Pealing of the Bells

Last night 10 churches in downtown Frankfurt all rang their bells from 4:30 until 5:00 to celebrate the coming of Advent. We started our listening tour by the Kaiserdom, one of the largest and most beautiful cathedrals in Frankfurt. It is home to Gloriosa, a nearly 12 ton bell, the second largest in all of Germany. The bells started out slow and light, then they started to ring Gloriosa. Her loud, low tone is very easy to pick out on the video and produced a reaction from the crowd. Next, we walked down the hill into Römerberg to hear the different sounds coming from Alte Nikolai church. Finally, we ended up back in the grotto below Kaiserdom, listening to Gloriosa one last time before getting some food at the Christmas Market.

Gianna's 3rd Birthday

5:30 I can't sleep. It's Gianna's birthday and I want it to be perfect and not oversleep so that we miss going to the pool and, and....wait, what's that I hear? Is Gianna waking up? Hooray! Happy Birthday!!

6:00 Wait, I thought it was 7:00, not 6:00. Why are we up this early? Too late to get Gianna to go back to sleep, so we watch SpongeBob and Dora in the living room, then I make her Vietnamese porridge for breakfast.

8:45 We are out the door, on our way to the Titus Therman indoor pool at Nordwestzentrum. We stop to watch a building demolition along the way.

9:45 We enter the pool for 90 minutes of swim time. It was a blast. We disturbed old people.

11:30 Lunch at Ton Kin where the Vietnamese waitress knows Gianna and wants her to "nicht vergessen Vietnam". We speak in 3 languages; life is confusing. I tell the waitress it is Gianna's birthday today (heute Geburtstag!) and Gianna leaves with a free ice cream bar.

12:45 Gianna is taking a nap as I put the gifts on the table, set the SpongeBob plates and napkins, and put out the cake. Stupid SpongeBob figurine keeps falling down.

14:00 Bruno and I wake Gianna up from her nap. She agrees opening presents is a higher priority than sleep. As we are singing "Happy Birthday" the SpongeBob figurine falls off the cake, taking out the candle, spilling wax onto the table. I pick up the mess; we resume the song where we left off. She blows out the candle on the cake, I cut her a piece, she eats some of the icing, eats the ice cream, eats gummi fish off the remaining cake, then says she is full and wants to open presents. Dan and I split the rest of her piece of cake.

14:15 Gift unwrapping begins, as both sets of Grandparents call on Skype to witness the event. Gianna is in heaven.

15:30 We say good-bye to all the Bàs and Ôngs and get dressed for a trip to the Christmas Market, which opened last night. It's cloudy, so by 16:00, all the lights are on and it's really looking spectacular. We are still stuffed from cake, but Gianna is begging for anything she sees to eat, pretzels, potato cakes, bratwurst. Wait for dinner!

17:00 It begins to rain, so we jump on the U5 back to Oeder Weg. Dinner of bratwurst and baked beans is served after assembling three SpongeBob puzzles and clearing the table of all the wrapping paper and ribbon.

19:05 We are Skyping with Jeff and Nancy; Gianna is being naughty. The day has been too long and all this birthday excitement has worn her out. Time for a bath with the new bath bomb from Lush. Bath ends early with crying; she pushes me over when I am drying her.

20:00 Gianna is in bed wearing her new Eyore pajamas. She gives me a hearty "Thank you, Mẹ" as I kiss her good-night and wish her sweet dreams.

22:00 It's hard to believe she is 3. This Thanksgiving/Gianna's birthday nexus holiday was great, despite living in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving. I am wondering if her birthmother was thinking of her today. I am thankful that she gave birth to my daughter and for all the people that brought Gianna Mai into our life.

SpongeBob: the cake

Happy birthday to my little turkey Gianna Mai! Technically it's already her birthday in Vietnam, and here in Germany, we are just 2 hours shy of November 26. For the second year in a row, Gianna has requested a SpongeBob cake. Last year, I made a pink Patrick Star cake, this year, she insisted on the sponge himself. So, with a little imagination and help from a UK cake decorating store, voilà!












1.) Start with a delicious dark chocolate cake recipe. 2.) Fill with cherry preserves and chocolate icing. 3.) Frost the outside with swirly blue icing to look like the ocean. 4.) Lick the knife.











Leave a hole in the middle for a chocolate frosting island covered with my secret recipe for edible sand.











Adorn with gummi sea creatures and place SpongeBob character on the island (prop him up with a plastic straw when he starts to fall over).

Success!

Frankfurt Christmas market

Although the Frankfurt Christmas market doesn't open until Wednesday, the little shacks are already set up, along with carousels, lights, decorations, and a huge Christmas tree sitting on Römer square. It was fun to walk around while it's still empty, and a good chance to take some photos of the decorations before the crowds move in. The Christmas market runs from 25 November through 22 December, so plenty of time to get your fill of Glühwein and poffertjes!

One little monkey...

...jumping on the bed!


