Ladyrebecca’s Musings and Ramblings

I’ve had serious writer’s block. Not really sure why but I’ve been feeling unmotivated in all areas of life so maybe it’s just a symptom of whatever else is going on (definitely the most likely scenario). So, in light of my block, I’m just going to run through the things that have happened in the last few days.

We had some friends over Sunday night. It was a ton of fun. One of the guys brought a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red. Both were hands down the best wines I’ve ever had.

Israel and I have been trying to find a wine we liked for a couple of years now but have not had any luck. I think we’ve finally gotten somewhere. Besides the wine, we had a riot. We told poop stories and laughed until we cried. Jael was wonderful. She allowed the adults to talk and would occasionally have interesting or funny things to add. She’s pretty much amazing.

We (all of us as Israel is working weekends right now) went over to a friend’s house for lunch on Tuesday and again, just had a riot. She has one daughter about a year younger than Jael but because neither Jael nor this little girl have not been peer stratified, they couldn’t care less about the age difference. They played beautifully together. Not tears, no yelling–well, not in anger at least. (For those of you that have met my daughter in person, you know that an afternoon with no yelling is an afternoon spent asleep.) I think we are going to get to be better friends with this gal and her husband. I’ve not met her husband but I think we are going to like him. So, as is usual, I think we are going to make some good friends six months before we leave a place. Don’t it figure?

Or, my friends leave me.

Tuesday night, I went out with some friends. Ana* is moving Sunday. She’s been a good friend, the one who introduced me to the mom’s group I’m a part of. Her son is my daughter’s best friend. They love each other. Jael doesn’t run up to hug other kids but she does this young boy. We were at the mall one day and Jael and Ana’s son are walking through the mall, holding hands, when we pass a jewelry store and they stop to look into the jewelry cases. It was a Kodak moment so of course no one had a camera ready. So, on top of me losing a good friend (okay, she’s only moving 12 hours away but that’s a long drive with a four year old), my daughter is losing her favorite friend.

Another mom from the mom’s group (actually the other administrator-we are loosing both of the ladies who started it so a time of readjustment is definitely on the horizon), is also moving but not until the end of the month. I’d just started to get to know her when we found out she was moving. I’m glad for her as the move is the result of a great job promotion for her husband but I’m going to miss her a lot.

Then we had a friend over last night and dropped the “we’re moving to Germany” bomb on her by accident. I was positive we’d told her we were leaving but I guess we didn’t. She was asking if we were going to go to the Renn Faire with her. I asked when it was, she said November and I said, nope, we’ll be in Germany by then. This was met by a blank stare. A sad blank stare. This sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach told me we had just pulled the rug out from under this friend. She’d just gone through a surprise break-up and had to move back in her disapproving parents. She incredibly smart and talented (her art is amazing). Basically, she doesn’t fit her in the Deep South. She belongs in a more enlightened place. Israel and I have been a breath of fresh air for her. She has many intelligent friends online but few she can get together with face to face. If the military hadn’t brought us here, we certainly wouldn’t have been the book store where we met. Every intelligent and/or truly enjoyable person I’ve met down here has not so much come here as been sent here or has had to come due to circumstances out of their control. Business, military, military contracting. That’s it. People who are from here (sans this friend) we don’t like. People who really like it here, we don’t like. People who don’t like it here but stay for family, we don’t like. People who are chomping at the bit to escape, we like.

We might have to get a larger house than we thought when we move to Germany. We already have one friend who is planning on coming for a six month stay (for a start; if we can, we’ll keep her in Germany much longer). We invited this other friend last night as well. She scoffed (it is about a thousand dollar ticket and that’s right now. Who knows what it’ll be in a year or so) at the idea but we planted it. After this next election, she might be a lot more motivated to emigrate. So anyway…that’s been the last few days.

*name changed for privacy–that and I’ve not asked permission to throw other people’s names and personal information around online. Seems like if they are actually my friends (as opposed to my apartment managers) I wouldn’t disrespect them that way.

I am so incredibly tired. I’ve spent the last two hours reading blogs of expatriots, some from the US, some from Australia, some from Britian, and I think one from Canada. So much information. I am not sure where to begin. I want to read everything right now. But I also want to sleep.

Israel stayed home with Jael again last night so I could go to a baby shower. It was a lot of fun. The drive was long but we carpooled so I had three other ladies along for the ride and it was a lot of fun. We ate chips and salsa, fajitas and empanadas (sp?). We drank margaritas. I had one first thing so I’d be good to drive four hours later. We laughed and told birth stories. Some of the ladies have troubled marriages and it makes me sad. I’m so blessed to have Israel and he’s so wonderful.

