Lifestyles

After this experience, I have decided that it is a far bigger adjustment to go from city living to rural living than it is to move to a foreign country. (I’m sure that’s not always true, but it is as far as moving from the US to Western Europe.) The truth is that the lifestyle differences are more of an issue for me than the language barrier. I mean, you can get quite a bit accomplished just on gestures and smiles and a friendly attitude.

The big problem for me, here, is how to entertain my son. Sure, we’ve got all the playgroups & stuff but we do the same stuff week after week. After week. And as fun as they are, they get old. I used to be able to pop him in the car on a rough day and just run over to the Children’s Museum to let him run around for a couple of hours. Or we could meet some friends at the zoo or a play area somewhere. I just don’t have those resources here and it’s very wearing sometimes.

Nürnberg Weihnachtsmarkt

Went to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) in Nürnberg. Before Guitarman and I moved here, we’d read about these markets and planned to one day take a holiday cruise down the Danube and stop at all the markets.

I didn’t do a good job of looking up directions or anything online, so we totally lucked out that my randomly selected GPS destination was pretty close to the whole thing. There’s a little artisans’ market in one section,



then a few blocks away is a Kinder Weihnachtsmarkt with carousels and things in addition to booths with gifts, ornaments, food, etc. Then there’s the main section, the Kristkindlemarkt. They were all absolutely JAMMED with people! We took the stroller in case Wee Laddie got tired of walking (or if we needed it to keep track of him in the crowd), so that made navigation a little tough. It was too insane to actually shop, so I’m hoping to go back during the week to get a few little things.

We also completely lucked out with the weather. It’s very grey here and has been raining & snowing pretty often lately. We felt a couple of sprinkles, but did not actually get rained on. Hurrah! It wasn’t even actually that cold, although we were pretty well bundled up. Not that Wee Laddie looks like it here:



I decided that I just couldn’t be here at a Christmas market, in Germany, and NOT try Gluhwein. It was different than I expected. I was expecting it to be cinnamony, but it was more of a fruity/sweet taste. Maybe that’s just ‘cause I got the Heidelbeere (blueberry) kind. But now I can look up online how to make it and that can be one of my “life souvenirs” from our time here.

Aztec Dancers

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, they had an Aztec dancing group perform in the movie theater on base. I’ve been waiting for it for weeks, so I was pleased to be able to take Wee Laddie to see it.

I was a little disappointed that a) there was only one dance demonstrated and b) the dancing portion was only about 20-30 minutes long… the rest was Q&A (but they didn’t tell us that, so we waited around a bit ‘cause there was a woman there in a dance shawl so I thought she might dance). Other than that it was great! And, frankly, I thought it was kind of cool that they even had something a little more esoteric than the kinds of dancing you might see on TV or whatever. This seemed even more culturally rich, in a way. Wee Laddie enjoyed it very much…up until the Q&A part, not surprisingly.

Oh, the Basement

Spent part of today working on getting things organized in the basement. I’d really like to be able to find things a little easier than I have been able to do over here. “I feel sad,” Wee Laddie told me. We’ve talked about how it probably seems scary since he doesn’t remember what it was like when we lived in Denver before. So I tell him that we’ll be able to see his Grandma-Grandma and his Denver cousins all the time. We’ll be able to go to museums and on playdates with our friends. I think he’ll be really happy there when he realizes how many more people we’re connected to there, but it is kind of hard to watch him feeling sad about it.

I finished the scarf Wee Laddie asked me to make for him and he wore it all day. :) Baby Spunky now seems to be his lovey. He’s been calling it a baby reindeer.





Tonight was my last German class. That was kind of sad, too. That class was probably the most connected I’ve felt to something that’s not connected to the base. At least our teacher is German! And at least the class isn’t only people from base. And I finally got to find out what Wee Laddie’s polizei (police) car says:
“Zentrale, bitte kommen.” (Central, please come.)
And something about “Verrückter Fahrer, um die ______” (Crazy driver going the wrong way.)



Note: Since I'm posting this so much later than it actually happened, I don't have my notes on what the car actually says. We tried to decipher it the other day and I managed to remember some and was able to look up some. But I posted it anyway.

Another Fire Alarm??

Ugh, more crappy weather here in Bavaria. I have this idea I’m working on that has something to do with illustrating just how crappy the weather is here. When I get it done, I’ll come back here & make a link to it or something. But seriously. It’s grey here pretty much all the time. Today there was a bit of blue sky and Wee Laddie looked up and exclaimed, “Oh no! The white is going away!”

