Nothing but fun

Spring break is off to a rainy start, but today we got some unexpected dry weather for the neighbor girl's red, white, and black ladybug birthday party and an afternoon trip to spring Dippemess. At first, Gianna said she would only do the pony rides with Bố. But once we were there, she changed her mind and boldly chose her steed.











The girl behind her on the smaller pony was about two years older than Gianna and needed her Dad to come to her aid halfway through the ride. Hey, I know what that's like, but it makes for a funny picture (R, click to enlarge).
After the ponies, Gianna did several rounds on the car carousel, followed by an ice cream cone (as if we needed any more sugar intake for today) while we watched the older kids on the bumper cars. Overall, this was one of those priceless days that makes me very grateful to be a stay at home mom.

Palm Sunday

First, breakfast.





















Then, after a lengthy church service, egg decorating.

The finished products.

Spring Break!!!

Those two words send chills down a mother's spine. Today is Gianna's last day of school before two weeks of Easter break. We already have several playdates set up for next week including a trip to the zoo with an English speaking nanny group, a trip to the indoor swimming pool, and a birthday party. But I remember last year, poor weather and sick kids got in the way of many a playdate and we were both left rather bored and at each other's throats by the end of two weeks. But I am better prepared this year! Honestly, I am! We're going to have a great time!

I said, and said, and said those words. I said them. But I lied them.

The photo is of little miss in her springtime beauty on the balcony being difficult when I just wanted one good picture. Look how much her hair is growing.

Embarrassing things

Yes, Debbi et al, moving does give you a chance to get rid of old crap. But I am still amazed and embarrassed by the garbage that made it over to Germany:

1. This circa 1996 Avon Care Deeply lip balm. If you care deeply about yourself or others, you don't keep lip balm around that long.

2. Food that expired in 2007. Yikes!

3. Sentimental t-shirts from high school and college. Really, do we need to be keeping that XL powder puff football t-shirt just because it says "Barbie" on the back?

4. Nauseating love letters from me to Dan written on register tape and furniture tags from the department store where I used to work. Seriously, if I died and someone found that crap, it would cause GI disorders and possibly blindness.

5. Excessive souvenirs (airsickness bag, tour brochures, soda can) from Dan's high school trip to Korea.

6. Hotel soaps and shampoos. Honestly, I stopped collecting things like that ages ago, but never threw away the old ones.

7. A 2-generation old, non-working Dell laptop.

8. Computer games on CD (from the 1990's).

9. An excessive collection of pens and pencils from years gone by.

10. Four wooden rulers.


If you're interested in this stuff, you can find it in the dumpster outside our building.

Moving: stage 1

The movers came this morning to make an estimate of how much stuff we are going to ship to the US. I was expecting the usual dirty old German man that wreaks of cigarettes and piss, so I barely bothered to clean up the place and didn't even brush my teeth. Of course, they sent by a strapping young lad in a leather jacket and expensive Italian boots. The moving business must be good! Since we got back from Jordan, I've been throwing things away, giving things away, and mentally preparing for the move. It's not scheduled until April 28th, so there's a lot of time to stress think and obsess plan. The whole thing brought me to tears yesterday, so to avoid the same circumstance today, I hit the local bakery for some kuchen (no, I did not eat both pieces). The lady was über rude, as usual, criticizing my pronunciation of streusel (streuuuuuselll).

Encounters like this make me happy to be outta here in a month.

One more post about Jordan

Cara took this photo at the beach in Aqaba. Gianna likes to peel labels off of water bottles, leaving them a sticky mess and perfect for levitating water bottle optical illusion tricks. The low quality video below shows the Islamic call to prayer that is broadcast across Amman several times a day... including 4am. Keep in mind, I'm filming this inside the apartment with all the windows closed and the nearest mosque is a couple blocks away. Hanoi blasts communist propaganda music every morning to wake up the city and some Frankfurters complain of incessant early morning church bell ringing. I wonder if there are any cities in America that blast Stars and Stripes Forever to wake up their patriotic citizens?

Jordan: Amman

The picture above shows different views of the city at dawn, midday, and afternoon as the dust rolled in. It was quite windy and dusty, but we still got in plenty of sightseeing and eating!














The first stop on our eating tour of Amman was this hole in the wall serving breakfast on pieces of paper. The falafel, pitas, ful, houmous, and tea were delicious to say the least.






















Next stop was Amman's citadel, the place where Bathsheba's husband was killed by order of King David. The museum also houses some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Later in the day, we toured the clinic where Cara works, has some schawarma take-out for lunch, and napped at their house in the afternoon. In the evening we went to Safeway where I oohed and ahhed over all the American foods they can get in Amman as compared to Frankfurt.











We had dinner at a traditional Arabic restaurant, then a little street shopping and street food dessert: Kanafeh (if I remember correctly). It is fried sweet cheese topped with a type of phyllo dough, pistachios, and syrup. The next morning, we packed up and left for the airport. Thank you Cara and Matt for showing us around your beautiful country!

Jordan: Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum reminded me of Sedona, AZ with more sand dunes and less cottonwoods. We took a Jeep tour into the desert with a Bedouin guide. Gianna slept in the back seat with Cara for most of the tour, as Dan, Matt, and I sat in the back getting sandblasted.