I told him as I left that when he wants a guy’s night out, all he has to do is say the word and he’s got a free evening. I think he’s stayed with Jael for three evenings in the last two weeks. I feel like life has been so busy and yet nothing’s really happening. Strange, no?

Jael is reading. Yup. Reading. Some of the more complicated (okay, most of the complicated) words still stump her but she’s doing amazingly well. We did some school today; just some worksheets form a big book of “Basic Skills Worksheets” I got a couple of months ago. She tore through things that a couple of months ago stumped her so she’s definitely making progress.

I don’t really have anything else to say. I’m bored. I should go put away clothes and cut up stuff for supper but I just want to take a nap. *sigh*

Oh wait! The time on our computer is an hour fast! It’s not 4 pm! It’s only 3 pm! I have time to take a 15 minute nap! (Forgive me, my ever enduring husband.)

Good-bye!

I am studying Germany and the German language specifically and it’s blowing my mind. The language is beautiful and easy, something I did not expect. Umlauts are hard, there is not denying that but after a couple of weeks of practice, they come a bit easier. The vocabulary is about 40-60% interchangeable with English, either by spelling, pronunciation or both. The syntax, or order of words in sentences, is like old English. Imagine you are in a Shakespearian play and translation becomes simple. “Ich auch” does not mean “Me, too” as Pimsluer would have you think. It means “I also.” “Ich merschte jetz etwas trinken,” (I am guessing on most of the spelling as that phrase is from the audio set) does not mean, “I would like something to drink now,” it means “I would like now something to drink.” I don’t know. I just love it.

But the language is only half of the coolness. I graduated high school with a 3.9 GPA. I got a 31 on my ACT’s. I was home schooled (which means, through magical means which required no effort on my part, I am supposed to have a more complete education). Yet, if you had asked me three months ago what I knew about Germany I would not have had much to say. They started both World Wars. They had really high income tax but great socialized medicine (my husband worked with a German national and that’s what she said). I could have told you that the country was smaller than America but larger than…oh, some small country. I might have thought they still dressed in knickers and suspenders. Maybe I would have known that they enjoy and are proud of their beer. I don’t know. But that’s about it.

First of all, Germany is a very young country. The people have been there a long time but they did not unify under one flag until 1871. They, in a very short period of time, became powerful enough to be a threat in World War 1. Then, after being beaten soundly, they recuperated and in a couple of decades were again strong enough to threaten all of Europe. After being soundly beaten again, the country was divided. Half was ruled by the France, the U.K, the U.S. and the other half was ruled by Russia. The non-Russian side prospered under nonRussian rule and the Russian side struggled to keep its head above water. The two sides were reunited in 1990 and is now the fifth largest economy on earth. Not bad for a country that had to clean up the mess the Russian’s left, eh?

Also, about ten, fifteen years ago, they noticed that their trees were dying. Now the forests are a big part of German culture. Hansel and Gretel were lost in a forest, most of Grimm’s other fairy tales involved a forest of some sort. The Black Forest is the setting for many of them and the trees of that forest were being poisoned to death by pollution. So they cleaned it up. The whole country. They walked it back. They cleaned up the Rhine river. They’ve lowered the amount of pollution they produce from cars by encouraging alternate forms of transportation. And no, I’m not talking about electric cars or hybrid SUV’s - the very phrase of which makes me want to vomit. Words can not express how much that pisses me off. Yes, the answer to America’s gross overconsumption of power is to turn our big, lard-ass gasoline vehicles into big lard-ass electric vehicles. We couldn’t just drive a smaller vehicle, because that would be going just too far. Anyway, Germany has bike paths that connect the place you are to the place you want to go, resulting in, get this, increased usage of bikes as transportation. Amazing, no?

What else have I learned? All stores are closed on Sunday. Federal law. “Not free market,” we scream. Yup and yet, they’re economy is growing. Hmmm. I guess if you aren’t pretending to have a free market economy, you can still make it work. Interesting.

Anyway, I am loving studying German. I’m using three different sources right now. An purely audio CD set and two books. They don’t agree with each other in pronunciation which makes it a bit difficult but it’s fun nonetheless. I figure maybe I’ll reach a nice balance.

Auf Weidersehen! (Good-bye)