We made another trek up to Graf and there was another fire alarm! I was waiting for our food (yes, of course, Taco Bell) and the alarm went off. So we all trooped outside to wait. Fire truck came again and the firefighters went inside. Not sure what happened, but it wasn’t long before we were allowed back in. I went up to get our food and gave them the receipt so they could see what we had. While they were working on that, the alarm went off a 2nd time! Ack. They rushed over to give me my food. I’m like, “What am I supposed to do with that?” They, not realizing that 1) I have a toddler and 2) I do not enjoy eating my food outside, standing up, in the cold, thought that I’d just take it & eat while we were waiting. Um, no. But I forgot to get the receipt. Luckily, the wait to get back in was even shorter this time, and our tray was still on the counter when I went back in. So I just took it & we went and sat down. Poor Wee Laddie is going to think there’s always a fire alarm when we come up here.

I’ve been thinking about the expat Thanksgiving and I realize that I’m a bit envious of the other expats. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to going home. But I’m kind of sad about feeling that way. This was supposed to be our grand adventure, our new way of life, our chance to be European for a while… to learn a new language and have our son get some great language learning in a foreign place. And that’s not at all what happened. I’m envious that these were couples who were both happy to be here, both learning the language and experiencing & enjoying the culture and who will probably spend more years here. We’ve talked about Germany for so long (and I’ve wanted to live somewhere in Europe for so long) that it’s kind of like giving up on a dream.

The Expat Thanksgiving

I think I've only been away from home for 3 Thanksgivings. The first was during my student exchange to England during high school. The People-to-People group (their part of the Sister Cities Int’l group) threw us a Thanksgiving dinner which I find very funny, since it seems almost an anti-England holiday. The second was just a few years ago when Guitarman and I went to visit his parents in Florida for the holiday. And then this year.



We had a very lovely dinner at Christina’s. It’s an annual tradition for them to invite local Americans & other assorted friends to the Expat Thanksgiving Dinner. It was an interesting collection of people... about 1/2 American and about 1/2 other, I’d guess. I had a nice chat with the German neighbors, who were talking about how Germany doesn’t really have an equivalent holiday with a celebration & food and all of that. They seemed to really enjoy our holiday.

And the food was fabulous. Everyone brought a dish to share. And far from being a replica of all of the traditional American Thanksgiving foods (green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top) it was a fantastic spread of all sorts of international flavors. Yum. The stuffing was made with apples & sage, for example. I brought a curry-butternut squash soup that was yummy. I overheard a couple of remarks about it, one of which was a wife to her husband, “Here, you’ve got to try this soup,” which was followed by a brief chat about how he’d have never thought to put cilantro with it but that it really worked. So yay me. Or rather, yay Allrecipes.com.

I’ve learned that my kid is a natural problem solver. Ok, I already knew that. But isn’t it much more fun when I make it seem like you’re along with me on this journey of learning fun things about my son? Remember, he's just shy of 3. Anyway, he was trying to get a container of toys through the baby gate but it wouldn’t fit. So he tries again and still no luck. So he slides the container up to the top of the gate and reaches over to grab it. Genius, I tell you. ;)

No Kiss

No yoga today because of the holiday. I had an okay day with Señor Runny-Nose. Poor guy. We did go to have lunch with Daddy at the mess hall. Wee Laddie’s been doing this thing where when we drop Guitarman back at work and he asks Wee Laddie for a kiss, Wee Laddie’s like, 'No! No kiss!' and he’ll put his hand over his mouth. If Guitarman kisses him on his cheeks, he’ll wipe his cheeks off afterward. I think it’s one of those power things…like he doesn’t want Guitarman to go back to work (he does it in the morning, too) but since he can’t control that he refuses to do the part that he can control. As soon as Guitarman starts to walk away from the car, Wee Laddie’s saying, 'Bye, Daddy, see ya later!'

It’s pretty interesting to listen to the radio here. The stations seem to have general themes, sort of, but they play an odd assortment of music. Guitarman was commenting on how they play lots of ‘80s music (which is great for us) and then there’ll be some cheesy German pop songs mixed in. But we’ve heard some stuff that may not have been played on the radio in the states since the ‘80s… such as the German version of that Peter Schilling song about Major Tom, and the Nik Kershaw song about the tree by the river (I think it might even be called 'Tree by the River')… neither of which Guitarman had heard before. Now THAT is shocking.

