Niagara Falls for Thanksgiving




































Rather than staying in dark, gray, cold Michigan for Thanksgiving, we decided to run to the border and visit Canada, our ultimate goal being Niagara Falls and Toronto. Fortunately the weather was good and we encountered no snow on the way, making the 5.5 hour drive no problem. On the way, we stopped in London, Ontario, a neat little city with a nice downtown with lots of restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. We took a walk there to stretch our legs and enjoyed being in a city again. We also enjoyed some Canadian humor: at construction sites there are signs that say "Danger due to _________" and the workers have to fill in what the danger comes from. Well, on the sign in London it was "Danger due to Ninjas" where they were working on a church. London is also where Labatt beer is brewed, but due to time constraints, we couldn't take a brewery tour. After leaving London, we got a little bit lost, and wound up in Hamilton, actually a bit north of where we wanted to be. After establishing that the people there seemed to be unable to read (maps, at least) we decided to just spend the night there on Thursday because the remaining drive to Niagara Falls was only about another half hour. In Hamilton we also discovered something else that was interesting: beer can only be purchased in Canada (or at least in Ontario) in "Beer Stores", which are actually named "The Beer Store". This only after a trying incident in a supermarket where my German husband attempted to ask for beer, but the supermarket employees couldn't understand his pronunciation of beer. "Bouillon?" they asked. Then he said "Beer! Alcohol!" and they tried to direct him to the wine section. Wine was not what he wanted. Finally, "beer" was understood, and they directed us to "The Beer Store".
On Friday we got up and had a quick drive to Niagara Falls, and were lucky to have not so cold sunny weather. The only drawback of the falls is all that water that they spray! But regardless of getting soaked, it was still nice to get out into the fresh air and walk, and the spray did have a nice side effect: rainbows!























Here's the rainbow created by the sun and all that mist from the falls. In the background is the Rainbow Bridge, which connects Canada and the United States.























All that natural beauty is not without danger: if you feel yourself drawn to the falls like sailors used to be drawn in by the song of the Lorelei, these signs are there to remind of the evil lurking behind that natural splendor.




























We had actually planned to drive on to Toronto on Friday afternoon, but after spending the day walking around the Canadian and American sides of the falls, and noticing that they light the falls in the evening, we decided to spend a little more time and have a look at the falls at night as well. The city of Niagara has been built up like Las Vegas--in the top picture you can see the big flashy hotels, and yes, at least one of those buildings is a casino. In the downtown area there are also all of the tourist traps you find in every major tourist destination these days: Hard Rock Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, Guiness World of Records Museum and of course lots of restaurants that you can also find in your local mall. And once you leave these tourist areas on either side of the border, all you can find are some sad, run down little towns that look like they've seen better days.

On Friday evening we crossed the border back into Canada after a long wait on Rainbow Bridge and being questioned intensely by a Canadian border guard with a bullet proof vest on. We drove back to Hamilton, where we stayed again due to its convenience and proximity to Toronto. Saturday morning we drove to Toronto. I've never visited Toronto before, but it definitely has the flair of a big city like Chicago or New York with its skyscrapers and shopping areas. We didn't do any touristy stuff there really, we just walked around town and soakedup that big city feeling. We also had a great breakfast at the Sunset Grill--definitely a good choice for all day breakfast if you are very hungry, like friendly service and want a change from the normal fast food fare! This seemed to be a popular destination for the locals, as it had an amazing turnover and was completely full the whole time we were there.























One more thing that gave me a laugh in Toronto: fries poutine. This is something I had heard of before, but couldn't really believe. It's fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy. Delicious? You be the judge. I didn't try it.

Gas: $1.67 per gallon!

In the news

For my German readers: An article in der Zeit about Obama voters in the southern states. This article doesn't reflect my experience in Michigan with the mood surrounding the election, but is an interesting report nonetheless.

And a link to the fake New York Times...haha. Apparently readers were a little slow on the uptake that this was not the real news when they bought this paper.

