Advent in Allgaü

I've got just over a week left in the mountains, but in the meantime some of you may have noticed that it's advent.
Now as most of the British Christmas traditions are imported from Deutschland, the Christmas trimmings are similar, just moreso. All houses have their own set of advent candles and the first one was lit to signal the start of advent, which is a thing here, even warranting presents for the kids. Dec 1st was also the day when Christmas decorations all appeared at once. Christmas decorations are generally more tasteful here, although I have spotted at least one house completely decked out in Christmas lights, including Santa and his reindeers.
Sadly, there is little to indicate the real meaning of advent. Even at church there has been no mention of advent beyond the advent candle. I've not even heard any Christmas songs except a german version of jingle bells. Have a midblog bonus video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSsMq6UXXwo

So far not different from England, but then enter St Nikolaus Day...

The 6th of December is St Nikolaus Day and in most of Germany this means St Nick comes and brings the children presents (wahey another excuse for presents!) The present from St Nick that came to Kindergarten was an apple. M carefully carried it home, but then accidentally dropped it down the stairs and proceeded to give the apple a telling off, so cute!
Anyway, in Oberallgaü, this strange bit of Bayern that I currently reside in, takes St Nikolaus Day a little bit further with the Bärbele and Rumpelklausen. Every town/village is slightly different, but here in Altstädten the 4th is Bärbele Tag and the 5th and 6th is for the Rumpelklausen.
The Bärbele are 16+ females who dress up as 'witches' and carry a stick. from ~6pm they gather outside and whack the men below the knees who come across their path. I was initially warned that they were more dangerous than the Rumpelklausen as nothing impeded their running ability, but have since been told that they generally only hit men so I'd have been safe.
Then there's the Rumpelklausen, these are the men who dress up as cows complete with horns and a cowbell, also brandishing sticks. The reasoning behind this strange tradition is to drive out the spirits that arrive with the coming of winter. Or rather it's an evening when the youth of the area are legitimately allowed to be hooligans. It literally has been the only time I've seen groups of youths patrolling the streets after dark!

Bonus Procrastination Bits:

I know papercuts hurt, but when L (7yo) got one he screamed for a good 10 minutes, which was a little excessive. However to add to the trauma, his pain response is to push everyone away, literally in the case of his little brother. So then I had 2 screaming children on either side of me. Luckily L saw the funny side of this and burst into laughter. 2 plasters and a couple of minutes later, peace was restored, until M fell off the sofa....

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One of the girls who I've been helping find a penpal has to do a presentation on England at the end of term. She decided that interviewing me would be a good idea, so we had a fun afternoon putting together a 'interview' film. M and L agree to sit quietly and watch while we film it. 
Take 1: I bring out the inflatable globe to point out where Enland is, M comes running in and grabs it shouting 'It's mine! You're not allowed it!'
Take 2: We manage about half the interview before M starts nattering away in the background
At this point, M and L are persuaded to go and play upstairs, and it only took about 7 more takes until it was finished!

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And if you want a good chuckle, here's your bonus video for getting to the end: http://www.godvine.com/What-a-Choir-of-Silent-Monks-Does-Will-Make-You-Laugh-2484.html

Band and more

Whilst I've been in rural germany, I've been playing with the village wind band. Every village has one, and I've even seen them mentioned in guide books! So, unlike in Guildford where you only really know about the various band/orchestras if you're in the music scene, all I need to say is that I'm playing in the Altstaedten Blaskapelle and everyone knows what I mean (they also normally know someone who also plays in it, or did in the past)

We meet in the fire station (obviously!) squished into a room solely for the band's use. On the walls are loads of certificate and photos from the band's history, which goes back a looong way. In all their concerts they wear traditional bavarian dress (lederhosen for men, dirndl for women) and as I'm allowed to play in the Christmas concert I was starting to wonder where I was going to find a Dirndl. Thankfully I've been told that I can wear the black bottom/white top combo instead. That'll make me stick out like a sore thumb, but everyone knows that I'm the foreigner already so it doesn't really matter!

In the band itself one of the most striking aspects is the wide array of brass instruments. There's the standard trumpet/trombone/french horn/tuba but then there are also loads more inbetween. I sit infront of the Flugelhorn which is a sort of large trumpet with french horn style buttons. The woodwind section is far more restrained consisting of flute/piccolo/clarinet/sax.
Another striking feature is the gender stereotyping being almost perfectly fulfilled. Aside from one female horn player and one male clarinet player, the woodwind section is female and the brass/percussion sections are male.

Another feature of this village institution is the accents. It is by playing in band that I'm learning the Bayerisch way of saying numbers, and I can listen to an entire conversation and not understand a word! I'm getting better and understanding what all the notes are called too. (eg dur = major, b = b flat, as = a flat) Even so, I'm still sometimes left confused during the warm up when they play a well-known nursery rhyme, unfortunately german nursery rhymes differ from english ones!

But all that said and done, music is music and the pieces we play would not sound out of place in SWSCB. We're playing a nice mix, film music, marches, classical and a sandpaper ballet (ok, that last one's a bit wierd) Most of the pieces have english names so I get to advise on how they're pronounced; there was some controversy over the pronunciation of 'Irish Castle'

That's enough about my band, but I have another nugget of interesting linguistics. It is common here for people to say mir (myself) instead of wir (we). I initially thought that M was getting his words mixed up, but then I noticed alot more people doing it too. It's like a reversal of the queen's we!

And now Bonus time:

L was learning a german version of jingle bells by repeatly singing the verses over and over again. At one point he forgot the words, when M chimed in with the correct words to fill the gap. I swear a 3yo is not supposed to have a better memory than a 7yo!

And finally here is a link to a film shown every year on Sylvester (New Year's Eve) in Germany. I have been shown it twice; it is bizarre being educated on English comedy in Germany, but then I suppose I was made to watch Monty Python for the first time in America! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVCA1rp-gfg

A linguistic special

Last Saturday I had dinner with a Russian from Belgium, a French person from Switzerland, a Romanian from Germany and a couple of Germans. And to top it all off, we'd all met in America! But now I am back in my very german village, where even someone from Stuttgart is deemed foreign!

