The Neighborhood Baby is Here!!! Plus a German Tradition

The whole neighborhood has been eagerly awaiting one of our neighbors to give birth to her first child. We have all named this bundle of joy the neighborhood baby. Needless to say we were all ecstatic to find out that their little bundle of pink was welcomed into the world yesterday.

So in keeping with German tradition we have hung a clothes line up. It is German Tradition that when a baby is born the neighborhood hangs a clothes line and then decorates it with baby clothes. Everyone from the neighborhood comes and takes part. The family in turns is to keep the clothes line up for one year. This to bring good luck to the family to have another baby within the next year. If they don't have another baby within the year the neighborhood again assembles another clothes line. I'm sure our neighbors will be extremely happy to see this traditional symbol in their yard...lol

Blogger is not cooperating right now so I will have to post a picture of this tradition later :)

Spring is FINALLY here!!

This weekend by far has been one of the most beautiful weekends we have had in Germany so far. The rest of Germany saw the start of spring a few weeks ago but as usually it took Bavaria a couple of weeks to catch up.

Zac took full advantage of this weekend spending most of the day yesterday and today outdoors. Sydney has been confined to her room because she is grounded. All I can say if she is definitely her mother's daughter and her new found attitude is not going over very well with Paul.

We bought the kids some rollerblades a few weeks ago since all the other kids here in the neighborhood have a set. Neither one of the kids knows how to Rollerblade. Zac was pretty quick to learn on his..



Here is a video clip

ZAC ROLLERBLADING

Two Hours and 66 Pieces of paper later...

I got the children registered for school. You read that right 66 pieces of paper. Talk about a bureaucratic nightmare. It was just plain ridiculous!

I preregistered online before going hoping to be in and out of there in no time. So when I get there they sit me in front of a computer to print it out.44 pages for two kids!!! 44 pages for two kids who are ALREADY enrolled and attending this SAME school. Then they give me a "local" packet 10 pages a piece so
another 20 pages. I promise I am not lying!!


So needless to say my day today has been filled with being a "Jon P." for the DoDEA school system. I don't think they will be sending me any newsletters to volunteer in the near future. For those of you who don't know what a "Jon P." is its something I learned from my dad "Jon P" He is a customer service representatives worst nightmare when they are incompetent. As a kid it was quite embarrassing and even more embarrassing the first time Dad met Paul and we all went out to dinner. Poor Paul had to be thinking to himself what hell did I get myself into. The "Outback Incident", as it is known now, is a classic story Paul LOVES to share with anyone who will listen.

I doubt all my griping will do any good since it is bureaucracy at its best but I sure can ruin a few days in the DoDEA process.

Did you know...

American Corporations lose an estimated 178 billion a year in lost productivity from employees surfing the Internet. Employees spend an estimated 6 hours a week surfing the web for non work related items.

I came across that information the other day researching items for my Health Care Management class. This week and next week marks the beginning of finals for college. Only two of my classes are having finals. The remaining classes take great joy in torturing me with endless papers under ridiculous deadlines. I have one instructor who calls these two weeks "Crash Week" he opens up an assignment for viewing from anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. In those few hours you have a major paper to write usually using peer reviewed articles which are a pain in the ass to research. To make things even more difficult Germany is 6 hours ahead. I find myself staying up to 3 and 4 am everyday this week trying to complete these assignment or waiting for him to open one up for viewing. The college's online Library is offline during the hours of 8 am to noon here so that creates an even bigger problem. I finished paper number 2 last night around 1 am and have another one opening up today.

You ask what my teacher's rational is behind this?

His theory is that as health care managers you need to be able to think quick on your feet and react quickly to issues. His comical way of torturing us with these ridiculous deadline is his way of preparing us for that.

On the bright side the semester ends next week. :)

FINALLY HOME!!!

We finally made it home this afternoon. We had an adventured filled week and it is so nice to be home. We are home for only a few days thou before we head back out for another trip.

Bastogne

Today our travels took us to Bastogne, Belgium. Bastogne is the site of one of the major battles from the Battle of the Bulge in Dec 1944 to Jan 1945. This is the site where General McAuliffe made his famous comment of "Nuts" after the Germans had surrounded the 101st Airborne and demanded they surrender. To this day the city of Bastogne has not forgotten what the 101st had done for them and they are very much loved there. Given that Paul and I are both veterans from the 101st, Bastogne was in our top 5 places to visit before leaving Europe. The miniseries "Band of Brothers" does an excellent job portraying the life and struggles the 101st endured during the Battle of the Bulge.

