Our Three Year European Vacation

Hmmm....

2011-04-15T18:22:00.008+02:00

Well, the baby actually came. Over a year ago. Rachel Eva. La la la...

So much for the poorly titled 'European Vacation', or 'Three Year' for that matter. We have now committed to staying here, at least until a job that is better than what I have comes up. Erika is heading to Grade 1 in the fall in the big school, Reese had his first year of kindergarten and learning German, and Rachel has been trying to figure out where to fit in the mess.

A couple of highlights over the past year:

1. Rachel wearing a full body brace for 6 months for her hips (of course her birth was pretty special too).

2. Trips to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Budapest, Normandy, and Malaga (seems like a lot now)

3. We moved. To a smaller place than the previous small place, about 20 meters from the old one. And added another mess maker to the mix. But we have a backyard now (quasi-backyard / shared community garden). It is actually a nice benefit and the reason we moved.

4. Erika is teaching us German. No problems for her.

5. Reese has some eye problems. Something like -10 prescription in both. Needless to say, he needed glasses. Maybe it should have been more apparent with him needing the book about 2 cm away while we read to him.

We are gearing up for Mom G and Bailey's visit next week, and in the summer (July/August) we are thinking about a trip back to Canada (Jodi's first time back). If I do start to actually update this thing, I'll start in on some smaller stuff later...

Jeff

+4

2009-12-24T16:32:00.002+01:00

Hmmm. Nothing yet. Tomorrow, Jodi will be the same overdueness as she was with Reese. We're having burgers for supper on Christmas Eve. I even bought the "American style mega-burger" buns. Definitely traditional. I think duck is the traditional Christmasy meal here.

Jodi and Jeff

Back to the Present

2009-12-23T20:07:00.002+01:00

Well, I think we will do some present time stuff as well as recapping some of our previous adventures in-line, just to make things more confusing. We are currently at the baby's due date +3, so we are a little antsy at the moment. We were hoping that the baby would be born already, and we could enjoy some time at Christmas and get sort of used to having another one before we move (that's right) on the 29th. So, it is almost Christmas Eve, and no baby. Five and a half days until the move.

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: January 27, 2009 - Erika's 4th birthday

2009-12-06T21:07:00.002+01:00

It was good. Jodi remembers that it was nothing special and Erika seemed less than happy. Sounds kind of sad. To put it in perspective, she was really struggling with school at the time. We were thinking of pulling her out for good - she was being very quiet and didn't seem to be playing very much with the other kids. Also, her ears were really bugging her. We took her to a bunch of specialists and almost got the adenoids out. Only one of her ears kind of worked and you really had to talk loud or pretty much yell into it. So all in all, maybe she didn't even know it was her birthday. The highlight was her laufrad (running bike) and going for a spin.

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: January 2009, Bern CH

2009-11-29T22:27:00.001+01:00

In January, we went on a great trip to Switzerland with my Mom. We stayed a couple of nights in Bern, and took a drive to Interlaken. Here goes:

This one I think is kind of funny (in a bad sort of way). It looks like she is about to slip through the fence and roll off the cliff. Now there is quality parenting. Actually, it wasn't that sheer... These first three are on the walk into the downtown part of Bern:

Downtown Bern:

In Interlaken, amid the Alps:

Back in Bern, us at the start of 2009:

We spent most of our money on drinks to keep warm and Swiss chocolate. Mmmm... One thing that stands out is the Swiss restaurants, that still allow smoking inside throughout. Nothing like ravioli a la 2nd hand. Unbearable. All in all, Bern remains one of our favourite spots. Bye for now,

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Christmas Day (Dec. 25, 2008)

2009-11-29T21:54:00.001+01:00

Here we are opening all the presents, that's about it for the description:

Not sure what the next post will be about,

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Christmas Eve (Dec. 24, 2008)

2009-04-19T06:36:00.007+02:00

Oh dear. So, we are trying to recap until the present, although we are definitely not keeping up. Nothing like a six month break when we were already six months behind. Apparently this is Christmas Eve, 2008. Reese running for some reason...
Bunch of Christmas pictures, all special with their own stories:

Here's Reesey holding up the catch of the day (a nice walleye):

Christmas Day 2008 up next!

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Christmas Activities (Dec. 7-23, 2008)

2009-04-01T20:43:00.006+02:00

The two weeks before Christmas we went to the Freiburg Weinachtsmarkt, made lots of cookies, and tried our hands at plenty of Christmas crafts (thanks Mom S. and Lesley). So, we thought we would detail some of the highlights. First up, completely unrelated to Christmas - fingerpainting. Well, actually fingerpainting cleanup. The soupy pictures the kids made took a few days to dry on the wintergarten. Reese liked his sink bath:

Now on to the cookies. Check out the intense concentration from Reese. He is very proficient at dusting a Russian teacake with icing sugar:

Jodi saw a picture of Jolayne E.'s little girl Emma with a cute little craft that we had to copy. It was a hit and Erika enjoyed her fluffy big snowman:

At the Freiburg Christmas market, Heitzmann (the local bakery we spend half of my pay cheque at) had a booth set up and in the back you could pay three euros to decorate and bake gingerbread cookies. They did a really good job and Erika had so much fun. We really got our money's worth (no joke) with this one:

Reese enjoyed Erika's finished products (and he got a hat too):Erika really loved the foam gingerbread house that Lesley sent over. It was a really neat craft, although required a huge amount of patience and persistence on Jodi's part to get the thing to stand up, but the decorating was fun. It even had a musical pushbutton that played non-stop Jingle Bells thanks to Erika:

My Mom sent over a gingerbread house with all the candies and icing to decorate it. Jodi decided this year to just let the kids do what they wanted to do with the decorating:

Voila, the end product of a 3-year-old's imagination and the hands of a mother holding back the tides of two sugar-infused kids while trying to ice the house. The back side was Reese's, and it was equally as cute.

Jodi had an idea (or flashback) of a craft - the foam ball snowman. So, we brought out the pipecleaners and threw together some pretty handsome snowmen. Erika needed to have a backpack and purse on hers:

Reese didn't have any major requests for accessories, but, boy was he proud of his snow man:

You can see in the background in the above picture too that we hung some lights out on the wintergarten. I wanted to ducktape them everywhere but was constrained to the wintergarten windows only. Baby steps, next year the invasion begins...

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: St. Nicolaus (Dec. 12, 2008)

2009-04-01T20:24:00.005+02:00

There is a tradition in Germany about St. Nick. He doesn't come at Christmas, but he comes on the 12th (at least he did this year). Kids clean their shoes and put them outside and St. Nick fills them with walnuts and chocolate. He also visited the kindergartens where they had stockings and received walnuts and chocolate. It's a really cute tradition that I think we will try to keep up on even after we come back. Erika really enjoyed it, Reesey didn't quite get it, but enjoyed the chocolate in the morning. Here's old Mr. Double Dipper and sister sitting by their shoes just outside our door (the lovely blue door):

This movie correctly displays Reese's state of mind over the whole procedure (especially the last ten seconds):

The only thing we will change for next year is we will get a nutcracker rather than have Jodi smash the walnuts with a hammer. Worked fine, but perhaps a touch dangerous for the kids holding the walnuts.

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: Christmas With Mom (Dec. 1, 2008)

2009-03-24T21:19:00.004+01:00

Minus the stark-white walls, we could sure tell Christmas was in the air. Here is the extent of our decorating for the year:Re-buying all of the Christmas decorations was fun and painful at the same time. We didn't have tons of money to get all/what we wanted, but we tried to do our best. Not quite the same as the Michener setup, but I think I already talked about that. As the month passed by, we added to our decorations with lots and lots of crafts (to follow). Mom had some gifts for the kids and considering this was as big as the Christmas gathering was going to get, we had a little party: Martha Stewart honey-mustard cornish game hen (actually turkey) and my absolute favorite, pecan crusted cornbread stuffing (no joke). Yum. Well, at least the turkey. Jodi and Mom loved the stuffing. The only thing the meal was missing was sweet potatoes (Jodi's favourite) but we couldn't seem to find them anywhere. Here's the spread:

Actually, it looks pretty gross. But really, it tasted a lot better than it looks. Looks like a pile of giblets. Jodi's getting a little offended right now. Silly pictures of food. After the feast, which ended with homemade Christmas pudding with massively overestimated amounts of vinegar in the first batch of sauce (vinegar in Germany is 5 times more concentrated, oops, sorry burnt lungs), the kids enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa's presents:

Erika's Christmas dress from the 'Early Elves' - that would be us:

Sorry about the dark video (again) but Erika was pretty cute opening up the dress, so we had to put it in:

It was a perfect way to start of December with Jodi and Mom having fun cooking a big dinner and watching the kids enjoy early gifts with music and candles. Ahhh...

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: Titisee Weinachtsmarkt (Nov. 30, 2008)

2009-03-24T21:11:00.004+01:00

The next day we went the opposite direction of Colmar to the Black Forest and the Titisee Weinachtsmarkt. We wanted to get in as many Christmas markets as we could and also Mom G. wanted to see lots before she left in a couple of days. We packed Erika's snowpants and she played lots in the snow:Reese didn't have snowpants yet so he got to walk. Here we are strutting it up down mainstreet Titisee:

Ahhh, a nice family picture. Reesey is staring at a man-size excrement in the pile of snow beside us, a common find in Germany:

A couple more of Mom and us standing by the lake:

What was this day supposed to be about again? We didn't get any pictures of the Christmas market or Kris Kringle (their version of Santa Claus which is very different from ours - the Coca-Cola variant). Germany's Kris Kringle looks more like a bishop with a big grey beard and a red and white cloak. Maybe next year...

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Colmar Weinachtsmarkt (Nov. 29, 2008)

2009-03-24T21:03:00.004+01:00

Well, word around the office was that Colmar has a pretty good Christmas market, so we figured we should check it out. It's a three leg journey to get there (25 min. tram, 25 min. train, 50 min. bus) so we started out relatively early and semi-bundled up for a cool day outside. We hadn't bought snow pants for Reese yet, but, seeing as we are habituating ourselves in Germany, we did as they do and bought a pair of boys' tights. Wait for the picture of what Reese thought of this practice. Anyway, here's Erika on the S-bahn (kind of like a train):Our wonderful family on a cute little street in front of a faux-neige (we are in France now, oui oui) tree. I thought it was a good time to play with my omnipresent five o'clock shadow:

Here we are waiting in line for a toasted sandwich, French style. We can't quite remember what it was called, but it was kind of a cross between a Royal burger from Red Robin and an Egg McMuffin. Actually, no, it was good old buns, meat and cheese thrown in a press. Are we in Germany? In France, they like to squirt on extraneous sauce - it's quite tasty:

Erika was coming down from her second massive sugar rush from a Christmas market specialty for kids: a huge crepe smothered in a full cup of Nutella. Seriously, there was lots on there. At the end, we could squirt half of it out and pass it back to her and it was still leaking out. Ahh, the wonderful Christmas markets; here's Jodi and Mom and the kids posing in front of a couple of the booths that were set up. Apart from the various food merchants selling brezels, crepes, huge, viva puff-like marshmallow chocolate mounds, taffy, Christmas cakes, and a type of sweet wine (gluhwein), there were many proprieters selling Christmas ornaments and some wood toys. Mom G. bought a handmade wood chess board that folds up for Bradley. Jodi remembers lots of food and Christmas ornaments as the two themes of the Colmar market, and much more decorated booths than their Freiburg counterparts:

We froze. But we thoroughly enjoyed the decorations in Colmar. Mom and Jodi had success in finding cornmeal to make Christmas stuffing with, so that alone made the trip worthwhile (I can't stand stuffing). Colmar had lots of little trees on their window ledges too, which Mom loved. By the end of the trip though, Reesey had had enough of his forced lederhosen, and was trying at all costs to rip them off:

Needless to say, they were a one-use item. And so ends the Colmar Weinachtsmarkt of 2008. We will probably make the trip again in 2009. Anybody want to come?

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Christmas Cookies (Nov. 26, 2008)

2009-03-24T20:47:00.008+01:00

Seeing as all the Christmas decorations were up, we thought it was a good time to start in on the Christmas cookies while Mom was still around. Reese needed to be restrained continually as he wanted to dive right in. His job was to fork out the balls on the sheet, and he was so intent on doing a good job that he would try to push the ball straight through the table with the fork, shaking from the exertion.Erika's job was to roll the balls, which quite often turned into tube steaks. Tasty nonetheless, but we didn't wrap them up for the friends (if there were any) and neighbours (we do have those, and are continually reminded by nasty notes about the kids):

The kids enjoyed the end product. They were the flakiest shortbread cookies ever, crumbling in your hands because the butter has a different consistency over here. Or something like that. Like butter has a consistency. So now we add more flour. Jodi says it is wateryer over here. The butter that is.

I suppose that wasn't really the end product. I forgot about the decorating (with cut-up fruit rind, weird). Reese got his full complement of sugar, along with his fruits and vegetables servings for the day:

The first of many cookie projects turned out pretty well, and it was good to have Mom around to help and enjoy.

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: First Snow Day (Nov. 23, 2008)

2009-03-24T20:37:00.004+01:00

Contrary to some of the information we had been given, Freiburg gets snow. Quite a bit of snow too. One morning in late November, this is how our "backyard" looked:

By the afternoon, most of the snow had already melted, but Erika and Grandma hoofed it outside to try and make a snowman (it is slightly visible below):Little did we know, there would be many more opportunities to test our snowman-building prowess.

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Graduation (Nov. 21, 2008)

2009-03-03T10:56:00.006+01:00

Sort of as a last-minute idea, my parents and Jodi's mom and Brad decided to fly me back for my graduation at U of A. Jodi got some idea in her head about me wanting to go back (I suppose I am a touch transparent) and planned it out with her mom. In order to get a decent price on a one-way flight to Canada, I had to do a 34 hour itinerary: Freiburg-Frankfurt-Dublin-Boston-Denver-Calgary. I left here 11 pm Sunday and got to Calgary at 1 am Tuesday morning. So that's 26 hours plus an eight hour time change. I don't think I want to try that again anytime soon. Tuesday morning I stayed at Mom and Brad's, and then went up to Tim and Lesley's for Tuesday night, and then off to Edmonton. The ceremony was on Thursday, and I got the chance right before to visit my old office and Rob and my supervisor. It felt pretty strange not being there as a student, as the departure from U of A/Edmonton was incredibly hasty on our way over here. Unlike undergrad, there were no real instructions about where to go and when and how to line up so I felt pretty lost. Here's me and Mams and Paps at the Jubilee:And of course, the walk across the stage (I messed up with the handshake with the fellow draping the thing over me, no surprise there):

Me and Mom and Brad after the ceremony (or before):

After the ceremony, we all went out to Red Robin and got a nice Five-Alarm and mocha cake. Red Robin is still my favourite.

Erika got some use out of my hat after I got back:

Thanks Mom and Dad, Mom and Brad, and Tim, Les, Bailey, Nichole and Griff for the great time. It was sure good seeing you all again. I can imagine Jodi had an unreal week too at home alone with the kids in a still-foreign country. Thanks again Jodi.

