Life: Idiotropic

That is the phonetic spelling of the Hungarian word for "thank you," one of the few words that I could pronounce and use while in Hungary. I'm back, and trying slowly to catch up from what was an absolutely amazing trip with a couple very special surprises. Between my dad and I, we took over 3000 photos, so I'll be deleting a few, and posting a very small sampling in a couple days along with some trip details.

Until then.

Hey! Sorry to be away so long without leaving notes here... we've been busy... school for girls, crazy work schedule for Kirk, and me with our first (and successful) IWC event, some friends from Oregon here last week, then my dad arriving on Friday... and now (drumroll, please), a trip (would love to throw an adjective in there, but there isn't one big enough) to Vienna (where my grandfather went to school and lived briefly), Oberwart (where my grandfather was born and grew up), and Budapest (where family lived and my grandfather spent summer vacations). It will be wonderful. I am so excited that my stomach is a flutter and I'm quite nauseus. Leaving in an hour for the airport and will return LATE on Sunday.

Will stop in then with a photo or two!

~By the way... I'm running out of photo space, so I'll have to start deleting photos from this blog or finding another way to store them online... so for those family members who save these, this is the time to cut and paste before I start deleting.

TALE are all in school... E has dance class... so in the quiet of the morning, Dad and I walked from Burg Trips, into town for a treat at Schleypen, then back to the castle to go and pick up Elise.

Elise spent her afternoon helping Tante Tinny sweep the sidewalk in front of our house. The cleanliness of the older Germans never ceases to amaze me. Sweeping sidewalks, mopping courtyards, sweeping streets and gutters, washing windows (weekly) and front doors... all normal. All weekly if not more frequently.

(The photo was taken from my open front window - a window that we use frequently as a makeshift front door if the door is locked and the key is missing, or, if we're just in a hurry. It's always funny to see the expressions on the faces of local Germans - the chimney sweep... the computer guy - when they ring the doorbell and I answer through the window inviting them to step over the low sill into my home.)

Because this is most likely our last autumn here and thus our last Octoberfest and because Kirk and I were just not up for a loud drunk-fest the night before, we thought we'd spend an afternoon on base in the hanger converted to a party zone at the Octoberfest family day as we'd done in the past. But this year the music was too too loud, so though the kids were having fun with balloons, the bouncy thing, and the pedal/car things, within 30 minutes, we'd decided that the food was not worth the ear shattering noise. A quick drive to Immendorf for a quiet coffee and slice of cake was the perfect antidote. The kids played on the playground and we all enjoyed some hot soup and goodies there.

This was also the day for the big winter clothes swap when all summer things went up in big bins away and the winter clothes came out, so there were piles of clothes and a massive fashion show as the three little ones tried things on. Like Christmas. They all looked so cute!

Photos from today...

We went to Drielandenpunt where Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany connect. Went up the tower, stood at the borders, took a nature walk to collect leaves and nuts for Luci's "leaf creature" for school, and I played with Elise on the playground while Grandpa took Luci and Arianna into the maze. They eventually gave up and left through the entrance. The maze is harder than it looks. Worked up an appetite and went to the Pannekoeken house in Gulpen for dinner. Always have the Gyro one - it's delicious!

... which translates into very excited girls who absolutely adore their grandfather and lots of opportunities for them to show off in front of the camera.

Aahhhhh.... never need an excuse to go to Maastricht. I'd live here in a heartbeat. Would bike into town from my old brick house on the outskirts, stop at my favorite cafe for a caramel cappuccino, then visit my church bookstore. It's just lovely, relaxing, and absolutely never boring.

So, here's a couple from my day... the lady by the statue that I thought was interesting and a couple photos of my beautiful little Elise - quite a ham in front of my camera.


This was a beautiful sunny day doing the "tiffany route" - a bit of this and that - touring my favorite city. Starting at the Vrijhtof, walking to the Stokstraat quarter by way of the Blanche Dael coffee roaster, meandering past a couple old churches and down a really cool wall lined alleyway towards the Jeker quarter, then walking back to the Hellspoort along the old wall and garden area. Coffee at Coffee Lovers and a scoop of gelato were our rewards to a walk well done. Mmmm.

Friends in town lend a reason to revisit places that I love, but don't always find the time to see in the day to day routine of kid stuff, volunteer stuff, and housekeeping. So, with Jessica here with her family (I've known her since the 4th grade!!), I decided it was a good reason to head to Aachen for a stroll.

