Life: Idiotropic

Interesting how things change. Two years ago I went to Amsterdam and couldn't get enough. It was absolutely magical to me then and I yearned for days when I could come to this city alone to sit on the corner of a canal bridge with a notebook and my camera to soak up the atmosphere then promising myself that it wouldn't be long 'til I saw it all again.

This morning I took the train to Amsterdam for the day and though it is still a city that I do love - a city where I could happily spend days walking, photographing, and observing from street corners, it's lost that initial magic. Now I've found other cities.

There are many parts of Amsterdam - busy parts and quiet parts... shopping and art... quiet views and crazy tourists... purity and obscenity. We began at the train station, impressive on it's own, but spewing throngs of tourists and business people alike from its doors in a mad dash to get somewhere, anywhere. And along the main street we pushed through in a rabid zig-zag past junk stores, a sex museum, and the masses of humanity stopping briefly for a flavorless sandwich to keep us going. There I saw a women I later (inspired by the art I saw) thought would make a beautiful painting... her wrinkled dark face wrapped in a colorful scarf. Dark layered clothing. And a stick she held tightly perched on her shoulder to carry her bags. I later saw her again at the train station as we were leaving. She was the same except for a single lavender mum she held in the same hand that held the dark broken stick. Interesting lady. I would have loved to hear her story.

From there we reached the large square where a sea monster and Darth Vador stood on pedestals in front of Madame Tussauds hoping for tourist's coins. Just behind that square and a beautiful shopping mall housed in what looks more like a castle, lies the canal ring - my favorite part of Amsterdam. The rest, really, is touristy shopping areas and museums... but the canal ring seems quieter to me. Quiet and serene - as long as you watch out for bicycles.

Winding slowly through the canal ring, peeking into bead shops and cheese shops, a bakery boasting a 50 year old recipe (funny to hear... 50 years isn't at all old - especially here), and a shop full of beer my husband would enjoy, we stopped here and there admiring windows, canals lined with houseboats, the blooms crawling up the sides of old crooked buildings, and the funny hooks up top that allow people to move large furniture items not up the narrow stairwells, but through the over sized windows.

Eventually, we made it to the museum quarter - today's destination of choice. I hadn't been before and my mom wanted to see the masters. We began at the Rijks - still undergoing renovations, the observable collection is smaller than it should be, but still impressive. Wow. The hand painted Delft ceramics are amazing. It's such a testament to the artist' ability to see such depth and texture created with using only layers of one color. Two large doll houses stood behind glass - one much taller than me with a step stool that would have allowed access to its rooms. They both had real silver and real Delft pottery - real linens and perfectly scaled furniture - all exact replication of their larger counterparts. The art itself interested me more than I'd expected. I love impressionist art. That is what generally moves me. Rembrandt is not a painter that I've ever enjoyed. But today, though the style isn't something that I would hang in my home, I was struck by the perfection in detail and texture that Rembrandt achieved. His fabrics and laces are so intricately done, it seems as if one should be able to reach out and touch them. The shading of the folds, the sheen of the satins, the delicate brocade patterns... all absolutely perfect.

In contrast to the high art inside was this rather chatty bubble blowing Brit, clad in a very heavy, shiny angel costume with his red lipstick and yellow teeth shining through his silver painted face. I took a photo and then he commented to the crowd that this was his job and if we are to take a photo, then do drop a coin in or he might starve. "Well, we don't want any scrawny angels, do we?" I said. And dropped a coin in his bucket giving me the freedom to be a little more obnoxious with my picture taking as I snapped a few more and a closeup as well. "Americans sure like to get their money's worth." Yes. I do.

From there, though hungry, we pressed on past a beautiful playground and small lake just a couple blocks away to the Van Gogh museum. Wow. Beautiful, touching, melancholy genius. This museum is done extraordinarily well, probably because it is able to focus solely on one artist. Set up with rooms sequentially placed in chronological order, the beginning of the room has the date period on the wall with a brief history of Van Gogh's life during that period and how that influenced his art. His early works, done in Holland, are unrecognizable as Van Gogh's without even a hint of the color and distinctive brush strokes that we see instantly as his. Those are dark - too dark. And not very pretty. Each room gets better, brighter, more fun, more recognizably him while his life and history get sadder, and he dies thinking himself a failure whose lost any talent he once had - that was the room with my two favorites - painted at a time he thought himself worthless. That struck me. There's a life lesson in that.

