Skip to main content

A month later

We've been in Germany for a month now.  It's definitely been up and down, but overall no regrets.  The boys are in school.  Well, 2 of them.  Anton is still doing his "settlement period."  On Monday they are going to try to put him down for a nap, I am not too optimistic that he'll sleep but it's a start.

We are also moving into our new home on Monday.  We actually get the keys on Saturday and will move all of the stuff from this apartment over the weekend, and the truck with our stuff is supposed to arrive at 8:30 sharp.  There is also a lot of other stuff that is happening Monday and Tuesday.  Internet and phone set up is supposed to happen on Monday, washer and dryer along with installation are coming Tuesday, and I guess as part of our move a handyman is coming Tuesday morning to install some lights. That means we have to buy most, if not all, the lights on Saturday and Monday nights.  Everything is closed on Sunday.

We are absolutely ready to move out of this place.  It's been a great starting place, but it's way too small for us.  Nobody has private space and everybody is starting to get a little edgy.  We are also not going to miss trying to walk up and down the stairs silently because there is a baby on the first floor, we are not going to miss seeing said baby's diaper in the stairwell every time we go somewhere.  I am going to miss this neighborhood though.  I can and do walk everywhere including the grocery store.  The park that's 2 minutes away was also nice when it was a bit warmer and didn't get dark so early.

We celebrated (kind of but not really) our first holiday away from family - Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, we weren't smart enough to reserve a spot in one of 2 American restaurants in Frankfurt so ended up going to Mongolian Buffet.  It was alright, but seeing everybody's pictures of turkey and stuffing definitely made me miss home.  We didn't make the turkey because we didn't really want to bother with all that food when we have to move so soon afterwards.  In fact, we are eating whatever is left in our fridge so we can move as little as possible.

Some pictures that I took over the last month but never posted:




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

School update

It's been almost exactly 2 months since the last time I wrote here.  Our summer has come and gone as well as 3 weeks of school have passed.  The life has been busy but I knew that since all the kids are in new schools and our schedules are completely different from last year.  We are still trying to figure stuff out but anyway ... Our house looked like that most of the summer  Night before school Anton has started 1st grade.  He goes to school for kids with hearing issues and from what I understood the kids in his class are all over the spectrum regarding their issues.  Anton does not have a problem with hearing but his brain does not process what he hears at normal rate and Anton's teacher knows how to work with him which has been good so far.  The school is a little bit further away but he gets picked up and dropped off right in front of our house and it's going good.  He leaves the house at 7:15 and comes home at 15:40 3 times a we...

Random notes

Wrote this last week but never published :( My plan was to write about Anton and his school a bit. Or about how German language acquisition is (after being in Germany for 4 years).  However ... life!   Last week Andrei was home Tuesday and Wednesday because the teachers held parent-teacher conferences for those 2 days and kids had no school.  First time it's happening this way because in other schools meetings were always held either before or after classes.  After having him home for 2 days and meeting his classroom teacher, I learned pretty much nothing new - his grades are good but he needs to talk more in class.  That's what I got out of a 30 minute meeting.   Friday Anton was home because his school starts Carnival celebrations early.  Monday and Tuesday all the kids were home because again Carnival - Rose Monday and for no reason for Tuesday.  Anton's extended celebrations continued into Wednesday.  I am not a fan...

Medicine in Germany

I knew two things about Germany before we got here - food and medicine are supposed to be really good here.  Today's topic is medicine that we've encountered so far.  It has definitely been different than what we are used to. Anton has had 3 bouts with bronchitis in 3 months and every time he had to use steroids to get rid of it.  The last time we went for a check up to make sure he was in the clear, the pediatrician said that we should use the steroid medicine until the "bad season" is over which is somewhere in March or April.  I questioned the use of a steroid as a preventative measure for 2.5 year old and she said that it wasn't a BAD steroid, so it was ok.  I came home, looked it up and didn't like what I saw - not a lot of research has been done on this particular medicine so far and it might cause some psychological, growth, and other issues.  And it's only being sold in Germany at this point.  I forwarded that info to some more medically info...