Photos 1: One of the things I love about Europe is the contrast between the old and new, the priceless and the tacky. Europe gets glorified a bit by those who haven't been here yet. It seems so beautiful and ornate - so perfect and elegant - and yet, you get here and see McDonald's and Burger King, Micky Mouse and Levi's, American style carnival rides blaring American rock and roll... and tacky carnival candy sold at 10X it's worth. There's beauty here. There's history and mysticism and lore. But people are people, kids are kids, and every where, even in front of Charlemagne's great Dom, people will gather at the carnivals, ride the kiddie rides, and treat their little ones to something sweet. Some things are just universal.

Photo 2: My little Elise on the carousel - a firetruck, I think. One ride. A little bit of fun for her and Sam in our day of touring the old city.

Photo 3: A seasonal treat and sign of autumn. A sweet hedgehog made of printen cookie (Aachener Lebkuchen) and slivered almonds.

Photo 4: Legend has it that the when the people of Aachen needed a church, they didn't have enough money to build one, so they signed a contract with the devil that if he helped build the cathedral, he'd get the soul of the first one who entered. The clever Aacheners sent a wolf in a wig into the cathedral first, tricking the devil, so he rushed in to grab the wolf, then realized that he was tricked and hit the walls in anger losing a thumb in the right lion's mouth when he was trying to open the door. People say that you can still feel the devil's thumb stuck in the lion's mouth if you stick your finger in (yet I have my suspicions). I haven't tried it... may be on the next visit.

Photo 5: F is for friends and fun and flowers... These sunflowers are gorgeous! Jess bought them for me from a flower stand just in front of Aachen's Rathaus. They were almost as tall as Elise with the stems on, so I had to take a few photos. Beautiful girl, beautiful blooms.

September 4th - Luci turned 6. It doesn't seem right. She's always wanted to be my baby and I still think of her as my tiny cuddly girl even if she is causing mischief half the time. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and she took a little red coffee stirrer and put it into the stream of the drinking fountain to drink water that way. That's typical Luci. Inventive, creative, and finding her own way to do things.

Her birthday was on a school day so I brought cupcakes. Chocolate with chocolate frosting - her request. For dinner she wanted Top Ramen. Hmph. Tiara had sushi on her 6th. Top ramen is not my favorite. So the rest of us had angel hair with Gorgonzola sauce.

Her cake was a 4 layer cake with alternating layers of chocolate and yellow cakes filled and topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries - a hit with everyone except Tiara who thought it had too much whipped cream and Elise who doesn't like strawberries.

September 8th - Elise attended her first ever dance class - a very nice mix of ballet and tap. She LOVED it and was very attentive. I think I've found another ballerina in my mix of girls. And since, every day she asks if it is a ballet day. She's hooked.

September 12th - Open house at GKES - we went to the classrooms to see the kids, the rooms, and to meet the teachers. I wish I could remember the songs that Luci sung. One was about foods and the days of the week. The other one was about short vowel sounds... like "Short i sounds like icky sticky, i i i." Too fun. Arianna had homework - or at least it felt like it. Three full pages of questions that the kids had to answer to be able to pick something from the treasure chest. Boring.
September 10th - Arianna lost another tooth. Now she has 3 holes in her mouth.
September 13th - Tiara attends her first football game. Go Lions!! Final score: 54/18

September 14th - Today. Luci's birthday party at the swimming pool in Brunssum. We arrived along with a bunch of people we didn't know. Hmmm... was supposed to be a private party. Thought for a while that the pool had double booked until the manager showed up and pulled out the other ladies form - her's was supposed to be next Sunday. But, it worked out and we all had a great time. The more kids, the more fun anyway.



Luci wore her flippers and goggles and swam underwater. She's getting a lot stronger with her swimming. Arianna practiced snorkeling and diving for sticks (not at the same time). Elise swam with Kirk and played in the little pool. Tiara and I sat out, socialized, took pictures, and watched.

Now I have company coming tomorrow, my IWC night on Thurs, my dad coming on Fri, and a trip coming next week, so this might be it for a while... BUSY week!!!