The other interesting thing was this - Millet had done a series of 5 paintings which Van Gogh copied. Not exact copies, of course, but he took the same sketches and did the same paintings in his own style. Two sat together on one wall - the same sketch, same subject, same placement withing the canvas, but such different styles and colors. One by Van Gogh. The other by Millet. Amazing. And how often are we discouraged to copy. But that is how we learn. So to see a master copying another master says something, I think.

Starving (or at least we thought we were starving), with feet quite in revolt by now, we quickly walked back towards the train station stopping for a delicious lunch and an unnecessary, but decadent cheesecake at a hotel restaurant in the canal district. YUM! Italian with a Dutch twist, my lasagna was not typical, not anything I would have expected, but also delicious. Surprisingly full of flavor. I wish I would have take notes then. It was sooo good, but I don't remember exactly what was in it.

See the reflection on the table? That was part of my view from my table... a beautiful old building with a wall plaque laid into the brick and geraniums overflowing from their box under the large white window just behind us.

The train ride there and back was extremely easy and fairly uneventful except for the children - Dutch and British - that rode near enough to us for us to hear and enjoy their antics. Mine were at home, so it was fun to hear others talking at those unreasonable loud child volumes knowing that they weren't mine and I didn't need to worry. They were cute though...

And then there's the Kiosk. A kiosk here is usually a small hut that serves snacks, drinks, and reading material for the ride. Usually they are place permanently at the train stations. This one sprouted legs. He wore a large "backpack" looking thing filled with coffee, a nozzle looping around to the front where he could reach it. The sign on the back showed drink and snack prices. Either side of the pack was a long stack of cups held like those at a water cooler. In front he wore a cooler just wide enough to allow him to walk down the aisles without knocking him over. It was full of snacks. And so our Kiosk with legs came up the aisle offering coffee and snacks to the passengers. Some got coffee. It was funny to see him pull out a cup, fill it with coffee, add the sugar or cream requested, and stand there in the aisle delicately stirring it with a stirring stick for an unusually long period before handing it to the customer. I would have loved to get a clear photo, but too often he was standing sideways facing a customer stirring and I felt way too obnoxious with fellow passengers watching this crazy tourist to snap one then. Just picture it... and don't forget the navy and orange blocked shirt that said "kiosk" in about 4 places.

Random Stuff...

First... today the traffic was slowed in front of our house because there was a spill of some kind. I don't know what spilled... don't really care. But what was interesting was the process by which it was cleaned. These guys were out there for well over an hour - may be even two with one big truck and the little fire van. Black powder was sprinkled liberally over the center of the road where the spill was, then the guys swept it into very neat piles near the sidewalk - meticulously. Nothing hurried. Nothing sloppy. The man by the firetruck? You can see in his hand a little wand with a reflector on both sides. Red and Green. He stood there the entire time directing traffic and inching up the firetruck as needed to keep up with the sweepers. When it was all swept into piles, they went back to where they'd started and began shovelling the piles into the back of a truck, sweeping more, shoveling, with one guy walking down the center of the street with a blower blowing the tiny granules back towards the brooms. The number on the truck - 112 - is the 911 of Germany.

Next: A German chocolate aisle. Before we move I really need to just walk the grocery store with my camera knowing that I'm leaving the country and it doesn't matter what they think. It is amazing. Chocolate is everywhere, but here, on this entire aisle, you'll find nothing but chocolate. Imagine - an entire grocery store aisle - both sides - walking down it surrounded by chocolate. The left side is the not so great stuff. The cheap stuff. The American stuff. The right side is pure heaven. Lindt, Sarotti, Lubeck, Tiamo... flavors from all over the world. Probably at least 10 different coffee flavored chocolates. Mmmmmmm. This aisle can be dangerous.

Phantasialand is a big amusement park that Tiara's been wanting to go to since, well, the first day she heard about it probably about 2 years ago if not earlier. So, today (finally), I got made good on an old promise and we spent the day there together.

It was kind of a birthday thing. And she wanted a friend along but I wasn't going to pay for a gazillion friends to go and if she invited one, then others would be upset/mad/jealous that they weren't invited (8th grade girls are sooo challenging), so she was smart and invited Tyler, a friend of hers and the son of one of my close friends. He's nice. He's not obnoxious like most boys his age. So they could just have fun without any of the teen weirdness.

Phantasialand was fun. We managed to get 11 (Tiara did 12) rides in 9 hours with a lunch break and some getting lost included, so that's not bad.

