Skiing

Seiser Alm, Dolomites, Italy - March 2014

Greetings,
We have been a skiing family for years. I grew up in Colorado, skiing every weekend with my brother at Winter Park or going on family ski vacations. My brother, Steve, and I regularly took the Winter Park ski bus from our neighborhood to the ski area on Saturdays in the winter; we tried to work our way up the rainbow of colors which indicated our skiing level. I distinctly remember a certain point when my younger brother was clearly a better, stronger skier than I. It happens for the younger: get better faster to keep up with the older sibling and then soon the younger is better and faster than the older. I seem to recall that I took it gracefully and it didn't end my interest in skiing. We had wonderful family vacations spent at condos in the Frisco area, I think, where we skied daily. I remember that as we got older, my dad would often comment on how much he enjoyed skiing with my brother and me. I suppose these comments became more frequent when he was no longer teaching us how to ski but was simply trying to keep up and enjoy the moments. I hear myself, as a mom of a 13 year old and a 9 year old, saying the same things. "Stay in control." "Be careful." "Slow down."

I remember a particular moment in time when my dad relinquished the fatherly ski instructor role and told my brother and me that we could ski down the black diamond run and meet him at the lift at the bottom, while he skied the blue intermediate run. Another time I remember taking my dad down a famous run at Winter Park-Mary Jane called 'Outhouse' when my dad fell and broke his leg. I humbly drove him home from the ski area to have his leg set in a cast.

David and Logan - Seefeld 2009

After years of living in Asia, I thought I had 'moved on' from alpine skiing. I still went occasionally but not often and could not imagine affording what has become a very expensive sport, one that is not easily accessible to a typical family. I easily transitioned to Nordic skiing with David. Living in Seattle, we skied cross country with each other, with students, and, increasingly, with friends who were also invested in the Nordic ski world. We joined a Nordic ski club called Kongsberger near Snoqualmie Pass outside of Seattle and began teaching our children to ski cross country from early on. Once in Colorado I took Hayden alpine skiing with my dad, my brother, and my brother's son, Barrett. It was tiring and exhilarating, and I realized how fun it was to teach our children to ski. It reminded me of all the family times I had had growing up. Over the years, David and I continued to commit ourselves to Nordic skiing, but I took Hayden alpine skiing at least once a year - and Logan too when he was strong enough. We spent a couple of days skiing on a small hill with a brutal rope tow in Leavenworth when the boys were younger, and they sort of got hooked. We even ended up buying Hayden's rental skis, boots, and helmet after that weekend.

Seefeld - Dec 2009

Jennifer and Logan - Seefeld 2012

We moved to Saudi Arabia. No snow in sight. But we had promised the boys that we would take one big ski trip during the winter. We ended up in Seefeld, Austria, during our first Christmas, where we skied alpine at Rosshutte and Nordic on the Seefeld trails. We loved it so much that we returned to the same apartment and skied at the same glorious places for four years. We have favorite restaurants, grocery stores, and traditions from those four memorable years. Now we are living in Stuttgart, Germany. We waived our connection to 'our' Seefeld apartment, allowing the landlord, who has come to feel like family, to rent to someone else this past Christmas. Instead, we have tried skiing in new places this year.

Sportgastein - Jan 2014

Seefeld - December 2012

Hayden and Logan with ski instructor

Sankt Anton am Arlberg, Austria. We skied here for three days leading up to Christmas. A bit expensive and sparse on snow this at that point in the year, we noticed that English was widely spoken throughout the village - a definite change from Seefeld. The alpine skiing was rigorous and interesting, though lacking snow this year. Sankt Johann im Pongau, Austria. Skied for five days after Christmas as part of the ISS Ski Week. Beautiful, gentle slopes. The boys had a fabulous ski instructor and after five days of lessons, we noticed dramatic improvement in Hayden's and Logan's technique. On our way home, we spent the morning Nordic skiing at Sportgastein, Austria, where we enjoyed gloriously groomed trails, sunshine, and a fabulously delicious lunch. We have skied in Oberstdorf, Germany, where from the top we can ski down a long, sometimes narrow run, through snowmaking machines spraying light snow crystals and end up in Austria. We were so impressed by this idea that we skied the run many times, partly for the fun of the run and partly for the coolness factor of 'skiing into Austria'. We also tried a day of Nordic skiing in the Black Forest at Feldberg, Germany, the highest mountain in the Black Forest at 1493 meters.

