Family Blog

Manuel has his first solo part as tenor. He had been asked if he can sing on a wedding and this event was yesterday. Today he have to sing again with the Hymnus Choir.

Today there is the election of the Bundesttag. Philip and Manual have an invitation for the Election Results Party at the Landtag. I hope they will come not too late at home.

This week school has started again. For Manuel and Philip it will be the last year at school before they can start with a study. Then they have to choose what they want to study. Philip wants to study aerospace but Manuel does not know yet what to study.

In ten days there are the elections to the Bundestag here in Germany. For Manuel and Philip it is the first time they can participate. You have the choice between 27 parties but only 5 parties are member of the Bundestag at the moment. You have two votes - one to elect your local representative to the Bundestag and one to vote for a party list.

From Sunday on we spend a week in Berlin. On the first day we want to follow a guided tour but missed the German speaker. So we follow the international tour who was held by an American from Maine. Most of the explanations I understood and for the rest I asked Manuel and Philip.

20 years after the reunion of Germany and Berlin you see no longer the division between East and West. A short part the the Berlin Wall can be seen near Checkpoint Charly. When I was young I moved a few times from West Berlin to East Berlin because I have two aunts in both parts of Berlin. I remember that passing the border to the East side was terrible - you feel like a criminal when you see the many men in uniform, must show your passport and answer a lot of questions.

Nowadays you don't see any differences between East and West. And Berlin is an international city. When you go by the S-Bahn you can hear a lot of languages. And you have a lot of museums in there. Yesterday we were in the Jewish Museum where I was shocked about the personal stories of people during the Holocaust.

I was for two days on a board conference of the Java User Group Stuttgart. Yesterday I had to chance to fly for the first time in my life with a helicopter. It was a small helicopter, a Robinson R44, where you can feel the weather and each blast. It was a strange feeling when we lift up because it was a rainy and a little bit turbulent. The airport was near Mosbach and it was great to see the area from above. After 15 minutes the pilot flies back to the airport because the weather was too bad.

Manuel and Philip has gone with their class to Berlin. Cordula has to work today so I have now some time to continue this blog.

As you can read on Philip's blog we were for one week in Italy (Lake Garda) on vacation one month ago. Manuel was with the Hymnus Choir in Eastern Germany on concert tour at that time.

Two weeks ago Sylwia visited us. She is a Polish exchange student who had visited us end of March for two weeks. If you a facebook account you can see the pictures on her album.

Last week Cordula and I was on a concert of Foreigner. It was great - they were life better than from CD.

In two weeks the school year ends here in Baden Württemberg. Manuel and Philip (and also Carmen) has looked for a job during the vacation but didn't found some. Perhaps Philip will get a job which has something to do with roboter. It is hard to find a job these days.

Yesterday Kathrin and Jennifer leaved us. They wanted to go first to visit Strasbourg before they go back to Montpellier. The day before yesterday we visited the Old Castle of Stuttgart before Kathrin and Jennifer wanted to go shopping and to look for Birkenstock sandals. But before we visited the city hall of Stuttgart. I had never been there before but there is an old paternoster inside. It was a strange feeling when I stay with Jennifer in the lift to see what's happen at the end of the lift. But it was harmless - there's only a side move and you go on the other side down. The same procedure at the bottom end of the lift. But we had a lot of fun with this type of lift as you can see on the picture.

At the evening Manuel went with them to the carnival on the Constatter Wasen where they go to a beer tent to listen "German Blasmusik". I was not there (I visit my parent, see below) but I guess they see also women in dirndl dress and men in lederhosen. And probably people dancing on the benches.

One of the brake of our car seems to be broken so I visit my parents in Altbach to lent my mother's car.

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).

I had a real busy week now. On Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Frankfurt to pick up first Philip and then Manuel. On Wednesday we had invited our relationship for a little barbeque evening to welcome Manuel and Philip.

On Thursday I was on a conference of the Java User Group Stuttgart where over 1,000 people came. First I had a talk and in the afternoon I had to moderate three talks among other a talk of Erich Gamma, one of the Top Ten of the software gurus.

On Friday Carmen and my wife have organized a welcome party with Manuel's and Philip's friends. In the afternoon another exchange student, Dario, came to help to prepare the party. When he talked to our boys the whole conversation was in Englisch - I felt like a stranger on my own site. Cordula had dress rehearsal of the opera "Carmen" and I went back to my work when the party began. It was late in the night when the party was over.

On Saturday there was the performance of the opera "Carmen" from Georges Bizet in the townhall of Gerlingen. It was a part of the celebration because of grant privileges of a town 50 years ago. The whole family went to this opera - Cordula as a part of the school choir and the rest as audiences. After the concert there was a firework on the place before the city hall.

Today on Sunday I find at last some time to take a look to all the things what our boys brought back from the U.S. Our house is much fuller now and it looks like a moving. Philip and Manuel filled out the form for school with their subjects for the next 2 years while Cordula has a performance again with the choir at the city hall.