We particularly loved Bastogne not only because of the history from the 101st but that it is a beautiful city that is not over run with tourists. We expected it to be quite touristy but were surprised to see how quaint it was. On the downside we also thought that since it would be a huge tourist place that more people would speak some English. We quickly learned that we need to pick up some French before going back because very few people speak any English there. We found two people who spoke English the woman at the tourist center and the woman at the chocolate store and her English was a LOT better then the one in the tourist office.

All in all we had a fantastic day. The drive through Luxembourg and Belgium was AMAZING!!! Just absolutely beautiful!! The city was amazing too. We definitely plan on going back again very soon.

We were lucky enough to catch this amazing exhibit going on until the end of the year. This exhibit was extremely moving. I HIGHLY suggest checking it out if you plan on visiting Bastogne before the end of the year. It focuses on not only the side of the Allies but the side of the German forces as well as the local residents in the area. They even had a section of the exhibit where you feel like you are in the Ardennes Forrest hearing and seeing all the sounds of the battle. Filled with smoke and sounds. Here is a shirt video clip..

Ardennes Video Clip

Here are a few pics from the exhibit.


This first one is of a soldier that was killed in the Battle of the Bulge. The War Department Letter that was initially sent to his wife stating he was MIA there were also letters he sent to his wife..



This was the most moving part of the exhibit. This is a room lined with tombstones and little tv screens at the foot of them. On these tv's were pictures and videos of those killed in Bastogne, locals, allied and German forces. It really humanized everyone involved.


A replica of the room where the American forces would plan their battles. The items are authentic in this room.



A replica of a basement of a local resident. It depicted how local residents would seek refuge in the basement of their homes from the bombings. In this room you could hear the air raid sirens and bombs. They really tried to make you feel like you were there.


This exhibit was AMAZING. The four of us learned quite a bit from this and it was very moving. It was extremely educational for the kids because they really got a better idea of how things were during this time. Zachary in particular has become quite the WWII buff just like his dad.

The Mardasson Memorial

The Mardasson Memorial was erected near Bastogne to honor the memory of the 76,890 American soldiers who were wounded or killed during the Battle of the Bulge.





The crypt at the memorial...

Another amazing thing about this memorial is the view from the top...




Historical Center of Bastogne is right next to the memorial..


A few more pics from the day..

General McAuliffe


Bastogne was so grateful to General McAuliffe that this square is named after him and there is even a Cafe called "Nuts" in it..


The Porte de Trèves, part of the defensive wall that was built in the 14th Century. It is the only piece remaining of the wall.


A few more pics of Bastogne...




The drive to Bastonge was AMAZING!! Here are a few pics from our drive up and back...








Make sure to check back soon to see where we go tomorrow ;)

The Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial

On this 50.5 acres of land are buried 5,067 soldiers who gave their life in WWII. Many of these lives were lost in Battle of the Bulge. The city of Luxembourg served as headquarters for General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army. General Patton is buried here. Words can not describe the feeling you have as you walk through this cemetery.

On these two walls one side are detailed accounts recalling the achievements of the American armed forces in this region.



The other side is even more sombering as it contains 371 names of those missing.




A white stone chapel where a stained glass window contains the unit insignia's of U.S. Army Units.






General George S. Patton is buried here...



For those unknown but not forgotten...

Day Two: Trier and Luxembourg

Today we made the trip to Luxembourg and went back to finish Trier.

Here are a few more pictures of our trip to Trier today. I will talk about Luxembourg in my next blog.

Barbarathermen (St. Barbara's Bath)

These Ancient Roman baths built around 150 AD were used for hundreds of years. In later years when they were disused they were raided for building materials. Even though the baths were raided for building material they remain in better shape then those of the Imperial Baths.

We were unable to walk through this old bath house because it is currently under going further excavation and restoration at the moment. I was still able to get some pictures to share.




Amphitheatre


The amphitheatre was built around 100 AD. This amphitheatre was a frequent sight of gladiator battles.





Baths at the Cattle-Market

This Bath was discovered in 1987. It is housed indoors in a glass structure which personally I felt made it lose it's appeal unlike they other two bath houses we saw. These once served as living quarters for the Romans in the 1st century then became a bath house in 3rd and 4th century. Later on in the 13th century the chapter of the "cathedral" used the ruins for "quarry" to build a cathedral, Church of Our Lady (see yesterday's blog)






Inside the Porta Nigra

Today we went inside the Porta Nigra. I spoke about the Porta Nigra in the previous blog. Here are a few pics from the inside...








Guilds Fountain



St. George Fountain
This fountain was built in 1750/1751