Gas: $1.88 per gallon!

Gas today: $1.92

I was a little worried when I drove into work today and saw that gas had gone up to $2.09 after dropping to $1.92 yesterday, but on my way out of town I had to stop for some bread, and the Meijer gas station had the lowest price in town, so I filled her up!

In other news, I won some kind of prize from a car dealer. I got a flyer in the mail with a little scratch off thingy, and my number matches the number printed on the inside of the flyer, which means I may have one a 2008 Ford F150 truck, $7000 cash, an island getaway, or $25 cash. The dealer is not too far from my work, so I think I will go tomorrow and see what I did (or didn't) win. That should be good for a laugh.

Gas today: $2.13 per gallon!

Gas today: $2.18 a gallon!

Check out the neat stickers you get when you vote! Actually, regular people just get one, but when you bring a foreigner and an exceptionally cute two-year-old, you get two stickers and some candy. Voting was never such a great deal!

I have to say that voting this year was strange. As previously stated, I have voted from my undisclosed foreign location for the last 5.5 years, so going to the polls was strange this year. Fortunately, I didn't have on my Sarah Palin T-shirt, so they couldn't send me away from the polling place for wearing campaign clothes. But down to serious matters, my secret ballot didn't feel so secret. I recall voting in the past in little booths with a curtain that you close behind you so no one can see your supposedly "secret" ballot. Well, this time around there were some booths, but without curtains, and some tables with little privacy walls, and some seats right out in the open where you could just sit and fill out your ballot for all to see. Really, in any of these three voting situations, someone could easily see how you were voting by just looking over your shoulder. The most hilarious thing, however was the fact that you get your ballot and it's inside a privacy envelope. The ballot itself is huge, about the size of an A3 or ledger sized piece of paper, and printed on both sides. So you get out your huge ballot, fill it out where someone may or may not see what you are marking, then you have to put it back into the privacy envelope so no one can see what you marked on it (this year you had to fill in little lines, not punch holes as previously), feed it into the voting computer and then, finally, you get your stickers and candy. We'll see how this all turns out tomorrow.

Registered to vote and ready to go!

I just checked my Michigan voter registration online to be sure I am ready to go on Tuesday, and sure enough, I'm registered. I was concerned because I had voted from overseas for the last 5 years or so, and now that I'm back, I wasn't sure if I was still on the roster or not, but I am! So on Tuesday I will be headed to the Beaverton Township Hall after parent-teacher conferences to cast my votes. As usual, there's lots on the ballot, not just president, but tons of other state and local offices, as well as some proposals, like one (Proposal 1) regarding the use, production and sale of medical marijuana and one (Proposal 2) regarding the use of embryonic stem cells for research. Two very interesting and highly charged topics.

Here's a look at the political signs that lots of people have in their yards right now. You can see they aren't only proclaiming who they want for president, but also which local and state candidates they support, for offices such as district court judge, treasurer, clerk, congress person, state representative, etc.

Gas: $2.29 per gallon!

And that price in Beaverton. It's probably even less in Midland! Sweet! We should go on a road trip to celebrate.

God Bless America!

That's what I thought this afternoon driving out of town on my way home from work today. Why, you ask? Gas only costs $2.36 per gallon today! That computes to just under 60 American cents per liter. It's been dropping every day now for weeks, and I am amazed that even under $2.50, it's still dropping. Gas prices haven't been this low in years, have they? I don't know, since I haven't really cared about gas prices for the last years due to the fact of a) not having a car and b) not wanting one anyway and c) living somewhere where it didn't matter, at least in my humble opinion. But now that I am a real American again and drive a total of at least 50 miles to work and back every single day, I am thrilled that the economy is doing terribly and I can buy cheap gas again!

In other news, the "Obama's going to win" buzz is still circulating, even in these parts. We'll see what happens next Tuesday. I can't wait to go vote!!