I had fun and felt kinda like part of the gang instead of the boring adult chaperon, after all, I was the one who wanted to go on the "scary" black Mamba when both Tiara and Tyler were too scared to go.

But, as young as I'd like to be, I learned that

1) A full day of amusement park fun is quite exhausting. At one point I really just wanted to sit and relax a bit - just long enough for them to stand in one line and go on one ride... but did they let me, no. I ended up standing in line watching Tiara do the flipping stomach rocking ride that both Tyler and I agreed was nauseating enough to watch let alone be strapped into. Tiara is now better known as Queen of the Iron Stomachs (my former amusement park title, sadly taken away when I reached the ripe ol' age of 30 and lost the stomach for Disneyland tea cup style rides).

2) Standing in line is a lot more fun when you're 13 and even more fun when you're 13 and standing in a large group of your peers. Standing in line with two shy teens almost a third my age trying to make conversation is, well, kinda boring. Not that they were boring. Tyler chose to keep conversation from lagging by counting Tiara's "blond moments" (she got to 21 by the way - and he got to 7) and bugging me about the French. I like everything French/France and he doesn't. But what does a 13 year old know?

3) Making out in line is frankly, disgusting. Yuck. Gross. Eeeew. In one particular line we were behind one disgusting couple who needed a small hotel room and may be some mouthwash. Happily, the line split and we went a different way just to get stuck behind an even more disgusting couple. Eeew, ick, gross. And it's really hard to avoid when you're crammed together in really tight lines without personal space.

4) Amusement park food almost always looks better than it tastes. We unanimously voted for Chinese food (what were we thinking? Amusement park Chinese in Germany!) thinking that we would have some choice in the matter. Tiara wanted rice. I think we had all though that rice with some meat/veggie thing would be good. Nope. Chinese meant really greasy egg rolls or noodles. We got noodles. Filling, but flavorless.

But, we had a great time and we got to do a lot of spinny upside down roller coaster rides that made Tiara and I scream and Tyler, who is a boy and therefore cannot scream lest his boy-card be taken away, moan. After 9 hours of that we were all (yes, even the kids) ready to go home.

That happy-go-lucky era of the milkman is not dead. It just moved to Germany where your milk man, butcher, and baker all deliver. We have BoFrost too which is a lot like Schwans. And yes, I am serious, the butcher delivers to your door if you'd like. Twice a week I'll hear a very loud cling-a-lingggggg and sure enough, out my window is the meat truck swinging open it's large side door across the street, slicing deli meats in 100 gram portions and portioning out fresh pork roasts and steaks to my neighbors. Talk about fresh. It was probably walking yesterday.

The photos above are of my bus stop, a frequent convenience stop for weary travelers in need of a toilet, and, in this case, food. This truck is one of those mixed trucks with a bit of everything and fresh eggs too which are also delivered here. I am not sure how this trailer flagged him down, but they both pulled over. The trailer driver got out with his wallet ready, the trucks side door flipped up, and the transaction when quickly. By the time the hungry shopper was back in his seat, the door was down and the food truck was on its way again.

Wish I would have gotten Arianna's face in this one... would have been a good photo... oh well... traditions are nice, comforting... and when the weather allows, we treat ourselves to a coffee and slice of cake at a wonderful cafe in Immendorf each Sunday after church. There's a lake with turtles that keep the kids happy, horses they pick grass and feed, and a playground. Top that off with 60 cent cones of delicious home made ice cream and you have yourself a perfect afternoon where the kids will play happily for hours while the adults sit back on the patio with delicious latte macchiatos and thick slices of mouthwatering German cake. Today was no exception. There was a free meal after church, but even after that, we needed the peace and quiet of our Immendorf retreat. A macchiato later, we were all relaxed. And, even in their pretty taffeta dresses, the kids still managed to climb the tree house ladder, swing on the swings, and build castles in the sandbox.

This afternoon, once the most forboding clouds gave way to spots of blue thus raising our hopes of a somewhat dry afternoon, we hopped in the van and made our way to Maastricht for a day of shopping and playing tourist. A perfect day to enjoy the July sales and walk the historic streets, we saw our share of strange today. Here's a photo montage of the fun...

A few days ago I asked Tiara what she wanted to do on her birthday. My motherly mind was thinking of something along the lines of a nice lunch out and a shopping trip to one of the nicer cities near us like Aachen or Maastricht. May be a water park with a friend... something that we don't do every day.