Here in South Germany life goes on. L is nearly better, so he's back at school, but is supposed to take things a little slowly (whatever!) The mum took a week off work last week to make plaetzchen (little biscuits) and other Christmasy related crafty things. That made my life easy, but now I'm back to looking after extremely hyper child. Luckily he's really into the rubiks cube (he can now do it auswendig!) which keeps him amused for ages. We're at the stage where me doing a 4x4 vs L doing the 3x3 is an evenly balanced race.

The world outside, which is currently out of bounds wegen L, is a winter wonderland. It has already snowed a fair bit (making walk to Kindergarten very tedious) and tomorrow it is supposed to snow alot! Amusingly, even here, a bit of snow messes up the train. I can hear the train announcements from my room (it is an unmanned station, so delays are broadcast over loudspeaker) and I've been woken up the last few days with an announcement regarding the next train's Verspaetung.

I've been here for long enough, that sometimes I have to think twice to remember certain english word (for example when singing a song in English at church, I noticed I was replacing alone with allein...) So in this blogpost I thought I'd share what I've picked up of the Allgau accent/dialect.

• The most obvious (to me) has been the numbers. I play in the local concert band where the conductor has a rather strong local accent. So when he says the number of the bar (takt) we're playing from, to begin with I could hardly understand it, but I'm getting better. For example 41 = ein-und-vierzig turns into uzaviersk.
• Secondly the ending -en, so prevalent in the german language is turned into '-a'. As all infinitives end with -en, this affects alot of phrases so now I've noticed it, I can understand alot more!
• Another common ending -chen is replaced with 'ele'. For example bisschen -> bissele. -chen denotes small (like -ette in English but more widely used) and I think 'ele' sounds far cuter.
• One of my favourite new words, which may or may not be regional, is Bock. It is used in the context 'Ich hab kein Bock mehr' i.e. 'I can't be bothered with this anymore'  As far as I can gather Lust and Bock can be used interchangeably, but the latter sounds a lot cooler.
• And finally, something that is definitely regional and would be met with blank looks if used elsewhere is the way of saying hello/goodbye. Hello is Griass di and goodbye is Pfiat di, I would be fascinated to hear the origins of these phrases if anyone knows. I've also heard Servus being used, but I think that is more universal, a bit like the german version of Salut.

And so ends my very random blog post, Pfiat di and good night!

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Bonus funny children moments for those looking for further procrastination material;

- M and L were playing energetically when M suddenly cried out in pain and started hopping around. L proceeded to get told off by mum and furiously protested his innocence. After a couple of minutes M admitted to standing on lego man.

- One morning I came out of my room, M was on the landing. He came to give me a hug then changed his mind, scowled and said 'Du bist die gemeinste Rebecca der Welt!' charming! (Translation: You're the meanest Rebecca in the world, a common insult)

- The same morning M was hiding in the corner, avoiding getting changed The dad was getting impatient so tried the counting down technique. '3...' then a small voice from the corner quickly followed '2 1'... That's not how it's supposed to work!

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And if you've got this far, here's your bonus song:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m70dx

Enjoy!

Bugs, Birthdays and Besuch

It's about time that I updated you on my life, especially as a fair amount has happened recently.

Firstly, you know how I mentioned illness briefly at the end of my last post? Well it turns out L doesn't have your bog standard bug, rather he somehow caught Lungenentzungung which, for those uninitiated, is pneumonia (yes I did use a dictionary too). 3 weeks later he's still not better, although you could hardly tell from looking at him. "Ich will raus!" is a common refrain nowadays, but tomorrow he gets his wish, he's allowed to go to school! That has meant he has been at home all the time, but on the positive side, he has got very good at french knitting, dot-to-dot and the rubik's cube. Thankfully M caught only the normal bug, so he only missed 2 days of Kindergarten.

One of these days missed was MY BIRTHDAY! Birthdays are very big things here, so it didn't matter that both kids were ill, the entire family still came round for Kaffee and Kuchen. I was woken at 7 by the kids so that they could give me my present, cake and sing happy birthday before their insanely early doctor's appointment. M and L's present to me was a 4x4 rubiks cube, as I'd got a bit too good at the 3x3 (Many a day was spent with L mixing up the cube, and then giving it to me to solve, now that I have the 4x4 he has actually taken it upon himself to learn how to do the 3x3 himself!) I spent the peace and quiet time playing with that before heading to my friend's house for breakfast. Turns' out birthdays are a big thing here, so she had invited some of the other ladies from church to come too, which was a lovely surprise. I left 'breakfast' at about midday and returned home where the mum was in her element; baking, cooking, and assembling matching decorations for the table (she even had to nip out for red napkins, because the yellow ones didn't go!) M spent the entire afternoon asking when the guests were coming, which wasn't helped when they were delayed by traffic on the lone road to Sonthofen. Eventually all the guests arrived, much cake was eaten, coffee getrunken (I put that in german because I can't remember if it's drunk or drunken), and presents given, which mostly incorporated alot of chocolate! The mum had made this creamy cake which consisted of thin layers of cake, and fat layers of cream made out of the marshmallowy bit from marshmallow teacake, and bits of orange. It had a special name, which I promptly forgot, but it was lecker.

The decorated table, completed with matching napkins

A close up of the cream cake (photos courtesy of L)

The day after I left sick children, mountains and snow behind to visit Helen in Halle/Leipzig. It's about a 7hr journey so I broke it up with a couple of hours in Nuremberg, which is very pretty, and has loads of cool bridges! Unfortunately the marketplace was a bit of a buildingsite in preparation for the world famous Christmas market, that I was about 2 weeks early for.

One of the exciting bridges in Nuremberg

 Leipzig is in what was East Germany, which I knew but hadn't really thought about it. I'd not really thought about the east/west division, I knew it existed but assumed it was like the north/south division in England, so I was surprised when I had this converstion (translated and paraphrased for your convenience)

Person A: How was your trip to Leipzig?

