Christmas Playlist (2014 Additions)

2014 additions to the holiday playlist:

• I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day, Sarah McLachlan
• Sleigh Ride, The Ronettes
• Jingle Bell Rock, Bobby Helms
• Wizards in Winter, Trans-Siberian Orchestra
• O, Little Town of Bethlehem, Jars of Clay
• Happy Holidays, Christmas Carolers
• Angels We Have Heard on High, Chris Tomlin
• Good King Wenceslas, Judy Collins
• Once In David's Royal City, Sufjan Stevens

London: Getting There and Photos

Ryan Air offers 20 Euro ($25) one-way airfare from Frankfurt Hahn airport to London Stansted. Only you have to leave at 6 am. No worries. $50 per person! Plus an offer to crash at a friend's pad. Let's go to London.

Only after I booked the airfare did I learn that the Frankfurt Hahn airport is misnamed. It is really the Luxemburg airport, almost 2 hours from Frankfurt by train. I imagined trying to motivate the kids to walk to a train station at 3 am and quickly realized we would be driving to the airport.

We arrived at 5:15 am on a drizzly morning of dense fog. Having made all this sacrifice of convenience for cheap airfare, I was not about to ruin the bargain by paying a premium to park at the airport. I chose P3, not P1. 800 meters at 5 am with three kids in the rain and wind is equivalent to 872 miles under normal circumstances. That's a confirmed scientific conversion ratio.

At length, we boarded the plane. If you have not been on a Ryan Air flight, let me set the seen: It is decorated like a McDonalds. No soothing greens or blues. Nope. This is harsh reds and yellows. I had to squint. The seat back safety instructions are replaced with a menu for outrageously priced utterly disgusting food-like substances. Which I purchased because I started to fear it might be a long time before I could find proper food. Ugh.

Arriving at Stansted "airport" we discovered that its lone border agent for non-EU citizens was a deliberate man. Four minutes of questioning per entrant. Sorry, you filled out your customs form with lower case letters. Caps only. Please go to the end of the line. Next.

Almost a full hour later we were trying to buy train passage to London. Katie and I having completely failed to fall asleep before our 3 am wake up, we were in no condition to understand such terms as "alight" and "way out." What is this language they speak in England? We bought something that included the words "train" and "London" and then got a train. They accepted the tickets, which we took as a positive sign.

"Does this train go to London?" asked a man seated next to us on the train. I shrugged and said, "I only speak American. Sorry."

One hour later we arrived at Liverpool Street Station. Looking at a map of the Underground (subway), we determined we were not that far from our ultimate stop of St. John's Wood, so we just hired  a cab for simplicity. We then learned that the map is highly stylized and we were forever away from St. John's Wood, could have gotten there by train for $4 but were now stuck in traffic with a meter that would ultimately reach $65. Door-to-door, the value of Ryan Air was quickly evaporating.

But then we arrived, and it was awesome. London: awesome. Ryan Air: meh. Heathrow, please.

Why not a selfie from the London Eye. Whitehall in the background.

Big Ben and Parliament

Entering Tower of London. Katie was giddy. Super fun.

Katie and this Beef Eater were kind of flirting.

The Tower Bridge, which until this trip I thought was the Tower of London.

Hogwarts Great Hall entrance. When they raised the curtain, the adult woman next to us wept.

We only saw ourselves, as we are, so I guess that means we are at peace.

Favorite chess piece

4 Privet Drive

I thought the Hogwarts miniature was pretty sweet.

I also like the gate at Buckingham Palace

The London Trip Quotation Recap

"Why can't I get over how awesome London is? I mean, we are really blessed to live in Europe so we can visit these places." Caleb

"This is stupid." Henry

"Dad, thanks for taking me to the London Eye because now I know what to do with my wife, you know, some day when I have one, before we have kids so we can be romantic without the kids saying, gross, mom and dad are being romantic." Caleb

"Do they have McDonalds?" Henry

"It's like Rome, but in English." Madeline

"Can we go home and just watch TV?" Henry

"It's the Underground. Get it? It's under the ground." Madeline

More Cultural Learnings

I already posted this first incident on Facebook, but not all interested parties are plugged in to that feed.

The final turn before arriving at the Siedlung (see prior post for definition and description) is a double left turn with very narrow lanes that I always treat as a single lane. Thus, switching from near lane to far lane mid-turn, I almost hit another driver the other day. My bad. But I noticed just in time and did not hit the other driver. No harm, no foul. Or so I thought.

That is when I learned something new about German culture. Near car accidents are treated as actual car accidents. One must get out and determine who would have been at fault had there been any fault. If you do not engage in this car accident theatre, the other party follows you home and yells at you. So that was different.

This morning, after Henry's soccer team won 10-2 (and Henry played quite well), Katie and I offered abundant praise. Meanwhile, the German parents said things like, "The team performed adequately."

Henry's penalty kick

And these things happened:

Madeline performed adequately as Lewis of Lewis and Clark

More adequate performance

We hosted the soccer team from our former school, Cairo American College

Orienteering with the 5th grade

The adequate orienteers of the 5th grade

An Egyptian cat finds adequate warmth in Germany

Siedlung Halloween (We Got Tricked)

We live on the siedlung (which auto-correct really wants to change to sidelong). Siedlung means settlement, so that's kind of generic and evokes a sense of exploration (or West Bank conflict) wholly inappropriate for the rows of bland former military housing (which I love, mind you).

The settlement is our little American enclave in the middle of Frankfurt and we try to keep the American spirit alive. For example, trick-or-treating, which proceeded thus:

It was announced that siedlung trick-or-treated would commence at 6 pm. There is no such announcement for real trick-or-treating (by real I mean what happens in Idaho Falls, Idaho), it just commences, and somehow that works. Alas, when in Germany, you might as well make a rule for every imaginable thing.

While getting costumed, however, we observe already costumed merry-makers making merry throughout the siedlung, which caused some alarm and confusion. We had been advised that since there is no native trick-or-treating, German kids from the neighboring settlements drop by and candy supplies are quickly exhausted. So we accelerated our costuming and headed out (15 minutes early!).

We observed revelers pooling at various common areas and tried to join. We asked about trick-or-treating. No one seemed to know anything. How hard could this be? You have a costume. You have a bag. You ring a doorbell. Done. Except that everyone sits out front with candy on tables so you don't have to ring the bell. Fine. Small wrinkle.

So I advised my gaggle to commence. Ho! There, a man in costume sitting behind a table top of filled candy bowls. Approach. "Trick-or-Treat!"

"We start at 6 pm," the costumed man growled without humor. I looked at my watch. 5:56 pm. Really?

Can you imagine someone in Idaho Falls, Idaho coming to the door on Halloween (with a bowl full of candy) saying "We haven't started yet" and refusing to give you the candy they hold in their hand for the purpose of distributing to trick-or-treaters of which you are one? No, you cannot imagine this. It is unimaginable. It is, dare I say, un-American. I was indignant. Trick's on me.

We proceeded to trick-or-treat all tables but refused to return to this table. A meaningless gesture I am sure he did not notice, but it felt right.