Happy Easter and My Current Thoughts on the Attack in Brussels

First of all, Happy Easter! I love this holiday because what it celebrates gives me hope, peace and joy. Here is a video that expresses this in a short, simple, visually beautiful way.

Now, as many know, last week there was a horrific attack made by people involved with the self-declared Islamic State on the city of Brussels in Belgium. 

Up until now, all of the terrorist activity happening around the world has seemed so distant to me. Real, horrifying, tragic, yet distant. Living in Europe hasn't changed that much for me - I feel safe in Dusseldorf and am surrounded by happy, kind people of all different beliefs. 

With this last attack, however, I think that things seem to have hit home a little bit more for me.

Brussels is only about 2 hours from Dusseldorf. Last weekend, as Berkley and I were planning adventures, we'd discussed a trip to Brussels next month. 

A friend of ours has often had his parents fly into Brussels from the US, as it was a less expensive option for their family. We saw him Monday, and he was excited to tell us that his parents (in their 80's) were coming for a visit this week. They were scheduled to arrive Tuesday morning at 7 am. The bomb went off at the airport at 8 am. 
This time, however, his parents flew into Dusseldorf. 
Can you imagine, though? 7 am arrival. Bathroom breaks. Security. Passport checks. They're 80. They could have been there. Our friend could have been there. It could have happened. But it didn't.

I have a friend who works for the British Consulate here in Dusseldorf. Following the attack, she was sent to Brussels to provide support in the consulate there. The British Embassy is less than 400 m from the Maelbeek train station, where the second bomb went off. 

These are small things, but things that, nonetheless are helping me to realize that it's real, and the terror invoked by these people can affect anyone. Anyone. 

Is that going to change how I view the world, though? Am I going to walk around in fear, looking at people around me with judgement? 

I REFUSE. 

Absolutely not. I will not let this change how I view and interact with the people around me. I don't care whether they are Muslim, Christian, Atheist, or whatever. I am a strong believer that people are inherently good, and a few people that have made terrible decisions on how they choose to view the world is not going to ruin that for me. 

If anything, I am going to just try to pay attention to my heart and my gut a little bit more. 

So yes. We are safe. Berkley's parents, living in France, are safe. And life continues to be beautiful. 

This is short for today, but stay posted. I've got some catching up to do on what's been up in our life, INCLUDING our fabulous trip to France. 

And just for your enjoyment, here is a video of Juniper babbling and the kids saying goodbye...to "Daddy", but whatever...

Adventure #2: Düsseldorf Karneval

So - Carnival (a.k.a. Mardi Gras) isn't a super-popular, well-celebrated holiday in the United States, but here in Dusseldorf, that is completely different. 

Almost everyone in the whole city gets into it. We started hearing about it weeks in advance: that we needed to find costumes, like, stat, because everyone wears costumes and we would stick out if we didn't have one. We were also warned that the city gets crazy, as in, when the whole mess starts women go around and are "culturally allowed" to cut men's ties and shoelaces with scissors, and you can barely find any sober people anywhere. Some people even warned us not to venture out in the evening or too close to the city-center starting Thursday. Rose Monday (the day of Carnival) is...on Monday. That's 5 straight days of partying. Hard. 

We also heard of the epic parade, the beautifully carved wooden masks and massive quantities of candy being thrown from the parade participants! 

So we were excited. On Thursday at 11 am I met Berkley at work with the kids to enjoy a Carnival-themed lab potluck with all of his coworkers. Bridger dressed up in the Buzz Lightyear costume (thank you Alexander and Grandma) that he's worn so much it has runs in the fabric like an old pair of nylons, and we simply put Juniper in her little fleece whole-body suit with dragon/dinosaur scales on the head (that we actually use every single day, but who would know, right?).

Berkley dressed up like a "Fat American".  People actually thought it was pretty funny :) 

The potluck was good - good people, good fun, every single person in a costume. I took the kids out in the hall for a bit around the time I thought it would be winding down (around 1ish?) so that people could get back to work. I poked my head in about 10 minutes later, however, to find THE ENTIRE, large lab (about 35 people) in a giant congo line that wrapped itself around the room.

The party was far from over. 
"Yeah...people never really came back to the lab..." Berkley said that evening after he came home. 
I was surprised to see Berkley come home early from work the next day. Apparently there weren't many people there. 