The Jeep tour was actually a Mitsubishi modified with seats in the back (left). Dan and Matt climb a sand dune (right).





















Gianna poses with some cliff drawings (left). Camels get out of the way, beep beep! (right) I'm really glad we did not choose that form of transportation through the desert.












"Grandma" Schmidt posing at Lawrence of Arabia's house (left). The wind was really kicking up sand, and the scarf was helping. Gianna said I looked like a monster. Driving back up the desert highway to Amman, road signs point the way to Iraq and Saudi Arabia (right).

Jordan: Aqaba

After seeing Joe Biden in Petra, we continued south on the desert highway to Aqaba. Aqaba is a resort town on the Red Sea close to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel. We stayed in a really nice condo at Tala Bay, with great views of the Red Sea from roof top and balcony.
View of the marina at night from our roof top. Wow, there were some nice yachts parked here!







Breakfast on the balcony and a view from the balcony to the Red Sea.











Matt, Cara, and I went snorkeling and saw some pretty nice tropical fish and coral. The lion fish (left) were hanging out around a pier, along with eels and large schools of silversides. On our second night in Aqaba, we hit the Safeway and picked up some meats and vegetables for grilling. It was delicious. Matt is a grill master and can also make his hand disappear (right).




















Since Jordan is a Muslim country, it is inappropriate to wear skimpy bikinis. My surf gear (left) was quite comfortable, even in the desert heat, and it protected me from sunburn. Here, Gianna the aspiring beach bar tender is filling up a water bottle for making pretend drinks. On our way out of Aqaba, Cara stopped at a nut shop to stock up on cheap nuts (right). I don't know why she had to stock up, we already had a car full of cheap nuts! Hahaha.

Jordan: Petra and Joe Biden

For the past 5 days we were in Jordan visiting Dan's cousin Cara and her husband Matt, who both work for NGO's in Amman. It was an awesome trip. Not only did we get to spend some time with expat family, we got a lot of behind the scenes views of Jordan and also got to meet the Vice President of the US, Joe Biden! Here are the highlights from the first part of the trip.

PETRA

(L-R) Our intrepid leaders, Matt and Cara; Gianna stays hydrated (and looks like a giant!); the family in front of the Treasury. Gianna did a lot of hiking on her own, even in the desert heat and up steep rocks. I was proud of her and also proud of Dan for carrying her when she got tired.

JOE BIDEN

Matt and Cara had been tipped off that Biden was going to visit Petra, so we had high hopes to catch a glimpse of the US Vice President. There was a catering table set up, reporters with cameras, and as we were hiking out, a motorcade came roaring past us, kicking up dust. Joe Biden saw Dan's Phillies shirt and hat and waved to us from his suburban. After Biden was out of his SUV, we noticed secret service was not really keeping people far away, so we crept closer for better pictures. I was snapping away like the paparazzi when I realized Joe was looking right at me. I gave a large "come on over!" wave and he started walking our way. As he approached, I shook his hand and said "It is so nice to meet you! We are from Bucks County, PA", then Joe said "Oh really? So is my wife". He shook Dan's hand and asked all of us if we had been down to see the ruins yet and what we thought of Petra. Soon others were crowding around, extending their hands for a chance to touch the VP. I practically skipped all the way back to the car, grinning from ear to ear, shaking with excitement.

Easter Market

This was more like an Easter Bazaar with artisans selling all sorts of decorative eggs and Easter decorations.











The artisan in charge of the red eggs got angry at me for taking pictures, rambling on about posting the photos on the internet. So here they are, red eggs, posted on the internet for the world to see! The German lady's worst fears have come to pass! And some lovely Ukrainian style eggs on the right.







Grandma Janis would have loved to see the variety of wooden eggs. Gianna took home a sugar maple egg. And here are more Ukrainian eggs on the right (this lady also does not seem so happy that I am taking photos).
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Chocolate eggs

This was not part of the Easter market, but it's a sure sign that Easter is on it's way, quark bunnies are available at the bakeries.

The winker

After months of practice, Gianna has learned how to wink. We were eating lunch and she said "Mẹ, good noodles!" I gave her the "this is some good eats" wink and much to my surprise, she winked back! I asked her to do it again and she did it again, and again, and again, of course getting sillier with each attempt. Here she is winking over noodles, while taking a lunch break from car shopping.

Car shopping

Car shopping in Germany is much, much more enjoyable than any of my high-pressure sleazy salesman car shopping experiences in the US. There is a street in Frankfurt Ost that has pretty much every car dealership you can imagine. We hit Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, and Audi, and window shopped at Porsche ;-) I found the family car of my dreams, the Mercedes B180! It was just right in every size proportion, lots of nice options, great gas mileage, and affordably priced. Of course it's not sold in the US!
>:-( That made me very grumpy.











The B180 family car of my dreams...and the slightly less dreamy Honda CRV











The BMW X3, a nice SUV similar in size to the CRV, and the Audi A3 wagon, my second choice for family car.











We didn't make it to the VW dealership, but cased our neighbor's Tiguan on the way home (left). This Mercedes (right) might not fit a car seat in the back.