Me: Yeah, good, have you been?

A: Hahahahahaha, No.

M: Oh, um, well I suppose it is a long way away..

A: Hahahaha that's not the reason

Person B: Oh, how come then?

A: Well it's in the east

B: Um, I'm from the east

A: Oh my God!

*Awkward pause, conversation quickly terminated*

Despite the misconceptions that it is a terrible place because it is in the east, Leipzig (and Halle for that matter) are very interesting places to visit, and I certainly didn't feel that it's only redeeming feature was that Helen was there! There's the obvious recent history, and we did visit the Stasi museum and saw the Nikolai kirche where the monday demonstrations originated (although ironically, despite still having the 'Offen fuer Alle' sign, the church was closed when we passed). But then Leipzig and Halle are older than that and have played host to many famous musicians (Handel, Bach, Mendlesohn (sp) to name a few). We visited Handel's childhood home and the bells in Halle play the same tune as Big Ben because it's one of Handel's pieces (London being Handel's adult home).

A famous composer, a statue of Handel in Halle's marketplace (complete with preparations for the Christmas market)

So as well as the recent history and older history, the towns also have very pretty and interesting buildings. In Leipzig we climbed the tower of the M?????kirche which has a flat right at the very top where the warden lived whose job was to ring the bells and watch out for fires in the city. From the top we got to go out onto the balcony and got a view of Leipzig at night (we were also lit up very brightly, so most of Leipzig's residents also got a view of us!)

Leipzig cityscape at night. That massive tower is the new town hall.

Nevertheless, it has only been just  over 20 years since 'die Wende' and there are still scars from this, particularly in Halle which suffered from mass emigration immediately after the collapse of its industries. There can be one perfectly decent building next to a completely derelict shell, and in some places just gaps where buildings once stood. However industry is recovering, and I went to visit the most important one, the chocolate factory! The Halloren chocolate factory has been going strong since its inception, aside from the slight blip when it was used to produce ammuntions, and was aubsequently bombed. After the war the soviets recognised the amazingness of chocolate and the factory was only out of action for about a year. Of course I visited the chocolate museum too, and sampled some Halloren kugel (very sweet but tasty).

The chocolate museum was complete with a chocolate living room, including piano made entirely out of cholocate! (The books on the bookshelf are also chocolate.

So completes an abridged version of my life to date, and if you've read so far here is your complementary song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG_N0X5WsSo It was on the radio earlier, and I just love the key change!

Biscuits, Bergs and Burgs

Last term was half term, and for this post I will resort to the standard chronological method of writing (but will endeavour to include photos to make it interesting) M still had Kindergarten, but I had to look after L all day.

Monday was a beautiful sunny day. All 3 of us cycled to Kindergarten together, and we met another parent with stroppy child in tow saying 'see L had to get to get up early to come to Kindergarten too' I'm glad L still enjoys his brief visits to K'garten! Mid morning, L and I cycled to the playground in the neighbouring town. By the time we arrived it was 11am, but to my surprise there were no other kids there, clearly playgrounds are an afternoon activity! This meant I had to play with L, which almost ended in disaster on the giant tyre swing. This installation is clearly designed to appease the town's teenagers as even I find it tricky to get on. It is a giant pole on which a contraption of 4 tyres at the end of poles is balanced. L had persuaded me to get on one of the tyres and despite me holding my feet clear of the middle pole, the tyre somehow managed to swing round such that my foot got squished between the tyre and the middle pole, ouch! Nothing broken, but it left me with a wounded foot and pride. Back in Altstaedten, M abgeholt and lunch gegessen we embarked on our 2nd playground trip, this time on scooters (or in my case foot) and to the local one. Whoever invented the concept of playgrounds is a genius!

Tuesday it rained, ideal weather for learning the Rubik's cube. L stuck with it and several hours later had one completed Rubik's cube. It was carefully hidden out of reach of M, but managed to get muddled when L was showing it off to his uncle, so naturally we had to start all over again! Much quicker 2nd time round. No normal 7yo is going to be occupied by a rubik's cube for an entire day, so we did also bake and decorate biscuits. Through these encountered an interesting culture clash, as apparently such treats here are normally solely for Christmas.

Mmmmm - Plaetzchen

 The exciting activity for Wednesday was a trip to the bank! Today was world saving day (apparently) so the kids took their piggy bank to the real bank and the collected monies was put into their bank account. To make it more child-friendly, they got to pick a free toy. M chose playdough (standard) and L chose the very boring looking bike light. L was so excited about his new toy and thought it would have costed 'at least 60-70 Euros, because LEDs are expensive you know!' With bubble wrap fully popped, and light returned to box for safety, a happy afternoon was spent playing with the playdough.

The exciting activity for Thursday was going to be swimming, but unfortunately L came down with a fever. So instead the exciting activity for the day was a preemptive trip to the doctors with Oma (I picked up M instead). A preemptive trip was required because...

Friday was Feiertag! (Bank holiday - ergo doctors shut) After weekend breakfast, I was picked up by a lovely couple from church punctually at 9 for a drive through the mountains to the weekend away. Unfortunately car rides have the ability to still send me promptly to sleep, so I missed most of it, but each time I opened my eyes the scenery was beautiful. We were staying in the youth hostel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen which is at the foot of the tallest mountain in Germany (Zugspitze-2962m) It's a bit of an expedition to climb such a mountain so I didn't, but instead we had the standard afternoon 2-hr walk. The weekend away was good and, despite being only 20 (mostly middle-aged) people, was remarkably similar to 'The Great Escapes' and 'Houseparty'. The timetable revolved around various food-breaks, and included lots of talks and the afternoon free-time during which practically everyone (bar those on crutches) went on a Wanderung. I understood something from the talks, but have to admit I skipped the extra discussion time as my brain has a finite capacity to understand theological discussions auf deutsch! It was also nice to have a bit of peace and quiet.

