16 December: Auf Wiedersehen...Just Kidding!

We were up at 7 am, giving us plenty of time to enjoy a relaxed breakfast. Beth and Axel arrived at 8:45 and helped schlep all of our luggage down to their B-Class. We managed to fit everything in, just barely, and headed off to the airport. After we got all checked in (we only had to open up one of our six pieces of luggage for the security check, thank goodness), we returned to the outer waiting room to say goodbye to Beth and Axel. Beth and I tried to keep it short and sweet but I started crying anyway. I didn’t really fall apart until we went through the X-ray and into the big waiting lounge, where I had a good cry in the corner.

We sat around for half an hour or so and didn’t see the plane out on the tarmac, which seemed a bit odd. Then one of the staff members came in and started talking to a group of Americans that included a high-up female Chrysler executive whose name John recognized. We couldn’t quite hear what they were saying but we were pretty sure it involved a snow storm and finding hotel rooms. Sure enough, our worst nightmare had come to fruition – they had canceled our flight due to a massive snowstorm slated to hit the Midwest today. Apparently we were fated to spend one more day in Germany! Fortunately John had had the foresight to tell the hotel not to clean our room until after noon, in the event that our flight was canceled and we needed to stay one more night. (This was very important because we had left the cat's litter box in our room to be thrown out!)

We were in a bit of a daze as we re-collected our luggage (fortunately they were able to store two of our bags and the two cardboard boxes at the airport) and boarded a shuttle bus for the return journey to SI-Suites. We spent the afternoon at the hotel; John napped on the couch and Scotty curled up in a ball in the armchair, seemingly unphased by his brief journey to and from the airport. I called Beth to break the news and we decided to get together for one last dinner downtown. We took the U-Bahn one more time and met them at a tiny Italian restaurant a few blocks from the Königstraße. It ended up being an excellent meal (we all had different pasta dishes from the daily menu) and I was much happier spending our last evening with friends. Beth and Axel gave us a ride back to the hotel, taking us up the famous Weinsteige through the vineyards up and out of the city. This time we managed not to shed any tears.

The extra time in the hotel gave me a few more minutes to reflect on our time in Germany. I will miss so many things about daily life here…the sound of the church bells ringing out across Botnang at 7 am, noon, and 6 pm sharp…the cheerful yellow U-Bahn cars gliding up and down Schlossstraße…the lovely Altbau apartment houses lining the gently curving streets of Stuttgart-West….the Deutsche Post workers in their cheerful yellow uniforms, riding their matching yellow bicycles laden with the daily mail…the tidy piles of gelbe sacks lining the sidewalks on recycling day and the friendly garbage men who always smiled and said hello…the toll of the vegetable man’s bell as he walked up and down our street bellowing “Kartoffeln!”…all of the wonderful people (and their dogs) that we met walking in the woods (we never got a chance to say goodbye to Tessie’s parents or Itzy’s mom)…the tidy, carefully tended gardens of Botnang, dripping with flowers straight through October…Frau Dörr’s friendly smile every time I knocked on her door to ask a favor…the view of the Birkenkopf and the wooded valley from our balcony…the sun shining through the leaves of the chestnut tree outside my office window…life is in the details, and I hope I can etch these details into my memory forever.

Of course, I won’t miss hauling my groceries up two flights of stairs every week. I won’t miss Kaufland’s lousy vegetable selection, but I will miss the friendly cashiers at Neukauf. I'm looking forward to having a gourmet grocery store a few blocks from our house, but it won't be quite the same as our pilgrimages to the Markthalle for cheese and seafood. I’m looking forward to having a dryer and air conditioning again. John won’t miss being cooped up on Sundays, but I had a certain fondness for the enforced peace and quiet. It will be nice to do yard work any time I want, and not when it’s dictated by a Kehrwoche sign hanging outside our door. I will really enjoy not having downstairs neighbors who turn the hall light on and slam the door in the wee hours of the night and/or morning. Actually, having our own house and yard again will be a real pleasure! But these are all such little things, minor inconveniences really. When you look at the greater scheme of things, we’ve got very little to complain about. We came to Germany with open minds and a sense of adventure, and we leave feeling fulfilled and satisfied with our experience. We may not have mastered Deutsch, but we mastered living life to its fullest.

Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland. And I mean it. I will see you again. But visiting as a tourist will never be quite the same as the two years and four months that we spent living as expatriates in this fine country.

15 December: A Long Day Downtown

After yet another relaxing breakfast from the buffet, we turned in our E-Class wagon at the Führpark just around the corner from SI-Suites. John had filled out an accident report explaining my little foul-up last weekend, but since the office was closed, we just left the paperwork in the car. As we walked back to the hotel, I commented, “That’s probably the last Mercedes we’ll ever drive.”

We had plans to spend the rest of the day in downtown Stuttgart. I had a couple of goals in mind: to visit the Staatsgalerie (the state art museum) and see the Schellenturm, the oldest building in Stuttgart. We took the U-Bahn downtown (there is a station conveniently located right behind SI-Suites) to Charlottenplatz and went to the museum first – a bold, contemporary building that is one of Stuttgart’s better-known architectural landmarks (see photo, right). Unfortunately a large portion of the museum is currently closed for renovations, so we just got to see the temporary exhibition, which provides a snapshot of their collection. It was a nice way to seem some excellent artwork in an hour’s time, which is about as long as we can stand to be in an art museum anyway. Then we strolled over to the old neighborhood called the Bohnenviertel (literally “Bean Quarter”) where I finally got to see the Schellenturm, the last surviving remnant of Stuttgart’s medieval town wall (see photo, right). It is tucked between other buildings and now houses a restaurant; you’d never know it was there if you didn’t know where to look.

We headed back towards the Rathaus and spent an enormous amount of time trying to find the perfect sheets at Breuninger, the biggest department store in the city. Finally a saleswoman came to our rescue and suggested some Italian cotton sheets in a classy subdued stripe. (When she saw the style that I had originally picked out – but couldn’t buy because there was only one set – she frowned and told me in no uncertain terms that they were tacky!) What was even funnier was that we told her we were flying to America tomorrow and she said, “But…you’re German?” I’m pretty sure she was not a native German speaker but it was still pretty funny to be taken for Germans on our last day.