Also, starting Thursday, I slowly started seeing more and more people wandering around in costumes - alone and in groups, on the buses and trains, walking in the streets, in grocery stores, just ho-humming around like wearing a giant human-giraffe costume was completely normal. And I noticed that there was a theme: store-bought, full-bodied costumes, and bright, bright colors.

Saturday, we were excited to go to an official Carnival parade with our awesome neighbors.
Here's what we did in the morning (and often, on Saturday mornings):

As the afternoon parade approached, I prepared by putting on my reflective running clothes and buying a pink children's wig from the grocery store...it smelled terrible. I was glad I did, though, because when when we met up with our neighbors I realized that with anything less I would have felt enormously under-dressed. Before hopping in Martina's van, we had her daughter snap a photo of us:

And the parade? It. Was. AWESOME. Martina tried to prepare us. "There's lots of candy." She said. "And to get them to throw it to you, you yell 'Helau!'".
We staked our claim on the street corner, and waited for things to start. 

There were hundreds of people, and I saw maaaaybe 3 of them without costumes on. Nobody was sitting, and the kids couldn't keep themselves on the sidewalks (not even CLOSE) which resulted in just a small corridor for the parade participants to squeeze through.
bbbConfetti was flying everywhere, and the candy - oh, the candy. You think you've seen a parade where lots of candy is being thrown? Yeh. You haven't seen anything. Every single participant in the parade that wasn't carrying an instrument had a bottomless bag of sweets and was throwing to the crowd without abandon. 

It was raining candy and confetti. 
NO exaggeration. 
Like, I looked down at my open, empty camera bag on my hip and there were like 5 pieces of candy that had just fallen into it within the first few minutes. 
Bridger was in heaven. Juniper was in shock. And it was so loud, with people yelling the token "HELAU! HELAU!!" 

This video does no justice to the amount of candy everywhere. There was tons.

After the parade passed, we were thrilled with our loot. Then Martina said "Okay! Now we will go to the next street over, where it will pass again!". And we did! The parade ended up snaking around the neighborhood in such a way that we were able to watch it go by 3 different times. It was great fun, and the kids loved it. 

And this parade? It was a tiny one. The real Rosen Montag parade draws a crowd of 800,000-1 million people. The parade procession itself has 10,000 people in it and is 3 miles long from front to back. And the candy? 
20-30 tons. TONS. 
You GUYYYYYS. 
To put things in perspective, after that parade Martina's twins came home with a full laundry basket of candy. And there's 1 million people. 1/2 a million laundry baskets full of candy...

Unfortunately, this year the Rose Monday parade was cancelled for just the 3rd time in history (boohoo!) due to high winds. We were so bummed, and had totally planned on going. Instead, we decided to make the most of it (work was closed for the day) and celebrated with just a little bit of Louisiana Mardi Gras flare: Delicious, traditional Jambalaya. We took it over to Martina's house where we enjoyed it, laughed, and had a relaxed, evening filled with joy in their wonderful home. What a good memory to cherish :)

Here are a few more photos from the fun day:

Life Without a Car and the Joy of a New Stroller

One thing we got kind of excited when we knew we'd be living in Germany for 2 years was the idea of living life without a car. 
"What? Excited?" you may be thinking, but yes!
I don't know. Maybe it's because I don't like feeling too dependent on any one thing, but it just seemed like it would be a nice break and a good challenge and of course, it's better for our little beautiful planet. So no car for us! 

Obviously, not having a car has been an adjustment, and here's how we've adapted/get by in just a few challenging areas:

1. Lugging two children with us everywhere we go

Got rid of the car, but deciiiiided we'd keep the children. So - how do we lug them around? If you read last week's post, you may have noticed this beautiful piece of work that we were using to transport our progeny:

Pretty high-tech, right? We've had this little umbrella-stroller-tank since Bridger was born. We got it used, from a friend, who'd received it used, from another friend. With the ever-drizzly weather, we used the best of our Walker ingenuity and constructed a fashionable "rain cover" for it out of ripped-up, airport car seat plastic. Minus the times that we had to threaten Bridger for sticking his fingers through the holes, the lack of visibility, or very windy days, it actually worked pretty well.
The stroller itself was okay, but I'll be honest...a bit difficult. With one-kid capacity, I was usually carrying Juniper in the mei tai while pushing Bridger, unless Bridger was riding his bike (actually quite fun) or walking (verrry slowly). 
Since the stroller is something that we use literally every single day, we decided it was time for something new. Something hip. And, man, are Germans ever-so into their "Kinderwagens" here. There are TONS of different types of strollers, each with it's own little system. Some are fat, some are tall, some make it look like the kid is riding inside an ostrich that the mother is pushing down the street. I swear that some mothers are pushing around a tiny lunar module, complete with climate control.  They're seriously so different than anything I've ever seen! And most of them are very expensive. 

