Saying Goodbye and Coming Home

It has taken me a few days to get this post written. It has been a busy few days of traveling, getting home, adjusting to our new time zone and dealing with jet lag, seeing friends and family, and trying to figure out what it means to settle back into life here in Oregon. And I have also been trying to figure out what I wanted to say and how to say it about leaving Germany.

Saying goodbye was hard, much harder than I thought it would be given how excited I was to go back home to friends and family. We made a few good friends during our time in Germany and it was hard to say goodbye, not really knowing if we would ever get to see them again. And I enjoyed how simple our life was there. It was peaceful in a way that I hadn't experienced in a long time. We will need to figure out how to live that way back home.

I got a hug from Judith, the lady who runs the little store in Embken and we exchanged email addresses so that we could stay in touch. She was so great with Mikayla and made our little trip to her store, which was nearly every day, something we looked forward to. She was also one of the few people that could speak English, at least a little, in the town we were in, and I appreciated the effort she made to talk to me and make me feel welcome.

Saying goodbye to Mary, our landlady, was hard. She was such a big part of our life in Germany and a big reason why I enjoyed it so much. She was wonderful with Mikayla and was sad to see her go. She gave Mikayla a cute little bracelet to have and also a teddy bear backpack to have to remind her of her time in Germany. I am not sure I can put into words just how much it meant to me to have someone to talk to, to have someone who enjoyed my child, and to have someone I could ask all those stupid little questions you have when you are in a culture your own. Goodbye, Mary. We hope that we can see you again soon.

Mary, Mikayla, and I

On Friday, September 25, we left what had been our home for nearly three months and drove away from Embken for the last time. It was a beautiful morning with a low, misty fog hovering over the fields and promise of the sun breaking through the clouds. Mary had gotten up to wave goodbye to us and give us a hug, and also help with some of the last minute details of getting out of the apartment. And then we drove to Cologne so that we could turn in the rental car and get on our 8:50 am train to Frankfurt. We got there in just enough time to locate the rental car lot, haul our stuff into the train station, turn in the rental car, wait in line at the Lufthansa ticket counter and find out that we didn't really have our tickets booked after all, get hurriedly issued tickets for at least the train portion of our journey with instructions that we would need to figure out what was going on with our plane tickets once we got to Frankfurt, run up to the train platform, find our car, and then pile us and all our stuff on with the help of a few kindly strangers. And we were barely an hour and a half into our day of travel.

When we booked our plane tickets, we had gone with Lufthansa since they were the only ones that offered a direct flight from Portland to Frankfurt and we thought that would be the easiest, though not the cheapest, way to go with a toddler. Then we found out that they canceled their direct flight service to Portland in the beginning of September and had re-rerouted us. That was where the confusion with the tickets came in. For some reason they knew about us and knew that we were scheduled to be re-routed, but we didn't have actual tickets. So, once we got to the airport, we had to wait in several different lines before we found the one that would issue us a ticket, then had to wait in another, and one we had been in previously, to get the actual boarding pass. In fact, we talked to the same lady both times. It was nice that we had a long time between when the train got in and when our plane took off because we would have been pretty stressed out with how long it took to straighten everything out. Mikayla did pretty good with all the lines, so that made it easier, too.

And then we were ready to get on the plane. We got through Customs, Security, to the gate, and then onto the plane. We settled Mikayla in her seat, turned on cartoons on her seatback tv, gave her some milk, and then she was out. I was thinking that we couldn't have timed it any better than that, then settled in to wait for everyone else to finish boarding the plane. Once everyone was boarded and had been for awhile, the captain came online and said that they had found a dent in the cargo hold door, that although they had been flying with it that way for six months the deadline for fixing it was yesterday, and as a result the plane was not cleared to fly. So, about an hour after boarding, we found ourselves having to get back off the plane and on to buses that took us to a holding area to wait for another plane to come in and take us to Denver. And our perfect timing was out the window.

We did get on another plane, which took off about three hours after we were originally supposed to leave. The flight itself was okay, until Mikayla had a hard time falling asleep again and fell apart. It was hard to blame her with how long her day had been, and she didn't fall apart until after we should have been off the plane in Denver. She managed to fall asleep for a bit, but we were all exhausted by the time the plane landed.

