Happy Halloween!

Halloween isn't such a big deal in Germany. I guess that means that I shouldn't make a big deal out if it either, but if you know me, you know that just isn't possible. I sort of like holidays. I sometimes get a little out of control.  (If you know of a certain scene in Christmas Vacation where Clark is accused of going overboard . . . well, I sometimes get jabbed violently in the ribs).  Even so, I didn't plan to do costumes at all, until I couldn't stand that thought. So, at the last minute, we rigged up our little Bratwurst and her accompaniment, Sauerkraut.

Notice the mustard?

Our Halloween decorations were pretty modest. . .

 . . .and trick-or-treating only took 3 minutes down our hallway. . .

. . . and the food coloring I found only turned my jack-o-lantern cake a lovely pale peach color. . . (and I didn't have anything black for decorating its face- oversight! DOH!)

. . . so I would say I exercised great restraint this Halloween.  I can't promise the same for Christmas.





Please won't you be my neighbor?

Now that we have been here for 2 weeks, I should probably introduce the little town of Wolfenbuettel (please bear with me until I can figure out how to get blogger to insert an umlaut. . .) and our little house. 

Wolfenbuettel's altstadt

We are living in the Lessinghaus, former home of the German writer/playwrite Gotthold Ephraim Lessing who was also, most importantly of course, a librarian at the Herzog August Bibliothek.





Our apartment is on the second floor of the wing to the left.

We share the haus with the Lessing museum, which means that all tourist signs point to home.

Our neighbor across the street is the castle. Not the kind of neighbor to bring you cookies when you move in, but it's pretty awesome to say you live across the street from a castle. How often do you get to say, "Do you want to go look at the castle on the way home?"



Looking through our front window



Although once the former residence of various dukes and duchesses of Braunschweig/Wolfenbuettel, and although Elsa thinks that it houses a king, a duke, and a princess, it is not currently home to any fairytale-like fantasies.  No, only a museum and a high school, as well as several ducks (who we visit daily) who swim in the moat. I'd rather have ducks than dukes for neighbors anyway.

Behind Lessinghaus is the famous (in some circles anyway) Herzog August Bibliothek, to which we owe, among other things (i.e. unmatched collections of literature, etc etc) our opportunity to live in Wolfenbuettel. 

To people like Erik, the attraction of this neighbor is what is contained within its walls, as well as the 2 minute commute to work.  To people like me, who is charged with entertaining a 2-year-old like Elsa, the attraction is the huge lawn in front for running off some energy, as well as our new friends, Hans and Franz the lion statues. 

Elsa with Hans...or is this Franz? Or sometimes it's Gretel . . .

I should also mention that we also have two human neighbors downstairs from us, who have thus far been very patient and uncomplaining about the thundering footsteps running up and down the hallway at 6 a.m. (forget pitter-patter. . . ) despite our best efforts. Thanks Wilhelm and Herr K.

First things first. . .

How did we get from here. . . 


Cambridge, MA



to here? 

 Wolfenbuettel, Germany



Let's be perfectly clear about this: while it of course took months of planning, scheming, and organization, unbelievable amounts of energy, countless meltdowns and moments of doubt, there is NO WAY we could have pulled this off alone. NO WAY.  We owe a huge debt to everyone who helped us, from solving our problems, whisking Elsa away to play in crucial moments, helping us move TWICE, offering moral support, feeding us, taking care of our car. . . the list goes on and on.  However, I have to give endless thanks for these four people, who jumped into the craziest time of our life to do whatever we needed them to do. 

 

 When we told them that it would mean accompanying me, a 2-year-old, and a newborn along with our 200+ pounds of luggage to Minnesota and Germany, they didn't bat an eyelash (well, maybe they did...but I couldn't see it over the phone). So, to Mom/Grandma/Oma/Beth/Kathy and Dad/Grandpa/Opa/David/Ron, thank you a million times over.