We decided to go with something we were at least a little bit familiar with. And didn't look like a camera tripod holding an exercise ball on top...
I wanted something that would fit two kids, that was narrow enough I could push it through any doorway by myself without getting caught, and that was short enough that I wouldn't feel like I was pushing a kiddie roller coaster. My sister-in-law has a Phil & Ted's stroller that I liked, so we did a bit of digging and (after a few failed attempts) we found one! Here we are on the first day we bought it (isn't it a beaut?!)

Hi-Ho New Stroller!!

Two kids can sit one behind the other, and the second seat is detachable if we don't need it. Bridger has been riding his balance bike more often while Juniper sits in front, but when we get on the tram, I can actually fit the balance bike down into the second seat. And, if I want/need to sprint somewhere with it (like to find a bathroom for your kid who has to poo, or after a tram, or bus or away from the rainstorm...) it moves quickly without the wheels wobbling. Ahh.
Also...ALSO - this is a huge perk - it can carry tons of groceries. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (deep breath) hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
You don't know how nice it is to be able to push both of your kids and all your groceries with one single contraption. Ahhh.

This was a pretty good lesson for me, actually. I am the type of person that, if I have a piece of complete junk that happens to mostly meet my needs, I'll use it until it's completely dead, and then I'll find a way to make life work without it. I didn't have a car all through college, and every bike I ever remember using during that time was either from a dumpster or should have been from a dumpster (except for one that I paid $30 for). I didn't have a computer and spent late, late nights using the ones on campus. I bought all of my clothes at a thrift store or yard sales (or Ross, if I was really feeling extravagant). I mean, I never even owned a decent kitchen knife until Berkley and I got married, and oh, what a revelation it was to me that you could actually cut a butternut squash with a knife, not a hatchet. Berkley's actually helped me to recognize that not everything has to be a contest of "how little can I spend"...but I am still sitting here, writing this in a pair of sweat pants I've owned since I was 14...

Oh, and then Berkley just reminded me of this:

Zombie Backpack

The "blue" backpack. I say blue, because it's was originally blue (see the dark-blue strip at the top that was shielded from the sun?), and will always be blue to me, but Berkley refers to it as "the gray backpack" or, more fondly, as the "the zombie backpack". I don't even know where this thing originally came from, but in all reality it was probably salvaged by my father from a University of Idaho trash pile. I used it all through college, it went with me to Brazil on my mission, came back, and since I graduated has carried all of the stuff you need for life with 1 (or 2) kids for the last 4 years. I've sent it back to Jansport to have the zippers replaced more times than I can remember. Jansport even reattached the shoulder strap at one point. I love this thing, and it meets my needs, and even though one strap is held together with a knot at the bottom and the zippers on the front have stopped working (again), I continue to use it...
...but I seriously digress.
Basically, with this stroller thing, I realized that now that I am a full-functioning adult I don't always HAVE to buy the cheapest butter, or leave the thermostat low in the winter, or use a broken umbrella, or struggle with a not-so-awesome stroller just because "it works". Let's face it: if I am going to slather something in butter, it might as well be the good kind, and if you use a stroller every day, it's okay to make a small investment for a good one.  And man - does it feel good to sprint after a tram pushing that thing instead of a wobbley old umbrella stroller :)

Okay - have I gone on about this enough yet? I'll end the stroller rant there, but here's just one more photo from last weekend:

Now, next hurdle:

2. Getting from Point A to Point B

Most of our immediate needs are within walking distance. There's a grocery store that's 10 minutes away, the library is 15 minutes, and even a really, really fun park about 10 minutes away as well.
But you know what? We don't actually have to walk everywhere, thank heavens! There's this magical thing in big cities called public transportation. Our current little house is about 1/2 mile away from a tram and bus stop, and that's about as far away as you get from a stop no matter where you are in the city. All of the trams and buses have designated spots available for strollers and wheelchairs, and people are politely accommodating. 
Sure, it's not as direct/fast as car transit. A 20 min car ride to the church is 45-75 minutes on the trams, depending on if we make the connections. To the swimming pool? 1/2 hour. To the nearest larger grocery store? about 30 minutes.  But we're learning that if we just plan well, it's not a problem. 
But with that said, we still walk a LOT - at least 2 miles or more a day. And I LIKE it. We've gotten to the point where we don't even think about it anymore, and our bodies are totally adjusted. 