Seiser Alm - March 2014

Finally, we ended the ski season this year with a week-long trip to ski at Seiser Alm, SudTirol in the Dolomites, Italy. This was probably one of our most fabulous ski vacations of the year. The snow was outstanding, the days a mixture of sunshine and clouds, the grooming impeccable, and the food delectable. We stayed in an apartment in Völs am Schlern, where we discovered our favorite Austria grocery store, Spar, and we found an amazing family-run pizzeria. The town was about 5 km from the ski resort base, where we parked in the gravelly, muddy parking lot, wondering about snow, and took a 12 minute gondola ride up to a true winter wonderland. On our first day, we explored some of the gloriously groomed Nordic trails, and for the next five days, the boys skied alpine. I joined them for three days and skied Nordic with David for three days. Each day we tried a new ski hutte for lunch, where hot, Austrian dishes were prepared. We explored a trick park as well where I endured brief moments of fear as the boys tried various jumps.

March 2014

The trip to the Dolomites highlighted our passion for skiing and winter, and we were all so grateful to travel there. Having boys who are excited about skiing has rekindled my own enjoyment of alpine skiing, though Hayden, in particular, is also a strong climber in Nordic skiing as well. My best memories over the last five years nearly all center around apartments in Europe where we have played family games after days of glorious skiing together.

Thanks for reading! Jennifer

Seiser Alm, March 2014

Seiser Alm, Dolomites March 2014

Strike!

Greetings.

Early last week we were informed via email from several friends and colleagues that the drivers of all Stuttgart buses and trains would be on strike on Wednesday of this last week. Since we often drive to school - except David who always bikes - we anticipated on Wednesday morning that the traffic would be horrendous, so all of us decided to bike the 7 kilometers to school on Wednesday morning, cleverly avoiding the traffic.

We biked through neighborhoods and farming fields heavily scented with freshly spread manure and compost. We biked past the American barracks and around the corner to the Mercedes headquarters where a woman, stuck in traffic behind two large trucks had gotten out of her car, left her door open, and was screaming in rage at the drivers and the gate man. When we first left our neighborhood, I thought that maybe the strike was not really causing that much of an issue since I didn't see the traffic I expected. Maybe, I wondered, the buses and trains do not transport as many people as I originally thought. Once we turned the corner near Mercedes, the lines of traffic were immediately evident, backing up in a long snaking line down the road. People generally seemed patient with the slow-down, but I was grateful to be on the bike paths and riding bikes to school.

It made me wonder what the complains of the drivers actually were. Were their working conditions unfair? Doubtful. Were they paid poorly? Probably not. Based on what I have seen here in Germany in our own place of employment and what I have learned from colleagues, workers' rights are carefully controlled by unions and workers have protections that are beyond the rights, honestly, of probably most working people in the world. The rights of immigrant workers in Saudi Arabia, for example, are pretty much non-existent. I wondered about German employees who did not have the luxury on Strike Day to opt for a car. Did they have to call in sick? Not everyone owns a car and not everyone owns a bike or has a safe bike route to work. It's a luxury to call a strike that affects so many other people's ability to get to their own jobs. Perhaps those families just stayed home. Certainly there were employees who, that day, could simply not get to work. What then?

As I crossed the highway, I saw an ambulance stuck in the unusually intense traffic and wondered how that was going to turn out. Perhaps the bus and train drivers have legitimate complaints about salary, working conditions, or benefits, but I hope they realize the tremendous toll it takes on many other, often less secure or less fortunate, workers when their source of transportation is suddenly not available.

Christmas Markets

Greetings,

Stuttgart Christmas Market

As we are living in the land of Christmas markets - as well as in the general location of the source of Christmas - we, of course, visited several of the markets over the holiday season. First was the Stuttgart Christmas market, with foods, drinks, specialty items, ornaments, local products, Christmas gifts, candles ... Of course, it's all outside, and one of the things I love about Germany is that people are willing to be out and about, walking, eating, sipping hot drinks, socializing even in the winter and regardless of the weather. So even on a chilly day at the markets, you still see people standing around eating crepes, drinking beer or gluhwein (hot mulled and spiced wine) or hot chocolate, eating bratwurst and bread, smoking (a lot of smoking in Germany, actually), chatting. We wandered through the markets, selecting a few new ornaments for our first Christmas tree in five years, sampling some of the local specialties. The stalls are each decorated with elaborate scenes or images of St Nicholas or reindeer, angels or Jesus' family ... they are truly lovely. What I love most is the celebratory and festive feeling of Christmas - mostly through candles, wreaths, decorations, lights, trees. It's glorious.

