Day 74: Shipping and Friends

This morning, Chris and I took our two big luggage bags to the Mailboxes Etc. store.

Filling out the many papers for customs (left)
The two big bags (right)

Again, it's one of those mind games we play. We went in with a price point in mind (which took a lot of debate.. do we, do we not... what is our time worth... what is a ridiculous amount to spend... but we don't want to carry the bags all over...). But you come to decision you feel good about, so you move forward.

Then you get there, and the guy behind the counter gives you a number (what he thinks it's going to cost) and you gulp. It's 50% more than what you came up with in your mind game. But, you're somewhat committed. You move forward trepidatiously. And, phew. When the final price is revealed, it's a lot less than the guy's estimate, but more than you previously thought it would be. But by now, you're so relieved it isn't the huge number that scared you, so you just say, "Do it!"

And then you run home and email your family member you're sending it to that it'll be there faster than you thought, and oh by the way, is it ok that we sent it to you? THANKS, Paul and Tori!

With our wallets empty, Chris heads to work and I head back to the apartment. I have big things on our to-do list today. HAIR and SHOWERS. The kids must take showers. I will cut Xander's hair. I will dye my own roots. This takes all morning and a bit of the early afternoon. But, it's worth it (the kids may not agree, but it is so).

Machine rim (left) and the lint I extracted (right)

The kids eat re-heated pancakes from the other morning (yay for microwaves!) I do more laundry. Side note: there is no lint screen that I can find. Chris once asked a coworker about this and her reply was, "Yeah, that's something you have to be careful of with these machines." She mentioned how sometimes the machine won't work as long as it's supposed to and you can help with its lifespan if you take care to remove the lint. But again, there is no lint screen. So, for each load, I'm scraping, by hand, the soggy lint from the rim of the machine.

There is the main part of the rim, which is easy to access and then there is "inside". Look at the photo above and see the slight gap in the rubber seal? One must pry this apart and stick their fingers inside, swipe, and try to get all the lint that has accumulated in there. If it's slightly damp, it's easier to gather it up. If it's dryer, then you tend to slide over the lint and can't make it bunch up, making it near impossible to grab. It's a battle. I will be very grateful to have a lint screen again where it's super easy to grab all the lint and toss it in the trash. Ahhh, the little things in life.

Our plans for this evening are to head to dinner with an old friend, Barry (we knew him BK - before kids). He is in town on business, as he comes to Berlin about once a quarter. Chris is carving pumpkins at work this evening, so we'll have to meet him there as well. Side note: Of the 10 or so HotelTonight employees staying to carve pumpkins, Chris is the ONLY one who has ever done this before. So, by default, he is their instructor of tips and hints. I asked if anyone's lid fell in, but Chris replied that his first instruction was to carve at an angle to avoid a "falling lid". Good job, Chris!

Their pumpkins turned out great!

Chris' pumpkin is the second row, one in from the left (it has an "H-bed" on the lid.

Funny story: Whoever was in charge of getting the pumpkins and carving utensils, didn't get candles! So they could not light them up at first. However, the next day when we visited, someone had picked up a bunch of tea-lights, so, phew, they'll get to enjoy them fully before they mould over!

So, last minute, we decided to meet Chris in front of his work so we can walk a few blocks together. We head to the restaurant, where Barry is already enjoying a beer. Barry tries to settle his bill, but they say to just bring his beer to the table. This is very common. Your drinks and food follow you where ever you go and you settle your bill at the end of the night. In tonight's scenario, all is added onto one bill. But in other situations, if you have a large group, you might just walk up to the register and tell them what you had and pay your bill (so no need for them to split a large bill into "who-had-what"). Pretty handy! Another great example of how the culture is honest and people follow the rules of paying for what they got.

Xander (and his newly cut hair)
at the restaurant.

It was a nice evening catching up with Barry. The kids might disagree (and I've never heard them so quiet before!) They were bored, bored, bored, with the adult conversations about work, family, and stuff. Good thing it's a weeknight and everyone has to go to work tomorrow. The evening wasn't too long and before we know it, it's time to say good-night/good-bye to Barry.

We're off to find a bus (to take instead of a tram, due to construction). Here's the thing.... bus drivers here are cray-cray. They are double-long with super-serious turning radius. So, the "front" bus will point angle towards the curb, close behind a parked vehicle, to pick people up at a stop. Chris says, "No way he gets out without hitting the parked car." But he does! And, he goes through chicanes of barriers and other cars like he's on a motorcycle instead of a double-long bus. I wish I had a video. At one point, I had to stop looking out the front window as I was gasping at every turn. Phew!

Phew! Another day ends safely.

P.S. This checks off one of my "Bingo" items (to see someone we know in a foreign country! Yay!

Day 40: Red Herring and Purple Hair

Ugh, still sick. Skipped this morning's walk, in hopes of more rest.

Laundry.

And a LOT of searching for my camera cord. Crap! I have a memory of unhooking it. But I don't have a memory of packing it. I do have a recollection of thinking it might be the same cord as the "charging" cord for some of our devices... (which it's NOT) and possibly leaving it at home... crap.