3. Big Stuff???

So what do we do when we have something huge to bring home? Two words: first: shameless. Second: awkward. We've only needed to do it a couple of times so far, but I am sure it will happen again. The first time we went to a hardware store so that Berkley could buy a giant block of Styrofoam (he was building something for work). It was massive, and we had both kids, and the old stroller, so I had Juniper strapped to me in the mei tai. We decided to take turns carrying it...on our heads.
I took the first turn. I put it up on my head, and my arms were just wide enough to reach out and hold each side of it to balance it. I was determined to make it 2 blocks, but after about 1 1/4 blocks, my arms started to lose feeling, and my shoulders started burning. In a determined, Emily-sort-of-way I started puffing air and squeal-growling with effort, fixing my eyes on a DHL truck close to my original goal. We were laughing so hard! I MADE IT! We swapped, and I started pushing the stroller. It was then that I realized how many looks we were drawing from people on the street. Haha! We parted ways at the bus stop, but Berkley said people were fairly understanding on the bus. Just imagine when it will be our couch...

4. Planning Ahead

Thank the heavens above for the magical internet and Google Maps. What a wonderful tool for planning out your bus and tram route! We are getting to the point where we know what trams/buses we need to take, but still use the internet to know exactly what time we need to leave the catch the next one.

Photo taken from a small
bridge we cross on our walk
from our house to the
nearest bus stop.

Now, you may be wondering "What was that she said earlier?? Sprinting after a tram? Why don't they just leave in time to catch it?" Ah. The age old question. Leaving late...we've all been there in some way or another. When I was in junior high, a deep fear of being late was instilled upon my soul by a hard-core basketball coach that would subject you and the entire team to social and physical punishment if someone was late. So, to this day I feel all-sorts-a-sweaty anxiety when we happen to be running late. It happens more often than I'd like to admit... 

But you know what? Not having a car is something that has taught me to chill out a bit about that too.  If we make the bus/tram, we'll be on time. If we don't, we'll have to wait for the next one and will be 10-20 minutes late. Done. Nothing you can do about it, so you might as well just enjoy your life while you're waiting instead of grumping-out. 

But I will admit - I have to run sometimes. I actually run a lot. It makes for a sometimes exciting 1/2 mile to the tram/bus stop, but we're used to it by now, so bring it on. Last weekend I left the house a bit late and sprinted THE ENTIRE WAY to the bus stop. The 10 minute walk was cut to 5 (made possible by my new stroller, ahem) and we got there with 1 minute to spare. Woot! And the sprint? Totally worth it when we saw the look on the older lady's face we were going to visit. 

But yes - just because we have the internet doesn't mean we don't get it wrong sometimes. It's easy to get on a tram going the wrong direction, or miss a stop, or sometimes buses or trams leave a bit early, but again - there's not much you can do about it but laugh and learn. We're getting good at that :) 

Now - how about the rest of life right now?
Here's the long and short of it:

There are colds going around, and the kids have lots of boogers. Here's a photo I took the other day to show Bridger in an attempt to get him to willingly blow his nose. Mmmmmm...









That cool park I mentioned earlier? It's a fun place to go, but we are often the only ones there, since it's still pretty cold outside, and almost all kids over the age of 2 are in preschool until after 3 pm. But it's awesome! There's a big long zip-line with a swing attached to the bottom of it that the kids love. Here's a couple of videos from us playing there the other day. We try to have as much fun as we can. 

My social life is...getting there! Not speaking the language well and being at home with kids is more isolating than I thought, and it's easy to find excuses to just keep to myself. But, as many of you know, that's just not me. Most days are wonderful, but there are moments where I sometimes feel like it's easy to feel lonely.  I am, however, setting goals to do what I can to reach out to others, even if it's with broken German or just a friendly smile, and I have confidence it will help me feel better about things. Good friends take time, and we've not been here that long yet :) And I've been so blessed! There are some wonderful people here I am so excited to grow closer to with time! In the meantime I am getting to know some deeper parts of myself better, and I am getting closer to my family - who are the besssst, just in case you didn't know.