The view from Das Sushi

Just sharing a few pictures today.

This castle (although it’s not really what I picture in my head when I think castle) is very close to our house. The kids love the swans and the moats and I love how the whole building is leaning forward like it’s really trying to catch what you’re saying.



I haven’t checked out the inside yet, but now that everything is organized and the government paperwork (SO MUCH GOVERNMENT PAPERWORK) is mostly in order, it’s very high on my list of things to do.

During the couple of weeks of beautiful weather, we were all over the place on the bike. It’s been raining and raining and raining for the past few weeks, so less biking but it sure feels like home. The first time Cheeseball and I tried to find our way to post from home, we got severely lost. It added a little more than an hour to the trip, a giant mountain of a climb and I’m not sure how many miles, but it meant we got to see beautiful things like this.





It all worked out in the end and now I know the way and can spend less time saying “chilly goo!” to unsuspecting passersby and more time hauling two thirds of my body weight in the form of Cheeseball and a giant trailer like an ant.

Flowers and Foreign Languages

One of the things I was really looking forward to about Germany was the fresh flowers. I love having fresh flowers in the house, and Germans are very into nature and bringing it indoors. Cheeseball and I went to the Friday farmer’s market down the street from the house last week and while I was too intimidated to take any pictures while there, I got one at home that I just have to share.



How hilariously random is that!? Home run! American baseball teams! Clearly these must be the not widely known German variety MLB daisies. This is one of the things I love most about living in a foreign country. The delightfully random and funny ways that the familiar pops up amongst the foreign.

I’ve noticed a lot of English used in advertising. I haven’t yet figured out exactly what the incorporation conveys to the average German, but it must signify something. Sophistication? Affordability? Modernity? Really, I have no idea. There was a matratzen (mattress) store near the hotel with the giant letters www.laydown.de emblazoned on the outside wall. Why? I don’t know. If, say, Mattress Warehouse had www.hinlegen.com plastered on their window, I would not have had a clue what that even meant let alone why they picked a random other language for their advertising.

You also hear stuff on the radio like German German German hit music German German and German German German stau German German German stop and go and I love picking it out. Stau means traffic jam. And the random use of English for stop and go has had me wracking my brain trying to come up with random foreign language usage in English. There are things from other places like croissant or sushi. And then we implement some words like kindergarten or tsunami. I’m knocking out a mental list. What can you think of to add to it?

Back to the flowers. I’ve been busy tossing them up all over the house and they make me happy.

Bringing Sushi Back (Sort of)

It feels like it’s been for-ev-ver since I last blogged, but I guess it’s only been about three weeks. In the space-Internet continuum, that is forever. I have so much to say, that I don’t even know where to start but I promise to make every effort to rein it in, Bubba.

We’re all settled in to our new house and we love, love, love it. We were expecting to downsize, coming from a three bedroom American house to little European quarters but this place is several hundred square feet bigger than the house we just finally closed on (woohoo!). And that’s not even counting the two attics or the giant wine cellar. We got rid of a ton of stuff before moving here, and now we have more space and less stuff and really what’s better than that? I will say, though, that the layout is definitely very European and nothing makes that clearer than the tiny little Ikea couch I bought that is currently serving as an obstacle to the laundry room instead of family seating because it doesn’t fit up the staircase. When The Man finally gets back and our good friends move here next month, the guys are going to have to heave ho the little couch over the terrace and OUT OF MY LAUNDRY ROOM HALLWAY.

I guess I haven’t taken a whole ton of pictures of the house, because the décor all feels so transitional. But, here’s an overexposed, blindingly bright picture of the garden and the side of the freaking huge house. I can’t wait until those lilacs bloom!





Cheeseball started German kindergarten last week. She loves being in school and I think it’s really helping her with her interest in learning German. Of which she previously had none. Don’t get me wrong, she’s picked up a few things. Danke schön. (Thank you) Wie geht’s? Gut, danke. (How are you? Good, thanks.) And, of course, the incredibly important ich möchte ein eis. (I would like ice cream.)
But, most of her German is more Cheeseball than German. Entschuldigen (excuse me, as in hello there pay attention to me, please) and Entschuldigung (excuse me, as in oops sorry, didn’t mean to squash your toe) are both pronounced chilly goo and translate as either “oops, sorry” or “how do we get home?”.

I talked before about “tchuss” as a farewell, and in CheeseballDeutsch, it’s pronounced juice. Except more pink and sparkly and makes everyone smile. Kind of like this.



She also knows alles which means “that’s all” but she translates as “no chocolate cookies for Cheeseball” and gets very upset at the bakery when you ask for croissants and pretzels and then say alles. NO, NOT ALLES. Also, cookies. Then you say “chilly goo, Cheeseball, but the baker only understands German!” and then you’re the meanest mommy EVER.

Ok, stopping now. I still won’t have Internet at home for another week, but I’m scheduling a few posts to go up in the meantime so you don’t have to read my whole oh my gosh life is freaking fascinating right now and I could write an entire novel about it - not a good novel, but one of those really long ones that you had to read in school that jump all over the place and go on and on and on and seem like a big waste of letters and awfully naval gazing thought process all at one time. You’re welcome.