Michigan's Fall Colors




















































The leaves are mostly off now, but this is how it looked about 2 weeks ago in northern Gladwin County and in Roscommon County. The colors were very intense, now there are just some rust colored and brown leaves still hanging on. And of course all of the boring old pine trees are still green.

My Halloween Pumpkins

A favorite fall pastime: carving pumpkins.



















The Professor























Pukey


















Meow!























The Village Idiot.

A quick update

Due to my lack of a home internet connection, I'm not posting any pictures right now, though I have a few I'd like to share...of political posters and other assorted interesting/funny/curious cultural stuff. But as soon as we have our internet connection ironed out, I'll get those up.
It seems mud bogging is not as beloved as I once thought, it is actually scorned. We had some of our neighbors over for dinner Friday night, and two of them are the ones that sold Lloyd the mud bogger his property. He is not well liked in the neighborhood, actually, he seems to be quite disliked due to his mud bog. It's an eyesore that none of the more cultivated neighbors can appreciate.

In other news, the campaign for president is in full swing. I seem to be living in McCain country, as confirmed by the neighbors who were over for dinner and all of the signs around Beaverton and Midland. There are lots of Obama supporters too, but McCain seems to have the upper hand here. We'll see what happens at the beginning of November, I can't wait to find out.

Mud bogg 2nite Lloyd's 38th

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that dandy spray painted sign out by the road just around the corner of my house, but tonight there is a mud bog event in my neighborhood. Apparently because it's Lloyd's 38th birthday. For the uninitiated, mud boggin' is a favorite pastime of rural folk. Basically, you flood a field, creating the muddy "bog" and get all your friends with big jacked up, rigged up trucks with big tires and four-wheel drive to come and drive in the mud. Yeah, that's it. I don't know how this can be fun or entertaining, but it sure is for my neighbors, and for lots of other people around here.

By the way, I had a dream that I came back to Dresden for the weekend and didn't want to return to the United States on Sunday. That's pretty close to reality.

Assorted stuff from Beaverton

Here's a shot of the Beaverton gang. I was hiding inside a piece of playground equipment to get this picture. The gang leader appears to be "Praying Mantis", the guy on the right. The gang is friendly, though. They did stop throwing the basketball around as we passed to enter the playground.

The second car. I haven't yet posted pictures of the first car, but that's because I still need to wash it, it's all dusty. This is the second, a super sweet Jeep Grand Cherokee. I bet you never thought I would sing the praises of any SUV (super useless vehicle, or officially sport utility vehicle) but this really is a sweet car. It's very comfortable and you can haul a ton of stuff in the back, and it's a four wheel drive V8, meaning that the weather or snow will never stop us. The main drawback of this vehicle: it only gets about 20 miles a gallon (11.7 liters per 100 km) on gas!!

Yet another view from the house. It's fantastic to live on the water!

The boys like it too, because you can just walk out the back door, onto the dock, and catch many species of fish. Here's a pike.

This one's a bluegill.

I don't know if we figured out what this one is. They were all thrown back, none were eaten. Yet.

Breakfast

This is a delicious pudding filled long john.
















And this is a donut. A real donut.

