Family Blog

One Week is over since Carmen left us. As you can read in her blog she had an adventurous journey (flight cancelled, snow chaos on the airport in Paris, trouble to find the host mum) but now she is safe in Rennes.

Her first school day was a special school day - she was nearly the first student on the school building. The other students struck because of some of Sarkozy's reform plans. But now the life in France gets normal...

Today Carmen started her journey to Rennes, France, where she will live and go to school for three months. But it was a start with some obstacles. The flight to Paris was cancelled what we saw in the Internet yesterday. But when we tried to phone to AirFrance it was too late - I was only connected to a speech computer.

Early in the morning at 5:00 AM we started our trip together with Carmen's girl-friend to the airport Stuttgart. Yesterday it has snowed the whole day, so it was a little slippery on the streets but there was not much traffic. At the AirFrance desk we found out that Carmen has to take the next flight, 3 hours later.

So we spent the next 3 hours with Carmen at the airport. Then the time came to say goodbye. This time it was not so hard for me as one and a half year before when Manuel and Philip left Europe. It is only for 3 month and it is not so far away - about 950 km westwards. But for Carmen it was hard - she flew alone to Paris where she got picked up by the organization (Travelworks). From Paris to Rennes she went by train. And tomorrow school starts for here in french.

Yesterday Manuel received a package from Wisconsin. He was very excited and happy about it and unwraped it immediately after the postman has closed the door. The package contained many reminders to his year in America.

This evening Manuel and Philip will go to a Silvester (New Year's Eve) party of AFS in Ludwigsburg. Cordula has to work today in the hospital till 9:00 PM and we will celebrate New Year's Eve twosome at home.

Carmen will go to France for three months. Now the last preparations for the journey have started. Today Philip shows her how to start a blog - and voilà, here it is: Carmen's Blog.

This evening Carmen will try to phone with France. She is very excited.

On Monday Cordula bought with Manuel a christmas tree. Yesterday Carmen got news about her new familiy in Rennes / France - she will leave us in January for three months to live in France and visit a French school.

Now our Christmas tree is decorated and Christmas Eve can come. At 3:30 PM we will go to the Stiftskirche in Stuttgart, where Manuel and Philip will sing with the Hymnus Choir.

After the church service we will celebrate Christmas Eve with all our children and will unpack our presents under the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas to all readers of this blog

It is not so easy to get our car into our gateway. And this week our car had a rendezvous with the post on the right side. I think we will wait some years before we will buy a new car...

They did it - as you can read on Manuel's and Philip's blog they passed the practical driving test. Now they ask every day if they can drive Carmen to the tennis training or help us to go shopping in the supermarket. Or something else where they need our car.

Yesterday , Manuel and Philip passed their theoretical exam for the driver license. The next step will the practical exam but therefore they still need some more lessons.

Last week first I went with Philip and later with Manuel to the public training area with our car. But the days are getting shorter, so half of the time they trained in the dawn.

At the beginning of last week Manuel was at the dentis and got out all his four wisdom teeth. He looked like a blowfish when he came home and could eat only soup at the beginning. But now he looks normal again.

This week our school had an exchange of students with a school in Budapest, Hungary. Two weeks before our daughter was in Budapest and this week her exchange student visited us. This means for my wife and me to stand up early in the morning to be the first in the bathroom. And in the evening it means to wait on him and our daughter.

Yesterday the bus with the Hungarian students left Gerlingen at 7:00 AM. Today the summertime ended which means one hour more to sleep for us. We needed it.

Manuel has discovered origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. I don't know where he got the instructions (somewhere from the internet) but now we have a lot of cubes, cars, birds and even dragons - all started by a simple (square) piece of paper.
In the meantime our printer paper runs short...

The Cannstatter Wasen is after the Oktoberfest in Munich the 2nd largest beer festival in the world and has started yesterday.

Today Carmen and Philip were in the Porsche Arena to watch the beginning of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. They sat both in the first line and saw life Serena Williams and other stars of the Top 10.

Manual has invited an American familiy he got to know from Wisconsin. They moved near Stuttgart some weeks ago and today they visited us. Manuel was very excited and we as parents too.

Fortunately the weather was fine today (about 15°C) so that we decided to barbeque in our garden. Shortly before 1:00 PM Brian and Kristin and their two children Madleine and Max arrived. It was a nice afternoon. Especially Manuel was happy that he could talk English (he missed it after his return from the U.S.).

After lunch we took a short walk thru Gerlingen where Manuel and Philip had the opportunity to show their school (the building with the orange wall).

I was this weekend on a Java conference in Berlin to give a talk while Philip was on an AFS meeting in Heilbronn (read his blog).

Last Saturday Manuel and Philip had their first practical driving lesson. In the afternoon I went with them with our car to the next public training area. First Manuel started driving. We have no automatic gear so it was not so easy for him to start the car. Several times we hoped more than we cruised but Philip had the same problem. We were not the only beginners on the training area and as I remember I had also problems at my first driving lessen to start the car.

A special challenge was the first turn ,because I ait on the front seat and did not know if Manuel or Philip would get the curve correct. You know you can't do anything. I'm happy that I'm not a driving instructor - I would loose my nerves.

On Thursday Manuel and Philip will have their next practical driving lesson .

On Friday when we packed our bags for a bike tour thru the Jagst valley we realized that Manuel's bag he got from his host parents for his additional baggage fits exactly in our bicycle trailer. Unfortunately the trailer hitch fits only at my bike so I had to pull for the next three days 25 kg additional weight.

On Saturday first we went by streetcar from Gerlingen to Stuttgart and then by train to Aalen. It was a little bit stressful for me to get both, bicycle and trailer, into the wagon and elevators (at the railway station) but with the help of Manuel and Philip we managed it.

In Aalen we had some difficulties to find the right direction but at last we found the bicycle path to the Jagst. Our first break was at a reservoir (Bucher Stausee).

We had planned to stay overnight at Crailsheim but we decided to go on to Kirchberg where we found a little inn at Lendsiedel. Most of the time Philip and Manuel cycled several 100 meters in front of my wife and me. I also changed the bike with Philip but nevertheless he cycled in front of me. This day we travelled about 75 km (47 miles).

It although went up and down on Sunday and we cycled about 90 km (56 miles), before we reached Möckmühl. On Monday we visited Bad Wimpfen, an old town above the Neckar. We climbed on the "Blue Tower" where you have a great view over the Neckar valley. Next station was Heilbronn where we entered the train back to Stuttgart.