching the kids play together is like watching the end of Schindler's List and I can't agree more. To see these little kids that spent the first two years of their lives together in baby concentration camp now liberated and rejoicing together sent chills up my spine and tears down my face. Gianna doesn't look at any other kids that way or laugh that sincerely. Jada and Ryan are very special to her and to us as well. I can't wait to see them again when we are in the US this summer.

Now we are home in Frankfurt catching up with Dan and Bruno, looking at the pictures from the trip. There are some things and people I miss back in the States, but I am going to enjoy Germany and Europe while we have the chance because the time will go fast. Then I will be back in NJ longing for a good pastry and strong cup of espresso. Speaking of espresso, I have a hot pot waiting for me in the kitchen.

US trip part 2: Christmas tree farming

After visiting with Nancy, we stayed overnight with Kirstie and Dave, two old college friends. They have a cat and a playground, 5 star accommodation for a toddler. The next morning we drove 5 hours up to my dad's farm/cabin in Potter County, PA with a mission to plant 1500 Christmas tree saplings. Since we live in the city, it was nice to be out in the country. Gianna got to see "cow, more cow!", take a tractor ride, throw rocks in a creek, and help plant Christmas trees in the wet dirt.

My dad and brother Jeff picked up 1500 Christmas trees (Frasier, Balsam, and Douglas) from a somewhat local sapling dealer. Even though it was rainy and windy, we had to get them in the ground. So taking shifts either planting or watching Gianna, we planted all 1500 trees in about 8 hours split between two days. Thankfully on the second day the rain cleared up and we even saw some sun. The pictures from this part of the trip are very interesting, if you ever wondered what it takes to start a Christmas tree farm. The final nursery contained two beds, one with 9 rows, the other with 12 rows. We covered the rows with floating row cover to protect from frost and herbivores and put up a fence to keep out the deer. They will be transplanted out into the field in another two years. After the planting was finished, Gianna and I went back to the Philadelphia area for her doctor appointment at CHoP, but the rest of the crew stayed up there to work on the farm house remodel.

US trip part 1

Our US tour got off to a rocky start. The polizei stopped us at the airport and said "prove to us this is your daughter". The Germans hate it that Gianna's legal name is different from our last name and were accusing me of child trafficking. After seeing her medical records and a post adoption report they let us go. In contrast, a group of NJ high school students on the plane had at least four adoptees, two from Korea, one from Guatemala, and one from El Salvador. They were happily sharing their adoption stories with us and playing with Gianna. The US really is a melting pot with all sorts of blended families.

The first leg of our trip started out in PA and NJ with a trip to the doctor for Gianna's vaccinations, a stop by our NJ house, and a visit with some old Rutgers friends. Poor Gianna, I tried to prepare her for the fact that the NJ house would be empty, but when she found Bruno's toy in the backyard, she kept calling his name. The house is no worse for wear, although if I were there the lawn would be looking a lot better. We have decided to take it off the market and get house sitters for a year, since we will be moving back to the US in 2010 and will need a place to live.

The next part of the trip included a 5 hour drive in I-95 traffic from NJ to the DC area, probably the low light of the trip. I certainly don't miss driving. We got a chance to see my sister-in-law, Nancy who, as Gianna puts it, "has baby in belly". In just a few short months we will get to meet little Ryan Alexander. It's a shame we will be on the other side of the world for the birth. Maybe the hospital will have WiFi and Jeff can Skype the whole birth to us! We plan to come visit in August when Ryan is a few weeks old.

Leaving tomorrow, sans Bố

Tomorrow our flight leaves Frankfurt bound for Philadelphia. I have a list of things to pack and a list of things to buy in the US to bring back to Frankfurt. Here's a list of the top 5 things I am looking forward to:

1. Mass consumerism. Can't wait to buy cheap clothing, processed food in large packaging, and FDA approved drugs.
2. Food. Hopefully we can get Mexican, even if it's crappy Mexican. And Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. I will drink it every day.
3. Rutgers Ag Field day. Plan to meet up with Gianna's Vietnamese peeps and some old Rutgers friends.
4. Happy People. Germans are so serious, can't wait to hear people laughing again.
5. English. What a novelty to be able to ask for help at the airport or store.

...and the top 5 things I am not looking forward to:

1. Driving. Do NOT miss traffic, commuting, paying for gas, tolls, accidents, delays, etc.
2. Our NJ house. I'm imaging a pack of rabid raccoons has moved into the attic by now and the flower beds are over taken by Canada thistle.
3. Jet lag. By the time Gianna gets adjusted to the time zone, we will be flying back to Frankfurt.
4. Cold weather. It's been sunny and mid 70's here for the past two weeks and I hear it's cold and rainy on the East Coast.
5. Gianna's doctor appointments. She has to get stuck with needles and diagnostic testing. She will be cranky.

Also, I do not have an American cell number, so if we are staying with you, we will just show up on your doorstep with our suitcases and wait for you to come home from work, or break in through the back window, you know, the one you keep unlocked ;-)

Easter weekend

Today is Easter Monday, another holiday in Germany where businesses are closed. The Palmgarten was open, and advertised an appearance by the Easter Bunny and an egg hunt for kids. Turns out it wasn't The Easter Bunny, rather three live bunnies in a pen. Just as well, the bunnies were quite cute. They had a sub-par orchid show and an average showing of spring blooms. Sorry Germans, your gardening skills are not superior to the rest of the world.