As much as I love Germany, there is one thing that the country as a whole just doesn't get, and that's donuts. Sure, my German readers may be saying "Aha! Sarah really is a true American!" right now, but this donut thesis is true. The donuts you can buy in any German establishment claiming to sell donuts are not donuts at all, but creepy, airy, bready things of no substance. This morning I woke up and said "I want a donut for breakfast." This is not something that happens often, I probably haven't truly craved a donut in years, but just the thought of a delicious, sweet, cakey donut, fresh from the bakery where I worked 10 years ago along with my coffee this Saturday morning got me all fired up for the 10 minute drive into town.
I must admit, the pudding filled long john is what I truly craved, and it wasn't as good as I remembered. Somehow they've changed the recipe, and there was very little pudding inside, making it a true disappointment. But the donut, that delicious, cakey, frosted thing with sprinkles on it was just perfect. An authentic donut actually consists of cake batter which has been dropped from an apparatus that makes it round with the hole in the center into a deep fryer. Deep frying that cake batter is what makes the donut so sinfully good and crispy. Then it's frosted, more or less with pure sugar mixed with a little water, and can be topped with a number of things, like nuts, sprinkles or cinammon sugar. I prefer the sprinkles, because they step up the already extreme sweetness of the sugary frosting, putting you almost into a sugar coma.
But please don't think I've lost all of my good taste: yesterday after work I met with some of my other foreign language teacher colleagues, and we snacked in a classy way. First we had French cheeses and baguette, and topped it all off with a fruit tart made here in Michigan by a real French pastry chef. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that, but it was just beautiful. Much prettier than the donuts. And delicious. It had a lightly sweet, buttery crust, topped with a thin layer of creamy cheese filling, then covered with artfully arranged fruit, and finally glazed with apricot glaze. Mmm.

Oh, boy. Look what I just got in my inbox.

"Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin told Colorado voters that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) have "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers."

Oops. The reality is that, as privately-held companies, Fannie and Freddie took no money from the federal government and it is only now that they will become a liability for taxpayers. The Huffington Post reports that "The major concern about Palin's position on the ticket is that she lacks the economic and foreign policy wherewithal to serve as vice president. This certainly doesn't help on that front. At the same time, the remark went almost entirely unnoticed over the weekend and discussions on the developments of the housing market can be difficult to process for even the most attuned voter."

When Palin made the remark, the audience cheered and McCain clapped -- meaning that neither the Republican Presidential candidate nor the Vice Presidential candidate, or even their supporters, understand the roles of Fannie and Freddie. More troubling, McCain told The Boston Globe last year that "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," and, here's the real kicker, said that he would look for someone who was a true economics expert in his VP pick."

American politics just keep getting better and better.

The news from America

















These birds should have been the according to Benjamin Franklin. Look what he wrote about bald eagles, the national bird we ended up with:

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him."

Huh. He makes the eagle sound like a Republican. At least the bad moral character part fits pretty well.

























This heron was hanging around by my house this weekend. I saw him in flight on Saturday morning, and he was sitting for a long time like this on Sunday morning.






















A week ago I was invited to dinner at a friend of a friend's house (this friend of a friend is from Germany!) and there was this bat on their house! How cool is that? I love bats. I've never gotten to see one so close before!



















Here is a view from my house. Well, it's not my house, it's rented, but I live there now for the next 6 months or so. It's on the river! Yay! The flags came with the house, I didn't put those up. I counted 6 American flags on neighbors' property on Saturday, all in view of my house. Flags flags everywhere! Unfortunately I can't brag too much about how pretty it is, it's cold and rainy right now.

In other news, a German exchange student from Dresden showed up at school today!!! I am so excited! I haven't met her yet. She is going to the high school where I teach in the afternoon, and she's taking a class with the other German teacher there. He told her that I am there in the afternoon and hopefully she will stop by! I can't wait to meet her! I really miss Dresden. I can't wait until my two guys get here, that will help, but I just miss Dresden soooo much. It's funny, I miss the things I complained about before: the fast supermarket service (they do throw your food, but here the cashiers are soooooo sllloooooowwww, I feel like I am going to lose my mind every time I go to the store). Customers in German supermarkets are pushy and crowd you, but here they just wander aimlessly from place to place, and there is no system to their navigation of the store. Wow, and Dresden is so beautiful. It is pretty here, but Dresden is breathtaking. And I miss my friends. I even miss the cute cashier at the supermarket who always smiled at me. Wow, but I was impressed yesterday, two people complimented me on my haircut (it hasn't changed) and while out with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, everybody was just going crazy about how cute my niece is. That is definitely one very nice thing here: people are very child friendly!

Ach, du meine Güte.