After trying to lose my purse by leaving it at the cash register (could baby brain be settling in already??), we tried to get into Café Planie for kaffee und kuchen but it was packed to the rafters, so we settled for crêpes from the Weihnachtsmarkt instead. We strolled up and down the Königstraße, took pictures around the Schlossplatz (photo, right), bought a book about Baden-Württemberg at Witwer, and then made our way over to Calwerstraße to find someplace to eat an early dinner. We scoped out several restaurants and decided to try a trendy-looking place called Weber that had a rather innovative “Schwäbisch fusion” menu. We managed to snag a table in the rear as long as we promised to free it up for an 8:00 reservation. We both ordered drinks (they had a virgin caipirinha on the menu for me) and waited for our pasta dishes to arrive. And waited. And waited. Finally I flagged down another waitress and inquired as to the whereabouts of our food. She looked a bit startled, disappeared for a moment, then returned and told us that our waitress never put in our order and had gone off her shift! We finally got our meals about an hour after we ordered. We were offered a complimentary dessert or coffee afterwards but we had pretty much had our fill of the place by then. The food was good, but it was a bit of a disappointing experience for our last dinner in Stuttgart.

Back at the hotel, I got into a bit of a panic because our Air Animal rep (the company that is handling Cody’s shipping arrangements) had sent me an email earlier today saying that we should have a complete copy of Cody’s E.U. pet passport for identification purposes when we pick him up in Detroit. His passport was of course with him at the Tierhotel, so I called this morning and left a message for Herr Ratibor asking him to fax a copy of the passport to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel this evening, we picked up the fax but discovered that we were missing the page containing Cody’s health certificate. We composed an anxious e-mail to Herr Ratibor asking him to resend the page in question, plus instructions to fax it to a Kinko’s in Michigan in case he didn’t get our message before we left on Sunday. That was all we could do, so we tried to settle down and get a good night’s sleep before our big day of traveling.

A few more pictures from our last day in Stuttgart:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hausfrau/sets/72157604590058213/

14 December: Sweet Memories of Stuttgart

This morning I enjoyed one final, solitary breakfast at the SI-Suites buffet and then headed over to Botnang to take a few pictures of the neighborhood and give the car a bath. I even said goodbye to the nice young man who works at the gas station – the one who helped me out when my smart got stuck in the carwash. He seemed genuinely sorry to hear that we were moving back to the States and asked if we would ever be coming back.

I spent the rest of the day in downtown Stuttgart, wandering around the Weihnachtsmarkt and doing a little shopping. I snacked on a crêpe slathered with Nutella, bought some wooden Christmas ornaments, and searched several of the big department stores for sheets. We are bringing our European bedding (comforters and pillows) back to the States with us, and I wanted to buy a nice new set of sheets to fit them. Unfortunately I couldn’t seem to find a pattern that I thought John and I would both like, so I’ll have to drag him around tomorrow to pick something out. I did have success in the form of a cool pair of winter boots. I had admired the boots in question several times at a shop near the Rathaus and saw that they were on sale for a good price, so I went in to try them on. I had an extremely successful transaction all in German with the nice saleswoman. I told her my feet were always cold in the winter and she assured me that my toes would stay nice and warm in these Gore-Tex boots. When I came up to pay for them, she asked me if I wanted them in the box and I said no, explaining that they would be going in my suitcase back to America on Sunday. All in all, it was a triumphant day for my German skills on my second-to-last day in Stuttgart!

As I drove up Schlossstraße on the way out of the city, I involuntarily began to cry. I think this is the first time I’ve gotten truly emotional about leaving Germany. It just seemed to hit me all at once: no more lovely strolls along the Königstraße, no more people-watching in the Schlossplatz, no more convenient U-Bahn rides or trips to the Markthalle or shopping for flowers and asparagus at the spring market in Schillerplatz…and that’s just what I will miss about the city itself. In my miserable state, I decided to drive over the hill to Schloss Solitude and take a walk around. It was dusk, and the palace was all lit up and glowing golden against a pale gray sky. I walked in a big loop around the palace and stopped to take some pictures. Through the arched portico I could see the long line of lights stretching away into the distance, a straight shot all the way to Ludwigsburg. John called during my wandering and said he was ready to be picked up, so I made my way slowly back to the car and headed off to Sindelfingen and the Mercedes complex for the last time. We had dinner at the Biergarten again and got most of our packing done this evening so that we could enjoy our last day in Stuttgart tomorrow. This included stuffing two large cardboard boxes full of alcohol (a couple of bottles of wine from our 2006 trip to France, several Rieslings and Eiswein from the Mosel, and a bottle of whisky from Scotland), pet paraphernalia, and miscellaneous gifts, books and other items that had not made it into our shipment.

I’ve put a few pictures of Botnang and Schloss Solitude on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hausfrau/sets/72157604568973502/

12 December: Our Dog of Deutschland & More Moving Chores

I had to get up ridiculously early to eat breakfast with John and then drive him to work. We had already put Cody’s crate in the back of the car (it barely fit, lying on its side), so I just had to come back to the hotel to pick up Cody and then headed off to the Tierhotel. We arrived around 10:15 and of course everyone was as happy to see Cody as he was to see them. Little does he know that this will be his last romp in the moat at Schloss Unterriexingen! A nice young woman came out with a cart to help me bring in the dog crate and I also donated Scotty’s scratching post to their cat room. I had a nice chat with Herr Ratibor, reviewed all of the instructions for Cody’s delivery to the shippers, and suggested to him that they build a satellite dog castle in Michigan. He wished us well on our journey back to the States. I gave Cody a big hug and a kiss; this would be the last time I’d see my dog of Deutschland. Next time I see him, we will be in Michigan, meeting Cody at the Detroit airport.

On my way back to Stuttgart I decided to stop and do something I’ve been meaning to do for ages: have a look around the town of Markgröningen, not far from the Tierhotel. I had heard it had a nice main square and some lovely half-timbered houses, and indeed it does, including a rather impressive Rathaus. I parked the car outside the town walls and took a short stroll around; the town was quiet and some people gave me odd looks as I took a few pictures.

Next I stopped at Shannon’s in Feuerbach to give her Beth’s almost-complete memory book. Shannon will have to put the finishing touches on it and give it to Beth later. We chatted for a bit and then I set out for Beth’s; she called me en route and was just leaving the doctor’s office, so I actually got to her apartment before she did. I showed her my latest ultrasound photo, which actually looks vaguely humanoid – all 19 mm of it! We made brownies for John’s last day at work (or rather I watched while Beth made brownies), drank pink grapefruit tea, and I showed her how to make perl stitches and bind off her knitting, then got her started on her first scarf. The brownies came out of the oven and we rewarded our hard work with a couple, still gooey and warm.

Sometime during my travels today I received a message on my cell phone from the lady whose car I had hit over the weekend. I called her back while I was at Beth’s (just in case I needed a back-up German speaker) and tried to explain to her what had happened. She just wanted my insurance information, which I didn’t have handy since the car was five flights of stairs away. I told her the car was insured through Daimler and that I would call her back later with the information.