She fell apart again in the line to get through Customs, but this time it ended up being a good thing, although it didn't feel like it at the time. While we were struggling to hold her while she was crying and keep moving with the line with all of our stuff, a Customs official came and got us and moved us to the front of the line. I think we skipped over at least a half hour wait in line. It ended up being a really good thing we did that, too, since we were the last ones on our flight to Portland as it was. If she hadn't fell apart in the line I think we would have missed that flight, too, and had to wait for a later one.

All we had was a little over two more hours on a plane, and then we were home. Luckily, we all were able to sleep for most of the flight. And then we were finally home. Darren's dad was there waiting for us, which was wonderful. When we finally got to our house, we figured that we had been traveling for 26 hours since we left our apartment in Embken that morning. It was good to be home, though we will always remember our time in Germany.

Flies, Flies, and more Flies

I believe that I have mentioned that we have lots of flies that were in and around our apartment. Since we live so near to farms and farm animals, they are everywhere. We bought one fly swatter soon after getting into the apartment, and then not too long after that we bought another one. It was a good investment because we have used those fly swatters quite a bit. I hadn't realized, though, just how much a part of our life it was until Mikayla started wanting to "get the fly" with us. She would take a fly swatter (or both of them), hit the ground with it, and say, "I got it!" Pretty funny stuff.

Darren's Commute to Work

Here is a video I made of my commute to work. Don't worry, we really are not going that fast!

They Made It

Sunday morning after we got back from Montenegro, I got up early and snuck out of the hotel room without waking either Darren or Mikayla up so that I could go pick up my mom and Doreen from the airport. We had booked a hotel room near the Frankfurt airport so that we wouldn't have to do the nearly two hour drive twice, and so that I wouldn't have to get up quite so early to meet them at their 6 am arrival. It was nice to be able to sleep longer, although it still felt really early.

But, they made it, and had a pretty good flight. And we were able to find each other pretty easily, especially considering the size of the Frankfurt am Main airport. We had set up a location through email to meet each other, but I found them before we even got there. I am so glad that they are here! I have been looking forward to being able to show them around where we live and let them see a part of Germany. Neither my mom nor Doreen had been overseas before, so I am glad that I got to be there for their first experience.

Mom and Doreen at the Boise airport, packed and ready to go

We ate a little breakfast in the airport, exchanged some of their money over to euros, and then found our way back to the hotel to pick up Darren and Mikayla. And then we all piled into the car with all of our luggage for the drive back to Embken. It was a pretty tight fit since Darren, Mikayla, and I had our bags from our trip to Montenegro, but we managed to squeeze it all in.

After we got to the apartment and unpacked, we all took a nap while Mikayla was sleeping before we went out for a walk to show Mom and Doreen around Embken a little bit. We took the rest of Sunday and most of the day on Monday to relax and explore our area a bit before heading out a bit further. Here are a few pictures of their first couple of days here.

Mikayla enjoying walking with Nana C and Doreen

Mom, Mikayla, and I sitting on the steps to the little restaurant in Embken

Mikayla posing for Nana C

Mom and Mikayla

Mikayla and the Bunny

Our landlady here in Embken, Mary, has a bunny. Mikayla absolutely adores this bunny. Most days that both we and Mary are here at the house, she takes Mikayla to feed the bunny. It is the highlight of her day when she can go feed the bunny carrots and leaves from the garden here.

Felix, the bunny

Getting to feed the bunny with Mary

My Two Brothers

Last week was a week for my brothers. While my older brother, Nate, was here visiting me in Germany, my younger brother, Josh, was at his home in Canada celebrating his 30th birthday. It is crazy to think that none of us were in the country that we were born in. Nate and I were able to talk to Josh via Skype a day or two (depending on whose time you were talking about) before his actual birthday, so at least we were able to partially celebrate with him. It was sad not to be able to be there with Josh to celebrate this milestone birthday, but hopefully we can make it up to him.

I don't actually have a picture of Josh here on my computer (most of our pictures are on the computer we left back home in Oregon), but here is one of him and his superdog Zeke that I borrowed from the web page of his lovely wife, Tonya. Since she takes excellent pictures, I thought it would be a good one to post here.