Gianna in her natural habitat, after school. I think she is celebrating that the sun came out for the first time in months...or the stack of birthday presents on top of the wardrobe. Click the photo for better resolution.

Bärchenwurst

"delicate baloney with poultry meat for small and large gourmets"

H1N1

For the first part of this week, Gianna's school is closed due to parent-teacher conferences and Veteran's Day tomorrow. Dan met with Gianna's teachers on Monday to discuss her pre-school progress:

-Gianna is not afraid to say "no!" to the boys when they want to start rough play. She doesn't ask for help from the teachers to make them leave her and her friends alone.
-Although she is the youngest in the class, she is amongst the brightest.
-She is behind in English, but is on track with other ESL students.
-She is very eager to start activities and learn; she often understands concepts that the other children can't grasp.

I am not sure if I will send her back for the remaining two school days this week. One of her classmates is down with suspected H1N1. It will take 3 days to get results back, as Germany does not seem to stock in-office tests. In fact, their whole attitude towards the disease has been rather arrogant. They received one batch of quality vaccine from Baxter last month and inoculated their military and politicians (um, are they planning to take over the world again?). Later this month, a batch of lower quality vaccine will arrive to vaccinate high risk patients including pregnant women and children. I've spoken with several doctors including Gianna's pediatrician, asking where we can go to get her inoculated and their answer is they won't be getting any vaccine in because they "don't expect it will get as bad here as in the States". And that conclusion is based on what scientific logic? Americans are going around coughing on each other and licking door handles whilst the German superstitions of wearing scarves year-round and opening all the windows in the morning to let the stale air out are going to keep them protected? Once I hear batches of the vaccine have arrived, I am going to call around, see who has it, get both Gianna and myself vaccinated. Until then, my ears are finely tuned to any child that's down with H1N1. Schweinegrippe raus!

Swedish festival

Despite the rain, people are out at the Swedish festival on the Hauptwache drinking glögg and dancing to the ABBA cover band. It's not very large, just a few stands selling meatballs (including Ikea), glögg, smoked salmon, reindeer and elk burgers, and Swedish handicrafts. We drank some glögg, listened and danced to faux ABBA (they couldn't get the real ABBA?) then headed off to dinner with friends at Mai Viên, which has quickly become our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Frankfurt. Today is a rare "Sunday shopping" day, where the stores are allowed to be open. On other Sundays, retails stores are to remain closed, as per German law. Perhaps we will window shop on the Zeil and go back to the Swedish festival for more glögg.

The viking ship selling glögg and other Swedish beverages.

Enjoying said glög.

Listening to ABBA "Dancing Queen"

Gianna and a wooden reindeer reading the menu.

Laufräder

It's a bike without pedals for young children to learn balance and agility before moving up to the big kid bikes. They drive it the same way Fred Flintstone drives his car, using their feet as gas and brake. Once they learn to balance on two wheels, they lift their feet off the ground and coast when they get up to speed. Laufräders are incredibly popular in Germany, especially the wooden ones. Yes, bikes made of wood! Germans would make their kids out of wood if it was possible; they love anything wooden. Gianna's friend rides a wood bike, but I have not yet been able to snap a photo, so a website pic will have to do. And here are a few photos of Gianna riding her new bike home in the rain.

Street Girl is toast

Gianna's intrepid pink and purple Laufrad named "Street Girl" has bit the dust. The ball bearings and band brake in the rear axel are damaged. Sure, there's a chance we may be able to find some suitable replacement parts and repair the old girl, but for the money we spent on the bike to begin with, it's probably not worth the time and effort. The snooty chain smoking bike repair man gave me an earful about buying cheap bikes for kids in the first place. He almost swallowed his cigarette when I told him we bought it at Toys-R-Us. Well guess what, instead of buying a €250 German approved bike, we're going back to Toys-R-Us this weekend to get another crappy Made in China model...and this time we'll save the receipt. Until then, Gianna's back to walking to school.*



*Wednesday morning edit: I let the bike guy's lecture get to me and we decided to buy a premium bike (although it was still much less than €250 and I didn't buy it from that jerk). It's German, but not made of wood like the most expensive models. I don't see why people spend more money to risk getting splinters in your arse. Photos are forthcoming once we get some decent weather...so April.

Halloween

"Chicken Treat!" Gianna was skeptical of this holiday from the beginning. She did not want to wear her costume and "chicken treating" didn't sound like fun either...until we got to the US consulate housing, she saw all the tables set up and realized, they were giving out free candy!! The people were grilling, drinking beer, wearing spooky costumes, it was an all-American celebration. We ran into a lot of people we knew; it was fun to hang out with other Americans on this great holiday. Gianna filled her Hello Kitty bag and we made one last trick-or-treat stop at neighbor Niall's house before calling it a night. She got a variety of candy, including several American treats that are not sold in the stores here. Thanks for a great night, US Consulate!

1 Year as an American

Get out Old Glory, Gianna became a US citizen on October 31, 2008! One year out of a Vietnamese Re-Education and Labor Center, and her orphanage buzz cut has grown in enough to sport some pig tails.