I had to leave at 5:30 to get back to Botnang because I was now supposed to meet the rug buyer at the house at 6:00. Dorota F. (the woman who bought my smart wheels) had called while I was at Beth’s to say that her mother had been in a car accident and she wouldn’t be able to come this evening to pick up her things (she was buying a lamp and a small crate); we arranged for her to come tomorrow at noon during our apartment handover instead. The carpet buyer never showed up and I never heard another word from them, which left me feeling rather peeved! I also left two messages for the girl who was buying my large dresser, telling her that this was her last chance to pick it up, and I never heard from her either. Suffice it to say that I was getting really frustrated trying to get rid of these last few items!

John had gone go-karting this evening with some guys from work and was supposed to get a ride home with Jürgen; when he finished he called and I was still at the house, doing some last-minute cleaning. I was in a bit of a panic about the dresser and the rug, so I went next door because Frau Dörr had mentioned something about her painter taking an interest in a few of our things. I interrupted the Dörrs having a traditional dinner of cold meats, cheese, and bread in their cramped little kitchen with the tinkle of classical music coming from an antiquated radio sitting on a shelf. I explained the whole situation and Frau Dörr agreed to call the painter for me. I offered him the rug, dresser, and our two ceiling fans for 50 Euro. He took them of course (who could say no to a deal like that?), to my infinite relief. Frau Dörr offered me a couple of her freshly-baked Christmas cookies and Herr Dörr fixed me a slice of bread and ham, and they insisted that I sit down with them until John arrived. We returned to SI-Suites and had a late dinner at the Irish pub there, which has a pretty darn good hamburger by European standards.

11 December: A Long Walk, Goodbye to Good Friends & Hello to Our Tiny New Family Member

After driving John to work, I had another relaxing breakfast and then spent the rest of the morning at the hotel. I finally signed up for internet service, for which I had to shell out a whopping 88 Euro for the week, so I could check our e-mail. Apparently they haven’t heard of free wi-fi yet.

I drove Cody over to the house in the middle of the day and took him for our last, long walk together in Germany, as I will be dropping him off at the Tierhotel tomorrow. I followed my usual running route, having finally calibrated my pedometer this morning, and discovered that I had been going about 3.5 miles on my typical 35-minute runs. It was a characteristically soggy December day, befitting my mood as we passed all of the familiar landmarks for the last time: the water treatment plant, the little wooden hikers’ shelter, the forester’s house along the Dog-o-bahn, the parking lot at the top of the hill, where more often than not a motorcyclist was learning to maneuver between orange cones, the trail crossing at the winding road out of Botnang, the straight path leading to Schloss Solitude, the long downhill that was always a pleasant respite at the end of my run, and the narrow footpath leading back into our neighborhood. I took some pictures and video of Cody on the trail and tried to commit to memory all of the details of this final jaunt through my beloved woods. I wonder if Cody will miss the freedom of running off the leash for an hour and a half every day. I know that I will miss the peace and solitude of the forest, disturbed only by the occasional deer or hawk, and the sound of traffic rushing by on Wildparkstraße. We didn’t see any of our old friends on our walk, but I will remember them fondly – Taro the Weimeraner, Tavalo the Bearded Collie, Tessie the long-haired Dachsund, and all the rest.

I drove Cody back to the hotel, where I discovered that the housekeeping service was finally cleaning our room. I’m sure they were horrified that we had kept the “do not disturb” sign on the door for several days: What??? No clean towels!?!? Evelyne called around 2:30 to tell me she was home and I could come over. I didn’t get there until nearly 3:30, and Oda arrived a few minutes later. We drank jasmine tea and ate lebkuchen while Oda told me about her debate competition in Lindau (they won three out of their five debates). Before I left, Evelyne pressed a copy of Der Wixxer into my hands, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it won’t work on our American DVD player.

After earnest goodbyes and promises to keep in touch, I left at 4:30 to pick John up at work and then we headed into downtown Stuttgart for my doctor’s appointment. This was the big day, when we would hopefully officially confirm the pregnancy with an actual heartbeat! By the time we arrived my bladder was seriously complaining, but fortunately one of the two designated spaces outside the doctor’s office was vacant so I didn’t have to search for a spot (or hit any other cars in the process). I had my blood drawn and then we waited for nearly half an hour to see Dr. Linckh. The appointment itself was short and sweet, but incredible! I had another vaginal ultrasound and she quickly zoomed in on a dark mass, brought it into focus, and there it was, a tiny fetus, its little heart galloping along. It took my breath away – I guess I wasn’t actually expecting to be able to see it beating. I don’t think I really believed in this pregnancy until that moment. Dr. Linckh said everything looked great; her assistant filled out some information in my Mutterpass (a practical little booklet that all pregnant German women carry listing their vital statistics and pre-natal test results) and sent us on happily our way. We returned to SI-Suites and dinner at the Biergarten, where I determined that their Käsespätzle is not homemade!

10 December: Stuck in the Hotel, the New Tierarzt & a Holiday Party

I had to get up with John at the excrutiatingly early hour of 6:45 this morning so I could drive him to work (yes, please tell me how sorry you feel for me). Traffic was heavy on the Autobahn and it took a full hour to make the roundtrip to Sindelfingen and back to SI-Suites. I had taken Cody for a short walk before we left so I went straight to breakfast and enjoyed a nice relaxing meal with my book.

I sat in the hotel room for the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting caught up on my journal. (Cody, meanwhile, has settled in quite nicely at SI-Suites; see photos.) It had been a glorious sunny morning with very dramatic clouds, but it started raining again (I think it has rained every day for the past two weeks) and I really had no strong motivation to go outside. It is difficult to believe that one week from today we will be back in Michigan, permanently. I have been so busy these past few weeks that I haven’t had time to get depressed about leaving Germany, but it is finally starting to become a reality. People ask me if I’m excited about going “home” and I say no, which is often met with surprise. I have to explain that Michigan isn’t really my home; I have no family there, my friends are all working in a field that I am no longer a part of, and we will be returning to a house that needs an enormous amount of work. If I wasn’t pregnant things would be looking very sad indeed, but at least now I have something new and exciting to look forward to. It’s been reassuring to get the occasional peppy e-mail from my friends saying they are anxious for me to come back.

My one task today was to take the pets to the vet to get their health certificates signed in preparation for the trip home. (The basic requirements for re-entry into the U.S. are an up-to-date rabies vaccination and a medical clearance less than 10 days before the date of travel.) I didn’t end up leaving for the vet until almost 3:00 this afternoon because Scotty hid under the bed and I had a heck of a time getting him out. No amount of tunafish or kitty treats would make him budge. I think he knew something was up, because I put on Cody’s seatbelt harness first. I eventually had to pull the bed away from the wall and Scotty mauled me with his little needle-teeth, which required some first-aid before I finally got both pets out of the room. I eventually loaded everyone safely into the car and headed over to Botnang.