The first half of this week was a blur of errands and tasks as I plunged headfirst into the many volunteer projects that I'm juggling this year. The strange photo to my right is part of the "Double Dutch" bar in the Dutch NSU (National Support Unit) here on base. Each country has a NSU. Some are just an office. Some are purely administrative. And some, like the Dutch one, have full bars and party rooms. I particularly like the strange wooden shoe/let/head hat rack on the right.

Being on the base a lot for meetings means that I'm around more to have lunch with the girls and take photos for the yearbook which I'm doing again this 3rd and final year. Arianna is posing between her friends, Martina and Gavin. Martina is a new Italian student this year getting a crash coarse in English, but doing better every day.

Tuesday night I baked blueberry muffins, a treat I took to the first IWC board meeting of the year and the first one I've led as president. The meeting went well and I'm really excited about the possibilities this year.

I used a recipe that I got from a friend in Oklahoma years ago. And they were good - not too sweet.


Ingredients:
2 eggs beaten
1 c. milk
2 T. melted butter
1 1/5 c. brown sugar
3 c. flour
2 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
4 T. flour
3 c. blueberries (I used frozen)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Mix eggs, sugar, and milk. Then add melted butter.
Sift together dry ingredients and combine with wet mixture.
Toss blueberries lightly in flour, then gently fold them into the batter.
Grease and flour muffin pans, then fill them 2/3 full.
Bake at 425 F for 12-15 minutes. Test with toothpick.
(I like to sprinkle a little coarse sugar onto the tops before baking)

Faces: Bronze, stone, and plastic... all ladies, and all unique. The doll was special in her placement at the antique stall among a hunter's trophy and an old wooden hat form. The bronze is part of an almost full sized statue near a water fountain... count her fingers. She has more than 5. And the lady in the garden has seen better years, I'm sure, but among flowers, a maiden is always at home.

I spent 6 1/2 hours today at the Tongeren antique market wandering among the treasures, admiring, and questioning the extraordinary and the strange. Utilitarian can be beautiful and fun, so my eye fell on a variety of old coffee grinders and scales today as I compared prices - some decent and some extreme. One vendor saw my Canon and started a lengthy conversation about cameras, lenses, and macro photography. He likes to photograph flowers and bugs in the morning when the dew if heavy and the bugs are slow.

No visit to Tongeren is complete without a visit to Babs, so we stopped and spent a few minutes with her over a glass of wine.

All in all a good day... I found several things that I would love to have in our home when the dollar doubles in value and several things that I did take home today simply because I liked them and they were a good deal.

May be you've heard of "The Bite" events as in Bite of Portland, Bite of San Francisco, etc... where some of the best restaurants put of tents and serve small portions of some of their star dishes. Well... tonight Kirk and I went to the Preuvenemint - essentially The Bite of Maastricht with 31 food booths ranging from caviar to Korean, Dutch to Italian, coffee, gelato and so much more... it was amazing.

Music played all day and into the night from the stage in the Vrijthof that was surrounded by enormous hanging floral arrangements and dozens of sunflowers all around the stages edge. We heard American rock and roll, German folk music, and French ballads while we were there. People crowded around the stage to watch with small bottles of wine topped with these funnel shaped tops making it easy to drink straight from the bottle. Couples dance at the event entrance. It was crowded, but not uncomfortably so... I enjoyed the sun, the ambiance, and the people watching.

These weren't just booths. Some set up with to-go style food that you could walk with or eat at outdoor patio areas near by and others set up mini restaurants complete with stylish tables and chairs, decor similar to their restaurants decor, flowers, and one had a chandelier and branches with floral vines hanging from the elevated tent ceiling. Atmosphere changed completely from booth to booth and it was really fun to see. We started with Korean - something Kirk misses from his time in Osan. He greeted them and said goodbye in Korean and for our interest, Kirk got a free bit of extra kimchi. It was relaxed and casual. From there we went to Moods with tall white tables - modern and shiny like patent leather and long benches that were soft round cylinders of black leather - sheek and modern. Kirk had a delicious Thai curry soup. I had scampi with sundried tomatoes and salad (a taste in a very small cup with an over sized toothpick to eat it - no fork). From Moods we shared a scoop of sangria sorbet served on balsamic vinegar marinated strawberries and mascarpone cream. Wow. A phenomenal flavor combination.