Her now teen mind had other ideas. "Sleep in and play with Rudy."

No, Rudy is not the hunky boy down the street. Rudy is a dog. A beautiful, well-behaved Golden Retriever to be exact (much better than a hunky boy any day of the week, I think). And, he is temporarily living in our village before he moves to Texas with his family.

So, Tiara got her wish. She slept in until 11 and had her favorite tomato cheese bread from Immendorf and a berry smoothy for breakfast. We all went to Il Genio's for a birthday lunch and then she went over to Rudy's house to play for a couple hours before coming home for her choice of dinner: chicken bulgoki ala Kirk. Berry yogurt cake from Immendorf for dessert... presents... and the day was over.

She's probably right with her choices. She's shopping now (alone) with her grandma and in a couple weeks I'll take her shopping (again, alone). So, she had a relaxing birthday without the stress of a big shopping trip with the little sisters. Smart girl at thirteen, I think.

(Drizzle? Well... a few months ago, Tiara was practicing her French in the back seat and I heard her say drizzle. What??? Drizzle. What does that mean? 13. Really? Yeah. Drizzle? No, drizzle. I wasn't hearing the difference between my drizzle and her drizzle until she slowed it down - a lot. And then it was the French word for 13 which I would type here now, but I don't know how to spell it - sounds something like tray - zah. Tiara doesn't say drizzle anymore when she speaks French, but I still like to hassle her - especially now that she's officially - drizzle.)

Today we went to a huge indoor water park where Arianna and Luci discovered the joy of the water slide and Tiara and her friend did the same - just the big version. Elise' favorite was the lazy river floating on a gigantic inner tube. Luci and Arianna loved that too. The food was good. The place was nice. But, oh, after 4 hours of that I wanted to lock myself up in a thick walled box of silence for a year. The continually high volume of noise drove me crazy.

One silly thing happened as I was standing above the lazy river looking down for Tiara and Jenna to take their picture. A couple of German kids saw me with the camera and asked me to take their picture too! So, I pointed the camera and they smiled and posed! Here they are.

Wit is lost to me at the moment. Just not mentally there, but I do want to show off my little beauties and let you know that under no circumstances are you ever to get stuck with me in a labyrinth unless you have a months supply of food and water and probably a good hefty roll of toilet paper. Really, for someone who thinks that they are somewhat intelligent, I am pathetic when it comes to steering my way out of underpruned hedges. I think this is going to give me nightmares... Little Shop of Horrors becomes The Hedge Unleashed.

And it all started out peacefully... church, a nice drive through the rolling hills of South Limburg on a sunny day (Sun, here in Germany? where did it go? Haven't seen it since Sunday.) We taxied, 15 people in three vehicles, over hill and dale and around countless beautiful old half-timbered farmhouses and arrived at a lovely 300 year old mill, home of a wonderful pannekoeken restaurant where the adults could sit and eat peacefully while the kids played at the playground. Ahh... peace and a gyro pannekoeken. Couldn't ask for more.

From there we road tested the intelligence of my Garmin pitted against the TomTom of a friend to get to Drilanderpunt in Vaals. My Garmin was the clear superior with a much better, much more efficient route, but I didn't complain. TomTom took us down tinier than one way roads that were quite picturesque and no one got carsick on the turns.

We've been to Drilanderpunt before - the mysterious Dutch hill where Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands all join. The picture above it is us - in three countries. Pretty fun.

So we went up the tower. Elise, Luci, and I in the elevator. Arianna, Tiara, and my mom up the stairs that wind around up the outside of the tower. Arianna, about halfway up remembered that she is terrified of heights, but my mom, wearing a skirt on a windy day walking up mesh stairs, wasn't going to go back down that way, so Arianna was stuck and eventually made it. Tiara - lost her flip flop.

I was at the top looking for the other half of my family when people told me that Tiara had lost a shoe. So she comes up embarrased because everyone was staring at her feet and even Dutch people had tried to tell her, in Dutch, that she was clearly missing a shoe.

So I asked the not so obvious question: "So where's your shoe now?"

"I don't know," she replied, "I think it's either in Belgium or Germany." That's something you just can't say every day.

She did get it back when we got down so she could run through the maze with two shoes.

