small details

If you've known me for any length of time, you've probably noticed I'm extremely detail oriented.  This can be a good thing - as in the case of my finding sometime employment as a copy editor.  It can also can be somewhat maddening, as in the case of the recent move when I kept track of everything down to the stray screws at the bottom of the junk drawer

It still bugs me that I found, then lost again, the last screw to the closet door mechanism in Merlin's bedroom.

Sometimes, being focused on details, the bigger picture eludes me; but usually I have the benefit of being made happy by very small things*.  I couldn't ask for a greater gift than to be able to notice really interesting details, to find small sensory treasures all over the place.

This town, having been in existence in some form since at least 1150, is full of rich detail.  Over the centuries things have disappeared, been covered over, replaced, restored, created anew.  I'm finding and appreciating something whenever I can.  Lucky you, you get to notice them too, sometimes with description, sometimes just in photographs.

Enjoy!

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*  Ooo, I think I like this phrase in its Winnie-the-Pooh-esqueness:  "Made Happy by Very Small Things," kind of like a "Bear of Very Little Brain."

House, found.

I'm in a rush (when am I not, lately?) - as we're vacating the guesthouse in two hours and there's still some things left to deal with (ah, the food problem, again).

We found a house in the nick of time - it's still got some work to be done, and it's a slightly strange place but it'll do and it's got some great features.  We're moving in while the upstairs floor is being replaced, the bathroom being re-done and the kitchen getting a new stove, oven, and refrigerator.  Nobody can decide how the very oddly sized rooms should be divided, but for now it doesn't matter since we're sleeping in the living room.

Here are pictures from the realtor's website.  We've got no internet or telephone there so I don't know when I'll be online next, but hopefully it'll be soon.

meh

It's been a bit of a bumpy week.  The house search has been a challenge.  I've looked at 5 places.  All of them but one are on the high end of our budget (actually, they've claimed territory outside our budget, but what to do?).  The one that was more decently priced turned out to only have two bedrooms in the house but included two bedrooms and a distant bathroom on the ground-floor, connected by a common-use stairway.  Really, they were just separate rooms waiting to be rented out to students, it seemed.

It's ironic, seeing all these beautiful, beautiful houses and finding so few of them available. 

The one I've liked best was close to Devin and Merlin's school, had ample room for guests, a yard, a really nice landlord who is retrofitting it with new bathroom fixtures, lights, and a new kitchen, and was, unsurprisingly, too expensive.  The next option is the one I'm trying for now - but I've got to work out details about whether or not we can move into the downstairs while the upstairs floor is being replaced and bathroom repaired.

Do you see the trend?  It seems landlords wait until they have a renter before they make repairs - or they put it on the market while the previous tenant is still current and who knows when they'll be moving out... or they list the number of rooms and sometimes count the bathrooms in the total so that you have to see it to find out it really only has two bedrooms.

Adding to this was the large amount of bank paperwork that came bearing PINs, none of which seemed to work, colds caught by the kids, a tick bite on yours truly, residency paperwork hitting the glitch of my passport expiring next year... 

and I've concluded that the honeymoon is over and we're back to reality.

We're all looking forward to finding some normalcy so that we at least feel like we have a home base in which we can weather all storms, even when they're as small as a tick.

****

off topic and long shot:  Is anyone looking for new cell phone service?  I'm about to cancel my existing account and pay $600 for breaking our contract for 3 lines.  If you're interested in adopting a T-mobile line, please let me know...

oh, and I'm behind in answering email - in case you hadn't noticed...

Walk in the Wald*

This week and a half has been crammed with errands and tasks.  Busy, for sure, but not stressfully so.  Yesterday was the first morning my legs weren't stiff from all the walking I've been doing - daily 3 to 5 miles as I cross town and head back again, from Devin and Merlin's school to Dan's office, to various shops and then back to the guesthouse.  Taxis are much more prevalent than in most US cities, but they're expensive and I haven't figured out the bus system.  Anyway, the walking doesn't hurt at all and it lets me see all sorts of really neat things.