Jeff

Recap: St. Martin's Fest (Nov. 11, 2008)

2009-03-03T10:46:00.007+01:00

November 11 in Germany is St. Martin's fest. All the younger school kids make lanterns a couple of weeks before out of wood and decorated parchment-like paper. Jodi was pretty handy with a saw - if she would have known she had to saw the pieces herself for the lantern I think it would have been me going to do the building. I probably would have turned it into Homer's barbecue project. The kids got to do the decorating and gluing and assembly all themselves, which was pretty neat. There were mosaic ones, and spider-man ones, and fire ones, and iron-on leaves ones - the variety was crazy, and they were all really natural and cutesy homemade. Cutesy. On the night, the kids gathered in their respective classes with the parents, and we 'lit' the lanterns (some, like Erika's, were light bulbs inside of the lantern, although other, more daring/incompetent parents lit candles inside). The candle variety tended to blow out continuously, resulting in tantrums and tears. Jodi was thankful one of her friends passed on the tip about using a light bulb instead of candle. At the meeting point, we made a big circle and sang a couple of songs. We got the sheet music for them and tried to fumble along. Or Jodi tried to fumble along. In the dark. Trying to read German. And not knowing the tune whatsoever. But I think we sounded great. Here's a night picture of some of the lanterns we could see (or just Erika's):And a video of the sing-a-long:

After singing the two songs three or four times each, we walked around our neighbourhood and made a loop to the kindergarten. There was a play on the roof of the kindergarten about St. Martin. Basically, he was a rich man and he ripped his cloak in half and gave half to a really poor man which was, apparently, unheard of in his day. Half a cloak? Then both of the people are cold. Obviously, we missed something in the translation. But he is a saint that they honor in Germany. After the play, we sat by a big fire and had some kinderpunch and Glühwein and sausage on a bun:

In summary: fun, a little stressful and very cold. The stress was because of the ignorant immigrants wandering around. That would be us.

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: Getting ready for Christmas (Nov. 7, 2008)

2009-03-03T10:37:00.004+01:00

We bought ourselves a tree. It came from a nice little thrifty store called Butlers, and it seemed like we bought a lot of decorations, but the place was still sparse. Well, compared to the Christmas Wonderland we usually set up back in Michener. I remember last year, I had all the lights plugged together and operated by just one switch on the wall. Beautiful. Back to the present; we did what we could on a few bucks and it looked pretty good.
Reese was the boss of putting the tree together:

Once the tree was together, the kids played with their new, early Chrismas present, the tree box:

We were only able to get Erika wearing the antlers because Reese snapped his in half before we could get the camera out:

The little plush candy canes were sort of for the kids' benefit. I wanted real candy canes, but no... In the background are Jodi's red glass tea-light stars - aren't they beautiful?

Sure it was only November 7th, but we enjoyed the start of playing the Christmas music and wanted to set it up before I took off back to Canada for graduation. This also contributed to our reputation of crazy Canadians as the Christmas tree markets in Freiburg didn't really even open up until a week before Christmas. The downtown Christmas market did open up at the end of November though, so we weren't too far ahead. Oh, and no, there aren't any finished pictures yet. I guess we didn't think of that. Stay tuned...

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: Decorating and Halloween

2009-03-03T09:33:00.012+01:00

Wow, no more Paris. So, it was time to gear up for halloween. Halloween is definitely not a main holiday or party time over here. Thanks to family we were able to have some crafts and still try to get in the spirit. We did our crafts while Mom and Dad were still here and the kids tried on their costumes and did a little dancing. The annual haunted gingerbread house:Erika is showing off her spider lantern. I think it turned out pretty cute:

Next up, gutting the pumpkins. We stripped the kids down to avoid any big messes or cleanup. I am actually stripped from the waist down too. Apparently I am a major mess contributor:

After the pumpkins, pumpkin lantern, spider lantern and gingerbread house, Erika shows off her princess costume. Note the Cinderella wand:

Grandma and Grandpa posed with all the decorations. Dad seems a little tired after the Monster Mash dance:

This one is self-explanatory. The kids dance for any event:

I guess it is Jodi that likes to do the dancing/horsey. On Halloween, we repeated the whole procedure (minus lanterns/pumpkins/gingerbread house) and got out the camera for the dress-up. Reese was not a fan of the whole ensemble, but was starting to warm up a bit to his costume (he actually loves to wear it now):

Since there is no 'real' trick-or-treating in Freiburg, Jodi devised a clever way for the kiddies to have some Halloween fun. She drew a map of the house and cellar and hid a whole bunch of candies everywhere, and then the kids went on a big treasure hunt. Reese was a little confused, but Erika sure loved the map, and Reese didn't complain when he continually stumbled upon candy:

Reese liked to try and crack open the individual packages of the German equivalent of Coke bottles. And then stick them all in his mouth. The lights in the cellar are on a timer, so the video ends in dark:

As a side note, check out Jodi's hand in the above video. She does a mean Chubbs Peterson impression with the fake, exaggerated-length forearm and hand. It also reminds me of Joe Clark when he talks with the stiff hand. Anyway, if you're not a Happy Gilmore or Joe Clark fan just disregard. And so concludes Halloween. We are starting to get a little caught up now. Still lots to go until the present though...

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: Paris, Day 7: Disneyland

2009-03-03T09:01:00.010+01:00

Ahhh... Disneyland. Paris. A wonderful mixture. We checked out prices in advance online before we went, and they were selling for about 29 euros, and the 'affordability' (thanks Mom and Dad) was one of the reasons that made booking a day for Disneyland easy. The park opened at 10, and we got there around 9 revved up and ready for Mickey. It was kind of chilly out, so we were a little nippy by the time we were able to get to the ticket booth. Jodi took a side glance at one of the price lists and saw 60 euros (remember, we are not fluent francophones) so we convinced/lied to ourselves that, "That must be the price for the year's pass". Sure enough, it turned out to be for a single day and a single park. Jodi began to pack up the bags and head 'er on out, but Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't hear of it (Wally world comes to mind - remember the moose?) - they weren't about to tell Erika she couldn't meet her precious Ariel (more on that later). Jodi shows her frustration at me for not buying the advance online tickets in our jaunt up Main Street:First on the list - meeting the Disneyland princesses. The line didn't seem too long, I think we were at around 50, which I didn't think was bad, considering the efficiency of previous (albeit North American) Disney visits. The clock started ticking, and we realized an hour into it that we had moved up approximately five places, so Jodi decided to cheer Reesey up a bit (make sure to enlarge it to get the full effect):

Man, that Donald sure terrified Reese. As Jodi mounted the platform, Reese turned into a stiff board and began convulsing violently and trying to push himself in the opposite direction of the inevitable introduction. Jodi decided to press on - what would Disney be without the tell-tale picture with Donny? About half an hour later, my Dad was in the vicinity of Don again with Reese, and that bugger (the duck, not Reese) turned around and had the audacity to wave at Reese. Needless to say, scenario one was repeated and we were down two diapers in the first hour of our visit. Meanwhile, me and Erika waited a total of 2 hours and change to finally get on stage for the abominable picture shoot. As it turns out, you could pay extra for a 'special tour' or something and get to the front of all the lines. So our 60 per person wasn't good enough. These weiners were continually budding into the queue every time I looked around. I was irate. Then we got on the stage, and this fellow figured he could take up the entire angle with his massive contraption of a camera - so that we could pay another 20 and get the splendid picture framed. I elbowed right in (yeah right - 'Ah, pardon me sir?') and managed to get one of Erika looking at me and not Mr. Nigel Barker.

Ahhh... the sauna warmth of Small World. The kids really liked it, and we went on it quite a few times (for the sake of the kids of course, not Jodi's frozen fanny).

Jodi snapped one when she spotted the Canadian hockey part. Cheese!

Too bad you couldn't go up the stairs in the castle. Erika was a little disappointed.

The good old car ride. Erika was a pretty good driver. The fumes were incredible though. Honestly, maybe that was why she had such a good time. Nah, I can remember the first time I grabbed the wheel, right after 'Nam, in the 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. It pretty much had pillows/built in couch for the front seat. Anyway...

Reese had an ongoing game with this duck. Cute.

Erika with her purchases. Yup, the square box faux-feather princess cape made the cut. Along with the Tinkerbell slippers and Cinderella wand. Although not shown, we managed to also pick up a basket of stuffed kittens (don't ask) and make-your-ears-bleed loud Buzz Lightyear gun (don't ask) which Reese continually depressed the trigger of for the final hour.

Here's the Basket O' Kittens. Of course, Erika was holding it for Grandpa, right? I think Grandpa was just overjoyed with the draped Strawberry Shortcake scarf and the pink basket banging him in the face for the entire finale parade.

Here's the happy family. Jodi is donning the complete selection of outerwear we brought with us for the day, whilst I enjoy the crisp, evening air.

After the intial turbulence (price gouge/princess) Disneyland Paris was a really fun time. The 'Disneyland mood' wasn't completely captured as it has been for us in the Florida one, but we did go in low season (hence the reduction in our park passes).

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Paris, Day 6: Rest and date night

2009-03-03T07:56:00.006+01:00

Thursday started out pretty slow as we were beginning to tire from the constant whirlwind tour. Mom and Jodi decided to take off to a local mall to do some shopping, so me and Dad and the kids went for a walk around the condo:The condo was on a nice little lake and had a decent amount of paths and stuff around it. Erika enjoyed the ducks and we made a date to return to the lake to feed them. When the ladies got back, me and Jodi decided to head into the city for a little date night in Paris. We started at the Parthenon. Jodi was starving by the time we got to the city so she was chomping on some cheese bread for most of the beginning pictures. Here she is posing with it:

The basement houses a crypt where many French notables are buried, including Voltaire and Rousseau, and of course some noble prize winning physicists (Curies):

I really liked the Parthenon, it was an incredibly neat building and so grand that the pictures we took don't do it justice at all. One of the main attractions is Foucault's pendulum, which demonstrates the spinning of the earth. Pretty cool, I think. But I suppose it is just a metal ball on the end of a really long string.

After the Parthenon, Jodi posed outside of the Notre Dame:

Then, of course, we had to make our way to the Moulin Rouge. Oh my, we were in for a real-life nightmare. It looked relatively easy enough from the transit maps to get there, and it turns out it wasn't too hard to find... After taking the metro to a station close to our original arrival point in Paris, we started to walk the remainder of the four or five blocks (or so we thought) to get to our destination. Two blocks into our walk, the only stores that lined the streets were wedding dress shops and junk/thrift stores. We just shrugged it off and continued on our way as things began to get seedier and seedier. By block five, we sincerely thought our lives were in danger. We stood out like sore thumbs as tourists, and the locals were all staring at us, and were congregating in clumps in the middle of roads and alleyways. Imagine all the stereotypes about the ghetto/hood that you can think of, and we were in it. We debated turning around, but we were so far into the thick of it, we figured we could get out easier if we kept going. I honestly thought we might end up rolled up in a rug somewhere. Talk about dumb tourists at the wrong place, and to top it off, it was about dusk too. After sweating bullets and rushing down a couple more blocks, the worst seemed to be behind us. Still no sight of the Moulin Rouge. I tried asking a few people, but no one really seemed to care, except a fellow asking us from the back of his van if we wanted to by some speakers. Just kidding about the speakers part. We kept walking and finally made it to Pigale, the area where the Moulin Rouge is. We quickly snapped some pictures and made our exit back on the nearest metro. Jodi looks pretty white-knuckled in these:

We picked a little restaurant by the river to grab a bite to eat and end off the night. The food was completely nasty but the view was great (Notre Dame over Jodi's shoulder and the Eiffel over mine):

Grrr, I sure look like I am having a good time. After our snack, we went back to the condo, and got another, albeit smaller, scare from the local ghetto the condo seemed to be in. Oh well, we sure slept good that night.

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Paris, Day 5: Palace of Versailles

2009-03-01T15:38:00.007+01:00

Wednesday... should have stayed at the condo. Everyone needed a break or an attitude adjustment. Oh boy. It was raining on our walk to the train station, and pretty much stayed like that the whole day. The train was pretty crowded again when we switched at a downtown station, which allowed for a brief sighting of the legendary King Kong, our guardian angel... The way out of the train was blocked again for me and Reese. The main obstacle was an incredibly oversized suitcase; it seemed like two or three large suitcases put together, and had a general canvas-type appeal, like maybe something used in the armed forces. Anyway, it just so happened to be cutting down our angle to get out substantially, and I had no luck ramming it with the stroller wheel to try and get around. Of course, the monstrosity's owner was sipping a latte about ten rows away and jabbering on to his compatriot, with no inkling that his car-sized suitcase could possibly be problematic to those departing the train. Once again, my frustration subsided as I returned to acceptance of missing the train stop, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large creature lifting up the massive parcel and bringing it careening into the floor of the train repeatedly - up and smash! up and smash! In no time at all, the 'suitcase' was reduced to a pile of rubble so compact that we had no problem leaving the train. Outside, I noticed my dad seemed a little sweaty and red-faced, which may have given away the identity of our 'mysterious' King Kong, but we were all content with the outcome. (Except of course, Mr. Latte, who was left with an unrecognizable suitcase). To put the Paris metro into perspective, here are a couple of pictures of the smooth setup we figured out for the maze of escalators in the stations. I still can't believe how huge the underground part of the Paris transit system was.Notice the exhausted look on my Dad's face. Hmm... could it be?

The palace was huge. Not overly quaint, or medieval, or picturesque, but really huge. The chapel at the start of the tour was the highlight for me, and we got a cute picture of Reese. (The one with the proper lighting to see the chapel got ousted for the cute Reesey picture, sorry). This, as it turns out, was the beginning of the end for Reese, and happened to be the only smile of the day (captured on film or otherwise). We couldn't take the stroller into the palace, and it was also nappy-time, so I pretty much stormed through the castle with a crying baby. At one point, it seemed like we had calmed the situation when Reese rode on my shoulders for a while, only to be informed by a 'palace guard' that a baby can only be held on the front of you in your arms. Seriously. The moment he came down, the crying started up again.

This is a pretty bad, unfocused picture, but one of the better ones we got as we ran through (of the dining/entertaining room that looked out over the gardens):

Ok, so picture this. You are in a pretty historic castle, and there are all kinds of old paintings and vases and the like scattered about the rooms. The rooms are also adorned with beautiful tapestries and linens for the monarchy's kings and queens of the day. Complementing the scenery are copious amounts of glass chandeliers embellishing the ceilings. And then you walk through one of the doors and see a huge piece of flourescent green/sparkly metal, in the shape of a balloon dog. No word of a lie. There was some crazy exhibit at the palace by Jeff Koons, notoriously known for infringing and tacky modern 'balloon' art. It drastically took away from the experience. Me and Reese made a quick egress to the gardens, while the ladies and my Dad checked out the Queen's side of the palace, including Marie Antoinette's apartment complete with the secret door she and her family used to flee for their lives. Jodi said it was pretty crazy to be there and see that stuff. After a bit, they joined us, and Erika enjoyed dancing in the gardens. I think in the summer the gardens would be fabulous. They were very grand and very big, but hard to enjoy in the present state of mind (cold/Reese).

The dancing was spontaneously beautiful and flowing, but when Jodi asked her to perform on cue, all we got was the 'clumping horse' dance. Cute though...

Here's a look at the palace from the back where the gardens are. The picture only shows half, but we weren't really in the photography frame of mind at this point.

We debated renting a golf cart to cruise around the gardens, but passed, realizing we still had a substantial train ride ahead of us. The two hour ride one way may have also contributed to the memories of the day. I suppose we are glad to say that we have been there, but I don't think I would recommend it in particular to anyone (especially with small children) when there are so many other attractions nearby that we enjoyed more. Overall, we felt that this palace was just huge/grand/over-done, with countless empty rooms with nothing on the walls but nameless portraits, as compared to the castles in Füssen, which felt lived in. Oh well, can't win them all. It's kind of funny that we are making a comparison at all. There is no way a year ago this time I would have thought to have been saying any of this. Anyway, Jodi just told me that she would go again, specifically in the summer for the gardens. Ah, how we view the past through a rose-coloured lens.

