I also finally finished Chapter four, entitled First Encounters, of Bebokia the Hidden Planet.  Completing a chapter always give me an adrenaline rush.  It takes at least a whole day for me to calm down and begin the next chapter.  Is that strange?

After six years I’ve finally started to drive again.  It’s true what they say; driving is something you never forget how to do.  The streets in Germany are little bit different than the streets in the US.   The signs are also different and that takes a while to get used to.   It’s amazing how driving gives you such a feeling of freedom.  

Everyone’s getting ready for the Easter holiday.  We’re planning a chocolate egg hunt for the little ones (and the big ones too).   The apartment needs to be spotless for our guests so I’ve been doing some heavy cleaning.  I was planning to make potato salad and bought all the ingredients except for the potatoes.  I’ll have to make time to go back to the grocery store.

I’ve been teaching my son some basic reading and math skills before he starts school in August.  It’s so important that he has a head start.  The German school system is lacking in everything.  I don’t have anything good to say about that subject so I’ll just leave it at that. 

I will do my best to post more often.  I think two posts a month is reasonable…

I always packed a small dessert with my son’s lunch.  I was soon scolded by the daycare worker that I’m such an awful parent.  Sugar is bad for children and their teeth.  My argument was that my son was not overweight and his dentist just told us that his teeth are excellent.  Her comeback was that the other children were always jealous of his desserts and fussed because they wanted a dessert too.  How fair is it that my child can’t have a dessert because some other kid will be jealous?  That is a big life lesson. You can’t always have what other people have. 

Soon after the cookie incident as I like to call it, my son had an accident on the playground and hurt his nose really badly.  It was bleeding and very swollen.  The same daycare worker tried to talk me out of taking him to the doctor but I was deathly afraid that his nose was broken.  Luckily his nose was not broken it just looked awful.  I talked to her and told her that she must be more careful with my son’s nose.  I don’t want him having a broken nose.  This crazy woman looked at me and seriously asked me “Well, why it the nose so important?”  I was in shock when she said that to me.  I told her that once you break your nose it’s just broke because it never heals properly.   I should have asked, “How would you like it if I broke your nose?” 

The insanity unfortunately doesn’t stop here.  The next horrible incident happened when I picked up my son.  She casually told me that she had forgotten to give my child his lunch.   She said it smiling as if it were no big deal.  I was so mad that I chose not to say anything just then.  You know the rule, think before you speak.  I let my son stay home the next day for obvious reasons.  He missed picture day but that was the least of my worries.  She calls me at home reminding me about those stupid photos.  I didn’t want to talk to her so I kept things short.  I let her that my son will not be attending daycare that day. 

I’m a peaceful person.  I don’t like confrontation so I planned to just hang a sign over his little locker that read, “Please don’t forget to give my son his lunch.”  She sees me dropping him off.  “Frau Brosinski, I would like to discuss the photos with you.”  I calmly answered, “There is nothing to discuss.  All you need to do is remember to give my son his lunch.”  I turned to walk away but she kept at it.  “I think it’s a shame that he’s the only one not in the class picture.”  
I was now boiling mad.  “It’s a shame that you let my son go six hours without any food” I yelled at her.  “I don’t care about the class pictures.”
“So he stayed at home because I forgot to give him his lunch” she went on.  I looked at her with an expression at said, “You can not be this stupid!”
She apologized for not giving him his lunch but not before she stressed the evils of missing picture day.  Lady, you have made this daycare situation a nightmare for me. Why would I want pictures to remind me of this whole ordeal?  If my son did not need speech therapy I would pull him from this daycare in an instant. 
If one more incident like this happens I will be forced to write a letter of complaint to her boss. 

I lived and studied in North America for a while and enjoyed the differences that makes North America so great.  One of them is that stores and other businesses are allowed to open on Sunday.  My North American friends probably take this luxury for granted.  I now live in Europe and must adjust to the Sunday business laws.  I call it the Sunday siege.  If I forget to buy something on Saturday then on Sunday I have to make do without or borrow from my neighbors. 

Toiletries are the most embarrassing things to try and borrow.  I can understand borrowing a roll of toilet paper but how do you borrow toothpaste or deodorant without being a weirdo.  Also, how would you return those items?  I don’t remember any of my grandmother’s neighbors saying, “Miss Joyce, can I borrow a little deodorant?”  I miss a lot of things from North America but the thing that I miss the most is living without a Sunday siege. 

It was difficult adjusting to a new city. Everything was so different from home: the language, the food, the culture, the people. I didn’t have any friends but I had a new baby which was another adjustment for me. Soon, I got lonely and made a conscious effort to make some new friends. I noticed a lady that lived in our apartment building. She was slightly older than I am; I would guess late 30’s early 40’s. She also had a young baby. I watched her go in and out of the building and even passed her in the lobby a few times before I gathered enough courage to say hello. She was a nice lady. There was a friendly warm vibe about her. I later found out that she was a lawyer.