I had noticed several months ago that our Tierartz had apparently retired, as the practice had been taken over by someone new. I just hoped that the new guy had experience with the international health certificates. I walked in the door and noticed that the whole office had a bright new blue-and-yellow paint job. U of M fans would be pleased. I was shown into the office and met the new vet, an amiable young fellow with a friendly blonde assistant. He understood exactly what I needed and got to work on Scotty first. Unfortunately he had some unpleasant news; he said that Scotty was very stressed (apparently beyond the usual cat-at-the-vet stress level) and that he really needed to have a full blood work-up. We had noticed that Scotty had lost quite a bit of weight recently but he had not been acting otherwise ill, so we didn’t really know what, if anything was wrong with him. He isn’t a very happy-go-lucky cat to begin with, and of course his world has been turned upsidedown in the past few days, so I wasn’t surprised that he was more stressed than usual. The vet agreed to sign the health certificate because he knew that I needed to get the cat back to the States, but he urged me to take Scotty to the vet as soon as we got home to Michigan. Ever-robust Cody, on the other hand, checked out fine, although the vet did have the gall to ask whether he came to Germany without a tail (tail docking having been illegal in Germany for some years)!

I had to rush to get to the house by 4:00 because someone named Kerstin was supposed to meet me there to pick up the dining room rug. She never showed up, so I left, quite annoyed, at 5:00, took Cody for a short walk in the dark, and drove the pets back to the hotel. I left to pick up John just before 7, and then we drove downtown to meet everyone in his department for a holiday party at an Italian place called Sallini. We had some trouble finding it and were pretty much the last people to arrive. John’s boss had arranged the party and was covering the tab, but apparently he had to bill it as a “seminar” because they aren’t supposed to be paying for meals out.

Ironically, it was not until my last week in Germany that I finally met all of John’s co-workers and his infamous boss. I could tell you stories about John’s boss, but I’d probably get in trouble. Let’s just say that he is a bit…interesting. Gert and Jürgen were there but otherwise the faces were all new. Out of maybe 25 people, I think there were three women. I had to go around the table shaking everyone’s hands and smiling, doing the part of the dutiful wife. I ended up sitting next to an English guy named Mark. After several minutes of silence, he finally opened the conversation by asking what octopus tastes like (I had reached for a bite of it from the huge antipasto platter in the middle of the table). I ended up having quite a lengthy conversation with him about cars and driving on the Nürburgring. He owns a Lotus Elise but hasn’t gotten up the nerve to drive it on the ‘Ring yet, so I believe he was quite impressed by my relatively extensive experience.

The food was only so-so and I found myself getting tired rather quickly. I had a short chat with John’s boss’ boss, a rather stiff fellow who didn’t have much of interest to say, but at least he tried to make polite conversation. Finally John’s boss made a little speech and they presented John with a nice gift – a framed photograph of the whole department, with everyone holding up letters spelling out “Good Luck John.” Apparently not everyone had been available for the photo, so some of the graphic gurus had Photoshopped in the missing staff. A few people eventually started to trickle out, so we were finally able to make our exit. We didn’t get much of a chance to talk to Gert and Jürgen, but we will be going to Jürgen’s for dinner on Thursday night, which I’m sure will be a lot more fun.

9 December: No More Wardrobe & A Minor Incident

After breakfast at SI-Suites, we left Cody and Scotty at the hotel again and headed over to the house to complete the move-out. There’s nothing quite like the hollow echo of an empty house. Our place looks a lot bigger without any furniture in it. A guy named Dieter arrived at 10 am sharp to pick up the wardrobe. He came well-prepared with a battered leather toolbag and a large (by European standards) van. He was surprised at the excellent condition of the wardrobe and pleased that we helped him take it apart and carry it downstairs. It actually came apart pretty easily – Dieter knew just how to detach the hinges; hauling it all down three flights of stairs was the hard part. He gave us an extra 25 Euro for helping him out, which I thought was quite nice of him, especially since he ended up sitting in our driveway for another hour taking all of the hardware off so the wood wouldn’t get scratched up on his drive home. Beth and Axel arrived in their new B-Class to pick up their stuff just as we finished carrying all the wardrobe pieces downstairs. They already own two chairs that match our dining room set, so Beth had laid claim to our chairs several months ago and it was relatively easy to convince them to buy the matching table as well. I also convinced Beth to take most of my Asian cooking ingredients, including some fish sauce, crystallized ginger, and coconut milk. (We had been warned by the moving company not to put a speck of food or alcohol in our shipment to ward off the prying hands of U.S. Customs agents. Apparently if they find something edible or otherwise suspicious in your shipment, they are liable to break into all of your boxes whilly-nilly, destroying your possessions in the process.)

We took a nice walk in the woods near SI-Suites this afternoon, but the weather was pretty lousy and we turned back once it started raining in earnest. We had plans to meet Beth and Axel at 6:00 for dinner and we left a little early since we were also dropping off an old suitcase and our kitchen rug for their Sperrmülle (garbage) collection. (You can’t just leave large household trash out on the street in Germany; you have to call the city and arrange for a special pick-up. Fortunately Beth and Axel had a pick-up scheduled in a few weeks and had agreed to take a few items from us.) We unloaded the stuff and then I drove off with John to find a parking spot. I found a really nice spacious spot on the street a few blocks away and then proceeded to do something incredibly stupid. I turned the car around and pulled up very close to a car parked in front of me, with the intention of putting the car in reverse and backing into the proper position along the curb. Except I was pointing downhill and this particular manual E-Class is especially difficult to get into reverse, and it doesn’t have a handbrake, so I had no way to hold the car in place while I engaged the clutch. John took this opportune moment to point out, “You know this car doesn’t have a handbrake,” which only succeeded in putting me into a nervous state. Needless to say, I didn’t get the car properly into gear and ended up surging forward, stalling the car in the process, and slammed into the car in front of me. It was an old green Mercedes and I did a number on its rear bumper. There was hardly any damage to our car, fortunately, aside from a slightly bent license plate. I called Beth to find out what I should do. Beth was at a loss so she handed the phone over to Axel. We decided against calling the police (heaven forbid!) and I just left a note with my contact information on the car’s front windshield.

I decided to put the incident out of my mind and enjoy our dinner at an ancient Stuttgart restaurant, supposedly one of the oldest establishments in the city. We shared a cozy table in the back of the restaurant and settled in for a traditional feast of maultaschen, schnitzel, and apfelstruedel. Afterwards we said goodbye to Beth and Axel (they will be seeing us off at the airport next weekend so we were able to put off the official parting a bit longer) and I managed to get us back to the hotel again without further incident.