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Paris, Day 4: Bus Tour 2, Conciergerie, Arc de Triomphe

2009-02-27T09:14:00.006+01:00

On Tuesday we decided to keep going with riding the double decker bus tour to get to some of the places. I think you buy one day and then the second one is free. The first place we wanted to get to was the Conciergerie, which is now the justice building. It was used in the 1800s to keep the high profile prisoners that were to be executed, including Marie Antoinette. It has some neat old writings of Robspierre and stuff like that. Some of the higher-ups during the revolution (12 of them) killed themselves here too. It's attached to the new justice building and a really cool gothic church that we never got to from the 1200s called St. Chappelle. It was really interesting in there; here's the opening 'foyer':Jodi and Erika are checking out one of the mock prison cells, complete with a very 'lifelike' mannequin. He could use a little more blush. After that, Erika couldn't stop asking questions about why that guy was stuck in that little room, and other questions in general. To this day, the dummies still throw her off a bit. It's amazing how many historical places like to throw in the lifelike dummy for effect. Even pre-recorded voices are not uncommon.

Erika decided to pose in one of the 'cute' courtyards. It was actually used as the women's courtyard where they bathed and ate and washed clothes everyday before they were sent to the guillotine.

Although we didn't get a chance to go inside, we took a couple of pictures of the outside of St. Chappelle:

Right across the street is the Notre Dame cathedral, so we strolled on over and ate lunch at a cute place right beside it. It was also unreasonably pricey. I suppose that is what you get for sitting 20 feet from Notre Dame.

Here's a nice random from the bus showing Notre Dame in the background. I told Jodi to put her hand up because I thought it would give perspective. Of what, I am still not sure. Nice hand though.

And guess where we ended up. This square hunk of stone was probably the biggest surprise we had the entire trip to Paris. It's really big. And amazingly interesting what with the very detailed sculpting and all the various wars and victories inscribed on the rock. You can take some stairs to the top and look out too, but we opted out, considering we got a pretty good view of the city from the Eiffel. It's also surrounded by one of the busiest traffic circles in Paris, and is at the end of Champs d'Elysee - supposedly a swanky shopping district which has been heavily overrun recently with McDonald's and company. We ended up staying at the Arc de Triomphe a lot longer than we thought we would, and I am sure glad we took time for it.

Jodi is posing by the grave of the Unknown Soldier, which has one of those eternal flames:

We shopped for a few hours on Champs d'Elysee, and then got back on the bus just to have another nice ride and view of the Eiffel tower (and try to contain the kids). Another random on the bus of my Dad. I don't know what the building behind is.

Apparently, I am not the only one with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Jodi spent the previous half hour arguing with herself about needing to get off the bus, "I need to get off at the next stop..", and then the bus would stop and it would be, "No, I'm ok." I am not sure where she thought she was going to make it to, as the condo was at least an hour train ride away. At any rate, it finally caught up to her around the Louvre, and so we played on one of the bridges that looked over to the Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame/Conciergerie/St. Chappelle is, and was the place where the first settlement was in Paris (circa 2nd/3rd century). There's Pont Neuf:

Once again, we ate French (at a Greek place). The fellow couldn't leave Reese alone, almost to the point of madness. Time for the hour train ride back to the condo. The day turned out to be a really good one, even though we packed lots of stuff in it. The bus tour of the city was a great decision on my Dad's part and we ended up seeing a lot more of the city than if we would have stuck to the metro. You can actually see more of the city above ground. Who knew? The metro is definitely a vastly huge world of its own...

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Paris, Day 3: Bus tour, Louvre, Notre Dame (October 13, 2008)

2009-02-25T20:36:00.013+01:00

Yesterday my parents saw a double decker bus cruising around central Paris, so my dad suggested we try it out. We figured we could catch up with it at the Eiffel tower, so that was the plan. The Paris train system sure is clogged sometimes - very crowded. So, we had to make a change at one of the central stations, and it just so happens that there were a huge amount of people in the train, and it seemed the majority of them were standing directly in front of me and the stroller with Reesey in it. I couldn't get out of the train door. Jodi and my mom and dad and Erika were already past the threshold and safe on the other side, and I had resigned to missing that particular stop and taking the next one and coming back. The doors were just starting to close, when all of the sudden, the Red Sea was parted, as my dad tossed the matchstick Parisians aside like a raging bull and repeated the phrase - of course in English, "We need to get off here, we need to get off here!!" He managed to clear a beautiful path for us and we were swept onto the platform. I will never forget how one second, me and Reese were off by ourselves to the next station, and the next, all the people blocking us disappeared. Good thing too, I was glad to not have to try and find them later, as we never made any sort of contigency plan for getting split up (until then). Off to the Eiffel tower:

We had about 20 minutes to fool around by the tower, and then we got onto the bus:

We toured past the Champs de Mars park, and Hotel Invalides, and some other neat square thing with a solitary, tall statue - Place de Concorde. I am pretty sure this is where Marie Antoinette (and many others) were beheaded. Then, about 45 minutes later we arrived at the Louvre. The bus tour was unreal, and I would definitely do it again. There are so many of the buses running, you can get off at any of the stops and come back out after a few hours and catch the next one. Here's Erika outside one of the entrances to the Louvre:

The outside of the Louvre was the highlight of Paris for Reese. In the central courtyard, there is a big fountain and right beside that, a big pyramid - which is supposed to be the biggest glass pyramid in the world or something. The pyramid is actually the entrance to the Louvre.

Inside the Louvre was very overwhelming. After entering, there is a big open area (like 5 football fields) where you can get food (which we did) and some stores and stuff. Everyone's food was good, but my pizza turned out to be soaked in some kind of wet. I could have rolled it up into a burrito. It would honestly take days to see all the stuff in the Louvre, so we made our plan for our 2-3 hour tour, minding the kids temperaments, of course. The highlights we picked were Napolean's apartment and the Mona Lisa, and saw what we could on the way (some crown jewels, Picasso). I also wanted to get to the really old Egyptian stuff if we had time, and Jodi wanted to see the medieval basement - the part of the Louvre that is still intact from some hundreds of years ago when it was used for a castle, which turned out to be quite neat. All in all, it was incredible. We took a picture in some random mirror:

This picture does not do justice to Napolean's actual apartment; it was so overwhelmingly beautiful:

Of course we have to include a picture of the Mona Lisa. It was really cool to see something that you have heard about forever. We couldn't get close enough to draw a mustache on her face, as the whole triangle in front of it was cordoned off. Understandably so, with all the crazy tourists around. The whole wing that included Picasso and the Mona Lisa was full of students/bums sitting and staring at the walls. A few guitars and tamborines and hawkers would not have been out of place. Here's a picture of Jodes and Erika when we first saw it. Jodi's a little choked about not getting closer to the painting, and we were both (ignorantly) surprised at how small it actually is:
After the Mona Lisa, we figured we had some time to get to the ancient Egyptian stuff. Seen one sphinx, seen 'em all. Talk about ignorant, I know. Once Jodi figured out how old the stuff actually was, she burned through our 1 GB memory card in no time. Ok, that might be a little much, but I think she took around 50 random pictures of all kinds of stuff like this "blue miniature mummy":

To be honest though, I enjoyed the ancient Egypt part. It started to drag a little when we got lost and it took us an hour to get to the exit. You can't just go to the nearest door and leave, you have to get back to the glass pyramid. It is an incredibly huge place. At some point, there was some kind of alarm and we had to semi-evacuate, which was a complete gong show. Nobody knew where to go and whether or not the alarm was serious. Anyway, after Jodi and Mom hit the stores we were off on the next bus to Notre Dame cathedral. On our way, we caught a glimpse of Pont Neuf, most famous for its appearance in the Bourne Identity (tee hee). Here's the front of the cathedral:

That's me in the middle dressed up as a woman. After a short inside tour, and a quick evacuation of Reese due to non-conformance with noise regulations, we played around outside for a bit, and got pictures (not shown, see Christmas card) of Point Zero. The cathedral was very nice, and completely different architecturally from German münsters.

Reese enjoyed the inside so much, he rattled the fences trying to get back in, but we had to stick to the noise quarantine:
Staying true to opting for French cuisine, we hit an Italian restaurant on our way back to the condo.

Jodi and Jeff

Recap: Paris, Day 2: Relaxation (Oct 12, 2008)

2009-02-21T20:33:00.014+01:00

We got up relatively late on Sunday, our second day, as we thought that we were just going to sit and enjoy ourselves for the day - we had planned out the week pretty well and nothing seemed to fit on the Sunday. That lasted until about 10:00 and then we started to get a little antsy. So, we took off on the regional train back to Paris. (The condo we stayed in was in Torcy which is about 30 min from central Paris). We thought we would check out the Palace of Versailles, which happens to be on the other (west) side of Paris. This was Jodi's place that she wanted to check out the most. We made it to one of the central Paris stations (Champs de Mars), and then took a wrong train for a couple of stops and had to backtrack. On the way back, we got our first look at the Eiffel tower which was just amazing. When we made it back to Champs de Mars, we started getting confused with the train schedules - it was no wonder we had taken the wrong train. We stopped a fellow getting off of one that was coming from the direction we wanted to go and he told us that on Sundays, the train didn't go through to the palace, and we had to go back a few stations and catch one that went to the other side of the palace, and then transfer, and then catch another one followed by the metro... We just looked at him and nodded and smiled, but I was like that dog that hears, "blah, blah, Jeff, blah blah train" and we all figured forget that, lets do something else. One of the other stops that didn't fit in the itinerary or was for later in the week was the catacombs - a bunch of tunnels under Paris where millions of Parisians are buried after cemeteries became a health problem in the 1800s - and we decided to make our way there. The trip was a little tricky and we had to switch trains once, but we made it to the right stop. The problem with switching trains is that most of the stations we frequented didn't have escalators or elevators (or we couldn't find them), so each time we changed trains we had to do about 30 stairs with the kids in the blasted stroller up and down. Not too shabby to do once, but ten times in two hours was almost enough to pull my hair out. Anyway, we knew the catacombs were roughly located close to the train stop, but we had to flounder around for a bit:

When we made it to the entrance, we found out that it closed at 4, and all of our messing around with the trains took way too much time - it was 4:10. We gave up on seeing any other major attractions that day and decided to explore the area on foot for a bit. We picked up a couple of cartons of blueberries that the kids devoured and my parents got some coffee and we sort of just stood around with glazed-over eyes for a while.

We eventually got antsy again, and went back to the Eiffel tower:It was incredible. We decided with the kids we were going to take the elevator up instead of hiking the stairs. We got out on the second floor, and the view was great. Here's Jodi's panoramic video (sorry about the jerkiness, some pushy tourist was bringin' up the rear kinda fast):

In true Eiffel tower fashion, we sat down to a fancy meal right on the deck of the tower. Actually, we got some eighteen inch "American-style" hotdogs that were drenched in dijon mustard. Ack, I can't stand dijon. Erika and Reese sure got their fill though. By the way, so far as we can tell, when you ask for something with mustard, the mustard is always of the dijon variety. Same with the ketchup. Not dijon, not normal ketchup, but ketchup laced with curry. We tend to opt out of ketchup now. Back to the tower:

This is one of my favorite videos of Erika (notice hand gestures), showing the effects of a box of smarties:

Our timing turned out to be really good as we saw the tower and the view in the daylight and at night:

I even convinced Jodi to ride the final elevator to the top. The whole top floor is very crowded and fenced in on the very top level. Jodi was on the edge of tears/vomiting in this picture:

Reese was definitely enthralled too:

We happened to be visiting too during some kind of festival or celebration or something, and I still don't know what it was. The tower was all lit up blue at night and once a night or so had a bunch of sparkley lights on it:

It was so impressive at the time, but the movie above sure looks lame now, sorry about that. After a lot of messing around on the trains and stuff being closed/inaccessible, Sunday turned out to be a really great day. We were pretty tired - the kids even moreso - on the way back to the condo. Erika decided on a little pink purse (that broke within a day or two, and took on a beautiful shade of Paris grime/brown) as a souvenir that she is displaying on the regional train:

We were exhausted by the time we got to the condo. I also decided to eat a pound of chocolate which didn't help the digestive system. So ends our first full day in Paris.

Jeff and Jodi

Recap: Paris, Day 1: Train (Oct 11, 2008)

2009-02-20T11:45:00.011+01:00

So, here it finally is. My parents came over for a visit in early October, and they treated us to an unbelievable week trip to Paris. The cost for a van was a little more than we expected (~600 euros), so we decided to hop on a couple of trains and do the Paris metro when we got there. Good thing too, apparently there are about 60 euros in tolls each way, and parking in Paris is supposed to be a nightmare. In hindsight, there is no way it would have been as good with a car. Anyway, the German ICE went from Freiburg to Strasbourg, and then we took the TGV the rest of the way to Paris. The TGV was crazy, we were cruising at speeds of around 250-300 km/h. The trip went pretty well, considering the kiddies had to sit on the train for 4.5 hours.

I am actually faking it in the picture above. Sure, I know, no one is going to believe that. This next little clip was on the ICE at the start of the trip, so things are still going smooth before Reese freaked out on the TGV:

Well, after lots of coloring and cruising the aisles and visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, we made it to Gare du Nord in Paris:

We figured we didn't really have to take care of our luggage in Paris, right? (Look behind Jodi). The kids sure wore us out on the train, so we were quite tired and banished them to the stroller. We had to catch a couple of connections on the Metro/regional trains to get to the condo, so we wandered around a bit. As soon as we got our bearings, we found a 'shortcut' to the regional station, which took us up 3 flights of stairs (no elevator, no escalator, whiney kids, whiney parents carrying the stroller) into some strange neighborhood. We finally found 'magenta' station or something and went down 3 flights of stairs to train level. We learned later that the two stations are actually joined, I think. Well, we made one more connection about half an hour away, and then got off at our stop (the stop that I thought was the closest). We ended up dragging our stuff around 2 km along the streets to our condo. The condo was really hard to find, and it turned out being a hotel and was a completely different name than what our place was supposed to be. It was great to get to the rooms and throw everything on the ground, even if we found some towels and rags scrunched in the bowels and recesses of closets and cupboards. After thoroughly making our room messy, we set out to find a restaurant nearby, and I picked a good old-fashioned French restaurant, El Dorado. (Mexican. Umm Burritos. Heck, umm, doritos):We all look a little spaced out/zombied - Jodi is falling asleep, I am cutting the wild boar, and Erika looks like a space alien. The burritos were good though. After that, we retired to the condo (about half a kilometer away) and we started to feel a little unsure of our surroundings - more on that later. We watched some French tennis recap, and then German darts or bowling or something else like that, and then off to bed. All in all, not a bad start.

Jeff and Jodi

Recap continued: Erika's first day of school (Sept 11, 2008)

2009-02-19T15:03:00.006+01:00

In Germany kindergarten starts really early, so to try and fit in a bit better, we thought it would be a good idea to put Erika in it. We found a cute little one three blocks from our place and it is a Sport kindergarten, so apparently they do lots of activity during the day. Erika got all dressed up in her first day of school outfit:

It was nice to have Grandma Green around to help out with calming Erika as she went. She was pretty excited and nervous. This is just outside our place on the walk to school:Jodi stuck around for the day to see how things went and they were rolling around on some skateboardy things for a while:

Phew, that was pretty stressful to think we put her in school when she was only three and a half. She stays 3.5 hours a day now, but started at 5 hours a day. Seems like a lot. She definitely went through the honeymoon stage, and is now quite happy to come home before lunch. We are hoping when the language comes she might start to really enjoy it. She did get invited to her first birthday party the other day from a girl at school, and she is just thrilled about that, so that is pretty neat. By the way, starting with yesterday, you can click on the pictures and they get really big. At least it works for me.