For Nate's last day here, we went to the town of Aachen. I wanted to take him to the great little toy store I had found when Darren's parents were here, and also let him experience the town. We had a good lunch of Italian food at a little cafe just down the street from the Aachen cathedral. It is interesting to blend what little I know of Italian with what little I know of German and try to order Italian food in Germany. It is good that the waiter also spoke English so that we didn't have to rely on my language skills. I am slowly picking up bits of the German language, but not enough yet to be able to converse.

Aachen Cathedral

After we left Aachen, Nate, Mikayla, and I drove back to Düren to pick Darren up from work before heading back to Embken. We dropped Mikayla and Darren off at the apartment, picked up Nate's bags, and then headed back out on the road to go to Frankfurt. Nate had booked a hotel in Frankfurt on Monday night so that it would make getting to the airport on Tuesday easier and also let him explore a little of Frankfurt before leaving the country. It was a long drive there and back, but worth it. I am so glad that Nate was able to come and visit us and that we could spend some good time reconnecting with him.

Relaxing in Embken

After we got back from our trip down south to Heidelberg, Darren’s parents, Mikayla, and I took it easy for a couple of days back at our apartment while Darren had to go in to work. It was nice to be able to relax for a bit, get some laundry done, and just explore the area that we live in with them. We went on some walks and some bike rides, but mostly just relaxed.

Mikayla enjoying a toy at the park. She loves "scooters" and points them out whenever we pass one on the road, which happens a lot around here. She spent a lot of time riding this "scooter" in the park.

Nana Rose and Mikayla

Paul playing on the park structure

Mikayla loving the slide

Mikayla learning to climb up the slide. She made it all the way to the top by herself!

Mikayla smelling some wildflowers on a walk

Mikayla walking with Nana Rose

Mikayla getting ready to run with Nana Rose and Papa Paul

Bicycle Riding

It hasn't quite been a video a week, but here is the next installment. This one shows some of the places we have been able to ride our bicycles here in Germany.

Our First Visitors

After a little over a month of being here, settling in, and learning the ropes, we have our first visitors. Darren's parents arrived last Thursday and were very excited to see their granddaughter. And their son and daughter-in-law, too, of course, but mostly Mikayla.

Mikayla and I went to Cologne to pick them up at the train station since they had caught the express train from the Frankfurt airport to Cologne, much like we did when we first arrived. We were a little late getting to the train station since I got a little later of a start than I had wanted and a little girl had problems concentrating on finishing breakfast (she kept getting distracted by the calendar that is by her seat that has kittens on it and saying, "kitty! kitty!"). Also, I was relying on our GPS to get me to the train station once I got close to Cologne, but it was having trouble locating satellites and was no help to me until I had made several wrong turns and turned around a couple of times looking for signs to the Hauptbahnhof. Thankfully the GPS device did locate satellites in time for me to maneuver my way through the myriad of construction detours in Cologne and finally get to the train station.

I was getting a little worried since I was now about a half an hour later than I knew that their train was due to arrive in the station, and Darren had emailed his parents before they left and told them to wait a half an hour before leaving the platform and trying to call us. And I got a little more worried when Mikayla and I got up to the platforms and didn't see them anywhere. I had just got back down to the main part of the train station and was starting to look for a telephone to see if they were there when I got a call on my cell phone. It was Rosemary saying that they were in the Lufthansa office straightening out a baggage situation. I was glad that they weren't waiting on me, but a little concerned about what sort of situation there was.

It turned out that there was a mix-up with the carry-on luggage and the wrong bag was grabbed on the way off the plane. It wasn't discovered until Paul and Rosemary were on the train to Cologne and it was too late to do much about it. Thankfully there was a very helpful flight attendant who was on their flight and happened to live in Cologne so that she was on the same train that they were on, so she helped them once they got to the Lufthansa office in Cologne. She even went so far as to ride with us to the Cologne regional airport and help us turn in the wrong bag to the office there. We were able to pick up the correct bag the next day since it had been left in the lost and found in Frankfurt and we had been planning on driving in that direction anyway.

