Monday, May 23, 2011

Our last day in Germany

Monday May 22nd
Today was a very quiet day for me, but not so much for Katie.  The alarm rang at 6:30 this morning and after a quick breakfast of rolls, Katie and Luzie were off to the Gymnasium. It was a long day today, as each day ends at a different time. Today school lasted until 3:15, but they had some fun tuff built into the day.  There was a double period of gym, which they call “sport” and the lesson plan for today was ripstick riding!  Then later in the afternoon was a team-building activity with the “classroom”teachers and the activity for today was bowling at the new local community center which is in the same complex as the gymnasium.
Karin and I had a long breakfast after the girls left and compared school systems and other aspect s of life.  Our plan for the day was to drive into Mannheim and pick up a piece of art that Karin had at the framers.  The framer is a certified artisan who went through three years of apprenticeship and then got a masters in the art from the Chamber of craftsmen. This apprenticeship is available in many crafts an also in businesses and is an alternative to college for the kids who don’t go to the gymnasium.  This is a well-respected career path, and taken by many people.  The framework was absolutely beautiful and complemented the artwork perfectly.
We also walked around Mannheim a bit.  It is much larger than Heidelburg at about 500,000 residents.  Heidelburg has only about 150,000 people.  The main difference through is that heidlelbrg was protected during the war and no bombs fell on it at all. However, Mannheim was full of industry and was bombed heavily. So while Heidelburg is old and beautiful, Mannheim is mainly rebuilt and looks much more like a city.  At one point we saw two old buildings with a new building in between. Karin said matter of factly that the middle building was probably bombed and the new building just filled in the gap.
We spoke some of her new job in which she works to improve productivity in the mental health facilities of the University of Heidelburg health system. Mental health issues are stil very much hidden in Germany and not discussed, even depression is not acknowledged.  This is one area in which she really wishes that Germany could catch up. One of her nephews is autistic and when the childs mother visited Karin in the US, she was in awe of all the Autism awareness stickers on people’s cars. That would NEVER be acknowledged in Germany, much less so publicly.  They think it is much better in the US.
We arrived home and welcomed the girls back from the gymnasium. They were both completely exhausted! However, the day went well and Katie survived. She has lots of tales of how things are different and how they are the same from her school, but overall she seemed to enjoy it.
This evening we planned to have a traditional German meatloaf type food that is very characteristic of Bavaria, to celebrate Roland and Karin’s heritage.  However, by the time we got Vreni to and from swim practice and picked the meat up at the butcher, it was way too late to actually cook it up for tonight! As the butcher handed it to Karin, he said “So just cook it for an hour.” She looked down at her watch and up again in horror as it was already past 6pm.  Oh well – the Schmids will have to eat it later in the week!  We quick whipped up a spaghetti dinner instead with creamy basil sauce.  Luzie and Vreni prefer their noodles without sauce leading to a funny  exchange. Katie and Luzie se the table and were already sitting when the noodles were brought to the table, “Oh Mom, no!” said Luzie, “Couldn’t you make some without sauce?”  At that point Vreni showed up to the table, looked down, got a disappointed look on her face, and said “Oh Maman, Nein!!!” But with admonishments from their parents they ended up eating anyway. We had rolls with the dinner and they were fresh pretzel roll from the bakery. Pretzel rolls are a very common and tasty roll here.
After dinner Roland headed out to play a team sport which is kind of similar to volleyball, but you hit the ball down onto the floor to bounce it instead of up in the air. The net is only about a foot off the ground.  It’s a interesting mix of volleyball and some aspect of large-scale ping-pong! It is an older game, and not really popular anymore, so there aren’t too many places to play it.  There is a place nearby though and Roland plays every Monday night.
Karin, the girls and I headed into town one last time to get ice-cream.  I got the spaghetti ice this time as I really wanted it try it before leaving town. Luzie joined me in spaghetti ice, and Katie and Vreni got banana splits. Karin just had a sundae. Katie rode the waveboard all the way into town and back and has gotten really good at it, accident not withstanding.  She is begging for one when we get home.
Later in the evening Karin and I made a picnic lunch for Katie and I to take on the train tomorrow.  It’s a really good german feast. Sandwiches made from pretzel rolls, pfeffer salami and cream cheese.  Mine has horseradish cream cheese!  We also have pretzel rods, and lots of German candies.  Katie and Luzie split up the candy form the sugar shack, plus we have lots of German Haribu gummy candies.
Vern went to bed, but the rest of us stayed up late into the night talking and looking at old photos of the girls when the Schmids lived near us.  This was such a great opportunity to spend some time with old friends and learn about life in Germany.  Katie and Luzie were so small when they moved away, and although Karin and I had nominally stayed in touch, this will make us closer again.  We hope to be able to come back sometime and hope the Schmids visit us again sometime.  Katie and Luzie plan to stay in touch now via email and see each other again before too long.  It was a bit stressful for all of us to get reaquainted again after so long, but it was really worth it and I am glad that we took the opportunity to do so!

2 comments:

  1. That's awful about the stigma of mental health. Is it covered under health insurance?

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  2. Yes, it is covered, but it s simply NOT discussed. Kind of like in the US in the 1950s! They were just shocked and happy about how open we are about mental health issues in the US.

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