Some time past and New Year’s Eve was just around the corner. If you have children you already know that it’s impossible to find a babysitter for this time of the year. I was thrilled when my new friend invited us (me and my husband) to spend New Year’s Eve with them (she and her husband). I suppose they couldn’t find a babysitter either.

The evening began so nicely. We talked for awhile and the babies played with one another. Our husbands seemed to like each other. Her husband was some sort of engineer. Dinner was excellent. We had a rice dish that I brought and they made a very delicious Thai stew.

After dinner got interesting. The conversation had slowed down so her husband pulls out their photo album. I was actually looking forward to seeing their family pictures, but I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see. The pictures were taken while they were on vacation in the Nevada desert. I remember them explaining that they took part in this strange festival. Anyway, the album contained naked pictures of them both. She had body paint on but it really didn’t cover everything. You could tell that she was naked. There was a picture of her husband participating in a peeing contest and it showed all his naked maleness. He also explained that he took part in a public questioning where he was asked humiliating questions. Without thinking I asked, “what did they ask you”. My husband started laughing and said, “you can’t ask him that.” I waited a little for an answer but I never got one.

We were scared that our new friends were into wife swapping but we stayed until the evening was over. Leaving before midnight would have been beyond rude. I personally felt like I was in the twilight zone. A few months after this incident, they moved. Later, we also moved into a bigger apartment. I haven’t heard from them since but that’s one New Year’s Eve I will never forget.

Well… I can’t speak for all guys but my guy just hands all his stuff to me. His logic being, since you’re carring a purse anyway a few more things won’t matter. So now I have two wallets, two cell phones, and two sets of keys along with the other items that a woman carries in her purse. Plus we have a baby, so I have a baby bag with the all the baby’s stuff to haul around. Can you imagine how heavy that is?

The only way to lighten my load of stuff is to get my husband to carry his own bag of stuff but he won’t because he thinks that it’s too feminine to carry around a man purse. Can someone please design a more masculine man purse before my poor arms fall off. Don’t even call it a purse or bag, call it the portastuff. Make it look rugged and have a boxer promote it. I wonder how all the single men carry their stuff?

There are three other ways of getting rid of that spider. The first is point the shower hose to the ceiling and turn the water on. This method doesn’t work so well and I don’t recommend it. The water pressure is sometimes to weak to reach the spider and even if it does your ceiling gets wet.

The second way is to grab a broom and sweep it from the ceiling onto the shower floor. Once the spider is there it can’t crawl back out because it’s too slippery. You can then use the shower hose to wash it down the drain. I recommend this method if you’re not too scared that it’ll fall in your hair or crawl down the broom.

The third and best way to whack the spider is to get your vacuum cleaner and attach the long hose. All you have to do is turn it on and extend the hose to where the spider is hanging. This method is quick, easy and the spider won’t see it coming. One second he’s there and the next he’s gone. You almost feel sorry for him don’t you? How long can spiders live inside vacuum cleaners anyway? I have to empty the vacuum cleaner bag soon and who knows how many spiders are in there waiting for me.

I politely got her attention to let her know that she was missing an earring and offered to help her look for it. I even started looking on the sidewalk, maybe it had fallen off while we were walking down the street. As I was looking, she gently tapped me on my shoulder and said, “I only wore one earring”. Her words caught me off guard so I looked to my dear husband for help but he could hardly contain his laughter. I have no idea what my facial expression could have looked like. I just remember thinking, Jenue you idiot. I kept wishing that I was small enough to crawl under the nearest rock where I would’ve stayed for the rest of the day. Since I had no magical powers to make myself that small, I had to think of something to say to this poor woman. “Oh” I said trying to be as causal as possible. “It’s a very lovely earring”.

I spent the rest of day trying to avoid from making eye contact with her. I was so embarrassed. My husband couldn’t help himself from teasing me about it on our way home. I should’ve been able to figure out, from her age, that maybe it was just a fashion statement. I hope she wasn’t offended. I honestly was just stupid that day. Now whenever my husband says, “Remember the earring?” I can’t help but laugh so hard that my face hurts.

As my hand moved swifty across the page, my tummy growled to get my attention. “Feed me, feed me” it kept screaming. I ignored it for as long as I could but soon I had to satisfy its request. I walked into the kitchen worried that my little light bulb would extinguish itself before I could find something to eat. My eyes wondered around the room and then there it was… It was perfect, no cooking or putting together required and it came in an easy to open package. I was delighted and relieved. I ate with one hand and wrote with the other. The banana had saved the day!