Buddy, Can You Spare a Phonebook?

Finally went to Media Markt…it’s better than Best Buy (I say that because they have light fixtures, too, so I have something to do while Guitarman looks at CDs). We now want to buy all of our DVDs in German because then you get both German and English versions. They dub like crazy over here. I don’t know if it’s like this with most other languages, but I swear, they’ve got practically everything they have back home. You can already get the newer shows like 'Numbers' and that Patricia Arquette one and 'House.' It’s phenomenal.

We got 'Cars' for Wee Laddie, which Guitarman’s been wanting to do for a while. I kept putting him off ‘til we found it in German, which was today. Of course, then we also had to get a region 2 DVD player. I know I had a brief rant about this already, but I think it’s all just ego that prevents a worldwide standard for video. It seems that video people around the world should get over themselves and just embrace whatever’s got the highest resolution.

We also got a phone book! They don’t deliver them to your house like they do back home and nobody that I asked had ever even seen one! Well, we got a card in the mail a week or so ago saying that you could pick them up at Media Markt or at a post office. Interesting. I perused it when we got home. Not that I know what anything means, but I tried to find a few things, like our fave döner place and a pediatrician. No luck on either count.

Splish Splash

I’ve been wanting to take Wee Laddie to the swim group since I first heard about it. It’s at the Bulmare Schwimmbad in Burglengenfeld, and there’s a swim instructor who gives mini-lessons to the kids for $1. I didn’t relish the idea of bathing suit shopping, in a foreign language, whilst feeling particularly large, with a toddler in tow, so I was waiting ‘til our bathing suits came from home. Now that our stuff is here, we get to go!

Wee Laddie panicked a bit when we got there. I think the locker room freaked him out a bit. It’s kind of a strange setup. When you first walk in, what you see is a long hallway with opaque glass-enclosed changing rooms with glass doors. (I’d been apprehensive about the co-ed locker room, but I’m fine as long as I’ve got a place to change.) If you go through one of those, you get to the lockers and the doors to the WCs and the pool. But he’s never seen anything like that and didn’t know what to think of it. He was like whimpering and saying, 'No swim.' (Not at all typical behavior for him.) So I waited it out. We talked about it and went little by little. Once we got into the pool, he freakin’ loved it! I didn’t want to push it by trying a lesson, so we just played.

He fell asleep on the way home but talked about swimming the rest of the day, including asking to go back in the afternoon.

Before we left this morning, the movers came back to unpack our stuff. I can see you scratching your head and saying, 'Huh? I thought they got their stuff like a week ago.' And that is true. They were supposed to unpack us when they delivered the stuff, but they didn’t. And when Guitarman emailed to ask/complain about that and ask that they apply the money from that to some of our other expenses, then they send someone out. (Nevermind that they didn’t even call first.) I told them we’d unpacked and they were like, 'Oh, so all the furniture and closets and things are assembled?' I said, 'Well, yeah. We’re not going to sit here with unassembled furniture for a WEEK.' Pfffft.

More Playgroups for Us

Huge turnout at the Friday playgroup…9 (tot-mom sets), I think someone said. I talked to a few people about my plan to start up an at-home playgroup as well. Turns out a couple of moms (I’ve met them but they weren’t there) have been talking about doing that, so I’ll email them. A few of the moms I talked to were interested, a few not so much. I’m always surprised when people aren’t interested in that. It’s been such a huge thing for Wee Laddie & me. I guess I forget that not everyone is as social as we are. This child sure is his mama's boy.

We made a test run to the pool in Burglengenfeld (we’ll go to the swim group on Tuesday now that we’ve got our swimsuits)… I wanted to make sure I can find it in case I need to call someone for directions. It’s about 30 minutes away and a pretty drive. Too bad I couldn’t really enjoy the view because of the Bavarian driver 3 feet off my bumper.

Dishes and Closets and Trains, Oh My!

Went to IKEA. I love love love that store but holy crap, are they crowded on Saturdays! Yikes. We got new dishes. Partly because ours aren’t here yet (although they should be very soon), but partly because what we have now are Guitarman’s old dishes from his life with his ex-wife who shall remain nameless. I think ditching those will just about clear out all belongings from life with other spouses. That just can’t be a good vibe to have around, ya know?