8 December: Emptying of the Home

We feasted on the fabulous breakfast buffet at SI-Suites this morning and then headed back to Botnang to preside over the emptying of our house. (We left Cody and Scotty behind at the hotel with the “do not disturb” sign on the door.) Jürgen, Sonja, and Uwe’s son arrived around 11:00 with a large refrigerated van to move out all of their purchases. Don’t ask me why or how they managed to borrow a refrigerated van, it’s just significant because a refrigerated van has a lot less space in it than a regular van, and they really had to do a stellar packing job to get everything to fit. We said goodbye to a lot of big items in one fell swoop: our beloved red microfiber couch, which had been the bright and comfortable focal point of our living room, two coffee tables, our TV, stereo, and TV stand, the china cabinet from the dining room, the small red convertible sofa from the office, and a variety of smaller items. I told Jürgen I was pregnant (to explain why I was unable to lift heavy objects) and I swear it brought a tear to his eye! We also managed to offload a bunch of odds and ends on Jürgen and Sonja that we hadn’t been able to sell to anyone, including our fire extinguisher and some random kitchen items.

We had a slight lull before the next round of pick-ups. A stylishly-dressed young woman in stiletto-heeled boots came with a couple of friends in tow to pick up our bed in the early afternoon. (I had taken the bed off of eBay because I thought that someone from John’s work was going to buy it, but that fell through. Then someone from the Stuttgart Newcomers group took an interest in the bed, but was unable to make the trip out to Stuttgart to look at it. I was getting rather desperate when, quite fortuitously, an eBay bidder contacted me to ask if the bed was still for sale, and I was able to negotiate a price of 100 Euro.) They were able to take the bed apart in no time and somehow managed to get the whole thing in their car, mattress and all.

Another eBay buyer arrived a short while later to pick up the bookcase from the office, for which he happily gave us 23 Euro. Brenda was next – she took a wooden crate, bathroom accessories, and a few other small items, along with some of my herbs and spices. And finally Katrina arrived with her boyfriend Sven to pick up our blue Ikea chair. They don’t have a car, so Katrina had already taken pieces of the matching ottoman home on the train over the course of several visits to my house. I felt badly that they had to lug the chair back with them in pieces all the way to Ludwigsburg, but they didn’t seem to mind.

By the end of the day, we were down to only a few large pieces – our bedroom wardrobe, which will be picked up tomorrow morning, my low dresser, the living room rug, and a few other odds and ends. An eBay buyer is supposed to pick up the rug on Monday afternoon. Last week John spoke to the guy who bid on the Spannungswandler (that’s the voltage converter), but he lives a couple of hours away and hasn’t been able to figure out how to get here to pick up. John told him that the converter was worth a hefty sum of money and it was really worth the trip since he was only paying 6 Euro for it, but we aren’t holding out much hope that he will come. I think John will be able to offload it on Jürgen if we can’t get anyone else to take it.

We haven’t managed to sell any of the light fixtures, not even the ceiling fans, so we are just going to have to leave those to the next tenants, along with some of the curtains. Which reminds me, after that huge fiasco with the Dörrs over the price of our kitchen, we finally settled on a price of 1000 Euro, only to find out later that the new tenants are actually going to buy the kitchen from us instead of the Dörrs. The Dörrs of course told them that we would sell it for 1000 Euro, when we would have naturally liked to get more for it! Oh well. I suppose we should be happy that we don’t have to rip the kitchen out and leave it on the street for the junk scavengers!

It was dark and drizzling by the time we got back to SI-Suites, so we could only give poor Cody, who had been cooped up in the room all day, a meager evening walk around the empty fields near the hotel.

7 December: Farewell to the Big E & Return to SI-Suites

It’s been one heck of a day. This morning I followed John to Möhringen to drop off the E-Class at 8:30 am. He turned in the paperwork and we bade our fond farewell to the Big Blue E. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll have another car quite like it in our lifetime. John may have gotten some funny looks from his Mercedes co-workers (E-Classes are not typically driven by 30-something design managers) but we sure had a lot of good times in that car. It carried us safely through the wilds of Wales and Scotland, up and down the length of Germany, and you simply couldn’t ask for a more comfortable, capable Autobahn cruiser. As evidenced by our previous E-Class’ performance on the Nürburgring, it handles pretty nicely too. And we have the Big E’s superb braking system to thank for saving me from colliding with the Polizei on our way to Rallye Deutschland last July. It was definitely tough to say goodbye.

We high-tailed it back to the house, as the movers were scheduled to arrive at 10 am. Being good Germans, they were already there when we arrived, even though it was just after 9:00. Fortunately we already had everything ready to go for them; all we had to do was make sure they didn’t pack up anything that we didn’t want sent back to Michigan. There was one funny moment when John pointed out (in our now near-empty kitchen) that I had forgotten my beer bottle collection. As you may recall, we had about 40 different beer bottles lining the shelves on top of our kitchen cabinets. I had no intention of bringing them all home, but I did want to take a representative sample. I snatched a few bottles and carried them into the living room, where one of the movers was packing up pictures. I held out the bottles and said, “I forgot these!” He looked doubtfully at the bottles, his eyes wide, and said, “All of them?” I laughed and said, “No, just these!”

John left for work when it looked like everything was under control. The movers were quite efficient, packing up all of our stuff and loading it up in the van in less than three hours. A little while after they left, Carole came by to pick up the rest of her purchases (her husband had come by for the black leather chair and ottoman last night), including the living room rug and coat rack.

This afternoon I took Cody for a walk and then waited for John to come home around 5:00. We packed up our suitcases, loaded up the dog and cat, and drove over to Möhringen to check in at SI-Suites, back where it all began so long ago. We were given a nice spacious suite on the sixth floor – much better than the small room we had on the first floor last time around. This time we have a kitchenette, a separate bedroom, a dining table, and a comfortable sitting area. We only had a short time to settle in before we had to drive back to Botnang to await a couple of people who were picking up furniture. First Axelle’s husband arrived to pick up the dining room buffet, my small dresser, the iron and ironing board, and a bunch of smaller odds and ends. He ended up having to make two trips, but he managed to fit it all in. A woman named Marita arrived with a friend to pick up my large dresser at 7:30. She had contacted me via the Stuttgart Newcomers email group and agreed to purchase the dresser for 40 Euro. Unfortunately, she took one look at the dresser and determined that it wouldn’t fit in her car. She would have to return next week with a larger vehicle. She gave me 25 Euro to secure the sale, and promised to call when she had the transportation lined up.

Finally we got to call it a day and headed back to SI-Suites and a much-deserved dinner at the Biergarten. Tomorrow, the great move-out gets underway in earnest – we have a whole string of people scheduled to come by the house, starting with Jürgen and Sonja in the morning and then a steady stream of people all afternoon.