Yesterday at 7am I awoke to the sound of Frankfurt church bells ringing. Some churches had sunrise bonfires, but we didn't go to any of those. Instead, we opted for an 11am service at the local Lutheran church followed by a lunch that I prepared for friends. I encountered a few difficulties preparing a typical American Easter lunch. First, they don't sell the same kind of pre-cooked ham in Germany like they do in the US. They have uncooked Schwarzwälder Schäufele, which actually turned out delicious with a pseudo-brown sugar glaze (they also don't sell brown sugar here). Second, Germans don't eat pies. I've never seen a single pie around town and finding a pie plate or pie dough to make fresh strawberry pie proved impossible. Instead, I bought a similarly sized spring-form pan and ready made streusel dough. It wasn't quite the same, but still delicious. After lunch, we took Gianna across the street for a little "egg" hunt. Since Germans don't sell those plastic eggs to fill with candy, she had to settle for hunting little Easter themed bags of candy.


Pics from the weekend and other spring events can be found in my Picasa album.

Good Friday

Just chillin' here on Good Friday. Although Germans aren't particularly religious, everything is closed for a State holiday today and Monday. Your options are to take a walk, go to the park, or hang out on your balcony surfing the internet like me ;-) I just finished reading Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans, very enlightening. This morning we went for a long walk along the greenbelt that circles downtown Frankfurt. The weather is beautiful and Gianna looked so sweet in her dress.

Easter in Germany

We have been getting ready for Easter this week, dying eggs and buying chocolate bunnies and lambs for Gianna's Easter basket. The Germans do Easter baskets, but apparently not egg hunts. I searched high and low for community egg hunts with no luck. The only ones I found were hosted by the American Women's Club and an American children's play group. Unfortunately both of the hunts were outside of the Frankfurt city limits and we don't have a car. I bought little bags to fill with treats so Gianna can have her own little hunt. Maybe this is a good time to get her practice, so that next year she can go at it with the bigger kids.

Darth has been enjoying his Easter/Passover staycation at casa de la Schmidt. Bruno has been a fine host, teaching Darth how we do things in his house, like dogs sleep in the kennel and do not bark or beg at the table. They spend most of their time alternating between play-fighting and sleeping on the couch. I'll miss little Darth when he goes back home. Having two min pins is a real comedy show.


One more thing on my mind, Germans are always in your business as I've mentioned before. There is one bakery that I frequent where the baker speaks English, but will still only speak to me in German. He likes to correct my German pronunciation of his pastries and laughs at me when I mix English with German (oh the horror!). Today, there were two drug addicts on the corner singing in English and playing guitar for spare change. The women in front of me in line were obviously mocking them to the baker. When it was my turn, I order a pudding pretzel and he asked me in German if those were my English friends on the corner, laughing. Ha-ha, very funny Mr. Baker, like every person that speaks English must be friends. Yeesh. I keep going there because I like to antagonize this guy by continuing to mispronounce the names of his fine German pastries. It really gets his goat.

Dipperness

This morning we went to Toys R Us to buy Gianna a new kick bike (more on that after we actually get it assembled and working) and then went to Dipperness in the afternoon. We were quite a crew, two min pins, Gianna in her stroller, me, Dan, Donnell, and Nicole. Dipperness was advertised as a "German Folk Festival" but was more like a regular old carnival, but with better rides than I've seen at US carnivals. How do they transport that huge ferris wheel?



















Gianna's first ride on a carnival merry-go-round. She wasn't impressed. One turn before the ride stopped, she said "all done" and wanted to jump off while it was still in motion. She did enjoy the real horses which were part of a pony ride operation.

Kanonesteppel

Darth's parents are going back to the US for Passover, so we went to Kanonesteppel for one last pork-laden meal before their pig-free trip. Kanonesteppel is a traditional German restaurant on the south side of the Main specializing in lots of German delights including Frankfurter Grie Soß, Tatar (raw ground meat), all sorts of wurst and schnitzel, and of course, apfelwein. Check out their menu to see what you are missing...or to see what's in store for you when you visit. Tonight Darth comes over for his staycation. I set out to Darth-proof the house, but it was too nice of a day. Instead, I took Bruno to the dog park to get out some energy and chatted with my sister-in-law. Tomorrow we will go to Dippemess, a German festival of sorts. Hopefully the weather will stay as sunny and warm as it has been all week.

Mẹ and Gianna drinking apfelwein

Dan is eating zweibelschnitzel with fried potatoes and sauerkraut. He is drinking water from a sippy cup. The Bauernbratwurst was donated from my plate and came with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. And of course, the apfelwein served in a traditional bembel. Gianna is a huge fan of Kanonesteppel!

Strassenraub!

A sign on our door today says that an old woman had her handbag stolen and was "substantially violated" according to Google translate (German reads: "dabei erheblich verletzt"). The robbery happened on the other side of the block from us near Holzhausen Park at 10:20 at night. See Dan, this is why I refuse to take Bruno out to do his business at night! I could have had my hand bag stolen and been substantially violated. The 62 year old vic describes the perps as "4-5 young men dressed in so-called Hip-Hop style wide cut pants, hooded sweatshirts, and baseball caps." The funny things is, I never see anyone around here dressing in wide legged pants, hooded sweatshirts, or baseball caps...except us ;-) The Europeans are huge fans of the skin tight jeans, as you probably know and they seldom wear hooded sweatshirts or baseball caps. So maybe I will call the Kriminalpolizei today and tell them I know of someone that wears a baseball cap, hooded sweatshirt, and baggy pants that walks his dog around 10:20 pm in the area in question. That would be a very German thing to do, turn in your own spouse. He matches the description, I had no choice but to do the "right" thing!