And we got some more train track pieces for Wee Laddie. He’s really getting into putting the track together. All part of his increased independent play, which is very good for Mama. :)



We also got some wardrobes. Houses here do not come with closets. It’s nice from a furniture-layout point of view, in that you can put your furniture wherever you want… but it’s not so nice when you’re waiting for all of your furniture to arrive and all of your clothes are just lying on the floor in the meantime.

Renters here also are usually expected to put in their own light fixtures and they take them with them when they go. Somehow or other, I’m sure that explains the ugliness of the ones in our house: I think the landlord wasn’t expecting to have to put fixtures in for us, so he just grabbed whatever he had out in his garage. What it doesn’t explain (and what just might defy explanation altogether) is why he had these fixtures in the first place.

Online Again, Online

Got the DSL installed. (Of course it overlapped, so we had to miss Kids’ Club time, but I think it’s better to have a sane mama.) The installer was the same guy who had come to fix our phone before. His English isn’t perfect (still MILES better than my German, of course) but he’s very nice & friendly and totally willing to jump in with guess-words.

He also told me how to have our phone quit calling us (which, it turns out, is the answering service that we have…after every call we get, the phone calls every 15 minutes to let you know that you got a call. Great idea, but not so helpful when you didn’t answer the phone because you have a toddler who is trying nap.) He also switched it to English so we can understand what it’s saying to us. :)

Veggies vs. Dessert

This morning at the Yoga class, Wee Laddie spent almost the whole time at the end of my mat. Very cute… just makes it hard to do some of the exercises. After we got home he kept saying, 'Yoga, Mommy,' and reaching up high then going into Downward Dog.

Checked out another local shop… the Penny Markt. They have short aisles of the freezer cases there. I went looking for veggies and there was 1/2 a case of veggies, mostly spinach. Just for reference I made a comparison: 2 1/2 cases of ice cream and tortes.

And I spotted this toilet paper:


Really, could it get any better?

What, No Kitchen?

This morning a couple of guys came to 'fix' the kitchen island (not that they bothered to call first or anything). I say 'fix' because all they did was put a new back on it. It’s more substantial, but now there’s a strip along the back of it that matches the back but not the rest of the top, so it looks kind of weird.

And here’s where I’ll talk about German kitchens. Most German apartments/houses do not come with kitchens. No cabinets, no appliances… not even a sink. Sometimes not even a floor. (Because we rented through the housing office on base, ours did have a kitchen.) Those of you who have looked through IKEA catalogs are now understanding why half of it is taken up by kitchen cabinets & stuff, I’ll bet. Aside from the initial expense, I kind of like the idea of having your own kitchen move along with you. I’ve lived in so many places where I didn’t like the cabinets, or the lights or whatever other things… would’ve been nice to have my own stuff to put in. The only really tricky part would be how to have the kitchen fit from one place to the next. (More on closets & lights in another post.)

Guitarman’s car failed the inspection, so he can’t register it yet, which means he’s got these very obvious American temporary plates. Kinda makes the car stick out like a sore thumb. He’ll go in on Tuesday to have Peter fix the car (something about brake pressure not being the same on both sides or something).

The guy at the car center on base was really rude to Guitarman today, so he came home in a horrible mood… ready to pack it in & be back home. (Not really, but pissed off at having to deal with the stuff that comes with being in a foreign place. The guy that pissed him off isn’t even German so it wasn’t about that.) I think things’ll be a lot less stressful once our stuff is here. It’s so hard to feel 'at home' like this, and we’re not really relaxed enough to want to go be touristy either.

Hoopdis All Around

Wee Laddie and I went to Kids’ Club. It was just us for 45 min or so (I guess because of the snow?), then 3 others eventually showed. The group that goes regularly seems to play well together. There are very few altercations, and the moms are all pretty involved. (Hmmm...perhaps that’s why there are so few altercations.)

Apparently our stuff is getting closer… Guitarman has been asked to fill out a customs form. We’d like to know why it wasn’t done ages ago, but the moving company doesn’t really seem to have their shit together.

Wee Laddie is talking up a storm. Today he talked about 'shovel cars' (snowplows)…his growing understanding of how to make sentences astounds me. He’s saying lots of things where he’s playing with the word order, like 'In there Daddy office?' becomes 'Daddy office in there?' It’s like he gets that it goes a certain way and plays with it ‘til it sounds right. My fave phrases of his are, 'Honey, honey, honey,' which he uses if he’s starting to get frustrated with something… can you guess why?) 'Guess so.' And, 'Thank you, you’re welcome, thanks.' Said all together so there’s not even room for another person to do the 'you’re welcome' part. He’s actually been doing this for a while, but it’s now getting clear enough for other people to understand easily. And they usually laugh.

