Family Blog

On Good Friday Slywia from Poland left us. For a short time we will be again a "normal" family.

Yesterday grandpa arrived to celebrate Eastern and Carmen's birthday with us. He will leave us on Monday before the next guest will come: an American student who spends one schoolyear here in Germany (in East Germany). He will leave us on Thursday before Kathrin will visit us with her niece.

Happy Eastern

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.

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

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...

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.

...Manuel and Philip left Germany. Five weeks ago they came back to Germany. Since two weeks they work at the company where I work. Today there was a brown bag lunch at the company where Manuel and Philip talked about the differences between the U.S. and Germany and their experiences in America (slides: germnay-vs-us (pdf, 3,882 KB) ). We were nine people in the meeting room and it was fun to listen Manuel and Philip.

Last year in October Manuel visted Mr. Obama (look at his blog or on the picture left) – now he visited us. Oh, not really us, but our country. Yesterday Mr. Obama was in Berlin, today he will visit perhaps Rammstein. But Manuel and Philip are on an AFS camp for the "retournees" so they can't visit him.

A lot has changed since last year - both on the political area and on the family area. Since yesterday the vacations have started also here in Baden Württemberg. Next week Manuel and Philip will go working for two weeks at agentes (it's the company where I work). They need the money for the drivers licence which is expensive here in Germany.

Last Friday I had an operation at my nose but since yesterday I'm back home. I still feel a little weak but here it is not so boring as in the hospital - there is much more life here and I can go online or do anything else.

When the family visited me on Sunday all three children (and my wife!) began to laugh when they saw me. I look like a pig with my swelled nose! What cheek!

Today I had time to check the news and my emails. Jeff has started a new blog on jeff-closson.blogspot.com. Manuel and Philip have started with their driver's lesson. If you want to check your knowledge you can try it with this test sheet (in German) — I failed (12 error points).