Jeff and Jodi

Mr. Poopypants

2009-02-18T19:44:00.021+01:00

Making up for lost time again. I think we are going to do about half an hour a night from now on, if not just to have a kind of a journal for our time while we are over here. It would sure be a shame to not write some of this stuff down while it is fresh. That being said, lots of events to recap in the last few months while the blog (I can't stand that word) enjoyed the abyss. So, let me set the scene again. We came to Germany (still figuring out why), set up a kitchen, went to France and Switzerland, lost a toenail, swore a few times, and, am I missing anything? Swore until blue smoke filled the apartment? Nah. Which leaves us around the beginning of September...

Jodi's Birthday

Jodi's actual party on the 7th was most enjoyable. Me and the kids decorated the apartment::

I tried my hands at a lemon cake with lemon drizzle and lemon icing and sprinkles. I thought it turned out really well::

Ok, well at least it actually tasted good. I kept adding more and more icing to try and mask the cracks because I tried to take it out of the pan way to early. Here's the gist of the celebration, in video form. I think I really captured the mood::

A real shaker. I sure know how to plan them. The next week, the real birthday celebration began. We started with breakfast at the local bakery (Heitzmann), which was relaxing and nice to be alone and away from the kids for an extended amount of time. We then picked up a rental car (after running back 15 min to the apartment because I forgot my licence), and started the drive nice and sweaty across the autobahns to Füssen, in Bavaria (land of the white sausages). The drive was beautiful through the Black Forest, and across lots of rolling, green hills. The directions were incredibly difficult to follow though, and included no less than 25 turns. (Seriously, goofy Google maps, not sure what I was thinking). We arrived safe and sound, and after a quick lunch, headed to the main attraction: the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein (Hoh and Neu for short, respectively, as much as I want to type those again). Hoh dates back quite a few years, and the castle at DisneyWorld was actually modeled after the Neu. The atmosphere was great: misty and rainy, although a little cold. This was also the first time that we were at a major attraction where lots of the visitors spoke English, and it was definitely easy to hear some loud, ignorant English speakers. We started at the Hoh, and I really enjoyed it::

Jodi is actually the little brown speck in the first picture at the bottom. They even had a little outdoor bath for some tub talks (Jodi's trying to get in above). The castles aren't too far apart, and we could see the Neu in the distance::

We chose the hike over instead of the horse and carriage (they sure tried to maximize their profits - 10 people/carriage) and warmed up considerably, and also stopped for a 5 euro coffee. The Neu was incredible, even though it was only about 1/3 finished, as the guy building it mysteriously croaked in a nearby bog. Politics. He was pretty eccentric and there were some crazy rooms and elaborate paintings. Sorry, we couldn't take pictures inside. We got a book. Here's the Neu from the 'front'..

We stopped for a fun but terribly bland/disgusting supper, and then made our way back to Freiburg. The only problem was, I didn't write down the massive instructions for the return journey, so we added on about an hour and a half to the 3.5 hour drive. At one point, we knew we had followed the wrong road for 30 minutes when we came upon the customs checkpoint at the Swiss border. Preceding the border, there was an instance when I completely locked up the brakes and pretty much stopped on the autobahn as Jodi got a little confused with a German road sign and thought we were on the wrong side of the road or going down a one-way highway or something like that. Needless to say, we got home around 1 a.m., which kind of tainted the conclusion a bit..

Jeff and Jodi

Word around the office is...

2008-10-26T12:08:00.007+01:00

Just a few random pictures of the time between our anniversary and Jodi's birthday. The first one shows a bit of an update on Reese's room/storage closet:
Erika snuggling with birthday bear (if you can remember, I said back in January I would post pictures of the bears the kids made for Erika's party). This is one of the last pictures we have of her sucking her thumb...

Cute kids getting ready for a walk:

And now, the main attraction, Reese and his completely original dance moves. Unfortunately, we aren't quick enough to catch his whole routine which includes sliding backwards on his stomach, rolling over, and some stuff on his feet, but here is a taste:

Jeff and Jodi

The Monster Unveiled/Our 9th Anniversary

2008-10-26T11:29:00.004+01:00

More Snyder August history. August 21, 2008: Our 9th Anniversary. I win the award for the most romantic gift ever:

As the bandaging came off, the camera got put away as the pain got a little worse, so we haven't included the final product. Sorry. We didn't get any pictures of our anniversary supper (beefy taco dip to top off the romantic day) - making your mouth water Kory? Rest easy Peggy and Sarah, the doctor didn't give us the removed nail so it's not on it's way to your mailbox (or is it?).

Jeff and Jodi

The Unruhs Cross the Seas

2008-10-26T10:50:00.003+01:00

So, we are still playing catch-up for the past couple of months. About three weeks after the Basel trip, Tim and Lesley came for a visit. Too bad they couldn't stay for two years though. We went to the Münster, and toured downtown in Freiburg. Me and Tim climbed up the 287 stairs to the viewing place (whatever it's called). The view of the city is well worth the climb.

Erika and Lesley enjoyed the bottom of the Münster:

We also took a day trip to Colmar (France). It was nice to see that they seemed to enjoy it as much as we had the first time we went. Lesley was snapping pictures left and right of random old doors in various camera effects (sepia, etc). We also took a ride on France's (or Europe's, I can't remember) 'largest carousel'. Not sure where they got that claim. We wandered around a bit and made our way to 'Petite Venise', and stopped at a quaint looking place for supper. We figured out from the menu that they only served pizza for a main course (actually, flammkuchen, apparently you should never confuse the two), so we ordered a couple, acquired a month's worth of salt intake, and left more hungry and thirsty than we came. Thus ended Colmar (more or less), a very enjoyable day.

We also spent a couple of hours in the Schwarzwald, at Titisee. It is a touristy kind of place that sells all kinds of 'traditional' German stuff, like cuckoo clocks and wood Christmas decorations. Tim had a tattoo appointment in Freiburg that we needed to get back to, which kind of cramped our time there (I think Tim and Lesley liked Titisee a lot). We toured the shops, checked out the lake, toured the shops, started to head back, and toured more shops, and then headed for the train. Tim got a taste of black forest cake for the return trip, which included a mickey of booze soaked into the cherries. Nasty.

We had a lot of fun during the week checking out Rieselfeld (our area of Freiburg), watching movies, eating a truckload of Mars ice cream bars, and getting caught up. All in all, our best week in Freiburg to this point, thanks for coming over Unruhs! We leave you with a picture of Lesley downtown.

Jodi and Jeff

Sick of us yet?

2008-10-04T21:02:00.008+02:00

Oops. I think we were going to update 2 months ago. C'est la vie. So, Basel, right? I think we left off with the hot picture of me in front of the Rhine. If we can recall it right, we ended up at the Hauptbahnhof (central station) at around 12 (this is July 18th by the way), and decided we should take off to Basel, Switzerland, about an hour away. If we had enough money in our pockets for the train, we would go. The tickets came to 19.80 euro and we had 20, so off we went. Reesey sure wanted some lypsol on the train:

Being the responsible individuals we are, we ended up pulling out some Swiss francs from our Canadian car payment fund/account for some sloppy Joes, a.k.a. buns, meat and cheese, Swiss style. And no, the f***gen thing (car) still hasn't sold yet. Yes, friggen. It just so happened we landed in Basel for "All Basel Day" or some other civic holiday which poured every citizen into downtown. The train station was about a 5 km walk from downtown Basel, so we set out at a leisurely pace. A little while later, we made it to the Rhine, which is right beside the downtown part. It was pretty neat to stumble upon it. Jodi looks pretty pleasant, although I think I was preoccupied about how I would get our camera back if the fellow taking the picture decided to run:

(I think I was already hurting/whining about my new sandals. Their comfort was a definate treat). We crossed the bridge (which was really nice) and into downtown, and began the difficult search for nourishment in the 40°C heat. Along the way, we started to wonder why some streets were roped off and many people were crowding about. Jodi got a "butterbretzel" - her favorite German food - and I got a subpar sandwich, to be split three ways, of course. And one spicy water which contained only backwash after one pull by Reese. After the 'meal', we made a little bit of a wrong turn, indicated by the row of sex shops along the street, in a seedy area of the downtown. We quickly made our exit, and then began the search for a bathroom for Erika (we are seriously considering diapers for her again), and then finally found the theater and the Basel Münster:

The theater was pretty impressive (first picture), but the Münster itself wasn't too great. We are starting to realize that Freiburg's Münster is awesome. The best part of Basel was behind the Münster which overlooked the Rhine and a good portion of the city at a vantage point of about 80 feet. On the way back to the bridge, we walked along a really neat street with really old places. The one Jodi liked dated back to 1435:

Well, that about wraps up the Basel trip. We have a couple more things we want to post about before getting back to the present. In line with that: Tim/Les's visit, Füssen (Jodi's 30th birthday), Erika starting kindergarten, Reese our breakdancer, and a fun two weeks with Grandma Green. My parents are coming next week, which should be a lot of fun. Here we come Disneyland Paris!

Jodi and Jeff

Nein Nein Nie Nie Mmmm...

2008-07-20T20:15:00.008+02:00

We thought we could mostly fill this update with pictures. So here we go. Reesey is really getting the hang of walking, although he is yet to spontaneously do it himself:

Erika's days are filled with being a Mommy to all her dolls, and picking which one gets to go for walks outside. She recently made a baby carrier for one of them (out of a belt):

The kids on the tram:

A couple of days ago, Jodi put Reese in the tub and started up the water, and checked to make sure it was a good temperature a couple of times. He started to get a little too docile followed shortly thereafter by crying, so Jodi did another check of the water. Apparently, it was a little too warm, as you might be able to see from the rouge pants he seems to be wearing. Don't worry, the damage wasn't permanent and it looks a little worse than it was, but note to self: you can't check the water enough.

The kiddies also played at a little beach nearby (aka sewer drainage). Actually it is a nice area for them just across the street; it has a water pump at the top and the water runs down a little water fall into a sandy area. The parks are quite different here in Germany, and this is an example of one. The courtyards between apartment buildings in Rieselfeld generally have these little parks in them (there are a lot within walking distance):

Next time, we will document our day trip we took to Switzerland, stay tuned. I tried to emulate German custom in this picture, har har.

Jodi and Jeff

Tour

2008-07-13T19:58:00.013+02:00

All right. Now for the long awaited moment, a guided tour of our place - built with our bare hands - courtesy Jodi. So, here is Erika's room...

Next, the master suite:

The living room:

The kitchen:

Wintergarten:

Reese's room:

can:

Well there you have it. Bye now.

Jodi and Jeff

Colmar

2008-07-07T19:52:00.003+02:00

Well, it's been a while, oops. I think we have pretty much told all about our first couple of weeks and we can move on to more recent stuff. Speaking of recent stuff, about a month ago (recent?) we took a little trip to Colmar, France. It is about a 30 min train ride and 45 min bus ride which tours through little towns, including one completely surrounded by a moat and city wall. It was really neat. Erika really enjoyed the seat belts in the bus. When we decided to get off the bus (we were a little unsure which stop) we chatted for a little bit and then realized we forgot our bag on the bus. So Jodi ran after it and banged on the front door to get them to stop. The bus driver was really nice about it. At least we remembered the kids. Colmar was great, and if Jodi had her way, I would be transferring to France ASAP. The architecture is completely different than Freiburg. Now that we think about, Freiburg is gothic-y, post-war-trying-to-look-ancient, and very orderly/put-together (great efforts considering most of the city was ruined by Allied bombing accidents in WWII), whereas Colmar had a rustic and romantic feel to it. I think this will be a definate sidetrip for anyone that comes to visit. We checked in at the tourist place, and then walked the town, and ate delicious pastries - something that is unattainable in Germany (good desserts that is). Some of the highlights were: seeing a big-rear bird (the biggest swan I have ever seen, don't trust the movie), hunting for bathrooms (a common theme of any outing with Erika), a large carousel, a beautiful modern park, a gondola ride in petit Venise, Erika's Paris dress, and Jodi enjoying old doors. During our hunt for the bathroom, we found some crazy public toilets. You have to pay 30 cents to open the bomb-shelter-style facility, and the door magically slides open to display your beautiful purchase. I almost vomited. It was dripping wet inside and smelt like an outhouse. The craziest part is that the toilet didn't have a 'hole' where the excrement gets flushed down (see pictures). I know, I am still figuring it out. At first, I thought it must spray the entire interior after a deposit because it claims to self-clean. I could just picture the gushing water and flying feces. Jodi thinks she's got it figured out, and if anyone else thinks they have an idea, we are open to suggestions. Erika vetoed the bathroom, and we continued our search. And yes, we came back and paid 30 cents again to take the pictures. I don't think we came across as tourists though. (Yeah right, taking pictures of a bathroom). The gondola ride down the river was probably the highlight, although Reese could have done with a 2 min ride instead of 30. He enjoyed running through the water fountains in the park and giving the swan a drink from his cup. By the way, sorry about the stellar video quality.

Next time: a tour of our 'finished', humble abode.

Jodi and Jeff

Another Week

2008-06-24T20:10:00.004+02:00

Well, hopefully only a couple more of these flashbacks and then we will be caught up.

June 2-9, The Aftermath

Monday June 2nd was my first day at work. First order of business: call the plumber and the electrician. The plumber couldn't make it Monday so it had to be Tuesday. The electrician assured us the cooktop was not functional and that we shouldn't use it, so they unplugged it so we could take it back. When I got home, we took off for ikea and carted the cooktop with us, along with a list of a couple more things to pick up. Well, the returns place said they couldn't help us and we needed to contact the manufacturer - which happened to be whirlpool. We tried and tried and tried to get them to understand: we spent our money at ikea, the product is faulty, so we want to exchange it for a new one. But, to no avail, we drug the cooktop with us for nothing. The list didn't come in handy either as Jodi ripped it into a million tiny pieces, accompanied by, well, you get the picture. So, we almost left the cooktop sitting in a dumpster at ikea, but we decided to take it with us, after all, we still needed to be a little frugal. We went to bed with hopes of running water for tomorrow, but we all know how that is going to turn out, right? Tuesday morning, the plumber showed up. After a few chuckles about my handiwork, he had everything hooked up, and we actually had water! Jodi was giddy, and maybe freaking the poor plumber out. Did I mention we cut the hole in the stainless steel too far from the sinks? The placement of the faucet was kind of arbitrary, so we put it where we thought looked good, and didn't give any thought to what was going on under the surface. I had to 'chisel' out about 2 inches of wood supporting the sink top with the drill using it like a rotary tool (dremel). It was pretty funny. Definately not at the time. The plumber got a chuckle from the wobbly faucet too, and he rearranged a bunch of the washers and stuff and made it look easy. I should mention, we followed the instructions from ikea as to the placement of the washers, so that part wasn't entirely our fault. Next on the list was to call the whirlpool guys, who in turn referred us to a local business who would contract out the electrician to come and check out our stovetop. The fellow came Wednesday. Five inches of his crack was hanging out the entire time he performed the operation. No englische either. Jodi describes him as the most offensively rude acting and looking person ever. We let him in, and the wild boar started wreaking havoc on the contents of our house. He used dish towels and duct tape for hot plates (to protect his gentle hands) - the duct tape actually melted onto one of the burners. When he had the cooktop uninstalled, he scraped up the stainless steel counter beside, and Jodi had to grab a random rug and stuff it underneath. Needless to say, Jodi and him had it out for at least 25 min. (remember, nobody understands each other) and they phoned me and our translator Martin at work to figure things out (on the guy's cell phone, we still didn't have a phone). The final verdict: the cooktop is functioning normally, and the smoke will wear off and the brownish hue of the cooktop is not out of their specifications. By the end of his 'test', all four burners had smoke coming off of them and had turned the entire cooktop surface browny. Note to self, and everyone reading, whirlpool/ikea blows. Please do yourself a favor and don't buy electrical stuff from ikea. At first, we wanted to stand our ground and take this to the highest authority, but after 2 more days of the run-around (ikea-whirlpool-frommer-local electrician) we figured no one was responsible, so we have given in to the big corporate machine. We are getting soft. Remember superstore? So, we resigned to get the original electricians back to hook the thing up, and they reluctantly did; they still didn't think it should work like that. Well, either it works for a long time, or maybe it will break down all the way pretty soon, and we can completely whiz 120 euros down the toilet. Enough about the cooktop. Jodi's main hope was to cook a meal before Mom was scheduled to go home, but the electricians came back the day that Mom went home - Thursday. We were glad to have the kitchen finally hooked up and complete, but we felt we were drug through the mud for so long that it wasn't even that exciting to have a functional kitchen. Thanks Mom G. for all the help during the first couple of weeks, we couldn't have done it without you. And thanks for sacrificing three weeks of your life, it was definately no holiday. Thursday was a pretty sad day with mom leaving, as we had grown quite accustomed to the team we had. Friday was much of the same. As was Saturday. And Sunday. We were enjoying the slower pace and getting things sorted out and organized. Well, I suppose that's the end of this week, the next blog will be about our trip to Colmar, France, that we did on June 14 (the next Saturday). We'll leave you with a picture of Reese, enjoying one of the many (!!!) books we brought with us.

