A FULL WEEK IN HAMBURG

After a long week of working I stayed up late one night and sat in the entry way/hallway/computer area calling home from the computer using Skype. Our Skype computer name is foxfamilyde and we had so much fun chatting away (Harmony and I talked for 40 min. and it was free). Computer to computer is free and then for us to call home is very easy and doesn't cost too much so that is nice.
David watching CNN on the couch with all of Julian's pictures hanging behind him. We aren't sure if Julian forgot to take them down or if he just wanted us to get to know his friends and family.
David in the kitchen getting fired up to listen to the duck game on computer. I brought a stash of Duck stuff to hang around the apartment on game days so that David would feel less like he was missing out on the Oregon fun.
Noa is 3 and she loves to read books and play with her dolls.
Noel is 15 months and he is a complete clown. He does whatever you tell him not to do and he giggles until he shakes when you come running after him when he is doing something totally not okay.

THE WEEKEND... is here (and almost over) and as we walked home last night from dinner at our new favorite neighborhood café, we realized that Friday marked one week since we stepped off of the bus 109 with all of our bags and glazed looks in our eyes; we have successfully made it through one week in our new home, our new job, our new school…and we are still glad to be here.

Yesterday we went to the outdoor Market for the second time and we ordered our fruit, vegetables, bread, meat and cheese in German. Last week we made it to the neighborhood grocery store multiple times without forgetting our cloth shopping bag (they don’t provide plastic bags without a price here) we have successfully found our daily routes on the subway system, we have called home, and most importantly we have figured out how to cook our pasta and red sauce (total cost of dinner comes to 2.00) with enthusiasm and flare each night this week!

I have had a great week with Noa and Noel. They are truly loving children and they are learning that “Frauma Liz” does not respond when her lovely little children whine or cry. They both had colds this week and Noel is teething---needless to say it was an enthusiastic first week together! I met their parents through the online forum and I am so glad that I did—it is so interesting learning about Hamburg from them. Christofer is a teacher of teachers for the state and Fabienne is a marketing specialist for the hospital system here in Hamburg. They are both originally from Hamburg but have been living and working in Shanghi for the past 5 years, and now that they are back it is interesting to share our culture shock together.

David had orientation last week and it went well. He is very anxious to start his classes tomorrow. It should be fun to ride the subway together each morning and then trickle home at various times in the day. He says that he will get online and write a blog to tell you all about it this week.

The last and final exciting part of our weekend is that I spent the afternoon today in the German Emergency Room. David went to library and when he came home I had gone to have 6 stitches and was back taking a nap. (He was sorry to miss all the excitement)! This morning I was washing a wine glass and it cracked slicing through the back of my hand. After some consideration on how deep it was I decided that there was no way that I could hold it together with a band aid so I called Nadia and her WONDERFUL mother Christiana and her great aunt Helga took me to the ER. After just 2 hours and 150 euros I was stitched up and ready to go out the door. The ER was clean, friendly, quick, and the doctor spoke wonderful English—I was very surprised on many accounts but I will be honest the day would have been VERY traumatic without the wonderful angels who helped get me there and all fixed up!

We are off to go enjoy another week in Hamburg, Please email us, keep in touch and let us know about how your lives are going.