Got Guitarman’s car tonight. Now I’ve got the schmancy car of the two of us. I should tell you, though, that my fancy red sports car (’95 BMW 3-series) only cost $4K. That’s only $1K more than the crappy little car I was driving back home. And even though it’s more than 10 years old it handles really nicely… better than any other car I’ve owned, actually. If we have to leave in October, I’m sure going to see about shipping this car back to the US.

Feels Like Bavaria

Had our first Bavarian snow today. (Actually, the first snow in the area this winter, as well.) 5.5 inches in our backyard and no shovel ‘til evening. (Neither of us had thought to buy one before now.)

We had to go back to the ID office for SOFA cards ('Status of Forces Agreement,' which does something about easier access in & out of the country… it’s like saying that we’re as crucial as military even though we’re not) then went to the car registration office to get my name added onto the car now that I passed the drivers’ license test. The woman working there had total bed-head. There’s something sort of freeing about living in a country where it’s socially acceptable to turn up for work without even brushing your hair.

Went shopping for boots in Parsberg (a bit of a trick since we have no phone book and I didn’t know where any shoe stores were) but no luck. Did find some boots, just none that seemed practical, really. And the 'fashion' ones were a little too frou-frou for my tastes… too many knit trims and tassels.

Guitarman’s car was supposed to be ready today, but Peter was working on Charlie’s (Guitarman’s coworker) CD player, so it won’t be ready ‘til tomorrow.

Cooking Overseas

So I’m trying to cook dinner. I set the burner knob on like 2, thinking that I’d move it up gradually, which is usually the way that I cook. Did that, but it seemed like the water was taking freaking forever to boil. Seriously, like long enough that I actually started to investigate what was going on. Turns out, that 1 is the high setting on our stove. 3 is actually the low setting. Huh??? This also holds true for the one burner we have that, for some unknown reason, goes from 1-12 instead of 1-3. Am I the only one who finds this completely puzzling?

On a reassuring note, I can now boil water.

A Toddler’s Approach to Time

The mess hall is open ‘til 8:30 for breakfast. We got there about 8:27 this morning. For some reason, Wee Laddie was determined to eat everything in sight. But veeerrrrryyyy ssssllllloooowwwllllyyyy. Oy vey. I kept saying, 'Are you done? Are you almost done?' Meanwhile, the mess hall staff is cleaning tables, stacking chairs, removing all the food. I was caught in that whole not-wanting-to-create-any-later-food-issues mess.

We went to the EFMP (Exceptional Family Member Program) playgroup today. It’s put on by the EFMP and a couple of other on-base services but says it's open to everyone, so we went. And it was fun & good. Different than the other one… this one is more like smaller-motor activity. And there’s a PT and a speech therapist there to help in any early intervention situations. I noticed that some of the people were using sign so I asked the PT if they offer any classes here. She said they don’t, so I said I’d be willing to teach one if they’re interested. I’m not certified or anything, but I’ve been using sign on & off for--yikes--25 years? She sounded interested and had me talk briefly with the New Parent Support person, who also seemed interested. I think I’ll order the Signing Time videos for Wee Laddie… then I can brush up, too.

Had lunch w/Guitarman and then took the rental car back. The rental car guy told Guitarman the car was supposed to be clean when we brought it in. Guitarman asked where he could take it to vacuum it and the guy told him. And he said, 'And the car wash is right… ' (and pointed) Guitarman looked up at the rain and said, 'You’re kidding, right?' The guy said, 'Okay, we’ll take care of that.'

We talked about me taking Guitarman’s car (a mid-‘90s BMW) and him getting a mid-‘80s BMW. A real 'hoopdi.' (I don’t know if I’m spelling that right… it’s what they call and older, cheap car.) We’ll probably look at cars soon. It’ll be awkward here with one car. Not like Colorado, but still inconvenient.

We had dinner from Burg Imbiss döner kebap (Turkish restaurant) here in Parsberg… very yummy. Better than the place in Seubersdorf, I think.

Is This a Hurricane?