Jodi and Jeff

Gracious Neighbours

2008-06-22T20:34:00.011+02:00

Ok, so we are all doing a little better, and we are going to try to catch up on this thing in the next few days.

May 29 - June 1, The delays begin...

Thursday (the 29th) I had to go to work (maybe I should have got paid for this week too) to sign my contract, and the kids and Jodi and Mom came too. Jodi had to sign something too. Not sure what that was for. I guess she is an employee of the Klinik too. We had a decent leisurely morning, except for Mom - she and Jodi both had head colds. Mom's was bad. Jodi and Mom and Erika went downtown to get some more supplies, and I went to let the electricians in to hook up the stove and cooktop. Everything went smoothly and they even cut the hole in the stainless steel for the faucet for me. Of course, I was using the steel punch wrong. I suppose I should have kept the instructions. Well, we had spatzle and rotisserie chicken with cooked carrots. Yes, cooked and hot carrots. It was amazing. Our first cooked meal at home, and it was great, even if we couldn't wash the dishes in the kitchen sink (the bathroom sink was starting to build up a little residue unfortunately). So, we piled them up beside the kitchen sink, because, of course the faucet installation would be done relatively soon. We put the kids to bed and I promptly started to work on the sink. I really wanted to get the fresh water hooked up tonight so we could use the darn things. I ran a couple of measurements by Jodi, and I assured her we had about 12 inches of copper pipe to spare. Jodi assured me I could cut at least six off. So, I took the pipe cutter thing, and voila! off came the six inches on each pipe (one for hot, one for cold, of course). The faucet we bought, which was pretty cheap (10 euros, not bad), required that one of the pipes be smaller than the other or else the bolts would get in the way of each other and we would have to bend the pipes. Well, I knew we had 12 inches extra, and I already cut 6 inches off, so I could easily take off another two or three, and still have some left. Apparently not. I guess 12 minus 6 minus 2 works out to be about -4 because the stupid pipe wouldn't reach anymore. This was the defining moment of our relationship. After choice words, Jodi went and scrubbed the dishes in the toilet again, while I tried to make the pipes stretch to the friggen hole. It didn't work. Well, the Praktiker list just got a little longer. On Friday morning, to mend our relationship we decided to hang one of the 300 lb upper cabinets. They are really heavy. The concrete walls make drilling and putting screws in very difficult. I have to say, it was the hardest thing I have ever done physically trying to screw in the hangers (by hand, with pliers). Even though they were put into concrete hangers/plugs, the concrete leaves no room for the expansion of the plugs and makes it almost impossible. I couldn't use a drill either as the hangers had no grooves for a screwdriver bit. Anyways, one done, one more to go. We decided to start putting the second one together at 9 pm, and also drilling the holes into the wall around 10. Well, the neighbours below us told us in Germanese that they were trying to sleep. We sent Mom to the door to play dumb because we were being pansies hiding in our bedroom. "Can you get that Mom? Not sure what they would want..." That day we did finish most of the other projects including our bed. So, back to the sink. We solved the pipe issue, just to find out that we couldn't tighten the faucet down enough. It kept flopping around, which I am pretty sure isn't normal operation. I am sure ikea would say otherwise. We were past sanity, and Jodi was just giddy and laughing, and telling me to hook it up as is - we can at least wash the dishes. After about two more hours of trying to tighten, we decided to call a plumber. I tried to get to a plumber that night, but to no avail, and no one (we checked all of one place) was working on the weekend. Funny, we are laughing as we write this, but it was not a laughing matter at the time. I was mad. Here's a picture of one of my assistants helping me with the cabinets, and the actual placement in the kitchen. We were definately praying for the next couple of days that the thing would stay on the wall. Mom wouldn't even go near them. Can you believe we ate in this kitchen last night?

Saturday morning we finished up the second 1000 lbs cabinet and put it up. Jodi and Mom left for a little shopping excursion (actual shopping, not solely interested in household needs) while I sweated it out again trying to get the cabinet secured with those blasted hangers. After pounding the pavement for most of the day, Jodi decided to have a bath and Laveryne started to make a cup of tea. 'Started' is the operative word here. It took about 20 min. for the burner to heat up, and before it was done, we noticed smoke and the smell of an electrical fire. We vacated the kids by the time Jodi got out of the bath and opened all the windows. As it turns out, our nice cooktop was starting to burn (or something anyway) and it looked like it was burning the stainless steel top. About a two inch ring around the element was burned to a nice copper/almond color. This was exactly what Jodi wanted to hear. Well, we hit the breaker and went to bed in our disbelief. Remember, Saturday marked the two week point, and only two days ago we were certain that the sink and cooktop would be operational, and it seemed we were back to the beginning. Oh, except for the beautiful fridge. It was working. Here are a few pictures of how the place was coming along. In reality, everything else was progressing except for the non-functional kitchen.

As you can see (Figure A), there was a small hiccup with Erika's bed. Nothing a pipe wrench and some wood glue couldn't fix (the duct tape approach didn't work out). Handy Manny strikes again, and you can't even notice it. On Sunday, we went to the zoo for a little relaxation, and to get away from our place. The zoo is relatively close, and you can walk easily to it. It was actually pretty funny, you could see pretty much all the same animals at an Alberta farm. Except for the horsey thing (Mammoth crossed with a donkey) that they claimed was of North American descent. The zoo was pretty big, but only had about 10 different types of animals in it, so it turned out to be quite a haul to see everything. We stopped at the end for a ride on a spectacular carousel:

We hoped that Erika would get her euro's worth before the thing bucked her off and fell apart. After that, we started to walk back home in the 40°C weather. Needless to say, the 20-mile (probably about 10-15 km roundtrip) was a little much given the events in the last couple weeks. We started to see mirages on the way home, and considered curling up in a farmer's field. Thus ends another day on our German holiday. Sorry about the novel again. Stay tuned...

Jodi and Jeff

Uh-oh

2008-06-19T20:15:00.003+02:00

We will have to keep you in suspense for one more day on the continuation of our story. We are all sick today. Boo-hoo. Sorry to let the masses down. Here's a little peak at what's to come: dryer installation.

Jodi and Jeff

The Stuff Arrives...

2008-06-18T21:12:00.010+02:00

Back to the story...

May 26-28, Building days

The fellas unloaded all the stuff. And we started to put the Ikea stuff together. This is our place with about a quarter of the stuff unloaded:

I had to take off at this point and go to work to get some of the administrative stuff out of the way. So the ladies started to put stuff together. I also stopped at a local hardware store (Praktiker) to get a jigsaw and drill and some other little stuff. By the time I got home, Jodi had worn a hole in her hand from all the manual screwdriving. My project was the kitchen:

The women had already put the table and 2 chairs together, and also the daybed (our couch so all of our visitors have a place to stay, nudge-nudge), the kids' little table, a spinning play chair, and the butcher block thing (???). Our place was an absolute sty. I did get the kids to help me put some stuff together though:

The two most rewarding things were having a couch to sit on and plugging in the fridge so we could actually keep meat for longer than an hour and have some cold milk for cereal (warm, funky-smelling milk goes great with chocolate chunk cereal though). We completely underestimated the work we needed to do for the kitchen. Too bad we didn't have the cash outright to have it installed. I got the base cabinets built, and tried to figure out what we needed for the plumbing and wiring. So, around 9 pm we just needed to put the cabinet doors on and call it a night. Oh my. Fast forward 2 hours later, and we just needed to put the cabinet doors on and call it a night. To make a long story short, handy Manny (a.k.a. Jeff) had put the mounting brackets on backwards, so we were never able to make the 'Click' sound - as instructed from the ikea handout - to attach the doors. No amount of brute force or cussing could make the doors attach and make the 'click' sound (as shown by a small tap of the thumb in the instructions). So I changed the brackets around, and 'click', the job was done in 5 minutes. Thus ended the day, and I had a big list for Praktiker for the next day. In the morning, the wash machine got delivered, and this was a beautiful moment. Probably the highlight of Freiburg so far, as shown below:

Then I went downtown to get my 'tax card' so that I could be gainfully employed, got some stuff at Praktiker, and headed back home. By the way, buying drill bits and special sized pipes with my knowledge and salespeople who speak mostly German do not make for a comfortable shopping experience. Also, a round trip to the store is about an hour on the train and walking. In the afternoon, we put Erika's bed together, and the ladies had already put a wardrobe, two dressers, the wintergarten bench and one more dreaded kitchen chair together earlier. So, in the kitchen, we needed a way to make a hole in the stainless steel top for the faucet, and we bought a handy little tool (manual metal punch) from ikea to do the job. Seemed easy enough, it even came with instructions. No matter how hard I tried to reef on that thing, I couldn't get it to cut through the steel. So we moved on to something else: the plumbing. Good grief. Talk about out of my league. I can barely plunge a toilet. One of the pieces in the drainage system was bought from ikea, and it came with some handy instructions, including a little hole covered by a thin piece of plastic that you needed to just 'tap' out with a screwdriver. The thin piece of plastic was unrecognizable after I was through with it. It took an hour and a half, but me and my knowledgeable plumbing assistant (with years of experience, or at least, years of 'coaching' experience) had managed to pry a large enough hole for a small amount of water to pass through. The time we were 'on the clock' included dripping sweat, blue smoke from all the nice words, and Mom's gentle prayers in the background. Good enough. Yeah right, a 'tap'. So basically, we got nothing accomplished that night and I had an even longer list for Praktiker for the next day. Well, I suppose we got a cute picture of Reese:

On Wednesday, exhaustion was setting in from trips to Praktiker and endless building projects. You might imagine our lot: meat and cheese and buns for almost two weeks does not a happy troupe make. We decided that I wasn't a trained electrician, and we wanted to get a professional to hook up the cooktop and oven. So, how do you find an electrician without knowing German? Well, you head to the place you bought the garbage and try to get some numbers. And we did. 2 numbers, I think. The public phone in our quarter of town wasn't working, so Jodi and Mom took the tram downtown (15 min) to make some calls. The first guy never answered. The second one hung up on Jodi twice. The first time she thought it was a mistake. The second time she got the hint and realized this fellow was maybe not the best choice. So they headed to another electronics store nearby and a nice salesman did the calling for us, and after an hour and a half of waiting for them to call back, we had an electrician appointment for Friday. What a nice salesman, we didn't even buy anything from him. That night, I fiddled around with some more of the plumbing, figured out we were missing more pieces, and wrote it on my Praktiker list. So, in conclusion for the day, here's what I accomplilshed (couldn't have done it without a 1 year-old):

Actually, I think we did the desk and bookshelf, a wardrobe, last dresser, and Reese's crib. Oh, and somewhere in the last couple of days (Tuesday??) we made another fun trip to ikea with two strollers so we could bring back another mattress and some other random items. It was a good time, and free from rain.

Jodi and Jeff

The 7th Circle of Hell (Ikea)

2008-06-17T21:21:00.005+02:00

Before we get back into the story, I have a couple of sidetracks I thought I would divulge. First and foremost, a special 'hello' to Lesley, Tim, Bailey, Nichole and especially Griff. We are praying for you guys and we hope all goes spectacularly during the procedure tomorrow. Ok, now, on the less serious side - it seems I am quite adept at bathroom etiquette. In the last month and a half, I have walked into three bathrooms while people were conducting their business. The last time was today, in a public bathroom in the klinik of all places. It is completely on my mind now whenever I open a bathroom door. I think I will adopt the strategy of knocking everytime before I try the door, no matter what. The thing I don't understand is, lock the friggen door! If the door was locked in these cases, it would have never happened. Who doesn't lock the bathroom door, especially in public places? Oh, and I am not talking about walking in on Jodi or Erika either. Today, my new, aged, hospital 'acquintance' was tucking Captain Winkie into his pants when I walked in. I am more than happy to pass this vision on to you. Well, back to the story...

May 24, Hello again Ikea (ih-kay-ah)

While perusing the Ikea receipt (which seemed as long as Santa's list), we came to the conclusion that they hadn't ordered us a kitchen sink cupboard. For the uninitiated, ikea freestanding kitchens require a cupboard bottom first, and then you put on your range or sinktop or counter surface. So, we had a kitchen sink coming, with no where to install it. Well, off to ikea to pick up the missing part. We were hoping to add it on to the large delivery we already had coming for Monday, but as our luck would have it, this couldn't quite be arranged. So, we lugged the 100 lb base cupboard from ikea to the bus stop (0.5 km walk) onto the bus (20 min), transferred onto the tram (0.5 km walk, 15 min ride), and then from the tram station to our place (0.2 km). Oh, and we also had some other purchases to take with us as well. And Erika and Reese. Did I mention it was raining? Grandma took care of Erika and Reese, and I took the one box and Jodi took another one, and we tried our best. Jodi's hands started giving out on the 2nd transfer, so the 45 min trip took a little longer than expected. But, we got it home, and it wasn't too bad to put together:

I even had time to showcase my electrician skills (of course made difficult by ikea), but it sure felt good to have a light in Erika's room (or any room for that matter):

So, now all we have to do is cut a hole in the back for the water taps, and a hole in the bottom for the drain, and easily install the top and faucet. Doesn't sound too bad...

May 25th, Reese's First Birthday

Not much happening again in Freiburg for the Sabbath, so we were free to relax and enjoy the gaffer's birthday. We started off with some buns and meat and cheese for breakfast, and then took the tram to Günterstal (a ritzy suburb) and caught a bus to the bottom of a small mountain nearby. From there we could take a ride up a cable car to the summit (Schauinslandbahn).

It was a really good time, except Mom G. almost derailed the car and tried to claw herself out of 6 inches of plexiglass. We were just talking about random stuff when Mom started focusing really hard and concentrating on an otherwise superficial topic. The bells went off for Jodi and she knew the claustrophobia was kicking in.

Luckily, I had a thick pamphlet I could wave her way to lower the body temperature enough to keep her from passing out (and/or taking us all with her). The frantic waving got things under control in a couple minutes, and the remainder of the trip was amazing and pamphlet free; the mountain is full of 'diverse vegetation' (Sarah and Peggy). It was really green, moreso than I have ever seen before:

The top had a cute playground for the kids, and a little (albeit touristy) restaurant which Mom bought us lunch at. The trip down was much less eventful, and Reese was pretty tuckered out. All in all, a pretty fun first birthday.

Jodi and Jeff

Corpus Christi / Schnitzel

2008-06-16T20:33:00.008+02:00

Today, we are going to do two days. Look out!