Wenderfels, a ruined castle overlooking Garmisch-Partenkirchen

I returned to an empty house, the family not returning for a couple of hours. When they returned (they had bought a new cupboard) L proudly told me he had gekotzt, in such a happy tone that it took me a while to twig that he was telling me he had thrown up! Unfortunately the illness from Thursday was not yet cured and has so far spent this Monday and Tuesday at home. Most of the time you couldn't tell he was ill, but today he ate a yogurt and promptly threw up, so he's not faking! He also missed ice-skating today (that's a school sport for 7yos, jealous!) so wasn't too happy. Hopefully tomorrow he will awake ohne temperature and peaceful mornings shall be mine once again. However M was today complaining of Bauchweh so I'm not going to count on that....

And your prize for reaching the end http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv9mQIBDx3I Bit different from a song this time, but pretty epic

A walk in the mountains

This post will be a little different, this is a story of a weekend walk, told through all the photos that I took.

Saturday 13:45 My challenge for today:

 A mountain named Grunten, at 1738m high it is called the gateway to the Alps. Not visible on this photo is the red/white striped monstrosity just shy of the top, that is my goal. The signpost tells me it takes 2.5hrs, I have that amount of time to get up and down, so here goes!

And we're off! The path quickly turns wild, I suspect I may have made a false turn.

 Why hello again Barbed Wire! My suspicions were quickly confirmed, the path was relocated about 10m to the left. (Also I turned my camera halfway through this picture, and quite liked the effect, especially as the barbed wire stayed in focus)

I was initially unsure as to my exact position on the mountain. I was aiming for a path that led very steeply uphill (and then come down a less-steep route) This Winterweg climbed extremely steeply, it's exactly the kind of path I wouldn't want to take in winter! En route I met several crazy people, some of whom thought running down a near-vertical path was a good idea, and even crazier people who thought cycling down was the best plan of action :-O!

 About an hour into the epic climb, I find this awesome view. At this point I contemplating turning round, having found a view, but decide to continue to at least the hut (located about 150m (height) shy of the TV station)

A paraglider appeared! They are common around these parts, but I still think they're photo worthy, even when time is tight.

Exiting the trees, a welcome sight greets me. It's not too far away after all! I'd not even reached the hut yet. The original plan of reaching the red thing was starting to gain traction again.

I reached the hut, but it was so busy that I would have felt like a loner if I'd sat down alone, so I decided to go with my original plan and peg it to the top. Before I continued though, a photo of (what I presume is) the beer lift that goes from this hut to the TV station. Genius bit of engineering

 Nearly there now, look at the fabulous view! 1.5/2.5hrs down, I should be turning round now, but what wonderful scenery. At this point I was above the tree line of Grunten, and was I warm! They have some balmy autumn weather here, I'm sure it was warmer on this day than any of the days we were doing the coast to coast.

TADA!! The TV Station, looking very similar to how it looks from afar. I have succeeded in reaching the point at which I can make a round trip, and take the alternative path down. 

 A better photo of the TV Station, as the last one made it look like I was a below it. Here I found the end of the beer lift.

 Views across to Tirol, so Beautiful! The camera does not adequately capture it.

 Here's another photo that does even less credit to the amazing landscape.

 Onwards! Along a ridge, pretty much the best type of path, views on both sides. At one point I was prancing along the path (which is obviously an entirely normal thing to do when you think no-one's watching) when I looked up to see someone standing in the middle of the path who had clearly seen all of my half-dancing trot downhill. He was waiting for his friend who I can only assume was pinkling in the trees, as I could hear him but not see him. Luckily they were going up hill and I was heading down, so we need never meet again!

 A view of the hut from an alternative view point. 2/2.5hrs down and I found a sign say 1.5hrs to Burgberg (approximately my destination) 'eep!' thought I, better get cracking. So off I trotted, carefully but quickly downhill, not forgetting to take in the ever disappearing view.

 Time for another photo of the beauties. 15minutes into my downhill trot, I found a sign saying 50mins to Burgberg. 15 minutes for a 40 minute walk, not bad thought I. Unfortunately there were signposts for every 5 minutes from then on, and I was walking at approximately the predicted speed until....

...the carpark! Apparently I had parked a little way away from Burgberg. 2hrs35minutes later I had reached my goal and come back again in one piece, with some fantastic views to remember. Next time I'll allow myself a bit more time for a more leisurely walk, but it is fun to try and beat the clock.

I realise on my original blog posts I used to include a song at the end. So for those who have made it thus far here is your treat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvvZ1TEQRB8 One of my all time favourite songs, and topical for those in England right now. Stay safe in the storm! (The connection is wind - a little contrived, but hey any excuse to listen to Disney songs eh?)

Escape from the country

Last Thursday the most magical thing happened, it snowed!!! Anyone who knows me knows I love snow, and I was pleased when the kids, despite having to deal with copious quantities of the white stuff every winter were also quite excited. (M was happily nattering away about Christmas on the way to Kindergarten,  Santa was coming tomorrow, and we had to buy a new Christmas Tree.) Despite quite alot of snow falling from the sky, being October, the temperature wasn't that cold so there was only about a cm at most on the ground here. Nevertheless M got fully decked out in snow trousers, jacket, boots, gloves and hat (although no scarf to my surprise, I think the coats are warm enough here) to walk the 5 minutes to Kindergarten. He clearly hasn't had a huge deal of experience with snow as his idea of fun was to get me to make a snowball and then he would carry it very carefully for a little bit at which point he'd throw it onto the road and stamp on it. The cycle would then repeat with another snowball. No snowmen and no snowball fights meant a surprisingly speedy walk to Kindergarten and no wet Becca! (I didn't have the full snow gear on) The Grandma picked M up from Kindergarten and she said it was manic there, as the kids were let loose in the snow, so maybe next time it snows I won't be so lucky!
By the afternoon the snow had melted in the valley and there was blue sky once more. Snow covered mountains on a sunny day are beautiful (pictures will be on facebook at some point). Today was warm enough to wear a T-shirt outside so the snow is rapidly depleting. The snow has resulted in a mysterious dissapearance of the animals. I no longer have cows outside my window, and the sheep enroute to kindergarten have gone too, sad times.
One thing that amused me greatly was despite all their talk of being able to deal with snow (and to be fair to them, Altstadten worked fine) the main news on the radio was that it had snowed, and in a certain region schools and kindergartens were shut and people were advised not to travel. Everyone is at the mercy of weather whether they're used to it or not!