So, I looked up camera stores. Found one close by. I asked the kids to come with me. And... after a lot of crazy navigating (and Google maps telling us to walk through buildings), we found the store... and it's an analog camera store! They had stacks of REAL FILM in there. Dark room accessories (enlarger and more)... "Back out," I said, and we left the store... no digital accessories to be found there. Crap.

Side note: On the way to the store, the BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe or Berlin Transport Company) was out in force today. On the way to the store, at one of our tram's stops, there were 20 uniformed BVG workers. Some were checking tickets of those getting onto the tram. One woman got onto our tram and asked us for our tickets. I showed them, she verified them and we were cool. It's funny. I usually panic in these types of situations (you know, with people of authority) but since I know I have the tickets and we don't really need to talk, because my stuff's in order, I have a strange sense of calm over me. Now, if we had to have a conversation, I know I'd start to panic. Anyway, with so many BVG workers, I was wondering if it was training day. Not to mention, all those that didn't get on the train had BVG printed on the back of their jackets. Unlike the plain clothed woman who checked our ticket (and remember the last gentleman who checked our tickets was also plain clothed).

Back to food. We ordered pork buns from the "bubble tea" store and ate them while we waited for our tram.

While we were waiting, a motorcycle beeped twice right by us. It was so startling, poor Xander was upset. Like I mentioned before, there's so little honking, when it does happen, you startle! THEN, another motorcycle got mad at a driver parking, he pulled up to her window to express his feelings. She rolled up her window and went about her business. Not sure what he said, but he wasn't happy. So, it seems it's the day of unhappy motorcyclists.

We dropped Xander off at home and Venice and I proceeded up the street to her hair appointment, something she's been looking forward to for a long time!

Then, Venice proceeded to sit in the chair... for three and a half hours. She has a lot of hair! The gentleman (I'm embarrassed I don't know his name) was a great stylist. He was super excited by what Venice wanted to do. He was almost giddy the whole time. Several other stylists came over to admire the work as time went on, saying how Venice picked great colours and how it was turning out beautiful.

With how light he was able to get her hair, I was surprised by how dark the colours are. They will lighten, which will be fun to watch, but in the meantime, I LOVE the dark colours on Venice. She aged into a beautiful young woman overnight. Wow. Stunning.

The different stages of hair.

In the meantime, thankfully, Xander was happy on his computer while we were away (he's been busy creating his custom intro for his YouTube channel and now on one for Venice).

What happens when you get your hair done so beautifully? It rains of course. So, Venice had to hide her head in her hoodie so it wouldn't get wet (and drip purple colours down her face) as we ran to the M stop.

It's Tuesday (Chris' day to work late so he can talk to the SF office... but it means he'll miss dinner) and I don't want to cook. So the kids and I went to Imbiss Pizza Pasta, just down the street. I readied myself to take charge of the menu, ordering, talking to the waiter, hoping that we could get a table... no need to worry! Imbiss (I later found out) means Fast Food in German! So, it was "order at the counter"-style from a giant "over the counter" menu. And most of the other customers were getting take-away, so we had the place to ourselves, at one point. To top off this experience, the guy who took our order said, "neunzehn (19) blah blah", so I was able to just give him €20, knowing it would be enough. I'm pretending to be proud of myself, because really, 19 is not as complicated to hear correctly as, say, nine and thirty. Easy peasy.

Another night of "sleeping upright" and I'm hoping to tomorrow's the day I'm all better!

Day 35: Translation Problems.

A tour in Mauerpark

I want to begin today with a notice about tourism here in Berlin. I have laughed at the selfies in Venice and the Segways in Prague. I thought, to be fair, I should talk about the bicycle tours here in Berlin. I didn't see them at first, but now I can't NOT see them. They are in big groups (5-15) with a guide in the front and a guide rounding up the back. Their bicycles have yellow placards above the back wheel (I think designating the tour company).

There is at least one office down the street from us that advertises walking and biking tours. I've seen the groups touring around the Berlin Wall Walk and through Mauerpark. I'm not sure where else they go, but since this is my path in the mornings, this is where I seem them the most.

And yet, I don't laugh at them as much as I do the others. Why? I don't know for sure, but I think it's because bicycles here in Berlin are everywhere. Except for the yellow placards on the back, these tourists could blend right in. But, I thought I'd mention them, just to be completely open.

I have to say, it's hard for me to get up in the mornings. I commend Chris for doing it every day for work. I know his pressure to do so it more, but still, I admire his punctuality. In the beginning, I'd wake up before our alarms went off. Then to my alarm. Then I stopped turing mine on and would wake up to Chris' alarm. Now, I don't wake up until Chris is half way through his shower, or when he returns to dress. Maybe the sun is rising later and it's dark longer... or I'm just getting lazier and more comfortable with our routine that has established here.