May 22nd, A German Holiday

Needless to say, a random German holiday falling on the first week we arrived kind of set us back a bit. Absolutely nothing was open on the holiday (and every Sunday) except for the Turkish vendor selling meat that grows on a stick (donair anyone?) and kebobs. We took the time to go to downtown Freiburg and explore for a bit. The old city has these little canals with supposedly fresh water running in them. I wonder how many intoxicated locals have relieved themselves after a long night of boozin'. Being ignorant as we are (ahh, bliss) the kiddies sure had fun (it's actually a common thing to do):

There is supposed to be this big, grand church - the Münster - in the middle of Freiburg (built in the 1300s) that Mom G. and I couldn't find on our last visit for some reason. So as we wandered around, we figured we should try to track it down. Turns out it wasn't that hard. It's rather large. It's funny though, even with a building that big, you have to have a break in all the other buildings to be able to see it because everything is so packed together. With the events of the past few days, it was really cool to see this building and walk through it. It's going to sound corny, but pictures just don't work to convey its structure and beauty and grandness. Seeing something like this kind of erases all the garbage we went through this week. Well not really. Sort of. It was neat. Here is a picture of us just after we spotted it through a narrow alley. We are definately showing the effects of the last few days. Jodi looks like she just wet her pants, and I am staring off into space/constipated. You can see the top of the Münster (barely) behind us.

And that's the extent of the pictures we got of the Münster. Better luck next time (I suppose you have to come see it for yourself). We did get a couple of the inside, but they do not do this amazing building justice.

This lady was nice enough to pose for us:

Erika lighting a candle for Corpus Christi:

And that was about it for this day.

May 23, Deutsche Bank/Arcor/Martin

Another day of smiling like the good Canadians we are and signing things we don't understand and leaving the kids with Grandma. In the morning, we opened up a bank account and set up our phone line. We couldn't believe how long it was going to take to have a phone - 3 weeks at least! But the guy was really nice. We also got a 24 euro broom. Don't ask. But it does have a nice ladybug molded on the bottom. "The envy of all brooms", apparently. The broom was soon accompanied by a matching toaster, for a modest 54 euro. You heard right, $80 CDN for a 2-slice toaster. We did do a lot of penny-pinching at Ikea... all for the toaster I guess (not shown). So, we picked up Grandma and the kids and went to Martin's for lunch, which was a good time, thanks to Grandma taking Erika for a 2 hour walk. Elizabeth (Martin's lady friend) sent us on our way with a large piece of coffee cake. We also got some directions to a large department store downtown, where we found a wash machine, electric teapot, hairdryer, and Grandma got Reese a little push car - "The Big Bobby Car" a.k.a. "Big Booby Car" courtesy of Erika. We ended the night with some delicious buns and meat and cheese, and I think we will sign off today and leave you with a movie starring the Big Booby Car. Voila:

Richard Wad

2008-06-15T20:45:00.005+02:00

Back to the story...

May 21st, No more driving.

In the morning, we all went downtown to town hall, because we had to register our address with the local authorities (everyone does within a week). Then we all went to a cute little hotel restaurant where we enjoyed some nice schnitzel and some Hawaiian toast thing and good soup. This was also the beginning of trying to order a regular glass of water. This is actually quite difficult, because, for the most part, all of the water you order at a restaurant has "gas" in it. That's ok for me and Erika, but Jodi can't stand it, and it's a little 'spicy' still for Reese. Anyway, after lunch, we went back to town hall to get our visas renewed - the ones we got in Canada were only for entrance. This was very, very painful. The international office was a hallway of doors, and you were split into different groups based on the starting letter of your last name. There was two doors for S's but one was closed for the day so we all got lumped together. Of course, all the people with S last names had to show up on our day, or so it seemed. The hallway was stifling and small and crammed. We gave Mom a break for the afternoon and brought Reese with us, which wasn't the best decision, as the wait turned into about 2.5 hours. The actual visa process was pretty easy, but of course costed another 150 euros out of our pocket. We had to ski-daddle (yup, ski-daddle) over to the Budget rental to take our car back and meet our personal translator (thanks again Martin) so we could explain that only part of the car was being returned. The beefy (as in built, think stereotypical Arnold-German-woman) was really nice and Martin made the situation a breeze. And we just smiled and nodded. And signed stuff. This all after we showed up late and left Martin standing on the curb for 30 minutes while we drove back to our place to get an extra diaper or something. Actually I think it was for the police information that we forgot. It also gave us a chance to drop Mom off with the kids at home again. Thanks Mom! So, we were now car-less, and Jodi and I had a romantic walk back through the industrial area of Freiburg. We bought a coffee from some random wooden shack along the way and marveled about the past few days and how crazy things had been. Little did we know this was only the beginning... We then had some meat and cheese and buns for supper (spreadable meat this time, mm-hmm. Actually, no it wasn't). So ends Day 3 in Freiburg. Ahhh, home sweet home:

More updates tomorrow.

Jodi and Jeff

Uncontrolled Intersections

2008-06-14T21:55:00.003+02:00

Now, back to the story...

May 20th, Polizei/Ikea/Polizei

We were hoping that if we took back the rental car that was late first thing in the morning, that maybe we would get lucky and not get charged for an extra day. So as soon as we got up (the mattress wasn't actually that bad on the floor) we all headed to Budget - after meat and cheese and buns for breakfast of course. It seemed like we got off with the rental being late, although the guy didn't speak any English, but I had a good feeling that we wouldn't have to pay extra. We piled into the tiny little EuroFiesta and I had my first taste of the sweet ride that Jodi had been driving for the last couple of days. The thing was pretty tricky to drive. Now, Budget was only about ten blocks from our apartment, and on the drive home, we were talking about the "yield to the right at uncontrolled intersections" rule - which is used quite a bit in Freiburg, and an uncontrolled intersection happens about every five meters in our neighborhood. I thought I was finally starting to get the hang of it when we side-swiped a station wagon in the middle of the intersection. Of course, he came from the right. Oops. Everyone was Ok, and the guy was pretty nice and 'told' us (he knew no English) that the Polizei were on the way. We had rendered his car completely un-driveable, and I was already making plans of how we could pack up and get back to Canada. When the police showed up, they took some pictures and then took the guy off for questioning. I thought they were going to decide our fate without us even being involved. After about 15 minutes, they came and got us and we went and sat in their police van. After a couple of questions in broken English, the very nice police lady asked if we had any money. We both immediately clammed up and remembered stories a colleague of mine had told us about the police in central America, and how they coerce people to give them money in exchange for their freedom. Of course, this is not Mexico we are talking about, but we told a large fib and said we had no money. (I had about 1900 euros in my neck-man-purse-passport-carrier-thing: Jodi's idea). Immediately after I said that, I thought - we're finished, they are going to find the money and then we will be enjoying the inside of a German detention cell. Over the course of an hour and a half of questioning, we finally figured out that the officer just wanted us to pay the fine up front because we weren't from Freiburg, and then we finally conveyed that we were from Freiburg. The whole ordeal was tremendously confusing. I am still confused. Well, not really. We ended up not giving them any money, but we had to come down to the station later for a statement that night with our own personal translator. They let us go and we met up with the kids who were hanging out with Grandma at the park, and we were off to Ikea again. In our broken car. When we finished the showroom proper and headed into the self-serve area to pick up all the stuff we had written down, Jodi started to hyperventilate and became a walking zombie. What was supposed to be a fun, purchase-your-new-home-in-one-trip was turning out to be far too much to handle under the circumstances. Mom G. pulled out an earlier speech from May 17th (mental breakdown day) about having to just get through our problems as there is no other feasible option (framed in terms of labor/transition/delivery). In the end, we bought absolutely everything we could think of for our place including the kitchen, and hoped they would take Visa again - and they did. By now, we were on the preferred customer list with all the stuff we bought. Next, we drug all of our purchases over to the delivery place. Then the poo-poo hit the fan. The gal went through every item on our receipt, checking to make sure the numbers/quantity/price or something matched what we had on our skids. Makes sense of course, but we had a lot of stuff and it took a painfully long time. The original cashier made a couple of mistakes - we quadruple paid on one item, but missed paying on three, but this was not all discovered at the same time by the delivery worker, and Jodi/Mom made three trips back to cash to settle. Apparently, they couldn't deliver everything - we had to take some of the loose stuff like dishes, garbage cans, kitchen utensils, clock, and a neverending pile of small house stuff. When everything was done, we got the really bad news that none of the stuff could be delivered until next monday (6 days)! As upset as we were we didn't have time to be phased by it as we had to cap off the seven hour Ikea outing so we could get to the police station and meet our translator for the statement. We drove home, raced the stuff upstairs, left the kids with Mom and then went to the station. We each did separate interviews/interrogations with the officer and Martin, our translator (a colleague from the klinik, a.k.a. the guy who found our apartment). The officer was an incredibly nice lady, but the whole process was kind of scary - the statements were recorded on audio tape, and the proceedings were very formal. Turns out the fella was completely intoxicated - 0.21. We just thought he was a nice guy. Perhaps a little bit of the language/culture barrier seeped into this one for us. Well, we are crossing our fingers that his drunkeness might take some of the blame off of us. I'm sure we will have to pay the deductible for the rental car though. Big deal, just a cool 750 euro. Yikes. Pass the offering plate around... We topped the day off with some buns and meat and cheese, and relaxed and rejuvenated on our mattresses on the cement.

We promise these will start to get shorter. I think. See you tomorrow. Same Bat time. Same Bat channel.

Jodi and Jeff

Home for the Snyders

2008-06-13T21:36:00.006+02:00

Ok, continuing on from yesterday:

May 19, Our new home

We woke up around 9 and showered, which felt great. The hotel included breakfast, which turned out to be plethora of... cheese and meat and buns, and other stuff too. But cheese and meat and buns for breakfast? The whole deal was actually quite good though, and it was a cute little restaurant. We had to pick up our keys and do the walkthrough for the apartment at 11. The walkthrough was quick and painless, thanks to Mom watching the kids, and one of our guides spoke english, so that made things easier. We did get a large lecture on the many different types of recycling/garbage. In total, there are 6 different disposables: glass (broken into green, brown and white, with a separate container for each), plastics (packaging), paper, compost, waste (all the stuff left over/garbage) and plastic recyclable bottles. Anyway, then we took off to Ikea to get some essentials, which included mattresses, pillows, etc. It was kind of funny, the day or so that we arrived, Ikea decided to change all the models/prices of the mattresses, so all of the pre-shopping we did in Canada was a waste. We did end up finding some of the older models in the self serve part, but I don't think they were the same. We pulled up to the checkout, and we saw a funny sign with the word VISA with a big 'X' through it. Hmmm..., that looked foreboding considering our temporary financier (thanks Mom) had arranged to pay for the stuff on VISA (she actually had pre-paid onto the VISA). After a weird, dazed conversation, we decided to use our Mastercard, which was supposed to be our living money for June. But it didn't work. We started to think we would be sleeping on the cement apartment floor. The next few minutes were a blur of Grandma and unpaid merchandise and kids and ice cream and some strange poster of a hot dog with brown and green garnishes on it. On top of it all, we were supposed to get one of the cars back to the rental place by 5, and we were cutting it close. So we cried our story to the cashier (turned our she spoke English) and she called her manager, and he pushed the magic button to make the VISA work. At any rate, we shoved everything into the two cars, and headed back to the apartment. We had to park fairly far away (I'm not sure why, we have a parking spot underneath the apartment), and after about 6 trips back and forth I had unloaded the car, and Jodi and I quickly took the car back while Mom kept the kids. We got to the rental place at 615, and it closed at 6. Oops. 125 dollars down the drain for keeping the car an extra day. We moped back to the apartment, and enjoyed a hearty meal of meat and cheese and buns, with the addition of Nutella and jam. It was kind of fun sleeping on the mattresses with nothing in the place, almost like camping or something. The cement walls made talking almost unbearable because of the very prominent echo, and the giggling, screaming and crying of the kids made it difficult to enjoy unfortunately. So this is our place...

Jodi and Jeff

Willkommen zu Franky

2008-06-12T20:38:00.003+02:00

Ok. For the uninitiated, we are doing some flashbacks, so you might want to read yesterday's novel before you take a look at this one. So, where were we...

May 18th, Frankfurt Airport and Arrival in Freiburg

Customs at Frankfurt airport was pretty easy. It was no where near as hard as I thought it would be, they just asked us how long we were going to stay. We had to get 3 of those luggage cart things for all our beautiful Rubbermaids, and we still had to carry backpacks and Mom G. pulled her suitcase while pushing Reese in the stroller. It took about half an hour to get about 100 m with the current setup. Apparently, the carts have an automatic braking system, and you have to push down on a lever to get the thing to move smoothly. Too bad we didn't figure that out until after we wore grooves into the floor. Just kidding. But the brakes were hard to figure out. All the luggage was intact, which was incredible considering the pack job. At the end of the gauntlet, we picked the "nothing to declare" exit (not sure if that was the right one) and breezed right through. And then the fun began. We went to pick up our cars at the Budget rental place, and it turns out that the Budget rental place where we actually reserved the cars was in the other terminal. So me and Jodi and Erika went looking for the other terminal while Mom and Reese guarded the mountain of luggage. Now, I am not so great with instructions, so the 20 min return trip turned out to be about an hour and a half. That also included making a wrong turn somewhere and taking a tour of the Frankfurt airport after picking up the cars. When we got back to the original terminal with Mom and Reese, I was pretty fed up and strung out, so I quadruple parked on one of the busiest roads at the airport, tossed Jodi the keys and took off to get Mom/Reese/luggage. Needless to say, it was a stressful 20 min for Jodi managing the two cars, keeping angry Germans at bay for the crazy park job, and listening to Erika wail from the backseat. By the time I got back, she had them both parked properly, one behind the other. All our stuff fit well into the larger rental car, and Mom picked up some lunch/supper/breakfast/snack for us to eat. Things were finally going a little smoother. Then, as I put Reese into his deluxe 1975 rental car seat, I heard the beautiful clicking sound as the buckle was secured into place. Except it wasn't secured into place. It was snapped in half. So I went back to the Budget rental place, and they inquired with a couple of the rental companies nearby, and the representative gave me the deluxe 1956 baby bassinet (sp?) model. I was a little unsure about this one but I was a little desperate so I picked it up and ran back to where we were parked. In the meantime, the airport Polizei informed the women they needed to pay for the parking in the arrivals area. Mom tried to talk some sense into him about our situation, and it was actually a long talk, so I hear, even though he didn't speak English. As soon as Jodi caught sight of the atrocity I was carrying, she started shaking her head and pointing me back inside. So, I did the right thing and sent her back inside to deal with it. After a short conversation, we were promised a seat would be delivered to our car in the arrivals lane. We had a leisurely supper in the car with kids (buns with meat and cheese, coffee), and as time ticked away, we got some more food to keep Reese happy. An hour later, Jodi went back in to see what was going on, and we were assured it was on its way. Another hour later, I went inside, and the sales rep phoned the guy who was supposed to drop the seats off. Around the same time, he showed up with a choice of three seats for Jodi to pick from. She quickly picked out the newest model, installed it in the car, and we were off to Freiburg, about 4 hours behind schedule. We felt assured with securing Reese in the car and it slightly made up for the lost time and foggy experience on no sleep. Perhaps it was a good thing we waited it out and got a good seat...? The drive to Freiburg was pretty tricky - for Jodi anyway. I took the lead in our sporty rental car followed by Jodi in a Ford Fiesta equivalent with the kids and Mom, and we were going to go nice and slow on the autobahn. I guess I had a heavy foot that night, and I lost them in a matter of minutes in the blinding rainstorm. It was crazy to see all the drivers flying past us at incredible speed. After about an hour of white-knuckling and sweating, Jodi's Mom convinced her to stop trying to follow me. Oops. We did meet up at a gas station about half way there, and then we got to Freiburg at around 12:00. And then I took a wrong turn, and we had a quaint midnight tour of Freiburg on a couple hours of sleep and both kids awake. At around 12:30, we finally pulled up to our hotel (the same one me and Mom G. stayed at in December for the interview). The room was actually incredibly nice, and exactly what we needed. Erika and Grandma bunked on the pull out bed couch thing, and we put Reese in the playpen. Within about 15 minutes and only a couple of tears from Reese, we were fast asleep. Ahh... lovely hotel Lowën. I definately recommend it. So ends the 2nd day.