The maze. Ugh. Took an hour an a half and that was with help finally from someone in the tower who watched us and shouted directions as we walked along, my mother with her purse in the air so he could see where we were, and me running my fingers along the hedge to make sure I kept to the right one. Clearly not a proud moment. Tiara and Tyler, who got tired of us pretty quickly, took off on their own and made it out a full half hour ahead of us. And we had a map!

Tiara with Tyler on the bridge that we couldn't find that leads to the exit of the maze... missing shoe... Luci in front of Belgium... Elise in front of Germany...

Just so you know (because though I suspected, I didn't really know), this is what a broken nose looks like. Imagine this just a little darker - a little more intense. I think the camera bleaches it out a bit. She didn't get two black eyes like the doctor had predicted. Just one. And she announced that if she still looked like this when school starts, that she's NOT going. Good thing she has a month to go. Her nose looks better now, but is still yellow and slightly purple.

What to do? Well, it's healing straight on its own, so we will watch it and in the future, if it is crooked, then they'll rebreak it and set it properly. Dr. Huhn said that there was no need to do anything about it at this age.

Today we attended our third 4th celebration that wasn't celebrated on the 4th.

Pretty much the same as every year... there were rides and food, music and bird shows, informational booths highlighting organizations here, photo ops, bingo, and games.

The girls took off with Kirk right away and did all the rides while my mom and I walked around talking to people. There was one of those insanely fast rides that goes around in a circle with loud music and flashing lights over a hilly floor. The little girls loved it - even Elise. Tiara and I both got slightly nauseas.

So, our day in a nutshell:

• Tiara spent her day alternating between friends and me. Wanting to be with friends, but not wanting to be a third wheel between friend with boyfriend. She did go on that really spinny ride once with a really cute high school boy at insistence of a friend of mine. Not worried. Tiara's so shy with boys, she won't even talk to them. I don't mind if she hangs out with us though. I'm starting to miss her. She spends so much time either with friends or talking with friends that especially with her demanding sisters, we don't get much time just for us.

• Arianna ran all over playing with friends and riding rides. Although this is an open event, it's held at a base and we know the majority of the people there, so it almost feels like a private party and very safe. She had some freedom to run and liked that. The boy with her is David - a boy who was in her school class and lives just behind us. They are so much alike that they've spent the last year either completely in love or absolutely NOT liking each other one bit.

• Luci was eating her dinner with the rest of us sitting on a picnic bench talking to friends when one asked what happened to her nose that was now swollen and purple from yesterday's fall. "It's broken," she said. So, long story short, I saved myself a trip to the clinic by taking her to our regular doctor who happened to be volunteering for the event at the med tent. Yep, broken. And she has a case of ringworm. Poor kid. But a broken nose hasn't slowed her down one bit. I had to stop her from jumping on the wet bouncy castle with ten other rowdy kids. She didn't like that. At least the spinny ride was relatively safe and she got to go rock shopping with her dad and get a really pretty rose quartz egg. Luci also memorized the location of the med tent and ran there several times to get an ice and water filled latex glove to ice her nose. She didn't really care about the glove, but was pretty happy just sitting with Dr. Huhn. She calls him Dr. Toad (his name is Todd) and I think she kind of has a crush on him.
  

• Elise thinks she's Tiara or thinks she should have the same freedoms. She saw a friend from school and took off running. Was across the field in a split second with me running awkwardly after her. Silly thing. But she had a great time playing too.

• It showered tremendously at one point soaking everyone and forcing all the crowds under one tiny tent where we screamed conversations over the music, but cleared in time for the fireworks display that was so so almost average, but kinda below - a display that was a nice gesture, but ended without pizazz - not one stanza of patriotic music, not one march. So when it was over the entire crowd assembled there in the dark sat, quietly, for about 40 seconds whispering "is it over?" before gathering up their chairs and leaving.

Today we had a plan. Go swimming, run errands, clean, decorate, and have a party.

The cold and windy weather made swimming with three little girls impossible. My completely dead, not even the least bit rechargeable car battery killed the possibility of running errands.

So, I called a friend to pick up a few things and I spent the day preparing for Arianna's first ever slumber party sleepover birthday.

All in all, the day was fairly uneventful. The girls played and I puttered around the house. One bit of excitement occurred when I heard a blood curdling scream from Luci. She had three Barbies in a shoe box lid scooting them around quickly on our 101 year old entry way tile when the box lid slipped and her face came down. Other than a few droplets of blood, she looked fine. So, we iced it and she ran off to play 30 minutes later.