Leaving the snowy scenery behind I hopped on a train to Munich this weekend. It was nice visiting a new city and fantastic to catch up with Beatrice and co but there were just so many people! On Saturday there were various demonstrations going on in the city centre and all the usual city trappings, and then on Sunday there was some sort of Marathon which meant even more people, and some accompanying music too :-) I hope to get another chance to visit this bustling city, but I was glad to return to the peace and quiet of the back of beyond. However tonight a farmer have decided to spray the fields at 9pm which means my room stinks of manure just before bed, so there are downsides to the countryside!

And for those still reading, here's some bonus material:

- L came to tell me that M was in my room and was just about to go back to tell him he wasn't allowed when I heard 'REBECCCAAA!' 'REEEEBBEEECCAAA' from upstairs and some very speedy footsteps down the stairs. I asked what was wrong and he said something about my bed (A 3 year old speaking fast german is not the easiest thing to understand) I then remembered that I'd stripped the bed and not got round to making it, a concept that is very hard for a 3yo to understand! Natural progression is that L and M wanted to help make the bed. It started well but ended with M in tears having bumped his head and L inside the duvet cover. Ah well, at least the thought was there!

- Playing in the street when I turned around to see a herd of cows casually strolling past.

- Talking of animals. A few days after the sheep arrived, I noticed they'd moved to the field next to us. 'That's nice' thought I 'more animals to play with' It wasn't long before they were being herded away, turns out they hadn't moved, rather had escaped to greener pastures! The fences here are pretty flimsy, we've had goats in the garden before now, much to M's delight.

- Enroute to Kindergarten there is a junction at which we can go either right or straight ahead. I ask M which way he wants to go and he shouts 'straight ahead' then merrily turns right. He either doesn't quite understand the concept of directions, or my german accent needs to improve!

Broken bones, glass and sign times

Eventful would be a good adjective to describe this week. Monday was a bit of a stress because Spaghetti takes aaages to cook and we ended up with only 10 minutes to eat because L had a Krakon lesson (the box drum thing, don’t know what it’s called auf Englisch) Minor stress there, compounded by L telling me how to cook spaghetti and M wanting to also cook spaghetti. Solution involved giving them a mug of warm water into which one piece of spaghetti in many parts was placed to ‘cook’. L seemed genuinely surprised when it remained raw (this is the 7 year old!) Lunch eaten, music played we returned home to find the aunty+kid visiting the Oma next door. Happy afternoon spent there ended up with pretty much the entire extended family in Oma’s small apartment.

Tuesday was not so happy. L managed to break his collar bone playing football, sad times. It’s his first broken bone. He now gets to wear a sort of rucksack strap which he’s quite proud of, but took a while to understand the ‘you have to keep your shoulder still’ thing. On Wednesday I had to pick him up from school (he can’t carry his school rucksack) and after proudly informing me that he had played some football (eek!) he then asked me where the car was. It’s an incredibly short walk, I’d come on foot, L wasn’t impressed. Making it home with only a short diversion over a fence to collect conkers (eek!), he then had a minor tantrum after the dad suggested I took M swimming so L could have some peace to chill on the sofa and watch films. He wanted to go too.... In the end M and I had a great time swimming and L had a great time watching films (aside from sore collar bone ofc)

Thursday was Feiertag, a national holiday to celebrate the reunification of Germany. Thankfully this coincided with a glorious sunny day. After a leisurely breakfast and lots of reading (a tale of 2 cities is starting to make sense) I went for a short cycle ride before coming back in time for roast dinner lunch, mmm. I then went off on another wandern, this time driving up a pass and parking at the top. It is a ski-resort and very bizarre to see in summer time, almost creepy. A lovely walk to 2 mountain tops gave me fantastic views of the alps, although in the foreground was the epic skiresort car park and lots of still skiilifts. Although it was hard work driving up the pass, it was worth it driving down, so much fun (and safe I promise!)

Friday should have been noneventful. The mum went to work very early and came back just after lunchtime which was nice. But there was emergency at work so she had to leave again, oh well. Over the course of the afternoon I ended up with no less than 6 children. Children are good at playing with each other so this was mostly stressfree, aside from when they decided that the train station was a good place to play (they were trying to convince M that his favourite person (his 11yo cousin) was leaving to go to Mannheim) They succeeded in making him cry, oops, but it wasn’t too long before they were back in the garden playing one-handed Kirsche gegessen (a throw and catch game) This evening the mum briefly reappeared to cook and eat before leaving; turns out the emergency involved someone punching someone a robbery (I didn't understand the german word initially) so now she’s spent the entire evening talking to the police. In all this coming and going I got the time of the language course wrong by an hour, so I missed my weekly opportunity to speak to real-life English people, sad times.

An eventful week all round. And I also had one of my more embarrassing moments in life. On Wednesday I went along to the young adults house group, and whilst saying goodbye my bag fell off my shoulder and knocked a wine glass off the table which smashed in 2. Already mildly embarrassing but then I picked up the wine glass pieces and placed them on the table. As I turned away one piece rolled off the table and smashed into smithereens, oopsy! Well at least in church you’re supposed to not be perfect...

More Anecdotes for those who need more procrastination material

Walking on Thursday I left the first mountain and there was a signpost that said 1 ¼ hrs to Riegberg, about 10 minutes later the next signpost said 1 ½ hours to Riegberg (“odd,” thought I, “I must have misread the first one”) then 10 minutes later the next signpost said 1 ¾ hrs to Riegberg. At this point I did double check that I was following the signs correctly and I was indeed heading to Riegberg. The next 2 signposts (also about 10 minutes apart) said 1 hour and 30minutes respectively. From the first sign post it took me about an hour. What went into the mind of those signpost makers I don’t know. On the previous walk I had been able to follow the signpost times as if they were a clock (after multiplying by 2/3 as they’re designed for slow walkers)

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Upon leaving the swimming pool I can't seem to locate where to put my key-band-thing. Eventually the reception lady takes it and tells me that the door through which I left wasn't open for me, rather for those with small children. I then had to collect M (who was standing by the reception desk, too small to be seen) and leave without seeming too rude!