This morning I forgot my sandwich, saw a deer that had been freshly hit on the side of the road with its leg still twitching, the fire alarms in the house were going off when I got home and it seemed like the car was going to quit on the way home. But at least my classes went well!

Herr Lehmann hat immer recht. (Mr. Lehmann is always right)

Die Baeume sind gross geworden, dachte Frank, und die Haeuser klein. Sie hatten immer hier gewohnt, hier war er aufgewachsen, und jetzt viel ihm das ploetzlich auf. Frueher waren die Baeume kleiner gewesen und die Haeuser groesser, dachte er, und dieser Gedanke machte ihn traurig. Es ist vorbei, dachte er, ich bin wie einer dieser Baeume, ich bin irgendwie aus der Proportion geraten, ich sollte hier nicht mehr sein, dachte er, ich haette es wie Manni machen sollen.
-aus "Neue Vahr Sued" von Sven Regener.

And here's a translation:
The trees have gotten big, thought Frank, and the houses small. They had always lived here, he grew up here and just now he noticed it. Before the trees had been smaller and the houses bigger, he thought, and this idea made him sad. It's over, he thought, I'm like one of these trees, I'm somehow out of proportion, I shouldn't be here any more, he thought, I should've done it like Manni. (note: Manni left Bremen to be an artist in West Berlin, and later moved to New York in the books)
-from "Neue Vahr Sued" by Sven Regener.

I just read this (again) last night. Isn't it funny how things jump out at you in different ways when you read something again? This book is the prequel to "Herr Lehmann", also by Sven Regener. Herr Lehmann was made into a movie about 4 years ago, and it's my absolute favorite movie ever. It's a sort of coming of age story about Herr Lehmann. It's just the perfect movie, funny, a little bit sad, but hopeful. And this passage is now my absolute favorite passage from "Neue Vahr Sued".

Update

Here is just some assorted information for anyone who cares to read it:

School starts on Tuesday! I can't believe it. Last week was a whirlwind week of meetings and preparation days, and I'm still sorting through all of the information I received, updating and revising to do lists.

I got a house. At least rented a house. It's a really sweet deal, just a small place, only 8 years old, and, best of all, on the Tobacco River!!! It is about a 30 minute drive from work, but a gorgeous location. Its location is pretty funny: Just off Boos Road (sounds like "booze road") on the Tobacco River. I will post pictures soon.

My school system touts itself as "one of the best in the state, if not in the nation." I love saying that, but it also certainly comes with some hefty expectations for teachers.

I have very friendly colleagues. The schools where I work have big foreign language departments and really nice, social teachers, so it will be difficult to get lonely here.

I find myself smiling all the time. Everyone is so friendly! At the gas station last night I filled up the car, got a coffee, and the cashier didn't even charge me for the coffee! I didn't hide it or anything, I wanted to pay. People in the supermarket are nice and don't throw my purchases! The cashiers even bag my items! And you get free bags in the supermarket! (though they are bad for the environment...sorry environment...) People don't crowd me in lines! Americans have a much bigger area of personal space, and I feel very nice with this.

One person is convinced I came back to the United States because "it is the best country in the world". Well, I hate to say it, but no. I am very happy here, but it also has its not so positive sides. I really liked living in Germany, but it's also not perfect there. No place is the best country in the world, they are all just different. They all have good things and not so good things, and you just have to find a place that fits you. We'll see how it fits us here, and if it doesn't, we will probably make another change...

Some of our majestic Michigan wildlife








































The above Big Bucks were out behind the house one morning when I got up, and so I snapped a picture. They are a little bit confused, I think, because they not only come out at the usual deer times of morning and evening, but also all day long to graze the squash and apples back there.




































These mama and baby deer were out in front of the house this morning eating some apples. They were really close to the house, and seemed unphased as I stood in the window and took their picture. They just went about their breakfast.






















We see this turkey and his friends behind the house by the pumpkin patch periodically.


