6pm - Three hyper ready to party 7 year old girls came bouncing into my house met by the hysterical screams of an excited Arianna. They played, they dressed up and danced. They ate and became over sugared. We did hand print stepping stones and I gave them disposable cameras to photograph each other with. They fell asleep around 1230. One woke up afraid of spiders, so I slept on the couch near the girls. At 0530, all four 7 year-old girls were up, playing, laughing, and asking for breakfast. At 0730 I finally gave in and had the girls all mixing in their own additions to their little bowls of pancake batter. At 10 they were gone and I pretty much collapsed.

Lessons learned: Arianna is NOT Tiara. Duh. Yeah, um, I knew that... BUT. Sometimes I plan things based on past experience. Makes sense? And, with parenting things my past experience is Tiara who, as a seven year old, made my life unrealistically easy. So tonight, I had an amazing, activity filled, Movie Star party planned with a red carpet, fun decorations, crafts, and more. The kids had a great time... but they also are so high energy that they spent most of their time running, laughing, yelling, and playing and we didn't do the planned activities as much. Worked, but just not the same. They were loud. They were kinda scary. I didn't want to sit and chat. With Tiara, I hung out more. With these guys, I hung back and talked with Tiara. She was scared too. Did I mention they were loud? Wow. Volume 10.

Today was Arianna's 7th birthday.

I had a going away function for a friend in Sittard this morning, but Arianna came with me and played with the other kids while the adults sat around with our coffee and bagels.

When that was over we went to the market - the first time she and I had ever gone to the market alone and she loved it! We bought cherries and roses, shopped for party gifts for her friends and looked at ribbons and buttons. She kept telling me how much she loved to shop with me - without her sisters along. I think all the girls think that.

Home for relaxation, a movie...

Then her choice for dinner: Steak and mashed potatoes with gravy. Salad (not her choice). And molten chocolate cakes for dessert. Not bad.

Tomorrow she's having her first ever slumber party here at the house - a movie star party with three of her friends. We'll have the red carpet, the walk of fame, and the girls will each have an autograph book and disposable camera to shoot photos with. Should be fun and really silly.

More info then.

T

Amidst catching up on all sorts of random things, I am trying to not bore my kids, so am making an effort to do something kinda fun each day. Here is yesterday and today.

Yesterday's fun:

Water is magic. I filled a teensie weensie baby pool with water and my three not-so-little girls all crammed themselves in and started a big water fight. Simple and fun. Then they hung upside down to dry in the sun. When we moved here two + years ago my girls were a lot smaller. Amazing how the time has flown.

Today's fun:

Met a friend for a snack at Haus Hammacher - a fairly good restaurant in Gangelt surrounded by fun things to do. The girls had chocolate ice cream in cute clown cups with cones on top like hats. Then we all piled into a little rowboat. I boated as a kid. I used to go to the lake with my dad all the time and paddle around by myself in a little inflatable kayak. Well, I sat down and grabbed the oars and was the most embarrassing uncoordinated site I think I've ever seen. The boat spun in circles and I couldn't get anywhere. Sat facing the wrong direction too. Kristi laughed at me. I think I was 13 shades of pink. So, she took over and got us to the end of the lake and back allowing all three girls to take turns rowing. Sadly, each of my little girls showed more inclination towards boating than I. Post boating we went mini-golfing there at the lamest mini-golf course ever. No grass. Ugly cement slabs for each hole. Very little creativity. No water. No moving objects. Very sad. But, I only paid 5 Euros for all 5 of us and there was no one else there, so we could skip around and redo holes. Sadly, the little ones had never mini-golfed before, so all three kept trying to pick up the ball and move it. They all hit it a gazillion times. It was humorous. But... that outing wore us out. Just across the parking lot is the most amazing pool area ever. So, that is Friday's plan. Should be fun!

Rest. Quiet.

As if by magic, almost all the German flags and lined the streets flying out of every window of both house and car have disappeared. They are gone without a trace. As if there were none there yesterday when the air was filled with Euro Cup preparations. Just yesterday it was all over the radio, internet, and television. German companies would close early. Production lines would actually stop for the game costing the companies money - but this was the Euro Cup and it was worth it. All the Germans would be watching. And if they'd won, we would have heard the honking all night. The flags would still fly.

But Spain won. And today was silent. No talk. No flags. Just silence. As if it had never happened. As if there wasn't a Euro cup just a few hours before.

ganz ruhig