The way NOT to wake up...

After a dream at the airport. You have all your kids, they're rolling around the international waiting area like lion cubs, you start getting your stuff together the moment boarding is called, and by the time the room is empty (except for your family and the 20 or so suitcases which are NOT CHECKED and which you have to carry on BY HAND), you are still not ready, and the gate boarder workers have to go round up your kids while you try to remember which bag you stuck your tickets in and everything is rolling out of the luggage as fast as you can stuff it in.

Adrenaline isn't good for you at 5:30 in the morning.

ETA: DH says in HIS dream we all left him at the check-in counter with all the luggage, some of which wasn't  packed, either, and dirty socks and bedding kept falling out of the suitcases. He's not even sure we left him a boarding pass.

And we have FOUR MORE MONTHS of these dreams??

Yes, I will miss the chocolate...

...but I can't wait until I can throw my clothes in the dryer instead of hanging them out on the balcony as the 12-year-old boys from the tutoring center next door watch me. Some of us have allergy/respiratory issues in our family, and I'm not a fan of the tutoring center teacher coming out on the balcony to smoke all over my clean clothes, either.

Second graders in Germany

Son #2 had his choir and Blockfloete (recorder) concert this afternoon. He really likes choir, and theoretically he likes Blockfloete, too, but since we've seen him practice all of twice since September, we agreed that he can drop it if he wants. He wants. But his teacher said he had to stay in until the concert.

Anyway, it was really nice. My kid did the hand motions! He never does hand motions. And he played the Glockenspiel on one of the songs. He played the recorder, too, of course. They had a lot of traditional songs that they all played on their instruments and we audience members sang along with. One of Littlest Child's two favorite songs is currently Summ, Summ, Summ, Bienchen summ herum (Buzz, buzz, buzz, bees buzz around), which was among the selections.

They also, however, did a selection from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana on the Blockfloete. I might add that Littlest Child's other favorite song is Mozart's Bona Nox. She got this out of a picture book.

They must think we're total barbarians. I mean, how could we let our child start school without having memorized Bach's collected works??

The promised German washing machine entry

Okay, folks, if you move to Germany (or anywhere in Europe, as far as I can tell--Natalie reports a similar set up in Italy), you have to know about the laundry situation. First, Germans live mainly alone or with very few other people, and their apartments don't generally come with a lot of space for washing machines. Often they are in a large common room in the basement, or stuffed in the bathroom. (I was going to say that German apartments are small, but that's not true--the washers, however, are apparently not a priority. Just a generation or two ago, from what people tell me, anyway, there were still people washing their clothes in large pots on the stove, so I guess this is progress?)

Anyway. Secondly, Germans are very Umwelt-freundlich! This means environmentally-friendly. Remember that word; it will get you everywhere in this country. You know how "family friendly" and "healthy" are catchy advertising to Americans? Well, the environment is what sells here. In practical terms, this means that 1) your washer will have a green sticker on it saying how environmental it is, and 2) the wash cycle takes a loooooooooooooong time, presumably to prevent the use of too much energy?? (No, don't think about that one too much. Especially since the European voltage is twice that of American.) Our normal cycle, without a prewash, takes two hours (a little more if the temperature is hotter than 30C). You can set it for a shorter cycle, but that only means no spin.

Third, dryers. There just aren't separate dryers, except maybe in a laundrymat. The most common setup is a machine that both washes and dries. But most people just hang up their clothes on a rack. If you're lucky, you have a balcony (we are the only family in the building with one). But that only works in nice weather. Otherwise, you either put your rack in your house, or in the dank and moldy basement, or up in the attic, which is sure to be a good place, but there are far too many stairs and I have far too many clothes to do that one! People who live in houses and/or larger apartments than ours probably have a separate room for all of this. But we don't. Oh, you can also get racks to hang over your bathtubs, too, but we max that out in half a load, and nothing ever dries in there for us.

( Wanna see pictures? )

So, there you have it! Your complete primer on the German Washing System.

Next time we'll talk about something more er...tourist-friendly.