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Another M story; en route to Kindergarten M stops to have a nice chat with the sheep. He then decides he wants his Eisbar hat so starts heading back home. As he has a scooter and I’m on foot I then have to leg it down the road to stop him and persuade him that he can make it all the way to Kindergarten without his Eisbar hat and I’ll bring it with me later. Oh the trials of the 5 minute walk to Kindergarten! At least he is now more practised with cycling, so falls and crashes are much more infrequent. That said he has now mastered the art of turning, so we did have about 5 minutes of him circling at one point in the road, whilst L was having a strop that he wasn’t allowed to cycle (broken collar bone and all that jazz)

Anyhoo I’ve waffled on for long enough. Happy procrastination y’all!

When the weather is nice...

Story of my life:
This week the weather started off beautiful (it then thunderstormed quite dramatically, but we'll conveniently ignore that) and in middle of nowhere land that means tractor time!
On Monday the tractors were out in force to mow the grass.
On Tuesday the tractors were out in force to whish up the grass and put it into nice rows, and in one field there was no tractor only a lonely woman doing this job :-(
By Wednesday said grass had been gathered into bales and in the field outside had all disappeared.
On Thursday and Friday animals started appearing in the previously long-grassed fields, leaving many-a brown trail along the roads. There are now sheep on the way to Kindergarten (although M insists they are goats) and cows outside my window which thankfully do not have cow bells on.
/A side note on cow bells:
I used to think cow bells were cool and atmospheric. Imagine gentle jingling of bells wafting through the calm mountain air. Now I am surrounded by them, my view of them have changed. They sound horrible and are incredibly loud, making it nigh on impossible to find quiet anywhere. However it is very cute how animals have bells relative to their size. The whopping great bulls have these huge bells, and then the baby mountain goats (the bells are not just restricted to cows) have these cute little dingly things. I'm not entirely sure the purpose of said bells, except I suppose if you were blind you'd be able to distinguish between a field of cows and a field of goats.
\side note on cow bells

With the weather being so  lovely the kids wanted to play outside, and with the field now cut this provided ideal running around space. They love 'What's the time Mr Wolf?' and L is actually wanting to learn a bit of English! However on Friday, the tractor reappeared, this time to spread manure :( We were the far end of the field at the time, so we had to walk round. I thought the reason would be self-evident, but I still got repeated 'wie so?' (How come?) from M. This is the child that started eating a piece of chewing gum that had been thrown in a bin, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised!

Tales from the language barrier:
On Friday I started a german language course, and therefore I needed to buy a book for it. When we went shopping today, we went to the book store, where I asked for the book and the lady said they didn't have it in stock, but she could order one. I've been in Germany almost 3 weeks now, so I can understand a fair bit and understood that. However as I was buying a book which highlighted the fact I don't know much german, T (the mum with whom I was shopping) felt the need to translate everything for me, even 'Montag ab 9' (Monday from 9). Normally it's up to me to work out what's going on, and ask if I'm confused.

Comic Kids:
Kids have an endless capacity to amuse, so I'll leave you with just one event.
L has discovered the joy of locking doors (I even came back once to find my door locked, but L did return the key the moment I asked) so keys were the new favourite toy. M had the bathroom key and was trying to push it behind the chest of drawers. I asked him what he was doing with the bathroom key and he said it wasn't the bathroom key, rather the car key and pointed to the chest of drawers and said 'This is my car'. It didn't take long for the key to disappear behind the chest of drawers, much to M's surprise!

Finding a Church in Germany

The first Sunday in Germany I went along to the big evangelical church in Sonthofen. I sat in the pew, vaguely following what was going on, and then at the end everyone stood up en masse. "Hmmm," thought I "They must all be going for coffee." But I was wrong, in the true spirit of German efficiency, everyone left promptly, with some chatting outside. As I didn't know anyone, and wasn't confident enough in my german ability to strike up conversation, I left having met a grand total of no-one, sad times.

The next week I went along to a smaller church efg Sonthofen, figuring that being a smaller church they would notice a newbie. As I searched for the door to this church, I was greeted by a couple who had arrived at the same time. I have no idea what they said, but they did show me how to get into the church and where to go. At the end of the service, people stayed talking! I still didn't know anyone though, so stood looking a bit lost. Then a friendly man called Boris asked me if it was my first time there, success, conversation had begun! Having established I was an au pair from England (apparently my german accent does not immediately give away my anglo-origins) and was living in Altstaedten, I was introduced to an Ehepaar (say that quickly and it's very hard to decipher, this word took about 5 goes for me to understand) who lived in Altstaedten. The wife had been an au pair in England for 15 months too. It didn't take too long for me to be invited to a house group, and that is where I found myself this evening.

For those confused, a house group is small group of people, in this case 12, who meet together regularly to chat, pray, read and study the bible, eat, laugh etc etc. Exactly what it involves differs from church to church, group to group, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Try telling a 7yo that you're going with someone to somewhere unknown to do something but you're not quite sure what! Anyway, the first thing that struck me was how similar the church is across the world, even if the language is different. I was welcomed unconditionally (except for shoes off of course, this is Germany!) into essentially a strangers house and fed a wonderful meal (eritrean food no less). There was a wide variety of personalities, and political opinions, but all united by God's love. There was even the classic Christian conversation staple of talking about the musical worship songs, and of course biblical banter (German's can joke!)

There was a discussion about a bible passage (one from Jeremiah about God knitting us together is our mother's womb, or something along those lines. We are all unique and God has a plan for each one of us etc) but I have to admit I was pretty tired by this point, and most of it went over my head! Although one person had prepared some thoughts on the passage, the other people butted in and there was some brilliant respectful, encouraging conversation (or at least that's what it seemed to me!) for example someone pointing out the flip side dangers of being too focused on one's self.