These first couple of days are pretty long, so we are going to have to pack it in for now. More to come tomorrow.

Jodi and Jeff

Hello..., is it me you're looking for?

2008-06-11T21:39:00.004+02:00

I think we will tell our story about the last couple weeks starting with our first day (May 17th) and then working our way to the current stuff. Or else we might spoil the drama. And there is a lot of it. So, without further ado, here it is:
May 17th, 2008: The Flight

Last night we tried to pack all of our containers. Thanks to Laveryne we are still on our way to Germany, after Jodi almost had a mental breakdown and I sat around with my head up my rear and generally acted like the proverbial third nipple. We now have everything we think we are going to need in the next two years in 5 Rubbermaid tubs and two suitcases. (Plus 500 lbs of carry-on, we'll get to that later). The main problem is the actual weight of all of our stuff. In total, we are allowed to have 200 lbs as checked baggage (including Mom G.'s amount). So, if 199.5 lbs is taken up with kids' books, as Jodi wanted, that leaves enough for a pair of briefs. And this is where the wailing and gnashing of teeth began. It was very difficult to cut out some of the stuff we thought was essential to have, so it just felt like - maybe we shouldn't be going at all. Clearer heads prevailed, and we strategically packed all our stuff, leaving behind the xbox, wii, clothes, and 1 more kid book to be brought later. We didn't sleep well last night, we were just to wrought with despair about the coming days. Anyway, so the beginning of today I went to pick up some duct tape and luggage straps to secure the Rubbermaids, and visited with Ryan and Elyse at Peters'. We packed up my Dad's truck and Mom G.'s beetle, and basically wallowed around for the rest of the evening, before leaving for the flight check-in. After one return to Mom G.'s to pick up the forgotten flight tickets, we were off. God sent us our first angel at the check-in counter, and things went pretty well. Turns out we were 80 lbs. over weight (we're not talking about my paunch) - we actually expected this - not to mention the blind eye the check-in lady turned to having about 3 too many carry-ons (which each had about 200 lbs of kid's books and toys. Oh yeah, and the desktop computer. And monitor.) She was a pretty nice gal. It was also really nice to have my parents watching the kids during check-in. So, 350 CDN later for the 80 extra lbs and we were off to play in the family area for about an hour with the kids. After that, we went to security, and you can imagine how easy it was to go through that with two kids and 1000 lbs of carry-on (mostly books). Can you bend over please sir? A little further? I don't get it, everytime I go through security, they have to strip me down. Hmmm. Anyway, Jodi blubbered good-bye (a common theme in the past couple of days, just Jodi, of course not me) to my parents, and we went to the boarding gate to wait for an hour. The kids actually did surprisingly well for being up 3 hours past their usual bedtime (it was 11 pm by this point). Onto the plane we go, after a generous shot of Motrin for Reese (he's teething...). The first little bit wasn't so bad, but it got really bad at about the four hour mark. This is when AirTransat decided to finally turn the lights out. Or so Jodi tells me. The entire flight for me is a blur. After waking our kids up repeatedly for the last three hours, with 'Can I get you this?', or 'Can I get you that?', we finally got some peace (although not quiet, Reese made sure of that). The original plan was for him to sleep on me because I thought I could take his weight for 9 hours, but he had to have mommy. I do remember at one point, Erika was sleeping on me, and Reese was sleeping on Erika's seat between me and Jodi with his head hanging off the side. I think me and Jodi both woke up as he started to roll off (Jodi's one and only hour of sleep). Quality parenting. The meal at the end was kind of fun, and watching France appear beyond the ocean. The flight ended with the best of all of Erika's comments, in a very chipper voice, as we touched down: "That was a quick trip Mom". Everyone in earshot giggled. Needless to say, they left their kids at home. Stay tuned for more updates, next is our travel to Freiburg, and the fiasco at Frankfurt airport.

Jodi and Jeff

Ok, bye for now.

2008-05-18T00:25:00.002+02:00

This is it. 4 hours until we leave for the flight. We might be a little cut off from the rest of the world during the traveling and the first while until we get an internet connection and phone. So, wish us luck!

Jeff

No More Teachers...

2008-05-15T19:52:00.003+02:00

Well, today is my last day in my office at the university. I finished getting all the thesis documents to the faculty office this morning, which was quite the chore. Eight copies of the thesis at 200 pages per copy, what a waste of trees. Needless to say, my office is a complete sty, so the rest of my last day will be spent sorting through stuff, copying stuff off my computer, and running some errands in town. Nothing like a relaxing last day. Only two and a half days left in Canada. I really wish we would have had some down time before the flight on Saturday. Everything has been such a rush in the past six weeks I've barely had time to eat and sleep. Seriously. I'm starting to get scared and think maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I mean, who in their right mind says 'Hey, lets go to Germany for a couple of years, and ditch any chance at normalcy?' Still so much left to be done...

Jeff

That Was a Close One...

2008-05-08T15:47:00.002+02:00

After we thought we had paid the damage deposit on the place in Freiburg, we received a large foreign exchange wire transfer yesterday for almost the same amount. So, we figured it could be one of four options:

The place is rented to someone else, and they returned our damage deposit to us,
The money got transferred to a bad account (wrong account number),
Someone in Germany wanted to give us money for the deposit (like my work, highly unlikely, I know), or
A random bank error.

We went to our bank, and they told us that the account we wanted to transfer to was closed, so it turns out it was no. 2. Banks really make me mad. We paid around $150 in exchange when our bank bought euros to transfer, plus a $25 administration fee. Then, when the money came back, the bank exchanged the euros to Cdn dollars at a lower rate, and made another $100 or so. So, our money went no where and we lost $300 to foreign exchange transfers because our bank wanted to make money off of us for nothing. I realize this is how they make their money and euros are kind of scarce in Canada, but the least they could do was make the exchange at the current rates so that we wouldn't lose so much for a service that didn't work. Apparently, they are supposed to confirm too if the transfer was successful, which might have prevented this mess, and of course they did not. I think I am going to file a complaint, even though I know it won't do anything.

At any rate, after explaining the situation to our new landlords (through German translators at my work, which can be crazy in itself), they have agreed to let us pay the deposit when we get to Freiburg, which is a really nice thing to do. I think we will have to go through all this foreign exchange stuff again to get our money into a German bank account though, so we will have to find someone with the lowest rate, and I sure don't want to give more money to our garbage bank. Any ideas?

Jeff

What's Left?

2008-05-07T15:58:00.002+02:00

The defence is done. After five years, I can't believe it is over. Thanks to mom and dad for the great celebration/get-together on the weekend. We have kind of found an apartment too, and we actually put a damage deposit down on it. That's the first time we did the damage deposit thing, so I am thinking this is the real deal, but of course, we are still keeping in mind it could fall through. We also got our visas/passports back this week. Things are looking up. There is a huge amount of things to be done before we go though, like finishing up work stuff (thesis corrections, packing up my office, training the new guy), repacking our containers we are taking on the plane, booking the rental car and hotel, selling our car, and a whole pile of little things like getting more passport photos (who knew?), buying voltage transformers/plug adapters, etc. We have ten days left in Canada and we could probably use an entire month and still not have enough time.

So, the new plan is:

Reese's party on the 16th, in Red Deer
Pack on the 17th, leave on the 23:59 flight
Clear customs/immigration in Frankfurt (May 18, 17:30 local time), get our car rentals (we are getting 2 cars, one for the stuff, and one for the people - cheaper than getting a van)
Get to Freiburg around 23:00 (it's a 2.5 hour drive, so we are giving ourselves some extra time here)
Enjoy hotel in Freiburg
Get keys for our apartment around 11:00 (May 19)
Go get some mattresses and essentials from Ikea
Return car rentals.

The apartment has no furnishings, like we thought. No kitchen (not even a sink), no light fixtures, maybe not toilet seats. All we will have is some clothes, blankets, and a computer, so it is going to be pretty crazy with a completely empty apartment. But, it is going to be great to have our own place for the first time in almost four months.

Jeff

Tough

2008-04-22T05:22:00.003+02:00

Ok, this is a lot harder than we bargained for. I think we have contacted about 50 landlords in the Freiburg area and still no place to live (besides the rubbermaid containers we are taking on the plane). The market is completely in the landlord's favor, as people line up and even 'apply' for apartments in Freiburg. So, we have a huge disadvantage to start with as it is much easier to deal with someone you can meet personally than a flight risk from Kanada. We gave up on trying to do it ourselves and through rental 'agents' in Germany, and employed the services of one of Peggy's friends and a guy from the Uniklinik - where I am going to work. We found a pretty nice place about 5 km from my work and we have our application in the pile of ten, so 10% chance. Here's hoping...

Oh, and the visas. So the guy at the consulate says "apply when you get there, not here" even though everything we learned said to do it now. So, he reluctantly agreed, and made a couple of calls to make sure we would get them in time (we fly out on May 17). Then, he takes our passports, and attaches them to the paperwork for the visas. I was a little stunned, but after a short assurance from him, we all walked out sans passports, and a receipt Erika could have made at the craft table. Who gives away their passport to some stranger from a hole-in-the-wall office? I still can't believe we agreed to it. Not to mention the $360 price hike from the quoted internet price of $90. But we did get some cheap paper Bavaria/Germany flags out of the deal. I think it was the single worst case of consumer responsibility I have ever had. Here's hoping...

Jeff

Visa Day

2008-04-02T16:55:00.003+02:00

So tomorrow is visa day. Should be a good time, standing in the consulate filling out forms with our good little kiddies. I am hoping everything is simple and that the turnaround time is short enough that we get them before we need to leave on May 17th. Oh yeah, we booked flights for all of us for May 17th on Air Transat. I've never flown Air Transat before. The flight is 9.5 hours long and we have to be at the airport three hours early for some reason or they may give our seats away. Add to that an hour or so for collecting luggage in Frankfurt and getting through immigration, and we will have a 14 hour airport/plane excursion that I am sure Reese and Erika will just adore.

I was reminded yesterday of how close the end of my degree is when we had a little farewell to another Ph.D. student, Yusuf. Most of my friends from the Biomedical Engineering department have moved on in the past year or so, and me and Rob are pretty much all that is left from our original cohort. It's sort of sad, I suppose, Edmonton and U of A were pretty decent for us, except for living in the projects.

Jeff

Back at it and Tigers Hockey

2008-03-20T15:13:00.008+01:00

We left Medicine Hat a couple of days ago, and Jodi and the kids are in Red Deer and I am in Edmonton. Me and my Dad went to a Tigers game, and they got blown out 5-1 by the Hurricanes. A couple of highlight reel plays on the Hurricanes side made the Tigers' goalie look pretty silly. I haven't been to a Western league game since I think I was about 16. It's quite a bit different now, with people around us doing work on laptops during the intermission and lots of text messaging going on, and no more 'smarties' colored seats. I can't remember seeing that stuff at NHL games recently, but the show at an NHL rink is much more enthralling. The sound system at the arena is terrible; we could barely hear any of the music or announcements, so that hasn't changed much over the years. I don't know if I just don't like hockey enough anymore, but the game seemed really slow. No one really stood out, and poor passing and unpolished skating styles kind of detracted from the game. I suppose I tend to critique too much having played hockey for quite a while, but after getting around that, I found a couple of players on Lethbridge were pretty good. In the end, it was a really good time, and thanks to my Dad for the ticket. They had a pretty funny contest during one of the intermissions. They brought out five appliances from Leon's onto the ice and situated them in a circle. Then, they blindfolded a guy and put him in the middle of the circle and spun him around a couple of times, and then he was supposed to go find all the appliances in the alotted time of one minute. Each appliance he found he got to keep. I think maybe it was the first time they tried the contest because either a) they weren't too concerned about dishing out $4000 in appliances (unlikely) or, b) they had no idea how easy the contest was. Needless to say, they made the circle so small, the guy took ten steps, found the first appliance, took another ten steps, found the second appliance, took another ten steps, repeat ad absurdum, and he ended up getting all of the appliances with time to spare. Pretty funny. Another contest had participants either answer a Tigers' trivia question or shoot the puck from the red line into the net. All but one of the ten contestants picked the shot. I was quite surprised at how difficult people found it to hit the open net. Only two managed to do it. A couple whiffed it just outside the crease, and one even shot the puck directly into the corner.

We had quite a fiasco at London drugs trying to get our passport photos for the visa applications. We had to redo everyone's except Jodi, and I think I did around eight redos. After you get your picture taken, you have to wait around 4-5 minutes for them to develop it and make sure you faced the camera and there are no shadows. So imagine us with our two young kids trying to get them to first, sit still for the picture, and then occupy their time while we got ours done without destroying the store. By the end of the hour or so it took, Reese was swimming in my arms and Erika had opened up her own shop in an adjacent aisle, organizing and promoting a collection of notebooks. In terms of my photoshoot, I don't understand what the problem was. I'm no photography expert, but if you continually develop shadows in the same top corners of the picture, maybe you should tilt the camera up a bit so the flash catches the upper part of the exposure? Or just brighten everything up with more exposure. No offense to the girl who took the pictures, but as George Bush so eloquently put it:

Jeff

$50 for a Criminal Records Check?

2008-03-13T13:48:00.004+01:00

There are a few things we need to do to be able to apply for a visa, like get some wallet-sized pictures done, get criminal records checks, and notes from the doctor saying we are ok, and don't have communicable, bird flu diseases. Jodi got a criminal records check a couple of years ago when she was working for the EUB in Calgary, and I think it was around $10 to get it done. We were pretty surprised when we got down to the Medicine Hat police station and it cost $50 each. Stuff like that drives me crazy. How hard is it to look on the computer and print out a report on somebody? I suppose they inflated the price so we could pay for some cop's peppercorn steak at the Beefeater. Oh well.

We are in Medicine Hat this week, and I think we are going to try to take in some of the things I never did growing up here, like the museum, and some pottery place. Maybe elkwater too. The visa is the pressing process now that we need to figure out, and then we need to do the bank account thing. Finding places over there is also proving to be pretty difficult. Furnished or not? And when I say not furnished, I mean completely unfurnished. The unfurnished apartments in Germany might not have a kitchen sink, or fridge, or oven, and sometimes not even flooring.

Jeff

Finally, some dates...

2008-02-21T22:09:00.002+01:00

I start my new job in Freiburg June 1. The project wasn't supposed to start until 2009, so they had to extend funding back a bit for June to work. So, the defence is scheduled for May 1, and then I have to figure out if I am going to a conference in Toronto from May 2nd to May 9th. The most important pressing thing right now is getting the visas figured out, which can take a while to process. I guess we have a couple more weeks in Canada than we originally thought. Oops. More freeloading...

We also got an apartment lined up for April 1, although we aren't going to be there. It is in a student village complex (1300 students) on the 7th floor of a 1960s building. About 100 m away are two bars, one which gets really busy I guess, so there is lots of traffic on Wednesdays and the weekend. And of course, the usual stuff accompanies the student bar scene: stomach contents in hallways and outside, increased crime/violence, more drug trades, etc. Okay, so it probably isn't that bad considering Freiburg is a pretty safe place to live overall, but get 1300 students together (90% undergraduates), 50 cent shot night and zero responsibility = mess. If it was just me and Jodi, than ok, we wouldn't have that bad of a time with it. But I guess I just didn't picture having to raise kids in a seedy environment. Maybe I am overreacting. At any rate, we have to let the reservation go for April, and reschedule for June, and maybe there won't even be a place available then. German housing ads are still pretty tricky for me to figure out, and we don't know which areas in Freiburg are good or bad either.