In any case, I woke up this morning to Chris trying on his lederhosen. I thought I'd laugh harder, but they didn't look too bad. Side note: We're not understanding how they are supposed to fit. The legs are tighter and the waist is very loose. Maybe that's why there's suspenders? But still, it's not quite comfortable for Chris.

The kids and I went to a children's bookstore today (that's what it seemed from the window). We had walked by it a few weeks ago and I kept meaning to go back. I looked online to find children's bookstores and that one came up, so it's perfect, only a few blocks away. Turns out, it's an international children's bookstore, so there were books in French, Spanish, English... but I'm only interested in the books in German.

We browsed the shelves. There were a ton of great books, it was hard to chose. However, it was a nice shop, which means most of the books were hardcover, so that limited the number of books I was willing to buy. But, we came home with more than 10 books. As we were checking out, the woman said something to me and I responded as usual with how bad my German was. She switched to spotty English and asked why we were in Berlin. She also asked if the kids were in school. I said that they weren't and we are homeschooled. "Ahhh!" She replied, "That's why all the children's books! You will learn from the books?" I nodded. She said, "A good idea!" Well, thank you! I thought so, too.

Random side story. The walls in the building are concrete. Instead of plain drywall, or plaster, the walls are concrete. Some of it is made to look like bricks and other parts are made to look like panels. It almost looks like wood grain, but it's concrete. There is also foam between the concrete and the window panes and cork in the floors between "sections". We're wondering if any of this has to do with keeping the building secure by allowing expansion and contraction? The floors are heated. I'm not sure it'll ever be cold enough while we're here to use this feature, but I'll let you know!

Samples of the concrete walls in our apartment.

Later, Xander (who has officially developed a serious case of sniffles and coughs) decided to stay home while Venice and I went up the street to find a recommended hair salon. Venice has enjoyed her lightened/dyed hair and is interested in having a professional give it a go. So, we went in search of an English-Speaking-Hip hair salon. When we got to the salon, the doorway opened to a split staircase. Going up seemed to be a lounge-like area. Going down seemed to be to the hair-styling tables. There didn't appear to be a front desk. Only a gentleman sitting at his table (a hairstylist without a customer?) ignoring us completely. There was a female-stylist working on a gentleman-customer. I said my, "My German is bad..." She replied, "My English is too."

We tried to have a conversation, but it was difficult. The nice gentleman-customer was able to help translate a bit. The stylist seemed to keep saying that the pink in Venice's hair is stubborn and she wouldn't be able to dye over it. I asked if we could bleach her entire head, and the woman looked shocked and said, definitively, "No! Dunkle (dark)!" After a quiet whispered discussion, Venice and I decided to leave. I told the woman we'd think about, the man in the chair translated, the woman nodded, and we left. Dejected.

I searched online for more hair salons and found a few with some good reviews. There was one, just a a few blocks farther than the one we were just in. Venice was up for trying one more time (and going before the rain comes, because, once again, we're going with no jackets or umbrellas!)

This new place, has a receptionist! Yay! And she speaks English very well! Yay! She sat down with us and talked with us about what we were interested in doing. She gave us some ideas, some possible limits/obstacles (dark hair colour), and added, that in the end, it would be our decision. See, that's what I like! I don't like to be told no. Ever. I'd like to hear the "why this" or the "why that" and to be told I can make a decision with the information. But just saying "no" makes me frustrated. We have an appointment for Tuesday!

Funny thing about making the appointment. She asked for my phone number and when I started with an international code, she suggested email instead. Easy. But then her software wouldn't proceed without a phone number. She tried a few times, didn't work. She apologised as it was new software. So, she asked for the number again, tried it, but it didn't like my number (not the right number of digits like a German number? Who knows?) She clicked one more time, the window closed on her and put her back to another page in a browser. She gave the computer the finger and said, "F*@k You." Frustrated, but not loud or angry, just casual, as if everyone does this to their computer while working with clients. Well, we finally got it set up and we're ready for our appointment next week. Just in time for Oktoberfest!

Chris (far right) and (most of) his coworkers.

Speaking of Oktoberfest, Chris is out for dinner tonight. His office is all dressed up and ready to go celebrate. That leaves us alone for dinner.

On the way back from making Venice's hair appointment, we decided to get take away from our favourite burrito place. Venice Skyped Xander to get his order. We got the food. As we neared our apartment, Venice Skyped Xander, again, this time to tell him that we were just across the street waving to him. Seconds later, we saw him in the window waving back down to us! Love that Skype is allowing us to communicate when not all of us have phones! Perfect solution!

During dinner, we heard some kids playing in the shared backyard. Venice and Xander spied a little on the family out there. One mom and two younger kids (maybe 6 and , they think?) This is the family that we think homeschools, so we, hopefully, will meet them sometime. But for now, it's time to enjoy (as much as you can when the order is wrong) dinner.

After dinner (which by the way, mine came without the meat, dang it! Grrr.), we played a card game that Venice has created and is refining. We played the "easy version". I was ahead for a long time and then I crashed and burned. Xander gave Venice a run for her money until Venice triumphed.  Then it was time to get sniffly Xander into bed. Poor guy,