The Shifting Sands

Here are our girls standing on a block of the frozen Baltic Sea at the very popular German coastal resort of Usedom. We had a lovely time here enjoying a great Tapas Meal at a Spanish Restaurant run by a girl that used to live in Brisbane; we played mini golf, stared at the amazing prussian Villa's, many of which are available to rent during the summer and had lots of fun in the hotel pool, mavelling at our girls ability not to see all those older naked german couples moving in and out of the saunas! Next stop on our Spring Break (Easter Vacation) was Paris. Would you believe I had to be convinced to go as Chris had work there and I did not want to be caught in a hotel room with the girls whilst he waiting for his meetings to end. Despite my doubts, the stay in Paris was great, albeit Chris was in meetings most of the trip. The girls dragged me between department stores (oh that was hard!) and we still manage...

Well it is different, that is for sure. We have been here for eleven weeks and in that time Chris has been away at least for five, almost six weeks, mostly in the States. Living in Potsdam, which is old East Germany, means different things on different days. If I am shopping it shows to me just how little German I have learnt in my two and a bit months here and highlights why I must start lessons this week! Potsdamers speak German and Russion and the Berliners who have come here for the quieter life speak some English, as does anyone under 30 years of age - needless to say I have a few favorite shops now and when in supermarkets make a beeline for the younger checkout girls and guys. I have started my cultural immersion program - each week I go to a palace, art gallery, museum or exhibition. So far I have been on an english speaking tour of Schloss (Palace) Chalottenburg, seen the most depressing and probably enlightening exhibition of Kathe Kollwitz art work and on Wedn...

I think I will let the pictures do the talking for this trip....................... We had fun!

Our Lake, Holy Lake, is fast becoming the centre of our recreation. The girls now have Ice Skates and have had a few opportunities to skate around one of several rinks that locals come and shovel for their own and everyone else’s pleasure. Lucy had eight girl friends sleep over for her twelfth birthday on the 6th of February. Many of them skated too. It is absolutely wonderful that within six weeks of landing in Berlin and only four weeks of school Lucy can have eight girls to sleep over! And now we are on our next adventure. Having driven via Baden Baden only yesterday (some 600km) with a further 500plus km’s today we head for a weeks skiing in Allevard, near Grenoble then up to Disneyland in Paris for the weekend. WE are all very excited, but for different reasons! Post script - Chris wants me to mention that yesterday my tolerance level was for 140km per hour max on the German Auto Bahns but that today he got to 170km per hour and I didn’t flinch!

It has been an interesting few days. Chris arrived home from Denver Colorado on Saturday, just in time to prepare for Ada's birthday. We were lucky enough to go to a yoga class together on Sunday, Bikram Hot Yoga. Yoga done in a 38 degree celcius room. How welcome was that?! Snow was falling outside and I felt like I was in Melbourne - well almost - the instructions were in German and if I was in Melbourne I would have been swimming not doing hot yoga! That afternoon it was time to try the lake - it had looked frozen for a few days and there were a few tentative footprints around the edges - enough to encourage Chris, Lucy and Ada to want to walk across it! When we got there another family was Ice Skating in the middle - that should be enough of a go ahead. We did walk on it - quite a lot really - every so often though, when the ice softened to slush - I took a little run for it! Chris and Lucy just kept throwing the baseball to each other! We found Ice Skater...

Ada and Lucy started school at BBIS (Berlin Brandenberg International School) on Wednesday 6th January. It was minus 7 degrees celcius and dark! So far so good with Ada in a younger than expected group (for now) with a delightful teacher and plenty of support staff. Ada kept them all engaged on her first day telling lots of stories! Who knows who featured and what they were doing!? Lucy tells me after day two that school is great but don't hold my breath as things could change! She has a male homeroom teacher - her first male teacher after seven years at school. She has already joined a group of girls and is enjoying the diversity of her peers and her curriculum having started german and french lessons on her first day! The ice inside and outside of the car and on the roads at 7.30am in the mornings is rather a challenge in these early days. Finding that windows wont open, windscreen wipers wont work and that at minus 11.5 this morning it is just too cold to do...

Happy New Year to all our family and friends. Or as the Germans would call it - Silvester. Hmm, I will know what that means by next new years I promise. So far I can assume it means - buy masses of fireworks and let them off in the streets from midnight en masse, then at exactly 1am STOP what you are doing, drink a glass of champagne and then go home. Do not pick up the empty cases and do not let off any more fireworks - at least that is what I saw from my window. Backtracking a bit though we took the girls into Berlin to Legoland and to see an OV (original version - english speaking movie) at the Sony Centre a few days ago. Loved Lego land and can't wait to take my nephews there - even the grown up ones! Sony Centre is built on the site of the 'no mans land' between east and west so is quite new and is surrounded by monuments to The Wall. It is 60 hectares and is quite amazing to have such a large area available for construction in the centre of a large c...