So, the bag situation was worked out, they got to see their granddaughter, see Darren's work, and then we headed back to Embken. I had been planning on trying to see a little of Cologne the day they arrived, but with how tired everyone was after the long flight and with the missing bag, it seemed much better to just head home.

It was fun to be able to show our little home-away-from-home off to people in person and not just in photos. It is hard to capture the peace of this place and the feel of it in pictures, although we have certainly tried. And it is fun to see some of our family again after a month of being by ourselves. Mikayla certainly is enjoying having someone else to play with and entertain her.

Thunderstorms

The area we are in gets some amazing thunderstorms. They mostly come at night and we have been woken up several times in them middle of the night by the sound of driving rain on the windows at the roof and by loud thunder claps that sound like they are right above us. The storm that hit last night also came with wind that sounded like it was going to tear some trees down with it. When we came out of the house this morning the only thing knocked over was a potted tree in the courtyard, though.

It had been a beautiful, warm day yesterday all day. I had even been practicing my German phrase for "the weather is nice today" in case I ran into the little old man that I have been seeing on my walks to the store. He doesn't speak any English (although one of his grandsons does, and he corralled him one day so that the grandson could tell me that the weather was nice), but he keeps trying to talk to me. So, I have been trying to memorize some phrases so we can say a couple of things to each other. I haven't seen him for the past couple of days, but hopefully I will see him soon so I can use one of my phrases. Yesterday, my phrase was "Heute ist das Wetter schön" since it was so nice and warm. But the flies were even worse than usual around our house. When we were having dinner with Mary last night we were talking about how bad the flies were swarming around and she said that she thought there was a thunderstorm coming since they usually get worse right before a thunderstorm. And she was right, even though the weather station hadn't said anything about rain or a storm.

Although not a picture of a thunderstorm (we don't have any since we have mostly been sleeping when they start), here is a picture of Darren standing out in the rain during one of the rainstorms that have hit while we have been here.

Laundry Day

It took me awhile and some instruction from Mary, our landlady, but I finally figured out how to operate the washing machine. It turned out to be pretty easy once she explained that she only uses the "mini" cycle and showed me where to put the soap. Mikayla likes to help put the clothes in the washing machine.


Although we do have a dryer, I have been using the clothes line that was provided with the apartment and drying our clothes in the fresh air and sunshine. It is kind of fun to do things that way, although it does require me to actually iron at least Darren's work clothes once they are dry. The dryer is located in the room where Mikayla sleeps, so Darren's preferred method of getting the wrinkles out of his clothes by throwing them in the dryer isn't possible in the mornings before he leaves.

Heimbach

On the first Sunday that we were here in Germany we decided that we wanted to drive around the area a bit to get oriented. We went on a long walk around our villages and to several of the neighboring villages the day before, so we felt like exploring a little further. We first went to Nigedden, which is a bit larger than the village we live in, Embken. The address of our house actually says "Nigedden" since our village is incorporated in the city of Nigedden, even though it is about 8 km away. Nigedden is supposed to have a nice castle you can hike to and tour around in, so we decided to start our day there. Unfortunately, it was raining really hard when we got into Nigedden and didn't show any signs up letting up. So, we continued driving past the town and into the Eifel Wilderness area. It was a very beautiful drive up and down mountains, through picturesque little villages, and over and around the river Rur. We enjoyed the drive, even though Mikayla got a little stir crazy being cooped up for so long and she hadn't yet adjusted to the time zone here.

And then we got to the village of Heimbach. We drove into it by accident, looking for the right road to get us back to Embken, and we were glad to have stumbled upon it. It is nestled along the banks of the Rur, in a little valley that offers many hiking trails. When we first drove into the village it was having some sort of festival that looked like a lot of fun. We thought about stopping, but we needed to get Mikayla back home and into bed. So, we put it on our list of places that we needed to get back to and really explore.