2 December: The Great Giveaway Begins

It is difficult to believe that one week from today, our apartment will be virtually empty, and two weeks from today, we will be flying home to Michigan. I have moved several times in my life, but those transitions have typically involved packing up all of my worldly possessions and taking them along with me to a new and unfamiliar place. This time around is a strange reversal on the theme: we are giving up all of the belongings that have populated our home for more than two years, but are returning to our own home and well-known surroundings. I will be very sad to say goodbye to our bright, airy apartment in our quaint green house on Brucknerstraße. We might not have picked out the furniture ourselves, but the pieces have become part of the fabric of our lives, just as the whole house has become our home away from home. It is somewhat disconcerting to think that soon all of our possessions will be scattered across Stuttgart and beyond, in the homes of friends and strangers. I take some comfort in knowing that Beth will have our dining room set, Debbie will have our desk, Jane will have our plates, Jürgen will have my photographs of the Southwest, and all of our other things will be put to good use by people who want and need them. But that doesn’t make up for the strange sense of emptiness that I feel when I imagine saying goodbye to all of this and returning home to the mundane life of Michigan.

I’ve done everything in my power over the past couple of weeks to sell our remaining furniture. I created a website, gave a flyer to Shannon to post on base, put an announcement on the Stuttgart Newcomers e-mail list, and have been talking up our stuff with all of my friends. I’ve also been trying to sell some of the bigger items on German eBay, including the black leather chair and ottoman and two side tables in the living room, the bookcase in the office, our bed, wardrobe, and two dressers in the bedroom, the coat rack in the foyer, and the dining room rug. We are also trying to sell our voltage converter, which weighs half a ton. It cost around $250 but we have no interest (or need) in taking it back to the U.S. The only thing we used it for was to power our computer speakers, which weren’t dual-voltage, so we probably didn’t really need it in the first place. Beth helped me out with my first eBay listing, which was the black chair and ottoman, and we finally figured out how to specify “pick-up only.” I started the bidding on the chair at 200 Euro because we really wanted to get some money for it, but Beth encouraged me to start the other auctions at 1 Euro; otherwise she warned that my listings wouldn’t get any interest at all. I don’t know if this is the case on American eBay, but the German site is flooded with commercial outfits, so private sellers really get short shrift.

As of today, the auction results are pretty depressing. I sold the black chair and ottoman for my minimum bid of 200 Euro. They were purchased by an American woman whose husband works for Mercedes and has been taking German lessons from Stefanie. She came by a week or so ago to check out our things and expressed an interest in the chair, but only offered me 150 Euro for it. I told her I would put it on eBay and she was kind enough to bid on it. I’ve also sold the bookcase for 21 Euro, the dining room rug for 6 Euro (it originally cost 350 Euro), the upright dresser for 41 Euro, and the voltage converter for a whopping 4 Euro. There’s been no takers on the wardrobe or bed, which are the biggest items we need to get rid of! I know Shannon will buy the wardrobe for 65 Euro if no one bids on it, but her husband is going to be out of town so she would need a lot of help to get it dismantled and moved to her house.

Now I have to start scheduling pick-up times with everyone, which is proving to be a bit complicated. Some people just don’t seem to understand the concept of a set pick-up date – I indicated in each eBay listing that they could pick the items up between the 8^th and 10^th of December, but people have contacted me trying to pick things up earlier or later. Let’s just say I’m getting a lot of pratice writing e-mails in German!

Most of the people who bought items at our November sale will be coming next weekend, but Axelle, the French woman from the IWC who snatched up a lot of our freebie items, wanted to come today to take a few things because she has houseguests coming next weekend and she knew she wouldn’t be able to take everything in one trip. Her husband, a shy, balding Frenchman with a very small Citröen hatchback, showed up around 11 am and managed to load up his car with one of the dressers, two sets of bedding, the raclette machine, the bookcase from the living room, the storage unit from the foyer, a bread box, and the barbeque. Now our house is starting to look a little funny, with stacks of books and clothes lying around. The movers are coming on Friday, the 7^th, to pack up everything that will be shipped back to the States, and then we will empty out the rest of the house next weekend.

30 November: SLK, We Hardly Knew Ye

The dreaded day has come at last. Not wanting to duplicate last year’s frantic journey to the smart Kundencenter – which, as you may recall, involved misplacing my car’s paperwork, getting stuck in a traffic jam, taking the wrong exit off the Autobahn, failing repeatedly to reach John, and arriving nearly half an hour late for my appointment – this time I made sure that I had all of the SLK’s paperwork in order well in advance and left myself plenty of time to get to the Mercedes Fahrzeugrückgabe (car return). Before leaving I took a few final pictures of the SLK in our driveway and then hopped in the car for my last ride. I can’t say that I will have a legitimate reason to own a convertible two-seater sportscar for a very long time, if ever, so I feel incredibly lucky to have experienced this sleek and stylish (albeit woefully underpowered) example of German automotive engineering over the past twelve months. I just couldn’t believe the time had flown by so fast.

I arrived at the car return (photo, right, with the SLK visible just to the right of the sign) about ten minutes early and waited for John to show up in the E-Class. We went inside and waited in line for about ten minutes. I let John handle the talking – he is so much better than me in these situations! We handed over our keys and paperwork and then we had to wait another fifteen or twenty minutes while they went to check out the car. (During this time you are welcome to hang out in snazzy black-and-chrome lounge chairs and get yourself a cappuccino or a bottled water while reading the days’ newspapers or watching TV.) Finally they called our name and proceeded to run through a litany of numbers that we could barely understand; it was totally déjà vu from last year. What I got out of the whole thing was that there was something wrong with the paint. (The car did have an unidentifiable substance, presumably some sort of toxic tree sap, sprayed all over it some months ago that I had never been able to remove. It turns out that the Mercedes people couldn’t remove it either and were going to have to repaint the car! Fortunately this was not our problem; it would be covered by the company’s insurance.) The bottom line was that we had not exceeded our mileage limit so we would receive some money back, just like last time. John signed the paperwork and we were done, and the SLK was gone, just like that.

I drove John back to work but just before dropping him off, I quickly snapped a picture of his building (photo, above; the funny arched thing going off to the left is a pedestrian bridge), to his great chagrin. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to going inside. John never wants me to get my camera out in the vicinity of his building for fear that armed Mercedes guards will hunt me down and confiscate my camera. I know they tend to be sensitive about such things, but surely they would permit me a souvenir picture of the building!