Buying our Christmas tree

We explored the Hohenzollern Castle where there was also a smaller Christmas market, which included many smaller stalls with locally-made clothing, hats, jewelry, antiques, candles, and a large man dressed as St Nicholaus. Again we sampled some of the local treats and enjoyed some Christmas music played on an accordion, surrounded by candles and twinkly lights.

Another evening we headed to one of the most famous Christmas markets in the area - the Medieval Christmas Market in Esslingen. Here they had people dressed up as if it were medieval times (minus the odors, fortunately) and many stalls had demonstrations of paper making, candle making, games, quill writing

Locally made candles in every color

oils and vinegars

I find that that I really enjoy the Christmas season in Germany and Austria, more than I felt I sometimes did at home in the United States. It appears here to be more about connecting with friends and family, enjoying the celebratory and festive decorations, and being outside than necessarily about purchases (though, of course, that is part of Christmas here as well). Nonetheless, the holidays are essentially over now, and I feel a little remorseful that they seemed to go by so quickly. It has been so lovely!

Thanks for reading, Jennifer

What are we doing here ...

Greetings,

Logan on his scooter shortly after we arrived

Several people have expressed confusion or wonder about what we are actually doing, so I thought it might be good to give our basic scenario. As mentioned in an earlier post, we taught in Saudi Arabia at The KAUST School for four years. Now we are teaching at the International School of Stuttgart (ISS), in Stuttgart, Germany, which is in Baden Wurttemberg, the third largest of Germany's sixteen states. We have a two-year contract and hope to stay longer, I would guess at this point. I teach English and David teaches mathematics. Our sons, in 8th and 3rd grade, both attend the same school where we teach. This year I am teaching one section each of grade 6, 7, 8, and 9 Language A English, which means kids who are native speakers or very proficient. I also have half of the 7th grade in a homeroom class of 21 very excited and talkative students. David teaches math to grades 6, 8, 9, and he has an 8th grade homeroom group. Fortunately, Hayden does not have either of us for his teacher this year, which is a nice change from grade 6 when he had both of us and grade 7 when he had Mom for humanities. Hayden is heavily involved in basketball, playing on U14 and U16 teams, studying classical guitar, and planning for days of skiing. Logan has a wonderful teacher, originally from the US, for his 3rd grade class. He is reading like crazy these days, playing a lot of soccer, and gearing up for skiing this winter.

Our apartment before we moved in

Our apartment building - autumn

We have rented an apartment in Plieningen, a village of Stuttgart, which is about 15 minutes by bus or car from our school. David nearly always rides his bike and I usually drive the boys and myself to school. After living in a fully furnished house for the last four years, we had to purchase furniture and a TV (finally), as well as arrange for internet, phone, TV, cell phone service, rent, electricity ... the typical bills of modern life, which we cleverly avoided for four years at KAUST. It is, surprisingly, a big adjustment to the world of bills, rent, and taxes once again.

Our apartment with furniture and shipments from US and Saudi

Our students are mostly German, American, or a combination of one of those with something else or both of those nationalities. We have quite a few Japanese, Chinese, and Korean students as well as a smattering of students from other European countries. Most of our students have parents, usually fathers, who work at Bosch, Daimler-Benz (a.k.a. Mercedes), Porsche - the dominant but not exclusive German companies in Stuttgart - or they work for one of the US Installations, or Barracks, around Stuttgart, where Africom has its headquarters, for example.

I have found the students to be well-rounded, multilingual (nearly everyone speaks at least two languages among students and teachers), knowledgeable, eager to learn (particularly in the middle school), funny, generous, and kind. I love my classes and look forward to seeing my students each day. As is typical with many international schools, there is a preschool for 3-5 year-olds, a lower school for grades 1-5, and an upper school for grades 6-12, though the 6-8 grade students do have some separation from the high school students in assemblies, morning announcements, and expectations around school.