We ended up getting back to visit much earlier than expected. The next Thursday we went back in the evening after Darren got home from work and had dinner there. Going back to Heimbach was great, not only because we wanted the chance to explore the village and its surrounding areas, but also because it gave me the chance to get out of Embken. I really enjoy the village where we live, but I had been going a little stir crazy that week. It was Darren's first week of work, so he was gone all day with the car and tired when he got back. I think that was the first time in my life where I had been truly stuck in a place and not able to get out and do something if I wanted to. It is amazing how trapped I felt, even though Mikayla and I went on a walk every day for at least an hour. But not being able to communicate with most of the people that I saw and not being able to get out of a few-mile radius got to me after a few days, especially since at the time I didn't see any other options for the time that we are here.

So, getting out and going to explore Heimbach and eat out was a very exciting thing. We still need to go on some of the trail hikes that are offered around there, but we had fun walking all over the village and looking at the castle that sits above the city.

Darren and Mikayla with Burg Heimbach in the background

The River Rur at Heimbach

Fiddler Statue by the river

We had a wonderful dinner at a little restaurant called "Zur Alten Muhle", which means "The Old Mill". The building, when it was built in 1657 was a mill and even has the old water wheel on display inside. We ate outside in the patio area since the weather was nice and it gave Mikayla a place to run around. I enjoyed my Jagerschnitzel, which was the first truly German food that I had had since I had cooked most of our meals since we arrived. Mikayla ate most of her sausage and fries, and Darren enjoyed his meal, though neither of us could remember the name of it after he ordered it.

Darren practicing German phrases so he could talk to the waiter

Our meal

Mikayla

Mikayla wandering in and out of the restaurant after the meal. The waiters were really understanding about a little one underfoot and even smiled and tried to get her to talk to them.

Mystery Solved

When we first arrived in Embken, we noticed that many doors, including the one to our apartment had letters written either on the door or above it. The letters were: 20*C+M+B*09. Sometimes, as in the case of our own door, the last two numbers were 08, but most were 09. Once we started noticing it, we noticed it every where we went. In every village we walked to, and even in the bigger cities we noticed it. We wondered if it were some sort of superstitious thing and, if so, what it meant. I finally got around to asking Mary, our landlady, what it meant. It isn't a superstitious thing at all. Every year at Christmas time, or maybe the New Year (I wasn't clear on that), people come around to every one's house dressed as the Three Wise Men and collect money for children's charities. If you give them money, they mark your door in chalk with the above sign to show that you gave. The letters stand for the names of the Three Wise Men, Caspar of Tarsus, Melchior of Persian, and Balthasar of Saba. And the numbers are the year that you gave. Mary looked a little embarrassed and said that she had been gone this past year when they came and that is why the mark on our door ended in the 08.

The Corner Store

I love the little store in our village. On most mornings, while Darren is at work, Mikayla and I head down to the store to pick up milk and fresh bread (or brotchen) for breakfast, and maybe some fresh strawberries if they have them. The ladies who run the place are very friendly and speak a little English. I have been trying out my German phrases on them, but so far they just smile at me and reply in English. They like to greet Mikayla with a little pastry when we go, so she gets pretty excited when I say that we are going to walk to the store.

Settling In

It was a bit of work to settle into life here in Germany. We love our little apartment, which is much bigger and more than we expected, and we love our landlady, Mary, who speaks fairly good English and is very helpful. I just had underestimated how hard it would be to get a toddler to change her internal clock by 9 hours. I knew it would be hard, or thought I did, but it was much harder than I had anticipated, especially when I was dealing with jet lag myself. It was great that Darren didn't have to go to work right away, but was able to stay with us and help figure things out and help deal with a little girl who was miserably tired. It is hard enough to deal with jet lag as an adult when you understand the why of it, but it is even harder for a toddler to understand why we are telling her to go to sleep when she wants to be waking up and waking her up when she thinks she should be sleeping. It was the first or second night that we were here and I got woken up at 3 am with her popping her little head above the portable crib that she is sleeping in while she is here and loudly reciting all the words she knows. It took her a little over a week to really transition and start sleeping through the night. We are very thankful that part is over.