After moods we had Thai - chicken sates in peanut sauce and lumpia served from a stand with only outdoor seating. A patisserie caught our eye, so we did a quick stop there to taste some too-too decadent desserts served in tiny clear bowls. Then we went to Tom Miessens with bright wine themed art on the tent walls, tall round tables, and large silver bowls filled with ice and chilled champagne bottles. We each had a glass of wine and shared a cheese plate served with good bread and strawberry jam and I learned that those overly stinky cheeses are delightful when paired with a thin layer of sweet jam. The combination makes each part better.

Full, but with 5 coupons left, we toddled toward the ice cream tent, but I just couldn't bring myself to order ice cream. I was too stuffed and didn't want to feel heavy. So we opted for coffee at Coffee Lovers - the perfect end to our afternoon out. The coffee was perfect and mine was served, happily, in a real, full-sized, coffee lovers ceramic mug. A nice touch of class and the perfect comfort food.

Tiara got her new finalized schedule today (she's in 8th):

Period 1 Language Arts
Period 2 US History
Period 3 French 2 (High School Class)
Period 4 Spanish 1 (High School Class)

~The above classes constitute an "A" day. Each class meets for roughly 90 minutes. She only has these classes on A days.

Period 5 Algebra 1 (High School Class)
Period 6 Integrated Science
Period 7 Health/PE (alternating quarters)
Period 8 Seminar - a study hall/reading time which ends up being extremely valuable. This is the time all the teachers are available to meet with students. Students can do homework, get extra help, make up exams and go to their teachers with questions.

~ Periods 5-8 are all 90 minute classes that Tiara has on "B" days. A days and B days alternate all year, so she only has, for example, French, every other day. It works. She likes it.

So far she loves all her classes.... either because the teacher and class are wonderful, or she has a friend in that class. :)

Still at AF North International School... she'd stay 'til graduation if that were a choice. A great school. I love that it's completely fenced in, has a gate with guards, and, of course, that it's international. I think the mix of cultures is enriching.

Of course, the little girls are getting international as well. Arianna has an Italian girl in class this year who didn't speak a word of English a week ago when she started. Luci's in class with a Danish girl and Spanish girl who both attended last year and speak English very well. Elise will go next week with a bunch of Italians. (Love those parties - great food!)

Yes, I still have them. My life really is so much more than cultural tidbits, social events and recipes. The kids are the laughter in my days. So here, they are in all their glory... from lost teeth to biking solo, Tiara's first day of 8th grade, Arianna's first day of 2nd, and Luci's first day of 1st. Elise will start next week.

Arianna lost one tooth the week before the hospital and the other the day I had my surgery. Her smile now is absolutely adorable and I think she knows it. She's smiling extra, I think, just to show off her stunning grin.

And now, suddenly, both Arianna AND Luci can not only ride their bicycles without training wheels, but they can do it confidently. Kirk's taken them twice to Burg Trips to ride. The last time they rode 8 miles! Even little Luci kept up! Amazing!

Tiara had her first day of school one day ahead of the others. This is one of her many self portraits and one that she took that day. My grown up 8th grader - she's happy to be back in school and so far, likes her classes quite a bit.

Luci and Arianna started 1st/2nd grade the next day (last Tuesday). They were both excited and happy. Their bus is bus 5 - a city bus that is used by the Americans for this school. The kids were greeted by Dr. Emerson, the principal. I need to ask what was written on the card. He had that held up for all the kids - and he was wearing a large red clown nose.


Finally... from today. Elise saw the poor little mouse trapped on Tinny's basement stair, threw her full bowl of (thankfully) dry cheerios in the air and ran inside to me crying and screaming that she saw a rat and she was scared it was going to run up the stairs and bite her. Arianna and Luci joined the onlookers while I threw down two cheerios for it to much on. We could hear the crunching as he ate them. He was cute.

I got a Keds box and scooped him up in that. He stood up on his hind legs and sniffed when he saw me. Adorable. We took him to the back yard, sat in a circle around him giving him space, and watched him nibble on weeds, sniff, poke his nose up here and there, and burrow through the grass near us for about 5 minutes until he finally ran off into the neighbor's yard. Mice are fast. I couldn't get good photos. But he could have easily come from a Beatrix Potter book. Quite a dashing fellow. You see the Cheerio? Look below and slightly right and you'll see his beady black eye. It really did look like a single shiny glass bead. So perfect.