These racoons were eating apples in the deer's place one morning. They're cute, but also pesky: they will eat the vegetables from your garden and are also carriers of rabies.

I guess I forgot how many wild animals we have around here, even though I grew up with them all around me. Each day I am surprised by all of these creatures. But my brother has also supported my observation that there are actually a lot more deer than usual this year. They are coming out all day long, not just in the morning or evening, and are coming very close to the house and the people, as you can see in the photo of the fawn, he's between the house and the mailbox. They are also not so scared of people: I went for a jog in the woods, and some deer just stood staring at me about 10 meters away, and I went for a bike ride one evening, and the deer just stood in the road staring at me. And when they decided to run away, they didn't go the opposite direction, but right in my direction, nearly knocking me off the bike. Please, hunters, please: hunt a lot this year, do some major population control, because I don't want any of these deer to run out in front of my car. I've never hit a deer, and I don't want to any time soon.

A trip to Canton



















Everybody gets a friendly welcome lick from Sammy!















My brother caught (and was bit by) this praying mantis!

Today we went down to Canton, MI, to celebrate my niece's 11th birthday. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had lots of delicious foods, including chicken and ribs from the barbie, potato salad, noodle salad (good times and noodle salad!), delicious chips and dips, vegetables and dip and of course, cake and ice cream! All in all, a super duper birthday party. I love all of the delicious foods in America, a prime example of which is our majestic selection of soft serve ice cream:











We didn't stop here today, but did last weekend!

On our return trip to Beaverton from Canton, we got caught in a pretty wild thunderstorm with tons of lightning. I tried taking my first lightning pictures, and got a little bit. It was a really pretty storm, because all around the big group of black clouds was a very intense orange sky. Very neat. See below.

















































































So there you can see the red sky all around the storm cell, as well as just a bit of the lightning right in the storm cell. The lightning was much more impressive in person, though!

Culture shock!

-the cars are big
-the streets are wide
-the people are big
-there is constantly music on in every store, and in the mall it's overstimulating because there's mall music and then each store has its own music
-there are tons of billboards along the highway
-there are so many wild animals everywhere
-there are no sidewalks
-where there are sidewalks, nobody's actually walking on them
-nobody uses a bike for transportation
-there are no buses, trams or trains
-it's so quiet
-it's so dark at night
-you can hear crickets, lots of them
-everybody's so nice
-there's no grafitti
-people look each other in the eye

The strangest thing is that things that used to seem so big seem so small now, and some things are just so different than I remember them. I remember there being action, and now it just seems so quiet. Everything goes so slowly now. It probably always did. The animal noises in the woods never used to make me nervous. I'm so used to not looking at people in the supermarket, and here everybody is saying "Hi!" to me. Huh. I'm vexed.

Tom Kitten

This is my new cat. Somehow he fits all of the interesting, unexpected things that have happened lately just perfectly. You see shortly after we'd given up the job search in America for this year, and shortly before I got the e-mail about the great job that I now (almost officially) have, he turned up on my parents' road, just a tiny kitten, half starved to death. Someone hadn't been able to kill him, so instead they chose to toss him out on a road with nearly no houses on it to certain death. My parents heard him meowing by the road, picked him up and rescued him, even though they had already decided that they would have no more pets. Tom could hardly move (he really was almost starved to death), but they nursed him back to life, giving him milk and food. And then, while I was in Michigan in June for my interview, he was attacked by a larger tomcat. This tomcat bit him in the back, leaving him nearly paralyzed. After that he had some difficulty walking, so my parents once again nursed him back to health, and he managed to gather strength and learn to walk properly again. Now Tom Kitten is an active, thriving little tomcat himself, very playful and friendly (and hard to get a good picture of because he's always jumping around). And if I get all necessary approval, he will be coming to live at my house as soon as I have one!

Bye, Germany

Bye, Dresden.

Bye, Frauenkirche.