I know the church isn't perfect, it is made up of sinful people. However when people who love and follow Christ (i.e. the church in biblical terms) come together with a sincere desire to grow in their knowledge of God, and encourage one another through this life, the result is beautiful, and surprisingly similar throughout the world.

I've waffled because I'm tired, but hey I never said this Blog would contain good quality writing! I hope I haven't wasted too much of your internet surfing time!

Interesting observations:
- To me, all strong german accents sound the same. One guy at the house group had a swabisch accent (from near Stuttgart) but I only know that because someone told me, I would have placed him in Bayern. It's still a nightmare to decipher!
-Oh my goodness, house shoes! I turned up at the house group and noticed that the couple that gave me a lift had actually brought house shoes with them! I don't understand what's wrong with just socks.
- I thoroughly confused 2yo by talking about Haus-schuhe when I meant to be talking about Hand-schuhe (gloves) oops! Why are words so similar. However when talking to afore-mentioned ex-au pair she got mixed up between Humiliating and Humbling, so clearly H-words are tricky to distinguish whatever language you're talking. (think about it, it's logical....)
-A normal hello round these parts is 'Grussdi' which sounds remarkably like Christy, I've lost counts of how many times I've responded with 'Huh? Ich heisse Rebecca'

Good night, Pferdi! (That is the goodbye version of Grussdi if I were to spell it how I think it sounds)

An Autumn in Germany

I'm not great at this whole Blog thing, but now I actually have a reason to blog. I'm spending 3 months in Germany, and lots of interesting and amusing things happen, but I don't want to bore people on facebook with it. So for any of you interested in my life in Deutschland, this blog is the place to be!

An Intro
I'm spending 3 months as an au pair in South Germany where, as I have to communicate solely in german, I hope to improve my german!. I'm living at the foothills of the Alps, in an area famous for winter sports (apparently). I'm staying in a small, very stereotypical village where everyone knows everyone, and most seem to be related to each other, and yet there are enough 6-8yo kids for a football team!
My 'job' is to look after 2 boys, L who is 7yo and plays on the football team, and M who is 2 (nearly 3) and is not a morning person. It alternates between them both coming home at lunchtime (I have to pick M up from Kindergarten, L makes his own way home) and M staying in Kindergarten until 4. If it's nice weather we have to go outside, else we'll play inside. Being a small village, there are often other kids around. L has officially had a school friend round to play, but they can also end up playing in the street on the way home from Kindergarten. At the end of the garden there are 5 goats, which their cousins own, and it's not unusual for the kids to come to feed them, and then want to stay and play.

What's so Interesting?
I reckon my blog can be split into 3 sections
1) My life in Deutschland and general goings-on
2) Funny thing kids say and do
3) Amusing/Interesting Language and culture confusions

I've been here almost 2 weeks, so I won't recount everything that's happened, but I'll give you a taster;

1) Walking - Both weekends I have gone for a walk (or rather wandern - i.e. a hike) As the alps have a far higher potential to be deadly than the English hills, the routes are incredibly well maintained and signposted. This hasn't stopped me getting lost though. The first time I had been given instructions, and shown on a satellite picture how to get the Altstadter Hof (a cafe half way up a hill, they're everywhere round here) I was told that the route followed the road and was very easy. So off I plodded (map in hand of course) I followed the signposts and ended up on a watch-your-step path with a sheer drop to the river. This made me a little concerned, but once I rejoined the road, and consulted both map and signpost I established there were indeed 2 different routes to my destination. On the way down I detoured via Sonthofer Hof (another Cafe) and had to climb a barb-wire fence (they love their barbed wire) because I took a slightly wrong bearing in a field!
In a separate walk today (up to Rubihorn 1957m, with fantastic views!) I had a slow start. I parked and headed up hill, hoping I'd taken the right path from the car park. I found a signpost confirming I was on track. I headed in the direction it pointed, only to find a barb-wire fence in the way, so naturally I turned followed the 'path' up hill, very steeply and boggily up hill. This was odd being so close to a large carpark when the paths are normally so well maintained. Regardless I ploughed on and continued my upwards march on a signpost-less road. I conferred with map, and worked out I was the wrong side of the valley from Rubihorn, but would end up slightly too high yet basically at the cafe I was aiming for initially. But the mystery remained, why was I signposted to this forestry track that walkers weren't supposed to be on? On my return, down the correct path, I discovered the barb wire had been moved to one side, leaving the path clear for walkers, bah!
Nevertheless, the walks have been fantastic, the weather on my side, the views fabulous and navigation requiring very little thought.

2) There are the slapstick incidents, such as M cycling straight into a bush and getting his bike wedged, but they're often a case of you had to be there, so I shall recount an incident from earlier today;
L had been sent to his room due to having a minor tantrum because he wanted to go outside (yes he is 7) M, who had been crying a minute or 2 earlier, but was now happily playing with a toy truck, turned and very politely asked 'Mama, do I have to go to my room too?'. Mama responded 'Bist du lieb?' (Are you being lovely/well behaved?) M then crossed his arms, scowled, and replied 'Nein!' so the mum replied that in that case he too had to go to his room, and so off M went upstairs leaving the mum supressing giggles until he was out of earshot. Kids are odd.

3) I'm living in a very stereotypical bavarian area, where a lot of people have strong Bayern accents (that I'm afraid I'm picking up slightly!) however I have yet to see any Lederhosen outside of the context of a restaurant. For now, you will have to make do with a language-related incident.
On the way to Kindergarten, M always points out 'Vogelbeeren' which literally translates as bird berries. I was intrigued at what exactly Vogelbeeren were, as he tended to point at all trees with berries on, and so asked the dad. He responded that to M all berries are Vogelbeeren, as they are berries for birds, so he isn't allowed to eat them. So I am no none the wiser with regards to the names of the berry trees on the way to kindergarten, but at least I know they aren't officially Vogelbeeren!

The Meaning of Life

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Just a short post this morning, but not that short!