We are in Red Deer for the rest of the week, and then on Monday I am back in Edmonton and next week we are going to High Prairie to visit (read: freeload from) Dallas and Kory.

Jeff

Phone

2008-02-13T16:35:00.005+01:00

One of the nicest things about not having our own place is not having our own phone line. Over the past couple of years, I entered quite a few contests because of my success in the Pepsi Xbox contest. So, I had to divulge our phone number on a few occasions, and of course, that information got sold to all kinds of telemarketers. On an average day, I think we got around 2 calls from telemarketers. We also didn't have call display, so we answered every call. We'd be changing a diaper upstairs or something and the phone rings and one of us would run downstairs to the phone thinking it might be important or relevant and it turns out being a telemarketer. Thanks, I just got poop lodged into the buttons of my phone for nothing. The worst ones are when there is just some calling service on the other end, like the reverse of an answering machine. Used to drive me nuts. One of the frequent telemarketers we got was some guy selling meat. Honestly, like I am going to by a side of beef from a telemarketer. Or the "you have won a paid vacation cruise, the cost to you is only $400". They've gotten so ridiculous now they even leave messages on our answering machine. We'd come home from Christmas holidays and have 5 or 6 messages from Meat Guy. They call at the worst times too; I would say about 50% of the calls would come around the time we eat supper. We would almost know for sure it was a telemarketer if we were sitting down to a nice bowl of shrimp primavera penne and lettuce wraps and the phone rang. I suppose it is a good marketing ploy, because they know people are eating so that's when they call - after people get home from work, and before they rush off to soccer practice or Tai Chi. I think it's just downright inconsiderate. Recently, I changed my tactics so I wouldn't get so frustrated. When they call, I pick it up, and then say, "Can you hold on a minute?", and then I put the phone down and let it sit there until I can hear that annoying, loud tone telling me I left the phone off the hook. I figure, it they want to waste my time, I am going to waste some of theirs. Good attitude, I know. I wish Canada had a federal program like the States where they can put your number on a 'Do not call' list for telemarketers. Apparently, they actually enforce it too and hand out some hefty fines to violators. Anyway, all I am saying is, it's nice not to have to pick up the phone and get a useless caller on the other end.

This is my last day in Edmonton this week, and then back to Airdrie for a while. For those that haven't seen these yet or want a refresher, here's Erika's 'new' glasses and Erika and Reese at halloween.

Jeff

Moving Out Done.

2008-02-11T17:26:00.000+01:00

Friday was the last day I will have to move our stuff for a long time I hope. It actually went pretty good, the new storage unit was close to the old one, so we didn't break our backs moving the stuff. Stopped at Vern's pizza for lunch. They have the most meat on a pizza ever. This past weekend we had the guys' weekend in Airdrie with me, Brad, Tim, Kory, and Bruce. The girls were in Red Deer, and I imagine they had lots of long, insightful talks about life. Hee hee. It was a good time; we played Rock Band, ate out, and watched Rambo. It wasn't the worst movie, although I don't think I would watch it again. We actually started out in "Meet the Spartans", which turned out to be the absolute worst movie I have ever seen. I guess we should have figured that before we went in. Well, 20 minutes into it we left and Rambo was just starting so that is where we ended up.

Sunday we were supposed to have our farewell party in Red Deer at Tim and Lesley's, but their sewer had a cracked pipe and was backing up, so we stayed in Airdrie, and some people came there for cake. We got one of those digital picture frames with some pictures loaded on it of family for a going away present. Pretty nice.

Tomorrow I am off to Edmonton for a couple of days, and Jodi is sticking around Airdrie unless the sewer has been fixed in Red Deer. Not too much else to say, we have decided to not do a whole bunch of planning and getting excited (impossible) until we actually know the date we are going to travel over there.

Jeff

Moving Out Done?

2008-02-03T15:49:00.000+01:00

Well, not really done. The stuff fit in the trailer, but not in our storage unit in Medicine Hat. We have a little family thing next weekend with Jodi's side, so I am taking Erika back down to Medicine Hat to stay with Grandma and Grandpa, and then me and Dad will move the stuff out of the storage unit and into another one, double the size. Fortunately, the new one is in the same storage complex. So, I thought we would be done Thursday, but I guess not.

The move itself was pretty crazy. The piano needed to be dealt with, of course, on the day we move out. The movers came and picked it up, and then we hopped in the car to follow them to the drop off location. The place turned out to be a fourplex, and I had no idea which one we were supposed to drop the piano off at. So, being the smartie I am, I just picked one and ended up walking in on some large lady, not adequately dressed, making beef stroganoff and her pitbull barking its ugly face off. She seemed pretty surprised. Anyway, after apologizing profusely, I phoned Megan (which I should have done in the first place) to figure out the right unit of the fourplex. The snow drifts on the sidewalk up to the door ranged from 2 to 3 feet, so the movers said they couldn't do it, and took off. I figured I would shovel the walk so it was ready for the actual delivery, and it took about triple the time I thought it would. We finally got home and my Dad was waiting to load the trailer and we dove right in. The trailer was really slippery and I think it was -36°C when we finally finished at 7:30. After a little more cleaning and loading of our car and Dad's truck, we were done for the day, with no real end in sight.

Thursday we slept in longer than we wanted, but managed to get everything packed by 9:00. Now, remember the story I told about the walkthrough, and how things were set up to go bad? Well, everything that could have gone bad, did. They completely tried to get every penny they could from us, and because I signed the original walkthrough, we really couldn't do much about it. We got 'in trouble' for things like dirty walls, the outside of our door being dirty, dirty light fixtures, and my personal favorite: the heat vents being dirty. We actually took the vents out and put in new ones for the duration and then put their's back in, so they were complaining about their own poor quality cleaning on that one. What really gets my dander up is they have no maximum they can charge for damage or cleaning. For other rentals we have had over the years, they can keep your damage deposit and that's it. Of course, because we are in a student residence, they can charge above the damage deposit, and unless you pay whatever they want, you can't order any transcripts or sign out books or any other university service. There has to be some rule against that. Anyway, we got to Medicine Hat at about 6:30 pm and finished unloading what we could at around 9:00 pm.

The next morning, I went out to the car to go to the spectacular Medicine Hat mall, and I thought "the car kind of smells funny. A little sweet. Hmmm...". Well, turns out I left the bottle of Kriter - champagne me and Jodi have saved since our wedding night - in the trunk of the car, and it exploded. So I tried to get the stuff out, but the smell lingered. We had to get Ziebart to steam clean it. It smells ok now.

We are now at Jodi's mom's place for the next couple of weeks. Well, sort of. Tomorrow I am heading to work for a couple of days in Edmonton, and then Thursday I am taking Erika to Medicine Hat, and on the weekend we have that family thing at Red Deer.

Sorry about the novel, apparently there's been a little bit going on. Here's a nice picture of me in the hotel room getting ready for my interview in Freiburg 6 weeks ago.

Jeff

Moving Day

2008-01-30T16:41:00.001+01:00

Well, it's finally here. We are moving out of Michener today, after 3 and a half years. Looks like it is going to be just me and my Dad loading the trailer in the balmy weather. We hired some piano movers so we don't have to worry about it and hopefully they get their act together and get the piano out before my Dad gets here with the trailer. I don't want to have to mess around with them when we are moving. Here goes!

Jeff

3 Nights Left...

2008-01-28T19:08:00.000+01:00

Only 3 more nights and then we are out of our place. Good riddance. We had Erika's birthday party yesterday, and I think it went pretty well, considering our place is in shambles. The Build-a-bear thing went really well, and all the kids seemed to enjoy it. Of course, Erika picked the pinkest bear with sparkles, and then dressed her pinky bear in pink underwear, pink shoes, pink dress, pink purse and pink wings. Apparently she likes pink. Jodi's cake was a masterpiece, as always, except the sparklers we used on it created some shrapnel on the icing. I also had a timely battery change for the camera right when we were singing 'happy birthday'. Typical. Ryan and Elyse were up this weekend too on Saturday and we ate and played some Wii sports. Erika took off this morning with Grandma Snyder to stay there until we move our stuff into storage in Medicine Hat on Thursday. It's going to be pretty quiet without her around. We also offloaded a lot of stuff to Tim and Lesley, Dallas and Kory and Kim and Shane, so we will have less to move Wednesday. By the way, the weather forecast looks spectacular for moving: a high of -30°C on Wednesday for moving out, and a high of -29°C on Thursday for putting the stuff in storage. Not to mention the -48°C wind chill we are supposed to have. Delightful. Thanks in advance to my Dad, Kent (haven't really asked him yet) and Tim for bearing the cold weather.

The piano problem is fixed, thanks Megan, who diligently found a home for it, and we don't have to roll it out in front of the BFI or down the road for that matter.

One more thing, for those not comment inclined (i.e. Lesley). If you want to make a comment (apparently, Lesley did, I don't think she even tried), you click on the link at the bottom of the post that says '0 comments' (well, they pretty much all say 0 comments, Chris broke our streak), and it opens up a new window. From there, enter in your message, then complete the word verification. After that, at the bottom, you can select to sign in as a gmail/blogger person, or you can pick the next little bullet and it will ask for a nickname, which can be anything and you don't need some kind of account to do it. Then enter the nickname and click 'publish your post' and then you are done. Enjoy Lesley.

Ahhh... goodbye Michener. Here's a nice picture from the back.

I'll get some party pictures up when we download them to my home computer.

Jeff

Yes I am Involved

2008-01-26T04:43:00.000+01:00

How can I be attached to this place.... Today was my last day with just me and kids hanging out in Michener Park and I find myself feeling sad about this. Erika is heading off to spend a few days in Medicine Hat with Grandma Snyder after her party on Sunday so it's just me and Reesey as of Monday. I have dreamed of the day we would pack up and head out of here but now it's time and it dosen't seem like i pictured it. Maybe because Jeff still is not fully finished and we aren't moving into my dream house 10 blocks from here. Don't get me wrong this adventure is amazing to me and I know we are going to make a lifetime of memories as a family. At the same time we are a family of 4 now and with that comes so much responsiblity....so my adventuresome side can't run quite as free as it has in the past. Once we are out of here and freeloading off of family i'm sure I won't even remember my posh life in Michener and will be able to wrap my mind around this next time in our lives.

Well, that was definatley the feminine side of this blog. Alot of rambling about feelings. Sorry to the guys who visit, but hey the girls had to read about all the technical question/issues posted earlier.

Jodi

Moving Plans

2008-01-25T16:44:00.000+01:00

So, my Dad is bringing a trailer from Medicine Hat on Wednesday the 30th, and we are going to load it all up hopefully that night. Then we have to stick around until 10 on the 31st for the walkthrough of our apartment. I am not looking forward to that. When we moved in, the person we did the walkthrough with marked everything in 'good' condition, with assurances that the imperfections in our place were actually 'good' compared to other units. Of course, being the trusting citizen I am, I signed the walkthrough form, even though our last rental in Edmonton tried to steal our damage deposit because of walkthrough sheet problems. So what I am saying is, now for the walkthrough, they could say "well, this massive hole in the wall wasn't here when you moved in," not like we have massive holes or anything. But maybe they will be really anal. Anyway, then we are going to move most of our stuff we are keeping and not taking to Germany into storage in the Hat, and hopefully have the trailer back to the rental place by the 1st. The first test is fitting all the stuff in the trailer, and then we have to fit it all in the storage unit which is even smaller. Arghh. Yes, arghh.

I thought I would include a picture of the city (Freiburg) in Germany we will be living in. Crazy.

Jeff

Piano Problems

2008-01-25T16:31:00.000+01:00

Ok, so we have five more nights left at our place in Edmonton. Things are getting packed relatively well, and we are trying to pack all of our Germany stuff in separate containers. It's going to be tricky figuring out what exactly we need to take with us as all of our stuff is going to be coming with us on the plane, and you only get so many bags for the baggage allowance. There are lots of unanswered questions at this point, like how do we get from the airport in Frankfurt to our place in Freiburg (2.5 hours away), or how do we get the kids to Freiburg if we aren't bringing our car seats? I am assuming we are going to take the train, but do we need car seats for it?

The biggest problem right now is trying to get rid of the piano. Unfortunately, I had the bright idea of buying a piano back in the beginning of fall, and we thought we would be going to the U.S. for my postdoc so we could take it there. Good plan. Anyway, five days left and no bites on it, so if anyone in the Edmonton area (or anywhere else for that matter, if you've got transportation) wants a piano, enjoy! The rest of our bulky appliances like the washer/dryer, mini deep freeze, and dishwasher have been sold, so that's good. Oh, we have a microwave to ditch too, although if we can't get rid of it, it would be easy to store.

Erika's birthday party is coming up this Sunday, and we are going to Build-a-Bear with some of her friends/relatives. She's pretty excited about it; we'll have to post some pictures of the bears the kids make. Having said that, with all the preparation and having relatives in town this weekend, I don't know how much packing we are going to be able to do. Uh-oh.

Well, that's about it for now, I need to get Jodi on here for some updates too.

Jeff

Computer Stuff

2008-01-22T16:36:00.000+01:00

Since we are moving out at the end of the month, I will be somewhat commuting from wherever we are to the university for a couple of days a week. So, for the days I am not at work, I am trying to set up some kind of remote desktop so that I can work wherever. Apparently, this isn't the easiest thing to do. My laptop runs Vista, and the work computer is a Windows 2000 machine. Also, the medicine firewall at the university doesn't like connections from the outside world on the usual remote desktop port, so I have been trying different things, like using a program called UltraVNC instead of the usual Windows remote desktop. Still doesn't work. To top it all off, our network administrator left last month so there is nobody here that can really help. Anybody have any experience trying to do this?

Packing is coming along ok. We have Erika's birthday party on Sunday, so we need to get a lot of stuff out of the way before then. I hate getting boxes. It doesn't help that I am picky as to what boxes we want. Oh well.

Jeff

Language

2008-01-17T19:12:00.000+01:00

I guess one of the things we need to do before we leave is learn some German while we still have time. We want to immerse ourselves over there and become somewhat fluent before we come back to Canada. Jodi picked up a couple of those German/English translation dictionaries, so we can figure out some of the common phrases. But, that only helps us for ordering schnitzel and wild boar, and there is no way we would be able make out what people might be saying to us. I want to take some kind of crash course before we go, but not an actual course here at school. Anybody else tried this and figured out a good method? There are a couple of software programs that have voice recognition that are supposed to be pretty good, albeit quite expensive. I don't know how confident I am with a program like that, and I don't want to make myself sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger to make the computer think I am doing a good job. Reminds me of the madtv clip (this one is for you Tim and Kory), "of course he does, he's my clone baby!"

Jeff

First Entry

2008-01-16T19:15:00.000+01:00

Well, it is official, we are off to Germany for at least two years for my postdoctoral fellowship. We will be living in Freiburg, which is in the southwest corner of Germany, about 30 minutes from Switzerland and 15 from France. At the end of January, we will be moving out of our place in Edmonton, which will be the end of a 3 and a half year era in Michener Park. For the most part I am happy to be out of the projects and the relative dump we lived in, but there are lots of memories for us there too, including bringing both of our children home and the death of beloved Borneo. We have lots of stuff to do by the end of the month, and we are slowly working at it. After moving out, we will be nomads and imposing on our relatives for a few weeks, so that should be a good time. I'll let you know how things are progressing for the actual move as time goes on.

Jeff