The moment my plane took off from Dresden this morning I started to cry. I've been saying goodbye to Dresden and to friends and even to Wilhelm for days, if not the last weeks. Every time I did something, like riding over the Elbe on my bike (on Friday), walking down my street (yesterday), seeing the sunset, looking at the Frauenkirche from Wilder Mann (yesterday) it was goodbye Elbe, goodbye Förstereistr., goodbye Frauenkirche...but it wasn't real until the wheels of the plane left the ground this morning and I realized that my feet wouldn't be on Dresden soil again for a while, probably not until next year. And then tons of memories started flying through my head...about telling friends I was pregnant back in 2005, remembering how shocked some were (standing in the kitchen of one language school), how excited others were (having lunch at Petit Maroc), about how I met my husband (an infamous escape story from an infamous idiot, but I should probably thank that idiot for chasing me away to where I found my Ger-Man!), about arriving here on February 3, 2003, getting lost in a snow storm on my first day, eating a bagel, the excitement of moving into my first apartment on Conradstraße, the excitement of my first very own apartment on Alaunstraße, assembling my furniture in that apartment and how much fun it was, the bubblegum smell of the Putzi toothpaste factory that took me back to my childhood at my grandparents' house chewing Big League Chew bubble gum, the first time I saw Wilhelm in the hospital and how tiny he was and how scary it was (but also remembering when I woke up from whatever drugs they gave me how I first asked "how is my boyfriend?")

Bye, street.

I've never left a place quite like this. In so many ways, Dresden is where I grew up, so much has happened. Sure, it wasn't easy taking off from home five and a half years ago, not knowing what would come next, but in so many ways, Michigan can always be my home base. My family is there and it's no problem to go back. I guess realistically it's no problem to go back to Dresden, we know so many people there, and it's so much easier for us to just go, no Green Cards, nothing...It's just scary to leave so many friends and so many fun memories behind. Of course it wasn't and isn't all fun in Dresden, our future looks a lot brighter in the United States (but we'll see about that when we get there), but we will be pretty uprooted for a very long time I think. We have such a nice network of friends and so many connections to various people and organizations in Dresden, I am very positively surprised by how many good friends and excellent business connections I made in just these past years. It really hit me yesterday how many good friends we have, thinking about our going away party (actually parties), and then everybody who spontaneously stopped by or called because they remembered my departure date. All I can say is thank you to everyone for everything. And see you soon.

Bye, Elbe. Bye, friends. See you soon!

2005: met
2006: had a kid
2007: got married
2008: moving to Michigan
How will we top ourselves in 2009?

Disaster after disaster

I hate moving. It's absolutely the worst thing ever, and I never want to do it again. Packing and selling and writing lists and taking photos, and then your hard drive crashes and everything is gone. Everything as in 5.5 years of photos, hundreds of audio CDs, tons of documents...And this the day after we bought a second hard drive to back everything up, but hadn't done yet. Well, maybe it's not really gone, it's actually probably still there in that little box, you just can't access it. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The Party.

Disclaimer: This post is based on true events. The participants' names have been changed, and any resemblance to any real people, living or dead, is purely coincidence.

So yesterday evening we had our going away party because I will be the first of us 3 to leave next Sunday at 5:50 am. Lots of people came, and it was quite enjoyable to have a colorful mix of family, friends and colleagues and of young and old together playing, laughing and just having fun. The afternoon was rowdy with most of the family and friends with kids coming, and fortunately we have a big courtyard with playground where the kids could run around, color everything with sidewalk chalk, play ball and ride around on various cars, bikes and scooters. It was really fantastic to have the kids there having so much fun, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