In order to get oriented here and also to let Mikayla have time to get settled here, we stuck around Embken for the most part for the first week we were here. We went on many long walks. This is a very rural area with lots of farms growing wheat, corn, peas, and other things that I am not sure of. There are little villages that are dotted all over the place here, and there are paths and trails that lead between all of them. It has been fun to be able to explore the area like this. Once we locate a bike seat for Mikayla, we hope to do even more exploring by bike. In the mean time, though, we are enjoying being able to get out and walk when the weather is nice. On the first weekend we were here, we were up really early because we still hadn't adjusted to the time change. I think that we were all up and had eaten breakfast and were ready to go by 7 am. So, we went on what ended up being almost a 3 hour walk. There was a lake that we wanted to go see, and then we just kept exploring. Here is a picture of one of the trails we were walking on.

The village we are in is very quaint. Sometimes when I am walking around looking at all the buildings here or in one of the little nearby villages, it is hard to believe that I am actually here. Our village has a little church in the center of it that chimes the hours on the steeple bells, has windy little roads that twist and turn and never really go straight, and most of the buildings were not built in this century or the last. The house we are staying in was built in 1631, although I think it is the oldest around here. Here are a few pictures of our village.

Getting Here

The trip over here was actually much easier than expected. After all the hassle of packing and repacking our bags to make sure that we came in under the 50-lb airplane limit and at the same time remember to bring everything we wanted to bring for our 3-month trip, and after trying to get our house ready for Amy, who is renting our house while we are gone, we were finally able to get on the airplane and be on our way. We need to give a big thanks to Paul, Darren's dad, for all his help in organizing our garage so we could park our car in there while we were gone, for driving us to the airport, and for helping us lug our many bags through the airport to get them checked in. We had to do that by ourselves once we got to Germany, and it sure made us appreciate his help even more than we did already.

Mikayla did really well on the flight over. She only threw one screaming/ kicking/ rolling on the ground fit, and that was on the way onto the airplane. When that happened, and the flight attendants had to help us carry our stuff back to our seats because I had my arms full with a flailing toddler, I was bracing myself for a horrible flight. But, God was merciful, because once we actually got back to our seats and she was able to sit in her car seat and play with the video monitor in front her her she did amazing. She played and she slept a little and she watched "Bolt" on her video monitor about 4 times (she loved the doggy, and pointing him out on the screen whenever he came on). Luckily, there was a little girl about her age in the seat in front of her, so she didn't mind that Mikayla was constantly kicking her seat. The older gentleman that was in the seat next to Mikayla was pretty entertained by her and was understanding about the occasional foot in his food or flying toy. Our flight was a direct one from Portland to Frankfurt, so we had it easy in that we could just settle in and stay there and not have to change planes.

Once in Frankfurt, we were able to get through customs with little difficulty. We did have to wait around for quite awhile for our stroller, which we had checked at the gate in Portland. The gate-checked items had accidentally been sent to the baggage claim with the rest of the luggage and had to be picked up and sent back. We waited for about 45 minutes and it wasn't there yet. Since we were starting to get worried about missing our train to Cologne, we decided to just leave the without the stroller and take the chance that we would have to buy a new one when we were here. It was nice that I had the Ergo toddler carrier with me, so that I could strap Mikayla to my back and not have to worry about my arms getting tired while we were walking. It turned out perfectly, though. We met up with the guy who was carrying our stroller to the train terminal, and we were able to retrieve that and the rest of our luggage and get down to the platform for our train with about a minute to spare.

When we arrived in Cologne, we were met by Olaf, one of Darren's coworkers here in Germany. We didn't really have any time to look around Cologne or see any of the sites since he needed to take us where we were going and then get back to work. I am sure that we will get back there to look around at some point on this trip. We somehow managed to squeeze all of our luggage and ourselves into the car, although there were a few moments when I thought we might need to leave some of it in a locker at the train station. And then we were off on the Autobahn. As Mikayla slept peacefully, we flew down the road at about 110 mph, passing other cars like they were standing still. What a welcome to Germany.

Olaf took us through the city of Düren, where Darren works, and then from there to the little village where the apartment that they rented for us is located. The village is called Embken, and it is located about 16 km south of Dueren. It takes Darren about 20 minutes to drive to work in the morning, so he actually has a little bit better of a commute here than he did in Oregon.

Our First Week

Here is a video that Darren made to send to his company back home. It takes you through leaving home and gives you a little bit of an idea of what it has been like here so far. I believe that he is going to try to make these little videos every week or so while we are here, so I will add them to the blog as well.