I drove back to Sindelfingen to pick up John this evening and then we went downtown to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt. I had been invited by my friend Judy to attend her choir’s Christmas concert in the courtyard of the Altes Schloss, which was to begin at 6:00 pm. We got there a bit late and they were already well into their set of songs, but we got to hear the second half. The choir was joined by a brass ensemble and the two groups performed several pieces together. It was simply a magical experience to listen to the traditional carols (with a few modern pieces thrown in) against the backdrop of the 600-year-old palace, its arched arcades glowing golden in the crisp evening air.

After the concert we hooked up with Judy, her husband, and a few of their friends for a round of Glühwein. (Well, actually I had Kinderpunch, a hot spiced fruit punch that was actually pretty tasty.) Judy surprised me with a very special farewell gift – she is a painter on the side and made me a darling oil painting of a traditional German pretzel! I was so touched by this very thoughtful and unique gift. After a bit of socializing, we said our farewells and then John and I wandered around the market for a bit. John got his favorite crêpe – slathered generously with Nutella, of course – from the same stand and the very same woman who served us last year, while I succumbed to temptation and ate an entire Germknödel – my favorite yeast dumpling filled with plum jam and smothered in poppyseed butter and powdered sugar – all by myself. Before heading home, we strolled out to the SchlossplatzKönigstraße lit up by a million white lights. and soaked up the dazzling sight of the From this vantage point we could see the two palaces, the Stiftskirche, the modern art gallery (a.k.a. “the Cube”), the Königsbau, and, of course, the Fernsehturm twinkling on its hill above the city. More pictures from tonight are on Flickr in the link I provided yesterday.

29 November: Downtown Stuttgart & Weihnachtsmarkt

This afternoon I drove downtown for the last time in the SLK, because I will be turning it in tomorrow and then will be ohne Auto (unless I drive John to work) for the duration of our time in Germany. I parked in a structure next to one of the big department stores and strolled up the Königstraße to check out the festivities at the Weihnachtsmarkt. I took a few pictures of some Stuttgart landmarks along the way; you can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hausfrau/sets/72157604346572805/

26 November: Goodbye Party, and What the IWC Girls Like About Germany

Brenda had been hounding Heather and I for the past several weeks to set a date for a goodbye party at her house. Finally, after much deliberation and about five minutes of planning, we settled on this Monday evening. It turned out to be a small affair – just me, Heather, Brenda, Shannon, Thuy, Emily, and Beth – but we had a wonderful time sitting around Brenda’s dining room table, chowing down on all the yummy snacks (Crackers and cheese! Veggies and dip! Stuffed peppers! Chips and salsa! Artichoke dip! Oreos! Cream puffs!) that everyone had brought and sipping celebratory champagne. Yes, even us pregos had a few sips; since Beth, Shannon, Heather, and I are all pregnant, it would have been tough for the other three to drink the whole bottle on their own!

I took out my little camera and put everyone on the spot by asking them what they liked about Germany. (The video actually turned out to be a really nice keepsake to remember everyone by.) Everyone had something unique and different to say. Shannon enjoys the opportunity to meet like-minded women who thrive on the international life. For Brenda, there’s nothing not to like about Germany…the people, the country, the food, the recycling and mass transit systems…Shannon quipped, ‘the accessibility of cigarette machines” (Brenda is a smoker)…I think she’s going to be here a long time. Beth had a different perspective, since she grew up in the U.K. and has spent most of her life in Europe. For her, Germany is very “European” in feel as opposed to the insular nature of the U.K. (Of course, she could have just she likes Germany because of her husband Axel, whom we all adore!) “And the wine industry,” she added, “which got me into this,” pointing at her bulging belly. Thuy loves the coffee, the farmers’ markets with their beautiful flowers, the castles, and the walking trails. Emily enjoys the relaxed pace of life (although she wouldn’t mind being able to shop on Sundays) and the availability of NPR and AFN via the army bases. She also married a German, so she must not mind it too much. Heather emphasized the strong family values – the fact that you don’t get worked to death and then go home to your family – and the culture of walking: “Even when its 0 degrees and snowing, people are out walking.”

And as for me? Well, like Brenda, I have very few complaints. Perhaps I would feel differently if I were living here permanently, but on a temporary basis, I haven’t found anything about Germany to be insanely aggravating. I often think back to our “culture shock” training and the discovery that John and I are more similar to Germans in cultural attributes than we are to our fellow Americans. The strict rules have never bothered me because I have my own pretty strict rules. I actually love the fact that people self-police each other when it comes to things like recycling and being quiet on Sundays. The little quirks that make life different here are also what make it fascinating. And one can never forget what I think should be Germany’s national motto: Betreten auf eigene Gefahr – Proceed at your own risk, which pretty much means that you are responsible for your actions, so if you do something stupid, don’t expect to be able to sue someone!

21 November: Fall Thoughts

Only twenty-five days to go. Fall seemed so fleeting this year, but I suppose that is the nature of the season. I try to savor every step of every walk through “my” woods, knowing that my days in Botnang are numbered. I’ve watched the colors change and the leaves fall these past few weeks, knowing it was the third and last time I would see the changing of the seasons in Stuttgart. A few weeks ago the freshly fallen leaves painted a spectrum of orange along the trails – colors straight out of a box of Crayola crayons. Now the leaves are rain-sodden and smashed to a uniform pulp of burgundy and chocolate brown. I still walk most mornings with Evelyne and Marlena, but somehow our conversations have lost their charm. I’m very tired and long to sleep in, but I know I should keep up my morning German practice as long as possible. It’s harder to concentrate when you are tired, and I find my mind wandering. I’m wondering when I should tell Evelyne I am pregnant, and how to break the news to her that I’m really too tired to walk for an hour every morning.

I’m nearing the end of my jazz classes as well…tonight I told Marilena that I’m pregnant and she was thrilled. I’m avoiding any big jumps so I didn’t do one of the sequences across the floor. I stood in the back with one hand over my belly and one of the girls (the only other one who isn’t in the professional program) gave me a little smile. I smiled back and whispered that I was pregnant, and she said, “I thought so!”

20 November: A Non-Stop Day

Today’s jam-packed agenda called for a long drive to Debbie’s house way out in Donzdorf-Winzingen for an IWC Coffee Chat, followed by a visit to the WMF factory outlet in nearby Geislingen, yet another visit to Dr. Linckh to see how my little zygote is coming along, and, lastly, my final IWC dinner at the Ritterstube in Sindelfingen.