I'm coming to the growing understanding that I don't know much. I don't know much about soil bricks and there's so much about civil engineering that I don't understand. And then there's all the other subjects in the world that I don't even understand the vocabulary for!
The Meaning and Purpose of Life? Not a clue. So I'm living for God, but what does that mean? I can try to have an attitude like that of Christ Jesus in all situations, but what do I do when I have to chose which situation I should be in?

You can probably guess where these questions have arised from, I'm in the tortuous process of applying for jobs. Up until now the question of what to do with my life have been relatively easy. Until 16 it was dictated by law, and then sixth form and uni were the natural progression. But now I have free choice (but then again we're not really free, but that's a whole other ball park...)

Why has this decision making flummoxed me so? I've always assumed that the meaning and purpose of life would suddenly be revealed with perfect clarity. You know like in films when the person has a near death experience and suddenly everything becomes clear. That's not how life works. I'd accepted that for other film generated ideas - like how you will be perfectly happy when you find the right boy/girl who will be a random stranger that sweeps you off your feet one day metaphorically/literally. But why do I cling onto the idea that the meaning/purpose of life will become clear without any effort on my part?

Really I should take more time to read/think/pray and I will try, but maybe I'll never understand the meaning/purpose of my life in this life. But that's OK too, God's plan will happen even if I don't know it. I suppose the moral of this morning's random musing is to not get downhearted if the film-generated notion of how life should be doesn't work out.

And for reading all that, have a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paMdd65jnHA It's been in my head due to listening to too many show tunes (although admittedly I did think that the title was 'Good morning sunshine'!)

Les Mis and the Bible

I’m not very good at this blog thing, but here’s goes blog post #2.

I’ll start with a few topical observations:

•           Cambridge gets very little snow
•           It feels a lot colder when cycling
•           It is possible to wear a hat that has a glove inside it without noticing said glove
•           It is impossible (or very hard) to buy warm gloves on the high street at a reasonable price

The snowman that we might have built if there was enough snow

The other day someone’s facebook status was the quote ‘to love another person is to see the face of God’. My thought process went something along these lines *Nice quote....I recognise it....where from?... must be from the bible...Oh no I’m late! Get off facebook now* And so the quote was forgotten until later when I was watching Les Mis. To those who are not familiar with this amazing musical/film, the aforementioned quote is from the Les Mis finale not, in fact, from the bible at all. My thought process then went along these lines *Of course its not from the Bible, stupid Becca, its heretical, the face of God is far more amazing than that, beyond our comprehension ..... No actually God IS Love. Love is an amazing God-given gift that is beyond our full comprehension, maybe it’s not so heretical afterall*

There were two things that struck me whilst watching Les Mis, firstly the fact that I had mistaken a Les Mis quote for a biblical one, and secondly just how many biblical themes there are.

*Spoilers alert*

Firstly GRACE.  Essentially the basis of the storyline. It begins with the old man (I think he was a priest, maybe?) with a gift of extreme kindness by offering Jean Valjean food and lodging for the night, despite having very little. Then, when Valjean decides to ‘take the silver and take my FLLLLLLIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHTTTT!’ and manages to get caught, the old man offers him mercy by telling the police he had given Valjean the silver. However he goes further than that and shows hime grace by giving him the silver and more. He tells him to use the silver to become a better man.

This has amazing parallels with the bible. *Disclaimer – no analogy is perfect, read the bible to get the real thing* For one thing we have turned our back on God who gave us everything like Valjean did with that old man. But when God came to earth as Jesus and died that horrendous death on the cross. He not only showed us mercy taking away our judgement, but also showed us grace by allowing us to become his children ‘heirs with Christ’. In accepting that grace, God sends his spirit to help us throw off the chains of sin and become more like Christ; ‘a better man’.

But the biblical themes don’t end there. In contrast to Valjean, you have Gavert. A man bound by the law. He is not innately a bad man, he just has an unwavering faith in the law, missing the point of the law in the first place, which should be to protect society. Valjean, in a bid to feed his family, members of that society, stole some bread thereby breaking the law. In Gavert’s eyes he was a bad man ‘once a thief always a thief’ and cannot comprehend the acts of kindness that he witnesses Valjean undertaking, most notably when Valjean lets Gavert walk free. Sadly this ends with Gavert commiting suicide unable to cope with this departure from what he believed to be true.

This has stark parallels with the Pharisees and teachers of the law in the bible who were no worse than you or I. But they had an unwavering faith in the Law and missed the point entirely. We’re doing a bible marathon in college at the moment and I ended up reading Deuteronomy for an hour. I can see how easy it is to be bogged down in detail, but reading such a large chunk helped me see the purpose of the law, to love and serve God and to be a people living for him. God’s covenant (promise) to his people was very one sided. I will give you everything, a land flowing with milk and honey, just love me. I don’t know why each Pharisee followed the law, but they had missed this concept of love. At one point Jesus healed a man, but being a Sabbath, the Pharisees objected. Jesus rebuked them, I can’t remember exactly how, but to paraphrase, he said ‘you’re missing the point!’ And then, ultimately for those Pharisees who continued to the unwavering trust in legalism and legalism alone, sadly it lead to death.

I’ve rambled on for far too long so brief one sentence comments on other themes, see if you agree with me:

•           Jean Valjean – always striving, never satisfied - the world can’t fulfil.
•           Eponine – Idolised Marius to the point of death (although this is clearer in the musical than the film) – people are not suitable idols.
•           Finale – the grip of death gone – the theme of hope
•        Little People - they're important too (in both Les Mis and the bible!)

I’m sure there are others, but I’m an engineer so deeper meaning are lost on me :P

One last thing, I was disappointed with the ending, although my problem lies with Victor Hugo, not the film producers. Marius fights for the rights of the poor. The uprising is quashed, and he finds a girl, so he goes back to his nice sheltered rich life. He’s just seen all his friends die for a cause that he then gives up on?!!! //rant

And finally, if you’re in a place that’s lacking in snow like Cambridge, here’s a video of how to make snow from water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCvrJ3LE6k Unfortunately it needs to be -41^oC to work!