On Sunday we enjoyed ourselves by doing more walking, of course!  Dan's boss invited us to his house for a simple lunch (amazing rolls, cheeses) and a walk in the woods behind his house.  Some of the area is protected (there's a deer park) while in some places the paths pass next to farms and fields.  It was a great way to spend what would be the last mostly-sunny day for a while.

Here's the goofy gang at the beginning of the walk.

 We were heading up and in.

Along the way there were stone markers, including a few with dates.  These woods are actually quite young, having been planted sometime around 1904.


The area around Göttingen** is pastoral, and so green right now.  Coming straight out of the Central Valley heat, we feel like we've been dropped into the late November rainy season. (Here I recommend clicking on the photos if they interest you.  They'll open up in their own window, large enough to actually see).

I admit, I'm a straggler, always at the tail end of the group, dawdling along looking at something (very often a plant, but I'm open to anything, really).  That means a lot of my pictures show the rear of the group and how far I've lagged behind...

 and then they have to wait for me to catch up

<==It's nice that Merlin lags along with me, though of course the speed-walkers are good humored.

Here are the scholars, deep in conversation: ==>





Among the discoveries:

The Banana Slug's German cousin, the Orange-Wedge Slug***

Unintelligible Teutonic Runes

and, The Slightly Sad Cyclops

All in all, we had a great time!




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* You didn't know you were coming along for German lessons, did you?  Wald means forest or woods and it's pronounced "valt."

** I have to say I am so happy to have discovered my umlaut.

*** not it's real name

First Blog Post and First Week of School!!!

Hi everybody! This is my first blog post and first week of school . Sadly I don't have any pictures of the school but I do have words! So far every class I have: geography, music, math, religion, German, politics, and clarinet is in German, well except for English which is in English. My classmates speak very little English so it's kinda hard to communicate! We have lunch at 1:05 which is really late for me. At the cafeteria they at least have a kitchen to cook the food, but of course the food isn't that great. On the first day we had a pork dish with this bread crumb topping, some disgusting weird green vegtables and potatos. To drink was this really watered down fruit juice. On most days we're supposed to get out at 3:20 but this week almost all the teachers during the last period are gone and so we get out at 1:05. I have made a few friends and I am already am invited to someone's birthday party, hopefully my luck will keep up and I'll make as many friends as I did in California! The classes are impossible to understand and I have a really hard with the classes but luckily I'll have German classes so it'll be easier. I don't really have that much to say so I'm sorry if this post is short! Bye!

wait... are we back in Davis?

It seems like on any given drizzly morning in Davis one could step out as we did on Saturday to find a bike race going down the street.
...

Last week was all about getting basics set up (a bank account, residency established, at least one functioning cell phone, school registration, etc.).  This week there are more bureaucratic undertakings but most importantly, a house search.  We have a little less than two weeks to find something in a market that's naturally tight but made worse by a larger than normal incoming college freshman class.  Last year they switched from 13 to 12 years of schooling so that the high schools graduated two classes at once and now they're coming to college.

I'll be off looking at two places today and hope to find something quickly.  Can't wait for some degree of regularity.

There'll be a post soon with pictures of our walk in the woods and maybe even a first-day-of-school post if I can get Merlin to stop watching Spongebob Schwammkopf for a little.  She's living her tv-deprived childhood dream!

Where we've landed.

Hello everyone!  Guten Tag!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind week, but in a very nice way - so that it's not been stressful, just busy.

We're staying at a guesthouse near the city center which is convenient to Dan's office and Devin and Merlin's school.  We've been walking everywhere, sometimes more than once, and the weather has been cool but still comfortable.  I've not really been taking pictures, but that will come soon. 

Dan flew from Beijing and Devin, Merlin and I left from San Francisco, meeting at the Frankfurt airport, where we bought train tickets and stopped for a bite to eat.  Dan pulled two small wine glasses from his bag (how did he do that?) and bought a small bottle of champagne to toast the occasion of this new adventure.  Talk about romantic!

Here we are at the Frankfurt train station.

If I'd done my photojournalist duty I'd have taken pictures of the train, too - very clean and nice... but maybe I can be forgiven for my combination of travel-stupor and the fact that our hands were already full with far too much stuff.

Here's what our two bedroom guesthouse apartment looks like (and the view outside).

Photos of this lovely town will follow soon!