Kids’ Club today... 5 other mom-tot sets there. (This was actually our 2nd time there, but I was whining so much last week that I didn’t write about it. ) The kids seem to play together well. Wee Laddie really likes this German mom named Sabine. She reminds me of Rutabaga's mom in her 'anything to make this kid have fun' attitude. Her daughter’s fantastic, too… very happy & playful. This playgroup is in a gym on the base and they set out big gymnastic mats & tunnels & things. It is so good for Wee Laddie to have some serious run & climb time!



The satellite installer came to look around & see what he needs to do to get us set up. There’s apparently free German satellite TV (Astra), which I love having. Guitarman wants to sign up for AFN (Armed Forces Network) so we get some stuff in English and so we get the sports he wants to watch. I’d rather have just the German… it’d kind of force us to learn the language, you know?

Made my first trip to a local market… Netto. (I used to know a girl named Netta so it reminds me of her.) My observations: They were out of bananas. Yup, just plain sold out. No blizzard, no nothing...just sold out. Weird. Also, there were very few big loaves of bread. There were a lot of loaves that were like half or so. It must be because of all the bakeries...they must be used to having their bread really fresh.

I got some email time, thank goodness. Oh, how I miss the regular contact with my 'peeps.' It makes me crazy to just have these stolen moments online… it’s not enough time to actually accomplish anything, just enough time to make me realize how behind I’m getting!

Oh, and apparently we’re having a hurricane. A bunch of stuff on the base closed because of the wind. I went to the library. While there, the guy who works at the library went back to talk to a woman who works at the library. Here is the gist of their conversation:
Him: 'The weather is horrible. Go straight home when you leave here.'
Her: 'But I was going to stop at the store.'
Him: 'No, you need to go straight home. It’s really bad out there. Everything’s closed.'
(I’m really downplaying some of the drama.)

So a little bit after that, I go outside to go home. The weather? Perfectly freaking still. Seriously, not even a breeze.

A Better Place to Stay

We’re definitely renting the house in Parsberg… Guitarman met with the landlord & a guy from the housing office today to do a walkthrough. He’s supposed to take the rent check to the landlord tomorrow. It’ll be really nice to get out of the hotel & into a place that’ll be ours even if our stuff won’t be there for a while yet.

We made a run up (down? over?) to IKEA in Regensburg tonight after Guitarman got off work. It was a horrible trip doing something I normally really enjoy. The people who lent Guitarman the truck (it’s connected with work so they can only use it for a short time) didn’t have their paperwork together, so it took him like 1.5 hours to get the truck. Those of you who know how patient he is can imagine how that affected his mood. (And I’ll just leave it at that.) He was supposed to have the truck at 4pm, IKEA closes at like 7 or 8pm (I forget exactly) and it takes probably 1/2 hour to get there.

The drive up was awful...my first time driving on the autobahn. Here’s the deal with the autobahn: There is technically no speed limit for the whole autobahn, but certain areas are marked with speed limits for certain conditions (60kph when wet, 80kph because of road damage, etc). And if you’re in an accident and are doing over 130kph (which is roughly 80mph) you can get in some big trouble if they think you were driving too fast for conditions. Still, a lot of people drive very, very fast. So I’m driving this Lancia rental car that is essentially a Euro minivan… tall, top-heavy, plus it’s shorter and narrower than a US minivan. And on this drive it was really windy. I felt like I was getting blown all over the place! So I wasn’t able to drive very fast but was trying to hurry. I'm a fairly confident driver except when weather conditions make me uncomfortable.


(photo from constructeurs.photos.caradisiac.com...trendy people included for perspective)

Wee Laddie and I ate dinner in the car (sandwiches from the Esso gas station…gotta say, much better than the 7-11 kind) and then we made a mad dash around IKEA, Wee Laddie in tow, trying to get all this stuff. We wanted to get: a bed for us, a bed for Wee Laddie, bedding for all, a TV stand of some kind, and some seating for the living room while our sofa is en route. What we got: a bed



and bedding, but just for us. (Guitarman had already picked up a TV, of course.)

There’s a weird phenomenon here… all the people in shops love to give out gummy bears (or sometimes lollipops) to the little children. Wee Laddie was being really whiny at the Esso when I picked up dinner and the woman handed me one for him. I stuck it quickly in my pocket so he didn’t see it because I was not about to reward his whiny behavior. I did refrain from telling her that, though it probably was mostly because my German is so limited.