Author: magrilless

I have been informed that my children have given me a code name:

The Maid

And here I thought they were creative.

You know we’ve been trucking around a lot over here on The Continent, and in our wanderings and waitings and whatevers, there have been little things we’ve seen and noticed that are different and cool. But sometimes they’re so unconnected they don’t seem to fit into another blog post, or so small they don’t justify an entire one themselves. So here’s a random collection of neat things from our traveling and early-settling months.

Grown-ups use scooters as valid transportation around the city. I’m talking not about motor-scooters like Vespas, but those small-wheeled, foot-powered, handle-barred kick scooters you imagine my kids riding. Especially in Paris and here in Würzburg, adults of all ages and class-levels ride around the sidewalks wearing their skirts and suit jackets and carrying briefcases. A couple of times we’ve seen a kid standing close to the handlebars and a mom with a foot on behind doing the powering.

In Italy particularly, nudity for kids was a nonissue. Girls up to Maggie’s age would wear only bikini bottoms and everyone would change into and out of suits right on the beach. We saw a school arrive one day for an afternoon at the lake, and the whole class just all stripped down right there to change, and that was that. Refreshing for us, from our paranoia-crazed home country.

The double-hinged windows are awesome. They tilt in from the bottom and also swing in from the side, depending on which way you turn the handle. Means we can leave our windows cracked and not really worry about security or rain. (But come on Europe, when will screen technology make its way over here?)

Skin pigment! This may mean more to us coming from our (frankly) mono- (or at best bi-) ethnic mountain town, but there are different races of people here. And (although I’m sure there are problems of racism and discrimination that we’re not picking up on) there are people of all skin colors in all sectors of the public: dark and light business people, dark and light blue-collar commuters, dark and light beggars on the corner. (This was less true in big-city Rome and the Czech Republic.) It felt nice to be one among many.

There are more salons and hair-cutting businesses than people. Seriously, there’s, like, a hair cut place on each and every block in each and every town in Europe. Why? How are so many businesses of the same sort sustainable?

Light switches are opposite, and it still gets me every time. On is down and off is up. When we get back to the States, I will be so confused.

At a Paris park, I watched a school group initiate a water fight with their teacher. She called them together at the end of their time, one kid took the lid off his water bottle and just started throwing water at her. Her response? She took the lid of hers and got him back, and his neighbor. And soon everyone had their water bottle lids off and was running around soaking each other, refilling and dumping and refilling and dumping, for about 10 minutes. Can you imagine a US teacher running around a park with her class participating in a water fight?

Dogs are not neutered here. I don’t know if there are over-population issues in the canine community, but we have seen no strays and a lot of intact doggies. Also, we have seen many more male than female dogs, probably by half.

Europeans don’t wear hats. We are the only people wearing sun hats when it’s super bright and hot out, and the only people wearing knit hat now that the mornings are chilly and frosty. Asian tourists carry parasols for the sun; and locals wear huge scarves for the cold. We stick out a little.

And you know how we said Czech people were a little distant (*snort*)? Bill finally found a way to break through those cold exteriors, at least for the babushkas on the metro. A good solid wink from a young handsome dad will earn at least a ghost of a smile. 😉

We have made our own special family holiday. And we are celebrating today!

We have been granted residency in Germany!

Yesterday was our appointed meeting at the Ausländerbehörde — a meeting which has had me popping a few ibuprofen every morning this week in anticipation. We’ve been getting our ducks in a row: copying documents, printing documents, officially requesting documents, collating documents, compiling documents.* It’s sexy work, applying for a residence permit. Right.

Everything was in order except for the piece of paper signed by our landlord stating the size of our living quarters. (By German law, there is a minimum space requirement for one’s accommodations.) Ours was missing; I swear they took it from me downstairs when we registered in the city (bureaucracy!). So after she processed everything else, I ran across the river to the property management office and had them fill out the paper. Ran it back. Nope. They had just stated the size of the whole apartment, and the application requires the sizes of each individual room in the apartment. Back across the river. They filled in random numbers that equalled the sum total and I ran back across the river again. Nope. Living rooms (minus kitchen, hall, bathroom, etc.) need to equal at least 46 m².

By then offices were closed or closing, so we had to wait until tomorrow. Which, if anyone has done the math of 90 days from when we entered the EU … well today was our last chance before we then had to leave the EU for 90 days. Um … Nerve wracking.

So at home we measured the house with Maggie’s 30 cm long ruler, filled in accurate (and satisfying) numbers on a new form, walked to the property managers at opening this morning, and hoofed it back to the Rathaus to try one final time.

Success!! We are now officially German residents! So we went to a beer garden with sandboxes and trampolines for afternoon snack, then through the rain to a bratwurst stand for dinner, and then to our cozy house (where we get to live for the next 8 months!) for a bottle our local vineyard’s wine.

We are celebrating today!

*In case you’re curious, here’s what we needed for our application:

For Bill — official residence application, passport, biometric photo, proof of housing, proof of adequate housing size, proof of health insurance including cost, German work contact, proof of sufficient income, 100 euros

For Gretchen — official residence application, passport, biometric photo, marriage license with apostille (plus copy), proof of cohabitation, proof of health insurance including cost, 100 euros

For Maggie — official residence application, passport, biometric photo, birth certificate with apostille (plus copy), proof of health insurance including cost, proof of current school registration and attendance, 50 euros

For Tessa — official residence application, passport, biometric photo, birth certificate with apostille (plus copy), proof of health insurance including cost, 50 euros

This is around the corner

This is in every park

This has been the last two weekends of festival food and fire eaters and face paint and other craziness

And parks up verdant hills to playgrounds and vineyards

It’s good here. And so are we!

First day of German elementary school: check!

Celebratory quarktasche after first German elementary schoolday: check!

(Maggie was much less nervous than I expected; she admitted to “an eighth” of being scared. Her teacher, Frau Spahn, speaks some English and seated her next to a bilingual girl from Texas. After-school club — which starts directly after lunch — proved a success as well. Apparently sidewalk chalk is a universal language. Now comes the hard part: deciphering the school supply list. And convincing Maggie that a pastry for morning snack is not viable for everyday.)

So proud of our fearless Maggie!