Debbie’s coffee was at 10:00 and I was giving Ulla (the German woman from our book club) a ride, so I wanted to be prompt. Ulla took the U-Bahn to Botnang and met me at my house at 9:15, then we headed out into the countryside to find Debbie’s house. Fortunately her directions and the E-Class’ navi were in agreement and we arrived promptly at 10:00, at the same time as Heather and Brenda. Debbie’s German husband is a schoolteacher and they have lived in their sprawling home in the little hamlet of Donzdorf-Winzingen for nearly thirty years. Debbie had prepared a beautiful brunch spread for us of meats and cheeses, breads and pastries, fresh fruit and, of course, plenty of coffee and tea. We chatted over our meal for an hour or so and then piled into our cars and followed Debbie to Geislingen. WMF (pronounced “Veh-Em-Eff”) is an internationally-renowned manufacturer of cutlery and kitchenware and operates an enormous factory outlet store called the Fischhalle (literally, “Fish Hall”) in Geislingen. The name refers to the seafood outlet that WMF opened for its employees in 1912. During World War I, the Fischhalle helped feed many of the families of Geislingen. The fish sale ended in the 1920s and WMF began selling its products out of the building, preserving the original name for posterity.

The warehouse really is huge, and for anyone who likes to cook, or just enjoys kitchen gadgets, it is a dream come true. I was like a kid in a candy shop and had trouble restraining myself to just looking as I took my first stroll around the store. John and I had been talking about buying a set of WMF silverware to take back to America, and I was pleased to find that they had a huge selection at excellent prices. I probably spent close to an hour browsing the cutlery, trying to choose a pattern and find the best deal. It didn’t help that John was in a meeting and couldn’t answer my phone calls. I finally settled on a set in the simple, elegant “Boston” style that came nicely packaged in its own briefcase – easy to transport! It was on sale for what I thought was a good price, but without John’s express agreement, I was a little nervous because it was still a lot of money. I wandered around the store a little more while the rest of the group made their way over to the bistro for a snack. Finally John was able to call me back and give me the go-ahead on the silverware. I also purchased a child's set of silverware and a very cool glass teapot that sits on top of a metal base, heated from below with a tealight candle. I thought it would be nice to have it in my office in Michigan so I wouldn’t have to go downstairs all the time to heat up my tea.

I joined the rest of the women after making my purchases, but before I could even sit down, I spied a bulging bag of Ritter Sport chocolate bars sitting on the table in front of Heather. Apparently they had a special deal on “imperfect” chocolate from the Ritter Sport factory (which is located in Waldenbuch, not far away), and they were selling enormous bags of chocolate bars for only 10 Euro. I couldn’t resist, even though you can now find Ritter Sport commonly in the States. I still remember when my dad used to make trips to the Black Forest when I was a kid and he would bring back these unique square chocolate bars for me and my brother.

After our snack, we said our goodbyes and I drove Ulla back to Botnang, dropping her off at the U-Bahn station. After stopping at the house to give Cody a quick walk, I had to get back down to the U-Bahn quickly to make it to my afternoon doctor’s appointment. This time I finally had some really good news: Dr. Linckh was able to identify my zygote, which looked like a little dark smudge on the ultrasound screen. I got a printout and everything. She said my hormone levels were looking good and I made an appointment for one more visit in two weeks’ time, when hopefully we will hear the baby’s heartbeat!

From the doctor’s office I took the U-Bahn back to Botnang, picked up my car, and headed straight to the IWC dinner in Sindelfingen. (Originally I was going to give Beth a ride but I couldn’t get a hold of her; it turned out that she was still stuck at the office, working late on a consulting job that she had decided to take on.) Brenda had selected the Ritterstube (literally “rider’s room”) a restaurant located just a few blocks from her house, at the local riding stable, for our monthly dinner. The dining room is uniquely situated between two indoor riding rings; you can look out two long rows of windows on either side of the room and watch the riding students at their lessons. We had a turnout of about twelve people for dinner, including Shannon, Eliza, Heather, Brenda, Thuy, and Judy. I had a wonderful plate of Maultaschen and showed off the ultrasound printout of my zygote. As usual, a grand time was had by all! It was a bittersweet evening for me, since I knew it was the last time I would be attending an IWC dinner, but I still have the annual holiday brunch to look forward to in December.

16 November: Oda's Debate Class

Oda has been begging me to come to one of her English debate club meetings and we finally arranged for me to attend today. I was still feeling quite miserable from my cold but I didn’t want to disappoint her. We planned to meet at the Schloss-Johannesstraße U-Bahn stop at 1:15. I got there early and saw her coming; she was chowing down a pork sandwich slathered in ketchup. We walked a few blocks to her school, which is housed in a multi-story complex of nondescript post-war buildings. I think this is the first time I have ever stepped foot inside an “indoor” high school, as I went to school in northern California where it rarely goes below freezing and the school common areas are all outdoors. We went upstairs and down a hall to a small classroom, where a few of the debate club members were already hanging out. Oda introduced me and then we sat down with a couple of her friends, Therese and Vivica, and waited for the rest of the group to show up.

Their teacher walked in a few minutes later – a middle-aged German woman with long bleached-blond hair. She called the meeting to order and asked me to introduce myself. I told them my name and they all laughed, then I explained how I knew Oda. The teacher asked, “So you work with Oda’s mother?” and I said, “No, we just go walking in the mornings.” Then she asked, “So you have debate experience?” and I said, “Not exactly, but I worked for an organization in Michigan where I had to do a lot of public speaking and talking to reporters.” (Oda had told her teacher I was coming, but I got the sense that she was fishing for a reason to justify my presence.) Eventually the group broke in two to discuss the arguments they had prepared on the topic of women in positions of leadership. Oda’s teacher assigned me to the group arguing in favor, while Oda was on the opposing side. I found myself in a group of four surly teenage boys and one girl, none of whom had done much preparation because they thought their argument was so easy to win. Imagine my horror when I discovered that most of the boys in the group actually believed that women should not hold positions of leadership. A couple of them came across as real chauvinist pigs. It was quite an eye-opener, but I tried to keep my mouth shut and only helped them out with wording their arguments. In the end they didn’t have time to actually practice the debate, which was a shame. They spent a long time discussing their future meeting schedule and making arrangements for an upcoming debate competition, a weekend trip which several members of the group would be attending, including Oda.

On the way back to the U-Bahn I chatted some more with Oda and her friends. One of them had spent a year on a student exchange in Seattle and spoke perfect English with barely a hint of an accent. She told me that she had had a very difficult time when she first arrived in the U.S. because the American students all made fun of her German accent. I told her that they had no right to do that, since I was quite certain that none of them could speak a foreign language half as well! Even after four years of high school French, most of my classmates could barely carry on a simple conversation. I have been really impressed with Oda’s command of English and it surprises me that she finds herself struggling academically – she has told me that her teachers want her to read more English books and improve her grammar. Let me assure you, the German kids I have met put most American high school students to shame! I think I will help Oda out by getting her a copy of The Blue Sword, which was one of my favorite fantasy novels in high school. It’s not too long and should be right up her alley, since she loves fantasy and role-playing games.