Hayden at the Wasen, the Stuttgart Oktoberfest

Though the transition has been a bit daunting at times, frustrating, and challenging, we also have experienced tremendous kindness from strangers, neighbors, colleagues, and our landlord in making the transition work. Our landlord, for example, arranged for her father to wait outside our apartment one afternoon until I could get home from work early because the Internet serviceman was due to arrive. She and her father have been immensely kind and generous with advice and time. Despite all, we have accomplished so much as well and need to remember that.

An evening walk in our neighborhood, early fall

Though we want to learn German, and I do learn a few words each day from the two hilarious and gregarious women who run Conny's Cafe in our school, I find that an inordinate number of people speak excellent English. Even on Saturday when we went to buy our Christmas tree, I started to stumble along in my minimal German when the woman said, "English?" Once I acknowledged that, in fact, as a lame American English was virtually the only language I was coherent in (other than Thai which is really not so useful in Germany), she and her colleague switched to impeccable English. Nonetheless, I want to learn German well enough to communicate more than just the basics. I hope to start German classes after the holidays.

Late summer - park in Stuttgart with huge play structures

Up next ... the incredible diverse and beautiful Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas markets!

Thanks for reading. Send more questions ... Jennifer

German Driver's License

Greetings,

As a family of bike commuters, we initially thought we would be able to manage living in Stuttgart without a car. Many people's stories and comments about Stuttgart's phenomenal public transportation impressed us, and since we had not owned a car in Saudi Arabia (and had never wished we had), we thought we might continue that trend.

Reality set in as the weather changed from summer's sunny, warm, long days to autumn's wet, cold, and dark ones. The public transportation here in Stuttgart is, in fact, frequent, reliable, safe, and convenient. However, with the boys' various sports games in a variety of locations and with the desire on our part to explore the Black Forest and the Schwabian Alps, we eventually decided that access to a car would be important. David and I visited the car share program, Stadtmobil, located downtown to inquire about joining that program. Alas, we needed German driver's licenses ...

A foggy cold morning in our neighborhood, Plieningen

Our relocation assistant, Veerle, explained the process, and we embarked upon it slowly. First, I had to return downtown to an office similar to AAA to request official translations of our Washington State driver's licenses. I paid 50 euros and was told that the translations would be mailed to our home in about a week. We waited and they arrived in a few days. Then we had to arrange to go to the driver's license office, which has afternoon hours only one day per week, on an afternoon when David and I could both get away a bit early. After finally finding one Thursday when we could leave early together, we took the train to the German version of the DMV and applied for our licenses. We had to supply another 50 euros, copies of our passports, passport photos, an application, the translation, and copies of our driver's licenses. We were told that we would receive a letter in 3-4 four weeks inviting us to return to pick up our driver's licenses.

We are incredibly lucky to have had Washington State licenses because we did not have to take a written test, a class, a driving test, or even an eye exam. The reciprocity between Germany and Washington is among the best of the US states. Colleagues with licenses from some other states must go through a variety of hoops - from eye tests and written tests to driving tests - before they can actually apply for their licenses. Indiana is one of the most difficult. Drivers from that state basically must start over with a driving class.

As predicted, we got our letter after about three weeks and went to pick up our driver's licenses. In order to actually collect our new German license, we had to forfeit our Washington State licenses, which felt a bit awkward. I handed them over, signed for the new ones, and received our German licenses ... a long but ultimately successful process that we had to do within the first six months of arriving or we would have lost the reciprocity benefit.

Next we made an appointment to return to Stadtmobil. We signed on for a trial six-week period with the carshare program. Though it was reliable and helpful, we ultimately decided we needed our own car. So ... we embarked on the long process of looking for and buying a car. It's a story in and of itself, I suppose, but suffice it to say that it is not like the US where you can essentially visit car dealers, test drive several cars, and drive away with a car that day. We had to make an appointment to test drive a particular car at several different places; once we decided upon one, it was another two weeks before registration and paperwork was complete for us to actually collect our car. Twice I took the train to the dealer - who was scrupulous and helpful at all times - to submit documents and sign papers. All of these steps, though needed, are even more time-consuming without a car - which was part of the issue!