After our colorful afternoon of fun, coffee and cookies (mmm, and thanks to everyone who brought delicious sweets, especially the giant Dr. Quendt sampler, as well as other generous and very nice presents for all of us!), we moved on to the grilling part of the party, during which the beer started to flow and the meat was grilled! Our favorite neighbor stuck his head out of the window from high above the yard, and we expected him to complain about the noise and the grill, but amazingly enough he didn't. It's either because he's learned that whatever he says makes no impression on us whatsoever, or that he's heard that we will be leaving soon and going far away. Meat and cheese was grilled; olives, cheese, salad and other delicious antipasti were served; and once again, more beer flowed. Darkness fell, people with tired kids started to go home, then the rowdies showed up. They trickled in slowly, and though they are impossible to control, I was glad to see them, as they are always good for a laugh. These guys (and girls) are not dangerous (at least not to spectators, but I wouldn't want to get involved in their reindeer games), they are just the usual suspects and very likeable people. One woman performed debaucherous acts with three men at the party, on the balcony and in our bathroom. Another woman told woman one how she would like to begin some kind of relationship with the man woman one is also in some way involved with. Someone knicked the shit out of my chairs by using the chair seat to open beer bottles, red wine was spilled all over one table and seeped into the top, giving it fancy red streaks. I went to sleep at 2 am because all of this confusion was exhausting me, but my sources tell me that these uncontrolled acts of indulgence did not stop at our house, but continued at the bar until the sun came up. I can proudly say that my husband, my son and myself all behaved ourselves and managed to have a productive day today despite the late night. I'm not so sure about some of our other guests, though.

Party scorecard: A++ for entertainment value, A for effort, but an F for proper behavior. We just wanted to get all of our friends and family here together to say goodbye, not have a swinger party. Gosh guys, you can do that without us, I mean, we must be some kind of prudes to move to America...

Neonazis, I've had just about enough of you...

First you stole my bike back in 2005, and now you've stolen my name. See below:

"SKR" - "Skinheadkontrollrunden" nennen die Rechtsextremen ihre nächtlichen Touren in Sturmhauben und Springerstiefeln: Mit Taschenlampen und Schlagringen machen sie sich auf die Suche nach Opfern, wer ihnen in die Quere kommt, wird zusammengeschlagen. Die Männer überfallen Dönerbuden, attackieren das Büro der Linkspartei, fallen in annähernd militärischer "Marschformation" über Volksfeste her. Regelmäßig bleiben Verletzte mit Platzwunden, Schnitten und Prellungen zurück.

This is from Spiegel Online, one of my favorite news sources, and it tells me that you Neonazis are defaming me by naming your little "Skinhead control rounds" SKR. What you do in your "rounds" includes going around beating up Turkish guys who just want to serve some delicious snacks, some left-oriented political activists, foreigners (so why did you have to go and use my initials, rocket scientists?) and pretty much anybody else you don't like.

Neonazis, I don't like you and you probably don't like me. Though I've had some very shady situations in my time in Dresden, such as being hit on by one of your NPD party members (he invited me to an intercultural exhibition about Japan !?), being nearly employed as a simultaneous translator by a disabled former NPD party member to call a refugee camp in Africa to talk to his girlfriend (my friend who did take this job had the guts to ask the former NPD member if this didn't in some way conflict with his views, and he made it clear that he no longer beloned to "the party"), oh, yeah, and not to mention that you stole my bike three years ago.

Okay, okay, maybe I'm generalizing too much by mixing up the Sturm 34 group and the NPD--the NPD would certainly feel insulted if I am balling them together with Sturm 34. "No, no!" they would say, "we are just nationalists." Well, I don't care. For me you are all one and the same, and strangely enough, where the NPD is strong also seems to be pretty close to where Sturm 34 is carrying out their stupid "rounds".

I don't care about your slight shades of gray between the NPD and Sturm 34. You are offensive, disgusting bullies. I wish I could tell you to just go away, get out of this beautiful country that you are giving a bad name. I would love to do everything I could to simply have you deported to the moon or somewhere else where you only have each other to beat up, but I'll be going away first.

Hey!

Visit my sister site "Leaving the German Sector" if you want to buy some sweet stuff!!! It's cheap! And it's got to go!