Our new car with built-in navigation we have named Bessy

All turned out well. We now own a 2012 Volkswagon Golf wagon, our first car since 2009. It's a used car with only about 36,000 kilometers, so we are pleased. After all was complete, I received a letter in the mail indicating that we had received a speeding ticket for one of the days we were driving the Stadtmobil. We were, according to their cameras, going 58 in a 50 km/hour zone. Sigh. We were extremely lucky that the fine was just 15 euros. Another friend told me that she received a 100 euro fine for going through a red light on her bike! I gave David that warning.

Our garage elevator

The last cool thing I will mention here is that our apartment comes with its own garage space - with its own garage elevator. Our space is on the bottom left, so we sometimes have to move the elevator up to access our space. Amazing!

Logan running the elevator to access our car

Nearly ready ...

Thanks for reading!
Jennifer

The Beginning ...

Greetings,

We arrived in Stuttgart, Germany, in July 2013 during a downpour. Veerle, the relocation woman assigned by the school to help us get started, greeted us warmly at the Stuttgart airport and took us to the Apart Hotel where we would stay until we found an apartment and were able to move in. Hayden was at Interlochen Arts Camp, so Logan, David, and I searched each day with Veerle for our new apartment. She had set up some appointments for us, and we were able to start viewing them right away. When we weren't looking at apartments, we used our two-zone public transportation passes for trains and buses to explore the city, particularly the many furniture stores from which we would eventually need to buy furniture. Veerle helped us with our bank account and work visas and more paperwork than we could even imagine. She is a God-send.

Our new apartment - August 2013

Rather than detail each of the steps we took over the last three months, I will summarize here all that we have accomplished in that time. One day when I was feeling frustrated, Logan helped me by verbally listing all that we had successfully accomplished.

Pumpkin Festival

• We found and moved into a lovely clean new apartment which came with a kitchen installed (unusual for Germany), bathroom cabinets and lights (unusual for Germany), an engaging and kind landlord who has, together with her father, gone out of her way to help us through all kinds of obstacles.
• We have purchased an entire apartment's worth of furniture from IKEA, renting a medium-sized truck to transport the furniture all at one time. (This remains in my mind as one rather humiliating experience - buying all of your furniture at once, stuffing it all into a truck, unloading it all into our apartment ... )
• We have arranged for and gotten Internet and home phone service in our apartment.
• We have gotten a bank account and I have learned to use the online banking.
• We have started our jobs and love the students already.
• We have received our shipments from both Seattle (minus our teak dining room table) and Saudi Arabia (a mere five months after it left our KAUST house).
• We have unpacked all of our boxes and found homes for our belongings in our much smaller, but very cozy and spacious, apartment.
• We have been to Tubingen for the French and Italian festival.
• We have been to Ludwigsberg for the annual Pumpkin Festival.
• We have purchased a car - our first in four and a half years.
• We have biked through the Stuttgart vineyards.
• We have figured out how to get our boxes and packing paper returned to the recycling center.
• We have gotten our German driver's licenses and signed up temporarily for the carshare program, Stadtmobil.
• We have visited Strasbourg, France, for our October holiday.
• Hayden has started playing on U14 and U16 basketball and has begun games.
• Logan has started playing EJuniors soccer and has enjoyed many games already.
• We have also received our first speeding ticket from a camera that photographed us going 58 km/hour in a 50 km/hour zone when we were searching for one of Logan's soccer games in another village of Stuttgart. Luckily it was only 15 euros.
  
  
  

  

  Living room and dining room

  

  Kitchen

Another time Logan and I were checked for our bus passes on the bus to school. Mine was fine, but Logan's had a small problem that we were completely unaware of when we bought the passes and had used them in the past. He was only supposed to use this pass after 9 am. The Bus Police Women took down my information; I started crying because I was frustrated and confused - and late to work; they apologetically handed me a 40 euro ticket for my tiny error worth 1.20. Ultimately, a friend at school helped me craft a letter to complain and explain - and the ticket was reduced to 1.20. Still ... rules in Germany ARE rules. We are learning that.

Life is good. We are loving the cultural opportunities that abound every week. We love the changes in seasons, even today's pouring cold rain. The fall leaves were astoundingly stunning in color, and we have walked, run, cycled, and explored the trails and paths all over. Stuttgart is a beautiful city with a phenomenal cultural base. We loved Oktoberfest, and the Christmas markets are commencing - with gluwein, bratwurst, hot chocolate, and ice skating. No complaints!

Austin, Devin, Hayden - dressed for Halloween!